120 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. remove far from us all causes of sorrow; and it would be to our advantage, if we accustomed our minds more to this kind of relief than we do ; if, upon the incur- sion of fears, dangers, sorrows, we did more readily retreat to thoughts of that state wherein we shall be freed from them all; even this most inferior consider- ation of it, would render the thoughts of it more famil- iar, and the thing itself more useful to us. Much better it were, than on such occasions to be exercised with heartless complaints, uncertain hopes, and fruit- less contrivances. But there is that, which, to themwho are truly spir- tually minded, hath more evil in it than all these things together, and that is, sin. Heaven is a state of deliver- ance from sin, from all sin in all the causes, concomi- tants, and effects of it. : He is no true believer, to whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow; and trouble. Other things, as the loss of our dear rela- tions, or extraordinary pains, may make deeper impres- sions on the mind, by its natural affections, at some seasons, than ever our sins did at any one time, in any one instance. So aman may have a greater trouble in sense of pain, by a fit of the toothache, which will be gone in an hour, than in an hectic fever or consump- tion, which will assuredly take away his life. But take in, the whole course of our lives, and all the actings of our souls in spiritual judgment as well as natural affection, and I do not understand how a man can be a sincere believer, to whom sin is not the great- est burden and sorrow. Wherefore, in the first place, it belongs to the true notion of heaven, that it is a state wherein we shall be eternally freed from sin, and all the concernments of it, but only the exaltation of the glory of God's grace
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