Category: Sin

Practical Atheism: Corrupt Prayer & Praise

Man’s practical atheism is evidenced in our corrupt matter or ends of prayer and praise. When we are importunate for those things that we know not whether the righteousness, holiness, and wisdom of God can grant, because he hath not discovered his will in any promise to bestow them, we would then impose such conditions on God, which he never obliged himself to grant. When we pray for things not so much to glorify God, which ought to be the end of prayer, as to gratify ourselves.… Read More Practical Atheism: Corrupt Prayer & Praise

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Satan’s Dominion Overthrown De Jure & De Facto

Satan is to be cast out of the world, and in due time bound in chains, to the judgment of the great day [Rev. 20:2-3]. He is not, even at present, lord de jure of one foot of earth; but his usurpation lingers, and is permitted to continue on many accounts (into which it is not our present business to inquire). He is to be ejected, in point of fact as well as right, to exercise no more power or authority either over single men or communities of men, by means of any of those systems on which he has expended, for centuries, the utmost refinement of his subtlety. These shall melt away like the mists of the morning. But even now the church has, on the ground of Christ’s atonement, to go in and take possession of the world from which its prince has been legally cast out, and from which he will ere long, in point of fact, be fully ejected (Luke 10:18).… Read More Satan’s Dominion Overthrown De Jure & De Facto

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Of Explicit & Implicit Satanic Covenanting and Good & Bad Witches

The ground of all the practices of witchcraft is a league or covenant made between the witch and the devil, wherein they do mutually bind themselves to each other. More particularly, the league between the devil and a witch is (1) expressed and open, or (2) secret and close. The express and manifest compact is so termed because it is made by solemn words on both parties. The secret and close league between the witch and Satan is that wherein they mutually give consent each to other, but yet without a sworn covenant conceived in express words and conference. A witch is a magician who either by open or secret league, wittingly and willingly, consents to use the aid and assistance of the devil in the working of wonders. Now howsoever both bad and good witches are evil, yet of the two the more horrible and detestable monster is the good witch. For look in whatsoever place there are any bad witches who only hurt, there also the devil has his good ones, who are better known than the bad, being commonly called wise men or wise women.… Read More Of Explicit & Implicit Satanic Covenanting and Good & Bad Witches

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The Abuse of Casting Lots

The abuse of casting of the lot is a sin of the third commandment. The casting of the lot is an extraordinary or unusual request made to God that He would reveal His will in an important controversy which cannot be resolved by either wisdom, skill, or strength. It pertains to an issue that must be resolved, as there would otherwise be danger or great disadvantage to the country, church, or individual. The lot is abused in petty decision-making, games of chance, and gambling.… Read More The Abuse of Casting Lots

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The Successive Steps of Going Astray

It rarely, if ever, happens, that the heart throws off at once all the restraints of virtue, and plunges suddenly into the depths of vice. It is not by one stride, that the moral youth passes from sober habits at home to those of an opposite nature abroad—but generally by slow and successive steps. The judgment and conscience would recoil from a temptation which proposed to him to become profligate at once; and if he ever becomes proficient in vice, he must be led on by insensible degrees, and little by little make advances in the way of wickedness, and in the counsels of the ungodly. This is what is meant by the deceitfulness of sin.… Read More The Successive Steps of Going Astray

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What Does “Stumbling Block” Mean?

What does the Bible mean by the terms “stumbling block,” “offence,” and “scandal” (Matthew 18; Acts 15; Romans 14; 1 Corinthians 8; 1 John 2:10; Revelation 2:14; etc.)? The following excerpt is from James Durham’s A Treatise Concerning Scandal (pp. 4-17). James Durham’s rich and exhaustive treatise was last published by Naphtali Press in 1990,… Read More What Does “Stumbling Block” Mean?

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