A CHECK TO Debauchery AND OTHER CRYING SINS Of these TIMES WITH Several useful Rules for the attaining the contrary Virtues To which are annexed some Directions and Heads for Meditation and Prayer taken out of Holy Scripture Except the Lord had left unto us a very small Remnant we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah Is 1.9 Oct. 26. 92. Imprimatur Edm. Bohun LONDON Printed for Richard Butt in Princes-street near Covent-Garden and are to be sould by Randal Taylor near Stacioners-Hall 1692. A LETTER TO A FRIEND SIR I make you this small Present as knowing a Gentleman ought to be as zealous for Virtue as he is for Honour and to shew his Courage chiefly in conquering himself Your Example influences very far being so well known and so well beloved And I need not tell you how many out of meer Emulation are apt enough to become your Creatures and Followers The Conversation of some Gentlemen is not so innocent as becomes their Quality and as it ought to be But it is commonly either Drollery or hard drinking In the former they neither spare Friend nor Foe have no regard to Modesty or good Manners and many times not to sacred Things themselves And in the latter they are obnoxious to all other even the greatest Sins It is Solomon's Observation concerning Drunkenness that it leads to Whoredom and all Lewd things and renders Men more insensible than Beasts and yet so great is the sottishness of its followers they will seek it still and not refrain Prov. 23.33 c. Those false Maxims so much in Vogue with some God will deal with me as a Gentleman a Souldier a Courtier and the like so often urged in Excuse of a Vicious Life were invented by the Common Enemy of Mankind to justle out the Laws of God and to render all good Instructions of Pious Men ineffectual Whereas the H. Scripture assures us That God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness i. e. becomes and does the duty of a Christian is accepted of him and none others Acts 10.34 35. John 3.18 And if we profess to know God and deny him in our Works we are no better than Infidels and if we say we do know him and not keep his Commandments we are Lyars let our Quality or Station be what it will Tit. 1.16 Many Saints now in Heaven were indeed not always so upon Earth but then resolutely reforming themselves and retracting their past Course of Life the Divine Grace and assistance being never wanting to such they afterwards by incessant vertue became great Instruments of God's Glory in the Salvation of innumerable Souls This is more or less applicable to every Man whilst he lives in this World who hath always some fault or other if not ill habit to retract which by God's assistance he may do when he pleases and it is his greatest wisdom not to delay his Endeavours as the contrary his greatest folly I hope therefore you will not think me your Enemy because I tell you the truth Who am on the contrary Sir Your Faithful Friend in this highest point of Friendship and most ready to serve you in any thing conducing to your eternal happiness at least my poor Prayers shall not be wanting SIR Your most Sincere Humble Servant L. D. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Courteous Reader THese Collections were designed chiefly for the good of my self and some particular Freinds but may perhaps be of service towards the awakening and exciting others to endeavour the pulling down those abominable sins which walk our Streets at Noon day with a Whores forehead unmasked and inhabit with us in our very Gates even in the most Eminent and most frequented places of our Cities without any notice taken of them unless it be to Caress and Encourage them The wiser Heathen would have thought such gross sins a reproach to Reason and a Disgrace to Humane Nature and therefore for Christians to spend their whole lives here in them and expect Heaven at the last which is the reward only of Vertue and Holiness would be the greatest folly and madness in the World The way to Salvation is now by Grace not by weak Nature by what is revealed to â—â— to be the will of God not what we can think or can know any other way by Faith the evidence of things not seen by the Light of Nature yet most certain to us not by sight or blind Reason by denying not pleasing our selves Paradise is not to be gained the same way it was lost but the contrary Not by eating but by forbearing to eat the forbidden Fruit. Not that ceasing to do evil is sufficient to make us happy unless we also learn to do well we must besides bridling our Appetites perform such dayly duty to God as he requires of us Go on from Grace to Grace from Vertue to Vertue from one degree of Holiness to another till we come to the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ The first and principal step however to Vertue is the ceasing to be Vicious and this cannot be done without renouncing all sensuality and subduing our Lusts In order to which we are to pray for the assistance of God's Grace to consult good Men and good Books and resolve to follow their Example and Directions And if this short Treatise should conduce any thing towards the reclaiming of but one single Sinner from a lewd sensual debauched Course of Life to become a sober chast sincere Christian it would be thought more then a sufficient recompence to Courteous Reader Your Faithful Freind for the Good of your Soul L. D. The Contents CHAP. I. OF Gross Carnal Sins in General Pag. 1 Marriage a lawful Remedy Pag. 3 And so also our Lord's Counsel of a Single Life Ibid. The practice of the present Age too contrary to both ibid. CHAP. II. Of the impurity and filthiness of such sins Pag. 6 They proceed wholly from our selves Pag. 7 Natural Infirmities no sins Pag. 6 Opposite to God's own Holiness ibid. A particular mark set upon them in Scripture Pag. 8 Opposite to the cleanness and sanctity which ought to be in the Body as well as in the Soul of every Christian Pag. 9 Diseases Sores c. are not the uncleanness her meant ibid The Body the Temple of the Holy Ghost a Member of Christ his Spouse purchased with his precious Blood therefore to be kept holy Pag. 10 11. Fornication c. Dishonourable and Disgraceful to the committors thereof Offers the greatest indignity to Christ's Incarnation Pag. 12 Filthy Discourse tending thereunto to be avoided ibid. A Natural shame accompanies such sins Pag. 14 The Habit thereof changes Men into Beasts Pag. 15 These were the sins the Heathen sell into when abandoned by God for their Idolatry Pag. 15 16 CHAP. III. Of the punishments of such sins Pag. 17 God a revenges of such sins himself Pag.
