of himselfe that infallibly he shall be saved while he remains very deficient in the common and known duties of a true Christian mistaking the true notion and office of Faith which is not so much to teach us what we are our selves but what God is and what is his Will and what our dutie is to him and the effects of obedience and holy life prescribed by him So that justifying and saving faith is Godliness in the power of it and Godlinesse in the power of which St. Paul speakes is a Confluence of all Christian Graces and Vertues the principall of which are reckoned up by St. Peter where he counselleth 2 Epist 1 5 6. to Adde to faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly kindenesse and to brotherly kindnesse Charitie And having profited so far as to be possessed of such Graces to strive as the same Apostle hath it to abound in the same which having competently attained unto gives the best assurance of the good purpose of our heavenly Father to give us the Kingdome promised to them that believe 4. But the presumptuous and preposterous faith whereby men are prone to phansie themselves into the highest favour of God before they have passed through the discipline of Faith which is laboursome and uneasie to Flesh is that which leadeth men into blindnesse of minde and perhaps perdition in the midst of strong perswasions of the contrary our Saviour Christ teaching us so much where he saith Luke 17. 7. Which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he is come from the field Goe and sit down to meat And will not rather say unto him Make ready wherewith I may suppe and gird thy selfe and serve me and afterward thou shalt eat and drink Which teaches us that it sufficeth not presently to take up our rest of assurance of our salvation by faith speciall so soon as we are called home to God from the wide and wild conversation in the field of this world but must yet farther attend the service God hath for us to doe and then to expect his farther favour of an eternall rest 5. And because amongst various acceptations in holy Scripture of the word Faith it is sometimes used for the Grace of faith and sometimes for the works and fruits of faith every prudent and pious Christian must be very carefull that he puts not such a fallacie upon himselfe as to inferre to himselfe the whole vertue of faith taken in its full latitude upon some particular branch thereof found in him crouding all duties of pietie into one and that rather a preparation unto true religious life than the principall part of it such as knowing and believing and the meanes thereunto tending reading and hearing of Gods holy word For being well initiated in those necessarie principles and helps of devotion there so to stop or in them to improve that acts of faith hope and charitie should be neglected overthrowes the whole design of faith it selfe whereof no small part is to confesse our sins to repent heartily and thorowly to attend to good works and acts of mercie to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance and not to think to commute with God that when he requires private or publique worship we should think it as well and perhaps better to read certain Chapters in the Bible or to be present and heare a Sermon and when God calls to performe good deeds of Charitie in visiting the sick and being at charges for the relief of the poor to exceed in reading and praying supposing such cheaper parts of splendid profession will answer all obligations to God and our necessitous neighbour Whereas it is one principall point of true Christian Illumination by faith to understand what it teacheth us by the Apostle saying Coloss 4. 12. Stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God to the effecting whereof Faith is ordained and given us by God as a tool and Engine not as the work it selfe 6. And therefore the ancient and more experienced Father we read of handsomely and truely reproved the mistakes of three well inclined novices in the sounder part of Piety when the First declaring the course of his Life said with expectation of applause I have got the Old and New Testament by heart Then said the Old man thou hast poured out many words into the air intending he should understand that all that was to very small purpose without proportionable acts of holinesse And the Second said I have wrote over all the Old and New Testament with mine own hand Then said the ancient Father thou hast filled thy windowes with store of paper And the third glorying that the grasse grew on his hearth implying how much cold and hunger he had suffered was answered by the same person Then hast thou driven away hospitality intimating that no man abounding in some good duties must perswade himselfe that he shall thereby make compensation for such defects in other graces willfully neglected being better informed from St. Paul that knowledge and the Scriptures themselves were entrusted with us by God that the man of God may be perfect and thorowly furnished unto all Good workes 2 Tim. 3. 17. And as Davids practice was to have an eye to all Gods commands without exception or limitation Psal 119. 6. 7. Against this if it chances to be objected what vulgarly is said that there is no perfection in this world we may answer without great difficulty That perfection there is in the Scriptures themselves and Christian Religion above what is to be found in any other Authours Sciences or Religions There is a perfection of integritie or of parts which St. Paul to Philemon ver 6. calleth Communication of faith becoming effectuall by the acknowledging of every good thing so that not one vertue or dutie prescribed to a true Christian must be wanting to the true believer however the degrees of those vertues may be and generally are imperfect And yet again having in some degree been initiated into all Christian vertues we are not there to rest as if we had alreadie attained the end of Religion but must prosecute those mean yet good beginnings till we arrive to that pitch which God hath not revealed unto us that he will accept to our justification and salvation but only have a sound firme and comfortable Hope of the Favour of God which some are pleased in these last ages to call Faith justifying But faith properly so called hath for its object truth and that as relating to all men but Hope hath for its object Good and that as pertaining to particular persons of which nature is the perswasion we have of the foresaid Good as truely belonging unto us and thereby as St. John speaks 1 Epist 3. 19. We assure our hearts before him SECT IV. That Faith and not naturall Reason improved is the only
obstinacie and obduratenesse in their naturall state according to Christs own judgement of the world John 5. v. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life So that as it is written by Sulpitius Severus in the life of St. Martine that being endued with a marvellous gift or faculty of curing sick and impotent persons The blinde and lame and decrepit who got their living by begging were affraid of him and would not come near him lest being cured of such their defects and impotencies they should lose their livelihood In like manner many getting a miserable and beggarly livelihood by serving and complying with the world and so being blinde and crippled in an heavenly sense refuse that light and life and renovation which Christ bringeth with him An instance whereof we have in the ministrie of St. Paul preaching to the Athenians prepossessed and captivated with worldly wisdome and thereupon saying Thou bringest strange things to our eares In their judgements more strange than true And though it be Mannah it selfe and that dropt down from heaven for their edification and comfort men out of their scepticalnesse and curiositie will question it and perhaps in time loath it as the Israelites that bread from heaven there being generally too little agreement between the notions of half-sighted naturall reason and delectations of our senses naturall and the divine Revelations and more spirituall prescriptions given us by Religion though naturall reason not counterfeited nor corrupted by baser allayes of vitious men may passe also as Gods true coyne But that pure Gold it is not which the Holy Ghost counselleth us to buy Revel 3 18. that we may be rich and wherewith we may get white raiment that we may be clothed that the shame of our nakednesse doe not appear and get that eye-salve that we may see which is the word of God. For the knowledge or illumination which we have from thence and that which we have from the Holy Spirit differ no otherwise than that money a man carries about him or that which the Tradesman hath present in his Bank and that which he hath in his Books which must put him sometimes to trouble to fetch in The manner of which fetching in is by the Holy Spirit also opening the heart that we may as the Disciples going to Emaus after Christs Resurrection understand the Scriptures untill which time that will be found too true which the Prophet Hosea Cap. 8. 