, and
presenting them: but yet the endeavour of a Christian will be, not to let
them lodge long within (Jer. iv. 14.). If they come in unawares, he will
labour to make a diversion to a better purpose, and so still it holds
good, that the current and course of a Christian's thoughts and
cogitations are upon the "things of the Spirit,"--how to get his own heart
washed and cleansed,--how to be more holy and conformed to Christ,--how to
be at peace with God, and keep that peace unbroken,--how to walk in
obedience to God, and in duty towards men,--how to forsake himself, and
withal to deny himself in all these; I say, his most serious and solemn
thoughts are about these things, his resolved and advised thoughts run
most on this strain, though it be true that, whether he will or not, other
vain and impertinent, or not so concerning thoughts, will pass more
lightly, and too frequently through his heart.

The other thing in which this spiritual life doth appear, is the current
of the affections, or that relish and taste of the sweetness of the things
of the Spirit, flowing from the apprehension of them in the mind. When the
light is discovered indeed, (and O it is a pleasant thing for the eye to
behold it, as Solomon speaks,) then the Spirit hath found an object
suitable to its nature, and so it relisheth and delighteth in it:
therefore the word is not simple minding, or thinking, but savouring,
thinking with affection upon them, tasting and feeding upon the knowledge
of them, it is a minding of them with care and delight, with earnestness
({~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}) "O taste and see how good the Lord is," Psal. xxxiv. 8. Some
things indeed cannot be known but by some sense. You cannot make a blind
man apprehend what light is, till he see it. A deaf man cannot form a
notion of sounds in his mind, except he once heard them; neither can a man
understand the sweetness of honey, but by tasting it. Truly spiritual
things are of that nature, there is some hidden virtue and excellency in
them, which is not obvious to every man that hath the bare knowledge of
the letter, there is a spirit and life in them, that cannot be transmitted
into your ears with the sound of words, or infused into ink and paper; it
is only the inspiration of the Almighty can inspire this sensible
percept