brought to shore so expoâ—â—d to poverty and miseries that conâ—â—dering the matter well we may â—nclude and say that through Self-â—â—ve many chast Wedlocks are disturbâ—d many Poysons mingled producâ—â—g wicked effects that many Halâ—ers are put about the Necks of Self-â—â—vers many Swords drawn and â—any sad Tragedies begun in the night â—hat are ended at high-noon-day upon a Scaffold Oh how happy are thoâ— Souls which through the grace oâ— God are exempt and free from thâ— Vice of Self-lave which produceth sucâ— mischiefs and disasters in the world Let us therefore follow and use aâ— our endeavour to put in practice thâ— Wise Counsel of Solomon in thâ— Book of Ecclesiasticus Chap. 21. â— 2. As from the Face of a Serpent â—â— from sin fly from Self-love becausâ— as a Serpent comes slily upon us anâ— stingeth the Body so all sin anâ— consequently Self-love steals upon anâ— hurts the Soul SECT 4. The beginning and continuance of this pernicious Disease Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans giveth a true account of thiâ— old inveterate malady of our Souls saying Rom. 5. v. 12. Sicut per â—num hominem peccatum in hunc mundum intravit et per peccatum mors â—ta in omnes homines mors pertranâ—it in quo omnes peccaverunt As â—â— the Doctor of the Gentiles would â—ave said That sin which proceeds â—â—om Self-love as we have before â—emonstrated entred into this world â—rom the beginning and from the â—reation of the same by that sin of â—elf-love death passed unto all men â—n which they have all sinned for eâ—en in the Law of Nature sin was in â—he World from old and death did â—eign until Moses even on them that â—ad not actually sinn ed which is â—s much as to say that from Adam â—n the time of the Law of Nature â—here was sin in the world and â—hough in a manner they knew it not â—et this Spiritual Disease we speak of â—eigned even then as likewise in the â—ime of Moses when the Commandâ—ents or Law of God taught the conâ—rary to wit that God was displeasâ—d therewith and therefore men â—ught to avoid the same But by reason that all mankind were maculate with original sin they had no strengâ—â— of themselves-nor grace to be frâ—â— from Self-love So that thereupon sin did reign â—ver men and also death and damnaâ—tion by reason of Self-love Infant that did never actually offend beinâ— conceived and born in original sin were nevertheless lyable to death anâ— subject to all Spiritual Diseases anâ— to all the Maladies and Corruptions oâ— the Soul having their Nature defileâ— and destitute of Original Justice being averted from God by means of Adams transgression Christ only excepted who was conceived by thâ— Holy Ghost without the Seed of Man and his blessed Mother the Virgiâ— Mary who was preserved from contracting the guilt of original sin by special grace and the extraordinary perfection of God as many godly men judge but as for all the rest â—â— mankind they were born in a weak and sickly condition of Soul by reason of that sin ever since men were â—â—eated having been holden and torâ—ented by all sorts of Spiritual Diâ—â—empers even the most dangerous â—ost pestilent most violent and â—â—ntinual insomuch that by the â—â—me they were all subject to Satan â—â—d lyable to eternal sorrows they â—ere all made the Children of wrath â—e slaves of sin and every way most â—â—serable Yea these infectious â—â—seases came to such a height upon â—â—e whole race of mankind that â—â—e few only excepted they were â— swept away and perished in the â—â—neral Floud as is to be seen in â—enesis Chap. 7. v. 1 2. c. These most violent fits of sin and â—â—traordinary punishments for the â—â—me were not so soon passed over â—t many great pains and labours folâ—â—wed upon men and that for the â—ace of four hundred years together â—â—der the slavery of King Pharaoh â— the Land of Egypt after which â—â—ing delivered and freed from that cruel bondage they were soon afteâ— visited and afflicted with other grievous calamities and miseries for the space of more than Threescore Yeaâ— together to wit in the Babyloniâ— Captivity where the Royal Propheâ—â— David by the Spirit of Prophecy describes them lamenting and be moaning themselves Psalm 136. â— 1. Super flumina Babylonis illiâ— sedimus flevimus c. Vpoâ— the Rivers of Babylon there it wâ— that we sale and bewailed the aâ—flicted estate of Sion They could noâ— refrain to mourn remembring thâ— great calamities which for their siâ— God had brought even upon his owâ— Sanctuary How many other Feaverâ— sometimes continual sometimes intermitting how many heats of burning torments and pain how manâ— cold fits of desolation and want have men at several times been subject unto and made to undergo upoâ— this account Have we not heard â—â— those surprizes of sudden destructioâ— which came upon the people of Sodom â—nd Gomorrah and all the adjacent â—ountries when they were wholly â—onsumed by Fire as it is described â—en 19 v. 24. Do we not read also â—ow in the time of Elias the Prophet â—â—d at his Prayers Fire came down â—om Heaven and consumed those unâ—â—dly wretches that were sent to apâ—â—ehend him 4 Reg. 1. v. 10. How â—any cold and comfortless long fits of â—mine Pestilence and Mortality â—ere others exercised and plagued â—ith for their sinnes the Heavens â—ing so shut that it rained not for â—any years together and the earth â— parched with drought that it yieldâ—â— no water and people forced thereâ—â— in a languishing and perishing â—â—ndition to wander up and down â—â—king water to drink and finding â—e as we read Hierem. 14. 1 2 3. â— and in many other places of holy â—ipture In the sacred Gospel of Saint John â—hap 5. v. 5. we read of a man that had been diseased in body thâ— space of Thirty Eight Years in Hierusalem and had for a long time waâ—â—ed the stirring of the water there bâ— which an Angel from Heaven curâ— those which first came into the watâ—â— after the stirring of whatsoever â—â—sease they had This poor man hâ—â— lain there expecting his cure eigâ—â— and thirty years together being â—â— reason of his great weakness continâ—ally prevented by some other boâ—â— that stepped into the water befoâ—â— him and therefore deserved at lengâ—â— to be pittied by our Lord Jesus Chriâ—â— and cured by his Almighty Word aâ— Command But alass How muâ—â— more was the whole universal woâ—â— all mankind to be mourned for aâ— compassionated which had lain lâ—guishing not only the space of Thiâ— Eight Years but ever since the Crâ—â—tion of Adam that is by the accoâ—â—â— of some more than Five Thousâ—â—â— Six Hundred and Twenty Years â—â—ing all that time infected and contiâ—â—â—ly vexed with the feavor of original â—â— which lay upon all and every one â—â—d with a Thousand other actual diâ—â—empers maladies and diseases of the â—â—ul which held and afflicted parâ—â—cular persons some in one kind â—â—me
Divine Grace and the Spirit of God who is Love according to the same Apostle 1 Joan. 4. 8. Quoniam Deus Charitas est These two Loves are so inseparable that as soon as one commeth to decay the other at the same time perisheth On these two Loves depend the whole Law of God and he that has them and does exercise them as he ought fulfils the Law according to that of the Apostle Rom. 13. 8 10. He that loveth hath fulfilled the Law and Love is the fulfilling of the Law and all that God has commanded us by the Prophets by the Apostles by the Evangelists by his Disciples or any other lawful Teachers yea by Moses or by Christ himself tends altogether to this end namely to love God and our Neighbour Christ our Saviour himself loved his Neighbour that is all Mankind for by taking our Nature upon him and by conversing with us in Humane Flesh he made us all his Neighbours and Brethren Christ I say himself loved Mankind so tenderly that all his Desires Entreaties Counsels and Commands tended to almost no other thing save only to excite move and stir us up to a mutual loving of one another and to mutual affections mutual good-will and kindheartedness one from another charging it upon his Disciples even at the last and when he was ready to leave the World in these express words Joan. 15. v. 12. This is my Commandment that ye love one another and telling them Joan. 13. v. 35. that hereby all men should know them to be his true Disciples if they had love one to another and when he gives the world precaution not to offend or do injury to any of his for that all offences committed against them are taken by him to be done against himself as we read Zach. 2 v. 8. Qui tetigerit vos tangit pupillam oculi mei He that shall touch you to do you harm toucheth the Apple of mine Eye I say to what end tendeth this precaution but to signifie how much we should love one another after the Example of Christ who declares himself as much sensible and seems to be as much offended at transgressions done against another as at those committed against himself I do not advance this truth without ground and reason seeing Christ himself in the Gospel makes it manifestly appear to be so to wit in the Parable of the King calling his Servants to account Matth. 18. v. 23 24 25 26 c. The good King when his poor indebted Servant asked him mercy being fallâ—n into arrears with him much more than he was able to pay presently and most willingly pardoned him and forgave him the whole Debt that is all the transgressions and offences which the Servant had committed against himself yet because the same ungrateful Servant would not forgive a small Debt nor have patience with his Neighbour or Fellow-servant he presently called him to him and rebuked him adjudging him to severe punishment as that he should be cast â—nto a Dungeon and there tormented not to come out till he should have paid the utmost farthing which â—e ought his Lord thus speaking to â—im Thou ungracious and wâ—â—ked Servant I forgave thee all thy Debt â—ecause thou be soughtest me oughtest â—ot thou therefore to have mercy upon â—hy Fellow-servant even as I had â—ercy upon thee immediately whereupon saith the holy Text he was delivered to the Tormentors By the conclusion of which Parable it is easie to see how absolute the will and pleasure of God is that we should love our Neighbour even as we love our selves and to do to them such things as we desire should be done to our selves But here a question maâ— perhaps be asked of some viz. Whether loving our Neighbour as our selves be such a condition or qualification of our love as that it is of it self sufficient for the fulfilling of the Precept of loving them I answer no it is not alwayes sufficient in some cases it is and in some it is not When the love of our Neighbour tends to the honour and glory of God then it is sufficient and then by loving our Neighbours as our selves we do fulfill Gods Commandment or the Precept of loving our Neighbour but when it is on the contrary that is when the love of our Neighbour tends to the dishonour of God or be such as he is offended by it then instead of being a fulfilling of Gods Commandement or a just performance of our Duty and Obligation it is matter of high displeasure against God and we incur the guilt of great and grievous offence in so loving our Neighbour And therefore as Lusitanus the honour of the Friers Minors doth well observe and admonish us Serm. 1. in Com. Apost Though the Commandment of God doth exact of us to love our Neighbours as our selves yet we ought to consider how this is to be done by reason that many men love themselves amiss not according to God but according to the lusts of concupiscence giving themselves up to all sorts of inordinate love so as to drown and cast themselves thereby into eternal perdition For such men to love thoir Neighbour as they love themselves were to make sport for the Devil and to aggravate their own damnation As for example a fawning and foolish Lover will not stick to say to some vain woman that he loves her as much as he loves his own self and with all his heart and though for the most part such people mean nothing less than they say yet they utter unawares a sad truth For they love themselves not well they love not themselves so as they ought but with a love that in fine will carry them headlong to Hell and plunge them into the deepest pit of Destruction Well therefore may they profess to their companions in lewdness that they love them as they love themselves and their own hearts and if their Copesmates consent with them and love them as well they will both have the Sentence of Eternal Wrath pronounced against them Go ye wicked into everlasting fire Matth. 25. 41. O unhappy love of our Neighbour that by loving sensually the Body hates his soul Such do not know how to love seeing that in loving themselves after this manner they destroy both their own and their Neighbours souls For true is that saying of the Prophet Qui diligit iniquiâ—atem odit animam suam He that loves iniquity hates his own soul Now to know the True Lovers from false and also how to love our Neighbour rightly the great Doctor Saint Gregory will teach us Ille veraciter amat proximum qui eum diligit in Deo Greg. Homil. 27. in Evang. Joan. cap. 15. True Lovers of their Neighbour are those that love him in God and for Gods sake which plainly shews how many there are that mistake themselves herein and love their Neighbour to little purpose as to God and his Divine acceptance because they love him not in God God is
to them or much praised in their hearing thinking much to be beholding to any for that obliges them to a kindness or good respect at least but will rely only upon themselves that is to say upon their own Riches and upon the strength of their own Arm despising in their Heart even the Charity of their Neighbours help But what saith the Prophet to these People Abacuc 2. v. 9. Vae qui congregat avaritiam malam domui suae c. Wo to the Man that gathereth an e-evil gathering to his House that his Nest may be on high out of the reach of ill Fortune and that thinks he is delivered out of the power of Evil that nothing can now hurt him How much doth it concern such People to reflect well upon what the Apostle so expresly commands Timothy 1 Tim. 6. 17. in these words Divitibus hujus faeculi praecipe c. Charge them saith he that are rich in this World that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the Living God that they do good that they be rich in good works and thereby lay up for themselves a good Foundation against the time to come What an instruction is here for the Rich in this World how are they taught to moderate their Spirit and to enlarge their hand to be humble minded and free hearted not more desirous to get and gather together than willing to distribute ready to communicate How does it reprove the ill-grounded perillous confidence of those who trust in their Riches and think themselves safe in the abundance of their Wealth without the fear of God or seeking his Blessing upon it The same is to be said of those who are never satisfied or content with what they have but with an infatiable appetite of Covetousness are still raking together still aiming and endeavouring to get more making oft-times not only themselves and their own Lives miserable but also their Families Children and nearest Relations that depend upon them Sect. 4. Self-pride of Labouring Men Shop-keepers and Servants Finally as to these meaner sort of People to wit Labourers Artificers Mechanicks Servants can we say they are free of Pride that they have no ambitious thoughts lodging in their Breasts when we see the daily Effects of them when we see the Envyings and Emulations which they have one with another how they strive to have place and be in the rank of their Betters Is any thing more common than for a Tradesman or Servant or such like mean Person having gotten never so little Money together presently to lay all upon their Backs and lavish out to make a show of something more or better than those whom they emulate desiring nothing mote than to appear better than indeed they are and to seem exteriourly brave though inwardly they fast and pinch for it All Towns-men would be Citizens all Citizens would be Merchants and all Merchants Fortune favouring and Trade succeeding to their minds thrust themselves forthwith into the Rank of Gentry amongst whom they sind nothing sooner to imitate than their Vanity and Vice vying with them in sumptuous Cloaths and Apparel prodigal Expence vain and loose Beaviour c. till at length the inward Disease of their Mind to wit Pride Ambition Envy arrives to such an extremity that if it do their Body and Worldly Concerns no prejudice yet infallibly it finks their poor Souls at last to the bottom of Hell with a perpetual confusion I mean if God in mercy do not prevent them with his Grace and bring them to true Repentance giving them a true sight and a due sense of their Spiriâ—ual Distemper and causing them to apply all necessary Antidotes appointed for the cure of such Languishing and Soul-destroying Maladies Sect. 5. Remedies against the Evils of Self-pride No better Counsel can be given to make us abhor and detest the Vice of Self-pride than to consider well what the Spirit of God pronounceth of it in several places of sacred Scripture The Wisest of Men King Solomon in the Book of of Ecclesiasticus tells us Chap. 10. v. 14. that to be proud is to be no better than an Apostate from God Initium superbiae hominis Apostatare a Deo c. The first thing that happens to a proud Man is to fall from God and in heart to depart from him that made him And again v. 15. Initium omnis peccati superbia There is no sin committed by Man but Pride of Heart is or may be an occasion of it and as it is a source of all sin so it is a fountain of all mischief For inter superbos semper jurgia sunt saith the same King Solomon Prov. 13. 10. There never wants Contention Strife and Debate amongst the Proud and those for the most part are but the Harbengers to greater Evils Qui tenuerit â—llam implehitur malâ—dictis Ecclus. 10. 15. As as they are apt to despise others so they are sure to be hated â—y all and in the end to perish eiâ—her by the power and practice of â—uch enemies as their Pride procures â—â—em or by the just judgment of â—od who is their professed Adverâ—ry witness that of Saint Peter â— Pet. 5. 5. God resisteth the Proud â—ut gives Grace and Favour to the â—umble Minded and therefore they â—â—ght to fear the effects of his enmiâ—â— of which they may read Prov. 15. 25. Domum superborum demolietur Dominus c. God will destroy the House of the Proud but the Tabernacles of the Humble he will establish for so it is also said Prov. 29. v. 23. The Pride of a Mans Heart shall bring him low but Honour upholds the Humble in Spirit These and many other like expressious are to be observed throughout the Holy Scriptures declaring and witnessing unto us as well the pestilent nature of Pride as the perillous condition of Proud Persons to the end we should the more detest and abhor the same as the root of all sin and an occasion of all mischief malum culpae and malum poenae both of them being deriv'd or proceeding from it by it wâ— depart from God as the Text expresly speaketh and by reason of â— God departs from us and becausâ— through Pride we despise our Neighbours our Brethren he despiseâ—â— us for such with submission I conceive the meaning of the Psalmist tâ— be Psal 137. 6. Humilia respicit alta a longe cognoscit To things of low condition that is to lowly minded Souls God hath a favourable respect and regard but unto high things high minded disdainful Persons he carries himself highly and looks at them at a great disstance as if he cared not much for them The only means to withdraw you from this Vice is to to do as you are advised Ecclus 7. v. 36. Recordari novissima to remember your latter end for if you lay this well to heart you will never sin this sin of Pride For Quid super bit terra cinis Ecclus 10. v.
