Chapter II
Three questions resolved concerning positive growth.
OTHER questions there are concerning that other part of our growth, namely,
in positive graces and the fruits thereof.
Quest. 1. As, first, Whether every new degree of grace runs through all
the faculties?
Ans. I answer, Yes : for as every new degree of light in the air runs
through the whole hemisphere, when the sun shines clearer and clearer to the
perfect day, which is Solomon s comparison in the Proverbs ; so every new
degree of grace runs through, and is diffused through the whole man. And
therefore also, 1 Thess. v. 23, when the Apostle there prays for increase of
l sanctified wholly, in body, soul, and spirit. And every new degree, though it begins at the spirit, the understanding, yet
grace, he prays they may be
goes through all ; for so, Eph. iv. 23, 24, Be renewed in the spirit of your
minds, and put on the new man : it runs therefore through the whole man,
having renewed the mind ; as the work of grace at first, so after still con
tinually leaveneth the whole lump.
Quest. 2. Whether one grace may not grow more than another 1
Ans. 1. I answer, first, that it is certain that when a man grows up in
one grace, he doth grow in all ; they grow and thrive together. Therefore,
in Eph. iv. 15, we are said to grow up into him in all things. Growth
from Christ is general ; as true growth in the body is in every part, so this
in every grace. Therefore, 2 Cor. iii. 18, we are said to be changed into
the same image from glory to glory. Every increase stamps a further de
gree of the whole image of Christ upon the heart. So the Thessalonians,
their faith and their love did both overflow, 2 Thess. i. 3.
Ans. 2. Yet, secondly, so as one grace may grow more than some other :
(1.) Because some are more radical graces, as faith and love, therefore of
the Thessalonians faith the Apostle says, 2 Thess. i. 3, that it did grow ex
ceedingly ; and then it follows, their love did overflow.
(2.) Some graces are more exercised, and if so, they abound more ; as
though both arms do grow, yet that which a man useth is the stronger and
the bigger, so is it in graces. In birds, their wings, which have been used
most, are sweetest to the taste. As in the body, though the exercise of one
member maketh the body generally more healthful, yet so as that member
^ So
which is exercised will be freest from humours itself; so it is here.
tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, Rom. v. Many sufferings make patience the less difficult, and much experience, many experiments, make hope greater.
(3.) Again, thirdly, that some graces are more in some than others, ap
pears hence ; for what is it makes the differing gifts that are in Christians
but a several constitution of graces, though all have every grace in them ?
As now in the body every member hath all singular parts in it, as flesh,
506 THE TBIAL OF A CHRISTIAN S GKOWTH. [PART III.
bones, sinews, veins, blood, spirits in it, but yet so some members have more of flesh, less of sinews and veins, &c., whence ariseth a several office in every member, according as such or such similar parts do more or less abound in a member. The hand, because it hath more nerves and joints in it than another member, though less flesh, yet how strong is it, and fit for many offices ! The foot is not so. So in Christians, by reason of the several con stitution of graces, and the temper of them more or less, have they several
offices in the church, and are fitted for several employments. Some have more love, and fit for offices of charity ; some more knowledge, and are fit to instruct ; some more patience, and are fitter to suffer ; some for self-denial, and accordingly do grow in these more specially.
Quest. 3. The third question is, Whether this increase be only by radicat
ing the same grace more, or by a new addition ?
Ans. I answer, that by adding a new degree of grace, as in making candles, which is done by addition ; when a candle is put anew into the fat of boiled tallow, every time it is put in it comes out bigger, with a new addi tion ; or as a cloth dipped in the dye comes out upon every new dipping in with a deeper dye. And this is done by a new act of creation, put forth by God. Therefore when David, being fallen, prayed for increase of grace, he
l Create in me a new heart. And therefore, Eph. iv. 24, when the
says,
Apostle exhorts to further putting on the new man, and speaketh of growth, he adds, which is created; for every new degree is created as well as the
first infusion, which shews the difference between natural growth and this. In natural growth there needs not a new creation, but an ordinary concur rence ; but it is not so in this : that God that begun the work, by the same power perfects it. And therefore, Eph. i. 19, he prays that the believing Ephesians might see that power that continued to work in them to be no
less than that which raised up Christ : for though natural life may with a natural concurrence increase itself, because the terminus d, quo, the term from whence it springs, is but from a less degree of life to a greater yet it is otherwise in this life, and our growth in this is from a greater degree of death to a further degree of life. And therefore, Phil. iii. 11, the Apostle calls growing in grace a going on to attain the resurrection from the dead. And therefore the same power that raised up Christ must go along to work
it. Hence also every new degree of grace is called a new conversion, Ex
cept ye be converted, says Christ to his disciples converted already, because the same power that wrought to conversion goes still to this. And there
fore it is said that God gives the increase, 1 Cor. iii. 7 ; and it is called the
increasing of God, Col. ii. 19 ; so, Hos. xiv., shewing the ground why they grow so fast, Thy fruit is found in me, says God, ver. 7. Although this
is to be added by way of caution and difference, that therein God doth pro portion his influence to our endeavours, which in conversion at first he doth
not. Therefore we are said to be fellow-workers with him, although it be he that gives the increase, 1 Cor. iii. 6-8 ; the same you have also Rom. viii., We by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh. We, as co-workers with the Spirit
THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS DISCOVERED;
THEIR DANGER AND CUBE
THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS.
Hoiv long shall thy vain tliouyJits lodge ivithin tJiee ? JEK. IV. 14.
IN these words$ie compares the heart unto some house of common resort,
made, as it were, with many and large rooms to entertain and lodge multi
tudes of guests in ; into which, before conversion, all the vain, light, wanton,
profane, dissolute thoughts that post up and down the world, as your thoughts
do, and run riot all the day, have free, open access, the heart keeps open house to them, gives them willing, cheerful welcome and entertainment ;
accompanies them, travels over all the world for the daintiest pleasures to
feed them with; lodgeth, harbours them; and there they, like unruly
gallants and roysters, lodge, and revel it day and night, and defile those
rooms they lodge in with their loathsome filth and vomits. How long,
says the Lord, shall they lodge therein, whilst I, with my Spirit, my
Son, and train of graces, stand at the door and knock, Kev. iii. 20, and
cannot find admittance ? Of all which filthiness, &c., the heart, this house, must be washed : Wash thy heart from wickedness. Washed, not swept
only of grosser evils, as, Matt. xii. 43, the house the unclean spirit re-enters
into is said to be swept of evils that lay loose and uppermost, but washed
and cleansed of those defilements which stick more close, and are incor
porated and wrought into the spirit. And those vain and unruly guests must be turned out of doors without any warning; they have stayed there
long enough, too long : how long? And the time past may suffice, as
the Apostle speaks ; they must lodge there no more. The house, the soul,
is not in conversion to be pulled down, but only these guests turned out; and though kept out they cannot be, they will still enter whilst we are in
these houses of clay, yet lodge they must not. If thoughts of anger and
revenge come in in the morning or daytime, they must be turned out ere
night: Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, Eph. iv. 26; for^so you may come to lodge yet a worser guest in your heart with them. Give
not place to the devil, for it follows, who will bring seven worse with him.
