Zechariah 13

It is the best weapon-salve, it heals at a distance: though Christ be in heaven, we may feel the virtue of his blood healing our bloody issue. 2. And it is cleansing: it is therefore compared to fountain-water (Zechariah 13:1). The Word is a glass to show us our spots, and Chris…

He rejoices over them with joy, and rests in his love (Zephaniah 3:17). They are his refined silver (Zechariah 13:9). His jewels (Malachi 3:17).

Let the wicked forsake his way, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And Christ's blood is a fountain set open for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1). Mercy does more overflow in God, than sin in us; God's mercy can drown great sins, as the sea cove…

Lord, be my God in covenant. The Lord has made an express promise, that upon our prayer to him, the covenant shall be ratified, he will be our God, and we shall be his people (Zechariah 13:9). They shall call upon my name, and I will hear them; I will say it is my people, and th…

What communion has light with darkness? And that we may keep our souls pure, (1.) have recourse to the blood of Christ: this is the fountain set open for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1). A soul steeped in the brinish tears of repentance, and bathed in the blood of Christ, i…

4. Means, for pardon, sound repentance: repentance and remission are put together (Luke 24:47). There is a promise of a fountain opened for the washing away the guilt of sin (Zechariah 13:1). But see what goes before (Zechariah 12:10).

Never did justice sit in such state, or appear in such majesty, as when it arraigned, condemned, and did execution upon the Son of God. When God's sword was awakened against the man that was his fellow, (so is he called by God himself, Zechariah 13:7,) he then declared himself r…

Tell him it is true, he may, and that this is some comfort to you — that he may have glory out of your death and destruction, who never yet had it out of your life. But yet desire him to consider this before he thrusts his sword into you: that he did first sheath it in his Son's…

And so did John Baptist, Matthew 3:4. Yea, the false Prophets went so arrayed, that they might the rather be respected of the people, Zechariah 13:4. And, our Savior Christ saith, The false Prophets shall come in sheep's clothing, like the true Prophets; when as indeed, they are…

Secondly, as it is sprinkled, it worketh the second part of this effect. And this sprinkling of the Blood of Christ, is the communication of its sanctifying virtue to our souls, see (Ephesians 5:26, 27; Titus 2:14); so does the Blood of Christ the Son of God cleanse us from all…

And God himself speaks the same of his children. (Zechariah 13:9) They shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, it is my people (now mark the echo) and they shall say, the Lord is my God.

3. God calls the righteous the excellent of the earth (Psalm 16:2). Or the magnificent, as Junius renders it; they are the spiritual phoenixes, they are the cream and flower of the creation; they are purior pars mundi, the purer part of the world, double-refined (Zechariah 13:9)…

Besides all this, the reason why we have only precedents in the Old Testament is, because the people of the Jews were the only state that were acquainted with the knowledge of the true God. We have some prophecies that the like should be done in the New: Isaiah 49:23 and Zechari…

Nevertheless it is true in all the elect having the spirit of grace, and prayer: for when God in the ministry of the word being his own ordinance, says, Seek my face: the heart of God's children truly answers, O Lord, I will seek your face (Psalm 27:8). And when God shall say, Y…

It is no easy matter to cast Satan out of a person; how much less to cast his kingdom out of a land? Another place for the same purpose we find (Zechariah 13:9): when two parts of the land are cut off, the remnant which escape, the third part which is written to life in Jerusale…

First, There was a Covenant between the Church of Israel and God (Exodus 19:5, 6, 7, 8; Ezekiel 16:8; Deuteronomy 29:10, &c.). Secondly, This Covenant was mutual; not only a promise on God's part to be their God, and to take them for his people, but also reciprocally on their pa…

3. In respect of His having had a hand actively in them; and as he was the chief party that pursued Christ; it was He that was exacting the elect's debt of Him; therefore the Lord looks over Pilate and Herod to Him; and says to Pilate you could have no power over me except it we…

And we know that we cannot be free of temptations in this life; yet we pray not to be led into temptation, which is not so much, that the body of sin may be fully rooted out of us, and inherent sanctification may be perfected in this life, as that we may be delivered from guilt…

His going forth is from everlasting, though born at Bethlehem; so the bud of the Lord, and the fruit of the earth (Isaiah 4:2). The man God's fellow (Zechariah 13:7), and in many other places the union of the two natures is asserted. 2. He is the beloved Son.

The second part of instruction is a real and lively teaching, when God made Paul in his heart to answer the calling, according to that in Psalm 27:5: "When you said, 'Seek my face,' my heart answered, 'I will seek your face, O Lord.'" And in Zechariah 13:9: "He shall say, 'It is…

It is further said, we must restore in the spirit of meekness. The word spirit is added, because it proceeds from the spirit of God, who is both the worker and continuer thereof: as on the contrary, the spirit of jealousy (Numbers 5:14), the spirit of error (1 John 4:6), the spi…

After having treated of the restoration of the Church, the prophet, in order to prevent the minds of the godly from being overwhelmed with despair by the extreme distresses which were already at hand, declares, that when the government has been brought into a state of confusion,…

How shall they believe in him of whom, etc. The sum and sense of these words is this: namely, that we are after a sort dumb until the promise of God open our mouth to pray. Which order also he notes in the prophet Zechariah in these words: I will say to them, you are my people,…

And the difficulties of religion are often represented in Scripture as being the trial of professors, in the same manner that the furnace is the proper trial of gold and silver; Psalm 66:10, 11. Thou, O God, hast proved us, thou hast tried us, as silver is tried: Thou broughtest…

For it the blood of Bulls and of Goats, and the Ashes of an Heyfer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifyes to the purifying of the Flesh, how much more shall the Blood of Christ purge our Consciences from dead Works to serve the Living God. And hence the whole Work of Sanctification…

