04. Quotes 301-400
Quotes 301-400 301. As green wood and old logs meet in one fire, so young sinners and old sinners meet in one hell and burn together.
302. That is not worthy the name of an affliction which does not strike at some bosom mercy; that trouble is no trouble which does not touch some choice contentment; that storm is no storm which only blows off the leaves, but never hurts the fruit; neither is that affliction any affliction which only reaches some remote enjoyment, but touches not a Joseph or a Benjamin.
303. It is not always high water with the saints sometimes they are reduced to a very low ebb. The best of saints are like the ark tossed up and down with waves, with fears, and doubts; and so it will be till they are quiet in the bosom of Christ.
304. Man’s holiness is now his greatest happiness, and in heaven, man’s greatest happiness will be his perfect holiness.
305. Seneca well says, that "though death is before the old man’s face, yet he may be as near the young man’s back." Man’s life is the shadow of smoke, the dream of a shadow. One doubts whether to call it a dying life, or a living death.
306. God sometimes denies assurance to his dearest ones, at least for a time, that they may be kept humble and low in their own eyes. As the enjoyment of mercy gladdens us, so the want of mercy humbles us.
307. It is mercy to want mercy, till we are fit for mercy, till we are able to bear the weight of mercy, and make a divine improvement of mercy.
308. It is the very drift and design of the whole Scripture to bring souls first to an acquaintance with Christ, and then to an acceptance of Christ, and then to build them up in a sweet assurance of their actual interest in Christ.
309. He does well, that discourses of Christ; but he does infinitely better, that by experimental knowledge, feeds and lives on Christ.
310. Satan’s great design is eternally to ruin souls; and where he cannot do that, there he will endeavor to discomfit souls by busying them about the secret decrees and counsels of God, or by engaging them in such debates and disputes as neither men nor angels can certainly and infallibly determine, that so he may spoil their comforts, when he cannot take away their crown.
311. Christ will be all in all, or he will be nothing at all. Though his coat was once divided, yet he will never suffer his crown to be divided.
312. Neglect of your graces is the ground of their decrease. Wells are the sweeter for drawing; you get nothing by dead and useless habits.
313. God loves to lade the wings of prayer with the choicest and chiefest blessings. Many Christians have found, by experience, praying times to be sealing times. They have found prayer to be a shelter to their souls, a sacrifice to God, a sweet savor to Christ, a scourge to Satan, and an inlet to assurance.
314. He that wants love to his brethren, wants one of the sweetest springs from whence assurance flows. A greater hell I would not wish any man, than to live and not to love the beloved of God.
315. Man’s blood is apt to rise with his outward good. In the winter men gird their clothes closely about them, but in the summer they let them hang loose; in the winter of adversity many a Christian girds his heart closely to God, to Christ, to the Gospel, to godliness, to ordinances, to duties, who, in the summer of mercy hangs loose from all.
316. The sight of God in an affliction is of irresistible efficacy to silence the heart, and to stop the mouth of a gracious man.
317. Faith has two hands, and with both she lays earnest and fast hold on king Jesus. Christ’s beauty and glory are very taking and drawing; faith cannot see them, but it will lay hold on them.
318. Souls at their first conversion are but roughcast, but God, by visiting them and manifesting himself to them in his ways, more and more fits them as vessels of mercy for glory.
319. Though the salvation of believers does not depend upon their knowledge of God being their Father, yet their consolation does: therefore, the Lord will not only be a Father to Israel, but he will make Israel know that he is his Father. u Wilt thou not from this time cry unto ne, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth ?"
320. I have read of a very strange speech that dropped from the lips of Epictetus, a heathen. "If it be thy will," says he, "O Lord, command me what thou wilt, send me whither thou wilt; I will not withdraw myself from anything that seems good to thee." Ah! how will this heathen rise in judgment at last against all those who are partial in their obedience, who, while they yield obedience to some commands, live in the habitual breach of other commands!
321. There is no possibility of taking a mercy out of God’s hand, till the mercy be ripe for us, and we ripe for the mercy.
