choose good yet morally he is so determin'd with his love to evill that good seldome comes into dispute and a man runs to evill as he runs to meat or sleep for why else should it be that every one can teach a childe to be proud or to swear to lie or to doe little spites to his play-fellow and can traine him up to infant follies But the severity of Tutors and the care of Parents discipline and watchfulnesse arts and diligence all is too little to make him love but to say his prayers or to doe that which becomes persons design'd for honest purposes and his malice shall out-run his years he shall be a man in villany before he is by law capable of choice or inheritance and this indisposition lasts upon us for ever even as long as we live just in the same degrees as flesh and blood does rule us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Art of Physicians can cure the evills of the body but this strange propensity to evill nothing can cure but death the grace of God eases the malignity here but it cannot be cured but by glory that is this freedome of delight or perfect unabated election of evill which is consequent to the evill manners of the world although it be lessened by the intermediall state of grace yet it is not cured untill it be changed into its quite contrary but as it is in heaven all that is happy and glorious and free yet can choose nothing but the love of God and excellent things because God fills all the capacities of Saints and there is nothing without him that hath any degrees of amability so in the state of nature of flesh and blood there is so much ignorance of spirituall excellencies and so much proportion to sensuall objects which in most instances and in many degrees are prohibited that as men naturally know no good but to please a wilde indetermin'd infinite appetite so they will nothing else but what is good in their limit and proportion and it is with us as it was with the shee-goat that suckled the wolves whelp he grew up by his nurses milke and at last having forgot his foster mothers kindnesse eat that udder which gave him drink and nourishment Improbit as nullo flectitur obsequio for no kindnesse will cure an ill nature and a base disposition so are we in the first constitution of our nature so perfectly given to naturall vices that by degrees we degenerate into unnaturall and no education or power of art can make us choose wisely or honestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phalaris There is no good nature but onely vertue till we are new created we are wolves and serpents free and delighted in the choice of evill but stones and iron to all excellent things and purposes 2. Next I am to consider the weaknesse of the flesh even when the state is changed in the beginning of the state of grace For many persons as soon as the grace of God rises in their hearts are all on fire and inflamed it is with them as Homer said of the Syrian starre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shines finely and brings feavers splendor and Zeal are the effects of the first grace and sometimes the first turnes into pride and the second unto uncharitablenesse and either by too dull and slow motions or by too violent and unequall the flesh will make pretences and too often prevail upon the spirit even after the grace of God hath set up its banners in our hearts 1. In some dispositions that are forward and apt busie and unquiet when the grace of God hath taken possessions and begins to give laws it seems so pleasant and gay to their undiscerning spirits to be delivered from the sottishnesse of lust and the follies of drunkennesse that reflecting upon the change they begin to love themselves too well and take delight in the wisdome of the change and the reasonablenesse of the new life and then they by hating their own follies begin to despise them that dwell below It was the tricke of the old Philosophers whom Aristophanes thus describes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pale and barefoot and proud that is persons singular in their habit eminent in their institution proud and pleased in their persons and despisers of them that are lesse glorious in their vertue then themselves and for this very thing our blessed Saviour remarks the Pharisees they were severe and phantasticall advancers of themselves and Judgers of their neighbors and here when they have mortified corporall vices such which are scandalous and punishable by men they keep the spirituall and those that are onely discernible by God these men doe but change their sin from scandall to danger and that they may sin more safely they sin more spiritually 2. Sometimes the passions of the flesh spoyle the changes of the Spirit by naturall excesses and disproportion of degrees it mingles violence with industry and fury with zeale and uncharitablenesse with reproofe and censuring with discipline and violence with desires and immortifications in all the appetites and prosecutions of the soule Some think it is enough in all instances if they pray hugely and fervently and that it is religion impatiently to desire a victory over our enemies or the life of a childe or an heir to be born they call it holy so they desire it in prayer that if they reprove a vicious person they may say what they list and be as angry as they