When the day of grace is past.
Answ.They that understand what they say, must say but this: that this word, "the day of grace," hath divers senses. 1. Properly by the day of grace is meant, the time in which, according to the tenor of the gospel, God will pardon and accept those that repent; and in this sense the time of life is the time of grace; whenever a sinner repenteth and is converted, he is pardoned. 2. Sometimes by the day of grace is meant, the time in which the means of grace is continued to a nation or a person. And thus it is true, that the day of grace is quicklier past with some countries than others: that is, God sometimes taketh away the preachers of his gospel from a people that reject them, and so by preaching offereth them his grace no more. But in this sense a man may easily know whether his day of grace be past or no; that is, whether Bibles, and books, and christians, and preachers be all gone, or not. (And yet if they were, he that receiveth Christ before they are gone is safe.) No man in his wits can think this day of grace is past with him while Christ is offered him, or while there is a Bible, or preacher, or christians about him. 3. Sometimes by the day of grace is meant, the certain time which we are sure of as our own. And so it is only the present minute that is the time of grace; that is, we cannot beforehand be sure of another minute; but yet the next minute when it is come is as much the time of grace as the former was. 4. Sometimes by the day of grace is meant, thetime in which God actually worketh and giveth grace; and that is no more than the day of our conversion. And in this sense, to have the day of grace past is a happiness and comfort; that is, that the day is past in which we were converted. 5. And sometimes by the day of grace is meant, that day in which God moveth the hearts of the impenitent more strongly towards conversion than formerly he did. And this is it that divines mean when they talk of the day of grace being past with men before their death; that is, though such have never a day of effectual grace, yet their motions were stronger towards it, than hereafter they shall be, and they were fairer for conversion, than after when they are gone further from it. This is true, and this is all: and what is this to a soul that is willing to come in, and ignorantly questioneth whether he shall be accepted, because the day of grace is past?
Object.II. But Christ saith, "If thou hadst known in this thy day—" Luke xix. 42.
Answ.That was the day of the offers of grace by preaching: we grant that nations have but their day of enjoying the gospel, which they may shorten by sinning it away.
Object.III. But it is said of Esau, that "afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears," Heb. xii. 17. It seems then that repentance in this life may be too late.
Answ.It is true that Esau's time for the blessing was past as soon as Isaac had given it to Jacob.[370]When he had sold his birthright it was too late to recall it, for the right was made over to his brother; and it was not repentance, and cries, and tears, that could recall the right he had sold, nor recall the words that Isaac had spoken: but this doth not prove that our day of grace doth not continue till death, or that any man repenting before his death shall be rejected as Esau's repentance was: the apostle neither saith nor meaneth any such thing. The sense of his words are only this much: Take heed lest there be any so profane among you, as to set so light by the blessings of the gospel, even Christ and life eternal, as to part with them for a base lust or transitory thing, as Esau, that set more by a morsel of meat than by his birthright: for let them be sure that the time will come, (even the time mentioned by Christ, Matt. xxv. 10, 11, when the door is shut and the Lord is come,) when they will dearly repent it; and then, as it was with Esau when the blessing was gone, so it will be with them when their blessing is gone, repentance, and cries, and tears will be too late: for the gospel hath its justice and terrors as well as the law. This is all in the text, but there is no intimation that our day of grace is as short as Esau's hope of the blessing was.
Object.IV. Saul had but his time, which when he lost he was forsaken of God.
Answ.Saul's sin provoked God to reject him from being king of Israel, and to appoint another in his stead; but if Saul had repented he had been saved after that, though not restored to the crown: and it is true, that as God withdrew from him the spirit of government, so many before death, by the greatness of their sins, cause God to forsake them so far as to withhold those motions, and convictions, and fears, and disquietments, in sin, which sometimes they had, and to give them over to a "reprobate mind," to commit "all uncleanness with greediness," and glory in it as being "past feeling," Rom. i. 28; Eph. iv. 18, 19. If it be thus with you, you would be no better, you would not be recovered, you think sin is best for you, and hate all that would reform you.
Object.V. It is said, 2 Cor. vi. 2, "Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation." And Heb. iii. 7, 12, 13, "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts——lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
Answ.This saith no more than that the present time is the best, yea, the only certain time; and we are not sure that the day of salvation will continue any longer, because death may cut us off: but if it do not, yet sin is a hardening thing, and the longer we sin the more it hardeneth! yea, God may withhold the motions of his Spirit, and leave us to ourselves, to the hardness of our hearts: and thus he doth by thousands of wicked persons, who are left in impenitency and hatred of the truth: but most certainly if those men repented they might be saved, and the very reason why they have not Christ and life is still because they will not consent.
Direct.VI. Understand by what help and strength it is that the obedience to the gospel must be performed: not merely by your own strength, but by the help of grace, and strength of Christ: if he have but made you willing, he will help you to perform the rest. You are not by this covenant to be a saviour and sanctifier to yourselves; but to consent that Christ be your Saviour, and the Holy Spirit your Sanctifier. You might else despair indeed if you were left to that which you are utterly unable to do. Though you must "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, it is he that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure," Phil. ii. 13.
Direct.VII. Understand well the difference between mortal sins and infirmities, that you may not think that every sin is a sign of death or gracelessness; but may know the difference between those sins which should make you think yourselves unjustified, and those sins which only call for particular humiliation, being such as the justified themselves commit. Though in the popish sense we take no sin to be venial, that is, which in itself is properly no sin, nor deserveth death according to the law of works; yet the distinction between mortal and venial sin, is of very great necessity: that is, between sins which prove a man in a state of death, or unjustified, and sins which consist with a state of grace and justification; between sins which the gospel pardoneth not, and those which it pardoneth, that is, all that stand with true repentance.[371]There are some sins which every one that repenteth of them, doth so forsake as to cease committing them; and there are some lesser sins, which they that repent of them do hate indeed, but yet frequently renew, as our defective degrees in the exercise of repentance itself, faith, love, trust, fear, obedience; our vain thoughts and words; some sinful passions, omissions of many duties of thought, affection, word, or deed towards God or man; some minutes of time overslip us; prayer and other duties have a sinful coldness or remissness in them, and such like. Many such sins are fitly called infirmities and venial, because they consist with life and are forgiven: it is of great use to the peace of our consciences to discern the difference between these two, for one sort require a conversion to another state, and the other require but a particular repentance, and where they are unknown, are forgiven without particular repentance, because our general repentance is virtually, though not actually,particular as to them. One sort are cause of judging ourselves ungodly; and the other sort are only cause of filial humiliation. Any one may see the great need of discerning the difference; but yet it is a matter of very great judgment doctrinally to distinguish them, much more actually to discern them in every instance in yourselves. The way is to know first, what is the condition of the new covenant, and of absolute necessity to salvation or justification; and then every sin that is inconsistent with that condition is mortal, and the rest that are consistent and do consist with it are venial, or but infirmities. As venial signifieth only that sort of sin which is pardonable, and may consist with true grace, so a venial sin may be in an unsanctified person materially, where it is not pardoned; that is,e. g.his wandering thought or passion, is a sin of that sort that in the godly is consistent with true grace: but as venial signifieth a sin that is pardoned, or pardonable, without a regeneration, or conversion into a state of life from a state of death, so venial sin is in no unregenerate, unjustified person, but is only the infirmities of the saints; and thus I here speak of it. In a word, that sin which actually consisteth with habitual repentance, and with the hatred of it, so far that you had rather be free from it than commit or keep it, and which consisteth with an unfeigned consent to the covenant, that God be your Father, Saviour, and Sanctifier, and with the love of God above all, is but an infirmity or venial sin. But to know from the nature of the sin, which those are, requireth a volume by itself to direct you only.
