West Port Experiment

And more quotables ….

Lachlan Mackenzie.​ ​At a feast, as there are persons of different tastes, there are​ ​different dishes. The doctrine that may refresh the soul of one​ ​may be dry to another.​  But there are many great and precious​ promises in the Word. ​ Some have strong corruptions — some​ ​have strong unbelief – strong temptations– and strong fears.​ ​Some have sickly stomachs, that they cannot taste any dish.​ ​These require cordials to give them an appetite. And as there​ ​are many dishes at this feast, there is what suits every man​’s​taste. The landlord asks his guests what they would choose.​ ​One chooses one food, another a different. One wishes for pardon, another longs for comfort, and a third prays for strength.​ ​There is not a temptation there is not a thought — there is not​ ​a doubt, that can possibly rise in the mind, but there is some​ ​suitable word in the Scripture calculated to give comfort. One​ ​poor sinner looks upon himself as a nonsuch a great, a very​ ​great sinner. The Saviour addresses him as he addressed his​ ​doubting apostle, “ Thrust thy hand in my side, and be not faith​ ​less, but believing.” Another may have knowledge — he hears the​ ​gospel – he has no doubt of the Saviour’s power, but is afraid​ ​he is not willing to save him — if he is saved, he thinketh it is by​ ​a miracle of grace. Even miracles of grace are promised in the​ ​promises of the gospel. Isa . xliii. 19: “ I will do a new thing:​ ​I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”​ ​The gospel is a complete feast, as it offers pardon to the guilty​, ​​grace to the unworthy, and strength to the weak.

Irenaeus, “Being a Master … He also possessed the age of a Master, not despising or evading any condition of humanity, nor setting aside in Himself that law which He had appointed for the human race, but sanctifying every age, by that period corresponding to it which belonged to Himself. … He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thus sanctifying infants; a child for children, thus sanctifying those who are of this age, being at the same time made to them an example of piety, righteousness and submission; a youth for youths, becoming an example for youths, and thus sanctifying them for the Lord.”

Manton. “The Lord hath forbidden our distracting cares and fears and doubts, and hath made it unlawful to be miserable; and vexation is our sin before it is our trouble.”

Boston. That every natural man is transported from his primitive soil into Satan’s territories, his kingdom of darkness.

Edwards. The doctrine of Christ’s satisfaction and righteousness, his ascension and glory, and the way of salvation, were under the Old Testament in a great measure hid under the vail of types and shadows, and more obscure revelations, as Moses put a vail on his face to hide the shining of it; but now the vail of the temple is rent from the top to the bottom.

Hippolytus. He shall be well armed in the foot [Genesis 3:15] (heel), and shall overtake and rob the robber’s troop.

Irenaeus. He has therefore, in His work of recapitulation, summed up all things, both waging war against our enemy, and crushing him who had at the beginning led us away captives in Adam, and trampled upon his head.

Manton. Truths that have long lain hid through many successions and revolutions of ages, are at length made known to holy persons.

John Owen, preaching before Parliament: “Judges and rulers, as such, must ‘kiss the Son’ and own his sceptre, and advance his ways. Some think, if you were well settled, you ought not, as rulers of the nation, to put forth your power for the interest of Christ. The good Lord keep your hearts from that apprehension!”

A. A. Hodge. “The recognition of God as Creator is common to every’ theistic system; the recognition of the resurrection of the incarnate God is peculiar to Christianity. The recognition of God as Creator is involved and conserved in the recognition of the resurrection of Christ, while the latter article of faith carries with it also the entire body of Christian faith and hope and life. The fact of the resurrection consummates the process of redemption as far as it is objective to the Church. It is the reason of our faith, the ground of our hope, the pledge of our personal salvation and of the ultimate triumph of our Lord as the Savior of the world. It Is the keystone of historical Christianity, and consequently of all living theism in the civilized world.”

Manton. Be not too eager to have what you love, for this isthe way either to be denied or to have it with a curse.  

Thomas Gouge, Riches Increased by Giving. “ Be careful on whom thou bestowest thine alms; for by giving to such common beggars, who are able to work and yet are so lazy that they will not work , but would live by the sweat of other men ‘s brows, – I say, by relieving such , we shall both maintain them in their idle and wicked life, and they who are truly poor, and ought to be looked upon as the proper objects of our charity , will be neglected, or at least scanted of that which belongeth to them.I am not against the relieving of all beggars ; some of them I know are blind , others lame, aged , and past their work ; these impotent poor, in regard to their present con dition , are objects of charity, but not the impudent poor, who have strength enough to work , and will not, — those canting vagrants, who are the burden of the earth , and shame of the kingdom , for these I have no charity ; neither had the apostle St. Paul, who toward ‘s God’s poor, was full of compassion ; but for the devils poor, he gave this command, (2 Thess. iii. 10.) “ That if any would not work , neither should he eat,” that hunger and necessity might drive them to labour. Erasmusmentions a kind of mercy suitable for such ” misericordia puniens.” Surely , the whip is more their due than food, — Bridewell to enter tain them , rather than an almshouse.“

Geerhardus Vos. In its last analysis, the charm of this chapter [Hosea 13] is none other than the innate charm of the prophet’s most cherished acquaintance with Jehovah. And, applied to the future, this may be summed up in the idea that the possession of Jehovah himself by his people will be of all the delights of the world to come the chief and most satisfying葉he paradise within the paradise of God. 

Henderson. Lord, we beseech thee to banish this Atheism out of our hearts, and extirpate and pluck up by the roots this infidelity that is so fast planted
into us, and plant that holy plant of faith into us ; that so we may know that Christ and his righteousness belongs to us; and through him our prayers may ascend to thee, and thy blessings may descend upon us.

Erskine. The ark of grace came never in to dwell, / But Dagon-lusts before it headlong fell. 

Bede. For by the floor is represented the present Church, in which many are called but few are chosen. The purging of which floor is even now carried on individually, when every perverse offender is either cast out of the Church for his open sins, (by the hands of the Priesthood,) or for his secret sins is after death condemned by Divine judgment. And at the end of the world it will be accomplished universally, when the Son of Man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom every thing that has offended.

Cyril. “Between God and man the distance is immeasurable.” “Great therefore and admirable in very deed is the forerunner, who was the dawning before the Saviour’s meridian splendour, the precursor of the spiritual daylight, beautiful as the morning star, and called of God the Father a torch.”