this world would imbrace all manner of desperate resolutions and make themselves away to be rid of the continual anguish grief and sorrow they are subject unto in this life And I am perswaded that the want that the Heathen had of this spiritual hope of the eternal joy to come was the cause that so many of them laid violent hands upon themselves for some to be free from the imperious insultations of their mortal enemies or disdaining out of a manly courage to be oblieged for their lives to their clemency have ripped up their own bowels with their swords See Plutarch in Cesar and Catoes lives as Cato did rather then he would fall alive into the hands of Cesar and others to be rid of the excessive grief and sorrow which did rack and torture their souls for the loss of their beloved husbands or intimate friends have drunk Poyson or stifled themselves with burning coals as did Portia for her dear husbands death Martius Brutus See Plutarch in Marcus Brutus life But Christians being supported by this spiritual Hope and with an assurance that all worldly disgraces and afflictions are not for continuance but like unto a vapor arising from the earth which is suddenly annihilated by the beams of the Sun accounts these things unworthy to be regarded in comparison of the eternal joy and glory that is reserved in the highest heavens for such as suffer with patience the crosses and tribulations of this life for righteousness sake This passion being then of great use for all true Christians I will for the better descriptition of it extend my Discourses on these particulars 1. On the Definition of worldly Hope 2. On the Causes of it 3. On the Objects of it 4. On its Proprieties 5. On its Effects 6. On the Excellency of spiritual Hope First There are diverse Definitions of Hope some say it is but an expectation of the good The definition of worldly Hope others say It is nothing but a confidence that men have that such things will happen to them which they have conceived in their imagination The Bishop of Marseillis pag. 500. Theophrastus Bojou pag. 723. Others say It is a passion of the soul whereby upon the impression that men have of some future good which is represented to their imagination by the senses as difficult to obtain whereupon they addict themselves to an eager prosecution of it conceiving to be able of themselves to obtain the injoyment of the same Hope saith another is a motion of the soul that inticeth men to expect and seek after a good that is absent in which they see some probability to be obtained and Senault agreeing with these two last Opinions adds that there can be no real hope except there be an apparent possibility it may be obtained Hope is then the first passion incident to the Irascible appetite of great use to men if they fix their hope upon vertuous or religious objects Secondly The causes that beget worldly Hope in the heart of carnal men are these first a continual prosperity in their understandings doth puffe up their hearts with vain and deluding hopes that the same prosperity will still continue and accompany their designs to the end See Plutarch in Pompejus life Pompejus the great was deluded by this hope for relying overmuch in the prosperous events he had formerly had in war having never been foiled by any of his enemies he neglected to raise a sufficient Army to hinder Cesars coming into Italy as he was counselled to do by his intimate friends but hoping on his former prosperous success he said unto them If I do but stamp with my feet upon the ground souldiers will issue out of it in all parts of Italy to side with me against Cesar but this vain hope was the cause of his utter overthrow for he was inforced to forsake Italy to the mercy of Cesar and to fly beyond the seas where his Army was defeated and himself constrained to save his life by shipping into Egypt where he was basely murdered secondly Might and Power doth fill the hearts of carnal men with vain hopes Xerxes King of Persia relying upon his numerous Army of a million of men hoped to over-run Greece See Plutarch in the life of Themistocles and to dry up the very rivers with the incredible number of his foot and horse but he was deluded in his hope and in the straits of Thermopilae his whole Host was stopped and foiled by Leonidas King of Sparta who had but three hundred valiant Lacedemonians with him and presently after his invincible Navy was utterly routed by Themistocles by the Island of Salamine and he himself inforced out of fear to fly into Asia with a great part of his Army thirdly Youth Strength and a sanguin Complexion fills the hearts of young Gallants with vain hopes and makes them undertake things that seem impossible See Quintius Curtius in his Alexanders life as Alexander the Great did the Conquest of the greatest part of the world with an inconsiderable Army of fouty thousand foot and twenty thousand horses in comparison of five or six hundred thousand that Darius brought into the field and this passion of Hope was so predominant in him that before he departed out of Greece he gave away to others his Patrimony estate and reserved nothing for himself but the uncertain hope of the conquest of Asia The natural reasons why young strong and sanguin Complexions are more addicted to this passion of Hope then others are Six causes of the worldly Hopes of men first that they abound in spirits for the Sanguin have more blood and spirits then the Cholerick Flegmatick or Melancholick men secondly they have time by their young age to prosecute the injoyment of their hopes thirdly they have strength and activity to overcome all difficulties that seem to bar them from the injoyment of their hopes whereas ancient men are more addicted to the passion of Fear then to Hope Three reasons why young men are more addicted to Hopes then ancient men first Because their natural strength and vital spirits are wasted with age secondly because their long experience hath made them more considerate then young men thirdly because they have one foot in the grave and have not time to prosecute the injoyment of their hopes and are better acquainted with the incertitude of the undertakings of men fourthly Men that are versed in the affairs of the world have their hearts filled with vain hopes because they think nothing impossible unto them by reason that their long experience in the affairs of this world hath drawn them out of the snares of many perplexities fifthly Men that have been divers times in great dangers by Sea and by Land have their hearts filled with Hope when they fall into danger hoping then to avoide the same as they have done formerly sixthly Men of undanted spirits have their hearts filled with vain hopes because the
hunger and divers other casualities so that I may boldly conclude with Salomon that the lives of naturall and unregenerate men and women are meer vanity and vexation of spirit c. CHAP. II. Of the vanity of worldly honors AS the end of the Creation of man was the glory of his Creator even so the end of the lives of men should be the increase of the glory of their Maker but the lives of the greater part of them have no other end then the honors riches and pleasures of this world and therefore to shew you more perfectly the vanity of mens lives of which I have made a short Narration in the former Chapter I conceive it needfull to describe unto you in these three Chapters following the vanity of their desires before I come to speak of their Passions for the desires of honors riches and pleasures are the three deities they adore and to whom they sacrifice morning and evening their best thoughts and these for their unparallel'd vanity may be called the vanity of vanities I will then begin with the desires of worldly honors which are either spiritual or temporal the spiritual are free from vanity because they are supernatural and full of true joy and comfort but the temporal honors are but a meer conceit and shadow a vapour without substance and subsistance and yet the most powerful charm of Satan whereby he lulls men asleep in the Paradise of fools to cast them when they are awake into the bottomless pit of eternal woe for had not Satan held them to be the strongest of his temptations he had not reserved them for his last battery against the constancy of our blessed Saviour as it appears in the fourth of Matthew vers 8 9. a Mat. 4 8.9 Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high monntain and sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and said unto him All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Yet although this roaring Cannon of his could not prevail against this invincible Rock it doth prevail with many thousands in these dayes whom he deludes by the glorious glistering of worldly honors and doth falsely suggest in their mindes that they are the supream good in which doth consist their bliss and felicity and makes them venter their bodies and souls to injoy and possess them But to inlighten the eyes of these Monopolists of honors I will here set out the vanities of worldly honors