On this page we provide a variety of interesting quotes from Christian writers
and preachers which we hope to update from time to time, along with links to
other writings by those quoted.
"'I saw also the Lord', The prophet Isaiah, 6:1.... This was the foundation and
rise of the ministry of Isaiah, and it is, more or less, the foundation and
rise of all ministry that has any authority, old or new testament, from the
beginning of the world to the end of it: 'I saw - saw - also the
Lord.'
Without that, the claim to a Christian ministry is the lowest, and indeed, the
vilest of hypocrisies. With it, why turn to man, man's teaching, man's
schooling, man's authority, or man's ordination? Why? None of those did, who
were sent of God throughout all the scriptures: 'I saw also the Lord.' A
supernatural manifestation.
This was that out of which Isaiah ministered, and which gave authority for and
to his ministry.
...
And until the present-day usurpers, pretenders, and 'authorities', cease
preventing the ministry of Christ from heaven, the ministry of the Spirit, the
ministry of righteousness, from reaching the people, that people, under their
present leprous teachers and rulers, will never know the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Why not? Because the word 'Ichabod' has been written over the portals
of that wherein they hope to be saved.
Then, let the people come out from among them with weeping, mourning, and
heart-broken self-judgment, in pentience seeking the LORD with all that call on
the Lord out of a pure heart. No matter how few or poor they may be, only that
they may be found together in one body, having the same mind and the same
judgment, all speaking the same thing.
Let them come together with meekness and lowliness of mind, united in one
Spirit, under the one ministry of Christ. That is, the ministry sent from the
Head in the excellent glory, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for
his name, Romans 1:1-5."
John Metcalfe
From the booklet "The Heavenly Vision".
"Through the preaching of the Gospel God gathers and unites His people together
as One Body in Christ , as a pool of light separated from, divided
from, the darkness of the world around them. The Adversary, however, constantly
seeks to do the opposite. He loves to keep God's people united with the world,
and with the world's religion, and divided from one another, and from
the truth. So may God give us grace to recognise what is the rightful
separation of light from darkness, of truth from error, of the Body of Christ
from the world, and what is the true unity of the saints in the Gospel of God's
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ... and to stand fast therein."
Ian Potts (21st May 2007)
"Light in God's Light. Psalm 36:9, Isaiah 60:19
In darkness born, I went astray,
And wandered from the gospel way;
And since the Saviour gave me sight,
I cannot see without his light.
So poor, and blind, and lame I am,
My all is bound up in the Lamb;
And blessed am I when I see
My spirit's inmost poverty.
I cannot walk without his might,
I cannot see without his light;
I can have no access to God,
But through the merits of his blood.
It makes me feel my ruined state,
It lays my soul at mercy's gate;
And Jesus smiles at such a guest;
And cheers him with a heavenly feast."
John Berridge - 748 in Gadsby's Hymns
"The saving revelation of grace in the new birth is not the revelation of
Christ to me, but the revelation of Christ in me (Gal. 1:15-16);
and Christ revealed in me is “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col.
1:27)."
"Election was never a hindrance to my seeking the Lord when I was in concern of
my soul, for if I had known there was only one person in Croydon going to be
saved, I could not have rested till I knew that I was that one."
By Francis Covell (1808-1879) who was a preacher who became a great friend of
J.C. Philpot. Indeed Philpot sat under Covell's ministry at Croydon in his
latter years. Covell began preaching in his own home and his ministry proved to
be a blessing to many. Remarkably he was afflicted by a terrible natural
stammer which the Lord removed when he began to preach the Gospel.
"The Christian's Spiritual Voyage. Psalm 107:23-28
Jesus, at thy command
I launch into the deep;
And leave my native land,
Where sin lulls all asleep;
For thee I would the world resign,
And sail to heaven with thee and thine.
Thou art my Pilot wise;
My compass is thy word;
My soul each storm defies,
While I have such a Lord;
I trust thy faithfulness and power,
To save me in the trying hour.
Though rocks and quicksands deep
Through all my passage lie;
Yet Christ will safely keep,
And guide me with his eye;
My anchor, hope, shall firm abide,
And I each boisterous storm outride.
By faith I see the land -
The port of endless rest;
My soul, thy sails expand,
And fly to Jesus' breast!
O may I reach the heavenly shore
Where winds and waves distress no more.
Whene'er becalmed I lie;
And storms forbear to toss;
Be thou, dear Lord, still nigh;
Lest I should suffer loss;
For more the treacherous calm I dread,
Than tempters bursting o'er my head.
Come, Holy Ghost, and blow
A prosperous gale of grace;
Waft me from all below
To heaven, my destined place,
Then, in full sail, my port I'll find,
And leave the world and sin behind."
