observe no mean or moderation therein according to the Rules of Religion and right Reason neglect their own health and in a very great measure for ought they know concur to the shortning of their own dayes Oh but say the Gluttons and Drunkards too Meat and Drink expel Hunger which in a short time would kill us they satisfie and support Nature Nature requires them It Is true Experience teaches the same But what saiâ—h the Psalmist Psalm 93. v. 8. Intelligit insipientes in populo stulti aliquando sapite Vnderstand ye unwise among the People yea Fools at length be Wise and learn to distinguish betwixt the Thing and the abuse of the Thing The Thing you speak of is good necessary lawful but the abuse of it is wicked and destable We allow you the use of Meat and Drink in that due measure which Nature requires and with that Moderation which Religion and the due Fear of God prescribes but you abuse it you observe no measure but run into all Excess and Intemperance and that we forbid you That we tell you is hurtful both to Body and Soul we tell you that if you exceed due measure you weaken Nature instead of strengthening it and pull it down by that which you pretend should support it For most true and worthy of all belief is that Admonition of the Holy Father Saint Chrysostom Take heed of Excess saith he meaning in Eating and Drinking for the nature of Earth is not more soon and easily corrupted and dissolved with the abundance of continual Rain and Water than this humane frail Bo-Body of Man is by the Excess and Intemperate use of Meat and Drink Know then ye Wine-bibbers ye Drunkards of Ephraim know that Wine and Meat and Drink are by the mercy and special Favour of God given to us not that we should abuse them or be made Drunk by them but that we may live Soberly Sect. 2. Drunkenness or rather the Excess of Meat and Drink is the Corruption of the Soul Saint Augustin with diverse others of the Ancient Fathers treating of the Sin of Drunkenness do frequently acknowledge what we here affirm to wit that this Vice of Intemperate Drinking is the Corâ—uption of the Soul Ebrietas aniâ—ae corruptela being a Disposition â—s it were or Testimony given in â—avour of Truth not unfrequently â— either in terms or in sense met with in their Works But for more â—lear proceeding we are to know there is a two-fold Corruption to be taken notice of in this case to wit Proper and Improper Substantial or Corruption of Substance and Accidental or Corruption only of Qualities and Manners In the first sense viz. of Substantial Corruption the Soul cannot be Corrupted because it is by Nature a Spirit Incorruptible and Immortal But in the second sense viz. of Corruption Accidental Corruption in respect of Qualities and Manners it may be and is too often Corrupted Sin Corrupts it Vice Corrupts it when it loseth the Grace of God or the Innocency and Holiness which it had pleased God to indue her withal then it becomes Corrupted Now this wicked Sin of Drunkenness being in the rank of Deadly Sin when it seizeth upon the Soul must needs Stain Poison and Corrupt the same depriving her of Grace and the State of Innocency It is like a Plague which so soon as it infects the Soul Spirituaâ— Life ceaseth and the Soul appears in the sight of God odious and ugly For a Dead Carcass or a Body overspread with Ulcers and Putrified Sores for the most part stinketh or sendeth forth some unpleasant smell that is loathsome to behold so is the Soul of a Drunkard it is Spiritually Dead and so Corrupted and Tainted with the Ulcers of Actual Sin that it appears most Loathsome and Deformed in the Sight of God his Angels and Saints We commonly see by experience that the Plague into what House soever it comes makes all the Inhabitants flie and shuts them out of doors in the same manner doth â—his Plague of Drunkenness it no sooner enters the Soul but the Grace of God departs it no sooner enters out at the same instant it expels all good Motions and Inspirations baâ—ishes and drives away the Holy Ghost with all its Graces Vertues â—nd Pious Desires infecting or making ungrateful and unacceptable even all the good Works done by such a Person which otherwise might be meritorious of Eternal Life So that in conclusion the Soul being thus devested of all her Spiritual Ornaments and Graces how can she appear otherwise than wholly deformed and corrupted in the sight of the Celestial Court Saint Basil gives Drunkenness the Character of a bewitching Devil a pleasant Poyson for to take and a pleasant Sin to commit But says he whosoever holds the same cannot hold himself and whosoever is taken by it may be said not so much to Sin as to be Sin it self because his condition renders him subject to all Sin and he is readily to be reduced to all manner of Wickedness In conclusion saith this Father the Sin of Drunkenness is worse than that of Theft Theeves commonly leave something behind them they do not always strip or leave naked those whom they Rob. But Drunkenness deprives of all Grace takes away all whatsoever is of Spiritual Nature or Ornament strips us of all our Heavenly Cloathing and leaves the poor Soul as Naked and void of all True Grace and Merit as when it came first into the World Theeves when they have got their Prey usually run away or make all the haste they can to be gone But Drunkenness sticks close holds fast and without all mercy prosecutes the poor despoiled Soul to the last even till her Death I add moreover that if a Man be taken by Theeves he may cry out he may hope to be rescued from them or at least if he sees himself in danger of Life he may call upon God and beg pardon of his Sins he has time to dispose himself for Death by an Act of Contrition and True Repentance by which means though he cannot save his Life yet at least he may save his Soul which Drunkenness will not permit to do being in that regard worse than any Sin but the Sin against the Holy a host For whotsoever kind of Sin Man commits be it of frailty be it of presumption be it mortal be it venial and happens presently upon it to find himself in eminen danger of Death yet at least by Gods Mercy he may have the Grace of Internal Repentance in Heart and Mind and perhaps also the External Help of the Church he may be Confess'd he may may receive the most Holy Communion he may have the last Sacrament Administred unto him But if one falls into present danger of Death while he is Drunk he can do none of these Drunkards while they are in their Drink are Senseless neither able in the least to help themselves nor capable to receive help from others I mean Spiritual Help and
Lewdness of Discourse and Speech Unchaste Looks Lascivious Gesture and from every thing in this kind by which the holy Temple of God our Body may come to be polluted in â—ny sort by carnal impurity Be it therefore known to all you Offenders in this kind that whoâ—ver defiles Gods Temple his Body â—y any actions of Fleshly Lust he â—oes in effect destroy himself as renâ—ring himself thereby obnoxious to â—he wrath of God which if not apâ—eas'd and averted by timely repentance will in the end be his destruction if you fear not by Sin to defile and destroy the houses of God which are your selves and your own Bodies expect in time to see Gods judgment upon the houses you dwell in at least you have cause to fear and dread what he threatens that you may amend your lives and cease from that Sin by which in the judgment of Saint Augustin You do foulely corrupt your selves dishonour and do injury to God and totally deface the Image of Christ that is in you SECTION III. By what means Carnal Concupiscence that is in the Heart and Inward Intentions cometh forth to Action SECT 1. By toleration of Seusual Complacency 2. By Wilful Delectation in the Lustful Objects 3. By Wilful Consent of performing the same Sect. 1 By toleration of Sensual Complacency DIvines observe That the Sins of Carnal Concupiscence have their proceeding occasionally from all the exteriour senses Sunt in quolibet sensu aliquae delectationes ad luxuriam spectantes In every particular sense of the Body there are delectations which pertain and tend to the Sin of Luxury applying to this purpose that which is spoken by the Prophet Hieremy chap. 9. 21. Ascendrt Mors per fenestras c. Death comes in at our Windows Understanding here by Windows our Five Senses viz. Seeing Hearing Touching Tasting and Smelling and by Death Sin which is the cause of Death and the meaning of the Text to be that by our Senses through inordinate Pleasure taken in them Sin enters into the Soul and Death by Sin from which the Opinion of Saint Antoninns and the Divines that follow him dissenteth not Who teach That in the proceeding or going forward of Carnal Concupiscence to its full and comple at act there are to he observ'd seven degrees or steps of which the three first are inclos'd in the heart and there exercised by inward imagination or fancy but the other four are out of the heart and exercised by the members and actions of the Body As to the first Step of Carnal Concupiscence it is the toleration of sensual complacency or a delightsome voluntary resting in lascivious Thoughts coming to mind either by natural occasion or by the temptation and suggestion of Satan an infirmity to which depraved Nature is too much subject and insinuated by the Apostle Saint James in that passage of his Jac. 1. 