observe no mean or moderation therein according to the Rules of Religion and right Reason neglect their own health and in a very great measure for ought they know concur to the shortning of their own dayes Oh but say the Gluttons and Drunkards too Meat and Drink expel Hunger which in a short time would kill us they satisfie and support Nature Nature requires them It Is true Experience teaches the same But what saiâ—h the Psalmist Psalm 93. v. 8. Intelligit insipientes in populo stulti aliquando sapite Vnderstand ye unwise among the People yea Fools at length be Wise and learn to distinguish betwixt the Thing and the abuse of the Thing The Thing you speak of is good necessary lawful but the abuse of it is wicked and destable We allow you the use of Meat and Drink in that due measure which Nature requires and with that Moderation which Religion and the due Fear of God prescribes but you abuse it you observe no measure but run into all Excess and Intemperance and that we forbid you That we tell you is hurtful both to Body and Soul we tell you that if you exceed due measure you weaken Nature instead of strengthening it and pull it down by that which you pretend should support it For most true and worthy of all belief is that Admonition of the Holy Father Saint Chrysostom Take heed of Excess saith he meaning in Eating and Drinking for the nature of Earth is not more soon and easily corrupted and dissolved with the abundance of continual Rain and Water than this humane frail Bo-Body of Man is by the Excess and Intemperate use of Meat and Drink Know then ye Wine-bibbers ye Drunkards of Ephraim know that Wine and Meat and Drink are by the mercy and special Favour of God given to us not that we should abuse them or be made Drunk by them but that we may live Soberly Sect. 2. Drunkenness or rather the Excess of Meat and Drink is the Corruption of the Soul Saint Augustin with diverse others of the Ancient Fathers treating of the Sin of Drunkenness do frequently acknowledge what we here affirm to wit that this Vice of Intemperate Drinking is the Corâ—uption of the Soul Ebrietas aniâ—ae corruptela being a Disposition â—s it were or Testimony given in â—avour of Truth not unfrequently â— either in terms or in sense met with in their Works But for more â—lear proceeding we are to know there is a two-fold Corruption to be taken notice of in this case to wit Proper and Improper Substantial or Corruption of Substance and Accidental or Corruption only of Qualities and Manners In the first sense viz. of Substantial Corruption the Soul cannot be Corrupted because it is by Nature a Spirit Incorruptible and Immortal But in the second sense viz. of Corruption Accidental Corruption in respect of Qualities and Manners it may be and is too often Corrupted Sin Corrupts it Vice Corrupts it when it loseth the Grace of God or the Innocency and Holiness which it had pleased God to indue her withal then it becomes Corrupted Now this wicked Sin of Drunkenness being in the rank of Deadly Sin when it seizeth upon the Soul must needs Stain Poison and Corrupt the same depriving her of Grace and the State of Innocency It is like a Plague which so soon as it infects the Soul Spirituaâ— Life ceaseth and the Soul appears in the sight of God odious and ugly For a Dead Carcass or a Body overspread with Ulcers and Putrified Sores for the most part stinketh or sendeth forth some unpleasant smell that is loathsome to behold so is the Soul of a Drunkard it is Spiritually Dead and so Corrupted and Tainted with the Ulcers of Actual Sin that it appears most Loathsome and Deformed in the Sight of God his Angels and Saints We commonly see by experience that the Plague into what House soever it comes makes all the Inhabitants flie and shuts them out of doors in the same manner doth â—his Plague of Drunkenness it no sooner enters the Soul but the Grace of God departs it no sooner enters out at the same instant it expels all good Motions and Inspirations baâ—ishes and drives away the Holy Ghost with all its Graces Vertues â—nd Pious Desires infecting or making ungrateful and unacceptable even all the good Works done by such a Person which otherwise might be meritorious of Eternal Life So that in conclusion the Soul being thus devested of all her Spiritual Ornaments and Graces how can she appear otherwise than wholly deformed and corrupted in the sight of the Celestial Court Saint Basil gives Drunkenness the Character of a bewitching Devil a pleasant Poyson for to take and a pleasant Sin to commit But says he whosoever holds the same cannot hold himself and whosoever is taken by it may be said not so much to Sin as to be Sin it self because his condition renders him subject to all Sin and he is readily to be reduced to all manner of Wickedness In conclusion saith this Father the Sin of Drunkenness is worse than that of Theft Theeves commonly leave something behind them they do not always strip or leave naked those whom they Rob. But Drunkenness deprives of all Grace takes away all whatsoever is of Spiritual Nature or Ornament strips us of all our Heavenly Cloathing and leaves the poor Soul as Naked and void of all True Grace and Merit as when it came first into the World Theeves when they have got their Prey usually run away or make all the haste they can to be gone But Drunkenness sticks close holds fast and without all mercy prosecutes the poor despoiled Soul to the last even till her Death I add moreover that if a Man be taken by Theeves he may cry out he may hope to be rescued from them or at least if he sees himself in danger of Life he may call upon God and beg pardon of his Sins he has time to dispose himself for Death by an Act of Contrition and True Repentance by which means though he cannot save his Life yet at least he may save his Soul which Drunkenness will not permit to do being in that regard worse than any Sin but the Sin against the Holy a host For whotsoever kind of Sin Man commits be it of frailty be it of presumption be it mortal be it venial and happens presently upon it to find himself in eminen danger of Death yet at least by Gods Mercy he may have the Grace of Internal Repentance in Heart and Mind and perhaps also the External Help of the Church he may be Confess'd he may may receive the most Holy Communion he may have the last Sacrament Administred unto him But if one falls into present danger of Death while he is Drunk he can do none of these Drunkards while they are in their Drink are Senseless neither able in the least to help themselves nor capable to receive help from others I mean Spiritual Help and
that which should save their Souls as well as their Bodies but if they die perish in their Sin and shame with the eternal loss of their poor Souls which the Wise Solomon desiring to prevent forewarneth us of the danger in those words of his Prov. 23. 31 32. which we shall do well often and very often to have in minn Ne intuearis vinum quando flavescit cum splenduerit in vitro color ejus c. Look not upon the Wine when it is well colour'd when the colour thereof shall shine in the Glass for though it goes down pleasantly yet at the later end it will bite like a Serpent and as the Basilisk diffuse and spead its Venome to the Corruption of your Soul Sect. 3. Drunkenness or the Excess of Meat and Drink the Corruption of the Body Thus it appears in some part that Drunkenness is the Corruption of the Soul and how the Soul is said to be Câ—â—rupted I am now to shew that it is likewise the Corruption of the Body and that in a more absolute sense because the Body is absolutely and intirely Corruptible which the Soul is not The very Substance Nature and Essence of the Body may be Corrupted and is Corrupted by Drunkenness but the Substance Nature and Essence of the Soul cannot be Corrupted as we have shewn above Well then we are next to shew that the Vice we speak of Excessive Drinking is the Corruption of the Body And what can be more evident and manifest than this even from daily experience Doth not Experience tell us that it is the original cause of innumerable Distempers and Diseases to Mans Body and by which the greater part of Manknd first or last do perish or find the end of their days in this World Doth not the Wise Man give us a necessary caution concerning this in those words of his Ecclus 37. 32. Noli â—vidus esse in omni epulatione c. In all Feasting be not you greedy nor let loose your appetite to every thing that is set before you For through many Meats come many infirmities and overmuch Feeding encreases Choler By means of Surfeiting by Meat or Drink many have come to their ends People addicted to good Fellowship as they call it when after some excessive Drinking they find themselves not well how many shifts do they use to hide their over-sight and hinder the effect from being charg'd upon the True Cause Their Distemper must not be imputed to the quantity that is to say their Drinking overmuch but to the quality their Drink was not good it was not well brewed it was raw and windy or the Mault was not well made and many such vain pretences do they use adding a lie to their former sin of Drunkenness and all that it may not be thought to be their Drinking so much should cause their Malady Certain it is a moderate quantity of Drink and also of Meat hurteth not but is necessary to satisfie and sustain Nature neither is it the use but the abuse of Meat and Drink to wit when we observe no measure which causeth Diseases when the Golden Mean is observed all goes well but when it is neglected great inconveniencies follow according as Apuleius seems not unhandsomely to express it The first Cup saith he is drunk to the Health of Nature the second causes Cheerfulness Mirth and harmless Pleasure the third relishes somewhat of Sensuality and invites to Disorder and Voluptuousness but the fourth breeds Infirmities and Indisposition of Body and especially if you add the fifth Madness Excess herein makes Man Created to the Image and Likeness of God and Reasonable above all other Creatures of this World to become wholly difform and unlike to God losing his Reason and Understanding The Traveller that wants Wisdom being Thirsty in the heat of Summer as soon as he meets with a Ditch full of Water in his Journey he presently runs to it for to Drink minding only to quench his Thirst and not at all considering whether the Water be good pure clear and wholesom or whether it be not corrupted impure and muddy nor whether it be cold as Water to Drink should be or whether it be not heated with the Sun-beams and made unfit to Drink The unwise Traveller considers none of these things nor what inconveniences may follow but sets himself to Drink as much as he can and so Drinks oft-times his own Death or manifold Diseases and Infirmities But the Wise Pilgrim though he feels as much Thirst as the other yet he moderates his Appetite and will not Drink till he comes at a clear Fountain of Running Water and of this he will Drink with moderation not to overcharge Nature but to extinguish his Thirst In the same manner it is with many that dwell at home and seldom travels farther than the Tavern or Ale-House that they haunt They rush into these Common Drinking Places far more corrupt and dangerous to the Soul by reason of the many Transgressions committed in them than any standing Pool or muddy Water can be to the Body and there fall to Tipple and Drink with as much Discretion and Consideration of what they do as the Beast useth that goes from the Stall to Watering Thus do many run daily to Drink and by their enticements carry others along with them and provoke them to Drink not so much many times as well considering whether the Drink be good or bad Whereas those that are Vertuous and Wise will rather have in scorn such Places and would never with their good will be seen in them Drinking always moderately either at home in their own or abroad at some Friends Houses only to content Nature preserve Health and comply with the devoirs of honest Friendship Sect. 4. Sad Examples upon great Drinkers Gabriel Prateolus in his second Tome of Chronicles at the year 1580 the 24th of July mentions a very sad accident which happened to two great Health-drinkers at a Town called Mackerhoven in Germany These two unfortunate Men came into a Tavern and called for Wine which seeming to them to be weak and little pleasing to their Pallats they insisted for better So having tasted of all sorts they pitch'd at length upon that they found to be strongest and fell smartly to it drinking to the Health of every one they could think of or call to mind upon that occasion Beginning to be elevated the one said to the other To whom shall we now Drink The other replied Drink to the Health of God and you shall see how it shall be answered but he being unwilling and making difficulty at it the wretch that made the motion suddenly snatches the Glass out of his Companions hand and in these words provoketh Divine Wrath upon himself saying O God hear me I will Drink to thee in a full Glass and if you do not pledge me you do me injury His Companion had first ask'd him of which Wine he would drink Fill me of the New replied the wicked
being so that he is most applauded that can speak the greatest evil of himself it makes this mad Crew ambitious to be thought superlatively wicked and to fear nothing more than to be counted Sneaks and poor-spirited Fellows not worthy of the name of Hectors by this Brotherhood of Hell Neither is it any new thing Thus it hath been of old The good Father S. Augustin in his Books of Confessions doth no less than report and confess this fault to have been his own before his Conversion He humbly acknowledges of himself that hearing his Companions boast of their wicked exploits and seeing that they rendred themselves more glorious in the opinion of their Fellows by how much they could speak beastly and dishonestly of themselves and being perpetually amongst them he could not forbear doing as the rest did not for any appetite which he had to the thing whereof he boasted but meerly for the complacency which he took in being applauded for the same by his Companions who gave credit to what he feignedly and falsly spake of himself I was fain saith he to counterfeit the evil which I had not and to seem as if I had done it I durst not be thought innocent for fear of being disesteemed and rejected for a worthless Fellow I was loath to be thought sober chast or continent least chastity and sobriety should make me condemned by them and the world Thus doth this good Father make publick and penitent confession of himself in this and some other kinds of sin which his Youth and ill Company through intemperance had made him for some time while he was young subject unto Oh that his good example could be followed Oh that we could be perswaded to break off this devillish custom of boasting and glorying in sin and that there might be no such people found among us as S. Jude speaks of feeding themselves without fear no such sports in our feasts no such raging waves foaming out their own shame That we would dread the Judgment that is threatned to such quibus procella tenebrarum servata est in aeternum Woe unto them walkers in the way of perdition walkers after their own lusts to whom the blackness of darkness and the Hell of misery is reserved for ever Jude 11 12 13 16. Sect. 4. The excess of Meat and Drink causeth filthiness and uncleanness There is a double or twofold kind of filthiness here to be taken notice of The one which is only sordid and offensive to the eye of the Body The other is sinful and offensive to the eye of the Soul when she judges right and which is more to the Eyes of God They both attend drunkenness or the excess of meat and drink when it is immoderate The Drunkard shews himself a filthy Beast in respect of this first kind of uncleanness viz. that of the Body witness their frequent vomitings spewings and castings out of that which they had intemperately taken in For when their Stomachs those devouring Sepulchres those Bellies of Harpies which raven all by gluttony and excessive drinking have been in the day-time overcharg'd with all sorts of luscious meat and strong liquors it seldom happens but in the night they discharge themselves by shameful vomiting and spewing Thus it was with the people of the Jews The Prophet Isaias complains of it in these terms Isa 28. 7. Omnes prae Vino erraverunt c. All have erred through Wine saith he and through strong drink all are out of the way All Tables are so filled of vomit and filthiness that there is no place clean Is it not a deplorable thing to see Christians at this day behave themselves worse than the bruit beasts they know when they have enough the bruit beasts neither eat nor drink till they vomit all up again they eat and drink till Nature is satisfied and when they have arrived to that point all the art and all the means you can use shall not make them go further till hunger and thirst prompts them Only Man only unhappy and unwise man eats and drinks to such excess as he is forced to his shame were he not past all shame to cast up his so unduly and indiscreetly receiv'd sustenance Of all the Creatures that God hath made Man only will drink to vomit and vomit O strange O devillish distemper to drink again as to my knowledge is true Secondly there is the filthiness and uncleanness of sin going along with drunkenness filthy and unchast thoughts filthy and unclean desires filthy and unclean phantasies and imaginations of things filthy and unclean designs projects purposes filthy and unclean speech discourse songs filthy and unclean actions fornication adultery incest pollution All these filthinesses and uncleannesses attend the Drunkard and are the constant relicks and remains as it were of his Feasts So that S. Chrysostom doth here again rightly pronounce Ebrietas scortationis mater Drunkenness saith he is the Mother of Whoredom all filthy and lewd concupiscence proceeds from it And again Nothing saith he is more pernicious than gluttony nothing more ignominious than to exceed in drink nothing more detestable than both as dulling the spirit and blinding the understanding not permitting those who are addicted to them to foresee and beware any thing that is hurtful to their soul or body but subjecting them to a slothful idleness both spiritual and corporal For which cause in the Gospel of S. Luke Christ our Saviour admonisheth us in these words Luc. 21. v. 34. Attendite vobis ne forte graventur corda vestra in crapula ebrietate c. Take heed and look well to your selves least perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness c. and so that day meaning the day of Judgment come upon you unawares He that is so overcharg'd can think of nothing that is good either for himself or others he has lost the use of his understanding together with that of his limbs his head hands and feet failing him he falls and without help there lies in his filthiness to his deserved shame and confusion SECTION VI. Excess in Meat and Drink the cause of several other inconveniencies and miseries SECT 1. It causeth a voluntary madness 2. It causeth Men to be worse than Beasts 3. It causeth want of necessary provisions 4. A sad ezample upon that account 5. Remedies against Gluttony and Drunkenness 6. Reflexion upon the foregoing matter Sect. 1. Drunkenness causeth a voluntary madness IT stands with all reason that if we call them Wise Men who in their infirmities whether of Body or Soul help themselves and procure the best and speediest remedies they can for their disease to that end taking the advice of the ablest Physicians and Doctors for their corporal Maladies and following the good counsel of their spiritual Directors for the health of their Souls So on the contrary we may justly call and account them fools or mad people who being in health and good disposition of body will
Life strengthens that which is weak in the order of Good and very much disposes the Soul to receive and entertain the motions of the Holy Spirit This great and excellent Vertue extinguishes the heats of Concupiscences quenches the flames of Lust supports and upholds the Mind in all the Tempests and Storms of Temptations which Satan raises against her According to Saint Augustin the chief Parts and Powers of the Soul viz. The Understanding Will Memory yea even in the Senses throughout all the Parts and Members of the Body are sustained by it and kept in their due State and inabled the better to exercise their proper Functions It is saith he the safeguard of the Body the strong Fortress of Chastity the defence of Modesty and good Behaviour it preserves Love with every one and procures respect from all that are Vertuously Minded inseparably united with Honesty the continuance and establishment of Peace making all Vice and Wickedness to retire and hide their Heads for Shame What can be said of this so necessary Vertue Saint Ambrose adds that Sobriety and Abstinence conduce much to Capacity of Learning making Men fit to Study Meditate and Conceive aright of Things it is the Rule of Discipline which brings all to Perfection and the best Teacher of all Arts. He will have the same to be the Stability and Constancy of all Right Wits or Sound Judgments the unseparable Wisdom of the Memory a Remembrance of all Spiritual Good the Keeper of Secrets In a Word this great Saint will have Sobriety and Abstinence to be of that Nature as never to stand still in Idleness but to be always going forward in the Progress of Vertues coveting Fame and good Reputation not for Vanity but for Vertues sake disposing all Things with Truth and Reason and always finding Place and a good Rank with those that are most pleasing to God What can be thought more fit or more prevalent to overthrow the Vices of Gluttony and Drunkenness than the Vertues of Abstinence and Sobriety Therefore let us resolve and say with Saint Bernard If Gluttony sins alone let Abstinence alone be her Pennance if there go no other Sins along with Gluttony Abstinence alone shall suffice to Cure it For the Transgressour that is Sober and Abstinent will soon reflect upon the Transgression he hath committed he will soon repent of his Folly and be ready to detest the same with Tears and sorrows of True Contrition Sect. 6. Reflection upon the foregoing Matter The Spiritual Balsam of Sobriety and Abstinence being of such a Soveraign Vertue and Operation for the Cure of this Brutish and Beastly Disease of Gluttony and Drunkenness it behoves us and all that make profession of Christianity to have a perfect Knowledge how to apply the same in the right way and manner to our ulcerated Wounds that is how to use Abstinence and Sobriety so as they may effectually Cure our Spiritual Maladies for to be Sober and Abstemious only in point of Meat and Drink and to refrain only from Excesses in that kind will availus nothing if we refrain not also from Sin and abstain so much as in us lies from all other Vices and vicious Imperfections whatsoever For though Abstinence alone may perhaps profit the Health of our Bodies yet it will never aâ—one do good to the Languishing â—tate of our Soul Therefore if you will have perfect Cure of both that â—s of your Spiritual as well as Corâ—oral Distempers and receive the â—ull Benefit of this Holy Ointment of Sobriety and Abstinence you must follow the Counsel of David which he gives Psal 36. v. 27. in â—hese words Declina a malo â—ac bonum c. Decline in the first place from all Evil and after that do good that is you must refrain and abstain from all sin whatsoever from all Vice whatsoever from all Excesses whatsoeever that are sinful and blameable as well as from the excesses of Meat and Drink otherwise the good effects of Sobriety and Abstinence will not appear or be found in you Now to the end that they may appear take for your Director in the business Jesus Christ and let his Sobriety and Abstinence be your Example and Pattern to imitate who of his infinite goodness was pleased to take Humane Nature upon him for the Salvation of all Mankind and to make satisfaction for our Sins and particularly for our Sins of Gluttony and Drunkenness by which most commonly all other Sins find Admittanre amongst Christians and for which he satisfied by enduring Hunger and Thirst and by exercising Sobriety and Abstinence all his Life long at his Birth and in his Death In his Birth his Abstinence was such that he appear'd destitute even of all manner of necessary Provision being rejected from the Company of all Humane Creatures and reduced to the necessity of being Born in a Stable among Bruit Beasts In his Life through the whole course of it he was most Abstemious though the Pharisees falsly and wickedly slaundered him for a Glutton and Wine-bibber recommending unto us the Vertue of Abstinence by a miraculous Fast of Forty days and Forty Nights after which he suffered Hunger and in his Death Thirst in the highest degree and could find no Ease or Refreshment for it but the cruel spiteful kindness of a Spoonful of Vinegar and Gall. Calling therefore to mind the Sobriety and Abstinence of this our Chief Leader and Captain Jesus Christ let us follow his Example according to Davids Counsel Declinemus a malo Let us abhor and detest this filthy sin of Gluttony and Drunkenness and with the help of his Grace endeavour to overcome all other wicked Desires and disorderly Appetites proceeding from or leading to those Sins which of necessity we must conquer and subdue by the Vertue of Sobriety for otherwise if we yield to Gluttony and give way to Drunkenness we shall our selves be overthrown and easily made Slaves to innumerable other Vices and Sins Wherefore Declina a malo fac bonum c. Eschew Evil and do Good refrain from Vice and be Sober remembring the Gall and Vinegar which Christ was contented to taste in your behalf and for your sakes before his Death that he might redeem you from all Evil and make reparation for the Sin of Gluttony and all other Sensualities of Mankind The Third Treatise OF THE LANGUISHING DISEASES Among CHRISTIANS Proceeding from Carnal Concupiscence LONDON Printed 1677. SECTION I. Carnal Concupiscence a great Disease to Christianity SECT 1. It causeth several Corporal Diseases to Mankind 2. It infecteth all the whole World 3. Is detestable to God therefore to be avoided 4. It includeth several other Sins Sect. 1. Carnal Concupisence causeth several Corporal Diseases to Mankind THere are several sorts of Carnal or Sensual Concupiscences Since â—a large and general sense all Conâ—upiscenses or inordinate Desires whatsoever may be stiled Carnal or Sensual as being the Motions and Inclinations of Corrupt Nature and deprived Sense according
A SOVEREIGN BALSOM TO CURE THE LANGUISHING DISEASES OF THIS Corrupt Age. By C. PORA a Well-wisher to all Persons We and our Fathers languish with such Diseases but thou for sinners shalt be called Merciful 4 Esdras 8. v. 31. PERMISSU SUPERIORUM 1678. TO His Truly and Ever Honoured PATRON MILES STAPELTON Knight and Baronet c. Of Carleton in the County of York AND To his Right Honourable Lady ELIZABETH STAPELTON Alias BARTU Daughter to the Earl of LINDSY c. Peace Health and Happiness MOST HONOURED SIR IF King David one of the greatest Monarchs â—hat ever was in the World sound himself so much obliâ—ed to Abigail for a few Victuals it is no mervail if I be â—â—r more obliged to You â—aving received so many favours innumerable benefits â—nd civilities from your Noâ—â—e Person while I had thâ—â—onour of being one of youâ— Renowned Family Thereâ—â—re do not think me preâ—â—mptuous if I offer to yoâ—â—â—ese Fruits of my Labours which I have judged fit anâ— pâ—oper for the Cure of thâ— Lâ—nguishing Diseases of thâ—â— Corrupted Age. I hope it will not seem strange to You nor to any others â—hat I make so happy choicâ— in presenting this my poor Industry to your Worthy Person to whom in all reâ—pects the right of it belongs having sprung and been partly conceived during â—he time of my abode in â—our Family Receive â—herefore Most Noble and Worthy Patron this my Offer not as a thing worâ—hy of your Deserts but as a small token of my love and affection to You. I do not doubt though my Work be not much polished with Eloquence nor replenished with Courtly Expressions but You will reap some spiritual benefiâ— by it Although You be most Vertuous yet sure I am You do not conceive your self exempt or altogether free from all the Spiritual Diseases and Languishing Distempers of thiâ— present Age. For according to that of our Blessed Saviour in the Evangelist Nemo bonus nisi solus Deus Luc. 18. v. 19. There is none absolutely good save God alone It is not therefore my intention here to extend my self in your praises or to make any long Rehearsal of your known Heroical Vertues and Pious Actions which surpass my slender capacity to express as they deserve I must pass over in silence the manifold Perfections and Graces with which the Holy Ghost hath adorned You. And especially with a great Charity which you extend and practise daily to the Poor in several effects both for their Bodies and Souls And oâ— the great Zeal and constanâ— Practice of your Faith and Religion which neitheâ— Glory nor Persecutionâ— could ever shake in the least Neither dare I be so bold as to honour my Pen with the Relation of your Affinities and near Relations who were most Loyal Subjects and Chief Officers in the Service of their King adventuring both their Estates and Lives in adhering to Him It is in vain for me to declare How they behaved themselves in the last unhappy War how often and how valiantly they fought against those Rebels losing their lives for the just Cause and Quarrel of their Sovereign how often they were taken and re-taken Prisoners your and their Houses plundered themselves wounded and left among the dead Souldiers All these I will leave in silence with many other Valourous Acts done by them knowing your humility to be such that it abhorreth to be praised and other your Allies exalted in your behalf Therefore I will and that most willingly condescend to your humble inclination craving pardon for this boldness in offering so small a Token to your great Deserts And thus with your leave I will cease to write though I will not cease to wish That all Prosperity and Happiness may never cease to You and Yours and with this desire I remain Most honoured Patron Your most humble Servant CHARLES PORA TO THE READER HAving written these Treatises of the Chief Languishing Diseases of this Corrupted Age upon no other account than for my own satisfaction with the sole intention to improve my self as well in the English Tongue as to apply readily the Antidote of all Spiritual Diseases and Languishing Distempers to my poor corrupted disposition Not thinking in the least to let it pass any further in the view of the World yet the earnest intreaties of my friends who accidentally perused the same prevailed so far that I could not but condescend to their desires in the publishing of it Accept therefore Courteous Reader my good will and hearty desire to do something that might tend to the perfect cure of those Spiritual Infirmities that chiefly corrupt this present Age. I confess and you will easily perceive by reading that neither the Stile nor the Conceits are set out to the full yet my hope is that you will never find the language so barren and fruitless but you may find likewise a Balsom for prevention or at the least to give ease to your Languishing Infirmities Expect not Mellifluous Eloquencies Vain Opinions nor Worldly Expressions but the plain Conceits of a well-meaning Mind suitable to the Subject which tends onely for your spiritual good and interest Neither do I pretend to entertain you with Novelties I shall alledge nothing that I can so properly term my own as to exclude all others from any Title to it Know therefore Good Reader that I have selected the substance of these Treatises out of the Sacred Scripture â—ith the confirmation both of the Anâ—â—ent Fathers and of other Learned â—ivines Wherefore if you find any â—â—ing amiss or superfluous as unpoâ—â—shed Phrases hard or harsh Senâ—â—nces any false Orthographics or â—ot true English impute the same to â—â—y own Errors and excuse me as not â—â—â—ing perfect in the English Expressiâ—â—s Thus wishing you the absolute â—â—re of all those Languishing Diseases â—nd Distempers both of Mind and â—pirit here spoken of I do not doubt â—ut by Gods assistance you will find it â—â— the reading of these Treatises or â—â— least some help as well to prevent â—â— to heal the same Adieu The First Treatise OF THE LANGUISHING DISEASES OF CHRISTIANS Proceeding from Self-Love We and our Fathers languish under such Diseases but thou for sinners shalt be called Merciful 4 Esdr 8. 31. SECTION I. Of Self-Love SECT 1. The Introduction to Self-Love 2. Three several sorts of Love 3. Self-Love contrary to the Love of God 4. How Self-Love opposeth the Love of God SECT 1. Introduction to Self-Love IT is not without cause most beloved Reader nor reason thaâ— the Wise Solomon did exalt in his Canticles so highly that which Almighty God did ordain namely Love of which I will say that if the Rules of it be not exactly kept and observed without question it will cause infinite confusion even to the total ruin of Mankind Love in the highest degree and perfection is due to God alone as being that which he absolutely commands us Diliges Dominum Deum tuâ—m ex toto corde tuo c. Deut. 6. v.