Direct.VIII. Understand how necessary a faithful minister of Christ is, in such cases of danger and difficulty, to be a guide to your consciences; and open your case truly to them, and place so much confidence in their judgment of your state as their office, and abilities, and faithfulness do require, and set not up your timorous, darkened, perplexed judgments above theirs, in cases where they are fitter to judge. Such a guide is necessary, both as appointed by Christ who is the author of his office, and in regard of the greatness, and danger, and difficulty of your case. Do you not feel that you are insufficient for yourselves, and that you have need of help? sure a soul that is tempted to despair may easily feel it. You are very proud, or blindly self-conceited, if you do not. And you may easily know that Christ that appointed them their office, requireth that they be both used and trusted in their office, as far as reason will allow. And where there is no office, yet ability and faithfulness deserve and require credit of themselves. Why else do you trust physicians and lawyers, and all artificers, in their several professions and arts, as far as they are reputed able and faithful? I know no man is to be believed as infallible as God is: but man is to be believed as man; and if you will use and trust your spiritual guide but so far as you use and trust your physician or lawyer, you will find the great benefit, if you choose aright.
Direct.IX. Remember when you have sinned, how sure, and sufficient, and ready a remedy you have before you, in Jesus Christ and the covenant of grace; and that it is God's design in the way of redemption, not to save any man as innocent, that none may glory, but to save men that were first in sin and misery, and fetch them as from the gates of hell, that love and mercy may be magnified on every one that is saved, and grace may abound more by the occasion of sin's abounding, Rom. v. 15, 20. Not that any should "continue in sin because grace hath abounded: God forbid," Rom. vi. 1. But that we may magnify that grace and mercy which hath abounded above our sins; and turn the remembrance of our greatest sins to the admiration of that great and wonderful mercy. To magnify mercy when we see the greatness of our sin, and to love much because much is forgiven,[372]this is to please God, and answer the very design and end of our redemption: but to magnify sin, and extenuate mercy, and to say, My sin is greater than can be forgiven, this is to please the devil, and to cross God's design in the work of our redemption. Is your disease so great that no other can cure it? It is the fitter for Christ to honour his office upon, and God to honour his love and mercy on. Do but "come to him that you may have life,"[373]and you shall find that no greatness of sin past, will cause him to refuse you; nor any infirmities which you are willing to be rid of, shall cause him to disown you, or cast you out. The prodigal is not so much as upbraided with his sins, but finds himself, before he is aware, in his father's arms, clothed with the best robes, the ring and shoes, and joyfully entertained with a feast.[374]Remember that there is enough in Christ and the promise, to pardon and heal all sins which thou art willing to forsake.
Direct.X. Take heed of being so blind or proud in thy humility, as to think that thou canst be more willing to be a servant of Christ, than he is to be thy Saviour, or more willing to have grace, than God is to give it thee, or more willing to come home to Christ, than he is to receive and welcome thee. Either thou art willing or unwilling to have Christ and grace, to be sanctified and freed from sin; if thou be willing, Christ and his grace shall certainly be thine: indeed if thou wouldst have pardon without holiness, this cannot be, nor is there any promise of it; but if thou wouldst have Christ to be thy Saviour and King, and his Spirit to be thy Sanctifier, and hadst rather be perfect in love and holiness than to have all the riches of the world, then art thou in sincerity that which thou wouldst be in perfection: understand that God accounteth thee to be what thou truly desirest to be. The great work of grace lieth in the renewing of the will; if the will be sound, the man is sound. I mean not the conquered, uneffectual velleity of the wicked, that wish they could be free from pride, sensuality, gluttony, drunkenness, lust, and covetousness, without losing any of their beloved honour, wealth, or pleasure; that is, when they think on it as the way to hell they like not their sin, but wish they were rid of it, but when they think of it as pleasing their fleshly minds, they love it more, and will not leave it, because this is the prevailing thought and will. So Judas was unwilling to sell his Lord, as it was the betraying of the innocent, and the way to hell, but he was more willing as it was the way to get his hire. So Herod was unwilling to kill John Baptist, as it was the murder of a prophet; but his willingness was the greater, as it was the pleasing of his damsel, and the freeing himself from a troublesome reprover. But if thy willingness to have Christ and perfect holiness be more than thy unwillingness, and more than thy willingness to keep thy sin, and enjoy the honour, wealth, and pleasures of the world, then thou hast an undoubted sign of uprightness, and that love to grace, and desire after it, which nothing but grace itself doth give. And if thou art thus willing, it is great wrong to Christ to doubt of his willingness. For, 1. He is a greater lover of holiness than thou art; and therefore cannot come behind thee, in being willing of thy holiness. 2. He is more merciful to thee, than thou art to thyself: his love and mercy are beyond thy measure. 3. He hath begun to thee, and fully showed his willingness first. He died toprepare thee a full remedy; he hath drawn up the covenant; he hath therein expressed his own consent, and entreateth thine; he is the first in consenting, and is a suitor to thee. Never sinner did yet begin to him in the world. Never any was willing of the match before him: his general offer of mercy, and covenant tendered to all, doth show his willingness before they can show theirs by their acceptance. Never man overwent him in willingness, and was more willing than he. Take this sinner, as God's infallible truth. If the match break between Christ and thee, and thou be lost, it shall not be through his refusal, but through thine: and it cannot break any other way, no, not by the craft or force of all the devils in hell, but either because Christ is unwilling, or because thou art unwilling; and on Christ's part it shall never break. And therefore if thou be willing the match is made; and there is no danger but lest thy heart draw back. If thou art not willing, why complainest thou for want of that which thou wouldst not love? If thou art willing, the covenant is then made, for Christ is more willing, and was willing first.
Direct.XI. Write out those sentences that contain the sense and substance of the gospel, and often read them. Write them on thy very chamber walls, and set them still before thine eyes;[375]and try whether they agree with the words of him that tempteth thee to despair: such as these which I here transcribe for thee. John iii. 16, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."—Ver. 19, "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."—1 John v. 10-12, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son: and this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son: he that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."—John i. 11, 12, "He came unto his own, but his own received him not: but to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, to them that believe on his name."—Rev. xxii. 17, "Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."—John v. 40, "And ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life."—John vi. 37, "All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."—John vii. 37, "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink."—Luke xiv. 17, "Come, for all things are now ready." And read oft Luke xv.
Direct.XII. Distinguish between sin seen and felt, and sin reigning unto death; that you may not be so blinded as to think your sin greatest or your condition worst, when your sight and feeling of it are greatest. To see and feel your sin and misery is at least the ordinary preparation for recovery. To be dead is to be past feeling.[376]They that are most forsaken of God are most willing of their present condition, and most love their sin, and hate holiness and all that would reform them, and if they have power, will persecute them as enemies.
