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A64139 XXV sermons preached at Golden-Grove being for the vvinter half-year, beginning on Advent-Sunday, untill Whit-Sunday / by Jeremy Taylor ...; Sermons. Selections Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1653 (1653) Wing T408; ESTC R17859 330,119 342

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usuall entercourses of the world still their desire of single life increased because the old necessity lasted and a new one did supervene Afterwards the case was altered and then the single life was not to be chosen for it self nor yet in imitation of the first precedents for it could not be taken out from their circumstances and be used alone He therefore that thinks he is a more holy person for being a virgin or a widower or that he is bound to be so because they were so or that he cannot be a religious person because he is not so hath zeal indeed but not according to knowledge But now if the single state can be taken out and put to new appendages and fitted to the end of another grace or essentiall duty of Religion it will well become a Christian zeal to choose it so long as it can serve the end with advantage and security Thus also a zealous person is to chuse his fastings while they are necessary to him and are acts of proper mortification while he is tempted or while he is under discipline while he repents or while he obeys but some persons fast in zeal but for nothing else fast when they have no need when there is need they should not but call it religion to be miserable or sick here their zeal is folly for it is neither an act of Religion nor of prudence to fast when fasting probably serves no end of the spirit and therefore in the fasting dayes of the Church although it is warrant enough to us to fast if we had no end to serve in it but the meer obedience yet it is necessary that the superiors should not think the Law obeyed unlesse the end of the first institution be observed a fasting day is a day of humiliation and prayer and fasting being nothing it self but wholly the handmaid of a further grace ought not to be devested of its holinesse and sanctification and left like the wals of a ruinous Church where there is no duty performed to God but there remains something of that which us'd to minister to Religion The want of this consideration hath caus'd so much scandall and dispute so many snares and schismes concerning Ecclesiasticall fasts For when it was undressed and stripp'd of all the ornaments and usefull appendages when from a solemn day it grew to be common from thence to be lesse devout by being lesse seldome and lesse usefull and then it passed from a day of Religion to be a day of order and from fasting till night to fasting till evening-song and evening-song to be sung about twelve a clock and from fasting it was changed to a choice of food from eating nothing to eating fish and that the letter began to be stood upon and no usefulnesse remain'd but what every of his own piety should put into it but nothing was enjoyn'd by the Law nothing of that exacted by the superiours then the Law fell into disgrace and the design became suspected and men were first insnared and then scandalized and then began to complain without remedy and at last took remedy themselves without authority the whole affair fell into a disorder and a mischief and zeal was busie on both sides and on both sides was mistaken because they fell not upon the proper remedy which was to reduce the Law to the usefulnesse and advantages of its first intention But this I intended not to have spoken 2. Our zeal must never carry us beyond that which is safe Some there are who in their first attempts and entries upon Religion while the passion that brought them in remains undertake things as great as their highest thoughts no repentance is sharp enough no charities expensive enough no fastings afflictive enough then totis Quinquatribus orant and finding some deliciousnesse at the first contest and in that activity of their passion they make vowes to binde themselves for ever to this state of delicacies The onset is fair but the event is this The age of a passion is not long and the flatulent spirit being breathed out the man begins to abate of his first heats and is ashamed but then he considers that all that was not necessary and therefore he will abate something more and from something to something at last it will come to just nothing and the proper effect of this is indignation and hatred of holy things an impudent spirit carelessenesse or despair Zeal sometimes carries a man into temptation and he that never thinks he loves God dutifully or acceptably because he is not imprison'd for him or undone or design'd to Martyrdome may desire a triall that will undoe him It is like fighting of a Duell to shew our valour Stay till the King commands you to fight and die and then let zeal do its noblest offices This irregularity and mistake was too frequent in the primitive Church when men and women would strive for death and be ambitious to feel the hangmans sword some miscarryed in the attempt and became sad examples of the unequall yoking a frail spirit with a zealous driver 3. Let Zeal never transport us to attempt any thing but what is possible M. Teresa made a vow that she would do alwaies that which was absolutely the best But neither could her understanding alwaies tell her which was so nor her will alwayes have the same fervours and it must often breed scruples and sometimes tediousnesse and