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

"Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes." -Song of Solomon 2:15 [KJV] My soul, mark the sweetness and tenderness of this precept. Foxes no doubt resemble, in this scripture, the subtle, less open, less discovered sins and corruptions which lurk in us, like these cunning creatures, under a covering, and perhaps sometimes under a fair covering. Moreover, they may mean also false but fair teachers. "Oh Israel," said the Lord, "thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts;" crafty, designing, malignant, and filthy.  And in proportion as they put on a more fair and specious appearance, the more are they to be dreaded. Satan never more artfully, nor perhaps more effectually deceives, than when he is transformed into an angel of light. Moreover, the precept is enforced by that important consideration, that vines, by which no doubt are meant believers, have tender grapes. What more tender than a ...

"Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak grievous things, proudly and contemptuously against the righteous." -Psalm 31:18 [KJV] The language of natural reason is, If I am righteous, God will love me: the language of faith is, Though I am a sinner, yet God loves me; and, because He loves me, therefore He makes me righteous . How? The pen of inspiration answers: David, describing the character of a sinner, renewed by grace, and made meet to dwell with God, saith, “He shall receive righteousness from the God of his salvation” (Psalm 24:5.)   Here we see plainly, that righteousness is a gift ; that it is received , not worked out by the sinner; that it is given by the God of our salvation . It is the glorious robe, our elder Brother, Jesus, wrought out for us; our heavenly Father imputes to us, and puts upon us. God the Holy Spirit enables us, by faith, to receive it, rejoice in it, and boast of it. For, we see ourselves made infinitely and everlasting...

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered ."   -Romans 8:26 [KJV] "We know not what we should pray for as we ought." How often do we find and feel this to be our case. Darkness covers our mind; ignorance pervades our soul; unbelief vexes our spirit; guilt troubles our conscience; a crowd of evil imaginations, or foolish or worse than foolish wanderings distract our thoughts; Satan hurls in thick and fast his fiery darts; a dense cloud is spread over the mercy-seat; infidelity whispers its vile suggestions, till, amidst all this rabble rout, such confusion and bondage prevail that words seem idle breath, and prayer to the God of heaven but empty mockery.  In this scene of confusion and distraction, when all seems going to the wreck, how kind, how gracious is it in the blessed Spirit to come, as it were, to...

"..of whom I am chief." -I Timothy 1:15 [KJV] What a mighty change does grace make! The apostle was once, in his own eyes, the chief of saints. If but two went to heaven, he had no doubt but he should be one. Now, he is really an eminent saint in Christ: he confesses himself the chief of sinners . Why so? Did he love sin, lie down and wallow in sin, and glory in sin? No, far from it: he was now saved from all his sins.  Hence he sees the exceeding preciousness of Christ, his Saviour; the exceeding sinfulness of sin, which dwelt in him; and the infinite holiness, spirituality, and perfection of the law of God. Therefore, he makes this public declaration: not, I have been, but, I now am the chief of sinners .  He, as it were, stands forth and challenges the whole race of sinners, and says, I will give place to no one: of all of you, I will be the first rate, and stand foremost in the rank. But is not this glorying in sin, which was his shame? Self-righteous heart...

"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." -John 14:2, 3 [KJV] How shall I ever sufficiently enter into an apprehension of the love of Jesus? Much less, how shall I ever sufficiently love Thee, and adore Thee, Thou unequalled pattern of excelling love, blessed, precious Jesus? Was it not enough to have given such palpable evidences of Thy love in dying for poor sinners; but must Thou tell them also before Thy departure the cause for which Thou art gone away, and to give them an assurance, at the same time, that Thou wouldest come again, and take them home with Thee to glory?  Oh help me, Lord, to love Thee, to live to Thee, to be always on the look out for Thee, and to rejoice with a joy unspeakable in the promise of Thy coming. And, my soul, while thou art taking all the sweetness of those precious words of thy Jesus to thyself, in the prospect...

"Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house." -II Chronicles 6:29 [KJV] Solomon comes to experience; he puts his hand upon the right spot. It is knowing his "own sore" and his "own grief." You may know another man's; that will not profit you. You may read of experience in books, love to hear experimental ministers, and will hear no others; and yet not know your "own sore," your "own grief."   Like a physician who may know the symptoms of every malady, and yet not have one malady of his own; so you may hear described every symptom of every disease, and yet be untouched by one. But the man for whom Solomon's prayer is, he that knows and feels, painfully feels, his "own sore" and his "own grief," whose heart is indeed a grief to him, wh...

"Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." -Genesis 5:3 [KJV] Not in the image of God, in which Adam was created, but after the likeness of himself, an apostate spirit, fallen from God, into all the cursed, proud, wrathful tempers of a wicked devil, and all the vile, filthy lusts of a brute beast. Awful difference between God’s creation, and man’s procreation! Where can we turn our eyes, but we see the dreadful effects of it? The Holy Ghost hath left this truth upon record for our instruction.  Consider, (1st.) that we are begotten sinners, not created such by God. David confesseth this: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5.) He does not charge his sinful nature to God, and impiously demand, Why hast Thou made me thus? Ever beware of such doctrines, which have the least tendency to make a holy God the author of sin.  (2d.) See whence you sprung. Boast not of your high birth and noble pedigree...