220 OF SPIRITUAL .MINDEDNESS. therein comprehend the account of what it is to be spiritually minded. 'Spiritual affections, whereby the soul adheres to spiritual things, taking in such a savor and relish of them, as wherein it finds restand satisfaction, is the peculiar spring and substance of our being spiritually minded.' This is that which I shall now further ex- plain and confirm. The greatest contest of heaven and earth is about the affections of the poor worm, which we call man. That the world should contend for them, is no wonder. It is the best that it can pretend to. All things here beloware capable of no higher ambition than to be possessed of the affections of men. And as they lie under the curse, it can do us no greater mischief than by prevailing in this design. But that the holy God should, as it were, engage in the contest, and strive for the affections of man, is an effect of infinite conde- scension and grace. This he doth expressly ; my son, saith he, give me thy heart, Prov. xxiii. 26. It is our affections he asketh for, and comparatively nothing else; to be sure he will accept of nothing from us without them. The most fat and costly sacrifice will not be accepted, if it be without aheart. All the ways and methods of the dispensation of his will, by his word; all the designs of his effectual grace, are suited to, and prepared for, this end, namely, to recover the affections of man to himself. So he expresseth him- self concerning his word, Deut. x. 12. 'And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thyGod, to walk in all his ways, and to love and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul i' And as to the word of his grace, he declares it to the same purpose,
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