CHAPTER XVII – Self-imaginations to be denied
and bounded, and then it will be acceptable holy zeal: but if it be but self that is wronged, remember that you are not your own; and therefore take no thought of the business, but leave God to look to his own, and do with it as he please: if you are his, your cause is his, and therefore let him look to it that is concerned in it more than you, and that hath said, "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay."
CHAPTER XVII
Self-imagination to be Denied 6. ANOTHER part of self to be mortified and denied, is selfimagination. It is the selfishness of men's thoughts, that is the vanity of their thoughts; and these are the imaginations that are only evil continually. The thoughts should be let out on God and his service; so that our meditation of him should be sweet, and we should delight in the Lord (Psal. 104:34.); and in the multitude of our thoughts within us, his comforts should delight our souls (Psal. 94:19.). His word should be our meditation all the day (Psal. 119:97. 99.); and in his law we should meditate day and night (Psal. 1:2.). God should be the spring, the end, the sum of all our thoughts; if we find a thought in our minds that savoureth not of God, yea, that is not sent by him, and doing his work, we must disown it, apprehend it, and cast it out.
But alas, how contrary is the case with the most! As self is advanced highest in their imagination, so doth it there attract and dispose of the thoughts. What are all the thoughts of unsanctified men employed for, but for themselves and theirs? Their fantasies hunt about the world; but it is their own game and pleasure that they range about. The thoughts of one man run upon his covetousness, and another man's upon his filthy lusts, and another man's on his