Quest.V. Dost thou consider into how dangerous a case thou puttest thyself when thou art drunk, or joinest thyself with drunkards? What abundance of other sins thou art liable to? And in what peril thou art of some present judgment of God? Even those examples in Scripture which encourage thee should make thee tremble. To think that even a Noah thatwas drunken but once, is recorded to his shame for a warning unto others. How horrid a crime even Lot fell into by the temptations of drunkenness! How Uriah was made drunk by a David to have hid his sin! 2 Sam. xi. 13. How David's son Amnon, in God's just revenge, was murdered by his brother Absalom's command, when "his heart was merry with wine," 2 Sam. xiii. 28. How Nabal was stricken dead by God after his drunkenness, 1 Sam. xxv. 36-38. How king Elah was murdered as he was drinking himself drunk, 1 Sam. xvi. 9. And how the terrible hand appeared writing upon the wall to king Belshazzar in his carousing, to signify the loss of his kingdoms, and that very night he was also slain, Dan. v. 1, 30. Thou seest God spareth not kings themselves, that one would think might be allowed more pleasure: and will he spare thee? Prov. xxxi. 4, 5, "It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink;" and is it then for thee? Mark the dreadful fruits of it even to the greatest. Hos. vii. 3-5, "They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies: they are all adulterers as an oven heated—In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine: he stretched out his hand with scorners." Thou seest that be they great or small, both soul and body are cast by tippling and drunkenness into greater danger, than thou art in at sea in a raging tempest. Thou puttest thyself in the way of the vengeance of God, and art not like to escape it long.
Quest.VI. Didst thou ever measure thy sin by that strange kind of punishment commanded by God against incorrigible gluttons and drunkards? Deut. xxi. 18-21, "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken to them: then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place; and they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of the city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put away evil from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear." Surely gluttony and drunkenness are heinous crimes, when a man's own father and mother were bound to bring him to the magistrate to be put to death, if he will not be reformed by their own correction. And you see here that youth is no excuse for it, though now it is thought excusable in them.
Quest.VII. Dost thou think thy drink is too good to leave at God's command? Or dost thou think that God doth grudge thee the sweetness of it? or rather that he forbids it thee for thy good, that thou mayst escape the hurt. And tell me, Dost thou love God better than thy drink and pleasure, or dost thou not? If not, thy own conscience must needs tell thee, (if thou have a conscience not quite seared,) that there is no hope of thy salvation in that state: but if thou say, thou dost, will God, or any wise man, believe thee, that thou lovest him better, and wilt not be so far ruled by him, nor leave so small a matter for his sake? 1 John v. 3, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous." So 2 John 6.
Quest.VIII. Dost thou remember that thy carcass must lie rotting in the grave, and how loathsome a thing it must shortly be? And canst thou make so great a matter of the present satisfying of so vile a body, and dung the earth at so dear a rate?
Quest.IX. Wouldst thou have all thy friends and children do as thou dost? If so, what would become of thy estate? It would be a mad world if all were drunkards. Wouldst thou have thy wife a drunkard? If she were, thou wouldst scarce be confident of her chastity. Wouldst thou have thy servants drunkards? If they were, they might set thy house on fire: and they would do thee little work, or do it so as it were better be undone. Thy house would be a bedlam if all were drunkards; and much worse than bedlam; for there are some wise men to govern and correct the mad ones. But if thou like it not in wife, and children, and servants, why dost thou continue it thyself? Art thou not nearest to thyself? Dost thou love any others better than thyself? Hadst thou rather thy own soul were damned than theirs? or canst thou more easily endure it? I have wondered sometimes to observe some drunkards very severe against the same sin in their children, and very desirous to have them sober! But the reason is, because the sobriety of their children is no trouble to them, nor puts them to deny the pleasure of their appetites, as their own sobriety must do.
Quest.X. Wouldst thou have thy physician drunk when he should cure thee of thy sickness? or thy lawyer drunk when he should plead thy cause? or the judge when he should judge it? If not, why wilt thou be drunken when thou shouldst serve thy God and mind the business of thy soul? If thou wouldst not have thy servant be potting in an ale-house when he should be about thy work, wilt thou sit potting and prating there, when thou hast a thousand fold greater work to do for thy everlasting happiness?
Quest.XI. If one do but lame or spoil thy beast, and make him unfit for thy service, wouldst thou be pleased with it? And wilt thou unfit thyself for the service of God, as if thy work were of less concernment than thy beast's?
