Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 37

God (continued)

Mercy pleaseth Him. It is no trouble for Him to exercise mercy. It is His delight: we are never weary of receiving, therefore He cannot be of giving; for it is a more blessed thing to give than to receive; so God takes more content in the one than we in the other. (Robert Harris)

My brethren, God's mercies are from everlasting; and it is a treasure that can never be spent, never exhausted, unto eternity. In Isaiah 64:5 we read, "In thy mercy is continuance." If God will but continue to be merciful to me, will a poor soul say, I have enough. Hath God pardoned thee hitherto? but hast thou sinned again? Can He stretch His goodness and mercy a little further? Why, He will stretch them out unto eternity, unto everlasting; and if one everlasting be not enough, there are twenty-six everlastings in this one psalm (Psalm 136) (Thomas Goodwin)

It is a far happier thing to be pitied of God, than to be envied of men. (Sir Richard Baker)

As water is deepest where it is the stillest, so where God is most silent in threatening and patient in sparing, there He is most inflamed with anger and purpose of revenge; and, therefore, the fewer the judgments be that are poured forth upon the wicked in this life, the more are reserved in store for them in the life to come. (Daniel Cawdray)

God's anger, like the house that Samson pulled upon his own had, falls not upon us but when we pull it upon ourselves by sin. (Sir Richard Baker)

God has in Himself all power to defend you, all wisdom to direct you, all mercy to pardon you, all grace to enrich you, all righteousness to clothe you, all goodness to supply you, and all happiness to crown you. (Thomas Brooks)

Good Works

All our works before repentance are dead works (Hebrews 6:1). And these works have no true beauty in them, with whatsoever gloss they may appear to a natural eye. A dead body may have something of the features and beauty of a living, but it is but the beauty of a carcase, not of a man. Since man, therefore, is spiritually dead, he cannot preform a living service. As a natural death does incapacitate for natural actions, so a spiritual death must incapacitate for spiritual actions. (Stephen Charnock)

Naked faith is no faith. (Thomas Manton)

The want of good works makes faith sick, evil works kill her outright. (Thomas Adams)

Faith is full of good works. It believes as if it did not work, and it works as if it did not believe. (Thomas Watson)

The course of thy life will speak more for thee than the discourse of thy lips. (George Swinnock)

Faith justifies the person, and works justify his faith. (Elisha Coles)

As the apple is not the cause of the apple tree, but a fruit of it: even so good works are not the cause of our salvation, but a sign and a fruit of the same. (Daniel Cawdray)

We are not justified by doing good works, but being justified we then do good. (William Jenkyn)

The saints of God are sealed inwardly with faith, but outwardly with good works. (John Boys)

God loves adverbs better than nouns; not praying only but praying well; not doing good but doing it well. (Thomas Brooks)

When Christ shall say, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these, ye did it not to Me", it will be a poor excuse to say, Lord I was forbidden by the law. (Richard Baxter)

Seek that your last days may be your best days, and so you may die in a good old age, which may be best done when you die good in old age. (Ralph Venning)