“If I should tell a worldling what the holiness and spiritual joys of the saints on earth are, he cannot know; for grace cannot be clearly known without grace; how much less could he conceive it, should I tell him of this glory?”
“If our rest was here, most of God's providences must be useless. Should God lose the glory of his church's miraculous deliverances, and of the fall of his enemies, that men may have their happiness here?”
“If Satan should _take thee up to the mountain_ of temptation, _and shew thee all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them_; he could shew thee nothing that is worthy thy thoughts, much less to be preferred before thy rest.”
“If they have the gospel preached in the town where they dwell, it may be they will give the hearing to it one part of the day, and stay at home the other; or if the master come to the congregation, yet part of the family must stay at home.”
“If thou be upright and godly, it will lead thee straight towards assurance of God's love; if thou be not, though it will trouble thee at the present, yet it will tend to thy happiness, and at length lead thee to the assurance of that happiness.”
“If thou, reader, art a stranger to Christ, and to the holy nature and life of his people, who are before described, and shalt live and die in this condition, let me tell thee, thou shalt never partake of the joys of heaven, nor have the least taste of the saint's eternal rest.”
“If we are _always to pray and not to faint_, because God will have us importunate with himself: the same course, no doubt, will be most prevailing with men.”
“If you be in heaven it would sure be a sad thought, were it possible that any sorrow could dwell there, to hear a multitude of poor souls cry out for ever, "O, if you would but have told me plainly of my sin and danger, and set it home, I might have escaped all this torment, and been now in rest!”
“If you had seen hell open, and all the damned there in their endless torments; also heaven opened, as Stephen did, and all the saints there triumphing in glory; what a life would you lead after such sights?”
“If you had the word of God, and not the word, which is God; or the bread of the Lord, and not the Lord, which _is the true bread_; or could cry with the Jews, _The temple of the Lord_, and had not the Lord of the temple; this were a poor happiness.”
“If you must needs have your pleasures, you should not have put yourselves into that calling that requireth you to make God and His service your pleasure, and restraineth you so much from fleshly pleasures.”
“If your judgment once prefers the delights of the flesh, before the delights in the presence of God, it is impossible your heart should be in heaven.”
“In a word, our want of seriousness about the things of heaven, charms the souls of men into formality, and brings them to this customary, careless hearing, which undoes them.”
