_Tit._ 1. _Directions against Fornication and all
Uncleanness._
Though as they are sins against another, adultery and fornication are
forbidden in the seventh commandment, and should there be handled, yet
as they are sins against our own bodies, which should be members of
Christ, and temples of the Holy Ghost, as 1 Cor. vi. 15, 18, 19, so it
is here to be handled among the rest of the sins of the senses: and I
the rather choose to take it up here, because what I have said in the
two last titles, against gluttony and drunkenness, serve also for
this. The same arguments, and convincing questions, and directions,
will almost all serve, if you do but change the name of the sin: and
as the reader loveth not needless tediousness, so I am glad of this
means to avoid the too often naming of such an odious, filthy sin: yet
something most proper to it must be spoken. And, 1. I show the
greatness of the sin; and, 2. Give directions for the cure.
1. There is no sin so odious, but love to it, and frequent using it,
will do much to reconcile the very judgment to it; either to think it
lawful, or tolerable and venial: to think it no sin, or but a little
sin, and easily forgiven. And so with some brutish persons it doth in
this. But, 1. It is reason enough against any sin, that it is
forbidden by the most wise, infallible, universal King of all the
world. Thy Maker's will is enough to condemn it, and shall be enough
to condemn those that are servants of it.[448] He hath said, "Thou
shalt not commit adultery." 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, "Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind--shall inherit the kingdom of
God." Ver. 15-19, "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of
Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the
members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is
joined to an harlot is one body: for two (saith he) shall be one
flesh. But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee
fornication. Every sin that a man doth is without the body; but he
that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you?" (Mark that he speaketh not this to fornicators; for their bodies
are not temples of the Holy Ghost; but to them that by filthy heretics
in those times were tempted to think fornication no great sin.) So
Eph. v. 3-6, "But fornication, and all uncleanness, and covetousness,
let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints: neither
filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting.--For this ye know, that
no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an
idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Let no man
deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the
wrath of God upon the children of disobedience: be not ye therefore
partakers with them." Gal. v. 19, "Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness,--of the which I tell you before, as I have also told
you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God." 1 Thess. iv. 3, "For this is the will of God, even
your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that
every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in
sanctification and honour, not in the lust of concupiscence, as the
gentiles which know not God." See also Col. v. 5, 6. Heb. xiii. 4,
"Marriage is honourable, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and
adulterers God will judge." Rev. xxi. 8, "The abominable,--and
whoremongers--shall have their part in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone." Rev. xxii. 15, "For without are dogs, and
sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers." Jude 7, "Even as Sodom
and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving
themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set
for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." I shall add
no more lest I be tedious.
2. Besides Scripture, God hath planted in nature a special pudor and
modesty to restrain this sin; and they that commit it do violate the
law of nature, and sin against a witness and condemner that is within
them. And scarce any one of them ever committeth it boldly, quietly,
and fearlessly, till first they have hardened their hearts, and seared
their consciences, and overcome the light of nature, by frequent,
wilful sinning.[449] Nature hideth the obscene parts, and teacheth man
to blush at the mention of any thing that is beyond the bounds of
modesty. Say not that it is mere custom, for the vitiated nature of
man is not so over-precise, nor the villany of the world so rare and
modest, but before this day it had quite banished all restraints of
this sin, above most others, if they could have done it, and if God
had not written the law which condemneth it very deep in nature, with
almost indelible characters. So that in despite of the horrid
wickedness of the earth, though mankind be almost universally inclined
to lust, yet there be universally laws and customs restraining it; so
that except a very few savages and cannibals like beasts, there is no
nation on the earth where filthiness is not a shame, and modesty
layeth not some rebukes upon uncleanness. Ask no further then for a
law, when thy nature itself is a law against it. And the better any
man is, the more doth he abhor the lusts of uncleanness. So that
"among saints," saith the apostle, it is "not to be named," (that is,
not without need and detestation,) Eph. v. 3; and ver. 12, "For it is
a shame even to speak of those things that are done of them in
secret." And when drunkenness had uncovered the shame of Noah, his son
Ham is cursed for beholding it, and the other sons blest for their
modesty and reverent covering him.
3. And that God hath not put this law into man's nature without very
great cause, albeit the implicit belief and submission due to him should
satisfy us, though we knew not the causes particularly, yet much of them
is notorious to common observation: as that if God had not restrained
lust by laws, it would have made the female sex most contemptible and
miserable, and used worse by men than dogs are. For, first, rapes and
violence would deflower them, because they are too weak to make
resistance: and if that had been restrained, yet the lust of men would
have been unsatisfied, and most would have grown weary of the same woman
whom they had abused, and take another; at least when she grew old, they
would choose a younger, and so the aged women would be the most
calamitous creatures upon earth. Besides that lust is addicted to
variety, and groweth weary of the same; the fallings out between men
and women, and the sicknesses that make their persons less pleasing, and
age, and other accidents, would expose them almost all to utter misery.
And men would be law-makers, and therefore would make no laws for their
relief, but what consisted with their lusts and ends. So that half the
world would have been ruined, had it not been for the laws of matrimony,
and such other as restrain the lusts of men.
4. Also there would be a confused mixture in procreation, and no men
would well know what children are their own: which is worse than not
to know their lands or houses.
5. Hereby all natural affection would be diminished or extinguished:
as the love of husband and wife, so the love between fathers and
children would be diminished.
6. And consequently the due education of children would be hindered, or
utterly overthrown. The mothers that should first take care of them,
would be disabled and turned away, that fresh harlots might be received,
who would hate the offspring of the former. So that by this means the
world and all societies, and civility, would be ruined, and men would be
made worse than brutes, whom nature hath either better taught, or else
made for them some other supply. Learning, religion, and civility would
be all in a manner extinct, as we see they are among those few savage
cannibals that are under no restraint. For how much all these depend
upon education, experience telleth us. In a word, this confusion in
procreation, would introduce such confusion in men's hearts, and
families, and all societies, by corrupting and destroying necessary
affection and education, that it would be the greatest plague imaginable
to mankind, and make the world so base and beastly, that to destroy
mankind from off the earth would seem much more desirable. Judge then
whether God should have left men's lusts unrestrained.
