Puritan Quotes for Today

Comfort from the 17th Century

compiled by Anita Gordon

The Puritans were preachers who lived in the 17th century.  They were spiritual giants who understood how to care for souls.  They understood that God's people suffer from sicknesses of the mind, and these preachers sought to apply the healing balm of the Scriptures to the weary people of God.  Today, though long dead, they still speak.

Thomas Goodwin: "One who truly fears God and is obedient to Him, may be in a condition of darkness, and have no light; and he may walk many days and years in that condition."--'Child of Light Walking in Darkness

 Richard Sibbes: "Are you bruised? Be of good comfort, He calls you. Conceal not your wounds, go to Christ. He is a physician good at all diseases, especially at the binding up of a broken heart." --'The Bruised Reed'

 Samuel Rutherford: "It is hard to keep sight of God in a storm, especially when He hides Himself for the trial of His children. I bless my God that there is a death, and a heaven." -- 'Letters of Samuel Rutherford'

 William Gurnall:  "You may be a poor, trembling soul, weak in faith and ever on the brink of sinking; yet to this day your grace lives on, though full of leaks. Is there a greater demonstration of God's strength than to see such a pitiful, storm-tossed ship towed past an armada of sins and devils, into God's safe harbour at last?" --'Christian in Complete Armour'

 Richard Sibbes: "Satan's course is to discourage those that God would have encouraged." --'The Soul's Conflict'

 Thomas Boston:  "You are in this world as in a weary land, a wilderness, a place of great danger and of great wants; and if you have felt it so you have come with a design to seek a refuge where you may be in safety; and a portion for your souls where your wants may be supplied."

 Thomas Brooks: "How, saith one, shall God wipe away my tears in heaven, if I shed none on earth? And how shall I reap in joy, if I sow not in tears? I was born with tears, and I shall die with tears; and why then should I live without them in this valley of tears?" --'The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod'

 Andrew Bonar: 'Those who sing loudest in the Kingdom will be those who on earth had the greatest bodily suffering. We pity them now, but then we shall almost envy them.'

 Samuel Rutherford: "Believe God's Word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your Rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea.

"'Letters of Samuel Rutherford'

 Thomas Goodwin: "I know One in heaven, whose heart is touched with the feeling of all my infirmities, and I will go and bemoan myself to Him.

Richard Sibbes: "Christ, also, who was without sin, cried out, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?' " -- 'The Soul's Conflict'

 "Happy is he that in his way to heaven he meeteth with a cheerful and skillful guide and fellow traveller, that carrieth cordials with him against all fainting's of spirit." -- 'The Soul's Conflict'