5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God from thy whole heart with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind This is the greatest and the First Commandment and the second to it is Diliges proximum tuum sicut teipsum Matth. 22. 39. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self From which precepts we may absolutely say That Love is the onely end of our salvation and that God doth therefore save us that we may be perfected in love Nevertheless give me leave to tell you that this love must be to the utmost regulated that is performed with all due exactness both towards God our Neighbour and our selves for fear least otherwise in stead of making us agreeable to God and being advantageous to us it prove much prejudicial to our souls and render us difforme to him Since then we are bound so strictly to use and exercise Love in a right manner it behoveth us to hear what â—s said of the same that we may proceed in it accordingly The Master of the Sentences lib. 3. Distinct 28. doth not only confirm that we ought to love God above all things without exception but saith also that we are to love our selves that is to say the health of our souls and our neighbours as for my part I take his meaning to be and must confess that I never yet observed that God doth any where positively or in express terms command that Man should love himself as being naturally inclin'd and fully enough affected to do that as well in what is good or pleasing to his nature as also iâ— what is evil and prejudicial to his soul Therefore to know how far we may lawfully love our selves and our neighbours without being intangled with that Vice which is properly called Self-love will be the whole subject and matter for us to enquire of in this present Treatise SECT 2. Three several sorts of Love To the end that every man may know and likewise have strength and courage to perform all things well in order to please Almighty God in returning love for his love as also the better to with-draw himself from all sorts of Self-love that are evil I would have him consider and observe the Saying of a most learned Divine to wit the R. F. Bernardin de Siena who in one of his Sermons De Amore proprio privato telleth us That there are three several sorts of Loves the first whereof is lawful the second to be rejected but the third totally to be abhorred as being cause of the general destruction and ruin of Mankind Wherefore that every one may discern the one from the other and discover which are the most pernicious and to be avoided I will in few words declare and speak of them one by one In the first place there is a Love which is natural and reasonable This is lawful to be observed by every one This love appeareth when a person seeketh and desireth only that which is lawful good profitable and meet for him without prejudice to any other For seeing according to reason no man should have in hatred his own nature substance or being it is therefore lawful for him to procure all such things as are good and convenient for him and to dispose of them to his best advantage for the good of his soul We are also to love our Neighbour because the Law of Nature obligeth and commandeth us to do unto others that which we would desire should be done to our selves in like case Yet nevertheless we are to be vigilant and consider well how we do love our Neighbour to the end we may love him well and so as may be both for hiâ— and for our spiritual profit and that our love to God suffer no prejudice by it Now to declare the love we owe unto God there are many things requisite and to be observed since we are to love him above all things with all our understanding that is without any error contrary to what he hath revealed for our Belief with all our will that is without any opposition or contradiction to what he requireth of us with all our mind and memory that is without any oblivion or forgetfulness of him or of our duty towards him lastly with all our endeavour and power that is without all sloth or negligence in performing his holy Service Commandements Divine Counsels and Inspirations The second sort of Love before-mentioned which is to berejected may be said to be Venial Sin to wit when as we have said before the passion of Love over-reacheth the Rule of Reason as also when the order to be observed in the exercise and performance of Love is not punctually exactly kept and fulfilled As for example according to reason and the great obligation we have to Almighty God we are to love him above all things and we are onely to love our selves and our neighbours purely for the love of him and not for any other respect Yet sometimes yea very often experience shews that Self-love and proper will such is our frailty and weakness do exceed their limits and become more or less extravagant being carried with a desire not so sutable to reason and our obligation as it ought to be And although considering Divine Clemency it may well enough be thought that such extravagant or inordinate desires affections actions do not alwayes come to such a height as to be mortal sin and consequently may remain though not perfectly with Charity yet for this reason that is because they do render our Charity or Love to God less perfect then it should be all the Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church do unanimously counsel and advise that all such Loves be rejected and totally avoided by all in general but more especially by those who tend to perfection and in order thereto have by Vow entred the state of a Religious Life And the reason hereof is because if men will voluntarily give way and suffer themselves to take pleasure in such inordinate desires affections loves of what kind soever they be they expose themselves and their souls to danger of falling most deeply and desperately into such spiritual Disease seeing the soul thereby grows every day more and more weak and faint in the love of God and inordinate Self-love grows so strong that in the end it becomes mortal and hardly capable of Cure As concerning the third and last sort of Love which we are to declare and speak of more at large in this present Treatise it is that which Divines call Mortal Self-love and Mortal Sin a thing even noisome and of the highest offence to God and more than all other evils whatsoever beside such as it self is hurtful and prejudicial to man For this Self-love is so immoderate and inordinate that it causeth men so to forget themselves that they undervalue even Almighty God and by consequence their own salvation Of this Self-love Saint Augustine telleth us that Satan hath built his great City of Babylon lib. 1.
what a Self-lover â—s alwayes ready to say and do beâ—ng altogether for himself and scarce â—or any body else But alas the time â—s coming when they must repent of â—his their inordinate Love if not in â—his world yet assuredly in the next â—or all eternity SECTION II. Self-love the original spring of all Spiritual Diseases SECT 1. All the Spiritual Diseases of Christians from Self-love 2. Self-love it self a most daâ—gerous Disease 3. A Description of the same 4. The beginning and continuance of that pernicious Disease 5. How that pernicious Disease corrupteth all Vertues anâ— good Actions SECT 1. All Spiritual Diseases of Christianâ— from Self-love FOr the most part as soon as â— man findeth himself weak and sickly he presently doth his endeavour to know the original cause of â—â—at his corporal Disease and infirmiâ—â— consulting with Physicians that â—y their means and prescriptions a â—resent and fit remedy may be apâ—lied for the ease of his pain I say â—e same of the Spiritual Diseases of â—hristians If any of them would now from whence the Languishing â—nfirmities of their Souls which hold â—nd torment them daily do proceed Divines will unanimously tell them â—â— is a continual Feaver of Self-love â—â—at troubles them which according â—â— Saint Augustin is the root of all â—â—ns and consequently of all the Spiâ—â—tual Diseases Distempers Sickâ—esses and Infirmities which afflict â—â—em being the source and spring of â—ll evil and the plague of humane â—â—â—fe in so much as it may be said to â—â—e that Trojan Horse bearing fire â—nd swords saccage and rapin in its â—owels This Self-love may be well â—ompared to a Malignant Feaver of which as there be several sorts and all of them for the most part mortaâ— and deadly so are there several sort of Self-love all in their kind pernicious and dangerous consisting somâ— in pride some in ambition some iâ— vanity and presumption there aâ—â— Self-esteemings Self-admirings Self-complacencies and pleasings Self-delights Self-praisings Self-interests Self-wills with innumerable otherâ— of like nature which apparently spring from the main root of Self-love Saint Ambrose one of the chiefesâ— and greatest Physicians of Souls â— writing upon Saint Lukes Gospel Lukâ— 4. 38. speaketh of Seven sorts of these Pestilential Feavers which are mosâ— dangerous to Christians The firsâ— riseth from pride ambition and hypocrisie c. The Second from covetousness the unsatiable desire oâ— money or worldly things The Thirdâ—â— from sensuality and prodigality iâ— meat and drink The Fourth from the concupiscence of the flesh wantonness in unlawful desires and pleasures The Fifth from troublesome humours â—nd bad conditions as anger and oâ—her disorderly passions The Sixth â—â—om a great negligence in good works â—nd carelessness in the performances â—f good purposes and resolutions The Seventh and last from envy â—nd displeasure taken at others properties happiness good c. All which properties are fully contained â—â— Self-love for from thence proceed â—mbitions rebellions sacriledges â—reacheries rapines in a word all â—hat which is most horrid in Nature For it being the root of all sin â—here must of necessity grow up from â—â— as from their Tree and Stock â—he Boughs and Branches of all â—orts of Iniquity and Vice of which â—lso the Apostle Saint John takes noâ—ice in his Epistle namely 1 Joan. â—â— 16. where he mentions the concuâ—iscence of the flesh that is all bodiâ—y and carnal pleasures the concupiâ—cence of the eyes by which may be â—nderstood the inordinate desire of understanding knowledge c. anâ— pride of life which may also be caâ—led the concupiscence of the Will â— breaking out into all inordinate actâ—ons So that under these three coâ—cupiscences are contain'd and coâ—prehended the whole sinful state â—â— Mankind and by the Catholiqâ—â— Church and all Divines of the samâ— are commonly sorted or divided inâ—â— Seven branches namely Pride Câ—vetousness Lechery Anger Envy Gluttony and Sloth All which is fuâ—ly agreeable to the saying of the Sâ—raphical Doctor Saint Bonaventurâ— who speaking of Self-love useth theâ— expressions It must be confessed saitâ— he that Self-love is the original caâ—â—â— of all evil and wickedness and thâ—â— by means thereof all sinful actioâ—â— come forth or shew themselves witâ— all the Languishing Infirmities thaâ— attend our Spiritual Estate As for Example Doth not priâ—â— and ambition proceed from Self-love Have they any other original fountaiâ— or spring are they any thing else but an inordinate Love of our own proper excellencies and a desire to be commended in all our actions above and before others Doth not envy rise up from the same root Is it any thing but the inordinate Love of our selves that makes us grieve and be displeased at others felicity good parts vertue c. when we compare our selves with them and to grudge that others should be equal to us or to proceed in dignities before us Whence comes sloath negigence and remissness in Gods service but from hence namely that out of inordinate Love to the pleasures and delights of the Palate we pamper our selves and our carcasses so much that we become idle thereupon unapt and unwilling to take any pains care or diligence in things that concern the good of our souls and our spiritual interests Doth not anger come from hence Is it for any other reason then that of Self-love and inordinate esteem of our selves that we are so full of wrath and passion so easie to be provok'd and sâ— ready to take revenge upon very frivolous accounts and that with every one Whence comes lechery oâ— the intemperate pursuing of sensualâ— or carnal pleasures It is an effect oâ— Self-love though one of the ignoblest and least worthy of man that we are transported so far beyond measure with those wanton concupiscences of the flesh The same I musâ— say of gluttony it is from an inordinate and no due love of our selves that we exceed so much in our appetite and affections towards meat and drink From this disorderly love it is that we affect so much to feed on delicacies and dainties even to the making a God of our Belly Lastly As concerning covetousness it proceeds most apparently from hence and from the inordinate love of our selves it comes that we are so unsatiably greedy and desirous of Riches Wealth money and all other worldâ—â— possessions so that for conclusion â—ith infalible truth it may be said â—â—at this Self-love is a Mother vice â—nd that from thence all the vices â—â—nnes evils and spiritual maladies â—hat so unhappily infest Mens Souls â—ave their original and do spring â—s Branches do from their proper Tree â—nd Stock and as Rivers flow from â—heir Springs and Fountains SECT 2. Self-love it self a most dangerous Disease It is not without just cause and reaâ—on that these Seven Branches of â—elf-love are commonly called and â—ear the Title of Mortal or Deadly â—eeing all the vicious and corrupt inâ—erests and practices of men are reâ—uced to some one or other of them â—s we have already declared
abominâ—ble in their doings There lies thâ— cause of their Distemper and shew whence it comes that they are suâ—â— fools and so besotted in their undeâ—standing They are men that drowâ— themselves in the multitude of theâ— iniquities that give themselves â—â— to all manner of sin and vice anâ— of such men it is not to be woâ—dred that they should be easily perfuaded to think and apt to say Therâ—â— is no God no Divine Providence that governs the World none thâ—â— shall judge the wicked actions oâ— men at the latter Day no Judgement to come no account to be given of what we say or do in thiâ— world For all this is natural to them and they hear such lies as these with much ease and delight How many besides these are â—here that daily injure and dishoâ—our God by making a God of their â—ellies through Glutteny and Drunâ—enness How many that with those wicked ones in Job ch 15. v. 25. Stretch out their hands against God â—nd think to strengthen themselves against the Almighty Such a one was â—hat Cassibes the Son of Cyrus who according to the relation of Herodoâ—us would never acknowledge any other God but himself a common Distemper of those mighty Asian and some other Monarchs being so notoriously wicked and impious in his proceedings as that where ever he came he caused all Temples or Places where God was invocated and worshiped to be burnt But as his impiety went not unpunished so let me say it once for all That nothing which these Blasphemers do either speak act or conspire contumeliously against God shall ever escape its due punishment Though you daily see and hear those that every moment and almost at every word profane his most holy and terrible Name by their Oaths and Swearing Though you hear so many Atheists taking the liberty to deny the Deity Providence Power Justice and Goodness of God Though you see so many Politicians and False Chirstians losing themselves in their dissolute lives and perjuring themselves in their Oaths whether by God by his Church by the Gospel of which they are in heart the greatest enemies or by any other kind of Oath though they seem to be very fortunate and prosperous for the present yet shall they not escape deserved punishment Divine Justice will find them out first or last in this world or in the next We see many sad examples how severely God Almighty hath from time to time punished such presumptuous and arrogant people so that we need not seek or take examples out of Holy Scripture to prove and verifie this evident Truth Let us â—ook but into this present age and we shall see that for the most part Those that blaspheme the name of God that rob and vilify his Church pollute and undervalue his holy Sacraments make unjust wars against his Holiness the true Vicar of Christ upon earth Those that take arms against their lawful Sovereings Kings Princes c. that persecute and put to death the true and lawful Ministers of Gods Church have for the most part died shamefully and perished miserably their bodies hanging dead in the aire as unworthy to have their Burial amongst good Christans and their poor souls carried into the deepest pit of Hell there to suffer torment for all Eternity which things ought to give great terror to those that meditate of the judgments of God and the punishment he inflicts upon the Blasphemers of his holy Name It is true God hath sometimes deferred to punish some of these sinnets expecting their happy repentance and conversion but some likewise he hath severely and suddenly punished inflicting pains presently upon their sin As for example he did to one Olimpius Bishop of Carthage who for Blaspheming the Holy and Divine Trinity was suddenly seized upon by a natural fire all over his Body which by little and little burnt and consumed him roaring amidst the excessive pains which he endured Anatolius a great Blasphemer of Christ in the year of our Lord 582 was exposed alive to wild Beasts and by them torn in pieces after which he was drawn to the Gallows and there hang'd all the rest of his Fellows being burnt in a little Ship by artificial fire and so perished both by water and fire Nicephorus lib. 17. cap. 4. says that Nestorius was such another to wit a Blasphemer of the holy Mother of God for which fault Divine Justice so ordaining it his Tongue was eaten with worms being yet alive by reason whereof he suffered extream horrible pain and at last died miserably The Spanish History written by Rodericus Sanctius and others makes mention of divers other like examples particularly of one Alphonsus a great Blasphemer who was suddenly punished by Divine Justice for saying That he could govern the world far better than God if he would undertake it Toletanus lib. 6. de Reb. Hisp saith that Datianus was for the like offence burnt and consumed by Fire from Heaven and that Gunderick was suddenly seized and strangled by the Devil as likewise were Alrorax Attilla and many others that for their blasphemies received present and horrible punishment from the hand of God Procopius lib. 1. de reb gest Belisar testifieth That Hunnerieâ— a most cruel King of the Vandals who was not only a great Blasphemer but also a great Persecutor of Christians was whilst actually Blaspheming suddenly taken with the Plague and died miserably in the place where he was struck Beside if you will take the pains to read Osorius lib. 20. chap. 3. in the Portugal Histories you will find that for the like Crimes the same or like death happened to the Lord of Ceâ—lis who died mad and raging in Blaspemies without end after he had plundered several Churches and burnt the Abbey of Saint Hubert Verily I could alledge here an infinite number of other like sad Examples but these may suffice to make us absolutely believe that never any obstinate and perverse Blasphemer had a happy end and that although some may seem to escape Vengeance in this world yet in the next wrath and indignation to the height will be their portion Sect. 2. Self-love looks alwayes at his own Interests in treating with Neighbours therefore prejudicial to them Having already shewn how God Almighty is vilified undervalued injur'd and blasphemed by the pernicious Disease of Self-love and the evil Effects proceeding from it if we will now consider things well we shall find that our Neighbours are no less injur'd wrong'd and prejudiced by the same because it makes men look at themselves and to seek only their own Self-ends and Interests upon all accounts and occasions as a learned Divine doth well observe saying That Self-love is alwayes in agitation alwayes acting against our Neighbour or against ones self Self-love never leaves our Neighbour long in peace but ever and anon is finding matter to trouble and vex him living almost in perpetual grudg with him and iâ— opposition to him either spiritual oâ— temporal what by
so as to make them see the truest effects of the Love of God which are absolutely contrary to the effects of Self-love For why the effects of Divine Love are all of them good yea they are all the good that can or ever will be desired but contrariwise the effects of Self-love are all of them evil and are all the evils that men can possible think imagine or fear Since then there be two sorts of Love namely the Love of God and thâ— Love of our selves and that all trâ—â— good and happiness is to be attributed to the Love of God as on the contrary all wickedness and all evils to Self-love we are now to maâ—â— our choice we must go either to thâ— right hand or to the left we muâ—â— practice either what is Divine oâ— else Self-love Consider the mattâ—â— therefore well and proceed as yoâ— see cause by what hath been hitherto said you cannot but have observ'â— and know that all the actions of those that exercise Self-love tend wholly to their own praise and commendation and to exalt themselves and if at any time they applaud Vertue it is only to praise themselves the more upon a precarious and false supposition that they are such For though they applaud it they never practice it Their practice is only what the Poet Ovid describes Laudamus veteres sed nostris utimur annis â—n conclusion where Self-love reigns â—l Vertue all Justice all acts of â—harity all good Discipline are sent â—â—to exile are banished and on the â—ontrary Cruelties Commotions â—ars Lusts Adulteries Murthers â—esolations and Tumults Furies and â—yranny Persecutions and Robbeâ—es Pride and Ambition yea all â—ices without exception which can â—e named are in such vogue that â—othing can withstand them and in â—uch credit and practice that it is in â—ain to speak against them By Self-love every one is prejudiâ—ed By means of Self-love poor Orphans lose their right and poor Wiâ—ows sustain wrong none consideâ—ing their cause none regarding or giving ear to their just complaint Through Self-love the poor perish or live miserably few or none takeing pitty or having any compassioâ— of their hard condition In fine aâ— sorts of men suffer more or less â—â— some respects or other through thâ— prevalency of this passion Froâ— hence from this cursed root Treasons are contriv'd and spring Felonies are committed Perfidiousneâ—â— and Deceits practiced Churches aâ— robbed Matrons and Virgins defiled Religion and all Fear of God laid aside and forgotten insomuch that hereby the Proverb comes to be verified Mala etiam non quaerentibus obtiâ—gunt bona vix accedunt etiam quâ—rentibus Evils though not sought after will be found and take place but God though never so much sought after will scarce be found This was the answer of that famous Diogenes the Philosopher when one asked him what his Opinion was touching Mens Estate and Condition in this World And truly in my judgement the answer was to purpose for so much as generally speaking Vice is much more rife in the World than â—ertue and consequently men are â—ore apt and are better furnish't to â—rocure Evil than to procure Good â—oth to themselves and their neighâ—ours Sect. 3. By Self-love we seek all sorts of vanities therefore it is prejudical to our selves Having so largely declared in the â—wo precedent Paragraphs how Self-â—ove is most prejudical to God and our Neighbour tending to Gods dishonour and our Neighbours harm it hence of necessity follows that the same Self-love is also most prejudicial to our selves for if God be offended by our Self-love as we have plainly demonstrated that he is the very same transgression committed against him by Self-love doth wound our own poor Souls to a spiritual death and if withal our Neighbour be prejudiced or harm'd by it as 't is certain he is it doth also include that we our selves are prejudiced and receive hurt thereby no less than ouâ— Neighbour seeing we cannot unjustly harm our Neighbour but we offend God and by offending God we hurt our selves so that there needâ— not much to be spoken to prove this verity to wit that Self-love is prejudicial to our selves as well as to others nevertheless to keep a deceâ—um in our proceedings since I have not been sparing or restrain'd my self in shewing the evils and mischievous effects of Self-love in relation to God and our Neighbour it seems but requisite that something should more particularly be proposed to shew the like effects which it has upon our selves and how much we our selves are prejudic'd by indulging to the passion of Self-love First you are not ignorant that Self-love according to the Ancient Fathers doth blind the eyes of Mankind dulling the Spirits and weakning their Understanding insoâ—uch that being to make choice of â—y thing for the most part they â—use for the worse and more espeâ—â—ally when the matter concerns â—â—eir spiritual estate or good As for â—xample there is nothing in this â—orld that a man loveth better than â—is Life his Soul his Ease his proâ—er Will his Pleasures his Sensualiâ—â—es his Vanities and the like and â—et 't is certain and well donsidering â—e would easily see it that all these â—ven the best of them Life and Soul â— inordinately loved are extreamly â—ontrary and prejudicial to his true â—ood For in this sense according to â—he Evangelist Joan. 12. 25. Qâ—i â—mat animam suam perdet eam c. He that loveth his life shall lose it â—nd he that hates his life in this World that is loves it not nor makes any reckoning of it in compaâ—ison of his love and duty to God shall keep it to life everlasting The â—ame is to be said of the soul according to Saint Matth. ch 10. 39. As for the rest ease proper will pleasures c. they are meer Vanities not worth the wishing for aâ— witnesseth the wise Solomon in those words Eccles 1. v. 14. Vidi cuncta quae fiunt sub sole ecce Vniversâ— Vanitas I have seen saith he and considered all things that are done under the Sun and behold they are all vanity and affliction of Spirit which is to say they are things wherein no full satisfactinn of raind no perfect content is to be found and that therefore men do vainly and to their own prejudice to set their minds their love and affections so much upon them Yet will not men be perswaded their minds are still set upon the things under the Sun and not on those above it they still mind the world and worldly things worldly riches worldly honours worldly pleasures worldly power c. and with such an eagerness of appetite do they hunt after these things as if â—â—ey were the chiefest good and â—â—at all happiness consisted in them â—eglecting the care of their Souls for â—e love of them quite contrary to â—e advice and exhortation of the â—lessed Evangelist Saint John who â—howing the harm that comes to men â—y setting their minds and affections â— much upon worldly
