CHAP. I. Of grosse Carnal Sins in General.

THE spiritual Man, and good Christian, hath no greater Ene­mies than those he carrieth a­bout with him; his own depra­ved Appetites and inordinate Desires, especially to sensual Pleasure and carnal Delights, for which Flesh and Blood so strongly plead. These, the more com­mon, and the less heeded they are, so much the more dangerous to, and more destructive of, the Soul. There are no [Page 2] Temptations so vigorously assault us, or so easily beguile us as these: Which are therefore said by the Prophet to seize and take away the Heart; Hos. 4.11. and the Desire of them entreaseth the more we descend to a particular thinking or dis­cussing of them, even tho it be with a design to leave them. They make so strong an Impression, have so much of Force and Stratagem together, that there is no Conquering of [...]em by our con­tending with them, but by our running away from them: So many wiles and secret devices; so many promises and specious pretences; so many windings and turnings which the Wise Man calls the way of a Serpent upon a Rock, Prov. 30.19. the way of a Man with a Maid, that it is next to impossible to find them out: And that, because, 1. Being born in Sin our very Nature is depraved: And, 2. inbred Lust, when not subdued in us, so Captivates and Incarnates the Soul as to restrain its liberty of Reasoning or thinking upon any thing else. This therefore is the greatest Temptation, and [Page 3] the vanquishing of it, the great perfection of a Chri­stian.1 Thess. 4.3.

Hence it is that Almighty, God in pity to frail man, hath provided him (whosoever likes not to follow our Lord's Counsel of a single life) a lawful remedy of his Lusts by Marriage;Mat. 19 12. 1 Cor. 7.2. upon condition he live with­in the bounds of it, and not endeavour the satiating his desires any other way, or with any other Person than his own Wife. But alas, how contrary to this is the practice of the present Age, wherein a Vertuous single Life is almost grown Scandalous; and Marriage will hardly be allowed to be Honourable, save only up­on the account of Legitimating Heirs and keeping up Families. Nay is it not rather reckoned as more Gentile, even a­mongst Persons of Quality (to their shame and dishonour be it spoken) to have variety of Misses (as they are pleased to call their lewd Prostitutes) tho themselves, perhaps, very well mar­ried? And then, amongst others of less plentiful Fortunes, Marriage (tho stiled [Page 4] by the Holy Ghost Honourable) is look­ed upon as a mean and despicable thing, and little less than utter undoing: Be­cause, forsooth, they cannot then so near equal their Betters, their elder Bro­thers, and the like, in Eating and Drink­ing, and Cloaths, and other Formali­ties of worldly Grandeur. Whereas now they can live without Care, or a­ny sort of Seriousness; keep what the World calls the best Company; have their choice of Women and Wine, and deny themselves nothing of Sensuality: And all this (as the World now goes) without running any great Hazard of losing their Reputation; but not of lo­sing their immortal Souls, which sure ought most to be regarded by them.

To these supine Christians, and Slaves to their own Lusts, who know better, but yet, as it were in their own De­fence, take the Liberty, not only of living Counter to, but also of drolling upon, all that is serious or sacred (even the Holy Scriptures, and our blessed Sa­viour himself) rather than be stopp'd or check'd in their Career, or in the least­wise [Page 5] hindred the following the full Swinge of their own unbridled Appe­tites, and ungovernable Wits, I can only propose; First, The Impurity and Filthiness of such Sins; and, Secondly, The severe Punishments that inseparably attend them.

CHAP. II. Of the Impurity and Filthiness of such Sins.

PAssions, Frailties, and Infirmities, are the common Plea and Pretence of Sinners: Whereas the defect and proneness of our Nature to sin, is in it self no Sin, so long as not compli'd with­all; and besides, is abundantly repaired, and supernatural Assistance recovered by the Incarnation of our Saviour, and the Means he hath afforded us to a holy Life, if we are not wanting in the Application. The loss of our Innocency hath not deprived us of any of our Fa­culties. Our Understanding and Will are still the same, and we have the same freedom to chuse the Good and reject the Evil; nor is the divine As­sistance (God be thanked) denied to any that seek it. So that the Commi­ssion [Page 7] of Sin is entirely from our selves, (Perditio tua ex te, Thy De­struction is from thy self, Hos. 13.9. says the Prophet) and the preventing of it wholly in our own power. And one would think we should not readily fall in love with so great deformity. My present Subject however is, those grosser Sins, the Sins of the Flesh; as being most rise amongst us and such as destroy all serious­ness, the foulness and filthiness where­of appears 1 1st. From the great offence they give to God's own Holiness and Purity: To which every evil, even in Thought, is opposite; Sanctity being his great and most proper Attribute, than which the Seraphims could find none greater when they sung, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabbaoth. Besides the Divine Nature being absolute Pu­rity without any Mixture or Compo­sition whatsoever; and being also ab­solute Perfection, so that no defect or want of any good thing is in him; it must needs be, that what is contrary to those, as is all imperfection and evilness, [Page 8] must also be opposite to him: Which speaking according to the manner of men, is to be displeasing, to be grievous, to be loathsome and odious to him; but most of all these grosser sins.

And this we know also from God's putting all along in Scripture a particu­lar mark of his displeasure upon them; setting them in the front as the Captains and Ring-leaders of the rest. These are the members we are to mortify upon Earth,Col. 3.5. For­nication, Ʋncleanness, in­ordinate Affection, evil Concupiscence, &c. So again: 1 Cor. 6.9. be not deceived neither Fornicators, &c. nor Adulterers, Rom. 1 24, &c. Thess. 4.5. Eph. 4.1. nor Effeminate Persons, nor Abusers of them­selves with Mankind, &c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God. These are the sins with which the Gentiles when they of­fended God most of all, before the light of the Gospel shone amongst them, stand every where in Scripture principally charged. Nay so great an offence are these sins to the Holiness of Almighty [Page 9] God that he seems to equal them to the greatest sin of all.1 Cor. 6.9. Rev. 22.15. Col. 3.5. And therefore in Ho­ly Write, we find them or­dinarily linked together with the sin of Idolatry: And some­times also with Covetousness, taken in its largest sence for Coveting either Persons or Riches, which last is said also to be Idolatry: And the former may be called so too for the same reason, because it is hard to say which of the two, Harlots or Money, is most powerful and most idolized in this lower World.

2 The Impurity and filthiness of Fornication and other grosser sins of the Flesh appears yet farther from their oppositeness to that Holiness and Clean­ness which ought to be in the Body, as well as in the Soul, of all those who pro­fess themselves Members of Christ. Not that this filthiness of the Flesh is any Ex­ternal Deformity in the Body, or any Diseases, Ulcers or Sores: For we find Job, Lazarus, and many other great Saints who had been well pleasing in God's sight, were before men very loathsom Persons. [Page 10] But it is a real defilement of the Body, as the Body is the honourable Instru­ment and Associate of the Soul, and ought by it to be employed to a more noble end, even together with the Soul to be employed to the Glorifying God, and one day also to be presented with it before him in his Heaven­ly Tabernacle.1 Thess. 4.4. This is the will of God (saith St. Paul) even your Sanctification, that you should abstain from Fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his Ves­sel (i. e. his body) in Sanctification and Honour, Vers. 7. not in Lust of Concupiscence, for God hath called us not to uncleanness, but unto holiness. And the same Apostle in his first Epistle to the Corinthi­ans, 1 Cor. 6.20. addresses himself to the Men of this Age, as well as those of all others, after a most prevailing manner, Know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, and not your own, or at your own disposing, for ye are bought with a price, the precious Blood of our Lord [to be also his Spouse and his Members] therefore ought [Page 11] to glorifie God both in Body and Soul which are God's. And is there not good reason that after being purchased (even our body as well as soul) at so dear a rate as the Inestimable Blood of our Lord, we should at least in gratitude sanctifie and devote our selves wholly to his ho­nour and service? But to compell us to it, unless we will deny our selves to be Men and rational Creatures, the A­postle's Argument here and in his other Epistles, runs thus: The Church is the Spouse of Christ, Eph. 5.29, 30, &c. 1 Cor. 6.17.6 13. whom he bought and pur­chased to himself with his own Blood and Life, whom he Cherisheth also with the like care as the same Flesh and Bone, and the same Spirit with himself. And for the same reason is now our Body as wel as our Soul, for the Lord, and the Lord for the Body. If therefore the Wife have not power over her own Body, but the Husband; no more hath Christ's Spouse, the Church, or we her Members,1 Cor. 7.34. power over our selves, but Christ. And tho' it be said only of Virgins that [Page 12] they more especially care for the things of the Lord, how to please him in every thing, and so become Holy both in Body and in Spirit; yet are Married People also, as the Circumstances of their Stations will permit, obliged to care for the things of the Lord above all other things; for the Spouse of Christ, the Church, being a chast Virgin (as St. Paul calls her) we that profess ourselves Members of that spotless Church,2 Cor. 11.2. whether we be married or unmarried, ought also to be chast, and neither in action or thought make the Members of Christ the members of an Harlot.

