William Gurnall - The Christian in Complete Armour (1655)

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

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

William Gurnall
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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

William Gurnall
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.

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

William Gurnall
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."

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

William Gurnall
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.

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

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

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

William Gurnall
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