Thomas Watson Quotes

A Christian is commanded to warm-hearted service; he must charge through the whole army of his lusts, every one of which is stronger than Goliath. ~ Thomas Watson

The Kingdom of grace is nothing but ... the beginning of the Kingdom of glory; the Kingdom of grace is glory in the seed, and the Kingdom of glory is grace in the flower; the Kingdom ofgrace is glory in the daybreak, and the Kingdom of glory is grace in the full meridian; the Kingdom of grace is glory militant, and the Kingdom of glory is grace triumphant ... the Kingdom ofgrace leads to the Kingdom of glory. ~ Thomas Watson

Oh, Christian, if you are overspread with this fretting leprosy, you carry the man of sin about you, for you set yourself above God and act as if you were wiser than He, and would sassily prescribe to Him what condition is best for you. ~ Thomas Watson

By having a change wrought in thee. 'But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified.' I Cor 6: 2: Whence we are changed, a tenebris ad lucem [from darkness to light], so changed, as if another soul did live in the same body. By this change we are interested in the unchangeable ~ Thomas Watson

Contentment doth not appear only now and then, as some stars which are seen but seldom; it is a settled temper of heart. ~ Thomas Watson

Prayer delights God's ear; it melts His heart; and opens His hand. God cannot deny a praying soul. ~ Thomas Watson

Unless we deny our own will, we shall never do God's will. ~ Thomas Watson

Christ went more willingly to the cross than we do to the throne of grace. ~ Thomas Watson

Such as make the sacrament only a representation of Christ do aim short of the mystery, and come short of the comfort. ~ Thomas Watson

you speak of true honor, it is to be born of God; if of true valor, it is to fight the good fight of faith; if of true delight, it is to have joy in the Holy Spirit. Oh, then, espouse godliness! Here reality is to be had. Of other things we may say, "They comfort in vain!" (Zech. 10:2) ~ Thomas Watson

Those who are patterns of mercy should be trumpets of praise. ~ Thomas Watson

Puritan Thomas Watson said, "Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet." I think Scottish minister Thomas Chalmers, who preached on "the expulsive power of a new affection," would have added: Until Christ be sweet, sin will not be bitter. ~ Gloria Furman

A man may read the figure on the dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes, unless the sun shines upon the dial: we may read the Bible over, but we can not learn the purpose, till the Spirit of God shines into our hearts. O implore this blessed Spirit! It is God's prerogative-royal to teach: "I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit." Is. 48. 17. Ministers may tell us our lesson, God only can teach us; we have lost both our hearing and eye-sight, therefore are very unfit to learn. Ever since Eve listened to the serpent, we have been deaf; and since she looked on the tree of knowledge we have been blind; but when God comes to teach, he removes these impediments. ~ Thomas Watson

To obey God, is not so much our duty - as our privilege; his commands carry food in the mouth of them. He bids us repent - and why? That our sins may be blotted out. Acts 3:19. He commands us to believe - and why? That we may be saved. Acts 16:31. There is love in every command. It is as if a king should bid one of his subjects dig in a gold mine, and then keep the gold for himself. ~ Thomas Watson

A man's greatest care should be for that place where he lives longest; therefore eternity should be his scope. ~ Thomas Watson

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. Matthew 12:20 ~ Thomas Watson

Satan loves to fish in the troubled waters of a discontented heart. ~ Thomas Watson

It's the job of a special advisor to be the eyes and ears of a minister and it's the job of a corporate lobbyist to represent the best interests of their organization. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

I believe the real difference between success and failure in a corporation can be very often traced to the question of how well the organization brings out the great energies and talents of its people. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

The right manner of growth is to grow less in one's own eyes. ~ Thomas Watson

Though we as Christians are like Christ, having the first fruits of the spirit, yet we are unlike him, having the remainders of the flesh. ~ Thomas Watson

Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise. ~ Thomas Watson

God will fill the hungry because He Himself has stirred up the hunger. As in the case of prayer, when God prepares the heart to pray, He prepares His ear to hear (Ps. 10:17). So in the case of spiritual hunger, when God prepares the heart to hunger, He will prepare His hand to fill. ~ Thomas Watson

Learn Christ, is to believe in him; "my Lord, and my God,"Jno. 20. 28 when we do not only believe God, but in God, which is the actual application of Christ to ourselves, and as it were the spreading of the sacred medicine of his blood upon our souls. ~ Thomas Watson

Men are not good in truth when they are good by halves. ~ Thomas Watson

The future of this business is far beyond the vision of any of us. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

God sometimes afflicts with infirmity of body. Sickness takes away the comfort of life, and makes one in deaths oft. ~ Thomas Watson

A weak faith can lay hold on a strong Christ. ~ Thomas Watson

A wicked man in prayer may lift up his hands, but he cannot lift up his face. ~ Thomas Watson

