I THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, $ $> Princeton, N. J. BV 4500 .69 1828 Owen, John, 1616-1683 Grace and duty of being spiritually minded and \ \ V SELECT CHRISTIAN AUTHORS, WITH INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS. 21 I PUBLISHEE BY WJ ,L iLLINS GLA^ THE GRACE AND DUTY OF BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED, DECLARED, AND PRACTICALLY IMPROVED. JOHN OWEN, D.D. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS. , THIRD EDITION. GLASGOW: PRINTED FOR WILLIAM COLLINS; WILLIAM WHYTE & CO. AND WILLIAM OLIPHANT, EDINBURGH; R. M. TIMS, AND WM. CURRY, JUN. & CO. DUBLIN; G. B. WHITTAKER, AND HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. LONDON. 1828. Printed bv W. Collir.s & Co- Glasgow. INTRODUCTORY EJ We formerly observed, in our Essay to " Guthrie's Christian's Great Interest," that such is the great difficulty of self-examination, that it were well, if, instead of attempting at first the more arduous, the Christian disciple should begin with the more ele- mentary of its exercises. And for this purpose, at his entrance upon this most useful work, he might commence with a daily review, if not of the affections of his heart, at least of the actions of his visible his- tory. These are far more palpable than the others, and have somewhat of that superior facility for the observation of them, which the properties of matter have over those of the hidden and unseen spirit. The great thing wanted is, that he should be en- couraged to make the attempt in any way — and therefore do we repeat our admonition, that on each evening, ere sleep has closed his eyes, he should summon to his remembrance those deeds of the dav that have passed over him, which else might have vanished from the mind for ever, or at least till that eventful occasion when the book of their imperish- able record shall be opened. And it is good also VI that he should sit in judgment as well as in memory over them. Let him thus judge himself, and he shall not be judged. The daily remembrance of the one great Sacrifice will wash away the guilt of those daily aberrations that are faithfully recalled and truly repented of; and if there be a reality in that sancti- fying influence which faith is said to bring along with it, then will the very act by which he confesses the remembered sins of the day, both bring peace to his conscience, and purity to his conduct. And this mere cognizance, not of the heart, but of the handy-work, brings us to the faith and spiri- tuality of the gospel by a shorter path than may be apprehended. It is true, that the mind is the proper seat of religion; and however right our actions may be in the matter of them, they are of no account in Christianity, unless they have proceeded from a cen- tral and spontaneous impulse which originates there. They may be moulded into a visible propriety by an influence from without, or have arisen from second- ary motives, which are of no account whatever in the estimation of the upper sanctuary; and hence it is a possible thing that we may delude ourselves into a treacherous complacency, because of the many deeds of integrity, and courteousness, and beneficence in which we abound. Still, however, it will speedily be found, that in the midst of all our amiable and con- stitutional virtues, there are the outbreakings of evil upon our conduct, and such as nothing but a spiritual principle can effectually restrain. In taking cogni- zance of these, then, which we do in the first stage of self-examination, we are brought to feel the need of something higher than any of those powers or Ml properties wherewith nature has endowed us — we are taught the nakedness of our moral condition — we are convinced of sin, and thrown upon those re- sources out of which pardon is administered, and help is made to descend upon us. We are not therefore to underrate the examination of our doings, or think that when thus employed, we are only wast- ing our thoughts on the hare and barren literalities of that bodily exercise which profiteth little. Even on this lower walk we shall meet with many defi- ciencies and many deviations; and be often rebuked into a sense of our own worthlessness; and shall have to lament, in the many offences of the outer man, how dependent we are both on a sanctifying grace and an atoning sacrifice. Or, in other words, by a regular habit of self-examination, even in the rudest and most elementary branch of it, may we be schooled into the doctrines of sin and of the Saviour, and from what is most observable in the outer path, may gather such intimations of what we are, and of what we need, as will conduct us to the very essence of vital Christianity. Now, after this, there is what we would call the second stage in the work of self-examination. Our reason for advising a Christian to begin first with a survey of the handy-work, ere he proceeds to a search and scrutiny of the heart, is, that the one is greatly more manifest than the other. Now it is said in Scripture, " that the works of the flesh are manifest ;" and what we would have him to remark is, that, in the enumeration of these works, the Apostle takes account of wrong affections as well as of wrong actions. Wrath, for example, and hatred, Vlll and envy — these, in the estimation of the Apostles, are alike manifest with drunkenness, and open quar- relling, and murder. It would appear that there are certain strong and urgent feelings of the inner man, which may be as distinctly taken cognizance of, as certain glaring and palpable misdeeds of the outward history. And therefore, while, for the first stage of self-examination, we proposed, as the topics of it, the doings of the visible conduct, we would suggest, for the second stage, the evil desires of the heart, which, whether they break forth or not into open effervescence, at least announce, and that most vi- videdly, their existence and their power, to the eye, or rather to the sense of conscience, simply by the felt emotion which they stir up within, by the fierce- ness wherewith they rage and tumultuate among the secrecies of the bosom. It is certainly worth adverting to, that while it is said of the works of the flesh, that they are manifest, the same is not said of the fruits of the Spirit. And this, we are persuaded, will meet the experience even of the most spiritual and advanced Christian. Is there any such, who can say of his love to God, that it is a far more intense and sensible affection within him, than the anger which he often feels at the pro- vocations of insult or dishonesty ? Or will he say, that his joy in spiritual things has in it the power of a more noticeable sensation, than his joy in the fame or good fortune of this world? Oris the gentleness of his renewed heart a thing that can so readily meet the eye of observation, as the occasional violence, or even as those slighter touches of resentful and un- charitable feeling wherewith he at times is visited ? IX Has he not often to complain, that in searching for the evidences of a work of grace, they are scarcely, if at all, discernible; whereas, nothing is more mani- fest than the constant risings of a sinful affection, and that