If unclean thoughts offer to come to bed to thee when thou liest down, let
them not lodge with thee. To conclude, it is not what thoughts are^in your
hearts, and pass through them, as what lodging they have, that doth difference
your repentance. Many good thoughts and motions may pass as strangers
through a bad man s heart ; and so likewise multitudes of vain thoughts may make a thoroughfare of a believer s heart, and disturb him in good
510 THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. [JER. IV. 14.
duties, "by knocMngs and interruptions, and breakings in upon the heart of a good man; but still they lodge not there are not fostered, harboured. My scope in our ordinary course is, to discover the wickedness and vanity of the heart by nature. In the heart, we are yet but in the upper parts of
it, the understanding, and the defilements thereof, which are to be washed out of it ; and the next defilement which in my broken order I mean to handle is that which is here specified, THE VANITY OF YOUR THOUGHTS. For the discovery s sake of which only, I chose this text as my ground ; that
is it, therefore, which I chiefly insist upon ; a subject which, I confess, would
prove of all else the vastest. To make an exact particular discovery of the vanities in our thoughts, to travel over the whole creation, and to take a
survey and give an account of all that vanity abounds in all the creatures, was, as you know, the task of the wisest of men, Solomon ; the flower of his studies and labours. But the vanity of our thoughts are as multiplied much in us ; this little world affords more varieties of vanities than the great. Our thoughts made the creatures subject to vanity, Rom. viii. 20 ; there
fore themselves are subject to vanity much more. In handling of them I
will shew you 1. What is meant by thoughts. 2. What by vanity. 3. That our thoughts are vain. 4. Wherein that vanity doth consist, both in the gene ral and some particulars.
1. First, what is meant by thoughts, especially as they are the intended
subject of this discourse, which in so vast an argument I must necessarily set limits unto.
(1.) By thoughts the Scriptures do comprehend all the internal acts of the mind of man, of what faculty soever ; all those reasonings, consultations,
purposes, resolutions, intents, ends, desires, and cares of the mind of man, as opposed to our external words and actions. So, Isa. Ixvi. 18, all acts are divided into those two, I know their works and their thoughts. What is transacted within the mind is called the thoughts ; what thereof do manifest themselves and break out in actions are called works. And so, Gen. vi. 5, 1 Every imagination of the thoughts omne figmentum, all the creatures the mind frames within itself, purposes, desires, &c., (as it is noted in the mar
gin) are evil; where by thoughts are understood all that comes within
the mind, (as, Ezek. xi. 5, the phrase is,) and so indeed we vulgarly use it and understand it. So to remember a man is to think of him^ Gen. xl. 14 ; to have purposed a thing, we say, I thought to do it; to take care about a business, is to take thought, 1 Sam. ix. 5. And the reason why
all may thus be called the thoughts, is because indeed all affections, desires,
purposes, are stirred up by thoughts bred, fomented, and nourished by them. No one thought passeth, but it stirreth some affection of fear, joy, care, grief, &c. No, although they are thus largely taken here, yet I intend not to handle the vanity of them in so large a sense at present. I must confine
myself, as strictly as may be, to the vanity of that which is more properly called the thinking, meditating, considering power of man, which is in his
understanding or spirit, that being the subject I have in hand; thoughts not being in this sense opposed only to your works, but unto purposes and intents. So, Heb. iv. 12, as the soul and spirit, so thoughts and in
tents seem to be opposed. And, Job xx. 2, 3, thoughts are appropriated to the spirit of understanding. And again, yet more strictly, for in the
understanding I mean not to speak of, generally, all thoughts therein, neither, as not of the reasonings or deliberations in our actions, but those musings only in the speculative part.
And so I can no otherwise express them to you than thus : Those same
JEE. IV. 14.] THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. 511
first more simple conceits, apprehensions that arise, those fancies, medita
tions, which the understanding, by the help of fancy, frames within itself of things; those whereon your minds ponder and pore, and muse upon things ; these I mean by thoughts. I mean those talkings of our minds with the things we know, as the Scripture calls it, Prov. vi. 22 ; those same par
leys, interviews, chattings, the mind hath with the things let into it, with the things we fear, with the things we love. For all these things our minds make their companions, and our thoughts hold them discourse, and have a thousand conceits about them; this I mean by thoughts. For besides that reasoning power, deliberating power, whereby we ask ourselves
continually, What shall we do ? and whereby we reason and discuss things, which is a more inward closet, the cabinet and privy council of the heart, there is a more outward lodging, that presence-chamber, which entertains
all comers, which is the thinking, meditating, musing power in man, which
suggesteth matter for deliberations, and consultations, and reasonings, which holds the objects till we view them, which entertaineth all that come to
speak with any of our affections.
(2.) I add, which the mind frames within itself; so the Scripture ex-
presseth their original to us, and their manner of rising, Prov. vi. 14, Frowardness is in his heart, fabricatur,
( he forgeth mischief/ as a smith doth
iron, hammers it out. And the thoughts are the materials of this frowardness in us ; upon all the things which are presented to us, the mind begets some thoughts, imaginations on them ; and as lusts, so thoughts are con
ceived, James i. Isa. lix. 4, They conceive mischief, and bring forth ini
quity, and hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave spiders webs. And, ver. 7, he instanceth in thoughts of iniquity, because our thoughts are spun out of our own hearts, are eggs of our own laying, though the things presented to us be from without.
And this I add to sever them from such thoughts as are injected and cast
in only from without, which are children of another s begetting, and often
laid out of doors : such as are blasphemous thoughts cast in by Satan, wherein if the soul be merely passive, (as the word buffeting implies, 2 Cor.
xii. 7,) they are none of your thoughts, but his ; wherein a man is but asone in a room with another, where he hears another swear and curse, but cannot get out from him ; such thoughts, if they be only from without, defile not a man. For
i nothing defiles a man but what comes from within, Matt. xv. 18, 19, or which the heart hath begotten upon it by the devil, as
thoughts of uncleanness, &c., wherein, though he be the father, yet the heart
is the mother and womb, and therefore accordingly affect the heart, as natural
children do. And by that we may distinguish them from the other, namely, when we have a soft heart, an inward love unto them, so that our hearts do kiss the child, then they are our thoughts; or else when the heart broods
upon those eggs, then they are our thoughts, though they come from without.
