Puritan quotes on
Grace
331 quotes
“Mercy is not like the sun to the fire, to dull it, but like the oil to the wheel, to make it run faster.”
“Surely, there is not a greater sign of a man ripe for hell, than this, not only to lack grace, but to hate it.”
“God so calls as He allures; He does not force, but draw. The freedom of the will is not taken away, but the stubbornness of it is conquered. ‘Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power’ (Psalm 110:3).”
“In this world there is a door of hope, a day, an offer, and means of grace, space for repentance, a Mediator in Heaven a patient God.”
“Seeing that we deserve nothing, we should be content with, and thankful for anything!”
“How men pervert the Gospel, turn grace into wantonness, and sin abundantly because grace abounds!”
“Whatever motive induces Christ to love you, it was not drawn from yourselves, but it was drawn from His own affectionate heart!”
“Christ loved you with the freest love; there is nothing in yourselves to draw and engage His love.”
“Self-emptiness prepares us for spiritual fullness.”
“See a flame in a spark, a tree in a seed. See great things in little beginnings.”
“Christ does not choose you because you are good, but to make you good.”
“In the godly, holy truths are conveyed by way of a taste; gracious men have a spiritual palate as well as a spiritual eye. Grace alters the spiritual taste.”
“God knows we have nothing of ourselves, therefore in the covenant of grace he requires no more than he gives, but gives what he requires, and accepts what he gives.”
“We preach and pray, and you hear; but there is no motion Christ-ward until the Spirit of God blows upon them.”
“He is bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, a garment to the naked, healing to the wounded; and whatever a soul can desire is found in Him.”
“All the tears of a penitent sinner, should he shed as many as there have been fallen drops of rain since the creation, cannot wash away one sin.”
“Grace makes the promise and providence the payment.”
“But now in the Gospel we are freed from impossibilities.”
“If there was anything of man's bringing, which was not of God's bestowing, though it were never so small, it would overturn the nature of grace, and make that of works which is of grace.”
“Converting grace puts God on the throne, and the world at His footstool; Christ in the heart, and the world under His feet.”
“It is one thing to have sin alarmed only by convictions, and another to have it crucified by converting grace.”
“Now in the Gospel we are freed from impossibilities.”
“Never was a sinner qualified for Christ. He is well qualified for us.”
“Conversion is a work above man's power... a resurrection from the dead, a new creation.”
“A man may as well hew marble without tools, or paint without colors or instruments, or build without materials, as perform any acceptable service without the graces of the Spirit, which are both the materials and instruments in the work.”
“If men have but an appetite, they have it; for they are 'blessed that hunger after righteousness.' If you will, you are welcome.”
“It is a coming on our part, and yet a drawing on his part.”
“Free grace will fix those, whom free will shook down into a gulph of misery.”
“The natural man cannot but resist the Lord's offering to help him; yet that resistance is infallibly overcome in the elect, by converting grace.”
“No work nor deed of ours whatsoever, no not faith itself, can be the condition of the covenant of grace properly so called; but only Christ's fulfilling all righteousness.”
“And the soul is never cured of this disease, until conquering grace brings it back to take up its everlasting rest in God through Christ.”
“He chose us not because we were lovely, but that He might make us lovely.”
“Repentance is a flower which does not grow in nature's garden.”
“A man there was, and they called him mad; the more he gave, the more he had.”
“Christians are like the several flowers in a garden that have each of them the dew of heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall at each other's roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of each other.”
“Millions of hells of sinners cannot come near to exhaust infinite grace.”
“There is as much in our Lord's pantry as will satisfy all his children and as much wine in his cellar as will quench all their thirst.”
“Grace will ever speak for itself and be fruitful in well-doing; the sanctified cross is a fruitful tree.”
“Grace grows best in winter.”
“To sin because mercy abounds, is the devil's logic.”
“Satan doth not tempt God's children because they have sin in them, but because they have grace in them.”
“Repentance is a pure gospel grace. The covenant of works admitted no repentance; there it was, sin and die.”
“Let us then ascribe the whole work of grace to the pleasure of God's Will. God did not choose us because we were worthy, but by choosing us He makes us worthy.”
“God does not justify us because we are worthy, but by justifying us makes us worthy.”
“If God should show mercy only to such as deserve it, he must show mercy to none.”
“I have a great need for Christ: I have a great Christ for my need.”
“Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have always met with will, either led captive by sin or held in the blessed bonds of grace.”
“The saints shall persevere in holiness, because God perseveres in grace.”
“You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing.”
“None but God would ever have thought of justifying me. I am a wonder to myself.”
“Humility makes us ready to be blessed by the God of all grace.”
“Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven.”
“Salvation is all of grace, which means, free, gratis, for nothing.”
“A whetstone, though it cannot cut, may sharpen a knife that will.”
“He comes, not because we are just, but to make us so: he justifieth the ungodly.”
“Never go hungry while the daily bread of grace is on the table of mercy.”
“I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving.”
“The more grace we have, the less we shall think of ourselves, for grace, like light, reveals our impurity.”
“God does not need your strength; He has more than enough power of His own! He asks for your weakness.”
“Morning dawns when the grace overcomes nature.”
“Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist of sin.”
“All men are negligent of their souls till grace gives them reason.”
“Faith is as much the gift of God as is the Saviour upon whom that faith relies.”
“Faith is the work of God's grace in us. No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost.”
“The grace that does not change my life will not save my soul.”
“You never require a teacher to lead you into the wrong path, but you do require a kindly word to conduct you aright.”
“Backward we are naturally to all good things, and it is a lesson of grace to learn to go forward in the ways of God.”
“The higher a man is in grace, the lower he will be in his own esteem.”
“I am throwing all my good works overboard, and lashing myself to the plank of free grace; for I hope to swim to glory on it.”
“God hath in Himself all power to defend you, all wisdom to direct you, all mercy to pardon you, all grace to enrich you, all righteousness to clothe you, all goodness to supply you, and all happiness to crown you.”
“It is not he who knows most, nor he who hears most, nor yet he who talks most, but he who exercises grace most, who has most communion with God.”
“To repent of sin is as great a mark of grace as not to sin.”
“Grace and glory differ very little; the one is the seed, the other is the flower; grace is glory militant, glory is grace triumphant.”
“Faith is the champion of Grace, and Love the nurse; but Humility is the beauty of Grace.”
“Sin is hell, grace is heaven; what madness it is to look more at hell than heaven.”
“There is no such way to attain to greater measures of grace, as for a man to live up to that little grace he has.”
“You can never make a ship go steady by propping it outside; you know there must be ballast within the ship to make it go steady. So there is nothing outside us that can keep our hearts in a steady, constant way, but grace within the soul.”
“I beseech you to consider that God does not deal by you as you deal with him.”
“What is the cause of all God's purposes towards us? Himself. There is no other cause.”
“Moreover, as God respects no persons, so He respects no conditions upon which He gives salvation to us.”
“Love descends better than ascends, and so does the love of Christ, who indeed is love itself, and therefore comes down to us himself.”
“Whoever has a seed time of grace pass over his soul, shall have his harvest time also of joy.”
“The grace you have will soon be less, if you add not more to it.”
“Grace is of a stirring nature, and not such a dead thing, like an image, which you may lock up in a chest; no, grace will show itself.”
“How can God stoop lower than to come and dwell with a poor humble soul? For a beggar to live at court, is not so much as the king to dwell with him in his cottage.”
“The grace of God will never want, for it can, and will furnish, defenders of it.”
“We must, in ourselves, be like the wounded man that lay in the road, that Christ Jesus the true Samaritan may come by us to dress our wounds, and to power his own precious blood into our souls.”
“Christ's blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls.”
“He works in us and with us, not against us or without us; so that his assistance is an encouragement to the facilitating of the work, and no occasion of neglect as to the work itself.”
“For sinners to have fellowship with the infinitely holy God is truly astonishing.”
“To those to whom Christ is the hope of future glory, he is also the life of present grace.”
“There is an infinite distance between God and His creatures, and it is an act of sheer grace for Him to take notice of earthly things.”
“We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a persuasion that we have none of our own.”
“Had not God set forth the Lord Christ, all the angels in heaven and men on earth could not have apprehended that there had been any such thing in the nature of God as this grace of pardoning mercy.”
“To save sinners through believing, shall be found to be a far more admirable work than to create the world of nothing.”
