Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 39

Heaven (continued)

The more we grow in grace, the more we shall flourish in glory. Though every vessel of glory shall be full, yet some vessels hold more. (Thomas Watson)

Some have asked whether we shall know one another in heaven? Surely, our knowledge will not be diminished, but increased. The judgment of Luther and Anselm, and many other divines is, that we shall know one another; yea, the saints of all ages, whose faces we never saw; and, when we shall see the saints in glory without their infirmities of pride and passion, it will be a glorious sight. (Thomas Watson)

We are like little children strayed from home, and God is now fetching us home; and we are ready to turn into any house, stay and play with everything in our way, and sit down on every green bank, and much ado there is to get us home. (Richard Baxter)

There is a great deal of difference between the desires of heaven in a sanctified man an an unsanctified. The believer prizeth it above earth, and had rather be with God than here (though death that stands in the way, may possibly have harder thoughts from him). But to the ungodly, there is nothing seemeth more desirable than his world; and therefore he only chooseth heaven before hell, but not before earth; and therefore shall not have it upon such a choice. (Richard Baxter)

Hell

Heaven is aptly compared to a hill, hell to a hole. (John Trapp)

Hell is the center in which all the lines of sin and of misery meet; the common shoal into which they all disgorge themselves, as rivers do their streams into the vast ocean; and as rivers, when they are fallen into the sea, lose their several names in one that comprehends them all - the ocean; - so all the evils of this life, when resolved into this, forget their private names - sickness, pains, poverty, etc. - and are called HELL. (William Gurnall)

The Scripture tells us that in hell there are these three things: there is darkness, there is fire, and there are chains. (Thomas Watson)

Hell is an abiding place, but no resting place. (Thomas Watson)

Hell is full of purposes, heaven of performances. (John Rogers)

The damned shall live as long in hell as God Himself shall live in heaven. (Thomas Brooks)

Thus it is in hell: they would die, but they cannot. The wicked shall be always dying but never dead; the smoke of the furnace ascends for ever and ever. Oh! who can endure thus to be ever upon the rack? This word "ever" breaks the heart. Wicked men now thing the Sabbaths long, and think a prayer long; but oh! how long will it be to lie in hell for ever and ever! (Thomas Watson)

When a curious inquisitor asked Austin what God did before He created the world, Austin told him He was making hell for such busy questionists, for such curious inquirers into God's secrets. Such handsome jerks are the best answers to men of curious minds. It concerns us but little to know where hell is. Certainly they are the best and wisest of men, who spend most thoughts, and time, and pains how to keep out of it, than to exercise themselves with disputes about it. (Thomas Brooks)

Are there not millions of us who would rather go sleeping to hell, than sweating to heaven? (Thomas Watson)

Holiness

What health is to the heart, that holiness is to the soul. (John Flavel)

There is nothing destroyed by sanctification but that which would destroy us. (William Jenkyn)

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