Zechariah 11

Sin has blotted God's image, and stained the orient brightness of the soul. Sin makes God loathe a sinner (Zechariah 11:8), and when a sinner sees his sin, he loathes himself (Ezekiel 20:42). Sin drops poison on our holy things, it infects our prayers.

3. The necessity of being new creatures. 1. Till then we are odious to God (Zechariah 11:8). My soul loathed them.

A sinner's works are opera mortua dead works (Hebrews 1:6), and those works which are dead cannot please God; a dead flower has no sweetness. 3. We had need pray that the kingdom of grace may come, because till this kingdom come into our hearts we are loathsome in God's eyes (Ze…

If all the evils in the world were put together, and their quintessence strained out, they could not make a thing so filthy as sin does. So odious is a sinner, that God loathes the sight of him (Zechariah 11:8). My soul loathed them.

3. The new creature is a work of rare excellency. A natural man is a lump of earth and sin, God loathes him (Zechariah 11:8). But upon the new creature is a spiritual glory: As if we should see a piece of clay turned into a sparkling diamond.

Your turning of things upside-down shall be reputed as the clay [illegible] of the potter (Isaiah 29:16): from the root [illegible] to think, desire; to form a thing of clay as the potter does. From this is the potter named [illegible] (Zechariah 11:13; Genesis 2:7; Deuteronomy…

Just as if a thief that has sped well and has got a good prey, should thank God that he has prospered so well in his wickedness: So here (as if Job should say) my sons have done ill in their feasting, and they are so far from being humbled, that they have blessed God in their he…

9. There may be also something of God's design here, to try the humility and sincerity of his people, if they will stoop to every way he uses, because it is his; and if they will love the Word, not as so, or so proposed, but as it comes from him, and is his, and as such humbly r…

In fact, could you by one act of sin make all the treasures and delights of the whole world tributary to you; should the Devil take you when he tempts, as he took Christ, and show you all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and promise to bestow it all upon you; ye…

It is fit the noblest faculty should be employed in the noblest work: this is the noblest work to praise God, therefore all that is within us must be summoned. Church adversaries took up a customary form (Zechariah 11:5): Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich. And in Nehemiah it is…

You do nothing for the Lord, and your love is very little, or else that which is, is nothing worth in God's account. Look at the practice of Judas — so [reconstructed: hellish] and detestable as not to be named nor remembered among men; and the loathsomeness that lay in the bott…

Why has Satan filled your heart? The Lord abhors a sinner, he will not come near him, having his plague-sores running (Zechariah 11:8). My soul loathed them.

He sold himself to buy the soul. Zechariah 11:12: they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. He was content not only to be sold, but to die; this enhances the price of the soul — it cost the blood of God (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:19): you were not redeemed with corruptible…

But soul-diseases are symptoms of God's anger; as he is a holy God, he cannot but hate sin (Psalm 138:6): God beholds the proud from afar. God hates a sinner for his plague-sores (Zechariah 11:8): my soul loathed them. Sickness at worst only separates from the society of friends…

Its all one if the Nurse has no milk in her breasts, or having, drawes it not forth to her child. There is a wo to the Idol-shepherd, Zech. 11. such as have mouthes, but speak not; lips, but not to feed the people with knowledge. It shall be the peoples sin, if they feed not whe…

But so infants and all the rest of these Kingdoms who fixedly, in a Church, hear the Word, profess they are followers, and by so doing are witnesses against themselves that they have chosen the Lord to be their God, and have consented to the Covenant, as Joshua says (Joshua 24:2…

Which words are cited true of Christ, by Luke (Acts 13:47), when Christ is preached to the Gentiles: And as one who labored for us, so he craves his wages, though the Jews pay him unworthily. (Zechariah 11:12) Then I said, if you think good, give me my price, and if not, forbear…

Some think sin an ornament, it is rather an excrement. So does sin befilthy a person, that God cannot abide the sight of him, (Zechariah 11:8). My soul loathed them.

Persons are vailed over with ignorance, and self-love, therefore see not what deformed souls they have. The Devil does with them as the Faulkner with the Hawk, blinds them, and carries them hooded to Hell, (Zechariah 11:17). The sword shall be upon his right eye.

He is without bowels. I may allude to that, Zechariah 11 verse 9. That which dies, let it die, and that which is cut off, let it be cut off.

If notwithstanding all admonitions, they will run counter to the Word, and prostitute themselves to their sordid lusts, they are felo de se, and their blood will be upon their own head. What remains, but that God should say in anger, as Zechariah 11:9. That that dies, let it die…

The Key of Knowledge, is lost in the Tree of Knowledge. Especially, in matters Sacred, we are enveloped with ignorance, The Sword is upon our right eye, Zechariah 11:16. What a little of the Sea, will a Nut-shell hold?

And which is the sum of all uncleanness, sin in the heart is compared to the fire of hell (James 3:6). So that the pure eyes of God loathe to see, and his nostrils to smell it (Zechariah 11:8; Amos 5:21). It makes all those that have eyes open and judgments rectified to abhor it…