more They understood little or nothing beyond the political Covenant the terms whereof chiefly influenc'd their obedience and so took up with such a political righteousness as consisted in the obedience of the civil Laws of the Jewish Common-weal hence it is that Trypho the Jew disputing with Justin Martyr says that the Gospel Precepts meaning those that command the obedience of the heart and affections seem'd to him incapable of observance and that Josephus reprehends Polybius the Historian for ascribing the death of Antiochus to sacriledge intended tho' not committed by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as long saith he as he did not actually execute his intentions he deserv'd no punishment and that this was the old received notion of obedience appears plainly enough from our Saviours correcting this misprision in the 5th of St. Mat. ye have heard saith he ver 21. that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill if a man did not actually murder another he was thought to have kept within the bounds of the eight Commandment as indeed he did as to the temporal penalty annex'd to the violation of it which was then principally regarded but our Lord tells them plainly Verse 22. that the guilt in this particular lies as deep as the very beginnings the first efforts and sallies of an angry mind towards a foolish quarrel that may end in blood in which sense St. John affirms that whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer is already so tho his sword be still unsheath'd and he has stab'd him only in effigie again says he to the same purpose at the 27th ver ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery if a man did but refrain from the actual embraces of a forbidden bed how keenly soever he debauch'd by the strength of an impure imagination yet he was for all that in their notion of obedience a chast and modest man still but our Saviour tells them a rape may be committed in the fancy and adultery by a wanton glance And that this Jewish notion of obedience is not yet altogether antiquated under Christianity seems but too evident from that trite proverbial saying amongst us that thoughts are free as if when men durst not let loose their hands or their tongues to work wickedness yet they might give their desires and imaginations their full swing and muse and wish and contrive and please themselves with the Invention and Images of those things which they think it not safe to put in execution whereas on the contrary the Laws of our Lord prescribe to our affections set bounds to our fancies regulate our desires direct our intentions govern our wishes strike at sin in embrio and check the first voluntary motions and tendencies of the mind to evil Voluntary I say because 't is hard to imagine that those motus primò primi as the Schools speak those first stirrings of Concupiscence which come not within the verge and compass of the Will should fall under the lash and censure of the Law a Souldier is not punished for having an enemy to encounter but for not doing his duty to repel his assaults if instead of watching and repressing his motions he rather entertains him then but not till then let the Law go upon him God will certainly punish no man for an imperfection that is not in his power to prevent and which he did not himself voluntarily contract will not call us to an account for being proper Subjects of the Operations of his Grace but for misusing it and will not require it at any mans hands that he has the Seeds of evil scatter'd in his composition but for suffering them to fructifie in the soil However it must still be own'd that as to all the irregular motions of the inner man that fall under the disposal of our Wills God hath concluded them all under sin that by the wicked man's forsaking his thoughts the numberless vain thoughts that fly up and down his mind he might the more abundantly pardon Is 55. v. 7. accordingly the same Prophet tells us of those that err Is 29. 24. in spirit Solomon of those that err in imagining evil Prov. 14. 22. and Micah denounces woe to the devisers 21. of iniquity Hence the same wise King of Israel tells us in one place that the thought of foolishness is sin Prov. 24. 9. Prov. 14. 22. Prov. 15. 26. in another place that they err who devise evil in a third that the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord as his Father David had before observ'd of some that their inward parts were very wickedness Psal 5. 9. Psal 58. 2. and tells us of others that in their heart work wickedness hence again it is that St. Peter requires Simon Magus to repent of the thoughts of his Acts 8. 22. heart for what is the subject of our Repentance but our Sins that St. Paul requires us to bring into 2 Cor. 10. 4. captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ which supposes that of themselves they are naturally rebellious that our Saviour reprehends the Pharisees for thinking Matt. 9. 4. Matt. 15. 