Part 2
190. Sorrow attends worldly joy, danger attends worldly safety, loss attends worldly labors, tears attend worldly purposes. As to these things, men's hopes are vain, their sorrow certain, and their joy feigned. The apostle calls this world a sea of glass—a sea for the trouble of it, and glass for the brittleness and bitterness of it.
191. Usually, the worst of men have most of all outward things, and the best of men have least of earth, though most of heaven.
192. I have read of a fountain that at noonday is cold, and at midnight it grows warm; so many a precious soul is cold Godward, and heavenward, and holinessward, in the day of prosperity, that grow warm Godward, and heavenward, and holiness ward in the midnight of adversity
193. Riches, though well got, are yet but like to manna: those that gathered less had no want, and those that gathered more found it but a trouble and annoyance to them.
194. Erasmus tells of one who collected all the lame and defective verses in Flower's works, but passed over all that were excellent. Oh!
that this were not the practice of many who will at last meet in heaven—that they were not careful and skillful to collect all the weaknesses of others, and to pass over all those things that are excellent in them!
195. A saint's conflict is against sin universally, the least as well as the greatest. He looks upon one sin, and sees that that threw down Noah, the most righteous man in the world; and he looks upon another sin, and sees that that cast down Abraham, the greatest believer in the world; and he looks upon another sin, and sees that that threw down David, the best king in the world; and he looks upon another sin, and sees that that cast down Paul, the greatest apostle in the world: he sees that one sin threw down Samson, the strongest man in the world; another cast down Solomon, the wisest man in the world; and another Moses, the meekest man in the world; and another sin cast down Job the most patient man in the world; and this raiseth a holy indignation against all, so that nothing can satisfy and content him but a destruction of all those lusts and vices that vex and rack his righteous soul.
196. There are some diseases that are called the reproaches of physicians: and there are some people that may be truly called the reproaches of ministers; and these are they who are great hearers, and talkers, and admirers of ministers, but never obey the doctrines delivered by them.
197. Sinner, remember this: there is no way on earth effectually to be rid of the guilt, filth and power of sin but by believing in a Saviour. It is not resolving, it is not complaining, it is not mourning, but believing, that will make thee divinely victorious over that body of sin that to this day is too strong for thee, and that will certainly be thy ruin if it be not ruined by a hand of faith.
198. As men take no hold on the arm of flesh till they let go the arm of God, so men take no hold on error till they have let go their hold of truth; therefore, hold fast the truth.
199. "Repentance," says a holy man, "strips us naked of all the garments of the old Adam, and leaves not so much as a rag behind in this rotten building it leaves not a stone upon a stone. As the flood drowned Noah's own friends and servants, so must the flood of repenting tears drown our sweetest and most profitable sins.
200. True grace will enable a man to step over the world's crown to take up Christ's cross; to prefer-the cross of Christ above the glory of this world. 'Godfrey, first king of Jerusalem, refused to be crowned with a crown of gold, saying that it became not a Christian there to wear a crown of gold where Christ had worn a crown of thorns.
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" (Matt. 17:5). They are to be found in Psalm 2:7, Isaiah xvlii. 1, and Deut. 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.
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 longlived.
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. (Psalm 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.
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. (Psalm 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!