Possessions And I can think little more reverently of the frequentation of Visions and Revelations celebrated in the Lives of those three famous Women published together viz. Hildegardis Elizabeth Micthildis which afford us such instances by bushells as it were I will not instance in Jacobus de Voragine his Golden Legend nor Caesarius Heiberstachius as I could to the great disadvantage of that Cause which was intended to be advanced thereby as such at which the modester and graver of the Roman Communion need not any other to put them upon blushing at they doe it of themselves But when I read in the Visions of Katharine of Sienna sainted a perpetuall storie of God himselfe appearing to her and preaching in person to her almost through the whole book though I like the Sermon very well and must needs acknowledge the Documents deliver'd to be many of them very Divine and usefull I cannot assent unto the Scene there given us If these Revelations as we say of Phanaticall and pretended Inspirations and gifts of Prayer in Publick were so Divine as reputed and affirmed why doe they not become Canonicall Why are they not equallized to the Holy Scriptures But things are not come to that height thankes be to God unlesse with them who glorying immodestly of a Light within them and the Word and Will and Wisdome of God given into them contemne the written Word themselves for this very reason becoming suspected convicted and detestable 10. But those Visions which are so practicall and grosse as that they end as in their consummation in the gratifying of our senses outward and them the grossest overthrow in my opinion the spiritualnesse and even the honesty of Revelations and notably shake the reputation of that Religion which countenances them If it were recorded only in an unapproved Author what I finde in the Sermon of an eminent Preacher Granatensis Vol. 5. pag. 387. concerning the same Katharine of Sienna Granatens Vol. 5. Conc. 3. in Cathar pag. 387. it might have been lesse scandalous to read of the great and frequent familiarity between Christ and her so that termes of wooing passed between them for a long time till at length she was sensibly espoused to him but what were the consequences of that Wedding I know not This to my apprehension is a true consequence of such Revelations that it must be the Devill rather than Christ that so appeared and led away a silly Woman laden with sinne in the midst of her profession of Sanctity or that these Talemongers have shamefully belied that reputed Saint And on the other side the like instances might be given of such who were so vehemently devoted to the Virgin Mary as to win her love so far as to condescend to suffer her breasts to be handled by her Saints A little more cleanly and credible is that story in the Remains of Gregorie Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neocaesarea of an Exposition of the Faith which he received from Saint John the Evangelist by the meanes of Mary the Mother of God. But the Romanists themselves are so modest we thank them as not to hold it to be the same we now have under that name And we are so bold to tell them that their Visions Miracles and Revelations so much sometimes with the ignorant sort boasted of have done them more discredit with the wiser than good or honour 11. And to these another note of true and false Illuminations and Alluminations which I may call all outward Discoveries made to the senses may be that made by the observation of the Masters of such Learning That in the true and near approach of God and his Holy Spirit to the sense outward or minde inward first great trouble surprisement consternation and deep humiliation are wrought upon the spirit of him the Lord vouchsafes so to honour with his presence as it appears by Ezechiell the Prophet Daniell and before them by Manoah who were struck with dread and confusion at the Revelations made unto them as likewise was the Blessed Virgin at the aspect and Annunciation of the Angell Gabriell but in the winding up and conclusion they were all refreshed and comforted aboundantly On the contrary the specious Pageantry and Insinuations of Evill Angells are begun with great delight of the deluded minde and in the conclusion bring shame sorrow and confusion answerable indeed to the method of the tempter in all other Cases in which the good Wine is brought forth first of which when men have well drunk followes the bad but Christ first sets before his faithfull servants the bad and keepeth the best to the last of all that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to doe thee Good at the latter end as it is said Deuteron 8. ver 16. Brisk Pert and vaunting are the gifted by Evill Spirits reflecting upon such their perfections above others but modest humble and grave are they who are indeed taught of God. 12. And thus having briefly prepared the true Christian with a prospect given him of the nature use and necessitie of true Spirituall Illuminations translating him out of the Kingdome of darknesse into the marvellous light of saving Knowledge and Faith before due progresse can be made to the life and power of Faith in holy Conversation and likewise shewed the hazards of miscarrying through mistaken Light I proceed to the Second Part of Christian walking with God by walking according to that Light consisting principally in Spirituall Purgation or Sanctification A Prayer for Spirituall Illumination O Allmighty God and Heavenly Father the Light and life of the world lying in darknesse Who by thy Son Jesus Christ coming into the world enlightenest every