The same Apostle in his first Epistle to the Corinthians Argues still more against Forni­cation:1 Cor. 6.18. Fly Fornication (saith he) and why so? For every other Sin that a Man doth is without the Body, i. e. doth not so immediately touch the bo­dy with any proper Infamy or so en­tirely remove it from under the power of our Lord: But he that committeth Fornication (and much more if Adul­tery, [Page 13] &c.) sinneth against his own body, i. e. dishonours it the most he can by degrading himself to so base an Alli­ance as to become one and the same with that vile nasty Creature with whom he sinneth, and so from a pure Member of Christ, he renders him­self the filthy Member of an Infamous Harlot, or something worse. I here add that this sin offers also the great­est Indignity to the Incarnation of the Son of God imaginable, who did there­fore take upon him our Flesh to exalt it into his own nature (his Heavenly I­mage) that no such filthiness might any longer inhabit in it. To prevent which vileness in us, the same Apostle also peculiarly concerning this sin, or any filthy Discourse tending towards it, gives charge that it should not be so much as named amongst such as would pass for Christians. But Fornication (saith he to the Ephesians) and all Ʋnclean­ness, Eph. 5.3, 4. &c. let it not be so much as once named amongst you as becometh Saints. Nor Filthiness, nor Foolish Talking, nor Jesting, which are not Convenient: [Page 14] And the Apostle there assures us that no Whoremonger or unclean Person hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

Besides, the Seal of the Covenant of Grace with Abraham, was it not order­ed by God to be so particularly placed upon all the Faithful as to become in a manner a punishment of their Lusts? And is there not a Natural shame upon every man in the committing of those sins, or any thing like them tho' lawful? So as that the light of the Sun, the sight of a pious Picture, the coming in of a little Child, or almost any of God's Crea­tures, even a pious thought (which pro­ceeds also from God) is sufficient some­times to overawe, prevent, and put by, the most hardned Sinner from embracing the Temptation. And is it not a burn­ing shame that the presence of Almigh­ty God and His. Holy Angels, who (with perfect hatred of all Impurities) are continually looking upon us and dis­swading us to the contrary, should not be much more prevalent with us against such enormous wickedness? But yet [Page 15] so strong are the habits of such Sins as in a manner to dispoil us of all shame­facedness, and wholly to alter and cor­rupt the Nature and Reason of those Persons in which they are; insomuch that the Practisers but of one Species of them are called in the Re­velations by the name of Dogs; Rev. 22.15. Phil. 3.2. and so are the Gno­sticks by St. Paul, for their being guilty of some such like impuri­ties: As if the Custom and Beastliness of such sins did utterly depose men from their manhood and change them into Dogs.

And lastly, not to omit the greatest Argument of all of the De­formity and Filthiness of the sins of the Flesh,Rom. 1.16. we find in the Epistle to the Romans, when God had abandoned those Heathens that had first forsaken him to follow their own Imaginations (since they would not hearken to his Commands which were Holy, Just, and Good) they com­mitted such monstrous, unnatural Lusts that were the greatest disgrace to Hu­mane [Page 16] Nature that possibly could be: Men with Men, and so Women also, committing those things that were un­seemly and unbefitting rational Crea­tures. God grant that we be not so left to our selves, so given over to our own hearts Lusts, a certain sign of God's highest displeasure, and a fore-runner of his heaviest Judgments!

CHAP. III. Of the punishments of such Sins.

TO those dissolute, unthinking Wretches, who will not by the preceeding Arguments be prevailed on to leave their lewd, unmanly Course of Life, I shall propose, in the second place, the Terrors of the Lord to per­swade them, the severe Punishments which inevitably attend such sins, that the Practisers thereof may most rightly measure the greatness of their faults (which they make Natural, and for that reason excusable,) by the great re­venge God himself takes of them. Thus St. Paul warns his Thessa­lonians to abstain from the Fornication of the Gentiles, 1 Thess. 4.6, 7. the defrauding our Brother of his Wife, &c And what is the reason, be­cause, the Lord (saith he) is the avenger of all such, all manner of Lusts, even [Page 18] those commited only in the heart. And so in his Epistle to the Hebrews he pronounceth the same thing,Heb. 13.4. Marriage is Ho­nourable, and the bed undefiled, but Whore­mongers and Adulterers God will Judge. And in detestation of such unlawful Lusts, the Lord appointed under Moses's Law, That a Bastard should not enter into the Congregation of the Lord, Deut. 23.2. until the tenth Ge­neration. And does not the Prophet Je­remiah most particularly threaten in God's Name such Sinners for their As­sembling in Troops into Harlots Houses, and running like fed Horses after their Neighbours Wives, Shall I not Visit for these things (saith the Lord),Jer. 5.7. and shall not my Soul be avenged of such a Nation as this? Those Expressions, The Lord is the A­venger, God will Judge, the Lord appoint­ed, shall I not visit, plainly show that God taketh the punishing all such abo­minations into his own hands, that they may be sure not to go unpunished even in this Life.

But this is not all, we find in Sacred [Page 19] Scripture God inflicting on these sins not ordinary punishments, but such fearful Judgments to which none other can be compared. The drowning of the whole World (about a Thousand Years after its Creation, when all Flesh, excepting some very few Persons, had corrupted their ways) was it not to wash away its pollution from these sins with a Flood? And how ma­ny thousand Souls better than our selves perished in that Deluge? The dreadful Raining of Fire and Brimstone from Heaven upon those miserable brutish Cities, Sodom and Gomorrha, and the Cities about them (which yet perhaps were not so bad as some Cities even now-a-days amongst us) was it not to purifie their Land (which was once a Paradise upon Earth) from those loathsome sins by Fire? The driving out all those mighty Nations from Canaan, and destroying them, and giving their Land to the Children of Israel for a possession, was it not for these abominable sins? See the eightenth Chapter of Le­viticus, Lev. 18. whereafter variety [Page 20] of those sins rehearsed (such as are not fit to be named amongst Christians but with horror and detestation of them) it follows, Verse. 27. For all these abomi­nations (the Name God himself there gives to these loathsome sins) have the Men of the Land done before you and the Land is defiled; and there­fore in the Verse following, this defiled Land is said to have spewed out the In­habitants thereof who defiled it. In like manner the Destruction of the Shechemites, the Death of Sampson, of Am­non, the Judgment of God upon the Three and twen­ty thousand of the Chil­dren of Israel, 1 Cor. 10.8. who fell in one Day at Baal-Peor, before they entered Canaan, were they not for such Sins as these? And for the like Sins (even for one lux­urious, adulterous Act) was not the whole Tribe of Benjamin cut off,Judg. 20. except only Six hundred Men? I might here add the remarkable Wars and Slaugh­ters that suddenly followed upon Da­vid's Adultery: as also the rending of the ten Tribes from Solomon, as a [Page 21] Judgment for his being seduced to the Toleration of Idolatry, by his exorbi­tant Lusts and unlawful Marriages; and many more the like sad Examples, even out of the Annals of our own and other neighbouring Countries. And here also I might set down more at large God's particular Denunciations a­gainst such Sins, by the Mouth of all his Prophets; sometimes inflicting his great Judgments, Plague, Pestilence, Fa­min, Sword, removing his Candlesticks, &c. But I think what is already said is enough to shew that these Sins of Un­cleanness, tho seeming most excusable, and natural to Man, are most abomi­nable and loathsom in the sight of God: Especially, since by the new Contract that is made between us and our Lord, we are become in a more peculiar manner,Eph. 5. the Spouse of Christ; and are therefore to keep our selves Chast and Holy: We are become likewise by a particular and higher de­gree of Sanctification, the Temples of the Holy Ghost, 2 Cor. 6.19. and are therefore not sa­crilegiously [Page 22] to violate 'em, but to cleanse them from all Filthiness, 2 Cor. 7.1. so perfecting that Holiness which becomes God's House for ever: Ps. 92.5. And this at our utmost Peril, For these Temples (saith St. Paul) whoso defileth, 1 Cor. 3.17. him will God eternally destroy. And a great Moralist that lived at the same time with Saint Paul (and probably also was made a Christian by him, with some others of Nero's Houshold) says in a manner the same thing (according to Lactantius, De Div. Instit. Lib. 6. C. 25.) The most agreeable Temple we can build for God, is to consecrate him in our Hearts: And there­fore to build otherwise would be to ruin our selves to all Eternity, which transcendently exceeds all temporal Punishments put together.

