An antidote against lust: or, A discourse of uncleanness, shewing its various kinds, great evil, the temptations to it, and most effectual cure. By Robert Carr, minister of the Church of England

THIS Chapter begins with an Exhortation to heavenly∣mindedness, that the ge∣nerous spirit of a Christi∣an may be elevated be∣yond those terrene and sublunary enjoyments and objects of sense, to the invisible things of Faith: v. 1. Seek those things which are above; prosecute them with might and main, use all diligence by the most earnest and se∣rious endeavours for the attainment of those

things, as St. Paul hath it, Phil. 3. 12. fol∣lowing after, if that I may apprehend, &c. or lay hold on eternal Life, and pressing for∣ward for the prize of our Calling in Christ Jesus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, our calling from above, or our heavenly calling of God in Christ Je∣sus, v. 13. In the 2d. v. positively, Set your Af∣fections on the things above, the things of the other World, those better things that you look for hereafter, according to the ex∣ceeding great and precious Promises that God hath made you in his Son. Negative∣ly, and not on the things on Earth, the base and mean Objects, the poor pittiful things here below, as not worthy of your affecti∣ons, of your cares, and your thoughts, ac∣cording to the original, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which sig∣nifies primarily the application of our minds, our reason and understanding, sursum sape∣re, (as in the Latine) to be wise for the things above, and not the things on earth.

The Reasons enforcing this Exhortation, are drawn, First, From their spiritual Re∣surrection in conformity with Christ; If ye be risen with Christ, v. 1. or have felt the power of his Resurrection, as Phil. 3. 10. or as Eph. 1. 19, 20. the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead; if this power hath quickned you, raised you from

sin, if this heavenly life and disposition be in you, then let the same appear by your heavenly-mindedness.

2d. Argument, From Christ's residence in Heaven in his state of Exaltation, where Christ also sitteth on the right hand of God, v. 1. in the lat. part. Is Christ our Head in Heaven, and shall we the Members be grove∣ling here on earth? should we not rather by our heavenly minds and affections ascend up thither, whither Christ is gone before to pre∣pare a place, and sitteth to keep possession for us?

3d. Arg. Because 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ye are dead from these things below, in the 3d. v. by a death unto sin, as in our Baptism, renoun∣cing and disowning the World, the Flesh, ••nd the Devil, to live no longer according to the course of this World, the Lusts of ••he Flesh, or the Works of the Devil, in∣••onfistent with the Christian Profession and Practice.

4th. Arg. From their expectation of a glorious life hereafter, at Christ's second ••oming, v. 4. For when Christ, who is our ••ife, shall appear, then shall ye also appear ••ith him in glory; that therefore we should ••ave our Conversation in Heaven, from whence we look for that blessed Hope, and he glorious appearing of the great God,

and our Saviour Jesus Christ, Tit. 2. 13.

The Apostle having enforced the positiv•• part, or his Exhortation to heavenly-mind¦edness with these Arguments, falls upo•• a farther prosecution of the Negative; S•• not your Affections on things on earth; gi••¦ing the Colossians, and us with them, a d••¦rection how to carry our selves toward•• them, even in a Mortification of our Mem¦bers which are upon earth, Fornication, &•• that is, of our earthly and sensual Affection

Mortificare, or to Mortifie in English, as much as mortuum facere, to make dea•• cause to dye, or put to death; when ap¦plied to sin, it is a figurative Speech take•• from things which have life, and (probabl•• enough) from the Sacrifices under the Law which were kill'd and slain by the Priest, b••¦fore they were offered upon the Altar; a••¦swerably to which we must kill the old ma•• of sin, before we can become a Sacrifice a••¦ceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Killing the Old man, or the first Ada•• as 1 Cor. 15. 45. Not in respect of t•• Substance, but the Quality, the evil Disp••¦sitions, the corrupt Nature descended a•• conveighed to us from Adams sin and •• from God, and the Holiness of his fir•• estate.

Crucifying the flesh we read of, and Cr••¦cified

to the World; an Allusion to Christs death upon the Cross, a painfull and tor∣menting death, and so is Death com∣monly attended with pain, the pains of Death at the last hour, and the preceding hours, and sometimes days, which makes Nature look upon Death with a great deal of horrour and reluctancy. And thus cor∣rupt Nature looks upon mortifying the fleshly lusts as a sore evil; it puts the flesh to a great deal of pain and misery; it afflicts the Body in denying it satis∣faction, crossing it in its sinful desires, its evil lustings, and therefore it is compa∣red in Scripture to the plucking out a right Eye, to the cutting off a right Hand, or a right Foot, and casting it from one; so difficult is it for a man to deny himself herein, in the Mortification of his darling Lust.

This, to mortifie your members, &c. (saith one of the Fathers,) is the hardest Text in the whole Bible, and the hardest Duty in Christianity that we can go about. Mor∣tification of sin is the giving a deadly wound to sin, to the reigning and commanding power of sin, which is the Life of sin; subduing the Corruption and wickedness of our Natures, the evil Inclinations and dis∣positions of man in his saln sinful state, so

that the heart is cleansed and purged from the love of sin; sin disabled from lording it, and having the dominion over us; every un∣ruly Lust overmastered and brought under. This is Mortification, or the giving a dead∣ly wound to sin, even as a man is said to be a dead man when he is mortally wound∣ed, or when he is inwardly decayed as to his vital parts, or the breaking some prin∣cipal Vein in the Body, albeit in some such cases they have some remainder of life, and that may continue sometimes years af∣ter; or as when the main Body of an Ar∣my is routed and beaten out of field, or dead upon the place, though there may be some striving and strugling, or faint re∣sistance from the remainder, yet it doth not hinder them from the Victory: Even so it is here, when the main Body of sin is subdued and beaten out of the Heart of a Christian, though there be some Reliquiae or remainders of corruption, yet sin is mortified; for this mortifying work i•• not perfect here, it doth not root out sin and dispossess it wholly, that we should have no sin at all left in us, or sin no more and be pure from sin after Mortification▪ For the most righteous man upon the ••ac•• of the Earth hath the seed of sin, the roo•• of evil in him, Flesh as well as Spirit, a••

Heart deceitfull and desperately wicked, con∣sidered naturally in and of it self, as well as a new heart and a new spirit formed in Christ Jesus: And therefore the unrege∣nerate part hath need to be still mortified, lest otherwise it break out into those evils and abominations which we read of, in Lot's Drunkenness and Incest; Jacob's deceitful dealing with Laban, Davia's Murther and Adultery, Solomon's Idolatry and Carna∣lity, Jonah's great Impatience and Mur∣muring against God, and self-justifying in his so doing; Peter's denyal of his Master with Cursing and Swearing too, St. Mark 14. 71. Which are sad evidences of the frailty of our Nature, and the abiding of sin alter sanctification, as Rom. 7. largely proves our indwelling sin to be soliciting, and tempting, and stirring to evil; and we have need of continued Influences of the Spirit to carry on this work of Mortification continually; it is not to be only for a time, by fits and starts, but when we have master∣••d sin, and conquered its temptation at pre∣sent, it will renew its strength, and return upon you again; like that Monster, Hydra's ••ead, it will repullulate, and find you work or repeating your assaults, and reiterating ••our mortifying blows; like a conquered Nation, which will be labouring still to re∣cover

its former power and soveraignty, and must be continually kept under with stand∣ing Garrisons; so sin will be restless, and striving still for the mastery, taking all oc∣casions to soil us if we do not hold up a con∣stant work, killing sin when it is reviving, nipping it when in the bud, least it sprou•• and grow up again, and bring forth its cor∣rupt fruit: But more of this in the Use for Trial of our Mortification.

Having shown what Mortification is, we come next to shew what is meant by Mem∣bers, Piscator says of the Apostle, Cupidi tates vocat membra; and Mr. Leigh in hi•• Annotations much the same, Lusts, some o•• which he nameth afterwards. Dr. Ham¦mond understands it of our inordinate Affe¦ctions. Dr. Preston says by Members i•• meant Sin, or any foul Affection, or desir•• of the Heart, when our Affections fix o•• settle upon an unlawful Object, as anothe•• Man's Possessions, another Man's Wife, o•• any acts of Uncleanness, as those out of married estate are all unclean; any Heathe¦nish or Popish Antichristian Honour and Pre¦ferments.

Or when the Heart is set upon lawf•• things in an undue measure, an immoderat•• distrustful care of his worldly concern•• which otherwise were lawful, and must b••

cared for with Faith and Sobriety: A Man may take some kind of Pleasure, and use some sports, Hunting, Fishing, Hawking, Bowling, for his Recreation, while he hath the command over his Affections, but if he be captivated, and his heart brought under the power of any, as 1 Cor. 6. 12. to love the World, to love his lawful Comforts or his Child excessively; if his love to any Creature eclipse his Love to God, and draw away his Heart from Religion, and dead∣en his joys and delights in God and Duty, or be so predominant, that a man cannot resign up that Creature, that Comfort to God, to bear the loss of it, it becomes sin, and defiles the Man.

Our Lusts and corrupt Affections are call∣ed Members, because, 1. The whole Cor∣ruption of Man's Nature is compared to a Mans Body, and called the body of Sin, Rom. 6. 6. and the body of Death; the lat∣ter not only because it was so grievous to the Apostle, (as that lamentable Exclama∣tion noteth, O wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death, Rom. 7. 24.) that it was as death is to a na∣tural Man, or worse than death to him; but a body of death in that sense, as we are dead in trespasses and sins, being the cursed fruit and effect of spiritual death, the re∣mainder

of that death, and called a body because of its quantity, there being a mass, an heap of Corruption even in the Saints, though it be overpowred by God's Grace, and hindered from breaking forth in their Lives in that measure as it doth in the Unre∣generate. Now every soul Affection is as a Member of this Body, every unmortified Lust a limb in this old man of sin.

2. Lusts are called Members, because they do work in our Members, Iam. 4. 1. Whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts which war in your members? and Rom. 7. 23. I see a law (sin likened to a Law, as claiming Obe∣dience to be due to it, all Mankind being fallen under the Dominion of sin) in my mem∣bers, this Law, this Imperium, acting and stirring in my Members, and warring a∣gainst the Law of my mind, or the Law of God in my mind, and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of sin which is in my Members. Sin doth as it were reside and dwell in our Members, according to the im∣port of these words; sin which is in my members, as inhabiting there, as well in the Body as in the Soul: And though the Body doth not always sin actually, yet it is ne〈…〉〈…〉 pure from sin, but hath an habit of sin in wicked men, the corruption of the

Soul having overspread the whole Man; but the principal sense that I insist on, is that wherein the Members serve for the acting of sin, and so they are called weapons of Ʋnrighteousness, (or as the common Tran∣slation hath it) Instruments, fit Tools for to work and do the deed, when once sin is inwardly conceived in the Soul, and hath made its motion for the consent of the Will, and gained the point; Voluntas domi∣na Membrorum, the Will is the Comman∣dress of the Members, which are as Servants ready to do their Mistresses pleasure in the execution of sin: you know Lust works in the eye gazing upon Beauty, in the ear hearkning to lascivious Discourse, in the hand by a wanton Dalliance, and in the Palate delighted in the tasting of dainty Meats and Drinks; so that in a secondary sense it may be understood of these to be mortified, keeping the Body under by Fast∣ing and Abstinence.

