Judges 17

Deceit 1: Men think they have the kingdom of grace in their hearts because they have the means of grace; they live where the silver trumpet of the gospel sounds, they are lifted up to heaven with ordinances. Judges 17:13: I have a Levite to my priest; surely I shall go to heaven…

God has set these political fathers to preserve order and harmony in a nation, and to prevent those state convulsions which otherwise might ensue. Judges 17:6: When there was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. A wonder (Proverbs 30:27).

As if Job had said, let as big a curse fall upon that night, as ever fell from the mouths of those profane fishers, not only when they have been successless in fishing for a Herring or a Sprat, but when after all their pains, and cost they cannot take Leviathan. Micah's mother c…

Thus far reaches the magistrate's duty and authority in things pertaining to the Church. And therefore we find in the Scripture, that when the worship of the true God was so much corrupted and forgotten among the Israelites, that Micah, out of a blind and idolatrous devotion, ma…

(Acts 7:41) They made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol. Again, secondly, Micah and his mother were certainly guilty of idolatry in making and worshipping their images: and yet that they were made to be symbolical representations of the true God, and erecte…

Those that idolize anything in this world, will be greatly discomposed, if they be crossed in it. The money which Micah's mother had, was her God (it is Bishop Hall's note) before it had the shape either of a graven or a molten image, else the loss of it would not have set her a…

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You that are a murmurer, are in the account of God as a witch, a sorcerer, as one that deals with the Devil. This is a sin of the first magnitude; murmuring often ends in cursing: Micah's mother fell to cursing when the talents of silver were taken away (Judges 17:2). So does th…

They hear and hear and are never the better, like the salamander which lies in the fire but, as naturalists say, is never the hotter. Some satisfy themselves with the having of ordinances (Judges 17:13): then said Micah, now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a…

They enjoy glorious privileges; they were born within the sound of the church bells, they were baptized, they have been fed with the bread of heaven. Therefore they hope they are in a good condition (Judges 17:13): then said Micah, now I know the Lord will do me good, seeing I h…