Category Archives: God’s Excellencies

“O unfading Beauty of the most high God” by Anselm of Canterbury

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“O how good and sweet Thou art, Lord Jesus, to the soul that seeks Thee, Jesus, Redeemer of the captives; Saviour of the lost; Hope of the exiles; Strength of those that labour; Repose of the anxious spirit; dear Solace and sweet Refreshment of the tearful soul that runs toiling after Thee; Crown of them that conquer; sole Reward and only Joy of the citizens above; full Fountain overflowing with all graces; glorious Offspring of great God; Thyself great God.

Great God, let all things that are in heaven above and in earth beneath bless Thee, for Thou art great and great is Thy Name.

O unfading Beauty of the most high God, and purest Brightness of Eternal Light; O Life enlivening all life, O Light enlightening all light, and sustaining in eternal splendour the thousand thousand thousands of lights that blaze before the Throne of Thy Divine Majesty, on from the distant dawn of their first early shining.

O Thou welling Fountain, hidden from mortal sight in the eternal and exhaustless outgushing of Thy fresh limpid floods, Whose springs have no beginning, Whose deeps are deep and infinitely deep, Whose height attains no limit, Whose breadth broadens onwards marginless for ever, Whose purity is unruffled through eternity!

The Bosom of unfathomable God pours thee forth from the unsearchable abyss of His own profound, Life begetting Life, Light begetting Light, God begetting God, eternal God begetting eternal God, infinite God, God infinite and in all things coequal with Himself. And, Of Thy fulness we have all received (John 1:16).

Thee too, all-plentiful Spring of every good, priceless Light of sevenfold grace, Thee, O most merciful Spirit, I implore to vouchsafe to illuminate me by Thy visitation, whereinsoever, by reason of my frailty, I have too feebly grasped the truth of Thy majesty and grandeur, and whatsoever of all that I have understood of Thy Divine precepts I have by carnal wantonness disesteemed; so may I correct what is amiss, and, helped by Thee, whom, voyaging over this life’s sea of perils, I have invoked to my assistance, may I be guided without shipwreck to the harbour of eternal peace.

Thee, too, I entreat, all-pitiful Father, that, as Thou didst first make me and then remake by the Passion of Thy only-begotten Son, so Thou wouldst give me to think and love whatsoever tends to Thy glory. I am frail and unequal to my undertaking, but do Thou grant me by diligent confession to attain the grace of redemption and salvation.

And whatever work I undertake henceforth, make it tend altogether, by Thy grace, through Thy grace, and in Thy grace, to Thine only praise.

Keep me henceforth from sin, teach me to be more constant and courageous in good works; and so long as I live in this body, let me show myself some way Thy servant. And so grant me, after my soul’s exit from the flesh, to obtain pardon of all my sins and reap life everlasting.

Through Him who with Thee liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.”

–Anselm of Canterbury, Saint Anselm’s Book of Meditations and Prayers (London: Burns and Oates, 1872), 130–132.

“The sun of happiness shall arise upon us in another world” by Thomas Manton

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“When a man hath received the consolations of the Spirit, he is in the skirts and suburbs of heaven, he begins to enter upon his country and inheritance.

Heaven begins in us, when the Holy Ghost comes with peace, confidence, and joy, and doth leave a sweet sense and relish upon the soul.

Fullness of joy, that is the portion of the life to come, and is reserved for God’s right hand; but here is the beginning of heaven; and peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost is but the pledge of that joy which the blessed spirits have.

And therefore the comforts of the Holy Ghost which we have here in this world are called ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory,’ (1 Peter 1:8), because it tends and works that way towards our glorious and happy estate in heaven.

As the odours and sweet smells of Arabia are carried by the winds and air into the neighbouring provinces, so that before travellers come thither they have the scent of that aromatic country; so the joys of heaven are by the sweet breathings and gales of the Holy Ghost blown into the hearts of believers, and the sweet smells of the upper paradise are conveyed into the gardens of the churches.

Those joys which are stirred up in us by the Spirit before we get to heaven are a pledge of what we may expect hereafter.

God would not weary our hopes by expecting too much, therefore He hath not only given us His Word, but He gives a taste and earnest here as part of the sum which shall be paid us in heaven.

