CHRIST – THE PHYSICIAN OF THE SOUL
“Bukan orang sehat yang memerlukan tabib, tetapi orang sakit” (Matius 9:12).
Pada hari ini arti dari teks kita ini hampir dilupakan. Kita dibanjiri dengan khotbah-khotbah yang mengatakan kepada kita bagaimana menjadi makmur, bagaimana mereka lebih baik, bagaimana caranya memiliki keluarga yang lebih baik, bagaimana untuk menjadi lebih bahagia, bagaimana untuk sukses, dan bagaimana memperoleh kesembuhan jasmani. Kita sedang dibanjiri oleh apa yang disebut khotbah-khotbah “ekspositori”, kuliah dari perikop Kitab Suci yang panjang. Metode ini diperkenalkan oleh Plymouth Brethren, dan bukan datang dari warisan sejarah Baptis kita. Ini biasanya sungguh membosankan. Semua khotbah cenderung kelihatan seperti itu. Banyak orang tidak mengingat apa yang dikhotbahkan, karena terlalu banyak ide yang disampaikan dalam “eksposisi-eksposisi” modern ini. Semua itu sebenarnya bukanlah khotbah, namun studi-studi Alkitab yang rumit yang disampaikan kepada orang-orang Kristen, bahkan walaupun banyak orang di dalam jemaat itu belum bertobat!
Di mana, oh di mana, para pengkhotbah yang pusat khotbahnya adalah kelahiran kembali dan pertobatan? Di manakah orang-orang yang topik utama khotbahnya berpusat pada Kristus, sang dokter atau tabib jiwa-jiwa – satu-satunya yang dapat menyelamatkan kita dari dosa, Neraka, dan kubur? Itu adalah kebutuhan yang harus diserukan pada hari ini! Itu adalah apa yang generasi Anda butuhkan, yaitu mendengarkan dengan keras dan jelas pada saat gelapnya sejarah dunia ini. Ketika negeri kita sedang mengalami disintegrasi dan bangsa-bangsa dunia bangkit dalam kekacauan dan pemberontakan – kita kembali membutuhkan untuk mendengar lagi dari mimbar-mimbar kita Injil yang menyelamatkan jiwa dari bapa leluhur kita!
Kita sudah mendengar: Yesus Jurus’lamat!
Mari jadikan tenar: Yesus Jurus’lamat
Ya, kabarkanlah cepat, Pada orang yang sesat;
Tuhan t’lah beramanat: Yesus Jurus’lamat!
(“Jesus Saves” by Priscilla J. Owens, 1829-1907 Terjemahan Nyanyian Pujian No. 111).
Yesus menyelamatkan kita dari apa? Tidak harus dari kemiskinan. Banyak orang Kristen besar dalam sejarah hidup di dalam kemiskinan. Tidak harus dari sakit penyakit. Banyak orang Kristen besar dalam sejarah menderita oleh karena penyakit. Yesus mati di kayu Salib dan bangkit dari antara orang mati untuk menyelamatkan kita dari dosa! Itu adalah berita utama dari Alkitab! “Kristus telah mati karena dosa-dosa kita, sesuai dengan Kitab Suci” (I Korintus 15:3). Itu adalah jantung dari Injil. Marilah kita memperdengarkan ini kembali, berkhotbah dengan semangat sampai berkeringat di mimbar-mimbar kita!
“Kristus Yesus datang ke dunia untuk menyelamatkan orang berdosa” (I Timotius 1:15).
Selanjutnya, ketika kita memperhatikan teks kita, kita mengetahui bahwa Yesus sedang duduk dalam perjamuan makan di rumah Matius. Banyak pemungut cukai dan orang berdosa yang duduk untuk makan bersama dengan Yesus. “Para pemungut cukai” adalah para penarik pajak yang berkerja untuk pemerintah Romawi. Orang-orang Yahudi Orthodoks membenci mereka karena mereka bekerja untuk Romawi dan mengambil banyak uang yang mereka tarik sebagai pajak untuk diri mereka sendiri. Orang-orang Farisi adalah orang-orang Yahudi Orthodoks pada waktu itu. “Mereka berpikir bahwa para pemungut cukai adalah para pencuri dan pengkhianat bagi bangsa Yahudi. “Orang-orang berdosa” adalah orang-orang yang orang Farisi anggap sebagai orang Yahudi yang tidak layak karena mereka tidak menjalankan tradisi-tradisi rabinik. Mereka dianggap sebagai orang yang sangat “berdosa” oleh orang-orang Farisi karena mereka tidak mengikuti aturan-aturan dan tradisi dari para rabi.