Quest.XII. Would it please you if your servants poured all that drink in the channel? If not, I have before proved to thee that it should displease thee more to pour it into thy belly: for thou wilt find at last that it will hurt thee more.
Quest.XIII. What relish hath thy pleasant liquor the next day? Will it then be any sweeter than wholesome abstinence? All the delight is suddenly gone: there is nothing left but the slime in thy guts, and the ulcer in thy conscience, which cannot be cured by all thy treasure, nor palliated long by all thy pleasure. And canst thou value much so short delights? As all thy sweet and merry cups are now no sweeter than if they had been wormwood; so all the rest will quickly come to the same end and relish. As Plato said of his slender supper, compared to a rich man's feast, Yours seemeth better to-night, but mine will be better to-morrow; so thy conscience telleth thee that temperance and holy obedience will be better to-morrow, and better to eternity, though gluttony and drunkenness seem better now.
Quest.XIV. Dost thou consider how dear thou payest for hell? and buyest damnation at a harder rate than salvation might be attained at? What shame doth it cost thee! What sickness is it like to cost thee! What painful vomitings or worse dost thou undergo! How much dost thou suffer in thy estate! And is hell worth all this ado?
Quest.XV. Dost thou not think in thy heart, that sober, temperate, godly men do live a more quiet and comfortable life than thou, as well as an honester and safer life? If thou do think so, why wilt thou not imitate them? It is as free for thee to choose as them. If thou think they do not, consider, that as they have none of thy forbidden cups, so they havenone of thy thirst or desire after them. Abstinence is sweeter much to them.[446]They have none of thy sour belchings, or vomitings, nor shame, nor danger, nor thy reckoning to pay. They have none of thy gripes of conscience, and terrors under the guilt of such a sin. They live in the love of God and the forethoughts of heaven, while thou art in the alehouse. And dost thou not think in thy conscience, that to a heart that is suited and sanctified thereto, it is not a sweeter thing to live in the love of God, than in the love of thy sensuality? Darest thou say (whatever thou thinkest) that God, and heaven, and holiness are not so lovely and fit to be delighted in, as a cup of wine or ale? Sure thou darest not say so! If it were for no more than the different aspects of death and eternity to them and to thee, I account thy life in the midst of thy pleasures incomparably more sad than theirs. They look at death as at the time of hope, and the day of their deliverance, as the assizes are to the innocent or pardoned man: but thou lookest on death with terror, as the end of all thy mirth, as the guilty malefactor thinketh on the assizes; or else with senselessness or presumption, which is worse. They look unto eternity as their endless, unspeakable felicity; and thou darest scarce seriously think of it, without the delusory ease of unbelief or of false hopes: thou darest not seriously look beyond death, unless through the devil's cheating spectacles. I tell thee, a sober, godly man would not have thy merry life (as thou accountest it) one day, for all thy wealth, or for any worldly gain: he had rather lie in jail, or sit in the stocks that while, than drink and swagger with thee. Keep thy merriment to thyself, for no wise man or good man will be thy partner. If thou wert their enemy, they would not wish thee so much misery as thou choosest. As the story goeth of a confessor, that hearing many confess the sin of drunkenness, would needs try himself what pleasure was in it: and having vomited and slept it out, the next drunkard that came to him in confession, he appointed him for penance to be drunk again, and told him, he need no sharper penance.
Quest.XVI. How cometh it to pass that thy very pride doth not cure thy drunkenness?[447]Pride is so natural and deep-rooted a sin, that I dare say thou hast not overcome it, if thou have not overcome thy sensuality. And is thy credit no more worth with thee? wilt thou for a cup of drink be made the talk of the country, the scorn of the town, the sport and laughing-game of boys, and the pity of sober persons? If thou be a great man among them, and they dare not speak it to thy face, and thou hearest not what they say of thee, yet in private they make bold with thy name, to talk of thee as of a filthy beast. Canst thou think that sober men do honour thee? What honour may accidentally be due to thee from thy place, is another matter; but thou takest a course to keep them from honouring thee for thy worth, and dost thy worst to bring thy rank and place into contempt. It is said that in Spain a drunkard is not allowed for a witness against any man: and sure he is not a credible person. Regard thy reputation if thou carest not for thy soul.
Quest.XVII. Dost thou not love the flesh itself which thou so much pamperest? If thou do, why wilt thou drown it, and choke it up with phlegm and filth? Ask physicians whether drunkenness be wholesome. Mark how many drunkards live to be old:Ennius podagricus, is a proverb. The sickness is longer than the sweetness of thy cup. If thou fearest not hell, fear the consumption, gout, or dropsy.
