both stand in the same Rank to avoid all marks of Partiality So that this Place forbids not Precedency and Place to be given or taken by Persons that are in Quality or Authority above others either in Church Assemblies or in other Meetings but only in the Judicial Meetings of those times and not then but because that in the then Apprehensions of Men such Precedency would signify Partiality in the Judge that suffer'd it So that it remains that Titles of Honour Respects and Precedency may be receiv'd when duly given And I thought it requisite to take off these Objections both to clear these mistaken Places of Scripture and that you might not refuse To pay Honour to whom Honour is due which is a Duty upon all men Rom. 13.7 And which a foolish Sect amongst us do deny chiefly grounding the Rudeness of their Behaviour towards their Betters upon the now mention'd places of Scripture which they wrest as they do the other to their own Destruction Thus much upon this Occasion THE Sixteenth Lecture First That I should Renounce the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanity of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh HAving undertook to give you a particular and distinct account not only of those Temptations which arise from the World in general but also from all the particular things whether Good or Evil therein contain'd And having already survey'd the Riches and Honours thereof and distinctly shew'd you in what Sence and how far you are to Renounce each of them and every Particular included in them I come now to consider Thirdly The Pleasures thereof and to shew you in what Sence and how far you are also to Renounce the Pleasures of this World What 's meant by the Pleasures of this World in what Sence and how far they are to be Renounced Now all Pleasure of what Kind soever it be does arise from the Agreeableness of the Object with some Faculty that can perceive it And therefore Pleasure in general Is that Satisfaction and Delight which any part of our Nature perceives when its Appetites are gratify'd with what it desires And as both Soul and Body have their several perceptive Faculties and Appetites so the Gratification and Satisfaction which is given to both do cause different kinds of Pleasure And accordingly they may all of 'em I do think be reduc'd to these Four Rational Sensitive Sensual and Recreative Pleasures And First As to Rational Pleasure I. Rational Pleasure is very Excellent and Allowable This is that noble Satisfaction and sweet Delight which the Soul perceives when it finds it self Improve in Knowledge or in Vertue or when it reflects upon the Good it has done As to Knowledge the most delicious Dainties are not so truly satisfactory to the Bodily Appetite as real and useful Knowledge is to the Rational nor is Light more grateful to the Eye than Knowledge is to the Understanding And all useful Knowledge especially Divine ought to be sought after with all the Study and Industry possible and we cannot too much indulge the Appetite which craves it Insomuch that St. Paul did not cease to pray for the Collossians and to desire that they might be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding Col. 1.9 And to increase in Vertue to get the victory over our Passions to subdue our Appetites and the like yields so great and pure a Satisfaction that Happiness it self is defin'd to be that Pleasure which the Mind takes in from a sence of Vertue and a conscience of Well-doing and of conforming all things to the Rules of both And then as to that sence of Joy and Comfort which Vertuous and Heavenly Minds do feel in doing Good this is exceedingly more Excellent and Exalted than all worldly and wicked Pleasures as is exemplify'd in our Saviour who counted it His meat and drink to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work Joh. 4.34 which was To go about doing Good Act. 10.28 So excellent a thing is Rational Pleasure and so much it is our Duty as well as Interest to gratify our selves therewith But yet as Excellent and Heavenly a Pleasure as this is there is room for Renunciation even with respect to this And First No Man must make the end of his Knowledge to be the meer Pleasure of Knowing But First no Man must make meer Pleasure the End of his Knowledge that is we must not seek after Knowledge meerly for Knowledge sake and not for the Use and Instruction of our selves and others The true End of Knowledge is to direct our selves and others thereby to Happiness both in this and the other World And indeed such a Greediness as is seen in some Men of swallowing up all sorts of Learning and not letting others to partake of it and to be Benefited by it is but a better sort of Sensuality and Voluptuousness and ought therefore to be Renounced by every Christian The greatest Goods are ever common They were design'd by God to be so and by good Christians they are made so And Knowledge then being a principal Good every good Man is free in Communicating of that and of Edifying others therewith and therefore it is requir'd of a Bishop whose Knowledge is suppos'd to exceed other Men's that He be apt to teach 1 Tim. 3.2 Nor Secondly must that Satisfaction and Delight which arises from the sence and Conscience of Good and worthy Deeds be so much because we are admir'd and applauded for it as because they are really in themselves Vertuous Secondly And as to that Pleasure which arises from the Sence and Conscience of good and worthy Deeds as much as we may be permitted to relish and enjoy it yet we must take care that our Satisfaction and Delight be more because we are really Vertuous and that we do Good than that we be admir'd and applauded for it for We must take heed that we do not our Alms or whatever other Good before Men to be seen of them otherwise we have no reward of our Father which is in Heaven Matth. 