Ì OP SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. light, conviction, and custom call for, it will be so far satisfied, as that the mind shall find present ease and refreshment in It. And when the soul is wonted to this relief, it will not only be diligent in the perform- ance of such duties ; it will not only not omit them, but it will delight in them, as those which bring them in great advantage. Hence many will not omit the 'duty of prayer every morning, who upon the matter are resolved to live in sir all the day long. And there are but few who sedulously endeavor to live and walk in the frame of their hearts and ways, answerable to their own prayers ; yet all that is in our prayers be- yond our endeavors to answer it in a conformity of heart and life, is but the exercise of gifts in answer to conviction. Others find them an allay of troubles in them, like that which sick persons may find by drink- ing cold water in a fever, whose flames are assuaged for a season by it. They make them as an antidote :against the poison and sting of sin, which allayeth its gage, but cannot expel its venom. Or these duties are to them, like the sacrifices for sin under the law : they gave aguilty person present ease; but as the apostle speaks, they made not men perfect. They took not away utterly a conscience condemning for sin. Presently, on the first omission of duty, 'a sense of sin again returned on them, and that not only as the fact, but as the person himself was condemnedby the law. Then were the sacrifices to be repeated for renewed propitiation. This gave that carnal people such delight and satisfaction in those sacrifices, that they trusted to them for righteousness, life, and salvation. So it is with persons who are con- stant in spiritual duties merely from conviction. The performance of those duties gives them a present re-
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