A Divine Cordial

4. When Christians make little reckoning of Gods Worship; Duties of Religion are performed §4in a dead formal manner; if they are not left undone, yet they are ill done; this is a sad Symptom of a spiritual Consumption; Remissness in Duty, shows a decay in our first love. The strings of a Viol being slack, the Viol can never make good music: When men grow slack in Duty, they pray as if they prayed not, this can never make any harmonious sound in Gods Ears. When the spiritual Motion, like that of the Eighth Sphere, is ••ow and heavy, and the Pulse of the soul beats low, it is a sign Christians have left their first love.

4. When Christians make little reckoning of Gods Worship; Duties of Religion are performed §4in a dead formal manner; if they are not left undone, yet they are ill done; this is a sad Symptom of a spiritual Consumption; Remissness in Duty, shews a decay in our first love. The strings of a Viol being slack, the Viol can never make good musick: When men grow slack in Duty, they pray as if they prayed not, this can never make any harmonious sound in Gods Ears. When the spiritual Motion, like that of the Eighth Sphea•, is ••ow and heavy, and the Pulse of the soul beats low, it is a sign Christians have left their first love.

Let us take heed of this spiritual Consumption; 'tis dangerous to abate in our love. Love is such a grace as we know not how to be without. A Soldier may as well be without his weapons, a Limner without his pencil, a Musician without his Viol, as a Christian can be without love. The body cannot want its ••tural heat. Love is to the soul, ⟨p. 138⟩as the natural heat is to the body, there is no living without it. Love doth influence the graces, it excites the affections, it makes us grieve for sin, it makes us cheerful in God; it is like oil to the wheels; it quickens us in Gods service. How careful then should we be to keep alive divine love!