18 Punishments dreadfel and sudden Pag. 19 Flood Fire and Brimstone Sword Loss of Kingdoms c. and what exceeds them all eternal Death Pag. 19 20 21 CHAP. IV. Of the chastity of Marriage and of the purity of a Single Life Pag. 23 68 Marriage very honourable compared to that of Christ with his Church Pag. 24 Many degrees of Conjugal chastity ibid. Some abstain for a shorter time upon the account of some Solemn Devotion Communicating c. Pag. 24 25 Some longer for good ends also Pag. 25 26 Some their whole life by consent for the better serving of God Pag. 26 27 Of a Single Life's being 1st more pure than chast Marriage it self Pag. 27 28 29 2ly Freer from Worldly distractions c. Pag. 29 30 More sensible of God's presence Pag. 34 The Gift of Continency attainable by all sincere endeavourers Pag. 35 36 Fitter for Contemplation Pag. 33 36. More Heroical Pag. 37 The reward in Heaven greater ibid. Of the purity of the Soul Pag. 38 The sins more immediately opposed Pride c. with the Remedies Humility c. only barely named ibid. A blind Understanding and perverse Will the causes Pag. 39 Rebellion according to St. Judes Description Pag. 39 40 Some Rules for the preventing and curing the sins of the Flesh Pag. 41 c. CHAP. V. The first Rule of our Affectiens c. Pag. 42 Of th Passion of Love ibid. If wrong placed ruins us Pag. 44. If rightly placed makes us happy ibid. Of the Memory and Imagination Pag. 41 The Store-house of the Soul Pag. 46 When advantageous ibid. When Destructive to us ibid. The outward Senses must be watched Pag. 47 Several ways of getting rid of Temptations from them by meditating upon our Saviour's Passion the 4 last things c. Pag. 48 49 c. CHAP. VI. The Second Rule Of Suggestions Pag. 52 Whence they proceed ibid. What to be done if they tempt to habitual sin Pag. 53 Using external Actions Pag. 54 Delaying the Execution bid Concerning strong resolutions Pag. 53 54 Resolutions Conditional upon a Forfeiture Pag. 56 Resolution of returning and repenting upon a relapse Pag. 58 Telling the Temptation to some other Pag. 60 61 CHAP. VII The third Rule The Occasions of Lust c. to be avoided Pag. 62 1st No making provision for the Flesh to c. ib. Temperance in meat and drink Pag. 63 64 65 c. Frequent fastings ibid. Moderate sleep and sometimes watchings Pag. 66 67 2ly Lewd Company to be avoided Pag. 70 No conversing with such Pag. 71 This for our own security and their good Pag. 73 No eating c. with them when obstinate ibid Cases of Necessity excepted c. Pag. 74 The Church in her Councils and Canons very strict in this matter Pag. 75 Lewd Books also dangerous Companions Pag. 75 Good ones the best Companions in the World Pag. 76 3ly Infamous places to be avoided ibid Whether single houses or whole cities Pag. 77 No cohabiting with lewd Persons ibid. A caution concerning Discourses Pag. 79 80 81 Especially in much Company ibid CHAP. VIII The fourth Rule Of Divine Assistances c. Pag. 82 Three things prenoted ibid. The first Grace given at Baptism Pag. 83 More added upon our using the first well Pag. 85 Of the Grace of Charity or the love of God Pag. 86 87 The force of Spiritual Gifts against the Flesh Pag. 89 How to Experience the good of Christianity ibid. Of frequent Examination of Conscience Pag. 90 The Subtility of the Devil Pag. 92 2ly The means of obtaining divine assistances Pag. 93 1st Prayer Repentance Pag. 93 94 c. 2ly Frequent Communicating Pag. 98 c. The Summ of the whole Pag. 102 Some short Directions and Heads for Meditation c. CHAP. I. OF Meditation its Requisites and how it differs from Contemplation Pag. 105 CHAP. II. Of the Subject of Meditation with Heads for the first Week Pag. 111 CHAP. III. Heads of Meditation for the Second Third and Fourth Weeks Pag. 121 CHAP. IV. Meditations for the Fifth Week Pag. 130 The Letany of Christian Vertues taken out of the Holy Scriptures c. Pag. 139 A CHECK TO DEBAUCHERY 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 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 â—â—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 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 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
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 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 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 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 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 all things which is the only true love and doing every thing to please him 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 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 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 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
the Earth and Sea giving up their Dead and a particular Examination of them according to God's unerring Books which will then be opened Consider 4. The Difference that will then be between the Good and Bad. The Good having Co-operated with God's Grace shall be Cloathed with Glorious Bodies and placed on Christ's Right Hand The Bad not Co-operating with God's Spirit Cloathed with Corruption and placed on Christ's Left Hand And the Consciences and Thoughts of all hearts will be then laid open Reflect What shame confusion will it then be to the Impenitent when out of their own Mouths and Consciences they will be both Accused and Condemned Consider 5. How astonishing it will be to the Wicked to hear the Sentence of the Judge Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire And how joyful to the Righteous to hear Come ye blessed possess the Kingdom prepared for you c. Reflect Make firm Purposes to live well and in vertuous Circumstances and intreat the Judge to be