Though this is to be added, that even those thoughts wherein the soul is
passive, and which Satan casts in, which we do noways own, wherein he
ravisheth the heart, rather than begets them on us, (if there be not any con
sent to them in us, then it is but a rape, as in law it is,) I yield those
thoughts are punishments often of neglect of our thoughts, and of our suf
fering them to wander ; as Dinah, because she went cunningly out, to view
the daughters of the land, was taken and ravished; though against her will, yet it was a punishment of her curiosity. Or else they are the punishment of the neglect of good motions of the Spirit ; which resisting, we thereby
grieve him, and so he deals with us as we with our children, suffers us to be
512 THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. [JER. IV. 14.
scared with bugbears, and to be grieved by Satan, that we may learn what
it is to neglect him and harbour vanity. Lastly, I add, which the mind, in and by itself, or by the help of fancy, thus begets and entertains, because there are no thoughts or likenesses of things at any time in our fancies, but at the same time they are in the understanding also reflected unto it. As when two looking-glasses are placed opposite and nigh each to other, look, what
species appears in the one do also in the other.
2. Secondly, let us see what vanity is. Take it in all the acceptations of it, it is true of our thoughts that they are vain.
(1.) It is taken for unprofitableness.. So, Eccles. i. 2, 3, All is vain, be cause there is no profit in them under the sun. Such are our thoughts by nature ; the wisest of them will not stand as in any stead in time of need, in time of temptation, distress of conscience, day of death or judgment : 1 Cor.
ii. 6, All the wisdom of the wise comes to nought ; Prov. x. 20, The heart of the wicked is little worth, not a penny for them all. Whereas the thoughts of a godly man are his treasure : Out of the good treasure of his heart he brings them forth. He mints them, and they are laid up as his riches. Ps. cxxxix. 17, How precious are they! He there speaks of our thoughts of God, as the object of them; Thy thoughts that is, of thee are precious.
(2.) Vanity is taken for lightness. Lighter than vanity is a phrase used, Ps. Ixii. 9 ; and whom is it spoken of? Of men; and if anything in them be lighter than other, it is their thoughts, which swim in the upper most parts, float at the top, are as the scum of the heart. When all the best, and wisest, and deepest, and solidest thoughts in Belshazzar, a prince, were weighed, they were found too light, Dan. v. 27.
(3.) Vanity is put for folly. So, Prov. xii. 11, vain men is made all one with men void of understanding. Such are our thoughts. Among other evils which are said to come out of the heart, Mark vii. 22, pf offuwj is reckoned as one, foolishness ; that is, thoughts that are such as madmen
have, and fools, nothing to the purpose, of which there can be made no use, which a man knows not whence they should come, nor whither they would, without dependence.
(4.) It is put for inconstancy and frailty ; therefore vanity and a shadow are made synonymous, Ps. cxliv. 4. Such are our thoughts, flitting and
perishing, as bubbles : Ps. cxlvi. 4, All their thoughts perish.
(5.) Lastly, they are vain ; that is, indeed, iviclced and sinful. Vanity in the text here is yoked with wickedness ; and vain men and sons of Belial are all one, 2 Chron. xiii. 7. And such are our thoughts by nature : Prov. xxiv. 9, The thought of foolishness is sin. And therefore a man is to be humbled for a proud thought, Prov. xxx. 32. For so laying hand on the mouth is taken, as Job xl. 4, for being vile in a man s own eyes. 3. And because this is the sense I chiefly must insist on in handling the
vanity of the thoughts, and also men usually think that thoughts are free, I will therefore prove this to you, which is the only doctrine raised, that
thoughts are sins.
_ (1.) The lawjudgeth them, Heb. iv. 12 ; rebukes a man for them, 1 Cor. xiv. 25 ; and therefore they are transgressions of the law. And so also did Christ rebuke the Pharisees for their ill thoughts, Matt. ix. 4 ; which argues the excellency of the law, that reacheth thoughts.
(2.) Because they are capable of pardon, and must be pardoned, or we cannot be saved, Acts viii. 22 ; which argues the multitudes of God s com
passions, seeing thoughts are so infinite.
IV. 14.] THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. 513
(3.) They are to be repented of; yea, repentance is expressed as to begin at them : so, Isa. Iv. 7, Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts. And a man is never truly and thoroughly wrought on, as 2 Cor. x. 4, 5, till every thought be brought into obedience; which argues that they are na
turally rebellious, and contrary to grace. And this also argueth the power of grace, which is able to rule and to subdue so great an army as our thoughts are, and command them all, as one day it will do, when we are perfectly holy.
(4.) They defile the man ; which nothing defiles but sin : Matt. xv. 18, 19, ( Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts ; these defile the man.
(5.) They are an abomination to the Lord, who hates nothing but sin, and whose
< pure eyes can endure to behold no iniquity, Hab. i 13. As good meditations are acceptable, Ps. xix. 14, so, by the rule of contrary, bad are abominable.
(6.) They hinder all good we should do, and spoil our best performances. Vain thoughts draw the heart away in them, that when a man should draw nigh to God, his heart, by reason of his thoughts, is far off from him, Isa. xxix. 13. A man s heart goes after his covetousness, when he should hear, as the prophet speaks, because his thoughts thus run. Now, nothing else but sin could separate ; and what doth estrange us from God is sin, and en mity to him.
(7.) Our thoughts are the first motioners of all the evil in us. For they make the motion, and also bring the heart and object together , are panders to our lusts, hold up the object till the heart hath played the adulterer with
it, and committed folly
: so in speculative imcleanness, and in other lusts, they hold up the images of those gods they create, which the heart falls down and worships ; they present credit, riches, beauty, till the heart hath worshipped them, and this when the things themselves are absent.
4. To come now to those particulars wherein this vanity of the thinking, meditating power of the mind consists :
First, I wiU discover it in regard of thinking what is good how unable and loath, &c., it is to good thoughts ; and, secondly, in regard of the readi ness of it to think of evil and vain things.
