Here lies the ground of their self-deceivings: They are professors of the gospel in a peculiar manner, they judge themselves believers, they hope they shall be saved, and have many evidences for it. But one negative evidence will render a hundred that are positive use-_ less. “ All these things have I done,” saith the young man. “ Yet lackest thou one thing,” saith the Saviour. And the want of that one rendered his “all things” of no avail unto him. Many things you have done, many things you do, many grounds of hope abide with you, neither yourselves nor others do doubt of your condition ; but are you spiritually minded? If this one thing be wanting, all the rest will not avail you; you have, indeed, neither life nor peace. And what grounds have you to judge that you are so, if the current
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of your thoughts lies in direct contrariety unto the present calls of God? If, at such a time as this is, your love to the world be such as ever it was, and perhaps increased; if your desires are strong to secure the things of this life unto you and yours; if the daily con- trivance of your minds be not how you may attain a constant resig- nation of yourselves and your all unto the will of God, which will not be done without much thoughtfulness and meditations on the reasons of it and motives unto it,—I cannot understand how you can judge yourselves to be spiritually minded.
If any, therefore, shall say that they would abound more in spiri- tual thoughts, only they know not what to fix them upon, I propose this in the first place, as that which will lead them unto the due performance of present duties.
2. The special trials and temptations of men call for the exercise of their thoughts in a peculiar manner with respect unto them. If a man hath a bodily disease, pain, or distemper, it will cause him to think much of it whether he will or no, at least, if he be wise he will so do; nor will he always be complaining of the smart, but he will in- quire into the causes, and seek their removal. Yet are there some distempers, as lethargies, which in their own nature take away all sense and thoughts of themselves; and some are of such a slow, secret progress, as hectic fevers, that they are not taken notice of;—but both these are mortal. And shall men be more negligent about the spiritual distempers of their souls, so as to have multiplied tempta- tions, the cause of all spiritual diseases, and take no thought about them? Is it not to be feared that where it is so, they are such as either in their own nature have deprived them of spiritual sense, or by their deceitfulness are leading on insensibly unto death eternal? Not to have our minds exercised about these things is to be stupidly secure, Prov. xxiii. 34, 35.
There is, I confess, some difficulty in this matter, how to exercise our thoughts aright about our temptations; for the great way of the prevalency of temptations is by stirring up multiplied thoughts about their objects, or what they do lead unto. And this is done or occa- sioned several ways:—(1.) From the previous power of lust in the- affections. This will fill the mind with thoughts. The heart will coin imaginations in compliance therewith. They are the way and means whereby lust draws away the heart from duty and enticeth unto sin, James i. 14; the means at least whereby men come to — have “eyes full of adultery,” 2 Pet. ii. 14, or to live in constant con- templation of the pleasures of sin. (2.) They arise and are occa- sioned by renewed representations of the object of sin. And this is twofold:—[1.] That which is real, as Achan saw the wedge of gold and coveted it, Josh. vil, 21; Prov. xxiii. 31. Against this is that
CHAP. V.] THE OBJECTS OF SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS. 313
prayer of the psalmist, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity ;”. f and the covenant of Job, chap. xxxi. 1. [2.] I: maginary, when the Imagination, being tainted or infected by lust, continually represents the pleasure of sin and the actings of it unto the mind. Herein do men “make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof,” Rom. xii 14, (3.) From the suggestions of Satan, who useth all his wiles and artifices to stir up thoughts about that sin whereunto the temp- tation leads. And temptation seldom fails of its end, when it can stir up a multitude of unprofitable thoughts about its object; for when temptations do multiply thoughts about sin, proceeding from some or all of these causes, and the mind hath wonted itself to give them entertainment, those in whom they are do want nothing but opportunities and occasions, taking off the power of outward re- straints, for the commission of actual sin. When men have so de- vised mischief, “they practise it” when it is “in the power of their hand,” Micah ii. 1. It is no way safe to advise such persons to have many thoughts about their temptations; they will all turn to their disadvantage.
I speak unto them only unto whom their temptations are their affliction and their burden. And such persons also must be very careful how they suffer their thoughts to be exercised about the matter of their temptation, lest it be a snare and be too hard for them. Men may begin their thoughts of any object with abhorrency - and detestation, and, if it be a case of temptation, end them in com- placency and approbation. The deceitfulness of sin lays hold on something or other that lust in the mind stays upon with delectation, and so corrupts the whole frame of spirit which began the duty. There have been instances wherein persons have entered with a re- solution to punish sin, and have been ensnared by the occasion unto the commission of the sin they thought to punish. Wherefore, it is seldom that the mind of any one exercised with an actual tempta- tion is able safely to conflict with it, if it entertain abiding thoughts of the matter of it or of the sin whereunto it leads; for sin hath “mille nocendi artes,” and is able to transfuse its poison into the affections from every thing it hath once made a bait of, especially if it have already defiled the mind with pleasing contemplations of it. Yea, oftentimes a man, that hath some spiritual strength, and therein engageth unto the performance of duties, if in the midst of them the matter of his temptation is so presented unto him as to take hold of his thoughts, in a moment, as if he had seen (as they say) Medusa’s head, is turned into a stone; his spirits are all frozen, his strength is gone, all actings of grace do cease, his armour falls from him, and he gives up himself a prey to his temptation. It, must be a new supply of grace that can give him any deliverance.