The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded #2 — John Owen

Spiritual Affections and the Proper Order of Prayer

With spiritual affections and due preparation of heart to the duty, do excite and animate the gift of prayer, and not the gift itself that makes the impressions on the affections, then are we spiritually minded in them.

Gifts are servants, not rulers in the mind, are bestowed on us to be serviceable to grace, not to lead, but to follow it, and to be ready with their assistance on this exercise. For the most part, where they lead all, they are all alone.

This is the natural order of these things. Grace habitually inclines and disposes the heart to this duty. Providence and rule gives the occasions for its exercise. Sense of duty calls for preparation.

Grace comes into actual exercise. Gifts come in with their assistance. If they lead, that is spiritual gifts, all is out of order. It may be otherwise. Sometimes a person, indisposed and lifeless, engaged in prayer in a way of obedience upon conviction of duty, may in and by the gift have his affections excited and grace engaged to his proper work.

It may be so, I say, but let men take heed how they trust to this order and method. For where it is so, there may be little or nothing of the exercise of true grace and all their fervor and commotion of affections.

But when the genuine actings of faith, love, holy reverence, and gracious desires do stir up the gift to exercise, calling in its assistance to the expression of themselves, then are the heart and mind in their proper order.

Prayer Must Be Joined to Every Other Religious Duty

Number five. It is so when other duties of religion are equally regarded and attended to with prayer itself. He whose religion lies all in prayer and hearing has none at all. God has an equal respect to all other duties, and so must we have also.

So is it expressed as to the instance of alms in Acts 10 .31. And James places all religion in this, because there is none without it. Chapter 127. I shall not value his prayers at all, be he never so earnest and frequent in them who gives not alms according to his ability.

This digression about the rule and spring of spiritual thoughts and prayer I judge not unnecessary in such a time and season in which we ought to be very jealous, lest gifts impose themselves in the room of grace.

And be careful that they are employed only unto their proper end, which is to be serviceable to grace in its exercise, and not otherwise. There is another occasion of thoughts of spiritual things when they do not spring from a living principle within, and so are no evidence of being spiritually minded.

And this is the discourse of others. They that fear the Lord will be speaking one to another of the things in which his glory is concerned. Malachi 3 .16. To declare the righteousness, the glory of God, is the delight of his saints.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145 .3 -8. One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of your majesty, and of your wondrous works.

And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy.

And accordingly there are some who are ready on all occasions to be speaking or making mention of things divine, spiritual, and holy, and it is to be wished that there were more of them. All the flagellous sins that the world is filled with are not a greater evidence of the degeneracy of the Christian religion than this is that it has grown unusual, yea, a shame or scorn for men to speak together of the things of God.

It was not so when religion was in its primitive power and glory, nor is it so with them who really fear God and are sensible of their duty. Some, I say, there are who embrace all occasions of spiritual communications.

Those with whom they do converse, if they are not profligate, if they have any spiritual light, cannot but so far comply with what they say as to think of the things spoken which are spiritual. Oft times the tracking course of men's thoughts lies so out of the way, or so contrary to such things, that they seem strange to them.

They give them no entertainment. You do but cross their way with such discourses, whereon they stand still a little, and so pass on. Even the countenances of some men will change hereon, and they betake themselves to an unsatisfied silence until they can divert to other things.

Some will make such replies of empty words as shall evidence their hearts to be far enough estranged from the things proposed to them. But with others such occasional discourses will make such impressions on their minds as to stir up present thoughts of spiritual things.

But though frequent occasions of this may be renewed, yet will such thoughts give no evidence that any man is spiritually minded, for they are not genuine, from an internal spring of grace. From these 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 occasionally, and then there is a great stir about them, to provide meet entertainment for them. Within a while they are disposed of, and so depart to their own occasions, being neither looked for, nor inquired after any more.

Things of another nature are attended to. 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 provision constantly made for them.

So it is with these occasional 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 to them, are as the children of the house. They are expected 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 has been so long without them, and calls them over into its wanted converse with them. Chapter 4.