Quest.XVIII. Why shouldst thou not take more pleasure in the company of thy family, and in the company of people fearing God, that worship him in truth of heart, and will do their best to help to save thee? Canst thou give any reason for it, why such company should not be more pleasant to thee than thy pot companions? and why it should not be pleasanter to talk of the way to heaven, and the pardon of sin, and the love of Christ, and of eternal happiness, than to prate a deal of idle nonsense in an alehouse? There is no reason for it but thy filthy mind, that is suitable to vanity and sin, and unsuitable to all that is wise and holy.
Quest.XIX. What if thou shouldst die in a drunken fit? Wouldst thou not thyself take thy case to be desperate or dangerous? Why, it may be so for aught thou knowest; it hath been the case of many a one. But if it be not so, yet to die a drunkard is as certain damnation, as to die in drunkenness. If the guilt of the sin be on thee, it is all one when it was committed, whether lately or long ago; for unpardoned sin is most sure damnation; and it is certainly unpardoned, till it be truly repented of; and it is not repented of if it be not forsaken: and then bethink thee how thou wilt review these days, and what thoughts thou wilt then have of thy cups and company!
Quest.XX. Art thou willing to part with thy sin, or art thou not? Speak, man; art thou willing? If thou be not willing, bear witness against thyself that thou dost not repent of it, and that thou art not forgiven it; and therefore that thou art at present a slave of the devil, and if thou die so, as sure to be damned as thou art alive. Bear witness that thou wast not kept from grace, and consequently from heaven, against thy will, but by thy wilful refusal of it; and that it was not because thou couldst not be saved, that thou goest to hell, but because thou wouldst not. Sure even now thou canst not have the face to deny any of this, if thou confess that thou art not willing to amend. Take thy will in sin, if God's will must be violated, which tendered thee mercy, and commanded thee to accept it; but be sure that God will have his will in punishing thee.
But I suppose thou wilt say, that thou art willing to amend and leave thy sin, but thou canst not do it because flesh is frail, and company is tempting, and God giveth thee not grace; willing thou art, but yet unable. But stay a little! God will not so let thee carry it, and smooth over thy wickedness with a lie. Thy meaning, if thou speak out, is not that thou art willing, presently and heartily willing, to forsake thy sin, but only that thou wouldst be willing, if the drink and the devil did not tempt thee. And so thou wilt be willing to love God and be saved, when nothing shall tempt thee to the contrary! And wouldst thou thank thy wife for such a willingness to forsake adultery, when nobody will tempt her to it? or thy servant to do thy work, when he hath nothing to tempt him to idleness or neglect? Judge by this what thanks thou deservest of God for such a willingness. But dally not with God, and mock not thy conscience, but speak to the question, Art thou willing to give over thy company and tippling, from this day forward, or art thou not? Take heed what thou sayest. If thou say, No, God may say, Nay, to all thy cries for mercy in the day of thy misery and distress; but if still thou say thatthou art willing, but not able, I will convince thee of thy falsehood.
Quest.I. Tell me then, what force is used to make thee sin against thy will? Wast thou carried to the alehouse, or didst thou go thyself? Wast thou gagged and drenched? Was it poured down thy throat by violence; or didst thou take the cup and pour it down thyself? Who was the man that held open thy mouth and poured it in? Nay, if it had been thus, it had not been thy sin; for no will, no sin. Or did they set a sword or pistol to thy breast, and so force thee to it? If they had, that had not proved thee unwilling, but only that they forced thee to be willing; and their force is no excuse: for God threatened hell, and thou shouldst have feared that most.
Quest.II. Didst thou love the drink, or loathe it when thou wast drinking it? Didst thou love it against thy will, when love and willingness are all one?
Quest.III. Wilt thou forbear the next time till thou art carried to it, and till it is forcibly poured down with a horn? If not, confess it is thy will.
Quest.IV. Couldst thou not forbear, if the judge or the king stood by? And canst thou not forbear when God stands by? If thou wilt thou canst.
Quest.V. Couldst thou not forbear, if thou wert sure to be put to death for it? if the law hanged all drunkards, and the hangman were at thy back? Surely thou couldst. And canst thou not then forbear if thou wilt, when God hath made it worse than hanging, and when death is coming to fetch thee to execution?
