Isaiah 64

It is observable (Leviticus 16:16): Aaron shall make atonement for the holy place — this was typical, to show that our holy duties need to have atonement made for them. Our best services, as they come from us, are mixed with corruption, as wine that tastes of the cask (Isaiah 64…

2. By reason: How can those works justify us which defile us? (Isaiah 64:6). Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Bona opera non praecedunt justificationem, sed sequuntur justificatum: Good works are not an usher to go before Justification, but a handmaid to follow it.

Civility is but nature refined and cultivated; a man may be washed and not changed: his life may be civil, yet there may be some reigning sin in his heart: the Pharisee could say, I am no adulterer (Luke 18:11), but he could not say, I am not proud: to trust to civility, is to t…

When we present Christ to God in prayer, when we carry the Lamb slain in our arms, when we say Lord, we are sinners, but here is our surety, for Christ's sake be propitious, this is coming to God in Christ's name, and this is to pray in faith. 3. To pray in faith is in prayer to…

Now, in these words there is set down no invocation but of God alone. For in prayer to be termed, Our father is proper to God, Isaiah 64:16. You are our father: though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel know us not: yet you, O Lord, are our father and redeemer. Papists theref…

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…

I shall never believe that this Reply can stand. David says, and Job says, You, Lord, formed me in the womb; and the Church, Isaiah 64. You are the Potter, and we the clay; but it will never follow; therefore God has created none but David, Job, and his chosen Church, so it foll…

1. The human spirit, or our natural faculty; so that by our understandings we may work upon our wills and affections, surely God makes use of this, for the Holy Ghost does not work upon a man as upon a block, and we are to rouse up ourselves and to attend upon this work with the…

9. In all our addresses to God we must own God as our Father; as having adopted us in Christ: because his, therefore ours: I ascend (says Christ) to my Father and your Father (John 20:17). Indeed by nature we were children of wrath, but by grace children of his love; so that the…

Now we know God onely in part: therefore we loue in part; and consequently we doe not fulfill the law. Againe, the Scripture puts all men, euen the regenerate, under the name of sinners to the very death: Isa 64:4. All our righteousnes is as a defiled cloth.

He fulfills the desire of them that feare of him. Isa 64:24. Before they crie I will answer: that is, so soone as a desire of my helpe is conceiued, and before it be vttered, I will answer.

In my mind I serve the law of God, in my body the law of sin (Romans 7:25). And the Prophet says, that all our righteousness is as a menstruous cloth (Isaiah 64:4). Therefore every good work is stained with sin.

A cheerful Practice of our Duty and doing the Will of God, is the proper Evidence of a truly holy Joy. Isaiah 64:5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth, and worketh Righteousness.

And so, or (which is the same,) the bowing of the Heavens, is often used; Psal. 144. 5. Isa. 64. 1. Bow your Heavens O Lord, and come down. 2 Sam. 22. 10.

It does not therefore appear what is otherwise in them or to them. But as there are Good Duties which have sin adhering to them, Isa. 64. 6. so there are sins which have good in them. For bonum oritur ex integris, malum ex quocunque defectu.

So far as any thing of this Pravity or Disorder mixes it self with the best of our Dutyes, it renders both us and them unclean. Isa. 64. 6. We are all as an unclean thing, and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Raggs.

It is certain whil we are in the flesh, our duties will taste of the vessel whence they proceed. weakness, defilements, treachery, hypocrisie will attend them. To this purpose whatever some pretend to the contrary, is the Complaint of the church, Isaiah 64:6. The Chaffe oftentim…

It shows, 1. That believers' distance and darkness may grow; for, in the former Chapter, Christ was absent, yet, as through a window or [reconstructed: lattice], there were some glimpses of him; but here it's night, and there is not so much as a twilight discovery of him. 2. Oft…

So then, the meaning of this expression, I raised you, is, I dealt with, and importuned you in this. 2. It implies importunity in dealing with Christ, incessantly she stirred him, and with petitions pressed him; So, when it is said, (Isaiah 64:7) No man stirs up himself, etc. Th…

(James 3:2): In many things we offend all. And the prophet confesses the corruption of our natures, and the imperfection of our best performances (Isaiah 64:6): We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Solomon challenges the best and holies…

God expects that London should now pray at another rate than before they have done. It is said (Daniel 9:13), all this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer to the Lord our God; and when God had consumed Israel because of their iniquities, the prophet complains (Isaia…

Then we offer holy violence to our selves, when we excite and provoke our selves to that which is good. This is called in Scripture, a stirring up our selves to take hold of God (Isaiah 64:7). Consider,

My prayer came before him, even into his ears. In prayer we draw so near to God, that we take hold of him (Isaiah 64:6). God draws near to us by his Spirit, and we draw near to him in prayer.

First, take all the beauty, excellency, the sweet and good that there is in all the world; if there could be a confluence and extract of the quintessence of all good, in all creature in this world, and all to be communicated to one man, yet it were but as a dark shadow of the gl…

Besides the defilement of our natures which he purges (Titus 1:15), he takes away the defilement of our persons by actual follies: by one offering he perfected for ever them that are sanctified: by himself he purged our sins before he sat down at the right hand of Majesty on hig…

Shall I piece up a garment of righteousness out of my best duties? It is all as a defiled cloth, Isaiah 64:6. These thoughts accompany them in all their duties, in their best and most choice performances.

