When Christ is made known to our soul by the power of God, we have views of truth in him, of happiness in him, and of deliverance. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." We receive him as the Son of the Father in truth and love; we receive him as suitable to our wants and woes; we receive him as putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and endearing himself to our heart in the sweet manifestation of his Person, goodness, and love. Now as long as Christ and the soul are together, there is no place for error, and no place for evil. He makes the soul tender, the heart upright, the spirit broken and contrite, truth precious, error hateful, and sin loathsome and detestable. And whilst he and the soul are engaged together, error cannot approach nor evil find an entrance, so as to get any standing-ground in the heart. But error is very subtle; it addresses itself to our reasoning powers; and when we lose sight of Christ, then error very easily creeps in; or if not error, some special lust, or something ungodly, seems by degrees to obtain power and influence, and we gradually decline from the strength of faith, the confidence of hope, and the sweet
affections of love, and drop, it may be, into a cold, carnal, careless, lifeless state, where we lie open to the invasion of error and the temptations of Satan as an angel of light or an angel of darkness. But now Jude comes and says, "Keep yourselves in the love of God; and I will tell you, if you will listen to me, how you shall do it. You must build up yourselves on your most holy faith." God has laid a foundation for your faith in his holy word; he has laid Christ as a foundation in your own soul. That is a very strong foundation; it is of God's own laying. It is very solid; it will bear any weight laid upon it. And therefore you must build up yourselves upon that most holy faith if you would have a religion which stands; because if your religion, or any part of your religion, be built upon another foundation, it will not stand. But if you build up yourselves on your most holy faith, then everything you build upon it will stand, because it rests upon the foundation, and is in harmony with it.
From Through Baca's Vale" J.C. Philpot July 15

EVERY man naturally desires knowledge; but what good is knowledge without fear of God? Indeed a humble rustic who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars. He who knows himself well becomes mean in his own eyes and is not happy when praised by men.

If I knew all things in the world and had not charity, what would it profit me before God Who will judge me by my deeds?

Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise.

Many words do not satisfy the soul; but a good life eases the mind and a clean conscience inspires great trust in God.

The more you know and the better you understand, the more severely will you be judged, unless your life is also the more holy. Do not be proud, therefore, because of your learning or skill. Rather, fear because of the talent given you. If you think you know many things and understand them well enough, realize at the same time that there is much you do not know. Hence, do not affect wisdom, but admit your ignorance. Why prefer yourself to anyone else when many are more learned, more cultured than you?

If you wish to learn and appreciate something worth while, then love to be unknown and considered as nothing. Truly to know and despise self is the best and most perfect counsel. To think of oneself as nothing, and always to think well and highly of others is the best and most perfect wisdom. Wherefore, if you see another sin openly or commit a serious crime, do not consider yourself better, for you do not know how long you can remain in good estate. All men are frail, but you must admit that none is more frail than yourself.

Thomas á Kempis "The Imitation of Christ"

Psalm 23:1

You must distinguish 'twixt absence, and 'twixt indigence. Absence is when something is not present; indigence or want, is when a needful good is not present. If a man were to walk, and had not a staff, here were something absent. If a man were to walk, and had but one leg, here were something whereof he were indigent. It is confessed that there are many good things which are absent from a good person, but no good thing which he wants or is indigent of. If the good be absent and I need it not, this is no want; he that walks without his cloak, walks well enough, for he needs it not. As long as I can walk carefully and cheerfully in my general or particular calling, though I have not such a load of accessories as other men have, yet I want nothing, for my little is enough and serves the turn. . . . Our corruptions are still craving, and they are always inordinate, they can find more wants than God needs to supply. As they say of fools, they can propose more questions than twenty wise men need to answer. They in James 4:3, did ask, but received not; and he gives two reasons for it:—1. This asking was but a lusting: "ye lust and have not" (verse 4): another, they did ask to consume it upon their lusts (verse 3). God will see that his people shall not want; but withal, he will never engage himself to the satisfying of their corruptions, though he doth to the supply of their conditions. It is one thing what the sick man wants, another what his disease wants. Your ignorance, your discontents, your pride, your unthankful hearts, may make you to believe that you dwell in a barren land, far from mercies (as melancholy makes a person to imagine that he is drowning, or killing, etc.); whereas if God did open your eyes as he did Hagar's, you might see fountains and streams, mercies and blessings sufficient; though not many, yet enough, though not so rich, yet proper, and every way convenient for your good and comfort; and thus you have the genuine sense, so far as I can judge of David's assertion, "I shall not want."
—-Obadiah Sedgwick

