Amos 4:4














The rhetorical fervour of the prophet leads him in this passage to address himself to the guilty nobles of Israel in terms of bitter irony. That descendants of Abraham should have forsaken Jehovah, should have set up altars to a golden calf, or to deities of their heathen neighbours, - this cuts the prophet to the heart. But that, even whilst acting thus, they should retain some of their ancient observances, should profess any reverence for the precepts of the Law of God, - this is the most cruel wound. Hence this language of irony, the severity of which is apparent to every reader.

I. IT IS HYPOCRISY OUTWARDLY TO REVERENCE THE ORDINANCES OF GOD WHILST REALLY SERVING GOD'S ENEMIES. Sacrifices, tithes, leaven, offerings - all of which are mentioned in this passage - were prescribed in the Mosaic Law. The sin of the Israelites lay here. All the time that they were attending to these observances, they were worshipping idols, and breaking the first and second commandments of the ten. Virtually, all men who profess Christianity, and yet love the sinful practices and pleasures of the world, are guilty of this sin. It is hypocrisy, which is worse than an open defiance of the Divine authority.

II. HYPOCRISY SEEMS TO MEET A NEED OF DEPRAVED AND SINFUL NATURES. "This liketh you;" "So ye love to have it;" - such is the reflection of Amos upon this evil conduct. Men do not "like" to break off the associations of the past; they do not "like" to turn their back upon the principles they have formerly professed; they do not "like" to forfeit the apparent advantages of conformity to the requirements of religion. Yet, at the same time, they are not willing to forsake the pleasures of sin, to deny self, to take up the cross.

III. HYPOCRISY MAY DECEIVE SOCIETY, AND MAY EVEN DECEIVE THE HYPOCRITE, BUT IT CANNOT DECEIVE GOD. The conscious aim of the hypocritical is often to impress their companions with the belief of their goodness. But in many cases men actually persuade themselves of their own piety, whilst their life is in flagrant contradiction to the assumption. Let it never be forgotten that God "searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins of the children of men;" that his scrutinizing gaze cannot be averted, nor his righteous judgment avoided. Those who multiply insincere observances really "multiply transgression." And multiplied transgressions surely involve multiplied penalties.

APPLICATION. Bethel and Gilgal are not the only spots on earth where hypocrisy has been practised. The question of all importance forevery professed worshipper to put to himself is this - Is there harmony between the language which I use in devotion and the thoughts and desires of my heart, the actions and habits of my life? - T.

Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression.
I. THE SCENES OF THIS IDOLATRY. "Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression." Idolatry was flourishing in the seats of their most hallowed memories. "Come," he says, "to Bethel." Here, where everything spoke of God's mercy, they were to transgress. At Bethel the founder of their race, fresh from his home in Haran, had "builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord " (Genesis 12:8). Here, on his return from Egypt, he had received the promise that all the land on which he looked should be given to him and his seed for ever (Genesis 13.). There was no spot in the land so rich in memories of God's great goodness as Bethel, yet here they transgressed. Think of a man calling the Duke of Wellington a coward at Waterloo, or forgetting Nelson in Trafalgar Bay. Even this is a faint picture of the insults which Israel offered to God in the place of His richest mercy to the nation. At Gilgal too they multiplied transgressions. Hosea (Hosea 9:15) even says "all their wickedness is in Gilgal." It was the spot where Joshua, just installed as leader after the death of Moses, placed the twelve stones which they had taken out of Jordan (Joshua 4:24). Strange and sad is the story of human sin! In Gilgal they were despising their Champion and Deliverer. The city had another memory which might have saved them. They kept their first passover in the land in Gilgal (Joshua 5:10-12). Sin has a short memory. It tries hard to escape from the remembrance of God's mercy, and can transgress without remorse in the places where heaven has multiplied blessings. Learn, if you would escape the misery of grieving God, to recall His mercies. Every step of life's journey is rich in proofs of His mercy. Barrow says in one of his sermons, that as men choose the fairest places in great cities for monuments of national deliverance, so we should erect in our hearts "lively representations of, and lasting memorials, unto the Divine bounty."