live without Care or any sort of Seriousness keep what the World calls the best Company have their choice of Women and Wine and deny themselves nothing of Sensuality And all this as the World now goes without running any great Hazard of losing their Reputation but not of losing their immortal Souls which sure ought most to be regarded by them To these supine Christians and Slaves to their own Lusts who know better but yet as it were in their own Defence take the Liberty not only of living Counter to but also of drolling upon all that is serious or sacred even the Holy Scriptures and our blessed Saviour himself rather than be stopp'd or check'd in their Career or in the leastwise hindred the following the full Swinge of their own unbridled Appetites and ungovernable Wits I can only propose First The Impurity and Filthiness of such Sins and Secondly The severe Punishments that inseparably attend them CHAP. II. Of the Impurity and Filthiness of such Sins PAssions Frailties and Infirmities are the common Plea and Pretence of Sinners Whereas the defect and proneness of our Nature to sin is in it self no Sin so long as not compli'd withall and besides is abundantly repaired and supernatural Assistance recovered by the Incarnation of our Saviour and the Means he hath afforded us to a holy Life if we are not wanting in the Application The loss of our Innocency hath not deprived us of any of our Faculties Our Understanding and Will are still the same and we have the same freedom to chuse the Good and reject the Evil nor is the divine Assistance God be thanked denied to any that seek it So that the Commission of Sin is entirely from our selves Perditio tua ex te Thy Destruction is from thy self Hos 13.9 says the Prophet and the preventing of it wholly in our own power And one would think we should not readily fall in love with so great deformity My present Subject however is those grosser Sins the Sins of the Flesh as being most rise amongst us and such as destroy all seriousness the foulness and filthiness whereof appears 1st From the great offence they give to God's own Holiness and Purity To which every evil even in Thought is opposite Sanctity being his great and most proper Attribute than which the Seraphims could find none greater when they sung Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth Besides the Divine Nature being absolute Purity without any Mixture or Composition whatsoever and being also absolute Perfection so that no defect or want of any good thing is in him it must needs be that what is contrary to those as is all imperfection and evilness must also be opposite to him Which speaking according to the manner of men is to be displeasing to be grievous to be loathsome and odious to him but most of all these grosser sins And this we know also from God's putting all along in Scripture a particular mark of his displeasure upon them setting them in the front as the Captains and Ring-leaders of the rest These are the members we are to mortify upon Earth Col. 3.5 Fornication Vncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence c. So again 1 Cor. 6.9 be not deceived neither Fornicators c. nor Adulterers Rom. 1 24 c. Thess 4.5 Eph. 4.1 nor Effeminate Persons nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God These are the sins with which the Gentiles when they offended God most of all before the light of the Gospel shone amongst them stand every where in Scripture principally charged Nay so great an offence are these sins to the Holiness of Almighty God that he seems to equal them to the greatest sin of all 1 Cor. 6.9 Rev. 22.15 Col. 3.5 And therefore in Holy Write we find them ordinarily linked together with the sin of Idolatry And sometimes also with Covetousness taken in its largest sence for Coveting either Persons or Riches which last is said also to be Idolatry And the former may be called so too for the same reason because it is hard to say which of the two Harlots or Money is most powerful and most idolized in this lower World The Impurity and filthiness of Fornication and other grosser sins of the Flesh appears yet farther from their oppositeness to that Holiness and Cleanness which ought to be in the Body as well as in the Soul of all those who profess themselves Members of Christ Not that this filthiness of the Flesh is any External Deformity in the Body or any Diseases Ulcers or Sores For we find Job Lazarus and many other great Saints who had been well pleasing in God's sight were before men very loathsom Persons But it is a real defilement of the Body as the Body is the honourable Instrument and Associate of the Soul and ought by it to be employed to a more noble end even together with the Soul to be employed to the Glorifying God and one day also to be presented with it before him in his Heavenly Tabernacle 1 Thess 4.4 This is the will of God saith St. Paul even your Sanctification that you should abstain from Fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his Vessel i. e. his body in Sanctification and Honour Vers 7. not in Lust of Concupiscence for God hath called us not to uncleanness but unto holiness And the same Apostle in his first Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.20 addresses himself to the Men of this Age as well as those of all others after a most prevailing manner Know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and not your own or at your own disposing for ye are bought with a price the precious Blood of our Lord to be also his Spouse and his Members therefore ought to glorifie God both in Body and Soul which are God's And is there not good reason that after being purchased even our body as well as soul at so dear a rate as the Inestimable Blood of our Lord we should at least in gratitude sanctifie and devote our selves wholly to his honour and service But to compell us to it unless we will deny our selves to be Men and rational Creatures the Apostle's Argument here and in his other Epistles runs thus The Church is the Spouse of Christ Eph. 5.29 30 c. 1 Cor. 6.17.6 13. whom he bought and purchased to himself with his own Blood and Life whom he Cherisheth also with the like care as the same Flesh and Bone and the same Spirit with himself And for the same reason is now our Body as wel as our Soul for the Lord and the Lord for the Body If therefore the Wife have not power over her own Body but the Husband no more hath Christ's Spouse the Church or we her Members 1 Cor. 7.34 power over our selves but Christ And tho' it be said only of
