Transforming Grace

I’ve heard it said that the Puritans put too much emphasis on felt faith as the basis of assurance. This may be true and there is certainly evidence in the work of Thomas Watson of a high emphasis on experiential faith, with lines like:

The heart of a man lies under a curse. It brings forth nothing but the thistles and strife of contention. But when grace comes into the heart it makes it peaceable. It infuses a sweet, loving disposition.

It would be a mistake, I believe, to say that assurance was always found in felt faith. There was a place in Puritan thought for what Thomas Watson calls desertion. Here he answers the objection that it is unloving of God to allow his children to come under the “black clouds” of desertion.

First, Watson acknowledges the horror of desertion:

Concerning desertion, I must needs say that this is the saddest condition that can betide God’s children. When the sun is gone, the dew falls. When the sunlight of God’s countenance is removed, then the dew of tears falls from the eyes of the saints. In desertion God rains hell out of heaven (to use Calvin’s expression). ‘The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit, (Job 6:4). This is the poisoned arrow that wounds to the heart. …[Yet] There is peace and mercy in it. I shall hold forth a spiritual rainbow wherein the children of God may see the love of their Father in the midst of the clouds of desertion.

To answer the objection, Watson points to the cross and distinguishes between lack of vision and lack of union:

I answer: God may forsake his children in regard of vision, but not in regard of union. Thus it was with Jesus Christ when he cried out, ‘my God, my God’. There was not a separation of the union between him and his Father, only a suspension of the vision. God’s love through the interposition of our sins may be darkened and eclipsed, but still he is a Father. The sun may be hid in a cloud, but it is not out of the firmament. The promises in time of desertion may be, as it were, sequestered. We do not have the comfort from them as formerly, but still the believer’s title holds good in law.

Watson then brings the matter back to experiential faith arguing that desertion is an act of grace and mercy designed by God to strengthen faith and love:

(ii) I answer, God has a design of mercy in hiding his face from his adopted ones.

First, it is for the trial of grace, and there are two graces brought to trial in time of desertion, faith and love.

Faith: When we can believe against sense and feeling; when we are without experience, yet can trust to a promise; when we do not have the ‘kisses of God’s mouth’, yet can cleave to ‘the word of his mouth’; this is faith indeed. Here is the sparkling of the diamond.

Love: When God smiles upon us, it is not much to love him, but when he seems to put us away in anger (Psalm 27: 9), now to love him and be as the lime – the more water is thrown upon it the hotter it burns – this is love indeed. That love sure is ’strong as death’ (Canticles 8:6) which the waters of desertion cannot quench…

Secondly, it is for the exercise of grace. We are all for comfort… We are loath to be in trials, agonies, desertions, as if God could not love us except he had us in his arms…

(iv) I answer: when God hides his face from his child, his [God's] heart may be towards him…

I’ve noticed a difference between English conservative circles where emotions are held with a degree of suspicion, as if feeling anything too strongly might not be sound, and the Scottish evangelicalism in which I was converted. In England, the shifting sands of emotion are often suppressed because faith should be built upon the rock of the word. But there is a difference between not trusting our emotions and not nurturing them. Watson happily nurtured his affections for Christ through the word by the Spirit whilst recognising that God might withdraw the sense of his presence. When God hides his face he does so for the good of his children, to strengthen resolve, faith and love.

I’ve recently begun blessing my kids last thing at night. I use 24 scriptural blessings written by David Michael. One of the blessings is Numbers 6:24-26, which includes the line:

the LORD make his face to shine upon you

This raises the possibility that the LORD might not make his face shine upon me or my children and we need to be prepared not to confuse desertion with total rejection and abandonment.

Last year I read Puritan Reformed Spirituality by Joel Beeke whilst on holiday and was really encouraged and refreshed by it. I want to read something similar this year, but finding edifying books which aren’t heavy is difficult.

I think I’ve found this year’s holiday book. Expository Preaching with Word Pictures by Jack Hughes. It is an examination of the preaching of Thomas Watson and Jack Hughes’ style is just right. Here’s a snippet from the introduction:

Homiletics, which addresses issues related to sermon delivery, is the science and art of preaching. It is the preacher’s job not merely to preach the word, but to preach it in such a way that people hear, understand and remember…

…While in seminary I purchased the book ‘Heaven Taken by Storm’ by a Puritan preacher named Thomas Watson. Every time I read from the book it was like volunteering for open-heart surgery.

