LECTURE XXII. How to regulate Life according to the Rules of RELIGION. HAVE now, at different times, addressed myself to you upon several subjects of great importance, and of the utmost necessity; though, what I have hitherto said, was only designed as a preface, or introduction, to what I further proposed; but to attempt to prosecute this design, at the very end of the year, would be quite improper, and to little or no purpose; I shall, therefore, altogether forbear entering upon it, and, for this time, lay before you a few advices, which may be useful, not only in order to employ, to greater advantage, the months of vacation, that are now at hand, but also the better to regulate your whole lives. And my first advice shall be, to avoid too much sleep, which wastes the morning hours, that are most proper for study, as well as for the exercises of religion; and stupifies and enervates the strength of body and mind. I remember, that the famous Όσα γαρ φωνᾶς *Αιεις νοερᾶς. Πάτερ ἂγνωσε, Пárig äggnrs. Syn. hymno. 4to. abbot of Clairevaux*, when he found the friars "That they sleeping immoderately, used to say, slept like the secular clergyt." And, though we do not admit of the severe rules to which the monks subjected themselves, we must at least allow, that the measure and degree of sleep, and other bodily refreshments, suitable for a young man, devoted to study and devotion, is very far different from that excess, in which the common sort of mankind indulge themselves. state. Another advice, which is a-kin to, and nearly connected with the former, shall be, to observe temperance in eating and drinking: for moderation in sleeping generally follows sobriety in eating, and other sensual gratifications; but that thick cloud of vapours, that arises from a full stomach, must of necessity overwhelm all the animal spirits, and keep them long locked up in an indolent inactive Therefore the Greeks, not without reason, express these two duties, to be sober, and to be watchful, indifferently by the same term. And the apostle Peter, that he might make his connection more evident, uses, indeed, two words for this purpose; but exhorts to these duties, as closely connected together, or rather, as if they were, in some respect, but one, Be sober, be vigilant‡. And, in the same epistle, having substituted another word for sobriety, he expresses watchfulness by the same word he had put for sobriety in the other place, Be sober + Seculariter dormire. *St Bernard. * Νήψατε, γρηγορήσατε. and watch*. Both these dispositions are so applied to the mind, as to include a sober and watchful state of the body and senses; as this is exceeding useful, nay, quite necessary, in order to a correspondent frame of the mind: and that disposition, both of body and mind, not only subservient, but also necessary to piety and constancy in prayer: "Be sober and watch unto prayert." When the body is reduced to its lightest and most active state, still, as it is corruptible, it is, to be sure, a burden to the mind; how much more must it be so, when it is depressed with an immoderate load of meat and drink; and, in consequence of this, of sleep? Nor can the mind rouse itself, or use the wings of contemplation and prayer, with freedom, when it is overpowered with so heavy a load: nay, neither can it make any remarkable progress in the study of human literature, but will move slowly, and embarrassed, be at a stand, like a wheel-carriage in deep clay. The Greeks, very justly, expressed the virtue, we are now recommending, by the term opgosuvn, it being, as your favourite philosopher* observes in his Ethics, the great preservative of the mind. He is certainly a very great enemy to his own understanding that lives high, and indulges himself in luxury. "A fat belly is seldom accompanied with an acute understanding §." Nor is it my intention in this, * Σωφρονήσατε, και νεψατε. 1 Pet. iv. 7. † ἐις τὰς προσευχάς. Aristotle. § Παχεία γαςής ληπὸν ἐ τίκτει νόον, only to warn you against drunkenness and luxury; I would willingly hope, that such an advice would be superfluous to you: but, in this conflict, I would willingly carry you to such a pitch of victory, that, at your ordinary and least delicious meals, that you would always stop some degrees within the bounds, to which your appetite would carry you. Consider "that, as Cato said, the belly has no ears*," but it has a mouth, into which a bridle must be put, and, therefore, I address not myself to it, but to the directing mind, that is set over it, which, for that reason, ought to govern the body, with all its senses, and curb them at its pleasure. St Bernard's words are admirable to this purpose, "A prudent mind, devoted to God, ought so to act in its body, as the master of a family in his own house. He ought not to suffer his flesh to be, as Solomon expresses it, like a brawling woman, nor any carnal appetite to act like a rebellious servant; but to enure them to obedience and patience. He must not have his senses for his guides, but bring them into subjection and subserviency to reason and religion. He must, by all means, have his house and family so ordered, and well disciplined, that he can say to one, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh; and, to his servant the body, Do this, and it doeth what it is bid, without murmuring. The body must also be treated with a little hardship, that it may not be disobedient to the mind t." "For he, saith * Ventrem non habere aures. Sic prudens et Deo decatus animus habere se debet in cor Solomon, that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child, shall have him become a rebellious son at last*." This is what I would have you aspire to, a conquest over your flesh, and all its lusts; for they carry on a deadly war against your souls; and their desires are then most to be resisted, when they flatter most. What an unhappy and dishonourable inversion of nature it is, when the flesh commands, and the mind is in subjection! When the flesh, which is vile, gross, earthly, and soon to be the food of worms, governs "the soul, that is the breath of God, &c.†” Another thing I would have you beware of, is immoderate speech. The evils of the tongue are many; but the shortest way to find a remedy for them all, is to study silence, and avoid, as the poet expresses it," excessive prating, and a vast desire of speakingt." "He is a perfect man, as the apostle James ex pore suo, sicut pater familias in domo sua. Non habeat, sicut Solomon dicit, mulierem litigiosam carnem suam, nec ullum appetitum carnis ut servum rebellem, sed ad obedientiam et patientiam assuefactum. Habeat sensus suos non duces, sed rationi et religioni servientes et sequaces; habeat omnem omnino domum vel familiam suam sic ordinatam, et disciplinæ subditam, ut dicat huic vade, et vadat, et alii, veni, et veniat, et servo corpori, facito hoc, et sine murmure fiat quod jubetur, et paulo certe durius tractandum est corpus, ne animo male pareat. * Prov. xxix. 21. † Ψυχη δ' ἐςιν ἀήμα θες, &c. Improba garrulitas, studiumq; immane loquendi. |