through the Grace of God so wrought with him that he was forthwith converted both to the Catholique Faith and to a most holy continent and chaste life Oh that we could follow his good example and retire our selves out of the Life of this World to a Life Holy and Spiritual that we could give our selves up wholly to Gods service renouncing all vanities and vain divertisements fopperies and all the sensualities of the world and of the flesh and avoiding all the deceitful works of the Devil as things that are most prejudicial to our Bodies and Souls Oh that we could resolve from this present time to say with the Prophet Osee Ducam animam meam in solitudinem Oseae 2. v. 13. I will lead or with-draw my Soul into solitude I will make a divorce a perpetual seperation from all sorts of Vanities Concupiscences Pleasures and Sensualities I will henceforth with St. Paul 2 Cor. 4. v. 10. say Semper mortificationem Jesu in corpore nostro circumferam I will always bear about in my Body the Mortification of Jesus Christ that by means thereof through his Divine help and aid I I may avoid and qe free from Self-love SECTION V. How to conquer and overcome Self-love Sect. 1. Man cannot attain that Grace without the help of God 2. The first means to overcome Self-love is by the knowledge of our selves of our own Nothing Unprofitableness Vileness Miseries and Afflictions 3. The second means to overcome Self-love is by the knowledge of the Excellencies and Perfections of God 4. The third means to overcome Self-love is by the knowledge of the Benefits we have received and are to receive Sect. 1. Man cannot attain that Grace without the help of God The duty of our present state is and the chief employment of our whole life ought to be constantly and fervently to co-operate with Divine Grace and to grow in Vertues endeavouring always and in every thing to get the victory over our selves that is over inordinate Self-love and Self-interests that would debauch us from our duty and carry us into wrong ways The reason hereof is because God being a Nature or Essence superlatively excellent and infinitely above our and all other created natures requires as a tribute most worthy of him and of justice belonging to him that we totally abstract our love from all objects whatsoever and place it in him not loving any thing but God and what he commands and allows us to love for his sake This I confess is impossible for us to do by any meer natural ability or strength according as the most Reverend Father Nicolaus a Sancta Cruce a person who has been twice Provincial in the Order of Saint Francis and is famous as well for his Learning and Piety as his connual labour and pains-taking in the Mission of England confirms in his Cynosura Chap. the first page 5th upon the Miserere Psalm in these words When man looks into himself he finds a check seeing he cannot so much as dispose himself for his happiness without a supernatural aid For though it be true that humane nature by its own strength knows that God is worthy of all love yet our knowledge in Morality is much more apt for comprehension that is for understanding than for practice It is not enough to have wings to flie if they be so hamper'd as they cannot be display'd So this natural faculty in man of loving God above all things by means of Original Sin and a million of other obstacles is so weakened that we find the inclination of doing it far less vigorous and effectual than the Dictamens of our Reason to have it done And no wonder since St. Thomas affirms That our Will by Original Sin is much more damnified and impaired than our Understanding Whence Self-love grows powerful in use so that if it hath not a counter-prize of supernatural succours we yield and suffer our selves to be violently hurried on to the pursuit of fading and sensual objects for which cause the miseries of our humane nature are very much to be pittied and deplored being so wounded and made impotent unto good as that of her self alone she is not able to pay the least part of what she owes to the most lawful object of all hearts whose just homages are not only sighs groans or throws of spirit good wishes good desires c. but effective that is actual and real service done actual performance of what he commands exact observance of all his holy Precepts Laws c. together with a careful wary diligent aversion from whatsoever we know to be offensive to him and apt to put a seperation between God and our Souls Such are the excess of sensual pleasures and the immoderate affectation of worldly greatness honours riches and the like Our love and duty to God likewise requires that we resist temptations and in many encounters to suffer afflictions miseries and all manner of calamities incident to mans life yea sometimes to lose and lay down our lives rather then to fall into any transgression or sin opposite to Divine Love Now all these are difficulties hard things to be done and do far exceed humane strength which deserves indeed to be called rather weakness than strength so that it behoves us to have recourse to Divine Aid and to implore the Majesty of God for the gift of his special Grace which may enable us to perform what is required of us knowing this that should we be freed from all sins and imperfections yet could we not attain to such a degree of divine love and perfect holiness as to love him as much as he deserves to be loved how much more is this impossible for us to do in this our present condition in which beside our natural and original weakness we are through evil custom and long practice of actual sin become most averse and disinclined to it being on the contrary wholly possess'd fill'd and taken up with Self-love and the fruits thereof to wit pursuing our private interests concerns proprieties ambitious and worldly designs However some means I shall not omit to produce in this place for the helping us with more ease to vanquish this Vice of Self-love and to get a perfect victory over the same which we are not to despair of being prompted with divine help and assistance but to say confidently with S. Paul Phil. 4. 13. Omnia possum in eo c. I shall be able to do all things requisite to my Salvation through Christ who strengthens me These motives or means must be fundamentally grounded in a true and right knowledge of God and our selves and first of all in the perfect knowledge of our own selves of our nothing of our own unprofitableness vileness afflictions miseries In the second place it must be grounded in true knowledge of the Universal Sufficiency Being Power Wisdom and other the infinite perfections beauties and goodness of God who by reason of them is to be the only object of
becomes not thereupon more or less sad idle remiss and negligent in Gods service Wherefore if we desire to be victorious and to gain a full Conquest over all our Ghostly Enemies and all Ghostly impediments defects infirmities whatsoever let us be willing to receive all sorts of Humiliations from Gods hand and from the hands of men Let us even rejoyce and be glad whensoever we find our selves vilified and undervalued by men and whensoever we are destituted of Consolations Let us rejoyce to submit our selves not only to our chief Prelates and Superiours but also to our Equals and Inferiours following therein the example of Christ our Lord who submitted himself to such and so low as to become obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Philip. 2. v. 8. Sect. 3. By overcoming our selves and sensual Appetites You have heard of old that the life of man is a continual warfare upon Earth as the holy Job testifies in his Book Chap. 7. v. 1. saying Militia est vita hominis super terram c. We cannot live in any place or in any condition or state whatsoever without continual opposition and repugnancy we must be always fighting and consequently always in trouble and danger never secure of our selves never at perfect rest never in perfect peace and a great reason hereof is that wheresoever we go we carry in our selves and in our own bosom our Enemy who never ceases to oppugn and hinder us especially in our spiritual proceedings This S. Paul clearly insinuates 2 Cor. 4. v. 16. where he speaks of a twofold man dwelling in every one of us to wit our selves and this our Enemy saying Licet is qui for is est noster homo corrumpitur tamen qui intus est renovatur de die in diem Although that our man which is without us doth corrupt and perish by little and little yet that which is within us is renewed day by day By which expression the man without us signifies our Body together with its naturâ— Affections Concupiscences and Lusts which die or ought to die and decay in us every day and the maâ— within us our Soul or interiour Spirit with its faculties and graces which should proportionably live be renewed and every day gather more and more strength in us These two Men or parts of Man are so fast chained and joyn'd together that the one cannot be without the other and yet are so opposite and contrary the one to the other that the life of the one is the death of the other Between these two Men all the Contradictions Contentions and Opposition incident to our life are tried for which cause the Apostle attributes to them several names by which they may be distinguished the one from the other for that end calling one of them the Spirit the other Flesh the one Body the other Soul one of them the Law of the Mind Spirit Soul c. the other the Law of Bodily Members One he calls the Old Man the other he calls the New and finally as here one the Exteriour or outward Man the other the Interiour or inward all which several names do serve very properly to represent to us the several and peculiar natures properties and inclinations of these two men and that we ought to obey and follow the inclinations of the one but to reject the motions and resist the inclinations of the other following herein the Counsel of the same Blessed Apostle which he gives Galat 5. v. 16. Dico aut em vobis Spiritu ambulate desideria carnis non perficietis I say unto you to all you that desire to be happy walk in the Spirit and the lusts of the Flesh you shall not fulfil Where we see that obedience to the Spirit and its motions is commanded but the motions that is the lusts of the Flesh we must not fulfil And again Rom. 8. 13. If you walk according to the Flesh you shall die but if by the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the Flesh you shall live It is required of us that we mortifie and overcome the Flesh by the Spirit and for as much as the Flesh rebelleth so much and so often against the Spirit the Spirit must be encouraged by all the good means we can use against the Flesh and the sensual motions thereof So that the only way for a Christian to obtain tranquility and perfect peace is to be continually fighting with this Enemy We must seek our Peace in Wars our Life in Death that is in dying to sin that we may live to God and finally our greatest liberty in servitude for if we be the servants of God and of Righteousness we shall be free from the slavery of sin and wickedness which is the best liberty of all The great courage liberty and power of a vertuous Man sheweth it self best in overcoming himself and his passions To subdue and make subject the sensual appetites of the Flesh to the Spirit is the work of a great and heroick mind as on the contrary to follow and obey them overmuch speaks a great tepidity and weakness of heart In this kind of Combate 't is no disgrace to flie and run away but rather 't is the best art of fighting for by flying and running away we are sure to gain the victory neither does any thing more discourage vex trouble and mortifie our adversary than to know that we dare not encounter we dare not come up to him By flying from the World we avoid the snares of the World by flying from the Flesh we escape the temptations of the Flesh and by flying and running from our selves we make void and of no effect all private affections all private and proper interests that may be hurtful unto us and all the private designs of Self-love So that by flying we conquer the World the Flesh the Devil our wicked selves also and all We lead captive all evil inclinations whatsoever and so pacifie and quiet our exteriour or outward Man as that we make the interiour or inward Man to reign and rule in us in much peace gaining thereby a more glorious and illustrious triumph than if we had vanquished whole armies and subdued the mightiest Kingdoms of the whole World Josue by flying and running away from the City of Hay Jos 8. 15. obtain'd a great victory over his enemies and subdued that City which but a little before had put the whole Army of Israel to flight So if you will conquer and subdue to Reason all your unreasonable and disorderly appetites the only way is to flie from them not to attend to them nor hearken to any thing they suggest The same is to be said of your fighting and contending with the world and your selves to get the victory over them you must flie you must renounce the world and deny your selves the world and all its glory magnificencâ— or vain pomp riches honours pleasures c. Your selves and all your private concupiscences lusts designs Can you
desire a greater conquest than to subdue the world and to trample all the deceitful glories and vanities thereof under your feet Can you think any victory more advantageous than that which of Captives makes you Kings for freedom and true liberty and of Slaves to Self-love and sin the Sons of God and Heirs with Christ of Eternal Glory A greater Conquest you cannot reasonably desire than to subdue all your enemies nor Dominion than to be master of your self and this is done by the way I have shewed you Happy therefore I say are those that conquer and overcome their passions yea much more happy are they than those that conquer Kingdoms and Countries but cannot conquer themselves Happy are those that can rule and govern their sensual love concupiscences and appetites so as not to transgress in them or by them Such a one is Lord of a great Empire Lord of this World and Heir of Heaven To be truly humble is a great Trophy and the right way to Jesus Christ is to subdue your own proper will to suffer injuries and other evils not seeking overmuch after any temporal interests or things concerning the Body Be content to suffer with Christ and for Christ and be sure that if you thus suffer you shall also reign with Christ For a little adversity you will enjoy a perpetuaâ— felicity therefore do not think iâ— a troublesome thing nor grieve thaâ— it is requir'd of you to fight with and to overcome your self for how bitter soever it may seem in the beginning the end of it will be sweet and God will fight for you and help you to get the victory only remembring this not to attribute the glory of â—he conquest to your own strength â—ut only to the Divine Majesty whose Grace gains you the Victory and â—et you must do your endeavour too â—or that Gods Grace helps none that â—ill not help themselves as well as â—hey can and you may observe that â—f those who only cry Lord Lord â—nd do nothing else it is said They â—hall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven None shall be crowned but â—hose that fight well and with couâ—age persevere to the end If two Men come to fight being both of â—qual strength courage and skill and â—oth alike arm'd naturally speaking â—t is certain that he that gets help or â— second to joyn with him will get â—he victory In the same manner it â—s between the Body and the Soul continually fighting supposing both equal and alike in strength if we favour and help the Body by idleness over much eating and drinking and will not deny it ought of its sensual desires be sure it will get the victory over the Soul and subdue her to its lure and appetite and so on the contrary if we favour and help the Soul by fervent Prayers to God if we support and uphold her by the practice of Vertues and arm her Cap-a-pe from Head to Foot with the whole Armour of Righteousness Faith Hope Charity Patience Zeal and other good Graces of the Spirit it is not to be doubted but she will have a glorious victory over the Body vanquish all the Vanities of the World and find a saving cure for all her languishings and distempers occasion'd by Self-love SECTION VII How to love God and our Neighbour Sect. 1. How we are to love God 2. How we are to love our Neighbour 3. How we are to love our Enemies 4. In what manner of love we are to love our Neighbour and our Enemies 5. How we may know our selves free from Self-love in loving God and our Neighbour Sect. 1. How we are to love God I must confess that all we have hitherto said or written serves in part to declare how we are to love God namely above all things with all our hearts with all our mind with all our soul and with all our strength This hath been often inculcated by us But such is the thing that whether we consider the difficulty and hardness or the utility and benefit of it it can never be insisted upon too much We cannot be too often called upon or too often put in mind of this duty and therefore I will in short speak a word or two more to that effect that if you desire to attain the Perfection of that Grace to wit of Divine Love I may by the mercy of God be a little helpful to you in order thereto Verily it standeth with great reason that we should love God in the manner above-said both Justice and Natural Reason dictating and commanding with all urgency that we should wholly give and dedicate our selves by love unto God and by lovinâ— him from whom we wholly possess and enjoy our selves to re-pay in some sort our Duty and Obligation Now for the better performance of this my advice is that you follow the counsel of the seraphical and subtle Doctor Scotus who says That we are to love God sweetly prudently and valiantly or with good courage Sweetly that you be not by any bitterness or amarulency that sometimes happens therein averted from loving him Prudently that you be not by the guil of your Ghostly enemy ensnared nor catch'd in any ambuscado of his Valiantly and with good courage that when you come to suffer injuries oppressions affronts for loving him you be not in any manner of wayes drawn or driven enticed or forced from his Divine Love either by the pomp and glory of the world together with the voluptuous Allurements of the Flesh or by the sterner violence of Persecution and Troubles threatned for loving him and being resolv'd for your part thus to proceed towards the Love of God there are Three Things more chiefly required of you The first is You must extirpate out of your heart all Sensual Love all Love that proceeds from Concupiscences all inordinate love of the World and purge your selves of all sorts of Self-love Inordinate Appetites and Passions and of all the sins that proceed from them It is the admonition of Saint Paul Ephe. 4. 22. Deponere vos secundum pristinam conversationem c. That you put off concerning the former conversation the Old Man which is totally corrupt through deceitful and erroneous lusts and be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind putting on the New Man which according to God is created in Justice and True Holiness And again Rom. 13. v. 12. Cast off saith he the works of darkness which are Self-love and Sin and putting on the armor of light which is the practice of Divine Love let us walk honestly as in the day not in Banquetting and Drunkenness not in Chamberings and Impudicities not in Strife and Emulation in a word nor in making any provision for the Flesh in Concupiscences or to satisfie the lusts thereof consonant unto which is that of Salomon Sap. 1. v. 4. In malevolam animam non introibit sapientia c. Divine Wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul nor dwell in a Body that is
filiarum Sion c. Our Lord saith he will make bald the Crown of the Head of the Proud Daughters of Sion and will discover their Baldness or want of Hair unto all In that day the Lord shall take away the bravery of their Ornaments their changes of Apparel their Gold Chains their Bracelets their Mantles their Crisping Pins their fine Linnen their Hoods and Vails and Looking-glasses the odour of their Perfumes and the sweet smells of Oyntments he will bereave them of all for their Pride and bring Deformity upon them instead of Beauty Take heed therefore and be admonished ye Proud and Unwise of this Nation What was denounced against the Daughters of Israel will be executed upon you the Daughters of England unless you repent and apply that Soveraign Remedy for this and all other Diseases of the Soul in due time and season SECTION II. Pride of Men in general SECT 1. Pride of the Spiritual Directors 2. Pride of Learned Men. 2. Pride of the better sort 4. Pride of Labouring Men Shop-keepers Servants 5. The Remedy for all the aforesaid Evils Sect. 1. The Self-pride of Spiritual Directors THat Vice that we are now enveying against is a spreading Gangreen which through tract of time and the inadvertency of Men hath overr-un and unhappily rooted it self more or less in all the Members of Christs Mystical Body that is in all sorts of Christians in all Degrees in all Orders in all States and Conditions of Men there is none entirely free from the infection of this Pest insomuch that the Holy Father Saint Cyprian reflecting hereupon and bemoaning the sad Condition of Christianity by means thereof in conclusion adds that even the Priest-hood was not free from it Etiam in Sinu Sacerdotum ambitio dormit Ambition saith he sleeps even in the Bosom of Priests This he spake to shew the growth of the Malady and no wonder for Satan we know when time was had the boldness to tempt Christ himself with this suggestion to that end taking him up into an exceeding high Mountain and there shewing him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them saying to him Mat. 4. v. 9. Omnia haec tibi dabo c. All these things will I give thee I will make thee King of the whole World thou shalt be the only Monarch upon Earth no Greatness shall be comparable to yours if you will fall down and worship me Thus he tempts our Saviour with a motion of Pride and desire to be great and though he were shamefully rebuked for his bold attempt and departed with confusion enough from Christ yet his Disciples could not so well perceive or resist his wiles To be overthrown by the Master did but whet his Appetite to be reveng'd on the Servants and therefore he wrought the matter so that it was not long before there fell a contention amongst the Disciples which of them should be greatest Luc. 22. v. 24. That is a Spirit of Pride and Ambition got in amongst them and it is no less to be fear'd that the Mother of Zebedaeus Ghildren and her Sons were taken with the same Spirit when she made that extravagant request to our Saviour which is mentioned Matth. 20. v. 21. namely that her two Sons might sit the one on his Right Hand the other on his Left Hand in his Kingdom These instances shew the Disciples were not altogether free of Emulations and Affections of Majority and Place one over another and one before another and though it be as little to be doubted but Christ our Saviour did presently and effectually by his exhortation to Humility repress those evil motions and purge his Disciples Hearts of the Venome they had swallowed yet in many of their successors it is too apparent these Diseases do still remain not without causing much of the like Distemper in other Christians who cannot be well edified by such ill examples Where yet I would have it noted that when our Saviour upon this occasion saith to his Disciples Luc. 22. v. 26. Vos autem non sic it shall not be so with you his meaning is not absolutely to forbid or condemn Superiority or Majority in it self but only the inordinate and undue affectation and seeking thereof in those who have it not and the exercising of it with Pride haughtiness of Mind and contempt of Inferiours in those that have it Sect. 2. The Self-pride of Learned Men. By Learned Men I understand generally Divines Canonists and such as Study the Laws Ecclesiastical or Temporal as well those which aim at the Cure of Souls as the Government and Well ordering of the Body Physicians and in a word all that makes profession of Learning or have taken the degrees of Learning in the Schools concerning all which sorts of Men there is one judgment to be given They are sick of this Distemper Go if you please through all the Towns and Cities through all the Schools and Academies of Christendom go through all Colledges and Courts of Law look into all the degrees of Learning you there meet with you will quickly observe and find that Pride and Ambtion Inordinate esteem of our selves and desire to be esteem'd by others are the predominant and prevailing Humors in all those places and with all such persons You will find that geneally speaking every one studies more for Benefit more for Honour and Glory than any thing else For who minds Vertue or Conscience who makes them the principal or chief end of their Study Who regards them further than they are serviceable to their Profit and to their Glory This Saint Bernard did very well observe in his time Many Study saith he meerly that they may know the thing they study for and the Holy Saint rightly calls the same a shameful Curiosity Many others study that they may be known to be famous and Great Men for Learning which he calls a shameful Vanity Many others beside do Study that they may sell their Science and Knowledge to others partly for Pride and Ostentation partly for Profit Interest Money c. Few or none being to be found that will Study purely for Charity sake that is to be able to teach and instruct others gratis having no other motive but the Love of God and their Neighbour Sect. 3. Self-pride of the Better sort By those of the Better sort I understand here all such as are of Civil Education and Life whose Condition although it doth not dignifie them with with any Title of Honour properly speaking yet their Vertues or their Fortune make them approach next to it This sort of People if they be Rich or that Fortune any thing favours them how apt are they to be puft up with this Flatus that is with the windiness of a proud and vain Spirit how apt are they to look with envy at their Equals and with an aspect of disdain and scorn towards their inferiours How little are they pleased that their Neighbour should be compared
