Hints to Preachers

Verse 1.—Qualifications for church membership on earth and in heaven. A subject for self-examination.

Verse 1.—I. Comparison of the church to the tabernacle. God’s presence manifested, sacrifice offered, and vessels of grace preserved in it; mean externally, glorious within. II. Comparison of its double position to that of the tabernacle. Moving in the wilderness, and fixed on the hill. III. Enquire into qualifications for admittance into church and tabernacle. Parallel with the priests, etc.

Verse 1.—The great question. Asked by idle curiosity, despair, godly fear, earnest enquirer, soul troubled by falls of others, holy faith. Give answer to each.

Verse 1.—The citizen of Zion described.—Thomas Boston’s Sermons.

Verse 1.—Anxiety to know the true saints, how far lawful and profitable.

Verse 1.—God the only infallible discerner of true saints.

Verse 2.—“He that walketh uprightly.” I. What he must be. He must be upright in heart. A man himself bent double cannot walk uprightly. II. How he must act. Neither from impulse, ambition, gain, fear, or flattery. He must not be warped in any direction, but stand perpendicularly. III. What he must expect. Snares, etc. to trip him. IV. Where he must walk. Path of duty, the only one in which he can walk uprightly. V. Where he must look. Up, right-up, and then he will be upright.

Verse 2.—“Speaketh the truth in his heart.” Subject:—Heart falsehood and heart truth.

Verse 2 (first clause).—The citizen of Zion an upright walker.

Verse 2 (middle clause).—The citizen of Zion, a worker of righteousness.

Verse 2 (last clause).—The citizen of Zion, a speaker of truth.—Four Sermons in Thomas Boston’s Works.

Verse 3.—The evils of detraction. It affects three persons here mentioned: the backbiter, the suffering neighbour, and the taker-up of the reproach.

Verse 3.—“Nor taketh up a reproach.” The sin of being too ready to believe ill reports. Common, cruel, foolish, injurious, wicked.

Verse 4.—The duty of practically honouring those who fear the Lord. Commendation, deference, assistance, imitation, etc.

Verse 4.—The sin of estimating persons other than by their practical characters.

Verse 4 (last clause).—The Lord Jesus as our unchanging Surety, his oath and his hurt.

Verse 5.—The evidences and privileges of godly men.

Verse 5 (last clause).—The fixedness and safety of the godly.