about me; sin creeps upon me in every thing that I do or suffer. When I do well, I am apt to be proud; when I do amiss, I am sometimes too confident, sometimes affrighted: if I see others do amiss, I either neglect them, or grow too angry; and in the very mortification of my anger, I grow angry and peevish. My duties are imperfect, my repentances little, my passions great, my fancy trifling: the sins of my tongue are infinite, and my omissions are infinite, and my evil thoughts cannot be numbered, and I cannot give an account concerning innumerable portions of my time which were once in my power, but were let slip, and were partly spent in sin, partly thrown away upon trifles and vanity and even of the basest sins, of which in accounts of men I am most innocent, I am guilty before thee, entertaining those sins in little instances, thoughts, desires, and imaginations, which I durst not produce into action and open significations. Blessed Jesus, pity me and have mercy upon my infirmities.

:

III.

Teach me, O Lord, to walk before thee in righteousness, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Give me an obedient will, a loving spirit, an humble

understanding, watchfulness over my thoughts, deliberation in all my words and actions, well-tempered passions, and a great prudence, and a great zeal, and a great charity, that I may do my duty wisely, diligently, holily: O let me be humbled in my infirmities, but let me be also safe from my enemies; let me never fall by their violence, nor by my own weakness; let me never be overcome by them, nor yet give myself up to folly and weak principles, to idleness, and secure, careless walking; but give me the strengths of thy Spirit, that I may grow strong upon the ruins of the flesh, growing from grace to grace, till I become a perfect man in Christ Jesus. O let thy strength be seen in my weakness; and let thy mercy triumph over my infirmities; pitying the condition of my nature, the infancy of grace, the imperfection of my knowledge, the transportations of my passion. Let me never consent to sin, but for ever strive against it, and every day prevail, till it be quite dead in me; that thy servant, living the life of grace, may at last be admitted to that state of glory, where all my infirmities shall be done away, and all tears be dried up, and sin and death shall be no more. Grant this, O most gracious God and Father, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Our Father, &c.

For unless the Spirit of God rule in our hearts, we are none of Christ's: but he rules not where the works of the flesh are frequently, or maliciously, or voluntarily entertained. All the works of the flesh, All the works of the flesh, and whatsoever leads to them, all that is contrary to the Spirit, and does either grieve or extinguish him, must be rescinded, and utterly taken away. Concerning which, it is necessary that I set down the catalogues, which by Christ and his apostles are left us as lights and watch-towers, to point out the rocks and quicksands where our danger is : and this I shall the rather do, not only because they comprehend many evils which are not observed or feared; some which are commended, and many that are excused; but also because, although they are all marked with the same black character of death, yet

a

Matt. xv. 19. Mark vii. 21. Gal. v. 16, 19–21. Eph. iv.

there is some difference in the execution of the sentence, and in the degrees of their condemnation, and of the consequent repentance.

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Evil Thoughts; or Discoursings.

oi

2. Διαλογισμοὶ οἱ κακοὶ, “ evil reasonings." Διαλογισμοὶ αδολεσχίαι, says Hesychius, that is, prating" importune prattling and looseness of tongue, such as is usual with bold boys and young men; prating much and to no purpose. But our Bibles read it "evil thoughts," "or surmisings;" for in Scripture it is ovvexns peλérn so Suidas observes concerning adoλeoxía, and adoλeoxhow, that is, αδολεσχία, αδολεσχήσω, dinveks μeλethow, "to think long and carefully, to dwell in meditation upon a thing" to which when our blessed Saviour adds κakoì, " evil," he notes and reproves such kind of morose thinkings and fancying of evil things: and it is not unlikely that he means thoughts of uncleanness, or lustful fancies. For διαλέγεσθαι τὸ συνουσιάζειν, saith Suidas: ἐπὶ rò avvovoiásεiv, says Hesychius; it signifies such words as are prologues to wantonness: so διαλέ youro yuvaiiv in Aristophanes.

Τὴν μέν γε πρώτην διαλέγουσαν τὴν ὁπὴν Κατέλαβον, ἡ τοῦ Πάνὸς ἐστὶ τὸ αὔλιον. LYSISTRAT. 31, &c. v. 3 5. 2 Tim. iii. 2-5. Rom. i. 29-32. 1 Cor. vi. 9 Rev. xxi. 8. 1 Pet. iv. 3. 15.

