| John Flavel |
| "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5 |
John Flavel (1627 - 1691) was another
Nonconformist minister who suffered persecution for his faith in Jesus Christ,
and who preached on the run, as it were, after his preaching became unauthorized
by the state. If Flavel's works could be reduced to a single description, I
would categorize his writings as showing a sweet and profound love for Jesus
Christ and an intense desire to communicate that love to his congregation. In
other words, Flavel had a true pastor's heart. Yet, his discourses on the love
of God in Christ Jesus should not be taken to imply that he was soft on sin, for
nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the hotter Flavel's love
burns, the hotter burns his wrath against sin. John Flavel's writings appear to
have been fairly popular in the Great Awakening, as they are mentioned by
Whitefield and others. The Works Of John Flavel are available in six volumes
from The Banner Of Truth Trust.
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"If thou art a stranger to regeneration and
faith, making a powerless profession of Christ; if thou hast a name to live, but
art dead; here it is possible thou mayest meet with something to convince thee
how dangerous it is to be an old creature in the new creature’s dress and habit;
and what it is that blinds thy judgment, and is likely to prove thy ruin; a
seasonable and full conviction of which will be the greatest mercy that can
befall thee in this world, if thereby at last God may help thee to put on
Christ, as well as the name of Christ." The Method Of Grace
"For as the condemnation of the first Adam
passes not to us, except as by generation we are his; so grace and remission
pass not from the second Adam to us, except as by regeneration we are his.
Adam’s sin hurts none but those that are in him; and Christ’s blood profits none
but those that are in him." The Method Of Grace
"Regeneration expresses those supernatural,
divine, new qualities imparted by the Spirit to the soul, which are the
principle of all holy action." The Method Of Grace
"The application of Christ, by the work of
regeneration, yields to men all the refreshment and joy they have in Christ, and
in all that he has done for sinners." The Method Of Grace
"As the sin of Adam could never hurt us unless
he had been our head by way of generation; so the righteousness of Christ can
never benefit us unless he be our head by way of regeneration. In teaching this
lesson, the Lord in mercy unteaches and blots out that dangerous principle by
which the greatest part of the christianized world do perish, namely, that the
death of Christ is in itself effectual to salvation." The Method Of Grace
"Gifts are attainable by study; and prayer and
preaching may be reduced to an art; but regeneration is wholly supernatural."
The Method Of Grace
"That resemblance of Christ which shall be
complete and perfect after the resurrection, must be begun in its first draught
here by the work of regeneration." The Method Of Grace
"That soul is dead to which the Spirit of Christ
is not given in the work of regeneration; and all its works are dead works." The
Method Of Grace
"Regeneration is life from the dead." The
Method Of Grace
"Learned men are often ignorant of the things
which babes in Christ understand. They are prudent in the management of earthly
affairs; but to save their souls they have no knowledge. They may be able to
dispute of every thing investigable by the light of nature; yea, to defend the
doctrines of Christ against his adversaries successfully, and yet be blind in
the great mystery of regeneration." The Method Of Grace
"Think on it, reader, and lay it to thy heart:
better thou hadst died from the womb, better the knees had prevented thee, and
the breasts which thou hast sucked, than that thou shouldst live and die a
stranger to the new birth." The Method Of Grace
"Among the multitude of rational creatures
inhabiting this world, how very few are new creatures; how few are for Jesus
Christ. Look over our cities, towns, and villages around you, and how few will
you find that speak the language or do the works of new creatures. How few have
ever had any awakening convictions; and how many of those that have been
convinced have never come to the new birth. The more cause have they whom God
has indeed regenerated, to admire the riches of his distinguishing mercy to
them." The Method Of Grace
"When the Word comes accompanied with the
Spirit, it is mighty, through God, to cast down all imaginations." The Method Of
Grace
"The being of God is invisible, but the
operations of his Spirit in believers, are sensible and discernable. The soul's
union with Christ is a supernatural mystery, yet it is discoverable by the
effects thereof, which are very perceptible in and by believers." The Method Of
Grace
"You expect happiness whilst God is in heaven,
and God expects holiness from you whilst you are on earth." The Method Of Grace
"All the motions and operations of the Spirit
are always harmonious, and suitable to the written Word." The Method Of Grace
