sweeten thy temper, and allay the violence of thy spirit, with some convenient, natural, temperate, and medicinal solaces; for some dispositions we have seen inflamed into anger, and often assaulted by peevishness, through immoderate fasting and inconvenient austerities. Ninthly, a gentle answer is an excellent remora to the progresses of anger, whether in thyself or others. For anger is like the waves of a troubled sea; when it is corrected with a soft reply, as with a little strand, it retires, and leaves nothing behind it but froth and shells; no permanent mischieff. Tenthly, silence is an excellent art: and that was the advantage which St. Isaacs, an old religious person in the primitive church, is reported to have followed; to suppress his anger within his breast, and use what means he could there to strangle it, but never permitting it to go forth in language: anger and lust being like fire, which if you enclose, suffering it to have no emission, it perishes and dies; but give it the smallest vent, and it rages to a consumption of all it reaches. And this advice is coincident with the general rule which is prescribed in all temptations, that anger be suppressed in its cradle and first assaults". Eleventhly, and lastly let every man be careful, that in his repentance, or in his zeal, or his religion, he be as dispassionate and free from anger as is possible; lest anger pass upon him in a reflex act, which was rejected in the direct. Some mortifiers, in their contestation against anger, or any evil or troublesome principle, are like criers of assizes, who, calling for silence, make the greatest noise; they are extremely angry, when they are fighting against the habit or violent inclinations to anger. : 36. But in the way of more strict religion, it is advised, first, that he who would cure his anger should pray often. It is St. Austin's counsel to the bishop Auxilius', that like the apostles in a storm, we should awaken Christ, and call to Him for aid, lest we shipwreck in so violent passions and impetuous disturbances. Secondly, propound to thyself the example of meek and patient persons; remembering always, that there is a family of meek saints, of which Moses is the precedent; a family of patient saints, under the conduct of Job. Every one in the mountain of the Lord shall be gathered to his own tribe, to his own family, in the great day of jubilee and the angry shall perish with the effects of anger; and peevish persons shall be vexed with the disquietness of an eternal worm, and sting of a vexatious conscience, if they suffer here the transportations and saddest ! Terminum etiam marinis fluctibus fabricator descripsit; arena maris exigua sæpe inter duas acies intercapedo est: si reprimere iram non potes, memento quia indignabundum mare nil ultra spumam et fluctuationem effert.-Simocatta [Ep. iv. p. 73.] Ex quo factus sum monachus, statui apud me ut iracundia extra guttur meum non procederet, dixit S. Isaac Eremita.- h Melius enim est negare primum iræ introitum, etiam de causa probabili satis et gloriosa, quam admissam ejicere.Vid. S. Aug. ad Profutur. [Ep. xxxviii. tom. ii. col. 83.] [Ep. ccl. § 3. tom. ii. col. 879.] effects of an unmortified, habitual, and prevailing anger. Thirdly, above all things endeavour to be humble, to think of thyself as thou deservest, that is, meanly and unworthily; and in reason it is to be presumed thou wilt be more patient of wrong, quiet under affronts and injuries, susceptive of inconveniences, and apt to entertain all adversities, as instruments of humiliation, deletories of vice, corrections of undecent passions and instruments of virtue. Fourthly, all the reason, and all the relations, and all the necessities of mankind, are daily arguments against the violences and inordinations of anger. For he that would not have his reason confounded, or his discourse useless, or his family be a den of lions; he that would not have his marriage a daily duel, or his society troublesome, or his friendship formidable, or his feasts bitter; he that delights not to have his discipline cruel, or his government tyrannical, or his disputations violent, or his civilities unmannerly; or his charity be a rudeness, or himself brutish as a bear, or peevish as a fly, or miserable upon every accident, and in all the changes of his life, must mortify his anger. For it concerns us as much as peace, and wisdom, and nobleness, and charity, and felicity are worth, to be at peace in our breasts, and to be pleased with all God's providence, and to be in charity with every thing, and with every man. The seventh commandment. 37. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." These two commandments are immediate to each other, and of the greatest cognation; for anger and lust work upon one subject, and the same fervours of blood which make men revengeful will also make men unchaste. But the prohibition is repeated in the words of the old commandment: so "it was said to them of old;" which was not only a prohibition of the violation of the rights of marriage, but was, even among the Jews, extended to signify all mixture of sexes not matrimonial. For adultery in scripture is sometimes used to signify fornication, and fornication for adultery; as it is expressed in the permissions of divorce, in the case of fornication: and by Moses' law, fornication also was forbidden; and it was hated also, and reproved, in the natural. But it is very probable that this precept was restrained only to the instance of adultery in the proper sense, that is, violation of marriage; for Moses did in other annexes of the law forbid fornication. And as a blow or wound was not esteemed in Moses' law a breach of the sixth commandment; so neither was any thing but adultery esteemed a violation of the seventh by very many Ubi furoris insederit virus, libidinis quoque incendium necesse est penetrare.. -Numquid ego a te -Cassian. [Inst. vi. cap. 23. De spir. fornic., p. 164.] Magno prognatam deposco consule Velatamque stola, mea cum conferbuit ira?-Hor. [Sat. i. 2. lin. 69.] of their own doctors: of which I reckon this a sufficient probation, because they permitted stranger virgins and captives to fornicate; only they believed it sinful in the Hebrew maidens. And when two harlots pleaded before Solomon for the bastard child, he gave sentence of their question, but nothing of their crime. Strangers, with the Hebrews, signified many times harlots; because they were permitted to be such, and were entertained to such purposes. But these were the licences of a looser interpretation; God having to all nations given sufficient testimony of His detestation of all concubinate not hallowed by marriage: of which among the nations there was abundant testimony; in that the harlots were not permitted to abide in the cities, and wore veils, in testimony of their shame and habitual undecencies; which we observe in the story of Thamar1, and also in Chrysippus; and although it passed without punishment, yet never without shame and a note of turpitude. And the abstinence of fornication was one of the precepts of Noah, to which the Jews obliged the stranger proselytes, who were only proselytes of the house and the apostles enforce it upon the gentiles in their first decree at Jerusalem, as renewing an old stock of precepts and obligations in which all the converted and religious gentiles did communicate with the Jews. 38. To this Christ added, that the eyes must not be adulterous; His disciples must not only abstain from the act of unlawful concubinate, but from the impurer intuition of a wife of another man: so, according to the design of His whole sermon, opposing the righteousness of the Spirit to that of the law, or of works, in which the Jews confided. Christians must have chaste desires, not indulging to themselves a liberty of looser thoughts"; keeping the threshold of their temples pure, that the holy Ghost may observe nothing unclean. in the entry of His habitation. For he that lusts after a woman wants nothing to the consummation of the act but some convenient circumstances; which because they are not in our power, the act is impeded, but nothing of the malice abated. But so severe in this was our blessed Master, that He commanded us rather to "put our eyes out," than to suffer them to become an offence to us, that is, an inlet of sin, or an invitation or transmission of impurity: by "putting our eye out," meaning the extinction of all incentives of lust, the k Zévas vocarunt Græci meretrices et peregrinas, ad morem et ad verbum Hebræorum; et Menandrum transferens, Terentius peregrinam vocat Andriam. Gen. xxxviii. 14. m [Orig. contr. Cels., lib. iv. cap. 63. tom. i. p. 552.] Nihil refert quibus membris adulteraveris, dixit Arcesilaus philosophus.Plutarch. [De sanit. tuend., tom. vi. p. 479.] Αρχὴ [ἄρχει, citante Grotio in Matt. v. 28. ] τοῦ ἔρωτος ὅρασις.-Plato, Ut jam servaris bene corpus, adultera mens est: Omnibus occlusis intus adulter erit.-Ovid. [Amor. iii. Eleg. 4.] Incesta est etiam sine stupro quæ cupit stuprum.-Sen. [Excerpt. Controv., lib. vi. 8. tom. iii. p. 477.] Πόθεν ποτ' ἆρα γίνεται μοιχῶν γένος; ¿K Kрili@vтos avôpòs év åppodioíois.