DISCOURSE VII. .Means of exciting the Devout Affections. WE E are now come to the last thing designed in these dis- courses, and that is to propose " a few proper methods, whereby the affections of nature may be awakened and employed in the christian life." fake them in the following order: I. See to it that the leading and ruling faculties of the soul, viz. the understanding and the will, be deeply and firmly engaged in religion. Let the mind be well furnished with divine know- ledge, and the will be as resolutely bent for God and heaven. Where the understanding has but a poor and scanty furniture of the things of God, the pious affections willhave thefewer springs to raise them: And if our ideas of divine things are obscure and confused, our passions are in great danger of running wildly astray, and of being led away by every delusion. Seek there- fore not only a large and plenteous acquaintance with the things of God, but endeavour, as far as possible, to get clear and dis- tinct conceptions of them,that the pious passions tray have solid ground whence to take their rise. And then let your will be steadily set for God without weakness or wavering. If the re- solves and purposes of the heart be feeble and doubtful, the affections will never rise to any high degree in a regular or last- ingmanner. But I have said so much on these points that I shall not en- large here. If the mind and will are sanctified, it is certain, according to the very frame of our natures, that the passions will in some degree follow the influence of these governing faculties. Why is it our passions are suddenly alarmed and so warmly in -, fluenced by the things of this world ? It is because our minds have too high a value for them, our wills are too much attached to them, we place our happiness too much in them ; Mat. vi. 21. Where the treasure is, the heart will be also ; the heart with all its passions. Why are our desires, our longings, our fears, and hopes, our sorrows, joys, and resentments so keen, and so intense about the things of life ? It is because these things are too much esteemed as our treasure, our portion, our inheritance. If God be our portion, Christ our life, andheaven our inheritance, and our hbme, then our " affections will be set on the things that are above, whereChrist is at the right-hand of God ; Cot, iii. 1, 2. II. " Engage themost powerful and governing passion for God, that is, the passion of love :" All the train of affections will
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