Chapter 9

What of God or in God we are to think and meditate upon. His Being; Reasons of it; Oppositions to it; the way of their Conquest. Thoughts of the Omnipresence, and Omniscience of God, peculiarly necessary. The Reasons hereof. As also of his Omnipotency. The Use and Benefit of such Thoughts.

THese things mentioned have been premised in General, as to the nature, manner and way of exercise of our Thoughts on God. That which remains is to give some particular instances, of what we are to think upon in an especial manner; and what we will be conversant withall in our Thoughts, if so be we are Spiritually minded. And I shall not insist at present on the things which concern his Grace and Love in Christ Jesus, which belong to another head, but on those which have an Immediate respect to the Divine Nature it self, and its holy essential Properties.

(1.) Think much of the Being and Existence of God. Herein lyes the Foundation of all our Relation and access to him. Heb. 11:6. He that coms to God, must believe that he is. This is the first Object of Faith; and it is the first Act of Reason; and being the sole Foundation of all Religion, it is our duty to be exercised to multiplied Thoughts about it, renewed on all occasions. For many who are not direct Atheists, yet live without any solid well-grounded Assent to the Divine being; They do not so believe it as to be practically influenced with the Consideration of it. It is granted, that the inbred Light of Nature, in the due exercise of Reason, will give any Rational creature satisfaction in the Being of God. But there is in the most an Anticipation of any Thoughts of this nature by Tradition and Education, which has invited men into an assent to it, they know not how. They never called it into question, nor have as they suppose any cause so to do. Nature it self startles at the first Thoughts of denying of it, but if ever such persons on any urgent occasions come to have real Thoughts about it, they are at a loss and fluctuate in their minds, as not having any certain indubitable convicton of its truth. Wherefore, as our Knowledge of the Divine Being is as to the Foundation of it laid in the Light of Nature, the Operation of Conscience, and the due exercise of Reason about the works and effects of infinite Power and Wisdom; so it ought to be increased, and rendered useful by faith in Divine Revelations, and the Experience of Divine power through them. By this Faith we ought to let in frequent thoughts of the Divine being and Existence. And that on two Reasons rendring the duty necessary in an Eminent manner, in this Age wherein we live.

1. The abounding of Atheism both Notional and Practical. The Reasons of it, have been given before, and the matter of fact is evident to any Ordinary observation. And on two accounts with respect hereto we ought to abound in Thoughts of Faith concerning the Being of God. (1.) An especial Testimony is required in us, in opposition to this cursed effect of Hell. He therefore who is spiritually minded, cannot but have many Thoughts of the Being of God, thereby giving Glory to him. Isai. 43.9, 10, 11, 12. Let all the Nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Chapter 44:8. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told you from that time, and have declared it; ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? yea, there is no God: I know not any. (2.) We shall have occasion of them continually administred to us. Those Atheistical impieties, principles and practices which abound amongst us, are grievous provocations to all pious Souls. Without frequent retreat to Thoughts of the Being of God, there is no relief nor refreshment to be had under them. Such was the case of Noah in the old World, and of Lot in Sodom, which rendered their Graces illustrious.

2. Because of the unaccountable Confusions that all things are fill'd withall at this day in the World. Whatever in former times has been a Temptation in humane Affairs to any of the People of God, it abounds at this day. Never had men profane and profligate greater outward appearances to strengthen them in their Atheism, nor those that are Godly greater Tryals for their Faith, with respect to the visible State of things in the world. The Psalmist of old on such an occasion was almost surprized into unbelieving complaints, Psal. 73:2, 3, 4, &c. And such surprizals may now also befall us, that we may be ready to say with him; Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in Innocency, for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. Hence when the Prophet Habakkuk was exercised with Thoughts about such a state of things as is at this day in the World, which he declares, Chapter 1:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. he layes the foundation of his consideration in the fresh exercise of Faith on the Being and Properties of God, verse 12, 13. And David makes that his Retreat on the like occasion, Psal. 11:3, 4, 5.

In such a season as this is, upon both the accounts mentioned, those who are spiritually minded will much exercise their Thoughts about the Being and Existence of God. They will say within themselves, Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous, verily he is a God who judgs in the earth. Hence will follow such apprehensions of the Immensity of his Nature, of his eternal Power and Infinite Wisdom, of his absolute Soveraignty, as will hold their Souls firm and steadfast, in the highest storms of Temptation that may befall them.

Yet are there two things that the weaker sort of Believers may be exercised with, in their Thoughts of the Divine Being and Existence, which may occasion them some trouble.

1. Sathan knowing the weakness of our Minds in the immediate Contemplation of things infinite and incomprehensible, will sometimes take advantage to insinuate blasphemous Imaginations in opposition to what we would fix upon, and relieve our selves withal. He will take that very time, trusting to our weakness and his own methods of subtilty, to suggest his Temptations to Atheism, by insnaring Enquiries, when we go about to refresh our Souls with Thoughts of the Divine Being and Excellencies. But is there a God indeed? How do you know that there is a God? and may it not be otherwise? will be his language to our minds. For from his first Temptation by way of an ensnaring Question, Yea, and has God said it, ye shall not eat of every Tree of the Garden? he proceeds still much in the same methods. So he did with our Savior himself, If you be the Son of God: Is there a God? how if there should be none? In such a case the Rule is given us by the Apostle; Above all take the shield of Faith, whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked, Eph. 6:16. , of the wicked one, that is the Devil. And two ways will Faith Act it self on this occasion.

(1.) By a speedy rejection of such Diabolical Suggestions with detestation. So did our Savior in a case not unlike it; Get you behind me Sathan. Wherefore, if any such Thoughts are suggested, or seem to arise in your minds, know assuredly that they are no less immediately from the Devil, than if he personally stood before you, and visibly appear'd to you; if he did so, there is none of you but would arm your selves with an utter defiance of what he should offer to you. It is no less necessary on this occasion, when you may feel him, though you see him not. Suffer not his fiery darts to abide one moment with you, entertain no parly or dispute about them, reject them with indignation, and strengthen your rejection of them with some pertinent testimony of Scripture, as our Savior did. If a man have a Granado or Fire-ball cast into his Clothes by his Enemy, he does not consider whether it will burn or no, but Immediately shakes it off from him. Deal no otherwise with these fiery darts, lest by their abode with you they inflame your Imagination to greater disturbance.

(2.) In case they utterly depart not upon this Endeavor for their exclusion and casting out, return immediately without further dispute to your own Experience. When the Devil has ask'd you the Question, if you answer him, you will be ensnar'd; but if thereon you ask your selves the Question, and apply your selves to your own experience for an answer to it, you will frustrate all his designs.

There are Arguments to be taken as was said from the Light of Nature, and Reason in its proper exercise, sufficient to defeat all Objections of that kind. But these are not our proper weapons in case of our own Temptation, which alone is now under Consideration. It requires longer and more sedate reasonings than such a state will admit of, nor is it a Sanctified medium for our Relief.

It is what is suited to suggestions on the occasion of our Meditations that we inquire after. In them we are not to argue on such Principles, but to take the shield of Faith to Quench these fiery darts. And if on such occasions Sathan can divert us into long disputes about the Being of God, he has his end, by carrying us off from the meditation on him which we did design, and after a while he will prevail to make it a common road and trade, that no sooner shall we begin to think of God, but immediately we must dispute about his Being.

