“In short, the whole soul, ensnared by the allurements of the flesh, seeks its happiness on the earth. To meet this disease, the Lord makes his people sensible of the vanity of the present life, by a constant proof of its miseries.”

“The heart also, engrossed with avarice, ambition, and lust, is weighed down and cannot rise above them. In short, the whole soul, ensnared by the allurements of the flesh, seeks its happiness on the earth. To meet this disease, the Lord makes his people sensible of the vanity of the present life, by a constant [...]

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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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September 10 – “God has two strings to his bow; if your hearts will not lie humble and low under the sense of sin and misery, he will make them lie low under the lack of some desired mercy (assurance).”

“The sixth reason why God denies assurance to his dearest ones, at least for a time, is, that they be kept humble and low in their own eyes; as the enjoyment of mercy (assurance) gladdens us—so the lack of mercy (assurance) humbles us…Surely, it is better to lack any temporal mercy—than a humble heart; it [...]

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August 22 – “It is violence to corrupt nature for a man to be holy, to lie down under Christ’s feet…”

“Dear Sir, I always saw nature mighty, lofty, heady and strong in you; and that it was more for you to be mortified and dead to the world than for another common man. You will take a low ebb, and a deep cut, and long lance, to go to the bottom of your wounds in [...]

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