Quest.VI. Couldst thou not forbear it in sickness, if thy physician required it, and told thee, if thou drink, it will be thy death? I doubt not but thou couldst: if not, thou art very unworthy to live, that canst not deny thyself a cup of drink for the saving of thy life. And thou art as unworthy to be saved, if thou wilt not do that to save thy soul, which thou wouldst do to save thy present life.
Quest.VII. Yea, couldst thou not forbear if it were to save the life of thy wife, or child, or friend, or neighbour? If thou knewest that forbearing thy forbidden cup would save the life of any one of them, couldst thou not, nay, wouldst thou not do it? If not, thou tellest the world what a husband, what a father, what a friend, and what a neighbour thou art, that wouldst not forbear a cup of drink to save a friend or neighbour's life. I should think thee an unworthy friend, if thou wouldst not do that much at thy friend's request, though there were no such necessity lay upon it. If this be so, I will never take a drunkard for my friend; for he would not forbear a cup of drink for my sake, no, not if it were to save my life. If thou say, God forbid, I would do more than that, why then didst thou say, Thou canst not forbear? Mark how thy tongue reproves thy falsehood. And canst thou not do that for thy own soul, which thou couldst do for the life, or at the request of a friend or neighbour?
Quest.VIII. Couldst thou not forbear if it were to get a lordship or a kingdom? yea, to save thy own estate, if it were all in danger, and this would save it? I doubt not but thou couldst. Why then dost thou say thou canst not do it?
Quest.IX. If thou wert certain that thou wast to die to-morrow, wouldst thou be drunk to-night? Or if thou wert sure to die within this week or month, wouldst thou be drunk ere then? I do not believe thou wouldst: fear would so long shut thy mouth. Thou seest then that thou canst forbear if thou wert but willing, and wert but awaked out of thy stupidity and folly.
Quest.X. What if thou wert sure that there were an ounce of arsenic or other such poison in the cup? couldst thou not then forbear it? Yes, no doubt of it: it is plain therefore that thou speakest falsely, when thou sayst that thou canst not. And is not God's wrath and curse in thy cup much worse than poison?
Quest.XI. What if thou sawest the devil standing by thee and offering thee the cup, and persuading thee to drink it, couldst thou not then forbear? Yes, no doubt of it: and is he not as certainly there tempting thee, as if thou sawest him? Well, the matter is proved against thee to thy own conscience, that if thou wilt forbear, thou canst.
Quest.XII. But yet if thou canst not, bethink thee whether thou canst better bear the pains of hell? For God is not in jest with thee in his threatenings. If thy thirst be harder to bear than hell, then choose that which is easiest to thee: but remember hereafter that thou hadst thy choice.
Yet, art thou willing to let go thy sin? (for I am sure thou art able so far as thou art willing). I will take thy case to be as it is; that is, that thou hast some half, uneffectual willingness, or lazy wish which will not conquer a temptation; and that thou art sometimes in a little better mood than at other times, and that thou lovest thy sin, and therefore wouldst not leave it if thou couldst choose, but thou lovest not hell, and therefore hast some thoughts of parting with thy cups against thy will, for fear of punishment. These wishes and purposes will never save thee: it must be a renewed nature, loving God, and hating the sin, that must make thee capable of salvation. But yet in the mean time it is necessary that thou forbear thy sin, though it be but through fear; for thou canst not expect else that the Holy Ghost should renew thy nature. Therefore I will give thee directions how to forbear thy sin most surely and easily, if thou be but willing, and withal to promote thy willingness itself with the performance.
Direct.I. Write over thy bed and thy chamber door, where thou mayst read it every morning before thou goest forth, some text of holy Scripture that is fit to be thy memorandum: as 1 Cor. vi. 10, "Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God;" and Rom. viii. 13, "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live:" and read it before thou goest out of thy doors.
Direct.II. Also fall down on thy knees to God, and earnestly beg of him to keep thee that day from temptations, and ill company, and from all thy fleshly desires and excess; and especially that he would renew thy nature, and give thee a hatred of the sin.
Direct.III. Keep thyself in the constant employments of thy calling, and spend not one quarter of an hour in idleness, and allow not leisure to thy thoughts, so much as to think of thy drink and pleasures; much less to thy body to follow it. God hath commanded thee, whoever thou art, to labour six days, and in the sweat of thy brows to eat thy bread, and hath forbidden idleness and negligence in thy calling: avoid this, and it will help thee much.
