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| Obadiah Sedgwick |
Truly the hardness of mans heart is wonderful, which will not bow after so many gracious dealings of God, and the patience of God is more wonderful, who will bear so many, and so long affronts from a proud and hard heart.
~Obadiah Sedgwick
If we would compass soft and tenderness of heart, we must then get hearts to love the Lord; Did we love him, we would be tender of his glory, and tender of his love; tender to please him, tender not to displease him, tender to obey him, and tender to honour him.
~Obadiah Sedgwick
Now softness or tenderness of heart is a special means of this upright walking: For
1.
It raiseth in the heart an universal regard to all the Commandments of
God, Psal. 119.6. And ver. 10. would not wander from the commandments,
and to walk in all Well-pleasing before him.
2.
It fills the heart with a hatred and fear of all sin, that it may not
offend the Lord in any thing, nor at any time, nor in any place: Still
seeing him who is invisible: Job 31.4. Doth not he see my ways, and
count all my steps! Prov. 5.21. The ways of man are before the eyes of
the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.
3.
It lifts up the glory of God; that is the great end, and aim, and
scope, and motive to a tender heart; he doth all to the glory of God,
and so that Christ may be magnified.
4. It
would be a means of promoting the knowledge of Christ, and the power of
godliness, and of casting down whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine,
and unto the ways of godliness; for it would fill the hearts of men
with spiritual compassion to souls with zeal, and it would draw out
their graces, and gifts, and powers in a right way for God, and for the
good and salvation of others.
If
Magistrates had but as much tenderness of heart in relation to the
interest of God, as to their own interest, they would be more quick and
active for God than for themselves; they would justify the righteous,
and condemn the wicked; they would countance the faithful in the Land,
and contemn the profane; they would honour and exalt the truth of God
and disgrace and repress the errors and blasphemies against God and his
truths, they would encourage every godly person, and they would appear
against all open ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
If
Ministers had more tenderness of heart, they would (in their places
also) give all diligence to make Christ known, and the truths of Christ,
and contend for them, and oppose men of corrupt minds, and that which
is Antichrist indeed, and they would exceedingly persuade, and encourage
even to the knowledge of the truth, and to the love of the truth, and
to walk in all manner of holiness and godliness: and they would reprove,
threaten, warn, and declare the wrath of God against all sorts of
wickedness in all sorts of men.
If
Parents, and Masters of Families had this tender heart, they would not
suffer ignorance and looseness in their dwellings; but on the contrary
would study and take pains to instruct and teach their children and
servants, and would reprove and correct, &c. How would they pray,
and strive on the behalf of knowledge, and faith, and holiness, and fear
of God, and of Walking with God! Verily the whole Land would in a short
time, be made an habitation of holiness, a Land flowing with knowledge,
and fear of the Lord, had we more of this tenderness of heart, which
would undoubtedly make us more zealous, and industrious for the glory of
God.
~Obadiah Sedgwick
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| Obadiah Sedgwick |
How
powerful and efficacious the blood of Christ is! It hath done that which
all the righteous men on earth, and which all the Angels in heaven
could never do. If all the righteous men on earth should have come forth
and offered their lives, their souls and bodies unto God, and have
said, Lord, take all these at our hands, so that thou wilt be reconciled
and at peace with such a sinner; they could
not have made his peace: Yea if all the angels in heaven had offered
themselves to God, and said, Lord, we are content to be put out of
Heaven, so that this may satisfy thy justice, and so that this may make
peace for sinners, neither would this have took up the difference and
made peace: There cannot be found in any creature sufficiency enough to
be a Peace-maker, to be a Daysman between God and sinners, to take off
the wrath of God due to a sinner: No, no, it is not our tears, nor our
confessions, nor our repentance, which can make reconciliation; it is
Jesus Christ only: He was only able to open the book, and he only is
able to shut the book: None but Christ, and nothing but the blood of
Christ is able to satisfy and to pacify God: His blood was the blood of
atonement or reconciliation, and the chastisement of our peace was upon
him: The debt was so great, and the provocation by sin was so high, and
the wrath of God against sin was so infinite, that nothing could
discharge that debt and pacify that wrath, but the blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
How much are we beholden to Jesus Christ, who by
his blood reconciled God to us, and us to God, and hath made peace.
