To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and ma- jesty, dominion, and power, both now and for ever. Amen.
^PONHMA TOY HNEYMATOS;
OR, THE
GRACE AND DUTY
OV BEING
SPIRITUALLY MINDED,
DECLARED AMD PRACTICALLY IMPROVED.
To be spiritually minded is life and peace. — Rom. viii. 6. Set your affections on things above. — Col. iii. 3.
PREFACE.
I THINK it necessary to give the reader a brief ac- count of the nature and design of the plain ensuing discourse, which may both direct him in the reading, and be some kind of apology for myself in the pub- lishing of it. He may therefore know, that the thoughts here communicated, were originally private meditations for my own use, in a season wherein I was every way unable to do any thing for the edifi- cation of others, and far from expectation that ever I should be so able any more in this world. Receiv- ing, as I thought, some benefit and satisfaction in the exercise of my own meditations therein, when God was graciously pleased to restore a little strength unto me, I insisted on the same subject, in the in- struction of a private congregation ; and this I did, partly out of a sense of the advantage I had received myself by being conversant in them ; and partly from an apprehension that the duties directed and pressed unto, in the whole discourse, were seasonable from all sorts of present circumstances, to be declared and urged on the minds and consciences of professors. For leaving others unto the choice of their own methods and designs, I acknowledge that these are the two things whereby I regulate my work in the whole course of my ministry. To impart those truths, of whose power I hope I have had in some measure, a real experience, and to press those duties which present occasions, temptations, and other circura-
VOL. Xlll. 1'
CCX PREFACE.
stances do vender necessary to be attended unto in a peculiar manner, are the things which I woukl prin- cipally apply myself unto in the work of teaching- others. For as in the work of the ministry, in general, the whole counsel of God concerning the salvation of the church by Jesus Christ is to be declared ; so, in particular, we are not to fight uncertainly as men beating the air, nor shoot our arrows at random,with- out a certain scope and design. Knowledge of the flock whereof we are overseers, with a due consider- ation of their wants, their graces, their temptations, their light, their strength, and weakness are required herein. And when, in pursuance of that design, the preparation of the word to be dispensed, proceeds from zeal to the glory of God, and compassion unto the souls of men; when it is delivered with the de- monstration of a due reverence unto God, w hose word it is, and of authority towards them unto whom it is dispensed, with a deep sense of that great ac- count which both they that preach, and they that hear the word preached, must shortly give, before the judgment-seat of Christ ; there may be a com- fortable expectation of a blessed issue of the whole work. But my present design is only to declare in particular, the reasons why I judged the preaching and publishing of this small and plain discourse con- cerning the Grace and Duty of being Spiritually Minded, not to be altogether unseasonable at this time, in the present circumstances of most Christians. And thefirst thing which I would observe unto this end is, the present importunity of the world to impose itself on the minds of men ; and the various ways of insinuation whereby it possesseth and filleth them. If it attain hereunto, if it can fill the minds, the thoughts, and affections of men with itself, it will in some, fortify the soul against faith and obedience,
PREFACE. CCXt
and in others, weaken all grace, and endanger eter- nal ruin.
For ' if we lore the world the lo\^e of the Father is not in us ;' and when the world fills our thoughts, it will entangle our affections. And first, the pre- sent state of all public affairs in it, with an appre- hended concernment of private persons therein, con- tinually exerciseth the thoughts of many, and is al- most the only subject of their mutual converse. For the world is at present in a mighty hurry, and being in many places cast off from all foundations of stead- fastness, it makes the minds of men giddy with its revolutions, or disorderly in the expectations of them. Thoughts about these things are both allowable and unavoidable, if they take not the mind out of its own power, by their multiplicity, vehemency, and urgency, until it be unframed as unto spiritual things, retaining neither room nor time for their entertain- ment.
Hence men walk and talk, as if the world were all, when comparatively it is nothing.
And when men come with their warmed affec- tions reeking with thoughts of these things unto the performance of, or attendance unto, any spiritual duty, it is very difiicult for them, if not impossible, to stir up any grace unto a due and vigorous exercise. Unless this plausible advantage which the world hath obtained of insinuating itself and its occasions into the minds of men, so as to fill them and pos- sess them, be watched against and obviated, so far, at least, as that it may not transform the mind into its own image and likeness, this grace of being spi- ritually minded, which is life and peace, cannot be attained nor kept unto its due exercise.