II. WHAT IT IS TO MAKE A NEW HEART. When God says, Be sober — Be vigilant — Be humble — Be obedient — Be holy — Be perfect — He means that men should put forth truly pious and holy affections. And so far as these and other Divine precepts respect sinners, they require the exercise of the same affections, only with this peculiar circumstance, that they are "new" or such as they never exercised before.

III. IT IS THE DUTY OF SINNERS TO MAKE THEM A NEW HEART.

1. The mere light of nature teaches that every person ought to exercise universal benevolence. This duty results from the nature of things. And surely sinners under the Gospel are no less obliged, by the nature of things, to put away all their selfish affections.

2. God, who perfectly knows the state and characters of sinners, repeatedly commands them to make them a new heart. When God commands them to love Him with all their hearts, and their neighbour as themselves; or when He commands them to repent, to believe, to submit, to pray, to rejoice, or to do anything else; He implicitly commands them to make them a new heart, or to exercise holy instead of unholy affections.And for sinners to exercise holy affections, is to exercise the new affections in which a new heart consists.

1. If the making of a new heart consists in the exercising of holy instead of unholy affections, then sinners are not passive, but active in regeneration.

2. If sinners are free and voluntary in making them a new heart, then regeneration is not a miraculous or supernatural work.

3. If it be a duty which God enjoins upon sinners, and which they are able to perform, to make them a new heart, then there is no more difficulty in preaching the Gospel to sinners than to saints.

(N. Emmons, D. D.)

II. Man morally IS BOUND TO REMAKE himself,

1. This is not an impossible work.

(1)Reason would suggest its possibility.

(2)The Bible implies its possibility.

(3)The means appointed indicate its possibility.There are moral means supplied by God in the Gospel for the very purpose. What are they? In one word, demonstrations of His infinite love for sinners. The one grand demonstration is the delivering up of "His only begotten Son" for the restoration of a guilty world.

2. This is an urgently important work. "Make you a new heart." To make fame, power, money, these are childish trifles compared with the work of making a new heart. Your well-being here and yonder, now and forever, is involved in this work.

(Homilist.)

1. It is practicable.

2. It is essential.(1) Man's present heart is his guilt and ruin. He has given himself the "stony heart," the heart that stands hard as granite against the Divine influences of love and truth.(2) All other reformations are worthless unless the heart be renewed.

II. Soul reformation is SELF-WORK. No one can do this work for you. You may build houses, plant farms, educate your children by proxy, but this is work that you yourself must do, and no one else. But how is it to be done? What is the way? Concentrated thought upon the infinite loving tenderness of that God against whom we have sinned, as demonstrated in the biography of Christ.

1. Such thought is adapted to the end. Ah! millions of stony hearts have been transformed into flesh as they have mused on Calvary.

2. Men have the power of giving this concentrated thought. All men are thinkers, and all men are thinking upon some subjects with more interest than on others.

(Homilist.)

I. The EXISTENCE of a moral heart in man. Every man is under the all-controlling power of some one disposition, and this disposition, like the physical heart, beats its influence in every vein and fibre of the spiritual nature. All the activities of man are streams from this fountain, branches from this root, pulsations from this organ.

II. The RENEWAL of the moral heart in man.

1. As a personal duty.(1) Man can alter his moral heart. Our moral dispositions are under the control of our thoughts, and our thoughts we can employ as we please.(2) Man has altered his moral heart. History abounds with instances of the churl becoming generous, the carnal spiritual, the profane reverent, the godless godly. Is it the duty of a dishonest man to become honest, of a false man to become true, a vicious man to become virtuous? Then it is the duty of a godless man to become godly. "Make you a new heart." This work done, all work is successful; this work neglected, all work is disastrous.

2. As a Divine gift. "A new heart also will I give you." There are two ways in which God bestows gifts on men. One way is irrespective of his choice and effort. Life itself and the necessary conditions of life are blessings that come to us without any effort on our part. But there are other blessings which He gives only on condition of human effort. He gives crops only to those who cultivate the fields and sow the grain, knowledge only to those who observe, investigate, and study. So He gives this new heart only to those who "consider their ways," repent, and believe the Gospel.

(Homilist.)

I. THE PRECEPT. What place does it hold in this arrangement? What is its office? What good practical purposes does it serve?

1. This command has evidently made you conscious of your helplessness, and I call that a practical movement, a very practical movement — an invaluable result — and the indispensable prerequisite to all others. Would you ever have known how completely your senses are all sealed in spiritual sleep but for the authoritative voice of God? and even that, as you can testify, only like a dying echo, through your dream, crying, "Awake, awake, thou that sleepest."

2. It will not only lead you to think of your weakness and helplessness, but it will tend to show you how complete and thorough your impotency is, and to deepen the sense of this upon your soul. Go and try to make yourself a new heart. Labour to regenerate your own soul. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." And then tell your success. Break off every old habit, if you can. Give up every outward act of sin. Mortify the deeds of the body. But have you changed your heart? Have you given it new dispositions, new desires, new delights?

3. Besides evoking the testimony of experience and consciousness, the precept has power to touch the springs of conscience; and without this it would indeed be utterly inefficient. You may have been "alive without the precept once, but when the precept comes in spiritual power, sin revives, and you die" (Romans 7:9). You die to all pride, and peace, and hope. You learn two solemn truths, which, when taken together, gave you no rest till they mercifully shut you up to the only remedy. You know your helplessness; but you cannot sit down contented, for you know also your obligation and responsibility. You know your obligation but you do not become legalists, for you know also your helplessness. You feel that you cannot obey; but this does not set all at rest, because you feel that you must obey. You feel that you must obey; but neither does this settle all, for you also feel that you cannot.

II. THE PROMISE.

1. It is obvious that the wisdom of God is wonderfully exhibited in bringing in the promise at this precise point. If it had come sooner, the soul would not have been prepared to receive it. If it had come later, the soul would have been already given over to hopeless despair.

2. How is the grace of God adored by the fainting soul, when, after the conflict with the precept, the promise comes brightly into view. Like the same law given to Moses a second time, not amidst thunderings and lightnings, and darkness and tempest, but amidst light, and peace, and favour, all God's goodness passing by before His servant, sheltered now in the cleft of the rock; so here, the preceptive form, which caused the tempest and the terror in the soul, being all done away, the very same substance, in all its integrity, is restored, but now beaming in the light and lustre of a free and a gracious promise, "A new heart will I give unto you, a new spirit will I put within you."

