"If you would make any part of your battle strong, then focus your attention upon anything that contributes to and maintains a spirit of unbelief. It is certainly true that the foundation of your doubts is original sin, but the great pillar that rests upon it is lingering unbelief. All of your staggering, reeling, questioning, and doubting comes directly from your unbelief. O weak believer, this is what prevents you from seeing Christ, the covenant, the promises, and your title! This is what distorts your judgment and misleads it with cunning arguments, so that you cannot discern the full truth of God’s promises, or see the prevailing reasons for persuading yourself that they belong to you."
"'O,’ says the humbled sinner who has a true sight of himself, ‘what a broken state of affairs this is! What an imperfect measure of holiness! My light is dim, and there is a sense of drudgery in all of my duties. My righteousness is defective and my faith is mixed with much unbelief. My prayers contain a great deal of coldness, irreverence, and distraction; and when I have mourned over my sins, I am grieved for not feeling more grief. Thus I hate myself, because I cannot otherwise hate my sins. How then can I stand before God, whose eyes are too pure to behold sin? Will the Lord accept such a person, who discharges his duties so poorly?'"
"You are in God’s divine favor, though you cannot feel it; and although your comfort lies in the feeling of it, yet your happiness is in the being of it. You are saved because God loves you, not because you perceive that love."
COLLAPSE