written and allowed of by the Ancient Fathers and the whole Church of God in all Ages And then as to the necessity of Prayer if we consider our many wants Temporal and Spiritual to be relieved many sins wherein we still offend God to be pardoned many Temptations and Dangers from which to be preserved many Benefits and Assistances received and all these with a respect also to our Fellow Christians we cannot but acknowledge every moment of our Lives had we no other necessary Duties too little to be spent in this one Great Duty of Continual Prayer 1 Thess 5.17 Our good Lord assist us by his Holy Spirit in the diligent and sincere performance thereof The other Chief Means of our obtaining Divine Assistances against our Lusts is 2ly Frequen Communicating as many good Christians now do and the Primitive Christians did almost every day I do not intend here to treat largely of this Holy Sacrament there being many good Books Written designedly on that Subject but only recommend to the Reader without medling with God's power therein which transcends all Humane Conception and Comprehension the Immense Benefit of this Holy Mystery to each worthy Communicant in reference to his particular Necessities For obtaining Remission of this or that Sin a Remedy of this or that Infirmity a Deliverance from this or that Affliction for receiving a Benefit or giving thanks for a Benefit received for helping our Neighbour for encreasing the Holy Spirit and Love of God in us Because as by one Spirit in Baptism We are made one Mystical Body of Christ 1 Cor. 12.13 so likewise in the Eucharist are we made to drink into the partaking of one Spirit The Blessed Eucharist being as necessary for the continuing and encreasing as Baptism for the first receiving the Holy Spirit Because also this is that particular Nourishment instituted by Christ for the preserving our Body and Soul to Everlasting Life that particular Pledge and Assurance of our Resurrection that true Bread from Heaven which mystically also Incorporates us into Christ and makes us continue and grow up into perfect Members of his Body that so thus partaking of the Nature and Spirit of the Second Adam the Heir of all things we may become with him Sons of God Heirs of Eternal Life as we were by the First Adam of Eternal Death That true Heavenly Bread lastly so Exalting and Assimulating our Nature into Christ when worthily Communicating as to make us one with him as he and the Father are one According to our Saviour's Prayer when he was Instituting this Blessed Sacrament I pray thee Father John 17. that they may be one as we are one O Blessed Union between poor Man and his Maker O happy those Souls who here worthily feed on this Heavenly Bread the only true Nourishment of the Life of Grace enabling them in the Strength thereof to walk even to the Mount of God the Life of Glory The Conclusion THE Summ of this Discourse is The Sins of the Flesh are most dangerous because most natural to us And by reason of their filthiness most loathsome to Almighty God and most severely punished by him For not only those of the greater magnitude Fornication Adultery Incest Sodomy Beastiality are followed with God's most Tremendous Judgments but also we find in Scripture Vncleanness and Laciviousness Gal. 5.19 Eph. 5.3 destinct from the foregoing and of a less denomination every where joyned with such Sins as exclude the Practisers thereof from the Kingdom of Heaven The way to prevent such Sins and to avoid the punishment of them is To mortify our Passions our Memory and Imagination to beware of impure Suggestions cheirsh Holy Inspirations and avoid all the occasions of such Sins to Improve lastly the Grace of God in us by Assiduous Prayer daily Examination of our selves perfect Repentance frequent Communicating and all other holy means pressing still farther to higher and higher Gifts particularly to the attaining that most excellent Gift of Charity which makes us love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves hate even our own Lives for love of Him who first loved us undergoing the the greatest sufferings with Thankfulness and Complacency performing all our Actions on purpose to please him referring them to his Honour offering them up to his Praise and Glory To whom Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Honour Praise and Glory to all Eternity Amen God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.24 Grace and Truth i. e. means of Salvation came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves but to him who dyed for them Gal. 4.6 2 Cor. 5.15 Wretched is that man who is all for the good things of this Life a good House good Apparel good Provision c. and is content to have a bad Soul Int. Christ Some Short Directions and Heads of Meditation for the Persons Concerned in the Preceeding Discourse CHAP. I. Of Meditation it's Requisites and how it differs from Contemplation MEditation is called the first Essential part of Prayer leading to Contemplation Thanksgiving Petition c. in which all the Principal Faculties of the Soul the Memory Vnderstanding Will and Affections are severally employed The Memory recollects the matter to be Meditated upon and also placeth the Soul in the Divine Presence The Vnderstanding judgeth of the Subject and its Vertues and accordingly proposeth it to the Will The Will excites in us divers Acts and Affections either of Love Affiance Gratitude c. towards God Or of Hatred Compunction desire of doing better c. towards our selves which is indeed the main Scope and end of Meditation Then follows our Praying and representing to Almighty God our Miseries Necessities Temptations which we most earnestly beg him to redress for his own Love and Compassion's sake and the Merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ But when the Faculties of the Soul are unactive or slow in their Operations as it often happens they are to be excited by the help of good Books which ought always to be at hand when we Meditate and in all such holy exercise we are to approach the Divine Presence with our greatest Reverence and Humiliation And it is also necessary before every Meditation to make a strict Examen of Conscience 1. What Benefits we have received that day from Almighty God for which we are to return Thanks 2. What Sins we have that day committed running through every hour in thought word and deed for which we are to beg pardon 3. We are to resolve upon an amendment in every particular by the Grace of God After such strict Examination of all our Thoughts Desires Words and Works judging our selves that we be not judged of the Lord and Confessing our Sins in the bitterness of our Soul as the Church requires and taking also
