326 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. [PART L
thoughts and imaginations of attaining it, grounded on uncertain hopes, shall not we, who have a crown immortal and invisible pro- posed unto us, and that with the highest assurance of the enjoyment of it, cheerfully undergo, endure, and suffer, what we are to go through in the way unto it.
[4] This is the most effectual means to wean the heart and affec- tions from things here below, to keep the mind unto an undervalu- ation, yea, a contempt of them, as occasion shall require; for there is a season wherein there is such a contempt required in us of all relations and enjoyments as our Saviour calleth the “hating” of them,—that is, not absolutely, but comparatively, in comparison of him and the gospel, with the duties which belong unto our profes- sion: Luke xiv. 26, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Some, I fear, if they did but consider it, would be apt to say, “ This is a hard say- ing, who can bear it?” and others would cry out, with the disciples in another case, “ Lord, who then can be saved?” but it is the word whereby we must be judged, nor can we be the disciples of Christ on any other terms. But here, in an especial manner, lies the wound and weakness of faith and profession in these our days: “The bel- lies of men cleave unto the dust,” or their affections unto earthly things.
I speak not of those who, by rapine, deceit, and oppression, strive to enrich themselves; nor of those who design nothing more than the attainment of greatness and promotion in the world, though not by ways of open wickedness; least of all of them who make religion, and perhaps their ministry therein, a means for the attaining of secular ends and preferments. No wise man can suppose such persons, any of them, to be spiritually minded, and it is most easy to disprove all their pretences. But I intend only those at present whose ways and means of attaining riches are lawful, honest, and unblamable; who use them with some moderation, and do profess that their portion lies in better things, so as it is hard to fasten a conviction on them in the matter of their conversation. Whatever may seem to reflect upon them, they esteem it to be that whose omission would make them foolish im their affairs or negligent in their duty. But even among these also there is ofttimes that inordinate love unto present things, that esteem and valuation of them, that concernment in them, as are not consistent with their being spiritually minded. With some their relations, with some their enjoyments, with most both in conjune- tion, are an idol which they set up in their hearts and secretly bow down unto. About these are their hopes and fears exercised, on them is their love, in them is their delight. They are wholly taken
CHAP. V.] MOTIVES TO FIX OUR THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUAL OBJECTS, 327
up with their own concerns, count all lost that is not spent on them, and all time misspent that is not engaged about them. ‘Yet the things which they do they judge to be good in themselves; their hearts do not condemn them as to the matter of them. The valua- tion they have of their relations and enjoyments they suppose to be lawful, within the bounds which they have assigned unto it. Their care about them is, in their own minds, but their duty. It ig no easy matter, it requires much spiritual wisdom, to fix right boun- daries unto our affections and their actings about earthly things. But let men plead and pretend what they please, I shall offer one rule in this case, which will not fail; and this is, that when men are so confident in the good state and measure of their affections and their actings towards earthly things as that they will oppose their engagements into them unto known duties of religion, piety, and charity, they are gone into a sinful excess. Is there a state of the poor that requires their liberality and bounty?—you must excuse them, they have families to prowde for; when what is expected from them signifies nothing at all as unto a due provision for their families, nor is what would lessen their inheritances or portions one penny in the issue. Are they called to an attendance on seasons of religious duties?—they are so full of business that it is impossible for them to have leisure for any such occasions. So by all ways declar- ing that they are under the power of a prevalent, predominant affec- tion unto earthly things. This fills all places with lifeless, sapless, useless professors, who approve themselves in their condition, whilst it is visibly unspiritual and withering.
The heart will have something whereon, in a way of pre-eminence, it will fix itself and its affections. This, in all its perpetual motions, it seeks for rest and satisfaction in. And every man hath an edge; the edge of his affections is set one way or other, though it be more keen in some than others. And whereas all sorts of things that the heart can fix upon or turn the edge of its affections unto are distri- buted by the apostle into “things above” and “things beneath,” things heavenly and things earthly, if we have not such a view and prospect of heavenly things as to cause our hearts to cleave unto them and delight in them, let us pretend what we will, it is impos- sible but that we shall be under the power of a predominant affec- tion unto the things of this world.