NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL RELIGION

(A Philpot Special from 1836)

By J.C. Philpot

I see and feel that there is abroad in the world and among the professing churches so much false and delusive religion, that it seems as though I were continually compelled to be bearing witness against it. If indeed this natural and creature religion were confined to the unregenerate, I might well leave it alone, and let the dead bury their dead; but it infects the children of God too, it creeps in and insinuates itself even amongst those who are partakers of a new and spiritual nature, and is closely mixed up, though it can never really unite, with all our acts of spiritual worship. I find so much of this natural and creature religion in my heart, that I think I have nothing else; and when I look round upon the professing churches, even the purest and most experimental, I see a religion received by tradition from their fathers, standing too much in the place of and almost eating up that vital, heavenly, and almost supernatural godliness which comes from and rises up to the Father of Light. Ordinances, prayer-meetings, preachings, reading the Word, family prayers seem prized for their own sake more than the simple, pure, heavenly, and divine communications of God to the soul. These things I do not despise, yea, rather practise and attend unto, but to me they are barren husks in themselves; I value them only as the shell that contains the kernel, and if the nut be wanting, or if there be a worm within it, I can trample upon the shell.


It is not prayer, but the answer to prayer that delivers the soul; it is not the ordinance, but He whom the ordinance sets forth that is meat and drink; it is not the preaching, but the Spirit ministered through the preaching (Gal. 3:5) that profits and edifies. Mr.Hart’s words, “But O my soul wants more than a sign!” convey my meaning, and I believe express the feelings of every child of God. I wish to steer the middle path; not to despise the ordinances of God, and yet not to overvalue them; not to make idols of them, and yet not to call them Nehushtan, which means a piece of brass, and a piece of brass only. And my firm conviction is, that God, who is a jealous God, will teach all His people the difference between worshipping an idol and worshipping Him in spirit and in truth. I want God’s religion, the Creator’s and not the creature’s. I want that pure and heavenly and yet simple and most blessed religion, which is the gift of God and the work of God. I want that religion which the world hates, the professors cry down, the Ishmaels mock, the Pharisees revile, the bastards ridicule, and the zealots despise. I want that religion which the clean-hearted call licentious, and the workers pronounce idle; yea, I want that divine and heavenly religion to stream down into my soul out of the fulness of the Godman, which is like rivers of water in a dry and thirsty land; not a religion that will puff up, but abase; not fill the creature full of himself, but empty him into nothingness, and at the same time fill, melt, soften, renew, and warm the soul with the sweet earnests of eternity.


