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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25421	The right government of thoughts, or, A discovery of all vain, unprofitable, idle, and wicked thoughts with directions for the getting, keeping, and governing of good thoughts, digested into chapters for the ease of the reader : whereunto are added four sermons / by ... John Angel ...	Angel, John, d. 1655.; T. B.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3162A; ESTC R13149	89,280	271

The Right GOVERNMENT OF THOUGHTS OR A Discovery of all vain unprofitable idle and wicked THOUGHTS With Directions for the Getting Keeping and Governing of good THOVGHTS Digested into Chapters for the ease of the READER Whereunto are added four Sermons By the Reverend JOHN ANGEL sometimes Lecturer at Leicester Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life London Printed for Nath. Ekins and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Gun in S. Pauls Church-yard 1659. CHRISTIAN READER THe Almighty wise God hath in divers and sundry manners spoken unto men that they might know him and his Sonne Jesus Christ and knowing might believe in him and worship him according to his will to the saving of their soules To this purpose we have the Scriptures which are Gods written Rule of Faith and Life unto us the ministery of men not of men but by men as a standing Ordinance in the Church untill Christ come and the writings of godly and industrious men as adjutory helps But men have sought out strange inventions and that naturall imagination bordering betwixt sense and reason which is in all men works out it self in various wayes of opposition to revealed truth This discourse aymes to give a stop to our walking contrary unto God in our first settings out to Sin which on this side naturall corruption begin at our thoughts I have sometimes wondred to see how busie Satan is in his instruments whose Fancies comply with his suggestions to subvert the truth once delivered to the Saints But I check my self again when I consider that he is Satan an adversary to God and Christ and the salvation of men and that mens imaginations are fruitful wombes impregnated by Satan and numerous in their births as the Serpents in their spawne Amongst other his wiles I would immind every good Christian that in nothing to my apprehension the enemy and his party have prevailed more against the truth and with the fancies of men in our late times then by disputing the many doctrines of the Gospel in Pulpit in presse in open and private Assemblies and that in an irregular way betwixt weak defendants and wrangling Sophisters it may be Jesuites or men of Jesuited principles for in an orderly way by them that know how to distinguish and before them that are wise I am no opposer of disputations that the truth may be manifested and not subverted But otherwise these are the Civill warres raised in the Church and fomented by the seditious to divide the Kingdom of Christ against it self and bring it to nothing By this way of contention especially before them that are weak we have seen heaps upon heaps It 's time to grow wise for the cause of Christ and for our selves lest we suffer these stumbling stones to lye so long in the way of weak Christians that at last they be bedded as in their proper place and will not be removed with all our might Ye have sometimes seen a stone cast into a poole move a little Circle at the fall which after multiplies and widens it self to the bank side We sometimes find the original of errour to be very small like a very Center which inlargeth it self to a circumference such as imagination will make it and such strange thoughts are lodged in mens minds by these means that they are haunted ever after with them as some houses are said to be with spirits of the night Sober men wish that some provisions were made for the safety of soules against these spirits its possible if they that are in power would be carefull in such a work their own lives might be bound up in such a provision But Gentle Reader Thou shalt not need to fear any such questions of doubtful disputation in this short Treatise here is nothing but sober and uncontroverted truths such as may administer Grace unto thee by the blessing of God upon thy reading Thou shalt have nothing here leading to a strange God or another worship but that which may be profitable to all Christians though of divided interests whose minds are not blocked up with prejudice against the sober writings of men This tract teacheth the government of thy own thoughts aright a government of principal concernment to all men for hence arise as from their spring-head both words and works of men and the whole frame of Christian Conversation if therefore this fountain be clean the issues will be more pure and if any can so purge himself of all filthinesse of flesh and spirit that his very thoughts are just it must be granted that such an one hath a Virgin-soule and is perfect pro statu viatoris as a travailer to heaven though not as one actually possessed in heaven And for this end I commend this book to thy reading and meditating thoughts Besides it is an argument rarely handled in print for ought I know some indeed have brief and accidental notions upon it but purposed tracts of this subject are few in our English Tongue and therefore let it be thought the rather