ZION JUXTAPOSED WITH ZAPHON: ‘North’ is a surprising reference to associate with Jerusalem on Mount Zion which was situated in, what would eventually be, the southern kingdom of Judeah.  This language in Psalm 48 actually refers to the superiority of Zion with respect to pagan claims of divine rule. The idea in verse 2 is: “Mount Zion beyond the far north”, or “surpassing the far north”.  Sumerian influenced...

Link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YLKCrwn8vU4 “Christ’s answer to this question; though it was proposed to tempt him, yet, being a case of conscience, and a weighty one, he gave a full answer to it, not a direct one, but an effectual one; laying down such principles as undeniably prove that such arbitrary divorces as were then in use, which made the matrimonial bond so very precarious, were by no means lawful. Christ himself would...

Though the devil is always opposed in will and endeavour to the will of God, he can do nothing without his permission and consent. – Book 1, Chap 14, intro   It was a shrewd saying of a good old man, who when some one pertly asked in derision what God did before the world was created, answered he made a hell for the inquisitive (August. Confess., lib. 11 c. 12). This reproof, not less weighty than severe, should repress the tickling...

For I think we are bound to speak of God as reverently as we are bound to think of him. As our own thoughts respecting him are foolish, so our own language respecting him is absurd. Still, however, some medium must be observed. The unerring standard both of thinking and speaking must be derived from the Scriptures: by it all the thoughts of ours minds, and the words of our mouths, should he tested. – Book 1, Chap 13, Sec 3   Say,...

First, superstition attached divine honours to the sun and stars, or to idols: afterwards ambition followed—ambition which, decking man in the spoils of God, dared to profane all that was sacred. – Book 1, Chap 12, Sec 3