Fourthly, To fpeak to fome Practical Cafe about loving Gop with all our Hearts.

Three of these Heads I have already gone through in feveral Difcourfes, I now come to the Fourth and last,

Now the Cafe I have to speak to concerning the Love of GOD, is the Case of those, who, tho' they exercife Devotion towards GOD, yet do it with great Dulnefs and Deadness of Affection; whether thefe People can be faid to love GOD with all their Hearts and Souls?

The Cafe is this: Prayer and Devotion, and the Worship of God, are (we know) the most proper Inftances and Expreffions of our Love to Him; and it is readily acknowleged on all hands, that thofe Perfons who do not practise these Things, who can live without praying, and worshiping GOD, have no true Love of GoD in them. But now what fhall be faid of those Perfons that do indeed fay their Prayers, and that perhaps both in Public and Private; but yet they say them without any Vigour or Life, their Affections are dead and flat in these Holy Exercises, they find no Relish nor Sweetness in them? Other People talk of a great Pleafure and Delight they take in thefe Duties, and look upon it as a moft agreeable Employment to fing Praifes to God, and to pour out their Souls in moft fervent Devotion to Him; but they take no Satisfaction in these kind of Things. On the contrary,

it is with great Reluctancy oftentimes that they can obtain of themselves to engage in thefe Exercises; and, while they are engaged, their Minds are often employed about other Things, and glad they are when they come to the End of their Offices. What now fhall we fay to these Perfons? Is fuch a Temper as this confiftent with that fincere Love of GOD, and that hearty Sense of Religion, that is required of us? This is the Cafe: But, as thus generally put, it cannot be answered by a fingle Yea or No. It may fo happen, that

We

Man that truly loves God may be in this dull Difpofition, though it doth more often happen, that this Frame and Difpofition of Mind is an Effect of Lukewarmnefs. must therefore take into Confideration feveral other Circumftances in the Perfons concerned, before a right Judgment can be made of their Cafe. That which I can fay about it, I shall reduce into these Propofitions. And,

First of all, As it is certain, that no Man can be faid to love GOD, or to have any Senfe of Religion, who lives in a general Neglect of Prayer, and other Exercises of Devotion; fo it is likewife certain, that, generally fpeaking, all Men that do fincerely love GOD, fuppofing they be in Health, and free from the Disorders that arife from hypochondriac Melancholy, will find their Affections fo carried out after God, that they will with great Vigour, and the utmost Inten fe

Intenseness of Mind, perform their Devotions to Him; nay, they will take a great Pleasure and Delight in fo doing. Not that they think God needs our Services, or is anyway better by them; but because they know and feel, that they themselves are really better by thus lifting up their Souls to GOD; by adoring his Excellencies, and fetting forth his Praifes; by meditating on his Goodness, and paying their Acknowlegements; by devoting themselves to his Service, and recommending the Supply of all their Wants to his fatherly Care and Bounty. These being the proper Methods of growing and improving in all Virtue and Holinefs, the natural Expreffions of the Senfe we have of GOD, and the Love we bear to Him, and the chief, if not the only Means of maintaining and enjoying a real Communion with Him, upon these Accounts, as they will take all Opportunities that their Time and Business allow them of approaching to GoD both in Public and Private, fo they will do it chearfully and readily, and their Hearts and Minds will go along with the Service. And fo far will they be from looking upon it as a Burden or Impofition, thus to pay their conftant Tribute of Prayer and Thanksgiving to GOD, that they will reap great Satisfaction and Content from fo doing. This, we fay, generally speaking, will be the Temper of thofe that truly love God.

But

But then, Secondly, We fay it is not to be expected, that even the most devout Perfons should at all times perform their Offices of Religion with equal Fervour, or with equal Attention, or with equal Satisfaction: It will unavoidably happen, what thro' the Weaknefs of human Nature, or what through Bufinefs or unthought-of Accidents, or twenty other Things which may distract the Thoughts; and what thro' the Dulnefs and Unfitness of our present Temper for the Exercise of these spiritual Employments; I fay, it will unavoidably happen, that even the most devout Perfons may be at fome Seasons very indifpofed for Devotion. And fometimes, when they apply themselves to the Exercise of it, their Minds fhall be altogether so taken up and diverted by other Objects (that have got the prefent Poffeffion of their Thoughts), that they shall give little or no Attention to what they are about; at other times, though they bend their Minds as much as they can to the Bufinefs they are doing, yet they shall find themselves very liftlefs, and cold, and dull, and the whole Performance will

be very flat and infipid. At other times it shall be even against the Grain of their Inclinations to fay their Prayers at all. There is no Man fo fpiritual in this World, but he muft expect now-and-then to fuffer these Inconveniencies, even through the natural Indifpofition of his bodily Temper, or thro'

the

the Distraction of his Employments. It is a vain Thing to talk of fitting fo loose from. this World, and having our Affections fo fteadily placed upon GOD, that we shall be always in a praying Frame. Human Nature in this Life will not bear it, and they will run themfelves upon great Hazards that do attempt it.

But then, here is the Comfort against these Inconveniencies, that generally they do not laft for any long time. If we be at the prefent indifpofed for Devotion, or dead and lifeless in the Exercise of it, yet in a little time we shall come to yurfelves again. The Fervour of our Defires and Affections towards GOD will return, and we fhall perform our Religious Offices with the fame Heart, and Life, and Vigour, that we ufed to do.

But then, Thirdly, You are to remember, what I have now faid only concerns thofe Indifpofitions for Devotion, which every Man now and-then, at this or the other time, may find in himself. But now, whenever it happens that this Dulness, and Liftleffness, and Unattentiveness to our Devotions, grows into a Cuftom or Habit, fo that a Man, generally fpeaking, performs them negligently and carelefly, and is hardly brought to them, and cares not how foon they are over; this is a bad Sign, that the Man either doth not love Gop fo fincerely as he ought to do [as not having that Regard to His Worfhip and Service, which

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