Luke 12

The Romans when their great men died, caused an eagle to be let loose, and fly about in the air, signifying hereby that the soul was immortal, and did not die with the body. Christ tells us the soul is not capable of killing (Luke 12:4). Therefore not of dying.

When they would have made him king, he refused it; he chose rather to ride upon the foal of an ass, than to be drawn in a chariot; and to hang upon a wooden cross, than to wear a golden crown. Christ scorned the pomp and glory of the world: he waved secular affairs (Luke 12:13).…

Christ's death was voluntary (Psalm 40:7): Lo, I come to do your will, O God. (Luke 12:50) I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished. Christ calls his sufferings a baptism: he was to be (as it were) baptized in his own blood; And how d…

Thus you see their coat of arms displayed; but what is honor without inheritance? God adopts all his sons to an inheritance (Luke 12:32): It is your Father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom. It is no disparagement to be the sons of God.

You see you lose nothing by obeying: the obedient son has the inheritance settled on him. Obey and you shall have a kingdom (Luke 12:32). It is your Father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom.

He imparts his secrets to us (Psalm 25:14). He bestows a kingdom upon us for our dowry (Luke 12:32). Quest. 3. How may we come to know this covenant-union, that God is our God?

3. Serving the true God is beneficial; they have great vails here, the hidden manna, inward peace, and a great reward to come. They that serve God, shall have a kingdom when they die (Luke 12:32), and shall wear a crown made of the flowers of paradise (1 Peter 5:4). To serve the…

Those whom the world scorned and looked upon as precisians and fools, Christ will take by the hand, and openly acknowledge them to be his favorites. What is Christ's confessing of men (Luke 12:8), but his open acknowledging them to be precious in his eyes? 2. Christ as Judge wil…

Children rely upon their parents for the supply of wants: If we trust God for salvation shall we not trust him for a livelihood? There is a lawful provident care to be used, but beware of a distrustful care (Luke 12:24): Consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap, and God fe…

The Jews could not have taken it away, if he had not laid it down; he could have called to his Father for a legion of angels to be his life-guard; but what needed that, when his Godhead could have defended him from all assaults? But he laid down his life: the Jews did not so muc…

2. If you hear the Word, and are not bettered by it, you are like the salamander in the fire, not hotter; your hearing will increase your condemnation. (Luke 12:47) That servant which knew his Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. We pity such as know no…

Pope Sylvester the Second did sell his soul to the Devil for a Popedom. Use. Take heed and beware of covetousness (Luke 12:15). It is a direct breach of this Tenth Commandment.

With the conversion of the heart must go the confession of the tongue. Luke 12:8: Whoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God. Peter openly confessed Christ crucified (Acts 4:10).

Judas was a great luminary, he knew God's will, but he was a traitor. Knowing without doing God's will will make one's case worse — it will heat Hell the hotter; (Luke 12:47) The servant which knew his Lord's will, and did not according to his will shall be beaten with many stri…

But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things. Luke 12:12. The Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say.

That he cannot legally obey, has been already made to appear; but the Law will not release him from that obligation: neither yet can he make satisfaction for his defaults; none of Adam's race can clear themselves from having been law-breakers, and they have no recompence to make…

The public catechizing of children by way of familiar dialogue in short and plain questions & answers, though it be scrupled by some, as if it wanted Scripture warrant: yet such as acknowledge children to be members of Christ's kingdom and church, (as all but Antipaedobaptists d…

These words must not be understood absolutely and simply, but with limitation. For many places of Scripture are spoken simply, which must be understood with respect: as when it is said, Matthew 11.18, John came neither eating nor drinking, that is not, eating nothing at all, but…

Mr. Cotton might say those words that are here expressed, and yet his judgement be farre enough from being as theirs is in any of the Points that are controverted: for we shall not gainsay this Conception of Mr. Cotton's [That more positive fruits of Regeneration are required in…

Now because there can be no company unless it have a beginning and a cause whereby it is gathered: therefore I add further in the definition, predestinate to life everlasting. Noting thereby the ground and cause of the Catholic church, namely God's eternal predestination to life…

A righteous man is more excellent than a wicked, in respect of what he shall have: he shall have a better reward; both righteous and wicked are rewarded, but there is a vast difference; the wicked shall have a reward of punishment, the righteous of mercy (Psalm 58:11). So that a…

This is our advantage above the angels, that a year of liberty is proclaimed to us, and an opening of the prison to them that are bound; Christ himself was bound with our chains, the Prophet says (Isaiah 53:8), he was taken from prison, and from judgment, he was in prison that w…

Know for certain that the Lord records all the mercies that ever he gave you, from the beginning to the end of your life (Micah 6:5): 'Remember, O my people, from Shittim to Gilgal.' Indeed, they are exactly numbered and recorded, in order to an account; and your account will be…

But I do not find in Scripture that the Magistrate is to rule, or to make Laws, or to manage any part of his office in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as the Mediator has not any where given such a Commission and power to the Magistrate: so, as Mediator, he had it not to…

The doctrine shall be this: tribulation does either accompany or follow after the work of Reformation, or purging of the house of God. So it was when Christ himself came into his Temple (Luke 12:49). I am come to send fire on the earth, vers. 51.

There are but a very few that shall be saved. Christ's flock is called but a little flock (Luke 12:32). Sometimes scarce discernible, as in the old world, but eight persons saved from the universal deluge.

