"The day of grace ends with some men
before God taketh them out of the world... Thus, therefore, Cain’s day
of grace ended; and the heavens, with God’s own heart, were shut up
against him; yet after this he lived long... Beware, ye young barren professors! Now,
Ishmael lived a hundred and nineteen years after this, in great
tranquility and honour with men. After this he also begat twelve
princes, even after his day of grace was past... Now, the ending of Esau’s day of grace is to
be reckoned from his selling of his birthright; for there the apostle
points it... But Esau sold his birthright long before his death... Yet these three, after their day of grace was
over, lived better lives, as to outward things, than ever they did
before... Ease and peace, and a prosperous life in
outwards, is no sign of the favour of God to a barren and fruitless
professor, but rather of his wrath; that thereby he may be capable to
treasure up more wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the
righteous judgment of God. Let this much serve for the proof of the
first proposition, namely, That the day of grace ends with some men
before God takes them out of the world.
|
"When men
have put in all the claim they can for heaven, but FEW will have
it for their inheritance. 'For MANY, I say unto you, will seek to enter
in, and shall not be able.' Great, therefore, will be the disappointment
that many will meet with at the day of judgment: 'For MANY will seek to
enter in, and shall not be able.' Going to heaven, therefore, will be no
trivial business; salvation is not got by a dream; they that would then
have that kingdom must now strive lawfully to enter: 'For MANY, I say
unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.'"
The
Strait Gate
|
"Heaven and happiness is that which every one desireth,
insomuch that wicked Balaam could say, ‘Let me die the death of the
righteous, and let my last end be like his’ (Num 23:10). Yet for all
this, there are but very few that do obtain that ever-to-be-desired
glory, insomuch that many eminent professors drop short of a welcome
from God into his pleasant place."
The
Heavenly Footman
|
"There wanteth even in the hearts of God’s people a greater reverence of the Word of God than to this day appeareth among us, and this let me say, that want of reverence of the Word is the ground of all disorders that are in the heart, life, conversation, and in Christian communion. Besides, the want of reverence of the Word layeth men open to the fearful displeasure of God." A Treatise On The Fear Of God |
“We know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered. Mark here, the apostles could not so well and so fully come off in the manner of performing this duty, as these in our days think they can. The apostles, when they were at the best, yea, when the Holy Ghost assisted them, yet then they were fain to come off with sighs and groans, falling short of expressing their mind, but with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered. But here now, the wise men of our days are so well skilled as that they have both the manner and matter of their prayers at their finger-ends; setting such a prayer for such a day, and that twenty years before it comes, one for Christmas, another for Easter, and six days after that. They have also bounded how many syllables must be said in every one of them at their public exercises. For each saint’s day, also, they have them ready for the generations yet unborn to say. They can tell you, also, when you shall kneel, when you shall stand, when you should abide in your seats, when you should go up into the chancel, and what you should do when you come there. All which the apostles came short of, as not being able to compose so profound a manner; and that for this reason included in this scripture -- because the fear of God tied them to pray as they ought." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Alas! they that shall be saved when the devil and hell have had their due, they will be but as the gleaning, they will be but FEW; they that go to hell, go thither in clusters, but the saved go not so to heaven. (Matt 13:30, Micah 7) Wherefore when the prophet speaketh of the saved, he saith there is no cluster; but when he speaketh of the damned, he saith they are gathered by clusters. (Rev 14:18,19) O sinners! but FEW will be saved! O professors! but FEW will be saved!" The Strait Gate |
"There belongs to every true notion of truth a power; the notion is the shell -- the power is the kernel and life. Without this last, truth doth me no good, nor those to whom I communicate it. Hence Paul said to the Corinthians, 'When I come to you again, I will know not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.' Search, then, after the power of what thou knowest, for it is the power that will do thee good. Now this will not be got but by earnest prayer, and much attending upon God; also there must not be admitted by thee that thy heart be stuffed with cumbering cares of this world, for they are of a choking nature." Christ A Complete Saviour |
Then said GREAT-HEART to Mr. VALIANT-FOR-TRUTH: "Thou hast worthily behaved thyself: let me see thy sword." So he showed it him. When he had taken it in hand, and looked thereon awhile, he said, "Ah! it is a right Jerusalem blade!" VALIANT said, "It is so. Let a man have one of these blades, with a hand to wield it, and skill to use it, and he may venture upon an angel with it. He need not fear its holding, if he can but tell how to lay on. Its edges will never blunt. It will cut flesh, and bones, and soul, and spirit, and all." Pilgrim's Progress, Part II |
"I tell you that the operation of the Word and Spirit of God, without depending upon that idol [of human learning], so much adored, is sufficient of itself to search out 'all things, even the deep things of God'... I do find in most men, such a spirit of whoredom and idolatry concerning the learning of this world, and wisdom of the flesh - and God's glory so much stained and diminished thereby; that had I all their aid and assistance at command, I durst not make use of ought thereof, and that, for fear lest that grace, and these gifts that the Lord hath given me, should be attributed to their wits, rather than the light of the Word and Spirit of God. Wherefore, I will not take of them from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, lest they should say, 'We have made Abram rich.'" The New Jerusalem |
"Mistress, I suppose I have nothing here that will either please your wanton eye or go down with your voluptuous palate. Here is bread indeed, as also milk and meat; but here is neither paint to adorn thy wrinkled face, nor crutch to uphold or undershore thy shaking, tottering, staggering kingdom of Rome; but rather a certain presage of thy sudden and fearful final downfall." The New Jerusalem |
"And you who muzzle up your people in ignorance with Aristotle, Plato, and the rest of the heathenish philosophers, and preach little, if anything, of Christ rightly; I say unto you, that you will find you have sinned against God, and beguiled your hearers, when God shall, in the judgment-day, lay the cause of the damnation of many thousands of souls to your charge, and say, He will require their blood at your hands (Eze 33:6)" A Few Sighs From Hell |
"And therefore whosoever they be that slight the Scriptures, they slight that which is no less than the Word of God; and they who slight that, slight him that spake it; and they that do so, let them look to themselves, for God will be revenged on such." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"But alas! there are but few do in deed and in truth believe the Scriptures to be the very Word of God." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"Dost thou believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God? Then thou standest in awe of, and dost much reverence them." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"He that believeth the Scriptures to be the Word of God, believeth that men must be born again, and also be partakers of that faith which is of the operation of God, according as he hath read and believed, or else he must and shall be damned. And he that believeth this aright will not be contented until, according as it is written, he do partake of and enjoy the new birth, and until he do find, through grace, that faith that is wrought by the operation of God in his soul. For this is the cause why men do satisfy themselves with so slender a conceited hope that their state is good, when it is nothing so, namely, because they do not credit the Scripture; for did they, they would look into their own hearts, and examine seriously whether that faith, that hope, that grace which they think they have be of that nature, and wrought by that spirit and power that the Scripture speaketh of. I speak this of an effectual believing, without which all other is nothing unto salvation." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"You say you do believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God. I say again, Examine, wast thou ever quickened from a dead state by the power of the Spirit of Christ, through the other part of the Scripture; that is to say, by the power of God in his Son Jesus Christ, through the covenant of promise?" A Few Sighs From Hell |
"All the professors that have not faith
which floweth from being born of God, will seek to enter in [to heaven],
and shall not be able." The Strait Gate
|
"Every grace is nourished by the Word, and without it there is no thrift in the soul." A Treatise On The Fear Of God |
"You must understand that the justice of God is as unchangeable as his love." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"But let me tell thee, hadst thou a thousand souls, and each of them was worth a thousand worlds, God would set them all on a light by fire, if they fall within the condemnings of his Word, and thou die without a Jesus, even the RIGHT Jesus: 'for the Scriptures cannot be broken.'" The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"Friend, there is never an idle word that thou speakest but God will account with thee for it; there is never a lie thou tellest, but God will reckon with thee for it; nay, there shall not pass so much as one passage in all thy lifetime but God, the righteous God, will have it in trial by his law, if thou die under it, in the judgment day." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"Though there be a condition commanded in the gospel, yet he that commands the condition doth not leave his children to their own natural abilities, that in their own strength they should fulfill them, as the law doth; but the same God that doth command that the condition be fulfilled, even he doth help his children by his Holy Spirit to fulfill the same condition... So that, if the condition be fulfilled, it is not done by the ability of the creature." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"This is commonly seen, that those souls that have not regarded those convictions that are at first set upon their spirits, do commonly, and that by the just judgments of God upon them, grow more hard, more senseless, more seared and sottish in their spirits; for some, who formerly would quake and weep, and relent under the hearing of the Word, do now for the present sit so senseless, so seared, and hardened in their consciences, that certainly if they should have hell-fire thrown in their faces, as it sometimes cried up in their ears, they would scarce be moved; and this comes upon them as a just judgment of God (2 Thess 2:11,12)." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"But out of Christ thou shalt find God a just God, a sin-avenging God, a God that will by no means spare the guilty; and be sure that every one that is found out of Jesus Christ will be found guilty in the judgment-day, upon whom the wrath of God shall smoke to their eternal ruin." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"Now, therefore, consider of it, and take the counsel of the apostle, which is to examine thyself whether thou art in the faith, and to prove thy ownself whether thou hast received the Spirit of Christ into thy soul, and whether thou hast been converted, whether thou hast been born again, and made a new creature, whether thou hast had thy sins washed away in the blood of Christ, whether thou hast been brought from under the old covenant into the new; and do not make a slight examination, for thou hast a precious soul either to be saved or damned. And that thou mayest not be deceived, consider that it is one thing to be convinced, and another to be converted; one thing to be wounded, and another to be killed, and so to be made alive again by the faith of Jesus Christ." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"O, therefore, be earnest in begging the Spirit, that thy soul may be enlightened, and the wickedness of thy heart discovered, that thou mayest see the miserable state that thou are in by reason of sin and unbelief, which is the great condemning sin; and so in a sight and sense of thy sad condition, if God should deal with thee in severity according to thy deservings." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"What ground also can a man have to think that God the Father is satisfied, being infinite, if he believe not also that he who gave the satisfaction was equal to him who was offended?" The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"Thou must give more credit to one syllable of the written Word of the Gospel than thou must give to all the saints and angels in heaven and earth; much more than to the devil and thy own guilty conscience." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"Again, come to others, speak to them about the state of their souls, though they have no more experience of the new birth than a beast, yet will they speak as confidently of their eternal state, and the welfare of their souls, as if they had the most excellent experience of any man or woman in the world, saying, ‘I shall have peace’ (Deut 29:19)." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"There is also that free-willer, who denies to the Holy Ghost the sole work in conversion; and that Socinian, who denieth to Christ that he hath made to God satisfaction for sin; and that Quaker, who takes from Christ the two natures in his person: and I might add as many more, touching whose damnation, they dying as they are, the Scripture is plain: these will seek to enter into heaven, and shall not be able." The Strait Gate |
"Nature, it cannot know anything but the things of nature; the things of God knows no man but by the Spirit of God; unless the Spirit of God be in you, it will leave you on this side the gates of heaven." Last Sermon |
"It is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the very beginnings of grace with their souls." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"As to the Lord's Prayer, although it be an easy thing to say 'Our Father' with the mouth, yet there are very few that can, in the Spirit, say the two first words in that prayer, that is, that can truly call God their Father, as knowing what it is to be born again, as having experience that they are truly begotten of the Spirit of God." Examination Before The Magistrates |
"Though it be said that faith cometh by hearing, yet it is the Spirit that worketh faith in the heart through hearing, or else they are not profited by hearing." Examination Before The Magistrates |
"It is the Spirit that showeth us our sins, and the Spirit that showeth us a Saviour, and the Spirit that stirreth up in our hearts desires to come to God." Examination Before The Magistrates |
"God's Word has two edges: it can cut backstroke and forestroke. If it doth thee no good, it will do thee hurt." The Jerusalem Sinner Saved |
"I have often thought of the day of judgment, and how God will deal with sinners at that day; and I believe it will be managed with that sweetness, with that equitableness, with that excellent righteousness, as to every single sin, and circumstance, and aggravation thereof, that men that are damned, shall before the judgment is over, receive such conviction of the righteous judgment of God upon them, and of their deserts in hell-fire, that they shall in themselves conclude, that there is all the reason in the world that they should be shut out of heaven." The Jerusalem Sinner Saved |
"No man shows himself willing to be saved that repenteth not of his deeds; for he that goes on still in his trespasses, declares that he is resolved to pursue his own damnation further." The Jerusalem Sinner Saved |
"No sin, but the sin of final impenitence, can prove a man reprobate." The Jerusalem Sinner Saved |
"The Father and the Holy Spirit are well spoken of by all deluders and deceived persons. Christ only is the rock of offence." The Jerusalem Sinner Saved |
"This shows us the desperate hazards which those men run, who, when conviction attends them, put off turning to God to be saved till another, and, as they think, a more fit season and time. For many, so doing, defer this to do till the day of God's patience and long-suffering is ended; and then, for their prayers and cries after mercy, they receive nothing but mocks, and are laughed at by the God of heaven." The Jerusalem Sinner Saved |
"Usually, when God gives up men, and resolves to let them alone in the broad way, he gives them rope, and lets them have their desires in all hurtful things." The Jerusalem Sinner Saved |
"Men, even the elect, have too many infirmities to come to Christ without help from heaven; inviting will not do." Saved By Grace |
"Sinners, you, I mean, that are not wounded with guilt, and oppressed with the burden of sin, you cannot - I will say it again - you cannot know, in this senseless condition of yours, what it is to be saved." Saved By Grace |
"God beareth with his own elect, for Christ's sake, all the time of their unregeneracy, until the time comes which he hath appointed for their conversion." Saved By Grace |
"It is not, therefore, the greatness OF, but the continuance IN, sins that damneth the sinner." Saved By Grace |
