The Heart

“An ounce of heart knowledge is worth more than a ton of head learning.”

“O child of God, be more concentrated in heart in seeking His glory, and you will see the loving-kindness and the tender mercy of the Lord in your life.”

“The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart.”

“The worst thing thou hast to fear is the treachery of thine own heart.”

“The heart is as insatiable as the grave till Jesus enters it, and then it is a cup full to overflowing.”

“Sin has sprung from a royal though evil stock, and if it be in the heart, it will struggle for the throne.”

“The most difficult book you will ever read is your own heart.”

“The heart is the rudder of the soul, and till the Lord take it in hand we steer in a false and foul way.”

“It is not a matter of time so much as a matter of heart. If you have the heart to pray, you will find the time.”

“He is the best preacher, not that tickles the ear, but that breaks the heart.”

“God hears no more than the heart speaks; and if the heart be dumb, God will certainly be deaf.”

“The snow covers many a dunghill; so doth prosperity many a rotten heart.”

“Secret sins commonly lie nearest the heart.”

“The Lord does not so much look at the work that is done, as at the faithfulness of our hearts in doing it.”

“It's certain that the thing a man's heart is most taken with and set upon is his God.”

“It is impossible for an evil heart, to think well of an afflicting God.”

“Do you complain of a hard heart? The sight of a broken Christ will break your heart, or nothing will.”

“Wicked thoughts are deadly evils.”

“Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before.”

“The seed of every sin is in every heart.”

“Before the work of grace, the heart is stony; it can do no more than a stone can do to please God.”

“Ignorance of God and of ourselves is the great principle and cause of all our worries.”

“The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful, and solid in his beliefs and obedience.”

“Repentance may be considered as it doth not only follow pardon, but also the intimation thereof; so it is a melting of heart, and a self-loathing that floweth from felt love.”

“Sincerity—which is the thing sought, lies in the heart like a small piece of gold on the bottom of a river; he who would find it must stay until the water is clear, and then he will see it sparkling at the bottom.”

“Let the Holy Spirit descend upon me. 'Create in me a clean heart, O God'.”

“Nothing in the whole nature of man, no power or faculty of the soul, is fallen under greater disorder and depravation by the entrance of sin than our affections are.”

“It is the perverse, wicked stubbornness and hardness of the human heart that brings about such inveterate sinning.”

“As the dust of the earth is the most sluggish, dead element of all, so earthliness in the heart makes the heart sluggish, dead, and lifeless to any holy and spiritual duty.”

“Can you find time for your body? time to eat and sleep? and not find time for your soul?”

“Yet further, such is the deceit of a man’s own heart, as a man may suffer much out of the pride of his heart: as a man may serve himself, in serving God, so he may seek himself in denying himself in that which is the cause of God.”

“So when the minister came among the people, he found hearts of stone—but he left hearts of flesh.”

“Anger in the soul is like mettle in a horse, good if it is well managed.”

“Our hearts must be closely watched and kept—when we draw near to God in public, private, or secret duties; for the vanity of the heart seldom reveals itself more than at such times.”

“The heart, as it is by nature hard, stupid, and impenetrable, so it remains, and so will remain, until God, as was said, bruiseth it with his hammer, and melts it with his fire.”

“Can a man that is dead, or deadly-wounded, live? that is, perform the actions of life with delight constantly, for that is to live.”

“Innumerable are the reasonings of the hearts of the sons of men on this account; we know not the thoughts of our own souls herein, how vile they are.”

“Our hearts, like lute-strings, are changed with every change of weather, with every appearance of a temptation; scarce one motion of God in a thousand prevails with us for a settled abode.”

“Nay saith God, I will not stand so much upon the purification of the Sanctuary if they have prepared their hearts to seek me.”

“Starched oratory may tickle the brain—but it is plain doctrine which informs the judgment, which convinces the conscience, which bows the will, and which wins the heart.”

“To keep the heart then, is carefully to preserve it from sin, which disorders it; and maintain that spiritual frame which fits it for a life of communion with God.”

“Indeed the spiritual part of godliness consists in this one thing, as in any: in the preparation of the heart for the presence of God in Holy duties.”

“And if there were no devil to suggest, yet sinful thoughts would arise from within us, though none were cast in from without.”

“The desire of the heart may be satisfied when God gives some other thing, but the counsel of the heart is then fulfilled when a man is answered in that particular which his own judgment pitched upon as best for him.”

“The thoughts are the tiring-room of the soul, the privy chamber of it. 3.”

“And the wormwood that grows in and about the banks of that infernal lake (the wrath of God), was not so bitter to Solomon’s taste as was his sin that grew out of his own heart.”

“Let us receive this as from the Lord and lay it to our hearts: whatsoever we do evening and morning, day or night, whether we be young or old, rich or poor, first we must seek for the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness.”

“There is only so much of worth in what we do for God—as there is of heart in it.”

“How often does the poor soul cry out, 'O Lord, how gladly would I serve you—but vain thoughts will not let me!”