Christians much more than to the highest rank of them 1 Cor. 7.32 35. before the pleasures of Marriage to avoid the great Carefulness and Distractions that necessarily attend that State Even to those also that after enjoyment have left their Wives i. e. by mutual consent upon the same Spiritual account And when our Saviour saith There be some who have made themselves Eunuchs by embracing a Single Life for the Kingdom of Heavens sake i. e. For the better serving God in any way He who is able to receive it let him receive it what is it but a Recommendation to his followers particularly to his Disciples and Guides of his Church of that happier Condition And as to that popular pretence of multiplying the World and continuing a Succession of Generations that is not the care of Man but of God and Individual Persons as many as are so resolved in their minds may safely chuse the better State in order to their own greater happiness without fearing the ruine of the World to ensue And indeed our Saviour the fountain of all Purity by that Expression of making themselves Eunuchs seems to grant as St. Crysostome observes the power of living a Vertuous Single Life a life of Eunuchism to all sincere endeavourers And St. Paul also when he reckons up to his Corinthians his own good Actions and Labours 2 Cor. 6.6 inserts amongst them Pureness or Chastity which he would not have done if he had thought it the mere Gift of God without any concurrence or acquisition of his own Watchings and Fastings and Prayers If then those Married Persons are commended and promised a Reward who keep themselves within the bounds of Marriage chast from Adultery Uncleanness and all unlawful Carnal Pleasures and those also a higher Reward who Renounce the pleasures of Marriage and leave their Wives consenting thereunto for the Kingdom of Heavens sake that they may love God the more entirely with all their Heart all their Soul and all their Strength which is the great Commandment of all what shall be done with those Virgins that have with much pains and difficulty abstained not only from unlawful carnal Pleasures Fornication c. but also from the lawful those of Marriage It is certainly more Heroical as a Holy Man observes with Virgins wholly to repell the importunities of the Flesh than with the Married only lawfully to satisfie them A greater vertue to subdue than only to moderate the most Violent of our Passions Their reward therefore in Heaven must be proportionably greater answerable to the several greater Degrees of Purity to which they have here attained Of them it is said in the Revelations at least of those of the highest degree of Virginal Purity These are they who were not defiled with Women Rev. 14.4 for they are Virgins And they are there also called The first Fruits unto God and unto the Lamb And their Transcendent reward is They follow the Lamb whethersoever he goeth And of whom else is it said but of the most pure Virgin-Mother of our Lord That all Generations shall call her Blessed Luke 1.48 If it should here be objected That in this Discourse there is little or nothing said concerning the sins of the Flesh being also contrary to the Purity of the Soul as well as of the Body it is answered That such sins are more directly opposite to the purity of the Body as being committed in it and cannot be committed without it and are thence called the sins of the Flesh Care therefore being taken of the Purity of the Body the Purity of the Soul is included as to these sins Not but there are other sins called Spiritual more proper to the Soul and more directly opposite to its purity and more dangerous also because not so easily discernable by us as are the sins of the Flesh such as Pride Hypocrisy Ambition Envy Wrath Contentions of Argument Disobedience to Superiours Rebellion Witchcraft Curiosity of Science Schism Heresy and the like which together with their chief Remedies Humility Lowliness of Mind Submission of Judgment Contentedness c. would be sufficient matter for so many different Discourses And I might here insert how far an obstinate Blindness Ignorance or Errour in the Understanding and a Peevish Perversness in the Will may be said to be the chief if not the only Causes of these subtiler and more Spiritual wickednesses of the Soul But at present it shall suffice to have given some short account of the abominable sins of the Flesh and the sad Consequences thereof Superadding only which I could not omit what is so particularly markt out to us by St. Jude concerning Rebellion Jud. v. 8. The Heads and Contrivers of which he calls Filthy Dreamers that defile the Flesh despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities This Character is so plain that I need not point out the Persons concerned in it For who are these Filthy Dreamers but those who pretend Revelations and Illuminations from God to serve their own Lusts who forsaking the Guides and Governours God hath set over them and setting up for their own Passions either of Revenge or Covetousness or Ambition and the like and finding no encouragement either in God's Word or from good Men for what they do perhaps do perswade themselves at least pretend to others that they have new Advices new Instructions new Lights from Heaven And vainly puffed up in their Fleshly mind do think to shelter themselves and their wickedness under a pretext under the Fige leaves of Godliness and Spirituality till like Corah and his Company Dreaming themselves holy Num. 16.31 and offering to God false Fire they are suddenly swallowed up even before they can awake out of their filthy Dream I proceed next to the Cure and Prevention of the Sins of the Flesh by observing to the serious Reader some few useful Rules out of those many Prescribed by Pious and Learned Men for the direction of themselves and others CHAP. V. The first Rule Of our Affections Memory and Imagination FIrst we must endeavour to know our own Passions and Inclinations which if not rightly Governed do in a manner biass the Soul to what they please and are for that reason narrowly to be watcht especially the Passion of Love as being the very Source of all the rest For if our Love and Affection be once fixed and chained to any one object it grows then unruly All other Passions and Reason it self must give way to it Its Bands are strong Cant. 8.6 strong as death saith the Spouse in the Canticles Death that swallows all All our Faculties and Powers become Vassals to this Passion even our fears often proceed from our too great love it hurries them on and when not rightly placed it never stops but in our ruine Forcing us many times against our minds video meliora proboque deteriora c. to transgress our duty to God and our selves to lay aside our Liberty and Manhood
