will be imputed to us as our Sins when we are pleased with them or when we do not â—â—ominate and cast them out as soon as they come into our Minds as soon as we have Power to discover that they are sinful 'T is true the Devil may continue to disquiet and disturb the Peace and Tranquility of our Consciences by his wicked injections and putting into our Minds evil Thoughts But tho they are our grief and molestation yet they being resisted are his Sins and God will judge him for them and spare and pitty us God knows whereof we are made and Remembreth that we are but dust The Blessed Jesus Assum'd our Nature and therefore well knows how to compassionate us in such circumstances He was Himself Sollicited by the accursed Tempter but he did not yield to him but resisted him and if we follow our Lord's Example and do so too if he doth not presently flee from us yet 't is not our sin but unhappiness to be infested with him And this certainly we are able to do We may undoubtedly choose whether we will consent to wicked thoughts and aprove them or not If they do indeed meet with a kind entertainment at our hands no wonder that they grow bold and familiar but if we deny them admittance and shut them out we shall at length be rid of them or at least they will not be charged upon us Even the Devil is put to flight by resistance St. James tells us He remembers his Apostacy he trembles at the Name of Jesus and when a Christian behaves himself bravely against him he doth not care to abide the combat If we give the same reply to all his suggestions as our Blessed Lord did our trouble is greater than our danger If we would but be watchful over our selves and have as much care as we can of our thoughts I am apt to think we should not complain so much of them as we often do 'T is much for want of a due observation of our selves and keeping our hearts with all diligence that so many evil thoughts proceed from thence The malignity or folly of our Imaginations is much owing to our selves to our own sloth and carelessness to idleness or to an habit of sin or some such cause and when it is so we ought to repent of them and look on them as our sins Tho the corruption of our Nature and the malice of the Devil be many times the cause of them yet we our selves are often more chargeable with them than either of these and if we narrowly and truly examine our selves we shall find it so Upon the whole it is sufficiently plain that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts the Soul is the Soil where this Hemlock is sown There wicked thoughts are conceived they owe their original either to the corruption of the Soul it self or are thrown in by the instigations of the Devil From thence they proceed and therefore it must be acknowledg'd that there doth lie an obligation on us of well governing them That we are not altogether unable to do any thing in order to it but something is in our power We can chuse whether we will cherish them or not we can either bid them welcome or bid them be gone And besides we can use other helps and assistances and follow these Rules and Directions which are necessary to the well-governing our thoughts And what they are is the subject of the following Chapter CHAP. IV. THe Rules and Directions which we are to follow in order to the better performance of this great work viz. the vertuous and religious government of our thoughts are divided into General and Particular The General will have relation to all kinds of evil thoughts whatsoever they be The latter will concern chiefly these sorts of them hereafter mentioned The General Rules and Directions then are these following First Prayer Constant and fervent Prayer This is a Catholicon a sovereign Remedy for every Ail and Indisposition of the Soul It is very powerful with God and availeth much 'T is a preservative from the violence of Temptations and a defence against all kinds of evil thoughts Prayer as it engageth the Divine Favour and the Protection of Almighty God in all cases so it naturally cleanseth and purifieth the heart keeps it in a due frame and religious temper The Soul is thereby prompted and disposed to that which is good and ponderates towards God It gives a relish of Divine and Spiritual things and makes the Soul more and more averse to all evil vain or silly thoughts and imaginations And therefore if we desire to be preserved from wicked thoughts to keep our hearts in due temper and government we should be constant and earnest in our approaches to the Throne of Grace daily and fervent in our Prayers to God for his Grace to assist us in conquering the stubbornness and irregularity of our thoughts and imaginations That he would be pleas'd to take possession of our Souls by his holy Spirit and by him to govern subdue and sanctify all the motions powers and faculties of our Souls That no unclean Spirit may inhabit there but that they may be swept and garnished in the best sence and ever prepar'd to receive the visits of Heaven and the benign influences of the holy Ghost Be sure then that you omit not the observance of this first Rule in order to the well-governing your thoughts for without this all the rest will signify nothing Secondly the next Rule is that you avoid idleness That hateful vice which makes the Soul of a Man like the field of the sluggard all overgrown with thorns and briars full of all manner of wanton desires evil motions and impure thoughts When a Man is idle and loytering a thousand ill things come into his mind which an honest industry would prevent And the most desirable opportunity the Devil hath for injecting wicked thoughts or temptations successfully is when a Man hath nothing to do It is absolutely necessary therefore that we avoid being idle and so practice both parts of our Blessed Saviour's Advice Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation Idleness is the nurse of wickedness Sin 's procurer a vice most odious in its self and leading into all others It lays a Man open to all assaults and temptations and exposeth him to the dangerous sollicitations of a legion of the Infernal Spirits at once Whereas an industrious Man puts Satan to the toil of a long siege as it were the negligent and idle Person makes a present and voluntary surrender of himself to him Thus much is signify'd by that Parable of our Blessed Lord's Mat. 12. 43. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none he saith I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnished Then goeth he and
