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WE will now, in the next place, instance in those desects which are observeable of our Thoughts in relation to holy Things, and the exercises of Devotion.
AND the first weakness of our thinking Power that I would take notice of on this head, is the enthusi∣asm to which it is subject, when we cannot govern and command our Thoughts, cannot keep them or∣derly and within the bounds of So∣briety,
but they grow wild, and fly out into Imaginations of Visi∣ons, Revelations, immediate Con∣ferences with the Deity, extraor∣dinary Gifts, &c. whilst, general∣ly, perhaps always in the latter Ages of the Church, such preten∣sions derive not from that superna∣tural and divine Principle, to which they are ascribed, but, to say no worse of them here, from causes purely Natural, as Constitution, Meditation, Discipline, Education, Distemper, &c. For, as for Con∣stitution, who has not heard of the undoubted Effects of natural Melancholy in this kind. What strange imaginary Scenes Men of this dark Complexion have so strongly figured to themselves, as firmly to believe their Reali∣ty, tho' as Rediculous and In∣existent as any in their Dreams. And as for Contemplation, which improves the former temper, what studious Person has not observ'd, how wild and ungovernable his Thoughts grow upon Profound me∣ditation,
especially if dwelling upon a noble subject, and exalted by a soli∣tary Retirement. And then 'tis obvi∣ous to imagine; how a Man, during these confus'd Transports of his Soul, may be apt to ascribe the Respon∣ses of his own bewildred Reason, as others do those of their natural Conscience, to some extraordinary Principle without and above them. This doubtless, together with a frightful gloomy Discipline (not to mention the advantage the Devil takes of such Occasions) is the only rational hypothesis where∣by to solve those Visions, and su∣pernatural Conferences with the Divinity, pretended to by the en∣thusiastic Messalians of old, the rapturous and extatick Frensies of the famous Founder of the Jesuits and some of his Disciples, and, in short, all the legendary trash, treasured up for the advancement of the Romish Superstition. For there's no doubt to be made but that a∣bundance of Zeal and Bigotry in Devotion, a contemplative Life,
the privacy of a Cloister or a Cell, together with a meloncholly Tem∣per, which it either finds, or makes, has made their Prophets Fools (as Hosea speaks) and their spiritual * 1.1 Men mad: For too much think∣ing has made more Mad-men than too little. If from these we de∣scend to preternatural causes of these counterfeit Operations of God's Spirit, Distempers, Experience will inform us what Raptures and Vi∣sions are incident to hysterical and hypocondraick Persons. No less an Enthusiast than Mahomet himself is said to have owed all his pretend∣ed Divinity to that sacred Disease, as the Ancients call'd it, an Epilepsy. Casaubon Of Enthusiasm, tells us of those who through a hurt in their Brain have fancied themselves actu∣ally in Paradise; and of others, that amidst the Transports of their Visions and Revelations, have died of that which produced them, a Feaver. And as to a certain ex∣traordinary Gift, pretended to still by some People, I believe, I could
shew, that a Treasure of scripture Phrases, a voluble Tongue, and a warm Temper, gradually heated and inflamed by the impetus of of delivery, together with a good assurance before Men, and an odd sort of familiarity with God, has actually done the feat with the greatest Masters of the Talent.
II. WE may observe a natural Aversion in our Thoughts to pi∣ous Meditation. When any ob∣ject presents it self that carries Pleasure, or Profit, or the gratifi∣cation of any of our sensual Ap∣petites along with it, O how gree∣dily do our thoughts caress, embrace, and bid it ten thousand welcomes! But when God, or Religion, or Death, or Judgment, or any such grave and serious Subject prossers it self to our Thoughts, how apt are they to slink away, hang back, and be shy, and after, it may be, a very short Enterview, and a cold En∣tertainment, dismiss those Objects, make them stand by and give way
to such as are more entertaining and diverting? The one's a well∣come Guest and old Acquaintance, the other meets with the formal Reception of a Stranger, or as of a Visitant that is not agreeable. When we wind up our minds to the highest Pin of Meditation on these Subjects, our Thoughts, after a very little stay there, presently fall down again, we are im∣patient and uneasie under the Stretch, and care not perhaps how soon Business, or Company, or the like, step in and set us at Liber∣ty; so averse naturally are our Thoughts, unless God has sancti∣fied our Hearts, to converse with holy Objects.
