Inspirational Quotes by John Murray

“men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.”

“In this sense, Calvin did assert a belief in “free will,” which, for Calvin, amounted not to a human's natural ability to choose what is good but to his voluntary choice to do what is evil. Because of the fallenness of human nature, the only freedom of the human will, apart from grace, is the freedom from righteousness.”

“Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find him.”

“Daniel and Paul foretold that Antichrist would sit in the temple of God (Dan. 9:27; 2 Thess. 2:4); we regard the Roman Pontiff as the leader and standard-bearer of that wicked and abominable kingdom.[541] By placing his seat in the temple of God, it is intimated that his kingdom would not be such as to destroy the name either of Christ or of his Church.”

“Augustine is so wholly with me, that if I wished to write a confession of my faith, I could do so with all fullness and satisfaction to myself out of his writings.”

“The characteristic of a true sovereign is, to acknowledge that, in the administration of his kingdom, he is a minister of God. He who does not make his reign subservient to the divine glory, acts not the part of a king, but a robber.”

“in Augustine with this expression, - "God crowns not our merits but his own gifts; and the name of reward is given not to what is due to our merits, but to the recompense of grace previously bestowed?”

“God has not rendered you due punishment, but bestows upon you unmerited grace. If you wish to be an alien from grace, boast your merits," (in Psa 70) Again, "You are nothing in yourself, sin is yours, merit God's. Punishment is your due; and when the reward shall come, God shall crown his own gifts, not your merits,”

“If you shall be paid what you deserve, you must be punished. What then happens? God has not rendered you the punishment you deserve, but bestows undeserved grace. If you would be estranged from grace, boast of your own merits.” Again: “Of yourself you are nothing. Sins are your own, but merits are God’s. You deserve punishment, and when the reward comes he will crown his own gifts, not your merits.”

“It is now clear that faith is a singular pledge of paternal love, treasured up for the sons whom he has adopted.”

“Psalm (145)”

“Faith rests not on ignorance, but on knowledge.”

“For what accords better and more aptly with faith than to acknowledge ourselves divested of all virtue that we may be clothed by God, devoid of all goodness that we may be filled by him, the slaves of sin that he may give us freedom, blind that he may enlighten, lame that he may cure, and feeble that he may sustain us; to strip ourselves of all ground of glorying that he alone may shine forth glorious, and we be glorified in him?”

“Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation.”

“error never can be eradicated from the heart of man until the true knowledge of God has been implanted in it. Section”

“the elegant structure of the world serving us as a kind of mirror, in which we may behold God, though otherwise invisible.”

“The abettors of this error would see a still better refutation of it, if they would attend to the source from which the apostle derives the glory of the saints, - "Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," (Rom 8: 30) On what ground, then, the apostle being judge, (2Ti 4: 8) are believers crowned? Because by the mercy of God, not their own exertions, they are predestinated, called, and justified.”

“bHere, then, is what God’s truth requires us to seek in examining ourselves: it requires the kind of knowledge that will strip us of all confidence in our own ability, deprive us of all occasion for boasting, and lead us to submission. We ought to keep this rule if we wish to reach the true goal of both wisdom and action. I am quite aware how much more pleasing is that principle which invites us to weigh our good traits rather than to e(b)look upon our miserable want and dishonor, which ought to overwhelm us with shame. bThere is, indeed, nothing that man’s nature seeks more eagerly than to be flattered. Accordingly,”

“Thus even the most wicked are an example to us that throughout the world the knowledge of God has some power in the hearts of all people.”

“When that which professes to be the Word of God is acknowledged to be so, no person, unless devoid of common sense and the feelings of a man, will have the desperate hardihood to refuse credit to the speaker.”