God into the flames of Hell for ever Man indeed judgeth of the Heart by the Works but God judgeth of the Works by the Heart Since therefore we must be call'd to an account for our Thoughts hereafter let us carefully remember it and so reckon with our selves for them in this that we may not be judg'd for them in the World to come CHAP. V. THE accursed Tempter and Enemy of our Souls is no doubt always busy in suggesting ill things to us and casting into our minds wicked thoughts He is continually pursuing us into all places and companys and presenting before us alluring and inticing objects He is too well experienc'd in this Black Art too skilful an Engineer in laying his train He very well knows the tempers and constitutions of Mankind is acquainted with their Predominant inclinations and propensities and so can suit his objects and proportionate his Devices His name is Legion too For there are a multitude of them to carry on their hellish designs in ruining Souls and corrupting Minds Like the Plagues of Egypt they even fill the Atmosphere Their numbers are like these of the Locusts Flies and Lice and Frogs croaking even in Kings Chambers And could we but see these Swarms of Devils that assault us and are darting their Temptations at us and continually injecting evil Thoughts into our Hearts we should be astonished and tremble at our danger we should ever be crying to God to help us and having a quick Eye upon all their assaults Could we but behold these Infernal Enemies that encompass us our concern for our selves could not be so small as to suffer us to be careless and negligent The Devils are working and contriving and restless in their motions to destroy our Souls and yet alas we are as secure as if we were embrac'd and caress'd by our dearest Friends as if we had no Enemy at all to fear We have had some Historical accounts of Persons that have been such exquisite villains in the Art of Poisoning that they could convey the deadly Venom to the Vitals and kill in a moment or else bring on a lingring but yet as certain death and place the period of Life some Years off As the Javians and Sumatrians by their poyson'd Crests and the Chineses by their Nails The woful experience of several of our own Nation as well as the common suffrage of all who have travelled into those parts put the truth of this beyond the necessity of any particular authorities tho' many such might be produc'd were it not foreign to the present design But the Devil is an Artist more subtil even than these he can convey a Spiritual Venom and Contagion to the Soul and poyson all the Thoughts and Powers of it His injections are as quick and as keen as Lightning And he hath undiscernable ways of defiling and corrupting our Minds That Satan can throw wicked Thoughts into our Minds is I suppose a matter not questioned But whether he doth this by working on the humours of the Body or stirring up the animal Spirits or by an immediate applying his Suggestions to the Soul is not so easy to be determin'd There being a necessary Dependance of the Operations of the Soul upon the Texture of the Body and Spirits it is not improbable that he frequently injects wicked Thoughts that way But why may he not also cast in wicked Thoughts into our Hearts by an immediate communication The truth is we cannot well find out which Method he takes in his Temptations We are not able to tell how hâ— câ—sts in wicked Thoughts We know little or nothing of the intercourse between Beings purely Spiritual But too plain and true it is that we are infested with a multitude of evil Thoughts and that they do proceed out of the Heart however they came there And therefore it will be a more material enquiry how we shall be able effectually to resist or prevent them And this cannot be fully done neither in a Treatise of this nature because their kinds are infinite and their numbers endless I shall therefore according to my propos'd Method Consider in this Chapter some special kinds of evil Thoughts and endeavour to apply remedies against them to the satisfaction and benefit I hope of the serious Reader First Then the first kind of them which I shall consider is Profane and Blasphemous Thoughts And of this sort there is a dismal variety I have known some and these I 'm perswaded very religious People who have been extreamly disturb'd with such Thoughts concerning GOD as have been most unaccountable and as absurd as they are profane If I thought fit I could mention some of them which have been so extravagant that I should think to be rid of them it were better to contemn and despise them than anxiously to be concern'd about them Tho' with others of them we ought to deal after a different manner To think aright of Almighty God and to have such Ideas of him in our Minds as are worthy and becoming so great and so pure a Majesty is not only a very considerable part of Religion but a very comfortable thing And I cannot but pity such Christians as are much afflicted with profane thoughts Of this kind of Evil thoughts there are some more hideous than others but yet every thought of him which is contrary or unsuitable to that representation which by such and such glorious Attributes he hath made to us of Himself in his holy Word that I call a profane Thought or when we conceive of Almighty God under some gross form