05. Quotes 401-500
Quotes 401-500
401. No man can paint the sweetness of the honeycomb, the sweetness of a cluster of Canaan, the sweetness of paradise, the fragrancy of the rose of Sharon. As the being of things cannot be painted, and as the sweetness of things cannot be painted, no more can that assurance and joy, that flow from believing, be painted or expressed; they are too great and too glorious for weak man to picture or set forth.
402. Where Christ loves, he always begets a love something like his own. That love which is flat, lukewarm, or cold, will leave a man to freeze on this side heaven: yea, it will fit him for the warmest place in hell.
403. Ah! souls—if your knowledge does not put the world under your feet, it will never put a crown of glory upon your heads. The church that is clothed with the sun, and has a crown of stars upon her head, has the moon under her feet. (Revelations 12:1.)
404. Noah’s sacrifice could not be great, and yet it was greatly accepted and highly accounted of by God. Such is God’s condescending love to weak worms, that he looks more at their will than at their work; he minds more what they would do, than what they do; he always prefers the willing mind before the worthiest work; and where desires and endeavors are sincere, there God judges such to be as good as they desire and endeavor to be.
405. Love cares not what it is nor what it does, so that it may but advance the Lord Jesus. It makes the soul willing to be a footstool for Christ; to be anything, to be nothing, that Christ may be all in all.
406. Believer, by living without assurance, you lay yourself open to all Satan’s snares and temptations; yea, you instigate and provoke Satan to tempt you to the worst of sins, to tempt you to the greatest neglects, to tempt you to the strangest shifts, and to reduce you to the saddest straits. Ah, Christian, in what has Satan so gratified you, that you should thus gratify him?
407. No man honors God, and no man justifies God at so high a rate, as he who lays his hand upon his mouth, when the rod of God is upon his back.
408. The world, by the glistening of her pomp and preferment, has slain millions; like the serpent Scytale, who, when she cannot overtake the fleeing passengers, does, with her beautiful colors, astonish and amaze them so that they have no power to pass away till she has stung them to death. Adversity has slain her thousands, but prosperity her tens of thousands.
409. Among the philosophers there were two hundred and eighty opinions concerning happiness, some affirming happiness to lie in one thing, some in another; but by the Spirit and the Word we are taught that happiness lies in our oneness with God, in our nearness and dearness to God, and in our conformity to God. Mark the Scripture pronounces him happy, whose hope is in God, though he want assurance. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. (Psalms 146:5.)
410. In the law, God called for the first of all things; he required not only the first fruits, but the very first of the first (Exodus 23:19); and in Leviticus 2:14, he is so passionately set upon having the first of the first, that he will not stay till the ears of corn are ripe, but will have the green ears dried in the fire. And what would God teach us by all this, but to serve him with the first fruit3 of our age, the morning of our youth?
411. Ah, souls, while you are in the very service of the Lord, you will find by experience that the God of heaven will prosper you, and support you, and encourage and strengthen you, and carry you through the hardest service with the greatest sweetness and cheerfulness that can be. He will suit your strength to your work, and in the hardest service you will have the choicest assistance.
412. In the Old Testament, the Jews being babes and infants in grace and holiness, had a world of temporal promises, and very few spiritual ones; but now in the days of the Gospel the Lord is pleased to double and treble his Spirit upon his people, and we meet with very few temporal promises in the Gospel, it is full of spiritual blessings.
413. Idleness is the very source of sin. Standing pools gather mud, and nourish and breed venomous creatures; and so do the hearts of idle and slothful Christians.
414. Believer, thy afflictions are not to be compared to those that attended our Lord Jesus, whose whole life, from the cradle to the cross, was nothing but a life of suffering. Osorius, writing of the sufferings of Christ, says, that the crown of thorns bored his head with seventy-two wounds. Many seventy-two afflictions did Christ meet with whilst he was in this world; he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. A man might as well compare the number of his bosom friends with the stars in heaven, as compare his afflictions with the sufferings of Christ.
