which are delivered in that Chapter are required as part of our walking as Children of the light and proving what is acceptable unto the Lord ver 8 10. Marriage is honourable and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Heb. 13.4 Wives are to be taught to be obedient to their own Husbands that the Word of God or Doctrine of the Gospel be not blasphemed Tit. 2.5 Let Wives be in subjection to their own Husbands For with this in old time the holy women adorned themselves even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling and observing him as her Lord whose Daughters ye are as long as you do well and imitate her but no longer 1 Pet. 3.5 6. So that all the Laws in this relation are enjoined under the same necessity and confirmed with the same sanction as the former And as for the Particulars of the next relation they are imposed with the same strictness For natural affection the want of it S t Paul affirms plainly makes men worthy of death Rom. 1.31 The Children ought not to lay up Treasure or provide for the Parents but the Parents for the Children 2 Cor. 12.14 And if any man provide not for his own house he hath denied the Faith of Christ which indispensably enjoins it nay despising such a notorious and necessary Precept of mere Nature he is worse than any honest Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath against you by a harsh and austere Government of them but rule them in kindness and love and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And ye Children on the other side obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour your Father and Mother that it may be well with you Ephes. 6.1 2 3 4. Which Precepts are of the number of those which he imposes on them as parts of their walking as Children of the light and proving what is acceptable unto the Lord Chap. 5.8 10. If any man have Children or Nephews let them first learn to shew piety at home and requite their Parents for this is good and acceptable to God But if any man provide not for his own especially those of his own house or Family as Parents are in the first place he hath denied the Faith and in his unnatural actions is worse than an honest Infidel 1 Tim. 5.4 8. And thus are all the Laws of this relation likewise established in the greatest strictness and our obedience to them made plainly necessary to our bliss and happiness And as for the particular Laws of natural affection and communicating upon occasion to each other of their Substance in the relation of Brethren and Sisters they are proved to be necessary in the proof of the former For the same places which require them in that relation require them in this also And then as for the Particulars of the last relation viz. that of Masters and Servants they are of equal necessity with all the foregoing If any man provide not for his own house whereof Servants are one part he hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 Masters give unto your Servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven who will punish your unequal dealing towards them Col. 4.1 If I despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant when they argue in their own defence and contend with me what then shall I do when God rises up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Job 31.13 14. Thou shalt not oppress an hired Servant that is poor and needy whether he be of thy Brethren a Jew or a Stranger of the Gentiles At his Day thou shalt give him his hire neither shall the Sun go down upon it for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it Deut. 24.14 15. Weep and howl O ye rich men says S t James for the miseries that shall come upon you for behold the hire of the Labourers who have reaped down your Fields and which is of you keept back by fraud crieth against you and the Cries are entred into the ears of the Lord who hearkens to them and in great Justice will one Day avenge them James 5.1 4. Ye Masters do the same things viz. good whether as to their Bodies in providing for them or to their Souls in religious instruction with a good will in expectation of a reward from the Lord to your Servants forbearing threatning knowing that your Master also is in Heaven who has threatned you if ye neglect this necessary Duty neither is there any respect of persons with him Ephes 6.8 9. Let as many Servants as are under the Yoke count their own Masters worthy of all honour that the name of God be not blasphemed as certainly it would upon their contrary practice And if any man teach otherwise he is proud knowing nothing 1 Tim. 6.1 3 4. Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the Flesh not with eye-service but in singleness or sincerity of heart without fraud or double dealing as persons fearing God And whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord not to men knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for such your obedient practice for in thus serving them you serve the Lord Christ Col. 3.22 23 24. Servants obey your Masters with fear and trembling not with eye-service as Men-pleasers but from the heart with good-will doing service as to the Lord who commands this of you and not only to men knowing that whatsoever good or ill in this particular any man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord Ephes 6.5 6 7 8. Exhort Servants to be obedient to their own Mâ—sters and to please them well by all manner of observance in all things either as to their reputation in vindicating it when 't is injured or