And to the fame purpose our apoftle befpeaks: the Coloffians, Col. iii. 2, 3, 4. Set your affections on things above, not on things below. For ye are dead, (you profess to be dead to the world) and (if you are really fo) your life (your better life) is hid with Chrift in God.. When Chrift, who is our life, fhall appear, then Shall ye alfo appear with him in glory.

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The fpiritual mind is itself a meetness for heaven.. As it is of heavenly.defcent, fo it. tends towards heaven. While the carnal mind. in its progrefs is ripening for hell, the renewed temper makes a man." meet for the inhe-ritance among the Saints in light." Such a man has his heart, and thoughts, and purfuits,, directed to the fame objects, which make the happiness of heaven; only they are seen and enjoyed in the other world after the manner of heaven. The fame God, the fame Redeemer, the fame holinefs, which the chriftian. chiefly purfues now, will make the felicity of the future ftate: only we shall then know these objects even as we are known, 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

And those who have their minds thus fet,, have the beginnings and pledges of everlasting life. The fpirit is "in them as a well of water fpringing up into everlasting life," John. iv. 14. He is an "earneft of the inheritance," Eph. i. 13, 14 As far as they are fpiritual- ized, they have heaven brought down into their fouls; the fame temper formed there in part which glorioufly fhines in the inhabitants of the upper world; and therefore may properly be called glory begun befides which, to fome of his fervants God has vouchfafed

fuch

fich fore-taftes of the land of Canaan, while they were in the wilderness, fuch refreshing views of his love and favour, as have carried them for a while in appearance above the world, enabled them to rejoice in tribulation,and to long to depart and to be with Chrift.

Now certainly a mind, intitled to life by divine promife, made meet for it by divine grace, and into which God is used to let down. fomewhat of heaven now, cannot fail to iffue in everlasting life..

I will clofe with fome reflections..

1. We may justly fix this in our minds, as the principal and most important distinction which can be among men; the carnal and the fpiritual mind.. Other differences make a far louder found, and draw more general attention. Diftinctions made by. wealth and honour, by beauty or wit, by learning or by party, names, have many more obfervers and admirers... But tho' the kingdom of God comes without obfervation, and is chiefly within men; yet as far as its authority, and power over the minds of men is difcovered by, the genuine fruits, it deferves more regard and efteem, than any other peculiarity wherein one can excel another. The question for divine approbation will not be, whether men are high or low, learned or unlettered, whether of this or that dividing name among Christians; but whether they mind earthly things, or feek those which are above. A man of low capacities and circumstances, may be rich in faith, eminently partake of the divine nature, and be an affured heir of the promife: And how much

more

more excellent and happy is fuch a man, than of those who make the, moft fhining figure in life, if by choice and title they have their por-tion only in this world?!

2. We may confider this farther, as the principal thing, wherein one christian is better. than another. People of all parties are apt to value others most, when they agree with them-felves in bearing the fame name of diftinction,, in obferving the fame outward forms of religion, or in maintaining the fame fpeculative notions. And, without doubt, tho' any mere name among chriftians fignifies little; yet it. will not pafs for a fmall matter with thofe who are truly devoted to Christ, that they and oth-ers fhould form the jufteft notions they can of every divine truth, and observe the externals of religion in the neareft conformity they can to the rule given them; fo far they, who agree best with the ftandard, certainly excel others. But ftill it is a more vital and im-portant difference, which is made by the de-grees of fpiritual-mindednefs. He is the beft. chriftian, whose soul is most fully attempered to fpiritual things, and hath gone fartheft in: overcoming the remains of a carnal mind.. This is the most effential mark of growth in grace.

3. If we are ready to entertain fome high thoughts of ourselves, because we are reafona-ble creatures, and have the capacities of mind which thofe of the lower creation are strangers to; it is enough to mortify our pride, to think that this very mind of ours is become carnal.. What can the nobler capacity ferve for, but

our greater difgrace, and aggravated condem nation, without a fuitable improvement? Better had it been for us, that we had been placed at firft in the lowest rank of beings, inftead of the rational, if we debase ourfelves into the beaft, when God has made us men, if our minds are only employed to make provifion for the flesh, or to refine upon the gratifications of the body, instead of reaching after and relishing the proper glory and happiness of an immortal fpirit.

4. What reafon is there to be thankful for that which we commonly call reftraining grace?' When a carnal mind is so natural to all, is ftill predominant in moft people, and wherever it prevails, has fo ftrong a biafs in itfelf to all that is evil; in what a difmal ftate would this. world be for the prefent, if it was not for fuch things, as the biafs of a good education, the admonitions of natural confcience, the awe of civil magiftracy, the fenfe of fhame from men, the providential preventions of opportunity, for doing many evils, or ftaving off tempta tions to them? Such things as thefe, where a religious fear of God is wanting, are of great service to keep the world in tolerable order at prefent. Without them, we fhould live in a conftant.hell upon earth, and one man of a carnal mind would be a devil to another.

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5. When the human apoftacy was funk fo low, it was unfpeakable grace in the great and holy God, to take in hand creatures fo car nalized, in order to their cure. That he fhould form a defign of their recovery fromfuch a degenerate ftate; in order to it, fhould fend

fend his only begotten Son to atone for this Horrid apoftacy, and restore his holy Spirit to recover loft fouls to their true taste and primitive difpofition. He faw the diforders of our nature to be fo great and inveterate, that they would never be fet to rights by any hand in-ferior to his own; that our cafe was defperate, and past retrieve, if he did not undertake it himself. And therefore, notwithstanding the heniousness of the crime, though he might justly have given up for ever creatures who had ruined themselves; yet, out of his abund-ant grace, he makes our recovery practicable, fets up an all-fufficient phyfician, and invites us to commit ourselves in his hand for healing. There is glory to God in the highest upon this account; let us, who are directly concerned, heartily join in the fong of praise for this good-will toward men.

6. When a method of cure is fettled by a gracious and all-wife God, how much does it lie upon every one of us in particular to fee that the carnal mind is fubdued in ourselves!: that at least, the mortal fymptoms are taken away, that it has no longer the dominion in us. Without this change, all our profeffion of religion is a vain thing; we shall only have a name to live, while really we are dead.Without this, we shall find, in the great day of account, that it had been better for us, if we had never been born, or never poffeffed of higher capacities than the brutes, or never favoured with the difcoveries of the Gofpel, which fhew us our difeafe and the way of eure.. Under a conviction therefore of our

need,