12. complains of in Gods behalf I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing 4. But if we should enquire faithfully into the grounds of such incredulitie and prejudice against Religion we may finde them too often in the corrupt manners of men influencing the understanding with mistakes and grosse errours which yet some to cover with shew of greatest candour in judging and ingenuity have wished they could believe the things Christianity requires of them But if reality and common integritie be not also laid aside here how easie a thing is it to reconcile them to the truth For does not their own prime reason and of all civilized People tell them that nothing truely humane is more naturall to Man than to be of some Religion And yet if they be men but of indifferent reading and observation they shall finde that there is no Religion nor ever like to be all whose Principles are obvious to all competent understandings And so consequently that men to avoid the barbaritie of Atheisme must believe more than nature can compell them unto by her philosophicall demonstrations or fall into an absurditie little inferiour to Atheisme That every man should frame his own Religion and be so far religious as he thinks fit and no farther and which must necessarily follow call his freak and humour his reason and judgement So that it is scarce so true that a man cannot believe the mysteries of Religion as that he will not and he will not because he dares not for fear of the worst Or let it be that he cannot when St. Paul if he be but so far believed saith of some 2 Corinth 4. 4. The God of this world who that is I suppose is well known hath blinded the mindes of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them vain and vitious men having by their presumed wit and evill lives tempted evill Spirits themselves and drawn them to be accessaries to their infatuations For as every good and perfect gift cometh from above from the Father of lights as St. James tells us Chap. 1. 17. So doth everie notorious errour and wickednesse proceed from the Prince of darknesse who ruleth in the Childeren of Disobedience they being called children of Disobedience in Scripture who obey not the Gospell nor believe it reasonably propounded 5. But it may seem strange and worth our wondering How the same effect of blindnesse of minde should be ascribed to God and also to the Devill in Scripture as John 12. 4. speaking of God out of the Prophet Isaias He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts c. This is in truth a Scholasticall difficultie which belongs to another place to which I may referre it but here I would have it observed that as Judges or Princes are said to put Malefactours to death when they doe it not themselves but deliver them over to the Executioner whose office it is so God upon just provocation delivering great Sinners to the Devill may be said to be a cause of their hardnesse and blindnesse when it is caused directly by Satan only and themselves But the true light of Faith and life of Grace doth most properly appertain to God as it is said 2 Corinth 4. 7. By grace ye are saved through faith it is the gift of God. The reason whereof is That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us And this key of knowledge which is also of the Kingdome of God did Christ deliver to his Apostles by vertue of which God assisting Lydia's heart was opened as we read Acts 16. 14. And so necessary is the assistance of God in this case that he seems to keep this key by his own side and not at all times to lend it to his Ministers no not the Apostles Nor did Christ himselfe who as God had the command of mens mindes allwayes succeed in his teaching and exhortation but by I know not what deep providence suffered his labours to be frustrated by the incredulity of men But this we may say falls out by divine dispensation that God may be all in all in the beginning continuing and consummation of every good work and to repell that spirit of presumption whereby too prosperous Labourers in Gods Harvest or Vineyard might be prone to attribute much more to themselves than
II. A brief description of the Illuminative Purgative and Vnitive way of Religion p. 9 SECT III. Of the necessity of Illumination and of Faith with its subordinate Graces especially conducing thereunto p. 12 SECT IV. That Faith and naturall Reason improved is the onely proper cause of Illumination being taken for the things revealed whereof some principall heads are here given p. 20 SECT V. Of the Grace and act of Faith leading to Illumination and of the difficulties and meanes of believing p. 40 SECT VI. Of the gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination the abuse and true uses of it noted And of the necessitie of believing p 51 SECT VII Of Illumination Reflexive whereby the Christian Soule comes to the knowledge of its selfe in its Spirituall State. p. 63 SECT VIII Of Revelations or Illuminations extraordinarie by Spirits and the discerning of them with the use of such Revelations p. 76 The Second Part. Of the Purgative part of Religion SECT I. THAT Action and good Works must be added to true knowledge and Believing And of the distinction of sins to be purged Page 99 SECT II. Of the Office of Faith in purging the Soule from sinfull defilements p. 105 SECT III. That in purifying our selves principall regard is to be had to the puritie of Faith and of the affections of the Inward Man not neglecting outward severities p. 114 SECT IV. Of the proper meanes and methode of cleansing the Soule And first of Baptisme p. 124 SECT V. Of the Grace and power of Repentance in cleansing the Soule p. 129 SECT VI. That this purgative Repentance must be generall of all sins and perpetuall p. 147 SECT VII Of Selfe deniall required to true Reformation and that both of Vnderstanding and Will. p. 156 SECT VIII Of the custodie and discipline to be had over the outward man especially the Eyes Eares and Tongue p. 174 SECT IX Of outward moderation and modestie to be used in abstinences and Apparell p. 189 SECT X. The connexion of what hath passed with what followes concerning the Seven Capitall Sins p. 201 SECT XI Of Pride the first deadly or Capitall Sin. p. 203 SECT XII Of Anger a Second Capitall Sin its Concomitants and Remedies p. 219 SECT XIII Of the deadly sin of Envy its nature and Remedies p. 233 SECT XIV Of the Capitall Sin Covetousnesse p. 244 SECT XV. Of Luxurie and Vncleannesse p. 254 SECT XVI Of Gluttonie its sinfullnesse and Cure. p. 265 SECT XVII Of Slothfullnesse the last Capitall Sin. p. 277 SECT XVIII The Conclusion of this Second Part with some short advices relating to what hath been said therein p. 288 The Third Part. Treating of the Unitive Way of the devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and of Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof p. 297 SECT II. That this Vnion consisteth chiefly in the true knowledge of God and Love experimentall and reciprocall p. 304 SECT III. Of the excesse of Vnitive Love of God in Extasies and Raptures with their abuses and uses noted p. 309 SECT IV. Of the Vnion of the Soule with God by Divine Contemplation and Meditation with some instances of particular Subjects for this latter p. 317 SECT V. Of the Vnion we have with God in Prayer habituall and actuall as the proper matter of Worshippe p. 328 SECT VI. Of the defects incident to the Act of Praying and their Remedies p. 334 SECT VII Of the due use of Publique and Private Prayer p. 342 SECT VIII Of the severall sorts of Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall Supramentall Extemporarie Formed or fixed as allso of Singing of Psalmes p. 350 SECT IX Of Vnion and Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist or Lords Supper to which certain instructions are premised p. 359 SECT X. Of the difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holy Communion here discussed p. 367 SECT XI Other impediments and scruples observed against Communicating especially with their proper Remedies p. 378 SECT XII A brief recapitulation of what hath been treated of before with advices and directions concerning the interruption and recoverie of actuall Communion with God and of Consolations p. 387 THE Methode and Means TO TRUE SPIRITUALL LIFE The First Part Treating of Spirituall Illumination SECT 1. Previous advice concerning the Necessity Reasonablenesse and Vsefulnesse of being truly Religious 1. THERE being three principall Stages as I may so speak which every true Christian is to passe over in his travail towards that Sabbath of Blessednesse hoped for hereafter and aspired to it may seem both very methodicall and profitable to that great end to prepare the way thither by cleering up the defaced Characters written by Gods own finger on the tables of Mans heart concerning the sense of God and Religion towards him in generall that such a fundamentall perswasion being well received the edification in our most holy faith may be more firme absolute and better advanced 2. For what may we call Religion speaking here more practically than artificially but a thorow conviction of a Supream Being and Power able to save and destroy everlastingly inferring a strong and just obligation upon all creatures especially Man to pay the debt of veneration and obedience to that God from whom he received his present being and to whom he owes his subsistence and upon whom depends his future state of happinesse or misery 3. But may it not here allso be said Who hath believed our report and to whom hath the Arme of the Lord been revealed too many obstinately refusing any better guidance or conduct of their Lives but such as may favour their degenerous and dangerous humour of gratifying their sensuall appetites hurrying them to a liberty inconsistent with that whereby we are made free to God by Christ Jesus For his service being perfect freedome ' when we are dedicated to him in Baptisme we renounce the servitude and turpitude of the world and enter our selves Apprentices to learne and doe the will of God by Religion the Art of all Arts God at the same time Indenting and Covenanting with Believers so faithfully serving him when their times come out by death in this world to give them a more noble and desireable freedome by making them Citizens in Hierusalem which is above the Mother of us all than which the heart of man can desire no greater or better event of all his labours and services in the world nor so good nor great remuneration 4. Who would not then sometimes retire into the chamber of his heart and seriously consider these things And who considering these things would not apply himselfe to this so necessary so divine and beneficiall a work shall we see so many Artists of this world strive to excell one another not only for lucre sake but esteem of men in their severall professions and trades and shall we be cold indifferent and carelesse in this of Religion the glory of all How many have become poor infamous
reward of Good and Evill done now in the body is another article of our faith not demonstrable by the wisdome of this world but discerned by Revelation 15. To this likewise appertains the knowledge which Faith teacheth us of the Second coming of Christ in glorie and Justice to be the Great Judge of Quick and Dead bringing his reward with him so that they who have done good shall goe into life eternall and they that have done evill into everlasting fire 16. Lastly as the nerve and bond of our Faith we are by Gods Holy Word taught assuredly that God hath two Cities or Societies in this world of his own Constitution and not framed by the will or power of Man. The one is that Civill Government wherein God hath set his Delegates to maintain order and unitie by the due administration of Justice to whom men are to be subject as the Ministers of God sent to those ends The other is the Church of Christ or companie of true Believers of whom Christ is the supreme Head From whom the whole bodie fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the bodie unto the edifying it selfe in love Ephes 4. 16. And it being impossible that Faith it selfe should subsist long the Church being dissolved and it not being possible the Church should not be dissolved where there is no order of Superiour and Inferiour nor possible that such order should be preserved without subjection and obedience the Catholique Church is to be believed to be holy and obeyed as our Guide and Governour and so is every particular Church managed by lawfully succeeding Pastours to be reverenced and obeyed untill such time that they or it be convicted of some grosse errour and defection from Christ and not only till all exceptions made against them be resolved to our mindes So that enviously and proudly to oppose that Hierarchy instituted by Christ or the precepts delivered by them for the conservation of the Bodie in faith and worship of God is to resist God and not man and to make themselves obnoxious for officiousnesse without authority received of God to shame and perdition 5. And this Abstract of knowledge given us by God in his Revealed Word I held very requisite to premise as the grounds of our Christian faith and as so many instances of his singular favour to his Elect ones in discovering unto them such mysteries as the Princes of this world were and are ignorant of and we might walke worthy of such light given us And to these of a speculative nature might we adde those of the practicall order whereby God doth teach us above the doctrines of men not only not to commit such things which are dishonest unjust unreasonable filthy and the like but not so much as to desire them and that inward concupiscence of evill is a sin condemned by God however tolerated by humane Lawes either because they doe not actually break the peace of the Common-wealth or because such close iniquities cannot come under the cognizance of humane judicature But God searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and judges the inward motions of the soule as our faith tells us The summe of which knowledge is given us by St. Paul Rom. 7. 7. when as learned as he was he tells us I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet So that from hence we may discerne the truth of what David saith Psal 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule The Testimonie of the Lord is sure making wise the simple And again v. 8. The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes And what David saith there and elsewhere Solomon in his Book of Proverbs more fully confirmeth and especially in the first Chapter as in the beginning giving us the Subject of the ensuing Treatise To know wisdome and instruction To perceive words of understanding to receive the instruction of wisdome justice and judgement and equitie To give subtilty to the simple to the young man knowledge and discretion So foolish are they and ignorant who out of mistaken greatnesse and Gallantry and presumption of knowledge falsely so called are prone to despise the Revelations of Allmighty God and establish their own imaginations serviceable to their Lusts and scandalous manners falling thereby under the just censure of the wisest of Men Prov. 1. 7. Fools despise wisdome and instruction the reason whereof is because it is their enemie in the unrighteous and unreasonable courses they choose to themselves verifying what our Saviour Christ saith John 9. 