Therefore the way in this case for him who is really a Believer, is to retreat immediately to his own Experience, which will pour shame and contempt on the suggestions of Sathan. There is no Believer, who has knowledge and time to exercise the wisdom of Faith in the consideration of himself and of Gods dealings with him, but has a witness in himself of his eternal Power and Godhead, as also of all those other Perfections of his Nature which he is pleased to manifest and glorify by Jesus Christ. Wherefore on this suggestion of Sathan, that there is no God, he will be able to say, that he might better tell me that I do not Live nor Breathe, that I am not fed by my Meat, nor warm'd by my Clothes, that I know not my self nor any thing else: For I have spiritual sense and experience of the contrary; like him of old, who when a cunning Sophister would prove to him by Syllogisms that there was no such thing as motion, he gave no answer to his Arguments, but Rose up and walked. How often, will he say, have I had experience of the power and presence of God in Prayer; as though I had not only heard of him by the hearing of the ear, but also seen him by the seeing of the eye? How often has he put forth his Power and Grace in me by his Spirit and his Word with an uncontrollable Evidence of his Being, Goodness, Love and Grace? How often has he refreshed my Conscience with the sense of the pardon of sin, speaking that peace to my Soul, which all the world could not communicate to me? In how many afflictions, dangers, troubles has he been a present help and relief? what sensible Emanations of Life and Power from him have I obtain'd in Meditation on his Grace and Glory? As he who had been blind answered the Pharisees to their ensnaring captious questions; Be it what it will, One thing I know, that whereas I was blind now I see. Whatever, saith such a Soul, be in this Temptation of Sathan, one thing I know full well, that whereas I was dead, I am alive, whereas I was blind, now I see, and that by an effect of divine power.

This shield of Faith managed in the hand of Experience, will quench the fiery darts of Sathan; and he will fall under a double defeat. (1.) His Temptations will be repell'd by the proper way of resistance, whereon he will not only desist in his Attempt, but even fly from you. Resist the Devil, saith the Apostle, and he will fly from you. He will not only depart and cease to trouble you, but will depart as one defeated and confounded. And it is for want of this resistance lively made use of, that many hang so long in the Bryars of this Temptation. (2.) Recalling the Experiences we have had of God, will lead us to the exercise of all kind of Graces, which is the greatest disappointment of our Adversary.

(2.) In Thoughts of the Divine Being and Existence, we are apt to be at a loss, to be as it were overwhelmed in our minds, because the Object is too great and Glorious for us to contemplate on. Eternity and Immensity, every thing under the notion of Infinite, take off the mind from its distinct actings, and reduce it as it were to nothing. Hereon in some, not able to abide in the strict Reasons of things, vain and foolish Imaginations are apt to arise, and enquiries how can these things be, which we cannot comprehend? Others are utterly at a loss, and turn away their Thoughts from them, as they would do their eyes from the bright beams of the Sun. Two things are adviseable in this case.

1. That we betake our selves to an holy Admiration of what we cannot comprehend. In these things we cannot see God and Live; nay in life Eternal it self they are not absolutely to be comprehended, only what is Infinite can fully comprehend what is so. Here they are the Objects of Faith and Worship, in them we may find rest and satisfaction, when enquiries and reasonings will disquiet us, and it may be overwhelm us. Infinite Glory forbids us any near approach but only by Faith. The Soul thereby bowing down it self to Gods adoreable Greatness, and Imcomprehensible Perfections, finding our selves to be nothing and God to be all, will give us rest and peace in these things; Rom. 11:33, 34, 35, 36. We have but unsteady Thoughts, of the greatness of the World, and all the Nations and Inhabitants of it, yet are both it and these but as the dust of the ballance and the drop of the bucket, as vanity, as nothing, compared with God: what then can our Thoughts concerning him issue in, but holy Admiration?

2. In case we are brought to a loss and disorder in our minds, on the contemplation of any one Infinite Property of God, it is good to divert our Thoughts to the Effects of it, such as whereof we have, or may have experience; for what is too great or high for us in it self, is made suitable to our understandings in its Effects. So the Invisible things of God, are known in and by the things that are seen. And there is indeed no Property of the Divine Nature, but we may have an experience of it as to some of its effects in and upon our selves. These we may consider, and in the Streams taste of the Fountain which we cannot approach. By them we may be led to an holy admiration of what is in it self Infinite, Immense, Imcomprehensible. I cannot comprehend the Immensity of Gods Nature, it may be I cannot understand the nature of Immensity; yet if I find by experience and do strongly believe, that he is alwaies present wherever I am, I have the Faith of it, and satisfaction in it.

(2.) With Thoughts of the divine Being, those of his Omnipresence and Omniscience ought continually to accompany us. We cannot take one step in a walk before him, unless we remember that always and in all places he is present with us, that the frame of our hearts and our inward Thoughts are continually in his view no less than our outward Actions. And as we ought to be perpetually under an awe of, and in the fear of God in these apprehensions, so there are some seasons wherein our minds ought to be in the actual conception and thoughts of them, without which we shall not be preserved in our Duty.

1. The first season of this nature, is when times, places, with other occasions of Temptation and consequently of Sinning, do come and meet. With some, Company does constitute such a season; and with some, Secrecy with Opportunity do the same. There are those who are ready with a careless boldness to put themselves on such Societies as they do know have been Temptations to them and occasions of sin; every such entrance into any society or company, to them who know how it has formerly succeeded, is their actual sin, and it is Just with God to leave them to all the evil Consequents that do ensue. Others also do either choose, or are frequently cast on such Societies; and no sooner are they engag'd in them, but they forget all regard to God, and give themselves up not only to Vanity, but to various sorts of excess. David knew the Evil and Danger of such occasions; and gives us an account of his behavior in them, Psal. 39:1, 2, 3. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from Good, and my sorrow was stirred: My heart was hot within me, while I was musing, the fire burned: then spoke I with my tongue. As for their evil words and ways he would have no communication with them. And as to Good discourse, he judged it unseasonable, to cast Pearl before Swine. He was therefore silent as to that also, though it was a grief and trouble to him. But this occasioned in him afterwards those excellent Meditations which he expresss in the following Verses. In the entrances of these occasions, if men would remember the presence of God with them, in these places, with the holy severity of the Eye that is upon them, it would put an awe upon their spirits, and embitter those Jollities, whose Relish is given them by Temptation and Sin. He does neither walk humbly nor circumspectly, who being unnecessarily cast on the Society of men wicked or profane, (on such occasions wherein the ordinary sort of men give more than ordinary liberty to corrupt Communication or Excess in any kind,) does not in his entrance of them call to mind the presence and all-seeing Eye of God, and at his Departure from them, consider whether his Deportment has been such as became that Presence, and his being under that Eye. But alas! Pretences of Business and necessary Occasions, Ingagements of Trade, carnal Relations, and the common course of communication in the world, with a supposition that all sorts of Society are allowed for Diversion, have cast out the Remembrance of God from the minds of most, even then when men cannot be preserved from sin without it.

This has sullied the Beauty of Gospel Conversation amongst the most, and left in very few any prevalent Evidence of being spiritually minded.

Wherefore, as to them who either by their voluntary choice or necessity of their Occasions, do enter and engage pomiscuously into all Societies and Companies, let them know assuredly, that if they awe not their hearts and spirits continually with the Thoughts and apprehensions of the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God, that he is always with them, and his Eye always upon them, they will not be preserved from Snares and sinful miscarriages.

Yea, such Thoughts are needful to the best of us all, and in the best of our societies, that we behave not our selves undecently in them at any time.

