334 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. with freedom and enlarged affections before him, and were sensible of. the visits and refreshments of 'his love : remember what peace, what tranquility 6f mind, what joy you had whilst it was so with you; and con- sider what you have gotten since you have forsaken God, in any measure or degree. Dare to deal plainly with yourselves. Is not all you have to do with God, either fromcustomand selfishness, or atten- ded with trouble, disquietment, and fears ? Do you truly know either how to live or how to die l Are you not sometimes a terror to yourselves ? It must be so, unless you are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. What have all your lovers done for you, that you have entertained in the room of God in Christ, and spiritual things l Speak plainly ; have they not defiled you, wounded you, weakened you, and brought you into that condition, that you know not what you are, nor to whom ye do belong ? What are your thoughts when your are most awake, when you are most your- selves i Doyou not sometimes pant within yourselves, and say, O. that it were with us as in former days l And if you can be no way affected with the remem- brance of former things, then one of these two great evils you are certainly under : Either, (1.) You never had a true and real work on your souls, whatever you professed; and so never had true and real communion with God in any duties : you had only a temporary work, which excited your affections for a season, which, now it is worn off, leaves no sweet remem- 'brance of it upon your minds; for had your faith and love been sincere in what you did, it were impossible but that the remembrance of their actings in some especial instances, should be sweet and refreshing to you. Or else,
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