Tag Archives: religion

Meadow or Marsh? (a favorite Manton line)

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I have read a lot of puritan writings, and Manton is among the best. One little phrase i read almost a decade ago (see boldface line in quote) has been very useful in pastoral counselling and has personally helped me greatly.

Thomas Manton (from his sermon on Psalm 119:3):

A man is known by his custom, and the course of his endeavors… If a man be constantly, easily, frequently carried away to sin, it discovers a habit of soul, and the temper of his heart. Meadows may be overflowed, but marsh ground is drowned with the return of every tide. A child of God may be carried away, and act contrary to the bent and inclination of the new nature; but when men are drowned and overcome with the return of every temptation, and carried away, it argues a habit of sin.

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Tuesday: Manton on the goal of worship

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God will be sought in his own ordinances. Christ walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks. If you would find a man, mind where is his walk and usual resort. …

To serve God is one thing; to seek him another. To serve God is to make him the object of worship, to seek God is to make him the end of worship. …

It is not enough to make use of ordinances, but we must see if we can find God there. There are many that hover about the palace, that yet do not speak with the prince; so possibly we may hover about ordinances, and not meet with God there. To go away with the husk and shell of an ordinance, and neglect the kernel, is to please ourselves because we have been in the courts of God, though we have not met with the living God, that is very sad.

…So a formal person goes from ordinance to ordinance, and is satisfied with the work; a godly man looks to … go away from God with God.

— on Psalm 119:2

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