Again, to some, Privacy, Secresy, and Opportunity, are occasions of Temptation and Sin. They are so to persons under Convictions not wholly turned to God. Many a good Beginning has been utterly ruined by this occasion and Temptation. Privacy and Opportunity have overthrown many such persons in the best of their Resolutions. And they are so to all persons not yet flagitiously wicked. Cursed fruits proceed every day from these Occasions. We need no other Demonstration of their Power and Efficacy in Tempting to sin, but the visible Effects of them. And what they are to any, they may be to all, if not diligently watched against. So the Apostle reflects on the shameful things that are done in the dark, in a concurrence of Secresie and Opportunity. This therefore gives a Just season to Thoughts of the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God, and they will not be wanting in some measure in them that are spiritually minded.

God is in this place, the darkness is no darkness to him, Light and Darkness are with him both alike, are sufficient considerations to lay in the Ballance against any Temptation springing out of Secresie and Opportunity. One Thought of the actual presence of the holy God, and the open view of his all-seeing eye, will do more to cool those Affections which Lust may put into a tumult on such occasions, than any other consideration whatever. A speedy Retreat hereto upon the first perplexing Thought wherewith Temptation assaults the Soul, will be its strong Tower, where it shall be safe.

2. A second Season calling for the Exercise of our minds in Thoughts of the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God, is made up of our Solitudes and Retirements. These give us the most genuine Tryals whether we are spiritually minded or no. What we are in them, that we are and no more. But yet in some of them, as in Walking and Journeyings or the like, vain Thoughts and foolish Imaginations are exceeding apt to solicit our minds. Whatever is stored up in the Affections or Memory, will at such a time offer it self for our present entertainment: And where men have accustomed themselves to any sort of things, they will press on them for the possession of their Thoughts, as it were whether they will or no. The Psalmist gives us the way to prevent this evil; Psal. 16:7, 8. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel, my reins also instruct me in the night season. I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my Right hand. His Reins, that is, his Affections, and secret Thoughts, gave him counsel and instructed him in all such seasons; But whence had they that wisdom and faithfulness: In themselves they are the seat of all Lusts and Corruptions, nor could do any thing but seduce him into an evil frame. It was from hence alone that he set the Lord always before him. Continual Apprehensions of the presence of God with him, kept his Mind, his Heart and Affections, in that Awe and Reverence of him, as that they always instructed him to his Duty. But as I remember, I spoke somewhat as to the due management of our Thoughts in this Season before.

3. Times of great Difficulties, Dangers, and Perplexities of mind thereon, are a season calling for the same Duty. Suppose a man is left alone in his Tryals for the Profession of the Gospel, as it was with Paul, when all men forsook him, and no man stood by him. Suppose him to be brought before Princes, Rulers, or Judges that are fill'd with Rage and armed with Power against him, all things being disposed to affect him with dread and terrour. It is the Duty of such a one to call off his Thoughts from all things visibly present, and to fix them on the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God. He sits amongst those Judges though they acknowledge him not; He rules over them at his pleasure; He knows the cause of the Oppressed, and justifies them whenever the world condemns; and can deliver them when he pleass. With the Thoughts hereof did those holy Souls support themselves when they stood before the fiery countenance of the bloody Tyrant on the one hand, and the burning fiery Furnace on the other, Dan. 3:14. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out yours hand, O King; But if not, be it known to you O King, that we will not serve your Gods, nor worship the Golden Image which you have set up. Thoughts of the Presence and Power of God, gave them not only comfort and supportment under: their distress, when they were alone and helpless, but Courage and Resolution to defie the Tyrant to his face. And when the Apostle was brought before Nero that Monster of cruelty and villany, and all men forsook him, he affirms, that the Lord stood by him, and strengthened him, Tim. 4:17. He refreshed himself with Thoughts of his presence, and had the blessed fruit of it.

Wherefore, on such occasions, when the Hearts of men are ready to quake, when they see all things about them fill'd with dread and Terrour, and all help far away, it is I say, their duty and wisdom, to abstract and take off their Thoughts from all outward and present appearances, and to fix them on the presence of God. This will greatly change the Scene of things in their minds; and they will find that Strength and Power and Wisdom are on their side alone; all that appears against them, being but vanity, folly, and weakness.

So when the Servant of Elisha saw the place where they were, compassed with an Host, both Horses and Chariots that came to take them, he cryed out for fear, Alas my Master how shall we do? But upon the prayer of the Prophet, the Lord opening the eyes of the young man, to see the Heavenly guard that he had sent to him, the mountain being full of Horses and Chariots of fire round about Elisha, his fear and trouble departed, 2 Kings 6:15, 16, 17. And when in the like Extremity God opens the Eye of Faith to behold his glorious Presence, we shall no more be afraid of the dread of men. Herein did the Holy Martyrs triumph of Old, and even despised their bloody Persecutors. Our Savior himself made it the ground of his supportment on the like occasion, John 16:32. Behold, saith he to his Disciples, his only Friends, the hour coms, yea is now come, that ye shall be scattered every one to his own, and leave me alone, and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. Can we but possess our Souls with the Apprehension, that when we are left alone in our tryals and dangers, from any countenance of Friends, or help of men, yet that indeed we are not alone, because the Father is with us, it will support us under our despondencies, and enable us to our Duties.

4. Especial Providential warnings call for Thoughts of Gods Omnipresence and Omniscience. So Jacob in his nightly Vision, instantly made this Conclusion; God is in this place and I knew it not. We have frequently such warnings given to us. Sometimes we have so in the things which are esteemed accidental, whence it may be we are strangely delivered. Sometimes we have so in the things which we see to befall others, by Thunder, Lightning, Storms at Sea or Land. For all the works of God, especially those that are rare and strange, have a voice whereby he speaks to us. The first thing suggested to a spiritual Mind in such seasons, will be, God is in this place, he is present that livs and ses, as Hagar confessed on the like occasion, Gen. 16:13, 14.

(3.) Have frequent Thoughts of Gods Omnipotency, or his Almighty Power. This most men it may be, suppose they need not much Exhortation to; for none ever doubted of it; who does not grant it on all occasions? Men grant it indeed in general; for eternal Power is inseparable from the first notion of the Divine Being. So are they conjoyned by the Apostle, his eternal Power and Godhead, Rom. 1:20. Yet few believe it for themselves and as they ought. Indeed, to believe the Almighty Power of God, with reference to our selves and all our Concernments Temporal and Eternal, is one of the highest and most Noble Acts of Faith, which includes all others in it. For this is that which God at first proposed alone as the proper Object of our Faith, in our entrance into Covenant with him, Gen. 17:1. I am God Almighty; That which Job arrived to after his long exercise and Tryal: I know, saith he, you can do every thing, and no Thought of yours can be hindred, Chapter 42:2. God has spoken once, (saith the Psalmist) twice have I heard this, that Power belongs to God, Psal. 62:11. It was that which God saw it necessary frequently to instruct him in. For we are ready to be affected with the Appearances of present power in Creatures, and to suppose that all things will go according to their wills, because of their power. But it is quite otherwise; all creatures are poor feeble Ciphers that can do nothing; Power belongs to God, it is a flower of his Crown Imperial, which he will suffer none to usurp; if the proudest of them go beyond the Bounds and Limits of his present Permission, he will send Worms to eat them up, as he did to Herod.