useful to the Church of God and a subject more fit for that accomplished servant of Jesus Christ to appeare by in the world again now he is absent from the body and present with the Lord. The Authour of this small Tract was Mr. John Angel who had been twenty years together Lecturer at Leicester and approved by all that knew him to be a man mighty in word and doctrine though at last clouded by some malevolent aspects upon him occasioned as it is said not for vice or heresie but non-engagement yet Governments as men have their mortalities and God who knew to use his servant in several places stirred up the hearts of a religious people at Grantham in Lincolnshire to set him up a Candlestick there where he shone as a burning light untill God translated him to shine above as a star for ever and ever Here moreover are no high swelling words to amuse the Reader but a grave and a plain stile suited to all but especially to them that are of lower forms in the School of Christ for the government of their thoughts I commend it therefore to thy reading for the Authours sake and for thy safety in the reading of it as also for the rarity of the subject the general concernment that it is of and for the plainnesse of the matter and method thereof And I leave thee to the Grace of God the Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ By him who is a Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and of all that love him in sincerity T. B. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Containing the Preface Division Interpretation and scope of the Proverb fol. 1. CHAP. II. The Argument or matter subject of the whole that a man ought to have good thoughts and to be the Master and Governour of them 8. CHAP. III. The needfulnesse of good thoughts Eight Reasons 13. CHAP. IV. Of the Errours of

bitternesse The holy man might think with himself What have I done How great is my sin Did I not lately promise never to forsake my Master no not if all men else should forsake him yet I would never leave him And am I the man that denies him so soon I that am so near related to him as his Disciple so eminently preferred by him as his Apostle not compeld by any in authority but frighted to it by the demand of a woman servant Was not my sin great enough to deny him once but have I done it twice and thrice Might I not have denied him barely with sin enough but must I forswear him too I was not surprised at unawares but forewarned and but even now forewarned by my Lord and Master whose words I ought to have remembred c. Thus he called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him and he went out and wept bitterly Now the aggravating circumstances of sin are such as these First the dignitie of the person offending the more eminent the person the more vile the sin Now the dignity is either external or internal external in respect of some high place preferment authority employment or trust whereunto a man is advanced as to be a Magistrate Minister Father Master and should such a man as I fly said that good Magistrate Nehemiah its intollerable in one of my rank or place the Lord will look to be sanctified in those that draw near him in place and digninitie so likewise an internal dignitie of grace or gifts heightens the sin of any person a lighter sin in them whom God hath made his sons by adoption is in sme sot greater then in unregenerate men though Israel play the harlot yet Judah must not offend Hos 4. 15. The second thing that aggravates our sins is the specialties of Gods favour where God is more bountiful the sin is more inexcusable in that he is not drawn with the cords of Gods love and this you may see 2 Sam. 12. 7. Nathan brings in a Catalogue of Gods mercies and favours shewed to David God anointed him King over Israel delivered him out of the hands of Saul gave him his Lords house and his Lords wives into his bosom and thereupon infers the grievousnesse of his sin v. 9. Wherefore hast thou then despised the Commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight The third circumstance of aggravavation is outward scandal given by our sins when we have not onely sinned personally but given offence unto others if we sad the hearts of the righteous strengthen the hands of the wicked if we give occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme cause our profession to be evil spoken of corrupting some mens manners indangering others laying a stumbling block before the weak troubling their consciences perverting their judgements subverting them from the truth and these things make our sins scandalous Now this is certain the further corruption spreads and the more the sent thereof poysons others the more odious it is to God and should be more odious unto men no sinnes more damnable then theirs who enter not into the Kingdom of heaven themselves nor by their wills would suffer others to enter who allow others to go to hell which way they will and suffer them not to go to Heaven that way which they should The fourth thing which adds to the weight of sin is continuance and delight in sin unto some sins we give fuller consent of will we please our selves in them more we lye longer in them without repentance such were the sins of David in his murther and adulterie he committed many other sins but these his conscience did not chide him for of a long time these put his soul into a distemper and made such a spoil and havock of his graces that he stood in need of a new Creation a new and fresh infusion of grace Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me Psal 51. 