3. But the grace of God is still more wonderfully glorified by the consideration, that, while this is the very thing which we need, and which God offers to bestow upon us, it is also the very thing which we are bound to render unto Him. Grace abounded when, sympathisingly, He gave me that new heart which I was unable to make; but grace much more abounded when, forgivingly, He gave me that new heart which I was bound to make, and guilty in my inability to make it.

4. And now the sovereignty of Divine grace can be obscured or concealed no longer. This also the believer is taught to feel and to acknowledge by reason of his previous discipline under the precept. In learning his obligation and responsibility, he at the same time necessarily learned the majesty and kingly authority of God.

III. THE PRAYER. It appropriately comes last, because it is grounded on, and takes its warrant from the promise, pleading the fulfilment of the promise that thereby the object of the precept may be gained. The prayer, when offered, grows out of the promise; the prayer, when answered, satisfies the precept. The precept teaches man that he is helpless; the promise tells him there is help; the prayer secures the help. The precept teaches man that he is responsible and guilty; the promise tells him there is forgiveness; the prayer obtains the pardon. The precept teaches man God's authority; the promise tells of God's grace; the prayer tries and tests God's sufficiency. The precept teaches man his dependence; the promise declares dependence in God well placed; the prayer puts dependence on God accordingly. The precept teaches man humility; the promise gives man hope; the prayer shows man's trust. The precept gives, scope for God's righteous justice; the promise gives scope for God's faithfulness; the prayer gives scope for man's faith. In all cases, the prayer is necessary to complete the cycle; and if the precept and the promise do but graciously exercise the soul, the prayer will and cannot but follow. To the prayerless, therefore, there is here very clear and simple ground for self-examination and self-condemnation. You have only to plead with God to do all the work to your hands. Will you cast away eternal joy and court eternal agony by refusing that?

(H. Martin.)

I. THE PRECEPT, "Make you a new heart and a new spirit." Now what place, in the Divine arrangements for our conversion, are precepts of this kind supposed to occupy? What do they mean? What do they assume? What practical effect have they, or ought they to have, upon our moral conduct and convictions? They are to awaken us to a conviction of our helplessness, they are to reveal to us our souls' danger, they are to show to us the deep seatedness of our depravity, they are to break in upon the slumbers of the natural conscience — in a word, they are to set us upon making an effort. The effort may be feeble and imperfect and unpromising, but still an effort it is, and an effort such as, in the case of any worldly interest being endangered, we should assuredly make, however slight the chances of success. What man on seeing a huge crag just loosening over his head, or seeing flames issue from his neighbour's dwelling house, would omit to use such means as were within his reach, on the plea, "What good would it do?" However apparently impracticable therefore, precepts of the kind contained in the text are useful, if only as showing that, as far as regards ourselves, they are impracticable. They naturally set us upon thinking how the need they have discovered may be supplied, and the disorders of our moral condition may be corrected, and the ruin and the death and the helplessness and the condemnation may be turned from us or taken away. When our Lord ordered the paralytic man to take up his bed and walk, or the blind man to look and say if he saw aright, He seemed to be telling them to do that which was impossible. And if they had thought so, and had made no effort, the evils they were suffering from would have remained untaken away. But, concurrently with the command went forth an impulse upon the souls of the men that the command was of God, and that anything enjoined by Him must be possible. And it is precisely under this aspect that we are to view the command, "Make you a new heart and a new spirit." You say you cannot make it. I say there is a sense in which you can make it, just as much as at the bidding of Christ a man was able to stretch forth a withered hand. A command from God, we must always remember, is, in its own nature, an appeal to human accountableness. It forecloses all excuses. It disallows any possible ground of exemption. It assumes that there is in every one of us a certain power of compliance, and therefore convicts of obstinacy and disobedience the man who does not turn that power to account. And the like principle applies to the text, and all others of kindred import.

II. THE PRECEPT VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF THE PROMISE. This same Ezekiel who is instructed to call to the house of Israel, "Make you a new heart and a new spirit," also has it in charge to deliver as God's kind assurance to the people, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." Everything God does, whether in the material or moral world, is characterised by harmony, proportion, order, law. "As our day, so our strength"; as the command to run, so the grace to draw; as the exhortation "Make you a new heart and a new spirit," so the provision of all needful agencies by means of which this new creation is to be made. Here then we see how much of light is shed upon the Divine dealings with us, when we join the promise on to the precept; when we are brought to see that God never exhorts us to do a thing without putting the means of compliance within our own reach and power. This viewing the two things in juxtaposition will be found to rid us at once of a whole host of speculative difficulties and objections, which might have attached to the precept if it had stood alone. "Make you a new heart" — change the hue of AEthiop's skin — turn back the whole current of your likes and dislikes, and bid the tide set with equal vehemence the contrary way — this is a hard saying, some will say, hard, and even something more — impossible. Admitted. "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." That which is impossible to the precept is possible to the promise. We are never allowed to view these two great facts of the moral world apart. There are two great truths — their authority alike over the human conscience, and their claims alike to a rational belief. And these are: first, that the origin, as well as the effective agency, in the work of our salvation is to be traced to God only; and the other that, in connection with that work, and as morally furthering that work, much has to be done by the sinner himself.

III. THE PRECEPT AND PROMISE TOGETHER CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATION TO PRAYER. Ezekiel had been commissioned to give the injunction, "Make you a new heart"; and a little after he is told to add that word of consolation, "A new heart also will I give you": yet lest the promise should inspire presumption, or the precept should lead to despair, he adds, "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them, said the Lord God." The precept speaks of death; the promise points to life; the prayer is the permitted signal for the resurrection when challenging the power of the Eternal Spirit to "breathe upon dead souls that they may live." The precept shows us that we have work to do; the promise evidences that we have not the power to do it; the prayer suggests the use of certain instituted means, in order that God may do it for us. The precept is the will of God commanding; the promise is the goodness of God encouraging; the prayer is helplessness pleading at His footstool with eyes fastened on the mercy seat, because afraid to look upon the throne. In a word, they form, in combination, a holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity. For the precept is the Sovereign Father of the universe enjoining obedience. The promise is the Son of His love entreating that the offender may be spared. The prayer is the indwelling Spirit within us waking up the heart to devotion, and showing us both how to wrestle and prevail with God. Wherefore, that ye may be able to keep the precept, pray; that ye may have part in the promise, pray; that ye may have the spirit of effectual fervent prayer, pray. Keep the end of all in view — "A new heart and a new spirit," a changed judgment and restored affections, a submitted will and a heavenly mind.

(D. Moore, M. A.)