"Beware of resting in the word of the kingdom, without the spirit and power of the kingdom of that gospel, for the gospel coming in word only saves nobody, for the kingdom of God or the gospel, where it comes to salvation, is not in word but in power." Saved By Grace |
"I have advertised you not to be content without the power of the Spirit of God in your hearts, for without him you partake of none of the grace of the Father or Son, but will certainly miss of the salvation of the soul." Saved By Grace |
"Election, which layeth hold of men by the grace of God, God hath purposed that that shall stand. The election of God standeth sure; therefore men must be saved by virtue of the election of grace." Saved By Grace |
"There can be but one will the master in our salvation, but that shall never be the will of man, but of God; therefore man must be saved by grace." Saved By Grace |
"There are many things which men call the grace of God, that are not - namely, that light and knowledge that are in every man, that natural willingness that is in man to be saved, that power that is in man by nature to do something, as he thinketh, towards his own salvation." Saved By Grace |
"The doctrine of free grace is the most sin killing doctrine in the world." Saved By Grace |
"For the gospel, I say, coming in word only, saveth no man, because of man's impediment; wherefore those that indeed are saved by this gospel, the word comes not to them in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, is mixed with faith, even with that faith which is of the operation of God, by whose exceeding great and mighty power they are raised from the death of sin, and enabled to embrace the gospel." Reprobation Asserted |
"To lay hold of and receive the gospel by a true and saving faith is an act of the soul that has been made a new creature, which is the workmanship of God... Wherefore whoever receiveth the grace that is tendered in the gospel, they must be quickened by the power of God, their eyes must be opened, their understandings illuminated, their ears unstopped, their hearts circumcised, their wills also rectified, and the Son of God revealed in them." Reprobation Asserted |
"The kingdom of heaven is for the heirs - and if children, then heirs; if born again, then heirs. Wherefore it is said expressly, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. By this one word, down goes all carnal privilege of being born of flesh and blood, and of the will of man. Canst thou produce the birthright?" The Strait Gate |
"Be willing to see the worst of thy condition. It is better to see it here than in hell; for thou must see thy misery here or there." The Strait Gate |
"That few will be saved must needs be a truth, for Christ hath said it; that many go far, and come short of heaven, is as true, being testified by the same hand." The Strait Gate |
"Now as Christ suffered by God's hand, so he suffered for sins; but as he suffered from men, so he suffered for righteousness' sake." Light For Them That Sin In Darkness |
"God knoweth which is holiness that comes by faith in forgiveness of sins, and acceptance with God through Christ; and God knows which is only such feignedly; and accordingly will he deal with sinners in that great day of God Almighty." Light For Them That Sin In Darkness |
"The power of God is here more seen than in the making of heaven and earth: in that for Christ to bear, and get the victory over sin, when charged by the justice of an infinite majesty, in so doing Christ showeth the height of the highest power, for where sin by the law is charged, and that by God immediately, there an infinite majesty opposeth, and that with the whole of his justice, holiness, and power; so then, he that is thus charged and engaged for the sin of the world, even Christ, must not only be equal with God, but show it by overcoming that curse and judgment that by infinite justice is charged upon him for sin." Light For Them That Sin In Darkness |
"When angels and men had sinned, how did they fall and crumble before the anger of God! They had not power to withstand the terror, nor could there be worth found in their persons or doings to appease displeased justice. But behold! Here stands the Son of God before him in the sin of the world; his Father, finding him there, curseth and condemns him to death; but Christ, by the power of his Godhead, and the worthiness of his person and doings, vanquisheth sin, satisfieth God's justice, and so becomes the Saviour of the world. Here, then, is power seen: sin is a mighty thing, it crusheth all in pieces save him whose Spirit is eternal. Set Christ and his sufferings aside, and you neither see the evil of sin nor the displeasure of God against it; you see them not in their utmost. Hadst thou a view of all the legions that are now in the pains of hell, yea, couldst thou hear their shrieks and groans together at once, and feel the whole of all their burden, much of the evil of sin and of the justice of God against it would be yet unknown by thee, for thou wouldest want power to feel and bear the utmost. A giant shows not his power by killing of a little child, nor yet is his might seen by the resistance that such a little one makes, but then he showeth his power when he dealeth with one like himself; yea, and the power also of the other is then made manifest in saving himself from being swallowed up with his wrath. Jesus Christ also made manifest his eternal power and Godhead, more by bearing and overcoming our sins, than in making or upholding the whole world; hence Christ crucified is called the power of God." Light For Them That Sin In Darkness |
"Our sins, when laid upon Christ, were yet personally ours, not his; so his righteousness, when put upon us, is yet personally his, not ours." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"This is the trap in which the devil hath caught many thousands of poor souls, namely, by getting them to judge according to outward appearance, or according to God's outward blessings." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"And let me tell thee, O soul, whoever thou art, that if thou close not in savingly with the Lord Jesus Christ, and lay hold on what he hath done and is doing in his own person for sinners, thou wilt find such a hell after this life is ended, that thou wilt not get out of again for ever and ever. And thou that art wanton, and dost make but a mock at the servants of the Lord, when they tell thee of the torments of hell, thou wilt find that when thou departest out of this life, that hell, even the hell which is after this life, will meet thee in thy journey thither; and will, with its hellish crew, give thee such a sad salutation that thou wilt not forget it to all eternity." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"See then what a miserable case he that dies in an unregenerate state is in; he departs from a long sickness to a longer hell; from the gripings of death, to the everlasting torments of hell." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"While men live in this world, and are in a natural state, they will have a good conceit of themselves, and of their condition -- they will conclude that they are Christians, that Abraham is their father, and their state to be as good as the best. They will conclude they have faith, the Spirit, a good hope, and an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ; but then, when they drop into hell, and lift up their eyes there, and behold first their soul to be in extreme torments; their dwelling to be the bottomless pit; their company thousands of damned souls; also the innumerable company of devils; and the hot scalding vengeance of God, not only to drop, but to fall very violently upon them; then they will begin to be awakened, who all their lifetime where in a dead sleep." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"Now this will be a mighty torment to the ungodly, when they shall understand the goodness of God was so great that he even sent his Son out of his bosom to die for sinners, and yet that they should be so foolish as to put him off from one time to another." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"O what a condition wilt thou fall into, when thou dost depart this world; if thou depart unconverted, and not born again, thou hadst better have been smothered the first hour thou wast born; thou hadst better have been plucked one limb from another; thou hadst better have been made a dog, a toad, a serpent, nay, any other creature in the visible world, than to die unconverted; and this thou wilt find to be true, when in hell thou dost lift up thine eyes, and dost cry." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"God hath decreed that those who go to heaven shall never go from thence again into a worse place; and also those that go to hell, and would come out, they shall not come out thence again. And friend, this is such a gulf, so fixed by him that cannot lie, that thou wilt find it so, which way soever thou goest, whether it be to heaven or hell." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"Here therefore lies the misery, not so much that they are in hell, but there they must lie for ever and ever." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"Remember this, ye that despise the day of small things; the time is coming, when you would be glad, if you might enjoy from God, from Christ, or his saints, one small drop of cold water, though now you are unwilling to receive the glorious distilling drops of the gospel of our Lord Jesus." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"It is better to be dealt plainly with, than that we should be deceived." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"Some men, it is to be feared, at the day of judgment, will be found to be the authors of destroying whole nations. How many souls do you think Balaam, with his deceit, will have to answer for? How many Mahomet? How many the Pharisees, that hired the soldiers to say the disciples stole away Jesus; and by that means stumbled their brethren to this day; and was one means of hindering them from believing the things of God and Jesus Christ, and so the cause of the damnation of their brethren to this very day?" A Few Sighs From Hell |
"Wherefore whoever receiveth the grace that is tendered in the gospel, they must be quickened by the power of God, their eyes must be opened, their understandings illuminated, their ears unstopped, their hearts circumcised, their wills also rectified, and the Son of God revealed in them." Reprobation Asserted |
"Thou hast heard and read, that ‘He that believeth not shall be damned’ (Mark 16:16). And that ‘all men have not faith’ (2 Thess 3:2). And yet thou dost so much disregard these things, that it is like thou didst scarce ever so much as examine seriously whether thou wast in the faith or no; but dost content thyself with the hypocrite’s hope, which at the last God will cut off, and count it not better than the spider’s web (Job 8:13,14), or the house that is builded on the sands (Luke 6:49). Nay, thou peradventure dost flatter thyself, and thinkest that thy faith is as good as the best of them all; when, alas, poor soul, thou mayest have no saving faith at all; which thou hast not, if thou be not born again, and made a new creature (2 Cor 2:17)." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"Do not satisfy thyself with these secret and first persuasions [of conviction], which do or may encourage thee to come to Jesus Christ; but be restless till thou dost find by blessed experience the glorious glory of this the second covenant [New Testament] extended unto thee, and sealed upon thy soul with the very Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"Yet persons had rather be in their foolishness and scorning still, and had rather embrace some filthy lust, than the holy, undefiled, and blessed Spirit of Christ, through the promise, though by it, as many as receive it, are sealed unto the day of redemption, and although he that lives and dies without it, is none of Christ’s." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"He that believes the Scriptures to be the Word of God, if he do but suppose that any one place of Scripture doth exclude him, and shut him out of, and from a share in the promises contained in them, O it will trouble him, grieve him, perplex him. Yea, he will not be satisfied until he be resolved, and the contrary sealed to his soul; for he knows that the Scriptures are the word of God, all truth; and therefore he knows that if any one sentence doth exclude or bar him out for want of this or the other qualification, he knows also that not the Word alone shuts him out, but He that speaks it, even God himself. And, therefore, he cannot, will not, dare not be contented until he find his soul and Scripture together, with the things contained therein, to embrace each other, and a sweet correspondency and agreement between them. For you must know that to him that believes the Scriptures aright, the promises, or threatenings, are of more power to comfort or cast down, than all the promises or threatenings of all the men in the world." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"God has a great dislike of the sins of his own people, and would fall upon them in judgment and anger much more severely than he doth, were it not for Christ's intercession." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"Christ's blood is not laws, nor ordinances, nor commandments, but a price, a redeeming price." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"There is also to be a throne of judgment, on which God by Christ, at the great and notable day, shall sit to give the whole world, their last or final sentence, from which, no, not, not by any means, they shall never be released. This throne is made mention of in the New Testament, and is called by Christ the throne of his glory, and a great white throne. And his presence, when he sits upon this throne, will be so terrible, that nothing shall be able to abide it that is not reconciled to God by him before." The Saints' Privilege And Profit |
"Were there no objects of pity among those that in the old world perished by the flood, or that in Sodom were burned with fire from heaven? Doubtless, according to our apprehension there were many. But Noah, and he only, found grace in God’s eyes, not because that of himself he was better than the rest; but God acted as a gracious prince toward him, and let him share in mercy of his own sovereign will and pleasure." The Saints' Privilege And Profit |
"What comes from this throne of grace is pure grace, and nothing else; clear grace, free grace; grace that is not mixed, nor need be mixed with works of righteousness that we have done. It is of itself sufficient to answer all our wants, to heal all our diseases and to help us at a time of need. It is grace that chooses, it is grace that calleth, it is grace that preserveth, and it is grace that brings to glory; even the grace that like a river of water of life proceedeth from this throne. And hence it is, that from first to last, we must cry, Grace, grace unto it!" The Saints' Privilege And Profit |
"They that will not be saved by Christ must be damned by Christ; no man can escape one of the two. Refuse the first they may, but shun the second they cannot." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"Thou mayest do that in half a quarter of an hour, from the evil of which thou mayest not be delivered for ever and ever." The Barren Fig Tree |
"There are branches in Christ, in Christ's body mystical, which is his church, his vineyard, that bear not fruit, wherefore the hand of God is to take them away... This therefore must be your end, although you are planted in the garden of God; for the barrenness and unfruitfulness of your hearts and lives you must be cut off, yea, rooted up, and cast out of the vineyard." The Barren Fig Tree |