_Object._ But (you will say) there might have been some moderate
restraint to a certain number, as it is with the Mahometans, without
so much strictness as Christ doth use.
_Answ._ That this strictness is necessary, and is an excellency in
God's law, appeareth thus. 1. By the greatness of the mischief which
else would follow: to be remiss in preventing such a confusion in the
world, would be an enmity to the world. 2. In that man's nature is so
violently inclined to break over, that if the hedge were not close,
there were no sufficient restraining them; they would quickly run out
at a little gap. 3. The wiser and the better any nation or persons
are, even among the heathens, the more fully do they consent to the
strictness of God's laws. 4. The cleanest sort of brutes themselves
are taught by nature to be as strict in their copulations: though it
be otherwise with the mere terrestrial beasts and birds, yet the
aerial go by couples: those that are called the fowls of the heavens,
that fly in the air, are commonly taught this chastity by nature; as
if God would not have lust come near to heaven. 5. The families of the
Mahometans that have more wives than one, do show the mischief of it
in the effects, in the hatred and disagreement of their wives, and the
great slavery that women are kept in; making them like slaves that
they may keep them quiet. And when women are thus enslaved, who have
so great a part in the education of children, by which all virtue and
civility are maintained in the world, it must needs tend to the
debasing and brutifying of mankind.
7. Children being the preciousest of all our treasure, it is necessary
that the strictest laws be made for the securing of their good education
and their welfare. If it shall be treason to debase or counterfeit the
king's coin, and if men must be hanged for robbing you of your goods or
money, and the laws are not thought too strict that are made to secure
your estates; how much more is it necessary that the laws be strict
against the vitiating of mankind, and against the debasement of your
image on your children, and against that which tendeth to the
extirpation of all virtue, and the ruin of all societies and souls!
8. God will have a holy seed in the world, that shall bear his image
of holiness, and therefore he will have all means fitted thereunto.
Brutish, promiscuous generation tendeth to the production of a brutish
seed. And though the word preached is the means of sanctifying those
that remain unsanctified from their youth; yet a holy marriage, and
holy dedication of children to God, and holy education of them, are
the former means, which God would not have neglected or corrupted, and
to which he promiseth his blessing: as you may see, 1 Cor. vii. 14;
Mal. ii. 15, "Did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the
Spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore
take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the
wife of his youth: for the Lord hateth putting away."
9. Yea, lust corrupteth the mind of the person himself, if it be not
very much restrained and moderated. It turneth it from the only
excellent pleasure, by the force of that brutish kind of
pleasure.[450] It carrieth away the thoughts, and distempereth the
passions, and corrupteth the fantasy, and thereby doth easily corrupt
the intellect and heart. Pleasure is so much of the end of man, which
his nature leadeth him to desire, that the chief thing in the world to
make a man good and happy, is to engage his heart to those pleasures
which are good, and make men happy. And the chief thing to make him
bad and miserable, is to engage him in the pleasures which make men
bad and end in misery. And the principal thing by which you may know
yourselves or others, what you are, is to know what your pleasures
are; or at least, what you choose and desire for your pleasure. If the
body rule the soul, you are brutish, and shall be destroyed: if the
soul rule the body, you live according to true human nature and the
ends of your creation. If the pleasures of the body are the
predominant pleasures which you are most addicted to, then the body
ruleth the soul, and you shall perish as traitors to God, that debase
his image, and turn man into beast, Rom. viii. 13: if the pleasures of
the soul be your most predominant pleasures, which you are most
addicted to, (though you attain as yet but little of it,) then the
soul doth rule the body, and you live like men: and this cannot well
be, till faith show the soul those higher pleasures in God and
everlasting glory, which may carry it above all fleshly pleasures. By
all this set together you may easily perceive that the way of the
devil to corrupt and damn men, is to keep them from faith, that they
may have no heavenly, spiritual pleasure, and to strengthen
sensuality, and give them their fill of fleshly pleasures, to imprison
their minds that they may ascend no higher: and that the way to
sanctify and save men, is to help them by faith to heavenly pleasure,
and to abate and keep under that fleshly pleasure that would draw down
their minds. And by this you may see how to understand the doctrine of
mortification, and taming the body, and abstaining from the pleasures
of the flesh: and you may now understand what personal mischief lust
doth to the soul.
10. Your own experience and consciences will tell you, that if it be
not exceedingly moderated, it unfitteth you for every holy duty. You
are unfit to meditate on God, or to pray to him, or to receive his
word or sacrament: and therefore nature teacheth those that meddle
with holy things to be more continent than others; which Scripture
also secondeth, 1 Sam. xxi. 4, 5. Such sensual things and sacred
things do not well agree too near.[451]
11. And as by all this you see sufficient cause why God should make
stricter laws for the bridling of lust, than fleshly, lustful persons
like; so when his laws are broken by the unclean, it is a sin that
conscience (till it be quite debauched) doth deeply accuse the guilty
for, and beareth a very clear testimony against. Oh the unquietness!
the horror! the despair that I have known many persons in, even for
the sin of self-pollution, that never proceeded to fornication! And
how many adulterers and fornicators have we known that have lived and
died in despair, and some of them hanged themselves! Conscience will
condemn this sin with a heavy condemnation, till custom or infidelity
have utterly seared it.[452]
12. And it is also very observable, that when men have once mastered
conscience in this point, and reconciled it to this sin of fornication,
it is a hundred to one that they are utterly hardened in all
abomination, and scarce make conscience of any other villany
whatsoever![453] If once fornication go for nothing, or a small matter
with them, usually all other sin is with them of the same account: if
they have but an equal temptation to it, lying, and swearing, and
perjury, and theft, yea, and murder and treason, would seem small too: I
never knew any one of these but he was reconcilable and prepared for any
villany that the devil set him upon: and if I know such a man, I would
no more trust him than I would trust a man that wants nothing but
interest and opportunity to commit any heinous sin that you can name.