^For the first, it is seen, (1.) in a want of ability ordinarily and naturally to raise and extract holy and useful considerations and thoughts from all ordi nary occurrences and occasions ; which the mind, so far as it is sanctified, is apt unto. A heart sanctified, and in whose affections true grace is enkindled, out of all God s dealings with him, out of the things he sees and hears, out of all the objects are put into the thoughts, he distilleth holy, and sweet, and useful meditations ; and it naturally doth it, and ordinarily doth it, so far as it is sanctified. So our Saviour Christ, all speeches of others which he
heard, all accidents and occurrences, did still raise and occasion in him hea venly meditations, as we may see throughout the whole Gospels. When he came by a well, he speaks of the water of life, John iv., &c. Many in stances might be given. He in his thoughts translated the book of the creatures into the book of grace, and so did Adam s heart in innocency. His
philosophy might be truly termed divinity, because he saw God in all ; all raised up his heart to thankfulness and praise. So now, in like manner, our minds, so far as they are sanctified, will do. As the philosopher s stone turns all metals into gold, as the bee sucks honey out of every flower, and a good stomach sucks out some sweet and wholesome nourishment out of what
it takes unto itself; so doth a holy heart, so far as sanctified, convert and
digest all into spiritual useful thoughts. This you may see, Ps. evil. 43. VOL. III. 2 K
514 THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. [JER. IV. 14.
That psalm gives many instances of God s providence, and wonderful works which he doth for the sons of men ; as deliverances by sea, where men see
his wonders; deliverance to captives, &c. : and still the foot of the song is, O that men would therefore praise the Lord for the wonderful works he doth for the sons of men. Now, after all these instances, he concludes, that though others pass over such occurrences with ordinary slight thoughts,
yet says he, The righteous shall see it, and rejoice/ that is, extract com
fortable thoughts out of all, which shall be matter of joy ; and whoso is wise will observe these things, that is, makes holy observations out of all
these, and out of a principle of wisdom he understands God s goodness in all, and so his heart is raised to thoughts of praise, and thankfulness, and obedi
ence. Now, compare with this the 92d Psalm, made for the Sabbath, when, in imitation of God, who that day viewed his works, we are, on our Lord s day, still to raise holy praiseful thoughts out of them to his glory, which he that penned that psalm then did, ver. 1, 2, and ver. 5, 6, How
great are thy works! &c. A brutish man knows not, nor will a fool under
stand this ; that is, he being a beast, and having no sanctified principle of wisdom in him, looks no further than a beast into all the works of God arid
occurrences of things ; looks on all blessings as things provided for man s
delight by God ; but he extracts seldom holy, spiritual, and useful thoughts out of all, he wants the art of doing it.
If injuries be offered us by others, what do our thoughts distil out of those
wrongs, but thoughts of revenge ? We meditate how to requite it again. But see how naturally David s mind distils other thoughts of Shimei s curs
ing, 2 Sam. xvi. 11, God hath bidden him, and it may prove a good sign of God s favour, God may requite good for it. When we see judgments befall others, severe thoughts of censure our minds are apt to raise against our
brother, as Job s friends did. But a godly man, whose mind is much sancti
fied, raiseth other thoughts out of it, Prov. xxi. 29, wisely considers, &c. So when outward mercies befall us, the next thoughts we are apt to have
is to project ease by our wealth, Thou hast goods for many years ; and when
judgments befall us, we are apt to be filled with thoughts of complaint, and
fears, and cares how to wind out again. But what were the first thoughts Job had upon the news of the loss of all ? God hath given, and the Lord hath taken, blessed be the Lord for all.
Such thoughts as these, which all opportunities hint unto, a good heart is
apprehensive of, and doth naturally raise for its own use. So far barren as our thoughts are, so far vain.
(2.) The vanity and sinfulness of the mind appears in a loathness to enter
tain holy thoughts, to begin to set itself to think of God, and the things belonging unto our peace ; even as loath they are to this as schoolboys are
to their books, or to busy their minds about their lessons, their heads being full of play ; so loath are our minds to enter into serious considerations, into
sad, solemn thoughts of God or death, &c. Men are as loath to think of
death as thieves of the execution ; or to think of God, as they are of their
judge. So to go over their own actions, in a review of them, and read the
blurred writing of their hearts, and to commune with them, at night in the end of the day, (as David did, Ps. Ixxvii. 6,) men are as loath to do this as
schoolboys are to parse their lessons, and the false Latins they have made. Job xxi. 14, Depart from us, say they in Job unto God ; from their thoughts they meant it, for it follows, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. They would not think of him, or know him, by their good wills. And there
fore our minds, like a bad stomach, are nauseated with the very scent of
IV. 14.] THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. 515
good things, and soon cast them up again: Eom. i. 28, They like not to retain the knowledge of God. Let us go and try to wind up our souls, at any time, to holy meditations, to think of what we have heard, or what we have done, or what is our duty to do, and we shall find our minds, like the pegs of an instrument, slip between our fingers, as we are a-winding them
up, and to fall down suddenly again, ere we are aware of it ; yea, you shall
find, will labour to shun what may occasion such thoughts, even as men go out of the way when they see they must meet with one they are loath to speak withal ; yea, men dare not be alone, for fear such thoughts should re turn upon them. The best shall find a gladness for an excuse by other occasions to knock off their thoughts from what is good ; whereas in think
ing of vain earthly things, we think the time passeth too fast, clocks strike too soon, hours pass away ere we are aware of it.
(3.) The vanity and sinfulness of the mind appears in the godly, that though they entertain good thoughts, yet the mind is not, will not, be long intent on them. Some things there are which we are and can be intent upon, and accordingly dwell long upon them; and therefore, in Job xvii. 11, the
thoughts are called the possessions of the heart, so it is in the original, and noted in the margin. Such thoughts as are pleasing, the heart dwells on them ; yea, so intent are we often, that they hinder our sleep
: as it is said of wicked men, They cannot sleep for multitude of thoughts, Eccles.
v. 12; so, to devise froward things, Solomon says, Prov. xvi. 30, that a man shuts his eyes, that is, is exceeding attentive, poreth upon his plots ; for so a man doth use to do, to shut his eyes when he would be intent, and therefore it is so expressed. But now let the mind be occupied and busied about good things, and things belonging to our peace, how unsteady is it ! Which things should yet draw out the intention of the mind ; for the more excellent the object is, the stronger our intention should be. God is the most glorious object our minds can fasten on, the most alluring
: the
thoughts of whom therefore should swallow up all other, as not worthy to be seen the same day with him. But I appeal to all your experiences, if
your thoughts of him be not most unsteady, and are, that I may so compare
it, as when we look upon a star through an optic glass, held with a palsyshaking hand. It is long ere we can bring our minds to have ken of him, to place our eyes upon him ; and when we have, how do our hands shake, and so lose sight ever and anon ! So whilst we are in never so serious talk with him, when all things else should stand without, and not dare to offer entrance till we have done with him, yet how many chinks are there in the heart at which other thoughts come in ! and our minds leave God, and follow
them, and go after our covetousness, our credit, &c., as the prophet s phrase
is, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. So when we are hearing the word, how do our minds ever and anon run out of the church, and come in again, and so do not hear
half what is said ! So when we are at our callings, which God bids us to be conversant about with all our might, Eccles. ix. 10; yet our minds, like
idle truants, or negligent servants, though sent about never so serious a busi
ness, yet go out of the way to see any sport, run after the hares that cross the way, follow after butterflies that buzz about us.