As for dependence on divine grace and influence, it must be universal; and since we always need it, we must never forget that necessity. A moment spent in humble fervent breathings after the communications of the divine assistance, may do more good than many minutes spent in mere reasonings; and though indeed this should not be neglected, since the light of reason is a kind of divine illumination, yet still it ought to be pursued in a due sense of our dependence on the Father of Lights, or where we think ourselves wisest, we may "become vain in our imaginations," (Rom. 1:21,22) Let us therefore always call upon God, and say, for instance, when we are going to pray, "Lord, fix my attention! Awaken my holy affections, and pour out upon me the spirit of grace and of supplication!" (Zech. 12:10) When taking up a Bible or any other good book, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law! (Psa. 119:18) Enlighten my understanding! Warm my heart! May my good resolutions be confirmed, and all the course of my life be in a proper manner regulated!" When addressing ourselves to any worldly business, "Lord, prosper thou the work of mine hands upon me, (Psa. 90:17) and give thy blessing to my honest endeavors!" When going to any kind of recreation, "Lord, bless my refreshments! Let me not forget thee in them, but still keep thy glory in view!" When coming into company, "Lord, may I do, and get good! Let no corrupt communication proceed out of my mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers!" (Eph. 4:29) When entering upon difficulties, "Lord, give me that wisdom which is profitable to direct!" (Eccl. 10:10) "Teach me thy way, and lead me in a plain path!" (Psa. 27:11) When encountering with temptations, "Let thy strength, O gracious Redeemer, be made perfect in my weakness!" (2 Cor. 12:9) These instances may illustrate the design of this direction, though they may be far from a complete enumeration of all the circumstances in which it is to be regarded.
For the government of our thoughts in solitude: let us accustom ourselves, on all occasions, to exercise a due command over our thoughts. Let us take care of those entanglements of passion, or those attachments to any present interest in view, which would deprive us of our power over them. Let us set before us some profitable subject of thought; such as the perfection of the blessed God, the love of Christ, the value of time, the certainty and importance of death and judgment, and the eternity of happiness or misery which is to follow. Let us also, at such intervals, reflect on what we have observed as to the state of our own souls, with regard to the advance or decline of religion; or on the last sermon we have heard or the last portion of Scripture we have read. You may perhaps, in this connection, Sir, recollect what I have, if I remember right, proposed to you in conversation; that it might be very useful to select some one verse of Scripture which we have met with in the morning, and to treasure it up in our mind, resolving to think of that at any time when we are at a loss for matter of pious reflection, in any intervals of leisure for entering upon it. This will often be as a spring from whence many profitable and delightful thoughts may rise, which perhaps we did not before see in that connection and force. Or if it should not be so, yet I am persuaded it will be much better to repent the same scripture in our mind a hundred times in a day, with some pious ejaculation formed upon it, than to leave our thoughts at the mercy of al1 those various trifles which may otherwise intrude upon us, the variety of which will be far from making amends for their vanity.
—Phiip Doddridge "The Rise and Progress of Religion in the soul"

Natural affections raised high in a profession of religion will withstand temptations for a fit, but wait till the stream runs lower, and you will see. What a fit of affection had the Israelites when their eyes had seen that miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea! What songs of rejoicing had they! what resolves never to distrust him again! Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. Satan doth not presently urge them to murmuring and unbelief, though that was his design, but he staid till the fit was over, and then he could soon tempt them to forget his works.
—–Richard Gilpin in "A Treatise of Satan's Temptations,"