10. and they stripped him of the joy of the holy Ghost v. 12. Restore me unto the joy of thy salvation Continuance and delight in sin break down the fences of grace and lay all wast so that the whole man is out of frame he cannot set himself upon good duties but lies open unto sinne To these may be added as aggravations of our sin 1. Our own profession that we have made formerly 2. Our covenants and promises made unto God in baptism and many times since upon occasions of deliverance from danger of being heard in our requests of hope of mercy in our low estate this makes our trespasses double iniquity as being not onely sins against Gods precepts but also breaches of our own promises 3. The means of grace received for where grace is offered more plenteously and rejected sin is more sinful Luke 12. 48. these means are partly inward as wit memory knowledge capacitie and the like partly outward as the preaching of the word and other ordinances of God the light of good examples and other restraints from the laws of Christian Magistrates The fourth help to further us in the examination of our sins is to pray unto God to give us his spirit to be our remembrancer to call to our minds those sins which are slipt out of our memories to recal the sins of our youth and other ages which we have attained unto and as he shewed to the Prophet by degrees greater and greater abominations of the house of Israel Ezek 8. 6. 13. 15. even so that he would discry to us by little and little the abominations of our own lives so prayed that holy man Job 13. 23. How many are mine iniquities and sins make me to know my transgression and my sin Thus much of the first head the examination of our sins now follows the second head concerning the examination of our graces The necessity whereof appears First because we must bring grace with us to the Sacrament or else we shall scarsely bring grace from thence we must come to Christs Table to have graces confirmed and enlarged now it behoves us to have them in us afore hand for there is no confirmation of that which is not resident in us Secondly because otherwise we may take the semblance of grace for substance and may be deceived with counterfeit shews and shadows for currant graces Now the principal graces whereof we are to examine our selves are four Knowledge Faith Repentance Charitie We are to examine our knowledge first for the substance of it secondly for the sincerity of it First for the substance Whether we know God whom to know is eternal life John 17. 2. whether we apprehend by faith what we cannot comprehend by reason the unity of the Godhead in Trinitie of persons John 5. 7. Whether we know his essence and essential properties Exod. 34. 6. What we know of Christ in whom we believe what of his natures as God and Man of his Person as the Son of God of his

secret corners of thy cogitations it 's a Sun above thy head which never sets a Candle in a room which never goes out God can no more be separated from a perpetual view of our thoughts then from his own immeasurable infinitenesse Wherefore think thy self continually in the presence of God and be not blind like Balaam whose asse was more quick-sighted to see God then himself the soul which apprehends God looking upon him unlesse moved by sensuality to think God like unto himself will stand in awe and not sin the presence of God is like Sun and wind that scatters all the fogs of evil and corrupt thoughts that arise This stubble cannot endure the day of Gods coming The Prophet when he bringeth in the Atheist with a heart set within him to do wickedly renders a reason out of his own mouth saying Tush God seeth not how doth God know Is there knowlege in the most high Psal 73. 11 as if he would tell us that a main ground of that prophanenesse which is in mens hearts and lives ariseth from a supposition of Gods not regarding what is done upon earth by the sonnes of men and in another place 't is written the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes Psal 36. 1. as if he should say the transgressions of wicked men have a language whereby they speak if not to my ear yet unto my understanding and they perswade me to believe in my heart that there is no fear of God in them now if the not seeing of Gods presence give rise unto sins of deeds which have many other restraints upon them how much more shall the non-observance of Gods presence open a dore for corrupt thoughts to enter whom no eye but God can espye upon which there are no restraints but the fear of God if the Ancients of Israel who make lawes and rule others think the Lord seeth not the Lord hath forsaken the earth they will doe abominable things in the dark in the chambers of their imagery Ezek. 8. 12 Wherefore that ye may restrain evil thoughts believe that your selves and your thoughts are continually before God for this know an evill thought can no more endure the look of God then a runagate servant the frown of his Master and set God alwayes before your eyes in all times and in all places when you are in the midst of Gods Temple think of his loving kindnesse I have thought of thy loving kindnesse in the midst of thy Temple Psal 48. 