18 19. Matt. 5. evil and affirms of evil thoughts that they defile the man as well as when they shoot forth into the exterior actions of murder adultery c. The very intention and desire whereof he elsewhere equals with overt transgressions of the kind The reason of all is that God being the Father of the Spirits of all flesh and the Kingdom of his Son a spiritual Kingdom too 't is congruous both to the divine Nature and ours which is a stricture of his that his Laws bear sway in our spiritual part in our hearts and souls our wills and affections for would we have an infinitely glorious Spirit serv'd by dull flesh and blood only and not rather like himself in spirit and in truth with those prime productions those first born Sons of the immortal Nature in us Has God made us men and would we pay him but the spiritless homage of the animal part of us Has he implanted a noble and immortal principle of life and motion in us and shall it not share in our obedience to him and consequently in the guilt of the transgression of his Laws He is the natural Lord of both Soul and Body has bought them with a Price and therefore all the Reason in the World the Obedience we pay him should be commensurate to the extent of his Purchase so that if we have any just abhorrence of Sin in the true Latitude of the Divine construction of it we must govern our Thoughts as well as observe measures in our words and actions SECT 3. BUT I shall farther evince the obligations that lie upon us to order our Thoughts aright from such considerations as seem to enhance the guilt of mental sins above those of the outward Man For I. THO' it
a great measure the Satisfactions or Torments of the other Life Thoughts excusing or accusing their Owners He writes on that which is an unanswerable Proof of a divine spiritual and immortal Principle of Life and Motion in us For I defie all the Advocates of Deism or Atheism it self to conceive matter howsoever thinn'd or modified capable of thinking for no man I am sure if he rightly consults his own Principle of Thought can possibly reconcile himself to this apprehension that Matter pure Matter can think meditate deliberate reflect be witty argue infer pursue long chains of Consequences and impart to man that vivacity and sprightliness of Spirit and that vastness of Genius that displays it self in him In a word if any one is made wiser but especially better by what is here offer'd I have my end THE Government OF THE THOUGHTS CHAP. I. HE that designs to write of Thoughts had need tell the World in the first place what he means by the Subject of his Discourse for this is a vast Argument in the general as wide as the exercise and dominion of all the Powers and Faculties of the Soul and had need therefore be determin'd to some particular kind or Species of its operations for there 's no sayling to any profit or pleasure in so wide an Ocean without knowing first whither you are bound and what determinate Port you steer for 1. THEN by Thoughts we do not understand those motions that pass in the lower Region of the Soul the Passions or Affections that are excited in the Will or in the sensitive Appetite as some love to speak these may indeed be touched upon now and then by the by but not otherwise For besides that it is not my design here to write a Book of Ethicks as the Argument considered in that latitude would oblige me to do the Passions or Affections are not Thoughts in propriety of speech but the effects or products of them Thoughts are the Parents Passions the off-spring for by thinking reflecting and the brooding of the upper powers of our Souls our Passions are form'd and brought forth in us as the musing on an agreeable object that we apprehend as present raises in us joy on one that is yet in expectation hope and desire as on the contrary the Thoughts of an object that is disagreeable creates in us fear anger or sorrow according as we conceive it present or in futurity Nor II. DO I intend to speak here of all the several operations that are transacted in the upper Region of the Soul the Understanding as of its simple perceptions forming of propositions discussive and retaining or recollecting power the government of the Thoughts in this acceptation of the Word would oblige me to direct how to form true and discover false reasonings which is the Province of the Logicians and would oblige me to run out into those jejune and dry speculations that are improper for a practical design I mean then by Thoughts here neither the Passions nor yet the reasoning deliberating and arguing faculty of the Mind but that power chiefly whereby we first of all gaze at contemplate muse upon and converse with those images of things which our senses for the most part originally represent to our fancies and our fancies from them paint forth in our minds Any man who gives himself the liberty to think and can make his Understanding the object of its own contemplations is conscious to himself of these primary interviews of his mind with the objects let into it and must own them antecedent to and consequently distinct from both his passions and reasonings about them for a Man must first think or look upon and view the ideas in his mind before he can be any ways affected with or argue or deliberate about them as a man for instance must first think upon a formidable object before he fears it or reasons with himself how to escape the danger that threatens him NOR can it possibly in the Third place be expected that I should treat of Thoughts in this limited acceptation of them according to the vast variety of objects that are their subject matter for these were an argument in the language of the Book of Job as high as heaven what Ch. 11. v. 8 9. canst thou do deeper than Hell what canst thou know The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the Sea Nor God nor the whole frame and oeconomy of Nature terminate the Horizon or bound the ramble and excursions of our Thoughts which extend themselves even to things that are not that have no other being but what they borrow from a confus'd imagination for our fancies by a tumultuary compounding of ideas instead of real can create fictitious objects for their entertainment and divert themselves as well with a chimaera of their own manufacture as with the most real and substantial Being IT will be sufficient therefore and indeed