…The book was so practical and convicting that I could hardly read more than a couple of pages a day. My heart could not take any more. Watson had a way of getting into my head and heart, exposing my sin and hypocrisy…

…I enjoy giving Watson’s books to people because his writings are like spiritual grenades with the pin pulled.

…I thought to myself, ‘Why merely read him and be convicted? Why not learn to preach like he did?’ I determined in my heart to analyse Thomas Watson as I read his works.

…This book is the fruit of my labors. And it is my prayer that it will be a blessing to you just as researching and writing it has already been a blessing to me.

If anyone has followed my advice to read Watson’s exposition of the beatitudes and given up, then you are not alone. Here’s what my fellow Watson fan says about several of his friends’ attempts to read Watson:

A fellow pastor was going on a reading holiday. I dared him to see if he could read all of ‘Heaven Taken by Storm’ during that week. When he returned a week later, he had not finished the book. A person can only handle so much spiritual surgery in a week! Another time I gave The Godly Man’s Picture to seven friends for Christmas. Only two of them have made it through the book, and that was five years ago.

Watson seems to appeal to only some people. Call me a glutton, but I’ll probably take Watson’s The doctrine of repentance on holiday too.

Ros Clarke responded on her blog to the news of Willow Creek’s change of direction by asking:

It’ll be interesting to see how they respond when people start leaving the church as a result of the new onslaught of bible teaching.

The autobiography of the late William Still, Dying to Live, minister at Gilcomston South in Aberdeen, Scotland, gives the appropriate response. Mr Still went through a similar change of direction. He was appointed at Gilc in 1945 with the remit to “fill the kirk”, which he did “to overflowing, by the use of Redemption songs and fiery evangelistic sermons which soon set the town agog!” Billy Graham and Alan Redpath ran missions there and after 18 months over 2000 people attended on Saturday night rallies and Sunday morning services.

Mr Still writes:

It took a great struggle to come to the point where I knew that I had to call a halt to the Saturday night rallies in the church. …It was obvious that the necessity for maintaining a high level of novelty was too time-consuming and was taking up too much of our energies. I was tired of trying to be an evangelistic entertainer…

The change in direction was the same as Willow Creek’s, from attractive sub-culture to producing attractive “well rounded” Christians by applied, relevant, systematic bible teaching:

If I said eighteen months’ experience of ardent evangelistic work caused disillusionment, that was only part of the truth, and was really beside the point. The truth is, as I have said, that I was beginning to discover, almost by accident although I know the Lord has another name for it, the value of the systematic teaching of the Word of God. And as that took grip of me in the pulpit during the latter days and months of 1946, I saw that a commission was given me, which was to be my task for the rest of my life, rather than that of superficial evangelism which, alas, leaves so much of the glorious Word of God untouched. And if it is true, which I fervently believe (and with some experience to back up my opinion) that there is no part of the Word of God which can be left out if fully rounded Christian characters are to be formed, then there is no alternative to ministering the whole Word of God.

[My emphasis added]

The congregation dwindled from 2000 to around 500. Mr Still was accused of failure, burnout and there was concern for church finances. But out of that reduced congregation came 42 Church of Scotland ministers and over 300 missionaries, not to mention those who passed though and enriched other churches. Oh yes, and at least one Church of England minister.

It seems that believe in God is on the increase. Lots of people I meet believe in God, have faith in the existence of God, but are not children of God because their faith is not saving faith. The distinction lies in the nature of faith as Thomas Watson explains:

1 What faith is. If faith instates us into son-ship (adoption by God), it concerns us to know what faith is. There is a twofold faith.

(i) A more lax general faith. When we believe the truth of all that is revealed in the Holy Scriptures, this is not the faith which privileges us in son-ship. The devils believe all the articles in the creed. It is not the bare knowledge of a medicine or believing the sovereign virtue of it that will cure one that is ill. This general faith (so much cried up by some) will not save. This a man may have and not love God. He may believe that God will come to judge the quick and the dead, and hate him, as the prisoner believes the judge’s coming to the assizes, and abhors the thoughts of him. Take heed of resting in a general faith. You may have this and be no better than devils.

