Part VI
Directions against sinful Excess of Sleep.
Of this, something is said already, chap. v. part i. and more afterwards in the directions against idleness. Therefore I shall say but little now. 1. I shall show you when sleep is excessive. 2. Wherein the sinfulness of it consisteth. 3. What to do for the cure of it.
I. Sleep is given us for the necessary remission of the animal operations, and of the labour or motion of the exterior parts, by the quieting of the senses, or shutting them up: that the natural and vital operations may have the less disturbance. It is necessary, 1. To our rest. 2. To concoction. Therefore weariness and want of concoction are the chief indications, to tell us how much is needful for us. Sleep is sinfully excessive, 1. When it is voluntarily more than is needful to our health. 2. When it is unseasonable, at forbidden times.
It is not all weariness or sleepiness that maketh sleep lawful or needful; for some is contracted by laziness, and some by many diseases, and some by other constant causes which make men almost always weary. Nor is it all want of concoction that sleep is a remedy for; some may be caused by excess of eating, which must be cured a better way; and many diseases may cause it, which require other cure. Therefore none must indulge excess upon these pretences. Nor must a present sense of the pleasure of sleeping, or the displeasure of waking, be the judge; for sluggards may think they feel it do them good, and that early rising doth them hurt; but this good is but their present ease, and this hurt is but a little trouble to their head, and eyes, and lazy flesh, just at the time. But reason and experience must judge what measure is best for your health, and that you must not exceed. To some five hours is enough; to the ordinary sort of healthful persons six hours is enough; to many weak, valetudinary persons seven hours is needful: to sick persons I am not to give directions.
2. Sleep is excessive at that particular time when it is unseasonable. As, 1. When we are asleep when we should be doing some necessary business which calls for present despatch. 2. Or when we should be hearing the sermon, or praying, in public or private. In a word, when it puts by any greater duty which we should then perform. As, when the disciples slept when Christ was in his agony: "Could ye not watch with me one hour? watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation," Matt. xxvi. 40, 41.
It is a foppery and abuse of God and ourselves, to think that the breaking of our sleep is a thing that of itself pleaseth God; or that rising to pray at midnight is more acceptable to God than at another hour: usually such rising to pray is sinful, 1. Because it is done in an erroneous conceit that God accepts it better than in the day time. 2. Because they waste time in dressing and undressing. 3. Or else hurt their health by cold in the winter, and so lose more time than they redeem by shortening their lives. 4. And usually they are more drowsy and unfit. But to rise in the night to prayer is meet on some extraordinary occasion that calls for it; as to pray with or for a dying person, or such like; or when an extraordinary fervour and fitness prepareth us for it; and when we can stay up when we are up, and not lose time in going to bed again. But ordinarily that way is to be chosen that best redeemeth time; and that is, to consider just how much sleep our health requireth, and to take it if we can together without interruption, and to rise then and go about our duties. But those that cannot sleep in the night, must redeem that time as discretion shall direct them.
It is the voluntariness of the excess that the sinfulness principally consisteth in; and therefore the more voluntary the more sinful. In a lethargy or caros it is no sin: and when long watching, or some bodily weakness or distemper, make it almost unavoidable, the sin is the smaller: therefore in case of long watching and heaviness, Christ partly excused his disciples, saying, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak," Matt. xxvi. 41. But when it cometh from a flesh-pleasing sloth, or from a disregard of any holy exercise that you are about, it is a grievous sin. And though it be involuntary just at the time, and you say, I would fain forbear sleeping now if I could; yet if it be voluntary remotely and in its causes, it is your sin. You would now forbear sleeping; but you would not forbear that pampering your body, and stuffing your guts, which causeth it; you would not deny the flesh its ease to avoid it.
