usuall entercourses of the world still their desire of single life increased because the old necessity lasted and a new one did supervene Afterwards the case was altered and then the single life was not to be chosen for it self nor yet in imitation of the first precedents for it could not be taken out from their circumstances and be used alone He therefore that thinks he is a more holy person for being a virgin or a widower or that he is bound to be so because they were so or that he cannot be a religious person because he is not so hath zeal indeed but not according to knowledge But now if the single state can be taken out and put to new appendages and fitted to the end of another grace or essentiall duty of Religion it will well become a Christian zeal to choose it so long as it can serve the end with advantage and security Thus also a zealous person is to chuse his fastings while they are necessary to him and are acts of proper mortification while he is tempted or while he is under discipline while he repents or while he obeys but some persons fast in zeal but for nothing else fast when they have no need when there is need they should not but call it religion to be miserable or sick here their zeal is folly for it is neither an act of Religion nor of prudence to fast when fasting probably serves no end of the spirit and therefore in the fasting dayes of the Church although it is warrant enough to us to fast if we had no end to serve in it but the meer obedience yet it is necessary that the superiors should not think the Law obeyed unlesse the end of the first institution be observed a fasting day is a day of humiliation and prayer and fasting being nothing it self but wholly the handmaid of a further grace ought not to be devested of its holinesse and sanctification and left like the wals of a ruinous Church where there is no duty performed to God but there remains something of that which us'd to minister to Religion The want of this consideration hath caus'd so much scandall and dispute so many snares and schismes concerning Ecclesiasticall fasts For when it was undressed and stripp'd of all the ornaments and usefull appendages when from a solemn day it grew to be common from thence to be lesse devout by being lesse seldome and lesse usefull and then it passed from a day of Religion to be a day of order and from fasting till night to fasting till evening-song and evening-song to be sung about twelve a clock and from fasting it was changed to a choice of food from eating nothing to eating fish and that the letter began to be stood upon and no usefulnesse remain'd but what every of his own piety should put into it but nothing was enjoyn'd by the Law nothing of that exacted by the superiours then the Law fell into disgrace and the design became suspected and men were first insnared and then scandalized and then began to complain without remedy and at last took remedy themselves without authority the whole affair fell into a disorder and a mischief and zeal was busie on both sides and on both sides was mistaken because they fell not upon the proper remedy which was to reduce the Law to the usefulnesse and advantages of its first intention But this I intended not to have spoken 2. Our zeal must never carry us beyond that which is safe Some there are who in their first attempts and entries upon Religion while the passion that brought them in remains undertake things as great as their highest thoughts no repentance is sharp enough no charities expensive enough no fastings afflictive enough then totis Quinquatribus orant and finding some deliciousnesse at the first contest and in that activity of their passion they make vowes to binde themselves for ever to this state of delicacies The onset is fair but the event is this The age of a passion is not long and the flatulent spirit being breathed out the man begins to abate of his first heats and is ashamed but then he considers that all that was not necessary and therefore he will abate something more and from something to something at last it will come to just nothing and the proper effect of this is indignation and hatred of holy things an impudent spirit carelessenesse or despair Zeal sometimes carries a man into temptation and he that never thinks he loves God dutifully or acceptably because he is not imprison'd for him or undone or design'd to Martyrdome may desire a triall that will undoe him It is like fighting of a Duell to shew our valour Stay till the King commands you to fight and die and then let zeal do its noblest offices This irregularity and mistake was too frequent in the primitive Church when men and women would strive for death and be ambitious to feel the hangmans sword some miscarryed in the attempt and became sad examples of the unequall yoking a frail spirit with a zealous driver 3. Let Zeal never transport us to attempt any thing but what is possible M. Teresa made a vow that she would do alwaies that which was absolutely the best But neither could her understanding alwaies tell her which was so nor her will alwayes have the same fervours and it must often breed scruples and sometimes tediousnesse and wishes that the vow were unmade He that vowes never to have an ill thought never to commit an error hath taken a course that his little infirmities shall become crimes and certainly be imputed by changing his unavoidable infirmity into vow-breach Zeal is a violence to a mans spirit and unlesse the spirit be secur'd by the proper nature of the duty and the circumstances of the action and the possibilities of the man it is like a great fortune in the meanest person it bears him beyond his limit and breaks him into dangers and passions transportations and all the furies of disorder that can happen to an abused person 4. Zeal is not safe unlesse it be in re probabili too it must be in a likely matter For we that finde so many excuses to untie all our just obligations and distinguish our duty into so much finenesse that it becomes like leaf-gold apt to be gone at every breath it can not be prudent that we zealously undertake what is not probable to be effected If we do the event can be nothing but portions of the former evill scruple and snares shamefull retreats and new fantastick principles In all our undertakings we must consider what is our state of life what our naturall inclinations what is our society and what are our dependencies by what necessities we are born down by what hopes we are biassed and by these let us measure our heats and their proper businesse A zealous man runs up a sandy hill the violence of motion is his greatest hinderance and a
to us to invite us to come to God and be sav'd and therefore when this and infinitely more shall by the Judge be exhibited in sad remembrances there needs no other sentence we shall condemn our selves with a hasty shame and a fearfull confusion to see how good God hath been to us and how base we have been to our selves Thus Moses is said to accuse the Jewes and thus also he that does accuse is said to condemn as Verres was by Cicero and Claudia by Domitius her accuser and the world of impenitent persons by the men of Nineveh and all by Christ their Judge I represent the horror of this circumstance to consist in this besides the reasonablenesse of the Judgement and the certainty of the condemnation it cannot but be an argument of an intolerable despair to perishing souls when he that was our Advocate all our life shall in the day of that appearing be our Accuser and our Judge a party against us an injur'd person in the day of his power and of his wrath doing execution upon all his own foolish and malicious enemies * 2. Our conscience shall be our accuser but this signifies but these two things 1. that we shall be condemned for the evils that we have done and shall then remember God by his power wiping away the dust from the tables of our memory and taking off the consideration and the voluntary neglect and rude shufflings of our cases of conscience For then we shall see things as they are the evill circumstances and the crooked intentions the adherent unhandsomenesse and the direct crimes for all things are laid up safely and though we draw a curtain of cobweb over them and few figleaves before our shame yet God shall draw away the curtain and forgetfulnesse shall be no more because with a taper in the hand of God all the corners of our nastinesse shall be discovered And secondly it signifies this also that not only the Justice of God shall be confessed by us in our own shame and condemnation but the evill of the sentence shall be received into us to melt our bowels and to break our heart in pieces within us because we are the authors of our own death and our own inhumane hands have torn our souls in pieces Thus farre the horrors are great and when evill men consider it it is certain they must be afraid to dye Even they that have liv'd well have some sad considerations and the tremblings of humility and suspicion of themselves I remember S. Cyprian tels of a good man who in his agony of death saw a phantasme of a noble and angelicall shape who frowning and angry said to him Pati timetis exire non vultis Quid faciam vobis Ye cannot endure sicknesse ye are troubled at the evils of the world and yet you are loth to dye and to be quit of them what shall I do to you Although this is apt to represent every mans condition more of lesse yet concerning persons of wicked lives it hath in it too many sad degrees of truth they are impatient of sorrow and justly fearfull of death because they know not how to comfort themselves in the evill accidents of their lives and their conscience is too polluted to take death for sanctuary and to hope to have amends made to their condition by the sentence of the day of Judgement Evill and sad is their condition who cannot be contented here nor blessed hereafter whose life is their misery and their conscience is their enemy whose grave is their prison and death their undoing and the sentence of Dooms-day the beginning of an intolerable condition 3. The third sort of accusers are the Devils and they will do it with malicious and evill purposes The Prince of the Devils hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for one of his chiefest appellatives The accuser of the Brethren he is by his professed malice and imployment and therefore God