tanta sit voluptas quid si potiar in English if there be such pleasure in the thought will there not be more if the sin be bodily committed yea thou thy self knowest thou hast thus chopt Logick and framed this kinde of Syllogism which when it hath gotten the consent of seduced reason then our fleshly lust hath brought us to that haft that we want nought but opportunity to do all the evill bodily And thus I have led you on and let you see Lusts march through that Isle the Soul and in a mysterie how far our Lust leads us on to do evill 1. It turns our heart to it The Collect 2. Makes us like it 3. Then consent to it 4. Then dwell in that delight 5. Then stray from God and dote on it 6. Then in heart resolve upon it hofaciam I will do it Thus farre as saith S. James every man is led away by his own concupiscence and inticed to do evill A misery incident to all men living a misery from which in full we cannot be delivered during this life a misery none is morefearfull yet the least suspected a misery is the root of all bodily abominations A misery which let it reinforce us all to fall to prayer and pray to God not to lef sin reign in our mortall bodies that we should obey it in the lusts thereof Second Case of Conscience is this 2. Case to be rightly informed what counter-works had need be made to prevent lusts march through the heart of man at leastwise to prevent its march in full force I have counter-works in readinesse agianst each of lusts six daies march and first against turning the heart towards evill 1. Meditate a look back again may be a break fortune remember Lots wife 2. Meditate every turn from God towards sin is a turn face to hell and who that 's wise would part with so fair an object for so foul a fight 3. Mediatate every turn to sin is like a gap made in the vineyards fence like a close leak in a ship at sea which sinks the vessell soul suddenly 4. Meditate no sooner lookest thou back to sin but Devill steals into thy soul 5. Meditate Hist sin is like the * Aspedigorgon serpent bred in the Temple of Lucea which was the present death of him turn'd his eye to it Now by these meditations like so many strong works you may stop lusts first daies march I mean turning heart towards Sin But say this first daies march be made and lust rise up to make the second daies march I have counter-works to stop lusts second daies march through soul I mean preventions against liking sin 1. Meditate sin is the Beares birth shapelesse an ugly monster never of Gods making this will prevent liking it 2. Meditate the more thou fallest in love with earth the lesse God in heaven is loved O ye cannot love God serve God and Mammon know 't one Dalila is a damnable draw off from our duties of Christianity 3. Meditate it is sins sweet brings a smart and the end of these things is death 4. Meditate if I like sin I am in the minde that none is in that 's good God threw it out of heaven spurn'd it out of Paradise and shall I take pleasure in that my God is and that irreconcilably displeased with God forbid But say this second daies march be made and lust rise up to make the third daies march I have Counter-works to stop Lusts third daies march through the soul I mean preventions against consenting to evill 1 Meditate every consent is a stab and wounds to the heart 2. Meditate how thou of a freeman art made a bond and slave and led captive by consenting to thy lust 3. Meditate how Eve fared after she had consented she lost her Eden 4. Meditate consent makes conscious and before thou actuate the sin makes thee liable to the sentence of death and damnation But say this third daies march be made and lust rise up to make the fourth daies march I have Counter-works to stop lusts fourth daies march through soul I mean preventions against letting evill thoughts be welcome long into the heart which is the fashioning of sin in womb of the soul 1. Meditate when sins birth is thy death is thou givest sin a being and it deprives thee of being a Saint in Heaven 2. Meditate that which thou bearest in the womb of thy soul his name is Esau who for a messe of pottage will wave the heavenly inheritance 3. Meditate thou hast him in thy womb will root out thy name 4. Meditate the welcome into the world of this one will eat thee out of house and harbour leave thee not a bit of bread in the strength whereof to walk up to the heavenly Horeb. But say this fourth daies march be made and lust rise up to make the fist daies march I have counterworks to stop lusts fist daies march through soul I mean preventions against heart-wandring after sin 1. Meditate sin is that Ignis fatuus that flame sent from hell to lead the will and make thee lose the way to heaven 2. Meditate the longer thou padlest sins steps the further thou hast to thy journeys end I mean further off from heaven 3. Meditate white thy thoughts wander after sin thou art looking for one to be thy Butcher O was there ever madnesse like this for men to run upon their own death 4. Meditate the pursue of sin is the turn-back of grace and to goe back to Egypt is to turn back of Canaan But say lust hath had leave to make five dayes march through heart and by this mean made thee turn to evill The Col. like of it assent to it dwell upon the thought of it as also thy soul to gad and wander after the thought of thy sinne Know 't and to thy comfort I have yet counterworks to beat lust back and stop him from his sixt daies march in which if with-held he is neither absolute conqueror nor thou wholly overcome These