3. Our Lusts are called Members, be∣cause they are as dear unto a carnally-mind∣ed man, and as well b••loved a•• his Mem∣bers, and therefore in Scripture our Lusts are called a right-hand and a right-eye, that is, they s••ick as close to the Heart and Affections, and it is as hard to deny these to part with a beloved Lust, as to part with ••••e

of our dearest Members. I have read o•• one who having sore Eyes, (it might have been better for Temperance if he had had a sore throat) and being told he must leave off his Drunkenness, else he must loose hi•• eye-sight, said, Farewell then sweet Eyes so dear was that Lust to him, that he would keep it with the loss not of one, but ever of both his Eyes. And I have heard of •• greater Person who (having had a fit of th•• Apoplexy, and being much addicted t•• Women) was told, if he did not leave of that ill-course, it would shorten his Life yet his Peccatum in deliciis, his sweet Mor¦sel, or as the Psalmist calls it, Psal. 18. 23 his own iniquity would not be denied, an•• proved eventually true of his untimely end Though Life is sweet, yet you see a Lus•• is sweeter, so that Life, and Honour, an•• Conscience, and Heaven, even all must g•• for a beloved Lust.

They are not only called Members, bu•• Members which are upon Earth. First, Be¦cause they are exercised upon earthly things as Riches and Treasures, which are as •• were fetched out of the Earth, as our Gol¦den Silver Mines, &c. afford us our Mo¦ney, and other choice Jewels, must not b•• referred to Air, Fire, Water, but Earth as the Element to which they belong, an••

into which they will be dissolved, into a more pure and refined Dust; or the delicious Fruits of the Earth, which serve for Meat and Drink, and are abused to Gluttony and Drunkenness; even the Bodies of Men and Beasts are Earth in their Original, and in the Funeral Service we say elegantly, Earth to Earth, Dust to Dust; so that the pleasure which the Glutton hath from his Meat, and the Unclean Person from his Lusts, are but earthly pleasures.

Secondly, Our Lusts and evil Affections are called Members upon Earth, because they continue with us during our natural abode upon Earth. We here are in a cor∣ruptible State, and so we gather soil and de∣filement by conversing with an evil World; and the flesh will be lusting in us, and en∣••icing us to sin until we come to Heaven and that blessed State there, more spiritual and refined from the Dreggs of Earth, and the impurities of the Flesh.

Having handled in general the Doctrine of Mortification of Lusts, I now come to particulars.

Fornication comes in the first place to be considered; sometimes it is used more large∣••y for actual Uncleanness, as 1 Cor. 5. 1. The Incestuous Corinthians act in marrying his Fathers Wife called Fornication; and

this sense seemeth to be the more commo•• sense of the Word in Scriptures, as in Ma•• 15. 19. 1 Cor. 10. 8. yet in 1 Cor. 6. 9▪ Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor eff••¦minate, nor abusers of themselves with man∣kind; where the other sorts of Uncleanness natural or unnatural are reckoned up, (a•• but Bestiality) which makes for the othe•• sense of the word Fornication, that of Whore¦dom, which is committed between two sin¦gle unmarried Persons, and in that it differ•• from Adultery, because it is not against an•• Marriage-Covenant, and so hath no Perjur•• of that kind, and because the Married hav•• the Remedy against Uncleanness, and con¦sequently the better may and ought to be sa∣tisfied therewith, yet the place before men¦tioned, 1 Cor. 6. 9. assures us no Fornicato•• shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven not excluding Repentance, here as in othe•• sins there remaining some place for Re¦pentance; and because we do not find in th•• Law of God the Punishment of Whore¦dom to be absolutely Death as in case o•• Adultery.

This Fornication must be Mortified i•• those that have done thus wickedly, tha•• they do so no more, and sin not for th•• time to come as heretofore; but work ou•• of their Hearts the love of the sin, and cea••••

the practice of it, until they have got the victory to relapse no more into it, and loath themselves for their former Abomi∣nations, bewailing that ever they were so foully spotted with the Flesh. But the best way is to mortifie or subdue the temptati∣ons to it, so as never to sin the sin. None that carry Flesh and Blood about them, should think it strange to be tempted to it, that of the Apostle being true herein, that no temptation hath happened to them ••ut what is common to men, incident to ••umane nature, to good as well as bad; ••en the best have found themselves temp∣••ed, (and probable enough,) very strong∣••y tempted by▪ their youthful Lusts; ••hey are a sore temptation, if not the ••reatest in our whole Lives, and there is ••s much difficulty in conquering these un∣••ly Lusts, as in breaking young head∣••rong Horses, and taming of wild Beasts, ••r the like; and a great part of peoples ••eligion must be placed in it, and they ••ust be very careful however they fall by ••sser guilt and the corruption of their ••earts, to keep off from this greater guilt, ••is deadly or damning sin, as Fornicati∣••n is named in our Letany; and I am per∣••waded God doth not give men up to this ••n, until they have provoked him very

much by long neglect of holy duties, (and then no wonder if evil prevail, and cor∣rupt so many, when there is little or no good to withstand it; if they have little▪ or no grace to overcome the temptation where the means of Grace are neglected or used very little, and but in a very care∣less negligent manner;) or by much in∣ward filthiness of long continuance, or great wantonness, for nemo repente fuit tur∣pissimus. And if thou beest one who hast long indulged thy self in these, thou art prepared for further Guilt, there is but a step between thee and this sin; and there∣fore tremble in a sense of thy Guilt, and danger of more; but yet better these than the sin it self, or the actual uncleanness▪ vastantia conscientiam, that lay waste and make havock of a good Conscience, o•• great gashes and wounds in the Conscience and sink men into destruction, and com¦monly, ordinarily hold them fast in it, a Prov. 2. 18, 19. spoken of a naught Woman: For her House inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead: None that go un¦to her return again, neither take they hold o•• the paths of Life; which is true in a pro¦verbial sense, (Proverbs being sayings o•• common observation, and so true by com¦mon experience, as it is here,) That the••

who go on thus far never return to God again, and usually perish, though not e∣ver without exception. Consider of this, ••or prevention of sin now in time, least ••hou be forced to consider of it after∣wards, to despair for sin. A word spo∣••en in due season, and received, how ••ood is it! The next word is Ʋnclean∣ess, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which doth comprehend ••l sorts of actual sins of this kind, those ••gainst the 7th. Commandment, and the ••ternal Lusts against the 10th. Command∣••ent, Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours ••ife, where in the Septuagint it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, thou shalt not have any lustful ••esire after her. What ever is impure ••d unchast, inward or outward, natural •• unnatural Lusts, this word being of a ••rge signification reacheth them all, ••ough here it chiefly and more especially ••spects the outward acts, there being ••njoyned in the same verse, other words ••at signifie Lust within us, as inordinate ••fection, and evil concupiscence do. I ••oke already somewhat to the natural ••s of Lust, under the consideration of ••e former word, I shall speak now to o∣••er unnatural acts of Lust, that of peo∣••es corrupting themselves, and sinning a∣••inst their own bodies. Ah how far hath

this abominotion spread it self! how ma∣ny have committed folly in this sort! Ah this single Fornication (as some call it,) how soon have some began to practise it! out of a wantonness and lasciviousness to taste of pleasure before its time! other some from their Parents fault and negli∣gence, staying their Children for a good Match so long, until their patience is ti••¦red out. And thus they (who might and like enough would have been satisfie•• with the true and proper remedy agains•• Lust, and with the lawful means) fall t•• unlawful, when they see their Parent•• provide no Portion for them, and tak•• no care to dispose of them. Lust will no•• ever be shut up in the heart, it will brea•• out; this fire will have a vent some wa•• or other. If you find your Childrens in¦clinations strong to Marriage, the tempe•• and constitution of their Bodies requirin•• it, their corruption stirring, and tempta¦tions powerful, and their age competent•• deny them not Marriage. And if th•• Match be not altogether so desireable •• to this world, and so well as you cou•• wish, yet all things considered it may •• best, least they should do worse, and tak•• such a liberty in this kind before Marriag•• as should either make them unfit for Ma••¦riage,

or at least both Soul and Body rue it afterwards, and find the sad and mis∣chievous effects of it on themselves and their Children. But because this sin may be involuntary, not only after one for some time hath given himself to it, to be given up thereto by God, as Rev. 22. 11. Him that is filthy, let him be filthy still; but possibly (though very rarely,) it may be involuntary in the first rise and occasion of it, coming upon a more innocently mind∣ed person, in a manner secret and undis∣cernable by him, but then it is sent as a punishment (perhaps) for some guilt up∣on the Family, a just God visiting the sins of the Parents, (especially if they have been addicted to this vice) upon their Children; or for some other more known and wilful sin, which they overlook and say nothing unto, though it be highly dis∣pleasing unto God, and provoke him to make them vile in this manner. But from what cause soever it proceed, Parents must be very careful to prevent it, or check it betimes: And because the Devil is most busie with such when they are solitary, most violent in his assaults to excite their Corruptions, and set them a-work on this wickedness, it is not so safe to suffer them in private, or trust them to be much alone,

especially these that know how to d•• evil.

There are other sorts of actual Un¦cleanness, as by Incestuous mixtures an•• Marriages, forbidden, as coming withi•• the degrees of Consanguinity and nearnes•• of Relation by the Fathers or the Mother side, as Lots two Daughters. Gen. 19. 32. who said, there was not a Man in the Earth to come in unto them after the manner of all th•• Earth, and so they made their Fathe•• drink Wine, and lay with him when th•• Wine had overcome him. Judah and Tha••¦mar his daughter by Marriage, or Sons Wife. Amnons inceit with Tamar his own Sister by Father. I could mention that whole Nation among the Heathens stood guilty, th•• Persians of lying with their own Mothers the Macedonians and Aegyptians Marrying their own Sisters; and this done even a•• Athens it self, the Queen or Mistress of al Greece for Civility and Learning: their Histories were full of them, their Plays and Tragedies which they frequented every day, and respected with great applause represented them as lawful and commen¦dable. Some that are more curious tha•• sober in Religion, are very inquisitiv•• who was Cains Wife. Suppose we that Adam had Daughters, (though thei••

Names be not mentioned in Scripture,) as well as Sons, God could dispense with the Marriage of his own Sister, at that time when there were no other Virgins in the world, even as under the Jewish Law, he did dispense with the Brothers going in unto his Brothers wife, to raise up seed unto his Brother; but that would be no example for others to follow when the world was peopled.

