Isaiah 59

The angel says it is not in me; morality says it is not in me; the ordinance says it is not in me: Christ alone is the well-spring of life, the ordinance is the conduit-pipe that conveys salvation, but Christ is the spring that feeds it, neither is there salvation in any other.…

The truth of God is an unmovable rock, we may venture our salvation here. (Isaiah 59:15) Truth fails; truth on earth does, but not truth in heaven: God can as well cease to be God, as cease to be true. Has God said he will be good to the soul that seeks him (Lamentations 3:25),…

Whether from outward afflictions, or inward distress of mind and conscience; or, to use Solomon's distinction, whether by reason of man's ordinary infirmities, or of a wounded spirit — that is yet in question. And first, it is not to be restrained to outward afflictions only, wh…

In which action of theirs we are to mark two points. First the diligence of ungodly men and the quickness of their nature to practice sin and wickedness: as it was said of the old Jews (Isaiah 59:7), their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. When the Israelites…

Because this is the only answer adversaries can give, though it be as a parable in a fool's mouth. Let it be considered, 1. The difference between the first Covenant which was broken (Jeremiah 31:32-33-34) and the better Covenant which is everlasting and cannot be broken (Jeremi…

Remission of sins in his blood (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14); blotting out of transgressions ([reconstructed: Isaiah 43:25]) as a thick cloud (Isaiah 44:23); a not remembering of sins (Isaiah 43:25; [reconstructed: Jeremiah 31:34]). Such a taking away of sins as is promised i…

Reason 4: Taken from the displeasure that God takes, if he see that we do not pray for them, when we forget to remember them before the Lord, this is ill taken. God is displeased when there is none to stand in the gap in such a case as this (Isaiah 59:15-16). God does not afflic…

Surely, that is good that sets us nearer to God, and that evil that separates us from him. Therefore sin is evil because it makes an estrangement between us and God (Isaiah 59:2): Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.…

It is against the threatenings of the Word in all those places where God is said to be a jealous God. God is said to put on jealousy as a cloak (Isaiah 59:17). That is the upper and outermost garment.

For the scriptures in their right use (which is in reading, hearing, meditation) have the divine and supernaturall operation of the spirit ioyned with them, to comfort in all distresses, and in the very pang of death, and to conuert the heart of man, making him in respect of rig…

For say, that God suffers them for a time to consult, to imagine, and rage against us, yet in the end he will scatter all that they have rashly and proudly done, as chaff before the wind. Let us also know that this which Isaiah has prophesied against Sennacherib, does likewise a…

And the coherence of the text of this chapter with the former shows it plainly. For in (Isaiah 59:21) he said, that the covenant was enclosed in the word and spirit: from the opposition then, it is easily gathered, that the felicity promised to the Church in the beginning of thi…

The arm of God is contrasted with every other aid: as in Isaiah, "I looked, and there was none to help," (Isaiah 63:5;) "therefore," says he elsewhere, "his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him," (Isaiah 59:16.) Mary therefore means: God rested…

Here it may be proper that we should be reminded of what I said a little before, that Christ, in arranging the prayers of his people, did not consider which was first or second in order. It is written, that our prayers are as it were a wall which hinders our approach to God, (Is…

For this is to separate the Spirit or the Dispensation of the Spirit from it, which is in Truth to destroy it. And therewith is the Covenant of God rejected, which is, that his Word and Spirit shall go together, Isa. 59. v. 20. 21. We shall therefore, God assisting manifest in o…

The Law which God by his Grace writes in our Hearts, answers to the Law that is written in the Word that is given to us; and as the first is the only Principle, so the latter is the only Rule of our Evangelical Obedience. For this End has God promised that his Word and his Spiri…

O vile and unworthy thoughts of God! proceeding from our measuring the immense and boundless power of God, by our own line and measure: because we see not which way relief should come, we conclude, none is to be expected. But all these reasonings of Unbelief are vanquisht by a s…

Our unfitness for mercy, is the reason why they are delayed so long. We put the blocks into the way of mercy, and then repine, that they make no more haste to us, Isaiah 59. 1, 2. The Lords hand is not shortned, but our iniquities have separated betwixt him and us. Consider, the…

So likewise a spirit of strength that is upon a man, is called the hand of God, 1 Kings 18, last verse, The hand of the Lord was upon Elijah and he girt up his loins and ran before Ahab. Here the hand of the Lord is put for the power of the Lord, put forth your hand, that is, pu…

Secondly, Christ saying not onely Aske, but seeke and knocke; does hereby imply what is Gods dealing many times with his own servants: namely, that he forsakes them for a time, and in part, and in some sort hides himselfe, and as it were locks himselfe from them. Now thus he dea…

So says she: though Christ now be out of sight, yet he is not far off, but as it were behind the wall; and it's called "our wall" in reference to some other she speaks with of him. And a wall, because often we build up these separations ourselves between him and us (Isaiah 59:1)…

Or, 2. this word may be derived from Salem, which properly taken, is Jerusalem (Psalm 76:1) and (Hebrews 7:1) Melchisedec was king of Salem, which signifies peace, and so, as Shunamitish comes from Shunem, so Shulamite from Salem, and so taking the derivation thus, it comes to t…

16. A sixteenth sin of London is perverting of judgment. This is a God-provoking sin: when none calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth; when men make to themselves crooked paths, and there is no judgment in their goings; indeed when judgment is turned away backward, and jus…

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me." The same is promised again in Isaiah 59:21 and Isaiah 43:1, 2 and Zechariah 12:2, 3. So Christ promises the same, when he says, "On this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hel…