31. where he saith Nemo cum tentatur dicat c. Let no man when he is tempted say that he is tempted of God for God is not a tempter of evils and tempteth no man But every one is tempted of his own Concupiscence being therewith carried away and inticed Which Concupiscence when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin and sin when it is consummated genders death Concupiscence does then begin to carry us away from God when we suffer our mind to wander about such matters though without any intention to sin which the Prophet seems to express a little more plainly Isa 1. 16. where he saith Wash you and be clean Auferte malum cogitationum vestrarum c. Take away the evil of your thoughts from before mine eyes to wit those evil Thoughts with which you suffer your minds to be so taken up that you can find no time to think upon what I command you Cast such Thoughts out of your mind as soon as you can perceive them take no delight nor pleasure in them for though perhaps they are not alwaies sinful yet they are alwayes dangerous and will quickly lead you to sin if you rest in them I accknowledg it to be most true that though the Evil Spirit plies us and pursues us never so much with his suggestions and putting lascivious thoughts into our mind they can do us no harm so long as we resist them or give no consent to them but are rather matter of merit to us for so often as we do so we do foil Satan in his assault we repulse our Ghostly Enemy and get a Victory over him for which we may expect a Crown one day if we persever to the end But if we let his Suggestions evil Thoughts to rest in us and our mind to be taken up with them after relexion especially if it be with any sport or pleasure taken we do not fight with our Ghostly Enemy but play with him and that 's dangerous Temptation verily is no sin yet it serveth as the seed of sin to which Delectation giving nourishment sin at length comes forth by willing consent and then we are utterly lost till repentance restores us But having the grace to be free from complacency or delight-taking in evil thoughts and the care conscientious and diligent care to cast them out of your mind so soon as you percieve them or reflect upon what you are thinking fear not you are pure you are innocent you are clean how impure foul and nocent soever your thoughts be Consent not to them and the badder they are the better it shall be for you for the greater the Temptation is that you overcome the greater shall be your Victory and Crown Sudden and voluntary motions to whatsoever they incline are no sin according to that of Saint Paul Rom. 7. 17. Nunc autem jam non ego operor illud c. It is not I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me By which expressions as the Annotations observe the Apostle means That though the Flesh and the inferiour parts do stir up disorderly passions motions and perturbations in the mind on the sudden and invade the same before we are well aware of it or that reason can gather up it self to put them by by reason whereof man is for a while entangled with them against his will yet so long as upon reflexion he does perceive them and perceiving them does make what resistance he can against them condemning and casting them out of his mind and deverting himself to better Thoughts there is no fear nor scruple to be had of sin many just and holy persons suffering the like perturbations in the inferiour or sensitive part of their mind otherwise called the Phantasie and also in their exteriour members to which their Understanding and Will never consents which so long as we do not it is most true what Saint Augustin says viz. That we need not say God forgive us our sins for any contingencies of this nature and it ought to be a most certain and assured sign to us that we if do not consent to
brought to shore so expoâ—â—d to poverty and miseries that conâ—â—dering the matter well we may â—nclude and say that through Self-â—â—ve many chast Wedlocks are disturbâ—d many Poysons mingled producâ—â—g wicked effects that many Halâ—ers are put about the Necks of Self-â—â—vers many Swords drawn and â—any sad Tragedies begun in the night â—hat are ended at high-noon-day upon a Scaffold Oh how happy are thoâ— Souls which through the grace oâ— God are exempt and free from thâ— Vice of Self-lave which produceth sucâ— mischiefs and disasters in the world Let us therefore follow and use aâ— our endeavour to put in practice thâ— Wise Counsel of Solomon in thâ— Book of Ecclesiasticus Chap. 21. â— 2. As from the Face of a Serpent â—â— from sin fly from Self-love becausâ— as a Serpent comes slily upon us anâ— stingeth the Body so all sin anâ— consequently Self-love steals upon anâ— hurts the Soul SECT 4. The beginning and continuance of this pernicious Disease Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans giveth a true account of thiâ— old inveterate malady of our Souls saying Rom. 5. v. 12. Sicut per â—num hominem peccatum in hunc mundum intravit et per peccatum mors â—ta in omnes homines mors pertranâ—it in quo omnes peccaverunt As â—â— the Doctor of the Gentiles would â—ave said That sin which proceeds â—â—om Self-love as we have before â—emonstrated entred into this world â—rom the beginning and from the â—reation of the same by that sin of â—elf-love death passed unto all men â—n which they have all sinned for eâ—en in the Law of Nature sin was in â—he World from old and death did â—eign until Moses even on them that â—ad not actually sinn ed which is â—s much as to say that from Adam â—n the time of the Law of Nature â—here was sin in the world and â—hough in a manner they knew it not â—et this Spiritual Disease we speak of â—eigned even then as likewise in the â—ime of Moses when the Commandâ—ents or Law of God taught the conâ—rary to wit that God was displeasâ—d therewith and therefore men â—ught to avoid the same But by reason that all mankind were maculate with original sin they had no strengâ—â— of themselves-nor grace to be frâ—â— from Self-love So that thereupon sin did reign â—ver men and also death and damnaâ—tion by reason of Self-love Infant that did never actually offend beinâ— conceived and born in original sin were nevertheless lyable to death anâ— subject to all Spiritual Diseases anâ— to all the Maladies and Corruptions oâ— the Soul having their Nature defileâ— and destitute of Original Justice being averted from God by means of Adams transgression Christ only excepted who was conceived by thâ— Holy Ghost without the Seed of Man and his blessed Mother the Virgiâ— Mary who was preserved from contracting the guilt of original sin by special grace and the extraordinary perfection of God as many godly men judge but as for all the rest â—â— mankind they were born in a weak and sickly condition of Soul by reason of that sin ever since men were â—â—eated having been holden and torâ—ented by all sorts of Spiritual Diâ—â—empers even the most dangerous â—ost pestilent most violent and â—â—ntinual insomuch that by the â—â—me they were all subject to Satan â—â—d lyable to eternal sorrows they â—ere all made the Children of wrath â—e slaves of sin and every way most â—â—serable Yea these infectious â—â—seases came to such a height upon â—â—e whole race of mankind that â—â—e few only excepted they were â— swept away and perished in the â—â—neral Floud as is to be seen in â—enesis Chap. 7. v. 1 2. c. These most violent fits of sin and â—â—traordinary punishments for the â—â—me were not so soon passed over â—t many great pains and labours folâ—â—wed upon men and that for the â—ace of four hundred years together â—â—der the slavery of King Pharaoh â— the Land of Egypt after which â—â—ing delivered and freed from that cruel bondage they were soon afteâ— visited and afflicted with other grievous calamities and miseries for the space of more than Threescore Yeaâ— together to wit in the Babyloniâ— Captivity where the Royal Propheâ—â— David by the Spirit of Prophecy describes them lamenting and be moaning themselves Psalm 136. â— 1. Super flumina Babylonis illiâ— sedimus flevimus c. Vpoâ— the Rivers of Babylon there it wâ— that we sale and bewailed the aâ—flicted estate of Sion They could noâ— refrain to mourn remembring thâ— great calamities which for their siâ— God had brought even upon his owâ— Sanctuary How many other Feaverâ— sometimes continual sometimes intermitting how many heats of burning torments and pain how manâ— cold fits of desolation and want have men at several times been subject unto and made to undergo upoâ— this account Have we not heard â—â— those surprizes of sudden destructioâ— which came upon the people of Sodom â—nd Gomorrah and all the adjacent â—ountries when they were wholly â—onsumed by Fire as it is described â—en 19 v. 24. Do we not read also â—ow in the time of Elias the Prophet â—â—d at his Prayers Fire came down â—om Heaven and consumed those unâ—â—dly wretches that were sent to apâ—â—ehend him 4 Reg. 1. v. 10. How â—any cold and comfortless long fits of â—mine Pestilence and Mortality â—ere others exercised and plagued â—ith for their sinnes the Heavens â—ing so shut that it rained not for â—any years together and the earth â— parched with drought that it yieldâ—â— no water and people forced thereâ—â— in a languishing and perishing â—â—ndition to wander up and down â—â—king water to drink and finding â—e as we read Hierem. 