BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED. 483
draw all others into a defection from Christ and the gospel. He that loves his life shall lose it.
Wherefore, it is no ordinary nor easy thing to preserve our affections pure, entire, and steady, in their vigorous adherence unto spiritual things, against all these solicitations. Watch- fulness, prayer, faith in exercise, and a daily examination of ourselves, are required hereunto. For v^^ant of a due attend- ance unto these things, and that with respect unto this end, namely, the preservation of our spiritual affections in their integrity, many, even before they are aware, die away as to all power and vigour of spiritual life.
5. Affections thus fixed upon things spiritual and hea- venly, will give great relief against the remainders of that vanity of mind which believers themselves are ofttimes per- plexed withal. Yea, I do not know any thing that is a greater burden unto them, nor which they more groan for deliverance from. The instability of the mind, its readiness to receive impressions from things vain and useless, the irregularity of their thoughts, are a continual burden unto many. Nothing can give the soul any relief herein, nothing can give bounds unto the endless vanity of foolish imaginations, nothing can dry up the springs from whence they arise, or render the soil wherein they grow, barren as unto their production and main- tenance, but only the growth of spiritual affections, with their continual vigorous actings on heavenly things. For hereby the heart and mind will be so united unto them, (that which the psalmist prays for, Psal. Ixxxvi. 11.) as that they will not be ready to depart from them, and give entertainment unto vain, empty, foolish imaginations. Thoughts of other things, greater and better than what this world can contain, will be continually arising in the mind, not to be laid aside by any solicitations of vanity. For he that is wise cannot but know and consider, that the spiritual things which it exerciseth its thoughts about, have substance in them, are durable, profitable, always the same, that the advantage, peace, rest, riches, and reward of the soul lieth in them ; but other ima- ginations which the foolish mind is apt to give entertainment unto, are vain, empty, fruitless, and such as end in shame and trouble.
Again, the vanity of the mind in an indulgence unto foolish imaginations ariseth from, or is animated and in- creased by, that gust and relish which it finds in earthly
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484 THE GRACE AND DUTY OF
things, and enjoyments of them, whether lawful or unlawful. Hence on all occasions, yea, in holy duties, it will be ready to turn a^ide, and take a taste of them, and sometimes to take up with them ; like a tippling traveller, who, though he be en- gaged in a journey on the most earnest occasion, yet he can- not but be bibbing here and there as he passes by, and it may be, at length, before he comes to his journey's end, lodgeth himself in a nasty alehouse. When men are engaged in im- portant duties, yet if they always carry about them a strong- gust and relish of earthly things, they will ever and anon in their thoughts divert unto them, either as unto such real ob- jects as they are accustomed unto, or as unto what present circumstances do administer unto corrupt aftections, or as to what they fancy and create in their own minds. And some- times, it may be, after they have made them a few shorter visits, they take up with them, and lose wholly the work they were engaged in. Nothing, as was said, will give re- lief herein, but the vigorous and constant exercise of our affections on heavenly things. For this will insensibly take off that gust and relish which the mind hath found in thing-s present, earthly, and sensual, and make them as a sapless thing unto the whole soul. They will so place the cross of Christ in particular on the heart, as that the world shall be crucified unto it, losing all that brightness, beauty, and savour, which it made use of to solicit our minds unto thoughts and desires about it.
Moreover, this frame of spirit alone will keep us on our watch against all those ways and means whereby the vanity of the mind is excited and maintained. Such are the wan- dering and roving of the outward senses. The senses, espe- cially that of the eye, are ready to become purveyors to make provisions for the vanity and lusts of the mind. Hence the psalmist prays, 'Turn away mine eyes from beholding va- nity.' If the eyes rove after vain objects, the mind will ruminate upon them ; and another affirms, that he had * made a covenant with his eyes,' to preserve them from fixing on such objects as might solicit lust or corrupt affections. And it were a useful labour, would this place admit of it, to dis- cover the ready serviceableness of the outward senses and members of the body unto sin and folly, if not watched against : Rom. vi. 13. 19. Of the same nature is the inces- sant working of the fancy and imagination, which of itself
BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED. 485
is evil continually, and all the day long. This is the food of a vain mind, and the vehicle or means of conveyance for all temptations from Satan and the world. Besides, sundry oc- casions of life and conversation are usually turned, or abused unto the same end, exciting and exercising of the vanity of the mind. Wherever our affections are fixed on spiritual things, our minds will constantly be under a warning or charge to keep diligent watch against all these things, whereby that vanity, which it so abhorreth, which it is so burdened withal, is maintained and excited. Nor without this prevalency in the mind, will ever a work of mortification be carried on in the soul; Col. iii. 2. 4, 5.