please that when they demand but reason they may enforce it by all means that when they exact duty of their children they may be imperious and without limit that if they designe a good end they may prosecute it by all instruments that when they give God thanks for blessings they may value the thing as high as they list though their persons come into a share of the honour here the spirit is willing and holy but the flesh creeps too busily and insinuates into the substance of good actions and spoyles them by unhandsome circumstances and then the prayer is spoil'd for want of prudence or conformity to Gods will and discipline and government is imbittered by an angry spirit and the Fathers authority turns into an uneasie load by being thrust like an unequall burden to one side without allowing equall measures to the other And if we consider it wisely we shall find that in many good actions the flesh is the bigger ingredient and we betray our weak constitutions even when we do Justice or Charity and many men pray in the flesh when they pretend they pray by the spirit 3. In the first changes and weak progresses of our spirituall life we find a long weaknesse upon us because we are long before we begin and the flesh was powerfull and its habits strong and it will mingle indirect pretences with all the actions of the spirit If we mean to pray the flesh thrusts in thoughts of the world and our tongue
cloud first he is renewed in the spirit of his minde and then he is inflamed with holy fires and guided by a bright starre first purified and then lightned then burning and shining so is every man in every of his prayers He is alwayes like the spirit by which he prayes If he be a lustfull person he prayes with a lustfull spirit if he does not pray for it he cannot heartily pray against it If he be a Tyrant or an usurper a robber or a murtherer he hath his Laverna too by which all his desires are guided and his prayers directed and his petitions furnished He cannot pray against that spirit that possesses him and hath seised upon his will and affections If he be fill'd with a lying spirit and be conformed to it in the image of his minde he will be so also in the expressions of his prayer and the sense of his soul. Since therefore no prayer can be good but that which is taught by the Spirit of grace none holy but the man whom Gods Spirit hath sanctified and therefore none heard to any purposes of blessing which the holy Ghost does not make for us for he makes intercession for the Saints the Spirit of Christ is the praecentor or the rector chori the Master of the Quire it followes that all other prayers being made with an evill Spirit must have an evill portion and though the Devils by their Oracles have given some answers and by their significations have foretold some future contingencies and in their government and subordinate rule have assisted some armies and discovered some treasures and prevented some snares of chance and accidents of men yet no man that reckons by the measures of reason or religion reckons witches and conjurors amongst blessed and prosperous persons these and all other evill persons have an evill spirit by the measures of which their desires begin and proceed on to issue but this successe of theirs neither comes from God nor brings felicity but if it comes from God it is anger if it descends upon good men it is a curse if upon evill men it is a sin and then it is a present curse and leads on to an eternall infelicity Plutarch reports that the Tyrians tyed their gods with chains because certain persons did dream that Apollo said he would leave their City and go to the party of Alexander who then besieged the town and Apollodorus tels of some that tied the image of Saturne with bands of wooll upon his feet So are some Christians they think God is tyed to their sect and bound to be of their side and the interest of their opinion and they think he can never go to the enemies party so long as they charme him with certain formes of words or disguises of their own and then all the successe they have and all the evils that are prosperous all the mischiefs they do and all the ambitious designs that do succeed they reckon upon the account of their prayers and well they may for their prayers are sins and their desires are evill they wish mischief and they act iniquity and they enjoy their sin and if this be a blessing or a cursing themselves shall then judge and all the world shall perceive when the accounts of all the world are truly stated then when prosperity shall be called to accounts and adversity shall receive its comforts when vertue shall have a crown and the satisfaction of all sinfull desires shall be recompensed with an intolerable sorrow and the despair of a perishing soul. Nero's Mother prayed passionately that her son might be Emperor and many persons of whom S. Iames speaks pray to spend upon their lusts and they are heard too some were not and very many are and some that fight against a just possessor of a country pray that their wars may be prosperous and sometimes they have been heard too and Julian the Apostate prayed and sacrificed and inquired of Daemons and burned mans flesh and operated with secret rites and all that he might craftily and powerfully oppose the religion of Christ and he was heard too and