Temperance has two Reins in her hand sometimes she stops sometimes she puts forward now she turns on the one hand now on the other Whithersoever the Law Reason and the Divine Will directs thither she guides How should all be governed without Error if the Mind be not moderated enlighten'd with Reason and subdued with Mortification How is it possible that Temperance without God should be able to contain and moderate man's unbridled Appetite either irascible or concupiscible Or how can it without the power of Grace subdue our corrupt rebellious and unruly Nature How can this outward part be governed unless God illuminate and guide it from within And what can shew us the way of Vertue here below but the light that comes in to us from above The Gentiles did practise some Moral Vertues with Temperance yet even in them and in others they themselves acted with Intemperance Diogenes an humorous overweaning and wilfully-poor Philosopher tramples with his bare Feet all dirty upon the stately Train of Plato a wealthy Philosopher richly apparell'd Plato asked Diogenes What dost thou He answers I trample upon Plato's Pride Yes reply'd Plato but with a greater Pride Here the very Light of Nature judg'd among the Gentiles and enlighten'd them to see their Errors and one Pride reformed another for there was Pride in both Plato will be an Heavenly Man full of Vanity and Pride and fast giued to the Commodities of Life playing the Philosopher about Eternity only in Speculation but giving up his Will and Passion wholly to Temporal things Diogenes on the contrary despising outward things was neither contented in himself nor could live quiet among others being full of an inward Pride that contemned abused and offended all Both of them were acted by Intemperance and were Philosophers of this World and of Nature but not true Philosophers of God nor of the Spirit of Grace If one of the Saints or ancient Fathers of the Church had come into the richly-furnished Room of Plato he would have despis'd but not trampled upon his costly Furniture He would have despis'd his Riches with the same holy Humility wherewith he despised himself He would have despis'd the brave Hangings and Carpets of Plato but not the Person of Plato O the Celestial Knowledge of God and of his holy Law O incomprehensible Wisdom How pure and clear how bright thou shinest in the heart of a Christian who suffers himself to be govern'd by thy Light and directed by thy Means It is a ridiculous thing to think there is any perfect Vertue without God neither Prudence Justice Fortitude nor Temperance can be so without him for without God Prudence is Imprudence Justice is Injustice Fortitude is Weakness and Temperance Intemperance If God does not govern order temper and enlighten it if he does not guide and direct it natural Vertue will be so weak and full of imperfections that it will stumble at every step If it go right now it goes wrong within a moment and if here it punishes the Guilty there it condemns the Innocent But the Government of God and that Soveraign Light which enlightens a Righteous Man that heavenly Grace which assists and counsels him that is it which thou art to pray for and endeavour to obtain that is it that must temper thee if thou wouldst attain to the true practise of the Moral Vertues Of the Manner of Governing the Moral Vertues by the Cardinal By these four principal Vertues thou art to govern and direct the seven Moral ones I mean those which are opposite to the seven deadly Sins which in the Spiritual Life do order our Manners and make the Soul acceptable to the Lord of Vertues The former do command dispose guide encourage and direct us in the way but the latter to practise and put in execution what the others ordain Prudence gives the Manner Justice the Rectitude Fortitude the Courage and Temperance the Measure in all thy Actions Of all the Moral Vertues there is not one perfect which in its Exercise Duration and Perfection does not contain all the four Cardinal ones within it self Humility the Glory Peace and Foundation of the Spiritual Life the most fruitful Seminary of Gifts and Excellencies stands in need of Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance and so do all the rest First â—…t has need of Prudence for without a prudent management Humility might pass on so far as to become Scandal or Vanity Secondly It has need of Justice for a Man ought to keep it in such manner as likewise to keep up his Office Ministry or Dignity Thirdly It has need of Fortitude to preserve the Man between two vicious and contrary Extreams which the Moral Vertues are always in danger of unless they be corrected and assisted by the four Cardinal ones And lastly It has need of Temperance to keep a well-ordered proportion in every business Of Judging falsly But observe that there is a worldly judgment of persons and things that has nothing of the Spirit and another that is Spiritual and Internal therefore in thy Actions avoid the former and give thy self wholly to the latter