This, therefore, we are to inquire into. Doth it abide in us as formerly ? We hear the Word preached as much as ever; but do we do it with the same desire and spiritual relish as before ? Some hear to satisfy their convictions, some to please their fancies, and some to judge of the ^sersons by whom it is dispensed. It is but in few that the necessary preparation for the due receiving of it is found.
When men grow in age, they lose much of their natural appetite unto food. They must eat still for, the maintenance of life ; but they do it not with that desire after it, and that gust in it, as in the days of youth and health. Hence they are apt to think that the meat which they had formerly was more savoury than what is now pro- vided for them; though what they now enjoy is much to be preferred before what they then had. The change is in themselves. So we may find not a few professors, who are ready to think and say that the preaching which they had in fonner days, and the religious exer- cises which they were engaged in, were far to be preferred above what they now enjoy. But the change is in themselves; they have lost their spiritual appetite, or their hunger and thirst after the food of their souls.
" The full soul loatheth an honey-comb ; but to the hungiy soul every bitter thing is sweet," Prov. xxvii. 7. Men being gi'own full of themselves, and of a good conceit of their own abilities, have lost
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their spiritual appetite unto tlie Word of God ; and this makes the Word lose its power and efficacy towards them. That Word, which the Psalmist says is " sweeter than honey, or the honey-comb," Ps. xix. 10, hath little or no taste or relish in it unto them. If they were hungiy, they would find a sweetness in the bitterest of its reproofs, beyond what they can now find in the sweetest of its promises. They come to hear the Word with sick desires, and low expectations, as if they were invited to eat after a feast, being self-full before. But this loss of a spiritual appetite is an evidence of the decay of all other graces whatever.
(2.) A neglect of making religion our principal business, is an- other evidence of the decay of all sorts of grace in us. For where grace is in its proper exercise, it will subordinate all things unto re- ligion, and the ends of it, as David twenty times declares in the 119th Psalm. All things, all occasions of life, shall be postponed thereunto. The love and valuation of it will bear sway in our minds, our thoughts, and affections; and the practice of it shall give rule unto all other concernments. But is it so with many amongst us? It is well if religion be one thing, — it is far enoughfrom being the one thing; every other thing is prefen-ed before it, and it can hardly crowd in to possess any place in their mmds. To see men continually plodding in the affairs of the world, regulating all their actings by their con- cernment in them, diverting only at some seasons, as it were out of their way, unto duties of religion, — it is vain to say that they make religion their business. But there is scarce a more certain evidence of a frame of mind spiritually decaying in all sorts of graces, if ever any of them were in it in sincerity and power, than this one, that men do not make religion their chief est business. And a little self-exami- nation will help men to judge what it is that they make so to be.
(3.) Lastly, I might also instance the uselessness of men in their profession ; in want of love unto all saints, barrenness in good works, unreadiness and unwillingness to comply, in any extraordinary man- ner, with the calls of God unto repentance and reformation; in love of the world and pride of life, with passions suited unto such prin- ciples, predominant in them: for they are all undeniable evidences, that those with whom they are found had never any true grace at all, or that they are fallen under woful decays. But what hath been spoken may be sufficient unto our present purpose.
This is the third thing that was proposed, — namely, an endeavour to leave convictions on the minds of some concerning their spiritual decays, and the necessity of seeking after a revival by the means that shall be insisted on. And I intend it principally for those of us who, under a long profession, are now come unto age, and shall not have much time for duty continued to us. And the truth is, I meet with
452 HOW TO RECOVER FROM SPIRITUAL DECAY,
none who are Christians of any considerable experience, and are spi- ritually-minded, but they are sensible of the danger of such decays in this hour of temptation, and how difficult it is, in the use of all means, to keep up a vigorous, active frame of mind, in faith, love, holiness, and fruitfulness. And for those who are not concerned herein, I con- fess I know not what to make of them, or their religion.