SS ,OP SPIRITUAL NIINDENESS. so corrupts the whole frame of spirit which began the duty. There have been instances wherein persons have entered with a resolution to punish sin, and have been ensnared by the occasion, to the commission of the sin they thought to punish.Wherefore, it is sel- dom that the mind of any one, exercised with an actual temptation, is able safely to conflict with it, if it enter- tain abiding thoughts of the matter of it, or of the sin whereunto it leads. For sin hath mille nocendi artes, and is able to transfuse its poison into the affec- tions from every thing it hath once made a bait of, especially if it hath already defiled the mind with plea- sing contemplations of it. Yea, oftentimes a man that hath some spiritual strength, and therein engageth to the performance of duties, if in the midst of them the matter of his temptation is so presented to him, as to take hold of his thoughts; in a moment, as if he had seen, (as they say,) Medusa's head, he is turned into a stone ; his spirits are all frozen, his strength is gone, all actings of grace cease, his armour falls from him, and he gives up himself a prey to his temptation. It must be a new supply of grace that can give him any de- liverance. Wherefore, whilst persons are exercised with any temptation, I do not advise them to be con- versant in their thoughts about the matter of it. For sometimes remembrances of former satisfaction of their lusts ; sometimes present surprisals, with the suitableness of it to corruption not yet mortified ; sometimes the craft of satan, fixing their imagination on it, will be too hard for them, and carry them to a fresh compliance with that sin, which they would be delivered from. But this season calls, in an especial manner, for the exercise of the thoughts of men, about the ways and
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