03. Quotes 201-300

Quotes 201-300

201. Those who through curious wiseness disdain the stately plainness of the Scripture, would do well to remember that God the Father, the great Master of Speech, when he spake from heaven, made use of three several texts of Scripture in one breath: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,hear ye him" (Matthew 17:5). They are to be found in Psalms 2:7, Isaiah xvlii. 1, and Deuteronomy 18:15.

202. No souls fall so low into hell, if they fall, as those souls that, by a hand of mercy, are lifted up nearest to heaven.

203. Comfort is not of the being, but of the well-being of a Christian. The best men’s joys are as glass, bright and brittle, and evermore in danger of breaking. Spiritual joy is a sun that is often clouded.

204. Mercy is "Alpha," justice is "Omega."

205. A Jewish rabbi pressing the practice of repentance upon his disciples, exhorted them to be sure to repent the day before they died. One of them replied that the day of any man’s death was very uncertain. "Repent, therefore, every day," said the rabbi, "and then you will be sure to repent the day before you die." You who are wise will know how to apply this to your own advantage.

206. Unity is the best bond of safety in every church and commonwealth. We shall be invincible, if we be inseparable. And this did the Scythian king in Plutarch represent livelily to his eighty sons. He, being ready to die, commanded a bundle of arrows fast bound together to be given to his sons to break; they all tried to break them, but being bound fast together, they could not; then he caused the band to be cut, and then they broke them with ease. He applied it thus: "My sons, so long as you keep together, you will be invincible; but if the band of union be broken betwixt you, you will easily be broken in pieces."

207. Christians, bear your faithful ministers upon your hearts when you are wrestling with God. They can tell when they want your prayers, and when they enjoy your prayers. Did you pray more for them, they might do more for your internal and eternal good than now they do.

208. The three tongues that were written upon the cross—Greek, Latin and Hebrew—to witness Christ to be the king of the Jews, do each of them, in their several idioms, avouch this singular axiom, that Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour; and a threefold cord is not easily broken.

209. Some are Drought to Christ by fire, storms and tempests; others by more easy and gentle gales of the Spirit. The Spirit is free in the work of conversion, and as the wind, it blows when, where and how it pleases. Thrice happy are those souls that are brought to Christ, whether it be in a winter’s night, or on a summer’s day.

210. Little sins multiplied, become great. There is nothing less than a grain of sand—there is nothing heavier than the sand of the sea when multiplied.

211. Love is a golden key to let in Christ, and a strong lock to keep out others; though many may knock at love’s door, yet love will open to none but Christ.

212. It is an honor to be good betimes. A young saint is like the morning star: he is like a pearl in a gold ring. Among all the disciples, John was the youngest, and the most and best beloved.

213. Severinus, the Indian saint, under the power of assurance, was heard to say, "O my God I do not for pity so overjoy me. If I must still live, and have such consolations, take me to heaven."

214. After the Roman generals had gotten the victory over their enemies, the senate used not one way, but many ways, to express their love to them: so after our faith has gotten the victory over Satan, God usually takes the soul in his arms, and courts it, and shows much kindness to it.

215. A good conscience will look through the blackest clouds, and see a smiling God. Look, as an evil conscience is attended with the greatest fears and doubts, so a good conscience is attended with the greatest clearness and sweetness.

216. A murmurer is an hieroglyphic of folly; he is a comprehensive vanity; he is a man, and no man; he is sottish and senseless; he neither understands God nor himself, nor any thing as he should (Isaiah 3:8).

217. The Bible is a Christian’s magna charta, his chief evidence for heaven. Men highly prize and carefully keep their charters, privileges, conveyances, and assurances of their lands: and shall not the saints much more highly prize, and carefully keep in the closet of their hearts, the precious word of God, which is to them instead of all assurances for their maintenance, deliverance, protection, confirmation, consolation, and eternal salvation?

218. Where God refuses to correct, there God resolves to destroy. There is no man so near the edge, so near the flames, so near hell, as he whom God will not so much as spend a rod upon. Jerome, writing to a sick friend, has this expression: "I account it a part of unhappiness not to know adversity. I judge you to be miserable, because you have not been miserable." Nothing," says another, seems more unhappy to me, than he to whom no adversity has happened."

219. The soul is the breath of God, the beauty of man, the wonder of angels, and the envy of devils. The soul is a greater miracle in a man, than all the miracles wrought among men. It is not in the power of any outward troubles and afflictions that a Christian meets with, to reach his soul; and therefore he may well sit mute under the smarting rod.

220. The best and sweetest flowers of Paradise God gives to his people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of heaven, a key to let us in to Paradise.

221. Assurance is a mercy too good for most men’s hearts; it is a crown too weighty for most men’s heads. Assurance is the best and greatest mercy, and therefore God will give it to his best and dearest friends only.

