an opportunity of serving God and performing Holy Duties Others want a due Temper and Disposition when they have an opportunity While the Thoughts of others are just fluttering above the Ground theirs are in the Third Heaven While they are tuning their Souls and putting them in Frame these are joyning in Hallelujahs with the Angels In a Word these who have attain'd to this happy Government of their Thoughts may be resembled to the Wise Virgins who had their Lamps burning and entred in with the Bridegroom to the Marriage whilest the Foolish Virgins were but trimming of theirs so great is the advantage which they have above other Christians Fourthly The advantage of this great Duty of well Governing our Thoughts is great upon this account also viz. Because nothing so much conduceth to quiet the Thoughts and Compose the Mind as this doth The greatest part of our trouble and perturbation proceeds from want of a due care of and Watchfulness over our Thoughts And many times our troubles are so great that they convince us of the absolute necessity of this Duty because then we find that nothing else can give us ease under them or quiet our Spirits Now Peace and tranquility of mind is a very considerable help to Religion When a man's Soul Thoughts are quiet he goes smoothly on seems to enjoy that glorious liberty of the Sons of God which the Apostle speaks of He hath a true relish of the Sweets of Religion his Soul is dilated and enlarged and he is able to run the ways of God's Commandments Whereas there is but a slender furtherance in good but small improvements when the thoughts are hurried the imaginations tumultuary and the Soul in an unhappy disorder by any domineering and contrary Lusts or any other cause The Soul of any Wicked Man is meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disorder and confusion and all the Powers and Faculties of his Mind are as it were up in Arms against each other There is no Peace there cannot be but all is mis-rule and uproar And could we but behold it with our Corporeal Eyes never such a confused Scene as that is represented it self to our View 'T is an Emblem of Hell it self He can scarcely enjoy the benefit of one Calm and Sedate Thought Lust Anger Revenge Ambition and a thousand more would every one of them be Kings and Usurp Supremacy and therefore War in and against the Soul Reason who is the Rightful Soveraign hath the least share in this Polity Rebellious Slaves Aspire to the Throne and boldly prescribe to their Prince the Fundamental Laws of Nature are Subverted and all become most deplorably Ruinous and Confused Whereas the Soul of a good Man and one that is diligent in the well Governing of his Thoughts is most quiet peaceable and Composed All his Thoughts and Faculties are in good order and then he is fit for any thing and can do his Duty with far more ease than others can The present Harmony and Peace of his Mind renders him capable of effectually minding the things which belong to his everlasting Peace In a Word the Advantage of this happy governing our Thoughts is so great that we can hardly perform any thing that is acceptable to God without it in some measures We cannot be easie to our selves or serviceable to others we can neither mind the business of our General nor Particular Callings as we ought without it But he that is so happy as to have attain'd a Command and dominion over his Thoughts does and suffers every thing well He Acts with Conscience suffers with Patience He Acts with Vigour suffers with Courage He does his Duty with half that difficulty and endures Afflictions with less disorder than others do or can And having approved himself to God by an Internal and Spiritual obedience by truth in his inward parts by the Subjection of his very thoughts to his most pure and holy Law He shall at the last and dreadful day of Judgment be able to look up with joy and comfort to the eternal Judge and Searcher of all hearts And when the Secrets of all Mankind shall be disclosed all the hidden things of darkness all the Mysteries of ungodliness when all the clandestine Impurities of the Hearts and Souls of the whole World shall be revealed and published then shall he glory in his Sincerity and the purity of his thoughts and the honesty of his Intentions Then shall he avoid that everlasting shame which shall confound the Minds and cover the faces of the wicked and ungodly the Pharisaical professors and the crafty Hypocrites when all the secret filth of their hearts thoughts and imaginations shall be exposed to the view of Angels and Men and thrown back in their Faces When the gaudy disguise shall be taken off and Sinners appear to be what they really are Which is a most astonishing consideration and such as should awaken us all to the utmost diligence and watchfulness in the well-governing our thoughts Having thus briefly shewn you the great benefit and advantage of well-governing our thoughts which deserv'd to be much more largely handled but that I would not burden your thoughts while I am attempting to instruct you how to govern them I proceed to discourse on the third thing laid down CHAP. III. I Come now in the next place to shew That evil thoughts arise out of the heart and proceed from thence which lays an Obligation on us of restraining and governing them and how far we are able so to do Our Saviour here assures us that Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts The heart i. e. the Soul of man is a sink of Corruption and Uncleanness 'T is desperately wicked 'T is Pandora's box which lets fly innumerable Plagues and Mischiefs 'T is naturally the Source of wickedness And let a Man but look into himself and survey his own Heart he will see the greatest cause to bewail his corruptions and find that there is nothing more deserves his complaints and tears than his own heart What a pest what an Enemy doth he always carry about with him 'T is not an open enemy but a familiar friend that doth him the greatest hurt and dishonour The snake is lurking in his own breast and while he is looking and gazing abroad this most perfidious and deadly foe is a domestick one His own heart is the worst of traytors to him and the most implacable enemy that he hath cannot do him half that mischief which he receives from himself 'T is upon this account Saint Paul exclaims O wretched man that I am And David Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Create in me 'T is a work of omnipotence and that God alone who made the Worlds and raised all things out of nothing can renew the heart and purify the Soul from its natural filth and corruption 'T is the holy Spirit is that Fire that must
purge and refine the drossy mass The divine Grace alone can restore health and vigour to the corrupt depraved degenerous heart of Man And that will never be wanting to our sincere endeavours It will operate with our Endeavours but not without them Something is in our power in order to it and let us do that and the rest the Grace of God will supply And one of the greatest incentives to make us use our utmost endeavours is the serious consideration of the sinfulness and corruption of our own heart 'T is necessary therefore that we do not take a slight and transient view only but be engaged in a deep and accurate investigation of our selves Search every corner of that cell every recess of that Labyrinth with as much earnestness as the Jews did for leven And upon an impartial view we shall find our Lord's words verified Out of the heart proceed all evil thoughts No good properly so called proceeds from thence but what is the Effect of the Operations of the Blessed Spirit of God 'T is not the Natural issue of the Soul but the Product of His Heavenly Inspirations who is continually striving with Man and endeavouring to Consecrate and Hallow all his Thoughts and Affections that so he may be acceptable to God Every good Thought every Religious Flight or Sacred Desire is stirred up by Him is His immediate Suggestion who is Wrestling with the stubborn and rebellious Powers of our souls and with our impure imaginations to reduce them into their proper order and condition Or else 't is the whisper of some good Angel commissioned by him who is willing to perform a Godlike act of charity to us that we may raise up our minds to their proper object and lends us wings to mount up to the highest Heaven withall For the heart of Man naturally is full of evil and out of it proceed all kind of wicked thoughts and vain imaginations It disembogues such impure steams and contagious exhalations as blast and infect the whole World 'T is an Asphalites a dead sea which sends up most noxious vapours 'T is from the heart that all the evil in the world originally proceeds and therefore 't is a most natural piece of Advice that whenever we behold any evil in any part or instance of the whole Creation we presently lay our hand upon our breast look into our selves and examine our own heart 'T is folly to lay the blame upon this and that and t'other thing when we should trace the evil to its Fountain-head 'T is most true that all the vile and sinful thoughts the basest and most abominable lusts proceed from the heart But when they are bred out of the corruption and putrefaction of the heart it self and when cast into it by the Devil 't is not so easy to determine The accursed Enemy of our souls doth no doubt lay hold on all opportunities to cast into our minds wicked thoughts and is very watchful of the times and seasons when to corrupt and debauch our souls and make them yet more vile than naturally they are And therefore these wicked thoughts which many timerous souls imagine to be their own may be rationally presumed to be his There are indeed some marks which probably may serve to distinguish the Devil's injections from our own cogitations As when they are monstrously prophane and blasphemous when they assault us all of a sudden with a tempestuous vehemence filling us with terrour and amazement Or else when they are such thoughts as contradict all the interests of Humane Nature as when a Man thinks of murdering and destroying himself Such a thought cannot well be supposed to be the issue of the heart it self tho very corrupt but rather thrown in by the Devil Who was a murderer from the beginning But I say as to the greater part of evil thoughts it is no easy matter to know which are our own or which are the Devil 's As for those that are the immediate result of the heart the Devil is very quick and ready to improve them And for these which are the Devil's injections our corrupt hearts are too willing to comply with them so that we must think our selves equally obliged to guard our selves against the one and the other And there is something unquestionably in our power in order to it We can do something towards it unless we will look upon our selves as Machines and so destroy both Reason and Religion at once I will agree that by an hypochondriack or some other disease or by a long series and habit of sinning which is a disease more inveterate and harder to be cured that the Oeconomy of the Soul and Spirits may be so broken and shattered that the power of thinking is become very weak and impaired and that the lassitudes of the Soul are as great almost as those of the Body But yet I think there are few cases but a man can do something in order to a regular thinking Few men are arrived to so great a degree of either as to be able to do nothing towards it tho it must be granted some can do much more than others Our blessed Lord when he was upon Earth did not give useless Descriptions of things and deal with Men otherwise than rational Creatures And therefore I cannot but suppose that when he shews them that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts 't was to this end that they should endeavour to govern and subdue them Now we may lay down this as a certain Truth viz. that evil Thoughts whatsoever they be do not endanger our Eternal Salvation further than we comply with them They are not our Sins further than we indulge them But totally to hinder them I think is a thing Impracticable It is impossible but that such offences will come And I believe the Holiest Men find it so so long as they are in a World where there are so many Objects and in a State where there are so many Imperfections But yet when wicked Thoughts arise in our Minds we may certainly choose whether we will harbour and embrace them or not This we may do as long as we have any Liberty of Will left so much is unquestionably in our power Though 't is confessed they will make frequent returns upon us and every now and then with great importunity present themselves to us tho but the last Moment we thrust them out Like an importunate Creditor or an Impertinent Guest they will obtrude themselves upon us do what we can and if we tell them we have never so great and weighty business they will still be troublesome and haunt us while we are actually ingaged in it Nay will pursue us even to the Sanctuary and assault us at the Altar of God Yet if we as often trust them out as they return they will never be charged upon us For 't is a giving them encouragement and a compliance with them that makes us Criminal Then alone Thoughts
