Isaiah 63

The Papists pray to saints and angels: 1. To saints; a Popish writer says, When we pray to the saints departed, they being touched with compassion, say the like to God for us, as the disciples did to Christ for the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:23): Send her away, for she cries af…

God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness. Holiness is the livery, or silver star the godly wear (Isaiah 63:18). Knam kodsheca, The people of your holiness.

The Hebrew word Racham, for mercy, signifies bowels. God has soundings of bowels (Isaiah 63:15). And this sympathy stirs up God to deliver (Isaiah 63:9): In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.

It is a sin so sordid, that when the liar is convicted he is ashamed. God's children have this character: they are children that will not lie (Isaiah 63:8); the new nature in them will not suffer them. The liar is near a kin to the devil; and the devil will shortly claim kindred…

To make us read the Word, consider 1, there is majesty sparkling in every line of Scripture. Take but one instance, Isaiah 63:1: Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?

O! I beseech you, labor in this to be like God — he is a God of truth, he can as well part with his deity as his verity; be (I say) like God, be true in your words, be true in your profession. God's children are children that will not lie (Isaiah 63:9). When God sees truth in th…

(2.) In case of injuries. Every blow of the child goes to the father's heart; when the saints suffer, God does sympathize (Isaiah 63:9). In all their afflictions he was afflicted: He did as it were bleed in their wounds.

The godly are sealed with a double seal; 1. a seal of election, The Lord knows who are his; 2. a seal of sanctification, Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. This is the name by which God's people are known (Isaiah 63:18). Gnam Kodsheca, the people of…

The Papists pray to saints and angels, but they know not our grievances. (Isaiah 63:16) Abraham is ignorant of us. And all angel-worship is forbidden (Colossians 2:18-19).

7. There are many encouragements to suffer affliction. God himself suffers with us (Isaiah 63:9): in all their afflictions he was afflicted. God will strengthen us in our sufferings (Psalms 37:39): he is their strength in the time of trouble.

If you grieve him, he grieves you; if you rebel against him, he fights against you as an enemy. So in Isaiah 63:10: 'They rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit, therefore he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them.' Now to sin against light is called rebellion (Jo…

1. To reveal and represent God as angry with his child for such and such sins formerly committed, and make him sensible thereof — not barely by concealing his love, but by making impressions of his wrath upon his conscience immediately, and not by outward crosses only. Thus Isai…

And if light and mercy yet do not come, but still God seems as it were to cast you off, then call to mind if you have ever had any true communion with him, and thereupon begin to challenge him. So does the church in Isaiah 63:16, when in your case — when his mercies were restrai…

But you will say: It is not only that he hides his face, but I suffer terrors; he is angry; he is turned enemy; he fights against me; and therefore I am a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction. So it was with Job (chapter 13:24), and so with Isaiah 63:10 and Psalm 88:16. But all…

Hence it is that they are said to be under the altar, where they cry: How long, Lord, holy and true, will you not avenge our blood? — being ignorant of the day of their full deliverance. And the Jews in affliction confess that Abraham was ignorant of them and their estate (Isaia…

Reason 1. Isaiah 63:16: The church says to God: Doubtless you are our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel know us not. Now if Abraham knew not his posterity, neither Mary nor Peter nor any other of the saints departed know us and our estate, and consequently the…

Truth 3. Many a saint has charged and condemned himself for that which God will never charge him with or condemn him for. 'Why have you hardened our heart from your fear?' says the church — Isaiah 63:17 — and yet the verse before shows that their hearts were not so hardened. God…

5. A fifth seed of hope is, the mercy of God. Isa. 63. 9. In his love, and in his pity he redeemed them. God is the Father of mercies, 2 Cor. 1. 3.

We often find more fault, and first blame in Christ, if not only, before we see our own provocations. Hence the complaints of Job (chapters 6, 13, 16, 19) and of Jeremiah (chapters 20, 15) of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38) of Asaph (Psalm 77) of Heman (Psalm 88) of the Church (Isaiah 49:1…

Not a love that falls to nothing by a consequent act of hatred, nor a love to which the hatred of reprobation may succeed every hour, and out of which we may be decourted; a love that puts the honor of sons on us (1 John 3:1). It is a saving and a pitying love (Isaiah 63:9); a l…

And as the expectation of his enemies ruine maybe said to be an imperfect affection, in comparison of the triumph that one day he shall have over them: so his joy which he now has in his Spouse, is but imperfect, in comparison of that which shall fill his heart at the great day…

So (Exodus 33:14): My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. My presence, that is, my Angel, spoken of before, called the angel of his presence (Isaiah 63:9): In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. This Angel is called…

8. God alone is the proper object of our Prayers: pray to your Father. As he is the object of our faith, so of Prayer: For he alone can help, therefore he is to be sought, none else sees our state, or can satisfy souls (Isaiah 63:16): Doubtless you are our Father, though Abraham…

51. He hath done might This means, "he hath wrought powerfully." 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…

This principle is spoken of, as that from whence men are without the fear of God, and depart from God's ways. Isaiah 63:17. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?