II. WHAT IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY THE NEW HEART AND NEW SPIRIT. These are new and right exercises, or new and right affections. They are those free, moral exercises, which are in conformity to the revealed will of God, and sanctified by His Spirit. As the heart consists in voluntary exercises and affections, these in the impenitent sinner are wrong, and must be changed in order to be right. They must be withdrawn from improper objects, and directed in a right channel. They must be withheld from all undue attachment to this vain world, and placed on God, and heavenly things, as the supreme good. The general tenor of the life must likewise be in obedience to the Divine commands. When any sinner by true repentance returns to these good exercises, he has a new heart and a new spirit, and is become a new creature. His old, wrong affections are changed into new, right affections, and his good exercises in the obedience of his life prove him to be a new man.

III. HOW SINNERS CAN MAKE TO THEMSELVES THIS NEW HEART. The first steps are to cast away all transgression, to repent of every sin, to forsake every evil and false way, and then enter upon a life of new obedience. Sinners must first cease to do evil, and then learn to do well. Neither must they be content with external obedience. They must withdraw their love, or undue attachment, from this vain world and set their affections on things above. As the new heart consists in new, right affections, and in those free, moral exercises which are agreeable to the will of God; therefore to form this, every sinner must abandon those desires and voluntary exercises of the mind, heart, and life which are wrong and forbidden, and enter upon those that are right and commanded by God. If anyone do this with a sincere desire after new and constant obedience, he will by the blessing of God have a new heart and a right spirit, and enjoy the evidence of it in his own breast. Lessons —

1. We infer the greatness, the urgency, and reasonableness of the work.(1) The greatness and urgency of it appear from God's requiring it at the hand of sinners on penalty of losing eternal life.(2) God requires it also as a reasonable service. For it is every way reasonable in itself, that rational beings should turn the free, moral exercises of their minds and hearts toward their heavenly Father and Benefactor, — set their affections on those objects most worthy of their love, and walk in obedience to those commands which were designed for their greatest good.

2. If the making of a new heart consist principally in casting away all transgressions by sincere repentance, and entering upon a new life, then resolutions this way are the first steps to become really good, and ought to be constant exercises in order to continue so.

3. If the heart consist in free, moral exercises, as the Scriptures view it, then every man must be active in his own conversion, or regeneration, or in obtaining a meetness for the enjoyment of God.

4. We see on this view of the subject a constant call for active exertion, watchfulness, and circumspection, and also a foundation for that spiritual warfare represented by Paul.

5. No one has more moral goodness, or holiness, than he has good, or holy, exercises.

6. The work of becoming and continuing good both in heart and life lies with every one of you to perform for yourselves under the assistance and grace of God.

(Pitt Clarke.)

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. That all unrepenting sinners will assuredly die.

2. That God is extremely reluctant to execute the fatal sentence.

3. That sinners may yet, if they will, escape eternal death.

II. WHY WILL YE DIE?

1. Is it because you seriously believe that the pleasures of sin, with death at the end of them, are better than holiness, with heaven for its reward?

2. Is it because you have satisfied yourself that the warnings of the Bible are without foundation? that there is, in reality, no death of the soul hereafter, no hell for the ungodly, no heaven for the righteous?

3. Is it because, while you profess to believe the Bible, you still inconsistently doubt whether sin will end in everlasting death?

4. Is it because there are in the world multitudes as careless, or as wicked, as yourself; and you think it impossible that so many should all be in the way to destruction? In answer to this reason, let us ask ourselves, What is all the world to us in this matter? God speaks to us individually.

5. Is it because death and judgment seem to be far off; and therefore, although you do not wish to perish, yet you suppose it is time enough yet to turn and repent? If so, I must plainly tell you that you are, to all intents and purposes, choosing eternal death. You have no real intention to turn to God at a future day: you do but deceive your own soul.

(J. Jowett, M. A.)

I. WE ARE NOT SETTLED IN OUR RELIGIOUS FAITH. We do not know whether the Bible is true or not. We do not know whether Christ is God or not. Are you, in the passage of the years, getting any nearer a decision? Why do you not go into this subject, and go through it? If your child be sick, and you do not know whether it is just a common cold or the diphtheria, you pursue the doctor until you find out. Now, I do not blame you for not becoming Christians, but I do blame you for taking neither the one side nor the other. Through all these years you have been in a fog. You know the steamship Atlantic went on the rocks in a fog; you know that the Arctic and the Vesta struck in a fog; you know that only a little while ago the steamship Schiller went down with nearly all on board in a fog; and it is amid the same kind of circumstances that some of you are going to shipwreck. Did Darwin, or Tyndall, or Herbert Spencer ever help a man to die? When the surges of death rise mountain high, would you rather be in this staunch frigate of the Gospel — a frigate of ten thousand tons — or in the leaky yawl of scepticism?

II. Another reason why men do not come into the kingdom of Christ is BECAUSE THEY ARE OF THE OPINION THAT THE PRESENT IS OF MORE IMPORTANCE THAN THE FUTURE. I have noticed that everything depends upon the standpoint you take when you look at everything. We stand so deep down in the "now" that we cannot see into the great "hereafter." If we could stand between the two worlds, and look that way and this way, then we might make a more intelligent comparison as to the value of these two worlds — this and the next. In other words: the farthest on we can get in this life — yea, the very last point of our earthly existence — will be the best point in which to estimate the value of these two worlds. And so I call upon all the dying population of Christendom, I call upon all the thousands who are now departing this life and I ask them to give testimony in this matter. They say: "My head on this wet pillow, I look one way and I look the other way. I see Time: I see Eternity. How brief the one: how long the other. I never saw it so before. Hand-breadths against leagues. Seconds against cycles. I put my wasted and trembling hand — my left hand — on the world that I am leaving, and I put my wasted and trembling hand — my right hand — on the world that I am entering, and for the first time I see how small is the one and how vast is the other."

III. Another reason why men do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ and become Christian, is BECAUSE THEY ARE OF THE OPINION THAT THE MATTERS OF THE SOUL ARE NOT URGENT, PRESSING, AND IMMINENT. They have their reception day. They say: "Let Business enter." Business enters, is interviewed, passes out. They say: "Let Pleasure enter." Pleasure enters, is interviewed, passes out. They say: "Let Worldly Knowledge enter." Worldly Knowledge enters, is interviewed, passes out. After thirty or forty years, they say: "Let Religion enter" And they look; but religion has got tired of waiting, and is gone. That queen of heaven, standing in the ante-chamber of the heart, ought to have been received first. Her first tap on the door ought to have brought the response, "Come in — come in."

