's call'd luxury and he who sets himselfe after it a Whoremonger Nor is it impossible but that uncleanesse may be between marryed couples when the use of the marriage bed is in a season prohibited or in a measure not moderated or in a manner not ordained or to an end not warranted To all which may be added the sin called Lenocinium when a Female is prostituted to the lusts of another either for gaine or favour forbidden Levit. 19.29 with which some joyn the toleration of uncleannesse either in private families or in publick states as in Rome that Spirituall Sodom As also all those things which incite dispose or provoke to actuall uncleannesse as immodest kisses embraces glances filthy speeches impure books amorous songs mixt dancings lascivious attire c. And lastly the concupiscence boyling or burning lustfulnesse of the heart out of which proceed evill thoughts murders adulteries fornications Mat. 15.19 called 1 Cor. 7.9 burning and Col. 3.5 Evill concupiscence It 's most probable that these impure Sodomites at first began at some of the lower and lesse heinous of the forementioned sorts of uncleannesse and that they went through most if not all of them before they came to be such hellish proficients and practicioners in their villanies Nausea fastidium muliebris commercii in Sodomitis Musc in Gen. p. 464. Vid. Mr. D. Rogers in his excellent Treatise called Matrimoniall Honour Liber amorque denique cum mentes bominum furiarit uterque pu dor et probitas metus omnis abest as to abuse themselves with mankind the heinousnesse of which abomination either swallowes up the mention of the rest or if from them they did abstain it was neither for feat or shame but because they accounted them as Musculus speaks to be ranks too inconsiderable and ordinary for them who left the naturall use of the woman and burnt in lust towards one another and as Jude saith followed after strange flesh Breifly now though sutably to this branch of Explication I shall add to the discovery of the sorts of uncleanness a touch of the peculiar odiousnesse of this sin to defer the consideration of the wrath of God against it till we come to the next part 1. It 's a close and cleaving sin much cherish'd by corrupt nature It bears as a Reverend Divine notes the name of it's mother which is called in generall lust or concupiscence it hath the name of it is kind and therefore it is lust eminently it lies near the heart and sleeps in the bosome 2. It 's an Infatuating sin Hos 4.11 taking away the heart even David was led with a stupor of spirit for a whole year together after his uncleannesse How did this sin besot Samson It blunts the edge not of grace only but even of reason also even Solomon himselfe could not keep his wisdome and women at once 3. It s an Injurious sin to others It loves not to go to hell without company An Adulterer cannot say as some other sinners may that he is his own greatest enemy How many doth it besides those whom it kils in soul wound in body name at one shoot and for this wound there can be no salve of restitution or recompence 4. It s an attended sin not only inducing others to sin but it brings on other sins with it it 's like the needle which draws the thread after it idolatry perjuries murders riot defrauding even of nearest relations The Apostle joyns fornication and wickednesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together Rom. 1.29 An unclean person runs downe the hill and cannot stop his course in sin 5. It 's a Dishonourable sin to be the body and 1 Cor. 6.18 peculiarly said to be against the body The unclean person makes himself a stigmatick he brands his body and leaves upon it a loathsome staine Other sins comparatively are without the body by it not in it this both it being a more bodily sin and requiring more of the body for the perfecting of it 6. It 's a Sacrilegious sin It takes away from God that which is his own he made our bodies Psal 139.15 and curioufly wrought them like a piece of tapestry and he will not have them to be spotted 1 Cor. 6.15 16 18 19. Our bodies are the members of Christ our mysticall head united strongly though Spiritually If it were heinous for David to cut off the skirt of Sauls garment what is it for any to divide between Christ and his members and that by making them the members of an Harlot Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost therefore not to be the Styes for Swine dedicated therefore not to to be prophaned 7. It s an Heathenish sin Gentiles walk 1 Thes 4.5 in the lust of concupiscence and a sin before conversion 1 Cor. 6.9 Such were some of you A sin of night and darknesse wherein men care not how much their apparel be spotted or torn A sin not to be named amongst Christians In a word a sin not of Saints but of Sodomites Who 2. Are specially taxed with the breach of chastity in pollutions by strange flesh Quidam censent per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per verecundam se synecdochen carnis nomine intelligi membrum genetale vel potius nefarium illius membri in illicito coitu abusum Gerard. in 2 Pet. 2.10 Rom. 1.27 The words in the Originall are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifying another flesh Whereby the Apostle intends such a flesh as was another or different from that which was afforded to their naturall use by the law of nature or a flesh that was made by God to another use and end than that unto which they abused it Or as Oecumenius thinks that flesh which they followed may be called another or strange because God never appointed that Male and Male but only that Male and Female should be one flesh in which respect as to a male the flesh of a Male must alwayes be another flesh And Chrysostome well observes on Rom. 1.27 that whereas by Gods ordinance in lawfull copulation by marriage two became one flesh both sexes were joyned together in one by Sondomiticall uncleannesse the same flesh is divided into two Men with men working uncleannesse as with women of one sex making as it were two Of this sin of pollution with strange or another flesh in Scripture two sorts are mentioned The one carnall joyning with a beast which is of another kind prohibited Levit 18.23 and punished with death Levit. 