of the people's interest. For his passion, he was hindered from entering into the land of promise. And we also, if we be not moderate and well-tempered, even in our passions for God, may, like Moses, break the tables of the law, and throw them out of our hands, with zeal to have them preserved; for passion violently snatches at the conclusion, but is inconsiderate and incurious concerning the premises. The sum and purpose of this discourse, is that saying of our blessed Saviour, " He that will be my disciple must deny himselfi ;" that is, not only desires that are sinful, but desires that are his own, pursuances of his own affections, and violent motions, though to things not evil, or in themselves contagious. 9. Thirdly: And yet there is a degree of mortification of spirit beyond this: for the condition of our security may require, that we not only deny to act our temptations, or to please our natural desires, but also to seek opportunities of doing displeasure to our affections, and violence to our inclinations; and not only to be indifferent, but to choose a contradiction and a denial to our strongest appetites, to rejoice in a trouble: and this was the spirit of St. Paul,-“ I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations *;" and, "We glory in it." Which joy consists not in any sensitive pleasure any man can take in afflictions and adverse accidents, but in a despising the present inconveniences, and looking through the cloud unto those great felicities, and graces, and consignations to glory, which are the effects of the cross: "Knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed";" that was the incentive of St. Paul's joy. And therefore, as it may consist with any degree of mortification to pray for the taking away of the cross, upon condition it may consist with God's glory and our ghostly profit; so it is properly an act of this virtue, to pray for the cross, or to meet it, if we understand it may be for the interest of the spirit. And thus St. Basil prayed to God to remove his violent pains of headach: but when God heard him, and took away his pain, and lust came in the place of it, he prayed to God to restore him his headach again: that cross Matth. xvi. 24. 2 Cor. vii. 4. k m Rom. v. 3, 4. was gain and joy, when the removal of it was so full of danger and temptation. And this the masters of spiritual life call "being crucified with Christ;" because, as Christ chose the death, and desired it by the appetites of the spirit, though his flesh smarted under it, and groaned and died with the burden; so do all that are thus mortified: they place misfortunes and sadnesses amongst things eligible, and set them before the eyes of their desire, although the flesh and the desires of sense are factious and bold against such sufferings. 10. Of these three degrees of interior or spiritual mortification, the first is duty, the second is counsel, and the third is perfection. We sin if we have not the first; we are in danger without the second; but without the third we cannot "be perfect, as our heavenly Father is," but shall have more of human infirmities to be ashamed of, than can be excused by the accrescences and condition of our nature. The first is only of absolute necessity; the second is prudent, and of greatest convenience; but the third is excellent and perfect". And it was the consideration of a wise man, that the saints in heaven, who understand the excellent glories and vast differences of state and capacities amongst beatified persons, although they have no envy nor sorrows, yet if they were upon earth, with the same notion and apprehensions they have in heaven, would not for all the world lose any degree of glory, but mortify to the greatest eminence, that their glory may be a derivation of the greatest ray of light; every degree being of compensation glorious, and disproportionably beyond the inconsiderable troubles of the greatest selfdenial. God's purpose is, that we abstain from sin; there is no more in the commandment; and therefore we must deny ourselves, so as not to admit a sin, under pain of a certain and eternal curse: but the other degrees of mortification are, by accident, so many degrees of virtue; not being enjoined or counselled for themselves, but for the preventing of crimes, and for securities of good life; and, therefore, are parts and η Κάθαρσις μὲν, ἀπὸ τῆς ὑλικῆς ἀλογίας, καὶ τοῦ θνητουειδοῦς σώματος τελειότης δὲ, τῆς οικείας εὐζωΐας ἀνάληψις, πρὸς τὴν θείαν ὁμοίωσιν ἐπανάγουσα, ταῦτα δὲ πέφυκεν ἀρετὴ καὶ ἀλήθεια μάλιστα ἀπεργάζεσθαι· ἡ μὲν, τὴν ἀμετρίαν τῶν παθῶν ἐξορίζουσα· ἡ δὲ, τὸ Θεῖον εἶδος, εὐφυῶς ἔχουσα, προσκτωμένη.—Hierocl. in Pythag. Needham, p. 8. • Tantam gloriam omni horà negligimus, quanta bona interim facere possemus, si otiosè eam transigimus. - S. Bonavent. offices of Christian prudence, which whosoever shall positively reject, is neither much in love with virtue, nor careful of his own safety. : 11. Secondly: But mortification hath also some designs upon the body. For the body is the shop and forge of the soul, in which all her designs, which are transient upon external objects, are framed and it is a good servant, as long as it is kept in obedience and under discipline; but " he that breeds his servant delicately?," will find him contumacious and troublesome, bold and confident as his son: and, therefore, St. Paul's practice, (as himself gives account of it,) was "to keep his body under, and bring it into subjection, lest he should become a cast-away;" for the desires of the body are, in the same things in which themselves are satisfied, so many injuries to the soul; because upon every one of the appetites a restraint is made, and a law placed for sentinel, that if we transgress the bounds fixed by the Divine commandment, it becomes a sin: now it is hard for us to keep them within compass, because they are little more than agents merely natural, and therefore cannot interrupt their act, but covet and desire as much as they can, without suspension or coercion, but what comes from without; which is, therefore, the more troublesome, because all such restraints are against nature, and without sensual pleasure. And, therefore, this is that that St. Paul said, "When we were in the flesh, the passions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." For these pleasures of the body draw us as loadstones draw iron, not for love, but for prey and nutriment; it feeds upon the iron, as the bodily pleasures upon the life of the spirit, which is lessened and impaired, according as the gusts of the flesh grow high and sapid. 