ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

Rules for Suppreffing Voluptuousness.

The precepts and advices which are of beit and of general ufe in the curing of fenfuality are these :

1. Accuftom thy felf to cut off all fuperfluity in the provifions of thy life; for our defires will enlarge beyond the prefent poffeffion, fo long as all the things of this world are unfatisfying: if therefore you fuffer them to extend beyond the measures of neceffity or moderated conveniency, they will ftill fwell: but you reduce them to a little compafs, when you make nature to be your limit. We must more take care that Defideria our defires fhould ceafe, than that they fhould be fatis- tua parvo fied, and therefore reducing them to narrow fcantlings enim, tanredime, hoc and fmall proportions is the best inftrument to redeem tom curare their trouble, and prevent the dropfie, because that is finant. Se next to an univerfal denying them: is is certainly a nec. paring off from them all unreasonableness and irregularity. For whatsoever covets unfecmly things, and is Lib. 3. Ethapt to fwell to an inconvenient bulk, is to be chaftened cap. 12. and tempered: and fuch are fenfuality, and a Boy, faid the Philofopher.

debes ut de

initia affe&uum pro

2. Supprefs your fenfual defires in their firft ap- Facilius eft proach; for then they are leaft, and thy faculties and election are stronger; but if they in their weakness hibere prevail upon thy ftrengths, there will be no refifting quam im. them when they are increafed, and thy abilities leffen-perum re ed. You shall fcarce obtain of them to end, if you fuffer ep. 86. them to begin.

gere. Senes.

3. Divert them with fome laudable employment, and take off their edge by inadvertency, or a not attending to them. For fince the faculties of a man cannot at the fame time with any sharpness attend to two objects, if you employ your fpirit upon a book or a bodily labour, or any innocent and indifferent employment, you have no room left for the present trouble of a fenfual temptation. For to this fence it was that Alexander told the Queen of Caria, that his Tu- Noxopla tor Leonidas had provided two Cooks for him [Hard add's marches star

E 3

[ocr errors]

Seneca.

marches all night, and a small dinner the next day:] thefe tamed his youthful aptneffes to diffolution, fo long as he eat of their Provisions.

Læta venire Venus, trifis abire folet.

4. Look upon pleasures not upon that fide that is next the Son, or where they look beauteously, that is, as they come towards you to be enjoyed; for then they paint and smile, and dress themselves up in tinfel and glass gems and counterfeit iVoluptates abeuntes feffis & pœnitentiâ plenas animis noftris natura fub- magery; but when thou haft rifled jicit, quò minùs cupidè repetantur. and discompofed them with enjoying their falfe beauties, and that they begin to go off, then behold them in their nakedness and wearinefs See what a figh and forrow, what naked unhandfome proportions and a filthy carcafe they difcover; and the next time they counterfeit, remember what you have already difcovered, and be no more abused. And I have known fome wife perfons have advised to cure the paffions and longings of their children by letting them taste of every thing they paffionately fancyed; for they fhould be fure to find lefs in it than they looked for, and the impatience of their being denied would be loofened and made flack; and when our wifhings are no bigger than the thing deferves, and our ufages of them according to our needs, (which may be obtained by trying what they are, and what good they can do us) we fhall find in all pleasure fo little entertainment, that the vanity of the poffeffion will foon reprove the violence of the appetite. And if this permiffion be in innocent inftances, it may be of good ufe: But Solomon tried it in all things, taking his fill of all pleasures, and foon grew weary of them all. The fame thing we may do by reafon which we do by experience, if either we will look upon pleasures as we are fure they look when they go off, after their enjoyment; or if we will credit the experience of thofe men who have tafted them and loathed them.

5. Often confider and contemplate the joys of Hea❤ ven, that when they have filled thy defires which are the fails of the Soul, thou may'st steer only thither

and

and never more look back to Sodom. And when thy foul dwells above, and looks down upon the pleafures of the world, they feem, like things at diftance, little and contemptible, and men running after the fatisfaction of their fottifh appetites feem foolith as fifhes, thousands of them running after a rotten worm that covers a deadly hook, or at the best but like children with great noife purfuing a bubble rifing from a walnut-fhell, which ends fooner than the noise.

6. To this the example of Chrift and his Apoftles, of Mofes and all the Wifemen of all ages of the World will much help; who understanding how to diftinguifh good from evil did chufe a fad and melancholy way to Felicity, rather than the broad, pleasant and eafie path to folly and mifery.

But this is but the general. Its first particular is Temperance.

