Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts.

DISCOURSE V. Of Temptation.

1. GOD, who is the Fountain of good, did chuse rather to bring good out of evil, than not to suffer any evil to be: not only because variety of accidents and na∣tures do better entertain our affections and move our spirits, who are transported and suffer great impressions by a circumstance, by the very opposition and accidental lustre and eminency of contraries; but also that the glory of the Divine Providence in turn∣ing the nature of things into the designs of God might be illustrious, and that we may in a mixt condition have more observation, and after our danger and our labour may obtain a greater reward: for Temptation is the opportunity of Vertue and a Crown; God having disposed us in such a condition, that our Vertues must be difficult, our in∣clinations 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and corrigible, our avocations many, our hostilities bitter, our dan∣gers proportionable, that our labour might be great, our inclinations suppressed and corrected, our intentions be made actual, our enemies be resisted, and our dangers pass into security and honour, after a contestation, and a victory, and a perseverance. It is every man's case; * 1.1 Trouble is as certainly the lot of our nature and inheritance, and we are so sure to be tempted, that in the deepest peace and silence of spirit oftentimes is our greatest danger; not to be tempted is sometimes our most subtle Temptation. It is certain then, we cannot be secure when our Security is our enemy; but therefore we must do as God himself does, make the best of it, and not be sad at that which is the publick portion and the case of all men, but order it according to the intention, place it in the eye of vertue, that all its actions and motions may tend thither, there to be changed into felicities. But certain it is, unless we first be cut and hewen in the mountains, we shall not be fixed in the Temple of God; but by incision and contusi∣ons our roughnesses may become plain, or our sparks kindled, and we may be either for the Temple or the Altar, spiritual building or holy fire, something that God shall delight in, and then the Temptation was not amiss.

2. And therefore we must not wonder that oftentimes it so happens, that nothing will remove a Temptation, no diligence, no advices, no labour, no prayers; not be∣cause these are ineffectual, but because it is most fit the Temptation should abide for ends of God's designing: and although S. Paul was a person whose prayers were likely to be prevalent, and his industry of much prudence and efficacy toward the drawing out of his thorn; yet God would not do it, but continued his war, only promising to send him succour, My grace is sufficient for thee: meaning, he should have an enemy to* 1.2 try his spirit and improve it, and he should also have God's grace to comfort and sup∣port it; but as without God's grace the Enemy would spoil him, so without an Ene∣my God's grace would never swell up into glory and crown him. For the caresses of a pleasant Fortune are apt to swell into extravagancies of spirit, and burst into the disso∣lution of manners; and unmixt Joy is dangerous: but if in our fairest Flowers we spie a Locust, or feel the uneasiness of a Sackcloth under our fine Linen, or our Purple be tied with an uneven and a rude Cord; any little trouble, but to correct our wildnesses, though it be but a Death's-head served up at our Feasts, it will make our Tables fuller of health and freer from snare, it will allay our spirits, making them to retire from the weakness of dispersion, to the union and strength of a sober recollection.

3. Since therefore it is no part of our imployment or our care to be free from all the attempts of an enemy, but to be safe in despite of his hostility; it now will concern us to inform our selves of the state of the War in general, and then to make provisions and to put on Armour accordingly.

4. First, S. * 1.3 〈◊〉〈◊〉 often observes, and makes much of the discourse, that the Devil, when he intends a Battery, first views the Strengths and Situation of the place. His sence drawn out of the cloud of an Allegory is this; The Devil first considers the Constitution and temper of the person he is to tempt, and where he observes his natural inclination apt for a Vice, he presents him with objects, and opportunity, and argu∣ments 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to his caitive disposition; from which he is likely to receive the smaller opposition, since there is a party within that desires his intromission. Thus to Lustful

natures he represents the softer 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Fornication; to the Angry and revengeful he offers to consideration the satisfactions and content of a full Revenge, and the emissions of anger; to the Envious he makes Panegyricks of our Rivals, and swells our fancies to opinion, our opinion to self-love, self-love to arrogance, and these are supported by contempt of others, and all determine upon Envy, and expire in Malice. Now in these cases, when our natures are caitive and unhandsome, it were good we were conscious of our own weaknesses, and by special arts and strengths of Mortification fortifie that part where we are apt and exposed to danger: we are sure enough to meet a Storm there, and we also are likely to perish in it, unless we correct those a versenesses and natural indispositions, and reduce them to the evennesses of Ver∣tue, or the affections and moderation of a good nature. Let us be sure that the Devil take not a helve from our own branches to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 his axe, that so he may cut the tree down: and certainly he that does violence to his nature, will not be easie to the entertainment of affections preternatural and violent.

5. Secondly, But the Devil also observes all our exteriour Accidents, Occasions and Opportunities of action; he sees what Company we keep, he observes what degrees of love we have to our Wives, what looseness of affection towards Children, how pre∣valent their perswasions, how inconvenient their discourses, how trifling their inte∣rests, and to what degrees of determination they move us by their importunity or their power. The Devil tempted Adam by his Wife, because he saw his affections too pliant, and encirling her with the entertainment of fondness, joy, wonder, and amo∣rous fancy: It was her hand that made the fruit beauteous to Adam; She saw it 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of it self, and so she ate; but Adam was not moved by that argument, but, The Woman gave it me, and I did eat: she gave vivacity to the Temptation, and efficacy to the argument. And the severity of the Man's understanding would have given a reasonable answer to the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the Serpent; That was an ugly Beast, and his arguments not being of themselves convincing to a wise person, either must put on advantages of a fair insi∣nuation and representment, or they are returned with scorn: But when the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 hands of his young Virgin. Mistriss became the Orators, the Temptation was an amo∣revolezza,* 1.4 he kisses the presenter, and hugs the ruine. Here therefore it is our safest course, to make a retrenchment of all those excrescences of Affections which, like wild and irregular Suckers, draw away nourishment from the Trunk, making it as sterile as it self is unprofitable. As we must restrain the inclinations of Nature, so also of So∣ciety and Relation, when they become inconvenient, and let nothing of our Family be so adopted or naturalized into our affections, as to create within us a new concupi∣scence, and a second time spoil our nature: What God intended to us for a Help, let not our fondnesses convert into a Snare; and he that is not ready to deny the importu∣nities and to reject the interests of a Wife or Child or Friend, when the question is for God, deserves to miss the comforts of a good, and to feel the troubles of an imperious woman.

6. Thirdly, We also have Ends and designs of our own, some great purpose upon which the greatest part of our life turns; it may be we are to raise a Family, to reco∣ver a sunk Estate, or else Ambition, Honour, or a great Imployment is the great hindge of all our greater actions; and some men are apt to make haste to be rich, or are to pass through a great many difficulties to be honourable: and here the Devil will swell the hopes, and obstruct the passages; he will heighten the desire, and multiply the business of access, making the concupiscence more impatient, and yet the way to the purchase of our purposes so full of imployment and variety, that both the impla∣cable desire and the multitude of changes and transactions may increase the danger, and multiply the sin. When the Enemy hath observed our Ends, he makes his Temptati∣ons to reflect from that angle which is direct upon them, provoking to malice and im∣patience against whomsoever we find standing in our way, whether willingly or by ac∣cident; then follow naturally all those sins which are instrumental to removing the impediments, to facilitating the passage, to endearing our friends, to procuring more confidents, to securing our hopes, and entring upon possession. Simon Magus had a desire to be accounted some great one; and by that purpose he was tempted to Sorcery and Divination; and with a new object he brought a new sin into the world, adding Simony to his Sorcery, and taught posterity that crime, which till then had neither name nor being. And those Ecclesiasticks who violently affect rich or pompous Prela∣cies, pollute themselves with worldly Arts, growing covetous as Syrian Merchants, ambitious as the Levantine Princes, factious as the people, revengeful as 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and proud as Conquerors and Usurpers; and by this means Beasts are brought into the