did mischief beyond the malice and effect of his predecessors that did swim in Christian bloud but when we sum up the accounts at the foot of their lives or so soon as the thing was understood and finde that the effect of Agrippina's prayer was that her son murdered her and of those lustfull petitioners in St. Iames that they were given over to the tyranny and possession of their passions and baser appetites and the effect of Iulian the Apostate's prayer was that he liv'd and died a professed enemy of Christ and the effect of the prayers of usurpers is that they do mischief and reap curses and undoe mankinde and provoke God and live hated and die miserable and shall possesse the fruit of their sin to eternall ages these will be no objections to the truth of the former discourse but greater instances that if by hearing our prayers we mean or intend a blessing we must also by making prayers mean that the man first be holy and his desires just and charitable before he can be admitted to the throne of grace or converse with God by the entercourses of a prosperous prayer That 's the first generall 2. Many times good men pray and their prayer is not a sin but yet it returns empty because although the man be yet the prayer is not in proper disposition and here I am to account to you concerning the collaterall and accidentall hinderances of the prayer of a good man The first thing that hinders the prayers of a good man from obtaining its effect is a violent anger a violent storm in the spirit of him that prayes For anger sets the house on fire and all the spirits are busie upon trouble and intend propulsion defence displeasure or revenge it is a short madnesse and an eternall enemy to to discourse and sober counsels and fair conversation it intends its own object with all the earnestnesse of perception or activity of designe and a quicker motion of a too warm and distempered bloud it is a feaver in the heart and a calenture in the head and a fire in the face and a sword in the hand and a fury all over and therefore can never suffer a man to be in a disposition to pray For prayer is an action and a state of entercourse and desire exactly contrary to this character of anger Prayer is an action of likenesse to the holy Ghost the Spirit of gentlenesse and dove-like simplicity an imitation of the holy Jesus whose Spirit is meek up to the greatnesse of the biggest example and a conformity to God whose anger is alwaies just and marches slowly and is without transportation and often hindred and never hasty and is full of mercy prayer is the peace of our spirit the stilnesse of our thoughts the evennesse of recollection the seat of meditation the rest of our cares and the
come that is if it be not repented of it is punished here and hereafter which the Scripture does not affirm concerning all sins and all cases But in this the sinner gives sentence with his mouth and brings it to execution with his own hands Paena tamen praesens cum tu deponis amictum Turgidus et crudum pavonem in balneaportas The old gluttons among the Romans Heliogabalus Tigellius Crispus Montanus notaeque per oppida buccae famous Epicures mingled their meats with vomitings so did Vitellius and enter'd into their baths to digest their Phesants that they might speedily return to the Mullet and the Eeles of Syene and then they went home and drew their breath short till the morning and it may be not at all before night Hinc subitae mortes atque intestata senectus Their age is surprised at a feast and gives them not time to make their will but either they are choked with a large morsell and there is no room for the breath of the lungs and the motions of the heart or a feaver burns their eyes out or a quinzie punishes that intemperate throat that had no religion but the eating of the fat sacrifices the portions of the poor and of the Priest or else they are condemned to a Lethargie if their constitutions be dull and if active it may be they are wilde with watching Plurimus hinc aeger moritur vigilando sed illum Languorem peperit cibus imperfectus haerens Ardenti stomacho So that the Epicures geniall proverb may be a little alter'd and say Let us eat and drink for by this means to morrow we shall die but that 's not all for these men live a healthlesse life that is are long are every day dying and at last dye with torment Menander was too soft in his expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is indeed a death but gluttony is a pleasant death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this is the gluttons pleasure to breath short and difficultly scarce to be able to speak and when he does he cries out I dye and not with pleasure But the folly is as much to be derided as the men to be pityed that we daily see men afraid of death with a most intolerable apprehension and yet increase the evill of it the pain and the trouble and the suddennesse of its coming and the appendage of an unsufferable eternity Rem struere exoptant caeso bove Mercuriúmqque Arcessunt fibrâ They pray for herds of cattell and spend the breeders upon feasts and sacrifices For why do men go to Temples and Churches and make vowes to God and daily prayers that God would give them a healthfull body and take away their gout and their palfies their feavers and apoplexies the pains of the head