Thoughts wandering from God
With regard to the former, all our thoughts are naturally of this kind. For they are continually wandering from God: we think nothing about him. God is not in all our thoughts (Psalm 10:4); we are, one and all, as the apostle observes, without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). We think of what we love, but we do not love God; therefore we think not of him. Or if we are now and then constrained to think of him for a time, yet as we have no pleasure in it, nay rather, as these thoughts are not only insipid but distasteful and irksome to us, we drive them out as soon as we can, and return to what we love to think of. So that the world and the things of the world, what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall put on (Matthew 6:31); what we shall see, what we shall hear, what we shall gain; how we shall please our senses or our imagination, takes up all our time and engrosses all our thought. So long therefore as we love the world (1 John 2:15), that is, so long as we are in our natural state, all our thoughts, from morning to evening and from evening to morning, are no other than wandering thoughts.
1771 text
2. With regard to the former, all our thoughts are naturally of this kind. For they are continually wandering from God: we think nothing about him. God is not in all our thoughts: we are, one and all, as the apostle observes, without God in the world. We think of what we love: but we do not love God: therefore we think not of him. Or if we are now and then constrained to think of him for a time, yet as we have no pleasure therein, nay rather, as these thoughts are not only insipid, but distasteful and irksome to us, we drive them out as soon as we can, and return to what we love to think of. So that the world and the things of the world, what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall put on: what we shall see, what we shall hear, what we shall gain: how we shall please our senses or our imagination, takes up all our time, and engrosses all our thought. So long therefore as we love the world, that is, so long as we are in our natural state, all our thoughts, from morning to evening, and from evening to morning, are no other than wandering thoughts.
About this text
Rendered in modern English, to be read and heard. Open the 1771 text under each part to check the claims and the scripture.
Rendered in modern English. The 1771 panel is his own Pine printing of the Works. It is public domain.
Catalogue & scope
Sermon 41 in the 1771 Works. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5.
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. It is not a complete critical edition.