to make our Thoughts of God vile and blasphemous The truth of this abundantly appears from the various and monstrous Idolatries of the Gentile World and the gross and horrid Conceptions they had of their Deities And also from the Idolatries of the Church of Rome and that gross and Carnal way of Worship amongst them used especially in the darkest Ages of Popery When 't is almost incredible to tell what absurdities and profanenesses were the consequences of their Ignorance Nay it must be acknowledg'd that even amongst our selves some have not the knowledge of God I speak this to your shame And until they have until they do attain to know him in some measure It cannot be imagined that their Thoughts of him should be rectify'd The more we know God the more we come to love him to be transported with him and to have the most high and noble Thoughts of him Now this excellent and useful and desirable knowledge of God is to be obtain'd these two ways By his Works and By his Word First From our own Observation of the stupendous frame of the Creation and the mighty acts of his Providence The admirable Order of all Beings their usefulness and subserviency to Man The establishment of Kingdoms and Empires The preservation and government of his Church both his Judgments and his Mercies c. These things if seriously observ'd and considered are a great means to make us to know God and consequently to excite in us high and holy thoughts of him and so to preserve us from all profane or blasphemous or unworthy Thoughts of him And as we may come to know God by our own Attentive observation of the great Works of his Creation and Providence so we may by his most Holy Word And indeed thence alone we can fetch our truest Ideas and most proper Thoughts of God The Scriptures are the best helps to our attaining the knowledge of him wherein in a Majestick style his glorious Attributes are represented to us His Goodness Purity Power Justice Truth are wonderfully display'd in a various manner by descriptions historical Relations amazing Acts Prophecies and Predictions Precepts and Admonitions and surprizing Revelations which no Man can consider as he ought but he must needs be inspired with holy and awful Thoughts of the Great God and admirably preserv'd from all vain wicked or profane Thoughts which prove a great terrour and affliction to many To draw to a Conclusion of this Chapter A careful and humble Reading and Hearing the holy Word of God together with a Conscientious attendance upon his Sacraments and other Ordinances is a very excellent way to be rid of all profane or blasphemous thoughts For our Hearts by this means are happily seasoned with good things and God's holy Spirit convey'd to our Souls and lasting inclinations to Holiness are apt to remain in us But because I would not leave these poor Souls who are apt to be disquieted and terrify'd with such thoughts as these without some further security comfort and satisfaction in this matter Be pleas'd further to consider that tho' it be our Duty to hate and abhor and tremble at the very first motion of such profane impious or blasphemous Thoughts yet we have no reason to be so terribly affrighted at them or confounded with them as many and these good Christians are For the All-wise God doth frequently suffer us to be tempted with such profane Thoughts for ends excellent and beneficial to our own immortal Souls As to humble us and make us more strict in the Examination of our own Hearts more sensible of the Deceitfulness of them which is in nothing more discernable than in an extravagant Liberty of Thoughts Or else it may be to make us more sober in our Understandings to avoid nice inquiries into cases Mysterious and shun all Enthusiastick expectations or to rouse up the dull and decay'd Powers of our Souls Or it may be to try our Faith and other Graces and to see whether we will love him when he thinks fit to with-hold his Divine and Spiritual Comforts from our Souls as well as when he bestows them upon us Or else to cause us perhaps to make the Glory of God our highest end in all our Performances that our hearts run not upon any mean and low designs but the Pleasing the Almighty be as it is the end of our Being Or else it may be to stir us up to the greater Diligence in making our calling and election sure and not to let our eternal happiness rest upon such uncertainties as the generality of Men do theirs But strive to get as much assurance of our endless welfare as possibly we are able and consistent with Faith Hope and other Christian Vertues These then being doubtless some of the gracious ends for which God is pleas'd to suffer us to labour under such Thoughts as I have been speaking of and it being oftentimes the case of good Christians to be afflicted with them These poor Souls who happen at any time to be disquieted with them have great reason to take courage and to be comforted under them And let them be assur'd of this That that which is a man's Burden will not be reckon'd as his Sin And that if they hate these thoughts more because they are dishonourable to God than because they are grievous and troublesom to themselves and are by means of them made more watchful circumspect and devout than they before were then Satan shall answer for them and not they The Devil shall be judg'd for all these profane and blasphemous thoughts which they dejected Souls were so much afflicted with the apprehension of as their own And so I have dispatched this first Species of evil Thoughts viz. profane and blasphemous Thoughts CHAP. VI. THe next kind of evil Thoughts which deserves our distinct Consideration is that of Vnclean Thoughts And there seems to be more danger in these than the former because there is something in corrupt Nature more agreeable to them than to the other And therefore it is apt more to be pleas'd with them But to a Good Man to a True Christian these Thoughts are no less disquieting and hateful than the former And therefore I shall endeavour to prescribe some proper Remedies against them The first of which is Prayer Which tho' it must be acknowledg'd to be an Vniversal Remedy and must in no case of trial be pretermitted for if any Man lack Wisdom or Grace of any particular kind whatsoever Let him ask it of God saith St. James who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not Yet I take it to be more especially needful here And therefore we must be much in Prayer If we find our selves to be assaulted with this kind of Thoughts we must make it a part of our constant Petitions that God would be pleas'd to cleanse and purify the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of his holy Spirit That he would mortify our lustful desires
A Practical Treatise CONCERNING Evil THOUGHTS Wherein are some things more especially useful for Melancholy Persons By WILLIAM CHILCOT M. A. Ecce coram tot millibus populorum nudabuntur omnes iniquitates meae tot agminibus Angelorum patebunt universa scelera mea non solum actuum sed etiam Cogitationum simulque locutionum August Lib. 4. Medit. EXON Printed by Samuel Darker for Charles Yeo John Peâ—rce and Philip Bishop 1698. To the Inhabitants of the Parishes of St. John St. George the Martyr and Allhollows on the Walls in the City of Exon. BRETHREN THE following Treatise contains the substance of several Discourses delivered to you from the Pulpit The subject of it is undeniably most useful and of the greatest importance to our eternal welfare And the more I consider of it the more I am perswaded of its moment And because it is a matter of difficulty too and requires more lasting attention of the Mind than any Person how well soever disposed can give to Sermons when spoken I thought fit to publish it that so you might have these Directions always before you which I hope may somewhat assist you in the performance of so great a Work And as a testimony of my great Respect and an Acknowledgment of the many Obligations I have received from you I have dedicated them to you The rather hoping that you will the more attentively peruse them and more seriously and earnestly apply them Whatever defects there are in this Treatise I hope my sincerity will be a sufficient Protection to the meanness of my Endeavours All my Aim being to contribute to your Spiritual and eternal Advantage Which is and shall be always part of the constant and earnest Prayer of Your daily Oratour at the Throne of Grace WILLIAM CHILCOT Exon May 2. 1698. A Practical Treatise Concerning Evil Thoughts Matth. 15. 19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts I Am now entred upon a subject which demands more than ordinary attention of the Reader The Government of the Thoughts is what I intend to discourse on from these words Which as it is a matter of the greatest importance so it is a thing of no small difficulty Few Medicines can reach internal wounds and he is an Artist indeed that can cure them But notwithstanding the difficulty I have attempted it and shall lay before you the best method that I can in order to the well-governing of the thoughts Which when attained is an Atchievement above those of the Greatest Conquerors and deserves Trophies beyond rhe most famous Exploits of Victory that ever were made The wisest of men telling us that he that ruleth his Spirit is better than he that taketh a City And our own experience confirms this sentence of the wise man For there is nothing a more common Observation than that Great Generals and Captains who have carried their Arms through distant Nations and have done wonders and even brought the world into subjection have yet been slaves to their own selves tamely yeilded to their own corrupt and wicked hearts and have not obtained a Conquest over their own thoughts They have not avoided soiling their Triumphs with their Vices and aspersing their glorious Actions with a wicked life As if the Reward of their best Actions were to be their worst and as if it were a Crown to their Arms to be dissolved in Lust and all manner of Impieties As if the blessing of success were Riot and Intemperance and the greatest of sins to be their Heralds What can be a greater and truer Reflection than this which as it takes off from the Credit and Applause of the Noblest Actions so it serves to shew us that 't is a more difficult task to conquer our own thoughts than the most potent Adversaries to subdue our Hearts and Souls than whole Battalions and that man is the greatest enemy to himself For out of the Heart proceed evil thoughts He that searcheth the heart and knoweth the thoughts spake these words The Occasion on which he spake them shall be the First thing which I shall consider Secondly I shall shew the vast advantage of well-governing our thoughts in order to the purposes of Religion in general Thirdly That evil thoughts arise out of the heart and proceed from thence which lays an Obligation on us of restraining them and how far we are able so to do Fourthly I shall lay down some General Rules and Directions for our easier and better performing of this great and difficult and absolutely necessary work of well-governing the thoughts And Fifthly I shall select some special kinds of evil thoughts and shall discourse more particularly and distinctly of them and what are the proper Remedies against them CHAP. I. THE Occasion on which our blessed Lord and Saviour spake these words For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts was this The Scribes and Pharisees who were the Teachers and Expounders of the Jewish Law and whose business it was to give the true meaning of it Instead of that did grosly pervert the real design sense and meaning of it put erroneous and false Glosses upon it and many times imposed their own Traditions upon the people in the place of it And yet none pretended a more strict Observance of the Law than they Insomuch that we find them in the beginning of this Chapter with an usual arrogance demanding of our Saviour Why do thy Disciples transgress the tradition of the Elders For they wash not their hands when they eat bread To which our Saviour gives this answer viz. That they of all men had the least reason to tax his Disciples with the neglect of such a Ceremony as washing before meat as if that were such an Invasion upon Tradition and a crying sin when they themselves were guilty of a much greater in endeavouring to vacate the Obligation of the fifth Commandment by falsly supposing a case which would discharge them from honouring and relieving their Parents and so making void the Commandment of God by their own Tradition with a witness Their Corban was an effectual way to cover their Avarice and they could not have invented a more colourable pretence to varnish over their most sordid and unnatural Temper than that was And indeed this was their common Method when they had any Wicked design in hand then to seem most Religious And when they made long Prayers 't was but too sure a sign of their devouring Widows Houses And for this reason our Blessed Lord doth so often and so severely rebuke them particularly here where after he had given them such an Answer as he did he exposeth and layeth them open to the People and Censures the Vanity and Hypocrisie of all their Religious pretentions And directing His Discourse to the People He assures them that true Religion Consisteth not in such outward Washings and Cleansings and Ceremonious Purgations but in the Spiritual and inward purification of the Mind and Soul the Fountain of all
