John Owen (1616 - 1683), one of the great Puritans of the seventeenth century, is perhaps the most remarkable theologian in the history of Christianity. He was one of those rare men who possessed not only a gigantic mind, but a spirit to match. He was at once full of humility and boldness, just like his master, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he glorified in his writings to a degree and in a manner never equaled.

John Owen had an extraordinary grasp of both biblical and secular history, as his works demonstrate, and he displayed an astonishing familiarity with all of the ancient historians, philosophers, poets, and so forth. In addition to this amazing quality, Owen was also a master in the ancient languages, such as Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and some of the cognate languages as well. It is truly an adventure to observe Owen's formidable knowledge and skill as you wade through his works, which are prolific.

Owen frequently fell in and out of favour with the political heralds of England, as he - unlike so many in our day - never once sacrificed his conscience, even on the very smallest of matters.

John Owen could have had all of England at his beck and call, for he was Cromwell's most trusted advisor, yet Owen refused to support Cromwell in his bid to become King and thereby dissolve Parliamentary government.

After Cromwell's death, when Charles II finally ascended to the throne and re-established the Monarchy, he immediately set about to persecute the Puritans and others, but not before trying to make a pact through emissaries with John Owen, in which he attempted to get Owen to soften his views and comply with a few mere technical matters regarding worship. Since Owen was so well known and respected throughout the land, the King obviously thought that if he could be compromised, then many of the other Puritans and Nonconformists might follow.

Owen refused outright. The eyes of the nation were upon him, but he didn't care about that. The only eyes John Owen were concerned about  were the eyes of Jesus Christ, his master whom he faithfully served.

Owen became a hunted man and was often in peril as he moved from location to location to avoid capture. He refused to stop preaching and writing, and his output in both disciplines was prolific. Finally, the winds of persecution began to soften as Charles sought to consolidate power. At this point, Owen - who still had many admirers in high places - came back into partial favour among the politicians of the hour.

This was, of course, the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes, for John Owen, instead of using his newfound liberty for himself, immediately set about to relieve the suffering of his fellow Puritans and Nonconformists, once again standing in the gap and placing himself in harm's way.

In this regard, nowhere did Owen intervene more strenuously and ardently than in obtaining the release of John Bunyan, tinker turned preacher, and jailed for twelve years as result of it. Owen - though a powerful preacher in his own right, as all who knew him attested - nevertheless was frequently in attendance at Bunyan's sermons, standing among the thousands of others who came to hear Bunyan preach, which was one of the reasons Bunyan was jailed in the first place, namely, because he drew such large crowds, all of whom hungered and thirsted after righteousness.

King Charles, knowing that Owen hastened to hear Bunyan as often as he was able, asked the great theologian how a learned man like himself could "go to hear a tinker prate," to which Owen replied, "May it please your majesty, could I possess the tinker's abilities for preaching, I would willingly relinquish all my learning."

When one considers the turbulent times Owen lived in, and yet the hectic and undeniably brutal pace he maintained throughout his life, it is remarkable that he ever had any time for writing at all, much less the heights of heavenly meditation that flowed from his regenerate mind. Yet, he produced a massive compendium of works which give glory to Jesus Christ in a very singular way. No writer has ever exhibited so much knowledge of the glory of God in Christ Jesus.

We can offer no fitter a closing than that which is presented in his biography -

"John Owen belonged to a class of men who have risen from age to age in the church, to represent great principles, and to revive in the church the life of God. The supreme authority of the Scriptures in all matters of religion, the headship of Christ, the rights of conscience, religion as a thing of spirit, and not of form, resulting from the personal belief of certain revealed truths, and infallibly manifesting itself in a holy life, the church as a society distinct from the world - these principles, often contended for in flames and blood, were the essence of that Puritanism which found one of its noblest examples in Owen."

Few men throughout Christian history have truly stood in the gap. Few indeed. Far fewer than the Lord Jesus requires. Nevertheless, of those few, of those men, who over time have of purpose placed themselves in harm's way, without any regard to their own comforts or welfare, yea, of those few, John Owen was a principal one, and he stood stedfast and immovable his entire life, nothing doubting, just like the Rock upon whom he was founded.

Owen's Complete Works (16 Volumes, plus 7 Volumes on Hebrews) are available in print from The Banner Of Truth Trust, as well as in software format from Ages Software.

"It is a foolish thing in any man to trust God to be preserved in sin." Treasury of David, Vol I Psalm XIV

"As among all the doctrines of the gospel, there is none opposed with more violence and subtlety than that concerning our regeneration by the immediate, powerful, effectual operation of the Holy Spirit of grace; so there is not scarce anything more despised or scorned by many in the world than that any should profess that there hath been such a work of God upon themselves, or on any occasion declare aught of the way and manner whereby it was wrought... yea, the enmity of Cain against Abel was but a branch of this proud and perverse inclination." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"The instance of Ishmael in the Scripture is representative of all such as, under an outward profession of the true religion, did or do scoff at those who, being, as Isaac, children of the promise, do profess and evidence an interest in the internal power of it, which they are unacquainted withal." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"The holy work of God's Spirit is to be owned." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"Where any work of grace is not effectual, God never intended it should be so, nor did put forth that power of grace which was necessary to make it so. Wherefore, in or towards whomsoever the Holy Spirit puts forth his power, or acts his grace for their regeneration, he removes all obstacles, overcomes all oppositions, and infallibly produceth the effect intended." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"There is not only a moral but a physical immediate operation of the Spirit, by his power and grace, or his powerful grace, upon the minds or souls of men in their regeneration. This is that which we must cleave to, or all the glory of God's grace is lost, and the grace administered by Christ neglected." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"The Scripture abounds in commands and cautions for our utmost diligence in our search and inquiry, whether we are made partakers of Christ or not, or whether His Spirit dwell in us or not; which argue both the difficulty of attaining an assured confidence herein, as also the danger of our being mistaken, and yet the certainty of a good issue upon the diligent and regular use of means to that purpose." Hebrews 3:14

