In this article, we analyze the devotion manual Mestre da vida que ensina a viver e morrer santamente, (Master of Life that Teaches How to Saintly Live and Die), written in 1731 by the Portuguese Dominican João Franco. The analysis focus on the representations of the deadly sins, the advice to combat them, and the "remedies" suggested for the salvation of souls. It also approaches the discursive strategies employed by the celebrated preacher to promote repentance and internalization of guilt in Catholic readers. To highlight the circulation and diffusion of perceptions of sin and guilt and, above all, on the salvation of souls in the first half of the eighteenth century, the guidance offered in Mestre da vida is compared to images of the punishment suffered by sinners in Hell, which illustrate the work Desengano dos pecadores (Sinners Disillusion), written in 1724 by Jesuit priest Alexandre Perier.