24 William Secker Quotes

By fasting, the body learns to obey the soul; by praying the soul learns to command the body.

I would neither have you be idle in duties - nor make an idol of duties.

There are some things good but not pleasant, as sorrow and affliction. Sin is pleasant, but unprofitable; and sorrow is profitable, but unpleasant. As waters are purest when they are in motion, so saints are generally holiest when in affliction.

Many blush to confess their faults, who never blush to commit them.

Sin's first-born is death - and its last-born is hell.

Lest riches should be accounted evil in themselves, God sometimes gives them to the righteous; and lest they should be considered as the chief good, he frequently bestows them on the wicked. But they are more generally the portion of his enemies than his friends.

It was the saying of a heathen though no heathenish saying, "That he, who would be good, must either have a faithful friend to instruct him, or a watchful enemy to correct him.

The righteousness of Christ is to be magnified - when the righteousness of a Christian is not to be mentioned.

Grace is not such a beggarly visitant, as will not pay its own way. When the best of beings is adored, the best of blessings are enjoyed.

Though Christians be not kept altogether from falling, yet they are kept from falling altogether.

It is a greater glory to us that we are allowed to serve God, than it is to him that we offer him that service. He is not rendered happy by us; but we are made happy by him. He can do without such earthly servants; but we cannot do without such a heavenly Master.

Ah, how would natural men soar to heaven - upon the pinions of their own merit! The sunbeams of Divine justice - will soon melt such weak and wax wings!

A true Christian stands at as great distance from trusting in the best of his services as in the worst of his sins! He knows that the greatest part of his holiness will not make the least part of his justifying righteousness.

Many complain more of the sorrows to which they are born, than of the sins with which they were born; they tremble more at the vengeance of sin, than at the venom of sin; one delights them, the other scares them.

Christian, if you dwell in the open tent of licentiousness, the wicked will not walk backward, like modest Shem and Japheth, to cover your shame: but they will walk forward, like cursed Ham, to publish it. Thus they make use of your weakness as a plea for their wickedness. Men are merciless in their censures of Christians; they have no sympathy for their infirmity: while God weighs them in more equal scales, and says, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." While a saint is a dove in the eyes of God, he is only a raven in the estimation of sinners.

There is no ascertaining the quality of a tree but by its fruits. When the wheels of a clock move within, the hand on the dial will move without. When the heart of a man is sound in conversion, then the life will be fair in profession.

Wherefore doth the Lord make your cup run over, but that other men's lips might taste the liquor? The showers that fall upon the highest mountains should glide into the lowest valleys. "Give, and it shall be given you", is a maxim little believed.

A believer puts on the sackcloth of contrition, for having put off the garment of perfection. As the sugar loaf is dissolved, and weeps itself way, when dipped in wine; so do our hearts melt under a sense of divine love.

The law, by which God rules us, is as dear to Him as the gospel by which He saves us.

Many have passed the rocks of gross sins - who have suffered shipwreck upon the sands of self-righteousness.

It is better to be a wooden vessel filled with wine, than a golden one filled with water.

A believer does not perform good works to live - but he lives to perform good works. The Consistent Christian, 1660.

Neither the persecuting hand of men, nor the chastising hand of God, relaxed ancient singular saints. Believers resemble the moon, which emerges from her eclipse by keeping her motion, and ceases not to shine because the dogs bark at her. Shall we cease to be professors because others will not cease to be persecutors?

Until we taste the bitterness of our own misery we will never relish the sweetness of God's mercy. Until we see how foul our sins have made us we will never pay our tribute of praise to Christ for washing us... If you would know the heart of your sin then you must know the sins of your heart!