one that cometh into the world and whome to know is eternall Life But who can know thee the Father but the Son and he to whome he shall reveale him and yet none can come unto the Son unlesse the Father draw him and none doth the Father draw unto him but by his holy Spirit teaching all things Send down I beseech thee that Spirit of light life and truth into my minde and heart that they may preserve me prevent and informe me and rule me that by that key of knowledge the door of my heart may be opened and the eyes of my understanding to perceive the things of God which are only spiritually discerned and that I may not love darknesse rather than light because my deeds are evill But grant that in thy light I may see Light and know how to choose the good and refuse the Evill not calling darknesse light nor light darknesse nor bitter sweet nor sweet bitter nor good evill nor evill good Various are the Mazes and Labyrinths of this World and many are lost in them Difficult is the road and strait is the way that leadeth unto trueth and life and few there be that find them Dangerous it is to lean to mine own understanding or wisdome who am but of yesterday and know nothing as I ought
without true wisdome the Apostle St. Paul so flattly contradicting and confuting mens opinion vainly conceived of themselves thus writing 1 Corin 8. 2. If any man thinke that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know Which is most true when he would needs know as Adam and Eve did without God or what God would have hidden and concealed from him And when a man would needs know all things but can be content not to know himselfe For as Charity of which the Apostle there allso speakes according to the common and generally true saying begins at home so doth or ought to doe knowledge For the Alpha of true knowledge and the Omega too is to know God but a man cannot know God as becometh him when he stands in his own light And in his own light may he be said to stand when he understands not himselfe his measures his capacitie and meanes to true knowledge He that layeth hold of more than he can well span or embraceth more than his Armes can contain commonly letteth all goe and loseth it And so it is in curiosity of knowledge he knoweth nothing that would pretend to all things Like to the Church of Laodicea Revel 3. 17. which because she gloried in her riches was poor and wretched and blinde and naked and knew it not What blindenesse what ignorance so grosse lamentable and dangerous as this And yet loth are men to have their eyes opened to perceive it as if in the mist of their minde they discerned and feared that which he who was cured of a phrenzie bewailed in himselfe that in his distemper he was much more happie than in his cure For in that he imagined and pleased himselfe with nothing lesse than a fair Principalitye under him subjects obsequious Pallaces stately with Crown and Scepter but reduced to his true reason found the contrary to all these to his great losse and trouble And to such excesses doth our presumptuous knowledge betray us For as St. Paul before saith Knowledge puffeth up swells and apostemateth the Soule with corruption which often breakes out into rottennesse scandalous Hence it is that if a man erres wilfully and notoriously to all he is not ashamed as Seneca observeth as when in Grammar he speakes false Latine or English or gives a false pronunciation to a word but if he doth it ignorantly and be told of it then he either blushes or boldly defends his errour against his own tacit perswasion least he should seem not to have known as much as another And Cardane himselfe a Physican tells us he knew one of the same facultie who having through ignorance destroyed his Patient rather than he would be thought ignorant professed he killed him on purpose though there was no such matter to such a monstrousnesse of absurdities and iniquitie doth this unbridled and untamed humour of seeming wise and appearing so transport a man. 2. This evill Appetite wars against nothing so much as Religion and is inconsistent with nothing more and therefore should Religion war against that turning the forces of the Spirit against this Tower of the Flesh built up to this dangerous height by the evill spirit of Pride and affectation of vain-glorie And this I look on as a prime and materiall part of our selfe-deniall when we shall be able and willing to submitte our private busie and clambering Reason to the simplicitie of the Faith and know our infirmities and failings as well as we know others yea and better too having attained to that perfection which the wise Man only owned in himselfe Prov. 30. 2. Surely I am more brutish than any man I have not the understanding of a man with this limitation notwithstanding that if God or good Autoritie under him shall have chosen any such humble Person to preside teach and lead others no modestie nor humility in him ought to with-hold him from discharging his office No more than any knowing himselfe more wise or learned out of his abundance is to withdraw himselfe from the guidance of such an one as he excells under suspicion of calling Gods Providence and Right in question to rule and teach by whome he pleases and especially the difficult lesson of humility and selfe deniall Don't I know Can you teach me is the language of a proud Spirit very often and of one who wilfully how ignorantly soever must and will have his saying A man out of common charitie might blush for such as doe not blush to hear them oftentimes indeed wise and more than vulgarly knowing when they fall into Paradoxes when