and the gripings of the belly and arise from their prayers and powre in loads of flesh and seas of wine lest there should not be matter enough for a lusty disease Poscis opem'nervis corpúsqque fidele senectae Esto age sed grandes patinae tucetáqque crassa Annuere his superos vetuere Jov émqque morantur But it is enough that the rich glutton shall have his dead body condited and embalmed he may be allowed to stink and suffer corruption while he is alive These men are for the present living sinners and walking rottennesse and hereafter will be dying penitents and perfumed carcasses and their whole felicity is lost in the confusions of their unnaturall disorder When Cyrus had espyed Astyages and his fellowes coming drunk from a banquet loaden with variety of follies and filthinesse their legs failing them their eyes red and staring cousened with a moist cloud and abused by a doubled object their tongues full as spunges and their heads no wiser he thought they were poysoned and he had reason for what malignant quality can be more venomous and hurtfull to a man then the effect of an intemperate goblet and a full stomach it poysons both the soul and body All poysons do not kill presently and this will in processe of time and hath formidable effects at present But therefore me thinks the temptations which men meet withall from without are in themselves most unreasonable and soonest confuted by us He that tempts me to drink beyond my measure civilly invites me to a feaver and to lay aside my reason as the Persian women did their garments and their modesty at the end of feasts and all the question then will be which is the worse evill to resuse your uncivill kindnesse or to suffer a violent headach or to lay up heaps big enough for an English Surfeit Creon in the Tragedy said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grieve thee O stranger or to he affronted by thee then to be tormented by thy kindnesse the next day and the morrow after and the freed man of Domitius the Father of Nero suffered himself to be kild by his Lord and the sonne of Praxaspes by Cambyses rather then they would exceed their own measures up to a full intemperance and a certain sicknesse and dishonour For as Plutarch said well to avoid the opinion of an uncivill man or being clownish to run into a pain of thy sides or belly into madnesse or a head-ach is the part of a fool and a coward and of one that knowes not how to converse with men citra pocula nidorem in any thing but in the famelick smels of meat and vertiginous drinkings Ebrius petulans qui nullum forte cecîdit Dat poenas noctem patitur lugentis amicum Pelidae A drunkard and a glutton feels the torments of a restlesse night although he hath not kil'd a man that is just like murtherers and persons of an afrighting conscience so wake the glutton so broken and sick and disorderly are the slumbers of the drunkard Now let the Epicure boast his pleasures and tell how he hath swallowed the price of Provinces and gobbets of delicious flesh purchased with the rewards of souls let him brag furorem illum conviviorum foedissimum patrimoniorum exitium culinam of the madnesse of delicious feasts and that his kitchin hath destroyed his Patrimony let him tell that he takes in every day Quantum Lauseia bibebat As much wine as would refresh the sorrowes of 40 languishing prisoners or let him set up his vain-glorious triumph Ut quod multi Damalis meri Bassum Threiciâ vicit amystide That he hath knock'd down Damalis with the 25th bottle and hath outfeasted Anthony or Cleopatra's luxury it is a goodly pleasure and himself shall bear the honour Rarum memorabile magni Gutturis exemplum conducendúsqque magister But for the honour of his banquet he hath some ministers attending that he did not dream of and in the midst of his loud laughter the gripes of the belly and the feavers of the brain Pallor genae pendulae oculorum ulcera tremulae
of your mouth the first sort of this is that which the Apostle calls whispering which signifies to abuse our neighbor secretly by telling a private story of him linguáque refert audita susurro for here the man playes a sure game as he supposes a mischiefe without a witnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Anacreon calls them the light swift arrows of a calumniating tongue they pierce into the heart and bowels of the man speedily These are those which the holy Scripture notes by the disgracefull name of Talebearers Thou shalt not goe up and down as a Talebearer among the people for there are six things which God hates saith Solomon yea the seventh is an abomination unto him it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as bad and as much hated by God as an idol and that is a whisperer or tale-bearer that soweth contention amongst brethren This kinde of communication was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks and was as much hated as the Publicans among the Jewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a vile thing O ye Athenians it is a vile thing for a man to be a Sycophant or a Tale-bearer and the dearest friendships in the world cannot be secure where such whisperers are attended to Te fingente nefas Pyladen odisset Orestes Thesea Pirithoi destituisset amor Tu Siculos fratres majus nomen Atridas Et Ledae poteras dissociare genus