"Whatsoever rises from self, always aims at,
and terminates in self." The Method Of Grace
"Creation is out of nothing; it requires no
pre-existent matter; it doth not bring one thing out of another, but something
out of nothing; it gives a being to that which before had no being. So it is
also in the new birth... The work of grace is not
educed out of the power and principles of nature, but it is a pure work
of creation." The Method Of Grace
"Men do not resemble God as they are noble,
and as they are rich, but as they are holy." The Method Of Grace
"Thou must either be a new creature, or a
miserable and damned creature for ever." The Method Of Grace
"No repentance, obedience, self-denial,
prayers, tears, reformation or ordinances, without the new creation, avail any
thing to the salvation of thy soul. The very blood of Christ himself, without
the new creation, never did, and never will save any man. Oh how necessary a
work is the new creation." The Method Of Grace
"Search the scriptures, and you shall find God
hath laid the whole stress and weight of your eternal happiness, by Jesus
Christ, upon this work of the Spirit in your souls." The Method Of Grace
"Christ and heaven are the gifts of God, and
he is at liberty to bestow them, upon what terms and conditions he pleaseth: and
this is the way - the only way - and stated method in which he will bring men,
by Christ, unto glory. Men may raze out the impressions of these things from
their own hearts, but they can never alter the settled course and method of
salvation. Either we must be new creatures, as the precept of the Word command
us, or lost, and damned creatures, as the threatenings of the Word plainly tell
us." The Method Of Grace
"In the work of grace, God is said to 'begin
that good work,' which is to be finished, or consummated, in the day of Christ.
Now nothing can be more irrational, than to imagine that ever that design, or
work should be finished or perfected, which never had a beginning... So that
either we must have a new Bible, or a new heart, for if these scriptures be the
true and faithful words of God, no unrenewed creature can see his face." The
Method Of Grace
"Better thou hadst died from the womb, better
the knees had prevented thee, and the breasts which thou hast sucked, than that
thou shouldst live and die a stranger to the new birth, or that thy mother
should bring forth only to increase, and fill up the number of the damned." The
Method Of Grace
"No power but
that which gave being to the world, can give a being to a new creature.
Almighty Power goes forth to give being to the new creature. The creature is not
born of flesh, or of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God. The nature of
this new creature speaks its original to be above the power of nature; the very
notion of a new creation spoils the proud boasts of the great asserters of the
power and ability of the will of man." The Method Of Grace
"Difficulties are for men, but not for God. He
works in conversion by a power which is able to subdue all things unto himself."
The Method Of Grace
"Among the multitudes of rational creatures
inhabiting this world, how few, how very few, are new creatures." The Method Of
Grace
"The Father, Son, and Spirit, (betwixt whom
was the council of peace) work out their design in a perfect harmony and
consent: as there was no jar in their council, so there can be none in the
execution of it: those whom the Father, before all time, did chuse; they, and
they only, are the persons, whom the Son, when the fulness of time for the
execution of that decree was come, died for... And those for whom Christ died,
are the persons to whom the Spirit effectually applies the benefits and
purchases of his blood: he comes in the name of the Father and Son." The Method
Of Grace
"Christ hath indeed a fulness of saving power,
but the dispensation thereof is limited by the Father's will... And thus also
are the dispensations of grace by the Spirit, in like manner, limited, both by
the counsel and will of the Father and Son. For as he proceeds from them, so he
acts in the administration proper to him, by commission from both." The Method
Of Grace
"The application of Christ, and benefits by
the Spirit, are commensurable with the Father's secret counsel, and the Son's
design in dying, which are the rule, model, and pattern of the Spirit's
working." The Method Of Grace
"The Gospel hath not the least favour for
licentiousness." The Method Of Grace
"Unbelievers are loth to burn, yet willing to
sin; though sin kindle those everlasting flames. So that in two things the
unbeliever shews himself worse than brutish: he cannot think of damnation, the
effect of sin, without horror; and cannot yet think of sin, the cause of
damnation, without pleasure; he is loth to perish to all eternity without a
remedy, and yet refuses and declines Christ as if he were an enemy, who only can
and would deliver him from that eternal perdition." The Method Of Grace
"What is a little money, health or liberty, to
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption?" The Method Of Grace
"The Spirit must therefore first take hold of
