Oh, the remembrance of my great sins, of my great temptations, and of my great fears of perishing forever! They bring afresh into my mind the remembrance of my great help, my great support from Heaven, and the great grace that God extended to such a wretch as I. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
It is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the very beginnings of grace with their souls.Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (Authentic Original Classic) (Kindle Locations 71-72). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.
The man who does not know the nature of the law cannot know the nature of sin. And he who does not know the nature of sin cannot know the nature of the Saviour.
Bee-masters tell us, that they are the best hives which make the greatest noise; so that conscience is the best which makes the greatest noise in daily reasonings and debates before it's own bar.
The spirit, or soul, or life of Antichrist, is that spirit of error, that wicked, that mystery of iniquity, that under colour and pretence of verity, draweth men from truth to falsehood. The body or flesh of Antichrist, is that heap of men, that assembly of the wicked, that synagogue of Satan that is acted and governed by that spirit.
God is the chief good—good so as nothing is but Himself. He is in Himself most happy. Yea, all good and all true happiness are only to be found in God, as that which is essential to His nature, nor is there any good or any happiness in or with any creature or thing but what is communicated to it by God. God is the only desirable good; nothing without Him is worthy of our hearts. Right thoughts of God are able to ravish the heart. How much more happy is the man that has interest in God. God alone is able by Himself to put the soul into a more blessed, comfortable, and happy condition than can the whole world—yea, and more than if all the created happiness of all the angels of heaven did dwell in one man's bosom. I cannot tell what to say. I am drowned. The life, the glory, the blessedness, the soulsatisfying goodness that is in God are beyond all expression.
God's presence is renewing, transforming, seasoning, sanctifying, commanding, sweetening, and lightening to the soul. Nothing like it in all the world. His presence supplies all wants, heals all maladies, saves from all dangers—is life in death, heaven in hell, all in all.
Forgiveness is according to the riches of God's grace, wherein He has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Grace can continue to pardon, favor, and save—from falls, in falls, and out of falls. Grace can comfort, relieve, and help those that have hurt themselves; and grace can bring the unworthy to glory. This the law cannot do; this man cannot do; this angels cannot do; this God cannot do, but only by the riches of His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Conscience is like a looking glass. If it be foul and dusty, you can see nothing in it; but wipe away the dust, and you may see your face in it clearly. There is a time coming when God will wipe off the dust from the glass of a man's conscience, and he shall see his sins clearly represented.
Conscience is God's echo, and sometimes it is so shrill and clamorous that the sinner cannot endure the noise, but silences conscience; and at last by often sinning, conscience begins to be sleepy and seared.
But the sincere Christian that allows himself in no sin delights to commune with his own soul and when he is debating things with his own conscience esteems himself in good company. He had rather God's deputy, conscience, should admonish him to contrition than that God Himself should do it to his confusion.
Conscience is the territory or dominion of God in man which He hath so reserved to Himself that no human power can possibly enter into it or dispose of it in any wise.
Conscience must be satisfied with something; therefore men usually please themselves with so much of obedience as is least contrary to their interests and inclinations and have not an entire uniform respect to the whole law. As if a servant should think himself dutiful when he goes to a feast or a fair when his master bids him, when in the meantime he declines errands of less trouble but of more service; whereas in such matters he does not obey his master's will, but his own inclination. So in commands easy and compliant with our own humors and designs, we do not so much serve God as our own interests, and there is more of design than of duty and religion in such actions; and therefore they lose their reward with God.
Every quiet conscience is not a clear conscience. Some are lulled asleep in security, and their consciences are quiet merely because they are insensible. It may be they have so harassed and wasted their consciences by dreadful sins, so often mortally wounded them, that now they have not strength enough to become quarrelsome and troublesome; and this they call peace.
He that hath a blind conscience which sees nothing, a dead conscience that feels nothing, and a dumb conscience that says nothing is in as miserable condition as a man can be in on this side hell.
You must know conscience is a faculty that is corrupted as much as any other by nature and is very often made use of by Satan to deceive both good and bad, godly and ungodly. Many that know their consciences, they say, speak peace to them will be found merely cheated and gulled when the books shall be opened; no such discharge will then be found entered in the book of the word as conscience hath put into their hand. And many gracious souls who passed their days in a continual fear of their spiritual state and were kept chained in the dark dungeon of a troublesome conscience shall then be acquitted and have their action against Satan for false imprisonment and accusing their consciences to the disturbing their peace.
Conscience is the seat of guilt. It is like a burning glass, so it contracts the beams of the threatenings, twists them together, and reflects them on the soul until it smoke, scorch, and flame.
A dead conscience and a dissolute life are inseparable. And how many that are surrounded with the celestial beams of the gospel are as impure and impenitent as those in the black night of paganism? They stand at the entrance of the bottomless pit yet do not smell the brimstone that enrages the fire there. The flames of their lusts have seared their consciences to a desperate degree of hardness and insensibility. Danger of Prosperity