For the observation of Providence, it will be useful to regard the divine interposition in our comforts and in our afflictions. In our comforts, whether more common or extraordinary: that we find ourselves in continued health; that we are furnished with food for support and pleasure; that we have so many agreeable ways of employing our time; that we have so many friends, and those so good, and so happy; that our business goes on so prosperously; that we go out and come in safely; and that we enjoy composure and cheerfulness of spirit, without which nothing else could be enjoyed: all these should be regarded as providential favors, and due acknowledgments should be made to God on these accounts, as we pass through such agreeable scenes. On the other hand, Providence is to be regarded in every disappointment, in every loss, in every pain, in every instance of unkindness from those who have professed friendship; and we should endeavor to argue ourselves into a patient submission, from this consideration, that the hand of God is always mediately, if not immediately, in each of them; and that, if they are not properly the work of Providence, they are at least under his direction. It is a reflection which we should particularly make with relation to those little cross accidents, (as we are ready to call them) and those infirmities and follies in the temper and conduct of our intimate friends, which may else be ready to discompose us. And it is the more necessary to guard our minds here, as wise and good men often lose the command of themselves on these comparatively little occasions; who, calling lip reason and religion to their assistance, stand the shock of great calamities with fortitude and resolution.

For watchfulness against temptations, it is necessary, when changing our place, or our employment, to reflect, "What snares attended me here?" And as this should be our habitual care, so we should especially guard against those snares which in the morning we foresaw. And when we are entering on those circumstances in which we expected the assault, we should reflect, especially if it be a matter of great importance, "Now the combat is going to begin: now God and the blessed angels are observing what constancy, what fortitude there is in my soul, and how far the divine authority, and the remembrance of my own prayers and resolutions, will weigh with me when it comes to a trial."
—-Philip Doddridge, "The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul"

Thou hast not that, My child, but thou hast Me,
Am I not alone enough for thee?
I know it all, know how thy heart was set
Upon this joy which is not given yet.

And well I know through the wistful days
Thou walkest all the dear familiar ways,
As unregarded as a breath of air,
But there in love and longing always there.

I know it all; but from thy brier shall blow
A rose for others. If it were not so
I would have told thee. Come, then, say to Me
My Lord, my Love, I am content with Thee.
—Amy Carmichael From "Rose from Brier"

He came from a humble but Godly home, one of 11 children, whose father 3 times a day went into his prayer closet and prayed aloud and the children knew and witnessed how their father walked with God.

He writes in his autobiography:

Though everything else in religion were by some unthinkable catastrophe to be swept out of memory, were blotted from my understanding, my soul would wander back to those early scenes, and shut itself up once again in that Sanctuary Closet, and, hearing still the echoes of those cries to God, would hurl back all doubt with the victorious appeal, "He walked with God, why may not I?" (p.8)

How much my father's prayers at this time impressed me I can never explain, nor could any stranger understand. When, on his knees and all of us kneeling around him in Family Worship, he poured out his whole soul with tears for the conversion of the Heathen world to the service of Jesus, and for every personal and domestic need, we all felt as if in the presence of the living Savior, and learned to know and love him as our Divine friend. (p. 21)

He describes a very moving scene in his autobiography, when he was leaving home to go to Glasgow and start at divinity school, to become a city missionary when in his early twenties. It was a forty mile walk to the train station from his home,, and forty years later he was to write of their parting:

My dear father walked with me the first six miles of the way. His counsels and tears and heavenly conversation on that parting journey are fresh in my heart as if it had been but yesterday; and tears are on my cheeks as freely now as then, whenever memory steals me away to the scene. For the last half mile or so we walked on together in almost unbroken silence – my father, as was often his custom, carrying hat in hand, while his long flowing yellow hair (then yellow, but in later years white as snow) streamed like a girl's down his shoulders. His lips kept moving in silent prayers for me; and his tears fell fast when our eyes met each other in looks for which all speech was vain! We halted on reaching the appointed parting place; he grasped my hand firmly for a minute in silence, and then solemnly and affectionately said: "God bless you, my son! Your father's God prosper you, and keep you from all evil!"

