Thomas Watson

God's mercy is free. To set up merit is to destroy mercy; nothing can deserve mercy, because we are polluted in our blood; nor force it; we may force God to punish us, not to love us, Hos. xiv. 4, "I will love them freel…

To sin because mercy abounds, is the devil's logic. He that sins because of mercy is like one that wounds his head because he hath a plaster; he that sins because of God's mercy, shall have judgment without mercy. Mercy…

Assurance is like the mariner's lantern on the deck, which gives light in a dark night. Assurance gives the light of comfort in affliction. He that hath assurance, can rejoice in tribulation; he can gather grapes of thor…

Hell is a place of pure justice. In this life, God in anger remembers mercy; he mixeth compassion with suffering. Asher's shoe was of iron, but his foot was dipt in oil. Affliction is the iron shoe, but mercy is mixed wi…

Weeds grow of themselves. Flowers are planted. Sanctification is a flower of the Spirit's planting, therefore it is called, "The sanctification of the Spirit," 1 Pet. i. 2.

Lord, I am content to be a loser, if thou be a gainer; to have less health, if I have more grace, and thou more glory.

To know that nothing hurts the godly, is a matter of comfort; but to be assured that all things which fall out shall co operate for their good, that their crosses shall be turned into blessings, that showers of afflictio…

Christ is never born in the heart without pangs. Many thank God they never had any trouble of spirit, they were always quiet; a sign Christ is not yet formed in them.

Death to a believer is crepusculum gloriae, the daybreak of eternal brightness. To show fully what a believer's gains are at death were a task too great for an angel; all hyperboles fall short of it; the reward of glory…

If God be our portion—all our estate lies in jewels! Where God gives himself, he gives everything else. He that hath the castle, hath all the royalties belonging to it. God is a portion that can neither be spent nor lost…

Happiness is nothing else but the quintessence of holiness; holiness is glory militant, and happiness holiness triumphant.

Several poisonous ingredients put together, being tempered by the skill of the apothecary, make a sovereign medicine, and work together for the good of the patient. So all God's providences being divinely tempered and sa…

Prayer is the golden key that opens heaven.

Sin is an unclean thing, it is hyperbolically evil.

Read the Bible with reverence. Think in every line you read that God is speaking to you.

God is an unmixed good. There is no condition in this life but has its mixture; for every drop of honey hath its gall.

God is the summum bonum, the chief good; therefore the enjoyment of him is the highest felicity.

Knowledge of fundamentals is the golden key that opens the chief mysteries of religion; it gives us a whole system and body of divinity, exactly drawn in all its lineaments and lively colours.

We should look upon sin in two looking-glasses'the glass of Christ's blood, and the glass of death.

Meditation is the saints'looking glass, by which they see things invisible. Meditation is the golden ladder by which they ascend to paradise. Meditation is the spy they send abroad to search the land of promise, and it b…

It is better that men should reproach you for repenting than that God should damn you for not repenting.

Never complain as long as Christ is thy friend; he is an enriching pearl, a sparkling diamond; the infinite lustre of his merits makes us shine in God's eyes.

God's glory is more worth than heaven, and more worth than the salvation of all men's souls. It would be better that kingdoms be thrown down, better men and angels be annihilated, than God should lose one jewel of his cr…

Sin is not only a defection'but a pollution. It is to the soul as rust is to gold, as a stain to beauty. It makes the soul red with guilt, and black with filth. Sin in Scripture is compared to a menstruous cloth, and to…

Where does Christ rule as king? His kingdom is spiritual. He rules in the hearts of men. He sets up his throne where no other king does; he rules the will and affections; his power binds the conscience; he subdues men's…

Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory…

Why do we pray in the plural, "Give us" [i.e. Lord's Prayer]? Why is it not said, give me?... It reproves narrow-spirited men who move within their own sphere only; who look only at themselves, and mind not the case of o…

A pure heart avoids that which may be interpreted as evil. He who is loyal to his prince not only forbears to have his hand in treason, but he takes heed of that which has an appearance of treason.

But works in the covenant of grace are not required under the same notion, as in the first covenant with Adam. Works are not required for the justification of our persons'but as an attestation of our love to God; not as…

None can do as God; he brought the world out of nothing; 'And hangeth the earth upon nothing.' Job 26: 7.

Christ is never loved'until sin is loathed.

A Christian without meditation is like a soldier without weapons, or a workman without tools.

God may chastise, but He cannot hate.

The God whom we worship is holy, the work we are employed in is holy, the place we hope to arrive at is holy; all this calls for holiness.

He who is called of God, walks directly contrary to what he did before.

Those who are patterns of mercy should be trumpets of praise.

God did not choose us because we were worthy, but by choosing us He makes us worthy.

It was more for Christ to suffer one hour than for us to have suffered forever.

To have a thankful heart for deliverance is a greater blessing than the deliverance itself.

Many Christians are like sieves. Put a sieve into the water, and it is full; but take it out of the water, and it all runs out. So, while they are hearing the sermon, they remember something of value. But, like the sieve…

Three wishes Paul had, and they were all about Christ; that he might be found in Christ, be with Christ, and magnify Christ.

To serve God, to love God, to enjoy God, is the sweetest freedom in the world.

Sin is like a poison, which corrupts the blood, infects the heart, and without a sovereign Antidote, brings death. Such is the venomous nature of sin, it is deadly and damning. Sin is worse than hell, but yet God, by His…

The holiness of the saints will not excuse them from sufferings.

The Lord hates that which is forced; which is paying a tax rather than an offering.

Godly sorrow goes deep, like a vein which bleeds inwardly. The heart bleeds for sin: 'they were pricked in their heart' (Act 2:37). As the heart bears a chief part in sinning, so it must in sorrowing.

Carnal Protestants, who are strangers to godly sorrow. They cannot endure a serious thought, nor do they love to trouble their heads about sin. Paracelsus[34] spoke of a frenzy some have which will make them die dancing.…

Grace makes the heart tender, it causes sympathy and charity. As it melts the heart in contrition towards God, so in compassion towards others.

The more helpful we are to others, the more like we are to God.

An estate may be imparted without being impaired.