A Goodly Heritage

The Psalms are the  marrow  of the Bible. They are both for  delight  and  use , like rich cordials which not only gratify the palate—but strengthen the spirits. This Psalm is full of divine and spiritual matter. It was composed, if not sung, by the sweet singer of Israel. The words fall into two parts. 1. God's kindness to David: He dealt well with him. 2. David's grateful acknowledgment of this favor: "You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord." From God's kindness to David, observe: Doctrine 1: That God deals well with his people.  "God has dealt graciously with me" (Gen. 33. 11). God's people often fail to respond to his love; but though they deal badly with God—God deals well with them. God's dealing well with his people arises from the intrinsic goodness of his nature. "God is love" (1 John 4:16). From this flow all acts of royal bounty. Question:   In what ways does God deal well with his people? Answer: In

This beatitude is not pronounced upon the poor in earthly condition; for one may be very poor and yet very proud, or one may be rich in worldly goods and yet be very lowly in spirit. Neither is it on the poor in mind; for mental poverty is not necessarily a state of blessedness, and ignorance is certainly not bliss, nor is it desirable. It is the poor in spirit, in disposition, on whom the beatitude is pronounced. That is, the lowly in heart, the humble, those who are conscious of unworthiness. Humility is not thinking meanly of one’s self, holding one’s gifts or abilities as of no account. We are under obligation to recognize our talents and make the fullest possible use of them. We are also to recognize our place and our privileges as God’s redeemed children, no longer condemned sinners and servile slaves. What, then, is humility? It is a spirit that bows reverently before God, and then holds its divinest gifts as not too good nor too fine to be used in Christ’s name in the servi

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are revealed as concurring together in the whole purpose and plan of man's redemption; but as sustaining, each of them, a distinct office, and undertaking a different part of the work, in carrying that purpose and plan into effect. Their common purpose of saving sinners, and their harmonious co–operation in its accomplishment, might be inferred from the unity of the divine nature, which necessarily implies unity in the counsels of the divine will; but the personal distinctions of the Godhead could never have been so clearly revealed in any other way than by the distinct offices and operations, which are ascribed to them in connection with the work of salvation. It is to mark at once their harmony of purpose, and also their several agencies, in this work, that every believer is required to be baptized,-not simply into the name of God,-but 'into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:19);' and that

The Word Preached did not Profit them. THE Scriptures are not only  Doctrinal,  but also  Historical;  they contain matters of  Fact,  as well as Articles of  Faith. Amongst the many matters of Fact Recorded, the Evils Committed, and the Evils Suffered by the People of God, are none of the fewest; their sins and punishments stand upon Record, and are handed down to Succeeding Generations: One great Design of God in Transmitting them to Af|ter ages is, that men might be Warned against falling into the like sins, least they fall under a like Dispensation of Wrath; this is the declared end of God in penning down the Sin and Destruction of the  Israelites  in the Wilderness, 1 Cor. 10. 11.  All these things happened unto them for Ensamples and they are written for our Admonition, upon whom the Ends of the World are come.  The Apostle  Paul,  in compliance with this Design of God, makes a Practical Improvement of the  Israelites  Unbelief and Exclusion from the Rest of God, in this Ch

In the discussion of every subject, it is of great importance to ascertain, and to fix with precision, the meaning of the terms by which it is expressed. More especially in those cases where, as in the present instance, the principal word has acquired, by the changes of time and the usages of society, more senses than one. In modern times the word  charity  is often employed to signify almsgiving—a circumstance which has thrown a partial obscurity over many passages of Scripture, and has led, indeed, to the most gross perversion of Divine truth, and the circulation of the most dangerous errors. We shall in this treatise substitute for  charity , the word LOVE, which is a correct translation of the original. Of what  kind  of love does the apostle treat?  Not of love to God, as is evident from the whole chapter; for the properties which are here enumerated have no direct reference to Jehovah, but relate in every instance to man. It is a disposition, founded, no doubt, upon love t

Reader, you have lately been awakened, by the mercy of God, to ask, with some degree of concern, that momentous question, "What shall I do to be saved?" No wonder you are concerned; the wonder is, that you were not concerned about this matter before, that you are not more deeply solicitous now, and that all who possess the word of God do not sympathize with you in this concern. Everything justifies solicitude, and condemns indifference as to this matter. Unconcern about the soul, indifference to salvation, is a most irrational as well as a most guilty state of mind. The wildest enthusiasm about these matters is less surprising and unreasonable than absolute carelessness, as will appear from the following considerations. 1. Reader!  You are an immortal creature , a being born for eternity, a creature that will never go out of existence. Millions of ages, as numerous as the sands upon the shore, and the drops of the ocean, and the leaves of all the forests on the globe,

V IOLENCE  more or less is an accident of death, as it is the same hand folded in, or the fingers stretched out; violent death is but death on horseback, and with wings, or a stroke with the fist, as the other death is a blow with the palms of the hand. Natural death is death going on foot, and creeping with a slower pace; violent death unites all its forces at once, and takes the city by storm, and comes with sourer and blacker visage. Death natural divides itself in many several bits of deaths; old age being a long spun out death, and nature seems to render the city more willingly, and death comes with a whiter and a milder visage; the one has a salter bite, and teeth of steel and iron; the other has softer fingers, and takes asunder the boards of the clay-tabernacle more leisurely, softly, tenderly, and with less din, as not willing that death should appear death, but a sleep; the violent death is as when apples green and raw are plucked off the tree, or when flowers in the bud, a

T HIS  is elegantly added. There is indeed a great deal of seeming difference betwixt the outward conditions of life amongst men. Shall the rich and honourable and beautiful and healthful go in together, under the same name, with the baser and unhappier part, the poor, wretched sort of the world, who seem to be born for nothing but sufferings and miseries? At least, hath the wise no advantage beyond the fools? Is all grass? Make you no distinction? No; all is grass, or if you will have some other name, be it so, once this is true, that all flesh is grass; and if that glory which shines so much in your eyes must have a difference, then this is all it can have,—it is but the flower of that same grass; somewhat above the common grass in gayness, a little comelier, and better apparelled than it, but partaker of its frail and fading nature; it hath no privilege nor immunity that way, yea, of the two, it is the less durable, and usually shorter lived; at the best it decays with it: “The gr

But how few are there that come on purpose to meet with God in his Worship, and to find his power in it strengthening their weak Faith, and weakening their strong Corruptions; affording them provision of Spiritual strength, and comfort against times of trial: And, in a word, advancing them some steps forward in their Journey towards Heaven, where Happiness and Perfection dwells? Certainly these sweet effects are to be found in these Ordinances, if we would look after them; let it grieve us then, that we have so often lost our labour in the Worship of God, through our own neglect, and intreat the Lord, that at this time, he would not send us away empty, for how weak so ever the means be, if he put his strength, the work shall be done, in some measure, to his Glory, and our Edification. 

W E HAVE SEEN the ungodly justified, and have considered the great truth, that only God can justify any man; we now come a step further and make the inquiry-- How can a just God justify guilty men?  Here we are met with a full answer in the words of Paul, in Romans 3:21-26. We will read six verses from the chapter so as to get the run of the passage: "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and t