wishes that the vow were unmade He that vowes never to have an ill thought never to commit an error hath taken a course that his little infirmities shall become crimes and certainly be imputed by changing his unavoidable infirmity into vow-breach Zeal is a violence to a mans spirit and unlesse the spirit be secur'd by the proper nature of the duty and the circumstances of the action and the possibilities of the man it is like a great fortune in the meanest person it bears him beyond his limit and breaks him into dangers and passions transportations and all the furies of disorder that can happen to an abused person 4. Zeal is not safe unlesse it be in re probabili too it must be in a likely matter For we that finde so many excuses to untie all our just obligations and distinguish our duty into so much finenesse that it becomes like leaf-gold apt to be gone at every breath it can not be prudent that we zealously undertake what is not probable to be effected If we do the event can be nothing but portions of the former evill scruple and snares shamefull retreats and new fantastick principles In all our undertakings we must consider what is our state of life what our naturall inclinations what is our society and what are our dependencies by what necessities we are born down by what hopes we are biassed and by these let us measure our heats and their proper businesse A zealous man runs up a sandy hill the violence of motion is his greatest hinderance and a
we are concerned but if we do yet praesentis temporis ita est agenda laetitia ut sequentis judicii amaritudo nunquam recedat à memoriâ so laugh here that you may not forget your danger lest you weep for ever He that thinks most seriously and most frequently of this fearfull appearance will finde that it is better staying for his joyes till this sentence be past for then he shall perceive whether he hath reason or no. In the mean time wonder not that God who loves mankinde so well should punish him so severely for therefore the evill fall into an accursed portion because they despised that which God most loves his Son and his mercies his graces and his holy Spirit and they that do all this have cause to complain of nothing but their own follies and they shall feel the accursed consequents then when they shall see the Judge sit above them angry and severe inexorable and terrible under them an intolerable hell within them their consciences clamorous and diseased without them all the world on fire on the right hand those men glorified whom they persecuted or despised on the left hand the Devils accusing for this is the day of the Lords terror and who is able to abide it Seu vigilo intentus studiis seu dormio semper Iudicis extremi nostras tuba personet aures SERMON IV. The Returne of PRAYERS Or The Conditions of a PREVAILING PRAYER John 9. 31. Now wee know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth I Know not which is the greater wonder either that prayer which is a duty so easie and facile so ready and apted to the powers and skill and opportunities of every man should have so great effects and be productive of such mighty blessings or that we should be so unwilling to use so easie an instrument of procuring so much good The first declares Gods goodnesse but this publishes mans folly and weaknesse who finds in himself so much difficulty to perform a condition so easie and full of advantage But the order of this infelicity is knotted like the foldings of a Serpent all those parts of easinesse which invite us to doe the duty are become like the joynts of a bulrush not bendings but consolidations and stiffenings the very facility becomes its objection and in every of its stages wee make or finde a huge uneasiresse At first wee doe not know what we ask and when we doe then we finde difficulty to bring our wils to desire it and when that is instructed and kept in awe it mingles interest and confounds the purposes and when it is forc'd to ask honestly and severely then it wills so coldly that God hates the prayer and if it desires fervently it sometimes turns that into passion and that passion breaks into murmurs or unquietnesse or if that be avoyded the indifferency cooles into death or the fire burns violently and is quickly spent our desires are dull as a rock or fugitive as lightening either wee aske ill things earnestly or good things remissely we either court our owne danger or are not zealous for our reall safety or if we be right in our matter or earnest in our affections and lasting in our abode yet we misse in the manner and either we aske for evill ends or without religion and awefull apprehensions or we rest in the words and signification of the prayer and never take care to passe on to action or else we sacrifice in the company of Corah being partners of a schisme or a rebellion in religion or we bring unhullowed censers our hearts send up to God an unholy smoak a cloud from the fires of lust and either the flames of lust or rage of wine or revenge kindle the beast that is laid upon the altar or we bring swines flesh or a dogs neck whereas God never accepts or delights in a prayer unlesse it be for a holy thing to a lawfull end presented unto him upon the wings of Zeal and love of religious sorrow or religious joy by sanctified lips and pure hands and a sincere heart It must be the prayer of a gracious man and he is onely gracious before God and acceptable and effective in his prayer whose life is holy and whose prayer is holy For both these are necessary ingredients to the