let me speake unto you and be admonished ere it be too late ere either the one of you be swept from the other or both to destruction to consider your sinne at the first humbling your soule for it and much more for the long thred of your former course which you have spent amisse And if neither of you will at all profit by either word or workes of God while you live together but goe on hardned in your mutuall wickednesse yet when God shal separate the one from the other by death crying out lamentably of his or her sinfull course oh let the survivour be yet gastred out of his den and with that third Captaine of fifty cry out to God and say Although thou hast parted us Lord and my companion be dead in sinne yet let my life I pray thee be precious in thy sight unsettle me from those lees upon which I am setled for want of roling that I may breake off my long prophane fruitlesse conversation and seeke thy face and recover my selfe ere I depart and be seene no more Oh! it were better I grant if the Lord were so pleased that as both of you have bin partners in sinne and one corrupt flesh so you might both together repent and become one spirit in the Lord both of ye might be rouzed by his terrours out of your dead sleepe that the one being humbled might gaster his fellow and say husband wife seest thou not that Gods hand is out against us and his wrath is upon us we are under all adversity our bodies soules children and affaires nothing prospers oh we have made use a long time each of other for the divels vantage till our bones be full of the sin of our youth except we returne in time God will be avenged on us and send us to our place and long home of misery Alas we have never honoured marriage as other holy couples have done its strange patience that yet we are on this side hell let us now joyne together and turne to the Lord that if possible all may be forgotten and forgiven Oh! happy you if ever you should live to see that day happy your poore children and family whose soules you should snatch out of the fire and be instruments of pulling them out of that misery unto which you have bred them But I forbeare But there is a fourth sort of marriages whereof either party onely is religious These also are to be humbled for their ungrounded attempt the one for ventring upon an irreligious yokefellow the other for irreligious entrance Zachary and Elizabeth are commended that they were both just therfore it is a staine to such marriages as wherein either party is good the other opposite to it Example whereof we have in Scripture David and Michal Nabal and Abigail Iob and his wife The Lord who forbad to sowe one field with divers seedes or to weare a garment of linsey-wolsey much more abhors that the marriage-bed should be defiled with persons of divers religious for we know no opposition is so strong as that which is spirituall and how then should there be amity and love where the seeds of greatest enmity abide What a tempting of God is it to draw the yoke of God with one that drawes in the yoke of the Divell Oâ— as Paul speaks in the like case What fellowship is there betweene Christ and Belial the beleever and the infidell what is such an union save a monster compounded of divers natures by an adulterous mixture What a noysome thing were it for a lively and healthy body to walke with a dead caâ—casse bound to it backe to backe How long could it continue how should it avoid putrifaction as appeareth by the manner of that punishment in some cases inflicted among the Heathens as that image of Nebuchadnezzar which had the body made of mettals and the feet of clay could not abide long without dissolution so neither can that temper which consists of such contraries And hitherto adde that which one well observeth that when good and bad joyne together seldome is the worse bettered by the good but often the better is marred by the worser party The browne bread in the oven wil be sure to fleece from the white not that from it How can it otherwise be in this so neere a knot of marriage since it s seldome seene but it s so in all other fellowships when the one party is patient devout meeke sober a lover of the Word conscionable in Sabbaths and the use of meanes the other carelesse froward unchaste intemperate and prophane what a corrasive must the one needs be to the other and instead of an helper what a continuall dropping was it a savory thing thinke we to Iob to heare his wife bid him Curse God and dye himselfe being so armed with patience as to say Shall wee receive good things of God and not evill When David danced before the Lord and in the height of zeale brought home the Arke of God was it a pleasing thing to heare Micol to call him foole for his labour and although they are not so grosse as to scoffe at their husbands or wives yet what a crosse is it to have such lying in our bosomes as are of a diverse minde what complaint is so usuall in these dayes as to heare the complaints of good husbands of ill wives and wives of husbands through this desparity Some making their moane for the churlishnesse straightnesse maliciousnesse restraint from use of meanes others for other eye-sores of which sort unequall marriages are infinitely fruitfull So rare are those couples of whom it may be said They draw mutually and equally in one yoke as Zachary and Elizabeth both just diligent hearers zealous worshippers lovers of God of good men and the like And hence it is that there is oftentimes little difference betweene those families in which both be bad and those in which onely either party is good because commonly the better party makes himselfe but a prey to the other Religion must alway be the disadvantage of the party and the irreligious must beare the chiefe sway even as the elder brother will dominâ—â—e over the yonger because of his birth-right so the better party must ever looke to be the underling As we say or a syllâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 the conclusion ever followeth the weaker 〈…〉 Alaâ— where both parties are as they ought how 〈…〉 is done â—o many croâ—â—es businessâ—â— of the world debts and temptations by sinne and Satan come betweene that even the comfort of such marriages goes neere together what good is like to be done when the one is alway thwarting the other in the duties of the family or lesser occasions I say when the maine is crazie how shall the rest be sodered But enough of these To passe therefore to another sort of couples how many husbands are of this ranke disaffected to their
