I tell you again, God hath not ordinarily decreed the end without the means; and if you will neglect the means of salvation, it is a certain mark that God hath not decreed you to salvation. But you shall find that He hath left you no excuse, because He hath not thus predestined you.
Keep company with the more cheerful sort of the Godly; there is no mirth like the mirth of believers.
While doubt cannot be expelled, it can be subdued.
To live among such excellent helps as our libraries afford, to have so many silent wise companions whenever we please.
The more perfect the sight is the more delightful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical the ear, the more pleasant the melody. The more perfect the soul, the more joyous the joys of heaven, and the more glorious that glory.
Be careful how you spend your time: Spend your time in nothing which you know must be repented of.
In our first paradise in Eden there was a way to go out but no way to go in again. But as for the heavenly paradise, there is a way to go in, but not way to go out.
God takes men’s hearty desires and will, instead of the deed, where they have not power to fulfill it; but he never took the bare deed instead of the will.
Prayer is the breath of the new creature.
When Christ comes with regenerating grace, he finds no man sitting still, but all posting to eternal ruin, and making haste toward hell; till, by conviction, he first brings them to a stand, and then, by conversion, turn first their hearts, and then their lives, sincerely to himself.
Keep up a humble sense of your own faults, and that will make you compassionate to others.
Keep up you conjugal love in constant heat and vigor.
If family religion were duly attended to and properly discharged, I think the preaching of the Word would not be the common instrument of conversion.
It is not the reading of many books which is necessary to make a man wise or good; but well reading of a few.
Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish while you call upon others to take heed of perishing, and lest you famish yourselves while you prepare their food.
A holy and heavenly life is a continual pain to the consciences of sinners around you and continually solicits them to change their course.
The churchyard is the market place where all things are rated at their true value, and those who are approaching it talk of the world and its vanities with a wisdom unknown before.
Despair of ever being saved, “except thou be born again,” or of seeing God “without holiness,” or of having part in Christ except thou “love him above father, mother, or thy own life.” This kind of despair is one of the first steps to heaven.
Surely love is both work and wages.
Prayer must carry on our work as much as preaching; he preacheth not heartily to his people that will not pray for them.