Like that de

wise destitute even of the colour of reason. vice of Caiaphas ", when they knew not how to accuse Christ, or charge him with any face of capital crimes, yet he had found out a way, that though there were no personal reasons, nor just grounds to proceed upon, yet admitting and confessing the innocency of the person of Christ, the expedience notwithstanding, and exigency of state so requiring it, fitter it was for "one innocent person" to perish, and thereby the safety of the commonwealth, which depended upon their homage to the Romans, to be secured,-than, by the preservation of one man, to have the welfare of the whole. people lie at hazard, and exposed to the fears, and jealousies, and displeasures of the Romans; who, by public fame, were very suspicious of an Universal Prince which was to arise out of Judea,-and none so likely to be the man, as he who could raise dead men out of their graves, and so be never destitute of armies to help him. So, though there was no æquum est,' yet there was an 'expedit;' though there was no reason or justice, yet there was exigence and expediency why he ought to die,-though not as a malefactor, to satisfy for his own offence, yet as a sacrifice to expiate, and to prevent those evils of state, which the fame of his mighty works might have occasioned. And thus doth sin deal with men; sometimes, by the help of corrupt reason, and counterfeit maxims, it makes the sins which are commanded, seem warrantable and equal: sometimes, where the things are apparently evil, and cannot be justified, yet, by pretence of some present exigencies, it makes them seem necessary and unavoidable. Fifthly, Its violence and importunity: for sin is so wilful, that as he once answered the Persian king, when it cannot find a law to warrant that which it requires, yet it will make a law to command what it will; and it will beset and pursue, and importune the soul, and take no answer. Balaam's Pambition was sufficiently non-plused by the se

Joh. xi. 47, 50.

• Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus et constans opinio esse in fatis, ut eo tempore Judæâ profecti rerum potirentur. Sueton. in Vespasi. cap. 4.-Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri, eo ipso tempore fore ut valesceret oriens, profectique Judæa rerum potirentur; quæ ambages Vespasianum et Titum prædixerant. Tacit. Hist. lib, v.-Idipsum non dissimili errore notaverat prius Joseph. de Bello Judaico, lib. v. cap. 12. P Numb. xxxi. 16. Micah vi, 5

veral answers and parables, which God put into his mouth; and yet still it pursues him, and will put him upon all experiments, make him try the uttermost of his devilish wit to curse God's people and promote himself. Jonah's fretfulness had been once put to silence, and could reply nothing when God charged him; yet, upon a second occasion, it gathers strength, and becomes more headstrong, even to dispute with God, and to charge him foolishly. Dalilah', we know, was an allegory or type of lust; and we know how violent and urgent she was with Sampson, till she grieved and vexed his soul with her daily importunities. Sixthly, Its provisions, those subsidiary aids and materials of lust which it fetcheth from abroad; those things' of the world, with which the heart" committeth adultery; for the world is the armoury and storehouse of lust. Lastly, Its instruments, which willingly execute the will of sin, and yield themselves up as weapons in the war. In these things principally, doth the strength of lust consist.

Having thus discovered wherein the strength of lust lies, set yourselves against it in these particulars thereof. First, For the wisdom and deceit of lust: First, Set up a spiritual wisdom, which may discover and defeat the projects of the flesh. Christ's teaching is the only way to put off the old man, and to be renewed in the spirit of the mind.-Secondly, Mutual exhortation is a great help against the deceitfulness of sin; "Exhort one another, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." Silence is the best advantage an enemy can have, when one doth not warn nor give notice to another. If a cheat or cunning spy should come to a place, and apply himself with several insinuations unto several persons for the better managing his purposes, and sifting out those discoveries which he is to make.-the best way to disclose the plots and mischiefs of such an enemy, would be to confer and compare his several passages and discourses together: so Christians' mutual communicating of the experiments, temptations, conflicts, victories, which they have had in themselves to one

another, is a sure way to discover and prevent the deceit of lust. Rahab's hiding and concealing the spies, did much advance their project against Jericho; and so the keeping of the Devil's counsel, and stifling his temptations, and the deceits of lust, is one of the greatest advantages they can have. -Thirdly, Receive the truth with love; for lies and delusions a are the doom of those men, who receive not the love of truth, that they might be saved.

