Sunday, August 05, 2018

The Godly Man's Picture - by Thomas Watson

"Grace is called 'the new man' (Col. 3:10), not a new eye, or tongue, but a new man.  He who is godly is good all over; though he is regenerate only in part, yet it is in every part." (pg. 13)

"He will never be a priest to intercede unless your heart is the throne where he sways his scepter.  A true applying of Christ is when we so take him as a husband that we give up ourselves to him as Lord." (pg. 22)

"A humble Christian studies his own infirmities and another's excellences and that makes him put a higher value upon others than himself." (pg. 79)

"There is no idol like self; the proud man bows down to this idol." (pg. 83)

"A godly man cannot live without prayer.  A man cannot live unless he takes his breath, nor can the soul, unless it breathes forth its desires to God." (pg. 88)

"A godly man spiritualizes duty; he is not only for the doing of holy things but for the holy doing of things." (pg. 161)

"For a man to become a fool that he may be wise, to be saved purely by the righteousness of another, to keep all by losing all - this the natural man will by no means put in his creed." (pg. 177)

"A godly man should not only honour God while he lives, but do something that may promote God's glory when he is dead.  If our children are seasoned with gracious principles, they will stand up in our place when we have gone, and will glorify God in their generation." (pg. 187)

"Serious meditation represents everything in its native colour.  It shows an evil in sin and a lustre in grace." (pg. 206)

"Why are people so hasty in abandoning religion if not because they were so hasty in taking it up? (pg. 212)

"Self-love is self-hatred.  The man who cannot get beyond himself will never get to heaven." (pg. 214)

"Unbelief is worse than any other sin, because it brings God into suspicion with the creature.  It robs him of the richest jewel in his crown, which is his truth: 'He that believeth not God hath made him a liar' (1 John 5:10)." (pg. 225ff)

"It may humble the best to consider how much corruption is interlarded with their grace." (pg. 230)

"Rejoicing brings credit to your husband.  Christ loves a cheerful bride, and indeed the very purpose of God's making us sad is to make us rejoice.  We sow in tears, so that we may reap in joy." (pg. 251)

Thomas Watson, The Godly Man's Picture (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1999)

The Improvement of The Mind - by Isaac Watts

"...it appears to be the necessary duty and the interest of every person living to improve his understanding, to inform his judgment, to treasure up useful knowledge, and to acquire the skill of good reasoning, as far as his station, capacity, and circumstances furnish him with proper means for it." (pg. 2)

"...if upon some few superficial acquirements you value, exalt, and swell yourself, as though you were a man of learning already, you are thereby building a most impassable barrier against all improvement; you will lie down and indulge idleness, and rest yourself contented in the midst of deep and shameful ignorance." (pg. 6)

"Bishop Saunderson says, that study without prayer is atheism, and that prayer without study is presumption." (pg. 18)

"The eyes of a man in the jaundice make yellow observations on every living thing; and the soul tinctured with any passion or prejudice, diffuses a false colour over the real appearances of things, and disguises many of the common occurrences of life:  it never beholds things in a true light, nor suffers them to appear as they are." (pg. 35)

"In all our studies and pursuits of knowledge, let us remember that virtue and vice, sin and holiness, and the conformation of our hearts and lives to the duties of true religion and morality, are things of far more consequence than all the furniture of our understandings, and the richest treasures of mere speculative knowledge; and that, because they have a more immediate and effectual influence upon our eternal felicity or eternal sorrow." (pg. 46)

"...but where, to the advantage of learned lectures, living instructions, and well chosen books, diligence and study are superadded, this man has all human aids concurring to raise him to a superior degree of wisdom and knowledge." (pg. 124)

"Attention is a very necessary thing in order to improve our minds.  The evidence of truth doth not always appear immediately, nor strike the soul at first sight.  It is by long attention and inspection that we arrive at evidence, and it is for want of it we judge falsely of many things." (pg. 135)

"The passions call away the thoughts with incessant importunity towards the object that excited them; and if we indulge the frequent rise and roving of passions, we shall thereby procure an unsteady and inattentive habit of mind.  Yet this one exception must be admitted, viz.  If we can be so happy as to engage any passion of the soul on the side of the particular study which we are pursuing, it may have a great influence to fix the attention more strongly to it." (pg. 138)

"The mind that deals only in vulgar and common ideas is ready to imagine the nature and powers of man to come something too near to God his maker, because we do not see or sensibly converse with any beings superior to ourselves." (pg. 144)

"There is no reason whatsoever that can prove or establish any authority so firmly as to give it power to dictate in matters of belief what is contrary to all the dictates of our reasonable nature." (pg. 262)

"Over-hastiness and vehemence in arguing is oftentimes the effect of pride; it blunts the poignancy of the argument, breaks its force, and disappoints the end." (pg. 267)

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1998)