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

" I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy: and I will say to them which were not My people,Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art our God." -Hosea 2:23 [KJV] Declarations of grace depend not on the will of the flesh for their accomplishment. Sovereign power brings sovereign purposes to effect. Human will can neither forward nor frustrate them. So the Lord raises up and forms a people, for His glory on earth, and the Redeemer’s crown in heaven. See the process of it.  (1st.) “I will sow her.” This alludes to the word Jezrael in the last verse, which signifies the seed of God . God’s people are His own precious seed: He sows them in the earth.  (2d.) “Unto Me.” As they are sown by Him, they spring up unto Him. Though they lie long under the clods of nature’s darkness and corruption, and for a while spring up only to the world, the flesh, and the devil, yet there is a set time to favour them; a fi...

"For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth." -Hebrews 9:16, 17 [KJV] Behold, my soul, how graciously the Holy Ghost hath here represented the necessity of Jesus' death, in order that the testament, or will, He left behind Him, might have the intended effect; and all the benefits and blessings He bequeathed in it to His people, might be fully paid and made over to them for their present peace and everlasting happiness. Now, my soul, mark down, for this day's special meditation, the many precious things here contained. Observe how very accommodating the Holy Ghost is to explain to thee divine things, by the similitude of human transactions. As a man makes his will, so Jesus made His. As what a man gives is altogether a free and voluntary act, so Jesus was not constrained by what He gave in His blessed ...

"For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption." -Psalm 16:10 [KJV] When the adorable Lord by a voluntary act laid down His life, the last words that He spoke were, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." By His "spirit" we are to understand His human soul which at once went into paradise, into the immediate presence of God, as He intimated in the words, "And now come I to Thee" (John 17:13) . Nor did He go thither that day alone. A trophy was soon to follow Him; the soul of that repenting, believing malefactor, who, a partner with Him in suffering, had become by His sovereign grace a partner with Him in glory. There was, then, an actual separation of the Redeemer's body and soul; but this did not destroy or affect the union of His Deity with His humanity.  That union remained entire, as His holy soul went into paradise in union with His Deity, and thus He was still God...