Ezekiel Hopkins Quotes

“The first possession that we take of this world, is by crying: and there is nothing in it, that we hold by a surer tenure than our griefs.”

“Now, though Christ's obedience be the principal, and our faith the secondary condition; yet, usually, in propounding the Covenant of Grace, the former is silenced, and the latter only mentioned.”

“The Vanity of the World appears in this, THAT IT CAN STAND US IN NO STEAD, THEN WHEN WE HAVE THE GREATEST NEED OF SUPPORT AND COMFORT .”

“Therefore, ALL THE VANITY, THAT IS IN WORLDLY THINGS, IS ONLY IN RESPECT OF THE SIN AND FOLLY OF MAN.”

“And, thus to lay out, is to lay up, to lay up uncertain riches in a safe repository: God's promises shall be thy security, and every star in heaven a seal set upon the treasury-door, which none can break or violate.”

“But, when we are anxious how our designs will succeed, we make it a torment to us in getting, before we can make it a comfort to us in enjoying.”

“To what purpose, then, dost thou, O Worldling, rack thy brains with contrivances, how to fill thy bags with treasure, how to empty them out with advantage?”

“Thy own conscience, that tells thee thou hast sinned, summons thee before the great and righteous Judge, who demands full satisfaction for the violation of his laws, and thy offences committed against him.”

“Thy lands, thy houses, and fair estate, are but pictures of things.”

“They take great pains in the World, and meet with great disappointments: for both are signified by labouring in the fire; where what they produce cannot be enjoyed, but is consumed between their hands.”

“Now that is no righteousness, which doth not fully answer the law which is the rule of it: for the least defect destroys its nature, and turns it into unrighteousness.”

“This Covenant of Grace is propounded to us, upon a supposed impossibility of obtaining Righteousness and Justification according to the terms of the Covenant of Works.”

“All they see is their own; and all their own is most excellent.”

“What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

“The truth is, the world is much better in shew than substance: and those very things we admire before we enjoy them, yet afterward we find much less in them than we expected.”

“That is the grace, which God hath purposed to honour with our Justification.”

“The lusts of the eye, are riches; so called, because their greatest serviceableness is only to make a glittering and dazzling shew.”

“Have we not all of us precious and immortal Souls, capable and desirous of happiness?”

“The threatening runs thus: In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die: and yet we read that Adam lived nine hundred years, and more, after this peremptory sentence.”

“What a sad parting-hour will it be to the soul, when it must go into another world, and leave all that it admired and loved, behind in this!”

“For those things are said to be vain, which neither do nor can perform what we expect from them.”

“In the state of innocence, God suited the power of his creature to the law which he intended to give him; and made his obligation to duty commensurate with his ability to perform it. 4.”

“But this satisfaction to divine justice is not to be wrought out by believers themselves; and, therefore, whatsoever they suffer is not strictly punishment.”

“This is to lay up a stock for hereafter, that thou mayest have whereon to live splendidly and gloriously to all eternity.”

“When we change our outward condition, be it to never so great advantage, we do not lose, but only change our cares.”

“The lusts of the flesh, are the pleasures of the world; which are all of them suited to gratify the sensual and fleshly part of man.”

“And the reason of this unsatisfactoriness in worldly things, is, because none of them are so good as the soul is.”

“There be two seasons especially, in which the soul wants relief and comfort: and they are, in Trouble of Conscience, and at the Hour of Death.”

“The only difference between them and us consists in this, that they saw the Sun of Righteousness under a cloud; we, openly: they, by its reflection; we, directly.”

“All the comforts of it are but like fading flowers, that, while we are looking on them and smelling to them, die and wither in our hands.”