Such a religion as this, my dear friends, will not lead to sin, but from sin; yea, will shew sin in its true colours, as that unclean thing which Jehovah hateth. This is the universal medicine, the balm of Gilead, which heals the ulcers, cleanses the wounds, and mollifies with ointment the putrefying sores. But O my soul, how much of this religion dost thou possess? Thou hast sometimes the desire after it; thou seest this land at times a great way off; thou now and then breakest into a cry after it in the lonely watches of the night; and thou canst not be satisfied without it. But what if, instead of enjoying and realising this heavenly gift, thou seemest to possess nothing but the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness? What if, instead of the Good Shepherd pitching fold there, they heart is rather a habitation for dragons and a court for owls? What if the wild beasts of the desert meet there, with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr cries to his fellow? What if little else but deadness, darkness, vileness, earthliness, filthiness, and uncleanness gush up in thy heart? What if blasphemy and infidelity, with all imaginable and unimaginable lustings, taint every thought? Why, put all this together, and add to it the thousand nameless workings and boilings up of thy own filthy heart, dear reader, and then thou hast the picture of the writer. But do not shew this dark picture to the holy and the pious; tell it not in the streets of self-righteous Gath and evangelical Askelon, lest the daughters of the clean-handed triumph; and if thou feelest and findest thy heart like mine, keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. But is this religion? Is not religion to be holy and good, to be free from all sin, and have a heart so pure, that a sinful thought never lodges there? Yes, my friends, this is religion, but whose? Man’s or God’s? This is a religion which nature, reason, and the world approve, but not the way that leads to Zion. I have found that the experience I have of my sinfulness makes me long for and value Christ’s atoning blood; that the sense I have of my helplessness leads me to cry to God to help me; that the knowledge which I have of my condemnation teaches me to prize a free grace salvation. But I find that I am always expecting to have grace in me, instead of looking for it out of me. I read of the God of all grace and I receive as a most solemn and certain truth that all grace comes from Him, but when I come to experience I want to find that grace in me which is stored up in the Redeemer; in other words, I want to find some stock of faith, prayer, hope, spirituality, and love stored up in my heart, to which I can go as to the money in my purse, but this I cannot find, and because I cannot find it, I feel guilty and condemned; I want a spirit of prayer to dwell in me, and not to be lodged in the hands of the Redeemer; I want to believe when I like, and be spiritual when I like, and mortify sin when I like. But where would grace be then? Would Jesus be its author and its finisher? Should I pray and cry to Him for it if I could find it in myself? No; I should act as the rich man does, who when he wants a supply goes to his own coffers; and not as the beggar, who must go and beg for it. I saw this very clearly today, as I was taking my solitary walk, and it seemed to encourage me. When I acknowledge Jehovah as the God of all grace, I own that it is in Him and not in me, and that all I at any time have is His direct and sovereign gift.


You know me I trust too well to think I am one of those dry and dead Calvinists who abuse this truth to their own destruction, and who because a man has not a stock of grace are satisfied without any; no, I only know what grace is by feeling its operations and having it within. He who has it not in his heart will die in his sins.


May the Lord communicate to us out of His own fulness abundance of grace. May He work in us cries, sighs, breathings, groanings and wrestlings. May He give us a tender conscience, a contrite spirit, and a filial fear, and fill our souls with real humility, meekness, and godly sorrow, that we may be weaned children before Him. May we find and feel God stronger than we; and may His rich and abounding grace triumph over all our guilt, sin, and unbelief; yea, above all our continual lustings after those evil and soul-destroying things which God hateth.

"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth for I am God, and there is none else." Isaiah 45:22

How often we seem not to have any real religion, or enjoy any solid comfort! How often are our evidences obscured and beclouded, and our minds covered with deep darkness! How often does the Lord hide himself, so that we cannot behold him, nor get near to him; and how often the ground on which we thought we stood is cut from under our feet, and we have no firm standing! What a painful path is this to walk in, but how profitable!

When we are reduced to poverty and beggary, we learn to value Christ's glorious riches; the worse opinion we have of our own heart, and the more deceitful and desperately wicked that we find it, the more we put our trust in his faithfulness; and the more black we are in our own esteem, the more beautiful and comely does he appear in our eyes. As we sink, Jesus rises; as we become feeble, he puts forth his strength; as we come into danger, he brings deliverance; as we get into temptation, he breaks the snare; and as we are shut up in darkness and obscurity, he causes the light of his countenance to shine.

Now it is by being led in this way, and walking in these paths, that we come rightly to know who Jesus is, and to see and feel how suitable and precious such a Saviour is to our undone souls. We are needy, he has in himself all riches; we are hungry, he is the bread of life; we are thirsty, he says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink;" we are naked, and he has clothing to bestow; we are fools, and he has wisdom to grant; we are lost, and he speaks, "Look into me, and be ye saved."

Thus, so far from our misery shutting us out from God's mercy, it is the only requisite for it; so far from our guilt excluding his pardon, it is the only thing needful for it; so far from our helplessness ruining our souls, it is the needful preparation for the manifestation of his power in our weakness; we cannot heal our own wounds and sores; that is the very reason why he should stretch forth his arm. It is because there is no salvation in ourselves, or in any other creature, that he says, "Look unto me, for I am God, and there is none else."

