The Great Duty of Self-Resignation to the Divine Will, Section 2 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. That we are not onelyonly to suffer the Spirit to work in us, but ought also to work with him in heartily opposing our Self-desires; and what endeavours we should use is shewed in five Particulars.
IV. FOurhtly, We must not be meerly passive, and onelyonly suffer the Holy Spirit to do his work in us, but we must likewise work with him in vigorously resisting and crossing our Self-desires. We must put on heroical resolutions stoutly to oppose the impetuous desires of our sensitive powers. It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do, but yet we must also work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Col. 1 ult.We must strive according to his working which worketh in us mightily. We must be faithful to that lesser light and strength which is in us, and we shall have more light and strength. If we be faithful in fewer Talents, we shall receive more. And here take these following Directions.
1. Deny the first Sollicitations, and resist the first motions of inordinate appetites, depress them at their first rising. Quench foreign Lust when it doth begin to smoak, (as Iustin Martyr phraseth it) before it bursteth out into a flame; for then it will be unruly and too hard to master. Think not to ease thy self by giving some satisfaction to thy lusts;Faciliùs est initia affectuum prohibere, quàm impetum regere. Seneca epist. 86. for by this means they will sollicite and vex thee the more; and the yielding to commit a sin leaves a greater propension and desire to sin again. Thou shalt best silence the clamours and importunities of a temptation, by not listening in the least to them. As one act of mortification prepares for and enables to another; so on the contrary, by once yielding to corrupt nature, thou art made less able to resist another time.
2. As to those sins which either through Constitution or Custom thou hast the strongest inclination to, thou must shew a more than ordinary roughness and severity against them. It is not safe so much as to dispute or argue with temptations to such sins. It was a good observation of Aristotle, that some passions are not to be vanquished foreign, by reason but by force; that is, not so much by the one as by the other. Not so much by arguments as by a holy violence and resolution.
And there is not more need of taking this course against any temptations, than those that solicite to the Sin of Vncleanness. Duriora sunt praelia castitatis, saith S. Cyprian: The battles of Chastity are more sharp than any other.
The forementioned Philosopher in his Ethicks observing that man is foreign,foreign. Arist. Eth. a creature very apt to be taken and ensnared by pleasures, adviseth, that for the attaining of vertue (the middle between two extreams) we should shun that extream most, and keep farthest from it, which pretends to most pleasure*foreign,. This is good advice, and there cannot be better given for the attaining the vertue of Chastity, and the overcoming temptations to Uncleanness, which of all other sins doth promise the most pleasure, than not to trust our selves to enter into the least parley with them, but presently to fly from them, by diverting our selves to other thoughts, and forcing our minds to other objects.
3 We ought, as much as lieth in us, to shun whatsoever may probably be an occasion of our being tempted, especially to such sins as we are most inclined to. Art thou prone to excess either in meat or drink? Art thou apt suddenly to take fire, and to be inflamed with passion? Art thou of a lustful temper, or the like? Avoid all thou canst such places, company, and objects as may be incentives to those appetites. Thus in order to the avoiding of the Sin Uncleanness, the Wiseman adviseth, not to come near the house of the whorish woman: and for the prevention of the Sin of Drunkenness, not so much as to look on the wine when 'tis red, and giveth its colour in the glass.
4. It is of good use for the better securing our perseverance in the spiritual warfare, with humble dependance on God for the aids of his grace, to engage our selves in solemn vows against those sins especially which have gotten most power and dominion over us. I cannot commend the obliging our selves by vows to certain tasks (as the manner of some is) which have not an immediate and special tendency to the mortifying of Sin, and advancement of Holiness. Such vows are found by experience to be both unprofitable and burdensome, to be insnaring and hampering, and rather to gratifie Superstition, and minister questions and scrupulosities, than godly edifying. But to vow against things unquestionably evil, and to the use of certain means that are necessary to the destroying the body of Sin, and that first, for a shorter space of time, and afterwards for a longer; and so, that time being expired, to renew these vows as long as we shall see it needful, and till we be well grounded and establisht in Holiness, till Religion become our nature, the temper and constitution of our Souls, the joy of our hearts, and our deliberate choice and settled practice, till we have gotten the compleat mastery over those lusts which we have been most carried away captive by; I say, to vow with such cautions is found by experience to be of exceeding great benefit and advantage.
And when we have thus vowed, we should frequently reflect upon what we have done; and then especially, when we are solicited by the Tempter within or without to sin. Let us then say with holy David, Psal. lvi. 12. Psal. cxix. 106.Thy vows are upon me, O God: I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments. Neither hopes nor fears, neither the terrours nor allurements of the world shall disswade me from a faithful obedience to them.
Vows prudently mannaged are of great use to secure us to Religion; and this is the onelyonly end of them.Vovere nihil alind est, quàm animum immobilitare nè possit retrogredi. To vow (saith Cajetan) is nothing else, but to fix the mind, and make it immoveable, that it may not start back from the practice of Religion.
And as for those that are shye or slack thus to engage and devote themselves to God, (which I fear in most proceeds from a too dear affection to some sin or sins) let them know that God's Vows are already upon them, they are under the Obligation of the Baptismal Vow, to renounce the Devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, the covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so as not to follow nor be led by them. So much is implied in being baptized in, or into, the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And besides, those that have received the Lord's Supper, have thereby virtually renewed their Vow in Baptism. In this other Sacrament we make a Profession, that we offer and present unto God our selves, our Souls and Bodies, to be a Holy and Lively Sacrifice to him: Than which there is nothing more due or reasonable, considering the great Love of God in giving his Son for us, the great Love of our Saviour Christ in his Death and Sufferings represented in this Sacrament, and the great Blessings procured for us by the Bloud of that spotless Lamb. So that all of us, young or old, have already bound our Souls with a Bond, (as to vow is described Numb. xxx.) being under the engagement of either one or both these Sacramental Vows; and therefore in exhorting you to oblige your selves by solemn Vows to the duties of Religion, I do not advise you to a new thing, but onelyonly to repeat what you have already done; and if you intend to stand to the Vows you have made, what should deter you from reiterating them whilst you have need of them.
But always remember when you vow to the Lord, to do it with a trust and faith in his power and all-sufficient Grace, and with a distrust of your own natural ability to perform your Vows: And when at any time you have failed in the performance of them, be deeply humbled before God, and renew your Engagements with a greater sense of your weakness and falseness of heart, and be more watchful over your selves, and let your falls make you more narrowly look to your feet for the time to come.
5. Fasting is another means to be used for the mortification of the body of Sin. It is of great consequence, and necessary to the health of the inward man, to keep under the body, to humble, chastise, and bring it into due subjection. This was the practice of St. Paul himself, who had not such unruly passions and appetites to tame as we have.
Religious Fasting is of great use to the subduing of the Body to the Spirit, and to the starving of corruptions by cutting off their provision, as the ungovernable beast is made tame by taking away his provinder. And there are a sort of Devils that will not go out without Fasting added to Prayer, and other means; but 'tis most especially of force for the casting out the Vnclean Devil: And according as we find we stand in more or less need of this remedy, we should oftener or seldomer make use of it.