II. THE SPIRIT OF THEIR IDOLATRY. For once they were whole-hearted in worship. They seem to have been prompt to do everything for their idols, though they refused to do anything for God. Sacrifices every day; tithes of their substance every three years; thank-offerings, even freewill offerings, were readily presented at Bethel and Gilgal. Nothing seems to have been too much for them to do. They withdrew from business and pleasure that they might offer their morning sacrifices, etc. To whom? To the idol calf of Bethel, which was soon to be carried — a curiosity of the plundered land — as a present to king Jareb (Hosea 10:6). For God they would do nothing. Their whole strength and wealth were devoted to idols that were powerless to help them, and to priests who were blinding them to the doom which was near at hand. It is a true picture of many still. They will do nothing for God, they are ready to do anything for sin.

III. REASON FOR THIS DETERMINED TRANSGRESSION. "This liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord." Their hearts were wrong, therefore they multiplied transgression. There was no call to think in this false worship. The idol priests sought to drown the voice of conscience and to silence any faithful reproof which might have led to reformation of life. Men came from their houses of ivory, which had been built up with oppression, from the palaces where "robbery and violence" were stored up, and there was no Baptist voice to cry as they entered into the idol temple, "Bring forth fruits meet for repentance." The reason for the alacrity which men show in sin is written here: "this liketh you." But let every man of reason consider! Are we children that "like" should rule?

(J. Telford, B. A.)

Homilist.
Crimes ran riot among the people at this period, and yet how religious they seemed to be!

I. Abounding worship often IMPLIES abounding sin. This is the case when the worship is —

1. Selfish. Men crowd churches, and contribute to religious institutions purely with the idea of avoiding hell and getting to a happier world than this.

2. Formal. Abounding worship is no proof of abounding virtue and abounding godliness.

II. Abounding worship often SPRINGS from abounding sin, It may spring from —

1. A desire to conceal sin. Sin is an ugly thing; it is hideous to the eye of conscience. Hence efforts on all hands to conceal.

2. A desire to compensate for evils. Great brewers build churches and endow religious institutions in order to compensate in some measure for the enormous evil connected with their trade.

3. A desire to appear good. The more corrupt a man is, the stronger his desire to appear otherwise. Do not judge the character of a nation by the number of its churches, the multitude of its worshippers.

(Homilist.)

No sterner picture of an utterly rotten social state was ever drawn than this book gives of the luxury, licentiousness, and oppressiveness of the ruling classes. This passage deals with the religious declension underlying the moral filth, and sets forth the self-willed idolatry of the people (vers. 4, 5); their obstinate resistance to God's merciful chastisement (vers. 6-11); and the heavier impending judgment (vers. 12, 13).

1. Indignant irony flashes in that permission or command to persevere in the calf worship. The seeming command is the strongest prohibition. The lessons of this burst of sarcasm are plain. The subtle influence of self creeps in even in worship, and makes it hollow, unreal, and powerless to bless the worshipper. Obedience is better than costly gifts. Men will lavish gifts far more freely in apparent religious service, which is but the worship of their reflected selves, than in true service of God. And the purity of willing offerings is marred when they are given in response to a loud call, or when given, are proclaimed with acclamations.

2. The blaze of indignation changes into wounded tenderness. Mark the sad cadence of the fivefold refrain. "Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord." To Amos, famine, drought, blasting, locusts, pestilence, and probably earthquake, were messengers of God, and Amos was taught of God. If we looked deeper we should see more clearly. To the prophet's eye the world is all aflame with a present God. Amos had another principle. God sent physical calamities because of moral delinquencies, and for moral and religious ends. These disasters were meant to bring Israel back to God, and were at once punishments and reformatory methods. Amos's lesson as to the purpose of trials is not antiquated. Amos also teaches the awful power which we have of resisting God's efforts to draw us back. The true tragedy of the world is that God calls and we refuse.

3. Again the mood changes, and the issue of protracted resistance is prophesied (vers. 12, 13). Long-delayed judgments are severe, in proportion as they are slow. The contact of Divine power with human rebellion can only end in one way, and that is too terrible for speech. The certainty of judgment is the basis of a call to repentance, which may avert it. The meeting referred to is not judgment after death, but the impending destruction of the northern kingdom. But Amos's prophetic call is not misapplied when directed to the final day of the Lord. The conditions of meeting the Judge, and being "found of Him in peace," are that we should be "without spot and blameless"; and the conditions of being so spotless and uncensurable axe repentance and trust. Only we have Jesus as the brightness of the Father's glory to trust in, and His all-sufficient work to trust to for pardon and purifying.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The Book of Amos is one of the simplest in the Bible. The gist of it is found in Amos 3:2. This is the prophet's theme. It contains three distinct thoughts: the love of God for Israel; the fate in store for them; and the sins by which they had forfeited the one and merited the other. The rest of the book is largely a series of variations on this theme.

