Imperfect Works

“All the works of the creature since the Fall are imperfect; and therefore utterly unfit to be its justifying righteousness before God, either in whole or in part. It is impossible that an imperfect obedience can make the person that performs it perfectly righteous; and such is the infinite purity of God’s nature and the strictness of His justice, that He can accept nothing for righteousness that is not perfectly conformed to the rule of it in His holy Law. And therefore our own obedience cannot be the whole of our righteousness before God. Nor can it be any part of it; because that which is wholly imperfect can be no part of perfection.”

-Joseph Hart, from his “A Discourse on Justification”, p.15

The Chief End of Man

“A potter forms his vessel for himself, and not for his vessels.  This determines the question with respect to God’s end in the creation
of man.  Philosophers can discern no higher end in creating man than that of making him happy.  But the chief end of the potter in molding his vessels has a reference to himself,  and God’s chief end in making man is His own glory.”

-Robert Haldane, from his Romans commentary, p.483

The Better Garment

“The first Adam’s righteousness was a bright garment that was every way fitted to make creatures stand before God with acceptance in the enjoyment of Eden’s bliss…but the Second Adam’s righteousness is an outshining, glorious robe that is every way fitted to make all those who are clothed with it to stand before the face of God, or in His immediate presence,  with the highest acceptance in the enjoyment of the heavenly paradise, or third heaven’s glory”.

-Joseph Hart, from A Discourse Upon Justification”, p.8-9

The Bent of the Needle

“A course of sinning is not consistent with a course of
godliness. Though the needle of the seaman’s compass
may jog this way and that way—yet the bent of the
needle will still be northward. Just so, though a Christian
may have his particular sinful joggings this way or that
way—yet the bent of his heart will still be . . .
God-wards,
Christ-wards,
heaven-wards,
holiness-wards”

-Thomas Brooks

OT Sacrifices

“The sacrifices under the law must be considered as totally insufficient, either to satisfy the justice of God or the conscience of a convinced sinner”

-John Colquhoun, from his “Sermons on Important Doctrines”, p.181

Entitled to Eternal Life

“None of Adam’s guilty race could perform a single duty corresponding to the purity and extent of the holy law, far less an obedience absolutely perfect in parts, degrees and continuance. But without such a righteousness, none of them could ever be entitled to eternal life. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ, therefore, the Surety of elect sinners, yielded to the law as a covenant, in their room, a righteousness fully commensurate to its high requirements”.

-John Colquhoun, from his , “Sermons on Important Doctrines”,p.155

By the Gospel, Not by the Law

“It is by the Gospel of Christ, not by the law of Moses, that this method of justification gains its object; and it is by believing the truth about Christ, not by yielding obedience to any law, that the sinner, according to this method of justification, is justified.”

John Colquhoun

All of Grace, No Boasting

“They who believe, have no merit in believing, – the faith of the Gospel and the blessings in which it interests, being equally the result of the sovereign grace of God”.

-John Brown, from his Romans commentary, p.286

Not One Good Thought

“Are you from your own experience convinced that your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and that, instead of being able to yield perfect obedience to the law, you are not sufficient so much as to think one good thought”?

-John Colquhoun, from his Sermons On Important Doctrines, p.111

The Gospel

“The Gospel is God’s efficacious means of saving man…This Gospel is not only powerful, but all powerful.  There is no man, however degraded, guilty, depraved, and miserable, that it cannot save.”

John Brown, from his Romans commentary,p.7

The Excellence of Christ’s Righteousness

“When sinners are convinced that no blood can expiate their sins but blood of infinite value, and that no obedience can merit eternal life for them but obedience that is infinitely perfect, the Spirit, shining into their darkened understandings and shining at the same time upon the gospel report concerning Christ, discovers to their hearts the excellence and suitableness of His surety-righteousness revealed in the gospel”.

Ibid, p.97

Christ Bore God’s Wrath For His People

“He suffered in a short space all that inexpressible pressure of infinite wrath that the elect could not have endured though they had lain in the place of torment through all eternity.  He did not only endure all the wrath due for one sin, which we own to be infinite, nor did He only endure the wrath due for all the sins of one sinner, but He endured the wrath due for all the sins of all the elect of God”.

Ibid, p.92

Christ, The Righteous Branch

“He is called a righteous Branch for He is infinitely righteous in Himself, and is the Author of all that imputed righteousness that is necessary to justify, and of all that inherent holiness that is requisite to beautify His people”.

- John Colquhoun, from his Sermons on Important Doctrines, p.77

Love and Hate

“A sinner hates the holiness which he ought to love, and loves the sin which he ought to hate”

W.G.T. Shedd, from his Dogmatic Theology
vol.1. p.177

Light and Darkness

“He who lives to sin, lives in a dark dungeon, laden with fetters; he who lives to God, dwells in light, walks at liberty. The uncertain wildfires of worldly pleasure, which but light those who follow them to their doom, will soon be extinguished in the blackness of darkness for ever.”

Ibid, p.66

An Important Connection

“The better the connection between the atonement and sanctification is understood, the more firmly it is believed, the more habitually it is meditated on, the greater progress will the individual Christian make in practical godliness…The sanctifying efficacy of the atonement is exerted through the faith of the atonement. It is only as known and believed that it can either pacify the conscience or purify the heart”.

Ibid, Vol. 3, p.45

Shall God Spare…

“If God spared not His Son, standing in the room of sinners, shall He spare the sinner who madly insists on keeping his own place, and refuses to seek shelter under the overshadowinng wings of the angel of the covenant? No: there is no salvation without pardon; no pardon without atonement; no atonement without satisfaction; no satisfaction but in the atonement of Christ Jesus.”

Ibid, p.408

The Christian’s Hope

 ”The Christian’s hope is a hope that he shall ultimately be just what God would have him to be, perfectly holy, perfectly happy, in intimate relation, in complete conformity, to God.”

Ibid.,p.333

The Wonder of God

“Everything about God is fitted to fill the mind with awe, and it would seem as if nothing short of insanity could prevent any being possessed of reason and affection from habitually feeling the sentiment of supreme veneration for Him. He is the unexhausted, inexhaustible fountain of all the being, all the life, all the intelligence, all the power, all the activity, all the excellence, all the happiness in the universe”.

Ibid, P.116

Human Nature

“Human nature has become adorable as the true Shekinah, the everlasting palace of the supreme Majesty, wherein the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily – the most holy shrine of the Divinity, the orb of inaccessible light – as this, and more than all this, if more could be expressed, or, if we could explain that text,’ The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’.”

Ibid, P.90