Whatsoever a Soul does for God is accounted foolishness by those of the World because they take their own Rule and measure the Action with a natural Measure whereas the end for which it is done is Supernatural and so he who does that good thing does not suit nor proportion himself to the Judgment Rule and Censure of evil Men. They hold that for imprudent unjust weak and intemperate which is heavenly Temperance Justice Fortitude and great Prudence Gâ—… calls the Soul with an effectual Vocation and presently the gallant Young-man and the beautiful young Lady quit their Vanities and Follies and despise the Pleasures Honours and Riches of this World to secure an Inheritance in that to come by entring into a strict course of performing the Duties of Religion God calls the ancient Person who being undeceiv'd by Experience presently forsakes the World and retires from Business to spend his Age in a severe and penitent Life that he may give an holy end to those beginnings and middle parts of it that were wicked and scandalous This the World esteems to be imprudence injustice lightness of affection and takes it for the distemper and disorder of Reason The Spiritual person fasts and uses other Austeries he flies from those Companies that formerly were the occasion of his sins he seeks God in Solitude or else in Business and Employments and lives in his Service having an eye to him in all his Actions The World instantly gives him the Character of a strange singular extravagant and distempered Man whereas he is truly just temperate valiant wise and one that gives life unto the World For this reason it is that our Saviour says that the Prudence of this World is an Enemy to the Prudence of God for these two sorts of Prudence being very opposite and contrary do always look upon each other with an eye of
Heart of a Man when it is limited and straitned in the Miseries of this World and when it is possess'd of God and made capable of his Gifts and Mercies but also between the Heart that went on in a course remisly vertuous and that had but begun to take some steps in the Spiritual Life and an Heart that by holy Exercises and Perseverance in Prayer hath obtained of God to be enlarged by this Gift of Longanimity for though it was hard for St. Paul and even impossible after the instant of his Conversion to have his Heart taken up with slight or trifling things because God from the very beginning of his Conversion made that Vessel of Election so capable as to receive his rarest Gifts and Graces for he had rare Light rare Knowledge and rare Zeal for the Honour and Glory of God even from the very first yet other Spiritual Men go on following the steps of the Spirit in that proportion which the Lord has been pleased to communicate to them according to the measure of their Service but in the beginning they were Children as St. Paul says and God afterwards by degrees makes them to grow up Men to become great and strong and bold to own and to persist in a vertuous Course and God gives them such largeness of heart at length that those who in the beginning were scarce able to such a little Milk can now digest the strongest Meat and those who at first were disquieted with every thing and whose weak Stomachs turned at the swallowing of a Pea are now able like Estriches to digest Iron They can bear and teach others so to do they can suffer cheerfully and guide others in the same way without any trouble And it is certain that this high Gift and Fruit of Longanimity though it be very important for all yet it is most so for Superiours for in them it is necessary that they may know how to bear with patience the Faults and Impertinencies of those under their Charge and to govern them with patience and without passion And so when God endued Solomon with what he needed for the Government of such an innumerable multitude of Subjects he amongst those other Vertues and Gifts wherewith he adorned him bestowed on him also as the Text saith this Longanimity and Largeness of Heart so that it contain'd even the Sands upon the Sea-shore as who should say that Royal Breast was capable of all things nothing could overwhelm or trouble him for he dispatched all Affairs with calmness and serenity A Spiritual Man sometimes disquiets himself because there are sins in the World What Would he that there should be none If there were sins in Jerusalem where Christ himself lived who was able to remedy them Shall there be none where he dwells Let him remedy those he can and let him beg of God with Tears and Prayers that he would remedy the rest but let him lay aside all sollicitude and disquiet and possess his own Soul with Patience A Spiritual Man is troubled that he cannot mend a thousand little Faults in himself What Would he shine here in Perfection Let him humble himself and acknowledge his Misery and pray to God for the remedy Let him bewail his Defects with humility for God sees his sorrow and pain and knows what he has need of and if he delay his Amendment to day probably he will grant