About Christ
CHRIST
His all sufficiency:
When Christ reveals Himself there is satisfaction in the slenderest portion, and without Christ there is emptiness in the greatest fulness.
ALEXANDER GROSSE
They lose nothing who gain Christ.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD
The Lord Jesus has provided a common dole of grace and salvation for every poor soul that stands in need of it, only He will have men come and receive it; they shall have it for carrying away.
PAUL BAYNE
The lawyer can deliver his client but from strife, the physician can deliver his patient but from sickness, the master can deliver his servant but from bondage, but the Lord delivereth us from all.
HENRY SMITH
His example:
His cry not Forward, but Follow.
WILLIAM GUTHRIE
Know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for Himself. Therefore, it is no excuse for him to say, I do but as others do. He is to reckon his hours by the sun, not the town clock.
THOMAS MANTON
His glory:
There are three things to be considered concerning the glory of Christ, three degrees of its manifestation, the shadow, the perfect image, and the substance itself. Those under the law had only the shadow of it and of the things that belong to it…. Under the Gospel we have the perfect image, which they had not…. But the enjoyment of these things in their substance is reserved for heaven; we must be where He is, that we may behold His glory.
JOHN OWEN
Should the Lord Jesus appear now to any of us in His majesty and glory, it would not be to our edification nor consolation. For we are not meet nor able, by the power of any light or grace that we have received, or can receive, to bear the immediate appearance and representation of them. His beloved apostle John had leaned on His bosom probably many a time in his life, in the intimate familiarities of love; but when He afterward appeared to him in His glory, he fell at His feet as dead.
JOHN OWEN
Though Christ’s coat was once divided, He will never suffer His crown to be divided.
THOMAS BROOKS
His manifestation of God:
God is best known in Christ; the sun is not seen but by the light of the sun.
WILLIAM BRIDGE
In the Scriptures there is a draught of God, but in Christ there is God Himself. A coin bears the image of Caesar, but Caesars son is his own lively resemblance. Christ is the living Bible.
THOMAS MANTON
No men can know the Father any farther than it pleaseth the Son to reveal Him.
JOHN PENRY
In nature, we see God, as it were, like the sun in a picture, in the law, as the sun in a cloud in Christ we see Him in His beams, He being the brightness of His glory, and the exact image of His person.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK
His sacrifice:
As a sacrifice, our sins were laid upon Him, (Isa. 53); as a Priest, He beareth them, (Ex. 28:38); and as an Advocate, He acknowledges them to be His own. (Ps. 69:5).
JOHN BUNYAN
He suffered not as God, but He suffered who was God.
JOHN OWEN
As the burgess of a town or corporation, sitting in the parliament house, beareth the person of that whole town or place, and what he saith the whole town saith, and what is done to him is done to the whole town, even so Christ upon the cross stood in our place, and bare our persons, and whatsoever He suffered we suffered, and when He died, all the faithful died in Him, and, as He is risen again, so the faithful are risen in Him.
JOHN BOYS
Sin could not die, unless Christ died; Christ could not die, without being made sin; nor could He die, but sin must die with Him.
ELISHA COLES
All in all:
Cast thine eyes which way thou wilt and thou shalt hardly look upon anything but Christ. Jesus hath taken the name of that thing upon Himself. Is it day? and dost thou behold the sun? He is called the Sun of Righteousness. Or is it night? and dost thou behold the stars? He is called a Star, There shall come a Star out of Jacob. Or is it morning?…. He is called the bright Morning Star. Or is it noon? and dost thou behold clear light all the world over? He is that light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Come nearer; if thou lookest upon the earth, and takest a view of the creatures about thee, dost thou see the sheep ? As a sheep before her shearer is dumb. Or seest thou a lamb? Behold the Lamb of God. Seest thou a shepherd watching over his flock? I am the Good Shepherd. Or seest thou a fountain, waters, rivers….?
ISAAC AMBROSE
The best way to reconcile two disagreeing families is to make some marriage between them: even so, the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us in the world that He might hereby make our peace, reconciling God to man and man to God. By this happy match the Son of God is become the Son of Man, even flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones; and the sons of men are made the sons of God.
JOHN BOYS
Jesus Christ is a threefold King. First, His enemies’ King; secondly, His saints King; thirdly, His Father’s King…. Well may He be our King, when He is God’s King. But you may say, how is Christ the Father’s King? Because He rules for His Father.
WILLIAM DYER
It is a destructive addition to add anything to Christ.
RICHARD SlBBES
To forsake Christ for the world, is to leave a treasure for a trifle. . . . eternity for a moment, reality for a shadow.
WILLIAM JENKYN
The light of the law shone only on the Jews; but this Light spread itself wider, even over all the world.
JOHN LlGHTFOOT
The Sun of Righteousness appeared in three signs especially; Leo, Virgo, Libra. (1) In Leo, roaring as a lion, in the law . . . (2) In Virgo, born of a pure virgin in the Gospel . . . (3) In Libra, weighing our works in His balance at the Day of Judgement.
JOHN BOYS
Note well:
Since He looked upon me my heart is not my own, He hath run away to heaven with it.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD
His coming Kingdom:
There will come a time when in this world holiness shall be more general, and more eminent, than ever it hath been since Adam fell in paradise.
THOMAS BROOKS
As Adam had a world made for him, so shall Jesus Christ, the second Adam have a world made for Him. This world was not good enough for Him, He had a better appointed than that which Adam had a new heaven and a new earth, according to the promise of Isa. 66:22, where the saints shall reign…. And this world He hath not subjected unto angels.
THOMAS GOODWIN
Be not too curious in searching where God has not discovered or revealed. For example, there are great thoughts of hearts as to when God will deliver His people and set His churches at liberty; and many men talk much of the year 1666. Some say that shall be the year in which Antichrist shall be destroyed…. Some go to the year 1669, and others pitch upon other times…. But truly, if you will have my judgement, and I am glad of this opportunity to tell you, this is to pry too much into the ark. Remember the text, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power.
EDMUND CALAMY
Christ hath told us He will come, but not when, that we might never put off our clothes, or put out the candle.
WILLIAM GURNALL
(He) that…. rose from the clods, we expect from the clouds.
THOMAS ADAMS
Note well:
In the Gospel history, we find that Christ had a fourfold entertainment among men. Some received Him into house, not into heart, as Simon the Pharisee….; some into heart, but not into house, as the faithful centurion….; some neither into house nor heart, as the graceless Gergesites….; some both into house and heart, as Lazarus, Mary, Martha.
JOHN BOYS