Death of Christ 1 Cor. 15.3 2ly That to the applying the Merits of Christ's Passion to us there are required some Conditions on our part Phil. 2.12 namely our Assenting and Co-operating with God's Grace 3ly That by such Application not only our sins are remitted Eph. 2.5.4.25 but we receive the Grace of Regeneration changing us in our minds implanting us into Christ enabling us to good works Rom. 2.13 Joh. 1.12 to become doers of the Law Sons of God c. The manner of such our Regeneration and of the Divine Assistance is thus First Mat. 28.19 Eph. 5.26 When we are Baptized into Christs Church not only past sins are washed away supposing us rightly disposed thereunto but also a new Power and Ability Supernatural of Living holily for the future is conferr'd and superadded Tit. 3.5 c. Acts 11.16 The Holy Ghost being then personally given us and God's Grace Efficaciously planted in us for newness of Life Rom. 6.4.7.6 and bringing forth Good Works By the Assistance of this Grace therefore our corrupt Nature is so perfectly restored and made capable of all Vertue that we may and are obliged also therewith totally to subdue our Lusts so as to live free from the habit even of unclean thoughts Gal. 5.24 and from the commission of all unclean Acts at least of those greater before mentioned which we are sure from God's own Word exclude the Kingdom of Heaven By this new principle of Grace Eph. 5.5 which worketh with us and without which our working signifies nothing a real Holiness Facility to Good is conveyed into our Souls our Understanding is Illuminated so as readily to embrace the Holy Mysteries of Christ's Religion which are above it above it 's natural Knowledge and Reach and past it s ever finding out but by Revelation Our Will from time to time inspired with new and divine Affections and at length influenced at least in some Persons with an impatient Love of God above all other things And the same Holy Spirit which thus Acts and Assists within us interceeds also for us Rom. 8.26 with groans which cannot be uttered groans irresistably prevalent at the Throne of Grace To the first Grace therefore given us at our Baptism if we make a right use of it more and more is added to every one that hath improved his one Talent more shall be given Mat. 25.29 and he shall have abundance And sometimes to the same well-disposed Person are conferred several Talents several different Gifts for God's greater glory of the same Holy Spirit but yet the most excellent Grace which we are above all to covet 1 Cor. 12.31 as being that without which all other Graces signify nothing to us is 1 Cor. 13.13 Charity or the Love of God Which is the most effectual remedy of all our Lusts or false Loves and when once obtained does in a manner the whole work of a Christian it felf because by its secret Energy it centers all our Affections in our Lord so as sweetly to compell us to seek in all things a punctual Observance and conformity to his holy Will and in nothing to displease him with whom our Soul being ravished is sick of love for him and languisheth with a perpetual desire Cant. 5.8 either 1st of suffering for him thereby at once to shew the Truth of our love and to purify us as Gold in a burning Furnace Or 2ly of praying to Him the only way of Conversing with him upon Earth Or 3ly Of fully enjoying him in Heaven even though it were through Martyrdom it self Which great Vertue shined most Eminently in St. Mary Magdalen whose sins which were many were therefore forgiven her because she loved much And her chosing to sit at the feet of Jesus to hear his words our Saviour himself calls the unum necessarium the better and sublimer part of a Christian which nothing can take away And albeit this love of God inferrs and comprehends the love of our Neighbour and of our selves and of all things that belong to God yet these not after the fashion of the World but only as consistent with and much encreasing and enflaming our love of God So that by shewing our love to God as we are obliged all the ways that we can we are continually enlivening and augmenting it and still think it little and unworthy of eternal life and that it is want of our Endeavours and not of God's Grace which hinders us from attaining still higher Spiritual Gifts and a more intense love of our Lord every little Inclination in us to any thing else if not throughly mortifyed being enough to retard our progress in this true way to perfection This one thing I do says St. Paul to his Philippians forgeting those things which are behind already obtained and reaching forward to those things which are before not yet obtained I press toward the Mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.13 And if so great an Apostle when he had so far attained as perhaps none farther in the Love of God and Self-mortifications witness his Watchings 2 Cor. 6.5.11.23 Fastings Labours Stripes Imprisonments Deaths was still pressing forward much more ought we to mend our pace who are so far behind so far from perfect Charity and perfect Chastity as to be still wallowing in our â—usts still hankering after the Gratifications of Sense We ought not only to be mindful of the powerful Assistances God hath afforded us to Purity and Holiness but also actually to make use of them for that very end and purpose those Assistances of the Holy Spirit being such as continually war against the Flesh Col. 3.1 stirring us up to seek those things that are above and supernatural and so after an ineffable manner if we endeavour to correspond to them unite us to Christ and God and bring down Heaven into our Souls quenching in us the thirst to all sensual Pleasures making them by degrees seem more and more contemptible to us and at length odious Quas sordes quae dedecora c. what filthiness did they Suggest what disgrace and dishonour says St. Austin in his Confessions concerning his formerly beloved but then much more hated Lusts The way therefore to experience the good of Christianity is resolutely to enter upon practising Christian Vertue by a more strict observance of Gods Laws and purging our selves from the contrary Vices For none how learned soever can truly know God but they that serve him And a poor Shepherd that faithfully serves him will by experience know more of God in his chiefest Excellencies than a Doctor of the Chair that does only talk of him And as the Grace of God is the principal Instrument of a good Christian Life so the next to that is frequent examining our Consciences once or twice a day that so we may learn to know by little and little how to
