OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. 369 times, it may be, after they have made them a few shorter visits, they take up with them, and lose whol- ly the work they were engaged in. Nothing, as was said, will give relief herein, but the vigorous and con- stant exercise of our affections on heavenly things t for this will insensibly take off that gust and relish which the mind hath found in things present, earthly, and sensual, and make them as a sapless thing to the whole soul. They will so place the cross of Christ in particular on the heart, as that the world shall be crucified to it, losing all that brightness, beauty, and savor, which it made use of to solicit our minds to thoughts and desires about it. Moreover, this frame of spirit alone will keep us on our watch against all those ways and means whereby the vanity of the mind is excited and maintained. Such are the wandering and roving of the outward. senses. The senses, especially that of the eye, are ready tobecome purveyors to make provision for the vanity and lusts of the mind. Hence the Psalmist prays, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. Ifthe eyes rove after vain objects, the mind will rumi- nate upon them; and another affirms, that he had made a covenant with his eyes, to preserve them from fixing on such objects as might solicit lust or corrupt affections. And it were an useful labor, would this place admit of it, to discover the ready serviceableness of the outward senses and members of the body to sin and folly, if not watched against, Rom. vi. 13, 19. Of the same nature is the incessant working of the fancy and imagination, which of itself is evil continu- ally, and all the day long. This is the food of a vain mind, and the vehicle or means of conveyance for all temptations from Satan and the world. Besides, sun-
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