- 314 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. press towards perfection, are things they have not de- signed nor pursued. Hence it is that so many among us are visibly at an unthrifty stand in the world : that where they were one year, there they are another, like shrubs in the wilderness, not like the plants in the garden of God, not as vines planted in a very fruitful hill. Yea, though many are sensible themselves that they are cold, lifeless, and fruitless, yet will they ,not be con- vinced that there is a necessity of making a daily pro- gress In spirituality and heavenly mindedness, where- by the inward man may be renewed day by day, and grace augmented with the increase of God. This is a work, as they suppose, for themwho have nothing else to do; not consistent with their business, call- ings, and occasions; not necessary, as they hope, to their salvation, nor, it may be, to be attained by them if they should set themselves about it. This appre- hension or imagination, upon the beginning of the de- clension and decay of Christian religion in the many, cast off all holiness and devotion to a sort of men who undertook to retire themselves utterlyout of the world; amongst whom also the substance of religion was quickly lost, and a cloud, or meteor of superstition, embraced in the room of it. But this folly is ominous to the souls of men. Those who have made the greatest progress in the conformity of their affections to things spiritual and heavenly, know most of its necessity, excellency, and desirableness ; yea, without some progress in it, these things will not be known. Such will testify, that the more they attain herein, the more they see is yet to be attained, and the more they desire to attainwhat is behind. 'Forgetting those things which are behind,
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