415. When God teaches thy reins as well as thy brains, thy heart as well as thy head, these lessons are all in love.
416. A proud heart eyes more his seeming worth, than his real want. But a soul truly humbled blushes to see his own righteousness, and glories in this, that he has the righteousness of Christ to live upon.
417. The Spirit of the Lord will not suffer his choicest jewel, grace, to be always buried under the straw and stubble of parts and gifts.
418. 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; therefore will he visit his children 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."
419. The most dangerous vermin are too often to be found under the fairest and sweetest flowers; and the fairest glove is often drawn upon the foulest hand, and the richest robes are often put upon the most diseased bodies; so are the fairest and sweetest names upon the greatest and most horrible vices and errors that are in the world. Oh. that we had not so many sad proofs of this among us.
420. It is not in the power of any mortal to repent at pleasure. Some ignorant deluded souls vainly conceive that these five words, "Lord, have mercy upon me," are efficacious to send them to heaven; but as many are undone by buying a counterfeit jewel, so many are in hell by mistake of their repentance; many rest in their repentance though it be but the shadow and not the substance; which caused one to say, "Repentance damneth more than sin."
421. Humility fits for the highest services we owe to Christ, and yet will not neglect the lowest service to the meanest saint. Humility can feed upon the meanest dish, and yet it is maintained by the choicest delicacies, as God, Christ and glory.
422. That sorrow for sin which keeps the soul from looking toward the mercy seat, and which keeps Christ and the soul asunder, or which renders the soul unfit for the communion of saints, is a sinful sorrow.
423. The strongest faith is subject at times to shaKings as the stoutest ships are to tossings, as the wisest men are to doubtings, as the brightest stars are to twinklings. Therefore, Christian, if at certain times thou shouldest not be sensible of the growth of thy faith, yet do not conclude that thou hast no faith. Faith may be in the habit when it is not in the act; there may be life in the root of the tree when there are neither leaves, blossoms nor fruit upon the tree; but they will show themselves in the spring, and so will the habits of faith ’break forth into acts when the Sun of righteousness shall shine forth, and make it a pleasant spring to the soul.
424. Faith engages God in every encounter, and who can stand before a consuming fire? Mary, Queen of Scots, mother to King James was wont to say that she feared Master Knox’s prayers, who was a man of much faith, more than an army of ten thousand men.
425. The soul is never able to stand under the guilt and weight of the least sin when God sets it home upon the soul. The least sin will press and sink the stoutest sinner as low as hell when God shall open the sinner’s eyes and make him see the horrid filthiness and abominable vileness that are in sin.
426. The devil counts a fit occasion half a conquest, for he knows that corrupt nature has a seed-plot for all sin, which being drawn forth and watered by some sinful occasion, is soon set awork to the producing of death and destruction. God will not remove the temptation till we remove the occasion.
427. Ah, souls, till you are taken up into the bosom of Christ your comforts will not be full, pure and constant; till then, Satan will still be thwarting you and spreading snares to entangle you; therefore you should always be crying out with the Church, Come, Lord Jesus.
428. The Lord has in the Scripture discovered the several snares, plots and devices that the devil has to undo the souls of men; that so being forewarned they may be forearmed; that they may be always upon their watch tower, and hold their weapons in their hands, as the Jews did in Nehemiah’s time.
429. When a man has been in heaven as many millions of years as there are stars in heaven, his glory shall be as fresh and as green as it was at his first entrance there. All worldly glory is like the flowers of the field, but the glory that Christ gives is lasting and durable like himself.
430. Divine favor is, as it were, a jewel locked up; but by finding Christ, by getting Christ, the soul gets this jewel that is more worth than a world; yea, by gaining him, the soul gains lives; to wit, a life of grace and a life of glory; and what would the soul have more?
431. We see, by woeful experience, Christ neglected, despised, scorned and trampled upon by most; and no wonder, for many preach themselves more than Christ, and their own notions and impressions more than Christ. Surely Christ is little beholden to such ministers, and, I think, the souls of men as little. Oh, that they were so wise as to consider of it and lay it to heart! For surely a real Christian cares not for anything that has not something of Christ in it 432. Souls rich in grace practice that themselves which they prescribe to others.
