would not the devil cure the disease which he hath excited in thee? why then dost thou obey him now, when he is as certainly the instigator as if thou sawest him? Why man, hast thou so little reason, that seeing and not seeing will make so great a difference with thee? What if thou wert blind, wouldst thou play the fornicator before all the company, because thou seest them not? when thou knowest they are there? If thou know any thing, thou knowest God is there and thou mayst feel by the temptation that satan is in it. Wilt thou not be ruled by the laws, unless thou see the king? Wilt thou not fear the infection of the plague unless thou see it? Use thy reason for thy soul as well as thy body; and do in the case as thou wouldst do if thou saw the devil tempting thee, and Christ forbidding thee. Direct. VIII. If thou be unmarried marry,' if easier remedies will not serve. "It is better to marry than burn"." It is God's ordinance partly for this end. "Marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled." It is a resemblance of Christ's union with his church, and is sanctified to believers. Perhaps it may cast thee upon great troubles in the world, if thou be unready for that state (as it is with apprentices). Forbear then thy sin at easier rates, or else the lawful means must be used though it undo thee. It is better thy body be undone than thy soul, if thou wilt needs have it to be one of them: but if thou be married already thou art a monster and not a man, if the remedy prevail not with thee: but yet the other directions may be also serviceable to thee. Direct. 1x. If less means prevail not, open thy case to some able, faithful friend, and engage them to watch over thee; and tell them when thou art most endangered by the temptation.' This will shame thee from the sin, and lay more engagements on thee to forbear it. If thou tell thy friend, Now I am tempted to the sin, and now I am going to it; he will quickly stop thee: break thy secresy and thou losest thy opportunity. Thou canst do this if thou be willing if ever thy conscience prevail so far with thee, as to resolve against thy sin, or to be willing to escape, then take time while conscience is awake, and go tell thy friend: and tell him who it is that is thy wicked companion, and * Eph. v. 1 Cor. vii, 1 Cor. vii. 9. ¡ Heb. xiii. 4. let him know all thy haunts, that he may know the better how to help thee. Dost thou say, that this will shame thee? It will do so to him that it is known to : but that is the benefit of it, and that is the reason I advise thee to it, that shame may help to save thy soul. If thou go on, the sin will both shame and damn thee: and a greater shame than this is a gentle remedy in so foul and dangerous à disease. Direct. x. Therefore, if yet all this will not serve turn thy Tell it to many, yea rather tell it to all the town than not be cured :' and then the public shame will do much more: confess it to thy pastor, and desire him openly to beg the prayers of the congregation for thy pardon and recovery. Begin thus to crave the fruit of church discipline thyself; so far shouldst thou be from flying from it, and spurning against it as the desperate, hardened sinners do. If thou say, this is a hard lesson, remember that the suffering of hell is harder. Do not say that I wrong thee, by putting thee upon scandal and open shame : it is thou that puttest thyself upon it, by making it necessary, and refusing all easier remedies. I put thee on it, but on supposition that thou wilt not be more easily cured: almost as Christ puts thee úpon “ cutting off a right hand;" or " plucking out a right eye lest all the body be cast into hell." This is not the way that he commandeth thee first to take: he would have thee avoid the need of it: but he tells thee that it is better to do so than worse; and that this is an easy suffering in comparison of hell. And so I advise thee, if thou love thy credit, forbear thy sin in a cheaper way; but if thou wilt not do so, take this way rather than damn thy soul. If the shame of all the town be upon thee, and the boy's should hoot after thee in the streets, if it would drive thee from thy sin, how easy were thy suffering in comparison of what it is like to be? Concealment is satan's great advantage. It would be hard for thee to sin thus if it were but opened. Tit. 2. Directions against inward, filthy Lusts. Direct. 1. Because with most the temperature of the body hath a great hand in this sin, 'your first care must be about the body, to reduce it unto a temper less inclined to lust; and here the chief remedy is fasting and much abstinence.' And this may the better be borne, because for the most part it is persons so strong as to be able to endure it that are under this temptation. If your temptation be not strong, the less abstinence from meat and drink may serve turn (for I would prescribe you no stronger physic than is needful to cure your disease). But if it be violent, and lesser means will not prevail, it is better your bodies be somewhat weakened, than your souls corrupted and undone. Therefore in this case, 1. Eat no breakfasts nor suppers; but one meal a day, unless a bit or two of bread, and a sup or two of water in the morning, and yet not too full a dinner; and nothing at night. 2. Drink no wine or strong drink, but water if the stomach can bear it without sickness (and usually in some hot bodies it is more healthful than beer). 3. Eat no hot spices, or strong, or heating, or windy meats: eat lettuce and such cooling herbs. 4. If need require it, be often let blood, or purged with such purges as copiously evacuate serosity, and not only irritate. 