322. The work of repentance is not the work of an hour, a day, or a year, but the work of a life. A sincere penitent makes as much conscience of repenting daily, as he does of believing daily; and he can as easily content himself with one act of faith, or love, or joy, as he can content himself with one act of repentance.
323. A good heart will lie lowest when the hand of God is lifted highest. (Job 42:1-6.)
324. Though there may be many precious gems and jewels in the house, yet the smoke may hinder a man from seeing them sparkle and shine: so, though there may be many precious graces in the souls of saints, yet corruptions may raise such a dust, such a smoke in the soul, that the soul is not able to see them in their beauty and glory. The well of water was near Hagar, but she saw* it not till her eyes were opened by the Lord: so sometimes grace is near the soul, yea, in the soul, and yet the soul does not see it, till God opens the eye, and shows it.
325. There are those that love their mercies into their graves, that hug their mercies to death, that kiss them till they kill them. Many a man has slain his mercies by setting too great a value upon them. Over-loved mercies are seldom long- lived.
326. We may tempt God as well by neglecting means, as by trusting in means. It is best to use them, and in the use of them, to live above them.
327. Applicatory knowledge is the sweetest knowledge; it revives the heart, it cheers the spirits, it rejoices the soul; it makes a man go singing to duties, and go singing to his grave, and singing to heaven. Whereas others, though gracious, who want this appropriating knowledge, have their hearts full of fears, and their lives full of sorrows, and go sighing and mourning to heaven.
328. The lodestone cannot draw iron when the diamond is in presence, no more can the beauties of this world draw the soul after them, when assurance, that choice pearl of price, is in presence.
329. No obedience but hearty obedience is acceptable to Christ; nothing takes Christ’s heart but what comes from the heart.
330. Faith’s putting Christ’s righteousness on the soul, brings down blessings upon the soul. When Jacob had put on his elder brother’s garment, he carried the blessing away.
331. Faith will make a man endeavor to be good, yea, to be best at everything he undertakes. It is not leaves, but fruit; not words, but works that God expects; and if we cross his expectation, we frustrate our own salvation, we further our own condemnation.
332. Oh, the precious time that is buried in the grave of murmuring! When the murmurer should be praying, he is murmuring against the Lord; when he should be hearing, he is murmuring against divine providences; when he should be reading, he is murmuring against instruments; and in these and a thousand other ways do murmurers expend that precious time which some would redeem with a world.
333. Grace does not destroy nature, but rather perfect it. Grace is of a noble offspring; it neither turns men into stocks nor into stoics.
334. Many a soul has surfeited of the world’s dainties, and died for ever; but there is not a soul that has had the honor and happiness to be brought into Christ’s banqueting house, and to eat and drink of his dainties, but it has lived for ever.
335. A gracious soul grieves more that God by his sin is grieved and dishonored, than he himself is afflicted and chastened for it.
336. Though Mary Magdalen was very near to Christ, yet she stands sighing, mourning, and complaining that they had stolen away her Lord, because she did not see him. Christians, though you may be very near and dear to Christ, yet till you come to see your assurance, you will spend you days in doubting, mourning, and complaining.
337. The being in a state of grace will yield a man a heaven hereafter, but the seeing of himself in this state will yield him both a heaven here and a heaven hereafter; it will render him doubly blest—blest in heaven, and blest in his own conscience.
338. Clothes and company do oftentimes tell tales in a mute but significant language.
339. Satan is such a grand enemy to the joy and peace, to the salvation and consolation of the saints, that he cannot but make use of all his devices and stratagems to amaze and amuse, to disturb and disquiet the peace and rest of their souls. No sooner had Jesus Christ heard that lovely voice from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, than he is desperately assaulted by Satan in the wilderness. No sooner was Paul dropped out of heaven, after he had seen such visions of glory as were unutterable, than he was presently set upon and buffeted by Satan?
340. He that makes God the object of prayer, but not the end of prayer, does but lose his prayer, and take pains to undo himself. The end must always be as noble as the means, or else a Christian acts below himself, yea, below his very reason.
341. Other sins will not be long-lived when justice is done upon the bosom sin. Thrust but a dart through the heart of Absalom, and a complete conquest will follow.