(ii) There is a special faith, when we not only believe the report we hear of Christ, but rest upon him, embrace him, ‘taking hold of the horns of this altar’, resolving there to abide. …faith draws Christ into the heart and applies him there. …By this we are made the children of God, and wherever this faith is, it is not like a medicinal pill in a dead man’s mouth, but is exceedingly operative. It obliges to duty. It works by love (Galatians 5:6)

Yesterday I went to the annual Oak Hill school of theology where Tom Schreiner was speaking on the nature of warning passages in the New Testament. His four accessible and pastorally applied lectures were entitled:

> How to understand the warnings in scripture
> Persevering in faith is not perfection
> Persevering in faith is not works-righteousness
> Faith and assurance

Here’s my palmpilot notes from the day:

Lecture 1 - How to understand the warnings in scripture
Herman Bavinck - Reformed Dogmatics (Vol ?) - p266 does God uphold the gift of grace he began or can sin destroy grace? (full quote needed)

Often said “Once saved always saved? No matter what happens, no matter what you do you’ll always be saved.”
This statement is not helpful.

Passages exhorting the believer to persevere:
Acts 11:23 - be faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose
Acts 13:43 - continue in the grace of God
Acts 14:22 - encouraging them to continue in the faith
1 Thess 3:1ff - there will be troubles on the way

It’s not how you start but how you finish.

More passages exhorting an ongoing practice:
1 Pet 5:12 - stand firm in the grace of God
Jude 20,21 - keep yourselves in the love of God (balanced with v24,25)
Heb 12:15
1 Cor 6:1 - do not receive the grace of God in vain

Various views of these sorts of passages:
Arminian - passages addressed to believers, concerning salvation, apostasy is possible.
Grace evangelical society view - passages addressed to believers, not concerning salvation but rewards. Salvation secure. Rewards at stake.
Tests of genuineness view - passages addressed to almost believers, concerning salvation, those who fall away never had real faith.
Federal Vision - passages addressed to almost believers, concerning salvation, elect and non-elect members of covenant “believers” those who fall away not elect.

Passages relating the life of the believer to saving faith:
Matt 10:32 whoever denies me before men I will deny them.
Matt 10:22 persevere to end
Matt 10:37 love me

John 15:6 abide in me or be burned
Gal 5:2-4 turn to the law and you severed from Christ.
Rom 11:19ff provided you continue in his kindness
1 Cor 6:7ff - warning about wrongdoing.
Rom 10:12 - take heed lest he fall
Gal 5:
2 John 7,8 - watch that you don’t lose eternal life, abide and remain
Rev 2:7,11, - conquer or die
Heb - if we go on deliberately sinning we will not be saved

There is an undeniable link between how we live after conversion and salvation. So, Schreiner’s view is that the warnings are addressed to believers, concerning salvation and salvation is at stake.

Lecture 2 - Persevering in faith is not perfection

perseverance is not perfectionism because
1. we pray for forgiveness
none of us reach the point where we don’t need to pray this prayer (cessesionists believed in perfectionism 1 John 1:8 )
2. perfection is ours at the resurrection (Phil 3:12) Christ has made me his, so I persevere (no presumption of inability). Romans 8:10 - we are righteous yet in the flesh.
8:23 - first fruits (assurance) + groaning as we wait (perseverance)
3. exhortations to abstain from powerful desires of the flesh (1 Peter 2:11, Gal 5:17, Rom 7:21-23, 8:13)
4. even the best Christians can do better - Jas 3:1-2 we all stumble in many ways - tongue. Do not give excuses for sin (tired etc), just confess.
1 Thess 4:1 - do it more and more! Affirm people where they are an encourage them to do better
5. Perfection will be ours on the last day. Eph 5:27, Col 1:22, 1 Thess 3:12ff, 1 John 3:2
6. biographical examples - Zechariah in Luke 1:6 (blameless not sinless, sin = unbelief, he goes on sinning
Gal 2:11 - Peter sinned by pulling back and mixing only with the circumcision party (Christian law party), even Barnabas sins!

Lecture 3 - Persevering in faith is not works-righteousness

Persevering in faith is not works-righteousness.
Obedience is necessary for salvation.