Kita harus memahami bahwa “para pemungut cukai” dan “orang berdosa” bukanlah para pengguran di jalanan, atau pecandu narkotika, atau orang-orang kaya. Bukan gelandangan dan juga bukan orang-orang kaya. Tak seorangpun dari antara orang yang makan bersama Yesus itu adalah para pecandu obat-obatan. Semua dari pemungut cukai dan yang disebut orang-orang berdosa di sini adalah orang-orang yang bekerja. Namun mereka dijauhi oleh orang-orang Farisi.
Ketika orang-orang Farisi melihat Yesus duduk dengan orang-orang yang mereka jauhi ini “mereka kepada murid-murid Yesus: “Mengapa gurumu makan bersama-sama dengan pemungut cukai dan orang berdosa?” (Matius 9:11). Ketika Yesus mendengar apa yang dikatakan oleh orang-orang Farisi itu, Ia berkata kepada mereka
“Bukan orang sehat yang memerlukan tabib, tetapi orang sakit” (Matius 9:12).
Orang-orang Farisi berpikir bahwa diri mereka adalah orang-orang yang baik – bahwa diri mereka benar dan tidak membutuhkan keselamatan karena mereka telah memelihara aturan-aturan Yudaisme Orthodoks. Para pemungut cukai dan orang-orang berdosa yang dikucilkan tahu bahwa diri mereka bukanlah orang benar. Ini membuat mereka menjadi calon penerima keselamatan yang lebih baik dari para orang-orang Farisi yang meninggikan kebenarannya sendiri..
“Bukan orang sehat yang memerlukan tabib, tetapi orang sakit” (Matius 9:12). (more…)
“THE METHOD OF GRACE”
“Mereka mengobati luka umat-Ku dengan memandangnya ringan, katanya: Damai sejahtera! Damai sejahtera!, tetapi tidak ada damai sejahtera” (Yeremia 6:14).
Khotbah: Berkat Allah terbesar yang dikirim kepada suatu bangsa adalah para pengkhotbah yang baik dan setia. Namun kutuk Allah yang terbesar yang dikirim kepada banyak bangsa adalah dengan membiarkan gereja-gereja dipimpin oleh para pengkhotbah yang masih belum bertobat yang hanya memikir dan mencari uang belaka. Namun di setiap masa ada para pengkhotbah palsu yang memberikan khotbah-khotbah yang lembut. Ada banyak pendeta seperti ini yang merusak dan memutar-balikkan Alkitab untuk menyesatkan orang.
Itulah yang terjadi pada zaman Yeremia. Dan Yeremia berbicara melawan mereka dalam ketaatan penuh kepada Allah. Ia membuka mulutnya dan berkhotbah melawan para pengkhotbah duniawi/kedagingan ini. Jika Anda membaca bukunya, Anda akan melihat bahwa tidak ada seorangpun pernah berbicara lebih keras melawan para pengkhotbah palsu dari pada Yeremia. Ia berbicara dengan tegas melawan mereka dalam pasal yang berisi ayat kita ini.
“Mereka mengobati luka umat-Ku dengan memandangnya ringan, katanya: Damai sejahtera! Damai sejahtera!, tetapi tidak ada damai sejahtera” (Yeremia 6:14).
Yeremia berkata bahwa mereka hanya berkhotbah demi uang. Dalam ayat tiga belas, Yeremia berkata,
“Sesungguhnya, dari yang kecil sampai yang besar di antara mereka, semuanya mengejar untung, baik nabi maupun imam semuanya melakukan tipu” (Yeremia 6:13).
Mereka adalah orang-orang yang tamak dan mengkhotbahkan dusta.
