6. Continual watchful care that no root of bitterness spring up and defile us, that no lust or corruption be predominant in us. When it is so, if persons, in compliance with their convictions, do en- deavour sometimes to be exercised in these duties, they shall labour in the very fire, where all their endeavours will be immediately con- sumed.
7. Mortification unto the world in our affections and desires, with moderation in our endeavours after the needful things of 2, are also necessary hereunto, yea, to that degree that without them no man can in any sense be said to be spiritually minded; for other-
388 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. [PART I.
wise our affections cannot be so preserved under the power of grace as that spiritual things may be always savoury unto us.
Some, it may be, will say, that if all these things are required there- unto, it will take up a man’s whole life and time to be spiritually minded. They hope they may attain it at an easier rate, and not forego all other advantages and sweetnesses of life, which a strict ob- servation of these things would cast them upon.
IT answer, that however it may prove a hard saying unto some, yet I must say it, and my heart would reproach me if I should not say, that if the principal part of our time be not spent about these things, whatever we suppose, we have indeed neither life nor peace. The first-fruits of all were to be offered unto God; and in sacrifices he re- quired the blood and the fat of the inwards. If the best be not his, he will have nothing. It is so as to our time. Tell me, I pray you, how you can spend your time and your lives better, or to better pur- pose, and I shall say, Go on and prosper. I am sure some spend so much of their time so much worse as it is a shame to see it. Do you think you came into this world to spend your whole time and strength in your employments, your trades, your pleasures, unto the satisfaction of the “ wills of the flesh and of the mind?” Have you time enough to eat, to drink, to sleep, to talk unprofitably, it may be corruptly, in all sorts of unnecessary societies, but have not enough to live unto God in the very essentials of that life which consists in these things? Alas! you came into the world under this law, “It is appointed to men once to die, and after this the judgment,” Heb. ix. 27; and the end why your life is here granted unto you is that you may be prepared for that judgment. If this be neglected, if the principal part of your time be not improved with respect unto this end, you will fall under the sentence of it unto eternity.
But men are apt to mistake in this matter. They may think that these things tend to take them off from their lawful employments and recreations, which they are generally afraid of, and unwilling to purchase any frame of mind at so dear a rate. They may suppose that to have men spiritually minded, we would make them mopes, and to disregard all the lawful occasions of life. But let not any be mistaken; I am not upon a design that will be easily, or, it may be, honestly defeated. Men are able to defend themselves in their callings and enjoyments, and to satisfy their consciences against any persuasions to the contrary: yet there is a season wherein we are obliged to part with all we have, and to give up ourselves wholly to follow Christ in all things, Matt. xix. 21; and if we neglect or refuse it in that season, it is an evidence that we are hypocrites. And there was a time when superstition had so much power on the minds of men, that multitudes were persuaded to forsake, to give up, all their
CHAP. X.]| RULES FOR ABIDING IN THOUGHTS OF GOD. 389
interest in relations, callings, goods, possessions, and betake them- selves unto tedious pilgrimages, yea, hard services in war, to comply with that superstition; and it is not to the glory of our profession that we have so few instances of men parting with all, and giving up themselves unto heavenly retirement. But I am at present on no such design; I aim not to take men out of their lawful earthly occa- sions, but to bring spiritual affections and thoughts into the manage- ment of them all. The things mentioned will deprive you of no time you can lay a claim unto, but sanctify it all.
I confess he must be a great proficient in spirituality who dares venture on an absolute retirement, and he must be well satisfied that he is not called unto a usefulness among men inconsistent there- with: unto them it may prove a disadvantage. Yet this also is attainable, if other circumstances do concur. Men under the due exercise of grace and the improvement of it may attain unto that fixedness in heavenly mindedness, that unconcernment in all things here below, as to give themselves up entirely and continually unto heavenly meditation, unto a blessed advancement of all grace, and a near approach unto glory. And I would hope it was so with many of them in ancient times who renounced the world, with all circum- stances of relations, state, inheritances, and betook themselves unto retirement in wildernesses, to abide always in divine contemplation. But afterward, when multitudes, whose minds were not so prepared by a real growth in all grace and mortification unto the world as they were, betook themselves under the same pretences unto a mo- nastical retirement, the devil, the world, sensual lusts, superstition, and all manner of evils, pursued them, found them out, possessed them, unto the unspeakable damage and scandal of religion.