7. They that have performed these duties and parts of Chaftity, will certainly abstain from all exteriour actions of uncleannefs, thofe noon-day and mid-night devils, thofe lawlefs and ungodly worshippings of hame and uncleannefs, whofe birth is in trouble, whofe growth is in folly, and whofe end is in fhame. But befides thefe general acts of Chastity, which are common to all states of Men and Women, there are fome few things proper to the feverals.

Acts of Virginal Chastity.

I, Virgins must remember that the Virginity of the Body is only excellent in order to the purity of the Soul: who therefore muft confider, that fince they are in fome measure in a condition like that of Angels, it is their duty to spend much of their time in angelical employment: for in the fame degree that Virgins live more spiritually than other perfons, in the fame degree is their Virginity a more excellent ftate. But elfe it is no better than that of involuntary or conftrained Eunuchs; a mifery and a trouble, or else a mere privation as much without excellency as without' mixture.

2. Virgins must contend for a fingular modefty: whofe first part must be an ignorance in the distintion of fexes, or their proper inftruments or if they accidentally be instructed in that, it must be supplied with an inadvertency or neglect of all thoughts and remembrance of fuch difference: and the following parts of it must be pious and chafte thoughts, holy language, and modeft carriage.

3. Virgins must be retired and unpublick: for all freedom and loofenefs of fociety is a violence done to Virginity, not in its natural, but in its moral capacity: that is, it lofes part of its feverity, ftrictness and opportunity of advantages, by publishing that perfon whofe work is Religion, whofe company is Angels, whofe thoughts muft dwell in Heaven, and feparate from all mixtures of the world.

4. Virgins have a peculiar obligation to charity: for

this is the virginity of the Soul; as purity, integrity, and feparation is of the body: which doctrine we are 3 Pet. 1. 22. taught by St. Peter, Seeing you have purified your Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, fee that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. For a Virgin, that confecrates her body to God, and pollutes her fpirit with rage, or impatience, or inordinate anger, gives him what he moft hates, a moft foul and defiled Soul.

5. Thefe Rules are necessary for Virgins, that offer that fate to God, and mean not to enter into the ftate of marriage for they that only wait the opportunity of a convenient change, are to fteer themselves by the general Rules of Chastity.

:

Rules for Widows, or vidual Chastity.

For Widows, the fontinel of whose defires hath been opened by the former permiffions of the marriage bed, they must remember,

1. That God hath now reftrained the former licence, bound up their eyes, and fhut up their heart into a narrower compafs, and hath given them forrow to be a bridle to their defires. A Widow must be a Mourner; and she that is not, cannot fo well fecure the Chastity of her proper state.

2. It is against publick Honefty to marry another Man, fo long as fhe is with Child by her former Hufband: and of the fame fame it is in a leffer proportion, to marry within the year of mourning: but anciently it was infamous for her to marry, till by common account the body was diffolved into its firft principle of Earth.

3. A Widow must restrain her memory and her fancy, not recalling or recounting her former permiffions and freer licences with any prefent delight, for then the opens that fluce which her husband's death and her own forrow have thut up.

4. A. Widow that defires her widowhood fhould be a ftate pleafing to God, muft fpend her time as devoted Virgins fhould, in faftings, and prayers, and chaxity.

5. A

5. A Widow muft forbid herself to use those temporal folaces which in her former eftate were innobut now are dangerous.

cent,

Rules for married perfons, or matrimonial Chastity.

Concerning married perfons, befides the keeping Ni6 funda of their mutual faith and contract with each other, menta firthese particulars are useful to be observed.

pis jacta fine probe, miferos necefle

ros. Eurip

ceps pofte

1. Although their mutual endearments are fafe eft effe deinwithin the protection of marriage, yet they that have Wives or Husbands, must be as though they had them not; that is, they must have an affection greater to each other than they have to any perfon in the world, but not greater than they have to God: but that they be ready to part with all intereft in each other's perfon rather than fin against God.

amico uti &

uti uxore &

2. In their permiffions and licence, they must be fure to observe the order of nature, and the ends of God. He is an ill Husband, that uses his Wife as a man Non debe treats a Harlot, having no other end but pleasure. Con-mus eodem cerning which our best rule is, that although in this, adulatore; as in eating and drinking, there is an appetite to be nec eádem fatisfied, which cannot be done without pleafing that fcorto Plut. defire; yet fince that defire and fatisfaction was inten- conjug. præded by nature for other ends, they fhould never be fe- cept. parate from thofe ends but always be joined with all or one of those ends, with a defire of Children, or to avoid fornication, or to lighten and cafe the cares and Jadneffes of Houshould-affairs, or to endear each other; but never with a purpose, either in act or defire to feparate the fenfuality from thefe ends which hallow it. Onan did feparate his act from its proper end, and fo ordered his embraces that his Wife thould not conceive, and God punished him.