will be imputed to us as our Sins when we are pleased with them or when we do not â—â—ominate and cast them out as soon as they come into our Minds as soon as we have Power to discover that they are sinful 'T is true the Devil may continue to disquiet and disturb the Peace and Tranquility of our Consciences by his wicked injections and putting into our Minds evil Thoughts But tho they are our grief and molestation yet they being resisted are his Sins and God will judge him for them and spare and pitty us God knows whereof we are made and Remembreth that we are but dust The Blessed Jesus Assum'd our Nature and therefore well knows how to compassionate us in such circumstances He was Himself Sollicited by the accursed Tempter but he did not yield to him but resisted him and if we follow our Lord's Example and do so too if he doth not presently flee from us yet 't is not our sin but unhappiness to be infested with him And this certainly we are able to do We may undoubtedly choose whether we will consent to wicked thoughts and aprove them or not If they do indeed meet with a kind entertainment at our hands no wonder that they grow bold and familiar but if we deny them admittance and shut them out we shall at length be rid of them or at least they will not be charged upon us Even the Devil is put to flight by resistance St. James tells us He remembers his Apostacy he trembles at the Name of Jesus and when a Christian behaves himself bravely against him he doth not care to abide the combat If we give the same reply to all his suggestions as our Blessed Lord did our trouble is greater than our danger If we would but be watchful over our selves and have as much care as we can of our thoughts I am apt to think we should not complain so much of them as we often do 'T is much for want of a due observation of our selves and keeping our hearts with all diligence that so many evil thoughts proceed from thence The malignity or folly of our Imaginations is much owing to our selves to our own sloth and carelessness to idleness or to an habit of sin or some such cause and when it is so we ought to repent of them and look on them as our sins Tho the corruption of our Nature and the malice of the Devil be many times the cause of them yet we our selves are often more chargeable with them than either of these and if we narrowly and truly examine our selves we shall find it so Upon the whole it is sufficiently plain that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts the Soul is the Soil where this Hemlock is sown There wicked thoughts are conceived they owe their original either to the corruption of the Soul it self or are thrown in by the instigations of the Devil From thence they proceed and therefore it must be acknowledg'd that there doth lie an obligation on us of well governing them That we are not altogether unable to do any thing in order to it but something is in our power We can chuse whether we will cherish them or not we can either bid them welcome or bid them be gone And besides we can use other helps and assistances and follow these Rules and Directions which are necessary to the well-governing our thoughts And what they are is the subject of the following Chapter CHAP. IV. THe Rules and Directions which we are to follow in order to the better performance of this great work viz. the vertuous and religious government of our thoughts are divided into General and Particular The General will have relation to all kinds of evil thoughts whatsoever they be The latter will concern chiefly these sorts of them hereafter mentioned The General Rules and Directions then are these following First Prayer Constant and fervent Prayer This is a Catholicon a sovereign Remedy for every Ail and Indisposition of the Soul It is very powerful with God and availeth much 'T is a preservative from the violence of Temptations and a defence against all kinds of evil thoughts Prayer as it engageth the Divine Favour and the Protection of Almighty God in all cases so it naturally cleanseth and purifieth the heart keeps it in a due frame and religious temper The Soul is thereby prompted and disposed to that which is good and ponderates towards God It gives a relish of Divine and Spiritual things and makes the Soul more and more averse to all evil vain or silly thoughts and imaginations And therefore if we desire to be preserved from wicked thoughts to keep our hearts in due temper and government we should be constant and earnest in our approaches to the Throne of Grace daily and fervent in our Prayers to God for his Grace to assist us in conquering the stubbornness and irregularity of our thoughts and imaginations That he would be pleas'd to take possession of our Souls by his holy Spirit and by him to govern subdue and sanctify all the motions powers and faculties of our Souls That no unclean Spirit may inhabit there but that they may be swept and garnished in the best sence and ever prepar'd to receive the visits of Heaven and the benign influences of the holy Ghost Be sure then that you omit not the observance of this first Rule in order to the well-governing your thoughts for without this all the rest will signify nothing Secondly the next Rule is that you avoid idleness That hateful vice which makes the Soul of a Man like the field of the sluggard all overgrown with thorns and briars full of all manner of wanton desires evil motions and impure thoughts When a Man is idle and loytering a thousand ill things come into his mind which an honest industry would prevent And the most desirable opportunity the Devil hath for injecting wicked thoughts or temptations successfully is when a Man hath nothing to do It is absolutely necessary therefore that we avoid being idle and so practice both parts of our Blessed Saviour's Advice Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation Idleness is the nurse of wickedness Sin 's procurer a vice most odious in its self and leading into all others It lays a Man open to all assaults and temptations and exposeth him to the dangerous sollicitations of a legion of the Infernal Spirits at once Whereas an industrious Man puts Satan to the toil of a long siege as it were the negligent and idle Person makes a present and voluntary surrender of himself to him Thus much is signify'd by that Parable of our Blessed Lord's Mat. 12. 43. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none he saith I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnished Then goeth he and
will be a very proper means in order to that great end which is the scope of this Treatise There is no preserving a Castle or Fortress from being taken by the enemy but by having a special care of the Avenues and Breaches Now the Sences are as it were the Avenues of the Soul the Inlets of all evil into the Mind and therefore there is a necessity that we keep a strict watch over our Sences if we would have our Thoughts pure and unpolluted For there is not a Sence that we have but may betray and ruin us An Eye an Hand c. may prove our utter destruction As that Advice of our Blessed Lord implies Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee cut them off and cast them from thee It is better for thee to enter into Life halt and maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire And if thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee it is better for thee to enter into Life with one Eye rather than having two Eyes to be cast into hell fire Our own Eyes may ruin us as sure as these of a Basilisk and 't is Our own Eye which puts witchcraft into that of others and conveys back certain hurt and mischief into our Thoughts and Souls There are a great variety of ensnaring objects in the World that present themselves to us The World the Flesh and the Devil conspire how to entrap us Which way soever we turn we find some object or other to entice us As the Hermite saw in his Vision the whole World is hung all over with Nets The Devil well knows that the best way to subdue the Spirit is by the Flesh and that there is no such effectual way of conquering the Soul as by first making his attacks upon the outworks the Sences And therefore he first endeavours to take them 'T is of absolute necessity therefore that we keep a close guard upon every one of our sences if we would not be invaded by wicked thoughts For any one of them left unguarded may prove our ruine And we must acknowledge that 't is giving too great a liberty to our sences which is the occasion of so many vile and wicked Thoughts filling our Minds Again In the next place we are to take care that if any evil Thoughts of what kind soever they be arise up in our Hearts not to let them remain in us but presently to make resistance against them turning the Heart immediately to a contrary subject humbling our Souls by speedy repentance for the same Let not vain thoughts lodge in us tho' they may glance upon us 'T is dwelling upon a wicked Thought that makes it prevailing and domineering over us If we habitually indulge it it will get ground of us and at length grow obstinate and unruly and much more difficult to be conquered Whereas an immediate resistance of it would by degrees so weaken it as 't is probable we should at length be quite rid of it Tho' this may be thought a very troublesom yet it is as likely a way as any of avoiding evil thoughts When any wicked imagination therefore presents it self the best way to repel it would not be to argue and dispute long with it but to catch away our Minds from it presently and like a Man that accidentally treads upon an Adder starts back immediately and strives to make no more approaches to it again It is possible nay likely that it will return upon you often in a little time but do you labour as often as it doth so to thrust it out and be not weary of so doing And because this is not so easy a matter neither tho this or nothing must be granted to be in our power it would be expedient in order to the diverting our Minds effectually that we propose to our Minds some one or other of the most awful subjects and such as is apt more than ordinarily to take up and fix our Thoughts As for Instance The Crucifixion of our Saviour Christ imagining that we saw his tortured Body bleeding upon the Cross and heard the doleful cries which he uttered when he made the great Attonement and Satisfaction for the sins of the World and beheld the portentous Eclipse the Praeternatural Darkness the Renting of the Rocks the opening of the Graves and the rest of the Tremendous Circumstances which attended the death of the Son of God Or else let it be the last Judgement and the Miscellaneous horrour and exultation of that dreadful day Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat The sun be turned into darkness and the moon into blood the powers of heaven be shaken and the stars fall from their orbs all this visible World be consum'd and ingulph'd in an inconceivable eternity of happiness to the righteous but of torment to the wicked Any one of such subjects as these would be very proper to fix our Minds upon in order to keep them from returning to ill things There is nothing can more awe the Soul collect the Thoughts and compose the Spirits than thinking on such subjects They are things so very considerable that while we are imploying our Minds about them it is an hard matter to think of any thing else or soon to be drawn aside to any other object And therefore it is very advisable that we make use of this expedient in order to the well-governing our Thoughts To which end also Let us be careful to watch over our Thoughts on the Lords-day then more especially than at other times The Lords-day is I know not by what means extremely slighted and disregarded And under a pretence of Christian Liberty profaneness hath very greatly advanced it self So that God's own Day is become almost as one of ours and but a very small difference observ'd betwixt them Men are generally so far from being most careful of their thoughts on that Holy-day that they suffer them to be most profuse and extravagant then and not only their Thoughts but their Actions too are for a great part worse than at other times Which as it is a very great sin in it self and such as shall be severely accounted for so it is a great means of making our Thoughts loose ungovernable and wicked at other times For that as it is a day peculiarly to be dedicated to God so it is a day wherein God designs in a more eminent manner to communicate himself and his Grace to our Souls And therefore if we do sanctifie it as we ought by having a strict watch over our thoughts and by the delightful exercises of Prayer Praises and Mediditations and a devout Reading and Hearing the Word of God c. It will by God's Blessing leave such an happy tincture on us and so piously and lastingly incline the Mind to good that it will be an excellent means to order