Direct.IV. Reckon not upon long life, but think how quickly death will come, and that for aught thou knowest thou mayst die that day; and how dreadful a case it would prove to thee, to be found among tipplers, or to die before thou art truly converted. Think of this before thou goest out of thydoors; and think of it as thou art going to the alehouse: look on the cup and the grave together: the dust of those bones will be wholesome spice to thee. Remember when thou seest the wine, or ale, how unlike it is to that black and loathsome liquor which thy blood and humours will be turned into when thou art dead. Remember that the hand that taketh the cup, must shortly be scattered bones and dust; and the mouth that drinketh it down, must shortly be an ugly hole; and the palate, and stomach, and brain that are delighted by it, must shortly be stinking puddle: and that the graves of drunkards are the field or garden of the devil, where corpses are sowed to rise at the resurrection to be fuel for hell.
Direct.V. When thou art tempted to the alehouse, call up thy reason, and remember that there is a God that seeth thee, and will judge thee, and that thou hast an endless life of joy or torment shortly to possess, and that thou hast sinned thus too long already, and that without sound repentance thy case is desperate, and that thou art far from true repentance while thou goest on in sin. Ask thyself, Have I not sinned long enough already? Have I not long enough abused mercy? Shall I make my case remediless, and cast away all hope? Doth not God stand by, and see and hear all? Am I not stepping by death into an endless world? Think of these things, and use thy reason, if thou be a man, and hast reason to use.
Direct.VI. Exercise thyself daily in repenting for what is past; and that will preserve thee for the time to come. Confess thy former sin to God with sorrow, and beg forgiveness of it with tears and groans. If thou make light of all that is past, thou art prepared to commit more. Think as thou goest about thy work, how grievously thou hast sinned against thy knowledge and conscience; in the sight of God; against all his mercies; and how obstinately thou hast gone on, and how unthankfully thou hast rejected mercy, and neglected Christ, and refused grace. Think what had become of thee, if thou hadst died in this case; and how exceedingly thou art beholden to the patience of God, that he cut thee not off, and cast thee not into hell, and that he hath provided and offered thee a Saviour, and is yet willing to pardon and accept thee through his Son, if thou wilt but resolvedly return, and live in faith and holiness. These penitent thoughts and exercises will kill thy sin and cure thee. Fast and humble thyself for what thou hast done already: as the holy apostle saith, 1 Pet. iv. 1-5, "Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead."
Direct.VII. Keep from the place and company: Eph. v. 7, 11, "Be not partakers with them. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Thou canst not deny but thou art able to do this if thou wilt. Canst thou not stay at home and come not near them? If thou be willing to escape, run not into the snare.
Direct.VIII. Stop at the first cup: be not drawn on by little and little: as the sluggard saith, Yet a little more sleep; so the drunkard saith, Yet a little more drink; I will take but one cup more. Understand thy due measure, that thou mayst know what is excess: to an ordinary healthful body, that doth not very much labour and sweat, a quart in a day is enough; to cold and phlegmatic persons it is too much: the old rule was,Prima ad sitim, secunda ad hilaritatem, tertia ad voluptatem, quarta ad insaniam: The first cup is for thirst, the second for mirth, the third for sensual pleasure, the fourth for madness. Especially you that have drunk too much so long, should rather drink less than other men: your souls require it for penitence and for prevention; your bodies require it, to cure the crudities already heaped up.
Direct.IX. Avoid the tempting ceremonies of drunkards, such as drinking healths, or urging others to pledge them, or drink more. Plutarch saith, that when Agesilaus was made the master of a feast, and was to prescribe the laws for drinking, his law was, If there be wine enough, give every one what he asketh for; if not enough, divide it equally; by which means none were tempted or urged to drink, and the intemperate were ashamed to ask for more than others. As among witches, so among drunkards, the devil hath his laws and ceremonies, and it is dangerous to practise them.
Direct.X. Go to thy sinful companions to their houses, and tell them plainly and seriously that thou repentest of what thou hast done already, and that thou art ashamed to remember it; and that now thou perceivest that there is a righteous God, and a day of judgment, and an endless punishment to be thought on, and that thou art resolved thou wilt be voluntarily mad no more; and that thou wilt not sell thy soul and Saviour for a merry cup; and beseech them for the sake of Christ, and of their souls, to join with thee in repentance and reformation; but let them know, that if they will not, thou comest to take thy leave of them, and art resolved thou wilt no more be their companion in sin, lest thou be their companion in hell. If thou art willing indeed to repent and be saved, do this presently and plainly; and stick not at their displeasure or reproach: if thou wilt not, say thou wilt not, and say no more thou canst not; but say, I will keep my sin and be damned: for that is the English of it.
