The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded

We can therefore have no greater Evidence of a change in us from this State and Condition, than a change wrought in the course of our Thoughts. A Relinquishment of this or that particular sin, is not an Evidence of a Translation from this state. For as was said, such particular sins proceed from particular Lusts and Temptations, and are not the immediate universal Consequence of that Depravation of Nature which is equal in all. Such alone is the vanity and wickedness of the Thoughts and Imaginations of the Heart. A change herein is a blessed Evidence of a change of State. He who is cured of a Dropsy, is not immediately healthy, because he may have the prevailing seeds and matter of other Diseases in him, and the next day die of a Lethargy: But he who from a state of Sickness, is restored in the Temperature of the Mass of Blood and the Animal Spirits, and all the Principles of Life and Health, ⟨p. 48⟩unto a good Crasis and Temperature, his state of Body is changed. The Cure of a particular sin may leave behind it the seeds of Eternal Death, which they may quickly effect. But he who hath obtained a change in this Character which belongs essentially unto the state of depraved Nature, is spiritually recovered. And the more the stream of our Thoughts is turned, the more our minds are filled with those of a contrary Nature, the greater and more firm is our Evidence of a Translation out of that depraved state and condition.

We can therefore have no greater Evidence of a change in us from this State and Condition, than a change wrought in the course of our Thoughts. A Relinquishment of this or that particular sin, is not an Evidence of a Translation from this state. For as was said, such particular sins proceed from particular Lusts and Temptations, and are not the immediate universal Consequence of that Depravation of Nature which is equal in all. Such alone is the vanity and wickedness of the Thoughts and Imaginations of the Heart. A change herein is a blessed Evidence of a change of State. He who is cured of a Dropsie, is not immediately healthy, because he may have the prevailing seeds and matter of other Diseases in him, and the next day die of a Lethargy: But he who from a state of Sickness, is restored in the Temperature of the Mass of Blood and the Animal Spirits, and all the Principles of Life and Health, ⟨p. 48⟩unto a good Crasis and Temperature, his state of Body is changed. The Cure of a particular sin may leave behind it the seeds of Eternal Death, which they may quickly effect. But he who hath obtained a change in this Character which belongs essentially unto the state of depraved Nature, is spiritually recovered. And the more the stream of our Thoughts is turned, the more our minds are filled with those of a contrary Nature, the greater and more firm is our Evidence of a Translation out of that depraved state and condition.