Direct.XIII. Think not that the troublesome strivings and temptations which weary you are the worst condition, or a sign of the victory of sin. It is rather a sign that you are not yet forsaken of God, while he beareth witness in you against sin, and is yet following you with his dissuasives. Paul saith, Gal. v. 17, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Read Rom. vii. from 14 to the end.
Direct.XIV. Understand the difference between weak grace and no grace; that you may not think every want of grace is a sign of total gracelessness. When you have opened in your complaints a long catalogue of weaknesses, consider whether yet there be not a true desire to be better, and some degree of life with all these?
Direct.XV. Think well of the excellency of the least degree of special grace; that it is a seed of glory; the beginning of life eternal; the divine nature, and the image of God, and of greater worth than all the learning, wealth, and honour in the world. And be not unthankful for so great a mercy, because you have not more.
Direct.XVI. Make conscience of observing the grace and mercy received, as well as the wants remaining and the sins committed, and of the thankful remembrance and mention of mercy, as much as the humble mention of sin. Think as oft of mercy as of sin: talk of it as much to others; and mention it to God as much in prayer: this is your plain duty: if you will not do it, your wilful unthankfulness for what you have received, may well leave you in distress without the comfort of it.
Direct.XVII. Let your thoughts of God's goodness bear some proportion with your thoughts of his knowledge and his power. And then you will not be so apt to entertain false suspicions of it, and think of him as a man-hater, like the devil, nor to run away from him, that is the infinite, most attractive good.
Direct.XVIII. Record the particular kindnesses to thyself, by which God hath testified his particular love to thee; that they may stand as near and constant witnesses of his mercy and readiness to do thee good, against thy excessive fearfulness and despair.
Direct.XIX. Think how few there are in the world so likely for mercy as thyself. Look not only on a few that are better than thyself; but think how five parts of the world are open infidels and heathens; and of the sixth part that are christians, how few are reformed from popish and barbarous ignorance and superstition: and among protestants how small is the number of them that are less in love with sin than thyself! I know that many wicked men abuse this comparison to presumption, but I know also that a christian may and must use it against despair, and not think of God and the Redeemer as if he would save so few as are next to none at all.
Direct.XX. Remember that God commandeth faith and hope, and forbiddeth unbelief and despair,[377]and that it is your sin: and will you sin more when you have sinned so much already? What if you see no other reason why you should hope, and why you should not despair, but God's command? Is not that enough? I charge you in the name of God obey him and despair not. Sin not wilfully thus against him, Psal. cxlvi. 5; xxxi. 24; Rom. viii. 24; xv. 4, 13; Col. i. 23; 1 Thess. v. 8; Heb. iii. 6; vi. 11, 18, 19; Tit. i. 2. Hope is your duty; and dare you plead against duty? Despair is your sin, and will you justify it? Yea, consider what a deal of comfort is in this; for if there were no hope of your salvation, God would never have made it your duty to hope, nor forbidden you to despair. He doth not bid the devils nor the damned hope as he doth you; he forbiddeth not them to despair as he dothyou: there is cause for this; he would have done it, if your condition were as hopeless as theirs is.
Direct.XXI. If God forbid you to despair, it is certainly the devil that biddeth it. And will you knowingly obey the devil? What if the devil persuade you to it openly with his own mouth? would you not know that it is bad which such an enemy draweth you to? Methinks this should be a very great comfort to you, to think that it is the devil that persuadeth you to despair? For that proveth that you should not despair; and that proveth that your case is not desperate but hopeful.
Direct.XXII. Think whither it tendeth: to despair is to give up all hopes of your salvation; and when you have no hope you will use no means; for to what purpose should a man seek for that which he hath no hopes to find? And so when this weight is taken off, all the wheels stand still. The meaning of the devil hath two parts: the first is, Do not hear, nor read, nor pray, nor seek advice, nor talk any more about it with good people, for there is no hope. And the next part is, either make away thyself, or else sin boldly and take the pleasure of sin while thou mayst; for there is no hope of any better. And dost thou think that either of these is from God? Or is it for thy good? What is the meaning of all, but cast away thy soul? While thou hopest, thou wilt seek, and use some means; but to cast away hope is to cast away all. And hast thou so far lost self-love as to be thyself the doer of such a deed?
Direct.XXIII. Think what a wrong thou dost to the Father, the Saviour, and the Sanctifier of souls, to think so poorly and despairingly of his grace, as if it were not able to prevail against thy sin; and to obscure thus the glory of his redemption; and to believe the devil in his slandering, extenuating, and dishonouring that in God, which he will have most glorified by sinners!
Direct.XXIV. Bethink thee what one person thou canst name in all the world, that ever perished or was rejected, that was willing in this life to be saved and sanctified by Christ, and had rather have Christ and perfect holiness than the treasures or pleasures of the world. Name me any one such person if thou canst: but I am sure thou canst not: and dost thou fear that which never was done to any one; or think that Christ will begin with thee?
Direct.XXV. Up, man, and be doing, and resolve in despite of the devil that thou wilt wait on God in the use of means, and cast thyself on Christ, and if thou perish thou wilt perish there. Do this, and thou shalt never perish. Thou canst not do worse than despair and give up all; nor canst thou please the devil more, nor displease God more, nor wrong Christ and the Spirit more. Thou art certain that thou canst lose nothing by trusting thy soul on Christ, and hoping in him, and patiently using his means; do but this, and hope shall save thee, when Satan by despair would damn thee.
Direct.XXVI. Understand in what time and order it is that Christ giveth his grace and saveth his people from their sins; that he doth it not all at once, but by degrees, and taketh all the time of this present life to do it in. As able as your Physician is, he will not finish the cure till your life be finished. The next life is the state of absolute perfection; all things are imperfect here: despair not therefore of all that you have not yet attained; your sin may be more mortified yet, and your grace yet more strengthened. If it be done before you come to judgment it is well for you: do your part in daily diligence: do you plant and water, and he will give the increase. Read more of this before, part ii. against Melancholy.
The most wise and gracious God, having been pleased to constitute us of soul and body, that our nobler part, in its preparation and passage to a nobler state, might have a companion and instrument suited to the lower place and employment, through which it is to pass, hath appointed our senses not only for the exercise and helps of life, and the management of our inferior actions, and the communication of his inferior mercies, but also to be the common passage to the fantasy, and so to the mind, and to be serviceable to our rational powers, and help in our service of our Maker, and communion with him in his higher gifts. To these ends all our senses should be used; as being capable of being sanctified and serviceable to God. But sin made its entrance by them, and by sin they are now corrupted and vitiated with the body, and are grown inordinate, violent, and unruly in their appetite; and the rational powers having lost and forsaken God, their proper end and chiefest object, have hired or captivated themselves to the sensitive appetite, to serve its ends. And so the sensitive appetite is become the ruling faculty in the unsanctified, and the senses the common entrance of sin, and instruments of Satan: and though the work of grace be primarily in the rational powers, yet secondarily the lower powers themselves also are sanctified, and brought under the government of a renewed mind and will, and so restored to their proper use. And though I cannot say that grace immediately maketh any alteration on the senses, yet mediately it doth, by altering the mind, and so the will, and then the imagination, and so the sensitive appetite, and so in exercise the sense itself. We see that temperance and chastity do not only restrain, but take down the appetite from the rage and violence which before it had: not the natural appetite, but the sensitive, so far as it is sinful.