counterworks are so many gracious preventions fortified with Canons of proof heavenly Meditations to beat lust back from hoc faciam resolving to act the evill 1. Meditate upon it thou art going down the lowest rung of damnation save one and that is doing the sin step one step further and thou art in an hell upon earth 2. Meditate how soul is evill already and as though there were not enough ill must I go make all worse misuse both soul and body and make them a den of theeves a cage for unclean birds 3. Meditate that the punishment first threatned was for bodily acting evill witnesse that Gen. 2.27 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death O how great a preservative would this be to keep us from doing evill bodily to consider it is that height of evill that duplicated sin of soul with body procures Gods heavie judgements For my own part
The Avowry I am resolved by the help of my God to raise up my spirituall fortifications lest sinfull lust in his march make an havock and as he is entred in so utterly overthrow all in this isle of man 3. Case The third Case How may I be sure of it I have stood out and resisted the evill of Temptation Three waies 1. If thou flie from it thy departure doth depose thou hast got the better our gallants say to stand to it is manlike the gracious they say to betake thee to thy heels and run from harm catching by temptation is Saint-like and that thou maist count such counsell no disgrace this is given in charge by Generall Paul 1 Cor. 6.18 Flee fornication A Saint-like retreat from fin makes me a Soveraign over all the unruly passions of my soul 2. Thou shalt be sure thou hast triumpht by causing thy temptation to give ground and by laying load on it and cudgelling it with Scriptum est or sio dixit Dominus 3. Resistit qui non consentit he resists who never consents who if so weak he cannot run from the temptation or it so strong he cannot force it in the field to flye yet know 't good Christian thy stand out against it saith thou hast quit thy self like a man and let it be as a cordiall to comfort thy wounded conscience And now to comprise all in a line I am resolved either my self to depart from the evill of Temptation The Avowry with the Collect. or else by the aid of my God to make it depart and in haste from me or however by Gods good assistance not to assent but to stand out in the day of triall We stand need of two graces The Graces two to put up this petition Timidity Prospicacity Timidity or a religious fear Prospicacity or a quick divine foresight Timidity to walk on warily Prospicacity to look to our waies Timidity which doubts the danger Prospicacity which spies it out when we have faln into it It is Timidity sees nought yet fears all It is Prospicacity sees all that occasions all the fear I am resolved to pray my God to give me those two Graces The Avowry with the Collect. both to fear and to cast an eye all over and all to prevent I be not led into Temptation but delivered from Evill Timidicies Character The first Grace given here in Commendum is Timidity which what is it but a godly fear let this grace though no Anabaptist be again Christned and thus cal'd Godly fear this godly fear is no coward yet recoyles no dastand yet dare not wil not on without mature deliberation like the Ram it runs back to give the bigger blow and for a time staies the sooner to stint the war This is the Grace bids fear the worst though it hope the best and forecasts what may happen and weighs the end ere got half way This Grace bids us hold and not be too bold to beware what perill may ensue if we accept of the proster and if such be our works seriously to consider what will be the end of those things It is this godly fear keeps back Gods childe from laying hands on the Devils * Mat. 4. All this wil I give thee Donative and makes him doubt to take lest he lose by getting and shun the greeny shade since sometimes it hath sheltred a poysonous snake yea forbear to taste of the fruit so pleasant to the sight since that sense may be deceived and the purchase be Edens Apple O sins proffers are more pleasant than profitable and seem to content when kill they allure but delude Now this it is hath made me resolve upon it whatsoever pleasing dalliance The Avowry sin motions to my soul to beg of God this Grace Godly Fear for fear I be undone by being led into Temptation Prospicacity or a quick divine foresight is the grace I stand need of Prospicatities Character to be delivered from evill I mean not from the evill of sin but evill of punishment that I fell into or ever I foresaw the other this grace inables me to foresee that I fall not into it I stand in need then of this Grace not so much to discover the income as the end of evill evill hath overtaken all of us and actual evill foresight is out of use and hath no part of imployment about preventing actuated evill already past and committed That then which this grace serves to inform us poor captive Samsons of it is this what wages we shall have payed for grinding in the Philistims common mill of Evill the work was sin and the wages must be death * Sin and Death both these this grace spies the one nigh hand the other a life time off This grace is the eye of the soul and lets us see though a farre off Dives in torments as Dives did Lazarus in Abrahams bosome It eyes as what hath hapned so what is hasting on it stands upon the tower of Jehoram and is the watch man discovers deaths approach Gods wrath and Tophet prepared of old lo the one