Temple, and the Temple it self is exposed to sale, and the holy Rites as well as the beasts of Sacrifice are made venial. To prevent the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 inconveniencies that thrust themselves into the common and great roads of our life, the best course is to cut our great Chanel into little Rivulets, making our Ends the more, that we may be indiffe∣rent to any, proposing nothing great, that our desires may be little; for so we shall be better able to digest the troubles of an Enemy, the contradictions of an unhandsome ac∣cident, the crossing of our hopes, because our desires are even, and our ends are less considerable, and we can with much readiness divert upon another purpose, having another ready with the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 proportion to our hopes and desires as the 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Thus 〈◊〉〈◊〉 we propound to our selves an honest imployment or a quiet retirement, a work of Cha∣rity abroad or of Devotion at home, if we miss in our first setting sorth, we return to shoar, where we can 〈◊〉〈◊〉 with content, it being alike to us either to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 abroad with more gain, or trade at home with more 〈◊〉〈◊〉: But when we once grow great in our desires, fixing too earnestly upon one object, we either grow 〈◊〉〈◊〉, (as Rachel, Give me children, or I die;) or take ill courses and use 〈◊〉〈◊〉 means, (as Thamar, chusing rather to lie with her Father than to die without issue;) or else are 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in the loss and frustration of our hopes, (like the Women of Ramah, who would 〈◊〉〈◊〉 be comforted,) Let therefore our life be moderate, our desires reason∣able, our hopes little, our Ends none in eminency and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 above others: for as the rays of Light passing through* 1.5 the thin air end in a small and undiscerned Pyramis, but 〈◊〉〈◊〉 upon a wall are doubled and increase the warmth to a scorching and troublesome heat; so the desires of Man, if they pass through an even and an indifferent life towards the issues of an ordinary and necessary course, they are little and within command, but if they pass upon an end or aim of difficulty or ambiti∣on, they duplicate and grow to a 〈◊〉〈◊〉: and we have seen the even and tempe∣rate lives of indifferent persons continue in many degrees of Innocence; but the Temp∣tation of busie designs is too great even for the best of dispositions.

7. But these Temptations are crasse and material, and soon discernible; it will re∣quire some greater observation to arm against such as are more spiritual and immaterial. For he hath Apples to cousen Children, and Gold for Men; the Kingdoms of the World for the Ambition of Princes, and the Vanities of the World for the Intempe∣rate; he hath Discourses and fair-spoken Principles to abuse the pretenders to Reason, and he hath common Prejudices for the more vulgar understandings. Amongst these I chuse to consider such as are by way of Principle or Proposition.

8. The first great Principle of Temptation I shall note, is a general mistake, which excuses very many of our crimes upon pretence of Infirmity, calling all those sins to which by natural disposition we are inclined (though by carelesness and evil customs they are heightned to a habit) by the name of Sins of infirmity; to which men suppose they have reason and title to pretend. If, when they have committed a crime, their Conscience checks them, and they are troubled, and, during the interval and abate∣ment of the heats of desire, resolve against it, and commit it readily at the next oppor∣tunity; then they cry out against the weakness of their Nature, and think, as long as this body of death is about them, it must be thus, and that this condition may stand with the state of Grace: And then the Sins shall return periodically, like the revoluti∣ons of a Quartan Ague, well and ill for ever, till Death surprizes the mistaker. This is a Patron of sins, and makes the Temptation prevalent by an authentick instrument: and they pretend the words of S. Paul, For the good that I would, that I do not; but the evil* 1.6 that I would not, that I do. For there is a law in my members 〈◊〉〈◊〉 against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of Sin. And thus the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Sin is mistaken for a state of Grace, and the imperfections of the Law are miscalled the affections and necessities of Nature, that they might seem to be incurable, and the persons apt for an excuse therefore, because for Nature there is no absolute cure. But that these words of S. Paul may not become a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of death and instruments of a temptation to us, it is observable, that the Apostle by a siction of person (as is usual * 1.7 with him) speaks of himself not as in the state of Regeneration under the Gospel, but under the 〈◊〉〈◊〉,* 1.8* 1.9 obscurities, insufficiencies and imperfections of the Law, which indeed he there con∣tends to have been a Rule good and holy, apt to remonstrate our misery, because by its prohibitions, and limits given to natural desires, it made actions (before indiffe∣rent) now to be sins, it added many curses to the breakers of it, and by an 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of contrariety it made us more desirous of what was now unlawful: but it was a Cove∣nant in which our Nature was restrained, but not helped; it was provoked, but not

sweetly assisted; our Understandings were instructed, but our Wills not sanctified, and there were no suppletories of Repentance; every greater sin was like the fall of an Angel, irreparable by any mystery, or express recorded or enjoyned. Now of a man under this Govenant he describes the condition to be such, that he understands his Du∣ty, but by the infirmities of Nature he is certain to fall, and by the helps of the Law not strengthened against it, nor restored after it; and therefore he calls himself under that notion a miserable man sold under sin, not doing according to the rules of the Law or the dictates of his Reason, but by the unaltered misery of his Nature certain to pre∣varicate. But the person described here is not S. Paul, is not any justified person, not so much as a Christian, but one who is under a state of direct opposition to the state of Grace; as will manifestly appear if we observe the antithesis from S. Paul's own cha∣racters. For the Man here named is such, as in whom sin wrought all concupiscence, in* 1.10 whom sin lived, and slew him, (so that he was dead in trespasses and sins;) and although* 1.11 he did delight in the Law after his inwardman, that is, his understanding had intellectu∣al complacencies and satisfactions, which afterwards he calls serving the Law of God* 1.12 with his mind, (that is, in the first dispositions and preparations of his spirit) yet he could act nothing; for the law in his members did inslave him, and brought him into cap∣tivity* 1.13 to the law of sin: so that this person was full of actual and effective lusts, he was a slave to sin and dead in trespasses: But the state of a regenerate person is such, as to have 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the flesh with the affections and lusts; in whom sin did not reign, not only in* 1.14* 1.15 the mind, but even also not in the mortal body; over whom sin had no dominion; in whom the old man was crucified, and the body of sin was destroyed, and sin not at all served. And to make the antithesis yet clearer, in the very beginning of the next Chapter the Apostle saith, that the spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made him free from the law of sin* 1.16 and death; under which law he complained immediately before, he was sold and killed, to shew the person was not the same in these so different and contradictory represent∣ments. No man in the state of Grace can say, The evil that I would not, that I do: if by evil he means any evil that is habitual, or in its own nature deadly.

9. So that now let no man pretend an inevitable necessity to sin: for if ever it comes to a custom or to a great violation, though but in a single act, it is a condition of Car∣nality, not of spiritual life; and those are not the infirmities of Nature, but the weak∣nesses of Grace, that make us sin so frequently; which the Apostle truly affirms to the same purpose, The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these* 1.17 are contrary the one to the other: so that [ye cannot] or [that ye * 1.18 do not do] the things that ye would. This disability proceeds from the strength of the flesh, and weakness of the spirit: For he adds, But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the Law: saying plainly, that the state of such a combate, and disability of doing good, is a state of a man under the Law, or in the flesh, which he accounts all one; but every man that is sanctified under the Gospel is led by the Spirit, and walks in the Spirit, and brings forth the fruits of the Spirit. It is not our excuse, but the aggravation of our sin, that we fall again in despite of so many resolutions to the contrary. And let us not flatter our selves into a confidence of sin, by supposing the state of Grace can stand with the Cu∣stom of any sin: for it is the state either of an animalis homo, (as the Apostle calls him) that is, a man in pure naturals, without the clarity of divine Revelations, who cannot* 1.19 perceive or understand the things of God; or else of the carnal man, that is, a person, who though in his mind he is convinced, yet he is not yet freed from the dominion of sin, but only hath his eyes opened, but not his bonds loosed. For by the perpetual analogy and frequent expresses in Scripture, the spiritual person, or the man redeemed by the spi∣rit of life in Christ Jesus, is free from the Law, and the Dominion, and the Kingdom, and the Power of all sin. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is* 1.20 life and peace.