III. OUR Thoughts, in regard of holy Duties, are apt to mistime and misplace themselves, when, tho' they may be materially lawful and good in themselves, yet, they intrude impertinently, at a time not proper for them, when they are not call'd upon, and have no
business in the mind, like an over officious friend, who, tho' he means well, yet mars a matter through the unseasonableness of his interpo∣sal. To every thing, says Solomon there is time and season, and 'tis the right ordering of things, as to time, as well as place, that renders them proper, and decent, and agreeable. A Souldier may mean very well, and do some acceptable Service by leaving his Rank, or quitting the Post assign'd him, and yet, for all his Success, he becomes a trans∣gressor; and may be call'd to an account for so doing: And just so it is with our Thoughts, I mean particularly in our religious Per∣formances; they may be truly good in themselves, yet if they are forreign to the matter in hand, step in unseasonably, and break their Ranks, they are Criminals. So that when we are at our De∣votions, 'tis not enough to bar out all sinful and worldly Conceits from crowding in upon us, but we must stave off all other thoughts
that relate not to the matter in hand; for tho' a Thought, for in∣stance, or purpose of doing some good Work be in it self Divine, yet tis a question whether or no the Spirit that suggests it at that time be Divine, because it tends then only to distract us, and mar the per∣formance we are about, as colour misplaced in the face doth the beauty: so then, Gods worship, must be performed, not only externally, but internally too, in decency and or∣der, and we must not offer that great Majesty who made all things, in weight and measure, a tumul∣tuary jumble of Thoughts in our homage to him. But as, in the words of the Apostle; He that is ingaged in the Ministry must wait on his Ministring, and he that teacheth on Teaching, and he that Ex∣horteth on Exhortation, &c. So he that is at his Prayers, must attend to his Prayers, to the particular Petition before him; he that is giving Thanks to his Thanksgiv∣ing; he that is at Confession to
his Confessing, &c. directing all his Thoughts streight upwards to∣wards Heaven; and he that is at Sermon, ought, for that time, to apply his whole Thoughts to what is offer'd, and if any other thoughts, howsoever lawful and good, pre∣tend to interpose, must bid them come another time, for that he is now otherwise ingag'd, and not at leisure.
IV, 'TIS another sinful Infir∣mity in our thinking Power, that tho we are willing to entertain pious Objects in our Hearts, yet we care not to dwell long upon them, so that they leave not those prints and impressions behind them that stick and abide by us, per∣sume not the heart with that due Fragrancy and Savour they ought to leave behind them, when they are past and gone; for tho we may not be so bad as those, of whom it may be affirmed, with the Psalmist, that God is not in all their Thoughts, yet of well
disposed minds it may be said that he is not much at a time there: 'Tis long ere we can get sight of him through the optick glass of Contemplation, and when we do, our hands shake, or somthing in∣terposes, so that ever and anon we lose sight of him again, and this Levity of mind, as it is seen in our Contemplations upon any Ob∣jects, so more especially in the performance of holy Duties: We set forth in Prayer, it may be ve∣ry well, with a due Composure of mind and an humble Sense of our obligations to God, and De∣pendance on Him; but perhaps e're we are got half way on with our work, our Thoughts, which set out with our Lips, have given them the slip, and left them to go on by themselves, whilst they in the interim have rambl'd perhaps from one corner of the Earth to another, and made the grand Tour of the World: When we should earnestly seek God by Prayer, and our Souls and Spirits should ascend
straight upwards in direct Bays of fervent devotion, behold them tossed like a dried leaf before the wind, or as an empty cask upon the waves; for, instead of good, evil is present with us, and we cannot do the things that we would; but the World and the Devil knock at the Door of our hearts, step in, and desire to speak with our Thoughts, divert them from their business, and make a Man's heart go after his covetousness, as the Prophet speaks, after his pleasures, his sins or his secular imployments: any thing that was forgot before will be sure then to present it self to the mind and sue for Attend∣ance. Nay many times foreign Thoughts come about us, like Bees, as David speaks of his enemies, in whole swarms together, and with their humming noise distract our attention; or, like Abrahams Fowls, in flocks, to peck at and deform our Sacrifice. And thus, again, it is in that other Branch of Religious duty, hearing of the word, for no
doubt but any Man, upon a just recollection of his Thoughts, will find they were out of Church seve∣ral times whilst his Person was there; at home, in the Shop, or the Cosser, or indeed any where, but where they should have been; in fine either out of Doors, or at play perhaps within, as much as the Children generally are with∣out. But then take any other sort of objects, pleasurable, or pro∣fitable, or honourable, and your Thoughts shall dwell, and hover, and brood over them, all the day, said I, nay, in the Night too, di∣sturb your repose, and awake you; for the abundance of the rich, to use the wise Man's instance, will not suffer him to sleep. And so it is of any other worldly project, gratify∣ing Men's Lusts, compassing a re∣venge, or the like: of the latter of which the same wise Man speaks; they sleep not except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. So intent are Men's Thoughts, so closely do
they fasten upon these earthly sen∣sual, and many times Devilish con∣cernments, whilst they are present∣ly weary, and frisk off from any thing that is sacred, and sober, and serious.