The sanctifying and government of the senses and their appetite, lieth in two parts: first, In guarding them against the entrance of sin: and secondly, In using them to be the entrance of good into the soul. But this latter is so high a work that too few are skilled in it; and few can well perform the other.
Direct.I. The principal part of the work is about the superior faculties, to get a well-informed judgment, and a holy and confirmed will; and not about the sense itself. Reason is dethroned by sin; and the will is left unguided and unguarded to the rapes of sensual violence. Reason must be restored, before sense will be well governed; for what else must be their immediate governor? It is no sin in brutes to live by sense, because they have not reason to rule it: and in man it is ruled more or less, as reason is more or less restored. When reason is only cleared about things temporal, (as in men of worldly wisdom,) there sense will be mastered and ruled as to such temporal ends, as far as they require it. But where reason is sanctified, there sense is ruled to the ends of sanctification, according to the measure of grace.
Direct.II. It is only the high, eternal things of God and our salvation, objectively settled in the mindand will, and become as it were connatural to them, and made our ruling end and interest that can suffice to a true and holy government of the senses. Lower things may muzzle them, and make men seem temperate and sober as far as their honour, and wealth, and health, and life require it: but this is but stopping a gap, while most of the hedge lieth open, and engaging the sense to serve the flesh, the world, and the devil, in a handsome, calm, and less dishonoured way, and not so filthily and furiously as others.
Direct.III. The main part of this government in the exercise, is in taking special care that no sensitive good be made the ultimate end of our desire, nor sought for itself, nor rested in, nor delighted in too much; but to see that the soul (having first habitually fixed on its proper higher end and happiness) do direct all the actions of every sense (so far as it falls under deliberation and choice) to serve it remotely to those holy ends. For the sense is not sanctified, if it be not used to a holy end; and its object is not sanctified to us, if it be not made serviceable to more holy objects. A mere negative restraint of sense for common ends, is but such as those ends are for which it is done. When the eyes, and ears, and taste, and feeling are all taught by reason to serve God to his glory and our salvation, then, and never till then, they are well governed.
Direct.IV. To this end the constant use of a lively belief of the word of God and the things unseen of the other world, must be the first and principal means by which our reason must govern every sense, both as to their restraint and their right employment. And therefore living by sight and living by faith are opposed in Scripture, 2 Cor. v. 7. For "we walk by faith, not by sight;" that is, sight and sense are not our principal guiding faculty, but subservient to faith; nor the objects of sight the things which we principally or ultimately seek or set by, but the objects of faith; as it is before expounded, 2 Cor. iv. 18, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Therefore "faith" is described to be the "substance of things hoped for," and "the evidence of things not seen," Heb. xi. 1. Believing is to a christian instead of seeing; because he knoweth by God's testimony, that the things believed are true, though they are unseen. And you know that the objects of sense are all but trifles, to the great astonishing objects of faith. Therefore if faith be lively, it must needs prevail and overrule the senses, because its objects utterly cloud and make nothing of the transitory objects of sense. Therefore the apostle John saith, 1 John v. 4, "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." And "Moses, by seeing him that is invisible," overcame the desires of Egypt's treasures, and the "fear of the wrath of the king, having respect to the recompence of reward," Heb. xi. 26, 27. Stephen easily bore his cruel death, when "he saw heaven opened, and Christ standing at the right hand of God," Acts vii. 56. I dare appeal to that man that is most sensual, and saith, I am not able to deny my appetite, or rule my senses, whether he would not be able if he did but see at the same time what is done in the other world? If he saw heaven, and hell, the glorified and the damned, and saw the majesty of that God who commandeth him to forbear, would he not then be able to let alone the cup, the dish, the harlot, the sport, which is now so powerful with him? I would not thank the most beastly sensualist among you, to live as temperately (as to the act) as the strictest saint alive, if he did but see the worlds which departed souls now see. It is not possible but it would overpower his sensual desires; yea, and call off those senses to serve him in some inquiry what he should do to be saved. Therefore if believing the unseen world, be instead of seeing it with our eyes, it is most certain that the means to overcome sensuality is faith, and lively belief must rule our senses.
Direct.V. The more this belief of God and glory doth kindle love to them, the more effectual it will be in the government of the senses. Our common proverb saith, Where the love is, there is the eye. How readily doth it follow the heart! Love will not alter the sense itself, but it commandeth the use of all the senses. It will not clear a dim, decayed sight; but it will command it what to look upon. As the stronger love of one dish, or one sport, or one company, will carry you from another which you love more faintly; so the love of God, and heaven, and holiness, will carry you from the captivity of all sensual things.
Direct.VI. It must be well considered how powerful and dangerous things sensible are, and how high and hard a work it is in this our depraved, earthly state, to live by faith upon things unseen, and to rule the sense and be carried above it: that so the soul may be awakened to a sufficient fear and watchfulness, and may fly to Christ for assistance to his faith. It is no small thing for a man in flesh, to live above flesh. The way of the soul's reception and operation, is so much by the senses here, that it is apt to grow too familiar with things sensible, and to be strange to things which it never saw. It is a great work to make a man in flesh to deny the pleasures which he seeth, and tasteth, and feeleth, for such pleasures as he only heareth of; and heareth of as never to be enjoyed till after death, in a world which sense hath no acquaintance with. Oh what a glory it is to faith, that it can perform such a work as this! How hard is it to a weak believer! And the strongest find it work enough. Consider this, that it may awake you to set upon this work with that care that the greatness of it requireth, and you may live by faith above a life of sight and sense; for it is this that your happiness or misery lieth on.
Direct.VII. Sense must not only be kept out of the throne, but from any participation in the government; and we must take heed of receiving it into our counsels, or treating with it, or hearing it plead its cause; and we must see that it get nothing by striving, importunity, or violence, but that it be governed despotically and absolutely, as the horse is governed by the rider. For if the government once be halved between sense and reason, your lives will be half bestial: and when reason ruleth not, faith and grace ruleth not; for faith is to reason as sight to the eye. There are no such beasts in human shape, who lay by all the use of reason, and are governed by sense alone (unless it be idiots or mad-men). But sense should have no part of the government at all. And where it is chief in power, the devil is there the unseen governor. You cannot here excuse yourselves by any plea of necessity or constraint: for though the sense be violent as well as enticing, yet God hath made the reason and will the absolute governors under him; and by all its rebellion and violence, sense cannot depose them, nor force them to one sin, but doth all the mischief by procuring their consent. Which is done sometimes by affecting the fantasy and passions too deeply with the pleasure and alluring sweetness of their objects, that so the higher faculties may be drawn into consent; and sometimes by wearying out the resisting mind and will, andcausing them to remit their opposition, and relax the reins, and by a sinful privation of restraint to permit the sense to take its course. A headstrong horse is not so easily ruled, as one of a tender mouth that hath been well ridden; and, therefore, though it be in the power of the rider to rule him, yet sometimes for his own ease he will loose the reins: and a horse that is used thus by a slothful or unskilful rider, to have his will whenever he striveth, will strive whenever he is crossed of his will, and so will be the master. As ill-bred children that are used to have every thing given them which they cry for, will be sure to cry before they will be crossed of their desire. So it is with our sensitive appetite: if you use to satisfy it when it is eager or importunate, you shall be mastered by its eagerness and importunity; and if you use but to regard it overmuch, and delay your commands till sense is heard and taken into counsel, it is two to one but it will prevail, or at least will be very troublesome to you, and prove a traitor in your bosom, and its temptations keep you in continual danger. Therefore be sure that you never loose the reins; but keep sense under a constant government, if you love either your safety or your ease.
