INSIGHTS & NOTES FROM
CHAPTER 5
"When the faithful thus cease & fail it is time to cry, Woe is me! (Mic. 7:1, 2), high time to cry, Help, Lord. Psalms 12:1" "Prevailing ignorance is the lamentable cause of abounding impiety & iniquity. What can one expect but works of darkness from brutish, sottish people that know nothing of God... but choose to sit in darkness?" "...spiritual whoredom, giving that honour to idols which is due to God only" "Because they had forsaken God & served idols, he gave them up to vile affections" "Sinners have reason to expect punishment upon the account of God's holiness, to which sin is highly offensive." "They forsook the worship of him, & therein violated their covenants with him; they revolted from him, & played the hypocrite with him." "Multitudes are ruined by being made to believe that God will not be so strict with them as his word says he will" "Sinners by sin make themselves fuel to that wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness & unrighteousness of men in the scripture. The word of God will certainly be too hard for those that contend with it. Those shall break who will not bow before it." "What is not of God cannot stand" "God has all nations at his command, does what he pleases with them & makes what use he pleases of them." "It is just with God to impoverish that which we make our confidence" "If you would but keep up an awe of God, you would be more observant of what he says to you" "...he is a God of almighty power & universal sovereignty, & therefore to be feared & had in reverence." "We must fear the Lord our God, that is, we must worship him, & give him glory, & be always in care to keep ourselves in his love, because he is continually doing us good" "It is sin that stops the current of God's favours to us, & deprives us of the blessings we need to receive. It is that which makes the heavens as brass & the earth as iron." "...the end of a wicked life will come, when it will be all called over again, & without doubt will be bitterness in the latter end." CHAPTER 6 "...it is in vain to contend with God's judgments." "The day is coming when those that are careless & secure in sinful ways will certainly be visited." "It is folly to trifle when we have an eternal salvation to work out, & the enemies of that salvation to fight against." "He that is the common Parent of mankind regards & resents, & sooner or later will revenge, the mischiefs & wrongs that men do to one another." "Those whom God forsakes are certainly undone; when God's soul departs from Jerusalem she soon becomes desolate & uninhabited." "When ministers preach the terrors of the Lord according to the scripture we have no reason to be displeased at them; for they are but messengers, & must deliver their message, pleasing or unpleasing." "Those are to be reckoned our false friends (that is, our worst & most dangerous enemies) who flatter us in a sinful way." "Those that are shameless are graceless & their case is hopeless." "O that men would be thus wise for their souls, & would ponder the path of their feet" "Ask for the old paths, the paths prescribed by the law of God, the written word, that true standard of antiquity." "When you have found out which is the good way, walk therein, practise accordingly, keep closely to that way, proceed, & persevere in it." "Though it cost you some pains to walk in that way, you will find an abundant recompense at your journey's end." "The reason why sinners perish is because they do not hearken to the sound of the trumpet" "God designs their ruin because they hate to be reformed." "What can those hope to do for themselves who have made God their enemy?" "As saints may rejoice in hope of God's mercies, though they see them only in the promise, so sinners must mourn for fear of God's judgments, though they see them only in the threatenings." "God has no pleasure in the death & ruin of sinners, for he tries all ways & methods with them to prevent their destruction & qualify them for salvation." CHAPTER 7 "Wisdom chooses to cry in the chief place of concourse, &, as Jeremiah here, in the opening of the gates, the temple-gates." "Reformation is the only way, & a sure way to prevent ruin." "They must make the tree good, & so make the fruit good, must amend their ways & doings." "The privileges of a form of godliness are often the pride & confidence of those that are strangers & enemies to the power of it." "Will you exchange a God of whose power, & goodness you have had such a long experience for gods of whose ability & willingness to help you you know nothing?" "Though men may deceive one another with the appearances of devotion, yet they cannot deceive God." "Those that tread in the steps of the wickedness of those that went before them must expect to fall by the like judgments, for all these things happened to them for ensamples." "Wherever we are cast, it is well enough, if we be kept in the love of God; but, if we are thrown out of his favour, our case is miserable though we dwell in our own land." "If you will not hear us when we speak from God to you, God will not hear us when we speak to him for you." "Praying breath is too precious a thing to be lost & thrown away upon a people hardened in sin & marked for ruin." "Let us honour him with our substance, as those that have our subsistence from him, & eat & drink to the glory of him from whom we have our meat & drink." "Let God's will be your rule & his favour shall be your felicity." "Idolatry was the sin which was above all other sins evil in God's sight." "Sin makes those the generation of God's wrath that had been the generation of his love." "...those that will not by the grace of God be cured of their vain mirth shall by the justice of God be deprived of all mirth" "God can soon mar the mirth of the most jovial, & make it to cease, which is a reason why we should always rejoice with trembling, be merry & wise." CHAPTER 8 "What ever we make a god of but the true God only, it will stand us in no stead on the other side death & the grave" "No man in his wits will go in a way that he knows will never bring him to his journey's end; why then has this people slidden back by a perpetual backsliding?" "True repentance begins in a serious & impartial enquiry into ourselves, what we have done, arising from a conviction that we have done amiss." "Those that have more knowledge than others, & yet do no better than others for their own souls, have reason to be ashamed." "...God came looking for grapes from this vineyard, seeking fruit upon this fig-tree, but he found none" "God's gifts are upon condition, & revocable upon non-performance of the condition. Mercies abused are forfeited..." "Is there no balm in Gilead - no physician there? Yes, certainly there is; God is able to help & heal them, there is a sufficiency in him to redress all their grievances." "If sinners die of their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the physician there, both sufficient, all-sufficient, so that they might have been healed, but would not." Matthew Henry's Commentary: Isaiah to Malachi, Mac Donald, pgs. 433 - 464.
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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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