Thomas Watson

When we pray for thing pertaining to this life, we must desire temporal thing for spiritual ends; we must desire these things to be as helps in our journey to heaven. If we pray for health, it must be that we may improve this talen of health for God’s glory, and may be fitter for his service… if we are to pray for temporal good things, then how  much more for spiritual? If we are to pray for bread, then how much more for the bread of life? If we pray to have our hunger satisfied, how much more should we pray to have our souls saved…. Therefore, let u be earnest for spiritual mercies.—Thomas Watson, “Practical Divinity”

If you would be preserved from actual and scandalous sins, labour to mortify original sin, think what an odious thing sin is, get the fear of God planted in your hearts, be careful to avoid all the inlets and occasions of sin, study sobriety and temperance, watch your passions, consult with the oracles of God, be well-versed in Scripture (Ps. 119:11), get your hearts fired with love to God.
—Thomas  Watson “Practical divinity”

Let us confess our debts, and pray for forgiveness of our sins (Luke 11:4). The forgiveness of God is passing by sin (Mic. 7:18), wiping off the score and giving us a discharge.God, in pardoning, lifts our burden from the conscience and lays it upon Christ (Isa. 53:6). To forgive is to cover sin (Ps. 32:1), to blot out transgressions (Isa. 43:25)…. When God forgives sin he blots out the  debt, he draws the red-line of Christ’s blood over our sins, and so crosses the debt-book…Sin is the cloud interposed, but God dispels the cloud, and breaks forth with the light of his countenance…. He casts our debts into the depths of the sea (Mic. 7:19)
—Thomas Watson “Practical Divinity”

The glory in the kingdom of heaven shall be begun at death, but not perfected until the resurrection… Heaven is not only a kingdom which God has promised, but which Christ has purchased (Eph. 1:14) with the price of His blood (Heb. 10:19)… The elect must have this blessed kingdom by virtue of their coalition and union with Jesus Christ. They are members of Christ, therefore they must be where their head is. Can Christ lose a member of his body?
—-Thomas Watson, “Practical Divinity”

Sin is the worst debt, because it is against an infinite majesty. It is a multiplied debt. We do not know how much we owe God… But God writes down our debts in his book of remembrance.  God’s book and the book of conscience do exactly agree, so that the debt cannot be denied.
There is no shifting of the debt… Neither man nor angel can pay this debt for us. Who shall give us protection from God’s justice? We cannot flee from God… He knows where to find all his debtors (Ps. 139:7,8)… There is a day coming when God will call his debtors to account. (Rom. 14:12)
–Thomas Watson

“Give us this day our daily bread.” The sum of this petition is that God would give us such a competency in these outward things as he sees most excellent for us (Prov 30:8)… The good things of this life are the gifts of God: he is the donor of all our blessings (James 1:17)… Wisdom and riches are his gifts, so are peace and health–which is the cream of life (Jer. 30:17)… All we have is from the hand of God’s royal bounty; we have nothing but what God gives us out of his store-house; we cannot have but one bit of bread but from God.
—Thomas Watson “Practical divinity”

When we pray for things pertaining to this life, we must desire temporal things for spiritual ends; we must desire these things to be as  helps in our journey to heaven. If we pray for health, it must be that we may improve this talent of health for God’s glory, and may be fitter for his service… If we are to pray for temporal good things, then how much more for spiritual? If we are to pray for bread, then how much more for the bread of life? If we pray to  have our hunger satisfied, much more should we pray to have our souls saved… Therefore, let us be earnest for spiritual mercies.
—Thomas Watson “Practical Divinity”

The glory in the Kingdom of heaven shall begin at death, but not perfected until the resurrection… Heaven is not only a kingdom which God has promised, but which Christ has purchased (Eph. 1:4) with the price of his blood (Heb. 10:19)… The elect must have this blessed kingdom by virtue of their coalition and union with Jesus Christ. They are members of Christ, therefore they must be where their head is. Can Christ lose a member of his body?
—Thomas Watson “Practical Divinity”

If all be a gift, see then the odious ingratitude of men, who sin against the giver. God feeds them, and they fight against him; he gives them bread, and they give him affronts… Ungratefully do sinners deal with God. They not only forget his mercies, but abuse them (Jer. 5:7)… This gives a dye and tincture to men’s sins, and makes them crimson.
God gives us daily bread, let us give him daily praise. Thankfulness to our donor is the best policy… God loves to bestow his mercies where there is the best echo of praise.
—Thomas Watson

In praying for spiritual things, we must be absolute. When we pray for pardon of sin, and the favour of God, and the sanctifying graces of the Spirit, these are indispensably necessary to salvation, and here we must take no denial. But when we pray for temporal things, here our prayers must be limited, we must pray conditionally so far as God sees them good for us. God sometimes sees cause to withhold temporal things from us: they may be snares and draw our hearts from God, therefore we must pray for these things with submission to God’s will.
—Thomas Watson “Practical Divinity.”

