to back it the Almighty power of God and Satan cannot stand before this breath of the Lords nostrils we deceive oâ—r selves if we thinke that Reason is of any force that Inconveniences will hold against Satan to say shame will follow danger will come I shall but create trouble to my selfe should I kil or whore or steale Satan will come within us for all these hee will set such a glosse on the matter that wee shall thinke wee have greater reason to sin the sinne than we can show to the contrary Reason was never appointed or sanctified to this use dispute but with Satan and hee will so befoole us that we shall think we cannot live no nor scarce goe to heaven neither except wee sin some sins for a time or so Beware then of going that way to worke wee have a better course that is to runne to the Word the Word will doe it it is written will pack him away but what if he come againe and againe with the selfe-same tentation as Satan both may and doth why the same places of the word will doe the deed againe Satan is not afraid of big lookes and words circles and holy water are but toyes to him but it is the word of GOD which makes him avoid Christ wee see did not pray hee could have prai'd I hope none the like but onely the word is his defence being thus to grapple and enter into duell with the divell I speake not that prayer is not of great use I have set downe my mind of that already but that with our prayer must be joyned the word and the word will doe it and of these two if both by strictnes of time cannot be used bee we sure to make use of the Word of God the words and experience of Luther are just to our purpose when saith he the motions of the flesh doe rage the onely remedy is to take to us the sword of the Spirit that is the word of salvation and to fight against them which if wee doe let us not doubt but we shall obtaine the victory although so long as the battell endureth wee feele quite the contrary but set the Word out of sight and there is no help nor counsell remaining of this that I say I my selfe have good experience I have suffered many great passions and the same also very great and vehement but so soone as I â—aid hold of any place of Scripture and staid my selfe upon it as upon my chiefe Anchor-hold strait-wayes my tentation did vanish away which without the word it had beene impossible for me to endure any little space and much lesse to overcome them Thus Luther A brave speech and fitting the Author of it Learne of him to have our Bible at command and Satan dares not stay I speake not as though we were to turne the Text of Scripture into a charme as though to repeate a place by rote and in a heartlesse manner would prove a bug-beare to Satan No no Satan hath gotten much amongst the superstitious and ignorant by that conceit but the Word must bee held out by faith it was not so much Scanderbegs sword as his arme that held it which gave him such victories it is the hand of faith and of the spirit by which the word of God is held out which doth the deed wherefore we see what reason we have sith wee have such an adversary who is though not simply every where yet in every place where we be hee is or some of his Angels are great reason I say there is that we should bee expert in the word of righteousnesse to have places at our fingers ends ready to draw out as occasions shall require that we may have a fit a pat place to meet with the severall impulsions of the flesh and objections of the divell there is neither sin or tentation neither inward corruption nor outward motion but the word hath a soveraigne remedy for it to be fitted in a peculiar sort to the nature of the disease it is not for nothing that we are commanded to search the Scriptures and as Chrysostome often notes as men doe in Mynes for gold and the rather because here is all gold and no drosse and as there is an art in mining for gold so there is an holy skill to finde out golden places fit for our present purpose and thus a godly wise Christian say hee bee often in the fire yet he is like the burning bush never consumed and why because one place or other of the word comes in to his succour the particulars that wee are to follow are three 1. We must have ready the precept and statute of God forbidding the sinne to which we are solicited as say it be to Sabbath breaking then say it is written thou shalt keepe holy the Sabbath day or to murther ones selfe or some other say it is written thou shalt not kill or to uncleannesse urge the place avoid Satan it is written thou shalt not commit adultery and so thou shalt not steale and the like in the speciall branches of every Commandement 2. Wee must have at hand the promise too that in case we consent and obey not and refuse the divels offer wee shall have comfort here and heaven hereafter The divell will come with his hands full of glorious proffers but we must out of the Word set against him the faire and certaine and goodly promises of the Word as there is no sinne but we shall finde one promise or other made in plain termes to us if we resist it resist the divell and