Abounding Spiritual Thoughts as Evidence of Grace

Other evidences of thoughts about spiritual things arising from an internal principle of grace, in which they are an evidence of our being spiritually minded, the abounding of these thoughts, how far and wherein 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 does of other graces, that if these things be 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 they are brought forth by handfuls, when they flow from the well of looping 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 doubtful effect described here to this frame of spirit, first life and then peace. The nature and being of this grace depend 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.

Is the character of all men in a state of depraved nature and apostasy from God that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts is only evil continually? Genesis 6, 5. All persons in that condition are not swearers, blasphemers, 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 is to the manner of them, some is to their end, all is to their principle.

For out of the evil treasure of the heart can proceed nothing but what is evil. That infinite multitude of open sins which is in the world does give a clear prospect or representation of the nature and effects of our apostasy 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 further 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 immediate universal consequence of that deprivation of nature which is equal in all. Such alone are the vanity and wickedness 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 temperature of the mass of blood and the animal spirits, and all the principles of life and health, to a good crisis in 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 has obtained a change in this character, which belongs essentially to the state of depraved nature, is spiritually recovered.

And the more the steam of our thoughts is turned, the more our minds are filled by those of a contrary nature. The greater and more firm is our evidence of a translation out of that depraved state and condition.

There is nothing so unaccountable as the multiplicity of thoughts of the minds of men. They fall from them like the leaves of trees when they are shaken with the wind in autumn. To have all these thoughts, all the several figments of the heart, all the conceptions that are framed and agitated in the mind, to be evil, and act continually, what a hail of horror and confusion must it needs be!

A deliverance from this loathsome, hateful state is more to be valued than the whole world. Without it, neither life, nor peace, nor immortality, nor glory can ever be attained. The design of conviction is to put a stop to these thoughts, to take off from their number, and thereby to lessen their guilt.

It deserves not the name of conviction of sin, which respects only outward actions and regards not the inward actings of the mind. And this alone will, for a season, make a great change in the thoughts, especially will it do so when assisted by superstition directing them to other objects.

These two in conjunction are the rise of all that emotional religion which is in the papacy. Conviction labors to put some stop and bounds to thoughts absolutely evil and corrupt. And superstition suggests other objects for them which they readily embrace, but it is a vain attempt.

The minds and hearts of men are continually minting and coining new thoughts and imaginations. The cogitative faculty is always at work. As the streams of a mighty river running into the ocean, so are the thoughts of a natural man, and through self they run into hell.

It is a fond thing to set a dam before such a river to curb its streams. For a little space there may be made a stop, but it will quickly break down all obstacles or overflow all its bounds. There is no way to divert its course but only by providing other channels for its waters and turning them thereunto.

The mighty stream of the evil thoughts of men will admit of no bounds or dams to put a stop to them. There are but two ways of relief from them, the one respecting their moral evil, the other their natural abundance.

The first is by throwing salt into the spring, as Elisha cured the waters of Jericho. That is, to get the heart and mind seasoned with grace, for the tree must be made good before the fruit will be so.

The other is to turn their streams into new channels, putting new aims and ends upon them. Fixing them on new objects, so shall we abound in spiritual thoughts. For abound in thoughts we shall, whether we will or not.

So this purpose is the advice of the Apostle in Ephesians 5, 18 and 19. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

When men are drunk with wine unto excess, they make it quickly evident what vain, foolish, ridiculous imaginations it fills their minds with. In opposition to this, the Apostle advises believers to be filled with the Spirit, to labor for such a participation of Him, as may fill their minds and hearts as others fill themselves with wine.

To what end, to what purpose, should they desire such a participation of Him, to be so filled with Him? It is to this end, namely, that He by His grace may fill them with holy spiritual thoughts, as on the contrary men drunk unto excess are filled with those that are foolish, vain, and wicked.

So are the words of verse 19. For He advises us to express our abounding thoughts in such duties as will give a special vent to them. Wherefore when we are spiritually minded, we shall abound in spiritual thoughts or thoughts of spiritual things.

