In a divine commonwealth holiness must have the principal honor and encouragement, and a great difference be made between the precious and the vile.

Sit not down without assurance. Get alone, and bring thy heart to the bar of trial; force it to answer the interrogatories put to it; set the qualifications of the saints on one side, and the qualifications of thy soul on the other side, and then judge what resemblance there is between them.

Death is half disarmed when the pleasures and interests of the flesh are first denied.

In a divine commonwealth holiness must have the principal honor and encouragement, and a great difference be made between the precious and the vile.

Keep up your conjugal love in a constant heat and vigor. Love will suppress wrath: you cannot have a bitter mind upon small provocations, against those that you dearly love.

Be careful how you spend your time: Spend your time in nothing which you know must be repented of.

And though it be their sin and vanity that is the cause, it is nevertheless your sin to be the unnecessary occasion: for you must consider that you live among diseased souls. And you must not lay a stumblingblock in their way, nor blow up the fire of their lust, nor make your ornaments their snares; but you must walk among sinful persons, as you would do with a candle among straw or gunpowder; or else you may see the flame which you would not foresee, when it is too late to quench it.