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-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-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
Impure Thoughts and Lustful Imaginations which I shall recommend to you is the serious consideration of the Purity of GOD. The Almighty is a God of infinite Purity and Holiness He hates all uncleanness and cannot look upon the least sin or pollution even of our thoughts with approbation And it will be a means of avoiding such unclean Thoughts to have this Consideration frequently in our Minds viz. That God is infinitely pure and holy and hates all kinds and degrees of filthiness and uncleanness This questionless was that which made good Joseph resist the sollicitations of his wanton Mistress with how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God The Lord will dwell in a clean Habitation or none And if even the wicked Spirits will have their house swept and garnished before they will enter in surely God will not dwell in a worse then they To the Pure heart alone he makes discoveries and communications of himself To the Clean Soul he affords his Grace and Comforts These alone he blesseth with his presence here and admits into his beatifick presence hereafter These only can enjoy God for these alone are qualified to enjoy him Hell is the stinking Lake of all uncleanness where impure Spirits and ugly fiends wallow in the steam of their horrid pollutions But Heaven is the habitation of pure chaste and Virgin Souls The Region of Innocence the Kingdom of the Lamb Where there is no manner of thing that defileth And he that hopes to come thither and to dwell with God everlastingly He I say that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure Who saith the Psalmist shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place He that hath clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lift up his mind unto vanity And to this internal purity of the Soul and Thoughts is that glorious Beatitude of the vision of God annexed Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Now besides these there are several other Rules to be observ'd for the avoiding this kind of evil Thoughts which cannot conveniently be enlarg'd on in this Treatise as the shunning Idleness and vain and lascivious conversation loose Sports and Theatrical Shews c. which I leave to your own care and observation to discover CHAP. VII REvengeful and malicious or uncharitable Thoughts are another kind of Evil Thoughts which deserve our distinct consideration For they do many times domineer and tyranize in the Souls of Men to the effectual hindrance of their Duty Whatever favourable opinion Men may have of or whatever excuses they may pretend for them 'T is undeniable that the Christian Religion makes it to be our duty to be kind and charitable loving and forgiving to all the world even our worst Enemies But speaks our Lord I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you And Math. 5. 21. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Racha i.e. Thou empty or despicable fellow or the like shall be in danger of the council But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire From which it is plain That the Christian Law doth forbid all Malice and Revenge not only actually doing hurt to any but all contumelious language and cherishing even the least Revengeful Thought But yet how apt is Humane Nature to retain the memory of a suppos'd Injury How prone is a Man to have a Grudge in his Heart against his Brother Perhaps he will carry a fair shew of charity But yet his Conscience tells him there lurks Rancour or at least a Grudging in his Heart And 't is a difficult matter to bring him into a better mind But he must be of a better mind if he will be a Christian indeed and he must not only forgive an Enemy but forget him too This as is very probable hath been the true cause of keeping many Persons from the Lord's Table who rather than they will lay aside some little Punctilio or other and be clothed with that Humility which becometh Christians in order to a Reconciliation they will obstinately deprive their Souls of that inestimable Benefit This now being diametrically opposite to the Spirit of Christianity I shall lay down Rules for the suppressing this kind of Evil thoughts And they are briefly these following First The Consideration of what Christ Jesus our Master who hath forbidden all uncharitable thoughts hath done for us How can any one think of Revenge who hath received such favours and immunities as every Christian hath at the hands of his Redeemer How unlike a Christian is it to cherish so much as an envious Desire How different from the mind of Christ and the charity of a Forgiving Jesus who hath done and suffered more for Us his Enemies than 't is possible to express Truly therefore to consider this seriously is a sufficient check to all such Thoughts as these and a proper means to eject them 'T is an hard matter for a Man to be so profligate as to take pleasure in the misfortunes or lapses of others who considers how much he himself is indebted to the Goodness of GOD. To devise a Revenge or Calumny upon his Bed against any Person to seek occasions to discover a mote in his Brother's eye to proclaim his errours as upon the house-top and to represent his mistakes to be his Vices To slander back-bite and defame his Neighbour and to support his own Reputation or Estate on the ruine of another's When any of these things are the Buisiness of any Man's Thoughts he is so far from being a true Disciple of our Lord Jesus that he is in the very gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Besides the great uneasiness that such Thoughts are to the Mind that harbours them and the effectual hindrance that they are to holy Duties they carry in them a very great dissimilitude to the temper of the meek the kind and the charitable Jesus shewn to our selves Which to one that makes conscience of his Profession is a very hainous and detestable thing Behold thy Saviour hanging upon his Cross and praying for thee and the rest of his murderers and I should think that Sight would quickly banish all Revengeful Grudging or Uncharitable Thoughts out of thy Mind and make thee more easy and pleasant to thy self and more fitted for thy Duty Secondly The Consideration of what our own Demerit is and what indignities and affronts our sins have been to God is another Expedient for the avoiding this kind of Evil Thoughts
