This perfection is the restoration of man to the state of holiness from which he fell, by creating him anew in Christ Jesus, and restoring to him that image and likeness of God which he has lost.
The grand obstacle to the salvation of the scribes and Pharisees was their pride, vanity and self-love. They lived on each other’s praise. If they had acknowledged Christ as the only good teacher
It is to be regretted that few persons who have arrived at any degree of eminence or fame, have written Memorials of themselves, at least such as have embraced their private as well as their public life.
Few men can be said to have inimitable excellencies: let us watch them in their progress from infancy to manhood, and we shall soon be convinced that what they attained was the necessary consequence of the line they pursued, and the means they used.
But this Christ or Redeemer took not upon him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, that is, human nature, that in the nature which sinned he might make the expiation required.
Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble man’s heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven.
