Why is it this way with us, that we cannot abide in thoughts and meditations of things spiritual and heavenly? Is it because they are things that we have no great concern in? It may be that they are worthless and unprofitable things to us, so that it is to no purpose to spend our thoughts about them. The truth is, they alone are worthy, useful, and desirable; all other things in comparison to them are but “loss and dung.” Phi 3:8
Or is it because the faculties and powers of our souls were not originally suited to contemplate and delight in them? This also is otherwise; they were all given to us, all created by God for this very end, all fitted with inclinations and power to abide with God in all things, without aversion or weariness. Nothing was so natural, easy, and pleasant to our souls, as steadiness in the contemplation of God and his works. The cause of all this evil, therefore, lies at our own door. All this, therefore, and all other evils, came upon us by the entrance of sin. And therefore Solomon, in his inquiry after all the causes and effects of vanity, brings it under this head: “Lo, this only have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions,” Ecc 7:29. For hereby our minds, that were created in a state of blessed adherence to God, were wholly turned away from him; and not only so, but they were filled with enmity against Him. In this state, the vanity that is prevalent in them, is both their sin and their punishment: their sin in a perpetual inclination to things that are vain, foolish, sensual, and wicked — so the apostle describes it at large in Eph 4:17-19, Tit 3:3; and their punishment, in that, being turned away from the chief good, in which alone rest is to be found, they are filled with darkness, confusion, and disquietude, being “like the troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” Isa 57:20
By grace our minds are renewed — that is, they are changed and delivered from this frame; but only partially. The principle of vanity is no longer predominant in us, to alienate us from the life of God, or to keep us in enmity against him. Those who are so renewed do not “walk in the vanity of their minds,” as others do, Eph 4:17. They go up and down, in all their ways and occasions, with a stream of vain thoughts in their minds. But the remainders of it are effectually operative in us, in all the actings of our minds towards God, affecting them with uncertainty and instability. It is like someone who has received a great wound in any principal part of his body. Though it may be so cured that death won’t immediately ensue from it, yet it may make him weak and lame all his days, and hinder him in the exercise of all the powers of life. The vanity of our minds is so cured as to deliver us from spiritual death; yet such a wound, such a weakness remains, that it weakens and hinders us in all the operations of spiritual life. Hence, those who have made any progress in grace, are sensible of their vanity as the greatest burden of their souls, and they groan after such a complete renovation of their minds that they may thereby be perfectly freed from it. This is what they principally regard in that complaining desire of Rom 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” Yes, they groan under a sense of it every day; nor is anything such a trouble to them, observing how it defeats them in their designs to contemplate heavenly things; how it frustrates their best resolutions to abide in the spiritual actings of faith and love; how they are imposed on by it with thoughts of things which, either in themselves or in their consequences, they most abhor. Nothing are they so afraid of, nothing is so grievous and burdensome to them, nothing do they more groan for deliverance from. When there is war anyplace, it behoves those who are concerned, to have an eye and regard to all their enemies and their attempts against them. But if they are vigilant and diligent in their opposition to those who are outside, who visibly contend with them, and in the meantime neglect those who act traitorously within, among themselves — betraying their counsels and weakening their strength — they will undoubtedly be ruined. Wise men first take care of what is within, knowing that if they are betrayed there, all they do against their open enemies is to no purpose. In the warfare in which we are engaged, we have enemies of all sorts that openly and visibly, in various temptations, fight against our souls. It is our duty to watch against these, to conflict with them, and to seek a conquest over them. And it is this internal vanity of mind that endeavors in all things to betray us, to weaken us in all our graces, or to hinder their due operation, and to open the doors of our hearts to our cursed enemies. If our principal endeavor isn’t to discover, suppress, and destroy this traitor, we won’t succeed in our spiritual warfare.