concealing such defects as would stain and fully it or their other interests showing all good fidelity For the Grace of God which brings salvation hath appeared to all men teaching them as ever they hope to be saved by it That denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts whereof the contrary practices to these are the effect and offspring they should live soberly c. Tit. 2.9 10 11 12 13. And moreover these Precepts are part of that sound Doctrine which Titus is required to speak ver 1. in opposition to their Doctrine who in the Verse before are said to be abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Servants be subject to your own Masters with all fear or reverence not only to the good and gentle but also to the hard or hasty and froward For this is thank-worthy if for Conscience towards God you patiently endure grief suffering wrongfully This is acceptable to God and likewise
and their Faith confirmed by it in giving up our selves to Martyrdome and laying down our own lives for their advantage Hereby says this same Apostle perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us And if we would be reputed to have that love which as we are told at the fourteenth Verse wafts us over from Death unto Life we ought upon a fit occasion not to flinch from the most costly service but even to lay down our very lives for the Brethren 1 John 3.16 It is only this obedient and operative love of men which will be owned by Christ our Judg and confer a just claim to Life and Pardon at the last Day Our Love will not be rewarded as a thing that is absolute in it self but only as an Instrument in as much as it makes us as S t Paul says to fulfil the whole Law which makes any thing an instance of Duty towards them Rom. 13.8 But if we only profess love to them in kind words and tender expressions but shew none in our works and actions this idle useless love will be of no account to us nor benefit us more than it profits them For if a Brother or a Sister says S t James be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you gives them only some good words and says unto them Depart in peace be ye warm'd with Cloths and filled with Food but notwithstanding all this affectionate language ye give them not in the mean while those things which are needful for the Body what doth it profit Nothing at all surely nor will it ever advantage your selves as an instance of that mercy which rejoyceth against judgment Verse 13. more than it profits them James 2.15 16. So that when Christ comes to Judgment at the last Day we see plainly that no love either of God or men will avail us but only that which has kept the Commandments we shall never be acquitted at that Bar upon a pretence of love without obedience for all that can possibly stand us in any stead there is a loving service a love which has made us careful and diligent to obey And thus at last we have fully seen that as for all those other things besides obedience whereunto the Gospel promises pardon and happiness they are by no means available to our bliss when they are separate from obedience but then only when they effect and imply it They all aim at it and end in it and are of no account in Gods Judgment further than they produce it It is not either our knowing Christ or our believing Christ or our being in Christ or our trusting in Christ or our loving Christ or our fears of God or our confessions of sins or our pouring out many prayers or any thing else that will save us whilst we disobey No at the last Day we shall certainly be damned notwithstanding them if the obedience of our works is wanting It is only a working service that will please our Judge and which can possibly secure us if we are able in that Court to produce that it will clear us but without it nothing else will Christs Gospel whereby all of us must stand or fall at that Day has fully declared this already and Christ himself will then confirm it So that 't is in vain to cast about for other marks and to seek after other Evidences for our title to bliss and happiness nothing less than our Repentance and Obedience will avail us unto life and through the merits of Christ and the Grace of his Gospel it shall And now at last we see clearly what that Condition is which the Gospel indispensably requires of us and which is to mete out to us our last doom of bliss or misery that in the general it is nothing else neither more nor less than our obedience BOOK II. Of the Laws of the Gospel which are the Rule of this Obedience in particular CHAP. I. Of the particular Laws comprehended under the Duty of Sobriety The CONTENTS A Division of our Duty into three general Vertues Piety Sobriety Righteousness Of the nature of Sobriety The particular Laws commanding and prohibiting under this first Member A larger explication of the nature of Mortification BUT in regard our working and obeying is that whereupon all our hopes and happiness our security and comfort hangs it is very necessary that after all which has been hitherto discoursed of it in the general we go on still further and enquire of it more particularly For if it be our Obedience or Disobedience that must dispense Life or Death to us and eternally save or destroy us at the last Day then whosoever would know before-hand what shall be his final Sentence must enquire what is his present state and what have been his past actions whether in them he have obeyed or no. And the way to understand that is first to know what those Laws are whereto his