06. Quotes 501-600
Quotes 501-600
501. Humility is both a grace and a vessel to receive grace. There are none that see so much need of grace as humble souls; there are none that prize grace like humble souls; there are none that improve grace like humble souls; therefore God singles out the humble soul to fill him to the brim with grace, while the proud are sent empty away.
502. I could bring in a cloud of witnesses to shame professors in these days, even from among the very heathen who never heard of a crucified Christ, and yet were more crucified to things below Christ than many of them that pretend much to Christ.
503. A humble soul may groan under afflictions, but he will not grumble in calms. Proud hearts discourse of patience, but humble hearts exercise patience. Philosophers have much commended it, but in the hour of darkness it is the humble soul that acts it.
504. What Paul once said concerning bonds and afflictions, that they attended him in every place, the same may believers say concerning temptations, that they attend them in every place, in every calling, in every condition, in every company, in every service; but, that the hearts of his people and temptations may not meet, the Lord is pleased to strengthen them by his best and choicest gifts.
505. It is dangerous to love to be wise above what is written; to be curious and unsober in your desire of knowledge, and to trust to your own capacities and abilities, to undertake to pry into all secrets, and to be puffed up with a carnal mind. Souls that are thus soaring above the bounds and limits of humility, usually fall into the very worst of errors.
506. If poverty, with Saul, has killed her thousands, riches, with David, have killed their ten thousands.
507. It is recorded of Severus that his care was not to look upon what men said of him, or how they censured him, but to look what was to be done by him. "God loves," says Luther, "the runner, not the questioner."
508. Our sins are debts that none can pay but Christ. It is not our tears, but his blood; it is not our sighs, but his sufferings, that can satisfy for our sins. Christ must pay all, or we are prisoners forever.
509. It is the greatest glory of a minister in this world to be high in spiritual work and humble in heart. Vain glory is a pleasant thing; it is the sweet spoiler of spiritual excellencies.
510. "Buy the truth and sell it not" Remember you can never overbuy it, whatsoever you give for it; you can never sufficiently sell it if you should have all the world in exchange for it.
511. Christians, the highway to comfort is to mind comfort less and duty more.
512. The spouse’s lips are described as being like a thread of scarlet, talking of nothing but a crucified Christ; and thin like a thread, not swelled with vain and wicked discourses.
513. Christian, if you would escape Satan’s devices, then make present resistance to Satan’s first motions. It is safe to resist, it is dangerous to dispute. Eve disputes, and falls in Paradise; Job resists, and conquers upon the dunghill.
514. Ministers should preach feelingly, experimentally as well as exemplarily; they must speak from the heart to the heart; they must feel the worth, the weight, the sweet of those things upon their own souls that they give out to others. The highest mystery in divine rhetoric is to feel what a man speaks, and then speak what a man feels.
515. The Lord many times breaks our bones, but it is in order to the saving of our lives and souls forever; he gives us a potion that makes us heart-sick, but it is in order to the making of us perfectly well, and to the purging of us from those ill humors that have made our heads ache, and God’s heart ache, and our souls sick and heavy to death. Therefore, Christian, under all thy afflictions be silent and thankful.
516. A man by his arm may do much, but it is mainly by reason of its union and conjunction with the head. It is so between a Christian’s graces and Christ. The stream does not more depend upon the fountain, nor the branch upon the root, nor the moon upon the sun, nor the child upon the mother, nor the effect upon the cause, than our graces depend upon the fountain of grace. (Psalms 138:3; Php 4:12-13.) 517. Surely they do not truly love Christ who love anything more than Christ.
518. The Lord Jesus has as great and as large an interest in the weakest saints as he has in the strongest. He has the interest of a Friend, and the interest of a Father, and the interest of a Head, and the interest of a Husband; and therefore, though saints be weak, yea, though they be very weak, he overlooks their weakness, and keeps a fixed eye upon their graces.
519. Afflictions are but as a dark entry into our Father’s house; they are but as a dirty lane to a royal palace.
520. When the asp stings a man, it does first tickle him so that it makes him laugh, till the poison, by little and little, goes to the heart, and then it pains him more than ever it delighted him. So does sin. It may please a little at first, but it will pain the soul with a witness at last; yea, if there were the least real delight in sin, there could be no perfect hell where men shall most perfectly be tormented with their sin.
521. There is no man on earth that sees himself such a debtor to God as the humble man; he would count it strange folly to be proud of being more in debt than another. "It is true," says he, "I have this and that mercy in possession, and such and such mercies in reversion; but by all I am made more a debtor to God."