That we have such thoughts will not sufficiently evidence that we are so, unless we abound in them. And this leads us to the spiritual inquiry on this head, namely, what measure we ought to assign hereof, that we may know when we abound in spiritual thoughts, as that they may be an evidence of our being spiritually minded.

I answer in general, among other scriptures, read over Psalm 119 with understanding. Consider in this what David expresses of himself as unto his constant delight in continual thoughts of the law of God, which was the only means of divine revelation at that season.

Try yourselves by this pattern. Examine yourselves whether you can truly speak the same words with him, at least if not in the same degree of zeal, yet with the same sincerity of grace. You will say, That was David.

It is not for us. It is not our duty to be like him, at least not to be equal with him. But as far as I know, we must be like him if ever we intend to come to the place where he is. It will ruin our souls if when we read in the scriptures how the saints of God express their experience in faith, love, delight in God, and constant meditation on him, we grant that it was so with them, that they were good and holy men, but it is not necessary that it should be so with us.

These things are not written in the scriptures to show what they were, but what we ought to be. All things concerning them were written for our admonition, 1 Corinthians 10 .11. And if we have not the same delight in God as they had, the same spiritual mindedness and thoughts and meditations of heavenly things, we can have no evidence that we please God as they did, or shall go to that place where they are gone.

Profession of the life of God passes with many at a very low and easy rate. Their thoughts are for the most part vain and earthly, their communication unsavory and sometimes corrupt, their lives at best uneven and uncertain as to the rule of obedience, yet all lives well, all lives life in peace.

As holy men of old, who obtained as testimony that they pleased God, did not so walk before him. They meditated continually on the law, thought of God in the night season, spake of his ways, his works, his praise.

Their whole delight was in him, and in all things they followed hard after him. It is the example of David in particular that I propose, and it is a promise of this grace to be administered by the gospel, that he that is feeble shall be as David, Zechariah 12 .8.

And if we are not so, and as being spiritually minded, it is to be feared we are not partakers of the promise. But that we may the better judge of ourselves in it, I shall add some few rules to this direction by way of example.

Measuring Spiritual Thoughts Against Earthly Concerns

Number one. Consider what proportion your thoughts of spiritual things bear to those about other things. Our principal interest and concern, as we profess, lies in things spiritual, heavenly, and eternal.

Is it not, then, a foolish thing to suppose that our thoughts about these things should not hold some proportion with those about other things, nay, that they should not exceed them? No man is so vain in earthly things as to pretend that his principal concern lies in that whereof he thinks very seldom in comparison of other things.

It is not so with men in reference to their families, their trades, their occasions of life. It is a truth not only consecrated by the testimony of him who is truth, but evident also in the light of reason, that where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also.

And the affections of our hearts do act themselves by the thoughts of our minds. Wherefore, if our principal treasure be, as we profess, in things spiritual and heavenly, and woe unto us if it be not so, on them will our affections, and consequently our desires and thoughts, be principally fixed.

That we may the better examine ourselves by this rule, we must consider of what sorts men's other thoughts are, and as to our present purpose they may be reduced to these heads. First, there are such as are exercised about their callings and lawful occasions.

These are numberless and endless, especially among a sort of men who rise early and go to bed late, and eat the bread of carefulness, or are particularly industrious and diligent in their ways. These thoughts men approve themselves in, and judge them their duty, as they are in their proper place and measure.

But no heart can conceive the multitude of these thoughts, which, partly in contrivances, partly in converse, are engaged and spent about these things. And the more men are immersed in them, the more do themselves and others esteem them diligent and praiseworthy.

And there are some who have neither necessity nor occasion to be engaged much in the duties of any special calling, who yet by their words and actions declare themselves to be confined almost in their thoughts to themselves, their relations, their children, and all their self-concerns, which though most of them are very impertinent, yet they justify themselves in them.

All sorts may do well to examine what proportion their thoughts of spiritual things do bear to those of other things. I fear with most it will be found to be very small, with many next to none at all.

