Thirdly, The sinfulness of the Imagination is further to be amplified, In that many times sin is acted with delight and content there, without any relation at all to the external actings of sin. So that a man while unblameable in his life, may yet have his imagination like a cage of unclean birds, and this is commonly done, when there are external impediments, or some hinderances of committing the sin outwardly; The fear of mens laws, outward reproach and shame, want of opportunity may keep men off from the outward committing of some lust, when yet at the same time their imaginations have the strong impressions of sin upon them, and so in their souls they become guilty before God; The Adulterous man, Is not his imagination full of uncleanness? The proud man, Is not his fancy lifted with high and towering conceits? As the Apostle Peter speaketh of some whose eyes were full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, 2 Pet. 2. 14. or as some read it according to the original [Adulteress] imagination made them have her in their eyes continually, though absent, for if their eyes were, their imaginations also must necessarily be, because of the immediate natural connection between them; so then when there are no outward sores or ulcers to be seen upon a mans life, yet his imagination may be a noisome dunghill, what uncleanness fancied, what high honours imagined, that whereas thou art restrained from the actings of sin, yet thy heart burneth like an oven with lusts inwardly; It is the emphatical similitude that the holy Ghost useth, Hos. 7. 8. They have made ready their heart like an oven; The meaning is, that as the oven heated is ready to bake any thing put therein, so was the heart of those evil men prepared for any kind of naughtiness; Some understand it of the adultery of the body only, as if that were the sin intended by the Prophet; Others, of ⟨p. 361⟩the spiritual adultery of the soul, by which name Idolatry is often called in Scripture; Others refer it to both; we may take it to be a proverbial expression, denoting the readiness of a mans heart to commit any sin, that it lieth in the heart and the imagination day and night, men highly sinning against God inwardly, when outwardly they are restrained;
THirdly, The sinfulness of the Imagination is further to be amplified, In that many times sinne is acted with delight and content there, without any relation at all to the external actings of sinne. So that a man while unblameable in his life, may yet have his imagination like a cage of unclean birds, and this is commonly done, when there are external impediments, or some hinderances of committing the sinne outwardly; The fear of mens laws, outward reproach and shame, want of opportunity may keep men off from the outward committing of some lust, when yet at the same time their imaginations have the strong impressions of sinne upon them, and so in their souls they become guilty before God; The Adulterous man, Is not his imagination full of uncleanness? The proud man, Is not his fancy lifted with high and towring conceits? As the Apostle Peter speaketh of some whose eyes were full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sinne, 2 Pet. 2. 14. or as some read it according to the original [Adulteresse] imagination made them have her in their eyes continually, though absent, for if their eyes were, their imaginations also must necessarily be, because of the immediate natural connexion between them; so then when there are no outward sores or ulcers to be seen upon a mans life, yet his imagination may be a noisom dunghill, what uncleanness fancied, what high honours imagined, that whereas thou art restrained from the actings of sinne, yet thy heart burneth like an oven with lusts inwardly; It is the emphatical similitude that the holy Ghost useth, Hos. 7. 8. They have made ready their heart like an oven; The meaning is, that as the oven heated is ready to bake any thing put therein, so was the heart of those evil men prepared for any kind of naughtiness; Some understand it of the adultery of the body only, as if that were the sinne intended by the Prophet; Others, of ⟨p. 361⟩the spiritual adultery of the soul, by which name Idolatry is often called in Scripture; Others referre it to both; we may take it to be a proverbial expression, denoting the readiness of a mans heart to commit any sinne, that it lieth in the heart and the imagination day and night, men highly sinning against God inwardly, when outwardly they are restrained;