41. of the haughty Pharisees If ye were blinde i. e. through unaffected and involuntarie ignorance ye should have no sin but now ye say We see therefore your sin remaineth SECT V. Of the Grace and Act of Faith leading to Illumination and of the difficulties and means of believing 1. NOW we proceed to the second sense of Faith mentioned before and that is the Grace or Gift or both by which we believe or the next disposition of the minde towards Illumination For as it is in nature so likewise is it in the case of Religion To him that is naturally blinde and discerneth nothing exteriour objects are in themselves as visible as they are to him who hath the perfect use of his eyes and seeth all things duly offered to his sight but the indisposition of the organe hindereth the exercise of the same So we finde that what is presented alike to all mens understanding and faith hath not the like effect upon men to apprehend or believe what is spiritually discerned 2. One reason whereof may well be that which our Catechisme directed by Gods holy Word assures us of viz. that we were borne in sin of which state blindnesse is a principall part So that as it seemed an incredible thing to the Jewes John the 9th that Christ should open the eyes of him that was borne blinde may it seem one of the greatest difficulties to us that being so naturally ignorant and averse to spirituall things we should be cured of so great a maladie But the resolution of this doubt is given us by Christ himselfe in the same Chapter v. 39. saying For judgement am I come into this world that they who see not might see and that they who see might be blinde Christ therefore calleth himself the light of the world John 5. 8. yea and more than so John 1. 9. according to the testimonie given of him by John the Baptist He was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world that is all men that come into the world and are enlightened by him only they are enlightened 3. And when it so falls out that men are not the better for the light offered to them and shining before them a reason thereof is to be fetched from themselves and the depravation of their own will and
the emptie and perishing vanities and fouling even in this life their Fingers in catching these worldly pleasures 8. And why should I adde the consequences of such evill infatuations and choice as is made here by such whom the God of this world hath blinded Doth not even Nature teach us that there is a reward of Good and Evill And doe not our senses or common observation teach us that that reward is not precisely or constantly dispenced in this life but very often all things as it is in Ecclesiastes befall all men alike him that sacrifices and him that sacrifices not which the Divine Wisdome hath so ordered that men might erect their mindes and direct their hearts to the state after Death and stead fastly believe and accurate remuneration both of good and evill and that sevenfold to what men suffer or enjoy of all the labour or pleasure taken in this life in pursuit of Good and Evill This our Christian Creeds would have us perfectly setled in This the Holy Scripture often inculcates unto true Believers And the Wise man saith Ecclesiasticus 7. 36. Whatsoever thou takest in hand remember thy latter end and thou shalt never doe amisse Know thy selfe and present frailties infirmities and vain inclinations exposing thee to sin and errours Remember the great end thou wert placed for in this world Remember the inevitable stroke of Death destroying this Body and the inevitable Resurrection restoring it again to never-dying joy or miserie Know and believe these things soundly and effectually and thy selfe thorowly by a spirituall Philosophie making thee wise to vertue and godlinesse here and to salvation hereafter To the attaining this Divine Knowledge of a mans selfe some of the wiser and soberer Philosophers and much more ancient and holy Fathers of the Church doe often exhort others and exercise themselves at the conclusion of the Day revolving in their mindes what they had done and what they had not the day passed and all this discerning themselves and judging their actions impartially they might adjust the accounts between God and their own souls and as the Tradesman desirous to thrive often turns over his Day book as he calls it and his Debt-book the better to understand whether he thrives or runs behind-hand in the world so every prudent and thrifty soule frequently reflects on its selfe and actions what he hath laid out and what he hath taken in to its advantage or prejudice If the good Emperour bewailed his hard hap when he upon reflexion upon what had passed one day said My Friends we have lost a day how much more reason of lamentation may inconsiderate and dissolute Christians ruminating upon ill-spent time say My Friends we have lost Eternitie we have lost our Souls or at least forfeited them so far as may not be regained without true and timely repentance and renovation neither of which can be obtained without discerning our selves nor that without search made into our selves nor this without reflexions made upon our selves nor this without Illumination nor Illumination of this nature without devout imploration of the Father of Lights from whom cometh every good and perfect gift SECT VIII Of Revelations or Illuminations extraordinarie by Spirits and the discerning of them with the use of such Revelations 1. BUT hitherto have we treated of such Light and Knowledge which God in the ordinary course of his Covenant with Man generally vouchsafes unto him Now we proceed briefly to consider the Extraordinary way of Illuminations and as Saint Paul speaks 2 Corin. 12. 1. come to Visions and Revelations in the Lord. For that such there have been and such there may be who ever believes the Holy Scriptures must not deny and whoever will allow any credit to Ecclesiasticall Histories and Traditions cannot denie I know God hath given us a sufficient Rule revealed in his Word and so sufficient that we ought not importunately to seek for such extraordinarie manifestations of himselfe yet hath he not so far tyed his own hands as he hath our luxuriant appetites after knowledge which transported our first Parents and darkened and degraded them but having distributed to every man according to the measure of his Faith he of his undeserved and unexpected liberality casts into our dimension the overplus of immediate Illuminations The gift of Prophesie before Christ and the frequent grant of Visions to the beloved and honoured Patriarchs before the Law of Moses manifestly prove this beyond doubt or exception Of which reasons are endeavoured to be render'd by the subtile and learned not belonging to this place But as for Prophets and Seers after the Law given they were not only the Life and vigour of the Law so delivered which otherwise might and too often did lie languishing and neglected but so many speciall intimations of the minde of God to his people which became a Law likewise to their Posterities And we upon whom the ends of the world are come as the Scripture speakes 1 Corinth 10. are entred into their labours and Lights of Revelations and that with the advantage and accessions of more cleer and plentifull Revelations than the world before had been acquainted with And with this Bodie of Divinity or Divine Revelations we may safely and ought thankfully and modestly to acquiesce not despising Prophecyings as the Apostle advises consonant to that known Rule given us And that these materiall Revelations as I may so call them are not so full and manifest as to make all Illuminations superfluous and fruitlesse even the precisest admirers of Scriptures will grant themselves laying speciall claim to accessorie Revelations or Inspirations And an eminent instance to this purpose is given in the two Disciples travailing to Emaus Luke 24. who understood the Scriptures we may suppose as well as others generally and to help them therein had acted before their eyes what was before prophesied of Christ and yet could they not understand nor believe the Scriptures untill Christ expounded unto them all the Prophesies from Moses and downward concerning himselfe And upon the same occasion of the other Disciple not believing Christ ver 45. is said to open their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures which gift of God as hath been touched before will never cease to be usefull to the same ends For the office and gift of the Spirit shall never cease untill the Saints and Servants of God come to contemplation of God face to face and Christ hath deliver'd up the Kingdome to the Father 2. A great instance whereof though perhaps a little digressive we have in one of the most fundamentall Articles of our Faith questioned by that wretch Socinus and his followers directed only by their private naturall wits Upon the words of St. Johns Gospell Chap 1. v. 1. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God we believe that God became Man and the second Person in the Trinitie Incarnate And some naturall Philosophers as the
