The Acceptable Sacrifice
by John Bunyan
John Bunyan's final work, an exposition of Psalm 51:17 on why a broken and contrite heart is the sacrifice God will not despise. Carried in manuscript to London shortly before his death, it unfolds the nature, marks, and effects of a contrite spirit, showing brokenness to be the gateway to grace.
Based on The Acceptable Sacrifice: or, The Excellency of a Broken Heart (1688), by John Bunyan
Puritan quotes
Quotes by John Bunyan
“You know wounds will stink: but [there is] no stink like that of sin to the broken-hearted man.”
“Sinner, hast thou obtained a broken heart? has God bestowed a contrite spirit upon thee?”
“For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.”
“The heart, as it is by nature hard, stupid, and impenetrable, so it remains, and so will remain, until God, as was said, bruiseth it with his hammer, and melts it with his fire.”
“And thus it is with the broken-hearted; he needs, and God has prepared for him plenty of the comforts and cordials of heaven, to succour and relieve his sinking soul.”
“And now God has overcome, and his right hand and his holy arm has gotten him the victory.”
“I will take away the stony heart, or the stoniness, or the hardness of your heart, and I will give you a heart of flesh; that is, I will make your heart sensible, soft, wieldable, governable, and penitent.”
“That is, the foolishness of some men, is that they take pleasure in their sins; for their sins are their foolishness, and the folly of their soul lies in their countenancing of this foolishness.”
“Sometimes Satan makes use of a good man's bad ways, to spoil and harden the heart of them that come after.”
“He that mourns not now, while the door of mercy is open, must mourn for sin when the door of mercy is shut.”