Though I confess I have known divers of the former sort, that have
committed this sin under horror and despair, that have retained some
good in other points, and have been recovered; yet of this latter sort,
that have reconciled their consciences to fornication, I never knew one
that was recovered, or that retained any thing of conscience or honesty,
but so much of the show of it as their pride and worldly interest
commanded them: and they were malignant enemies of goodness in others,
and lived according to the unclean spirit which possessed them.[454]
They are terrible words, Prov. ii. 18, 19, "For her house inclineth unto
death, and her paths unto the dead: none that go unto her return again,
neither take they hold on the paths of life." Age keepeth them from
actual filthiness and lust (and so may hell, for there is no
fornication); but they retain their debauched, seared consciences.
13. And it is the greater sin because it is not committed alone; but
the devil taketh them by couples. Lust inflameth lust: and the fuel
set together makes the greatest flame. Thou art guilty of the sin of
thy wretched companion, as well as of thine own.
14. Lastly, the miserable effects of it, and the punishments that in
this life have attended it, do tell us how God accounteth of the sin:
it hath ruined persons, families, and kingdoms; and God hath borne his
testimony against it, by many signal judgments, which all histories
almost acquaint you with.[455] As there is scarce any sin that the New
Testament more frequently and bitterly condemneth, (as you may see in
Paul's Epistles, 2 Pet. ii., Jude, &c.) so there are not many that
God's providence more frequently pursueth with shame and misery on
earth: and in the latter end of the world, God hath added one
concomitant plague not known before, called commonly the _lues
venerea_, the venereous pox, so that many of the most brutish sort go
about stigmatized with a mark of God's vengeance, the prognostic or
warning of a heavier vengeance. And there are none of them all (that
by great repentance be not made new creatures) but leave an infamous
name and memory when they are dead (if their sin was publicly known.)
Let them be never so great, and never so gallant, victorious,
successful, liberal, flattered, or applauded while they lived, God
ordereth it so, that truth shall ordinarily prevail with the
historians that write of them when they are dead; and with all sober
men their names rot and stink, as well as their bodies. Prov. x. 7,
"The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall
rot." So much of the greatness of the sin. Boniface archbishop of
Mentz, writing to Ethilbald an English king that was a fornicator,
Epist. 19. saith, Fornication is a reproach, not only among
christians, but pagans----For in old Saxony if a virgin had thus
stained her father's house, or a married woman, breaking the marriage
covenant, had committed adultery; sometimes they force her to hang
herself with her own hand, and over her ashes when she is burnt they
hang the fornicator; sometimes they gather a band of women, they lead
her about, scourging her with rods; and cutting off her clothes at the
girdle, and with small knives cutting and pricking all her body, they
send her from village to village, thus bloody and mangled with little
wounds; and so more and more, incited by a zeal for chastity, do meet
her and scourge her again, till they leave her either dead or scarce
alive, that others may fear adultery and luxury. And the Wineds, which
are the filthiest and worst sort of men, do keep the love of matrimony
with so great a zeal, that the woman will refuse to live when her
husband is dead. And after some reproofs of the fornicating king, he
addeth these further stories. Ceolred, your Highness' predecessor, as
they witness who were present, he being splendidly banqueting with his
earls, was by the evil spirit that drew him to violate God's law,
suddenly distracted in his sin; so that without repentance and
confession, being raging mad and talking with the devil, and
abominating God's priests, he departed out of this life, no doubt to
the torments of hell. And Osred (king of the Deiri and Bernicii) the
spirit of luxury carried in fornication and defiling the sacred
virgins in the monasteries, till such time as by a vile and base kind
of death, he lost his glorious kingdom, together with his youthful
and luxurious life. Wherefore, most dear son, take heed of the ditch
into which thou hast seen others fall before thee.----Vid. Auct. Bib.
Pat. tom. ii. p. 55, 56.
And how great sufferings were laid on priests, monks, and nuns that
had committed fornication, by several years' imprisonment and
scourging, see ibid. p. 84. in an edict of Carloman, by the advice of
a council of bishops.
And Epist. lxxxv. p. 87, Boniface writeth to Lullo that he was fain to
suffer a priest to officiate, baptize, pray, &c. that had long ago
committed fornication, because there was none but he alone to be had
in all the country, and he thought it better to venture that one man's
soul, than let all the people perish, and desireth Lullo's counsel in
it. By all which we may see how heinous a sin fornication was then
judged.
_Object._ But (say the filthy ones) did not David commit the sin of
adultery? Did not God permit them many wives among the Jews? How many
had Solomon? Therefore this is no such great sin as you pretend. Thus
every filthiness a little while will plead for itself.
_Answ._ David did sin; and is the sin ever the less for that? It is
easier to forbear it, than undergo the tears and sorrows which David
did endure for his sin! Besides the bitterness of his soul for it, his
son Absalom rebelleth and driveth him out of his kingdom, and his own
wives are openly defiled; and yet God leaveth it as a perpetual blot
upon his name. Solomon's sin was so great that it almost ruined him
and his kingdom; though experience caused him to say more against it
than is said in the Old Testament by any other, yet it is a
controversy among divines whether he was ever recovered and saved; and
ten tribes of the twelve were therefore taken from his line, and given
to Jeroboam. And is this any encouragement to you to imitate him?
Christ telleth you in the case of divorcement, that God permitted (not
allowed, but forbore) some such sins in the Jews, because of the
"hardness of their hearts," Mark x. 5; but from the beginning it was
not so; but one man and one woman were conjoined in the primitive
institution. And the special reason why plurality was connived at
among the Jews, was for the fuller peopling of the nation: they being
the only covenanted people of God, and being few among encompassing
enemies, and being separated from the people of the earth, their
strength, and safety, and glory lay much on their increased number,
and therefore some inordinacy was connived at for their
multiplication, but never absolutely allowed and approved of. And yet
fornication is punished severely, and adultery with death.