they be of God because many false spirits are gone out into the world And to this end I hold it usefull to distinguish three kindes of Illuminations the first merely Speculative representing unto the minde fine and rare objects and heavenly Scenes of God himselfe and Christ and the Virgin Mary and Quires of Saints and such like not at all tending to edification of him that hath them or of any others This sort I should think to be generally vain and illusive as tending to nothing so much as the swelling of a mans minde up with conceit of his being a favourite of Heaven This that prudent holy Man saw mentioned in ancient Histories When the Devill appearing to him with a glorious retinue representing Christ and the good Angells attending him Saint Itor for so was his name demanded what all that meant Answer was made by that Lyar Lucifer that he was Christ whom he had so faithfully served and was come to refresh and comfort him with the manifestation of his presence in that resplendent manner Christ come to me said he I desire not to see Christ on earth but in Heaven and him I there daily worship and enjoy whereupon the Devills Stratageme not succeeding he with his Complices is said suddenly and with shame to have vanished The like doth Gerson Of the Tryall of Spirits relate of another Holy Man to whom none other but the Devill appeared in the forme of Christ telling him that he was Christ but he believing him not clapt both his hands before his eyes and said I will not see Christ here upon earth it suffices me that I shall one day see him in Heaven And Sulpitius Severus in the Life of Saint Martin tells us that upon a time an Apparition very splendid being made to him resembling Christ he flatly denied to behold it saying I will not see Christ any otherwise than as he appeared on earth crucified From whence may be it is that moderne Revelations and Visions pretended of Christ and the Virgin Mary are much framed after this Pattern yet often also otherwise and with the same probability and use It seems to me therefore a very good argument of an evill Vision when such are sent only to be admired and star'd on And when a strong desire in men not otherwise evill to be partakers of strange sights and Revelations possesses them it is probable enough that God may punish their carnall fondnesse of that nature with delivering them over to such delusions of Spirits ready enough to doe their office of deceiving 7. Secondly From the matter of Revelations judgement may be competently made of the Revelation it selfe whence it cometh and what it is For in our Religion towards-God we must alwayes build upon some such firme and unshaken foundations given us by Christ in his Revealed Word whereby we are to try all extraordinary Illuminations or Visions or Revelations So that whatever shakes or weakens those principles given us must not be allowed to proceed from God but from our vain imaginations or the subtile blandishments of the Tempter To deny Christ come in the flesh was in Saint John's age a signe of an Antichristian Spirit To subvert the Doctrine of Christ and the silencing of Moses his Law To abuse Christian Libertie to an occasion of the flesh To break the bond of Unitie and Christian Charitie by disowning and contemptuously disobeying Governours for every frivolous matter and such like was in Saint Paul's dayes lookt on and taught by him to be inconsistent with a Gospell Spirit or sound Revelations and such that though an Angell from Heaven should teach such contrarietie to Christianity he was to be Anathematized There must be therefore as judicious Authours tell us the like forme in all sound Revelations to us as was found in Christs at the time of his Transfiguration there must be Moses and Elias joyned with them that is the Law and the Prophets viz. the Word of God vouching them 8. A Second sort therefore may be such Visions as are partly Speculative and partly Practicall having indeed extraordinarie Discoveries but not resting there but tending to good or evill by which their good or evill natures may be discerned For as much as God cannot denie himselfe as the Scripture assures us neither may he by Extraordinary intimations warrant us to doe that which ordinarily he forbids so that they as pretended Prophets may be known by their works as Christ tells us For though the Devill may doe good sometimes at least in appearance yet God never doth evill neither as Saint James saith tempteth he any man so to doe To Preach therefore against Truth to pray against Edification of the whole Body of the Church with a seeming advantage to some few to Prophesie without Rule order or subjection is to bewray the bitter fountain from which such sweet waters flow And though the Devill may sometimes speak as well as foresee the truth God cannot at any time speak what is untrue When therefore pretended Lights and Visions fail of their due event and end it is certain that that Light is from him that transformes himselfe into an Angell of Light but is not so in trueth And this was the Character God himselfe gave unto his own People the Jewes to preserve them from Impostures and delusions of false Prophets and by which they were wont to try and judge of Prophets Deuter. 18 22. When a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord If the thing follow not nor come to passe that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be affraid of him But in some cases the signe was to be judged by the matter and not the matter by the signe viz. When the extraordinary Revelation tended to the subversion of the fundamentall points of Religion as is said before For so we read Deuter. 13. 1 2. If there arise among you a Prophet and a dreamer of Dreams and giveth thee a signe or a Wonder And the signe or the Wonder come to passe whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us goe and serve other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet c. So that we may see from hence that Visions leading to superstitions doe not so much commend these as these condemne them 9. Again as it is with Diamonds and other Jewells generally of great value when they are scarce and rare but being brought in heaps and common are either counterfeit or lose their wonted worth so is it with Visions Raptures and extraordinarie Illuminations where they are common and familiar they may lose their esteem and reputation and be reduced to the Classis of Diseases and the sublimating of the understanding to strange apprehensions and speeches incident to bodily inflammations of which notable instances and many are extant in the reports of Physicians as well as them who treat of
end of Faith. If a man believes firmely but not soundly nor truely his faith like to the knowledge acquired by our first Parents upon the eating of the forbidden fruit brings him to shame and confusion of face And of this sort are innumerable mistakes not to be here instanced in that only excepted which is of most generall evill consequence whereby men are wont and willing to divide and rend faith from it selfe I mean the Forme or inward act of believing from the power and effect of Faith perswading themselves that Faith alone so taken gives us Justification and if so it must needs give us Sanctification too For none are justified but such as are thereunto prepared by a competent degree of Sanctification And so in trueth at length it will be found that whatever is pretended and more dangerously presumed no man is more Justified alone by Faith than he is Sanctified by it alone and the workes of Faith are in no place of holy Scripture opposed to Faith it selfe the cause of such workes in reference to our Justification And it is altogether as derogatory to Christs merits and the freenesse of Gods Grace to rest upon such Faith for justification and salvation as upon such workes of Faith. But this I speak as I passe 4. However therefore the Authours of such Doctrine or at least