in their lively colours that they may avoid this dangerous snare of Satan and be induced to indeavor to attain unto the spiritual honors that will fill their souls with unspeakable joys and comforts And to this end I will shew in the first place the vanity of the means whereby men usually attain to worldly honors which for brevity sake I will reduce to these first by Descent secondly by Strength thirdly by Beauty fourthly by Riches fifthly by Favors sixthly by Learning seventhly by Prudence eightly by Valour Secondly I will shew to whom honor is truly due and Lastly I will give a hint of the excellency and of the joy and comfort that men may injoy from spirituall honors For the first Such as are nobly descended Descent of race is the first means to attain to worldly honors are honorable by their birth so they degenerate not from the vertues and valour of their Ancestors for if they do they are baser then the Plebeians because they have a great advantage over them to attain to the true personal honor for b See Charon in his Wisdom Cap. 59. Nature doth always endeavor to return to its first principle and that is the reason why the reply that Marius made to a vicious Patrician who out-braved him because of his Plebeian descent is somuch commended My c See Plutarch in Marius life nobility saith he begins with me and thine ends with thee and it is certainly more honorable to be the spring of a noble race then the end of it therefore personal nobility is reputed to be more noble then that of descent except the persons thus descended do equal or excel their Ancestors in vertue and valour and when it is so they are to have the precedency before a new started Moucheron that is the first of his race that hath obtained by his personal vertues and valour the honor to be a Gentleman But what cause have men to boast or vant or conceive themselves honorable because of their descent except they be vertuous and valourous themselves for it is a ridiculous vanity to vant of the gifts that were never our own and did belong to other men and yet it is a common vanity much in fashion in these days among our Gentlemen to vant of their Ancestors vertues and valour when themselves are effeminate and vicious in their maners lives and conversations Besides what have men worthy to vant and boast of for they were formed out of the dust of the d Gen. 2 7. ground and to dust they shall return again and if any hath any singular parts above another they are the immediat gifts of God It is therefore a meer vanity for men to think they should be honored for their descent sith the meanest Plebeian will be found to be the cosen german to the greatest Monarch of the world as the Emperor e See the Antiquities of Germany Maximilians fool told him when he saw him over curious to seek out the pedegree of the Nobility of the House of Austria which for Antiquity is much inferior to that of divers other Princes of Christendom Leave off my Liege saith he these vain curiosities for if you seek any longer you will finde at last that I am your cosen german For the second Strength is the second means to attain to honor concerning strength of body divers have attained to honor by their strength especially if they have made use of it against the enemies of God and of their Native Country for Sampson for his strength was chose Judg and Governor of Israel the first essay of his incredible strength was when he rent a yong f Judg. 14.6 Lyon as if he would have rent a Kid the second when he g Judg. 15.15 slew with a new jaw bone of an Ass a thousand men the third when he carried away upon his shoulders the gates of Gaza to the top of a hill that is before Hebron and the last when he to avenge himself upon the Philistins for the h Judg. 16.3 loss of his eyes took hold upon the two middle Pillars upon which the house stood and so pulled down the same upon their heads and slew more of the Philistims at his death then he had done in his life time i Judg. 16.19.20 And divers Worthies attained to great honor by their strength and valour as it may be seen in 23 Chap. of the 2. of Samuel k 2
take notice once for all That the objects that the senses represent to mens phansies or imaginations are not always really good nor really evil because the judgments of men are oftentimes deluded by the senses who varnish over the good with evil and the evil with good and that is the reason why this phrase of seeming good or seeming evil is used so often in these Discourses Thirdly The definition of passion according to Aristotle and the Bishop of Maâ—seilles Passions argues imperfection in the subject and a distemper in the sensitive power of the soul and here is the definition of the general words of Passions Passion is nothing but a motion of the sensitive appetite proceeding from the apprehension of a reall or seeming good or evil which begets an alteration in the body against the law of Nature Mens passions are born with them and therefore cannot be utterly extinguished neither by an habit of moral Vertue nor by Grace but their sury may be allaid and their distemper regulated they never arise but there is an apparent alteration of the body as it is noted in the desinition above related and this alteration proceeds after this maner the objects having been represented to the imagination by the senses if it conceives them to be good the concupiscible appetite doth intice men to prosecute these objects and having obtained their desire there proceeds from the injoyment of it a passion of joy and delight which dilates the blood with the vital spirits that reside in it to the extreamest part of the body and the heart being deprived of some of his natural heat makes an alteration in the body that is apparently seen in the face which hath by it a more pleasant aspect and a more ruddy complexion then ordinary but if this delight or joy be violent and come unexpectedly it makes a contrary alteration in the face for then it becomes pale and the body falls into a swound That mens passions cause varieties of changes and alterations in the body and sometimes deprives the party of life because the suddain violence of the passion hath driven all the blood and vital spirits from the heart and so for want of heat the life is extinguished Contrarily if the objects procure a passion of fear then the blood and the vital spirits resident in it with-draw from the extream parts of the body and ascend up to the heart to comsort the same and stir up the passion of undantedness to oppose this fear but in the mean time this irregular motion of the heart and the running of the blood causeth an apparent alteration in the body for the face and all the members of the body lose their natural complexion and become pale the knees feet and hands trembling as if the party had the dead-palsey Nay if this passion be violent and happen unexpectedly it will deprive the party of life for it will bring up such a superfluous current of blood and vital spirits about the heart that it will be smothered by it as it shall be proved by divers instances in convenient time and place But some will object How can the powers of the soul sympathize thus with the accidents that happen to the body I answer that it is by the communication that is between the Sensitive power of the soul and the organs of the body as it appears in the passions of Delight and Dolour for if a man injoy any pleasure the sensitive power of the soul hath her part of this delight likewise if his body be racked the sensitive power of his soul suffers her part of the torments for the body and the soul is but one individual the body without a soul being but a lump of clay the one being the matter and the other the form or the the body is the Bulk of the ship and the soul the Helm that guideth the same Fourthly That the heart is the seat of mens passions according to Aristotle in his Physiogn lib. 16. the passions of men are seated in the heart because it is the seat of the Sensitive power from which they are derived and this is the opinion of Aristotle and other ancient and modern Authors yet divers are of another judgment some would have the seat of them to be in the liver others in the gall others in the spleen but because the reasons arguments they use to prove their opinion have been confuted for erronious I will not trouble you with them specially sith our blessed Saviour doth confirm by these words d Matth. 