William Gurnall famous quotes

We fear men so much, because we fear God so little.
-- William Gurnall

#Men #Littles #Christianity

Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called "the rejoicing of hope" (Hebrews 3:6).
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Eye #Blessing

The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Christianity

The sins of teachers are the teachers of sin.
-- William Gurnall

#Teacher #Sin

To forsake sin, is to leave it without any thought reserved of returning to it again.
-- William Gurnall

#Sin

In heaven we shall appear, not in armour, but in robes of glory. But here these are to be worn night and day; we must walk, work, and sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ.
-- William Gurnall

#Sleep #Night #Heaven

It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell; it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons.
-- William Gurnall

#Weapons #Hell #Demon

Great comforts do, indeed, bear witness to the truth of thy grace, but not to the degree of it; the weak child is oftener in the lap than the strong one.
-- William Gurnall

#Strong #Children #Grace

We live by faith, and faith lives by exercise.
-- William Gurnall

#Faith #Exercise #Live By

Nothing is more contrary to a heavenly hope than an earthly heart.
-- William Gurnall

#Heart #Christianity #Heavenly

Compare Scripture with Scripture. False doctrines, like false witnesses, agree not among themselves.
-- William Gurnall

#Agreement #Doctrine #Scripture

Paul was Nero's prisoner, but Nero was much more God's.
-- William Gurnall

#Nero #Christianity #Prisoner

Therefore tremble, O man, at any power thou hast, except thou usest it for God. Art thou strong in body; who hath thy strength? God, or thy lusts?
-- William Gurnall

#Art #Strong #Men

We are justified, not by giving anything to God,--what we do,--but by receiving from God, what Christ hath done for us.
-- William Gurnall

#Giving #Done #Receiving

God loves the saints as the purchase of his Son's blood. They cost him dear, and that which is so hardly got shall not be easily lost. He that was willing to expend his Son's blood to gain them, will not deny his power to keep them.
-- William Gurnall

#Son #Blood #Saint

God would not rub so hard if it were not to fetch out the dirt that is ingrained in our natures. God loves purity so well He had rather see a hole than a spot in His child's garments.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Children #Blessing

Cowards never won heaven. Do not claim that you are begotten of God and you have His royal blood running in your veins unless you can prove your lineage by His heroic spirit: to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils.
-- William Gurnall

#Running #Men #Blood

The mightier any is in the word, the more mighty he will be in prayer.
-- William Gurnall

#Prayer

The Christian is bred by the Word, and he must be fed by it.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Christian Inspirational #Feds

It is the saint's duty, and should be their care, not only to believe that God is Almighty, but also to strongly believe that His almighty power is engaged for our defense and help in all of our straits and temptations.
-- William Gurnall

#Believe #Temptation #Saint

There is no such way to be even with the devil and his instruments, for all their spite against us, as by doing what good we can wherever we be come.
-- William Gurnall

#Devil #Way #Instruments

Humble souls are fearful of their own strength.
-- William Gurnall

#Humble #Soul #Fearful

Satan cannot deny but that great wonders have been wrought by prayer. As the spirit of prayer goes up, so his kingdom goes down. Satan's strategems against prayer are three. First, if he can, he will keep thee from prayer. If that be not feasible, secondly, he will strive to interrupt thee in prayer. And, thirdly, if that plot takes not, he will labour to hinder the success of thy prayer.
-- William Gurnall

#Prayer #Plot #Three

Never venture near the door where sin dwells, lest you are dragged in.
-- William Gurnall

#Doors #Venture #Sin

Peace of conscience is nothing but the echo of pardoning mercy.
-- William Gurnall

#Echoes #Mercy #Conscience

Bid faith look through the key-hole of the promise, and tell thee what it sees there laid up for him that overcomes; bid it listen and tell thee whether it cannot hear the shout of those crowned saints, as of those that are dividing the spoil, and receiving the reward of all their services and sufferings here on earth.
-- William Gurnall

