Archive by Author

Thomas Watson – What Is Forgiveness? (1 of 5)

8 Aug

1. Forgiveness of sin is an act of God’s free grace
The Greek word for ‘forgive’ (charizomai) makes clear the source of pardon; pardon does not arise from anything inherent in us, but is the pure result of free grace (charis). ‘I even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake’ (Isa. 43:25). When a creditor forgives a debtor, he does it freely. Pardon of sin is a fine thread, spun out of the heart of free grace. Paul cries out, ‘I obtained mercy’ (1 Tim. 1:13) – ‘I was be-mercied’. He who is pardoned is all betrewn with mercy. When the Lord pardons a sinner, he does not pay a debt, but gives a legacy.

~Thomas Watson~



The Godly Man’s Picture (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 1992) p. 9.

Read More By Watson

Read More About Watson

Other Watson Quotes

Tags: ,

John Newton – His Repeated Multiplied Goodness

5 Aug

I know what I ought to desire, and what I do desire. I point him out to others as the All-in-all; I esteem him as such in my own judgment; but, alas! my experience abounds with complaints. He is my sun; but clouds, and sometimes walls, intercept him from my view. He is my strength; yet I am prone to lean upon reeds. He is my friend; but on my part there is such coldness and ingratitude, as no other friend could bear. But still He is gracious, and shames me with his repeated multiplied goodness. Oh for a warmer heart, a more simple dependence, a more active zeal, a more sensible deliverance from the effects of this body of sin and death! He helps me in my endeavours to keep the vineyards of others! but, alas! my own does not seem to flourish as some do around me. However, though I cannot say I labour more abundantly than they all, I have reason to say with thankfulness, By the grace of God I am what I am. My poor story would soon be much worse, did not He support, restrain, and watch over me every minute.

~John Newton~



The Letters of John Newton – To J. Foster Barham, Esq. (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 2007) p. 214-215.

Find more Newton resources here.

Other Newton Quotes

Tags: ,

Jonathan Edwards – O That I Might Be Kept From Secret Faults!

4 Aug

Friday night, Oct. 12 I see there are some things quite contrary to the soundness and perfection of Christianity, in which almost all good men do allow themselves, and where innate corruption has an unrestrained secret vent, which they never take notice of, or think to be no hurt, or cloak under the name of virtue; which things exceedingly darken the brightness, and hide the loveliness of Christianity. Who can understand his errors? O that I might be kept from secret faults!

~Jonathan Edwards~



The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers; 2007) p. lxxv.

Read More By Edwards

Read More About Edwards

Other Edwards Quotes

Tags: ,

Jeremiah Burroughs – Passage Vs. Portion

3 Aug

Mark, here lies the mystery of it [contentment], A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage, but all the world, and ten thousand times more, will not content a Christian for his portion.


~Jeremiah Burroughs~








The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 2009) p. 43.

Read More By Burroughs

Read More About Burroughs

Other Burroughs Quotes

Tags: ,

Charles Spurgeon – Content with Being a Mere Repeater of Scripture

2 Aug

I have no sympathy with the preaching which degrades the Truth of God into a hobbyhorse for its own thought and only looks upon Scripture as a kind of pulpit from which it may thunder out its own opinions! No, if I have gone beyond what that Book has taught, may God blot out everything that I have said! I beseech you, never believe me if I go an atom beyond what is plainly taught there. I am content to live and to die as the mere repeater of Scriptural teaching—as a person who has thought out nothing and invented nothing—as one who never thought invention to be any part of his calling, but who concluded that he was to take the message from the lips of God to the best of his ability and simply to be a mouth for God to the people—mourning much that anything of his own should come between—but never thinking that he was somehow to refine the message or to adapt it to the brilliance of this wonderful century and then to hand it out as being so much his own that he might take some share of the glory of it.

~Charles Spurgeon~


Spurgeon’s Sermons – A Memorable Milestone (www.grace-ebooks.com; ebook) A sermon published on Thursday, December 29, 1904 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. Vol. 51 No. 2916 p. 3.