II. The sinfulness of excess of sleep lieth in these particulars: 1. That it is a sinful wasting of every minute of that time which is consumed in it.[469] And this is a very grievous thing, to a heart that is sensible of the preciousness of time: when we think how short our lives are, and how great our work is, it should tell us how great a sin it is to cast away any of this little time in needless sleep. And yet what abundance of it with many is thus spent! Almost half their whole lives is spent in bed, by many drones, that think they may sleep because they are rich, and have not a necessity of labouring to supply their wants. I was never tempted (that I remember) so much to grudge at God's natural ordering of man, in any thing, as that we are fain to waste so much of our little time in sleep: nor was I ever tempted to grudge at my weakness so much on any account as this, that it deprived me of so much precious time, which else might have been used in some profitable work. The preciousness of time makes excessive sleeping to be a great sin, according to the measure of the excess.
2. It is a neglect of all our powers and parts which should all that time be exercised. Reason is idle and buried all that while: all your wisdom and knowledge are of no use to you.[470] All the learning of the greatest scholar in the world, is of no more service than if he were illiterate; nor all the prudence and policy of the wisest, than if they were mere idiots. All the strength and health of the strongest are of no more service than if they were sick; nor the skill of the greatest artist, than if he had never learnt his art; nor any of your limbs or senses, than if you were lame, or blind, or deaf, or senseless. And I leave it to any man's consideration and judgment, whether if drunkenness be so odious a sin, because it depriveth a man voluntarily of the use of his reason and parts, it must not be a very great sin to do the same by sleeping, by frequent, voluntary, excessive sleeping. For no man I think is drunk so often as the sluggard is dead in sleep: sluggards quite kill their reason, when most drunkards do but maim it, or make it sick. Sluggards bury their wits and parts usually ten times as long in the year, as the filthiest drunkards do. And hath God given you reason, and parts, and strength for no better use, than to bury it for so considerable a part of your lives?
3. Excess of sleep is guilty of all the omissions of those duties, which should all that time have been performed: of the omission of every holy thought, and word, and deed which should have been then exercised; and of the omission of all the duties of your callings: of the omission of every prayer you should have then prayed, and every chapter you should have read; and all the good which you should have got to yourselves, or done to others, to wife, husband, children, parents, servants, neighbours. And you know that omissions are one half, and the greater half, of the sins of the world; and that God will condemn the wicked at last for their omissions; for not feeding the poor, not clothing them, not visiting: and that he requireth the improvement of all his talents; and that it is his terrible sentence, Matt. xxv. 26, 30, "Thou wicked and slothful servant, &c. Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." What then shall we think of the wilful omission, not of one duty, but of all duty whatsoever; not now and then, but constantly for an hour, or two, or three once in four and twenty hours! No love of God, no desires towards him, no good is exercised all that time.
[Sidenote: Whether love of sleep may be a mortal sin?]
Quest. Can the love of sleep alone be the mortal, reigning sin in any one? The reason of the doubt is, because that the mortal sin is a sin of mistaken interest, that is, such as hath a man's chiefest love, and is preferred before God; which it seems so small a thing as sleep or ease cannot be, but it seems a mere neglect or remissness in the way of duty, and not to be chosen as any man's felicity.
Answ. The sin that is set up against the love of God, as a man's ultimate end and happiness, is flesh-pleasing in the general, or carnal self-love: and he that is guilty of this can hardly be imagined to exercise his sensual desire only in the way of sloth and sleep. It is certain that he preferreth the greatest pleasure of his flesh which he can attain before the less: and therefore as to the habit or inclination, he is as much addicted to covetousness, gluttony, ambition, or other ways of sensuality; and if they are within his reach, that he can hope to attain them, he will actually desire such greater pleasures, more than this. For there is no man that is an unregenerate sensualist, that hath mortified covetousness, luxury, and pride, and yet is captivated only by sleep or sloth: the same grace which truly mortifieth the greater would mortify the less. But it is possible that a beggar, or some such person, that hath no other sensual pleasure but idleness in view or hope, may exercise his sensuality principally this way. Not but that radically he preferreth riches and honour before his beggarly sloth and ease; but those desires having no matter to work upon, do not stir in him, because he hath no hope of reaching such a thing. The sum is, 1. Carnal self-love is the great opposite to the love of God. 2. This self-love worketh towards carnal pleasure, and to the greatest most. 3. Habitually therefore the love of riches, honour, and voluptuousness, is stronger than the love of ease. 4. Actually the love of ease may be the strongest in some. 5. But if those persons were as capable of the higher fleshly pleasures, they would love them actually more. 6. It is not the omitting of some particular duties through the love of ease, which proveth such a sensual, unsanctified state of soul; but the preferring of men's ease before a holy life in the main; as when men so far love their ease, that they will not make it the chief of their desires and employments, to "seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness," Matt. vi. 33.