Oh! The stopping of ears today may be your undoing for ever. You reckon on more time; but remember (Luke 12:20): You fool, this night shall your soul be required of you. And remember the advice of our Savior, verse 40: Be therefore ready; for the Son of Man comes at an hour when…

That one Spirit, whom He commanded the faithful to seek with all their prayers from the Father (Luke 11:13), He willed to be all in all throughout the whole of evangelical worship. See (Luke 12:10; John 3:5, 6, 8, 4:24; Romans 7:6, 8:1, 2, 9, 18, 26, 15:30; 1 Corinthians 2:4, 12…

Out of this confidence, farther proceedeth a continual carefulness, that in all our ways, that is, thoughts, words, and deeds, etc. we seek his will, and approve it, and so for that cause look for his blessing and direction (Proverbs 3:6; Proverbs 16:3; Genesis 5:22; Genesis 17:…

And when they were going up to Jerusalem (Mark 10:32), he went before all the rest, that is, at a swift pace. And (Luke 12:50) he says, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I constrained till it be accomplished? Never did men long so much for their wedding day, and f…

This looks as if death would get the victory; thus it's said Hebrews 5:7, In the days of his flesh he offered up strong cries and supplications with tears, and was heard in that which he feared, he put up strong cries to be delivered, not from dying, but from the power of death,…

If we yet look a little forward we will find that he so longed for the saddest part of this exercise, that he is pained till it be accomplished. (Luke 12:50) I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I constrained till it be accomplished? His heart longed so much to be at…

And what was that — a poor whorish woman is spoken to, by Him, and brought by His speaking to acknowledge Him to be the Messiah, and to accept of Him as such; and by that blessed work, His hunger and thirst were satisfied. So in Luke 22:15, He says to His disciples, "With desire…

If we could rightly discern His sufferings, and the benefits that we have by them, it would say, that there is good reason, that He should have a kindly meeting, who has done, and suffered so much to obtain these to us. 4. Consider the cheerful way of His suffering, and of His l…

The great ground that makes God expostulate with the hearers of the Gospel, and that makes them come under the complaint, (John 5:40) "You will not come to me that you may have life," and (Matthew 23:37) "How often would I have gathered you, and you would not;" and for substance…

We are naturally perverse and peevish, bent to fretfulness and discontent, inclining rather to restless endeavoring to have our lot brought up to our spirits, than to be at suitable pains to have our spirits brought down to our lot; and therefore have much need to be tamed and c…

2. The other character is, that when the end is obtained, all operation for, or about the means ceases, and the soul has a complacency in the fruition of the end. When the wretches' chests are full, he has a heart-quietness in gold; (Luke 12) Soul, take your ease; but if the sou…

1. Heaven is not one single palace, but it is a city; a metropolis, a mother-city, the first city of God's creation, for dignity and glory (Revelation 21; Revelation 22). But a city is too little; therefore it is more — it is a kingdom (Luke 12:32; Luke 22:23). Indeed, but a kin…

He hardened his face, he emboldened himself to go to Jerusalem to suffer, he mended his pace, and went more swiftly with a strong fire of love to expend his blood. Luke 12:50. I have a baptism to be baptized with [illegible] how am I fettered or besieged (as the word is used in…

'Behold, I come' (says he, Psalm 40); 'I delight to do your will.' 'And how am I constrained till it be accomplished!' (Luke 12:56). And though to show how great an evil and misery it was in itself he showed an aversion to it, yet as it was his Father's will for our salvation he…

As he blessed the pulse to the captive children (Daniel 1:15), and made the widow's barrel of meal, and cruse of oil to hold out (1 Kings 17:14), and his filling and feeding five thousand with a few barley loaves, and a few fishes (Matthew 14:21). On the other side he can make a…

2. The devil makes use of the world to a double end. 1. To divert us from God and heavenly things, that our time, and care, and thoughts may be wholly taken up about things here below (Luke 12:19): "Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years, take your ease, eat, drink, an…

But this must we learn, that forgiveness of sins, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are freely given to us at the only hearing of faith preached, notwithstanding our horrible sins and demerits. And we must not weigh, how great the thing is that is given, and how unworthy we are of it (…

Fourthly, it signifies by a metaphor, any grievous cross or calamity. Thus the passion of Christ, is called his baptism (Luke 12:50). Fifthly, it signifies the bestowing of extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, and that by imposition of hands of the Apostles (Acts 1:5; Acts 11:…

Answer. It excuses à tanto, non à toto, that is, the degree and measure of the sin, and not the sin itself (Luke 12:48). Again, it may be said, that this their ignorance is invincible, because as the Gentiles do not know God, so they cannot know him.

Partaker of his goods] By goods he vnderstands foode, rayment, lodging, bookes, and other necessaries without the which, a minister of the word cannot followe his calling, for Paul calls these goods, according to the common opinion, which so iudgs of them. Luk 12:19. Soule, you…

But it ought to suffice us that although the number of the faithful be very small, yet that God notwithstanding acknowledges them for his elect people. And with this also should that consolation of Christ come into our minds: Fear not little flock, for it is your father's pleasu…

For the faithful are to hold this as a general and perpetual rule, that by mercies formerly received they ought to expect no less favors for hereafter, otherwise we should savor too much of ingratitude; and should show ourselves not to rest at all in the promises: which if they…

But it may be demanded how the Chaldeans could exceed the bounds which God had prescribed them; Objection: was not God able to have suppressed their rage? And if he were not, where is the truth of that sentence, An hair of your heads shall not fall to the ground without the will…

20. For it is not you that speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you. Luke 12:11-12 11. And when they shall bring you into synagogues, and before magistrates and powers, do not be anxious how or what you shall answer, or what you shall say.