CHAP. IV. Of the Chastity of Marriage, and the Purity of a single Life.

THus far concerning, First, The Impurity and Filthiness of the Sins of the Flesh, with their Oppositeness to the Purity and Holiness of Almighty God, and the defilement and dishonour they bring to the Persons that commit them: And, Secondly, the severe Pu­nishments and tremendous Judgments of Almighty God towards such Sins above others.

But, I would not, by any means, be thought so to have censured in the be­ginning of this Discourse, the present Age, as if there were not many amongst the married Persons, whom God hath reserved to himself (even in our own Nation) most inviolably constant to one another, and that live strictly with­in the Bounds and Obligations of that honourable State: And some also of [Page 24] the Unmarried, that live single out of Choice, not Necessity; upon the account of Vertue and Religion, not Licentiousness and Luxury: And many also, who after one Marriage, abstain from a Second, upon the same serious account; as did those Widows in the Pri­mitive times of Christiani­ty,1 Tim. 5. who were for that very reason taken into the Charity and Ser­vice of the Church.

CHAP. V. The first Rule, Of our Af­fections, Memory and I­magination.

1 FIrst we must endea­vour to know our own Passions and Inclinations, which if not rightly Governed, do in a man­ner biass the Soul to what they please, and are for that reason narrowly to be watcht; especially the Passion of Love, as being the very Source of all the rest. For if our Love and Affecti­on be once fixed and chained to any one object, it grows then unruly: All other Passions and Reason it self must give way to it. Its Bands are strong, Cant. 8.6. strong as death, saith the Spouse [Page 43] in the Canticles; Death that swallows all. All our Faculties and Powers become Vassals to this Passion (even our fears often proceed from our too great love), it hurries them on and when not rightly placed, it never stops but in our ruine: Forcing us many times against our minds (video melio­ra proboque, deteriora, &c.) to trans­gress our duty to God and our selves, to lay aside our Liberty and Man­hood together, and become Dogs, Swine, absolute Slaves to our Lusts, and so wholly defacing the glorious Image of God engraven in us, transforms us into Vessels of Dishonour fitted and prepared by our own folly for Eternal Destruction. The Young Man that is deceived and enticed by a Whore (who invites him in with a Stolen Waters are sweet, Bread eaten in a corner is pleasant, or some such little Inveigl­ing Devices of the Devil;) follows her (says the Wiseman) As an Ox goeth to the Slaughter (i. e. with Greediness, as thinking he is going to a fresh Pasture;) and as a Fool to the Cor­rection [Page 44] of the Stocks, with­out any foresight at all;Prov 5.5.9.18. not knowing that he is in any danger till a Dart strike thro his Liver. Where as her house is the ready way to the Grave, going down to the Chambers of Death, and her steps layhold on Hell. Behold the dread­ful end of a sinful dishonourable Love: Which well considered is certainly the best Remedy to stop the Foolish beginnings thereof: And to cause Vir­gins to fly to their Veil to secure their Beauty from occasioning their ruine, and to take Adulteries out of their bosom and beware of the Cu­riosity which is always Criminal. But then on the contrary if this powerful Passion of Love be rightly managed, so as to be once fixed upon its true object, Almighty God, and to hate for love of him all sin, and with St. Paul, Phil. 3.8. count all things loss and dung to gain Christ; it then surmounts all dif­ficulties and casts out all fears, and renders the whole duty of a Christian [Page 41] easie, and Sufferings and Persecutions for Christs sake desirable, that he may thereby more please God and become more conformable to our Lord, of which more afterwards.

2 Secondly, Our Memo­ry and Imagination are to be mortified. We must not suffer our selves to ruminate and feed our Fancies upon past sensual Pleasures (our own or other Mens;) for that is next to our Acting them over again. Thus the Israelites, when they were deliver­ed by God himself from the midst of a sinful Nation, and mi­raculously fed in the Wil­derness with Manna from Heaven, Num. 11.5, 6. longed and lusted after the Flesh-pots of Egypt, and so displeased Almighty God more by wishing for them again than when they actually enjoyed them. So St. Peter Compares a Christians return­ing to the Filthiness, from which he hath once escaped,2 Pet. 2.22 to a Dogs [Page 46] returning to his vomit, and a Swine that is clean to her wallowing in the mire. And our Saviour himself hath particularly fore­warned us.Luk. 9.62. That whoso­ever hath put his hand to the Plough [i. e. professed himself a Christian] looking back [with any delight to his former sinful course of life] is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. We are therefore most carefully to mind these two Fa­culties, especially considering they are the very Store-house of the Soul: (See St. Austin in his Confessions (lib. 10.8.) concerning the boundless Capacious­ness of the Memory for the compre­hending the Images of all things that can any way fall under Mans Consi­deration:) Which therefore if filled with filthy Idea's, obscene Representa­tions, and the like, most of all disturb and distract us, and are the greatest hinderance to Piety imaginable; and indeed the main Engine by which the Devil works (according to the power now left him) his malicious designs upon us. Whereas on the [Page 47] contrary if they be filled with good Objects, devout Representations, they do unavoidably cause great Piety and Devotion in us, and our hearts can­not but be set upon such Rich, Heaven­ly Treasure: Because our Imaginati­on alone hath so great influence upon us either to good or bad, that such as our Fancy is, such is our Love, and such is the whole Man. Every one is drawn (trahit sua quemque, &c.) by some forcible Fancy, something that pleases, and according as that is thereafter are our thoughts: It is well therefore if that something be either Truth or Justice, or Beatitude and Eternal Life, the only true End and Scope of a Christian.

Now in our watchfulness over these two faculties we are to have a particular Eye,1 1st. to Our outward Senses. Not suf­fering them to approach, at least not dwell upon, sinful Objects; but re­moving them presently from us or us from them. For not Arguing [Page 48] with, but rather running away from them is the surest Remedy against the Temptations of all sensual Ob­jects; it being much easier to keep our selves from any knowledge or ex­perience of them, than after experi­encing them (so great is the Pravity of our Nature) from longing after them, especially those which are In­citements to Lust. A Whorish Woman (saith Solomon) will hunt for the precious Life of a Man; Prov. 6.26, 27. and you may as safely take fire into your bosome, or walk upon hot bur­ning Coals as Converse with her, or even look upon her without having first made a Covenant with your Eyes.

