John Clowes

“ In other words, it is not enough for our admittance into heaven that God is willing and desirous to admit us; but we also must be willing and desirous ourselves to admit into our hearts, our understandings, and lives, the principles of heavenly life, which are of heavenly love and wisdom, otherwise the will and desire of God are of no effect. The love of God, in short, can only profit us so far as it excites us to re-love Him, because the love of God can only profit us so far as it effects our conjunction with God, and without re-love there can be no conjunction. ”

“ From these words it should appear that purity or perfection of the life doth not consist in a pure and perfect freedom from evil suggestions, but in eschewing, or keeping ourselves from consenting to them. In other words,—the temptation to sin is not of itself sin. Man’s wickedness is not his, unless he makes it so by delighting in it; and the utmost perfection of the human character is consistent with the utmost sense of imperfection arising from the opposition made in the ungodly or corrupt nature to the better dispositions and thoughts of that part which is above corruption. ”

“ The importance and benefit, then, of the spiritual telescope, may here be clearly discerned, since by bringing the great realities of the eternal world near to us, it renders them at the same time more affecting, and thus increases the power of their operation, both on our wills and our understandings. For what is seen at a distance is usually as uninteresting as what is not seen at all; and therefore Jesus Christ perpetually inculcates the edifying lesson, that the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, is at hand, or near unto us. ”

“ The Lord’s Prayer has relation,—first, to the introduction of heavenly order into the several degrees of the human mind,—secondly, to the nourishment of the life of order in each degree,—thirdly, to the expulsion of the several degrees of disorder,—and fourthly, to the glorification of the devout and humble Soul, consisting in the grateful acknowledgment that all heavenly order is from Jesus Christ, because all love and wisdom, or all good and truth, are from Him, and are His. ”

“ They tread one upon another; in other words, each, in seeking to be first, and to exalt itself into pre-eminence, would degrade the other, that so it may rise by the other’s fall; whereas in the regeneration, when the order of heaven is restored, every thought knows its proper place, and never infringes on that of another, because each has respect to, and is under the control of, the same blessed end, namely, conjunction with the Supreme, through entire submission to His divine will and wisdom. ”

“ But when we take a further view of the subject in regard to the human will, as a principal, and its instrumental, the body, or still further, in regard to the divine will and wisdom as principals, the human will and wisdom as instrumentals, we are lost in the immensity of such contemplations, and can only say, Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty. ”

“ Yet we must be forced to confess, that if it be of any importance for man to be acquainted with the influence, whether of good or of evil, of truth or of error, in his own mind; then it is of equal importance to set up a spiritual vane there, since every such influence is a real wind, either from the kingdom of light or from the kingdom of darkness. ”

“ Thus it would appear, that the two surest evidences of the divine government of the Almighty over the human race, are, first, the revelation of His divine word, and secondly, the effect of the reception of that word, in separating between goods and evils, so that goods may be elevated into heaven, and evils cast down into hell. ”

“ By this glorification, therefore, is effected a return to God of all that the soul has received, and receives from Him, whereby is effected a free and full circulation of divine and heavenly life from God to man, and back again from man to God, which is the great end of man’s creation, redemption, and regeneration, the grand design of the Revelation of God, and the important ground and reason of every act of prayer and praise, and also of every act of obedience to the divine precepts of love, purity, and charity. ”

“ Then, and then only, the morning appears in the soul, when the Sun of Righteousness thus begins to ascend, and take His place in the zenith of the spiritual firmament. In every other case it is dark night, for the ruling love at all times determines the state. ”

“ Hence come those vicissitudes of trouble and of peace, which chequer every one’s life; the trouble being designed by the Eternal Mercy to lead to a purer peace, and at the same time to render it more full, by bringing it into conjunction with that divine peace, of which Jesus Christ speaks, where He says, My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth. ”

“ Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees, who told Him of Herod’s intention to kill Him, Go ye, and tell that fox, behold I cast out devils, and do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected, (Luke xiii. 32,) to instruct us, that from eternity it has been, and to eternity it will be, His divine purpose, to deliver man from evil and the powers of darkness, to gift him with all heavenly goods and truths, and thus to introduce him into heaven, or to an eternal conjunction with Himself. ”

“ There is no power in heaven or earth which can effectually subdue evil and misery, but the patience of Jesus Christ; and every evil or misery which comes upon man, seems intended to call into exercise that divine virtue, by convincing man that of himself he cannot endure it, and that none else but Jesus Christ can enable him to endure it. ”

“ It is a great and blessed thing to receive a crown of celestial wisdom, and thus to have dominion over the lusts of selfish and worldly love; but it is a greater and more blessed thing, to fall down with the four and twenty elders before Him that sitteth on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever, and cast the crown before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power, &c. ”

“ When, therefore, it is said, Father of us, that art in the heavens, the words have reference to the inmost degree of man’s mind, which may be called the divine degree, because Jesus Christ has there His inmost residence, infinitely above the cognizance of man. ”

