282 DIRECTIONS FOR GETTING AND KEEPING of our state ; but the will's resolution and choice may be more constant. So that I advise you rather to try yourself by your will, than by your passionate stirrings of love or longing, of joy or sorrow. Object. 'But doth not the Scripture lay as much on love as on any grace? And dcth not Christ say, That except we love him above all, we cannot be his disciples ?' Ans. It is all very true. But consider, love hath two parts ; the one in the will, which is commonly called a faculty of the soul, as rational ; and this is the same thing that I call willing, accept- ing, choosing, or consenting. This complacency is true love to Christ; and this is the sure standing mark. The other is the pas- sionatepart, commonly said to be in the soul, as sensitive ; and this, though most commonly called love, yet is less certain and constant, andso unfitter to try your state by, though a great duty, so far as we can reach it. ii. You must understand and well remember, that it is not every willingness that will prove your sincerity; for wicked men may have slight apprehensions of spiritual things, which may produce some slight desires and wishes, which are yet so feeble and heart- less, that every lust and carpal desire overcomes them ; and it will not so much as enable them to deny the grossest sin. But it must be the prevalent part of your will that God must have. I mean a great share, a deeper and larger room than any thing in the world; that is, you must have a higher estimation of God, and everlasting happiness, and Christ, and a holy life, than of any thing in the world ; and alsoyour will must be so disposed hereby, and inclined to God, that if God and glory, to be obtained through Christ by a holy, self-denying life, were set before you on the one hand, and thepleasure, profits and honors ofthe world to be enjoyed in a way of sin, on the other hand, you would resolvedly take the former, and refuse the. latter. Indeed, they are thus set before you, and upon your choice dependeth your salvation or damnation, though that choice must come from the grace of God. iii. Yet must you well remember, that this willingness and choice is still imperfect, and therefore when I mention a hearty willingness, I mean not a perfect willingness. There may be, and is, in the most gracious souls on earth, much indisposedness,back- wardness, and withdrawing of heart, which is too great a measure of unwillingness to duty; especially to those duties which the flesh is most averse from, and which require most of God and his Spirit to the right performance ofthem. Among all duties, I think the soul is naturally most backward to these following. 1. To secret prayer, because it is spiritual, and requires great reverence, and bath nothing of external pomp or
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