Sanctification

“The word preached is not only to inform you but reform you.”

“If you are renewed by grace, and were to meet your old self, I am sure you would be very anxious to get out of his company.”

“If I am not today all that I hope to be, yet I see Jesus, and that assures me that I shall one day be like Him.”

“Conversion is a turning onto the right road. The next thing to do is to walk on it.”

“Evil things are easy things: for they are natural to our fallen nature. Right things are rare flowers that need cultivation.”

“Affliction hardens those whom it does not soften.”

“It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus.”

“Throw away the servility of imitation, and rise to the manliness of originality.”

“A whetstone, though it cannot cut, may sharpen a knife that will.”

“May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock!”

“Faith exists in different persons in various degrees, according to the amount of their knowledge or growth in grace.”

“The Lord knows that you cannot change your own heart, and cannot cleanse your own nature; but He knows that He can do both.”

“Take up your own daily cross; it is the burden best suited for your shoulder.”

“A godly man often grows best when his worldly circumstances decay.”

“The grace that does not change my life will not save my soul.”

“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 heart is the rudder of the soul, and till the Lord take it in hand we steer in a false and foul way.”

“He who stands upon his own strength will never stand.”

“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.”

“Holiness is the very principle of eternal life, the very beginning of eternal life in the heart, and that which will certainly grow up to eternal life.”

“Being in Christ, and united to Him, is the fundamental constitution of a Christian.”

“Thou must be righteous and holy, before thou canst live righteously and holily.”

“We must come to good works by faith, and not to faith by good works.”

“The Christian is bred by the Word, and he must be fed by it.”

“It is one thing to know a truth, and another thing to experience it.”

“It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages Hell; it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons.”

“The grace you have will soon be less, if you add not more to it.”

“Few are made better by prosperity, whom afflictions make worse.”

“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.”

“What is the reason that men do not grow in grace? It is because sermons, like loads of fertilizer, are laid on the soul but remain unspread by the hand of meditation.”

“Three things are simply necessary unto any man's having of true religion and godliness: sound principles of divine truth known, the savor of that knowledge in the heart, and the power of that savor in a man's worship and walk.”

“Why should I tremble at the plow of my Lord that makes deep furrows on my soul? For He is no idle husbandman, He purposes a crop.”

“The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin.”

“It is the Spirit alone that can mortify sin; He is promised to do it, and all other means without Him are empty and vain.”

“Duties are excellent food for a healthy soul; they are no physic for a sick soul.”

“There is no way of deliverance from the state and condition of being in the flesh, but by the Spirit of Christ.”

“The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh.”

“Holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing and living out the gospel in our souls.”

“There is no imagination wherewith man is besotted, more foolish, none so pernicious, as this, that persons not purified, not sanctified, not made holy in their life, should afterwards be taken into that state of blessedness.”

“Let not men deceive themselves; sanctification is a qualification indispensably necessary unto those who will be under the conduct of the Lord Christ unto salvation. He leads none to heaven but whom He sanctifies on the earth.”

“Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work.”

“Great winds and storms help fruit-bearing trees; so also do corruptions and temptations help the fruitfulness of grace and holiness.”

“When the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, He puts into their minds, wills and hearts a gracious, supernatural principle which fills them with a holy desire to live to God.”

“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.”

“If a man teach uprightly and walk crookedly, more will fall down in the night of his life than he built in the day of his doctrine.”

“Faith, if it be a living faith, will be a working faith.”

“Labour to grow better under all your afflictions, lest your afflictions grow worse, and God mingle them with more darkness, bitterness and terror.”

“Affliction is a fire to purge out our dross, and to make virtue shine.”

“Some talk of the comforting Spirit, who never had the sanctifying Spirit.”

“Let the Holy Spirit descend upon me. 'Create in me a clean heart, O God'.”

“The spirit of man never riseth to its original glory, till it be carried up on the wings of faith and love to its original copy.”

“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.”

“Doth any man or landlord build or repair an house, and then let it lie empty, when he hath a tenant fit for it?”