#Keys #Promise #Suffering

The chains of love are stronger than the chains of fear.
-- William Gurnall

#Stronger #Chains

We must not confide in the armour of God, but in the God of this armour, because all our weapons are only mighty through God.
-- William Gurnall

#Weapons

He that loves the Word and the purity of its precepts cannot turn traitor.
-- William Gurnall

#Purity #Traitor #Turns

What is Jordan that I should wash in it? What is the preaching that I should attend on it, while I hear nothing but what I knew before? What are these beggarly elements of water, bread, and wine? Are not these the reasonings of a soul that forgets who appoints the means of grace?
-- William Gurnall

#Reading #Wine #Mean

How can God stoop lower than to come and dwell with a poor humble soul? Which is more than if he had said, such a one should dwell with him; for a beggar to live at court is not so much as the king to dwell with him in his cottage.
-- William Gurnall

#Kings #Humble #Soul

It is one thing to know a truth, and another thing to know it by unction.
-- William Gurnall

When people do not mind what God speaks to them in His word, God doth as little mind what they say to Him in prayer.
-- William Gurnall

#Prayer #People #Mind

Justifying faith is not a naked assent to the truths of the gospel.
-- William Gurnall

#Naked

The regenerating Spirit is compared to the wind. His first attempts on the soul may be so secret that the creature knows not whence they come, or whither they tend; but, before he hath done, the sound will be heard throughout the soul.
-- William Gurnall

#Wind #Soul #Secret

Weak faith will as surely land the Christian in heaven as strong faith, for it is impossible the least dram of true grace should perish
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Strong #Land

Say not that thou hast royal blood in thy veins; say not that thou art born of God if thou canst not prove thy pedigree by daring to be holy!
-- William Gurnall

#Art #Blood #Temptation

The longer a soul hath neglected duty, the more ado there is to get it taken up.
-- William Gurnall

#Taken #Soul #Laziness

Christ is the door that opens into God's presence and lets the soul into His very bosom, faith is the key that unlocks the door; but the Spirit is He that makes this key.
-- William Gurnall

#Keys #Doors #Soul

Least doers are the greatest boasters.
-- William Gurnall

#Doers #Boasters

The possessions God allows us to have are intended for our use, not our enjoyment. Trying to squeeze something out of them that was never in them in the first place is a futile endeavor. A cow's udders, gently pressed, will yield sweet milk, nourishing and refreshing. Applying more and more pressure will not produce greater quantities of milk. We lose the good of material things by expecting too much from them. Those who try hardest to please themselves with earthly goods find the least satisfaction in them.
-- William Gurnall

#Sweet #Yield #Trying

Few are made better by prosperity, whom afflictions make worse.
-- William Gurnall

#Affliction #Prosperity #Made

We have peace with God as soon as we believe, but not always with ourselves. The pardon may be past the prince's hand and seal, and yet not put into the prisoner's hand.
-- William Gurnall

#Believe #Past #Hands

We are bid to take, not to make our cross.
-- William Gurnall

#Crosses

The grace thou hast will soon be less, if thou addest not more to it.
-- William Gurnall

#Grace

For a beggar to live at court is not so much as the King to dwell with him in his cottage.
-- William Gurnall

#Kings #Cottages #Court

The storm may be tempestuous, but it is only temporary.
-- William Gurnall

#Storm #May #Temporary

A minister, without boldness, is like a smooth file, a knife without an edge, a sentinel that is afraid to let off his gun. If men will be bold in sin, ministers must be bold to reprove.
-- William Gurnall

#Men #Gun #Knives

The Christian's life should put his minister's sermon in print.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Ministers #Should

Mercy should make us ashamed, wrath afraid to sin.
-- William Gurnall

#Wrath #Sin #Mercy

Of all creatures in this visible world, light is the most glorious; of all light, the light of the sun without compare excels the rest.
-- William Gurnall

#Light #World #Sun

He that is impatient, and cannot wait on God for a mercy, will not easily submit to Him in a denial.
-- William Gurnall

