i 234 OF SPIRITt7AL MINDEDNESS. sense they have of them, they fall not into actual sin, but upon temptations. That, whatever it be, which causeth, occasioneth, and prevaileth on a convinced. person, to sin, that is temptation. Wherefore, this is the great means of the ruin of the souls of men. Now, though there are many principles of temp- tation, many causes that actually concur in its effilcacy, as sin, Satan, and other men, yet the matter of almost all ruinous temptations is taken out of this world, and the things of it. Thence doth Satan take all his darts ; thence do evil men derive all the ways and means whereby they corrupt others, and from thence is all the fuel of sin and lust taken. And which adds to this evil, all that is in the world contributes its utmost thereto. ' All that is in the world, is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.' 1 John ii. 16. It is not a direct formal enumeration of the things that are in the world, nor a, distribution of them under several heads; but it is so of the principal lusts of the minds of men, whereto all things are sub- servient. Wherefore, not only the matter ,of all temp- tations is taken out of the world, but every thing that i,s in the world is apt and fit to be abused to that end. For it were easy to show, that there is nothing desira- ble or valuable in this whole world, but it is reducible to a subserviency to one or other of these lusts, and is applicable to the interest and service of temptations and sins. When men hear of these things, they are apt to say, ' let the dreambe to them that are openly wicked, and the interpretation of it to them that are profligate in sin.' To unclean persons, drunkards, oppressors, proud, ambitious persons, it ma.y be, it is so ; but as to them, they use the things of this world with a due mo-
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