6.1 But to proceed Secondly There is a Sensitive Pleasure and that is when the Animal Life or the Bodily Senses are gratify'd with those Objects which are agreeable to ' em All Pleasure as was said arises from the suitableness and agreeableness between the perceptive Faculties and the Objects that affect them II. Sensitive Pleasure which results from the suitableness between the perceptive Faculties and the Objects that affect them is lawful And our Bountiful Maker as he has given the Animal Life many perceptive Faculties the senses of Seeing Hearing Smelling Tasting and Feeling so he has provided suitable Objects for all those several Faculties and does allow us to Gratify our selves therewith For it is good and comely for one to Eat and to Drink and to enjoy the Good of all his labour that he taketh
Knowledge of God and of our selves and of our Duty to him is the Eye of the Soul whereby alone it can see its Way and steer its Course safely towards Heaven Whereas on the other side Ignorance of God and Religion is the same in the Mind as Blindness in the Eye and therefore as a Blind man may with the greatest Ease be drawn aside into Pits and over Rocks to his Downfal and Destruction and it is next to impossible he should ever get safe to his Journeys End so an Ignorant Man in Religious Matters must needs be an easy Prey to Satan and False Deceivers and he cannot possibly tell how to steer his Course safe towards Heaven but must almost necessarily suffer Ship-wrack of Body and Soul in Hell So that this Policy of the Devil in Corrupting the Understanding and Reason of Man by putting him upon curious Enquiries and a sinful Experiment in order as he pretended to enlarge his Knowledge but in reallity with a design to draw over his Soul a thick Cloud of Ignorance that so he might lead him blindfold into into any Sin and Misery is a Depth of Satan that was and still is most Fatal and Destructive to our Innocence and to our Happiness And this therefore is another Wile of Satan's This therefore another Wile of Satan's which must be carefully avoided which you must also carefully avoid You must above all things Beware of ever making Experiments of the Pleasures of Sin vainly deceiving your own Souls with the Expectations that having once known what is in 'em you will the more Abhor'em for the future Few of those who do make such sinful Experiments do afterwards return to a sound and sober Sense of things Not that they find any reason to stick to those Courses but because the ways of Sin are meer Mazes which once Enter'd into are hardly got out of and because Sin often committed does at length scar the Conscience and drives away the Holy Spirit and so the wretched Sinner becomes utterly Ignorant of God's Ways and Happiness therein And in their Ignorance what Pits of Destruction are there which Satan cannot draw them into You must therefore I say above all things endeavour as to Expel all Ignorance of Divine Things out of your Minds so the great Causes thereof of Satan's Contrivance namely Curiosity after vain and unprofitable Things which will divert you from what does infinitely more concern you viz. The good State of your Souls and you must carefully beware of Experimentally knowing Sin the Commission and Acquaintance with which will draw a thick Cloud of Ignorance over your Minds as has been spoke And hereby you will also Renounce and Defeat another considerable Temptation and Wile of Satan's to draw us into a Course of Sin III. 〈◊〉 Bribing 〈◊〉 Affectiâ—◠〈◊〉 with â—â—ething â—est our â—rts and â—her than â—blige and 〈◊〉 which will comâ— anything 〈◊〉 is Evil. A Third of those First and more general Methods of Satan's Temptations whereby he did in the Beginning and does to this Day Inveigle the greatest Part of Mankind into many a sin Is by bribing their Affections with something that is nearest their Hearts and rather than disoblige and lose which they will commit any thing that is Evil. Thus he did Tempt Adam to partake of the forbidden Fruit by the sollicitations of his Wife Eve Gen. 3.4.6 Adam must needs have Lov'd his Wife Eve above all Things and even equally with himself she being Bone of his Bone and Flesh of his Flesh Gen. 2.23 And Satan therefore if he could make sure to his Party such a Favourite what might he not obtain of him He knew it and therefore he Tempted Eve first and by her Importunity gain'd the Consent of Adam and so he also Transgrest â—d bywhatâ—â— we most â—â—e our Afâ—â—ions upon 〈◊〉 he still â—â—eigle us to 〈◊〉 what is â—â—bidden And the same is also still his Method to Ruine us If there be any thing which we do particularly place our Affections upon he will be sure to Inveigle us by the