20.15 wherein it's observable that the very Beast is also appointed to be slain as in another case the Ox that goared one to death was to be killed Exod. 21.28 by which was manifested the detestablenesse of that sin in that it polluted the very beasts Ad ipsum innoxium annimal poena transit Calv. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nefas de quo ne fari licet of which it is not lawfull to
salvation blown out here in this life salvation is in the bud Saints are here saved from the power of their corruptions they are here in the Suburbs of Heaven they here sit together in heavenly places in Christ Ephes 2.6 They here have salvation not only in their desires and expectations but in its Cause 2 Pet. 1.11 They have an entrance into the everlasting Kingdomof Christ They are by faith united to that Head which is already in heaven They are freed though not from the company of and contention with yet from conquest by all their enemies and there is alway the certainty of this salvation in respect of it selfe the object though not in respect of us the subject 4. The People of God are safe and saved Observ 4. even while they are in dangers Their enemies are but nominall The keeper of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps Psal 90. per tot Though they be tempted sick persecuted banished yet never unsafe and when ever God brings them into these conditions 't is because they are the safest for them Their graces are alway safe their souls their comforts safe because Christ their Head their hope their all is safe The poorest Saint hath his Life-guard He who provided a City of Refuge for those who kill'd men will much more finde out a City of Refuge for thee when men shall labour to kill thee Of this more before Observ 5. 5. Our dangers and enemies in this life should exceedingly commend heaven to us The Tempest commends the Haven the Pursuite of the Enemy the City of Refuge the Storms the Shelter We are never fully safe till we arrive at eternall salvation It 's strange that Saints should long no more to get into the bosome of Christ in glory that they should be so unwilling to leave the lions dens and the mountains of leopards Cant. 4.8 Mundus turbatur amatur We love to handle the world though God makes it a bundle of thorns what should we do if it were an heap of roses 6. Observ 6. God hath appointed the holy Writings for our salvation Jude writes to further the salvation of these Christians 2 Tim. 3.15 The Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation Gal. 6.16 Eternall peace is only upon those who walk according to this rule The Scripture tels us not only what we shall find heaven to be when we are there but how we should find the way thither They are the pillar and cloud in our wildernesse The light which shines in a dark place for our guidance Let us labour to have salvation further'd by them How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation How sad is it to carry these Letters of Heaven about us only as Vrijah carried Davids for his own destruction 7. The furthering of the salvation of others Observ 7. should be the end of our writing To write the same things to you saith Paul is sufe Phil. 3.1 2. 1 Pet. 5.12 1 John 2.1 Videtur quicquid literis mandatur id commendari omnium eruditorum lectione debere Cicero 2 Tusc quaest I have written saith Peter exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherin ye stand My little children saith John these things I write unto you that ye fin not We must not write to shew our learning much lesse to obscure the truth Nothing should be written but what the reading of the best should commend The best thing that many do by writing is to make paper dear but which is worse they make their reader worse it were well that either they would not write at all or else write a Book of Retractations But among us Sectaries after conviction write with more rage instead of retractation If these will not amend readers are to take heed of buying their books lest they imbrace their errours and rather to dig in the Mine of the Scriptures for gold than to wallow in the mire of the Books of Sectaries and Seducers This for the first the nature of that subject about which the Apostle was to write Salvation The second follows the property of it Common common salvation Wherein by way of Explication we may shew two things 1. In what respect Salvation is called common Explicat 2. Why the Apostle here in this place doth call it so Common cannot be here taken according to the usage of the word somtimes in the Scripture as 't is opposed to holy and as importing as much as prophane or that which every one may use or belongs to every one as 1 Sam. 21.4 that