forewarns and fore armes which strengthens me by the power of my God to take the main pillar of the Philistims * Sin house in my armes and endevour to pull it down before my dying and all lest I fall into the same condemnation though this grace cannot undoe what done yet this foresight sets me to work to take the water-work of * Sin Mera lest my soul be drowned in the deluge of damnation as the Egyptians bodies were in the Red Sea And now since this grace is of this use to discover what harm approaching and by this discovery is able to strengthen our hands to prevent a new supply from joyning with the train-band of sin This is it hath made me resolve upon it to petition the * God King for supply of this grace The Avowry which is of an heavenly force and able to deliver us from evill Two Vices are here prohibited The Vices two Presumption Ignorance Presumption which fears nought Their Parallel Ignorance which knowes nought Presumption as forward as wise Ignorance as blinde as forward It 's that first hath more heart than wit This second more will than can The one leads us on to be intrapt in the Ambush Temptation The other delivers us up into the main battle Evill It is this hath made me resolve upon it The Avowry to beg of God to free me from presumption and ignorance and for this cause in chief that I be not led into Temptation but delivered from Evill Presumptions Character This Vice Pesumption is of an higher spirit than wit comes out like a Worthy but proves a weakling it fears nought though hath no defence and thinks it can bear off all the blowes of Temptation when the blast of an evill thought is able to blow it over a Vice lays us open
highest price like the dunghill cock the precious sone For my own part I am resolved The Avowry to beg of God by the foolishnesse of preaching to expell out of my soul this foolish naturall left this naturall spiritual foolishnesse be my hinderance to do Gods will in Earth as it is in Heaven The second Vice we are warned to banish is spirituall Cowardize Cowardizes Character a childe of the Devils own begetting he dare not * Peter resist the Devil and he will flie from you stand his ground and this his brat is skar'd with every bugbear I wonder a coward got pranking into the heart except to hide him It is this spirituall cowardize in abstracto which hath prevail'd to call back resolution his nigh admittance to the heart and alliance in bloud to all in the Isle of Man makes this weakling thus strong the feebler he is the more potent in power a paradox in nature yet verified for truth How doth this one spirituall Cowardize infeeble the heart stonish the understanding and make will which would do good retreat O experience can teach what harm this one doth a Christian made the seven thousand in Israel hide their heads and when Baal was to be worshipped not a man for God to be known to the Prophet The fear of the arme of man is an enemy to the will of God and his will is little set by when the word of man strikes a terrour O the noise of Gebal and Ammon and Amalek if that daunt down goeth Gods cause A heartlesse proffessor the lesse his heart the stronger is his party to with-let what God would let this Cowardize be billeted in the heart and there quarter and this one will be the death of all the horse * Gods gifts and graces men of Israel they will fall in a swound suddenly retreat and in their retreat get their death-blow But in contempt and scorn of this unchristian-like cowardize which will not go on when God commands this shall be my Motto I weigh not what man can do unto me For this dastard I have a dare and Joshuas I will wounds him to the death For my own part by Gods good assistance The Avowry I am resolved upon it to quit my self like a man lest while I harbour an unmanlike heart my heart fall off to do Gods will in Earth as it is in Heaven A Divine Contemplation upon the Third Petition Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Here I see what I should do but I Lord how I fail in the performance Thou O God hast set me a pattern but I come as far short of the sampler as the Heavens are distant from the Earth I can soon learn to know what I should do all my life is too little to learn to doe what I know O God my God though thou hast given mee an understanding heart yet I finde in me my flesh a perverse will even one who is wonderfully unwilling to do thy will in Earth as it is in Heaven What hast thou left undone to teach me to do thy will The Law of Nature the Law of Moses the Gospell of Christ Jesus they spell and put together thy good will and pleasure Thou hast given me these to teach me Angels to guide me and all to lead me to know and do thy will in Earth as it is in Heaven If I would plead igrance thy unwritten Law in my heart condemns thy written Word the Law and Gospell bear witnesse against me Nor is this all but those my samplers thy Angels shall one day cry to thee to take vengeance on me O how ought my heart to relent when in secret I think upon it what pains thou hast taken and yet how unprofitable a scholar I have been in thy schoole Those to whom thou givest much of them much is expected I have received a large portion of instruction but O the lesson of obedience is not yet taken out Dear Father I confesse my wickednesse in thy presence I pray thee have merey upon me have mercy upon me and after the multitude of thy many mercies in Christ Jesus forgive me all my sins and trespasses O the thought what 's to be done and how it 's to be done assures