GOD will draw neere to you hee offers the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them God offers the kingdome of heaven and the glory of it 3. The threatning that if we yeeld we endaÌ„ger al that we do subject our selves to the curse of God say we doe beleeve the Commandement yet except wee doe beleeve the threatning and doe set the commination against the tentation wee are not like nor sure to hold here Eve lost her selfe in whose losse we all lose our selves the commandement shee did hold that shee was not to eate of the for bidden fruit but now for the threatning that in the day shee did eate thereof she should dye the death there she came short and so yeelded that shee was quick and strict in the precept it is plaine by the words of the Text for whereas it is in the charge of the Lord of the tree of knowledge of good and evill Thou shalt not eate of it Eve having occasion to urge this divine prohibition doth not onely say that God said Ye shall not eate of it but to shew her pious minde to the mandat of the Lord she saith more and addeth yee shall not touch it which words wee finde not in the letter of that law but when it came to the commination ye shall dye the death Satan was too hard for
in many Nations And many particular persons have doted wonderfully after this preposterous lust and have taken more bruitish and hellish delight in it than in those passions which are according to nature This then must be avoided by all meanes and all occasions of it warily eschewed he sinne is great it is a corrupting and a rotting of the very rudiments of nature in all things looke what corrupts the foundation and principall of things must needs be worst The punishment was great in that utter overthrow of Sodome In the Deluge water from heaven drownds here as in their sinne they had over-turned the law of nature so in their punishment there was an inversion of the course of nature for not water but fire came from heaven and burned them whose lusts were thus set on fire of hell It is used as a type of hell it is a crying sin The cry of Sodome and Gomorrah is great Gen. 18. 20. There is no sin but hath a voice but this amongst many and above most other sins hath a lowd and a crying voice it is heard to heaven it hath a lowd mouth to accuse which cry is nothing else but the guilt of conscience and the justice of God the conscience being full of matter and ready to accuse and God to heare As a man through importunity is drawn to execute justice against his minde so this sin doth so put God to it that hee must needs proceed except we come with hearty repentance hee cannot res nor be just till hee have sorely and sharpely punished it The thing I urge then sith the sin and the guilt is so great and will make such a noise in the conscience is by all meanes to keepe from the sin and from all spice of it to shun all occasions of it to take heed of that which Quintilian puts off in a Schoole-Master which is Nimium est quod intelligitur and he is so strict this way that he will not have bigger and lesser youths sit much together We may see what wrought Sodome to this sin Idlenesse pride fulnesse of bread these must be heedfully avoided and such sins as wee read Rom. 1. were in the justice of God punished with and by this passion of dishonour we must be thankfull to God for the light we have and in some measure walke according to the truth wee see They made God like a foure-footed beast and GOD gave them up to a sin which did abase them into a worse condition than of beasts and for such as are unmaried and have not the gift and by the use of al the meanes cannot get it such must know that it is better to marry than to burne and if they will rather burne than marry they are in a foule way to fall into this scalding sin which sin if they commit brings with it a world of misery and after when such shall happen to marry by the just hand of God they are suffered for a punishment of the former wickednesse to forsake as Paul saith the naturall use and run into that which is unnaturall and these are most monstrous lusts when all is done by way of preparation disposition of our hearts and thoughts against these corruptions that which will save us from the staine of these filthy puddles must be the pure and holy Word of God Set the Word against the sin and the sin is laid set the Word against Satan in this his tentation and â—atan cannot abide by it Satan 〈◊〉 no more abide the light of 〈◊〉 Word than an Owle can 〈◊〉 â—â—ining of the Sun say I 〈…〉 doe it I may not I 〈◊〉 it is forbidden in such 〈◊〉 place and againe in such a place It is called not onely a sinne but which shewes an height of sinning abomination both of them have committed abomination saith the text The punishment of it by Gods own Law was death no lesse than death present death they shall surely bee put to death their bloud shall bee upon them and the law was flat and peremptory that no Sodomite must bee amongst the sons of Israel and in that never the like reformation Iosiah brake downe the houses of the Sodomites which were by the house of the Lord 2 Kings 23. 