Adams Quotes 09

(Again as found in A Puritan Golden Treasury)

Be thou a follower of God in grace, that thou mayest ascend to his glory. 237

It was well done of Paul to reprove Peter to his face, and it was well done of Peter to praise Paul in his absence. 242

Iniquity can plead antiquity. 261

RepentanceThere is no other fortification against the judgments of God but repentance. His forces be invisible, invincible; not repelled with sword and target; neither portcullis nor fortress can keep them out; there is nothing in the world that can encounter them but repentance. 237

RichesLet us not make the poor our friends by our alms, not our enemies by our scorns. We had better have the ears of God full of their prayers, than heaps of money in our own coffers with their curses. 251

ServiceGod has many servants but little service in the world. 258

SinMany being reproved, answer, Alas! You must bear with me in this my fault; as if every man were allowed his own fault. There is a private Sodom within us; we are loath to part with that. Men say of their sins as Jacob said of sons, "Go, all but Benjamin." Other vices we will not so much stick for, but, "Oh, that Ishmael might live!" There is still some worm in the root of the tree that will spoil the fruit. We extenuate it; is it not a little one? But a little hair makes a great blot in the paper. 264

Complaining

The frog and the murmurer, both of them are bred of the mud. 278

Sorrow

Sorrow commonly comes on horseback but goes away on foot. 284

 

SuicideNo man must let the tenant out of the tenement, till God the landlord call for it. 289

As we cannot live without a permittis, so we must not die without a dimittis. 289

 

Temptation

When Satan assaults any poor soul, he suffers nothing to appear to the eye but pleasure, profit, a sweet satisfaction of our desires, and an illusion of happiness. There is also wrath, and judgment, and torment, and sting of conscience belonging to it! These must be, but these shall not be seen. All the way is white snow that hides the pit. Green grass tempts us to walk; the serpent is unseen. If temptations, like praises, might be turned on both sides, the kingdom of darkness would not be so populous. If David could have foreseen the grief of his broken bones ere he fell upon Bathsheba, those aspersions of blood and lust had not befallen him. If Achan could have foreseen the stones about his ears before he filched those accursed things, he would never have fingered them. But as it is said of Adam and Eve after their fall, ‘Then their eyes were opened’; then, not before. Judas was blind till he had done the deed, then his eyes were opened, and he saw it in its true horror. 290

Truth

Such is the immutability of truth, the patrons of it make it not greater, the opposers make it not less; as the splendour of the sun is not enlarged by them that bless it, nor eclipsed by them that hate it. 299

WorldOutward things happen alike to good and bad. "There is one event to the clean and to the unclean". They are both travellers in the thoroughfare of this world, both lodge in one inn, both have the same provision: perhaps the wicked have the better cheer - but in the morning their ways part! 312

Adams Quotes 03

Grace comes into the soul, as the morning sun into the world; first a dawning, then a light; and at last the sun in his full and excellent brightness. (From the sermon Heaven made sure on Ps 35.3) The devil makes his Christmas-pie of lawyers' tongues and clerks' fingers. Oh, be ashamed, Christians, that worldlings are more studious and industrious to make sure of pebbles, than you are to make sure of pearls. Solomon tells us that it is the glory of man to pass by an offence. Herein God is most glorious, in that he passes by all the offences of his children. Lord, who can know thee and not love thee, know thee and not fear thee? We fear thee for thy justice, and love thee for thy mercy; yea, fear thee for thy mercy, and love thee for thy justice; for thou art infinitely good in both. Despair is hope stark dead, presumption is hope stark mad. Our mind is where our pleasure is, our heart is where our treasure is, our love is where our life is, but all these, our pleasure, treasure, and life, are reposed in Jesus Christ. Repentance is a change of the mind, and regeneration is a change of the man. Passion costs me too much to bestow it on every trifle. Generosity Let us make the poor our friends by our alms, not our enemies by our scorns. We had better have the ears of God full of their prayers, than heaps of money in our own coffers with their curses. Humility Humility wrestleth with God, like Jacob, and wins by yielding. Law and Gospel The Law gives menaces but the Gospel gives promises. Marriage There is no such fountain on earth as marriage. Woman takes her being from man, man takes his well-being from woman. As God by creation made two of one, so again by marriage He made one of two.

Sense of sin Sense of sin may be often great, and more felt than grace; yet not be more than grace. A man feels the ache of his finger more sensibly than the health of his whole body; yet he knows that the ache of a finger is nothing so much as the health of the whole body. Temptation Satan like a fisher, baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish. Virtue Half our virtue arises from our being out of the way of temptation. These culled from various sources