I Make It My Rule, To Lay

Resolved, To Study The Scriptures So Steadily, Constantly And Frequently, As That I May Find, And Plainly Perceive Myself To Grow In The Knowledge Of The Same.

As God Delights In His Own Beauty, He Must Necessarily Delight In The Creature's Holiness Which Is A Conformity To And Participation Of It, As Truly As [the] Brightness Of A Jewel, Held In The Sun's Beams, Is A Participation Or Derivation Of The Sun's Brightness, Though Immensely Less In Degree.

But Yet It Is Evident That Religion Consists So Much In Affection, As That Without Holy Affection There Is No True Religion; And No Light In The Understanding Is Good Which Does Not Produce Holy Affection In The Heart: No Habit Or Principle In The Heart Is Good Which Has No Such Exercise; And No External Fruit Is Good Which Does Not Proceed From Such Exercises.

Real Pain Can Alone Cure Us Of Imaginary Ills.

The Soul Of A True Christian, As I Then Wrote My Meditations, Appeared Like Such A Little White Flower As We See In The Spring Of The Year; Low And Humble On The Ground, Opening Its Bosom To Receive The Pleasant Beams Of The Sun’s Glory; Rejoicing, As It Were, In A Calm Rapture; Diffusing Around A Sweet Fragrancy; Standing Peacefully And Lovingly, In The Midst Of Other Flowers Round About; All In Like Manner Opening Their Bosoms To Drink In The Light Of The Sun.