God, as I may say, is forced to break men’s hearts, before he can make them willing to cry to him, or be willing that he should have any concerns with them; the rest shut their eyes, stop their ears, withdraw their hearts, or say unto God, Be gone.
To go back is nothing but death; but to go forward is fear of death and life everlasting beyond.
Hanging is too good for him said Mr. Cruelty.
Our heart oft times wakes when we sleep, and God can speak to that, either by words, by proverbs, by signs and similitudes, as well as if one was awake.
Care, mad to see a man sae happy, E’en drouned himsel amang the nappy.
But pleasures are like poppies spread: You seize the flower.
Breathes there a man, whose judgment clear Can others teach their course to steer, Yet run himself life’s mad career Wild as the wave?
To-despise the world is the way to enjoy heaven; and blessed are they who delight to converse with God by prayer.
What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
We know not the matter of the things for which we should pray, neither the object to whom we pray, nor the medium by or through whom we pray; none of these things know we, but by the help and assistance of the Spirit.
The heart must be beaten or bruised, and then the sweet scent will come out.
Farewell, I wish our souls may meet with comfort at the journey’s end.- The Heavenly Footman: A Puritan’s View of How to Get to Heaven.
Fear, lest, by forgetting what you are by nature, you also forget the need that you have of continual pardon, support, and supplies from the Spirit of grace, and so grow proud of your own abilities, or of what you have received from God.
Some said, “John, print it”; others said “Not so.” Some said, “It might do good”; others said, “No.”
Now, Mr. Great-heart was a strong man, so he was not afraid of a lion.
Yet my great-grandfather was but a water-man, looking one way and rowing another: and I got most of my estate by the same occupation.
Now may this little Book a blessing be To those that love this little Book, and me: And may its Buyer have no cause to say, His money is but lost, or thrown away.
If that a pearl may in a toad’s head dwell, And may be found too in an oyster shell.
Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved?
The name of the Slough was Despond.