433. Should God chain up Satan, and give him no liberty to tempt or entice the sons of men to vanity or folly, yet they would not, they could not but sin against him by reason of that cursed nature that is in them, which will still be provoking them to those sins which stir up the anger of God against them.
434. A man full of hope will be full of action; a lively hope and a diligent hand are inseparable companions. Hope will make a man do, though he die for doing.
435. Oh, that the young would begin to be good betimes, that’ so they may have the greater harvest of joy when they come to be old! It is sad to be sowing seed when you should be reaping your harvest. It is best to gather the summer of youth against the winter of old age.
436. If thou wouldest be good betimes, then thou must acquaint thyself with Jesus Christ betimes. A man never begins to be good till he begins to know him who is the fountain of all goodness.
437. There are three things that earthly riches can never do; they can never satisfy divine justice, they can never pacify divine wrath, nor can they ever quiet a guilty conscience. And till these things are done man is undone.
438. Deliverance from Satan’s snares carries with it the clearest and the greatest evidence of the soul and heart of God to be toward us. Many a man, by the common hand of Providence, escapes the snares that men lay for him, but yet escapes not the snares that Satan has laid for him. Such deliverances are fruits of special love.
439. Dissolution is the daughter of dissension. Oh, how does the name of Christ and the way of Christ suffer by discord of saints I How are many that are entering upon the ways of God, hindered and saddened, and the mouths of the wicked opened, and their hearts hardened against God and his ways by the discord of his people! Remember this: the disagreement of Christians is the devil’s triumph; and what a sad thing is this that Christians should give Satan cause to triumph!
440. Sin and punishment are linked together with chains of adamant.
441. Grace is a perpetually flowing fountain. It is compared to water, which serves to cool men when they are in a burning heat; so grace cools the soul when it has been even scorched and burnt up by the sense of Divine wrath and displeasure. Water is cleansing; so is grace. Water is fructifying; so is grace. And water is satisfying; it satisfies the thirsty, and so does grace. (John 4:13-14.)
442. The least sin should humble the soul, but certainly the greatest sin should never discourage the soul, much less should it work the soul to despair. Despairing Judas perished, whereas the murderers of Christ, believing on him, were saved.
443. A man may not look intently upon that which he may not love entirely. It is best and safest to have the eye always fixed upon the highest and noblest objects, as the mariner’s eye is fixed upon the star when his hand is upon the helm.
444. If vain thoughts, resisted and lamented, could stop the current of mercy and render a soul unhappy, there would be none on earth that would ever taste of mercy or be everlastingly happy. Such thoughts abhorred, resisted and disclaimed, are not sins upon our souls, though troubles to our mind.
445. Reader, remember this: if thy knowledge do not now affect thy heart, it will at last, with a witness, afflict thy heart; if it do not now endear Christ to thee, it will at last provoke Christ the more against thee; if it do not make all the things of Christ to be very precious in thy eyes, it will at last make thee the more vile in Christ’s eyes.
446. It was a good saying of one, "God hears not the words of one that prays unless he that prays hears them first himself and, verily, God will never understand that prayer which we do not understand ourselves. To pray in a right manner is to pray u with the understanding."
447. Christians, make more care and conscience of keeping up your peace with God. It is remissness herein which occasions much of that sourness, bitterness and strife among you. You have not, as you should, kept up your peace with God, and therefore it is that you do so dreadfully break the peace among yourselves. The Lord has promised "that when a man’s ways phase him, he will make his enemies to be at peace with him" Ah, how much more then would God make the children of peace to keep the peace among themselves if their ways did but please him.
448. He who lives up to a little light shall have more light; he who lives up to a little knowledge shall have more knowledge; he who lives up to a little faith shall have more faith, and he who lives up to a little love shall have more love. Verily the main reason why men are such babes and shrubs in grace is because they do not live up to their attainments.
449. Satan must have a double leave before he can do anything against us. He must have his commission from God, and leave from ourselves, before he can act anything against our happiness. When he tempts, we must assent; when he makes offers, we must hearken; when he commands, we must obey, or else all his labor and temptations will be frustrated; and the evil that he tempts us to shall be put down only to his account
450. A watchful soul is a soul upon the wing, a soul out of gunshot, a soul upon a rock, a soul in a castle, a soul above the clouds, a soul held fest in everlasting arms.