522. Many low and carnal considerations may work men to watch their words, their lives, their actions; as hope of gain, or to please friends, or to get a name in the world, and many other such like reasons. But to watch our thoughts, to weep and lament over them, this must needs be from some noble, spiritual and internal principle, as love to God and a holy care and delight to please him.
523. Ah, souls, it is not a base low thing, but a God-like thing, though we are wronged by others, yet to be the first in seeking after peace. Such actings will speak out much of God with a man’s spirit.
524. Sinner, remember this—None ever yet obtained an interest in Christ but unworthy creatures. Was Paul worthy before he obtained an interest in Christ? And what worthiness was in Zaccheus when Christ called him down from the sycamore tree, and told him that this day salvation was come to his house? Though you are unworthy, yet Christ is worthy. Though you have no merit, yet God has mercy. Though there is no salvation for you by the law, yet there is "plenteous redemption" in the Gospel.
525. Grace is given to trade with; it is given to lay out, not lay up.
526. There is no loss that comes so near to a Christian’s heart, as the loss of his Lord; for when God goes, all go—when the King removes, all his train follow; and therefore it is no wonder to see a Christian better bear any loss than the loss of his God, for in losing him he loses all.
527. The Lord defines faith to be a coming to God in Christ; to be a resting, or staying, or rolling of the soul upon Christ. And it is always safest and sweetest to define as God defines, both vices and graces. This is the only way to settle the Soul, and to secure it against all the wiles of men and devils, who labor by false definitions of grace to keep precious souls in a doubting, staggering, and languishing condition; and to make their lives a burden and a misery unto them.
528. Where one thousand are destroyed by the world’s frowns, ten thousand are destroyed by its smiles.
529. I think that oftentimes men charge that upon the devil which ought to be charged upon their own hearts.
530. God hath bestowed himself as a portion upon as great sinners as any are that as yet have not God for their portion.
531. As it is the glory of the stock, when the gratis grow and thrive in it, even so it is the glory of Christ when those who are engrafted into him thrive and grow. The name of Christ, and the honor of Christ, are kept up in the world by souls that are rich in grace. They are the persons who make others think well and speak well of Christ.
532. The worst of men are in a dead sleep, and the best of men are too often in a sinful slumber, and therefore faithful ministers have need to cry aloud, they have need to be courageous and zealous, to awaken both sinners and saints, that none may go sleeping to hell. Cowardice in a minister is cruelty; if he fears the faces of men, he is a murderer of the souls of men.
533. Sinner, if thou art but heartily willing to be divorced from that wicked trinity, the world, the flesh and the devil, there is no doubt that God will be thy portion.
534. Those that have a blemish in their eyes, think the sky to be over cloudy; and nothing is more common to weak spirits, than to be criticizing and contending about others duties, and to neglect their own.
535. It is dangerous to be more notion than motion; to have faith in the head, and none in the heart; to have an idle and not an active faith. It is not enough for you to have faith, but you must look to the acting of your faith upon Christ as crucified, and upon Christ as glorified. Souls much in this will be very little and low in their own eyes. The great reason why the soul is no more humble, is, because faith is no more active.
536. Believer, the certainty and sweetness of victory will abundantly recompense you for all the pains you have taken in making resistance against the devil’s temptations. The broken horns of Satan shall be trumpets of our triumph, and the cornets of joy.
537. The greatness of a man’s sins does but set off the riches of free grace. Sins are debts, and God can as easily blot out a debt of many thousands, as he can a lesser one; therefore let not the greatest rebel despair, but believe; and he shall find, that where sin hath abounded, there grace shall much more abound.
538. Psalms 84:11. The sun denotes all manner of excellency, provision, and prosperity, and the shield represents all manner of protection whatsoever; under the name of grace all spiritual good is wrapped up, and under the name of glory all eternal good is wrapped up; under the last clause of the verse, no good thing will he withhold, is wrapped up all temporal good; and all put together declare God to be indeed an all-sufficient portion.
539. There is nothing that makes a man so able to preach Christ to the people, as getting Christ within him.
540. Bethink thee, Christian, thy mercies outweigh thy wants. God’s favors and blessings seldom or never come single; there is a series or course of them, and every former draws on a future. They are also all unmerited, and undeserved; they flow in upon thee from the free love and favor of God. O then, that, with David, you would summon all the faculties of your soul to praise the Lord, who hath freely filled you, and followed you with the riches of mercy all your days.