14. 1 2 3. â— and in many other places of holy â—ipture In the sacred Gospel of Saint John â—hap 5. v. 5. we read of a man that had been diseased in body thâ— space of Thirty Eight Years in Hierusalem and had for a long time waâ—â—ed the stirring of the water there bâ— which an Angel from Heaven curâ— those which first came into the watâ—â— after the stirring of whatsoever â—â—sease they had This poor man hâ—â— lain there expecting his cure eigâ—â— and thirty years together being â—â— reason of his great weakness continâ—ally prevented by some other boâ—â— that stepped into the water befoâ—â— him and therefore deserved at lengâ—â— to be pittied by our Lord Jesus Chriâ—â— and cured by his Almighty Word aâ— Command But alass How muâ—â— more was the whole universal woâ—â— all mankind to be mourned for aâ— compassionated which had lain lâ—guishing not only the space of Thiâ— Eight Years but ever since the Crâ—â—tion of Adam that is by the accoâ—â—â— of some more than Five Thousâ—â—â— Six Hundred and Twenty Years â—â—ing all that time infected and contiâ—â—â—ly vexed with the feavor of original â—â— which lay upon all and every one â—â—d with a Thousand other actual diâ—â—empers maladies and diseases of the â—â—ul which held and afflicted parâ—â—cular persons some in one kind â—â—me
abominâ—ble in their doings There lies thâ— cause of their Distemper and shew whence it comes that they are suâ—â— fools and so besotted in their undeâ—standing They are men that drowâ— themselves in the multitude of theâ— iniquities that give themselves â—â— to all manner of sin and vice anâ— of such men it is not to be woâ—dred that they should be easily perfuaded to think and apt to say Therâ—â— is no God no Divine Providence that governs the World none thâ—â— shall judge the wicked actions oâ— men at the latter Day no Judgement to come no account to be given of what we say or do in thiâ— world For all this is natural to them and they hear such lies as these with much ease and delight How many besides these are â—here that daily injure and dishoâ—our God by making a God of their â—ellies through Glutteny and Drunâ—enness How many that with those wicked ones in Job ch 15. v. 25. Stretch out their hands against God â—nd think to strengthen themselves against the Almighty Such a one was â—hat Cassibes the Son of Cyrus who according to the relation of Herodoâ—us would never acknowledge any other God but himself a common Distemper of those mighty Asian and some other Monarchs being so notoriously wicked and impious in his proceedings as that where ever he came he caused all Temples or Places where God was invocated and worshiped to be burnt But as his impiety went not unpunished so let me say it once for all That nothing which these Blasphemers do either speak act or conspire contumeliously against God shall ever escape its due punishment Though you daily see and hear those that every moment and almost at every word profane his most holy and terrible Name by their Oaths and Swearing Though you hear so many Atheists taking the liberty to deny the Deity Providence Power Justice and Goodness of God Though you see so many Politicians and False Chirstians losing themselves in their dissolute lives and perjuring themselves in their Oaths whether by God by his Church by the Gospel of which they are in heart the greatest enemies or by any other kind of Oath though they seem to be very fortunate and prosperous for the present yet shall they not escape deserved punishment Divine Justice will find them out first or last in this world or in the next We see many sad examples how severely God Almighty hath from time to time punished such presumptuous and arrogant people so that we need not seek or take examples out of Holy Scripture to prove and verifie this evident Truth Let us â—ook but into this present age and we shall see that for the most part Those that blaspheme the name of God that rob and vilify his Church pollute and undervalue his holy Sacraments make unjust wars against his Holiness the true Vicar of Christ upon earth Those that take arms against their lawful Sovereings Kings Princes c. that persecute and put to death the true and lawful Ministers of Gods Church have for the most part died shamefully and perished miserably their bodies hanging dead in the aire as unworthy to have their Burial amongst good Christans and their poor souls carried into the deepest pit of Hell there to suffer torment for all Eternity which things ought to give great terror to those that meditate of the judgments of God and the punishment he inflicts upon the Blasphemers of his holy Name It is true God hath sometimes deferred to punish some of these sinnets expecting their happy repentance and conversion but some likewise he hath severely and suddenly punished inflicting pains presently upon their sin As for example he did to one Olimpius Bishop of Carthage who for Blaspheming the Holy and Divine Trinity was suddenly seized upon by a natural fire all over his Body which by little and little burnt and consumed him roaring amidst the excessive pains which he endured Anatolius a great Blasphemer of Christ in the year of our Lord 582 was exposed alive to wild Beasts and by them torn in pieces after which he was drawn to the Gallows and there hang'd all the rest of his Fellows being burnt in a little Ship by artificial fire and so perished both by water and fire Nicephorus lib. 17. cap. 4. says that Nestorius was such another to wit a Blasphemer of the holy Mother of God for which fault Divine Justice so ordaining it his Tongue was eaten with worms being yet alive by reason whereof he suffered extream horrible pain and at last died miserably The Spanish History written by Rodericus Sanctius and others makes mention of divers other like examples particularly of one Alphonsus a great Blasphemer who was suddenly punished by Divine Justice for saying That he could govern the world far better than God if he would undertake it Toletanus lib. 6. de Reb. Hisp saith that Datianus was for the like offence burnt and consumed by Fire from Heaven and that Gunderick was suddenly seized and strangled by the Devil as likewise were Alrorax Attilla and many others that for their blasphemies received present and horrible punishment from the hand of God Procopius lib. 1. de reb gest Belisar testifieth That Hunnerieâ— a most cruel King of the Vandals who was not only a great Blasphemer but also a great Persecutor of Christians was whilst actually Blaspheming suddenly taken with the Plague and died miserably in the place where he was struck Beside if you will take the pains to read Osorius lib. 20. chap. 3. in the Portugal Histories you will find that for the like Crimes the same or like death happened to the Lord of Ceâ—lis who died mad and raging in Blaspemies without end after he had plundered several Churches and burnt the Abbey of Saint Hubert Verily I could alledge here an infinite number of other like sad Examples but these may suffice to make us absolutely believe that never any obstinate and perverse Blasphemer had a happy end and that although some may seem to escape Vengeance in this world yet in the next wrath and indignation to the height will be their portion Sect. 2. Self-love looks alwayes at his own Interests in treating with Neighbours therefore prejudicial to them Having already shewn how God Almighty is vilified undervalued injur'd and blasphemed by the pernicious Disease of Self-love and the evil Effects proceeding from it if we will now consider things well we shall find that our Neighbours are no less injur'd wrong'd and prejudiced by the same because it makes men look at themselves and to seek only their own Self-ends and Interests upon all accounts and occasions as a learned Divine doth well observe saying That Self-love is alwayes in agitation alwayes acting against our Neighbour or against ones self Self-love never leaves our Neighbour long in peace but ever and anon is finding matter to trouble and vex him living almost in perpetual grudg with him and iâ— opposition to him either spiritual oâ— temporal what by
