Interruptions In The Means Of Grace
Illustration★★★Long interruptions in the use of our religious duties will hinder the fruits of them; when there are gaps and strides between the performance of duties, we lose the benefit of them. As it is with our bodies, if a man make a free and a liberal meal, this will not maintain his body to-morrow and the day after ; but he must have constant food, else nature languishes and decays; so if you are delighted to-day, but should neglect to be so for many days after, you will lose the benefit of it, and the soul decays and languishes. If the bird leaves her nest for a long space, the eggs chill, and are not fit for production; but when there’s a con stant incubation, then they bring forth; so, when we leave religious duties for a long space, our affections chill, and grow cold, and are not fit to produce holiness and comfort to our souls; but when we are constant in this work then shall we find the advantage of it.
— Slater
The point
Warns that long gaps in spiritual disciplines cause the soul's affections to grow cold, just as a bird that abandons her nest too long lets the eggs chill, urging constancy in religious duties to sustain spiritual life.