9. Should Earth and Ashes be proud Consult your last end and that will tell you you are no better than Earth and Ashes Dust you are and to Dust you must return Consider therefore I say seriously as well what you have been as what you are and shall be and you will confess as to the first that your original is from the Ground from a Lump of Clay or Dirt of which the Almighty Creator fram'd and made our first Parents that you are for the present a mass of suitable sordid Flesh living indeed but every hour and every moment subject to death and to all the accidents diseases and corruptions by which death usually is usher'd in and for the future you shall be as to your Body nothing else but Putrefaction and Filth In the Grave you shall be nothing else but a stinking Carcass and meat for Worms for so in the Prophet it is said when a Man dies he shall inherit Serpents or creeping things Beasts and Worms Tell me now have you any reason to be Proud and so high minded Have you any reason to carry your selves so high that are of an extraction so low God could have Created your Bodies of nothing as he did your Souls but in his Wisdom he would not but made them of the Earth that is not only of a substance Corporal Gross Visible Palpable to be seen with our Eyes and touched with our Hands but of the vilest sort of Earth of the Clay the Dirt and Slime of the Earth Do you ask me why To teach us Humility and to repress the Swellings of Pride in us that Man seeing daily with his Corporal Eyes the Dirt upon which he treads might continually be put in mind and remember his first Creation his first Original and Beginning and how that he was made and formed of the same and this for two reasons The first as I said before that hereby he might give to man a just occasion of humbling himself with the most profound submission and abnegation that mans heart can possibly bend it self unto even so far as to confess and acknowledge that of himself he deserveth nothing but to be concullated trodden and trampled upon under the feet of all men as the Dirt of the Earth as Mire and Clay and that for this reason he hath nothing of himself to be proud and high-minded for since his original foundation and extraction is but Dirt and the Slime of the earth The second reason why God made Man of the Dirt of the Earth is That by reflecting upon that his first Creation he might be mov'd so much the more to love his Gracious Maker and more faithfully to serve his Mighty Creator who of his infinite Goodness and Mercy from such a vile and mean beginning as Earth and Dirt was pleased to raise him to that height of Excellency as to consummate his Creation and finally to make him according to his own image and likeness So that whensoever you feel the motions of Pride and High-mindedness infecting your Hearts or troubling your Spirits imagine you hear King Solomon reprehending you and reprepressing your Vanity in these words Of what are you Proud Dust and Ashes why are you puffed up Vessels of Clay Humble your selves and be warned by forgetful Adam who not minding that he was made Dirt fell into the presumption of affecting to be like unto God his Creator by occasion whereof transgressing his Creators Commandment he was for his sin expelleds and for ever driven out of the Terrestrial Paradice Therefore be warned by his fall Humble your selves that you may be exalted humble your selves upon Earth that you may be exalted for ever in Heaven SECTION III. Contempt of others a general Disease of Christianity SECT 1. Many troubled with this Disease 2. Contempt between Man and Wife 3. Contempts between Children and Parents 4. Contempts between Servants and Masters 5. Contempts between Poor and Rich. 6. Contempts of Persons for their Infirmities only and of many for the â—aults of some few justly blameable 7. Contempts between Nations and Nations Sect. 1. Many trouhled with this Disease IN the whole multitude and variety of those Maladies and Diseases of Mind under which and by reason whereof the Life and Vigour of Christianity doth so much languish at this day there is scarce any more frequent and Epidemical than that of over-valuing our selves and contemning others Hard it is especially for Persons that seem conscious to themselves of any merit to have I say not mean but modest thoughts of themselves and not to be tickled ever and anon with extravagant imaginations of their proper Excellency and where the humor is indulg'd and yielded unto the other to wit the contemning and under-valving of our Neighbour follows naturally He that tempts us to think too well of our selves will easily find a way to make us think too meanly of others and to prefer our selves before them This therefore is a general Malady amongst all sorts of Men Jews and Pagans Turks Infidels and Christians all are obnoxious to it and for the most part perish by it for not applying the Unguent of Humility and Sobriety of Spirit in due time But you are to know there are two sorts of Contempt the one tending to Good the other tending to Evil. By the first we condemn the World and all the Evil that belongs to it or is found therein by this we contemn Sin and disdain to submit or yield to the occasions and temptations unto Sin that are laid in our way or that lead Men into Sin With this kind of Contempt as Saint Hierome well observes the Faithful Servant of God may lawfully and with much right despise whatsoever is hurtful to his Soul by whomsoever suggested and those will not fail to do so who have their Novissima their last things to wit Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell in due manner before their Eyes By the second we contemn our Neighbour that is other Persons whom by the Commandment of God we are bound to Honour and by the Spirit of Charity and Humily if it were in us we would Honour and Love according to their several and respective States Conditions Dignities Merit c. By this we are apt to have in scorn and to flight whatsoeveris doneby others or not done by our selves as mean and illaudable although perhaps never so well done and very profitable for Soul or Body This is a wicked sort of Contempt and absolutely forbidden This proceedeth from Evil and tends to Evil and is wholly Evil. This is that Epidemical Vice under which the World hath ever laboured and doth labour at this day all sorts of Persons from the highest to the lowest from the poorest to the richest more or less being seized therewith This all Nations finds to be true but to our shame it must be spoken none hath more felt no Nation hath greater reason to confess and acknowledge this Truth than this of England where none can be
Eating or Drinking He makes himself but a Laughing-stock now that either in fear of God scruple of Conscience or other just and lawful Cause forbears his Cups being in company and call'd upon his singularity and that he will not drink till drunk with the rest is matter of great derision and scorn to the Bachanalian Crew who account it an heroick act and cry it up for a point of Valour in their Tavern-contests to exceed others in drinking for which reason also every one of these Sons of Bacchus and the Devil study and strive to exceed each other what they can and he that remains Victor over the rest is so much applauded in his wicked Conquest that nothing pleases him more than to see his Companions lye spewing senseless or dead-drunk before him And which adds to his iniquity and the shame of these times his Devillish Trophies are so divulged and publish'd with such applause amongst all Pot-companions that more than a few are incourag'd to emulate him and to make trial of their strength in overcoming him or some other in the like manner Sect. 2. Drunkenness of Nobility and Gentry This evil Disease is so rife among great Persons both of Nobility and Gentry that I know not whether many of them can be excepted To the great shame and prejudice of Christianity it is doubtless But who can withstand the torrent Evil custom carries all before it and the pleasure of sin takes away the shame of sinning The wise Solomon foresaw the inconvenience of this long since and forewarn'd the world of it once and again as namely Prov. 31. 4. in these words Noli Regibus O Lemuel Noli Regibus c. Give not Wine unto Kings O Lemuel nor to Princes strong drink least they drink and forget the Law c. and Eccles 10. v. 16 17. in these Vae tibi terra cujus Rexpuer est Wo to thee O land when thy King is a child and thy Princes eat in the morning that is are too much given to their gluttonous appetite of meat and drink But Blessed is the Land whose King is the Son of Nobles and whose Princes eat in due season for Strength and not for Drunkenness That 's a thing most unbeseeming Princes and all persons pretending to authority or honour Both which oblige them to Temperance and to carry themselves so as that their good example may be instruction and doctrine to others and also procure authority to their persons for the better and more effectual reproving or correcting such as are addicted to these Vices How much therefore are they to be blam'd who being persons of great Honour and no less Authority in the Publique Government do every day almost by their intemperance put themselves as it were into the rank of Drunkards and Good Fellows as foolish custome calls them greatly undervaluing themselves and little dreaming of the great prejudice that will come upon them and others by this means through the practice of their Mortal and Immortal Enemies I say their Mortal Enemies and by that term understand men like themselves who bearing enmity towards them and watching fit opportunity to execute that Violence which Hell and their wicked hearts prompt them to cannot long want it towards those that are given to Drunkenness A man overcome with Drink is but in bad case to encounter an enemy when it were but to betray himself so much as to face him or be seen of him Did not the Prince Absalon take this advantage to murther his Brother Amnon Intending to kill him in revenge of the injury he had done to his Sister Tamar he first invites him to a Feast or a great Banquet where he would be sure to fill him with Wine and then the business was as good as done having charged his Servants to watch and observe when Amnon should be elevated in Drink and then to fall on him and kill him Mark saith he to his Servants 2 Reg. 13. 28. Cum temulentus fuerit Amnon vino c. As soon as you perceive Amnon to be overcome with Wine and that I say to you strike then fail ye not to strike and kill him and so they did The like occasion will our Enemies take to be reveng'd on us when they find us in like case that is to be deep in Drink for then they know Men are uncapable to resist or make defence either for Body or Soul Sect. 3. Drunkenness of the Richer sort of People Great Persons offend herein Nobility Gentry But are the meaner sort free Is there no excess of Meat or Drink to be observed amongst them Are they temperate and abstemious in all things 1 Cor. 9. 25. as the good Souldier and Servant of Christ should be Nothing less Frequent that I say not daily experience shews the contrary and what great excess there is in this sort of People What supersluity and costliness in Diet What abundance of Wine goes down their Throats What variety of Strong Drinks How do they strive to surpass and out-do each other in the Sumptuousness and even Prodigality of their Feasts and Banquets emulating those of higher Rank and despising them which come short of their Measure Insomuch that what the Prophet spake long since concerning the People of Israel is a very just reproof and ought to be a warning to these present times Vae qui opulenti estis in Sion c. Wo unto you that are Rich saith he Amos 6. v. 1 2 3 c. that live at your ease in Sion Wo to you that approach the Throne of Iniquity you that eat the best Lambs of the Flock and fatted Calves out of the Stall that drink Wine in Bowls and anoint your selves with the chiefest Oyntments Wo unto you for you are not grieved at the affliction of Joseph You pamper your selves you feed your selves to the full with all manner of Dainties but you let the poor starve you have no tenderness nor compassion for them May not all this be said of Christians Are we a whit better in this kind than the Jews notwithstanding that we have been anointed with the Sacred Oyls of Baptism and Confirmation the best Unctions in the World Saint Ambrose gives us a particular account of the Prodigality and Excess of such People in his time and describes the manner of it saying These Men in sitting down to the Table seem to marshal themselves for a Fight encountering one another with their Cups and Glasses as with so many shots of Arrows in a Fought Battel Drinking and taking down all that 's presented to their Hands nevertheless using great Art and Care not to be overtaken with Drink all on the sudden Therefore at first small Draughts serve the turn they begin for the most part with lesser Cups and advance by little and little spinning up their miseries by degrees till being warm'd in their Work and the Fight growing hot they call for greater till at length the largest Bowls are taken off and Long Flats
brought in to drink the Health of Friends Kindred and Relations as also perchance of the King Queen and Royal Progeny with more Ceremony and Solemnity But Alas for the folly of such Men to think that any true Love Friendship or Loyalty can consist in Drunkenness or that Men should so much disorder the health of their Bodies and Souls only to wish them health in a Drunken Frollique If they would see their folly and learn how they are to Love how to shew their Good-will and how to prove themselves to be Friends good Subjects and Loyal to their Princes Saint Paul will teach them 1 Tim. 2. v. 1 c. Obsecro igitur primum omnium c. I desire saith he above all things that Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Thanksgiving be made for all Men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life not in Drinking and Fudling but in all Piety Sobriety and Chastity Thus ought we to shew our Love to our Friends and above all to our greatest and best Friend the King our Soveraign Lord. Sect. 4. Drunkenness of the Poorer sort of People This beastly Vice Drunkenness oppresseth all sorts of Men but none more generally and frequently than the poor amongst which there are a great many that by their good wills would scarce ever be seen sober had they Money to satisfie their insatiable desire of Drinking they would be always tipled you should never meet them but more than half drunk Amongst Tradesmen and such as converse much in the World by occasion of Buying and Selling there 's no Bargain made nothing of any considerable nature Bought or Sold without a Cup of good Liquor over which they consult and agree about the Price and without it scarce ever conclude any thing Yea some are so accustomed thereto that they spare not to profess they can make no good Bargain but in Drink and that things never succeed better to them than when their Brains are well warm'd with the Spirits of good Liquor so that they are oft-times seen to trapan and lie upon the catch with each other upon this score to wit the Buyer with the Seller and the Seller with the Buyer each pretending in their private Thoughts to deceive or over-reach the other by the help of good Ale Labourers and Journey-men will undertake nothing willingly without a certain sum of Money for to Drink cast into the Bargain which being freely allowed they will do anything So that it is plain nothing is to be done nothing Bought or Sold but good Drink Seals up the Bargain and that Ale-houses are the chiefest Markets and Fairs for these Poorer sort of People as Taverns are for the Rich where they dispatch all matters of Bargain and Buy and Sell all sorts of Merchandize and Commodities Verily it is a thing to be pittied in this poorer sort of People to see how diligently and industriously they take all opportunities and occasions they can to meet with to Drink which if it chance to be of free cost they run to it with such greediness as if they were but so many Bruit Beasts in the shape of Men and so overload their Stomachs with it that in fine they seem and do worse than Beasts being forc'd to vomit and cast up what they have so much beyond measure and so intemperately taken in and having a little eas'd themselves O the shameful insatiableness of a wicked Appetite they fall to their Drink again and again to their Vomit Add hereunto that when they are thus elevated as they call it and overcome with Drink if they be capable to speak nothing comes out of their Mouth but what is seconded with Oaths one upon another or with some other cursed filthy and blasphemous Speech without end singing and roaring in such manner as if they were already in Hell making up an horrid Consort with the Damned Souls who roar day and night as these also do through the extremity and misery of their perpetual Torments Sect. 5. The Drunkenness of Youth What shall we say of the Debauch and ill-manners of the Youth of this present age Verily we must say it is corrupted in the highest degree almost that can be expressed and that if God ever had just occasion to drown all Mankind for the Sin of Carnal Concupisence he hath it now in such manner and to such a height of provocation as it is to be admir'd how his merciful goodness can forbear a second deluge the Youth of this present age being not only deeep-sunk in the filthy mire of Concupiscence and wallowing in all manner of carnal Lusts but extreamly also over-gone with this horrid sinful Vice of Debauch and Drunkenness The great want of good Education contributes much to this evil which is such that youth have no sooner attained the use of Reason and Discretion but they are ready to follow the Broad-way of Sensuality and Sin falling into lewd company and from them learning the practice and getting the ill custom of Intemperate Drinking How prone this age of Man viz. Youth is to sins of intemperance appears sufficiently in the Parable of the Prodigal Son mention'd in Saint Luk's Gospel Chap. 15. v. 12. This young Sot wanting wherewithal to satisfy his Carnal Sensuality in Drinking and Whoring 't is the case of too many in this our unhappy age becomes discontent therewith and impatient of delay never leaves importtuning his too indulgent Father that he would forthwith give him his portion and let him use it as himself thought good The Father consents to his desire and divides betwixt him and his Elder Brother his whole Substance The young Prodigal over-joyed at this and little fore-seeing the sad miseries that were to befal him nor those Quagmires of Dangers and Distress which his Sins and his Folly would ere long bring him into makes no delay but taking his whole portion with him leaves his Fathers House and departs into a far Countrey where being at full liberty to unbridle his Carnal Appetite he falls into all manner of Excess and Wickedness so that in a short time he had spent and wasted all his Substance with riotous living Upon which there being also a great Famine in that Land he presently fell into want and was forced to make himself Servant to a certain man of that Country who set him to keep his Swine In which condition his hunger was so great and his misery so extream that he would fain have filled his belly with the husks which the Swine did eat but could not Behold here in this Young Prodigal the sad issue which riot and intemperance brings young men unto Behold I say and Beware Hitherto we have seen his misery What the final event was and what succeeded to him when he came to himself and saw his errour we shall have some fitter occasion to shew hereafter SECTION II. The Motives to with-draw all Christians from the Excesses of Meat and Drink
SECT 1. The Sobriety of the Patriarchs and Prophets 2. The Sobriety of the Apostles and other Religious Christians 3. The Sobriety of divers great Kings and Eminent Philosophers 4. The Sobriety of some Pagans Ethnicks and Infidels Sect. 1. The Sobriety of the Patriarchs and Prophets HAving in the precedent Discourses represented to you in some measure the Excesses which are daily committed by several sorts of people in Meat and Drink and the great Inconveniencies and Mischiefs which follow upon them both to Body and Soul it behoves us now to offer you such Motives and Considerations as we judge may be most effectual to with-draw you from the said Excesses and to work in you a love of Temperance and Sobriety not forgetting also to mention some remedies against the above said Vices all to the intent that good Christians may avoid the same and God be more honoured by their Vertuous Lives and Conversations The First Motive which I now think of and shall propound against Gluttony is that we attentively consider and reflect with our selves upon the strict Abstinence and Sobriety which the Prophets and all those ancient Fathers of the Old Law did use Good Examples are apt to work upon Good minds Now truly so many Prophets so many great Observers there were and Practisers of Sobriety being therein the Avantguards as it were and Forerunners to those Armies of Ascetiques which were to succeed them under the Law of Grace Amongst those of the Old Law was Moses the Law-giver a great President and Example of Sobriety of whom it is said in the Book of Exodus Chap. 24. v. 18. Ingressus medium nebulae Moses ascendit in Montem fuit ibi quadraginta diebus quadraginta noctibus c. That Moses entring into the midst of the Cloud went up to the Mount to wit Mount Horeb whither God calleâ— him and remained there Forty Dayes and Forty Nights without any manner of Food neitheâ— eating Bread nor drinking Water as himself testifies Deut. 9. v. 9. after which Abstinence and Sobriety he merited the Society Presence and Familiarity of God and to be made the great Law-giver of Israel â— God Almighty speaking unto him and informing him of what both he and all the Children of Israel were to do and perform pertaining to Divine Service and Worship Who was more Sober and Abstemious than Elias the Prophet who in obedience to Gods Will and Commandement went into the Desart and dwelt by the Brook Cherith over against Jordan during which time he had nothing to eat but what the Ravens by the special appointment of God brought him morning and evening his Drink being the water of the Brook 3 Reg. 17. 3 4 5 c. After some time of his abode here the Brook dried up for want of rain and then necessity compelled him to change his habitation So by the inspiration of God he cometh first to Sarephta and is there maintain'd by a poor Widow whose whole sustance was a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oyle in a cruise upon which through Divine Benediction both he she and her Son lived the space of some years v. 15. after this flying the persecution of Queen Jesabel and resting himself under a Juniper Tree in the Wilderness an Angel of God comes to him being asleep and bids him Rise and eat for he had a great journey to go Thus we read of him 3 Reg. 19. v. 6 7 8. c. so he arose and finding at his head a Cake baked on the coals with a pot of water he did both eat and drink and went his way with such courage and alacrity that in the strength of that meal only he continued his Journey for the space of forty dayes anâ— forty nights together without any nourishment till he came to Horeb the Mount of God Observe here â— pray you how expresly the Scripture mentions that the Angel of God brought Elias Bread and Water for his refection a Cake of bread and a cruise of water and nothing else If your curiosity moves you to know the reason seeing the Angel could as easily have brought him other meat to eat and some other liquor to drink more delicious and more pleasing to the palate yea and entertain'd him with varity too if he had pleas'd the only reason of this without question was Because Bread and Water were the usual Meat and Drink of the Prophets they liv'd not upon delicacies and dainties they drunk not much Wine but used such a repast as became Men that professed Temperance and Sobriety What shall I say of the wonderful Abstinence and Sobriety of the Prophet Daniel and his three Companions who though they liv'd in the Court of that great King the King of Babilon and were so favoured that they might have freely tasted and taken their fill of all the Dainâ—ies and Varieties of Meats and Drinks which that Court afforded â—et neither this holy Prophet nor any of his three Brethren would receive the least portion of them but contented themselves with Pulse and Water For so we read Dan. 1. v. 8 9 12 c. Proposuit Daniel in corde suo ne pollueretur de mensa regis de vino ejus c. Daniel had proposed with himself that he would not be polluted with the Portion of the Kings Meat nor with the Wine which he drank and to that end made it his earnest request to the Governour of the Eunuchs with whom he was in favour that he might have the priviledge to abstain from the Meat that came from the Kings Table fearing as the Annotations rightly observe in the first place least otherwise he should happen to eat that which had been offered to Idols Secondly for fear he should eat Meat forbidden by the Law of Moses Thirdly for fear that by such delicate Diet as came from the Kings Table he might be provok't to Gluttony or to any other Sins The Prophet Ezechiel may likewise rightly be put in the rank of these Temperate and Abstemious Prophets since he not only loved and practized the same but exhorted others thereto as may be seen in the Scripture For what concerns his own Practice and Observation thereof we may take notice what is said to him by God Ezek. 4. v. 9. Sume tibi frumentum hordeum fabam lentem c. Take thee Wheat and Barley Beans and Lentils Millet and Fitches and put them in one Vessel and make thee Loaves or Bread thereof according to the days of thy Captivity for three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat of the same and by measure shalt thou eat from time to time What shall I say of the Sobriety of the Rechabites mentioned by the Prophet Hieremy Chap. 35. v. 6 7 8 c. who to observe the Command of Jonadab the Son of Rechab their Father drank no Wine nor planted Vineyard all their days they nor their Wives their Sons nor their Daughters Finally what shall I say of all the
