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“Or wash thee in Christ’s blood, which hath this might,
That being red, it dyes red souls to white. “
Addressed to “my black soul,” John Donne, Holy Sonnets, IV.
“’Tis a strange mysterious life
I live from day to day;
Light and darkness, peace and strife,
Bear an alternate sway;
When I think the battle won
I have to fight it o’er again;
When I say I’m overthrown,
Relief I soon obtain.”
John Newton, “Bitter and Sweet,” Olney Hymns, Book 3 (Hymn 27).
“The love thy bleeding cross displays,
The hardest heart subdues;
Here furious lions while they gaze,
Their rage and fierceness lose.
Yet we are but renewed in part,
The lion still remains;
Lord, drive him wholly from my heart,
Or keep him fast in chains.”
John Newton, “The tamed lion,” Olney Hymns, Book 2 (Hymn 93).
“It may be inquired, How God assists natural conscience so as to convince the sinner of his desert of hell? I answer,
In general, it is by light. The whole work of God is carried on in the heart of man from his first convictions to his conversion by light. It is by discoveries which are made to his soul. but by what light is it, that a sinner is made sensible that he deserves God’s wrath? It is some discovery that he has, which makes him sensible of the heinousness of disobeying and casting contempt upon God. The light which gives evangelical humiliation, and which makes man sensible of that hateful and odious nature of sin, is a discovery of God’s glory and excellence and grace. But what is it which a natural man sees of God, which makes him sensible that sin against God deserves his wrath; for he sees nothing of the excellence and loveliness of God’s glory and grace? I answer,
Particularly, it seems to be discovery of God’s awful and terrible greatness. Natural men cannot see any thing of God’s loveliness, his amiable and glorious grace, or any thing which should attract their love; but they may see his terrible greatness to excite their terror. Wicked men in another world, though they do not see his loveliness and grace, yet they see his awful greatness, and that makes them sensible of the heinousness of sin.”
Jonathan Edwards, Sermon on Hosea 5.15 (Works, 2.833); cited in T. M. Moore, Consider the Lilies: A Plea for Creational Theology (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2005), 152, n. 18.
“I find it most true, that the greatest temptation out of hell, is to live without temptations; if my waters should stand, they would rot. Faith is the better of the free air, and of the sharp winter storm in its face. Grace withereth without adversity. The devil is but God’s master fencer, to teach us to handle our weapons.”
Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2007), 4-5.
“So these unclean remnants of sin do nothing at all hinder, but greatly further the godly; for the more they feel their infirmities and sins, so much the more they fly unto Christ the throne of grace, and more heartily crave his aid and succour: to wit, that he will adorn them with his righteousness, that he will increase their faith, that he will endue them with his Spirit, by whose guiding they may overcome the lusts of the flesh, that they may not rule and reign over them, but may be subject unto them. Thus true Christians do continually wrestle with sin, and yet notwithstanding in wrestling they are not overcome, but obtain the victory.”
Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, in John Dillenberger, ed., Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings (New York: Anchor, 1962), 164.
“Therefore it profiteth us very much to feel sometimes the wickedness of our nature and corruption of our flesh, that even by this means we may be waked and stirred up to faith and to call upon Christ.”
Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, in John Dillenberger, ed., Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings (New York: Anchor, 1962), 150.
“I remember that Staupitius was wont to say: ‘I have vowed unto God above a thousand times, that I would become a better man; but I never performed that which I vowed. Hereafter I will make no such vow: for I have now learned by experience, that I am not able to perform it. Unless therefore God be favourable and merciful unto me for Christ’s sake, and grant unto me a blessed and happy hour when i shall depart out of this miserable life, I shall not be able with all my vows and all my good deeds, to stand before him.’”
Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, in John Dillenberger, ed., Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings (New York: Anchor, 1962), 149.
“The most heavenly duties we perform need to be purged by the blood of Christ.”
Jeremiah Burroughs, “Gospel Worship (The Right Manner of Sanctifying the Name of God in General), edited by Don Kistler (Orlando: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 133; originally published in 1648.
“I do not believe that there was in that genteel Bohemia an intensive culture of chastity, but I do not remember so crude a promiscuity as seems to be practised [sic.] in the present day.”
W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence (New York: Penguin, 1944), 13.
