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No man preaches a sermon well to others who does not first preach it to his own heart.
Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers Chapter 2
Without absolutes revealed from God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas.
The gospel is most wickedly eclipsed while multitudes of petty "scholars" fret themselves how they might best teach the faith within a rigidly structured, accurate, methodical-philosophical form! A great multitude of errors have swarmed into the church through the reception of philosophy, like Greeks out of the belly of the Trojan horse...The clear fact is that the common, Aristotelian philosophy supplied sufficient materials for an infinity of quarrels and useless disputes. The facts shout out to heaven that our little, witty, chattering sophists, in their endless wrangling over the "articles of faith," are simply raking over the embers of Aristotle's philosophy, and in so doing they irritate the throne of Almighty God with legal quarrels and cheap tricks...It is a result of this that our theological libraries are packed full of weighty tomes, and our disputes are without end, and the most about matters, assertions and terms the Christian world would have done far better never to have heard of -and would not have heard of if they had not happened to enter the fertile brain of Aristotle so long ago! But the full catalog, the great Iliad of evils so produced, this is not the place to try to expound in detail.Biblical Theology: The History of Theology from Adam to Christ
It is not the distance of the earth from the sun, nor the sun's withdrawing itself, that makes a dark and gloomy day; but the interposition of clouds and vaporous exhalations. Neither is thy soul beyond the reach of the promise, nor does God withdraw Himself; but the vapours of thy carnal, unbelieving heart do cloud thee.
It is better that our affections exceed our light from the defect of our understandings, than that our light exceed our affections from the corruption of our wills.Works, Vol 1. 401
A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.
he that would be little in temptation, let him be much in prayerhttps://ccel.org/ccel/owen/temptation/temptation.i.viii.html
Lusts that pretend to be useful to the state and condition of men, that are pleasant and satisfactory to the flesh, will not be mortified without such a violence as the whole soul shall be deeply sensible of. https://ccel.org/ccel/owen/pneum/pneum.i.viii.viii.html
[Sin] cannot be killed without a sense of pain and trouble. Hence it is compared to the cutting off of right hands, and the plucking out of right eyes.https://ccel.org/ccel/owen/pneum/pneum.i.viii.viii.html
We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God's tasks. This is the law of grace.
No man can expect to be an heir of heaven that is not first a saint on earth.
The Wells of Salvation Opened
He that hath slight thoughts of sin never had great thoughts of God.
no man preacheth that sermon well that doth not first preach it to his own heart-If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us
There is a call, a cry, in every rod of God, in every chastising providence; and therein He makes a declaration of His name, His holiness, His power, His greatness.
Whosoever resolves to live holily must never expect to live quietly.
Let them pretend what they please, the true reason why any despise the new birth is because they hate a new life. He that cannot endure to live to God will as little endure to hear of being born of God.
Sin does not only still abide in us but is still acting, still laboring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone, but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion.
Remember in particular the love of Jesus Christ, as God-man, in giving Himself for us. This love is frequently proposed to us with what He did for us, and it is represented peculiarly in this ordinance: "Who loved me and gave Himself for me," says the apostle. Faith will never be able to live upon the last expression "gave Himself for me" unless it can rise up to the first, "who loved me." Who "loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," etc. (Rev. 1:5–6).
There are three ways whereby God represents Christ to the faith of believers. The one is by the word of the gospel itself, as written; the second is by the ministry of the gospel and preaching of the word; and the third by this sacrament, wherein we represent the Lord's death to the faith of our own souls.
All images and idols are set up for no other end but to feign the presence of what really is absent.
In our desires for heaven, if they are regular, we consider not so much our freedom from trouble as from sin; nor is our aim in the first place so much at complete happiness as perfect holiness.
Pray not only against the power of sin but for the power of holiness. A wicked man may pray against his sins not out of any inward enmity to them or love to holiness but because they are troublesome guests to his conscience. His zeal is false that seems hot against sin but is cold to holiness. A city is rebellious that keeps its rightful prince out, though it receives not his enemy in.
They that will not love thee because thou art holy cannot choose but fear and reverence thee at the same time for what they hate thee. Let a saint comply with the wicked and remit a little of his holiness to correspond with them, he loses by the hand as to his interest, I mean, in them; for by gaining a little false love, he loses that true honor which inwardly their consciences paid to his holiness. A Christian walking in the power of holiness is like Samson in his strength; the wicked fear him. But when he shews an impotent spirit by any indecency in his course to his holy profession, then presently he is taken prisoner by them and falls under both the lash of their tongue and scorn of their hearts.
Evangelical holiness rather makes the creature willing than able to give full obedience. The saint's heart leaps when his legs do but creep in the way of God's commandments. Mary asked where they had laid Christ, meaning, it seems, to carry Him away on her shoulders, which she was not able for to do; her affections were stronger than her back.
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1. Thomas Watson (196)
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8. William Gurnall (93)
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12. Thomas Manton (70)
13. A.W. Pink (68)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
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16. B.B. Warfield (59)
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18. R.C. Sproul (55)
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2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. Thomas Brooks (113)
5. John Calvin (107)
6. John Flavel (96)
7. J.I. Packer (95)
8. William Gurnall (93)
9. George Swinnock (88)
10. John Piper (87)
11. John Owen (74)
12. Thomas Manton (70)
13. A.W. Pink (68)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Richard Baxter (54)
20. Matthew Henry (54)
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1. Sin (241)2. Prayer (186)
3. Scripture (166)
4. Faith (134)
5. Preaching (130)
6. Gospel (112)
7. The Law (111)
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