It is utterly impossible we should walk before God, to his Glory, or with any real peace, comfort or satisfaction in our own Souls, unless our minds are continually exercised with Thoughts of his Almighty Power. Every thing that befalls us, every thing that we hear of, which has the Least of Danger in it, will discompose our Minds, and either make us tremble like the leaves of the Forrest that are shaken with the wind, or betake our selves to foolish or sinful relief, unless we are firmly established in the Faith hereof. Consider the Promises of God to the Church which are upon Record, and as yet unaccomplished; consider the present state of the Church in the world, with all that belongs to it; in all the fears and dangers they are exposed to, in all the evils they are exercised withall, and we shall quickly find, that unless this Sheat-anchor be well fix'd, we shall be tossed up and down at all uncertainties, and exposed to most violent Temptations, Rev. 19:6. Unto this end are we called hereto by God himself, in his Answer to the despondent complaints of the Church in its greatest dangers and calamities. Isa. 40. 28, 29, 30, 31. Hast you not known, hast you not heard, that the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the Earth faints not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He givs power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increass strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as Eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.

Take one Instance, which is the continual concernment of us all. We are obnoxious to Death every moment. It is never the further from any of us because we think not of it as we ought. This will lay our Bodies in the dust, from whence they will have no more disposition nor power in themselves to rise again, than any other part of the mould of the Earth. Their recovery must be an act of external Almighty Power, when God shall have a desire to the work of his hands; when he shall call, and we shall answer him out of the dust. And it will transmit the Soul into an invisible world, putting a final End to all Relations, Enjoyments and Circumstances here below. I speak not of them who are stout-hearted and far from Righteousness, who live and dye like Beasts, or under the power of horrible Presumption, without any due Thoughts of their future and Eternal state. But as to others, what comfort or satisfaction can any man have in his Life, whereon his All depends, and which is passing from him every moment; unless he has continual Thoughts of the mighty power of God, whereby he is able to receive his departing Soul, and to raise his Body out of the dust?

Not to insist on more particulars; Thus is it with them who are Spiritually minded, thus must it be with us all, if we pretend a Title to that Priviledge. They are filled with Thoughts of God, in opposition to that Character of wicked men, that God is not in all their Thoughts. And it is greatly to be feared, that many of us when we come to be weighed in this Ballance, will be found too Light. Men may be in the performance of outward Dutyes, they may hear the Word with some delight, and do many things gladly, they may escape the pollutions that are in the world through Lust, and not run out into the same compass of Excess and Riot with other men; yet may they be strangers to inward Thoughts of God with delight and complacency. I cannot understand how it can be otherwise with them whose minds are over and over filled with earthly things, however they may satisfy themselves with pretences of their Callings and lawful Enjoyments, or not any way inordinately set on the Pleasures or Profits of the world.

To walk with God, to live to him, is not meerly to be found in an Abstinence from outward sins, and in the performance of outward Duties, though with Diligence in the Multiplication of them. All this may be done upon such Principles, for such Ends, with such a frame of heart, as to find no Acceptance with God. It is our Hearts that he requirs, and we can no way give them to him, but by our Affections, and holy Thoughts of him with delight. This it is to be spiritually minded, this it is to walk with God. Let no man deceive himself, unless he thus abound in holy Thoughts of God, unless our Meditation of him be sweet to us, all that we else pretend to, will fail us in the day of our Tryal.

This is the first thing wherein we may Evidence our selves to our selves, to be under the conduct of the minding of the Spirit or to be spiritually minded. And I have insisted the longer on it, because it contains the first sensible Egress of the Spring of living waters in us, the first acting of spiritual Life to our own experience. I should now proceed to the consideration of our Affections, of whose frame and state these Thoughts are the only genuine Exposition. But whereas there are, or may be some who are sensible of their own weakness, and deficiency in the discharge of that part of this duty in being spiritually minded, which we have passed through, and may fall under discouragements thereon, we must follow him as we are able who will not Quench the smoaking Flax, nor break the bruised Reed, by offering something to the relief of them that are sincere, under the sense of their own weakness.

Spiritual thoughts of God himself. The opposition to them and neglect of them, with their causes and how they may be overcome. How to discover a dominant corruption that drives out proper thoughts of God. The nature of thoughts of God, and what must accompany them.

I have spoken very briefly about the first particular example of the heavenly things we are to fix our thoughts on — namely, the person of Christ. I did so for the reason mentioned earlier: I intend a separate treatise on that subject, exploring how we may behold the glory of Christ in this life and how we will do so for eternity. What I have reserved for last, as the object of thought for those who are spiritually minded, is the absolute foundation and source of all spiritual things — God Himself. He is the fountain from which all these things flow, and the ocean into which they empty. He is their center and their circumference — the point where all things begin, meet, and end. So the apostle concludes his profound discussion of the counsels of the divine will and the mysteries of the Gospel in Romans 11:36: "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever." All things arise from His power, are arranged by His wisdom toward His glory. From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. Only under that understanding are they to be the objects of our spiritual meditations — as they come from Him and tend toward Him. All other things are finite and limited; but they begin and end in what is immeasurable and infinite. So God is all in all. He therefore is — or ought to be — the one supreme and absolute object of our thoughts and desires; all other things exist from Him and for Him. Where our thoughts do not — either directly or indirectly, by natural consequence — tend toward and end in Him, they are not truly spiritual, as 1 Peter 1:21 implies.

Before giving directions on how to exercise our thoughts on God Himself, some things must first be addressed regarding a sinful failure in this area, along with its causes.

First, it is the mark of someone who is boldly and outrageously wicked that God is not in any of his thoughts, as Psalm 10:4 says. That is, God is in none of them. There are many degrees to this absence of thoughts of God, for not all wicked people are equally forgetful of Him.

First, some are under the power of atheistic thoughts: they deny, question, or refuse to acknowledge the very existence of God. This is the highest point that the hostility of the unrenewed mind can reach. One might think that acknowledging God while refusing to submit to His law or will would be just as bad — if not worse — than denying His existence. But it is not so. The refusal to submit is rebellion against His authority; but atheism is hatred toward the only source of all goodness, truth, and being — a hatred rooted in the fact that they cannot acknowledge it without also acknowledging that it is infinitely righteous, holy, and powerful, which would destroy all their desires and their false sense of security. The person described in that psalm may be such a one, for the words can be read as: "All his thoughts are that there is no God." Yet the context actually describes him as one who despises God's providence more than denies His existence. But there are those whom the same psalmist elsewhere labels fools — though they themselves think all wisdom was born with them and will die with them — as in Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1.

Perhaps no age since the flood has been more filled with open atheism — among those who claim to use and improve reason — than the one we live in. Among the ancient civilized pagans, we occasionally hear of someone branded as an atheist, yet we cannot always be certain whether the charge was fair. But in every nation of Europe today, cities, courts, towns, countryside, and armies abound with people who, if any credit can be given to what they say and do, do not believe there is a God. The reason for this deserves a brief inquiry.

The reason, in general, is simply this: people have drained and wasted the light and power of the Christian religion. Christianity is the fullest revelation of God that He has ever made — and the last He will ever make in this world. If it is despised, if people rebel against its light, if they break free from its claims and become numb to its power, nothing can preserve them from the deepest atheism that human nature is capable of. It is useless to look for help from lesser means when the highest and most powerful has been rejected. Reason and natural light do provide evidence for the existence of God, and arguments from them are still rightly made to confound atheists. They were sufficient to keep people in an acknowledgment of God's power and divine nature when that was the only evidence available to them. But where people have had the benefit of divine revelation, where they have been raised on the principles of the Christian religion, have had some knowledge of them and made some profession of them — and have then, through love of sin and hatred of everything truly good, rejected all the conviction those principles bring concerning God's existence, power, and rule — they will not be held to any acknowledgment of God by anything that natural reason alone can suggest.