What evidence then can they have that they are spiritually minded, that their principal interest lies in things above? It may be, it will be asked, whether it be necessary that men should think as much and as often about things spiritual and heavenly as they do about the lawful affairs of their callings.

I say, more and more often, if we are what we profess ourselves to be, generally it is the best sort of men as to the things of God and man who are busied in their callings, some of one sort, some of another.

But even among the best of these, many will continually spend the strength of their minds and figure of their spirits about their affairs all the day long, and so they can pray in the morning and evening.

Some thoughts sometimes of spiritual things, occasionally administered, do suppose they acquit themselves very well. As if a man should pretend that his great design is to prepare himself for a voyage to a far country, where is his patrimony and his inheritance, but all his thoughts and contrivances are about some few trifles, which, if indeed he intend his voyage, he must leave behind, and of his main design he scarcely thinketh at all.

We all profess that we are bound for heaven, immortality, and glory, but is it any evidence that we really design it, if all our thoughts are consumed about the trifles of this world which we must leave behind us, and if we have only the occasional thoughts of things above?

I shall elsewhere show, if God will, how men may be spiritually minded in their earthly affairs. If some relief may not be thence obtained, I cannot tell what to say or answer for them who thoughts of spiritual things do not hold proportion with, yea, exceed them which they lay out about their callings.

This whole rule is grounded on that of our Saviour in Matthew 6, 31, 33 -34. Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow, when we have done all we can, when we have made the best of them we are able, all earthly things as to our interest in them amount to no more, but what we eat, what we drink, and wherewith we are clothed.

About these things our Saviour forbids us to take any thought, not absolutely, but with a double limitation as first, that we take no such thought about them as should carry along with it a disquietude of mind, through a distrust of the fatherly care and providence of God.

This is the design of the context. Secondly, no thought that, for constancy and engagement of spirit, should be like to those which we ought to have about spiritual things. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.

Let that be the principal thing in your thoughts and consciences. We may therefore conclude that at least they must hold an exceeding proportion with them. Let a man industriously engaged in the way of his calling try himself by this rule every evening.

Let him consider what have been his thoughts about his earthly occasions, and what about spiritual things, and thereon ask of himself whether he be spiritually minded or not. Be not deceived, as a man thinketh, so is he.

And if we accounted a very strange thing, that our thoughts should be more exercised about spiritual things than about the affairs of our callings, we must not think it strange if, when we come to the trial, we cannot find that we have either life or peace.

But further, it is known how often, when we are engaged in spiritual duties, other thoughts will interpose and impose themselves on our minds. Those which are about men's secular concernments will do so.

The world will frequently make an inroad on the way to heaven to disturb the passengers and wayfaring men. There is nothing more frequently complained of by such as are awake to their duty and sensibleness of their weakness.

Call to mind, therefore, how often, on the other hand, spiritual thoughts do interpose and, as it were, impose themselves on your minds while you are engaged in your earthly affairs. Sometimes, no doubt, but with all that are true believers, it is so.

Wherever I was aware, saith the spouse, my soul made me as a chariot of the Minadab. Kenticles 6 .12. Grace in her own soul surprised her into a ready, willing frame to spiritual communion with Christ when she was intent on other occasions.

But if the thoughts of heavenly things so arising in us bear no proportion with the other sort, it is an evidence what frame and principle is predominant in us. Secondly, there are a multitude of thoughts in the minds of men which are vain, useless, and altogether unprofitable.

These ordinarily, through a dangerous mistake, are looked on as not sinful, because, as it is supposed, a manner of them is not so. And therefore men rather shake them off for their folly than their guilt.

But they arise from a corrupt fountain, and woefully pollute both the mind and conscience. Wherever there are vain thoughts, there is sin. Jeremiah 4 .14. Such are those numberless imaginations in which men fancy themselves to be what they are not, to do what they do not, to enjoy what they enjoy not, to dispose of themselves and others at their pleasure.

That our nature is liable to such a pernicious folly, which some of tenacious fancies have turned into madness, we are beholding alone to our cursed apostasy from God, and the vanity that possessed our minds thereon.