By these sweet refreshments of the Spirit we may conceive of the glory of the everlasting state.

Look, as before the sun ariseth, there are some forerunning beams and streaks of light that usher it in; so the joys of the Holy Ghost are but the morning glances of the daylight of glory, and of the sun of happiness that shall arise upon us in another world.”

–Thomas Manton, The Works of Thomas Manton, Vol. 13 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1870/2020), 13: 330-331.

“He is the Sun of being and all creatures are His fleeting rays” by Herman Bavinck

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“All that can be found in the whole world in the way of support and shelter and aid is originally and perfectly to be found in overflowing abundance in God.

Of Him the whole family in heaven and earth is named (Eph. 3:15).

He is the Sun of being and all creatures are His fleeting rays.”

–Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God (trans. Henry Zylstra; Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 1909/2019), 116.

“The fountain of our salvation” by Herman Bavinck

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“Once we have received the principle of eternal life in our hearts we cannot but long always to know more of Him who granted us that life.

More and more we come to look up to Him who is the fountain of our salvation.

From the comfort which we enjoy in our hearts, and from the benefit and fruit which the knowledge of God spells for our own selves and our lives, we always go back to the worship of the Eternal Being.

And then we always come more certainly to the sense that God does not exist for us but that we exist for Him.

We are not indifferent to our salvation, but this salvation is a means to His glory. The knowledge of God gave us life, but the life that was given leads us back to the knowledge of Him.

In God we find all our well-being and all our glory. He becomes the object of our worship, the theme of our song, the strength of our life.

From God, through God, and unto God are all things—that becomes the choice of our hearts and the watchword of our work.

We ourselves and all creatures round about us become means unto His glory.

The truth which at first we love especially because it gave us life thereupon becomes more and more dear to us because of itself, because of what it reveals to us concerning the Eternal Being.

The whole doctrine of faith, in its entirety and in its parts, becomes a proclamation of the praise of God an exhibit of His excellences, a glorification of His name.”

–Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God (trans. Henry Zylstra; Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 1909/2019), 113-114.

“The Son of Man is the highest revelation of God” by Herman Bavinck

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“God reveals Himself in His works to be such as He is. From His revelation we learn to know Him. Hence there can be no rest for man until he rises above and beyond the creature to God Himself.

In the study of revelation our concern must be a concern to know God. Its purpose is not to teach us certain sounds and to speak certain words. Its primary purpose is to lead us through the creatures to the Creator and to cause us to rest in the Father’s heart.

The revelation which proceeds from God, and which has God as its content, also has God as its purpose. This revelation is of Him and through Him, and it is to Him also; He has made all things for Himself (Rom. 11:36 and Prov. 16:4).

Although the knowledge of God, which is shared in His revelation, is and remains essentially different from His own self-knowledge, it is nevertheless so rich, so broad, and so deep that it can never be wholly absorbed in the consciousness of any rational creature.

The angels far exceed man in point of understanding, and they do always look upon the face of the Father who is in heaven (Matt. 18:10), but they nevertheless desire to look into the things which are reported to us by them that have preached the Gospel (1 Peter 1:12).

And as people think more and more deeply into the revelation of God they are the more impelled to cry out with Paul: O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out (Rom. 11:33)!

Revelation, therefore, cannot have its final purpose in man; in part it passes him by and soars on beyond him.

It is true that man has an important place in revelation. It is directed to mankind in order that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him (Acts 17:27), and the Gospel must be preached to all creatures so that, believing, they might have eternal life (Mark 16:15–16 and John 3:16, 36).

But this cannot be the final and highest purpose of revelation. God cannot rest in man. Rather, it belongs to man to know and serve God, in order that he, together with and at the head of all creatures, should give God the honor due Him for all His works.

In His revelation, whether it passes through man or alongside of him, God is preparing Himself praise, glorifying His own name, and spreading out before His own eyes in the world of His creatures His excellences and perfections. Because revelation is of God and through God, it has its end and purpose also in His glorification.

This whole revelation, which is of God and through Him, has its mid-point and at the same time its high-point in the person of Christ.

It is not the sparkling firmament, nor mighty nature, nor any prince or genius of the earth, nor any philosopher or artist, but the Son of Man that is the highest revelation of God.