obedience is due and in what manner and degrees he is to obey them and when once he has informed himself in these he may quickly learn from the Testimony of his own heart and Conscience whether he has performed that Obedience which is indispensably required to his happiness or has fallen short of it And to give the best assistance that I can in so weighty a Case I will here proceed to enquire further in this Obedience and shew concerning it these two things I. What those Laws are which under the Sanctions of Life or Death the Gospel binds us to obey And II. What degrees and manner of obedience is indispensably required to them I. Then I will enquire what those Laws are whereby at the last Day we must all be judged and which under the Sanction of Life or Death the Gospel binds us to obey And that I may render this enquiry as useful as I can I will set down as I go along the meaning and explication of those several Vertues and Vices which are either required or forbidden in the particular Laws that so we may more truly and readily understand whether the Vertues have been performed or the Vices incurred and whether thereby the Laws have been broken or kept by us As for the Laws and Commands of God they are all reduced by S t Paul to three Heads For either they require something from us towards God himself and so are contained in works of piety or towards our Neighbours all which are comprehended in works of righteousness or towards our own selves as all those Precepts do which are taken up in works of sobriety In these three general Vertues is comprized the Sum of our Christian Duty even all that is required by the Gospel as the Condition of Salvation For the Gospel saith he or that Grace of God which brings us the welcome offers of Salvation hath appeared now to all men teaching us as ever we expect that salvation which it tenders to us that denying ungodliness and
defiled for they have lost all sense of purity and Duty being unto every good work reprobate or void of judgment Tit. 1.15 16. They overlooked and disbelieved all the Christian Laws of passive valour and patient courage of generosity and contentedness of mortification and self-denial chastity and temperance and fell into those lewd opinions for which they were so infamous in the Apostolick Age and will be still among all men that are but competently sober to the Worlds end For they introduced into the World the scandalously vile and profligate opinions that all filthy and unnatural uncleannesses that denying Christ to be come in the flesh in times of persecution and that our Jesus was he are parts of Christian liberty and things lawful and allowable in a knowing in a spiritual in a perfect man Turning by this means as S t Jude says the Grace of God and his Gospel which under the highest pains forbids and punishes them into a liberty and allowance of these their Characteristick Vices viz. lasciviousness with all manner of filthiness and denying when they are in danger to suffer for him the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Jude 4. Another instance of their behaviour we have set down in relation to the Publick and that is this They were of a proud and ungovernable of a haughty and turbulent a querulous and seditious humour Their temper is to be presumptuous and self-willed 2 Pet. 2.10 which they evidence every where by despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities Jud. 8 and by murmuring and complaining as men that are always discontented and never pleased with any administration of affairs ver 16. And agreeable to this ungovernableness of their lives and tempers were the licentious principles and opinions of their minds For they were the men who promised their Followers liberty from all subjection 2 Pet. 2.19 and who despised all Masters and Governours as being by the new Character of Christianity become their Brethren and therefore as they argued from that Title now only equal to them not superior as they must be who would pretend to rule and govern them 1 Tim. 6.1 2. The Abettors of which Doctrine S t Paul assures Timothy do in reality know nothing notwithstanding all the false show of that swoln Title knowing men which they so vainly arrogate to themselves ver 4. The wicked Sect of the Pharisees who were the reproach of the Jewish as these filthy Gnosticks were of the Christian Name were of a life and temper proud and ambitious covetous and rapacious whose heart and inside as well as their life and practice was all rottenness and disobedience For if we would have a character of them our Saviour himself has given us one in the 23 d of S t Matthew's Gospel which is most compleat and particular wherein a combination of these several vices are set to make up their description First Vain-glory. All their works they did to be seen of men vers 5. Secondly Pride and Ambition They loved the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the publick markets and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi that is to say Master or Doctor vers 6 7. Thirdly Covetousness Fraud and Rapaciousness For besides that S t Luke informs us of their being covetous Luk. 16.14 we are told here that they would most prophanely abuse the most sacred things for their covetous ends and make long prayers only for a pretence that thereby they might be enabled more easily and without suspicion to devour even Orphans and Widows houses vers 14 being indeed whatsoever they might outwardly appear to be all extortion and excess within vers 