When we grow careless of keeping our souls, then God recovers our taste of good things again by sharp crosses.

See here, for our comfort, a sweet agreement of all three persons: the Father giveth a commission to Christ; the Spirit furnisheth and sanctifieth to it; Christ himself executeth the office of a Mediator. Our redemption is founded upon the joint agreement of all three persons of the Trinity.

God's children improve all advantages to advance their grand end; they labour to grow better by blessings and crosses, and to make sanctified use of all things.

If Christ has once possessed the affections, there is no dispossessing of him again. A fire in the heart overcomes all fires without.

Christ does not choose you because you are good, but to make you good.

It is Christ's manner to trouble our souls first, and then to come with healing in his wings.

We are only safe when we wisely make use of all good advantages that we have access to. By going out of God's ways we go out of His government, and so lose our good frame of mind, and find ourselves overspread quickly with a contrary disposition. When we draw near to Christ (James 4:8), in His ordinances, He draws near to us.