R. De Courcy - 294 in Gadsby's Hymns
"If you can’t do without God, He won’t do without you."
Francis Covell (1808-1879).
"You will, I doubt not, agree with me when I say that a great change has taken
place, during the last sixty years, in the principles maintained by the
Particular Baptist churches. It was once the glory of these churches, that they
contended earnestly for the doctrines of sovereign discriminating grace, even
when a disposition appeared too generally amongst professors to relax on these
points, and to accommodate matters with the world; a disposition much lamented
and deprecated by the servants of Christ. Dr. Gill has distinctly foretold its
pernicious effects, which have been only too visible in our own churches. In
his sermon on "The Watchman’s Answer," &c., he says, "Of late years there
has been a very visible decline, and a night is coming on, which we are
entered into; the shadows of the evening are stretching out apace upon us, and
the signs of the eventide are very manifest, and will shortly appear yet more
and more: coldness and indifference in spiritual things, a want of
affection to God, Christ, his people, truths and ordinances, may easily be
observed; the first love is left; iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes
cold; and it will wax yet colder and colder, and will issue in a general
forsaking of assembling together, and in an entire neglect of the ministers of
the gospel; when such who have been professors themselves will be shy of them,
and carefully shun them," &c. Now, what would this holy man say, were he at
present alive, to find his words fulfilled so soon in his own denomination?
What an alteration must have taken place amongst us, when there are now very
few to be found who maintain the same glorious truths for which Dr. Gill was so
able an advocate, and the few who do, are no longer cordially received into our
pulpits or tolerated in our associations! Men have risen up amongst us
everywhere speaking perverse things; the churches have been gradually drawn
aside by them, until at length professors will not endure sound doctrine, but
are yearly heaping to themselves such teachers as will gratify their itching
ears.
Mr. Fuller appears to have been a kind of a leader in this defection, at least
he considered his own publications to have conduced not a little to the change.
Writing to a friend on this subject, he expresses himself, says his biographer,
in the following strong and pointed language:—"When I first published my
treatise on the nature of faith, and the duty of all men who hear the gospel to
believe it, the Christian profession had sunk into contempt among us; insomuch
that had matters gone on but a few years longer, the Baptists would have become
a perfect dunghill in society." Strong and pointed language indeed! yet
it must really be confessed that this was in a great degree the case. The truth
is, that the principles maintained at that time by the Baptists were such as to
render them odious to the public. They never could maintain those
principles inviolably, and at the same time be generally esteemed a respectable
body of professing Christians. They were distinctly forewarned by the Lord
himself, that they should be hated of all men for his sake; that if they kept
his words, the world would hate them, even as it had hated him. If the doctrine
he taught caused the Master of the house to be despised and rejected of men;
if, for the same cause, the apostles were esteemed as the filth of the world,
the offscouring of all things,—what right had these Baptists to
complain, if while holding in their measures the same truths, their profession
became contemptible, and their churches considered a perfect dunghill in
society? Complain! No, it was the highest honor they were capable of in this
life. If to them it was given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in
him, but also to suffer for his sake, they ought to have rejoiced that they
were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And I doubt not many
of them did. Dr. Gill, when declaring his determination to go on preaching a
free and finished salvation in the face of all opposition, adds: "I am not
afraid of the reproaches of men; I have been inured to these from my youth
upwards, but none of these things move me."
But, as I have already said, the case is very different now. Since Mr. Fuller’s
principles have obtained amongst us, we are no longer offensive to the
world; or, to use his strong language, we are no longer a dunghill in society.
The offense of the cross has, in a great degree, ceased in reference to our
doctrine, our profession, and our preaching. And to add to our respectability,
we have amongst us a number of rational polite ministers; men whose minds are
too enlightened, too liberal, to insist much on the
distinguishing doctrines of the gospel, and who are, consequently, rolling
along in the full stream of earthly reputation. They speak according to the
world and the world heareth them. But with all these advantages, what have we
lost? O God! thou knowest what we have lost! Our profession is offensive; but
alas! we have lost much of the comfort of the Holy Ghost. We have gained ease
and tranquility; but we have lost in a great degree, the sensible enjoyment of
the Lord’s special presence. We are no more odious to society; but the Holy
Spirit is remarkably withdrawn: that adorable Person is grieved; the power
of godliness is almost gone; and, in many instances, the form is ready
to depart also."
