Tag Archives: God’s Excellencies

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

“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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Anselm, Bible, Christian Theology, Communion with God, Doctrine of God, God's Excellencies, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Preaching, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, The Gospel

“He abounds more in grace than thou in sinning” by Thomas Goodwin

“When the name of God and Christ are simply and alone apprehended they may be sufficient ground for faith to rest upon and nothing can be more comfortable to a poor distressed believer.

Because the name of God, that is, God’s attributes, and Christ’s righteousness, do sufficiently, and adequately, and fully answer all wants and doubts, and all objections and distresses that we can have, or can be in.

Whatsoever our want or temptations be, He hath a name to make supply.

For example, to take that His name in pieces, mentioned Exodus 34:5-6, consider every letter in that His name, and every letter answers to some temptation may be made by us.

Art thou in misery and great distress?

He is merciful; ‘The Lord merciful.’ The Lord, therefore able to help thee; and merciful, therefore willing.

Yes, but thou wilt say, ‘I am unworthy; I have nothing in me to move Him to it.

Well, therefore, He is gracious; now grace is to show mercy freely.

Yes, but I have sinned against Him long, for many years; if I had come in when I was young, mercy might have been shown me.

To this He says, ‘I am long-suffering.’

Yes, but my sins every way abound in number, and it is impossible to reckon them up, and they abound in heinousness; I have committed the same sins again and again; I have been false to Him, broke promise with Him again and again.

His name also answers this objection: He is abundant in goodness. He abounds more in grace than thou in sinning.

And though thou hast been false again and again to him, and broke all covenants, yet He is abundant in truth; also better than His word, for He cannot to our capacities express all that mercy that is in Him for us.

Yes, but I have committed great sins, aggravated with many and great circumstances, against knowledge, and willfully.

He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; sins of all sorts.

Yes, but there is mercy thus in Him but for a few, and I may be none of the number.

Yes, there is mercy for thousands. And He keeps it; treasures of mercy lie by Him, and are kept, if men would come and take them.”

–Thomas Goodwin, The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Volume 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 1861/2006), 3: 326, 328.

Leave a comment

Filed under Bible, Christian Theology, Glory of Christ, Jesus Christ, Love of God, Preaching, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, Sanctification, The Gospel, Thomas Goodwin

“A resolve from eternity” by Stephen Charnock

“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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Christian Theology, Doctrine of God, God's Excellencies, Jesus Christ, Mercy, Omnipresence, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, Sanctification, Stephen Charnock, The Gospel, Worldliness, Worship

“He is the sanctuary of His people” by Stephen Charnock

“That God is present everywhere, is as much a comfort to a good man as it is a terror to a wicked one. He is everywhere for His people, not only by a necessary perfection of His nature, but an immense diffusion of His goodness.

He is in all creatures as their preserver, in the damned as their terror, in His people as their protector. He fills hell with His severity, heaven with His glory, His people with His grace.

He is with His people as light in darkness, a fountain in a garden, as manna in the ark. God is in the world as a spring of preservation, in the church as His cabinet, a spring of grace and consolation.

The omnipresence of God is a comfort in sharp afflictions. Good men have a comfort in this presence in their nasty prisons, oppressing tribunals; in the overflowing waters or scorching flames, He is still with them, (Isa. 43:2).

And many times, by His presence, He keeps the bush from consuming, when it seems to be all in a flame. In afflictions, God shows Himself most present when friends are most absent: ‘When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord shall take me up,’ (Ps. 27:10).

Then God will stoop and gather me into His protection; Heb. ‘shall gather me,’ alluding to those tribes that were to bring up the rear in the Israelites’ march, to take care that none were left behind, and exposed to famine or wild beasts, by reason of some disease that disenabled them to keep pace with their brethren.

He that is the sanctuary of His people in all calamities is more present with them to support them, than their adversaries can be present with them, to afflict them: ‘A present help in the time of trouble,’ (Ps. 46:2).”

–Stephen Charnock, “A Discourse Upon God’s Omnipresence,” in The Existence and Attributes of God, in The Works of Stephen Charnock, Vol. 1 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1681/2010), 1: 450, 452.