(T. De Witt Talmage.)

1. That man is made to act from reason.

2. That man is amenable to his Maker for the reasons that influence him.

3. That notwithstanding man's rational and responsible nature, he is pursuing a course of self-destruction.

I. THE DECREES OF GOD DO NOT RENDER YOUR RUIN NECESSARY. But does not Paul teach that God makes vessels for dishonour as well as vessels for honour? No. All that he avers is, that He could do so. And it is to the glory of God's benevolence to assert, that whilst He could make and organise creatures for misery, He has never done so. Let the naturalist search through all the endless species of animal life, let him take the microscope, and let him find one single creature amongst the smallest, and say, This little creature was evidently made to suffer, was organised for misery — is a vessel built for dishonour. No, God could, but He does not.

II. Your SINFUL CONDITION DOES NOT RENDER YOUR RUIN NECESSARY. Why is this? Because the Gospel makes provision for you in your present state. There lies a man on the bed of suffering. A malignant and painful disease has done its work on his constitution; in a few hours, unless some remedy come, he must breathe his last. A skilful physician enters the room; he has in his hand a little medicine, which if taken will inevitably restore him. It is offered to him, pressed on him, and he has yet power to take it. Need that man die? If he refuse the remedy he must die, but since the remedy is offered, and he has the power to take it, his death is needless. It is thus with the sinner, he is infected with the malady of sin, he is on the margin of death; but here is the remedy, the Great Physician of Souls is at his side, offering an infallible antidote.

III. THE EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH YOU ARE PLACED DO NOT RENDER YOUR RUIN NECESSARY. Bad thoughts may be conveyed to your mind, bad impressions made on your hearts, but they need not harm you; you have a power to transmute them into spiritual nourishment. Remember that some of the most eminent saints that ever lived have been amongst most trying and tempting circumstances. Remember that the more trying your circumstances may be, the more corrupt the society in which you live, the more need there is for you to carry out noble principles.

IV. THE CONDITION ON WHICH SALVATION IS OFFERED DOES NOT RENDER YOUR RUIN NECESSARY. "He that believeth shall be saved," — "He that believeth hath everlasting life." Now, belief as an act is one of the most simple. It is as natural to believe an evident truth as it is to see. Moreover, man has a strong propensity to believe. His credulity is his curse. It is this that has given to the world those monstrous systems of error under which it has been groaning for ages. But what must we believe in order to be saved? If it be responded, The facts of the Gospel, I ask, Are there any facts attested by clearer or more potent evidence? Or, if it be said, The principles of the Gospel, then we declare that those principles are moral axioms, and recommend themselves to the intuitions and felt necessities of the human soul. Or, should it be replied, It is faith in the Author of the Gospel — the living, loving, personal Christ — then we ask, What character is so adapted to enlist your faith and inspire your confidence?

(Homilist.)

1. It is not the dissolution of the body; that is not the death here referred to, for how manifest it is that it is not subject to the will of man!

2. It is the ruin of the soul, or the inheritance of everlasting woe.

II. IMPENITENT MEN DIE THIS DEATH.

1. The Scriptures in the strongest manner assert that "except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

2. The Scriptures go further, and represent impenitent men as determined upon this death. When the voice of Calvary speaks out in tenderness and love, when that voice comes forth from every wound and is heard in every groan of our dying Lord, calling on them, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" — if the sinner still travels onward, and turns not at the voice of mercy, is there no wilfulness in it?

3. They form a character for perdition, knowing that none other than a holy character can possibly fit them for heaven.

III. UPON WHAT PRINCIPLE DO THEY ACT IN THUS CONDUCTING THEMSELVES?

1. It is not because God delights in the death of a sinner. Do you think the father has any pleasure in the act by which he discards his incorrigible son; the son with whom he has reasoned, and wept, and prayed; the son before whom he has spread all the evils of his conduct, and the inevitable ruin to which it must bring him?

2. It is not because of any difficulty on the part of God. There was a difficulty, and there is a controversy now between you and God; but then that controversy may be settled; and through the blood of Jesus Christ the difficulty is removed out of the way to enable you to return.

3. It is not because there is any difficulty in the revelation of the salvation of God, or in the atonement for sin. The Bible is represented as a lamp to our feet; like the sun, it shines on our path, so that the guilty sinner may, from the Word of God, from the fulness and completeness of the revelation, see with perfect distinctness the way in which a sinner may again be brought from his wanderings and received into the favour of God. Nor is there any deficiency in the atonement.

4. It is not because sufficient pains have not been taken with man. Were there no pains taken on the part of God to save men from going down to perdition when He gave up His own Son to die for them? Again, has not the Son of God taken pains, in leaving the glory which He had with the Father, and coming down, down into the degradation of taking our nature upon Him? Did Jesus Christ take no pains for your salvation? — He who, when on earth, was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Then has the Holy Ghost taken no pains in inspiring holy men to write this wonderful Book, in striving with you, in following you up year after year, in meeting you in the house of God, in meeting you in the way that you go and in your business, in striking solemn thoughts upon your mind, and arresting your attention, and causing you to think of death, and of judgment, and of eternity?

5. If you die this death it will not be because God's commands are unreasonable. They are, Repent, believe in His Son, and live a holy life. Is it unreasonable that God should call on the sinner to stop in a single moment; that he should not take another step in the wrong way?

6. It is not because the will of the sinner is forced or constrained that he therefore dies. Did you ever do anything in your life against your will? Is it possible for you to do anything contrary to your own will? I do not ask you whether you have done anything contrary to your feelings, anything different from what you liked; but whether you have done what was contrary to your own will? If the sinner then is not constrained, if we act according to our own wishes, and make up our own minds, then how true is the position I have taken, that men die this death, because they will die it! What would you say of a man who should set out from London, saying he intended to go to Birmingham, and with a distinct knowledge of the geography of the country, should take his seat on a coach that was going to Dover? And what, if when he was told by the coachman again and again, "This road leads to Dover, and every mile brings us nearer and nearer to Dover" — what would you think of him if he said, "Well, I hope before I arrive there, somehow or other, to be brought to Birmingham"? You would say that the man was not acting according to good sense, and you would say right. Well, what is the condition of the sinner? What is his conduct? He is travelling wilfully along a road which he knows will not lead him to heaven. And this is the language which God addresses to him, "Why will ye die?" Why do you go the wrong road?

(1)Is it brave? It may be foolhardy, but it is not brave.

(2)Is it right to do so? You know in your conscience it is not.