The overcoming of excessive sleep is easy, if you be but thoroughly willing.
Direct. I. The first thing to be done, is to correct that sluggish, phlegmatic temper of body which inclineth you to it, which is chiefly to be done by such an abstinence or temperate diet, as I gave directions for before. A full belly is fit for nothing else but sleep or lust. Reduce your diet to that measure which is needful to your health, and eat not any more to please your appetites. And let fasting cure you when you have exceeded.
Direct. II. Labour hard in your callings, that your sleep may be sweet while you are in it; or else you will lie in bed on pretence of necessity, because you cannot sleep well when you are there. Then you will say, you must take it out in the morning, because you sleep not in the night. But see that this be not caused by idleness. Weary your bodies in your daily labours; "for the sleep of the labouring man is sweet," Eccl. v. 12.
Direct. III. See that thou have a calling which will find thee employment for all thy time, which God's immediate service spareth. Yea, which somewhat urgeth thee to diligence. Otherwise thou wilt lie in bed, and say, thou hast time to spare, or nothing to do. You can rise when you have a journey to be gone, or a business of pressing necessity to be done: keep yourselves under some constant necessity, or urgency of business at the least.
Direct. IV. Take pleasure in your callings, and in the service of God. Sluggards themselves can rise to that which they take much pleasure in; as to go to a merriment, or feast, or play, or game, or to a good bargain, or any thing which they delight in. If thou hadst a delight in thy calling, and in reading the Scripture, and praying, and doing good, thou couldst not lie contentedly in bed, but wouldst long to be up and doing, as children to their play. The wicked can rise early to do wickedness, because their hearts are set upon it: they can be drunk, or steal, or whore, or plot their ambitious and covetous designs, when they should sleep.[471] And if thy heart were set as much on good, as theirs is on evil, wouldst not thou be as wakeful and as readily up?
Direct. V. Remember the grand importance of the business of your souls which always lieth on your hands, that the greatness of your work may rouse you up. What! lie slugging in bed, when you are so far behindhand in knowledge, and grace, and assurance of salvation; and have so much of the Scripture and other books to read and understand? Hast thou not grace to beg for a needy soul? Is not prayer better work than excess of sleeping? Great business in the world can make you rise, and why not greater?
Direct. VI. Remember that thou must answer in judgment for thy time: and what comfort wilt thou have, to say I slugged away so many hours in a morning? And what comfort at death when time is gone, to review so much cast away in sleep?
Direct. VII. Remember that God beholdeth thee, and is calling thee up to work. If thou understoodest his word and providence, thou wouldst hear him, as it were, saying as the mariners to Jonah, "What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God." Wilt thou lie sleeping inordinately when God stands over thee, and calls thee up? If the king, or any great person, or friend, did but knock at thy door, thou wouldst rise presently to wait upon them. Why, God would speak with thee by his word, or hear thee speak to him by prayer; and wilt thou lie still and despise his call?
Direct. VIII. Remember how many are attending thee while thou sleepest. If it be summer, the sun is up before thee, that hath gone so many thousand miles while thou wast asleep: it hath given a day's light to the other half of the world since thou laidst down, and is come again to light thee to thy work, and wilt thou let it shine in vain? All the creatures are ready in their places to assist thee, and art thou asleep?
