A53719:283
The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded
Phronemma tou pneumatou, or, The grace and duty of being spiritually-minded declared and practically improved / by John Owen ...Phronēma tou pneumatou, or, The grace and duty of being spiritually-minded declared and practically improved / by John Owen ...
London: printed by J.G. for Nathaniel Ponder, 1681
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Those that are in this State, of either sort, the first or the latter, are remote from being Spiritually minded, nor is God in all their Thoughts as he ought to be. For,
1. They will not so think and meditate on God. Their Delight is turned another way. Their Affections which are the spring on their Thoughts, which feed them continually, do cleave unto the things which are most adverse unto him. Love of sin is gotten to be the Spring in them, and the whole stream of the Thoughts which they choose and delight in, are towards the Pleasures of it. If any Thoughts of God come in, as a faint Tide for a few minutes, and drive back the other stream, they are quickly repelled and carried away with the strong current of those which proceed from their powerful Inclinations. Yet may such Persons abide in the Performance of outward holy Duties; or attendance unto them. Pride of or satisfaction in their Gifts may give them Delight in their own performances, and something in those of others they may be exceedingly pleased withal; as it is expressly affirmed, Ezek. 33.31, 32. But in these things they have no immediate real Thoughts of God, none that they delight in, none that they seek to stir up in themselves, and those which impose themselves on them they reject.
1. They will not so think and meditate on God. Their Delight is turned another way. Their Affections which are the spring on their Thoughts, which feed them continually, do cleave unto the things which are most adverse unto him. Love of sin is gotten to be the Spring in them, and the whole stream of the Thoughts which they choose and delight in, are towards the Pleasures of it. If any Thoughts of God come in, as a faint Tyde for a few minutes, and drive back the other stream, they are quickly repelled and carryed away with the strong current of those which proceed from their powerful Inclinations. Yet may such Persons abide in the Performance of outward holy Duties; or attendance unto them. Pride of or satisfaction in their Gifts may give them Delight in their own performances, and something in those of others they may be exceedingly pleased withal; as it is expresly affirmed,