Gal 6:8 - sows to the Spirit
Romans 15:18 - obedience
Jas 2: - works are necessary for salvation

obedience of faith (Romans 1:5)
obedience flows from faith (Romans 16:26)
Romans 2:6-7 - render according to works, 25ff inward circumcision done by the Spirit. This is the obedience of faith. Not hypothetical.
1 Thess 1:3 labour of love
Gal 3:3 - begun by Spirit (believing, trusting, resting in Christ) do not move on.
We disobey if we disbelieve Christ is our Saviour
Faith, faith, faith will always produce works (root and shoot)
Perseverance is not a call to try harder, focusing on our works, but to go on believing in Christ.
Apostasy is turning to the law and depending on it for salvation (legalism) rather than depending on the cross.
Heb 10:17ff Perseverance is a call to faith in the blood of Christ shed for sin.

The obedience of faith is an ongoing, day to day, humble dependence on Christ which is nurtured by the both the gospel and the warning passages.

Romans 8:33ff - assurance
John 10:29 - assurance

Lecture 4 - Faith and assurance

Warnings are not declarations nor are they descriptive of what is happening or what will inevitably happen. They are prospective not retrospective.

A coach shouts at the runner during the race urging the runner to keep going to finish the race. The runner will keep going and finish. Warning passages are not retrospective commentary “you didn’t finish because you…”

Warning passages are like marriage counsellor saying to a couple he is aiming to help “divorce would be disastrous for you as a couple”

A friend parked car on Tom’s drive. Unthinking and in a hurry, Tom reversed toward it, his friend shouted “Tom, stop”. Tom stopped and avoided crashing into the parked car. Warning stopped the accident from happening.

Acts 26:22-24 promise no one will die
Acts 26:31 warning to stay on board
warning functions as a means of fulfilling his promise

Mark 13:22-23 not possible for elect to be lead astray, but must be on guard.

Matt 7:21 - i never knew you
2 Tim 2:18 -
1 Cor 11:19 - retrospectively

warnings not to develop an attitude of introspection but action. “kids, don’t run into the road” designed to produce action not for the kids to ask “am i still alive? Does my daddy love me” Warning passages to exhort believer to go on hating sin and trusting, loving, obeying Christ NOT ask “do I still believe, am I a Christian, have I sinned too much, have I renounced Christ?”

Heb 6 addressed to believers to keep them in the faith not to generate introspection or judgement.

Warning passages a means of perseverance for the elect. Like the message on a bottle of poison “do not drink, this poison will kill you” I have no intention of drinking, so the warning passages say “do not abandon Christ and turn to other ways of salvation or you will die” I have no intention of turning from Christ but the warning is real.

Post-script: Please read James Oakley’s comments on this post and Matt Mason’s comments and Neil Jeffers’ comments on the new covenant and the elect.

He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30

I’ve always wondered why Jesus was not totally silent during his trial and now see that his broken silence was, perhaps, the wisdom of God personified.

It is clear, as Jesus remained silent that he fulfilled Isaiah 53:7. However, by breaking his silence is the prophecy of Isaiah undone? No, something else is going on related to the wisdom of Proverbs when dealing with fools.

The Sanhedrin must have thought that Jesus was a fool, as only a fool would not defend himself against false charges when his life is at stake. Jesus is then certified a lunatic for his claim to be the Son of God. From the Sanhedrin’s perspective Jesus is an idiot and a deluded one at that. Proverbs 26:4-5, however, reveals the real fool:

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.
Proverbs 26:4-5.

The charges against Jesus were transparently false and yet Caiaphas foolishly asked Jesus to give an answer for them, to defend himself when a defence was unnecessary. But, the witnesses had committed perjury, so why should he respond? As Jesus remained silent everyone in the court knew that Caiaphas was the fool for asking Jesus to defend himself. Uncomfortable with this situation, Caiaphas then charged Jesus under oath to respond to the charge “are you the Christ, the Son of God?” This too is foolish. Jesus had not made that claim but everyone knew by his teaching action miraculous actions that Jesus was who Caiaphas said he was. Jesus was not going to deny that he was the Son of God, so he replied according to the folly of Caiaphas.

On trial, Jesus is the wisdom of Proverbs 26:4-5 personified and Caiaphas was a fool.

