A Prayer, From Scougal

I just finished reading Henry Scougal's The Life of God in the Soul of Man last night - a beautiful, encouraging, and convicting book that I would heartily recommend. Originally written as a letter, Scougal concluded each section with a prayer, and I found the final prayer very heart-warming.

"And now, O most gracious God, father and fountain of mercy and goodness, who hast blessed us with the knowledge of our happiness, and the way that leadeth unto it, excite in our souls such ardent desires after the one, as may put us forth to the diligent prosecution of the other. Let us neither presume on our own strength, nor distrust thy divine assistance; but while we are doing our utmost endeavours, teach us still to depend on thee for success.

"Open our eyes, O God, and teach us out of thy law. Bless us with an exact and tender sense of our duty, and a knowledge to discern perverse things. Oh! that our ways were directed to keep thy statutes, then shall we not be ashamed when we have respect unto all thy commandments.

"Possess our hearts with a generous and holy disdain of all those poor enjoyments which this world holdeth out to allure us, that they may never be able to inveigle our affections, or betray us to any sin; turn away our eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou us in thy law.

"Fill our souls with such a deep sense, and full persuasion, of those great truths which thou hast revealed in the gospel, as may influence and regulate our whole conversation, and that the life which we henceforth live in the flesh, we may live through faith in the Son of God.

"Oh! that the infinite perfections of thy blessed nature, and the astonishing expressions of thy goodness and love, may conquer and overpower our hearts, that they may be constantly rising toward thee in flames of devoutest affection, and enlarging themselves in sincere and cordial love toward all the world for thy sake: and that we may cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in thy fear, without which we can never hope to behold and enjoy thee.

"Finally, O God, grant that the consideration of what thou art, and what we ourselves are, may both humble and lay us low before thee, and also stir up in us the strongest and most ardent aspirations toward thee. We desire to resign and give up ourselves to the conduct of thy Holy Spirit; lead us in thy truth, and teach us, for thou art the God of our salvation; guide us with thy counsel, and afterward receive us unto glory, for the merits and intercession of thy blessed Son our Saviour. Amen."

Notable Quotables

I have been reading Henry Scougal's The Life of God in the Soul of Man over the past couple weeks. It was written in the 1600s for one of Scougal's friends, and the friend found it so helpful that he later published it; it was instrumental in the salvation of that great preacher, George Whitefield, who said that "I never knew what true religion [ie, Christianity] was till God sent me this excellent treatise." It is a fairly short book, but is deep and thought-provoking and I prefer to take it bit by bit, instead of reading a huge chunk all at once. Fortunately it is broken up into parts in an outline form, which makes that easier. The whole book has been wonderful, but certain quotes have stood out to me.

"They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or, in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'" (pg. 44)

Thus, Scougal aptly terms true religion "Divine life," and for a believer, it is indeed the life of God in the soul of man.

Later, in speaking of the excellency of Divine love and how all our affections ought to be directed toward God, he says -

"But, certainly, that passion which account[s] its object a Deity, ought to be bestowed on Him who really is so... Those chains and cords of love are infinitely more glorious than liberty itself: this slavery is more noble than all the empires of the world." (pg. 73)

Thoughts?

Grace

I recently reread some of A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy and came across this beautiful passage in his chapter "The Grace of God."

"We can never know the enormity of our sin, neither is it necessary that we should. What we can know is that 'where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.' To abound in sin: that is the worst and the most we could or can do. The word abound defines the limit of our finite abilities; and although we feel our iniquities rise over us like a mountain, the mountain, nevertheless, has definable boundaries: it is so large, so high, it weighs only this certain amount and no more. But who shall define the limitless grace of God? Its 'much more' plunges our thoughts into infinitude and confounds them there. All thanks be to God for grace abounding."

What an inspiring truth! And one that we as Christians often take for granted and lose sight of altogether. But Tozer is right; if we would meditate on the "much more" of God's grace, it would overwhelm us and fill us with joy. I don't think we can read passages like Romans 5:20-21, or Ephesians 2, or I John 3:1-3, without some measure of delight in the love of Christ, which "surpasses knowledge." How great is the love of God.