Fri.-Sabbath, 10/7-9/16 Devotion

Hip, hip, hooray—it is almost Sunday! We *get* to go back to church! In order to help get us ready, here is the Puritan pastor Jeremiah Burroughs, from his, "Gospel Remission" book. . . .

"When God comes to pardon sin, it is such a mercy as comes from the foun-tain of God's everlasting love. Other mercies do not. Where this is not pre-sent, you cannot have evidence of God's eternal love. If God gives you health of body, good voyages at sea, and good [success] in respect of the world, you cannot draw arguments from hence that God bears eternal love to your soul. But when He comes to pardon your sins, it is a certain evidence that God has set His love on you from all eternity.

"If there were a chain let down from heaven and you could take hold but of one link that would certainly bring you there, both ends would come together. In Romans 8:30, there is a chain of many links let down, and if you can catch hold of the link of justification, you may certainly catch hold of predestination, for all hang together. If you are justified, then know for certain that you are a predestined man or woman whom God has set His heart upon from all eter-nity to do good. And this is a great happiness for a poor creature while he lives in this world, to know that God has set His heart upon him from all eter-nity to do him good. And, indeed, we can never be at rest until we come to this."