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.

Robert Rollock on Grace in our Calling

The grace of God is the undeserved favour of God, or it is that whereby God favoureth his creature without any desert of his. The Apostle doth intimate this much, Ephes. i.9, in that he putteth no difference between these words, grace and a good pleasure; for whereas he saith in that verse, that God hath elected us according to his free grace, it seems to be spoken in the same sense and meaning with that with which he said before in that same chapter, ver. 7, In him we have redemption according to the riches of his grace."

—Robert Rollock, A Treatise of God's Effectual Calling. (1603).

The Vine and the Branches

A branch may be cut off and separated from the vine - but no branch shall ever be separated from Christ, this heavenly Vine. Some tell us that a justified person may fall away finally. Is not Christ a perfect Vine? He is not perfect if a living branch may be plucked off from Him. Has not Christ said of His elect, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand!" John 10:28. If any branch is plucked away from Christ, it is either because Christ is not able to keep it—or because He is willing to lose it. He is surely able to keep it, for He is strengthened with the Godhead; and He is not willing to lose it, for why, then, would He have shed His blood for it? So that no branch shall ever be separated from the celestial Vine. You may sooner pluck a star out of the sky—than a true believer from Christ. Indeed, hypocrites who look like branches, fall off—but they were never really in the Vine. They were in Christ by profession, not by union. They were tied on to the vine but not engrafted. An elect branch can no more perish than the root!

-Thomas Watson, p. 405, A Plea for the Godly, Soli Deo Gloria

Oh, Christians, look to your steps! When you have prayed against sin, then watch against temptation. Such as are more excellent than others, God expects some singular thing from them. They should bring more glory to God and, by their exemplary piety, make proselytes to religion. Better fruit is expected from a vineyard than from a wild forest.

- Thomas Watson, p. 49, A Plea for the Godly, Soli Deo Gloria

The All Sufficient Christ

Christ is a most absolute and perfect Saviour. He is in every way a Sufficient Saviour, able to save perfectly even to the very uttermost. He saves soul and body. He saves from all manner of misery… Sin is the greatest and most grievous evil, indeed, the cause of all misery. Those who are saved from it are saved from all evil. (pp. 23-24, William Gouge, Of Domestical Duties)

Bread or the Word?

It is better to be without bread in your houses than without Bibles, for the words of God's mouth are and should be to you more than your necessary food. (pp. 34, Family Religion, Matthew Henry)

The Word of God our Necessary Instrument for Heartwork

Would you thus keep your hearts as hath been persuaded? Then furnish your hearts richly with the word of God, which is their best preservation against sin.

Keep the word, and the word will keep you: as the first receiving of the word regenerated your hearts, so the keeping of the word within you will preserve your hearts: Col. iii.16 - "Let the word of God dwell richly in you:" Let it dwell, not tarry with you, in its commands, promises, threats; in all that is in you, in your understandings, memories, consciences, affections, and then it will preserve your hearts; Psalm cxix.11 - "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." It is the slipperiness of our hearts in reference to the word, that causes so many slips in our lives. Conscience cannot be urged or awed with forgotten truths; but keep it in the heart, and it will keep both heart and life upright; Psalm xxxvii.31 - "The law of his God is in his heart: none of his steps shall slide;" or if he do, the word will recover the straying heart again; Matt. xxvi.57 - "Then Peter remembered the word of Jesus, and wept bitterly." We never lose our hearts, till they have first lost the efficacious and powerful impression of the word. (Volume 5, page 504-5, Complete Works of John Flavel, Banner of Truth)

Soul-searching a Great Fountain of Prayer

Acquaintance with your own hearts would be a fountain of matter to you in prayer.

A man that is diligent in heart-work and knows the state of his own soul, will have a fountain-fulness of matter to supply him richly in all his addresses to God; his tongue shall not falter and make pause for want of matter; Psal. xlv.1 "My heart is inditing a good matter:" or, as Montanus renders the original, my heart is boiling up good matter, like a living spring, that is still bubbling up fresh water; and then my tongue is as the pen of a ready writer. Others must pump their memories, rack their inventions, and are often at a loss, when they have done all; but if thou have kept, and faithfully studied, thine own heart, it will be with the (as Job speaks in another case) like bottles full of new wine that want vent, which are ready to burst. As holy matter flows plentifully, so more feelingly and sweetly from such a heart. When a heart-experienced Christian is mourning before God over some special heart-corruption, wrestling with God for the supply of some special inward want, he speaks not as other men do that have learned to pray by rote; their confessions and petitions are squeezed out; his drop freely, like pure honey from the comb. It is a happiness to be with or near such a Christian. (Volume 5, page 500, Complete Works of John Flavel, Banner of Truth)

Heart Work, and Sweet Comfort

You say your hearts are dead, and do you wonder they are so, as long as you keep them not with the fountain of life? If your bodies had been dieted as your souls have been, they would have been dead too; never expect better hearts till you take more pains with them; Qui fugit molam, fugit farinam; He that will not have the sweat, must not expect the sweet of religion.

John Flavel, Volume 5, page 495, Complete Works of John Flavel, Banner of Truth

When Will I be Fit for Heaven?

Thy justification is complete already, though thy sanctification be not so; and the way to make it so, is to die; for til then it will have its defects and wants.

John Flavel, Volume 5, page 494, Complete Works of John Flavel, Banner of Truth

Puritan Wisdom: A new blog for puritan quotations

This blog is a companion to my primary blog, In Principio ... Deus, in which I simply quote briefly from Puritan and Reformed authors - much of the time I'll be quoting here pieces that I expand upon and reflect upon there. There is much God-given wisdom in the treasured writings of the Puritan era that rarely sees the light of day. I hope what I quote of them here blesses you as it does me.