Affection corresponding with the most perfect Draughts and Models of its own Reason it must needs highly approve of and be perfectly satisfied with it self and while it surveys its own Motions and Actions it must necessarily have a most delicious Gust and Rellish of them they being all such as its best and purest Reason approves of with a full and ungainsaying Judgment And thus the Soul being cured of all irregular Affection and removed from all corporeal Passion will live in perfect Health and Vigor and for ever enjoy within it self a Heaven of Content and Peace IV. ANOTHER Virtue which appertains to a man considered meerly as a Rational Animal is TEMPERANCE which consists in not indulging our Bodily Appetites to the Hurt and Prejudice of our Rational Nature Or in refraining from all those Excesses of Bodily Pleasure of Eating Drinking and Venery which do either disorder our Reason or indispose us to enjoy the pure and spiritual Pleasures of the Mind For besides that all Excesses of Bodily Pleasures are naturally prejudicial to our Reason as they indispose those Bodily Organs by which it operates For so Drunkenness dilutes the Brain which is the Mint of the Understanding and drowns those Images it stamps upon it in a Floud of unwholesome Rheums and Moistures and Gluttony cloggs the Animal Spirits which are as it were the Wings of the Mind and indisposes them for the Highest and Noblest Flights of Reason so Wantonness chafes the Bloud into Feverish Heats and by causing it to boil up too fast into the Brain disorders the motions of the Spirits there and so confounds the Phantasms that the Mind can have no clear or distinct Perception of them by which means our Intellectual Faculties are very often interrupted and forced to sit still for want of proper Tools to work with and so by often loitering grow by degrees listless and unactive and at the last are utterly indisposed to any Rational Operations Besides this I say which must needs be a mighty prejudice to our Rational Nature by too much familiarizing our selves to bodily Pleasures we shall break off all our acquaintance with spiritual ones and grow by degrees such utter strangers to them that we shall never be able to rellish and enjoy them and our Soul will contract such an Vxorious Fondness of the Body that being the Shop of all the Pleasure it was ever acquainted with that 't will never be able to live happily without it For though in its separate state it cannot be supposed that the Soul will retain the Appetites of the Body yet if while it is in the Body it wholly abandons it self to Corporeal Pleasures it may and doubtless will retain a vehement hankering after it and longing to be re-united to it which I conceive is the only sensuality that a separated Soul is capable of For when such a Soul arrives into the Spiritual World her having wholly accustomed her self to bodily Pleasure and never experienced any other will necessarily render her incapable of enjoying the Pleasures of pure and blessed Spirits So that being left utterly destitute of all her dear Delights and Satisfactions which are such as she knows she can never enjoy but in conjunction with the Body all her Appetite and Longing must necessarily be an outragious Desire of being Embodied again that so she may be capable of repeating her old sensual Pleasures and acting over the brutish Scene anew AND this as some think is the Reason why such gross and sensual Souls have appeared so often after their separation in the Churchyards or Charnel-Houses where their Bodies were laid because they cannot please themselves without them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soul that is infected with a great Lust to the Body continues so for a great while after Death and suffering great Reluctancies hovers about this visible place and is hardly drawn from thence by force by the Demon that hath the Guard and Care of it Where by the visible Place he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is About their Monuments and Sepulchres where the shadowy Phantasms of such Souls have sometimes appeared For being utterly unacquainted with the Pleasures of Spirits they have nothing in all the spiritual world to feed their hungry Desire which makes them when they are permitted to wander to hover about and linger after their Bodies the Impossibility of being re-united to them not being able to cure them of their impotent Desire of it but still they would fain be alive again and reassume their old Instruments of Pleasure Iterumque ad tarda reverti Corpora Quae lucis miseris tam dira Cupido And hence among other Reasons it was that the Primitive Christians did so severely abstain from Bodily Pleasures that by this means they might gently wean the Soul from the Body and teach it before hand to live upon the Delights of separated Spirits that so upon its separation it might drop into Eternity like ripe Fruit from the Tree with Ease and Willingness and that by accustoming it before to spiritual Pleasures and Delights it might acquire