Direct. IX. Consider whether thou wilt allow thy servants to do the like: they must be up and at work, or you will be offended, and tell them that they are no servants for you, and that you hire them not to sleep. And do you not owe God more service than they owe you? Doth God hire you to sleep? Is it any lawfuller for you than them, to sleep one minute more than is needful for your health? No, not a minute: if you are sicklier than they, that is another matter; (but see that fulness and idleness cause it not;) but otherwise your riches are no excuse to you. Will you loiter more than they, because you receive more? and do less service, because you have more pay? Or is it your privilege to be so miserable, as to lose that time which poor men save?
Direct. X. Remember that your morning hours are the chiefest part of all the day, for any holy exercise, or special employment of the mind. The mind is fresh and clear, and there is less interruption by worldly business; whereas when others are up and about their business, you will have interpellations. Those that have tried it can say by experience, that the morning hours are the flower of their time, for prayer or studies; and that early rising is a great part of the art of redeeming time.
Direct. XI. Remember how many are condemning you by their diligence, while you are slugging away your time. How many holy persons are then at prayer in secret, wrestling fervently with God for their salvation; or reading and meditating in his word! What do they get while you are sleeping! The blessed man doth delight in the law of the Lord, and meditate in it day and night; and you love your ease, and are sleeping day and night: will not all these be witnesses against you? So will the diligent in their callings; and so will the worldlings and wicked that rise early to their sin. How many thousand are hard at work while you are sleeping! Have you not work to do, as well as they?
Direct. XII. Remember that sensuality or flesh-pleasing is the great condemning sin that turns the heart from God: and if it be odious in a drunkard or fornicator, why is it not so in you? Mortify the flesh, and learn to deny it in its inordinate desires, and your sin is almost cured.
Direct. XIII. For then the executive part is easy when you are willing: it is but agreeing with some one to awaken you, and a little cold water will wash away your drowsiness if you consent.
Part VIII
Directions against sinful Dreams.
Dreams are neither good nor sinful simply in themselves, because they are not rational and voluntary, nor in our power; but they are often made sinful by some other voluntary act: they may be sinful by participation and consequently. And the acts that make them sinful, are either such as go before, or such as follow after.
I. The antecedent causes are any sinful act which distempereth the body, or any sin which inclineth the fantasy and mind thereto; or the omission of what was necessary to prevent them. 2. The causes which afterwards make them objectively sinful, are the ill uses that men make of them; as when they take their dreams to be divine revelations, or trust to them, or are affrighted by them as ominous, or as prophetical; and make them the ground of their actions, and seduce themselves by the phantasms of their own brains.
Direct. I. Avoid those bodily distempers as much as you can which cause sinful dreams, especially fulness of diet: a full stomach causeth troublesome dreams, and lustful dreams; and hath its ill effects by night and by day.
Direct. II. Endeavour the cure of those sinful distempers of the mind which cause sinful dreams. The cure of a worldly mind is the best way to cure worldly, covetous dreams; and the cure of a lustful heart, is the best way to cure lustful dreams; and so of the rest: cleanse the fountain, and the waters will be sweeter day and night.
Direct. III. Suffer not your thoughts, or tongue, or actions to run sinfully upon that in the day, which you would not dream sinfully of in the night.[472] Common experience telleth us, that our dreams are apt to follow our foregoing thoughts, and words, and deeds. If you think most frequently and affectionately of that which is good, you will dream of that which is good. If you think of lustful, filthy objects, or speak of them, or meddle with them, you will dream of them; and so of covetous and ambitious dreams, and they that make no conscience to sin waking, are not like much to scruple sinning in their sleep.
Direct. IV. Commend yourselves to God by prayer before you take your rest, and beseech him to set a guard upon your fantasy when you cannot guard it. Cast the cure upon him, and fly to him for help by faith and prayer in the sense of your insufficiency.
