The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded

(2) Despondencies in Duties arise from the frequent Incursions of the Guilt of Sin. The remembrance hereof frequently solicits the Minds of Persons in their first entrances into Duty, unless they are under especial actings of Grace, stirring them up unto earnestness and fervency in what they undertake. At other seasons it renders men Lifeless and Heartless, so as that they know not whether they had best Pray or no, when Duty and Opportunity call them thereunto. To be Spiritually Minded▪ we have manifested in many Instances is the great Preservative against these disheartening incursions of sin. It is the Souls watch and guard against them, whence ever they arise or proceed. No lust or corruption can be Prevalent in a Spiritual mind. And this is the Principal cause of such Incursions of Sin, as affect the Soul with a disheartening sense of Guilt. No Affections can abide in any sinful Disorder, where the Mind is so affected. This also gives sin an entrance unto a distracting sense of Guilt. But the fool Cure hereof lies in this Grace and Duty. The ⟨p. 333⟩like may be said of all other ways, means, and Occasions of such Incursions of Sin.

(2) Despondencys in Duties arise from the frequent Incursions of the Guilt of Sin. The remembrance hereof frequently sollicites the Minds of Persons in their first entrances into Duty, unless they are under especial actings of Grace, stirring them up unto earnestness and fervency in what they undertake. At other seasons it renders men Lifeless and Heartless, so as that they know not whether they had best Pray or no, when Duty and Opportunity call them thereunto. To be Spiritually Minded▪ we have manifested in many Instances is the great Preservative against these disheartening incursions of sin. It is the Souls watch and guard against them, whence ever they arise or proceed. No lust or corruption can be Prevalent in a Spiritual mind. And this is the Principal cause of such Incursions of Sin, as affect the Soul with a disheartening sense of Guilt. No Affections can abide in any sinful Disorder, where the Mind is so affected. This also gives sin an entrance unto a distracting sense of Guilt. But the fole Cure hereof lyes in this Grace and Duty. The ⟨p. 333⟩like may be said of all other wayes, meanes, and Occasions of such Incursions of Sin.