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

Its Propensity to all evil, both towards God, and towards man.

Ninthly, Our Imagination is naturally corrupted, Because of its propensity to all evil, both towards God, and towards man. And

NInthly, Our Imagination is naturally corrupted, Because of its propensity to all evil, both towards God, and towards man. And

First, Towards God, Let us take up that which was but glanced at before, and that is, How prone we are to provoke God in his worship, declining from the true Rule, and merely because of our Imaginations. The pleasing of them hath been the cause of all that displeasure which God ever had in his Church concerning the worshipping of him: No, sin doth more provoke God then the corrupting of his worship, to adulterate this is to meddle with the apple of his eye; God beareth other sins a long while till his worship become to be corrupted, and then he will endure no longer: Now the original of all sinfulness in this kind hath been our imagination, we have not attended to what God hath commanded; we regard not his institutions, but our own fancies, the pleasing of them: Hence when God promiseth a restoration to the people of Israel, and a reformation from their former Idolatries, he saith, Neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart, Jer. 3. 17. It was this Imagination carried them out to Idolatry, whence came those goodly Images, those glorious Altars, and many other superstitious ways of worship, but because the fancy was pleased herein, what is pleasing to the senses is also carried with delight to the Imagination: Insomuch that those Heathens Numa and others, who would have no Images to adore their gods by, thinking it unbe•eeming their greatness, were carried by reason, and did not give way to the Imagination; and this is a very necessary truth, for all such who are so difficulty taken off from their Idolatries and Superstitions, for what is it but thy fancy thou wouldst have satisfied, thou doest not look upon Ordinances and the worship of God; as spiritual means to quicken thy faith, and to make thee more spiritual, but as that whereby thou wouldst have thy Imagination take some corporeal refreshment and satisfaction: Even Aristotle saw the