108 of SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. thoughts and imaginations of attaining it, grounded onuncertain hopes ; shall not we, who have a crown immortal and invisible proposed to 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 to it. 4. This is the most effectual means to wean the hearts and affections from things here below; to keep the mind to an undervaluation, 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 compara- tively, in comparison of him and the Gospel, with the duties which belong to our profession. Luke xiv. 26. `If any man come to me, and hate not father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sis- ters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my dis- ciple.' Some, I fear, if they did but consider it, would be apt to say, This is a hard saying, who can bear it l and others 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 disci- ples of Christ on any other terms. But here, in an especial manner, lie the wound and weakness of faith and profession in these our days. The bellies of men cleave unto the dust, or their affections to earthly things. I speak not of those who, by rapine, deceit, and op- pression, 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
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