should imagine a possibility of it seeing what the name of David Lot Salomon till this day suffer for it As a blur in faire cambrique so is this alway cast upon him as his shame God doth not usually upbrayde his people But this he alway casts him in teeth withall yet this Caution I adde by the way It is not lawfull hereby to condemne whom God hath justified but to cover it rather for our parts But for caution to others the Lord will rather make a Record of it and hang it on the file then it shal be forgotten And when we heare the uncharitable imputations of men fret not at them but say God is in it he will keep it on foot he will checke the soule with it and caufe the guilty therof to possesse the sin of their youth as Iob did If God shall conceale the shame of any guilty of this sin let them prayse him and make an end of all in his privy Chamber of mercy and Repentance that so his open judiciall proceeding in court may be stopped Let this also adde some weight of terror and divorce thee from this sin whip the slaves backe with this rod But the son will be drawne by love So much for this second of Meditation The third and last is to practise somewhat And this is the mayne of all other helpes to rid us of this muscheefe And it consists of sundry particulars Touching all which let the Reader understand that they properly concerne such as have beene actually defiled with uncleannesse in one kind or other And these men are either guilty of their Crime during their estate of ignorance and unregeneracy or else such as have revolted from that grace which they have either soundly or seemingly received To both I would give some advise and first to the former To that then which hath beene abundantly spoken of the Terrors of God against this sin let this only be added That all those men whose hearts God shall touch for it doe lay them close to their hearts that as that pearking presumptuous Asahel was met with and pierced in the fifth rib by Abners speare so may these wild creatures be in their ventrous provoking of God Surelie such a giddy lightnes is in every uncleane heart yea the religious they cannot be solid when as they would they are so drunken with this sin except the law or else that old Simeon speakes of which must open and let out the thoughts of many hearts do let out these wild and unbrideled affections And as that Asahel 2. Sam. 2. being once darted through was tame enough and stopt in his wantonnes so let thy soule be earnest with God to step out of his ordinary way to make an high sence and sharpe hedge of Thornes which he doth but for few in this kind yea to set an Angell before the doore of that harlot shaking a sword that thou mayst no more venture to returne This will not bee till a fire bee thrust into thy soule to feele the intolerable wrathe of God upon all Whoremongers which may so sting thee that as a man scalt or burnt hath small joy or mirth so the feeling of thy selfe in the suburbs of hell may cause thee to feele small list or edge to thy former occupation Hell my freind is no paynced sire on the wall such as thou seest in Alehouses to make drunkards merry but is kindled with the breath of God who hath vowed to bee a terrible judge and consuming fire to all defilers of themselves with whores or harlots single or married yet entreat him that this terror of his may not be extreeme and desperate as his was of whom I last spake ending in violent laying of hands upon himselfe and preventing of Repentance but rather breake the force of lust pull down thy jollity that it may bee as sad an object to thee as was the murthering of the Lord of life to Peters hearers Act. 2. 37. And not onely so but stoop and quaile under this terror of God wee see prisoners at the barre doe not descant or quarrell with the Iudge all their language is confession and supplication for why They know the Iudge hath them at advantage their lives stand at his curtesie Do thou likewise Will God judge Adulterers Stoop then at his barre hee can save or destroy Other Iudges admit appeale themselves may and must be judged their judgements may bee questioned disannulled they sit but upon the breath and life of a man Not so the Lord hee is Iudge of the high Court a Soveraigne King and Iudge If hee once passe sentence no revocation it toucheth the life of thy precious soule This should affright all uncleane persons What suing and seeking is there to the Iudges of spirituall Courts if they threaten but the sheet Oh! but here 's a greater Iudge that can damne thee in hell for ever No bribes prevaile here he is like that enemy of Babell who should scorne all gifts and bee above gold and silver Submit therefore under his hand confesse thy damnation is just lie prostrate upon the earth with thy mouth in the dust and say oh thou the Soveraigne God of the Creatures enemie of all uncleane wretches if thou send mee to hell I have nothing to alleadge if I perish I may thanke my selfe thou hast power to destroy Tremble at this Soveraignty doe not quarrell nor shift with him there is nothing to be pleaded save meere favour I can say nothing why the sentence of death should not be pronounced against me Secondly seeing all repentance stands not in a preparative go on be earnest with God to give thee a glimpse of hope in the Lord Iesus who was made all sinne and this by name not onely for David but for the nature of man and for thine and hath satisfied the wrath of this Iudge that he might say deliver him I have accepted a ransome The law of Moses knew no such attonement stoning and strangling was the end of it As the Iudge tells some felons that the law hath no mercy for them their sinnes exceed it so here But the Gospell affords more grace refuseth to pardon no sinne no offence which the soule can be humbled for I grant this will not easily enter so debauch't a spirit to dream of a possibility of such a grace For when that conscience which was so deeply benummed is once stirred to the bottom it becomes as sensible as ever it was senselesse before and while conscience holds under bondage it s no easie thing to fee such an hope of grace by the Gospell But yet in this thy amasement utter losse an despaire in thy selfe thou must wait upon God who can sustaine thy bottomlesse spirit from sinking altogether till in due time he open a crevis of light into thy dark dungeon And when it shall please him to turne thine eie towards some likelihood of finding mercy in the
way of promise follow this worke hard It belongs to the hopelesse not to such as turne this hope to a snare Beg of the Lord to turne a terrified heart into a melting one that it is which must mould an uncleane soule to a cleane and chast one no hammer can doe this mercy must dissolve it in the fornace of grace Lin not till thou feele that heart which hath beene drencht in the sweetnesse of lust to bee steept in bitternesse over head and eares for thy wounding the Lord of life and his Virgin-pure flesh to death by thy unclennesse Looke not upon other sinners thy selfe wert murderer sufficient of his sacred person thou soughtest to destroy his Godhead as well as his flesh if it had beene in the power of thy sinne though there had been no other sinner in the world thou hadst beene enough And shouldst thou not care for thy base lust sake to kill not a man onely an innocent Vrija but the person of the Sonne of God If this melting spirit be wrought in thee by the spirit of grace thou shalt behold him ' as pierced willingly and of his owne accord for thee who didst as little deserve it as Judas the Traytor but yet seeing thou hast a melting heart which he wanted and canst with Peter weepe bitterly it s a signe that the curse shall turne to a blessing yea thou shalt see God so ordering the matter for thee and Christ so giving up his soule to the speares point of wrath for thee that thine eie shall behold another sight that is an enwrapped hope of forgivenesse in this satisfaction of his and of life in his Resurrection so that now thine horror shall turne to hope And know it only this glimpse of Sun-shine in thy dungeon of feare can dissolve thy hard