weight of a carnal and corrupt nature, wherewith the inner man is well nigh overborne 'i Is it not distinctly his experience, that while the works of his flesh are most abundantly manifest, the fruits of the Spirit are of such slender or question- able growth, as well nigh to escape his observation? And does not this furnish a ground for the distinc- tion, that whereas the former might well constitute the topics for the second stage of self-examination, the latter has their more befitting place as a higher and more advanced stage of it. And here will we make another appeal to the ex- perience of a Christian. Does he not feel of his evil affections, that not only are they more manifest to his own conscience, than his gracious and good ones; but is it not further true, that they are more mani- fest even now than they were formerly — that he has a more distinct feeling both of their existence and their malignity at this moment, than he had years ago — that he is greatly more burdened with a sense of their besetting urgency, and is hence apt to infer, that of themselves they are surely more aggravated in their character — and that he is getting worse, perhaps, instead of "advancing, as he heartily and honestly wishes to do, in the course of his sanctifi- cation ? The inference is not a sound one ; for both to the eye of the world, and to the eye of wit- nesses in heaven, he is growing both in humility and in holiness. But if his growth in humility should a 3 X outstrip his growth in holiness, then to his own eye may there be a fuller and more affecting manifesta- tion of his worthlessness than before. While the sin of his nature is upon the decay, there may, at the very time, be a progress in his sensibility to the evil of it. Just in proportion to the force of his re- sistance against the carnality of the old man, does he come more pressingly into contact with all its affections and its tendencies ; and so, these being more deeply felt, are also more distinctly recognised by him. It was thus with Paul, when he found the law in his members, that warred against the law of his mind; and when he complained of his vile body; and when he affirmed of the struggle between the opposite principles of his now compound nature, that it not only harassed, but hindered him from doing the things which he would. He did not grow in corruption, but he grew in a more touching im- pression, and a clearer insight of it; and so of the Christian still, that more in heaviness though he be, under the felt and conscious movements of an ac- cursed nature, which is not yet extinct, though under a sure and effectual process of decay, it is not because he is declining in religious growth, but because he is advancing in religious tenderness; striking his roots more profoundly into the depths of self-abase- ment, and therefore upwardly shooting more aloft than ever, among the heights of angelic sacredness. We say this, partly for comfort, and to remind the Christian that it is good for him, in every stage of his career, to keep himself weaned from his own righteousness, and wedded to the righteousness of Christ. But he will also perceive how it is, that XI just as he grows in positive excellence, so does he become more feelingly alive, and more intelligently wakeful to the soil and the sinfulness wherewith it is still tarnished; and thus will every new accession to his Christianity facilitate the work which we have prescribed for him, on the second stage of self- examination. It is thus, then, that we would introduce him to the business of making search and entry into the recesses of the inner man. Let him begin with the evil affections of his nature, for these are at first far more discernible than the others: and even though under the power of grace they are withering into decay, still from the growth of his moral and spiri- tual delicacy, may they remain more discernible to the very end of his history in the world. They are therefore more easily recognised, than are the features of the new character, and should, of consequence, have an earlier place in the course of self-examina- tion, that important branch of Christian scholarship. As the habit of reviewing the handy-work, prepared him for entering on the review of the heart, so the habit of reading those more palpable lineaments which are graven thereupon, may prepare him for scrutinizing that more hidden workmanship, which, under the processes of the economy of grace, is car- ried forward in the soul of every believer. And agreeably to this, we would have him to take account, on each successive evening, of every uncharitable feeling that hath arisen through the day, of every angry emotion wherewith he has been visited, of every impure thought that he either loved to cherish, or did not rebuke with a prompt and sensitive alarm X1L away from him, of every brooding anxiety that seemed to mark how much the crosses of time pre- ponderate with him over the cares and concerns of eternity — withal, of that constant and cleaving un- godliness which compasses us about with all the ten- acity and fulness of a natural element, and makes it so plain to the enlightened conscience, that though the heart were exempted from all the agitations of malice or licentiousness, yet still that Atheism, practical Atheism, is its kindly and congenial atmo- sphere. In taking such a nightly retrospect as this, how often may he be reminded of his preference for self in the negotiations of merchandise — of the little temptations to deceit, to which he had given a some- what agreeable entertainment — of the dominant love of this world's treasure, and how it tends to overbear his appetite for the meat that endureth, his earnest- ness for being rich towards God ! — These, and many like propensities as these, will obtrude them- selves as the mementoes of nature's remaining frailty; they will be to him the indications of a work that is still to be done, the materials for his repentance every night, the motives and the impulses for his renewed vigilance on the morrow. We now enter on the third and last stage of self- examination, at which it is that we take cognizance of a past work of grace that is going on in the soul ; and read the lineaments of our new nature; and from the fruits of the Spirit having now become distinct and discernible within us, can assuredly infer, that now we are possessed of the earnest of our inherit- ance, and have the witness within ourselves, that we Xlll are indeed the children of God. And we think, that the humbler exercises which we have now, in- sisted on, may prepare the way for this more subtle and recondite part of the work of self-examination. Certain it is, that it might subserve the object of bringing the Spirit of God into closer and more effectual fellowship with the soul. Only, let the notice which one takes of his evil affections, be the signal to him for entering, and that immediately, into a war of resistance, if not of extermination, against them. Having learned the strength and number of his enemies, let him forthwith be more determined in his guardianship; and, in proportion as he succeeds, in that very proportion does he in- vite the approach of the Spirit of all