who delights that his mercy should triumph and his goodnesse prevail over all the malice of men and Devils hath appointed one whose office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reprove the accuser and to resist the enemy and to be a defender of their cause who belong to God The holy Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a defender the evill spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the accuser and they that in this life belong to one or the other shall in the same proportion be treated at the day of Judgement The Devill shall accuse the Brethren that is the Saints and servants of God and shall tell concerning their follies and infirmities the sins of their youth and the weaknesse of their age the imperfect grace and the long schedule of omissions of duty their scruples and their fears their diffidences and pusillanimity and all those things which themselves by strict examination finde themselves guilty of and have confessed all their shame and the matter of their sorrowes their evill intentions and their little plots their carnall confidences and too fond adherences to the things of this world their indulgence and easinesse of government their wilder joyes and freer meals their losse of time and their too forward and apt compliances their trifling arrests and little peevishnesses the mixtures of the world with the things of the Spirit and all the incidences of humanity he will bring forth and aggravate them by the circumstance of ingratitude and the breach of promise and the evacuating all their holy purposes and breaking their resolutions and rifling their vowes and all these things being drawn into an intire representment and the bils clog'd by numbers will make the best man in the world â—â—em foul and unhandsome and stained with the characters of death and evill dishonour But for these there is appointed a defender The holy Spirit that maketh intercession for us shall then also interpose and against all these things shall oppose the passion of our blessed Lord and upon all their defects shall cast the robe of his righteousnesse and the sins of their youth shall not prevail so much as the repentance of their age and their omissions be excused by probable intervening causes and their little escapes shall appear single and in disunion because they were alwaies kept asunder by penitentiall prayers and sighings and their seldome returns of sin by their daily watchfulnesse and their often infirmities by the sincerity of their souls and their scruples by their zeal and their possions by their love and all by the mercies of God and the sacrifice which their Judge offer'd and the holy Spirit made effective by daily graces and assistances These therefore infallibly go to the portion of the right hand because the Lord our God shall answer for them But as for the wicked it is not so with them for although the plain story of their life be to them a sad condemnation yet what will be answered when it shall be told concerning them that they despised Gods mercies and feared
discomposed his spirit when the two Kings came to inquire of the Lord that though he was a good man and a Prophet yet he could not pray he could not inquire of the Lord till by rest and musick he had gathered himself into the evennesse of a dispassionate and recollected minde therefore let your prayers be without wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for God by many significations hath taught us that when men go to the altars to pray or to give thanks they must bring no sin or violent passion along with them to the sacrifice said Philo. 2. Indifferency and easinesse of desire is a great enemy to the successe of a good mans prayer When Plato gave Diogenes a great vessell of Wine who ask'd but a little and a few Carrawaies the Cynic thank'd him with his rude expression Cum interrogaris quot sint duo duo respondes viginti ita non secundum ea quae rogaris das nec ad ea quae interrogaris respondes Thou neither answerest to the question thou art asked nor givest according as thou art desired but being inquired of how many are two and two thou answerest twenty So it is with God and us in the intercourse of our prayers we pray for health and he gives it us it may be a sicknesse that carries us to eternall life we pray for necessary support for our persons and families and he gives us more then we need we beg for a removall of a present sadnesse and he gives us that which makes us able to bear twenty sadnesses a cheerfull spirit a peacefull conscience and a joy in God as an antepast of eternall rejoycings in the Kingdome of God But then although God doth very frequently give us beyond the matter of our desires yet he does not so often give us great things beyond the spirit of our desires beyond the quicknesse vivacity and fervor of our minds for there is but one thing in the world that God hates besides sin that is indifferency and lukewarmnesse which although it hath not in it the direct nature of sin yet it hath this testimony from God that it is loathsome and abominable and excepting this thing alone God never said so of any thing in the New Testament but what was a direct breach of a commandement The reason of it is because lukewarmnesse or an indifferent spirit is an undervaluing of God and of Religion it is a separation of reason from affections and a perfect conviction of the understanding to the goodnesse of a duty but a refusing to follow what we understand For he that is lukewarm alwaies understands the better way and seldome pursues it he hath so much reason as is sufficient but he will not obey it his will does not follow the dictate of his understanding and therefore it is unnaturall It is like the phantastick fires of the night where there is light and no heat and therefore may passe on to the reall fires of hell where there is heat and no light and therefore although an act of lukewarmnesse is only an undecency and no sin yet a state of lukewarmnesse is criminall and sinfull state of imperfection and undecency an act of indifferency hinders a single prayer from being accepted but a state of it makes the person ungracious and despised in the Court of heaven and therefore S. Iames in his accounts concerning an effective prayer not only requires that he be a just man who prayes but his prayer must be fervent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an effectuall fervent prayer so our English reads it it must be an intent zealous busie operative prayer for consider what a huge undeceney it is that a man should speak to God for a thing that he values not or that he should not value a thing without which he cannot be happy or that he should spend his religion upon a trifle and if it be not a trifle that he should not spend his affections upon it If our prayers be for temporall things I shall not need to stirre up your affections to be passionate for their purchase we desire them greedily we run after them intemperately we are kept from them with huge impatience we are delayed with infinite regret we preferre them before our duty we aske them unseasonably we receive them with our own prejudice and we care not we choose them to our hurt and hinderance and yet delight in the purchase and when we do pray for them we can hardly bring our selves to it to submit to Gods will but will have them if we can whether he be pleased or no like the Parasite in the Comedy Qui comedit quod fuit quod non fuit he eat all and more then all what was set before him and what was kept from him But then for spirituall things for the interest of our souls and the affairs of the Kingdome we pray to God with just such a zeal as a man begs of the Chirurgeon to cut him of the stone or a condemned man desires his executioner quickly to put him out of his pain by taking away his life when things are come to that passe it must be done but God knows with what little complacency and desire the man makes his request And yet the things of religion and the spirit are the only things that ought to be desired vehemently and pursued passionately because God hath set such a value upon them that they are the effects of his greatest loving kindnesse they are the purchases of Christs bloud and the effect of his continuall intercession the fruits of his bloudy sacrifice and the gifts of his healing and saving mercy the graces of Gods Spirit and the only instruments of felicity and if we can have fondnesses for things indifferent or dangerous our prayers upbraid our spirits when we beg coldly and tamely for those things for which we ought to dye which are more precious then the globes of Kings and weightier then Imperiall Scepters richer then the spoils of the Sea or the treasures of the Indian hils He that is cold and tame in his prayers hath not tasted of the deliciousnesse of Religion and the goodnesse of God he is a stranger to the secrets of the Kingdome and therefore he does not know what it is either to have hunger or satiety and therefore neither are they hungry for God nor satisfied with the world but remain stupid and inapprehensive without resolution and determination never choosing clearly nor pursuing earnestly and therefore never enter into possession but alwaies stand at the gate of wearinesse unnecessary caution and perpetuall irresolution But so it is too often in our prayers we come to God because it is civill so to do and a generall custome but neither drawn thither by love nor pinch'd by spirituall necessities and pungent apprehensions we say so many prayers because we are resolved so to do and we passe through them sometimes with a little attention sometimes with none at all and
