140 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS: them, andwear next to their hearts, as if they resolved . to lodge Christ always in their bosoms. They would go in pilgrimage to the place where he died and rose again, through a thousand dangers ; and purchase a feigned chip of a tree whereon he suffered, at the price of all they had in the world. They would en- deavor, by long thoughtfulness, fastings, and watchings, to cast their souls into raptures and ecstasies, wherein they fancied themselves in his presence. They came at last to make themselves like him, in getting impres- sions of wounds on their sides, their hands and feet. Unto all these things, and sundry others of a like nature and tendency, did superstition abuse and cor rupt the minds of men, from a pretence of a prin- ciple of truth; for there is no more certain gospel truth than this, that believers ought continually to contemplate on Christ, by the actings of faith in their thoughts and affections ; and that thereby they are changed and transformed into his image. 2 Cor. iii. 18. And we are not to forego our duty, because other men have been mistaken in theirs ; nor part with practical fundamental principles of religion, because they have been abused by superstition. But we may see herein, how dangerous it is to depart in any thing from the conduct of scripture light and rule, when for want thereof, the best and most noble endeavors of the minds of men, even to love Christ, and to be like unto him, do issue in provocations of the highest nature. Pray, therefore, that you may be kept unto the truth in all things, by a diligent attention to the only rule thereof, and conscientious subjection of soul to the authority of God in it. For we ought not to suffer
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