There are, among others, three reasons why there are more atheists among those who live where the Christian religion is professed but its power is rejected than among any other group of people — even more than there were among the pagans themselves.

First, God has chosen to honor His Word above all His other names — above every other way He has revealed Himself to people, as Psalm 138:2 says. Where the Word is rejected and despised, therefore, He will not grant reason or natural light the honor of preserving people's minds from any evil whatsoever. Reason will not have the same power and effect on those who reject the light and authority of divine revelation through the Word as it has — or may have — on those whose best guide it is, who have never had the light of the Gospel. This is why there is often more basic honesty among civilized pagans and Muslims than among degenerate professing Christians. For the same reason, the children of Christian parents are sometimes irredeemably corrupt. Some will say that many people are brought back to God through suffering after having despised the Word. But that is not the case: no one has ever been converted to God by suffering alone if they had already rejected the Word. Suffering may bring people back to the Word, but suffering does not directly turn anyone to God. It is like a good shepherd whose sheep wanders from the flock and will not hear his call: he sends out his dog, which stops the sheep and nips at it. At that the sheep looks around, hears the shepherd's call, and returns to the flock — as Job 33:19-25 illustrates. But with those who have rejected the Word, God's pattern is this: where the primary means by which He reveals Himself — the means in which He most glorifies His wisdom and goodness — is despised, He not only removes the effectiveness of lesser means but also judicially hardens hearts and blinds eyes so that those lesser means are of no use to them at all. See Isaiah 6:8-12, Acts 13:40-41, Romans 1:21-28, and 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12.

Second, the contempt of gospel light and the Christian religion in its supernatural character — which is where every atheist among us first steps onto the path of transgression — produces in the mind a depraved and corrupt disposition, a mass of every evil that hatred of God's goodness, wisdom, and grace can generate. This leaves the mind wholly inclined toward the worst of evils, just as all our originally sinful inclinations followed immediately on the rejection and loss of the image of God. The best things when corrupted produce the worst stench — as manna rotted and bred worms. When the knowledge of the Gospel is rejected, rotting worms take its place in the mind and grow into vipers and scorpions. Every degree of departure from gospel truth brings a proportionate degree of inclination toward wickedness into the hearts and minds of people, as 2 Peter 2:21 shows. A total departure brings exposure to every evil they are capable of in this world. Since multitudes, through their ignorance, unbelief, temptation, love of sin, pride, and contempt of God, fall away from all submission of soul and conscience to the Gospel — either in their thinking or in their practice, mocking or dismissing all supernatural revelation — they are a thousand times more disposed to outright atheism than people who never had the light or benefit of such revelation. Beware of spiritual decline. Whatever ground the Gospel loses in our minds, sin occupies for itself and its own ends.

Let no one suppose it is otherwise with them. When people grow cold and negligent in their duties of Gospel worship — both public and private — that is in effect a rejection of gospel light. Whatever they may say and claim — that in other areas of their minds and lives things are fine — in truth they are not. Sin will, and does, increase in them in proportion to those spiritual declines, and sooner or later it will make itself visible. If they are not utterly hardened, they will likely see it themselves — either inwardly in their loss of peace, or outwardly in the pattern of their lives.

Third, when people are determined not to see, the brighter the light that shines around them, the more tightly they must shut their eyes. All atheism springs from a decision not to see things invisible and eternal. Love of sin, a firm commitment to continuing in it, and the powerful pull of sinful inclinations against everything that is good all make it in such people's interest that there be no God to call them to account. For a supreme, unavoidable judge and eternal rewarder of good and evil is inseparable from the very concept of a divine being. Since the most glorious light and undeniable evidence of these things shines forth in Scripture, those who are determined to keep loving sin and living in it must shut their eyes with every art and power at their disposal — otherwise that light will pierce their minds and torment them. They do this through outright atheism, which alone promises to give them security against the light of divine revelation. Against all lesser convictions, they might take shelter under lesser forms of it.

It is therefore not a mark against the Gospel, but a mark in its honor, that so many openly declare themselves atheists in places where gospel truth is known and professed. For no one can have even the slightest inclination or temptation toward atheism until they have first rejected the Gospel — which immediately exposes them to the worst of evils.

Nor is there any means for the recovery of such people. The arguments against atheism that have been made in this and other ages — drawing on reason and natural light to prove the existence of God — have been useful in exposing the foolishness of evil men who try to justify themselves. But I seriously doubt whether those arguments have changed the minds of any of them. No one is under the power of atheistic thoughts for long except someone who has been drawn into them by the desire to live freely and without accountability in sin. Such people know it is in their interest that there be no God, and they are willing to take shelter in the bold claims and reasoning of those who, by the same means, have hardened and blinded their own minds into such foolish thinking. But the most rational arguments for the existence of God will never effectively cure a dominant love of sin and an habitual pattern of sinful living in those who have resisted and rejected the means and motivations to repentance declared in divine revelation. And unless the love of sin is cured in the heart, thoughts that acknowledge God will not take root in the mind.

Second, there are those of whom it may also be said that God is not in their thoughts — even though they acknowledge His existence. They are not practically influenced in any area of life by the ideas they hold about Him. Such is the person described in Psalm 10:4: someone who, through pride and a hardened life in sin, pays no attention to God's rule over the world (verses 4, 5, 11, 13). The world today is full of people like those described in Titus 1:16: they claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and unfit for any good work. They think, live, and act in all things as if there were no God — or at least as if they never thought of Him with fear and reverence. For the most part we need not look far for evidence of their disregard for God; the arrogance on their faces speaks against them, as Psalm 10:4 says. And if you look more closely, profane oaths, a dissolute life, and hatred of everything good will confirm and demonstrate the same. Such people may acknowledge God with their words, may fear Him when in danger, and may attend outwardly on His worship — but they do not truly think of God at all; He is not in their thoughts.

Third, there are still lesser degrees of this disregard for God and forgetfulness of Him. Some are so consumed with thoughts of the world and the demands of daily life that it is impossible for them to think of God as they should. For just as love for God and predominant love for the world are incompatible — for if someone loves the world, how can the love of God dwell in him? — so thoughts of God and thoughts of the world, when one dominates, are incompatible. This is the condition of many who would still consider themselves spiritually minded. Their minds are constantly occupied with earthly things. Some of those things press themselves as matters of duty: they belong to their work and must be attended to. Others arise from the daily events and circumstances of life. Ordinary engagement with the world draws people into nothing but worldly thoughts; love and desire for earthly things, their enjoyment and accumulation, exhaust the energy of their souls all day long. In the middle of this flood of thoughts from such concerns — while their hearts and heads are still steaming with them — many turn directly at their appointed times to the performance of religious duties. Those times must suffice for thoughts of God. Yet even in those duties — partly because of inadequate preparation for them, partly because their minds and affections are already full of other things, and partly because of a failure to actively exercise grace — it may fairly be said that God is not in their thoughts.