such a savoury Sense and Relish of them as to be able when it came into the spiritual world to live wholly upon them and to be so intirely satisfied with them as not to be endlesly vext with a tormenting Desire of returning to the Body again For so Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We that are hunting after the Heavenly Food must take heed that we keep our Earthly Belly in subjection and to keep a strict Government over those things that are pleasant to it For saith he a little before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither saith he is Food our Work nor Pleasure our Aim but we use them only as necessaries to our present Abode in which our Reason is instituting and training us up to a Life incorruptible i. e. They did so use them as that as much as in them lay they might wean their Souls from the pleasures of them that so they might have the better Appetite to that Spiritual Food upon which they were to live for ever AND therefore thus to temperate and restrain our selves in the Use of bodily Pleasures is one of the necessary Virtues of the Christian Life For hitherto tend all those Precepts concerning abstaining from fleshly lusts which war against our Souls I Pet. ii 11 and mortifying the deeds of the Body Rom. viii 13 and keeping under the Body 1 Cor. ix 27 and putting off the body of the sins of the Flesh Coloss. ii 11 And we are strictly enjoined to be temperate in all things to watch and be sober and walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in excess of wine revellings and banquettings The sense of all which is That we should not indulge our bodily Appetites to the vitiating and depraving of our spiritual that we should not plunge our selves so far in
without the least bandying or Controversie For though some of them do doubtless know much more than others yet there being no Intermixture of Error in the Knowledge of any it is impossible they should oppose or contradict one another because whatsoever is true agrees with every thing that is true And being thus united in Mind and Judgment they freely communicate their Thoughts without ever disputing one anothers Sentences which renders it impossible for them ever to quarrel or disagree So that all their Communion is a perfect Concord of Souls wherein there is no such thing as a Schism or Division as passing cruel Censures or affixing hard Names or bandying Anathema's at one another but in Mind and Heart they are all as perfectly one as if they were all animated by one and the same Soul And thus they live unspeakably happy in the mutual Exercise of an everlasting Peace and all their Conversation with one another is perfect Harmony without Discords IV. AS we are rational Creatures related to one another we are obliged modestly to submit to our Superiours and chearfully to condescend to our Inferiours in those respective Societies whereof we are Members These two I put together because they are Relatives and as such do mutually explain and contribute light to each other Now it being necessary to the Order and End of all Societies that their Members should be distinguished into superiour and inferiour Ranks and Stations that some should be trusted with the power of Commanding and others reduced to the condition of Obedience that so in this regular Subordination they may every one in their several stations be obliged to aid and assist each other and according to their several Capacities to contribute to the good of the Whole which in a state of Equality wherein every Man would be absolute Lord of himself cannot be expected considering the different Humours and Interests by which Men are acted this I say being upon this account necessary it is upon the same Reason equally necessary that they should mutually perform those Offices to one another which are proper to their respective Ranks and Stations That Superiours should look upon themselves as Trustees for the Publick Good who are entrusted with Authority over others not to domineer and gratifie their own imperious Wills but to provide for and secure the Common-weal and consequently to take care that they do not prostitute their Power to their own private Avarice or Ambition but that they employ it for the Common Good and Benefit of their Subjects and Inferiours that they be ready to do them all good Offices to compassionate their Infirmities consult their Conveniencies and comply with all their reasonable Supplications considering that for this End they derived their Authority from God who is the Fountain of Authority to whom they are accountable for their good and bad Administration of it And so for the Inferiours it is no less necessary for the Common Good that they perform their parts towards those that are above them that they behave themselves towards them with all that Loyalty and Modesty Respect and Submission which their Place and Authority calls for that they reverence them as the Vicegerents of God and address to them as to sacred Persons and render a chearful Obedience to that