grace, and will have the benefit of his power and workmanship upon the soul. " Grieve not the Spirit," says the Apostle, and quench not his influences. Just as the disciple mortifies the pride, or the peevishness, or any of those evil propensities which are the works of the flesh, does he take away those topics of offence and discouragement which keep the Holy Ghost at a dis- tance — does he remove the obstacles that lie in the way of his operation — does he begin, in fact, that good work which the Spirit will carry on — does he cease to do evil, and learn from the Spirit, and is enabled by the Spirit, to do well. Thus it is, that he is made to advance from one degree of grace to another; and, instead of mystically waiting for an illumination and a power which he has no reason to believe will ever come upon him, idly looking for- ward to it in the shape of a sudden and auspicious visitation, let him enter, even now, on that course of XIV new obedience, along which a disciple is conducted from the first elements of his spiritual education, to those brightest accomplishments which a saint on earth has ever realized. There is one very immediate result that comes out even of this earlier part in the work of self-examina- tion. If one be led, from the discovery of what is evil, to combat it, then is he led to be diligent, that he may be found without spot, and blameless in the great day of reckoning. He is working out his salvation from sin. He embarks on the toils of the Christian warfare. He fights the good fight, and forthwith makes a busy work, a strenuous conflict of his sanctification. And he should not linger another day, ere he commence in good earnest this purification for eternity. He should remember that the terms which the Bible employs, are all expressive of rapidity: — Tojlee from the coming wrath ; and flee from those evil affections which war against the soul; and make haste to keep the commandments; and tarry not in turning to Christ, and turning from all his iniquities. There is nothing of which the earnest and aspir- ing disciple is more ready to complain, than that, while all alive to the sense of his corruptions, he is scarcely sensible of the work of grace that should be going on. The motions of the flesh are most dis- tinct and most discernible, while, on the question of the Spirit's operation upon his heart, he is in a state of utter blindness and bewilderment. He feels weighed down by the remaining carnality of his na- ture, while he feels not within him any growing positive conformity to the character of one of hea- XV ven's children. There is a more galling sensation than before of all about him that is evil, but often without any thing to alleviate the oppressive thought, by the consciousness of much that is truly and une- quivocally good. And thus a discomfort in the mind of many an incipient Christian — an apprehen- sion that he has not yet tasted of the Spirit of God, nor has any part in that which is called the seal of his redemption, the earnest of his inheri- tance. Now it may comfort him to know, that this very dejection of his heart may, of itself, be a fruit and an evidence of the Holy Ghost having been at work with him. This painful sensibility to what is wrong, may evince him to be now at the place of breaking forth, now at the very turning point of his regen- eration. The very heaviness under which he la- bours, is perhaps as decisive a symptom as can be given, that he is now bending his upward way along the career of an arduous, but still advancing sancti- fication. When the Psalmist complained of him- self that his heart clave unto the dust, and there- fore prayed that God would quicken him, he per- haps did not know that the quickening process had begun with him already, and that even now he was actuated by the spirit of grace and of supplication — that ere the lineaments of an affirmative excellence could come visibly forth upon his character, it was for him to supplicate the new heart and the right spirit, because for all these things God must be in- quired after, and that he now had come the length of this inquiry — that so far from this despondency being a proof of the destitution of the Spirit, one of XVI the first-fruits of the Spirit, in the Apostle and his converts, was that they groaned inwardly, being burdened, being now touched as they never were before with a feeling of their infirmities. To the now renovated eye, the soil that is upon the character is more painfully offensive than before ; and to the now softened heart, there is the grief of a moral tenderness because of sin, that was before unfelt, but now is nearly overwhelming. The dead know not that they are dead, and not till the first mo- ments of their returning life, can they be appalled by the feeling of the death-like paralysis that is upon them. And let us not then refuse that, even under the burden of a heavy-laden consciousness, the re- viving Spirit may be there — that like as with the chaos of matter, when he moved upon the face of the waters he troubled and bedimmed them, so his first footsteps on the face of the moral chaos may thicken that turbulence which he is at length to har- monize — that the sense of darkness which now op- presses the soul, is in fact the first gleaming of that light by which the darkness is made visible — and the horror by which it is seized upon, when made to feel itself in a sepulchre of corruption, is its first awakening from the death of trespasses and sins, the incipient step of its spiritual resurrection. But, while we allege this as a word in season to the weary, yet should we like a higher class of evi- dences, than this for the workmanship of God upon our souls — we desire a substantive proof of our regeneration, a legible impress of some one feature that only belongs to the new man in Christ Jesus, and might be an encouraging token to ourselves, XVII that on the groundwork of our old nature the true spiritual portrait is begun, and is now actually in progress toward that last finish, by which it is pre- pared for a place among the courts or palaces of the upper sanctuary. It is at this point in the series of our self-examinations, that we are met with its most formidable difficulties. It is easy to take ac- count of the visible doings. It is easy to take account also of the evil or corrupt affections. But to find a positive encouragement in the sense that we have of the now gracious affections of a renovated heart — to descry in embryo the rudiments of a mo- ral excellence that is yet unformed — to catch the lineaments of that heavenly image, which is but faintly noticeable under that aspect of vigour and entireness which still belongs to the old and the or- dinary man — this is found by many an anxious in- quirer to be indeed a baffling enterprise; and though he believe in Christ, he has been known to wander in darkness, and even in distress, because short in all his vveary endeavours after the full assurance of hope unto the end. Now, ere we suggest any thing for the guidance of his inquiries, let us remind him of the difference which there is between the assurance of hope and the assurance of faith. The one is a certainty, founded on the observation that he has taken of him- self — and because he perceives, from the real work of grace which has been performed on him, that he is indeed one of the children of God. The other is a certainty, founded on the cognizance that he has taken of God's promises — and because he perceives, both from their perfect honesty, and from the ample XVI 11 unrestricted scope of their address to all and to every of our species, that he may venture a full reliance for himself on the propitiation that has been made for the world, on the righteousness that is unto all and upon all who believe. Now the assurance of hope is far, and may be very far posterior to the as- surance of faith. One cannot too soon or too firmly put his confidence in the word of God. The truth of his sayings is a matter altogether distinct from the truth of our own sanctification. Even now, upon the warrant of God's testimony, may the sinner come into acceptance, and take up his resting-place under the canopy of Christ's mediatorship, and re- joice in this, that the blood which he has shed cleanseth from all sin ; and, with a full appropriation of this universal specific to his own guilt, may he stand with a free and disburdened conscience before the God whom he has offended. He may do all this even now, and still it is but the assurance of faith, the confidence of one who is looking outwardly on the truth and the meaning of God's declarations. The assurance of hope is the confidence that one feels in looking inwardly to the graces of his own character, and should only grow with his spiritual growth, and strengthen with his spiritual strength. But we may be certain of this, that the best way by which we attain to the latter assurance, is to cherish the former assurance even to the uttermost. Let us send forth our believing regards on the Sun of Righ- teousness, and thus shall we admit into our bosom both a heat that will kindle its gracious affections, and a light that will make them manifest. In other words, let us be ever employed in the work of faith. XIX and this will not only shed a brightness over the tab- let of the inner man, but it is the direct method by which to crowd and to enrich it with the best ma- terials for the work of self-examination. Let us now, then, specify a few of these materials, some of the fruits of that Spirit which is given to those who believe, and on the production and growth of which within them, they may attain the comfort- able assurance in themselves, that they are indeed the workmanship and the husbandry of God. Some, perhaps, may be led to recognise their own likeness in one or other of the features that we delineate, and so to rejoice. Others may be left in uncertainty, or even be made certain that, as yet, they have no part nor lot in the matter of personal Christianity. But whatever their conclusions may be, we would commit all of them alike back again to the exercise of that faith, out of which alone it is that the spi- ritual life can be made to germinate, or that it can at all be upheld. The experience of one man varies exceedingly from that of another; but we would say, in the first place, that one very general mark of the Spirit's work upon the soul, is the new taste and the new intelli- gence wherewith a man now looks upon the Bible. Let that which before was dark and mystical now appearlight unto him — let a power and 3 preciousness be felt in its clauses, which he wont altogether to miss in his old mechanical style of perusing it — let there be a sense and a weight of significancy in those passages which at one time escaped his discernment — let there now be a conscious adaptation between its truths and the desires or the necessities of his XX own heart — and, above all, let there be a willing consent and coalescence with such doctrines as before revolted him into antipathy, or at least were regarded with listless unconcern — in particular, let there be a responding testimony from within to all which that book affirms of the sin of our nature — and, instead of the Saviour being lightly esteemed, let his name and his righteousness have all the power of a resto- rative upon the soul. Should these things meet in the experience of any one, then it needs not that there should either be a voice or a vision to convince us, that upon him the Holy Spirit of God has had its sure, though its silent operation — that he has been plying him with his own instrument, which is the word of God — that it is he, and not nature, who has evolved from the pages of Scripture this new light on the mind of the inquirer — that, apart alto- gether from the visitation of a trance, or a glory, or the inspiration of a whisper at midnight, there has been a wisdom from above, which, through the me- dium of the written testimony, has addressed itself to the man's understanding; and the perception which he now has of the things of faith, is not the fruit of his own spontaneous and unaided faculties— that the things which he has gotten from Scripture, he in fact has gotten from the Spirit, who holds no other communication with the human mind than through the avenues of God's unalterable record, — they may be the very things which the natural man cannot receive, and neither can he know them, be- cause they are spiritually discerned. But, while we hope that this may fall on some with an impression of comfort, it is right that it XXI should be accompanied with a caution. Though true that there may be a desire for the sincere milk of the word, which evinces one to be a new- born babe ; yet it is also true, that one may have tasted of the good word of God, and finally apostatize. And lest any who have been so far en- lightened by the Holy Ghost should be of this hope- less and ill-fated class, let us warn them to take heed lest they fall — lest they fall more particularly from the evidence on which we have now been expa- tiating — lest they lose their relish, and so give up their reading of the Bible — lest the first love where- with they at one time regarded it should again be dissipated, and that spiritual appetite which they felt for the essential simplicities of the gospel, should at length decline into a liking for heartless controversy or for barren speculation. Let such strive, by prayer and by a constant habit of perusal, to retain, yea, to augment their interest in the Bible. Let them be assured, that a kindredness in their heart with its flavour and its phraseology, is a kindredness with heaven — nor do we know a better evidence of preparation for the sanctuary, than when the very truths and very words of the sanctuary are precious. But again, another fruit of the Spirit, another sign, as it were, of his workmanship upon the soul, is that we love -the brethren, or, in other words, that we feel a savour which perhaps we had not formerly in the converse, and society, and whole tone and habit of spiritual men. The advantage of this test is, that it is so very palpable — that with all the ob- scurity which rests on the other evidences, this may remain a most distinct and discernible one, and be XX11 often the solitary vestige, as it were, of our transla- tion into a new moral existence, when some dark cloud hath overshadowed