342. Grace and glory differ very little; the one is the seed, the other is the flower; grace is glory militant, glory is grace triumphant; and a man may as well plead for equal degrees of grace in this world, as he may plead for equal degrees of glory in another world.
343. Those two lovers, grace and assurance, are not by God so nearly joined together but that they may, by sin on our side and justice on God’s, be put asunder.
344. There is a mighty difference between the workings of the Spirit and the witness of the Spirit. There are oftentimes many glorious and efficacious works of the Spirit, as faith, love, repentance, holiness, where there is not the witness of the Spirit. David had the Spirit, and many sweet workings of the Spirit in him and upon him at the very time when he had by sin lost the witness and testimony of the spirit. (Psalms 51:10-12).
345. Faith makes a man see the prickles that are in every rose, the thorns that are in every crown, the poison that is in the golden cup, the spot that is in the shining pearl; and thus a Christian counts and calls all these things, as indeed they are, "vanity of vanities."
346. Christ went to heaven in a cloud, and the angel went up to heaven in the smoke and flame of the sacrifice; so doubtless do many precious souls ascend to heaven in clouds and darkness.
347. After much praying, waiting and weeping, God usually comes with his hands and his heart full of mercy to his people. He loves not to come empty-handed to those who have sat long with tearful eyes at mercy’s door.
348. There is no water so sweet as the saint’s tears, when they do not overflow the banks of moderation. Tears are not mutes; they have a voice, and their oratory is of great prevalency with the Almighty God.
349. Hope, exercised upon the promise, brings heaven down to the heart. The promise is the same to hope that hope is to the soul; the promise is the anchor of hope, as hope is the anchor of the soul.
350. Divine knowledge fills a man with spiritual activity. It will make a man work, as if he would be saved by his work; and yet it will make a man believe that he is saved only upon the account of free grace.
351. Temptations make a Christian more serviceable and useful to others. None so fit and able to relieve tempted souls, to sympathize with tempted souls, to succor tempted souls, to counsel tempted souls, to pity tempted souls, to bear with tempted souls, and to comfort tempted souls as those who have been in the school of temptation.
352. Soul opportunities are worth more than a thousand worlds. Mercy is in them, grace and glory are in them, heaven and eternity are in them.
353. Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings; they pierce not, they cut not, they fly not up to heaven. Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven.
354. A well-grounded assurance is always attended with three fair handmaids: love, humility and holy joy.
355. God regards not so much the matter as the manner of our prayer. God loves adverbs better than nouns; not praying only, but praying well; not doing good, but doing it well.
356. A sincere heart weeps and laments bitterly over those secret and inward corruptions, which others will scarcely acknowledge to be sins.
357. A sullen silence is both a sin and a punishment. There is a generation among us who, when they are under the afflicting hand of God, have no mouths to plead with God, no lips to praise God, no tongues to justify God; these are possessed with a dumb devil; they wrong many at once, God and Christ, bodies and souls.
358. There is not the lowest good that is below the humble soul. If the work be good, though never so low, humility will put a hand to it; so will not pride.
359. Divine knowledge is the beginning of eternal life; it is a spark of glory; it works life in the soul; it is a taste and pledge of eternal life.
360. God often delays the giving of assurance, not because he delights to keep his children in fears and doubts, nor because he thinks assurance is too rare, too great, too choice a jewel to bestow upon them; but it is either because he thinks their souls are so taken up and filled with creature enjoyments as that Christ is put to lodge in an outhouse; or else it is because they pursue not after assurance with all their might; they give not all diligence to make their calling and election sure; or else it is because their hearts are not prepared, are not low enough for so high a favor.
361. He that will not break the hedge of a fair command to avoid the foul way of some heavy affliction, may well conclude that his affliction is in love.
362. Christians, your hearts are Christ’s royal throne, and in this throne Christ will be chief. If you shall attempt to throne the creature, be it never so near and dear unto you, Christ will dethrone it, he will destroy it. He will quickly lay them in a bed of dust who shall aspire to his royal throne.
363. Perseverance is not a particular distinct grace of itself, but such a virtue as crowns all virtue; it is such a grace as casts a general beauty and glory upon every grace; it is a grace that leads every grace on to perfection.
