How will we know when to cease and leave off mourning? The soul has many things to do and it cannot always mourn nor always rejoice. We have mourned enough, when we have overcome our hearts, and brou...  Read More

We are told to weep and mourn always and to rejoice and be thankful always, how can these agree? To this I answer that the state of a Christian in this life is a mixed state. The outward state and th...  Read More

The best way to weep is to enter into the house of mourning and set before our eyes the afflictions of others. The very sight of misery is a means to make the soul weep. And let us be willing to hear...  Read More

Tears and mourning for sin, when it comes from inward grief, is a temper well befitting any man. It is not an unmanly or base thing. When one has to deal with God, he must forget his state and take t...  Read More

(6) In false humility the hypocrites are sorrowful for the judgment, that is upon them; but not for that which is the cause of the judgment, which is sin; but the child of God, he is humbled for sin,...  Read More

(4) True humility proceeds from faith and is in the faithful not only when judgment is upon them, but before the judgment comes. True humility quakes at the threats, as the very frowns of a father wi...  Read More

How may we know holy from hypocritical humility? (1) Holy humility is voluntary. But, on the contrary, the humility of other men is against their will and by force it is extorted from them. God will ...  Read More

A humble heart is a grace itself, and a vessel of grace. It does better the soul and make it holy, for the soul is never fitter for God than when it is humbled. It is a fundamental grace that gives s...  Read More

It is a strange thing that the devil should raise men to be proud of that which is not of themselves, but of things they have borrowed or have been given; as for men to be proud of themselves in rega...  Read More

(6) That we may humble ourselves, let us work upon our own souls by reasoning, discoursing, and speaking to our own hearts. For the soul has a faculty to work upon itself. So, discourse thus: If a pr...  Read More

(3) That we may humble ourselves, let us be content to hear of our sins and baseness by others. Let us be content that others should acquaint us with anything that may humble us. Proud men are the de...  Read More

How may we come to humble ourselves as we should? (1) Get poor spirits, spirits that see the want in ourselves; the emptiness of all earthly things without God's favour; the insufficiency of ourselve...  Read More

It is not unbefitting kings to humble themselves before God, seeing they have to deal with him who is a 'consuming fire' (Heb. 12:29), before whom the very angels cover their faces. I say it is no sh...  Read More

(1) God has promised to dwell in a tender heart. Isaiah 57:15 says, 'For thus says he that is high and excellent, he that inhabits eternity, whose name is the Holy One: I will dwell in the high and h...  Read More

How will men recover themselves when their hearts are subject to hardness, deadness, and insensibleness? (1) As when things are cold, we bring them to the fire to heat and melt, so we bring our cold ...  Read More

We may test our tenderness of heart these four ways: (1) As it is tender from God, so it is tender for God; for the three persons of the Trinity. He that has a tender heart cannot endure to dishonour...  Read More

(9) Lastly, consider the miserable state of hardness of heart. Such a one that has a hard heart is next to hell itself, to the state of a damned spirit, a most terrible state. A hard heart is neither...  Read More

(7) Take heed of hypocrisy; for it causes swelling, and pride makes the heart to condemn others that be not like unto us. They bless themselves that they live thus and thus, they think themselves bet...  Read More

(5) Take heed of the least sin against conscience. Sins that are committed against conscience darken the understanding, deaden the affection, and take away life; so that one has not the least strengt...  Read More

How a tender heart may be preserved and maintained. (1) Be under the means whereby God's Spirit will work; for it is he by his Spirit that works upon the heart and does preserve tenderness in us; and...  Read More

Is there anything in man that can cause God to do him good? No. Where God intends to do any good, he first works in the heart a gracious disposition: after which he looks upon his own work as upon a ...  Read More

The apostle Paul was an excellent man, and had excellent privileges to glory in. Oh but, said he, 'I account all dung and dross in comparison of the excellent knowledge of Christ' (Phil. 3:8). Our bl...  Read More

Heaven would not be heaven without the presence of God. The presence of God in a dungeon, in a lion's den, makes it a paradise, a place of pleasure; the presence of God makes all conditions comfortab...  Read More

Christians have a constant desire to dwell in the house of God. (1) The reason is, because the soul in this world is never fully satisfied with the good things of God's house until it be in heaven. T...  Read More