the right way, nor find any quiet in my own house because of the tumults that I experience in it And hence proceed innumerable defects and damages in prayer and the privation of the favours of heaven; for God is not pleased to put the liquor of his gifts in a vessel that has no cover, and that in five parts is full of " holes." [1]
3. Finally, great are the chastisements that Almighty God has inflicted upon those that have been notably reckless in the guard of their senses and tongue, giving them liberty against the precepts and councils of God's law; as may appear by what has been related in the preceding meditation. Upon which says Ecclesiasticus, [2] "Hedge in thy ears with thorns, hear not a wicked tongue, and make doors and bars to thy mouth. And take heed lest thou slip with thy tongue, and fall in the sight of thy enemies, who lie in wait for thee, and thy fall be incurable unto death." Sometimes to thy temporal death, and sometimes to thy eternal, in hell; where the five senses (as has been noted already) shall suffer incredible torments in chastisement of their unbridled appetites.
Colloquy. — Therefore, O my soul, shut the doors and windows of thy senses, if thou wilt not have death and disorder enter in thereat. Stop, and bridle thy mouth, that thy own tongue do not kill thee. " Hedge in thy ears with thorns," that other men's tongues do not prick thee, drawing from what thou nearest sins of thy own.
POINT III.
1. Mortification of the Senses. — The third point shall be to consider the great good which the holy curbing and mortification of the senses brings with it.
i. Because, besides shutting the door against so many