Impure Thoughts and Lustful Imaginations which I shall recommend to you is the serious consideration of the Purity of GOD. The Almighty is a God of infinite Purity and Holiness He hates all uncleanness and cannot look upon the least sin or pollution even of our thoughts with approbation And it will be a means of avoiding such unclean Thoughts to have this Consideration frequently in our Minds viz. That God is infinitely pure and holy and hates all kinds and degrees of filthiness and uncleanness This questionless was that which made good Joseph resist the sollicitations of his wanton Mistress with how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God The Lord will dwell in a clean Habitation or none And if even the wicked Spirits will have their house swept and garnished before they will enter in surely God will not dwell in a worse then they To the Pure heart alone he makes discoveries and communications of himself To the Clean Soul he affords his Grace and Comforts These alone he blesseth with his presence here and admits into his beatifick presence hereafter These only can enjoy God for these alone are qualified to enjoy him Hell is the stinking Lake of all uncleanness where impure Spirits and ugly fiends wallow in the steam of their horrid pollutions But Heaven is the habitation of pure chaste and Virgin Souls The Region of Innocence the Kingdom of the Lamb Where there is no manner of thing that defileth And he that hopes to come thither and to dwell with God everlastingly He I say that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure Who saith the Psalmist shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place He that hath clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lift up his mind unto vanity And to this internal purity of the Soul and Thoughts is that glorious Beatitude of the vision of God annexed Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Now besides these there are several other Rules to be observ'd for the avoiding this kind of evil Thoughts which cannot conveniently be enlarg'd on in this Treatise as the shunning Idleness and vain and lascivious conversation loose Sports and Theatrical Shews c. which I leave to your own care and observation to discover CHAP. VII REvengeful and malicious or uncharitable Thoughts are another kind of Evil Thoughts which deserve our distinct consideration For they do many times domineer and tyranize in the Souls of Men to the effectual hindrance of their Duty Whatever favourable opinion Men may have of or whatever excuses they may pretend for them 'T is undeniable that the Christian Religion makes it to be our duty to be kind and charitable loving and forgiving to all the world even our worst Enemies But speaks our Lord I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you And Math. 5. 21. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Racha i.e. Thou empty or despicable fellow or the like shall be in danger of the council But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire From which it is plain That the Christian Law doth forbid all Malice and Revenge not only actually doing hurt to any but all contumelious language and cherishing even the least Revengeful Thought But yet how apt is Humane Nature to retain the memory of a suppos'd Injury How prone is a Man to have a Grudge in his Heart against his Brother Perhaps he will carry a fair shew of charity But yet his Conscience tells him there lurks Rancour or at least a Grudging in his Heart And 't is a difficult matter to bring him into a better mind But he must be of a better mind if he will be a Christian indeed and he must not only forgive an Enemy but forget him too This as is very probable hath been the true cause of keeping many Persons from the Lord's Table who rather than they will lay aside some little Punctilio or other and be clothed with that Humility which becometh Christians in order to a Reconciliation they will obstinately deprive their Souls of that inestimable Benefit This now being diametrically opposite to the Spirit of Christianity I shall lay down Rules for the suppressing this kind of Evil thoughts And they are briefly these following First The Consideration of what Christ Jesus our Master who hath forbidden all uncharitable thoughts hath done for us How can any one think of Revenge who hath received such favours and immunities as every Christian hath at the hands of his Redeemer How unlike a Christian is it to cherish so much as an envious Desire How different from the mind of Christ and the charity of a Forgiving Jesus who hath done and suffered more for Us his Enemies than 't is possible to express Truly therefore to consider this seriously is a sufficient check to all such Thoughts as these and a proper means to eject them 'T is an hard matter for a Man to be so profligate as to take pleasure in the misfortunes or lapses of others who considers how much he himself is indebted to the Goodness of GOD. To devise a Revenge or Calumny upon his Bed against any Person to seek occasions to discover a mote in his Brother's eye to proclaim his errours as upon the house-top and to represent his mistakes to be his Vices To slander back-bite and defame his Neighbour and to support his own Reputation or Estate on the ruine of another's When any of these things are the Buisiness of any Man's Thoughts he is so far from being a true Disciple of our Lord Jesus that he is in the very gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Besides the great uneasiness that such Thoughts are to the Mind that harbours them and the effectual hindrance that they are to holy Duties they carry in them a very great dissimilitude to the temper of the meek the kind and the charitable Jesus shewn to our selves Which to one that makes conscience of his Profession is a very hainous and detestable thing Behold thy Saviour hanging upon his Cross and praying for thee and the rest of his murderers and I should think that Sight would quickly banish all Revengeful Grudging or Uncharitable Thoughts out of thy Mind and make thee more easy and pleasant to thy self and more fitted for thy Duty Secondly The Consideration of what our own Demerit is and what indignities and affronts our sins have been to God is another Expedient for the avoiding this kind of Evil Thoughts
refines and purifies the Soul to the utmost will not allow Men in a loose or an Evil Thought much less grant them Indulgences for all manner of Lewdness and dispence with such things as are not fit to be named among Christians But it 's only Design and Intention is to make Men like Angels and the pure Celestial Spirits and qualify them for their Society and Happiness to everlasting Ages This plainly shews us the excellency of the Christian Religion above any other Institution in the World powerfully recommends it to our choice and convinceth us of the necessity of being good and holy if we would be eternally happy and of the great importance of our serious and Religious Application and Improvement of these words of the eternal Son of GOD For out of the Heart proceed Evil Thoughts I conclude with that apposite Advice of the holy Apostle St. Paul Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things FINIS THE PRAYER FOR A Melancholy Person O Eternal most gracious most holy Lord God! Thou Father of Lights and Fountain of Good Thou art infinitely and essentially happy and blessed in thy self and diffusest the beams of thy Favour and Goodness throughout the whole World I am a Monument of thy Mercy and Forbearance and when I consider what I have been and done I cannot but wonder at thy loving Kindness O Lord I lye prostrate at the Throne of Grace in an humble sence and acknowledgment of my own vileness and in a sorrowful confession of my Sins which have been exceeding many and grievously provoking I have deserved Eternal punishment and horrour and therefore do not repine at my present Affliction Why should a living man complain a Man for the punishment of his sin But O Lord thou art our FATHER and to whom should we lay open our wants but to a Father Look therefore upon my affliction and misery and forgive me all my sins Thy hand is heavy upon me day and night and my moisture is like the drought in summer My heart also in the midst of my Body is even like melting wax I am cast down O Lord I am beset with fears and terrours encompassed about with thick clouds of sadness But yet I hope to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Lord sanctify this great affliction to me And let not any of the Devil's temptations prevail with me to let go my hope in Christ. Grant me I beseech thee trust and affiance in thy Mercy and let me not make Sin my refuge or seek comfort and redress from any indirect means But patiently wait on thee O GOD who alone bringest down and raisest up who killest and makest alive O Lord be pleas'd to pardon and forgive me all my sins and to heal all my Bodily weaknesses and infirmities and to quiet and compose my Spirits O Lord speak peace unto me thy servant give thy servant the Blessing of peace Thou searchest me out and knowest me Thou understandest my thoughts long before Thou art about my path and about my bed and seest in what sadness I pass the day and the night O Lord send down the Holy-ghost the Comforter to enlighten and comfort my poor Soul and to sanctify and hallow all the faculties and powers thereof Cleanse it of all prophane impure revengeful wandring or desponding Thoughts and all other evil Imaginations and let not my Heart be inclined to any evil thine Vouchsafe I beseech thee O Lord to direct sanctify and govern both my Heart and Body in the ways of thy Laws and in the Works of thy Commandments that among all the changes and chances of this mortal Life I may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help And O Lord God Almighty unto whom all Hearts be open all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid cleanse the Thoughts of my Heart by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit that I may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy Name Thou seest O Lord that I have no power of my self to help my self keep me therefore both outwardly in my body and inwardly in my Soul that I may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the Body and from all Evil Thoughts which may assault and hurt the Soul And at last bring me to that blessed state where I shall serve love and worship thee without fear or distraction and be out of the reach of all my Spiritual Enemies and enjoy consummate tranquillity and bliss And all I most humbly and earnestly beg in and through the meritorious Agonies and Death of Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour Amen Our Father c. Books printed for and sold by Charles Yeo John Pearce and Philip Bishop Booksellers in Exon. A Sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in Exon April 4. 1697. being Easter-day and Assize Sunday By William Chilcot M. A. Select Hymns each fitted to two Tunes to be sung in Churches The Beauty of Holiness or A short Defence and Vindication of the pious Decency Regularity and Order of Reading the Communion-Service at the Communion-Table offered to a dissatify'd Neighbour from his Minister A Form of Prayer for Married Persons for the most part taken out of the Liturgy In the PRESS DAnmonii Orientales Illustres or The Worthies of Devon Printed by way of Subscription price in Sheets Sixteen Shillings and Six pence the first Payment eight Shillings All Gentlemen that are willing to take the Advantage by Subscribing are desired to send in their first payment with all speed to the Undertakers Charles Yeo John Pearce and Philip Bishop Prov. 16. 32. V. 2. Mark 7. 11 12. Mat. 13. 31. Jam. 1. 13 14 15. Rom. 6. 12. Mat. 26. 70 72 74. Isa 1. 11. Psal 139. Psal 108. 1. Mat. 25. 1. Rom. 8. 21. Isa 48. â— 1 Pet. 2. 11. Psal 51. 6. Rom. 7. 24. Psal 51. 10. Acts 2. 3. Exod. 12. Mat. 4. James 4. 7. Gen. 32. 24. James 5. 16. Prov. 24. 30 30. Mat. 26. 41. Psal 19. 1. 1 Cor. 11. 33. Ephes 4. 29. Psal 119. Mat. 18. 8. Jer. 4. 14. 2 Pet. 3. 12. Acts 2. 20. Mat. 24. 29. Mat. 4. â— Rom. 2. 16. * A Crest is a Dagger Psal 119. 105. 1 Joh. 2. 15. Job 2. 9. Mat. 4. 10. Ver. 11. Phil. 2. 10. Mat. 11. 28. James 1. 5. Mat. 8. 2. Mat. 17. 21. Mat. 16. 24. 1 Cor. 9. 25 c. Gen. 34. 1 2. 1 Sam. 11. 2. Gen. 39. 9. Mat. 12. 44. 1 Joh. 3. 3. Psal 24. 4. Mat. 5. 8. Mat. 5. 44. 1 Pet. 5. 5. 1 Joh. 8. v. 16. Mat. 5. 23. Eccles 5. 1 2. 1 Sam. 2. 30. Exod. 3. 5. Gen. 28. 12 16. Col. 3. 5. Matth. 6. 31 c. Matt. 21. 12 13 c. Luke 10. 40. Matth. 6. 5. Matt. 13. Luke 15. Matt. 11. 28. 1 Tim. 2. 4. 2 Cor. 2. 11. Luke 2. 14. Rom. 4. 25. Matt. 11. John 3. 16. 1 Pet. 5. 8. James 5. 13. Psal 50. 15. Psal 42. ult Psal 73. 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. 1 Sam. 16. 23. Eccles 12. 11. Hos 6. 6. Jam. 1. 25. Ephes 4. 30. Gal. 4. 9. Gal. 3. 24. Deut. 4. 11. Phil. 4. 8. c.