I pray God that this — at least in some degree — is not the condition of many among us. I am not speaking now of those who visibly and openly live in sin, godless in their thinking and dissolute in their lives. The prayers of such people are an abomination to the Lord, and they never have any thoughts of Him that He accepts. I am speaking of those who are sober in their lives, hardworking in their callings, and not openly negligent about the outward duties of religion. Such people are apt to think well of themselves, and others speak well of them too — for these things are in themselves commendable and praiseworthy. But if you look more closely, you will find in many of them that God is not in their thoughts as He ought to be. Their earthly conversation, their empty talk, and their foolish plans all show that the energy of their spirits and the deepest workings of their minds are absorbed in things below. A few scattered, passing, unengaged thoughts are occasionally thrown toward God — which He despises.

Fourth, where people are nurturing secret, dominant sins in their hearts and lives, God is not in their thoughts as He ought to be. He may be — and often is — very present in the words of such people, but in their thoughts He is not and cannot be in the way He ought. And there are certainly such people. From time to time we hear of one person and another whose secret sins break out into the open. They flatter themselves for a season, but God often arranges things in His holy providence so that their evil is exposed and seen for what it is. Some ugly, dominant sin reveals itself: one person is a drunkard, another is sexually immoral, a third is an oppressor of others. Such people have always been found among those who profess the Gospel, even in the best of times — among the apostles themselves, one was a traitor, a devil. Among the first professors of Christianity there were those whose god was their appetite, whose end was destruction, who were focused entirely on earthly things, as Philippians 3:18-19 describes. Some may take advantage of this acknowledgment — that such evils exist among those who are called Christians. And it must be admitted that great scandal is given by this to the world, bringing a dreadful judgment on both those who give the offense and those who receive it. But we must bear the reproach of it as believers always have, and commit everything to the watchful care of God. In such a season, it is good to be watchful over ourselves and others, to encourage one another daily while there is still time, lest anyone be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. See Hebrews 12:13-17. And because those in this condition cannot be spiritually minded — and yet there are real difficulties in determining whether a particular sin is truly dominant — I will consider this more carefully.

First, we must distinguish between a season of temptation in some cases and the ordinary settled state of the mind and affections in others. There may be a season in which God, in His holy and wise ordering of all things for His own glory and blessed ends, allows a sinful desire or corruption to break loose in the heart — striving, tempting, suggesting, and stirring up great trouble and unrest in the mind and conscience. It cannot be denied that when this coincides with a powerful external temptation, it may go so far as to catch the person off guard and draw them into actual sin, to their defilement and horror. In this case, no one can say they are being tempted by God, for God tempts no one; rather, every person is tempted by their own sinful desire and enticed. Yet temptations of every kind, insofar as they are afflictive, corrective, or disciplinary, are ordered and arranged by God Himself. There is no evil of that nature that He has not in some sense brought about. And where He wills that the power of a particular corruption be used as an affliction, two things may safely be attributed to His work.

First, He withholds the supply of grace by which the corruption might be effectively put to death and brought under control. He can give sufficient and powerful grace to repel any temptation and subdue any or all of our sinful desires. For He can and does work in us both to will and to act according to His pleasure. He ordinarily does this for believers, so that although their sinful desires may rebel and wage war, they cannot defile the soul or prevail. But He is not obligated to supply this active, prevailing grace without interruption. When it serves His holy purposes, He may and does withhold it. When a proud soul needs to be humbled, a careless soul needs to be awakened, an ungrateful soul needs to be convicted and rebuked, a backsliding soul needs to be restored, or a willful, self-centered, hot-tempered soul needs to be broken and made gentle, He can leave them for a time under the severe pressure of a prevailing corruption — which under His holy guidance will greatly serve His blessed ends. This was the case in Paul's temptation, as described in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9. Consider a person who through disorder and excess is gradually developing many habitual bodily ailments that are slowly and imperceptibly moving toward his death: it may actually be an advantage to him to be struck down by a violent fever that immediately threatens his life. For he will then be thoroughly awakened to the danger he is in and will not only work to be freed from the fever but will also take care in the future to guard against the disorders and excesses that brought him to that point. In the same way, a loose and careless soul who walks in a comfortable but hollow profession sometimes contracts many spiritual diseases that tend toward death and ruin. No arguments or reasoning can stir him to wake up, shake off his complacency, and begin walking more diligently and humbly before God. In this state, it may be that by God's permission he is suddenly overtaken in some open actual sin. At that point, through the powerful workings of an awakened conscience and the stirring of whatever sparks of grace still remain, he is shocked, terrified, and moves to seek deliverance.

Second, God may and does in His providence bring into a person's path the objects and occasions that provoke their sinful desires — for the purpose of testing them. He places people in relationships and circumstances that are well suited to arouse their affections, passions, desires, and inclinations toward the very things they are prone to.

In this condition, any sinful desire will quickly gain such power over the mind and affections that it constantly presses for sin. It does not only bend the affections toward sin, but multiplies thoughts about it and darkens the mind to the considerations that ought to motivate it to put that sin to death. In this state, it is hard to see how God could be in a person's thoughts in the way He ought to be. Yet this condition is very different from a sin or corruption that is habitually and routinely dominant in the ordinary course of a person's life — which is the situation I am actually addressing.

If anyone asks how to tell the difference — between a sin or corruption that breaks out in connection with a specific temptation, and a sin that is habitually and consistently indulged in the mind — here is the answer.

First, it may not matter much whether we can distinguish between them. The reason God allows any corruption to become such a snare and source of temptation — such a thorn and briar — is to awaken souls from their complacency and humble them for their pride and negligence. The more seriously they take it, the more effectively it will accomplish that purpose. It may actually be better for the soul to feel more of what is sinful in the corruption than of what is merely painful about the temptation. For if the soul sees it as a dominant sin, and if any spark of grace remains in the soul, it will not rest until the sin is in some measure overcome. It will also immediately drive the soul into careful self-examination, which will produce deep self-humbling — the very outcome God intends. But there is more to say.

Second, for the relief of those who may be troubled in their minds about their spiritual condition, I will say this: there is a clear difference between these two things. A sinful desire or corruption that breaks out into violent temptation is a constant burden, grief, and affliction to the soul in which it lives. Just as the temptation will give such a person no rest through its repeated urgings, so he gives the temptation no rest either — he is constantly struggling against it and fighting it. It fills the soul with horror at itself and continual self-loathing that such seeds of corruption and foolishness are still remaining within. With those in whom a particular sin is ordinarily dominant, it is different. In proportion to their spiritual understanding and their occasional fresh convictions, they do have trouble about it — they cannot help it, unless their consciences are completely seared. But that trouble is mainly, if not entirely, about its guilt and consequences — what may come of it, in this world or the next. Beyond that, they like it well enough and have no real desire to give it up. It is this second kind of person that I am addressing.

Second, we must distinguish between the troubling pressure of a sinful desire and its conquering dominance. The evil that is present in us will press and push toward sin on its own, even without the kind of special external temptation described earlier. This is how the situation is framed and how the nature and workings of indwelling sin are described in Romans 7 and Galatians 5. Sometimes a particular sinful desire may be so inflamed by a person's own constitution from within, or so exposed to provocative circumstances from without, as to bring constant trouble to the mind. Yet this can be true even where no sin has the dominance we are discussing. The difference between the troubling pressure of a corruption toward sin and its conquering dominance is this: under the former, the thoughts, plans, and workings of the mind are generally disposed and inclined toward opposing and fighting it — how to overcome it, defeat it, destroy it, and gain a complete victory over it. In fact, death itself is sweet to such people under this understanding, since it is the thing that will finally deliver them from the tormenting power of their corruptions. The state of such a soul is described at length in Romans 7. In the other case — where a sin is truly dominant — it directs the thoughts mainly toward making provision for the flesh and fulfilling its desires. It fills the mind with pleasurable contemplation of its object and drives it to devise ways of satisfying it. For such people, part of the bitterness of death is that it will permanently separate them from the satisfaction they have found in their sinful pleasures. Death is bitter in the thoughts of the worldly-minded person because it will take him from all his enjoyments, his wealth, his profits, and his advantages. It is bitter to the sensually-minded person as the thing that finally ends all his pleasures.