“Gold does but enrich the mortal part, grace the angelic part.”
“It is not greatness but grace, it is not riches but righteousness, it is not outward pomp or splendor—but holiness, that can overawe the vain spirits of men.”
“That it pleases God to accept the will for the deed is one of the privileges of the saints that comes by the covenant of grace.”
“That you are on this side the torments of the damned, not beyond praying, and hearing, and hoping, is all through Christ's securing for you longer time.”
“We see that God did not only pardon David but, after much bruising, gave him wise Solomon to succeed him in the kingdom.”
“God lets men run on so far in sin, that they do unman themselves, that he may proclaim to all the world that we are unable to do anything of ourselves at first towards our recovery without a superior principle.”
“As in a building, some bring stones, some timber, some perhaps bring only nails; yet all these are useful, these all serve to fasten the work in the building.”
“He loves all, and gives outward benefits to all, but to me he hath given himself, so love I him.”
“Not a foot has any soul ever advanced to God, till God had advanced to him, and drawn him.”
“He loved them when they were polluted in their sins, and washed them with His own blood; He loved them when they were naked in their souls, and clothed them with robes of His righteousness.”
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God," and all the immunities and blessings of a present sonship are ours.”
“Say not, Now I have grace enough, and health enough; but as that great Apostle, ‘Not as if I had as yet attained,’ for indeed thou hast not; still ‘press forward’ to have more virtue from Christ.”
“We have our grace and glory by measure, but Christ had the Spirit without measure.”
“Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” Not one soul would be saved if left to his own will.”
“That the dispensation of goodness and forbearance which the world was set under by the first promise , was now ratified by a solemn covenant .”
“By the very contemplation of the mercies of God in Christ, and his inviting them to receive them, the Spirit of God will be wrought in the soul, whereby they may have confidence to come to God as a Father.”
“If you find not the smartness of the gospel, and the doctrine of grace laying this restraint upon the heart, ye are yet in your sins.”
“There is one way of obtaining the full assurance of hope, which is almost always successful—it is, by growing in grace.”
“If you are not so much as smoking flax, then why do you not renounce your interest in Christ, and disclaim the covenant of grace?”
“Sinners may plead for grace upon the account of God's glory, viz., the glory God will have by it.”
“You are not worthy of having a piece of bread to put in your mouth, nor a thread to cover your skin.”
“Here is relief commensurate with all the need of all poor sin-sick souls.”
“When any child of man arises from the death of sin, and blooms in grace, God has arisen with divine almightiness.”
“God can send forth his Spirit when he pleases, and give all our churches and professors a new face, in the verdure and flourishing of his grace in them.”
“All that 'mercy' can do for us as 'sinners,' and all that 'grace' can do for us as 'needy ones,' are here set before us.”
“He does not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax.”
“They are likely to hold out best in temptation, who have most grace—and God gives more grace to the humble.”
“But, for their comfort, here is abundance, abundance of grace, a river, a deep river of the water of life, for them to drink of.”
“You who, like the wise virgins, are not satisfied with the lamp of a profession, but are buying oil for your vessels, while the market of grace is standing.”
“And what is faith but the "gift of God," and the work of the eternal Spirit in the soul?”
“Whilst the things of grace are a wonder to a man, as at first they are, presumption joins and ekes out faith.”
“You value the things (every one of them) which God hath given us; then value the Spirit much more, who is the author of the most, and discoverer of them all.”
“See what a great work grace is, what a distance there is between nature and faith.”
“Will you not be made clean?" "As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.”
“He wanted to make known the heights and depths of His love, and nothing except the depths of our misery could have drawn them out.”
“It is of mercy that we still live and have opportunities of glorifying God for that free grace by which we live, and for that loving-kindness which endures forever.”
“Think, then, of the cross and his rich mercy, his free, immeasurable, everlasting mercy, whose blood makes the foulest clean.”
“It is his Spirit who actuates and enlivens, and applies that knowledge and strength we have, or else it fails and lies useless in us.”
“Abundant gifts in ages past still leave abundant gifts for present and for future days.”
“All the monarchs and princes on earth have not that excellency in them that one poor child or servant has that is gracious, and belongs to God.”