When therefore our Circumstan­ces are such that we cannot well avoid the presence of a Tempting Object, our best Expe­dient is,2 2ly. To retire immediately into our selves to Discourse with God (who [Page 49] stands always knocking ready to be admitted and to enter with us into our Soul) and particularly to pray and beseech him either to remove the pre­sent Temptation or preserve us from it.Rev. 3.20. Or (the sooner to put it out of our mind) we may recite any Af­fectionatly pious Devotions or Psalms, we have ready stored up in our Me­mory, which will make our Intenti­on (not capable of long minding two things at once) unawares quit its former sinful object. Or we may consider with our selves the bitterness and sting sin (whatsoever) com­mitted leaves behind it, by reason of the uncertainty of our true Repen­tance and Sincere Reformation of Life. Or we may meditate on the Dolorous Passion of our Saviour which rent the very Rocks;Heb. 6.6. or any part of his sufferings in the Gar­den, at the Pillar, upon the Cross; and that Voluntarily to sin is as much as in us lies to Crucify him afresh. Or [Page 50] on some one of the Four last things. On Death, which puts an end to all Earthly pleasures in a moment, and separates a wicked Soul not only from the Body, but from God forever. On the last Judgment, when the dreadful Sentence on Drolling Debauchees and all Impenitents will be, Go ye Cursed. Mat. 25.41 On Hell, That everlasting Fire whither the Cursed are to go. Or lastly, On the Ʋnspeakable Joys of Hea­ven, which may be so advantageous­ly represented to the Soul as to drive out the thoughts of all other pleasures. For there the Blessed have their Knowledge perfected,Ps. 63.5. their Afflicti­ons rewarded more than they were in the least worthy.Rom. 8.18 Rev. 22.4.4.8. They possess all Riches, all Honour, enjoy all Pleasures, are ravished with the Beauty and Holiness of our Lord;Eph. 4.10. Joh. 17.21, 23. filled with the fulnes of God, made [Page 51] one with Christ and with God: Which are those high things so far surpassing our Un­derstanding that (accord­ing to St. Paul) Eye hath not seen, 1 Cor. 2.9. 2 Cor. 12.4. nor Ear heard, nor hath it ever entred into the heart of Man to conceive them. And if none or all of these Meditations and innumerable others relating to our Saviour and another World (with which the Holy Scriptures and other good Books amply supply us) cannot prevail to secure us, it is certainly much better rudely to quit the Com­pany and leap out of the flames, than to stay out of Complaisance to be burnt in them.

CHAP. VI. The Second Rule, Of Suggesti­ons.

THE Second Instruction is, To take great care of Suggestions, and to observe from what Principle or Cause they proceed: Whether, 1st. From our selves, or our own Lusts; Or, 2ly. From the Devil; Or, 3ly. From the H. Spirit of God; and accord­ingly we are either to entertain or re­ject them. Now it is not easie, even for the greatest Asceticks to dis­cern upon all occasions from which of these Principles a Suggestion arises; but if it be such as tempteth us to any Notorious sin, any Filthy unclean­ness, we may presently know from whence it comes. And then it is much better and easier to suppress it in its very beginning, to stifle it in [Page 53] the Embryo before it be conceived in us by our consenting to it, or at least before it break forth into any outward action, which when finished brings forth Death. Jam. 1.15. Fil­thy, unclean Suggestions we cannot always prevent, but we may refuse consenting to them, or taking any delight in them; and so suppress and keep them under (by God's Assistance) till at length we Totally extinguish them. O that God's Holy Spirit would take such full possession of my heart as not to suffer any unclean Suggestion to enter there!

But if the sin to which we are temp­ted be habitual to us, or the sin which doth most easily of all others beset us, Heb. 12.1. we are then to bend all our forces against it, make the strongest resolutions we can, for some short time at least, sup­pose for a day, and so renew our re­solutions every Morning (the known [Page 54] practice of a Renowned Bishop of the Church of England in Point of Ma­trimony) taking particular Notice how often it assaults us, and in the midst of the Temptation using some external action (if nothing but vio­lence will do) such as throwing our selves down upon our knees or face, beating our Breast, supplicating our Lord with sighs and tears (when God pleases to give them) for his assistance, who hath promised that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, 1 Cor. 10.13. but will with the Temptation make a way for our Escape, or enable us to bear the pressure of it. At least, it is wisdom to delay the Exe­cution of the foul Act to which we are tempted, for by deferring it, our reason may gather new forces, our Passions abate; or some External Accidents may intervene: Some pious reflection of our own may occurr; or some good Friend may come in, to whom we may impart our deplo­rable Condition and ask his good [Page 55] Advice, who at such a time is much better able than we our selves to give it; and in this sence chiefly it is that the bearing one anothers burdens is the fulfilling of the Law of Christ.Gal. 6.2.

After the vanquishing of such a Temptation, and the leaving as far as we can our own Nature to go o­ver to Grace, there usually comes an Angel to comfort us, or what is better, some holy Inspiratons of the Divine Spirit to en­cline us (who of our selves cannot so much as think a good thought) to thank God for our delive­rance,1 Cor. 3.5. and to pray for more Grace and Strength against another time. Such holy Inspirations we must take care not to repell; for that would be more or less to Resist, Grieve, and Quench the Holy Spirit of God in us: But on the contrary we must Cherish all good Thoughts, and by them endeavour to introduce, by little and little, Vertues instead of our ill Habits. When once [Page 56] we intend to begin a new Course of Life, we must not in the least con­sult with Flesh and Blood, but rather fall immediately upon it. If at any time, why not now, if not now, perhaps never? Was the saying of St. Austin. And in the acquiring of any Vertue, suppose Continency, Chastity or the like, we may (with the same Father) boldly throw our selves upon God who will not withdraw himself to let us fall, Projice te in Deum, &c. But yet our own sincere Endeavours after a pure mind and right intention must not be wanting, to which God al­ways gives a Blessing tho' we are not always sensible of it.

Now some perhaps may think Solemn Resolutions to one Just be­ginning to break a long custom and habit of any filthy sin to be both Rash and Dangerous, because when once broken (as many times first Reso­lutions are, the ill habit being as yet much stronger than the good one to be introduced) the over-grown Sin­ner [Page 57] is apt to be either too much dis­couraged and so fall into despair; or to be more hardned in his most shameful Vice, and so Incorrigibly go on still in his old wonted Road of Debauchery: It may therefore be much safer for a beginner to make a limited Conditional Promise and such as is Releasable upon a Forefeiture. Suppose (for Example) we resolve to abstain from such a filthy sin, from such lewd Company, for so long a time, or if we do not we will indis­pensibly pay so much Money to be given to the poor, say so many Pray­ers, fast so many Meals, shut up our selves so many Days from all Com­pany, and the like (and this besides and over and above the necessary requisites of our Repentance); which present forefeiture or punishment (in our Purse or otherwise) many times hath a greater Influence upon us towards the breaking off a De­bauched Custom, than either the fears or hopes of what may and cer­tainly [Page 58] will happen to us (according to our deserts) in another World.

Moreover, the resolving upon such a Penalty for the Forefeiture as does really afflict the Body, such as Fast­ing, long Retirement, Watching, &c. or diminishing our beloved treasure and substance, by giving large Alms to Prisons, Hospitals, poor House-keepers, &c. will certainly fix in our memory an hatred of the sin, and so mind us of every Suggestion of it, and deterr us from embracing it: because, if a temporal punishment be immediately to follow it much lessens the desire of the imaginary pleasure, and oftentimes occasions the reflecting also on the future real punishment, eternal Death, which is the final Doom and the Inseparable wages of all unrepented,Rom. 6.23. unforsaken sin. But then to every good purpose we must not forget to joyn this Resolution also, that if we should at any time by infir­mity, or surprize, relapse into the de­testable sin against which we have re­solved [Page 59] (for he that stands must take heed least he falls, Rom. 11.21. and be not high minded but fear) we will not however abandon our selves to it, but on the contrary renew and make stronger Resolutions against it with severer Penalties annexed, and so valiantly continue on the fight till it shall please God to give us the Victory.

Such voluntary Mortifications are likewise Efficacious not only for the taming and keeping under the body, but for the obtaining also from God (by our thus siding and taking part with his Divine Justice against our sins) the particular Gift and Grace of which we stand in need. Some un­clean Lust is not to be subdued,Mat. 17.21. some Devil not cast out without Fasting as well as Prayer. Our sparing Self-Mortifications, is like sparing the Rod to the Child, but the using of them is the ready way to prevent God's Judgments from falling upon us in particular; or upon our Coun­trey [Page 60] for our sakes, and by reason of our sins, or to remove them when begun Thus Ezra and his People fast­ed and besought God, Ezra 8.21. and he was en­treated for them. And so another time Queen Esther and the whole Jewish Nation just as they were going to be Massacred,Est. 4.16. were preserved by the same means of Fasting and Prayer. The Ninevites also were spared upon the same account of their great Hu­miliation, Jon. 3.10. And so the Pro­phet Daniel attained to so great Know­ledge and Wisdom, and so high a degree of the Divine Favour, by his long fasting and mourning and pray­ing for God's only Church and Peo­ple; Dan. 1.17. Dan. 10.3. And in­deed I know no other way of stoping God's Judgments, even when they are breaking out upon us, than by thus applying our selves to Mol­lify his Justice that we may not fail of his Mercy.