the folly and the punishment to the crime there is no man more miserable in the world then the man who fears God as his enemy and Religion as a snare and duty as intolerable and the Commandements as impossible and his Judge as implacable and his anger as certain unsufferable and unavoidable whither shall this man goe where shall he lay his burden where shall he take sanctuary for he fears the Altars as the places where his soul bleeds and dies and God who is his Saviour he looks upon as his enemy and because he is Lord of all the miserable man cannot change his service unlesse it be apparently for a worse And therefore of all the evils of the minde fear is certainly the worst and the most intolerable levity and rashnesse have in it some spritefulnesse and greatnesse of action anger is valiant desire is busie and apt to hope credulity is oftentimes entertain'd and pleased with images and appearances But fear is dull and sluggish and treacherous and flattering and dissembling and miserable and foolish Every false opinion concerning God is pernicious and dangerous but if it be joyned with trouble of spirit as fear scruple or superstition are it is like a wound with an inflamation or a strain of a sinew with a contusion or contrition of the part painfull and unsafe it puts on to actions when it self is driven it urges reason and circumscribes it and makes it pityable and ridiculous in its consequent follies which if we consider it will sufficiently reprove the folly and declare the danger Almost all ages of the world have observed many instances of fond perswasions and foolish practises proceeding from violent fears and scruples in matter of Religion Diomedon and many other Captains were condemned to dye because after a great Naval victory they pursued the flying enemies and did not first bury their dead But Chabrias in the same case first buryed the dead and by that time the enemy rallyed and returned and beat his Navy and made his masters pay the price of their importune superstition they fear'd where they should not and where they did not they should From hence proceeds observation of signs and unlucky dayes and the people did so when the Gregorian account began continuing to call those unlucky dayes which were so signed in their tradition or Erra pater although the day upon this account fell 10 dayes sooner and men were transported with many other trifling contingencies and little accidents which when they are one entertain'd by weaknesse prevail upon their own strength and in sad natures and weak spirits have produced effects of great danger and sorrow Aristodemas King of the Messenians in his warre against the Spartans prevented the sword of the enemies by a violence done upon himself only because his dogs howl'd like wolves and the Soothsayers were afraid because the Briony grew up by the wals of his Fathers house and Nicias Generall of the Athenian forces sate with his armes in his bosome and suffered himself and 40000 men tamely to fall by the insolent enemy only because he was afraid of the labouring and eclipsed Moon When the Marble statues in Rome did sweat as naturally they did against all rainy weather the Augures gave an alarum to the City but if lightning struck the spire of the Capitoll they thought the summe of affairs and the Commonwealth it self was indanger'd And this Heathen folly hath stuck so close to the Christian that all the Sermons of the Church for 1600 years have not cured them all But the practises of weaker people and the artifice of ruling Priests have superinduced many new ones When Pope Eugenius sang Masse at Rhemes and some few drops from the Chalice were spilt upon the pavement it was thought to foretell mischief warres and bloud to all Christendome though it was nothing but carelesnesse and mischance of the Priest and because Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury sang the Masse of Requiem upon the day he was reconcil'd to his Prince it was thought to foretell his own death by that religious office and if men can listen to such whispers and have not reason and observation enough to confute such trifles they shall still be afrighted with the noise of birds and every night-raven shall foretell evill as Micaiah to the King of Israel and every old woman shall be a Prophetesse and the events of humane affairs which should be managed by the conduct of counsell of reason and religion shall succeed by chance by the slight of birds and the meeting with an evill eye by the falling of the salt or the decay of reason of wisdome and the just religion of a man To this may be reduc'd the observation of dreams and fears commenced from the fancies of the night For the superstitious man does not rest even when he sleeps neither is he safe because dreams usually are false but he is afflicted for fear they should tell true Living and waking men have one world in common they use the same air and fire and discourse by the same principles of Logick and reason but men that are asleep have every one a world to himself and strange perceptions and the superstitious hath none at all his reason sleeps and his fears are waking and all his rest and his very securities to the fearfull man turn into afrights and insecure expectation of evils that never shall happen they make their rest uneasie and chargeable and they still vex their weary soul not considering there is no other sleep for sleep to rest in and therefore if the sleep be troublesome the mans cares be without remedy till they be quite destroyed Dreams follow the temper of the body and commonly proceed from trouble or disease businesse or care an active head and a restlesse minde from fear or hope from wine or passion from fulnesse or emptinesse from phantastick remembrances or from som Daemon good or bad they are without rule and without reason they are as contingent as if a man should study to make a Prophesie and by saying 10000 things may hit upon one true which was therefore not foreknown though it was forespoken and they have no certainty because they have no naturall causality nor proportion to those effects which many times they are said to foresignifie The dream of the yolk of an egge importeth gold saith Artemidorus and they that use to remember such phantastick idols are afraid to lose a friend when they dream their teeth shake when naturally it will rather signifie a scurvy for a naturall indisposition and an imperfect sense of the beginning of a disease may vex the fancy into a symbolicall representation for so the man that dreamt he swam against a stream of bloud had a Plurisie beginning in his side and he that dreamt he dipt his foot in water and that it was turn'd to a Marble was intic'd into the fancie by a beginning dropsie and if the events do answer in one instance we
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 of 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 speaks one thing and our heart means another and we are hardly brought to say our prayers or to undertake a fasting day or to celebrate a Communion and if we remember that all these are holy actions and that we have many opportunities of doing them all and yet doe them very seldome and then very coldly it will be found at the foot of the account that our flesh and our naturall weaknesse prevailes oftner then our spirituall strengths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that are bound long in chains feel such a lamenesse in the first restitutions of their liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of the long accustomed chain and pressure that they must stay till Nature hath set them free and the disease be taken off as well as the chain and when the soul is got free from her actuall pressure of sins still the wound remaines and a long habitude and longing after it a looking back and upon the presenting the old object the same company or the remembrance of the delight the fancy strikes and the heart fails and the temptations returne and stand dressed in form and circumstances and ten to one but the man dies again 4. Some men are wise and know their weaknesses and to prevent their startings back will make fierce and strong resolutions and bind up their gaps with thornes and make a new hedge about their spirits and what then this shews indeed that the spirit is willing but the storm arises and windes blow and rain descends and presently the earth trembles and the whole fabrick falls into ruine and disorder A resolution such as we usually make is nothing but a little trench which every childe can step over and there is no civill man that commits a willing sin but he does it against his resolution and what Christian lives that will not say and think that he hath repented in some degree and yet still they commit sin that is they break all their holy purposes as readily as they lose a dream and so great is our weaknesse that to most men the strength of a resolution is just such a restraint as he suffers who is imprisoned in a curtain and secured with dores and bars of the finest linnen for though the spirit be strong to resolve the flesh is weak to keep it 5. But when they have felt their follies and see the linnen vail rent some that are desirous to please God back their resolutions with vows and then the spirit is fortified and the flesh may tempt and call but the soul cannot come forth and therefore it triumphs and acts its interest easily and certainly and then the flesh is mortified It may be so But doe not many of us inquire after a vow And we consider it may be it was rash or it was an impossible matter or without just consideration and weighing of circumstances or the case is alter'd and there is a new emergent necessity or a vow is no more then a resolution made in matter of duty both are made for God and in his eye and witnesse or if nothing will doe it men grow sad and weary and despaire and are impatient and bite the knot in pieces with their teeth which they cannot by disputing and the arts of the tongue A vow will not secure our duty because it is not stronger then our appetite and the spirit of man is weaker then the habits and superinduced nature of the flesh but by little and little it falls off like the finest thread twisted upon the traces of a chariot it cannot hold long 6. Beyond all this some choose excellent guides and stand within the restraints of modesty and a severe Monitor and the Spirit of God hath put a veile upon our spirits and by modesty in
