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perhaps be increased ; if your desires are strong to secure the things of this life unto you and yours ; if the daily coia- trivance of your minds be not how you may attain a con- stant resignation 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 spi- ritually minded.
If any therefore shall say, that they would abound more in spiritual 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 whetlier he will or no ; at least if he be wise he will so do ; nor will he always be complaining of their smart, but inquire into their causes and seek their removal. Yet are there some distem- pers, 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 temptations, the cause of all spi- ritual 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 insensiblty 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 occasioned 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
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at least whereby men come to have 'eyes full of adultery,' 2 Pet. ii. 14. or live in constant contemplation of the plea- sures of sin. 2. They arise and are occasioned by re- newed 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. vii. 21. Prov. xxiii. 31. Against this is that prayer of the psalmist, * turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity;' and the covenant of Job, chap. xxxi. 1. 2. Imaginary, 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. xiii. 14. 3. From the suggestions of Satan, who useth all his wiles and artifices to stir up thoughts about that sin whereunto the temptation leads. And temp- tation seldom fails of its end, when it can stir up a multi- tude 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 restraints, for the commission of actual sin. When men have so devised 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 in case of temptation, end them in complacency 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 per- sons have entered with a resolution to punish sin, and liave been ensnared by the occasion unto the commission of the sin they thought to punish. Wherefore, it is seldom that
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the mind of any one exercised with an actual temptation, is able safely to conflict with it, if it entertain abiding thouo;hts of the matter of it, or of the sin whereunto it leads. For sin hath ' mille uocendi artes,' and is able to transfuse its poison into the affections from every thing it hath once made a bait of, especially if it hath 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, he 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. Wherefore, whilst persons are exercised with any tempta- tion, I do not advise them to be conversant in their thoughts about the matter of it. For sometimes remem- brances of former satisfaction of their lusts, sometimes present surprisals, with the suitableness of it unto corrup- tion not yet mortified, sometimes the craft of Satan fixing their imagination on it, will be too hard for them, and carry them unto a fresh compliance with that sin, which they would be delivered from.