10. But sins of Infirmity in true sence of Scripture signifie nothing but the sins of an unholy and an unsanctified nature, when they are taken for actions done against the strength of resolution out of the strength of natural appetite and violence of desire: and therefore in Scripture the state of Sin and the state of Infirmity is all one. For when we* 1.21 were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly, (saith the Apostle:) * 1.22 the condition in which we were when Christ became a sacrifice for us was certainly a condition of sin and enmity with God, and yet this he calls a being without strength, or in a state of weakness and infirmity; which we, who believe all our strength to be de∣rived from Christ's death, and the assistance of the holy Spirit, the fruit of his Ascensi∣on, may soon apprehend to be the true meaning of the word. And in this sence is that saying of our Blessed Saviour, The whole have no need of a Physician, but they that are

weak: for therefore Christ came into the world to save sinners, those are the persons of Christ's Infirmary, whose restitution and reduction to a state of life and health was his great design. So that whoever sin habitually, that is, constantly, periodically, at* 1.23 the revolution of a temptation, or frequently, or easily, are persons who still remain in the state of sin and death; and their intervals of Piety are but preparations to a state of Grace, which they may then be when they are not used to countenance or excuse the sin, or to flatter the person. But if the intermediate resolutions of emendation (though they never run beyond the next assault of passion or desire) be taken for a state of Grace blended with infirmities of Nature, they become destructive of all those purposes, through our mistake, which they might have promoted if they had been rightly under∣stood, observed and cherished. Sometimes indeed the greatness of a Temptation may become an instrument to excuse some degrees of the sin, and make the man pitiable, whose ruine seems almost certain, because of the greatness and violence of the enemy, meeting with a natural aptness: but then the question will be, whither and to what actions that strong Temptation carries him; whether to a work of a mortal nature, or only to a small irregularity, that is, whether to death, or to a wound: for what∣ever the principle be, if the effect be death, the man's case was therefore to be pitied, because his ruine was the more inevitable; not so pitied, as to excuse him from the state of death. For let the Temptation be never so strong, every Christian man hath assistances sufficient to support him, so as that, without his own yielding, no Tempta∣tion is stronger than that grace which God offers him; for if it were, it were not so much as a sin of infirmity, it were no sin at all. This therefore must be certain to us; When the violence of our Passions or desires overcomes our resolutions and fairer purpo∣ses, against the dictate of our Reason, that indeed is a state of Infirmity, but it is also of sin and death, a state of Immortification; because the offices of Grace are to crucifie the Old man, that is, our former aud impurer conversation, to subdue the petulancy of our Passions, to reduce them to reason, and to restore Empire and dominion to the superiour Faculties. So that this condition in proper speaking is not so good as the In∣firmity of Grace, but it is no Grace at all: for whoever are Christ's, have crucified the* 1.24 flesh with the affections and lusts: those other imperfect, ineffective resolutions are but the first approaches of the Kingdom of Christ, nothing but the clarities of lightning, dark as 〈◊〉〈◊〉 as light; and they therefore cannot be excuses to us, because the contrary weaknesses (as we call them) do not make the sin involuntary, but chosen and pur∣sued, and in true speaking is the strength of the Lust, not the infirmity of a state of Grace.

11. But yet there is a condition of Grace which is a state of little and imperfect ones, such as are called in Scripture Smoaking flax and bruised reeds; which is a state of the first dawning of the Sun of Righteousness, when the lights of Grace new rise upon our eyes; and then indeed they are weak, and have a more dangerous neighbourhood of* 1.25 Temptations and desires, but they are not subdued by them: they sin not by direct election; their actions criminal are but like the slime of Nilus, leaving rats half form∣ed; they sin but seldom, and when they do, it is in small instances, and then also by surprise, by inadvertency, and then also they interrupt their own acts, and lessen them perpetually; and never do an act of sinfulness, but the principle is such as makes it to be involuntary in many degrees. For when the Understanding is clear, and the dictate of Reason undisturbed and determinate, whatsoever then produces an irregular action excuses not, because the action is not made the less voluntary by it; for the action is not made involuntary from any other principle but from some defect of Understanding, either in act, or habit, or faculty. For where there is no such defect, there is a full de∣liberation according to the capacity of the man, and then the act of election that follows is clear and full, and is that proper disposition which makes him truly capable of pu∣nishment or reward respectively. Now although in the first beginnings of Grace there is not a direct Ignorance to excuse totally; yet because a sudden surprise or an inadver∣tency is not always in our power to prevent, these things do lessen the election and free∣dom of the action: and then because they are but seldom, and never proceed to any length of time, or any great instances of crime, and are every day made still more in∣frequent, because Grace growing stronger, the observation and advertency of the spi∣rit and the attendance of the inner man grows more effectual and busie; this is a state of the imperfection of Grace, but a state of Grace it is. And it is more commonly obser∣ved to be expressed in the imperfection of our good actions, than in the irregularity of bad actions: and in this sence are those words of our Blessed Saviour, The Spirit 〈◊〉〈◊〉 is willing, but the flesh is weak; which in this instance was not expressed in sin, but in a

natural imperfection, which then was a recession from a civility, a not watching with the Lord. And this is the only Infirmity that can consist with the state of Grace.

12. So that now we may lay what load we please upon our Nature, and call our vio∣lent and unmortified desires by the name of an imperfect Grace; but then we are dan∣gerously mistaken, and flatter our selves into an opinion of Piety, when we are in the gall of bitterness; so making our misery the more certain and irremediable, because we think it needs nothing but a perpetuity and perseverance to bring us to Heaven. The violence of Passion and Desires is a misery of Nature, but a perfect principle of Sin; multiplying and repeating the acts, but not lessening the malignity: But sins of Infir∣mity, when we mean sins of a less and lower malice, are sins of a less and imperfect choice, because of the unavoidable imperfection of the Understanding. Sins of Infir∣mity are always infirm sins, that is, weak and imperfect in their principle, and in their nature, and in their design; that is, they are actions incomplete in all their capa∣cities: but then Passions and periodical inclinations consisting with a regular and de∣termined and actual understanding must never be their principle; for whatsoever pro∣ceeds thence is destructive of spiritual life, and inconsistent with the state of Grace. But sins of infirmity, when they pretend to a less degree of malignity and a greater de∣gree of excuse, are such as are little more than sins of pure and inculpable ignorance; for in that degree in which any other principle is mixt with them, in the same degree they are criminal and inexcusable. For as a sin of infirmity is pretended to be little in its value and malignity: so it is certain, if it be great in the instance, it is not a sin of infirmity, that is, it is a state or act of death, and absolutely inconsistent with the state of Grace.

13. Secondly, Another Principle of Temptation pregnant with sin, and fruitful of monsters, is a weaker pretence which less wary and credulous persons abuse them∣selves withall, pretending as a ground for their confidence and incorrigible pursuance of their courses, that they have a Good meaning, that they intend sometimes well, and sometimes not ill, and this shall be sufficient to sanctifie their actions, and to hal∣low their sin. And this is of worse malice, when Religion is the colour for a War, and the preservation of Faith made the warrant for destruction of Charity, and a Zeal for God made the false light to lead us to Disobedience to Man, and hatred of Idolatry is the usher of Sacriledge, and the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Superstition the introducer of Profane∣ness, and Reformation made the colour for a Schism, and Liberty of conscience the way to a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and saucy Heresie: for the End may indeed hallow an indifferent action, but can never make straight a crooked and irregular. It was not enough for Saul to cry for God and the Sacrifice, that he spared the fat flocks of Amalek: and it would be a strange zeal and forwardness, that rather than the Altar of incense should not smoak, will burn Assa foetida, or the marrow of a man's bones. For as God will be honoured* 1.26 by us, so also in ways of his own appointment: for we are the makers of our Religion, if we in our zeal for God do what he hath forbidden us. And every sin committed for* 1.27 Religion is just such a violence done to it as it seeks to prevent or remedy.

