Owen - BT200 O97 1684

210 Meditations and Difi·ourfe.t fpiritual health ; namely, when our Light of th~ knowledg· of the Glory of God in Chrift, cloth ~mfwer the means of it which we enjoy ; and when our Affe8ions unto Chri,ft do hold proportion umo that light; and this according unto the various degreesof,it; forfome have more, and fome have lets. VVhe:re Light leaves the .Afj'eClions behind, it ends in Formali ty or Atheifm : And where AjfeElions outrun Light they [Ink in the Bog of Snperfriti- .on, doting an Images and PiCtures or the like. But where things go not into thefe exceffes, it is better that our affections exceed our light on the defect of our nnderfrandings, than that our ligh~ exceed our atfefrions from the corruptio~ of our wills. In both thefe is the exercife of faith f1 equently interrupted and obftructed by the remainder ofcorruption in us; efpecially' if not kept ·conftantly under the (lifcipline of Mortification, but fome way indulged unto. For, r. THE .f!eam of their diforder will cloud and darken ' the underftanding, that it fhall not be abl'e clearly to difcern any fpiritual object, leaft of a11 the greateft of theni. ·There is nothing more acknowledged even in things natural and moral than that the diforder of the paffions and affections .\-Vill blind,darken, and deceive the mind in its Operations: And it is much more fo in ·things fpintual, wherein that Diforder is an immediate Rebellion againft its proper conducting Light; that is, againft the Light and Rule of Grace. · THERE are \ three forts of them unto whom · the Gofpel is preached, in whom there are various Obfi:rucbons of this view. I . THERE.

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