“ The connection and relationship established between the principal and instrumental appears to be a subject which involves the most astonishing depths of divine wisdom. To note only in the cases of the two bodily organs the eye and ear as instrumentals, and their principals the light and the modifications thereof, and the atmosphere with its modifications—what human mind is capable of comprehending all the wisdom manifested in their connection and relationship? ”

“ When any evil or error becomes a carcase, by being deprived of its life, that is to say, by not loving and cherishing it, it never fails to become the nidus, or nest, of spiritual joys and delights.
40. God is in the midst of her, therefore she shall not be moved; God shall help her when the morning appears. (Psalm xlvi. 5.) It should appear from hence, that all spiritual strength and protection arise from God being in the midst, that is to say, exalted to the inmost or highest place in the affections or loves. ”

“ There is a spiritual telescope, as well as a natural one; and in proportion as man is gifted with intellectual sight, derived from the Word of God, or the Eternal Truth, in the same proportion he forms and perfects his spiritual telescope, because in the same proportion he extends the sphere of intellectual vision, by virtue of which he is enabled to discover numberless objects, which had before been invisible, and to see things near, which had before seemed at an immeasurable distance. ”

“ The same, of course, must be true of every other Christian grace and virtue, and consequently, the Christian life is to be regarded as a continually progressive life, and this in such a manner, that the point of purification, of growth, and of perfection, at any time attained, is to be considered only as a point to set out from, for the attainment of a higher state, not as a point to rest in, as if no higher state were attainable. ”

“ For it is no uncommon thing with man, to be influenced with a strong desire to acquire some knowledge of the Great Saviour, which knowledge is an intellectual sight of Him, when yet he is unable to acquire it, by reason of the press, [or multitude,] not of other men like himself, but of the disorderly and disturbing crowd of his own selfish and worldly imaginations, which crowd, on account of his own little stature in heavenly wisdom, he has no power to over-look, or rather to look above. ”

“ It may not, perhaps, be easy to discover the whole mystery of wisdom involved in this mode of expression; but one thing is evidently implied by it, viz., that whensoever man, out of a sincere heart, applies for Divine relief under the pressure of any single trouble, he is sure to be delivered from multiplied distresses, and that, for this plain reason, because sincere and devout application and supplication to the Lord of heaven and earth never fails to open communication with Him; and communication leads to conjunction; and conjunction with Jesus Christ involves in it a sure deliverance. ”

“ For the treasures here spoken of, in their internal spiritual meaning, have respect to the knowledges of heavenly things revealed in the Word of God, the great law respecting which treasures is, that they should not be laid up in the earth, or the outward memory only, but that they should be deposited in the inner man, or heaven, so as to operate upon the will and the understanding, by inclining the will to love God above all things, and by enlightening the understanding with the light or wisdom of that love. ”

“ It is a consolation to the sincere Christian, in his state of spiritual combat, to consider, and know that the adversary has no power but over the heel, the very lowest or outermost principles of his life, agreeably to the Divine denunciation, in which God said to the serpent concerning the seed of the woman, He shall tread upon thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ”

“ There appears to be an equilibrium of joy and sorrow necessary to constitute the perfection of human happiness, for, if either preponderate, the happiness is proportionably diminished. Man can as little bear an excess of the one as of the other, and each seems intended as a counterpoise to the other, to prevent that excess. ”

“ Jesus Christ calls Himself the True Vine, and His Father the Husbandman, and adds, that every branch in Him which beareth fruit, His Father purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit, (John xv. 1, 2,) from which words it appears that man is capable of indefinite purgation, or purification. No one, therefore, can pretend to say that he has attained a state of absolutely pure good, which is incapable of further purification; for none but the Lord Himself ever attained such a state of good. ”

“ Indeed its appearing to move slowly is but an appearance, grounded in the imperfection of man’s judgment, whilst the reality is, that its motion is the most rapid of all motions, because urged by the most active of all principles, the divine mercy and loving-kindness. The difference in this case between the appearance and the reality, is the same with what is expressed by Jesus Christ, in those seemingly contradictory words, that God will avenge His elect speedily, though He bear long with them. ”

“ Thus it is an eternal law of the Divine Order that if one evil, or one hell, be opposed from a true heavenly principle, all evils and all the hells are opposed at the same time.
107. Every regenerate person is like Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, whom Jesus Christ raised from the dead, (John xi. 43, 44;) for he also is raised from the death of sin, and out of the grave of his own corruptions, and set at liberty to live the new life of faith and love, through the resurrection-power of the same incarnate God. ”

“ The design of the parable then is to teach, that when man is instructed by the knowledge of the Eternal Truth concerning his own nothingness, and his want of heavenly good to set before his Divine Friend, he is then led to His Heavenly Father, in the true spirit of prayer and supplication, to have his wants relieved, by attaining the good of love and charity ”

“ To chew the cud is a distinguishing characteristic of a clean human mind, as well as of a clean beast, because, in reference to the former, it implies an interior reception of truth, in consequence of meditating on what is heard and read, and thus admitting it into a higher or interior region both of the will and understanding. For if truth be only heard and read, and not well masticated by serious consideration, it remains in the memory only, and cannot entertain the life ”