heart and prepare thee for pardon Thirdly let this hope rip up all the seames of thine uncleane heart and all that filth which lay hid in the entralls thereof never like to have come to light had not God revealed it and uncased thee Let I say this seed of hope discover that which an habituall love of thy sinne would have smothered for ever For this opening and ingenuous confessing of thy sinne will make way for further mercy It s none of thy worke but the spirit of grace that makes way for it Now a franke heart is put into thee to be as open as ever thou wert close before yea and to take as much paines with thy selfe how thou maist give glory to God in a full confession and turning up that cursed poake of falshood from the bottome pouring out all thy sinne as ever thou tookest care before to sweare thine heart to an hellish secrecy It s with thee as with a woman who hath many old peeces of gold and jewells lying by her which she is loth to forgoe although shee might thereby make a summe for the purchase of faire house and land yet perhaps rather then quite forgoe the purchase she will fetch them all and poure them downe upon the table So when hope of mercy offers it selfe oh the pearle thereof exceeding all petty shreds wil make thee freely disburden thy soule of whatsoever loads it thy most beloved lusts I speake not now of abandoning the habits of them that 's mortification following after but of the cleere intention and meaning of thy heart to abandon without any base hollownesse Oh! thou desirest now to spare God a labour of proclaiming thy sin before men and Angells and if it were meet as it is where Gods ordinance may prevaile thou wouldest chuse that place ratherest to shame thy selfe in where the solemne presence of God his Angels and Church are gathered together Still I speake with caution if thy sinne have broken out publiquely but if thou hast kept it secret thou art not tied to make thy self publique nor to take witnesse except thy hard heart require it to confesse to others for the breaking thereof the reason is because the way of Church-correction for open sins is one and the Evangelicall correction of the spirit of Christ in private is another But usually these sinnes are open and therefore openly to be proclaimed in confession as in the committing If mercy have toucht thee at the heart never so little it will worke in thee as Gods voice in the Whale when she vomited up Jona upon the drie ground thou shalt no more take care what become of thy lust so thou maist be rid of it nor who shame thee so thou be shamed and sinne have her due Thou takest more care how God may be honoured in the abhorring of thy rebellion how others may be flaited from the like how thine owne heart may be melted upon melting not how thou may maist scape in an whole skinne and lie hardened in thy stie of uncleannesse No rather shall litter and whelpes and all be raked together and cast to the dunghill I tell thee of a sollemne thing rarely seene yet I will not say I have not seene such a confessing spirit Ephraim had it when shee smote upon her thie the Publicant the Prodgall the Theefe on the Crosse and here and there as a berry left upon the bush I have seene such as uâ—fained Penitent but when I did so I never pleased my selfe with any object like it I was almost ravisht with it and tooke it as a reall marke of the Lords pardoning of it in heaven which was so performed on earth And good cause for what shouldst thou care to nourish that in thy selfe which thou purposest for ever to be divorced from Therefore here on Lord say thou comes the most tainted Adulterer that ever lived These were my first allurements to silthinesse such and such companies I haunted such baites for my lust I maintained so many base harlots married or single I clave unto Such were the places I frequented the filthie Sonnets I sang the musique dauncings revellings and wantonnesse I was defiled withall yea such and such were the colors whereupon I hardned my heart in sinne such fees such bribes such perjuries such friends in Courts and Proctors I corrupted with mony and in this confusion I had lien for ever had not mercy cast an eie upon me No day no Sabbath or season of worship came amisse no light of conscience could beare downe my sinne no shame of world no patience of thine long winking at me no good education no hope of my friends no terror by thy judgments could disswade I sinned against all Here therefore I uncase my selfe oh Lord Against thee thee Lord have I done this villany in it selfe morall in me spirituall and in an high degree I was ever tainted even from the womb and this my sinne is but one of a thousand which the forge of my heart hath sent forth If for this thou hadst drown'd me in perdition even in the act burying mee up in the bed of my lust thou hadst beene
hypocrites can teach thee It will intercept all thy succours of lust thy provision to fulfill thy lustes When the Court is pulled downe who needes to feare suires in it It will cause thee not morally but from a Principle of grace to shunne all meanes motives provocations and snares of uncleannes which the Devill shall straw in thy way That so the oile being gone the flames may vanish It shall change thy uncleane thoughts affections eyes eares into cleane and pure ones If thy harlot meet thee and say It is I thou shalt answer but I am not I not my selfe Another is become that in mee which my cursed selfe was wont to bee The signe is pulld downe the Alehouse is let to a man of trade no more harlots nor adulterers come there new Lords new Lawes all old things are done away behold all things are become new I am redeemed with a price not to be mine owne if my Lord and Master will endure lust if any accord betweene Christs body and an harlot aske him leave and I obey else I am not my owne Oh! this Grace shall bring thy lust to the horns of the Altar binde it thereto with cords cut the throate of it with the sacrificing knife of the Priest Thy Priest will teach thee to do that office very handsomely to let out the ranke blood of thy lust and the strength and sway which it bare in thee yea it shall drag thine uncleane heart to Golgotha and naile it to the crosse of thy Priest with the same nailes which nailed the body of Christ It is happier to find out those Implements Crosse blood nayles tombe and all then ever Helen was or any Popish relique-monger and to make use of them too to better end then at this daie that Popish Covent of Friats do who have hired those places of the Turke built Temples Altais and silver floores in honor of the Passion It shall cry in thy soule Oh lust I wil bee thy death oh Concupiscence I wil be thy destruction The sting of fin is death and the strength of lust is the law But thanks be to God in Iesus Christ who hath condemned sin in the flesh mortified it by the flesh of his holy body hat neither guilt nor dominion might prevaile Pursue the victory the Lord is with thee thou valiant man and in this thy strength fight and lin not while through thy Captaine both sin and luste die in thee Sixthly returne to the Lord with full bent of soule to renounce all cleaving to the flesh and to cleave to him without seperation That grace which hath killed lust will quicken the life of purenesse in thy soule it will indeed make thee a tâ—ue