TOPLADY’S SAYINGS
The best watchfulness I know of is a continued looking to, and dependence on the grace of God’s Holy Spirit, from moment to moment.
The terrors of the law have much the same effect on our duties and obedience as frost has on a stream: it hardens, cools, and stagnates. Whereas, let the shining of divine love rise upon the soul; repentance will then flow, our hardness and coldness thaw and melt away, and all the blooming fruits of godliness flourish and abound.
If a person who has been long in possession of a large estate comes, in process of time to have his title disputed, he rummages every corner of his strong boxes, to find the original deeds; which, having found, he appeals to as authentic vouchers.
Thus past experiences of the grace of God, though not proper to be rested in, may yet be recollected with comfort, and referred to with advantage, by a deserted saint in an hour of doubt and darkness.
We cannot heartily love the distinguishing truths of the gospel, without experiencing them, and we cannot experience them without loving them.
As I would not throw away my watch for varying a few minutes from the exact point of time; so neither would I disclaim a regenerate person for his not in every thing exactly thinking with me. Christians are no more infallible than watches.