7.21 that they are seated in the heart For from within out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders c. And these are the effects of mens passions nay And of Beau-Lieu in his Body of Philosophy pa. 722 723. daily experience confirms the point by the carriage of young children who are addicted to envy vindication wrath and divers other passions before they be able by their rational power to distinguish the good from the evil because the rational power that is seated in the Understanding doth increase by age but the Sensitive power is bred with us and therefore the heart is the true seat of the passions affections and inclinations of men As for the number of the passions of men it is uncertain for they may be multiplied by the limitation of their objects as the windes have been of late for at the first they were but four the East North West and South and then they were multiplied to eight and afterwards to sixteen and then to two and thirty and of late they have been multiplied to threescore and four as for the passions Aristotle was of opinion that there was but one general passion and that was Love Others said there were but two and they were Delight and Dolour others said there were but four and they were Ioy Sorrow Hope and Fear and this opinion was grounded upon reason for whatsoever men act or undertake they delight grieve fear or hope That there is eleven general passions But Beau-lieu and the Bishop of Marseilles maintain there are eleven general passions but Senault a modern Author hath made them up twelve to make the passions of the Irascible appetite equall with those of the Concupiscible appetite and so hath brought in remisness which in the two former Authors opinions nor in mine can be no general passion because it is mixt or composed of Love and Compassion and these are the eleven general passions and the six of the Concupiscible appetite shall have the precedency First Love Secondly Hatred Thirdly Desire Fourthly Flight or Eschewing Fifthly Ioy. Sixthly Dolour or Sorrow and these are the five of the Irascible appetite First Fear Secondly Vndauntedness or Boldness Thirdly Hope Fourthly Despair Fifthly Wrath or Choler And here followeth their definition according to Beau-Lieu The definition of these eleven passions according to Beau-Lieu pag. 723. which I conceive to be the best First
power of the Concupiscible appetite to make the children of God commit such sins as the Prophet David and St. Peter did but it was because God was pleased to give them over to themselves to make them know that the perseverance in grace is a free gift of his neither is it in the power of the Irascible appetite to infuse such a continency as was found in Joseph nor such an unparallel'd undantedness as was in Shadrach Meshach Abednigo and in Daniel but it was the blessed Spirit of God that did infuse in their hearts that admirable fortitude c. CHAP. VI. Of the vanity of the passion of love AS after a hard winter the Sun is not onely seen to give a new life to all the Vegetative Sensitive and rational Creatures upon earth but also by the heat of his beams to penetrate the very bowels of the earth for to purifie the insensible creatures from their dross as the silver gold and precious stones even so after mens passions have by their natural commotions clouded their mindes with a Winter of anxiety and sorrow supernatural Love doth not onely revive their Spirits but doth also purifie them from the dross that these perturbations had left behinde them in their souls Love being then the most noble passion of men it is fit it should have the precedency in these Discourses sith without love all humane society should be extinguished and by it men deprived of all content and comfort in this life for the greatest comfort that men can attain to in this vale of Tears is to have a constant friend or a faithful consort in whose brest they may confide their greatest secrets and be partaker with them of their prosperity honor and glory or sympathize with them in their afflictions and miseries It is recorded that Fpamonides the Commander in Chief of the Thebanes a man as free from vain-glory as any one we read of did not glory in any thing but in this See Plutarch in his Moâ—is that his father was living when he won three famous battels against the Lacedemonians that were then held for their valour to be invincible regarding more the content and honor that his father whom he loved intirely should receive of it then his own and certainly the greatest fruit that men can receive of their prosperity is when their friends rejoyce and partake of it and the greatest comfort they can have in their afflictions is when they are assured to have friends that sympathize with their miseries Now the passion of Love being of such concernment I will for the better description of it speak in order of these particulars first of the definition of Love secondly of the essentiall cause of Love thirdly of the variety or kinds of Love fourthly of the end or interest of mens Love fifthly of the qualities required in men for to obtain Love sixthly of the good and bad effects of Love seventhly of the Love of God towards men eighthly of the Love of men to God First Love is nothing else but to wish good to another not for mens own interest Definition of love according to Aristotle and Senault but for the good and merit of the party beloved to whom men are to procure all the good and content that shall be in their power Upon which definition observe these four Particulars first that Love doth ever unite the Heart and Will of men to the party beloved And therefore the ancients said commonly that Alexander and Ephestion had but one soul in two distinct bodies because their joy and glory sorrow or disgrace was mutuall to them both secondly Mens love is not to be grounded upon the pleasure or profit they may receive by them they seem to love for it can be no love except their love be grounded upon the vertues and merits of the party beloved thirdly Lovers are to wish and procure the good and honor of their beloved and to require nothing of them but what they may do with honor and equity fourthly The goods and lives of men are to be at the disposing of the party beloved Honor Religion and Loyalty onely excepted for true friendship doth not oblige men to blemish their honor rack their conscience nor to betray their Prince at the request of their beloved because these requests are beyond the bounds of love which is only to be confined within the limits of Vertue See Plutarch in his Moralls and therefore the ancient Moralist highly commends this saying of a Heathen who said to his friend who did require him to perjure himself I am saith he thy friend untill the Altar and the like answer was given to Charls Duke of Burbon See Du Belay Commentaries when he did intreate his noble friends to side with him against his and their natural Prince Francis the first King of France Secondly The cause of Love is conceived by some to be a sympathy or natural inclination that inticeth men to love one man before another for it is often seen that when a man comes in the company of other men he never had seen before he will affect one of that company more then any of the rest which proceeds say they from a sympathy of affections that is between these two men Others conceive that the cause of Love doth consist in the influence of the Planets and for proof of their Opinions say that the love of Achilles to Patroclus See Homer See Quintius Curtius and of Alexander to the Amazon Queen was because they were born under one and the same Planet Others conceive the cause of Love to be the intimate conversation and familiarity of the parties which by an habit and custom begets love between them Others conceive that the goodness and beauty of the object is the cause of love and with these I concur in Opinion for God who is the Beauty and Goodness it self is certainly the essential cause of true love Thirdly All sorts of love may be comprised under natural and supernatural the natural hath divers branches that may all be reduced under the love of Interest and the love of Friendship of which I shall speak hereafter when I have set forth the Opinion of those who maintain there is five severall sorts of Love first the love of the innanimate creatures secondly the love of the sensitive creatures thirdly the love of the rational creatures fourthly the love of Angels fifthly the love of God first The love of the innanimate creatures is apparent in the prosecution of the perfection of their beeing the light ones ascending upwards and the heavy ones descending downwards as to their center secondly The love of the sensitive creatures is an impression wrought by the senses in their imagination by the objects it conceives to beuseful unto them which begetteth a desire to injoy them and this passion is not onely incident to the bruit creatures but also to the rational who are overcome by the sensitive appetite