constitution of a prevailing prayer there is a holinesse peculiar to the man and a holinesse peculiar to the prayer that must adorn the prayer before it can be united to the intercession of the Holy Jesus in which union alone our prayers can be prevailing God heareth not sinners so the blind man in the text and confidently this we know he had reason indeed for his confidence it was a proverbiall saying and every where recorded in their Scriptures which were read in the synagogues every Salbath day For what is the hope of the hypocrite saith Job will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him No he will not For if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear mee said David and so said the Spirit of the Lord by the Son of David When distresse and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they oall upon mee but I will not answer they shall seek mee early but they shall not find mee and Isaiah When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of bloud and again When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they will offer burnt offerings and oblations I will not accept them For they have loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord will not accept them hee will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins Upon these and many other authorities it grew into a proverb Deus non exaudit peccatores it was a known case and an established rule in the religion Wicked persons are neither fit to pray for themselves nor for others Which proposition let us first consider in the sense of that purpose which the blind man spoke it in and then in the utmost extent of it as its analogie and equall reason goes forth upon us and our necessities The man was cured of his blindnesse and being examined concerning him that did it named and gloryed in his Physician but the spitefull Pharisees b●d him give glory to God and defie the Minister for God indeed was good but he wrought that cure by a wicked hand No says he this is impossible If this man were a sinner and a false Prophet for in that instance the accusation was intended God would not hear his prayers and work miracles by him in verification of a lye A false Prophet could not work true miracles this hath received its diminution when the case was changed for at that time when Christ preached Miracles was the onely or the
be more esteemed and called to stand at the chairs of Princes and Nobles * Holy persons and holy things and all great relations are to be valued by generall proportions to their correlatives but if wee descend to make minute and exact proportions and proportion an inch of temporall to a minute of spirituall we must needs be hugely deceived unlesse we could measure the motion of an Angell by a string or the progressions of the Spirit by weight and measure of the staple * And yet if these measures were taken it would be unreasonable that the lower of the higher kind should be preferr'd before the most perfect and excellent in a lower order of things A man generally is to be esteemed above a woman but not the meanest of her subjects before the most excellent Queen not alwayes this man before this woman Now Kings and Princes are the best in all temporall dignities and therefore if they had in them no spirituall relations and consequent excellencies as they have very many yet are not to be undervalu'd to spirituall relations which in this world are very imperfect weak partiall and must stay till the next world before they are in a state of excellency propriety and perfection and then also all shall have them according to the worth of their persons not of their calling * But lastly what men may not challenge is not their just and proper due but spirituall persons and the neerest relatives to God stand by him but so long as they dwell low and safe in humility and rise high in nothing but in labours and zeal of soules and devotion * In proportion to this rule a Church may be pull'd down to save a Town and the Vessels of the Church may be sold to redeem Captives when there is a great calamity imminent and prepared for reliefe and no other way to succour it But in the whole the duty of zeale requires that we neglect an ordinary visit rather then an ordinary prayer and a great profit rather then omit a required duty No excuse can legitimate a sin and he that goes about to distinguish between his duty and his profit and if he cannot reconcile them will yet tie them together like a Hyaena and a Dog this man pretends to Religion but secures the world and is indifferent and lukewarme towards that so he may be warme and safe in the possession of this 2. To that fervour and zeal that is necessary and a duty it is required that we be constant and persevering Eslo sidelis ad mortem said the Spirit of God to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna Be faithfull unto death and I will give thee a crown of life For he that is warm to day and cold to morrow zealous in his resolution and weary in his practises fierce in the beginning and slack and easie in his progresse hath not yet well chosen what side he will be of he sees not reason enough for Religion and he hath not confidence enough for its contrary and therefore he is duplicis animi as St. James calls him of a doubtfull mind For Religion is worth as much to day as it was yesterday and that cannot change though we doe and if we doe we have left God and whither he can goe that goes from God his owne sorrowes will soon enough instruct him This fire must never goe out but it