'Voices From The Past' Vol. 1 — June 18

Among the faculties of the soul, much of our unnecessary trouble arises from the imagination. Its perception is a shallow understanding of good or bad taken from the senses. The delights of sense highly influence the imagination. Thus, if the very best things are accompanied by inconveniences, the imagination might misjudge them as bad. Likewise, if the very worst things bring respect and contentment in the world, they are imagined to be good. The imagination can see greater happiness in outward good things and a greater misery in outward difficulties than there really is. Many lives are almost nothing but imagination. Their time is taken up with pleasing their own imagination and despising that which is truly excellent. From this springs ambition and the desire to be great in the world. It leads to an immeasurable desire of abounding in the things the world highly values. What is worse, this corrupt desire of being great creeps into the church. Men will sacrifice their very lives for vainglory. When a man grieves more over his loss of reputation than his misbehaviour towards God, it is evidence that he lives more for reputation than for conscience. It mars our profession to go about heavenly things with earthly affections, and to seek Christ not in Christ, but in the world. The ungoverned imagination is a wild and raging thing. It is necessary that God by his Word and Spirit should erect a government in our hearts to captivate and direct this licentious faculty. To cure this malady, we must labour to bring our soul into obedience to God's truth and Spirit. When the law of God by the Spirit is so written in our hearts, his law and our hearts become agreeable to one other, and the soul is inclined and made pliable for every good thought.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Devotional Readings 'Voices From The Past Vol.1.'
Richard Sibbes, Works, I:178-181
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