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See this clearly illustrated by Bishop Burnet—Pastoral Care, ch. viii. Mr. Boston, the well-known author of ‘The Fourfold State,’ dates his earliest thoughts and desires of the Ministry from the consideration—‘because of all men ministers were most taken up about spiritual things.’ ‘Is it not our unspeakable advantage, beyond all the gainful and honourable employments of the world, that the whole work of our particular calling is a kind of living in heaven; and, besides its tendency to the saving of the souls of others, is all along so proper and adapted to the purifying and saving of our own!’ Leighton’s Letter to the Clergy of Dumblane. Compare also his Works, ii. 452. We shall afterwards (Part. iii. ch. viii.) be led to remark upon the particular hindrances arising from this source. Yet these—be it remembered—are the workings of temptation, acting upon a corrupt nature; while the direct tendency of a spiritual function must be the advancement of spiritual religion in the heart.