"Faith is placed absolutely and ultimately on the person of Christ, even as on the person of the Father. He counts it no robbery herein to be equal with the Father." Christologia

"The Lord Christ is not the absolute and ultimate object of our faith, any otherwise but under this consideration - of his being partaker of the nature of God, of his being in the form of God, and equal unto him. Without this, to place our faith in him would be robbery and sacrilege; as is all the pretended faith of them who believe not his divine person." Christologia

"Christ being the image of God, the face of God, in him is God represented unto us, and through him are all saving benefits communicated unto them that believe." Christologia

"The divine personality of Christ consists in this, that the whole divine nature being communicated unto him by eternal generation, he is the image of God, even the Father, who by him is represented unto us." Christologia

"It is not the person of Peter who confessed Christ, but the person of Christ whom Peter confessed, that is the rock on which the church is built." Christologia

"If the divine and human nature of Christ do not constitute one individual person, all that he did for us was only as a man - which would have been altogether insufficient for the salvation of the church, nor had God redeemed it with his own blood." Christologia

"Hence have we so many discourses published about religion, the practical holiness and duties of obedience, written with great elegancy of style, and seriousness in argument, wherein we can meet with little or nothing wherein Jesus Christ, his office, or his grace, are concerned... We may say what a learned person did of one of old: There were in it many things laudable and delectable, sed nomen Jesu non erat ibi. [but the name of Jesus was not there]." Christologia

"Of all the effects of the divine excellencies, the constitution of the person of Christ as the foundation of the new creation, as the Mystery of Godliness, was the most ineffable and glorious... This assumption of our nature into hypostatical union with the Son of God, this constitution of one and the same individual person in two natures so infinitely distinct as those of God and man - whereby the Eternal was made in time, the Infinite became finite, the Immortal mortal, yet continuing eternal, infinite, immortal - is that singular expression of divine wisdom, goodness, and power, wherein God will be admired and glorified unto all eternity. Herein was that change introduced into the whole first creation, whereby the blessed angels were exalted, Satan and his works ruined, mankind recovered from a dismal apostasy, all things made new, all things in heaven and earth reconciled and gathered into one Head, and a revenue of eternal glory raised unto God, incomparably above what the first constitution of all things in the order of nature could yield unto him." Christologia

"This Word was made flesh, not by any change of his own nature or essence, not by a transubstantiation of the divine nature into the human, not by ceasing to be what he was, but by becoming what he was not, in taking our nature to his own, to be his own, whereby he dwelt among us. This glorious Word, which is God, and described by his eternity and omnipotency in works of creation and providence, was made flesh - which expresseth the lowest state and condition of human nature. Without controversy, great is this mystery of godliness!" Christologia

"That the mighty God should be a child born, and the everlasting Father a son given unto us, may well entitle him unto the name Wonderful." Christologia

"Let all vain imaginations cease: there is nothing left unto the sons of men, but either to reject the divine person of Christ - as many do unto their own destruction - or humbly to adore the mystery of infinite wisdom and grace therein." Christologia

"That he purged our sins by his death, and the oblation of himself therein unto God, is acknowledged. That this should be done by him by whom the worlds were made, who is the essential brightness of the divine glory, and the express image of the person of the Father therein, who upholds, rules, sustains all things by the word of his power, whereby God purchased his church with his own blood, is that wherein he will be admired unto eternity." Christologia

"There were two things, before, in religion [Old Testament] - the promise, which was the life of it; and the institutions of worship under the Law, which were the outward glory and beauty of it. And both these were nothing, or had nothing in them, but only what they before proposed and represented of Christ, God manifested in the flesh. The promise was concerning HIM, and the institution of worship did only represent HIM." Christologia

"The greatest exercise and emanation of divine goodness, was in these holy counsels of God for the salvation of the church by Jesus Christ. For whereas in all other effects of his goodness he gives of his own, herein he gave HIMSELF, in taking our nature upon him... So was it in the counsels of God, concerning the incarnation of his Son and the salvation of the church thereby. No heart can conceive, no tongue can express, the least portion of that ineffable delight of the holy, blessed God, in these counsels, wherein he acted and expressed unto the utmost his own essential goodness." Christologia

"The incarnation of Christ, and his mediation thereon, were not the procuring cause of these eternal counsels of God, but the effects of them, as the Scripture constantly declares. But the design of their accomplishment was laid in the person of the Son alone. As he was the essential wisdom of God, all things were at first created by him. But upon a prospect of the ruin of all by sin, God would in and by him - as he was fore-ordained to be incarnate - restore all things. The whole counsel of God unto this end centred in him alone." Christologia

"To know God, so as thereby to be made like unto him, is the chief end of man. This is done perfectly only in the person of Christ, all other means of it being subordinate thereunto, and none of them of the same nature therewithal. The end of the Word itself is to instruct us in the knowledge of God in Christ." Christologia

"A mere external doctrinal revelation of the divine nature and properties, without any exemplification or real representation of them, was not sufficient unto the end of God in the manifestation of himself. This is done in the Scripture. But the whole Scripture is built on this foundation, or proceeds on this supposition - that there is a real representation of the divine nature unto us, which Scripture declares and describes... All this is done in the person of Christ. He is the complete image and perfect representation of the Divine Being and excellencies." Christologia

"In his incarnation, the Son was made the representative image of God unto us - as he [already] was, in his person, the essential image of the Father, by eternal generation." Christologia

"Such an impression of all the glorious properties of God is on Christ, as that thereby they become legible unto all them that believe." Christologia

"In the Son incarnate, that eternal life which was originally in and with the Father was manifest unto us... The true end of proposing these things is to draw men unto the diligent study of the Scripture, wherein alone they are revealed and declared." Christologia