Unable to say more, his lips kept moving in silent prayer; in tears we embraced, and parted. I ran off as fast as I could; and, when about to turn a corner in the road where he would lose sight of me, I looked back and saw him still standing with head uncovered where I had left him – gazing after me. Waving my hat in adieu, I rounded the corner and out of sight in an instant. But my heart was too full and sore to carry me further, so I darted into the side of the road and wept for a time. Then, rising up cautiously, I climbed the dike to see if he yet stood where I had left him; and just at that moment I caught a glimpse of him climbing the dyke and looking out for me! He did not see me, and after he gazed eagerly in my direction for a while, he got down, set his face toward home, and began to return – his head still uncovered, and his heart, I felt sure, still rising in prayers for me. I watched through blinding tears, till his form faded from my gaze; and then, hastening on my way, vowed deeply and oft, by the help of God, to live and act so as never to grieve or dishonor such a father and mother as he had given me. (pp. 25-26)

When he was criticized a few years later for making the decision to go overseas to the New Hebrides and leave a very successful and fruitful ministry behind him, it was a word of his parents that helped him keep his resolve despite the  criticism and opposition to is decision that he faced:

Heretofore we feared to bias you, but now we must tell you why we praise God for the decision to which you have been led. Your father's heart was set upon being a Minister, but other claims forced him to give it up. When you were given to them, your father and mother laid you upon the altar, their first-born, to be consecrated, if God saw fit, as a Missionary of the Cross; and it has been their constant prayer that you might be prepared, qualified, and led to this very decision; and we pray with all our heart that the Lord may accept your offering, long spare you, and give you many souls from the Heathen World for your hire. (p. 57)

John G Paton, his courage, his fortitude and love of his Saviour was obviously a product of his heavenly Father, but he was also very much a product of his earthly father, and shows what can be be the fruit of raising children in a home where God is the centre and the children see the witness of the Saviour as they watch their parents walk closely with God day after day, week after week, year after year.

All the above are excerpts are from this book which is three volumes in one, and goes up until about ten years before his death.

A plain unlearned man that lives well by that light which he has is better and wiser and edifies others towards a happy and godly life than a clergy man trained at the universities.
—John Milton

I was in prison.
O breath of Heavenly air
Blown by the winds of Heaven,
Let come what may,
Our hearts will not despair.
Though will not stay away
From any prison
When friend of Thine is there.

I was in prison.
So Thou art with them there.
The door that opened to them, unaware
Of Thy great presence, opened unto Thee,
whom no man can gainsay.
The warders never knew,
Nor had they eyes to see
Whose feet passed through,
The door that day.
—Amy Carmichael Based on the text Matthe 25:36

Of course, John Bunyan knew prison up close and personal. Yet without his suffering there, when he descirbed being parted fron his blind daughter, Mary, like the skin being ripped from is bones, would we ever have had such great works from his as Pilgrim's Progress and the others he wrote?  He could have easily gained himself freedom, by refusing to preach and recanting, that was all it would have taken on his part, the word all here is not small, because  Christ was his life his   Saviour, and it would have been the ultimate betrayal  to him to do so.

As he spoke here on the subject of ingratitude:

He that forgets his friend is ungrateful to him; but he that forgets his Saviour is unmerciful to himself.
—John Bunyan

"I will stay in prison till the moss grows on my eye lids rather than disobey God."
— John Bunya

Let dissolution come when it will, it can do the Christian no harm, for it will be but a passage out of a prison into a palace; out of a sea of troubles into a haven of rest; out of a crowd if enemies to an innumerable company of true, loving, and faithful friends; out of shame, reproach, and contempt, into exceeding great and eternal glory.
—John Bunyan

Is it that we are so busy with the front rows, which we can see, that we have no time for the back rows out of sight? But is it fair?  Is it what Jesus our Master intends? Can this unequal distribution of the Bread of Life really be called fair?

Could you say to a heathen woman, "I am very sorry for you. I know this will not show you the way from the dark where you are to the light where I am. To show you the way I must go to you, or send someone whom I want for myself, or do without something which I wish to have. And this of course is impossible. It might be done if I loved God enough. But I love myself more than God or you.