222. He that lives without assurance, lives upon some creature enjoyment more than upon God, and so gratifies Satan.

223. Prayer crowns God with the honor and glory that are due to his name, and God crowns prayer with assurance and comfort. Usually the most praying souls are the most assured souls.

224. The ball in the emblem says, "The harder you beat me down, the higher I shall ’bound towards heaven, so afflictions do but elevate and raise a saint’s affections to heaven and heavenly things.

225. Many men’s love to Christ is like the morning dew; it is like Jonah’s gourd, that came up in a night, and perished in a night; but that love which accompanies salvation is like Ruth’s love, a lasting and an abiding love.

226. It is sad to see a man fight against his friends; it is sadder to see him fight against his relations; it is saddest of all to see him fight against his prayers. And yet this every Christian does, who murmurs and mutters when the rod of God is upon him.

227. As our greatest good comes through the sufferings of Christ, so God’s greatest glory that he hath from his saints comes through their sufferings.

228. Weak souls, remember this—as Joseph sent chariots to bring his father and his brethren to him, so God would have your weak graces to be as chariots to bring you to himself, who is the strengthener, cherisher, and increaser of grace.

229. Backsliding is a wounding sin. We read of no arms for the back, though we do for the breast. He that is but seemingly good, will prove at last exceedingly bad, will wax worse and worse (2 Timothy 3:13).

230. Christian, though the cup is bitter, yet it is put into your hand by your Father; though the cross is heavy, yet he that has laid it on your shoulders will bear the heaviest end of it himself; and why then should you murmur?

231. As every precious stone has virtue in it, so has every promise; and upon these precious promises, precious faith looks and lives; from these it draws comfort and sweetness.

232. Waiting times are times wherein God is pleased to give his people some sweet tastes of his love, and to lift up the light of his countenance upon them.

233. Hope takes fast hold of heaven itself. A Christian’s hope is not like that of Pandora, which may fly out of the box, and bid the soul farewell, as the hope of the hypocrite does; no, it is like the morning light, the least beam of it shall go on into a complete sunshine; it shall shine forth brighter and brighter till the perfect day.

234. Every murmurer is his own martyr; he is a murderer: he kills many at once, his joy, his comfort, his peace, his rest, his soul.

235. The being of grace makes our estates safe and sure; the seeing of grace makes our lives sweet and comfortable.

236. The naturalists observe that the pearl, by the frequent beating of the sun’s beams upon it, becomes radiant; so the often beating and shining of the Sun of Righteousness, with his divine beams, upon the saints, causes them to glitter and shine in holiness, righteousness, heavenly mindedness, and humbleness.

237. Were riches ever true to them that trusted them? As the bird hops from twig to twig, so do riches hop from man to man.

238. As there is no blood that saves souls like the blood of Christ, so there is no blood that sinks souls like the blood of Christ. A drop of this blood upon a man’s head at last will make him miserable for ever; but a drop of it upon a man’s heart at last will make him happy for ever.

239. David’s heart was more often out of tune than his harp. He begins many of his psalms sighing, and ends them singing; and others he begins in joy and ends in sorrow. "So that one would think," says Peter Moulin, "that those psalms had been composed by two men of a contrary humor."

240. A man may be truly holy, and yet not have assurance that he shall be eternally happy. His estate may be good, and yet he not see it; he may be in a safe condition when he is not in a comfortable condition. All may be well with him in a court of glory, when he would give a thousand worlds that all were but well in the court of conscience.

241. Luther prized the Word at such a high rate that he said, "he would not live in Paradise, if he might, without the Word; but with the Word he could live in hell itself."

242. Where the disease is strong, the physic must be strong, or else the cure will never be wrought. God is a wise physician^ and he would never give strong medicine if weaker could effect the cure. The more rusty the iron is, the oftener we put it into the fire to purify it; and the more crooked it is, the more blows and the harder blows, we give to straighten it; therefore, Christian, if thou hast long been gathering rust, thou hast no cause to complain if God deal thus with thee.

243. All the chastening in the world, without divine teaching, will never make a man blessed. That man who finds correction attended with instruction, and lashing with lessoning, is a happy man.

244. When God’s strokes and a Christian’s strength are suited one to another, all is in love; let the load be ever so heavy that God lays on, if he put under his everlasting arms, all must be well.

245. Luther says, "If I might have my desire, I would rather choose the meanest work of a poor Christian, than all the victories and triumphs of Alexander or Julius Caesar."

246. The best way to do ourselves good is to be doing good to others; the best way to gather is to scatter.

247. Many a man has slain his mercies, by setting too great a value upon them. Over-loved mercies are seldom long-lived mercies. The way to lose your mercies, is to indulge them; the way to destroy them is to fix your minds and hearts upon them.

