Isaiah 57

Now of Christ's regal office, (Revelation 19:16) And he has on his vesture, and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Jesus Christ is of mighty renown, he is a King; he has a kingly title, High and mighty (Isaiah 57:15). 2. He has his Insignia Regalia, h…

2. Sin disquiets the peace of the soul: whatever defiles, disturbs; as poison tortures the bowels, corrupts the blood, so does sin the soul. Sin breeds a trembling at the heart (Isaiah 57:21). It creates fears, and there is torment in fear (1 John 4:18).

Object. But does not God say heaven is his throne? (Isaiah 66:1). Resp. It is also said, that a humble heart is his throne (Isaiah 57:15). The humble heart is his throne in regard of his gracious presence, and heaven is his throne in regard of his glorious presence; and yet neit…

1. Observe your hours; set time every day apart for God. 2. Mourn for sin: mourning is the seed (as Basil says) out of which the flower of spiritual joy grows (Isaiah 57:18): I'll restore comfort to my mourners. 3. Keep the book of conscience fairly written; do not, by presumptu…

Resp. No. Peace flows from sanctification, but they being unregenerate, have nothing to do with peace (Isaiah 57:21): There is no peace (says my God) to the wicked: they may have a truce, but no peace. God may forbear the wicked a while, and stop the roaring of his cannon; but t…

They are most likely to persevere who God will give most grace to; but he gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). They are most likely to persevere who have God dwelling in them; but God dwells in the humble soul (Isaiah 57:15). Non requiescit Spiritus Sanctus nisi super Humile…

He may use the rod and the pruning knife, but not the bloody axe (Numbers 23:21). He has not seen iniquity in Jacob: He will not see sin in his people, so as to destroy them: He sees their sins so as to pity them; he sees them as a physician sees a disease in his patient to heal…

But the holy person goes to God as a child to his father, his conscience does not upbraid him with allowing any sin, therefore he can go boldly to the throne of grace, and have mercy to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). 7. Holiness gives peace: Sin raises a storm in the consc…

(2.) Injuries. (1.) In case of infirmities: If the child be deformed, or has any bodily distemper the father pities it: If God be our Father, he pities our weaknesses, and he so pities them as to heal them (Isaiah 57:18). I have seen his ways, and will heal him.

All which considerations may open a vein of godly sorrow in our souls, that we may both weep for sin and turn from sin. If ever God restores comfort, it is to his mourners (Isaiah 57:18). And when we have wept, let us look up to Christ's blood for pardon: say as that holy man, L…

In the belly of this lion is a honeycomb; may not this make us cheerfully submit to God's will, when God lines the yoke with comfort, and gives us honey at the end of the rod? 13. There is kindness in affliction, in that God does curtail and shorten it, he will not let it lie on…

A soul beautified with holiness, is like the firmament bespangled with glittering stars. It is God's lesser heaven (Isaiah 57:15). In the Incarnation God made himself in the image of man, in the new creation man is made in the image of God.

Fifth, in case of a stubborn, stiff spirit under outward afflictions, when we will not amend nor submit to God. This may be part of the case mentioned in Isaiah 57:16. In verse 17 you shall see where the quarrel began: 'For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry' — that is…

For so Heman calls that distress he was in in Psalm 88. The reason is that God's favor is our life, by which we live and are upheld, and when it is withdrawn the soul is ready to fail and faint and come to nothing and sink into destruction (Isaiah 57:16). Again, the pains of tho…

The tenth and last direction is that having done all this, you would not rest in ease but in healing — not in ease of conscience but in healing of conscience. I ground this upon Isaiah 57:17-18. What was the true issue of that man's trouble there, whom God contended with?

Use reading the word, for 'the Scriptures were written for our consolation' — therefore read them much. Attend on preaching, for 'God creates the fruit of the lips, peace' (Isaiah 57:19). Receive the sacrament often — those are sealing days.

And ninth, above all things pray, and get others also to pray for you — for God often restores comfort to such at the request of those who mourn for them (Isaiah 57:18). But especially be earnest and fervent in pouring forth your own complaint, for though the speaking of friends…

First, because in nature they find some sparks of civil goodness, they rest in them and take them for grace and neglect Christ. Second, finding also that they are warmed in this world by many outward comforts, being surrounded by sparks, they content themselves with these. So as…

To that end God raised you up, that you might be able to comfort others with the comforts you have received and might pray for them. Therefore in Isaiah 57:17, when any poor soul is struck down, God is moved to restore him again for his mourners' sakes as well as his own. Third,…

For when he hides his face the creatures all are troubled (Psalm 104:29). God would have you lay it to heart when he is angry (Isaiah 57:17). God took it ill there that when he struck him, he went on stubbornly.

Secondly, consider what manner of persons of place, and note, both in Church and commonwealth, God takes from us by death, even in their best time: are they not such as excelled among us, for great wisdom and learning, and for true piety and good conscience? now, howsoever this…

When a believer has death in his body, he has Christ in his soul; the day of his death is his ascension day to heaven: the death of a saint is precious. 1. To God; The righteous are said to be gathered (Isaiah 57:1). A [reconstructed: sinner] is carried away in a [reconstructed:…

Besides, this frame of spirit may afford you this argument: that if you are so sensible of the church's troubles, Jesus Christ is much more sensible of and solicitous about it than you can be. And he will cast an eye of favor upon those that mourn for it (Isaiah 57:18). Season 4…

And does God seek for such while they are on earth? Then surely when such spirits shall come to him, and have such a grand occasion, and (indeed) the first occasion in such an immediate way to appear before him, in such a manner and upon such a change as this, as they never did…