This description of the communion meal at St Giles church in Edinburgh under the ministry of Robert Bruce is quite astonishing and challenges the bare ritual of many contemporary churches:

We must make an attempt in this chapter to bring up to our minds the scene upon Communion Sabbath in St. Giles Church in the year 1590. In 1590 in St. Giles the communicants sat in successive relays at tables specially set apart for the purpose, which were covered with a fair white cloth. As many as twelve or even sixteen of these tables were provided, about one hundred people sitting at each one. Little tokens of metal were used, and these were handed to the officiating elder on his admitting to the table. The Session Records of St. Giles for 1590 show that not port wine but claret was used; the quantity consumed was astonishing.

Bruce’s sacramental theology is explained below. Prizes for anyone who can translate the old Scots dialect:

Quite in accord with this doctrine of the Church is the doctrine of the sacraments held by the Scottish Presbyterians. In the Scottish Confession of 1560 it is taught that “In the Supper rychtlie used, Christ Iesus is so joyned with us that He becumis the verray nurishement and food of our saulis.” Master Robert Bruce, who was a theologian and a student of the history of the Church, bases his teaching upon the sacrament on this Confession, avoiding on the one side extreme sacramental ideas, and on the other side that lax teaching of the opponents of High Churchism which finds in the bread and wine no more than a picture of the transactions of Calvary. Bruce occupies the ground of the Second Helvetic Confession (1566) and of the Thirty-nine Articles (1563), which was afterwards defined in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646). In his Five Sermons upon the Lord’s Supper the view represented by that strong composition, the Scottish Confession of 1560, is laid down with much vigour of intellect and variety of illustration. He steers a straight course between the Scylla of transubstantiation and what he regards as the Charybdis of a bare commemoration theory. In the words of his original, “We will neather wirschip, the signes in place of that which is signifeid by thame; neather yit do we dispyse and interprets thame as unprofitable and vane; but we do use thame with all reverence, examyning ourselfis diligentlie befoir that so we do.”, Or let Master Robert himself state the position: “Will ye speare at us, again, How Christ Iesus His true bodie and blood is present? We will say, That they are spirituallie present, reallie presente, that is present in the supper and not in the bread; we will not say that His true flesh is presente to the hands or to the mouth of our bodie, but we say it is spirituallie present, that is present to thy spirit and faithfull saull, yea even als present inwardlie to thy saul as the bread and wine are present to thy bodie outwardlie. Will ye speare then, Gif the bodie and blood of Christ Iesus be present in the supper? We answer in a word, They are present in the supper, but not in the bread and wine, nor in the accidents nor substance of bread and wine. And we make Christ to be present in the supper, because he is present to my saull, to my spirit and faith.”‘

[Robert Bruce, Minister in the Kirk Edenburg, Banner of Truth 1961, p71-81]

English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund announced on the 6th March that £2 million has been made available for the restoration of Grade I and Grade II* listed churches in the West Midlands, of which St Luke’s is one.

As a church we face a number of repair bills which we can’t afford. The building is rotting, rusting and crumbling in various ways.

Should we accept the offer of money from EH and LHF?

On the one hand, we do not want to cause anyone to stumble (1 Cor 8:13). If we are seen to endorse gambling by accepting lottery money it might encourage some into gambling or cause a Christian with a weak conscience to have their conscience defiled (1 Cor 8:7). On the other hand, Paul himself was happy to eat meat sacrificed to idols. He did not seem to be concerned about the profit from the sale continuing to support the temple and ongoing practice of animal sacrifice.

The money being offered from the lottery may be “dirty” but, like food sacrificed to idols, it cannot defile us (Titus 1:15). Jesus himself received worship from a woman who was a sinner and whose alabaster flask of ointment must have been earned by sinful means (Luke 7:37). Lottery money is just money and differs from tax duty raised at bookmakers, casinos or on alcohol, tobacco and pornography only by being labelled.

The state wants to preserve its historic buildings and funds this through a voluntary tax system in a game of chance. People choose to play the lottery for mixed motives, part greed, part charity. Local people would prefer their lottery contribution to be spent locally. A spokeswoman from English Heritage said

People really care about their local places of worship which are often a focus for the whole community. The Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage are helping to secure their future by concentrating on the most urgent repair needs and so making a crucial difference to their long-term survival.

Is this offer an answer to prayer and a means of God’s grace or should we avoid it like the plague?

Comments on the ethics of this issue would be appreciated.

