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and perform Divine service in the morrow. Oh, how sweet is it to believe that the
Earth is the Lord, and all His fullness and all things reconciled to God, by Jesus
Christ. May I believe and receive peace and joy in believing. Amen.
31. Blessed be the Lord, God Almighty, for His care and assistance every day.
Yesterday I was strengthened out of weakness once to preach, and though very
restless of pains last night, this morning I live to praise the Lord also for my dear
wife’s deliverance from a severe pain in her side occasioned by a sudden stretch.
Oh, may mercy be shown unto us, and we experience that the Lord’s name is
merciful. Father of mercies! Remember us in Christ Jesus, and restore ease and
health and strength. Grant patience with continuing in prayer, and resignation to
all Thy good will, and save us, Lord, from all our sins and miseries. Heal my
present cold and many infirmities, and prepare for Thy Day and worship. Amen.
September ’89
2. I desire this morning to renew covenant with our God and Father in Christ
Jesus, notwithstanding all the power of unbelief and temptation to which I have
been and am still exposed from day to day. Yesterday, by reading over my notes
since June, I had reason to bless the Lord for all His innumerable mercies and
deliverances shown unto poor, afflicted, and distressed me. For it is His mercy
that I am not consumed, but spared and even supported and strengthened for
public and private duties. Though at times almost overcome and dispirited on
account of my sinful impatience and many other infirmities, and tempted to other
social and wicked reasonings and conclusions, in so much that I tremble and am
afraid even to pray, yet I desire to wait on God, with whom are the issues of life
and death; and who is able to save and to bruise Satan under the feet of His
people. Reading – Frein on Ephesians 6 553 and Schortinghuisen 554 with respect to
Satan’s whiles and darts – I find that many others have felt the same, and probably
much heavier and severe. I therefore will not despair, but in Thy strength, Lord
Jesus, to whom I was taught to flee for refuge, when Satan was ready to devour, at
my first awakenings, and where, I humbly hope, I have found rest and peace in
Thy strength, o Lord! I resolve to go on fighting the good fight of faith, and
preaching Thy gospel of grace and salvation to others. Lord! I am Thine. Thou
hast called and brought me to Thy blessed self, and in Thee I live, and stand this
moment a monument of loving kindness and Divine protection, against the
assaults of sins and Satan and of a world lying in wickedness, and against pains
and weaknesses of mind and body. May my backslidings graciously be forgiven,
and Thy comforts restored, with strength to my weak and painful flesh. Fain
553
Ephesians 6 treats the relations between slaves and masters, in which the masters must recognize
their own subjection to God. The latter part is an appeal for strength in spiritual battle, followed by an
epilogue. This was discussed in De Frein’s Een Strydende Heylige, In de Wapenen tegen den Satan
[…] (Efeze 6:10-18), which appeared in Middelburg in 1713. See also note under entry of October 1,
1788.
554
Wilhelmus Schortinghuis (1700-1750). The work quoted must be Het Innige christendom tot
Overtuiging van Onbegenadigde, Bestieringe en Opwekkinge van Begenadigde Zielen, in desselfs
Allerinnigste en Wesenlikste Delen Gestaltelik en Bevindelik Voorgestelt in t'Zamenspraken of 1740
[Westerlo owned a 1750 edition], a work containing 25 dialogues in 650 pages, and viewed as one of
the classics of reformed mysticism.
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