You would not say such a thing. But—"Whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him how does the love of God abide in him? (1 John 3:17 NKJV)

Resignation:

There are some brave souls and God knows them well,
Though magazines may not their praises swell,
Whose life breathes a fragrance, just felt, not seen,
Like the scent of the violet lost in green.
Trusted with pain in a shaded room,
Trusted with office, or shop, or loom,
Trusted with pen or needle or broom,
Such, day by day, toil, suffer and pray
Contented to serve their God anyway.
But some there are, super-finely molded,
Who sit with hands submissively folded;
Who vegetate rather than live, and suggest
Good cabbages—doing no harm at best.
Of the poor dark worlds dark need they know;
They take a great interest in missions, and oh!
At times they are almost ready to go—
But then by some flaw in their calculation
They mistake laziness for resignation.

For they are so speedily persuaded
That all the reasons by which they are aided
To gravitate back to the easy chair
Are fully as solid as they are fair.
They "Can't be spared," they have surely heard,
And they don't recollect the rather absurd
Little fad that, most certainly, never a word
Would be raised did the question involve a Ring,
For, "of course, that is quite a different thing."

They have "so few gifts," and they "cannot speak,"
'Tis their "cross in life" to be timid and weak—
Alas that we call by such sacred name
Excuses invented to save us from pain,
Far, far removed from the Cross and shame!
Perhaps the societies door was locked
When with somewhat uncertain knuckle they knocked,
And everyone said, "Ah now it is plain
You cannot be meant to try again.
How terrible should you the business shirk
Of life's most serious fancy work
For our Father's business in temple's murk!"
They sigh and suppose so. The argumentation
Transforms laziness into resignation.
If such a deluded one reads this rhyme
Oh will she not waken while their is time?
Don't think that "sit still" must infallibly be
A life-motto written expressly for thee.
It may be the word is "Go forward"—if not,
If before the Master you stand in your lot,
He will flame your soul with a burning hot
And passionate fire, and you shall know
The joy of setting some other aglow.
—Excerpts from Amy Carmichael's "Fragment's that Remain"

First, who are they? Properly and chiefly our natural parents, of whom we were begotten and born; to whom (under God) we owe our being and breeding. Yet here, not they only; but by synecdoche all other kinsfolks, neighbours, friends, acquaintances, or, indeed, more generally yet, all worldly comforts, stays, and helps whatsoever. 2. But, then, why these named the rathest, and the rest to be included in these? Because we promise to ourselves more help from them than from any of the other. We have a nearer relation to, and a greater interest in them than in any other; and they of all other are the least likely to forsake us. The very brute creatures forsake not their young ones. A hen will not desert her chickens, nor a bear endure to be robbed of her whelps. 3. But, then, thirdly, why both named—father and mother too? Partly because it can hardly be imagined that both of them should forsake their child, though one should hap to be unkind. Partly, because the father's love being commonly with more providence, the mother's with more tenderness; both together do better express than alone either would do, the abundant love of God towards us, who is infinitely dear over us, beyond the care of the most provident father, beyond the affection of the most tender mother. 4. But, then, fourthly, when may they be said to forsake us? When at any time they leave us destitute of such help as we stand in need of; whether it be out of choice, when they list not to help us, though they might if they would; or out of necessity, when they cannot help us, though they would if they could.

