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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25421	The right government of thoughts, or, A discovery of all vain, unprofitable, idle, and wicked thoughts with directions for the getting, keeping, and governing of good thoughts, digested into chapters for the ease of the reader : whereunto are added four sermons / by ... John Angel ...	Angel, John, d. 1655.; T. B.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3162A; ESTC R13149	89,280	271

in all his employments a very embleme of vanity not only Haman in his decay and downfal but Salomon in all his royalty is but vanity inferiour to the very Lilly in the judgement of our Saviour Fourthly altogether vanity all that is in him or is his is but vanity and all vanity is in him all the sorts and kinds of vanity whatsoever from the very crown of his head unto the soles of his feet there is nothing in him but wounds and putrified sores full of corruption his heart is a Sea of vanity deceitful above all things his ratiocinations his imaginations vain and even evil from his youth up and continually his very tongue is a world of iniquity all his parts and powers composed as it were of vanity the holy Prophet making a full distribution of all humane good things and referring them to three heads 1. The goods of the mind 2. Of the body 3. Of fortune as they are called or of the external condition layeth a kind of vanity upon them all and exempteth them all from our glorying or rejoycing in Jer. 9. 23. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom yet is that the best estate of the mind let not the strong man glory in his strength yet that is the best estate of the body neither let the rich man glory in his riches yet that is the best estate of fortune as the Philosophers call it but let him that glorieth glory in that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord. Now for the surety or confirmation of this it is as certain and as sure as the Scripture can make it the second son of man that was born into the world did carry the very name and appellation of vanity for he was called Habel that is vanity but the truth of the thing it self agreeth to every mothers child no lesse than unto him every Adam is Habel in my Text I might refer you for the proof of this point unto the whole Book of Ecclesiastes where again and again and yet the third time of all things of all persons it is avouched that vanity of vanites they are all but vanity there is no profit in them under the Sun but the most pathetical to this you have in Psal 62. 9. where you have a Surely fixed before it too Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are as a lye to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter then vanity where not only the sons of Adam and those of an inferiour rank but even the sons of Ish of Noble and potent persons both sorts of them are vanity if there be any oddes or difference betwixt them herein it consisteth that the greater the better are in the worst case by how much a lye is worse then vanity poor mens vanity is engraven in their wants written with greater characters in their outward miserable conditions so that every one may read it they appear to be what they are but for great and noble persons by reason of their glorious outside they seem to be otherwise but are indeed no lesse vanity than the other their vanity is not so transparent but disguised and hidden under outward pomp and in this respect as also because we promise our selves in our selves so much from them our expectations are so often and so fouly disppointed they are rightly said to be a lye And mark what followeth to be layed in the ballance they are altogether lighter then vanity vanity which is lightnesse it self doth over-weigh them and that by reason of sin in them which being a moral vanity and the cause must needs turn the scales and lift up the natural vanity which is the effect this point may be further confirmed by the manifold resemblances in Scripture man being still compared to the vainest emptiest lightest things that are Whether heavenly earthly or humane of all the heavenly things he is resembled to the wind which is but a blast a fume a vapour a mist to a cloud and darkness so likewise compared to the basest of all earthly things to a beast that perisheth to a shadow a bubble the frost things most flitting and amongst humane things to a tale a sheperds tent a post a weavers shuttle a dream than which nothing is vainer Yea it is said that all the nations of the world put them together are lesse then nothing respectively to God in whom is no darknesse nor degree of vanity many such allusions do every where almost occurre in the sacred page the truth of which our daily experience doth plentifully ratifie for howsoever in prosperity men are so made drunk with sensual pleasures that neither they do discern nor feel themselves vanity yet in afflictions and miseries they begin to open their eyes and to confesse that all is but vanity the heathens though ignorant of the true cause of this yet by the very light of nature saw a glimpse hereof whence some of them delivered that it was best for men not to be born and the next soon to dye And do we not come weeping and wayling into the world Do we not live in it toyling and moyling eaten up with care distracted with feares and perplexed with a thousand griefs Dye we not groaning hath not vanity seised upon all estates conditions enterprises our bodies they are weak our form fragile our healths uncertain our lives flitting and posting away our hopes often disappointed our friends inconstant or or mortal at the best our honours faigned or failing our understandings blind our wills perverse our affections turbulent our senses subject to many deceits our whole man depraved our offices burdensome our profits bewitching our strength vain which must become as water spilt upon the ground Is not favour deceitful and beauty but vanity Proverbs 31. 