9. I that 's no wonder what should a soul do else in Gods Temple whither the Tribes of the Lord the Tribes of the Lord go up to give thanks to the name of the Lord Psalm but hearken again I have remembred thy name oh Lord in the night even in solitary places and times a righteous mans thoughts have recourse unto God Psal 119. 55. and mark the benefit of such recourses I have remembred thy name oh Lord in the night and have kept thy law when our thoughts are fixed upon God his presence withholds us from sinne and keeps us to his Law 7. Remedy against evil thoughts is search thine own conscience for the evil thoughts and purposes of thy life which are passed what is written there how readest thou what hath been the issue of such thoughts what successe hast thou had from them have not evil thoughts drawn thee in to sinne against God to injure men to defile thine own body what fruit hadst thou in those things whereof thou art now ashamed suppose God had not kept thy sins from the eare of the world what a confounded creature hadst thou been how ashamed to look men in the face if God had not remitted them in the censure of his own justice and given thee some hope of forgivenesse what a wretched man hadst thou been what feares and horrours had been upon thy soul or what if those sins be forgiven thee think what it cost thee to sue out thy pardon and to get Gods seal upon thy conscience what if here thou shalt make inquest after thy Master-sin and consider how evil thoughts have made their way into thy practice consider how often how upon slight occasions how after many vowes made unto God to the contrary thou hast dangerously scandalously cowardly and filthily yielded up thy self as a vassail upon base conditions to think and do wickedly Let a man always carry this remedy with him as an Antidote in his pocket and hang it upon the file of his heart and when evil motions at any time begin to creep into the mind then cast this bush in the way which will so astonish the present working of our thoughts that it will either confound them or turn their course into some better channel It were a happy thing if we could thus make a vertue out of a vice and turn that sin into a remedy against evil thoughts which it self had not been a sin upon the file of our consciences but that evil thoughts conceived it and brought it forth Some apply this receipt against the incursion of proud thoughts against the breaking in of heady and heedlesse passions against the breaking out of lust revenge c. I commend it unto every Christian as a sudden remedy against all evil thoughts a subject it is whereabout if a mind be seriously busied it will give him little joy to think ill or idly Accept this with a Probatum est as the remembrance of some one monstrous sin not forgiven is insupportable to a wicked man so the remembrance of a foul thought or other sinne though pardoned through Gods mercy is very profitable to a righteous man to keep him from evil thoughts and to make his thoughts just CHAP. VII I Have hitherto discovered General Remedies against the errours and wickednesse of mens thoughts Let me now prescribe some particular helps to be used against the several maladies And first against that errour of idlenesse deadned drowsinesse or unthoughtfulnesse of the mind before mentioned the remedy will be after due observation and mourning for the same that the Righteous man do endeavour to keep himselfe and his thoughts in some bodily or mental employment and if that be within the compasse of his Calling it will be the more prevailing remedy so when servants are idle wise Masters set them their taskes and hold them to their works out of respect to their own profit and their servants good So wiser Parents buy their children Horn-books and send them to school not so much to learn as to keep them from harrnes while they have nothing else to do It fares so with our minds like wandering children or worthlesse servants they will do nothing or which is worse shrewdly unlesse they be held to employments It had been better with that sweet Singer of Israel if he had been imployed in Kingly affairs like himself when his eye deceived his heart to follow filthy lusts

Offices as King Priest and Prophet of his Life Death and Resurrection c. Secondly We are to know our selves first as originally created in Adam invested with Gods image Eccles 7. 31. God made man righteous Secondly as by sin and disobedience we are by nature children of wrath and that the frame and thoughts of our hearts are onely evil and that continually Gen. 6. 5. Thirdly as by grace and regeneration we are renewed in holiness and righteousnesse after the image of him that created us Eph. 4. 24. Thirdly We must know the Covenant of grace and how it is distinguished from the Covenant of works by this God requires perfect obedience Cursed is he that continueth not in all things that are written in the Law to do them Gal. 3. 10. But by the Covenant of grace The just shall live by faith Gal. 3. 11. in this Covenant of Grace God promiseth life if we obey as in the other Covenant but withal he gives faith and obedience that we may live he promiseth to put his fear in our hearts and that he will not depart from us and that we shall not depart from him Jerem 32. 40. and ch 31. 33. Fourthly we are to know the nature of a Sacrament That it is a visible sign of invisible graces represented thereby That it is a seal of the Covenant betwixt God and us Rom. 4. 