Third, there are degrees even within dominant corruption. In some people it taints the affections, corrupts the thoughts, and works the will toward acts of secret delight in sin — but goes no further. The whole mind may be corrupted by it and rendered vain, sensual, or worldly in the majority of its thoughts, depending on the nature of the prevailing sin. Yet at this point God sets limits on the raging of some people's corruptions and says to their proud waves: this far you may go, and no further. He either places a restraint on their minds so that when sinful desire has fully conceived it does not bring sin to birth, or He sets a fence in His providence so that in their circumstances they cannot find their way to what they most strongly desire. It is a miserable life that such people lead — constantly torn between their corruptions and their convictions, between love for sin and fear of the consequences. In others, sin runs its full course into outward, actual sins — which in some cases are exposed in this world, and in others are not. For some men's sins go before them to judgment, and some follow after. Some fall into sin suddenly, through the convergence of temptation with corruption and opportunity; others settle into a habitual pattern of sin — in many cases hidden, in some discovered. But among those who have received any spiritual light and have made a profession of religion, this rarely happens except by God's great displeasure. When people have long given way to the dominance of sin in their affections, inclinations, and thoughts — and God has repeatedly set fences before them to restrain their inclinations and prevent sin from bearing full fruit, sometimes through afflictions, sometimes through fears and dangers, sometimes through the Word — and yet their hearts keep pressing toward their sin, God lifts His restraining hand, removes His obstacles, and gives them over to the desires of their own hearts to do what is disgraceful. At that point everything falls in line with their desires, and they rush into actual sins and folly, stepping onto the paths that go down to the chambers of death. The uncontrollable power of sin in such people, and the greatness of God's displeasure against them, makes their condition deeply pitiable.

Those who are in either of these states — the first or the second — are far from being spiritually minded, and God is not in their thoughts as He ought to be. For this reason:

First, they will not think and meditate on God. Their delight has turned elsewhere. Their affections — which are the spring that feeds their thoughts — cling to the things most opposed to Him. Love of sin has become the dominant spring in them, and the whole current of the thoughts they choose and take pleasure in flows toward the enjoyment of that sin. If any thoughts of God enter in, like a weak tide pressing for a few minutes against the other current, they are quickly repelled and swept away by the strong flow of thoughts generated by their powerful inclinations. Such people may still keep up the outward performance of religious duties and attend to them. Pride in their abilities or satisfaction in their own religious performance may give them pleasure in what they do, and they may be greatly pleased with what they observe in others — as is explicitly stated in Ezekiel 33:31-32. But in all these things they have no genuine immediate thoughts of God — none that they delight in, none that they seek to stir up in themselves — and those that press themselves in on them they push away.

Second, they will not think of God — and they dare not either. They will not, because of the power of their sinful desires; they dare not, because of their guilt. The moment they were to begin thinking seriously about God, their sin would lose all its attractive appearance and stand before them in the horror of guilt alone. And in that condition every attribute of God's nature is suited to increase the dread and terror of the sinner. Adam had heard God's voice before with delight and satisfaction — but after he had sinned, hearing that same voice made him hide himself and cry out that he was afraid. There is a way for people to think about God with the guilt of sin upon them if they intend to forsake that sin — but there is no way for anyone to do so while clinging to guilt and resolving to continue in it. Of all these kinds of people, therefore, it can be said that God is not in their thoughts — and they are far from being spiritually minded. For we cannot be spiritually minded without having many thoughts of God. Beyond that, there are two things required of those thoughts if they are to serve as evidence that we are spiritually minded.

First, we must take delight in them, as Psalm 30:4 says: "Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name." The remembrance of God delights and refreshes the hearts of His saints and stirs them up to thankfulness.

First, they rejoice in what God is in Himself. Whatever is good, lovely, or desirable; whatever is holy, just, and powerful; whatever is gracious, wise, and merciful — all of this, and everything that it encompasses, they see and find in God. That God is what He is — that is the source of their deepest joy. Whatever happens to them in this world, whatever troubles and anxieties they face, the remembrance of God is a satisfying refreshment to them. For in it they behold all that is good and excellent — the infinite center of all perfections. Wicked people would have God be anything but what He actually is. Nothing about what God truly and really is pleases them. Therefore they either construct false ideas of Him in their minds, as Psalm 50:21 describes, or they do not think of Him at all — at least not as they should — except when they occasionally tremble at His anger and power. Some benefit they suppose can be had from what He is able to do, but how there could be any delight in what He is, they cannot understand. In truth, all their trouble arises from the fact that He is what He is. It would be a relief to them if they could somehow diminish His power, His holiness, His righteousness, His omnipresence. But His saints, as the psalmist says, give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.

When we can delight in thoughts of what God is in Himself — in His infinite excellencies and perfections — it gives us a threefold evidence that we are spiritually minded. First, it is evidence that we have a gracious personal share in those excellencies and perfections, on the basis of which we can say with joy: this God — this holy, powerful, just, good, and gracious God — is my God, and He will be my guide until death. So the psalmist, in contemplating his own weakness and the prospect of death in the middle of his years, comforts and refreshes himself with thoughts of God's eternity and unchangeableness and his personal stake in them, as in Psalm 102:23-28. God Himself puts forward His infinite unchangeableness as the ground on which we may expect safety and deliverance, as in Malachi 3:6. When we can think of God and what He is with delight, it is, I say, evidence that we have a gracious covenant share in what God is in Himself — and none have this except those who are spiritually minded.

Second, it is evidence that the image of God has begun to be formed in our souls, and that we value and rejoice in it more than in anything else. Whatever ideas people may have of God's goodness, holiness, righteousness, and purity, those ideas are barren, hollow, and fruitless unless there is a likeness and conformity to those things worked in their minds and souls. Without this they cannot rejoice in thoughts and remembrance of the divine excellencies. Therefore when we can do so — when meditations on God are sweet to us — it is evidence that we have some personal experience of the excellence of the image of those perfections, and that we rejoice in them above all other things in this world.

Third, they are also evidence that we recognize and are convinced that our eternal blessedness consists in the full manifestation and enjoyment of God as He is — in all His divine excellencies. Most people simply assume this to be true without understanding how it could be so. Those whose hearts are here deeply affected with delight in God's excellencies begin to understand: they are able to believe that the manifestation and enjoyment of the divine excellencies will give their souls eternal rest, satisfaction, and contentment. No wicked person can see it as anything other than a torment to dwell forever with eternal holiness, as Isaiah 33:14 says. And we ourselves can have no present glimpse into the fullness of future glory — when God will be all in all — except through the delight and satisfaction we have here in contemplating what God is in Himself as the center of all divine perfections.