541. Men of the greatest excellencies are the main objects upon which the eye of envy is placed.
542. The teaching of this and that opinion may please a man’s fancy, but it is only the preaching of Christ that changes the heart, that conquers the heart, that turns the heart. Peter by preaching a crucified Christ, converts three thousand souls at once.
543. Every believer hath a whole God, wholly, he hath all of God for his portion. God is not a believer’s portion in a limited sense, nor in a comparative sense, but in an absolute sense; God himself is theirs, he is wholly theirs, he is only theirs, he is always theirs.
544. Christians act below their spiritual birth and their holy calling, when they suffer their hearts to be troubled and perplexed for the want of temporal things. Could they read special love in such gifts? Would their happiness lie in the enjoyment of them? Nay then, believer, let not the want of those things trouble thee, the enjoyment of which could never make thee happy.
545. It was a capital crime in Tiberius’s days to carry a ring or coin bearing the image of Augustus into any sordid place; and shall not Christians be more mindful and careful, that their graces, which are Christ’s image, be no ways obscured, but that they be kept always sparkling and shining?
546. Every man is as the objects are with which he converses. A man may better know what he is by eyeing the objects with which his soul does mostly converse, than by observing his most glorious and pompous services.
547. As the lowest shrubs are treed from many violent gusts and blasts of wind which shake and rend the tallest cedars; so the humble soul is free from a world of temptations that proud and lofty souls are torn in pieces with.
548. Self-seekers are self-losers, and self-destroyers.
549. Absalom and Judas seek themselves, and hang themselves. Saul seeks himself, and kills himself. Haman sought himself; and lost himself That which self-seekers think should be a staff to support them, becomes, by the hand of justice, an iron rod to break them; that which they would have as springs to refresh them, becomes a gulf utterly to destroy them.
550. I have read of one, who, when anything fell out prosperously, would read over the Lamentation of Jeremiah to keep his heart tender, humbled and low. Prosperity does not contribute more to the puffing up the soul, than adversity does to the bowing down of the soul. This the saints by experience find, and therefore they can kiss and embrace the cross, as others do the world’s crown.
551. It speaks out much of Christ within, to own where Christ owns, and love where Christ loves, and embrace where Christ embraces, and to be one with every one that is practically one with the Lord Jesus.
552. There is nothing in the world that renders a man more unlike to a saint and more like to Satan, than to argue from mercy to sinful liberty, from divine goodness to licentiousness; this is the devil’s logic, and in whomsoever you find it, you may say of him, "This soul is lost."
553. Bias, a heathen man, being at sea in a great storm, and perceiving many wicked men with him in the ship calling upon the gods, "Oh," says he, "forbear prayer; hold your peace. I would not have the gods take notice that you are here; they surely would drown us all if they should." Ah, sirs, could a heathen see so much danger in’ the society of wicked men; and can you see none?
554. Christians, let your souls dwell upon the vanity of all things here below, till your hearts are so thoroughly convinced and persuaded of the vanity of them, as to trample upon them, and make them a footstool for Christ to get up and ride in a holy triumph in your hearts.
555. One of Satan’s greatest devices to destroy the saints is this, By working them first to be strange. and then to be bitter and jealous, and then to bite and devour one another, Christian, take heed!
556. Every minister’s life should be a commentary upon Christ’s life.
557. That wisdom which a believer has from Christ, leads him to center in the wisdom of Christ; and that love which the soul has from Christ, leads the soul to center in the love of Christ; and that righteousness which the soul has from Christ, leads the soul to rest and center in the righteousness of Christ. True grace is a beam of Christ, and where it is, it will naturally lead the soul to him.
558. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? O that Christians would learn to reason themselves out of their fears, and out of their distrusts, as the apostle does! O that they would no longer rend and rack their precious souls with fears and cares, but rest satisfied in this, that He who has been so kind to them in spirituals, will not be wanting to them in temporals.
559. When you have overcome one temptation, you must be ready to enter the lists with another. As distrust, in some sense, is the mother of safety, so security is the gate of danger. A man had need to fear this most of all, that he fears not at all.
560. O Christians, how justly may that father be angry with his child who is unwilling to come home? and how justly may that husband be displeased with the wife who is unwilling to ride to him in a rainy day, or to cross the sea to enjoy his company? But is not this your case? is not this just your case, who have God for your portion, and yet are unwilling to die, that you may come to a full enjoyment of him?
