rence of them, and cliide thy soul sharply for so much as holding conference with them, of which nought can come but dishonour to God, and mischief to thy own soid ; and stir up thy heart to mourn for the evil neighhoiu-hood of them, and by this thou shalt give a testimony of thy faithfulness to God. When David mourned for Abner, all Israel, it is said, ' understood that day, that it was not of the king to slay Abner:' thy mourning for them will show these thoughts are not so much of thee, as of Satan.
Secondly, If they be not broadly wicked, inquire whether they be not empty, frothy, vain imaginations, that have no subserviency to the glory of God, thy own good, or others' ; and if so, leave not till thou hast made thyself apprehen- sive of Satan's design on thee in them ; though such are not for thy purpose, yet they are for his, they serve his turn to keep thee from better. All the water is lost that i-uns beside the mill, and all thy thoughts are waste which help thee not to do God's work withal in thy general or particular calling. The bee will not sit on a flower where no honey can be sucked, neither should the Christian. Why sittest thou here idle, thou shouldest say to thy soul, when thou hast so much to do for God and thy soul, and so little time to despatch it in .'
Thirdly, If thovi findest they are good for matter thy heart is busied abo\it, then inquire whether they be good for time and manner, which, being wanting, they degenerate.
First, For the season ; that is good fruit which is brought forth in its season. Christ liked the work his mother would have put him upon as well as herself, (John ii.) but his time was not come. Good thoughts and meditations misplaced, ai-e like some interpretations of Scripture, good truths, but bad expositions ; they fit not the place they are drawn from, nor these the time. To pray when we should hear, or be musing on the sermon when we should pray, this is to rob God one way to pay him another.
Secondly, Carefully observe the maimer. Thy heart may meditate a good matter, and spoil it in the doing. Thou art, may be, musing of thy sins, and affecting thy heart into a sense of them, but so, that while thou art stirring up thy sorrow, thou weakenest thy faith on the promise, that is thy sin. He is a bad surgeon, that in opening a vein goes so deep that he cuts an artery, and lames the arm, if not kills the man. Or thou art thinking of thy family and providing for that. This thou oughtest to do, and art worse than an infidel if thou neglectest ; but perhaps these thoughts are so distracting and distrustful as if thei-e were no promise, no providence to relieve thee. God takes this ill, because it reflects upon his care of thee. O how near doth our duty here stand to our sin ! so much care is necessary ballast to the soul ; a little more sinks it under the waves of unbelief; like some things very wholesome, but one degree more of hot or cold would make them poison.
CHAPTER VIII.
HOW SATAN LABOURS TO CORRUPT THE CHRISTIAN'S MIND WITH ERROR.
The second sort of spiritual sins are svich as are not only acted in tlie spirit, but are conversant about spiritual objects proper to the soul's nature, that is a spirit, and not laid out in carnal passions of fleshly lusts, in which the soul acts but as a pander for the body, and partakes of their delights only by way of sympathy ; for as the soul feels the body's pains no other way than by sym- pathy, so neither doth it share in the pleasures of the flesh by any proper taste it hath of them, but, only from its near neighbom'hood with the body, doth sym- pathize with its joy ; but in spiritual wickednesses that corrupt the mhid, here the soul moves in its own sphere, with a delight proper to itself; and there are no less of these than the other. There is hardly a fleshly lust, but hath some spiritual sin analogical to it ; as they say there is no species of creatures on the land, but may be patterned in the sea : thus the heart of man can produce spi- ritual sins answering carnal lusts ; for whoredom and uncleanness of the flesh, there is idolatry, called in Scripture spiritual adultery, from which the seat of Antichrist is called spiritual Sodom ; for sensual drunkenness, there is a drun- kenness of the mind, intoxicating the judgment with error ; a drunkenness of
AC.AINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS. 133