Thomas Boston (1676 - 1732) was a Scotch Presbyterian Calvinist who has left the world an outstanding testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus through his magnum opus, Human Nature In Its Fourfold State, or Man's Fourfold State. This is a work that every Christian ought to read, as it probes the depths of man in his State of Innocence, man in his State of Nature, man in his State of Grace, and man in his Eternal State, and it probes these great themes with an intelligence and spiritual vivacity not found in today's common drivel. Many of the Puritans and other mighty servants of God, such as George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, and a host of preachers throughout the world, considered this book mandatory reading.Boston's Human Nature In Its Fourfold State and Memoirs Of Thomas Boston are both available in hardcover from Banner Of Truth Trust. Additionally, The Complete Works Of Thomas Boston, which are now out of print, and which run to a total of twelve volumes, may be found occasionally from used book vendors. This is a treasure worth owning, if you can find it.The following quotations are from Complete Works, published as a reprint of the original by Richard Owen Roberts. |
"We have been once born sinners: we must be born again, that we may be saints." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Regeneration is a supernatural real change on the whole man, fitly compared to the natural birth... For the better understanding of the nature of regeneration, take this along with you, that as there are false conceptions in nature, so there are also in grace: by these many are deluded, mistaking some partial changes made upon them, for this great and thorough change." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Many call the church their mother, whom God will not own to be his children." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Good education is not regeneration. Education may chain up men's lusts, but cannot change their hearts." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"A turning from open profanity, to civility and sobriety, falls short of this saving change [of regeneration]. Some are, for a while, very loose, especially in their younger years; but at length they reform, and leave their profane courses. Here is a change, yet only such as may be found in men utterly void of the grace of God, and whose righteousness is so far from exceeding, that it doth not come up to the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"One may engage in all the outward duties of religion, and yet not be born again... All the external acts of religion are within the compass of natural abilities. Yea, hypocrites may have the counterfeit of all the graces of the Spirit." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Men may advance to a great deal of strictness in their own way of religion, and yet be strangers to the new birth." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"A man whose conscience has been awakened, and who lives under the felt influence of the covenant of works, what will he not do that is within the compass of natural abilities?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"A person may have sharp soul-exercises and pangs, and yet die in the birth... There may be sore pangs of conscience, which turn to nothing at last... and some have sharp soul-exercises, which are nothing but foretastes of hell." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Some have sharp convictions for a while: but these go off, and they become careless about their salvation... They get awakening grace, but not converting grace; and that goes off by degrees, as the light of the declining day, till it issues in midnight darkness." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"There may be a wonderful moving of the affections, in souls that are not at all touched with regenerating grace. When there is no grace, there may, notwithstanding, be a flood of tears, as in Esau... There may be great flashes of joy... There may be also great desires after good things, and great delight in them too... Common operations of the divine Spirit, like a land-flood, make a strange turning of things upside down: but when they are over, all runs again in the ordinary channel. All these things may be, where the sanctifying Spirit of Christ never rests upon the soul." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Great changes may be made by the power of nature, especially when assisted by external revelation. Nature may be so elevated by the common influences of the Spirit, that a person may thereby be turned into another man, as Saul was, who yet never becomes a new man. But in regeneration, nature itself is changed, and we become partakers of the divine nature; and this must needs be a supernatural change." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Original sin infects the whole man; and regenerating grace, which is the cure, goes as far as the disease... When the Lord opens the sluice of grace, on the soul's new-birth day, the waters run through the whole man, to purify and make him fruitful." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"In regeneration the mind is savingly enlightened. There is a new light let into the understanding... The spotless purity of God, his exact justice, his all-sufficiency, and other glorious perfections revealed in his word, are by this new light discovered to the soul, with a plainness and certainty, which as far exceed the knowledge it had of these things before, as ocular demonstration exceeds common report. For now he SEES what he only heard of before." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Regenerating grace brings the prodigal to himself, and makes men full of eyes within, knowing every one the plague of his own heart. The mind being savingly enlightened, the man sees how desperately corrupt his nature is; what enmity against God, and his holy law, has long lodged there: so that his soul loathes itself. No open sepulchre so vile and loathsome, in his eyes, as himself." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"The truth is, unregenerate men, though capable of preaching Christ, have not, properly speaking, the knowledge of him, but only an opinion, a good opinion, of him; as one has of many controverted points of doctrine, wherein he is far from certainty... But saving illumination carries the soul beyond opinion, to the certain knowledge of Christ and his excellency... The same light convincingly discovers a superlative worth, a transcendent glory and excellence in Christ, which darken all created excellencies as the rising sun makes the stars hide their heads... Finally, this illumination in the knowledge of Christ, convincingly discovers to men a fulness in him, sufficient for the supply of all their wants, enough to satisfy the boundless desires of an immortal soul." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Regenerating grace elevates the soul, translates it into the spiritual world, from whence this earth cannot but appear a little, yea, a very little thing; even as heaven appeared before, while the soul was grovelling in the earth. Grace brings a man into a new world: where this world is reputed but a stage of vanity, a howling wilderness, a valley of tears." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Though men be not book-learned, if they are born again, they are Spirit-learned; for all such are taught of God. The Spirit of regeneration teaches them what they knew not before and what they knew by the ear only, he teaches them over again as by the eye. The light of grace is an overcoming light... this illumination will make men's minds run, as willing captives, after Christ's chariot wheels." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Love makes a net for elect souls, which will infallibly catch them, and bring them to land. The cords of Christ's love are strong cords; and they need to be so, for every sinner is heavier than a mountain of brass; and Satan, together with the heart itself, draws the contrary way. But love is strong as death; and the Lord's love to the soul he died for, is the strongest love; which acts so powerfully, that it must come off victorious." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"In regeneration, the mind is enlightened in the knowledge of spiritual things... The will is renewed... The will is cured of its utter inability to will what is good. While the opening of the prison to them that are bound, is proclaimed in the Gospel, the Spirit of God comes and opens the prison door, goes to the prisoner, and, by the power of his grace, makes his chains fall off; breaks the bonds of iniquity, wherewith he was held in sin, so as he could neither will nor do any thing TRULY good; and brings him forth into a large place." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"The corrupt nature is the source of all evil, and therefore the soul will be often laying it before the great Physician. O what sorrow, shame, and self-loathing fill the heart, in the day that grace makes its triumphant entrance into it!" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"In regeneration... the will is endowed with an inclination, bent, and propensity to good. In its depraved state, it lay quite another way, being prone and bent to evil ONLY: but now, by the operation of the omnipotent, all-conquering arm, it is drawn from evil to good, and gets another turn... By regenerating grace, the will is brought into conformity to the will of God. It is conformed to his preceptive will, being endowed with holy inclinations, agreeable to every one of his commands... Thus the will is disposed to fall in with those things which, in its depraved state, it could never be reconciled to." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"The Lord God proposes a covenant of peace to sinners, a covenant which he himself has framed, and registered in the Bible: but they are not pleased with it. Nay, unregenerate hearts cannot be pleased with it... Though the covenant could not be brought down to their depraved will, their will is, by grace, brought up to the covenant... Regenerating grace undermines, and brings down the towering imaginations of the heart, raised up against its rightful Lord... So the chief work in regeneration is done; the fort of the heart is taken; there is room made for the Lord Jesus Christ in the inmost parts of the soul; the inner door of the will being now opened to him, as well as the outer door of the understanding... Christ having taken the heart by storm, and triumphantly entered into it, in regeneration, the soul by faith yields itself to him." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"The regenerate man's desires are rectified; they are set on God himself, and the things above... Before, he saw no beauty in Christ, for which he was to be desired; but now he is all he desires, he is altogether lovely... regenerating grace sets the affections so firmly on God, that the man is disposed, at God's command, to quit his hold of every thing else, in order to keep his hold of Christ... If the stream of our affections were never thus turned, we are, doubtless, going down the stream into the pit." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"In regeneration... the conscience is renewed. As a new light is set up in the soul, in regeneration, conscience is enlightened, instructed and informed. That candle of the Lord is now snuffed and brightened; so that it shines, and sends forth its light into the most retired corners of the heart, discovering sins which the soul was not aware of before: and, in a special manner, discovering the corruption or depravity of nature, that seed and spawn whence all actual sins proceed... It powerfully incites to obedience, even in the most spiritual acts, which lie not within the view of the natural conscience; and powerfully restrains from sin, even from those sins which do not lie open to the observation of the world." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"As the memory wanted not its share of depravity, it also is bettered by regenerating grace... It is strengthened for spiritual things... Grace sanctifies the memory." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"If a man be new-born, he will desire the sincere milk of the word." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"It is as natural for one that is born again to pray, as for the new-born babe to cry." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"The work of the Spirit is felt." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"The child is not, till it be generate; and a man has no gracious being, no being in grace, till he is regenerate... As the child is passive in generation, so is the child of God in regeneration... God leaves some in their depraved state; others he brings into a state of grace, or regeneracy." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"In natural generation we are curiously wrought, like a piece of needle-work; as the word imports: even so it is in regeneration... O glorious creature, new-made after the image of God! It is grace for grace in Christ, which makes up this new man; even as in bodily generation, the child has member for member in the parent; has every member which the parent has in a certain proportion." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Were thine eyes ever turned inward to see thyself; the sinfulness of thy depraved state, the corruption of thy nature, the sins of thy heart and life? Wast thou ever led into a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Have thine eyes seen King Jesus in his beauty; the manifold wisdom of God in him, his transcendent excellence, and absolute fulness and sufficiency, with the vanity and emptiness of all things else?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"The neglect of self-examination leaves most men under sad delusions as to their state." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"A hypocrite's religion may appear far greater than that of a sincere soul: but that which makes the greatest figure in the eyes of men, is often of least worth before God." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"The fire that shall try every man's work, will try, not of what BULK it is, but of what SORT it is." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"You that are strangers to this new birth, be convinced of the absolute necessity of it... Regeneration is absolutely necessary to qualify you to do any thing really good and acceptable to God. While you are not born again, your best works are but glittering sins; for though the matter of them is good, they are quite marred in the performance... Without regeneration there is no faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God... Unregenerate men may presume; but true faith they cannot have. Faith is a flower that grows not in the field of nature... Without regeneration a man's works are dead works." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"If thou art not born again, all thy reformation is naught in the sight of God. Thou hast shut the door, but the thief is still in the house. It may be thou art not what once thou wast; yet thou art not what thou must be... Thy prayers are an abomination to the Lord... Others are affected with thy prayers, which seem to them, as if they would rend the heavens; but God accounts them but as the howling of a dog... All thou hast done for God, and his cause in the world, though it may be followed with temporal rewards, yet it is lost as to divine acceptance." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"It may be thou art zealous against sin in others, and dost admonish them of their duty, and reprove them for their sin; and they hate thee, because thou dost thy duty; but I must tell thee, God hates thee too, because thou dost it not in a right manner; and that thou canst never do, whilst thou art not born again." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Regeneration is absolutely necessary to qualify you for heaven. None go to heaven but those who are made meet for it. As it was with Solomon's temple, so is it with the temple above. It is built of stone made ready before it is brought thither; namely, of lively stones, wrought for the selfsame thing; for they cannot be laid in that glorious building just as they come out of the quarry of depraved nature." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"It is true, there is joy in heaven, but it is holy joy; there are pleasures in heaven, but they are holy pleasures; there are places in heaven, but it is holy ground -- that holiness which in every place, and in every thing there, would mar all to the unregenerate." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Regeneration is absolutely necessary to your being admitted into heaven. No heaven without it. Though carnal men could digest all those things which make heaven so unsuitable for them, yet God will never bring them thither. Therefore born again you must be, else you shall never see heaven; you shall perish eternally." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Thus you see what affinity there is between an unregenerate state, and the state of the damned, the state of absolute and irretrievable misery. Be convinced, then, that you must be born again; put a high value on the new birth, and eagerly desire it." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"An unregenerate state is hell in the bud... Be convinced, then, that you must be born again; put a high value on the new birth, and eagerly desire it... by earnest prayer, beg that the dew of Heaven may fall on thy heart, that the seed may spring up there." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Receive the testimony of the word of God, concerning the misery of an unregenerate state, the sinfulness thereof, and the absolute necessity of regeneration." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"Remember, whatever you are, you must be born again; else it had been better for you, that you had never been born. Wherefore, if any of you shall live and die in an unregenerate state, you will be inexcusable, having been fairly warned of your danger." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, On Regeneration |
"None of the children of men are natural branches of the second Adam, that is, Jesus Christ, the true vine; they are the natural branches of the first Adam, that degenerate vine: but the elect are all of them, sooner or later, broken off from their natural stock, and ingrafted into Christ, the true vine." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Were it possible that we could eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, in a corporal and carnal manner, it would profit nothing. It was not Mary's bearing him in her womb, but her believing on him, that made her a saint." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Once in Christ, ever in him. Having taken up his habitation in the heart, he never removes. None can untie this happy knot." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"The unregenerate man's fruits savour not of love to Christ, nor of the blood of Christ, nor of the incense of his intercession, and therefore will never be accepted in heaven." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Christ, as a king, must be served with variety. Where God makes the heart his garden, he plants it as Solomon did his, with trees of all kinds of fruits. Accordingly it brings forth the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness. But the ungodly are not so; their obedience is never universal; there is always some one thing or other excepted. In one word, their fruits are fruits of an ill tree, that cannot be accepted in heaven." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Every unrenewed man is a branch of a dead stock... A dead stock can convey no sap to the branches, to make them bring forth fruit... In vain do men labour to get fruit on the branches, when there is no sap in the root... Many sermons are preached to no purpose; because there is no life to give sensation. Sleeping men may be awakened; but the dead cannot be raised without a miracle; even so the dead sinner must remain, if he be not restored to life by a miracle of grace." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Adam took the poisonous cup, and drank it off: this occasioned death to himself and us. We came into the world spiritually dead, thereby exposed to eternal death, and absolutely liable to temporal death... is it not absolutely necessary to be broken off from this our natural stock? What will our fair leaves of a profession, or our fruits of duties, avail, if we be still branches of the degenerate, dead, and killing stock?... Why is there so much noise about religion among many, who can give no good account of their having laid a good foundation, being mere strangers to experimental religion? I fear, if God does not in mercy undermine the religion of many of us, and let us see that we have none at all, our root will be found rottenness, and our blossom go up as dust, in a dying hour. Therefore let us look to our state, that we be not found fools in our latter end." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Adam, at his best estate, was but a shrub, in comparison with Christ, the tree of life... It cannot be denied, that grace was shown in the first covenant: but it is as far exceeded by the grace of the second covenant, as the twilight is by the light of the mid-day." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Wherefore Christ, God-man, is the stock, whereof believers are the branches: and they are united to a whole Christ... These are the elect, and none other. They, and they only, are grafted into Christ; and consequently none but they are cut off from the killing stock. For them alone he intercedes, that they may be one in him and his Father. Faith, the bond of this union, is given to none else; it is the faith of God's elect. The Lord passes by many branches growing on the natural stock, and cuts off only here one, and there one, and grafts them into the true vine, according as free love hath determined... If we inquire, why so? We find no other reason but because they were chosen in him, predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"There is no mixing of the law and faith in this business; the sinner must hold by one of them, and let the other go. The way of the law, and the way of faith, are so far different, that it is not possible for a sinner to walk in the one, unless he comes off from the other: and if he be for doing, he must do all alone; Christ will not do a part for him, if he do not all. A garment pieced up of sundry sorts of righteousness, is not a garment meet for the court of heaven." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"The same Spirit which is in the Mediator himself, he communicates to his elect in due time, never to depart from them... The Spirit of faith furnishes him feet to come to Christ, and hands to receive him. What by nature he could not do, by grace he can, the Holy Spirit working in him the work of faith with power." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"The union between Christ and his mystical members is firm and indissoluble... as the believer apprehends Christ by faith, so Christ apprehends him by his Spirit, and none shall pluck him out of his hand." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"They have an unsafe hold of Christ, whom he has not apprehended by his Spirit. There are many half marriages here, where the soul apprehends Christ, but is not apprehended of him." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Holiness is not one grace only, but all the graces of the Spirit; it is a constellation of graces; it is all the graces in their seed and root." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Whoever are united to Christ, bring forth the fruit of gospel-obedience and true holiness... They grow upward in heavenly-mindedness, and contempt for the world, for their conversation is in heaven." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Believers, by virtue of their union with Christ, are the objects of God's special care and providence." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"The cross of Christ, by which appellation the saint's troubles are named, is a kindly name to the believer. It is a cross indeed; not to the believer's graces, but to his corruptions." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Worldly things are often such a load to the Christian, that he moves but very slowly heavenward. God sends a wind of trouble, that blows the burden off the man's back; he then walks more speedily on his way; after God has drawn some gilded earth from him, that was drawing his heart away from God... thousands have been hugged to death in the embraces of a smiling world; and many good men have got wounds from outward prosperity, that must be cured by the cross... It is kindly for believers to be healed by stripes; although they are usually so weak as to cry out for fear at the sight of the pruning hook, as if it were the destroying axe; and to think that the Lord is coming to kill them, when he is indeed coming to cure them." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"They that are now walking most closely with God, may have enough to do to stand when the trial comes: how hard will it be for others then, who are like to be surprised with troubles, when guilt is lying on their consciences unremoved! To be awakened out of a sound sleep, and cast into a raging sea, as Jonah was, will be a fearful trial." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"Be heavenly-minded, and maintain a holy contempt of the world. You are united to Christ; he is your head and husband, and is in heaven; wherefore your hearts should be there also... This is the great business of life; you must please him, though it should displease all the world. What he hates must be hateful to you, because he hates it." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Grace, Mystical Union Between Christ And Believers |
"The righteousness wherein man was created, was the conformity of all the faculties and powers of his soul to the moral law. This is what we call Original Righteousness, which man was originally endued with... He had perfect knowledge of the law, and of his duty accordingly: he was made after God's image, and consequently could not want knowledge, which is a part thereof... It is true, Adam had not the law written upon tables of stone; but it was written upon his mind, the knowledge thereof being created with him. God impressed it upon his soul, and made him a law to himself, as the remains of it among the heathens do testify." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"An inclination to evil is really a fountain of sin, and therefore inconsistent with that rectitude and uprightness which the text expressly says Adam was endued with at his creation. The will of man then was directed and naturally inclined to God and goodness, though mutable. It was disposed, by its original make, to follow the Creator's will, as the shadow does the body." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"The will, when we consider it as renewed by grace, is by that grace naturally inclined to the same holiness, in all its parts, which the law requires; so was the will of man, when we consider him as God made him at first, endued with natural inclinations to every thing commanded by the law... In a word, as Adam knew his Master's pleasure in the matter of duty, so his will was inclined to what he knew." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"Man's affections, then, in his primitive state, were pure from all defilement, free from all disorder and distemper, because in all their motions they were duly subjected to his clear reason, and his holy will. He had also an executive power answerable to his will; a power to do the good which he knew should be done, and which he was inclined to do, even to fulfill the whole law of God." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"There was not a wrong pin in the tabernacle of human nature, when God set it up, however shattered it is now. Man was then holy in soul, body, and spirit; while the soul remained untainted, its lodging was kept clean and undefiled; the members of the body were consecrated vessels, and instruments of righteousness... as this righteousness was universal in respect of the subject, because it spread through the whole man; so also it was universal in respect of the object, the holy law. There was nothing in the law but what was agreeable to his reason and will, as God made him, though sin hath now set him at odds with it; his soul was shapen out in length and breadth to the commandment, though exceeding broad; so that his original righteousness was not only perfect in its parts, but in degrees." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"Adam's will was not absolutely indifferent to good and evil; God set it towards good only, yet he did not so fix and confirm its inclination, that it could not alter. No, it was moveable to evil, and that only by man himself, God having given him a sufficient power to stand in this integrity, if he had pleased." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"If Adam had been unchangeably righteous, he must have been so either by nature or by free gift: by nature he could not be so, for that is proper to God, and incommunicable to any creature; if by free gift, then no wrong was done to him in withholding what he could not crave. Confirmation in a righteous state is a reward of grace... and accordingly is given to the saints upon account of the merits of Christ, who was obedient even unto death. And herein believers have the advantage of Adam, that they can never totally nor finally fall away from grace." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"Great is that delight which the saints find in those views of the glory of God, which their souls are sometimes let into, while they are compassed about with many infirmities." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"God may most justly require of men perfect obedience to his law, and condemn them for their not obeying it perfectly, though now they have no ability to keep it. In so doing, he gathers but where he has sown. He gave man ability to keep the whole law; man has lost it by his own fault." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"Free grace will fix those, whom free will shook down into a gulph of misery." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Innocence, Of Man's Original Righteousness |
"The heart, that was made according to God's own heart, is now the reverse of it, a forge of evil imaginations, a sink of inordinate affections, and a storehouse of all impiety." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Behold the heart of the natural man... The mind is defiled; the thoughts of the heart are evil; the will and affections are defiled: the imagination of the thoughts of the heart, that is, whatsoever the heart frameth within itself by thinking, such as judgment, choice, purposes, devices, desires, every inward motion, or rather the frame of the thoughts of the heart, namely the frame, make, or mould of these, is evil... The heart is ever framing something; but never one right thing: the frame of thoughts, in the heart of man, is exceedingly various; yet are they never cast into a right frame. But is there not, at least, a mixture of good in them? No, they are only evil; there is nothing in them truly good and acceptable to God." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"The imagination of the heart, or frame of thoughts in natural men, is evil continually, or every day. From the first day to the last day, in this state, they are in midnight darkness; there is not the least glimmering of the light of holiness in them; not one holy thought can ever be produced by the unholy heart. O what a vile heart is this! O what a corrupt nature is this!... Surely that corruption is ingrained in our hearts, interwoven with our very natures, has sunk deep into our souls, and will never be cured but by a miracle of grace. Now such is man's heart, such is his nature, till regenerating grace change it." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Had the history of the deluge been transmitted unto us, without the reason thereof in the text, we might thence have gathered the corruption and total depravity of man's nature: for what other quarrel could the holy and just God have with the infants that were destroyed by the flood, seeing they had no actual sin?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Man's nature is now wholly corrupted. There is a sad alteration, a wonderful overturning in the nature of man: where, at first, there was nothing evil, now there is nothing good... Man was created in the likeness of God; that is, the holy and righteous God made a holy and righteous creature, but fallen Adam begat a son, not in the likeness of God, but in his own likeness; that is, corrupt sinful Adam begat a corrupt sinful son." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"As the corruption of our nature shews the absolute necessity of regeneration, so the absolute necessity of regeneration plainly proves the corruption of our nature; for why should a man need a second birth, if his nature were not quite marred in the first birth?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"What though the carnal man lives at ease and quiet, and the corruption of nature is not his burden, is he therefore free from it? No, no; it is because he is dead, that he feels not the sinking weight. Many a groan is heard from a sick bed, but never any from a grave." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Is not man naturally much more desirous to know new things, than to practise old known truths? How much like old Adam do we look in this eagerness for novelties, and disrelish of old solid doctrines? We seek after knowledge rather than holiness, and study most to know those things which are least edifying." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Men might often come fair off, if they would dismiss temptations with abhorrence, when first they appear; if they would nip them in the bud, they would soon die away." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Most men live as if they were nothing but a lump of flesh: or as if their soul served for no other use, but, like salt, to keep their body from corrupting." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Is not every one by nature discontented with his present lot in the world, or with some one thing or other in it? This also was Adam's case. Some one thing is always wanting; so that man is a creature given to changes... And the soul is never cured of this disease, till conquering grace brings it back to take up its everlasting rest in God through Christ: but till this be, if man were set again in paradise, the garden of the Lord, all the pleasures there would not keep him from looking, yea, and leaping over the hedge a second time." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"It is as natural for us to hide sin, as to commit it. Many sad instances thereof we have in this world; but a far clearer proof of it we shall get at the day of judgment, the day in which God will judge the secrets of men. Many a foul mouth will then be seen which is now wiped, and saith, I have done no wickedness." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Man in his natural state is altogether corrupt; both soul and body are polluted... As for the soul, this natural corruption has spread itself through all the faculties thereof; and is to be found in the understanding, the will, the affections, the conscience, and the memory." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Never was there any communion between God and Adam's children, where the Lord himself had not the first word. If he were to let them alone they would never inquire after him." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"The life of every natural man is but one continued dream and delusion, out of which he never awakes, till either, by a new light darted from heaven into his soul, he come to himself, or, in hell he lift up his eyes. Therefore, in scripture account, though he be ever so wise, he is a fool, and a simple one." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"We are born spiritually blind, and cannot be restored without a miracle of grace. This is thy case, whoever thou art, who are not born again." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Thus was darkness over the face of the world, when Christ, the true light, came into it; and so is darkness over every soul, till he as the day-star, arises in the heart. The latter is an evidence of the former." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Every natural man's heart and life is a mass of darkness, disorder, and confusion, how refined soever he may appear in the sight of men." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"All the unregenerate are utterly mistaken in the point of true happiness: for though Christianity hath fixed that matter in point of principle, yet nothing less than overcoming grace can fix it in the practical judgment." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"The natural man is void of the saving knowledge of spiritual things. He knows not what a God he has to do with: he is unacquainted with Christ, and knows not what sin is. The greatest graceless wits are blind as moles in these things." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Many a man that bears the name of a Christian, may make Pharaoh’s confession of faith -- I know not the Lord -- neither will he let go what God commands them to depart with... Do they know Christ, or see his glory, and any beauty in him, for which he is to be desired?... I own, indeed, that they may have a natural knowledge of these things, as the unbelieving Jews had of Christ, whom they saw and conversed with; but there was a spiritual glory in him, perceived by believers only." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Doth not the carnal mind naturally strive to grasp spiritual things in imagination, as if the soul were quite immersed in flesh and blood, and would turn every thing into its own shape?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"A man's being kept from sin, not his being kept from affliction, is the immediate proper effect of the law of God impressed upon the heart." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Now, the law is a lamp and light, as it guides in the way of duty; and instructing reproofs from the law are the way of life, as they keep from sin: they guide not into the way of peace, but as they lead into the way of duty; nor do they keep a man out of trouble, but as they keep him from sin." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"There is in the carnal mind an opposition to spiritual truths, and an aversion to receive them. It is as little a friend to divine truths, as it is to holiness. The truths of natural religion, which do, as it were, force their entry into the minds of natural men, they hold prisoners in unrighteousness." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"How few are there who have been blessed with an inward illumination, by the special operation of the Spirit of Christ, leading them into a view of divine truths in their spiritual and heavenly lustre! How have you learned the truths of religion, which you pretend to believe?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"How many professors have made shipwreck of their faith, such as it was... They fall into damning delusions; because they never really believed the truth, though they themselves, and others too, thought they did believe it." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"If you believe the doctrines of the word, how is it that you are so unconcerned about the state of your souls before the Lord? how is it that you are so little concerned about this weighty point, whether you be born again or not?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Men believe that fire will burn them; and therefore they will not throw themselves into it: but the truth is, most men live as if they thought the gospel a mere fable, and the wrath of God, revealed in his word against their unrighteousness and ungodliness, a mere scarecrow... Do such persons believe the sinfulness and misery of a natural state? Do they believe that they are children of wrath? Do they believe that there is no salvation without regeneration, and no regeneration but what makes a man a new creature?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"If you believe the threatenings, how is it that you live in your sins; live out of Christ, and yet hope for mercy? Do such persons believe God to be the holy and just One, who will by no means clear the guilty? No, no; none believe; none, or next to none, believe what a just God the Lord is, and how severely he punisheth." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"However some magnify the power of free-will, a view of the spirituality of the law, to which acts of moral discipline in no wise answer, and a deep insight into the corruption of nature, given by the inward operation of the Spirit, convincing of sin, righteousness, and judgment, would make men find an absolute need of the power of free grace, to remove the bands of wickedness from off their free-will." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"There is, in the unrenewed will, an utter inability for what is truly good and acceptable in the sight of God. The natural man's will is in Satan's fetters, hemmed in within the circle of evil, and cannot move beyond it, any more than a dead man can raise himself out of his grave. We deny him not a power to choose, pursue and act what is good, as to the matter; but though he can will what is good and right, he can will nothing aright and well. Christ says -- Without me -- that is, separate from me, as a branch from the stock, as both the word and context will bear -- ye can do nothing -- which means, nothing truly and spiritually good." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Although the existence of a heaven and a hell were only probable, it were sufficient to determine the will to the choice of holiness, were it capable of being determined thereto by mere reason." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"It may be observed, that the generality of the hearers of the gospel, of all denominations, are plagued with the doctrine of free-will; for it is a root of bitterness, natural to all men; from whence spring so much fearlessness about the soul's eternal state, so many delays and excuses in that weighty matter, whereby much work is laid up for a deathbed by some, while others are ruined by a legal walk, and neglect the life of faith, and the making use of Christ for sanctification; all flowing from the persuasion of sufficient natural abilities." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"I own, the natural man may have a kind of love to the letter of the law: but here lies the stress of the matter, he looks on the holy law in a carnal dress; and so, while he embraces the creature of his own fancy, he thinks that he has the law; but in very deed he is without the law: for as yet he sees it not in its spirituality; if he did, he would find it the very reverse of his own nature, and what his will could not fall in with, till changed by the power of grace." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"While the word is preached or read, or the rod of God is upon the natural man, sometimes the convictions are darted in upon him, and his spirit is wounded in greater or lesser measure: but these convictions not being able to make him fall, he runs away with the arrows sticking in his conscience; and at length, one way or other, gets them out, and makes himself whole again. Thus, while the light shines, men, naturally averse to it, willfully shut their eyes, till God is provoked to blind them judicially." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Zion's King gets no subjects but by stroke of sword, in the day of his power. None come to him, but such as are drawn by a divine hand." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"If you repent not, you will get your reward in full measure; when you go to hell, your work will follow you. The drunkard will not have a drop of water to cool his tongue there; nor will the covetous man's wealth follow him into the other world! you may drive on your old trade there; eternity will be long enough to give you your heart's fill of it." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Men set up to themselves an idol of their own fancy, instead of God, and then fall down and worship it... Every natural man is an enemy to God as he is revealed in his word. The infinitely holy, just, powerful, and true being is not the God whom he loves, but the God whom he loathes." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"As men cannot get the doctrine of God's justice blotted out of the Bible, it is such an eye-sore to them, that they strive to blot it out of their minds: they ruin themselves by presuming on his mercy, while they are not careful to get a righteousness, wherein they may stand before his justice." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"There are thousands who hear the gospel, that hope to be saved, and think all safe with them for eternity, who never had any experience of the new birth, nor do at all concern themselves in the question." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Many call Christ their dear Saviour, whose consciences can bear witness, that they never derived so much sweetness from him as from their sweet lusts, which are ten times dearer to them than their Saviour. He is no other way dear to them, than as they abuse his death and sufferings for the peaceable enjoyment of their lusts; that they may live as they please in the world; and when they die, be kept out of hell." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Many come to duties, that never come out of them to Jesus Christ... men naturally think highly of their duties, that seem to them to be well done, so they look for acceptance with God, according as their work is done, not according to the share they have in the blood of Christ... They value themselves on their performances and attainments... taking to themselves what they rob from Christ the great High-priest." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"The natural man, going to God in duties, will always be found either to go without a Mediator, or with more than the one only Mediator, Jesus Christ... for they pray, confess, mourn, and have great desires, and the like; and so have something of their own to commend them unto him: they were never made poor in spirit, and brought empty-handed to Christ, to lay the stress of all on his atoning blood." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"None, but those in whom Christ is formed, do really put the crown on his head, and receive the kingdom of Christ within them." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"In the way of the gospel, the sinner must stand before the Lord in an imputed righteousness: but corrupt nature is for an inherent righteousness... Nature is always for building up itself, and to have some ground for boasting; but the great design of the gospel is to exalt grace, to depress nature, and exclude boasting." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"All gospel truths centre in Christ: so that to learn the truth, is to learn Christ." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"The natural man turns the very gospel into law, and transforms the covenant of grace into a covenant of works... Thus is the doctrine of the gospel corrupted by papists, and other enemies to the doctrines of free grace. And indeed, however natural men's heads may be set right in this point, as surely as they are out of Christ, their faith, repentance, and obedience, such as they are, are placed by them in the room of Christ and his righteousness; and so trusted to, as if by these they fulfilled a new law." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"The law, laid home on the natural conscience in its spirituality, irritates corruption... What reason can be assigned for this, but the natural enmity of the heart against the holy law?... Let us conclude then, that the unregenerate are heart-enemies to God, his Son, his Spirit, and his law; that there is a natural contrariety, opposition, and enmity in the will of man to God himself, and his holy will." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Though there be upon the sinner a weight of sin, which makes the earth to stagger; although there is a weight of that wrath on him, which makes the devils to tremble; yet ye goes lightly under the burden; he feels not the weight any more than a stone would, till the Spirit of the Lord quicken him so far as to feel it." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Self is natural man's highest end, in their religious actions. They perform duties for a name, or some other worldly interest. Or if they be more refined, it is their peace, and at most their salvation from hell and wrath or their own eternal happiness, that is their chief and highest end. Their eyes are held, that they see not the glory of God. They seek God indeed, yet not for himself, but for themselves. They seek him not at all, but for their own welfare: so their whole life is woven into one web of practical blasphemy; making God the means, and self their end, yea, their chief end." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Call it no more free-will, but slavish lust; free to evil, but free from good, till regenerating grace loosens the bands of wickedness." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"The natural man's affections are wretchedly misplaced; he is a spiritual monster. His heart is where his feet should be, fixed on the earth; his heels are lifted up against heaven, which his heart should be set on. His face is towards hell, his back towards heaven; and therefore God calls him to turn." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Here is a threefold cord against haven and holiness, not easily broken: a blind mind, a perverse will, and disorderly distempered affections. The mind, swelled with self-conceit, says, the man should not stoop; the will, opposite the will of God, says, he will not; and the corrupt affections, rising against the Lord, in defense of the corrupt will, say, he shall not. Thus the poor creature stands out against God and goodness, till a day of power comes, in which he is made a new creature." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Conscience can never do its work, but according to the light it has to work by... When the natural conscience is awakened by the Spirit of conviction, it will indeed rage and roar, and put the whole man in a dreadful consternation; awfully summon all the powers of the soul to help in a strait; make the stiff heart to tremble, and the knees to bow; set the eyes weeping, the tongue confessing; and oblige the man to cast out the goods into the sea, which he apprehends are likely to sink the ship of the soul, though the heart still goes after them. Yet it is an evil conscience which naturally leads to despair, and will do it effectually, as in Judas' case; unless either lusts prevail over it, to lull it asleep, as in the case of Felix, or the blood of Christ prevail over it, sprinkling and purging it from dead works, as in the case of all true converts." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Adam, by his sin, became not only guilty, but corrupt; and so transmits guilt and corruption to his posterity... Adam's sin corrupted man's nature, and leavened the whole lump of mankind... Let none wonder that such a horrible change could be brought on by one sin of our first parents; for thereby they turned away from God as their chief end, which necessarily infers a universal depravation. Their sin was a complication of evils, a total apostasy from God, a violation of the whole law: by it they broke all the ten commandments at once." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"We are all, in a spiritual sense, dead-born." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Learn from this the nature and necessity of regeneration... It is not a partial, but a total change... The change wrought upon men by good education, or forced upon them by a natural conscience, though it may pass among men for a saving change, yet it is not so; for our nature is corrupt, and none but the God of nature can change it... It is not a change made by human industry, but by the mighty power of the Spirit of God." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Thou must be born again; otherwise thou shalt never see heaven, unless it be afar off, as the rich man in hell did. Deceive not thyself: no mercy of God, no blood of Christ, will bring thee to heaven in thy unregenerate state: for God will never open a fountain of mercy to wash away his own holiness and truth; nor did Christ shed his blood, to blot out the truths of God, or to overturn God's measures about the salvation of sinners." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Few are concerned to get their corrupt conversation changed; but fewer, by far, to get their nature changed. Most men know not what they are, nor what spirits they are of; they are as the eye, which, seeing many things, never sees itself. But until you know every one the plague of his own heart, there is no hope of your recovery... Lord, open their eyes to see it, before they die of it, and in hell lift up their eyes, and see what they will not see now." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Let us have a special eye upon the corruption and sin of our nature. God sees it: O that we saw it too, and that sin were ever before us! What avails it to notice others sins, while this mother-sin is not noticed? Turn your eyes inward to the sin of your nature. It is to be feared that many have this work to begin yet; that they have shut the door, while the grand thief is yet in the house undiscovered." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Men's passions are often highest against the faults of others, when sin sleeps soundly in their own breasts... the corruption of their own nature never makes them long for heaven. Lusts, scandalously breaking out at a time, will mar their peace, but the sin of their own nature never makes them a heavy heart." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Grace makes men zealous against sin in others, as well as in themselves: but eyes turned inward to the corruption of nature, clothe them with pity and compassion; and fill them with thankfulness to the Lord, that they themselves were not the persons left to be such spectacles of human frailty." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Many have their own appointed time for repentance and reformation: as if they were such complete masters over their lusts, that they can allow them to gather more strength, and yet overcome them. They take up resolutions to amend, without an eye to Jesus Christ, union with him, and strength from him; a plain evidence that they are strangers to themselves; so they are left to themselves, and their flourishing resolutions wither; for, as they see not the necessity, so they get not the benefit, of the dew from heaven to water them." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"A view of the corruption of nature would be very humbling, and oblige him that has it to reckon himself the chief of sinners... The want of thorough humiliation, piercing to the sin of one's nature, is the ruin of many professors: for digging deep makes the great difference betwixt wise and foolish builders." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"They never yet knew well their errand to Christ, who went not to him for the sin of their nature; for his blood to take away the guilt of it, and his Spirit to break the power of it. Though, in bitterness of your souls, you should lay before him a catalogue of your sins of omission and commission, which might reach from earth to heaven: yet, if original sin were wanting in it, assure yourselves that you have forgot the best part of the errand which a poor sinner has to the Physician of souls." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Though a man be sick, there is no fear of death, if the sickness strike not to his heart: and there is as little fear of the death of sin, as long as the sin of our nature is not touched." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"If you would repent indeed, let the streams lead you up to the fountain; and mourn over your corrupt nature, as the cause of all sin, in heart, lip, and life... it is a vain religion to attempt to make the life truly good, while the corruption of nature retains its ancient vigour, and the power of it is not broken." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"He that would walk aright must have one eye upward to Jesus Christ, and another inward to the corruption of his own nature." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Never did every sin appear, in the conversation of the vilest wretch that ever lived; but look thou into thy corrupt nature, and there thou mayest see all and every sin in the seed and root thereof. There is a fullness of all unrighteousness there. There is atheism, idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, and whatsoever is vile. Possibly none of these appear to thee in thy heart; but there is more in that unfathomable depth of wickedness than thou knowest." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"People are ruined by their not contemplating the sin of their nature." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"Without the Spirit's teaching, all other teaching will be to little purpose. Though the gospel were to shine about you like the sun at noon-day, and this great truth were ever so plainly preached, you would never see yourselves aright, until the Spirit of the Lord light his candle within your breast: the fullness and glory of Christ, and the corruption and vileness of our nature, are never rightly learned, but where the Spirit of Christ is the teacher." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"For I testify unto you all, there is no peace with God, no pardon, no heaven, for you, in your natural state: there is but a step between you and eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord: if the brittle thread of your life, which may break with a touch ere you are aware, be broken while you are in this state, you are ruined for ever, without remedy." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Sinfulness Of Man's Natural State |