7. Asa the father and Iehosaphat the sonne had swept away those unclean nests in their dayes but we see they grew on againe till Iosiah came and made a ful purgation These and such other places show that this sin is strong â—â—â—den and severely 〈◊〉 to which adde the wrath 〈◊〉 God on such in hell 1 Cor. â— These are the best medicines that bee which being rightly used and applied doe ever doe the cure Next to provide against the worst say a man be a sinner in this great wickednesse yet he must not run away from his father that will marre all There be I know degrees in this sinne but say it bee at the worst yet there is mercy with God repentance will make it up againe it is good to make all hast to returne sith lasciviousnesse is a sin which useth to seare up the conscience till the time of reckoning for al comes and God doth sometimes after a while shut up his gates of mercy and then as Chrysostome notes often though Noah Iob Moses Samuel and Daniel shold intercede it would bee to no purpose They were men of God who in their times did by their prayers do great things and compasse marvellous matters for particular persons for Families for Countries and yet when the glasse is out and the decree determined is past when the time is over wherein God may be found their prayers for others come in too late it is good then to bee at it with the soonest I meane not that ever it is too late to repent or that if we repent we can misse of mercy No no the fountaine stands open alwayes open in the house of David for sin and for uncleannesse and this unclean person as Paul cals him if he repent he shall finde mercy God forbid we should have such a thought as though this sin could staine so deepe that the bloud of Christ could not fetch it out our meaning is that whilst the conscience is awake and we have a faire offer made us by the Word and Spirit knocking at our hearts it is good wisdome to take Gods offer delaies be dangerous for if we will not know the day of our visitation God may and what if in justice he shall refuse to give us to repent then let our friends move for us God will not heare were they as good at praying as ever Iob Daniel Noah and Samuel were Let such then who are in this offence come in by all meanes in all hast to the Lord and when the Angell moves the water step into this Bath this Fountaine know that GOD would never
that in every commandement where the act of sin is forbidden there the motion of the same sin is forbidden aye the first motion this drawing aside spoken of by the Apostle S. Iames. CHAP. 3. Of the enticing of Lust AFter Lust hath drawn us aside from God it doth entice us and wooe us the word signifies baiting us as men doe bait for fishes coozening sometimes the eye sometimes the of the silly fish so doth sin use us puts on guises and maskes making the sin to appeare in an other colour than it is Thus our own Lust doth nibble at us with some delight proposeth it to us under tearmes of pleasure profit honour alluring us with the seeming sweetnesse that to our sancies and senses do appeare to be in several sins and all to bring us to accept of the motion to finish sin and to finish it is to act it indeed so meanes S. Iames. Lust I know doth worke by force but nothing so much as by enticing Man is a creature guided by his will and where will is there constraint and violence prevailes little wee love not to be forced and therefore our Lust doth goe most an end the other way to worke to bring us on to sin by licorish courses sawcing us with a proposall of some seeming sweetnesse to bee found in the doing of sin for then is sin like to breake out into act when it hath gained consent within and enticing is the likeliest way to wooe us to consent and assent to sinne the sin in question sin useth not to come against the haire but when wee are caught with the spiced pleasures of sin then we goe a maine downe the streame and wee give too free consent and allowance to sinne when wee are besotted with the deceits of sin T is very often that wee read in the Word of the deceitsulnesse of sinne and I doe desire all Christians to beware lest that their owne hearts that is their owne lusts doe not goe beyond them with cunning and get within them by some enticing sleight For Lust is such an enticing harlot as will undoe the party enveagled for ever and leave him nothing but shame and misery loocheth him from his right master and makes him a slave of slaves even to delight in his slavery robs a man of his liberty honesty comfort salvation and all Goe to GOD then that hee would bee pleased to stand betwixt us and this Coozener that our concupisence having great advantage in that it is within us may not cheate us with golden mountaines and leave us in the suds at last I meane not to enter into the description of the particular veynes that sinne hath to entice us Bookes are full of admirable matter about the deceitfulnesse of sin shewing how the heart first deceives us with colours and when we are once a doting after sin then wee joyne and deceive our hearts