Direct.VIII. You may know whether sense, or faith and reason, be the chief in government, by knowing which of their objects is made your chiefest end, and accounted your best, and loved, and delighted in, and sought accordingly. If the objects of sense be thus taken for your best and end, then certainly sense is the chief in government; but if the objects of faith and reason, even God and life eternal, be taken for your best and end, then faith and reason are the ruling power. Though you should use never so great understanding and policy for sensual things, (as riches, and honour, and worldly greatness, or fleshly delights,) this doth not prove that reason is the ruling power; but proveth the more strongly that sense is the conqueror, and that reason is depraved and captivated by it, and truckleth under it, and serveth it as a voluntary slave. And the greater is your learning, wit, and parts, and the nobler your education, the greater is the victory and dominion of sense, that can subdue, and rule, and serve itself by parts so noble.
Deny not sense with the papists.
Direct.IX. Though sense must be thus absolutely ruled, its proper power must neither be disabled, prohibited, nor denied. You must keep your horse strong and able for his work, though not headstrong and unruly; and you must not keep him from the use of his strength, though you grant him not the government. Nor will you deny but that he may be stronger than the rider, though the rider have the ruling power: he hath more of the power called δυναμις, natural power, though the εξουσια be yours. So it is here: 1. No man must destroy his bodily sense; the quickest sense is the best servant to the soul, if it be not headstrong and too impetuous. The body must be stricken so far as to be "kept under and brought into subjection," 1 Cor. ix. 27; but not be disabled from its service to the soul. 2. Nor must we forbid or forbear the exercise of the senses, in subordination to the exercise of the inferior senses, Heb. iv. 14. It is indeed a smaller loss to part with a right hand or a right eye, than with our salvation; but that proveth not that we are put to such straits as to be necessitated to either (unless persecution put us to it). 3. Nor must we deny the certainty of the sensitive apprehension, when it keepeth its place; as the papists do, that affirm it necessary to salvation to believe that the sight, and taste, and smell, and feeling of all men in the world, that take the sacrament, are certainly deceived, in taking that to be bread and wine which is not so. For if all the senses of all men, though never so sound and rational, be certainly deceived in this, we know not when they are not deceived, and there can be no certainty of faith or knowledge: for if you say that the church telleth us that sense is deceived in this, and only in this, I answer, If it be not first granted that sense (as so stated) is certain in its apprehension, there is no certainty then that there is a church, or a man, or a world, or what the church ever said, or any member of it. And if sense be so fallible, the church may be deceived, who by the means of sense doth come to all her knowledge. To deny faith is the property of an infidel; to deny reason is to deny humanity, and is fittest for a mad-man, or a beast (if without reason, reason could be denied); but to deny the certainty of sense itself, and of all the senses of all sound men, and that about the proper objects of sense, this showeth that ambition can make a religion, which shall bring man quite below the beasts, and make him a mushroom, that Rome may have subjects capable of her government; and all this under pretence of honouring faith, and saving souls; making God the destroyer of nature in order to its perfection, and the deceiver of nature in order to its edification.
Direct.X. Sense must not be made the judge of matters that are above it, as the proper objects of faith and reason; nor must we argue negatively from our senses in such cases, which God in nature never brought into their court. We cannot say that there is no God, no heaven, no hell, no angels, no souls of men, because we see them not. We cannot say, I see not the antipodes, nor other kingdoms of the world, and therefore there is no such place: so we say, as well as the papists, that sense is no judge whether the spiritual body of Christ be present in the sacrament, no more than whether an angel be here present. But sense with reason is the judge whether bread and wine be there present, or else human understanding can judge of nothing. Christ would have had Thomas to have believed without seeing and feeling, and blesseth those that neither see him nor feel, and yet believe; but he never blesseth men for believing contrary to the sight, and feeling, and taste, and all that have sound senses and understandings in the world. Their instance of the Virgin's conception of Christ, is nothing contrary to this; for it belongeth not to sense to judge whether a virgin may conceive. Nor will any wise man's reason judge, that the Creator, who in making the world of nothing was the only cause, cannot supply the place of a partial second cause in generation: they might more plausibly argue with Aristotle against the creation itself, thatex nihilo nihil fit; but as it is past doubt, that the infallibility of sense is nothing at all concerned in this, so it is sufficiently proved by christians, that God can create without any pre-existent matter. Reason can see much further than sense by the help of sense; and yet much further by the help of divine revelation by faith. To argue negatively against the conclusions of reason or divine revelation, from the mere negation of sensitive apprehension, is to make a beast of man. We must not be so irrational or impious, as to say, that there is nothing but what we have seen, or felt, or tasted, &c. If we will believe others who have seen them, that there are other parts of the world, we have full reason to believe the sealed testimony of God himself, that there are such superior worlds and powers as he hath told us. We have the use of sense in hearing, or seeing God's revelation; and we have no more in receiving man's report of those countries which we never saw.
If they will make it the question, whether the sense may not be deceived; I answer, we doubt not by distance of the objects, or distempers, or disproportions of itself or the media, it may: but if the sense itself, and all the means and objects, have their natural soundness, aptitude, and disposition, it is a contradiction to say it is deceived; for that is to say, it is not the sense which we suppose it is. If God deceive it thus, he maketh it another thing. It is no more the same, nor will admit the same definition. But, however, it is most evident, that the senses being the first entrance or inlet of knowledge, the first certainty must be there, which is presupposed to the certain judgment of the intellect; but if these err, all following certainty which supposeth the certainty of the senses is destroyed; and this error in the first reception (like an error in the first concoction) is not rectified by the second. And if God should thus leave all men under a fallibility of sense, he should leave no certainty in the world; and I desire those that know the definition of a lie, to consider whether this be not to feign God to lie in the very frame of nature, and by constant lies to rule the world, when yet it is impossible for God to lie. And if this blasphemy were granted them, yet it would be man's duty still to judge by such senses as he hath about the objects of sense; for if God have made them fallible, we cannot make them better; nor can we create a reason in ourselves which shall not presuppose the judgment of sense, or which shall supply its ordinary, natural defects. So that the Roman faith of transubstantiation, denying the reality of bread and wine, doth not only unman the world, but bring man lower than a beast, and make sense to be no sense, and the world to be governed by natural deceit or lies, and banish all certainty of faith and reason from the earth. And after all, (with such wonderful enmity to charity as maketh man liker the devil, than else could easily be believed,) they sentence all to hell that believe not this; and decree to burn them first on earth, and to depose temporal lords from their dominions, that favour them, or that will not exterminate them from their lands, and so absolve their subjects from their allegiance, and give their dominions to others. All this you may read in the third canon of the Lateran general council under Innocent III.