But yet the greatest Humiliation [Page 61] of all, and most Bene­ficial,Jam. 5.16. is the telling our sins to one another as often as we commit them, particularly to our Spiritual Pastors, which will be apt to awe us (if not hardned) from sinning in that kind any more; and our Pastor by his good Directions, Prayers, and the power with which Almighty God hath entrusted him, is able (with our concurrence) to administer the best Remedy to all our sins. And then another Person, tho' he were not more Learned, be­ing no way concerned or interested in our Affairs, must needs be more void of Passion, more Impartial, and Consequently can better Judge of us, better Direct and Guide us than we our selves O that we could thus die to all things but God, and take no pleasure but in Self-denials and Mor­tifications for the sake of Jesus: From whence flows that Humi­lity & Purity of heart,Mat. 5.8. to which our Saviour hath Emphatically annexed the Blessedness of seeing God!

CHAP. VII. The Third Rule, Of the Oc­casions of grosser Sins.

THirdly, We are to avoid the Occasions of the sins of the Flesh. Some of them I shall name.1 1st. The mak­ing Provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof. Rom. 13.14. Strong Meats, strong Drinks, high Sauces are not conve­nient, as being many times very hurt­ful to the Memory and Understand­ing, always heightening and disor­dering the Passions. Be not drunk with Wine (saith St. Paul to his Ephesians) wherein is Excess: Eph. 5.18. And in Excess a Man knows not what he does, but is [Page 63] ready to go along with his Company, and to commit with them the great­est lewdness and outrage whatsoever, under the pretence of a Frolick.Lev. 10.9. Wherefore Priests under the Old Law, in the time of their Attendance on God in the Execution of their Function, were forbidden such things. And all Chri­stians now are in some manner God's Priests. Rev. 5.10. Great Caution there­fore is to be taken of Invitations and publick Entertainments. It is much safer to eat alone, or with few and those Abstemious Persons. And then rather mean Diet to be chosen than Deli­cacies, (poor Peoples Children we see thrive best;) often calling to mind the hard fare of our Lord and his poor Disciples (whom he chose poor) Who fed on Ears of Corn, Barley-Bread, Mat. 12.1. Joh. 6.9. Fish, an Honey-Comb, Wa­ter, and the like, and St. John Baptist, upon Locusts and Wild-Honey, and the holy Men of Egypt [Page 64] (according to St. Jerom) upon much harder Fare. Often remembring also, the All-satisfying Food promised us in Heaven, which will keep us from ever hungering or thirsting any more. Blessed are they that shall eat Bread in the Kingdom of God. Luk. 14.15. Rev. 19.9. And Blessed are they that are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Lord evermore give us that Hea­venly Bread that never perishes, and that Heavenly Water also which shall be in us a well of Water Springing up to everlasting Life.

The great reason why we ought (if we intend to avoid the sins of the Flesh) to take particular care of living Temperate in our Diet, and of obser­ving frequent Fastings, especially the Solemn Fasts of the Church, is, be­cause by our Eating and Drinking the Flesh arms and furnishes it self as it were with new Provisions for fighting against the Spirit: New Matter and Fuel is administred to [Page 65] Concupiscence, and the Brain many times so heated as not to be able to make a right Judgment of things. It was after a great Din­ner when Herod for the sake of a filly Dancing.Mar. 6.21. Girl, consented to the beheading of the Venerable and Chast St. John Bap­tist, as having been an open Enemy to his Incestuous Marriage. It was in Drunkenness when Lot committed double Incest with his Two Daughters.Gen. 19. Hos. 4.11. Rom. 13.13. And we find all along in Scripture, Drunkenness and Glut­tony inseparable Companions of Lust. And then the necessary Repairs of our Body returning so often, we are obliged in a manner to be continually upon our Guard, and to put a Knife to our Throat (as the Wise Man adviseth) that we be not overcome by our Appetite. ‘This Concupis­cence in Eating and Drinking (by reason of the dayly necessities of the Body) is no such thing (says St. [Page 66] Austin in his Confessions) which we can resolve to cut off at once and touch no more as we may do other things.’ Eat and Drink we must, yet not to Excess. The reins therefore of the Throat are to be held with a moderate hand between too little and too much; And who is he O Lord (says the same Father) that is not sometimes transported beyond the Lists of Necessity? Whoever he be, a great one he is, let him magnifie thy Name. So that in one word our liv­ing temperate and watching over our Appetite, so as to thwart it in every thing, is the taking away the chief and most principal occasion of Lust, and as I may say the quenching of it in its very Cause. Fraena gulam, &c. Bridle your Appetite (says Thomas a Kempie) and you will the more easily bridle every Inclination of the Flesh.

To Temperance in Meat and Drink, and frequent Fastings, we may add Watching and Moderating our Sleep, which (as Experience [Page 67] shews us) very much tames the Flesh (as it does even the wildness of the most savage Beasts) and in a manner pro­duceth the same effects upon it as Fast­ing, renders us less disposed to sen­sual Mirth, and more inclined to Si­lence and Recollection. When in Bed, if we cannot sleep, Praying and Medirating is necessary, and some­times rising from our Beds (when we cannot otherwise drive away impure Thoughts), and passing the whole Night under God's wing in Devotions without any sleep at all, according to the Exam­ample of our Lord, Luk. 6.12. 2 Sam. 12.16. his A­postles, King David and other Saints. For lazy Sleep, and indeed all manner of Sloathfulness, is so near a kin to Lust that nothing can break it off but vio­lence and strong resolutions against it: Forcing our selves out of our Chair or Couch to some Vertuous Action, or Pious Company, or the ordinary business of our Employments, or what is much better, to our Prayers And [Page 68] it is worth all our pains and trouble, if it were only for preserving our Chastity: To which Vertue alone the Two great Monarchs of the World, Cyrus and Alexander, seem to have owed the success of their Arms; and the Apostate Julian (when he had left all other Vertues) most truly owned that this Queen of Vertues made Lives more Beautiful than Painters Could Faces Fair; and the Reason given by Salvian of the Goths gaining the Empire of Rome is, That they were a Nation far more chast, and sent on purpose by God to chastise the Effeminacy of the Romans: And yet that Vertue in them so Emi­nent, how far short came it of true Christian Chastity, which ought to be embraced for the sole sake of Christ, and accompanied also with all other Christian Vertues which they wanted. The Truth is, to sleep and loyter away our time (which is one of the most precious Talents with which Almighty God hath entrusted us) is altogether mispending of it; and [Page 69] so is also the passing of it in Drunken­ness, high Gaming, &c. from whence naturally proceeds Swearing, Cursing, Damning our selves and others, all which are far worse than Idleness it self. A diligent Employment therefore, such as together with our Prayers, and the Exigences of Nature, (not exclusive of some short innocent Diversions) measures out all our time, is absolutely requisite even to the greatest Personages: And the more of it that is spent in the Imme­diate Service of God the better, as coming nearer the eternal Employ­ment of the Blessed in Heaven. But of all the Labours, the resisting Temp­tations and our Passions, and all en­couragements to Sloth and Idleness, (so frequently recommended to us in Holy Scripture under the Name of Vigilancy and Watching) is the greatest and most worthy a Man; and time is never b [...]ter spent than in so doing. Blessed is that Servant whom our Lord when he cometh shall find so Employed. Mat. 24.46.