II. _The Directions against Fornication._
_Direct._ I. If you would avoid uncleanness, avoid the things that
dispose you to it; as gluttony, or fulness of diet, and pampering the
flesh, idleness, and other things mentioned under the next title, of
subduing lust. The abating of the filthy desires, is the surest way to
prevent the filthy act; which may be done if you are but willing.
_Direct._ II. Avoid the present temptations. Go not where the snare
lieth without necessity. Abhor the devil's bellows that blow up the
fire of lust; such as enticing apparel, filthy talk and sights, of
which more also under the next title.
_Direct._ III. Carefully avoid all opportunity of sinning. "Come not
near the door of her house," saith Solomon, Prov. v. 8. Avoid the
company of the person thou art in danger of. Come not where she is;
this thou canst do if thou art willing; none will force thee. If thou
wilt go seek for a thief, no wonder if thou be robbed. If thou wilt go
seek fire to put in the thatch, no wonder if thy house be burnt. The
devil will sufficiently play the tempter; thou needest not help him;
that is his part, leave it to himself; it is thy part to watch against
him; and he will find thee work; if thou watch as narrowly and
constantly as thou canst, it is well if thou escape. As thou lovest
thy soul, avoid all opportunities of sinning; make it impossible to
thyself: much of thy safety lieth in this point. Never be in secret
company with her thou art in danger of; but either not at all, or only
in the sight of others: especially contrive not such opportunities, as
to be together in the night, in the dark, or on the Lord's day when
others are at church, (one of the devil's seasons for such works,) or
any such opportunity, leisure, and secrecy; for opportunity itself is
a strong temptation. As it is the way to make a thief, to set money in
his way, or so to trust him as that he can easily deceive or rob you
and never be discovered; so it is the way to make yourself unclean, to
get such an opportunity of sinning, that you may easily do it, without
any probability of impediment or discovery from men. The chief point
in all the art or watch is, to keep far enough off. If you touch the
pitch you will be defiled. "Whosoever toucheth her shall not be
innocent," Prov. vi. 29. "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his
clothes not be burnt? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be
burnt? So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife," ver. 27, 28.
Bring not the fire and the gunpowder too near. If thou canst not keep
at a distance, nor forbear the presence of the bait, thou art not like
to forbear the sin.
_Direct._ IV. Reverence thy own conscience. Mark what it speaketh now,
for it will shortly speak it in a more terrible manner: hear it
voluntarily; for it is terrible to hear it when thou canst not resist:
treat with conscience in the way while it is reconcilable; for thou
knowest not how terrible a tormentor it is. I doubt not but it hath
given thee some gripes for thy very lust, before it ever came to
practice; but the sorest of its gripes now, are but like the playing
of the cat with the mouse, before the killing gripe is given. Doth no
man see thee? Conscience seeth thee; and thou art a wretch indeed if
thou reverence not conscience more than man: as Chrysostom saith,
Suppose no man know the crime but himself and the woman with whom he
did commit it! How will he bear the rebukes of conscience, when he
carrieth about with him so sharp and bitter an accuser? For no man can
overrun himself; and no man can avoid the sentence of this court
within him: it is a tribunal not to be corrupted with money, nor
perverted by flattery; for it is divine, being placed in the soul by
God himself: the less the adulterer now feeleth it, the more he
hasteneth to the perdition of his soul. Dost thou not feel a sentence
passed within thee? a terrible sentence, telling thee of the wrath of
a revenging God? Bless God that it is not yet an irreversible
sentence; but sue out thy pardon quickly lest it come to that. Dost
thou not feel, that thou art afraid and ashamed to pray or to address
thyself to God? much more afraid to think of dying, and appearing
before him? If thy sin make thee ready to fly from him now, if thou
knewest how, canst thou look him in the face at last; or canst thou
hope to stand with comfort at his bar? Art thou fit to live in heaven
with him, that makest thyself unfit to pray to him? Even lawful
procreation (as I said before) doth blush to come too near to holy
exercises:[456] as Chrysostom saith, _Die quo liberis operam dedisti
legitime, quamvis crimen illud non sit, orare tamen non audes--Quod si
ab incontaminato lecto resurgens times ad orandum accedere; quum in
diaboli lecto sis, cur horribile Dei nomen audes invocare?_ Conscience
is a better friend to thee than thou dost imagine when it would
reclaim thee from thy sin; and will be a sharper enemy than thou canst
now imagine, if thou obey it not.
_Direct._ V. Suppose thou sawest written upon the door of the house or
chamber where thou enterest to sin, "Whoremongers and adulterers God
will judge," Heb. xiii. 4. And write that, or such sentences, upon thy
chamber door, or at least upon thy heart. Keep thy eye upon the
terrible threatenings of the dreadful God. Darest thou sin, when
vengeance is at thy back? Will not the thought of hell-fire quench the
fire of lust, or restrain thee from thy presumptuous sin? Dost thou
not say with Joseph, "How shall I do this great wickedness and sin
against God?" Gen. xxxix. 7. As it is written of a chaste woman, that
being tempted by a fornicator, wished him first at her request to hold
his finger in the fire: and when he refused, answered him, Why then
should I burn in hell to satisfy you? So ask thyself, Can I easilier
overcome the flames of hell, than the flames of lust?
_Direct._ VI. Remember man that God stands by. If he were not there,
thou couldst not be there; for in him thou livest, and movest, and
art. He that made the eye must see, and he that made the light and
darkness, doth see as well in the dark as in the light; if thou
imagine that he is absent or ignorant, thou believest not that he is
God; for an absent and ignorant God is no God. And darest thou, I say
darest thou, commit such a villany and God behold thee? What! that
which thou wouldst be ashamed a child should see! which thou wouldst
not do if a mortal man stood by! Dost thou think that thy locks, or
secrecy, or darkness, have darkened or shut out God? Dost thou not
know that he seeth not only within thy curtains, but within thy heart?