451. He is a brave Christian, and has much of Christ within, who accounts nothing his own that he does not communicate to others. The bee stores her hive out of all sorts of flowers for the common benefit, and why then in this should not every Christian be like a bee?
452. It is much to be very gracious when a man is very great; and to be high in holiness, when advanced to high places. Usually, men’s blood rises with their outward good. Certainly there are worthy ones, and shall walk with Christ in white, whose garments are not defiled with greatness or riches.
453. A humble soul judges himself to be below the wrath and judgment of God. He looks upon himself as one not worthy that God should spend a rod upon him in order to his reformation, edification, or salvation. He cannot but count and call everything a mercy that is less than hell. But proud hearts think themselves wronged when they are afflicted; and cry out with Cain, "Our punishment is greater than we can bear."
454. A humble soul knows, that to bless God in prosperity, is the way to increase it; and to bless God in adversity, is the way to remove it.
455. Satan often paints sin with virtue’s colors. He knows that if he should present it in its own nature and dress, the soul would rather fly from it, than yield to it, and therefore he presents it unto us, not in its own proper colors, but painted and gilded over with the name and show of virtue, that we may the more easily be overcome by it, and take the more pleasure in committing it.
456. The world gives, and. then reproaches the recipient for receiving; but where Christ gives, he will not upbraid, neither with present failings nor former infirmities. He will always rejoice ever them to do them good.
457. Let no knowledge satisfy thee, but that which lifts thee above the world, but that which weans thee from the world, but that which makes the world a footstool. Such knowledge, such light, will at last lead thee into everlasting light.
458. No way to honor God, no way to win souls, no way to increase your own gifts and graces, but to exercise them for the good of others. Grace is not like to worldly vanities, that diminish by distribution, but like candles, which keep the same light, though a thousand are lighted by them. Grace is like the widow’s oil, which multiplied by pouring out; and like those talents which doubled by employment.
459. To venture upon the occasion of sin, and then to pray, Lead us not into temptation, is the same as to thrust thy finger into t/he fire, and then pray that it may not be burnt.
460. All our murmurings, which are so many arrows shot at God himself, will return upon our own heads; they reach not him, but they will hit us; they hurt not him, but they will wound us: it is better to be mute than to murmur—it is dangerous to provoke a consuming fire.
461. Aristotle requires this in an orator, that he be a good man. How much more then should God’s orators be good and gracious? Unholy ministers pull down instead of building up. O the souls that their lives destroy! By their loose lives they lead their flocks to hell, where themselves must lie lowermost.
462. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do} do it with all thy might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Mark the Scripture does not say, what thy head finds to do; that may find a thousand things: nor what thy heart finds to do, for that may find ten thousand things: but what thy hand findeth to do; that is, look what work God cuts out to thy hand to do; that do with all thy might, for there is no working in the grave. We are to do much good in a little time. Our time is short, our task is great.
463. There is the seed of all sins, of the vilest and worst of sins, in the best of men.
464. That which a Papist reports of their sacrament of the mass—"That there are as many mysteries in it as there are drops in the sea, dust on the earth, angels in the heavens, stars in the sky, atoms in the sunbeams, or sands on the sea-shore,"—may be truly asserted of the Word of God. No study equal to the study of the Scripture, for profit and comfort.
465. It was for those very sins that Satan paints and puts fine colors on, that the Creator was made a creature, that he who was clothed with glory was wrapped with rags of flesh, that the God of the law was subject to the law, the God of circumcision circumcised, that he who binds the devils in chains was tempted, the God of strength made weary, the Judge of all flesh condemned, the Lord of life put to death. O how should the consideration of this stir up the soul against sin, and work the soul to fly from it, and use all holy means whereby it may be subdued and destroyed!
466. Our hearts are the Spirit’s harps. If a man should always touch one string in an instrument, he would never play various tunes, he would never make pleasant music; neither would the Spirit, if he should be always doing one thing in the soul; therefore he acts variously.