me I am * he means without mercy undone This is thy Will and these are my Works Was ever light and darknesse truth and falshood more opposite the one to the other Had I but half an eye I might see what will be my end without amendment O thou who delightest not in the death of a sinner heal the disease in my soul my soul is sick to death yet Lord say the word and thy servant shall be healed O thou Physitian of souls give me a potion of faith faith to beleeve and the cure is wrought It cannot be my acting but any beleeving how Christ hath exactly acted my part must make my weak works well and gain them my Gods good liking Let my belief in thee beget a willingnesse in me to do thy will Then my God for Christ his sake will accept of my will for the deed Tack up then my Soul and look up to that brazen Serpent Christ In him and by him thou hast done the deed yet when all is done say it is no morel but Christ who dwelleth in me But if out of Christ thou art out of hopes to do Gods will in Earth as it is in Heaven The naturall man is the impotent man and can neither the Quid nor Quale It 's no marvell for saith S. Paul He perceives not the things of God O my soul while thou art in the state of corrupted nature thou art in an hell of disobedience Let the noise of the Law awake thee the voice of the Gospell allure thee to march out of Egypt out of Sodome out of thy naturall state and condition Soul why standest thou gazing while in Nature nought can be done neither what God wils nor as he wils O thou God of all Spirits create in me a new heart take me out of the old Adam engraffe me in the new make me a branch of that Vine Joh. 15. and I shall bring forth clusters of ⋆ grapes Of my self I have no power to bring forth only in Christ I live and move in an Angelicall sampler of obedience I must go out of my self ere I can get into the footsteps of they Angels Let the Archangel of the Covenant enable my feeble soul to do thy will in Earth as it is in Heaven The fourth Petition THe fourth Petition presents it self before your presence in which a Boon is put up for man to God witnessed while said Give us this day our daily Bread Here I finde one only word needs explaining Bread we want of our wils if we have not Bread every day in our mouthes our head-pieces must now give it harbour that as the materiall bread pleases the palat so the marrow A
Paraphrase upon the petition what we pray for I mean its meaning may satisfie our understanding here we pray for bread that God would give us bread this day bread daily bread our daily bread for substance bread for proportion this day bread for condition such as we use daily for appropriation our daily bread A Review not sell but give not one but us not us here but us all not this meals meat but this daies meat not this daies only but daily not that 's anothers but that 's ours A paradox our need is daily our daily need daily bread the daily bread we need is this day our daily bread this is it we beggers beg of our good Rabboni give us this day our daily bread this last word bread is the first word I will fall in hand with I hope all your stomachs in like sort stand to it There are three sorts of Bread as Bonaventure well observes Corporall Spirituall Eternall The Corporall Bread is Simple and Single or Mixt and Miscellan 1. By Corporall Bread fimply understood I mean bodily Bread made to feed on and sustain life with and thun the word is used Mat. 15.33 where it is said by Christs Disciples Whence should we have so much bread in the wildernesse as to fill so great a multitude and this I call feeding Bread The mixt corporall Bread made as it were of Miscellan by it I mean Bread made up of a proper and signification not only such bread as we eat but all things necestary for this life and thus Bread is taken Exod. 23.25 where said I will blesse thy Bread Prov. 20.13 I will satisfie thee with Bread by it is meant God will give a supply of all earthly necessaries for this life 2. There is a Sacramental * Spiritual and Sacramentell bread that this is so turn to 1 Cor. 10.16 The Bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ And this I call signifying Bread or Bread symbolicall 3. There is a third bread bread Eternall to prove this turn to Joh. 6. where said Ego sum panis vivus I am the living bread this bread is Christ A piece of this bread who so tastes of shall never hunger and this I call the lasty Bread Now here we pray for corporall Bread bodily sustenance sacramentall Bread to have still a taste of that consecrated shive which shewes out Christs death Here we pray for that eternal Bread for Christ that God would give us Christ interesting us in him all his Birth Death Resurrection Ascension And thus while we say this petition 1. We pray for Bread to nourish our bodies 2. The Sacrament to strengthen our feeble faith 3. For Christ to feed our souls to life everlasting And these are the three sorts of Bread shadowed out by the three loaves in the Gospell the first loaf whereof can suffice humane life the second loaf conserve spiritual life the third loaf preserve life eternal Now Lord ever give us of this Bread The Supplicat that so Lord here we may live live well and live with thee hold out the life of nature The Collect live the life of grace and attain to the life of glory a All these three sorts of Bread are included yet all as I suppose are not intended not the Sacramentall Bread for that was askt in the second petition As it is conjectured by some viz. Bread i th' Church keeping