"unchaste," but for "great," and "excessive." Пliovés elow ȧoελywç, “They are exceeding fat:" and a goat with great horns is called ἀσελγικέ pwc. It is "luxuria" or the excess of desire in the matter of pleasures. Every excess is ȧoéλyɛta, it is "intemperance:" ȧkadapoía signifies a special kind of crime under this. It means all voluntary pollutions of the body, or

Wantonness.

Whisperers.

12. That is, such who are apt to do shrewd turns in private; a speaking evil of our neighbour in a man's ear; "Hic nigræ succus loliginis, hæc est Ærugo mera;" this is an arrow that flieth in the dark; it wounds secretly, and no man can be warned of it. Karaláλovç, "backbiters;" it is the same mischief, but it speaks out a little more than the other; and it denotes such who pretend friendship and society, but yet traduce their friend, or accuse

Chironomon Ledam molli saltante Bathyllo..

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which being presented in the theatre would make the vestal wanton. Every thing by which a man or woman is kakòç тà έρwriкà, “ abominable in their lusts;" to which the rà äppŋra, “ the lusts not to be named," are reducible: amongst which St. Paul reckons the "effeminate, and abusers of themselves with mankind;" that is, they that do, and they that suffer such things. Philoctetes and Paris; Cæsar and the king of Pontus. "Mollities" or "softness" is the name by which this vice is known, and the persons guilty of it, are also called the ¿Edɛλvyμévoɩ, "the abominable." d

Hatred.

10. 'Exopa Kai vuoì; great, but transient angers. The cause, and the degree, and the abode, make the anger criminal. By these two words are forbidden all violent passion, fury, revengefulness. Expòc & ἐκδικήτης, "The enemy and the avenger,' says David. But not this only, but the misliking and hating of a man, though without actual designs of hurting him, is here noted; that is, when men retain the displeasure, and refuse to converse, or have any thing to do with the man, though there be from him no danger of damage, the former experiment being warning enough. The forbearing to salute him, to be kind or civil to him, and every degree of anger that is kept, is an expà, a part of " enmity" | or "hatred." To this are reduced the unmerciful; that is, such as use their right in extreme severity towards servants and malefactors, criminal or obnoxious persons;—and the implacable, that is a degree beyond; such who being once offended, will take no satisfaction, but the utmost and extremest forfeiture.

Debate, Contentions.

11. That is, all striving in words or actions, scolding and quarrels, in which as commonly both parties are faulty when they enter, so it is certain they cannot go forth from them without having contracted the guilt of more than one sin: whither is reduced clamour, or loud expressions of anger: "Clamour is the horse of anger," said Chrysostom, "anger rides upon it; throw the horse down, and the rider will fall to the ground." Blasphemy ;— "backbiting" we read it; but the Greek signifies all words that are injurious to God or man. Eph. iv. 31.

a John xxi. 8.

e

f Hor.

τας, ἀλλ ̓ ἐπαινοῦντας λυμαίνεσθαι, as Polybius calls it; "a new way of accusation, to undermine a man by praising him," that you seeming his friend, a lover of his virtue and his person, by praising him may be the more easily believed in reporting his faults: like him in Horace, who was glad to hear any good of his old friend Capitolinus, whom he knew so well, who had so kindly obliged him,

Sed tamen admiror quo pacto judicium illud
Fugerit:

"but yet I wonder that he escaped the judge's sentence in his criminal cause." There is a louder kind of this evil, v¤pɩσraç, “railers ;" that is, when the smoke is turned into a flame, and breaks out; it is the same iniquity with another circumstance; it is the vice of women and boys, and rich imperious fools, and hard rude masters to their servants, and it does too often infect the spirit and language of a governor. Our Bibles read this word by “despiteful;" that notes an aptness to speak spiteful words, cross and untoward, such which we know will do mischief or displease.

a

Foolishness.

13. Which we understand by the words of St. Paul; "Be not foolish, but understanding what the will of the Lord is :"8 it means, a neglect of inquiring into holy things; a wilful or careless ignorance of the best things, a not studying our religion, which indeed is the greatest folly and sottishness, it being neglecting of our greatest interests, and of the most excellent notices, and it is the fountain of many impure emanations. A christian must not be ȧσúveros, he must not call “fool,” nor be “a fool.”—“ Heady” is reduced to this, and signifies, rash and indiscreet in assenting and dissenting; people that speak and do foolishly, because they speak and do without deliberation.

Pride.

