Besides public ordinances, we should give ourselves to spiritual exercises in secret.
All the time we can spare from our necessary, civil, and natural actions should be employed in calling to mind what we have seen, heard, or felt of God.
You can never part with sin soon enough; it is a cursed inmate, that will surely bring mischief upon the soul that harbours it. It will set its own dwelling on fire.Works 7:147
Bee-masters tell us, that they are the best hives which make the greatest noise; so that conscience is the best which makes the greatest noise in daily reasonings and debates before it's own bar.
To own and stand up for a hated and despised truth will bring more comfort to our souls than all the pleasure the wicked have in their sensual delights.
To humble us in our converses with God. He is good, but we are evil; he is heaven, but we are hell; he is perfect, but we are poor defective creatures. Therefore in all our approaches to him we should come the more humbly to him, and go the more holy from him; for it is sad when we come to the good God, and are never the better. If we go to the fire, we expect to be warm. Oh! when you come to the fountain of goodness, we should come away better.https://www.monergism.com/rich-young-ruler-exposition-mark-1017-27-ebook
As the excellency of his nature giveth him a fitness and a sufficiency for the government of mankind, his creation, preservation, and other benefits give him a full right to make what laws he pleaseth, and to call man to an account whether he hath kept them, yea or no.Works, Volume 10
The more a man delighteth in God, and in the ways of God, the more he cleaveth to Him, and resolveth to go on in this course, and temptations to sensual delights do less prevail.
A good conscience is one trained by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. When we understand God's truth clearly and are convicted by it firmly, then the governor of conscience begins to
rule us into righteousness. Mystery of the Holy Spirit (109)
Good God, whither is man fallen! First, we practice sin, then defend it, then boast of it. Sin is first our burden, then our custom, then our delight, then our excellency!
It is usual in providence that they who have God's heart should feel God's hand most heavy. I have observed it, that God's children never question His love so much as in sickness. Our thoughts return upon us in such retirement, and the weakness of the body discomposes the mind and deprives us of the free exercise of spiritual reason; to sense and feeling all is sharp.
Jewels do not lie upon the surface; you must get into the caverns and dark receptacles of the earth for them. No more do truths lie in the surface and outside of an expression. The beauty and glory of the Scriptures is within and must be fetched out with much study and prayer.
Poverty and pride are most unsuitable. It was one of Solomon's odd sights to see "servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth" (Eccl. 10:7). A poor proud man is a prodigy and wonder of pride. He has less temptation to be proud; he has more reason to be humble.
Luxury is living in pleasure. God allows us to use pleasures, but not to live in them; to take delights, but not that they should take us. To live always at the full is but a wanton luxury.