Isaiah 45

Know therefore this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord he is God in Heaven above, and upon the Earth beneath there is none else. (Isaiah 45:21) A just God and a Savior, There is none beside me. There are many titular gods; kings represent God; their regal scepter…

He who can foretell things which shall surely come to pass, is the true God. God foretold that a virgin should conceive, he prefixed the time when the Messiah should be cut off (Daniel 9:26), he foretold the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and who should be their deliverer (Is…

Justification is one piece of communion with Christ in his benefits; now our union to him. Christ himself must be ours, if ever his righteousness come to be ours; he is therefore called the Lord our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6), and is said to be made righteousness itself to us…

What righteousness is it then? That perfect righteousness whereby we are justified is that righteousness which was wrought by Christ, and inherent in his person (Isaiah 45:24, 25; Jeremiah 23:6; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:18, 19). How comes the righteousnes…

The fourth end is to let us see from where spiritual comforts and refreshings come — that God alone keeps the keys of that storehouse and alone dispenses them how and when he pleases. That we may know, as it is in Isaiah 45:6-7, that it is the Lord who forms the light and create…

Righteousness of our own we had none, nor could any thing in the whole creation supply us with the least of its concerns, with any thing that belongs thereunto: yet without it must we perish for ever. Therefore Jehovah himself becomes our righteousness, that we might say, In Jeh…

For 4. The persons to be judged are (1) fallen Angels (1 Corinthians 6:3, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6, Matthew 25:41); (2) all men universally without exception (Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:9, 10, Matthew 25:31). In especial (1) all the godly, all such as have believed and obeyed the Gospel…

So Amos 4:2. By my self; Jeremiah 22:5, Isaiah 45:23, chapter 43:13. By his right hand, and the arm of his strength; Isaiah 62:8.

But our Lord Christ, as our faithful High Priest, faints not in his work, but is able to carry us through all these difficulties, and will do so until it be finished for ever in heaven. (2.) That this salvation is durable, perpetual, eternal (Isaiah 45:17). Salvare in aeternum;…

These things, I shall briefly open, when first of all, I have premised these things. 1. It is the person of the Lord Christ that true faith closes with: it is Him that true faith looks to (Isaiah 45:22). Look to ME.

But if hereby be meant, that the persons spoken of do break off themselves from their church-relation not only meritoriously, but actually and really, then it may be justly questioned, whether church-members can thus break off themselves. Sure Israel did not thus destroy themsel…

How is that proved? Thus: I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things (Isaiah 45:6-7). If a man ask you how you know the true God from all false gods: you must answer, by the work of creation: for he alone is the maker of…

Israel my glory; as if God's glory lay in his people: all which shows what a high estimate God puts upon the righteous, in giving them such illustrious titles of honor. They are princes in all lands (Isaiah 45:16). Kings do minister to them (Isaiah 60:10), yea angels (Hebrews 1:…

In the next place, how aptly these blessings are suited among themselves; first mercy, then peace, and then love; mercy does not differ much from that which is called grace in Paul's Epistles, only grace does more respect the bounty of God, as mercy does our want and need: by me…

He sees his arms long enough to reach, strong enough to hold him; ready enough to embrace him: hence he casts and throws himself therein, and seeing no help nor hope in himself; no ability at all to save and deliver; and seeing Christ able, mighty, faithful, willing to help, eve…

It is a striving with our maker for the superintendency, when we will sit Judge upon him, or censure his acts, and presume to direct him. Isaiah 45:9: Woe to him that strives with his Maker, shall the clay say to him that fashions it, what are you making? or to your work, He has…

God hath not said so yet; Prayer is a powerful Orator for mercy, it comes, as it were, with Letters of mandamus to heaven. Isa. 45. 11. Concerning the works of my hands command ye me. Prayer staves off wrath from a Land.

For that promise is what the Apostle is speaking of: which shows, that God has appointed Christ to be the heir of the world in his kingdom of grace, and to possess and reign over all nations, through the propagation of his Gospel, and the power of his Spirit communicating the bl…

And it is worthy to be remarked that as Cyrus's destroying Babylon, and letting go God's captives from there, and restoring Jerusalem, is certainly typical of Christ's destroying mystical Babylon, and delivering his people from her tyranny, and gloriously building up the spiritu…

And the prophets, from time to time, represent God, in a low and afflicted state of his Church, as being withdrawn, and hiding himself. Isaiah 45:15: Verily you are a God that hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior. Chapter 57:17: I hid me, and was wroth.

What, to be engaged in a war against him that made us! Woe to him that strives with his Maker (Isaiah 45:9). Fallen man is little aware of it now.

But the origin of the word — indeed the very word itself that is employed — means "pain" and "grief": for idols bring their worshipers nothing besides toil and pain, that is, the greatest anxiety of conscience together with a sense of divine wrath. IX. For the same reason they a…

At length, moreover, the same Spirit causes Christ Himself — who was perhaps long since proclaimed, but on account of blindness of mind, hardness of heart, love of sin or of one's own righteousness, was neglected, or at least not held in honor with the submission of soul that is…

Hitherto of certain particulars forbidden. Now follow some commanded, as the outward means, which the Lord has commanded in his word: they are of two sorts, either, such as the Lord commands us to give him for his honor, or those which he gives us to use in his service (Isaiah 4…

Heaven is the workhouse of all that befalls you; every evil is the birth that lay in the womb of an infinitely wise decree; so God is said to frame evil, as a potter does an earthen vessel (so [illegible] jatsar signifies) (Jeremiah 18:11); to frame a vessel of clay is a work of…