248. As Joseph’s heart was full of love to his brethren, even when he spake roughly to them and withdrew himself from them, for he was fain to go aside and ease his heart by weeping; so the heart of God is full of love to his people, even when he seems to be most displeased with them, and to turn his back upon them.

249. Such souls as have once been in the arms of God, in the midst of all oppositions, are as men made all of fire, walking in stubble; they consume and overcome all hindrances; all difficulties are but as whetstones to their fortitude. The moon will run her course, though the dogs bark at her; so will all those choice souls who have found warmth under Christ’s wings run their Christian race in spite of all difficulties and danger.

250. Get this world, this moon, under your feet Take no rest till you have broken through the silken net, till you have got off the golden fetters. A heart that is full of the world, is a heart full of wants.

251. The more we remember our days, the fewer sins we shall have to number.

252. Though true repentance be never too late, yet late repentance is seldom true.

253. Murmuring is a black garment, and it becomes none so ill as saints.

254. Titus Vespasian never dismissed any petitioner with a tear in his eye, or with a heavy heart; and shall we think that the God of compassions will always dismiss the petitioners of heaven with tears in their eyes? Surely no.

255. Faith is the key that unlocks Paradise and lets a flood of joy into the soul. Faith appropriates all to itself.

256. They are rare Christians, indeed, who hold their goodness and grow in goodness where wickedness sits on the throne. To be wheat among tares, corn among chaff, pearls among cockles, and roses among thorns, is truly excellent.

257. God will make the most insensible sinner sensible either of his hand here, or of his wrath in hell.

258. As all lights cannot make up the want of the light of the sun, so all temporal comforts cannot make up the want of one spiritual comfort.

259. Despairing thoughts make a man fight against God with his own weapons; they make a man cast all the cordials of the Spirit against the wall, as things of no value; they make a man suck poison out of the sweetest promises; they make a man eminent in nothing, unless it be in having hard thoughts of God, in arguing against his own soul and happiness, and in turning his greatest advantages into disadvantages, his greatest helps into his greatest hindrances.

260. Afflictions are evils in themselves, and we may desire and endeavor to be delivered from them. When Providence opens a door of escape, there is no reason why the saints should set themselves as marks and butts for their enemies to shoot at.

261. Assurance is glory in the bud; it is the suburbs of Paradise; it is a cluster of the land of promise; it is a spark of God; it is the joy and crown of a Christian; how great, therefore, is their impiety and folly who deny assurance, or who cry it down, under any names or notions whatsoever!

262. It is in vain for the bird to complain that it saw the corn, but not the pit-fall. So it will be vain for sinners to plead company and allurements, by which they have been enticed to undo their souls forever. The God of spirits, the God of all flesh will not be put off with any excuses or pretenses when he shall try and judge the children of men.

263. When rich mercy and glorious power are nearest the soul, then Satan most storms and rages against the soul. The more the bowels of Christ work toward a sinner, the more furious will Satan assault that sinner.

264. Do not put off God to old age; for old, lame and sick sacrifices rarely reach as high as heaven.

265. Christians, remember this: God has two strings to his bow; if your hearts will not lie humble and low under the sense of sin and misery, he will make them lie low under the want of some desired mercy.

266. Affliction abases the loveliness of the world without that might entice us; it abates the lustfulness of the flesh within, which might else ensnare us; and it abates the spirit in his quarrel against the flesh and the world; by all which it proves a mighty advantage to us.

267. The more vile Christ made himself for us, the more dear he ought to be unto us.

268. The soul shall hear good news from heaven when it is waiting at wisdom’s door.

269. God oftentimes delays, that his people may come to him with greater strength and importunity; he puts them off, that they may put on with more life and vigor. God seems to be cold, that he may make us the more hot; he seems to be slack, that he may make us the more earnest; he seems to be backward, that he may make us the more forward in pressing upon him.

270. A gracious soul has always his sins before his face; therefore, no wonder if the Lord casts them behind his back. The father soon forgets and casts behind his back those faults that the child remembers and has always in his eyes; so does the Father of spirits.

271. They say that nothing will dissolve the adamant but the blood of a goat; ah I nothing will kindly, sweetly and effectually break the hardened heart of a sinner but faith’s beholding the blood of Christ trickling down his sides.

272. As many a man loses the sight of a city when he comes near to it, so many a choice soul loses the sight of heaven, even when it is nearest to heaven.

273. A little grace will put a man upon those religious duties that are easy and pleasing to flesh and blood, and not chargeable, but rather profitable and pleasurable; but it must be the strength of grace that puts a man upon those services that are costly and cross to the flesh.

274. Thou mayest write bitterness and death upon that mercy which has taken away thy heart from God.

275. That love which accompanies salvation is like the sun. The sun casts his beams upward and downward, to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south; so the love of a saint ascends to God above, and descends to men on earth; to our friends on the right hand, to our enemies on the left hand; to them that are in a state of grace, and to them that are in a state of nature. Divine love will still be working one way or another.