467. Be sure, Christian, you always reflect upon your graces, and whatsoever good is in you, with caution. Your graces are gifts of grace, favors given you from above, gifts dropped out of heaven into your heart, flowers plucked from the garden of Paradise. Keep humble, therefore: what hast thou that thou hast not received?
468. The tree grows downward, when it does not grow upward; so a soul may grow rich in some particular graces, when it does not thrive in others; it may grow rich in humility, in self-denial, in meekness, in temperance, when it does not grow up in joy, and delight, and comfort.
469. He who thinks he has enough of the Holy Spirit, will quickly find himself vanquished by the evil spirit.
470. Many men lose their comfort, as Saul lost his kingdom, by not discerning the time to be spiritually rich. The merchant will not lose his opportunity of buying, nor the sailor his of sailing, nor the husbandman of sowing; and why, Christian, should you lose yours of growing rich in grace?
471. Of all mercies, pardoning mercy is the most sweetening mercy. It is a mercy that makes all other mercies look like mercies, and taste like mercies, and work like mercies. He who has it cannot be miserable; he who wants it, cannot be happy.
472. As the peacock, looking upon his black feet, lets fall his plumes, so the poor soul, when he looks upon his black feet, the vanity of his mind, the body of sin, that is in him, his proud spirit falls low.
473. As weeds endanger the corn, as bad humors endanger the blood, or as an infected house endangers the neighborhood; so does the company of the bad endanger those that are good. Entireness with wicked consorts is one of the strongest chains of hell, and binds us to a participation of both sin and punishment
474. It is not he who receives most of the truth into his head, but he who receives it affectionately into his heart, that shall enjoy the happiness of having his judgment sound and clear, when others shall be deluded and deceived by those who make it their business to infect the judgments and undo the souls of men.
475. Faith has a happy hand, and never but speeds in one kind or another. It has what it would, either in money or in money’s worth. A believing husband, wife, child, or servant may bring down, by the actings of faith, many a blessing upon their relations.
476. Miseries always lie at that man’s door who leans upon anything below Christ: such a man is most in danger; and this is not his least plague, that he thinks himself secure.
477. Every man obeys Christ as he prizes Christ, and no otherwise. The higher price any soul sets upon Christ, the more noble will that soul be in its obedience to Christ.
478. Strong saints must not deal by the weak as the herd of deer deal by the wounded deer; they forsake it and push it away. But when a poor weak saint is wounded by a temptation, or by the power of some corruption, then they that are strong ought to succor and support such an one, lest he be swallowed up of sorrow.
479. True repentance is a gift that is from above; and if the Lord does not give it, man will eternally perish for the want of it.
480. A saint should.be like a seraph, beset all over with eyes and lights, that he may avoid Satan’s snares, and stand fast in the hour of temptation.
481. Sinner, remember this—grievous is the torment of the damned for the bitterness of their punishment, but most grievous for the eternity of the punishment; for to be tormented without end, this is that which goes beyond the bounds of all description. 0 that you would repent and return, that your souls might live forever.
482. Adversity abases the loveliness of the world, that might entice us ; it abates the lustfulness of the flesh within, that might incite us to folly and vanity ; and it abets the spirit in its quarrel with the two former, which tends much to the reviving and recovering of decayed graces.
483. To repent of sin is as great a work of grace as not to sin.
484. Weak saint, when thou art fretful and desponding, think what would not a lost soul, that had been but an hour in hell, give for a drop of that grace thou hast in thy heart; think seriously of this, and be thankful.
485. Though no believer does what he should do, yet doubtless every believer might do more than he does, in order to God’s glory, and his own and others’ internal and external good. We have many promises concerning divine assistance > and if we did but stir up the grace of God that is in us, we should find the assistance of God, and the glorious breaking forth of his power and love, according to his promise and the work that he requires of us. They are blessed that do what they can, though they cannot but under do.
