The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 1
"And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and went into an house, and would that no man should know it: but he could not be hid."--MARK 7:24.
"Then Jesus went from thence, and came into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 2
"And he went into a house, and would that no man should know it."
THIS will, according to which, it is said, "he would that no man should know it," was his human will, according to which, the Lord Jesus was a man as we are, yet without sin; which was not always fulfilled. For his divine will, being backed with omnipotency, can never be resiste ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 3
QUESTION. But cannot Christ be hid? Answer. Not of himself. It is hard to hide a great fire, or to cast a covering upon sweet odours, that they smell not. Christ's name is as a sweet ointment poured out: he is a mountain of spices, and he is a strong savour of heaven, and of the higher paradise. You may hide the man, that he shall not see the sun: ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 4
"The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation."
MUCH woe is denounced by the prophets against Tyrus and Sidon; yet sweet Jesus draweth aside the curtain, and openeth a window of the partition, and saveth this woman. Lo, here Christ "planting in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, the myrtle, the oil tree," (Isa. 41:19;) and here, I ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 5
"VEXED with a devil;" she is devilled, that is, fully possessed. The malice of the devil is a natural agent, and worketh as intently and bently as he can. As the fire putteth forth all its strength in burning; the sun heateth and enlighteneth as vehemently as it can; a millstone fallen from the sphere of the moon down to the earth, useth no moderat ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 6
IN her prayer, as it is expressed by Matthew, we have, 1st, The manner of it: "she cried." 2nd, The compellation, or party to whom she prayeth: "O, Lord, thou Son of David." 3rd, The petition: "have mercy upon me." 4th, The reason: "for my daughter is vexed with a devil."
"She cried." The poor woman prayed (as we say) with good will, with a bent ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 7
SON of David; "O Lord, thou Son of David!" In this compellation, consider why Christ is called the Son of David, never the son of Adam, never the son of Abraham. It is true he is called frequently the Son of man; but never when any prayeth to him: and he is reckoned, in his genealogy, David's son. Abraham's son, the Son of Adam; but the Son of Davi ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 8
THE condition of the covenant is faith; holiness and sanctification is the condition of covenanters, (Gal. 4:21-24; Rom. 10:4-7). This do, was the condition of the covenant of works. This believe, is the condition of this covenant; because faith sendeth a person out of himself, and taketh him off his own bottom, that in Christ he may have his right ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 9
"O LORD, thou Son of David." The one word "O Lord," holdeth forth Christ's Godhead; the other, "Son of David," holdeth forth his manhood. Here is the perfection of our Mediator, in that he is the substantial covenant, and Emmanuel, God with us, or God us, in a personal union; the substantial marriage and alliance between the two houses of heaven an ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 10
"MY daughter is grievously vexed with a devil."
Children, especially to mothers, whose affections are more weak and soft, are taking lovers, especially being parts and substantial shadows of ourself; yet four things are considerable in us to them. (1.) So to hold, as we are willingly to let go; love them as creatures only: often the child is t ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 11
"But he answered her not a word: And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me."--MATTHEW 15:23-25.
WE now enter into the dialogue between the woman and Chri ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 12
"And his disciples came and besought Him, saying, Send her away," etc.
IN the disciples we see little tenderness: no more but "send her away, she troubleth us with crying." Forsooth, they were sore slain, that their dainty ears were pained with the crying of a poor woman! Why, they say not, Dear Master, her little daughter is tormented with th ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 13
"OF ISRAEL." It was then a privileged mercy, that Christ was sent to the Jews. (1.) The Jew is the elder brother, and the native heir of Christ. Christ is of their blood and house. (Rom. 1:2, 3, and 9:3.) They were Christ's first bride. Alas! they killed their husband. There is a born Jew in heaven, in soul and body: it is sweet to have any relatio ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 14
"LOST sheep." Lost, is either understood of the common condition of all men, and so, because all are the heirs of wrath, (Eph. 2). "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," (Rom. 3:23,) and so are lost. But the Scripture entitleth men by that which they are in their own esteem; as "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to re ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 15
"Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me."--VERSE 25.
CHRIST had denied her to be his, but she will not deny but Christ is her's: see how a believer is to carry himself towards Christ deserting, frowning. Christ, (1.) Answered her not one word. (2.) He gave an answer but to the disciples, not to the woman. Oh dreadful! Christ r ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 16
"But he answered, and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to the dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master's table. And Jesus answered, and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt: and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 17
"And she said Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master's table."--VERSE 27.
OBSERVE, 1. The woman's witty answer. By retortion in great quickness, by concession of the conclusion, and granting she was a dog, she borroweth the argument, and taketh it from Christ's mouth to prove her question. She argueth from the te ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 18
NAY, give me leave to say, that Antinomians make justification and free grace, their common-place of divinity, as if they only had seen the visions of the Almighty, and no other. But they are utterly ignorant thereof; for they confound and mix what the Word distinguisheth, because justification is only a removal of sin by a law-way, so that in law ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 19
OBJECTION. But the gospel, from the law of love, not the law itself, forbiddeth the believer to sin; neither teach we, (say they,) that the gospel maketh sin to be no sin, but it only maketh it to be no more my sin, but Christ's, and counted on his score, who was wounded for my iniquities, and was my surety; and therefore, his payment is my payment ...read
The Trial & Triumph of Faith: Sermon 20
YEA, the law from the highest bended love, even from love with all the whole soul, and all its strength, (Matt. 22,) forbiddeth all sin, no less than the gospel of love, which gospel doth spiritualize the law to the believer, but not abolish it. The gospel addeth a new argument of gospel love: because Christ hath died for me, therefore I will keep ...read
Samuel Rutherford