Besides these, we read of other unnatu∣ral Lusts, for Lust is so wild a passion, that it flies out into all manner of Extra∣vagancies; you read in Gen. 19. That two Angels came to Sodom at Even in the likeness of men, and Lot entertained them for his Guests, but before they lay down, the men of the City compassed the House round, both old and young, all the people from every Quarter, and demanded of Lot to bring the men out to them, that they might know them: even as you read in Rom. 1. 26, 27. God gave them up, even the Heathens, unto vile affections, for even the Women did change the natural use into that which is against nature; and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the Woman, burned in their Lust one towards another, men with men work∣ing that which is unseemly: and you find, 1 Kings 15. 12. Asa took away the Sodo∣mites

out of the Land: in 2 Kings, you read of the Houses of the Sodomites, (so great an abomination) by the House of the Lord▪ where the Women wove hangings for th•• Grove: Which Houses good King Jo¦siah in his general Reformation, brak•• down.

Socrates (as Tertullian, Apol. c. 46. p. 36.) th•• great Glory of the Heathen world, (fo•• the improvement of his natural Reaso•• in Religion,) was condemned at Athens, a¦mongst other things for Sodomy and th•• corrupting of Youth. The History of th•• Reformation tells us, upon inquiry int•• the corruptions of Religious Houses, Mo¦nasteries, Abbies, &c. many were foun•• guilty of this sort of wickedness: and w•• are told, in Sicily, where the burning Mountain is, that at some times, of latte•• years especially, it hath overrun Towns an•• Cities, with a torrent of fiery sulphure¦ous matter, that their Sin as well as their Punishment is that of Sodom, and tha•• common among them, as Mr. Vincent o•• the three Burnings. Grotius de Relig. Chr. 1. 2. tells us, Apud Sinenses & Gentes alia•• pro licito est. In the 18. of Leviticus, 22▪ 23. you read, Thou shalt not lye with Man∣kind as with Womankind, neither shalt tho•• lye with any Beast to defile thy self therewith▪

it is abomination. Which shows how de∣sperately wicked the heart is in this kind, that it hath all uncleanness in it, as it is said to work all, or all manner of unclean∣ness with greediness, Eph. 4. 19. and so you find our blessed Saviour assuring us, Mark 7. 21. that not only evil thoughts, but Fornications, in the plural number, as if it were all kinds of Lusts, or at least several kinds of actual uncleannesses come from within, out of the hearts of men, proceeding thence: And indeed when men are so prodigiously lustful, they will lose all command over their affections, and not stick at any Lusts, that they are urged to with violence of temptation; neither at Ravishments of Virgins, nor Bestiality it self, which History affords some instances of; and they may be per∣haps forsaken in such manner, for setting their affections too much upon such Crea∣tures, as the cause of some: other some for their vileness in their vile Lusts, or a∣bominable wickednesses, or sinful curiosi∣ty to try and experiment all sorts of Lust. I have read as if this sin among the Moors in Africa was oftner committed, and of one or two Relations (which carry some Credibility in them,) of those who in the acting of this strange kind of Lust,

or this wild-fire, have been punished with extraordinary Judgments.

R. B. in his Wonderful Prodigies of Gods Judgments, citing it out of the Ad∣ventures of Mr. T. S. an English Merch∣ant, taken Prisoner by the Turkish Pirates, and carried into the Inland Cuntreys of Africa, we find this wonderful Relation. That near Tezrim, this Gentleman saw the perfect Stature of a Man, b-g-g his Ass, which was so lively, that at a little di∣stance he thought it to be real, but when he came near, he saw that they were of perfect Stone: Upon enquiry, he was in∣formed that this was never made by man, but that some person formerly had been turned into that Image with the Ass, in the very moment of the Act, by the migh∣ty power of God, the fleshly substance of the man being changed into firm Stone, as an eternal reproach to Mankind. Upon farther search, he found the Stone to re∣present, not only the perfect shape, but also the colour of every part of the man and the Beast, with the Sinews, Veins, Eyes, Mouths, in such a lively manner, that he was convinced of the truth of it, and was told, that some who had laboured to carry from thence that Monument of mans shameful Lust, either their persons

or their Cattel were struck dead upon the place in the attempt, it being necessary the Moors should have such signal testimonies of Gods displeasure before their Eyes, be∣cause of their proneness to such filthy actions. He mentions another in p. 179. Printed under the name of Sir Ken. Digby.

Next come inordinate Affection, and evil Concupiscence to be considered, which respect the lusts of men as they are inter∣nal, though they never break forth into acts of naughtiness. Some conceive 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to be a general unlimited word, that reach∣eth unto all particular sinful affections, desires and inclinations of the heart, all such as are disorderly, against the dictates of right Reason, or the Word of God.

The word indeed may comprehend any violent strong passion; but so it is besides my discourse: I shall take it in the other sence, for the passion of Love or Lust; for it is spoken of here in an ill sense, as that which is to be mortified, as Amnons passi∣on, the fury of which passion preyed upon his vital Spirits, so that he waxed lean from day to day. When a mans passion is so mighty strong towards any Creature, and ungovernable, it argues that our love to God is weak. For when our affection is carried out after him, it will be predo∣minant,

and take off our inordinate ex∣cessive affection to the Creature, so that it shall not continue long uncontroulable. Else the word may signifie such an habit of corrupt affection, as is in those who are given over to lasciviousness; such a lustful disposition as is affected upon al∣most every occasion or temptation; and hence Pathici vocantur molles & effeminati, (says Pareus upon the place) quales fure Sardanapalus & Heliogabalus: Such as are weak this way, as King Charles the Se∣cond in respect of Women: Of which Prince, saith an eminent Writer, our grea∣test kindness to him will be to forget him, un∣less God cause us to remember him, and his sins of this sort by some remarkable Judgment; as the sins of Manassah were remembred afterwards in the days of good King Josiah. Our way to mortisie this af∣fection, will be to beg the Holy Spirit to cleanse our hearts, and to expell the evil habit, and to possess and dwell in our hearts, that so corrupt affections may not stir; and to set our affections upon the right Object, even Almighty God, and then they will be fixed, and like the House that was founded upon a Rock, stand firm, and not be moved or shaken with tempta∣tions, which argues great lightness and

unconstancy, to be taken with every fair Object, and set on fire with every spark of temptation.

Next comes 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, evil Concu∣piscence to be considered, taken some∣times for Original sin and the corruption of our natures, our inherent Lusts, as Rom. 7. and the 7th. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; I had not known Lust, unless the Law had said, Thou shalt not covet; coveting there in the 10th. Commandment, comprehending all those irregular Appetites and evil Desires which proceed from that Lust within, which is set as the Fountain of Iniqui∣ty, especially of uncleanness; and so in St. James, ch. 1. 14. the word is translated Lust there, and Concupiscence, according to the original of the word; being a Latin word, signifies more especially Conjunctio∣nis appetitus, a desire to be together, or a desire after carnal copulation; and in this latter sence, shall I use the word for the Lust of uncleanness, the internal corrup∣tion of this sort. The Original Impurity of our hearts, or naughtiness that is in them naturally, that gives birth and being to evil motions, and is as the Mother-sin to them, the Lust which conceiveth them, when tempting objects present themselves,

or upon the reading or hearing of any las∣civious speeches, or in the heat of Summer, or upon sundry other occasions, and some∣times they are suggestions of Satan. These are of two sorts, either filthy Thoughts and Imaginations concerning uncleanness, in the Acts of it, or the Circumstances; or those things which have any concern there∣in, or relation to them, whatever may stir up Lust in us: these must be mortified, we must reject them at the first motion, cast them out as soon as Satan casts them in, turn away from those objects which present these corrupting fancies to us; take off our thoughts, and fix them upon somewhat else, fall into discourse when you have company with you, and divert your self some way or other to chase a∣way these Imps of the unclean Spirit; or if you are alone, with some place of Scripture, or with a Prayer in this time of Temptation, if they be very urgent and powerful, and pressing upon you, for then Satan, he is in them, working and set∣ting them home.

Next come actual Desires or Lusts, not only after Whoredom or Adultery, but all lascivious touches, or the company of such persons, or after their wanton Wit, or any of those things which afford enter∣tainment

to the Lusts of men. I distin∣guish these latter, evil Desires (as arising from the will,) from evil thoughts be∣longing to the mind, a thinking faculty. To mortifie these desires, First, By a con∣trary desire and endeavour to serve God with a pure heart here, and with the pure in heart to see God and enjoy him for ever hereafter: if this desire were but strong and vehement, if this desire were but rooted and settled in the heart, and that betimes, or indeed if the heart were but seasoned with grace, it would work out unchast desires, or bring them under in subjection of the flesh to the Spirit.

Next, when the heart is purged, to de∣sire Spiritual things above the pleasures of sin; refer it to God, desire of God to choose for thee a single or a Married life, as shall be foreseen in his Wisdom, to be most for his Glory and thine Eternal Salvation: this should be every ones desire that hath the gift of Continency; if you have not that gift, and cannot attain it, you must desire after Marriage, to quench the burn∣ing and flaming of Lust inwardly, though it never come to action; and thou must beg of God that blessing, pleading before him, that thou dost not desire Marriage for any false ends, of Riches, Honours, or

to Indulge thy Lust and Brutish Sensuality, but as 1 Cor. 7. 2. a Remedy against For∣nication, to subdue thy Lusts, and keep thee from any sinful effects of them, that thou mayst serve God with a more pure Heart, and that 'tis for the Salvation of thy Soul (which thou fearest is endanger∣ed by thy Lusts) that thou desirest it, or for the begetting of Children to be brought up in the fear of the Lord; and seriously promise or resolve with Gods Assistance, upon the Religious Education of thy Children, which God shall give thee in a married Estate; and then thou hast reason to hope God will give thee thy Request; and pray for such an one as may be an help to thee Heavenwards, begging of God in the mean time Repentance for thy past Sins, and Grace to preserve thee for the time to come. As for those that are Mar∣ried, their desires must be towards their Husband, as Gen. 3. 16. and the Husbands towards his Wife, and be confined within the Bonds of Matrimony.

But if these evil Motions and Suggesti∣ons of the Mind, and of the will, be not reje∣cted and mortifyed, they will be entertain∣ed with Complacency and Delight, they will be hugg'd and cherished as the darlings and the dearly beloved, the sweet and de∣licious

danties of the Soul, and so corrupt the Heart and Affections: there will be a pleasing our selves too in the Fancy of lust, a good liking, and a friendliness unto it; and as he whose delight is in the Law of the Lord, in his Law is said to Meditate Day and Night, Psal. 1. 2. so on the same account of our delight in these things, they will be our Meditation Day and Night: When Sleep departeth from us in the Night, and our rest faileth us, this will insinuate it self into our Minds, and fill up our thoughts, and perhaps our former Sins return upon us with a contemplative uncleanness, and we fetch over our old Sins, with all the pleasure that was enjoyed in them, chew∣ing upon the sweetness of those Sins (as Aholibah, Ezek. 23. 19, calling to remem∣brance the days of her Youth, and v. 21. the lewdness of thy Youth, is said to have mul∣tiplyed her Whoredoms by so doing,) in∣stead of a Serious and Penitent reflection on them, with great regret and grief of mind, and loathing our selves for all our Abominations. Thus to repeat our Sins, must needs be an hainous Provocation, bring a double guilt upon us, and put us farther from Repentance than before, if not bind up the punishment of those Sins upon us, and Seal them under Impeni∣tency,

unto the Judgment of the grea•• Day.