Oh what a hardened heart hast thou, that in the sight of God, thy
Maker and thy Judge, darest do such wickedness! Ask thy conscience,
man, Would I do this if I were to die to-morrow, and go to God? would
I do this if I saw God, yea, or but an angel, in the room? If not,
shouldst thou do it, when God is as sure there as if thou sawest him?
O remember, man, that he is a holy God, and hateth uncleanness, and
that he is a "consuming fire," Heb. xii. 29.
_Direct._ VII. Suppose all the while that thou sawest the devil opening
thee the door, and bringing thee thy mate, and driving on the match, and
persuading thee to the sin. What if he appeared to thee openly to play
his part, as sure as he now playeth it unseen; would not thy lust be
cooled? and would not the devil cure the disease which he hath excited
in thee? Why then dost thou obey him now, when he is as certainly the
instigator as if thou sawest him? Why, man, hast thou so little reason,
that seeing and not seeing will make so great a difference with thee?
What if thou wert blind, wouldst thou play the fornicator before all the
company, because thou seest them not, when thou knowest they are there?
If thou know any thing, thou knowest God is there; and thou mayst feel
by the temptation that Satan is in it. Wilt thou not be ruled by the
laws, unless thou see the king? Wilt thou not fear the infection of the
plague unless thou see it? Use thy reason for thy soul as well as for
thy body, and do in the case as thou wouldst do if thou saw the devil
tempting thee, and Christ forbidding thee.
_Direct._ VIII. If thou be unmarried, marry, if easier remedies will
not serve. "It is better to marry than burn," 1 Cor. vii. 9. It is
God's ordinance partly for this end. "Marriage is honourable and the
bed undefiled," Heb. xiii. 4. It is a resemblance of Christ's union
with his church, and is sanctified to believers, Eph. v.; 1 Cor. vii.
Perhaps it may cast thee upon great troubles in the world, if thou be
unready for that state (as it is with apprentices). Forbear then thy
sin at easier rates, or else the lawful means must be used though it
undo thee. It is better thy body be undone than thy soul, if thou wilt
needs have it to be one of them. But if thou be married already thou
art a monster, and not a man, if the remedy prevail not with thee: but
yet the other directions may be also serviceable to thee.
_Direct._ IX. If less means prevail not, open thy case to some able,
faithful friend, and engage them to watch over thee; and tell them when
thou art most endangered by the temptation. This will shame thee from
the sin, and lay more engagements on thee to forbear it. If thou tell
thy friend, Now I am tempted to the sin, and now I am going to it; he
will quickly stop thee: break thy secrecy and thou losest thy
opportunity. Thou canst do this if thou be willing; if ever thy
conscience prevail so far with thee, as to resolve against thy sin, or
to be willing to escape, then take the time while conscience is awake,
and go tell thy friend: and tell him who it is that is thy wicked
companion, and let him know all thy haunts, that he may know the better
how to help thee. Dost thou say, that this will shame thee? It will do
so to him that it is known to: but that is the benefit of it, and that
is the reason I advise thee to it, that shame may help to save thy soul.
If thou go on, the sin will both shame and damn thee: and a greater
shame than this is a gentle remedy in so foul and dangerous a disease.
_Direct._ X. Therefore, if yet all this will not serve turn, tell it to
many, yea, rather tell it to all the town than not be cured: and then
the public shame will do much more. Confess it to thy pastor, and desire
him openly to beg the prayers of the congregation for thy pardon and
recovery. Begin thus to crave the fruit of church discipline thyself; so
far shouldst thou be from flying from it, and spurning against it as the
desperate, hardened sinners do. If thou say, this is a hard lesson,
remember that the suffering of hell is harder. Do not say that I wrong
thee, by putting thee upon scandal and open shame: it is thou that
puttest thyself upon it, by making it necessary, and refusing all easier
remedies. I put thee on it, but on supposition that thou wilt not be
easilier cured: almost as Christ puts thee upon "cutting off a right
hand," or "plucking out a right eye, lest all the body be cast into
hell." This is not the way that he commandeth thee first to take: he
would have thee avoid the need of it: but he tells thee that it is
better to do so than worse; and that this is an easy suffering in
comparison of hell. And so I advise thee, if thou love thy credit,
forbear thy sin in a cheaper way; but if thou wilt not do so, take this
way rather than damn thy soul. If the shame of all the town be upon
thee, and the boys should hoot after thee in the streets, if it would
drive thee from thy sin, how easy were thy suffering in comparison of
what it is like to be! Concealment is Satan's great advantage. It would
be hard for thee to sin thus if it were but opened.
_Tit._ 2. _Directions against inward, filthy Lusts._
_Direct._ I. Because with most the temperature of the body hath a great
hand in this sin, your first care must be about the body, to reduce it
unto a temper less inclined to lust; and here the chief remedy is
fasting and much abstinence. And this may the better be borne, because
for the most part it is persons so strong as to be able to endure it
that are under this temptation. If your temptation be not strong, the
less abstinence from meat and drink may serve turn (for I would
prescribe you no stronger physic than is needful to cure your disease).
But if it be violent, and lesser means will not prevail, it is better
your bodies be somewhat weakened, than your souls corrupted and undone.
Therefore in this case, 1. Eat no breakfasts nor suppers; but one meal a
day, unless a bit or two of bread and a sup or two of water in the
morning, and yet not too full a dinner; and nothing at night. 2. Drink
no wine or strong drink, but water if the stomach can bear it without
sickness (and usually in such hot bodies it is healthfuler than beer).
3. Eat no hot spices, or strong, or heating, or windy meats: eat lettuce
and such cooling herbs. 4. If need require it, be often let blood, or
purged with such purges as copiously evacuate serosity, and not only
irritate. 5. And oft bathe in cold water. But the physician should be
advised with, that they may be safely done.