women and young persons by reputation in the more aged and by honour in the more noble and by conscience in all have fortified the spirit of Man that men dare not prevaricate their duty though they be tempted strongly and invited perpetually and this is a partition wall that separates the spirit from the flesh and keeps it in its proper strengths and retirements But here the spirit of man for all that it is assisted strongly breaks from the inclosure and runnes into societies of flesh and sometimes despises reputation and sometimes supplies it with little arts of flattery and self-love and is modest as long as it can be secret and when it is discovered it growes impudent and a man shelters himselfe in crouds and heaps of sinners and beleeves that it is no worse with him then with other mighty criminals and publick persons who bring sin into credit amongst fooles and vicious persons or else men take false measures of fame or publick honesty and the world being broken into so many parts of disunion and agreeing in nothing but in confederate vices and grown so remisse in governments and severe accounts every thing is left so loose that honour and publick fame modesty and shame are now so slender guards to the spirit that the flesh breaks in and makes most men more bold against God then against men and against the laws of Religion then of the Common-wealth 7. When the spirit is made willing by the grace of God the flesh interposes in deceptions and false principles If you tempt some man to a notorious sin as to rebellion to deceive his trust or to be drunk he will answer he had rather die then doe it But put the sin civilly to him and let it be disguised with little excuses such things which indeed are trifles but yet they are colours fair enough to make a weak pretence and the spirit yeelds instantly Most men choose the sin if it be once disputable whether it be a sin or no If they can but make an excuse or a colour so that it shall not rudely dash against the conscience with an open professed name of Sin they suffer the temptation to doe its worst If you tempt a man you must tell him 't is no sin or it is excusable this is not rebellion but necessity and selfe defence it is not against my allegiance but is a performing of my trust I doe it for my friend not against my Superiour I doe it for a good end and for his advantage this is not drunkennesse but free mirth and fair society it is refreshment and entertainment of some supernumerary hours but it is not a throwing away my time or neglecting a day of salvation and if there be any thing more to say for it though it be no more then Adams fig-leaves or the excuses of children and truants it shall be enough to make the flesh prevail and the spirit not to be troubled for so great is our folly that the flesh always carries the cause if the spirit can be cousen'd 8. The flesh is so mingled with the spirit that we are forced to make distinctions in our appetite to reconcile our affections to God and Religion lest it be impossible to doe our duty we weep for our sins but we weep more for the death of our dearest friends or other temporall sadnesses we say we had rather die then lose our faith and yet we doe not live according to it we lose our estates and are impatient we lose our vertue and bear it well enough and what vertue is so great as more to be troubled for having sin'd then for being asham'd and begger'd and condemn'd to die Here we are forced to a distinction there is a valuation of price and a valuation of sense or the spirit hath one rate of things and the flesh hath another and what we beleeve the greatest evill does not alwayes cause to us the greatest trouble which shews plainly that we are imperfect carnall persons and the flesh will in some measure prevaile over the spirit because we will suffer it in too many instances and cannot help it in all 9. The spirit is abated and interrupted by the flesh because the flesh pretends it is not able to doe those ministeries which are appointed in order to Religion we are not able to fast or if we watch it breeds gouts and catarrhes or charity is a grace too expensive our necessities are too big to do it or we cannot suffer pain and sorrow breeds death and therefore our repentances must be more gentle and we must support our selves in all our calamities for we cannot beare our crosses without a freer refreshment and this freedome passes on to licence and many melancholy persons drowne their sorrows in sin and forgetfulnesse as if sin were more tolerable then sorrow and the anger of God an easier load then a temporall care here the flesh betrayes its weaknesse and its follies For the flesh complains too soon and the spirit of some men like Adam being too fond of his Eve attends to all its murmurs and temptations and yet the flesh is able to bear farre more then is required of it in usuall duties Custome of suffering will make us endure much and feare will make us suffer more and necessity makes us suffer any thing and lust and desire makes us to endure more then God is willing we should and yet we are nice and tender and indulgent to our weaknesses till our weaknesses grow too strong for us And what shall we doe to secure our duty and to be delivered of our selves that the body of death which we bear about us may not destroy the life of the spirit I have all this while complain'd and you see not without cause I shall afterwards tell you the remedies for all this evill In the mean time let us have but mean opinions of our selves let us watch every thing of our selves as of suspected persons and magnifie the grace of God and be humbled for our stock and spring of follies and let us look up to him who is the fountaine of grace and spirituall strengths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And pray that God would give us what we ask and what we ask not for we want more helps then we understand and we are neerer to evill then we perceive and we bear sin and death about us and are in love with it and nothing comes from us but false principles and silly propositions and weak discourses and startings from our holy purposes and care of our bodies and of our palates and the lust of the lower belly these are the imployment of our lives but if wee design to live happily and in a better place it must be otherwise with us we must become new creatures and have another definition and have new strengths which we can onely derive from God whose grace is sufficient for us and strong enough to prevail over all our
follies and infirmities SERMON XI Part II. IF it be possible to cure an evill nature we must inquire after remedies for all this mischief In order to which I shall consider 1. That since it is our flesh and bloud that is the principle of mischief we must not think to have it cured by washings and light medicaments the Physitian that went to cure the Hectick with quick-silver and fasting spittle did his Patient no good but himself became a proverb and he that by easie prayers and a seldome fast by the scattering of a little almes and the issues of some more naturall vertue thinks to cure his evill nature does fortifie his indisposition as a stick is hardened by a little fire which by a great one is devoured Quanto satius est mentem potius eluere quae malis cupiditatibus sordidatur uno virtutis as sidei lavacro universa vitia depellere Better it is by an intire body of vertue by a living and active faith to cleanse the minde from every vice and to take off all superinduced habits of sin Quod qui fecerit quamlibet inquinatum ac sordidum corpus gerat satis purus est If we take this course although our body is foul and our affections unquiet and our rest discomposed yet we shall be masters of our resolution and clean from habituall sins and so cure our evill nature For our nature was not made evill but by our selves but yet we are naturally evill that is by a superinduced nature just as drunkards and intemperate persons have made it necessary to drink extremely and their nature requires it and it is health to them they dye without it because they have made to themselves a new constitution and another nature but much worse then that which God made their sin made this new nature and this new nature makes sin necessary and unavoidable so it is in all other instances Our nature is evill because we have spoil'd it and therefore the removing the sin which we have brought in is the way to cure our nature for this evill nature is not a thing which we cannot avoid we made it and therefore we must help it but as in the superinducing this evill nature we were thrust forward by the world and the Devill by all objects from without and weaknesse from within so in the curing it we are to be helped by God and his most holy Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must have a new nature put into us which must be the principle of new counsels and better purposes of holy actions and great devotion and this nature is deriv'd from God and is a grace and a favour of heaven The same Spirit that caused the holy Jesus to be born after a new and strange manner must also descend upon us and cause us to be born again and to begin a new life upon the stock of a new nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Origen From him it first began that a divine and humane nature were weaved together that the humane nature by communication with the celestiall may also become divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only in Jesus but in all that first beleeve in him and then obey him living such a life as Jesus taught and this is the summe totall of the whole design As we have liv'd to the flesh so we must hereafter live to the spirit as our nature hath been flesh not only in its originall but in habits and affection so our nature must be spirit in habit and choice in design and effectuall prosecutions for nothing can cure our old death but this new birth and this is the recovery of our nature and the restitution of our hopes and therefore the greatest joy of mankinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a fine thing to see the light of this sun and it is pleasant to see the storm allayed and turned into a smooth sea and a fresh gale our eyes are pleased to see the earth begin to live and to produce her little issues with particolour'd coats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing is so beauteous as to see a new birth in a childlesse family And it is excellent to hear a man discourse the hidden things of Nature and unriddle the perplexities of humane notices and mistakes it is comely to see a wise man sit in the gates of the City and give right judgement in difficult causes But all this is nothing to the excellencies of a new birth to see the old man carryed forth to funerall with the solemn tears of repentance and buryed in the grave of Jesus and in his place a new creation to arise a new heart and a new understanding and new affections and excellent appetites for nothing lesse then