“So that our seeking of God is not only a duty, and beneficial to us, but it is a high privilege purchased by the blood of Christ.”
“Tell me, O Christians, are not the gifts which Christ has conferred upon you, special gifts?”
“O let heaven and earth stand amazed at the condescension of the Bridegroom, and the folly of sinners in refusing such a match!”
“How, to the life, doth he explain the mercy of God, and the misery of man, in the lost sheep, in the lost groat, in the lost son!”
“But the reward is wholly of grace to us, as it is of debt unto Christ; for "to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," ver. 5.”
“His intercession is the spring that puts all the wheels in motion, that are set a-going, in the time of loves, for bringing one out of the state of nature, into a state of grace.”
“And David the king came and sat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hither?”
“The justified sinner is every moment dependent on his Saviour, without whom he can do nothing.”
“But if we have this for a foundation truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us, there can be no danger in thorough dealing.”
“Obstinate spirits show that they are not so much as smoking flax.”
“As when a physician comes into an house where many are sick, and cures one that is desperate, it is an encouragement to the rest to rely upon his skill.”
“As in nature, clouds screen the sun—and storms descend—and tempests rage—and hurricanes sweep fearfully—and rapid changes come—so is it in the life of grace.”
“While faithful lips abound in prayer, and send forth songs of praise, and tell in gladsome strains the wonders of redeeming grace; what are the sinner's sounds?”
“Grace teaches us how to make a mixture of gracious joy and gracious sorrow together—how to moderate and order an affliction so that there shall be a sense of it, and yet for all that contentment under it. 1.”
“Be strong in this grace;” keep fast hold of it: it is all to you.”
“But is not this great grace, that we should thus be called upon to come to God for mercy?”
“Common or general grace consists in the external revelation of the will of God by his word, with some illumination of the mind to perceive it, and a correction of affections not to contemn it too much.”
“God therefore hath reserved the best excellencies for the time to come, in promises and in his word, if we have grace to depend upon his word, and in the mean time go on and cross our corruptions.”
“Nay saith God, I will not stand so much upon the purification of the Sanctuary if they have prepared their hearts to seek me.”
“But the greater is the mercy of God, the more years ye get to advise, upon what terms, and upon what conditions, ye cast your soul in the huge gulf of never-ending eternity.”
“It is nature that causes the one kind of nobility, but it is the grace of God, a sparkle of the divine nature, a ray of the very glory of God himself, shining into the soul, that is the cause of the other.”
“Christ is a Covenant-Head, the Head of the Covenant of Grace.”
“In the law, he who could not bring a lamb for an offering, if he brought but two turtledoves, it sufficed.”
“He loved thee when thou hadst razed out in a great measure his image and picture which he had set in thy soul, will he hate thee now since he has restored that image, and drawn it with fresh colours?”
“When a father bids his child lift a heavy object—and the child is not able—but tries, and does his best, the father accepts it as if he had done it.”
“God always hides saving knowledge from the "wise and prudent." That which we learn by our unaided faculties—puffs up and blinds the mind.”
“If there be any pardon with God,” says one of another age, “ it is such as becomes him to give.”
“There is the door of faith, the door which the grace of God hath opened to the Gentiles.”
“If a man were going to poison or drown himself, would he not be his friend who should hinder hint from doing it?”
“Or is his grace so far gone, and so near spent, that now he has not enough to pardon, and secure, and save one sinner more?”
“The more grace acts in the soul— the more sin withers and dies in the soul.”
“This water admits no mixture—it is pure and perfect as its origin—free as the air we breathe to sustain life.”
“They desire flesh, and receive quails; they beg bread, and have manna.”
“And as moral virtues fit persons to have communion with men, so grace only qualifies men to have communion with Christ and saints. 4.”
“The presentation of truth, however forcible and clear, even though that truth were the grace of God, will only exasperate the unconverted man.”
“If we will be any thing in ourselves, faith tells us then it is nothing to us; for it only fills them that are empty, and makes them all by grace who are nothing by self.”
“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.”
“Shall a man think by a penny to merit a thousand pounds; by a little performance to merit things that are above the conceit of men and angels?”
“Oh, the infinite wisdom and power of God—which has pardoned, washed, sanctified, and cleansed such guilty, filthy, and polluted souls!”