Dalam ayat kita ini, ia menunjukkan salah satu cara bagaimana mereka mengkhotbahkan dusta. Ia menunjukkan cara menipu yang mereka terapkan bagi jiwa-jiwa terhilang:
“Mereka mengobati luka umat-Ku dengan memandangnya ringan, katanya: Damai sejahtera! Damai sejahtera!, tetapi tidak ada damai sejahtera” (Yeremia 6:14).
Allah telah berkata kepada nabi ini untuk memperingatkan rakyat tentang akan datangnya perang. Allah ingin ia mengatakan kepada mereka bahwa rumah-rumah mereka akan dihancurkan – perang itu akan segera datang (lihat Yeremia 6:11-12). (more…)
The Christian Soldier ( More Exhortation )
The more violence we put forth in religion, the greater measure of glory we shall have.
14. The more violence we put forth in religion, the greater measure of glory we shall have. That there are degrees in glory in Heaven seems to me beyond dispute.
1. There are degrees of torment in Hell; therefore, by the rule of contraries, there are degrees of glory in Heaven.
2. The Scripture speaks of a prophet’s reward, Matt. x. 41. which is a degree above others.
3. The saints are said to shine as the stars, Dan. xii. Now one star differeth from another in glory. So that there are gradations of happiness; and of this judgment is Calvin; as also many of the ancient fathers. Consider then seriously, the more violent we are for Heaven, and the more work we do for God, the greater will be our reward. The hotter our zeal, the brighter our crown. Could we hear the blessed souls departed speaking to us from Heaven, surely they would say, Were we to leave heaven awhile and to dwell on the earth again, we would do God a thousand times more service than we have ever done; we would pray with more life, act with more zeal; for now we see that the more we have labored, the more astonishing is our joy and the more flourishing our crown.
15. Upon our violence for the kingdom God hath promised mercy. Matt. vii. 7. — Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
1. Ask. Ask with importunity. A faint asking begs a denial. King Ahasuerus stood with his golden scepter and said to queen Esther, ask, and it shall be given, to the half of the kingdom. But God saith more; ask and he will give you the whole kingdom, Luke xii. 32. It is observable, that the door of the tabernacle was not of brass, but had a thin covering, a veil, that they might easily enter into it: So the door of Heaven is made easy through Christ’s blood, that our prayers put up in fervency may enter. — Upon our asking, God has promised to give his spirit, Luke xi.13. And if he gives his Spirit, he will give his kingdom; the Spirit first anoints, 1 John ii. 27, and after his anointing oil comes the crown.
2. ‘Seek, and ye shall find.’ But, is it not said, ‘Many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able?’ Luke xiii. 24. I answer, that that is because they seek in a wrong manner.
The Christian Soldier ( Resumed Exhortations )
Having answered these objections, let me reassume the exhortation, pressing all christians to this violence for the heavenly kingdom. As David’s three worthies ventured their lives, and brake through the host of the Philistines for water, 2 Sam. xxiii. 46, — Such a kind of violence must we use, breaking through all dangers for obtaining the ‘water of life.‘
1. Consider the deplorable condition we are in by nature; a state of misery and damnation; therefore what violence should we use to get out of it? Were one plunged into quicksands, would he not use violence to get out? Sin is a quicksand, and is it not wisdom to extricate ourselves out? David being encomÂpassed with enemies, said ‘His soul was among lions,’ Psalm lvii. 4. ‘Tis true in a spiritual sense, our soul is among lions. Every sin is a lion that would devour us, and if we are in the lion’s den, should not we use violence to get out? The angels used violence to Lot; they laid hold on him and pulled him out of Sodom, Gen. xix. 16. Such violence must be used to get out of the spiritual Sodom. It is not safe to stay in the enemy’s quarters.