"And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." John 17:19

Christ is made to his people sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). What am I? What are you? Filthy, polluted, defiled; are we not? Do not some of us, more or less, daily feel altogether as an unclean thing? Is not every thought of our heart altogether vile? Does any holiness, any spirituality, any heavenly-mindedness, any purity, any resemblance to the divine image dwell in our hearts by nature? Not a grain, not an atom.

How then can I, a polluted sinner, ever see the face of a holy God? How can I, a worm of earth, corrupted within and without by indwelling and committed sin, ever hope to see a holy God without shrinking into destruction? I cannot see him, except so far as the Lord of life and glory is made sanctification to me.

Why should men start so at "imputed sanctification?" Why should not Christ's holiness be imputed to his people as well as Christ's righteousness? Why should they not stand sanctified in him, as well as justified? Why not?

Is there anything in Jesus, as God-man Mediator, which he has not for his people? Has he any perfection, any attribute, any gift, any blessing, which is not for their use? Did he not sanctify himself that they might be sanctified by the truth? Is he not the holy Lamb of God, that they might be "holy, and without blame before him in love?"

What is my holiness, even such as God may be pleased to impart to me? Is it not, to say the least, scanty? Is it not, to say the least, but little in measure? But when we view the pure and spotless holiness of Jesus imputed to his people, and view them holy in him, pure in him, without spot in him, how it does away with all the wrinkles of the creature, and makes them stand holy and spotless before God.

"For upon all the glory shall be a defence." Isaiah 4:5

The glory of the Lord is his presence in the soul, for that is represented by the cloud, as it was when his glory filled the house of God, which Solomon built. Now this glory of the Lord in the cloud and smoke by day, and in the shining of a flaming fire by night, is to be a defence, both upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion and upon her assemblies. A defence against what? Chiefly against four things.

1. First, it is a defence against error. No person can embrace error who knows anything of the presence and power of God in his soul, or has ever seen anything of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; for all error is opposed not only to God's truth, as revealed in the word, but to God's presence, as revealed in the heart. And this is true both as regards individuals and churches. God will never sanction error as held by either. He will never bless with his manifested presence any erroneous man, be he minister or private individual, for he never honours or blesses anything but his own truth, and those only who believe and hold it. "Them that honour me I will honour."

This is a very important point, for you will often hear erroneous men speak as if they knew spiritual things by divine teaching and by divine testimony, and will often boast confidently of their comforts and enjoyments, as if they had got their views from God himself, though they turn the truth of God into a lie. But be not deceived by these men or their false pretensions. They have only kindled a fire to compass themselves about with sparks, that they may walk in the light of their fire, and in the sparks which they have kindled. They Spirit of truth guides into all truth, and cannot and will not countenance or bless error. The Lord's own prayer to his heavenly Father for his disciples was, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." The soul never was divinely sanctified by a lie, nor the heart truly comforted by error.

2. But this glory will also be a defence against all evil; for nothing makes sin so to be seen and abhorred as sin as the presence of the Lord. He is known and felt at such moments to be infinitely pure and holy, and a holy God must needs hate sin. If, then, his presence be felt in the soul as a cloud in which he manifests his glory in the face of Jesus Christ, it will be a defence against all the sins in which you might be entangled, when there is no such sensible presence to make you revere and adore his great and glorious Majesty.

3. It is, therefore, also a defence against all temptations, which would lead us into anything contrary to God and godliness.

4. And it will be a defence too against all enemies. You may have many enemies, both without and within; but all their attempts to injure you will be unsuccessful if you have the cloud of the Lord's presence in your soul, and his glory in your midst. No enemy can hurt you if the Lord be your defence. He will watch very jealously over what he himself has communicated by his Spirit and grace to your heart, and his presence will be your best defence against every foe and against every fear.