Pentient not only to renounce uncleanes but to embrace a Chaste spirit and live a Chaste life to returne to God in a contrary practice of unblameablenesse all thy daies so farre as weaknesse will permit As he tooke off from thy jawes the yoke of servitude so he shall make his owne joake easie and his burden light He shal bee as one that layeth meate before thee thou shalt be so preserved by the sweetnes of grace that all the sweetnesse of lust of adultery of lascivi usnes shall stinke before thee so that they shall never have hope to recover thee into their possession any more And what then remayneth but when lust knowes not what to doe with thee then thine eare be bored with Gods awle that so thou maist bee his servant and walke in purenesse and holines all thy daies The Lord blesse this maine Direction with all other unto thee and remember none but Christ can heale this sore And so much for the former branch of Counsell to them who are onely guilty of the sin I passe lastly to the other who have revolted from this Grace once obteyned Lastly therefore if thy uncleannes be yet of a deeper die as beeing a revolt from the Grace of God and the vow of thy spirituall baptisme once made then know the Cure is somewhat different from the former Here then Remember that the seed of God in his dyeth not Therefore if once God hath awakned thee out of this thy relapse and the dead sleep of security under it which if he love thee he will do by some three string'd whip or other which hee shall make for thee as once he did for those defilers of his Temple by some crosse or stirring terrors of the word in thy soule then take Davids course Beseech the Lord first that the despaire and extreame horror which an ill conscience sicke of a relapse might worke in thee through unbeleefe added to it may gratiously bee kept off and so thine heart may be stayd from utter departing from the living God upon feare that he is wholly departed from thee Secondly remember that the covenant of God cannot be repealed it comprehends thee when thou canst not it Therefore apply those mercies of old and be comforted Thirdly take heed lest Satan confound and oppresse thy spirit by the conscience of thy base revolting sinning against such mercies and snarling thy soule with so many successive evills as thou hast heaped upon one another without an heart to get out For its an easie thing to lose a mans spirit and selfe in the divells maze Fourthly with a penitent heart for thy trechery that thou shouldest kick up thy heele against former mercies and covenants behold that promise of which I formerly spake and apply it unto thy soule as thou art able knowing that whatsoever Satan hath to gainsay the Lord Iesus was made all sinne both of rebellion against and also revolt from God that thou mightst be his righteousnesse and recover it having lost it Fifthly let the affliction of thy soule so deeply cease upon thee till through mercy it have soaked into thee and pierced thee as deepe as thy sinne hath peirced God as the tent must go as deepe as the sore is festered and fetch out the bottome scurfe content not thy selfe with such an humbling as thy slight heart would admit For this is one attendant of this sinne to be light and wanton and not to bee able to bee serious Therefore set thine heart to it mocke not God make not the remedy worse then the disease that thou shouldest even be fetcht in againe by Satans clawes ere thy repentance is finished which were to unsettle the work of God in thee and worke thy heart to a despaire of recovery It hath beene the portion of many uncleane ones never to get a serious spirit If therefore thine heart be once downe hold it as if thou shouldst keepe corke under water and trust it not pray thus withdraw from me all objects of vanity and teach me thy law gratiously Arraigne accuse condemne thy selfe judge thy selfe lest God judge thee and till God raise thee be content to lye low beare the indignation of the Lord because thou hast sinned and be
the world and his Dutchesse of her death that shee might no more be looked after But still the harlot lived prospered in health still the Duke pretending other journeis haunted her company burning in his lâ—st much the more who sees not uncleannesse to bee as ingenious as the Poet describes the Parrat when she is hungry or as the belly which he calles a Master of Arts Therefore I say the Lord deales accordingly with it That which we commit in secret the Lord will revenge in the open view of the world and reveale in the tops of houses as at the last this Dukes Villany And by how much this sinne escapes the judgement of man the more cunningly and smoothly by so much God sets himselfe to meete with it the more terrible That so his method might make it the more hated for his colours are in graine layd in oile and will soone wash out our false paint Reas 5 Fifthly that either by this discovery the Lord might teach his people the prevention of this sinne before hand rather then they should learne repentance too late having before polluted themselves and this he cheefly intends or else if notwithstanding all his waies men will still try conclusions with him their mouthes may bee stopt and themselves put to silence either from ability to excuse the fault or decline the punishment They cannot then pretend that they were the bolder to commit it because they thought it slight They cannot with any forehead deprecate the punishment of that which is so confessedly odious Reas 6 Sixthly that those men who are prone to live by sense in a course of sensuality might have aswell reall and sensible pulbacks from this sinne by Gods abhorring and opposing it as by the beholding the examples of loose and dissolute offendors to be tickled and as it were to stand on thornes till they be like them The Lord tries us with this bitter sweet that is whether his bitter or the worlds sweet be chiefe with us if not yet we shall not have all our will nor all the sweet of our lust but with it we shall have some sting and pricke in our flesh to make vs sit uneasie upon our cushion especially in this woefull world degenerated to all licentiousnesse as in other sinnes so in this of uncleanesse which so overfloweth the bankes of countreys and townes in this declining age that if examples may prevaile there shall not want enough to corrupt the bodies and defile the mannors of the most Iust it is that such as defile the ordinances with the scurfe of their owne inventions should be given over with Papists to the pollution of their bodies by all kinds of lust the outward uncleannesse having beene alway a brand of the spirituall So much for reasons Now I returne where I left to make fuller answer to that question how it may appeare that God is such a Iudge of this sinne I say therefore if wee shall consider these passages following it may First if wee shall consider that the Lord hath not spared to set his owne deerest people on the stage for this sin of uncleannesse It s said that Joseph Maries husband was a just man and was loth to defame her openly when he perceived her to be with child but meant privily to rid his hand of her But the Lord is not as man he is a just and jealous God not sparing to exemplifie and traduce his best servants that their blurre and penalty might scare all from venturing A just