or material shape or entertain any vile mean or indeed any but the Highest conceptions that we are able of him God is in himself an Infinite Almighty and Incomprehensible Spirit And tho' he hath sometimes in the Scriptures describ'd and represented himself to us by material figures or sensible objects yet we are not to think that he is really such as he is describ'd but that he condescends to our capacity by such a Style and Language And any other Method of instructing us in the nature of himself would not be so Intelligible to us God useth this as an easy and familiar way of teaching us to know him without which our Notions of him would be very obscure and we could know but little of him And therefore I cannot but wonder at the imprudence and Luciferian pride of such Men who deny all Mysteries and pretend to know GOD so as perfectly to comprehend him by the dim light of Natural Reason alone Thus is GOD represented to us sometimes as having Hands Feet Eyes and such like organical parts Not that he hath truly such as the old Hereticks the Anthropomorphites held and the Romanists now depict him but we are to understand them in a figurative sence His Hands and his Feet betoken his Power his Eyes his Knowledge and Favour c. And therefore to think of him under any material figure is a profane thought
and quench the fire of concupiscence in us that our Souls and Bodies may be the Temple of God We must imitate the poor Leper in the Gospel Who fell down at Jesus's feet and worshipped him saying Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean 'T is no easy matter to subdue this kind of evil thoughts in some Complexions But the difficulty of so doing is greatest to such as have liv'd in an habit of lust and uncleanness and therefore we must call in the assistance of Heaven by constant and devout Prayer Secondly Temperance and Fasting is a proper Remedy for the suppressing of this kind of Evil Thoughts While the Soul and the Body are so united and make up one Compositum the operations of the Soul will be greatly inclin'd and byass'd by the Complexion and Constitution of the Body and therefore that must be kept in due order and subjection A pampering and indulging the Flesh is a great promoter of Lust and when the Animal Spirits are intoxicated the Soul can but feebly exert it self A Man can hardly preserve himself then from the grossest acts of uncleanness much less from impure Thoughts And therefore Temperance and Self-denial are always necessary in order to avoiding unclean Thoughts which as our Saviour said of the unclean Devil Go not out but by Fasting and Prayer The Mind is calm and serene when the Body is in a regular temper A Man is fit to meditate and think on God and Heaven and holy things when he is sober and moderate And the reason of Fasting's being made a Duty is in order to tame the insolencies of the Flesh to keep the Thoughts pure the Reason clear and to make us more fit for Religious Duties Upon which account the Duties of Self-denial and Mortification are not so severe as they may sometimes seem to us but highly reasonable Since the denial of the gratifications of our sensual and low desires doth bring satisfaction to the higher appetites of the Soul since while the Body is kept in due subjection the Soul's liberty and activity is much the greater And besides Heaven is worth striving and denying our selves for if it were a work much more harsh and unpleasant than it is If this will denominate us of the number of Christ's true Disciples certainly we should not stick at it And that it will do so our Blessed Lord hath assur'd us If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Men will restrain their appetites and deny themselves in a great measure for some temporal and worldly ends why should they not do it then to gain eternal Happiness St. Paul tells us that in the ancient Grecian Games call'd the Olympick Games these that were the Strivers or Combatants for the Prize would be sure to mortify themselves and keep to a strict and sparing Diet thereby to bring down their Flesh and make their Bodies pliant and Athletick And all that they could hope to get by it was only a Garland of flowers and a little frivolous honour And therefore if they would be at the pains to do so much for a Reward not worth a naming how much more should we do it in order to the avoiding unclean thoughts and impure desires which will not only hinder us in our Striving for Heaven but unqualify us for it Thus the Apostle argues Every one that striveth for the Mastery is temperate in all things Now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown but we an incorruptible I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air But I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection least that by any means when I have preached to others I may not my self be a cast-away The Third Remedy against unclean thoughts is the Consideration that they are of a defiling nature They leave a strange pollution and filth behind them and if indulg'd very strongly incline to actual uncleanness It is a dangerous thing to cherish thoughts of this kind to delight in them and dwell upon them For there are none more apt to grow usurping and ungovernable by entertainment than these They do moreover mightily unfit us for holy Duties They weaken the