Direct.XI. Look not upon any object of sense with sense alone, nor stop in it, but let reason begin where sense doth end, and always see by faith or reason the part which is invisible, as well as the sensible part by sense. By that which is seen, collect and rise up to that which is unseen. If God had given us an eye, or ear, or taste, or feeling, and not a mind, then we should have exercised no other faculty but what we had. But sure he that hath given us the higher faculty, requireth that we use it as well as the lower. And remember that they are not mere co-ordinate faculties, but the sensitive faculty is subordinate to the intellectual: and accordingly that which the sensible creature objectively revealeth through the sense unto the intellect, is something to which things sensible are subordinate. Therefore if you stop in sensible things, and see not the principle which animateth them, the power which ordereth and ruleth them, and the end which they are made for, and must be used for, you play the beasts; you see nothing but a dead carcass without the soul, and nothing but a useless, senseless thing. You know nothing indeed to any purpose; no, not the creature itself; while you know not the use and meaning of the creature, but separate it from its life, and guide, and end.
Direct.XII. First therefore see that you ever look upon all things sensible as the products of the will of the invisible God, depending on him more than the sunshine doth upon the sun; and never see or taste a creature separatedly from God. Will you know what a plant is, and not know that it is the earth that beareth and nourisheth it? Will you know what a fish is, and yet be ignorant that he liveth in the water? Will you know what a branch or fruit is, and yet not know that it groweth on the tree? The nature of things cannot be known without the knowledge of their causes and respective parts. It is as no knowledge to know incoherent scraps and parcels. To know a hand as no part of the body, or an eye or nose without knowing a head, or a body without knowing its life or soul, is not to know it, for you make it another thing. It is the difference between a wise man and a fool, thatsapiens respicit ad plura, insipiens ad pauciora: a wise man looketh comprehensively to things as they are conjunct, and takes all together, and leaveth out nothing that is useful to his end; but a fool seeth one thing, and overseeth another which is necessary to the true knowledge or use of that which he seeth. See God as the cause and life of every thing you see. As a carcass is but a ghastly sight without the soul, and quickly corrupteth and stinketh when it is separated; so the creature without God is an unlovely sight, and quickly corrupteth and becomes a snare or annoyance to you. God is the beauty of all that is beautiful, and the strength of all that is strong, and the glory of the sun and all that is glorious, and the wisdom of all that is wise, and the goodness of all that is good, as being the only original, total cause of all. You play the brutes, when you see the creature, and overlook its Maker, from whom it is, whatsoever it is. Will you see the dial, and overlook the sun? Remember it is the use of every creature to show you God, and therefore it is the use of every sense to promote the knowledge of him.
Direct.XIII. See God as the Conducter, Orderer, and Disposer of all the creatures, according to their natures, as moved necessarily or freely; and behold not any of the motions or events of the world, without observing the interest, and overruling hand of God. Sense reacheth but to the effects and events; but reason and faith can see the First Cause and Disposer of all. Again, I tell you, that if you look but on the particles of things by sense, and see not God that setteth all together, and doth his work by those that never dream of it, you see but the several wheels and parcels of a clock or watch, and know not him that made and keepeth it, that setteth on the poise, and winds it up, to fit his ends. Joseph could say, God sent me hither, when his brethren sold him into Egypt; and David felt his Father's rod in Shimei's curse.
Direct.XIV. See God the End of every creature; how all things are ordered for his service; and be sure you stop not in any creature, without referring it to a higher end: else, as I have oft told you, you will be but like a child or illiterate person, who openeth a book, and admireth the workmanship of the printer, and the order and well-forming of the letters, but never mindeth or understandeth the subject, sense, or end. Or like one that looketh on a comely picture, and never mindeth either him that made it, or him that is represented by it. Or like one that gazeth on the sign at an inn-door, and praiseth the workmanship, but knoweth not that it is set there to direct him to entertainment and necessaries within. And this folly and sin is the greater, because it is the very end of God in all his works of creation and providence, to reveal himselfby them to the intellectual world; and must God show his power, and wisdom, and goodness so wonderfully in the frame of the creation, and in his daily general and particular providence? and shall man, that daily seeth all this, overlook the intended use and end? and so make all his glorious work as nothing, or as lost to him? Sense knoweth no end but to its own delight, and the natural felicity of the sensitive creature, such as things sensible afford; but reason must take up the work where sense doth end its stage, and carry all home to him that is the End of all. "Forofhim, andthroughhim, andtohim, are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen," Rom. xi. 36.
Direct.XV. Besides the general use and ultimate end of every creature, labour for a clear acquaintance with the particular use and nearer end of every thing which you have to do with, by which it is serviceable to your ultimate end, and suppose still you saw that special use as subserving your highest end, as the title written upon each creature. As, suppose upon your Bible it were written, The word of the living God, to acquaint me with himself and his will, that I may please, and glorify, and enjoy him for ever. And upon your godly friend suppose you saw this title written, A servant of God, that beareth his image, and appointed to accompany and assist me in his service unto life everlasting. Upon your meat suppose you saw this title written, The provisions of my Father, sent me as from my Saviour's hands, not to gratify my sensuality, and serve my inordinate desires, but to refresh and strengthen my body for his service in my passage to everlasting life. So upon your clothes, your servants, your goods, your cattle, your houses, and every thing you have, inscribe thus their proper use and end.
Direct.XVI. Know both the final and the mediate danger, of every thing that you have to do with; and suppose you still see them written upon every thing you see. The final danger is hell; the mediate danger in general is sin; but you must find what sin it is that this creature will be made a temptation to by the devil and the flesh. As, suppose you saw written upon money and riches, The bait of covetousness and all evil, to pierce me through with many sorrows, and then to damn me. And suppose you saw written upon great buildings, and estates, and honours, and attendance, The great price which the devil would give for souls; and the baits to tempt men to the inordinate love of fleshly pleasures, and to draw their hearts from God and heaven to their damnation. Suppose you still saw written upon beauty, and tempting actions and attire, The bait of lust, by which the devil corrupteth the minds of men to their damnation. Suppose you saw written on the play-house door, The stage of the mountebank of hell, who here cheateth men of their precious time, and enticeth them to vanity, luxury, and damnation, under pretence of instructing them by a nearer and more pleasant way than preachers do. The like I say of gaming, recreations, company: see the particular snare in all.
Direct.XVII. To this end be well acquainted with your own particular inclinations and distempers, that you may know what creature is like to prove most dangerous to you, that there you may keep the strictest watch. If you be subject to pride, keep most from the baits of pride, and watch most cautelously against them. If you be subject to covetousness, watch most against the baits of covetousness. If you are inclined to lust, away from the sight of alluring objects. The knowledge of your temper and disease must direct you both in your diet and your physic.
Direct.XVIII. Live as in a constant course of obedience; and suppose you saw the law of God also written upon every thing you see. As when you look on any tempting beauty, suppose you saw this written on the forehead, Thou shalt not lust—Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge—They shall not enter into the kingdom of God.[378]See upon the forbidden dish or cup the prohibition of God, Thou shalt not eat or drink this. See upon money and riches this written, Thou shalt not covet. See upon the face of all the world, "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world: if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him," 1 John ii. 15. Thus see the will of God on all things.
