The wickedness of a people is great indeed when the most notorious sinners are men of renown among them. Things are bad when bad men are not only honoured notwithstanding their wickedness, but honoured for their wickedness, and the vilest men exalted. Wickedness is then great when great men are wicked.

Grace does not run in the blood, but corruption does. A sinner begets a sinner, but a saint does not beget a saint.

Note, Unpardoned guilt fills men with continual terrors, Prov. xxviii. 1; Job xv. 20, 21; Ps. liii. 5. It is better to fear and not sin than to sin and then fear.

Impenitent unhumbled hearts are therefore not reclaimed by God's rebukes because they think themselves wronged by them; and it is an evidence of great hardness to be more concerned about our sufferings than about our sins.

Satan teaches men first to doubt and then to deny; he makes them sceptics first, and so by degrees makes them atheists. - Matthew Henry