[Page 70] 2 Secondly, Lewd and Debauched Company, and Filthy Conversation, is also to be avoided as a principal occasion of Lust. It was an observation of the Moralist Seneca long ago concerning the Temper of the World in gene­ral: ‘That he could never go a­broad in it one day and return home again at night with the same man­ners he carryed out with him; but was still rifled of some Vertue or other, and rendred either more ambitious, or more luxurious and the like.’ Which holds much truer of Lewd and Debauched Company now-a-days, who are the very Scum and Reproach of Mankind, setting up (as the Infidels did the Statues of Venus and Adonis in the place of the Holy Cross) Debauchery in the place of Piety, and having accustomed themselves to Fleshly Lusts, perfectly hate all Spiritual Actions and Persons whatsoever, and knowing the Judg­ment of God against the Committers of such things, yet not only do the [Page 71] same, but take pleasure in them that do them; whose very words also, and sometimes breath is contagious; & many times, to keep up & maintain their lewd Courses, they are forc'd to become common Mercenaries in all sorts of Wickedness to buy themselves bread (as is notoriously evident to the whole World); and you cannot converse with such without being in danger, either, 1st. of partaking of their sins (which they think only ne­cessary accomplishments to fit one for their Company) even by not re­proving them; or, 2dly of being in­fected by their ill Example, they al­ways crying up Liberty and Luxuty against Mortification and Chastity:Eccl. 13.2. 1 Cor. 15.33 Whereas there is no touching of Pitch without being defiled therewith, no having Communica­tion with ill manners without being insensibly corrupted by them.

Our Conversation therefore is more safe with Vertuous Persons: And [Page 72] those rather few than many; such as may either better us, or we them. But as for open, lewd, prophane Livers, who publish their sin as Sodom, glory in their shame, boast of their Debaucheries as so ma­ny great Atchievements (as if the Christian Hero was to be known by often violating, not by defending the Bulwarks of Chastity) and being perhaps Gentlemen think they are above all Ordinances whatsoever; and so having removed all Land­marks between good and evil, and owning no Obligation to a Supream Power, besides what is Suggested from Nature, profess themselves downright Libertines, and count it their greatest Excellency to have nei­ther Vertue nor Religion (which they call Chains and Fetters; whose death however is commonly in De­spaire): We are strictly forbidden having any Society with such. I have written to you (says St. Paul to his Corinthians) not to keep Company if any Man that is called a Brother be a [Page 73] Fornicator, &c. or a Drunkard, &c. with such a one no not to Eat. And this, 1st. in order to the bettering of him by making him ashamed. Or at least, 2ly. for the preserving our selves from being insensibly corrupted by him. Or, 3ly. from giving Scan­dal to others by our frequenting such ill Company. Thus St. Austin's Re­ligious Mother carried herself towards her own Son, who till he had Re­nounced his Manichaean Heresy and Vicious Life together, and become a good Christian, would not so much as eat with him; tho nevertheless when alone she was almost always in pray­ers and tears to God for him, till she had obtained his Conversion.

It is a saying of Matchiavil, That the ready way to ruine a State or Kingdom is to fill it with ill manners. Good reason then for good Men to take care how they Converse with ill, and to suspect all they do not know; least at length, not only themselves but the Publick also be endamaged [Page 74] by it. But then Cases of necessity are to be exempted, when either we or they cannot subsist or perform our ordinary Duties without our coming together; or there is high Proba­bility of our Reforming them by our Conversing friendly and vertuously with them. Otherwise we are for­bidden all manner of Conversation with such notorious Sinners, so long as they continue the Custom and Practice of their lewd and wicked Courses and seem obstinately resolved so to do: Because our siding and herd­ing with such is plainlly the declar­ing our selves on the Devils side, open Enemies to God and all goodness And for this reason it is that the Church of Christ (like a most wise Mother) hath in all Ages taken strict care to secure her obedient Children from the Infection of the Disobedient, by making severe Canons against Pray­ing, Communicating, and (in some Cases) speaking with the Perverse, whether their Errors were in Faith or Practice. Because she not discern­ing [Page 75] the hearts of her Children, can only level her Censures against their External Profession as she perceives them faulty either in Doctrin or Manners; and those that will not be restrained, must blame, not her, but themselves, if they incurr her Ana­thema's instead of her Blessings.Can. Apost. See Can. Apost. 11, 12, 13. Conc. Laod. Can. 33, 38, 39. Concil. Carthag. 4. Can. 72, 73. St. Aug. Ep. 48. and Ep. 152.

To Lewd and Debauched Com­pany we may add lewd Books, as the worst and most dangerous Compa­nions of all: Because they usually take us alone, and when perhaps least upon our Guard. By lewd Books I mean nasty Ribaldry, Novels, Poems, Songs, Pictures, Romances, and many of our Modern Plays (which of that kind are so much the worse as their Language is better) the Authors whereof (even when they become Penitents) can never (ordi­narily [Page 76] speaking) make a sufficient Satisfaction to God and the World, without a Solemn Retractation of them. Many unwary, both Men and Women, have been ruined by them, none bettered, because indeed they with all the Pomp imaginable recommend the Debauchery they pretend to expose; and if you ob­serve it, always speak more wittily for, than against the Vice they are describing. But as bad Books are the worst, so good Books are the best Companions in the World: The safest retreat from ill Company, more advantageous than the best, and the greatest Felicity on this side of Heaven. In omnibus requiem quaesivi, &c. I sought my quiet in all things of this Life, but could not find it, only in Angello cum libello, with a little good Book in a convenient Nook.

3 3ly. Infamous Places (infected with the whole herd or any one of these abominable sins), notwithstanding their being [Page 77] grown almost into a Fashion amongst us, are to be most watchfully avoid­ed by us, whether they be single Houses or whole Cities. No trusting to the smooth words of an Harlot, who layeth in wait at all the Corners of the Streets, Prov. 7.5.10.16. enticing whom she can to her house; pretending all things are made ready for them, when at the same time she intends only to make a prey of them. And the same Wiles & Crafts may be observed in common Drunkards and all profligate Sinners, who are also very dexterous in using their Witticisms and little Artifices to deceive and draw in others. Thomas a Kempis adviseth against too great Familiarity with any (especially Women) how good soever, much more with lewd Persons, or Cohabi­ting with them. No safe venturing into their Houses where this Leprosie hath been spread: No secure coming into Sodom, even for an Angel. Righ­teous Lot, or any good Man, must not stay there when he cannot con­vince [Page 78] them, least he be consumed with them. And I suppose Tyre and Sidon, and the other Cities about them, to have been in the same condition. And yet we find our Saviour pro­nouncing greater Woes upon some other Cities (in his time of Conver­sing visibly upon Earth) that had received greater mercies, greater means of Salvation; We to thee Chorazin,Mat. 11.21. wo to thee Bethsaida: If the mighty works that have been done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago, sitting in Sackcloth and Ashes. Therefore it shall be more tollerable for those Cities in the day of Judgment than for you. And I pray God those Woes may not reach our ungrateful Cities, which have seen so many of God's mighty Works, and felt so many of his Fa­therly Corrections, yet are still so over-run with all sorts of unclean­ness and sensuality (as too many profligate Wretches will tell you without blushing) that we cannot [Page 79] expect less than that the utmost of the Divine Vengeance should forth­with after an extraordinary manner (as lately upon Jamaica) be poured out upon us. God's ordinary dread­ful Judgments, such as Plague, Fire, Sword, Poverty, have not re­claimed us, and nothing now (as it seems to me) but a speedy Exem­plary Repentance, like that of Nineveh, can avert our ruine. Our good Lord give us such true, universal, over-pre­vailing Repentance, before it be too late.