bread which was not consecrated to God or hallowed and of which any might eat is called common So Act. 10.14.28 and 11.8 Meats forbidden by the Leviticall Law are called common and unclean because the prophane Gentiles did commonly use those meats which the Jews being an holy people might not eat Heb. 10.29 And so those Apostates are said to account the bloud of the Covenant a common or unholy thing they esteeming the bloud of Christ no more then if it had been the bloud of some ordinary person or of some wicked or guilty one Nor is common here to be taken unlimitedly for that which is common universally to every one as if none were excluded from this salvation Mat. 7.14 Aug. de haeres cap. 43. Origen is charged as if he held that those who lived and died the most flagitious of sinners nay that the divell himselfe and his angels after a thousand years torments should be saved But Common is here taken in a limited sense this salvation being common only to the faithfull who all have an interest in the same it belongs to one of them John 17.12 Rev. 7.9 Acts 1.8 Rom. 1.16 Acts 10.35 as well as to another the meanest are not excluded it Christ loseth none of his It 's a salvation for Jewes and Gentiles rich and poor honourable and ignoble bond and free learned and illiterate And thus 't is common salvation sundry wayes 1. In regard of the meritorious purchaser of this salvation There is one common Saviour Ephes 4.5 Ephes 5.23 the Saviour of the body Every member thereof hath influence from this head There is one Lord 1 Cor. 10.4 1 Cor. 3.11 John 1.16 there is this one Mediatour between God and man They of old all drank of the same spirituall rock Christ Jesus Of his fulnesse we have all received He is the sun that gives luster and light to every star the Well that fill'd every pitcher the only foundation laid by all 1. It 's common salvation in regard of the rule and way by which we are guided thither There is but one faith called also Catholick God calls all his people with one voice Omnis unâ voce invitat Cal. in 4. Eph. There 's but one way to heaven the good old way there 's one rule prescribed to all somtimes it hath been more
meet this ugly guest in any corner of the house but the heart riseth against it this hatred of evill Psal 97.10 is more then of hell it s a killing look that the soul doth cast upon every corruption He that hateth his brother is a man-slayer he that hateth his lust is a sin-slayer not he that hateth the sins or practices of his brother but the person of his brother so not he that hateth the effects and fruits of sin but the nature of sin not he that hateth sin for hell but as hell Every evill by how much the nearer 't is by so much the more it s hated An evill as it is so to our estate names children wife life soul as impendent adjacent incumbent inherent admits of severall degrees of hatred Sin is an inward a soul-foe Love turned into hatred becoms most bitter brethrens divisions are hardest to reconcile the souls old love is turned into new hatred the very ground sin treads upon is hated There 's a kinde of hatred of ones self for sin every act that sin hath a hand in is hated our very duties for sins intermixing with them and we are angry with our selves that we can hate it no more 3. This hatred puts forth it self in labouring the destruction of sin Love cannot be hid neither can this hatred The soul seeks the death of sin by these ways and helps 1. By lamentation to the Lord when going to him for strength with the Apostle Oh wretched man that I am was there ever a soul so sin-pestred Ah woe is me Lord that I am compell'd to be chain'd to this block Never did a slave in Egypt or Turkey so sigh under bondage as a mortifying soul doth under corruption The sorrows of others are outward shallow in the eye the look but these are in the bottom of the soul deep sorrows It s true a man may give a louder cry at the drawing of a tooth then ever he did pining under the deepest consumption but yet the consumption that is the harbinger of death doth afflict him much more and though outward worldly grief as for the death of a child c. may be more intense and expressive yet grief for sin is more deep close sticking oppressive to the soul then all other sorrows the soul of a saint like a sword may be melted when the outward man the scabbard is whole 2. The soul of a sin-subduer fights against sin with the Crosse of Christ and makes the death of Christ the death of sin Ephes 5.25 1. By depending on his death as the meritorious cause of sins subduing of sanctification and cleansing Christs purifying us being upon the condition of his suffering 1 Cor. 6.20 and so it urgeth God thus Lord hath not Christ laid down the price of the purchase why then is Satan in possession Is Satan bought out Lord let him be cast out 2. By taking a pattern from the death of Christ for the killing of sin we being planted into the similitude of his death Rom. 8.5 sin it self hanging upon the crosse as it were when Christ died Oh saith a gracious heart that my corruptions may drink Vinegar that they may be pierced and naild and never come down alive but though they die lingeringly yet certainly Oh that I might see their hands feet side and every limb of the body of death bored the head bowing and the whole laid in the grave the darknesse error and vanity of the understanding the sinfull quietnesse and unquietnesse of my conscience the rebellion of my will the disorder of