Quotes from William Gurnall

Of this psalm Luther would say, in times of great confusion in the church, 'Let us sing the six and fortieth psalm, in spite of the devil and all his instruments.

They love truth flourishing, who do not love it when it is confuting. They dare handle and look on the sword with delight when in a rich scabbard, who would run away to see it drawn.

You see when a soul comes over from Satan's quarters unto Christ, and has but once the experience of that sweetness which is in his service, there is no getting him back to his old drudgery; as

Sincerity! it is the life of all our graces, and puts life into all our duties, and, as life makes beautiful and keeps the body sweet, so sincerity the soul and all it doth.

When the Son made thee free, thou becamest free indeed.

That is the sweet frame of heart indeed—to lie low in the sense of your own vileness, yet to believe; to renounce all conceit of worthiness in ourselves, yet not therefore to renounce all hope of mercy, but the more speedily to make haste to Christ that woos us. All

Thou art translated into the kingdom of Christ, but thou art a great way from his court. That is kept in heaven, and that the Christian knows, but as we [know] far countries which we never saw only by map, or some rarities that are sent us as a taste of what grows there in abundance.

They use faith as an eye but not as a hand; they look for victory to drop from heaven upon their heads, but do not fight to obtain it.

this spiritual war of the Christian lies chiefly on the defence, and therefore requires arms most of this kind to wage it.

O Christian, give not place to Satan, no, not an inch, in his first motions. He that is a beggar and a modest one with out doors, will command the house if let in. Yield at first, and thou givest away thy strength to resist him in the rest; when the hem is worn, the whole garment will ravel out, if it be not mended by timely repentance.

The Spirit puts forth an act of exsuscitation[4] upon the soul, to stir up his affections.

He is not a good subject, that is all for what he can get of his prince, but never thinks what he may do for him; nor he the true Christian, whose thoughts dwell more on his own happiness than on the honour of his God.

The time of mourning for the departure of all earthly enjoyments is at hand. We shall see them, as Eglon's servants did their lord, fallen down dead before us, and weep be cause they are not.

Faith and repentance will be good doctrine to preach and hear to the end of the world; you

Neither did the Pharisees in truth believe what Moses wrote, because they opposed Christ, who did but verify what Moses before from God's mouth had spoke.

Thou art a dead man if thou think to answer thy sin with proportionable sorrow; thou wilt soon be above thy depth, and quackle[12] thyself with thy own tears, but never get over the least sin thou committedst.

Assurance rather is the fruit of faith. It is in faith as the flower is in the root.

Our faith must not depend on our reason, but our reason on faith.

Grace in a decay is like a man pulled off his legs by sickness; if some means be not used to recover it, little service will be done by it, or comfort received from it. Therefore

The Lord Jesus lays down his heart's blood to redeem souls out of the hand of sin and Satan, that they may be free to serve God, without fear, in holiness; and the loose Christian, if I may call him so, 'denies the Lord that bought him,' and delivers up himself basely unto his old bondage, from which Christ had ransomed him with so great a sum. Whose heart doth not tremble at such horrid ingratitude?

They are all such notions as never came into the heart of the wisest sophists in the world to conceive of; and therefore it is no wonder that a little child, under the preaching of the gospel, believes these mysteries which Plato and Aristotle were ignorant of, because they are not attained by our parts and industry, but communicated by divine and supernatural revelation.

Patience enrageth indeed the wicked, but meekens the saints.

Sometimes thou hearest one pray with a moving expression, while thou canst hardly get out a few broken words in duty, and thou art ready to accuse thyself and to admire him, as if the gilt of the key made it open the door the better.

Must the soul's armour be of God's make? Be exhorted then to look narrowly whether the armour ye wear be the workmanship of God or no. There is abundance of false ware put off now-a-days; little good armour worn by the multitude of professors