Before I conclude this Chapter, give me leave to add one Caution more concerning Discourse, as being the most dangerours Occasion of the filthiest sins. All levity therein, foolish Talking, Jesting, Buffoonery, Su­perfluous Facetiousness, Affectation of Wit and the like, must be avoided; because they tend wholly to the plea­sing of men, and that many times not without grosly offending of God: and woe to them that (in such man­ner) [Page 80] Laugh now, for they shall eternally weep here­after. Luk. 6.25. It is good Ad­vice therefore which is given by a very Learned Person upon this Point, to use an Holy Reservedness in our Conversation, even with intimate Friends, and not to turn our inside outward, or to speak all that comes in our thoughts. Because, having ma­ny imperfections most of our thoughts must needs be weak and unrefined, and we apprehend at first sight ac­cording to Nature, not Grace, un­less some Preconsideration be used. And in much Company we are to accustom our selves rather to silence (sometimes imposing it upon our selves if given to talk much) so far forth as is consistent with our Duty and Common Civility: And not to permit the lewd or idle Discourse of others to interrupt (as little as may be) our Praying continually, 1 Thess. 5.17. al­ways giving thanks, re­joicing always in the [Page 81] Lord, which is the true Life and perfection of a Christian. The Guarding thus our own Tongues well and Watching other Mens, cuts off perhaps the greatest occasion of our corrupting or being corrupted: As may be seen more at large in the many par­ticular Discourses upon this Subject, to which I referr the Reader. Subjoining only the warning our Saviour hath gi­ven us, That of every idle word we speak (much more of our Perjuries,Mat. 12.36, 37. Obstinacies, palpable Lyes and Blasphemies) we must give an account at the day of Judgment, and that according to our words we shall either be Condemned or Justified. God grant we may not out of our own mouths be condemned in that terrible day.

CHAP. VIII. The Fourth Rule, Of Divine Assistances and the means of obtaining them.

FOurthly, The last Rule I shall mention is, The being mindful of the Powerful Assistances afforded Christians above all others in the Conquering their Lusts, and of the means also of obtaining those Assistances. For it is to be noted, 1st. That no one Sin is Par­doned but by the Death of Christ. 1 Cor. 15.3. 2ly. That to the applying the Merits of Christ's Passion to us there are required some Conditions on our part,Phil. 2.12. namely our Assenting and Co-operating with God's Grace. [Page 83] 3ly. That by such Application not only our sins are remit­ted,Eph. 2.5.4.25. but we receive the Grace of Regeneration, changing us in our minds, implanting us in­to Christ, enabling us to good works,Rom. 2.13. Joh. 1.12. to become doers of the Law, Sons of God, &c. The manner of such our Regeneration and of the Divine Assist­ance is thus. First, Mat. 28.19. Eph. 5.26. When we are Baptized into Christs Church, not on­ly past sins are washed away (supposing us rightly disposed there­unto) but also a new Power and Ability Su­pernatural of Living holily for the future is conferr'd and super­added:Tit. 3.5, &c. Acts 11.16 The Holy Ghost being then personally given us, and God's Grace Efficaciously plan­ted [Page 84] in us for newness of Life,Rom. 6.4.7.6. and bringing forth Good Works. By the Assistance of this Grace therefore our corrupt Nature is so per­fectly restored and made capable of all Vertue, that we may and are ob­liged also therewith totally to subdue our Lusts; so as to live free from the habit even of unclean thoughts,Gal. 5.24. and from the commission of all unclean Acts, at least of those greater before mentioned, which we are sure (from God's own Word) exclude the Kingdom of Heaven. By this new principle of Grace,Eph. 5.5. which work­eth with us, (and without which our working signifies nothing) a real Holi­ness, & Facility to Good, is conveyed in­to our Souls; our Understanding is Illu­minated so as readily to embrace the Holy Mysteries of Christ's Religion which are above it, above it's natu­ral Knowledge and Reach, and past its ever finding out but by Revelation: Our Will from time to time inspired [Page 85] with new and divine Affections and at length influenced (at least in some Persons) with an impatient Love of God above all other things. And the same Holy Spirit, which thus Acts and Assists within us, in­terceeds also for us,Rom. 8.26. with groans which cannot be ut­tered: groans irresistably prevalent at the Throne of Grace.

To the first Grace therefore given us at our Baptism, if we make a right use of it, more and more is added (to every one that hath [improved his one Talent] more shall be given, Mat. 25.29. and he shall have abundance:) And some­times to the same well-disposed Per­son are conferred several Talents, se­veral different Gifts (for God's greater glory) of the same Holy Spi­rit; but yet the most excellent Grace which we are above all to covet, 1 Cor. 12.31. as being that without which all o­ther Graces signify nothing to us, is,1 Cor. 13.13 Charity [Page 86] or the Love of God: Which is the most effectual remedy of all our Lusts or false Loves, and when once obtained does in a manner the whole work of a Christian it felf, because by its se­cret Energy it centers all our Affections in our Lord, so as sweetly to com­pell us to seek in all things a punctual Observance and conformity to his holy Will, and in nothing to displease him, with whom our Soul being ravished is sick of love for him and lan­guisheth with a perpetual desire,Cant. 5.8. either, 1st. of suffering for him (thereby at once to shew the Truth of our love and to purify us as Gold in a burning Furnace;) Or, 2ly. of praying to Him (the only way of Conversing with him upon Earth); Or, 3ly. Of fully enjoying him in Heaven, even though it were through Martyrdom it self. Which great Vertue shined most Eminently in St. Mary Magdalen, whose sins which were ma­ny were therefore forgiven her, because she loved much: And her chosing to sit [Page 87] at the feet of Jesus to hear his words, our Saviour himself calls the unum necessa­rium, the better and sublimer part of a Christian, which nothing can take away.

And albeit this love of God inferrs and comprehends the love of our Neighbour, and of our selves, and of all things that belong to God, yet these not after the fashion of the World, but only as consistent with and much encreasing and enflaming our love of God. So that by shewing our love to God (as we are obliged) all the ways that we can, we are con­tinually enlivening and augmenting it, and still think it little and unwor­thy of eternal life; and that it is want of our Endeavours, and not of God's Grace, which hinders us from at­taining still higher Spiritual Gifts and a more intense love of our Lord; every little Inclination in us to any thing else, if not throughly mortify­ed, being enough to retard our pro­gress in this true way to perfection: This one thing I do (says St. Paul [Page 88] to his Philippians) for­geting those things which are behind [already ob­tained] and reaching forward to those things which are before [not yet obtained] I press toward the Mark for the price of the high cal­ling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3.13. And if so great an Apostle, when he had so far attained as perhaps none farther, in the Love of God and Self-mortifications (wit­ness his Watchings, 2 Cor. 6.5.11.23. Fast­ings, Labours, Stripes, Im­prisonments, Deaths) was still pressing forward; much more ought we to mend our pace who are so far behind, so far from perfect Charity and per­fect Chastity as to be still wallowing in our [...]usts, still hankering after the Gratifications of Sense. We ought not only to be mindful of the power­ful Assistances God hath afforded us to Purity and Holiness, but also actu­ally to make use of them for that very end and purpose; those Assist­ances of the Holy Spirit being such [Page 89] as continually war against the Flesh, Col. 3.1. stirring us up to seek those things that are above and supernatural; and so after an ineffable manner (if we endea­vour to correspond to them) unite us to Christ and God and bring down Heaven into our Souls, quenching in us the thirst to all sensual Pleasures, making them by degrees seem more and more contemptible to us and at length odious: Quas sordes, quae dede­cora, &c. what filthiness did they Sug­gest, what disgrace and dishonour? says St. Austin in his Confessions con­cerning his formerly beloved, but then much more hated, Lusts.

The way therefore to experience the good of Christianity, is resolutely to enter upon practising Christian Vertue by a more strict observance of Gods Laws, and purging our selves from the contrary Vices. For none (how learned soever) can truly know God, but they that serve him: And a poor Shepherd, that faithfully [Page 90] serves him, will by experience know more of God in his chiefest Excel­lencies, than a Doctor of the Chair that does only talk of him. And as the Grace of God is the principal Instru­ment of a good Christian Life; so the next to that, is frequent examining our Consciences, once or twice a day; that so we may learn to know by little and little how to distinguish between the motions of Grace and those of Na­ture, what are Temptations and what not (and here the Judgment of some wise conscientious man more skilful than our selves is to be taken in) least we should place our greatest Consolation (as the Soul always does in something) in any thing that is not God. We are to think our selves below all, and that there are none more frail than our selves; to empty our selves of all affections to Earthly things, and to have no propriety or desire that shall in the least wise hinder our love to God from being pure: To leave our Lusts and that forever, which tho' with St. Austin we may [Page 91] find difficult, yet with him also we shall thereby find our selves freed from a Chain: To be so indifferent, lastly, to joy or sorrow, Temptation or quietness, Life or Death, and all things in this World, as to expect no Consolation here but what flows from the Cross. This is dying to our selves and all Creatures, that we may be united to God; which the Holy Scrip­tures call partaking of the Divine Nature,2 Pet. 1.4. turning our heart to God, conformity to his Holy Will, walking in the Truth, serving him with a pure mind (i. e. without anxiety or Expectation of reward) rejoicing in him, acquiescing in him,2 Pet. 3.1. going out of our selves into him by a perfect Abnegation of our selves,Mark 8.34. referring all things to his Glory and making him all in all to us,1 Cor. 25.28 Eph. 1.6. which is the perfe­ction of Religion, as may be seen more at large in Thomas a Kempis and other Spiritual Books.