5. And oft bathe in cold water. But the physician should be advised with, that they may be safely done. "" If you think this course too dear a cure, and had rather cherish your flesh and lust, you are not the persons that I am now directing; for I speak to such only as are willing to be cured, and to use the necessary means that they may be cured. If you be not brought to this, your conscience had need of better awakening. I am sure Christ saith that when the bridegroom was taken from them, his disciples should "fast"." And even painful Paul was "in fasting often ", and "kept under his body and brought it into subjection, lest by any means when he had preached to others, himself should be a castaway"." And I am sure that the ancient Christians, that lived in solitude, and eat many of them nothing but bread and water, or meaner fare than bread, did not think this cure too dear. Yea smaller necessities than this engaged them in this "fasting"." This unclean devil will scarcely be cast out but by "prayer and fasting"." And I must tell you that fulness doth naturally cherish lust, as fuel doth the fire. Fulness of bread prepared the Mark i 19, 20. m 2 Cor, vi. 5. xi, 27. n1 Cor. ix. 27. Sodomites for their filthy lusts. It is no wonder that a stiff paunch hath a lustful fury, than that the water runs into the pipes when the cistern is full, or than it is wonder to see a dunghill bear weeds, or a carrion to be full of crawling maggots. Plutarch speaks of a Spartan that being asked why Lycurgus made no law against adultery, answered 'There are no adulterers with us:' but saith the other, What if there should be any?' saith the Spartan, Then he is to pay an ox so great as shall stand on this side the river Taget and drink of the river Eurota:' saith the other, That is impossible' and saith the Spartan, 'Et quo pacto Spartæ existat adulter in qua divitiæ, deliciæ, et corporis adscititius cultus probro habentur? et contra verecundia, modestia, ac obedientiæ magistratibus debitæ observatio decori laudique; dantur?' That is, And how can there be an adulterer at Sparta, where riches, delights, and strange attire, or ornament are a disgrace or reproach? and contrarily shamefacedness, modesty, and the observance of due obedience to magistrates is an honour and praise?' And if rich men think it their privilege to fare sumptuously and satisfy their appetites, they must take it for their privilege to feed their lust. But God giveth no man plenty for such uses; nor is it any excuse for eating and drinking much, because you have much, any more than it would be to your cooks to put much salt in your meat more than in poorer men's, because you have more 9. He that observeth the filthy and pernicious effects of that gluttony which is accounted rich men's honour and felicity, will never envy them that miserable happiness, but say rather as Antisthenes, Hostium filiis contingat in deliciis vivere'.' 'Let it befal the children of my enemies to live in delights:' but that the curse is too heavy for a Christian to use to any of his enemies. But for himself he must remember that he is the servant of a holy God, and hath a holy work to do, and holy sacrifices to offer to him, and therefore must not pamper his flesh, as if he were preparing a sacrifice for Venus. For as 1 Thess. iv. 3,4. "This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication, that every It is Zeno's comparison in Laert. Diog. Laert. lib. vi. The words of Laertius are, 'Inimicorum filii delicate vivant." Diog. Laert. lib. vi. sect. 8. p. 320. (T. C.) one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles that know not God." As the philosopher answered Antigonus when he asked him whether he should go to a merry feast that he was invited to, Thou art the son of a king' so it is answer enough for a Christian against temptations to voluptuousness, I am the son of the most holy God.' If thou be invited to feasts where urgency or allurement is like to make thee break thy bounds, go not, or go back when thou seest the bait. As Epaminondas in Plutarch finding excess at a feast that he was invited to, went away when he saw it, saying, Ego te sacrificare, non lascivire putaram.' So say thou, I came to dine and not to be wanton or luxurious;' to support my body for duty, and not to pamper it for lust. Plutarch marvelleth at the folly of those men that detest the charms of witches lest they hurt them, and fear not but love the charms of dishes which hurt a thousand where witches hurt one. Withdraw the fuel of excess, and the fire of lust will of itself go out; or at least this enemy must be besieged and starved out, when it cannot be conquered by storm. Direct. 11. Take heed of idleness, and be wholly taken up in diligent business of your lawful callings, when you are not exercised in the more immediate service of God t David in his idleness or vacancy catched those sparks of lust, which in his troubles and military life he was preserved from. Idleness is the soil, the culture, and the opportunity of lust. The idle person goeth to school to the devil: he sets all other employment aside, that the devil may have time to teach him, and treat with him, and solicit with him to evil". Do you wonder that he is thinking on lustful objects, or that he is taken up in feasting and drinking, in chambering and wantonness? why he has nothing else to do. Whereas a laborious, diligent person hath a body subdued and hardened against the mollities, the effeminateness of the wanton; and a mind employed and taken up with better things: leave thy body and mind Diog. Laert. lib. ii. Otia si tollas periere Cupidinis arcus, &c. " In vacuo pectorc regnat amor. Ovid. Diogenes called love, Otiosorum negotium.' |