by which I mean not Shewbread provided for Priests but Communion-bread equally by us Ministers distributed to the receivers nor yet is the Bread eternall here meant for here we pray but for a daies Bread that lasts for ever this ends with supper The Bread then primarily here meant is corporall Bread not restrained literally to bodily Bread only as meat for the belly this is not all we here pray for but the Bread here meant is corporall Bread meant at large figuratively And the petition involves a Boon that God would bestow on us all things necessary for this life And so I come to give you the sense and meaning of this fourth petition Give us this day our daily Bread That is Good father of us all be pleased to bestow on us all things necessary for this life yea whatsoever thou seest in thy wisdome behoovefull for us Lo an immense Boon begged in one line all we want and in word a short expression but a large look for not much said yet much craved apparent whilest only bread askt and in asking it all neceffaries But how comes so much meant when so little said here is only Bread askt can it involve all things else 1. I answer this is named in stead of all propter excellentiam quod instar omnium want it we had as good want all no comfort can be taken and take this away neither in apparell pleasure profit diet or ought indeed it is one gives a relish to all earthly blisse 2. We name Bread for all propter capacitatem give us food to live by and while life is preserved threr is a step on to what not to the attaining of every good and perfect gift of God Temporary as health wealth c. 3. Propter singularitatem it is the staffe of life and notes out he that God gives food to gives him as great a blessing as is upon earth I will though I have no more God The Avowry praise for what I have and account his dole of Bread a blessing supper exceeding The Doctrines deducible from this The petition The Doctrines now next come in the division of the petition into parts must help us to make privy search to finde them out the parts of the petition are two Which tell us Of whom we beg Which tell us What we beg 1. He of whom we beg it is God our Father 2. That we beg is this day our daily Bread For quiddity it is Bread or such Bread we use daily For quality daily Bread or such Bread we use daily The quidddity beg'd being Bread prayes us to take notice of these Two Panis quantus Panis cujus Panis quantus how much Bread is beg'd but a daies Bread for this daies Bread Panis cujus Note who owes Bread beg'd it is ours we pray God to give us ours that what is ours by the law of man by the Law of man we owning it the God of heaven may interest us in it confirming our earthly possenssion by his heavenly blessing I will endevour to increase my earthly talent The Avowry yet never conceit my title is good to it untill the Lord confirme my humane get by his heavenly grant We have taken a generall view let us now take a speciall survey of every parcell of this petition The first part of its division certifies us of whom we beggers beg all earthly necessaries It is of God the Father He is the full furnisht house-keeper we the poor needy ones and we are come
seven measures of seed i th' sprout yet all that comes up are tares sown by the envious man Here are seven sheaves ripened and fit to be inn'd and not one ear of good grain to be seen in any of them What degenerate ground is this heart of man how much brings it out and how little to be set by We are Gods husbandmen but alas how have we let lie * Unhusbanded uncultured this vineyard of the Lords Heart It 's not one but all of us have need with strong cries to beseech the Master of the vineyard not to lay it to our charge but forgive us our trespasses 3. Now I come to that we pray God to forgive us our trespasses he that hath as mean fight as the man Mark 8. who saw men as trees may see by trespasses are meant sins In two things our sins resemble trespasses that which I already have noted and again desire you to take notice of is this 1. That our sins are of the nature of trespasses for as unneighbourly trespasses sow dissension betwixt man and man so our sins betwixt God and us they are just cause of grievance and urge him to commence a sute against us in his court of justice 2. As he that trespasses his neighbour his neighbour may recover damage so our sins cast us in damage And it is no little amounting to more then all our goods to the losse of our lives to the first death death of body and without God be mercifull and remit to that second death death eternall a paslage would be well thought on which may make us admire how much our milde and mercifull God puts up at our hands we may say God is a good neighbour who bears so much with us and that earth hath no cause to complain of heavens hard neighbourhood I am resolved to take notice that so maity sins are so many trespasses committed against God The Avowry That so my notice taken of my sin may work a wonderfull amazement in me at Gods mercy I have diverse yet to go visit and I will on next in sight are a sort of our overnigh alliance even our trespasses 1. Which for plurality are many for trespasses 2. For propriety they are ours our trespasses and we own them First for plurality they are many what need I collect that so apparent and from the text Doct. It s many sins of which we are conscious would you make a privie search through soul survey life and conversation I might spare pains to bring in witnesse or would we Christians tread in the steps