12. He that feeds a lion must obey him, unless he make his den to be his prison. Our lusts are as wild and as cruel beasts; and, unless they feel the load of fetters and of laws, will grow unruly and troublesome, and increase upon us, as P Prov. xxix. 21. 4 1 Cor. ix. 27. Rom. vi. 4. Heb. xii. 1. 1 Pet. ii. 1. and iv. 1. r Rom. vii. 5. Αἰχρὸν τῶν μὲν οικετῶν ἄρχειν, ταῖς δὲ ἡδοναῖς δουλεύειν. Isocr. ad Demonic. ed. Lange, p. 7. we give them food and satisfaction. He that is used to drink high wines, is sick if he hath not his proportion, to what degree soever his custom hath brought his appetite; and to some men temperance becomes certain death, because the inordination of their desires hath introduced a custom, and custom hath increased those appetites, and made them almost natural in their degree: but he that hath been used to hard diet and the pure stream, his refreshments are much within the limits of temperance, and his desires as moderate as his diet. St. Jerom affirms, that to be continent in the state of widowhood, is harder than to keep our virgin pure and there is reason, that then the appetite should be harder to be restrained, when it hath not been accustomed to be denied, but satisfied in its freer solicitations. When a fontinel is once opened, all the symbolical humours run thither, and issue out; and it is not to be stopped without danger, unless the humour be purged or diverted. So is the satisfaction of an impure desire; it opens the issue, and makes way for the emanation of all impurity; and, unless the desire be mortified, will not be stopped by purposes and easy desires. 13. Since, therefore, the body is the instrument of sins, the fuel and the incentive, our mortification must reach. thither also, at least in some degrees, or it will be to small purpose to think of mortifying our spirit in some instances of temptation. In vain does that man think to keep his honour and chastity, that invites his lust to an activeness, by soft beds and high diet, and idleness and opportunity. Make the soul's instrument unapt, and half the work is done. And this is true in all instances of carnality or natural desires, whose scene lies in the lower region of passions, and are acted by the body; but the operation of the cure must be in proportion to the design; as the mortification of the spirit is in several degrees, so the mortification of the body also hath its several parts of prudence, injunction, and necessity. For the prescribing all sorts of mortifications corporal, indefinitely and indiscriminately to all persons, without separation of their ends and distinct capacities, is a snare to men's consciences, makes religion impertinently troublesome, occasions some men to glory in corporal austerity, as if of itself it were an act of piety, and a distinction of the man from the more imperfect persons of the world, and is all the way unreasonable and inartificial. 14. First: Therefore, such whose engagements in the world, or capacities of person, confine them to the lowest and first step of mortification; those who fight only for life and liberty, not for privileges and honour; that are in perpetual contestation and close fightings with sin; it is necessary that their body also be mortified in such a degree, that their desires transport them not beyond the permissions of Divine and human laws'. Let such men be strict in the rules of temperance and sobriety, be chaste within the laws of marriage, cherish their body to preserve their health, and their health to serve God, and to do their offices. To these persons, the best instruments of discipline are the strict laws of temperance; denying all transgressions of the appetite, boiling over its margin and proper limits; assiduous prayer, and observation of the public laws of fasting; which are framed so moderate and even, as to be proportionable to the common manner of living of persons secular and encumbered. For though many persons of common employments, and even manner of living, have, in the midst of worldly avocations, undertaken austerities very rude and rigorous, yet it was in order to a higher mortification of spirit; and it is also necessary they should, if either naturally, or habitually, or easily, they suffer violent transportation of passions: for since the occasions of anger and disturbance in the world frequently occur, if such passions be not restrained by greater violence than is competent to the ordinary offices of a moderate piety, the cure is weaker than the humour, and so leaves the work imperfect. 15. Secondly: But this is coincident to the second degree of mortification; for if, either out of desire of a farther step towards perfection, or out of the necessities of nature or evil customs, it be necessary also to subdue our passions, as well Huic epulæ, vicisse famem; magnique penates, De Catone dixit Lucanus, ii. 384. Intonsos rigidam in frontem descendere canos |