"Christ is the image of the invisible God, the express image of the person of the Father; and the principal end of the whole Scripture, especially of the Gospel, is to declare him so to be, and how he is so." Christologia

"Reason alone - especially as it is corrupted and depraved - can discern no glory in the representation of God by Christ... Hence many live in a profession of the faith of the letter of the Gospel, yet - having no light, guide, nor conduct, but that of reason - they do not, they cannot, really behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; nor hath the revelation of it any efficacy upon their souls." Christologia

"Faith in Christ is the only means of the true knowledge of God; and the discoveries which are made of him and his excellencies thereby are those alone which are effectual to conform us unto his image and likeness." Christologia

"It is the knowledge of God in Christ alone that is effectually powerful to work the souls of men into conformity unto him. Those alone who behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ are changed into the same image, from glory to glory." Christologia

"These precious, unsearchable treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God - that is, all divine supernatural truths - are hid, or safely deposited, in Christ - in and from whom alone they are to be learned and received." Christologia

"Whatever notional knowledge men may have of divine truths, as they are doctrinally proposed in the Scripture, yet - if they know them not in their respect unto the person of Christ as the foundation of the counsels of God - if they discern not how they proceed from him, and centre in him - they will bring no spiritual, saving light unto their understanding. For all spiritual life and light is in him, and from him alone." Christologia

"Wherefore, as professors of the truth, if separated from Christ as unto real union, are withering branches - so truths professed, if doctrinally separated from him, or their respect unto him, have no living power or efficacy in the souls of men." Christologia

"Those who reject the DIVINE PERSON OF CHRIST - who believe it not, who discern not the wisdom, grace, love, and power of God therein - do constantly reject or corrupt all other spiritual truths of divine revelation. Nor can it otherwise be. For they have a consistency ONLY in their relation unto the mystery of godliness - GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH - and from thence derive their sense and meaning. This being removed - the truth, in all other articles of religion, immediately falls to the ground." Christologia

"Whereas Christ is our life, and in our living unto God we do not so much live as he liveth in us, and the life which we lead in the flesh is by the faith of him - so that we have neither principle nor power of spiritual life, but in, by, and from him - whatever knowledge we have of the truth, if it do not effect a union between him and our souls, it will be lifeless in us, and unprofitable unto us." Christologia

"Christ descended from heaven in his incarnation, whereby he became the Son of man; and he is and was then in heaven in the essence and glory of his divine nature. This is the full of what we assert. In the knowledge and revelation of heavenly mysteries, unto the calling, sanctification, and salvation of the church, doth the prophetical office of Christ consist. This he positively affirms could not otherwise be, but that he who came down from heaven was also at the same instant in heaven." Christologia

"Those who deny Christ's divine person, though they pretend to attend unto him as the teacher of the church, do yet learn no truth from him, but embrace pernicious errors in the stead thereof." Christologia

"All power, all judgment, all rule is committed unto the Son, and the Father doth nothing towards the church but in and by him, and if he have not the same divine power and properties with him, the foundation of the church's faith is cast down, and the spring of its consolation utterly stopped up." Christologia

"The glory, life, and power of Christian religion, as Christian religion, and as seated in the souls of men, with all the acts and duties which properly belong thereunto, and are, therefore, peculiarly Christian, and all the benefits and privileges we receive by it, or by virtue of it, with the whole of the honour and glory that arise unto God thereby, have all of them their formal nature and reason from their respect and relation unto the person of Christ; nor is he a Christian who is otherwise minded." Christologia

"The person of Christ is primarily the object of divine honour and worship upon account of his divine nature and excellencies... His infinite condescension, in the assumption of our nature, did no way divest him of his divine essential excellencies... This, then, in the first place, is to be confirmed; namely, that all divine honour is due unto the Son of God incarnate - that is, the person of Christ." Christologia

"To honour the Son as we ought to honour the Father, is that which makes us Christians, and which nothing else will so do." Christologia

"The first promise, Genesis iii.15 - truly called Prwteuaggelion - was revealed, proposed, and given, as containing and expressing the only means of delivery from that apostasy from God, with all the effects of it, under which our first parents and all their posterity were cast by sin... All the promises that God gave afterward unto the church under the Old Testament, before and after giving the law - all the covenants that he entered into with particular persons, or the whole congregation of believers - were all of them declarations and confirmations of this first promise, or the way of salvation by the mediation of his Son, becoming the seed of the woman, to break the head of the serpent, and to work out the deliverance of mankind." Christologia

"Of all that poison which at this day is diffused in the minds of men, corrupting them from the mystery of the Gospel, there is no part that is more pernicious than this one perverse imagination, that to believe in Christ is nothing at all but to believe the doctrine of the Gospel; which yet, we grant, is included therein. For as it allows the consideration of no office in him but that of a prophet, and that not as vested and exercised in his divine person, so it utterly overthrows the whole foundation of the relation of the church unto him, and salvation by him." Christologia

"The Lord Christ is not the absolute and ultimate object of our faith, any otherwise but under this consideration - of his being partaker of the nature of God - of his being in the form of God, and equal unto him. Without this, to place our faith in him would be robbery and sacrilege; as is all the pretended faith of them who believe not his divine person." Christologia

"No comfortable, refreshing thoughts of God, no warrantable or acceptable boldness in an approach and access unto him, can any one entertain or receive, but in this exercise of faith on Christ as the mediator between God and man. And if, in the practice of religion, this regard of faith unto him - this acting of faith on God through him - be not the principle whereby the whole is animated and guided, Christianity is renounced, and the vain cloud of natural religion embraced in the room of it... So is it with the minds of men who were never affected with supernatural revelations, with the mystery of the gospel, beyond the owning of some notions of truth - who never had experience of its power in the life of God." Christologia

"Christ accepts of no obedience unto his commands that doth not proceed from love unto his person. That is no love which is not fruitful in obedience; and that is no obedience which proceeds not from love." Christologia