Our love then, which we naturally bea•• our lusts, must be turned into hatred, an•• Sin must be bitter for sweet, with as muc•• or more bitterness than ever we delighte•• in it; such a remorse for this sweet Morse•• as estrangeth our Affections from our ow•• Iniquity, argueth indeed that we have gained the point in Mortification. But, because there is a further step in this evi•• Concupiscence, as the Original, sending out its evil Motions, and then the Compla∣cency or Delight when it once becomes ha∣bitual, and evil thoughts, and unchast de∣sires, to settle and lodge in the Soul, and make their Abode in it, as they will, if they find such a welcom and Entertainment in the Soul, and if the Affections be carryed out after them; then the will is not like to hold out long against the outward Arts of Sin, when it shall have let in such a Multitude of Enemies, and such an Army of lusts have got possession, laying close Siege to the Will, and almost continu∣ally Assaulting and Importuning it to Sur∣render, and give up its consent; natu∣rally to be sure it will yield, and the Fil∣thiness within abounding, grieves the Holy Spirit, and provokes him to withdraw his

Supernatural Strength, and leave it desti∣tute; and when Sin and Satan have bea∣ten a Christian out of this Post, and over∣come the Will, which is as the walls to a City, the Strength and Fortification of it, and its Defence, then the day is its own; when the walls are won, the City is taken, so when the Consent of the Will is come over to Sin, but a step from the Will to the Deed, a quick and an easie passage then for to work out Uncleanness, and to fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh. For though the Spirit Lusteth against the Flesh, and so may disappoint it for once or twice in the sudden motions of the Will for con∣sent, as by stirring in the Conscience, and awaking it at the Instant when it would have Sinn'd, or by denying it opportunity, or by presenting some unexpected Let or Remora in the way of Sin, yet if the Will remain deliberately in its choice, evil In∣clination and Disposition to Sin, if it can have a fit opportunity; opportunity will not ever be wanting, nor a Will to Sin, when Temptation and Opportunity serve; and when once Mens Lusts break forth, they are Fruitful, and Multiply to the working all Uncleanness with greediness, so that unless we mortify our inward Cor∣ruption, and keep the Heart right, or bent

of the Will against Sin, we lose all: Hi•• labor hoc opus, here is the difficulty in th•• work of Mortification.

The next thing to be considered is Cove¦tousness, an Evil coveting after Riches, for measure more than God gives us, a greater portion than his Providence deals out to us in our Place and Calling; and i•• they be desired or sought after in an undue manner, any way that is in consistent with our Duty to God or Man, this Cove∣tousness is tearmed Idolatry, Spiritual Idolatry, as you read, Ezek. 14. 3. Of those that set up their Idols in their Hearts, the giving that inward Worship to a Creature which is due to God, by loving our Wealth more than God and Godliness; fearing the loss of them, more than the loss of Gods favour, of Christ and of Heaven; taking Riches for their chief good and comfort; Setting up Wealth for their strong Moun∣tain and Defence against evil, and putting their Confidence therein, or trusting in the multitude of their Riches; seeking them more earnestly, or serving not God, but the World, with all your strength. But this is somewhat besides my intended dis∣course, and hath been excellently hand∣led as to the matter, by Mr. Richard Allen in his World Conquered, or Faiths Victory

over the World, to which I referr you a∣gainst the World. ¶ I come now to the general Duty contained in the words, that all Uncleanness is to be mortifyed: God will have the Body of this Sin destroyed, and every particular Limb or Member, For∣nication, Inordinate Affection, evil Concu∣piscence; Root and Branch, none of it must remain unsubdued, be stubbed up by the Roots, as well as the Boughs lopped off: 2 Thes. 4. 7. God hath called us not to Ʋncleanness, but to Holiness; and he will have us to be clean, that so we may be holy; that our Bodies be not abused to Fornication, because that, 1 Cor. 6. 13. The Body is not for Fornication, not designed by him that made it, for such an use; and that our Souls do not resemble the unclean Spi∣rits, that they do not enter in and dwell there, but that our Souls and Bodies be preserved pure and chast, (Jud. 28.) our inward and outward Man cleansed from all Filthiness, Gal. 5. 24. and that we hate even the Garments spotted with the Flesh, or Crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and the Lusts thereof.

The first Argument for Mortification of our Lusts, is for to answer the Purity and Holiness of the Christian Religion. Our Religion is pure and undefiled, in re∣spect 〈1 page missing〉〈1 page missing〉

cuse us of them. Minutius Foelix, p. 24. Such infamous filthiness which we do not care to hear, and may much less defend.

As to the Jews, their practice did not reach the purity of the Christian Religi∣on: Abraham had his Hagar, and Issue by her as well as by Sarah his Wife. Jacob had his two Wives, Leah and Rachel, and their handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, Gen. 30. David and Solomon had their many Wives and Concubines, and no doubt but they did offend therein, though it was not so plainly and undoubtedly evil as it is now in the clear light of the Gospel.

As to the Turks, those whom they call Imailer, or Religious Brothers of Love, are worse than Beasts in their Lusts, spa∣ring neither Women nor Boys; they take many Wives according to their Wealth and Quality, and the Grand Seigniour his Seraglio full of Virgins for his own use: When Malachi, ch. 2. 14. 15. The Lord hath been witness between thee and the Wife of thy Youth, against whom thou hast dealt treache∣rously; yet is she thy Companion and the Wife of thy Covenant; and did he not make one? One Woman for one Man, only Eve for Adam; and wherefore one? that he might seek a Godly seed; an Holy seed or posterity in Gods way, and according to Gods Or∣dinance

in its first Institution in Paradise, and not according to the depravation and corruption of it afterwards by Poligamy. I shall conclude this head with an excellent Relation out of Eusebius his Eccles. History, lib. 8. c. 14. p. 312. When Maximinus the Emperour governed in the Eastern parts, among other effects of his wild and brutish fury and extravagance, he filled all places where he came with Adulteries and Ravishments, abusing Women, and deflowring Virgins, which succeeded well enough (says the Historian,) with all o∣thers except only Christians, who gene∣rously despising death, made light of the rage and fury of the Tyrant: The men underwent all sorts of Punishments which Cruelty could invent; the Women bore up with a Courage no less manly and un∣conquerable, and when any were drawn out to be abused, they rather submitted their Lives to Death: which showes that the Lives of those Primitive Christians, was answerable to the preceptive part of their Religion, and their practice above all others.

Second Reason for Mortification of all Uncleanness, Because that while our Lusts remain unmortified, all our Servi∣ces will be rejected, Isa. 1. 13, 14. Their

〈…〉〈…〉ings were vain, Incense an Abominati∣••••; their Religious days, their New-Moons, ••••eir Sabbaths, and their appointed Feasts my Soul hateth, saith the Lord; their religious Assemblies too I cannot away with, it is In∣iquity even your solemn meeting; In the 16 vers. Wash you, make you clean, inward∣ly clean, or as vers. 10 implies, cleanse your selves from the sins of Sodom, accor∣ding to those words, Ye Rulers of Sodom, Ye people of Gomorrha; and verse 21, How is the faithful City become an Harlot! may be compared with that before, be li∣terally understood, and argue their guilt even in this kind. Further, the 2 Tim. ••. 22. Flee also youthful Lusts, but follow Righteousness, Faith, Charity, Peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart; the words import, as if none did follow after Righteousness, but such as call on the Lord out of a pure heart, others are not mentioned in the number, nor their Services of any account, not accepted as the works of Righteousness. If I regard Iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayers, saith David: David was an Holy man, God himself gave him that Testimony, yet while his Lusts remained unmortified, after his Adultery with Bath∣sheba, and like enough some time before

it, his Prayers were not heard; it is plain enough by that instance of his Murther of Ʋriah, adding Sin unto Sin. If his Pray∣ers had been heard, (as no doubt but he did pray in the Interim between the Adul∣tery committed, and the Prophet Na∣thans reproof of him by the Parable,) God would never have left him to fall further, not into so crying a Sin as the Murther of the Husband. This seems too to have been the case of Solomon, while his lusts remained unmortified, as during his ma∣ny Wives; all his religious performan∣ces availed little or nothing, as 1 Kings, 11. where you find him drawn away by his Women to Idolatry; in the 4th. verse it is said, his Wives turned away his heart after other Gods, building high places for their Idols. Even thus it is with Good men, while their lusts remain unmortified, their Services remain unaccepted. In Malachi, 2. 13. ye read of those that covered the Al∣tar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, but the Lord regarded not their offering, nor received it with good will at their hands; yet they said, Wherefore? Answered, because they dealt treache∣rously with the Wife of your youth; vers. 1•• explaineth it, the Lord saith that he hateth▪ putting away. This I urge in no wise as an••

argument against prayer and other duties, as if people should cease to pray and leave serving God, because of the naughtiness of their hearts; for that were running far∣ther and farther from God, and that grace which should reform and better them: But only for this end, that people should pray more, and even turn the chief force of their prayers against their Lusts, and labour more to bring their Lusts in sub∣jection, that so nothing remain to hinder their prayers from being heard, or to de∣file and pollute their Services.

Third Argument for Mortification, Unmortified lusts argue a man to be dead in Grace, such as remain unsubdued, when constant and permanent, and not only temporary, as in good men, Titus, 3. 3. For we our selves also were sometime foolish, disobedient, serving divers Lusts and plea∣sures; sometime, that is, in their unregene∣rate Estate, 1 Tim. 5. 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth, even as those, 2 Tim. 3. 4. Who were lovers of plea∣sures more than lovers of ••od. And those, Eph. 2. 1, 2, 3. before they were quickned or received the spirit of Life from God, were ••ead in trespasses and sins; dead as to the ••piritual Life, the life of Gaace, which •••• the most sad and deplorable kind of

death: they are said to have had the•• Conversation in the lusts of their Flesh, fulfil∣ling the desires of the Flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, (or their corruption of nature since sin and the fall,) children of wrath even as others; all others are while they walk in the lusts of the flesh, (Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye,) stand Condemned by the word of God, and ad∣judged to eternal death: But if ye through the spirit do mortisie the deeds of the body, ye shall live. When any of Pythagoras his Scholars had degenerated in their Morals, from the sober, modest and vertuous pre∣cepts of their Master, and let themselves loose to all kind of Vice, and brutish sen∣suality, there was set a Bier as for dead mens Corps in his Room, to signifie that the man was dead, though the Beast was alive. Among those that were invited to the Gospel Feast, Luke 14. 20. you find one made his excuse, he had Married a Wife and could not come; not come and serve God in his Ordinances, or at least not hear∣tily, his heart was after his Lusts: Not to be so taken, as if a Married State were in∣consistent with Religion, or that they did ill in Marrying, which is an Ordinance of God, but the laying Religion aside then▪ as if it were not a time for Religion, and

indulging their Lusts, and giving them∣selves up to their Marriage pleasure, with∣out any regard to God, for to serve him, which must be our main business in every estate of Life.