our Thoughts and Imaginations and of our Actions the Product of them That if the Heart be pure and Holy the Thoughts and then the Actions will be so too But if the Heart be foul and wicked the issues of it will be Correspondent When the Spirit of a Man is truely seasoned with Religion it will shew it self in all the Beautious and Lovely Fruits of Righteousness But when the Principle is vicious and Debauch'd the effects must and will be filthy and abominable That a Man is not defiled by any material thing that he either Eats or Drinks but by his own imaginations desires and affections the things which come out of him For out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts False-witnesses Blasphemies these are the things which defile a Man But to eat with unwashen Hands defileth not a Man All the Ceremonious part of the Jewish Law aim'd at and terminated in this Their Ceremonies were Significations and Types of matters under the Gospel And their frequent Washings and Cleansings were to denote the Spiritual Purifying of the Heart and Soul 'T is true God injoyned them to be observed for a time the Ignorance and Non-age of the Jews requiring such a material and gross way of Instruction But these were all Abolished and done away at the coming of the Messiah When the Son of God himself became our Divine Instructor and Teacher and informed Mankind of the Nature of that Rational and Spiritual Worship which God did expect from us and would be acceptable to him That it was the Devotion of the Soul the Purity of the Heart the Spirituality of the Thoughts that Living Sacrifice alone that would please God who is an Infinite Spirit and prepare us for the Refined joys of Heaven and the Exalted pleasures of Seraphims And Consequently that the greatest and most Important Duty incumbent on Mankind was to Govern the Heart and subdue the Thoughts This then in short was the occasion of our Saviours speaking these Words which did effectually humble these proud Pharisees whose whole Religion was mere Pomp and outward Shew and Consisted meerly in broad Phylacteries an affected Garb and demure Looks while these Gaudy and Painted Sepulchres were within full of all manner of rottenness and uncleaness And at the same time lets us see a Description of true Religion and how excellent and noble an Institution that is which extends to the inmost recesses of the Soul and so tends to Refine the very thoughts of the Heart and to fit Men for the pure State of Angels And therefore is far above all other Institutions that ever were in the World before CHAP. II. THE next thing proposed to be Handled is the vast advantage of well governing of our Thoughts in order to the purposes of Religion in General Now this advantage is very great and obvious Every Person must be Convinced that the most proper and only way for a Man to live well is to begin at his Heart to put his thoughts into a true order and government For otherwise there can be no Uniformity in his Piety The good Actions that he doth are broken and imperfect and he is apt every now and then to make fresh Work for Repentance by returning to his old sins But this advantage of the well governing our Thoughts will be the better seen by some Particulars First then a care of our Thoughts is the greatest preservative against actual sins 'T is a most certain truth that the greatest sin that ever was committed was at first but a Thought The foulest Wickedness and most Monstrous Impiety arose from so small a speck as a first Thought may be resembled to The most horrid thing that ever was done as well as the most Noble and Vertuous action that ever was accomplished had no greater a beginning Of such a quick growth and spreading Nature is sin that it Rivals even the Kingdome of Heaven which our Lord teleth us is like to a Graine of Mustard-seed which a Man took and Sowed in his Field Which indeed is the least of all seeds but when it is grown up in these Countries it is the greatest among Herbs and becometh a Tree so that tbe Birds of the Air come and Lodge in the Branches of it But the Apostle St. James Represents it by a Simile of another Nature comparing the Original and growth of it to the Formation of an Embryo in the Womb. Let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any Man But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and inticed Then when his Lust hath Conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death It is Conceived Bred Lives and Grows in a Man till at last it domineers in him and Reigns in his Mortal Body And therefore it is absolutely necessary that we govern and manage our Thoughts without which it will be impossible that we should avoid falling into actual sins even the greatest That we resist the beginings the very first Emergencies of Evil if we hope to avoid the last Degrees of it It is manifest folly to Imagine that we can indulge evil Thoughts without being in danger of commtting actual sins or that speculation and practise are things so vastly distant from each other This is so far from being true that there can be nothing more certain than the contrary If we would preserve our selves from falling into actual sins we muft govern and suppress our Thoughts And if we would have our Life pure and unspotted the Heart must be kept in intire subjection If we would not be plunged into the guilt of presumptuous sins we must be sure to resist the first motions of evil all unlawful Thoughts For no man is always in the same temper his Resolution is not ever the same as it may be now or at another time His Passions are Fluctuating sometimes there is as it may be called a Spring-Tide of them And a Man at some seasons is more receptive of evil impressions more yielding and easy to be tempted than at others And though an evil Thought may not so strongly move him at one time yet it may at another And every encouragement of it adds to the falseness and treachery of his own deceitful and wicked heart which will betray him whenever an opportunity offers And therefore he is necessitated to be nicely careful over his thoughts if he would not fall into actual sins Let us think as boldly and confidently of our selves as we please let us rest never so much upon our own strength it is our weakness 'T is not our presuming thoughts of our selves that will make us invincible Nay there are none sooner overcome and thrown down than such as conceit great and mighty things of themselves The shameful denial of the warm and boasting Apostle should be sufficient to convince us that
the best of men are not above that advice 1 Cor. 10. 12. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall If we do not keep a strict watch and a careful hand over our thoughts they will inevitably betray us when an opportunity serves and make most furious assaults upon us when we are least aware of it We can no more restrain them when we please whatever we think we can no more stop them from breaking out than we can smother a raging Flame or chain a foaming Billow And therefore whosoever he be that allows his thoughts an extravagant liberty he is much mistaken if he thinks that he is sure to stop there But admit that he could Can it be thought by any Rational Creature that God doth not take any notice of his thoughts themselves Suppose it were in the power of any person to act contrary to his habit of thinking and to avoid the practice of these sins which he indulges himself in the speculation of Hath an Omniscient and an holy God think you no regard to the thoughts and the inward temper and disposition of the Soul If we think so then we have mean thoughts of him indeed and make Religion degenerate into the service of brute beasts For wherein doth man differ from them but in his Reason and Thought and that he is capable of knowing God of being ravish'd with his Excellencies and Perfections and encouraged by his suitable Rewards and taking delight in the glorious Communications of himself to his Soul and serving him with his whole heart and being united to him by a life of thought Upon which consideration it must needs follow that the Great God is so far from disregarding our thoughts that he hath a principal respect to them And tho it should chance that they should never break out into Actions and Gross Practices yet God looks to the inward parts is a narrow observer and searcher of the thoughts is pleased when his Throne is established in the Soul and his Dominion and Empire over all its Thoughts and imaginations and abhors and abandons an unclean wicked or Rebellious Heart To him all the Pomp of Religion and splendor of outward Performances is without it detestable The Soul is the Seat of Religion As for the Parts and Members of our Bodies they are intirely at the Command of the Mind The Understanding and Will are their Despotick Rulers And as the Heart and the Thoughts are disposed so is the Practice and Conversation and therefore them the Almighty principally regards As a Man can never testifie the truth of his Love to God or evidence the Sincerity of his Soul without having a special regard to the well Governing of his Thoughts So without it Damnation may justly be his Portion tho the Plague break not out in the Botches and Ulcers of a profligate Conversation tho the Pollution be concealed and hidden Indeed if we are so prophane as to think of God as a Man and esteem Him to be such an one as our selves If His Eye could not penetrate any deeper than ours but were fallible and weak If he could not see into our Breasts and discover the Secrets of our Hearts Then there might be some reason for us to imagine that He did not regard our Thoughts so our visible behaviour were smooth and untainted But since He is an All-seeing and an All-knowing God and professedly declares himself such in the Sacred Scriptures The reason of Man cannot submit to such an idle fancy as this viz. that He hath no respect to a Mans Thoughts but on the contrary must believe that He hath an especial Eye to them and will assuredly call us to an Account for them at the Day of Judgment For tho our Saviour's Discourse Mat. 12. 36. extends only to every idle word yet in the very Verse before he shews that the Heart is principally regarded and therefore to be observed by our selves And more fully and clearly in his divine Sermon on the Mount Mat. 5. 20. For I say unto you that except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment And v. 27. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit Adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery already with her in his heart From all which it plainly appears that if a man could indulge himself in all manner of Licentious thoughts without any further danger yet that God knows is evil sufficient because the thoughts of the Heart are principally regarded by Almighty God But indeed it is hardly possible to imagine how any person that is careless of his heart should be otherwise of his Life or how he that is vain filthy or any way Vicious in his Imaginations can be pure and holy sober and Religious in his Conversation and Practice Upon both which accounts we see the vast Advantage that we shall iufallibly reap by being diligent and careful in the well-governing of our thoughts But Thirdly That which will serve to make us further sensible of the great advantage of well-governing our thoughts is this Viz. That we shall ever be in a preparation for the best and most weighty Duties by this means We shall not only be able to resist and repel the fury of temptations but be ready for the performance of every Duty These men that have not inur'd themselves to an habit of Thought and constantly exercised a strict regimen over the motions of their own Hearts will require a great deal of time to recollect and order their Thoughts and reduce them into a proper Frame and Posture These that carelesly give their Minds a loose as soon as any solemn and weighty Duty is over and suffer their Thoughts to return to the old Subject of the World or any other of their Vanities The same difficulty will attend them to bring their Thoughts into a due Frame again which did at first So that they will thereby be mightily hindered in their advances in Religion Their progress in Holiness will be much retarded They labour in a Circle Or at best they will move but slowly on in the way to Heaven in comparison of these that keep a constant and strict Government over their Thoughts These latter will be able always to say with the Psalmist O God my Heart is ready my Heart is ready And what an happy and desirable temper of Soul is this What Spiritual comforts and benefits do these enjoy which others for want of a due care and watchfulness deprive themselves of These only want
