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النشر الإلكتروني

Godly sorrow is the sorrow of love, the melting of the heart; love is the pain and pleasure of a mourning heart.

The evangelical penitent loves and grieves. "Alas, (saith he) that I, who am as high as heaven in privilege, should be as deep as hell in iniquity! Instead of repenting, I have run farther on score! Instead of honouring God, I have dishonoured him! Instead of pleasing him, I have provoked him! Instead of following him, I have forsaken him!-O what bowels have I grieved! How can I sin against my Jesus? Shall I deny and crucify my Saviour? He was crucified for me, and shall he be crucified by me! Shall I wound his heart and pierce his side again, and give him cause to say, These are the wounds I received in the house of my friends."

OF FAITH.

RELIANCE is the essence of faith, Christ is the object, the word is the food, and obedience the proof: so that the true faith is a depending upon Christ for salvation in a way of obedience, as he is offered in the word.

The true tears of repentance flow from the eye of faith.

Though faith be necessary to our justification, good works are necessary to our salvation.

We must derive our works from faith, and demonstrate our faith by works.

God is often pleased to embitter a life of sense, that he may endear the life of faith.

A steadfast faith begets a constant peace.
The more faith, the more humility.

Keep good principles, and they will keep you. Men would first see, and then believe; but they must first believe, and then see.

Ás believers live upon Christ, by faith, so they live to him by obedience.

There is a difference between contending for the faith, and babbling for a fancy.

Assurance sets the notion of faith too high, assent too low.

There is as much difference between faith and assurance, as there is between the root and the fruit.

There may be joy without faith, and there may be faith without joy.

Human faith is founded upon probability, divine faith upon certainty.

If the exercise of faith be the care of your souls, the end of your faith will be the salvation of your souls.

OF HUMILITY.

To be low is the safest and comeliest posture for sinful creatures.

It is the creature's honour to abase himself before the most high God.

God had rather see his children humble for sin, than proud of grace.

If men did but know themselves more, they would be more humble.

They that are humble, are content and thankful.

An humble spirit is a charitable and quiet spirit.

Judge thyself with a judgment of sincerity, and thou wilt judge others with a judgment of charity.

To humble ourselves is the only way to rise. Believers must be humble for sin pardoned, and because it is pardoned.

When Paul was a pharisee, he thought he was blameless: when he was a christian, the chief of sinners; before, any thing but Christ; now, none but Christ.

If Christ humbled himself for our nature, we should humble ourselves to honour his name.

Neither all the devils in hell, nor all the temptations in the world, can hurt that man that keeps himself humble and depending on Christ.

It is no humiliation to aggravate sin above Christ's saving power.

Despair is a corruption of humiliation, it is a counterfeit humility, a sullen pride, a covert of a hardened spirit.

This is true humiliation, which (like a harbinger) makes way for Christ, and throws the soul at his feet.

Our Saviour was a preacher and pattern of humility: he did so admire it, that he set them in the highest form, that had the lowest hearts. None so high and glorious as Christ, yet none so meek and lowly.

OF CONTENTMENT.

HUMILITY is the mother of contentment. The deeper your self-abhorrence, the easier self-resignation.

They that deserve nothing should be content with any thing.

Bless God for what you have, and trust God for what you want.

We must commit our souls to God's keeping, and submit ourselves to God's disposing.

We should obey his revealed will, and then be resigned to his providential will.

If we cannot bring our condition to our mind, we must labour to bring our mind to our condition.

Neither contentment nor discontentment arises from the outward condition, but from the inward disposition.

If a man is not content in that state he is in, he will not be content in any state he would be in.

OF PRIDE.

To be sure a man is proud of that which he scorns another for the want of.

That which a man envies in another, he would be proud of, if he had it himself.

Pride is founded on error and self-ignorance. Some are proud of what they are, others of what they are not.

There is a sullen pride in not acknowledging benefits.

A man may be poor in purse, yet proud in spirit.

There may be pride in rags, in a solemn look, and lowly carriage.

God had rather his people should fare poorly, than live proudly.

How canst thou be a judge of another's heart, that dost not know thine own?

As the first step heavenward is humility, so the first step hellward is pride.

Pride counts the gospel foolishness, but the gospel always shows pride to be so.

Pride is a sin that will rise out of the ashes of other sins.

Folly is the beginning of pride, and shame shall be the end of it; either temporal repentance or eternal punishment.

Shall the sinner be proud that is going to hell? shall the saint be proud that is newly saved from it?

Thou that canst call nothing thy own but sin and shame, art thou proud? A worm, and proud? Emptiness, and proud? Perishing, and proud? It is unreasonable for the creature to be proud, much more the sinner.

OF HYPOCRISY.

AN hypocrite is one that neither is what he seems, nor seems what he is.

An hypocrite is the picture of a saint; but his paint shall be washed off, and he shall appear in his own colours.

God is in good earnest with us, we ought therefore to be so with him.

An hypocrite is hated of the world for seeming a Christian, and hated of God for not being

one.

OF TEMPTATION.

TEMPTATIONS are instructions.

He is over-wise that goes out of God's way to escape a cross.

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