"Now those that have not the HAPPINESS to see their sin by the law in this life, while there is a fountain of grace to wash in, and be clean; they must have the MISERY to see it at the judgment, when nothing is left but misery and pain, as the punishment for the same." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"Let no man say then, that because God is so famous in his mercy and patience, in this day of his grace, that therefore he will not be fierce and dreadful in his justice in the day of judgment; for judgment and justice are the last things that God intends to bring upon the stage, which will then be to the full, and as terrible as now his goodness and patience and long-sufferance are admirable." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"And hence they are called the living, that are written in this book. Here then, the Lord will open before thee, what conversion is, in the true and simple nature of it, which when thou beholdest, thou wilt then be convinced, that this thou hast missed of; for it must needs be, that when thou beholdest by the records of heaven, what a change, what a turn, what an alteration the work of regeneration maketh on every soul, and in every heart, where the effectual call, or the call according to his purpose, is; that thou who hast lived a stranger to this, or that hast contented thyself with the notion only, or a formal, and feigned profession thereof: I say, it cannot be but that thou must forthwith fall down, and with grief conclude, that thou hast no share in this part of the book of life neither, the living only are written herein." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"He that holdeth no resurrection of our body, he denieth the resurrection of the body of Christ." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"Christ in his resurrection, doth prove our resurrection... for as by Christ's rising, our is affirmed; so by ours, his is demonstrated." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"Do you not know, that the resurrection of the body, and glory to follow, is the very quintessence of the gospel of Jesus Christ." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"Neither its quickening, nor yet its transcendent spendour, shall hinder it from being the same body -- as to the nature of it -- that was sown in the earth." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"Wherefore I say, at our rising, we shall not change our nature, but our glory; we shall be equal to the angels, not with respect to our nature, but glory." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"The woman whose clothes are foul, can yet distinguish between the dirt and the cloth on which it hangeth; and so deals God with us." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"We are raised in power, in that power that all these things are as far below us as a grasshopper is below a giant; at the first appearance of us the world will tremble... We shall then carry that grace, majesty, terror, and commanding power in our souls that our countenances shall be like lightning." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"Christ hath shewed us, what our body at our resurrection shall be, by shewing of us, in his Word, what his body was, at and after, his resurrection." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"Peter also, though half asleep, could at the very first word, call Moses and Elias by their names, when they appeared to Christ in the holy mount. He is very ignorant of the operation of the Spirit of God, that scrupleth these things." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"He hat shewed us, how he will deal with those that are alive at Christ's coming, by his translating of Enoch, and by taking him body and soul to himself." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"God doth not count us thoroughly saved, until our bodies be as well redeemed and ransomed out of the grave and death, as our souls from the curse of the law, and dominion of sin." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"Now when the saints that sleep shall be raised thus incorruptible, powerful, glorious, and spiritual; and also those that then shall be found alive, made like them: then forthwith, before the unjust are raised, the saints shall appear before the judgment-seat of the Lord Jesus Christ, there to give an account to their Lord the Judge, of all things they have done; and to receive a reward for their good according to their labour... And it must be so, because also the saints will have done their account, and be set upon the throne with Christ, as kings and princes with him, to judge the world, when the wicked world are raised. The saints shall judge the world; they shall judge angels; yea, they shall sit upon the thrones of judgment to do it." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"It is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the very beginnings of grace with their souls... It was Paul's accustomed manner, and that when tried for his life, even to open, before his judges, the manner of his conversion: he would think of that day, and that hour, in the which he first did meet with grace; for he found it support to him." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"The milk and honey is beyond this wilderness. God be merciful to you, and grant that you be not slothful to go in to possess the land." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"O friends! Cry to God to reveal Jesus Christ unto you; there is none teacheth like him." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"I do prefer this book of Martin Luther upon the Galatians, excepting the Holy Bible, before all the books that ever I have seen, as most fit for wounded conscience." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"As for mine accusers, let them provide for themselves to meet me before the tribunal of the Son of God, there to answer for all these things, with all the rest of their iniquities, unless God shall give them repentance for them, for the which I pray with all my heart." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"The gate is strait - many that seek will not be able, therefore but few shall be saved." The Strait Gate |
"Souls, there are cherubims and a flaming sword at the gates of heaven to keep the way of the tree of life; therefore none but them that are duly fitted for heaven [by the New Birth] can enter in at this strait gate; the flaming sword will keep all others out." The Strait Gate |
"As by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified; so without the consent of the law, no flesh shall be saved." The Strait Gate |
"Saving conversion lieth more in the turning of the mind and will to Christ, and to the love of his heavenly things, than in all knowledge and judgment." The Strait Gate |
"There is nothing of Christianity got by idleness... Profession that is not attended with spiritual labour cannot bring the soul to heaven." The Strait Gate |
"The Lord Jesus giveth sharp rebuke to those professors that have not eternal glory, but other temporal things in their eye, by all the bustle that they make in the world about religion." The Strait Gate |
"You need not run into trials; God hath ordained that enough of them shall overtake thee to prove thy graces either rotten or sound before the day of thy death; sufficient to the day is the evil thereof, if thou hast but a sufficiency of grace to withstand." The Strait Gate |
"Where grace and striving are wanting now, seeking and contending to enter in will be unprofitable then." The Strait Gate |
"It is common with a professing people, when they hear a smart and a thundering sermon, to say, Now has the preacher paid off the drunkard, the swearer, the liar, the covetous, and adulterer; forgetting that these sins may be committed in a spiritual and mystical way. There is spiritual drunkenness, spiritual adultery, and a man may be a liar that calls God his Father when God is not, or that calls himself a Christian, and is not." The Strait Gate |
"There is in the world, a thing like grace, that is not... As there is a thing like grace, which is not, so there is a sin, called the sin against the Holy Ghost, from which there is no redemption; and this sin doth more than ordinarily befall professors... Wherefore, when we know that a man hath sinned this sin, we are not to pray for him, or to have compassion on him." The Strait Gate |
"The birthright [New Birth] and the blessing go together, miss of one, and thou shalt never have the other." The Strait Gate |
"They shall not be able to enter in [to Heaven] who have not believed with the faith of God's operation; the faith that is most holy, even the faith of God's elect... This faith is the effect of electing love, and of the new birth." The Strait Gate |
"Behold, then, how far a man may go in repentance, and yet be short of that which is called, Repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. He may be awakened; He may acknowledge his sin; He may cry out under the burden of sin; He may have humility for it; He may loath it; May have prayers and tears against it; May delight to do many things of God; May be afraid of sinning against him—and, after all this, may perish, for want of saving repentance." The Strait Gate |
"Why, they that shall not be saved may have faith also; yea, a faith in many things so like the faith that saveth, that they can hardly be distinguished, though they differ both in root and branch." The Strait Gate |
"I do not question but many Balaamites will appear before the judgment seat to condemnation; men that have had visions of God, and that knew the knowledge of the Most High; men that have had the Spirit of God come upon them, and that have by that been made other men; yet these shall go to the generations of their fathers, they shall never see light." The Strait Gate |
"They that miss of life perish, because they will not let go their sins, or because they take up a profession short of the saving faith of the gospel. They perish, I say, because they are content with such things as will not prove graces of a saving nature when they come to be tried in the fire." The Strait Gate |
"Covetous professor, thou that makest a gain of religion, that usest thy profession to bring grist to the mill, look to it also. Gain is not godliness. Judas's religion lay much in the bag, but his soul is now burning in hell." The Strait Gate |
"And here take heed -- that thou takest not seeming graces for real ones, nor seeming fruits for real fruits." The Strait Gate |
"No sin against God can be little, because it is against the great God of heaven and earth; but if the sinner can find out a little God, it may be easy to find out little sins." Dying Sayings |
"The school of the cross is the school of light; it discovers the world's vanity, baseness, and wickedness, and lets us see more of God's mind. Out of dark affliction comes a spiritual light." Dying Sayings |
"To be truly sensible of sin is to sorrow for displeasing of God; to be afflicted that he is displeased by us more than that he is displeased with us." Dying Sayings |
"Your intentions to repentance, and the neglect of that soul-saving duty, will rise up in judgment against you." Dying Sayings |
"When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words, than thy words without a heart." Dying Sayings |
"Thus every morning and evening make up thy accounts with Almighty God, and thy reckoning will be the less at last." Dying Sayings |
"The epicure that delighteth in the dainties of this world, little thinketh that these very creatures will one day witness against him." Dying Sayings |
"Nothing more hinders a soul from coming to Christ, than a vain love of this world; and till a soul is freed from it, it can never have a true love for God." Dying Sayings |
"It is a rare thing to suffer aright, and to have my spirit in suffering bent only against God's enemy -- sin, sin in doctrine, sin in worship, sin in life, and sin in conversation." Dying Sayings |
"Nothing will make us more earnest in working out the work of our salvation, than a frequent meditation of mortality; nothing hath greater influence for the taking off our hearts from vanities, and for the begetting in us desires after holiness." Dying Sayings |
"O sinner! what a condition wilt thou fall into when thou departest this world if thou depart unconverted; thou hadst better have been smothered the first hour thou wast born; thou hadst better have been plucked one limb from another; thou hadst better have been made a dog, a toad, a serpent, than to die unconverted, and this thou wilt find true if thou repent not." Dying Sayings |
"Heaven and salvation is not surely more promised to the godly than hell and damnation is threatened to, and shall be executed on, the wicked." Dying Sayings |
"Christ is the desire of nations, the joy of angels, the delight of the Father; what solace then must that soul be filled with, that hath the possession of him to all eternity?" Dying Sayings |
"The Scriptures, I say, they are able to give a man perfect instruction into any of the things of God necessary to faith and godliness, if he hath but an honest heart seriously to weigh and ponder the several things contained in them." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"In a word, they that do continue to reject and slight the Word of God, they are such, for the most part, as are ordained to be damned." A Few Sighs From Hell |
"Christ opens his golden arms wider than all our miseries. But he suffers no rival on this throne, no partnership with Moses or John Baptist." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ, George Offor, Introduction |
"We must therefore diligently consult the meaning of the text, by comparing it with other the sayings of God; so shall we be better able to find out the mind of the Lord, in the word which he has given us to know it by." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"All that the Father giveth me SHALL COME... Here, therefore, the Lord Jesus positively determineth to put forth such a sufficiency of all grace as shall effectually perform this promise. They shall come; that is, he will CAUSE them to come, by infusing of an effectual blessing into all the means that shall be used to that end." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"When all refuge fails, and a man is made to see that there is nothing left him but sin, death, and damnation, unless he flies to Christ for life; then he flies, and not till then." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"I say, there are a great many such comers to Jesus Christ; they say, when Christ calls by his gospel, I come, Sir; but still they abide by their pleasures and carnal delights. They come not at all, only they give him a courtly compliment; but he takes notice of it, and will not let it pass for any more than a lie. He said, 'I go, Sir, and went not;' he dissembled and lied. Take heed of this, you that flatter yourselves with your own deceivings. Words will not do with Jesus Christ. Coming is COMING, and nothing else will go for COMING with him." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"Wherefore, coming sinner, be content; he that cometh to Jesus Christ, believeth too that he is willing to show mercy to, and have compassion upon him, though unworthy, that comes to him for life. And therefore thy soul lieth not only under a special invitation to come, but under a promise too of being accepted and forgiven." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"As in salvation, so in conversion, God's command is, 'LET THERE BE LIGHT;' it comes by the Word; no Bible, no light." On Genesis |
"Words easy to be understood do often hit the mark, when high and learned ones do only pierce the air." Memoir Of John Bunyan |
"If we have but grace enough to keep us groaning after God, it is not all the world that can destroy us." The Desire Of The Righteous Granted |
"Again, therefore, those that this day profess the Gospel, for the generality of them they are such, that, notwithstanding their profession, they are very ignorant of that glorious influence and lustre of the same; I say, they are ignorant of the virtue and efficacy of the glorious things of Christ held forth by and in the Gospel, which doth argue their not being under the Covenant of Grace, but rather under the law or old covenant (2 Cor 4:3). As, for instance, if you do come among some professors of the Gospel, in general you shall have them pretty busy and ripe; also able to hold you in a very large discourse in several points of the same glorious Gospel; but if you come to the same people and ask them concerning heart-work, or what work the Gospel hath wrought on them, and what appearance they have had of the sweet influences and virtues on their souls and consciences, it may be they will give you such an answer as this–I do find by the preaching thereof that I am changed, and turned from my sins in a good measure, and also have learned (but only in tongue), to distinguish between the law and the Gospel, so that for the one–that is, for the Gospel–I can plead, and also can show the weakness and unprofitableness of the other. And thus far, it is like they may go, which is not far enough to prove them under the Covenant of Grace, though they may have their tongues so largely tipped with the profession of the same." The Doctrine Of Law And Grace Unfolded |
"Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life: and let us assure ourselves, that at the day of doom men shall be judged according to their fruits. It will not be said then, Did you believe? but, Were you doers, or talkers only? and accordingly shall they be judged." Pilgrim's Progress, Part I |
"In the worship of God there is required a divine faith; but there can be no divine faith without a divine revelation of the will of God: therefore whatever is thrust into the worship of God that is not agreeable to a divine revelation, cannot be done but by a human faith; which faith will not profit to eternal life." Pilgrim's Progress, Part I |
"Though faithless ones can, for carnal lusts, pawn, or mortgage, or sell what they have, and themselves outright to boot; yet they that have faith, saving faith, though but a little of it, cannot do so." Pilgrim's Progress, Part I |
"The invitations of the gospel will be, to those who refuse them, the hottest coals in hell." The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, by George Offor, Editor |
"Sinner, here thou dost hear of love; prithee, do not provoke it, by turning it into wantonness. He that dies for slighting love, sinks deepest into hell, and will there be tormented by the remembrance of that evil, more than by the deepest cogitation of all his other sins. Take heed, therefore; do not make love thy tormentor, sinner." The Jerusalem Sinner Saved |
"And I have been the more plain and simple in my writing, because the sin against the Holy Ghost is in these days more common than formerly, and the way unto it more beautified with colour and pretence of truth. I may say of the way to this sin, it is, as was once the way to Jerusalem, strewed with boughs and branches; and by some there is cried a kind of hosanna to them that are treading these steps to hell." Light For Them That Sit In Darkness |
"Examine, which do you like best, self-soothing or soul-searching doctrine? Formalists and hypocrites love the former, and hate the latter. But the sincere and upright are discovered by desiring to have their hearts searched to the quick, and their ways tried to the utmost; and, therefore, with David will cry, Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" Pilgrim's Progress, Part II - Mason |
"If a man would live well, let him fetch his last day to him, and make it always his company keeper." Pilgrim's Progress, Part II |
"If Satan be driven back from one attack, prepare for another. Bless God for your armour. Never put it off." Pilgrim's Progress, Part II - Mason |
