more They understood little or nothing beyond the political Covenant the terms whereof chiefly influenc'd their obedience and so took up with such a political righteousness as consisted in the obedience of the civil Laws of the Jewish Common-weal hence it is that Trypho the Jew disputing with Justin Martyr says that the Gospel Precepts meaning those that command the obedience of the heart and affections seem'd to him incapable of observance and that Josephus reprehends Polybius the Historian for ascribing the death of Antiochus to sacriledge intended tho' not committed by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as long saith he as he did not actually execute his intentions he deserv'd no punishment and that this was the old received notion of obedience appears plainly enough from our Saviours correcting this misprision in the 5th of St. Mat. ye have heard saith he ver 21. that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill if a man did not actually murder another he was thought to have kept within the bounds of the eight Commandment as indeed he did as to the temporal penalty annex'd to the violation of it which was then principally regarded but our Lord tells them plainly Verse 22. that the guilt in this particular lies as deep as the very beginnings the first efforts and sallies of an angry mind towards a foolish quarrel that may end in blood in which sense St. John affirms that whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer is already so tho his sword be still unsheath'd and he has stab'd him only in effigie again says he to the same purpose at the 27th ver ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery if a man did but refrain from the actual embraces of a forbidden bed how keenly soever he debauch'd by the strength of an impure imagination yet he was for all that in their notion of obedience a chast and modest man still but our Saviour tells them a rape may be committed in the fancy and adultery by a wanton glance And that this Jewish notion of obedience is not yet altogether antiquated under Christianity seems but too evident from that trite proverbial saying amongst us that thoughts are free as if when men durst not let loose their hands or their tongues to work wickedness yet they might give their desires and imaginations their full swing and muse and wish and contrive and please themselves with the Invention and Images of those things which they think it not safe to put in execution whereas on the contrary the Laws of our Lord prescribe to our affections set bounds to our fancies regulate our desires direct our intentions govern our wishes strike at sin in embrio and check the first voluntary motions and tendencies of the mind to evil Voluntary I say because 't is hard to imagine that those motus primò primi as the Schools speak those first stirrings of Concupiscence which come not within the verge and compass of the Will should fall under the lash and censure of the Law a Souldier is not punished for having an enemy to encounter but for not doing his duty to repel his assaults if instead of watching and repressing his motions he rather entertains him then but not till then let the Law go upon him God will certainly punish no man for an imperfection that is not in his power to prevent and which he did not himself voluntarily contract will not call us to an account for being proper Subjects of the Operations of his Grace but for misusing it and will not require it at any mans hands that he has the Seeds of evil scatter'd in his composition but for suffering them to fructifie in the soil However it must still be own'd that as to all the irregular motions of the inner man that fall under the disposal of our Wills God hath concluded them all under sin that by the wicked man's forsaking his thoughts the numberless vain thoughts that fly up and down his mind he might the more abundantly pardon Is 55. v. 7. accordingly the same Prophet tells us of those that err Is 29. 24. in spirit Solomon of those that err in imagining evil Prov. 14. 22. and Micah denounces woe to the devisers 21. of iniquity Hence the same wise King of Israel tells us in one place that the thought of foolishness is sin Prov. 24. 9. Prov. 14. 22. Prov. 15. 26. in another place that they err who devise evil in a third that the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord as his Father David had before observ'd of some that their inward parts were very wickedness Psal 5. 9. Psal 58. 2. and tells us of others that in their heart work wickedness hence again it is that St. Peter requires Simon Magus to repent of the thoughts of his Acts 8. 22. heart for what is the subject of our Repentance but our Sins that St. Paul requires us to bring into 2 Cor. 10. 4. captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ which supposes that of themselves they are naturally rebellious that our Saviour reprehends the Pharisees for thinking Matt. 9. 4. Matt. 15. 18 19. Matt. 5. evil and affirms of evil thoughts that they defile the man as well as when they shoot forth into the exterior actions of murder adultery c. The very intention and desire whereof he elsewhere equals with overt transgressions of the kind The reason of all is that God being the Father of the Spirits of all flesh and the Kingdom of his Son a spiritual Kingdom too 't is congruous both to the divine Nature and ours which is a stricture of his that his Laws bear sway in our spiritual part in our hearts and souls our wills and affections for would we have an infinitely glorious Spirit serv'd by dull flesh and blood only and not rather like himself in spirit and in truth with those prime productions those first born Sons of the immortal Nature in us Has God made us men and would we pay him but the spiritless homage of the animal part of us Has he implanted a noble and immortal principle of life and motion in us and shall it not share in our obedience to him and consequently in the guilt of the transgression of his Laws He is the natural Lord of both Soul and Body has bought them with a Price and therefore all the Reason in the World the Obedience we pay him should be commensurate to the extent of his Purchase so that if we have any just abhorrence of Sin in the true Latitude of the Divine construction of it we must govern our Thoughts as well as observe measures in our words and actions SECT 3. BUT I shall farther evince the obligations that lie upon us to order our Thoughts aright from such considerations as seem to enhance the guilt of mental sins above those of the outward Man For I. THO' it
sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall So intent are Men's Thoughts so closely do they fasten upon these earthly sensual and many times Devilish concernments whilst they are presently weary and frisk off from any thing that is sacred and sober and serious NOW this wandring in Prayer and other holy duties is resolvable into several causes As I. INTO our complex'd constitution of Soul and Body Whilst our Souls are lodg'd in these pitiful tenements of Clay they cannot help being affected with the inconveniences of their Habitation They are confined to the use of Bodily Spirits in their most abstracted operations and every considerable disorder in the blood and Spirits does therefore of necessity produce a proportionable disorder in the Soul in thinking and being surrounded with such variety of objects and business whilst we live in this material World which through the intervention of our senses leave their Ideas in the Head behind them the eye of the mind can no more help looking upon them when they are jogg'd and thrown in its way than the eyes of our bodies can help seeing when they are open or our ears hearing the sounds that strike them All this is natural and necessary as the unavoidable result of the dependance of the Soul in its most spiritual operations upon the frame and contexture of our Bodies during their conjunction and we may as well think of ceasing to be what we are and of casting the Man in a new mould as of a total prevention of this infirmity of our Constitution And this being so we must expect to meet with it in our Prayers as well as in other business of our Lives t is in Heaven alone where the faculties of both Soul and Body shall be inlarged and refined and we shall have but one Object of our Thoughts God who shall be all in all that our Souls shall cleave inseparably to him without the least avocation All which may serve to qualify by the by the seruples and vexations incident to some tender minds who are apt perhaps to entertain too hard thoughts of themselves because they cannot so manage their Thoughts that they shall regularly attend upon Gods Service without breaks and chasms in them without falling off now and then and straying from their present business For 't is impossible in the very nature of things our Composition totally to prevent the first beginnings or sallies of the Mind towards wandring for the Spirits by whose intervention we perform these mental Operations will not bear so rigid a fixation all we can do in the case and that we must do is to keep a strict eye upon our Thoughts to drive away the Fowls that light upon our Sacrifice to endeavour continually to check and controul and stop them in their career to other objects and when at any time they have given us the slip to call them upon the first discovery home again to their business and regret our weakness and if we thus both bewail and labour to remedy those exursions of our Thoughts which we cannot totally hinder they are not our sin but infirmity which will never affect our main state II. DISTRACTING Thoughts in Prayer are very much owing to that natural aversion we observ'd in us to things spiritual and Divine for such imployment of our Thoughts being therefore a sort of preternatural force upon them the spring that bends them Heaven-ward will be apt to relax and give way to the contrary tendency of our minds downwards so that leaving those unwelcome objects they presently fall back again into the company of the old familiars of their thoughts III. OUR distractions proceed in a great measure from an over-active and ungovern'd imagination 't is the quick-silver part in our mettal that runs glibly up and down and shoots as it were in our minds like Meteors in the Air traversing our devotions with ten thousand frivolous and foolish conceits presenting us with those fine Schemes and Images of things riches honour or the like till the distracted wandring Man instead of his Maker worships all the while perhaps the Idol of his own and the Devils making But we have discours'd the extravagancies of this Faculty before IV. DISTRACTIONS in Prayer proceed frequently from an intemperate love of the World and the cares that attend its enjoyments which so often ingross our hearts that we no sooner set about holy duties than they justle the one thing needful out of our minds and make Mary's good part stand by and Luk. 10. 42 give way to Martha's concern for the World and the family 'T is certainly one of the most ridiculous and yet most general frailties incident to our corrupt nature to use this World as if neither we nor the fashion of it were to pass away which is just as if a Traveller with business of infinite importance on his Hand should loyter and take up with his Inn on the Road without ever farther pursuing the end of his journey And possibly most of the sins that are committed in the World are fairly resolvable into a too passionate fondness for it Ye cannot serve God and Mammon is a saying that carries a greater force of truth in it than possibly most Men are aware of For their principles of action are opposite their interests are opposite and they require a quite different frame of mind in their respective Votaries and we know who has told us no less truly than roundly that if any Man love the World the love of God is not in him for it ties down our apprehensions to things mean and trivial and base and stifles and chokes our desires of such as are spiritual and Divine it extinguishes all holy fervour of Spirit estranges from God and puts out that sacred flame of love for him which is the very life and Soul of our devotions to him it crowds into the Church and Closet with us and like the Sons of Zerviah is too hard for David so that many times with Demas we forsake the Lord in our Thoughts even whilst we pretend to do him homage having lov'd this present World whose thorns i. e. its cares and riches choak the seeds in our Saviours Luk. 8. 7. 14. estimate of all the good that is sown amongst them and therefore it is that when God required the male Children of the Jews thrice a year to attend upon his service at Jerusalem he promised that no Man should desire their Land when they Ex. 34. 24. should go up to appear before the Lord their God thrice in the year for the fears and jealousies that might otherwise have seiz'd them would have divided their hearts betwixt God and their families at home and so have blasted the fruits of so laborious and universal a journey and upon the same account it is that the Apostle advises single persons that were able to receive it to continue rather in that state in times of difficulty and distress that they might
