A Christian Directory Volume I Part 85

[398] Non potest temperantiam laudare is, qui summum bonum ponit in voluptate. Est enim temperantia libidinum inimica. Cicero. Saith Aristotle, He is temperate that takes pleasure to deny fleshly pleasure; but he is intemperate that is troubled because he cannot have them. Ethic. 1. 2. c. 3.

[399] Socrates dixit, eos qui praecocia magno emerent, desperare se ad maturitatis tempus perventuros. Laert. in Socrat. c.u.m voca.s.set ad cnam divites, et Zantippen modici puderet apparatus; Bono, inquit, esto animo. Nam siquidem modesti erunt frugique, mensam non aspernabuntur; sin autem intemperantes, nulla n.o.bis de hisce cura fuerit. Idem ibid.

Dicebat alios vivere ut ederent, se autem edere ut vivat. Ibid.

[400] Hic est mos n.o.bilium ante alios: artes quae liberales fuerunt, mechanicae evasere: ipsique qui bellorum duces, philosophi, rectores urbium, ac patres patriae esse solent, venatores; atque aucupes facti sunt, utque intelligas nullam esse reliquam spem salutis, n.o.bilitati tribuitur quod est Gulae. aut proculdubio vanitatis. Petrarch.

[401] 1 Cor. x. 7.

[402] Of this see more in my book of "Self-denial."

[403] See Plutarch's precepts of health.

[404] Rom. xvi. 17, 18. They serve not the Lord Jesus, but their own bellies.

[405] It is a common saying that Gula plures occidit quam gladius.

Quicquid avium volitat, quicquid piscium natat, quicquid ferarum discurrit, nostris sepelitur ventribus. Quaere nunc cur subito moriamur? Quia mortibus vivimus. Senec. Hierom saith, that he had read of some that had been sick of the arthritis and podagra, that were cured by being brought to poverty by confiscation of their estates, and so brought to a poor diet.

[406] Chrysostom saith the difference betwixt famine and excess is, that famine kills men sooner out of their pain, and excess doth putrify and consume them by long and painful sicknesses. In Hebr. Hom. 29.

[407] As smoke driveth away the bees from their hive, saith Basil de Junin; so gluttony expelleth all spiritual gifts, and excellent endowments of mind.

[408] Saith Basil, A s.h.i.+p heavy laden is unfit to sail: so a full belly to any duty.

[409] Semper saturitati juncta est lascivia. Hieron.

[410] Ventri obedientes animalium numero computantur non hominum.

Senec.

[411] It is Chrysostom's saying in Hebr. Hom. 29.

[412] Jer. v. 7.

[413] Magna pars libertatis est bene moratus venter. Senec.

[414] When a friend of Socrates complained to him, What a dear place is this! Wine will cost so much, and honey so much, and purple so much: Socrates took him to the meal-hall, Lo, saith he, you may buy here half a s.e.xtare of good meal for a halfpenny (which boiled in water was his meat); G.o.d be thanked the market is very cheap. Then he took him to an oil-shop, where a measure (chnix) was sold for two bra.s.s dodkins. Then he led him to a broker's shop, where a man might buy a suit of clothes for ten drachms. You see, quoth he, that the pennyworths are reasonable, and things good, cheap throughout the city. Plutarch. de Tranquil. Anim. pag. 153.

[415] Matt. xxv.

[416] Saith Plato, G.o.d is the temperate man's law; and pleasure the intemperate man's.

[417] Heb. xiii. 9.

[418] 1 Cor. x. 31.

[419] Socrates adeo parce et temperate vixit, ut c.u.m Athenas pestis saepenumero vastaret, solus ipse nunquam aegrotaverit. Laertius in Socrat.

[420] Multum confert cogitatio exitus, quod c.u.m omnibus vitias sit commune, tamen huic proprium. Petrarch.

[421] Temperantia voluptatibus imperat: alias odit atque abigit: alias dispensat et ad sanum modum dirigit; nec unquam ad illas propter ipsas venit. Senec. Scit optimum esse modum cupidorum, non quantum velis, sed quantum debeas sumere. Senec.

[422] Venter parvo contentus est, si das illi quod debes, non quod potes. Senec.

[423] Juvenum virtus est, nihil nimis. Socrat.

[424] Venter praecepta non audit. Senec.

[425] If you will not take this counsel, at least use after meat to set before your guests a bason and a feather, or a provang to vomit it up again, that you may show some mercy to their bodies, if you will show none to their souls.