“There are an abundance of sermons in vain when only goods things are commended to people, and they are taught what they should do, but not the way how , and the manner , and where they should have strength to do it.”
“When He first looked on me, I was saved; it cost Him but a look to make hell quit of me!”
“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.”
“As the tree in winter, though it has lost its leaves and fruit—yet there is sap in the root; so in the winter of desertion there is the sap of grace in the root of the heart.”
“Some must be `pulled out of the fire' (Jude 23) with violence, and they will bless God for us in the day of their visitation.”
“In the morning, we often see clouds gather about the sun, as if they would hide it, but the sun overcomes them little by little, till it comes to its full strength.”
“No; dunghill sinners take heaven by violence, while the proud pharisees lose it by their own righteousness.”
“If he made thee to differ from others in the enjoyment of his mercy, do thou also differ from others in the sounding of his praise.”
“It is some strength to polish a rough stone taken out of the quarry, and hew it into the statue of a great prince; but more to make this statue a living man.”
“For what is grace, but love looking with favor on undeserving worms—on lost ones, whose whole desert is punishment—on criminals, whose silent lips can urge no plea— whose downcast heads confess deep guilt.”
“Can we bless God enough if we have been rescued from such dreadful doom, and if the heart of enmity has been taken from us, and the heart of love and praise bestowed?”
“In all things let us, with confession of our wants, have an eye unto his fulness, and then we shall find the more of his abundance, when we set not upon these duties in our own strength only.”
“His strength was dried up like a potsherd, that we might be strong in the Lord.”
“Only, if thou wouldst drink it, drink it by itself, and that thou mayest not be deceived by that which is counterfeit, know it is as it comes from the hand of our Lord, without mixture, pure and clear as crystal.”
“Free grace loves to be treated according to the fulness of its own freeness, and the extent of its own freeness.”
“That blood, by covering his sins, brings pardon--pardon to anyone who is willing to take pardon in this way from God.”
“For unmerited love; i. e., love exercised towards the undeserving.”
“It is that which is the principle of eternal life, wherever it is, it is that which will grow up to eternal glory.”
“The second remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That there is nothing in the world that so provokes God to be wroth and angry, as men's taking encouragement from God's goodness and mercy—to do wickedly.”
“What was there in thy former life, but misery, to move God to shew mercy to thee?”
“I saw that God would be perfectly just in sending me to hell, and that to hell I must go, unless I were saved of mere grace, and, as it were, in spite of myself.”
“God feeds the sinner, keeps off evils from him, bemiracles him with mercy; but the sinner not only forgets God’s mercies, but abuses them.”
“Again, You have the seeds of all corruptions in you; and is there any way to be rid of every sin—but by thriving in every grace?”
“How worthy of such an infinite Fountain of love and grace is His "unspeakable gift." It came from a large heart; and the heart that gave Jesus will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly.”
“Now this hath God done for us, without us, in this choice of his Christ and our Lord.”
“If grace wrought in us be the perfect curing and healing of corruption, then if flesh be a corrupt principle inherent, so must grace likewise be an inherent principle.”
“We are all under the sanctions of the covenant of works, and we are in desperate need of a covenant of grace.”
“This is the result of the application of the blood to those who were 'blacker than the coal,' redder than crimson.”
“That is the grace, which God hath purposed to honour with our Justification.”
“Take a good Christian at the worst, he is better than another at the best.”
“There is but one answer, Grace, grace, free grace, has done it all.”
“It is not spitting at Satan's name, nor crossing yourselves, nor leaning to your own resolutions, that will get you the victory.”
“And then yet further, know, that through the righteousness of Christ, thou art looked upon thy self, in the point of Justification, without spot too.”
“Though aggravating circumstances be never so many, yet he will multiply his mercies as fast as thou canst the sins thou hast committed.”
“Now, God can create a new spiritual eye to discern of spiritual things, which a natural eye cannot.”
“A blessing God—a blessing Savior—a blessing Spirit are at hand.”
“It showed the price all paid—the wrath removed—the curse endured—the flock all free.”
“It is as if a physician prescribed a good remedy—but the patient would not take it.”
“This is that garment that covereth all his body mystical, and that hideth the blemishes of such members from the eye of God, and of the law.”