Christians have with their gracious God by contemplation meditation or fervent prayers The first is a sudden and violent motion of the heart that causeth a great alteration in the body The definition of Joy See Theuphrast Boju in his Commentaties upon Aristotle Phys fol. 727. proceeding in the opinion of the Moralists from the possession or fight of some object much desired which is really good or reputed to be so by the imagination of men yet it will appear by the proprieties and effects of it that it doth not always come from the possession or injoyment of a beloved object or from an imaginary good but sometimes from relations scurrilous speeches ridiculous postures and deformedobjects for Joy is as I have said before an affection of the minde and is rather infused in the Heart by the Eye and by the Ear then by any of the other three Senses for those are more proper to the passion of Volupty of which Delight or Delectation is a branch however it is the fifth passion incident to the Concupiscible appetite and proceeds from divers causes as it will appear in the next Discourse Secondly The causes of worldly joy are either Publick or Private the Publick proceed commonly from the immediate hand of God or from his favor or by his permission and of these I shall speak in the first place first It was a great cause of publick joy proceeding from the immediate hand of God to the people of Israel presently after their coming out of Egypt to see the sea go back Exod. 14.21 to 31. and make a free passage for their host to pass through the midst of it and when they were all safe come to dry land to see the rowling waves of the sea to turn back and overwhelm Pharoah and all his Army secondly It was a cause of publick Joy when it pleased the Lord to deliver the people of the Iews from that bloody decree obtained by Haman from the great King Ahasuerus against the whole Nation of the Iews Esther 3.4 The causes of publick joy that were scattered through the one hundred and seven and twenty Provinces of the said Kings Dominions for which admirable deliverance the people of Israel made the 15th and 16th day of the moneth Adar days of Thanksgiving and of Feasting and Rejoycing from one generation to the other which were called the days of Purim See the Spanish and Turkish History thirdly It was the cause of publick joy to the Venetians and to all Christendom when God was pleased to give unto the Christian Fleet such a memorable victory over the Turkish Navy at the Battel of Lepantho for which after thanks given to God many days of Feasting and Rejoycing were kept at Venice and other parts of Christendom fourthly See Speed in the life of King James It was an incredible cause of publick joy for England when the Lord was pleased to deliver this Nation from the devillish plot of the Gunpouder Treason for which miraculous deliverance after hearty thanks given to God great Feasting Bond-fires and other expressions of joy were made in London and through the whole Land 1. It was a cause of private joy to the old Patriarch Jacob to hear by the report of his sons that his beloved son Joseph Gen. 45.26 who he thought had been devoured by wild beasts was chief Governor of Egypt and the next man in honor to the King 2. It was a cause of private joy for old Iesse The causes of private joy 1 Sam. 16.12 to see his youngest son David from a Shepherd to be promoted to be King of all Israel and specially to be reputed by God himself to be a man after his own heart 3. It was a cause of private joy for old Mordecay to see his Neece Esther Esther 2.16 from a Captive to be exalted to be the wife of the great King Ahasuerus and the greatest Queen in the world 4. It was a cause of incomprehensible joy to the Virgin Mary and to all mankinde to hear the blessed and glad tidings that the Angel Gabriel brought her from the Lord saying Behold Luke 1.26.46 thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus He shall be great and shall be called the son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David whereupon the Virgin Mary transported with joy and ravished in spirit sung some dayes after this excellent Song My soul doth magnify the Lord beginning at the fourty sixt Verse of the first Chap. of St. Luke Here was a true and real Cause of Spiritual Joy not onely for the Virgin Mary but also for all the Elected of God who by free grace have part in the merits of Christ By these Instances it appears that these causes of joy did proceed from the seeing and hearing which are the two Senses most proper to the passion of Joy There are divers other Causes of worldly joy which are not so well grounded as these but are most vain and ridiculous and they are these following The joy of private and worldly men suits with their inclinations first The Ambitious will rejoyce in the increase of their honors secondly The Covetous men in the abundance of their riches thirdly The causes of private mens joy The Voluptuous men will rejoyce in the injoyment of their pleasures fourthly The Merchants and Trades-men in the increase of their Trade fifthly The Lawyers in the multiplicity of their Clients and in the discord of their neighbors sixthly The prophane and Libertine in all manner of ridiculous Sports scurrilous Songs lewd Musick Dancing Valting and in lascivious Pictures and Postures and in Chambering Gluttony and Drunkenness and these are the common and ordinary causes of the joy of worldly men Let the Reader judg then whether carnal joy be not meer vanity and vexation of Spirit for the great vanity of it moved Solomon to say I said of laughter Eccles 2.2 it is mad and of mirth what doth it and the very truth is that men transported with immoderate joy are like fools and mad men Thirdly The proprieties of worldly joy are these first Worldly joy is of hot temper secondly It is of a dilative or spreading quality and these two proprieties are the cause that sudden joy doth bereave men of life for when some beloved object or glad tidings are unexpectedly represented to the eyes or ears of men this causeth a violent alteration in all the parts of the body but specially in the heart by means of the hot and dilative quality of this passion of Joy because the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it are with great violence driven from the inward parts to the extremity of the members of the body The proprieties of worldly joy whereby mens hearts are deprived of their natural heat and of their vital spirits and so fall into a swoon
make golden bridges for their enemies to retreat then by despair to enforce them to fight To conclude Despair is a dangerous passion and Self-murdering Despair is to be abhorred of Christians for it doth not onely destroy the body but it doth also cast mens souls into the pit of eternal wo. There is also another sort of Despair which I have not as yet spoken of which proceeds from natural infirmities as from burning Feavers Frenzies and Madness but the evil effects which proceed from these are rather to be imputed to keepers of the Patients then to themselves or to the fury of the disease and therefore cannot come within the compass of Self murder The Remedies against which horrid sin are contained in the insuing Discourse Fifthly Six remedies against Despair The Remedies to prevent the evil and most pernicious effects of this dangerous passion of Despair which is one of the strongest temptations of Satan may be these and such other passages of Scripture a Psal 5.2 Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray for constant and fervent prayers are able to cast back this temptation like filth in Satans face and to obtain of the Lord these supernatural graces whereby Christians will be inabled to defie and overcome Despair first Faith as a shield wherewith men shall be able saith St. Paul to quench all the fiery b Ephes 6.16 darts of the wicked And to say with Iob in the greatest tribulations that can befall them in this life Though he slay me yet will I c Job 13.15 trust in him secondly Repentance for it is a pretious Antitode against the venom of Despair What had become of St. Peter for denying his Lord and Master three times before the Cock d Matth. 26.75 crowed once if by the bitter tears of Repentance he had not obtained mercy Nay the very temporal and fained Repentance of Ahab King of Israel moved God to transfer or remove the execution of his wrath e 1 Kings 21.27 28 29. from him to his children And it is conceived by the best Divines that if Iudas who betraied our blessed Saviour had repented of his horrid sin he had not faln into f Matt. 27.5 despair for the compassions of the Lord are incomprehensible and his mercies are infinite as it appears by his towards Manasseh g 2 Chron. 