8. *These occasions of wandering thoughts lie within, are wrought into our very nature. But they will likewise naturally and necessarily arise, from the various impulse of _outward objects_. Whatever strikes upon the organ of sense, the eye or ear, will raise a perception in the mind. And accordingly, whatever we see or hear, will break in upon our former train of thought. Every man therefore that does any thing in our sight, or speaks any thing in our hearing, occasions our mind to wander more or less from the point it was thinking of before.
9. *And there is no question but those _evil spirits_, who are continually _seeking whom they may devour_, make use of all the foregoing occasions, to hurry and distract our minds. Sometimes by one, sometimes by another of these means, they will harass and perplex us, and so far as God permits, interrupt our thoughts, particularly when they are engaged on the best subjects. Nor is this at all strange: they well understand the very springs of thought, and know on which of the bodily organs, the imagination, the understanding, and every other faculty of the mind more immediately depends. And hereby they know, how by affecting those organs, to affect the operations dependent on them. Add to this, that they can inject a thousand thoughts, without any of the preceding means: it being as natural for spirit to act upon spirit, as for matter to act upon matter. These things being considered, we cannot admire, that our thought so often wanders from any point which we have in view.
III. 1. What kind of wandering thoughts are sinful, and what not, is the third thing to be inquired into. And first, all those thoughts which wander from God, which leave him no room in our minds, are undoubtedly sinful. For all these imply practical atheism, and by these we are without God in the world. And so much more are all those which are contrary to God, which imply opposition or enmity to him. Such are all murmuring, discontented thoughts, which say in effect, We will not have thee to rule over us: all unbelieving thoughts, whether with regard to his being, his attributes, or his providence. I mean his _particular providence_ over all things as well as all persons in the universe: that _without_ which _not a sparrow falls to the ground_, by which _the hairs of our head are all numbered_. For as to a _general providence_ (vulgarly so called) contradistinguished from a particular, it is only a decent, well-sounding word, which means just nothing.
2. Again. All thoughts which spring from sinful tempers, are undoubtedly sinful. Such, for instance, are those that spring from a revengeful temper, from pride, or lust, or vanity. _An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit._ Therefore if the tree be evil, so must the fruit be also.
3. And so must those be, which either produce or feed any sinful temper: those which either give rise to pride or vanity, to anger or love of the world, or confirm and increase these or any other unholy temper, passion, or affection. For not only whatever flows from evil is evil, but also whatever leads to it; whatever tends to alienate the soul from God, and to make or keep it _earthly_, _sensual_, and _devilish_.
4. Hence even those thoughts which are occasioned by weakness or disease, by the natural mechanism of the body, or by the laws of vital union, however innocent they may be in themselves, do nevertheless become sinful, when they either produce or cherish and increase in us any sinful temper: suppose the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life. In like manner the wandering thoughts which are occasioned, by the words or actions of other men, if they cause or feed any wrong disposition, then commence sinful. And the same we may observe of those which are suggested or injected by the devil. When they minister to any earthly or devilish temper (which they do, whenever we give place to them, and thereby make them our own) then they are equally sinful, with the tempers to which they minister.