-Cleanthes. [apud Stob. Floril. vi. 20.] rejection of all opportunities and occasions, the quitting all conditions of advantage which ministers fuel to this hell-fire. And by this severity we must understand all beginnings, temptations, likenesses, and insinuations and minutes of lust and impurity, to be forbidden to Christians; such as are all morose delectations in vanity, wanton words, gestures, balls, revellings, wanton diet, garish and lascivious dressings and trimmings of the body, looser banquetings: all "making provisions for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts of it," all lust of concupiscence, and all "lust of the eye," and all lust of the hand, unclean contracts, are to be rescinded, all lust of the tongue and palate, all surfeiting and drunkenness for it is impossible to keep the spirit pure, if it be exposed to all the entertainment of enemies. And if Christ forbade the wanton eye, and placed it under the prohibition of adultery, it is certain whatsoever ministers to that vice and invites to it, is within the same restraint; it is the eye, or the hand, or the foot, that is to be cut off. To this commandment fastings and severe abstinences are apt to be reduced, as being the proper abscission of the instruments and temptations of lust, to which Christ invites by the mixed proposition of threatening and reward; for "better it is to go to heaven with but one eye, or one foot,' that is, with a body half nourished, than with full meals and an active lust to "enter into hell." And in this our blessed Lord is a physician rather than a lawgiver: for abstinence from all impure concubinate and morose delectations so much as in thought, being the commandment of God; that Christ bids us retrench the occasions and insinuations of lust, it is a facilitating the duty, not a new severity, but a security and caution of prudence. The eighth commandment. 39. "Thou shalt not steal." To this precept Christ added nothing, because God had already in the decalogue fortified this precept with a restraint upon the desires. For the tenth commandment forbids all coveting of our neighbour's goods P: for the wife there reckoned, and forbidden to be desired from another man, is not a restraint of libidinous appetite, but of the covetous; it being accounted part of wealth to have a numerous family, many wives, and • Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops, Corpore languor.-Hor. [Od. ii. 2. lin. 13.] • Ο γὰρ τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις ἐπικεχηνώς, κοινὸς πόλεως ἐχθρός βουλήσει μὲν τὰ πάντων, δυνάμει δὲ τά τινων ἀφαιρούμενος. -Philo in Exposit. Gener. [i. e. De de cal. p. 763 C. ed. Lutet. 1640.] Κλοπὴ μὲν χρημάτων ἀνελεύθερον. Plato, De legg. [lib. xii. § i. tom. viii. p. 576.] Δὼς ἀγαθὴ, ἅρπαξ δὲ κακὴ, θανάτοιο δότειρα.—Hesiod. Op. [lin. 354.] many servants: and this also God, by the prophet Nathan, upbraided to David, as an instance of David's wealth and God's liberality. But yet this commandment Christ adopted into His law, it being prohibited by the natural law, or the law of right reason, commonwealths not being able to subsist without distinction of dominion, nor industry to be encouraged but by propriety, nor families to be maintained but by defence of just rights and truly purchased possessions. And this prohibition extends to all injustice, whether done by force or fraud; whether it be by ablation, or prevention, or detaining of rights; any thing in which injury is done, directly or obliquely, to our neighbour's fortuner. The ninth commandment. 40. "Thou shalt not bear false witness." That is, thou shalt not answer in judgment against thy neighbour falsely: which testimony, in the law, was given solemnly and by oath, invoking the name of God. "I adjure thee by God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ," said the high-priest to the blessed Jesus, that is, speak upon thy oath; and then He told them fully, though they made it the pretence of murdering Him, and He knew they would do so. Confessing and witnessing truth is giving glory to God: but false witness is high injustice, it is inhumanity and treason against the quietness, or life, or possession of a just person; it is in itself irregular and unreasonable, and therefore is so forbidden to Christians, not only as it is unjust, but as it is false. For a lie in communication and private converse is also forbidden, as well as unjust testimony; "Let every man speak truth with his neighbour"," that is, in private society: and whether a lie be in jest or earnest, when the purpose is to deceive and abuse, though in the smallest instance, it is in that degree criminal as it is injurious. I find not the same affirmed in every deception of our neighbours, wherein no man is injured, and some are benefited; the error of the affirmation being [2 Sam. xii. 8.] Paulus J. C. lib. i. D. de Furtis. [Digest., lib. xlvii. tit. 2. § 1. tom. iii. p. 1452.] Ulpian. 1. Probrum,' D. de • Οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ ψεύδεσσι πατὴρ Ζεὺς ἔσσετ ̓ ἀρωγός.—Hom. [11. Δ. 235.] Ψεύσεται, ἐν δὲ δίκην βλάψας, νήκεστον ἀάσθη, Τοῦδε τ ̓ ἀμαυροτέρη γενεὴ μετόπισθε λέλειπται.Hesiod. Op. [lin. 280.] · Αλήθειά ἐστι μεγάλη ἀρχὴ τῆς ἀρετῆς.—Pind. [apud Stob. Floril. xi. 3.] Ψεῦδος δὲ μισεῖ πᾶς σοφὸς καὶ χρήσιμος. u Ephes. iv. 25. Menand. [al. Chæremon. apud Stob. Floril. xii. 16.] Epaminondam ne joco quidem mentitum fuisse narrant fidi scriptores. Probus. [al. Corn. Nepos. in vit. Epamin. |