Thomas Watson > Quotes

“Christ went more willingly to the cross than we do to the throne of grace.”
― Thomas Watson

“The pleasure of sin is soon gone, but the sting remains.”
― Thomas Watson

“God sweetens outward pain with inward peace.”
― Thomas Watson

“Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.”
― Thomas Watson

“A weak faith can lay hold on a strong Christ.”
― Thomas Watson, The Lord's Supper

“Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise.”
― Thomas Watson

“When you find a chillness upon your souls, and that your former heat begins to abate, ply yourselves with warm clothes, get those good books that may acquaint you with such truths as may warm and affect your hearts.”
― Thomas Watson

“It is our work to cast care, and it is God's work to take care.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“It was wonderful love that Christ should rather die for us than for the angels that fell. They were creatures of a more noble extract, and in all probability might have brought greater revenues of glory to God; yet that Christ should pass by those golden vessels, and make us clods of earth into stars of glory -- Oh, the hyperbole of Christ's love!”
― Thomas Watson, The Lord's Supper

“Unless we deny our own will, we shall never do God’s will.”
― Thomas Watson

“Knowledge is the eye that must direct the foot of obedience.”
― Thomas Watson

“We pray, 'lead us not into temptation'. Do we then lead ourselves into temptation?”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use”
― Thomas Watson

“The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we shall taste in Christ.”
― Thomas Watson, The Lord's Supper

“We must love God more for what He is, than for what He bestows.”
― Thomas Watson, All Things for Good

“Ministers can but speak to the ear, the Spirit speaks to the heart.”
― Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments

“It is easy to catch a disease from another, but not to catch health. The bad will sooner corrupt the good, than the good will convert the bad.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“[Concerning the Word preached:] Do we prize it in our judgments? Do we receive in into our hearts? Do we fear the loss of the Word preached more than the loss of peace and trade? Is it the removal of the ark that troubles us? Again, do we attend to the Word with reverential devotion? When the judge is giving the charge on the bench, all attend. When the Word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the Word.”
― Thomas Watson

“A Christian is a military person, he fights the Lord's battles, he is Christ's ensignbearer. Now, what though he endures hard fate, and the bullets fly about? He fights for a crown!”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“The gospel sweetens the law.”
― Thomas Watson

“Men could be content to have the kingdom of heaven; but they are loathe to fight for it. They choose rather to go in a feather bed to hell than to be carried to heaven in a ‘fiery chariot’ of zeal and violence.”
― Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm: Showing the Holy Violence a Christian Is to Put Forth in the Pursuit After Glory

“Better is that sin which humbles me, than that duty which makes me proud.”
― Thomas Watson, All Things for Good

“Satan loves to fish in the troubled waters of a discontented heart.”
― Thomas Watson

“The worst that God does to His children is to whip them to heaven.”
― Thomas Watson, All Things for Good

“Our sins should humble us, but they must not discourage us from coming to Christ.”
― Thomas Watson, The Lord's Supper

“No flattery can heal a bad conscience, so no slander can hurt a good one.”
― Thomas Watson

“The mercies of God make a sinner proud, but a saint humble.”
― Thomas Watson, All Things For Good

“Neither deficiencies nor disappointments, losses nor crosses, can cause disquieting discontents in that bosom where faith is commander in chief.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“Great was the work of creation, but greater was the work of redemption. Great wisdom was seen in making us—but more miraculous wisdom in saving us. Great power was seen in bringing us out of nothing—but greater power in helping us when we were worse than nothing. (...) In the creation, God gave us ourselves; in the redemption, He gave us Himself.”
― Thomas Watson

“Be like Noah's dove. She made use of her wings to fly, but trust in the ark for safety.”
― Thomas Watson, The Lord's Supper