25. Fourthly Hypocrisie For they would dissemble even in their most solemn performances and use Religion only as a stalking-horse to worldly designs They made long prayers only for a pretence vers 14 what they made clean was only the outside vers 25 for that indeed they beautified but still they were all stench and rottenness within vers 27. In summ they said but did not they bound heavy burdens on other mens shoulders but would not touch them themselves with one of their fingers vers 3 4. Yea take them even at the best where they were Religious and that they will be found to have been only in trifles but not in substantial Duties for they strained at gnats at the same time that they swallow'd Camels they paid tythe of cheap and inconsiderable things such as mint and annise and cummin but they omitted all the weightier matters of the Law as Judgment Mercy and Faith vers 23 24. And since they were men of this character thus unmortified in their lusts and thus vicious and irreligious in their practice what can in reason be expected but that they should be full of debauchery and disobedience in their consciences and perswasions also And so accordingly we find they were For when Christ preached to them the Doctrine of Charity and Liberality in opposition to their miserable worldly way they being covetous instead of believing fell a mocking and deriding him Luk. 16.14 And as they treated Christ in this particular so did they likewise in all the rest of his Religion For finding that it required such humility sincerity honesty contentedness and heavenly-mindedness as were inconsistent with these unmortified lusts of theirs which I have mention'd they would not own and embrace but for that reason especially reject and disbelieve it Nay further even in their own acknowledged way they took up several disobedient prejudices to serve their lusts and either wholly evacuated or in great part impair'd several Laws by admitting such erroneous perswasions as undermined them For to gratifie their haughty and stubborn their petted and revengeful humour they entertain'd a conceit that if they did but say it is Corban or a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me i. e. I bind my self by the vow or oath call'd Corban never more to do any good to thee which was a form of oath in use among the Jews they should be freed from all obligation of the fifth Commandment requiring honour service or relief to their Father or Mother Mat. 15.4 5 6. And many other things like to this our Saviour tells us they did Mark 7.13 But not to enquire further about particulars we are plainly assured of them in the general that they transgressed rejected and evacuated the Laws of God through the erroneous perswasions and prejudicate belief of their traditions Mat. 15.3 6. Mark 7.9 Thus natural and obvious it is for a wicked life to work a disobedient belief and for mens unmortified lusts and passions which set themselves against Gods Laws to convey such prejudices into their consciences as will evacuate and overthrow them Their unbelief enters through the corruption of their heart and is therefore called an evil heart of unbelief Heb. 3.12 they are hardened into a want of all sense and conscience
wilful sins themselves as has been shewn are not desperate under Christs Religion the Gospel being a Covenant that doth not damn men upon all voluntary sin but encourages their repentance with the promise of pardon so that although all our sins are against God and his Spirit they are not irremissible but will be remitted to every man who repents of them It is not every sin against the Spirit of God then which this place in S t Matthew threatens so severely But the unpardonable sin is a sin by it self it has something peculiar in it from all other sins which by shutting us out from all possibility of repentance excludes it from all hopes of being forgiven And indeed it is plainly this It is a sinning against the Holy Ghost in the last sense as it signifies not only the power of miracles but also the gift of tongues and other illuminations of the Holy Ghost which came down upon the Apostles at Pentecost and it is such a sinning against these as is particularly by reviling and blaspheming them This and none other I take to be the sin here mentioned For the clearer discerning whereof we will consider the sins against the Holy Ghost in all the acceptations before laid down and in all of them except the last we shall find room for pardon and remission First then to sin against the Holy Ghost as it signifies the ordinary endowments and vertuous tempers of our minds and wills is not the unpardonable sin that is here spoken of For every sin against any particular vertue is a sin against the Holy Ghost in that sense Every act of drunkenness for instance is against the gift of sobriety and every act of uncleanness is against the gift of continency and so it is in the several actions of all other sorts of sin But now as for all these the great offer and invitation of the Gospel is that men would accept of mercy upon repentance The Incestuous Corinthian sinned deeply against the grace of chastity and he repented and was forgiven S t Peter denied his Lord and upon his repentance he was also pardoned and the same Grace has been allowed as we have seen to all other wilful sinners Nay in this sort of sinning against the Holy Ghost viz. by sinning against those Christian gifts and graces which he works in us there is mercy to very great degrees For sometimes we do not hearken to his holy motions but fall into lesser sins and offensive indecencies notwithstanding all his vertuous suggestions and endeavours to the contrary and then he is troubled and grieved at us Eph. 4.30 And at other times we venture upon more hainous crimes which quite lay waste the conscience and undo all the vertuous temper and resolution of our souls so that we lie long in our impenitence as David did in the matter of Vriah and are almost hardned in our wicked way before we are able again to recover out of it and in these offences the Spirit has been so much affronted and his importunate suggestions so frequently thrown out that he is almost ready to forsake us and to leave us to our selves so that it may be called a quenching of him 1 Thess. 