The Lord turned the hearts of the Egyptians, to hate his people, (Psalm 105:25). War and peace are from the free wills of men, as second causes, yet the Lord says, according to his absolute dominion, (Isaiah 45:7), I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create ev…

O our Redeemer that bought us, our Saviour! O free grace! O free redemption! as Libertines now do, and yet they that deny sanctification, deny Christ who in their profession bought them; and it is ordinary for Scripture to affirm things of men as they speak and profess; as the S…

He prays like a king, who is in joint commission with God. If God puts that honor upon our prayers, that we are said to have power with God, as Jacob (Hosea 12:3) — that if God be never so angry, yet by taking hold of his strength, we hold his hands (Isaiah 27:5) — that God crie…

He has full right to dispose of the creature, as he pleases, and according to the counsel of his own will, to which we are to be subject without murmuring or complaining. We cannot say to him, what do you make? or why do you do this (Isaiah 45:9)? Woe to him that strives with hi…

Prayer has a kind of commanding compulsive power. That's a strange text (Isaiah 45:11) — Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command you me: So some take it; you shall find me as ready to do you service, as if you had me at command: y…

Hence we may gather, that we must make an open profession of our faith, if we mean to yield God his true service: and if any will keep his faith shut up in his heart, such a one shall be sure to have but a cold opinion instead of faith; because true faith brings forth a frank co…

The mode of expression may seem harsh, salvation from our enemies; but the meaning is obvious. No machinations or power, no wiles, no attacks will prevent our being delivered from them and saved "in the Lord with an everlasting salvation," (Isaiah 45:17.) 72. To perform the merc…

It will perhaps be objected, that this is inconsistent with that prophecy, I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark corner: I said not in vain to the seed of Jacob, Seek me, (Isaiah 45:19;) or with the commendations which David pronounces on the Law, that it

For the eternal God, who by an oath makes this claim for himself, that before him every knee shall bow, (Isaiah 45:23,) at the same time swears that

And, indeed, what he formerly replied about the kingdom did not arise from a desire to be acquitted, but was only intended to maintain that he was the Redeemer anciently promised, before whom every knee ought to bow (Isaiah 45:23). Pilate wondered at this patience; for Christ, b…

They should profess that they rely only on Christ's righteousness and strength, and that they are devoted to him, as their only Lord and Saviour, and that they rejoice in him as their only righteousness and portion. It is foretold that all nations should be brought publicly to m…

And although Instances hereof are given us principally among the People of God, yet whereever Men in the World have been raised up to do great and wonderful things, whereby God executes his Judgments, fulfilles any of his Promises or his Threatnings, even they also have received…

Gal. 3. 1. And this Proposition of Christ has included in it an Invitation to all Convinced Sinners to come to him for Life and Salvation, Isa. 45. 2. Chap. 65. 1.

Sect. 57 But there is yet more in this matter: (First) as God has appointed the Consideration of Christ as an especial Ordinance to the Encrease of Holiness in us, so his Holy Obedience as proposed to us, has a peculiar Efficacy to that purpose beyond all other Instituted Exampl…

You never yet would submit to God; you never could willingly accept that God should have dominion over the world, and govern it for his own glory, according to his own wisdom. You, a poor worm, a potsherd, a broken piece of an earthen vessel, have dared to find fault and quarrel…

It was a weighty and savory speech, which a pious pen once saved from your Lordship's lips, namely, that you accounted the prayers of God's ministers and people, the best walls about your house. He that so accounts, doubtless understands that prayer engages providence (Isaiah 45…

O what exact proportions do Providences and Scriptures hold! little do men take notice of it. Why did Cyru contrary to all rules of State policy freely dismiss the Captives, but to fulfil that Scripture, Isaiah 45:13 So that it was well observed by One, That as God has stretcht…

They made no doubt of it, they were so persuaded they feared it not. Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength (Isaiah 45:24). Surely: a word of confidence, they were assured they had righteousness for their justification in Christ Jesus.

EXPLIC. II. Prayer, as it is the great engine whereby to prevail with the Almighty (Isaiah 45:11) so it is the sure refuge of the Saints at all times, both in their own behalf (Psalm 61:2) and also of others (Acts 12:5). It is a benefit which the poorest believer may bestow, and…

For on the account of them, he assures us that we may find rest, satisfaction, and an abundant reward in him. And the like invitation does he give to poor sinners (Isaiah 45:22): "Look to me, and be saved all the ends of the Earth, for I am God, and there is none else." They may…

And this conception of theirs, was so far approved by the Holy Ghost, as suitable to the mind of God, that John in the beginning of his Gospel declaring the eternal Deity of Christ does it under this name of [in non-Latin alphabet], the Word, that is [in non-Latin alphabet]; the…

In opposition to these, an everlasting righteousness, such as is absolute, perfect, and enduring for ever, is promised to be brought in by the Messiah; the righteousness which he wrought in his life and death, doing and suffering the whole will of God, being imputed to them that…

§ 10 When Abraham was ninety and nine years old, that is also he had been twenty four years in the Land of Canaan. The Lord confirms his Covenant with him and his seed, by the sign and token of Circumcision (Genesis 17:8, 9, 10, 11, 12), which Paul calls the seal of the righteou…

For the former, they declare that he was to be the Son of God, God and Man in one Person (Psalm 2:7; Psalm 110:1; Isaiah 9:6, 7; Jeremiah 23:5, 6; Zechariah 2:8, 9, 10), and in sundry other places is the same mystery intimated, whereby the Church was farther instructed how God w…

So it may seem Satan here means, when he says, put forth your hand, that is, do it your own self, let no other have the handling of Job, but yourself. God does send such immediate afflictions; a man is afflicted in his body, in his estate and many other ways, and he cannot find…