340 Or I'IRITIIñL IVIIND"ED'NESS. temptations or occasions of them, forgetful of God, when it is impossible we should be preserved from sin without a due remembrance of his holiness. In brief, the want of a predominant love to God, kept in con- tinual exercise, is the spring of all that unprofitable profession of religion that the world is filled with. Secondly. There are outward ways and duties whereby our spiritual affections are expressed. The rule of them also is the scripture. The way marked out therein, is the only channel wherein the stream of our spiritual affections takes its course to God. The graces required therein, are to act themselves by this rule : the duties it prescribes, are those which they stir up and enliven ; the religious worship which it appoints, is that wherein they have their exercise. Where this rule hath been neglected, men's religious affections have grown irregular, yea, wild and ungov- ernable. All the superstitions that the world is filled pith, owe their original principally to men's affections set loose from the rule of the word. There is nothing so fond, absurd, and foolish, but they have imbondaged the souls of men to ; nothing so horrid and difficult but they have engaged them in. ; And having once taken to themselves this liberty, the corrupt minds of men are a thousand times more satisfied than in the regular exercise of them according to the word of God. Hence they will rejoice in such penancesas are not without their austerities; in such outward duties of devotion as are troublesome and chargeable ; in every thing that hath a show of wisdom in will wor- ship, and humility and neglect of the body. Hence will all their affections be more sensibly moved by images and pictures, and a melting devotion be stirred up in them, than by all the motives and incentives
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