486. Remember this—you will never be rich in grace if you care not whom you hear, nor what you hear.
487. It is not usual with God to leave his people frequently to relapse into enormities; for by his spirit and grace, by his smiles and frowns, by his word and rod, he usually preserves them from these; yet he does leave his choicest ones frequently to relapse into infirmities (and of his grace he pardons them in course), as idle words, passion, and vain thoughts. And though gracious souls strive against, complain of, and weep over these, yet the Lord, to keep them humble, leaves them oftentimes to such relapses; but they shall never be their bane, because they are their burden.
488. It is a just and righteous thing with God, that he should fall into the pit who will adventure to dance upon the brink thereof; and that he should be a slave to sin who will not flee from the occasions of sin. As long as there is fuel in our hearts for a temptation, we cannot be secure. He who has gunpowder about him, had need keep far enough off from sparks.
489. Let but a Christian compare his external losses with his spiritual, internal and eternal gain, and he will find that for every penny that he loses in the service of God he gains a pound; and for every pound that he loses he gains a hundred; for every hundred lost he gains a thousand. We lose pins in his service, and find pearls; we lose the favor of the creature, and peace with the creature, and we gain the favor of God, peace with conscience, and the comfort and contents of a better life.
490. If there were but one farthing of that debt unpaid which Christ was engaged to satisfy, it would not have been consistent with the unspotted justice of God to have let him come into heaven and sit down at his own right hand; but all our debts by his death being discharged, we are free, and he is exalted to sit down at the right hand of his Father, which is the top of his glory, and the greatest pledge of our felicity.
491. Oh, how unlike to God are those preachers who think to correct the divine wisdom and eloquence with their own vanity, novelty and sophistry! Jesus Christ himself, the great Doctor of the church, teacheth them, a lesson on this point: "And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it" (Mark 4:33). Not as he was able to have spoken; he could have expressed himself at a higher rate than any mortal can; he could have soared to the clouds; he knew how to knit such knots that they could never untie, but he would not; he delighted to speak to bis hearers’ shallow capacities. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12).
492. Nothing humbles and breaks the heart of a sinner like mercy and love. Souls that converse much with sin and wrath, may be much terrified; but souls that converse much with grace and mercy, will be much humbled.
493. Weak Christians are very apt to make sense and feeling the judge of their spiritual estate and condition; and therefore, upon every turn, they count themselves miserable, and conclude that they have no grace because they cannot feel it, nor discern it, nor believe it; and so making sense, feeling and reason the judge of their estate, they wrong, and vex, and perplex their precious souls, as if it were not one thing to be the Lord’s, and another thing for a man to know that he is the Lord’s; as if it were not one thing for a man to have grace, and another thing to know that he has grace.
494. There is oftentimes a great deal of knowledge where there is but little wisdom to improve that knowledge. It is not the most knowing Christian, but the most wise Christian that sees, avoids and escapes Satan’s snares. Knowledge without wisdom is like mettle in a blind horse, which is often an occasion of the rider’s fall.
495. It was horrid wickedness in Ahab to envy poor Naboth because of his vineyard; and is it a virtue in you that are Christians, to envy others because their outward mercies are greater or sweeter than yours? Has not the Lord given thee himself? Is not one dram of that grace that God has bestowed upon thee more worth than ten thousand worlds? Why, then, shouldst thou envy at others mercies?
496. The more the soul is conformed to Christ, the more confident it will be of its interest in Christ.
497. No pains, no labor, no work like that of the brain, like that of the mind; and none so worthy of praise as those that are most in that labor, in that work. No men’s work is so holy and heavenly as a faithful minister’s; no men’s work is so high and honorable as theirs, and therefore none deserve to be more honored than they, for their works’ sake.
498. Christ has lost none of his affection to poor sinners by going to heaven.
499. A general doctrine not applied is as a sword without an edge; not in itself, but to the people who, by reason of their own singular senselessness and weakness, are not able to apply it to their own estates and conditions; or as a whole loaf set before children, that will do them no good. A garment fitted for all bodies is fit for nobody; and that which is spoken to all, is taken as spoken to none. Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow; application is the hitting of the mark.
500. It is not all the talking and profession in the world that can stop the mouths of foolish men; it must be well-doing, grace improved, grace exercised and manifested in the ways of holiness, that must work so great a wonder; "For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men"