The excellency of holy courage in evil times by Jeremiah Burroughs

A Fourth Use is this: If it be so that Gods people are in such a different frame of spirit; sometime they are afraid, and their hearts are down; at other times they have a spirit of courage, and fitness for any service that God will have them to do: This should teach us when our hearts are down, and not in that fitness we desire, to be restless till we get our selves in a good frame: Sometime the Godly have their hearts in a good frame, and therefore it is possible to be had, and we should never be in rest till we had got it.

A Fourth Use is this: If it be so that Gods people are in such a different frame of spirit; somtime they are afraid, and their hearts are down; at other times they have a spirit of courage, and fitness for any service that God wil have them to do: This should teach us when our hearts are down, and not in that fitness we desire, to be restless till we get our selves in a good frame: Somtime the Godly have their hearts in a good frame, and therefore it is possible to be had, and we should never be in rest til we had got it.

Quest. But how shall we get up our hearts when they are not in a frame fit for service?

Answ. First, Be sensible of the evil of an unserviceable heart, so as to be humbled before God for the want of it, and be more sensible of the evil of that, than sensible of the evil of want of peace and comfort: Many when they find their hearts down, and not in that degree fit for service that they desire, they are troubled for it, but the reason is because their hearts being down, there arise doubts of their condition, and their peace is hindered, and they cannot have comfort in it, but they are not so much troubled because they are unserviceable, and want hearts fitted for duty, and that is the reason why their hearts are kept down: Now this should be our care, to be more sensible of the unserviceableness of our hearts, than of the unpeaceableness of our hearts.