"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

"Fear ye not. Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD." -Exodus 14:13 [KJV] The people of God were now in a great strait, even at their wits end. Perish they must, to all human appearance. A wide ocean is before them. Inaccessible mountains surround them. An enraged monarch pursues them. Death in various shapes presents itself to them. Yet, for all this says Moses, “Fear not.” Peevish unbelief and carnal reason might suggest, What! not be afraid, when inevitable destruction must be our doom? Why will Moses talk to us after this mad, enthusiastic rate?    But in the view of apparent destruction, Moses tells them of a certain salvation, and commands them to stand still and behold it. We do not hear one word from Moses, to soothe their fears, or comfort their minds, from any considerations of what they were in themselves, what good works they had done, what terms and conditions they had performed to entitle them to the Lord’s favour, etc.    No. But ...

"And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." -Colossians 1:17 [KJV] How doth the apostle mean that Jesus is before all things? Not as God only, for then the observation would have been needless; and not as man only, for then how could all things consist by Him? What is it then, my soul? Is it not as Mediator, both God and man? And was not Christ thus set up from everlasting? Not openly revealed indeed, neither openly manifested in a body of flesh, until the fulness of time; but secretly, and in the divine counsels. What a blessed thought for the redeemed to exercise their rapturous meditations upon! And is it not this which the apostle hath said; "He is the image of the invisible God?" The image! Yes, that representation of what is in itself invisible; that identical image concerning which Jehovah when calling Adam into existence, said, "Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." So then Adam was the first man inde...