this can cure all the old distempers 2. Our life and all our discourses and every observation and a state of reason and a union of sober counsels are too little to cure a peevish spirit and a weak reasoning and silly principles and accursed habits and evill examples and perverse affections and a whole body of sin and death It was well said in the Comedy Nunquam ita quisquam bene subductâ ratione ad vitam fuit Quin aetas usus semper aliquid apportet novi Aliquid moneat ut illa quae scire credas nescias Et quae tibi put as prima in experiundo repudies Men at first think themselves wise and are alwaies most confident when they have the least reason and to morrow they begin to perceive yesterdayes folly and yet they are not wise But as the little Embryo in the naturall sheet and lap of its mother first distinguishes into a little knot and that in time will be the heart and then into a bigger bundle which after some dayes abode grows into two little spots and they if cherished by nature will become eyes and each part by order commences into weak principles and is preserved with natures greatest curiosity that it may assist first to distinction then to order next to usefulnesse and from thence to strength till it arrive at beauty and a perfect creature so are the necessities and so are the discourses of men we first learn the principles of reason which breaks obscurely through a cloud and brings a little light and then we discern a folly and by little and little leave it till that enlightens the next corner of the soul and then there is a new discovery but the soul is still in infancy and childish follies and every day does but the work of one day but therefore art and use experience and reason although they do something yet they cannot do enough there must be something else But this is to be wrought by a new principle that is by the Spirit of grace Nature and reason alone cannot do it and therefore the
is full of wine cannot be full of the spirit of God St. Paul noteth the hostility Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit a man that is a drunkard does perire cito he perishes quickly his temptations that come to him make but short work with him a drunkard is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our English well expresses it it is a sottishnesse and the man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an uselesse senselesse person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all the evils of the world nothing is worse to a mans self nothing is more harmfull then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Crobylus it deprives a wise man of his counsell and his understanding now because it is the greatest good that nature hath that which takes it away must needs be our greatest enemy Nature is weak enough of it self but drunkennesse takes from it all the little strengths that are left to it and destroyes the spirit and the man can neither have the strengths of nature nor the strengths of grace and how then can the man do wisely or vertuously Spiritus sanctus amat sicca corda the Spirit of Godloves dry hearts said the Christian Proverb and Josephus said of Samson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it appears he was a Prophet or a man full of the Spirit by the temperance of his diet and now that all the people are holy unto the Lord they must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch said of their consecrated persons they must have dry and sober purities for by this means their reason is usefull and their passions not violent and their discourse united and the precious things of their memory at hand and they can pray and read and they can meditate and practise and then they can learn where their naturall weaknesses are most urgent and how they can be tempted and can secure their aides accordingly but how is it possible that such a man should cure all the evils of his Nature and repair the breaches of Adams sin and stop all the effect which is upon him from all the evils of the world if he delights in seas of drink and is pleased with the follies of distemper'd persons and laughs loud at the childish humours and weak discourses of the man that can do nothing but that for which Dionysius slew Antiphon and Timagenes did fall from Caesars friendship that is play the fool and abuse his friend He cannot give good counsell or spend an hour in wise sayings but half a day they can talk ut foret unde corona cachinnum tollere possit to make the crowd laugh and consider not And the same is the case of lust because it is exactly contrary to Christ the King of Virgins and his holy Spirit who is the Prince of purities and holy thoughts it is a captivity of the reason and an inraging of the passions it wakens every night and rages every day it desires passionately and prosecutes violently it hinders businesse and distracts counsell it brings jealousies and enkindles wars it sins against the body and weakens the soul it defiles a Temple and drives the holy Spirit forth and it is so intire a prosecution of the follies and weaknesses of nature such a snare and a bait to weak and easie fools that it prevails infinitely and rages horribly and rules tyrannically it is a very feaver in the reason and a calenture in the passions and therefore either it must be quenched or it will be impossible to cure our evill natures The curing of this is not the remedy of a single evill but it is a doing violence to our whole nature and therefore hath in it the greatest courage and an equall conduct and supposes spirituall strengths great enough to contest against every enemy 4. Hither is to be reduced that we avoid all flatterers and evill company for it was impossible that Alexander should be wise and cure his pride and his drunkennesse so long as he entertain'd Agesius and Agnon Bagoas and Demetrius and slew Parmenio and Philotas and murder'd wise Calisthenes for he that loves to be flattered loves not to change his pleasure but had rather to hear himself cal'd wise then to be so Flattery does bribe an evill nature and corrupt a good one and make it love to give wrong judgement and evill sentences he that loves to be flatter'd can never want some to abuse him but he shall alwaies want one to counsell him and then he can never be wise 5. But I must put these advices into a heap he therefore that will cure his evill nature must set himself against his chiefest lust which when he hath overcome the lesser enemies will come in of themselves He must endevour to reduce his affections to an indifferency for all violence is an enemy to reason and counsell and is that state of disease for which he is to enquire remedies 8. It is necessary that in all actions of choice he deliberate and consider that he may never do that for which he must aske a pardon and he must suffer shame and smart and therefore Cato did well reprove Aulus Albinus for writing the Roman story in the Greek tongue of which he had but imperfect knowledge and himself was put to make his Apologie for so doing Cato told him that he was mightily in love with a fault that he had rather beg a pardon then be innocent Who forc'd him to need the pardon And when beforehand we know we must change from what we are or do worse it is a better compendium not to enter in from whence we must uneasily retire 9. In all the contingencies of chance and variety of action remember that thou art the maker of thy own fortune and of thy own sin charge not God with it either before or after The violence of thy own passion is no superinduced necessity from him and the events of providence in all its strange variety can give no authority or patronage to a foul forbidden action though the next chance of war or fortune be prosperous and rich An Egyptian robber sleeping under a rotten wall was awaken'd by Serapis and sent away from the ruine but being quit from the danger and seeing the wall to slide thought that the Daemon lov'd his crime because he had so strangely preserved him from a sudden and a violent death But Serapis told him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I saved you from the wall to reserve you for the wheel from a short and a private death to a painfull and disgracefull and so it is very frequently in the event of humane affairs men are saved from one death and reserved for another or are preserved here to be destroyed hereafter and they that would judge of actions by events must stay till all events are passed that is till all their posterity be dead and the sentence is given at Dooms-day in the mean time the evils of our nature are to be look'd upon without all accidentall appendages as
and value it above his life he must contend earnestly for the faith by the most prevailing arguments by the arguments of holy living and ready dying by zeale and patience by conformity and humility by reducing words to actions fair discourses to perfect perswasions by loving the article and encreasing in the knowledge and love of God and his Son Jesus Christ and then his faith is not negligent deceitfull artificiall and improper but true and holy and reasonable and usefull zealous and sufficient and therefore can never be reproved 2. Our prayers and devotions must be fervent and zealous not cold patient easie and soon rejected but supported by a patient spirit set forwards by importunity continued by perseverance waited on by attention and a present mind carryed along with holy but strong desires and ballasted with resignation and conformity to the divine will and then it is as God likes it and does the work to Gods glory and our interest effectively He that asks with a doubting mind and a lazy desire begs for nothing but to be denyed we must in our prayers be earnest and fervent or else we shall have but a cold answer for God gives his grace according as we can receive it and whatsoever evill returnes we meet in our prayers when we ask for good things is wholly by reason of our wandring spirits and cold desires we have reason to complain that our minds wander in our prayers and our diversions are more prevailing then all our arts of application and detention and we wander sometimes even when we pray against wandring and it is in some degrees naturall and unevitable but although the evill is not wholly to be cured yet the symptomes are to be eased and if our desires were strong and fervent our minds