14. And so it is if it be committed for an end or pretence of Charity as well as of Re∣ligion. We must be curious that no pretence engage us upon an action that is certainly criminal in its own nature. Charity may sometimes require our Lives, but no obli∣gation can endear a Damnation to us; we are not bound to the choice of an eternal ruine, to save another. Indeed so far as an Option will go, it may concern the ex∣crescences of Piety to chuse by a tacite or express act of volition to become Anathema for* 1.28 our brethren, that is, by putting a case and fiction of Law, to suppose it better, and wish it rather, that I should perish than my Nation. Thus far is charitable, because it is innocent; for as it is great love to our Countrey, so it is no uncharitableness to our selves: for such Options always are ineffective, and produce nothing but rewards of Charity, and a greater glory. And the Holy Jesus himself, who only could be and was effectively accursed to save us, got by it an exceeding and mighty glorification; and S. Paul did himself advantage by his charitable Devotion for his Countreymen. But since God never puts the question to us, so that either we or our Nation must be damned, he having xt every man's final condition upon his own actions in the vertue and obedience of Christ, if we mistake the expresses of Charity, and suffer our selves to be damned indeed for God's glory or our Brethrens good, we spoil the Duty, and ruine our selves when our Option comes to act. But it is observable, that although Religion is often pretended to justifie a sin, yet Charity is but seldom; which makes it full of suspicion, that Religion is but the cover to the Death's-head, and at the best is

but an accusing of God, that he is not willing or not able to preserve Religion without our irregular and impious cooperations. But however, though it might concern us to wish our selves rather 〈◊〉〈◊〉 than Religion, or our Prince, or our Country should perish, (for I find no instances that it is lawful so much as to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 it for the preservati∣on of a single friend;) yet it is against Charity to bring such a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and by sin to damn our selves really for a good end either 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Religion or Charity.

15. Let us therefore serve God as he hath 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the way; for all our accesses to him, being acts of his free concession and grace, must be by his 〈◊〉〈◊〉 designation and appointment. We might as well have chosen what shape our 〈◊〉〈◊〉 should be of, as of what instances the substance of our Religion should consist.

16. Thirdly, a third Principle of Temptation is, an opinion of prosecuting actions of Civility, Compliance and Society, to the luxation of a point of Piety and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Duty: and good natures, persons of humane and sweeter dispositions, are too apt to dash upon this rock of offence. But the evil that I would note is, that there are some conditions of men to whom a Vice is so accustomed, that he that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 with them must handle the crime and touch the venome. There are some Vices which are Nati∣onal, there are some that are points of Honour, some are Civilities of entertainment; and they are therefore accounted unavoidable, because the understandings of men are degenerous as their manners, and it is accounted sottish and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 not to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in their accustomed loosenesses. Amongst some men all their first addresses are 〈◊〉〈◊〉, their entertainments intemperate beyond the permissions of Christian au∣sterity; their drink is humorous, and their humours quarrellous, and it is dishonou∣rable not to engage in Duel, and venture your Soul to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 an empty Reputation. These inconveniences 〈◊〉〈◊〉 upon false opinions and vain fancies, having no greater foun∣dation than the sottish discourses of ignorant and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 persons; and they have no peculiar and appropriate remedy, but a 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 of manners, and a considerati∣on what is required of us as Christians to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 against 〈◊〉〈◊〉 fonder customs and ex∣pectations from us, as we engage in the puddles of the world and are blended in so∣ciety.

17. To which purposes we must be careful not to engage too freely in looser compa∣ny, never without business or unavoidable accidents; and when we mingle in affairs, it will concern our safety to watch, lest multitude of talk, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of na∣ture, the delight of company, and the freedom and ill-〈◊〉〈◊〉 civilities do by degrees draw us away from our guards and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of spirit. For in these cases every degree of dissolution disarms us of our strengths; and if we give way 〈◊〉〈◊〉 far as we think it tole∣rable, we instantly and undiscernibly pass into unlawful and criminal. But our best defences are deposited in a severe and prudent understanding, and discerning the sot∣tishness of such principles which represent Vice in civil 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and propound a crime to you under the cover of kindness; which is just so much recompence as it is satisfa∣ction to a condemned person that he was accused by a witty Oratour, and sentenced by an eloquent Judge. Remember always, that the friendships of the world are enmity with God; and that those Societies which are combined by relations of drink, and wanton∣ness, and impertinency, and crimes, are either inconsiderable in civility, or reason, or reputation; no wise man is moved by their testimony or discourses; and they are so impotent, rude and undiscerning a theatre, that most commonly he is the best man who from thence is the worst reported and represented.

18. But in all the instances of this great evil, the very stating the question right is above half the victory. For it is a question between mistaken Civility and certain Duty; Piety on one side, and the disguises of Humanity on the other. God and Man are the parties interested: and to counterpoise the influence of the sight and face of Man, (which being in a visible communication, it is not in some natures to neglect or contradict) there are all the Excellencies of God, the effects of his Power, his certain Pre∣sence and Omniscience, the severities of his Judgment, and the sweetness and invitati∣on of his Mercies; besides the prudence, wisdom and satisfaction to the spirit when we wisely neglect such sottish and low abuses and temptations, to conform to the rules of Reason and Duty in compliance with the purposes of God and our own 〈◊〉〈◊〉.

19. Thirdly, These ill-managed Principles are dangers as universal as an infected air; yet there are some diseases more proper to the particular state of Religion. First, To young beginners in Religion he represents the Difficulties of Religion, and pro∣pounds the greater Examples of holy persons, and affrights them with those mountains of Piety, observing where and upon what instance of Severity his fancy will be most apprehensive and 〈◊〉〈◊〉: and this he fails not often to represent with a purpose, that

by believing no Piety less than the greatest can be good, he may despair of those heights, and retire into the securities and indifferencies of a careless life. But this is to be cured by all those instruments of Piety which in special are incentives of the love of God, and endearments of spiritual and religious affections; and particularly by consideration of the Divine goodness, who knows whereof we are made, and remembers that we are but dust, and will require no more of us than according to our powers and present capacities.* 1.29 But the subject matter of this Temptation is considered and refuted in the Discourse of the Love of God.* 1.30

20. But most commonly young beginners are zealous and high, and not so easily tempted to a recession, till after a long time by a revolution of affections they are abated by a defervescency in holy actions. The Devil uses to prompt them on, not that he loves the Piety and the progress, but that he would engage the person in imprudences and such forwardness of expresses, which either are in their own nature indiscretions, or from which, by reason of the incapacity of the person, it is necessary for him to re∣tire. A new Convert is like a Bird newly entred into a Net, through which possibly she might pass without danger, if her fears and unreasonable strivings did not intangle her; but when by busie and disturbed slutterings she discomposes the order of it, she is intangled and unpenned, and made a prey to her treacherous enemy. Such are the un∣discreet strivings and too 〈◊〉〈◊〉 enterprises of new Penitents, whom we shall observe too often undertaking great Austerities, making Vows and casting bands upon their liberty, and snares upon their persons, thinking nothing great enough to expiate their sin, or to present to God, or to endear their services, or secure their perseverance; and therefore they lay a load of fetters upon themselves, or rather cut off their legs that they may never go back; therefore laying an obligation of Vows and intolerable burthens on themselves, that by these they may by a compendium of Piety redeem the time, and by those make it impossible to prevaricate. But the observation of the sad events and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 accidents of these men hath given probation of the indiscretion of such furious ad∣dresses and beginnings. And it was prudently done of Mcletius of Antioch, when he* 1.31 visited the Dioceses of Syria, and the several Religious persons famous for severe under∣takings; espying that Simeon Stylites dwelt upon a Pillar, and had bound his leg with a strong chain of iron, he sent for a Smith, causing it to be knocked off, and said, To 〈◊〉〈◊〉 man that loves God, his Mind is a sufficient chain. For the loads of voluntary Austerities rashly undertaken make Religion a burthen when their first heats expire; and their Vows, which are intended to secure the practice and perpetuate the Piety, are but the occasions of an aggravate crime; and the Vow does not secure the Piety, but the weariness and satiety of the Duty tempts to the breaking of the Vow, or at least makes the man impatient, when he cannot persist with content, nor retire with 〈◊〉〈◊〉.

