Bridge's remains, being VIII sermons

7ly. If your affections be not thus set, you can never please God in any thing that you do for God: for as he requireth truth in the inward parts,¹ so he requireth that we should serve him with fervency of Spirit;² Be fervent in Spirit, serving the Lord. Rom 12.11. As if no service could be acceptable without the fervency of affection. Cursed is every one that hath in his flock a Male, saith Malachi, and offereth a Female to God. Go and offer it to thy Prince saith God. Do you think that I will accept your Female affections? No saith the Lord, if you would have acceptance with me, I must have the best, and the Masculine affections from you. Surely therefore it is very fit and necessary that our affections be set and placed on things that are above.

1. 1Affectum non vocem audit Deus. August.
2. 2Affectibus appropinquamus Deum. Tostat. in Math. Tom. 4. fol. 97.

8ly If your affections be not set on things that are above, how shall your heart be knit, engaged, and united unto God, in opposition to all Apostasy. If you look into Scripture, you shall find there are three degrees of Apostasy. First, The Judgment watches. Secondly, The Affections cool. Thirdly, The Conversation grows worse. Accordingly men ar• said to Apostatize. Sometimes they are said to depart from the faith. 1 Tim 4.1. There is the warping of the Judgment. Sometimes they are said to loose their first love. Mat. 24. Iniquity shall abound, and the love of many s•all grow cold; there is the cooling of their affections. Sometimes they are s•id to make shipwreck of a good Conscience, to forsake the assemblies of the Saints; there is the declining in the Conversation.