Perswasions of that to do the forbidden Thing If Achan once begins to set his Heart upon the Wedge of Gold and the goodly Babylonish Garment then tho' it be an Accursed Thing he will put the Discovery of it to the Venture If Gehazi once begin to hanker after the Talent of Silver and the Two Changes of Raiment that shall put him upon Lying and Cheating to obtain them And the love of Money is the root of all Evil we are told 1 Tim. 6.10 And the like may be said of any thing else whatever is our Darling shall be his Instrument to Tempt us And therefore it does nearly concern us as we will preserve our selves free from the Danger of Satan and all his snares to have a Jealous Eye upon what we do most love that it do not Entice us into Sin by his Art in managing of it â—nd thereâ—â—e our Saâ—ur would â—â—ve us bear â—â—t Indiffeâ—â—cy of Afâ—â—tion toâ—â—rds our â—â—arest Relaâ—â—ns as to be â—â—le to Forâ—â—e them â—â—d their Inâ—â—ests raâ—â—er than â—od And therefore does our Saviour Caution us in such unusual Terms against Loving too much our very nearest Relations telling us That if any one come to him and Hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be his Disciple Luk. 14.26 that is he would have us to take care we bear that Indifferency of Affection towards even our nearest Relations as to be able to Forsake them and their Interests which they and the World will count Hating of them rather than God and lose his Favour for that otherwise if we set our Hearts too much upon them they will prove a dangerous Snare to us and a Man's greatest Enemies as to his real Injury and Hurt will be those of his own House and Family because he does most Love them It is a very great Temptation to be too warmly Affected towards any thing on this side Heaven Satan will be sure to Tempt us thereby if he can to Set our Affections not on things Above but on things of the Earth so contrary to what we are commanded Col. 3.2 We must therefore cautiously Beware least he Attack us on that side Lastly by â—iting their Lusts Appetites after the forbidden Fruit by proposing the fairest Objects and most delicious Dainties to their Senses Fourthly And Lastly to compleat the Rebellion of Man from God and to render the Apostacy of our First Parents such as should Reflect the greatest Dishonour upon our Maker Satan did excite their Lusts and Appetites also after the forbidden Fruit by proposing the fairest Objects and the most delicious Dainties to their Senses And when the Woman saw that the Tree was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eye she took of the Fruit thereof and did Eat and gave also unto her Husband with her and
be What shall be done in this Case Why Thirdly Truly when it thus happens to you that your Employment and necessary Occasions draw you forth into the World that which you have then to do is to refuse to Conform your selves to the Manners of such Company But Thirdly when Employment and necessary Occasions draw Men forth in to the World they must refuse to Conform themselves to the Manners of ill Company First By discountenancing their Profaneness and Riot But First you must with all wariness and circumspection watch lest framing your selves to the Humours of profane Persons you countenance and encourage 'em in what is sinful and wicked and so partake with 'em in their Sins and make their Guilt your own Nay but on the contrary you must at least-wise by a pious and discreet Behaviour and by shewing a dislike and uneasiness at their Hellish Talk discountenance the Folly of those that do thus Offend II. By diverting 'em by useful Discourse from both Secondly You must not fail to do what you can to divert the Company you happen amongst from Riot and Excess and from vicious and filthy Talk by drawing 'em with what Dexterity possible into more manly Discourse and into a more Christian sober rational Conversation III. If all Methods fail by openly Reproving them But Thirdly if after all if all these wise and modest Methods will not do but on they will go and good Sense must give way to such unsavoury Entertainment Why then then there is no help but you must boldly and bravely Rebuke their impudent Folly and openly Reprove it For why You must consider that you have Listed your selves in your Baptism To do this Service to God we are particularly Listed in our Baptism the Souldiers of Jesus Christ and no faithful Souldier will patiently hear his General abus'd his Honour trampled upon his Commands slighted and scorn'd but will stoutly stand up in Vindication of him and his Orders As you will not therefore be accounted in the Day of Judgment such as have Deserted the Great Captain of our Salvation Jesus Christ you must not stand by and tamely suffer profane Wretches to dishonour God's Holy Name and Word by their unsavoury Oaths and Speeches and you must not cowardly permit 'em to Brag of their Contemptuous breaking of his sacred Laws without Rebuking their Wickedness and stoutly standing up in Defence of him and them We shall be much discouraged from this by Men. You must expect I will own it to meet with but rude Entertainment for such your Fidelity to your great Master You shall be sure to be accounted Fools Mad and Rude for your Pains And it is odds but you shall be reproacht as Hypocrites that would fain seem Better than others but can privately be as Bad as they But have infinite Encouragements to such Fidelity from God But consider the more you suffer for the Honour of your Lord the more like good Souldiers you behave your selves and the better he will reward you Consider what a glorious Thing it is to be Evil spoken of for Well-doing Blessed are ye when Men shall Revile you and say all manner of Evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven Matth. 