21. It therefore concerns all Spiritual Guides, to manage their new Converts with sober counsels and moderate permissions, knowing that sublime speculations in the Me∣taphysicks are not fit entertainment for an infant-understanding. There is milk for babes, and strong meat for men of riper Piety; and it will imploy all the regular strength of young beginners to contest against the reliques of those mischiefs which remain since the expulsion of the Old man, and to master those difficulties which by the nature of the state are certainly consequent to so late mutation. And if we by the furies of Zeal and the impatience of mistaken Piety are violent and indiscreet in the destroying of our Enemies, we probably may tread the thistle down, and trample upon all its appearan∣ces, and yet leave the root in the ground with haste and imprudent forwardness. Gentle and soft counsels are the surest Enemies to your Vice, and the best conservators and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of a vertuous state: but a hasty charge and the conduct of a young Lead∣er may engage an early spirit in dangers and dishonours. And this Temptation is of so much greater danger, because it 〈◊〉〈◊〉 a face of Zeal, and meets with all encourage∣ments from without; every man being apt to cherish a Convert, and to enflame his new 〈◊〉〈◊〉: but few consider 〈◊〉〈◊〉 inconveniences that are consequent to indiscreet begin∣nings, and the worse events usually appendent to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 inconveniences.

22. Indeed it is not usual that Prudence and a new-kindled Zeal meet in the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 person: but it will therefore concern the safety of new Converts, who cannot guide themselves, to give themselves up to the conduct of an experienced Spiritual person, who being disinterest in those heats of the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 apprehensions, and being long taught by the observation of the accidents of a spiritual life upon what rocks Rashness and Zeal usually do engage us, can best tell what degrees and what instances of Religion they may with most safety undertake: but for the general, it is best in the addresses of Grace

to follow the course of Nature; let there be an Infancy, and a Childhood, and a vigo∣rous Youth, and by the divers and distant degrees of increment let the persons be esta∣blished in Wisdom and Grace. But above all things let them be careful that they do not lay upon themselves Necessities of any lasting course, no Vows of perpetuity in any in∣stance of uncommanded action or degree of Religion: for he may alter in his capacity and exteriour condition; he may see by experience, that the particular engagement is imprudent; he may by the virtue of Obedience be engaged on a duty inconsistent with the conveniences and advantages of the other; and his very loss of liberty in an un∣commanded instance may tempt him to inconvenience. But then, for the single and transient actions of Piety, although in them the danger is less, even though the im∣prudence be great, yet it were well if new beginners in Religion would attempt a mo∣derate and an even Piety, rather than actions of eminency, lest they retire with shame, and be 〈◊〉〈◊〉 with scruple, when their first heats are spent, and expire in weariness and temptation. It is good to keep within the circuits of a man's affections, not stretching out all the degrees of fancy and desire, but leaving the appetites of Religion rather unsatisfied, and still desiring more, than by stretching out the whole faculty leave no desires but what are fulfilled and wearied.

23. Thirdly, I shall not need here to observe such Temptations which are direct in∣vitations to sin, upon occasion of the Piety of holy persons; such as are Security, too much Confidence, Pride and Vanity: these are part of every man's danger, and are to be considered upon their several arguments. Here I was only to note the general in∣struments of mischief. It remains now that I speak of such Remedies and general An∣tidotes, not which are proportioned to Sins in special, but such as are preventions or remedies and good advices in general.

24. First, Let every man abstain from all Occasions of sin as much as his condition will permit. And it were better to do some violence to our secular affairs, than to pro∣cure apparent or probable danger to our Souls. For if we see not a way open and rea∣dy prepared to our iniquity, our desires oftentimes are not willing to be troubled, but Opportunity gives life and activeness to our appetites. If David had not from his tow∣ers beheld the private beauties of Bathsheba, Uriah had lived, and his Wife been unat∣tempted; but sin was brought to him by that chance, and entring at the casements of his eyes set his heart on fire, and despoiled him of his robes of honour and innocence. The riches of the wedge of gold and the beauty of the Babylonish garment made Achan sa∣crilegious upon the place, who was innocent enough in his preceding purposes: and therefore that Soul that makes it self an object to sin, and invites an Enemy to view its possessions and live in the vicinage, loves the sin it self; and he that is pleased with the danger, would willingly be betrayed into the necessity and the pleasure of the sin: for he can have no other ends to entertain the hazards, but that he hath a farther purpose to serve upon them; he loves the pleasure of the sin, and therefore he would make the condition of sinning certain and unavoidable. And therefore Holy Scripture, which is admirable and curious in the cautions and securities of Vertue, does not determine its Precepts in the precise commands of vertuous actions, but also binds up our senses, obstructs the passage of Temptation, blocks up all the ways and avenues of Vice, com∣manding us to make a covenant with our eyes; not to look upon a Maid; not to sit with a wo∣man that is a singer; not to consider the wine when it sparkles, and gives its colour rightly in the cup; but to set a watch before our mouths, to keep the door of our lips, and many more instances to this purpose, that sin may not come so near as to be repulsed; as knowing sin hath then prevailed too far, when we give the denial to its solicitations.

25. We read a Story of a vertuous Lady, that desired of S. Athanasius to procure for her, out of the number of the Widows fed from the Ecclesiastical Corban, an old wo∣man, morose, peevish and impatient, that she might by the society of so ungentle a person have often occasion to exercise her Patience, her Forgiveness and Charity. I know not how well the counsel succeeded with her; I am sure it was not very safe: and to invite the trouble to triumph over it, is to wage a war of an uncertain issue for no end but to get the pleasures of the victory, which oftentimes do not pay for the trouble, never for the danger. An Egyptian, who acknowledged Fire for his God, one day doing his devotions kissed his God after the manner of Worshippers, and burnt his lips. It was not in the power of that false and imaginary Deity to cure the real hurt he had done to his devoutest worshipper. Just such a fool is he that kisses a danger, though with a design of vertue, and hugs an opportunity of sin for an advantage of Pie∣ty; he burns himself in the neighbourhood of the flame, and twenty to one but he may perish in its embraces: And he that looks out a danger that he may overcome it,

does as did the Persian, who 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the Sun, looked upon him when he prayed him to cure his sore eyes. The Sun may as well cure a weak eye, or a great burthen knit a broken arm, as a danger can do him advantage that seeks such a combate which may ruine him, and after which he rarely may have this reward, that it may be said of him, he had the good 〈◊〉〈◊〉 not to perish in his folly. It is easier to prevent a mis∣chief than to cure it; and besides the pain of the wound, it is infinitely more full of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to cure a broken leg, which a little care and observation would have preserved whole. To recover from a sin is none of the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 labours that concern the sons of men; and therefore it concerns them rather not to enter into such a narrow strait, from which they can never draw back their head, without leaving their hair and skin and their ears behind. If God please to try us, he means us no hurt, and he does it with great reason and great mercy; but if we go to try our selves, we may mean well, but not wisely: For as it is simply unlawful for weak persons to seek a Temptation, so for the more perfect it is dangerous. We have ene∣mies* 1.32 enough without, and one of our own within: but we become our own tempter, when we run out to meet the World or invite the Devil home, that we may throw holy water upon his flames, and call the danger nearer, that we may run from it. And cer∣tainly* 1.33 men are more guilty of many of their temptations than the Devil, through their* 1.34 incuriousness or 〈◊〉〈◊〉 doing as much mischief to themselves as he can: For he can but offer; and so much we do when we run into danger. Such were those Stories of S. Antony provoking the Devil to battel: If the Stories had been as true as the actions were rash & ridiculous, the Story had 〈◊〉〈◊〉 a note of indiscretion upon that good man; though now I think there is nothing but a mark of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 on the Writer.

