If it be inquired how the mind may be freed and cleared ef these perplexing, defiling imaginations, which arise from the urgency of some present temptation,—suppose about earthly affairs, or the like, —I say it will never be done by the most strict watch and resolution against them, nor by the most. resolute rejection of them. They will return with new violence and new pretences, though the soul hath promised itself a thousand times that so they should not do. There is but one way for the cure of this distemper, and this is a thorough mortification of the lust that feeds them and is fed by them. It i is to no purpose to shake off the fruit in this case unless we dig up the root. Every temptation designs the satisfaction of some lust of the flesh or of the mind. These evil thoughts and imaginations are the working of the temptation in the mind. There is no riddance of them, no conquest to be obtained over them, but by subduing the temptation ; and no subduing the temptation but by the mortification of the lust whose satisfaction it is designed unto. This course the apostle directs unto, Col. iii. 3, 5. That which he enjoins is, that we would not set our minds on the things of the earth, in opposition unto the things above; that is, that we would not fill our imagina- tions, and thereby our affections, with them. But what is the way
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whereby we may be enabled so to do?—that is, saith he, the wni- versal mortification of sin, verse 5.
For want of the wisdom and knowledge hereof, or for want of its practice, through a secret unwillingness to come up unto a full mor- tification of sin, some are galled and perplexed, yea, and defiled, with foolish and vain imaginations all their days; and although they prove not the dominion of sin, yet they will deprive the soul of that peace and comfort which otherwise it might enjoy.
But yet there is much spiritual skill and diligence required to dis- cover what is the true root and spring of the. foolish imaginations that may at any time possess the mind; for they lie deep in the heart, that heart which is deep and deceitful, and so are not easily discoverable. There are many other pretences of them. They do not directly bespeak that pride or those unclean lusts which they proceed from, but they make many other pretences and feign other ends; but the soul that is watehful and diligent may trace them to their original. And if such thoughts are strictly examined at any time, what is their design, whose work they do, what makes them so busy in the mind, they will confess the truth, both whence they came and what it isthey aim at. Then is the mind guided unto its duty; which is the extermination of the lust which they would make provision for.
(2.) Such imaginations are no evidence of the dominion of sin, in what degree soever they are, where they are afflictive, where they are a burden unto the soul, which it groans under and would be de- livered from. There is a full account given by the apostle of the - conflict between indwelling sin and grace, Rom. vii. And the things which he ascribes unto sin are not the first rising or involuntary motions of it, nor merely its inclinations and disposition; for the things ascribed unto it, as that it fights, rebels, wars, leads captive, acts as a law, cannot belong unto them. Nor doth he intend the out- ward acting or perpetration of sin, the doing, or accomplishing, or finishing of it; for that cannot befall believers, as the apostle declares, 1 John iii. 9. But it is the working of sin by these imaginations in the mind, and the engagement of the affections thereon, that he doth intend. Now, this he declares to be the great burden of the souls of believers, that which makes them think their condition wretched and miserable in some sort, and which they earnestly cry out for ’ deliverance from, Rom. vii. 24. This is the present case. These figments of the heart, these imaginations, will arise in the minds of men. ‘They will do so sometimes to a high degree. They will im- pose them on us with deceit and violence, leading captive unto the law of them. Where they are rejected, condemned, defied, they will return again while there is any vanity remaining in the mind or corruption in the affections. But if the soul be sensible of them,
524 OF THE DOMINION OF SIN AND GRACE.
if it labour under them, if it look on them as those that fight against its purity, holiness, and peace, if it pray for deliverance from them, they are no argument of the dominion of sin; yea, a great evidence unto the contrary may be taken from that firm opposition unto them which the mind is constantly engaged in.
(3.) They are not proofs of the dominion of sin when there is @ prevalent detestation of the lust from whence they proceed, and whose promotion they design, maintained in the heart and mind. I confess, sometimes this cannot be discovered, And all such various imaginations are but mere effects of the incurable vanity and insta- bility of our minds, for these administer continual occasion unto random thoughts; but, for the most part (as we observed before), they are employed in the service of some lust, and tend unto the satisfaction of it. They are that which is prohibited by the apostle: Rom. xii. 14, “Make not provision for the flesh.” And this may be discovered on strict examination. Now, when the mind is fixed in a constant detestation of that sin whereunto they lead, as it is sin against God, with a firm resolution against it, in all circum- stances that may occur, no proof can be thence taken for the domi- nion of sin.