Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A52296
|
An essay on the contempt of the world by William Nicholls ...
|
Nicholls, William, 1664-1712.
|
1694
(1694)
|
Wing N1097; ESTC R11634
|
100,218
|
240
|
God has given Riches Wealth and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all that he desireth yet God giveth him not Power to eat thereof He starves in the midst of his Affluence heaps up Riches so long till he is really Poor and as if he was running backwards in a Ring he flies from Poverty so far back till he runs upon that which he first avoided But it may be said Why should Covetousness be so foul a Crime it does no harm to any Body else a Man thereby only forbears those things which he might enjoy which is an Injury to no one but himself besides Prudence engages us to take care for the future and the Apostle says He that provides not for those of his own House is worse than an Infidel To which I answer 1. That a Man ought not to tyrannize over his own Body any more than he ought to murther himself as he has not such a Power over himself as to destroy his Body so neither ought he to defraud it of those Necessary Refreshments which God has ordered us to allow it unless it be upon a Religious Account in order to subject it the better to the Soul Therefore he that Starves his Belly to increase his Estate is in a lesser degree Felo de se he feloniously robs his Body of those Enjoyments which our bountiful Creator has provided for it 2. The Covetous Man injures the Publick either in letting that Money lye useless by which ought to be current for the Benefit of the Community or by a penurious way of Living which no ways contribute to the Circulation of Trade which is the Sinews of all Society and the Livelihood of the far greater Part of all Nations by generally oppressing the Necessitous with extravagant Use and extortive Payments Or Lastly By defrauding other Poor Men of the Alms and Benefactions they have a Title to 3. Neither ought we to be so sollicitous for the Future as not to enjoy the Present We ought to commit all future Events to God's Disposal who will provide for us as is most fit He who could feed the Israelites with Bread from Heaven and Elisha by Ravens will most certainly never let us want what is fitting for us Which admirable Lesson we are taught by our Blessed Saviour Mat. 6.31 32. Therefore take no Thought saying What shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be cloathed For after all these things the Gentiles seek for your Heavenly Father knoweth you have need of all these things 4. As for that Saying of St. Paul 1 Tim. 5.8 by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Persons of our own House are meant those of our Family which are already fell into Necessity who having rich Relations that can maintain them The Apostle says it is a Shame that they should be maintained by the Church at her Charge for by that means those Christian Kindred would shew themselves worse than the Infidels He does in no ways incourage those miserly Fathers who pine their Body and barter away their Souls to leave their Sons Wealthy But although the Apostle should urge it as a Duty of Parents to lay up a competent Maintenance for their Children to subsist upon when they are dead which indeed is their Duty when they are placed in a thriving way of Living yet the Miser can from thence draw no Excuse for his Sin For he endeavours to provide for their Luxury rather than their Maintenance and by his griping Avarice entails such a Curse upon them as will sooner make them miscarry than prosper in the World SECT III. That a Contempt of the World doth consist in being Temperate I Do not take Temperance here in that large extent in which the School-men and many Writers of Ethick Books do when they make it a Cardinal Vertue and therefore must render it as comprehensive as they can to take in the other Vertues under it for they make Temperance to consist in the Moderation of all those things which are in their Phrase maxime allicientia which do very much tempt a Man whither they be Pleasures of the Mind or the Body Aquin. 22. so that in this Acceptation not only Corporal Pleasures but also the Passions of the Soul such as Anger and Revenge are the Object of Temperance too But I shall take it in that Sense which Aristotle in the Third Book of his Ethicks doth where he defines Temperance to be a Mediocrity about the Pleasures of the Body that is a moderate Use of them So that a Man may be in some measure intemperate by immoderate using any of these Pleasures which are convey'd by any of his Senses by an extravagant Delight in hearing Musick by looking upon fine Prospects and Pictures and by smelling delicious Perfumes as well as by Whoring or Drinking But because the two other Senses are more strong and untamable they meet with more Occasions and have more violent Temptations to invite Men to their Pleasures 't is the Business chiefly of Temperance to moderate the Use of Pleasures arising from them In the Moderation therefore of these Pleasures Temperance becomes a threefold Vertue and branches it self into 1. Abstinence 2. Sobriety 3. Chastity These three Vertues By the Practice of Abstinence next to the Assistance of the Holy Spirit are the strongest Defence against the greatest Shocks the World and the Devil can make upon us for those Pleasures which it is their Province to govern are as it were their Grand Artillery whilst other Temptations are but their Small Shot with those they make only their little Attacks upon us but with these they even Storm our Innocence Therefore he that does in any measure pretend to Contemn the World must be sure to subdue those Pleasures by the constant practice of these Vertues for these are so essential to all Religion that there is no pretending to it without them we may be excused perhaps from some other Vertues because they are not altogether so intelligible but these are such plain Dictates of our Understanding that there is no Pleading against them Other Vices may not be so dangerous to retain but Gluttony Drunkenness and Whordom will most certainly sink a Man to the bottom of Hell nor will all the other Vertues he possesses serve to bear him up to eradicate other Vices and to cherish these is to be plaistering our Finger for a Scratch whilst we neglect a Distemper which is preying upon our very Vitals 't is like beautifying our Frontiers and Out-works whilst we let the Enemy lie Ravageing in the Heart of our Country He therefore that would arrive to a Contempt of the World must take care to be diligent in the Practice of Abstinence which is shewn First Not to eat too much In not eating overmuch of our ordinary Food By overmuch must not be meant any quantity of Meat particularly determined so that each Man must eat Fifteen or Twenty Ounces at
