Pithy Puritan Pearls #2

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"Here are some further sayings of the wise." Proverbs 24:23

Let others be ambitious for honor, knowledge, wealth, pleasure—but you are to be covetous, ambitious, and zealous for holiness. (Daniel Cawdrey)

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A sanctified heart—is better than a silver tongue. (Simeon Ashe)

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Grace is the only way to glory. No holiness, no Heaven. (Andrew Gray)

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The end of study is knowledge, but the end of meditation is holiness. (Thomas White)

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Believers are wise to admire nothing in this world. Jesus did not care for it when Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world! (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Holiness is spiritual beauty. Sin is spiritual deformity. (Peter Sterry)

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Two things make the saints maligned by the men of the world. Saints hate what the world loves—and vilify what the world adores! (Nathaniel Vincent)

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A pure conscience can bear a mountain of misery, better than a mole hill of sin. (Francis Whiddon)

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You may not be outwardly bad—and yet not inwardly good. (Thomas Watson)

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Stage-Plays are for the most part representations of men's villainy and wickedness, and hence they are unlawful. (Christopher Love)

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Godly men are very moderate in the use of the creatures, lest they should be brought under the power of them. (William Strong)

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Now what is hope, but the expectation of those things which God has promised? (Daniel Cawdrey)

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Hope is a faculty of the soul that looks for mercy, and waits for the same. (Isaac Ambrose)

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If all the graces of God are precious pearls—then humility is the string that ties them all together! (Daniel Cawdrey)

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Humility is the robe of all the sons of God—and the distinguishing character of a true Christian. Humility is the only way to glory. True humility never desires to show itself because it intends to hide, not only other virtues, but above all, itself. (Daniel Cawdrey)

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Hypocrisy is the ape of all virtues, even pride itself puts on the cloak of humility. (Daniel Cawdrey)

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Hypocrisy mostly ends in apostasy. (John Greene)

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He who prays without faith and grace is a hypocrite.
He who does not pray at all is an atheist. (Thomas Ford)

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You may be a hypocrite—and may not know it. (Cuthbert Sydenham)

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True forgiveness is never too late—but late forgiveness is seldom true. (John Arrowsmith)

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God hates that religion which costs men nothing. (William Strong)

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Happiness is the common object of every man's desire! (John Philips)

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The foundation of a man's eternal happiness or misery—is laid in this life. (William Strong)

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By the law we see our misery—and by the gospel we see our remedy. (Edmund Calamy)

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A godly man must not impose on his conscience the necessity of observing such rules of practice which God has not prescribed. (Nicholas Byfield)

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A law properly is a commandment with a penalty. (William Bridge)

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God's love does not spring from delight in our beauty—but from pity to our deformity. (William Spurstowe)

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Christ's love is written in characters of blood, and his grace is stamped on every line and blessing of the gospel. (Richard Rawlin)

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God presently gives an everlasting assurance of salvation to all who love Christ sincerely. (William Pinke)

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Would you love Christ—use him much, and then the more you will prize him, and the more you will love him. (William Bridge)

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If the wicked love God—it is only for his benefits. (Henry Smith)

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If a man does not love the Lord Jesus, it is because he loves something better than him. (John Preston)

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We should love Christ's person—more entirely than his benefits. (William Pinke)

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Mercies are designed to be as cords to draw you, and afflictions as rods to drive you nearer to God. Let both attain their end. (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Look on your own secret sins, your relapses, and then on Christ's coming with his mercies and favors—and you cannot but love him! (John Preston)

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Love is a holy disposition rising from faith, where we cleave to Christ with full purpose of heart, to serve and please him in all things. (John Preston)

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Men may have knowledge of God by the hearing of the ear, and yet have no heart-acquaintance with God. (Matthew Newcomer)

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Meditation is a serious, earnest and purposful musing upon some point of Christian instruction. (John Ball)

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Meditation tends to lead us forward toward the Kingdom of Heaven, and serves for our daily strengthening against the world, the flesh and the Devil. (John Ball)

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By meditation, the Christian . . .
  improves his knowledge,
  quickens his affections,
  and excites practice. (Thomas White)

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Meditation and prayer are like two turtle-doves—if you separate one, the other dies.
Illumination makes us shining lamps, meditation makes us burning lamps.
Meditation imprints and fastens a truth in the mind.
A Christian without meditation is like a soldier without weapons, or a workman without tools.
Meditation is like the watering of the seed, it makes the fruits of grace to flourish.
Meditation is the chewing on the truths we have heard.
Let us go into Hell by contemplation—that we may not go into Hell by condemnation! (Thomas Watson)

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It is a great piece of happiness upon earth—not to long after that which the Lord is pleased to deny. (Simeon Ashe)

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God is not otherwise to be enjoyed—than as he is obeyed. (John Howe)

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No man can die in the Lord—who does not live to the Lord. (William Spurstowe)

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The Christian soul is content that God should rule everything, not only the eye, or hand, or tongue—but the whole man. (Isaac Ambrose)

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Good works do not make a good man—but a good man does make works good. (Martin Luther)

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An ignorant person cannot please God. (Thomas Case)

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A man may as well go to Hell for not doing good—as for doing evil. (Thomas Watson)

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Good works are rewardable, though they are not meritorious. (Nathaniel Vincent)

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What way your hearts go—that way your thoughts go. (William Strong)

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When a baby is born, it cries.
When a sinner is born again, he prays. (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Those are the strongest Christians—who are the mightiest in prayer. (Nathaniel Vincent)

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A praying Christian is a useful Christian in the world. (Jeremiah Burroughs)

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Prayer does not make a change in God, but makes a change in us. (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Without prayer, adversity will be intolerable—and prosperity will be a snare! (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Prayer is tying a knot at the end of meditation. (Daniel Burgess)

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If once a man ceases to pray against sin, he is in danger to commit it. (William Strong)

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Prayer is the spiritual leech, which sucks the poison of sin out of the soul. (Thomas Watson)

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It is not a small work to break the pride and stoniness of your heart. It needs power from above. (Nicholas Byfield)

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The Spirit takes away the fig leafs of excuses—and presents sin naked and bare! (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Conversion is a nail which the prophets of old were hammering on perpetually. (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Regeneration does not work on our understanding only to show us what we are to do, but on our will as well to alter and reform it. (Francis Taylor)

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Pray to God to give you the same Spirit who wrote the Word, to enable you to delight in it. (Edmund Calamy)

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Sorrow and tears for sin are never right—until they are like floods of water to drive us to Christ. (Christopher Love)

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All of us put up broken duties—but few of us have broken hearts. (Thomas Doolittle)

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No man ever miscarried for being a great sinner; but only for being an impenitent sinner. (William Spurstowe)

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The more the wicked are called to holiness—the further they run into all sin and wickedness! (Andrew Gray)

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Every heart that is not a Holy Spirit Temple—is nothing more than Satan's hideous dunghill. (Daniel Burgess)

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There is the curse of God on all that a wicked man enjoys! (Christopher Love)

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I had rather be a preacher in a pulpit, than a prince on a throne. (Christopher Love)

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Since the love of the world is so common in the church, it is a plain demonstration that salvation is not a common thing. (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Christianity is no jesting matter—it is the most serious business in the world. (William Pinke)

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By the key of faith, we fetch daily new grace out of Christ's treasury to sanctify us more and more. (Edmund Calamy)

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Desire to know the meaning of the rod, and to hear God's voice speaking in it. (Richard Byfield)

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The love of some corruption—keeps many from the sweet fruition of God's favorable countenance. (Francis Taylor)

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He who does not care to be like Christ—certainly has no love to him, nor any saving interest in his love. (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Saints are afflicted, that they may be more thoroughly sanctified! (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Sin is worse than Hell—because it made Hell to be Hell! (Christopher Love)

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Do you complain of a hard heart? The sight of a broken Christ will break your heart, or nothing will. (William Bridge)

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Sin is infinite because it is against an infinite God, bringing an infinite punishment because it cannot be atoned for by finite creatures. (John Beart)

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It is dangerous to be the world's favorite. (Simeon Ashe)

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Wicked thoughts are deadly evils. (William Perkins)

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In a moment sin is committed on earth. Then it comes before God in Heaven, and is condemned to Hell. (Henry Smith)

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There is in sin, these two things: a debt to God, and a bondage to Satan. (William Strong)

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For as sins of commission poison the soul, so sins of omission starve the soul. (Thomas White)

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As the violence of winds and waves sink a ship, so gluttony and drunkenness sink our souls and bodies into the depth of Hell. (Andrew Gray)

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Great sins require great lamentations. (Henry Greenwood)

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Strange that believers should be abhorred—because they are beautified with grace; and be hated because they are lovely. (Nathaniel Vincent)

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Let courage animated by faith dwell in you—and you will readily overcome both the frowns and flatteries of the world. (William Spurstowe)

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The healing of the Church's breaches should be the desire of every Christian. (John Brinsley)

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All who would walk worthy of the Gospel, must endeavor a sweet, close, holy, lasting union among themselves. (Matthew Newcomen)

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No one thing either deforms or weakens the Church more than division. (John Brinsley)

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Every true and acceptable service to God—has a precept, a promise, and a pattern. (John Philips)

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It is as the filthiness of whoredom, to the Lord to have human inventions erected or interposed as parts or props of worship. (Gasper Hickes)