364. As he cannot be wise who speaks much, so he cannot be known for a fool who says nothing. There are many wise fools in the world. There are many silly souls who, by holding their tongues, gain the credit and honor of being discreet men. Silence is so rare a virtue where wisdom regulates it, that it is accounted a virtue where folly imposes it.
364. Where Christ has set his name, there, Christian, set thou thine heart. Call things as Christ calls them; count things as Christ counts them; that should not be little in thine eye which is great in the eye of Christ; nor should that be great in thine eye which is but little in the eye of Christ.
366. King Antigonus pulling a sheep with his own hands out of a dirty ditch, as he was passing by, drew his subjects exceedingly to commend and love him. So King Jesus, pulling poor souls out of their sins—and, as it were, out of hell— cannot but draw them to be much in the commendation of Christ, and strong in their love to Christ.
367. Were there more assurance among Christians, they would not count great mercies small mercies, and small mercies no mercies; no; then every mercy on this side hell would be a great mercy, then every mercy would be a sweeter mercy, a perfumed mercy.
368. Christ does not measure his gifts by our petitions, but by his own riches and mercy. Gracious souls many times receive gifts and favors from God that they never dreamed of nor durst presume to ask. Jesus Christ is often better than his word.
369. Happiness lies not in any transient act of the Spirit, as assurance is, but in the more permanent and lasting acts of the Spirit. If a man’s eternal happiness did lie in the assurance of his happiness, then might a man be crowned with the steersman of Xerxes in the morning, and be beheaded with him in the evening of the same day.
370. The least sin is rather to be avoided and prevented than the greatest sufferings. If this cockatrice be not crushed in the egg it will soon become a serpent; the very thought of sin, if but thought on, will break forth into action, action into custom, custom into habit, and then both body and soul are lost irrecoverably to all eternity.
371. No action, no service goes current in heaven but that which is sealed up with integrity of heart. God will not be put off with the shell when we give the devil the kernel.
372. Woe, woe to the soul that fights against God with his own mercies; that will be sinful, because he is merciful. Abused mercy will at last turn into a lion, a fierce lion, and then woe to the despisers and abusers of it I
373. The richest metals lie lowest, the choicest gems are in the bowels of the earth, and they who will have them must search diligently and dig deep, or else they must go without them. Doubting souls, you must search and dig again and again, and you must work and labor, if ever you will find those spiritual treasures, those pearls of price, that are hid under the ashes of corruption, that lie low in the very bowels of your souls.
374. Spiritual hungerings and thirstings are satisfied only with spiritual things. "Show us the father, and it sufficeth us" (John 14:8). All things in the world can not suffice us, but a sight of the father will satisfy us.
375. God never has and never will fail the waiting soul. Though God loves to try the patience of his children, yet he does not love to tire out the patience of his children; therefore he will not contend for ever, neither will he be always wroth, lest the spirits of his people should fail.
376. Christian, if thou art dear to God, God will, by striking thy dearest mercy, put thee upon striking at thy darling sin; therefore hold thy peace, even when God touches the apple of thine eye.
377. 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.
378. Sincerity is the very queen of virtues; she holds the throne, and will be sure to keep it Yea, the very sight of it in the soul makes a man sit cheerful and thankful. Noah-like in the midst of all tempests and storms.
379. A gracious soul knows that if he is rich in faith he cannot be poor in other graces; he knows the growth of faith will be as the former and latter rain to all other graces; he knows that there is no way to outgrow his fears but by growing in faith; therefore his cry is, "O Lord, whatever I am weak in, let me be strong in faith; whatever dies, let faith live; whatever decays, let faith flourish.
380. Three things a Christian should steadily labor to maintain: the honor of God, the hohor of the Gospel and the honor of his own name. If once a Christian’s good name sets in a cloud, it will be long before it rises again.
381. When God gives a mercy, he does not relinquish his own right in that mercy.
382. Believer, it may be thou art not yet fit for so choice a mercy as assurance; thou art not able to bear so great a favor. Many heads are not able to bear strong waters. The very quintessence of all the strong consolations of God are wrung out into the golden cup of assurance; could you drink of this cup and not stagger?