Now this is some advantage in prayer, to look upon God as our Father by virtue of creation, that we can come to him, as the work of his hands, and beseech him that he will not destroy us, and suffer us to perish. Isaiah 64:8: "But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay…

And we may come to him as the workmanship of his hands, when we cannot come to him as children of his family. The Church says (Isaiah 64:8): "Now, O Lord, you are our Father: we are the clay, and you our Potter, and we all are the work of your hand." They plead for favor and mer…

Oh remember that bread is only to be had at the door, to be distributed when the Lord sees need, not when we would, or think we have need, and therefore wait here and say, if I perish, here I will, at the feet of God, and at the feet of the promises and covenant of God, etc. Now…

1. The precept of God falls upon us as reasonable creatures, and does not consider whether we are disposed or indisposed; and God's influence is not our rule, but our help. We are to stir up ourselves; the Lord complains (Isaiah 64:7), There is none that stirs up himself to take…

Every new act of faith draws from Christ some increase of spiritual life. 2. Stir up yourselves (Isaiah 64:7): There is none that calls upon your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of you. (2 Timothy 1:6): Therefore I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God…

The soul is mightily distempered by too free a liberty of the delights of the flesh: for surfeiting and drunkenness must not be taken there in the gross notion. 3. Let us take heed that we do not lose it by our slothfulness and negligence in the spiritual life (Isaiah 64:7). The…

The safety of the spiritual life lies in the keeping up our joy and delight in it (Hebrews 3:6): Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Isaiah 64:5: You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness. But now carnal delig…

We see artificers when they have made an excellent work, they are very chary and tender of it, and will not destroy it, and break it in pieces. An instinct of nature teaches us to love that which is our own by natural production, so it is an argument moving the Lord to much comp…

Doctrine 4. When God seems to forsake us and really does so in part, yet we should pray that it be not an utter and total desertion. (Isaiah 64:9) Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever. Behold see, we beseech you, we are all your people.

All these things and others which I shall not name, are loathsome things, at which men stop their noses, and from which they hide their eyes; yet sin is more loathsome than they all, if we consider, that nothing but the fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in, nothing…

The robe of innocency, like the veil of the temple, is rent in two; ours is a ragged righteousness. Isaiah 64:6: Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. As under rags the naked body is seen, so under the rags of our righteousness the body of death is seen.

It is imperfect with respect unto every Acts and duty of it, whether internal or external. There is iniquity cleaving unto our holy things, and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy raggs, Isaiah 64:6. It has been often and well observed, that if a man, the best of men, were lef…

This, say the most Sober and Modest of our Adversaries, because he is the efficient cause of our righteousness, that is, of our personal inherent righteousness. But this righteousness may be considered either in it self, as it is an effect of Gods grace, and so it is good and ho…

1. These things are plainly affirmed in the scripture, that as unto our selves, and in our selves, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy Rags, Isaiah 64:6. on the one hand; And that in the Lord we have righteousness and strength, in the Lord we a…

Published by Thomas Watson Minister of the Gospel. Isaiah 64.7. Thou hast consumed us because of our iniquities.

2nd Commandment: You shall make to yourself no graven image, etc. He breaks this commandment: who represents God in an image (Exodus 32:6-8); who worships God in or at images, as crucifixes and such like (2 Kings 18:4); who kneels down before an image; who is bodily present at M…

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and laid me down in that place to sleep; and as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his o…

'I abhor myself in dust and ashes,' says a fourth (Job 42:6). And as little esteem they have for their performances: 'All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6). I do not deny that there is pride and vanity in the most upright ones; but whatever place it finds in…

So David (2 Samuel 12:13): I have sinned against the Lord. (Isaiah 64:5): The Church confesses, You are angry, for we have sinned — 6. But we are all as an unclean thing. (Isaiah 59:12): For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us.

Awake, Why do you sleep O Lord? Arise, cast us not off for ever. Both the words [in non-Latin alphabet] Gnurah, and [in non-Latin alphabet] Hakitsa, signify to awake out of sleep: So prayer puts God on noble acts of omnipotence, as to bow the heavens and come down (Isaiah 64:1).…

The covenant is faith's Magna Carta, the grand mother-promise; all prayers must be bottomed on this (Jeremiah 14:21): "Do not abhor us" — why? (verse 22): "Are you not he, the Lord God?" (Isaiah 64:9): "Remember not our iniquity forever; behold, see we beseech you" — why? "We ar…

Have you not left off to stir up yourself to lay hold on Christ? (Isaiah 64:5, 7.) We have not taken pains with our souls to clasp about Christ for new supply of justification; wonder not then if our best righteousness be like a menstruous cloth. And therefore as you desire to m…

And as in the progress of the old creation, there were still new things accomplished; new wonders appeared every day in the sight of the angels, the spectators of that work; while those morning stars sang together, new scenes were opened or things that they had not seen before,…

Therefore if you are not moved to pity and complaint, by so many troubles and miseries, see that your own condition, state, degree, your own good work or prayer, corrupt or deceive you not — indeed, to be plain, you have no point of a Christian in you, however good you think you…