And so when we come to pray, Christ bids watch to prayer, Mark xiii. 33 ; that is, as if we were at every door to place a guard, that none come in and disturb and knock us off. But how oft doth the heart nod, and fall
asleep, and run into another world, as men in dreams do ! Yea, so natural
are distractions to us, when we are busied about holy duties, that as excre ments come from men, when very weak and sick, ere they are aware of it,
516 THE VANITY OP THOUGHTS. [JER. IV. 14.
so do worldly thoughts from us, and we are carried out of that stream of
good our mind was running in, into some by-creek, ere we are aware of it.
(4.) The vanity of the mind appears, in regard of good things, that if he
doth think of them, yet it doth it unseasonably. It is with your thoughts
as with your speeches, their goodness lies in their placing and order, Prov.
xxv. 11 : if fitly spoken, they are as apples of gold in pictures of silver. And as a man is to bring forth actions, so thoughts, in due season ; as those
fruits, so those buds should come out in season, Ps. i. 3. Now the vanity
of the mind appears in thinking of some good things, sometimes unseason
ably. When you are praying, you should not only have no worldly thoughts come in, but no other than praying thoughts. But then haply some notions
of, or for a sermon will come readily in. So in hearing, a man shall often
have good thoughts that are heterogeneal to the thing in hand. So when a man is falling down to prayer, look, what thing a man had forgotten when
it should have been thought of, will then come in, or what will affect a man much comes in to divert him. This misplacing of thoughts, suppose they be good, is yet from a vanity of the mind ; did those thoughts come at
another time, they should be welcome. We find our minds ready to spend
thoughts about anything rather than what God at present calls unto. When we go to a sermon, we find we could then spend our thoughts more willingly about reading, or haply searching our hearts ; unto which at another time, when called to it, we should be most unwilling to. We could be content to
run wild over the fields of meditations and miscellaneous thoughts, though about good, rather than to be tied to that task, and kept in one set path.
In Adam and Christ no thought was misplaced, but though they were as
many as the stars, yet they marched in their courses, and kept their ranks.
But ours as meteors dance up and down in us. And this disorder is a vanity and sin, be the thought materially never so good. Not every one that hath the
best part must therefore first step up the stage to act, but take his right cue.
In printing, let the letters be never so fair, yet if not placed in their order, and
rightly composed, they mar the sense. Soldiers upon no terms should break
their ranks; so nor should our thoughts. Prov. xvi. 3, there is a promise
to a righteous man, that, as some read it, his thoughts shall be ordered. And so much for the first part, the privative sinfulness in our thoughts,
in respect of what is good.
Now, secondly, I proceed to discover that positive vanity which appear-
eth in our thoughts in regard of what is evil. And here it is not to be ex
pected, nor indeed can it be performed by any man, to reckon up the several
particularities of all those vain thoughts which run through man s heart. I
will insist only on some more general discoveries, to which particulars may be reduced for a taste of the rest.
(1.) The vanity of them discovers itself in that which Christ calls, Mark
vii. 22, dpgoffuvTj, foolishness, that is, such thoughts as madmen have, and
f00ls? which foolishness is seen both in that unsettled wantonness and un-
stayedness of the mind in thinking, that, like quicksilver, it cannot fix, but
as Solomon says, Prov. xvii. 24, A fool s eyes are in the ends of the earth,
are garish, and run up and down from one end of the earth to the other,
shooting and streaming, as those meteors you see sometimes in the air. And
though indeed the mind of man is nimble and able thus to run from one
end of the earth to another, which is its strength and excellence, yet God
would not have this strength, and nimbleness, and mettle spirit in curvetting and trembling, as I may call it, but in steady directing all our thoughts
straight on to his glory, our own salvation, and the good of others ; he gave
JEE. IV. 14.] THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. 517
it this nimbleness to turn away from evil, and the first appearance of it. As we are to walk in God s ways he calls us to, so every thought, as well as
every action, is a step, and therefore ought to be steady ; Make straight
steps to your feet/ says the Apostle, Heb. xii. 13, turning not to the right hand nor to the left, until we come to the journey s end of that business we
are to think of. But our thoughts at best are as wanton spaniels, who, though indeed they go with and accompany their master, and come to their
journey s end with him in the end, yet do run after every bird, and wildly pursue every flock of sheep they see. This unsteadiness ariseth from the
like curse on the mind of man as was on Cain, that it being driven from the presence of the Lord/ ib proves a vagabond, and so men s eyes are in the ends of the earth.
This foolishness, or apfotf^wj, is also seen in that independence in our
thoughts; they hanging oft together as ropes of sand. This we see more evi
dently in dreams. And not only then, but when awake also, and that when we would set ourselves to be most serious, how do our thoughts jingle and ring backward ! And as wanton boys, when they take pens in their hands, scribble broken words that have no dependence, thus do our thoughts ; and if
you would but look over the copies thereof which you write continually, you would find as much nonsense in your thoughts as you find in madmen s
speeches. This madness and distemper is in the mind since the fall, (though
it appears not in our words, because we are wiser,) that if notes were taken of our thoughts, we should find thoughts so vagrant, that we know not how
they come in, nor whence they come, nor whither they would. But as God doth all things in weight, mi!nber, and measure, so doth his image in us, so
far as it is renewed. And by reason of these tvv
o, the folly, imsettledness, and independence of our thoughts, wa bring our thoughts often to no issue, to no perfection, but wilder away our time in thinking, as you use to say, of
nothing. And as Seneca says of men s lives, as of ships that are tossed up and down at sea, it may be said they have been tossed much but sailed nothing ; the like in this respect may be said of the thoughts. Or as when men make imperfect dashes, and write nonsense, they are said to scribble, they do not write ; so, in these follies and independencies, we wilder and lose our
selves, we do not think. But
(2.) On the contrary, if any strong lust or violent passion be up, then our
thoughts are too fixed and intent, and run in so far into such sinful objects, that they cannot be pulled out again, or any way diverted or taken off : which is another vanity. For our thoughts and our understanding part was
ordained to moderate, allay, and cool, and take off our passions, when they are a-playing over, to rule and govern them. But now our thoughts are
themselves subjected to our affections, and, like fuel put under them, do but make them boil the more. And although our thoughts do first stir up our
fears, joys, desires, &c., yet these being stirred up once, chain, and fix, and
hold our thoughts to those objects, so as we cannot loosen them again. Therefore says Christ to his disciples, Why are you troubled, and why do
thoughts arise in your hearts ? For perturbations in the affections cause
thoughts like fumes and vapours to ascend. Thus if a passion of fear be up, how doth it conjure up multitudes of ghostly thoughts which we cannot
conjure down again, nor hide our eyes from, but which haunt us, and fol low us up and down wherever we go, so as a man runs away pursued by his own thoughts ; the heart meditates on terror/ as Isa. xxxiii. 1 8. So when sorrow is up, how doth it make us study the cross that lights upon us, which to forget would be an ease unto the mind ! But a man s passions