my affections 3. And especially the soul makes use of the death of Christ as a motive or inducement to put it upon sin-killing Ah my sin is the knife saith the soul that is redded over in my Redeemer's blood Ah it pointed every thorn on his head and nail in his hands and feet Lord Art thou a friend to Christ and shall sin that kill'd him live Thus a sin-mortifying heart brings sin neer to a dead Christ whom faith seeth to fall a bleeding afresh upon the approach of sin and therfore it layes the death of Christ to the charge of sin The crosse of Christ is sins terror the souls armour The bloud of Christ is old sures-be as holy Bradford was wont to say to kill sin As he died for sin so must we to it as his flesh was dead so must ours be Our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6.6 It s not a Pope's hallowing a Crosse that can do it Mr. D. Rogers Pr. Cat. but the power of Christ by a promise which blesseth this Crosse to mortification 3. The soul labours to kill sin by fruitfull enjoyment of Ordinances It never goeth to pray but it desires sin may have some wound and points by prayer like the sick child to the place where its most pained How doth it bemoan it self with Ephraim and pour-forth the bloud of sin at the eys It thus also improves Baptism it looks upon it as a seal to Gods promise that sin shall die We being buried with Christ in baptism that the Egyptians shall be drowned in the sea It never heareth a Sermon but as Joab dealt with Vrijah it labours to set its strongest corruption in the fore-front of the battell that when Christ shoots his arrows and draws his sword in the preaching of the Word sin may be hit An unsanctified person is angry with such preaching and cannot endure the winde of a sermon should blow upon a lust 4. By a right improving all administrations of providence If God send any affliction the sanctified soul concludes that some corruption must go to the lions If there arise any storms presently it enquires for Jonah and labours to cast him over-board If God snatcheth away comforts as Joseph fled from his Mistris presently a sin-mortifying heart saith Lord thou art righteous my unclean heart was prone to be in love with them more then with Christ my true Husband If God at any time hedg up her way with thorns she reflects upon her own gadding after her impure Lovers If her two eys Profits Pleasures be put out and removed a sin-mortifier will desire to pull down the house upon the Philistims and beareth every chastisement cheerfully even death it self that sin may but die too 5. By consideration of the sweetnesse of spirituall life Life is sweet and therfore what cost are men at to be rid of diseases to drive an Enemy out of the Country The soul thinks how happy it should be could it walk with God and be upright and enjoy Christ be rid of a Tyrant and be governed by the laws of a Liege the Lord Jesus How heavie is Satans yoke to him who sees the beutie and tasts the liberty of holy obedience A sick man confined to bed how happy doth he think them that can walk abroad about their imployments Oh saith a gracious heart how sweetly doth such a Christian pray how strictly doth
bears a cart begins with a tender film not able to bear a pibble the least enemy must not be neglected Presume not on thy own strength He that carrieth grace in a proud heart carrieth dust in the winde a proud man is arbor decorticata a tree whose bark is off humility keeps in the sap of grace Shun the occasions of sin it s easier to passe by the snare then to get out Lastly Pray to be preserved from God is it that we stand we are reeds tyed to a pillar The wicked go out of the way and they call not upon God Psal 14.3 4. This for the handling of the first particular in the second Priviledge viz. the kinde of it Preservation The second follows viz. The ground of this their preservation In Christ Jesus Briefly 1. To explain it 2. To collect Observations 1. For Explication The faithfull may be said to be preserved in Christ two wayes 1. Merito passionis by the merit of his suffering And thus he saves from the wrath and curse of God There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 He saveth from the wrath to come 1 Thess 1. ult The chastisements of our peace were upon his head and by his stripes we are healed Isa 53. He was as the brazen Serpent in healing the beholders All miseries as curses have left their stings in his side He was the true Passover for whom all the Judgments of God pass over us his Crosse is the tree cast into the waters of Marah to take away their bitternesse his ignominy our glory his poverty Paupertas Christi patrimonium meum Ambr. our patrimony 2. We are preserved in Christ Efficacia operationis by his effectuall working in us and bestowing upon us such supplies of grace as that we never fully and finally depart from God and this is effected two wayes 1. On Christs part He sending his Spirit to work in us 2. On our parts Faith is enabled by his Spirit to receive continued supplyes of strength from him 1. His Spirit of grace call'd the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. Gal. 4.6 v. 9. is bestowed upon us he interceding with his Father for that end I will pray the Father saith he and he shall give you another Comforter Joh. 14.16 If I depart Spiritus Vicarius Christi I will send him unto you And this presence of the Spirit working and continuing grace is the fruit of those prayers for proservation of his