divine Authority that is stampt upon all their just Laws and Commands considering that in their several Degrees they represent the Person of the great Sovereign of the World to whom we owe an intire Subjection and consequently are in every thing to be obeyed and submitted to that he hath not expresly countermanded For that Subjects and Superiours should thus behave themselves towards one another is indispensably necessary to the Welfare of all Societies For whilst the Inferiours of any Society do obstinately refuse to submit to the Will of their Superiours and the Superiours to condescend to the Common Good of their Inferiours they are contending together either for a Confusion or a Tyranny and if the Superiours prevail Tyranny follows if the Inferiours Confusion either of which is extremely mischievous not only to the Society in general but to each of the contending Parties For if Confusion follows 't is not only the Superiour Party suffers by being deposed from its Authority but the Inferiour too by being deprived of Protection and exposed to one anothers Rapine and Violence and if Tyranny follows 't is not only the Inferiour Party suffers by being forced upon a rigorous and uneasie Obedience but the Superiour too by being continually perplexed how to force and extort that Obedience and thus both Parties suffer under the bad effects of each others Misdemeanour So that to make our Society happy it is necessary that whether we be Superiours or Inferiours we should be of a gentle yielding and treatable Temper that so which Rank soever we are placed in we may be pliable either way to a fair Condescension or a just Submission For whilst we are of obstinate perverse and untractable Tempers we are neither fit to be Superiours nor Inferiours but must necessarily be Plagues and Grievances to our Society which Rank or Order soever we are placed in And though in this life we have not always such a sensible Experience of the Evil and Mischief of this malignant Temper because now it is counter-influenced by those more meek and auspicious ones that are in Conjunction with it yet when we go into Eternity we shall be consigned to such a Society of Spirits as are all throughout of our own Genius and Temper For as in the Society of the Blessed there is a Conjunction of every Vertue in every Member so there is of every Vice in the Society of the Wicked who do not only retain those Vices in their Natures which they were here inclined and addicted to but are also continually excited to all other Vices they are capable of by their inveterate Enmity against God which in that miserable estate is perpetually enraged by their Despair of being ever reconciled to him So that whatsoever wicked Temper we carry with us into Eternity we shall be sure to meet with it in every individual Member of the Society of the Wicked and consequently if we carry thither with us a perverse and untreatable Temper that will not endure either to submit or condescend we shall be sure to find the same Humour reigning throughout all the Society of the Wicked And then being eternally united to it as we must expect to be if we are allied to it by Nature in what a miserable state shall we be when every Member of our Society shall be of the same unconversable Temper with our selves and we shall find none that will comply with or endeavour to sooth and mollifie our Obstinacy when all our whole Society shall consist of a Company of stiff and stubborn Spirits that will neither submit to nor bear with one another but every one will have his will upon every one so far as he is able
partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the World to come if they fall away to renew them again to repentance Heb. vi 4 5 6. For besides that by falling from his first Repentance a man grieves and chases the Holy Spirit from him without whose Aid he can neither stand when he is up nor recover when he is faln and having Chased him away he cannot well expect that he will be so ready to return and co-operate with him after he hath treated him so rudely by quenching his Motions unraveling his Workmanship and extinguishing all those heavenly Effects which his Grace had produced in his Soul For how can this blessed Assistant of Souls but take it in great Disdain to be thus mock'd and disappointed when he had been so industriously labouring for a Wretches Good to lift him out of the Mire wherein he was sunk and perishing and when he had succeeded so far in his Labour as to help him quite out and was washing and cleansing his polluted Spirit and dressing it for the Embraces of the Father of spirits to see this Wretch turn back after all and plung himself headlong into the Mire again how can he but resent such an ungrateful Disappointment of his Labour with unspeakable Grief and Indignation And if upon such Resentment he should as he justly may wholly retire from him and leave him forever to wallow in his own Hearts Lust his Condition will not be only dangerous but desperate What the blessed Spirit will do in this