propitious to you and that you may always bear in mind this terrible Judgment and Sentence to escape it which is said to have occasioned the Institution of the severest Order of Christians in the World Saturday Of Hell Consider 1. What a Punishment it would be to be bound Hand and Foot and cast into a hot fiery Furnace there to remain burning and unconsumed tho but for a short time And as every Member of the Body so every Power and Faculty of the Soul receive its peculiar Torment Consider 2. How hard and unsupportable it must needs be to be Slaves to the Devils and Companions of the damned amidst the most exquisit Tortures and incessant Blasphemies and Cursings of Allmighty God Consider 3. How long these Torments will last If after some Thousands of Years there were to be an end it would somewhat lessen them But after an Hundred thousand Years succeeds an Eternity that cannot be measured Reflect How foolish is it to chuse such endless Torments for a transitory Pleasure Endure any Punishments here to avoid them Here cut here burn but save me in the World to come was St. Austin's Prayer Entreat Almighty God that you may be so awed by them whilst living that you may not deserve to experience them when dead Sunday Of the Joys of Heaven Consider 1. The Place and the Company How great Joy it must needs be to inhabit in the City of God the heavenly Jerusalem and converse with the holy Angels and all the Saints which have been from the beginning of the World Who having the same Charity one for another being all filled with the same holy Spirit rejoyce in every ones Good as if it were their own Consider 2. The greatness of the Reward The Body it self will be spiritualized and all its Senses and Powers exalted and adorned with most admirable Gifts And the Soul enabled to see and know God as he is and to love and enjoy him to all Eternity which is the only true Blessedness And though there be far different degrees of Glory yet no Envy but on the contrary Rejoycing See the preceeding Discourse Reflect Give God thanks who hath given you to hope for and made you capable of this Glory and humbly implore him mercifully to preserve you though ungrateful in true Vertue and holy Living that you may at length come to that glorious Place and there praise and magnify him to all Eternity CHAP. III. Heads of Meditation for the Second Third and Fourth Weeks Second Week MOnday Of the Incarnation of our Saviour His leaving the Bosom of his Father and taking upon him Humane Nature Voluntarily and yet by consent of the whole Trinity A Mercy denied to the fallen Angels And a Mystery which the good Angels desired to look into Tuesday Of the Visitation of the ever-Blessed Virgin and the Salutation of the Angel Hail c. Wednesday Of the Nativity of our Lord in a Stable yet honoured with Miracles Thursday Of the Shepherd's Vision the Angels Hymn the coming of the Three Kings by the Guidance of a Star or Angel Friday Of the Offering up of our Saviour in the Temple The Humility of the Mother of our Lord being not obliged to any such Oblation Old Simeon's Prayer Lord now lettest c. He could not die till he had seen the Lords Christ Saturday Our Saviour's Baptism and the Testimony the Father and the Holy Spirit then gave of his Divinity Sunday Of our Lord's Transfiguration and the Consolation the Three Disciples also took therein It is good for us to be here c. The Third Week MOnday Of the Eight Beatitudes the Sum of Christian Perfection placing happiness in things seemingly most contrary to it such as Poverty Persecution c. But yet the true and only way to Blessedness declared to be so by him who is Wisdom it self and who himself also became our Example in sufferings Tuesday Of the Lord's Prayer containing all the good things we are to pray for and all the evils we are to pray against Wednesday Of the Rich Glutton and the ten Virgins The difference between Dives and Lazarus both in this World and the other And between the ten Virgins in the other World notwithstanding their seeming equality in this Thursday Of the Conversion of Mary Magdalene and the Woman of Samaria Both of them great Sinners The former possessed with seven Devils and the latter lived in Fornication But their Repentance was as remarkable as their Sins And their after life as Vertuous as their former had been Vicious Friday Of the Paralytick at the Pool of Bethesda and of the Man born blind Both cured by our Saviour And both afterwards openly Confessed him To leave our sins and follow Christ takes away the Cause of Sin For there is a Lameness and Blindness also in the Soul Saturday Of the Prodigal Son and the Man that fell among Thieves The Prodigal was received by his Father upon his returning and repenting The poor Man fell among Thieves by his leaving his right way Jerusalem for Jericho God for his pleasure the Church for the Company of Thieves and Robbers Reflect Conversion to God's Church and Repentance the only Remedy Sunday Of our Saviour's raising from the Dead Lazarus the Son of the Woman of Naim the Daughter of Jairus One of them was newly dead the second carried out the third three days buried The newly dead immediately upon our Saviour's speaking rose and walked was perfectly cured the rest not so soon Reflect So it fairs with Sinners More difficulty for habituated Sinners to rise to a Life of Grace The Fourth Week MOnday Of the Institution of the Blessed Eucharist He that Eats worthily of this Bread shall live for ever shall overcome his Lusts be filled with Celestial Joys c. But he that Eats unworthily eats his own Damnation if he dies in that condition not discerning the Lord's Body Tuesday Of our Saviour's Passion in General Who it was that suffered The Son of