for though it be raw and small yet I will drink it for this once Then stretching his hand towards Heaven he said as above To thee O God I drink in a full Glass c. and haven taken it clean off he said agian O God if you do not find this Wine good blame not me for if you had afforded us better Wine this year I had drunk to you of the best Having spoke these words he fell immediately down headlong upon the place and so lay not stirring Hand or Foot void of all his Senses and Reason his Speech gone and no motion to be perceiv'd in any part of him save only in his Eyes which mov'd continually His Companion dismayed at the sad Prodigy which had befallen his Comerade gets him away in all haste and leaves him The People of the House use all the endeavour they can to remove him from the place where he lay but all 's in vain They call for help and send for the Magistrate and Chief of the Town who presently came and resolved that he should be tied with Ropes and drawn away by force this was also in vain In conclusion they all perceiv'd that it was an extraordinary Judgment of God inflicted upon him for his Sin and to terrifie others Then they resolve to consume him by Fire but the Fire will not burn So he remained in this manner a long time Alive not stirring Hand or Foot without his Speech and without receiving any sustenance of Meat or Drink doubtless to serve and be an Example of Terrours to all such Sinners as he was and at last died miserably SECTION IV. Drunkenness or the Excess of Meat or Drink causeth several Sins SECT 1. Drunkenness the Original of several Sins 2. It is a dangerous Storm to the Body 3. It raises a furious Tempest in the Tongue 4. It is the Wrack of Chastity Sect. 1. Drunkenness the Origin of several Sins THe Devil the Immortal Enemy of Mankind knowing full well that the Sin of Drunkenness is one of the most odious abominable and destable before God as containing so many Deformities and being perpetually attended more or less with so many Ill Consequences so many horrible Sins of which it is the Spawn and Seed ceaseth not every day to tempt Mankind thereâ—o till they be overthrown by it This I shall make to appear by the Example that follows bing a matâ—er of undoubted Truth and menâ—ioned by several Authors of great Credit and Estimation as namely Saint Hierome Saint Bonaventure and other Learned Divines who have attested the same by several â—eports It happened that a Young Gentleman was very much troubled with a continual Temptation of Carnal Concupiscence relating to sundry Objects by means of whom he was in danger to offend God For several years he remained firm and constant in his Duty to God yet not without being extreamly troubled with the frequent encounters which he had with Satan and beginning in some manner to doubt of the issue and whether he should not in fine be conquer'd through his assiduous Assaults Being at a time in some great perplexity of mind upon this occasion the Devil appears to him in Humane Shape and promises him he shoulâ— be instantly set free of all other Temptations and Perturbations whatsoever if he would chuse to commâ—â— but any one of these Three followinâ— Sins to wit Drunkenness Wiâ—ful-murther or Adultery The poâ—â— unfortunate Man willing to be râ—â— once for all of so many troublesoâ—â— Agitations of Mind and tedious Contests as he was daily subject to yield so far to Satans Suggestion as to consider of the Proposition made him and as for Wilful Murther he apprehended it to be such a horrid Sin in Gods Sight that he would not in any sort think of committing that Sin but abhorr'd and detested it with all earnestness The like Sentiments he had concerning Adultery resolving rather to die than to transgress the Commandment of God and do his Neighbour such wrong But as for Drunkenness seeing it to be the common Practice of so many he took that to be but a Venial Sin or an act of Humane Frailty and so made no great Conscience of it but struck up the Bargain with the Devil and consented to be Drunk thinking that to be the least Sin Time and Place is appointed the Devil and he fall to it stoutly and in conâ—lusion the Poor Man is overcome with Drink as the Devil would have it But see the malice of Satan and the mischief of Drunkenness The Man no sooner began to be a little elevated with Drink but his mind was after the Woman of the House to lust after her which Satan perceiving and knowing he was now by reason of his Drunkenness in a condition unable to resist his Temptations plies him so that he consents to commit Adultery with that Woman and being accidentally surpriz'd and taken in the Fact by the Husband to avoid the penalty of Law which was likely to be inflicted upon him by the Husbands procurement he suddenly sets upoâ— him and kills him in the same place Thus by the event of this sad Example you see how he that thought tâ— have chosen the least Sin chose thâ— greatest so dangerous a thing it â—â— to chuse any Sin even the smallest and saw himself involved in the mâ—â— heinous and execrable of Sins aâ— all this caused by the Sin of Druâ—kenness Sect. 2. Drunkenness a dangerous storm to the Body Drunkenness may be well describ'd a most dangerous storm to the Body for as a Boat or some small Vessel at Sea in a storm is tossed to and fro by the motion of the Waves so is it with the Drunkard he is in like manner tossed to and fro by the force of his Drink and this not more outwardly in Body than inwardly in mind His Body reels not more than his Braines as his Body staggers so his mind is not steady but continually agitated with various and contrary Phantasms which draw him first to this vain or sinful Object then to that which the Wise Solomon hath long since well observed comparing him for this â—eason to a Man sleeping upon the Waves at Sea Eris saith he speakâ—ng unto and instructing a Drunâ—ard sicut dormiens in medio mari c. Thou shalt be like to one that sleeps in the midst of the Sea or as the Pilot of a Ship who through slumber has lost his hold The Holy Father Saint Chrysostom extends himself more at large upon this Simile comparing the Drunkard to a Ship at Sea that is over-laden which in a Tempest is soon cast away So saith he is the case of every one that is overcharged with Meat and Drink that have taken in a greater lading of these things than Nature requires or can well bear none are more subject to be cast away Body and Soul Most certain it is that when a Ship is over-laden especially when the Sea is tempestuous or stormy that neither the
unadvisedly run into those extravagancies and excesses as will infallibly bring great disorder and harm both to Body and Soul if they stop not in time and that the mischief be not prevented by better resolutions Such for the most part are those that haunt Taverns and Alehouses to their great prejudice they expose themselves to all the perils and dangers that usually attend those places which are not few nor of small importance Besides if we call those Naturals who want the use of reason be it by birth by sickness or by any other accident with how much more reason may we stile them so that wilfully and of their own accord will lose their Senses will deprive themselves of the use of Reason Understanding Memory that will voluntarily disable their bodily limbs and render them useless and unserviceable as namely their hands feet c. Can we think such worthy of the name of Reasonable Men yet all this do the Drunkards They for a time disable themselves both as to body and mind they for a time deprive themselves of Reason Understanding Memory Senses they for a time unman themselves and become meer Beasts in the shape of men So that it may seem a Solicism even to call them Naturals They deserve not so good a name doing things so contrary unto and beneath the Dignity of Humane Nature And well it were for them if the want and loss for a time of their Understanding Reason and Senses their being so justly rank'd and compar'd to Beasts with the other corporal prejudices which they suffer for a time could satisfie for their folly and redeem them from further harm But alas it will not The Drunkard is not more odious in the sight of man than he is in the sight of God when he lies like a Beast in his drunkenness vomiting and spewing when he can neither stand nor go he is not more despised by men than he is by Angels Saints and all the Celestial Court of Heaven And a wise custom it was of the Lacedemonians who as 't is reported of them would often shew to their Children drunken men in their fits of drunkenness to the end they might learn betimes to hate and abhor that wicked sin For without doubt there 's nothing more apt to make drunkenness abhorr'd and detested than to observe the filthy and beastly behaviour both in word and deed of those whose Brains are distemper'd and their Stomachs overcharg'd with excess of Wine Sect. 2. Drunkenness makes Men worse than bruit Beasts According to our Seraphical Doctor S. Bonaventure Drunkards are more senseless and unreasonable than bruit Beasts because Bruits do all things according to kind and as their Nature requires whereas Drunkards do all things contrary to and otherwise then their Nature requires of them and the Opinion of that Saint is fully confirm'd by Saint Peter 2 Pet. 2. 13 14 c. where speaking of the Sodomites who were People given to this and all other kinds of lewd Intemperance calls them Irrationabilia pecora unreasonable Bruit Beasts made to be taken and destroyed walking after the Flesh in the Lust of Vncleanness and making a further description of them he saith they count it pleasure or sport to riot in the day time and sport themselves with their own mis-doings while they Feast it having Eyes full of Adultry and that cannot cease from Sin alluring unstable Souls having their hearts exercised with covetous Practices Children of Malediction leaving the right way they follow the way of Balaam the Son of Bosor who loved the reward of Iniquity But received a châ—ck for his Madness the dumb Beast under the Yoke speaking with Mans Voice and forbidding the Madness of the Prophet Thus largely doth the Apostle by the Spirit of God descant upon the wickedness of intemperate lewd People shewing thereby how much worse they are by reason of their Vices than the Beasts of the Field They are in another respect also worse The Brute Beasts have a sense and tenderness at least for those ef their own kind and be moved if not to help them yet to shew a compassion or fellow-sufferance with them Gluttons and Drunkards have no such sense or feeling for those of their kind They are wholly insensible of the wants and miseries of their poor Neighbour Dives his Dogs had more Humanity towards poor Lazarus than their Master His Cruelty shut the poor Beggar out of Doors but the Dogs came and licked his Sores Luc. 16. 21. The Prophet Amos makes the same Observation or Complaint of the Drunkards in his time namely How hard-hearted they were and incompassionate towards such as needed compassion spending largely and superfluously upon themselves but finding nothing to bestow upon the Poor They drink Wine in Bowls saith the Prophet they annoint themselves with the best Ointments but Super contritione Joseph for the Afflictions of Joseph they have no sense no compassion Wine and Drunkenness take away their Heart from being acquainted with any such Thoughts and as Beasts in their Eating and Drinking follow meerly their Appetite without Discretion or Consideration of any thing else so do Drunkards and Gluttons they regard neither time nor season if their Appetite invites nor manner nor measure so long as it pleases their Palate it shall down as long they are able to Swallow never asking the question whether it be necessary or no but seeking only to fulfil their greedy Appetites with all the variety and superfluity of delicious Meats and Strong-drinks they can procure Seneca stiles such as these Abdomini Servientes Belly Slaves and puts them in the rank of Beasts for that reason rejecting them from the society of Men as being unworthy of that Name and truly much less worthy of the name of Christians Sect. 3. Drunkenness causeth the want of necessary Provisions This Subject will not be very hard to be made appear since we see it almost by daily Experience that Riot and Drunkenness consumes the Estates of all it impoverishes the Gentry it wastes the Stock and Riches of the Merchant and brings to want many Able Persons as well in City as Country and to absolute misery such as are of themselves Poor and have nothing but honest industry and frugality to maintain them for of such the saying of Solomon appears to be most true Ecclus 19. 1. Operarius ebriosus non locupletabitur A Workman who is a Drunkard shall not be Rich. It is needless to bring Arguments to verifie this Matter and to prove it by Examples seems less necessary since the pressing wants and needy Condition of so many known Drunkards and Ale-house-haunters as are in all Cities and Towns of Note may sufficiently satisfie us of the Truth hereof And though these Pot-companions should flatly deny this viz. that their Poverty proceeds from their Drunkenness and mis-spending their Time and Money in Ale-houses and should attribute the same to Sickness the Wars Fire Water or other Accidents yet the daily Clamours Lamentations and
to which Saint Paul reckons Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Murther Envying c. among the Works and Sins of the Flesh no less than Adultery and Fornication So that in this sense every Voluptuous Man as the Drunkard and Glutton and every one that takes pleasure in sin may be said to be a Carnal or Sensual Man and that Carnal Concupiscence reigns in him and according to Plutarch and such Authors he is put into the Rank of Sensual and Voluptuous Persons not who haunts Brothel-houses or defiles his Neighbours Wife but he that is sluggish in weighty Matters that neglects the good of the Common-wealth when his place requires him to attend it that omits to perform the Officâ— of a good Parent or good Friend when there is just occasion to shew himself such But we take Carnal Concupiscences here in the strictest sense as signifying that particular sort of Concupiscence or Fleshly Lust which tends unto and is exercised in the unlawful Conjunction of Man and Woman to wit in Adultery Fornication Incest c. or in some other Actions of Affinity and like Nature with these This is of all kinds of Voluptuous and Carnal Concupiscence the most Unclean the most Filthy the most Vile and most Pernicious being stiled even by the very Heathen Philosophers and others a Furious and Raging Passion which corrupts â—he Senses of Men and like a Burnâ—ng Flame wastes and consumes more or less all Mankind Hippocrates according to the Relation of Peter de la Primauday Master of the French Academy asâ—erts that Carnal Copulation hath a â—ery great Affinity and participates â—ot a little in Nature with the Disease called Epilepsie or in the Common English Expression the Falling-Sickness and according to the same Author together with divers other Physicians there is nothing held more certain in Physick than that the immoderate use of Venerous Pleasure spoiles the Natural Beauty defiles the Body causing it to Stink and Corrupt dries up the Natural Moisture overmuch which is the Foundation of Life makes the Face Pale Wan and to look Yellow weakens the Limbs and Joynts ingendreth the Sciatica Gouts Collick Griefs and Pains of the Stomach Passions Lipothymical as Swoonings Faintings Giddiness of the Head Dimness of the Sight and that which is worst of all the Leprosie of the Pox it shortens Life and impairs both the Mind Understanding and Memory very much finally according to the Prophet Osee Chap. 4. v. 11. it takes away the Heart from God and from all Good Fornicatio Vinum Ebrietas auferunt cor What can be more said to make a Vice odious to all that regard God or themselves or that desire to enjoy Health of Soul or Body How detestable therefore ought it to be unto us How should we hate and abhor all Adulteries Fornications Incests and all other Violations of Chastity which ought not to be so much as named amongst Christians according to that Commandment of the Apostle Ephes 5. v. 3. Fornicatio autem omnis immunditia c. But Fornication and all Vncleanness let it not be once named among you as becometh Saints knowing that no Whore-monger nor Vnclean Person hath any Inberitance in the Kingdom of God What Curses are there threatned by God against this foul Sin Search the Scripture and it will tell you Under the Law of Moses it was Death Deut. 22. 21. The Prophets proclaim all manner of Judgments against it witness that alone of the Prophet Hieremy speaking in the Person of God against those high-handed sinners who assembled themselves by Troops in Harlots Houses and were like Fed-Horses every one after his Neighbours Wife Shall I not visit for such things as these saith he and shall not my Soul be avenged on such a People as this Jer. 5. 7 8 9. Doubtless he will be avenged and so the Apostle assures us saying Heb. 13. 4. Honorabile connubium in omnibus c. Marriage is Honourable with all and the Bed that is Vndefiled But Whoremongers and Adulterers God will Judge God himself will be their Judge first or last let them look to it if they escape Temporal Punishment he hath the Flames of an Eternal Fire ready for them which they shall never escape It was this Sin that brought Fire and Brimstone from Heaven upon the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah Gen. 19. 13. It was this Sin that brought a Plague upon the People of Israel in the Wilderness whereby Twenty four thousand of them and more were in an instant as it were swept away 1 Cor. 10. 8. and the Wrath of God was so incensed against them that had it not been for the Holy Zeal and Prayer of Phineas the Son of Aaron the High Priest he had destroyed them utterly as we may read Numb 25. How hurtful and dangerous a thing then is it to suffer these Carnal and Fleshly Appetites to reign in us considering how vehemently they draw us to the Practice of those things which bring Destruction upon Body and Soul From this vile sin it comes that Men abuse themselves so much beneath the Dignity of their Sex as to submit both their Bodies and Souls to the unconstant will and lawless desires of a dishonest Woman which we see by too frequent and sad Experience in many Persons who forgetting at once both Conscience and Honour are so bewitched with the inveiglements of some lewd Women their Whore or Concubine that if she commands or desires it they are ready to hazard all that they can hazard Life Liberty Reputation c. to give her content yea so far are they oft-times transported with this damnable wicked blind desperate passion that in fine they make themselves an Example to a whole Kingdom or Country upon an open Scaffold and yet this is called Love These lewd and wicked people cover their vile and unlawful affections with the holy name of Love which where it is rightly such is always grounded upon Vertue and is the Cement not of lustful and wanton amorousness but of loyal and honest-amity and friendship The love of Carnal Concupiscence is not true love but lust an unlawful passion or affection grounded upon the apprehension of some pleasing but false good which will in the end be found a most real and pernicious evil from which God deliver us Sect. 2. Carnal Concupiscence infecteth the whole World By what hath been said above you will have learnt in a general way how that Carnal Concupiscence when 't is immoderately and unlawfully yielded unto causeth much harm and many Diseases both of Body and Soul to Mankind Our endeavour is next to be by declaring some particularities to make this truth further to appear namely that the World at present is and hath ever been from time to time through all Ages generally infected corrupted and poyson'd as it were with this contagious Vice According to the Seraphical Doctor S. Bonaventure in the first beginnings of the World this disease prevailed so much upon men and caused so great
distempers both of Flesh and Spirit in those Inhabitants of the Old World that Gods Service was generally neglected and all manner of wickedness and lewdness so practised that Almighty God did therefore resolve to bring that general Deluge upon the whole World and by a Flood of Waters at once to drown and destroy all Mankind of which we read Gen. 6th and 7th Chapters Noah only who was righteous before God Ch. 7. 1. and his Family being saved And yet notwithstanding this general washing the World could not be so totally purified and cleansed but that the filthiness of this sin beside so many others still remains and sticks to the Posterity of Noah unto this day all Mankind generally speaking and all the Nations of the Earth labouring under it in a most sickly and weak condition and many absolutely perishing by means thereof The World still abounds with lewd persons walking in the lusts of Concupiscence notwithstanding that the blessed S. Paul so expresly warns and threatens them with death for it Rom. 8. 13. Si enim secundum carnem vixeritis moriemini c. If you live according to the lusts and sensualities of the flesh ye shall die all of you without exception which S. Hierome in his Comment upon this place of the Apostle confirms saying that Whosoever living in the body useth Carnal Copulation with any out of lawful Wedlock at the same instant he dies spiritually and perishes as to the life of his Soul Hugo that Worthy Author reflecting seriously upon the infectious nature of this Disease could not forbear crying out in this manner Who is able to recount the particular infections and pestilent strength of Carnal Concupiscence who is able to conceive the mischief it hath done in all times and still continues to do unto this day This it was that drowned the whole World this it was that destroyed Sodom and Gomorra with the adjacent Countries by Fire from Heaven this it was that turned those fertile and pleasant Lands into a stinking and poysonous Lake It was Concupiscence that slew the Sichemites and destroyed their City Genes 34. 26 27 c. It was Concupiscence that rooted out almost the whole Tribe of Benjamin from among their Brethren for the sake of a Woman This destroyed in the Wars with the Philistims the Sons of Heli the High-Priest This procur'd the death though und eserved of Vrias the Husband of Bethsabee This murthered Amnon the Son of David This brought his Fathers Curse upon Reuben the Eldest Son of Jacob instead of his Blessing It was Concupiscence that betrayed Sampson first into the power of a Harlot and by her means soon after into the hands of his Enemies This ston'd to death many under the Ancient Law of Moses So that in fine it is most true what the wise Man saith Eccles 9. 9. Propter speciem mulieris multi perierunt through the beauty of Women and their lusting after it many have perished For which reason it is that our blessed Saviour in the Gospel Mat. 5. v. 29. doth so absolutely and strictly forbid the looking after Women with any lustful or unchaste affections pronouncing that whosoever doth so is guilty of Adultery though he never perpetrates the outward act of that sin with any person Ego autem dico vobis c. But I saith he tell you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath already committed Adultery with her in his heart The Adulterous Woman is in this respect like the Serpent called the Basilisk whose Eyes are said to dart such a poyson as kills the beholder forthwith and for that reason if we love our Souls we are to avoid the very sight of such lewd Creatures as much as may be but upon no terms or for any reason whatever to admit of private and familiar conversation with them Qui tetigerit picem inquinabitur ab ea saith the Wise Man Eccles 13. 1. He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith and he that keeps Company with dishonest persons will soon learn to be like them Can a man carry Coals in his Bosom and not be burnt by them No more is it possible to frequent the society of unchaste people without prejudice to Chastity A muliere iniquitas viri from the company of naughty Women Men become naught as the Moth proceeds from the Garment All which is agreeable to the sense of the holy Fathers teaching that all fleshly sensualities of this kind how pleasing soever they seem are but a delicious poyson swallowed with much ease but working direful effects afterward an Epidemical Plague raging amongst men of which many die and all languish all even the whole Race of Mankind some few only excepted being much weakened in point of spiritual strength and their spirit and courage to all good much abated by it Sect. 3. Carnal Concupiscence detestable to God therefore to be avoided Pleasure is the Bait by which the Ghostly Enemy catcheth Souls as Fishes are caught by a Hook and not without great reason For Pleaâ—ure generally speaking but more â—specially the pleasure of the Flesh â—or Carnal Concupiscence is a thing which darkens the light of the Soul â—ot letting her see or perceive the â—ook that is under the Bait that is the great and long pain which attends the short pleasure it hinders all good counsel and all good thoughts that come to mind from taking place and through its luscious inticements turns men quite out of the way of Vertue and throws them headlong into the Gulph or into the bottomless Pit of Sin and Wickedness which renders it a most abominable Vice and in some respects more than all other Vices detestable in Gods sight because there is no Vice that doth so debase the dignity of mans Nature and violate the Prerogative of his Creation as this Vice of Lust oâ— Carnal Concupiscence doth Shalâ— we look any further into the nature of this pleasure Yes the better to avoid and hate the same by considering the cursed Fruit it brings forth it may be expedient to do so The definition of Carnal Concupiscence according to Divines is to this effect Luxuria est impurae â—ibidinosae voluptatis inordinatus apâ—etitus Carnal Concupiscence is noâ—hing else but an inordinate appeâ—ite and desire of Venereous or lustâ—ul pleasure which kind of pleaâ—ure though it tickles and affects the â—enses much for the present yet most commonly it leaves behind it â—ather matter of repentance and reâ—orse than of remembring again â—ith delight For how many unâ—appy Souls Men and Women have â—y means of this vile pleasure unâ—awfully and immoderately pursued â—allen into great inconveniencies conâ—racting grievous and loathsom disâ—ases and ruining themselves both â—oul and Body What prejudice hath â— not done to mens Estate What â—orrows I speak here onely in a â—orldly sense what affliction and â—isturbance of mind hath it not cauâ—ed yea what sottishness what loss â—f wonted wisdom and sound judgâ—ent have not proceeded from it How