#Waiting #Denial #Patient

Whoever hath a seed time of grace pass over his soul, shall have his harvest time also of joy.
-- William Gurnall

#Joy #Soul #Grace

Blind zeal is soon put to a shameful retreat, while holy resolution, built on fast principles, lifts up its head like a rock in the midst of the waves.
-- William Gurnall

#Rocks #Retreat #Principles

As the eye of the body once put out, can never be restored by the creature's art, so neither can the spiritual eye lost by Adam's sin be restored by the teaching of men or angels. It is one of the diseases which Christ came to cure.
-- William Gurnall

#Spiritual #Art #Teaching

All the plots of hell and commotions on earth have not so much as shaken God's hand to spoil one letter or line he has been drawing.
-- William Gurnall

#Hands #Drawing #Earth

Set a strong guard about thy outward senses: these are Satan's landing places, especially the eye and the ear.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Strong #Eye

Pride of gifts robs us of God's blessing in the use of them.
-- William Gurnall

#Pride #Blessing #Use

No torment in the world is comparable to an accusing conscience.
-- William Gurnall

#Inspirational Life #World #Accusing

One Almighty is more than all mighties
-- William Gurnall

#Christianity #Almighty

And therefore you who think so basely of the Gospel and the professors of it, because at present their peace and comfort are not come, should know that it is on the way to them, and comesto stay everlastingly with them; whreas your peace is going is going from you every moment, and is sure to leave you without any hope of returning to you again. Look not how the Christian begins, but ends.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Peace #Thinking

Truly, hope is the saint's covering, wherein he wraps himself, when he lays his body down to sleep in the grave: "My flesh," saith David, "shall rest in hope."
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Sleep #Blessing

Let thy hope of heaven master thy fear of death. Why shouldst thou be afraid to die, who hopest to live by dying!
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Blessing #Heaven

God, to prevent all escape, hath sown the seeds of death in our very constitution and nature, so that we can as soon run from ourselves, as run from death. We need no feller to come with a hand of violence and hew us down; there is in the tree a worm, which grows out of its own substance, that will destroy it; so in us, those infirmities of nature that will bring us down to the dust.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Running #Blessing

God's wounds cure, sin's kisses kill.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Kissing #Blessing

Praying is the same to the new creature as crying is to the natural. The child is not learned by art or example to cry, but instructed by nature; it comes into the world crying. Praying is not a lesson got by forms and rules of art, but flowing from principles of new life itself.
-- William Gurnall

#Art #Prayer #Children

Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God's Word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again.
-- William Gurnall

#Prayer #Promise #Argument

Pray often rather than very long at a time. It is hard to be very long in prayer, and not slacken in our affections.
-- William Gurnall

#Prayer #Long #Affection

Job's friends chose the right time to visit him, but took not the right course of improving their visit; had they spent the time in praying for him which they did in hot disputes with him, they would have profited him, and pleased God more.
-- William Gurnall

#Jobs #Prayer #Hot

Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers, and make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith, when strengthened, will make thee fervent, and such fervency ever speeds and returns with victory out of the field of prayer. The mightier any is in the Word, the more mighty he will be in prayer.
-- William Gurnall

#Prayer #Promise #Victory

Cease to pray and thou will begin to sin. Prayer is not only a means to prevail for mercy but also to prevent sin.
-- William Gurnall

#Prayer #Mean #Praying

Never was a faithful prayer lost. Some prayers have a longer voyage than others, but then they return with their richer lading at last, so that the praying soul is a gainer by waiting for an answer.
-- William Gurnall

#Prayer #Waiting #Soul

If thou beest ever so exact in thy morals, and not a worshiper of God, then thou art an atheist.
-- William Gurnall

#Atheist #Art #Moral

Let thy hope of heaven master thy fear of death.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Heaven #Fear Of Death

We must come to good works by faith, and not to faith by good works.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Christian Inspirational #Good Work

Humility is a necessary veil to all other graces.
-- William Gurnall

#Humility #Grace #Veils

The Christian must stand fixed to his principles, and not change his habit; but freely show what countryman he is by his holy constancy in the truth.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Principles #Habit

