OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. CHA.PTER XII. 245 What is required in and to our affections, that they may be spiritual. .Fl threefold work on the affections de- scribed. To declare the interest of our affections in this frame of being spiritually minded, and what they con- tribute thereto, I shall do these three things : First. Declare what is required hereto, that our affections may be spiritual, wherein lies the foundation of the whole duty. Secondly. What are their actings when they are so spiritual. Thirdly. What are the means whereby they may be kept and preserved in that frame, with sundry other things of the like nature. How our affections are concerned in, or belong to, the frame of mind inquired after, hath been before declared. Without spiritual affections, we cannot be spiritually minded. And that they may be of this use, three things are required: First. Their principle. Secondly. Their object. Thirdly. The wayand manner of their application to their proper object, by virtue of that principle. First. As to the principle, acting in them, that our affections maybe spiritual, and the spring of our be ing spiritually minded, it is required that they be changed, renewed, and inlaid with grace, spiritual and supernatural. To clear the sense hereof, we must a little consider, what is their state by nature, and then, by what means they may be wrought upon, as to a change, or a renovation. For they are like to some things, which in themselves, and their own nature, are 21*
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