all that can well be perform'd on this argument to draw the great and general lines of several of those excentric motions incident to our thoughts and to endeavour to prescribe the regulation of them BUT to recommend a design of this nature to the minds of men with better success it will be requisite in the first place to premise some of those many obligations that lye upon us to govern our Thoughts as well as our exterior words and actions SECT 2. AND first we are obliged to this government of thoughts because we may transgress the divine Law by them as well as by the transactions of the outward man 'T was a fundamental slaw in the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and indeed of the generality of the whole Jewish Nation that they thought an external obedience to the Law which exempted them from all temporal penalties due to the violation of it sufficient to denominate them righteous without any regard had to the innocency of their hearts and affections 'T is no strange thing indeed that the Heathens generally who were left to discover the divine Nature with the naked eye of their own faculties should content themselves with such an external righteousness or obedience as this which reached the outward man only but 't is a very surprizing consideration that the Jews themselves should take up with it who knew their Law to have been enacted by a God that is a searcher of hearts who requires the service of the spirit and will be lov'd and obey'd with all the powers and faculties of the mind But yet thus it was with that slow and carnal people they had very little concern upon them for the observance of the Precepts that related to the regulating the motions of the inner man for there being no penalties expresly annexed to them they looked on them as advice rather than precept Grat. in Matth. 25. or at worst that the guilt contracted by their mental sins was so done away by their sacrifices that God would remember them no
Voluntiers in the service and as our Thoughts are thus above the reach of fear so of favour too above the love of friends or the reverence of great men or the expectation of rewards for who can pay a man for that which no man knows but the Spirit of a man which is in him how shall outward hopes influence the inward transactions of ones own breast only external acts of sin indeed may have somthing to say for themselves because they may chance to carry their wages such as it is along with them but he who plays the knave the adulterer the murderer c. in his own heart he has nothing in exchange for his Soul but sins for pure sinnings sake as it were without any prospect of ever being consider'd for his pains without any other wages than the old standing one of death VII AND Lastly those Sins which have a more immediate relation to the mind and spirit as pride envy ambition malice unfaithfulness uncharitableness c. which are transacted mostly in the inner man as they are more incorrigible so consequently more criminal than others For as to those Vices which in a high measure depend upon the tempers and constitutions of our Bodies want of fuel will in time dead their flame when the spirits flag the blood chills and the pulse beats low and the evil days come on wherein we have no pleasure in them the decays of nature set the Soul then at some tolerable sort of liberty to reflect upon her own condition but as to the other age generally only serves to confirm and establish us in them For how rarely do we see a covetous wretch let go his hold of the earth tho' he is dropping into it how seldom are envy and malice exchang'd for contentment and good nature and when see we the proud ambitious man reduced to the same level of mind with his humble neighbours Sins of this kind have too much of the Aethiopian's skin and the Leopard's spots easily to admit the laver of regeneration Accordingly we find the Angels who kept not their first station reserv'd in everlasting chains under darkness to the Judgment of the great day for sins of this incorrigible kind For suppose their sin pride and ambition malice or envy or what you will 't was certainly transacted in the mind without the intervention of corporal efficiency and deriv'd it's peculiar venom from the spirituality of its nature Mental sins then were the first and are still considered in themselves the most crying provocations SECT 4. Other Reasons why we should govern our Thoughts BESIDES what has been hitherto alledg'd on this behalf the consideration of God's all-seeing eye ought also to influence the conduct of our Thoughts they lie not indeed within the walk of humane justice are without the ken of humane inspection no eye can pry into the recesses of the heart but God sees and knows and reads their subtilest motions and darkest intrigues with greater perspicacity then we do men's outward words and actions For lo there is not a thought not the motion of the least fibre in our hearts but he knoweth it altogether knoweth it afar off at the distance of Eternity it self e'er we or our thoughts had any other being than in the Divine Idea For no thought can Job 42. 2. be witholden from him Hell and Prov. 15. 