INSIGHTS & NOTES FROM
CHAPTER 1
"The prophets were called seers, or seeing men, & therefore their prophecies are fitly called visions." "Good men & good ministers must expect bad times in this world, & prepare for them." "God will be justified when he speaks, & both heaven & earth shall declare his righteousness. Micah 6:1, 2; Psalms 1:6." "We owe the continuance of our lives & comforts, & all our advancements, to God's fatherly care of us & kindness to us." "All the instances of God's favour to us, as the God both of our nature & of our nurture, aggravate our treacherous departures from him & all our presumptuous oppositions to him - children, & yet rebels!" "It is ill with a people when sin become national." "The backslidings of those that have professed... relation to God are in a special manner provoking to him." "Diseases in the head & heart are most dangerous; now the head, the whole head, is sick - the heart, the whole heart, is faint." "In the worst of times there is a remnant preserved from iniquity & reserved for mercy, as Noah & his family in the deluge." "It is God's work to sanctify & save some, when others are left to perish in their impurity." "It is good for a people that have been saved from utter ruin to look back & see how near they were to it, just upon the brink of it, to see how much they owed to a few good men that stood in the gap, & that that was owing to a good God, who left them these good men. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." "Malice is heart-murder in the account of God; he that hates his brother in his heart has, in effect, his hands full of blood." "...to obey is better than sacrifice; nay, that sacrifice, without obedience, is a jest, an affront & provocation to God." "God is never weary of hearing the prayers of the upright, but soon weary of the costly sacrifices of the wicked." "It is not only sorrowing for the sin they had committed, but breaking off the practice of it for the future, & mortifying all those vicious affections & dispositions which inclined them to it." "It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well." "We must be doing good, the good which the Lord our God requires & which will turn to a good account." "We are truly honouring God when we are doing good in the world; & acts of justice & charity are more pleasing to him than all burn-offerings & sacrifices." "Those, & those only, that break off their league with sin, shall be welcome into covenant & communion with God" "The greatest sinners, if they truly repent, shall have their sins forgiven them, & so have their consciences pacified & purified." "If we make ourselves clean by repentance & reformation, God will make us white by a full remission." "If you refuse & rebel, if you continue to rebel against the divine government & refuse the offers of divine grace, you shall be devoured with the sword, with the sword of your enemies" "Righteous princes & righteous cities are as silver for the treasury, but unrighteous ones are as dross for the dunghill." "Wicked people, especially wicked rulers that are cruel & oppressive, are God's enemies, his adversaries, & shall so be accounted & so dealt with." "The reformation of a people is God's own work, & if ever it be done, it is he that brings it about." "Those that make creatures their confidence are but preparing confusion for themselves." CHAPTER 2 "...Christ's disciples are compared to a city on a hill, which cannot be hid. Matthew 5:14." "Those that are entering into covenant & communion with God themselves should bring as many as they can along with them; it becomes Christians to provoke one another to good works, & to further the communion of saints by inviting one another into it" "God's ways are to be learned in his church, in communion with his people, & in the use of instituted ordinances - the ways of duty which he requires us to walk in, the ways of grace in which he walks towards us. It is God that teaches his people by his word & Spirit." "The gospel of Christ, as far as it prevails, disposes men to be peaceable, softens men's spirits, & sweetens them; & the love of Christ, shed abroad in the heart, constrains men to love one another." "Those are in danger of being estranged from God who please themselves with those who are strangers to him, for we soon learn the ways of those whose company we love." "What a shame is it that great men think the service of the true God below them & will not stoop to it, & yet will humble themselves to bow down to an idol!" "Those that will not fear God & flee to him will be forced to fear him & flee from him to a refuge of lies." "The shaking of the earth is, & will be, a terrible thing to those who set their affections wholly on things of the earth." "Pride will, one way or other, have a fall. Men's haughtiness will be brought down, either by the grace of God convincing them of the evil of their pride, & clothing them with humility, or by the providence of God depriving them of all those things they were proud of & laying them low." "Proud men stand in competition with God, who is jealous for his own glory, & will not suffer men either to take to themselves or give to another that which is due to him only." "The rightful Sovereign will triumph over all pretenders." "Put not your trust in man, nor make even the greatest & mightiest of men your confidence; cease to do so. Let not your eye be to the power of man, for it is finite & limited, derived & depending; it is not from him that your judgment proceeds. Let not him be your fear, let not him be your hope; but look up to the power of God, to which all the powers of men are subject & subordinate; dread his wrath, ensure his favour, take him for your help, & let your hope be in the Lord your God." Matthew Henry's Commentary: Isaiah to Malachi, Mac Donald, pgs. 2 - 19.
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AuthorCross Preaching Pentecostal Pastor. Husband to Tonia, Father to 3 beautiful girls, Monica, Zoe & Briana, & Grandfather to Wesley & Elliott Archives
September 2023
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