Read More By Spurgeon

Read More About Spurgeon

Other Spurgeon Quotes

Jonathan Edwards – On Debating

1 Aug

Monday at night, Sept. 2. There is much folly, when I am quite sure I am in the right, and others are positive in contradicting me, in entering into a vehement or long debate upon it.

~Jonathan Edwards~






The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers; 2007) p. lxxiii.

Read More By Edwards

Read More About Edwards

Other Edwards Quotes

Tags: ,

Jonathan Edwards – How Do We Talk About Our Problems?

29 Jul

Tuesday forenoon, Nov. 26. It is a most evil and pernicious practice, in meditations on afflictions, to sit ruminating on the aggravations of the affliction, and reckoning up the evil, dark circumstances thereof, and dwelling long on the dark side: it doubles and trebles the affliction. And so when speaking of them to others, to make them as bad as we can, and use our eloquence to set forth our own troubles, is to be all the while making new trouble, and feeding and pampering the old; whereas the contrary practice would starve our affliction. If we dwelt on the bright side of things in our thoughts, and extenuated them all that we possibly could, when speaking of them, we should think little of them ourselves, and the affliction would really, in a great measure, vanish away.

~Jonathan Edwards~



The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers; 2007) p. lxxvi.

Find more Edwards resources here.

Other Edwards Quotes

Who Is Jonathan Edwards?

Tags: ,

Jeremiah Burroughs – Content, Yet Unsatisfied

28 Jul

A man who has learned the art of contentment is the most contented with any low condition that he has in the world, and yet he cannot be satisfied with the enjoyment of all the world. He is contented if he has but a crust, but bread and water, that is, if God disposes of him, for the things of the world, to have but bread and water for his present condition, he can be satisfied with God’s disposal in that; yet if God should give unto him Kingdoms and Empires, all the world to rule, if he should give it him for his portion, he would not be satisfied with that. Here is the mystery of it: though his heart is so enlarged that the enjoyment of all the world and ten thousand worlds cannot satisfy him for his portion; yet he has a heart quieted under God’s disposal, if he give him but bread and water.


~Jeremiah Burroughs~


The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 2009) p. 42.

Find more Burroughs resources here.

Other Burroughs Quotes

Who Is Jeremiah Burroughs?

Tags: ,

Jonathan Edwards – Analyzing Revenge

27 Jul

Saturday morning, Aug. 24. Have not practised quite right about revenge; thought I have not done any thing directly out of revenge, yet I have perhaps omitted some things that I should otherwise have done; or have altered the circumstances and manner of my actions, hoping for a secret sort of revenge thereby. I have felt a little sort of satisfaction, when I thought that such an evil would happen to them by my actions, as would make them repent what they have done. To be satisfied for their repenting, when they repent from a sense of their error, is right. But a satisfaction in their repentance, because of the evil that is brought upon them, is revenge. This is in some measure a taking the matter out of God’s hands when he was about to manage it, who is better able to plead it for me.

~Jonathan Edwards~



The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers; 2007) p. lxxiii.

Find more Edwards resources here.

Other Edwards Quotes

Who Is Jonathan Edwards?

Tags: ,

Thomas Watson – God’s Call Rides Forth

26 Jul

When God calls a man by His grace, he cannot but come. You may resist the minister’s call, but you cannot the Spirit’s call. The finger of the blessed Spirit can write upon a heart of stone, as once He wrote His laws upon tables of stone. God’s words are creating words; when He said “Let there be light, there was light”; and when He says, “Let there be faith”, it shall be so. When God called Paul, he answered to the call. “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts xxvi. 19). God rides forth conquering in the chariot of His gospel; He makes the blind eyes see, and the stony heart bleed. If God will call a man, nothing shall lie in the way to hinder; difficulties shall be untied, the powers of hell shall disband. “Who hath resisted his will?” (Rom. ix. 19). God bends the iron sinew, and cuts asunder the gates of brass (Psalm cvii. 16). When the Lord touches a man’s heart by His Spirit, all proud imaginations are brought down, and the fort royal of the will yields to God.

~Thomas Watson~



All Things for Good (Edinburgh, Scotland; The Banner of Truth Trust; 1986) p. 108-109.

Find more Watson resources here.

Other Watson Quotes

Who Is Thomas Watson?

Tags: ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →