Thomas Collier > Quotes

“Here lies the grace, the love, the peace, the glory; all blessedness in this covenant, and it is sure to all the seed, and God has made it to the end that it might be sure, that those who come thereunto might have strong consolation (Heb. 6:17, 18). This is a covenant in which it is impossible for God to lie: He has covenanted and sworn to it, that we might have strong consolation. Oh, therefore, my beloved friends, I mean you that are interested in this sure, everlasting covenant, let it be your work to be much in the meditation and consideration of the grace, the love, the glory of this covenant. All true believers may truly say with the apostle, so then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free (Gal. 4:31). Not of the covenant from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, but of the covenant from Mount Zion, which is the mother of us all (Gal. 4:24, 26).”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.

“Those who have come to Jesus have seen a need of Him, and a worth in Him above all the world. They have left all for Him and do account their own righteousness as a filthy cloth, as dung and dross, all their own wisdom to be foolishness, and their own strength to be but weakness. They loath themselves in their own eyes, in the sight and sense of their own vileness, and they are made willing to have all in Christ, and to follow Him (apart from all their vanities and beloved lusts) through all difficulties they encounter. Oh! how few are those that are thus come to Jesus Christ. It is true the world is come to Him in their own fancies and imaginations, but it is but a cheat and delusion. They are ignorant of Him and strangers to Him, and enemies in their minds by wicked works; and indeed the truth is not known to them. They will steal, murder, and commit adultery, etc. and yet come and stand before God as if they were His. They rebel against Him and trample His blood and ordinances under their feet, and yet pretend themselves to be Christians. This is the common state and condition of most of the world.”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.

“If believers are not in the New Covenant, they are in no covenant, for there are but two: old and new, first and second. Now that the New Covenant is in being is evident, for the apostle makes the application of it to the gospel time (Heb. 8) and proves it to be in force, Because the testator is dead, a covenant or testament is in force when the testator is dead (Heb. 9:16, 17). And in my text, He takes away the first that He may establish the second; and - indeed - to deny this covenant to be in force is to deny the blood of the covenant and death of the testator.”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.

“Then suppose to fathom this depth of God, let the Lord's people know their duty and continue in the faith, and persevere to the end, looking up to the Lord, fetching supply of strength and grace from Christ daily, for they are kept by the power of God, but it is through faith (1 Peter 1:5). And this glorious truth so full of consolation to the truly godly, in no way relieves them of their duty or leaves an indifferent spirit in them, but truly engages their souls to the Lord therein, and that upon the New Covenant, not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit.”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.

“Christ differs from the Old Covenant priesthood in ability to save. They were not able to save themselves or others. But Jesus Christ, the Minister of the New Covenant, is able to save all those to the uttermost, that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them (Heb. 7:25). A great ground of encouragement for poor sinners to come to Him and believe in Him; and likewise of consolation to those who are already come unto God by Him.”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.

“The ends of the first covenants were, a. To make sin become exceeding sinful (Rom. 7:13; 3:20). b. To stop every mouth and to make all guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). And so it became a Killing Covenant, a ministration of death and not of life (2 Cor. 3:6, 7). A covenant that could not give life, for if that covenant could have given life, then verily righteousness had been by it even by the law (Gal. 3:21). But God’s end in the New Covenant is to give life by it. Hence it’s called a covenant of life and peace (Isa. 54:10; Mal. 2:5). It was to recover poor lost sinners out of their perishing state and condition; it was to make the comers thereunto perfect, which the other could not do (Heb. 10:1). It was to justify believers from all those things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses (Acts 13:39), viz – the first covenant. In a word, the end of God in the New Covenant was to save from the curse and condemnation of the Old Covenant, without which there is no salvation. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us, etc. (Gal. 3:13)”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.

“Because it was the great design of God, sending Christ Jesus into the world to effect this work, the taking away of the old and establishing the New Covenant. If this had not been done there would have been nothing to bring about God's design of the great and good work of salvation. The design of God in sending Christ was that men though Him might be saved, He came into the world to save sinners, and there could be no salvation but in the New Covenant. So that had Christ not done this work, He would not be the Christ; for He must answer God's design - for He came to do the Father's will. And this was one great part of His will, the establishment of this free, powerful, holy, rich, and everlasting covenant of grace and glory.”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.