(3)Is it good to act thus? Is it good to throw away the soul that can live beyond the stars? Is it good to turn your back on all the means of grace and to throw heaven away?

(J. Patten.)

I. THE NATURE OF YOUR RUIN.

1. It is the death of pleasure — the end of all delight — the putting out of the last taper of enjoyment, so that nothing is left but deep, dense darkness — the quenching of all those vain joys (the only joys the ungodly can ever know of) which are likened in Scripture to the crackling of thorns under the pot.

2. It is the death of hope. Everlasting punishment! It cannot mean that after a while the soul, cleansed by penal fires, shall recover its purity. It cannot mean that out of the depths of hell it shall mount up to heaven.

3. It is the death of love. "Hateful and hating one another," are words which will apply more emphatically to the future than the present state of sinners — that is the most tremendous condition to which creatures can be reduced. To that depth of wretchedness unsaved sinners will be hereafter reduced.

4. It involves exclusion from heaven, from that world of which Scripture gives us such bright and attractive visions: from "our Father's house"; from "the city of habitation"; from "the temple of God and the Lamb"; from "paradise"; from "the tree, and from the fountain of life"; from those regions where "there is no curse — neither shall there be any more pain."

5. It involves exclusion from the society of the really great and good, God's true nobility, "the innumerable company of angels"; the great cloud of witnesses; "the church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven"; "the spirits of the just made perfect"; "the glorious company, of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs."

6. It involves exclusion from the Father of an infinite Majesty"; "from His holy, true, and everlasting Son"; "the King of glory"; "also the Holy Ghost the Comforter"; "Depart from Me."

II. THE AUTHOR OF YOUR RUIN. The fact of the sinner's self-destruction is apparent from —

1. The character of God. He is a God of truth and justice. Would this be true if the final destruction of the sinner depended not on himself, but was the result of an arbitrary and irresistible decree? if immortal souls were the helpless and hapless victims of an iron-handed destiny? But God is merciful as well as just. To suppose after this that any man's eternal destruction does not lie at his own door — but is the consequence of the Divine will arbitrarily exercised is monstrous.

2. The character of the Gospel. Look at the Babe of Bethlehem, and the Man of Sorrows — at Him who wept over Jerusalem — at the agonised Sufferer in the Garden — at the Crucified One.

3. The character of man. There is a conscience in man. Conscience would have no meaning if man were not free, if his actions were not free, his determinations free, his thoughts free.

4. The character of his future condition. That condition will be a condition of punishment. What does punishment imply? Guilt. The righteous may be oppressed, afflicted, persecuted, but they cannot be punished; only the guilty can be punished. That which God calls punishment, which the Bible calls punishment, must come as the fruit of sin, the offspring of guilt. Therefore, the sinner must incur it himself.

III. THE REASON OF YOUR RUIN. Most of you, in reply to the question of the text — Why will ye die? — would have to say, Because we love the pleasures of the world more than the joys of eternal life; because we desire the approbation of men more than the honour that cometh from God; because we covet the possession of earth more than the inheritance of heaven; because we are addicted to the ways of sin, and are not disposed to break off our evil habits; because we have been living in impenitence and unbelief, and have no mind to change our course. Thus you destroy yourselves for the sake of the world, for the sake of sin. The guilt, folly, shame, and ignominy of the suicide belong to you. To destroy oneself is considered so monstrous an act that the man who commits it is generally pronounced insane. When not insane, when the case is brought in felo de se, the miserable mortal is treated even in death as an outlaw, and his remains are cast forth with every circumstance of dishonour and disgrace, as no longer within the pale of humanity. In the great inquest of the Last Day, the finally impenitent will come under a verdict of wilful insanity; will be regarded as having acted the part of the madman, with all the culpability of the voluntary self-assassin, and will therefore be cast beyond the bounds of the holy city, flung into the pit of Gehenna, to mingle with the refuse of the universe.

(John Stoughton.)

1. A state of conscious existence.

2. A state of deprivation.

3. A state of hideousness.

II. THE QUESTION PROPOSED.

1. There is no necessity for it in the nature of God.

2. There is no necessity in the will of man.

3. There is no necessity on account of our circumstances.

(W. W. Whythe.)

I. WHAT IS THIS WORD WITH WHICH MY TEXT ENDS? for upon that the whole stress of the matter evidently depends: "Why will ye die?" You have bent over the dying, or over the dead; you have watched that face, which used to speak to you with such meaning, gathering blankness and darkness; you have seen those eyes, which once sparkled upon you with intelligence, become glazed, and dead, and fixed. That is death. We all know what it is; but whose death is that? What are the first words they speak when it is all over — when the blankness and nothingness have succeeded to anxiety? "He is gone!" Those are the words: "He is gone!" Then it was not he that died! It was something belonging to him which underwent a change; but it was not the man that died. That affected the body; but it did not affect the person. We do not say that when a brute dies beneath our eyes; we do not attribute to a brute that sort of doubleness — that he should be in one place, and the carcass in another; and therefore, when this text says, "Why will ye die?" it does not allude to the death of the body — it does not allude to that of which I have just been speaking; but I have been speaking of that that I might take it for an example — that I might take it for a guide to that more mysterious and less well-known thing to which the text does allude. We have already spoken of this person, this personality, this he, this I, this you, which does not die upon the bed of death, which is not crushed by the power of the accident, which remains and exists on. Now what is this? We never consider the brute creature, the poor dumb animal, as we express it, responsible; we do not consider that he, or it, rather, can give an account; we do not consider, in any proper sense of the word, that it can do right, or can do wrong. But the moment you get to a human body, whether that human body is man, woman, or child, if that human body is only in possession of reason and of sense, you cannot divest yourself of that idea of responsibility If he does right — I am not saying now whether he is right or wrong in this which follows, but — there is a certain sort of self-congratulation follows upon it, and he knows he has done right. If he does wrong, supposing him to be an ordinary man, and not absolutely, blinded by the power of habitual sin — if he does wrong in the common and broad acceptation of the word, his conscience in some measure accuses him.