Direct.XIX. Make not the objects of sense over-tempting and dangerous to yourselves; but take special care, as much as in you lieth, to order all so, that you may have as much of the benefit, and as little of the snare of the creature as is possible. Would you not be gluttonous pleasers of your appetite? choose not then too full a table, nor over-pleasant, tempting drinks or dishes, and yet choose those that are most useful to your health. Would you not over-love the world, nor your present house, or lands, or station? Be not too instrumental yourselves in gilding or dulcifying your bait! if you put in the sugar, the devil and the flesh will put in the poison. Will you make all as pleasant and lovely as you can, when you believe that the over-loving them is the greatest danger to your salvation? Will you be the greatest tempters to yourselves, and then desire God not to lead you into temptation?
Direct.XX. Let not the tempting object be too near your sense; for nearness enrageth the sensitive appetite, and giveth you an opportunity of sinning. Come not too near the fire if you would not be burnt (and yet use prudence in keeping the usefulness of it for warmth, though you avoid the burning). Distance from the snares of pride, and lust, and passion, and other sins, is a most approved remedy, and nearness is their strength.
Direct.XXI. Accustom your souls to frequent and familiar exercise about their invisible objects, as well as your senses about theirs. And as you are daily and hourly in seeing, and tasting, and hearing the creature, so be not rarely in the humble adoration of him that appeareth to you in them. Otherwise use will make the creature so familiar to you, and disuse will make God so strange, that by degrees you will wear yourselves out of his acquaintance, and become like carnal, sensual men, and live all by sense, and forget the holy exercise of the life of faith.
Direct.XXII. Lose not your humble sense of the badness of your hearts, how ready they are as tinder to take the fire of every temptation; and never grow fool-hardy and confident of yourselves. For your holy fear is necessary to your watchfulness, and your watchfulness is necessary to your escape and safety. Peter's self-confidence betrayed him to deny his Lord. Had Noah, and Lot, and David been more afraid of the sin, they had been like to have escaped it. It is a part of the character of the beastly heretics that Jude declaimeth against, that they were "spots in their feasts of charity, when they feasted with the church, feeding themselves without fear," ver. 12. When the knowledge or sense of your weakness and sinful inclination is gone, then fear is gone, and then safety is gone, and your fall is near.
Direct.I. Know the uses that your sight is given you for. As, 1. To see the works of God, that thereby your minds may see God himself. 2. To read the word of God, that therein you may perceive his mind. 3. To see the servants of God whom you must love, and the poor whom you must relieve or pity, and all the visible objects of your duty; to conduct your body in the discharge of its office about all the matters of the world.[379]And in special often to look up towards heaven, the place where your blessed Lord is glorified, and whence he shall come to take you to his glory.
Direct.II. Remember the sins which the eye is most in danger of, that you may be watchful and escape. 1. You must take heed of a proud, and lofty, and scornful eye; which looketh on yourselves with admiration and delight, as the peacock is said to do on his tail, and on others as below you with slighting and disdain.[380]2. You must take heed of a lustful, wanton eye, which secretly carrieth out your heart to a befooling piece of dirty flesh, and stealeth from beauty and ornaments a spark to kindle that fire which prepareth for everlasting fire.[381]3. Take heed of a greedy, covetous eye, which with Achan and Gehazi looketh on the bait to tempt you to unlawful love and desire, and to bring you by their sin unto their ruin.[382]4. Take heed of a luxurious, gluttonous, and drunken eye;[383]which is looking on the forbidden fruit, and on the tempting dish, and the delicious cup, till it have provoked the appetite of that greedy worm, which must be pleased, though at the rate of thy damnation. 5. Take heed of a gazing, wandering eye,[384]which, like a vagrant, hath no home, nor work, nor master, but gaddeth about to seek after death, and find out matter for temptation. Prov. xvii. 24, "Wisdom is before him that hath understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth." 6. Take heed of an envious eye, which looketh with dislike and discontent at the prosperity of others, especially such as stand cross to your own interest.[385]Matt. xx. 15, "Is thine eye evil because I am good?" It is the envious eye that in Scripture most usually is called by the name of an evil eye, πονηρος οφθαλμος. It is an eye that would see evil rather than good upon another:[386]as Deut. xv. 9, "Lest thine eye be evil against thy poor brother," &c. Prov. xxiii. 6, it is an eye that grudgeth another any thing that is ours. So Prov. xxviii. 22; Mark vii. 22. 7. Take heed of a passionate, cruel eye, that kindleth the hurting or reviling fire in thy breast, or is kindled by it; that fetcheth matter of rage or malice from all that displeaseth thee in another.[387]8. Take heed of a self-conceited and censorious eye, that looketh on all the actions of another with quarrelling, undervaluing, censure, or reproach.[388]9. Take heed of a fond and fanciful eye, that falls in love too much with houses, or friend, or child, or goods, or whatsoever pleaseth it. 10. Take heed of a sleepy, sluggish eye, that is shut to good, and had rather sleep than watch, and read, and pray, and labour.[389]11. Abhor a malignant eye, which looketh with hatred on a godly man, and upon the holy assemblies and communion of saints, and upon holy actions; and can scarce see a man of exemplary zeal and holiness, but the heart riseth against him, and could wish all such expelled or cut off from the earth.[390]This is the heart that hath the image of the devil in most lively colours, he being the father of such, as Christ calleth him, John viii. 44. 12. Abhor a hypocritical eye, which is lifted up to heaven, when the heart is on earth, on lusts, on honours, on sports, or pleasure, or plotting mischief against the just.[391]Know the evil and danger of all these diseases of the eye.
Direct.III. Remember that the eye being the noblest, and yet the most dangerous sense, must have the strictest watch. Sight is often put in Scripture for all the senses; and living by sight is opposed to living or walking by faith. "We walk by faith, not by sight," 2 Cor. v. 7 And a sensual life is called, a "walking in the ways of our heart and in the sight of the eyes," Eccles. xi. 9. An ungoverned eye doth show the power of the ungoverned senses. Abundance of good or evil entereth in by these doors: all lieth open if you guard not these.
Direct.IV. Remember that as your sin or duty, so your sorrow or joy, do depend much on the government of your eyes; and their present pleasure is the common way to after-sorrow. What a flood of grief did David let into his heart by one unlawful look!
Direct.V. Remember that your eye is much of your honour or dishonour, because it is the index of your minds. You see that which is next the mind itself, or the most immediate beam of the invisible soul, when you see the eye. How easily doth a wandering eye, a wanton eye, a proud eye, a luxurious eye, a malicious eye, a passionate eye, bewray the treasure of sin which is in the heart![392]Your soul lieth opener to the view of others in your eye, than in any other part: your very reputation therefore should make you watch.
Direct.VI. Remember that your eye is of all the senses most subject to the will, and therefore there is the more of duty or sin in it; for voluntariness is the requisite to morality, both good and evil. Your will cannot so easily command your feeling, tasting, hearing, or smelling, as it can your sight; so easily can it open or shut the eye in a moment, that you are the more unexcusable if it be not governed; for all its faults will be proved the more voluntary. Ham was cursed for not turning away his eyes from his father's shame, and Shem and Japheth blessed for doing it. The righteous is thus described, "He that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high," &c. Isa. xxxiii. 15. Men's idols which they are commanded to cast away are called, "The abomination of their eyes," Ezek. xx. 7. Covetousness is called, "The lust of the eyes," 1 John ii. 16. It is said of the unclean, that they have "eyes full of adultery," 2 Pet. ii. 14. And as sin, so punishment is placed on the eye:[393]"The eyes of the lofty shall be humbled," Isa. v. 15. Yea, the whole bodies of the daughters of Zion are threatened to be dishonoured with nakedness, scabs, and stink, and shame, because they walked with "wanton eyes, haughtily, and mincing as they go," &c. Isa. iii. 16.