But dictum factum: these are but words: Are there producible and deeds to make it good? Verily, there are, and that to the very letter. When Ishmael's mother, despairing of his life, had forsaken him, and laid him down gasping (his last, for ought she knew or could do to help it), in the wilderness, the Lord took him up; he opened a new spring of water, and opened her eyes to see it, and so the child was preserved. Genesis 21. When Moses' parents had also forsaken him (for they durst not stand by him any longer), and laid him down among the rushy flags, the Lord took him up too. He provided him of a saviour, the king's own daughter, and of a nurse the child's own mother—and so he was preserved too. Ex 2:6-9. Take but two examples more, out of either Testament one. David and St. Paul, both forsaken of men, both taken up of God. How was David forsaken, in Ps 142:4, when he had looked upon his right hand, and saw no man that would know him; he had no place to fly unto, and no man cared for his soul. But all the while Dominus ad dextris, there was one at his right hand (though at first he was not aware of him), ready to take him up; as it there followeth, Ps 142:5, "I cried unto thee, O Lord; I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living." And how St. Paul was forsaken; take it from himself, 2Ti 4:16, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me:" a heavy case, and had been heavier had there not been one ready to take his part, at the next verse, "Nevertheless the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, "etc. What need we any more witnesses? In ore duorum—in the mouth of two such witnesses the point is sufficiently established. But you will yet say, these two might testify what they had already found post factum. But David, in the text, pronounces it de futuro, beforehand, and that somewhat confidently: "The Lord will take me up." As he doth also elsewhere: "Sure I am that the Lord will avenge the poor, and maintain the cause of the helpless, " Psalm 109. But is there any ground for that? Doubtless there is; a double ground; one in the nature, another in the promise of God. In his nature four qualities there are (we take leave so to speak, suitably to our own low apprehensions, for in the Godhead there are properly no qualities); but call them qualities or attributes or what else you will; there are four perfections in God, opposite to those defects which in our earthly parents we have found to be the chief causes why they do so oft forsake us; which give us full assurance that he will take us up when all other succors fail us. Those are his love, his wisdom, his power, his eternity, and all in his nature. To which four, add his promise, and you have the fulness of all the assurance that can be desired.
—Robert Sanderson.

Picture from Chambers Creations.

Labour to grow better under all your afflictions, lest your afflictions grow worse, lest God mingle them with more darkness, bitterness and terror. As Joab said to David, if he ceased not his scandalous lamentation on the death of Absalom, all the people would leave him, and then he should find himself fin a far worse condition than that which he bemoaned, or anything that had befallen him from his youth.
The same may be said to person under their afflictions. If they are not improved in a due manner, that which is worse may–nay, in all probability will–befall them. Whenever God takes this way, and engages in afflicting, He commonly pursues His work until He has prevailed, and His design on the afflicted party be accomplished. He will not cease to thresh and then break the bread-corn until it be meet for His use.
Lay down then, the weapons of warfare against Him; give up yourselves to His will; let go everything about which He contends with you; follow after that which He calls you to; and you will find light arising to you in the midst of darkness. Has He a cup of affliction in one hand? Lift up your eyes and you will see a cup of consolation in the other. And if all stars withdraw their light whilst you are in the way of God, assure yourselves that the sun is ready to rise.
—John Owen "A Homiletic Encyclopedia p. 147

If grace be given to the humble, the grace of the knowledge of spiritual things, is not excluded from God's liberality. We gain it sooner by a humble contemplation than by proud wranglings. As to obey God we must deny our wills, so to know him we must deny our reasonings; will must submit our reason to Scriptural precept. Agur acknowledged himself brutish, who came behind none of his age, unless Solomon, in understanding. Prov. 30:2. The humble person will soon be a scholar in this learning, when a Pharisee shall remain as ignorant as he is proud. God reveals himself to babes. Matt. 11:25. The meek will he teach his way. Psalm 25:9. As God knows the proud afar off, Psalm 138:6, so does the proud man know God afar off. A proud scholar and a dove-like teacher can never accord.
—Stephen Charnock

All zealous devout people in a natural religion are enemies to the gospel. By natural religion I mean that which is the product of the remnant of God's image in fallen man, a little improved by the light of God's Word. All such cannot endure to hear that God's law must be perfectly fulfilled in every tittle of it, or no man can be saved by doing: that they must all perish forever who have not the righteousness of a Man who never sinned; who is also "God over all blessed forever," to shelter and cover them from the anger of a holy God, and to render them accepted of Him: that His righteousness is put on by the grace of God, and a man must take himself to it, and receive it as a naked blushing sinner: that no man can do anything that is good till Gospel grace renew him and make him first a good man. This they never will receive; but do still think a man may grow good by doing good.
—Robert Traill