NOW this wandring in Pray∣er and other holy duties is resolva∣ble into several causes. As
I. INTO our complex'd con∣stitution of Soul and Body. Whilst our Souls are lodg'd in these pitiful tenements of Clay, they cannot help being affected with the incon∣veniences of their Habitation. They are confined to the use of Bodily Spirits in their most abstracted operations, and every considerable disorder in the blood and Spirits does therefore of necessity produce a proportionable disorder in the Soul in thinking, and being sur∣rounded with such variety of ob∣jects and business, whilst we live in this material World, which through the intervention of our senses, leave
their Ideas in the Head behind them, the eye of the mind can no more help looking upon them, when they are jogg'd and thrown in its way, than the eyes of our bodies can help seeing when they are open, or our ears hearing the sounds that strike them. All this is natural and necessary, as the unavoidable result of the dependance of the Soul in its most spiritual operations upon the frame and contexture of our Bodies during their conjunction: and we may as well think of cea∣sing to be what we are, and of casting the Man in a new mould as of a total prevention of this infirmi∣ty of our Constitution. And this being so, we must expect to meet with it in our Prayers, as well as in other business of our Lives; tis in Heaven alone, where the facul∣ties of both Soul and Body shall be inlarged and refined, and we shall have but one Object of our Thoughts, God, who shall be all in all, that our Souls shall cleave in∣separably to him without the least
avocation. All which may serve to qualify, by the by, the seru∣ples and vexations incident to some tender minds, who are apt per∣haps to entertain too hard thoughts of themselves, because they can∣not so manage their Thoughts that they shall regularly attend upon Gods Service, without breaks and chasms in them, without falling off now and then, and straying from their present business: For 'tis im∣possible, in the very nature of things, our Composition, totally to prevent the first beginnings, or sallies of the Mind towards wan∣dring, for the Spirits, by whose intervention we perform these men∣tal Operations, will not bear so rigid a fixation; all we can do in the case, and that we must do, is to keep a strict eye upon our Thoughts, to drive away the Fowls that light upon our Sacrifice, to endeavour continually to check and controul and stop them in their ca∣reer to other objects, and when at any time they have given us the
slip, to call them upon the first dis∣covery home again to their business, and regret our weakness; and if we thus both bewail, and labour to reme∣dy those exursions of our Thoughts which we cannot totally hinder, they are not our sin, but infirmity, which will never affect our main state.
II. DISTRACTING Thoughts in Prayer are very much owing to that natural aversion we observ'd in us to things spiritual and Divine, for such imployment of our Thoughts being therefore a sort of preternatural force upon them, the spring that bends them Heaven-ward will be apt to relax, and give way to the contrary tendency of our minds downwards, so that leaving those un∣welcome objects they presently fall back again into the company of the old familiars of their thoughts.
III. OUR distractions proceed, in a great measure, from an over∣active and ungovern'd imagination: 'tis the quick-silver part in our
mettal, that runs glibly up and down, and shoots, as it were, in our minds, like Meteors in the Air, traversing our devotions with ten thousand frivolous and foolish con∣ceits, presenting us with those fine Schemes and Images of things, rich∣es, honour, or the like, till the di∣stracted wandring Man, instead of his Maker, worships all the while perhaps the Idol of his own and the Devils making. But we have discours'd the extravagancies of this Faculty before.