they stumble in plain ground when their mistake happens by surprise or other incogitancie how loth are they to be taken in the snares of truth it selfe how they by all tricks pretences fetches and innumerable devices and defenses would justifie what once they happen to say though conscious to themselves of errour they would not have said or done such things yet they once passing from them they will maintain them to the last though the more they struggle the more they are ensnared and fall into a far worse absurdity in defending than committing an errour And all this that they might not suffer in their beloved and selfe-admired witt And because they cannot denie them neither for Gods sake nor for trueths sake but hold it the most honourable course to themselves to bend both to their saying than to yield to be measured by such Rules And if their wits fail them in framing evasions and shuffles which may justifie in some degree their slips Passion and loud clamour shall support their cause and drown the noise of weake trueth as the Idolatrous Jewes were wont in sacrificing their Children to Molech in the Valley of Hinnon to use Fife Trumpet and Drum that the voice of the massacred might not be heard or pittie shewn to them nor justice O foolish Galatians saith St. Paul in another case Galat. 3. Who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the trueth Answer may be made selfe love selfe-preservation which are such that a man can better endure a blow on the Pate than on his Opinion But St. James saith Chap. 3. 14. My brethren Lye not against the trueth a reason whereof may be because he that opposes an acknowledged trueth though not very important sinneth in some degree against the Holy Ghost the Spirit of trueth and the testimonie of his own Conscience and to have his will in arguing or doing grieveth the Spirit of trueth trueth in all things being Sacred and Divine which when it possesseth the minde of a man seasonable and true is that advice of the Prophet Habakkuk Chap. 2. 29. The Lord is in his holy Temple let all the earth keep keep silence before him 3. And this Advice reacheth unto the other Branch of a Christians Selfe-deniall which consists principally and more immediately in the subjecting the will of man to the Will of God as that did in the subjection of the
understanding to the Wisdome of God. Oh how naturall how sweet and allmost how necessarie it is for man to have his own will And yet in truth how monstrous is this unruly appetite It ariseth from a root worse than ordinarie Idolatrie as much as to make ones selfe a God is a much more heinous sin than to worship any other false God. And what is that whether we mean it or not mean it that impells men so passionately to desire and so violently to contend for their will and as much of it as is possible but that they would be great thereby they would be supreame they would rule and govern not so much themselves for they are the worst at that of all men but others and because they would be admired and worshipped and that more and in an higher degree than they dare openly own When men have given themselves up to this misleading and mischievous temper they would have no bounds prefixed them God himselfe shall not escape their murmures if open accusation and expostulations Every thing is uneasie to them that is not projected by their own witts and managed by their wills And whereas according to St. Paul 1 Corinth 13. Charitie that Divine grace made up of meeknesse humilitie love of God and that which in any manner resembles God beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things the Idolizer of his own will on the contrary can bear nothing believe nothing hope nothing endure nothing contradicting this his humour Reason he will by no means professedly affront or oppose but then he counts it all the reason in the world that matters should be carried as he judges and willeth otherwise the power and effects of his impatience shall be his remedie Whereas there is nothing more unworthy of a wise man and nothing more inconsistent with a good Christian than to desire to have more wills under him than his own for in trueth he never is master of his own will who would tyrannize over others For this may be but one sin in forme and appearance but it is the parent of many if not of all to strive to have our wills 4. For what is Pride but an appetite of our unmortified wills pushing us forward to be great Ruling admired followed not to be led by any What is Anger but a desire of satiating our lust of revenge What is Avarice but to have all and part with nothing but what Justice and Necessity extorts And what is Lust properly so called but a furious will of carnall pleasure He therefore that will ever obtain any command of himselfe in any of these things or the like must lay the Ax of Reformation to the root of all these trees the generall lusting after a mans own will and the satisfaction thereof naturally inclined For though there may seem such a distance outwardly between one sin and another as that there should be no consanguinitie between them yet in the practice they like persons at domestick difference or civill dissensions will joyn against a common and forrein Enemie and help one another according to the observation of that mortified Father mentioned in Ecclesiasticall History who deliver'd it for a trueth That a man can never observe the rule of Chastitie unlesse he subdues the Lust of Anger For surely if we shall give leave to our corrupt wills to take their swing in one thing they will take leave to excurre into other