OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. '75 thoughts. The most busied men in the world have some times of thinking unto themselves. And those who design no such thing, as being afraid of coming to be wiser or better than they are, do yet spend 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 seasons for such their retirements, as is possible for them to attain. If that man be foolish, who busieth himself so much abroad in the concerns of others, that he bath no time to consider the state of his own house and family ; much more is he so, who spendeth all his 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, but that they must have some seasons, partly stated, partly occa- sional, wherein 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 abound in us, they will ordinarily, and that with constancy, possess these seasons, look upon them as those which are their due, which belong to them. For they are expressly assigned unto them in the way of rule, expressed in examples and commands. See Psalm xvi. 7, 8. and xcii. 2. Deut. 6, 7. If they are usually given up unto other ends and occasions, are possessed with thoughts of another nature, it is an open evidence that spiritual thoughts have but little in- terest 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 thereof we rob them of what is, as it
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