Pithy Puritan Pearls #7

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


Do not think on the comforts you lack, but on the mercies you have. Look rather at God's end in afflicting, than to the measure and degree of your affliction! (Christopher Love)

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The humble Christian studies his own unworthiness. He looks with one eye upon grace—to keep his heart cheerful; and with the other eye upon sin—to keep it humble. (Thomas Watson)

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If Satan's darts have wounded us—then faith cools the scalding heat of sin by applying to us the precious balm of Christ's blood! (Christopher Love)

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Sin is a leprous spot. It makes everything we touch unclean! (Thomas Watson)

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A man with God is always in the majority! (John Knox)

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The tongue exists to reveal our heart! (John Calvin)

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The human heart is a factory of idols! (John Calvin)

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God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does! (Martin Luther)

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Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God! (Martin Luther)

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The bible is alive, it speaks to me;
it has feet, it runs after me;
it has hands, it lays hold of me! (Martin Luther)

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It is certain that a man must completely despair of himself, in order to be fit for the grace of Christ! (Martin Luther)

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Faith is the wedding ring in which we have pledged ourselves to Christ! (Martin Luther)

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Ministerial work is to make:
  saints out of sinners,
  living souls out of the dead,
  children of God, out of servants of the Devil! (Martin Luther)

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Ministers should make it their business not to set forth new notions, but to press on Christians old truths, and known duties. (Thomas Gouge)

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God's all-seeing presence is a preservative against sin and a means to make you watchful over all your ways and actions. (Thomas Gouge)

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Carry all your sins with the solemnity of penitential tears, to their eternal funeral in Christ! (Thomas Gouge)

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It is hard to destroy sin—but will it not be harder to be damned for it? (Thomas Gouge)

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In our folly we see the faults of others, more than to see our own. Learn the are of self-examination, which is the way to self-reformation! (Thomas Gouge)

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Let us offer up ourselves to the Lord as a whole-burnt-offering, in the ascending flames of purest affections! (Thomas Gouge)

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Christ has purchased holiness, for all those that he has laid down his life for! (Jeremiah Burroughs)

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The moral Law is a looking-glass of God's holiness. In the moral Law we may see the luster and glory of the holiness of God himself! (Jeremiah Burroughs)

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In believers, the power of Jesus Christ can uphold little sparks of grace in the midst of an ocean of corruption! (Jeremiah Burroughs)

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The burden of sin is so great to the godly, it makes them weary of their lives, for their corruption is more grievous then death would be. (Jeremiah Burroughs)

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There is no such intensiveness in any labor in the world, as a Christian has against his corruptions. (Jeremiah Burroughs)

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Christians must not be idle. They have to provide for eternity! (Jeremiah Burroughs)

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To most people in the world, sin is a trivial thing! (Jeremiah Burroughs)

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What pious heart does not bleed to hear and see in these degenerate times, the despising and trampling of things God highly prizes? (Thomas Hodges)

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No man can prove himself to be a Christian, if he does not hate sin! (William Plumer)

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An idle person is the Devil's workshop. There Satan works, ever busy when men are most idle! (Thomas Gouge)

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If the Lord brings a wicked man to Heaven, it would be Hell to him; for he who does not love grace on earth will never love it in Heaven. (Christopher Love)

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The strength of towers, walls, or any creature—cannot secure sinners against God's consuming indignation. (Thomas Hodges)

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If the most petty prince will not endure to have his name abused and slighted—then never think the highest God of Heaven will permit it. (Thomas Hodges)

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It's God's just judgment on all who do not receive his truth in love, to give them up to walk in their own counsels. (Thomas Hodges)

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Christ crucified must be the subject of all true preaching. (John Jackson)

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Men in Heaven shall know who are damned in Hell—yet they shall not know it in a way of compassion or sorrow! (Christopher Love)

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The minister's life is a life of consecration, without which it has no meaning.
We must love the flock in order to preach to it well. (Alexander Vinet)

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In preaching, the minister brings the mind of the hearer into direct and immediate contact with the mind of the Spirit. (William Taylor)

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On earth Christians enjoy Christ's Spirit by drops.
In Heaven they shall enjoy the fullness of the ocean! (Christopher Love)

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Clothes show what people are. Their clothes uncover their hearts.
Clothes show whether people are chaste or immoral, proud or serious. (William Gearing)

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Sins are more easily kept out, than cast out! (Augustine)

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It is against the nature of grace, not to be in motion, not to increase in being more holy. (Hannibal Gammon)

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One of God's punishments to a wicked man, is his wicked mind! (Hannibal Gammon)

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It is just with God to punish us, in that thing we idolize. (Thomas Valentine)

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Patience is a quiet silent temper of soul, by which we submit to God in all our crosses. (Thomas Valentine)

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The Christian comes to Christ as continual recourse for the increase of all graces. (Thomas Valentine)

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A Christian is not poor, who is rich in grace.
He cannot be miserable, who has Christ for his portion! (William Gearing)

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Always fear to offend God, and you need not fear any other peril! (John Ball)

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Death itself, which makes a separation between the soul and body—cannot make a separation between the believer and Christ! (John Brinsley)

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The touch of the woman drew from Christ a virtue to cure her, so believers draw from Him virtue for feeding their soul to eternal life. (John Brinsley)

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Holiness makes a man as like to God as a creature can be like to the Creator.
But sin transforms us into the likeness of the devil! (John Ball)