Fourth Argument for Mortification of our Lusts, Because we vowed to God and Covenanted in our Baptism, to re∣nounce the sinful lusts of the Flesh: The Devil, the World, and the Flesh, are the enemies of our Salvation, mentioned in our Church Catechism, and in holy Scrip∣ture, as Eph. 2. 2, 3. St. James, ch. 1. 4. Lusts are said to War in our Members; and in 1 Epist. of Peter, c. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly Lusts which War against the Soul; and the Soul must War against them for ever, renouncing all the sinful lusts of the Flesh, that is, disowning, rejecting them, their motions and temptations, with an hatred and abhorrence of them in our hearts, or at least such a dislike of them as may pre∣vail against them.

Now if Covenants made in worldly matters, as Bonds and Leases, bind their Heirs and Successours, even the Children yet unborn; so in Spirituals, when Pa∣rents Covenant for their Children in Bap∣tism, desiring it for their Children, and procuring others as Sureties to be bound

with them for the greater assurance of the Childrens Religious Education, and per∣formance of the Covenant Duties and Conditions, no doubt but it binds them as much in Spirituals, to stand to, and per∣form the Religious, as well as the Civil Contracts and Covenants. And he is Perjur'd who breaks this solemn Vow and Covenant, that lives at peace and at friendship with the World or the Flesh, loving his Lusts, without that hatred and enmity which he is bound to by Baptism, to strive and struggle with them for the Mastery, to Watch and Pray, and use all good and holy means for their Mortifi∣cation; and so long as ye hold out this good fight of Faith, resisting this Spiri∣tual Enemy, and praying against your Lusts, so long you keep your ground and quit your selves like men, and are Con∣querours if you are not Conquered, though you may not have that full Victory, that triumphant satisfaction in your Spirit, and that inward peace which some others have. But if once they work you off from Prayer, and you cannot pray against them, or no otherwise than St. Austin before his Conversion, Domine da castitatem, da Con∣tinentiam, sed non modo, Lord give me Cha∣stity, give me Continence, but not now.

If people are loth that God should hear their prayers; but if they pray really, and the heart truly desire what they pray for, so long it looks well, and no longer; or if a man means to make a Truce or Ces∣sation of Arms and Hostility for any time, during the heat of Summer, or the presence and Company of this or that beloved Body, he throws away his Wea∣pons, he yields, and is overcome; and if he live in a continual Peace and League with them, and do not recover himself, and renew his Spiritual Warfare, he is utterly lost and undone for ever.

Fifth Argument: We must Mortify our Lusts, or if you will, lustful Members, ac∣cording to the literal sence of the words, because our Bodies are Members of Christ, and this Argument the Holy Ghost urg∣eth, 1 Cor. 6. 15. Know ye not that your bo∣dies are the Members of Christ: Shall I then take the Members of Christ, and make them Members of an Harlot? God forbid. I must snew in what sence our Bodies are the Members of Christ; and then how that argues for Mortification of our Lusts. Christ and Christi••ns are one Body, one Spiritually, as 1 Cor. 6. 17. and Eph. 1. 22, 23. Christ is said to be head over all things to his Church, which is his Body, &c.

Christ the Head and Fountain of Spiri∣tual Life, Sense, and Motion; and Chri∣stians Members of that Body, influenced, acted, and enlivened by one and the self∣same Spirit, which Christ received with∣out measure, or infinitely in perfection, that so he might abundantly communicate it to his Members, enabling them to mor∣tisie the evil Concupiscence in their hearts, and the Lusts of the Flesh, that Flesh and Blood, or Bodies of Sin which they carry about them. Now since there is such a Spiritual Union between Christ and us, and we are taken into such a near Relati∣on unto Christ, as Members in that Mysti∣cal body, whereof he is the Head of In∣fluence; should not the Members bear a Conformity to their Head? If he was pure even to perfection, ought not we to resemble him in that Purity, by a Morti∣fication of Uncleanness? And as it is in the Marriage Office, Keep your selves un∣defiled Members of Christ's body.

Again, Our Bodies are Members of Christ, as they are Members of the same Flesh and Blood, or bodies of the same kind with that which Christ ••ook upon him in the days of his Flesh, as it is ex∣pressed, Hebr. 5. 7. Chap. 2. 14. For as much then as the Children are partakers

of Flesh and Blood, he also took part o•• the same, and so exalted our Nature a∣bove the nature of Angels, by assuming it, and uniting it to his Divine Nature. He was God-man, or God manifest in the Flesh, 1 Tim. 3. 16. And thus he honoured it in the highest Nature, and made it ado∣rable in that Hypostatical Union with the Divine Nature.

Again, He honoured it by the Purity of his immaculate Conception, through the power of the Holy Ghost, (and not after the ordinary manner of men, in their fallen and corrupt State, by a sinful Gene∣ration,) and by the pure manner of his Birth, of a Virgin undefiled, and free and pure from men: The force of this Argu∣ment consists herein, If Christ so highly exalted our Nature, above that of Angels, shall we abase it to the Beasts that perish, by living to sense, and the sinful cravings of the Flesh? Shall we make that Flesh vile by our Lusts (and so contemtpti∣ble,) which the Son of God made Vene∣rable by his Incarnation, and which is glorified in Christ as in Capite, and which we expect hereafter to be made like unto Christ's glorious Body? Can we expect this corruptible (subject to corruption, in the worst sence of the words,) should

put on incorruption, unless it put off all its corrupt Lusts before it dyes, on this side the grave, that so it might be sit for that Inheritance which is incorruptible, undefi∣led, &c.

Sixth Argument for Mortification of our Members or Lusts, Because our Bodies are Temples of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God. Our Souls and Bodies were Dedicated to God, the Fa∣ther, Son, and Holy Ghost, in our Baptism, and thereby Consecrated and become Ho∣ly, even Temples of the Holy Ghost, through his gracious presence and Inha∣bitation.

But by Lust, these Temples are pollu∣ted and profaned, and become the Habi∣tation of Devils, and the hold of every foul Spirit, and a Cage of every unclean and hateful Bird, as it is prophesied of spiri∣tual Babylon, Rev. 18. 2. Conceive we of Mens Lusts flying up and down in their Minds and Imaginations, as Birds do in the Air, or shut up in their Hearts, as Birds are cooped up in a Cage, ready to fly out upon opportunity, and break loose, as the Lusts of Mens hearts are almost upon every Occasion and Temptation.

You have heard in time of our Domesti∣cal

Wars, of turning Churches into Sta∣bles, and polluting them; but it is to tur•• these Temples of the Holy Ghost into worse than Stables, if we prostitute them to our vile lusts. You read in Eph. 4. 29, 30. a Caution, Let no Corrupt Communication proceed out of your Mouth; and it follows in the next verse, And Grieve not the holy Spirit; noting to us, that the pure and holy Spirit of God is grieved, afflicted, and as it were made sad by naughtiness of our discourse, thoughts or actions, and so pro∣voked to withdraw from us, and to leave us. The most nasty Kennels or Gutters, and Sinks, that receive the filth and off▪ scouring of things; the very Excrements themselves, and the worst dunghils, are not such an Annoyance and Offence unto us, as our vile Lusts and corrupt Affections are to the Holy Spirit of God; these are more loathsom, and a greater Abominati∣on unto him, than the most stinking unsa∣voury smells are unto us.

The last Argument shall be taken from the tremendous Judgments that the Lord hath Denounced and Inflicted on Sinners in this sort. Heb. 13. 4. Whoremongers and A∣dulterers, God will Judge; and that severely too, punishing them commonly in this World, and in the World to come. Gen.

6. 2, 3. shows you that it had an hand in drowning the World: When the Sons of God (that is, the holy Seed of Seths Race) saw the Daughters of Men (wicked Men, and the Children like the Parents wicked too, according to the sence of the words) that they were fair, they took them to Wives; their Lusts within, was smitten with the others Beauty, and betrayed them to that graceless Match; then it soon follows, even in the next verse, My Spirit shall not always strive with Man; and after it: The wicked∣ness of Man was great in the Earth, and it re∣pented the Lord that he had made Man: And the Lord said, I will destroy Man, whom I have Created, from the Face of the Earth, both Man and Beast. And you know, the filthy Conversation and unlawful Deeds in this kind of the Men of Sodom, as they vexed Righteous Lot at the Heart, so they brought down the greatest sort of Judg∣ment that ever was inflicted on any Sin∣ners, Fire and Brimstone from Heaven to consume Sodom and Gomorrah, with the Ci∣ties of the Plain. And Numb. 25. 12. when Israel began to commit Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab, and that led them unto the Spiritual Whoredom of Idolatry, the Lord sent a Plague among them; which in the 9th ver. swept away four and twenty

thousand; with Zimri and Cozbi slain. Deut. 22. 22. both the Adulterer and the Adulte∣ress were to be put to death by the Lords own Commandment; and if the tokens of Virginity were not found for the Dam∣sel after Marriage, Deut. 22. 21. Then she was to be stoned with stones at the Door of her Fathers House: And so Numb. 5. 14. you find the Tryal of Jealousie; If the Spirit of Jealousie come upon a Man, and he be Jealous of his Wife that she is Defiled, the Priest shall take Holy Water, and of the dust that is in the Floor of the Tabernacle, and put it into the Water, and charge the Woman with an Oath of Cursing, saying, The Lord make thee a Curse, and an Oath among thy People, if thou be Defil'd; and this Water that causeth the Curse, shall go into thy Bowels to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot; And the Woman shall say, Amen, Amen: And in the 27th ver. it should be fulfilled accor∣dingly, and the Woman be a Curse among her people, by that extraordinary Judgment. And in Jer. 5. 7, 8. When they committed A∣dultery, and Assembled themselves by Troops in the Harlots Houses. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, &c. Go ye up upon her Walls, and destroy. Ezek. 16. 49. said of Judah, That the Iniquity of her Sister Sodom was in her, and in her Daughters; called

Sister to Sodom, because she was like her in Lewdness; in the 58 ver. Thou hast born thy Lewdness, and thine Abominations, saith the Lord, and that was in her Captivity, as the 58 ver. shows: So that it doth ap∣pear this wickedness had a great hand in the ruine of that Kingdom; and of Sa∣maria likewise, put for Israel in this Chap∣ter. How strangely hath this Sin encrea∣sed, at the ruine of Empires and Kingdoms! as of the Assyrian in Sardanapalus his time, so effeminate and degenerated, that he lived altogether among his Women and Concubines, not suffering Men to come to the sight of him. The Ruine of the Fa∣mous Troy, was through an Adulteress Paris taking away, and keeping Helen Wife to King Menelaus. The Roman Empire de∣clined, and the Emperours came to ill ends, when they became so prodigiously Lustful; Nero's vile abuse of his Body with per∣sons of the nearest Consanguinity. Com∣modus that kept 300 Concubines, and as many Boys for detestable uses: Bassianus his Incestuous Marriage of his own Mo∣ther in Law Julia; next to him, Macrinus given over to Lust and Sensuality; after him, Heliogabalus, who appointed in Rome a Senate of Women: The matters there treated of, were Inventions and means

how to practise their Filthiness and Abo∣mination; at his removing from Rome, of∣ten followed him six hundred Chariots la∣den only with Bawds and common Harlots: He ordained Day-businesses to be done by Night, and Night-businesses to be done by Day. Maximinian, of whom before. Max∣entius, so Villanous in his Behaviour, that he abstained not from abusing the Wives of Noble Senatours, taking them violently from their Husbands. Not one of these dyed a•• natural Death: Besides that the Kingly Government at Rome was ejected, upon Tarquinius Superbus his forcing of that Noble Matron Lucretia. Herod (not Herod mentioned Acts 12. 23. eaten with Worms,) and Herodias, that Incestuous Harlot, are said to have died in great Pe∣nury and Misery at Lyons in France.

