"The ordinary security which most men trust to, will not serve when they come in the other life to lay their claims, and shew their deeds for the inheritance of the saints in light. Many flaws will then be found in their evidences, which now, through their willful blindness, they neither see nor fear... The heart not ballasted with renewing grace, may hold out in the calm of life, and shallows of time; but when it meets with the storm of death, and launcheth into the ocean of eternity, it suffereth a desperate and everlasting shipwreck. The want of this is the leak which stinketh many a precious vessel (soul I mean) in the gulf of perdition." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"There are many Christians, as Salvian complained in his time, without Christ; but they which know experimentally what the sanctification of the Holy Ghost meaneth, are few indeed." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"That the lying vanities of this world should by most be so greedily pursued, and the real mercies relating to a better world so wretchedly despised; that a brutish flesh, which must shortly be food for worms, should be so highly prized and constantly gratified, and an angelical spirit, the soul, which must live for ever, be so basely slighted and unworthily neglected; that every soul-damning lust should be so heartily embraced, and the soul-saving Lord but coldly and complimentally entertained; that the road to hell should be so exceedingly filled, and the way to heaven almost wholly unoccupied; surely this ought to be for a bitter lamentation; and oh, what sea of blood is enough to bemoan this horrid wickedness!" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"What is the reason that so many make a mock of sin, and dance merrily over the infernal pit, and play with the unquenchable fire, but ignorance? The child doth not know that the fire will burn him. As the horse, they rush into the battle fighting against God and their souls not knowing it will be to their destruction, to their damnation." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Sin goeth in a disguise, and thence is welcome; like Judas, it kisseth and kills; like Joab, it salutes and slays. The foolish sinner seeth the pleasant streams of Jordan, but not the Dead Sea, into which they will certainly empty themselves to his ruin." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"What is the reason that the devil carrieth so many captive at his will, leadeth them whither he pleaseth, but ignorance? They are ignorant of his wiles, of his devices; they know not, as drunken Lot of his daughters, when he cometh, nor when he goeth." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The reason why the heathen did not call on God, was because they did not know him." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The most ugly and monstrous wickedness which ever was hatched or brought forth, calleth ignorance mother." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Heretics, like nurses, may put meat or poison into their mouths who are babes in understanding; they that are children in knowledge will be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. The blind man eats many a fly, and the ignorant man swallows many an error. Men will easily be brought to deny the truths which they understand not, and to speak evil of the things which they know not." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"They that know not their master's will cannot obey it." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"What is the reason that men take up short of Christ, and renewing grace; that they please themselves with the shadow instead of the substance of religion; that they cry peace, peace to their souls, only upon some outward privileges, or a few inward good meanings, as they call them, when they are in a most damnable condition, and sudden destruction is ready to seize on them, as travail on a woman with child, which they cannot escape. Surely it is ignorance of the nature of Christianity and sanctification; they know not what regeneration is, and what faith and repentance are, which are the conditions upon which salvation may be had. Therefore they rest in forms, which will fade, when their hearts and lives deny the power of godliness." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Alas, alas! we find by woeful experience that there are many, very many, Indians and heathen, for ignorance, in England; men and women that know as little of God and holiness, of Christ, his natures, offices, of true faith and repentance, as if they had been born and bred up all their time in Turkey or India. I am ashamed to write what I know of the sottish, stupid, hellish ignorance of many, and some that are aged too, that are going to die, and yet never knew what it was to live, either to God or their souls." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Many cozen their souls with counterfeit coin (false evidences for heaven) instead of true, which will not abide the touchstone of Scripture; and so, like Uriah, they carry those letters about them, though they know it not, which will at last cost them their lives, and cause their eternal deaths." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Though sin be delightful in the act, to carnal wretches, yet it will be bitterness in the end. It will be a bitter sweet to all its lovers, when for their momentary pleasure they shall be recompensed with eternity of intolerable, unconceivable pain; that it is not for nothing that ministers call so loudly and earnestly to thee to kill those lusts which would kill thee, and to follow after holiness, without which no man shall ever see the Lord." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Do thou labour for the knowledge of God and his Son, thyself, and the duty which thou owest to thy Maker and Redeemer. Hast thou not read the doleful consequence of ignorance? and doth it not nearly concern thee to get out of that damnable condition?" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The foundation of obedience must be laid in knowledge; till then thou offerest up to the Lord the lame and blind, which he will not accept." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Do not delude and destroy thy soul by presuming that thy ignorance will not damn thee; for if thou art without knowledge, he that made thee will not save thee, and he that formed thee will shew thee no mercy... dost thou not read in broad characters, in the word of God, that thou must be an eternal monument of divine fury in hell, if thou dost not learn to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent?" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"David had more understanding than the ancients, because God's word was his meditation... If thou wouldst see, go where the sun shineth." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Take heed of sinning against those commands which thou knowest. Hold not the truth in unrighteousness. Do not wanton away the light, lest God give thee up to judiciary darkness." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"To practise what you know is the way to know what to practise. Knowledge is the mother of obedience, it breeds it; and obedience is the nurse of knowledge, it feedeth and nurtureth it. If thou improvest thy little stock well, doubt not but God will add to it and increase it; leave no means untried for the obtaining this purchase." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Take heed thou dost not die without knowledge; for if thou dost, all the world cannot keep thee one quarter of an hour out of hell, and then thou wilt have time enough to befool thyself for refusing a good offer, and wilfully rejecting, through thy pride, those things which concerned thine eternal peace." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Lawyers have their clients, and physicians their patients; these are sought after, and called up at midnight for counsel; but, alas! the soul, which is more worth than raiment and body too, that is neglected, and the minister seldom thought on till both these be sent away. Perhaps, when the physician gives them over for dead, then we must come and close up their eyes with comfort, which were never opened to see Christ in his truth, or else be counted cruel because we will not sprinkle them with this holy water, and anoint them for the kingdom of heaven, though they know not a step of the way that leads to it. Ah, poor wretches, what comfort would you have us speak to those to whom God himself speaks terror! Is heaven ours to give to whom we please? or is it in our power to alter the laws of the Most High, and save those whom he condemns?" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"A clear head must be accompanied with a clean heart; saving knowledge is ever a sanctifying knowledge. Content not thyself with anything short of regeneration and the power of godliness... Oh how sad will it be for thee that art now asleep in sin, to awake, like the jailer, at the midnight of death, and to find this inward change, this new creation, this life in Christ missing! what a heartquake will possess thee! how pale and trembling wilt thou spring into the presence of Christ in the other world for thy particular judgment! Consider, thy profession will not serve turn; the storm of death will wash out all colours of profession that are not laid in the oil of renewing grace." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
None go to such chambers of utter darkness as they that are lightened thither with the torches of ordinances. Heathen will keep holiday in hell in comparison of those that are now lifted up to heaven and perish. If the sweetest wine make such sharp vinegar, and the cold lead when melted be so hot and scalding, how pure and weighty will that wrath be which shall be extracted out of abused love and mercy! Grace is the sweetest friend, but the bitterest enemy. If thou waste the riches of grace, God will recover out of thee riches of glory." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Sin, and hell, and holiness, and sanctification are other manner of things than the sleepy world dreameth of." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"God hath committed a great trust to thee, even the charge of the souls of all in thy family; and doth not thine heart tremble to think of soul-blood, of soul-murder! I assure thee thou mayest be as truly and really guilty of their deaths and damnations by starving them, as by poisoning them. I mean by not instructing, catechizing, and principling them in the things of God; by not praying with them, and overseeing that they mind the worship of God, as in making them drunk, and teaching them to steal and swear." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Is it any wonder to hear, saith one, of that ship sunk, or dashed upon a rock, that was put to sea without card or compass? nor is it a wonder to hear children sinking in perdition, who are thrust into the world, which is a sea of temptations, without any knowledge of God and their duty. One would think, every time thou readest and hearest of the extremity and eternity of hell s torments, of the multitudes that must undergo them, of the few even of those within the visible church that shall be saved, and of the difficulty of obtaining salvation, that thy loins should tremble, and thy joints smite together; that thy head, yea, heart, should ache, for fear any of thy dear children should be among those many that must drink that cup of the Lord s pure wrath; and that thou shouldst be restless night and day in wrest ling with God, and instructing them in using all means to prevent their endless ruin; surely, if thou hadst a spark of true love to thy children, thus it would be with thee." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"If he that provideth not for the bodies of his family, be worse than an infidel, surely he that provideth not for their souls is kin to a devil." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Be sure that thou perform family duties, as praying, reading, and the like, morning and evening. Do not serve the flesh and the world all day, and then put off God with a few sleepy petitions at night... Let thy prayers, and of the rest in the family, come up before the Lord in the morning like incense, and the lifting up of thine hands at night as an evening sacrifice." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"What greater or weightier business canst thou have, than the working out the salvation of thy own, and the souls committed to thy charge? Are not the most important affairs thou canst possibly deal about but toys and trifles to this?" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"This I shall be bold to tell thee, that religion, and the service of the most high God in thy family, dependeth much, yea, very much, upon thy observation of the Lord s-day. Thou mayest expect its increase or decrease according to the sanctification or profanation of it." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Sin cometh in at first by propagation, but is increased exceedingly by imitation. Thou that hast thy children and servants following thee, either to heaven or to hell, hast need choose a right path, even the narrow way that leadeth to life. Weigh thy words, considering that they will learn thy language. Avoid those sinful expressions of faith and truth let your yea be yea, and your nay nay, for whatsoever is more is evil of repeating others oaths, of speaking irreverently of the great God and his word, of wishing evil to any man." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Look well to thy works, that they may be agreeable to the word of God." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Be confident that shortly Christ will say to thee, as Eliab to David, With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilder ness? What is become of the children and servants which I entrusted thee with? Will it be enough, thinkest thou, for thee then to answer, Lord, for my children, I brought them up without any charge to the parish; or, Lord, I bred them gentlemen; or, I put them out to trades; or, I left them competent estates; and for my servants, I paid them their wages, gave them their meat and drink, according to my agreement with them? When Christ shall reply, Man, what is become of their souls, which I created capable of the immediate fruition of myself, which I redeemed with my precious blood? What shame will then cover thy face, and what horror fill thy heart, when the blood of their souls shall be required of thee!" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Make religion, and the worshipping and glorifying the great God, the great business of thy whole life. Improve all thy time, power, estate, interest, and talents whatsoever to the utmost, for the honour of God and thine own everlasting good. Look on thyself as created, preserved, supplied with nightly, daily, hourly mercies not for the service of the flesh, no, that end were mean and low, but that thou mightest be enabled unto and encouraged in the service of the glorious God." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"It is godliness alone that will hold out when thou comest to the greatest hardships at the day of affliction and the hour of thy dissolution. The good man and his godliness are like Saul and Jonathan, lovely in their lives, and in their deaths they are not divided; therefore exercise thyself unto godliness." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"It may be thou art one to whom God has given much in the world; 1 In the epistle before I must tell thee that much will be required of thee. The greater thy receipts are, the greater thy returns must be, and the larger thy disbursements for God." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The way to get that which thou canst not part with, is by charity to part with that which thou canst not keep." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"I am sure God keeps an exact account how thou employest thy revenues; and think of it again and again, what thou wilt do in such an hour, when thou shalt stand naked at the judgment-seat of Christ, and all thy receipts and disbursements shall be declared and mentioned before the Lord, angels, and men." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Sure I am thy wealth hath wings, and will within a few days take an eternal flight from thee. The way to make the best of it is not to lay it up, but to lay it out as may be most for the glory of God." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"If heaven might be had upon men's cursed terms of liberty for their lusts, Christ would have customers enough; but he that bought the purchase is fittest to set the price." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"If thou wouldst avoid the inconceivable endless misery of the damned; if thou wouldst attain the eternal matchless felicity of the saved; if thou wouldst have all thy former rebellions blotted out through the blood of the Son; if thou wouldst have thy person reconciled to the Father; if thou wouldst have God in Christ to stand by thee when none of thy friends or comforts shall own thee; if thou wouldst appear at the dreadful bar of Christ with comfort, when thousands and millions shall weep and wail; if thou wouldst not have me nor this book to be a witness against thee before the Lord, angels, and men, then turn from sin speedily, cleave to thy Saviour unfeignedly, give up thyself to all the commands of Christ unreservedly." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"And indeed herein the excellency of the Christian religion appeareth above all religions in the world. None enjoin eth such pious precepts, none subjoineth such precious promises, none sets the soul about so noble a work, none satisfieth it with such an ample reward." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Christ is my life here by grace, and hereafter by glory." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"He that liveth in Christ on earth, shall live with Christ in heaven." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Where the soul hath the seed of holiness, it shall reap a harvest of happiness." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"He that can say, I am Christ's, may as truly say, Death is mine. If thou canst say, I am Christ's servant, I am Christ's subject, thou mayest say, Death will be my preferment, death will be my advancement." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"As the body liveth by its union with the soul, so the Christian liveth by his union with Jesus Christ. Christ is the fountain and spring of life, the soul of his soul, and the life of his life." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"This is certain, every man and woman is born dead; dead to God, dead in sins and trespasses, till this Lion of the tribe of Judah uttereth his voice, then they arise from the dead, and Christ giveth them life. When the soul, like the body of Lazarus, hath been dead so long that it stinketh and is unsavoury, when it hath been many days, nay, many years, rotting in the grave of corruption, then if Jesus Christ calleth effectually, Lazarus, come forth, sinner, come forth of thy carnal, unregenerate estate; then, and not till then, the soul heareth the voice of the Son of God and liveth." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The web of godliness was never spun out of man's own bowels. As none can see the sun but by its own light, so none can with an eye of faith see the Sun of righteousness, but by the light of grace derived from him." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"True Christianity consisteth in nothing but our conformity to, and imitation of, Jesus Christ. And, indeed, as the child in generation receiveth from the parent member for member, part for part; and the paper from the press, word for word, letter for letter; and the wax from the seal, figure for figure; so in regeneration Christ is formed in the soul, and it receiveth, according to its proportion, grace for grace." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"All the actions of Christ are instructions to a Christian. His actions were either moral or mediatory; in both the Christian imitates him. In the former, doing as he did, exercising the same graces, performing the same duties, resisting the same temptations, forbearing the same corruptions; in the latter, by similitude, dying to sin, as he died for sin, rising to a spiritual life, as he rose again to a natural life. None indeed can parallel the life of Christ, but every new creature imitateth Christ in his life." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The same mind is in all the saints, so far as they are re generated, that was in Christ; the same will, the same affections; they love what he loveth; they loathe what he loatheth; what pleaseth him, pleaseth them; what grieveth his spirit, grieveth their spirits. As the wicked are like their father the devil, unholy as he is unholy; so the children of Christ are like their everlasting Father, holy as he is holy; only with this difference, in Christ there is a fullness, in them a measure in Christ pureness, in them a mixture." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"As all the candles in a country cannot make a day no, it must be the rising of the sun that must do it; so all the health, wealth, honours, pleasures, relations, possessions, nay, the greatest confluence of comforts that the whole creation affordeth, cannot make a day of light and gladness in the heart of a believer; no, it must be the rising of this Sun of righteousness. The light of his countenance causeth more joy than all the corn, and wine, and oil of this world can." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Their money perish with them that think all the wealth in the world worth one hour s communion with Jesus Christ." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"All the gain I aim at, both in life and death, is Christ, namely, to glorify him by my service." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"He that acteth from self, acteth for self. That obedience which ariseth from the creature, will be terminated in the creature." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"A sincere saint doth not, like the hypocrite, look asquint at self-applause, self-profit, and such beggarly ends, but his eyes look straight on at the glory of Jesus Christ. If Christ be glorified, though he be disgraced, he is satisfied. When Christ hath honoured the soul by giving it grace, the soul honoureth Christ by giving him glory. Grace is the most curious work, and therefore no wonder if it be for the credit of the workman." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"As some write of the heavenly orbs, that they have a proper motion of their own, different from the motion of the primum mobile, yet in obedience to this first mover, they follow its motion; thus it is with the unregenerate part of a man; it hath proper ends of its own, pride, and flesh-pleasing, and the like, contrary to the ends of the spirit; but in obedience to the regenerate part, the Christian leaveth the former ends, and follows the ends of the latter." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The honour of Christ is exceeding dear to a true Christian. It is dearer than his name. Lord, saith a father, use me for thy shield, to keep off those wounds of dishonour which would fall on thy Majesty. Let the reproaches wherewith they would reproach thee fall upon me." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"As the loss of the damned will be beyond the most melancholy man s fear, so the gain of the saved will be above the strongest Christian's faith. The eye of a man may see much good, the ear of a man may hear more, the heart of a man may conceive most of all; but yet neither hath eye seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive, what God hath prepared for them that love him." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"It is as easy, saith one, to compass the heavens with a span, to contain the ocean in a nutshell, as to relate heaven s happiness." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"When the saint is passed through the red sea of death, and landed at the true Canaan, he shall then see all his bodily and spiritual enemies dead on the shore. In the middle region there are storms and tempests, and so here below; but above, all is calm and quiet. While the Christian is upon earth, evils, like Job s messengers, follow him, one upon the heels of another; but when he leaveth the earth, every evil will take its eternal leave of him." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"In hell there is nothing but wickedness, in heaven there is nothing but holiness. The unregenerate man is never so wicked as after death: now sin is in its minority, then it will be in its maturity; now it is but the sinner s evening, but then it will be a perfect night of black ness, of darkness. The godly man is never so holy as after death: grace is now in its infancy, then it will attain to its full age; now it is as the morning light, then it will attain to its noonday bright ness. Sin is now by a spiritual life mortified, that it doth not reign; but then by death it shall be nullified, that it shall not so much as remain in a believer." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"As the pearl, by the often beating of the sunbeams upon it, becomes radiant; so the Christian, being ever beheld by the Lord, and always beholding the face of his Father in heaven, shall be more like him than ever child was to father on earth." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The heart of a Christian is like Rebekah's womb -- it hath twins struggling in it; the appearance of the church is, as it were, the company of two armies, the old man and the new man, flesh and spirit, the law in the members warring against the law of the mind. As there was war betwixt Asa and Baasha all their days, so there is betwixt the regenerate and unregenerate part all the time of this life; but this gracious conflict shall then end in a glorious conquest, when the death of the body shall quite destroy this body of death." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Heaven will not only wipe away all tears from the Christian's eyes, but also all blots off from his name. Upright Hezekiah in heaven is above the sound of cursed Rabshakeh's tongue, which was set on fire of hell. Now holy David is got up that heavenly hill, that mount Zion, he heareth not the railings and revilings of sinful Shimei. The most spiteful scorner of them all cannot throw that dirt so high with which he bespatters the saints reputation here below." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"As the blind man told the lame, when they met at the stake, Brother, you may cast away your staff, death will cure us both. The physician of souls will by death heal all the diseases of the saints bodies." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The Christian liveth upon earth as in a valley of tears, and often mingleth his drink with weeping. As he is a man, he is born to sorrows as the sparks fly upward: he cometh into the world crying, and goeth out groaning; and his whole life from the womb to the tomb is in some regard a living death, or a dying life. But as he is a Christian, he drinketh deepest of this cup of sorrows. The world is a tender mother to her children, but a stepmother to strangers. Sometimes the afflictions of the good cause high water in the saint's heart: by the rivers of Babylon he sits down and weepeth when he remembereth Zion... but death will be the funeral of his sorrows and resurrection of his joys: now he soweth in tears, but then he shall reap in joy. The day of death is a saint s marriage-day." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"God is not wealth, or honour, or comfort, or friends, or earth, or heaven, but something infinitely beyond all these. God is an immense ocean of all excellencies and perfections, without either banks or bottom. God is virtually, eminently everything, all things... He is health and strength, riches and relations, joy and pleasures, light and life, and much more, all the excellencies scattered and shadowed in the creature, are united and realized in the Creator, who is blessed for ever. One God is worth more than all his creatures can sum up in millions of ages." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"He who hath lost God, hath nothing more to lose -- he hath lost all; the loss of God is hell. But he that hath gained God, hath nothing more to gain -- he hath got all; the gain of God is heaven." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"In this life there is a communication of God, answerable to the capacities of men; and the fault is in us, not in God, that we receive no more of him on earth. The ground is not in the sun, but in the narrowness of our windows, that we partake no more of its light; the cause is in the smallness of our vessels, not in the well, that we carry away no more of its water. If our mouths were never so wide opened, God would fill them now." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"As none can endure it, so none can declare it; for who knoweth the power of God's wrath?" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Death is the great leveler, making princes and peasants equal." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Be assured, that as a false harlot leaves her lovers when they are arrested for debt, and followeth other customers, so this painted strumpet, the deceitful world, that now layeth open her fair breasts, to allure thee to go a-whoring after her, and commit spiritual fornication with her, when death shall arrest thee by a writ from heaven, will wholly forsake thee, and follow them that survive." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The saints are clouds which water the earth, the salt which keepeth the world from putrefaction... It is for the sake of the good that the bad are spared." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"While thy dying body is clothed and pampered, thy everlasting soul is naked and starved... Well, this soul thus despised, when lost, though then too late, will be esteemed. Hell will read the such a lecture of thy soul's worth, that it will make thee understand it, and believe it, whether thou wilt or no, and then thou shalt have time enough (in that eternity in which thy soul shall be lost) to befool thyself for thy desperate madness in gratifying thy brutish flesh, and thus basely neglecting thy soul, that heaven-born spirit." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Though no man can see the essential face of God and live, yet no saint can live unless he see the providential face of God." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Suffering may be the portion of saints, but separation from God the punishment of devils. As the face and comfortable presence of God is the greatest felicity of the saved, so the full withdrawings or absence of God will be the greatest misery of the damned." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Thou sinnest against an infinite God, and therefore thy punishment must be infinite; which, because it cannot be in regard of intension, thy back being not strong enough to bear an infinite stroke, therefore it must be in duration... The debt thou owest to the righteousness of God will be every paying and never paid." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Such will be the everlasting death of the damned: they will be ever, ever dying, and never dead; they shall seek death, but not find it, follow after it, but it will flee from them." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"It [hell] is called death indeed, because life is neither desired there, nor can it properly be said to be enjoyed: it is a living death, or a dying life; such a death as shall never taste of life, and such a life as shall never taste of death." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Oh, how few are there that shall be saved!" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"To serve God with a filial fear is commendable, but to serve him from a servile fear is unacceptable." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"A man dead spiritually, like dead fish, ever swimmeth down with the stream of the times; will follow a multitude to do evil, cannot endure to be singular." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"A sincere Christian dedicates his body, soul, name, estate, relations, interests, and his all to the glory of Christ, and wisheth he had something better to consecrate to him." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Oh how many a work, materially good, being fly-blown with self, proves formally bad, and so becomes stinking and unsavoury in the nostrils of God!" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"If the Spirit do not sanctify thee, the Son will never save thee... heaven is for the holy, and for them only." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Prayer without the travail of the soul is but the cold carcass of a duty, and no wonder if it be unsavoury in God's nostrils." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Believe it, heaven must be in thee before thou shalt be in heaven. Unless the Spirit of God adorn thy soul, as Abraham's servant did Rebecca, with the jewels of grace, thou art no fit spouse for the true Isaac, the Lord of glory." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Truly more hurtful are the world's trinity -- riches, honours, pleasures -- to them that have great estates in the world, but no estate in the covenant." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"A rich man is a rare dish at heaven's table. Blessed be God there are some, but surely few rich of those very few that shall be saved." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"As the moon, when she is at the full, is farthest from, and in most direct opposition to, the sun, so it is the temper of most in thy condition to be farthest from, and most opposite to, Christ, when they receive the most light of prosperity from him, and are fullest of the blessings of his goodness." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Canst thou imagine that he [God] should ever bestow pardon of sin, eternal life, the sanctification of the Spirit, the precious contents of his own promise, the invaluable fruits of Christ's purchase, upon those that do not judge them worthy of all their strength and time, and hearts and pains, and ten thousand times more?" Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Suppose thou couldst speak with thy carnal, unregenerate neighbours or friends that are now under endless remorse, frying in those unquenchable flames, and shouldst ask them what caused them to miscarry for ever, and how they came to that place of torment; and they should tell thee, O friend, I thought heaven might have been had without so much ado, that there had been no need of that seriousness and laboriousness which a feew precise ones practised, and which ministers so much pressed. I thought I might do well enough with a formal, lazy, outside serving of God, because my neighbours did no better. I presumed, that because God was merciful, and Christ meritorious, and I enjoyed the outward privileges of the gospel, and gave God some of the time I could spare from the world and the flesh in a little heartless devotion, that I should be saved; never looking at that inward renovation and outward reformation which, I see now to my sorrow, are required in all to whom the special mercy of God and merit of Christ shall be extended, and now e, and, alas! I, am tormented in these flames... And why wilt not thou do as much now, when I can assure thee from the mghty possessor of heaven and earth, that this is as true -- namely, that many souls are eternally sunk by reason of those quicksands -- as if thou hadst heard it from the mouth of hell; nay, it is possible a damned wretch may deceive thee, but it is impossible that the blessed God -- who speaketh as much with his own mouth -- should deceive thee." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"And this is first in the Spirit's operation on the soul. It convinceth the man of his sins. It presenteth to the understanding a catalogue of its many and bloody provocations... Thus the Spirit enlighteneth the sinner's mind to see his sins with their circumstances, and black aggravations; as also what is like to be the fruit and effect of sin, even nothing less than suffering everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord. It may be the Spirit may cause him, as it were, to see the smoke that ascendeth from the bottomless pit, to smell the scent of that infernal brimstone and fire, to hear the roarings and howling of the damned; nay, possibly, to feel a very hell in his own conscience. The Spirit indeed is a free agent, and worketh in what manner and measure he pleaseth. But this is certain, he convinceth all of their sins and miseries; conviction doth go before conversion." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Labour to get thy heart deeply and thoroughly affected with thy sins and misery... Man is so sinfully subtle, that he can bear the historical knowledge of these things in his understanding; he can hear the name of sin and hell, and be no more troubled than at a painted devil, or a tale of purgatory; but when God brings down sin from being a notiong to be an obligation, and entereth an action against the soul within itself, then it will begin to melt and mourn under the sense of its sins and sufferings. Thus, after the Spirit of God hath been a spirit of conviction, it becometh a spirit of bondage; that eye which was before enlightened to see the lewdness of his heart and life, cometh now to affect his heart with grief and sorrow." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The whole life indeed of a true Christian is, in some respects, a life of repentance. He is often grieving God's Spirit, and therefore he is often grieved in his own spirit. As long as the ship leaketh, the pump must go. Though the Christian doth not paddle or wallow in the mire of sin every day, as graceless ones do, yet he findeth that daily his hands contract dirt and his soul guilt, therefore he must daily wash with faith and repentance." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"God is resolved to break the sinner's heart on earth, or his back in hell." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"The damned feel sin; it lieth heavy on their souls; could thou lay thy ear to the mouth of that bottomless pit, thou mightst perceive by their yellings and howlings that sin is sin in hell, how lightly soever it is regarded by men upon earth." Heaven And Hell Epitomised |
"Believe it, as soon as death landeth you at the other world, you will have other thoughts of God and his truths than now ye have." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"As every man is born of the flesh, so every man must be born of the Spirit, or it had been happy for them if they had never been born." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Regeneration and salvation by Christ are the two substantial dishes which the faithful stewards of God set constantly before the families committed to their charges. Those that preach notions instead of such doctrines do cursedly cozen their guests with flowers instead of meat, which may fill the eye of the wanton, but not the heart of the hungry soul." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"He or she that is not experimentally acquainted with the second birth cannot possibly escape the second death... The old heart will unquestionably carry thee to hell, which is the place of the old serpent. He must have a new spirit that will go to the new Jerusalem... There must be a change from nature to grace, before there can be a change from grace to glory." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Regeneration is a work of God's Spirit, whereby he doth, out of his mere good pleasure, for his own glory and the salvation of his elect, at first renew the whole man after his own image by the ministry of the word... The babe of grace in this respect calleth none on earth father." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Man cannot generate himself naturally, much less regenerate himself spiritually; they which are born of the flesh contribute noting to their own beings, neither do they which are born of the Spirit bring anything to their own beings." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The Almighty God putteth forth the exceeding greatness of his power in forming the new creature. Nay, the same power which he did in raising Jesus Christ from the dead." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The stones will as soon weep as man's heart of stone, unless he that smote the rock force water out of it, by turning it into a heart of flesh." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"God's goodwill is the highest moving cause of this gracious work [of regeneration]; it was not any foresight of faith or good works, not anything without him that turned the scale of his thoughts for thy purity and peace, but only his own good pleasure and pity." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The ministry of the word is the pen in the hand of the Holy Ghost, with which he writeth the law of God in the heart." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The truth is, that man by his fall from God is so exceedingly degenerated and polluted, that repairing and mending will not serve, he must be wholly and thoroughly new made." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"As in our first birth, not one part or member is born, but every one; so in our second birth the whole man is new born. By our first birth the whole man is polluted, and therefore by our second birth the whole man must be purified. Original sin defileth the whole man, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet; and regeneration refineth the whole man, soul, body, and spirit." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"In the new creature, though every part be not throughout sanctified, yet he is sanctified in every part throughout; he hath a perfection of parts, though not of degrees." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"As the wax bears the image of the seal, and the glass of the face, so doth the new creature bear the image of his Creator." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Sanctification is a constant, progressive renewing of the whole man, whereby the new creature doth daily more and more die unto sin and live unto God. Regeneration is the birth, sanctification is the growth of this babe of grace." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The God of nature will not save a man per saltum, nor remove a swine out of a stye, immediately into a dining room; nor take a sinner reeking in his lusts, and presently invest him with a crown of life; no, the man must be prepared by regeneration or holiness in part, for salvation or holiness which is perfect." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Every man by his first birth is polluted, mere darkness, not receiving the things of God, mere hardness, as unable as a stone to move in the ways of God, wholly captivated under the dominion of sin and Satan, and hereby is unprepared for that holy place. The most godly father begetteth an ungodly child... but regeneration prepareth the soul, by purifying it, for heaven; it maketh the creature meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Heaven would not be heaven -- that is, a place of happiness -- to them which are not fitted for it by holiness." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Though man may be a possessor of heaven, yet Christ alone was the purchaser of it." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Probably when the flood came many hung about the ark, but the waves quickly washed them off; those only that were in the ark were saved; thus all that hang only about Christ, the true ark, by a general profession, will be drowned, will be damned when the deluge of wrath cometh; they only that are in him by a real implantation shall be saved... Therefore regeneration is required, because it by it the creature is planted into Christ." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Regeneration is, as it were, the minister which marrieth Christ and the soul together; therein the soul giveth itself unfeignedly to Christ, and Christ giveth himself really to the soul, and thereby the sins and weaknesses of the soul, the wife, become the husband's; and the riches and righteousness, the home and heaven of Christ, the husband's, become the wife's." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Many bid fair, to the eyes of men, by civility, morality, and common grace, but come not up to the price, to regeneration, and so miss of that place." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"They that get to heaven must go through the gate of election." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Those for whom Christ purchased glory, for them he purchased grace. The Son of God laid down the same price for both; so that if ever he deliver thee from the condemning power of sin, he will deliver thee from the commanding power of sin... He poured out his heart-blood that God might pour down his Holy Spirit." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Now, canst thou think, O atheist! to make Christ a half Saviour, as the Papists do, a purchaser of pardon, but not of purity? then questionless thou canst be but half-saved, and have the greatest part of thy misery still upon thee, to wit, thy slavery to sin. But surely thou canst not think, that when justification and sanctification are joined together in the purpose of the Father, and the purchase of the Son, it shall be in thy power to part them asunder." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"How often doth sin reign in the inward when it doth not rage in the outward man!" The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Believe it, there is a vast difference betwixt restraining and renewing grace; the former may skin over and cover the loathsome sore of sin, when the latter doth search and cure it." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Some defy the devil with their lips who deify him in their lives." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Thou mayest enjoy sermons, sacraments, Sabbaths, seasons of grace, the society of saints, and yet miss at last of salvation." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"All in the church may hear the word of Christ, but few hear Christ in his word." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"No trees are more surely for the fire than those which are planted in God's own vineyard and bear no fruit." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Ministers may, like Noah's carpenters, build an ark to save others, and be drowned, be damned themselves." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Many have gifts from God who never have the gift of God." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"It is possible to pray like a saint, to preach like an angel, and yet to practice like a devil." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The course of thy life will speak more for thee than the discourse of thy lips." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The world, as they are mistaken in repentance, taking it to be only a little sorrow for sin, though no aversion from it, or detestation of it, be joined with it; so they are also in the nature of faith, esteeming it to consist in the strength of persuasion, and that whoever can be confident that Christ died for him, and that he shall go to heaven, doth believe unto salvation; whereas the difference between a deceiving and a saving faith, doth not consist in the strength of persuasion, but in the ground of it." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"How ordinary is it for men whose consciences are past feeling, to brag that God and they are good friends, not knowing when they ever fell out, when at the same time he is at war with them, walks contrary to them, and is preparing for them the instruments of eternal death... Socrates, who lived according to his natural conscience, died with much calmness and confidence, speaking of those who put him to death, that they might kill him, but could not hurt him; yet was without the knowledge of Jesus Christ, in whose name alone is salvation." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The nature of conscience is good, but the conscience of nature is evil. It savours not the things of God; it is not purged with the blood of Christ; it is wholly blind in the matters of Christianity; nay, it is a rebel against God." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Alas! the new birth doth not consist in a sound head, though it be a mercy if thou holdest the pattern of wholesome words, but in a purified heart; not in siding with the truth, but in being sanctified by the truth." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Thou mayest sigh and mourn for thy sins, and yet be unacquainted with godly sorrow." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"If lamenting sins past be not joined with loathing, and leaving sin for the time to come, it is not repentance unto life." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The sting of sin to the unregenerate is punishment, and the sting of punishment to the regenerate is sin." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Believe it, it is not so easy to turn from sin to God as thou imaginest. Conversion is another manner of thing, and more hard than most men think; thou couldst sooner create a world than make thyself a new creature. The resurrection of the thy body, if it were dead in the grave, were an easier work than the resurrection of thy soul to newness of life." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"The first fountain of our felicity is election; and the manifestation of this is our calling. By vocation God bringeth to pass in time what he appointed from eternity. As a word is an outward thought, and a thought an inward word, so vocation is outward election, or election put into act and made visible; and election is inward vocation, or God's intention to convert and save. Election is eternal calling; calling is a temporal election; so that by ensuring thy calling, thou ensurest thy election." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |
"Perfect holiness is the reward of the saints in heaven, but it is the desire and endeavour of the saints on earth." The Door Of Salvation Opened By The Key Of Regeneration |