King will begin with some servant or favorite of his owne by making him the spectacle of his severity when he would have all his subjects put it out of question that if they transgresse in the like they shall not go guiltlesse And if this bee done in the greene tree if the fire so easily kindle upon that what shal be done in the dry If the very righteous be not free from being stigmatiques in the court of this justice what shall become of the ungodly and wicked And if Iudgment begin at the house of God what shall be done with the rest the stubble who are ready to be burned I say what then shall become of the common rout of Sodomites Adulterers and fornicators Tremble oh ye uncleane wretches Do you see Lot David Salomon Sampson sholled out from their fellowes for this and looke you to escape Secondly see what a judgement appeared upon the bastard of-spring of the Adulterer It might seeme unjust that an innocent should be so plagued for the fathers uncleannesse as to be shut out and cut off from the congregation to the tenth generation Surely the taint was deepe and the iron moll cankerfretted which could so hardly be washt out what did this argne but that by so severe a sentence not to be expiated by blood or any other clensing the Lord would deterre men from such filthinesse That if they durst not thus offend they might tell themselves they must cut off the fruite of their sin from ever comming where God and his people had to doe Who should dare to be so profane if yet the heate of his lust would permit him to think seriously either of the hell which himselfe or the excommunication and blasting curse which his bastarde child should incurre But Alas It s to be feared that these thoughts are the first of those which these last thinke of Thirdly the penalty inflicted upon Adultery was death without remedie There were divers sorts of death inflicted upon malefactors by the law and some learned men question what this death was The agreed tenet is that it was stoning although strangling and burning were used for some excesses in this sin when it came to incest or the unnaturall sins of sodomy and bestiality The theefe was not hanged but spared by making restitution and in single fornication lesse penalties might be allowed but in these cases the Lord would allow none as if the offer of a requitall in such cases were most unseasonable No but gave way to the jealousie of the husband and himselfe admits no pecuniary mulct to redeeme that which jealousy counts to bee above ransome yea so terrible a law he ordeynd for the uncleane harlot upon the instance onely of a jealous husband that if she stood upon her triall and gaynesayd the accusation she should be set before the Priest and there drinke a cursed water and if she were guilty shee was found out by the providence of God and plagued with rotting of her belly and thigh and so perished So shee gat nothing by her concealment for in stead of the peoples stoning Gods hand seased upon her And what is this save Gods comming in person to judge a whore Fourthly what severe judgments hath God executed upon uncleane persons Let first Scripture then experience speake for Scripture how did the Lord pursue David for his Adultery First with the rape of Thamar then
kind and as the grave so the harlot insatiably cries give give else she thinks her self scorned and scornes her banquerupt lover Now then what doth satan drive them to To all violent hideous waies rather then want oile for this Lampe An harlot must be fed with the rapine of all sorts and when she is rich upon the price of the soule of a man shee is best content How many come to untimely shamefull ends this way especially of those Gentlemen theeves as wee call them by the just intercepting hand of Gods instrument the Magistrate So that many have said with him finding God to pursue them just oh Lord are thy judgements Many have been executed for crimes which they never committed but yet confessed that God hath plagued them for such as man knowes not such as the law cannot take hold of secret Sodomy Adultery or other uncleannesse which I never looked to have discovered I did under a false title and crime but not without due and just desert man hath done me wrong but God hath done me right Oh what a just hand of God is here Vengeance will not suffer them to live Seventhly the body of the uncleane is judged seldome is it free from diseases and distempers Whence are such maladies as poyson wife child and each one that drinke in their cup Who but God plagued that Army of the French with that loathsome disease never before heard of Whence are inflamed swolne spotted faces puft flesh stinking breath disguised body putrefaction of the blood rottennes of the carcasse unsound health speedy age infinite infirmities Whence is that outcry which Salomon speaks of when thy liver is darted through with an arrow when thy strength is given to the cruell and thou mourne when thy flesh and body are consum'd then shalt thou crie out how have I hated instruction Oh foole and beast that I am how am I led â—o the shambles as an oxe and how to the stocks like a â—ot When all thy honour is laid in the dust thy friends are ashamed of thee thy conscience flies in thy face and thy harlot hath forsaken thee and all is gone then maist thou say God is departed from me also and leaves me hardned and woe be to him that is alone And yet all which I have said is but as the Adulterers prison and cheine the cheefe Barre of judgement which hee must take sentence at are death and the last day then will God judge whoremongers indeed then he will be a swift witnesse to purpose all his delayings and reprivalls of Adulterers shall be recompenced with sweetnesse in kind then shall flames revenge flames and one fire punish another and there shall bee an eternall heate of wrath for the short and sweet pleasures of lust For without shall be Sorcerers Murtherers Dogs Idolateors Theeves Lyars and Adulterers this is the second death This death shall bee the reward of this sinne and this is the last judgement from which no escape no appeale shall bee admitted And this bee sayd for Answer to the Question Vse 1 It s now time to hasten to use And first let this be terror to all such as thwart and contradict God in his course doth God all he can to terrifie Adulterers and to make this sinne odious Woe be to them then that make an honorable thing of it I shall not need to seeke out as farre as Spaine Italy France to find out matter hereof such as make bastardy a title of honor covering it with greatnesse so that a terme of dishonour with God is with them a name of renowne woe be to them who honour that which God abhorres To these adde the Papists toucht before who honour whores and concubines farre above lawfull wives in the Clergie setting up open stewes out of the which the Pope draweth an exceeding yearely tribute for you must note hee is not so holy but he will take the price of an whore into his treasury and savor it well justifying the lawfulnesse of such practices and tollerations of harlots to the end forsooth that the chastity of Matrons may bee preserved Are not these wise Proctors thinke wee for God and for his seventh Command To make the plaister of the rankest poison But who wonders that the great mother of spirituall whordomes that old