SPIRITUAL PEACE AND COMFORT. 281 ings. It is the heart that God requireth. "My son, give me thy heart;" Prov. xxiii. 26. If he hath the will, he hath the heart. He may have much of our knowledge, and not our heart. But when we know him so thoroughly as to will him unfeignedly, then he hath our heart: Affectionate workings of the soul to God in Christ, are sweet things, and high and noble duties, and such as all Christians should strive for. But they are not the safest marks to try our states by. (1.) Because there may be a solid, sincere intention and choice in and of thewill, where there is little stirring perceived of the affections. (2.) Because the will is the master- commanding faculty of the rational soul; and so, if it be right, that man is upright and safe. (3.) Because the passions and affec- tions are so mutable and uncertain. The will can command them but imperfectly ; it cannot perfectly restrain them from vanities ; much less can it perfectly raise them to that height, as is suitable to the excellency of our heavenly objects. But the object itself, with itssensible manner of apprehension, moves them more than all the command of the will. And so we find by experience, that a godly man, when, with his utmost private endeavor, he, cannot com- mand one stirring pang of divine love or joy in his soul, yet upon the hearing of some moving sermon, or the sudden receiving of some extraordinary mercy, or the reading of some quickening book, he shall feel perhaps some stirring of that affection. So when we can- not weep in private one tear for sin, yet at a stirring sermon, or whenwe give vent to our sorrows, and ease our troubled hearts into the bosom of some faithful friend, then we can find tears. (4.) Because passions and affections depend so much on the temperature of the body. To one they are easy, familiar and at command ; to another (as honest) they are difficult and scarce stirred at all. With most women, and persons of weaker tempers, they are easier than with men. Some cannot weep at the death of a friend, though never to dear, no, nor perhaps feel very sensible, inward grief; andyet perhaps would have redeemed his life at a far dear- er rate (had it been possible) than those that can grieve and weep more. abundantly. (5.) Because worldly things have so great an advantage on our passions and affections. 1. They are sensible and near us, and our knowledge of them is clear. But God is nót tobe seen, heard or felt by our senses; he is far from us, though locally present with us ; we are -capable of knowing but little, very little of him. 2. Earthly things are always before our eyes; their advantage is continual. 3. Earthly things, being still the objects ofour senses, do force our passions, whether we will or not though they cannot force our wills. (6.) Because affections and passions rise and fall, and neither are nor can be in any even and constant frame, and therefore are unfit to be the constantor certain evidence. VOL. 5. 36
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