Nothing but Christ

"Look more at justification than sanctification. In the highest commands consider Christ, not as an exacter to require, but as a debtor, and undertaker, to work in you and for you. If you have looked at your resolutions, endeavors, workings, duties, qualifications, etc., more than at the merits of Christ, it will cost you dear. No wonder you go mourning; graces may be evidences, the merits of Christ alone without them, must be the foundation of your hope. Christ only can be the hope of glory.

When we come to God, we must bring nothing but Christ with us. Any ingredients, or any previous qualifications of our own, poison and corrupt faith. He that builds upon duties, graces, etc., knows not the merits of Christ. This makes believing so hard, so far above nature; Hence we see that the great difficulty of believing, lies in the strength of self-righteousness. Ther real difficulty is just the deep unwillingness of the soul to be counted wholly a sinner, and to let Christ be wholly a Saviour. If you believe, you must every day renounce as dung and dross, your privileges, your obedience, your baptism, your sanctification, your duties, your graces, your tears, your meltings, your humbling; and nothing but Christ must be held up. Every day your workings, your self-sufficiency, must be destroyed.

You must receive all at Gods' hand. Christ is the gift of God. Faith is the gift of God. Pardon is a free gift. Ah, how nature storms, frets, rages at this; that all is GIFT, and it can purchase nothing with its works, and tears, and duties; that all workings are excluded, and of no value in the justification of the soul." —Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687)