John Bunyan

“ To understand all mysteries, to have all knowledge, to be able to comprehend with all saints, is a great work; enough to crush the spirit, and to stretch the strings of the most capacious, widened soul that breatheth on this side glory, be they notwithstanding exceedingly enlarged by revelation. Paul, when he was caught up to heaven, saw that which was unlawful, because impossible, for man to utter. And saith Christ to the reasoning Pharisee, “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” ”

“ The death of Christ giveth us the best discovery of ourselves; in what condition we were, so that nothing could help us but that; and the most clear discovery of the dreadful nature of our sins. For if sin be such a dreadful thing as to wring the heart of the Son of God, how shall a poor wretched sinner be able to bear it? ”

“ What folly can be greater than to labour for the meat that perisheth, and neglect the food of eternal life?
God or the world must be neglected at parting time, for then is the time of trial.
To seek yourself in this life is to be lost; and to be humble is to be exalted. ”

“ Sixthly, When a man has a child, he trains him up to his own liking, he learns the custom of his father’s house; so are those that are born of God; they have learned the custom of the true church of God, there they learn to cry, My Father and my God; they are brought up in God’s house, they learn the method and form of God’s house for regulating their lives in this world.
Seventhly, Children, it is natural for them to depend upon their father for what they want. If they want a pair of shoes, they go and tell him; if they want bread, they go and tell him; so should the children of God do. ”

“ Thus, therefore, the soul that is married to him that is raised up from the dead, both may and ought to deal with this law of God; yea, it doth greatly dishonour its Lord and refuse its gospel privileges, if it at any time otherwise doth, whatever it seeth or feels. “The law hath power over the wife so long as her husband liveth, but if her husband be dead she is freed from that law; so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man.” ”

“ Secondly, It is not only natural for a child to cry, but it must crave the breast, it cannot live without the breast; therefore Peter makes it the true trial of a new-born babe; the new-born babe desires the sincere milk of the Word, that he may grow thereby. If you be born of God, make it manifest by desiring the breast of God. Do you long for the milk of promises? A man lives one way when he is in the world, another way when he is brought unto Jesus Christ ”

“ It is great lewdness, and also insufferable arrogancy, to come to the Word of God, as conceiting already that whatever thou readest must either by thee be understood, or of itself fall to the ground as a senseless error. But God is wiser than man, wherefore fear thou him, and tremble at his word, saying still, with godly suspicion of thine own infirmity, What I see not, teach thou me; and, Thou art God only wise; but as for me, I am as a beast before thee.
3. Take heed of taking a part of the Word only, lest thou thereby go away with the truth as mangled in pieces. ”

“ You that are born of God, and Christians, if you be not criers, there is no spiritual life in you; if you be born of God, you are crying ones; as soon as he has raised you out of the dark dungeon of sin, you cannot but cry to God, What must I do to be saved? As soon as ever God had touched the jailor, he cries out, “Men and brethren, what must I do to be saved?” Oh! how many prayerless professors are there in London that never pray? Coffee-houses will not let you pray, trades will not let you pray, looking-glasses will not let you pray ”

“ I have often thought that the best of Christians are found in the worst times: and I have thought again, that one reason why we are not better is, because God purges us no more. Noah and Lot, who so holy as they in the time of their afflictions! and yet, who so idle as they in the time of their prosperity? ”

“ As the devil labours by all means to keep out other things that are good, so to keep out of the heart as much as in him lies, the thoughts of passing out of this life into another world; for he knows if he can but keep them from the serious thoughts of death, he shall the more easily keep them in their sins.
Nothing will make us more earnest in working out the work of our salvation than a frequent meditation of mortality; nothing hath a greater influence for the taking off our hearts from vanities, and for the begetting in us desires for holiness. ”

“ The Lord useth his flail of tribulation to separate the chaff from the wheat.
The school of the cross is the school of light; it discovers the world’s vanity, baseness, and wickedness, and lets us see more of God’s mind. Out of dark affliction comes a spiritual light. ”

“ Indeed, so long as thou art alive to sin, and to thy righteousness which is of the law, so long thou hast them for thy husband, and they must reign over thee; but when once they are become dead unto thee—as they then most certainly will when thou closest with the Lord Jesus Christ—then, I say, thy former husbands have no more to meddle with thee; thou art freed from their law. Set the case: A woman be cast into prison for a debt of hundreds of pounds ”

“ A man would be counted a fool to slight a judge before whom he is to have a trial of his whole estate. The trial we are to have before God is of otherwise importance; it concerns our eternal happiness or misery, and yet dare we affront him. ”

“ When the sound of the trumpet shall be heard, which shall summon the dead to appear before the tribunal of God, the righteous shall hasten out of their graves with joy to meet their Redeemer in the clouds; others shall call to the mountains and hills to fall upon them, to cover them from the sight of their judge ”

“ Those that are in a carnal state, they warm themselves with other things; but those that are born again, they cannot live without some promise of Christ to keep them alive, as he did to the poor infant in Ezekiel xvii., “I covered thee with embroidered gold.” And when women are with child, what fine things will they prepare for their child! ”

“ There is no good in this life but what is mingled with some evil: honours perplex, riches disquiet, and pleasures ruin health. But in heaven we shall find blessings in their purity, without any ingredient to imbitter ”

“ Secondly, As it is compared to a birth, resembling a child in his mother’s womb, so it is compared to a man being raised out of the grave; and to be born again is to be raised out of the grave of sin—“Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life.” ”

“ O but what fine things has Christ prepared to wrap all in that are born again! O what wrappings of gold has Christ prepared for all that are born again! Women will dress their children, that every one may see them how fine they are; so he in Ezekiel xvi. 11—“I decked thee also with ornaments, and I also put bracelets upon thine hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and ear-rings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head;” and, says he in the 13th verse, “thou didst prosper to a kingdom.” ”

“ I am not a free willer, I do abhor it; yet there is not the wickedest man but he desires some time or other to be saved. He will read some time or other, or, it may be, pray; but this will not do—“It is not in him that wills, nor in him that runs, but in God that shews mercy;” there is willing and running, and yet to no purpose ”

“ let the sermon thou hast heard be converted into prayer: shall God allow thee six days, and wilt thou not afford him one? ”

“ Nothing can render affliction so heavy as the load of sin; would you therefore be fitted for afflictions, be sure to get the burden of your sins laid aside, and then what afflictions soever you meet with will be very easy to you. ”

“ Wherefore do the wicked live?” Mark, first he acknowledgeth that God’s way with the wicked is just and right, even then when yet he could not see the reason of his actions and dispensations towards them. ”