Saturday, March 21, 2015

Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 61

Obedience (continued)

Some will obey partially, obey some commandments, not others; like a plough which, when it comes to a still piece of earth, makes a balk. But God that spake all the words of the moral law, will have all obeyed. (Thomas Watson)

This is the true obedience, whether to God or man, when we look not so much to the letter of the law, as to the mind of the law-maker. (John Trapp)

True obedience hath no lead at its heels. (Thomas Adams)

Sacrifice without obedience is sacrilege. (William Gurnall)

I had also this consideration, that if I should now venture all for God, I engaged God to take care of my concernments; but if I forsook Him and His ways for fear of any trouble that should come to me or mine, then I should not only falsify my profession, but should count also that my concernments were not so sure. This was a smarting consideration, and was as spure unto my flesh. (John Bunyan)

After thou hast prayed, observe what God doth towards thee; especially how He doth guide thy feet and heart after prayer; there is much in that. That which was the spirit of supplication in a man when he prayed, rests upon him as the spirit of obedience in his course. (Thomas Goodwin)

Judas heard all Christ's sermons. (Thomas Goodwin)

It is a sure sign of hypocrisy to be unrighteous and careless in civil dealings, how conscientious soever thou mayest seem to be in sacred duties. He that seems righteous towards men, and is irreligious towards God, is but an honest heathen; and he that seems religious towards God, and is unrighteous towards men, is but a dissembling Christian. (George Swinnock)

Ordinances

Till the Kingdom of grace be in our hearts, ordinances do not purify us, but we pollute them. Even the prayer of an ungracious person becomes sin. (Proverbs 15:8).  In what a sad condition is a man before God's Kingdom of grace is set up in his heart! Whether he comes or comes not to the ordinance, he sins. If he does not come to the ordinance, he is a contemnor of it; if he does come, he is a polluter of it. (Thomas Watson)

A man may go to hell with baptismal water upon his face! (John Trapp)

The more a saint tastes of God in an ordinance, the more are his desires raised and whetted, and the more are his teeth set on edge for more and more of God. A little mercy may save the soul, but it must be a great deal of mercy that must satisfy the soul. (Thomas Brooks)

The manna of the Spirit doth usually fall down in the dews of ordinances.  (George Swinnock)

The ordinances of God are the marts and fairs whereat Christians must trade for grace. (George Swinnock)

Take care that these holy things be administered only to those who are meet and worthy, according unto the rule of the gospel. Those who impose on pastors the promiscuous administration of these divine ordinances, or the application of the seals unto all without difference, do deprive them of their ministerial office and duty. (John Owen)

To live above the ordinances is to live below a saint. (George Swinnock)


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