Puritans

by

Quotes (795)

baxter Consider, is it not better to remember your sins on earth, than in Hell? Before your Physician, than before your Judge? . . . O wretch, that I am! Where was my understanding, when played so boldly with the flames of hell, the wrath of God, the poison of sin! When God stood by, and yet I sinned! When conscience rebuked me, and yet I sinned! When heaven or hell were close at hand, and yet I sinned! When, to please my God and save my soul, I would not hold back a filthy lust, or forbidden vanity of no worth! When I would not be persuaded to a holy, Heavenly, watchful life though all my hopes of Heaven depended on it! I am ashamed of myself; I am confounded in the remembrance of my willful, self-destroying folly! I loathe myself for all my abominations! O that I had lived in poverty and rags when I lived in sin! And O that I had lived with God in a prison, or in a wilderness, when I refused a holy, heavenly life, for the love of a deceitful world!

–  Richard Baxter

1615 – 1691

by

Quotes (794)

Stephen Charnock If you take away God, you take away conscience, and thereby all measures and rules of good and evil. And how can any law be made when the measure and standard of them are removed? All good laws are founded upon the dictates of conscience and reason, upon common sentiments in human nature, which spring from a sense of God; so that as the foundation is demolished, the whole superstructure must tumble down. A man then could be a thief, a murderer, an adulterer, and could not in a strict sense be considered an offender. The worst actions could not be evil, if a man were a god to himself, a law to himself.

– Stephen Charnock

1628 – 1680

by

Quotes (763)

If inanimate creatures could but speak, your food would say, “Lord, must I nourish such a wretch as this, and yield forth my strength for him, to dishonor Thee? No, I will choke him rather, if Thou wilt give commission.” The very air would say, “Lord, must I give this man breath, to set his tongue against heaven, and scorn Thy people. . . .  No, if Thou wilt but say the word, he shall be breathless for me.” His poor beast would say, “Lord, must I carry him upon his wicked designs? No, I will break his bones, I will end his days rather, if I may have but leave from Thee.” A wicked man; the earth groans under him, and hell groans for him, till death satisfies both.

– Joseph Alleine

1634 – 1668

by

Quotes (731)

thomas-watsonIn the creation, man was made in God’s image; in the incarnation God was made in man’s image. . . . He took our flesh that He might take our sins, and so appease God’s wrath. . . . Christ’s taking our flesh was one of the lowest steps of His humiliation. . . . For Christ to be made flesh was more humility than for the angels to be made worms. . . . He stripped Himself of the robes of His glory, and covered Himself with the rags of our humanity.

– Thomas Watson

1620 – 1686

by

Quotes (730)

The loathsome carcass does not more hatefully swarm with crawling maggots, than an unsanctified soul with filthy lusts. Look backward; where was ever the place, what was ever the time, in which you did not sin? Look inward; what part or power can you find in your soul or body which is not poisoned with sin? . . . Call to mind your omissions and commissions; the sins of your thoughts, words, and actions; the sins of your youth, and the sins of your riper years. Do not be like a desperate bankrupt that is afraid to look over his books. Read the records of conscience carefully. These books must be opened sooner or later.

– Joseph Alleine

1634 – 1668

by

Quotes (722)

Puritans Some think that because God made them, surely He will not damn them. This is true, if they had continued good, as He made them. God made the devil good, yes an excellent creature, yet we know that He shall be damned (Matt. 25:41).  If God spared not His holy angels (Jude 6), after they became sinful, shall man think that God will spare him? A sinful man shall be judged at the last day, not according to what he was by God’s first making; but as he shall be found defiled and corrupted by the devil, and by his own lusts.

– Henry Scudder

1585 – 1659

by

Quotes (721)

A case could be made that some of the derisive criticisms leveled at the Puritans were due to a smoldering resentment at their God-fearing and Christ-honoring lives. This trait in the Puritan makeup seems to disturb and agitate a society given over to pleasing “the world, the flesh, and the devil.”

– I.D.E. Thomas

by

Quotes (720)

For one, I care little for the government which presides at Washington, in comparison with the government which rules the millions of American homes. No administration can seriously harm us if our home life is pure, frugal, and godly. No statesmanship or legislation can save us, if once our homes become the abode of profligacy. The home rules the nation. If the home is demoralized, it will ruin it. The real seed corn whence our Republic sprang was the Christian households represented in the Mayflower, or the family alter of the Hollander and the Huguenot. All the best characters, best legislation, best institutions, and best church life were cradled in those early homes. They were the taproot of the Republic, and of the American churches.

– Theodore L. Cuyler

1822 – 1909

by

Quotes (717)

Puritans The millstone which turns about all day, grinding corn for others and not for itself, at night it stands in the same place where it was in the morning. After a great volume of grain has passed by, it is now emptied of all, having received nothing in the bargain but wearing itself out for the profit of others. In the same way, worldly men engrossed in the pursuit of earthly vanities toil throughout the day, and when the night of death comes they are in the same position as they were when they began. All they have is the labor for their pains; they retain nothing of the things which passed through their hands . . . . If we would have our thirst slaked and abated, it must not be by larger drinking of these unsatisfying drinks, which will only increase our appetite, but by purging away worldly lust and concupiscence, which are the true cause of our insatiableness.

– George Downame

1560 – 1634

by

Quotes (715)

Till men are weary and heavy laden, and pricked at the heart, and quite sick of sin, they will not come to Christ for cure, nor sincerely enquire, “What shall we do?” They must see themselves as dead men, before they will come to Christ that they may live.

– Joseph Alleine

1634 – 1668

by

Quotes (713)

Puritans It is not one or two good actions, but a consistent conduct, that tells whether a man is a true Christian. . . . Sheep may fall into the mire, but swine love day and night to wallow in it. A Christian may stumble, he may even fall, but he gets up and walks on in the way of God’s commandments; the bent of his heart is right, and the scope of his life is straight, and thus he is considered sincere.

– George Swinnock

1627 – 1673

by

Quotes (711)

thomas-watsonUnder the law, if a man who was unclean by a dead body, carried a piece of holy flesh in his lower garment, the holy flesh could not cleanse him, but he polluted it (Hag, 2:12-13). Till the kingdom of grace is in our hearts, ordinances will not purify us, but we will pollute them. . . . In what a sad condition is a man before God’s kingdom of grace is set up in his heart! Whether he comes or comes not to the ordinance, he sins. If he does not come to the ordinance, he is a condemner of it; if he does come, he a polluter of it. A sinner’s work are opera mortua, dead works which are dead cannot please God. A dead flower has no sweetness.

– Thomas Watson

1620 – 1686