26. Secondly, Possibly without 〈◊〉〈◊〉 we may be engaged in a 〈◊〉〈◊〉, but then we must be diligent to resist the first Beginnings: For when our strength is yet intire and unabated, if we suffer our selves to be overcome, and consent to its 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and weakest attempts, how shall we be able to resist when it hath tired our contestati∣on, and wearied our patience, when we are weaker and prevailed upon, and the Temptation is stronger and triumphant in many degrees of victory? By how much a Hectick Feaver is harder to be cured than a Tertian, or a Consumption of the Lungs than a little Distillation of Rheum upon the throat; by so much is it harder to prevail upon a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Lust than upon its first insinuations. But the ways of resisting are of a different consideration, proportionably to the nature of the crimes.

27. First, If the Temptation be to crimes of Pleasure and Sensuality, let the resist∣ance* 1.35 be by flight: For in case of Lust, even to consider the arguments against it is half as great Temptation as to press the arguments for it: For all considerations of such al∣lurements make the Soul perceive something of its relish, and entertain the fancy. Even the pulling pitch from our cloaths defiles the fingers; and some adherences of pleasant and carnal sins will be remanent even from those considerations which stay within the circuit of the flames, though but with purpose to quench the fire and pre∣serve the house. Chastity cannot suffer the least thought of the reproaches of the spirit of impurity: and it is necessary to all that will keep their purity and innocence against sensual Temptations, to avoid every thing that may prejudice decorum. Libanius 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Sophister reports, that a Painter being one day desirous to paint Apollo upon a Laurel∣board, the colours would not stick, but were rejected: out of which his fancy found* 1.36 out this extraction; That the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Daphne (concerning whom the Poets feign that, flying from Apollo, who attempted to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 her, she was turned into a Laurel-tree) could not endure him even in painting, and rejected him after the loss of her sensitive powers. And indeed chaste Souls do even to death resent the least image and offer of impurity: whatsoever is like a sin of uncleanness, he that means to preserve himself chaste must avoid, as he would avoid the sin; in this case there being no difference but of degrees between the inward Temptation and the Crime.

28. Secondly, If the Temptation be to crimes of troublesome and preternatural de∣sires or intellectual nature, let the resistance be made 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉, by a perfect fight, by the amassing of such arguments in general and remedies in particular which are apt to become deleteries to the Sin, and to abate the Temptation. But in both these in∣stances the resistance must at 〈◊〉〈◊〉 be as soon as the attempt is, lest the violence of the Temptation out-run our powers: for if against our full strength it hath prevailed to the first degrees, its progress to a complete victory is not so improbable as were its successes at the first beginnings. But to serve this and all other ends in the resisting and sub∣duing

a Temptation, these following Considerations have the best and most universal influence.

29. First, Consideration of the Presence of God, who is witness of all our actions, and a revenger of all Impiety. This is so great an instrument of fear and Religion, that whoever does actually consider God to be present, and considers what the first conside∣ration signifies, either must be restrained from the present Temptation, or must have thrown off all the possibilities and aptnesses for Vertue; such as are Modesty, and Re∣verence, and holy Fear. For if the face of a Man scatters all base machinations, and we dare not act our crimes in the Theatre, unless we be impudent as well as criminal; much more does the sense of a present Deity fill the places of our heart with veneration and the awe of Religion, when it is throughly apprehended and actually considered. We see not God, he is not in our thoughts, when we run into darkness to act our impu∣rities. For we dare not commit Adultery if a Boy be present; behold the Boy is sent off with an excuse, and God abides there, but yet we commit the crime: it is because, as Jacob said at Bethel, God was in that place, and we knew not of it; and yet we neither breath nor move an artery but in him and by his assistance; (a 1.37) In him we live, and move, and have our being. And, (b 1.38) All things are naked and open in his sight. (c 1.39) The iniquity of my people is very great; for they say, The Lord seeth not. (d 1.40) Shall not he that made the eye see? (e 1.41) To him the night and day are both alike. These and many more to the same design are the voices of Scripture, that our spirits may retire into the behold∣ing of God, to the purposes of fear and holiness, with whom we do cohabit by the ne∣cessities of nature, and the condition of our essence wholly in dependence; and then on∣ly we may sin securely, when we can contrive to do it so that God may not see us.

30. There are many men who are servants of the eyes, as the Apostle's phrase is, who* 1.42 * 1.43 when they are looked on act vertue with much pompousness and theatrical bravery; but these men when the Theatre is empty, put off their upper garment, and retire into their primitive baseness. Diogenes* 1.44 endured the extremity of winter's cold, that the people might wonder at his austerity and philosophical patience: but Plato seeing the people admiring the man, and pitying the susse∣rance,* 1.45 told them, that the way to make him warm himself* 1.46 was for them to be gone and to take no notice of him. For they that walk as in the sight of men, serve that design well enough when they fill the publick voice with noises and opi∣nions, and are not by their purposes engaged to act in private; but they who are ser∣vants of the eyes of God, and walk as in the Divine presence, perceive the same re∣straints in darkness, and closets, and grots, as in the light and midst of theatres; and that consideration imposes upon us a happy necessity of doing vertuously, which pre∣sents us placed in the eyes of our Judge. And therefore it was not unhandsomely said of a Jewish Doctor, If every man would consider God to be the great Eye of the World watching perpetually over all our actions, and that his Hand is indefatigable, and his Ear ever open, possibly sin might be extirpated from off the face of the earth. And this is the condition of Beatitude; and the blessed Souls within their regions of light and felicity cannot sin, because of the Vision beatifical, they always behold the face of God: and those who partake of this state by way of consideration, which is essential to the condition of the Blessed, and derive it into practice and discourse, in proportion to this shall retain an innocence and a part of glo∣ry.

31. For it is a great declension of humane Reason, and a disreputation to our spirits, that we are so wholly led by Sense, that we will not walk in the regions of the Spirit, and behold God by our eyes of Faith and Discourse, suffering our course of life to be gui∣ded by such principles which distinguish our natures from Beasts, and our conditions from vicious, and our spirits from the World, and our hopes from the common satis∣factions of Sense and corruption. The better half of our Nature is of the same constitu∣tion with that of Angels; and therefore although we are drenched in Matter and the communications of Earth, yet our better part was designed to converse with God: and we had, besides the eye of Reason, another eye of Faith put into our Souls, and both clarified with revelations and demonstrations of the Spirit, expressing to us so visible and clear characters of God's presence, that the expression of the same Spirit is, We may feel* 1.47 him, for he is within us, and about us, and we are in him, and in the comprehensions of his embracings, as birds in the* 1.48 Air, or Infants in the wombs of their pregnant Mothers.

And that God is pleased not to communicate himself to the eyes of our Body, but still to remain invisible, besides that it is his own glory and perfection, it is also no more to us but like a retreat behind a curtain, where when we know our Judge stands as an Espial and a watch over our actions, we shall be sottish if we dare to provoke his jealousie, because we see him not, when we know that he is close by, though behind the cloud.