And alas! How many Evils doth this Sin bring upon the Body! How doth it weaken and enfeeble the strength of Men and Women that are much addicted to it! especially those that are given to self-pol∣lutions: Insomuch, that they bring that Curse upon themselves, denounced in the Holy Scriptures, that the wicked should not live out half their days: Which sad experience shows to be true, that many of these Sinners (against their own Souls or

Bodies, shall I say, or indeed against both) dye in the midst of their Age, or young in comparison with what they might have reached to in the course of Nature, had they no ways shortned their days, and brought themselves to an untimely end, by their undue or excessive Lust. And why should not Men be afraid of some ill Di∣stemper, so incident and common to those that make a common trade and practice of this Sin, such a foul and loathsome Di∣stemper, that they are an Offence and An∣noyance to others whither soever they come, and can scarce be endured above ground; so infectious it is, that all shun such Creatures. And ah! How many have dyed Martyrs to this Sin! Oh, England, that boastest of those that have been Mar∣tyrs for thy God, be ashamed and confoun∣ded, that the number doth so much exceed of those that have dyed in this sort of Mar∣tyrdom! And O what more lingring deaths have these been put to, rotting even alive, and dying by piece-meal, and that with Pain and Torment too, burning with a consuming Fire, which their Lusts have kindled here, until they come to dwell with that devouring Fire, or fierceness of Gods wrath, and everlasting Burnings hereafter. And surely the sence and consideration of▪

everlasting burnings, would have enough in it to quench the flames of Lust, and make the unclean person tremble, and flee from his impure and adulterous embraces, so short for pleasure, but in the pain and punishment following them everlasting.

Besides what hath been said, this Sin is no less mischievous to the Souls, than to the Bodies of Men, by corrupting the Judgments of lewd persons with dange∣rous (if not damnable) errours, and their Conversations with filthy and abominable practices, scandalous to the pure Religion of Christian: Many Instances may be given of this; as in the first Century, Cerinthus against whom, and Ebion, denying the Divi∣nity of Christ, some have thought the Gospel of St. John to have been more directly intended, for Confutation of their Errours. Cerinthus pretended to Re∣velations from Angels (and for ought I know, he might be in the right, if he had Father'd it on the evil Angels, not on the good:) That after the Resurrection from the dead, Christ should have an Earthly Kingdom in this World, and that the Sub∣jects of Christs Kingdom should eat and drink, and Marry, and keep Holy-days; for he himself was a Man given to fleshly Lusts, and he imagined that the pleasures

of Christs Kingdom should consist in fulfil∣ling the Concupiscence of the Flesh. Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 18.

The Nicolaitans also, mentioned Rev: 2. 6. of the Church of Ephesus, that she hated the Deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate, saith the Lord. Acts 6. and 5 vers. Nicolas, one of the Deacons chosen by the Apostles (as Clemens Alexandrinus writes, Strom. 3.) had a Beautiful Wife, and was accused of overmuch jealousie: To purge himself, he brought forth his Wife into the midst of his Brethren, and said, he was content any Man should Mar∣ry her. Of which words, many took oc∣casion to live promiscuously like Beasts, no Man having his own proper Wife, but making them all common, as our Family of Love did in Queen Elizabeths days. The Gnosticks also in the beginning of the se∣cond Century, they were justly called Bor∣bo i••ae or coenosi, because they were filthily polluted in the mire of Uncleanness: By their unhonest and filthy Conversation it came to pass, that the true Professors of the Gospel were vilely Slandered by per∣secuting Pagans, objecting to Christians the Banquets of Thyestes, and the Chamber∣ing of Oedipus. The Encratitae condemned Marriage in this Century. In the third

Century we read of the Adamiani, who had their Assemblies in subterraneal places, cal∣led Hypocausta, because that under the place of their meetings, a furnace of Fire was kindled to warm the same, where they uncloathed themselves, when they entred into it, and stood naked, both Men and Women, according to the Similitude of Adam and Eve before their fall. Apostolici also, who among other things, rejected Marriage, giving out a Sentence against themselves, that they were unclean, be∣cause they were procreated by Marriage, and consequently they were for promis∣cuous Lust.

Origeniani and Turpes (as they were cal∣led) were vile and filthy Beasts, not ab∣horring from Whoredom, but from pro∣creation of Children, to the end, that they might seem chaste, not unlike to Onan the Son of Judah, whom the Lord destroyed. These are mentioned by Epiphanius, as also the Hieracitae, who condemned Mar∣riage, and Manichees, as Epiphanius contra Haereses, and Hist. Magdeb. In the 4th Cen∣tury, we read of the Priscillianists in Spain, that renewed the Heresie of the Grosticks, who disallowed Marriage, and commen∣ded Fornication: Some Bishops of Spain were entangled with this Heresie, such as▪

Justantius, Salvianus, and Helpidius, whom Adygimus Bishop of Corduba Condemned in a Councel; but when Appeals would not relieve them, with Bribes they solicited the Emperours Cubiculars, and were sent back again to enjoy their own places. In the 5^th. Century, we read of the first Councel of Toledo in Spain, assembled un∣der the Reigns of Arcadius and Honorius, where we find Canons concerning the pro∣hibition of Marriage to some persons, and the admitting of a Man to the Communi∣on who wanteth a Wife, and contenteth himself with one Concubine only. In the 6th Century, the Councel of Tours in France, ordained that a Bishop should count his Wife as his Sister, and that he should no manner of way company with her; and the first Councel of Maetiscon, that neither Bishop nor Presbyter should intangle them∣selves with carnal Lusts: And not to com∣pany with their Wives, was honest and chast behaviour, Satan bringing in For∣nication and all Uncleanness into the Church by this means, until at length Marriage of Priests was called the Heresie of the Nicolaitans by Gregory the 7^th. In Century the 14^th. in Alberts time, the Em∣perour, in Lombardy, a sect of Hereticks which under colour of Religion and Cha∣rity

made all things common, and they moved one another to Carnal Conjunction, alledging it to be a deed of Charity.

I come now to consider of the Temptati∣ons or the prevailing Motives or Induce∣ments of this Sin, which are either, First the strong and strange delight and pleasure of the Sin; our natures by Sin and the fall being as it were sunk into Flesh, and brutish Sensuality; those things that car∣ry with them the greatest Gratifications of the Sense, are the most acceptable to our corrupt depraved natures, as this Sin is upon the very same account, being a flesh∣pleasing sensual Sin. What do those that commit this Sin promise themselves but pleasure? To be sure, the pleasure of the Sin is always ti••ing them, so that of all the Temptations to this Sin, this bids the fairest with the Sinner to gain the point. The Remedy against this Temptation:

First, Consider, that Man as to the Soul (the more extellent part, that animates and acts the Body in its Life and Motion) is a spiritual being, and must have a spiri∣tual good and happiness, called an Inheri∣tance incorruptible, und••filed, or pure and uncorrupt, refined from Sense; when the pleasures of the flesh cannot answer that noble End for which man is designed, nor

suit with such a being as Man is, being mer••∣ly accommodated to the Animal, and not the Intellectual Angelical Life.

Secondly, Though some have said, that the pleasures of Lust, might vye with the pleasures of Paradise; have you not heard too of a Paradise of Fools? For indeed, this is such a Paradise, as only Fools and the worst of Men would take for their Portion and Happiness: Good and Chast, Vertuous and wise Men value it but at a a low rate, being convinced of the poor∣ness and meanness of a sensible good, the emptiness and insufficiency of such good: After long enjoyment, such pleasures grow flat and dry, perhaps ad nauseam usque, and Mens appetite to them ceaseth, as Amnons to Thamar, or leaveth such a longing and hankering after them, that they are still uneasie and in pain in the long intervals.

Thirdly, Look and aim at higer plea∣sures, the pleasures that are to be found in the ways of God; for all his Ways are ways of pleasantness, and his paths are peace. You read of those that call the Sabbath a delight, and, delighting thy self in the Lord, taking delight in approaching unto God, and those fearing the Lord, and delighting greatly in his Command∣ments.

Next the pleasures that follow and flow from a conscientious discharge of our Du∣ty to God and Man, such as the loving kindnesses of the Lord, in whose favour is Life, or vita verè vitalis, the peace of Con∣science, the comforts of the Spirit, and the Hope of Glory, and those better plea∣sures which are at Gods right Hand for evermore, pleasures in perfection, ever fa∣tisfactory, never cloyed therewith.

Fourthly, Consider though this pleasure be sweet in the Mouth, and the tast, yet it is bitter in the end, and the present plea∣sure bought with future pain, this Mo∣ment with Eternity. Ah! Nocet empta do∣lore voluptas; such pleasure costs too dear, if there be no pain and remorse in the con∣science, when the Sinner reflects on his way and his doings: If the Body escape too that Painful and Tormenting Disease, yet Soul and Body must both rue it in the o∣ther World, and that not according to the time they enjoyed these pleasures, which would then be short indeed, if their Mise∣ry could end so soon as their short-lived pleasure, but momentum quod delectat, &c. the act of Sin is transient, the guilt, and consequently the punishment diuturnum, and beyond that, aeternum, not only long, but Eternity long.

Thirdly, Consider how unlike this is to the Purity of the Primitive Christians; in∣stead of finding pleasure, and being drawn to Sin under that Notion, they looked up∣on it as one of the severest punishments to be prostituted and exposed to the Lusts of Men, by Rudeness and Violence. This Tertullian urgeth in the close of his Apo∣logy, c. ult. p. 40. While you choose to Condemn a Woman that is a Christian to the Stews, then to the Lyons, ad Lenonem▪ quam ad Leonem, you plainly confess that the Violation of Chastity, is accounted by us an heavier penalty, than any punishment or kind of death which you can inflict up∣on us. St. Hierom relates an eminent in∣stance hereof, Vita Paul. Eremit. Tom. 1. p. 237. In the Decian Persecution, a young Man, a Christian, in the Flower and Beauty of his Age, was carried into a Garden that had •••• things conspiring to make it a place for Pleasure and Delight, being laid upon a Bed of Down, and fastned to it with silken Cords, the Company withdrawing, a Beautiful Strum∣pet was sent in to him, who caressing him, and treating him with all the Arts of wanton∣ness, not consisting with modesty to name, the young Man finding the Temptation beginning to prevail, presently bit off his Tongue, and spit it in her face as she attempted to kiss him.