Therefore, this being the original cause of all that disability of mind (as to our steadiness in holy thoughts and meditations) which you complain of when you’re affected with it — turn to consider what it proceeds from. Labor to be humbled greatly, and to walk humbly, under a sense of the remainders of this vanity of mind, that some wholesome fruit may be taken from this bitter root, and meat may come out of this eater. If you reflect on this cause of it, when you cannot abide in holy thoughts of God and your relation to Him — to your further humiliation and self-abasement — then your good design and purpose are not lost. Say to yourself, “I began to think of God, of his love and grace in Christ Jesus, of my duty towards him; and now, where do I find myself in a few minutes? I have gotten to the ends of the earth, into useless and earthly things, or I am at such a loss that I have no mind to proceed in the work in which I was engaged. ‘O wretched man that I am!’ what a cursed enemy have I within me! I am ashamed of myself, weary of myself, I loathe myself. ‘Who shall deliver me from this body of death?’” Such thoughts may be as useful to you as those which you first designed.
It’s true, we can never be freed absolutely from all the effects of this vanity and instability of mind in this world. Unchangeable clinging to God always, in all the powers and affections of our minds, is reserved for heaven. Yet great degrees may be attained in the conquest and expulsion of it, such as I fear few have experienced, yet all ought to labor for it. If we apply ourselves as we should to the increase of spiritual light and grace; if we labor diligently to abide and abound in thoughts of spiritual things, and do it out of love for them and delight in them; if we watch against the entertaining and approving those thoughts and things in our minds by which this vain frame is pleased and confirmed — there is, even if not an absolute perfection, yet a blessed degree of heavenly mindedness to be attained. And in that, is the nearest approach to glory that we are capable of in this world. If a man cannot attain an athletic constitution of health, or a strength like that of Samson, yet if he is wise, he won’t omit the use of those means which may make him useful in the ordinary duties of life. And although we cannot attain perfection in this matter — which it is our duty to continually press after — yet, if we are wise, we will endeavor for such a cure of this spiritual distemper, that we may be able to discharge all the duties of the life of God. But if men feed the vanity of their own minds in all other things; if they permit them to rove continually after things that are foolish, sensual, and earthly; if they willfully supply them with objects to that end, and don’t labor by all means to mortify this evil frame — then in vain they will desire or expect to bring them at any time, on any occasion, to be steady in the thoughts of heavenly things. If it is thus with any, as it is feared to be with many, it is their duty to mind the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the first place, “Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good” — and not before. Mat 12.33 When the power of sanctifying grace has made the mind habitually spiritual and heavenly, thoughts of such things will be natural to it, and accompanied with delight. But they will not be so until the God of peace has sanctified us in our whole spirit, soul, and body, by which we may be preserved blameless to the coming of Jesus Christ. 1The 5:23
Always be sensible of your own insufficiency to raise in your mind thoughts of things spiritual and heavenly, or to manage them in a due manner. But in this case, men are apt to suppose that as they may, so they can think of what they please — thoughts are their own (they think), and therefore, of whatever sort they wish, they need no assistance for them. In truth, they cannot think as they should; they can do nothing at all; and nothing will convince them of their folly as to spiritual things, until they are burdened with an experience to the contrary. But the advice given is expressly laid down by the apostle, in the instance of himself: 2Cor 3:5, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.”
He speaks principally of ministers of the gospel, and of those who were most eminently furnished with spiritual gifts and graces, as he declares in verse 6. And if it is so with them, and with respect to the work and duties of their calling, then how much more is it so with others who don’t have their graces or their office! Therefore, if men without regard to the present actual grace of God and the supplies of his Spirit, suppose that they can of themselves exercise their minds in spiritual thoughts — and so they only fret at themselves when they fall into disappointment, not knowing what is the matter with them — they will live in a lifeless, barren frame all their days.
By the strength of their natural abilities, men may frame thoughts of God and heavenly things in their minds, according to the knowledge they have of them. They may methodize them by rules of art, and express them elegantly to others. But even while they do so, they may be far from being spiritually minded; for there may be in their thoughts no actings of faith, love, or holy delight in God, or any grace at all. But these alone are the things which we inquire after; only those in which the graces of the Spirit are in their proper exercise. With respect to them, we have no sufficiency in ourselves; all our sufficiency must be of God.
John Owen. THE GRACE AND DUTY OF BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED.
