Rules for fuppreffing Voluptuousness.

The precepts and advices which are of beit and of general use in the curing of sensuality are these :

1. Accustom thy self to cut off all superfluity in the provisions of thy life; for our desires will enlarge beyond the present possession, so long as all the things of this world are unsatisfying: if therefore you suffer them to extend beyond the measures of necessity or moderated conveniency, they will still swell: but you reduce them to a little compass, when you make nature to be your limit. We must more take care that Desideri our desires should cease, than that they should be fatis-tua parvo fied, and therefore reducing them to narrow scantlings enim, tanredime, hoc and small proportions is the best instrument to redeem tom curare their trouble, and prevent the dropsie, because that is finant. Se next to an universal denying them: is is certainly a nec. paring off from them all unreasonableness and irregularity. For whatsoever covets unsecmly things, and is Lib. 3. Eth. apt to swell to an inconvenient bulk, is to be chastened cap. 12. and tempered: and such are sensuality, and a Boy, faid the Philofopher.

debes ut de

initia affe

2. Suppress your sensual desires in their first ap-Facilius eft proach; for then they are least, and thy faculties and tuum proelection are stronger; but if they in their weakness hibere prevail upon thy strengths, there will be no refifting quàm imthem when they are increased, and thy abilities lessen- gere. Senec. ed. You shall scarce obtain of them to end, if you suffer ep. 86. them to begin.

petum re

3. Divert them with some laudable employment, and take off their edge by inadvertency, or a not attending to them. For since the faculties of a man cannot at the same time with any sharpness attend to two objects, if you employ your spirit upon a book or a bodily labour, or any innocent and indifferent employment, you have no room left for the present trouble of a sensual temptation. For to this sence it was that Alexander told the Queen of Caria, that his Tu- Νυκλιπορίαν tor Leonidas had provided two Cooks for him [Hard καὶ ὀλιγαρε marches sías.

marches all night, and a small dinner the next day: these tamed his youthful aptnesses to dissolution, so long as he eat of their Provisions.

4. Look upon pleasures not upon that side that is next the Son, or where they look beauteoufly, that is, as they come towards you to be enjoyed; for then they paint and smile, and dress themselves up in tinsel and glafs gems and counterfeit itentia plenas animis noftris naturatub magery; but when thou hast rifled jicit, quò minùs cupidè reperantur. and discomposed them with enjoyLata venire Venus, trifis abire ing their false beauties, and that they begin to go off, then behold them in their nakedness and weari

Voluptates abeuntes feffas & pœni

Seneca.

folet.

ness See what a figh and forrow, what naked unhandsome proportions and a filthy carcase they discover; and the next time they counterfeit, remember what you have already discovered, and be no more abused. And I have known some wife persons have advised to cure the paffions and longings of their children by letting them taste of every thing they paffionately fancyed; for they should be sure to find less in it than they looked for, and the impatience of their being denied would be loosened and made slack; and when our wishings are no bigger than the thing deserves, and our usages of them according to our needs, (which may be obtained by trying what they are, and what good they can do us) we shall find in all pleasure so little entertainment, that the vanity of the poffeffion will foon reprove the violence of the appetite. And if this permiffion be in innocent instances, it may be of good use: 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 reason 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 those men who have tafted them and loathed them.

5. Often consider 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 seem, like things at distance, little and contemptible, and men running after the fatisfaction of their fottish appetites seem foolith as fishes, thousands of them running after a rotten worm that covers a deadly hook, or at the best but like children with great noise pursuing a bubble rising from a walnut-shell, which ends sooner than the noise.

6. To this the example of Christ and his Apostles, of Mofes and all the Wisemen of all ages of the World will much help; who understanding how to diftinguish good from evil did chuse a fad and melancholy way to Felicity, rather than the broad, pleasant and easie path to folly and misery.

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

SECT. II.

Of Temperance in Eating and Drinking.

ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν

Sobriety is the bridle of the passions of defire, and "Εγκράτεια, Temperance is the bit and curb of that bridle, a κράτει ἔχειν

μίαν.

restraint put into a man's mouth, a moderate use of τὴν ἐπιθυ meat and drink, so as may best consist with our health, and may not hinder but help the works of the Soul by its necessary supporting us, and ministring chearfulness and refreshment.

Temperance consists in the actions of the Soul principally: for it is a grace that chuses natural means in order to proper and natural and holy ends: It is exercised about eating and drinking, because they are necef sary; but therefore it permits the use of them only as they minister to lawful ends; it does not eat and drink for pleasure, but for need, and for refreshment, which is a partor 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 made

E 4

made should be satisfied: and a man may chuse a morsel that is pleasant, the less pleasant being rejected as being less useful, less apt to nourish, or more dif greeing with an infirm stomach; or when the day is festival by order, or by private joy. In all these cases it is permitted to receive a more free delight, and to design it too as the less principal: that is, that the chief reason why we chuse the more delicious, be the serving that end for which such refreshments and choices are permitted. But when delight is the only end, and rests it self and dwells there long, then eating and drinking is not a serving of God, but an inordinate Action; because it is not in the way to that end whither God directed it. But the chusing of a delicate before a more ordinary dish, is to be done as other humane Actions are, in which there are no degrees and precise natural limits described, but a latitude is indulged; it must be done moderately, prudently, and according to the Accounts of wife, religious and sober men: and then God who gave us such variety of creatures, and our choice to use which we will, may receive glory from our temperate use, and thanksgiving, and we may use them indifferently without fcruple, and a making them to become snares to us, either by too licentious and studied use of them, or too restrained and scrupulous fear of using them at all, but in such certain circumstances in which no man can be sure 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, should happen. Remember it had almost cost Jonathan his life, because he tasted a little honey before the Sun went down, contrary to the King's Commandment; and although a great need, which he had, excused him from the fin of gluttony,

yet

yet it is inexcufable when thou eatest before the usual time, and thrustest thy hand into the dish unseasonably, out of greediness of the pleasure, and impatience of the delay.

2. Eat not hastily and impatiently, but with such decent, and timely Action, that your eating be a humane act, subject to deliberation and choice, and that you may consider in the eating: whereas he that eats hastily, cannot consider particularly of the circumstances, degrees, and little accidents and chances that happen in his meal; but may contract many little undecencies, and be suddenly surprised.

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 sauces. It was imputed as a fin to the fons of Ifracl, that they loathed Manna and longed for flesh: the quails stuck in their nostrills, and the wrath of God fell upon them. And for the manner of dreffing, the Sons of Eli were noted of undiscret curiosity, they would not have the flesh boiled, but raw, that they might roast it with fire. Not that it was a fin to eat it, or defire meat roasted; 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 senses to comply with a weak and a nice stomach: but not with a nice and curious Palate. When our health requires it, that ought to be provided for, but not fo our sensuality and intemperate longings. Whatsoever is fet before you, eat; if it be provided for you, you may eat it, be it never so delicate; and be it plain and common, so it be wholesome and fit for you, it must not be refused upon curiosity, for every degree of that is a degree of intemperance. Happy and innocent were the Felix initium prior ætas contenta dulcibus arvis, ages of our forefathers, Facileque sera solebat jejunia folvere glande. who ate herbs and par- Arbuteos fœtus, montanique fraga legebant. ched-corn, and drank the

:

Boeth. 1. 1. de Confol.

pure stream, and broke their fast with nuts and roots; and when they were permitted flesh, ate it only dressed with hunger and fire; and the first sauce they had was bitter herbs, and sometimes bread dipt in vinegar,