A contented Christian does not seek to choose his cross but leaves God to choose for him. He is content with both for the kind and the duration. A contented spirit says, 'let God apply what medicine he pleases and let it remain as long as it will, I know that when it has done it's cure and eaten the venom of sin out of my heart, God will take it off again. ~ Thomas Watson

Lusts within are worse than lions without. ~ Thomas Watson

Evangelical obedience is true in its essence, though not perfect in its degree; and where it comes short, Christ puts his merits into the scales, and then there is full weight. ~ Thomas Watson

Always remember that your personality is your big asset. Do not try to emulate another person. Real personality comes from the heart. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

God has decreed troubles for the church's good. The troubles of God's church is like the angel's troubling the water, which made way for healing his people. John 5: 4. He has decreed troubles in the church. 'His fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.' Isa 31: 9. The wheels in a watch move cross one to another, but they all carry on the motion of the watch; so the wheels of Providence often move cross to our desires, but still they carry on God's unchangeable decree. ~ Thomas Watson

You look at these past predictions like there's only a market in the world for five computers [as allegedly said by IBM founder Thomas Watson] and you realize it's not a good idea to predict too far into the future. ~ Geoffrey Hinton

First we practice sin, then defend it, then boast of it. ~ Thomas Watson

When men throw off the Word, then God throws them off, and then Satan takes them by the hand, and leads them into snares at his pleasure. He who thinks himself too good to be ruled by the Word, will be found too bad to be owned by God; and if God does not, or will not own him, Satan will by his stratagems overthrow him. ~ Thomas Watson

Humility was never a loser. ~ Thomas Watson

A Christian is a military person, he fights the Lord's battles, he is Christ's ensignbearer. Now, what though he endures hard fate, and the bullets fly about? He fights for a crown! ~ Thomas Watson

Daily bread may make us live comfortably but forgiveness of sins will make us die comfortably. ~ Thomas Watson

What is the duty which God requireth of man? Obedience to his revealed will. It is not enough to hear God's voice, but we must obey. Obedience is a part of the honour we owe to God. ~ Thomas Watson

The world is but a great inn, where we are to stay a night or two, and be gone; what madness is it so to set our heart upon our inn, as to forget our home? 1.Consider ~ Thomas Watson

The Lord hates that which is forced; which is paying a tax rather than an offering. ~ Thomas Watson

Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels. ~ Thomas Watson

Now it is evident from the covenant of grace, that the smoking flax cannot be quenched. "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but the covenant of my peace shall not be removed, says the Lord" (Isaiah 54:10). If there is falling from grace, how is it an immovable covenant? If grace dies and the smoking flax is quenched, how is our state in Christ, better than it was in Adam? The covenant of grace is called "a better covenant" (Heb. 7:22). How is it a better covenant than that which was made with Adam? Not only because it has a better Surety and contains better privileges - but because it has better conditions annexed to it: "It is ordered in all things, and sure" (2 Sam. 23:5). Those who are taken into the covenant shall be like stars fixed in their orbit and shall never fall away. If grace might die and be quenched, then it would not be a better covenant. ~ Thomas Watson

Put First Things First! These four words cover an entire philosophy which can be applied with profit by every business leader, by every executive and by every employee. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell. ~ Thomas Watson

What if we have more of the rough file, if we have less rust! Afflictions carry away nothing but the dross of sin. ~ Thomas Watson

Are these the duties I required? I called for the heart and spirit and you bring nothing but the carcass of duty. Should I receive this?" "The Lord says These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Isaiah 29:13 ~ Thomas Watson

Whoever brings an affliction, it is God who sends it. ~ Thomas Watson

Ministers can but speak to the ear, the Spirit speaks to the heart. ~ Thomas Watson

Some of the fathers were of opinion that every believer has his guardian angel. This subject needs no hot debate. It may suffice us to know the whole hierarchy of angels is employed for the good of the saints. ~ Thomas Watson

Hence I infer that where there is no sight of sin, there can be no repentance. Many who can spy faults in others see none in themselves. They cry that they have good hearts. Is it not strange that two should live together, and eat and drink together, yet not know each other? Such is the case of a sinner. His body and soul live together, work together, yet he is unacquainted with himself. He knows not his own heart, nor what a hell he carries about him. Under a veil, a deformed face is hid. Persons are veiled over with ignorance and self-love; therefore they see not what deformed souls they have. ~ Thomas Watson

God can turn stones into bread, and a sinner can turn bread into stones; the bread of life into the stone of stumbling. ~ Thomas Watson

When God calls a man, He does not repent of it. God does not, as many friends do, love one day, and hate another; or as princes, who make their subjects favourites, and afterwards throw theminto prison. This is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits of no alteration. God's call is founded upon His decree, and His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed.God blots out His people's sins, but not their names. ~ Thomas Watson