evills against our more advised judgements and wills Therefore let us a little insist upon the reasonablenesse of such affectation of our carnall wills 5. But first it is to be observed that Religion it selfe is not of that morosity or indeed tyrannie under colour of mortification that it should denie us the libertie wholly of that naturall facultie of desiring and loving for that God himselfe hath placed in us For then we could not love God himselfe nor choose the good or refuse the evill as himselfe commandeth It is not the rooting up of that Vine which Gods own hand hath planted in the heart of man but the pruning and dressing it to bear generous branches and bunches It is to cut off those Suckers to destroy that Nature which is become such and not made so by God. It is according to the ancient Philosophie for our earthie Spheare and inferiour and smaller Orb to be ordered by the first mover of all and to say and to pray as Christ hath taught Thy will he done in earth as it is in heaven to live in this world as Christ came into it and lived and died in it As appeares by the historie of his holy and humble Life which tells us John 18. 37. To this end was I borne and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnesse unto the trueth every one that is of the trueth heareth my voice And this was the holy Gospell he taught and left us And his bearing witness was to make himselfe of no reputation as great and as good as he was to be obedient unto the death even the death of the Crosse and to appear as it were without a will of his own or which is a greater victory and glory to have a will allwayes obsequiously included in the Will of his heavenly Father as it was when in great Agonies and conflicts of Soule he prayed to God Luke 22. 42. Neverthelesse not my will but thy will be done demonstrating what he before affirmed for a trueth John 5. 30. I can of my selfe doe nothing as I hear I judge and my judgement is just because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which is in heaven And as the Disciples said most loth to hazard so precious a Vessell of honour and service as St. Paul amongst Jewish Barbarity Acts 21. 14. The Will of the Lord be done And what better or wiser resolution can any good Christian take than what he saw Christ to practice before him and the most Heroicall Christians did to have no will stirring but the Will of God and Christ For this is to be what St. Paul exhorteth to Rom. Chap. 6. 11. Likewise reckon ye allso your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord that is content to be directed by the Wisdome and acted by the pleasure of God alone So that we may say as that good old Father in his Cell having relinquished the world who when one came to him and brought him the tidings that a â—…ere Kinsman of his was at the point of death and therefore he should doe well to repair to him and take possession of what descended legally to him made answere And would you have me inherit his Estate who have been dead a long time before him And this I intended for one distinct argument to denie our own wills either wholly impeding the Will of God to be done in us or the perfecter conformity to that and the Example
comes to their share 6. For this reason God sends such tempestuous and dark weather at Sea to the skilfull Navigatour that he shall not be able readily to know or say where he is till the restored calme Light better informes him And sends Shipwracks sometimes to the subtill Merchant that he may understand better who it is that gives skill and strength to get Riches And diappointeth the hopes of the understanding and painfull Husbandman And as the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 44. maketh diviners mad and turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish teaching them all and us too and that in all senses more perfectly that necessary lesson of humility Deuteronomy 8. 18. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. For it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth c. And as it is with the riches of this world it is with the riches of the world to come or being rich towards God as the Scripture speaks Luke 12. 21. For undoubtedly God may and doth apparently denie the ordinary meanes of Salvation sound knowledge and holy faith in him and of divine mysteries to some To others he grants to be initiated and to have some knowledge of the saving trueth who there stop and proceed no farther as tender plants rising out of the earth wither and perish for want of the blessings of heaven falling on them without which they can proceed no farther towards perfection and some proceed farther and promise fair and for the same reason attain not to the intended end 7. But nothing of this nature can reasonably be taken into an Apologie or defence of the unprofitable servant whom God hath delivered such talents and meanes unto that in themselves tend unto such progressions and consummations as are saving and beatificall But admit thou art becalmed and canst make no way through want of divine aspirations and influence How canst thou how darest thou impute this cessation and oscitancie of thine in not doing the known Will of God unto an unknown cause or rather a not cause of doing which whether it is so as thou imaginest or givest out at least that thou imaginest when thy heart contradicteth thy tongue thou knowest not For who can say that God denies him the inward power and meanes of Salvation that is of effectuall Grace to whom he giveth the outward meanes of Illumination Faith and Salvation Whatsoever may be wanting