46 - /
Now though I do not intend to say, that no daughters are brought up in a better way than this, for I hope there are many that are: yet thus much I believe may be said, that the much greater part of them, are not brought up so well, or accustomed to so much Religion, as in the present instance.
47 - /
Some people that judge hastily, will perhaps here say, that I am exercising too great a severity against the sex.
48 - /
If it should here be said, that I even charge too high upon their education, and that they are not so much hurt by it, as I imagine:
49 - /
Let him only acquaint any such woman with his opinion of her: I do not mean that he should tell her to her face, or do it a Devout and Holy Life. in any rude public manner; but let him contrive the most civil, secret, friendly way that he can think of, only to let her know his opinion, that he thinks she is neither handsome, nor dresses well, nor becomes her finery; and I dare say, he will find there are but very few fine dressed women that will like him never the worse for his bare opinion, though known to none but themselves; and that he will not be long without seeing the effects of her resentment.
50 - /
The spirit of this education speaks so plainly for itself, that, I hope, I need say nothing in its justification. If we could see it in life, as well as read of it in books, the world would soon find the happy effects of it.
51 - /
I shall now leave this subject of humility; having said enough, as I hope, to recommend the necessity of making it the constant, chief subject of your devotion, at this hour of prayer.
52 - /
I cannot see why every Gentleman, Merchant, or Soldier, should not put these questions seriously to himself:
53 - /
Now there is nothing that so much exalts our souls, as this heavenly love: it cleanses and purifies like a holy fire, and all ill tempers fall away before it. It makes room for all virtues, and carries them to their greatest height. Everything that is good and holy grows out of it, and it becomes a continual source of all holy desires, and pious practices. By love, I do not mean any natural tenderness, which is more or less in people, according to A Serious Call to their constitutions; but I mean a larger principle of the soul, founded in reason and piety, which makes us tender, kind, and benevolent to all our fellow-creatures, as creatures of God, and for his sake.
54 - /
The love therefore of our neighbour, is only a branch of our love to God. For when we love God with all our hearts, and with all our souls, and with all our strength, we shall necessarily love those beings that are so nearly related to God, that have everything from him, and are created by him, to be objects of his own eternal love. If I hate or despise any one man in the world, I hate something that God cannot hate, and despise that which he loves.
55 - /
It is very possible, I hope, for you not only to dislike, but todetest and abhor a great many of your own past actions, and to accuse yourself of great folly for them. But do you then lose any of those tender sentiments towards yourself, which you used to have? Do you then cease to wish well to yourself? Is not the love of yourself as strong then, as at any other time?
56 - /
This was his polite, or I may rather say, poor, ignorant turn of mind, before devotion had got the government of his heart.
57 - /
I do not suppose, but that the generality of parents remember their children in their prayers, and call upon God to bless them. But the thing here intended, is not a general remembrance of them, but a regular method of recommending all their particular needs and necessities unto God; and of praying for every such particular grace and virtue for them, as their state and condition of life shall seem to require.
58 - /
We are not, I suppose, to believe that every hasty word, or unreasonable expression, that slips from us by chance or surprise and is contrary to our intention and tempers, is the great sin here signified.
59 - /
I dare appeal to any man’s mind, whether it does not tell him, that this relation of the Virgin Mary to our blessed Lord, must have obliged all those that lived and conversed with her, to treat her with great respect and esteem. Might not a man have justly dreaded the vengeance of God upon him, for any scorn or contempt that he had shown to her?
60 - /
I have laid before you, the many and great advantages of intercession. You have seen what a divine friendship it must needs beget amongst Christians, how dear it would render all relations and neighbours to one another; how it tends to makeClergymen, Masters, and Parents, exemplary and perfect in all the duties of their station; how certainly it destroys all envy, spite, and ill-natured passions; how speedily it reconciles all differences, and with what a piercing light it discovers to a man the true state of his heart.