518 THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. [jR. IV. 14.
make his thoughts to con it, and to say it by heart, over and over again, as
if it would not have us forget it. So when love and desire is up, be the
thing what it will we are taken with, as preferment, credit, beauty, riches,
it sets our thoughts a-work to view the thing all over, from top to toe, as we say, to observe every part and circumstance that doth make it amiable unto us, as if a picture were to be drawn of it. So when joy is up, we view the thing we rejoice in, and read it over and over, as we do a book we
like, and we mark every tittle, we are punctual in it ; yea, so inordinate are we herein, as often we cannot sleep for thinking on them. Eccles. v. 12, Abundance of riches will not suffer him to sleep, for the multitude of
thoughts in his head, speaking of a man who is covetous. How do thoughts trouble the Belshazzars and Nebuchadnezzars of the world ! Dan. iv. 19. So, Prov. iv. 16, They sleep not unless they have done mischief; if their de
sires remain unsatisfied, they do disturb their thoughts, like froward children
by their crying. So as often these which men count free, as the most do
thoughts, do prove the greatest bondage and torment in the earth unto them, and do hinder sleep, the nurse of nature, eat out and live upon the heart
that bred them, weary the spirits, that when a man shall say, (as Job vii. 1 3,)
My bed shall comfort me, by putting a parenthesis to his thoughts and
sad discourses which he hath when awake, yet then they haunt a man, and, as ver. 14, terrify him. A man cannot lay them aside as he doth his
cloak : and when men die they will follow them to hell, and torment them worse there ; your thoughts are one of the greatest executioners there, even
the worm that dies not.
(3.) The vanity of the mind appears in curiosity, a longing and itching to be fed with, and to know, and then delighting to think of, things that do not at all concern us. Take an experiment of this in scholars, whose chief work lies in this shop
: how many precious thoughts are spent this way
! as
in curiosity of knowledge, as appears by those the apostle often rebukes, that
affect, as 1 Tim. vi. 4, 20, oppositions of science falsely so called, curiosities
of knowledge of things they have not seen. So, Col. ii. and 1 Tim. iv. 7, he calls such issues of men s brains they dote on, old wives fables; because, as fables please old wives, so do these their minds, and of that itch they have in them, even as women with child, in their longings, content not them
selves with what the place affords or the season, with what may be had, but
often long after some unheard-of rarity, far fetched, or, it may be, not at all
to be had. Thus men, not contenting themselves with the wonders of God
discovered in the depth of his word and works, they will launch into another
sea and world of their own making, and there they sail with pleasure, as many of the school-men did in some of their speculations, spending their pre cious wits in framing curious webs out of their own bowels.
Take another instance also in others, who have leisure and parts to read much : they should ballast their hearts with the word, and take in those more precious words and wisdom and sound knowledge to profit themselves and others, and to build upon their own souls, and whereby they may be
enabled to serve their country ; but now what do their curious fancies carry them unto, to be versed in, but play-books, jeering pasquils, romances, feigned
stays,* which are the curious needlework of idle brains, so as they load
their heads with apes and peacocks feathers, instead of pearls and precious stones ; so as a man may say as Solomon, Prov. xv. 14, The heart of him
: but the mouth of fools feeds on
that hath understanding seeketh knowledge
foolishness. Foolish discourses please their ears and eyes to read ; all these
* Qu. staves ? ED.
JEB. IT. 14.] THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. 519
being but purveyors, as it were, for food for the thoughts
: like chameleons, men live on air and wind.
To leave them : how do others out of mere curiosity to know and please their thoughts, listen after all the news that flies up and down the world, scum all the froth that floats in foolish men s mouths, and please themselves
only with talking, thinking, and hearing of it ?
I do not condemn all herein : some their ends are good, and they can make use of it, and do as Nehemiah did, who inquired how things went at
Jerusalem, to rejoice with God s people, and mourn with them, and pray for
them, and to know how to fashion their prayers accordingly. But I con demn that curious itch that is in them, when it is done but merely to please their fancies ; which is much delighted with new things, though they concern us not. Such the Athenians were, Acts xvii. 21. How do some men long all the week till they have events and issues, and make it a great part of the
happiness of their lives to study the state more than their own hearts, and
affairs of their callings ; who take actions of state as their text to study the
meaning of, and to preach on wherever they come ! I speak of those that
yet lay not to heart the miseries of the church of Christ, nor help them with
their prayers, if at any time they happen.
The like curiosity is seen in many, in desiring to know the secrets of other men, which yet would do them no good to know, and who do study men s
actions and ends, not to reform, or do good to them, but to know them, and think and muse thereof, when alone, with pleasure. This is curiosity, and pro perly a vanity of the thinking power, which it mainly pleaseth ; and is indeed a great sin, when much of men s most pleasing thoughts are spent on things that concern them not. For the things we ought to know, and which do con cern us, are enough to take up all our thoughts alone, neither shall we have
any to spare : and thoughts are precious things, the immediate fruits and buds of an immortal nature ; and God hath given us power to coin them, to
lay them out in things that concern our own good, and of our neighbours, and his own glory and thus not to spend them is the greatest waste in the
world. Examine what corn you put in to grind, for God ought to have toll of all. Prov. xxiv. 8,
( He that deviseth evil shall be called a mischievous
person, not always he that doth a mischievous action, but that deviseth it ;
and, ver. 9, he aggravates it, a minori, for every thought is sin : then a combination and conspiracy of wicked thoughts is much more. But
(4.) There is a worse vanity than this, and that is that intimated, Rom.
xiii. 14, Taking thought to fulfil the lusts of the flesh/ irgovoiav voieTaQou, to make projects for it. For thoughts are the caterers for our lusts, and lay in
all their provision ; they are they that look out where the best markets are, the best opportunities for sinning in any kind, the best bargains for credit, for preferment, for riches, &c. For example, would a man rise? His
thoughts study the art of it, men frame their own ladder to climb withal, invent ways how to do it ; though often it proves, as to Haman, their own
gallows. Would they be rich, what do they study ? Even all cheats and
tricks on the cards, as I may so speak j that is, all the cunning tricks of the
world, all the ways of oppressing, defrauding, and going beyond their breth
ren, so to pack things in all their dealings, that they themselves should be
the winners, and those that deal with them the losers. Isa. xxxii. 7, it is
* the instruments of the churlish are evil, and he deviseth wicked
said, that
devices to destroy the poor. Would a man undermine his opposite, as
one that stands in his light, and who hinders his credit? He ll dig and
fall a-pioning, with his thoughts, his engines, in the night ; dig a pit, as the
520 THE VANITY OP THOUGHTS. [JEK. IV. 14.
Scripture phrase is, and dig deep to hide his counsel, to blow him up in the
end, and so as he shall not know who hurt him. And this is worse than all the former, this studied, artificial villany. The more devising there is in sin, the worse ; therefore the fact about Uriah, not so much that of Bathsheba, is objected against David, because he used art in it ; he took thought for
it, but, in the matter of Bathsheba, thoughts took him.