32. There are some general impressions upon our spirits, which by way of presum∣ption and custom possess our perswasions, and make restraint upon us to excellent pur∣poses; such as are the Religion of Holy places, reverence of our Parents, presence of an austere, an honourable, or a ver∣tuous* 1.49 person. For many sins are prevented by the company of a witness, especially if besides the ties of modesty we have also towards him an indearment of * 1.50 reverence and fair opi∣nion; and if he were with us in our privacies, he would cause our retirements to be more holy. S. Ambrose reports of the Virgin Mary, that she had so much Piety and Religion in her Countenance and deportment, that divers persons, moved by the veneration and regard of her Person, in her pre∣sence have 〈◊〉〈◊〉 commenced their resolutions of Chastity and sober living. However the story be, her person certainly was of so express and great Devotion and Sanctity, that he must needs have been of a very impudent disposition and firm immodesty who durst have spoken unhandsome language in the presence of so rare a person. And why then any rudeness in the presence of God, if that were as certainly believed and considered? For whatsoever amongst men can be a restraint of Vice or an endearment of Vertue, all this is highly verisied in the presence of God, to whom our Conscience in its very con∣cealments is as a fair Table written in capital letters by his own finger; and then if we fail of the advantage of this exercise, it must proceed either from our dishonourable opinion of God, or our own fearless inadvertency, or from a direct spirit of reprobation: for it is certain, that this consi∣deration* 1.51 is in its own nature apt to correct our manners, to produce the fear of God, and Humility, and spiritual and holy thoughts, and the knowledge of God and of our selves, and the consequents of all these, holy walking, and holy com∣forts. And by this only argument S. Paphnutius and S. Ephrem are reported in Church∣story to have converted two Harlots from a course of Dissolution to great Sanctity and Austerity.

33. But then this Presence of God must not be a mere speculation of the Understand∣ing; though so only it is of very great benefit and immediate efficacy, yet it must re∣flect as well from the Will as from discourse: and then only we walk in the presence of God, when by Faith we behold him present, when we speak to him in frequent and holy Prayers, when we beg aid from him in all our needs, and ask counsel of him in all our doubts, and before him bewail our sins, and tremble at his presence. This is an entire exercise of Religion. And beside that the Presence of God serves to all this, it hath also especial influence in the disimprovement of Temptations, because it hath in it many things contrariant to the nature and efficacy of Temptations; such as are Consideration, Reverence, Spiritual thoughts, and the Fear of God: for where-ever this consideration is actual, there either God is highly despised, or certainly feared. In this case we are made to declare; for our purposes are concealed only in an incuri∣ousness and inconsideration; but whoever considers God as present, will in all reason be as religious as in a Temple, the Reverence of which place Custom or Religion hath imprinted in the spirits of most men: so that as Ahasuerus said of Haman, Will he ravish the Queen in my own house? aggravating the crime by the incivility of the circum∣stance; God may well say to us, whose Religion compells us to believe God every∣where present; since the Divine Presence hath made all places holy, and every place hath a Numen in it, even the Eternal God, we unhallow the place, and desecrate the ground whereon we stand, supported by the arm of God, placed in his heart, and en∣lightned by his eye, when we sin in so sacred a Presence.

34. The second great instrument against Temptation is Meditation of Death. Rade∣rus* 1.52 reports, that a certain Virgin, to restrain the inordination of intemperate desires, which were like thorns in her flesh, and disturbed her spiritual peace, shut her self up in a Sepulchre, and for twelve years dwelt in that Scene of death. It were good we did so too, making Tombs and Coffins presential to us by frequent meditation.

For God hath given us all a definitive arrest in Adam, and from it there lies no appeal, * 1.53 but it is infallibly and unalterably 〈◊〉〈◊〉 for all men once to die, or to be changed, to pass from hence to a condition of Eternity, good or bad. Now because this law is ‖ 1.54 certain, and the time and the manner of its exe∣cution is uncertain, and from this moment Eternity depends, and that after this life the final sentence is irrevocable, that all the pleasures here are sudden, transient, and unsatisfying, and vain; he must needs be a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 that knows not to distinguish moments from Eternity: and since it is a condition of necessity, established by Divine decrees, and fixt by the indispensable Laws of Nature, that we shall after a very little duration pass on to a condition strange, not understood, then unalterable, and yet of great mutation from this, even of greater distance from 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in which we are here than this is from the state of Beasts;* 1.55 this, when it is considered, must in all reason make the same impression upon our understandings and affections which na∣turally all strange things and all great considerations are apt to do, that is, create resolutions and results passing through the heart of man, such as are reasonable and prudent, in order to our own 〈◊〉〈◊〉, that we neglect the vanities of the present Temptation, and secure our future condition, which will, till Eternity it self expires, remain such as we make it to be by our deportment in this short transition and passage through the World.

35. And that this Discourse is reasonable I am therefore confirmed, because I find it to be to the same purpose used by the Spirit of God, and the wisest personages in the world. My soul is always in my hand, therefore do I keep thy Commandments, said David:* 1.56 he looked upon himself as a dying person, and that restrained all his inordinations, and* 1.57 so he prayed, Lord, teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom. And therefore the AEgyptians used to serve up a Skeleton to their Feasts, that the disso∣lutions* 1.58 and vapours of wine might be restrained with that bunch of myrrh, and the va∣nities of their eyes chastised by that sad object: for they thought it unlikely a man should be transported far with any thing low or vicious that looked long and often into the hollow eye-pits of a Death's head, or dwelt in a Charnel-house: And such conside∣rations make all the importunity and violence of sensual desires to disband. For when a man stands perpetually at the door of Eternity, and, as did John the Almoner, every day is building of his Sepulchre, and every night one day of our life is gone and passed into the possession of death, it will concern us to take care that the door leading to Hell do not open upon us, that we be not crusht to ruine by the stones of our grave, and that our death become not a consignation to us to a sad Eter∣nity. For all the pleasures of the whole world, and in all its* 1.59 duration, cannot make recompence for one hour's torment in Hell: and yet if wicked persons were to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in Hell for ever without any change of posture, or variety of torment beyond that session, it were unsufferable beyond the indurance of na∣ture: and therefore where little less than infinite misery in an infinite duration shall punish the pleasures of sudden and transient crimes, the gain of pleasure and the ex∣change of banks here for a condition of eternal and miserable death is a permutation 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to be made by none but fools and desperate persons, who made no use of a reasonable Soul, but that they in their perishing might be convinced of unreasonableness, and die by their own fault.

36. The use that wise men have made when they reduced this consideration to pra∣ctice is to believe every day to be the last of their life, for so it may be, and for ought we know it will; and then think what you would avoid, or what you would do, if you were dying, or were to day to suffer death by sentence and conviction; and that in all reason; and in proportion to the strength of your consideration, you will do every day. For that is the sublimity of Wisdom, to do those things living, which are to be desired* 1.60 and chosen by dying persons. An alarm of death every day renewed, and pressed earnest∣ly, will watch a man so tame and soft, that the precepts of Religion will dwell deep in his spirit. But they that make a covenant with the grave, and put the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 day far 〈◊〉〈◊〉 them, they are the men that eat spiders and toads for meat greedily, and a Temptation to them is as welcome as joy, and they seldom dispute the point in behalf of Piety or Mortification: for they that look upon Death at distance apprehend it not, but in such general lines and great representments that describe it only as future and possible, but

nothing of its terrors or 〈◊〉〈◊〉 or circumstances of advantage are discernible by such an eye that disturbs its 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and discomposes the posture, that the object may seem another thing than what it is truly and really. S. Austin with his Mother Monica was led one day by a Roman Prator to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the tomb of Caesar. Himself thus describes* 1.61 the Corps.

It looked of a blew mould, the bone of the nose laid bare, the flesh of the neather lip quite fallen off, his mouth full of worms, and in his eye-pits two hungry Toads feasting upon the remanent portion of flesh and moisture; and so he dwelt in his house of darkness.

And if every person tempted by an opportunity of Lust or in∣temperance would chuse such a room for his privacy, that company for his witness, that object to allay his appetite, he would soon find his spirit more sober, and his de∣sires* 1.62 obedient. I end this with the counsel of S. Bernard,

Let every man in the first ad∣dress to his actions consider, whether if he were now to die he might safely and pru∣dently do such an act, and whether he would not be infinitely troubled that death should surprise him in the present dispositions, and then let him proceed accordingly.