2. It is possible that in the use of means we may arrive at happiness. Impossibility destroys endeavor; but here is a door of hopeopened. The thing is feasible. It is not with us as with the damned in hell; there is a tomb-stone rolled over them. But while we are under the sound of Aaron’s bell, and the silver trumpet of the gospel is blown in our ears, while the spirit of grace breathes on us, and we are on this side of the grave, there is great hope that by holy violence we may win Paradise. An absolute impossibility of salvation is only for those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost, and cannot repent; but who these are is a secret sealed up in God’s book: else here is great encouragement to all to be serious and earnest in the matters of eternity, because they are yet in a capacity of mercy, no final sentence is already passed; God hath not yet taken up the drawbridge of mercy. Though the gate of Paradise is strait, yet it is not shut. This should be as oil to the wheels, to make us lively and active in the business of salvation. — Therefore as the husbandman plows in hope, James v. so we should pray in hope; do all our work for heaven in hope; for the white flag of mercy is yet held forth. So long as there was corn to be had in Egypt, the sons of Jacob would not sit starving at home, Gen. xliii. 3. So there is a kingdom to be obtained; therefore let us not sit starving in our sins any longer.
This violence for Heaven is the grand business of our lives: What did we come into the world for else? We did not come here only to eat and drink, and wear fine clothes; but the end of our living is, to be violent for the kingdom of glory. Should the body only be tended, this were be to trim the scabbard, and let the blade rust; to preserve the lumber, and let the child be burnt. God sends us into the world as a merchant sends his goods to trade for him beyond the seas. — So God sends us here to follow a spiritual trade, to serve him and save our souls. If we spend all our time aut aliud agendo, aut nihil, in dressing and pampering our bodies, or idle visits, we shall give but a sad account to God, when he shall send us a letter of summons by death and bid us give an account of our stewardship. Were not he much to be blamed who would have a great deal of timber given him to build a house if he only cut all this brave timber into chips? Just so is the case of many; God gives them precious time in which they are to provide for a kingdom, and they waste this time of life and cut it all into chips. Let this excite violence in the things of God. It is the main errand of our living here and shall we go through the world and forget our errand?
The Christian Soldier (Examination and Objections)
Examination and Objections
3. Let us then examine whether we put forth this holy violence for Heaven? What is an empty profession without this? Like a lamp without oil. Let us all ask ourselves, what violence do we use for Heaven?
1. Do we strive with our hearts to get them into an holy frame? How did David awaken all the powers of his soul to serve God, Psalm lxxxvii. 6. ‘I myself will awake early.’ The heart is like a bell that is a long while rising.
2. Do we set time apart to call ourselves to account, and to try our evidences for Heaven? Psalm lxxxvii. 6.’My spirit made diligent search.’ Do we take our hearts as a watch all in pieces, to see what is amiss and to mend it? Are we curiously inquisitive into the state of our souls? Are we afraid of artificial grace, as of artificial happiness?
3. Do we use violence in prayer? Is there fire in our sacrifice? Doth the wind of the Spirit, filling our sails, cause ‘groans unutterable?’ Rom. viii. 25. Do we pray in the morning as if we were to die at night?
4. Do we thirst for the living God? Are our souls big with holy desires? Psalm lxxiii. 25. ‘There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.’ Do were desire holiness as well as Heaven? Do we desire as much to look like Christ, as to live with Christ? Is our desire constant? Is this spiritual pulse ever beating?
5. Are we skilled in self-denial? Can we deny our ease, our aims, our interest? Can we cross our own will to fulfill God’s? Can we behead our beloved sin? To pluck out the right eye requires violence.
6. Are we lovers of God? It is not how much we do, but how much we love. Doth love command the castle of our hearts? Does Christ’s beauty and sweetness constrain us? 2 Cor. v. 14. Do we love God more than we fear hell?
7. Do we keep our spiritual watch? Do we set spies in every place, watching our thoughts, our eyes, our tongues? When we have prayed against sin, do we watch against temptation? The Jews, having sealed the stone of Christ’s sepulcher, ‘set a watch,’ Matt. xxvii. 66. After we have been at the word, or sacrament, (that sealing ordinance) do we set a watch?
8. Do we press after further degrees of sanctity? Phil iii. 13. ‘Reaching forth unto those things which are before.’ A good Christian is a wonder; he is the most contented yet the least satisfied: he is contented with a little of the world, but not satisfied with a little grace; he would have still more faith and be anointed with fresh oil. Paul desired to ‘attain unto the resurrection of the dead,’ Phil. iii. 11, that is, he endeavored (if possible) to arrive at such a measure of grace as the saints shall have at the resurrection.
