Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachi the…Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachy the…

Now this Name of God, the Saints in the Text did contemplate, they Thought upon his Name. Thoughts are the first-born of the Soul, the conceptions of the mind, the immediate Fruit and Issue of a rational being. Thoughts are the Images of things in the Fancy^*. These devout Souls in the Text were chiefly busying their Thoughts about God and Heaven.

1. *Cogitationes sunt rerum imagines. Moller.

It is the inseparable sign of a Godly man to employ his chief Thoughts about God, Prov. 12.5.¹ The Thoughts of the Righteous are Right. That is ⟨p. 104⟩they are set upon the Right Object. 'Tis natural to Think. Thoughts fly out of the Mind, as Sparks out of a Furnace. The Hebrew word▪ for a Thought, signifies the Boughs of a Tree^*; Because Thoughts shoot out from our Minds, as branches do from a Tree. 'Tis I say natural to Think, but it is not natural to Think of God, this is proper to a Saint: his Thoughts are Sublime and Seraphical, they fly to Heaven. The Mind is a Mint-house where Thoughts are Minted. David minted Golden Cogitations, Psalm 139.18. I am still with thee. That is (as learned Ainsworth expounds it) by Divine Contemplation. Thoughts are Travellers in the Soul. Davids Thoughts kept Heaven-road, Psalm 73.23. I am continually with thee. As the Mariners needle turns to the North-pole: so a Saints Thoughts are still pointing towards God.