“The second conversion is active , whereby man being converted by God, does further turn and convert himself to God in all his thoughts, words, and deeds.”

“As soon as the blood touches us, by our believing, we are set apart--we become the royal priesthood, holy to the Lord.”

“Meekness teaches us prudently to govern our own anger whenever anything occurs that is provoking.”

“It is the furnace alone that reveals the alloy, and separates it from the pure gold, and so brings to view the new nature in its reality, loveliness, and purity.”

“But the main thing is, all that we do it must be acted by the Spirit of God; it is not enough to have true silver and gold, but it must have the right stamp, or else it cannot go for current coin.”

“Now a man must offer violence to his fleshly desires if he will be saved, Col. iii. 5.”

“When a man is at the bottom of a hill, he cannot see very far; but when he is on the top, he may see many miles distant.”

“A Christian makes over his will to God, and in making over his will to God, he has no other will but God's.”

“Strive, because there is nothing of Christianity got by idleness.”

“Nothing can have a greater force upon the heart, to sanctify it, than faith.”

“It is true there are moments- bright and blissful- when we sincerely and ardently desire the full, unreserved surrender.”

“That metal we account pure metal, which has not any baser than itself mixed with it.”

“If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.”

“Note that Paul puts the stress on God, not on man, when he says that “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it.” What God begins he finishes.”

“Born of God, believers advance in spiritual stature, from the babe in Christ to the young man, from the young man to the father, and from the father to the hoary head found in the way of righteousness.”

“The same Spirit that convinces us of the necessity of his righteousness to cover us convinces us also of the necessity of his government to rule us.”

“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.”

“Christ takes them, and with his own blood cleanseth them: and will never leave washing and cleansing of the soul, till he hath cleansed it from all its spots, and presented it before the Father.”

“The best and the largest portion is laid up for that child that is most like his father.”

“The more mature a Christian becomes, however, the more he will engage himself from the superior to the inferior; that is, love for the glory of God motivates him to do everything which serves to that end.”

“As Christ undertook to God, so God undertakes to Christ again, to justify, adopt and forgive, sanctify and glorify those he gives him.”

“As an expert Craftsman, he never needs to destroy or discard an imperfect work of spiritual artisanship.”

“Roses hanging in the garden may give a fragrant redolence, yet their sweet water is distilled only by the fire.”

“Ministers may, and must die, ordinances may be removed, but this blessed effect of them upon thy soul shall never die: God will perfect what he hath begun.”

“A full condition is in danger of hindering those graces that are distinctly Christian.”

“The offence of the cross has not ceased, nor has the time come when a self-denying spirit does not belong to the catalogue of Christian graces.”

“We are to encounter accursed and damned enemies; therefore, if they begin to fall before the Spirit in us, they shall fall.”

“If the Spirit of God in any measure and degree be in our breasts, we will sympathize with the state of the church.”

“There's much difference between the sins that are in wicked men, and the sins that are in the Saints.”

“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.”

“The more grace acts in the soul— the more sin withers and dies in the soul.”

“How can they be but unholy, who are under the covenant of works? for there is no communion with God in the way of that covenant now; so sanctifying influences are stopt, and they must wither and pine away in their iniquity.”

“Oh, the infinite wisdom and power of God—which has pardoned, washed, sanctified, and cleansed such guilty, filthy, and polluted souls!”

“It is a delight and rejoicing to God to see his children just and righteous in all their dealings.”

“The principles of these contrary thoughts are like Jacob and Esau; they struggle in the same womb, and oftentimes Esau will come first forth, and for a while seem to carry the birthright.”

“So in the Ephesians we are said both to grow up in him and for him.”

“Where this striving and resistance is in mind and heart, there is the Spirit, for else all would go full sway with corruption.”

“Those whom God intends to be pillars in his church must be more hewn.”

“While fullness may deaden the graces of other men, fullness will strengthen the graces of someone who knows how to be full.”

“Let us deny our selves, and then we are as God would have us to be; we shall make high account of God, and find great sweetness in the things of God.”

“Look what the difference is between the Scar of a wound that is almost healed, and a filthy putrified sore in the flesh; that difference there is between the sin of the Saints, and the sins of other men.”