If you think this course too dear a cure, and had rather cherish your
flesh and lust, you are not the persons that I am now directing; for I
speak to such only as are willing to be cured, and to use the
necessary means that they may be cured. If you be not brought to this,
your conscience had need of better awakening. I am sure Christ saith
that when the bridegroom was taken from them, his disciples should
"fast," Mark ii. 19, 20. And even painful Paul was "in fasting often,"
2 Cor. vi. 5; xi. 27, and "kept under his body and brought it into
subjection, lest by any means when he had preached to others, himself
should be a cast-away," 1 Cor. ix. 27. And I am sure that the ancient
christians, that lived in solitude, and ate many of them nothing but
bread and water, or meaner fare than bread, did not think this cure
too dear.[457] Yea, smaller necessities than this engaged them in
"fasting," 1 Cor. vii. 5. This unclean devil will scarcely be cast out
but by "prayer and fasting," Mark ix. 29.
And I must tell you that fulness doth naturally cherish lust, as fuel
doth the fire. Fulness of bread prepared the Sodomites for their filthy
lusts. It is no more wonder that a stuffed paunch hath a lustful fury,
than that the water runs into the pipes when the cistern is full, or
than it is wonder to see a dunghill bear weeds, or a carrion to be full
of crawling maggots. Plutarch speaks of a Spartan that being asked why
Lycurgus made no law against adultery, answered, There are no adulterers
with us: but saith the other, What if there should be any? saith the
Spartan, Then he is to pay an ox so great as shall stand on this side
the river Taget and drink of the river Eurota: saith the other, That is
impossible: and saith the Spartan, _Et quo pacto Spartæ existat adulter
in qua divitiæ, deliciæ, et corporis adscititius cultus probro habentur?
et contra verecundia, modestia, ac obedientiæ magistratibus debitæ
observatio decori laudique dantur?_ that is, And how can there be an
adulterer at Sparta, where riches, delights, and strange attire, or
ornament are a disgrace or reproach? and contrarily shamefacedness,
modesty, and the observance of due obedience to magistrates, is an
honour and praise? And if rich men think it their privilege to fare
sumptuously and satisfy their appetites, they must take it for their
privilege to feed their lust. But God giveth no man plenty for such
uses; nor is it any excuse for eating and drinking much, because you
have much, any more than it would be to your cooks to put much salt in
your meat more than in poorer men's, because you have more.[458] He that
observeth the filthy and pernicious effects of that gluttony which is
accounted rich men's honour and felicity, will never envy them that
miserable happiness, but say rather as Antisthenes, _Hostium filiis
contingat in deliciis vivere_,[459] Let it befall the children of my
enemies to live in delights; but that the curse is too heavy for a
christian to use to any of his enemies. But for himself he must remember
that he is the servant of a holy God, and hath a holy work to do, and
holy sacrifices to offer to him, and therefore must not pamper his
flesh, as if he were preparing a sacrifice for Venus. For, as 1 Thess.
iv. 3, 4, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you
abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to
possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the lust of
concupiscence, as the gentiles that know not God." As the philosopher
answered Antigonus when he asked him whether he should go to a merry
feast that he was invited to, Thou art the son of a king;[460] so it is
answer enough for a christian against temptations to voluptuousness, I
am the son of the most holy God. If thou be invited to feasts where
urgency or allurement is like to make thee break thy bounds, go not, or
go back when thou seest the bait. As Epaminondas in Plutarch finding
excess at a feast that he was invited to, went away when he saw it,
saying, _Ego te sacrificare, non lascivire putaram_; so say thou, I came
to dine and not to be wanton or luxurious; to support my body for duty,
and not to pamper it for lust. Plutarch marvelleth at the folly of those
men that detest the charms of witches lest they hurt them, and fear not
but love the charms of dishes which hurt a thousand where witches hurt
one. Withdraw the fuel of excess, and the fire of lust will of itself go
out; or at least this enemy must be besieged and starved out, when it
cannot be conquered by storm.
_Direct._ II. Take heed of idleness, and be wholly taken up in
diligent business of your lawful callings, when you are not exercised
in the more immediate service of God.[461] David in his idleness or
vacancy catched those sparks of lust, which in his troubles and
military life he was preserved from. Idleness is the soil, the
culture, and the opportunity of lust. The idle person goeth to school
to the devil; he sets all other employment aside, that the devil may
have time to teach him, and treat with him, and solicit him to
evil.[462] Do you wonder that he is thinking on lustful objects, or
that he is taken up in feasting and drinking, in chambering and
wantonness? why he has nothing else to do: whereas a laborious,
diligent person hath a body subdued and hardened against the
mollities, the effeminateness of the wanton; and a mind employed and
taken up with better things. Leave thy body and mind no leisure to
think of tempting, filthy objects, or to look after them. As Hierom
saith, _Facito aliquid operis, ut semper diabolus inveniat te
occupatum_: Be still doing some work, that the devil may always find
thee busy. And do not for thy fleshly ease remit thy labours and
indulge thy flesh. Rise early and go late to bed, and put thyself upon
a necessity of diligence all the day: undertake and engage thyself in
as much business as thou art able to go through, that if thou wouldst,
thou mayst not be able to give any indulgence to the flesh; for if
thou be not still pressed by necessity, lust will serve itself by
idleness, and the flesh will lie down if it feel not the spur:
therefore are the rich and idle more lustful and filthy than the poor
labouring people. The same bed is the place of sloth and lust. Hear a
heathen, and refuse not to imitate him. Seneca saith, No day passeth
me in idleness: part of the night I reserve for studies: I do not
purposely set myself to sleep, but yield to it when it overcometh me;
and when my eyes are wearied with watching, and are falling, I hold
them to their work:--I had rather it went ill with me than delicately
or tenderly. If thou be delicate or tender, the mind by little and
little is effeminate, and is dissolved into the similitude of the
idleness and sloth in which it lieth. I sleep very little, and take
but a short nap: it sufficeth me to have ceased watching: sometimes I
know that I slept, sometimes I do but suspect it.[463] Aristotle
saith, Nature made nothing to be idle. And Plato calls idleness the
plague of mortals. If thou be resolved to serve and please thy flesh,
then never ask advice against thy lust; for it is part of the pleasure
of it; and then no wonder if thou refuse this physic as too bitter,
and the remedy as too dear. But if thou be resolved to be cured and to
be saved, stick not at the pains: give up thyself totally to thy
business, and lust will die for want of food.