383. A holy silence allays all tumults in the mind, and makes a man in patience to possess his own soul, which, next to his possession of God, is the choicest and sweetest possession in all the world.
384. Assurance is the top and beauty of a Christian’s glory in this life. It is usually attended with the strongest joy, with the sweetest comforts, and with the greatest peace. But alas, alas! it is a pearl that most want, a crown that few wear.
385. Christ is the pot of manna, the cruise of oil, a bottomless ocean of all comfort, content and satisfaction. He that has him, wants nothing. He that wants him, enjoys nothing.
386. God often gives assurance in one ordinance, when he denies it in another, that we may seek his face in all. God loves as well that we should wait on him, as that we should wrestle with him.
387. Long afflictions will much set off the glory of heaven. The longer the storm, the sweeter the calm; the longer the winter nights, the sweeter the summer days. The new wine of Christ’s kingdom is most sweet to those who have long been drinking gall and vinegar. The higher the mountain, the gladder we shall be when we get to the top of it. The longer our journey is, the sweeter will be our end; and the longer our passage is, the more desirable will the haven be.
388. There is no sickness so little, but God has a finger in it, though it be but the aching of the little finger. As the scribe is more eyed and more properly said to write than the pen; and as every workman is more eyed and more properly said to effect his works, than the tools which he uses as his instruments—so the Lord, who has the greatest hand in all our afflictions, is far more to be eyed and owned than any inferior or subordinate causes whatever.
389. Justice always makes mercy dumb, when sin has made the sinner deaf.
390. Many there are whose love to the saints is like Job’s brooks, which in winter, when we have no need, overflow with tenders of service and shows of love; but when the season is hot and dry, and the poor thirsty traveler stands in most need of water to refresh him, then the brooks are quite dried up. But such as truly love, will always love.
391. A murmurer is an ungodly man: he is an ungodlike man; no man on earth more unlike to God than the murmurer; and therefore no wonder if, when Christ comes to execute judgment, he deals severely and terribly with him. Let him make what profession he will of godliness; yet if murmuring keeps the throne in his heart, Christ will deal with him at last as with ungodly sinners.
392. A lazy Christian will always want four things —comfort, content, confidence, and assurance. Assurance and joy are choice donatives that Christ gives to laborious Christians only. The lazy Christian has his mouth full of complaints, when the active Christian has his heart full of comforts.
393. Austin, upon that answer of God to Moses, "Thou const not see my face and live" makes this quick and sweet reply, "Then, Lord, let me die, that I may see thy face."
394. God loves to smile most upon his people, when the world frowns most. When the world puts its iron chains upon their legs, then God puts his golden chains about their necks; when the world puts a bitter cup into their hands, then God drops some of his honey, some of his goodness and sweetness, into it. When the world is ready to stone them, then God gives them the white stone; and when the world is tearing their good names, then he gives them a new name, that none knows but he that has it, a name that is better than that of sons and daughters.
395. Men who content themselves with negative righteousness, shall find at last heaven’s gates bolted upon them with a double bolt. All that negative righteousness and holiness can do, is to help a man to one of the best chambers and easiest beds in hell.
396. Never complain that thy afflictions are greater than others’, except thou canst evidence that thy sins are less than others’.
397. Remember it is dangerous to yield to the least sin, in order to be rid of the greatest temptation. The least sin set home upon the conscience, will more wound, vex, and oppress the soul, than all the temptations in the world can do.
398. Knowledge and love, like the water and the ice, beget each other. Man loves Christ by knowing, and knows Christ by loving.
399. Christian, shall the counterfeit gold that is in the world make men active and diligent to get that which is current, and which will abide the touchstone and the fire ; and shall not that counterfeit assurance which is in the world provoke your heart to be so much the more careful and active to get such a well-grounded assurance as God accounts current, as will abide his touchstone in the day of discovery, and as will keep a man from shame and blushing, when the throne shall be set, and the books shall be opened?
400. The bee stores her hive out of all sorts of flowers for the common benefit; so a heavenly Christian sucks sweetness out of every mercy and every duty, out of every providence and every ordinance, out of every promise and every privilege, that he may give out the more sweetness to others.