Vertue was then sunk into the lowest Dregs of this Dissoluteness and Sensuality Who can without Indignation as at an Affront offered to Human Nature read of such Wretches as Caligula Domitian and Heliogabalus to find them sending Senators into the East to fetch home Fish and Fowl and calling a Senate to consult how to dish out a great Fish to see them rolling in Baths of flowing Nard dissolving Jewels worth a Million of our Money and drinking them off to a Whores Health I cannot say we have any so Luxurious in our Time because we have none that are Masters of so great Riches but if we may make an Estimate of what they would do in such a Fortune from the Vanity they shew in their present one I am affraid many not only in the Court but in the City too both Men and Women would outdo any Cleopatra Caligula or Heliogabalus of them all But to what purpose should a Man study so much to please his Palat when he may Dine better upon the first Dish that offers it self Nature it self is content and better satisfied with that which is most simple and readiest at hand and if we will take a * Monsieur Euremont in his Letter to Monsieur D'Olonne Great Man's Word What our own Grounds and Barn-doors afford us are not only more wholsome but more palatable to all impartial Men but as for Kitchin Compositions Ragoos Out works c. he tells us they ought to pass with us for a sort of Poison Nay what not only an Irreligious but what a silly Project is it to lay out so much Pains and be at such Expence only to make our selves Sick to use so much Art and Design to tempt our Palat to Gluttony which of it self is inclined to Temperance by a great deal of Charge to sweeten that which after we are satisfied would otherways go down like the most nauseous Potion and which will generally make us but Sick at last This is so shameful a Practice that by this we do not only become Brutes but we outgo them in their own Kind by how much the more our Reason furnishes us with those Artificial Methods of Gluttony which they want and so enables us to become the greater Beasts of the two Not Meats over-nourishing Thirdly Not to make our constant Feed upon things which supply extraordinary Nourishment Our Nature is of it self inclinable enough to Evil and the Devil takes sufficient Advantage of our Health alone to tempt us to unlawful Thoughts and Actions But 't is a sign that some Men desire to be more wicked than the Devil wishes them to be when they turn Tempters to themselves by choosing such Food which will do his Business effectually and save him the Labour The Ancients in the more dissolute Times were Lewd enough of all Conscience but they generally trusted to a vigorous Stock of Nature for it but to the Shame of our Days we aspire to their Wickedness and yet must trust to Art to effect it We have all the Will to be as Lewd as they but we want the Ability But if neither Religion nor Grace nor any pious Principle will work upon such People yet the Consideration that it debilitates their Constitution and lessens their natural Flame by overmuch Fuel that it casts an infamous Reproach upon their Nature to let the World know it stands in need of such Helps methinks this if nothing else should engage them to a more wise and temperate Practice Fourthly Not to omit Fasting To be diligent in observing the Duty of Fasting This Part of Abstinence was a Duty which the Heathens were not acquainted with to set aside a Day of Fasting upon a Religious Account But it is a Duty which we Christians are strictly obliged to by the Command of our Blessed Saviour who gives us * Mat. 6. Mar. 2. Luk. 5. Rules for Fasting and was himself a most remarkable Example for it by Fasting Forty Days in the Wilderness We have the Practice of the Apostles to enforce it whom we often find in the Acts Fasting and Praying and the Example of pious Christians throughout all Ages of the Church But the Use of this Duty to all pious Christians is unspeakable It serves to calm our Passions when they grow fiery and untameable it curbs our Affections and makes them easily manageable when they would be extorting the Reins from us it makes our Minds quiet and sedate clear and perceptive and apt for Contemplation and Spiritual Exercises it improves our Zeal and animates our Petitions sets our Souls upon the Flight and makes our Devotions all Life and Wing and Spirit Ask but the devout Christian what difference he finds between his ordinary Devotions and those upon his Days of Fasting and Humiliation and he will tell you as much as between Life and Death between a Body and a Carcase There is so much Warmth and Vigor and Alacrity in the one and so much Coldness and Lumpishness in the other which must make all good Men lament as a sign of the Irreligiousness of this Age that this Duty of Fasting is so strangely neglected when the Publick Fasts which are backed with particular Authority are observed for the most part out of Fear only when the Weekly Fasts of the Church and the others at the more Solemn Times by the far greatest part of the Nation are not in the least distinguished from other Days and by most of the rest by only Eating a Dish of Fish upon them For this Reason I am sure the Papists who make no very good Use of Fasting neither do very much and not without some Reason exclaim against us of the Church of England for such an horrible Neglect of so Christian a Duty Of Sobriety The Second Branch of Temperance is Sobriety which is a Temperance observed in Drinking as Abstinence was in Eating Therefore to be sure every one that would contemn the World must be perfect in the Rules of Sobriety and wholly avoid the foul Sin of Drunkenness which the Apostle tells us expresly doth dis-inherit us of the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.10 Now to the Compleat Practice of Sobriety it is requisite First Not to be Drunk That a Man should not Drink to Intemperance or to the Loss of his Reason And truly upon this Account all Men should be afraid of strong Drink because it has that effect upon them as to deprive them for a time of the Noblest Faculty they enjoy because it makes a kind of an inter regnum in them when the Man is for some time deposed and the Brute usurps the Throne It was a mighty pretty Answer of young Cyrus in Xenophon who being asked by his Grand-father to drink some Wine No Grand-father says he I will not because you put Poyson in it for your Friends which were lately here upon your Birth-day drank of it and they all lost their Senses And indeed it would make any one wonder what