If people really see that Christ has removed the fear of punishment from them by taking it into Himself, they won't do whatever they want, they'll do whatever He wants.
There is a warning here for true pilgrims. Beware of the talker but also be careful not to judge too quickly those whom God has blessed with both genuine grace and a fluency to speak of divine mercy in ways more eloquent than others. The proof is in the life-not a perfect life but a life that both delights in divine truth and magnifies God the only giver of the sovereign grace that always produces the truly fruitful, fragrant life.
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.
No child of God sins to that degree as to make himself incapable of forgiveness.
Indeed, this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world, namely, that a righteousness that resides in Heaven, should justify me, a sinner on earth!
Such is the effect of the grace of God in the heart of a pilgrim; while on one hand he sees the propensity of his evil nature to every sin which has been committed by others and is humbled. He also confesses, that, by no power of his own, is he preserved but ever gives the glory to the God of all grace, by whose power alone he is kept from falling.
If we have not quiet in our minds outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.
The best prayers have often more groans than words.
I have often thought that the best Christians are found in the worst of times.
Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think. It is wounding work, this breaking of the hearts but without wounding there is no saving. Where there is grafting there will always be a cutting, the graft must be let in with a wound; to stick it onto the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and back-to-back or there will be no sap from root to branch. And this, I say, must be done by a wound, by a cut.
Great sins draw out great grace; and where guilt is most terrible and fierce there the mercy of God in Christ, when showed to the soul, appears most high and mighty.
He who is down needs fear no fall. He who is low, no pride. He who is humble, ever shall have God to be his Guide.
It is not the mouth that is the main thing to be looked at in prayer but whether the heart is so full of affection and earnestness in prayer with God, that it is impossible to express their sense and desire; for then a man desires indeed, when his desires are so strong, many, and mighty, that all the words, tears, and groans that can come from the heart, cannot utter them.
A man there was, though some did count him mad the more he cast away the more he had.
Just as Christian came up to the Cross his burden loosed from off his shoulders, fell from off his back, and began to tumble down the hill, and so it continued to do until it came to the mouth of the sepulcher. There it fell in, and I saw it no more!
Faith is a fruit, work, or gift of the Spirit of God, whereby a poor soul is enabled through the mighty operation of God, in a sense of its sins and wretched estate, to lay hold on the righteousness, blood, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and coming again of the Son of God who was crucified for our sins.
As your faith is such your hope will be. Hope is never ill, when faith is well; nor strong, if faith is weak.
A little from God is better than a great deal from men.
One leak will sink a ship and one sin allowed, will destroy a sinner.
He has given me rest by His sorrow and life by His death.
[John Bunyan]
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