Christ is the Word become flesh, which in the beginning was with God and which was God, the Only-Begotten of the Father, the Image of God, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person; who has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:9).

In that faith the Christian stands. He has learned to know God in the person of Jesus Christ whom God has sent.

God Himself, who said that the light should shine out of the darkness, is the One who has shined in His heart in order to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).

But from this high vantage point the Christian looks around him, forwards, backwards, and to all sides. And if, in doing so, in the light of the knowledge of God, which he owes to Christ, he lets his eyes linger on nature and on history, on heaven and on earth, then he discovers traces everywhere of that same God whom he has learned to know and to worship in Christ as his Father.

The Sun of righteousness opens up a wonderful vista to him which streches out to the ends of the earth. By its light he sees backwards into the night of past times, and by it he penetrates through to the future of all things.

Ahead of him and behind the horizon is clear, even though the sky is often obscured by clouds.

The Christian, who sees everything in the light of the Word of God, is anything but narrow in his view. He is generous in heart and mind. He looks over the whole earth and reckons it all his own, because he is Christ’s and Christ is God’s (1 Cor. 3:21–23).

He cannot let go his belief that the revelation of God in Christ, to which he owes his life and salvation, has a special character.

This belief does not exclude him from the world, but rather puts him in position to trace out the revelation of God in nature and history, and puts the means at his disposal by which he can recognize the true and the good and the beautiful and separate them from the false and sinful alloys of men.”

–Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God (trans. Henry Zylstra; Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 1909/2019), 19-21.

“The ladder of paradise” by Herman Witsius

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“Christ allowed Himself to be STRIPPED of His garments, and suspended naked on the cross, that He might cover the shame of thy disgraceful nakedness contracted by sin; (Rev. 3:18)

—that He might adorn thee with the fine linen of His own righteousness, clean and white; (Rev. 19:8)

—that He might beautify thee with garments of wrought gold, (Ps. 45:13-14) and deck thee with an ornament of grace composed of the Christian virtues as of so many pearls; (Prov. 1:9. Song 4:9)

—and that He might present thee thus arrayed to His God and Father.

Further, the ignominious tree of the CROSS is the height of thy glory, the support of thy weakness, the ladder of paradise, and “the tree of life, which bears twelve manner of fruits, and yields her fruit every month, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.” (Rev. 22:2)

Here, the iniquity of the whole earth was removed in one day. (Zech. 3:9)

Here, liberty worthy of the sons of God was procured.

Here, the hand-writing of ordinances which was against us, was torn in pieces, and taken out of the way, and then nailed to the cross.

Here, “having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Col. 2:14-15)

Here, here, the afflicted soul finds that which sweetens the waters of her tribulation, although they seem to flow from the well of Marah itself. (Exod. 15:23, 25)

In one word, He delivered us from every curse, He loaded us with every kind of blessings, when He was suspended on the tree, and made the curse of God for us. (Gal. 3:13)”

–Herman Witsius, Sacred Dissertations on the Apostles’ Creed, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 1681/2012), 2: 109-110.

“Our Friend, Kinsman, Brother, and Husband, our Lord and God” by Herman Witsius

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“Christ bore the curse of God. Hanging on a tree was a symbol of the curse, and no vain symbol truly to Christ.

The necessity of His submitting to death, arose from the curse of God due to the sin of the first Adam, for which it was requisite that satisfaction should be made by the second Adam.

Christ too, when He died, “made His soul an offering for sin;” (Isa. 53:10) nay, was “made sin;” (2 Cor. 5:21) and “bare our sins in His own body on the tree,” (1 Peter 2:24) till He suffered “death for the redemption of transgression,” (Heb. 9:15) and “reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death.” (Col. 1:22)

Now, it is inconceivable how Christ can be said to bear our sins, or to bear the guilt of them even unto death, or to take them away by nothing less than death, reconciliation having been then only completely effected,—unless he sustained the curse of God both unto death, and in death.

Nor is it unworthy of notice, that St Peter speaks of “the pains of Christ’s death;” (Acts 2:24) and that Isaiah foretells that he should be “cut off out of the land of the living,” and, through means of death, at last “taken from prison and from judgment.” (Isa. 53:8)

In fine, how can we at all rest assured that we ourselves shall be delivered from a cursed death, unless Christ has undergone such a death in our room?

