2$ OP SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. scripture, it maybe so many chapters every day; not withstanding the diligent performance of their task, they may be most remote from being spiritually minded. See Ezek. 33, 31. But there is a certain trackand course of thoughts, that men ordinarily betake themselves unto, when not affected with present oc- casions. If these be vain, foolish, proud, ambitious sensual, or filthy; such is the mind and its frame. If they be holy, spiritual, and heavenly, such may the frame of the mind be judged to be. But these things must be more fully explained. It is the great character and description of the frame of men's minds in an unregenerate condition, or before the renovation of their natures, that every imag- ination of the thoughts of their hearts are only evil continually. Gen. 6. 5.. They are continually coining figments and imaginations in their hearts, stamping them into thoughts that are vain, foolish, and wicked. All other thoughts in them are occasional; these are the natural, genuine product of their hearts. Hence the clearest, and sometimes first, discovery of the bot- tomless evil treasure of-filth, folly, and wickedness, that is in the heart of man by nature, is from the innu- merable multitude of evil imaginations, which are there . coined and thrust forth every day. So the wicked are said to be like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast upmire and dirt, Isa. 57, 20. There is a fulness of evil in their hearts, like that of water in the sea. This fulness is troubled, or put into con,. tinual motion, by their lusts, and impetuous desires. Hence the mire and dirt of evil thoughts are continu- ally cast up in them. It is therefore evident, that the predominancyof vol- untary thoughts, is the best and most sure indication
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