revenge of our selves according to the Example of St. Paul's Penitent amongst the Corinthians we shall by such fifting our Consciences be the better able to sever the Wheat from the Chaff and know also what is fittest to offer to Almighty God what to pray for and what also to meditate upon In which particular Examen of our Consciences wherein we are to endeavour to produce Acts of Contrition Self-confusion Humility Resolutions of amendment Resignation c. we must observe to what Vice we are most inclined and be sure to bend all our Forces against it for that Captain-Imperfection being Conquered the rest will easily submit And in the next Examen we must Impartially enquire whether our relapses in that kind are as frequent as formerly and so continue on the Fight with new Fervour Vigour and Constancy till it shall please God to give us the Victory Now the difference between Meditation and Contemplation is said by holy Men to be as follows 1. We Meditate when by the help of the Vnderstanding we seek and cast about and at length fix our thoughts upon such Truths and Reasons as are in our present Circumstances most apt to move and affectionate the Will to the embracing the Love of God Christian Vertues Works of Piety c. but sometimes the Inclinations of the Will the Holy Spirit operating more principally in that by Love than in the Vnderstanding by Illumination preceed the Acts of the Vnderstanding tho' most commonly it is the other way the Will and Passions not easily moving without the Reasoning of the Vnderstanding to excite them 2. We Contemplate when we steadfastly and unmovably behold God by Faith believing that he is really with us and within us as he truly is and so leaving all other Objects Idea's and Discourses we Internally look on him as present love him in silence and feed on his All-satiating Sweetness And this Contemplation is either by the help of Sensible Idea's or Intelligible or surmounts them both which is the highest sort of Prayer But this is not my business at present I intending only some short Meditations such as the Reader may easily carry about with him even in his Memory CHAP. II. Of the Subject of Meditation with Heads for the first Week THE Matter and Subject of Meditation may be any thing whatsoever Divinely revealed or that any way conduceth to our Salvation But most commonly it is adapted to the Three Degrees of Christians the lower the middle and the highest Some Learned Men recommend the method of the Church in her Liturgies beginning with Advent Nativity of our Saviour and so on to his Preaching Passion Resurrection Ascension sending the Holy Spirit taking in the Epistles and Gospels of all the Dominica's and Holy-Days This Rule is Chiefly observed by the Clergy Others advise the Selecting some certain number of pious Subjects for every day in the Week and keeping to them only and this seems also a very useful way of Meditation Heads of Meditation for the first Week Monday Of the Chief end of Man Consider 1. Why he was Created namely to praise and glorifie God 2 How far this is observed or transgressed by us and how far the ample means offorded thereunto abused Reflexion 1. Give God Thanks 2. Ask Pardon 3. Promise Amendment in every particular as need requires Tuesday Of God's Benefits Consider our Being from God Preservation Redemption Sanctification Spiritual Gifts and Graces the Holy Sacraments Eternal Life c. All that God gives is freely out of his own Goodness not for his own but our profit Reflex 1. Give great Thanks with all possible Humility 2. Offer up your self all your Thoughts Words Actions and Affections to God to be sincerely directed to his Glory only Wednesday Of your Sins Consider 1. Who it is you have offended viz. God most Munificent who hath done so many and so great things for you and promised more and greater 2. God Omniscient who sees all things most clearly 3. God Omnipotent who can destroy you in a moment and none is able to resist him 4. God most Pure who abhors all sin and for that Reason threw the fallen Angels out of Heaven for one single Sin Adam out of Paradise and condemned him to above 900 Years Pennance for one single disobedience Reflect What then will become of Impenitent Sinners And how great Reason to Fear and Tremble at so great Power and Justice of God! Consider 2. Who thou art that offend'st and resistest so great a God A most vile inconsiderable Worm The whole World in God's sight is but as a drop of the morning dew Sapient 11. What is man then so minute a Particle of that Drop Who is indeed nothing of himself and compared to Infinity bears no Proportion Reflect How great the Clemency of God in bearing so long with so great Sinners and your self the Chief and very greatest of all Consider 3. For what Cause you offended God For some very vile thing some vain Honour some beastly pleasure and that knowingly and wilfully not out of Ignorance or Infirmity Reflect Detest thy Foolishness before God Acknowledge thy Fault Beg mercy Thursday Of Death Consider 1. The certainty of it and the uncertainty of the time Recollect all the suddain Deaths you have ever seen heard or read of and conclude it the greatest madness and folly in the World to live on in such a State in which you would not die Reflect You can die but once and if not well your loss is irreparable Consider 2. Of what things Death deprives you Of all External things Riches Pleasures Honours Friends for which and whose sake you have so often offended God And that nothing will accompany you to the other World but your works whether good or bad Reflect Imagine what a wicked man restored to Life from Hell-fire would do and that do you Consider 3. The State of your Body and Soul Your Body for which you have been so Sollicitous will be carryed out to be meat for the Worms your Soul immediately hurri'd to Judgment by the Angels and from thence by an unknown way to an eternal State either of bless or misery according to the Actions done in the Flesh Reflect Use now all possible means by your self and others to make Christ who is to be your Judge become propitious to you And pray to God for Grace that you may now both know and do what upon your Death-bed and at the Judgment Seat you will wish you had done Friday Of the last Judgment Consider 1. The particular Judgment that passeth upon every man at his Death and remains unalterable 2. The dreadfulness of the last general day when the Heavens will be rouled together as a Scrol the Sun it self darkened the Moon not give her light the Stars fall from their Orbs the Earth quake the Mountains and Islands remove out of their places and Mens hearts fail them for fear 3. An Universal appearance of all the Sons of Adam