"Man by nature is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knows not whither he goes, for darkness hath blinded his eyes; neither can anything but Jesus Christ lead men out of this darkness. Natural conscience cannot do it; the ten commandments, though in the heart of man, cannot do it. This prerogative belongs only to Jesus Christ." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"There is therefore heart-pulling glory in Jesus Christ, which, when discovered, draws the man to him; wherefore by shall come to me, Christ may mean, when his glory is discovered, then they must come, then they shall come to me... There is therefore heart-attracting glory in the Lord Jesus Christ, which, when discovered, subjects the heart to the Word, and makes us come to him." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"We come to Christ, because it is said, We shall come; because it is given to us to come." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"Jesus Christ hath his eye upon, and takes notice of, the first moving of the heart of a sinner after himself. Coming sinner, thou canst not move with desires after Christ, but he sees the working of those desires in thy heart." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"It is unbelief that alone puts Christ and his benefits from us." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"You must know, that every one that comes, comes not to Jesus Christ; some that come, come to Moses, and to his law, and there take up for life; with these Christ is not concerned; with these his promise hath not to do." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"Christ as a Saviour will stand alone, because his own arm alone hath brought salvation unto him. He will not be joined with Moses, nor suffer John Baptist to be tabernacled by him. I say they must vanish, for Christ will stand alone." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"Christ will not suffer any law, ordinance, statute, or judgment, to be partners with him in the salvation of the sinner. Nay, he saith not, and him that cometh to my WORD; but, and him that cometh to ME. The words of Christ, even his most blessed and free promises, such as this in the text, are not the Saviour of the world; for that is Christ himself, Christ himself only." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"Therefore the man that comes to Christ, is one that hath had deep considerations of his own sins, slighting thoughts of his own righteousness, and high thoughts of the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ; yea, he sees, as I have said, more virtue in the blood of Christ to save him, than there is in all his sins to damn him. He therefore setteth Christ before his eyes; there is nothing in heaven or earth, he knows, that can save his soul and secure him from the wrath of God, but Christ; that is, nothing but his personal righteousness and blood." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"In the wisdom of God it pleased him, that the world by wisdom should not know him. Now, if by their wisdom they cannot know him, it follows, by that wisdom, they cannot come unto him; for coming to him is not before, but after some knowledge of him." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"If God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world; and again, if the wisdom of this world is foolishness with him, then verily it is not likely, that by that a sinner should become so prudent as to come to Jesus Christ." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"God counted the wisdom of this world one of his greatest enemies; therefore, by that wisdom no man can come to Jesus Christ." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"It is an heavenly gift that maketh man come to Jesus Christ." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"There are some men who think they may not be contradicted, when they plead for the will, wisdom, and power of man in reference to the things that are of the kingdom of Christ; but I will say to such a man, he never yet came to understand, that himself is what the Scripture teacheth concerning him; neither did he ever know what coming to Christ is, by the teaching, gift, and drawing of the Father. He is such a one that hath set up God's enemy in opposition to him, and that continueth in such acts of defiance; and what his end, without a new birth, will be, the Scripture teacheth also." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"Christian man, bless God, who hath given thee to Jesus Christ by promise; and again, bless God for that he hath drawn thee to him. And why is it thee? Why not another? O that the glory of electing love should rest upon thy head, and that the glory of the exceeding grace of God should take hold of thy heart, and bring thee to Jesus Christ!" Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"Here appears the glory of Christ, that none but he can save." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"Life is in Christ, that it might be sure to all the seed. Alas! the best of us, was life left in our hand, to be sure we should forfeit it, over, and over, and over; or, was it in any other hand, we should, by our often backslidings, so offend him, that at last he would shut up his bowels in everlasting displeasure against us. But now it is in Christ, it is with one that can pity, pray for, pardon, yea, multiply pardons; it is with one that can have compassion upon us, when we are out of the way; with one that hath an heart to fetch us again, when we are gone astray; with one that can pardon without upbraiding. Blessed be God, that life is in Christ! For now it is sure to all the seed." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"Come boldly to Jesus Christ. He is full of wisdom. He is made unto us of God wisdom; wisdom to manage the affairs of his church in general, and the affairs of every coming sinner in particular. And upon this account he is said to be "head over all things," because he manages all things that are in the world by his wisdom, for the good of his church; all men's actions, all Satan's temptations, all God's providences, all crosses, and disappointments; all things whatever are under the hand of Christ –who is the wisdom of God –and he ordereth them all for good to his church. And can Christ help it – and be sure he can –nothing shall happen or fall out in the world, but it shall, in despite of all opposition, have a good tendency to his church and people." Come And Welcome To Jesus Christ |
"I conclude, then, that Christ Jesus, in his human nature, is this throne of grace. In his human nature, I say, he has by that completely accomplished all things necessary for the making way for grace to be extended to men; and that that is not only God's place of rest, but that by and from which, as upon a glorious throne, his grace shall reign over devil, death, sin, hell, and the grave, for ever. This human nature of Christ is also called the tabernacle of God; for the fullness of the Godhead dwells in it bodily. It is God's habitation, his dwelling-place, his chair and throne of state. He doth all in and by it, and without it he doth not any thing." The Saint's Privilege And Profit |
"The soul is such a thing, so rich and valuable in the nature of it, that scarce one in twenty thousand counts of it as they should." The Saint's Privilege And Profit |
"It is a sad thing that men should be thus void of consideration, and yet they are so. They are at a continual jest with God and his Word, with the devil and sin, with hell and judgment. But they will be in earnest one day; but that one day will be too late!" The Saint's Privilege And Profit |
"It is a dishonour to God, disadvantage to thee, and an encouragement to Satan, when thou hangest back, and seemest afraid to come boldly unto the throne of grace." The Saint's Privilege And Profit |
"Sin must first be received before it can act in, or be acted by, the soul. Our first parents first received it in the suggestion or motion, and then acted it... if the soul has indeed received sin into itself, then it has sinned, and by doing so, has made itself an object of the wrath of God, and a fire brand of hell." The Greatness Of The Soul |
"Look to thyself; heaven and hell are hard by, and one of them will swallow thee up; heaven, into unspeakable and endless glory, or hell, into unspeakable and endless torment." |
"Wicked men talk of heaven, and say they hope and desire to go to heaven, even while they continue wicked men; but, I say, what would they do there? If all that desire to go to heaven should come thither, verily they would make a hell of heaven; for, I say, what would they do there? why, just as they do here, scatter their filthiness quite over the face of heaven, and make it as vile as the pit that the devils dwell in." The Greatness Of The Soul |
"Take holiness away out of heaven, and what is heaven? I had rather be in hell, were there none but holy ones there, than be in heaven itself with the children of iniquity. If heaven should be filled with wicked men, God would quickly drive them out, or forsake the place for their sakes." The Greatness Of The Soul |
"What! set more by thy soul than by all the world? What! cast a world behind thy back for the welfare of a soul? Is not this to play the fool, in the account of sinners, while angels wonder at and rejoice for thy wisdom?" The Greatness Of The Soul |
"God has refused to give His children the great, the brave, and glorious things of this world, a few only excepted, because He has prepared some better thing for them. Wherefore faint not, but let thy hand be strong, for thy work shall be rewarded." The Greatness Of The Soul |
"Therefore are the corruptions by Divine permission still left in us; they are not left in us to drive us to unbelief, but to faith—that is, to look to the perfect righteousness of Christ for life. And for further help, consider, that therefore Christ liveth in heaven, making intercession, that thou mightest be saved by His life, not by thine, and by His intercessions, not by thy perfections." The Greatness Of The Soul |
"The loss of an estate may be repaired, or if not, a man may find friends in his present deplorable condition to his support, though not recovery; but far will this be from him that shall lose his soul. Ah! he has lost his soul, and can never be recovered again, unless hell fire can comfort him; unless he can solace himself in the fiery indignation of God; terrors will be upon him, anguish and sorrow will swallow him up, because of present misery; slighted and set at nought by God and His angels, he will also be in this miserable state, and this will add to sorrow, sorrow, and to his vexation of spirit, howling." The Greatness Of The Soul |
"When Paul was caught up to the third heaven, he heard words that were unspeakable; and he that goes down to hell shall hear groans that are unutterable. Hear, did I say? they shall feel them, they shall feel them burst from their wounded spirit as thunderclaps do from the clouds." The Greatness Of The Soul |
"Hell is another kind of place and state than any alive can think." The Greatness Of The Soul |
"Hell is said to be darkness, and heaven is said to be light; light, to show the pleasureableness and the desireableness of heaven; and darkness, to show the dolesome and wearisomeness of hell; and how weary, oh! how weary and wearisomely, as I may say, will damned souls turn themselves from side to side, from place to place, in hell, while swallowed up in the thickest darkness, and griped with the burning thoughts of the endlessness of that most unutterable misery." The Greatness Of The Soul |
"Heaven! It is said of heaven, the height of heaven, and of hell, the bottomless pit. The height of heaven, to show that the exaltation of them that do ascend up thither is both perfect and unsearchable; and hell, the bottomless pit, to show that the downfall of them that descend in thither will never be at an end—down, down, down they go, and nothing but down, down still!" The Greatness Of The Soul |
“A returning backslider is a great blessing, I mean intended to be so... The uncalled are made to hear him, and consider; the called are made to hear him, and are afraid of falling. Behold, therefore, the mystery of God’s wisdom, and how willing he is that spectators should be warned and made take heed. Yea, he will permit that some of his own shall fall into the fire, to convince the world that hell is hot, and to warn their brethren to take heed that they slip not with their feet. I have often said in my heart that this was the cause why God suffered so many of the believing Jews to fall; to wit, that the Gentiles might take heed. O, brethren! saith the backslider that is returned, did you see how I left my God? did you see how I turned again to those vanities from which some time before I fell? O! I was deluded, I was bewitched, I was deceived; for I found all things from which I fled at first still worse by far when I went to them the second time. Do not backslide. Oh! do not backslide. the first ground of your departing from them was good; never tempt God a second time. And as he gives us a second testimony, that the world and himself are so as at first he believed they were, so by this his returning he testifies that God and Christ are the same, and much more than ever he believed at first they were. This man has made a proof before and a proof after conviction of the evil of the one and good of the other. This man has made a proof by feeling and seeing, and that before and after grace received. This man God has set up to be a witness; this man is two men, has the testimony of two men, must serve in the place of two men. He knows what it is to be fetched from a state of nature by grace; but this all Christians know as well as he. Ay, but he knows what it is to be fetched from the world, from the devil, and hell, the second time; and that but few professors know, for few that fall away return to do again. Ay, but this man is come again, wherefore there is news in his mouth, sad news, dreadful news, and news that is to make the standing saint to take heed lest he fall. The returning backslider, therefore, is a rare man, a man of worth and intelligence, a man to whom the men of the world should flock, and of whom they should learn to fear the Lord God... This man has the second time also had a proof of God’s goodness in his Christ unto him, a proof which the standing Christian has not. I would not tempt him that stands to fall; but the good that a returning backslider has received at God’s hands, and at the hand of Christ, is a double good, he has been converted twice, fetched from the world, and from the devil, and from himself twice; oh, grace! and has been made to know the stability of God’s covenant, the unchangeableness of God’s mind, the sure and lasting truth of his promise in Christ, and of the sufficiency of the merits of Christ, over and over.” Christ A Complete Saviour |
"He that thirsteth aright, nothing but God can quench his thirst." The Water Of Life |
"Grace makes no man proud, no man wanton, no man haughty, no man careless or negligent as to his duty that is incumbent upon him, either from God or man: no, grace keeps a man low in his own eyes, humble, self-denying, penitent, watchful, savoury in good things, charitable, and makes him kindly affectionated to the brethren, pitiful and courteous to all men." The Water Of Life |
"It is a dangerous thing for a man to have the notions of grace, while his heart is void of the spirit and holy principles of grace; for such a man can do no other than abuse the grace of God." The Water Of Life |
"What Judas did with Christ, that a graceless man will do with grace, even make it a stalking horse to his fleshly and vile designs; and rather than fail betray both it, and the profession of it, to the greatest enemies it has in the world." The Water Of Life |
"I might hence also show you that a man may be justified even then when his action is condemned; also that a man may be in a state of condemnation when his action may be justified." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"There is no other way for sinners to be justified from the curse of the law in the sight of God, than by the imputation of that righteousness long ago performed by, and still residing with, the person of Jesus Christ." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"That one particular man should represent all the elect in himself, and that the most righteous should die as a sinner, yea, as a sinner by the hand of a just and holy God, is a mystery of the greatest depth!" Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Christ then was quickened when he was raised from the dead. Nor is it proper to say that he was ever quickened either before or since. This text also concludes that we-to wit, the whole body of God's elect, were also quickened then, and made to live with him together. True, we also are quickened personally by grace the day in the which we are born unto God by the gospel; yet afore that, we are quickened in our Head; quickened when he was raised from the dead, quickened together with him." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Faith when it hath received the Lord Jesus, it hath done that which pleaseth God; therefore, the very act of believing is the most noble in the world; believing sets the crown upon the head of grace; it seals to the truth of the sufficiency of the righteousness of Christ, and giveth all the glory to God." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Faith, then, as separate from Christ, doth nothing; nothing, neither with God nor man; because it wants its relative; but let it go to the Lord Jesus-let it behold him as dying, &c., and it fetches righteousness, and life, and peace out of the virtue of his blood, &c." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Man's blessedness, then, the blessedness of justification from the curse in the sight of God, lieth not in good works done by us, either before or after faith received, but in a righteousness which God imputeth without works; as we work not, as we are ungodly... To forgive and to cover are acts of mercy, not the cause of our merit." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Where sin is real, there can be no perfect righteousness; but the way of justification must be through perfect righteousness, therefore by another than our own... The first cause, then, of justification before God, dependeth upon the will of God, who will justify because he will; therefore the meritorious cause must also be of his own providing, else his will cannot herein be absolute; for if justification depend upon our personal performances, then not upon the will of God." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"He is the man that is like to know most of God, that is oftenest in private with him." The New Jerusalem |
