Saturday, April 4, 2015

Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 74

Repentance (continued)

Now the Lord looks upon my sins, they are now before Him; and we should never rest till we have by repentance moved Him to blot them out. Yea, to this end we should ourselves call them to rememrance. For the more we remember them, the more God forgets them; the more we forget them, the more God forgets them. (William Bradshaw)

Amendment of life is the best repentance. (John Trapp)

If an unregenerate man should leave off sin under fear of death or hell, it would not be out of hatred to sin, but our of the fear of the punishment, as the bird is kept from the bait by the scarecrow. (Thomas Manton)

Take heed thou prayest not with reservation, be sure thou renouncest what thou wouldst have God remit. God will never remove the guilt as long as thou entertainest the sin. It is desperate folly to desire God to forgive what thou intendest to commit. Thou hadst as good speak out, and ask leave to sin with impunity, for God knows the language of thy heart, and needs not thy tongue to be an interpreter. Hypocrisy is too thin a veil to blind the eyes of the Almighty. Thou mayest put thy own eyes out, so as not to see Him; but thou canst never blind His eyes that He should not see them. (William Gurnall)

Whoever delays his repentance does in effect pawn his soul with the devil. (Thomas Manton)

The more we defer, the more difficult and painful our work needs prove; every day will both enlarge our task and diminish our ability to perform it. Sin is never at a stay; if we do not retreat from it, we shall advance in it, and the further on we go, the more we have to come back; every step we take forward must be repeated; all the web we spin must be unravelled. (Unknown)

By delay of repentance, sin strengthens, and the heart hardens. The longer ice freezeth, the harder it is to be broken. (Thomas Watson)

The time of God's grace to sinners doth many time expire before death. (Philip Henry)

Many have the space of repentance, who have not the grace of repentance. (William Secker)

If God's today be too soon for thy repentance, thy tomorrow may be too late for His acceptance. (William Secker)

You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late. (Thomas Fuller)

No man ought to flatter and deceive himself in deferring his conversion by alleging the example of the penitent thief, saved even at the last hour upon the Cross, and carried to Paradise that same day with Christ, for this act was a special miracle, reserved for the manifestation of Christ's power and glory at that hour upon the Cross; and, besides, this act was upon a most rare confession made by the thief at that instant when almost all the world forsook Christ. (Daniel Cawdray)

Though true repentance is never too late, yet late repentance is seldom true. (Thomas Brooks)

It is an old saying, Repentance is never too late; but it is a true saying, Repentance is never too soon. (Henry Smith)


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