1. "Come to Bethel," cries the prophet. The words are hortatory only in form, for Amos adds in the same breath, "and transgress." It is not very clear why the prophet condemned the worship at Bethel. It is probable that Amos was thinking of the character of the worshippers. They certainly, if they had been only h all a§ bad as he describes them in the second chapter, would have been sadly unfit to appear before a holy God. Amos did not condemn sacrifices and offerings as such. They mean that the man who is impure in his life, or unjust to his neighbour, whatever else he may he or do, is yet in his sins: that if he continues such as he is no amount of zeal in the forms of religion will make him acceptable to God; that in fact the attempt to substitute anything for moral character is an insult to the Holy One of Israel.

2. "Yet have ye not returned unto Me." There is a note of surprise and disappointment in the words by which the second thought is introduced. They indicate that the condition of Israel was not what was to be expected. The words following explain why a different state of things ought to have existed — because God had repeatedly afflicted them. Amos here clearly teaches that the calamities which he describes were sent upon Israel on account of their sins, and for the purpose of turning them to God. It would be interesting to know just what was his idea with reference to what we call "misfortunes." Probably he saw some connection between the afflictions which befell Israel and their moral condition. We are not satisfied with the simple views of God and His relation to the world which once prevailed. We know that, though we cannot explain why, the guiltless as well as the guilty arc sometimes overtaken by misfortune. But Israel did not heed the lesson that God would have taught them.

3. "Therefore thus will I do unto thee" (ver. 12). There is no picture of coming terror. Amos could at most but dimly outline what they were to expect. The summons, "Prepare to meet thy God," is usually misunderstood. The words are not an appeal, but a challenge. Persistence in sin means nothing short of an encounter with the Almighty. We have dwelt upon the goodness of God so much that we have almost lost sight of His severity. There is, however, a severe side to His character. And can a man contend with his Maker? The fate of Israel is an illustration of the fatal consequences of persistent disobedience of God.

(Hinckley G. Mitchell.)

This entire prophecy is one of denunciation. Only once or twice is there even hinted the possibility of better things, and only at the very close, like a gleam of sunset glory at the end of a day of gloom, is the full promise given of a restoration of Israel to goodness and to glory. The prophecies against the six enemies of the chosen people and against Judah, with which the book begins, are only preparatory to the full description of the sin of Israel and the punishment which is to come upon its people. Israel, so far as it is like the nations that know not God, is exposed to the same judgments as they.

I. THE PROPHECY IS ADDRESSED TO THOSE WHO ABUSE THEIR PRIVILEGES. Israel was the chosen people, having the oracles of God. They knew the spiritual being and holy character of Jehovah. They had entered into covenant with Him. They had been taught both how to worship Him and how to please Him in their lives. And yet they did not walk as children of the light. They sinned even in their worship. The shrines at Bethel and at Gilgal were the centres of a mingled idolatry and Jehovah-worship. Though they brought sacrifices every morning and tithed their increase or possessions every three days, though they offered not only unleavened bread, but the leavened also, though they encouraged one another to multiply their free-will offerings; however much they might increase their devotion to such religious forms as pleased them, all this was only the increase of their sin, according to the taunting exhortation of the prophet. Mere religiousness never will save a people or a person. External forms grow more rigid when the life has gone out of them, and so announce the loss. To worship the Lord and serve our own gods is the height of impiety. The calf-worship was worse than Baal-worship, because it was a mare conscious defiance of Jehovah. Israel was a prospered people. These days of Jeroboam

II. were at the very summit of its prosperity. The northern kingdom extended to the limits reached under Solomon. Damascus was taken; Moab was reconquered; Israel was powerful and rich. But Israel, instead of making of this richness a very garden of the Lord, suffered all the weeds to grow out of it which so easily find root in such a soil. The sins which mark prosperity are the sins of the prosperous classes. Those who were high in position and rich in possessions in Israel were indulgent toward themselves and oppressive toward the poor. Nations and men need to be warned in their prosperity. It is not easy to tell the truth to the rich and the high. It takes the sense of a prophetic mission to give one courage so to do. Let us beware! What prophet has a message for us like that of Amos the herdsman from Judah for court and priest and people of Israel? Prophets enough, but how many, alas, with no message from the Lord! Our ears are filled with the teachings of political economists contradicting and confounding one another. The air is strident with the harsh cries of the false prophets of materialism.