“I will take away the stony heart, or the stoniness, or the hardness of your heart, and I will give you a heart of flesh; that is, I will make your heart sensible, soft, wieldable, governable, and penitent.”

“I am little aware of what is yet in my heart; I know that after all this, I am still capable of distrust and repining.”

“In heaven, God is set afore us to pick all happiness out of; and so all that happiness must arise from suitableness of heart to him.”

“So long as the heart is an Exchange, I do not expect that it should be a Temple.”

“Over-awe your hearts every day, and in every place with the eye of God.”

“You say, 'Do what I can, yet I cannot keep my heart with God.' Soul, if you do what you can, you have the blessing of an upright, though God sees good to exercise you under the affliction of a discomposed heart.”

“But O how variable are his feelings; how easily discouraged is his heart.”

“But nothing in the world is as needful to the body—as the Lord Jesus Christ is unto the soul.”

“It may be that his estate, his houses, his lands are worth somewhat, but what is his heart worth?”

“There is nothing in the world more uneasy than the heart of a wicked man made to listen to spiritual instruction, until, like a thief, he puts out the candle so that he may sin with less restraint.”

“Now grief is as it were a cloud from whence the shower of tears comes, and weeping is but a distillation of that vapour.”

“You need not teach him to sin, but only leave him to himself, and he will soon shame his mother.”

“They may relish the sweetness of the sauce with which they are dished up, but not of the meat itself.”

“The sin of our nature is not only a privation of good but an infusion of evil.”

“And there can be no transgression of a positive precept, without the violation of that eternal law that is written in his heart.”

“There is nothing that characteriseth and sets a stamp upon a Christian so much as desires.”

“Meditation leaves one in a holy frame: it melts the heart when it is frozen, and makes it drop into tears of love.”

“The more serious the heart grows, the more spiritual, and the more spiritual, the more it resembles the Father of spirits.”

“We must rend our hearts and not our clothes, when we come into the presence of God.”

“A good object, if it lights upon a bad soul, hardens the heart; for they that are not bettered by religion, under the means, are so much the worse by their use.”

“The hard heart is a gathered boil; when it is broken, it is discussed.”

“Foolish man, put home the case to your own heart; can you give your child that which would ruin him?”

“So doth Jesus Christ spread forth beams of truth into believers’ hearts, and by them comes into their hearts, as the sun is said to do; when the beams of it come into a house, you say the sun comes in.”

“Again when you go about any work that is difficult, take heed of any disorderly working of your heart about that work.”

“The deceitfulness of sin lays hold on something or other that lust in the mind stays upon with delectation, and so corrupts the whole frame of spirit which began the duty.”

“But he alone knows the innumerable backsliding, and the great perverseness of my heart.”

“The human mind is weak and full of darkness by reason of sin.”

“No devil, or bad companion, ever leads us into such wickedness as our own hearts.”

“The studying, observing, and diligently keeping your own heart, will surprisingly help you to UNDERSTAND the deep mysteries of religion.”

“There is a deadly antipathy between the scorpion and the crocodile; such should there be between the heart and sin.”

“The law is perfectly holy; but this strict rule discovers the crookedness that is in man's heart.”

“But, if the heart gives up the door, lusts in vile troops will enter, and do murderous work.”

“When every lust, corruption, or passion, as anger, envy, displeasure, at this or that person or thing, can divert the mind from compliance with the proposal of spiritual things that is made unto it, we are carnal.”

“There is such unruliness in our thoughts and affections that our judgments are not always able to rule our thoughts and affections.”

“A spiritual heart reserves the chief strength of it for higher things.”

“Sin transformed our nature into a wild, beastly, viperous, selfish thing.”

“If you see a man whose affections are set inordinately on any thing here below, it is easy to discern how he goes off from his native worth, and debaseth himself therein.”

“A pure heart is a plain, simple heart, without fraud or deceit—like Nathaniel, in whom there was no deceit.”

“And love, in whomsoever it is, is the most predominant of all dispositions; whatsoever is good and whatsoever is excellent in any, love hath the command of it; and so it hath in God.”

“And it is as certain that we all once were in that condition of nature, and so of wrath, as sure as we are men.”

“For, first, in the mind is such an impotency as whereby it is unable to think or approve of anything that is truly good.”

“You have no indwelling of Christ unless your hearts are affected.”

“A hard heart is neither melted with promises nor broken with threatenings.”

“Lusts grow licentious and unruly; and because they usurp God's place in the heart, therefore God suffers it; always it ends ill, in shame and judgment.”

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

“For God hath given his children a spirit of discretion, that will teach them when to joy and when to weep most.”

“Flesh is evidently evil dispositions and inclinations unto evil which dwell in a man, and which as a root hath fruits.”

“It is like a lock: if its workings are faulty, it will be troublesome to open.”

“The saints have God's picture drawn in their hearts: a man cannot abuse the picture of Caesar, without some reflection upon Caesar's person.”

“So it may be said of many, they are without a heart; they have no heart to resist temptation.”

“When things are frozen and congealed, the best way to separate them is by fire.”