“I come now to the fifth particular, namely the way by which Christ has established this covenant, and that is by His blood. Oh friends, in this undertaking of Jesus Christ for poor sinners, this covenant must be by blood, there must of necessity be the death of the testator. Hence it is called a covenant that is by blood (Zech. 9:11). And the blood of Christ is called the blood of the covenant (Heb. 10:29), and Christ says, this is the cup of the New Covenant in my blood (Luke 22:20). And you will find His body and blood, broken and shed, has its place in the whole work of justification and remission of sins; this must be by the blood of Christ. Reconciliation and peace must be through His blood, purging the conscience must be by His blood, redemption must be by His blood; mediatorship, purchase of the kingdom - all by His blood. Therefore it is called the blood of the everlasting covenant (Heb. 13:20). And by the shedding of His blood has He established this New Covenant.”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.

“It is true, some are so bold as to deny faith and conversion to be the gift of God, that they would have to be beaten out of their own brains. But as it is a gift from heaven, so it is by virtue of Christ being there. To deny this is to deny salvation by Jesus Christ. For if faith and salvation be not by virtue of Christ and His mediatorship with the Father, then salvation may be obtained without a mediator; and this absolutely destroys the gospel and salvation by Christ Jesus. But the new birth is a heavenly birth; a birth from above.”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.

“Question 5. Is the moral law which you say was the substance of the Old Covenant from Mount Sinai, done away to believers in the New Covenant as it was a rule of life, etc.? Answer. Doubtless it is done away to believers, and that, firstly, as it was a covenant from Mount Sinai, and secondly a ministry of Moses. 1. That it was and is done away to believers is evident, Romans 7:4-6, where the apostle said, Wherefore my brothers ye also are become dead to the law, etc. and But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, etc. This was the moral law, for it was that law that discovered sin, even that sin forbidden in that moral law, Thou shall not covet. Ye are not under the law but under grace (chapter 6:14). That very law written on tablets of stone is said to be done away with (2 Cor. 3:7 & 11) and abolished (verse 13); and if any will say it is the ministration that is done away and not the rule, I say it must be done away as it was then a rule, without which the ministration could not cease. It was its being given as a rule that made it a ministration. Therefore I say, that it is done away, first as it was a covenant from Mount Sinai, so it is clear turned out and has no place in the gospel, even as Hagar, the Old Covenant in an allegory must be thrown out of Abraham's house (Gen. 21:10; Gal. 4:22-30): Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So that, when the free woman is come to be fruitful, the bondwoman with her son must be cast out. So likewise, Hebrews 12:18-24: We are not come to the mount that might not [ed: word absent in Scripture] be touched, that is, to Mount Sinai, but ye are come unto Mount Sion and to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant, all of which demonstrates that the law as it was a covenant, from Mount Sinai, is done away to believers. 2. As it was a ministration by Moses, so it is done away with and abolished, and is not to be preached or received (as in the hand of Moses) as it was ministered forth, received and obeyed in the Old Covenant. For it was ministered then on life and death, and was (through man's weakness) a ministration of death and not of life. So that I understand all those expressions to relate to those particulars, when the Scripture says that the law is abolished and done away, that believers are dead to it, delivered from it, are not under it, and the bondwoman must be cast out with her son. And yet believers are not without law to God but under the law of Christ, yea and that under the moral law. But as given from Mount Zion, ministered forth in the hand of Christ, not in the hand of Moses, for if we take it from Moses we must be Moses' disciples. But if from Christ, as given forth in the gospel account, then we are Christ's disciples indeed, and receive it in power (from Christ, the minister and mediator) to live to God according to it, not for righteousness unto justification. But Jesus Christ having fulfilled all its righteousness, having born the curse for us. It is a rule of righteousness, of conversation to the honor of Him that has done all for us in point of justification to eternal life. And so it is become a law of love, a royal law of liberty to all that are by faith in the New Covenant, and a law to which every believer is duty bound to Jesus Christ, to own as His precious rule of life to honor Him by it, as it is given forth by Him in the gospel and not in any other way.”
― Thomas Collier, Gospel Blessedness in the New Covenant: The distinction of the two Covenants, New and Old, First and Second.