Direct. V. Let your last thoughts still before your sleep be holy, and yet quieting and consolatory thoughts.[473] The dreams are apt to follow our last thoughts. If you betake yourselves to sleep with worldliness or vanity in your minds, you cannot expect to be wiser or better when you are asleep, than when you are awake. But if you shut up your day's thoughts with God, and sleep find them upon any holy subject, it is like to use them as it finds them. Yet if it be distrustful, unbelieving, fearful thoughts which you condole with, your dreams may savour of the same distemper. Frightful and often sinful dreams do follow sinful doubts and fears. But if you sweeten your last thoughts with the love of Christ, and the remembrance of your former mercies, or the foresight of eternal joys, or can confidently cast them and yourselves upon some promise, it will tend to the quietness of your sleep, and to the savouriness of your dreams: and if you should die before morning, will it not be most desirable that your last thoughts be holy?
Direct. VI. When you have found any corruption appearing in your dreams, make use of them for the renewing of your repentance, and exciting your endeavours to mortify that corruption. A corruption may be perceived in dreams, 1. When such dreams as discover it are frequent: 2. When they are earnest and violent: 3. When they are pleasing and delightful to your fantasies: not that any certain knowledge can be fetched from them, but some conjecture as added to other signs. As if you should frequently, earnestly, and delightfully dream of preferments and honours, of the favours of great men, suspect ambition, and do the more to discover and mortify it. If it be of riches, and gain, and money, suspect a covetous mind. If it be of revenge or hurt to any man that you distaste, suspect some malice, and quickly mortify it: so if it be of lust, or feasting, or drinking, or vain recreations, sports and games, do the like.
Direct. VII. Lay no greater stress upon your dreams than there is just cause. As, 1. When you have searched, and find no such sin prevailing in you as your dreams seem to intimate, do not conclude that you have more than your waking evidence discovers. Prefer not your sleeping signs before your waking signs and search. 2. When you are conscious that you indulge no corruption to occasion such a dream, suppose it not to be faulty of itself, and lay not the blame of your bodily temperament, or unknown causes, upon your soul, with too heavy and unjust a charge. 3. Abhor the presumptuous folly of those that use to prognosticate by their dreams, and measure their expectations by them, and cast themselves into hopes or fears by them. Saith Diogenes, "What folly is it to be careless of your waking thoughts and actions, and inquisitive about your dreams? A man's happiness or misery lieth upon what he doth when he is awake, and not upon what he suffereth in his sleep."
FOOTNOTES:
[378] Rom. vii. 7; Matt. v. 28; Eph. v. 5; Heb. xiii. 4.
[379] Prov. iii. 21; Luke xi. 34; Matt. vi. 22; Psal. cxlv. 15; cxxiii. 2, 3; Prov. xxviii. 27.
[380] Psal. xxxv. 19; Prov. x. 10; xxx. 17; Isa. v. 15; iii. 16; Prov. xxx. 13.
[381] Prov. xxiii. 33.
[382] Prov. xxvii. 20; Eccl. i. 8; iv. 8.
[383] Prov. xxiii. 3.
[384] Prov. iv. 25.
[385] Prov. xxi. 10. See Dr. Hammond on Matt. vi. 22.
[386] Prov. xxii. 9.
[387] Isa. xiii. 18; Prov. xxviii. 27.
[388] Matt. vii. 3; Luke vi. 41.
[389] Prov. vi. 4.
[390] Psal. xxxv. 21; x. 8, xxxvi. 1.
[391] Matt. vi. 22, 23; Luke xi. 34.
[392] Prov. xxiii. 29.
[393] Psal. vi. 7; Lam. iii. 48, 49, 51.
[394] Gen. xlix. 2; Exod. xix. 9; Deut. i. 16; iv. 10; v. 1, 25, 27; xxxi. 13; Prov. i. 8; xix. 20, 27; xxii. 17; Eccl. v. 1; vii. 5; Jam. i. 19; Isa. lxvi. 4; lxv. 12; xxx. 9; Ezek. xii. 2; Mal. ii. 2; Acts iii. 23; Lev. v. 1; Deut. xiii. 12.
[395] So the Israelites, Numb. xi. loathing manna, because they must have change of diet, was a sin of gulosity, or gluttony; being more for appetite than health.