of Phoeylides the Heathen Hist who every night ere he went to bed recounted over thrice all the evill that day he had done O what a sort of all sorts of sins would be within sight as many might we spie as the hairs of our head sand on the shore stars in the firmament the misery of a man is he is a sinfull creature his greater misery is Mans greatest misery he takes on notice of his sins How hath the God of this world blinded the eye of our understanding Juglers make what not seem to be Satan what is as not to be that enemy which lives in our own house is the Devils fast friend our evill heart this labours to hide from us all our evill deeds If there be a wonder upon earth it is this The worlds wonder That man who is all sin sees no sin and as he that is drunk tell him of it he will scarce beleeve it Simil. but will walk out and vaunt and vault as if none such so is it with us all we are drunk but not with wine have swallowed with the Leviathan an Ocean of sin yet we walk and jet abroad as if not such sinners as God knowes we are I am in hast yet amresolved The Avowry to try my heart and search my reins yea to sift out my conversation and all to finde out those I am sure do harbour * In my heart here even a multiplicity of sins and tresyasses Judge how much should be our sorrow Vse since our sins so many let us go weep with Rachel let our weeping be like the weeping of Hadadrimmon in the vally of Megiddo we read how Mary wept much for she had sinned much and shall we sin much and sorrow little God forbid Let every sin cause us to shed a tear which if we did I am perswaded we might sail to heaven by a sea of tears what a shame then for our tears as yet not to have watered our cheeks pray to God those * Tears Ezek. 47. temple waters may rise and increase from the ankles to the knees from the knees to the loynes from the loins to be a river impassable Take my word for it there was never any went to heaven by dry land there is no way to heaven but by water It 's the water of tears through which we must sail which the deeper the lesse danger the faster they flow the more secure is the * The penitent sinner passenger from being run a ground on shelves and shallowes and sands I am resolved to fear a shallow The Avowry when not fea rt a deep and to think my self never more safe from being a cast away than when I have store of sea room of watry tears to steer in This for the plurality the propriety is the next in sight intimated in this word Our Forgive us our trespasses This * Our possessive protests sin is allied in full bloud to Adams brood It is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh it is a branch sprouts from us the bole a slip and we the knot a spread weed and our heart is the ground hath given it nutriment groweth faddoming The bark hath not nigher relation to the bole the sap to the heart of oake than our sins to us we are become one incorporated body of one name nation family nay more it s we are sins procreating parents and like none more then the viper Hist we bring them out which bring us to our deaths yet while there is the least life in us these our off-spring will not be shak't off they foot it after us as Cains dog did after him seem we to deny these to be our imps they will not be said but rame it out we are thy works and we will follow thee Vse This clamour of sinfull works after us may cause us to vail our top-sail not too much to stand upon our pantables If the fruit be bad the tree's not good bitter fruit a bitter root what we are would God we had hearts to consider For my own part I am resolved The Avowry as to beleeve what I may be ly grace so to remember what I am by nature yea to bear in minde the whole posterity of Adam are incorporated into evill The modus or manner is the last parcell in this petition
discovered I confesse the Scriptures are sparing in setting down the Devils manner of tempting us and where God hath said little I will not have a mouth to speak much The Devil tempts us 1. Per alium by a second 2. Perse by himself 1 Per alium by a second thus he tempted Eve speaking in the serpent to the woman as the Angell in the Asse to Balaam the serpent and the swine have both harboured him the one to their own the other to our undoing so much mischief he made us when our mother Eve he thus overcame by Temptations that just cause we have to try each spirit ere we trust it 2. The Devill tempts perse by himself and this I finde to be two manner of waies Nostra Sua forma 1. In our shape 2. In his own In our shape thus he tempted Christ Mat. 4. who finding no secret assault as a spirit could penetrate Christs heart meets him as conceived by some like a man as lesse suspicious by proffers proving to enthrall his eye how usuall is this and at this day it is not only * Christ Innocency the Devils mortall enemy but Witches his fast friende and their confessions have made Certificate that thus the devill tempts and no few 2. The Devill tempts sua forma in his own shape as a spirit and thus two waies By Alluring the sense By Working upon the affections Ad Extra Ad Intra 1. By alluring the sense which that he can who questions for if Magicians can goll and delude the sense by making us beleeve we verily see what is not indeed no doubt their Master is of as much and much more power to bewitch mans sense and cause in his eye such a female to be most beautifull whose eye presents that object liked to the common sense which common sense being misused by misinforming the man is allured to what