14. Καταφρόνησίς τις πλὴν αὐτοῦ τῶν ἄλλων· "a despising of others, if compared with ourselves:" so Theophrastus calls it. Concerning which we are to judge ourselves by the voices of others, and by the consequent actions observable in ourselves : any thing whereby we overvalue ourselves, or despise others; preferring ourselves, or depressing them in unequal places or usages, is the signification of this vice; which no man does heartily think himself guilty of, but he that is not; that is, the Eph. v. 17. Prov. xxiv 9.

humble man. A particular of this sin is that which is in particular noted by the apostle, under the name of aλa ovela," arrogance," or " bragging;" which ἀλαζονεια, includes pride and hypocrisy together: for so Plato defines it to be, ἕξις προσποιητικὴ τῶν ἀγαθῶν μὴ ὑπαρχόντων, a pretending to excellencies which we have not ;" a desiring to seem good, but a carelessness of being so; reputation and fame, not goodness, being the design. To this may be referred "emulations;" λo, so the apostle calls them; “zeals,” it signifies immoderate love to a lawful object: like that of the wife of Ajax in Sophocles:

ἴδετε τὴν ὁμευνέτιν

Αίαντος, ös · μέγιστον ἴσχυσε στρατοῦ,
Οἵας λατρείας ἀνθ ̓ ὅσου ζήλου τρέφει !

She did him most strange, zealous services, as if her affection had no measure. It signifies also violent desires of equalling or excelling another for honour's sake, ambition and envy mixed together: it is a violent pursuit after a thing that deserves it not. A consequent of these is,

Διχοστασίαι, αἱρέσεις. Seditions, or Schisms and Heresies.

15. That is, divisions in the church upon diversity of opinions, or upon pride, faction, and interest, as in choosing bishops, in prelations and governments ecclesiastical, from factious rulers, or factious subjects; which are properly" schisms," "but use commonly to belch forth into heresy :" according to that saying, "Plerumque schisma in hæresin eructat."

An Evil Eye.

16. That is, a repining at the good of others;

envy," a not rejoicing in the prosperity of our neighbour; a grieving because he grieves not. "Aut illi nescio quid incommodi accidit, aut nescio cui aliquid boni:" When good happens to another, it is as bad as if evil happened to himself.

Ὦ τῆς μεγίστης του φθόνου πονηρίας

Τὸν εὐτυχῆ μισεῖ τις, ὃν Θεὸς φιλεῖ. STOB.

"This is one of the worst crimes, for a man to hate him that is prosperous; hate him whom God loves or blesses."-It-bears part of its punishment along with it: the sin hath in it no pleasure, but very much torment.

18. That is, such who invade the offices, or impertinently obtrude their advice and help, when there is no need, and when it is not liked, nor out of charity, but of curiosity, or of a trifling spirit: and this produces" talking of others," and makes their conversation a scene of censure and satire against others; never speaking of their own duty, but often to the reproach of their neighbours, something that may lessen or disparage him.

The Fearful, and the Unbelievers.

19. That is, they that fear man more than God, that will do any thing, but suffer nothing, that fall away in persecution; such who dare not trust the promises, but fear want, and fear death, and trust not God with cheerfulness, and joy, and confidence. ZUVEVOOKOUνTES Tоiç πрáσσoval. They that take plea

sure in those that do these things.

20. That is, they who in any sense encourage, or promote, or love the sin of another, are guilty themselves; not of the other's sin, but of their own. He that commands a man to swear, is not guilty of that swearing, but of that commanding him. It is a sin to do so; but that sin to which the man is encouraged, or tempted, or assisted, in his own sin, and for it he is to repent; every man for his own. For it is inartificially said by the masters of moral theology, that by many ways we are guilty of the sins of others : by many ways indeed we can procure them to sin; and every such action of ours is a sin, against charity and the matter of that commandment in which the temptation was instanced: but their sin is not ours; their sin does not properly load us, neither does our being author of it excuse them. It was the case of Adam, and Eve, and the serpent, who yet did every one bear their own burden. Aristotle, Zeno, and Chrysippus, were notorious in this kind. "Non est enim immunis à scelere, qui ut fieret imperavit, nec est alienus à crimine, cujus consensu licèt à se non admissum crimen, tamen publicè legitur," said St. Cyprian. He that commands, and he that consents, and he that delights, and he that commends, and he that maintains, and he that counsels, and he that tempts, or conceals, or is silent in another's i Alex. Aphrod. in lib. de Anim. * Epist 21