thing, faid St. Paul. And to be perpetually longing, and impatiently defirous of any thing, to that a man cannot abstain from it, is to lofe a man's Liberty, and to become a fervant of meat and drink, or imoke. And I with this laft inftance were more confidered by perfons who little fufpect themselves guilty of intemperance, though their defires are strong and impatient, and the use of it perpetual and unreasonable to all purposes, but that they have made it habitual and neceffary, as intemperance it felf is made to fome men. II. Ufe thofe advices which are prefcribed as inftruments to fupprefs Voluptuoufnels in the foregoing Section.

SECT. III.

Of Chastity.

REader, fay, and read not the Advices of the following Section unless thou hast a chaft fpirit, or defi reft to be chaft, or at least art apt to confider whether you ought or no. For there are fome fpirits fo atheistical, and fome fo wholly poffeffed with a spirit of uncleanness, that they turn the most prudent and chaft difcourfes into dirt and filthy apprehenfions; like cholerick ftomachs, changing their very cordials and medicines into bitter nefs; and in a literal fence turning the Grace of God into Wantonnefs. They study cafes of confcience in the matter of carnal fins, not to avoid, but to learn ways how to offend God and pollute their own fpirits; and fearch their houses with a Sun-beam, that they may be instructed in all the corners of naftiness. I have used all the care I could, in the following periods, that I might neither be wanting to affift thofe that need it, nor yet minister any occafion of fancy or vainer thoughts to thofe that need them not. If any man will fnatch the pure taper from my hand, and hold it to the Devil, he will only burn his own fingers, but shall not rob me of the reward of my care and good intention, fince I have taken heed how to express the following duties, and give him caution how to read them.

Haftity is that duty which was mystically inten

ded by God in the Law of Circumcifion. It is the circumcifion of the heart, the cutting off all fuperfluity of naughtiness, and a fuppreffion of all irregular defires in the matter of fenfual or carnal pleature. I call all defires irregular and finful that are not fanctified, 1. By the holy inftitution, or by being within the protection of marriage; 2. By being within the order of nature; 3. By being within the moderation of Chriftian modefty. Against the first are fornication, adultery, and all voluntary pollutions of either fex. Against the fecond are all unnatural lufts and incestuous mixtures. Against the third is all immoderate ufe of permitted beds; conserning which, judgment is to be made as concerning meats and drinks: there being no certain degree of frequency or intenti on prescribed to all perfons, but it is to be ruled as the other actions of a man, by proportion to the end, by the dignity of the perfon in the honour and feverity of being a Chriftian, and by other circumftances, of which I am to give account.

Chastity is that Grace which forbids and restrains all thefe, keeping the body and foul pure in that state in which it is placed by God, whether of the single or of the married life. Concerning which our duty 1 Theff. 4. 3, is thus defcribed by St. Paul, [For this is the will of God, even our fanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to poffefs his veffel in fanctification and honour: Not in the Luft of concupifcence, even as the Gentiles which know not God.]

4, 5.

Chastity is either abftinence or continence. Abstinence is that of Virgins or Widows: Continence of married perfons. Chaft marriages are honourable and pleafing to God: Widowhood is pitiable in its folitarinefs and lofs, but amiable and comely when it is adorned with gravity and purity, and not fullied with the remembrances of the paffed licence, nor with prefent defires of returning to a fecond bed. But VirginiVirginitas cft in carne co ty is a life of Angels, the enamel of the Soul, the huge advantage.

corruptionis perpetua mc

advantage of Religion, the great opportunity for the ruptibili inretirements of Devotion: and being empty of cares it is full of prayers; being uniningled with the world dicatio. it is apt to converte with God; and by not feeling the S. Aug. 1. de warmth of a too forward and indulgent nature, flames out with holy fires, till it be burning like the Cherubim, and the most ecftafied order of holy and unpolluted Spirits.

Virg. c. 13.

Natural virginity of it felf is not a ftate more accep table to God: but that which is chofen and voluntary in order to the conveniencies of Religion and teparation from worldly incumbrances, is therefore better than the married life, not that it is more holy, but that it is a freedom from cares, an opportunity to fpend more time in spiritual employments; it is not allayed with bufineffes and attendances upon lower affairs: and if it be a chofen condition to thele ends, it containeth in it a victory over lufts, and greater defires of Religion, and felf-denial, and therefore is more excellent than the married life, in that degree in which it hath greater Religion, and a greater mortification, a lefs fatisfaction of natural defires, and a greater fulnefs of the fpiritual and juft fo is to expect that little coronet or special reward which God hath prepared (extraordinary and befides the great Crown of all faithful Souls) for those who have not defiled them- Apoc. 14:4 felves with women, but follow the Virgin Lamb for Lia. 56.45.

ever.

