A Goodly Heritage

If faith were assurance , then a man's sins would be pardoned before he believes , for he must necessarily be pardoned before he can know he is pardoned . The candle must be lighted before I can see it is lighted . The child must be born before I can be assured it is born . The object must be before the act . Assurance is rather the fruit of faith , than faith itself . It is in faith as flower is in the root ; faith in time , after much communion with God , acquaintance with the word , and experience of His dealings with the soul , may flourish into assurance . But as the root truly lives before the flower appears , and continues when it has shed its beautiful leaves , and is gone again ; so doth true justifying faith live before assurance comes and after it disappears. William Gurnall

O prosperity ! prosperity !who can resist thy baneful influences ? Who ever stood thy unclouded sunshine ?Who ever escaped unhurt from thine unceasing smile ? There is nothing , nothing so difficult as to escape this ; indeed we may say at once , that without a great degree of the influence of the Spirit of God , it is impossible . Blessed be Jehovah's name , that with Him all things , the very greatest of human impossibilities , are possible . Commonly speaking , however , this is not the case ; it too often happens , and I think it is the greatest proof of the fearful depravity of our nature , that all God's gifts are , one after another , turned in measure against the Giver . W.C. Burns

One thing is needful ; and this is the meaning of a gospel ministry ,-"Be ye reconciled to God ." Make him your refuge , and you will find the way is open , and the welcome prepared . Make him your refuge , and all things will work together for good . When evil passios stir within , and evil men oppress without , - when conscience accuses , and death overshadows , - I am like a dove tossed with the tempest ; but like the dove tossed with the tempest , I see an entrance opened into the bosom of my Father , - thither I fly away to be at rest . Blessed is even the storm which drove the dove to its window . Blessed , in the end , will be the miscellaneous dangers and trials of life ; for they shut  the pilgrim up to the Refuge of his soul , and kept him cowering deep, deep, all his days , in God's loving kindness , which is better than life . William Arnot

In regeneration , nature is not ruined but rectified . The convert is the same man , but new made . The faculties of his soul are not destroyed , but they are refined ; the same viol , but new tuned . Christ did not give the blind man new eyes , but a new sight to the old ones . Christ did not give Lazarus a new body , but enlivened his old body . So God in conversion does not bestow a new understanding , but a new light to the old ; not a new soul , but a new life to the old one .  George Swinnock

And if God spared not the angels , whom He placed in the highest heavens , but for their pride threw them down headlong into the nethermost hell , how much less shall He spare the proud dust and ashes of the sons of men , and shall cast them from the height of their earthly altitude to the bottom of that infernal dungeon  ! " Humility makes men angels ; pride makes angels devils ;" as the Father said ....Oh let us be humbled by our repentance , that we may not be brought down to everlasting confusion ; let us be cast down upon our knees , that we be not cast down upon our faces . For God will make good His own word , one way ; " A man's pride shall bring him low ." Joseph Hall

The righteousness of God , whereby He justifieth sinners , and sanctifieth the justified , and executeth judgement for Hid reconciled people , is the sweetest object of the church's joy .    David Dickson

The wisdom of God is seen in this , that the sins of men shall carry on God's work ; yet that He should have no hand in their sin . The Lord permits sin , but doth not approve it . He hath a hand in the action in which sin is , but not in the sin of the action . Thomas Watson