11. for t is there called a seal of the Righteousnesse of faith so was Circumcision so is Baptisme and the Lords Supper Again we must understand the Analogie and proportion betwixt the outward sign and the inward graces signified That the Bread signifieth the Body and Blood of Christ and being set apart for holy use they also signifie the designment of Christ by God the Father unto the Office of Mediatour John 6. 26. for him hath the Father sealed the Bread broken and the Wine poured out the actual crucifying of Christ The tradition of it by the Minister unto us signifieth both the delivery of Christ to death by the Father and the reaching of him out unto us in that Ordinance and that by Bread and Wine whole Christ is represented with all his graces and benefits It is our duty further to understand the ends of the Celebration of the Sacrament both principal that it must be done in remembrance of him for the shewing forth of his death until he come Luke 22. 19. 1 Cor. 1. 23. Lesse principal that we may have sealed unto us all the benefits of his death as ours Rom. 4. 11. Whosoever is a stranger unto these things cannot be a good Communicant he is not able to discern the Lords body 1 Cor. 11. 29. Nor is his heart right without this knowledge there will be some evil unespied and lurking in the heart And when we have examined our knowledge for substance we must secondly examine the sincerity of it it is not sufficient that we know unlesse our knowledge be sanctified which must be tryed by these grounds First A sanctified knowledge humbleth the Owner it makes our spots and blemishes perspicuous to our selves the more we know the more we discern our selves to be ignorant This is clear in Paul there was not a man more rarely accomplisht with all kinde of knowledge than he there lived not upon the face of the earth a more humble soul he was in his own judgement the least of all Saints Ephe. 3. 8. the greatest of sinners 1 Tim. 1. 16 The Scribes and Pharisees on the other side knew much and were great Scholars but their knowledge was not sincere because it puffed them up 1 Cor. 8. 1. they scorned to learn any thing of others John 9. 34. Thou art said they altogether born in sin and dost thou teach us Again they slighted others that were ignorant and therefore they say This people that know not the Law are accursed It seems they were highly conceited of their own knowledge Secondly Where knowledge is sincere the mind is impartial to all truths such a person doth not hood-wink himself and will not see some truths as Peter speakes of some that were willingly ignorant of some truth 2 Pet. 3. 6. they would not see some things to be sin because they resolved to continue in them This is a deteining the truth in unrighteousnesse Rom. 1. 18. whereas a man of a sanctified knowledg is like Cornelius Act. 10. 33. ready to hear all things commanded of God though they cross his opinions or affections interrupt his pleasures or draw some inconveniency upon him Thirdly A holy and sincere knowledge may be known by the end propounded practise is the end of sincere knowledge Psal 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee Some desire to know and onely to know and that is vanity some desire to know that they may be known to know and that is curiosity some desire knowledge to make a gain of it that 's mercenary coveteousnesse But some desire knowledge that it may be a guide to their affections a directive of their actions and that they may communicate their light to others and this is true Christianity The second Grace to be examined is our faith Faith is a resting on Gods Promises and Christs merits for salvation In a justifying faith there are four acts included The first is knowledge of the word which Christ would have his give credit unto as this Whosoever believeth on Christ shall be saved 2 An assent of the mind unto the truth which God speaks Of these somewhat hath been spoken before The 3d. act of faith whereon consists our justification is a resting of the heart upon Gods word especially his promises of salvation by Jesus Christ a clasping about them with our affections resolveing to cast all our hopes upon them And hence it is that the Scripture describes faith under such termes as imply a rolling our selves in Christ hence a soul goes out of it self and puts on the Lord Jesus Christ and desires to be found in him Philip. 3. He is willing to be naked as to the righteousnesse of the Law and to be found in the righteousnesse of Christ This is hard work for natural men for such think that for their good intentions and good meaning and their unblameable civility they shall go to Heaven though in words they professe they look to be saved only by Christ Moreover he that rests upon Christ fot justification and salvation will rest upon Christ for direction for he believes Christ is wisdom unto him and he will rest upon him for sanctification also for he believes Christ hath purchased holinesse for him and will give it him because Christ is made unto us of God both wisdom to teach us and righteousnesse to justifie us and sanctification to hallow us and redemption to save us 2 Cor. 1. 20. Finally faith rests upon Christ in all estates in adversity as well as in prosperity When we cannot discern God a loving Father by things that are seen