9. Is there an holy emulation in us? Do we labor to out-shine others in religion? — To be more eminent for love and good works? Do we something which is singular? Matt. v. 47. ‘What do ye more than others?’
10. Are we got above the world? Though we walk on earth, do we trade in Heaven? Can we say as David? Psalm cxxxxix. 17. ‘I am still with thee.’ This requires violence; for motions upward are usually violent.
11. Do we set ourselves always under God’s eye? Psalm xvi. 8. ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ Do we live soberly and godly, remembering that whatever we are doing our Judge looks on?
The Christian Soldier; or Heaven Taken by Storm (Part 9, Arrows of Reproof and Apostasy
Out of this text I may draw forth several arrows of reproof.
It reproves slothful Christians who are settled on their knees: they make a lazy profession of religion, but use no violence. — They are like the lilies, which toil not, neither do they spin. The snail, by reason of its slow motion, was reckoned among the unclean, Levit. xi. 30. St. Augustine calls idleness the burial of a man alive. There are some faint wishes, oh that I had Heaven! but a man may desire venison, and want it, if he does not hunt for it.� Prov. xiii. 4. ‘The soul of the sluggard wisheth and hath nothing.’
—- Neque mola, neque farina —-
Men could be content to have the kingdom of Heaven; but they are loath to fight for it. They choose rather to go in a feather bed to Hell than to be carried to Heaven in a ‘fiery chariot’ of zeal and violence. How many sleep away, and play away, their time; as if they were made like the Leviathan, to play in the sea! Psalm civ. 26. It is a saying of Seneca, ‘No man is made wise by chance.’ Sure it is, no man is saved by chance, buthe must know how he came by it, namely, by offering violence. Such as have accustomed themselves to an idle, lazy temper will find it hard to shake off, Cant. v. 3. ‘I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on?’ The spouse had laid herself upon the bed of sloth, and though Christ knocked at the door, she was loath to rise and let him in. Some pretend to be believers, but are idle in the vineyard. — They pretend to make use of faith for seeing, but not for working; this faith is fancy. O that Christians had a spirit of activity in them, 1 Chron. xxii. 16. ‘Arise and be doing, and the Lord be with thee.’� We may sometimes learn of our enemy. The Devil is never idle; he ‘walketh about,’ 1 Peter v. 8. The world is his diocese and he is every day going on his visitation. Is satan active? Is the enemy upon his march coming against us? And are we asleep upon our guard? As Satan himself is not idle, so he will not endure that any of his servants should be idle. When the Devil had entered into Judas, how active was Judas! He goes to the high priest, from thence to the band of soldiers and with them back to the garden, and never left till he had betrayed Christ. Satan will not endure an idle servant; and do we think God will? How will the heathen rise up in judgment against slothful Christians! What pains did they take in the Olympian games: they ran for a garland of flowers, and do we stand still who run for a crown of immortality? Certainly, if only the violent take Heaven, the idle person will never come there. God puts no difference between these two, slothful and wicked, Matt. xxv. 26.‘Thou wicked and slothful servant.’ (more…)
The Christian Soldier; or Heaven Taken by Storm (Part 8, The Christian Offering Violence to Heaven)
Fourthly, we must offer violence to Heaven. ‘The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence.’ Though Heaven is given us freely, yet we must take pains for it. Canaan was given Israel freely, but they had to fight with the Canaanites. It is not a lazy wish, or a sleepy prayer, will bring us to Heaven; we must offer violence. Therefore in Scripture our earnestness for Heaven is shown by those allegories and metaphors which imply violence.
1. Sometimes by striving. Luke xiii.24. ‘Strive to enter in at the strait gate.’-The Greek signifies, Strive as in an agony.
2. Wrestling, which is a violent exercise. Eph. vi. 12. We are to wrestle with a body of sin, and with the powers of hell.
3. Running in a race, 1 Cor. ix.24. ‘So run that ye may obtain.’ We have a long race from earth to Heaven, but a little time to run; it will soon be sunset. Therefore, so run. In a race there’s not only a laying aside of all weights that hinder, but a putting forth of all the strength of the body; a straining every joint that men may press on with all swiftness to lay hold on the prize. Thus Paul pressed towards the mark. Phil. iii:14. Alas, where is this holy violence to be found?
