A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

SECT. III.

The Natural Sinfulness of the Imagination appears, in making Idols, daily Supports, and vain Conceits, whereby it pleaseth it self.

The Natural Sinfulnesse of the Imagination appeares, in making Idols, daily Supports, and vain Conceits, whereby it pleaseth it self.

First, The metaphorical expression in the Text doth fully declare it; For as the Potter doth make vessels upon the wheel daily, or as some explain it, as the Artificer doth of his wood and other materials make Idols, which he worshippeth as gods, though they be vanities; Thus the imagination of man doth daily fabricate such fancies and Idols to it self, making gods of them, and putting confidence therein; And if you observe what riseth daily in the heart of a man devoid of grace, you shall find, That it is a continual Idol-maker, it maketh daily puppets and vain conceits, whereby it pleaseth it self, and accounteth it self happy therein. Thus we see what shops (as it were) our hearts are; The imagination having that sinful artifice, as to make and erect Idols all the day long; Even as children naturally delight to make babies, and then to play with them, so do all men by nature; How many vain Idols do the ambitious men, the unclean men of the world daily build up in their fancies? Hence it is that the glorious things, the pleasant things they please themselves with, are more in the imagination then in any real possession, as is more to be dilated upon: In the mean while let us sadly mourn under this horrible corruption of the imaginative part of a man, that it should be daily making new gods, continually erecting Idols, in which we are apt to put ⟨p. 353⟩our confidence: Lapide on the 8th Chapter, and Verse 21. (where we have the like expression and metaphor,) doth offer ntollerable' violence to the sacred Text; for whereas it saith, The imagination is only set to evil, he would make two shops (as it were) wherein this imagination doth work, a shop of sin, wherein it only fabricateth evil; and a shop of virtue, wherein it imagineth good things; but what can be directly to confront a Text, and to put the lie upon it, if this be not? Let us then be willing to be found out in all this evil; Let us acknowledge, that our imagination doth continually set up vanities, Idols; we make to our selves gods, and so leave the only true God.