us before we can live in Christ, and when he doth so, then we are enabled to
exert that vital act of faith, whereby we receive Christ. [Ephesians 2:8]" The
Method Of Grace
"We can no more unite ourselves to Christ, than
a branch can incorporate itself into another stock; it is of him, of God, his
proper and alone work." The Method Of Grace
"All the fruit we bear before our ingrafture
into Christ is worse than none; till the person be in Christ, the work cannot be
evangelically good and acceptable to God." The Method Of Grace
"Be willing to give glory to Christ, though his
glory should rise out of your shame." The Method Of Grace
"Alas! if a few poor, cold, heartless,
ineffectual confessions of sin may pass for a due conviction and serious
repentance, then have we been convinced, then have we repented; but you will
find, if ever the Lord intend to reconcile you to himself, your conviction and
humiliations for sin will be other manner of things, and will cost you more than
a few cheap words agains sin." The Method Of Grace
"Both Christ and faith are strangers to many
souls who yet persuade themselves they are at peace with God." The Method Of
Grace
"All the preaching in the world can never
effect this union with Christ in itself, and in its own virtue, except a
supernatural and mighty power go forth with it for that end and purpose. Let
Boanerges and Barnabas try their strength, let the angels of heaven be the
preachers: till God draw, the soul cannot come to Christ." The Method Of Grace
"No act that is saving can be done without the
concurrence of special grace... so men may come to the Word, and attend to what
is spoken, remember and consider what the Word tells them; but as to believing
or coming to Christ, that no man can do of himself." The Method Of Grace
"It is utterly impossible for any man to come
to Jesus Christ unless he be drawn unto him by the special and mighty power of
God." The Method Of Grace
"The world cannot justify and save, but Christ
can." The Method Of Grace
"It was a powerful word indeed that made the
light at first shine out of darkness, and no less power is required to make it
shine into our hearts. That day in which the soul is made willing to come to
Christ is called the day of his power. Psalm 110:3."
The Method Of Grace
"To send forth cold and ineffectual wishes to
Christ we may, but to bring Christ and the soul together requires the almighty
power of God. The grace of faith by which we come to Christ is as much the free
gift of God as Christ himself, who is the object of faith." The Method Of Grace
"How wonderful and supernatural an adventure
is that which the soul makes in the day that it comes to Jesus Christ... If the
Lord draw not the soul, and that omnipotently, it can never come from itself to
Christ." The Method Of Grace
"As the blood of Christ is the fountain of all
merit, so the Spirit of Christ is the fountain of all spiritual life; and until
he quicken us and infuse the principle of the divine life into our souls, we can
put forth no hand, or vital act of faith, to lay hold upon Jesus Christ." The
Method Of Grace
"The infusion of spiritual life is done
instantaneously... when the Spirit comes once to quicken the soul, it is done in
a moment... but O what a blessed moment this is! Upon which the whole weight of
our eternal happiness depends... And our Lord expressly tells us in John 3:3,
that except we be regenerate and born again, we cannot see the kingdom of God."
The Method Of Grace
"Woe to the unregenerate; good had it been for
them had they never been born!" The Method Of Grace
"It is very common for men to presume upon
their union with, and interest in Christ. This privilege is, by common mistake,
extended generally to all that profess the Christian religion, and practise the
external duties of it, when, in truth, no more are or can be united to Christ
than are quickened by the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus. O try your
interest in Christ by this rule: if I am quickened by Christ, I have union with
Christ." The Method Of Grace
"Receiving Christ... People are generally very
ignorant and unacquainted with the importance of this expression; they have very
slight thoughts of faith who never passed under the illuminating, convincing,
and humbling work of the Spirit, but we shall find that saving faith is quite
another thing, and differs in its whole kind and nature from that traditional
faith and common assent, which is so fatally mistaken for it in the world." The
Method Of Grace
"Heaven is no doubt very desirable, but Christ
is more." The Method Of Grace
"Let all Arminians know: we have as high an
esteem for faith as any men in the world, but yet we will not rob Christ to
clothe faith." The Method Of Grace
"We acknowledge no righteousness but what the
obedience and satisfaction of Christ yields us. His blood, not our faith; his
satisfaction, not our believing it, is the matter of our justification before
God." The Method Of Grace
"Faith is a work of greater difficulty than most
men understand it to be, and there are but few sound believers in the world."
