from duty. He thinks it impossible for him to attain to that accuracy, exactness, and perfection, which he is, in this matter, to press after; and, therefore, contents himself in his old coldness and negligence, rather than to run the hazard of a universal circumspection. Now if the deceit of sin hath once drawn away the mind into this frame, it lays it every temptation and incursion of sin.

open to

The spouse

in the Canticles, seems to have been overtaken with this distemper; and this puts her on various excuses, why she cannot attend to the call of Christ, and apply herself to her duty in walking with him.

Secondly, It draws away the mind from its watch and duty, in reference to sin, by surprisals. It falls in conjunction with some urgent temptation, and surpriseth the mind into thoughts, quite of another nature than those which it ought to insist upon, in its own defence. So it seems to have been with Peter; his carnal fear, closing with the temptation wherein Satan sought to winnow him, filled his mind with so many thoughts about his own imminent danger, that he could not take into consideration the love and warning of Christ, nor the evil whereunto this temptation led him, nor any thing that he ought to have insisted on for his preservation. And, therefore, upon a review of his folly, in neglecting those thoughts of God and the love of Christ, which through the assistance of the Holy Ghost, might have kept him from his scandalous fall, he "wept bitterly." And this, indeed, is the common way to the working of the deceit of sin, as to particular evils. It lays hold on the mind suddenly, with thoughtfulness about the present sin, possesseth it,

taketh it up, so that either it recovers not itself at all to the considerations mentioned, or, if any thoughts of them be suggested, the mind is so prepossessed and filled, that they take no impression on the soul, or make no abode in it. Thus, doubtless, was David surprised in the entrance of his great sin. Sin and temptation did so possess and fill his mind, with the present object of his lust, that he utterly forgot, as it were, those considerations which he had formerly made use of, when he so diligently kept himself from his iniquity. Here therefore lies the great wisdom of the soul, in rejecting the very first motions of sin; because by parleys with them the mind may be drawn off from attending to its preservatives, and so the whole rush into evil.

Thirdly, It draws away the mind by frequency and long continuance of its solicitations, making, as it were, at last a conquest of it. And this happens not without an open neglect of the soul, in want of stirring up itself to give an effectual rebuke, in the strength and by the grace of Christ, to sin, which would have prevented its prevalency: but of this more shall be spoken afterwards. And this is the first way whereby the law of sin aets its deceit against the soul. It draws off the mind from attendance to its charge and office, both in respect of duty and sin. And so far as this is done, the person is said to be drawn away, or drawn off. He is tempted; every man is tempted when he is thus drawn away by his own lust, or the deceit of sin, dwelling in him. And the whole effect of this working of the deceitfulness of sin, may be reduced to these three heads:

First, The remission of a universally watchful

frame of spirit to every duty, and against all, even the most hidden and secret actings of sin.

Secondly, The omission of peculiar attending to such duties as have a special respect to the weakening and ruin of the whole law of sin, and the obviating of its deceitfulness.

Thirdly, Spiritual sloth, as to a diligent regard to all the special concernments of duties and sins. When these three things, with their branches mentioned, less or more, are brought about, in or upon the soul, or so far as they are so, so far a man is drawn off by his own lust, or the deceit of sin.

There is no need of adding here any directions for the prevention of this evil, they have sufficiently been laid down, in our passage through the consideration, both of the duty of the mind, and of the deceit of sin.

CHAPTER XI.

The working of sin by deceit to entangle the Affections. The ways whereby it is done. Means of their 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 respect the affections, as drawing away doth the mind. The mind is drawn away from duty, and the affections are enticed to sin. From the prevalency hereof a man is said to be enticed, or entangled as with a bait: so the word imports. For there is an allusion in it, to the bait wherewith a fish is taken on the hook, which holds him to his destruction. And concerning this effect of the deceit of sin, we shall briefly show two things:

First, What it is to be enticed, or to be entangled, with the bait of sin; to have the affections tainted with an inclination thereunto, and when they

are so.

Secondly, What course sin takes, and what way it proceedeth in, thus to entice, ensnare, or entangle the soul.

Our first inquiry is, What it is to be enticed or entangled with the bait of sin. And here,

First, The affections are certainly entangled, when they stir up frequent imaginations about the proposed object, which this deceit of sin leadeth and

enticeth towards. When sin prevails, and the affections are gone fully after it, it fills the imagination with it, possessing it with images, likenesses, appearances of it, continually. Such persons devise iniquity, and work evil on their beds; which they also practise when they are able, when it is "in the power of their hand." As, in particular, Peter tells us, that they have eyes full of ́an adulteress, and they cannot cease from sin.” is, their imaginations are possessed with a continual representation of the object of their lusts. And it

That

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 eye, and the pride of life." The lust of the eyes is that which, by them, is conveyed into the soul. Now, it is not the bodily sense of seeing, but the fixing of the imagination from that sense on such things, that is intended. And this is called the eyes, because thereby things are constantly represented to the mind and soul, as outward objects aré to the inward sense, by the eyes. And oftentimes the outward sight of the eyes, is the occasion of these imaginations. So Achan declares how sin prevailed with him. First, he saw the wedge of gold, and Babylonish garment, and then he coveted them. He rolled them, the pleasures, the profit of them, in his imagination, and then fixed his heart upon the obtaining of them. Now, the heart may have a settled, fixed detestation of sin; but yet, if a man find that the imagination of the mind is frequently solicited by it, and exercised about it, such a one