all the other lineaments of that epistle which the Spirit hath graven upon our hearts. " Hereby know we," says the apostle, "that we have passed from death unto life, even that we love the brethren." One may remember when he had no such love — when he nauseated the very air and aspect of sacredness — when the world was his kindred atmosphere, and worldly men the only com- panionship in which he could breathe with native comfort or satisfaction — when the very look and language of the peculiar people were an offence to him, and he gladly escaped from a clime so ungenial with his spirits, to the glee of earthly fellowship, to the bustle of earthly employments. Was it so with him at one time, and is it different now ? Has he a taste for association with the pious ? Does he re- lish the unction that is upon their feelings, and has he now a tact of congeniality with that certain breath and spirit of holiness, the sensation of which, at one time, disgusted him ? Then verily we have good hopes of a good, and, we trust a decisive transform- ation — that this taste for converse with the saints on earth, is a foretaste to his full enjoyment of their converse in heaven — that there is a gradual attem- perment going on of his character here to the condi- tion which awaits him there — that he has really been translated from the kingdom of this world to the kingdom of light — and if it be true, that to consum- mate our preparation for hell, we must not only do those things which are worthy of death, but have pleasure in those that do them, we cannot under- XX111 stand why a growing affection on his part for the ser- vants of God should not be sustained, as the com- fortable token that he is indeed under a process of ripening for the delights and the services of the up- per sanctuary. But there is room here too for a caution. There may be a sentimental homage rendered even by a mere child of nature to Christianity. There may be a taste for certain aspects of sacredness, without any kindred delight in sacredness itself. There may be a predilection of the fancy for some of the Spirit's graces, which yet may augur no more one's own vital participation in that Spirit, than would his re- lish for the simplicity of Quaker attire, or his admi- ration of that Moravian village, where his eye rested on so many peaceful tenements, and his ear was ra- vished at intervals with the voice of melting psal- mody. And more recently, there is the excitement of all that modern philanthropy which requires com- bination, and eloquence, and adventure, and busy management ; and thus an enjoyment in religious societies, without enjoyment in religion. There may go on animating bustle in the outer courts, to interest and engage the man who had no sympathy whatever with those chosen few that now were ad- mitted among the glories of the inner temple. And, therefore, let us try if, apart from the impulse of all these externals, we indeed breathe in a kindred at- mosphere, when we sit down in close and intimate fellowship with a man of prayer — if we can listen with eager and heart-felt satisfaction to the experi- ence of an humble Christian — if, when sitting by the bed of the dying believer, we can sympathize XXIV with the hope that beams in his eye, and the peace that flows through his heart like a mighty river — or if, when the Bible is upon his lips, and he tries to quote those simple sayings by which the departing spirit is sustained, we can read and rejoice along with him. But, without attempting any thing like a full enumeration of the Spirit's fruits, we shall advert to the one that perhaps of all others is most indispen- sable — a growing tenderness because of sin — a quicker moral alarm at its most distant approaches, at its slightest violations of purity or rectitude — a susceptibility of conscience, which exposes one to distress from what was before unheeded, and left no infliction of remorse behind it — an utter loathing at that which was, perhaps, at one time liked or laughed at, even the song, and the oath, and the gross inde- licacy of profane or licentious companionship — a sen- sitive and high-minded recoil from the lying artifices of trade — and withal, the pain of a violated principle at those Sabbath desecrations in which we wont to rejoice. This growing hostility to sin, and growing taste of its bitterness, are truly satisfying evidences of the Spirit's operation ; and more particularly, when they stand associated with a just estimation of the gospel. Did the candidate for heaven still think that heaven was won by obedience, then we might conceive him urged on to the warfare of all his energies against the power of moral evil, by the terrors of the law. But, thinking as he does, that heaven is a gift, and not a recompense, it delivers, from all taint of mercenary legalism, both his love of what is good, and his hatred of what is evil. It XXV stamps a far purer and more generous character on his resistance to sin. It likens his abhorrence of it more to the kindred feature in the character of God, who cannot do that which is wrong, not be- cause he feareth punishment, but because he hateth iniquity. To hate the thing for which vengeance would pursue us, is not so disinterested as to hate the thing of which forgiveness hath been offered ; and so, if two men were exhibited to notice, one of them under the economy of works, and the other under the economy of grace, and both equally assi- duous in the conflict with sin, we should say of the latter, that he gave far more satisfying proof than the former, of a pure and god-like antipathy to evil; and that he, of the two, was more clearly the sub- ject of that regenerating process under which man is renewed, after the image of his Creator, in righteous- ness and in true holiness. We might have given a larger exemplification of the Spirit's fruits, and of those topics of self-exami- nation, by which the Christian might rightly estimate the true state of his spiritual character; but, instead of multiplying our illustrations, would we refer our readers to the following profound and searching Treatise of Dr. Owen, " On the Grace and Duty of being Spiritually Minded. Dr. Owen's is indeed a venerated name, which stands in the first rank of those noble worthies who adorned a former period of our country and of our church. He was a star of the first magnitude in that bright con- stellation of luminaries, who shed a light and a glory over the age in which they lived; and whose genius, and whose writings, continue to shed their radiance B 21 XXVI over succeeding generations. The following Trea- tise of Dr. Owen holds a distinguished rank among the voluminous writings of this celebrated author; and it is characterized by a forcible application of truth to the conscience — by a depth of experimental feeling — an accuracy of spiritual discernment into the intimacies and operations of the human mind — and a skill in exploring the secrecies of the heart, and the varieties of affection, and the ever-shifting phases of character, — which render this admirable Treatise not less a test, than a valuable guide to the honest inquirer, in his scrutiny into the real state of his heart and