LIFE…

After 49 years of opposition laden ministry:

“My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for
Christ’s sake. When I am getting through a hedge, if my
head and shoulders are safely through, I can bear the pricking
of my legs. Let us rejoice in the remembrance that our
holy Head has surmounted all His suffering and triumphed
over death. Let us follow Him patiently; we shall soon be
partakers of His victory.”

When speaking to John Wesley about his Calvinistic Tendencies:

Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I
have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I
suppose we are to draw daggers. But before I consent to
begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a
few questions.

Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved
creature, so depraved that you would never have thought
of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your
heart?

Yes, I do indeed.

And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself
to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation
solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?

Yes, solely through Christ.

But, Sir, supposing you were at first saved by Christ,
are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards
by your own works?

No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last.

Allowing, then, that you were first turned by the grace
of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself
by your own power?

No.

What then, are you to be upheld every hour and every
moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother’s arms?

Yes, altogether.

And is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to
preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom?

Yes, I have no hope but in Him.

Then, Sir, with your leave I will put up my dagger
again; for this is all my Calvinism; this is my election, my
justification by faith, my final perseverance: it is in substance
all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if
you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to
be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially
unite in those things wherein we agree.”

Concerning Controversy and Debate:

“I know you will forgive me if I say that the very account
you give of yourself in relation to controversy is a dissuasive
from embarking in it. Let a man once engage in it,
and it is surprising how the love of it will grow upon him;
and he will find both a hare in every bush, and will follow
it with something of a huntsman’s feelings.”

Making mention of the need for Humiliation:

“With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I
have always enjoyed much cheerfulness before men; but I
have at the same time labored incessantly to cultivate the
deepest humiliation before God. I have never thought that
the circumstance of God’s having forgiven me, was any
reason why I should forgive myself; on the contrary, I
have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in
proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards
me (Ezekiel 16:63). . . . There are but two objects that I
have ever desired for these forty years to behold; the one,
is my own vileness; and the other is, the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ: and I have always thought that they
should be viewed together; just as Aaron confessed all the
sins of all Israel whilst he put them on the head of the
scapegoat. The disease did not keep him from applying to
the remedy, nor did the remedy keep him from feeling the
disease. By this I seek to be, not only humble and thankful
but humbled in thankfulness, before my God and
Savior continually.”

On Repentance:

“Repentance is in every view so desirable, so necessary, so
suited to honor God, that I seek that above all. The tender
heart, the broken and contrite spirit, are to me far
above all the joys that I could ever hope for in this vale of
tears. I long to be in my proper place, my hand on my
mouth, and my mouth in the dust. . . . I feel this to be safe
ground. Here I cannot err. . . . I am sure that whatever God
may despise . . . He will not despise the broken and contrite
heart.”

(All quotes come from John Piper’s Book ‘Roots of Endurance’ from the Chapter on Charles Simeon)