It is your duty to smite upon the thigh; surely there is a cause. When there were such great distractions that they groped like a blind man, and could not find the way, they said our iniquities are with us, as for our transgressions we know them (Isaiah 59:10-12). When those tha…

The power of religion is not only disliked and denied, but contradicted and condemned by those that rest in the form. They that call the evil, good, will call the good, evil (Isaiah 5:20); and it is not strange if they, who abandon themselves to work all uncleanness with greedin…

This commonly is the condition of the world in such a season, they are at rest and quiet, their hearts are abundantly satiated; they drink wine in bowls, and send gifts one to another. Then Christ looks to see who will come in for their succor (Isaiah 59:16-17), and finding none…

Second, God does this to assure and secure us of the inheritance. Having given us so many securities without us — his word, promises, covenant, oath, the revelation of his faithfulness and immutability in them all — he is pleased also graciously to give us one within us, Isaiah…

He is called the Holy Spirit of promise — not only because he is promised by Christ, but also because he effectually makes good the promise and gives it accomplishment in our souls. He also is engaged to preserve the soul walking according to the rule laid down (see Isaiah 59, t…

Blessed may we say were the Ages past, who received the Word of God in its unquestionable power and purity, when it shone brightly in its own glorious native Light, and was free from those defects and corruptions, which through the default of men, in a long tract of time it has…

Let us then a little, without prejudice or passion, consider who, or what these men were, who are the supposed Authors of this work. 1. Men they were (if any such were) who had not the Word of God committed to them in a peculiar manner, as their forefathers had of old, being no…

They add more books to them, never indited by the Holy Ghost, as remote from being [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉]: so denying the self-evidencing power of that word, which is truly [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], by mixing it with things [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], of a human rise an…

Conditions of the covenant are conditions in the covenant. God requires faith and repentance, and gives faith and repentance; compare Isaiah 59:20 with Romans 11:26. It is Christ's gift as well as his precept.

Secondly, the evil of sin is greater than the evil of affliction or trouble. 1. The evil of sin is the greater evil, because it separates from God (Isaiah 59:2). It's an aversion from the chiefest good.

God is where he was at first; I AM, is his name; there is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity. His arm is not short, that it cannot save; or his ear heavy, that it cannot hear (Isaiah 59:1). Whatever he has been to his people that have called upon him in former ages, he is the…

It is, that whereas before we were as if we had fallen asleep, or rather doted in our pleasures and vanities: our Lord disposes us to come to him. We have seen already that all this world is in darkness, and that as long as we abide in it, we are as it were asleep, so that we se…

1. Look how others muse how to commit a sin; and shall not we muse how to redress it? Wicked men sit brooding (Isaiah 59:5). They hatch the cockatrice egg, and weave the spider's web: they devise mischief upon the bed (Micah 2:1).

1. Surely they shall be blessed, for they take care to remove the make-bate, the wall of partition between God and them. It is sin which separates (Isaiah 59:2). But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.

Affliction takes nothing from our essential solid happiness, rather helps us in the enjoyment of it, as it increases grace and holiness, and so we enjoy God more surely. That is good that sets us nearer to God, and that is evil which separates us from him; therefore sin is evil,…

He was the light of the world, which without him is a dark dungeon. More particularly it appears that man is dark: 1 By his groping, which is constantly attributed to blindness and darkness in the Scripture: Be pleased to peruse (Deuteronomy 28:29, Job 5:14, and 12:25, Isaiah 59…

From hence come two great miseries on sinners from God, as judgments upon this separation. 1 God hides his face; and this follows on the separation, as it is expressed (Isaiah 59:2): Your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sin has hid his face from you, or (as…

1. Death is separating; it separates the nearest and dearest relations, yes, that which God has joined together, man and wife, soul and body: it separates from estates, ordinances, etc., as I showed before; thus death is a great evil and enemy; true, but sin is worse, for it bro…

2. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isaiah 59:18: 'According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries.' So Isaiah 66:15: 'For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with chariots like a…

God does sometimes disappear, and hide himself from his people — verily you are a God that hides yourself (Isaiah 45:15). But the cause of God's hiding is the believers' sinning, your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you (I…

In regard of ourselves, see we and consider nakedly the nature of sin, in four particulars. It is that which makes a separation between God and the soul, breaks that union and communion with God for [illegible] we were made, and in the enjoyment of which we should be blessed and…

Look then to those sinful lusts, those special and beloved corruptions to which your heart has been so strongly tied and linked, and whereby Satan and your corrupt heart have entrenched themselves, and set up as so many strong holds against the Lord Christ, the work of his spiri…

These are: First, The Word accompanied by the presence and operation of the Spirit: (Isaiah 59:21) My Word and my Spirit shall never depart away from you: The word he has sanctified and promised to accompany for this great work, and it is the Word of the Gospel mainly which make…

This is the language of despair: There is no hope; I had as good follow my sins still, and be damned for something. Despair presents God to the soul as a judge clothed in the garments of vengeance (Isaiah 59:17). Judas's despair was in some sense worse than his treason.

They sacrifice their lives to Bacchus; they make haste, but not to heaven. They make haste to fulfill their lusts (Proverbs 6:18); they make haste to swear, to be drunk; they are swift to shed blood (Isaiah 59:7): their feet run to evil. The sinner, in regard of the haste he mak…

3. A Covenant of Grace, with a promise of pardon and life to all that believe and repent, to all mankind. But he denies: 1. all infused habits, contrary to (Isaiah 44:1-3; Isaiah 59:20-21; Zechariah 12:10; John 4:14; John 7:37; John 16:7-8; 1 John 3:9); he says that 2. all comma…