II. Now, this may lead us to know and to feel, as indeed all mankind of sound mind have known and have felt, that THIS PERSONALITY OF WHICH WE SPEAK IS A LASTING AND ENDURING THING, which shaft give an account. You cannot deny it. Well, then, let us go back, if you please, to this bed of death, of which we spoke just now. Let us carry onward that scene a little further. Let us pass — it is a remarkable sentence of the greatest, of English preachers — "from the freshness and the fulness of the cheeks of childhood to the horror and loathsomeness of a three days burial." And what do we see there? The body is broken up; it is become a seething mass of foul and degraded and loathsome life — a life not its own — a life which did not belong to its beautiful and harmonious construction. Its parts are gone, or are going, each to their way; the solid to the dust of the earth, the liquid to the mighty ocean. It is dispersed; it is passed away. "It is sown a corruptible body." It is sown in shame and in contempt. Though it was, perhaps, the dearest of things on earth to us a few days ago, we have put it out of our way; we have buried our dead out of our sight. And that is the death of the body. Now, is there not something very analogous to that — I mean very like it, something which follows the same rules — in the death of man's immortal spirit? But what is the death of the spirit? Can you not easily conceive it? Is it not obvious to the simplest of our thoughts, that the spirit of man may, and, alas! does, fall into disharmony with all these its powers, just like the beautiful organs of the body may fall out with one another; that the spirit may present, in its way and in its condition, something like the terrible and loathsome scene which we just now witnessed with regard to the body after death? But then, notice all this remarkable difference. The body, as I have said, falls asunder; God shall build it up again. For the present it perishes; but there can be no cessation, there can be no syncope, in the life of the spirit; the spirit must live on, in the midst of this death — must exist on, perhaps I should rather say, and for this night keep the word "living" and the word "life" to their glorious and more proper meaning. The spirit exists on, then, divided against itself; miserable, and in discord; all its powers wasted, all its energies spent in self-remorse.

III. Now comes another most important point to our present consideration, and it is this — HOW CAME ABOUT THIS DEATH? What has it to do with man's will? Now, these at first sight are very difficult questions, and they are questions with which it would have been utterly impossible for us to deal had not the Holy Spirit been given to us to enable us to deal with them. "God created man upright." He created him to follow out the intention of his spirit gifted with judgment and the body; of both of which we have been now speaking. But God did not bind him to his liberty in this way, and to his joy, and to his ultimate end, of reaching after and getting to glory hereafter. He left him free; and this is one of the greatest dignities with which our nature was gifted of God — that it was not made like any tribe of the brute creation, always to run in the same channel, to be incapable of advance or improvement; but it was made free to stand and free to fall. What lay before it was an object of adoration, reverence, and obedience; and with temptation before it, and God's grace ready to help, man was then put into a state of trial, and man fell. Death came into the world by sin. Sin shifted the centre of man's soul. Before, he could have gone on revolving round that centre in beautiful obedience; after sin, he has become, in the technical sense of the word, eccentric. He now revolves no longer round God, his proper centre, but he has sought an orbit of his own, and this leads him into disarrangement and disagreement, and all those things of which we have been speaking, as ending and issuing in the death of the soul. Well, then, you will say to me, if this is the case, what has the will of God to do with it? How can this be said to us, and how can God plead with us in the text, "Why will ye die?" If death came into the world by sin, if the death of the body is the result of sin — a result which neither you nor I nor anyone can avoid — how can it be said of the death of the soul, "Why will ye die?" Is not that a necessary result of sin too? Now we are come to the point, you see, of these words having been necessarily spoken, and the whole truth of this chapter necessarily written to a people in covenant with God. God has provided a way out of this death. It has pleased Him not to provide any way out of natural, corporeal, bodily death. "If Christ be in you," says the apostle, "the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life, because of righteousness." There is just the distinction. God has bound upon us all death according to the flesh; but He has not bound upon us all death according to the spirit, although it is our own state by nature, out of which we must be helped, if we are to get out of it at all, and that help He has graciously given us. Christ died that we might live; He lives that we might live forever. He has become the head of our nature; He has become to us the source of grace and of help, the help of the Holy Spirit of God, to overcome our evil dispositions, to help us to regulate our tempers, to glorify and adorn Him in our station in life, to be better men, better fathers, better husbands, better brothers and sisters, better citizens, better in everything than we were before.

IV. WHAT IS THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT? Wherever you live in this world, and about whatever you are employed in this world, there is a life put in the power of the spirit of this kind; there is no situation in life that excludes from it. You must seek it, in fact, in your ordinary occupations. There is the first thing. God will be found of each one of us in the path of life that He marks out for us. He gives us, it is most true — and blessed be His name for it! — He gives us such days as this, when we can assemble together to hear of these things; but He does not give us the invitation to come, and draw near, and live on this day only. He gives us, again, times of sorrow, times of solemn thought, times of bereavement; and I believe that when we get to the other side of the water, and look back upon the map of our present course, we shall see that these were our green places, and these were our still waters of comfort, and these were our recallings to Him. But these are not the only times when He calls us. Every day, and all day long, He is calling us. The mechanic who lifts his arm to do his ordinary work — in every lifting of that arm is God pleading, "Why wilt thou die?" The man who goes forth to his daily labour by the light of His glorious sun - every beam that is shed upon him pleads with him, Why wilt thou die?" The man who lies down to sleep at night, wherever he be — his preservation in those hours of slumber — the sweet rest that he obtains — is but another pleading with him, "Why wilt thou die?" And so we might go on through all the common pathways of ordinary life, grimed as they are with labour, looked down upon as mean, and considered by some as having nothing to do with this matter, and we might show you that they are all means of grace. Now, it needs very little reminding of mine to go on with such considerations as these, and to say that this life of your spirit consists, in the very first place, in the continual recognition of God by you. God must be the centre round whom your spirits are to revolve in the ordinary orbit of life. You must look at His will; that will must be a guide to you. You must look at His word; that word must be a lamp to your feet, and a light to your paths.

(Dean Alford.)

I. "WHY WILL YE DIE?" Is it because you have concluded that God the Father is unwilling to save you? Who is this lying in Gethsemane's garden prostrate on the ground, whose sweat is, as it were, great drops of blood? It is the Son of God. And who is that crucified on the heights of Calvary, "whose long reiterated cry bespeaks His soul's deep agony"? Who can the Sufferer be, when the sun refuses to behold His dying torment, and the rocks are rent, and the graves give up their dead, and earth is convulsed to its inmost centre? It is the Son of God! What stronger or more affecting pledge could He have given of His love to sinners, and of His desire to rescue them from death and hell, than when, in order to deliver them, He poured the vials of His wrath on the head of His only, His beloved, His eternal Son? Can you steel your hearts against such tenderness? Can you still live without God, without hope, without prayer, without concern about your souls, though they must very soon enter the world of spirits and eternity — share either the bliss of that house with many mansions, or the unutterable woe of the damned in hell? Can you any longer resist the Father's merciful inquiry, "Why will ye die?"

