The Root

"We can see the branches of a tree without labour; but to behold the root requires labour and digging; so teh fruit of sin is manifest, the root lieth hid."

Paul Bayne (d. 1617)

Need for God's Work

"What threshing will make me fly out of my husk? Even as Lot was forcibly drawn out of Sodom: so for his mercies must my God pluck me out of my natural corruption."

Paul Bayne (d. 1617)

A Tender Conscience

"A strait shoe maketh us feel a little stone; so a strait conscience a small sin. They that will not mend a gutter must amend a whole house."

Paul Bayne (d. 1617)

The 17th Century, or Today?

"They that never felt the real influences of religion upon their own souls, will not believe that others do feel them. Serious piety is become the ludicrous subject with which the wanton wits of this atheistical world sport themselves." (p. 583, volume 5, Works of John Flavel)

Ames on a Person's Ability to Save and Restore Himself

"If a person cannot save himself, and he has not preserved himself in the integrity in which he was created, it must not be thought that he will be able to restore himself anew." (p. 29, A Sketch of the Christian's Catechism, William Ames)

Ames on the Natural Man

The entire person (totus homo), ravaged by a type of spiritual frenzy (intemperie), as if in an inebriated and lethargic stupor of death, can sense nothing rightly and spiritually. (p. 13, Sketch of the Christian's Catechism)

To those who find the Prophetic Witness to lack Savor...

As far as Sacred Scripture is concerned, however much froward men try to gnaw at it, nevertheless it clearly is crammed with thoughts that could not be humanly conceived. Let each of the prophets be looked into: none will be found who does not far exceed human measure. Consequently, those for whom prophetic doctrine is tasteless ought to be thought of as lacking taste buds. (p. 83, Institutes of the Christian Religion)

The Gift of the Word

The Holy Scriptures are the undoubted Word of God...that one foundation on which our faith is built...the doctrine which God delivered to his church under the unerring guidance of the Spirit... from the very mind and heart of God.

An enlightened conscience and sanctified heart will be commanded by the overpowering evidence that shines forth in the Scriptures, to fall down and cry: It is the voice of God.

---William Gurnall (HT: A Puritan at Heart)

The Gist of True Piety

The gist of true piety does not consist in a fear which would gladly flee the judgment of God, but ... rather in a pure and true zeal which loves God altogether as Father, and reveres him truly as lord, embraces his justice and dreads to offend him more than to die.

- John Calvin, p. 40, footnote 1, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Some Pepper for your Salad?

If in acknowledgment of the favor of his Redemption, he will but pay a pepper corn, he shall be restored to his former possession, and much more. (Richard Baxter)

If we magnifie one grain of our own pepper to that height that we make it a part of that righteousness by which to stand at Gods tribunall this one grain will sink us down to hell, so hot a poyson is Mr. Brs pepper-corn. (John Crandon)

- Hans Boersma, iii, A Hot Pepper Corn, Regent College Publishing.