Godliness Is More Easily Feigned In Words

Those Who Are In A State Of Salvation Are To Attribute It To Sovereign Grace Alone, And To Give All The Praise To Him Who Maketh Them To Differ From Others.

The Deceitfulness Of The Heart Of Man Appears In No One Thing So Much As This Of Spiritual Pride And Self-righteousness. The Subtlety Of Satan Appears In Its Height, In His Managing Persons With Respect To This Sin. And Perhaps One Reason May Be That Here He Has Most Experience; He Knows The Way Of Its Coming In; He Is Acquainted With The Secret Springs Of It: It Was His Own Sin. Experience Gives Vast Advantage In Leading Souls, Either In Good Or Evil.

It Is God’s Will Through His Wonderful Grace, That The Prayers Of His Saints Should Be One Of The Great Principal Means Of Carrying On The Designs Of Christ’s Kingdom In The World. When God Has Something Very Great To Accomplish For His Church, It Is His Will That There Should Precede It The Extraordinary Prayers Of His People; As Is Manifest By Ezekiel 36:37. And It Is Revealed That, When God Is About To Accomplish Great Things For His Church, He Will Begin By Remarkably Pouring Out The Spirit Of Grace And Supplication (see Zechariah 12:10).

When God Is About To Bestow Some Great Blessing On His Church, It Is Often His Manner, In The First Place, So To Order Things In His Providence As To Show His Church Their Great Need Of It, And To Bring Them Into Distress For Want Of It, And So Put Them Upon Crying Earnestly To Him For It.

Salvation Is So Great A Thing, So Glorious An Attainment, That 'tis Worth The While For A Man To Do His Utmost Every Day During His Whole Life In The Use Of All Proper Means That He May Attain.