would in the same proportion be present we see it by a certain and regular experience what we love passionately we perpetually think on and it returnes upon us whether we will or no and in a great fear the apprehension cannot be shaken off and therefore if our desires of holy things were strong and earnest we should most certainly attend our prayers it is a more violent affection to other things that carries us off from this and therefore if we lov'd passionately what we aske for daily we should aske with hearty desires and an earnest appetite and a present spirit and however it be very easie to have our thoughts wander yet it is our indifferency and lukewarmnesse that makes it so naturall and you may observe it that so long as the light shines bright and the fires of devotion and desires flame out so long the mind of a man stands close to the altar and waits upon the sacrifice but as the fires die and desires decay so the mind steals away and walks abroad to see the little images of beauty and pleasure which it beholds in the falling stars and little glow-wormes of the world The river that runs slow and creeps by the banks and begs leave of every turfe to let it passe is drawn into little hollownesses and spends it selfe in smaller portions and dies with diversion but when it runs with vigorousnesse and a ful stream and breaks down every obstacle making it even as its own brow it stays not to be tempted by little avocations and to creep into holes but runs into the sea through full and usefull channels So is a mans prayer if it moves upon the feet of an abated appetite it wanders into the society of every trifling accident and stays at the corners of the fancy and talks with every object it meets and cannot arrive at heaven but when it is carryed upon the wings of passion and strong desires a swift motion and a hungry appetite it passes on through all the intermediall regions of clouds and stays not till it dwells at the foot of the Throne where mercy sits and thence sends holy showers of refreshment I deny not but some little drops will turn aside and fall from the full channell by the weaknesse of the banks and hollownesse of the passage but the main course is still continued and although the most earnest and devout persons feel and complain of some loosenesse of spirit and unfixed attentions yet their love and their desire secure the maine portions and make the prayer to be strong fervent and effectuall Any thing can be done by him that earnestly desires what he ought secure but your affections and passions and then no temptation will be too strong A wise man and a full resolution and an earnest spirit can doe any thing of duty but every temptation prevailes when we are willing to die and we usually lend nothing to devotion but the offices that flatter our passions we can desire and pray for any thing that may serve our lust or promote those ends which we covet but ought to tear and fly from but the same earnestnesse if it were transplanted into Religion and our prayers would serve all the needs of the spirit but for want of it we do the Lords work deceitfully 3. Our Charity also must be fervent Malus est miles qui ducem suum gemens sequitur He that follows his Generall with a heavy march and a heavy heart is but an ill souldier but our duty to God should be hugely pleasing and we should rejoyce in it it must passe on to action and doe the action vigorously it is called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour and travail of love A friend at a sneese and an almes-basket full of prayers a love that is lazy and a service that is uselesse and a pity without support are the images and colours of that grace whose very constitution and designe is beneficence and well-doing He that loves passionately will not onely doe all that his friend needs but all that himself can for although the law of charity is fulfilled by acts of profit and bounty and obedience and labour yet it hath no other measures but the proportions and abundance of a good mind and according to this God requires that we be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abounding and that alwayes in the work of the Lord if we love passionately we shall doe all this for love endures labour and calls it pleasure it spends all and counts it a gain it suffers inconveniencies and is quickly reconciled to them if dishonours and affronts be to be endured love smiles and calls them favours and wears them willingly alii jacuere ligati Turpitèr atque aliquis de Diis non tristibus optat Sic fieri turpis It is the Lord said David and I will be yet more vile and it shall be honour unto me thus did the Disciples of our Lord goe from tribunals rejoycing that they were accounted worthy to suffer stripes for that beloved name and we are commanded to rejoyce in persecutions to resist unto bloud to strive to enter in at the strait gate not to be weary of well doing doe
be more esteemed and called to stand at the chairs of Princes and Nobles * Holy persons and holy things and all great relations are to be valued by generall proportions to their correlatives but if wee descend to make minute and exact proportions and proportion an inch of temporall to a minute of spirituall we must needs be hugely deceived unlesse we could measure the motion of an Angell by a string or the progressions of the Spirit by weight and measure of the staple * And yet if these measures were taken it would be unreasonable that the lower of the higher kind should be preferr'd before the most perfect and excellent in a lower order of things A man generally is to be esteemed above a woman but not the meanest of her subjects before the most excellent Queen not alwayes this man before this woman Now Kings and Princes are the best in all temporall dignities and therefore if they had in them no spirituall relations and consequent excellencies as they have very many yet are not to be undervalu'd to spirituall relations which in this world are very imperfect weak partiall and must stay till the next world before they are in a state of excellency propriety and perfection and then also all shall have them according to the worth of their persons not of their calling * But lastly what men may not challenge is not their just and proper due but spirituall persons and the neerest relatives to God stand by him but so long as they dwell low and safe in humility and rise high in nothing but in labours and zeal of soules and devotion * In proportion to this rule a Church may be pull'd down to save a Town and the Vessels of the Church may be sold to redeem Captives when there is a great calamity imminent and prepared for reliefe and no other way to succour it But in the whole the duty of zeale requires that we neglect an ordinary visit rather then an ordinary prayer and a great profit rather then omit a required duty No excuse can legitimate a sin and he that goes about to distinguish between his duty and his profit and if he cannot reconcile them will yet tie them together like a Hyaena and a Dog this man pretends to Religion but secures the world and is indifferent and lukewarme towards that so he may be warme and safe in the possession of this 2. To that fervour and zeal that is necessary and a duty it is required that we be constant and persevering Eslo sidelis ad mortem said the Spirit of God to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna Be faithfull unto death and I will give thee a crown of life For he that is warm to day and cold to morrow zealous in his resolution and weary in his practises fierce in the beginning and slack and easie in his progresse hath not yet well chosen what side he will be of he sees not reason enough for Religion and he hath not confidence enough for its contrary and therefore he is duplicis animi as St. James calls him of a doubtfull mind For Religion is worth as much to day as it was yesterday and that cannot change though we doe and if we doe we have left God and whither he can goe that goes from God his owne sorrowes will soon enough instruct him This fire must never goe out but it must be like the fire of heaven it must shine like the starres though sometimes cover'd with a cloud or obscur'd by a greater light yet they dwell for ever in their orbs and walk in their circles and observe their circumstances but goe not out by day nor night and set not when Kings die nor are extinguish'd when Nations change their Government So must the zeal of a Christian be a constant incentive of his duty and though sometimes his hand is drawne back by violence or need and his prayers shortned by the importunity of businesse and some parts omitted by necessities and just complyances yet still the fire is kept alive it burns within when the light breaks not forth and is eternall as the orb of fire or the embers of the Altar of Incense 3. No man is zealous as he ought but he that delights in the service of God without this no man can persevere but must faint under the continuall pressure of an uneasie load If a man goes to his prayers as children goe to schoole or give alms as those that pay contribution and meditate with the same willingnesse with which young men die this man does personam sustinere he acts a part which he cannot long personate but will find so many excuses and silly devices to omit his duty such tricks to run from that which will make him happy he will so watch the eyes of men and be so sure to doe nothing in private he will so often distinguish and mince the duty into minutes and little particles he will so tie himself to the letter of the Law and be so carelesse of the intention and spirituall designe he will be punctuall in the ceremony and trifling in the secret and he will be so well pleased when he is hindred by an accident not of his own procuring and will have so many devices to defeat his duty and to cosuen himselfe that he will certainly manifest that he is afraid of Religion and secretly hates it he counts it a burthen and an objection and then the man is sure to leave it when his circumstances are so fitted But if we delight in it we enter into a portion of the reward as soon as we begin the worke and the very grace shall be stronger then the temptation in its very pretence of pleasure and therefore it must needs be pleasing to God because it confesses God to be the best Master Religion the best work and it serves God with choice and will and reconciles our nature to it and entertaines our appetite and then there is no ansa or handle left whereby we can easily be drawne from duty when all parties are pleased with the imployment But this delight is not to be understood as if it were alwayes required that we should feele an actuall cheerfulnesse and sensible joy such as was that of Jonathan when he had newly tasted honey and the light came into his eyes and he was refreshed and pleasant This happens sometimes when God please to intice or reward a mans spirit with little Antepasts of heaven but such a delight onely is necessary and a duty that we alwayes choose our duty regularly and undervalue the pleasures of temptation and proceed in the work of grace with a firme choice and unabated election our joy must be a joy of hope a joy at least of confident sufferers the joys of faith and expectation rejoycing in hope so the Apostle calls it that is a going forward upon such a perswasion as sees the joyes of God laid up for the Children of men and so the