11. destruction are before him how much more then the hearts of the Children of Men And then how strongly are we obliged to keep good order there since they are under the eye of so intimate and accurate an Observer of their internal motions and subject to the inspection of so true a Judge of good discipline and so severe an Avenger of bad But I shall urge this consideration farther in it's proper place as a means to assist us in the ordering of our thoughts aright And therefore II. IN order to this end it would be â—onsidered that God bears a special regard to the obedience of our hearts and affections For tho bright and shining Examples of Vertue diffuse a lustre round about them promote the divine honour and induce men to glorifie the great Father of such burning Lights which is in Heaven yet nothing is so unexceptionable a demonstration of the power of Grace and the sincerity of our hearts as a conscientious care and management of those Thoughts that fly up and down in them for where such an obedience is yeilded to the divine commands as no eye can pry into but that which is ten thousand times brighter than the Sun in its Zenith it cannot possibly admit of the least intermixture or suspition of by-respect but must be tender'd God purely for his own Sake from a true spiritual principle of life and in a spiritual manner and then what sacrifice can possibly be more acceptable to our Maker than the immediate issues and emanations of our Souls when there is no Stander by no Witness of what passes betwixt God and our Souls in private no secular consideration that can possibly ingage us nor temporal rewards to induce nor temporal punishments to force us to the discharge of so spiritual and hidden a duty III. 'T IS a main point of Wisdom and Argument of good understanding to be able to order our Thoughts aright and the acquisition of that noble Character should spur us on to this discipline of our minds All the reasonable World will allow him to be a penson of a vast compass of understanding who by foreseeing and providing against the exigences of State by knowing how to compound temper and qualifie the different interests passions and perswasions of Men c. prudently administers a Government and if so no less will he deserve the Character who governs his Thoughts well for they are a Great people for number and as mutinous and disorderly as the most tumultuous rabble so that they who rule well in this sense too are worthy of double Honour IV. AND Lastly let the consideration of the noble and dignified Nature of our Thoughts induce us to an orderly management of them for they are beams of that Light which is inaccessible the immediate fruits and eldest Sons of that immortal Parent in us which is nearly allied to the Divinity it self and how then can we possibly be so insensible of our own high Character who were framed after the Image of the Immortal God and are designed to be made more ample partakers of his Nature as to lay out our time and our pains so busily as we do in the management of a Family acquireing an Estate and supporting and adorning a mouldring Carcase and yet totally disregard the menage of our thoughts which are the pride and glory of our Nature For wherein else but in this thinking reasoning Power do we differ from the inhabitants of our stable or our kennel And as this in general diserminates our Nature from theirs so I had almost said do's one Man as much differ from
occasion require But he must have a further and a fairer Mark at which he aims and directs them all A Man may make this or that harbour as occasion serves in his voyage but sure every motion he makes is in subserviency to gain some one determinate port of Traffick for otherwise as the one sails uncertainly and to very little purpose so the other thinks and lives but from hand to mouth as we say by breaks and by parcels without any dependance and coherence in Thought or Action he pursues no one Road of Life but takes into every by-path and his Thoughts like a wanton Spaniel in its range run after every accidental Game that comes in their way Est aliquid quò tendis in quod dirigis arcum An passim sequeris corvos testâque lutoque Securus quò pesferat atque ex tempore vivis IX ANOTHER sinful weakness of our Thoughts is seen in their being so much at the command of our passions as if you observe it they generally are for tho Thoughts are originally antecedent to our passions as a Man must first think before he can be affected with Joy grief anger c. Yet when these passions are once up they command the Thoughts that made them and imploy them wholly on those objects that raise and affect them So that look what affections bear the sway in a Man's heart that way his thoughts will take their course as for instance tho a man must first think before he can be angry yet when that Passion is once upit lays out for that time all the Thoughts of an unsanctified Heart upon the Injury Affront or Injustice done one and the means whereby we may effectually resent and revenge it So again when Love and Desire have taken possession of us be the Object what it will our minds are always musing on it Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire Sayes Jeremy the things they love and delight in No Our Thoughts are always present with their beloved Object run after it and into it and represent it to us with far more advantages than it really carries along with it And the like might be said of any other of our affections They discompose our minds confuse our Souls and like a too powerful Enemy breaking in upon us put the numerous Army of our Thoughts into disorder so that when the heat of the Battle is over a Man looks back upon the defeat with Sorrow and Regret and is at a vast expence of trouble to rally up his scatter'd good Thoughts again and to put them once more in a posture of defence against those intestine disturbers of his Quiet Now I say this is a signal weakness in our thoughts to be thus carried away by our passions at their Will and Pleasure for our thinking Power was given us amongst other Ends to regulate and prescribe to our passions and not our passions to them BUT since they were given us for good Ends and Purposes and we are not requir'd to eradicate but to govern them therefore the Apostle's rule is the proper Remedy in this Case viz. That we set our affections on things above not upon things that are upon the earth For our Thoughts will partake of the Qualities and Genius of our Affections if the one are Heavenly and Divine the other will on course be so too David speaking of the Blessed Man tells us Psal 1. ver 2. That his delight is in the Law of the Lord and then adds that in his Law doth he meditate day and night and in another place professing of himself that he loved the divine Law he affirms likewise that it was his meditation continnually Psal 119. 