his Fingers the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained Those Immense fire Works whose motion is as regular Ps 8. 3. as rapid and are but as the twilight of the everlasting Day and of that Light which is inaccessible Read him further yet in the amazing Instance of his Grace when he reconciled the World to himself in Christ let the Mystery of Godliness be ever present to thy Mind God manifest in 1 Tim. 3. 16. the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preach'd unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory But it cannot be imagin'd that I should enter into the detail of those innumerous Objects that afford proper Matter for the Contemplation and Improvement of our Thoughts and therefore the succinct Advice of the Apostle will appositely take place here Whatsoever things are true whatsoever are honest whatsoever things are iust whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report If there be any Virtue or if there be any Praise think on these Things For the Truth and Reason of all is the Spirit of a Man is an active restless Principle of internal Motion that will not be wholly idle but will be doing tho it be nothing to the purpose rather than do just nothing at all And therefore unless you furnish it with good stuff to work upon it will take up with that which is next at hand at all adventures so that if we would bring forth good things in our Saviours Language we must with his good Man have a good treasure in our Hearts How precious are thy Thoughts to me O God says holy David how great is the sum of them not Ps 139. 17. a small inconsiderable Stock of Piety and Knowledge but a Treasure a good Fond or Bank for our Thoughts to trade with and then we shall increase with the increase of God King Solomon requiring us to bind the divine Law continually upon our Hearts adds that when we go it shall lead us When we sleep Prov. 6. 22. it shall keep us and when we awake it shall talk with us i. e. It will entertain our Thoughts and bear them Company when we are alone or as it 's said upon the same Occasion when we walk by the way Deut. 6. 7. when we lie down and when we rise up Times generally of the greatest Retirement But now without this good Society at Home our Thoughts will certainly seek out for new Acquaintance gad abroad for fellowship with some other Objects and ten to one in their jant fall into bad Company Associate with the Lusts of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye or the Pride of Life and get those ill haunts that our Minds perhaps may never after have the power to abandon BUT because neither Nature nor Education has furnish'd all Men with equal matter for their Thoughts and there are different sizes in Understanding as well as in Stature therefore VII ONE would advise to a more comprehensive Expedient for the government of Thoughts which every one is capable of using and that is for Men to be diligent and industrious in that Calling or Station wherein Providence has placed them to do as the wise King advises with all their might what their hands find to do For this confines the stream of our Thoughts to their proper Channel and hinders them from overflowing their Bank this hedges in the ramblers and keeps them to their own Inclosure who if left unconfined would like Jeremy's wild Ass snuff up the Wind and observe no measures God who is the Father of the Spirits of all Flesh knew that he had made them active restless things and therefore to imploy and find them work to keep them doing as they ought when they are not immediately ingaged in his Service he design'd Men their respective Callings and Professions and six parts of time in seven for them to take up their Thoughts and imploy them and if they are not thus ingaged about their own Business 't is odds but that like St. Paul's busie Bodies they wander from House to House mind other Men's and meddle with many Matters which may in time cause as great Combustions without as they do disorder the Head within Let our Thoughts then keep within their own lines and make no incroachments hitherto within the circle of our own proper business and Station let their proud waves go and no farther Let his Thoughts who is appointed to the Ministry wait on his Ministring his who is to teach on teaching c. VIII IT were advisable for Men's better ordering their Thoughts to make choice as far as they can of such imployments and course of life as is most suitable to their genius and abilities of Mind for that always sits the easiest on them and their Thoughts more Naturally fall in with their business and abide by it Whereas if Men's imploys lie cross the grain of their inclinations their Thoughts will be perpetually running after something else at which they are not so awkard or if they aspire at things to which their strength bears no proportion matters too high for them and above the sphere of their activity the weight of the burden will render them painful and uneasie make them stagger too and fro like a drunken Man and bring them to their wits end besides the damage they may occasion to the publick as Phaeton endeavouring to mount his Fathers Chariot the management whereof he did not understand was thereby thrown out of Heaven and had like to have set the World on fire IX NEXT to this it may be proper to subjoyn the advice of endeavouring to contract rather then enlarge our secular affairs instead of spreading them wider to reduce them to as tight and narrow a compass as we can that we may the better attend to the improvement of our own Minds an acquisition infinitely beyond the most pompous temporal attainment For what are honours riches pleasures all the World to a brave refined and accomplished Mind Now multiplicity of business is a mighty obstruction to this mental improvement He that thinks of many things thinks of nothing as he that would go several ways stands still it distracts and divides our Thoughts like water mixt with wine debilitates and dilutes them that River will neither be so deep nor so serviceable for Trade that is divided into a great many little channels as that which flows altogether in its own natural bed Thus it is with our Thoughts if we let them out at every little chink which the concerns of the World make in them they 'l be but shallow Thoughts and mar the improvement of our Minds A Ray collected into a point is far more intense than one variously refracted As God do's not love idle so neither over busie people Martha's fault was not that she was imployed in ill but in many things which justled for that time the good part out of