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A52296 An essay on the contempt of the world by William Nicholls ... Nicholls, William, 1664-1712. 1694 (1694) Wing N1097; ESTC R11634 100,218 240

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the Day-time that so they may be able to hold out their Trade the longer Add to this the Trouble and Disturbance which is given to Servants and Attendants to whom a certain Regard is due and oftentimes to whole Families and this will be a Motive to a good natured Man to find out some sitter Opportunities to drink in Fifthly That he should not spend too much Money in Drinking Many a Man has been ruined in the World not only by keeping a drunken Company but one that has been too expensive for him For one Man can afford to spend more upon his Diversion than will keep another Man's Family so that if an ordinary Mechanick will keep Company with none but Gentlemen and Merchants 't is ten to one but he starves his Family by only paying his Club with them who yet may never drink to excess all the while For every poor Man cannot pretend to those more generous Drinks which may be well enough afforded by Persons of better Quality the drinking of them may be no Detriment to their Families whilst the other Man's Children may pine for Bread as he is drinking Wine Now such a Man ought to consider that his Diversion is the last thing he ought to consult that he ought to provide his Family of Necessaries before he allows himself those Superfluities and that his pleading that he never drinks to excess will not in the least attone for his Inhumanity and Barbarity to his poor Family And perhaps more Families of late in the Nation have been ruined by this affectatious Vanity than by down right Debauchery since Men of all Qualities almost have endeavoured to live alike since every little Man is ambitious of keep the best Company out of hopes of getting some considerable Character and Reputation by it although by all sensible Men of their own Cabal he is lookt upon but as a bold and ostentatious Fellow and is adjudged by God Almighty for not providing for those of his own House to be worse than an Infidel Of Chastity The third Branch of Temperance is Chastity which is a Vertue which consists in avoiding all unclean Actions and all immodest Behaviour Now therefore that we may be perfect in this we ought First To avoid all unclean Actions whatsoever in an unmarried State I will not say that a State of Virginity is a State of Perfection but it is certainly a State of very great Beauty and Purity 't is that which comes near to the State of Angels and the nighest of any thing in this World to the Nature of God himself But then this State is to be a State of Virginity indeed not only of Celibacy as the Papists generally make it where if the Parties keep from Marrying they may commit all the Whoredoms and Villanies in the World and yet keep their Oath of Continency most strenuously Nay to see how they abuse the State of Virginity with such abominable Permissions and Dispensations it would put a modest Heathen to the Blush To find how a great number of the Casuists of that Church make simple Fornication but a Venial Sin and when for Health Sake and to expel an extimulant Humor no Sin at all that the Pope can give a License to commit it nay that he has actually granted such a License as is beyond what any Man though never so wicked would expect for Pope Pius III. gave Leave to the Cardinal of St. Lucia and all his Family to commit Sodomy all the three hot Months in the Year And indeed the Libertines of the Church of England are so far reconciled to the Romish Church as to plead for the Lawfulness of Fornication as strenuously as they with this only difference that these say their Church has made it no Sin and the other are pleased to say that their Priests only have made it One Therefore this deserves to be considered a little more particularly First Fornication and all other Acts of Uncleanness are sinful because they are an Undervaluing our Nature the putting us upon the most shameful Practices such as no sober Reason will allow contrary to the Design and Purport of Nature and to the unspeakable Abuse and Dishonor both of Soul and Body For our Bodies were given us by God Almighty to be serviceable to the Soul in all Spiritual and Rational Employments and for the Conveyance of sensual Pleasures as far as may make for the Preservation and comfortable Subsistence of the Animal Life but not to employ them to the vilest purposes not to make them a Drudge to our wicked Lusts and Desires and to serve to all the filthy ends of Beastliness and Sensuality Nay the Apostle carries on this Argument farther 1 Cor. 6. where he bids us flee Fornication because our Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost and therefore it is an horrible Impiety to profane with our wicked Lusts that Place which is taken up for the Residence of the ever blessed Spirit But then what a greater Dishonor is it to our immortal Souls those pure Aethereal Substances those Angelick Natures to consent to such vile Actions contrary to all natural Law and Reason to make them so undervalue themselves and to neglect their own Interest and Happiness And upon this account the Wise Man informs us Pr●v 6.32 Whoso commiteth Adultery with a Woman lacketh Understanding that is he never acts more unbecoming an intelligent Being he never degrades Reason more than in that and such like Actions Secondly This is contrary to the End and Institution of Matrimony that State which God himself has appointed for the Propagation of Mankind and for mutual Comfort and Assistance in this Life For when once Men betake themselves to these unlawful Pleasures they grow very cold and indifferent to the Comforts of a married Life and take all Opportunities to despise it as an Enemy to their Pleasures and natural Freedom But this at best is but audaciously to break out from those Fences which God Almighty has made about us and to pretend to a Freedom which is inconsistent with our Nature and contrary to our Obedience 'T is to cassate and make void God's Holy Ordinance to contemn and trample under foot that Primitive Institution as old as our very State of Innocency 't is to invert the Order and Prescript of Nature to wrest God's Dispensations out of his Hands and to prosecute their Enjoyments upon their own Terms and Measures Thirdly 'T is contrary to the express Word of God For setting aside the Seventh Commandment where under Adultery all Sins of Uncleanness are forbidden and the woful Denunciation against them in many Places of the Old Testament our Saviour's Command Mat. 5.27 has improved the old Precept Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit Adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart Then certainly all outward acts of