Thus far we have seen the HISTORY of our Lord’s crucifixion. But it indicates an earthly and grovelling mind, to remain satisfied with the mere outward letter.

Tremendous mysteries lie hid within, which ought to be studied with a kind of sacred amazement and astonishment of mind, contemplated with every pious affection, and deeply impressed upon the heart.

It becomes us to ascend in our meditations to the incredible wisdom of the secret counsels of God, who wonderfully overruled for accomplishing the salvation of mankind, the extreme depravity and impious cruelty of the infatuated Jews, and the mad rage of the Devil who accelerated his own ruin by his opposition to Christ.

It was on our account that all these things befell the Anointed of the Lord.

We ought, therefore, to consider them in a far different manner than if they had happened to a stranger, or to one with whom we have no connection.

Christ is at once our Friend, Kinsman, Brother, and Husband, our Lord and God; who, having become our Surety, underwent the curse of God, not only for our benefit, but in our stead.

He erected on the cross a ladder to paradise. And He became by His own death, the Author of life and immortality to us.

Let us, then, review in our meditations all that has been said, for the following purposes.

First, To show that all things relating to the crucifixion of Christ were FORETOLD AND PREFIGURED of old.

Secondly, To show how GRIEVOUS they were to Christ, and hard to endure.

Lastly, To illustrate their powerful influence to STRENGTHEN OUR MINDS with the vigour of the spiritual life, and confirm them in the hope of a blessed immortality.”

–Herman Witsius, Sacred Dissertations on the Apostles’ Creed, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 1681/2012), 2: 88-90.

“A resolve from eternity” by Stephen Charnock

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“If God treasures up our tears, how much more should we treasure up His mercies, just as lovers keep the love tokens of those they affect.

God hath a file for our prayers, so we should have the like for His answers.

He hath a book of remembrance to record our afflictions (Mal. 3:16). Why should not we, then, have a register for His gracious communications to us?

Remembrance is the chief work of a Christian.

The remembrance of sin to cause a self-abhorrency (Ezek. 20:43).

The remembrance of God for a deep humility (Ps. 77:3).

The remembrance of His name for keeping His law (Ps. 119:55).

The remembrance of His judgments of old for comfort in afflictions (Ps. 119:52).

The remembrance of mercy for the establishment of faith (Isa. 57:11).

They are to be remembered, because, they are the mercies of God.

They are dispensed out of the treasury of His goodness, wrought by the art of His wisdom, effected by the arm of His power.

There is as much tenderness in God as there was before. His power is more unquestionable with us than His goodness. We think His compassions come short of His ability.

We question more His will than His strength: (Matt. 8:2), ‘If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.’

You may be sure Christ will speak still the same language, ‘I will.’ ‘I will give thee spirituals and temporals, so far as are good for thee.’

His heart of mercy can no more be straitened than His arm is shortened; His compassions fail not, (Lam. 3:22).

God is a Father, a tender Father, surpassing in tenderness all natural affections.

No kind father doth ever tell his child, ‘I will do no more for you.’

The heavenly Father will not, who delights more in giving than we do in receiving.

God’s love is not as ours, a sudden passion, but a resolve from eternity.”

–Stephen Charnock, “A Discourse of Mercy Received,” in The Works of Stephen Charnock, Vol. 5 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1681/2010), 5: 207, 210.

“Free unbounded grace” by C.S. Lewis

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“The experience is that of catastrophic conversion. The man who has passed through it feels like one who has awaken from nightmare into ecstasy.

Like an accepted lover, he feels that he has done nothing, and never could have done anything, to deserve such astonishing happiness.

Never again can he ‘crow from the dunghill of desert.’ All the initiative has been on God’s side; all has been free, unbounded grace.

And all will continue to be free, unbounded grace. His own puny and ridiculous efforts would be as helpless to retain the joy as they would have been to achieve it in the first place.

Fortunately they need not. Bliss is not for sale, cannot be earned. ‘Works’ have no ‘merit’, though of course faith, inevitably, even unconsciously, flows out into works of love at once.

He is not saved because he does works of love: he does works of love because he is saved. It is faith alone that has saved him: faith bestowed by sheer gift.