(5.) The fifth is the representing or acting over sins in our thoughts and
imaginations, personating those pleasures by imagination which at present we enjoy not really, feigning and imagining ourselves to act those sinful
practices we have not opportunity outwardly to perform ; speculative wicked
ness, divines do call it ; which to be in the power of imagination to do is evident to you by your dreams, when fancy plays its part most, and, to al lude to what the prophet says, makes us believe we eat when we are an
hungry, and drink when our souls are thirsty, Isa, xxix. 8. But I mean not to speak of the power and corruption of it, as in our dreams ; it were well
if, as the Apostle speaks of drunkenness, this speculative wickedness were
only in the night. But corrupt and distempered affections do cast men into such dreams in the clay, and when they are awake ; there are then, to borrow the Apostle s expression, filthy dreams/ Jude 8, that defile the
flesh, even when awake ; when, their lusts wanting work, their fancy erects to them a stage, and they set their imaginations and thoughts a-work to enter tain their filthy and impure desires with shows and plays of their own making, and so reason and the intention of their minds sit as spectators all the while to view with pleasure, till their thoughts inwardly act over their own unclean
desires, ambitious projects, or whatever else they have a mind unto.
So vain and empty is the heart of man become ; so impatient are our de
sires and lusts of interruption in their pleasures ; so sinful and corrupt
First, Vain and empty it appears to be in this ; for take all the pleasures of sin, when they are never so fully, solidly, really, and substantially enjoyed, they are but shadows, a mere outside and figure, as the Apostle calls the world. It is opinion of imagination that casts that varnish of goodness on them which is not truly in them. So Felix* and Bernice s pomp is termed
<iro\\)<pu.vra,Gia. But now this speculative enjoying of them only in imagination, (which many men s hearts take so much pleasure in,) the pleasing ourselves
in the bare thoughts and imaginations of them, this is but a shadow of these shadows. That the soul should, Ixion-like, embrace and commit adultery with clouds only, this is a vanity beyond all other vanities, that maketh us vainer than other creatures, who though subject to vanity, yet not to such as this.
Secondly, It argues our desires to be impatient, to be detained from, or
interrupted of their pleasures. When the soul shall be found so greedy that when the heart is debarred or sequestered from those things it desires, and wants means or opportunities to act its lusts, as not being to stay, it will at
least enjoy them in imagination, and in the interim set fancy to entertain the mind with empty pictures of them drawn in its own thoughts.
Thirdly, Thus they appear also to be exceeding sinful and corrupt. An outward act of sin, it is but as an act of whoredom with the creature when
really enjoyed ; but this is incest, when we defile our souls and spirits with
these imaginations and likenesses which are begotten in our own fancies, being the children of our own hearts.
And yet, my brethren, such speculative enjoying of pleasures, and acting over of sins, the mind of man is full of, as will appear in many particulars.
First, Look what comforts men have at present in their possession and at
* Agrippa. ED.
IV. 14.] THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. 521
command, what excellencies or endowments, men love to be alone to study and think of them ; and when they are sequestered from the present use of them, yet they will then be again and again recounting and casting of them up, taking a survey of their happiness in them, applauding their own hearts in their conditions. And as rich men that love money, love to be looking on it, and telling ^it over ; so do men to be summing up their comforts and
privileges they enjoy, which others want : as how rich they are, how great, how they excel others in parts and gifts, &c. Oh, how much of that precious sand of our thoughts runs out this way
! Thus he in the gospel, he keeps an audit in his heart : Soul, saith he, thou hast goods laid up for many years. So Haman, Esther v. 11, takes an inventory of his honours and goods; he talks of all the glory of his riches, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him. So Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 30, as it may seem, he was alone walking and talking to himself like a fool, saying to himself,
Is not this the great Babel which I have built by the might of my power, for the glory of my majesty ?
And as thus upon their comforts, so also upon their excellencies, as their
learning, wisdom, parts, &c. Men love to stand looking upon these in the
glass of their own speculation, as fair faces love to look often and long in
: which, as it ariseth from the self-flattery is in men, so also that they might keep their happiness still fresh and continued in their eye ; which thoughts, when they raise not up the heart to thankfulness to God, and are not used to that end, but are bellows of pride, they are vain and abominable in the eyes of God, as appears by God s dealing with those before-mentioned ; for to the one he says,
looking-glasses
< Thou fool, this night / the other, whilst the word was in his mouth/ (giving him no longer warning,) he strikes with madness and brutishness : and Haman, you know, was like a wall that doth swell before it breaks and falls to ruin and decay.
Secondly, This speculative enjoying of pleasures, and acting over sins thus in fancy, doth appear in regard of things to come ; which when we have in
view, or any hopes of men s thoughts go forth before to meet them, with how much contentment do men s thoughts entertain their desires ; with vain
promisings and expectations beforehand of their pleasures that are in view, and in possibility to be enjoyed
! So they in Isaiah wind up their hearts to a higher pin of jollity in the midst of their cups, in that their hearts thought and promised them, To-morrow shall be as to-day, and much more abund
ant, chap. Ivi. 12. So they, James iv. 13, they say with themselves, We will go to such a city, and continue there a year, and get gain. And the promise of this, and the thoughts of it beforehand, feeds them, and keeps up their heart in comfort. When men rise in a morning, they begin to forethink with much pleasure what carnal pleasures they have the advowson and promise of that day or week; as to go to such company and there be
merry, to go such a pleasant journey, enjoy satisfaction in such a lust, hear such news,
<fec. And thus, as godly men live by faith in God s promises, Hab. ii. 4j Isa. xxxviii. 16, By these men live, and this is the spirit of my
life, saith Hezekiah, even what God hath spoken, ver. 15: so do carnal men live much upon the promises of their own hearts and thoughts before
hand, for to this head of vain thoughts these vain promisings are to be re
duced, Ps. xlix. 11, Their inward thought is, their houses shall continue for ever, and this thought pleaseth them. What pleasure almost is there, which a man makes much account of, but he acts it first over in private in his own thoughts 1 And thus do men foolishly take their own words and
promises ; and so befool themselves in the end/ as Jeremiah speaks, chap.
