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147. Some receive the form of godliness to take away their reproach, but not the power of it to take away their sins.-Henry.

148. It will avail nothing to change your religion if your religion do not change you.

Mason.

149. Let God be your end, Christ your way, and the Holy Spirit your guide."

150. Creatures are broken reeds and empty cisterns, but God is a firm rock, on which you may rest; a fountain of living waters, from which you may draw grace and peace.

151."'Tis religion that can give
Sweetest pleasure while we live;
'Tis religion must supply
Solid comfort when we die."

152. "From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,

Path, motive, guide, original and end.”

153. As enmity to God and his law marks the carnal mind, so love to God and delight in his law, are the distinguishing traits of the spiritual or renewed mind.

154. If the heart be not right with God, all must necessarily go wrong.

155. Divine grace touches all the powers

and movements of the soul. Love and hatred, hope and fear, desire and aversion, joy and grief, are the springs and wheels which it influences, rectifies, and governs.

155. Do not spend your time about nice and needless distinctions, to the neglect of weighty doctrines and necessary duties, or foolishly strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

156. Behold, from realms of light descend,
The friend of him who has no friend,
Religion! Her almighty breath

Rebukes the winds and waves of death,
She bids the storms of frenzy cease,
And smiles a calm and whispers peace.

Montgomery.

157. Among many things that the excellent Beza in his last will and testament gave God thanks for, this was the first and chief: That he had at the age of sixteen years called him to the knowledge of the truth, and so prevented many sins and sorrows that would otherwise have overtaken him, and made his life less happy.

On Repentance.

158. Let neither the tears of natural tenderness, nor the sudden terrors of conscious guilt, be mistaken for genuine repentance.

159. Godly sorrow is a stream flowing from the fountain opened in a regenerate heart.

160. True repentance, says an old divine, consists in the heart being broken for sin, and broken from sin.

161. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy. Prov. xxviii. 13. One covers his sins with the fig-leaf apron of vain excuses, another with the filthy rags of self righteousness, and a third with the flimsy arguments and wretched quibbles of infidelity.

162. Sin in its ordinary progress first deceives, next hardens, and then destroys.

163. As impenitence shuts Christ out of the soul, so Christ will shut the impenitent out of heaven. Luke xiii. 5.

164. Many seem to think a few confessions and tears will merit acceptance with God; but repentance is not the price, but a part of salvation.

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165. That there may be fruit meet for repentance, the heart must be softened by the Holy Spirit. Who expects to reap a harvest from a naked rock?

166. Repentance is a change of mind, conversion a change of life, and the one must accompany the other.

167. He who repines at his sufferings, but repents not of his sins, is far from the kingdom of God.

168. Some often repent yet never reform; they resemble a man travelling a dangerous path who frequently starts and stops, but never turns back.

169. He who leaves religion to his last day, reserves only the bran for God, while he gives the fine flour to the Devil.—Italian proverb.“

170. What better can we do, than prostrate fall Before him reverent; and there confess Humbly our faults, and pardon beg with tears.

Milton.

171. Do not put off serious thoughts about your ternal state to a death bed, when pain of body nd di struction of mind may render you quite ncap able of thinking.

172. Sincere repentance is never too late, but late repentance is seldom sincere.-Bishop Hall.

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173. As God gives you space to repent, pray that he may also give you grace to repent-Jay.

On Faith in Christ.

174. What shall I do to be saved, is an enquiry of unspeakable importance. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is a satisfactory answer.

175. True faith is a simple dependance on gospel promises, which all centre in Christ as their author and object.

176. He who relies on his own works for acceptance with God, sets out in error, walks in pride, and must meet dreadful disappointment.

177. Without faith in Christ no freedom from the curse, no friendship with God, no peace in death, or portion in heaven.

- 178. The sincere believer looks to Jesus, lives on his truth, longs for his immediate presence, trusts in his merits, and triumphs in his grace.

179. The most grievous, aggravated, and destructive sin, is that unbelief, which rejects and tramples under foot the Son of God.

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