“Come apprehensive of the state of your souls…”

“Get acquainted with your spiritual condition. Come apprehensive of the state of your souls, whether it be the state of grace or nature, what your spiritual wants, what your inward distempers, what your temptations are; else you may hear much to little purpose, not discerning what is seasonable ; else many a petition may pass [...]

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“This doctrine of the total depravity of man makes it plain that the moral consciousness of man as he is today cannot be the source of information about what is ideal good or about what is the standard of the good or about what is the true nature of the will which is to strive for the good.”

“This doctrine of the total depravity of man makes it plain that the moral consciousness of man as he is today cannot be the source of information about what is ideal good or about what is the standard of the good or about what is the true nature of the will which is to strive [...]

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October 25 – “A man’s own self, it is a bundle of idols.”

“A man’s own self, it is a bundle of idols. Since God was laid aside, self succeeded in the crown; we set up everything that we call our own. Everything before which we may put that possessive ‘ours’ may be abused and set up as a snare, all the excellences and comforts of human life, [...]

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October 24 – “The purest actions of the purest men need Christ to perfume them.”

“But grace is not only little, but mingled with corruption; therefore a Christian is said to be smoking flax. So we see that grace does not do away with corruption all at once, but some is left for believers to fight with. The purest actions of the purest men need Christ to perfume them; and [...]

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October 21 – “…none are fitter for comfort than those that think themselves furthest off. Men, for the most part, are not lost enough in their own feeling for a Saviour. A holy despair in ourselves is the ground of true hope.”

“For the concluding of this point, and our encouragement to a thorough work of bruising, and patience under God’s bruising of us, let all know that none are fitter for comfort than those that think themselves furthest off. Men, for the most part, are not lost enough in their own feeling for a Saviour. A [...]

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October 20 – “Therefore desire God that he would bring a clear and a strong light into all the corners of our souls, and accompany it with a spirit of power to lay our hearts low.”

“But how shall we come to this state of mind? Answer: First, we must conceive of bruising either as a state into which God brings us, or as a duty to be performed by us. Both are here meant. We must join with God in bruising ourselves. When he humbles us, let us humble ourselves, [...]

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October 18 – “By the bruised here is not meant those that are brought low only by crosses, but such as, by them, are brought to see their sin, which bruises most of all.”

“But how shall we know whether we are such as may expect mercy? Answer: (1) By the bruised here is not meant those that are brought low only by crosses, but such as, by them, are brought to see their sin, which bruises most of all. When conscience is under the guilt of sin, then [...]

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October 17 – “As a mother is tenderest to the most diseased and weakest child, so does Christ most mercifully incline to the weakest. Likewise he puts an instinct into the weakest things to rely upon something stronger than themselves for support.”

“Christ will not break the bruised reed…FOR OURSELVES, 3. See the contrary disposition of Christ on the one hand and Satan and his instruments on the other. Satan sets upon us when we are weakest, as Simeon and Levi upon the Shechemites, `when they were sore’ (Gen. 34:25), but Christ will make up in us [...]

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October 13 – “…bruising is required before conversion that so the Spirit may make way for himself into the heart by levelling all proud, high thoughts, and that we may understand ourselves to be what indeed we are by nature.”

“This bruising is required before conversion that so the Spirit may make way for himself into the heart by levelling all proud, high thoughts, and that we may understand ourselves to be what indeed we are by nature. We love to wander from ourselves and to be strangers at home, till God bruises us by [...]

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October 11 – “The bruised reed is a man that for the most part is in some misery, as those were that came to Christ for help, and by misery he is brought to see sin as the cause of it, for, whatever pretences sin makes, they come to an end when we are bruised and broken.”

“The bruised reed is a man that for the most part is in some misery, as those were that came to Christ for help, and by misery he is brought to see sin as the cause of it, for, whatever pretences sin makes, they come to an end when we are bruised and broken. He [...]

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October 7 – “Sin is not quite dead in the regenerate soul; it is but dying, and dying a lingering death, being crucified: no wonder there are great fightings, when it is sick at the heart, and death is at the door.”

“Case 3. “I find the motions of sin in my heart more violent since the Lord began his work on my soul, than they were before that time. Can this consist with a change of my nature?” Answer. Dreadful is the case of many, who, after God has had a remarkable dealing with their souls, [...]

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October 6 – “Let not therefore the prevailing of corruption make you, in this case, conclude you are none of God’s children: but let it humble you, to be the more watchful, and to thirst the more intensely after Jesus Christ, his blood and Spirit…”

“Case 2. ‘If I were a new creature, sin could not prevail against me as it does.’ Answer. Though we must not lay pillows for hypocrites to rest their heads upon, who indulge themselves in their sins, and make the doctrine of God’s grace subservient to their lusts, lying down contentedly in the bond of [...]

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September 5 – “God did not adopt us when we were bespangled with the jewels of holiness, and had the angels’ glory upon us; but when we were … diseased as lepers, was the time of his love.”

“The wonder of God’s love in adopting us will appear the more if we consider that God should adopt us when he had a Son of his own. Men adopt because they want children, and desire to have some to bear their name; but that God should adopt us when he had a Son of his own, [...]

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August 23 – “To be tempted involves no special humiliation for us, because we are antecedently humiliated by the presence of sin in our hearts…”

“…the temptation had to carry in itself for Jesus an element of suffering and humiliation on our behalf, and not merely the exertion of a strenuous will for obedience. Here again there is a difference between Jesus’ temptations and ours. To be tempted involves no special humiliation for us, because we are antecedently humiliated by [...]

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