by the Evangelist condemn them for what he knew them to be But to us the inward secrets of the Heart are covered and unknown and therefore where we see outward appearances and shews of good though they be in reality no better than those of the Pharisees Hypocritical and seigned we ought to judge the best and not hastily to censure or condemn them for Hypocrites or to suspect them for unchaste persons Fornicators Adulterers or Sinners in any other kind We are to judge charitably of every one especially where there is no Evidence to the contrary and to think and speak of them according to the good which we see and not according to the evil which we see not To reassume therefore our chief purpose I say that if Christ our Saviour according to the Evangelist reprehends so severely and even curseth those that only entertain and foster Carnal Concupiscence in their hearts though they proceed not to the outward acts of that foul sin how much are they to be reprehended and reprov'd and what Curses are due to them that give themselves up to the acts of filthy Lust abounding in all kinds of Carnal Sensuality and committing uncleanness even with greediness as the Scripture speaks of them being wholly defiled in their thoughts in their words and in their deeds that are become impudent in sin taking pride and even glorying in that which is most vile This made the Apostle complain writing to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 5. 1. Omnino auditur inter vos Fornicatio c. There is plainly heard talk of Fornication among you and of such Fornication as is not found amongst the Heathen And hereof they were so far from being asham'd or sorrowful for as they ought that they even bragg'd and boasted of it as appears v. 2. Inflati estis instead of being humbled for your sin ye are puffed up you swell with pride and vain-glory upon that account and v. 6. Haec gloriatio vestra non est bona Your glorying herein is not good This was their sinful condition but the Apostle took such a course with them as soon brought them to a better posture of mind and so should the Pastours of the Church now do if the Spirit of true Apostolical Zeal and Charity were strong and vigorous in them and not suffer this vile passion to reign and rage amongst those that are called Christians so as it does even to such a height of insolency and impudence as to contemn and brow-beat all Authority both Divine and Humane that should repress it Wherefore to avoid the curses and maledictions pronounced against this Sin follow the counsel of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 6. v. 18. Fly Fornication abominate the practice of all carnal vileness whatsoever For as much as every sin that a man sinneth ordinarily speaking is out of the Body that is it is exercised and done by the abuse of some external or outward thing not pertaining to the Body whereas he that commits Fornication or any other Carnal Villany sinneth against and abuseth his own Body he does that which is oft-times very hurtful and prejudicial to the health and sanity of his body and also commits sacriledge in violating the Temple of God For the Body of every faithful Christian is Gods Temple the habitation of the Holy Ghost a thing which Christ our Lord with that price of his precious bloud hath purchased for his own possession according as the Apostle testifieth in the same place v. 19 20. An nescitis Do ye not know saith he that your Body is the Temple of the H. Ghost who dwelleth in you which ye have of God and that ye are not your own to use and dispose of your Body as you list For ye are bought with a price Christ hath purchased you Body and Soul with his own Blood Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods Will you take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid What can be more unworthy of your selves and injurious to God! So that by all it appears what a great and heinous sin Fornication is and considering that the right of our bodies in so many respects belongs wholly to God it also appears how much we are bound not to abuse our bodies by any kind of forbidden filthiness but to keep them pure and entire to God in all Chastity and Holiness glorifying God in them and casting away the works of darkness to live and converse chastely soberberly and devoutly in this present world as the Apostle requires Tit. 2. 12. knowing and having alwayes in remembrance what the same Apostle likewise saith Ephes 5. 5. That no Adulterer no Fornicator or Vnclean person hath inheritance in the Kingdom of God No they are to be shut out Witness Christ himself in the Apocalypse chap. 22. 15. Without shall be Dogs Whoremongers Sorcerers c. Their portion is to be in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone for ever chap. 21. 8. unless they repent which on bended Knees every day we beg that God would give them the grace to do Sect. 6. A Serious Admonition to Sensual Livers Let not so much good counsel given by the Apostles Evangelists Ancient Fathers and others be as water spilt upon the ground or words spoken in vain Let us reflect seriously and consider how much it behoves us to cleanse and purify our selves from the filthiness of the Flesh with the tears of true contrition and penitence How should we drown our hearts in floods of Godly sorrow and Sighings for all the sinful and vile pleasures we have taken and for all the wicked and foul actions that we have committed in this kind against God our Neighbour and our Selves How should we abhorre and detest all thought all desire all memory and imagination concerning those vile and beastly sensualities which we have heretofore hunted after and pursued with all greediness of uncleane appetite How should we hate with what solicitude ought we to declaime and avoid those hooks those baits of Lusâ— and Sensuality whereby Satan drawâ— so many souls unto him every day to their eternal perdition Carnal Concupiscence what is it but the Mother of all Sin the spawâ— of all wickedness Wantonness of thâ— Flesh what is it but the sting of Deatâ— Lust what is it but Nurse to thâ— worme which never dieth and Fâ—â—el to those Eternal Flames which for the present sootheth men with the pretence of pleasure and delight agreable to corrupt Nature but after a short time strangling and empoysoning their souls it makes them repent for ever Thou shalt mourn at the last saith Solomon speaking unto and instructing a Brothel-hunter when it is too late when thy Flesh and thy Body are consumed then thou shalt mourn and say How have I hated instruction and my heart dispised reproof and Sap. 5. 7. they are brought in making their fruitless moans one to another in these words Lassati sumus c. We
when they are in Bed or at the Table in consulting their Looking-glasses combing and plating their false Hair or some other way trimming and making themselves fine The Devils second Daughter was called Vsury and her he bestowed upon Citizens Burghers of Great Towns and some Rich Chubs in the Country that look't after her His Third call'd Felony and Robbery he bestowed upon Highway-men casheer'd Souldiers and Cadets Men commonly of high Spirits but low Fortune His fourth Daughter call'd Simony he commended to certain Church-men whom he knew much more willing to hold the place than to discharge the Office of a Bishop Cure c. The fifth called Hypocrisie he bestowed upon Bigots and Professors a sort of People successors to the Old Pharisies in outward behaviour and Shew very Demure and Seeming-Good but inwardly in Heart and private Practice far otherwise His sixth a Meager Girl call'd Envy he could not tell what to do withal she was so ill favour'd that he thought none would receive her unless she could change her Countenance so he sent her to the Universities to be bred up â—mongst Young Students whose Emulations pass for Vertues and are not counted Vice till they be come â—o full Age. His seventh was named Luxury or Carnal Lust and her he bestowed upon all sorts of People knowing that she would be welcome to all of what condition soever and to Women as well as to Men. You will easily moralize the Fable and learn by it how general and over-spreading this sin is and that whereas other Vices are as it were peculiar and proper to some persons and more frequently observed in some sort of People than in others the Vice of Lust and Carnal Concupiscence possesses all sorts pursues and molests all sorts and finally masters and prevails upon all sorts insomuch that as I have already intimated above it is the Opinion of some Considerative and Good Men exercised in the Care and Conduct of Souls that by means thereof our Ghostly Enemy intraps and gains more Souls than he does by any other or even by all other kind of sin notwithstanding it is so expresly forbidded by God and so much spoken against by all that ever spake to the World in Gods Name that is to say by Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Evangelists Ancient Fathers Bishops and all Good Pastours of the Church Avoid it therefore repent of your sin break off your abominable custom of sinning as many as are concern'd in what I speak least ye perish with the rest Sect. 2. By Carnal Concupiscence the Temple of God is defiled Domum tuam decet sanctitudo Domine in longitudinem dierum Psalm 92. 5. Of the Temple of God the Psalmist saith Holiness becometh thy House O Lord for ever And the Apostle adds 1 Cor. 3. 16. Siquis templum Dei violave rit c. If a Man defile the Temple of the Lord him shall God destroy That which is Holy must not be profan'd and when it happens to be so God threatens to vindicate the Profanation Now we have been taught above that our Bodies no less than our Souls are the Temple of God even of the Holy Spirit The Apostle tells us so 1 Cor. 6. 19. Know ye not that your Bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in you Doubtless therefore to defile this Body of ours by Lust and Uncleanness must needs be a great and grievous sin Why Because it is a great and grievous Violation of Gods Temple which is a thing so Holy and whereof he is so tender and chary that it be kept Holy Upon this Ground the Holy Doctor Saint Augustin observing to his great grief and sorrow so many of his People addicted to Carnal Concupiscence and plunging themselves daily in the deep mire of Lust he could not refrain crying out in his Admonition to them and saying What do you mean ye unhappy ones what do you intend to do with the Temple of God which you do so pollute and profane by your lustful Concupiscence It would trouble you much you would be offended if a Church Chappel or any other Place dedicated to Gods Worship and Service should be taken and made a Brothel-house or Stews a place for the publickly-known and free committing of Adultery Fornication and other like Carnal Lasciviousness You would think it hugely strange to see the Actions of wicked unlawful voluptuousness openly perpetrated and done in any part of the Sanctuary You would be ready to say What can be compared to such Wickedness to such abominable Practices And truly you judge not amiss for nothing can be more detestable in the sight of God than to see his Holy Temple so hrribly polluted and profaned But why then will you not remember why will you not lay to heart what the Apostle tells you 1 Cor. 3. 16. Templum Deo es tu You your selves are the Temple of God Your Bodies and Souls are the Temples of Holy Ghost wherein he delighteth to dwell Why will you defile these Temples of the Living God and make them Temples of Satan by your sins and uncleanness How much ought you to fear and dread least the Holy Ghost displeased with your abominations and turpitude should forsake you for ever Saint Isidorus for this only reason concludes Luxury to be one of the chief or the chiefest Capital sin because that by all such Transgressions the holiness of Gods Temple is so greatly violated And indeed what can be more injurious and contumelious to Christ than to take his members to wit your own Bodies and make them the members of a lewd Woman a Harlot For he that is joyn'd to such a creature becomes one Body with her as if it were in lawful and holy marriage Qui adhaeret meretrici unum corpus efficitur saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 16. Shall we dare to commit such a vileness God forbid Or can we do it and not expect the plague and vengeance of God to fall upon us Flie therefore Fornication Flie Adultery Flie all sins of Carnal Concupiscence as you would flie from a Serpent that bites and stings to death Abominate hate abhorre that foul Spirit of Belial that haunts you Bless your selves from him resist him by the grace of God and he will flie from you It is the absolute will and command of God that you do so and if you will not hear and obey wrath from God attends you and will find you out first or last to your shame and confusion according to what he hath in all ages from time to time comanded the holy Prophets and Apostles with all their lawful Successors to proclaime and publish to denounce and threaten in his name to all offenders to wit that under pain of his displeasure and of judgments Temporal and Eternal we forbear all Carnal Uncleanness whatsoever whether in Expressions Words whether in Imaginations Thoughts and whether in Actions or Works that we abstain from all Carnal Sensualities Wantonness of Behaviour
such things but meerly and passively suffer them against our wills if we find our selves to take no pleasure or delight in the feeling or remembrance of them but are rather griev'd and ashamed for such our frailties and that so soon as we do take notice of them we be seriously diligent to put them out of our minds and to divert our Thoughts to God or some other good matter If our conscience upon interrogation tells us that it is thus with us it were sin to have any scruple or apprehension of sin for such matter But where it is otherwise that is when our conscience doth not thus answer us but that we find our selves negligent in putting such Thoughts out of our mind assoon as we do perceive them or that we take complacency and delight in the sense and feeling of such Thoughts present or remembrance of them past then indeed 't is best to fear the worst and to deem our selves guilty of sin more or less according to the nature of such evil Thoughts or Phantasms and the measure of the Complacency taken in them For so soon as we yield or give way to Sensual complacency in lustful Thoughts or Imaginations we fall into the Boggs and Quagmires of Sin presenly Now of all that hath been above said we have an example in the person of Saint Paul who by his own acknowledgment seems to have been much exercised in such conflicts as these viz. between the Flesh and the Spirit and troubled with the suggestions of the Ghostly Enemy For so he saith of himself Rom. 7. v. 22. Condelector enim legi Dei secundum interiorem hominem c. I am delighted I consent and conform my self to the Law of God according to the inner man that is according to the spirit of my mind understanding reason and will but I see another Law that is another and contrary inclination in my members to wit in the members of my Body and the inferiour parts or powers of my Soul which sympathize with them repugnant to the law of my mind and captivating that is rendring me in some sort subject to the Law that is to the motions and inclinations of sin Whence it is evident that the Apostle though he selt motions and inclinations to sin in his outward and inferiour parts yet as to his inward and superiour he kept himself free and dissented from them Let us then to the best of our power imitate the steps and follow this Valiant Champion in the Christian Warfare Let us not fear nor be troubled at the Suggestions of Satan but resist them first and then despise them knowing that the best and most perfect men that ever were in the world have been frequently assaulted and much molested with the like The Son of the Living God our Saviour himself was not altogether free from Temptations as the Gospel shews Matth. 4. v. 1 3. It is nothing to be tempted but it is all to be led into Temptation so as to fall by it It is not in our power to be free from the motions of Concupiscence but it is in our power through the grace of God to resist them and give no consent to such motions and so long as we do not let Concupiscence trouble us never so much yet we truly say with the Apostle Ego non operor I do nothing I do not work or do any thing by a free deliberate humane act and consequently nothing that shall be imputed to me for sin Concupiscence indeed works some natural effect or motions in me But Concupiscence alone without my voluntary yielding to it can never work sin and that 's my comfort for which I bless God Sect. 2. By Wilful Delectation in the Lustful Object or Act. As to the second degree or step by which Carnal Concupiscence cometh forth into act it is the Delectation or Pleasure taken in the sinful Object or unlawful Action as it is represented in the Phansie or Imagination This frequently happens in sins of Carnality wherein for want of the grace of God or good instruction frail people oft-times give liberty to their Thoughts to wander and their Mind to muse about carnal matters taking a sensible and deliberate pleasure in that representation of lewd and unlawful actions which their phansy makes to them or their memory brings to mind which is alwayes Sin though there follows no actual consent of the Will ever to execute or perpetrate the sinful action in the imagination whereof they take pleasure yea though they actually purpose and determine with themselves never to do or attempt the doing of it This delectation I say and taking pleasure in sin or sinful actions represented and conceiv'd in the imagination all Divines I suppose put in the rank of those sins which are Ex genere suo mortal and deadly Saint Augustin seems absolutely to be of that opinion avouching that when the will and understanding take delight or complacency in Carnal impurities or the sensual appetites of Concupiscence though the mind and will be totally bent not to commit the outward and compleat act yet seeing the Spirit demurs or rests willingly and pleasingly in such impure conceits it cannot be denied to be sin according to the nature of the wicked act conceived and the measure of the complacency or delight taken therein Therefore for all such Delectation Forgiveness is to be asked of God with sorrow and repentance for the â—ame And much it is to be feared â—hat many especially amongst the â—ounger sort of people do expose â—heir Souls and Eternal Salvation to much hazard who being prone to â—uch frailty as this because they find â—ot themselves to have any intentiâ—n to perpetrate the actual sin make â—ot that scruple of these Lustful Deâ—â—ctations of mind which they ought but pass them away as if there were no sin in them which is a great errour and of perilous consequence The holy man Job thought it so I am sure of whom we read Job 31. 1. that he made a covenant with his eyes Vt ne cogitare quidem de Virgine That he would not so much as think upon a Maid to wit with any carnal delectation or affection towards her He averted his sight from all objects of lascivious delight in such strict manner that he would not so much as think of them or look after them for fear least by means of such Thinkings and Lookings he should unawares be led into temptation and made to yield in some unlawful and sinful sort to the motions of Carnal Concupiscence at least of being in danger to take delectation and pleasure in impure Thoughts and Phantasies There is a continual war betwixt a chast Mind and rebellious Flesh The Flesh never ceases to obtrude Objects and Matters of Unchastity to the Mind and for this reason it was that this holy man by Divine grace was able to make such a strict condition of Truce between these Two Enemies as that his eyes should never betray
his heart his eyes should never give the occasion by which his Spirit should be tempted to any carnal impurities and by this means he was safe-guarded both from the cogitation and also from the delectation of sin This holy man knew full well that God was offended by all such voluntary delectations as are taken inwardly in the mind from and about sin though the actual perpeâ—ration thereof does not follow It aâ—aileth nothing according to Saint Chrysostome that the Body be chast â—f the Soul be involved in sinful â—houghts and imaginations or takes delight in obscene phansies For as we judg when the roots of Trees are â—orrupted or decaies that the Trees will not come to their full perfection of growth so in like manner when the Soul takes delight in unlawful sensual pleasures all the chaste comportments of the Body avail nothing in the Sight of God by reason that those prohibited Delectations being willingly and deliberately taken dâ— foil and deprave the heart and bannish all holy inspirations out of iâ— The Author of Purity and Chastity cannot take delight there wherâ— the author of Impurity and Uncleanness is freely admitted For he beinâ— a most pure Spirit yea Purity iâ— self hath nothing more in abomination than the Impure Delectation of our Spirit which are therefore tâ— be abandoned and shaken off with aâ— diligence as the sparkles of the infeâ—nal Chaos for fear least otherwiâ—â— they should inflame our mortal bodieâ— with the fire of Lust Wash your hearâ— from iniquity saith the Prophet Hiâ—remy that you may be saved Vâ—que quo morabuntur in Vobis cogâ— tationes noxiae How long shall evil and hurtful Thoughts abide in you It is good counsel for us all and it behoves us to consider how we make use of it Salomon saith Prov. 6. 27. Nunquid pâ—â—â—est homo abscondâ—re ignem in 〈◊〉 suo c. Can a mâ—n hide fire in â—is bosome that his Garments burn not Can he go upon hot coals and his â—eet not be burnt and 't is as much as to say he that turneth himself loose to carnal impudicities and lets his mind and heart take pleasure in them entangles himself in the briars of Sin and will quickly find himself burnt with the fire of Sensual Concupiscence which he keeps so close and carries about with him in his Bosome Beware therefore stand upon your guard â—t all times but especially then when you perceive impure motions and lustful representations to stir â—n your mind repress them at the first for if you do not but neglect them they will take hold of the rubbish of your soul and kindle such a fire there as will consume and burn up all the good that is in you Sect. 3. By wilful consent to perpetrate the outward act of Sin It is clear then that by toleration of Sensual Complacency and delight taken in the impure Thoughts and Imaginations of Sin as by Two Steps the Sin of Carnal Concupiscence proceeds or comes forth out of the heart and inward intentions to the outward and perfect act It remains that we consider next whether the willful or voluntary consent of the mind to perpetrate the outward act opportunity being given be not a Third Step. Truly noobjections can be alledg'd to the contrary All Divines without exception of any are of that opinion and affirm the same as a thing evidently warranted and grounded in Holy Scripture For first acording to the holy Evangelist Saint Matthew chap. 15. v. 19. We read that from the heart come forth evil cogitations Murder Adulteries Fornications and the like which things defile a man It seems as much as to say that whensoever Voluntary consent is given to commit either Murder Adultery Fornication or any other forbidden Act of Carnal Lust then is the Sin of Murder Adultery Fornication c. committed and then is the Soul defiled with such sin or sins respectively As for example if one gives consent in mind and heart to deflowre a Virgin or defile his Neighbours Wife though for want of opportunity or for some other occasion the outward act of such sin or sins is not perpetrated or done yet is the party that so consents culpable and guilty before God as if it had been done because the holy Scripture doth not only forbid the outward act but also the will purpose consent or desire to do it It is not onely said Thou shalt not commit Adultery in the outward act but thou shalt not so much as covet thy Neighbours Wife by any desire or purpose of thy heart to defile her And therefore our Saviour in the Gospel of Saint Matthew saith chap. 5. v. 28. Audistis quia dictum est antiquis c. You have heard it has been said of old Thou shalt not commit Aduletery But I say unto you that whosoever shall look upon a Woman to lust after her though but in his heart or internal consent he hath already committed Adultery with her by reason of the said internal consent So that this passage of the Evangelist is not only a full Declaration of our Saviours mind touching this matter but also a fair warning given to all to be careful to avoid not only the outward corporal actions of Adultery Fornication Uncleanness and the like but also the inward consent or the fostering of any will purpose or desire to commit the same if we had opportunity Most certain therefore it is and not at all to be doubted of if a man willingly gives away or consents in his mind to any such lustful Action he is in the same instant that he gives such consent overthrown and utterly fallen from the state of Grace all good Thoughts or Purposes of what kind soever vanquish and die as to any acceptance with God all former merits is lost and the sinner made a subject and slave of Satan no less really than if he had committed the sin it self in outward deed and so he continues till true and hearty repentance restores him to better state And as in all sins generally so especially in these of Carnal Concupiscence and Lust we may observe this method of Satan viz. that first he suggests the sin to mind upon the sight remembrance company or conversation of some person or otherwise upon the suggestion follows the Temptation that is some thought cast into our mind and as it were bidding us take notice of such a pleasing object from this Temptation if we be not upon our guard and resist it follows Delectation or taking pleasure in the unlawful thing represented and suggested to us from Delectation follows Consent or a determinate purpose of the heart to perpetrate the act of sin opportunity being given from Consent time places and other circumstances concurring follows the outward act or deed of sinne from the act reiterated proceeds the ill custom of sinning from custom impudence and to be insensible of sin from thence vaunting glorying and boasting of our sins and defence of sin from hence despair
and final impenitence which is concluded with eternal damnation Behold here the several steps and degrees by which the Ghostly Enemy advances in his wicked practices upon poor Souls who have not had the care to keep themselves out of his snare Behold here the sad issue which Concupiscence having conceived as the Apostle Saint James speaks Jac. 1. v. 15. that is being impregnated by the Devil and her own unadvised Consent brings forth in time In fine behold here explicitely and particularly set forth what is implicitely contain'd and involved in that Text of the Apostle now alledged Concupiscence when it hath conceived brings forth sin and sin when it is consummate ingendreth Death Yet observe here if you please I do not say that Concupiscence precisely of it self alone or as it signifies meerly a natural motion and inclination stirr'd up in the phansie to such or such a thing is damnable or so much as sin properly speaking though some teach it to be so whom we are not bound much to regard It is then only sin when it is consented unto that is when after perfect advertency and taking notice of evil Thoughts and Phantasies to be stirred up in us we do voluntarily and of our own accord either rest and continue in the said Thoughts and take pleasure and delight in the things they represent to us or which is a farther degree and step in sin do actually consent in heart and will to commit the sin or sins that we think upon if opportunity were given us So that it is not Concupiscence alone but our voluntary free and deliberate yielding to it that brings forth sin or makes us guilty of sin before God SCECTION IV. Carnal Concupiscence causeth continual trouble SECT 1. It is the most troublesome sin of any 2. The troubles and usual proceedings of fond and lewd Women 3. The troubles and usual proceedings of foolish and lewd Men. Sect. 1. Carnal Concupiscence the most troublesome sin of any THat Wise Gentle Socrates verifies our assertion to wit that Carnal Concupiscence is a most troublesome sin by this Expression of his The Lascivious Man is of all others the most miserable being in a condition of perpetual disquiet and sufferance Poor Creature he never thinks upon any thing that is truly good and upon what concerns the good of his Soul least of all being wholly taken up and imploying all his Study and endeavour to find the means to fulfil his untam'd desire of pleasures and of lust to the utmost Saint Ambrose consents hereunto Carnal Concupiscence saith he is without question the most fierce froward and troublesome of all other sin how pleasing and agreeable so ever it may seem to those that consider not things well and causes the greatest unquietness to the Soul besides other mischief especially where it is much entertain'd and prosecuted Do but reflect upon the course of their lives and you will easily see in what a continual unquietness and disturbance they remain As for example If they go to Bed desiring to take their rest they are assaulted with innumerable temptations suggestions and representations of the Ghostly Enemy so that they cannot take rest If they chance to slumber their sleep is presently broken with Lascivious Dreams and Objects which their Unchaste and Lustful Phantasie presents to them so that all night long they are in trouble When the day appears their pain increaseth for then their Cares their Studies and Endeavours return upon them to think how they shall satisfie their Lusts which they cannot rest till they have satisfied what difficulties soever lie in the way and what hazards and perils soever they run their Lust must be satisfied whatsoever it costs Their spare hours most commonly passing away in or about matters of Poetry Love-letters singing unchaste and dishonest Songs studying Compliments and fine Courting Expressions which serve them with more ease to enveigle and overcome some poor silly Woman No good Actions proceed from them To pray is the most tedious thing in the World to read Spiritual Books dulls their Spirits too much to attend to Sermons or any Pious Discourse a cold and but frivolous Entertainment to Fast is too too troublesome and a kind of killing themselves In conclusion nothing pleases them nothing is delectable or agreeable to their mind but that which tends to Mirth and Wantonness in pursuance whereof and for the satisfying of their Sensual Appetites they easily suffer themselves to be drawn from all occasions of doing good and from attending to their callings charges and other honest and necessary imployments and wastefully to spend their estates and time altogether careless and neglecting their Vocation So that in fine being themselves devoid of all reason and unable through the prevalency of blinding lust to take or follow good Counsel they run with all unhappy speed and precipitancy to their own confusion both as to Body and Soul not only troubling themselves but inticing others to their Sensual Inclinations which bad and most blameable disposition of mind as I have partly observ'd before being once rooted in a Lascivious Heart according to Saint Ambrose It rejecteth all Counsel and good Advice disturbs and disquiets those that give it Entertainment though never so little and destroys those that are given up to it proclaiming Wars to those that are Chaste and constantly resist it but inflaming those thaâ— yield to it and finally consuming such as will not withdraw from it To which end it is usually attended also with a train of many other Evils and Vices that wait upon it and contribute what they can to the perfecting its wicked work as namely Flatteries Dissimulation Lying Deceits innumerable Feigning Counterfeiting and the like none of which and many other evil Arts shall be wanting when occasion requires for the Conquest of some one poor silly Woman whom Saint Paul calls the Weaker Vessel Sect. 2. The troubles and usual proceedings of fond and lewd Women Granatensis that worthy Guid and Director of Christian Souls pondering in his mind the usual proceedings of vain Women especially of those that are wantonly and lewdly inclin'd and the various Arts they practice to attract and allure Men mov'd with a passionate zeal for their Salvation he could not forbear to check their Exorbitant Vanity and Lustfulness in these words Oh saith he what Devillish Art and Cunning cannot Women invent to intice Mâ—n to their wanton Desires and yet for all their Craft and Cunning in conclusion deceive themselves and plunge their Souls into Eternal Perdition To what other thing for the most part tends all their Care Studies Employment but to be look'd upon and to intice Men wherein do they exercise their wits spend their time but in making themselves fit and ready for that work To relate particularities in this kind would be an endless work being they are numberless and not to be reckoned up in a short time However for your satisfaction I shall instance in some few In
