OF SPIRITUUAL MINDEDNESS. 167 them. Whefore they either frame falsenotions 6f him in theirminds, as Ps. 1. 21; or they think not of him at all, at least as they ought, unless sometimes they tremble at his anger and power. Some benefit they suppose may be had, by what he can do, but how there can be any delight in what he is, they know not. Yea, all their trouble ariseth from hence, that he is what he is. It would be axelief to them, if they could make any abated ment of his power, his holiness, his righteousness, his omnipresence ;. but his saints, as the Psalmist speaks, " give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness." And when we can delight in the thoughts of what God is in himself, of his infinite excellencies and per, fections, it gives us a threefold evidence of our being spiritually minded. (1.) In that it is such an evi- dence that we have a gracious interest in those excel- lencies and perfections, whereon we can say with re- joicing in ourselves, this God, thus holy, thus power- ful, thus just, good, and gracious, " is our God, and he will be our guide unto death." So the Psalmist, under the consideration of his own frailty, and apprehensions of death in the midst of his years, comforts and re- freshes himself with the thoughts of " God's eternity and immutability,." with his interest in them, Ps. ciL 23-28. And God himself proposeth to us his infinite immutability, as the ground whereon we may expect safety and deliverance, Mal. iii. 6. When wecan thus think of God, and what he is, with delight, it is, I say, an evidence, that we have a gracious covenant-interest, even in what God is in himself : which none have but those who are spiritually minded. 2. It is an evidence that the image of God isbegun to be wrought in our own souls ; and we approve of, and rejoice in it, more than in all other things what-
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