5.11 12. Consider your Saviour and Leader who suffer'd worse Reproaches and The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant his Lord if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his Houshold Matth. 10.24 25. Consider that a Christian must not fear the Face of any Man but must suffer Martyrdom it self in the Cause of Christ if call'd out to it Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but fear him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell ver 28. Nay consider lastly that this Standing up resolutely for the Honour of God and Religion is the next Degree to Martyrdom and will be rewarded like it It is call'd a Confessing of God before Men and on the other side a fearing and forbearing to appear in His behalf a Denying of him and consider what our Saviour declares concerning such who do so Confess or Deny him Whosoever shall Confess me before Men him will I Confess before my Father which is in Heaven but whosoever shall Deny me before Men him will I also Deny before my Father which is in Heaven Matth. 10.32 33. So much it concerns you to refuse Conformity to the Evil Company of the World And so much for this time THE Eighteenth Lecture First That I should Renounce the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanity of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh THAT which I am now upon is to Forewarn you against the Temptations of the wicked World by shewing you the dangerous Ones you shall meet withal from the Wicked Men of the World and in what Sence and how far you must Renounce both them and their wicked ways of Tempting others to Sin This I have already done as to their Evil Examples and Evil Company and have deliver'd these Instructions to you that by God's Help may I hope be sufficient to prevent your being infected by the Poison of either But the wicked Men of the World have other ways of Tempting Men to Sin and what they are and how bravely you must Resist them I am next to declare unto you III. Flattery a great Temptation to Sin Thirdly Then amongst the greatest Temptations proceeding from Evil Men we may deservedly reckon their Flatteries Now the Flatterer is One who observing the general Self-love and Pride of Mankind who cannot endure Reproof or any thing that shews a Dislike of what they say or do does compose himself to Admire and Extol or at least-wise to Approve as Well-done very bad Actions or at best such as if Good in themselves are but indifferently Perform'd The Ground of his Flattery I say is That immoderate Self-love The Ground thereof our own immoderate Self-love he observes Natural to most Men whereby they do extravagantly esteem and admire their own Performances and can see no Defects therein And therefore whoever shall endeavour to discover their Faults tho' in never so Prudent a manner to any of these Self-admirers he is presently lookt upon as One that either envies his Abilities and good Qualities or as St. Paul was to the foolish Galatians He is therefore become his Enemy because he tells him the Truth Gal. 4.16 And now the Flatterer observing this predominant Humour in him puts on the Vizard of a Friend And composes himself to Admire and Extol or at least-wise to Approve as Well-done his very bad Actions or at best such as if Good in themselves are very indifferently Perform'd The Flatterer's care is to Please not to Profit him to whom he pretends to be a Friend to make a Prey of
the Understanding and Reason and do carry the Will into Slavery to ' em I will take the whole Frame of this our depraved Nature in pieces that so viewing that Corruption which residing in every of the Faculties and Powers thereof renders all of 'em so many sinful Lusts of the Flesh we may be better able to Renounce each of those sinful and fleshly Lusts And First let us consider that Corruption which Resides in the Mind and renders it Fleshly and consequently the Motions even of the Intellectual part of our Nature no better than sinful Lusts of the Flesh The sinful Lusts of the Fleshly Mind what And our Understanding alas which should be full of Divine Knowledge such as may be a Lamp unto our Feet and a Light unto our Paths is in the Unregenerate Man full of Vanity Ignorance of and Prejudice against Divine Truths The Unregenerate Man neither understands nor seeks after God Rom. 3.11 He likes not to Retain God in his Knowledge or to consider any thing concerning him but is vain in his Imaginations having his foolish heart darkned Rom. 1.21 28. Nay the best Habits of the Mind in the Unregenerate Man are Corrupt having the Vnderstanding darkn'd being Alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that is in them Eph. 4.18 And hence it comes to pass that whereas the great and proper Appetite of the Mind is after