in the abstruse counsell and dispensations internall of God and known to him cannot be so known to a man without divine Revelations It is an uncharitable and rash act in any man directly to charge his Neighbour with denying him his due or taking away his goods from him when he can prove nothing against him and much more injust it is and impious for a man to say directly that God denies him grace or doth harden his heart so that Rules and exhortations and sufficient reasons of becoming faithfull righteous and holy before God and man are of no effect upon him 8. It is not so much pardonable as commendable in all Good Christians to be sensible of their naturall insufficiencie and infirmity to doe any good act St. Paul having taught us 2 Corinth 3. v. 5. That we are not able to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiencie is of God. But doe not the very next words as well as the latter part of that argument plainly tell us that God hath a sufficiencie for us and God doth make us able Ministers of his Will And doth not St. James tell us that every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights James 1. 17. And doth not our Saviour Christ direct us how we should fill our selves from that Fountain when he saith Matth. 7. 11. If ye being evill know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more should your Father which is in heaven give you good things that ask him And this good thing is the best and fullest of all good things being interpreted in St. Lukes Gospell Chap. 11. 13. to be the Holy Spirit it selfe the fountain of all Grace which he giveth to them that ask him The Querie then must needs be made to our selves whether upon sense of our infirmities and defects we ever did and that as we ought invoke Almighty God implore the gift of his Spirit and its concurrence and whether we ever submitted to its Dictates and directions to that power God hath given us For to doe this as well as believe that we have an excellent president from the wise Man Wisdome 8. v. 21. Neverthelesse I perceived I could no otherwise obtain her i. e. True Wisedome comprehending all intellectuall graces except God gave her me and that was a point of Wisedome also to know whose gift she was I prayed unto the Lord and besought him and with my whole heart I said O God of my Fathers and Lord of mercie c. Which prayer for that illuminating gift and Grace so necessarie might not very unfitly be transcribed hither and used by all true lovers of light rather than darknesse at least untill the Day-star shall arise in their hearts according to which true Believers may shape their course more steadily towards Heaven but I shun prolixnesse SECT VI. Of the Gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination The abuse and true use of the same and necessity of Believing 1. BUT the use or act of the grace of Faith resteth not here but is wonderfully assistant to the naturall understanding in discerning the minde of God revealed unto us in his Word For as the discreet and diligent Master doth not only set his Schollar whom he teacheth to write an exact and fair Copie to imitate and follow but also guides his hand in the making the Letters and joyning them together according to their true shape and order in like manner doth he whose Chair is in heaven teaching the hearts as his Instruments and Officers doe the eares and eyes of men below to understand receive believe and act according to the Rule and scope prescribed For man naturally is apt to believe those things only which his Reason assures him of but his reason how acute soever cannot demonstrate the Scriptures to be the Word of God which we believe and must believe to be so if we would be accounted good Christians And having the Scriptures in that esteem we cannot out of our promptitude and acutenesse of wit discerne clearly and readily many usefull things therein contained without the direction of that great Authour the Blessed Spirit principall in the composing them For 't is truly said The Scriptures must be understood by the Spirit that indited them According therefore to the gifts and grace given unto Mee doe they understand the mysteries of Faith Rom. 12. 6. And to every man is given grace according to the measure of Christ Ephes 4. 7. whereby that light revealed shineth unto the true Believer as out of a dark place So that
reject his maimed and lame sacrifice For as it is usually said A cold Praise tends to a disparagement so a cold Prayer tends much to a deniall It is the effectuall fervent prayer of the Righteous that availeth much as Saint James teaches us And so by the Rule of contraries It is the slothfull and cold Prayer that prevaileth nothing or very little 13. And therefore fifthly to quit our selves of this stupidnesse of spirit it will be necessary to take that contrary and most commendable Vertue of Christian fortitude unto us so rare and yet so usefull against the many temptations offered to us in this world and to be cloathed with zeal as with a cloak as the Prophet speaks Es 59. 