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Mirth is generally fo beaftly when it turns on Chastity, that wife Men wou'd have an equal Contempt and Abhorrence for the Ribaldry and Folly.

Pray often, and fervently, to God, who is the Effence of Purity, that he would be pleas'd to reprove and caft out the unclean Spirit: For befides the Bleffings of Prayer, by way of Reward, it has a natural Virtue to restrain this Vice. Prayer againft it is an Unwillingnefs to act it, and fo long as we heartily pray against it, our Defires are fecur'd, and the Tempter has no Power. This was St. Paul's other Remedy, For this Caufe 1 befought the Lord thrice; and there is equal Reafon and Advantage in the Ufe of it. The main thing which is to be fecur'd in this Affair, is a Man's Mind, he who goes about to cure Luft by bodily Exercise alone, or Mortifications, fhall find them fometimes inftrumental to it, always infufficient, and of little Profit: But he who has a chafte Mind, fhall find his Body apt enough to take Laws: Let it do its worst it cannot make a Sin, and in its greatest Violence, can only produce a little natural Unea finefs, not fo much Trouble as a fevere Faft, or a hard Lodging. If a Man be hungry he must eat, if he be thirsty he muft drink at fome convenient time, or elfe he dies; but if the Body be rebellious, provided the Mind be chafte, let it do its worst, if you refolve perfectly not to fatisfy it, you can receive no great Evil by it.

Thefe Confiderations may give room for others, arifing from every one's own Experience. The Subject itself is so nice, that it must be touch'd with Delicacy. "Twill be easily comprehended, what are the Evils we wou'd exhort to be avoided, what the Helps we may find in order to it. 'Tis a fad thing, that a Sin which carries along with it eternal Damnation, fhou'd pafs off as a Trifle; that it fhou'd be a fort of a Jeft to speak ill of it; and that without being Advocates for Whoremongers and Adulterers, one can hardly escape the Scandal of being precife. The Souls of Men are not to

be

be complimented into Security; and let the greatest and fairest of Mortals know, the time will come, when to have been Fair and Great will avail them nothing, and to have been Pure and Holy will crown them with immortal Glory.

The Remedies we have mention'd, are of univerfal Efficacy against Lewdness in all Cafes extraordinary and violent; but in ordinary and common, the Remedy which God has provided, honourable Marriage, has a natural Efficacy, befides a Virtue, by divine Bleffing, to cure the Inconveniences which otherwise might afflict Perfons temperate and fober.

'Tis true, Marriage is, like other good things, feldom spoken of but in fport; it is generally taken to prevent the Inconveniencies of Fortune, rather than those of Virtue: The Punishment as generally follows the Crime; and those that marry for Money only, have rarely any thing else with it that tends to Happinefs. No wonder People, fo given up to Avarice, fhou'd fall into other Sins; that the Neglect of those Wives whom they took out of Covetoufnefs, and not out of Love, fhou'd end in Adultery on both fides, and fuch vicious Marriages be the Ruin of their Peace here, and their Happiness hereafter.

MODE S T Y.

W

ILL not the Ladies take themselves to be affronted, if we fhou'd fo much as question that they want Leffons on this Virtue? Will not Men despise us for thinking it becomes them? Is not the bashful Man in the Cavalier Phrase a Coward? Is it not a Term of Reproach? Tis very hard, that in a Country profeffing Chriftianity and Reformation, most of these Virtues are fo out of Fashion, that it

is a most uncourtly Bufinefs to endeavour to recommend them. Those that do it are forc'd to affect Ludicrous Turns, and to perform by Satire, and not by Inftruction. People who are not afraid of being damn'd, are afraid of being laugh'd at, and fuch as reprove with Gravity and Concern, may answer the Dictates of their own Confciences, but will have very little Effect on their Neighbours.

Let us however, do our Duty; let us ftudy to find out the Paths of Truth and Salvation, and put those that err in the right way in which they should walk. No Virtue will give more Grace to all their Actions than this of Modefty, whether we confider it as oppos'd to Boldness and Indecency, or to Lightness and "Wantonness.

