Quotes from Joel Beeke

Holy expectation cannot coexist with worldliness, unbelief, indifference, and ignorance. It abhors backsliding and seeks the honor of God, the conversion of sinners, and the welfare of the church.

You must believe the promises and not merely assent to them. They will be as a meadow of flowers to you and you as a lazy bee to them if you do not really believe in them and apply them. Just as the industry of the bee extracts the honey, so the industry of your faith extracts comfort from God's promises.

How can we live to God in public when we so seldom meet Him in private?

Conviction—or the killing work of the law—is the way that leads to Christ, not a condition for receiving Christ.

Afflictions are sovereign medicines to kill spiritual diseases, look to the Lord to purge your sin, to refine you as silver in a crucible, and comfort yourself that you will lose nothing but the dross (Isa. 1:25—26).

Do not expect to grow in holiness if you spend little time alone with God and do not take His Word seriously.

There is no thought, no word, no act, and no area of human life that is not affected by sin.

Christ will receive all who come to Him, but Christ will not be sweet to them until sin is first bitter in them.

Faith is not bare knowledge or passive persuasion but the embrace of Christ by the heart, resulting in personal knowledge of God. The heart must therefore be prepared by the law awakening the sinner to his need of Christ. The law beats on the stony heart as a hammer to smooth its surface before God writes His Word upon it. Though some men called this repentance, Calvin preferred to think of it as preparation for faith, which in turn leads to true repentance.

The love of Christ is insatiable. The more you experience His redeeming love, the more you desire it. The more you desire it, the more you want to dwell on it. The more you dwell on it, the more you cherish it and are satisfied by it. You can never 'mind' Christ's love too often, since his love knows no bounds.

You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed, John Bunyan writes. Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan.

In short, doctrinally, Puritanism was a kind of vigorous Calvinism; experientially, it was warm and contagious; evangelistically, it was aggressive, yet tender; ecclesiastically, it was theocentric and worshipful; and politically, it aimed to be scriptural and balanced.