Some customary sins have little, or no pleasure in them ; as swearing, malice, S^c. but others allure, and entice the soul by the sensual delight that is in them : this is the bait with which multitudes are enticed, ensnared, and ruined to all eternity. It is a true and grave observation of the philosopher -(•, " That we are " impelled, as it w^ere, to that which is evil, by the alluring " blandishments of pleasure." This was the first bait by which Satan caught the souls of our first parents in innoeency, Gen. iii. 6. " The tree was pleasant to the eye." Pleasure quickens the principles of sin in us, and enflames the deires of the heart after it. Every pleasant sin hath a world of customers, and, cost what it will, they resolve to have it. I have read of a certain fruit, which the Spaniards found in the Indies, which was exceeding pleasant to the taste ; but nature had so fenced it, and double- guarded it with sharp and dangerous thorns, that it was very difficult to come at it : they tore their clothes, yea, their flesh, to get it ; and therefore called the fruit, Comfits in hell. Such are all
* Oga; 071 iv^a (po^og suy.o},Cfjg Xvsrai tfuv^j^s/a, &C. Horn. 14. f Voluptntum blanditiis delinki^ ad ea gerenda omnia quce prava sunt impeUimut. Arist, lib. 2. Elli. c. 3.
196 A TREATISE OF THK SOUL OE MAX.
the pleasures of sin, consists in hell; damnation is the price of them, and yet the sensitive appetite is so outrageous and mad after them, that at the price of their souls, they will have them. Thus the wicked are described, Job xxi. 13. " They spend their days in " wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave :'' That is, their whole stock of time is spent in cares and labours to get wealth, and wlien they have gotten it, the rest of their life is spent in those sensual pleasures that wealth brings in, or in making provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts of it. The rich man, in the parable, fared deliciously every day, Luke xvi. where his voluptuous life is described, and in that description, the occasion of his damnation is insinuated. In a pampered and indulged body, is usually found a neglected and starved soul. But how shall the ruin of souls this way be prevented ?
The fifth way to hell shut up, hi/ three considerations,
1. Consider how the morality of Heathens had bridled their sen- sual lusts and appetites, and caused them with a generous disdain to repel those brutish pleasures, as things below a man. " What more " foolish, what more base,'' saith Seneca *, " than to patch up the " good of a reasonable soul out of things unreasonable ?" " That is " the pleasure worthy of a man, not to glut his body, nor to irri- *' tate those lusts in whose quietness is our safety f." This is the constant doctrine of all the Stoicks.
O what a shame is it to hear Heathenism out-brave Christianity ! and principles of mere morality enable men to live more soberly, temperately and abstemiously, than those who enjoy the greatest pattern and highest motives in the Christian religion are found to do ? ' Thou embracest pleasure, saith the Heathen, but I bridle it ; ' thou enjoy est it, I only use it ; thou thinkest it thy chief good ; * I esteem it not so much as good ; thou dost all for pleasure's sake, ' but I nothinjr at all on that account.' These therefore shall be your judges.
9,. Always rememember sensual pleasures are but the baits with which Satan angles for the precious soul : there is a fatal hook under them. O if men were but aware of this, they would never purchase pleasure at so dear a rate. " Stolen waters are sweet, and " bread eaten in secret is pleasant ; but he knoweth not that the " dead are there ; and that her guests are in the depth of hell,"
* Q,uid stuUius turjnusve quam bonum rationalis animi, ex irrationalibus nectere F Sen, Ep. 92. .
f Ilia est voluptax, et homine et viro digna, von implere corpus, et sagiuaref nee cuplditm irritare, (pim-um tutissima est quies. De Benef. lib. 7. c. 11.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAX. 197
Prov. ix. 17, 18. Pliny tells us that the mermaids have most en- chanting, charming voices, and frequent pleasant, green meadows, but heaps of dead men's bones are always found where they haunt. That which tickles the fancy stabs the soul. If the pain, (as Ana- creon well observes) were before the pleasure, no man would be tempted by it ; but the pleasure being first, and sensible, and the torment coming after, and, as yet invisible, this allures so many to destruction. " At last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like " an adder," Prov. xxiii. 32. If sin did sting and bite at first, none would touch it; but it tickles at first, and wounds afterward, O what man that is in his wits would purchase eternal torments for the sensual, brutish pleasures of a moment ! * The pleasures of sin bewitch the affections, blind the judgment, stupify the heart, so that sober and impartial judgment finds no place. The heart is enticed, the lusts are enraged ; cost what it will, sinners will gratify their lusts.
3. Tf you are for pleasure, certainly you are out of the way to it, who seek it in the fulfilling of your lusts. If your hearts were once sanctified and brought under the government of the Spirit, you would quickly find a far more excellent pleasure in the cruci- fying of your lusts, than now you seek in the gratification and ful- filling of them. Rom. viii. 13. " If ye, through the Spirit mor- " tify the deeds of the body, ye shall live ;" i. e. ye shall live the most joyful, peaceful, and comfortable life of all persons in the world, a life of highest delight and true pleasure ; for so far as your lusts are mortified, the vigorous, healthful frame, and due temper of your soul is restored, and your evidences for heaven cleared ; both which are the springs of all spiritual delight and pleasure. Can any creature-enjoyment, or any beastly lust afford a pleasure like this ? Do not you find the life you live in sinful pleasures quite beneath the dignity of a man ? and are they not fol- lowed with bitter after-reckonings, gripes and flashes of conscience: Even in the midst of laughter the heart is sad, and the end of that mirth is heaviness : O ponder seriously what a trifle it is you sell your precious souls for ! Is i't not a goodly price you value them at ? the fugitive, empty, beastly pleasures of a moment, for the tor- ments of eternity.
The sixth way of losing the soul opened.
VI. There are also innumerable souls lost for ever by the dis-
* Breve est quod delectat, atcrnwn quod cruciat ; i. The pleasure is short-lived, but die torment Is perpetual.
198 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.