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Contra libi

tum appre

obtinere vi

Aug.

S.

Nella guer

ra d'amor chi fuge vince.

by the following Rules to prevent, or to cure all the wounds of our flesh made by the poifoned arrows of Luft.

Remedies against Uncleanness.

1. When a temptation of lust assaults thee, do not dinis impe- refift it by heaping up arguments against it, and dif bende fu puting with it, confidering its offers and its danger, gam, fi vis but flie from it, that is, think not at all of it; lay a&toriam. s. fide all confideration concerning it, and turn away from it by any fevere and laudable thought of busi nefs. St Hierom very wittily reproves the Gentile fuperftition, who pictured the Virgin-Deities armed with a fhield and Lance, as if Chastity could not be defended without War and direct contention. No; this enemy is to be treated otherwife. If you hear it fpeak, though but to dispute with it, it ruines you; and the very arguments you go about to anfwer, leave a relifh upon the tongue. A man may be burned if he goes near the fire, though but to quench his houfe; and by handling pitch, though but to draw it from your cloaths, you defile your fingers.

2. Avoid idleness, and fill up all the spaces of thy time with severe and useful employment: for luft ufually creeps in at thofe emptineffes where the foul is unemployed and the body is at eafe. For no eafie, healthful and idle perfon was ever chafte, if he could be tempted. But of all employments, bodily labour is most useful, and of greatest benefit for the driving away the Devil.

3. Give no entertainment to the beginnings, the
first motions and fecret whif-
Quifquis in primo obftitit pers of the spirit of impuri-
ty. For if you totally fup-
prefs it, it dies: If you per-
mit the furnace to breathe its
fmoke and flame out at any

Répulitque amorem, tutus ac victor fuit:
Qui blandiendo dulce nutrivit malum,
Serò reculat ferre quod fubiic jugum.

Senec. Hippol.

vent, it will rage to the confumption of the whole. This Cockatrice is fooneft crufhed in the fhell, but if

it grows, it turns to a Serpent, and a Dragon, and a Devil.

4. Corporal mortification and hard ufages of our body, hath by all ages of the Church been accounted a good inftrument, and of fome profit against the fpirit of fornication. A fpare diet, and a thin, coarse table, feldom refreshment, frequent fafts, not violent and interrupted with returns to ordinary feeding, but conftantly little, unpleafant, of wholesome but fparing nourishment: For by fuch cutting off the provisions of victuals, we fhall weaken the ftrength of our ene my. To which if we add lyings upon the ground, painful postures in Prayer, reciting our devotions with our arms extended at full length, like Mofes praying against Amaleck, or our bleffed Saviour hanging upon his painful bed of forrows, the Crofs, and (if the luft be upon us, and sharply tempting) by inflicting any Imart to overthrow the ftrongest paffion by the most violent pain, we fhall find great eafe for the prefent, and the refolution and apt fufferance against the future danger. And this was St. Paul's remedy, I bring my body under, he used fome rudeness towards it. But it was a great nobleness of Chastity which St. Hierom In vita S. reports of a Son of the King of Nicomedia, who being tempted upon flowers and a perfumed bed with a foft violence, but yet tied down to the temptation, and follicited with circumftances of Afian Luxury by an impure Curtezan, least the eafinefs of his pofture fhould abufe him, fpit out his tongue into her face: to represent that no vertue hath cost the Saints * so + Benedictus much as this of Chastity.

Pauli,

in fpinis fe volutavit.

vixit, ne

S. Martinianus faciem & manus. S. Johannes cognomento Bonus, calamos acutos inter ungues & carnem digitorum intrufit. S. Theocyftus in fylvis more ferarum inter Arabes pollueretur,

5. Fly from all occafions, temptations, loofeneffes of company, balls and revellings, undecent mixtures of wanton dancings, idle talk, private fociety with ftrange women, ftarings upon a beauteous face, the company of women that are fingers, amorous geftures, garifhand wanton dreffings, feafts and liberty,

ban

ἐβΣτέφω πλέκων ποθ' εὗρον ἐν τοῖς ῥόδοις ἔρωτ
διάπτισ ̓ εἰς τὸν οἶνον, καὶ τῶν πλερών κατάσχων λαβῶν
· ἔπιθον αὐτὸν, καὶ νῦν ἔσω μερῶν με πληροῖσι γαρ.
Yanize. Julian.

Venus rofam amat propter fabellam quam recitat.
Libaniús.

Venter mero æftuans citò defpumatur in libidines.

S. Hieron.

Il foco che non mi scalda non voglio che mifcotti.

banquets and pers
fumes,
wine and

ftrong drinks, which are made to perfecute Chastity, fome of these being the very prologues to luft, and the moft innocent of them being but like condited or pickled mushromes, which if carefully corrected, and seldom tasted, may be harmlefs, but can never do good: Ever remembring that it is easier to die for Chastity, than to live with it; and the Hangman could not extort a confent from fome perfons, from whom a Lover would have entreated it. For the glory of Chastity will eafily over come the rudeness of fear and violence; but eafinefs and foftness and fmooth temptations creep in, and like the fun, make a maiden lay by her veil and robe, which perfecution, like the northern wind, made her hold faft and clap clofe about her.

