if they are not varied; in the pursuit of idle pleasures, if the object is not changed, our ardour languishes and dies away; and a life of sensuality, what is it, but a succession of alternate longings and aversions, appetite cloyed, and appetite renewed, the inner man for ever agitated by desires, which are surfeited to disgust, or re-excited into ungovernable disorder? To repress these cravings is to consult our real enjoyment of this life, as well as our preparation for the next. And the divine wisdom and goodness were united, righteousness and peace had kissed each other, when the dispensation of grace enjoined the constraint of fleshy appetites. "If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

Among the Jews the excess specifically forbidden in this commandment was punished by death. "Moses in the law," said the Scribes and Pharisees to

1 Rom. viii. 13.

our Lord, "commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?" Our Saviour, who then came, not to judge, but to save, bid them see the beam in their own eye, rather than search vindictively for the sins of others. And they did see it, and left him alone with the woman. And he bade her go, and sin no more. Thus he did not deviate from the merciful purport of his mission. Thus he called, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The day of his judgment had not, and has not yet arrived. He by no means palliated the heinousness of the offence, or relaxed the stringency of the law. On the contrary he expressly extends its purport he forbids sins that had been less earnestly insisted upon. He applies

1 John viii. 5. It is one of many difficulties connected with this passage in the Gospel of St. John, that the punishment denounced against adultery in the law of Moses was death (Levit. xx. 10), by which the Jewish doctors understood strangulation to be meant.

himself to the thoughts of the heart, out of which proceed evil desires and concupiscence, the things that defile a man. "Ye have heard, that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." And he exemplifies the universal self-denial that he enjoins, by those striking instances: "If thy right eye offend thee," (that is, make you fall, place a stumbling-block in your way)" pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee."

The excesses of other appetites are connected with, and often lead to that already specified. They also are expressly forbidden. The excesses of

1 Matt. v. 28.

drunkenness: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess." The excesses of foolish talking, and jesting: "Let no corrupt communication go out of your mouth." The excesses of idleness, and dissipation: "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness."2 The excesses of dress: "I will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness, and sobriety."3 The excesses of social intercourse: "For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in revellings, banquettings, and abominable idolatries." In a word, the admirable summary of the Catechism gives the best general rule: "to keep our bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity," "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:

1 Ephes. iv. 29.

3 1 Tim. ii. 9.

2 Rom. xiii. 13.

1 Pet. iv. 3.

but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."1

To temperance the Apostle adds watching: "Be sober, be vigilant." Our Lord had enjoined it with prayer: "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." Exercises of penance have been corrupted, debased by credulity, and confounded with repentance; until even those working out their salvation with fear and trembling, have rejected. the observance of them, as a vain delusion. Though John the Baptist preached repentance in the austerities of self-denial; no raiment of camel-hair, or leathern girdle about the loins, now announces the season of mortification, and repentance. Though our Lord fasted forty days in the wilderness; no abstinence is now observed, except indeed at the tables of the poor. Though Jerusalem, and all Judea went out into the wilderness, confessing their sins; no retirement from the

1 Rom. viii. 13.