From the venerable Matthew Henry:
It is God that multiplies our sorrows…. God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied.
Well, I know I haven’t blogged much, and this is much to your advantage. I’d rather not darken your counsels with idle words. So, I suppose when I *may* have something useful to say, I’ll post, as opposed to when I “have” to merely say something. On to the subject at hand, though.
Albeit the whipping boy of many modern ‘Reformed’ folk (erroneously so), Matthew Henry is such a joy and treasure to read. The Lord was good to give us such a man who could pen theological-devotionally like few others. With that bit of praise in mind, and since I seldom contribute anything regularly here anymore, I may just begin to share some of Matthew Henry’s quotes that I love so much on a regular basis. I have no doubt that some I will post will be familiar from posts I’ve written in the past, but there can never really be too much Matthew Henry Puritanism to peruse.
If anything, I hope the quotes will stir your affections to such a degree that you will be compelled to pick up Henry’s Commentary and read through it often.
For a beginning quote, I leave you this jewel:
Thus still the devil draws people into his interest by suggesting to them hard thoughts of God, and false hopes of benefit and advantage by sin. Let us therefore, in opposition to him, always think well of God as the best good, and think ill of sin as the worst of evils: thus let us resist the devil, and he will flee from us.
O Lord, leave me not in my despondency,
But move me to dependency in Thy Righteousness alone,
My Hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I cannot bear to think too long on my sins against Thee.
They are too much for my feeble soul to handle.
“Rebuke me not in Thine anger,” I pray with the Psalmist,
Nor “chasten me in Thy hot displeasure.”
I know my sins, O Lord, and they are ever before me.
I am weighed down by humanity as I consider the heights, depths,
And breadth to which I have sinned against Thee.
Forgive me, O Holy and Righteous God of Jacob,
Who persevereth with Thy people despite themselves.
Forgive me, O Lord,
Who doth not deal with Thy people according to their sins,
But according to Thy exceeding mercy.
I am truly at the end of myself
And may hope only in Thee, O Lord.
It it is Thy Promise with which I appeal to Thee,
O God of Promise, O Keeper of Thy Covenant.
It is in the merit of Christ’s Work that I come to Thee,
And it is Him alone to Whom I cling for deliverance.
Thank Thee, O Lord, for Thy Gospel.
It is a natural tendency of man to complain about effort exertion. It seems that in this day and age, however, it is glorified, exalted, and expected for a man to complain about the drudgery of work and the lack of “free time.” I know that I have been quite guilty of this sentiment in an unrighteous way many times. Consider, then, this pithy saying from the venerable Matthew Henry:
Observe here, [1.] That labour is our duty, which we must faithfully perform; we are bound to work, not as creatures only, but as criminals; it is part of our sentence, which idleness daringly defies. [2.] That uneasiness and weariness with labour are our just punishment, which we must patiently submit to, and not complain of, since they are less than our iniquity deserves. Let not us, by inordinate care and labour, make our punishment heavier than God has made it; but rather study to lighten our burden, and wipe off our sweat, by eyeing Providence in all and expecting rest shortly.
Let us, then, not grow weary in our vocations, duties, etc. but execute them thoroughly to the glory of God, giving thanks to Him Who has provided for us, despite our biting of His Hand that feeds us.
I have been a great beneficiary of Matthew Henry’s pious generosity, as can be gleaned from his commentary on the Scriptures. He, and other Puritan Divines, are an invaluable source of biblical piety (as opposed to the moralism of pietism) that all Christians, “great and small,” would do well to read, ingest, digest, meditate, and think upon.