1

6. He that will fecure his Chastity, must first cure his pride and his rage. For ofrentimes luft is the pu nishment of a proud man, to tame the vanity of his pride by the fhame and affronts of unchaftity: and the fame intemperate heat that makes anger, does inkindle luft.

numquid ego à té Magno prognatam depofco confuleVelataque ftolâ mea cum conferbuit ira?

Horat. Serm. 1. f. Sat. 2.

7. If thou beeft affaulted with an unclean Spirit, truft not thy self alone, but run forth into company, whofe reverence and modefty may suppress, or whofe fociety may divert thy thoughts: and a perpetual witness of thy converfation is of efpecial use against this vice, which evaporates in the open air like Camphire, being impatieut of light and witnesses.

8. Ufe frequent and earnest Prayers to the King of Purities, the first of Virgins, the eternal God, who is of an effential purity, that he would be pleased to re prove and cast out the unclean Spirit. For befides the bleffings

Men's impu

dicam fa

bleffings of prayer by way of reward, it hath a natural vertue to restrain this vice: because a prayer against it is an unwillingness to act it; and fo long as we heartily pray against it, our defires are fecured, and then this Devil hath no power. This was St. Paul's other remedy: [For this caufe I befought the Lord thrice.] And there is much reafon and much advantage in the use of this inftrument; because the main thing that in this affair is to be fecured, is a man's mind. He that goes about to cure luft by bodily exercifes alone (as cere, non St. Paul's phrafe is) or mortifications, fhall find them corpus folet fometimes inftrumental to it, and incitations of fudden defires, but always infufficient and of little profit : but he that hath a chaft mind fhall find his body apt enough to tike laws; and let it do its worst, it can not make a fin, and in its greatest violence can but produce a little natural uneafinefs, not fo much trou ble as a fevere fafting-day; or a hard night's lodging upon boards. If a man be hungry he must eat, and if he be thirsty he muft drink in fome convenient time, or else he dies: but if the body be rebellious, fo the mind be chaft, let it do its worst; if you refolve perfectly not to fatisfie it, you can receive no great evil by it. Therefore the proper cure is by applicati ons to the spirit, and fecurities of the mind, which can no ways fo well be fecured as by frequent and fervent prayers, and fober refolutions, and fevere difcourfes. Therefore,

9. Hither bring in fuccour from confideration of the Divine Prefence, and of his holy Angels, meditation of Death, and the Paffions of Chrift upon the Crofs, imitation of his Purities, and of the Virgin Mary his unfpotted and holy Mother, and of fuch eminent Saints who in their generations were burning and fhining, lights, unmingled with fuch uncleanneffes which defile the foul, and who now follow the Lamb whither- matrimonio foever he goes.

Danda eft

opera ut

devincian

tutiffimum

TO. Thefe Remedies are of univerfal efficacy in alltur quod eft cafes extraordinary and violent; but in ordinary and juventutis common, the Remedy which God hath provided, that vinculum. is, honourable * Marriage, hath a natural efficacy, be- educ. lib,

Plut. de

fides a vertue by divine bleffing, to cure the inconveniences which otherwife might afflict perfons temperate and fober.

SECT. IV.

Of Humility.

HUmility is the greatest Ornament and Jewel of Chriftian Religion, that whereby it is diftinguished from all the wifdom of the world; it not having been taught by the wife men of the Gentiles, but firft put into a difcipline, and made part of a Religion, by our Lord Jefus Chrift, who propounded himfelf imitable by his difciples fo fignally in nothing as in the twin fifters of Meeknefs and Humility. Learn of me, for I am meek and humble, and ye shall find reft unto your fouls.

For all the World, all that we are, and all that we have, our bodies and our fouls, our actions and our fufferings, our conditions at home, our accidents a☛ broad, our many fins, and our feldom vertues, are as fo many arguments to make our fouls dwell low in the deep valleys of Humility.

Arguments against Pride, by way of confideration.

1. Our Body is weak and impure, fending out more uncleanneffes from its feveral finks than could be endured if they were not neceflary and natural: and we are forced to pafs that through our mouths, which as foon as we fee upon the ground, we loath like rottennefs and vomiting.

2. Our Strength is inferiour to that of many Beafts, and our Infirmities fo many, that we are forced to drefs and tend Horfes and Affes, that they may help our needs and relieve our wants.

3. Our beauty is in colour inferiour to many flowers, and in proportion of parts it is no better than nothing for even a Dog hath parts as well proportioned and fitted to his purposes, and the defigns of his

nature,

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