SECT. II.

Of Temperance in Eating and Drinking.

ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν

μίας.

Sobriety is the bridle of the paffions of defire, and Exprus, Temperance is the bit and curb of that bridle, a pár é reftraint put into a man's mouth, a moderate ufe of meat and drink, fo as may best confift with our health, and may not hinder but help the works of the Soul by its neceffary fupporting us, and miniftring chearfulness and refreshment.

Temperance confifts in the actions of the Soul principally for it is a grace that chufes natural means in order to proper and natural and holy ends: It is exercifed about eating and drinking, because they are neceffary; but therefore it permits the ufe of them only as they minifter to lawful ends; it does not eat and drink for pleasure, but for need, and for refreshment, which is a part or a degree of need. I deny not but eating and drinking may be, and in healthful bodies always is, with pleasure; because there is in nature no greater pleasure than that all the appetites which God hath

E 4

made

made fhould be fatisfied: and a man may chufe a morfel that is pleasant, the less pleasant being rejected as being lefs ufeful, lefs apt to nourish, or more dif greeing with an infirm ftomach; or when the day is festival by order, or by private joy. In all these cafes it is permitted to receive a more free delight, and to defign it too as the lefs principal: that is, that the chief reafon why we chufe the more delicious, be the ferving that end for which fuch refreshments and choices are permitted. But when delight is the only end, and refts it felf and dwells there long, then eating and drinking is not a ferving of God, but an inordinate Action; because it is not in the way to that end whither God directed it. But the chufing of a delicate before a more ordinary difh, is to be done ás other humane Actions are, in which there are no degrees and precife natural limits defcribed, but a latitude is indulged; it must be done moderately, prudently, and according to the Accounts of wife, religious and fober men: and then God who gave us fuch variety of creatures, and our choice to ufe which we will, may receive glory from our temperate ufe, and thanksgiving, and we may use them indifferently without fcruple, and a making them to become fnares to us, either by too licentious and ftudied ufe of them, or too reftrained and fcrupulous fear of ufing them at all, but in fuch certain circumftances in which no man can be fure he is not mistaken.

But Temperance in meat and drink is to be estimated by the following Measures.

Measures of Temperance in Eating.

1. Eat not before the time, unless neceffity, or charity, or any intervening accident, which may make it reafonable and prudent, fhould happen. Remember it had almoft coft Jonathan his life, because he tafted a little honey before the Sun went down, contrary to the King's Commandment; and although a great need, which he had, excufed him from the fin of gluttony,

yet

yet it is inexcufable when thou eateft before the ufual time, and thrufteft thy hand into the dish unfeafonably, out of greediness of the pleasure, and impatience of the delay.

2. Eat not baftily and impatiently, but with such decent, and timely Action, that your eating be a humane act, fubject to deliberation and choice, and that you may confider in the eating: whereas he that eats haftily, cannot confider particularly of the circumftances, degrees, and little accidents and chances that happen in his meal; but may contract many little undecencies, and be fuddenly furprised.

3. Eat not delicately or nicely, that is, be not troublefome to thy felf or others in the choice of thy meats or the delicacy of thy fauces. It was imputed as a fin to the fons of Ifracl, that they loathed Manna and longed for flefh: the quails ftuck in their noftrills, and the wrath of God fell upon them. And for the manner of dreffing, the Sons of Eli were noted of undifcret curiofity, they would not have the flesh boiled, but raw, that they might roaft it with fire. Not that it was a fin to eat it, or defire meat roafted; but that when it was appointed to be boiled, they refused it: which declared an intemperate and a nice Palate. It is lawful in all fenfes to comply with a weak and a nice ftomach: but not with a nice and curious Palate. When our health requires it, that ought to be provided for, but not fo our fenfuality and intemperate longings. Whatsoever is set before you, eat; if it be provided for you, you may eat it, be it never fo delicate; and be it plain and common, fo it be wholesome and fit for you, it must not be refufed upon curiosity, for every degree of that is a degree of intemperance. Happy and innocent were the Felix initium prior setas contenta dulcibus arvis, ages of our forefathers, Facileque fera folebat jejunia folvere glande. who ate herbs and par- Arbuteos fœtus, montanáque fraga legebant. ched-corn, and drank the

Boeth 1. 1. de Confol.

pure ftream, and broke their faft with nuts and roots; and when they were permitted flesh, ate it only dreffed with hunger and fire; and the firft fauce they had was bitter herbs, and fometimes bread dipt in

vinegar,

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »