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Marriage is called a yoke, too heavy for one alone to bear; therefore, each had a mutual help, a wife. In the participation of good, compassion of evil, in health the best delight, in sickness the best comfort; the sole companion to whom we may communicate our joys and into whose bosom we unload our sorrows. Thus are our griefs lessened, our joys enlarged, our hearts solaced.
Spend the greatest part of the day in thy particular calling. He that minds not his closet before his shop is an atheist, and he that minds not his shop after his closet is a hypocrite. The world is God's great family, and He will allow none in it to be idle.
The soul hath three places of being: in the body from the Lord, in the Lord from the body, in the body with the Lord. The two last are referred to our salvation in heaven, either in part, when the soul is glorified alone, or totally, when both are crowned together. Now, the soul must be even here in the Lord's keeping or else it is lost. If God let go His hold, it sinks. It came from God; it returns to God. It cannot be well one moment without God.
Slander is a water in great request; every guest of the devil is continually sipping of this vial. It robs man of his good name, which is above all riches. It is the part of vile men to vilify others and to climb up to unmerited praise by the stairs of another's disgrace.
Sin is the strength of death and the death of strength; by what means soever the Lord makes that weaker, we grow stronger.
Most men hear sermons as they entertain news out of the Indies— matters unconcerning them. Let us mind these things: if any virtue be commended, to practice it; if any vice be condemned, to avoid it; if any consolation be insinuated, to appropriate it; if any good example be propounded, to follow it. So mind that thou hears as if it were spoken only to thyself. Is it comfort? Repent, and it is thine.
In election we behold God the Father in choosing; in vocation, God the Son teaching; in justification, God the Holy Ghost sealing; in salvation, the whole deity crowning. God chooses of His love, Christ calls by His word, the Spirit seals by His grace. Now the fruit of all this, of God's love choosing, of Christ's word calling, of the Spirit's grace sanctifying is our eternal glory and blessedness in heaven.
He that demands mercy and shows none ruins the bridge over which himself is to pass.
But we are freed by Christ from the law? I answer, there is a double obligation of the law: the obligation of penalty and the obligation of duty. We are freed from the obligation of penalty but not from the obligation of duty. "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2:19). He has taken from the law all power to condemn us but not all power to rule us. We must still serve God according to His law or He will not save us according to His gospel. Our faith in the Lord Jesus and our obedience to the law must be joined together, as Moses and Christ met upon the mountain. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
An idle person is a fit subject for the devil to work upon.
Idleness is the hour of temptation, and an idle person is the devil's tennis ball, tossed by him at his pleasure.
The proud man is Satan's throne, and the idle man is his pillow.
It is hardly possible that a person should continue absolutely unemployed for any long time and he that is not doing what he ought will be doing what he ought not; the destroyer of souls can hardly wish for a fairer mark at which to direct his temptations than an idle person.
Idleness is a moth or canker of the mind, and the fruits thereof are wicked cogitations, evil affections, and worse actions; corrupt trees without fruit, twice dead and plucked up by the roots, engendering in the mind a loathing of God and godliness.
The idle man is the devil's cushion on which he taketh his free ease, who, as he is incapable of any good, so he is fitly disposed for all evil motions. The standing water soon stinks, whereas the current ever keeps clear and cleanly, conveying down all noisome matter that might infect it by the force of his stream. If I do but little good to others by my endeavors, yet this is great good to me, that by my labor I keep myself from hurt. Meditations and Vows
There is nothing more troublesome to a good mind than to do nothing, for besides the furtherance of our estate, the mind doth both delight and better itself with exercise. There is but this difference, then, betwixt labor and idleness: that labor is a profitable and pleasant trouble; idleness, a trouble both unprofitable and comfortless. I will be ever doing something that either God when He cometh or Satan when he tempteth may find me busied. Meditations and Vows
Long ease will bring either superstition, profaneness, or heresy through our corruption.Time Well Spent
Harbor no idle persons in your family; let your servants have moderate work and meat. If they deserve reproof, let it be without passion; advice, with some natures, may do more than correction.
O the deadly sins, the deadly temptations, the deadly judgments that idle and slothful Christians are given up to; therefore, be active, be diligent, be abundant in the work of the Lord. Idleness is the very source of sin. Standing pools gather mud and nourish and breed venomous creatures, and so do the hearts of idle and slothful Christians.
Idleness is hateful in any, but most abominable and intolerable in ministers; and sooner or later none shall pay so dear for it as such. Witness the frequent woes that are denounced in Scripture against them. Where should a soldier die but in the field? And where should a minister die but in the pulpit?
Idleness is a sin against the law of creation. God creating man to labor, the idle person violates this law, for by his idleness he casts off the authority of his Creator.
Idleness breeds temptation. Our vacation is the devil's term; when we are least at work for God, then is Satan most at work about us. By doing nothing men learn to do evil. Yea, idleness is the burying of a living man.
Avoid idleness, for that is the proper soil for these filthy weeds to grow in. Vile thoughts seldom occur when the soul is usefully employed. A man that is diligent in his calling has employment for his thoughts, but if a man be idle, the devil soon employs him. As a standing pool grows filthy of itself and full of toads and vermin, so the heart that is not engaged in something good and useful is a fit place for the devil to breed evil thoughts and filthy passions in. The inhabitants of Sodom were not worse by nature than other men, but they grew rich in a fertile land, lived at ease in luxury, and then gave themselves up to all abominations.
Hope is a virgin of a fair and clear countenance; her proper seat is upon earth, her proper object is in heaven; of a quick and piercing eye that can see the glory of God, the mercy of Christ, the society of saints and angels, the joys of paradise through all the clouds and orbs, as Stephen saw heaven opened and Jesus standing in the holy place. Her eye is so fixed on the blessedness above that nothing in the world can remove it. Faith is her attorney general, prayer her solicitor, patience her physician, charity her almoner, thankfulness her treasurer, confidence her vice admiral, the promise of God her anchor, peace her chair of state, and eternal glory her crown.
Divine knowledge makes us understand the gospel, but it is divine grace which makes us live according to the gospel. Therefore, what you want in great learning supply with good living. I love preaching, and I love practicing; and I had rather hear one sermon in a day and do three good works than hear three sermons in a day and do never a good work else.
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1. Thomas Watson (196)
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3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. Thomas Brooks (113)
5. John Calvin (107)
6. John Flavel (96)
7. J.I. Packer (95)
8. William Gurnall (93)
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10. John Piper (87)
11. John Owen (74)
12. Thomas Manton (70)
13. A.W. Pink (68)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Richard Baxter (54)
20. Matthew Henry (54)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. Thomas Brooks (113)
5. John Calvin (107)
6. John Flavel (96)
7. J.I. Packer (95)
8. William Gurnall (93)
9. George Swinnock (88)
10. John Piper (87)
11. John Owen (74)
12. Thomas Manton (70)
13. A.W. Pink (68)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Richard Baxter (54)
20. Matthew Henry (54)
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