33.12 13. King of Iudah who had committed all the wickedness that could be imagined by the hearts of men for he caused the Prophet Isaiah to suffer a most cruel death by sawing his body in the midst with a Saw and he turned aside from the Lord to commit Idolatry and caused his son to pass through the fire and dealt with Familiar Spirits and made the streets of Ierusalem to overflow with the innocent blood he caused to be spilt and yet when he humbled himself by an unfained Repentance before the Lord God was so gracious as to shew him mercy and from a miserable Captive he restored him to his royall dignity thirdly Patience is a special remedy against Despair for it preserved Job in the midst of his greatest temptation nay when his wife that should have been his greatest comforter said unto him Dost thou still retain thy integrity Curse h Job 2.9 10. God and die He answered with an admirable meekness of Spirit Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh What Shal we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil And this onely consideration That all things work for good to them that i Rom. 8.28 love God should keep men from Despair when they are in a maner overwhelmed with the greatest afflictions that can befall them in this life fourthly Confidence in God is an excellent remedy against Despair for such as trust in the Lord may say with the Prophet David I will not k Tsal 3.6 be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me fifthly Hope is a powerful remedy against Despair for if men say with the Prophet David The Lord is my Rock l Psal 18.2 and my Fortress and my Deliverer for my m Psal 39.7 hope is in thee sixthly Fortitude is an excellent remedy against Despair for it is able to dash and overcome all the evil apprehensions that beget Despair and check mens pusillanimity with these words of the Prophet David Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou n Psal 42.11 disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God By these and the like passages of Scripture men may prevent the dangerous effect of Despair Nay draw unspeakable comforts out of the very Causes that beget Despair which passion is full of vanity and vexation of spirit c. CHAP. XIV Of the vanity of the passion of Vndantedness IF Diamonds were as common as Pipples and Vertues as natural to men as Vices they would not be so precious nor valued at so high a rate as they are in these days for it is the rarity of things more then their goodness that makes them to be esteemed among men for Instance Bread is the only staff of mans life and the best food that Nature hath appointed for his subsistence and yet because it is common it is little regarded for Beggers will hardly give men thanks if they give them nothing but dry bread But this passion I am to speak of is not onely rare sith one man among one hundred is not indowed with it but also good and excellent and therefore the more to be esteemed and valued of men as a rare and precious Jewel By it mens hopes are attained all fears expelled and despair suppressed and were it not a Passion I should call it a Vertue because of the resemblance it hath with Fortitude For Undantedness is the Spring of all true Valour and manly courage and by it all the generous actions that have been acted since the Creation till this day have had their beeing and successful end And therefore most judiciously and properly placed by the Moralists after Despair and before Fear to mitigate by the excellent proprieties of it the evil qualities of the two others for were it not for this passion men would be diverted from undertaking any noble design by Fear and Despair who have a natural propriety to withdraw the vitall spirits into the Center of the body which hinders the natural faculties to do and execute their functions and makes men timerous and remiss to undertake any noble action but Undantedness causeth the blood and the vital spirits that reside in it to dilate themselves to the utmost parts of the members of the Body and so gives them life and vigor and makes men apt and fit to undertake and execute all noble enterprizes Now for the better description of this noble Passion I will
inlarge my self upon these particulars 1. On the Definition of this Passion 2. On the Causes of it 3. On the Nature and Proprieties of it 4. On the evil and good Effects of it 5. On the Spiritual Use of it First This Passion hath several names some call it Confidence and have good reason for it because it is its unseperable companion others call it Audacity but this terme doth blemish the true Nature of it The definition of the passion of Undantedness for audacious and presumptuous men are held to be under one and the same predicament other call it boldness but this word is often taken for Impudency but the French call it Hardiesse which doth express most properly the nature of it which is Undantedness in the English Tongue And here is the definition of it according to the judgment of the best Moralists Boujou fol. 7 23. Vndantedness saith one is an affection and assurance to eschew an evil and to overcome all the difficulties of it Vndantedness The Bishop of Marseilles in pag. 401. saith another is a Passion of the soul which strengtheneth the same and makes it confident it can overcome the most difficult evils that can befall it in this life and doth also incourage it to prosecute the good that is most difficult to obtain And to this last definition I assent as concerning the same the best of the two for it doth truely express the nature of this passion which is the third passion incident to the Irascible Appetite 2. The Causes of it are many but they may be reduced to these six the two first are Natural the two middlemost accidental and the two last supernatural The first natural cause of undantedness is a hot and moist temper of the body The first Natural cause may be a moist and hot temper of the body for the Naturalists have observed that all such as are of that constitution of body have ordinarily an undanted spirit The Natural reason of it is that this hot and moist temper doth suppress the Melancholick humor and its evil proprieties and effects whereby the blood that is hot and airy an ful ofvital spirits and the bilia that is dry and fiery and the flegm that is cold and moist being thus mixt become of a dilative nature and by the motion of the heart spread themselves into all the utmost parts of the body and inableth the minde to undertake and the body to execute all maner of generous designs be they never so difflcult or perillous The second natural cause of Undantedness may be the largeness of the heart of men for it hath been observed by the Physitians when they have opened the bodies of valiant and undanted spirits that their hearts were larger then the hearts of ordinary men See Plutarch in the life of Themistocles and King Xerxes King of Persia having caused the body of Leonidas King of Sparta to be opened partly out of admiration of his valour and in part out of curiosity The second natural cause of undantedness is the largeness of the harts of men to see whether the heart of such an undanted spirit was larger then the hearts of common men he found the same to be as big again and hairy all over a natural propriety incident to such as are of a hot and moist constitution of body to abound in hair The Natural reason why men with larger hearts then others should be addicted to Valour and Undantedness is this that the larger the heart is the morevital spirits it can contain which are the essential causes of Valour and Undantedness and therefore it may very well be that the largeness of the heart is a natural cause of Undantedness That tall and burly men are commonly less valorous then short and middle stastured men Divers men are of opinion that tall and burly bodied men are more addicted to Valour and Undantedness then short and middle-statur'd men but they are mistaken for tall men have smaller hearts then others and are also commonly more faint-hearted then other men and the Naturalists give this reason for it If their hearts say say were proportionable to their body they might have reason to be of that opinion but it is commonly smaller because Nature extended its vertue to the utmost parts deprives the inward parts of it Besides all the vitall spirits reside in the bloud and in the heart and by its motion they are dispersed through all the parts of the body Now the farther distant these parts are from the heart the longer time are the vital spirits a going to quicken and vivifie them and by consequence tall and burlybodied men are fuller of Flesh then of Spirits and less couragious then others It is true that they have a presuming undantedness because of their strength but what is done by strength proceeds from Strength and not from Valour which doth reside in the heart and in the minde and not in the arms and in the sinews And the most valorous and undanted spirits of this Age and of other Ages were for the most part short or at the most of a middle stature Leonidas See Plutarch in Peleopidas life and Peleopidas were but short men and Sir Francis Veere and Sir Francis Drake and the Marshal de Biron and the Marshal Gastion were all short men I conclude then that Valour and undantedness doth reside in the heart and minde and not in the strength of the body and that some of all statures may be valiant and undanted The first accidentall cause may be the innocency of men and the justice of their Cause for as Salomon saith Prov. 28.1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth but the righteous are bold as a a Lyon and it is daily seen that three true men will overcome half a dozen of theeves And when men fight for the preservation of the Liberties of their native Countrey and the lives of their wives and children and all the means they have they fight commonly like Lyons The second accidentall cause of Undantedness may be The relations support or alliances that men have with potent and powerful Princes or States for the confidence they have to be backt and supported by them doth make them undertake with undanted courage difficult and perillous enterprises The two accinentall causes of the undantedness of men for Instance The Hollanders a small Commonwealth being at the first supported by Elizabeth Queen of England and afterwards by Henry the fourth King of France have for many years together undantedly waged war with the great King of Spain and likewise the Kingdom of Sweden a petty Kingdom in comparison of the Empire of Germany being supported by Lewis the 13th King of France hath with an undanted courage waged war many years with the House of Austria See the Histories of Germany England and France Thirdly The first supernatural cause of the undantedness of men may be their zeal to Religion for