Powers of the Soul to a great degree and therefore as we value our Souls as we esteem Heaven into which no unclean thing shall enter let us labour to avoid them and this Consideration is proper in order thereunto Fourthly Keeping a strict guard over all our Sences is here particularly necessary For 't is by the Sences that lust invades the Soul And therefore unless we have a special regard to them we cannot preserve our Souls from being polluted Our Eyes therefore should be turn'd away from all forbidden objects our Ears be deaf to all obscene discourses and the rest of our Sences shun every thing that may have the least tendency to this kind of evil Thoughts A vain curiosity to be a spectator hath sometimes proved fatal especially in two Instances in the Scriptures And one unguarded Sence hath e're now proved a Man's destruction Therefore if we will approve our selves to God in sincerity and are desirous to attain a right Government of our Thoughts and avoid this kind of them especially we must be sure to keep a strict watch over all our Sences Fifthly An having recourse to the Blood of JESUS is a great preservative against and cure of unclean Thoughts This was the Practise of a devout Person Cum me pulsat aliqua turpis cogitatio statim recurro ad vulnera Christi sanabor i.e. When I am assaulted by any impure thoughts I have immediate recourse to the Wounds of Christ and I shall be healed Therefore when any filthy imagination comes into thy Heart let thy Mind presently divert from it to Christ Jesus hanging on the Cross Imagine that thou sawest his precious Blood streaming fourth and pray to God that thy Soul ma be cleans'd therein Especially flie to the Bethesda of his Blood in the Sacrament for all the diseases of thy Soul but this of Unclean Thoughts in particular The Sacrament is a Purifying and strengthening ordinance if we come to it rightly prepared And 't is most commonly for want of a devout Preparation that we find not the happy effects of it The Sacrament is our Spiritual Armour against all the Darts of the Devil against all his impure suggestions and temptations And if we come to it with a truly penitent sincere and humble Heart tho' this kind of wicked Thoughts or any other should infest us even while we are at the Lord's Table yet our merciful and gracious God will accept our sincere tho' mean endeavours and at length grant us that purity which we are so sensible we want and so earnestly pray for that we may be able to serve him without distraction and worship him with our whole Souls and unmixed affections Another Remedy against
must be careful that we do not love the World immoderately For how remote soever Covetousness may seem from Despair the former doth frequently conduce to the latter He that sets too great a value upon the things of this World and a Temporal Prosperity will not only be greatly hindred from doing his Spiritual Duty but when it pleaseth God to deprive him of his prosperity he is very apt to be extremely disquieted and repining and sometimes to look upon himself as utterly forsaken of God because he is strip'd of these outward things He mistakenly looks upon Temporal good things to be certain marks of God's favour whereas in truth they are not but he sometimes deals them promiscuously as the rain descends both upon the just and the unjust And what is the likely consequence of such an enormous love of the World if I say it should please God to bring such an one into adversity but that he should have dismal and even despairing Thoughts of his own condition There have been frequent examples of this nature in the World And thus far have these words of the Apostle been verify'd But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurt-sinful lusts which drown men in perdition For the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Let us not therefore set our affections too much upon these fleeting things Let us enjoy every good thing with submission to and dependance upon God's Providence Let us beware that we do not fix our Hearts on any thing here below neither Riches Possessions Friends Children nor any of these sublunary things For so doing hath oftentimes proved very fatal to many and at last hath thrown them into Melancholy nay even into Desperation The last Remedy against black dreadful or despairing Thoughts is Religiuus and Cheerful Conversation 'T is not jolly vain Company that will be of no use but hurt but godly and cheerful Society will very much contribute to their cure To be always poreing aggravates the Malady and rivets the Despair and sometimes proves fatal indeed And therefore a little good Conversation is very necessary Religious Discourses and Conferences will keep out worse Thoughts and conduce very much to make us rejoyce with them that do rejoyce There is a kind of Melody in them which like that of David's Harp when he play'd to Saul will drive away the evil Spirit 'T is a common thing for such persons as are troubled with this kind of thoughts to affect solitude and desire to be always alone and immur'd in their own sad contemplations But notwithstanding the strongest aversions to Company which they may have 't is advisable that against their Inclinations they be brought in to good and cheerful Conversation and that not once or twice but with Continuance And this is