The Method Of Grace
"All believing motions towards Christ are the
effects of the Father's drawing. A glorious and irresistible power goes forth
from God to produce it, whence it is called the faith of the operaion of God.
Colossians 2:12." The Method Of Grace
"O when a man shall see his misery and danger,
and no way to escape but Christ, and that he hath no ability himself to come to
Christ, or to open his heart thus to receive Christ, but that this work of faith
is wholly supernatural, the operation of God; how will the sould return again
and again upon God with such cries as, Lord help my unbelief... Where are the
bed-sides or the secret corners where thou hast besieged heaven with such
cries?" The Method Of Grace
"Morality may hide corruption, but faith only
purifies the heart from it." The Method Of Grace
"Christ is the door of salvation, and faith is
the key that opens that door to men." The Method Of Grace
"Beware you do not mistake the means for the
end. Many do so, but see you do not. Prayer, sermons, reformations, are means to
bring you to Christ, but they are not Christ. To close with those duties is one
thing, but to close with Christ is another thing." The Method Of Grace
"The opening of your hearts to receive the Lord
Jesus Christ is not a work done by any power of your own, but the arm of the
Lord is revealed therein. It is therefore your duty and interest to be daily at
the feet of God, pouring out your souls to him in secret for abilities to
believe." The Method Of Grace
"Is is as possible for the ponderous mountains
to start from their bases and centres, mount themselves aloft into the air, and
there fly like wandering atoms hither and thither, as it is for any man of
himself, by a pure natural power of his own, to come to Christ." The Method Of
Grace
"Conviction discovers the universal pollution of
heart and life so that a man loathes and abhors himself by reason thereof. If he
do not look into his own corruptions, he cannot be safe; and if he do, he cannot
bear the sight of them; he hath no quiet; nothing can give rest but what gives
relief against this evil, and this is only done by faith uniting the soul with
Jesus Christ." The Method Of Grace
"Lay this down as a sure conclusion, and hold
it fast: that whatever it be that discourages and hinders you from coming to
Christ is directly against the interest of your souls, and the hand of the devil
is certainly in it." The Method Of Grace
"There is a twofold end of mercies: one
perfective, another destructive - the death of the saints perfects and completes
their mercies; the death of the wicked destroys and cuts off their mercies." The
Method Of Grace
Christ bounds and terminates the vast desires
of the soul: He is the very sabbath of the soul." The Method Of Grace
"Jesus Christ is the only consolation of
believers, and of none besides them." The Method Of Grace
"None but the Spirit of God can clear and
confirm our title to Christ, for he only searcheth the deep things of God, and
it is his office to witness with our spirits... He is the Spirit of truth, and
therefore cannot deceive us, so that his testimony is more infallible and
satisfactory than a voice from heaven... The witness of our own heart may amount
to a strong probability, but the witness of the Spirit is demonstration."
Sacramental Meditations - The Fourth
"The right knowledge of Jesus Christ, like a
clue, leads you through the whole labyrinth of the scriptures." The Fountain Of
Life
"A holy calling never saved any man without a
holy heart; if our tongues only be sanctified, our whole man must be damned."
The Fountain Of Life
"Christ is the great favourite in heaven: his
image upon your souls, and his name in your prayers, makes both accepted with
God." The Fountain Of Life
"Many learned philosophers are now in hell,
and many illiterate Christians in heaven." The Fountain Of Life
"Judge of the antiquity of the love of God to
believers! what an ancient friend he hath been to us; who loved us, provided for
us, and contrived all our happiness, before we were, yea, before the world was.