Hence the prince of Tyre thought he was a god, and sat in the seat of God. Ezekiel 28 .2. So it has been with others. And in those in whom such imaginations are kept to some better order and bounds, yet being traced to their original, they will be found to spring some of them immediately from pride, some from sensual lust, some from the love of the world, all from self, and the old ambition to be as God, to dispose of all things as we think meet.

I know no greater misery or punishment in this world than the debasing of our nature to such vain imaginations, and a perfect freedom from them is a part of the blessedness of heaven. It is not my present work to show how sinful they are, let them be esteemed only fruitless, foolish, vain, and ludicrous, but let men examine themselves what number of these vain, useless thoughts night and day do rove up and down in their minds.

If now it be apprehended too severe that men's thoughts of spiritual things should exceed them that are employed about their lawful callings, let them consider what proportion they bear to those that are vain and useless.

Do not many give more time to them than they do to holy meditations, without an endeavor to mortify the one or to stir up and enliven the other? Are they not more wanted to their seasons than holy thoughts are?

And shall we suppose that those with whom it is so are spiritually minded? Thirdly, there are thoughts that are formerly evil, they are so in their own nature, being corrupt contrivances to fulfill the desires of the flesh and the lusts thereof.

These also will attempt the minds of believers, but they are always looked on as professed enemies to the soul and are watched against. I shall not, therefore, make any comparison between them and spiritual thoughts, for they abound only in them that are carnally minded.

Spiritual Thoughts in Their Proper Seasons

The second rule to this purpose is that we should consider whether thoughts of spiritual things do constantly take possession of their proper seasons. There are some times and seasons in the course of men's life in which they retire themselves to their own thoughts.

The most busied men in the world have some times of thinking to themselves, and those who design no such thing as being afraid of coming to be wiser and better than they are, do yet spend some time therein, whether they will or not.

But they who are wise will be at home as much as they can, and have as many reasons for such retirements as is possible for them to attain. If that man be foolish, who busies himself so much abroad in the concerns of others, that he has no time to consider the state of his own house and family, much more is he who spends all the thoughts about other things, and never makes use of them in an inquiry how it is with himself and his own soul.

However, men can hardly avoid that they must have some seasons, partly stated, partly occasional, in which they entertain themselves with their own thoughts. The evening and the morning, the times of waking on the bed, those of the necessary cessation of all ordinary affairs, of walking, journeying, and the like, are such seasons.

If we are spiritually minded, if thoughts of spiritual things do abound in us, they will ordinarily, and that was constancy, possess these seasons. Look upon them as those which are their due, which belong to them, for they are expressly assigned to them in the way of rule, expressed in examples and commands.

See Psalm 16, 7 and 8. 17, 2 and Deuteronomy 6, 7. If they are usually given up to other ends and occasions, or possessed with thoughts of another nature, it is an open evidence that spiritual thoughts have but little interest in our minds, little prevalency in the conduct of our souls.

It is our duty to afford to them stated times, taken away from other affairs that call for them. But if instead of this we rob them of what it is, as it were, their own, which no other things or business can lay any just claim to, how dwells the love of spiritual things in us?

Most professors are convinced that it is their duty to pray morning and evening, and it is to be wished that they were all found in the practice of it. But if inordinarily they judge themselves in the performance of that duty to be discharged from any further exercise of spiritual thoughts, applying them to things worldly, useless, or vain, they can make no pretense to be spiritually minded.

And it must be averved, which will be found to be true, that if the seasons which are, as it were, due to such meditations be taken from them, they will be the worst employed of all the minutes of our lives.

Vain and foolish thoughts, corrupt imaginations, will make a common haunt to the minds of men in them, and habituate themselves to an expectation of entertainment, whence they will grow importunate for admission.

Hence, with many, those precious moments of time which might greatly influence their souls to life and peace, if they were indeed spiritually minded, make the greatest provision for their trouble, sorrow, and confusion.

For the vain and evil thoughts which some persons do accustom themselves to in such seasons are, or ought to be, a burden upon their consciences more than they can bear. That which providence tenders to their good is turned into a snare, and God does righteously leave them to the fruits of their own folly, whoso despises gracious provision for their good.

