“The constant contemplation of the glory of Christ will give rest, satisfaction, and complacency to the souls of them who are exercised in that respect. Our minds are apt to be filled with a multitude of perplexed thoughts; fears, cares, dangers, distresses, passions and lusts, do make various impressions on the minds of men, filling them with disorder, darkness and confusion. But where the soul is fixed in its thoughts and contemplations on the glorious object, it will be brought into and kept in a holy, serene, spiritual frame. For, ‘to be spiritually-minded is life and peace.’ And this it does by taking off our hearts from all undue regard to all things below, in comparison of the great worth, beauty, and glory of what we are conversant with (see Phil. 3:7-11). A defect in this makes many of us strangers to a heavenly life, and to live beneath the spiritual refreshments and satisfactions that the gospel tenders to us.”
“But it is from our own sloth and darkness that we do not enjoy more visits of this grace, and that the dawnings of glory do not more shine on our souls.”43