Fasting and Abstinence and bring it in subjection to the Spirit and for his Counsel he gives it in many places more particularly 1 Thes 5. v. 6. Non dormiamus sicut caeteri sed vigilemus sobrisimus Let us not sleep as others do but watch and be sober as if he had said we that are Apostles and Disciples of Christ we that are Christians let not us sleep as others as the wicked of the World do in all Sensualities and Prodigalities but let us watch and be sober for they that sleep saith he sleep in the night and they that are drunk are drunken in the night But we Apostles Disciples Christians we are of the day and ought to be sober having on the Brest-plate of Faith and Charity and for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation For which reason also he speaks to Titus his own and beloved Son according to the Common Faith telling him Tit. 2. v. 11 12. that the Grace of God had appeared to all Men instructing us all that denying impiety which as I shall shew hereafter comprehends Drunkenness Intemperancies and all the Excesses of Meat and Drink and Worldly Pleasures We should live Soberly Justly Piously in this present World Saint Matthew as Clemens of Alexandra reports of him abstained from all sorts of Meat Bread and Herbs only excepted and Water to Drink Saint James commonly stiled our Lords Brother never drank Wine nor Syder nor any Strong Drink nor in all his Life time did ever eat Flesh-meat as being a Nazarite from his Youth Saint Mark the Evangelist according to the report of Eusebius and Saint Hierom contented himself for Diet only with Bread Salt and Hysop and for his Drink with Water Saint Luke was not only in the number of Persons most Abstemious and Temperate but hath from our Saviours Mouth given us a very great Caveat to beware and to abhor all manner of Excess in Meats and Drinks Chap. 21. v. 34. of his Gospel in these words Attendite vobis ne forte graventur corda vestra in crapula ebrietate c. Look to your selves least perhaps your hearts be overcharged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness and the Cares of this Life and that day come upon you on a sudden And without doubt all the rest of the Apostles did the like without exception taking great Pains and Labours in Teaching and Preaching the Gospel to all Nations and all parts of the World but scarcely accepting their Victuals from them to whom they Preach'd that they might not be burdensome to any Of which Charity and Self-denial Saint Paul upon all occasions shewed himself a great Example writing thus to the Christians of Thessalonica Neque gratis panem ab aliquo c. sed in labore c. 2 Thes 3. 8. We have not eaten of any Mans Bread for nothing but with Labour and Travail we have wrought night and day that we might not be a burthen to any of you And to the Corinthans he protesteth that no Man should hinder him of this boasting in all the Regions of Achaia to wit of having Preached the Gospel to them freely and without putting them to any charge upon that account 2 Cor. 11. 7 8 9 10. Shewing the reason why he did so Non enim quae vestrae sunt quaero sed vos For I seek not yours but you Your Souls I seek I would gain â—hem to God and not any Tempoâ—al Profit to my self â—ect 3. Sobriety of the Ancient Fathers and of Religious Orders A third Motive to with-draw all â—hristians from the Vice of Intemâ—rance and Drunkenness and to â—â—duce them to Sobeiety may be â—e Consideration of the Ancient Faâ—â—ers who in their time were the â—stors and Governors of the Church â—â—d Presidents to their respective â—ocks in all sorts of Piety and Verâ—e whose Lives if they be well â—â—â—sulted and read it will appear they were not in any other kind more Eminent and Exemplary than in the Vertues of Temperance and Chastity being absolute Masters of both Appetites to wit of Gluttony and Lust As likewise it may be to consider both the primitive and present Practice of Religious Men and Women in their several Monasteries and Orders Hermits Anchorets and all sorts of Ascetiques in the Wilderness and in other places we shall find that Sobriety and Abstinence was their chiefest Study and Endeavour all of them Labouring unanimously to follow their Captain or Chief Leader and to please him who had called them to that Holy Estate of Life by Mortification and Pennance by Fasting and Abstinence and by a perfect or total subduing of all Cluttonous and Carnal Appetites to the Motions and Rule of Gods Spirit propounding to themselves herein the pattern of the Apostles of whom we have already spoken somewhat and of other Apostolical Men of whom we are now to speak And in this rank Saint Hilarion we think may not undeservedly be set in the first place either for his Age or Merit who embraced such strict Abstinence and Sobriety even from his Youth that by the relation of Saint Hierom when he was but fifteen years of age he would eat nothing but Bread and some few dry Figs. This course he held till he was about twenty or one and twenty years old from which till twenty four he satisfied himself with Lentils steep'd or moistened with Cold Water From twenty four to thirty his Food was Herbs and Roots unboiled which grew in the Wilderness From thirty to thirty five he lived with Barley-bread and Herbs without Oyl at which time finding a kind of dimness and obscuriry in his sight with a continual itching all over his Body he used with his Herbs and Roots some little quantity of Salt and Oyl Thus he lived till he had attained to the Age of Three score and three years unto which period of time he had abstained wholly from Apples Pears and all other Orchard Fruits At this age he found himself in a manner spent and all his Body wearied and worn to nothing whereupon thinking with himself that his time was come and that he had not long to continue in this World to prepare himself for death with an invinciple courage he resolves to Fast more strictly than of late he had done and thus he continued till he came to be above fourscore about which time he finished the course of this mortal life which he fustained with such Diet as I have here mentioned and no other Not unlike unto him was the life of Saint Anthony who as Saint Athanasius who wrote his Life reports of him as an eye-witness liveâ— all his Life-time in the Desart spending whole nights in Prayer and taking but one single resection once aday after Sun-set sometimes remaining several days together without eating or drinking His ordinary Diet for the most part was Bread and Salt and for his drink Water De carnibus vero vino melius tacere quam qui cquam dicere saith the Author of his Life As for Flesh-meats
sold in Taverns but in the Apothecaries Shop Besides it is well known that the Ancient Sages Ethniques did for the most part measure their Drink and would upon no account exceed their stinted Custom saying with Anacharsis the Philosopher That the First Draught which Men drink ought to be for to quench their Thirst the second for nourishment but the third was for Pleasure and the fourth for Madness Pythagoras was somewhat more preâ—ise in this matter living only of Herbs Fruits and drinking Water He would usually say That Grapes afâ—orded three sorts of Wine one whereof quenched Thirst the seâ—ond Troubled the third overthrew â—nd inflamed the Spirits and his practice confirm'd his Opinion for himself was so abstemious that they â—ay of him That he never drank Wine in all his days no more did the Great Orator Demosthenes if reports be true nor many other famous Men of whom the Histories make mention I find that I have dilated my self somewhat largely in making report of the Sobriety and Abstinence of so many particular Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Ancient Fathers and other renowned Men both Christians and those others morally Wise and Vertuous Men among the Gentils Kings Captains Philosophers and others The reason and chief Motive hereof hath been to shew the beastly intemperance of the Men of this present age to whom it seems an unpossible vain and contemptible thing to live in such Sobriety and Austerity of Life saying That there were none but simple Philosophers and melancholike Hermits that lived after this manner To let them see the contrary I have taken this pains They may here behold how much they are mistaken and how in all States Qualities and Conditions of Men even from the greatest to the meanest Sobriety Temperance and Abstinence have been both honour'd observ'd and practised So that in conclusion I may truly say of all the Egyptian Priests of all the Sages of India and Persia yea generally of all Priests that served at the Alters of Jupiter and those other Pagans Deities that they did seldom eat Flesh-meat but never drank Wine which truly may serve for a Subject of very serious reflection to some that hold chief places in the Church of the True and Living God who ought to be as Lamps shining in the midst of the Temple and by their Example as well as Doctrine to guide their Spiritual Subjects in the ways of True Piety and Vertue Not that they have these Gentils only to look upon and follow as Presidents seeing the Holy Catholique Church doth her self by the Grace of God plentifully afford innumerable such in all Christian Provinces that is Men of Holy and Exemplary Lives who had the True Love and Fear of God in them in such eminent manner that their Conversation hath singularly edified the People under their charge and excited them to all Godliness and Honesty So that blessed be God it is not so much for want of good Presidents amongst Christians that we mention Heathens and Gentiles in this Affair but more effectually to convince some sort of People of their shameful Practices who will not be mov'd by nor regard the example of good Christians so well as they ought to do To conclude therefore I wish every one to take notice of a Saying of Socrates that Wise and Worthy Gentile who was wont to say That the Soul which had gotten the habit and custom of Sobriety and was contented with her Estate did pass away her days in this World with as much ease as he that takes a short journey in the Spring through a most pleasant and fruitful Country with great satisfaction to the mind and little labour SECTION III. Drunkenness or the Excess of Meat and Drink a most Pestilent Disease SECT 1. It causeth several Infirmities 2. It causeth the Corruption of the Soul 3. It causeth the Corruption of the Body 4. Sad Examples of Drunkards Sect. 1. Drunkenness or Excess in Meat and Drink causeth several Infirmities IT stands with great reason that if we believe the Vertue of Abstinence to be a preservative of Health as the Holy Scripture makes mention and assure us that it is witness that of Ecclus. 