the Earth and Sea giving up their Dead and a particular Examination of them according to God's unerring Books which will then be opened Consider 4. The Difference that will then be between the Good and Bad. The Good having Co-operated with God's Grace shall be Cloathed with Glorious Bodies and placed on Christ's Right Hand The Bad not Co-operating with God's Spirit Cloathed with Corruption and placed on Christ's Left Hand And the Consciences and Thoughts of all hearts will be then laid open Reflect What shame confusion will it then be to the Impenitent when out of their own Mouths and Consciences they will be both Accused and Condemned Consider 5. How astonishing it will be to the Wicked to hear the Sentence of the Judge Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire And how joyful to the Righteous to hear Come ye blessed possess the Kingdom prepared for you c. Reflect Make firm Purposes to live well and in vertuous Circumstances and intreat the Judge to be propitious to you and that you may always bear in mind this terrible Judgment and Sentence to escape it which is said to have occasioned the Institution of the severest Order of Christians in the World Saturday Of Hell Consider 1. What a Punishment it would be to be bound Hand and Foot and cast into a hot fiery Furnace there to remain burning and unconsumed tho but for a short time And as every Member of the Body so every Power and Faculty of the Soul receive its peculiar Torment Consider 2. How hard and unsupportable it must needs be to be Slaves to the Devils and Companions of the damned amidst the most exquisit Tortures and incessant Blasphemies and Cursings of Allmighty God Consider 3. How long these Torments will last If after some Thousands of Years there were to be an end it would somewhat lessen them But after an Hundred thousand Years succeeds an Eternity that cannot be measured Reflect How foolish is it to chuse such endless Torments for a transitory Pleasure Endure any Punishments here to avoid them Here cut here burn but save me in the World to come was St. Austin's Prayer Entreat Almighty God that you may be so awed by them whilst living that you may not deserve to experience them when dead Sunday Of the Joys of Heaven Consider 1. The Place and the Company How great Joy it must needs be to inhabit in the City of God the heavenly Jerusalem and converse with the holy Angels and all the Saints which have been from the beginning of the World Who having the same Charity one for another being all filled with the same holy Spirit rejoyce in every ones Good as if it were their own Consider 2. The greatness of the Reward The Body it self will be spiritualized and all its Senses and Powers exalted and adorned with most admirable Gifts And the Soul enabled to see and know God as he is and to love and enjoy him to all Eternity which is the only true Blessedness And though there be far different degrees of Glory yet no Envy but on the contrary Rejoycing See the preceeding Discourse Reflect Give God thanks who hath given you to hope for and made you capable of this Glory and humbly implore him mercifully to preserve you though ungrateful in true Vertue and holy Living that you may at length come to that glorious Place and there praise and magnify him to all Eternity CHAP. III. Heads of Meditation for the Second Third and Fourth Weeks Second Week MOnday Of the Incarnation of our Saviour His leaving the Bosom of his Father and taking upon him Humane Nature Voluntarily and yet by consent of the whole Trinity A Mercy denied to the fallen Angels And a Mystery which the good Angels desired to look into Tuesday Of the Visitation of the ever-Blessed Virgin and the Salutation of the Angel Hail c. Wednesday Of the Nativity of our Lord in a Stable yet honoured with Miracles Thursday Of the Shepherd's Vision the Angels Hymn the coming of the Three Kings by the Guidance of a Star or Angel Friday Of the Offering up of our Saviour in the Temple The Humility of the Mother of our Lord being not obliged to any such Oblation Old Simeon's Prayer Lord now lettest c. He could not die till he had seen the Lords Christ Saturday Our Saviour's Baptism and the Testimony the Father and the Holy Spirit then gave of his Divinity Sunday Of our Lord's Transfiguration and the Consolation the Three Disciples also took therein It is good for us to be here c. The Third Week MOnday Of the Eight Beatitudes the Sum of Christian Perfection placing happiness in things seemingly most contrary to it such as Poverty Persecution c. But yet the true and only way to Blessedness declared to be so by him who is Wisdom it self and who himself also became our Example in sufferings Tuesday Of the Lord's Prayer containing all the good things we are to pray for and all the evils we are to pray against Wednesday Of the Rich Glutton and the ten Virgins The difference between Dives and Lazarus both in this World and the other And between the ten Virgins in the other World notwithstanding their seeming equality in this Thursday Of the Conversion of Mary Magdalene and the Woman of Samaria Both of them great Sinners The former possessed with seven Devils and the latter lived in Fornication But their Repentance was as remarkable as their Sins And their after life as Vertuous as their former had been Vicious Friday Of the Paralytick at the Pool of Bethesda and of the Man born blind Both cured by our Saviour And both afterwards openly Confessed him To leave our sins and follow Christ takes away the Cause of Sin For there is a Lameness and Blindness also in the Soul Saturday Of the Prodigal Son and the Man that fell among Thieves The Prodigal was received by his Father upon his returning and repenting The poor Man fell among Thieves by his leaving his right way Jerusalem for Jericho God for his pleasure the Church for the Company of Thieves and Robbers Reflect Conversion to God's Church and Repentance the only Remedy Sunday Of our Saviour's raising from the Dead Lazarus the Son of the Woman of Naim the Daughter of Jairus One of them was newly dead the second carried out the third three days buried The newly dead immediately upon our Saviour's speaking rose and walked was perfectly cured the rest not so soon Reflect So it fairs with Sinners More difficulty for habituated Sinners to rise to a Life of Grace The Fourth Week MOnday Of the Institution of the Blessed Eucharist He that Eats worthily of this Bread shall live for ever shall overcome his Lusts be filled with Celestial Joys c. But he that Eats unworthily eats his own Damnation if he dies in that condition not discerning the Lord's Body Tuesday Of our Saviour's Passion in General Who it was that suffered The Son of