affections. Amidst the difficulties and perplexities which beset the path of the sincere in- quirer, in the work of self-examination, he will be greatly aided in this important search by the atten- tive and serious perusal of this Treatise. In it he will find, in minute delineation, the varied tastes and emotions, of affection and of feeling, which belong to either class of the carnal or spiritually minded; and in the faithful mirror which it holds up to the view, he cannot fail to discern, most vividly reflected, the true portraiture of his own character. But it is not merely as a test of character, that the value of this precious Treatise is to be estimated. By his powerful expositions of the deceitfulness of the human heart, he endeavours to disturb that de- lusive repose into which men are betrayed in regard to futurity, under the guise of a regular outward ob- servance of the duties of religion, and a fair external conformity to the decencies of life, while the prin- ciple of ungodliness pervades the whole heart'and affections. And here his faithful monitions may be XXV11 profitable to those who, insensible to the spirituality and extent of the divine law, are also insensible of their fearful deficiency from its lofty requirements— who have never been visited with a conviction that the principle of love to God, which has its seat in the affections of the heart, is an essential and indis- pensable requisite to all acceptable obedience— and that, destitute of a relish and delight in spiritual things, and with a heart that nauseates the sacred- ness of holy and retired communings with God, whatever be their external decencies, or outward conformities to the divine law, they still are ex- posed to the charge and the doom of being carnally minded. But this Treatise contains a no less important de- lineation of the state of heart, in those who have be- come the humble and earnest aspirants after heaven, and are honestly cultivating those affections of the renewed heart, and those graces of the Christian character, which form the indispensable preparation for the delights and the employments of the upper sanctuary. He marks with graphic accuracy the tastes and the tendencies of the new creature; and most instructive to the Christian disciple is it to learn, from one so experimentally acquainted with the hidden operations of the inner man, what are the characteristic graces of the Spirit, and resemblances of the divine nature, that are engraven on his soul, by which, amidst all the shortcomings and infirmi- ties of his nature, not yet fully delivered from the bondage of corruption, he may, nevertheless, have the comfort and the evidence that he is spiritually minded. J b 2 XXVlll And one principal excellence of this useful Trea- tise is, to guard the believer against the insidious- ness and power of those spiritual enemies with which he has to contend — with the deceitfulness of the heart, the natural and unresisted current of whose imaginations is only vanity and evil continually — with the insnaring and besetting urgencies of worldly things, into whose presence his duties and avocations will unavoidably introduce him — with the ever busy temptations of the adversary of souls, to retain or to recover the spirit which is striving to enter in at the strait gate. And, sheathed in the Christian pano- ply, he reminds him of the struggle he must hold, of the watchfulness he must exercise, and of the con- stant and persevering warfare he must maintain with them in his earthly journey, ere he can reach the Jerusalem above. In these spiritual tactics, Dr. Owen was most profoundly skilled ; and it is profit- able to be instructed in the guardianship of the heart against its own treacheries, and against those evil in- fluences which war against the soul — which hinder the outset, or are adverse to the growth, of the spi- ritual life — and which so often grieve the Spirit, and lead him to withdraw his gracious operations, so in- dispensable for giving the truth a sanctifying influ- ence over his mind. And no less important is it to be instructed in the means for the successful cultiva- tion of the Christian life; and, by an entire renun- ciation of self-righteousness, and even of dependence on grace already received — by casting himself, in the confidence of faith and of prayer, on Him who is all his strength and all his sufficiency — by being strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus — and by XXIX abounding in the exercises of faith and of love, ot watchfulness and of prayer, of obedience and of de- pendence on the Spirit of truth, to maintain an ever- growing conformity to the divine image, and to press onwards in his earnest aspirings to reach those higher altitudes in the divine life, which will fit him for a high place among the companies of the celestial. On the means for the attainment of these higher graces of the spiritual life we might have expatiated; but we must close our remarks, without almost one glance on the heights of Christian experience; or those loftier attainments after which we are ever doomed to aspire, but with hardly ever the satisfac- tion, in this world, of having realized them; or those high and heavenly communions, which fall to the lot of men of such a sublime sacredness as Dr. Owen ; but for which it would almost appear indispensable, that the spiritual life should be nourished in solitude, and that, afar from the din, and the broil, and the tumult of ordinary life, the candidate for heaven should give himself up to the discipline of prayer and of constant watchfulness. It is, indeed, most humbling to reflect on the paltry ascent that we have yet made along that hidden walk, by which it is that the pilgrim travels towards Zion; and how short we are, after years of something like earnestness, from those untouched and untrodden eminences which are so far above us. Where, may most of us ask, is our delight in God ? Where is the triumph of our se- rene confidence in him, over all the anxieties of this world ? Where that love to Christ, and that rejoic- ing in him, which, in the days of primitive Christi- anity, were so oft exemplified by the believer, and XXX formed, in truth, the hourly and familiar habits of his soul? Do we count it enough, in the absence of this world's smiles, and when the whole sunshine of them is withdrawn from the bosom, that we still live amid the bright anticipations of Faith, with the protection of heaven above us, and the full radiance of eternity before us ? These are the achievements to which we must yet press onward; and perhaps the sensation of a pressure that has yet been ineffectual, is the only evidence, in regard to them, which we can allege of a gracious tendency at least, if not of a gracious acquirement. It is the proof, not of what we have reached, but of the direction in which we are moving. And, at the very time that we are bur- dened under a feeling of our deficiencies, may we, from our constant inclination to surmount them, and our many unsatisfied longings after the standard that is higher than ourselves, gather some perhaps of our most precious and legitimate encouragements in the work of self-examination. T. C. St. Andrews, April, 1825. CONTENTS. PART I. Page CHAP. I. The words of the text explained, . . 