Ezekiel 20

Sin has blotted God's image, and stained the orient brightness of the soul. Sin makes God loathe a sinner (Zechariah 11:8), and when a sinner sees his sin, he loathes himself (Ezekiel 20:42). Sin drops poison on our holy things, it infects our prayers.

And (Exodus 32:7) Your people have corrupted themselves; no more my people, but your people. God calls idolatry blasphemy (Ezekiel 20:27, 31). Thus your fathers have blasphemed me.

Envy is the devil's eye, hypocrisy is his cloven-foot; thus it is before the kingdom of grace come. So deformed is a graceless person, that when once he sees his own filth and leprosy, the first thing he does is to loathe himself (Ezekiel 20:43). You shall loathe yourselves in y…

But, 3. God keeps not always this method; nor is it likely he will observe it with Scotland and England, first to humble, and then deliver; but contrarily he first delivers, and then humbles. As (Ezekiel 20:42) And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you to the…

2. God does nothing in the election of Peter, more than of Judas; nor can grace and mercy have place in the choosing of the one, rather than the other; but as free will is foreseen to play the game ill, or well, so go the eternal decrees of election and reprobation, and there ca…

But it is not amiss to note the close opposition which is here put between God, and the faithful Kings who governed the people under his name and authority; and those tyrants who at the last oppressed them under unjust laws. This will the better appear by a like place out of Eze…

These words they, they, have great weight: and it is to be understood as if the Lord gave the Jews leave to cleave to their inventions, seeing they had forsaken him, and rather turned after Idols, and forged inventions. As also the Lord by Ezekiel says to the people, Go, and sac…

Colossians 3:12. Put ye on, as the Elect of God,—Humbleness of Mind. Ezekiel 20:41, 43. I will accept you with your sweet Savour, when I bring you out from the People, etc.—And there shall ye remember your Ways, and all your Doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loa…

So that if Plato when he was near his death, could bless God for three things, namely, That he was a Man, and not a Beast: that he was born in Greece; and brought up in the time of Socrates: much more cause have you to admire Providence, that you are Men, and not Beasts; that yo…

9. There may be also something of God's design here, to try the humility and sincerity of his people, if they will stoop to every way he uses, because it is his; and if they will love the Word, not as so, or so proposed, but as it comes from him, and is his, and as such humbly r…

And again, (Galatians 3:12) the man that does them, shall live in them, that is, by them. Which we have once more confirmed to us, (Ezekiel 20:11) I gave them my statutes and my judgments; which if a man do, he shall even live in them. All which places are transcribed from that…

The generation that was grown up when they came out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, was a very froward and perverse generation. They were tainted with the idolatry and wickedness of Egypt, and were not weaned from it, as the Prophet Ezekiel takes notice, Ezekiel 20:6…

But then Jesus Christ shall be the person acknowledged; he shall be acknowledged alone; he shall be acknowledged as Lord — all this is included in the expression, etc. That Christ alone shall be spoken of, invoked, and adored in all the Churches; they shall be subjected to him a…

Learn we of whom we receive all needful things, both spiritual and temporal, for soul and body, that accordingly we may give him the praise of all. And let us not be like the ungrateful Israelites who regarded not the means of spiritual nourishment, and ascribed the means of the…

Leviticus 18:5. He that does them (that is the Commands of God) shall live in them, Ezekiel 20:11; this Promise is repeated: And in Ezekiel 30:15. If the Wicked walk in the Statutes of Life, without committing Iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall not die: Now this dying cann…

It is one great error, not only in religion and manners, but even in human science, that men are ready to take things upon trust unexamined, from those that went before them, partly out of easiness, and sparing the pains of trial, partly out of a superstitious overesteem of thei…

6. There is holiness required, that we may not be a disgrace to God, and a dishonor to him. The Lord says (Ezekiel 20:9), that his name should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they (his people) were. The sin of God's people does stain the honor of God, and profane…

2. That God will deal with them that Fear him, as a Father does with his Son: 1. God will accept them as a Father does his Son. If the Child does but lisp and can hardly speak plain, the Father takes all well: so God as a Father will accept of what his Children do in sincerity:…

Sixth, gospel-mourning is joined with self-loathing; the sinner admires himself, the penitent loathes himself. Ezekiel 20:42: you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils. A true penitent is troubled not only for the shameful consequence of sin, but the loath…

2. The promise of life is not made to Law-faith more than to Law-love, or Law-fear, or Law-desire, more than to any other, but the promise is made to Evangelical faith that lays hold on Christ as our righteousness. But for obeying the commands Adam was to live (Galatians 3:13),…

1. By an experimental confession of his faith in Christ. 2. By a life answerable to that confession; to wit, a life of holiness — heart-holiness, family-holiness, (if he has a family,) and by conversation-holiness in the world; which in the general teaches him inwardly to abhor…

God has twisted his glory and our good together. I gave them my statutes, which if a man do, he shall even live in them, Ezekiel 20.11. There is nothing the Lord requires, but it tends to self-preservation.