3. Married perfons must keep fuch modefty and de- Non rectè cency of treating each other, that they never force eft ab Hero

doto dictum

fimul cum tonica mulierem verecundiam exuere. Quae n. cafta eft pofitâ vefte vere cundiam ejus loco induit, maximéque verecundiâ conjuges tefferâ maximi invicem ameris utuntur. P. conjug, præcept,

them

themselves into high and violent lufts, with arts and misbecoming devices: always remembring that those mixtures are moft innocent which are most fimple and most natural, most orderly and most fafe.

4. It is a duty of matrimonial chastity to be reftrained and temperate in the ufe of their lawful pleasures: concerning which, although no univerfal Rule can antecedently be given to all perfons, any more than to all bodies one porportion of meat and drink; yet married perfons are to eftimate the degree of their licence according to the following proportions. 1. That it be moderate, fo as to confift with health. * 2. That it be so ordered as not to be too expenfive of time, that precious_opportunity of working out our falvation. 3. That when duty is demanded it be always payed (fo far as in our powers and election) according to the

*

foregoing measures. * That it be with a temperate affection, without violent tranfporting defires, ot too fenfual applications. Concerning which a man is to make judgment by proportion to other actions, and the feverities of his Religion, and the fentences of fober and wife perfons; always remembring, that marriage is a provifion for fupply of the natural neceffities of the body, not for the artificial and procured appetites of the mind. And it is a fad truth, that many married perfons thinking that the flood-gates of liberty are fet wide open without measures or restraints (fo they fail in that channel) have felt the final rewards of intemperance and luft, by their unlawful ufing of lawful permiffions. Only let each of them be temperate, and both of them be modeft. Socrates was wont to fay, that thofe Women to whom Nature hath not been indulgent in good features and colours, ihould make it up themselves with excellent manners; and thafe who are beautiful and comely, fhould be careful that fo fair a body be not polluted with unhandfome ufages. To which Plutarch adds, that a Wife, if the be unhandfome, fhould confider how De Conjug Præcept. extremely ugly the fhould be if he wanted mo

defty:

defty: but if she be handfome, let her think how gracious that beauty would be if she fuperadds chaflity.

5. Married perfons, by confent, are to abstain from their mutual entertainments at folemn times of devction; not as a duty of it felf neceffary, but as being the moft proper act of purity which in their condition they can prefent to God, and being a good advantage for attending their preparation to the folemn duty and their demeanour in it. It is St. Paul's counfel, 1 Cor. 7. $. that by confent for a time they should abstain, that they may give themselves to fafting and prayer. And though when Chriftians did receive the holy Communion every day, it is certain they did not abftain, but had children: yet when the Cummunion was more fel- Hoc etiam dom, they did with Religion abftain from the mar- Chriftianoriage-bed during the time of their folemn preparatory rum, Tertul. devotions, as anciently they did from eating and drinking till the folemnity of the day was past.

ex more

fuadens fo

minis Chriftianis nè Pa

ganis nubant, ait, Quis denique folennibus Pafcha abnotantem fecurus fuftinebit? Tertul. ad uxor. I 2. Et ex more etiam Gentilium. Plut. fympof. 3. q. 6. Nobis autem, fi leges civitatis recte colimus, cavendum eft, ne ad templa & facrificia accedamus, paulò antè re venerea ufi Itaque expedit no&e & fomno interjecto, jufto que intervallo adhibito, mundos rurfum quafi de integro, & ad novum diem nova cogitantes (ut ait Democritus) turgere.

6. It were well if married persons would, in their penitential prayers, and in their general confeffions, fufpect themselves, and accordingly ask a general pardon for all their undecencies and more paffionate applications of themselves in the offices of marriage: that what is lawful and honourable in its kind, may not he fullied with imperfect circumstances; or if it be, it may be made clean again by the interruption and recallings of fuch a repentance of which fuch uncertain parts of action are capable.

But because of all the dangers of a Christian, none more preffing and troublesome than the temptations to luft, no enemy more dangerous than that of the flesh, no accounts greater than what we have to reckon for at the audit of Concupifcence, therefore it concerns all that would be fafe from this death to arm themselves

by