43 CHAP. II. A particular account of the nature of this Grace and Duty of being Spiritually Minded. How it is stated in and evidenced hy our thoughts, .... 56 CHAP. III. Outward means and occasions of thoughts of such spiritual things which do not prove men to be spiri- tually minded. Preaching of the Word — Exercise of Gifts — Prayer. How we may know whether our thoughts of spiritual things in prayer are truly spiritual thoughts, proving us to be spiritually minded, ... 68 CHAP. IV. Other evidences of thoughts about spiritual things, arising from an internal principle of Graee, whereby they are an evidence of our being spiritually minded. The abounding of these thoughts, how far, and wherein such an evidence, 97 CHAP. V. The objects of Spiritual Thoughts, or what they are conversant about, evidencing those in whom they are to be spiritually minded. Rules directing to steadiness in the contemplation of heavenly things. Motives to fix our thoughts with steadiness on them, . . 113 XXXll CONTENTS. Page CHAP. VI. Directions to the exercise of our thoughts on things above; things future, invisible, and eternal: on God himself, with the difficulties of it, and oppositions to it, and the way of their removal. Rigbt notions of future glory stated, . . . . . .155 CHAP. VII. Especial objects of Spiritual Thoughts on the glorious state of heaven, and what belongs thereto. First, of Christ himself. Thoughts of Heavenly Glory, in oppo- sition to thoughts of Eternal Misery. The use of such thoughts. Advantage in sufferings, . . 175 CHAP. VIII. Spiritual thoughts of God himself. The op- position to them, and neglect of them, with their causes, and the way of their prevalency. Predominant corrup- tions, expelling due thoughts of God, how to be disco- vered, &c. Thoughts of God, of what nature, and what they are to be accompanied with, &c. . . 18S CHAP. IX. What of God, or in God, we are to think and meditate upon. His Being — Reasons of it — Opposition to it — The way of their conquest. Thoughts of the Om- nipresence and Omniscience of God peculiarly necessary. The reasons hereof; as also of his omnipotency. The use and benefit of such thoughts, . . . 216 CHAP. X. Sundry things tendered to such as complain that they know not how they are not able to abide in holy thoughts of God, and Spiritual or Heavenly things; for their relief, instruction, and direction. Rules concerning stated Spiritual Meditation, .... 237 PART II. CHAP. XI. The seat of Spiritual Mindedness in the affec- tions. The nature and use of them. The ways and means used by God himself to call the affections of men from the world, ..... 265 CONTENTS. XXxiii Page CHAP. XII. What is required in and to our affections, that they may be spiritual. A threefold work on the affections described, .... 292 CHAP. XIII. The work of the Renovation of our af- fections. How distinguished from any other impres- sion on, or change wrought in them ; and how it is evidenced so to be. The first instance in the universal- ity accompanying affections spiritually renewed. The order of the exercise of our affections with respect to their objects, . . . . . 301 CHAP. XIV. The second distinction between affections spiritually renewed, and those which have been only changed by light and conviction. Grounds and reasons of men's delight in duties of divine worship, and of their diligence in their performance, whose minds are not spiritually minded, .... 314 CHAP. XV. Delight of believers in the holy institutions of divine worship. The grounds and reasons thereof. The evidence of being spiritually minded thereby, &c. . 325 CHAP. XVI. Assimilation to things heavenly and spiri- tual in affections spiritually renewed. This assimila- tion the work of faith. How and whereby. Reasons of the want of growth in our spiritual affections, as to this assimilation, ..... 352 CHAP. XVII. Decays in spiritual affections, with the causes and danger of them. Advice to those who are sensible of the evil of spiritual decays, . . 37 1 CHAP. XVIII. The state of spiritual Affections— 1. In their Pattern. 2. In their Rule. 3. In their Measure, 392 CHAP. XIX. The Object, about which affections, spi- ritually renewed, are conversant, and whereunto they ad- here, ...... 404. b3 XXXIV CONTENTS. Page CHAP. XX. The way how the soul applies itself, by its affections, to those objects which belong to our being spiritually minded, . . . . 417 CHAP. XXI. How being spiritually minded is life and peace, ...... 427 PREFACE. I think it necessary to give the reader a brief ac- count of the nature and design of the plain ensuing Discourse, which may both direct him in the reading, and be some kind of apology for myself in the pub- lishing of it. The thoughts here communicated, were originally private meditations for my own use, in a season wherein I was every way unable to do any thing for the edification of others, and far from expectation that ever I should be so any more in this world. Receiving, as I thought, some benefit and satisfaction in the exercise of my own meditations therein, when God was graciously pleased to restore a little strength to me, I insisted on the same subject in the instruction of a private congregation ; and this I did, partly out of a sense of the advantage I had received myself, by being conversant in them, and partly from an apprehension, that the duties directed and pressed in the whole discourse were seasonable, from present circumstances, to be declared and urged on the minds and consciences of professors. For, leaving others to the choice of their own methods and designs, I acknowledge that these are the two things whereby I regulate my work in the whole course of my ministry. To impart those truths, of 36 whose power I hope I have in some measure a real experience, and to press those duties which present occasions, temptations, and other circumstances, ren- der necessary to be attended to in a peculiar manner, are the things to which I would principally apply myself in the work of teaching others. For, as in the work of the ministry in general, the whole coun- sel of God, concerning the salvation of the church by Jesus Christ, is to be declared ; so, in particular, we are not to " fight uncertainly as men beating the air," nor shoot our arrows at random, without a cer- tain aim. Knowledge of the flock whereof we are overseers, with a due consideration of their wants, their graces, their temptations, their light, their strength, and weakness, are herein required. And when, in pursuance of that design, the preparation of the word to be dispensed proceeds from zeal to the glory of God, and compassion to the souls of men ; when it is delivered with the demonstration of a due reverence to God, whose word it is, and of authority towards them to whom it is dispensed, with a deep sense of that great account, which both they that preach and they that hear must shortly give before the judgment-seat of Christ; there may be a com- fortable expectation of the blessed issue of the whole work. But my present design is only to declare, in particular, the reasons why I judged the preaching and publishing of this small