Bawd Circe who hath poysoned all the world with her double cup of doctrine and practise should so tenderly nurse up the stewes Oh you harlots children and seedplots of bastards are you so carefull of Matrons and the safegard of their chastity No rather your Banner and Buckler is for whores then Matrons You care as much for your chastity as Judas did for the poore whose successors you are whiles for the filling of your bagges you suffer any villany and live upon the sinnes of the people Once a young sparke sonne to an Emperour told his father he wondred at him that he would be so base as to exact tribute of the City for Vrine But he took a peece of that golden tribute and put it to his nose bidding him smell to it Which he doing he askt him how it smelt he answering well for ought hee felt yet saith he it comes from the City urine A base speech for a man of so incomparable worth But this tributemonger of soules is ten times worse for hell fire and all do smell sweet in his nostrills the smell of gaine from any thing favors well to him so he have it To these adde such as slight this sinne calling it but a trick of youth such as blanch and colour these sinnes of all sorts not to be named never so rise in all estates as now in this debauch't age Such as play the bawdes to their owne children their owne wives such as make a sport of it and lay their bastards in their owne wives bosomes forcing them to nurse them or else turning them out of doores Casting darts and mortall things and asking am not I in sport Such as make a trade of this sin serving the turnes of their commanders as that hangby Hiram the Adullamite did the turne of Juda Do these or such as these for they are infinite beleeve these terrors of God Or do they take notice that God will have this sin made odious and terrible to gaster all from it Oh wofull Rebells and Traitors to the edicts of Christ beware lest God come upon you and tear you in peeces and there be none to deliver you for so impudent a forehead of brasse and daring to resist him in his own way If he aggravate dare you alleniate surely he shall adde unto you all the plagues of his Book and diminish your names from that other of life Vse 2 Secondly if God so strive to make this sinne odious consider in the feare of God both upon what ground and to what end he doth so Surely it is not for nothing that hee doth so The ground is that it opposeth his
Christ be not the cover from the storme and raine sinne must needes be and although it be but a sorry one which will one day wet to the skin yet it must serve the whilst Subdue therefore thy soule with these terrors as Christ saith let them sinke deeply into thine heart It is thy selfe it serves to keepe thee from the pathes of death As our Saviour then when he bids watch tell us he saith it to the Disciples and to all so I wish that this watchword might reach to all none excepted even forward professors themselves I much feare this sin is rise among many even of such for profession cannot alone quit us of secret profanenes So neer is the flesh so sly is Satan so copious is a false heart of evasions that no sort of people is free There want not fearful examples at this day of each degree of men and women I need not silence that which all tongues jangle the ears of the good might tingle withal what debauched varlets there are of late brought forth from among theÌ„ who have crept in amongst the zealous servants of Christ and taken upon them to be the forwardest To conceale is now too late too late to say tell it not Gath for its all over the places about their dwelling One being reprooved for attempting the maides who came to his house to folly answered though I may not covet my neighbors maid yet for his owne maides or those that offred themselves he thought he might It s time now my brethren of of all sorts to cease striving to hold â—â—le in your palme it s rather time to apply corrasives The best way now is in taking notice of these to say they were among us they were not of us if they had they would not so fouly have gone out of us And yet were it not that I feare doing hurt I would adde that I must not nor dare finally to censure every owne as lost who is guilty of this sin but I know ten to one of these are hypocrites though for causes God may leave some odde person whose repentance he purposes to make as eminent as ever his sinne was and moreover to use this sinne in others as a forcible occasion to convert them from all sinne But of this after Of the hypocrites I say let him that is filthy be filthy still of the other the Lord give them grace with Achan in the midst of their reproach to give glory to God wofull creatures the whiles weltering in their misery from whom the unclean spirit seemed to bee cast out and they to have escaped the pollution of the world through lust but through their loosenesse the divell hath returned into their hearts and brought seven spirits with him worse then the former so that if that stronger man throw not out this strong the end of such will proove worse then the beginning Consider all such profession cannot dispence with you rather it shall make your sinne treble and heate hell seven times hotter If wee never found any other effect of the sinnes of our ignorance save shame and death what are wee like to finde for sinnes against knowledge Truly men are strangely impudent and hardned in these daies this makes me insist as I doe Feare not him who can destroy the body onely and not the soule but him who can cast both bodies and soules into hell I say feare him Get we our spirits truely moulded into this terrour of God! Those Corinthians pretended the liberty of the Gospell against the terror of the Law But how doth Paul answer them Surely by a fit instance of the Isralites in the wildernesse committing filthinesse at Peor Are you better then they had not they the word the ordinances the cloud the manna and rocke but God was never the better pleased with them for that I Their carcasses all fell and were made dung in the wildernesse Therefore deceive not your selves Be not you fornicators as they â— and were destroyed of the destroyer Their Angell of presence turn'd their destroyer for their uncleannesse If this bee all the priviledge of your bare profession let whose will venture but venture not yee well may some say wee would faine bee of Gods minde but our hearts are so giddy and slight in this point that wee cannot get them to bee seriously awed by Gods judgements I answer I shall referre it to the Exhortation following in the next Chapter in the meane time consider what hath beene said in this CHAP. XVII And last Conteyning the use of Exhortation with Counsells and Motives to preserve Chastity and avoid uncleannesse Vse 4 I Finish the whole use of the point with Exhortation to this effect that all who truely tremble at this judgement of God against Adulterers and fornicators doe preserve their vessells with as much holinesse and honour as is possible To all such as in the end of this point I shall touch belongs consolation but let it lie by a while untill thou be able to apply it to thy selfe by the experience of what I shall now say Wherefore I exhort all such be chaste and pure in body and spirit passing the whole time of their conversation here in holy prevention and caution against