30. which must be turned into rottennesse and loathsomnesse our pleasure mixt and unsincere yea our very thoughts and imaginations which are the very sirst-born of the soule and are the hinges upon which all our other operations do turn the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the children of men that they are vain yea all over man is vanity as empty as the wind as flitting as the mist in the ayre so vain a thing is man that he cannot adde one inch unto his stature nor alter the colour of one hair of his head nor keep off one judgement of God nor protract his time one minute Vain in himself and all other things vain to him who being a microcosme or little world yet containeth within himself the whole great world of vanity So that all the several vanities which are dispersed here and there throughout the other creatures are in him united in one and so do meet in him as in their common center and first original he is a very map of vanity But how cometh this to passe did The ground of the point not the Almighty at the first creation make all things good and saw them to

judicious may take cognizance of it which is that righteous men must not think only how they may profit themselves he that thinks in his thoughts to please himself only will not truly endeavour in his course to profit all men in this case 't is good advice Phil. 2. 4. look not every one of his own things but every one on the things of others so the Apostle more purposely 1 Cor. 10. 33. I please all men in all things not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved Again let others be admonished that they do not think their endeavours and studies to be unprofitable unlesse they be singular and above others of their own rank Surely if we would labour to know with sobriety we should be more profitable to others and lesse troublesome unto our selves an affectation of singularity is but the pride of a mans heart and such usually to get applause for something of rare invention neglect the more profitable employment of their thoughts about their calling And now we will proceed and prescribe a remedy to the fourth vanity of thoughts which appears in their confusion and disorder The remedy must be to suit and order our thoughts according to our businesse with respect to time and place and persons the imagination is infinitely fruitful and to order all her conceptions conservations compositions seperations creations of new species productions of them into thoughts and propositions of them to the mind and will would be a labour too busie for me to meddle with in this case I must leave the work to every judicious Christian to consult with the rule of Gods word according to the emergencies of his thoughts yet I humbly conceive that this remedy prescribed against the confusion of thoughts may be of much use and benefit Consider then what is the businesse thou art about humane or divine and let thy thoughts be composed to attend upon it divine thoughts suit with divine works and humane thoughts with humane businesse while all things are done to the glory of God to this purpose referre that of Salomon Eccles 9. 10. whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might Consider the time whether holy by divine appointment by publick or private destination or permitted to common labours of thy calling Let not Sabbaths and dayes of humiliation be prophaned with common thoughts holy thoughts are for holy Sabboths thoughts of mourning are for dayes of fasting and prayer thoughts of rejoycing in the Lord for dayes of feasting and thanksgiving and thoughts of thy calling for dayes of work and trading So for holy places and assemblies holy thoughts are suitable and in all things which thou hast to do consider thy own calling and chiefly mind thine own businesse 2 Thes 3. 