“Now Christ elsewhere gives us this rule of nature, to judge of the tree by the fruits, to proceed by in matters of grace also.”

“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.”

“That true faith, wherever it is, worketh and frameth the heart to friendlike dispositions unto God, and brings forth friendlike carriage in the life towards God.”

“We cannot be washed, and cleansed, and purged from an imputed sin; this is done by the laver of regeneration.”

“Take a good Christian at the worst, he is better than another at the best.”

“Some are able to continue in the state they were in before—that is, their former humility, heavenly-mindedness, and holiness remain even after their promotion.”

“He may now seem to be taking you down, but it is only to build you up and put you together again--a fairer, lovelier, and more symmetrical temple.”

“Our minds must be in harmony with those of the inhabitants of heaven, or else the society of heaven would soon be intolerable to us.”

“Christ's government brings the very thoughts and desires, which are the most immediate and free issue of the soul, into obedience.”

“Ought not our walk then be distinct from the walk of natural men?”

“Labor for much of the Holy Spirit ; labor for much of the light of the Spirit.”

“Again, Will not Satan labor might and main to keep your graces low and poor?”

“There is nothing that characteriseth and sets a stamp upon a Christian so much as desires.”

“The more serious the heart grows, the more spiritual, and the more spiritual, the more it resembles the Father of spirits.”

“Surely if there be the life of God and Christ in us, there will be a kind of connaturalness and suitableness of taste to the sweetness that is in holy things.”

“The sandal tree is known by the fragrance which it breathes.”

“Establish it as a settled principle in your mind, that if the Holy Spirit really is in a person, it will be seen in the effects He produces on his heart and life.”

“We love gold in the ore, though it has some drossiness in it.”

“Here on earth, the body is a clog ; in heaven it shall be a wing .”

“A Christian ’ s grateful endeavor should be to get his will to submit to God .”

“Hence, though Christ's death obliterates condemnatory stains, the Spirit must come in with further aid, to wash the heart, and fit it for heavenly home.”

“But we ought to account it a property of every saint of God, who is justified and sanctified, to know the Scriptures, which only are able to make them wise unto salvation.”

“Thus is death and life in the power of the tongue; it is either healing or killing, an antidote or a poison, according as it is used.”

“That we may not forfeit our interest in His meekness, let us tread in the steps of it; and as ever we hope to be like Him in glory hereafter, let us study to be like Him in grace, in this grace now.”

“The work of God’s Spirit in his children is like fire, which hath two properties: to sever all heterogeneal and strange stuff, and dross, and the like, and gather all the homogeneal stuff of one nature.”

“Necessity takes away the honour of an action; to do a thing when we must needs, when we are forced to it whether we will or no, though the thing be good we do, yet the honour of it is lost in great part.”

“And I have thought again that one reason why we are no better, is because God purges us no more.”

“Afflictions are God's furnace, by which he cleanses his people from their dross.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Christ is a master, and sin is a master; yea, and masters are they so opposite, that he that at all shall cleave to the one shall by the other be counted his enemy.”

“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.”

“Lord, we are being forced to do what is contrary to our nature; we were never made to be serviceable to the lusts of men.”

“Look, then, O believer, to Christ the living vine to make you fruitful of holiness.”

“Man, the most perfect creature, comes to perfection by little and little; worthless things, as mushrooms and the like, like Jonah's gourd, soon spring up, and soon vanish.”

“The same Spirit who enlightens the mind inspires gracious inclinations into the will and affections and infuses strength into the whole man.”

“But his prayer was the offspring of sincerity and truth; the answers which came gave evidence that the petitions were sanctified by the Spirit and accepted of the Lord.”

“Reveal your affection unto Him in your imitation of Him, in writing after His copy, in treading in His steps, in walking as Christ Himself walked when He was here upon the earth.”

“Without his influences, we can no more move heavenward than we can sail a ship without wind.”

“The Spirit has been tuning your soul, and now you make sweet melody in prayer.”

“Gracious habits are the candles of the Lord set up in us; and God has set up those candles of heaven not to idle by, not to sleep by—but to work by, and to walk by.”