in the Sacred Volume There we are entertain'd with the History of the Creation of Man and the beginning of this visible World There we are inform'd of the Methods and Dispensations of the Almighty towards Mankind and by what Steps and Advances his Church through all Ages grew to be what it is now There God hath been pleased more clearly to reveal Himself than any where besides There we have the great Mystery of Divine Love in the Redemption of the World by Christ Jesus our Lord made known to us The excellencies of Piety and Vertue describ'd in the most affecting Language The truest Perfection and the extremest Misery of Man explain'd Rules for obtaining eternal Life and Blessedness laid down and most gracious Promises and unspeakable Rewards to encourage us in our Endeavours after it All which things Even the Angels desire to look into and admire the Divine Goodness which impregnates all And if we would but make this Word of God our Study and be diligently conversant in reading the Scriptures we should more and more be sensible that there is no Book like this and that an excellent Expedient to keep wicked Thoughts out of our Hearts would be to read the Scriptures much and often with meekness Prayer and attention instead of these vain foolish and unprofitable or else profane wicked or obscene Writings of such as call themselves the Wits of the Age. The Mind of Man is combustible the Thoughts of his Heart are meer tinder to the sparks of an obscene Saying a lewd fancy or but so much as an impure hint And therefore I am apt to think that few Men in the World how strong soever their prejudices may be or how much soever they may presume upon their own strength are able to govern their Thoughts well without they have a special regard to this Rule and Admonition also Another Rule which is proper for the well-governing of our Thoughts in general is Frequent Self-examination Without often looking into our selves and examining our own propensions and inclinations and what is that Sin which doth so easily beset us it is hardly to be imagined how we should be able to govern our Thoughts aright There is nothing which a man is more a stranger to than himself tho' there is nothing in which he ought to be more skill'd and that is one great reason of the irregularity of his Thoughts For without we well consult our own temper and constitution and what the laedentia and juvantia are and narrowly observe the tendency of our Passions and the frame and disposition of our Souls we cannot conquer our Thoughts 'T is impossible unless we know our selves that we should govern our selves Sometimes a man's evil Thoughts may run chiefly upon lust and uncleanness and sometimes covetousness may be his darling sin Sometimes ambition may be his dotage and at other other times revenge his favourite Now how can it be imagined that a person can govern and subdue his Thoughts as to any of these without a frequent inquiring into his own Soul and accurate knowledge of himself Nay which way can a man be convinc'd and perswaded of the great evil and sinfulness of wicked Thoughts without Self-examination How can he be made truly sensible of their pernicious and polluting nature and that they are so highly displeasing to God as they are without a diligent search into himself or how can he be possessed that it is his duty to restrain and exercise a government over his Thoughts and that much is in his own power in order to it I say how can a person be rightly sensible of any of these necessary things without he frequenly and skilfully practise this duty of Self-examination which as it is of absolute use in order to Religion in general so it is to this part of it especially viz. the well-governing our Thoughts Besides How many men are too apt to imagine that as for Thoughts they shall never be laid to our charge so long as they don't break out into actions That the Theory of sin shall pass without the least notice of the Almighty Judge and that only the Practise of it shall be observ'd and censur'd That as for Thoughts they are either in the Nature of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Impossibilities which cannot be brought under any good Order or Government in regard of their infiniteness and variety and so they claim a privilege of invincible Liberty because they can't be subdu'd or else that they are such slight and small escapes as that they carry their pasport and pardon with them that they shall never be punish'd and that therefore they are no sins And that also because the Law of man takes no hold of them and because likewise it is impossible altogether to avoid these thoughts as was said before Certainly say they we shall never be call'd to account for our thoughts because they come oftentimes so suddenly and unexpectedly that no reason can be given of them And they do no body any hurt what evil therefore should there be in them why should we be accountable for them This is indeed the common strain of the civil honest moral Man as he calls himself and the formal Hypocrite to draw near unto God with his lips when his heart is far from him to be under no concern for his Thoughts but only to take care with the Harlot to wipe his mouth clean And with Pontius Pilate to wash his hands and with the Scribes and Pharisees to cleanse only the outside of the cup or the platter This is all the Religion of too many who make it to consist in Sence and not in the Heart as if the design of it were to be not the Reformation of the inward but an Accomplishment of the outward Man As if indeed Christianity were no more than a meer Complement And now what is the true cause of this what is the reason of such dangerous errours and mistakes about our Thoughts as that they are free sinless and unpunishable I say what is the cause of all this but ignorance of our own selves ignorance of the sad and prevailing Corruptions of our Nature and their greedy propensities and inclinations to evil and ignorance of the Law of God too which if we would look into it would plainly shew us the detestable sinfulness of Thoughts and that the main end of Religion is an internal change and purification of the Heart and Soul of all the Thoughts and Imaginations And now an excellent means to dispel this Ignorance is this Rule which I am pressing you to the observance of viz. Self-examination Without which it will be an impossible thing to attain a right government of our Thoughts in general This Rules must also be followed with another if we would govern our Thoughts aright And that is that you make a covenant with your Eyes and other Sences keeping them from carnal or unlawful objects or not letting them dwell upon them This
God into the flames of Hell for ever Man indeed judgeth of the Heart by the Works but God judgeth of the Works by the Heart Since therefore we must be call'd to an account for our Thoughts hereafter let us carefully remember it and so reckon with our selves for them in this that we may not be judg'd for them in the World to come CHAP. V. THE accursed Tempter and Enemy of our Souls is no doubt always busy in suggesting ill things to us and casting into our minds wicked thoughts He is continually pursuing us into all places and companys and presenting before us alluring and inticing objects He is too well experienc'd in this Black Art too skilful an Engineer in laying his train He very well knows the tempers and constitutions of Mankind is acquainted with their Predominant inclinations and propensities and so can suit his objects and proportionate his Devices His name is Legion too For there are a multitude of them to carry on their hellish designs in ruining Souls and corrupting Minds Like the Plagues of Egypt they even fill the Atmosphere Their numbers are like these of the Locusts Flies and Lice and Frogs croaking even in Kings Chambers And could we but see these Swarms of Devils that assault us and are darting their Temptations at us and continually injecting evil Thoughts into our Hearts we should be astonished and tremble at our danger we should ever be crying to God to help us and having a quick Eye upon all their assaults Could we but behold these Infernal Enemies that encompass us our concern for our selves could not be so small as to suffer us to be careless and negligent The Devils are working and contriving and restless in their motions to destroy our Souls and yet alas we are as secure as if we were embrac'd and caress'd by our dearest Friends as if we had no Enemy at all to fear We have had some Historical accounts of Persons that have been such exquisite villains in the Art of Poisoning that they could convey the deadly Venom to the Vitals and kill in a moment or else bring on a lingring but yet as certain death and place the period of Life some Years off As the Javians and Sumatrians by their poyson'd Crests and the Chineses by their Nails The woful experience of several of our own Nation as well as the common suffrage of all who have travelled into those parts put the truth of this beyond the necessity of any particular authorities tho' many such might be produc'd were it not foreign to the present design But the Devil is an Artist more subtil even than these he can convey a Spiritual Venom and Contagion to the Soul and poyson all the Thoughts and Powers of it His injections are as quick and as keen as Lightning And he hath undiscernable ways of defiling and corrupting our Minds That Satan can throw wicked Thoughts into our Minds is I suppose a matter not questioned But whether he doth this by working on the humours of the Body or stirring up the animal Spirits or by an immediate applying his Suggestions to the Soul is not so easy to be determin'd There being a necessary Dependance of the Operations of the Soul upon the Texture of the Body and Spirits it is not improbable that he frequently injects wicked Thoughts that way But why may he not also cast in wicked Thoughts into our Hearts by an immediate communication The truth is we cannot well find out which Method he takes in his Temptations We are not able to tell how hâ— câ—sts in wicked Thoughts We know little or nothing of the intercourse between Beings purely Spiritual But too plain and true it is that we are infested with a multitude of evil Thoughts and that they do proceed out of the Heart however they came there And therefore it will be a more material enquiry how we shall be able effectually to resist or prevent them And this cannot be fully done neither in a Treatise of this nature because their kinds are infinite and their numbers endless I shall therefore according to my propos'd Method Consider in this Chapter some special kinds of evil Thoughts and endeavour to apply remedies against them to the satisfaction and benefit I hope of the serious Reader First Then the first kind of them which I shall consider is Profane and Blasphemous Thoughts And of this sort there is a dismal variety I have known some and these I 'm perswaded very religious People who have been extreamly disturb'd with such Thoughts concerning GOD as have been most unaccountable and as absurd as they are profane If I thought fit I could mention some of them which have been so extravagant that I should think to be rid of them it were better to contemn and despise them than anxiously to be concern'd about them Tho' with others of them we ought to deal after a different manner To think aright of Almighty God and to have such Ideas of him in our Minds as are worthy and becoming so great and so pure a Majesty is not only a very considerable part of Religion but a very comfortable thing And I cannot but pity such Christians as are much afflicted with profane thoughts Of this kind of Evil thoughts there are some more hideous than others but yet every thought of him which is contrary or unsuitable to that representation which by such and such glorious Attributes he hath made to us of Himself in his holy Word that I call a profane Thought or when we conceive of Almighty God under some gross form or material shape or entertain any vile mean or indeed any but the Highest conceptions that we are able of him God is in himself an Infinite Almighty and Incomprehensible Spirit And tho' he hath sometimes in the Scriptures describ'd and represented himself to us by material figures or sensible objects yet we are not to think that he is really such as he is describ'd but that he condescends to our capacity by such a Style and Language And any other Method of instructing us in the nature of himself would not be so Intelligible to us God useth this as an easy and familiar way of teaching us to know him without which our Notions of him would be very obscure and we could know but little of him And therefore I cannot but wonder at the imprudence and Luciferian pride of such Men who deny all Mysteries and pretend to know GOD so as perfectly to comprehend him by the dim light of Natural Reason alone Thus is GOD represented to us sometimes as having Hands Feet Eyes and such like organical parts Not that he hath truly such as the old Hereticks the Anthropomorphites held and the Romanists now depict him but we are to understand them in a figurative sence His Hands and his Feet betoken his Power his Eyes his Knowledge and Favour c. And therefore to think of him under any material figure is a profane thought
we not think that this is a too common occasion of profane and blasphemous Thoughts If I am not sollicitous to form my heart aright and bring my Thoughts of the Great GOD into a due frame and temper of Devotion while I am worshipping him and in his more solemn and immediate presence It naturally leads me as well provokes GOD to leave me to gross profane and impious Thought of him When a Man therefore is about to perform his Duty of Devotion to God either in publick or private let him endeavour to fix in his Heart such Thoughts of him as may exceedingly awe and compose him and not be indevout and formal in his addresses to Heaven and I verily think this may be a very proper means to preserve him from profane or blasphemous Thoughts which otherwise 't is reasonable to expect will grow upon him Fourthly Discontent and a worldly anxiety is that which how far soever it may at first seem from it very much conduceth to profane and blasphemous Thoughts of God And there is a great deal in that expression of the Apostle If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him There are no persons more apt to arraign the Wisdom and Goodness of God in the distributions of his Providence than such to conceive not only indecent angry and false but profane and blasphemous Notions of him None more apt to follow the desperate advice of Job's Wife Curse God and die than such wordly repining discontented wretches as place all their Heaven here And that this is true I think is a matter sufficiently plain by our own experience and 't is easy to produce instances not a few And therefore to be humble contented and blessing God not charging him foolishly or thinking of him unworthily in every state and condition I look upon to be part of the means in order to the avoiding profane and blasphemous thoughts Another Rule which may be observ'd to this end is That when at any time we are assaulted with such profane Thoughts we immediately with a Sacred fear cast them out of our Minds For profane or blasphemous Thoughts are especially such as we should not stay to argue or dispute with And therefore we find that tho' our Blessed Lord thought fit to argue with the Devil in other Temptations yet when he suggesteth profane Thoughts of God to him our Saviour seems to vary in his defence and immediately bids him be gone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Get thee hence Satan c. And then 't is said The Devil left him and behold Angels came and ministred unto him Whenever therefore this happens to be your case that you are troubled with such horrid profane or blasphemous Thoughts of God immediately cast them out do not let your Mind dwell upon them one moment But do with this kind of evil Thoughts in particular as you were taught to do in the VII Direction for the Well-governing our Thoughts in general In the next place it is advisable that at that time when we are assaulted with them we send up an Ejaculation to Heaven and lift up our Hearts to God in a short Prayer that he would be pleas'd to cleanse our Hearts of them and preserve us from them When any such abominable Thought presents it self to thee cry out O Lord keep me O Lord save me O Lord let not the Devil have advantage over me Lord I desire to love and adore thee with all my heart with all my soul and with all my might O Lord thou knowest that I am