Inspirational Quotes by Michael A.G. Haykin

“At the sessions after I was indicted for an upholder and maintainer of unlawful assemblies and conventicles, and for not conforming to the national worship of the church of England; and after some conference there with the justices, they taking my plain dealing with them for a confession, as they termed it, of the indictment, did sentence me to a perpetual banishment, because I refused to conform.  So being again delivered up to the jailer’s hands, I was had home to prison, and there have lain now complete twelve years, waiting to see what God would suffer these men to do with me.”

“Wom.  My lord, said she, he dares not leave preaching as long as he can speak. Twis.  See here, what should we talk any more about such a fellow?  Must he do what he lists?  He is a breaker of the peace. Wom.  She told him again, that he desired to live peaceably, and to follow his calling, that his family might be maintained; and moreover, said, My Lord, I have four small children, that cannot help themselves, one of which is blind, and have nothing to live upon, but the charity of good people. Hale.  Hast thou four children? said Judge Hale; thou art but a young woman to have four children.”

“Wom.  He preacheth nothing but the Word of God, said she. Twis.  He preach the Word of God! said Twisdon; and withal, she thought he would have struck her; he runneth up and down, and doth harm. Wom.  No, my lord, said she, it is not so; God hath owned him, and done much good by him. Twis.  God! said he, his doctrine is the doctrine of the devil. Wom.  My lord, said she, when the righteous Judge shall appear, it will be known that his doctrine is not the doctrine of the devil.”

“Yea, I thought it impossible that ever I should attain to so much goodness of heart, as to thank God that He had made me a man.  Man indeed is the most noble by creation, of all creatures in the visible world; but by sin he has made himself the most ignoble.  The beasts, birds, fishes, etc.  I blessed their condition; for they had not a sinful nature; they were not obnoxious to the wrath of God; they were not to go to hell-fire after death; I could therefore have rejoiced, had my condition been as any of theirs.”

“I shall pass by what befell between these two assizes, how I had, by my jailor, some liberty granted me, more than at the first, and how I followed my wonted course of preaching, taking all occasions that were put into my hand to visit the people of God; exhorting them to be steadfast in the faith of Jesus Christ, and to take heed that they touched not the Common Prayer, etc., but to mind the Word of God, which giveth direction to Christians in every point, being able to make the man of God perfect in all things through faith in Jesus Christ, and thoroughly to furnish him unto all good works.  2 Tim. iii. 17. ”

“When I first went to preach the word abroad, the doctors and priests of the country did open wide against me.  But I was persuaded of this, not to render railing for railing; but to see how many of their carnal professors I could convince of their miserable state by the law, and of the want and worth of Christ: for, thought I, This shall answer for me in time to come, when they shall be for my hire before their face.  Gen. xxx. 33.”

“Then that scripture gave me hope, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.  Heb. xiii. 5.  ‘O Lord,’ said I, but I have left Thee.  Then it answered again, But I will not leave thee.  For this I thanked God also.”

“If any of those who were awakened by my ministry, did after that fall back (as sometimes too many did), I can truly say, their loss hath been more to me, than if one of my own children, begotten of my own body, had been going to its grave:”

“These three or four scriptures also have been great refreshments in this condition to me: John xiv. 1-4; John xvi. 33; Col. iii. 3, 4; Heb. xii. 22-24.  So that sometimes when I have been in the savour of them, I have been able to laugh at destruction, and to fear neither the horse nor his rider.  I have had sweet sights of the forgiveness of my sins in this place, and of my being with Jesus in another world: Oh! the mount Sion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable company of angels, and God the Judge of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect, and Jesus, have been sweet unto me in this place: I have seen that here, that I am persuaded I shall never, while in this world, be able to express: I have seen a truth in this scripture, Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.  1 Pet. i. 8.”

“I found my condition in his experience so largely and profoundly handled, as if his book had been written out of my heart.  This made me marvel: for thus thought I, This man could not know any thing of the state of Christians now, but must needs write and speak the experience of former days.”

“I heard one preach a sermon on these words in the song, Song iv. 1, Behold, thou art fair, my love, behold, thou art fair.  But at that time he made these two words, my love, his chief and subject matter: from which, after he had a little opened the text, he observed these several conclusions: 1. That the church, and so every saved soul, is Christ’s love, when loveless.  2. Christ’s love without a cause.  3. Christ’s love, when hated of the world.  4. Christ’s love, when under temptation and under destruction.  5. Christ’s love, from first to last. 90.  But I got nothing by what he said at present; only when he came to the application of the fourth particular, this was the word he said; If it be so, that the saved soul is Christ’s love, when under temptation and desertion; then poor tempted soul, when thou art assaulted, and afflicted with temptations, and the hidings of God’s face, yet think on these two words, ‘My love,’ still.”

“Then I began to give place to the word which with power, did over and over make this joyful sound within my soul, ‘Thou art my Love, thou art My Love, and nothing shall separate thee from My Love.  And with that my heart was filled full of comfort and hope, and now I could believe that my sins should be forgiven me;”

“These blasphemous thoughts were such as stirred up questions in me against the very being of God, and of His only beloved Son: As, whether there were in truth, a God or Christ?  And whether the holy scriptures were not rather a fable, and cunning story, than the holy and pure word of God? 97.  The tempter would also much assault me with this, How can you tell but that the Turks had as good scriptures to prove their Mahomet the Saviour, as we have to prove our Jesus is?  And, could I think, that so many ten thousands, in so many countries and kingdoms, should be without the knowledge of the right way to heaven, (if there were indeed a heaven); and that we only, who live in a corner of the earth, should alone be blessed therewith?  Every one doth think his own religion rightest, both Jews and Moors, and Pagans; and how if all our faith, and Christ, and scriptures, should be but a think so too?”

“but yet I was bound in the wings of the temptation, and the wind would carry me away.  I thought also of Saul, and of the evil spirit that did possess him: and did greatly fear that my condition was the same with that of his.  1 Sam. x.”

“Then I should think of Esther, who went to petition the king contrary to the law.  Esther iv. 16.  I thought also of Benhadad’s servants, who went with ropes upon their heads to their enemies for mercy.  1 Kings xx. 31, etc.  The woman of Canaan also, that would not be daunted, though called dog by Christ, Matt. xv., 22, etc., and the man that went to borrow bread at midnight, Luke xi. 5-8, etc., were great encouragements unto me.”

“That scripture did also tear and rend my soul in the midst of these distractions, The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.  There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.  Isa. lvii. 20, 21.”

“And now was I both a burthen and a terror to myself; nor did I ever so know, as now, what it was to be weary of my life, and yet afraid to die. ”

“Sometimes also he would cast in such wicked thoughts as these; that I must pray to him, or for him: I have thought sometimes of that, Fall down; or, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.  Matt. iii. 9.”

“for time would make me forget all, and wear even the remembrance of the evil of sin, the worth of heaven, and the need I had of the blood of Christ to wash me, both out of mind and thought: but I thank Christ Jesus, these things did not at present make me slack my crying, but rather did put me more upon it (like her who met with adulterer, Deut. xxii. 26), in which days that was a good word to me, after I had suffered these things a while:- I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, etc., shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Rom. viii. 38, 39. ”

“I never saw those heights and depths in grace, and love, and mercy, as I saw after this temptation; great sins to draw out great grace; and where guilt is most terrible and fierce, there the mercy of God in Christ, when showed to the soul, appears most high and mighty.  When Job had passed through his captivity, he had twice as much as he had before.  Job xlii. 10. ”