IV. DISTRACTIONS in Prayer proceed frequently from an intempe∣rate love of the World and the cares that attend its enjoyments; which so often ingross our hearts, that we no sooner set about holy du∣ties than they justle the one thing needful out of our minds, and make Mary's good part stand by, and * 1.2 give way to Martha's concern for the World and the family. 'Tis cer∣tainly one of the most ridiculous, and yet most general frailties inci∣dent
to our corrupt nature, to use this World as if neither we, nor the fashion of it were to pass away; which is just as if a Traveller, with business of infinite importance on his Hand, should loyter and take up with his Inn on the Road, with∣out ever farther pursuing the end of his journey. And possibly most of the sins that are committed in the World are fairly resolvable into a too passionate fondness for it. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon, is a saying that carries a greater force of truth in it, than possibly most Men are aware of. For their prin∣ciples of action are opposite, their interests are opposite, and they re∣quire a quite different frame of mind in their respective Votaries: and we know who has told us no less truly than roundly, that if any Man love the World the love of God is not in him; for it ties down our apprehen∣sions to things mean, and trivial, and base; and stifles and chokes our desires of such as are spiritual and Divine; it extinguishes all ho∣ly
fervour of Spirit, estranges from God, and puts out that sacred flame of love for him, which is the very life and Soul of our devotions to him; it crowds into the Church and Closet with us, and like the Sons of Zerviah, is too hard for David; so that many times, with Demas, we for∣sake the Lord in our Thoughts, even whilst we pretend to do him ho∣mage, having lov'd this present World, whose thorns (i. e. its cares and ri∣ches) choak the seeds, in our Saviours * 1.3 estimate, of all the good that is sown amongst them; and there∣fore it is, that when God required the male Children of the Jews thrice a year to attend upon his service at Jerusalem, he promised that no Man should desire their Land when they * 1.4 should go up to appear before the Lord their God, thrice in the year; for the fears and jealousies that might other∣wise have seiz'd them, would have divided their hearts betwixt God and their families at home, and so have blasted the fruits of so laborious and universal a journey: and upon
the same account it is, that the Apostle advises single persons, that were able to receive it, to continue rather in that state, in times of difficulty and distress, that they might attend upon the Lord without those distractions of mind, that are almost unavoidably inci∣dent to persons deeply intangled in secular concernments.
V. ANY reigning and prevail∣ing Lust will both obstruct and distract our Devotions; for where our treasure is there will our hearts be also, and especially, at the time of our religious Services, will be apt to run out of the Closet and the Church to meet and chat with their best Beloved: We may indeed at such junctures be proof against the Courtship of other in∣ferior temptations, and therefore the Devil takes especial Care then to set the Sin of our bosom on work, to imploy the favourite Lust for our Diversion. And this is so usual a stratagem to decoy our
hearts from our Services, that we may hereby certainly discover our * 1.5 darling topping Lust, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of our depraved Hearts, that which all the others pay obedience to, and do it homage, for that to be sure is it which pretends the greatest interest in us, and thereupon di∣sturbs us most in holy Duties.
VI. OUR distractions in Pray∣er frequently proceed from those Objects that strike our senses during the Service. For 'tis not in the compass of our powers to give any distinct and tolerable attendance to several and perhaps contrary Ob∣jects at the same time, so that the Ideas of those we let in at such junctures, at the doors of our Sen∣ses, turn the mind out of its way, and divert it from the prosecution of its proper business. An open and erect ear to every sound will make discord in the brain, and va∣grant eyes will cause a wandring heart: if Dinah like they gad abroad to see the Daughters of the Land,
tis odds but they meet with objects in their jant that will commit a rape upon them. And therefore, we should, either, with Job, make a covenant with our senses when we engage in holy duties, let our eyes look right on, as Solomon speaks, and our eye lids look straight before us, or, shut up their Doors as much as possible, to exclude the foreign di∣sturbers of our attention, for nothing possibly promotes fixation of Thought more than the closing of our eyes; experience tells us the darkness is an undoubted help to intense me∣ditation, and the Arabian Proverb imports, that when the five Windows those of the sense are shut up, the House of the mind is then fullest of light: I might assign here several other negative causes, as I may stile them, of this defect, as the want of a true love of God, want of a devout habit of mind, want of preparation of the heart, before we enter upon religious duties, &c. But these will fall better under the last general Head of discourse, the