37. v. 34. Qui abstinens est adjiciet Vitam He that is abstinent shall prolong his life it must likewise be acknowledged that the Excess of Drink must be cause of many Infirmities and by them destroy the Body which is also averred in the fore-going part of the Text above cited Propter crapulam multi obierunt By means of Drunkenness many have come to untimely ends The Physician knowing that his Patient hath got a Surfeit whether by Eating or Drinking presently prescribes him Abstinence and 't is a Rule in Physick That Contraria contrariis curantur Contraries are for the most part cur'd by contraries If the root or cause of the Sickness be too much Heat it is cur'd by Cold or rebating the Heat if too much Moisture it is cur'd by Purging dissipating and evacuating the peccant Humour which Saint Hierome also confirms saying We read of many particular Diseases and Infirmities that proceed from the Excess of Drink as Gouts Dropsies Feavers and the like which are cur'd and the Patients recover health again meerly by being reduced to Abstinence and slender Diet avoiding the Superfluities and Excesses which at first caused the Distemper the Drunkards Wine and Strong Drink if I may so speak being in this respect like to the little Book mentioned in the Apocalypse Chap. 10. v. 11 which was commanded to be eaten it is in the Mouth and going down sweet as Honey but in their Stomach and Belly it is bitter and hard of digestion So then if you desire to preserve your selves in Health I speak here only of Bodily Health you must follow the Counsel of Socrates and be careful never to eat but when you are Hungry nor ever to drink but when you are Dry and Thirsty because to do otherwise and to observe no order time and temperance in your Eating and Drinking is the cause of many Infirmities Distempers and Languishing of the Body Pain in the Head Pain in the Stomach Distillations Dropsies and overflowing of gross Humors all over the Body such an irregular Diet tending rather to overcharge than to sustain nature For the natural Heat of the Body not being able to concoct or digest such abundance of superfluous Humors as follow Intemperance or the Excess of Eating and Drinking when it is habitual constant and customary the said Humours must unavoidably remain crude rawish and of a temperament contrary or not agreeable to the temperament of the Body and consequently must be a seminary for Fevers and other Distempers and in fine of an untimely Death where the Art of the Physician or some good Providence of God doth not hinder to the Body With truth therefore we say and in charity admonish all Offenders in this kind that all those who take such pleasure and delight in Eating and Drinking as to
that which should save their Souls as well as their Bodies but if they die perish in their Sin and shame with the eternal loss of their poor Souls which the Wise Solomon desiring to prevent forewarneth us of the danger in those words of his Prov. 23. 31 32. which we shall do well often and very often to have in minn Ne intuearis vinum quando flavescit cum splenduerit in vitro color ejus c. Look not upon the Wine when it is well colour'd when the colour thereof shall shine in the Glass for though it goes down pleasantly yet at the later end it will bite like a Serpent and as the Basilisk diffuse and spead its Venome to the Corruption of your Soul Sect. 3. Drunkenness or the Excess of Meat and Drink the Corruption of the Body Thus it appears in some part that Drunkenness is the Corruption of the Soul and how the Soul is said to be Câ—â—rupted I am now to shew that it is likewise the Corruption of the Body and that in a more absolute sense because the Body is absolutely and intirely Corruptible which the Soul is not The very Substance Nature and Essence of the Body may be Corrupted and is Corrupted by Drunkenness but the Substance Nature and Essence of the Soul cannot be Corrupted as we have shewn above Well then we are next to shew that the Vice we speak of Excessive Drinking is the Corruption of the Body And what can be more evident and manifest than this even from daily experience Doth not Experience tell us that it is the original cause of innumerable Distempers and Diseases to Mans Body and by which the greater part of Manknd first or last do perish or find the end of their days in this World Doth not the Wise Man give us a necessary caution concerning this in those words of his Ecclus 37. 32. Noli â—vidus esse in omni epulatione c. In all Feasting be not you greedy nor let loose your appetite to every thing that is set before you For through many Meats come many infirmities and overmuch Feeding encreases Choler By means of Surfeiting by Meat or Drink many have come to their ends People addicted to good Fellowship as they call it when after some excessive Drinking they find themselves not well how many shifts do they use to hide their over-sight and hinder the effect from being charg'd upon the True Cause Their Distemper must not be imputed to the quantity that is to say their Drinking overmuch but to the quality their Drink was not good it was not well brewed it was raw and windy or the Mault was not well made and many such vain pretences do they use adding a lie to their former sin of Drunkenness and all that it may not be thought to be their Drinking so much should cause their Malady Certain it is a moderate quantity of Drink and also of Meat hurteth not but is necessary to satisfie and sustain Nature neither is it the use but the abuse of Meat and Drink to wit when we observe no measure which causeth Diseases when the Golden Mean is observed all goes well but when it is neglected great inconveniencies follow according as Apuleius seems not unhandsomely to express it The first Cup saith he is drunk to the Health of Nature the second causes Cheerfulness Mirth and harmless Pleasure the third relishes somewhat of Sensuality and invites to Disorder and Voluptuousness but the fourth breeds Infirmities and Indisposition of Body and especially if you add the fifth Madness Excess herein makes Man Created to the Image and Likeness of God and Reasonable above all other Creatures of this World to become wholly difform and unlike to God losing his Reason and Understanding The Traveller that wants Wisdom being Thirsty in the heat of Summer as soon as he meets with a Ditch full of Water in his Journey he presently runs to it for to Drink minding only to quench his Thirst and not at all considering whether the Water be good pure clear and wholesom or whether it be not corrupted impure and muddy nor whether it be cold as Water to Drink should be or whether it be not heated with the Sun-beams and made unfit to Drink The unwise Traveller considers none of these things nor what inconveniences may follow but sets himself to Drink as much as he can and so Drinks oft-times his own Death or manifold Diseases and Infirmities But the Wise Pilgrim though he feels as much Thirst as the other yet he moderates his Appetite and will not Drink till he comes at a clear Fountain of Running Water and of this he will Drink with moderation not to overcharge Nature but to extinguish his Thirst In the same manner it is with many that dwell at home and seldom travels farther than the Tavern or Ale-House that they haunt They rush into these Common Drinking Places far more corrupt and dangerous to the Soul by reason of the many Transgressions committed in them than any standing Pool or muddy Water can be to the Body and there fall to Tipple and Drink with as much Discretion and Consideration of what they do as the Beast useth that goes from the Stall to Watering Thus do many run daily to Drink and by their enticements carry others along with them and provoke them to Drink not so much many times as well considering whether the Drink be good or bad Whereas those that are Vertuous and Wise will rather have in scorn such Places and would never with their good will be seen in them Drinking always moderately either at home in their own or abroad at some Friends Houses only to content Nature preserve Health and comply with the devoirs of honest Friendship Sect. 4. Sad Examples upon great Drinkers Gabriel Prateolus in his second Tome of Chronicles at the year 1580 the 24th of July mentions a very sad accident which happened to two great Health-drinkers at a Town called Mackerhoven in Germany These two unfortunate Men came into a Tavern and called for Wine which seeming to them to be weak and little pleasing to their Pallats they insisted for better So having tasted of all sorts they pitch'd at length upon that they found to be strongest and fell smartly to it drinking to the Health of every one they could think of or call to mind upon that occasion Beginning to be elevated the one said to the other To whom shall we now Drink The other replied Drink to the Health of God and you shall see how it shall be answered but he being unwilling and making difficulty at it the wretch that made the motion suddenly snatches the Glass out of his Companions hand and in these words provoketh Divine Wrath upon himself saying O God hear me I will Drink to thee in a full Glass and if you do not pledge me you do me injury His Companion had first ask'd him of which Wine he would drink Fill me of the New replied the wicked