_Direct._ III. If thou wouldst be free from lust, keep far enough from
the tempting object. If possible, dwell not in the house with any person
that thou feelest thyself endangered by; if that be not possible, avoid
their company, especially in private: abhor all lascivious and immodest
actions. Dost thou give thyself the liberty of wanton dalliance, and
lustful embracements, and yet think to be free from lust? wilt thou put
thy hand into the fire, when thou art afraid of being burnt? Either thou
hast the power of thy own heart, or thou hast not: if thou hast, why
dost thou not quench thy lust? if thou hast not, why dost thou cast it
upon greater temptations, and put it further out of thy power than it
is? Fly from a tempting object for thy safety, as thou wouldst fly from
an enemy for thy life. These loving enemies are more dangerous than
hating enemies: they get the key of our hearts, and come in and steal
our treasure with our consent, or without resistance; when an open enemy
is suspected and shut out.
_Direct._ IV. Command thy eyes, and, as Job xxxi. 1, make a covenant
with them, that thou mayst not think on tempting objects: shut these
windows, and thou preservest thy heart. Gaze not upon any alluring
object. A look hath kindled that fire of lust in many a heart, that
hath ended in the fire of hell. It is easier to stop lust at these
outward doors, than drive it out when it hath tainted the heart. If
thou canst not do this much, how canst thou do more? An ungoverned
eye fetcheth fire to burn the soul that should have governed it.[464]
_Direct._ V. Linger not in the pleasant snares of lust, if thou feel
but the least beginnings of it; but quickly cast water on the first
discerned spark, before it break out into a flame. The amorous poet
can teach you this, Ovid. de Rem. Am.[465] If ever delay be dangerous,
it is here. For delay will occasion such engagements to sin, that you
must come off at a far dearer rate. If the meat be undigestible, it is
best not look on it; it is the next best, not to touch or taste it;
but if once it go down, it will cost you sickness and pain to get it
up again; and if you do not, you perish by it.
_Direct._ VI. Abhor lascivious, immodest speech: as such words come
from either vain or filthy hearts, and show the absence of the fear of
God, so they tend to make the hearer like the speaker. And if thy ears
grow but patient and reconcilable to such discourse, thou hast lost
much of thy innocence already. Christians must abhor the mentioning of
such filthy sins, in any other manner, but such as tends to bring the
hearers to abhor them. "Be not deceived; evil words corrupt good
manners," 1 Cor. xv. 33. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may
minister grace to the hearers; and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."
Corrupt communication is rotten, stinking communication; and none but
dogs and crows love carrion. But "fornication and all uncleanness and
(πλεονεξια) inordinate lust or luxury, let it not once be named among
you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor
jesting," &c.
_Direct._ VII. Abhor the covering of filthy lust with handsome names
to make it the more acceptable. Their discourse is more dangerous that
would thus dress up an ugly lust, than theirs that speak of it in
nasty language. Thus among the brutish party, it goeth under the names
of love, and having a mistress, and courting, and such like. But (as
one said that is cited in Stobæus) it is doubled. Lust, that is
commonly called love, and doubled love is stark madness. If filthiness
will walk abroad, let it go for filthiness, and appear as it is.
_Direct._ VIII. Avoid the reading of romances, and love stories; which
are the library of Venus; or the devil's books of the lustful art; to
cover over filthiness with cleanly names, and bewitch the fantasies of
fools with fine words; to make men conceive of the ready way to hell,
under the notions and images of excellency, beauty, love, gallantry;
and by representing strong and amorous passions, to stir up the same
passions in the reader. As he that will needs read a conjuring book,
is well enough served if devils come about his ears; so they that will
needs read such romances and other books of the burning art, it is
just with God to suffer an unclean devil to possess them, and to
suffer them to catch the fever of lust, which may not only burn up the
heart, but cause that pernicious deliriation in the brain, which is
the ordinary symptom of it.
_Direct._ IX. Avoid all wanton stage-plays and dancings, which either
cover the odiousness of lust, or produce temptations to it.[466] As
God hath his preachers, and holy assemblies and exercises, for the
communion of saints, and the stirring up of love and holiness; so
these are Satan's instruments, and assemblies, and exercises, for the
communion of sinners, and for the stirring up of lust and filthiness.
They that will go to the devil's church deserve to be possessed with
his principles, and numbered with his disciples. The ancient
christians were very severe against the seeing of these _spectacula_,
shows or plays; especially in any of the clergy.
_Direct._ X. Avoid all tempting, unnecessary ornaments or attire, and
the regarding or gazing on them upon others. It is a procacious, lustful
desire to seem comely and amiable, which is the common cause of this
excess. The folly, or lust, or both, of fashionists and gaudy gallants,
is so conspicuous to all in their affected dress, that never did pride
more cross itself, than in such publications of such disgraceful folly
or lust.[467] They that take on them to be adversaries to lust, and yet
are careful when they present themselves to sight, to appear in the most
adorned manner, and do all that harlots can do to make themselves a
snare to fools, do put the charitable hard to it, whether to believe
that it is their tongues or their backs that are the liar. As Hierom
saith, Thou deservest hell, though none be the worse for thee; for thou
broughtest the poison, if there had been any to drink it. Let thy
apparel be suited not only to thy rank, but to thy disease. If thou be
inclined to lust, go the more meanly clad thyself, and gaze not on the
ornaments of others. It is folly indeed that will be enamoured of the
tailor's work: yet this is so common, that it is frequently more the
apparel than the person that enticeth first; and homely rags would have
prevented the deceit; as the poet saith,
Auferimur cultu: gemmis auroque: teguntur
Omnia: pars minima est ipsa puella sui.[468]
_Direct._ XI. Think on thy tempting object as it is within, and as it
shortly will appear without. How ordinary is it for that which you
call beauty to be the portion of a fool; and a fair skin to cover a
silly, childish, peevish mind, and a soul that is enslaved to the
devil. And as Solomon saith, Prov. xi. 22, "As a jewel of gold in a
swine's snout, so is a fair woman without discretion." And will you
lust after such an adorned thing? Think also what a dunghill of filth
is covered with those ornaments; that it would turn thy stomach if
thou sawest what is within them. And think what a face that would be,
if it were but covered with the pox; and what a face it will be when
sickness or age hath consumed or wrinkled it; and think what thy
admired carcass will be, when it hath lain a few days in the grave:
then thou wouldst have little mind of it; and how quickly will that
be! O man, there is nothing truly amiable in the creature, but the
image of God; the wisdom, and holiness, and righteousness of the soul.