The way to have the firmest belief of the Christian faith is to draw near and taste and try it, and lay bare the heart to receive the impression of it; and then, by the sense of its admirable effects, we shall know that which bare speculation could not discover. Though there must be a belief on other grounds first s much as to let in the word into the soul, and to cause us to submit our hearts to its operations, yet it is this experience yet it is this experience that must strengthen and confirm it. It any man will do the will of Christ, he shall know that the doctrine is of God. John 7:17. The melody of music is better known by hearing it than  by reports of it, and the sweetness of meat is known better by tasting than by hearsay, though upon report we may be drawn to taste and try. So is there a spiritual sense in us of the effects of the gospel on our own hearts, which will cause men to love it and hold it fast against the cavils of deceivers or the temptations of the great deceiver.
—Richard Baxter

Reproofs must be managed with compassion and holy grief….This is God-like: "He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men" (Lam. 3:33). There are tears in his eyes when he has a rod in his hand. It is Christ-like: "He wept when he drew near the city" (Luke 19:41). It is suitable to the servants of God's servants in all ages.
There are three grounds of this holy grief: the dishonour done to God, the harm and destruction men bring upon themselves, and the proneness that is in our nature to the same sin.
Many reproofs are lost, because there is more of passion than compassion in them. It is spiritual cruelty when you can turn a finger at your brother's wounds without grief.
—Thomas Manton "The Epistle of Jude"

But the puritans it is not so hard as it to get a clear picture, even though the misrepresentations of them are perhaps even more rife than that of Calvin.  The Bible says Woe to them who call good evil, and evil good, and in the cases of both Calvin and the puritans, and more figures from the Reformation era, we have this very syndrome often times.  I could cite several sources, but, I think the reader is probably already aware of many of them, so unless anyone asks, I will not do so in the post.  But Chaucer's depiction of his puritan he met on the way to Canterbury goes like this:

"His business and his opportunity was to preach to the people but in order to preach successfully he must preach to the people, must preach what the people would listen to and think they understood. He must preach what could be practiced, and he must himself practice what he preached. The preacher has to say that a man's chief concern sould be with teh welfare of his own soul, that he m ust not let his life be swallowed up in immediate and material affairs but must dedicate it to spiritual ends.
—William Haller "The Rise of Puritanism" pp. 4

Chaucer lived in the fourteenth century, two or three centuries before the age of that which is known as puritanism began. Yet, he depicted the character quite accurately, and more than many modern day writers do, and sadly, even more than many who are part of the Reformed church. If we remain ignorant on such matters, that is our choice. But it is a choice. We have a duty to our God, and to our Reformed fore fathers to not remain ignorant, because to do so, we not only do so to the detriment of our own souls and spiritual welfare, we also do so, at the risk of harm and damage to the Reformed faith.

There are plenty of places in Scripture that give us warrant and duty to study Christian history, Psalm 78 is one that easily comes to mind, as does verses 4-5 from Psalm 22
There are other places in Scripture that also give a warrant to of course, it is not only a great encouragement to our faith, a strengthening of it, to see how God delivered or worked among his church through the ages, but it also helps us, to not tarnish the memory or testimony of those who paid with their blood for the love of Christ. Sadly there are too many who do so. And for me, its one of those things that steps upon my bllue suede shoes of Christendom. But whether puritan history, Reformed history, or any aspect, it is our duty to be learned in such matters, and Scripture calls us to it on many occassions, yet, it is sadly a subject oft neglected, and folk can fail to see the import of or relevance to us in our lives today. But it is HIStory. It does and always will have relevance, because of that alone.

Canterbury Tales

When we pray for thing pertaining to this life, we must desire temporal thing for spiritual ends; we must desire these things to be as helps in our journey to heaven. If we pray for health, it must be that we may improve this talen of health for God's glory, and may be fitter for his service… if we are to pray for temporal good things, then how  much more for spiritual? If we are to pray for bread, then how much more for the bread of life? If we pray to have our hunger satisfied, how much more should we pray to have our souls saved…. Therefore, let u be earnest for spiritual mercies.—Thomas Watson, "Practical Divinity"