uncleannesse A sollemne duty to bring a cleane body to the marriage bedde to maintaine it so and bring it so to the grave But how will some say may this be effected I answer by observing three counsells and first to Abhorre somewhat Secondly to meditate upon somewhat Thirdly by practising Touching the first Abhorre somwhat within and somewhat without In the prosecution of which three if I shall haply trench upon any thing before touched through the neernesse of the argument let the reader consider that when I wrote that before upon the point of chastity I intended not the handling of this latter part of the verse but I hope I shall avoid any purposed repeatings of ought which the necessity of the order doth not inforce upon me for the avoiding of any interruption For the first of Abhorring First with David Abhorre thy selfe that inward originall corruption of nature the foment of this flame he beginnes at the right end of the staffe with that poison wherewith his mother had warmed him in her wombe Abhorring of some outward acts or penalties of this sinne may goe without any loathing of the fountaine Had it not beene saith David for my naturall staine I had never committed such an actuall abomination as this Alas as the feelde of a poore man vanishes in the Mappe of a whole towne so doth this evill of concupiscence vanish in most mens eie when they take a survey of sinne whereas this inward is the body and that which we se breaking out is but a member as it might be here a toe there a finger of defiled old Adam Till then the mother bee abhorred the daughter will never be renounced Put case thou couldest
Ghost hath described it Read and ponder that Heb. 3. 12. where the Apostle in effect tells us that this is the nature of all sinne committed against the light and it hath these degrees as the words doe expresse Take heed lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeleefe to depart from the living God but exhort one another lest you be hardned by the deceitfulnesse of sinne Marke first there is an evill heart of aversnesse from God and enmity or alienation from God in each child of old Adam Thus David confesseth himselfe guiltie hereof in committing Adultery Secondly this being unsuâ—dued in the soule by the word breaketh out into outward and morrall evills as ill humors in the body into soares and botches So saith our Saviour an evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart brings forth evill things for out of the heart proceed all such draffe that 's the nest and forge of them all Both these make the heart an evill heart Thirdly this evill heart and these evill workes become evill workes of unbefeefe That is whereas God hath ordeined a blessed remedy of pardon and clensing of both loe the love of an evill heart to her evill workes will not suffer it to parte with them but chuseth rather to forsake mercy it selfe They that embracelying vanities forsake their owne mercy And our Savior plainly This is the condemnation of the world that light came into the world But loved darknes rather then light because their workes were evill Iesus Christ receaved by faith would have destroyd such workes But men loving them and that darkenes which nourisht them more then light they added drunkennes to thirst that is unbeleefe to morral sins And so sins which at the first were but dipped in the colour of Nature beeing died in graine by contempt of light became spirituall evills consisting in a treacherous refusall of grace that it might nouzle it selfe in sin more and more which by embracing of grace it might have beene rid of So that this unbeleefe defending it selfe in the practise of darknesse causeth the soule to be guilty of horrible villany against the grace of God and that spirit of Christ which offreth it selfe to purge and wash it from sin Fourthly by this meanes there followes a Delusion and Defilemen of the soule by the sweetnes and deceitfullnesse of sin That is a Desertion of the soule wherby it s left by the just hand of God to the errour of her own way choyce to bee as it desired to bee so that it becomes of avoluntarily a necessarily seduced heart thinking evill to be good feeding upon ashes as a perverted appetite will do upon coales or chalke it suffers conscience to be blindfolded and baffled and the accusing power thereof to become a defiled power so that though it know sin to be sin as this of Adultery yet beeing luld asleepe upon Dalilas lap it feeles no sting but dreames of ease as Samson and David who differd not in this from Balaam save onely in this that the spirit susteind and reserved their judegments that they sinned not upon the last practicall understanding and choice of free will but by prevention and temptation But to their owne sense they had shaken off the spirit Fifthly from hence proceeds hardning of heart in the sin against the recourse and checks of conscience Thus David beeing once defiled and snared so that he could go neither backward nor forward he grew so hardned that he resolved upoÌ„ al those waies wherby his sin might be concealed extenuated defended and that with odious Circumstances which what was it save as much as in him lay to put off the spirit of God and to fulfill his lust providing that he might not be unsettled And lastly in some uncleane ones although the Elect cannot goe so farre hence proceeds a departing from the living God a disabling of the spirit from returning back to him again through an heart which cannot mourne relent repent so finally a powring foorth of the heart to all other sin without controll or restreint yea some go so farre herein that they fight not only against the revealing light of the spirit but against the spirit it selfe out of malice And what wonder if the restreyning power of the spirit be taken from such as have despised the saving power of it Now to gather up all into one how wofull an hazard doe all they run as play the uncleane beasts under the cleere light of the Gospel How do they lay the stumbling blocke of their owne iniquities before themselves For although I deny not a possibility of returning so long as the spirit is greeved onely except it be despited also yet who knoweth how farre he may go in his descent beeing not able to stop himselfe And as for the Elect how many beare themselves upon it till they proove errant hypocrites This Meditation therfore let all such ponder deeply who are given to slight this sin what God may do for ignorant ones as Paul speakes I say not though we see but few of these repent But for them that sin wilfully after light it s far worse A second object of meditation against this sin is the Peculiarnesse of it from other sins That of the Apostle is notable for this fly fornication why All other sins parte from the bodie this abides in it what 's that Other sins of wrath theft swearing the like abide not in but passe away from the instrument acting them I say not in guilt but in act of cleaving But this of uncleannesse as it leaves no lesse scarre in the Body then they rather more so it leaves a far greater and more loathsome stayne in the body causing it to bee a more yrkesome dwelling for the spirit of God to bee more loathsome to it selfe and beares marke in the open sight of others of it owne filthines If God then have set such a mark of this sin upon the bodie as upon no other and now much more then when Paul speakes if other sins in comparison are without but this within it others by the body out of the body this by et and in it that is it is a more reall and bodily sin requiring more of a sinner for the perfecting of it then others yea forfeiting a peece of the body in the committing of it how odious is it Againe if it bee a more fulsome vice and hardlier washtout as before hath beene said If it shut God out of his Temple yea out of Poarch and all I conclude it behooves all to beware lest they conceive that a more slight sin then others which God hath branded with more peculiarnesse then others I do not here speake of that loathsomnesse which followes the act of that before But I say The Lord loathes these leprous walles what should such a one have to doe with Praier Reading Hearing Sacraments whose lips eys
