Casuistical morning-exercises the fourth volume /

And if you take your Christianity to be a state of drudgery and disconsolateness; if you degenerate into worldliness, luxury or voluptuousness, (as in John ii. 15-17. James iv. 4.) If you grow so tender of your selves as to be swayed more by what affects the outward than the inward man: If you give way to partiality, to jealousies, heats and ferments, to a censorious, jealous and detracting Spirit; or to the Spirit of domination and division; or if you form your principles, interests and actions according to the measures and concerns of this vain transient world, and of the animal life: This malady will prove incurable.

2. Heart-warming objects are to be contemplated. Such as the glories of Gods name: The Grandeurs of his Majesty and Throne, the Accuracies of his Government in all its Constitutions and administrations. The Stores and Treasures of his Goodness with all their provident and yet generous distributions, unto all his creatures: the riches of his grace in his kindness to us by Jesus Christ, the exhibition of his Son and all the amiable excellencies and endearing aspects and addresses made to us by him: the life that is in Christ, the grace and promises that are given us by him, so great and precious: all the fellowship and intimacies that we are hereby called and admitted to: Gospel Treasures and Provisions to bring and keep our God and us together in order to all the Solaces and Satisfactions of Steady, Full, Eternal Friendship: the eminent importance of his Gospel, Interest and Kingdom in and to the world, the Church and us; the loveliness and vigours of his Interest and Image in us, as formed sixth and actuated, and ⟨p. 334⟩possessed by his eternal Spirit, to his eternal praise by Jesus Christ: the solid pleasures, peace and usefulness of regular zeal for God, Christ, Christianity and all that are near and dear to God, with all the comforts and renown which this well sixth and ordered zeal prepares us for. All that we are saved from, by, to, through the effectual cure of this disease. All the solemnities of Christs approaching day; and our great concerns therein. All the good that is in, that attends upon, and that issues from the prosperous Successes of the Gospel, the holiness and and peace of the Church, and the health, the usefulness, the possession, the Conflicts and Conquests of a well cured Soul, and all the Honours, Ease and Blessings that attend our glorious Gospel. All this, and much more deserves deep thoughts, and all the fervours and acknowledgements and Services of love. And the plain truth is this: We are both constituted of, and surrounded with inflaming objects of this love. And the great object and attractive shines even most gloriously in all. Nature in all its Harmonies, Stores and Beauties; Providence in all its illustrations of its excellencies and exactness, suiting it self in all the Articles thereof to every thing and being and concern in Heaven and Earth.