Origen at Athens, when put to this unhap∣py choice, either to Sacrifice to Idols, or suffer his chast Body to be defiled with a filthy Aethiopian, chose rather to commit Idolatry, than Fortification, though that too was rather his enemies Act than his own, they thrusting the Frankincense into his Hand, and haling him up to the Altar. For which Fact, or the scandal of the re∣port, he was Excommunicated and Dis∣owned by the Christians: However, this showed his Abhorrence of Uncleanness, &c.

Oh! Then flee from, and fear the kil∣ling smiles, and flattering Lust, dally not, parly not with them, least the deceitful and tempting pleasure of this Sin beguile and corrupt thee. Give not place to the Devil, while he is feeding thine imagina∣tion with the pleasures of the Flesh, and perswading thee to tast of his sweet Dish: Resist the Devil, and then he will flee from you. Principiis obsta, is a good Rule in this case, stop Sin in its first onset, then it is weak∣est, but gets ground and gathers strength as you give way to it, and entertain it in its motions. The pleasure of this Sin to a considering Man, must needs be inconsi∣derable, such as commonly all things consi∣dered even in this Life, brings more grief and disquietment than Satisfaction: Such

pleasure as we shall be more Spiritual and bet∣ter without it, than with it; and such plea∣sure, as to be sure will be bitterness in the latter end. Alas! wee look upon Sin only in its specious posture coming towards us, Fair and Beautiful to behold, in a goodly dress, recommending it self to us with Profit, Pleasure, Honour, or the like Allurements; but could we see the hinder parts of Sin, it would appear like the Father of it, the Devil, when he is taking his leave and Va∣nishing, ugly and Deformed: When Sin is going from us after the Commission of it, it is black and Melancholly, hanging down its head with Sorrow, or hiding its Face for Shame or Fear, or like those that gnawed their Tongues for pain, or with gnashing of Teeth for very madness and Vexation of Spirit, with Scorpion stings at the tail of it, to Torment the Sinner, and the Fire burning towards him, to come at him, and catch him within its flames: This sight indeed, would cool the Sinners Cou∣rage, and make Men flee from Sin as from a Serpent. Again, some there are, to whom this Sin holds forth its two fair Breasts, of Profit as well as Pleasure, to allure them within its Embraces: These are chiefly of the other Sex. Those who keep publick Houses, and so the keeping of a naughty

Woman, brings custom to the House, and they say encreaseth their Trade; and those who are kept as Misses to great per∣sons, and I suppose look upon themselves to have attained great Preferment, besides those that prostitute themselves to the Lusts of any comers in a common promis∣cuous manner, perhaps making a Trade of this Sin, and getting their Maintenance this way. Other some perhaps by promis∣cuous Lusts to hinder Conception, and so for prevention of more Children, and to save the charge and cost that is required in the feeding and cloathing and portioning of them.

To which I answer, First, how vile a thing is it to let out themselves to hire, to fell as it were their Souls for the possession of the Devil that unclean Spirit, and their Bodies to the filthy Lusts of Men. O shame upon those that renounced the World (Worldly gain so far as Sinful) the Flesh and the Devil, thus shamefully to A∣postatize! How near doth their Sin ap∣proach to that wicked Ahab, who sold him∣self to work wickedness, and hath it set as a Brand or Mark of Infamy upon him, and whose Sin was so notoriously great, that it could not be cleansed without the Destru∣ction of his Family.

Secondly, Others there are that find this a very Chargeable Sin, putting them to the charge first of a Treat or Entettain∣ment, then for the Act of Naughtiness, and a third charge many times for the Cure af∣ter it. The keeping of lewd Women, and providing portions for their base Brood, Adulterous issue, hath wasted great Estates, and been the ruine of many Families, or at least what vast expences hath it put many to, so that what the one party gets, the other loseth, and more besides. Even some among the other▪ Sex have been lo∣sers in this World, sometimes by Marry∣ing such as were too well known by them before, in the days of their first Husband, and who hath spent all, and brought them to Poverty; or if of meaner Rank, by getting such a noisome Distemper, as hath made them abhorred by all, that none would imploy them for a livelyhood, none Receive or Entertain them; or which made them unfit for work, or so weakned and impaired their strength, that they could do but little when their old Age came up∣on them, or their Trade failed.

Thirdly, All such Gain as is gotten in this manner, is accursed, it will defile the rest of your Substance, even contrary to what is said of Alms; Give Alms of such

things as ye have, and behold all things are clean unto you; that is, cleansed from Sin, Sanctifyed, Blessed, so as not only to have them with Gods leave, but with his Love. But such filthy lucre (in the literal down∣right Sense of the words) will make all polluted and unclean, all under the curse, if such gain at the last will not be separated from the rest, even the clean from the un∣clean. When did you ever know any en∣rich a Family by this means, with an abi∣ding Wealth? Is it not likely that some at least of the Posterity, should spend and consume it upon their Lusts, in the same way that the other got it?

Fourthly, If you get never so much Gain this way, yet when you come to cast up your accounts at the General Reckoning and great Day of Accounts, you will come off a loser, an eternal loser, when all your gain will signifie nothing, none of it abide with you for your comfort. But what would it profit you, if you gained never so much in this World? For what shall one give in exchange for the Soul? That is, the Soul is of so much worth, that no∣thing in the World can equalize it, no∣thing can vye with, or countervail the loss of an immortal Soul, which is an infinite loss, being lost to all Eternity, and so ir∣recoverably.

Fifthly; As to those Married persons, who prostitute their Bodies to the Lusts of Men, least they should conceive and bear Children, and bring a charge upon them∣selves, by living honestly with their own Husbands:

I Answer, First, That doth not always take effect. All that do or would keep com∣pany in this manner, cannot have their end in this. For all are not so bad and abomi∣nably wicked, as to rush headlong into such a damning guilt as Adultery is: Nay, I hope, very few in our Country Parishes remote from the City, but what would startle and boggle at such a wickedness, and what through their necessary Employments in their Worldly business, and the fear of being discovered, or strongly suspected, if they should Trespass, and ••e often in such persons Company; and what through their Ignorance of these Women, that are so evil and Adulterous, few even of these that would make no Conscience of the Sin, do actually concur for the prevention of Children in these promiscuous Lusts.

Again, Parents ought to trust God to pro∣vide for their Children, that God (as the Prove••b is) who se••ds Mouths, will send Meat. He that feedeth the young Ravens that cry unto him, will not suffer little

Children to perish for want of Food. Psal. 147. 9. When was it known? Scarce ever, that any Infant or Child should be starved. You know the Law will allow them necessaries.

Again, Thirdly, Those that have many Children, above all persons are the fittest Objects of Charity: For it is some sign that they live honestly and chastly; and the charge which they are to their Relati∣ons, or to a Parish, is such as God and Na∣ture offer to them, and such as cannot be avoided well, nor justly blamed. There have been priviledges allowed by some Nations, (by the Roman especially) to those that had four▪ Children. And in all doles or charitable gifts, we should have a conside∣ration of such persons especially, as ha∣ving more lets and hinderances from their work, than others, and by the number of the Children, their strength somewhat im∣paired; upon which accounts, one of our most useful ways of bestowing our Chari∣ty, is upon such as these that abound with Children.

Fourthly, Children and the Fruit of the Womb, are a Gift and Heritage that com∣eth of the Lord: A Blessing of the Lord, who as Gen. 9. Blessed Noah and his Sons, and said, Be Fruitful and Multiply, and re∣plenish

the Earth. Such a Blessing it is to have Children, that many would give hun∣dreds, thousands of pounds for Issue; and how earnestly did Hannah beg it of God? Abraham and Sarah prize their Isaac: And Rachel longs for Children: Who would not rather have many Children, than none at all? Such Marriages where they have no Children, are looked upon as Comfort∣••ess and Unblest. Children are the dear∣est pledges of the Parents Love, and the joy and staff of their old Age.

Another prevailing Motive and Temp∣tation to these Sins, is Honour; as when they shall be Solicited to this Sin by per∣sons of Quality, or those that are above ••hem, they more easily yield, who would have though scorn to have been naught with those of Inferior Rank. To be a Miss or Whore to a great person, hath been look∣ed upon as a piece of great Preferment, and ••or a Servant to be admitted to this Sinful ••amiliarity with his Mistress, a choice Fa∣••our, if not a Credit to him; so if a fine ••uffling Spark come, he shall more easily ••elude a poor Country Maid, under the ••retence of Marriage, aspiring to be a ••reat person.

In Answer to this, First, Whoredom is Whoredom, and Adultery is Adultery;

whether the person be high or low with whom thou sinnest, the sin is the same, and stands sentenced to the same Condem∣nation by the Word of God. Therefore flatter not thy self, that it will be any ex∣cuse to thy sin, or plea for thee, that thou shouldest escape the Righteous Judgment of God. You will not say then it was the King, or some great Person, and I could not tell how to deny him, or it would have been taken ill, and I should have fell under his displeasure, &c.

Secondly, God is the Original of all Honour, the pattern to take after, and so much nearer as we come unto God, by resemblance and conformity to him, so much the more of real worth and excel∣lency is in us, and honour deservedly due to us; but sinners in Scripture-sence, the lewd persons in particular, (as Rom. 1. 26. vile affections,) are vile and dishonourable: Psal. 15. 4. In whose eyes, (that is, in the sight or esteem of the Righteous,) a vile or wicked person is contemned, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. All good Chri∣stians, chast and vertuous Heathens, ho∣nour those that resist, and withstand these temptations and preserve their Chastity, but look upon others as contemptible.

Thirdly, This sin doth really abase man ••elow the dignity of his Nature, and le∣vel him with the Beasts: For the pleasures of the Flesh are but the same that the Beasts have, and those who make these ••heir choicest delights, and place their ••ood in the enjoyment thereof, have lost ••hemselves as men; and indeed this sin ••akes away from men the use of their Rea∣••on; for no sooner shall a temptation of ••his sort be presented, but Lust captivates ••nd carries the sinner away, as Prov. 7. 22. He goeth after her straightway, as an Ox go∣••h to the Slaughter, or as a Fool to the Cor∣••ction of the Stocks, not considering what ••e does, nor whither he goes.

Fourthly, Consider, besides the false∣••ess, and unfaithfulness to thy Master and ••istress, thou art certain to draw their ••ispleasure upon thee, if ever thy Wick∣••dness come to light, and to break the ••eace of a Family, and that conjugal love ••nd affection which ought to be between ••he Married persons; and bring base blood •• to a Family, staining the Honour and ••redit of the Family.

Fifthly, Consider the shame that fol∣••ws this Sin when it is found out, the ••uilty persons being taken notice of by all, ••nd upbraided with it, almost upon all

occasions. I say, if this shame were con¦sidered, especially in Virgins, and youn•• Widows, it must needs awaken them to resist and withstand the Sin, if they hav•• any concern for their good Name. Fo•• what greater reproach and blot can ther•• be upon them, than for them to miscarr•• and fall so foully before Marriage, spo••¦ling their Fortunes, and bringing the Honesty into suspition ever after. S•• that if they have any regard to their ow•• Honour and Credit, the Honourablene•• of the Soliciter will be of little for•• to corrupt them. And they must have a Whores-forehead for Impudency, wh•• are not touched with the shame, like tho•• mentioned, Jer. 6. 15. Were they asham•• when they had committed Abomination? Na•• they were not at all ashamed, neither cou•• they blush.

Lastly, Consider of some Instances, of Josephs rej••cting his Mistresses imm••¦dest and unchast desires, Gen. 39. 7. •• lie with her, though she was Wife to a gre•• and honourable Person, no less than Ca••¦tain of the Guard to Pharaoh, as the wor•• seem to import. And Euseb. Hist. Eccl•• lib. 8. c. 14. p. 312. He tells us of a W•• man of Alexandria, the Emperour Max••¦minus often attempted her by all the Ar••

••f Solicitation, but all in vain, till at ••st, not being able to prevail, he would ••ot put her to Death, but spoiled her being of Noble Birth and great For∣••nes) of her Estate, and then sent her •• Banishment.

The like he relates of a Noble Wo∣••an at Rome, Wife to the Prefect or Go∣••ernour of the City, that Maxentius the ••mperour, being passionately in love with ••er, sent Officers to fetch her, who break∣••g into the House, would violently have ••ized on her; of whom she begg'd only •• much time, as to dress and adorn her ••lf a little, under which pretence reti∣••ng, she caught up a Sword, and by a fa∣••l stroke-dispatch'd her self: They were ••ot so compliant as the Women of our ••ays, with the Lusts of Princes.

Another prevailing motive, and power∣••l Attractive to this Sin, is the Beautiful∣••ess of the Person. An handsome man, or a ••andsome Woman, strikes the eye as plea∣••nt to behold, and the eye being enamou∣••ed with the Object, or the Soul (which ••eth thorough the eye as the Organon vi∣••s,) being delighted therewith, corrupts ••e heart to a lusting after it, in an evil ••oncupiscence. Those Women that are ••ept under the Name and Notion of Miss,

are real or fancied Beauties: and the r••¦port of a Beauty, (if she be corrupted, an•• so will comply with lustful mans desire fets him on his March; when the app••¦tite is dull, and another person will n•• relish with him, yet this comely perso•• this Beauty, will have its Charms, an•• such strong ones, that he is presently ca••¦tivated; which made Democritus put o•• his eyes, because not able to defend him¦self against the Charms of Beauty.

To which I answer, First, Scriptur•• and Reason tell us, Beauty is vain, Pro•• 31. 30. Vain it is, as being altogether use¦less in point of Religion, a dangero•• snare and temptation to the person tha•• hath it, and to others; an hinderanc•• commonly rather than help to Religio•• Vain again as to emptiness, as void of a•• real good, worth, or excellency, an•• consequently insufficient for the comfor•• and happiness of mans Life. Vain, be¦cause Res••••est Forma fugax: Beauty is sub¦ject to decay, and may be impaired or lo•• many ways, by a Cut or Wound on th•• Face, by a falling fit into the Fire, as have known, or a fall from an Horse, o•• otherwise hurting or bruising, blemishin•• the Countenance, or by the small-Pox disfi••¦guring the face, or a tertian ague, the Palsy

o•• the like, being subject to many Chan∣••s; and if persons be not honest as well fair, to somewhat worse, which will not ••enly disfigure, yet change the fair Co∣••ur in time into a pale or black swarthy comeliness. But however, old Age ••ll impair it; and if you look for it af∣••r Death, you will find but a Worm-ea∣••n Carkass, all the Beauty gone and laid the dust. And if Beauty be vain, as ••u have heard, who but vain persons will such foolish admirers of it? What ••se persons will be so migh••ily in love ••th Vanity, to court it, and catch at it greedily? Or what will its embraces ••ofit a man? Or vanity turn to any ac∣••unt in the enjoyment of it? Besides, ••at other Creatures excell man in this ••pect, the brightness of the Stars, and ••eral precious Jewels, the redness of ••e Rose, the White of the Lilly, and ••odliness of the Flowers, exceed the ••i••e and red of the greatest Beauty; and ••ne of them, as the precious Stones, ••ld their lustre, when that of Beauty is ••cayed; which should teach you to set ••re light by Beauty, not so highly to ••ze and prefer it, to seek or pursue it, ••bless your self in the love and society, ••ssession and fruition of such a Vanity.

Secondly, Beauty is not only vain, b•• worse than Vanity when vitiated and ••¦praved. As a Jewel of Gold in a Swi•• Snout, so is fair a Woman without disc••¦tion, that is, without Wisdom to prese•• her Chastity. Well may she be com••¦red to the Swine, because the Swine lo•• to wallow in the Mire, and nasty di•• filthy places, defiling it self; so doth Beauty, corrupted by a foul heart a•• filthy lewd courses, pollute and defile •• self, and make her self a most loathsom a•• abominable Creature, with the worst, not indeed the only deformity, beyo•• the greatest bodily blemishes. For as the Shape and Feature of the Body, m•• or less Comely, every one is as God ma•• them, who made every thing good, a•• so none as to their bodily shape, ought be slighted or despised, as an ugly def••¦med ill-shapen Creature, much less ma•• a mock and a scorn and matter of derisio•• for that reproach falls upon their Mak•• whose Workmanship they are, especia•• when they have that inward Beauty, a•• Spiritual Comeliness of Modesty and C••¦stity, Vertue and Religion. But a •• Face, with a foul Heart, it is but Sk••¦deep Beauty, a goodly shew and app••¦rance, or as a little flourish or gild••

outwardly, when there is the worst Ugli∣••ess and Deformity, the most vile Nasti∣••ess and Filthiness inwardly, that if it ••ould but be seen, it would turn the Sto∣••ack, ad nauseam usque, to the very loa∣••ing of the person that you so much ad∣••ire for her Beauty. And indeed those ••at have the least of this bodily Comeli∣••ess and outward Beauty, are to be pre∣••rred before her, not half so ugly and ••eformed Creatures as she is: And if you ••ould not be naught with such persons, ••ecause they have no form nor comeliness •• them that you should desire them, nor ••ould you with these, if you could dis∣••rn their Spiritual Deformity, and ••ould set that against their Skin-deep ••eauty, much outweighing it, because ••e deformity is of the better part, such •• is Spiritual, and will be an eternal blot ••d blemish upon them without Repen∣••nce.

Thirdly, If Beauty tempt thee, no ••ubt but thou wilt meet with some come∣•• Persons who will not be corrupted by ••ee; some that are so well fortified with ••race, that all thy solicitations to Sin ••ll but return upon thy self with shame ••d disappointment; and if thou canst ••t withstand the pretended Charms of

Beauty, then thy passion will continue, •• Amnons to Thamar, 2 Sam. 13. 2. A•• Amnon was so vexed, that he fell sick for •• Sister Tamar, and grew lean from day to da•• through the fury and violence of his pa•• on raging inwardly: and then to wha•• sad Condition wilt thou be brought, p••¦haps like to Haman, through the cont••¦ry passion of hatred and revenge, who•• Esth. 5. 11, 12, 13. notwithstanding t•• Glory of his Riches, and the multitude of •• Children, and all his Honour, yet all •• availed him nothing, said he, so long as •• could not be satisfied in his revenge up•• Mordecai; one passion unsatisfied, w•• put the whole man out of order.

Fourthly, Thou mayest expect m•• comfort in thine own Wife, than in a•• other, Eccles. 9. 9. God hath comm••¦ded thee to live joyfully with the Wife wh•• thou lovest, (or shouldest love,) all •• days of thy life. God gave her to thee •• a Comfort, and there is nothing to h••¦der but that her love may be sweet a•• comfortable unto thee, and answer •• end of Marriage, for the mutual he•• society and comfort, that each ought •• have of other in Prosperity and Adve••¦ty. But an Adulterous love, is▪ so •• from having God•• blessing to these en••

that it hath such evils attending it, as do embitter the sweet of it with an accusing Conscience, and the sense of Sin in so do∣ing, and that the end of it will be sad and dismal, with the fear of discovery, and the secrecy that is sought out, and oppor∣tunity to Sin, which is hard to be found without suspition; the long absence and Banishment from each others company, ••inning only by stealth, with the shame ••hat follows such Lewdness when it is ••ound out. And what though she be more beautiful, was not your own Wife ••ovely in your eyes when you Married? And should she not still be precious in thy ••ight, and her love content thee? Further, Beauty is either in a fair Complexion, ••andsome Features and shape of the body; ••hese are only pleasing to the eye, and are ••ot at all concerned in the Act of Whore∣••om or Adultery, which doth not eye ••he beauty of the person, nor can enjoy ••hat; nor hath its pleasures increased ••ore or less, according to the proporti∣••n of Beauty in the person; and conse∣••uently, if the beauty of a person be an ••gument to look, yet not to Lust, or ••ulterate with the person; where beauty ••oth not reach, nor contribute to the ••easure of any of those Acts, which may

be greater in those that are void of beau∣ty, and are not so common to the Lusts of men, as your corrupted beauties are of all the most sought unto, and conse∣quently the most common. Besides, that it cannot be so safe for any man to company with them as with his own Wife, if she be honest and true to him, which cannot be expected of the other sort of Creatures, but that they should serve for others as well as himself, if not for all comers, with whom they make a∣ny gain and advantage by their Sin, by which means of their commonness, they as commonly come to be infected. I shal•• leave a better example of three famou•• Beauties, for others to admire, in thei•• care to preserve their Chastity, Domnin•• the Mother, Bernice and Prosdoce th•• Daughters, in whose commendation St•• Chrysostom made an Oration on purpos•• Hom. 5. 1. de S. S. Domn. Bern. Pros•• Tom. 1. p. 557. They, eminent for the•• beauty, and features of their bodies, wer•• sought for as a prey to Lust, under th•• Dioclesian Persecution, and fled for it, b•• being found out by the Soldiers sent t•• search for them, begged leave to step •• little out of the Road for some priva•• occasions, and then drowned themselve•• parishing in the Waters.

Another prevailing Temptation and In∣ducement to the Commission of this Sin, is the hope of Secrecy. The eye of the Adulte∣rer waiteth for the twilight, saying, no eye shall see me; and disguiseth his face. And therefore this Sin, like the Works of darkness, flees the Light, and seeks for the most secre•• Chambers and places of retirement to hide it self, and is very shy of all such places or persons as may discover it.

To which I Answer, First, That this Sin often leaves such marks in the Coun∣tenance as discover it; the hollowness of the eyes more than ordinary, and more pale look than at other times, a great shy∣ness of coming into presence, and some fear and timorousness after the Commissi∣••n of this Sin, lest it should be discove∣••ed; or sometimes by the gifts or presents made upon such account, as Judahs Sin with Tamar, Gen. 38. 18, 35. By his signet, ••racelets, and his Staff. Next, persons can∣••ot long practise this Wickedness, but the Neighbours, Children, or Servants of one ••r both the persons, will shrewdly suspect ••hem, and their over familiar converse and ••elight in one anothers Company, and the ••ove which they bear to each other, will ••iscover it self in Company, and their ••aunts many times are found out, and their