11. a busie body in other mens matters is of no good report in the Scriptures the thoughts of such persons are as confused and disorderly as the businesse of their lives attend what thou dost and what is meet for thee to do in time and place and I am perswaded thy thoughts will be lesse confused and more orderly CHAP. IX THus I have spoken of Remedies for the two first errours of thoughts to wit the dowsinesse and vanity of them in regard of object in regard of unstayednesse in regard of unprofitablenesse and in regard of confusion I shall now also say something for remedy against the wickednesse of thoughts which happens when our thoughts draw in our affection and will to desire and like of wickednesse and our minds to devise to bring it to passe I will not here give the remedies to these two errours severally but together and at once Expect not a remedy for every kind of wicked thoughts apart as erroneous heretical covetous ambitious revengeful proud c. for the objects of the affections are almost infinite and the evil imaginations of the mind working toward the accomplishment of wickednesse are so various who can know them Yet something I shall say to these for it will be expected by the Reader and I am bound to it by promise in this undertaking Here again I must leave much for the judicious to do of themselves in their own occurrencies of thoughts Yet thus for a help unto them that are weak Have thy thoughts drawn in thy likeing of that which is sinful and is thy mind plotting to accomplish it First give stop to these wicked affections and devisings at their first beginnings Sero medicina paratur Long and confirmed diseases are stubborne to yield unto medicine an infant-thought may take a check but if it grow man by continuance all the wit and strength thou hast will hardly bow him back The phansie will take fire at a temptation before we be aware like tinder which kindles at the least spark falling into it and 't is a mover as quick and spreading as fire The lightning is not quicker than thought we had need therefore to be speedy in giving stop to our wicked thoughts Job knew this and therefore made covenant with his eyes not to think upon a maid Job 31. 1. What the eye seeth or the eare heareth the heart may desire but unknown undesired If it be possible keep wickednesse from the eye and eare these are the two principal gates by which sin enters into our hearts if the watch were kept more strictly at these gates we should not so often find our enemy within us If David had looked better to his eyes adultery had not gotten into his thought nor could the whorish woman have come into the young mans heart had he kept her out of his eares it was with much fair speeches that she caused him to yield Prov. 7. 21 The eye and the eare are the out-works of the soul he that would keep out evil thoughts must barricadoe these gates Let evil thoughts receive a check at their first offer to enter for he that gives way to his imaginations shews that he would give way to wicked actions if they were as free from shame and punishment And a man may know much of his gratious state by his own using of his thoughts he that forbears evil out of a conscience of sin will forbear also to imagin evil in his heart but men of corrupt minds are not men of renewed spirits 2. If thou canst not stop them in their beginnings then thy care must be to divert them to some more profitable or pious object When the water hath gotten in upon us we make draines and water-courses to carry it some other way and so likewise must we do with our evil thoughts if they have broken in upon us we must turn them aside to some other matter As suppose coveteous or envious or proud thoughts be got into thy mind thou mayest divert them to liberal merciful humble thoughts Joh. 4. 12. The woman of Samaria was a great admirer of Jacobs Well ver 20. and the mountain of Samaria the one for water and

to be found in the word of God As first the rules for our carriage in Directions in relation to men relation to men First that golden one delivered by our Saviour himself Mat. 7. 12. Whatsoever ye would that other men do to you the same do ye to them Mark it is not said What others do to you the same do ye to them for that is not always right but some times crooked but it is said Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you set your selves as it were in their rooms and do ye the same to them that is not what you would or are content in your passions that others should do to you but whatever in right reason upon due deliberation and sound judgement when you are most your selves you would that others should do to you do ye the same to them Secondly remember the Apostolical rule serve one another in love for it is written Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Gal. 5. 13 14. We must seek not every one his own but one anothers wellfare 1 Cor. 10. 24. A golden rule to be observed in contracts and negotiations to keep us from over reaching any man 1 Thes 4. 6. and not meerly to do things out of respects to our selves but to joyn the wellfare of our neighbour to our own benefit and what we do to them to do it out of love Thirdly let nothing be done out of contention or vain glory but in lowlinesse of mind let each esteem others better then themselves Phil. 2. 3. and let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus verse 9. he never did any thing in all his life out of contention or vain glory and indeed be the matter of our actions never so fair or good yet either of these two contention or vain glory will fly-blow them and corrupt the action Again in all our businesses in relation Speciall rules for our services in reference to God unto God we have these rules First for the end that the glory of God be made the white at which we aim in all our natural civil or religious actions according to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God this must be the Butt that we all must shoot at Secondly for Christ Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of Christ Jesus giving thanks to the father by him Col. 3. 