Note from admin

There will be no further quotes posted here, tho the archives will remain, but I’ve almost finished updating and revamping my puritan at heart domain, and so quotes will be posted here from now on.  There is lots of other puritan resources on the same domain there.  I hope you are blessed by it!

For Daily Puritan Quote from now on, please go to: A Puritan at heart  All archives from here, are reachable from that url.

The Christian Answer

Christianity teacheth me that what I charitably give alive, I carry with me dead; and experience teacheth me that what I leave behind, I lose. I will carry that treasure with me by giving it, which the worldling lose by keeping it; so while his corpse shall carry nothing but a winding cloth to his grave, I shall be richer under the earth than I was above it. [Joseph Hall]

God’s Provision

God…will not lightly or easily lose His people. He has provided well for us; blood to wash us in; a Priest to pray for us, that we may be made to persevere; and, in case we foully fall, an Advocate to plead our cause. [John Bunyan]

Revenge or forgiveness

By revenge thou canst but satisfy a lust, but by forgiveness thou shalt conquer a lust. [John Flavel]

Flattery

Be as much troubled by unjust praises, as by unjust slanders. [Philip Henry]

The binding chords of sin

It has long been a mystery who was the man in the iron mask. We believe that the mystery was solved some years ago, by the conjecture that he was the twin brother of Louis XIV., King of France, who, fearful lest he might have his throne disturbed by his twin brother, whose features were extremely like his own, encased his face in a mask of iron and shut him up in the Bastille for life. Your body and your soul are twin brothers. Your body, as though it were jealous of your soul, encases it as in an iron mask of spiritual ignorance, lest its true lineaments, its immortal lineage should be discovered, and shuts it up within the Bastille of sin, lest getting liberty and discovering its royalty, it should win the mastery over the baser nature. But what a wretch was that Louis XIV., to do such a thing to his own brother! How brutal, how worse than the beasts that perish! But, sir, what art thou if thou doest thus to thine own soul, merely that thy body may be satisfied, and thy earthly nature may have a present gratification? O sirs, be not so unkind, so cruel to yourselves. But yet this sin of living for the mouth and living for the eye, this sin of living for what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink, and wherewithal ye shall be clothed, this sin of living by the clock within the narrow limits of the time that ticks by the pendulum, this sin of living as if this earth were all and there were nought beyond—this is the sin that holds this City of London, and holds the world, and binds it like a martyr to the stake to perish, unless it be set free. [Charles Spurgeon]

Setting time limits

Set no time to the Lord the creator of time, for His time is always best. [Samuel Rutherford]

Proof of Sonship

None but the godly are capable of desertion. Wicked men know not what God’s love means, nor what it is to want it…You fear you are not God’s child because you are deserted.

The Lord cannot be said to withdraw His love from the wicked, because they never had it. The being deserted evidences you to be a child of God. How could you complain that God has  estranged Himself, if you had not sometimes received smiles and tokens of love from Him? [Thomas Watson]

Sin and heresy

Sin, and heresy, and superstition are hypocrites; that is, sin hath the appearance of virtue, and heresy hath the appearance of truth, and superstition hath the appearance of religion. [Henry Smith]

These things are called Precious

Three things are called precious in the Scripture: the blood of Christ is called “precious blood,” 1 Peter 1:19; and faith is called “precious faith,” 2 Peter 1:1; and the promises are called “precious promises,” 2 Peter 1:4 [Thomas Brooks]

Living Faith

Though the truth is, that until a man comes to be fully persuaded of the truth of them from the same Spirit that dictated them, every soul will be as apt to waver in his faith, concerning their being the word of God, as he in Tully, who only believed in the immortality of the soul from the reading of Plato’s book, which (if I remember right) the Roman orator expresseth in words to this sense: I have read over Plato’s book again and again; but I know not how it comes to pass, so long as I am reading I agree with it; but no sooner is the book out of my hands but de immortalitate animæ dubitare cœpi, I begin to doubt whether the soul be immortal, yea or no. But, however, in one degree or other every Christian makes that the principle of his religion, that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the word of God. Some believe it more faintly and uncertainly, some more fixedly and firmly; and accordingly the faith of persons, as to them, is more or less operative. [Matthew Poole]

Pride and idleness

The proud person is Satan’s throne, and the idle man his pillow. He sitteth in the former, and sleepeth quietly on the latter. [George Swinnock]

National sin

A boat rows against the stream; the current punishes it. So is a nation violating a law of God; it is subject to a judgement. The boat turns and goes with the stream; the current assists it. So is a nation which has repented and put itself into harmony with God’s Law; it is subject to a blessing. But the current is the same; it has not changed, only the boat has changed its relationship to the current. Neither does God change–we change; and the same law which executed itself in judgement now expresses itself in reward. [Thomas Brooks]

Youth and Age

If youth be sick of the will-nots, old age is in danger of shall-nots.  [William Secker]

As filthy rags

The young man in the Gospel might have been a better man if he had not been so good.  [William Gurnall]

3 common wiles of Satan

The devil has three ways by which he makes men seek after him. First, commonly, he covers holiness with other names. Secondly, he persuades men that sins are but little. Thirdly, that they may be repented of hereafter. [John Collins]

Riches

Riches may leave us while we live, we must leave them when we die. [Thomas Fuller]

Forgiveness

To be forgiven is such sweetness that honey is tasteless in comparison with it. But yet there is one thing sweeter still, and that is to forgive. [C.H. Spurgeon]

Providences

Some providences, like Hebrew letters, must be read backwards. [John Flavel]

The Truth in Christ Jesus

I love to proclaim those strong old doctrines nicknamed Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus. [C.H. Spurgeon]

Against presumption

A man may be so bold of his predestination, that he forget his conversation. [Thomas Adams]

Corruption

There are very few errors and false doctrines of which the beginning may not be traced up to unsound views about the corruption of human nature. Wrong views of this disease will always bring with them wrong views of the remedy. Wrong views of the corruption of human nature will always carry with them wrong views of  the grand antidote and cure of that corruption. [J.C. Ryle]

Justification must be preached from the heart

In the practical direction of the consciences of men, in their application unto God by, Jesus Christ, from deliverance from  the curse due unto the apostate state, and peace with Him, with the influence of the way thereof unto universal gospel obedience, that is alone to be designed in the handling of this doctrine. And therefore, unto him, that would treat of it in a due manner, it is required that  he weigh everything he asserts in his own mind and experience, and not dare to propose that unto others which he doth not abide in himself, in the most intimate recesses of his mind, under his nearest approaches unto God, in his suprisals with danger, in deep afflictions, in his preparations for death, and most humble contemplation of the infinite distance between God and him. Other notions… not seasoned with these ingredients.. are insipid and useless.  [John Owen]

No escape from death

God, to prevent all escape, hath sown the seeds of death in our very constitution and nature, so that we can as soon run from ourselves as run from death. We need no feller to come with a hand of violence and hew us down; there is in the tree a worm, which grows out of its own substance, that will destroy it; so in us, those infirmities of nature, that will bring us down to the dust. [William Gurnall]

on controversy

When we have controversy with the wicked, we should take heed that private spleen do not rule us, but that only our interest in God’s quarrel with them doth move us. [David Dickson]