The Christian Soldier; or Heaven Taken by Storm (Part 7, offering violence to Satan and the world)
2. We must offer violence to Satan. Satan opposeth us both by open violence, and secret treachery. By open violence, so he is called the Red Dragon; by secret treachery, so he is called the Old Serpent. We read in Scripture of his snares and darts; he hurts more by his snares than by his darts.
1. His Violence. He labours to storm the castle of the heart; he stirs up passion, lust, and revenge. These are called ‘fiery darts,’ Ephes. vi.16 because they oft set the soul on fire. Satan in regard to his fierceness is called a Lion, 1 Peter iv. 6. ‘Your adversary the Devil is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.’ Not (saith Chrysostom) whom he may bite, but devour.
2. His Treachery. What he cannot do by force, he will endeavor to do by fraud. Satan hath several subtle policies in tempting.
In suiting his temptations to the complexion and temper of the body, Satan studies physiognomy, and lays suitable baits. — He knew Achan’s s covetous humour, and tempted him with a wedge of gold. He tempts the sanguine man with beauty.
2. Another subtlety is to draw men to evil, sub specie boni, under a pretence of good. — The pirate doeth mischief by hanging out false colours; so does Satan by hanging out the colours of religion. He puts some men upon sinful actions, and persuades them much good will come of it. He tells them in some cases that they may dispense with the rule of the Word, and stretch their conscience beyond that line, that they may be in a capacity of doing more service. As if God needed our sin to raise his glory.
3. Satan tempts to sin gradually. As the husbandman digs about the root of a tree, and by degrees loosens it, and at last it falls. Satan steals by degrees into the heart: he is at first more modest: he did not say to Eve at first, Eat the apple; no, but he goes more subtly to work; he puts forth a question. Hath God said? Sure Eve, thou art mistaken; the bountiful God never intended to debar one of the best trees of the garden. Hath God said? Sure, either God did not say it; or if he did, he never really intended it. Thus by degrees he wrought her to distrust and then she took of the fruit and ate. Oh, take heed of Satan’s first motions to sin, that seem more modest — principiis obsta. He is first a fox, and then a lion.
The Christian Soldier; or Heaven Taken by Storm (Part 6, by sanctifying the Lord’s Day and holy conversation)
The sixth duty wherein we must offer violence to ourselves, is the religious sanctifying of the Lord’s day. That there should be a day of holy rest dedicated to God appears from its institution. ‘Remember to keep holy the Sabbath.’ Our Christian Sabbath comes in the room of the Jewish Sabbath: it is called the Lord’s day, Rev. i.10. from Christ the author of it. Our Sabbath is altered by Christ’s own appointment. He arose this day out of the grave, and appeared on it often to His disciples, 1 Cor. xvi. 1: to intimate to them (saith Athanasius) that he transferred the Sabbath to the Lord’s day. And St. Austin saith that by Christ’s rising on the first day of the week, it was consecrated to be the Christian Sabbath, in remembrance of his resurrection. This day was anciently called dies lucis, the day of light, as Junius observes. The other days of the week would be dark, were it not for the shining of the sun of righteousness on this day. This day hath been called by the ancients, regina dierum, the queen of days. And St. Hierom prefers this day above all solemn festivals. The primitive church had this day in high veneration: it was a great badge of their religion: for when the question was asked, servasti dominicum?, keepest thou the Sabbath?; the answer was, Christianus sum, I am a Christian; I dare not omit the celebration of the Lord’s day! What great cause do we have to thankfully remember this day! As the benefit of Israel’s deliverance from the Babylonish captivity was so great that it drowned the remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt, Jer. xvi. 14: so the benefit of our deliverance from Satan’s captivity and the rising of Christ after finishing the glorious work of our redemption are so famous, that in respect of his other benefits, receive as it were in diminution. Great was the work of creation; but greater the work of redemption. It cost more to redeem us than to make us. In the one, there was only the speaking a word, Psalm cxlviii. 5: in the other, the shedding of blood, Heb. ix. 22. The creation was the work of God’s fingers, Psalm viii. 3: the redemption, the work of his arm, Luke i. 5. In creation God gave us ourselves; in redemption he gives us himself. So that the Sabbath, putting us in mind of our redemption, ought to be observed with the highest devotion. — Herein we must offer holy violence to ourselves.
