So the Word of God, if it is not obeyed, turns to be the plague to wicked and ungodly men, and the very saviour of it destroys them.
O labor to keep your hearts in a constant trembling frame, and the Word that you do now tremble at will forever hereafter comfort your heart.
Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.
But now the fear of the godly is such a fear as enlarges their souls unto God and makes their hearts active for God, makes them fit for duty, not unfit as the fear of the hypocrite does.
And indeed, a heart truly sensible of the evil of sin cannot be at rest until it knows further God's mind towards it, but it will be inquiring by all means that can be to further know the mind of God concerning it.
When the Lord is pleased to humble any soul, He can do it with very little pains.
If God has given you any tenderness of spirit, it is a jewel. It is more than if He had made you an emperor or a queen.
There is little hope for children who are educated wickedly. If the dye have been in the wool, it is hard to get it out of the cloth.
Has the luster of the infinite holiness of God ever shone upon your heart and drawn your heart to Him? And has your heart ever leaped at the sight of the brightness of His holiness? Is this why you love Him? If so, you know God correctly and your heart has been correctly drawn to Him.
As a man's god is, so is he.
God's name is glorious because of holiness, because it is the special end of all His works to advance holiness. When an artist draws something, he shows art in the beginning, but when he comes to the end he shows the excellency of his workmanship. It is so with God. God will be honored in all His works of creation and providence, but now He comes to the height and zenith of all, and it is that He might be honored as a holy God and that He might have a holy people to honour Him here and to all eternity. Holiness is that at which God aimed in creating heaven and earth.
Holiness is the very principle of eternal life, the very beginning of eternal life in the heart, and that which will certainly grow up to eternal life. Holiness is the proper object of God's delight. God does not delight in the legs of a man but in his holiness. Let a man be what he will, if God sees any impression of holiness in him, His soul closes with that soul.
People who do not believe in anything, will come to believe anything.
Contentment in every condition is a great art, a spiritual mystery. It is to be learned, and to be learned as a mystery.
I say a gracious man does not live so much in himself as in God; he lives in God continually.
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