people I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not saith Christ to Peter Luk. 22.32 and I pray that thou wouldst keep them from the evill Joh. 17.15 And the Apostle Rom. 8.34 from the Intercession of Christ inferrs the certainty of perseverance Who also maketh intercession for us Who shall separate us from the love of Christ c. Now this Spirit sent by Christ into the hearts of his people preserves them both by working and strengthening their union with Christ In the former Rom. 8.9 Rom. 6. conveying a life and bestowing a permanent principle of holinesse upon them 1 John 3.9 putting into them a seed that shall never dye infusing an habit of holinesse never to be lost In the later Phil. 1.19 Eph. 3.16 Phil. 4.13 affording daily supplyes and strengthening them with might to resist all tentations to bear all burdens to go thorow all conflicts to thrive by all Ordinances to rest upon all the promises to act their graces with vigour to mourn for sin committed Rom. 8. 2 Cor. 12.8 call and cry for grace which is wanting the Spirit directing in doubts quickning in deadnesse comforting in sorrows interceding in prayer c. 2. John 15.4 6. Eph. 3.17 On our part we are preserved in Christ by his operation when faith is enabled by the Spirit to adhere and cleave unto him to unite and fasten us unto him making Christ to dwel in our hearts incorporating us into him as the branches are in the tree or as the root is fastened in the soyl the member in the body or the house upon the foundation this grace joyning and making us adhere to Christ so strongly that having fastened upon him there 's no plucking of the soul from him And thus as Christ layes hold upon us and takes us by the hand with his Spirit so we lay hold upon him and take him by the hand with our Faith whereby the union is complete and reciprocall Our beloved ours and wee his And from this uniting and closing work of faith by the Spirit flows the preservation of a Christian as the weak branches of a Vine are upheld by fastning about the prop and the house by abiding on the foundation or a weak slender reed by being tyed to a pillar But yet faith resteth not here but improves this union and by vertue of it †Habemus sapientiam justitiam sanctitatem Christi non quatenus speculamur Christū quatenus longè à nobis existentem sed quatenus incorporamur Christo quatenus habemus Christum in nobis manentem De fonte hujus spiritualis plenitudinis accipere non possumus nisi in illo simus et boc discriminis est inter fontem naturalem spiritualem Dau. in Col. p. 248. John 1.16 drawes continuall supplyes of grace and strength from Christ as the root from the soyl or the branches from the root or the pipe from the fountain Hence it is that we live by faith Gal. 2.20 because our faith is the instrument that draws vertue from Christ to relieve and sustain us in all our wants Faith and Christ being well met Christ is very full and loves to be giving Faith very empty a covetous grace and loves to be receiving of his fulnesse It sufficeth not faith to be in the fountain unless it drink of the fountain to be in Christ unlesse it receive from Christ to unite us as members to the head unless it supplyes us as members from the head from the head all the body by joynts and bands hath nourishment ministred Col. 2.19 the Spirit on the part of Christ and faith on ours are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those joynts and instruments of connexion betwixt Christ and us whereby a Christian is not onely knit to Christ his head and a kinde of spirituall continuity between Christ and him is caused but hath nourishment ministred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is furnished or supplyed with all sutable furniture plentifully necessary to preservation of grace all things that pertain to life and godlinesse 2 Pet. 1.3 Rom. 8.10 2 Cor. 8.9 justifying grace to preserve us from the guilt of sin supplyes of sanctifying grace to preserve us from the filth of sin in us and the force of tentation without us 1 Joh. 5.11 in both respects faith drawing preservation from Christ in whom life is nay Col. 3.4 who is our life And faith makes use of the Ordinances but as conduit-pipes or water-courses to
that his commands are profitable to both 3. Sins of unchastity are peculiarly defiling Besides that spirituall uncleannesse wherewith every sin defiles carnall chastity defiles with that which is bodily All sin in generall is called uncleannesse but fornication is the sin which is singled out particularly to be branded with that name Some think that Adulterers are especially compared to Dogs unclean creatures The hire of a whore and the price of a dog are put together and both forbidden to be brought into the house of the Lord Deuter. 