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

" Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen: let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation." -Judges 10:14 [KJV] A severe sarcasm from the Lord to apostate sinners! It causes a hell upon earth to a renewed soul, to hear and feel just upbraidings from the Lord of heaven: this is one of His severest chastizings to His children. Here is an awful charge, and a severe reproof: the Lord keeps us clear of the one, that we fall not under the other.  Consider, (1st.) the charge: it is idolatry. They had gods of their own choosing. For the Lord’s sake, and for our soul’s sake, let us not think, we are in no danger of falling into this sin! It is committed by professors every day. Aged Paul wept over such. Though they professed Christ, yet they were enemies to His cross: their belly was their god: “Their hearts were set upon earthly things” (Philippians 3:19.) Such are not content with Christ as their own; to live in fellowship with Him: to walk in self-denie

" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." -Revelation 2:10 [KJV] This text has been seized by Arminian hands, dragged to their mint; the impress of man’s faithfulness struck on their minds, as his title to a crown of life; and pressed into their service, to militate against the electing love of God, and finished salvation by Christ only. O, Christian! does not your heart rise with indignation against such a self-exalting notion? It is the very dregs of unfaithfulness to Christ. Are you not ready to spurn it with a holy vehemence, saying, Get to hell, from whence you sprung?  What! my faithfulness on earth the cause, the condition, the merit of my being crowned in heaven! O, my law-fulfilling, justice-satisfying, sin-atoning Jesus! can I ever think so meanly of Thy agony and bloody sweat; Thy cross and passion; Thy precious death and burial; Thy glorious resurrection and ascension; and of the coming of the Holy Ghost? as though all thi