II. THE PROPHECY IS ADDRESSED TO THOSE WHO NEGLECT THE DISCIPLINE OF ADVERSITY. Israel had had its share of that. Jehovah could not vindicate His Fatherhood unless He corrected the faults of His children by reproof and punishment as well as by the encouragement of prosperity and the stimulus of opportunity. By a famine of food and a famine of water, by a failure of crops, by the scourge of pestilence, by general destruction brought upon them in many ways He had sought to rouse the thoughts of His people and to turn their attention to their evil ways. But it had all been to no purpose. "Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord." When all the discipline which the wise father has been able to devise has failed, his heart is sad and disappointed. We have heard a great deal about probation in the pulpits of the past and in the theological discussions of the present. And yet the term and thought are often misused and distorted. We are not set out upon this earthly life that God may put us through its various experiences to see what is in us, as though He were an assayer to whom each human life was brought that He might determine its value and use by an application of the most efficient tests. We are God's children in our Father's house, and He is trying to educate and discipline us for our proper place and part in the home life as we come to our maturity. We must learn self-restraint and submission to others; we must grow into fuller sympathy with His ways and plans. All this is discipline, not probation. It is education, not testing. True, it does all test us, but in no peculiar sense. Everything tests us. Each command and each caress equally, by the response which it elicits, shows our quality and fibre. But you neither kiss your child nor send him on an errand to test him. But there comes a time, where all has been done that love and wisdom can devise, when the father says, and the mother sits by consenting through sorrow too deep for tears and moans, "We have done all that we can for him. He abuses all his privileges and misuses all his opportunities. He profits nothing by the consequences of his evil doing or by the punishments we have inflicted. We are only making him worse by trying to help him. We have done all that we can do, 'yet he has not returned unto us.'" That is just the case with the mass of the people, both of Israel and of our time and nation.

III. THE PROPHECY IS ADDRESSED TO THOSE WHO HAVE STILL AN OPPORTUNITY TO RETURN. The language of the prophet is stern and severe, and yet it is not an unrelenting severity, nor the sternness of a final sentence. There is this contrast between the threats against the Gentile nations and those spoken to Israel. Nothing is said of a relenting there, but here it is always implied or expressed. The threat against the chosen people is all the more severe by reason of its vagueness: "Thus will I do unto thee, O Israel"; as though could not bear to put into words the terrible things which He foresaw would become necessary. But the threat is relieved by the command which has in it both the elements of terror and of comfort: "Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!" There could be no escape from that encounter. But there was yet time and opportunity for them to make the needed preparation for that meeting. It could not be a preparation to meet their doom which they were bidden to make. It could only be a making ready by penitence and amendment of their lives to meet their God without fear that they might receive His pardon and be restored to His favour. Indeed, the very announcement of a purpose to punish implies a possibility of averting the threatened wrath. The thunderbolts of God are to arouse the attention of the rebellious ones, and the flashes of His lightning show the path which leads to Him. Yes, one more opportunity is given to every one to whom either the threatening of the law or the invitation of the Gospel comes; to every one to whom at least it has a meaning. Law and grace are but the two hands of love. It behoves the men of the nineteenth century, whether they are in the enjoyment of proud prosperity or in the endurance of humbling discipline, to remember that the purpose of both is to draw or drive them back to God.

(George M. Boynton.)

People
Amos, Israelites, Malachi
Places
Bashan, Bethel, Egypt, Gilgal, Gomorrah, Harmon, Samaria, Sodom
Topics
Bethel, Beth-el, Bring, Enter, Evil, Gilgal, Increasing, Morning, Multiply, Offerings, Sacrifices, Sin, Sins, Tenths, Third, Tithes, Transgress, Transgression, Yet
Outline
1. He reproves Israel for oppression,
4. for idolatry,
6. and for their incorrigibleness.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Amos 4:4

     1657   numbers, fractions
     6616   atonement, in OT
     6677   justification, necessity
     7435   sacrifice, in OT
     7442   shrine

Amos 4:2-13

     8807   profanity

Amos 4:4-5

     7316   blood, OT sacrifices
     7402   offerings

Amos 4:4-11

     7233   Israel, northern kingdom

Library
Preparation for Advent
Westminster Abbey. November 15, 1874. Amos iv. 12. "Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." We read to-day, for the first lesson, parts of the prophecy of Amos. They are somewhat difficult, here and there, to understand; but nevertheless Amos is perhaps the grandest of the Hebrew prophets, next to Isaiah. Rough and homely as his words are, there is a strength, a majesty, and a terrible earnestness in them, which it is good to listen to; and specially good now that Advent draws near, and we have
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