Case I cannot certainly determine because he may do as he pleases being totally released by the Sinners Apostacy from all Obligation of Promise But it makes my Heart ake to think how much Reason there is to fear that he will utterly forsake and abandon him and not throw away any more of his Grace upon a Wretch on whom he hath already spent so much to no purpose And if the heinous Affront which the blessed Spirit receives by your Apostacy should put him upon this Resolution you are damn'd above-ground and everlastingly forsaken of all Hopes of Recovery But besides all this which one would think should be sufficient to startle any sober Man from making such a desperate Experiment by falling off from your Repentance you must needs be supposed to offer a mighty Violence to your Consciences which having been already awaken'd into a through Sense of your past Sins must necessarily reflect upon your present Apostacy with unspeakable Horror and Affrightment which if it doth not presently scare ye back again to Repentance will put ye upon more desperate Courses than ever For now if your Conscience won't be quiet you have no other Remedy but to ruffle with it and out-brave its Horrors by being more couragiously wicked and as those barbarous Parents that sacrificed their Children to Moloch were fain to make Noises round the burning Idol with Drums and Timbrels to drown their dying Shrieks and Grones least they should move them to Compassion so when by your wilful Relapses you have sacrificed your Conscience to your Lust and it begins to Shriek out from among those Flames of Guilt whereinto you have cast it you have no other Remedy unless you repent immediately but to make a Tophet round about it and drown its Out cries in Excesses of Riot to put your selves into a tumultuous Hurry of Wickedness and Folly that you may not hear those ill-boding Shrieks within and sear over the Wounds of your Conscience with a thick Custom of Sinning that they may neither bleed nor smart So that if once you turn Recreant to your Christian Warfare you will be forced in your own Defence to plung your selves deeper into Sin than ever For now you must sin not only to greatifie your Lusts but to stupifie your Conscience and this last you can never do without being excessively wicked You must now be puny Sinners no longer if ever you intend to sin quietly but resolve to turn Heroes in Iniquity and out-sin your natural Sense of Good and Evil. In order whereunto you must give your wounded Spirit Gash after Gash and follow the Blow till you have left it past feeling you must heap on Loads of Guilt upon your Conscience till with the continued Pressure you have rendered it callous and insensible and when by this means you have sunk your selves deeper into Sin than ever as you will doubtless soon do how much more difficult and hazardous must your Recovery be For now you will need much more Assistance than ever you did in your first Repentance and have much less Reason to expect it So that though I dare not say your Condition will be desperate yet I must tell ye 't will be so fearfully dangerous that unless God out of a peculiar Mercy to ye awake ye by some extraordinary providence and at the same time co-operate with ye by an extraordinary Grace you must certainly miscarry for ever V. CONSIDER that by your deserting of the Christian Warfare you will not only render your future Recovery more difficult but you will also plung your selves for the present into a far more guilty and criminal Condition than ever For thus St. Peter determines in the Case 2 Pet. ii 20 21. if after they have escap'd the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the later end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy commandement that is by relapsing into those sinful Pollutions out of which they had been rescued by the Belief and Knowledg of Christianity they have rendered themselves much more guilty than they were before when they were Infidels so that if they had never been acquainted with the Gospel nor taken one Step in the Pathes of its holy Commandements it had been much better for them and God would have been much less angry and displeased with them For by our Apostacy into a wicked Life we do not only return back into as bad at least if not a worse Condition than ever but First We do also make void all those Operations of the Spirit of God by which we were so effectually persuaded to undertake and hitherto to prosecute the Christian Warfare By relapsing into a state of Sin again we wilfully undo all that he hath been doing we revive those Lusts which he hath been mortifying and root up those Graces which he hath been planting and watering within us and when with great Contrivance and Industry he hath drest and cultivavated our Nature pluckt up the Weeds of it and planted it with the Flowers of Heaven we wilfully spoil and lay it wast again and turn his growing Sharon into a barren Wilderness So that besides all that Guilt which arises from those sinful Courses whereinto we are