"And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night." Isaiah 4:5

There is an allusion here to the cloudy pillar which rested upon the tabernacle. It was as a cloud by day, but as a pillar of fire by night. The reason of this is evident. By day, the cloud and the smoke were sufficiently visible; but not so in the night season. In the night, therefore, it was a pillar of fire, that the presence of the Lord might be distinctly seen. Spiritually viewed, this night may signify dark seasons in the soul; for there is night as well as day in the experience of God's saints. Now when they are in these dark seasons, they want clearer and brighter manifestations of the Lord's presence than when they are walking in the light of day.

Thus this "shining of a flaming fire by night" may represent the shining in of the Lord's clearer, fuller, and more manifested presence, the livelier and more powerful application of his word to the heart; the brighter evidences and clearer marks that he gives of his favour, which, compared with the cloud, are as the shining of a flaming fire. It is the same presence of God, and the same glory, as was the case with the cloudy pillar; but that presence and that glory are seen in a more conspicuous manner as giving light in seasons of darkness.

The shining of a flaming fire by night may also represent the shining light of the word of truth which is spoken of as "a light that shineth in a dark place" (2 Peter 1:19). How often when the mind is dark, and evidences obscured, there is little else seen but the clear shining of the word of truth to which the soul turns its eyes as its only guiding light. "Thy word," says David, "is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

We often get into spots where we have to look out of ourselves to the clear shining of truth in the word of God; for there is darkness everywhere else; and to that light we have to look and wait, and sometimes at a great distance and for a long season, until that word comes near and begins to shine into the heart. But with that shining light, as it draws near and gives forth its comforting rays and beams, comes in due time the presence and glory of God.

So to fix our heart upon the word of promise, and wait for its fulfilment, is to walk by faith and not by sight. Thus to Abraham the word of promise was by day a cloud; but when "a horror of great darkness fell upon him," the same word of promise, as the word of a covenant God, was as a burning lamp that passed between the pieces of the offered sacrifices (Gen. 15:17).

"For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Jeremiah 2:13


There is nothing so cutting as the remembrance of backsliding against a good and holy God. There is nothing so wounding to a tender conscience as having sinned against manifested mercy and revealed salvation. It seems almost like doing despite to the Spirit of grace; almost like trampling under foot the blood of the covenant whereby we were sanctified, and treating our best Friend worse than his very enemies treated him. And as these things are brought to mind, and laid upon the conscience with weight and power, they will sometimes sink us very low into despondency and gloom so as almost to take away our very hope.

But the Lord is very merciful and compassionate to those who fear his name. He regards the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their cry. He listens to the sighs and confessions of the penitent heart, and broken, contrite spirit; and thus, though he will ever abase him that is high, he will exalt him that is low. He will never give up his rightful claim to his people. If he has bought us with his precious blood, he will never suffer that purchase to be annulled by the malice of Satan or by the wickedness of our own nature.

How striking are those words, "Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord." And again, "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you." "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." And shall we not answer, "Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God? Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel" (Jer. 3:23).

"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion." AMOS 6:1

BUNYAN says, in his plain, homely language:

"A Christian man is never long at ease,
When one fright's gone, another doth him seize."

Sin will never let him rest long, nor satan let him rest long, nor God let him rest long, nor his own fears let him rest long. He cannot be at ease till his conscience is purged with the blood of sprinkling; till his soul has been blest with a feeling sense and enjoyment of the love of God; till he has sweet manifestations of pardoning mercy, blessed revelations of Christ to his soul, with the voice and witness of the Spirit in his breast. This is not the ease of Moab (Jer. 48:11) but the ease of which the Psalmist speaks when he says "His soul shall dwell at ease" (Psalm 25:13) All ease but this is the sleep of the sluggard; carnal ease as opposed to spiritual. If then he drop into carnal ease, and for a time sin do not seem to plague, nor satan tempt, nor the world persecute, the Christian man feels that he is getting wrong; he has lost a burden, but not in the right way, and would rather have the burden back than be left to have his portion amongst those who are at ease in Zion."