3. Some Distractions proceed from the Fancy, a most busy faculty, that's most unruly and least sanctified in an Holy man. Sometimes by the help of memory, stepping back into things past, she brings into the most ⟨image 16⟩solemn worship a thousand passages that are past and gone, and rolling them in the head, carries soul and all quite away from God: hence it is, you often hear the say, *such a thing came into my mind at Sermon or Prayer that was forgotten weeks or months before: yea daring to re-act former sins by contemplative wickedness in the very sight of God, which doubles the guilt of repetition, and makes your former sins (a)exceeding sinful. In this sense that Eccles. 6.9. is true, Better is the sight of the eyes, than the *wandering of the Desire; there is something more of evil in these second contemplations, than in the first Commissions. Sometimes the Fancy will create a world of figments and notions out of nothing, and multiply impertinent thoughts upon no ground and to no purpose; and can sally out of the present matter to every adjacent business, and make a great ado to bring nothing to pass. Job 27.8. There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the Vultures eye hath not seen, the fancy can find out such a way; thus God is not in all (hardly in any of) our thoughts, when we pretend to treat him with the greatest solemnity.
3. Some Distractions proceed from the Fancy, a most busie faculty, that's most unruly and least sanctified in an Holy man. Sometimes by the help of memory, stepping back into things past, she brings into the most ⟨image 16⟩solemn worship a thousand passages that are past and gone, and rowling them in the head, carryes soul and all quite away from God: hence it is, you often hear the say, *such a thing came into my mind at Sermon or Prayer that was forgotten weeks or months before: yea daring to re-act former sins by contemplative wickedness in the very sight of God, which doubles the guilt of repetition, and makes your former sins (a)exceeding sinfull. In this sense that Eccles. 6.9. is true, Better is the sight of the eyes, than the *wandring of the Desire; there is something more of evil in these second contemplations, than in the first Commissions. Sometimes the Fancy will create a world of figments and notions out of nothing, and multiply impertinent thoughts upon no ground and to no purpose; and can sally out of the present matter to every adjacent business, and make a great ado to bring nothing to pass. Job 27.8. There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the Vultures eye hath not seen, the fancy can find out such a way; thus God is not in all (hardly in any of) our thoughts, when we pretend to treat him with the greatest solemnity.
- *Cùm reresupini jacemus in lectulo, nihil tale cogitamus. Sed cum venimus ad Orationem cogitationes avocant & sine fructu efficiunt. Chrys. de nat. Dom. Hom. 17.
- (a)Non-nunquam verò quod egi in corpore, hoc importun• verso in meant. In corde enim servo dedepicta qua vidi & feci: torpeo abutili opere quoniam fagi•or illicit • cogitation. Bern. denit. Dom. cap. 30.Non-nunquam verò quod egi in corpore, hoc importun• verso in mente. In corde enim servo dedepicta qua vidi & feci: torpeo abutili opere quoniam fagi•or illicit • cogitatione. Bern. denit. Dom. cap. 30.
- *Heb. The walking of the soul.
