of that future Judgment and consequently is enough to check and damp the greatest Jollities on this side Hell and though it 's true that it doth not cause the least disturbance in thousands of Men that drink of these stollen waters for men in this Age are as jovial as ever and a Judgment to come frights them no more than an House on fire a Thousand Miles off but sure this is for want of taking the proper way and method which God and Reason doth prescribe and what that way and method is shall be shewn in the following Paragraph 3. How the Prospect of that future Judgment must be managed that it may actually damp and put a stop to these carnal Delights This is to be done no other way but 1. By thinking reflecting and ruminating upon that future Judgment This stands to Reason for except things be made visible to us how shall they move or fright us This future Judgment being out of sight and afar off it must be brought near and set before us and there is no way to do it but by thinking Our Thoughts are the Picture-drawers which make the Land-skip of that Judgment so lively that our Faculties cannot but be signally affected with it These are the Divine Part within us which can make things past and future as present and summon the remotest Objects to become familiar and palpable These are the Glasses in which all that God hath said or promised or threatned becomes visible and with the help of these we may make that Substance which seemed but Air before and condense that into solid Notions which to a carnal Man seemed but Fancy and Wind before These can make us in a manner grasp and feel that which was out of our reach before and make us concern'd about things which we neither see nor hear nor feel with our grosser Organs These can transplant the other World into this and make Eternity appear before us though we live in Tabernacles of Clay To prove this we need only appeal to Experience Behold those pious Souls that take a course contrary to that of the World What makes them afraid of sinning What makes them afraid of running with their Neighbors into Riot What makes them that they dare not do what some of their Carnal Acquaintance and Relations do What makes them mourn What makes them rejoyce in Spirit You see nothing that have reason to mourn for They have a competency they want nothing in the World they have Necessaries and Conveniencies and they prosper in their lawful Undertakings and under some of their greatest Afflictions you see nothing that should make them chearful no outward cause of their Joy but rather all that is about them is an invitation to sorrow and dejection Why They are invisible things that make them mourn and rejoyce and by thinking of them they make them visible and so visible that they are affected with them as much as other men are with Objects that incur into their Senses by thinking they see the Terrors of the Lord and the Affronts they have offered to the Divine Majesty and the Wounds they have given to their own Souls and that makes them weep by thinking they see the Glory that is set before them and the recompence which is promised them and the Right and Title they have to it and that makes their Soul rejoyce So then by thinking this future Judgment may be seen and if it be seen in any lively colours there is no Sinner so stout no Man so perverse no Creature so dull and stupid but it will startle him and put Wormwood into his Cup. When I eat or drink or whatever I do the last Trump sounds in mine Ears and I think I hear the terrible Voice of the Arch. Angel Arise ye dead and come to Judgment saith St. Hierom These Thoughts made him eat and drink with great moderation These brought a holy Fear upon him in all his Actions These kept him from going beyond the Bounds God had set him These struck Seriousness into him in all places These made him as circumspect in the Market-place as if he had been at Church and as devout in the Street as if he had stood at the High Altar And therefore I do not wonder at that Hermit that he became so serious a Man as Antiquity reports him who carried a little Book about him consisting only of four Leaves in which he was always seen reading and after reading meditating in the first Leaf was expressed Christ's Passion and what that Darling of Mankind suffered for poor Mortals during his abode in the World in the second was represented the Process of the future Judgment with the Terrors and Consternations that guilty men will be in at that time in the third were described the Glories of Paradise and of that third Heaven which all holy Souls shall enter into there to possess the Inheritance of the Saints in light in the fourth was drawn to the life the Picture of Hell and of the Miseries which shall await the stubborn and impenitent in the next life These four Leaves were soon read over but they afforded infinite Matter for Thoughts and Meditations and by these his Soul was so warmed that he cared not what became of him here so he might but enjoy the promised Glory and that Life and Immortality Christ had brought to light by the Gospel So true is that Saying of St. Chrysosiom There is no Man that thinks much of Hell that will ever fall into it as indeed there is no Man who makes light of it that will ever escape it For as it is among men they that are afraid of the Penalties of the Law seldom or never feel them for their Fear makes them shun those Actions which deserve them This keeps them from Theft and Rapine from Murder and Adultery from Burglary and Wrong from Violence and Oppression and consequently from the punishments the Law inflicts in such Cases The Plagues and the Stripes they fear make them cautious and whatever their inclination may be the Rods and Axes they fear restrain them whereas those that are regardless of the Mulct bring it upon themselves so it is here the frequent thinking of it is the best Antidote against the Terrors of that future Judgment If the Ninivites had not feared their overthrow they had certainly been overthrown and how could they have feared it if they had not thought of it If the men that lived before the Flood had thought of it and been afraid they would not have been drowned nor would the People of Sodom have been consumed by Fire if they had taken this course It 's a great Misfortune not to think of the fulfilling of Gods Threatnings for he that thinks not of it of all men will be the first that shall have woful experience of it It is reported of Agatho That in his last Sickness falling into a Trance for three days together he lay with his Eyes fixed