April 3 Evening
Ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning.--AMOS 4:11. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?--We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.--The wages of sin is death; but the gift
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Smitten in Vain
'Come to Beth-el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: 5. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings; for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God. 6. And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. 7. And also I have withholden the rain
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

God's Controversy with Man. Rev. Charles Prest.
"Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel."--AMOS iv. 12. This chapter refers to the condition of Israel at the time of this prophecy, and to the expostulation and threatened procedure of God concerning the nation. God's people had revolted from Him; they had sunk into idolatry; they had been often reproved, but had hardened their necks, and therefore the Lord, after recapitulating the calamities which had befallen them,
Knowles King—The Wesleyan Methodist Pulpit in Malvern

The Helpless State of the Sinner under Condemnation.
1, 2. The sinner urged to consider how he can be saved from this impending ruin.--3. Not by any thing he can offer.--4. Nor by any thing he can endure.--5. Nor by any thing hr can do in the course of future duty.--6-8. Nor by any alliance with fellow-sinners on earth or in hell.--9. Nor by any interposition or intercession of angels or saints in his favor. Hint of the only method to be afterwards more largely explained. The lamentation of a sinner in this miserable condition. 1. SINNER, thou hast
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

Whether a Preparation or Disposition for Grace is Required on the Part of Man
Whether a Preparation or Disposition for Grace is required on the part of man We proceed to the second article thus: 1. It seems that no preparation or disposition for grace is required on the part of man. For the apostle says (Rom. 4:4): "Now to him that worketh [40] is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." But a man could not of his own free will prepare himself for grace, unless by an operation. The meaning of grace would then be taken away. 2. Again, a man who walks in sin does not
Aquinas—Nature and Grace

Whether the Notional Acts Proceed from Something?
Objection 1: It would seem that the notional acts do not proceed from anything. For if the Father begets the Son from something, this will be either from Himself or from something else. If from something else, since that whence a thing is generated exists in what is generated, it follows that something different from the Father exists in the Son, and this contradicts what is laid down by Hilary (De Trin. vii) that, "In them nothing diverse or different exists." If the Father begets the Son from Himself,
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether by Penance one Sin Can be Pardoned Without Another?
Objection 1: It would seem that by Penance one sin can be pardoned without another. For it is written (Amos 4:7): "I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained upon: and the piece whereupon I rained not, withered." These words are expounded by Gregory, who says (Hom. x super Ezech.): "When a man who hates his neighbor, breaks himself of other vices, rain falls on one part of the city, leaving the other part withered, for there are some men who,
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether any Preparation and Disposition for Grace is Required on Man's Part?
Objection 1: It would seem that no preparation or disposition for grace is required on man's part, since, as the Apostle says (Rom. 4:4), "To him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt." Now a man's preparation by free-will can only be through some operation. Hence it would do away with the notion of grace. Objection 2: Further, whoever is going on sinning, is not preparing himself to have grace. But to some who are going on sinning grace is given, as is
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Sovereignty of God in Administration
"The LORD hath prepared His Throne In the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all" (Psa. 103:19). First, a word concerning the need for God to govern the material world. Suppose the opposite for a moment. For the sake of argument, let us say that God created the world, designed and fixed certain laws (which men term "the laws of Nature"), and that He then withdrew, leaving the world to its fortune and the out-working of these laws. In such a case, we should have a world over which there was no intelligent,
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