5.19 But although the last of these especially be very dangerous yet is neither of them desperate But after we have been guilty of them God continues still to make offers and invitations and by his long-sufferance and his gracious providences and the repeated calls of his Word and Ministers he still endeavours to recover us to pardon by recalling us to repentance Yea the holy Spirit it self makes fresh assaults upon us and tries again whether we will hearken to it and be relieved by it as it was with David after he had complained of his being deprived of Gods presence and of the holy Spirit 's being taken from him Psal. 51.11 and as it is with every other reclaimed back-slider The sinning against the Holy Ghost therefore in this sense as it signifies the ordinary gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost is far from being the unpardonable sin and is manifestly under the grace of pardon and repentance Secondly Nor is a sin against the extraordinary gifts of casting out Devils healing diseases working miracles or other things called the Spirit that unpardonable sin which is here intended To blaspheme the Spirit 't is true comes very near it and when men are once gone on to that God is very nigh giving of them up and using no more means about them to bring them either to Faith or Repentance which are the only way to pardon and forgiveness But although this pitch of sin be extreme dangerous yet in great likelihood it is not wholly desperate for after all the dirt that men had thrown upon this evidence viz. the miraculous operation wrought by Christ whilst he continued upon earth God was still pleased to use some means further to bring them to believe and that was the evidence of the Holy Ghost which came down to compleat all after that Jesus was glorified Act. 2. This great proof which was to be poured out upon the Disciples at Pentecost and upon other Christians at the Imposition of their hands for a good while after might effect that wherein the other had failed and be acknowledged by those very men who had blasphemed the former So that their case notwithstanding it were gone extreme far was not for all that quite hopeless because one remedy still remained which God resolved he would use to reclaim them though after that he would try no more The blaspheming of the Spirit then was very near the unpardonable because unamendable sin but yet it was not fully grown up to it it was in the next degree to unpardonable but yet if it went no further it might be pardoned still And of this I think we have a clear proof even in those blasphemous Pharisees whose reviling of the Spirit was the occasion of all this discourse For as for the Spirit they blasphemed it in this very Chapter when upon occasion of the miraculous cure of the man with the withered hand v. 13 and of Christs casting out of Devils v. 28 both which were so manifestly wrought before their eyes that none of them durst question or deny the working of them they go blasphemously to charge these evident effects of the Spirit upon the power of Magick and to say that these works of God were performed by the Devil For when these mighty effects of the Spirit were urged to them in behalf of Jesus they answered and said says S t Matthew this Fellow doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils v. 24. Here is a reproach to these miraculous gifts of the Spirit as great as can be invented for it is nothing less than an attributing them to the most foul and loathsom Fiends in Nature even to the very Devils themselves But yet this Blasphemy as dangerous as it was is not
worldly lusts we should LIVE SOBERLY GODLY and RIGHTEOVSLY in this present world Tit. 2.11 12. I begin with that which contains all our Duty towards our selves viz. Sobriety Sobriety is in the general Such a regulation of all our actions whether they concern our Bodies or our Souls as makes it appear that they are guided by a sound mind presiding in Flesh and that the animal Body which they flow from is under the Command of a spiritual Reason It is a doing what is becoming and fit for such Creatures as are Soul as well as Body that have a wise and discerning Spirit which should govern and give Laws in this lump of Flesh. So that Sobriety is a taking care and giving what is due and becoming to both the Parts of our Natures viz. our Bodies and our Souls As for our Bodies all the things in the world which affect them are of a limited goodness or illness but yet in their desires and aversations of them they do not of themselves know any Limits So that in their desires and actions that dueness and decency which Sobriety prescribes is keeping within due bounds or moderation And this Moderation is either 1. Of their desires and