Poetical fragments heart-employment with God and it selfPoetical fragments heart-imployment with God and it self

Jesus. Judge by these three for ending all the strife: Thy Estimation, Choice, and Bent of Life. These fleshly pleasures stand in competition: Know which thou Choosest as thy best Condition. If thou the Everlasting sure Reward, More than sins fading pleasures dost regard; If GOD and thy Salvation be the part, Whose Interest stands highest in thy Heart; If thus his Kingdom thou first seek and crave; Both it, and all things needful thou shalt have.

Jesus. Judge by these three for ending all the strife: Thy Estimation, Choice, and Bent of Life. These fleshly pleasures stand in competition: Know which thou Chusest as thy best Condition. If thou the Everlasting sure Reward, More than sins fading pleasures dost regard; If GOD and thy Salvation be the part, Whose Interest stands highest in thy Heart; If thus his Kingdom thou first seek and crave; Both it, and all things needful thou shalt have.

Sinner. I fear I do not these thy terms fulfil; And have not truly a Consenting Will: Because so great averseness I still find, To God and Holiness upon my mind; Such deadness to Believe, Love, and Repent, That there seems more of Hatred than Consent. Necessity and Reason use a force Against my Will and Nature's bent and source.

Sinner. I fear I do not these thy terms fulfil; And have not truly a Consenting Will: Because so great averseness I still find, To God and Holiness upon my mind; Such deadness to Believe, Love, and Repent, That there seems more of Hatred than Consent. Necessity and Reason use a force Against my Will and Nature's bent and sourse.

Jesus. No man can conquer and obtain Salvation, But by resisting carnal inclination. Fleshly desires run with speedy course, And need not Faith's or Reason's help and force. Earthward you sink propensly as a cold; But not so easily ascend to God. One motion's downward; th' other's all uphill; Against the bias of the carnal will. Too much of flesh remaineth in the best: Some enmity to good sticks in their breast: Something of Hatred, even to God and Grace, Contends with Love, and troubleth your race. In the most mortified, the flesh yet liveth, And constantly against the Spirit striveth: You cannot hear, read, meditate, or pray, Or any thing that's good, think, do, or say; But Flesh makes war, and stiffly doth resist, And would prevail, did not my Grace assist.