I want therefore to press this neglected duty especially on the minds of those of us who are visibly drawing near to eternity. The days are coming when what God is in Himself — as He is manifested and displayed in Christ — will alone be, as we hope, the eternal blessedness and reward of our souls. Can anything possibly be more necessary for us, more useful to us, than to be engaged in such thoughts and contemplations? The benefits to be gained from this cannot be fully counted; only some can be named. First, it will give us the best test of how our hearts truly stand toward God. For if on examination we find that we do not genuinely delight and rejoice in God for what He is in Himself — in the fact that all perfections dwell in Him eternally — how can the love of God be dwelling in us? But if we can truly give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness, in our thoughts of what He is, our hearts are right with Him. Second, this is what will effectively lift our thoughts and affections away from things here below. One spiritual glimpse of the divine goodness, beauty, and holiness will do more to raise the heart to a contempt for all earthly things than any other evidence whatsoever. Third, it will increase the grace of being heavenly minded in us, for the reasons already explained. Fourth, it is the best — I am almost inclined to say the only — preparation for the future full enjoyment of God. It will gradually lead us into His presence, remove all fear of death, increase our longing for eternal rest, and continually make us groan to be freed from this body. Let us not cease laboring with our hearts, therefore, until through grace we have a spiritually felt delight and joy in remembering and meditating on what God is in Himself.

Second, God's saints rejoice in their thoughts of God — in the remembrance of what He is and what He will be to them. In this they have in view all the holy relationships He has taken on toward them, together with all the effects of His covenant in Christ Jesus. To this effect were some of David's last words in 2 Samuel 23:5: "Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow?" Looking ahead to all the hardships that would come upon his family, he triumphantly rejoiced in the everlasting covenant God had made with him. In such thoughts His saints take delight — they are sweet and full of refreshment. Their meditations on God are sweet, and they are glad in the Lord, as Psalm 104:34 says. This is how it is with those who are truly spiritually minded. They not only think much of God — they take delight in those thoughts; they are sweet to them. More than that, they have no solid joy or delight except in their thoughts of God, and so they return to them continually. They do this especially in great moments that might naturally pull them away. Suppose a person receives a remarkable blessing that fills him with excitement and delight. Some people's minds on such occasions are completely occupied with thoughts of what they have received, and their affections are wholly taken up with it. But the spiritually minded person will immediately turn back to thoughts of God, placing his delight and finding his satisfaction in Him. Likewise, great afflictions, persistent sorrows, severe pains, and serious illness all naturally absorb all of a person's thoughts. But those who are spiritually minded will, in and through all of it, continually return to thoughts of God — where they find relief and refreshment against everything they feel and fear. In every condition, their primary joy is in the remembrance of His holiness.

Second, our thoughts of God must be accompanied by godly fear and reverence. These are required of us in everything we do before God, as Hebrews 12:28-29 says. Scripture abounds with commands to this duty more than almost any other, and the nature of God — together with our own nature and the infinite distance between us — makes it absolutely necessary even by the light of natural conscience. Infinite greatness, infinite holiness, infinite power — all of which God is — demand the utmost reverence our nature is capable of. The lack of this fear is the source of countless evils — in fact, of all evil. From this lack come the blasphemous misuses of God's holy name in profane oaths and curses; from it comes the casual use of His name in everyday exclamations; from it comes all formality in religion.

It is the spiritually minded person alone who can hold together the things Scripture prescribes as our duty toward God. On one hand, we are commanded to delight and rejoice in Him always, to triumph in the remembrance of Him, to draw near to Him with boldness and confidence. On the other hand, we are commanded to fear and tremble before Him, to fear that great and awesome name — the Lord our God — and to have grace to serve Him with reverence and godly fear, because He is a consuming fire. Unrenewed reason sees no consistency in these things: what it fears, it cannot delight in; and what it delights in, it will not long fear. But faith's understanding of what God is in Himself — and what He will be to us — gives these different graces their distinct expression and brings them into a blessed harmony within the soul. Therefore all our thoughts of God ought to be accompanied by a holy awe and reverence, arising from a proper sense of His greatness, holiness, and power. Two things will completely corrupt all thoughts of God and make them useless to us.

The first is empty curiosity; the second is presumptuous boldness. It is remarkable how much the subtle arguments and disputes of people about God's nature, attributes, and purposes have been corrupted and drained of life by empty curiosity and the pursuit of technical precision in expressing one's views. When people's intellects and minds are engaged in such thoughts, God is not truly in their thoughts — even when all their thoughts are ostensibly about Him. Once people get into metaphysical speculation and logical technicalities in their thinking about God and His attributes, they generally say farewell to all godly fear and reverence. Others are under the influence of presumptuous boldness, thinking about God with no more regard than if they were thinking about creatures as lowly as themselves. There is no holy awe on their minds and souls when His name is mentioned. Through these failings our thoughts of God can be so corrupted that the heart is not stirred to reverence in them, and they give no evidence that we are spiritually minded.

It is this holy reverence that is the means by which God brings sanctifying power into our souls through our thoughts of Him. No one who thinks of God with true reverence will fail to benefit from it. By this we honor God in our approach to Him — and when we do, He will sanctify and purify our hearts through the very thoughts by which we draw near to Him.

We may have many sudden, occasional, passing thoughts of God that do not arise from a prior reverent frame of heart. But if they do not leave that reverence behind in our hearts — in proportion to how long they remain with us — they are worthless and will gradually form in us a habit of casual presumption toward God, which He despises.

The same principle applies to thoughts of an opposite kind. Thoughts of sin and sinful objects may arise in our minds from the remaining corruption in us, or be introduced by Satan's temptations and suggestions. If these are immediately rejected and cast out, the soul is not more harmed by their entrance than it is helped by their rejection through the power of grace. But if they keep returning frequently or linger while pressing on the affections, they greatly defile the mind and conscience, making the person more disposed to welcome them further. In the same way, if our occasional thoughts of God immediately leave us and pass away without much affecting our minds, we will have little or no benefit from them. But when through their frequent visits and some degree of staying with us they incline the soul toward a holy reverence of God, they become a blessed means of advancing our sanctification. Without this, thoughts of God may arise with no spiritual benefit to the soul whatsoever.

There is implanted in our nature such a sense of divine power and presence that in sudden moments and surprises it will act according to that sense. There is, as it were, a voice of nature crying out to the God of nature — a cry that rises up instinctively the moment anything proves too much for us. So on such occasions people find themselves, without any conscious reflection, calling on the name of God and crying out to Him. From the same natural instinct, wicked and profane people burst out on every occasion with profane oaths sworn by His name. In these ways people have thoughts of God without reverence or godly fear, without giving any glory to Him, and for the most part to their own harm. Such are all thoughts of God that are not accompanied by holy fear and reverence.

There is hardly any duty that needs to be pressed more urgently on people's consciences at this time than maintaining a constant holy reverence of God in all our dealings with Him — both in private and in public, in our inward thoughts and in our outward conversation. Formality has so taken hold of religion — even under the most effective means of opposing it — that many people clearly show they have little or no reverence of God in the most solemn duties of His worship, and perhaps even less in their private thoughts. Some approaches that have been devised to maintain an outward appearance of reverence have actually worked to undermine it.

Yet this is where the very life of all religion consists. The fear of God is, in the Old Testament, the standard expression for all the proper respect of our souls toward Him — because where that is not present and active, nothing is accepted by Him. From the same root, our whole wisdom is said to consist in it. If it is not actively present in all our immediate dealings with God, all our duties are entirely lost — both as to the end of His glory and as to the spiritual benefit of our own souls.