formes of speaking as have lately prevailed disown the necessary ill consequences of the same and allow yea urge much good workes and with many flourishes commend the use of them yet advancing immoderately and injudiciously the Act of Faith creeple it and binde it up from the free course and full influence it may and otherwise would have upon mens lives to the purging of the Soule from evill and impregnating it to good works of vertue and holinesse 5. But leaving that Controversie let us proceed to what is without Controversie shewing by plain instances what we have propounded concerning the power of Faith in our militant state here And let it be ingenuously judged how a man by Faith thorowly convinced of that one first Principle that there is a God Creatour of all things Judge of all things and of all Men especially and their hearts and actions and infallibly rewarding the good and the evill can easily omitt the good so amply hereafter to be remunerated or rashly fall into the evill of Sin-tempting standing by his Christian Faith assured that his temporary trifling vanishing as soon as felt pleasures shall end infallibly in bitternesse and never-failing sorrowes Who would sow that seed in his Field which he might easily believe will rise up to an harvest of Serpents which will sting him to death Or can a man stedfastly believe that Article of his Creed teaching and assuring him that Christ that righteous Judge shall appear a second time in glorie and severe Justice towards quick and dead rendering to every man according to the good or evill he hath done in his bodie viz. Life Everlasting or shame and torment everlasting and not feare or fear and yet committ such things as will weigh him down into the place of such miserie What wise man would be tempted so with the beautie and desireablenesse of drinking out of a Golden Cup when he knowes it is filled with deadly Poison Or would any man eat of that bread fair to the Eye and perhaps pleasant to the palate which he knowes will suddenly after breed gravell and stones in his reins and bladder and infinitely torture him Certainly such a mans perswasion which in Religion we call Faith must needs be verie weak and his fondnesse strong which can impose so hard things on him unrejected 6. No more can any man have a sound and sufficient perswasion of the heavenly Mansions and the unspeakable Glories thereof yea the perfection and beautie of Vertue and Divinenesse of holie Life and good Conscience and neglect or contemn the same for the fallacies vitious practices put on the outward senses for a moment or lesse if lesse we can imagine Is not this next to a Miracle if we may allow the Devill to be able to work Miracles contrary to the Doctrine of the Schools For what way we call a Miracle if not deluding the senses and so far changing the natures of things to mans eye and common sense that he shall call good evill and evill good and have no other opinion of Flames into which he must be cast than of a Feather bed 7. To him that lives by Sense the present sweet is most sweet and the present bitter most bitter but to him that lives by Faith and not by Sense the future exceeds in both kinds And to a truly wise man knowing the worst of troubles and hardships in this world no more to be compared to the miseries wicked men suffer hereafter than the joyes of sin in this life are to the glorie to be hereafter enjoyed in Heaven by the Righteous it may seem most reasonable to choose the least of Evills and to run the least of hazards too as that poore simple austere man vilely and coldly clad and as ill fed did with whom as our own histories tell a boisterous and soft Gallant meeting demanded of him Why he used himselfe so hardly and was answered by him I doe this to escape Hell-fire But said the Gallant again If there be no Hell what a Fool art thou to use thy selfe so ill But he more wittily and sharply replied But what if there be an Hell how much more Fool art thou to live so as thou doest Put the case to common Reason for true Faith is infallibly assured of it that it was a doubtfull point Whether there were an Hell or not a Heaven or no Heaven and the Scales weighing both sides were equall would not generall Reason advise so to believe as to take the safest course and live that life which may lead to the supposed happinesse and escape the threatened torments What hurt befalls that man that lives continently temperately modestly justly soberly yea and selfe-denyingly as to those things which are not necessarie though no reward followes upon his rigours but the ordinary comforts of health and peace of minde which are greater to him than the riotous liver and pleaser of his appetites and senses without restraint But what hurt doth not befall him hereafter who by indulging to his sensible Soule bereaves himselfe of everlasting happinesse in the world to come that not being all neither as our Religion truely informes us 8. Let us therefore truely examine our selves as St. Paul exhorteth whether we be in the faith and prove our selves knowing of our own selves that Jesus Christ is in us except we be reprobates 2 Corin. 13. 5. Surely if Christ be in us it must be by Faith and if Faith be in us it will discover so much of the events of an holy and wicked life as not to be like a Horse and Mule which have no understanding nor like such men who have
which the Masters of Jewish morality noted and wisely disswaded all to turne their Faces from Amorous Romances and Lascivious Poetrye are to be reduced to this caution And that eye cannot be accounted innocent which coming into a Shop of Rarities and great varieties looketh not so much nor demandeth what it doth want but seeketh for somewhat which when it beginneth first to see it beginneth allso to want and desire and to want it because it desireth it and not desire it because it wanteth it Excellent therefore is that counsell of Ecclesiasticus Chap. 9. v. 5. 7. against both these and their fellowes and that when there were no Monks nor Friers in the world upon whome we would cast such severe counsells as their prosession leads them to Gaze not on a Maid that thou fall not by those things that are precious in her Look not round about thee in the streets of the City neither wander thou in the solitarie places thereof But our Saviours Evangelicall counsell exceeds this Matth. 5. If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out It is better for thee to c. Nature as Lactantius observes to preserve the eye a very tender and precious part hath fenced it with hairs on the lids as so many Speares which at the approach of the least Enemy to it being but lightly touched give notice to shut it presently for its securitye But it hath not provided such meanes to defend the eye from morall objects which are ever in readinesse to offend it but that is the speciall gift of God and should be the Christian prudence of every true Believer 3. And the like circumspection is necessary to be had about the Ear another most profitable yea necessarie Sense and no lesse passionate than the other 'T is incredible even to them that are overcome and captivated by dishonest Speeches lewd Books obscene Poetry what a change and that for the worst aptly tempered sounds and melodious Voices have upon a man. They deject him and make him moody and heavie they inflame and lighten him make him brisk and wanton make him full of talk and ridiculous motions and finally insnare and draw him to humour the notes in his actions good or bad Cease my Son therefore saith Solomon to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge whether Poeticall or Prosaicall For when the forme of words the eloquence of the Tongue and gracefulnesse of speaking are the gift of God the matter clothed and adorned and adapted to the eare by them may be of the Devills devising and sent before him to fowl the room of the Soule for him and his unclean Spirits to dwell there For as the Good Spirit of Wisdome will not enter into a body given to sin no more will or can the evill Spirit enter into a Soule or bodie not fitted for his turne by impure cogitations and devices Turne therefore saith Solomon Proverbs 14. 