276. There is nothing that God is so tender of as he is of his glory; and nothing that his heart is so much set upon as his glory and therefore he will visit his suffering people in a prison, and feast them in a dungeon, and walk with them in a fiery furnace, and show kindness to them in a lion’s den; that every one may shout and cry, "Grace! grace!"

277. It was a sweet saying of one, "As what I have, if offered to thee, pleaseth thee not, O Lord, without myself, so the good things we have from thee, though they may refresh us, yet they cannot satisfy us without thyself."

278. Young saints often prove old angels, but old sinners seldom prove good saints.

279. Conflicts with Satan are usually the sharpest and hottest; they spend and waste most the vital and noble spirit of the saints; and therefore the Lord, after such conflicts, ordinarily gives his people his choicest and his strongest cordials.

280. As a sight of God’s grace cheers the soul, so a sight of his greatness and glory silences the soul.

281. The sweetest comforts of this life are but like treasures of snow; do but take a handful of snow and crush it in your hands, and it will melt away presently; but if you let it lie upon the ground, it will continue for some time; and so it is with the contentments of this world. If you grasp them in your hands, and lay them too near your heart, they will quickly melt and vanish away; but if you will not hold them too fast in your hands, nor lay them too close to your hearts, they will abide the longer with you.

282. Waiting souls, remember this: assurance is yours, but the time of giving it is the Lord’s; the jewel is yours, but the season in which he will give it is in his own hand; the golden chain is yours, but he only knows the hour wherein he will put it around your necks. Well, wait patiently and quietly, wait expectingly and believingly, wait affectionately and wait diligently, and you shall find that Scripture made good with power upon your souls: "Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry" (Hebrews 10:17).

283. The mercies of God are not styled the swift, but the sure mercies of David; and, therefore, a gracious soul patiently waits for them.

284. All the acts and attributes of God sit at the feet of mercy. The weapons of God’s artillery are turned into the rainbow; a bow indeed, but without an arrow; bent, but without a string.

285. Give God the cream and flower of youth, strength, time and talents. Vessels that are seasoned betimes with the savor of life never lose it.

286. What use would there be of the stars if the sun did always shine? why, none; and no more use would there be of your graces if assurance should be always continued.

287. God knows right well that if his left hand, in suffering times, be not under his people, and his right hand over them—if he do not give them some sips of sweetness, some relishes of goodness, they will quickly grow impatient and inconstant. But the smiles of God, the gracious discoveries of God, make their patience and constancy invincible.

288. Wine was the nearest when the watering pots were filled with water up to the brim; so oftentimes mercy is nearest, deliverance is nearest, when our afflictions are at the highest.

289. "Time," says Bernard, "were a good commodity in hell, and the traffic of it most gainful, where for one day a man would give ten thousand worlds, if he had them. Can we in good earnest believe this, and yet "neglect so great salvation?"

290. Many a Christian has been made worse by the good things of this world; but where is the Christian that has been bettered by them?

291. Silence in afflictions is a Christian’s armor of proof; it is that shield which no spear or dart of temptation can pierce. While a Christian lies quiet under the rod, he is safe. Satan may tempt him, but he will not conquer him; he may assault him, but he cannot vanquish him.

292. God thrusts many a sharp spear through many a sinner’s heart, and yet he feels nothing, he complains of nothing; these men’s souls will bleed to death.

293. Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers. God will suit his returns to our requests;

294. Lifeless services shall have lifeless answers. When men are dull, God will be dumb.

295. The nature of a seal is to make things sure and firm among men; so the supper of the Lord is Christ’s broad seal; it is his privy seal whereby he seals and assures his people that they are happy here—that they shall be more happy hereafter—that they are everlastingly beloved of their God; and that nothing shall be able to separate them from him who is their light, their life, their crown, their all in all.

296. Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honor, and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure, and pays with pain; he promises profit, and pays with loss; he promises life, and pays with death. But God pays as he promises; all his payments are made in pure gold.

297. Faith is a root grace, from whence spring all the sweet flowers of joy and peace. Faith is like the bee; it will suck sweetness out of every flower; it will extract light out of darkness, comforts out of distresses, mercies out of miseries, wine out of water, honey out of the rock, and meat out of the eater.

298. Afflictions are the saint’s diet-drink; and where do you read in all the Scripture, that any of the saints ever drank of this diet-drink, and were not sensible of it?

299. Christian, thou must not neglect thy work, though God delay thy comfort; thou must be as obedient in the want of assurance, as thou art thankful under the enjoyment of assurance.

300. Reason’s arm is too short to reach the jewel of assurance. This pearl of price is put into no hand but that hand of faith that reaches from earth to heaven.