William Rushton
Taken from his 1831 work "Particular
Redemption" in which he refutes the erroneous doctrine taught by Andrew
Fuller regarding Christ's atonement of sinners. Here he describes the effect
that 'Fullerism' had upon the spiritual state of the churches at his time. The
description could easily be applied to many congregations of our own day whose
ministers have become enchanted by the 'Arminianism in Calvinist clothing' of
that teaching put forth by Fuller. Rushton's work has recently been republished
by Go Publications and is highly
commended to all. See the "Books" page for details and
their website for information on how
to order from them.
"A man's free will cannot cure him even of a toothache or a sore finger, and
yet he madly thinks it is in his power to cure his soul of sin. Actually, the
greatest judgment which God Himself can in this present life inflict upon a man
is to leave that man in the hand of HIS OWN BOASTING FREE-WILL!"
Augustus Toplady
"There is no greater evidence of spiritual death than that which is revealed
when men and women sit under the message of the gospel on Sunday morning and
then go into the day totally unmoved in heart by the wonders of Christ and Him
crucified. I do not look for a man to be a murderer, a thief, a liar or an
adulterer to believe he is spiritually dead. The greatest indicator of the true
state of man before the Living God is his response to the wondrous gospel of
God’s grace in Christ."
"The Gospel of God's grace in Christ Jesus is not a thing to be proved, but
truth to be believed. It is not submitted to our reasoning powers as a subject
for critical examination. The gospel is a MESSAGE FROM GOD, addressed to the
conscience, feelings, and affections. For this reason, men fond of argument and
proving everything by strictly logical deduction generally make very poor
preachers. In the Scriptures, God does not argue, He proclaims!"
J.C. Philpot
"There are three things in the great mysteries of salvation that many
professors of religion seem almost alarmed at. One is that God really saves
sinners. If a minister of Jesus Christ is led to describe a sinner half as he
really is, for to the bottom of him he never can, he shocks their delicate
minds, and they are almost paralyzed, and call it the high road of
licentiousness to suppose that God saves such naughty sinners as those; whilst
a poor soul under the quickening, enlightening, teaching energy of God the
Spirit, fears that his case is desperate, and if God sends a minister of truth,
who hits upon such a desperate case, and points it out as one that the Lord has
in hand, the poor creature is astonished, and wonders where he has been; for he
never heard that. Another branch of truth that men seem almost alarmed at, is
the method that God takes in saving those sinners. If we come to trace
salvation to its spring-head, God's electing love--"O! This is horrifying. We
must not talk about election in these polite days. If we believe in it, we must
put other words for it, and say, 'The Lord's people,' and 'The Lord's family,'
and 'The pious;' but never talk about 'election;'" and thus the doctrine of
God's discriminating, electing love is discarded. And then another branch of
divine truth, that men seem alarmed at, is the power of God the Spirit in
making this salvation known to the conscience, and bringing it with divine
power and majesty to the heart and maintaining it there as the poor sinner
sojourns in this wilderness. Some people are alarmed at all the three, and some
only at the last; some of them will chatter about election till their tongues
almost cleave to the roof of their mouth; but if you insist upon vital
godliness, the power of God the Holy Ghost in the conscience producing a
corresponding conduct, they will call you an enthusiastic legalist. And thus
divine things are set at nought on one hand or the other. But God will
vindicate his own honour, and "make bare his arm," and bring his loved ones at
some period or other to adopt the language of our text: "The Lord hath done
great things for us, whereof we are glad.""
"The Holy Spirit is often set forth by the well-known emblem of fire: hence we
read of the "spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning;" and of men being
"baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire." The first of these signifies the
illuminating operations of the Spirit; the fire is the love of God shed abroad
in the heart by the Spirit; and men thus furnished for the work of the ministry
are called, as John was, burning and shining lights, John, v. 35; taking their
title from their fiery baptism. "He maketh his angels spirits, and his
ministers a flaming fire," Heb. i. 7. And I believe the seraphim, in the sixth
chapter of Isaiah, to be nothing else but hieroglyphical of gospel ministers;
for the name signifies "fiery, burning," or rather "inflaming." There is, under
the influence of the Holy Spirit, such a burning love as no water can quench,
nor flood drown, accompanied with a fiery zeal for God and his cause. And in
the light of the Spirit there are such views of Christ's person, loveliness,
and fulness, and such beauties in God, his word, and ways, as give heat and
fervour to all our devotions; while the promises which flow into the heart,
come as live coals from the altar, and increase the ardour; and the joy that
springs from love is, at times, the visible flames which on the altar ascend to
God from the hallowed fire within, which is pent up in the heart till the
flames of joy give it vent. Under this influence there is a thirst for the
salvation of sinners, a watching for their souls, a longing after their
welfare, hard labour in studying and preaching to them, many earnest prayers
and tears to God for success in the work, an earnest desire after them as
fellow sinners and fellow-creatures; all which are heightened by a true sight
of their undone estate, a knowledge of the terrors of the Lord, and the
certainty of their endless destruction out of Christ. And such labourers,
having felt both the pains of hell and joys of heaven, they alarm and warn them
to flee from the wrath to come, and labour to allure and win them to embrace
the refuge and the hope that is set before them. What hard labour and soul
travail, what earnest prayers and bitter cries, what holy longings and fervent
hopes of success in this holy calling, I mean that of being fishers of men, do
fall to the lot of those who are called of God to labour in the word and
doctrine!"