Secondly, For the persuasions and suggestions of lust, ertertain no treaty; have no commerce with it; be not in its company alone; let it not draw thee away; sit not in counsel with it," Qui deliberant, desciverunt." If it prevail to get our ear, and make us listen unto it, it will easily proceed further. As soon as ever St. Paul was called, he immediately"refused to confer with flesh and blood:"-which relation elsewhere making, he useth another expression, 'Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision;" intimating thus much, that but to hold a conference with the flesh, is a beginning of disobedience. If our first mother Evah had observed this rule, not to deliberate or admit any dispute with the Serpent, but had at first offer rejected his motion, with this peremptory answer, 'We have a law given us, and servants must be ruled by their master, and not by their fellows; it is fitter to obey God than to dispute against him,-to execute his commands, than to interpret them,'-she might have prevented that deluge of sin and calamity, which, by this one oversight, did invade the world. Therefore the Lord strictly commands his people, that when they were to succeed the nations whom God would cast out before them, and should dwell in their land, they should take heed that they were not snared by following them, neither should they "enquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods?" The very acquainting themselves with the forms of other men's idolatries might ensnare them. Therefore as soon as lust stirs and offers to persuade thee, start away from it, as Joseph did: "Come not nigh the door of a strange woman's house." Though the first allurements seem modest and moderate, yet

a 2 Thes. ii. 10, 11. Acts xxvi, 19.

b Psal. i. 1. f Deut. xii. 30.

e Tacit.

8. Γιον. ν. δ.

d Gal. i. 16.

if the Serpent get in but his head, he will easily draw in the rest of his body; and if he should not, yet his sting is in his head.

.

h

Thirdly, For the promises and threats of lust; First, Believe them not; for lust is a tempter, and it is given to all tempters to be liars too. When God hath said one thing, let no arguments make thee believe the contrary. As we are to believe above hope, so above reason too: for though sophistry may allege reasons for a false conclusion, which every understanding is not able to answer or evade, yet there is a voice of Christ in all saving truth, which his sheep are apt to hear and subscribe unto, in which there is an evidence to make itself known, and to difference delusions from it. though haply a man have not artificial logic enough to distinguish it from every captious and sophistical argument. "If an angel from Heaven," saith the apostle ', preach any other gospel, let him be accursed." We know what it cost the man of God, when he gave credit to the old prophet of Bethel, though pretending an angel's warrant, to go back and eat with him, contrary to the commandment, which he had received before. Secondly, Get security of better promises; for all the promises of the flesh, if they should be performed, will perish with a man learn to rest upon God's all-sufficiency; see thyself rich enough in his ways: there are more riches in the persecutions, much more in the promises and performances of God, than in all the treasures' of Egypt. Lust can promise nothing, but either thou hast it already, (and the same water is far sweeter out of a fountain, than when it hath passed through a sink; the same money far better when it is a blessing from God, than when a bribe from lust; when it is the reward of a service, than when it is the price of sin; when it is given by the owner, than when deposited by a thief); or else thou art far better without it: thou walkest among fewer snares,-hast an overplus of spiritual goods for thy earthly defect,-hast thy poverty sweetened and sanctified by better promises. And therefore respect none of the wages of lust; consider, that God is the fountain of life; that thou hast more and better of it in him than in the h John x. 4, 5. i Gal. i. 8. k1 Kings xii. 18. 24.

Heb. xi. 25.

creatures; that when thou wantest the things of this life, yet thou hast the promises still; and that all the offers of lust are not for comforts, but for snares; not for the use of life, but for provisions of sin. And there is more content in a little received from God, than in whole treasures stolen from him; and all sinful gain is the robbing of God.

Fourthly, For law of lust, set up the law of the spirit of life in thy heart. It is a royal law, and a law of liberty; whereas lust is a law of death and bondage; and where the spirit comes; a man shall be set "free from the law of sin and death." Keep thyself always at home in the presence of Christ, under the eye and government of thy husband; and that will dash all intruders and adulterers out of countenance. Take heed of quenching, grieving, stifling the Spirit; cherish the motions thereof; stir up and kindle the gifts of God in thee; labour by them to grow more in grace, and to have near communion with God. The riper the corn grows, the looser will the chaff be; and the more a man grows in grace, with the more ease will his corruptions be severed and shaken off.

Fifthly, When lust is violent and importunate: First, Be thou importunate and urgent with God against it too. When the messenger of Satan, the thorn in the flesh," did buffet and stick fast unto St. Paul, he reiterated his prayers unto God against it, and proportioned the vehemency of his requests to the violence and urgency of the enemy that troubled him: and he had a comfortable answer, "My grace is sufficient for thee;" sufficient in due time to cure, and sufficient at all times to forgive, thy weakness. In the law," if a ravished woman had cried out, she was esteemed innocent, because the pollution was not voluntary, but violent. And so in the assaults of lust, when it useth violence, and pursues the soul that is willing to escape and fly from it; if a man withhold the embraces of his own will, and cry out against it; if he can say with St. Paul,P "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me;" though, in regard that the flesh is something within himself, he cannot therefore be esteemed altogether innocent, yet the grace of God shall be sufficient. Secondly, When thou art pursued, keep

a Rom. viii. 2. n 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8. o Deut. xxii. 25, 27. p Rom. vii. 20.