a proper way in time to be rid of such evil Thoughts For the Devil's Temptations and Injections especially of this kind are usually more prevalent and come with greater force when people are alone than when they are in Society And then too they are apt to dote upon their own Notions of things hug their mistakes and think them true however false and erroneous they may be A Religious and Cheerful Friend therefore I take in this case to be of great advantage to comfort advise divert and improve them in better things And more especially do I recommend the frequent Conversation of their Spiritual Guide For it is not to be imagined what efficacy a seasonable Word hath sometimes and what a sweet alteration it causes in disconsolate People It goeth like oyl into their bones or else to use the Preacher's comparison The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastned by the Masters of assemblies Good conversation strengthens and exhilarates the Spirits to a great degree and is a very proper means against all sad and melancholy or despairing Thoughts And indeed I think Religion is that which goes a great way towards the cure of Melancholy And without it 't is hardly ever to be cur'd 'T is Religion must give a Man a rational and a well-grounded hope of the security of his eternal condition hereafter without which 't is difficult to imagine how his heart should ever be easy and his Thoughts serene quiet and compos'd And therefore he that would avoid this kind of evil Thoughts I exhort and advise him first to fix the grand Point of Religion in himself and then to cherish and improve it by cheerful and Religious Conversation But in doing this we must not think that we can be always imploy'd in Religion that we can have our Thoughts stretch'd up always to such a pitch to be continually engag'd in the duties of Devotion and be thinking that we cannot please God without it For we have Bodies as well as Souls We are Men and not Angels And therefore tho' we should do our utmost and with all imaginable sincecerity yet we should not lay too great a load upon our Spirits for that may be the way instead of preventing to bring on sad and melancholy Thoughts And 't is what Almighty God no where requires of us Who will have mercy and not sacrifice and intended his Service for perfect freedom and Religion for a Law of liberty I have now done with this last kind of evil thoughts viz. sad melancholy or despairing Thoughts And the Rules which have been laid down for the well-governing the Thoughts in general and for the avoiding this sort and these other kinds of evil Thoughts discours'd of in this Treatise duly observ'd will by God's Blessing have some good effect But as an Appendix to this Chapter I shall endeavour to explain to you what is the sin against the Holy-Ghost Because the fear that they have committed this Vnpardonable Sin hath horribly perplex'd and terrify'd the Thoughts of many dejected Christians even almost to Desperation Now every Sin is indeed a Sin against the Holy-Ghost and some are grievances of him And therefore we are exhorted not to Grieve the holy Spirit of God But THE SIN against the Holy-Ghost which is pronounced by our Lord Jesus himself to be unpardonable in this World and in the World to come is called also Blasphemy against the Holy-Ghost by the Evangelists In Matth. 12. 31 32. the words are these Wherefore I say unto you that all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven i. e. is capable of being forgiven but the Blasphemy against the Holy-Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men And whosoever speaketh a word against the son of Man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy-Ghost it shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come In Mark 3. 28. c. it is thus express'd Verily I say un-unto you All fins shall be
forgiven unto the sons of men and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme but he that blasphemeth against the Holy-Ghost hath never forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation And in Luke 12. 10 there is but little variation Whosoever shall speak a word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy-Ghost it shall not be forgiven Now for the clearer understanding of these places which speak of the GREAT SIN You are to observe That the two former of these Evangelists St. Matthew and St. Mark in the Context give us an account of our Saviour's having heal'd a Demoniak and when he had expell'd the Devil by the power of the Holy-Ghost which he had without measure to the great amazement of all the People The Scribes and Pharisees whose hearts were sowr'd with the leven of Pride and Envy notwithstanding their own Convictions and in spight of the irresistable Evidence of that and other Miracles which our Saviour did they blasphemously ascribed the doing of them to the Devil representing our Lord as a Wizard or a Conjurer And as absurdly as impiously said He casteth out devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the devils The Obstinacy and Malice of this imputation our Saviour severely reflects upon and publickly declares That these that out of an invenomed Spirit and wilful spight and against the strongest Convictions thus blaspheme the Holy and Eternal Spirit by the oeconomy of whose Almighty Power these things