"Oh," said Luther concerning the 118th Psalm, "I am more beholden to
this Psalm, than to all the potentates of the world. This Psalm hath
done more for me in my distress, than all the world could do for me." We
may much more say that of Jesus Christ. We are more bound to Him than
all the world besides, for Christ has done more for us, why? because He
hath reconciled us to God; we had lain under his wrath for ever, had it
not been for Christ: and we should never have seen the face of God, had
it not been for Christ: He hath pacified his wrath, and brought us into
favor and friendship again: O sirs, ponder it well what I am about to
speak unto you, that you may know how much you are beholding to Christ.
What a miserable unhappy creature is the sinner who is separated from
God, and at variance with him, and whiles he is separated from God! God
only is happiness, and nothing can be our happiness but the enjoyment of
him; and therefore the falling away from God, and the separation from
him is an infinite loss, and misery, and infelicity: Cain thought it a
peculiar curse, I shall be hid from thy face! And the Church cries out,
he hides his face from us: Why I cannot express the darkness, the loss,
the curse, the death, the hell of this, that the sinner is fallen out
with God, he hath forsaken God, and God hath forsaken him; he is none of
God's, and God is none of his, he is an enemy to God and opposeth him,
and God is an enemy to the sinner, and doth abhor and will curse him:
but besides this, consider also how terrible the wrath of God is and how
dreadful it is for a poor sinner to be a child of wrath, and to live
under the wrath of God. Or the wrath of God it is a consuming fire; and
who can stand before his wrath! If his wrath be kindled but a little,
saith David. How doth the conscience tormented with the apprehension and
sense of God's wrath make men cry out and roar and tremble and quake,
and be restless, and easeless, and hopeless! But now Jesus Christ by his
blood hath reconciled us and God; he hath quenched this devouring flame
of fire, he hath slain enmity, he hath saved us from wrath, from that
wrath which is so infinitely dreadful, and which otherwise would have
burned and consumed us for ever, and ever, and ever, And besides that he
hath made us nigh, and hath made us one again; we may now with the
Prodigal come back again unto our Father's house and be kindly accepted
and received, Well! If you know the Scriptures, and if you know what a
just and wrathful God is, and if you know what a sinning creature is, or
what sin is! Then bless God for Christ, and bless Christ for himself,
and for his love, and for his blood, and for his death, who hath taken
up the greatest controversy that ever was; as he took up the nature of
the different parties into his own Person, so he took off the
differences twixt them by his own blood. O love this reconciling Christ!
By all means strive to get into Jesus Christ, to receive him, to make
him yours, and to become his: why so? because if he be not your Christ,
he cannot be your peace; and if he be your Christ, assuredly he is your
Peace-maker. Is there anything in the world which can concern you more
than this? what! To have the justice of God satisfied, to have all your
sins pardoned, to have God reconciled! If a great man and you fell out,
and were at deadly variance, as he has you in his power, and might every
moment of the day seize on you, and take away your life, and cut you in
pieces, would you be quiet and contented? especially when you your self
were the just cause of all the difference and danger, would you not
seek peace? would you not be glad to be reconciled, especially if he
should offer it? why, you and the great God are fallen out, and you are
the cause of it, you sinned against him, and did that which his soul did
hate, and did him wrong, and provoked him to wrath, and his wrath is
revealed against you, and he can (when he will) at any time, in any
place lay hold on you by the hand of his power, and execute his
righteous judgments on you, and destroy and damn you for ever! And yet
will you neglect to make peace with him? will you dally in this case,
especially seeing he is thus far indulgent as to shew you the way how to
take hold of him, and make peace with him! There is no way in the world
for this, but by coming in to Christ, and receiving of him by faith; I
say on Christ, who only is our peace, and who only can make our peace:
In whom the Father is well pleased, and by whom he is well pleased with
us.
~Obadiah Sedgwick, The bowels of tender mercy sealed in the
everlasting covenant