and plain discourse, concerning the grace and duty of being spiritually minded, not to be altogether unseasonable at this time, in the present circumstances of most Christians. And the first thing which I would observe, is, the present importunity of the world to impose itself on 37 the minds of men, and the various ways of insinua- tion whereby it possesseth and filleth them. If it attain to this, it" it can fill the minds, the thoughts, and affections, with itself, it will fortify the soul against faith and obedience, in some; and in others, weaken all grace, and endanger eternal ruin. For " if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us;" and when the world fills our thoughts, it will entangle our affections. And, first, the present state of all public affairs in it, with an apprehended concern of private persons therein, continually exer- cises the thoughts of many, and is almost the only subject of their mutual converse. For the world is at present in a mighty agitation, and being in many places cast off from all foundations of steadfastness, it makes the minds of men giddy with its revolutions, or disorderly in the expectations of them. Thoughts about these things are both allowable and unavoidable, if they take not the mind out of its own power, by their multiplicity, vehemency, and urgency, until it be unframed as unto spiritual things, retaining neither room nor time for their en- tertainment. Hence men walk and talk as if the world were all, when comparatively it is nothing. And when men come with their warmed affections reeking with thoughts of these things to the per- formance of, or attendance unto any spiritual duty, it is very difficult for them, if not impossible, to stir up any grace to a due and vigorous exercise. Un- less this plausible advantage which the world hath obtained, of insinuating itself and its occasions into the minds of men, so as to fill them, and possess them, be watched against and obviated, so far, at 38 least, as that it may not transform the mind into its own image and likeness, this grace of being spiri- tually minded, which is life and peace, cannot be at- tained, nor kept unto its due exercise. Nor can any of us be delivered from this snare, at this season, without a watchful endeavour to keep and preserve our minds in the constant contempla- tion of things spiritual and heavenly, proceeding from the prevalent adherence of our affections to them, as will appear in the ensuing discourse. Again, There are so great and pregnant evi- dences of the prevalence of an earthly, worldly frame of spirit, in many who make profession of religion, that it is high time they were called to a due con- sideration, how opposite they are therein to the power and spirituality of that religion which they profess. There is no way whereby such a frame is evinced to prevail in many, yea, in the generality of such professors, that is not manifest unto all. In their habits, attires, and vestments, in their usual converse and misuse of time, in their over liberal entertainment of themselves and others unto the borders of excess, and other things of a like nature, there is in many such a conformity to the world, (a thing severely forbidden,) that it is hard to make a distinction between them. And these things mani- fest such a predominancy of carnal affections in the minds of men, that, whatever may be pretended to the contrary, is inconsistent with spiritual peace. To call men off from this evil frame of heart and mind, to discover the sin and danger of it, to direct them to the ways and means whereby it may be re- sisted, to supply their thoughts and affections with 39 better objects, to discover and press that exercise of them which is indispensably required of all believers, if they design life and peace, is some part of the work of the ensuing discourse. It may perhaps be judged but a weak attempt to the attaining of that end. But it cannot be denied to have these two advantages; first, That it is sea- sonable; and, secondly, That it is sincerely intended. And if it have only this success, that it may occa- sion others, who have more ability and opportunity than I have, to bring their assistance to oppose the vehement and importunate insinuations of the world in these things, from being so much entertained in the minds of professors, this labour will not be lost. But things are come to that pass amongst us, that unless a more than ordinary vigorous exercise of the ministry of the word, with other means appointed to the same end, be engaged in, to recal professors unto that strict mortification, that sincerity of con- versation, that separation from the world, that hea- venly mindedness, that delight in the contemplation of spiritual things, which the gospel and the whole nature of the Christian religion do require, we shall lose the glory of our profession, and leave it very uncertain what will be our eternal condition. The same may be spoken concerning love of the world, as to the advantages and emoluments which men trust thereby to attain. This is that which renders men earthly minded, and most remote from having their conversation above. In the pursuit of this corrupt affection, many professors of religion become withered, useless, sapless, giving no evidence that the love of God abideth in them. On these and 40 many other accounts, many Christians evidence themselves to be strangers to spiritual mindedness, to a life of meditation and holy contemplation on things above; yet, unless we are found in some good measure in these things, no grace will thrive or flourish in us; no duty will be rightly performed by us, no condition sanctified or improved ; nor are we in a due manner prepared, or " made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." Wherefore, as was said, to direct and provoke men to that which is the only remedy of all these evils, which alone is the means of giving them a view into, and a foretaste of, eternal glory; especially to such who are in my own condition, namely, in a very near approach to a de- parture out of this world, is the design and scope of the ensuing discourse ; which is recommended unto the grace of God for the benefit of the reader. JOHN OWEN. PART I. PHIHCETGN F,OI THE AND DUTY OF BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED. Romans vin. 6. BUT TO BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED IS LIFE AND PEACE. CHAPTER I. The "words of the text explained. The expression in our translation sounds differently from that in the original. To be spiritually minded, say we. In the original it is (ppbvyijuoi tov 7rvtVjUctTct; ; as that in the former part of the verse is ^^'ovvi/acl t^ ^o- r«07c, is the principal power and act of the mind. It is its light, wisdom, prudence, knowledge, under- standing, and discretion. It is not so with respect to speculation, or ratiocination merely ; which is, lioivoioL, or vvvkjh;. But this (ppbvwit; is its power as it is practical, including the habitual frame and inclination of the affections also. It is its faculty to conceive of things with a delight in them, and ad- herence to them, from that suitableness which it finds in them to all its affections. Hence we trans- late