Ezekiel 11

No duty is more frequently commanded than this is, nor any grace more frequently promised. See Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 24:7; Ezekiel 11:19; Chapter 36:26, 27. For it is the foundation of all other duties of obedience, and of all communion with God in them.

It's very observable that some note of the counsel of Achitophel, and the counsel of Hushai: the counsel of Achitophel, the truth is, if we examine it, it was the wiser counsel of both, and Absalom loved Achitophel exceedingly, and his counsel was ordinarily accounted as the ora…

In the meanwhile, as these things are being transacted between God and the sinful soul through the word, God Himself, in His infinite mercy in Jesus Christ, when and how He wills, by a manner altogether ineffable yet powerful and effective, through His most holy Spirit, bestows…

1. It's clear from these places of Scripture, where there is an express distinction and difference put between the outward ministry of the word, and this inward, powerful, efficacious work of grace on the heart, and wherein the great weight of conversion is laid on this inward w…

Now this he could not do: for Christ out of deliberation, and his Father's eternal counsel, absolutely, gratis, freely died for these; he died not for those, that he foresaw would never fulfill the condition, nunquam positâ conditione, nunquam ponitur conditionatum. 6. Christ bo…

when the Prophets would say, will you destroy even the remnants to utter destruction? And that comes to pass through the ambiguity or doubtfulness of the Hebrew word (Isaiah 10:22; 28:22; Ezekiel 11:13). For seeing the word Chalah may signify as well to end and finish, as to con…

Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. And that great work of God in conversion, which consi…

Joel. 2. 28. Ezek. 11. 19. Chap. 36. 27. with other places innumerable.

Besides, it is such an avowed and owned Principle among all that are called Christians, namely, That the Holy Ghost is the Sanctifier of all God's Elect; that as it is not questioned, so it need not in general be further proved; Those who are less experienced in these things may…

The Emperour Aurelian when he was ready to subscribe the Edict for the persecution of the Christians, was suddenly crampt in his Knuckles, that he could not write. Mr. Greenhill in his Exposition upon Ezekiel 11:13 tells his Auditory, that there was one then present in the Congr…

Now surely they do not disannul that Covenant, if they are righteous according to the tenor of it, and unless they are so, they say the Messiah will not come, that is, the New Covenant shall not be made, unless by them it be first made needless. Again, the nature of the Covenant…

No doubt but this sin of slighting the Gospel is a prime sin, which has provoked God against London, to come forth in such fury; and if London does not repent the sooner, and labor to recover its relish and esteem for the Gospel, and make more evident demonstrations of it, I fea…

8. Divis. Some influences of Christ are fundamental, and simply necessary, and principally promised; some not fundamental, and less necessary. 1. The influences by which the Lord gives a circumcised (Deut. 30:6), an one and single (Ezek. 11:19, 20), a soft and a new heart and sp…

Ass. 3. It must be holden that duty as duty is a moral motive we are to be led withal, and we to look with fear and trembling to the command, whatever withdrawing of the Spirit or of his influences there be. It is true, what promises of a richer dispensation of grace are made in…

2. Our guiltiness that appears is evident, in our addition which we make to original and natural malice; for acquired depravity meets with natural and original corruption, like two floods to make a sea or a great river; or as when a man forces a wound to bleed, which of itself w…

1. Because the places which speak of our natural inability prove the contrary. Now if the natural man cannot know nor discern the things of God, but judges them foolishness (1 Corinthians 2:13, 14), if his wisdom be enmity against God, and is neither subject to the Law of God, n…

2. It is a fixed quality different from a spiritual disposition, as (Psalms 57:7) "My heart is fixed or disposed, O God, or prepared"; but his heart was not ever and always fixed and prepared to praise, though he had ever the habit and seed of God in him after his conversion. 3.…

If God first, before we stir and bow our souls, as ethical, moral, knowing, and considering causes, must move, stir and determine our souls to good, then are all influences of grace above our reach absolutely, and then farewell free-will; there is no necessity of the one connexi…

And you has be quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins (John 5:25). The man is a passive subject under a creating power (2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 2:10; Ezekiel 36:26; Ezekiel 11:19; Zechariah 12:10). Yes, if adversaries of grace yield an infusion of a new grace, and…

Unless he fall as dew and showers on our dry and barren hearts, unless he causes our graces to spring, thrive and bring forth fruit, unless he revive and increase faith, love and holiness in our souls, our backslidings will not be healed, nor our spiritual state be recovered. To…

Now the Spirit, as unto us, a Spirit of grace, holiness and consolation, is of the purchase of Christ. It is upon the matter, the great promise of the new covenant (Ezekiel 11:19). I will put a new Spirit within you: So also (chapter 36, verse 27; Jeremiah 32:39-40) and in sundr…

We are [in non-Latin alphabet], we have communion with it; that [in non-Latin alphabet] is no more but [in non-Latin alphabet], I cannot easily consent. Now it is in the person of the Spirit whereof we are by the promise made partakers: he is the Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:1…

The mistakes of others in this business. The Spirit is promised believers for this work (Ezekiel 11:19; chapter 36:26). All that we receive from Christ is by the Spirit.

