And, which is worse, a coiTupt desire of being great in the opinion of others creeps into the profession of religion, if we live in those places wherein it brings credit or gain. Men wiU sacrifice their very lives for vainglory. It is an evidence a man lives more to opinion and reputation of others than to conscience, when his grief is more for being disappointed of that approbation which he expects from men, than for his miscarriage to- wards God. It mars all in religion when we go about heavenly things with earthly affections, and seek not Christ in Christ, but the world. What is popery but an artificial frame of man's brain to please men's imaginations by outward state and pomp of ceremonies, like that golden image of Nebu- chadnezzar, wherein he pleased himself so, that, to have uniformity in wor- shipping the same, he compelled all, under pain of death, to fall down before it, Dan. iii. 6. This makes superstitious persons always cruel, be- cause superstitious devices are the brats of our own imagination, which we strive for more than for the purity of God's worship. Hence it is, likewise, that superstitious persons are restless (as the woman of Samaria) in their own spirits, as having no bottom, but fancy instead of faith.
§ n. Now, the reason why imagination works so upon the soul is, be- cause it stirs up the aflections answerable to the good or ill which it appre- hends, and our aflections stir the humours of the body, so that oftentimes both our souls and bodies are troubled hereby.
Things work upon the soul in this order: 1. Some object is presented. 2. Then it is apprehended by imagination as good and pleasing, or as evil and hurtful. 3. If good, the desire is carried to it with delight ; if evil, it is rejected with distaste, and so our aflections are stirred up suitably to our apprehension of the object. 4. Aflections stu' up the spirits. 5. The epirits raise the humours, and so the whole man becomes moved, and oftentimes distempered ; this falleth out by reason of the sympathy be-
180 THE soul's conflict.
tween the soul and body, whereby what oflfendeth one redoundeth to the hurt of the other.
And we see conceived* troubles have the same effect upon us as true. Jacob was as much troubled with the imagination of his son's death as if he had been dead indeed. Imagination, though it be an empty, windy thing, yet it hath real efiects. Superstitious persons are as much troubled for neglect- ing any voluntary service of man's invention, as if they had offended against the direct commandment of God. Thus superstition breeds false fears, and false fear brings true vexation. It transforms God to an idol, imagining him. to be pleased with whatsoever pleases ourselves, whenas we take it ill that those who are under us should take direction from themselves and not from us in that which may content us. Superstition is very busy, but all in vain. * In vain they worship me,' Mat. xv. 9, saith God. And how can it choose but vex and disquiet men, when they shall take a great deal of pains in vain, and, which is worse, to displease most in that wherein they think to please most. God blasteth all devised service with one demand, ' Who required these things at your hands ? ' Isa. i. 12. It were better for us to ask ourselves this question beforehand. Who required this ? Why do we trouble ourselves about that which we shall have no thank for? We should not bring God down to our own imaginations, but raise our imaginations up to God.
Now, imagination hurteth us, 1. By false representations. 2. By pre- venting reason, and so usurping a censure of things before our judgments try them, whereas the office of imagination is to minister matter to our under- standing to work upon, and not to lead it, much less mislead it, in any- thing. 3. By forging matter out of itself without ground ; the imaginary grievances of our hves are more than the real. 4. As it is an iU. instru- ment of the understanding to devise vanity and mischief.
§ III. The way to cure this malady in us is, 1. To labour to bring these risings of our souls into tlie obedience of God's truth and Spirit, 2 Cor. x. 5. For imagination, of itself, if ungoverned, is a wild and a ranging thing ; it "wrongs not only the frame of God's work in us, setting the baser part of a man above the higher, but it wrongs likewise the work of God in the crea- tures and everything else, for it shapes things as itself pleaseth ; it maketh evil good if it pleaseth the senses, and good evil if it be dangerous and dis- tasteful to the outward man, which cannot but breed an unquiet and an unsettled soul. As if it were n god, it can tell good and evil at its pleasure ; it sets up and pulls down the price of what it listeth. By reason of the distemper of imagination, the hfe of many is httle else but a dream. Many good men are in a long dream of misery, and many bad men in as long a dream of happiness, till the time of awaking come, and all because they are too much led by appearances. And as in a dream men are deluded with false joys and false fears, so here ; which cannot but breed an unquiet and an unsettled soul. Therefore, it is necessary that God, by his word and