Love this then, if thou wilt love with wisdom, with purity and safety;
for the love of purity is pure and safe.
_Direct._ XII. Think on thy own death, and how fast thou hastest to
another world. Is a lustful heart a seemly temper for one that is
ready to die, and ready to see God, and come into that world, where
there is nothing but pure and holy doth abide?
_Direct._ XIII. Consider well the tendency and fruits of lust, that it
may still appear to your minds as ugly and terrible as it is indeed.
1. Think what a shame it is to the soul, that can no better rule the
body, and that it is so much defiled by its lusts. 2. Think what an
unfit companion it is to lodge in the same heart with Jesus Christ and
the Holy Spirit. Shall a member of Christ be thus polluted? Shall the
temple of the Holy Ghost be thus turned into a swine-sty? Is lust fit
to dwell with the love of God? Wilt thou entertain thy Lord with such
odious company? What an unkindness and injury is this to God, that
when he that dwelleth in the highest heavens condescendeth to take up
a dwelling in thy heart, thou shouldst bring these toads and snakes
into the same room with him. Take heed lest he take it unkindly and be
gone. He hath said he will dwell with the humble and contrite heart;
but where said he, I will dwell in a lustful heart? 3. Think how unfit
it makes thee for prayer, or any holy address to God. What a shame,
and fear, and deadness it casts upon thy spirit. 4. And think how it
tends to worse. Lust tendeth to actual filthiness, and that to hell;
cherish not the eggs if thou wouldst have none of the brood. It is an
easy step, from a lustful heart to a defiled body, and a shorter step
thence to everlasting horror than you imagine. As St. James saith,
"Every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust and
enticed; then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin
when it is finished bringeth forth death," James i. 13, 14. Gal. vi.
8, "If ye sow to the flesh, of the flesh ye shall reap corruption."
Remember that lust is the spawn of sin, and sin is the way to hell.
_Direct._ XIV. Be sure to keep up a holy, constant government over thy
thoughts. Suffer them not to go after tempting, filthy, sensual
things. As soon as ever a thought of lust comes into thy mind, abhor
it and cast it out. Abundance of the cure and of thy safety lieth upon
thy thoughts. They that let their thoughts run uncontrolled, and feed
on filthiness, are already fornicators in the heart; and are hatching
the cockatrice eggs; and no wonder if from thoughts they proceed to
deeds. Oh what a deal of uncleanness is committed by the thoughts,
which people are little ashamed of, because they are unseen of men! If
the thoughts of many were open to beholders, what wantonness and lust
would appear in many adorned sepulchres! Even in the time of holy
worship, when once such give the unclean spirit possession of their
thoughts, how hardly is he cast out! they can scarce look a comely
person in the face without some vicious thought. If Hierom confess,
that in his wilderness his thoughts were running among the ladies at
Rome, what may we think of them that feed such filthy fantasies? Say
not, you cannot rule your thoughts: you can do much if you will, and
more than you do. If money and honour can make an ungodly preacher
command his thoughts to holy things, in the studies of divinity,
through much of his life, you may see that your thoughts are much in
your power. But of this before.
_Direct._ XV. If other means serve not, open thy case to some friend,
and shame thyself to him, as I advised under the former title.
Confession, and shame, and advice, will help thee.
_Direct._ XVI. Above all go to Christ for help, and beg his Spirit, and
give up thy heart to better things. Oh, if it were taken up with God,
and heaven, and the holy life that is necessary thereto, these things
are so great, and holy, and sweet, and of such concernment to thee, that
they would leave little room for lust within thee, and would make thee
abhor it as contrary to those things which have thy heart. No such cure
for any carnal love as the love of God; nor for fleshly lusts, as a
spiritual, renewed, heavenly mind. Thou wouldst then tell Satan that God
hath taken up all the room, and thy narrow heart is too little for him
alone; and that there is no room for lust, or the thoughts that serve
it. A true conversion which turneth the heart to God, doth turn it from
this with other sins, though some sparks may still be unextinguished. It
was once noted that many turn from other sects to the Epicureans, but
none from the Epicureans to any other sect; the reason was because
nature is inclined to sensuality in all, and when it is confirmed by use
and doctrine, philosophy is too weak to master it. But Christ calleth
and saveth epicures, and publicans, and harlots, and hath cleansed many
such by his grace, which teacheth men to "deny ungodliness and worldly
lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world."
Philostratus tells us of a sudden change upon one Isæus, that turned him
from luxury to exceeding temperance: so that when one asked him, Is not
yonder a handsome woman? he answered, The diseases of my eyes are cured.
When they asked him which dish was the pleasantest, he answered, _Desii
curare_, I have done regarding such things: and told them the reason,
that marvelled at his change, Because he found that he did but gather
fruits out of Tantalus' garden. They are "deceitful lusts," Eph. iv. 22,
and Satan himself will reproach thee for ever, if he can deceive thee by
them. As Alexander when he had taken Darius, his gallantry, and
sumptuous houses, and furniture, reproaches him with it, saying,
_Hoccine erat imperare?_ Was this to rule? So Satan would show thee thy
lusts and say, Was this to be a christian and seek salvation?