[Page 92]But then in our endeavouring after this perfection we must beware of the highest cunning and must subtile De­vice of the Devil, which the Scripture calls his transforming himself into an Angel of Light. And that is either, 1st. By his stirring up in us a secret self-conceit of our good Actions as if they could not possibly be mended. Or, 2ly. His throwing in some little spe­cious Reasonings and Fallacies to make us abate or alter them (as he always pretends) for the better and for God's greater Glory. For exam­ple; in the exercise of our Charity towards our Neighbour, to corrupt that Divine Love, he usually suggests something from Reason to induce us to change Divine into Rational; then something from Nature to change Natural into Carnal, then some­thing from our Flesh alone to change Rational into Natural, till by degrees he renders that love in us, which was at first Divine and Pure, altogether impure and unchast and most op­posite and most displeasing to Al­mighty [Page 93] God. But yet for the most part he takes care not to deface all Vertue in his Servants, that neither themselves nor others may easily discern the wickedness he intermixes, and so be frightned into Repentance. Such are the Wiles of the Roaring Lyon who con­tinually goes about seeking how to devour and make a prey of us: 1 Pet v. 9. Whom we are commanded to resist stedfast in the Faith with all sobriety and watchfulness: But do thou O Lord, have mercy on us and strengthen us to overcome him.

2 Secondly, The means now of obtaining far­ther Assistances of the Holy Spirit, besides what we receive in Baptism are chiefly, 1st. Prayer, our own and other mens.Phil. 1.19. 2ly. Frequent­ly Communicating. If we would (for Example) obtain in opposition to our Lusts (those false Loves) that most excellent Gift of loving God a­bove [Page 94] all things (which is the) only true love) and doing every thing to please him,1 we must First, Pray for it. And this we cannot do with that earnest­ness and integrity we ought, before we sincerely repent of our False Loves, our Darling Lusts. For God hears not unrepenting Sinners, and admits of no Rivals in our Affections, he will have our whole heart or none. Then af­ter our deep sorrowing for those Heinous Sins (and what sins are not heinous?) Even so sorrowing as not to be content without the Absolution of the Church. (See Bishop Andrews's Sermon on John 20.23. Whose sins ye remit, Joh. 20.23. &c.) & to be ready to submit to her severest Discipline for the good of our Souls (See the Preface to the Commination in the Common-Prayer Book,) in great Humility and Low­liness of Mind and Self-abjection, and with a stedfast Lively Faith also, that God both Can and Will answer our Request if it be for our Good, we [Page 95] may again and again discover to him our particular Follies (which he alrea­dy knows, but yet expects to be as it were anew Informed of them by us) bemoaning our vileness, and open­ing to him our present wants with all the Motives which we can think will cause true Contrition in us, and incline Him also to Grant our instant Petition. We desire (for the pur­pose) what he commands us, the loving Him above all things. Let us lay before Him, besides our own weaknesses and Infirmities, his Per­fections, Beauty, Wisdom, Love and Mercy towards us, which one would think were enough to excite our love to him without his commanding us to love him who are most unworthy of his love. So many Blessings, so many Deliverances both Temporal and Spiritual, will they not move us? Hath he not Redeemed us from all our Enemies, the World, the Flesh, and the Devil? taught us what to do and what to refrain? given us tender Consciences (the greatest Blessing [Page 96] upon Earth) to admonish us? En­abled us by his Holy Spirit to perform what he requires? And yet when we continue vitious, is he not still patient and long-suffering for our Re­pentance? Preventing our Conver­sion with his Grace, renewing his I­mage in us, and making us again capable of Immortality and Glory? For all which Benefits, and Ten Thousand more, can we do less than pray we may hate our Selves, our Lusts and all things else, and become Dead to sensuality and the World for love of him, who first loved us even to Death?

Some there are and always have been, who by Assiduous Praying, having attained to the love of God, think Prayer the greatest pleasure of their whole Life, and themselves ne­ver well but when they are thus con­versing with Almighty God (whom they reverentially apprehend to be al­ways with them, either before, or within them:) And are continually [Page 97] offering to him his own most precious Gifts, which he therefore vouchsafes them that they may have something valuable and worthy to offer: And so by their Devotions they also pre­pare their Souls for the receiving those particular Graces, for which they pray, and of which they stand in need.

The Power and Prevalency of Prayer (whether Vocal or Mental) with Almighty God, and the great benefits to ourselves and others from the several parts thereof, Self-Exa­mination, Confession, Thanksgiving, Petition, Praise, Resolution, Inter­cession, Oblation, and every kind of Devotion wherein we either speak to God or God to us, together with proper Forms and Directions for eve­ry occasion, the Reader may amply learn from the publick Liturgies, Manuals, Catechisms, Lives, and Devotions of holy Men, &c written and allowed of by the Ancient Fa­thers, and the whole Church of [Page 98] God in all Ages. And then, as to the necessity of Prayer, if we consider our many wants, Temporal and Spi­ritual, to be relieved; many sins, wherein we still offend God, to be pardoned; many Temptations and Dangers from which to be preserved; many Benefits and Assistances receiv­ed; and all these with a respect al­so to our Fellow Christians; we can­not but acknowledge every moment of our Lives (had we no other ne­cessary Duties) too little to be spent in this one Great Duty of Continual Prayer. 1 Thess. 5.17. Our good Lord assist us by his Holy Spirit in the diligent and sincere performance thereof.

The other Chief Means of our ob­taining Divine Assistances against our Lusts; 2 is, 2ly. Frequen Communi­cating (as many good Christians now do, and the Primitive Christians did almost every day). I do not in­tend here to treat largely of this Holy Sacrament (there being many good Books Written designedly on that Subject,) but only recommend to [Page 99] the Reader (without medling with God's power therein which transcends all Humane Conception and Com­prehension) the Immense Benefit of this Holy Mystery to each worthy Communicant in reference to his particular Necessities. For obtaining Remission of this or that Sin; a Re­medy of this or that Infirmity; a De­liverance from this or that Affliction; for receiving a Benefit, or giving thanks for a Benefit received; for helping our Neighbour; for encrea­sing the Holy Spirit and Love of God in us. Because, as by one Spirit in Baptism, We are made one Mystical Body of Christ, 1 Cor. 12.13 so likewise, in the Eu­charist, are we made to drink into [the partaking of] one Spirit: The Blessed Eucharist being as necessary for the continuing and encreasing, as Bap­tism for the first receiving the Holy Spirit. Because also, this is that par­ticular Nourishment instituted by Christ for the preserving our Body and Soul to Everlasting Life; that [Page 100] particular Pledge and Assurance of our Resurrection; that true Bread from Heaven, which mystically also In­corporates us into Christ, and makes us continue and grow up into perfect Members of his Body, that so thus partaking of the Nature and Spirit of the Second Adam, the Heir of all things, we may become with him Sons of God, Heirs of Eternal Life, as we were by the First Adam, of Eter­nal Death. That true Heavenly Bread, lastly, so Exalting and Assimulating our Nature into Christ (when wor­thily Communicating) as to make us one with him, as he and the Father are one: According to our Saviour's Prayer when he was Instituting this Blessed Sacrament. I pray thee Father, John 17. that they may be one, as we are one. O Blessed Union between poor Man and his Maker! O happy those Souls who here worthily feed on this Heavenly Bread, the only true Nourishment of the Life of Grace, [Page 101] enabling them in the Strength there­of to walk even to the Mount of God, the Life of Glory.