As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which have happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines or schemes of church government, they were all perfectly useless to us, and, for aught I can yet see, they have been so to the rest of the world.

Chapter XV

“Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them
because they see and covet what He has not given them.

All of our discontents for what we want appear to me
to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.”
_

“I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational
the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth ...
that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent;

not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be
esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning,
which only can make them be esteemed wise men.”
_

“Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger, which
sometimes are given him,
when he may think there is no possibility of its being real.
That such hints and notices are given us, I believe
few that have made any observations of things can deny;

that they are certain discoveries of an invisible world,
and a converse of spirits, we cannot doubt;
and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger,
why should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent,
whether supreme, or inferior, or subordinate, is not the question;
and that they are given for our good?”
_

"...to hint to whoever shall read it,
that whenever they come to a true Sense of things, they will find
Deliverance from Sin a much greater Blessing
than Deliverance from Affliction.”
_

“Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer,
and he shall strengthen thy heart;
wait, I say, on the Lord.”
_

“How mercifully can our Creator treat His creatures,
even in those conditions in which they seemed to be overwhelmed
in destruction!
How can He sweeten the bitterest providences,
and give us cause to praise Him for dungeons and prisons!
What a table was here spread for me in a wilderness
where I saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger!”
_

“But how just it has been! And how should all men reflect,
that when they compare their present conditions with others that are worse,
Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange,
and be convinced of their former felicity by their experience...”
_

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Never any young adventurer’s misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued longer than mine.

Chapter I