William Mason
William Mason (1719-1791) was a High-Calvinist author. For many years he served as a Justice of the Peace, and in 1783 was appointed a Magistrate. He served as editor of the Gospel Magazine before and after the editorship of Augustus Toplady. He is best known for a morning and evening devotional entitled, “A Spiritual Treasury For The Children Of God.”
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A License To Sin?
Believer in Jesus, what are thy thoughts; what the answer of thine heart this day, in regard to thy walk and conduct in life, from the important doctrines of grace? Canst thou say, the everlasting love of God the Father, reigning through the righteousness of Jesus unto eternal life, manifested in the gospel, and applied by the Holy Spirit through faith, have the least tendency to give reins to thy lust, to open a door of licentiousness, and to encourage thee to continue in sin?
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Called To The Fellowship Of Jesus Christ
While we entertain a notion of a God out of Christ, it affords no comfort to the mind to hear of God’s faithfulness. Nay, if we were not blind to our state, as sinners, the thought would fill us with dread and horror. For how awful, how terrifying is this declaration from a faithful God: ‘I will by no means clear the guilty.’ Ex. 34:7. But ‘we know that the Lord our God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.’ Deut. 7:9. This is the life of poor sinners, the joy of their hearts.
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The Shepherd And Bishop Of Our Souls
Scripture allusions continually remind us, that salvation is ‘not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who sheweth mercy.’ Therefore not unto us, not to our free will, but to thy free grace, oh Lord, be all the glory. Like that poor silly creature, a sheep, we naturally stray into all kind of danger, but are unapt to return of ourselves. We never should, unless the Shepherd sought us. ‘We have turned every one to his own way,’ have lost ourselves in the wilderness of sin, are wounded by the wolf of prey, blinded, by pride, self-will, and self-righteousness.
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Grow In Grace
Christian, know thy danger. Thou art ever liable to be led away by the error of the wicked one, to decline from the truth, and to fall away from thy stedfastness in the faith of Jesus. Exhortations warn of this; they tend to quicken stronger exercises of faith and love, as a remedy against this; yea, through the influences of the Spirit they cause new-born souls to grow and increase with the increase of God, just as reviving showers of rain and warm influences of the sun cause the fruits of the earth to grow. It behoves every follower of the Lamb to consider this; to wrestle with the
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Opening One’s Understanding Of The Scriptures
Though Jesus had captivated the heart, and drawn the affections of his disciples to himself, before his sufferings and death, yet they had very little knowledge in the mysteries of his kingdom, and of the mystery of iniquity which worked in them. They were but weak in the understanding of the holy scriptures; hence arose their diffidence and suspicions concerning him. He left them scattered through fear and unbelief, and he finds them full of unreasonable doubts and troubles.
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The Wisdom Of God In The Denial Of Petitions
When the sunshine of worldly ease, and a greater portion of the good things of this life than he was wont to enjoy, fell to the lot of that champion of Jesus of blessed memory, Luther, it excited a holy fear and jealousy in his heart, which made him cry out, ‘Lord, I will not be put off with these things.’ However pleasant and agreeable worldly prosperity may be to the flesh, yet indulging and pampering the body begets and feeds many disorders and humours which are destructive to the health of the soul. The body without exercise, naturally loses its strength and vigour.
