Puritans

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Quotes (686)

“The next week,” says the sinner, “I will begin to be sober and temperate, serious and devout.” But the true sense of what he says is this, “I am fully bent to spend this present week in riot and excess, in sensuality and profaneness, or whatever vice it is that I indulge myself in.” And if we do this often, and it becomes our common practice to put off our repentance from time to time, this is a shrewd sign that we never intended to repent at all. . . . It is with the wicked men in this case, as it is with a bankrupt. When his creditors are loud and clamorous, speaking big and threatening high, he answers them with many good words and fair promises. He arranges for them to come another day, entreats their patience but a little longer, and then he will satisfy them all, when all the time the man never intends to pay them one farthing. . . . In the same way men endeavor to pacify and calm their consciences, by telling them they will listen to them another time. All this is only to delude and cheat their consciences with good words and specious pretenses, making them believe they will certainly do what they cannot endure to think of, and what they would fully desire to excuse themselves from.

– Edmund Calamy

1671 – 1732

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Quotes (683)

thomas-watsonIt is not enough to hear God’s voice, but we must obey. Obedience is a part of the honor we owe to God. . . . Obedience carries in it the lifeblood of religion. . . . Obedience without knowledge is blind, and knowledge without obedience is lame. . . . Saul thought it was enough for him to offer sacrifices, though he disobeyed God’s command; but “to obey is better than sacrifice.” God disclaims sacrifice, if obedience be wanting.

– Thomas Watson

1620 – 1686

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Quotes (673)

thomas-watson In 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

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Quotes (671)

O, the work that sin has done in the world! This is the enemy that has brought in death; that has robbed and enslaved man, that has turned the world upside down, and sown the dissensions between man and the creatures, between man and man, yea, between man and himself, setting the physical part against the rational, the will against the judgment, lust against conscience; yea, worst of all, between God and man, making the sinner both hateful to God and the hater of God. This is the traitor that thirsted for the blood of the Son of God, that sold Him, that mocked Him, that scourged Him, that spat in His face, that mangled His body . . . condemned Him, nailed Him, crucified Him. . . . This is the bloody executioner that has killed the prophets, burned the martyrs, murdered all the apostles, all the patriarchs, all the kings and potentates; that has destroyed cities, swallowed empires, and devoured whole nations. Whatever weapon it was done by, it was sin that caused the execution. Do you still think it is only a small thing? If Adam and all his children could be dug out of their graves, and their bodies piled up to heaven, and an inquest was made as to what matchless murderer was guilty of all this, it would be all found in sin.

– Joseph Alleine

1634 – 1668

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Quotes (666)

Puritans We cannot prescribe how God should be glorified. . . . How have men fooled themselves and dishonored God in the matter of worship! They invent and prescribe forms and modes, when they have no ground to believe that He will accept them. . . . We must not determine these things ourselves, as to how, when, where, whom we please, for this would dishonor rather than credit the cause of God, because this matter wholly depends upon His pleasure. Now anything of our will would . . . subtract from that divine symmetry and concord which encompasses the wisdom, holiness, power, and sovereign grace of God. And we might as well teach Him how He should govern the world, as how He should dispose of us. . . . God is not glorified but in His own way.

– Dr. John Singleton
Died – 1706

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Quotes (654)

PuritansA Christian, if he has not a care, may be proud of his very humility. It is hard starving this sin, because it can live on almost nothing. . . .  Be much in meditation on death and judgment. A serious and frequent meditation on death will be a means to kill pride. Ask yourself: “What is man, but a little living lump of clay? And what is his life, but “a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away?”

