care not with what rags they cloath the Soul. We may also consider that these high pamperings and feasting our selves have no real pleasure in them; and this I am sure was the Orators judgment, when he said, [[25]]I would not fancy or imagine with my self as if luxurious gluttons lived pleasantly, and such who vomit upon the table again what but now they took off, and with their crude stomacks, carried from Feasts, the next day ingurgitate themselves into them again; who, by reason of their laziness and surfeiting, see the Sun neither rise nor set, and are in indigency of those Estates which they have profusely expended: none of us (saith he) ever thought such gluttons as these live a pleasant life. And the same Author tells us, [[26]]That there is no less pleasure to be taken in a slender and spare diet, then in the most exquisite dainties; there being no less delight in the Persian Nasturtium, then in the richly furnished Syracusan Tables, so much cry'd down and
discommended by Plato. But this shall suffice for the second Recipe: and my third is this.
3. Secure your Heart so well that no ill thought creeps into it, and proves an incentive to lust; let not the smallest ventricle of your heart conceive an evil thought, lest at last it bring forth sin. One little Flie will taint and corrupt a great quantity of flesh; and so one little thought hovering about thy heart (like a little Flie) will quickly taint it. Be sure therefore (like the Emperour Domitian[[27]]) alwayes to be catching and killing these Flies. Consider, that if you indulge your selves in wicked thoughts and lustings, there wants nothing to the consummation of the act but some convenient circumstances, which because they are not then attainable, the act is for a time impeded, but the malice nothing abated: For [[28]]the Law of Not coveting no less forbids sinful desires and concupiscences then sinful actions; for no man desires or lusts after any thing
but what pleases him: But every complacency or delight in an unlawful matter, although short and transient, nay, although at last repulsed and cohibited from breaking out into an external act, hath contracted by that very motion the blemish and spot of an internal sin. And hence S. Augustin, following the Doctrine of S. Paul, affirms, [[29]]That the concupiscence of the flesh is sin in a good man, Because he has in him a disobedience and reluctancy against the government of the rational faculty. Again, He sins that inwardly lusteth or desires, although he follow not those desires by a consequent act, Because such motions are not pure passions, but involve negations of due acts which ought to have been in lieu thereof: A man may be incestuous [[30]]that never bodily commits the act; and from these impure fires, which men kindle and cherish within them, they are usually in love with their deformed lusts, as Alcæus was with the warts [[31]]in his Boys face, though they are deformed marks. When Brutus and Cassius assaulted Cæsar with a design and resolution to murther him, we read, that as soon as he saw Brutus he cryed
out, Και συ τεκνον; And art thou here my Son, my Darling? and opened his breast to him. So when any Lust comes to assault us with a design to make us dead in sin, we court and caress it in Cæsars words, Art thou here, my Darling? and open our hearts and breasts unto it; whereas we should alwayes be prepared with preservatories against it.
4. Let your discourse be alwayes chast and pure: Decline with great care all undecent obscenity in your language, chastening and confining your tongue, and restraining it with Grace; for, as St. James tells us, Jam. 3. 2. If any man offend not in word (tongue) the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Either be silent, or speak those things which are better then silence, is a good Rule here. Every bad tree is known by its bad fruit, and an unclean man may be trac'd by his unclean discourse; it being a shrewd symptom the Will is depraved, when our Discourse is unchaste and obscene. And in this [[32]]Hierocles concurrs with me; The Will of man
(saith he) adhering long neither to Virtue nor Vice, utters forth expressions inclining to both, as resembling the contrary affections in it. This advice therefore of Tyrius Maximus is very soveraign; [[33]]I require such a pleasure in words which Virtue may not disdain to make her Waiting-woman and attend upon her. St. James calls the Tongue a fire, Jam. 3. 6. And the School-men call the Lusts of the Flesh (Fomes) Tinder. Let us therefore be careful that the Fire of our Tongue light not upon this Tinder, and kindle it. Modesty and a becoming Blush is the Fence of all Virtue; and when this is broken down by obscene talk, the Banks will overflow with impure Streams. A Rose, when it hath lost its blush, and begins to look pale, by those symptoms you may conclude that 'tis a dying. It hath ever been accounted a true Rule, Qualis Vir, talis Oratio. We know the Bird by the Tune, the Beagle by his Mouth, and a Man by his Words. We cannot expect that he that hath lost his voice with his Chastity should sing Praises to God so melodiously as another that is chaste, virtuous, and continent. A
stinking breath is not a more sure symptom of putrid Lungs, then an obscene Tongue of an unclean Heart. 'Twere better that this Clapper stood still, except it could give a purer sound; it were better this Clock never struck, except it were for other ends then to awaken our Lusts, and put them in motion. And I look upon obscene discourse but as an impure Breath coming out of the mouth, which is fit for nothing but to make an Exhalation or Ignis fatuus, which (if we follow it) will lead us into Bogs and precipices of Uncleanness; but if we fall down, and prostrate our selves before God in Prayer, it will quickly be dissolved: Wherefore,
5. Let us use frequent and earnest Prayers to God, to give us the assistance of his holy Spirit; for this Devil of Lust sometimes cannot be cast out but by Prayer. When the Romans were in great distress, & surprized with a sudden assault of their Enemies, they ran to the Temple to get Arms, which were laid there against an extraordinary occasion: So, if we shall be at any time assaulted by our Lusts let us have recourse to the
Temple of God, and take up the Arms of the Church, which are Prayers and Tears. We must not (as Nero did at the burning of Rome) sing Pæans and rejoyce, when our Bodies (those Temples of the Holy Ghost) are burning with the flames of Lust. Numa Pompilius, when news was brought him that his Enemies were ready to surprize him, put off the Messenger with this ready memorable Speech, Εγω δε θυω, I am offering a sacrifice to God: So, when we have any news of being surprized by our Lusts, we may return the same answer; 'Tis enough if we are at our Prayers, which will secure and guard us from them. Plutarch reports of a Boy, who though he was burnt with a coal that fell from the Altar, yet continued his oblation of Sacrifice without intermission: So let us (though we are sometimes burned with the fire of Lust) be so fervent in our Prayers to God, that the fervency of them may exceed and draw away the heat of our Lusts, as a great Fire does the heat which was caused by a less.