“They that saw Christ only on the cross, or in the grave, _do shake their heads_, and think him lost; but God saw him dying, buried, rising, glorified, and all this at one view.”
“They try themselves by false marks and rules: not knowing wherein the truth of Christianity doth consist; some looking beyond, and some short of the Scripture-standard.”
“This is he that will be always blowing at the spark of thy spiritual life, and drawing thy soul to God, and will say to thee, as the Samaritan woman, "_Come and see one that hath told me all that ever I did_; one that hath loved our souls to the death. _Is not this the Christ?_ Is not _the knowledge of God and him, eternal life_?”
“This is the preparation of his counsel and decree; for the execution whereof Christ was yet to make a further preparation—_For you_—Not for believers only in general, who, without individual persons, are nobody; but for you personally.—_From the foundation of the world._—Not only from the promise after Adam's fall, but from eternity.”
“Thou wilt meet with those abundant consolations which thou hast prayed, panted, and groaned after, and which so few Christians do ever here obtain, because they know not this way to them, or else make not conscience of walking in it.”
“Though Daniel would rather be _cast to the lions_, than forbear _praying three times a day in his house_, where his enemies might hear him; yet these men will rather venture to be an eternal prey to Satan, _the roaring lion_, than thus seek their own safety.”
“Though the fig leaves of our own unrighteous, righteousness are too short to cover our nakedness, yet the righteousness of Christ is large enough: Ours is disproportionate to the justice of the law, but Christ's extends to every tittle.”
“Though there is much faith and Christianity in our mouths, yet there is much infidelity and paganism in our hearts, which is the chief cause that we are so loth to die.”
“To this end _will Christ come again to receive his people unto himself, that where he is, there they may be also_.[66] The bridegroom's departure was not upon divorce.”
“Truth loves the light and is most beautiful when it is most naked. If you would not teach men, why are you in the pulpit? If you would teach men, why do you not speak so as to be understood?”
“Was I not a thousand times worse than mad, when I censured the holy way of God as needless preciseness? when I thought the laws of Christ too strict, and all too much that I did for the life to come?”
“Was it such a joy to Jacob to see the face of Joseph in Egypt? and shall we be contented without the sight of Christ in glory, and yet say we love him?”
“We sow not that body that shall be, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body._[29] If grace makes a Christian differ so much from what he was, as to say, _I am not the man I was_; how much more will glory make us differ?”
“What comfort canst thou find in thy friends, and honors, and houses, and lands, till thou knowest thou hast the love of God with them, and shalt have rest with him when thou leavest them?”
“What great undertakings did they engage in to effect their ruin; to resist the Spirit of God; to overcome the power of mercies, judgments, and even the word of God; to subdue the power of reason, and silence conscience?”