97. For Men naturally meditate on what they love and delight in and in Malachy the Fear of God and thinking upon his Name are Malach. 3. 16. joyned together X. THERE is another sinful Vanity of our Thoughts in making the concerns of other Men their Objects when they make Incursions into their Neighbours Affairs break down his Inclosures and impertinently ramble through all his concernments For such is the Curiosity or Malice or Envy or I know not well what to call it of some persons that they can entertain their Thoughts as they do their company too upon occasion much more agreeably with other Men's matters than their own and ev'n whilst they keep at Home incur the guilt of their Character whom St. Paul stiles busie Bodies Tatlers wandring in their Thoughts from House to House The Practice of those generally who in their own phrase have nothing to do as wanting Matter I conceive in themselves for their Thoughts to feed and exert upon NOW this imployment of our Thoughts is not onely silly and impertinent to any good purpose of Life but 't is criminal too in as much as every Man let him have as much secular business as he will yet has work enough upon his hands the improvement of his mind the government of his Passions and the salvation of his Soul to take up all his Thoughts all his time and leisure and therefore it must needs be Sin in a Man in neglect of his own proper business to let the precious sand of his Thoughts run out upon other Mens where they are not call'd and have nothing to do AND as it is a vanity of our Thoughts to gad so much abroad amongst our Neighbours affairs where they have no business so are they no less vain in this that when they stay at home and turn their Eyes inward they are apt to overlook the failings and imperfections of their Owners Every Man has his Fort and his Foible his strong and his weak part his seeing and his blind side and whilst the eyes of our minds view the one even the least Mote of Excellency in us with infinite Complacency and Satisfaction they commonly wink so hard at the other that they let Beams themselves escape their Observation For every one that doth evil hateth the Light of his own mind neither cometh to the Light least his Deeds Mat. 7. 8. should be reproved For self Love is ever ready to take care that a Man fall not out with himself Lastly ANOTHER leading imperfection of our Thoughts is observable in their Levity or want of fixation whereby we become as unstable as water and shall not excell The heart of the foolish is like a Cart Wheel saies the wise Son of Sirach and his Thoughts are like a rolling Axle-tree Glib and voluble in their Motions nothing so volatile and aery as they they stream and shoot in an instant from one corner of the Earth to another sore as high as Heaven and dive as deep as Hell curvet and caper over the whole Creation and as if that were too little for them flie beyond the limits of the Universe and the bounds of time to Eternity and Imaginary Spaces Like wanton Spaniels they set out with you and perhaps wait on you home
it should be able of it self to terrifie it self to fill the mind with Horror to startle its own Corruptions and go directly contrary to its own Affections Inclinations and Reluctancies borders too much upon a contradiction to be admitted No Man for instance of himself can be studious of Life and yet at the same time entertain Thoughts of turning felo de se The Suggestions of this kind that derive purely from our own Hearts are always more or less agreeable to Nature pleasing to our Affections and fall in with our own Inclinations II. THE injections of the Devil are discernable from the productions of our own Hearts by the Manner of their assailing us Corrupt Nature proceeds orderly and deliberately with us tampers and argues with our Thoughts and through the deceitfulness of Sin gradually gets ground upon us till by steps and successive advances it compleats its intended Victory For our own Lusts do not force but draw us away wheedle us on and entice us But 't is Jam. 14. otherwise with Satanical Injections of this horrid Kind they are a sort of motus in instanti dart and break in upon our Thoughts howsoever otherwise imployed and taken up without any previous intimation of their approaches the Devil in these cases sends no harbingers before him to prepare his way but forces his passage on a suddain shoots like that Lightning to which our Saviour compares his Fall into our Minds and Luk. 10. 