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Judgement must begin at the house of God

1 Peter 4: 17Let us not be so foolish as to promise ourselves impunity on account of our relation to God as his church in covenant with him. If once we thought so, surely our experience hath undeceived us. And let not what we have suffered harden us, as if the worst were past. We may rather fear it is but a pledge and beginning of sharper judgment. Why do we not consider our unhumbled and unpurified condition, and tremble before the Lord? Would we save him a labour, he would take it well. Let us purify our souls, that we may not be put to further purifying by new judgments. Were we busy reading our present condition, we should see very legible foresigns of further judgments; as for instance: 1. The Lord taking away his eminent and worthy servants, who are as the very pillars of the public peace and welfare, and taking away counsel, and courage, and union, from the rest; forsaking us in our meetings, and leaving us in the dark to grope and rush one upon another. 2. The dissensions and ...
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Everlasting Joy

Make a good use of your talent. Be wise, diligent, faithful, holy, and humble in the employment of it, and Christ shall come with comfort and will entertain you with a sweet and comforting declaration of approval: “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:23). And let us be excited and stirred up to work our hearts to this longing for Christ’s coming, considering first the gratification of our estate in heaven. There is a tree bearing twelve sorts of fruit (Rev. 22:2), youth without old age, health without sickness, fullness without loathing, liberty without bondage, beauty without deformity, feelings without grief, abundance without want, peace without trouble, security without fear, knowledge without ignorance, glory without disgrace, and joy without sorrow (Rev. 21:4). Secondly, considering the security of that estate, no enemy can reach us. It is a city ne...
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Not knowing Christ

The world does not know Christ (John 1:10). As the blind man does not know the sun though it shine upon him, no more does the carnal and worldly man know Christ though He shine upon him in the gospel, for “the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5). Such is man’s ignorance that as the light shining in Goshen did not pierce the darkness where the Egyptians sat (Exodus 10), no more does the light of the gospel penetrate their souls, but they sit in darkness and the shadow of death. At the noonday (Isa. 59:10) of the gospel they are in the midnight of ignorance. Our Savior said to such, “Ye neither know me, nor my Father” (John 8:19). They know not the beauties of Christ. They see no comeliness in Him for which they should desire Him (Isa. 53:2). He is no more to them than another beloved. They do not know the power of Christ in softening their hearts, as the ground knows the power of the dew in supplying it; in quickening their souls, as Lazarus knew ...
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Image of God

Such was the image of God in which man was made, and on which God looked with complacency after his formation, as a mother does on the lineaments of a father in the countenance of a child, and as a father traces a mother's sweetness in its temper and dispositions. Let us think how his image has been defaced, how wise men are now to do evil, while to do good they have no knowledge, how we are all as an unclean thing, how our righteousness es are as filthy rags, and how the creatures groan under the folly and the oppression of man. Man has become the stain of creation which he once adorned, and the curse of nature which was blessed for him. Gloomy as the contemplation is, it is humbling ; and blessed be God it is not hopeless. There is a great Moral Restorer who can put on us the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. May God enable us to place ourselves under his renovating hand, and may Christ be formed in us, even that mind and those dispositions w...
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Preaching

2. A minister must speak holily, with that high esteem and reverence of the Great Majesty whose message he carries, that becomes the divinity of the message itself, those deep mysteries that no created spirits are able to fathom. Oh! this would make us tremble in the dispensing of these oracles, considering our impurities, and weaknesses, and un speakable disproportion to so high a task. He had reason who said, “I am seized with amazement and horror as often as I begin to speak of God.’ And with this humble reverence is to be joined, ardent love to our Lord, to his truth, to his glory, and his people’s souls. These holy affections stand opposite to our blind boldness in rushing on this sublime exercise as a common work, and our dead coldness in speaking of things which our hearts are not warmed with; and so no wonder that what we say seldom reaches further than the ear, or, at furthest, than the understanding and memory of our hearers. There is a correspondence; it is the heart speaks ...
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Finished Work

On the cross the work was finished,—the Father’s work which the Son loved to perform. There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The death of Jesus perfects for ever all his own. The truth and the power of God are pledged here. An omnipotent sovereignty shields the disciples of Jesus. “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” After the manner of a king, the Saviour of sinners speaks. He knows his own power, and we may safely trust it. A half-hesitating faith dishonours the Lord, and mars the happiness of his servant. What pains he took that his work should be complete, and that its completeness might be manifest! There is sovereign power in this shed blood! “The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin”—“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is Christ that died”—“I saw in the midst of the throne a Lamb as it had been slain.” Righteous Abel,—that blood of the Sacrifice washed his sin away, and...
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“ If ye then be risen with Christ,”

“ If ye then be risen with Christ,” says the apostle Paul, “ seek those things which are above : — For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God^.” When the Lord Jesus was in the world, the world hated him, and used him very unkindly ; and when he died, he parted from it, to return as an inhabitant of it, no more. “ And now,” saith he, “ I am no more in the world The quietest lodging that ever the world allowed him, was a grave ; and having come out thence, he never slept another night in it. And though after his resurrection, he staid forty days in the world, yet still he was dead to it. He sometimes con¬ versed with his own, but no more with the world. If then thou have his satisfaction for sin, imputed to thee ; thou art also, in conformity to him, dead to the w'orld. Being crucified with him, “ the world is crucified unto thee, and thou unto the worlds” Union, and communion with Christ in his righteousness, have laid thee down dead in his grave ; and so have separate...
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