lewd 2. Again the Devill doth yet more to draw man on to sin for if by these out-works the senses the Devill can get no message conveyed to mans heart to tempt him to do evil he works more closely upon our afftctions his dear sriends by suggestions and that after this manner he knows our humours which predominates and so to what sin appetite is most inclin'd in such sort he suggests bespeaking us men not by word of mouth for a spirit but by suggestions for one of those spirituall wickednesses Thus he propounds and proffers but inforces not yet he reaches out what oft is laid hold of which the sooner we lay hold of for that it samplers the good like of our own constitutions But I will not lest I walk wide or wilde wander too far in this mysterie of iniquity God it may be conceald the modus the manner how the Devill tempts to make us spend more time de materia about the matter concerning resisting the Devils temptations 2. There is yet another kinde of sublunary temptarion cal'd the Temptation adintra and this I call the * Houshold or home domestick Temptation which is when a man is tempted or drawn away of his own lusts and inticed were it not for this Devill incarnate all Devils in Hell could scarse harm us we need neither fear the Devill nor the world but for this flesh of ours which S. James cals Lust it is then carnall lust that tempts us set a work by our old man man Originall corruption which original corruption since hath wafted over from Adam to us Guilt Filth And this lust made us yet more filthy than before for what is lust but a filth or spot spreading all over our nature this uncleannesse bred in us which is lust remains more or lesse in the best of us and is cal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the disorder of all the faculties and powers of the minde not only of the inferiour part of the soul cal'd sensuality but of that upper part of the soul understanding and will I take this spotted * Lust beast to be the first spawn of originall sin who every day we uprise goar 's us and pushes us on in hast to commit evill in the sight of the Lord. The old man Originall sin sits in his * Heart chair of state and sends abroad Lust to draw all in our Isle from serving God to serve him It is then by carnall lust the old mans servant that we are drawn away that is tempted to do evill the master sets his man to work the man miserably overmasters us poor men and we are led captive by our lust yea while God leaves us our lust leads us captive into that strong hold cal'd Temptation I am resolved The Avowry since so sore beset with the master and the man to provide me of a second even Gods spirit that so I be not taken and led into temptation The second word to be explained is Evill now though this word admit of severall acceptations yet I will muster here no more than meet and pertinent to our purpose You have malum re You Have Rem malam By Malum re as saith S. Chrysostome is meant the Devill By rem malam S. Austin saith is meant sinne And thus you see it is the Devill and sin we desire deliverance from from the Devill the Sire of sin from sin the author of all our ill two strong enemies for us weaklings without supply by Prayer to hold our against for the one commands hell that 's the Devill The other us Lord are we not said too much by our sins But loe what doth Evill more full predicate of than of these The Devill it is his old stile and Sin such is its condition The Devils malice and sins effects can afford neither a better epithet such is the Devill Evill such is Sin no better fratres in malo brethren in iniguity I am resolved to period my prayers with this part of the petition The Avowry since this part of the petition prefer'd prevails with God to deliver me both from sin and Satan Having explained the words difficult to be underftood now I mean to give you the sense and meaning of the petition It is this Good God and Father of us all let us not be ensnared in the Gin of lest-handed Temptation by daring to experiment what thou canst no nor let those of our own kinde overcome us those of our own house harm us nor yet the Devills who bears us so much ill will be able to doe us the least annoyance let me not fall into the fowlers net Lord I pray not the net be not set but that I be not catcht in it I pray thee not to take the weapon of Temptation out of the Devils hands but I pray thee preserve me that I be not wounded to death by that weapon Lord Lord after the sword be brandisht the net set deliver my soul out of the snare of the fowler Lord deliver me from evill that is from the Devill and sinne
to root out of that plat of ground my heart that weed Lust which if left in it at least be suffered to like it s sent and savour will infect my soul and all in it Secondly Lusts six dayes march that every Christian who will take pains to peruse this Case may be made conscious how carnall lust or naturall concupiscence drawes him on to sin Lusts six dayes march through soul must be made to compere Lust the lewd imitates God the good God six daies wrought to perfect the creation Lust takes as many daies pains to deface the map Man the modell of all Gods great work that great work of creation 1. Lusts first daies march is made when it pricks on to the first motions to sin now this daies march is begun and ended when carnal lust hath turn'd mans heart after a vain object in the Commonwealth as of pleasure prosit honour in the Church as after superstitious rites and ceremonies and more to set by the shadow