Fear or some Temporal consideration may keep a Man from executing his revenge but in order to the preserving himself from wicked uncharitable Thoughts which are hateful in the sight of God and highly punishable the consideration of our own Demerit is a proper expedient And here we cannot but fall down in adoration of the forbearance and longanimity of a provoked God towards us miserable offenders We cannot but with the deepest convictions acknowledge that we have offended GOD infinitely more than any have offended us The dignity of His Person is a transcendent aggravation of every sin be it what it will And this is a very perswasive motive for us to overlook all Injuries and Affronts which how great soever they may be in themselves are yet comparatively petty and inconsiderable ones 'T is a piece of great presumption for any Person to have Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us in his Mouth while he harbours envious malicious or uncharitable thoughts in his Heart And whosoever duly considers himself and what a sinful unworthy Creature he is And he would do well here to call to mind some of his greatest sins will not easily cherish any rancorous or invidious Thoughts long nay not suffer the sun to go down upon his wrath It may cool our incens'd or uncharitable thoughts if when they are apt to arise in our Heart we consider on that perfect love union and sincere affection that there is among all the Blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven and that if ever we would come to Heaven we must be like them One Heart and one Soul animates all the Inhabitants of Glory There is not the least opposition or variation in their desires or affections Every one of the Blessed is unspeakably dear to all the rest God is love St. John tells us and his radiant likeness is stamp'd upon every glorify'd Soul which makes it surpassingly fair and beautiful Love 't is the Epitome of happiness And as it is the cement of this Creation which keeps all the parts of it in an harmonious order so 't is the glory and beauty of Heaven And whosoever he be that retains the least Grudge or uncharitable Suspicion or revengeful Thought is unfit to live among these affectionate Spirits and to receive the transporting Illapses of the Divine and infinite Love Which consideration should effectually banish every malicious or uncharitable thought out of our Hearts And indeed this kind of evil thoughts is such as we must by no means esteem slight and inconsiderable They often produce very sad effects when encouraged they run Men into horrible extremes Besides that they greatly hinder us in doing our Duty acceptably and are so displeasing to God that they render all pretences to Religion vain and insignicant and blast the best of our Sacrifices and the choicest gift that we bring to the altar And therefore we cannot but think our selves oblig'd to mortify and subdue them and never suffer our selves to be at rest until we find in us a real and universal Reconciliation and an undissembled Love and Charity to all the World In order to which there are some other Rules to be observ'd As divesting our selves of an immoderate Self-love which is apt to stick to most Men avoiding Pride and Partiality Constant Prayer c. But I hope these that I have mentioned may put you upon enquiring after the rest CHAP. VIII THere is hardly any thing that is a greater occasion of affliction to us and that more deprives us of that Spiritual Comfort which we hope for from the Service of God than the Inconstancy and Wandring of our Thoughts while we are imploy'd about Holy things And therefore I shall in this Chapter endeavour to lay before you such Remedies against Wandring Thoughts as I hope may not be in vain This kind of evil thoughts doth in its compass take in all other kinds of them For sometimes our Wandring Thoughts are profane and blasphemous sometimes wanton and obscene and sometimes idle and foolish c. Now these Wandring Thoughts when we are imploy'd about Holy things are in a great measure owing to our selves and there is much in our power in order to their cure We will consider what are the principal occasions of them and that will direct us to the Remedies against them First then Wandring thoughts are oftentimes occasion'd by a want of Preparation to Holy duties We carelesly and temerariously rush on to the performance of them We think indeed that they must be done but yet consider not as we ought the manner of doing them We go to our Prayers as to our Secular affairs and make but little difference between the most solemn and ordinary actions of our Life Which is oftentimes the cause why our Thoughts wander and scatter and so we reap but little comfort or advantage from our best performances 'T is expedient then and our duty before ever we engage in any set performance of the Worship of God that we prepare our selves by some previous Thoughts and pious Dispositions that so we may come to our duty in a right manner That our Souls may be prepossess'd and fitted for the service of God We think it too bold and presuming to thrust our selves into the presence of an Earthly Prince without due consideration And therefore surely it cannot be thought less to approach the face of the Infinite GOD without a solemn composure of Spirit and a preparation of Thought But besides the evil of so doing the Natural consequence of it is to make our Thoughts loose and wandring And unless we set about holy Duties with a due preparation of Mind it can hardly be conceiv'd how it should be otherwise When therefore we draw nigh unto God in the way of his worship either in our Closets or Families or in the Publick Assemblies of the Church and especially in the last of these 't is our Duty to dispose our hearts before-hand and to settle them in a due frame of Devotion because our deportment when we are actually engag'd in it doth mâ—ghtily depend thereon Thus the Preacher Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few This Rule in order to the avoiding wandring Thoughts may be but little minded but it is nevertheless useful Secondly Want of Intention and settling the Mind on God in the actual performance of holy Duties is another great occasion of the wandring of our Thoughts therein What is the reason of our complaints that we do not hear the Word of God to our Spiritual comfort and advantage pray with that fervour of Devotion praise him with that enlargement of Soul and have