"There is, and ought to be, in all believers, a divine, gracious love unto the person of Christ, immediately fixed on him, whereby they are excited unto, and acted in, all their obedience unto his authority." Christologia

"All that are called Christians in the world, do, by owning that denomination, profess a love unto Jesus Christ; but greater enemies, greater haters of him, he hath not among the children of men, than many of them are." Christologia

"God hath endowed our nature with a faculty and ability of fixing our love upon himself... But since the passing of sin, misery, and death upon us, our love can find no amiableness in any goodness - no rest, complacency, and satisfaction in any - but what is effected in that grace and mercy by Christ, which we stand in need of for our present recovery and future reward... Before this, without this, we do not, we cannot love God." Christologia

"Those whose hearts are duly exercised in and unto the love of God have experience of the refreshing approaches both of the Father and of the Son unto their souls." Christologia

"The faith and love of believers is not to be regulated by the ignorance and boldness of them who have neither the one nor the other." Christologia

"Many there are who, not comprehending, not being affected with that divine, spiritual description of the person of Christ which is given us by the Holy Ghost in the Scripture, do feign unto themselves false representations of him by images and pictures, so as to excite carnal and corrupt affections of their minds... But all these idols are teachers of lies. The true beauty and amiableness of the person of Christ, which is the formal object and cause of divine love, is so far from being represented herein, as that the mind is thereby wholly diverted from the contemplation of it... The beauty of the person of Christ, as represented in the Scripture, consists in things invisible unto the eyes of flesh. They are such as no hand of man can represent or shadow. It is the eye of faith alone that can see the King in his beauty." Christologia

"He is no Christian who lives not MUCH in the meditation of the mediation of Christ, and the especial acts of it... What, then, will be the condition of them whose hearts are not so affected with the mediation of Christ and the fruits of it, as to engage the best, the choicest of their affections unto him? The gospel itself will be a savour of death unto such ungrateful wretches." Christologia

"The highest aggravation of the sin of angels was their ingratitude unto their Maker... But yet the sin of men, in their ingratitude towards Christ on the account of what he hath done for them, is attended with an aggravation above that of the angels." Christologia

"They make a pageant of religion - a fable for the theatre of the world - a business of fancy and opinion - whose hearts are not really affected with the love of Christ, in the susception and discharge of the work of mediation, so as to have real and spiritually sensible affections for him. Men may babble things which they have learned by rote; but they have no real acquaintance with Christianity, who imagine that the placing of the most intense affections of our souls on the person of Christ - the loving him will all our hearts because of his love - our being overcome thereby until we are sick of love - the constant motions of our souls towards him with delight and adherence - are but fancies and imaginations. I renounce that religion, be it whose it will, that teacheth, insinuateth, or giveth countenance unto, such abominations." Christologia

"Whatever men may boast of their affectionate endearments unto the divine goodness, if it be not founded in a sense of this love of Christ, and the love of God in him, they are but empty notions they flourish withal, and their deceived hearts feed upon ashes. It is in Christ alone that God is declared to be love." Christologia

"Nor is it enough that we seem to discern the glory of Christ's person, unless we see a beauty and excellency in every grace that is in him." Christologia

"He that would learn the divine nature from the representation that is made of it in the present actings of the nature of man will be gradually led unto the devil instead of God." Christologia

"Those who pretend a great difficulty at present, in reconciling the ETERNAL PERISHING OF THE GREATEST PART OF MANKIND with those notions we have of the divine goodness, seem not to have sufficiently considered what was contained in our original apostasy from God, nor the righteousness of God in dealing with the angels that sinned... Wherefore, as we ought always to admire sovereign grace in the FEW that shall be saved, so we have no ground to reflect on divine goodness in the MULTITUDE that perish, especially considering that they all voluntarily continue in their sin and apostasy." Christologia

"It hath been the design of Satan, in all ages, to contrive presumptuous notions of men's spiritual abilities - to divert their minds from the contemplation of the glory of divine wisdom and grace, as alone exalted in our recovery." Christologia

"Had it been the recovery of angels which Christ designed, he would have taken their nature on him. But this would have been no relief at all unto us, no more than the assuming of our nature is of advantage unto the fallen angels." Christologia

"Such is final unbelief against the proposal of the Gospel. It hath more malignity in it than all other sins whatever." Christologia

"To live in a constant prospect and view of the glory of obedience in the person of Christ, with a sedulous endeavour for conformity thereunto, is the highest attainment of our wisdom in this world; and whosoever is otherwise minded, is so at his own utmost peril." Christologia

"Alas! the light of divine wisdom in the greatest works of nature holds not the proportion of the meanest star unto the sun in its full strength, unto that glory of it which shines in this mystery of GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH, and the work accomplished thereby!" Christologia

"God will not take us into heaven, into the vision and possession of heavenly glory, with our heads and hearts reeking with the thoughts and affections of earthly things." Christologia

"The great design of the wisdom and grace of God, from eternity, was to declare and manifest all the holy, glorious properties of his nature, in and by Jesus Christ." Christologia

"This is the state of them who live in the due exercise of faith - this they pant and breathe after - namely, that they may be delivered from all darkness, unstable thoughts, and imperfect apprehensions of the glory of God in Christ. After these things do those who have received the first-fruits of the Spirit groan within themselves." Christologia

"Our glory shall principally consist in beholding Christ's glory, because the whole glory of God is manifested in him." Christologia

"The glory of heaven consists in the full manifestation of divine wisdom, goodness, grace, holiness - of all the properties of the nature of God in Christ. In the clear perception and constant contemplation hereof consists no small part of eternal blessedness." Christologia

"The temporary sufferings of him who was eternal were a full compensation for the eternal sufferings of them who were temporary." Christologia