just yea thy deserting of my spirit cutting off my daies and sending me into the hottest place of hell had beene little enough for me But oh if thou shalt wash this spot away and cleanse me with hyssop I shall be whiter then the snow what I am is not the thing confusion belongs to me for it it s all I can plead But there is mercy with thee that thou maist bee feared and some little hope hath opened my heart to confesse my sinne as rather relying upon thy word then upon my owne feares that thou wilt deale rigorously and of mine owne mouth as thou moughtst condemne mee Fourthly thou must not thus walke onely with thy Penance fagot upon thy shoulders and the sheet of thy shame upon thy back as one shut out and excommunicated from the Assemblies upon whose face thy father hath spit But thou must set before thine eyes a double promise One this That if the Lord shall once accept thee all thy former sins shall never bee so imputed as to cast thee off Looke that place in Jeremy full of Comfort If an harlot be divorced from her husband shall he returne to her any more No surely But loe thou Adulterer thou harlot you have defiled the Bâ—d which I made Honorable yet I will deale better with you returne and I will accept you sayth the Lord And what upon thaâ— Surely it shal bee with thee in my accompt as if thou hadst never sinned The Lord will open to such a fountaine for sin and uncleannes This may seeme as a cable to the eye of a Needle such mercie for so gracelesse a wretch yes bee encouraged for the Lord lookes not at the greatnesse of the sin if thy Traytors heart distrust him not but at the expression of his owne grace and getting himselfe a name in pardoning it that where sin hath abounded grace might abound much more A dog will catch at this moisell and poison himselfe for he will sin to try a conclusion But this must not east off a poore penitent soule who hath sinned alreadie and beene carried by the streame of his Sensuality Neither must an hypocrite be bolstred nor yet the grace of God to his own frustrate And secondly consider What thou hast beene the Lord lookes not at he beholdes thee in his Son as washed purified therfore wil bee honored even by these members which have most served the lusts of thy uncleannes The Lord delights to see it so if once the property bee altred Witnesse Mary Magdalene so highly honored by Christ to bee the first witnesse of his Resurrection and so enrolled in the book of God that wheresoever the Gospell should come her Name should be honorable How did our Lord Iesus admit her to come to his body and with those eyes handes wherewith shee had beheld embraced those tresses and forelocks which had allured so many uncleane lovers yet he was content to be washed annointed and wiped what exceeding love is this thus to restore an Adulterer to his blood and to entertayne him to that dignity and service which he had forfeited Try thine owne heart in this Case no other Medicine save this made of the blood of Christ can satisfy for thy sin nor wash off the guilt and stayne of it Beleeve this promise apply this blood and this wil bee a true seed of abhorring it for ever Fayth will carry thee to the Crosse of the Lord Iesus tell thee thus I have seene him bleed and breath out his last conflict with wrath and overcome it for the full expiation of thy uncleannes if it could have overcome him thou hadst lost the day for ever but seeing he got the victorie thy sin shall not damne thee so long as he prevailed against death and hell for thee Christ onely can make a divorce between thee and thy sin Till he shed his pretious blood in the defiance of sin the soule and sin could never be made Enemies Onely death which separated his soule and body asunder can divide them If then thou seekest no other morrall shifts nor carnall Popish waies of abhorring this sin at least dost rest in no other all is well Thou takest a sure course to part with it for ever I Come in therfore and claspe to this pardon offred thee in the promise sue it out and apply it to thy soule Perhaps thy base heart will chuse rather to lose it then to take it Gods way But consider since God will not stoope to thy way and there is but one way to come to him bee it never so unwelcome stoope to that way and come in Any way of thine own dawbing with untempered mortar will please thy flesh better then this But seeing in them thou must perish by this thou maist bee saved to use Esai's wordes in the promises there is continuance in the other lying vanity cleave to this and know this onely can satisfy God and change thy lepers skin therfore venture upon this If thou canst possibly perish in beleeving this perish yet know much more sure it is thou must perish except thou beleeve If thou like those nasty lepers sit still in the city die thou must no shift of it here thou mayst live value thy life at no greater rate then the life of a desperate man is worth if elswhere there were hope thou mightst shrug at it But worse then thou art thou canst not bee if thou finde more favour then thou deservest count it for a vantage But howsoever do not preferre assured death before hope of recovery nor lose it for venturing Fiftly rest not here neither but if more mercy be shewed thee then thou lookedst for for God is best to a sinner when he is past pleading then let this perswade thee to follow him for further Grace I meane when the guilt of thy Conscience is gone sue to him for Repentance for the mortifying and subduing the rage power defiling and snaring property of thy sin And begin with the roote kill there first begin not with Adoni-bezek at the fingers endes Christ stabbes the old man at heart first As himselfe told the Pharisee nothing which comes from without can defile the man But that which defiles the man comes from within From the heart proceed as other sins so uncleannes and all the fruits Therefore either purge the roote first or else let all alone Thou shalt fynde this a new worke Yet that faith which hath washt thy Conscience and inner man from guilt and feare and hell Can purge thee a second way from all slavery to thy lust Mercy will act the part of a Priest it will both set an eternall oddes betweene thee and thy lust And it will mortify thy Concupiscence dayly till it be quite dead It will trvely set thee on mourning Truely worke thee to an hearty indignation against thy selfe It will teath thee the art of sinne detesting which no wit of man no skill of