Indeed all the saints are taught the same lesson - to renounce their own strength, and rely on the power of God; their own policy, and cast themselves on the wisdom of God; their own righteousness, and expect all from the pure mercy of God in Christ, which act of faith is so pleasing to God, that such a soul shall never be ashamed.
-- William Gurnall

#Soul #Saint #Lessons

Christ bears with the saints' imperfections; well may the saints one with another.
-- William Gurnall

#Imperfection #May #Bears

The soldier is summoned to a life of active duty and so is the Christian.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Soldier #Duty

And while God had work for Paul, he found him friends both in court and prison. Let persecutors send saints to prison, God can provide a keeper for their turn.
-- William Gurnall

#Saint #Prison #Found

Compare not thyself with those that have less than thyself, but look on those that have far exceeded thee.
-- William Gurnall

#Looks #Thee #Compare

God hath made it a debt which one saint owes to another to carry their names to a throne of grace.
-- William Gurnall

#Names #Grace #Thrones

Christ will bear no equal, and Satan no superior; and therefore, hold in with both thou canst not.
-- William Gurnall

#Bears #Satan #Christ

The Christian is to proclaim and prosecute an irreconcilable war against his bosom sins; those sins which have lain nearest his heart, must now be trampled under his feet.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #War #Heart

The Christian in prayer comes up close to God, with a humble boldness of faith, and takes hold of him, wrestles with him; yea, will not let him go without a blessing... They are only a few noble-spirited souls, who dare take heaven by force, that are fit for this calling.
-- William Gurnall

#Christian #Prayer #Humble

The devil had as good have let Paul alone, for he no sooner comes into prison but he falls a preaching, at which the gates of Satan's prison fly open, and poor sinners come forth.
-- William Gurnall

#Fall #Devil #Satan

It is no policy to let thy lusts have arms, which are sure to rise and declare against thee when thine enemy comes.
-- William Gurnall

#Lust #Enemy #Arms

God is almighty to pardon, but He will not use His power for a shameless sinner. He is able to save and help in time of need, but if you have not repented, how can you expect His aid? The same power God expends on the believer's salvation will be spent on your damnation, for He has bound Himself under oath to destroy every impenitent soul.
-- William Gurnall

#Judgement #Soul #Needs

God is very precise in this point; he will say to such as invent ways to worship him of their own, coin means to mortify corruption, obtain comfort in their own mint: 'Who hath required this at your hands?' This is truly to be 'righteous over-much,' as Solomon speaks, when we will pretend to correct God's law, and add supplements of our own to his rule.
-- William Gurnall

#Mean #Hands #Law

Many lose heaven because they are ashamed to go in a fool's coat thither.
-- William Gurnall

#Heaven #Fool #Coats

Can Christ be in thou heart and thou not know it? Can one king be dethroned and another crowned in thy soul and thou hear no scuffle?
-- William Gurnall

#Kings #Heart #Soul

Paul was Nero's prisoner, but Nero was much more God's... But how does the great apostle spend his time in prison?... We read of no dispatches sent to court to procure his liberty; but many to the churches, to help them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free... The devil had as good have let Paul alone, for he no sooner comes into prison but he falls a preaching, at which the gates of Satan's prison fly open, and poor sinners come forth.
-- William Gurnall

#Fall #Church #Liberty

Godliness, as well as the doctrine of our faith, is a mystery.
-- William Gurnall

#Doctrine #Mystery #Wells

CEASE to PRAY and thou will BEGIN to SIN.
-- William Gurnall

#Praying #Sin

It is not only our duty to pray for others, but also to desire the prayers of others for ourselves.
-- William Gurnall

#Prayer #Desire #Praying

Sometimes, perhaps, thou hearest another pray with much freedom and fluency, whilst thou canst hardly get out a few broken words. Hence thou art ready to accuse thyself and admire him, as if the gilding of the key made it open the door the better.
-- William Gurnall

#Art #Prayer #Doors