sorrowful Outcries of their unfortunate Wives and Children will manifestly convince the contrary and shew that their poverty proceds only from their excessive Drinking Idleness and ill expence of their Money upon such occasions For of such People is verified that of the Prophet Aggeus Chap. 1. 6. Mercedes congregant mittunt eas in sacculum pertusum They gather wages but put their Money into a broken Bag. These Mechanique Drunkards if you will observe oft-times for the whole Week or on Working-days are industrious and ply their Business but when Sunday or an Holy-day comes all or most of what they have is seen to be put into a broken Bag They spend it idlely their unsatiable Appetite of Drinking devours so much of it that their poor Families Wife and Children live in perpetual need wanting necessaries and are forced very often by extream necessity to sell or pawn the Cloaths off their Backs to supply their urgent occasions and not seldom such is their unhappy condition to take unlawful courses Sect. 4. A sad Example upon that Account Father John Benedict a very Learned Divine of the Seraphical Order of Saint Francis verifieth what we have said above by a lamentable Example that happened in his days A certain Person saith he given to Drunkenness had consumed and wasted all that he had with excessive Drinking and being through Poverty forced to live by his Labour and Industry he would take morâ— pâ—ins and care to get Money to Drink than to provide Maintenance for his Wife and Children so that they starv'd at home for want of Victuals whilst he lay drinking at the Ale-house Vrgent necessity at length overcomes the patience of the desolate Wife who having used all the means possible at home and in private to perswade her Husband to better courses and to with-draw from his idle and extravagant Expences and not being able to prevail with him she went one day to the Ale-house where she knew he was Drinking and there openly declar'd the woful necessitous Condition that she and her poor Children were in being in likely-hood to perish for Hunger with all entreating her Husband by all Love with Tears and by all means possible perswadeing him to take compassion of his poor Children and Family ready to starve for want of Bread But this wicked wretch instead of giving ear to her Complaints and Perswasions and instead of following her Counsel falls into Rage and Passion thereupon and most inhumanely beats her insomuch that for a while she was left for dead But at length the poor Woman with much ado gets up and going homewards two of her Children came to meet her crying for Victuals and pulling her on either side by the Clothes Saying to her Da panem Mater fame perimus Mother give us some Bread we are ready to die for Hunger it is two days past since we eat any think To which lamentable cry of her Children the poor Mother replies Ha my poor Babes what remedy from whence should I procure you Bread your Father spends faster than we can get what shall we do 'T is better to die once than to languish a long time and to perish at last for Hunger as we do We had better by one short Death redeem a thousand lingring Deaths Having uttered this doleful Speech and become half out of her Wits in a desperate manner she takes a Knife and cuts the Throat of her Children which done and intending to prosecute the same Bloody Resolution towards her Husband she expects his coming home which according to his custom was about Midnight The Man deep in Drink takes notice of nothing but goes to Bed little dreaming what was to follow The unfortunate Woman waited not long before she found him fast asleep whereupon taking the Knife with which she had kill'd her two Children she cuts his Throat with the same saying Die thou wretch thy wicked Life hath procured thy ruin and mine and the ruin of thy Children The Murther was no sooner done but discovered and the Woman being apprehended and brought before the Justice she openly declared the Fact and was condemned to die for it which she did not much refuse but contrariwise went couragiously and most willingly to the place of Execution where having given warning to all bad Husbands how they spend their Money which should be for the just Maintenance of their Wife and Children in base Ale-houses with the loss of their Souls she was Executed and suffered Death Sect. 5. Remedies against Gluttony and Drunkenness Seeing that for the most part both the Soul and Bodies of Christians are through intemperance and immoderate Eating and Drinking so ulcerated and corrupted that many of them do not only languish and pine away under manifold Diseases but utterly Perish through want of the true and proper Balsam which might heal their putrified Sores I shall here willingly bestow my slender Skill to declare unto them the Vertue and Property of several Ointments which in order to this effect viz. of Curing Souls I observe to be approv'd and recommended generally speaking by all Learned Divines so that if Patients will be pleas'd but to make tryal and use them and be careful to apply them to their Languishing Infirmities in such manner as they shall be prescribed I dare promise them a pefect Cure of all their Maladies The First Antidote against Gluttony and Drunkenness is that which both Scripture and Ancient Fathers mention to wit Sobriety and Abstinence As for Scripture the Wise Solomon saith Ecclus 31. 32. Aqua Vita hominibus Vinum in sobrietate c. Sobriety in Drink makes a Mans Life happy or to pass on in an even and equal State unmolested either with Grief or Anxiety whereas on the contrary according to the same Wise Man when 't is Drunk to Excess it is Amaritudo animae Bitter or Bitterness to the Soul It provokes Wrath and Anger and causes many Inconveniences and Harms both to Soul and Body As for the Fathers Saint Prosper not without cause gives a high Commendation of Sobriety Saying It is of such force as to change the Mind and Spirit of Man from Evil to Good and to make him Temperate and Abstemious who was before Intemperate and would observe no mean and to love a spare Diet who before was a Glutton and Slave to his Belly It makes him Honest Chaste Serious Bashful and Modest who before was given to all Dishonesty and Lewdness Unchaste Foolish and Shameless both in his Words and Actions and that when Sobriety and Abstinence do together take possession of a Soul and reside in her they bridle all Excess of Eating and Drinking they repress Sensuality and Carnal Lust they put and keep in good Order all the motions and dispositions of the Mind multiplying Good and Holy Thoughts Desires Affections and extinguishing the contrary Sobriety Chastizes and Corrects all Vices or Ill-habits of the Mind helps all Imperfections rectifies all Disorder and Confusion that happens in Mans
this Vice no less tainted in their Reputation no less drowned and deep sunk in the Mire of filthy Lust then they nay it is certain that Women generally speaking and except some few of prostituted impudence do yet retain some sparks at least of Modesty that Natural Vertue of their Sex in their Breasts which will make them blush many times and be troubled to hear filthy words belched out of unclean mouths Women have not as yet altogether abandoned themselves to unshamefastness as amongst Men too many now a-days may seem to have done with whom 't is accounted a piece of Gallantry a sign of Manhood say some Ah What kind of Men will they be found when a time of trial shall come to be both in words and actions so far as they dare shameless and not to seem either to fear God or to regard Man Is not every day almost witness of the deceitful Carriage and Comportment of Men towards Women and of some Devillish Art and Practice of theirs to trapan and bring over some one or other of that frail Sex to their Sensualities and Lusts In the first place do they not share with Women in the Excess and Vanities of Apparel and Habit It is a thing too visible to be denied Nay is it not come to that height that many Men to the shame and disgrace of the Masculine Sex wear Patches upon their Effeminate Faces like Women and make use of Vermilion Tincture upon their Cheeks just as Women â—o to seem what they are not Truly 't is my Opinion if such Practices be discommendable in Women they must of necessity be abominable in Men who give up themselves to such Womanish and unworthy Vanities Costliness of Apparel it must be confes'd is a great fault in Women But do not Men offend in the same kind Do not Men apparel themselves oft-times much otherwise than