23.18 And when Abner was by Ishbosheth reproved for defiling Rizpah he answers Am I a dog Weems on the seventh Commandment The childe begotten in adultery is Deut. 23.2 called Mamzer which some learned men derive from two words signifying another mans spot or defilement how foolish are they who desire to have their dead bodies imbalmed and their living bodies defiled There 's a peculiar opposition between fornication and sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 This is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication The Saints of God should have a peculiar abhorrence of this sin fornication and uncleanness c. let it not be once named among you as becometh Saints Eph. 5.3 they should cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 A man who is of a cleanly disposition loves to wear clean garments The body is the garment of the soule and a clean heart will preserve a pure body Remember Christians by what hand your bodies were made by what guest they are inhabited to what head they are united by what price they are purchased in what laver they have been washed and to whose eye they shall hereafter be presented Consider lastly whether Delilah's lap be a fit place for those who expect a room in Abrahams bosome 3. Observ 3. The love of lust makes men erroneous and seducers They who make no conscience of ordering their conversation will soon be hereticall These Seducers who oppos'd the Faith were unclean and Flesh-defilers The fool said in his heart that there was no God Psal 14.1 and the true ground thereof immediately follows they are corrupt and have done abominable works They who put away a good conscience concerning faith will soon make shipwrack 1 Tim. 1.19 The lust of ambition and desire to be teachers of the Law makes men turn aside to vain jangling 1 Tim. 1.7 Diotrephes his love of preheminence puts him upon opposing the truth 3 Joh. ver 10. The lust of covetousness did the like They who supposed that gain was godliness quickly grew destitute of the truth 1 Tim. 6.5 while some covered money they erred from the faith Mich. 3 5. 1 Tim. 6.10 They who subverted whole houses and taught things which they ought not did it for filthy lucres sake Tit. 1.11 The blinde Watchmen and the Shepherds which understood not were such as could never have enough and lookt every one for his gain and they were dumb because greedy dogs Esa 56.10 11. The lust of voluptuousness produced the same effect they who caused divisions contrary to the Doctrine which the Romans had learned were such as served their own belly Rom. 16.17 They who lead captive silly women laden with divers lusts resisted the truth were men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3. Wine and strong drink made the Prophets erre and go out of the way The Hereticks of old the Gnosticks Basilidians Epiph. adv haer c. 24 25 26. Aug. de haer c. 5 6. Perit judicium cum res transit in affectum Nicolaitans c. were so infamous for carnall uncleanness as Epiphanius Augustine and others report that a modest ear would even suffer by the relation thereof Nor have the Papists and Anabaptists of late come far short of them The lusts make the affections to be judges and where affection swayes judgement decayes Hence Alphonsus advised that affections should be left at the threshold when any went to Councell We are prone to believe that to be right and lawful which we would have to be so Lusts oppose all entrance of light which opposeth them Repentance alone makes men acknowledge the truth 2 Tim. 2.25 How can yee believe saith Christ who receive honour one from another Sensuall men taught that the Resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2.18 because it troubled them to think of it The consideration of a Resurrection an Hell an Heaven disturbs them and therefore they deny these If the light be too much in mens eyes they will either shut their eyes or draw the curtains Lusts will pervert the light which is brought in making men instead of bringing their crooked lives to the strait rule to bring the strait rule to their crooked lives and in stead of bringing their hearts to the Scripture to bring the Scripture to their hearts Hence it is that wicked men study the Scripture for distinctions to maintain their lusts and truly a carnall will is often helpt by the Devill to a carnall wit Lastly God in judgement gives up such who will not see to an inability and utter impotency to discern what they ought and to a reprobate minde they who will not be Scholars of Truth are by God justly delivered up to be Masters of Error And because men will not indure sound Doctrine God suffers them to heap unto themselves teachers after their own lusts to turn away their ears from the truth and to be turned unto fables because that when the very Heathen extinstuish'd the light of Nature and knowing God did not glorifie him as God professing themselves wise they became fools and God gave them up to uncleanness and vile affections much more may God send those who live under the Gospell and receive not the love of the truth strong delusions that they should believe lies 2 Thes 2.10 11. Wonder not therefore at that apostacy from the truth which abounds in these dayes and the opposing of those old precious Doctrines which heretofore men have imbraced in appearance some unmortified lust or other there was in them some worm or other there was of pride licenciousness c. in these beautifull Apples which made them fall from the tree of truth to the dirt of error in stead therefore of being scandalized at them let us bee carefull of our selves if wee would hold the mystery of faith let us put it into a pure conscience Let us keep no lust in delitiis love we no sin if we would leave no truth Let us love what we know and then we shall know what to love let us sincerely do the will of Christ and then we shall surely know the Doctrine of Christ I understand more than the Antients saith David Psal 119.100 because I keep thy precepts The Lord will teach such his way and guide them in judgment Evill men saith Solomon understand not judgement but they that seek the Lord understand all things Prov.