you do not fo, you make him no body, and none of the company while he is in it. Whofoever I think fit to admit into my company, I fhould efteem him worthy to be heard. Alfo it often falls out, that he from whom we expect leaft, fpeaks the greatest sense. 10. Let no man's fenfe be rejected with fcorn; but, if need be, oppofed with reafon, and without any ill reflection on the perfon. For whether right or wrong, he that hath spoken hath done the company the greatest courtesy he can, to tell his opinion; especially if he declares his grounds; either offering conclufive reafons, and so put an end to the debates; or fhews caufe of demur, upon which the refolution will be better grounded. For the rule of wifdom is, men fhould not judge too haftily; fudden determinations, when there is no interruption in the leaft to confider, are not so connatural and folid, as those that are the iffue of confideration, and thought. If thefe measures be obferved, converse will be without offence and profitable. 11. Meet friends, and part friends. If we do not meet as friends, there can be no expectation of good; unless in this cafe, that the meeting be in order to reconciliation; and if fo, then there ought to be compofure of mind, and peremptory refolution of mutual forbearance and declining. all matter of offence and provocation. Therefore in this cafe, look rather forward than backward; what may be for time to come, than what hath been in falling out. Then in the next place I advife, as we meet friends, so also that we part friends. To this purpose we must use one another handfómely, while we are together; treat each other with refpect.

There

There is a great reverence due to human nature; which if not given, we difparage ourselves. And in

converse there is a communion, per quam omnes tranfeunt, in unitatem, quandam, whereby all pass into a kind of union, communion, and mutual participation of converse.

If these rules and meafures be obferved, converse will be without offence, and profitable. Whofoever fails in these common duties of fair carriage and behaviour and general good-will whereto all are indifferently bound, and it costs little to do it, fince a good word is as foon and as easily spoken as a bad one; there is very little hope that he will do right in that which is more coftly. He that will not confine himfelf to fair converfe, there is little hope that. fuch a one will perform the more coftly duties of doing all good offices of kindness, where there is no particular law; and of charitably relieving the neceffitous, to whom he has no relation of affinity.

DIS

DISCOURSE XCVI.

The

great inftances of wickedness.

PSALM V. 4, 5.

Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, &c.

Ince it is our only fecurity to be in reconciliation with God, and our happiness in eternity to live in attendance upon him and enjoyment of him we are above all things concerned to know those things that make a difference between God and us, alienate God from us, and estrange us from him; that we may avoid them. To this purpose, this fcripture doth fully declare, thou art not a God that hath pleafure in wickedness.

I have made enquiry what we are to understand by wickedness and works of iniquity, and I have reduced them to these four heads.

1. Things contrary to the respect we owe to God

himself.

2. Things contrary to general love and goodwill.

3. Things contrary to juftice, fairness and righteoufnefs.

4. Things contrary to sobriety, chastity, and temperance.

I have done with the three firft, and proceed now to the fourth. And fince it comes of course that this is my argument * this day, I cannot but take notice how feasonable alfo it is in refpect of the late time of feafting; that if there hath been any excefs, I fhall now call you to repentance; juft as holy fob did, Job i. 5. cautious and wary Job, fuspecting they might give God an offence, he doth every day facrifice, and make an atonement: the things that I am to speak to, are represented to us, Rom. xiii. 13. Let us walk honeftly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkennefs, not in chambering and wantonness; we are required to do things that are fit and comely, worthy human nature. I must not inftance in things, which pure minds, modeft ears, cannot bear; I mean those things que dum dicuntur, difcuntur; If they be but named, they are taught; things of which it is a fhamė to fpeak, Eph. v. 12. About thefe I fhall be filent ; things not named amongst heathens, 1 Cor. v. I. Things that are not owned in the wilderness of the world. And indeed, where men give way to their own lufts and inordinate appetites, they are apt to run into all excess of riot, 1 Pet. iv. 4. Such as thefe the apostle challengeth, Rom. i. 18, 24. Perfons who hold the truth in unrighteousness; given up to uncleannefs, to vile affections, to reprobacy of mind, verfe 28.

But I fhall infift upon mifcarriages that are more ordinary and common, and not of fuch a deep complexion. We are to moderate ourselves in the ufe of all the conveniencies of this ftate; that is, we

Preached a little after Christmass.

ought

ought to obferve the measure of nature, and of rea fon; fo, to exercise fobriety, chastity, temperance. For the end is to regulate the mean. We are to

eat, drink, fleep, that we may live; not live to eat, drink, and fleep. For it is monftrous to tranfpofe the mean and end. They who do fo, they fin against the reason of their own mind, and offer violence to their own nature. For nature, before it be abused, is satisfied with reasonable things. But thofe who do exceed, they fin against the reason of their minds, and offer violence to their nature; they are fo far fhort from being chriftians, that they have not referved to themfelves the being of a man. For how is any man a rational agent, who by his fenfuality hath confounded the reafon of his own mind, which is the proper excellency of human nature. This is the privation of his proper excellency, the reafon of his mind, the form that doth conftitute in fpecie. Species fequitur ultimam formam. The kinds of things are affigned by the laft, perfecteft, and highest form. So in nature. This is certainly as great a change, as when a living man by death becomes a carcafs. For man is not a man by his body, but by his mind. For if a man be out of the use of reason by his own diforder, he may be alive, but he is alive to his own fhame. Sins of this kind, abuse both the body and the mind; they deftroy the body's health, ftrength, and good conftitution, whereby the body is made a fit habitation for the foul; and they befot, dull and ftupify the mind: fleshly lufts do war against the foul, 1 Pet. ii. 11. It is a miferable thing to think, that as fome men by the exercise of reafon and the prac