“Labor for much of the Holy Spirit ; labor for much of the light of the Spirit.”
“This river proceeds out of the throne, and so, as to its rise, it is special; it is also called the water of life, and as it is such, it is special; but as it is a river it is common, and of common use, and for common good.”
“If thou hast one grace, thou hast all, and all gracious privileges together therewith; even all the things that belong to life and godliness; all the promises of this life and that to come.”
“The father of the prodigal was the forwarder of the two to that joyful meeting.”
“Immediately after the fall God gave to Adam the promise of redemption.”
“As receiving Christ passively, the sinner that was spiritually dead, is quickened; so being quickened, he receives Christ actively.”
“Innocent Adam had a larger stock of inherent grace than any of the saints in this life, and yet he lost it.”
“Love is the everlasting grace which shall abide and be in use and exercise, when the actings of other graces shall cease.”
“His merit covers all our defects, and his intercession recommends us unto God.”
“The riches of a believer stands in the poverty of Christ; and every true believer counts Christ's poverty his riches.”
“We love gold in the ore, though it has some drossiness in it.”
“In weakness of body some think grace dies, because their performances are feeble, their spirits, which are the instruments of their souls' actions, being weakened.”
“For such black spots which mercy wears upon its face, makes it appear more beautiful.”
“If part of his merits be enough to save ten thousand damned souls in hell, if they had applied it, is it not enough to satisfy God for thy sins, which are far less?”
“He justified thee when thou wert ungodly, and will he cast thee off since he hath been at such pains about thee, and written in thee a counterpart of his own divine nature in the work of grace?”
“His person is the great vessel of fullness, in which is contained all that is needed by the neediest of souls.”
“Or it is as if one should ride a tired horse; there is a bridle to direct, and a spur to put him on, but the rider giveth no strength for the horse to travel with.”
“If the sins of the godly be mentioned at the day of judgment, it will not be to shame them, but to magnify the riches of God's grace in pardoning them.”
“And what do you have that you did not receive?” Everything that makes us different from others is received from God.”
“But Christ brings us another name, in which there is the forgiveness of sins, that for His sake sins are remitted and pardoned.”
“We would not yield to all the passages of salvation; but when he was beforehand with us, and offered many sweet motions, yet we loved our sins better than our souls, and so repelled all.”
“For from this, that God is our God, cometh all that we have that is good in nature and grace.”
“Be thy guilt never so great, if thou wilt come into covenant with God, here is mercy for thee, and therefore make this use of it.”
“Let no sinner be dismayed by the atrocity and heinousness of sins past, from coming unto Jesus Christ for remission and peace.”
“The converting grace of God has achieved the wondrous revolution.”
“Strike in with the season of grace, and come away with the deliverer upon the gracious proclamation.”
“Christ first comes in the heart by grace, and then the soul, having tasted the sweetness of it, longs for another coming.”
“The treasures of a saint are the presence of God, the favor of God, union and communion with God, the pardon of sin, the joy of the Spirit, and the peace of conscience.”
“I can assure you, that a blameless conversation hath been a great temptation to a great many to undervalue the grace of God, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ.”
“In the course of our life, after we are in a state of grace, if we are overtaken with any sin, we must remember to have recourse first to Christ's mercy to pardon us, and then to the promise of his Spirit to govern us. 3.”
“It is so free and so rich love, that I am not able to declare it.”
“Were you indeed to stand in your own strength, you might fall away.”
“Grace had made up the breach ; but it had done so in a way which continued to remind him that nothing but grace could have done it.”
“Thus a mere natural conscience will be partial in its actings, when grace and a sanctified conscience will not do thus, but urgeth the law indifferently, and judgeth impartially, and will let no sin escape.”
“It is evident, then, that men may labour to walk with God, and yet stumble and fall, for want of this humbling themselves to the law of his grace.”
“He did not respond to the call of Christ until after he had been made alive.”
“I have nothing to do with Christ, nor he with me; for I am a sinner, a lost sinner." Nay, upon that very ground there is a relation between him and you.”
“There’s nothing which will make the spiritual heart of a father or mother more willing to depart from this world, than to find grace wrought in their children.”
“Holy ancestry does not insure it, pious parentage does not convey it, human eloquence does not inspire it, moral persuasion does not produce it.”