[396] Even fruitful land, saith Plutarch, enricheth not if it cost too much the manuring. So here.
[397] As Isaac's pleasant meat, Gen. xxvii. 7.
[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 præcocia magno emerent, desperare se ad maturitatis tempus perventuros. Laert. in Socrat. Cum vocasset ad cœnam divites, et Zantippen modici puderet apparatus; Bono, inquit, esto animo. Nam siquidem modesti erunt frugique, mensam non aspernabuntur; sin autem intemperantes, nulla nobis de hisce cura fuerit. Idem ibid. Dicebat alios vivere ut ederent, se autem edere ut vivat. Ibid.
[400] Hic est mos nobilium ante alios: artes quæ liberales fuerunt, mechanicæ evasere: ipsique qui bellorum duces, philosophi, rectores urbium, ac patres patriæ esse solent, venatores; atque aucupes facti sunt, utque intelligas nullam esse reliquam spem salutis, nobilitati tribuitur quod est Gulæ. 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. Quære 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 ship 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 sextare of good meal for a halfpenny (which boiled in water was his meat); God be thanked the market is very cheap. Then he took him to an oil-shop, where a measure (chœnix) was sold for two brass 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, God 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 temperatè vixit, ut cum Athenas pestis sæpenumero vastaret, solus ipse nunquam ægrotaverit. Laertius in Socrat.
[420] Multum confert cogitatio exitus, quod cum 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 præcepta 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 fashion 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 quàm de pretiosis cibis stercus conficiat. Hieron. Epist. ad Paul.
[430] Nihil tam æque tibi proderit ad temperantiam, quam frequens cogitatio brevis ævi, 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 pœnam. Senec.
[433] Et non solum hæc 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, invidiæ 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 dæmonum occidere, debet his etiam de hac re aliqua solemnitas immutari, ut die dedicationis vel natalitiis martyrum, tabernacula sibi circa easdem ecclesias, quæ ex fanis commutatæ 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; xxx. 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 God 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. xxxv.; 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 isthæc 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 lustful 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 excrementitious humidity of their brains: (ubi oculus siccus clarus intellectus:) and the vapours and fumes of their boiling lusts do so intoxicate and cloud their brains, that they have little use of their reason except to contrive the service of their guts and lusts. 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, præ 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 naturæ appetitioni datur moderatum est, at vitiosa et preter naturam libido, nullo expletur. Acosta ub. sup.
[445] Id sane magno Christianis opprobio est, Ingam Regem barbarum et idolis deditum ab ebrietate subditos sibi populos cohibuisse; nostros vero quos oportebat mores quoque perditos emendare, temulentiæ incrementa tanta fecisse. Acosta l. 3. c. 21.
[446] He is happiest that needeth least of any creature, and not he that hath most. Socrates said it was proper to God only to need nothing, but those that came nearest to God in this were the happiest men.
[447] 1 Thess. v. 7, "They that are drunken, are drunken in the night."
[448] Deut. xxiii. 17; Prov. xxiii. 27; v. 3, 5; vii. 5-7; vi. 13-15; xxii. 14; Eccles. vii. 26; Gen. xxxviii. 24.
[449] Saith Boniface (alias Winfrid) of the English Mercian king Ethelbald, a fornicator, Opprobrium generis nostri patimur, sive à Christianis sive Paganis dicentibus, quod gens Anglorum spreto more cæterarum gentium, &c. hinnientium equorum consuetudine, vel rudentium asinorum more, luxuriando et adulterando, omnia turpiter fœdet, et confundat. Epist. Bonif. 10. ad Perefrid, Salvagus Sarzanensis Episcopus-Pauli 5. Jussu visitationem Ecclesiarum Stiriæ, Carinthiæ, et Carniolæ instituerat. Qua peracta, sex omnino Sacerdotes qui non essent concubinarii, in tribus illis Provinciis invenit, cum tamen magna pars ex Jesuitarum disciplina prodiisset, &c. Giraldi Apolog. pro Senatu Vener. p. 165. Mœchum in adulterio deprehensum necato: was a Roman law, 12. tab.