The River of Egypt, Rhinocorura. The Lake of Sirbon.
Pliny writes, "From Pelusium are the intrenchments of Chabrias: mount Casius: the temple of Jupiter Casius: the tomb of Pompey the Great: Ostracine: Arabia is bounded sixty-five miles from Pelusium: soon after begins Idumea and Palestine from the rising up of the Sirbon lake." Either my eyes deceive me, while I read these things,--or mount Casius lies nearer Pelusium, than the lake of Sirbon. The maps have ill placed the Sirbon between mount Casius and Pelusium. Sirbon implies burning; the name of
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The World, Created by God, Still Cherished and Protected by Him. Each and all of Its Parts Governed by his Providence.
1. Even the wicked, under the guidance of carnal sense, acknowledge that God is the Creator. The godly acknowledge not this only, but that he is a most wise and powerful governor and preserver of all created objects. In so doing, they lean on the Word of God, some passages from which are produced. 2. Refutation of the Epicureans, who oppose fortune and fortuitous causes to Divine Providence, as taught in Scripture. The sun, a bright manifestation of Divine Providence. 3. Figment of the Sophists as
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Standing with the People
We have found two simple and axiomatic social principles in the fundamental convictions of Jesus: The sacredness of life and personality, and the spiritual solidarity of men. Now confront a mind mastered by these convictions with the actual conditions of society, with the contempt for life and the denial of social obligation existing, and how will he react? How will he see the duty of the strong, and his own duty? DAILY READINGS First Day: The Social Platform of Jesus And he came to Nazareth, where
Walter Rauschenbusch—The Social Principles of Jesus

The Wisdom of God
The next attribute is God's wisdom, which is one of the brightest beams of the Godhead. He is wise in heart.' Job 9:9. The heart is the seat of wisdom. Cor in Hebraeo sumitur pro judicio. Pineda. Among the Hebrews, the heart is put for wisdom.' Let men of understanding tell me:' Job 34:44: in the Hebrew, Let men of heart tell me.' God is wise in heart, that is, he is most wise. God only is wise; he solely and wholly possesses all wisdom; therefore he is called, the only wise God.' I Tim 1:17. All
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

False Profession.
As there are trees and herbs that are wholly right and noble, fit indeed for the vineyard, so there are also their semblance, but wild; not right, but ignoble. There is the grape, and the wild grape; the vine, and the wild vine; the rose, and the canker-rose; flowers, and wild flowers; the apple, and the wild apple, which we call the crab. Now, fruit from these wild things, however they may please the children to play with, yet the prudent and grave count them of little or no value. There are also
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan

The Sinner Sentenced.
1, 2.The sinner called upon to hear his sentence.--3. God's law does now in general pronounce a curse.--4. It pronounces death.--5. And being turned into hell.--6. The judgement day shall come.--7, 8. The solemnity of that grand process described according to scriptural representations of it.--9. With a particular illustration of the sentence, "Depart, accursed," &c.--10. The execution wilt certainly and immediately follow.--11. The sinner warned to prepare for enduring it. The reflection of a sinner
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

The Careless Sinner Awakened.
1, 2. It is too supposable a case that this Treatise may come into such hands.--3, 4. Since many, not grossly vicious, fail under that character.--5, 6. A more particular illustration of this case, with an appeal to the reader, whether it be not his own.--7 to 9. Expostulation with such.--10 to 12. More particularly--From acknowledged principles relating to the Nature of Got, his universal presence, agency, and perfection.--13. From a view of personal obligations to him.--14. From the danger Of this
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

The Prophet Hosea.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. That the kingdom of Israel was the object of the prophet's ministry is so evident, that upon this point all are, and cannot but be, agreed. But there is a difference of opinion as to whether the prophet was a fellow-countryman of those to whom he preached, or was called by God out of the kingdom of Judah. The latter has been asserted with great confidence by Maurer, among others, in his Observ. in Hos., in the Commentat. Theol. ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

This Doctrine Confirmed by Proofs from Scripture.
1. Some imagine that God elects or reprobates according to a foreknowledge of merit. Others make it a charge against God that he elects some and passes by others. Both refuted, 1. By invincible arguments; 2. By the testimony of Augustine. 2. Who are elected, when, in whom, to what, for what reason. 3. The reason is the good pleasure of God, which so reigns in election that no works, either past or future, are taken into consideration. This proved by notable declarations of one Savior and passages
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

A Holy Life the Beauty of Christianity: Or, an Exhortation to Christians to be Holy. By John Bunyan.
Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.'--[Psalm 93:5] London, by B. W., for Benj. Alsop, at the Angel and Bible, in the Poultrey. 1684. THE EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. This is the most searching treatise that has ever fallen under our notice. It is an invaluable guide to those sincere Christians, who, under a sense of the infinite importance of the salvation of an immortal soul, and of the deceitfulness of their hearts, sigh and cry, "O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Salvation Published from the Mountains
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! I t would be improper to propose an alteration, though a slight one, in the reading of a text, without bearing my testimony to the great value of our English version, which I believe, in point of simplicity, strength, and fidelity, is not likely to be excelled by a new translation
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

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