regiment or government of our Thoughts upon these and other oc∣casions; and therefore,
VII. AND lastly, There is no doubt to be made but that the di∣stractions and wandrings of our Thoughts in Prayer, are, in a great measure, owing to the machinati∣ons and experiments of the Devil upon us; for tho' in these ordinary cases we at present speak of, 'tis a difficult, and perhaps unnecessary task to discover, whether the Devil or our own Thoughts are first in the transgression (for they are both ready enough to joyn in the confe∣deracy against us) and doubtless Men are apt many times to charge the inbred corruptions of their own depraved nature to the account of that infernal Spirit, and so paint him blacker, if possible, than he is; And it were besides an overnice and fruitless enquiry, to search into those artifices and methods whereby he may rationably be supposed to withdraw our attention from our
Prayers; for we cannot well de∣termine how far he may be con∣cern'd in the use of any of those means of distraction we have hi∣therto mentioned, as the love of the World, the wandring of the senses, the painted scenes of the ima∣gination, and the importunities of any reigning and prevailing lust. Nor can we with any certainty de∣fine what feats he is able to perform upon such occasions, by outward disturbances and inward injections; for we can guess but darkly at the operations of Spirits, how far or by what way they can insinuate and communicate their motions to our minds; yet who so considers how instrumental he is in other sins, as in David's numbring the people: Ju∣das's * 1.6 betraying his Master: Ananias's lying to the Holy Ghost, &c. more particularly, how much we are many times pester'd with foreign and improper Thoughts during our approaches to the Throne of grace, whilst we find a great ease and freedom in our minds when they
are ingaged in worldly Business, or in any other philosophical or indifferent Contemplation: And who so reflects farther how much it is his interest to spoil and break off our Commerce with Heaven, and blast the Fruit of all our Prayers, since this visibly advances the in∣terests of his Kingdom, must grant, in the general, that he is doubtless particularly concern'd in the wan∣dring of our Thoughts during di∣vine Service. Accordingly we find that where St. James requires us to draw nigh to God, he bids us at * 1.7 the same time, resist the Devil, which is a plain evidence, that when we come to stand before the Lord, Satan stands at our right hand, in the Prophet Zachary's Language, * 1.8 ready to resist us; And our Savi∣our himself in the parable of the Sower and the Seed, tells us plain∣ly, that the Devil, or, in St. Ma∣thews * 1.9 Language, the wicked One, taketh away the Word out of some Mens Hearts lest they should believe and be Saved. They are the hear∣ers
by the Way side, our Lord there speaks of, such as in Chri∣sostom's exposition advert not, nor attend to what is deliver'd, your careless supine Auditors, who while the Preacher toils, Christ speaks by him, and the Holy Ghost is ready to co-operate, are amusing themselves with ten thousand incoherent and foreign imaginations: and what the Devil is so ready to do at Sermons, he will think it much more his interest to do at Prayers, and there∣fore, methinks, it should be a pow∣erful inducement to engage men to a serious attention on both those oc∣casions, to consider that whilst they are led aside with those vain imagi∣nations, that interrupt their attend∣ing to what they themselves say to God, or others speak to them in his Name, the Devil all the while, if we'l believe our Lord himself, is busie with them, lays close siege to their Hearts, and makes them more effectually serve him, than the Lord that bought them. Not that I look upon every such assault and even
Success of the Tempter upon us, as an argument of an irreligious temper and reprobate Mind: For the Devil, who is all Spirit, can hold out the fiege against us, longer than we, who dwell in houses of Clay, can sustain his Incursions, the ve∣ry Infirmity of our Composition, where tho the Spirit may be wil∣ling yet the flesh is weak, will necessarily make our minds nod, take them off their guard now and then, and consequently give the Tempter an anavoidable advan∣tage over us, yet if these wan∣drings of our Spirits are grievous to our Minds upon recollection, if we hence learn what unprofita∣ble Servants we are, even in our best Performances, and humble our selves hereupon in the sight of God, begging him to whip those Thieves, that steal away our Thoughts, out of the Temples of our Souls, we shall not stand chargeable with the Robberies they commit upon us, but as the motions of the good Spirit, when rejected, do so much
the more inhaunce Men's guilt, so will the injections of the evil One, when guarded against, as far as may be, and resisted, be sanctified, through the divine Mer∣cy, to our greater advantage. In fine, this wandring of the mind in holy Duties, tho in its best Con∣struction 'tis a great Unhappiness, yet will be only so far imputed for Sin to us, as it is voluntary in its Cause, and in our own power to remedy, and is, in its Progress, whence soever it derives, indulged and complyed with.
Hos. 9. 7.
Luk. 10. 42
Luk. 8. 7. 14.
Ex. 34. 24.
2 Cor. 10. 5.
1 Chron. 21. 1. Joh. 13. 27. Acts. 5. 3.
Jam. 4. 7, 8.
Zac. 3. 1.
Luk. 8. Matth. 13.