using fallacious and specious Sophismes to make our selues thinke that to be lawfull to day which we our selves held to be unlawfull but yesterday Lye therefore day and night at God for wisdome to prevent the stratagems of sinne by nature our imaginations are vaine our hearts are foolish and willing to be deceived by sin little suspecting to find a Serpent and a Snake in the grasse of sin Lust would allure us to pleasure it in the tents of Meshecke God will perswade and allure his to dwel in the tents of Sem Only I must coÌ„mend to the honest Christian the two maine treacheries of Lust to goe beyond us 1. Lust sits upon our upper part and by probable reasons to see to strives to win our judgements and in case a man looke not well to the matter Lust will so bleare his understanding with mysts that he shall think he hath reason to bee mad and that there is great sence in sinning Man being a reasonable creature is apt to be caried by reason and if lust can once bring us over w th pretended reasons why then the will is glad of the motion the affections wait on the will as on their Queen and Mistris and the sin is like to be finished and bring forth death Against this we are to set the Word and sith sin can shew no reasoÌ„ out of the Word say my reason is corrupt and I am onely for the Word 2. Lust works on our inferiour parts and slatters our affections with pausible perswasions and a man is soone taken by faire offers to satisfie his affections they be quick and sudden and it is hard to hold them in when the fume of sin hath wound it self into the affections it quickly creeps up into the very judgment and eates out all faculty of discerning and then good goes for evill and evill for good Watâ—h we over our selves both wayes before hand in making head at the very first against these entisings of lust lest both our reason and affections go after sin a world of difficulties will come in when we are not onely to bring in our affections but our judgement too That Fort lost is not had againe with a song remember that we have not a novice in hand but are to deale with an old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts so Paul Most dangerous of all is the deceit of lust when it seemes to carry with it our reason because then it is next to an impossible thing to keepe out of the snare and clutches of sin an instance or two and then an end Why is it past the power of our Divines with their pens and tongues to cry downe vsury the cause is because most men doe thinke that they have reason to make the most of their money and as yet they will see no reason against it there is an unanimous consent I thinke amongst all the Divines that to inclose is an oppressio of an high degree and yet many of our Gentry inclose more and more every day and that they doe it with an high hand is too plain else they would not have us in derision as they have and dare proclaime that they will inclose say all the Preachers in the world the contrary A proud word and well might they if GOD did not say the contrary as hee doth the best is God is not mocked for we see that the posterity of the great inclosers would be right glad with all their harts to feed a poore beast in some common and cannot Thus the Lord doth laugh at their calamity and mocke when their feare commeth but why are men so set in that sin Because they thinke that they have reason to inclose Thus when Lust hath enticed and bewitched our reason wise men grow to desperate resolutions all I say is in a word He that keepes from sinne because reason is against it and not because the Word of GOD is against it that man obeyes reason and not GOD. CHAP. 4. Of our being tempted by our lust GOD
with the Lord. 2. The other extreame is to grow senselesse to be past feeling wee are apt in these cases to feele too much or too little for if our terrours overcome us wee despaire if wee overcome them by faith wee take comfort if wee put them off by the flesh we grow secure and it is common out of great feares to runne into great want of feeling and so we finde it in the Apostle that lasciviousnesse breeds in us a senselesnesse it feares up the conscience and such come to be past feeling To open this there is a partiall want of feeling when wee commit sinnes and aile nothing in some particulars Thus wee finde that otherwise good people breake out into excesses in buying and selling doe they care not what in matters of profit and feele nothing the conscience sees all saith nothing or as good as nothing one would wonder how men can sell day I speake not against giving day but selling of it let out their money to use hoard up corne directly against the Word of God in the very letter make up some peeces of workes on the Lords day are told of it in the ministry and yet nothing come of it why Because custome in them and in others hath taken away their feeling covetousnesse hath made them in most matters of commodity to bee past feeling yet this is but partiall we meane not to say that those allow those sins for the point is that though the Word be plaine yet custome doth so dazle their eyes that they cannot in the particulars see the right so David and Salomon did multiply wives against that Text Deut. 17. 