OUR IMAGINATIONS & PRAYER

'Seeing our imaginations have great power over hearts, and can mightily affect us with their representations, it would be great use to you if, at the beginning of your devotions, you were to imagine to yourself some representation as might heat and warm your heart in a temper suitable to those prayers that you are then about to offer unto God.' 

William Law in  Dale C Allison Jr., The Luminous Dusk, p.68. 

RELIGIOUS AFFECTIONS

'From the daily incidents of conjugal and domestic life, we learn that a heart of affection occasionally vehement, but superficial and transistory, may consist too well with a course of conduct, exhibiting incontestable proffs of neglect and unkindness. But the passion which alone the Holy Scriptures dignify with the name of Love, is a deep, not a superficial feeling; a fixed and permanent, not an occasional emotion. It proves the validity of its title, by practical endeavors to gratify the wishes and promote the interests of the object of affection. "If a man loves me, he will keep my sayings" [John 14:24]. "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" [2 John 1:6]. This therefore is the best standard by which to try the quality, or the quality being ascertained, to estimate the strength of the religious affections.'

William Wilberforce, A Practical View of Christianity, p.52.