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

"Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man who layeth hold on it." -Isaiah 56:2 [KJV] Many poor blind sinners we meet with, who are saying, Do not puzzle me with your points of doctrine. This is my religion, ‘I do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with my God.’ There is scarcely a text in the whole Bible so often quoted, and so frequently hackneyed by ignorant men, to keep up their vain hopes and self-righteous confidence, as this of Micah 6:8.  As a striking instance of their walking humbly with God, they reject the glorious gospel of His grace, set at nought the atonement and righteousness of His Son, ridicule the inspiration of His Spirit, and walk in the pride of their hearts, fulfilling the lusts of their flesh. They are cursed by the mouth of the Lord. But here is the only blessed man described by him.  (1st.) In his doing. What? Justice? He has a sincere regard to every thing which is moral, just, and good. Without this, know, ye professors...

"A just God, and a Saviour." -Isaiah 45:21 [KJV] My soul, hast thou learnt, from the teaching of God the Holy Ghost, to contemplate Him, with whom thou hast to do, under these blessed united characters? If thou hast, thou hast found it a blessed and an approved way of opening communion with God, and maintaining that communion alive in the soul. Thou knowest, then, that God, as a just God, can admit of no pardon to sin, but upon the footing of a complete satisfaction; for, without this, His truth and justice would still be violated by unatoned sin. But if thou beholdest God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, and hast been taught by the Spirit that Christ hath redeemed thee from the curse of the law, being made a curse for thee; that, as thy surety and thy representative He hath paid thy debt, and restored that which He took not away; here thou beholdest indeed "a just God, and a Saviour , " and hast learnt that precious, blessed truth, how G...

"God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." -I John 4:16 [KJV] Love is communicative. This is a part of its very nature and essence. Its delight is to give, and especially to give itself; and all it wants or asks is a return. To love and to be beloved, to enjoy and to express that ardent and mutual affection by words and deeds,—this is love's delight, love's heaven. To love, and not be loved,—this is love's misery, love's hell.  God is love. This is His very nature, an essential attribute of His glorious being; and as He, the infinite and eternal Jehovah, exists in a Trinity of distinct Persons, though undivided Unity of Essence, there is a mutual, ineffable love between Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. To this mutual, ineffable love of the three Persons in the sacred Godhead the Scripture abundantly testifies: "The Father loveth the Son ; " "And hast loved them as Thou hast loved me;" "This i...