From this buoyant humility, this farewell to the self with all its good resolutions, anxiety, scruples, and motive-scratchings, all the Protestant doctrines originally sprang.

For it must be clearly understood that they were at first doctrines not of terror but of joy and hope: indeed, more than hope, fruition, for as Tyndale says, the converted man is already tasting eternal life.

The doctrine of predestination, says the XVIIth Article, is ‘full of sweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons.'”

–C.S. Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama) (New York: HarperCollins, 1954/2022), 38.

“From the cradle to the cross He obeyed the will of God from the heart” by Robert Murray M’Cheyne

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“Inquiry: What good is it to me that Christ is free from guilt?

Answer: Christ is offered to you as your Saviour.

There is perfect obedience in Christ, because He hath gone to the Father, and we see Him no more.

When He came to this world, He came not only to suffer, but to do— not only to be a dying Saviour, but also a doing Saviour— not only to suffer the curse which the first Adam had brought upon the world, but to render the obedience which the first Adam had left undone.

From the cradle to the cross He obeyed the will of God from the heart.

When He came into the world, His word was: “Lo! I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God; yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:6-8)

When He was in the midst of His obedience, still He did not change His mind. He says: “I have meat to eat that ye know not of: my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” (John 4:32)

And when He was going out of the world, still His word was: “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17:4)

So that it is true what an apostle says; that He was “obedient even unto death.” The whole law is summed up in these two commands—that we love God and our neighbor. Christ did both.

(1.) He loved God perfectly, as God says in Psalm 91:14:“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high.”

(2.) He loved His neighbor as Himself. It was out of love to men that he came into the world at all; and everything he did and everything he suffered in the world, was out of love to his neighbor.

It was out of love to men that he performed the greatest part of his obedience, namely, the laying down his life. This was the principal errand upon which he came into the world.

This was the most dreadful and difficult command which God laid upon him, and yet he obeyed. But a short while before he was betrayed, God gave him an awful view of his coming wrath, in the garden of Gethsemane.

He set down the cup before him, and showed that it was a cup without any mixture of mercy in it; and yet Christ obeyed: his human nature shrank back from it, and he prayed: “If it be possible let this cup pass from me;” but he did not waver one moment from complete obedience for he adds: “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Now this is the obedience of Christ, and we know that it is perfect.

(1.) Because he was the Son of God, and all that he did must be perfect.

(2.) Because he is gone to the Father. He is ascended into the presence of God. And how did the Father receive him?

We are told in the 110th Psalm. A door is opened in heaven, and we are suffered to hear the very words with which God receives his Son: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies my footstool.” (Psalm 110)

So, then, God did not send him back, as one who had not obeyed perfectly enough. God did not forbid him his presence, as one unworthy to be accepted; but God highly exalted him—looked upon him as worthy of much honor—worthy of a seat on the throne at his right hand.

Oh! how plain that Christ is accepted with the Father! how plain that his righteousness is most lovely and all divine in the sight of God the Father.

Hearken, then, trembling sinner! this righteousness is offered to you.

It was wrought just for sinners like you, and for none else; it is for no other use but just to cover naked sinners. This is the clothing of wrought gold and the raiment of needlework. This is the wedding-garment—the fine linen, white and clean.

Oh! put ye on the Lord Jesus. Why should you refuse your own mercies?

Become one with Christ, by believing, and you are not only pardoned, as I showed before, but you are righteous in the sight of God; not only shall you never be cast into hell, but you shall surely be carried into heaven—as surely as Christ is now there.

Become one with Christ, and even this moment you are lovely in the sight of God—comely, through his comeliness put upon you. You are as much accepted in the sight of God as is the Son of Man, the Beloved, that sits on his right hand.

The Spirit shall be given you, as surely as he is given to Christ. He is given to Christ as the oil of gladness, wherewith he is anointed above his fellows. You are as sure to wear a crown of glory, as that Christ is now wearing his.

You are as sure to sit upon Christ’s throne, as that Christ is now sitting on his Father’s throne. O weep for joy, happy believer!

O sing for gladness of heart: “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Romans 8:38:39)”

–Robert Murray M’Cheyne, “Sermon LXXI,” The Works of the Late Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, vol. 2 (New York: Robert Carter, 1847), 2: 418–419.