Motives to holy living, or, Heads for meditation divided into consideratins, counsels, duties : together with some forms of devotion in litanies, collects, doxologies, &c.

§. 40. n. 4.

2. That in these Scriptures (See 1. Thess. 4.3.7, 8. And 1. Cor. 6. from the 13. verse to the end) These Vices of Carnal Lusts are aggravated as peculiarly opposite to a certain Holiness which ought to be in the Body as well as in the Soul of all those who profess themselves Mem∣bers of Christ, or Members of that chast Virgin (as the A∣postle calls her 2. Cor. 11.2.) his Spouse the Church; whom he bought and purchased to himself with his own blood and life; and whom he cherisheth as the same flesh and bone (Eph. 5.29, 30. &c.) and as the same Spirit (1. Cor. 6.17.) with himself; and for whom now is our Body as well as the Soul; and the Lord for it (1. Cor. 6.13.) Therefore is this Holiness of the Body, both conjugal and virginal, as well as of the Spirit, often mentioned by the Apostle 1. Thess. 4.4. This is the Will of God (saith he) your Sancti∣sication, that ye should abstain from Fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel [i. e. his Body, See 1. Sam. 21.5.] in sanctification and honour; not in Lusts of Concupiscence. For (ver. 8.) God hath called us not to Ʋncleanness, but unto Holiness. And 1. Cor. 6.20. compared with Eph. 5.29. &c. to the end. Ye are bought with a price [to be the Spouse of our Lord] therefore glorify God in your Body, and in your Spirit, which are God's. [his Members now, not yours; according to 1. Cor. 7.4. The

wife hath not power of her own Body [No more then hath Christ's Wife or Spouse] but the husband. Ibid. vers. 34. The Virgin (saith he) careth for the things of the Lord [how she may please him] that she may be holy both in Body and Spirit [which is a transcendent Holiness of the Body beyond the Conjugal]. And 2. Cor. 7.1. (after the A∣postle had spoken of their being God's Temples in the 6th Chapter), Wherefore (saith he) let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and of the Spirit, [so] perfect∣ing Holiness. And more expresly: Flee Fornication (saith he) 1. Cor. 6.18. [Why?] For every [other] sin that a man doth is without the Body [i. e. without any proper infamy to the Body, or giving the power and honour thereof to another besides our Lord Christ] but he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own Body [i. e. in degrading it to so base an alliance as to become the same with that vile creature with which it sinneth]. There∣fore, Eph. 5.3, 4. the Apostle also peculiarly concerning this sin or any filthy discourse tending to it, giveth charge that it should not be once named among such as will go for Saints. But Fornication (saith he) and all Ʋncleanness or Coveteousness let it not be once named among you as be∣cometh Saints; Nor filthiness or foolish talking which are not convenient [or which greatly mis-become such as you; see the same phrase, Rom. 1.28]. And as God cast a special shame upon man in the committing of this Sin; so, in receiving him again after his fall into a new covenant of his Grace, made with Abraham the Father of the faithful, he caused the Seal thereof to be set particu∣larly on those parts, in a circumcision of them, which were the instruments of Lust. In Rom. 1.26. &c. We find God to abandon those, who had otherwise much dis∣pleased him in their following Idols &c, whenas God hath left such manifest testimonies in all his creatures of him∣self,

were to the greatest disgrace and dishonour of humane nature that could be; called there 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. And in Apocal. 22.15. The Practisers of one Species thereof (as if it did utterly depose us from our man-hood) are called by the name of Dogs (which see also in Deut. 23.18. and Phil. 3.2. for the Gnosticks stood guilty of such impurities). And, Job. 36.14. This is pronounced as a Curse upon a Hypocrite; that Vita eorum is inter effeminatos.