(1.) We must distinguish between a time of temptation in some and the ordinary state of mind and affections in others. There may be a season wherein God, in his holy, wise ordering of all things towards us, and for his own glory, in his holy, blessed ends, may suffer a lust or corruption to break loose in the heart, to strive, tempt, suggest, tumultuate, unto the great trouble and disquietude of the mind and conscience; neither can it be denied but that, falling in conjunction with some vigorous temptation, it may proceed so far as to surprise the person in whom it is into actual sin, unto his defile- ment and amazement. In this case no man can say, “ I am tempted of God;” for “ God tempteth no man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” But yet temp- tations, of what sort soever they be, so far as they are afflictive, cor~
358 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. [PART I.
rective, or penal, are ordered and disposed by God himself; for there is no evil of that nature and he hath not done it. And where he will have the power of any corruption to be afflictive in any instance, two things may safely be ascribed to him:— :
[1.] He withholds the supplies of that grace whereby it might be effectually mortified and subdued. He can give in a sufficiency of efficacious grace to repel any temptation, to subdue any or all our lusts and sins; for he can and doth work in us to will and to do according to his pleasure. Ordinarily he doth so in them that be- lieve; so that although their lusts may rebel and war, they cannot defile or prevail. But unto the continual supplies of this actual pre- vailing grace he is not obliged. When it may have a tendency unto his holy ends, he may and doth withhold it. When, it may be, a proud soul is to be humbled, a careless soul to be awakened, an unthankful soul to be convinced and rebuked, a backsliding soul to be recovered, a froward, selfish, passionate soul to be broken and meekened, he can leave them for a season unto the sore exercise of a prevalent corruption; which, under his holy guidance, shall contri- bute greatly unto his blessed ends. It was so in the temptation of Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 7-9. If a man, through disorder and excesses, is contracting many habitual distempers of body, which gradually and insensibly tend unto his death, it may be an advantage to be cast into a violent fever, which threatens immediately to take away his life; for he will hereby be thoroughly awakened unto the consider- ation of his danger, and not only labour to be freed from his fever, but also for the future to watch against those disorders and excesses which cast him into that condition. And sometimes a loose, careless soul, that walks in a secure, formal profession, contracts many spiri- tual diseases, which tend unto death and ruin. No arguments or considerations can prevail with him to awaken himself, to “shake himself out of the dust,” and to betake himself unto a more diligent and humble walking before God. In this state, it may be, through the permission of God, he is surprised into some open, actual sin. Hereon, through the vigorous actings of an enlightened conscience, and the stirrings of any sparks of grace which yet remain, he is amazed, terrified, and stirs up himself to seek after deliverance.
[2.] God may and doth in his providence administer objects and occasions of men’s lusts, for their trial. He will place them in such relations, in such circumstances, as shall be apt to provoke their affections, passions, desires, and inclinations, unto those objects that are suited unto them.
In this state any lust will quickly get such power in the mind and affections as to manage continual solicitations unto sin. It will not only dispose the affections towards it, but multiply thoughts about
CHAP. VIII.] OBJECTS OF SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS IN HEAVEN. 359
it, and darken the mind as unto those considerations which ought to prevail unto its mortification. In this condition it is hard to con- ceive how God should be in the thoughts of man in a due manner. However, this state is very different from the habitual prevalency of any secret sin or corruption in the ordinary course of men’s walking in the world, and therefore I do not directly intend it.
If any one shall inquire how we may know this difference, namely, that is between the occasional prevalency of any lust or corruption , in conjunction with a temptation, and the power of sin in any in- stance habitually and constantly complied withal, or indulged in the mind, I answer,—
ist. It is no great matter whether we are able to distinguish between them or no; for the end why God suffers any corruption to be such a snare and temptation, such a thorn and brier, is, to awaken the souls of men out of their security, and to humble them for their pride and negligence. The more severe their apprehensions con- cerning it, the more effectual it will be unto this end and purpose. It is good, it may be, that the soul should apprehend more of what is sinful in it as it is a corruption than of what is afflictive in it as it is a temptation; for if it be conceived as a predominant lust, if there be any spark of grace remaining in the soul, it will not rest until in some measure it be subdued. It will also immediately put it upon a diligent search into itself, which will issue in deep self- abasement, the principal end designed. But,—