When this blessed day approacheth, we should labour, that as the day is sanctified, so may our hearts be sanctified. (more…)
The Christian Soldier; or Heaven Taken by Storm (Part 5, by Self-examination)
5. The fifth duty wherein we are to offer violence to ourselves, self-examination; a duty of great importance: it is a parleying with one’s own heart, Psalm lxxxvii. 7. ‘I commune with mye own heart.’ David did put interrogatories to himself. Self-examination is the setting up a court in conscience and keeping a register there, that by strict scrutiny a man may know how things stand between God and his own soul. Self-examination is a spiritual inquisition; a bringing one’s self to trial. A good Christian doth as it were begin the day of Judgment here in his own soul. Self-searching is a heart-anatomy. As a Chirurgeon, when he makes a dissection in the body, discovers the intestina, the inward parts, the heart, liver, and arteries, so a Christian anatomizeth himself; he searcheth what is flesh and what is spirit; what is sin, and what is grace, Psalm lxxvii. 7. ‘My spirit made diligent search:’ As the woman in the Gospel did light a candle, and search for her lost groat, Luke xv. 8. so conscience ‘is the candle of the Lord,’ Prov. xx. 27. A Christian by the light of this candle must search his soul to see if he can find any grace there. The rule by which a Christian must try himself, is the Word of God. Fancy and opinion are false rules to go by. We must judge of our spiritual condition by the canon of Scripture. This David calls a ‘lamp unto his feet,’ Psalm cxix. 105. Let the word be the umpire to decide the controversy, whether we have grace or no. We judge of colours by the sun. So we must judge of the state of souls by the light of Scripture.
Self-examination is a great, incumbent duty; it requires self-excitation; it cannot possibly be done without offering violence to ourselves. 1. Because the duty of self-examination in itself is difficult: 1. It is actus reflexivus, a work of self-reflection;it lies most with the heart. ‘Tis hard to look inward. External acts ofreligion are facile; to lift up the eye to Heaven, to bow the knee, to read aprayer; this requires no more labor than for a Catholic to tell over his beads;but to examine a man’s self, to turn in upon his own soul, to take the heart asa watch all in pieces, and see what is defective; this is not easy. — Reflective acts are hardest. The eye cansee everything but itself. It is easy to spy the faults of others, but hard tofind out our own. (more…)
The Christian Soldier; or Heaven Taken by Storm (Part 4, by Prayer and Meditation)
3. The third duty wherein we are to offer violence to ourselves, is in prayer. Prayer is a duty which keeps the trade of religion flowing. When we either join in prayer with others, or pray alone, we must use holy violence; not eloquence in prayer, but violence carries it. Theodorus, speaking of Luther, ‘once (says he) I overheard him in prayer: but, (good God), with what life and spirit did he pray! It was with so much reverence, as if he were speaking to God, yet with so much confidence, as if he had been speaking to his friend.’ There must be a stirring up of the heart,
1.To prayer. 2. In prayer.
1. A stirring up of the heart to prayer, Job xi. 13. ‘If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him.’ This preparing of our heart by holy thoughts and ejaculations. The musician first tunes his instrument before he plays.
2. There must be a stirring up of the heart in prayer. Prayer is a lifting up of the mind and soul to God, which cannot be done aright without offering violence to one-self. The names given to prayer imply violence. It is called wrestling, Gen. xxxii. 24. and a pouring out of the soul, 1 Sam. i. 15. both of which imply vehemency. The affection is required as well as invention — The apostle speaks of an effectual fervent prayer, which is a parallel phrase to offering violence.
Alas, how far from offering violence to themselves in prayer, 1. That give God a dead, heartless prayer. God would not have the blind offered, Mal. i. 8; as good offer the blind is as offering the dead. Some are half asleep when they pray, and will a sleepy prayer ever awaken God? Such as mind not their own prayers, how do they think that God should mind them? Those prayers God likes best which come seething hot from the heart.
Reformed || Puritan 
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