We reap the fruits of this covenant now, the seed whereof was sown from
eternity; yea, it is not only ancient, but also most free: no excellencies of
ours could engage the love God; for as yet we were not." The Fountain Of Life
"Have you imagined a tolerable hell?" The
Fountain Of Life
"He that undertakes to satisfy God, by obedience
for man's sin, must himself be God; and he that performs such a perfect
obedience, by doing, and suffering all that the law required, in our room, must
be man." The Fountain Of Life
"It is as needless and impious to make more
mediators than one, as to make more Gods than one." The Fountain Of Life
"One truth sucked by faith and prayer from the
breast of Christ is better than ten thousand dry notions beaten out by racking
the understanding." The Fountain Of Life
"Truth must be spoken, though the greatest on
earth be offended." The Fountain Of Life
"Those that deny the satisfaction of Christ, and
talk of his dying to confirm the truth, and give us an example of meekness,
patience, and self-denial, affirming these to be the sole ends of his death, do
not only therein root up the foundations of their own comfort, peace, and
pardon, but most boldly impeach and tax the infinite wisdom. God could have done
all this at a cheaper rate: the sufferings of a mere creature are able to attain
these ends: the deaths of the martyrs did it." The Fountain Of Life
"God will be true in his threatenings, though
thousands and millions perish." The Fountain Of Life
"When Christ became our sacrifice, he both bare,
and bare away our sins." The Fountain Of Life
"Our Advocate, Christ, wants no wisdom to
manage his work; he is the wisdom of God, yea, only wise. There is much folly in
the best of our duties, we know not how to press an argument home with God; but
Christ hath the art of it." The Fountain Of Life
"All the affairs of the kingdom of providence
are ordered and determined by Jesus Christ, for the special advantage, and
everlasting good of his redeemed people." The Fountain Of Life
"Take it for a clear truth - that which is not
prefaced with prayer will be followed with trouble." The Fountain Of Life
"Hadst thou more of the world, it would be like
a large sail to a little boat, which would quickly pull thee under water." The
Fountain Of Life
"The highest honour that ever the law of God
received, was to have such a person as the man Christ Jesus is, to stand before
its bar, and make reparation to it. This is more than if it had poured out all
our blood, and built up its honour upon the ruin of the whole creation." The
Fountain Of Life
"The state of Christ, from his conception to his
resurrection, was a state of deep debasement and humiliation." The Fountain Of
Life
"Out of this death of Christ the life of our
soul springs up; and in this blood of the cross our mercies swim to us. The
blood of Christ runs deep to some eyes; the judicious believer sees multitudes,
multitudes of inestimable blessings in it. By this crimson fountain I resolve to
sit down." The Fountain Of Life
"God knows how to serve his own ends by the very
sins of men, and yet have no communion at all in the sin he so overrules." The
Fountain Of Life
"In heaven we shall meet many that we never
thought to meet there, and miss many we were confident we should see there." The
Fountain Of Life
"In respect of God, Christ's death was justice
and mercy. In respect of men, it was murder and cruelty. In respect of himself,
it was obedience and humility." The Fountain Of Life
"What was now become of the fear of Caesar
that Pilate dares to be Christ's herald and publicly to proclaim him, The King
of the Jews?" The Fountain Of Life
"He that hath one foot in heaven need not fear
to put the other into the grave." The Fountain Of Life
"Sin is a bad bed-fellow, and worse
grave-fellow... Better be cast alive into a pit among dragons and serpents, than
dead in your graves among your sins." The Fountain Of Life
"A grave with Christ is a comfortable place."
The Fountain Of Life
"Christ's resurrection is the ground-work of
our hope. And the new birth is our title or evidence of our interest in it." The
Fountain Of Life
"None seek God in vain except those who seek him
vainly." The Fountain Of Life
"The finger of God in providence appears in
the secret influences of God upon the spirits of men, infusing courage into the
hearts of some, and sending faintness into the spirits of others; so that the
feeble become as David, while the men of might cannot find their hands." Mount
Pisgah
"He that doth all in us and for us, expects
justly the praise and glory of all from us." Mount Pisgah
"Methinks joy should not be under a
Christian's command, when he sees what God is creating for Jerusalem. As the
morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy at the
creation of the world; so should all his sons and daughters sing, and shout at
this new creation of the new heaven, and the new earth." Mount Pisgah
"Take heed of slighting and despising the
mercies of God which are fresh and new before your eyes this day... A due
observation of mercies will beget a due valuation of them; and a due valuation
of mercies is fundamental to all your praises of God for them." Mount Pisgah
"If ever men will strive with God to purpose
in prayer, it is when they perceive the greatest mercies are at the birth, and
prayer is the midwife to bring it forth." Mount Pisgah
"Nothing is more dear and precious to a
Christian, than the glory and interest of Christ... Whilst the church groans
under Antichrist, the glory of Jesus Christ is darkened and much eclipsed in the
world. It hath been the chief part of the saints' sufferings to see his
ordinances polluted, and the rights of heaven invaded by the usurpations of men;
this is it that hath cost them more sorrow of heart than their personal
sufferings have done." Mount Pisgah
"All Christ's ordinances are instituted, and
his officers ordained, for no other use or end but the salvation of souls. Books
are valuable according to their conducibility to this end."
