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Chapter 13

Of two other dangerous means, which are wont to make way for the loss of Chastity, in such as endeavour not to avoid them.

AMONGST the miserable falls from chastity, wherewith the world is made acquainted; it is reason that we forget not that, of the King, & Prophet David. Because that fall, being so miserable, & the person that fell, so highly qualifyed, it leaves the hearer with great apprehension; that there is no one, who may not fear his own infirmity. The occasion of this fall, (as saith S. Basil) was a light kind of complacence, which David took in himself, when once he was visited by the hand of God, with much consolation; and he presumed to express himself in this manner, I said in my abundance, that I shall never be moved. But O, how far otherwise did it fall out; and how well did he afterward understand, that, whereof before he was ignorant, That1 in the day of prosperity which we have, we must be calling those2 miseries to mind, which we may have; and that we must take in, those divine consolations, by the weight of Humility, accompanying it with the holy fear of God; lest otherwise he experience that, which David himself delivered, Thou turnedst thy face from me, and I was troubled.

Another cause of his fall, is given us to be understood, in holy Scripture, by saying that at such times as the Kings of Israel, were wont to pass into the wars, against the infidels, King3 David stayed at home. And walking up and down, upon a terrace of his palace, he saw that which was the occasion of his adultery, and of the murder also, not only of one, but many. All this had been avoided, if he had gone to fight the battles of God, according to the custom of other Kings; and himself had done so, other years. If4 thou wilt be wand'ring up and down, when the servants of God are recollected; if thou wilt be idle, when they labour in good works; if thou wilt be dissolutely sending thine eyes abroad, whilst theirs are weeping bitterly, both for themselves and others; and if, when they are rising up by night, to pray, thou art sleeping and snorting, and leaving of (by occasion of every fancy) the good exercises which thou wert wont to use, (and by the force and heat whereof, thou wert kept on foot) how dost thou think to preserve chastity, being careless, unprovided of defensive weapons, and having so many enemies, who are so stout, laborious, and completely armed, in fight against it.

Do5 not deceive thyself, for if thy desire to be chaste, be not accompanied by deeds, which are fit for the defence of that virtue, thy desire will prove vain; and that will happen to thee, which did to David: Since thou art not more privileged, more stout, nor more a Saint, than he. And to conclude this matter, (of the occasions, through which, this precious treasure of chastity, is wont to be lost) thou art to understand, that the cause why God permitted, that the flesh should rebel against reason, in our first parents, (from whom, we have it by inheritance) was, for that they rebelled against God, by disobeying his commandment. He chastized them in conformity of their sin, and thus it was; That6 since they would not obey their superior, their inferior should not obey them; and so the vnbridlednesse of this flesh, being a subject and a slave, rebelling against her superior, which is reason, is a punishment ●ayd upon reason, for the disobedience, with she committed against her superior, which is God.

Be therefore very careful, that thou be not disobedient to thy superiors, lest God permit, that thy inferior, which is thy flesh, do rebel against thee; as he suffered Adad to rebel against King Solomon7 his Lord; and lest he scourge & persecute thee; and, by thy weakness, draw thee down into mortal sin. And if, with the inward eyes of thy hart, thou have understood, that, which here with the eyes of thy body thou hast read; thou wilt see how great reason there is, that thou shouldest look to thyself, and consider what there is within thyself. And8 because thou art not exactly able, to know thine own soul, thou art to beg light of our Lord; and so to sift the most secret corners of thy hart, that there may be no ill thing there; which either thou knowest, or knowest not off; by means whereof, thou mightest, through some secret judgement of God, run hazard to lose the treasure of chastity; which yet it doth so much import thee to keep safe, by means of his divine assistance.

Footnotes

  1. Eccl. 7. ↩

  2. A safe and most profitable advice. ↩

  3. 2, Reg. 1. ↩

  4. A good lesson to us Catholic to be sympathising always with the Holy Church our Mother, both in sorrow, and in spiritual joy, according to the diversity of times, & occasions. ↩

  5. Note. ↩

  6. Note. Lex Taliotus. ↩

    1. Reg● 12.
    ↩

  8. No man can see himself exactly, but by light from heaven. ↩

Chapter 15 of 115