fear and tempt them 1 Cor. 6.15 To make of the members of Christ the members of a Harlot It is also one of the most prevailing snares of Satan by which he draweth more millions of souls into the Pit of destruction then by any other sin whatsoever And therefore give me leave to enlarge my self upon these particulars 1. Upon the definition of this passion 2. Upon the nature of it 3. Upon the causes why some are more addicted to it then others 4. Upon the evil proprieties of it 5. Upon the pernitious effects of the same 6. Upon the judgements that God doth inflict upon voluptuous men 7. Upon the means or remedies which are to be used to avoid the venome of it 8. And lastly Upon the express prohibition of the same by the Word of God First Volupty is a composed passion of love and desire The definition of Volupty arising from a tickling delight of the senses when men enjoy really or by imagination such objects as seem pleasant to their phansie It is so general that all such as are under the state of Nature are more or less addicted to it Nay the regenerate are sometimes ensnared by it by the temptations of Satan and their original corruptions the difference between them is that the unregenerate by their impenitency die in their sins and the regenerate by the free grace of the sanctifying Spirit of God are awaked out of this spiritual lethargy and by an unfained repentance are converted and reconciled to God Secondly It is of a feminine nature for all such as are overmuch addicted to this passion loose their masculine generosity and become effeminate Hercules did cast off his Club and Lyons skin to vest himself and spin like a woman before Omphale his Mistress And it is daily seen that voluptuous men imitate in their gestures carriage and fashions the Courtizans of these days for they powder their hair wear black patches and paint their Faces as they do It was not then without cause that the ancient Poets did represent volupty under the shape of the old Witch Circe for as she transformed the Passengers who sailed through the Straits of Sicilia into Swine if they listned to her Charms Even so Volupty doth transform into brute beasts rational men if they converse long and let themselves be ensnared by the alluring Charms of Harlots for as Zerubbalel proved it before King Darius the Charms of a beautiful woman are more powerful then strong Wine Esdras 3. from the 14. ver to the 32. or a mighty King Thirdly The Causes why some men are more addicted to this passion then others may be natural accidental or artificial such as are naturally more addicted to it are commonly of a hotter and moister constitution then others and these are of a sanguine complexion for the Bilious are hot and dry the Flegmatick moist and cold and the Melancholike cold and dry which are not so apt to the Venereal delight as the Sanguine The Accidental Causes are The hot Climate where men live for Heat dilates the spirits outwardly and Cold restrains them inwardly And Experience doth shew that the Africans Spaniards and Italians whose Climate is hotter then the Germans Dutch English are the most addicted to Venery And yet they are not so apt to generation as the last because the desire of the reiteration of the Act doth weaken their bodies and doth waste their spirits Idleness Pride and Fulness of bread is also an Accidental Cause why one Nation may be more addicted to Venery then another For this was the Cause why the Sodomites as the Prophet Ezekiel saith were so vitious Ezek. 16.49 and transported with Lust The Artificial Causes are Sophistical meats Delitious Wines and enticing Simples Drugs and Amber-gris over-much used in these days to provoke Men and Women to Lust See Guicciardine in the Emperor Charls the Fifth his Life Guicciardine records that a King of Tunis being at Naples spent five hundred Ducats in enticing Drugs and Amber-gris to dress a Peacock to incite himself and the company that supped with him that night to Lust But these Means are destructive to the Soul and Lives of Men. For Instance the Queen of Arragon gave Ferdinand her Husband an inticing Love-Drink to make him more apt to the Venereal sport See the History of Spain in Ferdinands Life but it cast him into an incurable Consumption which brought him to his grave And Van-Dick an excellent Dutch Painter lost lately his life by these inticing Drugs provoking to Lechery Alass Men are too prone of themselves to sin without Artificial Means to provoke them to it Fourthly The evil Proprieties of this vitious Passion are so numerous that I should be over-tedious to speak of them all and therefore will speak but of some of them First It is insatiable and may be compared to the horsleech to the barren womb and to the Grave for the Desires of Voluptuous men are never satisfied with their carnal Delights their bodies being sooner tyred with the reiteration of the Act then their Lust can be exstinguished For many have been found dead in their Mistresses Armes by endeavoring to satisfy their Lust beyond their Natural Abilities The Reason of it was because overmuch evacuation of the spirits exstinguisheth life Secondly it is as inconstant as the wind for they delight in nothing more then in changes because their judgement is so depraved by the Spirit of uncleanness which besots them that they cannot discern the beauty of one Object from another and do often forsake the most lovely to dote upon the most unworthy and deformed conceiving erroneously that stollen waters are the sweetest Thirdly It hath a Destructive quality for it provoketh men to commit the most abhorred sins that can be named Gen. 12.15 By it the Sodomites were inticed to commit with the very Angels the sin against Nature Gen. 19.5 It moved Pharoah and Abimelech to take away by violence Sarah Abrahams wife Reuben to defile his Fathers bed Gen. 35.22 Gen 34.2 Judg 19 25. Sechem to deflour Dinah The Gibeahnites to abuse brutishly the Levites concubine David to commit Adultery with Bathshebah and to vail his sin to murther Vriah her husband Amnon to ravish his own sister Tamar Sueton. in his Life Augustus to take away by force Livia from her husband Tacitus in his life Caligula to commit Incest with his two Sisters Nero to defile himself with his mother French History Faragonde to murther King Clotair her Husband that she might the more freely enjoy her Paramour English History King Edgar to murther his Favourite to marry his Wife And King Roderick to ravish Duke Godfreys Daughter Spanish History which was the cause of the Conquest of Spain by the Moors And a thousand like abhorred sins which should move Christians to abhor and flee from this most accursed and sinful passion as from a Serpent Fifthly The Effects of
it are rather worse then better 1. It deprives men of Reason and Understanding for Sampson a Nazarite from his Mothers womb and a Judge and Deliverer of Israel was so besotted by the charms and lascivious allurements of Dalilah Judg. 13.6 that he revealed a secret unto her in the concealing of which did consist the safety of his own life and of his native Countrey 2. Solomon the wisest Prince that ever lived upon Earth 1 King 3.12 was by the allurements of his Wives and Concubines turned away from the Lord and offered Sacrifices to their Idols 3. Marcus Antonius a valiant Commander of the Romans who never had been foiled in all his Martial Archivements before he was infatuated by the alluring charms of Cleopatra was so deprived of understanding that at the Battel of Antrium when he had the better of the day he fled away Plutarch in his life to follow her that carryed his heart away and by the fond love of a woman lost his life and the Empire Charls the Seventh King of France was so besotted by the lascivious embracements of La-belle Agnes his Concubine The French History that he neglected all the Civil and Military Affairs of his Kingdom to Court and dally the time away with her and had lost utterly his Kingdom by this passion of Volupty if his Mistress that was of a generous spirit had not rouzed him out of his lascivious dumps saying thus unto him I was foretold in my youth saith she that I should be one day the love and Mistress of the greatest and most valorous Prince in Christendom But it appears by your carriage that I am the love of the most effeminate Prince in Europe for you suffer the English Nation to rent your Kingdom into