Saturday, April 18, 2015

Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 88

Solitude

Solitude is a release to the soul that was imprisoned in company. (George Swinnock)

Sorrow

Sorrow commonly comes on horseback, but goes away on foot. (Thomas Adams)

Ye have lost a child; nay, she is not lost to you, who is found in Christ; she is not sent away, but only sent before; like unto a star which, going out of sight, does not die and vanish, but shines in another hemisphere. (Samuel Rutherford)

Sorrows, because they are lingering guests, I will entertain but moderately, knowing that the more they are made of the longer they will continue: and for pleasures, because they stay not, and do but call to drink at my door, I will use them as passengers with slight respect. He is his own  best friend that makes the least of both of them. (Joseph Hall)

There are some things good, but not pleasant, as sorrow and affliction. Sin is pleasant, but unprofitable; and sorrow is profitable, but unpleasant. As waters are purest when they are in motion, so saints are generally holiest when in affliction. (William Secker)

The Soul

I wonder whether these men believe that they breath in summer as well as in winter. In summer they cannot see their own breath; but as cold grows on, it begins to appear. God's providence, and their own souls, are things of so subtle a nature that they cannot see them during the summer of their pleasures. But when the winter of judgment comes, this will show them a God in their just sufferings; and in that soul of theirs, which they would not believe they had, they shall feel an unspeakable torment. Then shall their pained sense supply the want of their faith. (Thomas Adams)

The soul of man bears the image of God; so nothing can satisfy it but He whose image it bears. Our soul, says Augustine, was created as by God, so for God, and is therefore never quiet till it rest in God. (Thomas Gataker)

The fullness of the earth can never satisfy the soul. All satisfaction and contentment arise from the conjunction of a convenient with a convenient; the conjunction of suitables. If a man have never so great an estate, if his heart so small an estate, if his heart be suited to it, he is content. What suitableness is there between the fullness of the earth and the better part of man, the soul! A thing is never said to be full till it be full of that for which it is made: a chest or trunk is not said to be full of air, though it be full of air. So take one of these meeting houses; though the place be full of chairs, or full of air, yet we say the church is empty; because though it be full, yet it is not full of that for which it is made - full of people.

So now, take a man that hath all the fullness of the earth; because this his soul was never made for the fullness of the earth, therefore he is said to be empty; in the midst of all his fullness, the man is an empty man, because his heart is not full of that for which he was made, and that is Christ. (William Bridge)

The real value of an object is that which one who knows its worth will give for it. He who made the soul, knew its worth, and gave His life for it. (Arthur Jackson)


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