II. IS NOT JESUS AN ALMIGHTY SAVIOUR, THE VERY SAVIOUR WHOM YOU NEED? You have nothing to bring to God as the procuring price of your forgiveness. If this were the case, we would pronounce your condition hopeless. But the ground of pardon and acceptance is the active and passive obedience, the doing and dying of the Son of God. He is revealed to you as the very Saviour who can meet all the exigencies of your case, who has a fulness of merit to justify and of grace to sanctify. Why, then, will ye die? The burden of your guilt may be very heavy, but it is not too heavy for the hand of an Almighty Saviour to take it off, for He has an arm that is full of strength. Your stains may be very dark and very deep, but not too deep for the blood of the Lamb to remove them, and to make you whiter than the snow. Your fetters may be very strong and very tightly bound, but not too tightly to prevent Emmanuel from executing the very purpose of His mission and death, in setting the lawful captive free. Your disease may be deeply seated, it may be very inveterate, but not too inveterate to yield to the healing virtue of the Balm in Gilead, and the restoring skill of the Physician there.

III. ARE YE NOT MOST CORDIALLY INVITED TO COME TO CHRIST AND LIVE? Is degrading vassalage a feature of your natural state — are you naturally led captive of Satan at his will? Then are you invited to take the remedy and live, for it is written, "Turn to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope, for even today do I declare that I will render to you double." Is pollution and depravity a feature in your case? Then are you invited to take the remedy and live, for it is written, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you." Is it a feature in your case that you are burdened with a load of guilt, and ready to sink beneath its pressure down to the lowest hell? Then are ye invited to take the remedy and live, for it is written, "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Are poverty, and nakedness, and blindness features in your case? Then are ye invited to take the remedy and live, for again it is written, "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." Poor sinners! Is it a feature in your case that through grace you are willing to be saved? Then are ye invited to take the remedy and live, for it is written, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Why then will ye die?

IV. DOES NOT THE SPIRIT, BY HIS COMMON OPERATIONS, STRIVE WITH YOU TO INDUCE YOU TO CLOSE WITH THE OFFERED SAVIOUR AND LIVE? Have. you never had momentary convictions at least that all was not right with you; that your religion was but a cold, heartless, dead profession, and that your hopes (if hopes you at all entertained), instead of being based on the immovable foundation laid in Zion, were like the spider's web, at the mercy of every wind that blows? The Spirit was then striving with you, although you grieved and quenched Him. Perhaps He is striving with you at this moment. We implore you, resist not His operations — stifle not the convictions He imparts — grieve Him not away, for each time that you quench the Spirit is just a step in advance towards the commission of that sin which is never forgiven.

V. ARE YE, AFTER MATURE DELIBERATION, FINALLY AND FIRMLY RESOLVED TO REJECT ALL THAT CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY AND TO COURT ALL THAT CAN MAKE YOU MISERABLE? Eternal Spirit! draw nigh in preventing grace, touch and soften every heart, that all may listen to the affecting question, Why will ye die?

(A. Leslie.)

1. For death is so awful; not the extinction of thought, feeling, memory. Rich man in hell (Luke 16). Loss of all happiness; hope. Exclusion from God and all that is pure and holy; dwelling in the place prepared for the devil and his angels.

2. How life is provided (John 3:16; 1 John 5:11; John 10:10). Deliverance from condemnation; freedom from the power of sin; holiness now, blessedness forever.

II. Why will YE die?

1. For you are surrounded by Gospel privileges.

2. For your punishment will be the more severe (Matthew 11:21; Luke 12:47, 48; Matthew 23:14).

III. Why WILL ye die Whoever is lost wills it. If otherwise, God's character is tarnished. The Gospel is a delusion. Man is incapable of guilt — remorse (John 5:40; Ezekiel 18:32; Deuteronomy 30:19).

IV. WHY will ye die?

1. Because they love their sins better than their souls.

2. Because they will not give time to the serious consideration of these things.

3. Because they refuse to believe in any danger.

(Homilist.)

     4010   creation, renewal
     5015   heart, and Holy Spirit
     5016   heart, fallen and redeemed
     5038   mind, the human
     5064   spirit, emotional
     5065   spirit, fallen and redeemed
     6178   hardness of heart

Ezekiel 18:1-32

     6026   sin, judgment on
     6206   offence

Ezekiel 18:20-31

     6139   deadness, spiritual

Ezekiel 18:25-32

     1075   God, justice of

Ezekiel 18:30-32

     6734   repentance, importance

God's Curse on Sin.
"Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin."--EZEKIEL xviii. 30. These words of Ezekiel may be understood as expressing in the prophet's language what the Book of Deuteronomy expresses in such denunciations as those which were read to us the other day in the Commination Service. They correspond also to the warning of St. Paul when he says--"Be not …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

Divine Impartiality Considered.
"For there is no respect of persons with God." The divine impartiality is often asserted in the holy scriptures; and the assertion coincides with our natural ideas of deity. The pagans indeed attributed to their Gods, the vices, follies and weaknesses of men! But the beings whom they adored were mostly taken from among men, and might be considered as retaining human imperfections,--Had unbiased reason been consulted to find out a supreme being, a different object would have been exhibited to view. …
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

True Repentance
EZEKIEL xviii. 27. When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness which he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. We hear a great deal about repentance, and how necessary it is for a man to repent of his sins; for unless a man repent, he cannot be forgiven. But do we all of us really know what repentance means? I sometimes fear not. I sometimes fear, that though this text stands at the opening of the Church service, and though people hear it …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Of the Examination of Conscience, and Purpose of Amendment
The Voice of the Beloved Above all things the priest of God must draw nigh, with all humility of heart and supplicating reverence, with full faith and pious desire for the honour of God, to celebrate, minister, and receive this Sacrament. Diligently examine thy conscience and with all thy might with true contrition and humble confession cleanse and purify it, so that thou mayest feel no burden, nor know anything which bringeth thee remorse and impedeth thy free approach. Have displeasure against …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The Theology of Grace.
The theology which Augustin opposed, in his anti-Pelagian writings, to the errors of Pelagianism, is, shortly, the theology of grace. Its roots were planted deeply in his own experience, and in the teachings of Scripture, especially of that apostle whom he delights to call "the great preacher of grace," and to follow whom, in his measure, was his greatest desire. The grace of God in Jesus Christ, conveyed to us by the Holy Spirit and evidenced by the love that He sheds abroad in our hearts, is the …
St. Augustine—Anti-Pelagian Writings

