The application of redemption

As the evils of our whole course have their rise and §4cause from our thoughts, so are they nourished also hereby: Our imaginations are the womb where wickedness is conceived; So are they also the breasts and dugs where they are maintained and nursed up, the sinews of the strength of our distempers lie in the lustings of our mind and heart; when the soul sucks the sweet of a distemper by daily meditation, lies at the dug as it were, draws out the Spirits and Quintessence of any noisome lusts and temptations, by daily attendance, bestowing his mind and thoughts thereupon; whence the soul comes to be incorporated into a lust, and wholly under the strength and power of it, So that though the evil is not outward and scandalous, yet it becomes more heinous in the sight of God: as it is in distillations, the spirits of Wine, and some drops of Chemical Oil, are of more force than a great part of the substance taken in the grossness of its Nature, and do more cheer and quicken, and comfort in a cordial manner: So it is in the soul, by the daily musing and acting of our thoughts, upon the occasion of any corruption presented; our Meditation is the distillation which draws out the Spirits of pride or passion, or lusts, and becomes marvellously confirmed in these, and transported by these to our spiritual prejudice, they grow strong in us, and we under the power of them, thus Jonah while he sits down in a muddy distemper and attends the vanity of his own ⟨p. 166⟩thoughts, he rows drunk with his passion, so that he neither knows God nor himself; not only doing that which is naught, but he will […] that which he doth, I do well to be angry unto the death, says he. Hence it is the Apostle suggests that Caution, Rom. 13. last, Make no provision for the flesh; the Meditation and musing of our minds, is the plentiful provision we make for the welcoming and maintaining of any distemper: when we let our thoughts loose to view the compass […] any harsh carriage, and injurious dealing, we make provision for anger and revenge, and the heart comes to be carried with violence of wrath and rage; Thus and thus he dealt with me, so unkindly, so injuriously, and that to my disparagement in the presence of such; and this sets him all on a flame:

As the evils of our whol course have their rise and