OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS.. 16:r in the paths that go down to the chambers of death. uncontrollable power of sin in such persons, and the greatness of God's displeasure against them, make their condition most deplorable.. Those that are in this state, of either sort, the for-, mer or the latter, are remote from being , spiritually minded, nor is God in all their thoughts, as he ought to be. For, 1. They will not so think and meditate on God, Their delight is turned anotherway. Their affections, which are the spring of their thoughts, which feed them continually, cleave unto the things which are most ad- verse to him. Love of sin is gotten to be the spring in them, and the whole stream of the thoughts which they choose and delight in, is towards the pleasures of it. If any thoughts of God come in, as a faint tide for a fewminutes, and drive back the other stream, they are quickly repelled and carried away with the strong current of those which proceed from their powerful inclinations. Yet may such persons abide in the "per- formance of outward holy duties," or attendance to them. Pride of, or satisfaction in, their gifts, may give them delight in their ownperformances, and something in those of others, they may be exceedingly pleased with; as it is expressly affirmed, .Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32. But in these things they have no immediate real thoughts of God, none that they delight in, none that they seek to stir up in themselves, and those which impose themselves on them they reject. 2. As they will not, so they dare not, think of God. They will not, because of the power of their lusts; they dare not, because of their guilt. No sooner should they begin to think of him in good earnest, but their sin would lose all its desirable forms and appearances,.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=