One way to get comfort is to plead the promise of God in prayer, show Him His handwriting; God is tender of His Word.
– Thomas Manton
Comfort
The end of study is information, and the end of meditation is practice, or a work upon the affections. Study is like a winter sun that shines, but warms not: but meditation is like a blowing upon the fire, where we do not mind the blaze, but the heat. The end of study is to hoard up truth; but of meditation to lay it forth in conference or holy conversation.
– Thomas Manton
Meditation
First we practice sin, then defend it, then boast of it.
– Thomas Manton
Sin | Boasting
Men in general do not live as if they looked to die; and therefore do not die as if they looked to live.
– Thomas Manton
Death
Divisions in the church always breed atheism in the world.
– Thomas Manton
Church | Atheism
What is the reason there is so much preaching and so little practice? For want of meditation…Constant thoughts are operative, and musing makes the fire burn. Green wood is not kindled by a flash or spark, but by constant blowing.
– Thomas Manton
Meditation
If you yield to Satan in the least, he will carry you further and further, till he has left you under a stupefied or terrified conscience: stupefied, till thou hast lost all thy tenderness. A stone at the top of a hill, when it begins to roll down, ceases not till it comes to the bottom. Thou thinkest it is but yielding a little, and so by degrees are carried on, till thou hast sinned away all thy profession, and all principles of conscience, by the secret witchery of his temptations.
– Thomas Manton
Backsliding | Satan
Till we sin Satan is a parasite; but when once we are in the devil’s hands he turns tyrant.
– Thomas Manton
Satan
If a man would lead a happy life, let him but seek a sure object for his trust, and he shall be safe: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” He hath laid up his confidence in God, therefore his heart is kept in an equal poise.
– Thomas Manton
Happiness
We know God but as men born blind know the fire: they know that there is such a thing as fire, for they feel it warm them, but what it is they know not. So, that there is a God we know, but what He is we know little, and indeed we can never search Him out to perfection; a finite creature can never fully comprehend that which is infinite.
– Thomas Manton
Fire
Faith is the fountain of prayer, and prayer should be nothing else but faith exercised.
– Thomas Manton
Faith | Prayer
The more affected we are with our misery, the fitter for Christ’s mercy.
– Thomas Manton
Mercy
If we be empty and poor, it is not because God’s hand is straitened, but ours is not opened.
– Thomas Manton
Providence
There is in man a mint always at work: his mind coining evil thoughts, his heart, evil desires and carnal emotion; and his memory is the closet and storehouse wherein they are kept.
– Thomas Manton
Good and Evil
Self-love may lead us to prayers, but love to God excites us to praises.
– Thomas Manton
Self-love | Praise
Excess in meat and drink clouds the mind, chokes good affections, and provokes lust. Many a man digs his own grave with his teeth.
– Thomas Manton
Philosophy
Desires are the pulses of the soul;–as physicians judge by the appetite, so may you by desires.
– Thomas Manton
Greed
Continued meditation brings great profit to the soul. Passant and transient thoughts are more pleasant, but not so profitable. Deliberate meditation is of most use because it secures the return of the thoughts.
– Thomas Manton
Meditation
When we make self the end of prayer, it is not worship but self-seeking.
– Thomas Manton
Selfishness