gine that thofe motus primo primi, as the fchools fpeak, thofe firft finings of concupifcence, which come not within the verge and compafs of the will, fhould fall under the lafh and cenfure of the law; a foldier is not punished for having an enemy to encounter, but for not doing his duty to repel his affaults; if, instead of watching and repreffing 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 mif ufing it, and will not require it at any man's hands that he has the feeds of evil scatter'd in his compofition, but for fuffering them to fructify in the foil. However, it must still be own'd that as to all the irregular motions of the inner man, that fall under the difpofal of our wills, God hath concluded them all under fin, that by the wicked man's forfaking his thoughts, the numberlefs vain thoughts that fly up and down his mind, he might the more abundantly pardon, If. 55. v. 7. accordingly, the fame prophet tells us of those that *err in fpirit, Solomon of those that

*Ifa. 29. 24.

that err in imagining evil, Prov. 14. 22. and Micha denounces woe to the devifers of iniquity. Hence the fame wife King of Ifrael tells us in one place, that the thought of foolishnefs is fin; in another place, that they err who devife evil; in a third, that the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord; as his father David had before obferv'd of fome that their inward parts were very wickedness, 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 heart (for what is the fubject of our repentance but our fins) that St. Paul requires us to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Chrift; which supposes, that of themselves they are naturally rebellious; that our Saviour reprehends the Pharifees for "thinking evil; and affirms of 'evil thoughts, that they defile the man, as well as when they fhoot forth into exterior actions of murder, adultery, &c. the very intention and defire whereof he elsewhere equals with open tranfgreffions of the kind. The reafon of all is, That God being the father of the fpirits of all flefh, and the kingdom of his fon a fpiritual king

dom

a Prov. 24. 9. b Prov. 14. 12. c Prov. 15. 26. d Pfal. 5. 9. e Pfal. 58. 2. f Acts 8. 22. g 2 Cor. 10. 4. h Matt. 9. 4. Matt. 15. 18. i Matt. 5.

19.

dom too, 'tis congruous both to the divine nature, and ours, which is a ftricture of his, that his laws bear fway in our spiritual part, in our hearts and fouls, our wills and affections; for would we have an infinitely glorious Spirit, ferved by dull flesh and blood only, and not rather like himself, in spirit and in truth, with those prime productions, those first-born fons 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 confequently in the guilt of the tranfgreffion of his laws?

He

is the natural Lord of both foul and body, has bought them with a price, and therefore all the reason in the world imports that the obedience we pay him should be commenfurate to the extent of his purchase; so that if we have any just abhorrence of fin in the true latitude of the divine conftruction of it, we must govern our Thoughts, as well as obferve proper measures in our words and actions.

SECT. III

SECT. III.

UT I shall farther evince the obligations

BUT

that lie upon us to order our Thoughts aright, from fuch confiderations as feem to enhance the guilt of mental fins above thofe of the outward man. For

I. THO' it be an argument that fin has acquired an arbitrary power over us, and that the law in our members has got the afcendant over the law of our minds, when the feeds of evil thoughts fhoot forth into criminal words and actions, and in this refpect the offspring is worfe than the parent; that is, 'tis worse to speak and do evil, than barely to think it; yet confider the outward acts of fin feparately and apart by themfelves, abftracted from thofe previous cogitations that give them birth, and then the fins of the mind are infinitely more criminal; for is it not worse to prostitute an immortal foul to fin and folly than a mouldering carcafe? The one is in the nature of an artificer that models and contrives the fin, the other but as the inftrument as it were in its hand; and who reckons the murdering fword as faulty as he that dar'd to fheath it in his brother? The

The one is as the mother of the fpurious brat, or the womb wherein luft firft conceives, till the heart grows big and the reckoning of the fin be out; the other only comes and midwives it into the world, and brings forth that which brings forth death; Who ever thought these two equally criminal? Nay, fet aside the guilt that is derived from the corruption of the mind, and why fhould the worst actions of the outward man be reputed any more finful than those of the horse and the mule that have no understanding? For fin is properly in the foul only; the fubject both of it, and of that grace which

corrects it.

II. OUR thoughts are always first in the tranfgreffion, and fo in refpect of precedency, are more inexcufable than outward actions; they are ring-leaders in the rebellion of fin against God, and perfons of that character are generally made as exemplary in their punishment, as they are for their crime; these are the firft begotten of their father the devil, the eldeft fons of original corruption, the might and the beginning of the ftrength of fin in us. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,

C

murders,