Works are an evidence of true faith. Graces are not dead, useless habits; they will have some effects and operations when they are weakest and in their infancy… This is the evidence by which we must judge, and this is the evidence by which Christ will judge… Works are not a ground of confidence, but an evidence; not the foundations of faith, but the encouragements of assurance. Comfort may be increased by the sight of good works, but it is not built upon them; they are seeds of hope, not props of confidence; sweet evidences of election, not causes; happy presages and beginnings of glory; in short, they can manifest an interest, but not merit it.
— Thomas Manton (1620–1677), Puritanischer Prediger
Topics: Grace & Redemption, Faith & Trust
Occasions: For Reflection
Thomas Manton
Thomas Manton war ein englischer puritanischer Theologe und Prediger des 17. Jahrhunderts, der vor allem in London wirkte und nach der Uniformitätsakte von 1662 als Nonkonformist aus dem kirchlichen Staatsdienst entlassen wurde. Er ist vor allem für seine umfangreichen, systematischen Predigtreihen und Schriftauslegungen bekannt, in denen er reformierte Theologie mit seelsorgerlicher Praxis verband. Heutigen Bibellesern vermitteln seine Schriften eine detaillierte Auslegung biblischer Texte mit Fokus auf die alltägliche Glaubenspraxis.
All quotes by Thomas Manton (18)
It wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross. It was love.
Max Lucado
Grace, like water, flows to the lowest part.
Philip Yancey
In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
Henri Nouwen
God does not love us because we are lovable, but because his nature is love.
Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers
God counts on your failure far more than you do yourself.
Hans Peter Royer
Ultimately mourning means facing what wounds us in the presence of One who can heal.
Henri Nouwen
The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.
Tim Keller