Knowledge an Appetite which God hath put into the Soul of Man and so a thing Beautiful and Good This very desire of Knowledge becomes a sinful Lust of the Fleshly Mind in several Cases particularly in these following viz. when either we misplace our Desires of Knowledge upon wrong Objects or when we do immoderately study to be exquisitely skill'd in Humane tho' Lawful Arts and Sciences to the Neglect and Contempt of Divine Knowledge And Lastly when out of Pride Prejudice and contradiction to all sacred Truths we set up our own Fleshly Imaginations and Reasonings against the Spiritual Notions that are dictated to us And accordingly such our Appetites or Desires even of Knowledge it self must be Renounced as so many sinful Lusts of a Fleshly Mind And first we must Renounce the Desires of Knowing wrong Objects that is we must not Gratifie but Mortifie our Desires of Knowing such Things which are either Hurtful to be known 1 When we are curious to know Things which are either Hurtful to be Known or are not proper for Man to know Now as to this we are to consider that there is a certain Distemper of Mind called Curiosity which as it is of like Nature so it is of full as hurtful and Mischievous Effects to the Mind as that Distemper is to the Body which stirs up Persons to eat Chalk or Coals or Trash or whatever affords either none at all or a very ill Nourishment Such is the Curiosity of Knowing Evil which was the thing that ruin'd our first Parents and afterwards Solomon and since him many other Persons Such are they who have a great Desire to taste those Pleasures which are in Sin and by Tasting of 'em their Minds are defil'd and their Morals Corrupted and it is seldom that they do ever after return to have a right Judgment of Good or Evil. Thus hurtful is the Knowledge of some things so that it is much better to be Ignorant thereof than to know ' em Again there are others whose Curiosity gives 'em a strange Itch to know Hidden Things such as are not proper for Man to know Or not proper for Man to know as the Decrees of Predestination and the Counsels of God's Will which is the Ark that no Mortal Eye ought to look into And many are wonderfully Inquisitive to learn the Future Events of Kingdoms and States and of their own and others private Fortunes And therefore it is that they are so apt to give heed to every pretended Prophecy and thô few are so very wicked as to Consult Evil Spirits themselves by Magical Arts yet Multitudes will make no scruple to Resort to Fortune-tellers and Conjurers and those that do consult 'em or are reputed to do thô it be an Impiety so severely threatned Deut. 18.11 12. But all Curious Enquiries whatever into the Secrets of God's Providence are to be Renounc'd by us Christians as being the Gratifications only of a sinful Curiosity Secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are Reveal'd unto us and our Children for ever that we may do all the words of his Law Deut. 29.29 â— When we do â—mmoderately â—tudy to be Exquisitely Skill'd in whatever Humane Arts and Sciences to the Neglect or Contempt of Divine Knowledge 2. We must Renounce that as a sinful Lust of the Fleshly Mind which improportionably to the true worth of things is more desirous to furnish it self with the Knowledge of what concerns only this Mortal Life than with the Knowledge of those Divine Truths which direct us to Life Everlasting Now this is Life Eternal or that Knowledge which leadeth and directs us to Life Eternal That we know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. 17.3 But alas such is the Folly of the Carnally and Worldly wise that most Persons do neglect the Knowledge of God and the Christian Religion as if it were little worth when certainly in the end there is nothing will stand us in that stead as this sort of Knowledge Some there are whose whole search is for the Causes and Cures of Bodily Distempers and yet alas all is but Guess and Conjecture and an ordinary Malady not very seldom baffles the most Learned Physician and he sits down heavy in Disgrace and Disappointment But the Knowledge of God and Religion if duly apply'd never fails to Cure the Soul of all its Infirmities nor will it fail to fill the Mind with the Sweetest Comforts and Satisfactions Others you shall have who desire and care for nothing more than good Skill in the Laws of their Countrey whereby they may raise themselves good Estates in this World but alas such Knowledge can only serve a present Interest but by the Knowledge of our Christianity we may be able to provide our selves Bags that wax not old Eternal in the Heavens Some are wholly bent upon Merchandize and Trade but when the most Skilful Pilot shall split upon the Rocks or be foundred in the Sands he who has Heaven in his Eye may steer his Course without danger through the roughest Billows of Adverse Fortune And others there are who seem to aim at no higher Knowledge than how to Till their Land and feed their Cattle and when after all the Crop fails the most painful Husbandman he who knows the Laws of Christianity need not fear a joyful and a plentiful Harvest so excellent and useful is Divine Knowledge above all other Arts and Sciences Not that I would cast a Disparagement upon them they are the Gift of God and useful