than the substance This is that spirituall vertigo Paul taxed the Galatians with for being troubled with Gal. 4.9 when they turn'd again to the weak and beggerly rudiments would man but mark he should finde this march lust call'd Concupiscence had made into his marches turn'd his thoughts from God-ward too much to eye a vain object 2. Lusts second dayes march is made through heart when thou O man marchest on to like that to which thy heart turned now this liking is not all alike for it is either on the sudden like a guest unexpected or else a more impressed liking like a Seal out and carv'd That is sudden surprisall this other a permanent good like and these two are shadowed out by that in Job 20.12 13. where the wicked man is compared to one hath sweet poyson in his mouth he feels a sweetnesse in it yet fears it is poyson and spits it out Then this is only a sudden passion but if he hide it under his tongue roots if he favour and forsake it not but keep it in his mouth then this is a permanent affection a piece of durable Duretta a stay by by us wouldst thou O man but mark thou shouldst finde this second daies march lust hath made through thy heart while thou likest the evill of sin to which thy heart first gave a turn 3. Lusts third daies march is made through the heart when that plundering horseman is spyed trotting through hearts confines cal'd Consensus in ‑ delectatione in English mans overjoying delight he takes in that evill to which his heart hath turn'd and liked this Rakes merrily on and there is two of this name I mean Duplex consensus Operis Duplex consensus Mentis A consent to doe evill forbid in the nine first Commandements A consent in heart forbid in the last the tenth which is when in heart and minde the man takes a pleasure and a certain delight in the thought and thinking of his Mistresse sin his Dalila darling sin have you not spyed tell truth this overjoying delight in the heart to do the evill of sin Simil. every of us hath a sin relishes in our thoughts like a sugar plumb in our plats The discovery of this is the witnesse Lust hath made a third daies march through thy heart and minde and of this I am insured while thou O man hast an everjoying delight in the sin like't and turn'd to 4. Lusts fourth dayes march is more flow but the more perillous in this daies march lust takes leave to stay and look about him all soul over this daies march begins and ends morante delectatione with a delaying or staying or dwelling upon the thought of doing evill when this is discoverable be sensible lust hath made four dayes march O man into thy heart now who if he search diligently shall not finde lust thus far got ad morantem delectationem which the Schoolmen call Articulatio faetus the framing and fashioning of all the parts of sin the womb of the soul after mans turning to eye the evill after his liking the evill he even now turn'd to hath by a kinde of carnall copulation begot sin after his assent hath given heat and warmth to this spurious sperm and made it capable to grow from little to more then in comes one by a daily dallying or a dilatory delight taking in what was turned to lik't of assented to and this is it which gives framing and fashioning in the heart of man to the sin conceived but as the vipers are the death of their dams so more we form of this imp of evill in the soul the more it ruinates the soul They say the Beare bringeth forth a lump Hist but licks it into forme O! our first conceptions of evill are monstra horrenda horrible monsters our licking That is our oft Turning to Liking of Assenting to volving and revolving up and down in the soul hath fashioned this savage Beare Sinne. And for certain this slow gate as 't were loth to leave sins remembrance brance but dwelling on it avouches it 's Lusts fourth daies march it hath made into the heart The Supplicat Now God send us well quit of it 5. Now followes lusts fift daies march through the inner Temple the soul this march is made per aberrationem Cordis while the heart wanders after evill so soo as the heart begins to gad after that evill I lookt-at lik't assented to stayed to dally with in the fist place my resuming to think again upon that sin late out of minde my suffering my minde to call it back again This discovers the fist dayes march lust hath made through my soul O who pereeives not he hath been thus forraged by the man of sin O the sin which runs in our reins veins is in our nature is naturall to us rakes up and down the inner man this is it doth make us reassume and take up a thought a delight in the sin we had surceased from and when the spirituall watchman enlightned understanding spyes this be pleased to be informed by him concupiscence or carnall lust hath made the fist daies march through thy sout 6. And now there is but noe daies march more the sixt when this is finished acumest it is finished and carnall lust got from Dan to Beersheba from one end of the soul to the other all soul over were this daies march overpast all is taken all but a sort of clay thy earthy body and when the Castle hath yeelded can the Town hold out when the sword is taken the scabbard is for no service This I say to let you know fro once this last daies march be made through soul how presently our bodies become a prey to lust whilest carnall lust with aese inforces our actuating evill bodily Let us therefore take speciall heed to discover lusts six daies march through the soul which the better we may do it know all its way its words are these Si