Pneumatologia
"It is with most souls as it is with the eye,
which sees not itself, though it sees all other objects."
Pneumatologia
"What serious heart doth not melt into
compassion over the deluded multitude, who are mocked with dreams, and
perpetually busied about trifles? Who are, (after so many frustrated attempts,
both of their own, and all past ages) eagerly pursuing the fleeting shadows, who
torture and rack their brains to find out the natures and qualities of birds,
beasts, and plants; indeed any thing rather than their own souls, which are
certainly the most excellent creatures that inhabit this world... They herd
themselves with beasts, who are capable of an equality with angels. O what
compassionate tears must such a consideration as this draw from the eyes of all
that understand the worth of souls!"
Pneumatologia
"How have the schools of Epicurus, and
Aristotle, the Cartesians, and other sects of philosophers abused and troubled
the world with a kind of philosophical enthusiasm, and a great many ridiculous
fancies about the original of the soul of man!... The account Moses gives us in
this context, of the origin of the world, and of man the epitome of it, is full
of sense, reason, congruity, and clearness; and such as renders all the essays
of all the Heathen philosophers to be vain, inevident, self-repugnant, and
inexplicable theories."
Pneumatologia
"The soul is the most wonderful and
astonishing piece of divine workmanship; it is no hyperbole to call it the
breath of God, the beauty of men, the wonder of angels, and the envy of devils.
One soul is of more value than all the bodies in the world."
Pneumatologia
"Let me tell thee, that if ever God send forth
these two grim sergeants, his law, and thine own conscience, to arrest thee for
thy sins, if thou find thyself dragged away by them towards that prison from
whence none return, that are once clapt up therein, and that in this unspeakable
distress Jesus Christ manifest himself to thy soul, and open thy heart to
receive him, and become thy surety with God, pay all thy debts, and cancel all
thy obligations, thou wilt love him at another rate than others do; his blood
will run deeper in thine eyes than it doth in the shallow apprehensions of the
world; he will be altogether lovely, and thou wilt account all things but dung
and dross in comparison of the excellency of Jesus Christ thy Lord." The Method
Of Grace
"The liberty of the will [in the unregenerate
man] must be understood to be in things natural, which are within its own proper
sphere, not in things supernatural. It can move, or not move the body, as it
pleases, but it cannot move towards Christ, in the way of faith, as it pleaseth;
it can open or shut the hand or eye at its pleasure, but not the heart."
Pneumatologia
"If thou be never so mean, base, and despicable
a creature in other respects, yet thou hast a soul, which hath the same alliance
to the Father of spirits, the same capacity to enjoy him in glory, that the most
excellent and renowned saints ever had."
Pneumatologia
"Other sins, like single bullets, kill
particular persons: but Adam's sin, like a chain-shot, mowed down all mankind at
once." Pneumatologia
"No ambassadors of peace are sent to the dead:
no more calls or strivings of the spirit: no more space for repentance. O! what
an inconceivable weight hath God hanged on a puff of breath!"
Pneumatologia
"It will be comfortable to resign that breath
to God at death, which hath been instrumental to his glory in this life."
Pneumatologia
"The scriptures tell us that from all eternity
God hath chosen a certain number in Christ Jesus to eternal life, and to the
means by which they shall attain it, out of his mere good pleasure, and for the
praise of his grace... This choice was of a certain number of persons who are
all known to God, and all given to Christ in the covenant of redemption. So that
no elect person can be a reprobate, no reprobate an elect person."
Pneumatologia
"The same persons that are appointed to
salvation as the end, are also appointed to sanctification as the way and means
by which they shall attain that end."
