Adams Quotes 03

Grace comes into the soul, as the morning sun into the world; first a dawning, then a light; and at last the sun in his full and excellent brightness. (From the sermon Heaven made sure on Ps 35.3) The devil makes his Christmas-pie of lawyers' tongues and clerks' fingers. Oh, be ashamed, Christians, that worldlings are more studious and industrious to make sure of pebbles, than you are to make sure of pearls. Solomon tells us that it is the glory of man to pass by an offence. Herein God is most glorious, in that he passes by all the offences of his children. Lord, who can know thee and not love thee, know thee and not fear thee? We fear thee for thy justice, and love thee for thy mercy; yea, fear thee for thy mercy, and love thee for thy justice; for thou art infinitely good in both. Despair is hope stark dead, presumption is hope stark mad. Our mind is where our pleasure is, our heart is where our treasure is, our love is where our life is, but all these, our pleasure, treasure, and life, are reposed in Jesus Christ. Repentance is a change of the mind, and regeneration is a change of the man. Passion costs me too much to bestow it on every trifle. Generosity Let us make the poor our friends by our alms, not our enemies by our scorns. We had better have the ears of God full of their prayers, than heaps of money in our own coffers with their curses. Humility Humility wrestleth with God, like Jacob, and wins by yielding. Law and Gospel The Law gives menaces but the Gospel gives promises. Marriage There is no such fountain on earth as marriage. Woman takes her being from man, man takes his well-being from woman. As God by creation made two of one, so again by marriage He made one of two.

Sense of sin Sense of sin may be often great, and more felt than grace; yet not be more than grace. A man feels the ache of his finger more sensibly than the health of his whole body; yet he knows that the ache of a finger is nothing so much as the health of the whole body. Temptation Satan like a fisher, baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish. Virtue Half our virtue arises from our being out of the way of temptation. These culled from various sources