7. from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge Which knowledge is there used for wise and profitable talke opposed commonly to foolishnesse which in Scripture signifies as much as Sin. And in so advising he doth implye the next and right way to avoid not only certain single acts of corrupt communication but even the inclination and desire of impure matter imbibed by word or writing For it is true in morall things as well as naturall that the understanding is made all things according to the impression made by the object as Philosophers teach being formable into any shape So according to divinity is it true that according to the pure and chast subject we choose to meditate on and converse with or the light obscene and frothy is the inward Sense affected not only actually or transiently but habitually and permanently So that in accustoming a mans selfe to immodest and immorall acts or businesses the minde is so tainted that all Diviner things become unsavourie and irksome In like manner to the palate of the Soule accustomed to spirituall pure and chast Discourses and reading the pleasureablenesse of vain idle and foolish Subjects and especially obscene becomes alltogether extinguished an irksomenesse succeeding in its place 4. And there being such neer relation as we have partly seen between the Ear and the Tongue as there is between a Fiddle-stick and Fiddle to strike it as it pleaseth the same doctrine of Sanctitie reacheth unto the due regiment of the one as well as of the other but more especiall care and custodie seem to be due to this than that For as much as the Tongue is an active part and Organ to evill but the Ear passive chiefly And sometimes it so falls out that a man must whether he will or no hear what is leud vain riotous wanton unclean and prophane but no man is constrained to use his Tongue so indiscreetly and wickedly he hath it more in his power than he hath his Eares and therefore he is the more obliged to make a good use of the one than he can of the other And as some have observed Nature by fencing it double with Teeth and Lips least it should trespasse upon God and our Neighbours teaches us with what good advice and moderation we are to use it For in trueth generally it so demeaneth it selfe that few can give that a good word which is the great instrument of Speech And seldome is it better employed than when it accuses it selfe and commends taciturnity and silence What can be said of it or any thing else more bitterly or truely than what St. James writeth of it Chap. 3. The Tongue is an unruly evill full of deadly Poison Therewith blesse we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the Image of God. And Solomon saith Prov. 21. Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue meaning that by a Lying slandering perjurious profane and unclean Tongue we hasten Death to others so that our own damnation at the same time lingreth not thereby Christ telling us Matth. 12. 36 38. that For every evill word that men speak they shall give an account at the day of judgement For By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned So that the Tongue or sting of the Adder is not so poisonous and pernicious as the evill tongue of Man. For that doth not sting or hurt the user but this doth verifying what is said of wicked men Pssalm 6. 4 8. They shall make their own tongues to fall on themselves All that see them shall flee away viz. as from the face and sting of a Viper And if we would judge of the ill Tongue as we doe of Persons of worth from their Extraction we shall find how low and base an originall it hath from St. James Chap. 3. The Tongue is a little member boasting great things the Tongue is a fire a world of iniquity it defileth the whole body
Christ hath set us 6. Secondly The speciall care that God taketh of him who careth least for his own will but committeth the management of it into the hands of his most Wise and Gracious Father 'T is true To have ones own will and to doe as we are impelled by it is the preciousest Pearle in the world to the naturall man nothing so deare to him as that and that when it is really evill in it selfe and hurtfull though pleasing to himselfe But man having so little skill how to use such a dangerous instrument were it not much better to resigne it into the hands of him that careth for us more than we doe for our selves and is wiser for us than we for our selves As we see it in Children When a thing of great value is bestowed upon them by some Friend the Parents have the keeping of it least it should be lost spoiled imbezel'd or hurt the young owner till he comes to yeers of discretion So our Godfather properly so called God himselfe bestoweth upon us that great Jewell of Freewill and Choice which he denies to inferiour Creatures but with this tacit condition that we should committe it to his custodie and by his wisdome and direction only use and exercise the same till we come to yeers of true discretion which is only in Heaven and not in this life Then shall we have the full and absolute use of it because then there is no feare that we should use it amisse as here we doe And this is that which holy David adviseth Psalm 55. 22. saying Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved This is it which St. Peter allso exhorteth unto 1 Ep. 5. 6 7. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you And more expressely and particularly Christ himselfe counselleth thus his Disciples Matth. 6. Take no thought for your life c. For Which of you by taking care can adde on cubit to his stature The trueth is no man exalts himselfe so highly as he who secluding or not considering God followes the will of himselfe and the greatest of all humiliation is by the subjecting of our wills to Gods and the next and readiest way to true preferrement or exaltation And take no thought saith Christ not commending supinenesse sloth or lazinesse in any but none without God none not directed and regulated by his Will and Prescripts none without consulting him and submitting the event with all confidence aed calmenesse to his all-disposing most wise most just most gracious Providence and in suffering as well as doing his Will For it is a Maxime or Rule berter becoming a Heathens mouth than a Christians Every man is master or maker of his own fortune not but that every man hath a hand in and contributes towards Good or evill events befalling him but that the Architectonicall or Over-ruling Power of all is in God whoe doth not allwayes give the Battle to the strong nor the Race to the swist nor bread to the wise to teach us that he is Lord paramount of all according to the Divine acknowledgement of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 26. 12. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou allso hast wrought all our works in us And therefore it seems to me a thing as very memorable so more worthy the mouth and practice of a Christian what is written of Muhamed Olbarsalanus the Great Prince of Bagdet or Babylon a Saracen who being wounded to death in a Battle which he fought as he died said I never before this once fought but first I desired Gods blessing I would all Christians would doe so and have so much confidence in God in all matters especially of importance that they would first implore Gods aid and then depend on him for the successe which if it be favourable he must be humbly thankfull if improsperous in like manner patient as the effect of Gods Divine and wise Providence requires 7. Thirdly The Scripture both by Example and Precepts directs us to this reasonable as well as religious resignation of our wills unto Gods Will when it sets before our eyes the practice of earthly Parents and Children as Hebr. 12. 9. We have had Fathers of our Flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live For they verily for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be patakers of his holinesse Fathers of our flesh may take a cruell pleasure rather than intend any reall profit or benefit unto Children in chastising them but 't is not to be imagined that God can transgresse the mean or erre in the end of any Dispensation severe or unpleasant to us therefore much rather should we be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live a more easie safe and comfortable life here than otherwise can be expected and a most happie life hereafter where all things be perfectly subject to the Father as Saint Paul speaks 1 Corinth 15. that he may be here allso as well as hereafter All in All. 6. Fourthly This Selfe-deniall is the true Holocaust or absolute Sacrifice we can give to God and most acceptable imposed upon us as true Believers according to Saint Paul Rom. 12. 1. saying I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of the spirit of your minde that ye may prove what is that good and perfect Will of God. Sacrifices came alive to Gods House and Altar but were not accepted till they were slain so it is with the spirituall or reasonable Sacrifice of our selves especially our naturall wills so long as they live cannot please God but they must be crucified as Christ was crucified for us And as the same Apostle advises Rom. 6. we must reckon our selves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. He that is dead ceaseth from willing and so from sinning He that denieth himselfe and his will is dead indeed unto sin and liveth by the life of the Son of Man and is acted by the Will of God. And surely if it be our Dutie our Wisdome our Righteousnesse to committ our very Soules and life into Gods hands and disposall shall we stick to render that one faculty of our Soule our Wills into his hands That doth Saint Peter exhort us unto 1 Epist 4. 19. Wherefore let them who suffer according to the will of God committ the keeping of their soules to him in well doing as unto a faithfull Creatour Let God then have the keeping of our Wills as he hath of our Lives as he had of Christs
humane Will as he had of Davids Will when Saul was in the power of his hands when Shemei railed to purpose and when at the word given his head might have been taken off and the King revenged of a Petulant slanderer yet he committed his cause to God and seeing at some distance his Hand and Will humbly acquiesced 8. Fifthly Nature it selfe teaches us and upon that Abimelech bowed the men of Sichems heart to make him King to be subject to one rather than to many there being no personall disparity which may alter the Case how much more elegible then must it needs be for a man well advised to submitt to the Monarchie of God than to the Anarchie or tyrannicall Democracie of innumerable lusts whereof some vote one thing and some another One tugges us this way and another draggs us that way commanding many times inconsistencies and contradictions and worreying and wearing out the simple Soule by unreasonable sollicitations and vexations For most truely said Saint Paul 1 Corinth 6. 16. Know ye not that to whome ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whome ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse Every irregular Affection every inordinate Lust is a Tyrant and would needs subject us to it so miserable is that Soule which listens or leans to them being divided from God and it selfe For prodigality and covetousnesse Anger and desire of Revenge Envie and Malice Superstition and profanenesse Pusillanimitie and rashnesse Slothfulnesse and indefatigable drudgeing for the world Loving strange Faces and embraces Lothing lawfull and laudable excessive exaltation and exultation when matters proceed prosper and succeed according to our loose phansies and fondnesse and dejection of minde and spirit when we are worsted in our designes and crossed and frustrated of our hopes and expectations All these and more than these never cease molesting and disquieting a man untill they see him secured under the protection and in the service of Allmighty God resolving to obey him against all temptations and to look on all occurrences as sent chiefly to make proof of his obedience and patience And that this free and full submission doe not only bring admirable quiet and tranquillity to the minde but sanctitie and puritie the thing we at present pursue appeares by the Discourse of the Apostle to the Hebrewes Chap. 10. 9 10. where having propounded for an Example and our imitation the readie obedience of Christ of whome it was said Lo I come to doe thy will O God it followeth By which will we are sanctified That is by that readie conformation of our wills to the Will of God. SECT VIII Of the Custodie and Discipline to be had over the outward Man and especially the Eyes Eares and Tongue 1. BUT now let us passe to the other part of a true Christinas care and labour consisting in the Purging of the Outward man and regiment ought to be had of our Senses from whence lust having conceived inwardly proceeds outwardly deadly sins and through which outward temptations pressing in defile the Soule For our Senses are as Gates to a Cittie through which there is continuall passing to and fro and that of Good and Bad and are the weakest and easiliest surprised unlesse very strictly guarded I will but look I will not like nor love I will but taste I will not eat the forbidden fruit I will but touch I will not embrace saith the naturall and warie wisdome of this world But the wisdome of the Word of God teaches us otherwise when it saith Touch not tast not handle not which all shall perish with the flesh Coloss 2. 1. especially when such touches and light Essaies are of things unlawfull dangerous or wholly unprofitable Doe we not read how Death entreth in at the windowes that is deadly sins at the Eye Doe we not read in St. Peter 2 Epist 2. 14. of such Persons who have eyes full of Adulterie and cannot cease from sin Not that the visive facultie good in it selfe and a great gift of God can of it selfe be subject to such a crime but that through the communication and combination between the inward and outward Man such lustings are either bred or stirred up by such Aspects The Jacks or Keis in the Virginall Harpsicon or Organ being touched with the Finger doe not sound themselves but they strike the inward strings which render the sound So when the outward Senses themselves are struck by their particular objects they soon communicate that passion scarce felt by them to the inward Senses which make all the noise Saint Augustine delivers this as a trueth experimented in himselfe Confess Lib. 7. 1. when he said After what outward formes my minde wandered the same Images did my heart run after allso So that even the subtiller Heathens could not but see the coherence between Phansie and Senses and between the Appetites of the Soule and them both when they tell us By our Eyes we are Luxurious by our Eyes we are hurried into all manner of Vices by our Eyes we are wanton by our Eyes we look on the Wine when it shewes it selfe in the Glasse our eyes are cast upon the Riches of the world as Achan's upon the wedge of Gold and the Babylonish Garment and by orderly unhappie but allmost necessarie gradations and consequences we as he are led to see to covet to take them That subtile Serpent the Devill knew too well what power the temptations had entring into a man through the eye when by his artifice he presented to Christ all the glories of the world and with such a suddain surprise that scarce any but Christ could have withstood or rejected them Job therefore would not so much as cast a vain and idle glance upon a beautie which might delude him Job 31. having no occasion justly so to doe knowing assuredly that the conjunction of the minde with an unlawfull object without that bodilie conjunction adulterates the Soule And imagination with resolution and strong intention does that before God which men cannot censure and so according to the diversitie of the object is the pollution diversifyed allso So that if there be as naturall Philosophers tell us Coel. Rhodigin an hundered Diseases of the naturall Eye the morall distempers by ill use of them may be accounted many more 2. And if I should give some instances of the many waies of corrupting the sight the rest may more readily be made up by mens own observations Poring upon Faces prepared to catch fonder Spectatours Taking pleasure in beholding wanton Pictures under pretence it may be that it is but a dead object or that fowl things are finely drawn Viewing wanton postures and gestures by either Sex or of either Sex. Yea casting an eye upon the mutuall and naturall actions of Animalls doing according to their kinde a man would think it should put one to the blush but too often the contrarie is found by a sympathie to be abhorred