The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded

Wherefore after their Affections have been tossed up and down for a season, under the Power and Torment of this Conviction, they come unto one or other of these Issues with them. For either they utterly decay, and the Mind looseth all sense of any Impressions from them, so as that they wonder in themselves, whence they were so foolish as to be tossed and troubled with such melancholy Fancies, and so commonly prove as bad a sort of Men as live upon the Earth; or they take up in a formal legal Profession wherein they never attain to be Spiritually-Minded. This ⟨p. 257⟩is the best end that our Affections towards Spiritual things not guided by the Light of Faith, do come unto.

Secondly, Faith hath a clear prospect into, and Apprehension of Spiritual things, as they are in themselves, and in their own nature. It is true, the Light of it cannot fully comprehend the nature of all those things which are the Objects of its Affections, For they are infinite and incomprehensible, such as are the Nature of God, and the Person of Christ; and some of them, as future Glory, are not yet clearly revealed: But it discerns them all in a due manner, so as that they may in themselves, and not in any corrupt Representation, or Imagination of them, be the Object of our Affections. They are as the Apostle speaks, Spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2.14. which is the reason why the natural man cannot receive them, namely, because he hath not Ability Spiritually to discern them. And this is the principal end of the Renovation of our Minds, the principal quality and effect of Faith, namely, the Communication unto our Minds, and the acting in us, of a Spiritual Saving Light, whereby we may see and discern Spiritual things as they are in their own Nature, Kind, and proper Use, see Ephes. 1.17, 18, 19. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of him. The Eyes of your Understanding being enlightened: that ye know what is the hope of his Calling, and what the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints, and what is the exceeding Greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty Power.