Modesty requires and also much beyond their Estates and Conditions to ingratiate themselves with Women and in fine to deceive them What Practice or Means fit for their purpose do they neglect or forbear to use in order to this end For their Entertainment they have the most exquisie Musick that can be procured as well of the Charming Voice as the Ravishing Instrument Both which serve as Wings for Unchaste Minds to mount up to the height of their immodest Pretensions Musick seldome goes without Dancing Frisking Capering and other Courting Liberties not to say Immodesties usually attending and bringing up the Rear of these Voluptuous Treats whereby both Bodies and Minds are by little and little dissolved as it were and made susceptible of the most Corrupt and Wicked Impressions To Entertainment I speak still of Gallants pursuing dishonest and unchaste Pretensions upon Women â— to Entertainment I say they add the winning Artifice of good Behaviour Civil and most Complacent Carriage Modest Humble Submissive upon occasion and to Behaviour Discourse in all things suitable to the gust and inclination of their party with whom having by these Arts scrued themselves into some Familiarity of Converse they cease not still to comply and conform themselves most exactly to their Humour and Disposition entertaining them now with Praises applauding their Beauty and taking Notice not without shew of Admiration and special good-liking of some pretended Vertue or Vertues in them in case they find any and if not impudently yet cunningly feigning them to have and flattering them upon that account And weak Creatures God knows are as easily taken with sweet words as Bees with Honey fair smooth and flattering Language well set off and made more luscious by agreeable Deportment takes their Heart and makes them yield to whatever such a pleasing Oratour propounds to them If chance seperates them never so little and hinders their accustomed Enterviews no day passes without our Gallants feigning great affliction for such forced absence and complaining of his ill Fortune that it should be so and upon this occasion Love-letters and Verses of the same strain are sent to and again a principal Art of gaining upon Womens Affection and a great means of assuring it when it is gained So that upon return Visits are more frequent Caresses more tender Addresses more familiar and free and in fine the poor pursued Creature unable to resist or bear up against the stream of such Eloquent and Obligeing Compliments made good by all manner of Benevolence Respect Submission and so many real Testimonies and Assurances of Good-will hearing her self Exalted above the Skies for Goodness Vertue Beauty and what not and being made to believe that nothing in the World is so dear to him that he is ready to expose Life Estate and all his Concerns to serve her being as all Women are naturally inclin'd to have a good conceit of her self she at last gives Credit to all that her Gallant tells her and believing all to be true that he says she gives consent to all that he asks though never so much to the prejudice of her Soul Body Conscience Honour c. Thus are Women silly weak Women with no less Industry and Art pursued by Men to their Shame and Ruin than Men are entic'd and allur'd by Women But what follows of both Certes nothing but Infamy nothing but Sorrow Grief Fruitless Repentance for the most part and Tears not of Godly but Carnal and Worldly Sorrow conceiv'd not for having offended God but for having incurr'd the Obloquy of Men and prejudic'd themselves in the Esteem of the World What follows Very often Envy Ill-will Hatred and extream Aversion very often Mischief sometimes Madness sometimes Death it self all which might be instanced in sundry Examples if time would serve None rejoycing but the Devil and his Angels of Darkness at the success of their damnable Deceits and for the Conquest they have got over Two unhappy Souls SECTION V. Carnal Concupiscence causeth many other inconveniences SECT 1. It causeth Poverty and Misery 2. By the same Men become Senseless Stupid and void of Vnderstanding 3. By reason thereof Men abide or remain in sin and entangle themselves more and more therein 4. Remedies against the same 5. Advice to all sorts of Persons to overcome the Vice of Carnal Concupiscence 6. The main and chief Remedy of all is to avoid the Occasions Sect. 1. Carnal Concupiscence causeth Poverty and Misery AH Parents How am I troubled for you that you take so much Pains and labour so hard to leave great Estates to your Children you never cease joyning House to House and Land to Land till there be no place you never cease Building and Planting Buying and Purchasing great Estates great Rents you Heap up and Hoard up Gold and Silver without end never knowing when you have Wealth enough whereas many times it falls out that you leave all to a Prodigal Son who in a few years time will scatter that which you have been covetously gathering together all your Life long Do you not see how you damn your own Souls to
we promise our selves in the end any better issue of our Lust than that we shall with Solomon become insensible both of Conscience and Honour and be given up to do and act in all things contrary to Reason contrary to Prudence contrary to all Vertue and Honesty yea unless Gods Mercy save us even with Nabuchodonosor to degenerate into Bruit Beasts Dan. 4. 33. through the prevalency of lustful Passions and the extream blindness of Mind and perversion of Judgment which they cause being overlong indulg'd unto and that God in wrath delivers impenitent obstinate Sinners up to them according as by the testimony of Saint Paul he did the Gentiles of whom it is written Rom. 1. 24 26 28 c. that God for their sins of Whoredom Idolatry and Uncleanness Corporal and Spiritual gave them up to a Spirit of Vncleanness to Vile Affections to a reprobate mind void of all sound Judgment and to do things that were not convenient and all to teach us what the horrid effects of unbridled lust are upon the minds of Men destitute of the Grace of God and given up to the power of Satan The Luxurious Man is so senseless that for the prosecution and obtaining of his Lust he puts all other Concerns in Oblivion and does things without any consideration or reason He gives his poor Soul to the Devil and Eternal Damnation for nothing Can any thing be more unreasonable He loses the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal Glory for nothing he brings upon himself everlasting misery for nothing I say for nothing or for a thing of no value with good and wise men If some Temporal Kingdom or Principality were exposed to sale or sold away for a small inconsiderable sum of money I suppose no body would taxe me if I should say such a Kingdom or Principality were sold or given away for nothing because the price was not in any reasonable sort comparable or proportioned to the thing sold So when I say the Adulterer Fornicator the Incestuous and Vnclean Person sells his Soul to the Devil for nothing gives away his Portion in the Kingdom of Heaven Eternal Bliss Eternal Glory for nothing I am sure I speak Truth no man can justly blame me for what I say seeing all this is done for a momentary short vile pleasure or delectation of the Flesh and for the satisfaction of a sensual Appetite which no wise man that is Master of himself values neither should any well-instructed Christian admit or think of but in order to some higher and more vertuous ends viz. the lawful procreation of Children to be brought up in the Knowledge and Fear of God and for the Conservation of Conjugal Fidelity and Amity Saint Augustin is of the same mind with me and confirms what I have said by his own Testimony saying That whoever for a little short pleasure of this world he means the pleasure of a Voluptuous Carnal Act gives away that for which Christ gave himself to death to wit his Soul there can be no doubt made but in doing so he forfeits his reason quite and at the same instant shews himself to be an unreasonable senseless bruitish person scarce deserving the name of man Which considering also another most learned Divine compares a lasciâ—ious lustful Man to a foolish and unskilful Merchant who undervalues his own Merchandise and sells things that are of great worth and estimation for an inconsiderable price applying to this purpose that which is said Prov. 6. 