De arte praedicatoria

Let the preacher proceed in this way in his sermon on temperance, or modesty:

Let your modesty be known to all men, the Lord is near.¹ Likewise the Apostle: Let us live soberly, justly, and piously in this world.² Likewise: Pursuing sobriety.³ And Jerome: "Modest and temperate food is useful for the soul and the body." The same again: "All things are prepared for the virtue of continence." St. Gregory: "The loftiness of minds is the purity of the continent." And elsewhere the poet:

The blessed have kept to the middle.

And:

You will go most safely by the middle.

Consider how much nature demands, not how much the appetite craves. If you are continent, you will reach the point where you are content with yourself. For he who is sufficient unto himself is born into delights. Put a rein on desire. Reject all things that draw the mind by flattery and by pleasure, eat short of satiety, drink short of drunkenness, redeem your desires cheaply; for you ought only to be concerned that they cease. Approach food, not pleasure: let hunger excite your palate, not flavors. Let poverty never be unclean to you, nor thrift sordid, nor simplicity neglected, nor levity languid; do not weep over your own, nor marvel at others'. If you love continence, flee shameful things before they happen. Hold not harsh but gentle words. Be yourself a pursuer of vices, but be not a curious scrutinizer of others nor a harsh reprover, but a corrector without reproach, so that you forestall harshness with admonition, and readily grant pardon for error. Do not exalt anyone beyond measure, nor cast them down. Be a silent listener to those speaking. Answer easily one who asks, yield easily to one who contends, and do not descend into insults and curses.

If you wish to be continent, observe the movements both of mind and body, that they not be unseemly; and do not disdain them because they are hidden; for it makes no difference that no one sees them, since you yourself see them. Be familiar with few, fair to all; be stricter in life than in countenance, be a clement avenger, a detester of cruelty, a seeker of good reputation, yet not a sower of vain glory; rather, beyond vain glory, a concealer of virtues, as others conceal vices; a despiser of vain glory and of honors; with which qualities you will not be a harsh exactor. O how

Rare is the bird on earth, most like a black swan,

who keeps the measure of this moderation. O how glorious is the virtue of temperance, which makes virtue keep to the middle, lest there be a fall into deficiency, or an excess into superfluity. This is spiritual circumcision, which cuts away the excess of each sense with the file of reason. It is to this that Seneca invites when he says: "Let life be tempered between good and public morals: great is he who uses earthenware as if it were silver; nor is he lesser who uses silver as if it were earthenware." He also says: "Let dress be neither squalid nor too splendid. Virtue lies in moderation, not in abasement."

O man, bind yourself within the limits of temperance, take care not to be avaricious, nor dishonorably incur the mark of prodigality; measure the other virtues too by the rule of temperance. In justice, temperance must be maintained, so that reverence for its discipline does not become cheapened by excessive commonness or contempt for negligence, nor lose the grace of human kindness through overly severe harshness. This sets a measure in fortitude, so that it knows both to accept prosperity and not to seek adversity unadvisedly. This orders prudence, so that it does not presume beyond what is due; but knows to sobriety, and does not shamefully grow stale beyond the measure of inquiry. Temperance adorns every substance with good works throughout, and shapes circumstance. By this it so measures times, places, persons, and causes, that walking within its limits, one cannot suffer ruin amid the precipices of this world and the cliffs of temporal life. If anyone is armed with this, no sting of envy, no heap of detraction can prevail against him; the devil finds nothing in him to accuse, conscience nothing to root out, the world nothing to mock, the purgatorial fire nothing to purge.