it to morrow In this respect largeness of heart is needful for all things and thou must understand that God is not a God of Affliction and Disquiet but of Peace and Tranquillity Next to the Holy Spirit of Longanimity St. Paul reckons that of Benignity which is an outward pleasingness proceeding from an inward one whereby a Man behaves himself with Charity towards all and it was discreetly done of the Apostle to place this after Longanimity because it is a sweet Effect of that most generous Vertue and as it were a Fruit or benefit of that Fruit. For Benignity which is that outward gentleness of Behaviour is exercis'd not only with the good but oftentimes also with the evil and the wicked to mend and reclaim them and to bring them into a better way and which could not be done by Benignity without Longanimity for if I should converse so much with those that do ill as to disturb my self and abhor and disdain them if I should be weary of them or despise them how could I behave my self towards them with Benignity How could I by Charity draw them to Grace and to Charity and how could I win them with sweetness and bring them gently to that which is right Gracious and righteous is the Lord says David First he calls him gracious then righteous because by his graciousness and benignity he brings sinners into the right way as it follows in the same Verse of that Psalm And in another O taste and see how gracious the Lord is Taste of that which is gracious and sweet to the end that Nature afterwards may be able to suffer those bitter Remedies which Grace applies for the curing and rectifying of it Benignity then is an heavenly and gracious Affection and an Effect of Longanimity and Charity or I may call it Charity practised both towards the good and towards the bad Benignity is like the Sun which does good to all without difference it covers warms quickens cherishes guides and directs all whether they be good or bad This heavenly Gift is as we have said one of the most important Vertues of the Spiritual Life but chiefly for Superiours and therefore they will do well always to pray for it because it tempers and moderates that Zeal which else commonly burns with too much violence in their Charity To make Iron cut well they use to temper it with Steel which is softer and makes it cut more smoothly than it would do with its own hardness and brittleness The Winter does not leap of a sudden into the Summer nor the Summer into the Winter but the cold of the Winter is sweetned by the benignity of the Spring and the heat of Summer is qualified by the temperate Weather of the Autumn For a good Man to think that he can make an evil one good and holy in an instant or to conquer that force by force is neither very easie nor convenient Even God himself works naturally and makes use of these natural means to bring Souls to his interiour and spiritual Secrets That Divine Lord ordinarily catches and gain Souls by their Bodies and so in Judea and Palestine he cured and rejoyced them with Corporal Health and then bestowed Spiritual Health upon them also To his holy Disciples first he promised Kingdoms and Glories and Crowns and Thrones of Eternity to the end that afterwards they might be the better enabled to bear Crosses and Persecutions Deaths and Torments First they saw him Glorious and Triumphant in Mount Tabor to the end that afterward they might be able to endure the Pains
Prodigally he must part with that Money which his Covetousness would fain keep and the Slothful Man cannot be Ambitious for that Vice requires great Diligence and Pains-taking but Sloth is Idle and loves ease and thus it is with other inordinate Passions But the Vertues are helpful to each other and while some of them are put in practise the rest of them lye peaceably in the Soul Thus Meekness after having exercised Zeal in Reformation receives that Person with a gentle sweetness whom it had drawn to Vertue with much Rigour and Severity And so let Meekness remain in thine heart with Goodness even when thou hast occasion to use thy Zeal that it may be according to Knowledge and Discretion for thou must take care to shew no more of it than is needful and that when the Cause of God or what concerns his Service doth require it The Third WEEK Of Modesty and Chastity the two last Fruits of the Holy Spirit MOdesty also is an excellent Fruit of the Spirit and a very substantial one for it not only contains that which is good and beautiful and gracious and perfect in the appearance but it mingles itself very essentially in all our Actions Modesty is not only an outward composure of the Countenance Person and Habit though that be a very commendable and exemplary Vertue but it is a perfect manner of performing all we do and a decent way of doing whatsoever we undertake All our Actions in this Life are compounded of Substance and Circumstances and these change the manner of what we do for if they be well ordered it becomes perfect but if otherwise it is defective Modesty then is a good discreet