were done and thus endeavour to subvert the whole structure of the Christian Religion and wilfully disown Christ the Saviour These have no other means of salvation left them no other Name under Heaven by which they can be saved There is no other Christ no other Gospel And therefore nothing shall be the portion of such Men but eternal damnation From all which it is sufficiently plain That the sin against the Holy-Ghost consisteth in Words 't is Blasphemy And not every Blasphemy against the Holy-Ghost neither Not every one that speaketh against the Holy-Ghost as some Hereticks have done and now do is guilty of this unpardonable sin which is a Blasphemy against the visible glorious operations the immediate effects and office of the Holy-Ghost and such too as is utter'd not out of Fear Infirmity or Cowardize but out of an hateful and malicious Heart not of rashness but of set-purpose to do despight unto Christ his known Doctrine and Works being accompany'd with an universal defection or falling away from the whole truth of God So that if this sin in its formality could be committed now from this short explanation of the nature of it I hope it doth appear that none of these who are scar'd and terrify'd with the apprehensions of it can have committed it And that therefore their fears and dismal Thoughts about it are groundless and unreasonable and stirred up by the common Enemy of our peace in order to disquiet and hinder them from doing their Duty or to bring them into Melancholy or Despair 'T is most certain that all Persons that wilfully run on in sin and persist in impenitency shall finally perish for ever as surely as if they had committed the the great Sin we are speaking of But 't is also certain that thousands do out of ignorance or inadvertence mistake the nature of this unpardonable Sin and are horribly afraid that they have committed it tho' they know not what it is The vilest action the greatest sin of Practise that can be committed doth not extend to the sin against the Holy-Ghost And therefore such a sin calls indeed for the deepest sorrow and humiliation and most unfeign'd repentance But the sin against the Holy-Ghost and Repentance are things very inconsisistent And this ariseth not from any defect of Mercy in God or want of Merit in the Blood of Christ but from an incapacity in the Offender Upon the whole then you see what this Concluding sin is and consequently how little reason many poor dejected Souls have to be affrighted with the thoughts of having committed it and to sink and despond upon mere Doubts Conjectures and Suspicions CHAP. X. NO Man can be a good Christian indeed that hath not a special regard to his Thoughts and doth not endeavour to have them pure holy and conformable to the Laws of the Gospel And the government of the Thoughts is an happiness never to be attained without the most deep and serious consideration and a ready and willing application of Our selves to proper means The which I have in the preceding Chapters endeavour'd to lay before you And we may not think that it is altogether impossible to put them in practise There is unquestionably a great deal in our own power in order to it as plainly appears from the whole series of this Treatise And 't is no more than what is the evident Design of the Christian Religion By which the great excellency of it not only above all other Arts and Sciences which in their perfection are only the riches and ornaments of the outward Man but beyond all other Religions whatsoever is manifest Christianity soars above all the tempting gayeties and little noisy vanities of this World It is not its business to seek after the silly applauses of the Age or popular admiration 'T is not be seen of Men or to inherit this Bubble 'T is not only to appear outwardly great or good but the design of it is an internal Purity and Holiness a conformity of our Thoughts to the Rules of the Gospel The Philosophy of the Gentile World tho' it went far yet came vastly short of it And all the excellent Rules delivered by the ancient Moralists for the government of Life are much below the Divine Oracles As for the Jewish Religion it consisted of meer Elements and first Rudiments The Law being as the Apostle tells us but as the Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ The Law was delivered in blackness and thick darkness on Mount Sinai and indeed 't was but Darkness in comparison of the more Bright discoveries of the Evangelical State which consisteth not in Types Figures and shadows and Parabolical and Mystical Rites but in plain and perfective Precepts In such admirable Rules and Directions as duly observ'd will wonderfully enrich and beautify the Soul and bring it near to perfection by a resemblance of GOD himself and dispose and prepare it for the Blissful enjoyment of Heaven and the Beatifick Vision The Rites of the Pagan Religions did consist in the vilest impurities And as for Mahomet as Ambition and Lust were the first Motives to his Imposture so Lewdness and Obscenity is his Heaven too And indeed other Religions too have taken care to propagate uncleanness under the specious pretences of a Recluse Life and the severest purity But true Religion indeed such as our Lord Jesus always preach'd and urg'd upon Men and is built upon the genuine design of the holy Scriptures