affections tainted with an inclination to it; and when they are so.
CHAPTER 11.
The work of sin by deceit to entangle the affections - How it is done - Means of prevention.
THE second thing in the words of the apostle ascribed to the deceitful working of sin is its enticing. A man is "drawn away and enticed." And this seems particularly to relate to the affections. The mind is drawn away from duty, and the affections are enticed to sin. So a man is said to be "enticed," or entangled as with a bait; for it alludes to the bait with which a fish is taken on the hook which holds him to his destruction. Concerning this, we shall briefly show two things:
1. What it is to be enticed, or entangled with the bait of sin, to have the affections tainted with an inclination to it; and when they are so.
2. What course sin takes, and how it proceeds to entice the soul: -
(1.) The affections are entangled when they stir up frequent imaginations about the object which this deceit of sin leads and entices towards. When sin prevails, and the affections are gone fully after it, it continually fills the imagination with it, with images and likenesses of it. Such persons "devise iniquity, and work evil on their beds;" which they also "practise" when "it is in the power of their hand," Micah 2:1. As, in particular, Peter tells us that "they have eyes full of an adulteries, and cannot cease from sin," 2 Peter 2:14, - that is, their imaginations are continually filled with thoughts of the object of their lusts. And it is so in part where the affections are in part entangled with sin, and begin to turn aside to it. John tells us that the things that are "in the world" are "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," 1 John 2:16. The lust of the eyes is what they convey to the soul. Now, it is not physical seeing, but the fixing of the imagination on such things, that is meant. And this is called the "eyes," because thereby things are represented to the mind and soul, as outward objects are by the eyes. And often the outward sight of the eyes causes these imaginations. So Achan declares how sin prevailed