But fome married perfons, even in their marriage, do better please God than fome Virgins in their state of virginity. They by giving great examples of conjugal affection, by preferving their Faith unbroken, by educating children in the fear of God, by patience and contentedness and holy thoughts, and the exercise of vertues proper to that ftate, do not only please God, but do in a higher degree than thofe Virgins whofe piety is not antwerable to their great opportunities and advantages.

However, married perfons and Widows and Virgins are all fervants of God, and co-heirs in the inheritance of Jefus, if they live within the reftraints and laws of

Job 24. 15, 8cc.

their particular eftate, city, temperately, justly and religiously.

The evil confequents of Uncleanness.

The bleffings and proper effects of Chastity we shall beft understand by reckoning the evils of uncleanness and carnality.

1. Uncleannefs of all vices is the moft fhameful. The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, faying, No eye fhall fee me, and difguifeth his face. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themfelves in the day time; they know not the light: for the morning is to them as the shadow of death. He is fwift as the waters; their portion is curfed in the earth, be beTu mi-holdeth not the way of the vineyards. Shame is the eldeft daughter of uncleannels.

Hof. 2.6.

2. The appetites of uncleannefs are full of cares and Troubles, and its fruition is forrow and repentance. The way of the adulterer is hedged with thorns: full of Appetitus fears and jealoufies, burning defires and impatient waianxictas eft, tings, tedioufnefs of delay, and fufferance of affronts, fatietas verò and amazements of difcovery.

fornicationis

pæniten ia.

S. Hieron.

3. Most of its kinds are of that condition, that they involve the ruine of two fouls; and he that is a fornicaror or adulterous, fteals the foul as well as dishonours the body of his neighbour: and fo it becomes like the fin of falling Lucifer, who brought a part of the ftars with his tail from heaven.

4. Of all carnal fins it is that alone which the Devil takes delight to imitate and counterfeit communicating with Witches and impure perfons in the corporal act, but in this only.

5. Uncleannefs with all its kinds is a vice which I Cor. 6.18. hath a profeffed enmity against the body. Every fin which a man doth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication finneth against his own body.

વીત કે 6. Uncleannels is hugely contrary to the fpirit of a. Government, by embafing the fpirit of a man, making it effeminate, freaking, fott and toolifh, without cou

rage,

rage, without confidence. David felt this after his folly with Bathsheba, he fell to unkingly arts and ftratagems to bide the crime; and he did nothing but increase it, and remained timorous and poor fpirited, till he prayed to God once more to establish him with a free and a Princely fpirit. And no fuperior dare ftrictly Spiritu prieobferve difcipline upon his charge, if he hath let him cipali meconfelt loofe to the fhame of incontinence.

firma, P. 51.

7. The Gofpel hath added two arguments against uncleannefs which were never before ufed, nor indeed could be: fince God hath given the holy Spirit to them that are baptized, and rightly confirmed, and entred into covenant with him, our bodies are made Temples of the Holy Ghoft in which he dwells; and therefore uncleannefs is Sacrilege,and defiles a Temple. It is St.Paul's argument [Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?] and [He that defiles a tem-1 Cor. 6, 19. ple, him will God destroy. Therefore glorifie God in your bodies,that is,flee fornication. To which for the likeness of the argument add, that our bodies are members of 1 Cor. 3. 17: Christ,and therefore God forbid that we fhould take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot. So that uncleannefs difhonours Chrift, and difhonours the Holy Spirit: it is a fin against God, and in this fence a fin against the Holy Ghost.

8. The next fpecial argument which the Gospel minifters especially against adultery, and for the prefervation of the purity of marriage, is that [Marriage is by Chrift hallowed into a mystery, to fig Ephef. 5. 32. nifie the Sacramental and myftical union of Chrift and his Church. He therefore that breaks this knot which the Church and their mutual faith hath tied, and Chrift hath knit up into a myftery, difhonours a great rite of Chriftianity, of high, fpiritual and excellent fignification.

9. St. Gregory reckons uncleannefs to be the parent Moral. of these monsters, blindness of mind, inconfideration, precipitancy or giddinefs in actions, felf love, hatred of God, love of the prefent pleasures, a defpite or defpair of the joys of Religion here, and of Heaven hereafter. Whereas a pure mind in a chaft body is F 3

2

the