17. For were not it for the carnall bashfullnesse that many men show in the cause of Religion and serving of God shrinking for fear of the Enemies to it and that without cause Enemies to godly life would not be so audacious as they are but by the cowardise of the well-principled and inclined a Conquest seems to have been made by the adverse partie over the Religious which consent and courage may easily undoe And not only the openly irreligious have brought under too much the profession of the truely religious but the audaciousnesse of men of erroneous Religion hath gain'd them respect when their opinions and practice deserved nothing lesse Yea it is to be lamented to consider that Fanaticall Persons having with wonderfull confidence usurped to themselves the advantages of sober and precise behaviour and many excellent Phrases of Holy Scripture and communication becoming the mouths of better Christians divers have been so scandalized at the ill use of them by such which in trueth hath been notorious that they can hardly finde in their heart or frame their mouths to such wholesome formes of words which are an Ornament to the mouth of a good Christian so perverted by others It was the comparison indeed of a religious Person living an Age or two since Whoe would not loth to eat an Apple before knawn by a Swine so who will not shrink to take that Phrase into his mouth which has been abused by polluted mouths and to scandalous ends But as they who shoot at God hurt not him but wound themselves so they who are vulgarly said to corrupt and abuse the Scriptures and its holy Dialect to their own purposes doe not in very deed defile and abuse that which like God the Authour changes not but remains the same but they pollute and wrong themselves For as the Apostle to Titus speaketh Chap. 1. 15. Vnto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled is nothing pure but even their minde and conscience is defiled Wherefore laying aside that vain and fearfull modestie which is so near a-kin to the sin of Acedia as the Greek word is and more comprehensively which we may render Incuriousnesse or Oscitancie or indisposednesse to Good Let us Brethren as Saint Pauls words are Ephes 6. be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and then impious and vitious men their own Conscience bearing witnesse against them will become timorous and ashamed For as Solomon tells us Prov. 22. 13. It is the slothfull man that saith There is a Lion in the way that is great dangers and many difficulties in the stricter and more faithfull service of God but the more resolute and diligent finde it not so but that the Yoke of Christ is easie and his burden light and that there is rest for the Soule as himselfe hath said SECT XVIII The Conclusion of this Second Part with some short advices relating to what hath been said therein 1. HAving thus treated of the necessity and manner of supernaturall Illumination and Purgation tending to supernaturall Union with God we hold it fit to close this Part with the offering of some brief Rules for the better directing of such who shall be inclined to improve farther what hath been said before concerning the purification and preparation of the Soule for a nerer conjunction with God by subduing that Seven-headed Dragon in the seven Capitall Sins or those seven Devills like to them which possed Mary Magdalene and which are as the seven Hills upon which the Antichrist every one carries about him sitteth and tyrannizeth over the Soule 2. First That because we are all borne in sin and even after we are regenerate in Baptisme doe through the infirmitie of the flesh fall commonly into sin that no man therefore allowe in himselfe any known sin whether light or heavie for hereby what was but a sin of infirmity becomes a presumptuous sin and so is accounted by God. 3. Secondly Some sins of both ranks are with more speciall care to be attended to and opposed by us And such I am wont to instance in which our Parents from whome we are immediately descended were subject to more than others or they who are immediately before them For undoubted experience teacheth us that not onely what we call Originall Sin but such actuall sin as hath strongly possessed them is often communicated to Children together with the temper of their bodies And allso those sins or failings in Parents and others which have been Examples to us in our minority and Education are to be suspected and feared by us Constant Examples of evill even disapproved in others too often having a great power over us when especially we are brought into the like circumstances and the same occasions are offered us of offending as was to them 4. Thirdly Great inspection and examination is to be had by every man of his own constitution or naturall complexion For as that Great Physician said Mens manners doe generally follow their humours abounding in them and therefore we commonly call the frequenter and constanter extravagancies of men their humours so that some are inclined naturally to Choler or Anger others to Jocundnesse and Levitie others to Melancholy and dullnesse c. Which a wise man and good Christian reflecting upon and discerning in himselfe ought to apply a proper Remedie unto and more watchfully to prevent the evill events of them 5. Fourthly A strong hand is to be carried against the powerfull and violent temptation of Fashion when it becomes Noble Gallant or Great as vain persons sometimes speak against Modesty Sobriety Temperance or Continence For such many are as must be acknowledged more especially in diversitie of Sexes which Nature hath made and diversitie of Politicall and Ecclesiasticall Orders which God hath made And therefore are wisely and justly distinguished by best Autoritie So that by no better arguments can any man defend indifferencie of Habits and outward deportment of the Laiety and Clergie than will equally serve for the indifferencie of the same to both Sexes For what is said against it by Moses his Law may easily be eluded by reducing it to a ceremoniall or judiciall Law. 6. Fifthly To rebuke represse or expell sinfull inclinations in our selves it