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Zeno has not ill defin'd it to be the Science of decent Motion, it being that which guides and regulates the whole Behaviour, checks and controlls all rude Exorbitancy, and is the great Civilizer of Converfation : 'Tis indeed a Virtue of general Influence; it does not only balaft the Mind with fober and humble Thoughts of ones felf, it alfo fteers every part of the outward Frame: It appears in the Face in calm and meek Looks; the Impreffion of it is fo ftrong there, that it has thence acquir'd the Name of Shamefacedness. Certainly nothing gives fo great a luftre to Beauty in Women; 'tis of itself fo beautiful, that it has been a Charm to Hearts infenfible of all others, and conquer'd when a fair Face has without it fet out all its Glories in vain. An innocent Modefty, a native Simplicity of Look, eclipse all the glaring Splendors of Art and Drefs. Let Nature and Art contribute to render a Woman lovely, if Boldnefs be to be read in her Face, it blots out all the Lines of Beauty, and like a Cloud over the Sun, intercepts the View of all that was otherwise amiable, rendring its Blackness the more obfervable, by being placed near somewhat that was apt to attract the Eyes.

Modefty

Modefty confines not its felf to the Face, it is there only in Shadow and Effigy; it is in Life and Motion, in the Words, whence the banishes all Indecency and Rudeness, all Infolence and Difdain, with whatever elfe may render a Perfon troublefom or ridiculous.to Company. It does not only refine the Language, it often modulates the Voice and Accent, it admits no unhandfom Earneftness or Lewdness of Difcourfe; the latter of which was thought fo indecent in Carneades, tho' in his publick Lecture, that the Gymnafiarch reprov'd him for it; and fure, if it were not allowable to a Philofopher in his School, it will lefs become a Woman in ordinary Conversation. A Woman's Tongue fhou'd be like the imaginary Mufick of the Spheres, fweet and charming, but not to be heard at a distance. As Modesty prescribes the Manner, fo it does alfo the Measure of Speaking; it reftrains all Excefs of Talking, a Fault incident to none but the Bold. To monopolize the Discourse of the Company, is a certain Sign of the good Opinion a Perfon has of himfelf, and as certain a way to lose that of the Company; every one defires to be heard in his turn, every one expects Applaufe from what he says, as well as he who wou'd ingrofs all: He who wou'd please in Converfation, muft endeavour to please others, and that cannot be done without hearing them with good liking, with which they will then hear you. The divine Poet Herbert fays on this Occasion,

A civil Guest,

Will no more talk all, than eat all at a Feaft.

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To be always talking in Company is affuming an infufferable Superiority over it; it looks as if you took them for your Pupils, and thought they wanted your Inftruction. The wife Socrates faid, It is Arrogance to Speak all, and to be willing to hear nothing. This is a Vice in both Sexes; the forward Coxcomb is fure to be the Jeft or Contempt of thofe heris eternally talking

to,

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to, and the as forward Coquette renders herself as ridiculous as the thinks fhe is engaging: 'Tis an Infolence unbecoming a Man, and more especially a Woman.

This was fo much the Sentiment of the ancient Romans, that they allow'd not Women to speak publickly, tho' it were in their own neceffary Defence; infomuch, that when Amafia ftood forth to plead her own Cause in the Senate, they look'd on it as so prodigious a thing that they fent to confult the Oracle what it portended to the State: And tho' thefe firft Severities were foon loft in the Succeffes of that Empire, tho' their Eaftern Conquefts introduc'd Luxury and Corruption of Manners; yet Valerius Maximus cou'd find but two more whofe either Neceffity or Impudence perfuaded them to repeat this unhandsom Attempt.

Is not the Indecency of Talkativeness in Women one of the chief Reasons of the Scandal they lie under on that Account? 'Tis faid, they talk too much, because they fhou'd talk but little; and when they err in it, 'tis the more obfervable, because it is unhandsom; whether it were from the Ungracefulness of the thing, or from the Propenfion Women have to it, I fhall not determine, but we find the Apoftle very earnest in his Caution against it: In his Epiftle to the Corinthians, he exprefly injoins Women to keep Silence in the Church, where he affirms it a Shame for them to speak. Our Quakers have broke in upon this Injunction; the Pretence they have for it is no great Compliment to the Sex; they alledge, that St. Paul did not forbid Women to teach when inspir'd, but to speak to one another and disturb the Congregation; as if their Tongues were always fo unruly, that Devotion itself cou'd not keep them within Bounds. But leaving these Enthufiafts to their Whimfies, tho' St Paul's Injunction seems here only restrain'd to Ecclefiaftical Affemblies, yet there are other Places where he is more general, as in his Epiftle to Timothy, Let Women learn in Silence, and again, to be in Silence. I hope we shall not be accus'd of Ill

breeding,

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