17. that is what others do as men do ye as Christians you must do all in Christ his name that is upon his authority and his warranty in the strength of Christ in confidence upon him for acceptation of the service and praying and invocating the father in his name and giving thanks to God by him Thirdly whatsoever we do to men or towards our selves to do it to the Lord and for the Lords sake looking beyond men and further then our selves so in our almes-deeds to give to Christ in giving to such a man or woman Verily in as much as ye did it to the least of these ye did it to me Mat. 25. 40. So likewise the Apostle prescribes to servants this duty Col. 3. 23. Servants be obedient to your Masters and whatsoever ye do do it heartily to the Lord and not to men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of inheritance and this rule is not to be appropriated unto servants but it reacheth to all masters also yea to all ranks of persons for all the duties of the second table are to be performed to others must flow from our obedience unto God commanded in the first Table so Christ told Peter that his ministerial discharge in feeding of his sheep John 21. 15 16 17. ought to spring from the love he bare to Christ himself Next for our selves take these directions Rules in relation to our selves out of Scripture do nothing with a regreet of heart or reluctancy of conscience but labour first to have a warranty out of the word for your conscience to rest upon a warranty I say at the least of God his allowance of it if not of his command For what ever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14. 23. that is if it be done out of perswasion of heart that it is lawful for the warrant of the action we must do nothing with the check or renitency of our consciences against the dictates of the same blessed is he that condemneth not himself in his conscience in that which he performeth to wit in his actions verse 22. Secondly the end of the commandements is love out of a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfained 1 Tim. 1. 5. where we are to observe that for the matter of our obedience it must be love love to God and love to our neighbour and for the fountain and spring of love in our actions it must issue from a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfaigned otherwise the streams will never be clear Thirdly the prescript of the word is Thou shalt not do that which seemeth good in thine own eies but what the Lord thy God commandeth thee Deut. 12. 8. 32. If any thing at the first blush presenteth it self unto thee with a shew of good presently begin to suspect it as fearing there is some evil couched under it and see what God saith of it in his holy word from which thou maist not turn to the right hand or to the left Fourthly for the manner of our performing the word aright in my text all must be done in humility and sincerity and carried on sutably to the duty which we have in hand it must be done understandingly feelingly fervently if we pray if any man preach he must speak as the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4. 11 approving themselves to God and the consciences of the hearers so you shall find several directions for several discharges Rom. 12. 8. He that giveth let him do it with simplicity he that ruleth with diligence he that sheweth mercy with chearfulness c. so every one in their relations must mainly look to the Cardinal vertue which turneth about all the rest as let the wife see to it that she reverenceth her husband Ephes 5. ult according as she looketh to that all her other duties do either ebb or flow in her so the husband must be careful of the main of all that he loveth his wife as Christ loved his Church Ephes 5. 25. In one word order your steps so as where God hath laid the fullest and the stricktest charge there be sure to shew your greatest care as in the substantials of religion before the circumstantials or ceremonies mercy before sacrifice and the great commandment of loving the Lord with all our hearts before the rest Matth. 22. 35 37 38. To end this let all our outward discharges spring from an heart rightly disposed else it will prove formality or dissimulation nothing is any

dead and gone Surely whether they were of high or low degree they were but vanity and now they are dead there is an end of their vanity rather then of themselves their vanity is gone but their excellency remaineth with them there is but one and that is the last piece of their vanity which remaineth which is the captivity of their bodies under the grave and the turning of it into rottennesse but yet they are insensible of it and feel no pain and being for ever blessed in the presence and fruition of God himselfe they do live in the certain and assured expectation of the re-union of their bodies with their soules and therefore I say with the blessed Apostle in the very same case 1 Thes 4. 