26. Pretium scorti vix est unius panis c. The price of a Harlot is scarce worth a loaf of Bread it hardly comes to so much and yet such a Woman catches the precious Soul of Men. The meaning is what we have already said That such as joyn themselves to Harlots do pawn their Soul the most precious thing they have in the world for that which is worth just nothing The Luxurious Man therefore besides his transgressing Gods Commandement does great injury to Christ in presuming to sell that at so mean a rate which he thought worth the purchasing at so great a price Besides he sells that which is not at his own disposing he sells that which he hath not power to sell or give for according to the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Our Souls are not our own we are bought with a great price Bodies and Souls we have both our Souls and Bodies of God our Bodies and Souls are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us and therefore we ought by our chaste and holy Conversation to glorifie God both in our Souls and in our Bodies Sect. 3. By reason of Carnal Concupiscence Men abide or remain in Sin and entangle themselves more and more therein Have you never observed the Snails how that naturally for the most part they lie bathing and soaking themselves in their own Jelly or filthy Pickle and if they put out at any time they carry their Shell on their Backs into which upon the least disturbance or hinderance that they met with they presently shrink and shut up themselves being of the slowest motion of any Creatures that move This sordid Creature is a perfect Emblem of a Voluptuous Man who is or by his good-will would be always wallowing in the filthy Mire of unclean Lust a loathsome Creature both for Body and Soul slow to any thing that is Good and most of all to that which would be his greatest good True Repentance and breaking off his evil custom of Sinning which is as it were the Shell upon his Back in which he resides for the most part of his Life and whither upon every little Temptation yea sometimes to divert himself from other Griefs he retires and makes an unhappy retreat He is more filthy and stinking than any Dung-hill by reason of his frequent and vile uncleanness He is a Swine that delights in nothing more than to be lying on a Dung-hill or wallowing in some Miry or Dirty Puddle placing his whole Felicity in Lustful Pleasure and satisfaction of his Inordinate Appetites in that kind persevering therein too often unhappy Man that he is till Death seizes upon him and carries him in a moment to Hell There is a saying of the Prophet Joel Chap. 1. v. 7. to this purpose Computruerunt jumenta in stercore sua The Beasts are rotted in their own Dung Upon which passage of the Holy Scripture Saint Gregory Commenting teaches that by the Beasts here said to be rotted together or putrified in their own Dung may well be understood Voluptuous Carnal and Sensually-minded Persons who Perish and Corrupt Bodies and Souls in the Dung of their own filthy Actions that which made Pope Innocent reflecting upon the same words to cry out Oh the extream turpitude of Sensuality which not only defiles Body and Soul but renders them unsavoury makes them stink and to be abominated in the Sight of God Angels and all Men that are not Beasts like themselves In which sense also it
is most true what the Apostle teaches 1 Cor. 6. 19 viz. That the Adulterer Fornicator and all such like Sinners do violate Gods Temple which is their own Body because by defiling it with Lust they make it of the Temple of God wherein the sweet Odour and Incense of Vertue and Good Works ought to be continually offered and ascending before the Divine Majesty a very Sty of Satan wherein nothing can be perceived but the filthy Steam and Ill-sent of Sin and Uncleanness Add to all this That by Carnal Concupiscence Men are entangled and tyed fast in their Inordinate Affections towards Women for which reason the Wise Man saith Ecclus 7. 27. Laqeuus Venatorum Sagena cor Mulieris c. The Lewd Women is as a Hunters-snare to Men the Devil is that Hunter hunting and pursuing poor Souls to Death by this means her Heart as Nets and-her Hands Bands In which words they that observe the Passage more curiously seem to observe three several ways or methods by which Women through Concupiscence entangle Men that is to say by Snares by Nets and by Bands and according to this they likewise observe three several sorts of Men that are more especially subject to be entangled and caught by each of those ways or methods respectively Snares are proper to catch Birds that flie in the Air and by them they understand Vain Proud High-minded and Light-minded People Nets are commonly used to catch Fishes that swim in the Water understanding by them the Glutton and Drunkard and all such as give themselves over-much to the pleasures of their Palate always by their good-will swiming in their Delicacies and Varieties of Meats and Drinks Bands are for the catching of wild and stronger Creatures by which they intend the multitude of Covetous Unjust and Worldly-minded People who offend commonly by some way of Violence Oppression Rapine Injustice Fraud c. So that in fine all sorts of People are taken one way or other by them none or at least very few escaping the consideration whereof extorted from the good Father Saint Hierome this pathetique Exclamation Oh Hell-fire saith he O those Everlasting Burnings of which Gluttony and Drunkenness are the Fewel Pride and Ambition the Flame Lewd and Filthy Speech the Spaâ—kles Infamy and Shame the Sâ—inking Smoak Impudicity and Vncleanness the Ashes and the effect Eternal Misery and Torment Sect. 4. Remedies against Carnal Concupiscence To the Soul that remembers her self and desirous to live Chaste would know what Remedies may be found against the poisonous force and infection of Carnal Concupiscence I shall in the first place with Father Causin give this Advice to wit That so long as she lives in this sinful World where Temptations to Vice are so many and great how well soever things at present seem to go with her yet that she always judges it most impossible for her to persevere to the end in that state but by the singular Gift Favour and Grace of Almighty God according to that Confession of the Wise Man beginning his Prayer to God Sap 8. v. 21. Scivi quoniam aliter non possem esse continens c. I know saith he full well that I cannot otherwise be continent unless God give me the Gift and a point of Wisdom it is to know whose Gift the Grace of Chastity and Continency is It is therefore absolute necessary that for the Gift we have particular recourse to God even to the most Holy and Vndivided Trinity begging it of him who according to Saint Gregory Nazianzen is the first of Virgins that is God our Saviour and in the second place that we address our Prayers to like purpose unto the Blessed Mother of God the Virgin Mary to our good Angel and to such other of the Blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven as we have chosen or that our Faith and Devotion have made to be our Patrons in Heaven begging their Mediation and Prayers for us that we may be always delivered from the reproaches of Belial the Spirit of Impurity and that we may pass over our Life Innocently and Holily in this present evil World possessing our Vessels that is these Bodies of ours as the Apostle speaks 1 Thes 4. v. 4. in Sanctification and Honour not in the Lust of Concupiscence and finally that through the mercies of God and the help of his Grace we may come to enjoy those Crowns and Garlands of Heavenly Glory which shall be given to those who in this Fight betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh overcome the wicked one and continue Faithful unto their Captain and General Christ Jesus unto the Death Wherefore my Advice and Counsel to all is that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 12. He that thinks he standeth let him take heed least he fall If at present you feel your selves at peace and unmolested with the suggestions and bad inclinations which others lie under and combate with daily more or less give thanks to God for his Mercy and beg the continuance of his Grace to you but enter not into any vain Complacence and Opinion of your self as if it were the effect of your own Forces it is the effect of Heavens Benignity towards you and if you presume to think otherwise it is to be fear'd you will find your errour in the sad experiment of some unhappy fall Therefore walk humbly before God trusting to his Grace not to your selves and be sure as much as you can to avoid all occasions of sin Sect. 5. Advice and Exhortation to all sorts of Persons to overcome the Vice of Carnal Concupiscence I find nothing more proper for this purpose viz. of subduing and extinguishing the motions of Carnal Concupiscence than what I have extracted for your use out of the Holy Court 1. Treatise of Love Sect. 1. S. 9. where the Pious and Learned Author Father Causin delivers himself thus Give your selves a little leisure to recollect your thoughts together and with the Eye of attentive Consideration to behold the many Disasters which wait on the experiencing of Carnal Sensualities If you be a Virgin stain not the Honour of your State vilifie not in your Flesh on Earth a Virtue to which Angels afford such Glory in Heaven Beware of that damnable curiosity which makes you desire to know what cannot be known by you but by becoming criminal If you understand what this sin is profit by your experience and betray not an eternity of Blessedness for a Pleasure so short If you be a Master of a Family or a Person of Quality mark what Saint Gregory Nazianzen says A Man saith he by means of this sin totally ruins Body and Soul Estate and Reputation He is terrible at home to his own Honshold and shameless abroad serving as an Executioner to his chaste Wife whom his unkindness and ill-carriage vexes to Death every day He is a Tyrant even to his own Children a reproach to his Friends a scourge to all his Domestiques a dishonour to his Kindred and