If we cannot afford to God our spare time, it is evident that indeed we can afford nothing at all. Micah 2 .1. They devise iniquity upon their beds, the season proper for holy contemplation they make use of to fill their minds with wicked imaginations.

When the morning is light, they practice it, walking all day, on all occasions suitable to their devices and imaginations of the night. Many will have cause to complain to eternity of those leisure times which might have been improved for their advantage unto eternal blessedness.

If we intend, therefore, to maintain a title to this grace of being spiritually minded, if we would have any evidence of it in ourselves, without which we can have none of life or peace, and what we pretend thereof is but an effect of security, we must endeavor to preserve the claim and right of spiritual thoughts to such seasons, and actually put them in possession of them.

Number Three. Consider how we are affected with our disappointments about these seasons. Have we, by negligence, by temptations, have we, by occasional diversions or affairs of life, been taken off from thoughts of God, of Christ, of heavenly things, when we ought to have been engaged in them?

How are we affected with a view of this? A carnal mind is well enough satisfied with the omission of any duty, so it have the pretense of a necessary occasion. If it has lost a temporal advantage through attendance to a spiritual duty, it will deeply reflect upon itself, and it may be, like the duty, the worse afterward.

But a gracious soul, one that is truly spiritually minded, will mourn under a review of such omissions, and by every one of them is stirred up to more watchfulness for the future. A facet will say, How little have I been with Christ this day!

How much time has passed me without a thought of Him! How foolish was I to be lacking to such or such an opportunity! I am in arrears to myself, and I have no rest until I be satisfied. I say, if indeed we are spiritually minded, we will duly and carefully call over to consideration of those times and seasons in which we ought to have exercised ourselves in spiritual thoughts, and if we have lost them, or any of them, mourn over our own negligence.

But if we can omit and lose such seasons or opportunities from time to time without regret or self-reflection, it is to be feared that we wax worse and worse. They will be made hereby for further omissions until we grow wholly cold about them.

And indeed that woeful loss of time that is found amongst many professors is greatly to be bewailed. Some lose it on themselves by a continual track of fruitless and pertinent thoughts about their own concerns.

Some in vain converse with others, in which, for the most part, they edify one another unto vanity. How much of this time might, nay, ought to be redeemed for holy meditation! The good Lord may call professors sensible of their loss of former seasons, that they may be the more watchful for the future in this great concernment of their souls.

Little do some think what light, what assurance, what joy, what readiness for the cross or for heaven they might have attained had they laid hold on all just seasons of exercise in their thoughts about spiritual things which they have enjoyed, who are now at a loss in all and surprised with every fear or difficulty that doth befall them.

This is the first thing that belongs to our being spiritually minded. For though it does not absolutely or essentially consist in it, yet it is inseparable from it. And the most undeceiving indication of it, and thus of abounding and abiding in thoughts about spiritual things, such as arise and spring naturally from a living principle, a spiritual frame and disposition of heart within.

Providence, Self-Examination, and Holy Resignation

5. The objects of spiritual thoughts are what they are conversant about, evidencing them in whom they are to be spiritually minded, rules directing to steadiness in the contemplation of heavenly things, motives to fix our thoughts with steadiness in them.

Before I proceed to the next general head, and which is the principal thing, the foundation of the grace and duty inquired after, some things must be spoken to render what has been already insisted on yet more particularly useful.

And this is, to inquire what are or what ought to be the special objects of those thoughts which, under the qualifications laid down, are the evidences of our being spiritually minded. And it may be we may be useful to many herein by helping them to fix their minds which are apt to rove into all uncertainty.

For this has befallen us through the disorder and weakness of the faculties of our souls, that sometimes what the mind guides, leads, and directs to, in things spiritual and heavenly, our wills and affections, through their deprivation and corruption, will not comply with.

And so the good designings of the minds are lost. Sometimes what the will and affections are inclined to and ready for, the mind, through its weakness and inconstancy, cannot lead them to the accomplishment of.