For since our treasure is in earthen vessels, which may be broken in pieces by the colli∣sion of ten thousand accidents, it were not safe to treasure up wrath in them; for if we do, we shall certainly drink it in the day of recompence.

37. Thirdly, Before, and in, and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 all this the Blessed Jesus propounds Prayer as a remedy against Temptations; Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: For* 1.63 besides that Prayer is the great instrument of obtaining victory by the grace of God, as a fruit of our desires and of God's natural and essential goodness; the very praying against a Temptation, if it be hearty, servent and devout, is a denying of it, and part of the victory: for it is a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the entertainment of it, it is a positive rejection of the crime; and every consent to it is a ceasing to pray, and to desire remedy. And we shall observe that whensoever we begin to listen to the whispers of a tempting spirit, our Prayers against it lessen, as the consent increases; there being nothing a more di∣rect enemy to the Temptation than Prayer, which as it is of it self a professed hostility against the crime, so it is a calling in auxiliaries from above to make the victory more certain. If Temptation sets upon thee, do thou set upon God; for he is as soon over∣come as thou art, as soon moved to good as thou art to evil, * 1.64 he is as quickly invited to pity thee as thou to ask him; provided thou dost not finally rest in the petition, but pass in∣to action, and endeavour by all means humane and moral to quench the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 newly kindled in thy bowels, before it come to devour the marrow of the bones. For a strong Prayer, and a lazy, incurious, un∣observant walking, are contradictions in the discourses of Religion. * 1.65 〈◊〉〈◊〉 tells us a story of a young man solicited by the spirit of Uncleanness, who came to an old Reli∣gious person, and begged his prayers. It was in that Age when God used to answer Prayers of very holy persons by more clear and familiar significations of his pleasure than he knows now to be necessary. But after many earnest prayers sent up to the throne of Grace, and the young man not at all bettered, upon consideration and en∣quiry of particulars, he found the cause to be, because the young man relied so upon the Prayers of the old Eremite, that he did nothing at all to discountenance his Lust or contradict the Temptation. But then he took another course, enjoyned him Austeri∣ties and exercises of Devotion, gave him rules of prudence and caution, tied him to work and to stand upon his guard; and then the Prayers returned in triumph, and the young man trampled upon his Lust. And so shall I and you, by God's grace, if we pray earnestly and frequently, if we watch carefully that we be not surprised, if we be not idle in secret, nor talkative in publick, if we read Scriptures, and consult with a spiritual Guide, and make Religion to be our work, that serving of God be the busi∣ness of our life, and our designs be to purchase Eternity; then we shall walk safely or recover speedily, and, by doing advantages to 〈◊〉〈◊〉, secure a greatness of Religion and spirituality to our spirits and understanding. But remember that when Israel fought against Amalek, Moses's prayer and Moses's hand secured the victory, his Prayer grew ineffectual when his Hands were slack; to remonstrate to us, that we must cooperate with the grace of God, praying devoutly, and watching carefully, and observing pru∣dently, and labouring with diligence and assiduity.

Notes

• * 1.1

  〈◊〉〈◊〉, mi 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉, si 〈◊〉〈◊〉 unquam 〈…〉〈…〉, S. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.2

  2 Cor. 12. 9.
• * 1.3

  〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉.
• * 1.4

  Habet 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 quandam ad∣monitio 〈◊〉〈◊〉, quum 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 quod 〈◊〉〈◊〉. S. Chrysost.
• * 1.5

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 Dii quoque 〈◊〉〈◊〉 In 〈◊◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊◊〉 Omne 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉.
• * 1.6

  Rom. 7. 19. 23
• * 1.7

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉, Rom. 3. 7.
• * 1.8

  Gal. 2 18.
• * 1.9

  1 Cor. 6. 12. & 10. 23, 29, 30. & 13. 2.
• * 1.10

  Rom. 7. 8, 11.
• * 1.11

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 22.
• * 1.12

  verse 25.
• * 1.13

  verse 23.
• * 1.14

  Gal. 5. 24.
• * 1.15

  Rom. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 6, 12, 14.
• * 1.16

  Rom. 8. 2.
• * 1.17

  Gal. 5. 17.
• * 1.18

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.19

  Rom. 7. 14.
• * 1.20

  Rom. 8. 6.
• * 1.21

  Rom. 5. 6.
• * 1.22

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, without strength, that is, ungodly.
• * 1.23

  Vide August. l. 2. c 17. de 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉, & Anchir. 81.
• * 1.24

  Gal. 5. 24.
• * 1.25

  S. August. lib. de 〈◊〉〈◊〉 & 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. c. 17. &c. 19.
• * 1.26

  Vide 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉.
• * 1.27

  2 Sam. 6. cap. 6, 7, 8, 9. vers.
• * 1.28

  Rom. 9. 3.
• * 1.29

  〈◊〉〈◊〉. 2. in Ex∣plicat. of the 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.30

  1. Com.
• * 1.31

  Theod. l. 5. 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉.
• * 1.32

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 quid 〈◊〉〈◊〉 omne malum mundique 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉 ad 〈◊◊◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊◊◊〉 Ex 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉, genus, & 〈◊〉〈◊〉, & vim, Quid sint, 〈◊◊◊◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊◊◊◊〉. Prud. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.33

  〈◊〉〈◊〉. 21. 27.
• * 1.34

  〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.35

  〈◊◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊◊〉 ca∣dere; 〈◊◊◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊◊◊〉. S. Aug.
• * 1.36

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• a 1.37

  Act. 17. 28.
• b 1.38

  Heb. 4. 13.
• c 1.39

  〈◊〉〈◊〉. 9, 9. Jer. 23. 24.
• d 1.40

  Psal. 94. 9.
• e 1.41

  Psal. 139. 12.
• * 1.42

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 6. 6.
• * 1.43

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.44

  Non n. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ac studiis ut haberentur phils. sophi laberabant; sed 〈◊〉〈◊〉 & tristitiam, & dissentientem à cater is habitum, pessimis meribus praetendebant. Quintil. l. 1. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.45

  Ambitio & 〈◊〉〈◊〉 & impotentia sienam deside∣rans; sanabis ista, si 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Sence. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 95.
• * 1.46

  Magna vobis, si dissimular 〈◊〉〈◊〉 vultis, injecta 〈◊〉〈◊〉 probitatis, 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 agitis 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 judicis 〈◊〉〈◊〉 cernentis. Boeth. l. 5. Censol. presâ ult.
• * 1.47

  Acts 17. 27.
• * 1.48

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.49

  Aliquem habeat animus 〈…〉〈…〉. Quid prodest 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉 Deo. Senec. l. 1. ep. 15.
• * 1.50

  〈…〉〈…〉 lera simulac 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉 pudore & 〈◊〉〈◊〉, suo 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉, Tacit. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 6. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 51.
• * 1.51

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Sophocl.
• * 1.52

  Tota philoso∣phia nihil est 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉. Plato.
• * 1.53

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈…〉〈…〉 A. 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. 2.
• ‖ 1.54

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. 〈◊〉〈◊〉, Phil.
• * 1.55

  Dies 〈…〉〈…〉 quod ab 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 in 〈◊〉〈◊〉, in 〈◊◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊◊〉. S. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 102.
• * 1.56

  Psal. 119. 109.
• * 1.57

  Psal. 90. 12.
• * 1.58

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉 28.
• * 1.59

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉, & 〈◊〉〈◊〉, & 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉 que 〈…〉〈…〉. l. 2. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 14.
• * 1.60

  〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.61

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉.
• * 1.62

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Theog. In 〈◊〉〈◊〉 monach.
• * 1.63

  Matth. 26. 41.
• * 1.64

  —His 〈…〉〈…〉. Hor. l. 2. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 18.
• * 1.65

  Lib. 3. 13.