must be like the fire of heaven it must shine like the starres though sometimes cover'd with a cloud or obscur'd by a greater light yet they dwell for ever in their orbs and walk in their circles and observe their circumstances but goe not out by day nor night and set not when Kings die nor are extinguish'd when Nations change their Government So must the zeal of a Christian be a constant incentive of his duty and though sometimes his hand is drawne back by violence or need and his prayers shortned by the importunity of businesse and some parts omitted by necessities and just complyances yet still the fire is kept alive it burns within when the light breaks not forth and is eternall as the orb of fire or the embers of the Altar of Incense 3. No man is zealous as he ought but he that delights in the service of God without this no man can persevere but must faint under the continuall pressure of an uneasie load If a man goes to his prayers as children goe to schoole or give alms as those that pay contribution and meditate with the same willingnesse with which young men die this man does personam sustinere he acts a part which he cannot long personate but will find so many excuses and silly devices to omit his duty such tricks to run from that which will make him happy he will so watch the eyes of men and be so sure to doe nothing in private he will so often distinguish and mince the duty into minutes and little particles he will so tie himself to the letter of the Law and be so carelesse of the intention and spirituall designe he will be punctuall in the ceremony and trifling in the secret and he will be so well pleased when he is hindred by an accident not of his own procuring and will have so many devices to defeat his duty and to cosuen himselfe that he will certainly manifest that he is afraid of Religion and secretly hates it he counts it a burthen and an objection and then the man is sure to leave it when his circumstances are so fitted But if we delight in it we enter into a portion of the reward as soon as we begin the worke and the very grace shall be stronger then the temptation in its very pretence of pleasure and therefore it must needs be pleasing to God because it confesses God to be the best Master Religion the best work and it serves God with choice and will and reconciles our nature to it and entertaines our appetite and then there is no ansa or handle left whereby we can easily be drawne from duty when all parties are pleased with the imployment But this delight is not to be understood as if it were alwayes required that we should feele an actuall cheerfulnesse and sensible joy such as was that of Jonathan when he had newly tasted honey and the light came into his eyes and he was refreshed and pleasant This happens sometimes when God please to intice or reward a mans spirit with little Antepasts of heaven but such a delight onely is necessary and a duty that we alwayes choose our duty regularly and undervalue the pleasures of temptation and proceed in the work of grace with a firme choice and unabated election our joy must be a joy of hope a joy at least of confident sufferers the joys of faith and expectation rejoycing in hope so the Apostle calls it that is a going forward upon such a perswasion as sees the joyes of God laid up for the Children of men and so the
shall be pleasant while she lives and desired when she dies If not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her grave shall be full of rottennesse and dishonour and her memory shall be worse after she is dead after she is dead For that will be the end of all merry meetings and I choose this to be the last advice to both 3. Remember the dayes of darknesse for they are many The joyes of the bridal chambers are quickly past and the remaining portion of the state is a dull progresse without variety of joyes but not without the change of sorrowes but that portion that shall enter into the grave must be eternall It is fit that I should infuse a bunch of myrrhe into the festivall goblet and after the Egyptian manner serve up a dead mans bones at a feast I will only shew it and take it away again it will make the wine bitter but wholesome But those marryed pairs that live as remembring that they must part again and give an account how they treat themselves and each other shall at the day of their death be admitted to glorious espousals and when they shall live again be marryed to their Lord and partake of his glories with Abraham and Joseph S. Peter and St. Paul and all the marryed Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All those things that now please us shall passe from us or we from them but those things that concern the other life are permanent as the numbers of eternity and although at the resurrection there shall be no relation of husband and wife and no marriage shall be celebrated but the marriage of the Lambe yet then shall be remembred how men and women pass'd through this state which is a type of that and from this sacramentall union all holy pairs shall passe to the spirituall and eternall where love shall be their portion and joyes shall crown their heads and they shall lye in the bosome of Jesus and in the heart of God to eternall ages Amen Sermon XIX APPLES of SODOM OR The Fruits of Sinne. Part. I. Romans 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death THe son of Sirach did prudently advise concerning making judgements of the felicity or infelicity of men Judge none blessed before his death for a man shall be known in his