“GRACE, that teacheth us to deny ungodliness, doth also teach us to deny worldly lusts.”

“The Condition of this world is such, as indeed, it is not fit to have a Saint in it without spots.”

“We justify our profession when we do somewhat more than nature, or when we do common ordinary things in a spiritual holy manner.”

“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.”

“The man who is naturally covetous does not eradicate the love of money by a single effort.”

“Hereby we thus discover the distinction between the commission of sin by the unconverted and the power of indwelling corruption as it strives with grace in the converted.”

“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.”

“The noblest faculties are imbased, when not improved, when not exercised.”

“We are always called to seek more and more to bring our faith and practice into conformity to the Word of God.”

“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.”

“A tree it is, without fruit, but as long as it so abideth, there is ministered occasion to doubt what manner of tree it is.”

“The scaffolding is useful in the erection of the building, but, constituting no essential part of the structure, is removed when the edifice is complete.”

“There are some graces suitable especially to our state of imperfection in this world.”

“There is nothing will stand out but the new creature, that we find a change wrought by the Spirit of God.”

“It's true, the Lord will not charge these spots upon thy soul that art in Christ; yet he doth expect that thou shouldst be humbled for them.”

“Affliction is sanctified when it attains the end for which it was sent.”

“That is surely reprobate silver which becomes harder in the furnace.”

“Canaan was given Israel freely—but they had to fight with the Canaanites.”

“He will combat with all sin, though he cannot conquer one as he should, and as he desires.”

“A believer has a heart of oak—he is strong to resist temptation, to bear afflictions, to foil corruptions; he gives check to them, though not full mate .”

“It is not only a Spirit of illumination, but of sanctification.”

“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 lazy a Christian’s desires are, the more lively his corruptions.”

“Now consider, is it any absurdity for the saints to be conformed to Christ their Lord and Head, to run through the same states that he did?”

“The law is a dead letter; yea, and so is the gospel too without Christ. He is 'that Spirit' which gives life unto all the Scriptures.”

“His fulness of the Spirit is as the fulness of the fountain; ours is but as the fulness of the cistern. He hath grace in the spring; we have it but in the conduit.”

“What is the scope of the whole Scriptures but Christ?”

“It is a powerful and effectual indwelling principle, inclining and pressing unto actions agreeable and suitable unto its own nature.”

“The more men sin, the more are they inclined unto sin.”

“To let it alone, is to let it grow; not to conquer it, is to be conquered by it.”

“This Spirit of whom we treat is in himself a distinct, living, powerful, intelligent, divine person.”

“The Holy Spirit is more intimate, as it were, unto the principles of our souls than they are to themselves.”

“Godliness is the sacred impression and workmanship of God in a man, whereby from being carnal he is made spiritual.”

“Godliness consists in an exact harmony between holy principles and practices.”

“Reason makes us men; godliness makes us earthly angels.”

“Weeds grow by themselves; flowers are planted.”

“Counterfeit piety is double iniquity.”

“To be spiritually minded is the great distinguishing character of true believers from all unregenerate persons.”

“Spiritual thoughts will no more hinder you in your callings than those which are vain and earthly, which all sorts of men find leisure for in the midst of their employments.”

“The whole world is not a theater large enough to display the glory of Christ upon, or unfold the one half of the unsearchable riches which lie hidden in Him.”

“A drop of saving grace is better than a sea of spiritual gifts.”

“The law sends us to the Gospel that we may be justified; and the Gospel sends us to the law again to inquire what is our duty as those who are justified.”

“We cry down the law in respect of justification, but we set it up as a rule of sanctification.”

“The fathers, the young men, the little children, and the babes have this in common, that they are of God's family and of the household of faith. They are all in Christ's school, though not in the same class.”

“God's Word and God's Spirit always agree and are of the same mind. The Spirit of God who gave the Holy Scripture cannot say one thing here and another in your heart.”

“It is better to go with difficulty to heaven, than with ease to hell.”

“Faith and repentance preserve the spiritual life, as heat and water preserve the physical life.”