and prudent way in ordering all the Actions of a Christian and the Circumstances of them and to find out that way is a most excellent Gift and great Fruit of the Spirit A Preacher may Preach with a good and graceful fashion and manner of delivery or with one that is very unpleasing to his hearers and that very defect may make a very good Preacher to be thought an ill one so that his Voice and Action is not less considerable than what he says He may Discourse with and Reprove one of his Flock with a very good Intention but his Doctrine and his Advices will have no Effect if they be given in a harsh imprudent and undecent manner In the Spiritual Government whether Politick or Moral all depends upon the manner for that changes the substance in such sort that that becomes Poison without it which with it is a Medicine and an Antidote What imports it that the Penitent mortifies and punishes and persecutes himself if it be by an outward way of Penance so vain and so affected as to shew Hypocrisie On the contrary the same thing being done in secret and well ordered may have a very good Effect as proving the reality of Repentance by that indignation against our selves for having offended so gracious a Father God in the Prophecy of Isaiah reproves their manner of Fasting as having too much in it of their own Will and tells them He will not accept their Fast because the way of it wus totally unpleasing to him This Fruit of a good Mode in all our Actions and Modesty which is an Effect of that Mode or Manner is that which in other places the Scripture calls the Spirit of Discretion which is to discern and to distinguish the good way from the bad and to choose and judge between two ways of doing any thing that which is the better and more conducing to its end only here is the difference Discretion comprehends the substance of Actions as well as the Circumstances but Modesty employs itself more particularly about the Circumstances than about the Actions themselves All things have their terms and measures and to go beyond them is to offend against Modesty and to lose the things themselves by the Mode of doing them Every Action and every Resolution is cloathed and coloured by its Circumstances Now to make the Garment long or short large or strait according to the Person and to suit or change the Colours or to mix them together with a good fancy gives not only the Beauty but the Convenience and Perfection of the Dress A Man must use Mildness in Reproving because the Person requires it who perhaps will be enraged or driven into despair by Sharpness and therefore to make use of that and neglect the other is to lose the substance for the manner and to frustrate his own design by having chosen a wrong way On the contrary if I have to deal with another Nature that by Gentleness grows more negligent and runs into greater Liberties but by Rigour may be restrained and kept to the performance of his Duty then in taking that way and leaving the other I shall obtain my end and make the Circumstance to gain the Substance In great Painters that which most raises their Reputation is their well disposing of their Colours not only in fitting and mixing them amongst one another but in ordering them upon the Picture and in suiting and laying them in proportion to the intent and action of the Subject Just so we are to do in Spiritual Affairs striving as good Painters first to make an exact Draught of the Design and then to colour and form and reform it with such skilful touches as may bring it to an entire Perfection How many great nay very great Men in Knowledge and in Discourse and in desire of doing good have lost themselves by their way of going about it and have not only lost themselves but even those also to whom they intended that good Therefore the Director of this Modesty or Mode of Acting must be Prudence which is one of the chiefest Vertues of the Spiritual Life A Vertue so high and of such pre-eminence that it not only governs itself and Mankind but also all the other Vertues To govern those that are Vertuous is a great Dignity and Pre-eminence how great an one therefore must it be to govern the Vertues themselves And this is that which Prudence does which is the Natural Mother of Modesty or the right Mode of performing any Action That which I ground my self upon to believe that this Fruit is not only an outward Modesty but an holy Habit or manner of doing that which is honest decently that which is good perfectly and that which is best discreetly is besides that some Expositors are of that Opinion the Experience I have had of the Treacheries of an outward Modesty and how little that is to be trusted for a Proof of that which is interiour and substantial Now a thing that is in appearance and without substance cannot be a Fruit of the Holy Spirit It is a good thing to seem good and therefore an outward Modesty hath some degree of Goodness but it is not to be valued unless the internal answer to the external An outward behaviour modestly governed while the