God God himself Innocent c. What and how grievous things he suffered So many griefs So great Ignominy He hath born our griefs Behold the Man Behold and see were there ever sufferings like his And all this for his Enemies ungrateful sinners and me in particular to Reconcile them to God Reflect Oh the Obedience Humility Patience Perseverance Charity of his sufferings Wednesday What passed in the Garden His Agony His Soul was heavy even to Death He sweat drops of Blood He Prayed against the bitter Cup but with a Resignation to his Fathers Will. Thy will not mine be done And soon after with unparallell'd Fortitude surrendred himself If you seek me let these go their ways desiring to tread the Wine-press of God's Wrath alone Thursday Our Saviour's Vsage before Annas Caiphas Herod and Pilate Before Annas Questioned for his Doctrine In Caiphas's house false Witnesses were brought against him He was kept Prisoner there all Night Mockt by the Souldiers and others Denyed by Peter Before Herod despised Before Pilate first declared Innocent but afterwards Condemned by him for Treason to please the People and secure his own Interest with them St. Peter's Repentance very speedy But the Obstinacy of the Jews continues to this very day Friday Our Saviour's Vsage at the Pillar his Crown of Thorns his Journey to Mount Calvary bearing his Cross his barbarous Crucifixion the Wounds he received the sweet words he uttered Father forgive them c. yet the Rocks were more Compassionate than the Jews and We. Saturday Of our Saviours Burial Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea his Blessed Mother and St. Mary Magdalene and some other Honourable and Holy Persons were concerned in it They wash'd his Wounds with their holy Tears and Embalmed his Body with their Sighs and Prayers and Richest Odours He made his Sepulcher with the Rich and Honourable but yet the malicious Jews sealed the Stone and set a Watch to prevent if possible his rising again to Glory Sunday Of our Saviour's Resurrection Ascension and sending of the Holy Ghost 1. The manner of his Resurrection His Conversing Fourty days upon Earth Comforting his Freinds Strengthening his Disciples and giving them charge over his Flock 2. his Ascention into Heaven siting on the right hand of God that our Hearts and Affections might thither also ascend 3. His sending the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost his Disciples having Fasted Watch'd and Pray'd continually day and night for ten days before Reflect His Resurrection the first Fruits and earnest of ours His Ascension to draw us and our affections after him His sending the Holy Ghost that the same Spirit that raised up him the Head might also quicken us his Members CHAP. IV. Meditations for the fifth Week MOnday Of the Nobility of the Soul 1. Created by God after his own Image 2. God giveth his Angels Charge over it As the Hills stand about Jerusalem so standeth the Lord round about them that fear him 3. Of so great value is the Soul that our Saviour left the Bosom of his Father to redeem it even with the price of his Blood Tuesday Of a pure Conscience a right Faith and doing all things for God's Honour These Three constitute the good Christian for the Life we now live is by Faith And the pure in heart shall see God shall have a clear and more naked perception of him even in this Life No Image or Idea can represent a Spirit such as God is He is Purity it self perceptible only to the pure in Heart after an ineffable manner and void of all sensible Idea's Reflect The purging therefore our Consciences is to be carefully minded Wednesday Of the Presence of God With the thoughts of this so great Presence many holy Persons have preserv'd themselves from sin Enoch walked with God and was translated Abraham walked before God and was perfect King David set God always before him that he should not sin So Elijah and Elisha God liveth in whose sight and presence I stand And nothing more certain than that God filleth and worketh in all his Creatures In him we live and move and have our being and all things subsist and are upheld by his immediate hand But he more nearly dwells and inhabits in every good Man and directs him by the Interiour Language of his Inspirations and gives him leave also to Communicate to him as to a most faithful Freind all his Wants Desires Resolutions Infirmities Temptations c. And the oftner he recollects his Faculties from external objects and retireth into himself to God so much the better and his progress in holiness greater and more easy Reflect How great a folly therefore is it to live insensible of the Assistance of so great a presence so near us even within us Thursday Of the Conjunction of the Soul with God Which consists in a Conformity of our Will to the Divine We must Will the same thing with God and the same means to it My Son give me thy heart says God by Solomon It is good for me to cleave to God says David And St. Paul nothing could separate from Christ Neither Life nor Death c. 2. Such a Person is always Examining his Conscience Keep 's a strict guard that his thoughts wander not abroad or be over long busied in outward Affairs for fear of losing that presence that Consolation he always carries about with him in his Soul Prayers Meditation Contemplation Recollection the Holy Sacraments are in a manner the entertainment of his whole Life Reflect All these things are irksome and nauseous to the Carnal Worldly Man Friday Of Humility 1. The Humble man retains a true sence of God's Favours What great things he hath both done and suffered for him and that out of a free and most amazingly generous Goodness without any the least merit on his side And on the contrary what returns he hath made how many and how great wickednesses committed against that good God So that he knows not which way to turn himself Thinks no place vile enough for him who for his sins deserves the greatest Afflictions the greatest Torments He hath no way but to humble himself before God with Confusion of Face and Offer and Resign himself wholly to his boundless Mercy to deal with him as his Compassion pleases 2. The true Humble Man is Servant of all Especially his lawful Governours and Teachers to whose wiser Judgment he readily submits his own less wise As knowing they have more ability to judge than himself and more assistance also promised not to mistake To these therefore he submits as to Christ himself being commanded so to do Ezek. 33.7 8. Heb. 13.17 3ly Being contemned he rejoiceth being honoured he referrs the honour to God and so all other Benefits he receives But the shame of his sins he takes to himself and confesses with the poor Publican that he is not worthy to lift up his eyes to Heaven 4ly What humilty can equal that of our Lord in all