Leave a comment

Filed under Christian Theology, Doctrine of God, God's Excellencies, Jesus Christ, Omnipresence, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, Sanctification, Stephen Charnock, The Gospel, Worldliness, Worship

“Lord God of ineffable goodness” by John Chrysostom

“Lord God,

of might inconceivable,

of glory incomprehensible,

of mercy immeasurable,

of goodness ineffable;

O Master, look down upon us

in Your tender love,

and show forth towards us

Your rich mercies and compassions.

In Christ’s name, Amen.”

—John Chrysostom, as quoted in Jonathan Gibson, Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 112.

Leave a comment

Filed under Christian Theology, Doctrine of God, Doxology, God's Excellencies, God's Goodness, God's Power, Jesus Christ, John Chrysostom, Prayer, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, Sanctification, The Gospel

“No one was ever saved other than by grace” by A.W. Tozer

“No one was ever saved other than by grace, from Abel to the present moment. Since mankind was banished from the east-ward Garden, none has ever returned to the divine favor except through the sheer goodness of God.

And wherever grace found any man it was always by Jesus Christ. Grace indeed came by Jesus Christ, hut it did not wait for His birth in the manger or His death on the cross before it became operative.

Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The first man in human history to be reinstated in the fellowship of God came through faith in Christ.

In olden times men looked forward to Christ’s redeeming work; in later times they gaze back upon it, but always they came and they come by grace, through faith.

We must keep in mind also that the grace of God is infinite and eternal. As it had no beginning, so it can have no end, and being an attribute of God, it is as boundless as infinitude.

Instead of straining to comprehend this as a theological truth, it would be better and simpler to compare God’s grace with our need.

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.’ (Rom. 5:20)”

—A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1961/1978), 148-149.

Leave a comment

Filed under A.W. Tozer, Christian Theology, Doctrine of God, Doxology, God's Excellencies, God's Goodness, grace, Jesus Christ, Preaching, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, Worship

“He is conceived in the fullness of time by the Holy Spirit in Mary” by Herman Bavinck

“Promised under the Old Testament as the Messiah who is to come as a descendant of a woman of Abraham, Judah, and David, He is conceived in the fullness of time by the Holy Spirit in Mary (Matt. 1:20) and born of her, of a woman (Gal. 4:4).

He is her son (Luke 2:7), the fruit of her womb (Luke 1:42), a descendant of David and Israel according to the flesh (Acts 2:30; Rom. 1:3; 9:5), sharing in our flesh and blood, like us in all things, sin excepted (Heb. 2:14, 17–18; 4:15; 5:1); a true human, the Son of Man (Rom. 5:15; 1 Cor. 15:21; 1 Tim. 2:5), growing up as an infant (Luke 2:40, 52), experiencing hunger (Matt. 4:2), thirst (John 19:28), weeping (Luke 19:41; John 11:35), being moved (John 12:27), feeling grief (Matt. 26:38), being furious (John 2:17), suffering, dying.

For Scripture it is so much an established fact that Christ came in the flesh that it calls the denial of it anti-Christian (1 John 2:22). And it teaches that Christ assumed not only a true but also a complete human nature.”

–Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Sin and Salvation in Christ, vol. 3, Ed. John Bolt, and Trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 3: 296.

Leave a comment

Filed under Advent, Bible, Christian Theology, Christology, Creation, Doctrine of God, Doctrine of Man, Glory of Christ, God the Father, Herman Bavinck, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, Preaching, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, The Gospel, Worldview, Worship

“All of life comes back to the doctrine of God” by Stephen Nichols

“All of life comes back to the doctrine of God.”

–Stephen J. Nichols, R.C. Sproul: A Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 195.

Leave a comment

Filed under Bible, Christian Theology, Holiness, Jesus Christ, Preaching, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, R.C. Sproul, Sanctification, Stephen J. Nichols, The Gospel

“An infallible interpretation” by Richard Barcellos

“Let us consider Genesis 1:2 once again.

While Genesis 1:2 says, ‘And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters,’ Psalm 104:24 says, ‘O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions–‘ and in Ps. 104:30 we read, ‘You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.’

In Job 26:13 we read, ‘By His Spirit He adorned the heavens.’

These texts (and there are others) outside of Genesis echo it and further explain it to and for us. These are instances of inner-biblical exegesis within the Old Testament.

When the Bible exegetes the Bible, therefore, we have an infallible interpretation because of the divine author of Scripture.