grieved at such Thoughts as these and earnestly desire to have my Thoughts of thee to be such as these Blessed Spirits entertain who are continually in thy blissful presence c. And not only in ejaculatory but in our set Prayers and constant Devotions should we offer them up to God purge and acquit our selves of them in his sight and lay open the sincere and vehement desires of our Souls to be rid of them And by this means it is hop'd that we shall at length be free'd from them Tho' they may not presently depart from us but continue to molest us even in our very Prayers and most Solemn Duties as they often will Tho' Almighty God may suffer them to be injected into our Mind for wise and beneficial ends which are unseen as no doubt he frequently doth yet I think this is what very well becomes one that is afflicted with profane or blasphemous Thoughts and a proper way to ease his Mind of them Again In order to the remedying profane and blasphemous Thoughts have a special reverence of the Name of GOD. Never hear it mentioned without a Sacred Veneration and Awe upon thy Soul Let thy Heart bow down at the mention of him Never let his Name be in thy mouth but with Devotion nor ever hear others pronounce it rashly or profanely in common swearing or cursing without an holy dread and if it may be done effectually a sober Reproof A customary and heedless naming the Name of GOD leads to profaneness and encourageth blasphemous Thoughts of him And therefore 't is a dangerous evil to have the Name of GOD or CHRIST in our mouths slightly or jestingly or upon any frivolous occasion or in the repetition of a Story c. The Apostle saith That at the name of JESVS every knee should bowe of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth All the Heavenly Host pay a most profound Reverence to that Name which Men prostitute and make so vile And until we endeavour to imitate their adorations we shall not easily be preserved from such Thoughts as are horridly profane It is hard to imagine how that Person can be kept from thinking unworthily of God who makes nothing of using his Name in his common Discourse or upon the most petty occasions One Rule more which I would recommend to the purpose in hand is this Labour to know GOD if thou wouldst think highly and worthily of him The Knowledge of God is a proper Remedy against profane Thoughts Now there is a Knowledge of God which we may not seek after as to know his Essence his Decrees c. To endeavour so to know him is a vain as well as a presumptuous thing as was hinted before in this Chapter But there is a Knowledge of God which we may and ought to make our Search and Study viz. The Knowledge of his glorious Attributes his Will and Commandments and these things that in his Word he hath revealed on purpose to be known in order to Man 's present happiness and future perfection Such a Knowledge of him as this every good Man will earnestly endeavour after and use all means of attaining and the rather because it is indeed an expedient of avoiding such profane Thoughts of God as many are grievously troubled with Ignorance is here so far from being the mother of Devotion that nothing more tends
and quench the fire of concupiscence in us that our Souls and Bodies may be the Temple of God We must imitate the poor Leper in the Gospel Who fell down at Jesus's feet and worshipped him saying Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean 'T is no easy matter to subdue this kind of evil thoughts in some Complexions But the difficulty of so doing is greatest to such as have liv'd in an habit of lust and uncleanness and therefore we must call in the assistance of Heaven by constant and devout Prayer Secondly Temperance and Fasting is a proper Remedy for the suppressing of this kind of Evil Thoughts While the Soul and the Body are so united and make up one Compositum the operations of the Soul will be greatly inclin'd and byass'd by the Complexion and Constitution of the Body and therefore that must be kept in due order and subjection A pampering and indulging the Flesh is a great promoter of Lust and when the Animal Spirits are intoxicated the Soul can but feebly exert it self A Man can hardly preserve himself then from the grossest acts of uncleanness much less from impure Thoughts And therefore Temperance and Self-denial are always necessary in order to avoiding unclean Thoughts which as our Saviour said of the unclean Devil Go not out but by Fasting and Prayer The Mind is calm and serene when the Body is in a regular temper A Man is fit to meditate and think on God and Heaven and holy things when he is sober and moderate And the reason of Fasting's being made a Duty is in order to tame the insolencies of the Flesh to keep the Thoughts pure the Reason clear and to make us more fit for Religious Duties Upon which account the Duties of Self-denial and Mortification are not so severe as they may sometimes seem to us but highly reasonable Since the denial of the gratifications of our sensual and low desires doth bring satisfaction to the higher appetites of the Soul since while the Body is kept in due subjection the Soul's liberty and activity is much the greater And besides Heaven is worth striving and denying our selves for if it were a work much more harsh and unpleasant than it is If this will denominate us of the number of Christ's true Disciples certainly we should not stick at it And that it will do so our Blessed Lord hath assur'd us If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Men will restrain their appetites and deny themselves in a great measure for some temporal and worldly ends why should they not do it then to gain eternal Happiness St. Paul tells us that in the ancient Grecian Games call'd the Olympick Games these that were the Strivers or Combatants for the Prize would be sure to mortify themselves and keep to a strict and sparing Diet thereby to bring down their Flesh and make their Bodies pliant and Athletick And all that they could hope to get by it was only a Garland of flowers and a little frivolous honour And therefore if they would be at the pains to do so much for a Reward not worth a naming how much more should we do it in order to the avoiding unclean thoughts and impure desires which will not only hinder us in our Striving for Heaven but unqualify us for it Thus the Apostle argues Every one that striveth for the Mastery is temperate in all things Now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown but we an incorruptible I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air But I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection least that by any means when I have preached to others I may not my self be a cast-away The Third Remedy against unclean thoughts is the Consideration that they are of a defiling nature They leave a strange pollution and filth behind them and if indulg'd very strongly incline to actual uncleanness It is a dangerous thing to cherish thoughts of this kind to delight in them and dwell upon them For there are none more apt to grow usurping and ungovernable by entertainment than these They do moreover mightily unfit us for holy Duties They weaken the Powers of the Soul to a great degree and therefore as we value our Souls as we esteem Heaven into which no unclean thing shall enter let us labour to avoid them and this Consideration is proper in order thereunto Fourthly Keeping a strict guard over all our Sences is here particularly necessary For 't is by the Sences that lust invades the Soul And therefore unless we have a special regard to them we cannot preserve our Souls from being polluted Our Eyes therefore should be turn'd away from all forbidden objects our Ears be deaf to all obscene discourses and the rest of our Sences shun every thing that may have the least tendency to this kind of evil Thoughts A vain curiosity to be a spectator hath sometimes proved fatal especially in two Instances in the Scriptures And one unguarded Sence hath e're now proved a Man's destruction Therefore if we will approve our selves to God in sincerity and are desirous to attain a right Government of our Thoughts and avoid this kind of them especially we must be sure to keep a strict watch over all our Sences Fifthly An having recourse to the Blood of JESUS is a great preservative against and cure of unclean Thoughts This was the Practise of a devout Person Cum me pulsat aliqua turpis cogitatio statim recurro ad vulnera Christi sanabor i.e. When I am assaulted by any impure thoughts I have immediate recourse to the Wounds of Christ and I shall be healed Therefore when any filthy imagination comes into thy Heart let thy Mind presently divert from it to Christ Jesus hanging on the Cross Imagine that thou sawest his precious Blood streaming fourth and pray to God that thy Soul ma be cleans'd therein Especially flie to the Bethesda of his Blood in the Sacrament for all the diseases of thy Soul but this of Unclean Thoughts in particular The Sacrament is a Purifying and strengthening ordinance if we come to it rightly prepared And 't is most commonly for want of a devout Preparation that we find not the happy effects of it The Sacrament is our Spiritual Armour against all the Darts of the Devil against all his impure suggestions and temptations And if we come to it with a truly penitent sincere and humble Heart tho' this kind of wicked Thoughts or any other should infest us even while we are at the Lord's Table yet our merciful and gracious God will accept our sincere tho' mean endeavours and at length grant us that purity which we are so sensible we want and so earnestly pray for that we may be able to serve him without distraction and worship him with our whole Souls and unmixed affections Another Remedy against
Fear or some Temporal consideration may keep a Man from executing his revenge but in order to the preserving himself from wicked uncharitable Thoughts which are hateful in the sight of God and highly punishable the consideration of our own Demerit is a proper expedient And here we cannot but fall down in adoration of the forbearance and longanimity of a provoked God towards us miserable offenders We cannot but with the deepest convictions acknowledge that we have offended GOD infinitely more than any have offended us The dignity of His Person is a transcendent aggravation of every sin be it what it will And this is a very perswasive motive for us to overlook all Injuries and Affronts which how great soever they may be in themselves are yet comparatively petty and inconsiderable ones 'T is a piece of great presumption for any Person to have Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us in his Mouth while he harbours envious malicious or uncharitable thoughts in his Heart And whosoever duly considers himself and what a sinful unworthy Creature he is And he would do well here to call to mind some of his greatest sins will not easily cherish any rancorous or invidious Thoughts long nay not suffer the sun to go down upon his wrath It may cool our incens'd or uncharitable thoughts if when they are apt to arise in our Heart we consider on that perfect love union and sincere affection that there is among all the Blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven and that if ever we would come to Heaven we must be like them One Heart and one Soul animates all the Inhabitants of Glory There is not the least opposition or variation in their desires or affections Every one of the Blessed is unspeakably dear to all the rest God is love St. John tells us and his radiant likeness is stamp'd upon every glorify'd Soul which makes it surpassingly fair and beautiful Love 't is the Epitome of happiness And as it is the cement of this Creation which keeps all the parts of it in an harmonious order so 't is the glory and beauty of Heaven And whosoever he be that retains the least Grudge or uncharitable Suspicion or revengeful Thought is unfit to live among these affectionate Spirits and to receive the transporting Illapses of the Divine and infinite Love Which consideration should effectually banish every malicious or uncharitable thought out of our Hearts And indeed this kind of evil thoughts is such as we must by no means esteem slight and inconsiderable They often produce very sad effects when encouraged they run Men into horrible extremes Besides that they greatly hinder us in doing our Duty acceptably and are so displeasing to God that they render all pretences to Religion vain and insignicant and blast the best of our Sacrifices and the choicest gift that we bring to the altar And therefore we cannot but think our selves oblig'd to mortify and subdue them and never suffer our selves to be at rest until we find in us a real and universal Reconciliation and an undissembled Love and Charity to all the World In order to which there are some other Rules to be observ'd As divesting our selves of an immoderate Self-love which is apt to stick to most Men avoiding Pride and Partiality Constant Prayer c. But I hope these that I have mentioned may put you upon enquiring after the rest CHAP. VIII THere is hardly any thing that is a greater occasion of affliction to us and that more deprives us of that Spiritual Comfort which we hope for from the Service of God than the Inconstancy and Wandring of our Thoughts while we are imploy'd about Holy things And therefore I shall in this Chapter endeavour to lay before you such Remedies against Wandring Thoughts as I hope may not be in vain This kind of evil thoughts doth in its compass take in all other kinds of them For sometimes our Wandring Thoughts are profane and blasphemous sometimes wanton and obscene and sometimes idle and foolish c. Now these Wandring Thoughts when we are imploy'd about Holy things are in a great measure owing to our selves and there is much in our power in order to their cure We will consider what are the principal occasions of them and that will direct us to the Remedies against them First then Wandring thoughts are oftentimes occasion'd by a want of Preparation to Holy duties We carelesly and temerariously rush on to the performance of them We think indeed that they must be done but yet consider not as we ought the manner of doing them We go to our Prayers as to our Secular affairs and make but little difference between the most solemn and ordinary actions of our Life Which is oftentimes the cause why our Thoughts wander and scatter and so we reap but little comfort or advantage from our best performances 'T is expedient then and our duty before ever we engage in any set performance of the Worship of God that we prepare our selves by some previous Thoughts and pious Dispositions that so we may come to our duty in a right manner That our Souls may be prepossess'd and fitted for the service of God We think it too bold and presuming to thrust our selves into the presence of an Earthly Prince without due consideration And therefore surely it cannot be thought less to approach the face of the Infinite GOD without a solemn composure of Spirit and a preparation of Thought But besides the evil of so doing the Natural consequence of it is to make our Thoughts loose and wandring And unless we set about holy Duties with a due preparation of Mind it can hardly be conceiv'd how it should be otherwise When therefore we draw nigh unto God in the way of his worship either in our Closets or Families or in the Publick Assemblies of the Church and especially in the last of these 't is our Duty to dispose our hearts before-hand and to settle them in a due frame of Devotion because our deportment when we are actually engag'd in it doth mâ—ghtily depend thereon Thus the Preacher Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few This Rule in order to the avoiding wandring Thoughts may be but little minded but it is nevertheless useful Secondly Want of Intention and settling the Mind on God in the actual performance of holy Duties is another great occasion of the wandring of our Thoughts therein What is the reason of our complaints that we do not hear the Word of God to our Spiritual comfort and advantage pray with that fervour of Devotion praise him with that enlargement of Soul and have