locks of a new weaned boy but when by age and consolidation they stiffen into the hardnesse of a stem and have by the warm embraces of the sun and the kisses of heaven brought forth their clusters they can endure the storms of the North and the loud noises of a tempest and yet never be broken so are the early unions of an unfixed marriage watchfull and observant jealous and busie inquisitive and carefull and apt to take alarum at every unkind word For infirmities do not manifest themselves in the first scenes but in the succession of a long society and it is not chance or weaknesse when it appears at first but it is want of love or prudence or it will be so expounded and that which appears ill at first usually affrights the unexperienced man or woman who makes unequall conjectures and fancies mighty sorrowes by the proportions of the new and early unkindnesse It is a very great passion or a huge folly or a certain want of love that cannot preserve the colours and beauties of kindnesse so long as publick honesty requires man to wear their sorrows for the death of a friend Plutarch compares a new marriage to a vessell before the hoops are on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing dissolves their tender compaginations but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the joynts are stiffned and are tyed by a firm compliance and proportion'd bending scarcely can it be dissolved without fire or the violence of iron After the hearts of the man and the wife are endeared and hardned by a mutuall confidence and an experience longer then an artifice and pretence can last there are a great many remembrances and some things present that dash all little unkindnesses in pieces The little boy in the Greek Epigram that was creeping down a precipice was invited to his safety by the sight of his mothers pap when nothing else could entice him to return and the band of common children and the sight of her that nurses what is most dear to him and the endearments of each other in the course of a long society and the same relation is an excellent security to redintegrate and to call that love back which folly and trifling accidents would disturb Tormentum ingens nubentibus haeret Quae nequeunt parere partu retinere maritos When it is come thus farre it is hard untwisting the knot but be carefull in its first coalition that there be no rudenesse done for if there be it will for ever after be apt to start and to be diseased 3. Let man and wife be carefull to stifle little things that as fast as they spring they be cut down and trod upon for if they be suffered to grow by numbers they make the spirit peevish and the society troublesome and the affections loose and easie by an habituall aversation Some men are more vexed with a slie then with a wound and when the gnats disturbe our sleep and the reason is disquieted but not perfectly awakened it is often seen that he is fuller of trouble then if in the day light of his reason he were to contest with a potent enemy In the frequent little accidents of a family a mans reason cannot alwaies be awake and when his discourses are imperfect and a trifling trouble makes him yet more restlesse he is soon betrayed to the violence of passion It is certain that the man or woman are in a state of weaknesse and solly then when they can be troubled with a trifling accident and therefore it is not good to tempt their affections when they are in that state of danger In this case the caution is to subtract fuell from the sudden flame for stubble though it be quickly kindled yet it is as soon extinguished if it be not blown by a pertinacious breath or fed with new materials adde no new provocations to the accident and do not inflame this and peace will soon return and the discontent will passe away soon as the sparks from the collision of a flint ever remembring that discontents proceeding from daily little things do breed a secret undiscernible disease which is more dangerous then a feaver proceeding from a discerned notorious surfeit 4. Let them be sure to abstain from all those things which by experience and observation they finde to be contrary to each other They that govern Elephants never appear before them in white and the masters of buls keep from them all garments of bloud and scarlet as knowing that they will be impatient of civill usages and discipline when their natures are provoked by their proper antipathies The ancients in their maritall Hieroglyphicks us'd to depict Mercury strnding by Venus to signifie that by fair language and sweet intreaties the mindes of each other should be united and hard by them Suadam Gratias descripserunt they would have all deliciousnesse of manners compliance and mutuall observance to abide 5. Let the husband and wife infinitely avoid a curious distinction of mine and thine for this hath caused all the lawes and all the suits and all the wars in the world let them who have but one person have also but one interest The husband and wife are heirs to each other as Dionysius Halicarnasseus relates from Romulus if they dye without children but if there be children the wife is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a partner in the inheritance But during their life the use and impolyment is common to both their necessities and in this there is no other difference of right but that the man hath the dispensation of all and may keep it from his wife just as the governour of a Town may keep it from the right owner he hath the power but no right to do so And when either of them begins to impropriate it is like a tumor in the flesh it drawes more then its share but what it feeds on turns to a bile and therefore the Romans forbad any donations to be made between man and wife because neither of them could transser a new right of those things which already they had in common but this is to be understood only concerning the uses of necessity and personall conveniences for so all may be the womans and all may be the mans in severall regards Corvinus dwels in a farm and receives all its profits and reaps and sowes as he please and eats of the corn and drinks of the wine it is his own but all that also is his Lords and for it Corvinus payes acknowledgement and his patron hath such powers and uses of it as are proper to the Lords and yet for all this it may be the Kings too to all the purposes that he can need and is all to be accounted in the census and for certain services and times of danger So are the riches of a family they are a womans as well as a mans they are hers for need and hers for ornament and hers for modest delight and for
that is that is beholding to folly and illusion to a jugling and a plain cousenage before it can be fancyed to be pleasant For it is a strange beauty that he that hath the best eyes cannot perceive and none but the blinde or blear-ey'd people can see and such is the pleasure of lust which by every degree of wisdome that a man hath is lessened and undervalued 3. For the pleasures of intemperance they are nothing but the reliques and images of pleasure after that nature hath been feasted For so long as she needs that is so long as temperance waits so long pleasure also stands there But as temperance begins to go away having done the ministeries of Nature every morsell and every new goblet is still lesse delicious and cannot be endured but as men force nature by violence to stay longer then she would How have some men rejoyced when they have escaped a cup and when they cannot escape they pour it in and receive it with as much pleasure as the old women have in the Lapland dances they dance the round but there is a horror and a harshnesse in the Musick and they call it pleasure because men bid them do so but there is a Devill in the company and such as is his pleasure such is theirs he rejoyces in the thriving sin and the swelling fortune of his darling drunkenesse but his joyes are the joyes of him that knowes and alwayes remembers that he shall infallibly have the biggest damnation and then let it be considered how forc'd a joy that is that is at the end of an intemperate feast Non benè mendaci risus componitur ore Nec benè sollicitis ebria verba sonant Certain it is intemperance takes but natures leavings when the belly is full and nature cals to take away the pleasure that comes in afterwards is next to loathing it is like the relish and taste of meats at the end of the third course or the sweetnesse of honey to him that hath eaten til he can endure to take no more and in this there is no other difference of these men from them that die upon another cause then was observed among the Phalangia of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of these serpents make men die laughing and some to die weeping so does the intemperate and so does his brother that languishes of a consumption this man dies weeping and the other dies laughing but they both die infallibly and all his pleasure is nothing but the sting of a serpent immixto liventia mella veneno it wounds the heart and he dies with a Tarantula dancing and singing till he bowes his neck and kisses his bosome with the fatall noddings and declensions of death 4. In these pretenders to pleasure which you see are but few and they not very prosperous in their pretences there is mingled so much