Religion & morality > Human nature in its fourfold state

SO Corruption of the Understanding. State II.
of their lusts. Thus the corrupt heart feeds itself with
imagination sins: The unclean person is filled with spe¬
culative impurites, having eyes full of adultery; the covet¬
ous man fills his heart with the world, though he cannot
get his hands full of it; the malicious person, with delight,
acts his revenge within his own breast; the envious man,
within his own narrow soul, beholds, with satisfaction,
his neighbour laid low enough; and every lust finds the
corrupt imagination a friend to it in time of need. And
this it doth, not only when people are awake, but some¬
times even when they are asleep; whereby it comes to
pass, that these sins are acted in dreams, which their
hearts were carried out after while they were awake.—
I know some do question the sinfulness of these things :
But can it be thought they are consistent with that holy
nature and frame of spirit, which was in innocent Adam,
and in Jesus Christ, and should be in every man ? It is
the corruption of nature, then, that makes filthy dreamers
condemned, Jude 8. Solomon l^ad experience of the
exercise of grace in sleep; in a dream he prayed; in a
dream he made the best choice; both were accepted of
God, 1 Kings iii. 5—15. And if a man may, in his
sleep, do what is good and acceptable to God; why may
he not also, when asleep, do that which is evil and dis¬
pleasing to God ? The same Solomon would have men
aware of this; and prescribes the best remedy against it,
namely, the law upon the heart, Prov. vi. 20, 21.
“ When thou sleepest (says he, ver. 22.) it shall keep thee
to wit, from sinning in thy sleep; that is, from sinful
dreams. For one’s being kept from sin (not his being
kept from affliction) is the immediate proper effect of the
law of God impressed upon the heart, Psal. cxix. 11. And
thus the whole verse is to be understood, as appears from
verse 23. “ For the commandment is a lamp, and the law
is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”
Now, the law is a lamp and light, as it guides in the way
of duty; and instructing reproofs from the law, are the
way of life, as they keep from sin : Neither do they guide
into the way of peace, but as they lead into the way of
duty; nor do they keep a man out of trouble, but as they
keep him from sin. And remarkable is the particular, in
which Solomon instanceth, namely, the sin of unclean-