Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

mammon.

pure heart, and of a good conscience, | other. Ye cannot serve God and and of faith unfeigned: from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

[blocks in formation]

3: 10. Thou hast fully known my long-suffering, charity, patience.

1 PETER 4: 8. Above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

2 PETER 1: 7. Add to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity.

3 JOHN 5. Beloved, thou dost faithfully whatsoever thou dost, to the brethren and to strangers, which have borne witness of thy charity before the church.

§ 5. DEADNESS TO THE WORLD.

I. To its Riches.

LUKE 12: 15. Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. ...The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do?...I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.

12: 22. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap: which neither have storehouse, nor barn; and God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, 'I'hat Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the MAT. 6: 19. Lay not up for your- grass, which is to-day in the field, selves treasures upon earth, where and to-morrow is cast into the oven; moth and rust doth corrupt, and how much more will he clothe you, where thieves break through and O ye of little faith! And seek not ye steal; but lay up for yourselves treas- what ye shall eat, or what ye shall ures in heaven, where neither moth drink, neither be ye of doubtful nor rust doth corrupt, and where mind. For all these things do the thieves do not break through nor nations of the world seek after: and steal. For where your treasure is, your Father knoweth_that ye have there will your heart be also. The need of these things. But rather seek light of the body is the eye. If ye the kingdom of God, and all these therefore thine eye be single, thy things shall be added unto you. Fear whole body shall be full of light. not, little flock; for it is your FathBut if thine eye be evil, thy whole er's good pleasure to give you the body shall be full of darkness. If kingdom. Sell that ye have, and therefore the light that is in thee be give alms: provide yourselves bags darkness, how great is that dark- which wax not old, a treasure in the ness! No man can serve two mas- heavens that faileth not, where no ters: for either he will hate the one, thief approacheth, neither moth corand love the other; or else he will rupteth. For where your treasure hold to the one, and despise the is, there will your heart be also.

16: 14. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men, is abomination in the sight of God.

wicked One. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

ACTS 4: 32. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart, and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which II. Deadness to worldly Honors and

he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands, or houses, sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the Apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

JAMES 5: 1. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just: and he doth not resist you.

HEB. 13:5. Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said,

I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee:

so that we may boldly say,

The LORD is my helper,

And I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

T1 JOHN 2:14. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the

Distinctions.

1 COR 4: 3. With me, it is a very small thing, that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment.

Ps. 49: 12. Man, being in honor, abideth not.

JOHN 5:41. I receive not honor from men.

LUKE 2: 7. She laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

MAT. 21: 5. Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold thy king cometh, unto thee meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass.

8:20. The Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

2 TIM. 2: 4. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for the mastery, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

JER. 45: 5. Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. MAT. 23: 12. He that exalteth himself shall be abased.

DEUT. 8: 11. Beware that thy heart be not lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God.

III. Deadness to its Pleasures.

HEB. 11: 24. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for

a season.

PROV. 21: 17. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man.

1 TIM. 5: 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

LUKE 12: 16. The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within him

self, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods: and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

pleasant places are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord: wilt thou hold thy peace and be wroth very sore?

NEH. 1: 3. They said unto me, The remnant, that are left of the captivity there in the province, are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

JER. 8: 18. When I would comJAMES 5: 5. Ye have lived in fort myself against sorrow, my heart pleasure on the earth, and been is faint in me. Behold the voice of wanton; ye have nourished your the cry of the daughter of my peohearts, as in a day of slaughter...ple, because of them that dwell in a be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.

LUKE 16:19. There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day; and there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores; and desiring to be fed with the crumbs, which fell from the rich man's table....The beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

§ 6. SOLICITUDE FOR THE WELFARE

OF THE CHURCH AND SALVATION
OF SINNERS.

Isa. 22: 4. I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the LORD God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.

64: 1. O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.-10. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers worshipped thee, is burned with fire, and all our

far country: is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

¶ 9: 1. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth.

13: 17. If ye will not hear, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive.

LAM. I: 1. How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow ! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her:

all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things, that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself. The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. All her peo-edness come before thee; and do unple sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat, to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.

desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the LORD. hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. The LORD hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me; he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the LORD hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. For these things I weep: mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people; and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. Let all their wick

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me

to them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions; for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

T3: 44. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the

destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

MAT. 23: 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together... and ye would not.

ROM. 9:1. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, (my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,) that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came; WHO IS OVER ALL, GOD BLESSED FOREVER! Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.

10: 1, Brethren, my heart's desire, and prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved.

§ 7. PRAYER AND DEVOTION,

I. The Duty,

GEN. 4: 26. Then began men to call on the name of the LORD.

24: 12. And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham.

DAN. 6: 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying, and making supplication before his God.

Hos. 14: 1, O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast

fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, 'Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

JOEL 2: 12. Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.

T MAT. 6: 5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. After this manner therefore, pray ye:

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us

« ÎnapoiContinuă »