4. Corporal mortification and hard usages of our body hath by all ages of the church been accounted a good instrument and of some profit against the spirit of fornication. A spare diet, and a thin coarse table, seldom refreshment, frequent fasts, not violent, and interrupted with returns to ordinary feeding, but constantly little, unpleasant, of wholesome but sparing nourishment: for by such cutting off the provisions of victual we shall weaken the strengths of our enemy. And this was St. Paul's remedy, "I bring my body under:" he used some rudenesses towards it.

5. Fly from all occasions, temptations, loosenesses of company, balls and revellings, undecent mixtures. of wanton dancings, idle talk, private society with strange women, starings upon a beauteous face, the company of women that are singers, amorous gestures, garish and wanton dressings, feasts and liberty, banquets and perfumes, wine and strong drinks, which are made to persecute chastity, some of these being the very prologues to lust.

6. He that will secure his chastity must first cure his pride and his rage. For oftentimes lust is the punishment of a proud man, to tame the vanity of his pride by the shame and affronts of unchastity: and the same intemperate heat that makes anger does enkindle lust.

7. If thou beest assaulted with an unclean spirit, trust not thyself alone, but run forth into company, whose reverence and modesty may suppress, or whose society may divert thy thoughts: and a perpetual witness of thy conversation is of especial use against this vice, which evaporates in the open air like camphire, being impatient of light and witnesses.

8. Use frequent and earnest prayers to the King of Purities, the eternal God, who is of an essential purity, that he would be pleased to reprove and cast out the unclean spirit. For besides the blessings of prayer by way of reward, it hath a natural virtue to restrain this vice: because a prayer against it is an

unwillingness to act it; and so long as we heartily pray against it, our desires are secured, and then this devil hath no power. This was Saint Paul's other remedy, "For this cause I besought the Lord thrice." And there is much reason and much advantage in the use of this instrument; because the main thing that in this affair is to be secured is a man's mind. He that goes about to cure lust by bodily exercises alone (as St. Paul's phrase is) or mortifications, shall find them insufficient and of little profit: but he that hath a chaste mind shall find his body apt enough to take laws. Therefore the proper cure is by applications to the spirit, and securities of the mind, which can no way so well be secured as by frequent and fervent prayers, and sober resolutions, and severe discourses. Therefore,

9. Hither bring in succour from the consideration of the divine presence, and of his holy angels, meditation of death, and the passions of Christ upon the cross, imitation of his purities, and of the Virgin Mary his unspotted and holy mother, and of such eminent saints who in their generations were burning and shining lights, unmingled with such uncleannesses which defile the soul, and who now follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes.

10. These remedies are of universal efficacy in all cases extraordinary and violent; but in ordinary and common, the remedy which God hath provided, that is, honourable marriage, hath a natural efficacy, besides a virtue by Divine blessing, to cure the inconveniences which otherwise might afflict persons temperate and sober.

SECTION IV.

Of Humility.

HUMILITY is the great ornament and jewel of the Christian religion, that whereby it is distinguished from all the wisdom of the world; it not having been taught by the wise men of the Gentiles, but first put into a discipline, and made part of a religion by our Lord Jesus Christ, who propounded himself imitable by his disciples so signally in nothing as in the twin-sisters of meekness and humility. "Learn of me, for I am meek and humble, and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

For all the world, all that we are, and all that we have, our bodies and our souls, our actions and our sufferings, our conditions at home, our accidents abroad, our many sins and our seldom virtues, are as so many arguments to make our souls dwell low in the deep valleys of humility.

Arguments against Pride by way of consideration. 1. Our body is weak and impure.

2. Our strength is inferior to that of many beasts, and our infirmities so many that we are forced to dress and tend them, that they may help our needs, and relieve our wants.

3. Our beauty is in colour inferior 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 designs of his nature, as we have: and when it is most florid and gay, three fits of an ague can change it into yellowness and leanness, and the hollowness and wrinkles of deformity.

4. Our learning is then best when it teaches most humility but to be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance in the world. For our learning is so long

in getting, and so very imperfect, that the greatest clerk knows not the thousandth part of what he is ignorant; and knows so uncertainly what he seems to know, and knows no otherwise than a fool or a child, even what is told him or what he guesses at, that except those things which concern his duty, and which God hath revealed to him, which also every woman knows as far as is necessary, the most learned man hath nothing to be proud of, unless this be a sufficient argument to exalt him, that he uncertainly guesses at some more unnecessary thing than many others, who yet know all that concerns them, and mind other things more necessary for the needs of life and commonwealths.

5. He that is proud of riches is a fool. For if he be exalted above his neighbours because he hath more gold, how much inferior is he to a gold mine? how much is he to give place to a chain of pearl, or a knot of diamonds? for certainly that hath the greatest excellence, from whence he derives all his gallantry and preeminence over his neighbours.

6. If a man be exalted by reason of any excellence in his soul, he may please to remember that all souls are equal: and their differing operations are because their instrument is in better tune, their body is more healthful, or better tempered.

7. He that is proud of his birth is proud of the blessings of others, not of himself: for if his parents were more eminent in any circumstance than their neighbours, he is to thank God, and to rejoice in them; but still he may be a fool, or unfortunate, or deformed; and when himself was born, it was indifferent to him whether his father were a king or a peasant, for he knew not any thing, nor chose any thing; and most commonly it is true, that he that boasts of his ancestors, who were the founders and raisers of a noble family, doth confess that he hath in himself a less virtue and a less honour, and therefore that he is degenerated.

8. Whatsoever other difference there is between thee and thy neighbour, if it be bad, it is thine own, but thou hast no reason to boast of thy misery and shame if it be good, thou hast received it from God, and then thou art more obliged to pay duty and tribute, use and principal to him: and it were a strange folly for a man to be proud of being more in debt than another.

ness.

9. Remember what thou wert before thou wert begotten. Nothing. What wert thou in the first regions of thy dwelling, before thy birth? UncleanWhat wert thou for many years after? Weakness. What in all thy life? A great sinner. What in all thy excellencies? A mere debtor to God, to thy parents, to the earth, to all the creatures. But we may reduce all the causes and arguments for humility, which we can take from ourselves, to these seven heads. 1. The spirit of a man is light and troublesome: 2. His body is brutish and sickly. 3. He is constant in his folly and error, and inconstant in his manners and good purposes. 4. His labours are vain, intricate, and endless. 5. His fortune is changeable, but seldom pleasing, never perfect. 6. His wisdom comes not till he be ready to die, that is, till he be past using it. 7. His death is certain, always ready at the door, but never far off. Upon these or the like meditations, if we dwell or frequently retire to them, we shall see nothing more reasonable than to be humble, and nothing more foolish than to be proud.

Acts or offices of Humility.

THE grace of humility is exercised by these following rules,

1. Think not thyself better for any thing that happens to thee from without. For although thou mayest, by gifts bestowed upon thee, be better than another, as one horse is better than another, that is of more use to others; yet as thou art a man, thou