He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. Psalm 66:9

Samuel Rutherford (17th century) wrote a letter to the parishioners of Kilmacolm, and 200 years later the Scottish pastor Alexander Whyte examined Rutherford's insight.

'Some of the people of God,' says their sharp-eyed censor, 'slander the grace of God in their own soul.' And that is true of some of God's best people still.

We meet with such people now and then in our own parishes to-day. They are so possessed with penitence and humility; they have such high and inflexible and spiritual standards for measuring themselves by; the law has so fatally entered their innermost souls that they will not even admit or acknowledge what the grace of God has, to all other men's knowledge, done in them.

Seek out, says Rutherford, the signs of true grace in yourselves as well as the signs of secret sin. And when you have found such and such an indubitable sign of grace, say so.

Say this, and this, and this, pointing it out, is assuredly the work of God in my soul. When you, after all defeat, really discover your soul growing in grace;

in patience under injuries;

in meekness under reproofs and corrections;

in love for, or at least in peace of heart toward, those you at one time did not like, but disliked almost to downright hatred;

in silent and assenting acceptance, if not yet in actual and positive enjoyment, of another man's talents and success, gain and fame;

in the decay and disappearance of party spirit, and in openness to all the good and the merit of other men; in prayerfulness;

in liberality, and so on; when you cannot deny these things in yourself, then speak good of Christ, and do not traduce and backbite His work because it is in your own soul.

'Some wretches murmur of want while all the time their money in the bank and their fat harvests make them liars.'

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

AMAZING GRACE by John Newton

 

In a description of England during 1586, William Harris first mentions a "Bandogge, a huge dog, stubborn, uglier, eager, burthenouse of bodie, terrible and fearful to behold and often more fierce and fell than any Archadian or Corsican cur." It is assumed that the word "Bandogge" originated from the use of strong bonds and chains to secure the dogs.

In other words, a bandog was one scary dog - apparently making our contemporary pit bull look like a poodle in comparison. In discussing Satan, and recognizing God's power over him, as exhibited in Job chapter one, Quarles likens Satan to a bandog - chained, but still ferocious.

ON THE TEMPTER
By Francis Quarles

How dares thy Bandog, Lord, presume to approach
Into thy sacred presence? Or encraoch
Upon thy choice possessions, (in this case, Job!) to devour Thy sporting Lambs? To counterfeit thy power
And to usurp thy Kingdom, even as he
Were, Lord, at least, a substitute to thee?

Why dost not rate him? why does he obtain
Such favor to have liberty of his chain?

Have we not enough enemies to counterbuff now?
Is not the Flesh, the World enough to foil us?
This abroad, and that at home;
But must that Satan, must that Bandog come
To afflict the weak, and take the stronger side?

O, are there not enough, enough beside?
Is there not odds enough, when we have none
But mighty foes; nay, rebels of our own,
Beneath a false disguise of love and peace
That still betray us? Are not these, all these
Sufficient, to encounter and overthrow
Poor, sinful Man; but must that Bandog too,
Assault us Lord? We dare not cast our eyes
Our timorous eyes to Heaven, we dare not rise
From off our aching knees, to plead our case,
When he can commune with thee, face to face;
Nay more, were it possible to do,
Would draw thee, Lord, to his bold faction too.

Martin Luther got it right in A Mighty Fortress...

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

Francis Quarles gets this as well.....

Lord, lend me but thy power to resist
What foes thou sendest and send what foes thou list:
It is thy battle: If thou please to warm
My blood, and find the strength, I'll find the arm;
March thou in the front: I'll follow in the rear;
Come then ten thousand Bandogs, I'll not fear.

And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.