But since this subject is to be treated on with the utmost caution, inasmuch as many are apt to conclude, that they have no grace, because they have no raised affections, in holy duties, as well as others presume they have grace merely because they are affected therein, let it be farther considered; that when we speak of raised affections, not being a certain mark of grace, we consider them as being destitute of those other evidences, which contain some essential properties of grace: the affections are often raised by insignificant sounds, or by the tone of the voice, when there is nothing in the matter delivered, that is adapted to excite any grace, the judgment is not informed thereby, nor the will persuaded to embrace Christ, as offered in the gospel. There may be transports of joy in hearing the word, when, at the same time, corrupt nature retains its opposition to the spirituality thereof. A person may conceive the greatest pleasure in an ungrounded hope of heaven, as a state of freedom from the miseries of this life, when he has no savour or relish of that holiness which is its glory, in which respect his conversation is not in heaven; and he may be very much terrified with the wrath of God, and the punishment of sin in hell; when, at the same time, there is not a due sense of the vile and odious nature of sin, or an abhorrence of it: such instances of raised affections we intend when we speak of them as no marks or evidences of the truth of grace. But, on the other hand, when, together with raised affections, there is the exercise of suitable graces, and the impression thereof remains, when their fervency is abated or lost, this is a good sign of grace; whereas, when they are not accompanied with the exercise of any grace, they afford no mark or evidence of the truth thereof. Now that we may not be mistaken as to this matter, let us enquire, not only what it is that has a tendency to raise the affections; but whether our understandings are rightly informed in the doctrines of the gospel, and our wills choose and embrace what is revealed therein. And if we find it a difficult matter for our affections to be raised in holy duties, let us farther enquire, whether this may not proceed from our natural constitution? and if the passions are not easily moved with any other things in the common affairs of life; we have then no reason to conclude that our being destitute hereof in the exercise of holy duties, is a sign that we have not the truth of grace, especially if Christ and divine things are the objects of our settled choice, and our hearts are fixed trusting in him.