Direct.VII. Therefore let believing reason, and a holy, resolved, fixed will, keep a continual law upon your eyes, and let them be used as under a constant government. This Job calleth, the "making a covenant with them," Job xxxi. 1. Leavethem not at liberty; as if a look had nothing in it of duty or sin; or as if you might look on what you would. Will you go to foolish, tempting plays, and gaze on vain, alluring objects, and think there is no harm in all this? Do you think your eye cannot sin as well as your tongue? undoubtedly it is much sin that is both committed by it, and entereth at it: keep away therefore from the bait, or command your eye to turn away.
Direct.VIII. Remember still how much more easy and safe it is, to stop sin here at the gates and outworks, than to beat it out again when it is once got in: if it have but tainted your very fantasy or memory, (as tempting sights will almost unavoidably do,) it hath there spawned the matter for a swarm of vain and sinful thoughts. It is almost impossible to rule the thoughts without ruling the eye: and then the passions are presently tainted; and the citadel of the heart is taken before you are aware. You little know when a lustful look, or a covetous look, beginneth the game, to how sad a period it tendeth. Many a horrid adultery, and murder, and robbery, and wickedness, hath begun but with a look: a look hath begun that which hath brought many a thousand to the gallows, and many millions to hell!
Direct.IX. Keep both eye and mind employed in continual duty, and let them not be idle, and have leisure to wander upon vanity. Idleness and neglect of spiritual and corporal duty is the beginner and the nurse of much sensuality. Let your spiritual work and your lawful bodily labours, take up your time and thoughts, and command and keep your senses in their services.
Direct.X. Beg daily of God the preserving assistance of his grace and providence. Of his inward grace to confirm you and assist you in your resolutions and watch; and of his providence and gracious disposals of you and objects, to keep the temptations from before your eyes: and when others will run and go on purpose, to gaze on vain or tempting shows, or to admire like children the vanities of the playful, pompous world, do you go to God with David's prayer, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity: and quicken me in thy way," Psal. cxix. 37. And imitate him: "Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word," ver. 148. And make every look a passage to thy mind, to carry it up to God, and pray, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law," Psal. cxix. 18. Observe these, with the general directions forenamed.
Direct.I. Employ your ears in the duties which they were made for; and to that end understand those duties.[394]Which are as followeth: 1. To be the organ of reception of such communications from others, as are necessary for our converse in the world, and the duties of our several relations and vocations. 2. To hear the word of God delivered publicly by his appointed teachers of the church. 3. To hear the counsel of those that privately advise us for our good; and the reproofs of those that tell us of our sin and danger. 4. To hear the praises of God set forth by his church in public, and particular servants in private. 5. To hear from our ancestors and the learned in history, what hath been done in the times before us. 6. To hear the complaints and petitions of the poor, and needy, and distressed, that we may compassionate them and endeavour their relief. 7. To be the passage for grief and hatred to our hearts, by the sinful words which we hear unwillingly.
Direct.II. Know which are the sins of the ear that you may avoid them. And they are such as follow: 1. A careless ear, which heareth the word of God, and the private exhortations of his servants, as if it heard them not. 2. A sottish, sleepy ear, that heareth the word of God but as a confused sound, and understandeth not, nor feeleth what is heard. 3. A scornful ear, which despiseth the message of God, and the reproofs and counsel of men, and scorneth to be reproved or taught. 4. An obstinate, stubborn ear, which regardeth not advice or will not yield. 5. A profane and impious ear, which loveth to hear oaths, and curses, and profane, and blasphemous expressions. 6. A carnal ear, which loveth to hear of fleshly things, but savoureth not the words which savour of holiness. 7. An airy, hypocritical ear, which loveth more the music and melody, than the sense and spiritual elevation of the soul to God; and regardeth more the numbers and composure and tone, than the matter of preaching, prayer, or other such duties; and serveth God with the ear, when the heart is far from him. 8. A curious ear, which nauseateth the most profitable sermons, prayers, or discourses, if they be not accurately ordered and expressed; and slighteth or loseth the offered benefit, for a (modal) imperfection in the offer, or instrument; and casteth away all the gold because a piece or two did catch a little rust: and perhaps quarrelleth with the style of the sacred Scriptures, as not exact or fine enough for its expectations. 9. An itching ear, which runs after novelties, and a heap of teachers, and liketh something extraordinary better than things necessary. 10. A selfish ear, which loveth to hear all that tends to the confirmation of its own conceits, and to be flattered or smoothed up by others, and can endure nothing that is cross to its opinions. 11. A proud ear, which loveth its own applause, and is much pleased with its own praises, and hateth all that speak of him with mean, undervaluing words. 12. A peevish, impatient ear, which is nettled with almost all it heareth; and can endure none but silken words, which are oiled and sugared, and fitted by flattery or the lowest submission, to their froward minds; and is so hard to be pleased, that none but graduates in the art of pleasing can perform it. 13. A bold, presumptuous ear, which will hear false teachers and deceivers in a proud conceit, and confidence of their own abilities, to discern what is true and what is false. 14. An ungodly ear, that can easily hear the reproach of holiness, and scorns at the servants and ways of Christ. 15. A neutral, indifferent ear, that heareth either good or evil, without much love or hatred, but with a dull and cold indifferency. 16. A dissembling, temporizing ear, which can complyingly hear one side speak for holiness, and the other speak against it, and suit itself to the company and discourse it meets with. 17. An uncharitable ear, which can willingly hear the censures, backbitings, slanders, revilings, that are used against others, yea against the best. 18. An unnatural ear, which can easily and willingly hear the dishonour of their parents, or other near relations,if any carnal interest do but engage them against their honour. 19. A rebellious, disobedient ear, which hearkeneth not to the just commands of magistrates, parents, masters, and other governors, but hearkeneth with more pleasure to the words of seditious persons that dishonour them. 20. A filthy, unclean, and adulterous ear, which loveth to hear filthy, ribald speeches, and love-songs, and romances, and lascivious plays, and the talk of wanton lust and dalliance. 21. A self-provoking ear, that hearkeneth after all that others say against them, which may kindle hatred, or dislike, or passion, in them. 22. A busy, meddling ear, which loveth to hear of other men's faults, or matters which concern them not, and to hearken to tattlers, and carry-tales, and make-bates, and to have to do with evil reports. 23. A timorous, cowardly, unbelieving ear, which trembleth at every threatening of man, though in a cause which is God's, and he hath promised to justify. 24. An idle ear, which can hearken to idle, time-wasting talk, and make the sins of tattlers your own. All these ways (and more) you are in danger of sinning by the ear, and becoming partakers in the sins of all whose sinful words you hear, and of turning into sin the words of God, and his servants, which are spoken for your good.