children Some men raise their fortunes from a cottage to the chaires of Princes from a sheep-coat to a throne and dwell in the circles of the Sun and in the lap of prosperity their wishes and successe dwell under the same roof and providence brings all events into their design and ties both ends together with prosperous successes and even the little conspersions and intertextures of evill accidents in their lives are but like a faing'd note in musick by an artificiall discord making the ear covetous and then pleased with the harmony into which the appetite was inticed by passion and a pretty restraint and variety does but adorn prosperity and make it of a sweeter relish and of more advantages and some of these men descend into their graves without a change of fortune Eripitur persona manet res Indeed they cannot longer dwell upon the estate but that remains unrifled and descends upon the heir and all is well till the next generation but if the evill of his death and the change of his present prosperity for an intolerable danger of an uncertain eternity does not sowre his full chalice yet if his children prove vicious or degenerous cursed or unprosperous we account the man miserable and his grave to be strewed with sorrowes and dishonours The wise and valiant Chabrias grew miserable by the folly of his son Ctesippus and the reputation of brave Germanicus began to be ashamed when the base Caligula entred upon his scene of dishonourable crimes Commodus the wanton and feminine son of wise Antoninus gave a check to the great name of his Father and when the son of Hortensius Corbius was prostitute and the heir of Q. Fabius Maximus was disinherited by the sentence of the city Praetor as being unworthy to enter into the fields of his glorious Father and young Scipio the son of Africanus was a fool and a prodigall posterity did weep afresh over the monuments of their brave progenitors and found that infelicity can pursue a man and overtake him in his grave This is a great calamity when it fals upon innocent persons and that Moses died upon Mount Nebo in the sight of Canaan was not so great an evill as that his sons Eliezer and Gersom were unworthy to succeed him but that Priesthood was devolv'd to his Brother and the Principality to his servant And to Samuel that his sons prov'd corrupt and were exauthorated for their unworthinesse was an allay to his honour and his joyes and such as proclaims to all the world that the measures of our felicity are not to be taken by the lines of our own person but of our relations too and he that is cursed in his children cannot be reckoned among the fortunate This which I have discoursed concerning families in generall is most remarkable in the retinue and family of sin for it keeps a good house and is full of company and servants it is served by the possessions of the world it is courted by the unhappy flatter'd by fools taken into the bosome by the effeminate made the end of humane designs and feasted all the way of its progresse wars are made for its interest and men give or venture their lives that their sin may be prosperous all the outward senses are its handmaids and the inward senses are of its privie chamber the understanding is its counsellour the will its friend riches are its ministers nature holds up its train and art is its emissary to promote its interest and affairs abroad and upon this account all the world is inrolled in its taxing tables and are subjects or friends of its kingdome or are so kinde to it as to make too often visits and to lodge in its borders because all men stare upon its pleasures and are intic'd to tast of its wanton delicacies But then if we look what are the children of this splendid family and see what issue sinne produces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may help to unite the charme Sin and concupiscence marry together and riot and feast it high but their fruits the children and production of their filthy union are ugly and deform'd foolish and ill natur'd and the Apostles cals them by their names shame and death These are the fruits of Sin the apples of Sodom fair outsides but if you touch them they turn to ashes and a stink and if you will nurse these children and give them whatsoever is dear to you then you may be admitted into the house of feasting and chambers of riot where sin dwels but if
you will have the mother you must have the daughters the tree and the fruits go together and there is none of you all that ever enter'd into this house of pleasure but he left the skirts of his garment in the hands of shame and had his name roll'd in the chambers of death What fruit had ye then That 's the Question In answer to which question we are to consider 1. What is the summe totall of the pleasure of sin 2. What fruits and relishes it leaves behinde by its naturall efficiency 3. What are its consequents by its demerit and the infliction of the superadded wrath of God which it hath deserved Of the first St. Paul gives no account but by way of upbraiding asks what they had that is nothing that they dare own nothing that remains and where is it shew it what 's become of it Of the second he gives the summe totall all its naturall effects are shame and its appendages The third or the superinduc'd evils by the just wrath of God he cals death the worst name in it self and the greatest of evils that can happen 1. Let us consider what pleasures there are in sin most of them are very punishments I will not reckon nor consider concerning envie which one in Stobaeus cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the basest spirit and yet very just because it punishes the delinquent in the very act of sin doing as Aelian saies of the Polypus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he wants his prey he devours his own armes and the leannesse and the secret pangs and the perpetuall restlesnesse of an envious man feed upon his own heart and drink down his spirits unlesse he can ruine or observe the fall of the fairest fortunes of his neighbour The fruit of this tree are mingled and sowre and not to be indured in the very eating Neither will I reck on the horrid afrightments and amazements of murder nor the uneasinesse of impatience which doubles every evill that it feels and makes it a sin and makes it intolerable nor the secret grievings and continuall troubles of peevishnesse which makes a man uncapable of receiving good or delighting in beauties and fair intreaties in the mercies of God and charities of men It were easie to make a catalogue of sins every one of which is a disease a trouble in it's very constitution and its nature such are loathing of spirituall things bitternesse of spirit rage greedinesse confusion of minde and irresolution cruelty and despite slothfulnesse and distrust unquietnesse and anger effeminacy and nicenesse prating and sloth ignorance and inconstancy incogitancy and cursing malignity and fear forgetfulnesse and rashnesse pusillanimity and despair rancour and superstition if a man were to curse his enemy he could not wish him a greater evill then these and yet these are severall kinds of sin which men choose and give all their hopes of heaven in exchange for one of these diseases Is it not a fearfull consideration that a man should rather choose eternally to perish then to say his prayers heartily and affectionately But so it is with very many men they are driven to their devotions by custome and shame and reputation and civill compliances they sigh and look sowre when they are called to it and abide there as a man under the Chirurgeons hands smarting aud fretting all the while or else he passes the time with incogitancy and hates the imployment and suffers the torments of prayers which he loves not and all this although for so doing it is certain he may perish what fruit what deliciousnesse can he fancy in being weary of his prayers There is no pretence or colour for these things Can any man imagine a greater evill to the body and soul of a man then madnesse and furious eyes and a distracted look palenesse with passion and trembling hands and knees and furiousnesse and folly in the heart and head and yet this is the pleasure of anger and for this pleasure men choose damnation But it is a great truth that there are but very few sins that pretend to pleasure although a man be weak and soon deceived and the Devill is crafty and sin is false and impudent and pretences are too many yet most kinds of sins are reall and prime troubles to the very body without all manner of deliciousnesse even to the sensuall naturall and carnall part and a man must put on something of a Devill before he can choose such sins and he must love mischief because it is a sin for in most instances there is no other reason in the world Nothing pretends to pleasure but the lusts of the lower belly ambition and revenge and although the catalogue of sins is numerous as the production of fishes yet these three only can be apt to consen us with a fair outside and yet upon the survey of what fruits they bring and what taste they have in the manducation besides the filthy relish they leave behind we shall see how miserably they are abused and fool'd that expend any thing upon such purchases 2. For a man cannot take pleasure in lusts of the flesh in gluttony or drunkennesse unlesse he be helped forward with inconsideration and folly For we see it evidently that grave and wise persons men of experience and consideration are extremely lesse affected with lust and loves the hare-brain'd boy the young gentleman that thinks nothing in the world greater then to be free from a Tutor he indeed courts his folly and enters into the possession of lust without abatement consideration dwels not there but when a sober man meets with a temptation and is helped by his naturall temper or invited by his course of life if he can consider he hath so many objections and fears so many difficulties and impediments such sharp reasonings and sharper jealousies concerning its event that if he does at all enter into folly it pleases him so little that he is forced to do it in despite of himself and the pleasure is so allayed that he knowes not whether it be wine or vinegar his very apprehension and instruments of relish are fill'd with fear and contradicting principles and the deliciousnesse does but affricare cutem it went but to the skin but the allay went further it kept a guard within and suffered the pleasure to passe no further A man must resolve to be a fool a rash inconsiderate person or he will feel but little satisfaction in the enjoyment of his sin indeed he that stops his nose may drink down such corrupted waters and he understood it well who chose rather to be a fool Dum mala delectent mea me vel denique fallant Quàm sapere ringi so that his sins might delight him or deceive him then to be wise and without pleasure in the enjoyment So that in effect a man must lose his discerning faculties before he discerns the little phantastick joyes of his concupiscence which demonstrates how vain how empty of pleasure