The Soul's Conflict with Itself

When the law of God by the Spirit is so written in our hearts, that the law and our hearts become agreeable one to the other, then the soul is inclined and made pliable to every good thought: When the heart is once taught of God to love, it is the nature of this sweet affection (as the Apostle saith) to ⟨p. 188⟩think no evil either of God or man, and not only so, but it carries the bent of ¹the whole soul with it to good, so that we love God not only with all our heart, ²but with all our mind, that is, both with our understanding and imagination. Love is an affection full of inventions, and sets the wit a work to devise good things; therefore our chief care should be, that our hearts may be circumcised and purified so, as they may be filled with the love of God, and then we shall find this duty not only easy but delightful unto us. The Prophet healed the waters ³by casting salt into the spring, so the seasoning of the spring of our actions seasons all. And indeed what can be expected from man whilst he is vanity but vain imaginations? What can w• look for from a Viper but poison? A man naturally is either weaving spid• ⁴webs or hatching Cockatrices eggs, th• is, his heart is exercised either in va• or mischief, for not only the frame […] the heart, but what the heart frameth i• evil continually. A wicked man that i• ⁵besotted with false conceits, will ad• ⟨p. 189⟩of no good thoughts to enter.