OE' SPIR.11'iTAT, MTNDÈDNRSS. 221 Deut. xxx. 6. ' And the Lord thy God will circuma eise thyheart, and the heart of thy seed ; to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.' And on the other side, all the artifices of the world, all the paint it puts on its face, all the great promises it makes, all thefalse appearances and attires it clothes itself with, by the help of Satan, have no other end but to draw and keep the affections of men to itself. And if the worldbe preferred before God, in this ad- dress which is made to us for our affections, we shall justly perish with the world to eternity; and be re- jected by him whom we have rejected. Prov. i. 24, 25, 31. Our affections are, upon the matter, our all. They are all we have to give or bestow ; the only power of our souls, whereby, ifwe may, we give away ourselves from ourselves, and become another's. Other facul- ties of our souls, even the most noble of them, are suited to receive in to our own advantage ; by our af- fections we can give away what we are, and have. Hereby, we give our hearts to God, as he requireth. Wherefore to him we give our affections, to whom we give our all, ourselves, and all that we have ; and to whom we give them not, whatever we give, upon the matter, we give nothing at all. In what we do to or for others; whatsoever is good, valuable, or praiseworthy in it proceeds from the af- fections wherewith we do it. To do any thing for others without an animating affection, is but a con- tempt of them; for we judge them really unworthy that we should do any thing for them: to give to the poor upon their importunity, without pity or compas- sion; to supply the wants of saints without love and
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