piece-meals and in lieu to be King of France you are through your pusillanimity become the petty King of Bourges for shame rouze up your spirits and let not a Forraign Nation deprive you of Life and Crown These taunting reproaches coming from a woman that was dearer unto him then his own life did so enlighten his understanding and inflame his courage that he instantly undertook to relieve Orleance that was then besieged by the English And after he had enforced them to raise their Siege he drove them by degrees out of all they held in France Calice only excepted 2. It deprives the dearest childern of God for some time of the love and favour of their heavenly Father As it doth appear in the lives of King David and of Solomon his Son 2 Sam. 11.2.3 for David by the lascivious embracements of Bathsheba was cast into a spiritual Lethargy for a whole year together and deprived of the sweet communion he had formerly with his gracious God so that in lieu to be penitent for his sin of Adultery Vers 13. he committed one after another two other abhorred sins for to palliate the first he caused his Servants to allure Vriah to drunkenness that his understanding being depraved by the vapors of the Wine he might return home and lie with his Wife but this wile failing he caused him to be murthered by the sword of the children of Ammon yet was his understanding so stupified by this bewitching spirit of uncleanness that he had dyed in his sins if God out of his infinite mercy had not sent the Prophet Nathan unto him 2 Sam. 12.1 to rouze him out of this mortal spiritual slumber 1 King 3.11 12. And King Solomon lay many years in such a deadly spiritual lethargy that he was utterly insensible of his gross Idolatries and abhorred Fornications for in number of Wives and Concubines he did excel all the Turkish Emperours and had perished in his sins if God out of his accustomed mercy towards his Elect had not out of Free-grace given him the gift of an unfained repentance as it appears by his Book of Ecclesiastes written after his conversion 3. It deprives men of all true content and over-whelms them with grief and sorrows for in what condition soever voluptuous men finde themselves they neither take pleasure nor content except their minde be alwayes bent upon the means that can make them attain to the fruition of their carnal delights for in them they erroneously conceive doth consist their supream felicity whereas the termination of the pleasures of the flesh is ever the beginning of misery and wo And therefore Aristotle to disswade his Disciples from carnal volupties told them that they were like the Mer-maids who are extraordinarily beautiful above water for their face is round and fair their hair as yellow as gold their eyes of a loving dark gray their mouth small their lips as red as Coral their teeth as white as snow their breast as round as an apple and their arms hands shoulders back flanks as white as Alabaster but their tail is like the tail of a great Serpent frightful full of teeth and mortal venom Even so carnal volupties are delightful to mens corrupt nature and seem to be sweeter then honey and the honey comb at the first enjoyment of them but at their adieu they are bitterer then gall and more loathsome then the snuff of a candle and for one dram of carnal delight they over-whelm their Clients with anguish and sorrow and make them shed rivers of penitent tears whensoever God is pleased to give them the gift of an unfained repentance Besides all true joy and content doth consist in the favour and love of God and in the assurance he doth infuse in the hearts of his Elect by his blessed Spirit that they are justified and reconciled unto him by the sufferings blood and passion of Christ his only Son our most gracious Saviour and this love favour and assurance is permanent and eternal but the joy and content proceeding from carnal volupties are for continuance like a fire of Thorns under a Pot or like the morning dew which vanisheth away at the rising of the Sun for the least blast of dolor and affliction doth suddenly make the very remembrance of carnal pleasures vanish away like smoak moreover the very conceits imaginations and deportments of voluptuous men are meer vanity and vexation of minde for their paradise upon Earth is to be always musing upon the beauty comliness and perfections of their Mistress Nay some are so infatuated by the spirit of uncleanness which doth possess them that they do Idolize their picture kiss their dressings and other things they wear nay the very ground they tread upon And can there be any real content in these absurd vanities mad and foolish deportments surely no for these vain phansies whereon they fix their minds divert their thoughts from being diligent Hearers of the Word of God and careful observers of his Ordinances from which they might reap true content 4. It deprives men of their means for Princes Noble-men Gentlemen Merchants and Artificers who are given to volupties do commonly fall into penury for as
eyes look right before thee intimating that to look aside upon a beautiful woman is a sign of a lascivious eye but to look on her straight is a token of an innocent eye And it is most certain that of all the five senses the Eye doth more then any other encrease the Kingdom of darkness because they are the windows whereby all unclean thoughts enter into the soul from which do proceed all the actual and intellectual Fornications and Adulteries and that is the reason why our blessed Saviour doth charge us to pluck out our right eye if it doth offend Math. 5 29. meaning we should mortifie the lust of our eye rather then be cast into Hell for as S. John saith 1 Joh 2.16 17 18. The lust of the eyes is not of the Father but of the world and the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Thirdly All suspected places where men may be allured to lust are to be eschewed 1. The Schools of love as the Italians call them 2. Publick meetings 3. Enterludes 4. Court-Revels For in all these men do finde alluring Objects to commit sin and when opportunity time and place meet together men or women must have a great measure of Grace to refrain them from sin As for the 1. Solomon discribes elegantly in these words the alluring charms of the Mistresses of the Schools of love Prov. 7.10 13 14 15 16 17 18. 27. Behold there met him a woman in the habit of a Harlot and subtile of heart so she caught him and kissed him and with an impudent face said unto him I have peace-offerings with me this day have I payd my vows Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face and I have found thee I have deckt my bed with coverings of Tapestry with carved work with fine linnen of Egypt I have perfumed my bed with Myrrhe Aloes and Cinamon Come let us take our fill of love until the morning let us solace our selves in loves c. But the conclusion of it is Her house is the way to Hell going down to the chambers of death For the 2. Dinah by rambling abroad to see the publike Sports was Ravished by Shechem the Prince of the Land For the 3. Enterludes Playes and Comoedies are the very Seminaries of all uncleanness and the Aretin postures that are there seen with the lascivious Dances and Discourses do inflame and intice men and women to Lust For the 4. Court-Revels and Masks have been the overthrow or loss of many womens chastity See the History of England and France Edward the Third and Edward the Fourth Kings of England and Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth Kings of France were all of them allured to lust by the beautiful Objects they saw in their Court-Masks Fourthly All evil Company is to be eschewed for in them lyeth an insensible venom the Effects of which do not appear suddenly but in continuance of time it will shew it self visibly in the life and conversation of men and women for young men that fall into evil company will at the first be ashamed of it but after they have frequented them they wil delight in it then they will palliate and excuse them and lastly they will patronize and maintain them And become as vitious profane and debaucht as the worst of them and therefore as he that toucheth Pitch shall be defiled with it Eccles 13.1 even so such as haunt evil company will at last be infected with their vices Besides it is a dishonour to converse with evil company for if men were as righteous as Lot Who was saith Peter 1 Pet. 2.7 8. vexed from day to day with the unlawful and ahhorred sins of the Sodomites yet will he be reputed as vitious as they by this common Proverb That birds of a feather do ever flock together Now I come to the four Vertues or Graces which are to be obtained to mortifie and subdue this sinful passion of Volupty First men are to endeavor by fervent prayers to obtain from God the Grace of Continency which is distinguished by corporeal and intellectual the first is common to natural men as well as to the children of God but the second is onely peculiar to the true Elect because it is an immediate gift of the sanctifying Spirit of Grace to such as are