And herein does consist the spiritual Beauty of the Way of Salvation by Jesus Christ, that it is so holy a Way. And herein chiefly consists the Glory of Heaven, that it is the holy City, the holy Jerusalem, the Habitation of God's Holiness, and so of his Glory; Isaiah 63. 15. Al…

And it is derived from the Old, Psal. 51. 11. [[original in non-Latin script]], The Spirit of your Holiness, or your Holy Spirit. Isa. 63. 10, 11. [[original in non-Latin script]], The Spirit of his Holiness, or his Holy Spirit. Hence are [[original in non-Latin script]] and [[o…

And Philemon verse 12, Receive him that is my own bowels. Thus they are taken (Isaiah 63:15), Where are your bowels? and frequently elsewhere, both in the Old and New Testament.

Thirdly, consider, that it is a sin that gives in a fearful evidence against us, that we belong to the Devil, and are his children: for he is the father of lies, and of liars: God's children will imitate their heavenly Father in his truth and veracity. And it is a very observabl…

To others he speaks more audibly, where the Gospel does sound in their ears, and with the Scriptures God sends his ministers to preach to them. God speaks by his ministers, who are his watchmen, in his name to warn the people of his judgments temporal and eternal, which in the S…

So that the sword is bathed in blood, and garments are rolled in blood, and the land is soaked in blood; when blood is poured forth like water, and dead bodies are cast forth into the open field without burial; and God makes an invitation to all feathered fowl to gather themselv…

When Jacob was devoured, and his dwelling-place laid waste (Psalm 79:7), you have their prayer (verses 8, 9, etc.): O remember not against us former iniquities, let your tender mercies speedily prevent us, for we are brought very low: help us O Lord God of our salvation, for the…

You do always resist the Holy Ghost. The Spirit offers grace to the sinner, and the sinner offers violence to the Spirit (Isaiah 63:10). They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit; and may not the Lord give over striving?

God is pleased to represent himself in his Word as though he trusted the Profession of his visible People, and as disappointed when they did not approve themselves as his faithful, steadfast and thorough Friends. Isaiah 63:8, 9, 10. For he said, surely they are my People, Childr…

Fourthly, not appearing, is a betraying the truth: It is a speech of Zuinglius, in his third Epistle; We may as well with Dioclesian, worship at the Altar of Jupiter or Venus, as hide our faith under Antichrist: He that is not with me, is against me, says Christ. Fifthly, Christ…

Colloss. 1:24 and fill up that which is behinde of the afflictions of CHIST, they are the afflictions of Christ, and every one must make account to fill them up; not the satisfactory sufferings of Christ, but the sufferings of Christ in his mystical body, in his members: And so…

Fifthly, if there be such a glorious recompence of reward, then let us labor to be faithful with God, because we have such a good Master, that is so good and gracious to us. Princes make account they engage the hearts of their subjects that are about them, to be faithful with th…

The whole rise of it is from this love of God, flowing out by the ways there described. To assure us of his love, there is not anything that has a loving and tender nature in the world which God has not compared himself to — as a father, a mother, a shepherd, a hen over her chic…

This also renders him graceful: by his whiteness, he fulfilled the law, by his redness he satisfied justice: this is our beloved, O you daughters of Jerusalem. 3. His endearing excellency in the administration of his kingdom, is hereby also expressed: He is white in love and mer…

By one more, or all of these ways does the Lord Jesus manifest his conjugal tenderness, and compassion towards his saints, in and under their temptations. 2. Christ is compassionate towards them in their afflictions; in all their afflictions he is afflicted (Isaiah 63:9). Yes it…

This is the tendency of the death of Christ as a sacrifice — atonement and reconciliation with God. Sin had broken friendship between God and us, Isaiah 63:10. His wrath was on us, John 3:36, and we are by nature liable to it, Ephesians 2:3.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. There is a complaint, Isaiah 63:10, of them who vexed, or grieved the Spirit of God. And from thence does this caution seem to be taken.

That God does sometimes leave even those of his own, under the perplexing power at least of some lust or sin, to correct them for former sins, negligence and folly, I do not doubt. Hence was that complaint of the church: Why have you hardened us from the fear of your name (Isaia…

And that we may the better understand him in this, he is pleased to express this merciful nature in our notion and language, by bowels of mercy and pity, and the stirring and sounding of them, and (Psalm 103) the pity of a father, and (Isaiah 49) of a mother, nothing tender and…

The very vent, were it but into the air, gives ease; or speak it to a statue rather than smother it, much more ease, poured forth into the lap of a confidant, and sympathizing friend, though unable to help; yet much more of one that can, and of all friends our God the surest, an…

Those which in their natural state and condition were children of wrath, and slaves to sin and Satan; when they come, and are willing to welcome and receive Christ into their hearts; in a sense of their misery, are willing to make out after God and Christ; they have an allowance…

By creation, to all mankind, so he will be ready to sustain that which he has made; he that has given life, will give food; he that has given a body, will give raiment; things expect supply from where they received their being. But much more by covenant, so he is our Father in C…

A lying tongue shall not escape. Or rather, God reckons upon his children (Isaiah 63:8): Surely they are my people, children that will not lie. Disappointment, that's the worst vexation.

Passively he was vexed with the impurity of the Sodomites, and actively he vexed himself. So far as we are carnal, we are pleased with sin, so far as we are spiritual we are vexed with it (Isaiah 63:10): They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit. The better any are, the more affec…

Something like a pity arising in his heart upon the sight of it; which the Scripture frequently ascribes to God, and we can best understand, as we consider the divine perfections shining forth in the human nature of Christ. (Exodus 2:24) He heard their groaning; and (Isaiah 63:4…