561. Our safety and security lie not in our weak holding upon Christ, but in Christ’s holding us fast in his everlasting arms. This is our glory and our safety, that Christ’s left hand is always under us} and his right hand doth always embrace us.
562. Those who are weak in grace dwell more upon their sins than upon the Saviour; more upon their misery than upon free grace and mercy; more upon that which may feed their fears than upon that which may strengthen their faith; more upon the cross than’ upon the crown; more upon those that are against them than upon those that are for them; and this keeps them low and weak in spirituals, it causes a leanness in their souls.
563. It is a’ very great stumbling block to many poor sinners to see men who make a high and boasting profession of Christ, and yet never exercise and show forth the virtues of Christ. They profess they know him, and yet, by the nonexercise of his virtues, they deny him.
564. God’s very service is wages; his ways are strewed with roses, and paved with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory and with peace that passeth understanding.
565. As the weakest faith, if true, gives the soul a right to all that internal and eternal worth that is in Christ, so the weakest faith, if true, gives a man a real right unto all the external favors and privileges that come by Christ. (Romans 14:1.) This is the standing rule for all the saints and churches in the world to go by.
566. No man can promise himself to be wealthy till night. One storm at sea, one coal of fire, one false friend, one unadvised word, one false witness, may make thee a beggar and a prisoner all at once.
567. Doubtless, when the soul cleaves to Christ in the face of all afflictions and difficulties, this carries with it very great evidence of its interest in Christ. In temporals, men cleave to persons and things, as their interest is in them; and so it is in spirituals also. Christ cannot, Christ will not throw such into hell that hang about him, that cleave to him.
568. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire? It is not enough that the tree bears not ill fruit, but it must bring forth good fruit, or else be destroyed. So it is not enough that we are not thus and thus wicked, but we must be gracious and good, else divine justice will put the ax of divine vengeance to the root of our souls, and cut us off forever.
569. Weak Christians are afraid of the shadow of the cross.
570. If a man have not union with Christ, if he be not implanted into Christ, he can do nothing. The soul, by virtue of its union to Christ, may do much; but such as are separated from Christ can do nothing—at least, as they should. Ah, Christians, if you would but put out yourselves to the utmost, you would find the Lord both ready and willing to assist you, to meet with you, and to do for you above what you are able to ask or think.
571. One of Satan’s devices to keep poor souls in a sad, doubting and questioning condition is causing them to be always poring and musing upon sin; to mind their sins more than their Saviour; yea, so to mind their sins as to forget and to neglect their Saviour. Their eyes are so fixed upon their disease that they cannot see the remedy, though it be near; and they do so muse upon their debts that they have neither mind nor heart to think of their surety.
572. The soul of man is more worth than a thousand worlds. And it is the greatest abasing of it that can be to let it doat upon a little sinning earth, upon a little painted beauty and fading glory, when it is capable of union with Christ, of communion with God, and of enjoying the eternal felicity of heaven.
573. A little will satisfy nature, less will satisfy grace, but nothing will satisfy a proud man’s lusts.
574. The faith of expectance will in time rise up into a faith of reliance, and the faith of reliance will in time advance itself into a faith of assurance.
575. When Satan perceives that all those trifling, vain thoughts that he casts into the soul do but vex it into greater earnestness, watchfulness and diligence in holy and heavenly services, he often ceases to interpose such trifles and sinful thoughts, as he ceased to tempt Christ when Christ was peremptory in resisting his temptations.
576. We trust as we love, and we trust where we love; if you love Christ much, surely you will trust him much.
577. There is no power below that which raised Christ from the dead and made the world, that can break or turn the heart of a sinner.
578. Repentance is a flower that grows not in nature’s garden.
579. Those souls who, after they have done all, do not look up so high as Christ, and rest in Christ only, casting their services at his footstool, must lie down in sorrow; their bed is prepared for them in hell. But, sinner, "Is it good dwelling with everlasting burnings and with devouring fire?" If it be, why then rest in your duties still; if otherwise, then see that you center only in Christ.
580. A humble soul highly prizes the least love token, the least courtesy from Christ; but proud hearts count great mercies small mercies, and small mercies no mercies; yea, pride does so unman them that they often call mercy misery.
581. Woe, woe to that soul that God will not spend a rod upon. This is the saddest stroke of all, when God refuses to strike at all. "Nothing," said one, "seems more unhappy to me than he to whom no adversity has happened."
582. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Ah, how does the father’s sin infect the child, the husband’s infect the wife, the master’s the servant! The sin that is in one man’s heart is able to infect a whole world; it is of such a spreading and poisonous nature.
