God, to prevent all escape, hath sown the seeds of death in our very constitution and nature, so that we can as soon run from ourselves, as run from death. We need no feller to come with a hand of violence and hew us down; there is in the tree a worm, which grows out of its own substance, that will destroy it; so in us, those infirmities of nature that will bring us down to the dust.
William GurnallPraying is the same to the new creature as crying is to the natural. The child is not learned by art or example to cry, but instructed by nature; it comes into the world crying. Praying is not a lesson got by forms and rules of art, but flowing from principles of new life itself.
William GurnallHe that is impatient, and cannot wait on God for a mercy, will not easily submit to Him in a denial.
William GurnallWe must not confide in the armour of God, but in the God of this armour, because all our weapons are only mighty through God.
William GurnallThou hast no life to lose, because thou hast given it already to Christ, nor can man take away that without God's leave.
William GurnallGod is very precise in this point; he will say to such as invent ways to worship him of their own, coin means to mortify corruption, obtain comfort in their own mint: 'Who hath required this at your hands?' This is truly to be 'righteous over-much,' as Solomon speaks, when we will pretend to correct God's law, and add supplements of our own to his rule.
William Gurnall