shall speak they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment saith Christ Matth. 12. 36. Not having repented of things of this nature either through unbelief or carelesness when these points shall come to be examined and thy Soul interrogated upon these Particulars and so many too it stands to reason that it must necessarily cause very great astonishment for these things were most certainly forbid in that Gospel thou didst profess and that notwithstanding as if such things had never been spoken of thou shouldst slight them and undervalue them and not think them worth thy care to shun them what sad reflexions will this Examination cause In vain dost thou hope that Eagles catch no Flies and that God will never mind such small trivial and inconsiderable Errors He that minded these smaller Faults as they seem to carnal men and took notice of them in this life may justly be supposed resolved to call men to an account for them in that solemn Day of Reckoning for indeed God's Proceedings here are an Emblem of his process in Judgment hereafter Eating of the forbidden Fruit in Paradise seem'd but an inconsiderable oversight yet did God curse the very Earth for that Fact made it bring forth Briars and Thorns for the future condemned Adam to the eating of Bread in the Sweat of his Brows and threatned the Woman his Partner in the Error to multiply her pain and sorrows It doth not appear from Moses that the Children of God or Professors of the true Religion did any more than marry with the Daughters of the prophaner Crew a small fault a brutish Man would think yet was the Insolence lash'd and the inordinate Fire quencht with a Deluge of Waters Lot's Wife looks back to Sodom out of curiosity perhaps a venial Folly natural to women it seems to be and no more yet for doing so she is turn'd into a Pillar of Salt Achan as a Souldier and that sort of men we know live much upon Prey takes in a time of War a golden Wedge and Babylonian Mantle no great matter one would think yet God orders him to be stoned Uzzah out of his over-care that the Ark might not fall lays hold on 't to support it yet for so doing is struck with Death immediately the Prophet who came from Judah to Prophecy against the Altar of Bethel in suffering himself to be persuaded to eat Bread by another Prophet who pretended Visions too to ones thinking committed no great Crime yet God revenged his Disobedience with a violent Death for a Lion sent by God slew him Moses grows impatient at the Waters of Meribah Who would not have done so that had to deal with so stubborn a People yet that Act of Mistrust and Impatience cost him the loss of the Land of Canaan he had so long desired to behold the People of Israel murmured in the Wilderness a thing that People might easily do who were kept so long in a barren Desart without seeing an end of their Travel yet of that vast number of Six hundred thousand Men not one enters into the Promised Land save Caleb and Joshua Ananias and Sapphira seemed to be guilty of no great Misdemeanor for they were content to give half of their Estate to the poor but kept the other to themselves yet is God so angry that he punishes their violating of their Vow to give all with sudden Death Go now Sinner and fancy that God will not call thee to an account for Faults the World makes nothing of because he doth not do it here he will certainly do it hereafter and the Examples of the Bible are Items that he will do so It 's no matter whether the thing in which the offence is committed seem inconsiderable or no the disobedience is all in all if God commands thee to avoid a thing that 's trivial it s the easier Task to do according to his Will and because it was so easie to obey and thou wouldst not it s that which makes thy disobedience grievous and heinous tho' the matter of the offence seems mean and contemptible Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and Stubborness is as Iniquity and Idolatry said Samuel in a case much like this where the thing done by Saul was so far from seeming ill that it appeared like a Work of Mercy and an Act of Gratitude for he spared the best of the Sheep and brought home Agag the King alive in Triumph yet this excused not the Fact but rather aggravated it for hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices as in the obeying the Voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than Sacrifice and to hearken than the Fat of Rams as the Prophet tells him v. 22. This confirms the Method of Christ's proceeding in the last Day and indeed how could that Judgment be perfect if the lesser as well as the greater Errours were not to be accounted for and mens disobedience against the lesser as well as the greater Commands of the Gospel was not to be manifested and proclaimed before the World And though this is chiefly to be understood of men who die without sincere Repentance yet it is more than probable that even the sins of those who were justified and sanctified will be brought to light and discovered before the vast Assembly that shall appear before the Throne of God in that Day not that they need fear any hurt or disadvantage that will arise from that examination and publication but by these means both the Glory of God and the Glory of these true Converts will appear more illustrious the Glory of God who hath snatch'd such Persons like Brands out of the Fire pull'd them out of the miery Clay in which they were ready to perish and taken them out of the Devils Clutches than which there cannot be a greater sign of the power and goodness of God and who sees not how much it will be for the Credit and Honour of the Saints themselves For to let the World see first the Bands and Ropes that once held them and how like Samson they broke them all and carried away the gates of Gaza and escaped out of Hell in despight of all the Devils that raged and stormed and domineer'd there What can be said more for their renown and glory What hurt doth the penitent Mary Magdalen receive by the Evangelists recording or our speaking of her former Whoredoms No more will the revealing of holy Mens faults and errors in the last Day eclipse but rather advance their goodness because they extricated themselves from the Snare of the Fowler and generously rouzed themselves from their fatal Slumber and in despight of Temptations would press towards the Mark of endless glory Their Errors being published with their true Repentance and Change of Life justifies God in accepting of them while he refuses others and proclaims their Wisdom in chusing the better part and condemns the impenitent and discovers how justly they are left
