Quotes About Faith

O how true are poor sinners to the devil's trust!

Him that hath not God before he dies, the devil shall have when he dies.

How canst thou put thy head into the other world without horror, if thou hast not solid ground that Christ will own thee for his? Heaven

The gospel preached is the instrument which God useth for the effecting of it. 'I am not ashamed,' saith the apostle, 'of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation,' Rom. 1:16. It is the chariot wherein the Spirit rides victoriously when he makes his entrance into the hearts of man—called therefore 'the ministration of the Spirit,' II Cor. 3:8.

If thy prayer doth not set thee on work, neither will it set thy God at work for thee. Is it a lust thou art praying against? And dost thou sit down idle to see whether it will now die alone? Will that prayer slay one lust that lets another—thy sloth, I mean —live under its nose? As God will not save thy soul, so neither will he destroy thy sin, unless thy hand also be put to the work.

Love is another heavenly grace; but faith gathers the fuel that makes this fire.

So that it is not the love of any present sin in thy heart, but the fear of thy past sins in thy conscience, that keeps thee from believing. Now for thee it is that I would gather the best encour agements I can out of the word, and with them strew thy way to the throne of grace.

What foolish braving language shall ye hear drop from the lips of the most profane and ignorant among us! They trust in God, hope in his mercy, defy the devil and all his works, and such like stuff, who are yet poor naked creatures without the least piece of God's armour upon their souls.

And I pray, what is our life in this world but a dark night of temptation?

Peri clitatur pietas in negotiis—religion never goes in more danger than when in a crowd of worldly busi ness.

The Christian's life is a continual wrestling. He is, as Jeremiah said of himself, born 'a man of strife.' Or what the prophet [said] to Asa, may be said to every Christian; 'From hence thou shalt have wars:' from thy spiritual birth to thy nat ural death; from the hour when thou first didst set thy face to heaven, till thou shalt set thy foot in heaven.

If all the devil's wits and wiles will not serve him to overcome one single soldier in Christ's camp, much less shall he ever ruin the whole army. These

Dost thou fill thy chest with dirt, and expect to find gold when thou openest it?

The dear love he beareth to his saints engageth his power. He that hath God's heart cannot want his arm.

Gospel comfort may be known by the vessel it is poured into, which is a broken heart.

Well, Christian, prize thou the word, fed savourily on the word, whether it be dished forth in a sermon at the public, or in a conference with some Christian friend in private, or in a more secret duty of reading and meditation by thy solitary self.

What! thy stammering prayers make music in God's ear!

It is not, indeed, the bare knowing the truths of the gospel saves; but the gross ignorance of them, to be sure, will damn souls.

When thou art come to thyself to own and blush at the brutish ignorance of thy mind, thou art fit to be admitted into Christ's school. If

Faith and repentance will be good doctrine to preach and hear to the end of the world; you may as well quarrel with God, because he hath made but one heaven, and one way to it, as with the preacher, for preaching these over and over. If thy heart were humble, and thy palate spiritual, old truths would be new to thee every time thou hearest them.

There is room for both; why should they fall out? Polanus (in his Syntag. de Terræmotu) tells us of a town in the territory of Berne in Switzerland, consis ting of ninety houses, that was in the year 1584 destroyed by an earthquake, except the half of one house, where the master of the family was earnestly praying with his wife and children upon their bended knees to God.

Humana dita argu mentis ac testibus egent; Dei autem sermo ipse sibi testis est, quia necesse est quicquid incorrupta veritas loquitur incorruptum sit veritas testimonium: so Salvan (De Gub. Dei, lib. iii)—men need arguments and witnesses to prove and vouch what they say to be true; but the word of God is a sufficient witness to itself, because what truth itself, which is pure, saith, can be no other than a sincere and true testimony.

The Christian goes for the fool, in the world's account, while he lives; but when death comes, the wise world will then confess they miscalled him, and shall take it to themselves: 'We fools counted his life to be madness, and his end to be without honour. But how is he now numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints? therefore, we have erred from the way of truth,' Wis. 5:4,5.

And they cannot be solid Christians, that are not instructed in the grounds of Christianity. The