Quote 4086
A man's house is his castle, and God's law, as well as man's, sets a guard up upon it; he that assaults it does so at his peril.
Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1:29124K
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
The way to preserve the peace of the church is to preserve its purity.
The Gospel is temporary, but the law is eternal and is restored precisely through the Gospel. Freedom from the law consists, then, not in the fact that the Christian has nothing more to do with the law, but lies in the fact that the law demands nothing more from the Christian as a condition of salvation. The law can no longer judge and condemn him. Instead he delights in the law of God according to the inner man and yearns for it day and night.
though the moral law be thus far abolished, it remains as a perpetual rule to believers. Though it be not their Saviour, it is their guide. Though it be not foedus, a covenant of life; yet it is norma, a rule of life. Every Christian is bound to conform to it; and to write, as exactly as he can after this copy. 'Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid.' Rom iii 31. Though a Christian is not under the condemning power of the law, yet he is under its commanding power.The Ten Commandments, 44
It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for Him.Matthew Henry's Commentary
The service of sin is perfect slavery; the service of God is perfect liberty.
The way of family worship is a good old way, no new thing, but the ancient usage of the saints.Commentary Gen 12:6
Human learning is both ornamental and serviceable to a gospel minister, especially for the convincing of those who are outside; for it enables him to beat them at their own weapons, and to cut off Goliath's head with his own sword.
A life spent in the service of God and communion with Him is the most pleasant life that anyone can live in this world.
He whose head is in heaven need not fear to put his feet into the grave.
The moral teaching of Christ and his apostles is the old law deepened and reapplied to new circumstances--life in the kingdom of God, where the Savior reigns; and in the post-Pentecost era of the Spirit, where God's people are called to live heaven's life among themselves and to be God's counterculture in the world.Concise Theology, Section 34
Behold, and wonder, that the great God should love such a worthless world! That the holy God should love such a wicked world with a love of good will, when he could not look upon it with any complacency.
Christ in fact had not the least intent of making any change or innovation in the precepts of the law. God there appointed once for all a rite of life which he will never repent of... so let us have no more of that error, that here a defect of the law is corrected by Christ; Christ is not to be made into a new law-giver, adding anything to the everlasting righteousness of his Father, but is to be given the attention of a faithful interpreter, teaching us the nature of the law, its object and its scope.
If God does not give His people what they ask for, it is because He knows they do not need it, and that it is not for their good.
Take Jesus for your king, and by baptism swear allegiance to him; take him for your prophet, and hear him; take him for your priest, to make atonement for you.
No man will say, "There is no God" 'till he is so hardened in sin that it has
become his interest that there should be none to call him to account.
It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church.
A modest dress is a very good thing, if it be the genuine indication of a humble heart, and is to instruct; but it is a bad thing if it be the hypocritical disguise of a proud ambitious heart, and is to deceive. Let men be really as good as they seem to be, but not seem to be better than really they are.Matthew Henry's Commentary
God did not consult us in making the world, yet it is well made. Why should we expect then that He should take His measures from us in governing it?
There is a burden of care in getting riches, fear in keeping them, temptations in using them, guilt in abusing them, sorrow in losing them, and a burden of account at last to be given up concerning them.
Prayer is the solemn and religious offering of devout acknowledgments and desires to God or a sincere representation of holy affections, with a design to give unto God the glory due unto His name thereby and to obtain from Him promised favors, and both through the Mediator.
The law is tempered by the gospel but not nulled and cast out of doors by it. It enacts that none but those that are sanctified shall be glorified; that there must be grace here if we expect glory hereafter; that we must not presume to expect an admittance to the vision of God's face unless our souls be clothed with a robe of holiness (Heb. 12:14). It requires an obedience to the whole law in our intention and purpose and an endeavor to observe it in our actions; it promotes the honor of God and ordains a universal charity among men; it reveals the whole counsel of God and furnishes men with the holiest laws.
The commands of the gospel require the obedience of the creature. There is not one precept in the gospel which interferes with any rule in the law, but strengthens it and represents it in its true exactness; the heat to scorch us is allayed, but the light to direct us is not extinguished. Not the least allowance to any sin is granted; not the least affection to any sin is indulged.
If covetousness reigns in the heart, commonly all compassion is banished from it.
Those that are of a fretful spirit will always find something to quarrel with. When we complain without cause, it is just with God to give us cause to complain.Gems, 28
I think it is my duty to choose rather to join with those who refuse to admit into the Communion with them such as are openly vicious and profane than with those who, being under an unhappy obligation to administer the Lord's Supper to all in office and to transfer the trial of all suspensions to the bishop's court, cannot possibly use so strict a discipline. Not that I think I am ever the worse for bad people's joining with me in the Lord's Supper, but perhaps they are the worse for my joining with them; and I would not be accessory to the hardening of them in their impieties. I do not expect to meet with any society of Christians perfectly pure on this side heaven. There are spots, I know, in our feasts of charity; but I must prefer those who appear to me either to be more pure from the mixture of corrupt members, or at least more solicitous and desirous to be so and capable of being so by their own constitution.
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1. Thomas Watson (196)
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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)
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)
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