common conversation I do not doubt but that writing things obscene and filthy and undecent and contrary to good manners and whereby others may be scandalized and either drawn into sin or harden'd in it is as bad as speaking of them Without all peradventure a man may be witty without being profane and exercise his fancy to the edification of readers without launching out into things at which Nature and Religion teaches us to blush and I need only put you in mind of what the incomparable Mr. Cowley saith in his Preface to his works speaking of the admirable subjects that the Scripture affords for the exercise of Wit and Poetry It is not without grief saith he and indignation that I behold that Divine science employing all her inexhaustible riches of wit and eloquence either in the wicked and beggarly flattery of great persons or the unmanly idolizing of foolish Women or the wretched affectation of scurril laughter or at best on the confused and antiquated dreams of senseless fables and metamorphoses As for reading of modern Plays he that considers what an aversion from seriousness and better things the reading of them causes in the younger sort will find no great reason to encourage them in such trifles but rather to disswade them all he can from studies of this nature and though I believe that a grave serious man whose senses are throughly exercised to discern betwixt good and evil may lawfully peruse them to see the humour of the Age and to know how to obviate and confute the debaucheries and errors which are growing and tending to the ruin of good manners as skillful Physitians may meddle with poison to make antidotes of it yet to persons whose understandings are slippery and weak whose passions are stronger than their reason and who have already too great a tincture of sensuality and consequently may easily encrease the ill humour by such divertisements they ought to be debarr'd from them by those who have the care of their education These Sir are my thoughts of the Query you proposed to me and tho' the Letter be somewhat long yet I hope the arguments I have laid down are not impertinent That they are liable to exceptions I question not being sensible that it 's easier to cavil than to answer and where men are resolved to maintain the vain humour they have imbibed from conversation they will always have something to say against the most sober truths and assertions The drift and design of the Gospel is certainly on our side if any be fond of preferring the dictates of flesh and blood or the suggestions of the world before the mortifying lessons of our crucified Redeemer all that we can say is this that we would have healed Babylon but she would not be healed I shall only add my wishes and prayers that what you have read here may be a means to bring you to a noble sense of a better World and convince you that the way to attain a future bliss is very different from that which leads to sensual delights and satisfactions Our natures are generally too prone to gratifie the flesh and we had not need add fewel to the fire but to do all we can to quench that which is already kindled that after our self denials here we may reign with the self-denying Jesus with whom we cannot live hereafter except we suffer with him here and endure the loss of the pleasures of sin for a season nor sit with him in his Throne except we continue with him in his temptations here And I am perswaded that did you live more in Heaven and gave your self time to meditate on the things which are not seen Did you incorporate those everlasting joys with your mind and riveted the belief of that endless bliss into your very spirits that your faith might be the substance of things unseen and the evidence of the treasures hoped for you would despise these shews and glories of the world as much as you do value and esteem them now and would be so far from stopping your ears against the reasons I have given that you would study and invent more to controll the vulgar errors of mankind Get but once a true rellish of spiritual things and you will look between anger and scorn on these trivial objects admired by the vulgar And why should not you raise your soul above the bubbles of external pomp whatever difficulty there may be in the attempt the fruit that grows on the Tree at last will sufficiently recompence your labour Our Souls are active or unactive according as we take pains with them and though there be some irksomness in swimming against the stream of carnal inclinations yet if the Hill be once conquered the serene Air that is on the top of it the gentle Gales the glorious Sun-shine the sweetness of Rest that crowns all the Hardships will make you bless the day that you begun to mind the things which belong unto your Peace And that you may do so is the unfeigned Desire of SIR Your daily Orator at the Throne of Mercy c. And having hitherto discoursed of the Nature of sensual Delights and Recreations and how far a Christian is bound to deny himself in them upon the account of a future Judgment to compleat these Meditations it will be necessary to draw some useful Inferences from the Premises INFERENCES 1. This clears what the Wise Man says Eccles. 7. 2. That 't is better to go to the House of Mourning than to the House of Feasting So sad a Prospect as that of a future Judgment is one would think were enough to hush all Mirth and Jollity whatsoever however we may rationally conclude that it 's enough to turn the Byass and make the Soul have less Affection for Mirth than Sorrow and Severity of Behaviour The antient Heathens make use of this Apologue Sorrow and Mirth presented themselves one day before Jupiter and desired him to determine which of them two was best and most to be chosen Sorrow pleaded That it made Men pensive and serious caused them to think brought them to a due Sense of their own Frailty and a profound Veneration of the Divine Majesty made them compassionate and tender-hearted besides many other Advantages the dull World took no notice of Mirth on the other side alledged that it cheer'd the Spirits made them lively and fit for Service enabled them to do great and noble Things made Men good Company and belov'd of their Neighbours beguil'd the tedious Hours of Humane Life and was an Emblem of the Joys the Gods themselves were drunk withall Jupiter having heard them plead a considerable time and weigh'd the Reasons on both sides found the decision of the Case so difficult that he dismist them without any other Answer but this That he could not tell But what a Heathen Oracle could not resolve a Christian guided by the Word of Life may soon determine and he that believes the tremendous things the