"Christ died not for believers as believers, though he died for all believers; but for all the elect as elect, who, by the benefit of his death, do become believers and so obtain assurance that he died for them." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ"

"Should it pass for true what the Scripture affirms, namely, that we are by nature dead in trespasses and sins, there would not be left of the notion of a general ransom a shred to take fire from the hearth. Like the wood of the vine, it would not yield a pin to hang a garment upon." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"If we maintain, then, the glory of God, let us speak in his own language, or be for ever silent. That is glorious in him which he ascribes unto himself. Our inventions, though never so splendid in our own eyes, are unto him an abomination, a striving to pull him down from his eternal excellency, to make him altogether like unto us." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"God would never allow that the will of the creature should be the measure of his honour." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"To me nothing is more certain than that to whom Christ is in any sense a Saviour in the work of redemption, he saves them to the uttermost from all their sins of infidelity and disobedience, with the saving of grace here and glory hereafter." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"God, out of his infinite love to his elect, sent his dear Son in the fullness of time, whom he had promised in the beginning of the world, and made effectual by that promise, to die, pay a ransom of infinite value and dignity, for the purchasing of eternal redemption, and bringing unto himself all and every one of those whom he had before ordained to eternal life, for the praise of his own glory." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"Is it not as easy for a man by his own strength to fulfill the whole law, as to repent and savingly believe the promise of the gospel?" The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"Doth it become the wisdom of God to send Christ to die for men that they might be saved, and never cause these men to hear of any such thing; and yet to purpose and declare that unless they do hear of it and believe it, they shall never be saved?" The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"Commands do not signify what is God's intention should be done, but what is our duty to do; which may be made known to us whether we be able to perform it or not: it signifieth no intention or purpose of God." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"Great as he was, he was not big enough to contend with truth." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"From our duty to God's purpose is no good conclusion, though from his command to our duty be most certain." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

"In a word, to bring reprobates to be objects of free grace, you deny the free grace of God to the elect; and to make it universal, you deny it to be effectual." The Death Of Death In The Death Of Christ

God in our conversion, by the exceeding greatness of his power, as he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, actually worketh faith and repentance to us, gives them unto us, bestows them on us; so that they are mere effects of his grace in us. And his working in us infallibly produceth the effect intended, because it is actual faith that he works, and not only a power to believe." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"He who hath not an immediate and especial work of the Spirit of God upon him and towards him did never receive any especial love, grace, or mercy, from God." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"To say that we have a sufficiency in ourselves so much as to think a good thought, or to do anything as we ought, any power, any ability that is our own, or in us by nature, however externally excited and guided by motives, directions, reasons, encouragements, of what sort soever, to believe or obey the gospel savingly in any one instance, is to overthrow the gospel and the faith of the catholic church in all ages." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"No man comes to a useful, saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in the gospel, but by virtue of an effectual heavenly calling." Works, Vol XVIII, p 467

"That which hath raised all the false religion which is in the world is nothing but a contrivance for the satisfaction of men's consciences under convictions... What is the meaning of the sacrifice of the mass, of purgatory, of pardons, penances, indulgences, abstinences, and the like things innumerable, but only to satisfy conscience by them, perplexed with a sense of sin?... The life and soul of superstition consists in endeavours to quiet and charm the consciences of men convinced of sin." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"There neither is, nor ever was, in the world, nor ever shall be, the least dram of holiness, but what, flowing from Jesus Christ, is communicated by the Spirit, according to the truth and promise of the gospel." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"It is the design of corrupted reason to debase all the glorious mysteries of the gospel, and all the concernments of them. There is nothing in the whole mystery of godliness, from the highest crown of it, which is the person of Christ - GOD MANIFESTED IN THE FLESH - unto the lowest and nearest effect of this grace, but it labors to deprave, dishonor, and debase. The Lord Christ, it would have in his whole person to be but a mere man, in his obedience and suffering to be but an example, in his doctrine to be confined unto the capacity and comprehension of carnal reason, and the holiness which he communicates by the sanctification of his Spirit to be but that moral virtue which is common among men as the fruit of their own endeavors." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"To suppose that moral virtue, whatever it be really in its own nature, or however advanced in the imaginations of men, is that HOLINESS OF TRUTH which believers receive by the Spirit of Christ, is to debase it, to overthrow it, and to drive the souls of men from seeking an interest in it." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"No man, I say, by his mere sight and conduct, can know and understand aright the true nature of evangelical holiness; and it is, therefore, no wonder if the doctrine of it be despised by many as an enthusiastical fancy." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"God's great and first design in and by the gospel is eternally to glorify himself, his wisdom, goodness, love, grace, righteousness, and holiness, by Jesus Christ." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"Mankind generally thought that the principal thing which was required of them in religion was to atone and pacify the wrath of the divine Power, and to make a compensation for what had been done against him. Hence were their sacrifices of hecatombs of beasts, of mankind, of their children, and of themselves... and many an abbey, monastery, college, and almshouse hath it founded; for in the fruits of this superstition, the priests, which set it on work, always shared deeply." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"All attempts or endeavors after works or duties of obedience in any respect satisfactory to God for sin or meritorious of pardon do subvert and overthrow the whole gospel." A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit

"One of the greatest privileges and advancements of believers, both IN THIS WORLD and unto eternity, consists in their BEHOLDING THE GLORY OF CHRIST." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Never was there an age since the name of Christians was known upon the earth, wherein there was such a direct opposition made unto the Person and glory of Christ, as there is in that wherein we live... We now have great numbers who oppose the Person and glory of Christ, under a pretence of sobriety of reason, as they vainly plead." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The beholding of the glory of Christ is one of the greatest privileges and advancements that believers are capable of in this world, or that which is to come... If a man pretend himself to be enamoured on, or greatly to desire, what he never saw, nor was ever represented unto him, he does but dote on his own imaginations. And the pretended desires of many to behold the glory of Christ in heaven, who have no view of it by faith whilst they are here in this world, are nothing but self-deceiving imaginations... Let no man deceive himself: he that hath no sight of the glory of Christ here, shall never have any of it hereafter unto his advantage." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The sight of the glory of Christ is the spring and cause of our everlasting blessedness... Yet is there in true believers a foresight and foretaste of this glorious condition. There enters sometimes, by the Word and Spirit, into their hearts such a sense of the UNCREATED GLORY of God, SHINING FORTH IN CHRIST, as affects and satiates their souls with ineffable joy." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"No man ought to look for anything in heaven, but what one way or other he hath some experience of in this life." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"No man comes to a useful, saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in the gospel, but by virtue of an effectual heavenly calling." Works, Vol XVIII, p 467