[450] Solomon's "wives turned away his heart after other gods," 1 Kings xi. 4. The wisdom of Solomon preserved him not from the power of lust, and the deceit of women. 1 Pet. ii. 11, "Fleshly lusts that fight against the soul."
[451] Rev. xiv. 4.
[452] Saith Chrysostom, The adulterer even before damnation is most miserable: still in fear, trembling at a shadow, fearing them that know, and them that know not: always in pain, even in the dark.
[453] 1 Tim. vi. 9, "Hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition."
[454] When an adulterer asked Thales whether he should make a vow against his sin, he answered him, Adultery is as bad as perjury: if thou dare be an adulterer, thou darest forswear thyself. Laert. Herod durst behead John, that durst be incestuous.
[455] Judg. xix. xx. The tribe of Benjamin was almost cut off upon the occasion of an adultery or rape. See Numb. xxv. 8; Gen. xii. 17; 2 Sam. xii. 10; Luke iii. 19; 1 Cor. v. 1; John viii. 2. Vid. Ælian. fol. 47.
[456] Plutarch's Roman. Quest. 65. is, Why the bridegroom is not to have any light when he first cometh to bed to his bride? and answereth, Happily this was instituted to show how sinful and damnable all unlawful company of man and woman together is, seeing that which is lawful and allowed, is not without some blemish and note of shame.
[457] Acts x. 30; xiv. 23; Luke ii. 37.
[458] It is Zeno's comparison in Laert. 1. 7. c. 1.
[459] In Laert. 1. 6. c. 1.
[460] Laert. 1. 2. c. 38.
[461] Otia si tollas periere Cupidinis arcus, &c.
[462] In vacuo pectore regnat amor. Ovid. Diogenes called love, Otiosorum negotium.
[463] Nullus mihi per otium dies exit: partem noctium studiis vendico: non vaco somno sed succumbo, et oculos vigilia fatigatos, cadentesque in opere detineo.--Male mihi esse malo quam molliter; si mollis es, paulatim effœminatur animus, atque in similitudinem otii sui: et pigritiæ in qua jacet solvitur: dormio minimum et brevissimo somno utor: satis est mihi vigilare desiisse: aliquando dormisse scio, aliquando suspicor.
[464] Plutarch de Curiositate, praiseth Cyrus that would not see Panthra; and reproveth them that cast a wanton eye at women in coaches as they pass by, and look out at windows to have a full view of them, and yet think they commit no fault, suffering a curious eye and a wandering mind to slide and run every way, pag. 142.
[465]
Dum licet, et modici tangunt præcordia motus, Si piget in primo lumine siste pedem. Opprime dum nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi: Et tuus incipiens ire resistat equus. Nam mora dat vires.----
Dum novus est cœpto potius pugnemus amori: Flamma recens parva sparsa resedit aqua. Interea tacitæ serpunt in viscera flammæ. Et mala radices altius arbor agit.
[466] Vide Petrarch. de spect. Dial. 30.
[467] Lysander forbad his daughters to wear the brave attire which Dionysius sent them, Ne luxuria conspicuæ turpiores videantur, Lest being conspicuous in luxury, they should seem the more deformed.
[468] Ovid. de Remed. Amoris.
[469] Nil temporis tam perit de vita nostra quam quod somno deputatur. Ber.
[470] Dormiens nemo ullius pretii est. Plato in Laert.
[471] Prov. iv. 16; 1 Thess. v. 6, 7.
[472] Cogitationes sanctiores sequuntur somnia blandiora et delectabiliora. Greg. Moral.
[473] Iturus in somnum aliquid tecum defert in memoria et cogitatione in quo placide obdormias, quod etiam somniare juvet: sic tibi nox ut dies illuminatur, et in deliciis tuis placide obdormies: in pace quiesces, facile evigilabis, et surgens promptus eris ad redeundum in id, unde non totus discessisti.