17. The like did the Patriarches for Polygamie And the beleeving Gentiles saw not single fornication to be more than a thing indifferent Act. 15. 20. 21 25. Rev. 2. 15. 20. Yet this fornication is forbidden in the Word So great is the force of custome But should these men meddle halfe so much in forbidden lusts of uncleannesse oh what pangs rise in their conscience they feele it with a witnesse But now the passions of lasciviousnesse when once men have broken thorow the terrours of it which usually come first then they bring a man to a total senselesnesse to be past feeling not only in these and the like affections but in all universally to make conscience of nothing to commit any sinnes that comes to hand with all greedinesse devoure any thing like some stomackes and be never troubled with it it is so sensuall a sinne and gives such a blow to the naturall conscience too that like a sound knocke on the head it takes away all sense and feeling let Satan propose what he will nothing comes amisse for this sinne of uncleannesse fights against both light of nature and grace and if the naturall conscience speake and wee will not heare and the spirituall conscience crie and we will not hearken the conscience will grow speechlesse and speake no more and hence it is that such as come to a custome in some covetous practises are past feeling in some things for some time but such as come to a custome in the lust of uncleannesse are soone made to be past feeling simply and totally scruple at nothing whatsoever Sith then the danger is as great as a seared conscience comes to such as have broken the peace with God must returne and make all haste to repentance the crie is so great and the sight of it is so odious and the sense of it is so grievous at first and so palpable that we may with the more ease come to repent It is a sinne that doth convince it selfe to bee a sinne till a man hath lost his judgement and his spirituall taste while it is a doing the judgement cries shame and there is little to doe because our worke lyes in a manner onely with our affection whereas many passions of anger and pride and covetousnesse are such that the offender is long ere hee can bee brought to see the thing to be a sin the fact to be a fault But in pollutions of uncleannesse they are so direct against the principles of reason and so flat against al shew of Religion that they carry their conviction in their mouthes which makes the heart the more ready to entertaine the work of repentance unto life Iudah repented David repented Lot repented and so did Thamar and so did others and they were taken into speciall favour and honour as we see them upon record in the first of Matthew Those sinnes which much humble doe much honour none humble more than such base lusts David died in honour Mary Magdalen is in great honourin the Church of God Christ to comfort and honour her appeared first and foremost to her what ever heales the soule heales the name repentance doth both The truth of our repentance wil best appeare if wee goe away as Iudah did and doe so no more come not neere the garment spotted with the flesh affections of another nature are more apt to bring a relapse than these passions they leave such a sting and sent behind them goe away but with a smart have such a tast and are such a base sight that few relapse such as are by Gods mercy cured of these diseases are commonly ever after very chast Become as children in all purity and chastity when wee fetch out a great staine the cloth is after whiter than ordinary and so after this staining sin is washed away such must be very holy passing chast beware of the least sparke of sin this is the meaning of that of Iohn the Baptist Bring forth fruits meet or worthy of repentance how worthy of repentance It is that when a man hath beene at it in the worke of repentance his workes and deeds must afterwards be better than ordinary hee must looke like a true penitent that as a Physitian can judge by the colour of the face that his patient is recovered so must our workes shine and carry such a lustre and colour with them that one of skill may read it as written in our faces that there is amendment of life that now all is well and sound within And say by intemperate courses one have bin the occasion of hastning our owne end before the time I grant that there is just cause as Salomon speakes to mourne at the last when the flesh and the body are consumed and we are accidentally guilty of hastening our owne death before the time of Natures Period but never before the time of Gods councell mourne here spare not but yet not as men without hope repentance will mend this also First hardly one man in a thousand but one way or other more or lesse cuts off some of his dayes Had it not bin for one thing or other hee might have lived a day a yeere longer as I thinke is plaine enough in David who was bed-rid at or about the age his father begat him either