William Huntington S.S. (strangely dismissed by some as 'Hyper-Calvinistic'...)
describing the burden for souls laid upon the heart of preachers by the Holy
Spirit.
Taken from "The Saint's Seed-Time And Harvest".
This and other writings of Huntington can be read in the publication
"The Fountain of Life" details of which are on the "Books"
page.
"If you deny [Christ] to be a sinner and accursed, deny also that he was
crucified and was dead. But if it be not absurd to confess and believe that
Christ was crucified between two thieves, then it is not absurd to say that he
was accursed, and of all sinners the greatest."
Martin Luther, speaking of what Christ was made to be vicariously for sinners
during the hours of darkness at the cross in order that they might become the
righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Taken from his commentary on
the epistle to the Galatians.
For the context see also...
"‘Salvation is of the LORD.’ It is all of God. It is not that the Son
did a general work, and man can go and fetch it. What? Sinners under wrath;
souls at enmity; those dead in sin go and fetch it? First, they
wouldn’t; Second, they couldn’t.
Never. No, not condemned; bound; slaves of Satan; born in sin; under the
bondage of the will; their carnal minds at enmity with God; dead before God.
Fetch salvation? They don’t want it; they can’t reach it; their blind eyes
can’t see it; and their withered arm of free will on their corpses of death are
incapable of grasping it.
But the love of God can bring it. And this is the work of the Holy Ghost: to bring
salvation, and cause it inwardly to appear, in the light of the glorious
evangel of Christ. Then men believe, and believing, rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory."
"Every religion except one puts you upon doing something in order to recommend
yourself to God... It is the business of all false religion to patch up a
righteousness in which the sinner is to stand before God. But it is the
business of the glorious gospel to bring near to us, by the hand of the Holy
Spirit, a righteousness ready wrought, a robe of perfection ready made, wherein
God's people, to all the purposes of justification and happiness, stand perfect
and without fault before the throne."
Augustus Toplady.
"When I am weak, and distressed, and alone, and none to receive my tale of
sorrow, none to express a word of fellow-feeling or care for me, in the living
oracles of the gospel I see divine wisdom and lovingkindness looking at me
tenderly, compassionately, through the openings of my prison, and I feel that
He who dresses the lily of the field, and numbers the sparrows, is near me,
numbering the hairs of my head, listening to my cries, in all the treasures of
His grace and power. He is the same gracious Redeemer and Preserver to every
one that believes in His name."
Christmas Evans
Taken from the book "Christmas Evans" by B.A. Ramsbottom.
"Without a knowledge of the plague, there can be no experience of the cure.
Without sin and judgment being inwritten, so that one believes and trembles,
then all need of the cross, all necessity of Golgotha, remains but a theory in
the head."
John Metcalfe
From the book "Saving Faith".
"Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man, for we shall this day light
such a candle in England as I trust by God's grace shall never be put out."
Hugh Latimer
As he was burnt at the stake in October 1555.
"As I cannot get a DD for the want of cash, neither can I get an MA for the
want of learning; therefore I am compelled to fly for refuge to SS, by which I
mean Sinner Saved; or, that I am made wise to salvation; or, as Luke expresses
it, 'I have had the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of my sins.'"
William Huntington S.S.
The Preface to "The Kingdom of Heaven Taken by Prayer".
Click here to read William Huntington's
"Coalheaver's Confession".
"Seven elements which distinguish the real gospel, the new covenant, from
imitations:
the free grace of God as the cause of salvation;
peace with God as the result of salvation;
Christ as the heart of salvation;
Christ's death and resurrection as the means of salvation;
deliverance as the hallmark of salvation;
the will of God as the source of salvation
the glory of God as the purpose of salvation."
"The gospel is of divine origin, made known to Paul 'through the revelation of
Jesus Christ'. It is revealed, unique, Christ-centred, perfect, complete and
eternal in its conception, validity and effects. This revealed gospel differs
from all 'gospels' of human origin in that its purpose is to glorify God,
rather than to please man."
Edgar Andrews
Extracts from the book "Free in Christ".
"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ." John 1:17