Do you find you are joyless or have a gnawing dissatisfaction as a Christian?  Do you yearn for something but can’t quite put your finger on what it is you want?  Do spiritual experiences and observances fail to satisfy your hunger and slate your thirst? Have favourite songs and hymns lost their wonder, bible passages their cutting and comforting edges?  Perhaps you are hungering and thirsting after righteousness.

Thanks again to Thomas Watson who provides five marks of well fed and satisfied sinners. All five marks point to the source of all true righteousness, who is Christ crucified for sin.

Let us put ourselves upon a trial whether we hunger and thirst after righteousness. I shall give you five signs by which you may judge of this hunger.

1 Hunger is a painful thing. …a man that hungers after righteousness is in anguish of soul and ready to faint away for it. He finds a want of Christ and grace. He is distressed and in pain till he has his spiritual hunger stilled and allayed.

2 Hunger is satisfied with nothing but food. Bring an hungry man flowers, music; tell him pleasant stories; nothing will content him but food. ‘Shall I die for thirst?’ says Samson (Judges 15: 18). So a man that hungers and thirsts after righteousness says, Give me Christ or I die. Lord, what wilt thou give me seeing I go Christless? …While the soul is Christless, it is restless. Nothing but the water-springs of Christ’s blood can quench its thirst.

3 Hunger wrestles with difficulties and makes an adventure for food. We say hunger breaks through stone walls (cf. Genesis 42: 1, 2). The soul that spiritually hungers is resolved; Christ it must have; grace it must have.

4 An hungry man falls to his meat with an appetite. You need not make an oration to an hungry man and persuade him to eat. So he who hungers after righteousness feeds eagerly on an ordinance. ‘Thy words were found, and I did eat them’ (Jeremiah 15: 16). In the sacrament he feeds with appetite upon the body and blood of the Lord. God loves to see us feed hungrily on the bread of life.

5 An hungry man tastes sweetness in his meat. So he that hungers after righteousness relishes a sweetness in heavenly things. Christ is to him all marrow, yea the quintessence of delights.

By these notes of trial we may judge of ourselves whether we hunger and thirst after righteousness.

‘Blessed are they that hunger’. Though you do not have so much righteousness as you would, yet you are blessed because you hunger after it.

The covenant of God’s grace with Adam reveals that our exclusion from God’s presence is both a blessing and a curse. Knowing the grace and goodness of God in the exclusion of Adam and Eve from the garden causes us to see both blessings and curses in the sickness and death which results from our being away from God’s presence. Richard Baxter’s Directions for a Peaceful Death point us toward the blessings. Here are two edited directions of his eighteen:

Comfort is not desirable only as it pleases us, but also as it strengthens us, and helps us in our greatest duties. And when is it more needful than in sickness, and the approach of death? I shall therefore add such directions as are necessary to make our departure comfortable or peaceful at the least, as well as safe.

Direct. II. Misunderstand not sickness, as if it were a greater evil than it is; but observe how great a mercy it is, that death has so suitable a harbinger or forerunner: that God should do so much before he takes us hence, to wean us from the world, and make us willing to be gone; that the unwilling flesh has the help of pain; and that the senses and appetite languish and decay, which did draw the mind to earthly things: and that we have so loud a call, and so great a help to true repentance and serious preparation! …ordinarily it is a mercy to have the flesh brought down and weakened by painful sickness, to help to conquer our natural unwillingness to die.

Direct. III. Remember whose messenger sickness is, and who it is that calls you to die.  …You cannot deny him to be the disposer of all things, without denying him to be God: it is he that loves us, and never meant us any harm in any thing that he has done to us; that gave the life of his Son to redeem us; and therefore thinks not life too good for us. Our sickness and death are sent by the same love that sent us a Saviour, and sent us the powerful preachers of his word, and sent us his Spirit, and secretly and sweetly changed our hearts, and knit them to himself in love; which gave us a life of precious mercies for our souls and bodies, and has promised to give us life eternal; and shall we think, that he now intends us any harm? Cannot he turn this also to our good, as he has done many an affliction which we have complained about?

I know this post jumps the gun as I am yet to give the biblical and systematic justification for my understanding of the covenant of grace in the garden. Time was against me this morning. This quote was ready to post. And, we can enjoy these blessings without the justification for now.