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Anastasis
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Joined: 2009/7/1
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 Dual Recommendation - Henry Scougal

Philippians 2:12-13 - "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Hey friends,

I had the chance to read two excellent works, and I want to testify briefly about what I got from them. Both are by the same author, Henry Scougal. The two works together created something that I had been looking for; the working out of the salvation with all due reverence and fear, while also being comforted that God is working in my life; an assurance of salvation with an instinct to "flee from the wrath to come."

"The Life of God in the Soul of Man"

I picked up this book because this is the book that changed George Whitefield's spiritual walk. In his days at Penbrook College in Oxford, Whitefield found himself attracted to this group called the "Holy Club," where he met John and Charles Wesley. Charles loaned him this book, and forced Whitefield to truly consider his spiritual state. Nine years later he said, "I know the place.... Whenever I go to Oxford, I cannot help running to the spot where Jesus Christ first revealed himself to me and gave me the new birth."

If you want a brief summary of the work, the book brought to life my consideration of two verses: 1 Peter 1:29 and 1 John 3:9, talking respectively of the incorruptible seed of which we are born, and the seed of God in us that keeps us from continuing in sin. A man true convert may begin his life doing things because he sees them as a religious duty, but the new life of God in Him will not allow Him to stay only there; rather, He will move on and do these things because God is making it his character to do so. Among other things to be expected are these; he will seek greater communion with God, and may God the chief object of his love by which everything else is trivia; he will put away vanities that he is free to pursue without moral repercussion because they are of a lesser sort to him; he will truly know his sin, and not hide them from himself or from God because he wishes them gone; his attendance to religion and fellowship will be done out of natural love and with greater joy.

Others will look on and say that such a man is crazy, but to the one who has this seed abiding in him, thinking that he is unnecessarily straining himself in a religious or legalistic spirit; but to the one with the seed in him, it is total freedom.

"There Are But a Small Number Saved"

I had only read the author's supporting verse and I forced myself to really test my salvation against the fire. Luke 13:23-24 -

Quote:
Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"
He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'
"But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.'



Those are the words of Christ. There are two strong implications in this verse: There are only a few who are saved, and there are few because few strive to enter. Even Paul was not content to just say that he was saved and to enter through the gate; rather, he ran the race so that in the end he would not find himself disqualified. And many who pursued God walked the same way. Men such as Calvin, Luther and the Wesley brothers attended to their salvation with fear and trembling for the same reason.

The kingdom of heaven is not for those who only frivolously attend to their faith. It isn't for those who are even content to be moral, but the crown of life is for those who will bring themselves into submission to the work of God and train so not as to be disqualified.

__Putting the two together__

The interesting thing about both these works is that they are by the same author, and so you can begin to see how perhaps these works fit together, and it's this: The first work brings birth to the other.

Did Paul strive as he did because he feared that the incorruptible seed wasn't in him? I think he would have feared that in the end, all his labors would prove to be an effort of the flesh. But I think when you piece these works together, you see how such a fear is actually birthed from that incorruptible seed, and is in a way evidence that he would reach the prize. When a man attends to his salvation, it is not him that does it; it is God preserving Him.

I pray this insprires others to do the same; to consider the divine seed that has been placed in them, or to discover whether or not they are yet to be born of God; and if they are not, to strive until they are (don't take this lightly). And to those who are, that they are given greater hope, assurance, and like Paul, to train that they might receive the prize.

Here are the works:
http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofgodinsoulo00scou
http://www.archive.org/details/worksrevhenrysc00scougoog (you'll find the second work in here)

About the author:
Henry Scougal (1650 - 1678)
Scougal produced a number of works in his brief life while a pastor and professor of divinity at King's College, Aberdeen. His greatest production is by consensus, The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man, which was originally written to a friend to explain Christianity and give spiritual counsel. This short treatise displays unusual perception and maturity for one so young. In fact, this work was almost universally well-spoken of by the leaders of the Great Awakening, including George Whitefield, who said he never really understood what true religion was till he had digested Scougal's treatise.

In addition to his literary productions, Henry Scougal was also noted for his piety and his clear grasp of scripture, aided in turn by his proficiency in Latin, Hebrew, Greek, and some of the cognate oriental languages. Taken out of the world at the young age of twenty-eight by tuberculosis, perhaps the words preached at his funeral service most aptly characterize the man, for there it was declared of Henry Scougal that - "he truly lived much in a few years and died an old man in eight and twenty years."

Taken from: http://www.ccel.org/s/scougal/

 2010/2/12 9:45Profile
ArthurRosh
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Joined: 2011/9/26
Posts: 940


 Re: Dual Recommendation - Henry Scougal

thank you

 2016/7/10 16:13Profile
narrowpath
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Joined: 2005/1/9
Posts: 1522
Germany NRW

 Re: Dual Recommendation - Henry Scougal

Just want to echo this recomondation. I read it myself, it is also part of Ravenhill's shortlist.

 2016/7/10 18:04Profile





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