Direct.XI. Suppose when the cup of excess is offered thee, that thou sawest these words, sin and hell, written upon the cup, and sawest the devil offering it thee, and urging thee to drink, and sawest Christ bleeding on the cross, and calling to thee, O drink not that which costeth so dear a price as my blood! Strongly imprint this supposition on thy mind: and it is not unreasonable; for certainly sin is in thy cup, and hell is next to sin; and it is the devil that puts thee on, and it is Christ unseen that would dissuade thee.
Direct.XII. Suppose that there were mortal poison in the cup that is offered thee: ask thyself, Would I drink it if there were poison in it? If not, why should I drink it when sin is in it, and hell is near it? and the supposition is not vain. It is written of Cyrus, that when Astyages observed that at a feast he drank no wine, and asked him the reason, he answered, because he thought there was poison in the cup, for he had observed some that drunk out of it, lost their speech or understanding, and some of them vomited, and therefore he feared it would poison him: however, it is poison to the soul.
Direct.XIII. Look soberly upon a drunken man, and think whether that be a desirable plight for a wise man to put himself into. See how ill-favouredly he looks, with heavy eyes, and a slabberingmouth, stinking with drink or vomit, staggering, falling, spewing, bawling, talking like a mad-man, pitied by wise men, hooted at by boys, and madly reeling on towards hell. And withal look upon some wise and sober man, and see how composed and comely is his countenance and gesture; how wise his words, how regular his actions, how calm his mind; envied by the wicked, but reverenced by all that are impartial. And then bethink thee which of these it is better to be like. Saith Basil, Drunkenness makes men sleep like the dead, and wake like the sleeping. It turneth a man into a useless, noisome, filthy, hurtful, and devouring beast.
Direct.XIV. If all this will not serve turn, if thou be but willing, I can teach thee a cheap restraint, and tell thee of a medicine that is good against drunkenness and excess. Resolve that after every cup of excess thou wilt drink a cup of the juice of wormwood, or of carduus, or centaury, or germander; at least, as soon as thou comest home and growest wiser, that this shall be thy penance; and hold on this course but a little while, and thy appetite will rather choose to be without the drink, than to bear the penance. Do not stick at it; if thy reason be not strong enough for a manly cure, drench thyself like a beast, and use such a cure as thou art capable of; and in time it may bring thee to be capable of a better. And I can assure thee, a bitter draught is a very cheap remedy to prevent a sin.
Direct.XV. If all this will not serve, I have yet another remedy if thou be but willing: confess thyself unfit to govern thyself, and give up thyself to the government of some other; thy wife, thy parents, or thy friend. And here these things are to be done: 1. Engage thy wife, or friend, to watch over thee, and not to suffer thee to go to the alehouse, nor to drink more than is profitable to thy health. 2. Deliver thy purse to them, and keep no money thyself. 3. Drink no more at home but what they give thee, and leave it to them to judge what measure is best for thee. 4. When thou art tempted to go to the alehouse, tell thy wife or friend, that they may watch thee. Even as thou wouldst call for help if thieves were robbing thee. 5. Give leave to thy wife or friend to charge the ale-sellers to give thee no drink; and go thyself when thou art in thy right mind, and charge them thyself to give thee none; and tell them that thou art not thyself, or in thy right wits, when thou desirest it. If these means seem now too hard to thee, and thou wilt sin on, and venture upon the wrath and curse of God and upon hell, rather than thou wilt use them, remember hereafter that thou wast damned because thou wouldst be damned, and that thou chosest the way to hell to escape these troubles, and take that thou gettest by it; but do not say, thou couldst not help it, for I am sure thou canst do this if thou wilt. Thou wilt lock thy door against thieves; lock thy mouth also against a more dangerous thief, that would rob thee of thy reason and salvation. Saith Basil, If his master do but box or beat his servant, he will run away from the strokes; and wilt thou not run away from the drink that would break thy brains and understanding?
Direct.XVI. But the saving remedy is this, study the love of God in Christ, and the riches of grace, and the eternal glory promised to holy souls, till thou be in love with God, and heaven, and holiness, and hast found sweeter pleasure than thy excess, and then thou wilt need no more directions. Read Eph. v. 18.
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 sogreat 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 thelues 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.
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 ofthe 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, unlessthou 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.
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 theobservance 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.