The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded

First, A Desire to retain some thing, or things, that is, or are inconsistent with such a Progress. For unless the Heart be ready on all Occasions, to esteem every things as Loss and Dung, so as we may win Christ, the work will be accompanied with insuperable Difficulties. This is the first Principle of Religion, of Gospel Obedience, that all things are to be despised for Christ. But this Difficulty ariseth not from the thing it self, but from our Indisposition unto it, and unfitness for it. That which is an easy pleasant Walk unto a found and healthy Man, is a toilsome Journey to him that is diseased and infirm. In particular, whilst Men will retain an inordinate respect unto the World, the Vanities, the Pleasures, the Profits, the Contentments of it; whilst Self-Love, putting an undue Valuation on our Persons, our Relations, our Enjoyments, our Reputations, doth cleave unto us, we shall labour in the Fire when we engage in this Duty; or rather we shall not at all sincerely engage in it; wherefore the Apostle tells us, that in this case, we must cast off every weight, and the Sin that doth so easily beset us, if we intend to run with Joy the Race that is set before us, Heb. 12.1.

First, A Desire to retain some thing, or things, that is, or are inconsistent with such a Progress. For unless the Heart be ready on all Occasions, to esteem every things as Loss and Dung, so as we may win Christ, the work will be accomcompanied with insuperable Difficulties. This is the first Principle of Religion, of Gospel Obedience, that all things are to be despised for Christ. But this Difficulty ariseth not from the thing it self, but from our Indisposition unto it, and unfitness for it. That which is an easy pleasant Walk unto a found and healthy Man, is a toilsome Journey to him that is diseased and infirm. In particular, whilst Men will retain an inordinate respect unto the World, the Vanities, the Pleasures, the Profits, the Contentments of it; whil'st Self-Love, putting an undue Valuation on our Persons, our Relations, our Enjoyments, our Reputations, doth cleave unto us, we shall labour in the Fire when we ingage in this Duty; or rather we shall not at all sincerely ingage in it; wherefore the Apostle tells us, that in this case, we must cast off every weight, and the Sin that doth so easily beset us, if we intend to run with Joy the Race that is set before us, Heb. 12.1.