[426] A sensualist craving to be admitted of Cato among his familiars, Cato answered him, I cannot live with one whose palate is wiser than his brain. Eras.

[427] The old fas.h.i.+on in countrymen's houses was not amiss, where the story of this rich glutton and Lazarus was wont to be painted over their tables on their walls.

[428] 1 Cor. viii. 9; Lev. xix. 14; Rom. xiv. 13; xi. 9; Rev. ii. 14.

[429] See 1 Cor. vi. 13. Qui Christum desiderat, et illo pane vescitur, non curat magnopere quam de pretiosis cibis stercus conficiat. Hieron. Epist. ad Paul.

[430] Nihil tam aeque tibi proderit ad temperantiam, quam frequens cogitatio brevis aevi, et incerti: Quicquid facis respice mortem.

Senec.

[431] Luke vi. 25, "Woe to you that are full! for ye shall hunger."

[432] Temperantiam exigit philosophia, non pnam. Senec.

[433] Et non solum haec seculares viri, sed et ipse grex Domini ejusque pastores, qui exemplo esse omni plebi debuerint, ebrietate quam plurimi quasi vino madidi torpebant resoluti, et animositatum tumore, jurgiorum contentione, invidiae rapacibus ungulis, indiscreto boni malique judicio carpebantur. Gildas.

[434] Why Gregory set up wakes, and church-ales, and meetings on holidays in England, you may see lib. x. Regist. Ep. 71. in policy to win the heathens: Qui boves solent multos in sacrificio daemonum occidere, debet his etiam de hac re aliqua solemnitas immutari, ut die dedicationis vel natalitiis martyrum, tabernacula sibi circa easdem ecclesias, quae ex fanis commutatae sunt, de ramis arborum faciant, et religiosis conviviis solennitatem celebrent. Nec diabolo jam animalia immolent, sed ad laudem Dei in usu suo animalia occidant, et donatori omnium de satietate sua gratias agant, &c. But do christians need this as heathens did, when we see the sad effects of such riotings? Lege Acost. 1. iii. c. 34.

[435] Prov. xiii. 23; xiv. 21; xxi. 13; x.x.x. 14; xxii. 9; xxviii. 27.

[436] Diogenes begging of a prodigal, asked a pound of him, when he asked but a penny of the next, Because, saith he, I may oft receive of them, but G.o.d knows whether ever I shall have more of him. Laert. in Diog. Prov. xxviii. 19.

[437] John xiv. 15; 1 John v. 2, 3.

[438] And a shame to thy family: as it is said that Cicero's son proved a drunkard, to whom he directed his book De Officiis: which is made his father's reproach.

[439] Of drunken priests I am loth to speak: but pray such to read Isa. lii. 12; xxviii. 7; Mic. ii. 11; 1 Tim. iii. 3, 8; Isa. lvi. 11, 12; Lev. x. 9; Jer. x.x.xv.; Ezek. xliv. 21; Matt. xxiv. 49; 1 Thess. v.

7; Gal. v. 21.

[440] See Prov. xxiii. 29-33.

[441] Est certa et constans plurimorum sententia, frustra Indos christianam religionem doceri, quamdiu pestifera isthaec consuetudo inerti nostrorum dissimulatione retinetur saith Acosta speaking of drunkenness, l. 3. c. 22. p. 336.

[442] Leg. Jos. Acostam de procur. Indor. salut. l. 3. c. 21, 22.

[443] Gluttons, and drunkards, and l.u.s.tful sensualists, are prepared for atheism, infidelity, and any impious conceit. For their wits are buried in the dunghill of their guts, and drowned in the excrement.i.tious humidity of their brains: (ubi oculus siccus clarus intellectus:) and the vapours and fumes of their boiling l.u.s.ts do so intoxicate and cloud their brains, that they have little use of their reason except to contrive the service of their guts and l.u.s.ts. Lege Basilii Homil. in Ebriet. et Lux. Vide ipse ex taberna duos semi captos vino egressos, vix oboli causa, se mutuo uno eodemque gladio confecisse; et quidem extracto his e percusso corpore, prae alterum feriendi furore: itaque momento temporis ambo exanimes corruerunt.

Jos. Acosta de proc. Ind. salut. l. 3. c. 21. p. 332.

[444] Bibendi consuetudo auget aviditatem. Plin. Perinde est vinolentiam bibendo velle sedare, atque ignem materia apposita pergere extingere: nam quod naturae appet.i.tioni datur moderatum est, at vitiosa et preter naturam libido, nullo expletur. Acosta ub. sup.