522 THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. [JfiE. IV. 14.
xvii. 11. They take up beforehand in their thoughts, upon trust, the plea sures they are to enjoy, even as spendthrifts do their rents, or heirs their revenues before they come of age to enjoy their lands, that when they come indeed to enjoy the pleasures they expected, either they prove but dream
* souls empty, or so much under their
ers, as Isa. xxix. 8, they find their
expectation, and so stale, as they have little in them, that there still proves more in the imagination than in the thing, which ariseth from the vastness and greediness of men s desires, as the cause hereof; for that makes them swallow up all at once. So, Hab. ii. 51, Enlarging his desires as hell, he
heaps up all nations, swallows them up in his thoughts. So an ambitious scholar doth all preferments that are in his view.
Thirdly, This speculative wickedness is exercised in like manner towards
things past, in recalling, namely, and reviving in our thoughts the pleasure of sinful actions passed ; when the mind runs over the passages and circum stances of the same sins, long since committed, with a new and fresh delight ; when men raise up their dead actions, long since buried, in the same like ness they were transacted in, and parley with them, as the witch and Saul did with Satan in Samuel s likeness. And whereas they should draw cross
lines over them, and blot them out through faith in Christ s blood, they rather copy and write them over again in their thoughts with the same con tentment. So an unclean person can study and view over every circum stance passed in such an act, with such a person committed ; so a vain
glorious scholar doth repeat in his thoughts an eminent performance of his, and all such passages therein as were most elegant. And thus men chew the cud upon any speech of commendation uttered by others of them. And
all this even as a good heart doth repeat good things heard or read, with the remembrance also of what quickness they had in such and such passages, and with what affections they were warmed, when they heard them ; or as a
godly man recalls with comfort the actions of a well-passed life, as Hezekiah
did, Lord, I have walked before thee with a perfect heart ; and thereby do
also stir and provoke their hearts to the like temper again. So, on the con
trary, do wicked men use to recall and revive the pleasingest sinful passages in their lives, to suck a new sweetness out of them. Than which nothing argues more hardness or wickedness of heart, or provokes God more. For
1. It argues much wickedness of heart, and such as, when it is ordinary with the heart to do thus, is not compatible with grace ; for in the 6th of the Romans, ver. 21, the Apostle shews that a good heart useth to repeat no such fruit of sinful actions past
: But what fruit had you of those things whereof ye are now ashamed? The saints reap and distil nothing out of all those flowers but shame and sorrow, and sad sights
: when Ephraim remem bered his sin, he was
t ashamed and repented/ and canst thou, in thy thoughts, reap a new harvest and crop of pleasure out of them again and again ?
2. It argues much hardness of heart ; nothing being more opposite to the truth and practice of repentance, the foundation of which is to call to mind the
sin with shame and sorrow, and to recall it with much more grief than ever
there was pleasure in the committing of it ; and whose property is to hate
the appearance of it, and to inflame the heart with zeal and revenge against
it. And thereby it provoketh God exceedingly, our hearts are thereby im brued in a new guilt, we thereby stand to and make good our former act : even so, by remembering it with pleasure, we provoke God to remember it with a new detestation of it, and so to send down new plagues ; who, if we
recall it with grief, would remember it no more. We shew we take delight to rake in those wounds we have given Christ already. To view the sins of
JEK. IV. 14.] THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. 523
others with pleasure, Eom. i. 32, is made more than to commit them ; but much more to view and revive our own with a fresh delight
: and therefore know, that however you may take delight here to repeat to yourselves your old sins, yet that in hell nothing will gall you more than the remembrance of them ; every circumstance in every sin will then be as a dagger at thy heart. This was the rich man s task and study in hell, to
< remember the good things he had received, and his sins committed in the abuse of them. And if godly men here be made to possess the sins of their youth with horror, as Job, and to have them ever before them, as David, how will wicked men be continually affrighted with them in hell ? whose punishment is in a
great part set forth to us by Ps. 1. 21, I will set them in order before thee.
Fourthly, The fourth thing wherein the speculative vanity appears is in
acting sins upon mere imaginary suppositions. Men feign and contrive to
themselves, and make a supposition to themselves in their own thoughts, first of what they would be, and then what they would do. Men create fool s paradises to themselves, and then walk up and down in them : as, if they had money enough, what pleasures they would have ! if they were in such places of preferment, how they would carry themselves ! to allude to that Absalom said, 2 Sam. xv. 4, Oh, if I were a judge in the
land, I would do this or that, &c., doing this with a great deal of pleasure, almost as much as those that really enjoy them. This may well be the meaning of Psalm 1. 18, where of the hypocrite, who outwardly abstains from gross sins, it is said that he consenteth with the thief, and partaketh with the adulterer, namely, in his heart and fancy, supposing himself with
them, and so desires to be doing what they do. Thus take one who is
naturally ambitious, whom both nature, parts, and education have all made but a bramble, never to rule over the trees/ and hath fixed in a lower sphere, as incapable of rising higher or being greater as the earth is of becoming a
star in heaven ; yet he will take upon him in his own heart, feigning and
supposing himself to be, and then act the part of a great man there, erect a
throne, and sit down in it, and thinks with himself what he would do if a king or a great man, &c. So take a man that is unclean, but now grown old, and a dry tree, and so cannot act his lust as formerly, yet his thoughts shall
supply what is wanting in his strength or opportunity. And he makes his own heart both bawd, brothel-house, whore, whoremonger, and all. So a man that is naturally voluptuous, loves pleasures, but wants means to pur chase them, yet his inclinations will please themselves with the thoughts of what mixture and composition of delights he would have ; he will set down with himself his bill of fare, how he would have, if he might wish, his cup of pleasure mingled, what ingredients put into it. So a man that is revenge
ful, and yet wants a sting, yet he pleaseth himself with revengeful thoughts and wishes, and will be making invectives and railing dialogues against him he hates when he is not by. A man in love, in his fancy he will court his
paramour though absent, he will by his imagination make her present, and
so frame solemn set speeches to her.
In a word, let men s inclinations and dispositions be of what kind soever, and let the impossibilities and improbabilities be never so great of being what they desire ; yet in their fancies and thoughts they will discover them
selves what they would be. Totumque quod esse desidemnt sibi apud seme-
tipsos cogitationibus depingunt ; men will be drawing maps of their desires,
calculating their own inclinations, cut out a condition of life which fills their
hearts, and they please themselves withal. And there is no surer way to know a man s natural inclination than by this.
524 THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. [JER. IV. 14.
1. Which yet, first, is as great a folly as any other, imitating children herein ; for is it not childish to make clay pies and puppets, (what else are such fancies as these T) and to be as children acting the parts of ladies and