222 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. kindness, with other.actings and duties of the like na- ture, are things of no value, things that can recom- mend us neither to God nor man. It is so in general with God and the world. Whatever we do in the ser- vice of God, whatever duty we perform on his com- mand, whatever we undergo or suffer for his name's sake, if it proceed not from the cleavingof our souls to himby our affections, it is despised byhim; he owns us not. 'As if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned:' Cant. v. ; so if a man would give to God all the sub- stance of his house without love, it would in like man- ner be despised. And however, on the other hand, we may be diligent, industrious, and sedulous in and about the things of this world, yet, if it have not our affections, we are not of the world, we belong not to it. They are the seat of all sincerity, which is the jewel of divine and human conversation, the life and soul of every thing that is good and praiseworthy; whatever men pretend, as their affections are, so are they. Hypocrisy is a deceitful interposition of the mind, on various reasons and pretences, between men's affections and their profession, whereby a man appears to be what he is not. Sincerity is the open avowment of the reality of men's affections, which renders them good and useful. Affections are in the soul as the helm in the ship ; if it be laid hold on by a skilful hand, he turneth the whole vessel which way he pleaseth. If God hath the powerful hand of his grace upon our affections, he turns our soul to a compliance with his institutions, in- structions, afflictions, trials, all sorts of pros idences, and in mercy holds them firm against all winds and storms of temptations, that they shall not hurry them
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