The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded

In this State, they may be two ways wrought upon, and yet not so renewed, as to be serviceable unto this End.

First, There may be various temporary Impressions made on them, sometimes there is so by the Preaching of the Word. Hereon Men may hear it with joy, and do many things gladly. Sometimes it is so by Judgements, Dangers, Sicknesses, Apprehensions of the approach of Death, Psal. 34, 78.35, 37. These things take men off for a season from their greedy Delight in earthly things, and the pursuit of the Interest of Lust in making Provision for the Flesh. On many other Occasions, by great variety of Causes, there may be temporary Impressions made on the Affections, that shall seem for a season, to have turned the stream of them. And thereon we have many, who every day will be wholly as it were for God, resolved to forsake Sin, and all the Pleasures of it; but the ⟨p. 204⟩next return unto all their former Excesses. For this is the Effect of those Impressions, that whereas Men ordinarily are predominantly acted by Love, Desire, and Delight, which lead them to act according unto the true natural Principles of the Soul: now they are for a Season acted by Fear, and Dread, which put a kind of Force on all their Inclinations. Hereon they have other thoughts of Good and Evil, of Things Eternal and Temporal, of God and their own Duty for a season. And hereon, some of them may, and do persuade themselves, that there is a Change in their Hearts and Affections, which there is not; like a Man who persuades himself that he hath lost his Ague, because his present Fit is over. The next trial of Temptation carries them away again unto the World and Sin.

First, There may be various temporary Impressions made on them, sometimes there is so by the Preaching of the Word. Hereon Men may hear it with joy, and do many things gladly. Sometimes it is so by Judgements, Dangers, Sicknesses, Apprehensions of the approach of Death, Psal. 34, 78.35, 37. These things take men off for a season from their greedy Delight in earthly things, and the pursuit of the Interest of Lust in making Provision for the Flesh. On many other Occasions, by great variety of Causes, there may be temporary Impressions made on the Affections, that shall seem for a season, to have turned the stream of them. And thereon we have many, who every day will be wholly as it were for God, resolved to forsake Sin, and all the Pleasures of it; but the