From tb^se causes it is, that the thoughts of spiritual things are with many as guests that come into an inn, and not like children that dwell in the house. They enter occa- sionally, and then there is a great stir about them, to provide meet entertainment for them. Within awhile they are dis- posed of, and so depart unto their own occasions, being neither looked nor inquired after any more. Things of an- other nature are attended unto; new occasions bring in new guests for a season. Children are owned in the house, are missed if they are out of the way, and have their daily pro- vision constantly made for them. So is it with these occa"
BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED. 253
sional thoughts about spiritual things. By one means or other they enter into the mind, and there are entertained for a season. On a sudden they depart, and men hear of them no more. But those that are natural and genuine, arising from a living spring of grace in the heart disposing the mind unto them, are as the children of the house. They are ex- pected in their places and at their seasons. If they are missing, they are inquired after. The heart calls itself unto an account whence it is that it hath been so long without them, and calls them over into its wonted converse with them.
CHAP. IV.
Other evidences of thoiti/hts about spiritual things, arising from an internal principle of grace, tvherehy they are an evidence of onr being spiritually minded. The abounding of these thoughts, how far, and tvherein, such an evidence.
The second evidence that our thoughts of spiritual things do proceed from an internal fountain of sanctified light and affections, or that they are acts or fruits of our being spiritually minded, is, that they abound in us, that our minds are filled with them. We may say of them as the apostle doth of other graces; ' If these things are in you and abound, you shall not be barren.' It is well indeed, when our minds are like the land of Egypt in the years of plenty, when it brought forth by handfulls ; when they flow from the well of living water in us with a full stream and current. But there is a measure of abounding, which is necessary to evidence our being spiritually minded in them.
There is a double eflect ascribed here unto this frame of spirit : first life, and then peace. The nature and being of this grace depends on the former consideration of it, namely, its procedure from an internal principle of grace, the effect and consequence whereof is life. But that it is peace also, depends on this degree and measure of the actings of this part of it in our spiritual thoughts. And this we must consider.
254 THE GRACE AND DUTY OF
It is the character of all men in the state of depraved nature and apostacy from God, ' that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts, is only evil continually ;' Gen. vi. 5. All persons in that condition are not swearers, blas- phemers, drunkards, adulterers, idolaters, or the like. These are the vices of particular persons, the effects of particular constitutions and temptations. But thus it is with them, all and every one of them, all the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts are evil, and that continually. Some as unto the matter of them, some as unto their end, all as unto their principle ; for out of the evil treasure of the heart can pro- ceed nothing but what is evil. That infinite multitude of open sins which is in the world, doth give a clear prospect or representation of the nature and effects of our apostacy from God. But he that can consider the numberless number of thoughts which pass through the minds of every individual person every day, all evil, and that continually, he will have a farther comprehension of it.
We can therefore have no greater evidence of a change in us from this state and condition, than a change wrought in the course of our thoughts. A relinquishment of this or that particular sin, is not an evidence of a translation from this state. For as was said, such particular sins proceed from particular lusts and temptations, and are not the im- mediate universal consequence of that depravation of nature which is equal in all. Such alone is the vanity and wicked- ness of the thoughts and imaginations of the heart. A change herein is a blessed evidence of a change of state. He who is cured of a dropsy is not immediately healthy, because he may have the prevailing seeds and matter of other diseases in him, and the next day die of a lethargy. But he who, from a state of sickness, is restored in the tem- perature of the mass of blood and the animal spirits, and all the principles of life and health, unto a good crisis and temperature, his state of body is changed. The cure of a particular sin may leave behind it the seeds of eternal death, which they may quickly effect. But he who hath obtained a change in this character which belongs essentially unto the state of depraved nature, is spiritually recovered. And the more the stream of our thoughts is turned, the more our