My soul was this day, at turns, sweetly set on God: I longed to be with him, that I might behold his glory.
—David Brainerd
O my soul exceedingly longs for that blessed state of perfect deliverance from all sin!
—David Brainerd
My soul grieved with reflection on past levity, and want of resolution for God.
—David Brainerd
But, oh, to love and praise God more, to please him for ever! this my soul panted after, and even now pants for while I write.
—David Brainerd
Oh, it refreshed my soul, to think of former things, of desires to glorify God, of the pleasures of living to him!
—David Brainerd
My soul blessed God for what he is in himself, and adored him, that he ever would display himself to creatures.
—David Brainerd
My soul longed to wing away for the paradise of God; I longed to be conformed to God in all things.
—David Brainerd
O that my soul were holy, as he is holy! O that it were pure, even as Christ is pure; and perfect, as my Father in heaven is perfect!
—David Brainerd
In the evening, the hand of faith seemed to be strengthened in God; my soul seemed to rest and acquiesce in him; was supported under my burdens, reading the 125th Psalm; and found that it was sweet and comfortable to lean on God.
—David Brainerd
(2 Cor. 7:1) Here’s the work of a Christian, cleansing work, and perfecting work in the fear of God, to the end of our lives…. He that is contented with these terms is surely Christ’s as ever was any soul.
—John Flavel
The sufferings of His soul were the very soul of His sufferings. Did Christ bear such a burden for me with unbroken patience and constancy, and shall I shrink back from momentary and light afflictions for Him?
—John Flavel
O my friends, it is not enough that the object of your duties is spiritual, that they respect a holy God or that the matter is spiritual, that you be conversant about holy things; but that the frame of your heart must be spiritual, a heavenly temper of soul is necessary.
—John Flavel
Why should you be enemies to your own peace? To read over the evidences of God’s love to your souls as a man does a book that he intends to refute? Why do you study to find evasions, to turn off these comforts that are due to you?
—John Flavel
If he (the truly gracious soul) and his God have not met in secret and had some communion in the morning, he sensibly finds it in the deadness and unprofitableness of his heart and life all the day after.
—John Flavel
As the fear of God, so the love of God is a principle of restraint from sin to the soul that is upright. This kept back Joseph from sin: How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
—John Flavel
The gracious soul hates not only this or that particular sin, but the whole kind—everything that is sinful. True hatred is of the whole nature or kind. I hate every false way (Ps. 119:104).
—John Flavel
The soul’s proper food is found in one book, the Bible.
—R. A. Torrey
An upright soul may fall into sin, yet he is restless and unquiet in that condition, like a bone out of joint, and that shows he is not one of sin’s servants.
—John Flavel
Your heart may be kept from shrinking back at [death] by considering the necessity of death, in order to the full fruition of God. Whether you are willing to die or not, I assure you there is no other way to obtain the full satisfaction of your soul and complete its happiness.
—John Flavel
The soul is not at all times fit to pass judgment upon its own condition…Examine your hearts upon your beds, and be still (Ps. 4:4). This is rather a season for watching and resisting than for judging and determining.
—John Flavel
The consideration of the sufferings of Christ for sin powerfully withholds a gracious soul from the commission of it.
—John Flavel
My one concern is that my soul should be right.
—Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The intrinsic evil and filthiness that is in sin keeps back the gracious soul from it: Abhor that which is evil; hate it as hell itself (Rom 12:9).
—John Flavel
A truly gracious soul cannot long subsist without secret prayer. It is true – there is not always an equal freedom and delight, a like enlargement and comfort in those retirements, but yet he cannot be without them.
—John Flavel
The sincere soul hates sin with an irreconcilable hatred. There was a time when sin and his soul fell out, but there never will be a time of reconciliation between them again.
—John Flavel
I don’t know how others find it, but I am sure I find sin in my very bosom, in my very bowels; it is present with me. O wretched man that I am! A gracious soul can mourn to see in others, but to find it in himself pierces him to the very heart.
—John Flavel
The upright soul, though he may be drawn to sin, yet he cannot reflect upon his sin without shame and sorrow, which plainly shows it to be an involuntary surprise.
—John Flavel
Your soul shall shortly stand before the face of God and have the immediate emanations and beamings forth of His glory upon it.
—John Flavel
It is only a wink, and you shall see God. Your happiness shall not be deferred till the resurrection, but as soon as the body is dead the gracious soul is swallowed up in life (Rom 8:10–11).
—John Flavel
The upright soul hates sin in himself more than he hates it in any other, as a man hates a serpent in the hedge, but much more in his own bosom: But I see another law in my members…I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me (Rom. 7:23, 21).
—John Flavel