583. When sin and suffering have stood in competition, many weak Christians have chosen rather to sin than to suffer, which has opened many a mouth, saddened many a heart and wounded many a conscience. Yet such, by their not suffering, have had to endure more than ever they could have done from the wrath and rage of men. Christian, you must suffer rather than sin.
584. They are none of the best servants that, mind their wages more than their work, and they are none of the best Christians that mind their comforts and their incomes more than that homage and duty which they owe to God.
585. "When I awake I am still with thee" (Psalms 139:18). What we love most, we most muse upon. That which we much like, we shall much mind. Believer, keep up holy and spiritual affections; for such as your affections are, such will be your thoughts.
586. Sinners are proud and foolish, and because they have no money, no worthiness to bring, they will not come to the Lord Jesus, though he sweetly invites them. Well, sinners, remember this: it is not so much the sense of your unworthiness, as your pride, that keeps you from a blessed closing with the Saviour.
587. Augustine, by wandering out of his way, escaped one who lay in wait to mischief him. If afflictions did not put us out of our way, we should many times meet with some sin or other that would mischief our precious souls.
588. When mercy is despised, then justice takes the throne.
589. Self-seeking blinds the soul, that it cannot see a beauty in Christ nor an excellency in holiness; it distempers the palate that a man cannot taste sweetness in the word of God, nor in the ways of God, nor in the society of the people of God: it shuts the hand against all the soul-enriching offers of Christ; it hardens the heart against all the knocks and entreaties of Christ; it makes the soul as an empty vine and as a barren wilderness; in a word, there is nothing that bespeaks a man to be more empty and void of God, Christ and grace than self-seeking.
590. Though another man cannot be saved by thy faith, yet he may be blessed with many blessings upon the account of thy faith. It was the Canaanitish woman’s faith that brought a blessing of healing upon her daughter. The centurion’s faith healed his servant, who was sick of a palsy. "From that very hour he was healed" (Matthew 8:5-13).
591. Of all mercies, pardoning mercy is the most necessary mercy. Thou mayest go to heaven without honor, and without riches, and without the smiles of creatures, but thou canst never go to heaven without pardoning mercy. A man may be great and graceless, he may be rich and miserable, he may be honorable and damnable, but he cannot be a pardoned soul without being a very blessed soul, that entitles him to all blessedness—it puts the royal crown upon his head.
592. Souls that are torn in pieces with the cares of the world will be always vexed and tormented with vain thoughts in all their approaches to God. Vain thoughts will still be crowding in upon him who lives in a crowd of business.
593. "If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small11 (Proverbs 24:10). Man has no trial of his strength till he is in trouble; faintness then discovers weakness.
594. Faithful ministers do represent the person of the King of kings and Lord of lords. And though the world crown them with thorns, as it did their Lord and Master before them, yet God will crown them with honor. They shall shine as the stars in the firmament. You know embassadors have not preferments while they are abroad; but when they come home to their own country then their princes prefix them and put much honor upon them. So will God deal with his embassadors.
595. Wicked men are the most needy men in the world—yea, they want those two things that should render their mercies sweet, the blessing of God and content with their condition, and without which their heaven is but hell on this side hell.
596. Though men cannot bring their means to their minds, yet ought they to bring their minds to their means, and learn content in every state.
597. A humble soul knows that little sins (if I may so call any) cost Christ his blood, and that they make way for greater, and that little sins, multiplied, become great, as a little sum, multiplied, is great; that they cloud the face of God, wound conscience, grieve the Spirit, rejoice Satan and make work for repentance.
598. When all else is gone, yet a Christian hath his God to live upon as his portion, and that is enough to make up the want of all other things. As he hath nothing that hath not God for his portion, so he wants nothing that hath God for his portion.
599. The greatest sins do most and best set off the freeness and the riches of God’s grace; there is nothing that makes heaven and earth to ring and sound out his praise so much as the fixing of his love upon those who are most unlovely and uncomely, the bestowing of* himself upon those who have given away themselves from him.
600. The least good that is done by the weakest saint is never despised by Christ. Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee, and what shall we have? (Matthew 19:27.) A great all indeed; the disciples left a few old boats, and torn nets, and poor household stuff; yet Christ carries it very sweetly and lovingly to them, and tells them in verse twenty-eight that they should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The butler may forget Joseph, and Joseph may forget his father’s house, but the Lord will not forget the least good done by the least saint.