6. Avoid Idleness, and be sure alwayes to be well employed. I may give an idle
man that character one [[34]]gives of Themistocles when out of imployment, That he will be luxurious, dissolute, lustful, and intemperate. Mans heart is a Mill ever grinding some grist or other; and I may add, If there be no grain for it to work upon, it sets itself on fire with lust. Let us consider, that whilest we are idle, and not imployed, we can expect no assistance from God, if we should be assaulted by Lust: according to that of the Historian: [[35]]When we once give our selves over to idleness, we shall in vain implore the aid and assistance of God, for then he is angry and offended at us. No, no, let us rather be in continual action and imployment, and be diligently conversant in our several lawful vocations: For (as the same Author tells us) [[36]]We cannot by a few weak prayers only and faint Supplications obtain aid and assistance from God; but by watching, and being in continual action and consultation, all things will succeed prosperously unto us. It was a saying
of Appius Clodius, [[37]]That it were better for the Romans to be busied and imployed, then remiss and idle; Because great Empires by agitation and motion are excited to Vertue. And it was anothers complaint, [[38]]That Idleness (that great enemy to Discipline) corrupted and spoiled the Roman Souldiers. And so may we complain, that Idleness hinders us in our Spiritual Warfare against our Lusts. Whilest Atalanta was imployed in hunting with Diana, she kept her Virginity pure and immaculate; but when she fell into Idleness, she indulg'd her self in the gratification of her insatiable Lusts: So, whilest our Souls are employed in hunting after knowledge, and other things which are commendable and praise-worthy, they may preserve themselves from Lust and Uncleanness. It was a saying of a Latine Poet, [[39]]Take away Idleness, and you break Cupids Bow: And I may say, with more then Poetical Authority, Take away Idleness, and you break the Devils Bow; for Idleness is the Bow out of which the Devil shoots the fiery Darts of his Temptations at us. And if, after all these Means used, you cannot
contain your selves within the bounds of Chastity, then
7. Enter the sacred Bonds of Matrimony: 'Tis far better thou shouldest marry then burn. Take St. Pauls counsel, who, [[40]]to avoid fornication, bids every man have his own Wife, and every woman have her own Husband. And though I cannot but esteem a single life and holy Cælibate (which was consecrated by the holy Jesus in his proper person) to be an excellent Virtue; yet since every one hath not that gift of continence which our Saviour had, and God hath instituted Matrimony as an Ordinance, and the holy Jesus hallowed it and made it honourable with the expence of the first Miracle (we read) he ever performed on Earth, and made it more sublimate by making it a Representation of the Union betwixt Him and his Spouse the Church; it is a thing highly commendable in it self, and to be made use of as a great Preservative against inordinacies in our Affections and unruly Passions: And a Learned Author puts it in the Catalogue of such Arts [[41]]without which a man cannot live well and
happily; and says, "That although to live a single life is not totally repugnant to Humane Nature, yet it is repugnant to the Nature of most Men; Because a single life and cælibate are onely fitted for the most excellent Minds, and such as are refined from the dross of impure concupiscence." And another Author brings in Romulus speaking to his neighbouring Nations, [[42]]That they would not grudge to mix themselves together in a joynt Allyance and Consanguinity. And though the Roman State seemed to countenance a single life, because they afforded Dignities to certain Vestal Virgins, yet the number of those Vestals was but small; and then the Dignities and Priviledges which they had were no other but that they were made equal in State to married Wives; they were preferred before all that lived unmarried, but not before married persons.
But whilest I am speaking of this Order of Vestal Nuns, I cannot but endeavour to excite in you an abhorrency of those destructive Nunneries into which the Papists cast their Virgins in their
infancy, and before they come to maturity of years, or are (which they can never be) able to judge of the strength of their own continency. Into what Stews have these Nunneries been frequently converted, by reason of restraining those from the sacred Ligament of Marriage who have not so absolute a command over themselves as to abstain from unlawful carnality? How is that sacred Fire, which among the Romans of old was preserved by their Vestal Virgins, by these changed into Flames of Lust, which all their Holy-water will never allay or extinguish? Oh! that these sottish abusers of the Holy Ordinance of God called Marriage would but call to minde how the blessed and immaculate Virgin (our Saviours Mother) was betrothed to Joseph, lest honourable Marriage might be disreputed, and seem inglorious, by a positive rejection from any participation of that transcendent honour! I could heartily wish that these our Romanists would but imitate the brave example of the old Romans, who thought none eligible to be Jupiters Priests but such as were
Married; and (as Tacitus and Suetonius tell us) set a Fine upon their heads who refused to be united in the holy Bonds of Matrimony. It was out of respect to this, that the Emperour Augustus sent for Germanicus his Children, and hugging and caressing them in his Royal breast, signified by his countenance, and other signes of his hand, that others ought to imitate Germanicus in marrying with joy and alacrity.
And thus you see I have asserted and maintained the laudable Priviledge and Ordination of Marriage; and now cannot but be convinced that you think, in this my last Recipe of Marriage I have prescribed you pleasanter Physick then in any of the former: If therefore you cannot obtain a cure from them, you may from this joyned to them. Suetonius tells us, that Galba selected a Jewel to beautifie and adorn the Goddess Fortune; which (on the sudden) as if it deserved a more sacred Deity, he dedicated to Venus. But I hope, that we, after we have selected those Pearls of price our Souls for Gods service, shall not