trouble to bring them to act and injoyment that the appetite is above half tired before it comes It is necessary a man should be hugely patient that is ambitious Ambulare per Britannos Scythicas pati pruinas no man buy 's death and damnation at so dear a rate as he that sights for it and endures cold and hunger Patiens liminis atque solis The heat of the sun and the cold of the threshold the dangers of war and the snares of a crafty enemy he lies upon the ground with a severity greater then the penances of a Hermit and fasts beyond the austerity of a rare penitent with this only difference that the one does it for heaven the other for an uncertain honour and an eternity of flames But however by this time that he hath won something he hath spent some years and he hath not much time left him to rest in his new purchase and he hath worn out his body and lessen'd his capacity of feeling it and although it is ten to one he cannot escape all the dangers he must venture at that he may come near his trifle yet when he is arrived thither he can never long enjoy nor well perceive or taste it and therefore there are more sorrowes at the gate then there can dwell comforts in all the rooms of the houses of pride and great designs And thus it is in revenge which is pleasant only to a devill or a man of the same cursed temper He does a thing which ought to trouble him and will move him to pity what his own vile hands have acted but if he does not pity that is be troubled with himself and wish the things undone he hath those affections by which the Devill doth rejoyce in destroying souls which affections a man cannot have unlesse he be perfectly miserable by being contrary to God to mercy and to felicity and after all the pleasure is false phantastick and violent it can do him no good it can do him hurt 't is ods but it will and on him that takes revenge revenge shall be taken and by a reall evill he shall dearly pay for the goods that are but airy and phantasticall It is like a rolling stone which when a man hath forced up a hill will return upon him with a greater violence and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion The pleasure of revenge is like the pleasure of eating chalk and coals a foolish disease made the appetite and it is entertain'd with an evill reward it is like the feeding of a Cancer or a Wolfe the man is restlesse till it be done and when it is every man sees how infinitely he is removed from satisfaction or felicity 5. These sins when they are entertain'd with the greatest fondnesse from without it must have but extreme little pleasure because there is a strong faction and the better party against them something that is within contests against the entertainment and they sit uneasily upon the spirit when the man is vexed that they are not lawfull The Persian King gave Themistocles a goodly pension assigning Magnesia with the revenue of 50 talents for his bread Lampsacum for his wine and Myos for his meat but all the while he fed high and drunk deep he was infinitely afflicted that every thing went crosse to his undertaking and he could not bring his ends about to betray his country and at last he mingled poison with his wine and drank it off having first intreated his friends to steal for him a private grave in his own countrey Such are the pleasures of the most pompous and flattering sins their meat and drink are good and pleasant at first and it is plenteous and criminall but its imployment is base and it is so against a mans interest and against what is and ought to be dearest to him that he cannot perswade his better parts to consent but must fight against them and all their arguments These things are against a mans conscience that is against his reason and his rest and something within makes his pleasure sit uneasily But so do violent perfumes
make the head ache and therefore wise persons reject them and the eye refuses to stare upon the beauties of the Sun because it makes it weep it self blinde and if a luscious dish please my palat and turns to loathing in the stomach I will lay aside that evill and consider the danger and the bigger pain not that little pleasure So it is in sin it pleases the senses but diseases the spirit and wounds that and that it is as apt to smart as the skin and is as considerable in the provisions of pleasure and pain respectively and the pleasures of sin to a contradicting reason are like the joyes of wine to a condemned man Difficile est imitari gaudia falsa Difficile est tristi fingere mente jocum It will be veryhard to delight freely in that which so vexes the more tender and most sensible part so that what Pliny said of the Poppies growing in the river Caïcus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it brings a stone in stead of a flower or fruit so are the pleasures of these pretending sins the flower at the best is stinking but there is a stone in the bottome it is gravell in the teeth and a man must drink the bloud of his own gums when he manducates such unwholesome such unpleasant fruit Vitiorum gaudia vulnus habent They make a wound and therefore are not very pleasant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a great labour and travail to live a vicious life 6. The pleasure in the acts of these few sins that do pretend to it is a little limited nothing confin'd to a single faculty to one sense having nothing but the skin for its organ or instrument an artery or something not more considerable then a Lute-string and at the best it is but the satisfaction of an appetite which reason can cure which time can appease which every diversion can take off such as is not perfective of his nature nor of advantage to his person it is a desire to no purpose and as it comes with no just cause so can be satisfied with no just measures it is satisfied before it comes to a vice and when it is come thither all the world cannot satisfie it a little thing will weary it but nothing can content it For all these sensuall desires are nothing but an impatience of being well and wise of being in health and being in our wits which two things if a man could endure and it is but reasonable a man would think that we should he would never lust to drown his heart in seas of wine or oppresse his belly with loads of undigested meat or make himself base as the mixtures of a harlot by breaking the sweetest limits and holy festivities of marriage Malum impatientia est boni said Tertullian it is nothing else to please the sense is but to do a mans self mischief and all those lusts tend to some direct dissolution of a mans health or his felicity his reason or his religion it is an enemy that a man carries about him and as the spirit of God said concerning Babylon Quantum in deliciis fuit tantum dat illi tormentum luctum Let her have torment and sorrow according to the measure of her delights is most eminently true in the pleasing of our senses the lust and desire is a torment the remembrance and the absence is a torment and the enjoyment does not satisfie but disables the instrument and tires the faculty and when a man hath but a little of what his sense covets he is not contented but impatient for more and when he hath loads of it he does not feel it for he that swallowes a full goblet does not taste his wine and this is the pleasure of the sense nothing contents it but that which he cannot perceive and it is alwaies restlesse till he be weary and all the way unpleased till it can feel no pleasure and that which is the instrument of sense is the means of its torment by the faculty by which it tasts by the same it is afflicted for so long as it can taste it is tormented with desire and when it can desire no longer it cannot feel pleasure 7. Sin hath little or no pleasure lin its very injoyment because its very manner of entry and production is by a curse and a contradiction it comes into the world like a viper through the sides of its mother by means unnaturall violent and monstrous Men love sin only because it is forbidden Sin took occasion by the Law saith St. Paul it could not come in upon its own pretences but men rather suspect a secret pleasure in it because there are guards kept upon it Sed quia caecus inest vitiis amor omne futurum Despicitur suadéntque brevem praesentia fructum Et ruit in vetitum damni secura libido Men run into sin with blinde affections and against all reason despise the future hoping for some little pleasure for the present and all this is only because they are forbidden Do not many men sin out of spight some out of the spirit of disobedience some by wildenesse and indetermination some by impudence and because they are taken in a fault Frontémque à crimine sumunt Some because they are reproved many by custome others by importunity Ordo fuit crevisse malis It grows upon crab-stocks and the lust it self is sowre and unwholesome and since it is evident that very many sins come in wholly upon these accounts such persons and such sins cannot pretend pleasure but as Naturalists say of pulse cum maledictis probris serendum praecipiunt ut laetiùs porventat the countrey people were used to curse it and rail upon it all the while that it was sowing that it might thrive the better t is true with sins they grow up with curses with spite and contradiction peevishnesse and indignation pride and cursed principles and therefore pleasure ought not to be the inscription of the box for that 's the least part of its ingredient and constitution 8. The pleasures in the very enjoying of sin are infinitely trifling and inconsiderable because they passe away so quickly if they be in themselves little they are made lesse by their volatile and fugitive nature But if they were great then their being so transient does not only lossen the delight but changes it into a torment and loads the spirit of the sinner with impatience and indignation Is it not a high upbraiding to the watchfull adulterer that after he hath contriv'd the stages of his sin and tyed many circumstances together with arts and labour and these joyn and stand knit and solid only by contingency and are very often born away with the impetuous torrent of an inevitable accident like Xerxes bridge over the Hellespont and then he is to begin again and sets new wheels a going and by the arts and the labour and the watchings and the importunity and the violence and the unwearied