Human Nature in Its Fourfold State Quotes

“Most men are so far from making God their chief end, in their natural and civil actions, that, in these matters, God is not in all their thoughts. . . . They seek God indeed, but not for himself, but for themselves. They seek him not at all, but for their own welfare; so their whole life is woven into one web of practical blasphemy; making God the means, and self their end; yea, their chief end.”
― Thomas Boston, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State

“Men believe that fire will burn them; and therefore, they will not throw themselves into it. But the truth is, most men live as if they thought the gospel was a mere fable, and the wrath of God, revealed in his word against their unrighteousness and ungodliness, a mere scarecrow. If”
― Thomas Boston, Human Nature In Its Fourfold State

“A creature, as a creature, must acknowledge the Creator's will as its supreme law; for as it cannot exist without him, so it must not be but for him, and according to his will; yet no law obliges, until it is revealed. And hence it follows, that there was a law, which man, as a rational creature, was subjected to in his creation; and that this law was revealed to him. "God made man upright," says the text. This supposes a law to which he was conformed in his creation; as when anything is made regular, or according to rule, of necessity the rule itself is presupposed. Whence we may gather, that this law was no other than the eternal, indispensable law of righteousness, observed in all points by the second Adam, opposed by the carnal mind, and some notions of which remain yet among the Pagans, who, "having not the law, are a law unto themselves," Romans 2:14.”
― Thomas Boston, Human Nature In Its Fourfold State

“And the soul is never cured of this disease, until conquering grace brings it back to take up its everlasting rest in God through Christ—but until this be, if man were set again in paradise, the garden of the Lord, all the pleasures there would not keep him from looking, yes, and leaping over the hedge a second time.”
― Thomas Boston, Human Nature In Its Fourfold State

“the holiest parent begets unholy children, and cannot communicate their grace to them, as they do their nature; which many godly parents find true, in their sad experience.”
― Thomas Boston, Human Nature In Its Fourfold State