"A diligent, attentive consideration of the person, offices, and work of Jesus Christ, is the most effectual means to free the souls of men from all entanglements of errors and darkness, and to keep them constant in the profession of the truth." Works, Vol XVIII, p 468

 "The great end of all Mosaic institutions, was to present, or prefigure, and give testimony unto the grace of the gospel by Jesus Christ." Works, Vol XVIII, p 468

"God is pleased ofttimes to grant great outward means to those in whom he will not work effectually by his grace." Works, Vol XVIII, p 470

"When men have provoked God by their impenitency to decree their punishment irrevocably, they will find severity in the execution." Works, Vol XVIII, p 470

"It is better to have an example than to be made an example of divine displeasure." Works, Vol XVIII, p 475

"The glory of God comprehends both the holy properties of his nature and the counsels of his will; and the light of the knowledge of these things we have only in the face or person of Jesus Christ... Herein is he glorious, in that he is the great representative of the nature of God and his will unto us; which without him would have been eternally hid from us, or been invisible unto us;  we should never have seen God at any time, here nor hereafter... He, and he alone, declares, represents, and makes known, unto angels and men, the essential glory of the invisible God, his attributes and his will; without which, a perpetual comparative darkness would have been on the whole creation, especially that part of it here below." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"This is the foundation of our religion, the Rock whereon the church is built, the ground of all our hopes of salvation, of life and immortality: all is resolved into this - namely, the representation that is made of the nature and will of God in the person and office of Christ. If this fail us, we are lost for ever; if this Rock stand firm, the church is safe here, and shall be triumphant hereafter." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Not to see the wisdom of God, and the power of God, and consequently all the other holy properties of his nature, in Christ, is to be an unbeliever." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"But, alas! the horrible ingratitude of men for the glorious light of the gospel, and the abuse of it, will issue in a sore revenge." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"It is in Christ alone that we may have a clear, distinct view of the glory of God and his excellencies." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"To behold the glory of God is both our privilege and our duty. The duties of the Law were a burden and a yoke; but those of the gospel are privileges and advantages... In the contemplation of this glory consists the principal exercise of faith. And who can declare the glory of this privilege, that we who are born in darkness, and deserved to be cast out into utter darkness, should be translated into this marvellous light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?" Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"To behold the glory of God is both our privilege and our duty... But the most of those who at this day are called Christians are strangers unto this duty... notwithstanding the general profession that is of the knowledge of Christ, they are but few who thus behold his glory; and therefore few who are transformed into his image and likeness." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The angels themselves desire to look into the things of the glory of Christ... And shall we neglect that which is the object of angelical diligence to inquire into; especially considering that we are more than they concerned in it?" Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Nothing is more fully and clearly revealed in the gospel, than that unto us Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God; that he is the character of the person of the Father, so as that in seeing him we see the Father also; that we have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in his face alone, as has been proved. This is the principal fundamental mystery and truth of the Gospel; and which if it be not received, believed, owned, all other truths are useless unto our souls." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The light of faith is given unto us principally to enable us to behold the glory of God in Christ." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"He is no Christian who believes not that faith in the person of Christ is the spring of all evangelical obedience; or who knows not that faith respects the revelation of the glory of God in him." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Beholding of the glory of Christ by beholding the glory of God, and all his holy properties in him, is the greatest privilege whereof in this life we can be made partakers. The dawning of heaven is in it, and the first-fruits of glory; for this is life eternal, to know the Father, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"God himself, in the infinite perfections of his divine nature, is the ultimate object of our faith. But he is not here the immediate object of it... Through Christ we believe in God. By our belief in him we come to place our faith ultimately in God himself; and this we can no otherwise do but by beholding the glory of God in him, as has been declared." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Multitudes begin openly to deny this incarnation of the Son of God, - this personal union of God and man in their distinct natures. They deny that there is either glory or truth in it; and it will ere long appear (it begins already to evidence itself) what greater multitudes there are, who yet do not, who yet dare not, OPENLY reject the doctrine of it, but who in truth believe it not, nor see any glory in it. Howbeit, this glory is the glory of our religion, - the glory of the church, - the sole Rock whereon it is built, - the only spring of present grace and future glory." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Let us get it fixed on our souls and in our minds, that this glory of Christ in the divine constitution of his person is the best, the most noble, useful, beneficial object that we can be conversant about in our thoughts, or cleave unto in our affections." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus is that satisfactory good alone which I desire and seek after." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Some keep their thoughts in continual exercise about the things of this world, as unto the advantages and emoluments which they expect from them. Hereby are they transformed into the image of the world, becoming earthly, carnal, and vain." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"There is no glory in comparison of what is proposed to us in the mysterious constitution of the person of Christ... He who has had a real view of this glory, though he know himself to be a poor, sinful, dying worm of the earth, yet would he not be an angel in heaven, if thereby he should lose the sight of it; for this is the center wherein all the lines of the manifestation of the divine glory do meet and rest." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"This principle is always to be retained in our minds in reading of the Scripture, - namely, that the revelation and doctrine of the person of Christ and his office, is the foundation whereon all other instructions of the prophets and apostles for the edification of the church are built, and whereinto they are resolved." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"This is the glory of the Scripture, that it is the great, yea, the only, outward means of representing unto us the glory of Christ; and he is the sun in the firmament of it, which only hath light in itself, and communicates it unto all other things besides." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"It is impossible that he who never meditates with delight on the glory of Christ here in this world, who labors not to behold it by faith as it is revealed in the Scripture, should ever have any real gracious desire to behold it in heaven." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"It is to no purpose to boast of Christ, if we have not an evidence of his graces in our hearts and lives." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"A great rebuke it ought to be unto us, when Christ has at any time in a day been long out of our minds." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The infinite, essential greatness of the nature of God, with his infinite distance from the nature of all creatures thereby, causeth all his dealings with them to be in the way of condescension or humbling himself... He is so the high and lofty one, and so inhabiteth eternity, or existeth in his own eternal being, that it is an act of mere grace in him to take notice of things below; and therefore he doth it in an especial manner of those whom the world doth most despise." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The whole creation, in all its excellency, cannot contribute one mite unto the satisfaction or blessedness of God. He hath it all in infinite perfection from himself and in his own nature. Our goodness extends not unto him... How glorious, then, is the condescension of the Son of God in his susception of the office of mediation! For if such be the perfection of the divine nature, and its distance so absolutely infinite from the whole creation - and if such be his self-sufficiency unto his own eternal blessedness, as that nothing can be taken from him, nothing added unto him, so that every regard in him unto any of the creatures is an act of self humiliation and condescension from the prerogative of his being and state - what heart can conceive, what tongue can express, the glory of that condescension in the Son of God, whereby he took our nature upon him, took it to be his own, in order unto a discharge of the office of mediation on our behalf?" Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"This condescension of the Son of God did not consist in a laying aside, or parting with, or separation from, the divine nature, so as that he should cease to be God by being man." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"This is his condescension. It is not said that he ceased to be in the form of God; but continuing so to be, he took upon him the form of a servant in our nature: he became what he was not, but he ceased not to be what he was. So he testifieth of himself - No man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, the Son of man which is in heaven. Although he was then on earth as the Son of man, yet he ceased not to be God thereby - in his divine nature he was then also in heaven." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"This, then, is the foundation of the glory of Christ in this condescension, the life and soul of all heavenly truth and mysteries - namely, that the Son of God becoming in time to be what he was not, the Son of man, ceased not thereby to be what he was, even the eternal Son of God." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"What will he not do for us? He who thus emptied and humbled himself, who so infinitely condescended from the prerogative of his glory in his being and self sufficiency, in the susception of our nature for the discharge of the office of a mediator on our behalf - will he not relieve us in all our distresses? will he not do all for us we stand in need of, that we may be eternally saved? will he not be a sanctuary unto us? Nor have we hereon any ground to fear his power; for, by this infinite condescension to be a suffering man, he lost nothing of his power as God omnipotent - nothing of his infinite wisdom or glorious grace. He could still do all that he could do as God from eternity. If there be any thing, therefore, in a coalescence of infinite power with infinite condescension, to constitute a sanctuary for distressed sinners, it is all in Christ Jesus." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Of all the evils which I have seen in the days of my pilgrimage, now drawing to their close, there is none so grievous as the public contempt of the principal mysteries of the Gospel among them that are called Christians." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The principal act of faith respects the DIVINE PERSON of Christ, as all Christians must acknowledge. This we can never secure (as has been declared) if we see not his glory in this condescension: and whoever reduceth his notions unto experience, will find that herein his faith stands or falls. And the principal duty of our obedience is self-denial, with readiness for the cross... And no man doth deny himself in a due manner, who doth it not on the consideration of the self-denial of the Son of God." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The eternal disposing cause of the whole work wherein the Lord Christ was engaged by the susception of this office [of Mediator], for the redemption and salvation of the church, is the love of the Father... And this love of the Father acted itself in his eternal decrees, before the foundation of the world, and afterward in the sending of his Son to render it effectual. Originally, it is his eternal election of a portion of mankind to be brought unto the enjoyment of himself, through the mystery of the blood of Christ, and the sanctification of the Spirit." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"A great part of the blessedness of the saints in heaven, and their triumph therein, consists in their beholding of this glory of Christ." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"He who was in heaven, above all, Lord of all, at the same time lived in the world in a condition of no reputation, and a course of the strictest obedience unto the whole law of God. He unto whom prayer was made, prayed himself night and day. He whom all the angels of heaven and all creatures worshipped, was continually conversant in all the duties of the worship of God. He who was over the house, diligently observed the meanest office of the house. He that made all men, in whose hand they are all as clay in the hand of the potter, observed amongst them the strictest rules of justice, in giving unto every one his due; and of charity, in giving good things that were not so due. This is that which renders the obedience of Christ in the discharge of his office both mysterious and glorious." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Some would reign here in this world... but the members of the mystical body must be conformed unto the Head. In him sufferings went before glory; and so they must in them. The order in the kingdom of Satan and the world is contrary hereunto. First the good things of this life, and then eternal misery, is the method of that kingdom." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Vain and foolish men, having general notions of this glory of Christ, knowing nothing of the real nature of it, have endeavored to represent it in pictures and images, with all that lustre and beauty which the art of painting, with the ornaments of gold and jewels, can give unto them. This is that representation of the present glory of Christ, which, being made and proposed unto the imagination and carnal affections of superstitious persons, carrieth such a show of devotion and veneration in the Papal Church. But they err, not knowing the Scripture, nor the eternal glory of the Son of God." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Hereon our duty it is to call ourselves to an account as unto our endeavor after a gracious view of this glory of Christ: - When did we steadily behold it?" Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"So it is with many. They care neither where Christ is nor what he is, so that one way or other they may be saved by him. They hope, as they pretend, that they shall see him and his glory in heaven, and that they suppose to be time enough; but in vain do they pretend a desire thereof, in vain are their expectations of any such thing. They who endeavor not to behold the glory of Christ in this world, as hath been often said, shall never behold him in glory hereafter." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"All that Moses did in the erection of the tabernacle, and the institution of all its services, was but to give an antecedent testimony by way of representation, unto the things of Christ that were afterward to be revealed." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"After the fall there is nothing spoken of God in the Old Testament, nothing of his institutions, nothing of the way and manner of dealing with the church, but what hath respect unto the future incarnation of Christ." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Nor can we read, study, or meditate on the writings of the Old Testament unto any advantage, unless we design to find out and behold the glory of Christ, declared and represented in them. For want hereof they are a sealed book to many unto this day." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"There was a necessity, upon a supposition of God's decree to save his church, of a translation of punishment, namely, from them who had deserved it, and could not bear it, unto one who had not deserved it, but could bear it." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Antecedently unto all that the Lord Christ did and suffered for the church, there was a supreme act of the will of God the Father, giving all the elect unto him, intrusting them with him, to be redeemed, sanctified, and saved." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Now, where Christ is received by us, he must be tendered, given, granted, or communicated unto us. And this he is by some divine acts of the Father, and some of his own. The foundation of the whole is laid in a sovereign act of the will, the pleasure, the grace of the Father. And this is the order and method of all divine operations in the way and work of grace. They originally proceed all from him; and having effected their ends, do return, rest, and centre in him again." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"God alone has all being in him... In this state of infinite, eternal being and goodness, antecedent unto any act of wisdom or power without himself to give existence unto other things, God was, and is, eternally in himself all that he will be, all that he can be, unto eternity." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The blessedness of God consists in the ineffable mutual in-being of the three holy persons in the same nature, with the immanent reciprocal acting of the Father and the Son in the eternal love and complacency of the Spirit." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"To suppose any other race of intellectual creatures, besides angels in heaven and men on earth, is not only without all countenance from any divine testimony, but it disturbs and disorders the whole representation of the glory of God made unto us in the Scripture, and the whole design of his wisdom and grace, as declared therein. Intellectual creatures not comprehended in that government of God and mystery of his wisdom in Christ which the Scripture reveals, are a chimera framed in the imaginations of some men, scarce duly sensible of what it is to be wise unto sobriety." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"In particular, the Lord Christ is glorious herein, in that the whole breach made on the glory of God in the creation, by the entrance of sin, is hereby repaired and made up... yea, the whole curious frame of the divine creation is rendered more beautiful than it was before." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"God doth not, God cannot, act with more wisdom in one thing than in another; as in the creation of man, than in that of any inanimate creatures... But when the effects of this divine wisdom, in their principal beauty and glory, were defaced, greater treasures of wisdom were required unto their reparation. And in this re-collection of all things in Christ, did God lay them forth unto the utmost of whatever he will do in dealing with his creatures... Herein namely, in the re-collection of all things in Christ, divine wisdom hath made known and represented itself in all its stores and treasures unto angels and men." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"That woeful, cursed invention of framing images of Christ out of stocks and stones, however adorned, or representations of him by the art of painting, are so far from presenting unto the minds of men any thing of his real glory, that nothing can be more effectual to divert their thoughts and apprehensions from it." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Vision, or the sight which we shall have of the glory of Christ in heaven, is immediate, direct, intuitive; and therefore steady, even, and constant... Christ himself, in his own person, with all his glory, shall be continually with us, before us, proposed unto us... There will be use herein of our bodily eyes... Unto whom is it not a matter of rejoicing, that with the same eyes wherewith they see the tokens and signs of him in the sacrament of the supper, they shall behold himself immediately in his own person?" Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The immediate sight of Christ is that which all the saints of God in this life do breathe and pant after. Hence are they willing to be dissolved... that they may enjoy the inexpressibly longed-for sight of Christ in his glory. Those who do not so long for it, whose souls and minds are not frequently visited with earnest desires after it, unto whom the thoughts of it are not their relief in trouble, and their chiefest joy, are carnal, blind, and cannot see afar off. He that is truly spiritual entertains and refresheth himself with thoughts hereof continually." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"God gives a superior, a supernatural light, the light of faith and grace, unto them whom he effectually calls unto the knowledge of himself by Jesus Christ. He shines into their hearts, to give them the knowledge of his glory in the face of his dear Son... But he who has only the former light [of nature] can understand nothing of it, because he has no taste or experience of its power and operations. He may talk of it, and make inquiries about it, but he knows it not." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"The more we grow in faith and spiritual light, the more sensible are we of our present burdens, and the more vehemently do we groan for deliverance into the perfect liberty of the sons of God... The nearer any one is to heaven, the more earnestly he desires to be there, because Christ is there." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Christ is, and shall be to eternity, the only means of communication between God and the church." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Whatever can be manifest of Christ on this side heaven, it is granted unto us for this end, that we may the more fervently desire to be present with him." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"And may we not a little examine ourselves by these things? Do we esteem this pressing towards the perfect view of the glory of Christ to be our duty? and do we abide in the performance of it? If it be otherwise with any of us, it is a signal evidence that our profession is hypocritical." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"I cannot understand how any man can walk with God as he ought, or has that love for Jesus Christ which true faith will produce, or doth place his refreshments and joy in spiritual things, in things above, that doth not on all just occasions so meditate on the glory of Christ in heaven as to long for an admittance into the immediate sight of it." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"Although no man can do any thing of himself for the receiving of Christ and the beholding of his glory, without the especial aid of the grace of God, yet some may make more opposition unto believing, and lay more hindrances in their own way, than others; which is done by their lusts and corruptions." Meditations And Discourses On The Glory Of Christ - Part I

"In the view of the glory of Christ which we have by faith, it will fill the mind with thoughts and meditations about him, whereon the affections will cleave unto him with delight... It is not possible, I say, that we shou