18. Hell takes our Heaven by Violence AND as Thoughrs of this kind are thus suddain in their first attacques upon us so are they observed generally to be very pertinacious and obstinate in the continuance of them which is a III. INDICATION that they proceed from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for t is highly agreeable to the innate malice of his temper incessantly to alarm the Fort of our Souls with perplexities and anxieties of mind about his injections even then when he sees he is unable to carry it The IV. AND last sign of his being the Author of these Thoughts within us is from the effects that generally attend them Our own Thoughts being the natural issue of our own hearts do not scare nor affright us nor are follow'd with any extraordinary perturbation of Mind and Spirit and therefore when Men meet with such Thoughts as are accompanied with an horror and dread upon their Spirits with confusion of mind astonishment of its powers and perhaps with equal agonies and convulsions of Body there to be sure the Devil is the sole operator Agreeable whereunto is that observation of antiquity that they were false Prophets and of Diabolical inspiration who were acted in a confused perplexed and distracted manner the principal Test this whereby the Catholick Christians were wont to distinguish an Enthusiastic Montanist from a Divinely inspired Prophet as may be seen in Eusebius where we find Miltiades an Ecclesiastic Author writing a Euseb lib. 5 ch 16. 17. whole tract upon this subject and Asterius Vrbanus challenging them all to produce him one single instance of a Prophet under either Old or New Testament acted after their dark and impetuous manner For the Devil dealt violently with his Enthusiasts confused and oppress'd their understandings distorted and convuls'd their bodily Organs and in short put them like the unhappy Persons we at present speak of into most terrible agonies of Soul and Body Pythia her self never mounted the Tripos but with horror where she fomed raved and tore her hair like a drunken or a frantic person whilst the Prophetick fit lasted on her and this I was the more willing by the by to take notice of because the darkness of Mind and violent agitations of Body observable among'st a company of poor besotted if not sometimes possessed Sectaries amongst our selves agree so exactly with the descriptions antiquity has left us of those Children of disobedience the Devil wrought in then that one may very well be tempted to conclude he repeats the experiment now and then upon these Men too COME we now in the Fourth place to consider how far these horrid and amazing Thoughts affect our main state and touch our Salvation an argument so much the more necessary by how much 't is an undoubted stratagem of the Devil to urge the incursion of such Thoughts upon these unhappy Person as cause of despair and evident argument of their reprobation and here is to be observed 1. THAT it is not altogether in our power to govern our Thoughts they are not absolutely subject to our dominion for the Heart of Man is as it were an high Road through which Passengers both good and bad will take their way without asking leave of us or if you will take it under the notion of a publick House which is open to all Comers not only to the sober but to lewd and debauch'd company whose wild roarings curses and huzzas will strike our Ears and we cannot help it For we can no more prevent our simple apprehensions of things than a sound and open eye can prevent its seeing and the one is no more polluted by a vitious object than the other and therefore to be sure God will never condemn us for what we cannot help nor hinder For 2. IT can never be Sin to us because unavoidable to be subject to the inroads of these black blasphemous Thoughts upon our minds no more than 't is sin in us to be liable to the assaults of any other Temptation What worse is a sober Person for being tempted onely to excess of drinking or a chast Virgin to incontinence Our Lord himself was tempted to commit the most gross and abominable Idolatry and yet notwithstanding that was as free from sin in his Thoughts as from guile in his Mouth because he resisted the Temptation and baffled the Tempter We sin only then when we basely give way and comply with him The Law of Moses excused a Virgin that was forced in the Field far from hearing for as when a Man riseth Deut. 22. 26. against his Neighbour and slayeth him even so is this Matter So when the Devil commits a Rape upon our Souls by Atheistical Blasphemous or any other Horrid Injections if we cry out for help abhor the base Suggestions in our Judgment our Will and Affections great is our Victory and greater shall be our Crown and Glory guilt is our Portion only then when we embrace the bold Ravisher of our Hearts and kiss and hug the production of so monstrous a Coaction He were highly criminal who in a besieg'd Town should willfully set his own house on fire but a Man certainly is not responsible for the fire balls and bombs that are thrown in by the Enemy all he can and consequently is bound to do is to use his best Diligence to extinguish the fire enkindled by them and thus it is with these Thoughts we speak of if we make them out of the amunition of our own hearts we are accountable for
her Mind Cares intangle and perplex the Thoughts and too much Worldly business limes and clings the wings of our Mind so fast that it cannot take its due and natural slight Variety of objects ever weakens and distracts the force of our faculties which are so stinted in their operation that they cannot with any tollerable vigor direct to more than one mark at once and therefore if we would bear a due regard to the truest improvement of our Minds and management of our Thoughts we must narrow our secular affairs as much as we can lest the multitude of business which Solomon says occasions dreams in sleep make our Thoughts to be little better in the day time And therefore in order to take off our Minds from a too greedy pursuit of secular concernments that we may be thereby the better inabled to attend upon God and our own Souls without distraction