"You cannot be the children of God, who never yet saw yourselves the children of the devil. You cannot be in the way to heaven, who never saw yourselves by nature in the high road to hell." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"The Word is indeed the saint's security against wrath: but it binds the natural man's sin and wrath together, as a certain pledge of his ruin, if he continue in that state." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"When Adam sinned, God turned him out of paradise: and natural men are -- as Adam left them -- banished from the gracious presence of the Lord; and can have no access to him in that state." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"God strives with the unrepentant for a while, and convictions enter their consciences; but they rebel against the light; and by a secret judgment, they receive a blow on the head; so that, from that time, they do as it were live and rot above ground... They are plagued with judicial blindness. They shut their eyes against the light; and they are given over to the devil, the god of this world, to be blinded more." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"When the end of the world, as appointed of God, is come, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead arise. Then shall the weary earth, at the command of the Judge, cast forth the bodies, the cursed bodies, of those that lived and died in their natural state... They shall be eternally shut up in hell, never to get the least drop of comfort, nor the smallest alleviation of their torment. There they will be punished with the punishment of loss, being excommunicated for ever from the presence of God, his angels, and saints. All means of grace, all hopes of a delivery, will be for ever cut off from their eyes. They shall not have a drop of water to cool their tongues... There the worm that shall gnaw them will never die; the fire that will scorch them, shall never be quenched. God will, through eternity, hold them up with the one hand, and pour the full vials of wrath into them with the other." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"We may now flee from the wrath of God, indeed, by fleeing to Jesus Christ: but such as flee from Christ, will never be able to avoid it. Whither can men flee from the avenging God?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"We are apt to fear the wrath of man more than we ought; but no man can apprehend the wrath of God to be more dreadful than it really is: the power of it can never be known to the utmost. How fierce soever it be, either on earth or in hell, God can still carry it farther." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"O, miserable soul! if thou flee not from this wrath unto Jesus Christ, though thy misery had a beginning, yet it will never have an end." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"Foolish man indeed practically bids a defiance to Heaven; but the Lord often, even in this world, opens such sluices of wrath upon them, as all their might cannot stop: they are carried away thereby, as with a flood! How much more will it be so in hell?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"Cold death will quench the flame of man's wrath against us, if nothing else do: but God's wrath, when it has come on the sinner for millions of ages, will still be the wrath to come, as the water of a river is still coming, how much soever has passed. While God is, he will pursue the quarrel." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"Thou art a sinner by nature; and it is highly reasonable, that the guilt and wrath be as old as sin... The poisonous nature of the serpent affords a man sufficient ground to kill it, as soon as ever he can reach it; and by this time thou mayest be convinced that thy nature is a very compound of enmity against God." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"Is it strange, that they who will needs depart from God now, cost what it will, should be forced to depart from at the last, into everlasting fire?" Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"Consider the vast rewards which God has annexed to obedience. His word is no more full of fiery wrath against sin, than it is of gracious rewards to the obedience it requires. If heaven be in the promises, it is altogether equal that hell is in the threatenings... Moreover, sin deserves the misery, but our best works do not deserve the happiness." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"Consider how God dealt with his own Son, whom he spared not. The wrath of God seized on his soul and body both, and brought him into the dust of death. That his sufferings were not eternal, flowed from the quality of the Sufferer, who was infinite; and therefore able to bear, at once the whole load of wrath; and, upon that account, his sufferings were infinite in value. But as the sufferings of a mere creature cannot be infinite in value, they must be protracted to an eternity." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"The unregenerate man puts no period to his sinful course... That thou hast not done more, and worse, thanks to him who restrained thee; to the chain by which the wolf was kept in, not to thyself. No wonder that God shews his power on the sinner, who puts forth his power against God, as far as it will reach." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"The infinity of God makes infinite wrath the just demerit of sin. God is infinitely displeased with sin; and when he acts, he must act like himself, and shew his displeasure by proportionable means. Those who shall lie for ever under this wrath will be eternally sinning, and therefore must eternally suffer." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"The poorest, that go from door to door, and have not one penny left them by their parents, were born to an inheritance. Their first father Adam left them children of wrath: and continuing in their natural state, they cannot escape it." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"Thunder-claps of wrath from the word of God, conveyed to the soul by the Spirit of the Lord, will surely keep a man awake." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"As a gracious state is a state of glory in the bud; so a graceless state is hell in the bud, which if it continue, will come at length to perfection." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"Even in this world, many have been set up as monuments of Divine vengeance, that others might fear." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"God will not sell deliverance, but freely gives it to those who see themselves altogether unworthy of his favour. Turn your eyes, O prisoners of hope, towards the Lord Jesus Christ; and embrace him, as he offereth himself in the gospel... His blood will quench that fire of wrath which burns against thee; in the white raiment of his righteousness thou wilt be safe; for no storm of wrath can pierce it." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |
"The saints have no reason to complain of their lot in the world, whatever it may be." Man's Fourfold State, The State Of Nature, The Misery Of Man's Natural State |