"Christ hath not only obtained the kingdom of heaven for those that are his, when this world is ended, but hath also, as a reward for his sufferings, the whole world given into his hand; wherefore, as all the kings, and princes, and powers of this world have had their time to reign, and have glory in this world in the face of all, so Christ will have his time at this day, to show who is the only Potentate and Lord of lords. At which day he will not only set up his kingdom in the midst of their kingdoms, as he doth now, but will set it up even upon the top of their kingdoms; at which day there will not be a nation in the world but must bend to Jerusalem or perish." The New Jerusalem |
"There is no man by nature, that hath any soundness in him, no, neither in soul or body; his understanding is darkened, his mind and conscience is defiled, his will is perverted and obstinate." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"A sensible thanksgiving, for mercies received, is a mighty prayer in the sight of God; it prevails with him unspeakable." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"When the affections are indeed engaged in prayer, then, then the whole man is engaged, and that in such sort, that the soul will spend itself to nothing, as it were, rather than it will go without that good desired, even communion and solace with Christ. And hence it is that the saints have spent their strengths, and lost their lives, rather than go without the blessing." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Scarce one of forty professors know what it is to be born again, to have communion with the Father through the Son, to feel the power of grace sanctifying their hearts... O what a dreadful after-clap is coming upon them! which all their hypocritical assembling themselves, with all their prayers, shall never be able to help them against, or shelter them from." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Prayer it is, when it is within the compass of God's Word, and it is blasphemy, or at least vain babbling, when the petition is beside the Book." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"So that I say, as the Spirit is the helper and the governor of the soul, when it prayeth according to the will of God, so it guideth by and according to, the Word of God and his promise. Hence it is that our Lord Jesus Christ himself did make a stop, although his life lay at the stake for it. I could now pray to my Father, and he should give me more than twelve legions of angels, but how then must the scripture be fulfilled that thus it must be?" A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"O how great a task it is for a poor soul that becomes sensible of sin and the wrath of God to say in faith but this one word, 'Father!' I tell you - however hypocrites may think - yet the Christian finds all difficulty in this very thing, so that it cannot say God is its Father. O! saith he, I dare not call him Father; and hence it is that the Spirit must be sent into the hearts of God's people for this very thing, to cry Father; it being too great a work for any man to do knowingly and believingly without it. When I say knowingly, I mean knowing what it is to be a child of God, to be born again. And when I say believingly, I mean for the soul to believe from a good experience that the work of grace is wrought in him." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"To say God is your Father in a way of prayer or conference without any experiment of the work of grace in your souls is to say you are Jews and are not, and so to lie." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Canst thou indeed, with the rest of the saints, cry, Our Father? Art thou truly born again?" A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Take heed that thy heart go to God as well as thy mouth. Let not thy mouth go any further than thou strivest to draw thine heart along with it." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Jesus is there, not only to sprinkle the mercy-seat with his blood, but he speaks, and his blood speaks; he hath audience, and his blood hath audience." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Be jealous of thine own heart, that it deceive thee not in thy evidences for heaven, nor in they walking with God in this world." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Right prayer sees nothing substantial and worth the looking after, but God." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"A good sense of sin, and of the wrath of God, with some encouragement from God to come unto him, is a better Common-prayer Book than that which is taken out of the Papistical mass-book, being the scraps and fragments of the devices of some popes, some friars, and I wot not what." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"He that comes to God through Christ, must be enabled to know Christ... This Christ, none but the Father can reveal. And to come through Christ, is for the soul to be enabled of God to shroud itself under the shadow of the Lord Jesus, as a man shroudeth himself under a thing for safeguard." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"The man then that comes to God through Christ, must have faith, by which he puts on Christ, and in him appears before God." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"That which is not petitioned through the teaching and assistance of the Spirit, it is not possible that it should be according to the will of God." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"God, and Christ, and his people are so linked together that if the good of the one be prayed for, to wit, the church, the glory of God, and advancement of Christ, must needs be included. For as Christ is in the Father, so the saints are in Christ; and he that toucheth the saints, toucheth the apple of God's eye; and therefore pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and you pray for all that is required of you." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"And because, as I said, prayer doth SUBMIT TO THE WILL OF GOD, and say, Thy will be done, as Christ hath taught us; therefore the people of the Lord in humility are to lay themselves and their prayers, and all that they have, at the foot of their God, to be disposed of by him as he in his heavenly wisdom seeth best. Yet not doubting but God will answer the desire of his people that way that shall be most for their advantage and his glory." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"There is no man nor church in the world that can come to God in prayer, but by the assistance of the Holy Spirit." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"While prayer is making, God is searching the heart, to see from what root and spirit it doth arise." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Without the Spirit man is so infirm that he cannot, with all other means whatsoever, be enabled to think one right saving thought of God, of Christ, or of his blessed things." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"For right prayer must, as well in the outward part of it, in the outward expression, as in the inward intention, come from what the soul doth apprehend in the light of the Spirit; otherwise it is condemned as vain and an abomination, because the heart and tongue do not go along jointly in the same, neither indeed can they, unless the Spirit help our infirmities." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"Nothing but the Spirit can show a man clearly his misery by nature, and so put a man into a posture of prayer." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"It is the Spirit that must show us the way of coming to God, and also what there is in God that makes him desirable." A Discourse Touching Prayer |
"It is but a vain thing to talk of going to heaven, if thou let thy heart be encumbered with those things that would hinder... thou talkest of going to heaven, and yet fillest thy pockets with stones, i.e., fillest thy heart with this world, lettest that hang on thy shoulders, with its profits and pleasures. Alas, alas, thou art widely mistaken." The Heavenly Footman |
"How easy a matter is it in this our day, for the devil to be too cunning for poor souls, by calling his by-paths the way to the kingdom! If such an opinion or fancy be but cried up by one or more, this inscription being set upon it by the devil, 'This is the way of God,' how speedily, greedily, and by heaps, do poor simple souls throw away themselves upon it; especially if it be daubed over with a few external acts of morality, if so good. But this is because men do not know painted by-paths from the plain way to the kingdom of heaven. They have not yet learned the true Christ, and what his righteousness is, neither have they a sense of their own insufficiency: but are bold, proud, presumptuou8s, self-conceited." The Heavenly Footman |
"Soul, take this counsel and say, Satan, sin, lust, pleasure, profit, pride, friends, companions, and everything else, let me alone, stand off, come not nigh me, for I am running for heaven, for my soul, for God, for Christ, from hell and everlasting damnation: if I win, I win all, and if I lose, I lose all; let me alone, for I will not hear. So run." The Heavenly Footman |
"It is the cross that keepeth those that are kept from heaven." The Heavenly Footman |
"Most lose heaven for want of considering the price and worth of it." The Heavenly Footman |
"Shall the world venture the damnation of their souls for a poor corruptible crown; and shall not we venture the loss of a few trifles for an eternal crown?... Shall it be said at the last day, that wicked men made more haste to hell than you did make to heaven? That they spent more hours, days, and that early and late, for hell, than you spent for that which is ten thousand thousand of thousands times better? O let it not be so, but run with all might and main." The Heavenly Footman |
"Art thou unladen of the things of this world, as pride, pleasures, profits, lusts, vanities? What! dost thou think to run fast enough with the world, thy sins, and lusts in thy heart? I tell thee, soul, they that have laid all aside, every weight, every sin, and are got into the nimblest posture, they find work enough to run; so to run as to hold out... I tell thee, if thou art agoing heavenward, thou wilt find it no small or easy matter. Art thou therefore discharged and unladen of these things? Never talk of going to heaven if thou art not. It is to be feared thou wilt be found among the many that will seek to enter in, and shall not be able... Why, man, it is he that holdeth out to the end that must be saved; it is he that overcometh that shall inherit all things; it is not every one that begins." The Heavenly Footman |
"There are some men that profess themselves such as run for heaven as well as any; yet if there be but any lazy, slothful, cold, half-hearted professors in the country, they will be sure to take example by them; they think if they can but keep pace with them they shall do fair; but these do not consider that the hindmost lose the prize... Depart, lazy professors, cold professors, slothful professors. O! methinks the Word of God is so plain for the overthrow of your lazy professors, that it is to be wondered men do take no more notice of it." The Heavenly Footman |
"How, and if thou by thy lazy running shouldst not only destroy thyself, but also thereby be the cause of the damnation of some others, for thou being a professor thou must think that others will take notice of thee; and because thou art but a poor, cold, lazy runner, and one that seeks to drive the world and pleasure along with thee: why, thereby others will think of doing so too... O how fearful a thing will it be, if that thou shalt be instrumental of the ruin of others by thy halting in the way of righteousness!... You would not enter in yourselves, and them that would you hinder; for that saying will be eminently fulfilled on them that through their own idleness do keep themselves out of heaven, and by giving of others the same example, hinder them also." The Heavenly Footman |
"The great God will not acknowledge the barren fig tree, or barren professor, to be his workmanship." The Barren Fig Tree |
"Want of grace and want of Spirit will not keep God from seeking fruit." The Barren Fig Tree |
"It becomes thee, when thou canst not perceive that God is within the reach of thy arm, then to believe that thou art within the read of his; for it is long, and none knows how long." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"Let me here give, if it may be, a timely caution to them that think they stand upon their feet. Give not way to falling because everlasting arms are underneath, take heed of that: God can let thee fall into mischief, he can let thee fall, and not help thee up. Tempt not God, lest he cast thee away indeed." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"Come, behold the works of the Lord towards me, may every Christian say. He hath set a Saviour against sin; a heaven against a hell; light against darkness; good against evil, and the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the grace that is in himself, for my good, against all the power, and strength, and force, and subtilty, of every enemy." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"The power that is set against us none can crush, and break, but God: for it is the power of devils, of sin, of death, and hell... Oh! how should we, and how would we, were but our eyes awake, stand and wonder at the preservations, the deliverances, the salvations and benefits with which we are surrounded daily: while so many mighty evils seek daily to swallow us up, as the grave." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"He that has skill to judge of providences aright, has a great ability in him to comprehend with other saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height: but he that has not skill as to discerning of them, is but a child in his judgment in those high and mysterious things. And hence it is, that some shall suck honey out of that, at the which others tremble for fear it should poison them, I have often been made to say, Sorrow is better than laughter; and the house of mourning better than the house of mirth (Eccl 7:3-5). And I have more often seen, that the afflicted are always the best sort of Christians." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"I do not question but that there are some that are alive that have been able to say, the days of affliction have been the best unto them; and that could, if it were lawful, pray that they might always be in affliction, if God would but do to them as he did when his hand was last upon them. For by them he caused his light to shine." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"Most men deal with God as if he were not wise; as if he either knew not the wickedness of their hearts and ways, or else knew not how to be even with them for it: When, alas! he is wise in heart, and mighty in power; and although he will not, without cause, afflict, yet he will not let wickedness go unpunished. This therefore should make us fear." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"Sin is worse than the devil; he therefore that is more afraid of the devil than of sin, knows not the badness of sin as he ought, nor but little of the love of Jesus Christ." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"The law is a servant, both first and last, to the gospel: when therefore it is made a Lord, it destroyeth: and then to be sure it is made a Lord and Saviour of, when its dictates and commands are depended upon for life." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"When Christ dwells in my heart by faith, and the moral law dwells in my members, the one to keep up peace with God, the other to keep my conversation in a good decorum: then am I right, and not till then." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"I am of opinion, that there is nothing that is more abused among professors this day, than is this love of God. There has of late more light about the love of Christ broke out, than formerly: every boy now can TALK of the love of Christ; but this love of Christ has not been rightly applied by preachers, or else not rightly received by professors. For never was this grace of Christ so turned into lasciviousness, as now." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"It is next the sin of devils to abuse love, the love of God and of Christ." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"Christians, deny yourselves, deny your lusts, deny the vanities of this present life, devote yourselves to God; become lovers of God, lovers of his ways, and a people zealous of good works; then shall you show one to another, and to all men, that you have not received the grace of God in vain. Renounce therefore the hidden things of dishonesty, walk not in craftiness, nor handle God's word deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commend yourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Do this, I say, yea, and so endeavour such a closure with this love of God in Christ, as may graciously constrain you to do it, because, when all proofs of the right receiving of this love of Christ shall be produced, none will be found of worth enough to justify the simplicity of our profession, but that which makes us zealous of good works." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"And what a thing will it be to be turned off at last, as one that abused the love of Christ! as one that presumed upon his lusts, this world, and all manner of naughtiness, because the love of Christ to pardon sins was so great! What an unthinking, what a disingenuous one wilt thou be counted at that day! yea, thou wilt be found to be the man that made a prey of love, that made a stalking-horse of love, that made of love a slave to sin, the devil and the world, and will not that be bad?" The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ |
"Faith is a fruit, work, or gift of the Spirit of God, whereby a poor soul is enabled through the mighty operation of God, in a sense of its sins and wretched estate to lay hold on the righteousness, blood, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and coming again of the Son of God which was crucified without the gates of Jerusalem, for eternal life." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"The things that are hoped for faith sees, lays hold upon, and embraces them, as if they were present; yea, it seals up the certainty of them to the soul. Therefore saith the Apostle, it is the evidence, or testimony, or witness, of those things that are not seen as yet with a bodily eye; which are obtained by the blood of the man Christ Jesus... by which the soul sees as in a glass the things that God hath laid up for them that fear him." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"Faith comes from God, for true justifying faith is a good gift, and perfect in respect of the author God, in respect of its object, Christ; and in respect of the nature, though not in respect of the degree, and measure of it in us; even as a grain of gold, is as perfect gold, as pound of gold, though not so much." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"But how (may some say) doth the devil make his delusions take place in the hearts of poor creatures?... He pretends to lead them up into some higher light, mysteries, and revelations of the Spirit, into which a very few have attained or can attain, also bewitching their affections, and taking them with an earnest pursuit after these his pretended truths; persuading them, that they shall be as God himself, able to discern between good and evil (Gen 3:5). And in this he is exceeding subtle and expert, as having practised it ever since the days of Adam. These things being thus considered, and in some measure hungered after, and the rather because they are good (as they think) to make one wise (Gen 3:6). The poor soul is all on the sudden possessed with a desperate spirit of delusion, which carries it away headlong with some high, light, frothy notions, and spiritual wickedness (which drown it in perdition and destruction) that doth feed and tickle the heart a while, to the end it may make way for a farther manifestation of itself in the poor deluded soul; which when it hath attained to, it doth then begin to bring the soul into a clearer sight of those things, which it was loth it should know at the first; but having fitted the soul by degrees for a further possession of itself, at last it begins to hold forth its new gospel; shewing the soul a new Christ, and new scriptures. The new and false Christ, is a Christ crucified within, dead within, risen again within, and ascended within, in opposition to the Son of Mary, who was crucified without, dead without, risen again without, and ascended in a cloud away from his disciples into heaven without them." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"Have a care that when thou art under conviction, thou dost not satisfy thyself with a notion of the free grace of the gospel; my meaning is, do not content thyself with any measure of knowledge that thou canst attain unto, or bottom thy peace upon it, thinking thou art now well enough, because thou canst speak much of the grace of God, and his love in Christ to poor sinners. For this thou mayest have, and do; and yet be but a companion for Demas, yea, for Judas and the rest of the damned multitude: As the Apostle saith, For all this thou mayest be but as sounding brass, and as a tinkling cymbal; that is, nothing but a sound." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"If any come unto thee, and bring such a doctrine as this; That thou mayest be saved by grace, though thou walk in the imaginations of thy own wicked heart: His doctrine also is devilish, do not receive him." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"I will tell thee, he that slights the scriptures, doth also slight him of whom they testify. And I will tell thee also, that for this cause God hath given up many to strong delusions, that they might believe a lie." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"Therefore I say unto thee, In the name of the Lord Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Son of God, the very creator of heaven and earth, and all things that are therein; have a care of thyself; for the devil doth watch for thee day and night (1 Peter 5:8). Thine own heart also doth labour to deceive thee, if by any means it may (Jer 17:9). Therefore do not thou trust it; for if thou do, thou wilt not do wisely (Prov 28:26). I say therefore, have a care that thou labour in the strength of the Lord Jesus, to escape all these things; for if thou fall into any one of them, it will make way for a farther income of sin and the devil, through whose deceitfulness thy heart will be hardened, and thou wilt be more incapable of receiving instruction, or reaping advantage, by and from the ordinances of Jesus Christ: the rather therefore, give all diligence to believe in the Christ of God, which is the Son of Mary, and be sure to apply all that he hath done, and is doing, unto thyself, as for thee in particular; which thing if thou dost, thou shalt never fall." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"Though I am not skilled in the Hebrew tongue, yet through grace, I am enlightened into the scriptures." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"Now every man as he comes into the world, receives a light from Christ, as he is God, which light is the conscience, that some call Christ though falsely. This light, or conscience, will shew a man that there is a God, and that this God is eternal." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"If therefore thou hast been convinced aright by the Spirit, thou hast seen that thou hadst no faith in Christ the Son of Mary, the Son of God, before conversion. It shews thee also, that thou canst not believe in thine own strength, though thou wouldest never so willingly; yea, though thou wouldest give all the world (if thou hadst it) to believe, thou couldest not." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"When the time of Christ's second coming is at hand, there will be but a very little faith in the world." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"Why, if thou art born again, then thou knowest that thou wast not born a Christian at first. Thou knowest that once thou hadst no faith in the Lord Jesus; and wert convinced of sin because thou didst not believe in the Son of Mary... Thou knowest that God hath given thee thy faith... Thou thinkest that thou art a Christian; thou shouldest be sorry else: Well, But when did God shew thee that thou wert no Christian? When didst thou see that: And in the light of the Spirit of Christ, see that thou wert under the wrath of God because of original sin? Nay, dost thou know what original sin means? Is it not the least in thy thoughts?... when did the Spirit of the Lord Jesus shew thee, that thou hadst no faith in thee by nature? And when did the Spirit of Christ convince thee of sin because thou didst not believe in him? It may be thou hast been convinced of sins against the law, by the law, and thine own conscience, as the Pharisees were. Ay, but when didst thou see thyself a lost creature for want of faith in the Son of Mary? If not, thou hast not yet been savingly convinced by the Spirit of Christ; for that, when it convinceth effectually of sin, it convinceth of unbelief; though thou hast been never so much convinced of sins against the law, if thou hast not seen thyself under the power and dominion, guilt and punishment of sin because thou didst not believe in Christ, thou hast not yet been savingly convinced; that that is one work of the Spirit to convince of sin... Art thou born again?... Then thou seest that thy great sin was want of faith in the Son of Mary... then thou knowest that God has given thee thy faith that thou hast in his Son: Then thou art to say through grace that there was a time in which I had no faith; there was a time in which I could not believe in the Son of God for eternal life." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"Art thou born again? Then thou knowest that God hath given thee thy faith that thou hast in his Son: Then thou art to say through grace, there was a time in which I had no faith; there was a time in which I could not believe in the Son of God for eternal life." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"Examine thy heart; yea, beg of God to help thee to examine it, and to throw out all that fancy that thou takest instead of faith; also throw away all thine own wisdom; yea, thy own righteousness also, and come to God in the name of the Son of Mary, which is the Son of God, and beg faith of him, true faith, the faith of the operation of God; such a faith as he gives to his own elect, which will shew thee clearly of these things; so that thou shalt not deceive thyself with a fancy of them; and the advantages will be many." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"Watch I say over the devil touching doctrines, for he labours as much this way as any way, for he knows that if he can but get you to lay a rotten foundation, he is sure of you, live as godly in your conceit as you will." Some Gospel Truths Opened |
"A hypocritical people will persecute the power of those truths in others, which themselves in words profess." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"If a good man be a member of Christ, then he must either be raised out of his grave, or else sin and death must have power over a member of Christ. I say again, if this body be not raised, then also Christ is not a complete conqueror over his enemies; forasmuch as death and the grave have still power over his members." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"He that holdeth no resurrection of our body, he denieth the resurrection of the body of Christ." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"To deny the resurrection, nay, if a man do but say, it is past either with him or any Christian; his so saying tendeth directly to the destruction and overthrow of the faith of them that hear him, and is so far from being according to the doctrine of God, that it eateth out good and wholesome doctrine even as cankers eat the face and flesh of a man." Of The Resurrection Of The Dead |
"God, as I may say, is forced to break men's hearts, before he can make them willing to cry to him, or be willing that he should have any concerns with them; the rest shut their eyes, stop their ears, withdraw their hearts, or say unto God, Be gone." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"God has cordials, but they are to comfort them that are cast down... and this is one reason why God is so little accounted of in the world, even because they have not been make sick by the wounding stroke of God." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"He [God] scourgeth, he breaketh the heart of every son whom he receiveth, and woe be to him whose heart God breaketh not." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"No man can break the heart with the Word; no angel can break the heart with the Word; that is, if God forbears to second it by mighty power from heaven... Wherefore, though the Word is the instrument with which the heart is broken, yet it is not broken with the Word, till that Word is managed by the might and power of God... wherefore, I say, though the Word be the instrument, yet of itself doth no saving good to the soul; the heart is not broken, nor the spirit made contrite thereby; it only worketh death, and leaveth men in the chains of their sins, still faster bound over to eternal condemnation. But when seconded by mighty power, then the same Word is as the roaring of a lion, as the piercing of a sword, as a burning fire in the bones, as thunder and as a hammer that dashes all to pieces." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"The broken-hearted man doth find that sin is nauseous, and therefore cries out it stinketh. They also think at times the smell of fire, of fire and brimstone, is upon them, they are so sensible of the wages due to sin." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"A man cannot be sorry for the sinful defects of nature, till he sees they have rendered him contemptible to God; nor is it any thing but a sight of God that can make him truly see what he is, and so be heartily sorry for being so... Visions of God break the heart, because, by the sight the soul then has of his perfections, it sees its own infinite and unspeakable disproportion, because of the vileness of its nature." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"To be sorry for that thy nature is with sin depraved, and that through this depravity thou art deprived of ability to do what the Word and thy holy mind doth prompt thee to, is to be sorry after a godly sort. For this sorrow worketh that in thee of which thou wilt never have cause to repent; no, not to eternity." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"Man, before his heart is broken, counts time his own, and therefore he spends it lavishly upon every idle thing. His soul is far from fear, because the rod of God is not upon him; but when he sees himself under the wounding hand of God, or when God, like a lion, is breaking all his bones, then he humbleth himself before him, and falleth at his foot. Now he has learned to count every moment a mercy, and every small morsel a mercy." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"It is a sign the Word of God has had place, and wrought powerfully, when the heart trembleth at it, is afraid, and stands in awe of it." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"Man, take him as he comes into the world, as to spirituals, as to evangelical things, in which mainly lies man's eternal felicity, and there he is as one dead, and so stupefied, and wholly in himself, as unconcerned with it. Nor can any call or admonition, that has not a heart-breaking power attending of it, bring him to a due consideration of his present state, and so unto an effectual desire to be saved." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"The fool is wise in his own conceit; wherefore there is a double difficulty attends him before he can be wise indeed. Not only his folly, but his wisdom, must be removed from him; and how shall that be, but by ripping up of his heart by some sore conviction, that may show him plainly that his wisdom is his folly, and that which will undo him." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"Sin puffs up men with pride, and a conceit of themselves, that they are a thousand times better than they are. Hence they think they are the children of God, when they are the children of the devil; and that they are something as to Christianity, when they neither are such, nor know what it is that they must have to make them such." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"The whole despise the gospel, they savour not the things that are of God." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"A broken heart is of great esteem with God; for it -- and I will add, so long as it retains its tenderness -- covets none but God, and the things of his Holy Spirit; sin is an abomination to it." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"Learn of no man to do that which the Word of God forbids... Wherefore take heed of men, of good men's ways, and measure both theirs and thine own by no other rule than the Word of God." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"Some men think an invitation, an outward call, a rational discourse, will do, but they are much deceived; there must be a power, an exceeding great and mighty power, attend the Word, or it worketh not effectually to the salvation of the soul." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"Betake thyself to the search of the Word, especially where thou readest of the conversion of men, and try if thy conversion be like, or has a good resemblance or oneness with theirs." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"The mirth that is before repentance for sin will certainly end in heaviness... He that mourns not now, while the door of mercy is open, must mourn for sin when the door of mercy is shut." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"I count it one thing to receive the faith of Christ from men only, and another to receive it from God by the means. If thou art taught by an angel, yet if not taught of God, thou wilt never come to Christ; I do not say thou wilt never profess him. But if God speaks, and thou shalt hear and understand him, that voice will make such work within thee as was never made before. The voice of God is a voice by itself, and is so distinguished by them that are taught thereby" The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"Come, come, conversion to God is not so easy and so smooth a thing as some would have men believe it is." The Acceptable Sacrifice |
"The world in general is divided into two sorts of sinners -- the open profane, and the man that seeks life by the works of the law." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"What esteem soever men have of the righteousness of the world, yet God accounts it horrible wickedness, and the greatest enemy of Jesus Christ... for of all sin, man's own righteousness, in special, bids defiance to Jesus Christ." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Faith is the mother grace, the root grace, the grace that hath all others in the bowels of it, and that from the which all others flow; yea, it is that which gives being to all our other graces, and that by which all the rest do live." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"We that are saved as to justification of life, need yet to be saved with that that preserveth to glory; for though by the death of Christ we are saved from the curse of the law, yet attempts are made by many that we may be kept from the glory that justified persons are designed for; and from these we are saved by his intercession." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"I have heard of many that have PLAYED, but of few that have PRAYED, till they have sweat by reason of their wrestling with god for mercy in that duty." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"True, our Intercessor saves us from damning evils, from damning judgments; but he neither doth nor will secure us from temporal punishment, from spiritual punishment, unless we watch, deny ourselves, and walk in his fear... sure I am that God is no countenancer of sin; no, not in his own people; nay, he will bear it least of all in them. And as for others, however he may for a while have patience towards them, if, perhaps, his goodness may lead them to repentance; yet the day is coming when he will pay the carnal and hypocrites' home with devouring fire for their office." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherwise made acceptable to God but by the person and personal excellencies and works of Christ; therefore, whatever the jewels are, and the bracelets, and the pearls, that thou shalt be adorned with as a reward of service done to God in the world, for them thou must thank Christ, and, before all, confess that he was the meritorious cause thereof. He saves us, and saves our services too. They would be all cast back as dung in our faces, were they not rinsed and washed in the blood, were they not sweetened and perfumed in the incense, and conveyed to God himself through the white hand of Jesus Christ; for that is his golden censer; from thence ascends the smoke that is in the nostrils of God of such a sweet savour." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"They surely did never come to God by Christ, however they may boast of the grace of Christ, that will from the freeness of the gospel grace plead an indulgence for sin." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"Before, therefore, God has been with a man, and has left some impression of his glory upon him, that man cannot be willing to come to him aright... The reason why men are so careless of, and so indifferent about, their coming to God, is because they have their eyes blinded, because they do not perceive his glory. God is so blessed a one, that did he not hide himself and his glory, the whole world would be ravished with him. But he has, I will not say reasons of state, but reasons of glory, glorious reasons why he hideth himself from the world, and appeareth but to particular ones." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"The whole world is divided into two sorts of men -- believers and unbelievers." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"The more wise for this world, the more fool in God's matters." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"Now, the covenant by which Christ acteth, as a priest, as far as we are concerned therein, he also himself acteth our part, being, indeed, the Head and Mediator of the body; wherefore, God doth not count that the covenant is broken, though we sin, if Christ Jesus our Lord is found to do by it what by law is required of us... Hence, it is clear that the covenant stands good to us as long as Christ stands good to God, or before his face; for he is not only our Mediator by covenant, but he himself is our conditions to God-ward." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"Though the design of Satan against us, in his labouring continually to accuse us to God, and to prevail against our salvation, seems to terminate here, yet indeed it is also laid against the very life of Christ, and that his priesthood might be utterly overthrown; and, in conclusion, that God also might be found unjust in receiving of such whose sins have not been satisfied for, and so whose souls are yet under the power of the devil. For he that objects against him for whom Christ intercedes, objects against Christ and his merits; and he that objects against Christ's intercession, objects against God, who has made him a priest for ever. Behold you, therefore, how the cause of God, of Christ, and of the souls that come to God by him are interwoven; they are all wrapt up in one bottom. Mischief one, and you mischief all; overthrow that soul, and you overthrow his intercessor; and overthrow him, and you overthrow even him that made him a priest for ever." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"Intercession, then, I mean Christ's intercession, is, that those for whom he died with full intention to save them, might be brought into that inheritance which he hath purchased for them. Now, then, his intercession must, as to length and breadth, reach no further than his merits, for he may not pray for those for whom he died not. Indeed, if we take in the utmost extent of his death, then we must beware, for his death is sufficient to save the whole world. But his intercessions are kept within a narrower compass. The altar of burnt-offerings was a great deal bigger than the altar of incense, which was a figure of Christ's intercession. But this, I say, his intercession is for those for whom he died with full intention to save them; wherefore it must be grounded upon the validity of his sufferings. And, indeed, his intercession is nothing else, that I know of, but a presenting of what he did in the world for us unto God, and pressing the value of it four our salvation." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"We satisfy ourselves with the slaying of the sacrifice; we look not enough after our Aaron as he goes into the holiest, there to sprinkle the mercy-seat with blood upon our account. God forbid that the least syllable of what I say should be intended by me, or construed by others, as if I sought to diminish the price paid by Christ for our redemption in this world. But since his dying is his laying down his price, and his intercession the urging and managing the worthiness of it in the presence of God against Satan, there is glory to be found therein, and we should look after him into the holy place." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"Wherefore I advise that you read the five books of Moses often; yea, read, and read again, and do not despair of help to understand something of the will and mind of God therein, though you think they are fast locked up from you. Neither trouble your heads though you have not commentaries and expositions; pray and read, and read and pray; for a little from God is better than a great deal from men. Also, what is from men is uncertain, and is often lost and tumbled over and over by men; but what is from God is fixed as a nail in a sure place. I know there are times of temptation, but I speak now as to the common course of Christianity. There is nothing that so abides with us as what we receive from God; and the reason why Christians at this day are at such a loss as to some things is, because they are content with what comes from men's mouths, without searching and kneeling before God, to know of him the truth of things. Things we receive at God's hand come to us as things from the minting house, though old in themselves, yet new to us. Old truths are always new to us if they come to us with the smell of heaven upon them." Christ A Complete Saviour |
"This act of God in electing, it is a choosing or fore-appointing of some infallibly unto eternal life, which he also hath determined shall be brought to pass by the means that should be made manifest and efficacious to that very end." Reprobation Asserted |
"Reprobation is God's act, even the negative of his choosing or electing, and none of the acts of God make any man a sinner... the simple act of reprobation, it is a leaving or passing by, not a cursing of the creature." Reprobation Asserted |
"God hath universal love, and particular love; general love, and distinguishing love; and so accordingly doth decree, purpose, and determine: from general love, the extension of general grace and mercy; but from that love that is distinguishing, peculiar grace and mercy... for distinguishing love appeareth in separating between Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, the many called, and the few chose. Thus by virtue of distinguishing love, some must be reprobate: for distinguishing love must leave some, both of the angels in heaven, and the inhabitants of the earth." Reprobation Asserted |
"Reprobation maketh no man personally a sinner, neither doth election make any man personally righteous. It is the consenting to sin that makes a man a sinner; and the imputation of grace and righteousness that makes men gospelly and personally just and holy." Reprobation Asserted |
"For God to elect is an act of sovereign grace; but to pass by, or to refuse to do, is an act of sovereign power, not of injustice... Whatsoever God doth, it is good because he doth it; whether it be to give grace, or to detain it; whether in choosing or refusing." Reprobation Asserted |
"There is no man that perisheth for want of sufficient reason in the tenders of the gospel, nor any for want of persuasions to faith; nor yet because there wanteth arguments to provoke to continue therein. But the truth is, the gospel in this hath to do with unreasonable creatures; with such as will not believe it, and that because it is truth." Reprobation Asserted |
"We must always put difference between the word of the gospel, and the power that manageth that word... that same Jesus that said to the Leper, 'Say nothing to any man,' said also to Lazarus, 'Come forth;' yet the one obeyed, the other did not; though he that obeyed was least in a capacity to do it, he being now dead, and stunk in his grave. Indeed unbelief hath hindered Christ much, yet not when he putteth forth himself as Almighty, but when he doth suffer himself by them to be abused who are to be dealt with by ordinary means." Reprobation Asserted |
"God, through the operation of his manifold wisdom, hath an end and an end in his acts and doings amongst the children of men; and, as in that he commandeth that his gospel be tendered to all, and end, I say, to leave the damned without excuse, and to provide sufficiency of means for the gathering all his elect." Reprobation Asserted |
"Is not Christ an Advocate for his elect uncalled?-Answ. He died, and prayeth, for all his elect, as Priest; as Advocate, pleads for the called only." The Work Of Jesus Christ As An Advocate |
"There is the righteousness of men, and the righteousness of God: that which is the righteousness of men, is that which we do work from matter and principles of our own; but that which is the righteousness of God, is that which is wrought from matter and principles purely divine, and of the nature of God. Again, that which is our own righteousness, is that which is wrought in and by our own persons as men; but that which is the righteousness of God, is that which is wrought in and by the second person in the Trinity, as God and man in one person; and that resideth only in that person of the Son. I speak now of the righteousness by which we stand just before God, from the curse of the law." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"But doth not a man bring forth fruit unto God, that walketh orderly according to the ten commandments? No, if he do it before faith make this in the spirit of a man, by the dictates of human nature, respecting the law, as that, by the obeying of which, he must obtain acceptance with God. This is bringing forth fruit unto himself; for all that he doth, he doth it as a man, as a creature, from principles natural, and of himself, his own, and for none other than himself; and therefore he serveth in an old spirit, the oldness of the letter, and for himself." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"As for your saying, that Calvin, Peter Martyr, Musculus, Zanchy, and others, did not question, but that God could have pardoned sin, without any other satisfaction, than the repentance of the sinner. It matters nothing to me, I have neither made my creed out of them, nor other, than the holy scriptures of God." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"By the death of Christ was the forgiveness of sins effectually obtained for all that shall be saved, and they, even while yet enemies, by that were reconciled unto God. So that, as to forgiveness from God, it is purely upon the account of grace in Christ... So then, our effectual believing is not a procuring cause in the sight of God, or a condition of ours foreseen by God, and the motive that prevaileth with him to forgive us our manifold transgressions: Believing being rather that which makes application of that forgiveness, and that possesseth the soul with that peace that already is made for us with God, by the blood of his Son Christ Jesus." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"The new creature, is of God; yea, immediately of God; man being as incapable to make himself anew, as a child to beget himself. Neither is our conformity to the revealed will of God, any thing else, if it be right, than the fruit and effect of that." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"Both faith and repentance, and forgiveness of sins, are given by Christ; and come to us, for the sake of that blessed offering of his body, once for all. For after he arose from the dead, having led captivity captive, and taken the curse from before the face of God: therefore his Father gave him gifts for men, even all the things that are necessary, and effectual, for our conversion, and preservation in this world." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"All the Elect did mystically hang upon the cross in Christ." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"The resurrection of Christ is that which sealeth the truth of our being delivered from the wrath by his blood." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"He [Christ] ascended because there he was to receive the Holy Ghost, the great promise of the New Testament; that he might communicate of that unto his chosen ones, to give them light to see his wonderful salvation... when he ascended on high, even as he led captivity captive, so he received gifts for men; by which gifts he meaneth the Holy Ghost, and the blessed saving operations thereof." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"Righteousness and holiness which is our own, and of ourselves, is the greatest enemy to Jesus Christ." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"There is no such thing in man by nature, as liberty of will, or a principle of freedom, in the saving things of the kingdom of Christ." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"And here I may, if God will, timely advertise my reader, that the gospel, and its attendants, are to be accounted things distinct: the gospel, properly taken, being glad tidings of good things; or, the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins freely by grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. For to speak strictly, neither is the grace of faith, hope, repentance, or newness of life, the gospel; but rather things that are wrought by the preaching thereof, things that are the effects of it; or its inseparable companions, to all them that shall be saved." A Defence Of The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith In Jesus Christ |
"In effectual calling the voice of God is heard, and the gates of heaven are opened: when God called Abraham, he appeared to him in glory. That of Ananias to Saul is experienced but by few. 'The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, [saith he,] that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth' (Acts 22:14). True, Saul's call was out of the ordinary way, but yet as to the matter, and truth of the work, it was no other than all the chosen have." Communion And Fellowship |