regenerated by a justifying Faith for by Faith men are justified and afterwards sanctified for all things which are done without Faith cannot Rom. 14.23 saith S. Paul be acceptable unto God contrarily they are an abomination unto him The Heathens have excelled in the corporeal continency most of the Christians of these days as it may appear by the carriage of Alexander the Great towards the two Daughters of King Darius See Plutarch and Livy in their lives and of Publius Scipio towards a Spanish Lady that was his Captive but none of them could ever attain to the intellectual continency because they were out of the Covenant of Grace and by consequence incapable of a justifying Faith And among those who were under the Convenant of Grace the number was small that were truly continent or had the gift of the corporeal and intellectual continency except it were Isaac Joseph and S. Paul for all the other Patriarks were addicted to Polygamy The corporeal continency may proceed from natural causes as from a defect of Nature as the Eunuchs or it may be obtained by the precepts of Morality and a good education But the intellectual cannot be acquired because it is a supernatural Grace of the sanctifying Spirit except it be by frequent and fervent prayers to God who is the only giver of it And certainly by the want of this Grace of intellectual continency many of the most precious Christians of these days commit Adultery in the cohabitation with their own Wives of which they seldom repent Which doth induce me to enlarge my self upon this point Christ our blessed Saviour who was the best Interpreter of the Law that ever was upon Earth doth tell us plainly Math. 5.18 That whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart Now this lust proceeds from the eyes 1 Joh. 2.17 and the lust of the eyes saith S. John is not of the Father but of the world and the eyes convey the same into the heart and from the heart saith our Saviour proceed evil thoughts Math. 15.19 murthers adulteries fornications c. So many looking upon a woman with lascivious eyes make such an impression in their imagination of her beauty or comeliness which is suggested to their phansie by their senses and the temptations of Satan to excel the beauty or comeliness of their Wives that in the very cohabitation with them their mind is wholly bent upon this forraign object and not upon the same they embrace and this is a plain
Shadrach Dan. 3.20 Meshach and Abednego did endure with admirable Constancy the burning flames of the fiery furnace heated seven times hotter then it was wont to be rather then to worship the golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up 2. By the same Fortitude Daniel did make choyce to be cast alive into the Lyons Den Dan. 6.10 16. rather then to restrain himself from making his Addresses by fervent prayers three times a day to God 3. By it all those Worthies nominated in the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews did suffer with incredible Patience all the torments there specified Heb. 11. 4. See the book of Martyrs By the like Fortitude all the Martyrs in Queen Maries days did suffer with a sweet temper of spirit the fiery Tryal that was inflicted upon them And as it is the propriety of the Christian Fortitude to endure without murmuring all the torments that are inflicted upon them so it is another of its proprieties to endevor to subdue the lascivious Volupties of the flesh believing that he who can overcome his own Passions is a greater Conqueror then Alexander The Heathen do much extoll and boast of the fortitude of Cato See Plutarch in his Life who ripped up his bowels with his own hands rather then he would be beholding to the clemency of Caesar But these murthering resolutions are rather evidences of Pusillanimity then of true Fortitude For a sudden Death is a lesser torment then to continue a long time in anguish and daily tortures Besides the magnanimity of Decius Curius and others did rather proceed from vain glory then from any true fortitude But the Christian fortitude hath no other end then the glory of God and to overcome their sinful Passions Fourthly men are to endevor to attain an habit in the grace of Sanctification as the Seal of their Justification and Regeneration and Redemption And the onely way to obtain the same is by frequent prayers and dayly exercises in Religious duties having ever in their mind these Passages of Scripture Heb. 12.14 For without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 2 Thes 2.12 Because God from the beginning hath chosen you to salvation by the sanctification of the Spirit 1 Thes 4.3 4 5 6. and the faith of truth And that you should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in holiness and honor and not in the lust of Concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God For God hath not called us to uncleanness but unto holiness Now because Sanctification is the crown of all other Christian graces I will here set down the ordinary means whereby the Blessed Spirit doth infuse the same in the hearts of the Elect for all natural men are incapable of it which is commonly done by degrees and not suddenly as their Justification Yet in some it is more sudden and in others more flow according to the activity or remisness of Christians in their exercises of Piety The first Means is That the Blessed Spirit doth move them to be diligent Hearers and Readers of the Word of God Rom. 10.17 For Faith saith S. Paul commeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God And none can be Sanctifyed without a Justifying Faith 2. It endows them with the spirit of Prayer and with mortifying Graces whereby they overcome their Original and Actual corruptions 3. It moves them to be cautious in all their ways and to be sensible of the smallest sins and to flee from all appearance or provocation to sin 4. It infuseth in their hearts a strong Aversion to sin 5. It engendreth in them a reverent love and a filial fear which keeps them from sin 6. It doth convince them of all their sins and specially of their bosome sin 7. By this conviction it begets in them an implacable hatred against their Darling sin 8. By this hatred it doth enlighten their Judgement and openeth the eyes of the same whereby the miserable condition they are in by the enormity and multiplicity of their sins is made apparent unto them 9. By the consideration of this misery it induceth them to seek earnestly the means whereby they may be delivered out of it 10. It infuseth in them a constant resolution to return to their heavenly Father and to humble themselves in Sackcloth and Ashes before him 11. It mollifies their hearts and makes them grieve mourn and lament for their sins by which Spiritual Sorrow never to be repented of it begets in them an unfained Repentance 12. And Lastly being by this Cordial Repentance reconciled to God by the merits of the Passion of their Blessed Saviour it begets in them an extream thirst after the living waters of that Fountain which was opened to the house of David Zach. 13.1 and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness And so by a constant perseverance in the ways of Righteousness they attain by degrees to that measure of Sanctification as is required to see the Lord with Joy and Consolation For the most Sanctified man upon Earth cannot attain to a perfect degree of Sanctification as long as he liveth in these tabernacles of clay the perfection of this Grace being reserved for the glorified Saints in Heaven Eighthly to Conclude I admonish all those who earnestly desire to attain to some degree of holiness to suppress betimes the venom of this vitious Passion of Volupty before it turn into an Habit in them For as I have said in my Answer to the Objection of some Moralists the Volupty of the mind doth as much encrease with Age as do the vices of Avarice and Drunkenness as it is confirmed by this Saying of the wise Son of Sirach All bread is sweet to a Whoremonger Eccl. 23.17 he will not leave off till he dye Now to terrifie and induce Voluptuous men to abhor this sin of Uncleanness I have collected these ensuing Passages out of Solomons Proverbs and out of Ecclesiasticus to shew them how Destructive this sin is to their Means Bodies and Souls The lips of a strange woman drop as an hony comb and her mouth is smoother then oyl but her end is as bitter as wormwood and sharper then a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps take hold of hell Prov. 2.3 4 5. Who so committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding he that doth it destroyeth his own soul Prov. 9.32 Stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant but he knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depth of hell Prov. 9.17 18. For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman a deep pit Prov. 23.27 Give not thy soul to a woman to set her foot upon thy substance Eccles 8.2 Meet not with a harlot lest thou fall into her snares Eccles 8.3 Gaze not on a mayd that thou fall not by those things that are precious in her