Consideration 5. How do you know but by this stroke which you so lament, God has taken them away from the evil to come? It is God's usual way when some extraordinary calamities are coming upon the world, to hide some of his weak and tender ones out of the way by death (Isaiah 57…

The opinion that people have of obtaining mercy, that is maintained without any ground but their vain hope, is the most widespread, most unreasonable, and prejudicial evil that is among the professors of this gospel; hence if any ground and evidence of their peace be asked for,…

Every member and part of the body, and every faculty of the soul is bent to that which is evil. These three may further confirm it: 1. If we look in general to what the Scripture speaks of men by nature (Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 3 and 5); they being as it is (Isaiah 57, penultima…

Third, in urging this doctrine more hardly upon the people, to cause them not to rest on the letter of the law, but seek to the promised Messiah, in whom only was their righteousness — as young heirs and minors are kept under tutors while their minority expires. But, first, who…

4. To truly feel a lost condition, cannot be all the preparative condition, for the word has annexed no promise of justification to the unjustified, who shall feel his lost condition. For the place (Isaiah 57) speaks of a justified sinner, not of an unjustified, who is only prep…

This is not our home, I would I were ashore, and at home, in my Father's house. 2. The Lord takes the righteous away from the ill to come (Isaiah 57). When Christ was taken away, vengeance came to the full on the Jews, when he was in heaven.

He had long time lain under many vexations, woeful calamities, but when he begins to pray for his friends that had sinned, then the Lord turned his captivity. And so it is expressly said (Isaiah 57:18-19): I will restore comfort to him, and to his mourners. To show you, that God…

If your thoughts be serious, you will find that it is no slight thing, to appear before God, who is our Creator and our Judge, and who is a holy and glorious God, to whom we have carried it very unthankfully, and undutifully. Now who can relieve you in these perplexed thoughts,…

God has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Thirdly, in the object, The law is given to the unjust and lawless, ungodly, and profane (1 Timothy 1:9-10), that it may show them their sins, and the…

The present allusion is to their notion of Fate, a mysterious and irresistible necessity, over which those beings whom they blindly worshipped were supposed to have as little control as the inhabitants of the earth. Calvin demonstrates that the serenity of a Christian differs no…

The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit; a broken and a contrite Heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Isaiah 57. 15. Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity, whose Name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy Place, with him also that is of a humble and contri…

Proverbs 3:34. He giveth Grace unto the lowly. Isaiah 57:15. Thus saith the high and lofty One who inhabiteth Eternity, whose Name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit, to revive the Spirit of the Humble, and to revive…

These thoughts fix on, and represent to the Mind Objects suited to the satisfaction of its Vanity and Lust. With these the Mind committes folly and lewdness, and the fleshly habit thereof is thereby heightned and confirmed; and this multiplies Imaginations of its own kind, where…

This is sin, which is therefore the only base thing in Nature. Hence it is said of some great Sinners that they had debased themselves to Hell, Isa. 57. 9. This belongs to the Pollution of Sin; that it is base, vile, unworthy, dishonouring the Soul, filling it with shame in its…

Section 1. Another argument for the necessity of holiness may be taken from the consideration of our present state and condition — by holiness alone is the vicious distemper of our natures cured; our nature being fearfully and universally depraved by the entrance of sin, the min…

(5.) And sometimes the Providence of God prevents the sins of his people, by removing them out of the way of Temptations by death. In which sense we may understand that Text, Isaiah 57:1 The Righteous is taken away from the Evil to come; the evil of sin as well as Sufferings. Wh…

He that is deprived of all good, is by that act invested with all evils. The most woeful condition of ungodly men in this life, is expressed by the punishment of loss, There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked (Isaiah 57:21). That they have trouble is not so bad, as that the…

How, by what means, on what account such sins come to terrifie conscience, to break the bones, to darken the soul, and to cast it into inextricable depths, notwithstanding the relief that is provided of pardon in the blood of Christ, I shall not now declare; that they will do so…

It is the work of heaven it self, and not of the assurance of it, to wipe all tears from our eyes. Yea these Graces have the most eminent promises annexed to them, as Isaiah 57:15. chap. 66:2. with blessedness it self, Matthew 5:4. yea they are themselves the matter of many Grac…

His soul now comes to be willing to be at Gods disposal, and therein he found present rest, and a speedy healing of his condition. It is the high and losty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, Isaiah 57:15. with whom we have now to do: He that sitts upon the circle of…

11. Believers ought still to hold all their enjoyments and privileges as from him, and the expectation of what is coming, as well as the performance of what is past. 12. Faith in the promise, has a large comprehensive object to rest upon, and to draw consolation from, even the p…

This is an excellent person, and a most stately King, who yet is the believer's bridegroom; Christ's bride is nobly and honorably matched. 2. By bed here, is understood the same thing that was signified by it (chapter 1:16), to wit, that access, and nearness familiarity that the…

(1 John 2:15) 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. This sin of covetousness is hateful to God and provokes his wrath (Isaiah 57:17), for the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry and str…

In a catching harvest, when the husbandman sees the clouds begin to gather and grow black, he hurries in his corn with all possible haste, and houses day and night. So does God the great husbandman, he hurries the saints into their graves, when judgments are coming upon the worl…

(2) Or if not so, then he intermixeth supporting comfort with their troubles, as you sometimes see the Sun shine out while the rain falls. 'Twas so with Paul, Act. 27. 23. This night (and it was a sad night indeed) there stood by me the Angel of the Lord, whose I am. 3. In takin…

Indeed, do you not think he sees your inability to bear such a condition long? He knows your Spirit would fail before him, and the soul which he has made (Isaiah 57:16). David told him as much, in the like condition (Psalm 143:7-8).