“The same Spirit who enlightens the mind inspires gracious inclinations into the will and affections and infuses strength into the whole man.”
“He is the fountain of life, strength, grace and comfort—and of his fullness his children receive according to their needs.”
“God had been with him in Eden, and he was still with him when expelled from it.”
“Lay up this truth, feed upon this honey-comb. [2.] Secondly, Get this principle rooted upon your hearts, namely, That none ever yet obtained an interest in Christ but unworthy creatures.”
“The grace of God is compared to a river, perhaps to show of what a low esteem it is with the rich and the full.”
“For thus was Isaac the child of promise in that he was born to Abraham, not by the strength of nature, but by God’s promise.”
“Without his influences, we can no more move heavenward than we can sail a ship without wind.”
“But grace weighs heavier than gold; gold draws the heart from God, grace draws the heart to God.”
“Why did He choose faith of all graces by which to save a man?”
“GRACE, that teacheth us to deny ungodliness, doth also teach us to deny worldly lusts.”
“Many, so far as in us lies, are lost for want of encouragement.”
“For by raising any soul from a death in sin, God doth evidence the particular value of Christ's blood for that soul, as he did, in raising Christ, evidence the general fulness of that satisfaction.”
“Man is but an empty vessel who must obtain his fulfillment from elsewhere—from a source external to himself.”
“Grace finds at Calvary an open door, and free opportunity to enter on this noble work.”
“As your sins are nearest to yourselves, so are your graces; and as you know more evil by yourselves than others know, so you know more good by yourselves.”
“The Lamb, then, is he from whom, by, or through whom the grace of God doth come to us.”
“Oh, there is more real value in one ray of the Spirit's light, beaming in upon a man's soul, than in all the teaching which books can ever impart!”
“There is such a power and efficacy in the blood of Christ, as is sufficient to cleanse all sorts of sinners from all sorts of sins.”
“In short, what is there in the whole Christian life which I cannot do of myself, if I can begin this career without help from God?”
“To him whose sin is thus 'covered' by the blood, God is propitious.”
“Do not we see daily under the ordinance of God by weak men, the blind see, the spiritually deaf hear, the spiritually dumb be able to speak, to pray to God; the dead, those that are dead in sin, they receive life.”
“He has promised that He will "beautify the meek with salvation;" and if the garments of salvation will not beautify, what will?”
“I answer briefly, that God doth always begin to us, and is beforehand with us in all dealings with ourselves.”
“Even the world of NATURE seems to him as a new-born creation now that he has passed from death unto life.”
“Let us therefore, with the prodigal, return unto him, and we shall find ease and rest.”
“I believe that no man can be justified by his works before God in the slightest possible degree.”
“This is the most certain truth, that God graciously pardons those sins to his people—that he will not in this life fully subdue in his people.”
“Riches of grace, exceeding riches of grace, abundant grace, riches of glory, unsearchable riches of grace.”
“Scribes and doctors continue devils in the chair, while harlots commence saints from the stews, and the thief proceeds a convert on the cross.”
“Without man's money and self's aid, the payment is all paid by the grand Surety, Christ.”
“It is to the point of departure and of variance that God brings the sinner back.”
“Though this kingdom is given us freely—yet Christ bought it with the price of his blood; which is a heaven procuring blood.”
“Nay, more still, that inner sanctuary has been also sprinkled with blood, so that a sinner may go in and worship there with safety to himself, and without defiling the sacred floor and walls.”
“Wherefore it is said expressly, 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' By this one word, down goes all carnal privilege of being born of flesh and blood, and of the will of man.”
“As you first cleanse the vessel, and then pour in the wine; so God first cleanses us by sanctification, and then pours in the wine of glory.”
“Nothing has that majesty and commanding greatness in and upon the hearts of the sons of men as has the grace of God.”
“The Gospel is glad tidings of Christ, it is the message of His grace, the proclamation of His love to lost sinners.”
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And Oh, how easy it is to be saved when the Holy Spirit draws the heart to Christ!”
“When the vessel is empty, it will receive more of the ocean.”
“Such a thing is grace and love: all the excellencies in God are ordained to be the object, the fuel of it; yet it can neither consume, nor be consumed, but abounds still yet more and more.”