Scripture not only records the acts of God, it also interprets them. If we are going to explain the acts of God in creation, God’s initial economy, with any hope of accurately accounting for those acts, we must first know something of the triune God who acts.

And the only written source of infallible knowledge of the triune God who acts is the Bible and the Bible alone.”

–Richard C. Barcellos, Trinity and Creation: A Scriptural and Confessional Account (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2020), 23.

Leave a comment

Filed under Bible, Biblical Theology, Blessedness, Christian Theology, Communion with God, Covenant, Creation, Divine Immutability, Divine Impassibility, Doctrine of God, Exegesis, God the Creator, God's Excellencies, God's Power, Jesus Christ, Matthew Barrett, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, Richard Barcellos, Sola Scriptura, The Gospel, Trinity

“Our safety lieth in God’s immutability” by Thomas Manton

“The Lord is unchangeable in holiness and glory. He is a sun that shineth always with a like brightness.

God, and all that is in God, is unchangeable; for this is an attribute that, like a silken string through a chain of pearl, runneth through all the rest:

His mercy is unchangeable, ‘His mercy endureth forever,’ (Ps. 100:5).

So His strength, and therefore He is called ‘The Rock of ages,’ (Isa. 36:4).

So His counsel, Mutat sententiam, sed non decretum (as Bradwardine); He may change His sentence, the outward threatening or promise, but not His inward decree; He may will a change, but not change His will.

So His love is immutable; His heart is the same to us in the diversity of outward conditions: we are changed in estate and opinion, but God, He is not changed.

Well, then,—

1. The more mutable you are, the less you are like God. Oh! how should you loathe yourselves when you are so fickle in your purposes, so changeable in your resolutions!

God is immutably holy, but you have a heart that loveth to wander. He is always the same, but you are soon removed, (Gal. 1:6); ‘soon shaken in mind,’(2 Thess. 2:2); whirried with every blast, (Eph. 4:14), borne down with every new emergency and temptation.

The more you do ‘continue in the good that you have learned and been assured of,’ (2 Tim. 3:14), the more do you resemble the divine perfection.

2. Go to Him to establish and settle your spirits. God, that is unchangeable in Himself, can bring you into an immutable estate of grace, against which all the gates of hell cannot prevail; therefore be not quiet, till you have gotten such gifts from him as are without repentance, the fruits of eternal grace, and the pledges of eternal glory.

3. Carry yourselves to Him as unto an immutable good; in the greatest change of things see Him always the same: when there is little in the creature, there is as much in God as ever: (Ps. 102:26-27), ‘They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; they shall all wax old as a garment: Thou art the same for ever, and Thy years have no end.’

All creatures vanish, not only like a piece of cloth, but like a garment. Cloth would rot of itself, or be eaten out by moths; but a garment is worn and wasted every day.

But God doth not change; there is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity; the arm of mercy is not dried up, nor do His bowels of love waste and spend themselves.

And truly this is the church’s comfort in the saddest condition, that however the face of the creatures be changed to them, God will be still the same. It is said somewhere, that ‘the name of God is as an ointment poured out.’ (Song of Solomon 1:3)

Certainly this name of God’s immutability is as an ointment poured out, the best cordial to refresh a fainting soul. When the Israelites were in distress, all the letters of credence that God would give Moses were those, (Exod. 3:14), ‘I AM that I AM hath sent me unto you.’

That was comfort enough to the Israelites, that their God remained in the same tenor and glory of the divine essence; He could still say I AM. With God is no change, no past or present; He remaineth in the same indivisible point of eternity; and therefore saith, I AM.

So the prophet (Malachi 3:6), ἔγω κύριος, οὐκ ἠλλοίωμαι, ‘I am the Lord, that change not’ (or am not changed); ‘therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.’

Our safety lieth in God’s immutability; we cannot perish utterly, because He cannot change.”

–Thomas Manton, “Commentary on the Epistle of James,” The Works of Thomas Manton, Vol. 4 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1871/2020), 4: 113-114. Manton is commenting on James 1:17.

Leave a comment

Filed under Assurance, Bible, Biblical Theology, Christian Theology, Communion with God, Divine Immutability, Divine Impassibility, Doctrine of God, God's Excellencies, immutability, Impassibility, Jesus Christ, Preaching, Puritanical, Quotable Quotes, The Gospel, Thomas Manton