"I found, by reading the Word, that those that must be glorified with Christ in another world must be called by him here; called to the partaking of a share in his Word and righteousness, and to the comforts and first fruits of his Spirit, and to a peculiar interest in all those heavenly things which do indeed fore fit the soul for that rest and house of glory which is in heaven above." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"I saw that I wanted a perfect righteousness to present me without fault before God, and this righteousness was nowhere to be found, but in the person of Jesus Christ." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"I have also, IN THE SPIRIT, seen him [Jesus Christ] a man on the right hand of God the Father for me, and have seen the manner of his coming from heaven to judge the world with glory." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"In those days, let men say what they would, unless I had it with evidence from heaven, all was as nothing to me, I counted not myself set down in any truth of God." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"One day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, as my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was adoing, God could not say of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever (Heb 13:8). Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed, I was loosed from my affliction and irons, my temptations also fled away; so that, from that time, those dreadful scriptures of God left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing, for the grace and love of God. So when I came home, I looked to see if I could find that sentence, Thy righteousness is in heaven; but could not find such a saying, wherefore my heart began to sink again, only that was brought to my remembrance, he "of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption"; by this word I saw the other sentence true (1 Cor 1:30). For by this scripture, I saw that the man Christ Jesus, as he is distinct from us, as touching his bodily presence, so he is our righteousness and sanctification before God. Here, therefore, I lived for some time, very sweetly at peace with God through Christ; Oh methought, Christ! Christ! there was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes, I was not now only for looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as of his blood, burial, or resurrection, but considered him as a whole Christ! As he in whom all these, and all other his virtues, relations, offices, and operations met together, and that 'as he sat' on the right hand of God in heaven... Now Christ was all; all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my sanctification, and all my redemption. Further, the Lord did also lead me into the mystery of union with the Son of God, that I was joined to him, that I was flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, and now was that a sweet word to me in Ephesians 5:30. By this also was my faith in him, as my righteousness, the more confirmed to me; for if he and I were one, then his righteousness was mine, his merits mine, his victory also mine. Now could I see myself in heaven and earth at once; in heaven by my Christ, by my head, by my righteousness and life, though on earth by my body or person. Now I saw Christ Jesus was looked on of God, and should also be looked upon by us, as that common or public person, in whom all the whole body of his elect are always to be considered and reckoned; that we fulfilled the law by him, died by him, rose from the dead by him, got the victory over sin, death, the devil, and hell, by him; when he died, we died; and so of his resurrection." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"Woe be to him against whom the Scriptures bend themselves." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"Great sins do draw out great grace; and where guilt is most terrible and fierce there the mercy of God in Christ, when showed to the soul, appears most high mighty." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"At this I was greatly lightened in my mind, and made to understand that God could justify a sinner at any time; it was but his looking upon Christ, and imputing of his benefits to us, and the work was forthwith done." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"And as I was thus in a muse that scripture also came with great power upon my spirit, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, &c. (Titus 3:5; 2 Tim 1:9). Now was I got on high; I saw myself within the arms of grace and mercy; and though I was before afraid to think of a dying hour, yet now I cried, Let me die. Now death was lovely and beautiful in my sight; for I saw we shall never live indeed till we be gone to the other world. Oh, methought this life is but a slumber in comparison of that above; at this time also I saw more in those words, "Heirs of God" (Rom 8:17), than ever I shall be able to express while I live in this world. "Heirs of God!" God himself is the portion of the saints. This I saw and wondered at, but cannot tell you what I saw." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"In my preaching of the Word, I took special notice of this one thing, namely, that the Lord did lead me to being where his Word begins with sinners; that is, to condemn all flesh, and to open and allege that the curse of God, by the law, doth belong to, and lay hold on all men as they come into the world, because of sin. Now this part of my work I fulfilled with great sense; 59 for the terrors of the law, and guilt for my transgressions, lay heavy on my conscience. I preached what I felt, what I smartingly did feel, even that under which my pour soul did groan and tremble to astonishment. Indeed I have been as one sent to them from the dead; I went myself in chains to preach to them in chains; and carried that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to beware of. I can truly say, and that without dissembling, that when I have been to preach, I have gone full of guilt and terror even to the pulpit door, and there it hath been taken off, and I have been at liberty in my mind until I have done my work, and then immediately, even before I could get down the pulpit stairs, I have been as bad as I was before; yet God carried me on, but surely with a strong hand, for neither guilt or hell could take me off my work." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"Wherefore I did labour so to speak the Word, as that thereby, if it were possible, the sin and person guilty might be particularized by it." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"For I have been in my preaching, especially when I have been engaged in the doctrine of life by Christ, without works, as if an angel of God had stood by at my back to encourage me. Oh, it hath been with such power and heavenly evidence upon my own soul, while I have been labouring to unfold it, to demonstrate it, and to fasten it upon the consciences of others, that I could not be contented with saying, I believe, and am sure; methought I was more than sure, if it be lawful so to express myself, that those things which then I asserted were true." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"In my preaching I have really been in pain, and have, as it were, travailed to bring forth children to God; neither could I be satisfied unless some fruits did appear in my work. If I were fruitless it mattered not who commended me; but if I were fruitful, I cared not who did condemn." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"A tinkling cymbal is an instrument of music, with which a skillful player can make such melodious and heart-inflaming music, that all who hear him play can scarcely hold from dancing; and yet behold the cymbal hath not life, neither comes the music from it, but because of the art of him that plays therewith; so then the instrument at last may come to nought and perish, though, in times past, such music hath been made upon it. Just thus I saw it was and will be with them who have gifts, but want saving grace, they are in the hand of Christ, as the cymbal in the hand of David; and as David could, with the cymbal, make that mirth in the service of God, as to elevate the hearts of the worshippers, so Christ can use these gifted men, as with them to affect the souls of his people in his church; yet when he hath done all, hang them by as lifeless, though sounding cymbals." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"It doth not say, the Lord gives gifts and glory, but the Lord gives grace and glory; and blessed is such an one, to whom the Lord gives grace, true grace, for that is a certain forerunner of glory." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"Therefore I bind these lies and slanders to me as an ornament, it belongs to my Christian profession to be vilified, slandered, reproached and reviled; and since all this is nothing else, as my God and my conscience do bear me witness; I rejoice in reproaches for Christ's sake." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"So being again delivered up to the jailer's hands, I was had home to prison again, and there have lain now complete twelve years, waiting to see what God would suffer these men to do with me... I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word of God as now; those Scriptures that I saw nothing in before, are made in this place and state to shine upon me; Jesus Christ also was never more real and apparent than now; here I have seen him and felt him indeed: O that word, We have not preached unto you cunningly devised fables (2 Peter 1:16); and that, God raised Christ from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God (1 Peter 1:2), were blessed words unto me in this my imprisoned condition." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"I never knew what it was for God to stand by me at all turns, and at every offer of Satan 'to afflict me,' &c., as I have found him since I came in hither; for look how fears have presented themselves, so have supports and encouragements, yea, when I have started, even as it were at nothing else but my shadow, yet God, as being very tender of me, hath not suffered me to be molested, but would with one scripture and another strengthen me against all; insomuch that I have often said, Were it lawful, I could pray for greater trouble, for the greater comfort's sake." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"That saying (2 Cor 1:9), was of great use to me, But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead. By this scripture I was made to see, that if ever I would suffer rightly, I must first pass a sentence of death upon everything that can properly be called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyments, and all, as dead to me, and myself as dead to them. " Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"I was also at this time so really possessed with the thought of death, that oft I was as if I was on the ladder with a rope about my neck; only this was some encouragement to me, I thought I might now have an opportunity to speak my last words to a multitude, which I thought would come to see me die; and, thought I, if it must be so, if God will but convert one soul by my very last words, I shall not count my life thrown away, nor lost." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"I thought also, that God might choose, whether he would give me comfort now or at the hour of death, but I might not therefore choose whether I would hold my profession or no: I was bound, but he was free: yea, it was my duty to stand to his word, whether he would ever look upon me or no, or save me at the last: wherefore, thought I, the point being thus, I am for going on, and venturing my eternal state with Christ, whether I have comfort here or no; if God doth not come in, thought I, I will leap off the ladder even blindfold into eternity, sink or swim, come heaven, come hell, Lord Jesus, if thou wilt catch me, do; 'if not,' I will venture for thy name." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"I have sometimes seen more in a line of the Bible than I could well tell how to stand under." Grace Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners |
"For though men keep my outward man within their locks and bars, yet by the faith of Christ I can mount higher than the stars." Prison Meditations |
"They were no fables that I taught, devised by cunning men, but God's own Word, by which were caught some sinners now and then, whose souls by it were made to see the evil of their sin, and need of Christ to make them free from death which they were in." Prison Meditations |
"Wherefore to prison they me sent, where to this day I lie, and can with very much content for my profession die. The prison very sweet to me hath been since I came here, and so would also hanging be, if God would there appear." Prison Meditations |
"For as the devil sets before me heaviness and grief, so God sets Christ and grace much more, whereby I take relief." Prison Meditations |
"Here come the angels, here come saints, here comes the Spirit of God, to comfort us in our restraints under the wicked's rod. God sometimes visits prisons more than lordly palaces, he often knocketh at our door, when he their houses miss." Prison Meditations |
"The law, then, having to do with carnal men, by this they become worse sinners than before... As the law giveth neither strength nor life to keep it, so it neither giveth nor worketh repentance unto life if thou break it... All the repentance that such men have, it is but that of themselves, the sorrow of the world, that endeth in death, as Cain's and Judas's did, even such a repentance as must be repented of either here or in hell-file." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"All the promises annexed to the law are, by the first sin, null and void. Though, then, a man should live a thousand years twice told, and all that while fulfill the law, yet having sinned first, he is not at all the better. Our legalists, then, begin to talk too soon of having life by the law; let them first begin without sin, and so throughout continue to death, and then if God will save them, not by Christ, but works, contrary to the covenant of grace, they may hope to go to heaven... So, then, wilt thou live by the law? Fulfill it, then, perfectly till death, and afterwards go to hell and be damned, and abide there till the law and curse for thy sin be satisfied for; and then, but not till then, thou shalt have life by the law." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"No man can keep the moral law as Christ, unless he be first without sin, as Christ; unless he be God and man, as Christ... I challenge all the angels in heaven, let them but first sin as we have done, to fulfill the law, as Christ, if they can!" Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"The saint, when he hath done what he can to bring forth good works by faith, yet he dares not show these works before God but as they pass through the Mediator Christ, but as they are washed in the blood of the Lamb... Our works, even the works of faith, are no otherwise accepted but as they come through Jesus Christ, even through his intercession and blood." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"No man hath a high esteem of the Lord Jesus that is a stranger to his own sore. Christ's church is an hospital of sick, wounded, and afflicted people; even as when he was in the world, the afflicted and distressed set the highest price upon Jesus Christ." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"In the matter of thy justification thou must know nothing, see nothing, hear nothing, but thine own sins and Christ's righteousness." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Now the Spirit of God is a spirit of wisdom and revelation; but yet so as in the knowledge of Christ; otherwise the Spirit will show to man not any mighty thing, its great delight being to open Christ and to reveal him unto faith. Faith indeed can see him, for that is the eye of the soul; and the Spirit alone can reveal him, that being the searcher of the deep things of God; by these therefore the mysteries of heaven are revealed and received. Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Never think that to live always on Christ for justification is a low and beggarly thing, and as it were a staying at the foundation; for let me tell you, depart from a sense of the meritorious means of your justification with God, and you will quickly grow light, and frothy, and vain." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"What mystery is desirable to be known that is not to be found in Jesus Christ, as Priest, Prophet, or King of saints? In him are hid all the treasures of them, and he alone hath the key of David to open them." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Whether thou seest it or no, thou sinnest in all thy works." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"What spirit, or doctrine, or wisdom soever it be that centres not in, that cometh not from, and that terminates not within, the bonds of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is not worthy the study of the sons of God; neither is it food for the faith of Jesus Christ, for that is the flesh of Christ, and that is eternal life." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"The Spirit of God is 'the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, and that without and besides the Lord Jesus it discovereth nothing." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Never call that the Spirit of Jesus which leads you away from the blood and righteousness of Christ; that is but the spirit of delusion and of the devil, whose teachings end in perdition and destruction." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Unbelief is a fine-spun thread, not so easily discerned as grosser sins; and therefore that is truly The sin that doth so easily beset us." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Faith is the very quintessence of all gospel obedience, it being that which must go before other duties, and that which also must accompany whatever I do in the worship of God, if it be accepted of him." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Wherefore faith doth the same against the devil that unbelief doth to God. Doth unbelief count God a liar? Faith counts the devil a liar. Doth unbelief hold the soul from the mercy of God? Faith holds the soul from the malice of the devil. Doth unbelief quench thy graces? Faith kindleth them even into a flame. Doth unbelief fill the soul full of sorrow? Faith fills it full of the joy of the Holy Ghost. In a word, doth unbelief bind down thy sins upon thee? Why, faith in Jesus Christ releaseth thee of them all." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"None knows, save him that feels it, how burning hot the fiery darts of Satan are; and how, when darted, they kindle upon our flesh and unbelief; neither can any know the power and worth of faith to quench them but he that hath it, and hath power to act it." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"God hath put man above all the creatures in this visible world, into a state of abiding for ever; they cannot be annihilated, they shall never again be turned into nothing, but must live with God or the devil for ever and ever." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"Once past grace, ever past grace." Justification By An Imputed Righteousness Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |
"O how serious should sinners be in this work of remembering things to come, of laying to their heart the greatness and terror of that notable day of God Almighty, and in examining themselves, how it is like to go with their souls when they shall stand before the Judge indeed!" Justification By An Imputed Righteousness |