Pneumatologia
"There was a federal transaction betwixt the
Father and the Son from eternity, about our salvation. In that covenant Christ
engaged to redeem the elect by his blood; and the Father promised him a reward
of those his sufferings. Accordingly he hath poured out his soul to death for
them, finished the work, and is now in heaven, expecting the full reward and
fruits of his sufferings, which consist not in his own personal glory, which he
there enjoys, but in the completeness and fulness of his mystical body."
Pneumatologia
"A God incarnate is the world's wonder; no
condescension like this."
Pneumatologia
"The DEATH of Christ hath the nature and respect
of a ransom, or equivalent price laid down to the justice of God for our
redemption. It brought our souls from under the curse, and purchased for them
everlasting blessedness. The RESURRECTION of Christ from the dead hath the
nature both of a testimony of his finishing the work of our redemption, and the
Father's full satisfaction therein, and of a principle of our resurrection to
eternal life. The ASCENSION of Christ into heaven was in the capacity and
relation of a forerunner; it was to prepare places for the redeemed, who were to
come after him to glory in their several generations. The INTERCESSION of Christ
in heaven is for the security of our purchased inheritance to us, and to prevent
any new breaches which might be made by our sins, whereby it might be forfeited,
and we divested of it again. All these jointly make up the foundation of our
faith and hope of glory."
Pneumatologia
"The actions which men perform in this life
are not transient, but are filed to their account in the world to come: here we
sow, and there we reap... A word is spoken, or an act done in a moment, but
though it be past and gone, and perhaps by us quite forgotten, God registers it
in his book, in order to the day of account."
Pneumatologia
"See that you prize the Gospel above all earthly
treasures... It can open your hearts, as well as your eyes, and is therefore to
be entertained as that which is in the first rank of blessings, a peerless and
inestimable blessing." Pneumatologia
"Though there be no fears of annihilation in
heaven, yet there be many wishes for it in hell, but to no purpose; there never
will be an end put, either to their being, or their torments."
Pneumatologia
"You need faith to die by, as well as live by."
Pneumatologia
"He that cannot deny himself, will deny Jesus
Christ." Pneumatologia
"Your bodies must and will wear out, and it is
better to wear them with working than with rusting: we are generally more
solicitous to live long than to live usefully and serviceably; and it may be our
health had been more precious in the eyes of God if it had been less precious in
our own eyes." Pneumatologia
"Most of those souls that are now in hell, are
there upon the account of their indulgence to the flesh; they could not deny the
flesh, and now are denied by God."
Pneumatologia
"Except you have gracious souls, you shall never
have glorified bodies: except your souls be united to Christ, the happiness of
your bodies, as well as your souls, is lost to all eternity."
Pneumatologia
"You expect to have them glorious bodies one
day; O then let them be serviceable bodies now!"
Pneumatologia
"There is iniquity in our most holy things,
which needs pardon. Our best duties have enough in them to damn us, as well as
our worst sins." Pneumatologia
"Christ, among the saints and angels in
heaven, is as a mighty load-stone cast in among many needles, which leap to him,
and fix themselves inseparably upon him. They all act in glory as the fire doth
here, to the utmost of their power and ability. There is no note lower than
GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST."
Pneumatologia
"The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win
the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the
heart with God. Here lies the very pinch and stress of religion; here is that
which makes the way to life a narrow way, and the gate to heaven a strait gate."
Saint Indeed
"Many, by creation, was of one constant,
uniform frame and tenour of spirit, held one straight and even course; not one
thought or faculty revelled or disordered; his mind had a perfect illumination
to understand and know the will of God, his will a perfect compliance therewith;
his sensitive appetite, and other inferior powers stood in a most obedient
subordination. Man, by degeneration, is become a most disordered and rebellious
creature, contesting with, and opposing his Maker, as the first cause, by
self-dependence; as the chiefest good, by self-love; as the highest Lord, by
self-will, and as the last end, by self-seeking; and so is quite disordered, and
all his acts irregular: his illuminated understanding is clouded with ignorance,
his complying will full of rebellion and stubbornness; his subordinate powers,
casting off the dominion and government of the superior faculties."
Saint Indeed