ÒP SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. 2'7>i lief and ease ; though it heal not their wounds, it as- suageth their pain, and dispelleth their present fears. Hence are they frequent in them, and that ofttimes not without delight; because they find ease thereby. And their condition is somewhat dangerous, who, upon the sense of the guilt of any sin, do betake themselves for relief to their prayers; which having discharged, they are much at ease in their minds and consciences, although they have obtained no real sense of the par- don of sin, nor any strength against it. It will be said, do not all men, the best of men, per- form all spiritual duties out of a conviction of their necessity ? Do they not know it would be their sin to omit them, and so find satisfaction in their minds upon their performance i I say they do ; but it is one thing to perform a duty out of conviction of necessity, as it is God's ordinance, which conviction respects only the duty itself; another thing to perform it, to give satis- faction to convictions of other sins, or to quiet con- science under its troublé about them "; which latter we speak to. This begins and ends in self; self-satisfac- tion is the sole design of it. By it men aim at some rest and quietness in their own minds, which otherwise: they cannó.t attain. But in the performance of duties in faith, from a conviction of their necessity as God's ordinance, and their use in the way of his grace, the soul begins and ends in God. It seeks no satisfaction in them, nor finds it from them, but in and from God alone by them. Thirdly. The principal reasonwhy men whose af- fections are only changed, not spiritually renewed, delight in holy duties of divine worship, is, because they place their righteousness before God in them, . whereon they hope to be acceptedwith him. They
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