Haggai 1

To them that are defiled is nothing pure. Under the law, if a man who was unclean by a dead body had carried a piece of holy flesh in his skirt, the holy flesh had not cleansed him, but he had polluted that (Haggai 1:12-13). An emblem of a sinner's polluting his holy offering.

I made haste, and delayed not to keep your commandments. Many people are convinced of the necessity of looking after the kingdom of glory, but they say as those (Haggai 1:2), The time is not yet come. They adjourn and put off, till their time is slipped away, and so they lose th…

25. A subtlety of Satan in tempting is to persuade men to delay their repenting and turning to God. He says, as in Haggai 1:2, "The time is not yet come." Now youth is budding, or you are but in the flower of your age, it is too soon to repent, the time is not yet come.

God's blessing is riches, says Solomon (Proverbs 10:22). You may eat and not have enough, be clothed and not warm, earn wages and put it in a broken bag (Haggai 1:6), if God does not bless you. This blessing of God is called the staff of bread (Isaiah 3:1).

But in the latter the dissolute Epicure argues quite otherwise, Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die, a quite different conclusion from the same principle: So here, Grace abounds, let us be much in duty says the spiritual man, let sin abound says the carnal. Again, com…

God's blessing is riches, says Solomon (Proverbs 10:22). You may eat, and not have enough, be clothed and not warm, earn wages, and put it in a broken bag (Haggai 1:6), if God do not bless you. This blessing of God is called the staff of bread (Isaiah 3:1).

Also for the better relieving of the poor, distributors of the Church relief (Acts 6:2; Romans 12:8; 1 Timothy 3:7, etc.). All which we must know, delight in, procure, and every one according to his own calling set forward; as (Psalms 27:4; 42:23; 1 Chronicles 13:1; 29:6, 7, 8,…

Those that by unlawful means get up to honor and wealth, seem to have accepted the devil's offer, they think he is lord of the world, and all the kingdoms and the glory thereof. Do not look upon wealth as the devil's gift, as a thing to be gotten by fraud, flattery, corruption,…

The meaning of the text is, that they dranke liberally, or that they dranke of the best together. For the word (shakar) signifies not onely to be drunke in drinking, but also to drinke liberally, or to drinke of the best drinke, Hag 1:6. Obiect.

And he calls that which is bestowed upon the ministers of the word, seed, which being sown, does recompense the cost, thirty, sixty, a hundred fold: that so they might not think their labor lost, nor their cost bestowed in vain, seeing they were to receive, that which they laid…

In regard of which, Haggai takes up a bitter complaint against those of his time; Is it time for yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house to lie waste? Again, You suffer this house to lie waste, and you run every man to his own house (Haggai 1:4, 1:9). And yet i…

And so by some outward employment, he jostled the power of the word from his heart, and had not convenient time to embrace Jesus Christ. Fourthly, consider this, that this plea of yours (in making your callings an excuse to neglect your effectual calling) it is the only way to p…

Now as their manner is to fasten all their conjectures, be they true or false, on some place, word, or letter of the Scripture, so have they done this assertion also. Observing or supposing the want of sundry things in the second House, they pretend that want to be intimated (Ha…

You Lord [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] wilt not with-hold, or restrain your mercy from me. So also to shut up, or put a stop to; as Jeremiah 52:3, Haggai 1:10, 1 Samuel 25:33, Psalm 88:9. From there is [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] Carcer, a prison wherein men are put under restrain…

This is the Decree or Commandment mentioned in Ezra 6. granted by Darius, upon appeal made to him from his neighbouring Governours; and it was a mere revival of the Decree of Cyrus, the Roll whereof was found in Achmetha in the Province of the Medes, v. 2. And this is that which…

It is not every degree of scarcity of bread that presently makes a famine, but a general failing of it; when no bread is to be had, or that which is, yields no nutriment. For a famine may as well be occasioned by God's taking away panis nutrimentum, the nourishing virtue of brea…

Or suppose a pair of chariot-wheels were let loose in the top of a huge mountain, and should move down some hundred thousands of millions of miles for hundreds of years after the man who set them first a-work, were dead; so we fools believe that God gave a mighty strong shake or…

But because he decrees to bring Jacob and such to glory, it follows not that he engaged by promise because of his eternal decree, to bring Jacob to glory, except we should say whatever God decrees to do, that also he promises to do; which were not good divinity. 3. As to his ord…

2. Therefore as the Lord's dominion determines the Sun to rise and move, rather than not to rise, and the Hawk and Eagle to fly toward the North, rather than not to fly toward the North; he destroys not the nature of necessary and natural causes, so we must not bid farewell to t…

These are full of pain, trouble, and disappointment. Haggai 1:6. We earn Wages, and put it into a Bag with holes, and disquiet our selves in vain; all our Relations full of trouble. The Apostle speaking to those that Marry, says, 1 Corinthians 7:28. Such shall have trouble in th…

Affliction is sanctified to this end, to open the eyes, it brings us to ourselves. So (Haggai 1:5-7), Now consider your ways, now [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], lay your hearts upon your ways: when they sowed much, and brought in little, and what they earned was put into a bag wit…

(Psalm 4:4) Commune with your own heart upon your beds. (Haggai 1:5) Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. God's complaint was, They would not consider his ways (Job 34:27; Isaiah 1:3) — my people does not consider.

But men in love with their lusts, make a woeful use of this consideration, hardening themselves in their conceit, that there shall never be a change, and so sin more securely. See the like in other things: (1 Corinthians 7:29), (1 Corinthians 15:32), (Jude 24), (Romans 6:2), (2…

Charge them, that they be not the companions of fools; charge them that they do not associate themselves into an intimacy and a familiarity with any but such as may be sober, discreet, blameless persons. Finally, lay upon them that charge of God in (Haggai 1:5), Thus says the Lo…

It is the judgment of most of the learned writers both Rabbins and others, that the oracular consultation with the Breastplate continued no longer than to the captivity of Babylon, Urim and Thummim being lost at the captivity of Babylon, and wanting at the people's return, as th…

14. And upon this account there is required a deadening of our hearts to shipping and trading with diverse mighty nations, as we see in the case of Tyre (Ezekiel 27), of Babylon (Revelation 18:11-13; Jeremiah 51). So are we to be mortified to fair houses (Isaiah 5:8), stately ci…

So on the other hand, if there be a taking from the Word of God, in matters referring to his worship, days of trouble will come. In case churches shall not come up fully to practice the institutions of Christ, and to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, the Lord wi…

'Tis natural to us to procrastinate and put off Repentance. We say as (Haggai 1:2). The time is not yet come.

I will send you wine and oyl. Sin blasts the fruits of the earth, (Haggai 1:6). Ye have sown much, and bring in little.

And to this purpose David says, that God gives wine, to make glad the heart of man, and oil to make the face to shine, as well as bread to strengthen the body (Psalm 104:15). And the Lord threatens to bring a punishment upon his people (Haggai 1:6), in that he would give them hi…

Lastly, let me return once again to all that are here in God's presence this day to humble themselves before him: learn we hence, for this day, and henceforward, these two lessons. Let us all examine by this providence what sins they have been, that have given Satan so much foot…