Can the spouse be better than in her husband's company? Where can the soul be better than in drawing near to God? ~ Thomas Watson

What greater dignity can be put upon a mortal man, than to converse with his Maker, and to walk with God every day? ~ Thomas Watson

Affliction may be lasting, but it is not everlasting. Affliction was a sting, but withal a wing: sorrow shall soon fly away. ~ Thomas Watson

It was a witty fiction of the poets, that when Mercury had cast Argus into a sleep and with an enchanted wand closed his eyes, he then killed him. When Satan has by his witcheries lulled men asleep in sloth, then he destroys them. Some report that while the crocodile sleeps with its mouth open, the Indian rat gets into its belly and eats up its entrails. So while men sleep in security they are devoured. ~ Thomas Watson

Some have asked whether we shall know one another in heaven? Surely, our knowledge will not be diminished, but increased. The judgement of Luther and Anselm, and many other divines is, that we shall know one another; yea, the saints of all ages, whose faces we never saw; and, when we shall see the saints in glory without their infirmities of pride end passion, it will be a glorious sight. ~ Thomas Watson

Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use ~ Thomas Watson

I've been a minister and I know how cautious you have to be. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

We love a saint, though he has many personal failings. There is no perfection here. In some, rash anger prevails; in some, inconstancy; in some, too much love of the world. A saint in this life is like gold in the ore, much dross of infirmity cleaves to him, yet we love him for the grace that is in him. A saint is like a fair face with a scar: we love the beautiful face of holiness, though there be a scar in it. The best emerald has its blemishes, the brightest stars their twinklings, and the best of the saints have their failings. You that cannot love another because of his infirmities, how would you have God love you? ~ Thomas Watson

If you set your love on worldly things, they will not satisfy. ~ Thomas Watson

Who can have a better right to us than he that gives us our breath? ~ Thomas Watson

Another sign of our effectual calling is diligence in our ordinary calling. Some boast of their high calling, but they lie idly at anchor. Religion does not seal warrants to idleness. Christians must not be slothful. Idleness is the devil's bath; a slothful person becomes a prey to every temptation. Grace, while it cures the heart, does not make the hand lame. He who is called of God, as he works for heaven, so he works in his trade. ~ Thomas Watson

He may look on death with joy, who can look on forgiveness with faith. ~ Thomas Watson

When we profess God's name, but do not live answerably to it, we take it in vain. ~ Thomas Watson

This marriage union with Christ is the most noble and excellent union: ~ Thomas Watson

We pray, 'lead us not into temptation'. Do we then lead ourselves into temptation? ~ Thomas Watson

The godly have some good in them, therefore the devil afflicts them; and some evil in them, therefore God afflicts them. ~ Thomas Watson

The pleasure of sin is soon gone, but the sting remains. ~ Thomas Watson

Repentance is of such importance, that there is no being saved without it. ~ Thomas Watson

If you don't genuinely like your customers, chances are they won't buy. ~ Thomas Watson

Keep a clear conscience. Contentment is the manna that is laid up in the ark of a good conscience: O take heed of indulging any sin! it is as natural for guilt to breed disquiet, as for putrid matter to breed vermin. Sin lies as Jonah in the ship, it raiseth a tempest. If dust or motes be gotten into the eye, they make the eye water, and cause a soreness in it; if the eye be clear, then it is free from that soreness; if sin be gotten into the conscience, which is as the eye of the soul, then grief and disquiet breed there; but keep the eye of conscience clear, and all is well. What Solomon saith of a good stomach, I may say of a good conscience, "to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet:"Pr. 27. 7 so to a good conscience every bitter thing is sweet; it can pick contentment out of the cross. A good conscience turns the waters of Marah into wine. Would you have a quiet heart? Get a smiling conscience. I wonder not to hear Paul say he was in every state content, when he could make that triumph, "I have lived in all good conscience to this day." When once a man's reckonings are clear, it must needs let in abundance of contentment into the heart. Good conscience can suck contentment out of the bitterest drug, under slanders; "our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience."2 Cor. 1. 12 In case of imprisonment, Paul had his prison songs, and could play the sweet lessons of contentment, when his feet were in the stocks.Ac. 16. 25 Augustine calls it "the paradise of a g ~ Thomas Watson

To compare other things with God, is to debase Deity; as if you should compare the shining of a glow-worm with the sun. 3. ~ Thomas Watson

Better is that sin which humbles me, than that duty which makes me proud. ~ Thomas Watson

Men could be content to have the kingdom of heaven; but they are loathe to fight for it. They choose rather to go in a feather bed to hell than to be carried to heaven in a 'fiery chariot' of zeal and violence. ~ Thomas Watson

Love is an industrious affection; it sets the head studying for God, hands working, feet running in the ways of his commandments. ~ Thomas Watson

