OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. 63 them. So is it 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 unto 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 to an account, whence it is that it hath been so long without them, and calls them over into its wonted converse with them. CHAPTER IV. Other evidences of thoughts about spiritual things, arising from an internal principle of grace, whereby they are an evidence of our being spiritually minded. The abounding of these thoughts, howfar, andwhere- in such an evidence. II. THE second evidence that our thoughts of spiri- tual things proceed from an internal fountain of sancti- fied 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 handfuls; 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.
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