William Gurnall Quotes & Sayings

#1. No more, then, shall he infest the saints, no, nor rule the wicked, but he with them, and they with him, shall lie under the immediate execution of God's wrath. For

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#3. the Christian who seems to be so overmatched, is yet so unconquerable, II Cor. 12:9; James 5:11.

William Gurnall

#4. 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

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

William Gurnall

#6. Truth lies deep, and must be digged for. Since

William Gurnall

#7. 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

#8. 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

#9. 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

#10. There is no less wickedness potentially in the tamest sinner on earth, than in the devils themselves, and that one day thou, whoever thou art, wilt show to purpose, if God prevent thee not by his renewing grace. Thou

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#12. They love truth flourishing, who do not love it when it is confuting. They dare handle and look on the sword with delight when in a rich scabbard, who would run away to see it drawn.

William Gurnall

#13. Great and small, minister and people, all must wrestle; not one part of Christ's army in the field, and the other at ease in their quarters, where no enemy comes. Here

William Gurnall

#14. 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

#15. 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

#16. 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

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

William Gurnall

#18. Satan's power is ministerial, appointed by God for the service and benefit of the saints. It

William Gurnall

#19. It is true, Christian, the debt thou owest to God must be paid in good and lawful money, but for thy comfort, here Christ is thy paymaster. Send

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#21. 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

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

William Gurnall

#23. 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

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

William Gurnall

#25. 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

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

William Gurnall

#27. Christian, hath not God secretly instructed thee by his Spirit from the Word, how to read the shorthand of his providence? Dost

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#29. 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.

William Gurnall

#30. The state of unregeneracy is a state of impotency.

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#32. Humble souls are fearful of their own strength.

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#34. It is not, indeed, the bare knowing the truths of the gospel saves; but the gross ignorance of them, to be sure, will damn souls.

William Gurnall

#35. 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

#36. 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

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

William Gurnall

#38. 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?

William Gurnall

#39. 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

#40. 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

#41. 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

#42. Let your hope of heaven master your fear of death.

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#44. As Christ had his saints in Nero's court, so the devil his servants in the outward court of his visible church. Thou

William Gurnall

#45. Art thou a magistrate? now it will be soon seen on whose side thou art. If indeed thou hast renounced allegiance to Satan, and taken Christ for thy prince, declare thyself an enemy to all that bear the name of Satan, and march under his colours. Study

William Gurnall

#46. You see when a soul comes over from Satan's quarters unto Christ, and has but once the experience of that sweetness which is in his service, there is no getting him back to his old drudgery; as

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#51. 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

#52. The providences of God to his saints here, while on this low bottom of earth, are mixed and parti-coloured, as was signified by the 'speckled' horses, Zech. 1:8, in

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#54. apply thyself to the use of those means which God hath appointed for the strengthening grace. If

William Gurnall

#55. The sins of teachers are the teachers of sin.

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#57. The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God.

William Gurnall

#58. 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

#59. 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

#60. Were there no devil, yet we should have our hands full, in resisting the corruptions of our own hearts; but

William Gurnall

#61. one affirmative from God's mouth for thy pardoned state, carries more weight, though of old date, than a thousand negatives from Satan's. David's

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#63. Christ counts it his honour, that he is a king of a willing people, and not of slaves. He comes to make you free, not to bring you into bondage, to make you kings, not vassals. None

William Gurnall

#64. Humility is a necessary veil to all other graces.

William Gurnall

#65. 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

#66. 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

#67. 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

#68. God brings his grace into the heart by conquest.

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#70. 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

#71. 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

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

William Gurnall

#73. Satan with all his wits and wiles, shall never vanquish a soul armed with true grace; nay, he that hath this armour of God on shall vanquish him. Look

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#77. 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

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

William Gurnall

#79. 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.

William Gurnall

#80. Grace in a decay is like a man pulled off his legs by sickness; if some means be not used to recover it, little service will be done by it, or comfort received from it. Therefore

William Gurnall

#81. 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

#82. 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

#83. Some prayers have a longer voyage than others, but they return with the richer lading at last, so that the praying soul is a gainer by waiting for an answer.

William Gurnall

#84. This is thy birth-day; thou wert before, but beganst to live when Christ began to live in thee. The

William Gurnall

#85. 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

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

William Gurnall

#87. We live by faith, and faith lives by exercise.

William Gurnall

#88. And they cannot be solid Christians, that are not instructed in the grounds of Christianity. The

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

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

William Gurnall

#92. Faith and repentance will be good doctrine to preach and hear to the end of the world; you

William Gurnall

#93. 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

#94. O how true are poor sinners to the devil's trust!

William Gurnall

#95. 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