George Swinnock > Quotes

“now why is the devil's money accepted, the world's offer embraced, and God's rejected? Truly, men do not know the worth of what God offers them. The money the devil and the world offer is in their own currency, and is familiar to them. Swine trample on pearls, because they do not know their value. Men prefer the poor things they have because they are in their current possession. The devil seeks to peck out the eyes of men, that they do not see the blessed God and the happiness that is to be enjoyed in him. O how dull is the world's glass in the presence of true crystal! The magnet of earth will not draw man's affections while heaven is visible. He that has fed on the heavenly banquet cannot savor anything else.”
― George Swinnock

“There are depths in His word where elephants can swim and there are also shallows where lambs can wade.”
― George Swinnock, The Blessed and Boundless God

“The Christian's meekness must be mixed with wisdom. The apostle calls it meekness of wisdom; meekness opposes the fury in our own quarrel, not zeal in God's cause. The same Spirit that appeared in the form of a dove appeared also in the form of fiery tongues. It may be my duty to be silent when I am wronged, but it is sinful not to speak when God is reproached...It is a singular mark of a saint to be wet tinder when men strike fire at himself, and touchwood when men strike at God. The meekest man upon the face of the earth was the fullest of fury in the cause of heaven (Exodus 32; Numbers 12:2).”
― George Swinnock, The Christian Man's Calling

“We take the size of sin too low, and short, and wrong, when we measure it by the wrong it doth to ourselves, or our families, or our neighbours, or the nation wherein we live; indeed, herein somewhat of its evil and mischief doth appear; but to take its full length and proportion, we must consider the wrong it doth to this great, this glorious, this incomparable God. Sin is incomparably malignant, because the God principally injured by it is incomparably excellent.”
― George Swinnock, Works of George Swinnock, Volume 4

“Those who have never seen the sun are amazed at a candle. Likewise, those who have never known the blessed God are fond of pitiful things on earth.”
― George Swinnock, The Blessed and Boundless God

“It is the excellency and purity of saints and angels to be what they are and to do what they do for God—to make Him the final cause of their beings and actions. But it is the excellency and purity of God to be what He is and to do what He does for Himself. He who is His own happiness must be His own end.”
― George Swinnock, The Blessed and Boundless God

“The nightingale may warble out her pleasant notes with the sharpest thorn at her breast.”
― George Swinnock, Works of George Swinnock, Volume 4

“Who knows what is done in heaven or hell? Who knows what is enjoyed in the one and suffered in the other? Does anyone know the misery of the damned—the extremity, universality, and eternality of their torment?”
― George Swinnock, The Blessed and Boundless God

“The Christian's meekness must be mixed with wisdom. The apostle calls it meekness of wisdom; meekness opposes the fury in our own quarrel, not zeal in God's cause. The same Spirit that appeared in the form of a dove appeared also in the form of fiery tongues. It may be my duty to be silent when I am wronged, but it is sinful not to speak when God is reproached...It is a singular mark of a saint to be wet tinder when men strike fire at himself, and touch wood when men strike at God. The meekest man upon the face of the earth was the fullest of fury in the cause of heaven (Exodus 32; Numbers 12:2).”
― George Swinnock, The Christian Man's Calling

“A gracious wife satisfies a good husband, and silences a bad one.”
― George Swinnock