As for instance, it is promised of him that he should be the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), of the seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:18), and of the posterity of David; and yet, that his name should be, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), and o…

Besides as the Scripture is silent, as to any thing that may give the least color to this pretence, so it delivers that which is contrary to it, and destructive of it; for it informs us, that the season of the coming of the Messiah shall be a time of great sin, darkness and mise…

What you, my wife? Is your hand upon me in my own house, might Job say? The Prophet brings in one questioning, What are these wounds? And Christ answering, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends (Zechariah 13:6). The height of enmity is thus expressed, A man's…

For he knows perfectly, he neither can sin, or come short of his vow; nor can the Lord withdraw influences of grace from the man Christ; but Peter had no assurance that under that particular temptation the Lord should not forsake him. The general, all the renewed have, that the…

Again, sin sinks in as a deep stain, therefore Christ is as soap to cleanse it. And therefore go, and say to God, Rather than I should not be cleansed, Lord cleanse me with the fire of affliction, as it is also called (Zechariah 13:9), And I will bring the third part, says the L…

The choicest saints have been afraid, and amazed at the beauty of an angel; and the stoutest sinners have trembled at the glory of one of those creatures in a low appearance, representing but the back parts of their glory, who yet themselves in their highest advancement do cover…

The uniting of the natures of God and man in one person, made him fit to be a savior to the uttermost. He lays his hand upon God by partaking of his nature (Zechariah 13:7), and he lays his hand upon us, by being partaker of our nature (Hebrews 2:14, 16), and so becomes a daysma…

Hence the Father became his God — which is a covenant expression, Psalm 89:26, Hebrews 1:5, Psalm 22:1, Psalm 40:8, Psalm 45:7. So was he by his Father designed to this work, Isaiah 42:1, Isaiah 61:1, Isaiah 49:9, Malachi 3:1, Zechariah 13:7, John 3:16, 1 Timothy 1:15. Thus the…

This blood answers all the typical institutions for fleshly purification and therefore has a spiritually purifying, cleansing, sanctifying virtue in itself as offered and poured out. Hence it is called a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, Zechariah 13:1 — a fountain re…

It would be a license to sin, if his sins were remitted before committed. 3. A right to the remission of daily sins, or free leave to make use of the fountain of mercy, that is always running, and is opened in the house of God for the comfort of believers (Zechariah 13:1): In th…

Therefore we may lay claim to him as a man to his patrimony or inheritance to which he is born, and say, Lord, you are mine. (Zechariah 13:9) I will say it is my people: and they shall say the Lord is my God. As God owns an interest in them, so they own him; he is my God.

This is the constant method of God: first to show man his sin then his Savior; first his danger then his redeemer; first his wound, then his cure; first his own vileness, then Christ's righteousness. We must be brought to cry out unclean, unclean, to mourn for him whom we have p…

And therefore it was that our Savior was pleased to receive our nature even from the vilest of sinners, that he might show himself a Savior from all sins (Matthew 1). Hence also his blood is called a fountain set open for Judah and Israel, to wash in, for sin, and for uncleannes…

When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance and separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of his people according to the number of the children of Israel, for the Lord's portion is his people Israel, the lot of his inheritance: You are the temple of the livin…

For sin is the transgression of the law, and Christ was manifested to take away our sins: therefore (verse 6) whoever abides in him sins not: Christ came to take away sin, and therefore he that abides in Christ cannot abide in sin; and (verse 8) The Son of God was manifested to…

Oh sinners, let your eyes be a fountain of tears; weep for those sins which are so many, as have passed all arithmetic; this water of contrition is healing and purifying. 2. The bath of Christ's blood; this is that fountain opened for sin, and for uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1). A…

Caesar took it unkindly that his son Brutus should stab him — and you, my son? May not the Lord say to us, These wounds I have received in the house of my friends (Zechariah 13:6)! Israel took their jewels and earrings and made a golden calf of them; the sinner takes the jewels…

And Bullinger asks the question whether it had not been more agreeable to love, if in the beginning of the tumult of Münster in Westphalia, a few seditious knaves had been put into prison, and according to their demerit punished, than that while no man is punished for his consci…

For 1. Besides that the old Testament prophesying of Christ's coming speaks of those days as times of greater holiness and strictness, and that in reference to the commands of the first Table, as these Scriptures show (Isaiah 35:8, 9): there shall be a way and it shall be called…

THESIS 19. Besides all the old Testament proofes both of commands and approved examples before the Law, and under the Law, before the Captivity of Babylon and after, for the Magistrates coercive power in the matters of the first Table, laid down in this Treatise, together with A…

(4.) The same Covenant made with Abraham is made with the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6:16): I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Which is prophesied of the Gentiles under the New Testament in Ezekiel 11:17-20, Ezekiel 34:23-25, Jeremiah 31:31-36, Jeremiah 32:36-40,…

Only there is a warrant to say that the Covenant is everlasting: first, because it goes beyond time and stands with the dead in Christ (Matthew 22:32); second, because two great promises of the Covenant — the rising of the body and life everlasting — are fulfilled after time is…

Q. What way is God ours? A. By Covenant (Ezekiel 34:24; Genesis 17:7; Jeremiah 32:38; Zechariah 13:9). But he is not ours as if we had some gifted right and dominion over him, as we have over the creatures.

In fact, he has by their fall brought in a more glorious order, when he that sits upon the Throne says, Behold I make all things new (Revelation 21:5), and it is said (2 Peter 3:13), Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells…

No doubt, Christ God-Man is in Covenant with God, being a person designed from eternity, with his own consent, and in time yielding to that, and yet he stands not in that covenant-relation that we stand in: as we shall hear. Argument 1. What argument does prove that there is a p…