Michael Walker

“Converse with the living, or read the history of departed saints, and you will find, that in their addresses to God, they still bless and praise him for that great and wonderful change of state which was made upon them when they first believed in Christ, and, on believing, passed from death to life; freely acknowledging before God, that they were, before their conversion, equal in sin and misery with the vilest wretches in the world: they heartily mourn for their daily sins, and fear nothing more than sin; no afflictions in the world go so near their heart as sin does. They mourn for the hardness of their hearts, that they can mourn no more for sin. They acknowledge that the chastisements of God upon them are not only the evidences of his displeasure against them for their sins, but the fruits of their uneven walking with him; and that the greatest of their afflictions is less than the least of their iniquities deserves. They bow at their Father’s feet as often as they fall into sin, humbly and earnestly suing for pardon, through the blood of Christ. They are not only sensible that God sees sin in them, but that he seeth such, and so great evils in them, as make them wonder at his patience, that they are not consumed in their iniquities. They find cause enough to suspect their own sincerity; doubt the truth of their faith, and of their graces; and are therefore frequent and serious in the trial and examination of their own state, by Scripture marks and signs. They urge the commands and threatenings, as well as the promises, upon their own hearts, to promote sanctification; excite themselves to duty and watchfulness against sin. They also encourage themselves by the rewards of obedience, knowing that their labor is not in vain in the Lord. And all this while they look not for that in themselves, which is only to be found in Christ; nor for that in the law, which is only to be found in the gospel; nor for that on earth which is only to be found in heaven. This is the way that they take. And he that shall tell them that their sins can do them no hurt, or that their duties do them no good, speaks to them not only as a barbarian, in a language they understand not, but in such a language as their souls detest and abhor.”
― John Flavel, A Blow at the Root of Antinomianism

“Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual respect to God’s law, and habitual effort to live in obedience to it as the rule of life. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that a Christian has nothing to do with the law and the Ten Commandments, because he cannot be justified by keeping them. The same Holy Ghost who convinces the believer of sin by the law, and leads him to Christ for justification, will always lead him to a spiritual use of the law, as a friendly guide, in the pursuit of sanctification.”
― J.C. Ryle, Holiness

“The knowledge of God is inescapable knowledge. Because man is created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26–28), he can neither avoid nor escape the knowledge of God, however much he strives to hold it back (Rom. 1:18–22). That knowledge thunders in all his being and his suppression of that knowledge is the most ugly fact about sinful man.”
― Rousas John Rushdoony, Van Til and the Limits of Reason

“The fairest babe, that has entered life this year and become the sunbeam of a family, is not, as its mother perhaps fondly calls it, a little ‘angel’, or a little ‘innocent’, but a little ‘sinner’. Alas! As it lies smiling and crowing in its cradle, that little creature carries in its heart the seeds of every kind of wickedness! Only watch it carefully, as it grows in stature and its mind develops, and you will soon detect in it an incessant tendency to that which is bad, and a backwardness to that which is good. You will see in it the buds and germs of deceit, evil temper, selfishness, self-will, obstinacy, greediness, envy, jealousy, passion, which, if indulged and let alone, will shoot up with painful rapidity.”
― J.C. Ryle, Holiness