46 - /
Thirdly, If to this we add the shame and guilt of sin, we shall find a still greater reason for humility.
49 - /
Now this is plainly delivered in these words: ‘Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.’*Christianity therefore implieth a deliverance from this world; and he that professeth it, professeth to live contrary to everything, and every temper, that is peculiar to this evil world.
50 - /
I shall in a short time die, and leave you to God, and yourself, and if God forgiveth my sins, I shall go to his Son Jesus Christ, and live amongst Patriarchs and Prophets, Saints and Martyrs, where I shall pray for you, and hope for your safe arrival at the same place.
51 - /
She stints them in their meals, and is very scrupulous of what they eat and drink, and tells them how many fine shapes she has seen spoiled in her time, for want of such care. If a pimple rises in their faces, she is in a great fright, and they themselves are as afraid to see her with it, as if they had committed some great sin.
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And as there is no pretence for innocence in such a behaviour, so neither can they tell how to set any bounds to their guilt. For as they can never know how much, or how often they have occasioned sin in other people, so they can never know how much guilt will be placed to their own account.
53 - /
How many saints has adversity sent to Heaven? And how many poor sinners has prosperity plunged into everlasting misery? A man seems then to be in the most glorious state, when he has conquered, disgraced, and humbled his enemy; though it may be, that same conquest has saved his adversary, and undone himself.
54 - /
A man naturally fancies, that it is his own exceeding love ofvirtue, that makes him not able to bear with those that want it. And when he abhors one man, despises another, and cannot bear the name of a third, he supposes it all to be a proof of his ownhigh sense of virtue, and just hatred of sin.
56 - /
For a frequent intercession with God, earnestly beseeching him to forgive the sins of all mankind, to bless them with his provi dence, enlighten them with his Spirit, and bring them to everlasting happiness, is the divinest exercise that the heart of man can be engaged in.
57 - /
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 - /
As the labour and action of every state of life, is generally over at this hour, so this is the proper time for everyone to call himself to account, and review all his behaviour, from the first action of the day. The necessity of this examination, is founded upon the necessity of repentance. For if it be necessary to repent of all our sins, if the guilt of unrepented sins still continue upon us, then it is necessary, not only that all our sins, but the particular circumstances and aggravations of them, be known and recollected, and brought to repentance.
60 - /
Would you tell such a man, that a daily confession was necessary to keep up an abhorrence of sin, that the mind would grow hardened and senseless of the guilt of sin without it? And is not this as good a reason for requiring, that your daily repentance be very express and particular for your daily sins? For if confession is to raise an abhorrence of sin, surely that confession whichconsiders and lays open your particular sins, that brings them to light with all their circumstances and aggravations, that requires a particular sorrowful acknowledgment of every sin, must in a much greater degree fill the mind with an abhorrence of sin, than that which only, in one and the same form of words, confesses you only to be a sinner in general. For as this is nothing but what the greatest Saint may justly say of himself, so the daily repeating of only such a confession, has nothing in it to make you truly ashamed of your own way of life.