use of such things as gratifie and delight them whether that inveigling delight which causes such excess of use and desire be 1. In Meats and our desire and use of them both as to their quantity and quality is moderated by Temperance 2. In Drinks and the like moderation there is by Sobriety more particularly so called 3. In other bodily pleasures which are particularly called Lust and our bodily desires and use of them are moderated by Chastity And the ability to contain our selves and to restrain the violence of our desires herein is called Continence 4. In Riches and Honours and the desire and use of these are moderated by contempt of the world and contentedness In our bodily desires and use of all these things by reason of the unbridled temper of our bodily Appetites which stop at no bounds nor ever know when they have enough we are in great danger to exceed and therefore our desires and use of them stand in need to be moderated and retrenched by these Vertues that it may appear we understand and act not as brute Beasts who have nothing else but bodily appetite to guide them but as men who have wise Souls presiding in Flesh to keep within decency and due bounds the exorbitant inclinations of our Bodies Which Souls moreover as we shew by such actions are of an immortal and invaluable nature whose interest therefore is infinitely dearer to us and calls incomparably more for our care and pains than our Bodies either do or in reason ought to call for 2. Of their aversation and avoidance of such things as grieve and trouble them Whether that matter of our bodily avoidance be 1. The troubles and losses that are laid in the way of our Duty and our avoidance of these is moderated by the Duty of taking up the Cross. 2. The irksome pains which we take in going through it and performing it and our avoidance of this is moderated by the Vertues of diligence and watchfulness 3. The great evils which we have already fallen under and are suffering for it and our avoidance and flight of these is moderated and restrained by patience Our hatred and avoidance of all these evils which in themselves are naturally prone to be excessive are so to be moderated and over-ruled by these Vertues that all the world may see we are not acted as the brute Beast by mere sense and appetite which know no Rules of decency nor stop at any limits but know and do as becomes men who are endowed with spiritual and discerning Souls which understand how to give Laws and prescribe Rules of decency to our fleshly Appetites and whose sins are far worse evils than any or all the sufferings which can befal our Bodies So that to keep back from them we will not avoid and fly from these but willingly embrace and undergo them And to enable us the better thus to moderate all the desires and aversations and to keep perfectly under Command and within just bounds these naturally extravagant tendencies and propensions of our Flesh we must curb and keep it in and dead in great degrees not only its immoderate and excessive but also its innocent eagerness and inclinations lest they become a Snare to us and acquire so much strength by our indulgence of them as will carry us on to gratifie them at other times when they are not innocent but sinful which but for such curbing and conquest of them they would be sure to do And this is done by the general Vertues of mortification and self-denial The great matter indeed and principle Object of mortification and self-denial is our sinful appetites and such disobedient actions as we are tempted and drawn into by the untamed inclinations of our Bodies And this S t Paul affirms is an indispensable Duty and a Vertue of absolute necessity unto life If ye live after the Flesh saith he you shall dye but if you through the Spirit do mortifie the DEEDS of the Body you shall live Rom. 8.13 But as our sinful and disobedient appetites are the prime Object of all religious self-denial and mortification and that which is absolutely necessary as the end so likewise are our innocent appetites an inferior object of it and our mortification of them is a necessary means and instrument without which we shall never be able to mortifie the other For a free allowance of our bodily desires in all things lawful and an unlimited gratification of them in all instances whatsoever where they are innocent would certainly prove a Snare to us and betray us into a like indulgence and satisfaction of them in some Cases where they are sinful and disobedient And the reason of this is plain because if we should gratifie them in all things where we may lawfully and never deny them any thing but what is sinful they must needs come by long use and indulgence to rule in us and to have a great Power and Empire over us We shall find it a matter of great difficulty to put them by and a very painful task to deny them any thing so that whithersoever they lead us it is odds but we shall follow them But now as for their Parts they make no difference between an innocent and a sinful enjoyment they do not distinguish things into good and evil they are not moved by Law and decency but pleasure and desire what is delightsom and agrees with them whether it happen to be allow'd to them or forbidden If by a customary gratification therefore and indulgence of them in any thing even in instances that are innocent and lawful we suffer our bodily appetites to grow strong in us and to get the guidance and management of us they will over-rule us in instances that are prohibited as