18. Comfort your selves one another with these words and so for a time I will lay aside my Text and betake my self to the present occasion of which that very spectacle doth mind us And now give me leave for a conclusion of my Text a little to invert the words and what the Psalmist speaks of every Adam by way of contraries to apply to every true Christian and that is this Every true Christan even in his worst estate is altogether excellent this is the difference of our being in the first and second Adam In the one altogether vanity in the other altogether excellent excellent in their life excellent in their death Rom. 14. 8. for if they live they live unto the Lord and if they dye they dye unto the Lord whether then they live or dye they are the Lords take them in their worst estates even in afflictions and there they rejoyce under the hope of the glory of God and their affliction which is but for a moment worketh a far super-excellent and an eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 9. afflicted on every side but not forsaken cast down but they perish not come what can come come what may yet are they in all things more then conquerors and every thing turneth to their good Rom. 8. 23. And as it followeth in the same place neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord and therefore as Salomon in his Ecclesiastes after his large discourse of vanity for a conclusion of all Ecclesiastes 12. 13. brings in the remedy and the counterpoyse of vanity even so say I with him let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man Assure your selves there is nothing that eates up vanity but grace onely and so much the more grace ever so much the lesse vanity All things under the Sun are vanity but onely grace and therefore let all our prayers and endeavours be set on this to have Grace to serve God in this world that we may have glory the reward of our service in the world to come Now to God the Father God the Sonne and God the Holy Ghost be rendred all Honour and Glory both now and evermore AMEN A PREPARATION For the COMMUNION 1 Cor. 11. 28. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. THe things whereof we are to examine our selves may be referred to two heads our Sins and our Graces The necessity of the examination of our sins appears in this That sins unexamined are unespied being unespied they will be unrepented being unrepented we shall bring them with us to the Sacrament and being brought along with us to the Sacrament or the Lords Table they will be a Bar to the confirmation of Gods Covenant with us whereof the Bread and Wine is a Seal and also to our reaping the comfort sweetnesse and benefits of that Ordinance for where there is no searching and trying of our waies there can be no turning unto the Lord Lam. 3. 40. Now there are four principal helps to further us in the examination of our sins 1. A distribution of our lives into certain portions according to our ages of childhood youth manhood old age and it will be useful for us severally to remember So much of my time I spent in my fathers family under the government of my parents so much time abroad under the care and tuition of others and these and these sins committed during that same time such a quantity of time spent in the service of others and such a portion being a free man at my own liberty so many years passed over in a single estate so many in Matrimonie or Wedlock This distribution of our lives into certain portions will help us to a discovery of our particular sins and the aggravation of them from our nativitie to the present moment wherein we begin to examine our selves Whereas without this our apprehensions and view of them will be but confused onely in grosse and in general But when we have thus quartered our lives and considered those special sins that have been committed by us in those several divisions the main sins of our lives will appear in a kind of order before us Yet we are still to remember that besides those greater and more eminent sins of our lives which appear there will be many unknown sins many omissions of good duties many slender performances of our best duties discharged which will escape our search The second help will be to set before us the glasse of Gods Law sum'd up in the ten Commandments for by the Law is the knowledge of sin Rom. 3. 20. in which glasse we must consider the latitude and extent of every commandment how far it reacheth in the several prohibitions of evil and precepts of good for Gods Commandments are exceeding broad Psal 119. 96. if thus we shall do with heedfulnesse then we shall see our faces in the glasse of Gods Law to the full and our own spots and wrinkles and we shall find those things upon our review to be sins which in acting of them it may be we deemed to be none and understand what Paul meant Rom. 7. 7. I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except it had been said thou shalt not covet The third help is a consideration of the heightning circumstances of sin the aggravating conditions whereby our sins may appear unto us as too often they are exceeding sinful for we ought to examine the heinousnesse of our impieties as well as the multitude This will cause our humiliation to be deeper our sorrow to be heartier and engage us more feelingly to be thankful unto God for his great love in pardoning of them through Christ See this pra●tise by Peter upon his denial Mark 14. 72. Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice The aggravating circumstances of his sin helped on to draw out his tears with