The future regulatory arrangements for the newspaper industry need to be done in a much calmer deliberative way, in slower time when we've got beyond this media firestorm. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

Has Christ provided such a blessed banquet for us? He does not nurse us abroad - but feeds us with His own breast - nay, with His own blood! Let us, then, study to respond to this great love of Christ. It is true, we can never parallel His love. Yet let us show ourselves thankful. We can do nothing satisfactory - but we may do something out of gratitude. Christ gave Himself as a sin-offering for us. Let us give ourselves as a thank-offering for Him. If a man redeems another out of debt - will he not be grateful? How deeply do we stand obliged to Christ - who has redeemed us from hell! ~ Thomas Watson

The gospel sweetens the law. ~ Thomas Watson

The higher the monkey climbs, the more he shows his ass. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

"If you are loyal you are successful," ruminated the company paper at one time. "All useful work is raised to the plane of art when love for the task-loyalty-is fused with the effort. Loyalty is the great lubricant of life. It saves the wear and tear of making daily decisions as to what is best to do. The man who is loyal to his work is not wrung nor perplexed by doubts, he sticks to the ship, and if the ship founders he goes down like a hero with colors flying at the masthead and the band playing." ~ Thomas Watson

By endeavoring to bring up our children in the fear of the Lord, we shall provide for God's glory when we are dead. A godly man should not only honor God while he lives - but do something that may promote God's glory when he is dead. If our children are seasoned with gracious principles, they will stand up in our place when we have gone, and will glorify God in their generation. A good piece of ground bears not only a fore-crop but an after-crop. He who is godly does not only bear God a good crop of obedience himself while he lives - but by training his child in the principles of piety, he bears God an after-crop when he is dead. ~ Thomas Watson

It is easy to catch a disease from another, but not to catch health. The bad will sooner corrupt the good, than the good will convert the bad. ~ Thomas Watson

If God spares us as a father does his son, let us imitate God. It is natural for children to imitate their parents. Let us imitate God in this one thing: As God spares us, and passes by many failures, so let us be sparing in our censures of others; let us look upon the weaknesses and indiscretions of our brethren with ... a more tender, compassionate eye. How much God bears with us! ~ Thomas Watson

We should pray that God would enrich his ordinance with his presence; that he would make the sacrament effectual to all those holy ends and purposes for which he hath appointed it; that it may be the feast of our graces, and the funeral of our corruptions; that it may not only be a sign to represent, but an instrument to convey, Christ to us, and a seal to assure us of our heavenly jointure [union]. ~ Thomas Watson

Thus it is in hell; they would die, but they cannot. The wicked shall be always dying but never dead; the smoke of the furnacedascends for ever and ever. Oh! who can endure thus to be ever upon the rack? This word "ever" breaks the heart. Wicked men do now think the Sabbaths long, and think a prayer long; but oh! how long will it be to lie in hell for ever and ever? ~ Thomas Watson

I've got to be careful what I say but Glenn Mulcaire was a blagger and a phone hacker. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

The more helpful we are to others, the more like we are to God. ~ Thomas Watson

There is more evil in a drop of sin than in a sea of affliction. ~ Thomas Watson

The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel. ~ Thomas Watson

When you find a chillness upon your souls, and that your former heat begins to abate, ply yourselves with warm clothes, get those good books that may acquaint you with such truths as may warm and affect your hearts. ~ Thomas Watson

Christ was born of a virgin, that we might be born of God. He took our flesh, that He might give us His Spirit. He lay in the manger that we might lie in paradise. He came down from heaven, that He might bring us to heaven. And what was all this but love? If our hearts be not rocks, this love of Christ should affect us. Behold, love that surpasses knowledge! ~ Thomas Watson

We glorify God by praising Him. Doxology, or praise, is a God-exalting work. The Hebrew word bara, "to create," and barak, "to praise," are little different, because the end of creation is to praise God... How sad that God receives so little glory from us in this way! Many Christians are full of murmuring and discontent, but seldom bring glory to God by giving Him praise due to His name. We read of the saints having harps in their hands, the emblems of praise. Many Christians today have tears in their eyes and complaints in their mouths, but few have harps in their hand, blessing and glorifying God. Let us honor God in this way. ~ Thomas Watson

If you want to succeed, double your failure rate. ~ Thomas Watson Jr.

A good Christian holds secret communication with heaven. Private prayer keeps up the trade of godliness. When private holiness is laid aside, a stab is given to the heart of piety. ~ Thomas Watson

The prayer that is faithless is fruitless. ~ Thomas Watson

[Concerning the Word preached:] Do we prize it in our judgments? Do we receive in into our hearts? Do we fear the loss of the Word preached more than the loss of peace and trade? Is it the removal of the ark that troubles us? Again, do we attend to the Word with reverential devotion? When the judge is giving the charge on the bench, all attend. When the Word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the Word. ~ Thomas Watson