“God’s promises and the saints’ prayers in the holy Scripture seem to intend a grace that would give us a real internal ability to do what is spiritually good.”
“Wherefore there is in him such a fulness of the Spirit of holiness, as is, by the infinite efficacy thereof sufficient to sanctify the whole family of Adam, and even the worst of them.”
“I say again, that this righteousness must be imputed first, that the sinner may stand just in God's sight from the curse, and that God might deal with him both in a way of justice as well as mercy, and yet do the sinner no harm.”
“When the father is father of a child, the father will not cast away the child for breaking out with deformity or lameness.”
“There are some graces suitable especially to our state of imperfection in this world.”
“He refuses none who come to Him for salvation, however unworthy they may be.”
“Though he will graciously tend and maintain the least spark of true grace, yet where he finds not the spark of grace but opposition to his Spirit striving with them, his wrath, once kindled, shall burn to hell.”
“The name of our God.—'The God of all grace.' Not only is He the gracious God, but emphatically He is the God of grace, nay, the God of all grace.”
“Even as a king that loveth his favourite, if any one comes to accuse him, it provokes him—his love doth—so much the more not only to pardon him, but to shew his love to him.”
“That popish conceit deprives a man of the true comfort of the Spirit in this work of mercy; none but Christ by His obedience could ever merit at God’s hands.”
“This conversion is not only of grace, nor only of will, but partly of grace and partly of will; yet so as grace is the principal agent, and will but the instrument of grace.”
“He takes the poor from the ash-heap, and sets him among princes.”
“Is the difference in response found in the power of the human will or in some added measure of grace?”
“From the various orders of rational creatures He has chosen man to be the special object of his favour, and the special medium through which and by which to manifest his glory.”
“The demands of appreciation and gratitude increase with the length and breadth and depth and height of the favour bestowed.”
“Earning eternal life has forever been taken out of his hands.”
“Canaan was given Israel freely—but they had to fight with the Canaanites.”
“Yea, and this lower kingdom of grace is but Christ's hospital, and guesthouse of sick folks, whom the brave and noble Physician, Christ, hath cured, upon a venture of life and death.”
“To boast of what we have not is folly; to boast of what we have is sacrilege, and we rob God; this is like a man deeply in debt, who boasts of an estate he has borrowed.”
“He might have denied you Christ, peace, and pardon also; and then your case would have been woeful indeed.”
“Consider, will a small candle when it is enlightened scatter all the darkness that is about us; and will not a beam of grace in the soul scatter and triumph over temptations and corruptions?”
“The time of pardoning great sins is the time of great self-loathing; such prove the holiest persons, because they have had more experience of the evil of sin.”
“It should rather humble us the more than puff us up in pride, in regard that there was nothing in us which might deserve anything at God’s hand, 1 Cor. iv. 7; Eph. ii. 9.”
“One man sins against God, and what hath he to cover his sins?”
“He can give in a sufficiency of efficacious grace to repel any temptation, to subdue any or all our lusts and sins; for he can and doth work in us to will and to do according to his pleasure.”
“The more grace acts in the soul—the more sin withers and dies in the soul.”
“If men in old time were damned because they glorified him not as God, shall not they be more than damned, if more than damned can be, who glorify him not for his grace?”
“The grace of God in the heart is as imperishable, and the life of God in the soul is as immortal, as God himself.”
“He has to come as at first, a poor, empty, helpless sinner, hanging on a full, rich, and all-sufficient Savior.”
“Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
“I have been vile myself, but have obtained mercy; and I would have my companions in sin partake of mercy too; and therefore I have writ this little book.”
“Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners.”
“The compass-needle may be shaken and agitated, but it never rests until it turns toward the pole.”
“Be watchful; the world is the devil's chessboard. You can hardly move backward or forward, but he is ready to attack you with some temptation.”
“A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise; but rather accept; for not to despise is with God to esteem and set a high price upon.”
“A broken heart is a pliable and flexible heart, and prepared to receive whatsoever impressions God shall make upon it.”
“Working for life, a man naturally understands; but believing for life, he understands not.”
“Grace is glory in the bud, and glory is grace at the full.”
“To have grace, and to be sure that we have grace, is glory upon the throne, it is heaven on this side heaven.”