let us X. IN the next place frequently set before us the vanity of the World and the emptiness of all its injoyments Remembring that that was the result of Solomon's vast experience in this kind Vanity was the Motto he inscribed on all things under the Sun for even when he gave his heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under Heaven even this also this noble imployment of his vast capacities he pronounces no better than vexation of Spirit for in much wisdom says he is much grief and he that increaseth knowledge it self do's but increase his sorrow And if this great Master of experience and skillful observer of things met with so very little satisfaction even in the pursuit of knowledge and resolves the conclusion of the whole matter as he speaks into the fearing of God and keeping his commandments we may safely conclude that there is nothing here below adequate to the large Soul of Man worthy to engage his affections and ingross his powers and if we can but thus wean our Thoughts from the World and its allurements we shall then be at liberty to lay them out elswhere to better purpose and to our own greater and more lasting satisfaction NOT that what I have said on these two last heads is to be understood as if I would have all Men devote themselves to Contemplation to quit the World and their ordinary Imployments and meddle with no business for I prescribe it XI IN the next place as an excellent remedy against evil Thoughts to avoid Idleness which in common experience ever gives the Devil an advantage against us when David coming from lolling on his Bed walked idly it should seem on the Roof of his House he immediately 2 Sam. 11. presented Bathsheba to his Thoughts and soon prevailed with him to accept of the Proffer For when we are the idlest he is the busiest when we do the least he do's the most with us If our Minds sleep he 'l sow his Tares the faster and if we let them lie fallow Weeds will be the natural Product of the neglected Soil Standing Minds like standing Waters puddle and corrupt and become the proper Element of Vermin XII AGAIN it will be our Wisdom for the better management of our Thoughts now and then to review them to call them together to the Muster and examine the state and plight of our Minds to encourage good Motions and discountenance Bad and to let them know we have set a spie upon them and that they come not there without our Observation And because every Man has his blind Side and the Sin of his Bosom and consequently our Thoughts run further into some sort of Objects than others we must take particular care and after such review shall be better inabled to guard there most where our Thoughts ply the most where their haunts are and the company they most delight in as he who commands in chief in a Siege will place the strongest Guard there where the Walls or other Fortifications of the Town are the weakest So if you find that lust for instance has stollen in at the Windows of your eyes and got the greatest ascendant over you watch your Thoughts on that side for there they 'l be sure to hanker So again if you observe your self the weakest on the side of provocations and Anger be your infirmity take care to have your Reason within call and take off your Thoughts betimes from resentments and meditating revenge for that 's the subject they 'l be sure most of all to dwell on c. And thus by reveiwing our Thoughts we shall both acquire power and learn how to manage them and be able to countermine the Devil who knowing our strong and feeble part better many times than we do our selves always layes his train there where 't is most likely to take fire and to blow up our Hearts the strong Fort of our innocence XIII SINCE as has been before observ'd our Thoughts are generally too much at the command of our passions so that look what sort of affections bear the sway in a Man's heart that way his Thoughts will take their course therefore is it highly advisable again to ride this brutal part of us with a strait rein to raise and spiritualize our affections by setting them on things above and not letting them run so madly as they do on things that are upon the earth For tho Thoughts give the first being to affections as no Man can love or hate a thing before he thinks on 't yet when they are once placed upon their objects they make our Thoughts dance after them at their pleasure As if fear has seiz'd us it calls in all our Thoughts to view the frightful object disorders our powers and makes the mind paint the bugbear with unjust dimensions perhaps and unnatural colours so if desire carry us abroad amongst variety of objects our Thoughts must keep it company and lie under that infinite perplexity and distraction that naturally attends its extravagance and therefore if we would command our Thoughts we must first learn to command our passions XIV HE that would have the company of good Thoughts must entertain them kindly and give them a friendly reception when they come and visit him If you receive them coldly and with an Air of indifferency they 'l be as shie to you in time as you can be to them for the Divine Spirit the great Author of them will not always strive with Men but will take wing fly away and desert you for they are nimble movers and are sent upon an errand that is your own truest interest and therefore if you have not yet learnt to be wise to your selves by closing with their proposals co-operating with them and working out your own Salvation they have no Commission to force or drive you on to happiness like an horse or mule that have no understanding but will leave you not only where but worse than they found you XV. SINCE