1. I mean thus, That in the work of conversion God does all. (Ezekiel 11:19) I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh. The benefit of a tender sanctified heart is…

Now to act contrary to the will and statutes of God, is to act contrary to God himself; as may be seen by comparing Leviticus 26:14-15 with 26:21, 23, 27, and many other places. David in fulfilling the will of God, was said to be a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22), and the…

Was it not so with David, when in the [illegible] of the shadow of death (Psalm [illegible]) and the Prophet, when the fig tree did not blossom, etc. (Habakkuk 3:17, 18)? Yes, he can take away the ordinances themselves from them, which are the ordinary way of their communion wit…

Therefore it is said, God first turns from darkness, and then to light (Acts 26:18). He takes away the heart of stone before he gives a new heart (Ezekiel 11:19). This is the influence of light and virtue into the mind and will, by the receiving of which they may be elevated and…

When the bird has wings given to it, it can fly. Though the soul of itself is unable to do what is good, yet having two wings given to it — the wing of faith and the wing of the Spirit — it now flies swiftly in obedience (Ezekiel 11:1). The heart is lifted heavenward in prayer w…

3. THESIS. God both foretels and promises in his word, and that more particularly of the days of the Gospel, to give one heart and one way to his people; and as there shall be one Lord, so his name shall be one, and that they shall all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve hi…

(2.) The second covenant which promises only blessings is made rather with beasts, that well fed, than with men, contrary to (Psalm 73:25; Isaiah 57:1-3; Psalm 37:37), and it must build some chamber in hell where the fathers were before Christ — a dream unknown to Scripture. The…

(4.) The same Covenant made with Abraham is made with the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6:16): I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Which is prophesied of the Gentiles under the New Testament in Ezekiel 11:17-20, Ezekiel 34:23-25, Jeremiah 31:31-36, Jeremiah 32:36-40,…

(Verse 39) I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever; for the good of them and of their children after them. See the same order (Ezekiel 11:19-20), though the words lie not in that order there and here. And (Hebrews 8:10) 5. God is not then a God to…

6. (Jeremiah 31:[reconstructed: 38]) Behold the days will come, says the Lord, that the City shall be built to the Lord, etc. There is a promise of spiritual right in Christ made to the blessings of this life, to these that are personal Covenanters; as (Jeremiah 32:41; Ezekiel 1…

Therefore Adam in his pure naturals, as not yet endowed with the Image of God, cannot be the party with whom the Covenant of Works is made, for then the Image of God must either be a reward, which Adam by his pure naturals and strength thereof must purchase by working, which the…

2. These influences were free gifts, but not promised. 3. They seem to be ordinis naturalis, natural, though they did bow and previously incline the will, but not so in the New Testament, for the whole Covenant is called by the promise of the giving of a new heart (Hebrews 8:10)…

The Lord speaks often of the Covenant of Grace not so much as preached, qua foedus ennunciatum (though it so also must be preached) but as fulfilled by God, and acted in an effectual powerful way, upon the hearts of the elect only, and that according to the Lord's decree of elec…

Yet may it be disputable to some, whether grace by which one is effectually drawn to Christ, rather than another, be the grace of predestination continued and so before Christ's death, or a fruit of Christ's death and so after. But it may well be said that every created saving g…

The Temple is a type of Christ, yet it is burnt with fire, and the sanctuary profaned. And the Lord required a sort of slowness of motion of the heart toward these, and would have his people in their exile resting upon this (Ezekiel 11:16): Therefore say, thus says the Lord God,…

Argument 1. What argument does prove that there is a people in Covenant with God, who call the Lord their God (as in Zechariah 13:9; Jeremiah 32:38; Isaiah 25:9), the same shall prove Christ to be in Covenant with God: as whoever can say, 'he is my God,' must be in Covenant with…

2. It is necessary that the promises that are our writs and charters of heaven be in a surer hand than in our own, to wit, in the keeping of Christ: for this is an absolute promise made to us (Ezekiel 36:26), "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within…

Unless he falls as dew and showers on our dry and barren hearts, unless he causes our graces to spring, thrive, and bring forth fruit, unless he revives and increases faith, love, and holiness in our souls, our backslidings will not be healed, nor our spiritual state recovered.…

But the chief profit toward the faithful is to be considered: in whom as the Lord works all things by his Spirit, so he leaves not the instruments of his word, and uses the same not without effect. Let this therefore stand which is true, that all the strength of the godly rests…

If there were such necessity of, and efficacy in, those means as we think, he would not withhold them. Think we not that God is in place of all means to his people, abundantly supplying them with the presence of his Spirit — who, as he was a little sanctuary to his people when t…

First, what is meant by thoughts, especially as they are the intended subject of this discourse, which in so vast an argument I must necessarily set limits to: 1. By thoughts, the Scriptures do comprehend all the internal acts of the mind of man, of what faculty soever, all thos…

Does God take away from them, whom he effectually calls, the heart of stone, and give to them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills, and by his almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ? Yes. (Ezekiel 36:26; Ezekiel 11:…

By what reasons are they confuted? (1) Because all the children of God are kept through faith to salvation (1 Peter 1:5). (2) Because Christ has prayed for the perseverance of all believers (John 17:20; John 11:26), and all those who are adopted are the children of God by faith…

(10) Because to all and every one the grace of regeneration, which is simply necessary to salvation, is not offered; neither do all and every one get remission and pardon of their sins (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Deuteronomy 29:4; Matthew 11:25, 28; Matthew 13:11). (11) Bec…

By what reasons are they confuted? (1) Because the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 8:7, 9). (2) Because all that the natural ma…

Q. 3. Can we do this of ourselves? No, it is a special gift and grace of God, which he bestows on whom he pleases (Leviticus 20:8; Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 11:19, 20; 2 Timothy 2:25; Acts 11:18). Q. 4. Wherein does the being of true Repentance consist, without which it is not a…

Q 3. Can we do this of ourselves? A. No, it is a special gift and grace of God, which he bestows on whom he pleases, Leviticus 20. 8. Deuteronomy 30:6. Ezekiel 11:19, 20. 2 Timothy 2:25. Acts 11. 18. Q. 4. Wherein does the being of true repentance consist, without which it is no…