The Abbots Euroul and Loumon.
To the examples already given in the previous biographies, of the power which religion exercised over the rough and savage mind, we may add the following. The abbot Ebrolf (Euroul) had settled with his monks in a thick forest, infested by wild beasts and robbers. One of the robbers came to them, and, struck with reverence at their aspect, said to them: "Ye have chosen no fit dwelling for you here. The inhabitants of this forest live by plunder, and will not tolerate any one amongst them who maintains …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places

A Startling Statement
TEXT: "The wicked shall not be unpunished."--Prov. 11:21. There are very many passages of Scripture which ought to be read in connection with this text; as for example, "Fools make a mock at sin" (Proverbs 14:9), for only a fool would. Better trifle with the pestilence and expose one's self to the plague than to discount the blighting effects of sin. And, again, "The soul that sinneth it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4). From this clear statement of the word of God there is no escape. Or, again, "Our …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

General Character of Christians.
"And they that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh, with the Affections and Lusts." St. Paul is supposed to have been the first herald of gospel grace to the Galatians; and they appear to have rejoiced at the glad tidings, and to have received the bearer with much respect. But after his departure, certain judaizing teachers went among them, and labored but too successfully, to alienate their affections from him, and turn them form the simplicity of the gospel. The malice and errors of those deceitful …
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

The Wicked Husbandmen.
"Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto …
William Arnot—The Parables of Our Lord

The Same Necessary and Eternal Different Relations
that different things bear one to another, and the same consequent fitness or unfitness of the application of different things or different relations one to another, with regard to which the will of God always and necessarily does determine itself, to choose to act only what is agreeable to justice, equity, goodness, and truth, in order to the welfare of the whole universe, ought likewise constantly to determine the wills of all subordinate rational beings, to govern all their actions by the same …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God

Some Man Will Say, "So Then any Thief Whatever is to be Accounted Equal...
19. Some man will say, "So then any thief whatever is to be accounted equal with that thief who steals with will of mercy?" Who would say this? But of these two it does not follow that any is good, because one is worse. He is worse who steals through coveting, than he who steals through pity: but if all theft be sin, from all theft we must abstain. For who can say that people may sin, even though one sin be damnable, another venial? but now we are asking, if a man shall do this or that, who will …
St. Augustine—Against Lying

"He is the Rock, his Work is Perfect, for all his Ways are Judgment, a God of Truth, and Without Iniquity, Just and Right is He.
Deut. xxxii. 4, 5.--"He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children," &c. There are none can behold their own vileness as it is, but in the sight of God's glorious holiness. Sin is darkness, and neither sees itself, nor any thing else, therefore must his light shine to discover this darkness. If we abide within ourselves, and men like ourselves, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Jesus, My Rock.
When the storm and the tempest are raging around me, Oh! where shall I flee to be safe from their shock? There are walls which no mortal hands built to surround me, A Refuge Eternal,--'Tis JESUS MY ROCK! When my heart is all sorrow, and trials aggrieve me, To whom can I safely my secrets unlock? No bosom (save one) has the power to relieve me, The bosom which bled for me, JESUS MY ROCK! When Life's gloomy curtain, at last, shall close o'er me, And the chill hand of death unexpectedly knock, I will …
John Ross Macduff—The Cities of Refuge: or, The Name of Jesus

And for Your Fearlessness against them Hold this Sure Sign -- Whenever There Is...
43. And for your fearlessness against them hold this sure sign--whenever there is any apparition, be not prostrate with fear, but whatsoever it be, first boldly ask, Who art thou? And from whence comest thou? And if it should be a vision of holy ones they will assure you, and change your fear into joy. But if the vision should be from the devil, immediately it becomes feeble, beholding your firm purpose of mind. For merely to ask, Who art thou [1083] ? and whence comest thou? is a proof of coolness. …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Meditations against Despair, or Doubting of God's Mercy.
It is found by continual experience, that near the time of death, when the children of God are weakest, then Satan makes the greatest nourish of his strength, and assails them with his strongest temptations. For he knows that either he must now or never prevail; for if their souls once go to heaven, he shall never vex nor trouble them any more. And therefore he will now bestir himself as much as he can, and labour to set before their eyes all the gross sins which ever they committed, and the judgments …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Concerning the Condition of Man in the Fall.
Concerning the Condition of Man in the Fall. [182] All Adam's posterity, or mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, as to the first Adam, or earthly man, is fallen, degenerated, and dead; deprived of the sensation or feeling of this inward testimony or seed of God; and is subject unto the power, nature, and seed of the serpent, which he soweth in men's hearts, while they abide in this natural and corrupted estate; from whence it comes, that not only their words and deeds, but all their imaginations, are …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

"But we are all as an Unclean Thing, and all Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags,"
Isaiah lxiv 6, 7.--"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," &c. This people's condition agreeth well with ours, though the Lord's dealing be very different. The confessory part of this prayer belongeth to us now; and strange it is, that there is such odds of the Lord's dispensations, when there is no difference in our conditions; always we know not how soon the complaint may be ours also. This prayer was prayed long before the judgment and captivity came …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Repentance and Restitution.
"God commandeth all men everywhere to repent."--Acts xvii. 30. Repentance is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. Yet I believe it is one of those truths that many people little understand at the present day. There are more people to-day in the mist and darkness about Repentance, Regeneration, the Atonement, and such-like fundamental truths, than perhaps on any other doctrines. Yet from our earliest years we have heard about them. If I were to ask for a definition of Repentance, a great …
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It

Perseverance Proved.
2. I REMARK, that God is able to preserve and keep the true saints from apostacy, in consistency with their liberty: 2 Tim. i. 12: "For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Here the apostle expresses the fullest confidence in the ability of Christ to keep him: and indeed, as has been said, it is most manifest that the apostles expected …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

Sanctification.
I. I will remind you of some points that have been settled in this course of study. 1. The true intent and meaning of the law of God has been, as I trust, ascertained in the lectures on moral government. Let this point if need be, be examined by reference to those lectures. 2. We have also seen, in those lectures, what is not, and what is implied in entire obedience to the moral law. 3. In those lectures, and also in the lectures on justification and repentance, it has been shown that nothing is …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

Letter ii (A. D. 1126) to the Monk Adam
To the Monk Adam [3] 1. If you remain yet in that spirit of charity which I either knew or believed to be with you formerly, you would certainly feel the condemnation with which charity must regard the scandal which you have given to the weak. For charity would not offend charity, nor scorn when it feels itself offended. For it cannot deny itself, nor be divided against itself. Its function is rather to draw together things divided; and it is far from dividing those that are joined. Now, if that …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux