Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 49

Joy (continued)

In our sufferings for Christ there is joy, not so when we suffer for our sins. (John Trapp)

Take a saint, and put him into any condition, and he knows how to rejoice in the Lord. (Walter Cradock)

They have joy and comfort - that joy that angels cannot give, and devils cannot take. (Christopher Fowler)

No wise man can expect that God should diet us with a continual feast. It would neither suit with our health, nor the condition of this pilgrimage. Live, therefore, on your peace of conscience as your ordinary diet; when this is wanting, know that God appointeth you a fast for your health; and when you have a feast of high joys, feed on it and be thankful! But when they are taken from you, gape not after them as the disciples did after Christ at His ascension; but return thankfully to your ordinary diet of peace. (Richard Baxter)

If a man would lead a happy life, let him but seek a sure object for his trust, and he shall be safe: "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." He hath laid up his confidence in God, therefore his heart is kept in an equal poise. (Thomas Manton)

Judgment

There is a place in hell where the covetous judge sitteth, the greedy lawyer, the griping landlord, the careless bishops, the lusty youth, the wanton dames, the thief, the robbers of the commonwealth. They are punished in this life because they ever sin as long as they could, while mercy was offered unto them; therefore because they would not be washed, they shall be drowned in sin. (Henry Smith)

His will is the rule of righteousness, and righteousness is the rule of His will. (Elisha Coles)

That which a man spits against heaven, shall fall back on his own face. (Thomas Adams)

It"s the manner of God, throughout the Scripture, to defer judgments a long while before they come, and when they come He sends them by degrees. (Walter Cradock)

Alas! that the farthest end of all our thoughts should be the thought of our ends. (Thomas Adams)