fighting with them as long as we live 'T is impossible I think that we should be totally free'd from them in this fluid Medium in this state of frailty and corruption that the Mind should be quite cleansed of these annoyances But yet we are to consider that our Life is a continual warfare and our condition here a state of imperfection and that therefore we are not to despair as if we had done no good because we have not attain'd to what this Life cannot afford But to comfort our selves with this viz. that if in Obedience to God's Commands we maintain the Combat and fight against them and use such Remedies as are prescrib'd God will accept of our Endeavours pass by our Infirmities and grant us at last a Compleat Victory in Heaven above which alone is CONSVMMATION Where we shall be free from bodily weaknesses which many times greatly administer to such and indeed I think to most other Evil thoughts and from all the feeblenesses and impotencies of the Mind From all vain and enticing Objects from without and from all the treachery of Corruption from within From every wanton Glance every vain Imagination and every idle Thought CHAP. IX WE are now come to the last kind of evil Thoughts which I shall more particularly handle in this Treatise viz. Sad melancholy or despairing Thoughts And in order to our taking a true observation of these and applying proper Remedies against them we are to take notice That the occasion of these Thoughts is partly in the habit and constitution of the Body This is undeniable to any Person that hath made but the least Observation in things of this nature For these Persons who are most of all troubled with this kind of Evil Thoughts for such they are to be reckon'd are hypochondriacal and hysterical People and whose Constitution is impaired by some bodily Disease and therefore the Remedies against them must be partly Natural and partly Spiritual But yet I hope I shall not be thought to trespass if I happen to speak a word or two of the former Dea bona valetudo Health is the greatest of Temporal Mercies and that without which we can but weakly prosecute our Spiritual concerns 'T is the Soul of Life and as we can never be too thankful to God for it so every act of Excess whereby it is impair'd is a greater sin than Men are aware Because 't is the great advantage of Health and Vigour of Body that it renders us capable of serving God and of duly preparing our selves for the eternal enjoyment of him Every Disease hath an influence upon the Soul and the indispositions of the Body do and will affect the Mind notwithstanding all the Dreams of the Stoicks But of all the diseases incident to Humane Bodies that of Melancholy deserves most to be pitied It should not be slighted with the reproachful names of Whimsey and mere Fancy 'T is a great injury done to Persons who are affected with it to disregard their complaints and laugh at their Miferies Tho' they should not indulge them yet some pity is due to them Did they but know the woe and anguish the terrour and amazement that they endure could they but be sensible of half their misery they could not chuse but pity them An Hypochondriacal or Hysterical Person that is deeply affected with the disease is an Object that as well deserves compassion as any other whatsoever And if I should endeavour to give you an adequate description of that Malady 't would fill a Volume What an infinite variety of evil Thoughts of all kinds are the effects of it which being in a great measure owing to the Disease the hurry of the Imaginations following that of the Animal Spirits There are some Natural Remedies to be made use of For which I must leave you to the Learned in Nature who will tell you that very much depends upon Observation and Exercise That to be morigerous and moderate in eating and drinking and to be much in bodily exercise but not violent is most proper advice If a Person hath but the vertue to be regular in his way of Living and the patience to continue bodily exercise he doth a great deal towards making his Life more easy and his thoughts more comfortable For every thing that tends to make the Blood and Spirits lively regular and vigorous tends to dispel the blackness and heaviness of the Thoughts Which therefore whoever is so unhappy as to be afflicted with Melancholy must study he must I say apply himself to the use of such things as tend to cherish his Blood and exalt his Spirits To which all vicious extremes are directly contrary The Learned Physicians will also tell you That none are more voracious of Medicines than melancholy Persons but that their desire in that is no more to be indulg'd than in many other things and that there may be too much as well as too little But I am gone too far this way I would only have it observ'd That sad melancholy and even despairing Thoughts are sometimes the consequences of this disease for such it is as much as a Fever or any other And therefore the Pysician must be consulted But altho' the Infirmities of the Body do very much conduce to such Thoughts as these yet we should be mindful that there is the hand of GOD in them too And not so to lay the blame upon Natural Indisposition as to have no other Thoughts about it We may not think that this case is purely Physical and that therefore there is no need of any Spiritual Remedies For there is The first of which that I conceive to be proper is a strict and faithful Ezamination of our own selves We must call Our-selves to an account search into our own Hearts and Lives and-see what we have been and done And perhaps we may find some great and wilful Sin that we have been guilty of or some wrong or injustice that we continue in which happens to be the cause of all our blackness and sadness And these dismall Thoughts which so affright us are no other than the checks of our own Conscience which is a faithful Monitor and Adviser and impartially censures and judges all our Actions The Good that we do it approves of commends and applauds in us But no wilful sin can escape its lashes and bitter reproaches It s authority is an Emblem of the Almighty's Power and Omniscience and its Sentence Praejudicium ultimi judicii It will in spight of the Sinner set his sins in order before him and fill him with horrour and trembling and fearful Thoughts which if they arise from hence there is no remedy but Repentance Nothing but the Tears of a Godly Sorrow can ease his heavy Heart And renewed resolutions of watchfulness and a more diligent Obedience for the time to come are the best expedient to remove the blackness and sadness that is upon his Soul And when the Sinner hath truly
time tempts thee to despair of GOD's Mercy and to think that thou art eternally wretched or hast committed the unpardonable Sin shew him the Gospel oppose to his Temptations the Glorious Mystery of Man's Redemption by Jesus Christ. Set before him the Noble Design and the most generous overture of the Gospel And that will be a means to aggravate his Despair but to comfort and support thee who art within that Covenant which He is not Christ came into the World to save thee He died to satisfy the Justice of GOD for thee He rose again for our justification He is gone into Heaven to intercede with God continually in thy behalf and to procure all manner of good for thee He is God all powerful all-sufficient and most merciful What an affront then is it to such a Redeemer to yield to black and despairing Thoughts What a Reproach cast upon his Merit and Satisfaction and a cowardly and pusillanimous disowning of his power and goodness and a diffidence in his Veracity and the authentickness of his gracious Promises The Application of the Sweet and precious Promises containâ—d in the word of God is also a proper expedient against this kind of evil Thoughts As the Scripture contains terrible and severe Threatnings to deter secure and stubborn Sinners so it is a Treasure of most comfortable Promises for the support and stay of Mournful and Timerous Souls Without which indeed it would be sometimes an hard matter for poor Christians to bear up under the Thoughts of an approaching Eternity and to resist the furious assaults and the fiery darts of the Devil Almighty God hath therefore engag'd his Veracity that if we fear him and keep his Commandments live according to the plain Rules of the Gospel and believe we shall be assuredly happy and blessed In order to which he hath also liberally promised all such supplies of Grace and Assistance as we shall at any time need These Promises therefore we should firmly believe and lay hold on and apply to our selves when we are at any time haunted with such desperate injections as we are speaking of In vain have Christians this Spiritual Armory and Magazine if they let these Weapons of war lie unus'd Ah! but says the Disconsolate and Drooping Soul I am satisfy'd of the Goodness of God of the Infinite Merit of Jesus Christ that He was an Inestimable Oblation for Sin and a Sacrifice of transcendent value but oh I fear that the vertue of that great Sacrifice belongs not to me But hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all them that truly turn to him Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden with the burden of your sins and I will refresh you So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that all that believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life I believe also saith the Desponding Soul the exceeding great and precious Promises I am fully persuaded that in Christ all the promises of God are Yea and Amen And that Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one tittle of God ' s word shall pass away But these Promises do not appertain to me I have forfeited all Title and Claim to them and therefore oh am certainly lost and undone for ever But let me beseech thee whoever thou art that art depress'd with such Thoughts as these to beware and consider That this is a bold and a peremptory Sentence which thou passest on thy self Such a Sentence as none of all the created Beings can affirm 'T is the suggestion of the most desperate Being the Enemy of our Souls and what finite Being can without the height of Presumption pass such a Sentence upon any Person which too is so far from being true that it is utterly false For the gracious Promises of the Gospel are offered to all whatsoever none are excepted And every one that will lay hold of them hath a title to them provided he comes up to the conditions on which they are establish'd And therefore in God's Name hearken no longer to such terrifying Thoughts but let this still the boistrous and troubled sea spread a calm over thy Mind and stir thee up to a devout Application of the Blessed Promises of God to thy own sinful Soul Constant and devout Prayer is here also absolutely necessary Pray we therefore that God would quiet and still our hurried and affrighted Spirits That he would in mercy be pleas'd to give us a right Understanding of our selves his Promises and Threatnings that we may not cast away our Confidence in him nor place it any where but in him That God would vouchsafe to deliver us from the terrours of Satan who is by St. Peter stil'd A roaring Lion walking about seeking whom he may devour That he would scatter these black Clouds and Mists which overspread our Souls with the light of his countenance and shine in upon our drooping sorrowful and sick Souls That the Sun of Righteousness may arise upon us with healing in his wings and that the Lord would grant us that inward joy and peace of Conscience which the World cannot give and which passeth all understanding That he would no longer hide his face from us but shew us some glimpse of his favour which is better than the life it self That he would heal all the diseases and infirmities both of our Souls and Bodies that the bones which he hath broken may rejoyce Is any among you afflicted saith St. James let him pray Then especially is a proper time to seek God's face Call upon me saith God in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me Ah! but I cannot pray I cannot perform any holy Duty or fix to any one part of Religion I no sooner retire into my Closet or kneel down upon my knees but a thousand terrours infest me so that I think 't were better to let Devotion alone then to perform it no better Ah! Lord But let me ask thee Dost thou do thy utmost dost thou sincerely desire to do thy duty and to please God and dost thou put a force upon thy self sometimes to perform the Duty of Prayer or any other holy Duty tho' it be with many interruptions and distractions Continue to do so for by so doing thou wilt approve thy self unto GOD who seeth thy Heart and in all probability thy fears and terrours will by degrees vanish these sad and dismal Thoughts will lessen and at length quite leave thee GOD is a God hearing Prayers He will be sought to in our distresses and implored in our afflictions Say then with the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou so disquieted within me hope thou in God pray to him for I shall yet praise him who is the help of my countenance and my God Again To prevent these sad dejected or despairing Thoughts we are speaking of we