But this crime is a conjugation of evils and is productive of infinite mischiefs it undermines peace and saps the foundation of friendship it destroyes families and rends in pieces the very heart and vitall parts of charity it makes an evill man party and witnesse and judge and executioner of the Innocent who is hurt though he deserv'd it not Et si non aliquà nocuisses mortuus esses and no mans interest nor reputation no mans peace or safety can abide where this nurse of jealousie and parent of contention like the earwig creeps in at the car and makes a diseased noyse and scandalous murmur 2. But such tongues as these where they dare and where they can safely love to speak louder and then it is detraction when men under the colour of friendship will certainly wound the reputation of a man while by speaking some things of him fairly he shall without suspicion be beleeved when he speaks evill of him such was he that Horace speaks of Me Capitolinus convictore usus amicóque c. Capitolinus is my friend and we have long liv'd together and obliged each other by mutuall endearments and I am glad he is acquitted by the criminall Judges Sed tamen admiror quo pacto judicium illud Fugerit yet I confesse I wonder how he should escape but I 'le say no more because he is my friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Polybius This is a new way of accusation to destroy a man by praises These men strike obliquely like a wilde swine or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or like buls in a yoke they have horns upon their necks and doe you a mischief when they plough your ground and as Joab slew Abner he took him by the beard and kissed him and smote him under the fift rib that he died so doth the detracting tongue like the smooth tongued lightning it will break your bones when it kisses the flesh so Syphax did secretly wound Massinissa and made Scipio watchfull and implacable against Sophonisba onely by commending her beauty and her wit her constancy and unalterable love to her country and by telling how much himselfe was forc'd to break his faith by the tyranny of her prevailing charmes This is that which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a crafty and deceitfull way of hurting and renders a mans tongue venemous as the tongue of a serpent that bites even though he be charm'd 3. But the next is more violent and that is railing or reviling which Aristotle in his Rhetoricks says is very often the vice of boys and of rich men who out of folly or pride want of manners or want of the measures of a man wisdome and the just proportions of his brethren doe use those that erre before them most scornfully and unworthily and Tacitus noted it of the Claudian family in Rome an old and inbied pride and scornfulnesse made them apt to abuse all that fell under their power and displeasure quorum superbiam frustrà per obsequium modestiam effugeres No observance no prudence no modesty can escape the reproaches of such insolent and high talkers A. Gellius tels of a boy that would give every one that he met a box on the ear and some men will give foul words having a tongue rough as a Cat and biting like an Adder and all their reproofes are direct scoldings their common entercourse is open contumely There have been in these last ages examples of Judges who would reproach the condemned and miserable criminall deriding his calamity and reviling his person Nero did so to Thraseas and the old Heathens to the primitive Martyrs pereuntibus addita ludibria said Tacitus of them they crucified them again by putting them to suffer the shame of their fouler language they rail'd at them when they bowed their heads upon the crosse and groan'd forth the saddest accents of approaching death This is that evill that possessed those of whom the Psalmist speaks Our tongues are our owne we are they that ought to speak who is Lord over us that is our tongues cannot be restrained and St. James said something of this The tongue is an unruly member which no man can tame that is no private person but a publick may for he that can rule the tongue is fit also to govern the whole body that is the Church or Congregation Magistrates and the Governours of souls they are by severity to restraine this inordination which indeed is a foul one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no evill is worse or of more open violence to the rest and reputation of men then a reproachfull tongue And it were well if we considered this evill to avoyd it in those instances by which our conversation is daily stain'd Are we not often too imperious against our servants Do we not entertain and seed our own anger with vile and basest language Doe not we chastise a servants folly or mistake his error or his chance with language fit to be used by none but vile persons and towards none but dogs Our blessed Saviour restraining the hostility and murther of the tongue threatens hell fire to them that call their brother foole meaning that all language which does really and by intention disgrace him in the greater instances is as directly against the charity of the Gospel as killing a man was against the severity and justice of the law And although the word it self may be us'd to reprove the indiscretions and carelesse follies of an idle person yet it must be used onely