leave matter of Luxury to your Children never so much as remembring or thinking upon that great charge which the Apostle gives to Rich Men 1 Tim. 6. 18. namely That they set not their minds too much nor trust in uncertain Riches but that they do good with their Wealth and be rich in good works in Almes-deeds in Charity and Liberality towards the Poor These Things ought you to think upon Rich Men and not suffer your selves to be so blinded with Natural Affection towards your Children after the Flesh as to think of nothing but Enriching them and leaving them great Estates to consume in Luxury A just Judgment and Curse of God upon you for your extream Hard-heartedness and great unmindfulness of those Children of God the poor of his people whom their Heavenly Father hath left and so specially recommended to your Care and Compassion O wretched Luxury How many how great Estates hast thou wasted and brought the Heirs and Owners of them to great Poverty in this World and to eternal miseries in the next Looking into Scripture I find there even Sampson himself in the Rank and Number of these Spend-thrifts He though he were not only an Israelite by Nation and Birth but also a Nazarite from the Womb as he is peculiarly stiled by God himself Judg. 13. 5. 7. that is a Person dedicated to Gods special Service even from the first day of his Nativity yet he must have his Dalila his Female Associate to serve his Lust with whom falling in Love and Living he soon brought himself to Ruin being by her betrayed into his Enemies hands who forced him having first put out his Eyes to undergo hard Labour even to Grind by a Hand-mill in the Prison House all the days of his Life as you may read more at large in the Book of Judges Chap. 16. Sichem of whom we read Genes 34. was such another He though a Prince by Descent and much beloved of his People yet for being taken with Carnal Concupiscence towards Dinah the Daughter of Jacob and defiling her he lost both his Kingdom and Life What shall I say of the Prodigal Son mentioned in Saint Lukes Gospel Chap. 15. 12 13 c. who by Living Riotously with Whores and Lewd Women wasted his Portion in a short time and was reduc'd thereby to extream misery To these Examples of Holy Scriptures I shall add one out of Humane Story Bromiardus reports of a Man who having consum'd and wasted all that he had upon a Whore came at length to be rejected and scorned by her He had spent a good Estate upon her and now seeing himself reduced to absolute Beggary and that his Wealth being gone the Strumpet scorn'd him struck with shame he leaves the City which the Lewd Woman his Paramour hearing of she follows him with Cries The Old Bawd that waited upon her thinking it had been out of some Passion she had for him comforts her and bids her be content Let him go says she he has nothing and ere it be long I 'll procure you one Richer than he The wicked Harlot hearing this presently replies You much mistake me I cry not for him I am only vext that he carries away a good Shirt on his Back which I meant to have had before his departure Behold here a full Verification of what was long before Prophesied by the Wise King Solomon Prov. 29. 3. Qui nutrit scorta perdit substantiram He that maintains Harlots shall waste his own substance Beware therefore take heed of it of all Prodigal and Wicked Expences be sure you shun that which is the worst of all for fear least it destroy you Body and Soul and least you find your selves you that swim in Luxury and Wealth at present before you be aware of it reduced to a Morsel of Bread Do not think that the Scripture gives you so many Warnings for nothing The sin of Carnal Concupiscence is for this reason not unrightly compared by some to the Horse-leach which being applied to Mans Body sticks fast to it sucking the Blood and not ceasing so long as she is able to hold In the same manner the Vice of Concupiscence seizing upon any person draines him off his Wealth lies continually sucking and drawing from him till nothing be left but a Diseased and Foul Carkass which for a time he must carry about him till at length through Rottenness and Corruption that also falls and becomes Meat for Worms It is a Plague that infects and destroys all even Vertuous Persons sometimes if they take not heed according to that Saying of the Wise Man Ecclus 19. 2. Wine and Women apostatare faciunt sapientes c. make even Wise Men to fall away and he that joyns himself to Harlots will be naught Rottenness and Worms shall have him to Herritage He shall be set for an Example of Dread and Terror and his Soul shall not be reckoned in the number of the living Sect. 2. By Carnal Concupiscence Men brcome Senseless and Stupid and void of Vnderstanding That they are Companions and go usually together to wit Carnal Concupiscence and a Senseless Shameless Spirit appears by the Prayer of the Wise Man which he makes Ecclus 23. 6. Aufer a me ventris Concupiscentiam c. Remove far from me saith he the Concupiscences of the Belly and Lust animae irreverenti infrunitaene tradas me To a shameless besotted Spirit deliver me not up Thus he prayed and rightly thereupon doth the Seraphical Doctor Saint Bonaventure speaking of Concupiscence pronounce that by means thereof more than by any other sin commonly speaking Man is depriv'd of or deprav'd of his Vnderstanding Mind Reason Wit and becomes in a manner like the Bruit Beasts insensible of his Shame and Folly from which desperate and sad condition of mind the Wise Man in the Prayer above-mentioned begs to be delivered And that no doubt may be made of this Verity to wit that Concupiscence obeyed in the Lusts thereof and commonly practis'd doth extreamly blind and pervert the Understandings of Men Solomon himself the Wisest Man by Gods own Verdict and Special Promise 3 Reg. 3. 12. that ever had been or was to be is brought as an Example thereof for of him it is said 3 Reg. 11. 4 c. that in his Old Age his Wives whom he had taken contrary to the Commandment of God Exod. 34. 16. of the Moabites Sidonians Ammonites and other Gentile Nations meerly out of Lust and Carnal Concupiscence turned away his Heart from following the Lord to Worship strange Gods and to Burn Incense to Idols namely Astarte Goddess of the Zidonians and Moloch the Abomination of the Ammonites c. Now if such a Man as Solomon falls under the power of Lust who can think to stand if his Wisdom could not save him from becoming a Sot in his Old Age and from doing things so strangely and horribly repugnant to Reason and Conscience what shall we think of our selves How can
we promise our selves in the end any better issue of our Lust than that we shall with Solomon become insensible both of Conscience and Honour and be given up to do and act in all things contrary to Reason contrary to Prudence contrary to all Vertue and Honesty yea unless Gods Mercy save us even with Nabuchodonosor to degenerate into Bruit Beasts Dan. 4. 33. through the prevalency of lustful Passions and the extream blindness of Mind and perversion of Judgment which they cause being overlong indulg'd unto and that God in wrath delivers impenitent obstinate Sinners up to them according as by the testimony of Saint Paul he did the Gentiles of whom it is written Rom. 1. 24 26 28 c. that God for their sins of Whoredom Idolatry and Uncleanness Corporal and Spiritual gave them up to a Spirit of Vncleanness to Vile Affections to a reprobate mind void of all sound Judgment and to do things that were not convenient and all to teach us what the horrid effects of unbridled lust are upon the minds of Men destitute of the Grace of God and given up to the power of Satan The Luxurious Man is so senseless that for the prosecution and obtaining of his Lust he puts all other Concerns in Oblivion and does things without any consideration or reason He gives his poor Soul to the Devil and Eternal Damnation for nothing Can any thing be more unreasonable He loses the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal Glory for nothing he brings upon himself everlasting misery for nothing I say for nothing or for a thing of no value with good and wise men If some Temporal Kingdom or Principality were exposed to sale or sold away for a small inconsiderable sum of money I suppose no body would taxe me if I should say such a Kingdom or Principality were sold or given away for nothing because the price was not in any reasonable sort comparable or proportioned to the thing sold So when I say the Adulterer Fornicator the Incestuous and Vnclean Person sells his Soul to the Devil for nothing gives away his Portion in the Kingdom of Heaven Eternal Bliss Eternal Glory for nothing I am sure I speak Truth no man can justly blame me for what I say seeing all this is done for a momentary short vile pleasure or delectation of the Flesh and for the satisfaction of a sensual Appetite which no wise man that is Master of himself values neither should any well-instructed Christian admit or think of but in order to some higher and more vertuous ends viz. the lawful procreation of Children to be brought up in the Knowledge and Fear of God and for the Conservation of Conjugal Fidelity and Amity Saint Augustin is of the same mind with me and confirms what I have said by his own Testimony saying That whoever for a little short pleasure of this world he means the pleasure of a Voluptuous Carnal Act gives away that for which Christ gave himself to death to wit his Soul there can be no doubt made but in doing so he forfeits his reason quite and at the same instant shews himself to be an unreasonable senseless bruitish person scarce deserving the name of man Which considering also another most learned Divine compares a lasciâ—ious lustful Man to a foolish and unskilful Merchant who undervalues his own Merchandise and sells things that are of great worth and estimation for an inconsiderable price applying to this purpose that which is said Prov. 6. 26. Pretium scorti vix est unius panis c. The price of a Harlot is scarce worth a loaf of Bread it hardly comes to so much and yet such a Woman catches the precious Soul of Men. The meaning is what we have already said That such as joyn themselves to Harlots do pawn their Soul the most precious thing they have in the world for that which is worth just nothing The Luxurious Man therefore besides his transgressing Gods Commandement does great injury to Christ in presuming to sell that at so mean a rate which he thought worth the purchasing at so great a price Besides he sells that which is not at his own disposing he sells that which he hath not power to sell or give for according to the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Our Souls are not our own we are bought with a great price Bodies and Souls we have both our Souls and Bodies of God our Bodies and Souls are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us and therefore we ought by our chaste and holy Conversation to glorifie God both in our Souls and in our Bodies Sect. 3. By reason of Carnal Concupiscence Men abide or remain in Sin and entangle themselves more and more therein Have you never observed the Snails how that naturally for the most part they lie bathing and soaking themselves in their own Jelly or filthy Pickle and if they put out at any time they carry their Shell on their Backs into which upon the least disturbance or hinderance that they met with they presently shrink and shut up themselves being of the slowest motion of any Creatures that move This sordid Creature is a perfect Emblem of a Voluptuous Man who is or by his good-will would be always wallowing in the filthy Mire of unclean Lust a loathsome Creature both for Body and Soul slow to any thing that is Good and most of all to that which would be his greatest good True Repentance and breaking off his evil custom of Sinning which is as it were the Shell upon his Back in which he resides for the most part of his Life and whither upon every little Temptation yea sometimes to divert himself from other Griefs he retires and makes an unhappy retreat He is more filthy and stinking than any Dung-hill by reason of his frequent and vile uncleanness He is a Swine that delights in nothing more than to be lying on a Dung-hill or wallowing in some Miry or Dirty Puddle placing his whole Felicity in Lustful Pleasure and satisfaction of his Inordinate Appetites in that kind persevering therein too often unhappy Man that he is till Death seizes upon him and carries him in a moment to Hell There is a saying of the Prophet Joel Chap. 1. v. 7. to this purpose Computruerunt jumenta in stercore sua The Beasts are rotted in their own Dung Upon which passage of the Holy Scripture Saint Gregory Commenting teaches that by the Beasts here said to be rotted together or putrified in their own Dung may well be understood Voluptuous Carnal and Sensually-minded Persons who Perish and Corrupt Bodies and Souls in the Dung of their own filthy Actions that which made Pope Innocent reflecting upon the same words to cry out Oh the extream turpitude of Sensuality which not only defiles Body and Soul but renders them unsavoury makes them stink and to be abominated in the Sight of God Angels and all Men that are not Beasts like themselves In which sense also it
is most true what the Apostle teaches 1 Cor. 6. 19 viz. That the Adulterer Fornicator and all such like Sinners do violate Gods Temple which is their own Body because by defiling it with Lust they make it of the Temple of God wherein the sweet Odour and Incense of Vertue and Good Works ought to be continually offered and ascending before the Divine Majesty a very Sty of Satan wherein nothing can be perceived but the filthy Steam and Ill-sent of Sin and Uncleanness Add to all this That by Carnal Concupiscence Men are entangled and tyed fast in their Inordinate Affections towards Women for which reason the Wise Man saith Ecclus 7. 27. Laqeuus Venatorum Sagena cor Mulieris c. The Lewd Women is as a Hunters-snare to Men the Devil is that Hunter hunting and pursuing poor Souls to Death by this means her Heart as Nets and-her Hands Bands In which words they that observe the Passage more curiously seem to observe three several ways or methods by which Women through Concupiscence entangle Men that is to say by Snares by Nets and by Bands and according to this they likewise observe three several sorts of Men that are more especially subject to be entangled and caught by each of those ways or methods respectively Snares are proper to catch Birds that flie in the Air and by them they understand Vain Proud High-minded and Light-minded People Nets are commonly used to catch Fishes that swim in the Water understanding by them the Glutton and Drunkard and all such as give themselves over-much to the pleasures of their Palate always by their good-will swiming in their Delicacies and Varieties of Meats and Drinks Bands are for the catching of wild and stronger Creatures by which they intend the multitude of Covetous Unjust and Worldly-minded People who offend commonly by some way of Violence Oppression Rapine Injustice Fraud c. So that in fine all sorts of People are taken one way or other by them none or at least very few escaping the consideration whereof extorted from the good Father Saint Hierome this pathetique Exclamation Oh Hell-fire saith he O those Everlasting Burnings of which Gluttony and Drunkenness are the Fewel Pride and Ambition the Flame Lewd and Filthy Speech the Spaâ—kles Infamy and Shame the Sâ—inking Smoak Impudicity and Vncleanness the Ashes and the effect Eternal Misery and Torment Sect. 4. Remedies against Carnal Concupiscence To the Soul that remembers her self and desirous to live Chaste would know what Remedies may be found against the poisonous force and infection of Carnal Concupiscence I shall in the first place with Father Causin give this Advice to wit That so long as she lives in this sinful World where Temptations to Vice are so many and great how well soever things at present seem to go with her yet that she always judges it most impossible for her to persevere to the end in that state but by the singular Gift Favour and Grace of Almighty God according to that Confession of the Wise Man beginning his Prayer to God Sap 8. v. 21. Scivi quoniam aliter non possem esse continens c. I know saith he full well that I cannot otherwise be continent unless God give me the Gift and a point of Wisdom it is to know whose Gift the Grace of Chastity and Continency is It is therefore absolute necessary that for the Gift we have particular recourse to God even to the most Holy and Vndivided Trinity begging it of him who according to Saint Gregory Nazianzen is the first of Virgins that is God our Saviour and in the second place that we address our Prayers to like purpose unto the Blessed Mother of God the Virgin Mary to our good Angel and to such other of the Blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven as we have chosen or that our Faith and Devotion have made to be our Patrons in Heaven begging their Mediation and Prayers for us that we may be always delivered from the reproaches of Belial the Spirit of Impurity and that we may pass over our Life Innocently and Holily in this present evil World possessing our Vessels that is these Bodies of ours as the Apostle speaks 1 Thes 4. v. 4. in Sanctification and Honour not in the Lust of Concupiscence and finally that through the mercies of God and the help of his Grace we may come to enjoy those Crowns and Garlands of Heavenly Glory which shall be given to those who in this Fight betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh overcome the wicked one and continue Faithful unto their Captain and General Christ Jesus unto the Death Wherefore my Advice and Counsel to all is that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 12. He that thinks he standeth let him take heed least he fall If at present you feel your selves at peace and unmolested with the suggestions and bad inclinations which others lie under and combate with daily more or less give thanks to God for his Mercy and beg the continuance of his Grace to you but enter not into any vain Complacence and Opinion of your self as if it were the effect of your own Forces it is the effect of Heavens Benignity towards you and if you presume to think otherwise it is to be fear'd you will find your errour in the sad experiment of some unhappy fall Therefore walk humbly before God trusting to his Grace not to your selves and be sure as much as you can to avoid all occasions of sin Sect. 5. Advice and Exhortation to all sorts of Persons to overcome the Vice of Carnal Concupiscence I find nothing more proper for this purpose viz. of subduing and extinguishing the motions of Carnal Concupiscence than what I have extracted for your use out of the Holy Court 1. Treatise of Love Sect. 1. S. 9. where the Pious and Learned Author Father Causin delivers himself thus Give your selves a little leisure to recollect your thoughts together and with the Eye of attentive Consideration to behold the many Disasters which wait on the experiencing of Carnal Sensualities If you be a Virgin stain not the Honour of your State vilifie not in your Flesh on Earth a Virtue to which Angels afford such Glory in Heaven Beware of that damnable curiosity which makes you desire to know what cannot be known by you but by becoming criminal If you understand what this sin is profit by your experience and betray not an eternity of Blessedness for a Pleasure so short If you be a Master of a Family or a Person of Quality mark what Saint Gregory Nazianzen says A Man saith he by means of this sin totally ruins Body and Soul Estate and Reputation He is terrible at home to his own Honshold and shameless abroad serving as an Executioner to his chaste Wife whom his unkindness and ill-carriage vexes to Death every day He is a Tyrant even to his own Children a reproach to his Friends a scourge to all his Domestiques a dishonour to his Kindred and
and look not upon anothers Beauty for by the Comeliness of Women many have perished and hereby Concupiscence is inflamed as a Fire Every Woman that is an Harlot shall be trodden upon as Dung in the way Many through admiring the Beauty of their Neighbours Wife have become reprobate for her Talk or to have Communication and Familiarity with her burneth as Fire Sit not at all with another Mans Wife nor repose upon the Bed with her and chat not with her at the Wine least perhaps thy heart incline towards her and with the Bloud thou fallest into perdition The like Counsel is reiterated chap. 41. v. 27. Look not after another Mans Wife and be not too private with his Maid-servant neither stand thou by her Bed-side and chap. 42. 12 13. Gaze not after Beauty and sit not in the Company of Women For from Garments comeeh a Moth and from Women Wickedness In which sense and by reason whereof it is a great Truth that which the Wise Man pronounceth in the verse immediately next following though otherwise it may seem hard and unequal Melior est iniquitas Viri quam mulier benefaciens Better is the iniquity that is the unkindness and churlishness of a Man than a Woman that is over-kind and so courteous to Men as that she leads them thereby into the shame and reproach of sin The unkindest churlishest Man in the World is not so great an evil as that good-natur'd Woman of whom Solomon speaks Prov. 5. v. 3 4 c. Favus distillans labia meretricis c. The Lips of an Harlot drop as an Honey-comb and her Mouth is Smoother than Oyl but her later end is bitter as Worm-wood and sharp as a Two-edged Sword Her Feet go down to Death and her Steps as low as Hell Now therefore my Son saith that Holy Prophet hear me and depart not from the words of my Mouth Remove tby way far from her and come not nigh the door of her House Her House is the way to Hell 7. 27. none that go in unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of Life What should be more said The consequence then I deem to be most clear that if we would avoid Carnal Concupiscence together with all the Evils Impieties Mischiefs Spiritual and Corporal that follow upon it when 't is obey'd and yielded to it is absolutely necessary not to frequent Womens Company unnecessarily or without great Circumspection and Caution and most of all not to be Private or Familiar with them Seeing then by what we have read and heard witnessed to us by so many Testimonies of the Holy Prophets of God of our Saviour himself who is the Living and the True God his Apostles and other Pen-men and Preachers of the Eternal Gospel we cannot but be sufficently admonish'd how much it concerns us to suppress all motions and to decline all occasions that lead us to this soul and vile sin of Carnal Concupiscence to strengthen such Holy Resolutions as the good Christian may be mov'd to take hereupon and to help him the better to put them in execution my last and short advice to him is that he take to himself some Spiritual Guid and Director whom he shall find to be a person able and intelligent of Experience or well practicâ—d in the Affairs of Spiritual Conduct and above all of good Life and Conversation resign your self wholly up to his Advice follow in all things his good Counsel and Instructions and doubt not but his help the Grace and Favour of God concurring which is never denied to those that seek it with a good heart doubt not I say but by his help you will in a short time find your self with the Just and Righteous Man Lot 2 Pet. 2. 8 9. happily drawn out and delivered from those Flames of Sodom and Gomorrah with which you were inflicted and placed in repose and safety upon the Mountain of Holiness and of the Everlasting God In the mean time dear Christian Reader let the Contents of these foregoing Treatises suffice for the present Remedy of your Languishing Diseases occasioned by Self-love Pride Gluttony and Carnal Concupiscence If time occasion I may hereafter by Gods Grace dilate my self further upon these or the like Subjects LAUS DEO SEMPER FINIS