– Richard Mayo

1631 – 1695

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Quotes (646)

baxter

You may as well see without light, and be supported without earth, or live without food, as to be saved without holiness . . . the one thing necessary (Heb. 12:14). And when this has been determined by God, and established as His standing law, and He has told it so often and plainly, for any man then to say, “I will yet hope for better, I hope to be saved on easier terms, without all this ado,” is no better for that man than to set his face against the God of heaven. Instead of believing God, he believes the contradiction of his own ungodly heart; and hopes to be saved whether God wills it or not. He gives the lie to his Creator, under the pretense of trust and hope. This is indeed to hope for impossibilities. . . . Who is so foolish as to hope for this? Few of you are so unreasonable as to hope for a crop at harvest, without ploughing or sowing: or for a house without building; or for strength without eating and drinking. . . . And yet this would be a far wiser kind of hope, than to be saved without the one thing necessary for salvation.

– Richard Baxter

1615 – 1691

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Quotes (643)

William Guthrie

Conscience has often lent its sanction to the grossest errors, and prompted the greatest crimes. Did not Saul of Tarsus, for instance, drag men and women to prison; compel them to blaspheme; and stain his hands in saintly blood, while conscience approved the deed—he believed that he was doing God service. . . . Read the Book of Martyrs, read the sufferings of our own forefathers; and under the cowl of a shaven monk, or the trappings of a haughty churchman, you shall see conscience persecuting the saints of God, and dragging even tender women and children to the bloody scaffold or the burning stake. . . . So far as doctrines and duties are concerned, not conscience, but the revealed Word of God is our one only sure and safe directory.

– William Guthrie

1620 – 1665

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Quotes (642)

PuritansConsider your Lord and Master, you that call yourselves [Christ’s] disciples. Many look upon you that will not look unto [His] Word, and will judge [Jesus] by your practices. Do not damage [Him], by misrepresenting [Him]; as if [He] allowed those evils which you allow yourselves. Why should [He] be “wounded in the house of My friends” (Zech. 13:6). Why should you crucify [Him] afresh, and put [Him] to an open shame?

– Nathanael Vincent

Birth Un/Kn – 1697

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Quotes (635)

David ClarksonYou shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. Leviticus 19:17

There is a special obligation upon friends to be helpful to one another in this matter. The laws of friendship require us to discover what things endanger us. . . .  Silence or concealment in this case is treachery. He is the most faithful friend, and worthy of most esteem and affection, that deal most plainly with us in reference to exposing our sin. He that is reserved in this case is but a false friend, a mere pretender to love, whereas, indeed, he hates his brother in his heart.

– David Clarkson

1622 – 1686

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Quotes (633)

Robert TraillThe most spiritual attainment of a Christian in the world, the most spiritual, evangelical mourning and repentance that can be done by a Christian, is a mourning over his unbelief; that the Word of the Lord is not more precious to him; that he cannot trust God’s Word naked without props; that he doubts it so often, when darkness comes on; and that he lets go of this great rock, the faithfulness of God.

– Robert Traill

1642 – 1716

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Quotes (630)

thomas-watson Learn to apply Scripture. Take every word as spoken to yourselves. When the Word thunders against sin, think thus: “God means my sins.” When it emphasizes any duty, “God intends me in this.” Many put off Scripture for themselves, as if it only concerned those who lived in the time when it was written; but if you intend to profit by the Word, bring it home to yourselves: a medicine will do no good, unless it is applied.

– Thomas Watson

1620 – 1686

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Quotes (625)

Puritans All the while you delay, God is more provoked, the wicked one [Satan] more encouraged, your heart more hardened, your debts more increased, your soul more endangered, and all the difficulties of conversion daily more and more multiplied upon you, having a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in.

– George Swinnock

1627 – 1673

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Quotes (622)

As a Christian, you may be called before you are aware, into the field either to suffer for God or from God. . . . God can soon change the scene in which you live, the public affairs and the conditions. Maybe, at present the authorities smile on the church of God; but within a while it may frown, and the storm of persecution arise. There was a time when the churches had “rest throughout all Judea” (Acts 9:31). It was a blessed time. But how long did it last? Alas! Not long.

– William Gurnall

1617 – 1679