The fifth petition in the Lord’s prayer is this…”And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matt 6:12)… Though we have daily bread, yet it will do us no good unless sins be forgiven… Daily bread may satisfy our appetite, but forgiveness satisfies the conscience
Forgiveness is the sauce that would make our bread relish the sweeter.
Daily bread may make us live comfortably, but forgiveness of sins will make us die comfortably…. Besides daily bread, get pardon of sin.
—Thomas Watson, “Practical Divinity”

The Ten Commandments are the rule of our life, the creed is the sum of our faith, and the Lord’s prayer is the pattern of our prayer…So let all your petitions agree and symbolize with the things contained in the Lord’s Prayer calls it breviary and compendium of the Gospel …Never was there prayer so admirably composed as this.
The prayer begins with ] a preface: “Our Father, which art in heaven”….We must address ourselves in prayer to God alone: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost…
—Thomas Watson “Practical Divinity”

We are in danger of Satan’s temptations. Consider his malice in tempting. This hellish serpent is swelled with the poison of malice…To see a clod of dust so near to God, and himself, once [once a glorious angel] cast out of the heavenly paradise, makes him pursue mankind with inveterate hatred (Rev. 12:12). If there is anything this infernal spirit of hell can delight in, is it to ruin souls, and bring them into the same condemnation as himself.
—Thomas Watson, “Practical Divinity”

The Tree of mercy will not drop its fruit, unless shaken by the hand of prayer…How wicked are they, who instead of going to God for food, when they lack, they go to the devil; they make a compact with him, and if he will help them to a livelihood, they will give them their souls. Better starve, than to go to the devil for provender.
Whatever we receive from God is a gift. WE can give nothing to God but what He has given to us (1 Chron 29:14)…if all be a gift, then merit is exploded, and shut out of doors.
–Thomas Watson

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We think God cannot favour us except he hath us in his lap; yet he loves his people when he is giving them the bitter diet-drink of affliction. God’s rod and God’s love, they both stand together. It is no love in God to let men go on in sin, and never smite. God’s greatest curse is when he afflicts not for sin. Let us feel God’s hand, so that we may have his heart.
–Thomas Watson

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The manner of doing God’s will is the chief thing… We must not only do what God appoints, but as God appoints…We do God’s will acceptably when we do duties spiritually–from an inward principle–a renewed principle of grace…The inward principle of obedience is faith…Faith looks at Christ in every duty, it touches the hem of his garment; and through Christ, both the person and the offering are accepted.
—Thomas Watson “Practical Divinity”

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We honour our Father in heaven by having a reverential awe (Lev. 25:17)… and by resembling him (Col 3:10) in holiness…If God be our Father, then we love to be near God and have converse with him…He who has God for his Father, has God for his pattern.
—Thomas Watson “Practical Divinity”

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As the good samaritan first had compassion on the wounded man–there was sympathy and then succour–so when we are wounded by the red dragon, Christ is first touched with compassion, and then he pours in wine and oil.. Our Lord Jesus know what it is to be tempted, therefore he is ready to succour such as are tempted.
—Thomas Watson “Practical divinity”

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Sin is debt, and every sinner is a debtor. Why is sin called a debt? Because it fitly resembles it…We owe to God exact obedience, and not paying what is due we come to be in debt…By our sins, we become guilty, and stand obliged to God’s curse of damnation.
We have nothing [with which] to pay. We can pay neither principal or interest. Adam made us all bankrupts. In innocency Adam had a stock of original righteuosness…He could give God personal and perfect obedience. But by his sin, he is quite broken, and has beggared all his posterity.
–Thomas Watson, “Practical divinity.”

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The tree of mercy will not drop its fruit, unless shaken by the hand of prayer… How wicked are they, who instead of going to God for food when they lack, they go to the devil; they make a compact with him, and if he will help them to a livelihood, they will give them their souls. Better to starve, than to go to the devil for provender.
Whatever we receive from God is a gift. We can give nothing to God but what he has given to us (1 Chron 29:14)… if all be a gift, then merit is exploded, and shut out of doors.
—Thomas Watson

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The growth of grace is the best evidence of the truth of it; things that have no life will not grow.
—Thomas Watson

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We must know God’s will before we can do it aright, there is no going to heaven blindfolded.
—Thomas Watson
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Faith deals with invisibles, but God hates that love which is invisible.
—Thomas Watson
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Prayer is the soul’s breathing itself into the bosom of its heavenly Father.
—Thomas Watson
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Murmuring is incompatible with submission to God’s will; murmuring is the height of impatience, it a kind of mutiny in the soul against God (Num 21:5). Murmuring is very evil, it springs from pride and distrust in God’s promises.
When the strings of the lute are snarled ,the lute can make no good music; so when a Christian’s spirits are perplexed and disturbed, he cannot make melody in his heart to the Lord.
—Thomas Watson
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If you would be preserved from actual and scandalous sins, labour to mortify original sin, think what an odious thing sin is, get the fear of God planted in your hearts, be careful to avoid all the inlets and occasions of sin, study sobriety and temperance, watch your passions, consult with the oracles of God, be well-versed in Scripture (Ps. 119:11), get your hearts filled with love to God.
–Thomas Watson
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