reflect of what they were made? I suppose they wou'd find as they
often complain, that they are Weak and Infirm, that while this _Flesh
and Blood_ is about them, their _Souls_ are heavy, apt to decline, and
seldom continue long in one posture and stay; that the World is upon
them where ever they go, and the Devil busily marking their steps in
every Path. That their _Faith_ wavers upon many Surprises, their
_Hopes_ languish, and their _Fervour_ decays; that in such cold
seasons as these, their Spirits move but stiffly about, and seldom
rise into any earnest petitions for Grace, but sink under the burden
of _Prayer_, or steal away to some Trifle, or other for a little
Relief. That in such cases they have no _Heart_ to go on with the rest
of their Duties, all the Commandments of God growing grievous upon
them, and _Repentance_ beginning to have a discouraging face: That
they know not how to follow their Master, wheresoever he goeth with
all this Oppression, the _Cross_ being now too much for them to take
up, and they feeling now no _Ease_ in his _Yoke_.

And when they often find it thus to their grief, even where they think
they take care to prevent it, wou'd one ever believe they shou'd act,
as if they desir'd these Gloomy Returns, or thought the present Light
they enjoy'd cou'd never be obscured again? How shall we do to think
them sincere in their daily bewailings of _Human Infirmities_, while
they continue to lay new weights on their Nature, as if the common
Occasions of Life afforded not tryal enough for their faith, unless
they call'd in _Temptations_ to prove how much they coul'd bear?

Wou'd they that desired to be _fervent in Prayer_, and _attend_ on the
Lord with as little _Distraction_ as their State would admit, fill
their Heads with a crowd of extravagant thoughts, and run to see
_Devotion_ it self ridiculed, as if nothing was in it but Solemn