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 first of virgins, 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 St. 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 is in this affair 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 sometimes instrumental to it, and incitations of sudden desires, but always insufficient and of little profit: but he that hath a chaste mind shall find his body apt enough to take laws; and let it do its worst, it cannot make a sin, and in its greatest violence can but produce a little natural uneasiness, not so much trouble as a severe fastingday, or a hard night's lodging upon boards. If a man be hungry he must eat, and if he be thirsty he must drink in some convenient time, or else he dies: but

* Mens inpudicam facere, non corpus solet.

if the body be rebellious, so the mind be chaste, let it do its worst; if you resolve perfectly not to satisfy it, you can receive no great evil by it. Therefore the proper cure is by applications to the spirit, and securities of the mind, which can no ways so well be secured as by frequent and fervent prayers, and sober resolutions, and severe discourses. Therefore,

9. Hither bring in succour from 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.

SECT. IV.

Of Humility.

HUMILITY is the greatest ornament and jewel of Christian religion, that whereby it is distinguished * Danda est opera ut matrimonio devinciantur quod est tutissimum juventutis vinculum. Plut. de educ. lib.

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 vallies of humility.

Arguments against Pride, by way of Consideration.

1. Our body is weak and impure, sending out more uncleannesses from its several sinks than could be endured, if they were not necessary and natural: and we are forced to pass that through our mouths, which, as soon as we see upon the ground, we loath like rottenness and vomiting.

2. Our strength is inferior to that of many beasts, and our infirmities so many, that we are forced to dress and tend horses and asses, 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 things 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 pre-eminence 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: which is no more praise to him, than it is that he was born in Italy.

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 strange folly for a man to be proud of being more in debt than another.

9. Remember what thou wert before thou wert begotten. Nothing. What wert thou in the first regions of thy dwelling, before thy birth? uncleanness. What wert thou for many years after? weakness. What in all thy life? a great sinner. What in all thy excelNo. 5.

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