William Gurnall quotes:

Let your hope of heaven master your fear of death.

The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Humble souls are fearful of their own strength.

Let thy hope of heaven master thy fear of death.

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

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.

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).

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

Least doers are the greatest boasters.

The Christian, like a chalice without a base, cannot stand on his own nor hold what he has received any longer that God holds him in His strong hands.

We fear men so much, because we fear God so little.

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

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.

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.

God's wounds cure, sin's kisses kill.

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.

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

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

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?

The sins of teachers are the teachers of sin.

Men are what they see and judge; though some do not fill up their light, yet none go beyond it.

Oh, it is sad for a poor Christian to stand at the door of the promise, in the dark night of affliction, afraid to draw the latch, whereas he should then come boldly for shelter as a child into his father's house.

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

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

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

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

Humility is a necessary veil to all other graces.

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.

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.

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.

As you love your peace, Christian, be plain-hearted with God and man, and keep the king's highway.

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.

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.

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?

CEASE to PRAY and thou will BEGIN to SIN.

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

Christ hath told us He will come, but not when, that we might never put off our clothes, or put out the candle.

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.

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

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

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

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.

God Himself underwrites your battle and has appointed His own Son 'the captain of your salvation'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Godliness is the child of truth, and it must be nursed by its own mother.

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

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

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.

How many, alas, of the precious saints of God must we shut out from being believers, if there is no faith but what amounts to assurance.... shall we say their faith went away in the departure of their assurance?

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Mercy should make us ashamed, wrath afraid to sin.

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

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

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

One Almighty is more than all mighties

Our enemies are on every side, so must our armour be.

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.

Peace of conscience is nothing but the echo of pardoning mercy.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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

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.

The chains of love are stronger than the chains of fear.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Word of God is too sacred a thing, and preaching too solemn a work, to be toyed and played with.

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.

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?

Thou hast no life to lose, because thou hast given it already to Christ, nor can man take away that without God's leave.

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

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."

We are bid to take, not to make our cross.

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

We live by faith, and faith lives by exercise.

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

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.

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.

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