him out And the Prophet David saith speaking of his enemies I mourned for him as for mine own Mothers son And thus shall we truly imitate the Dove who instead of singing doth alwaies mourn and wee shall alwaies have cause to doe so if we consider both the spirituall and corporall evils of our neighbours throughout the world To render evill for evill is human frailtie to render evill for good is devilish impiety to render good for evill is god like puritie in which practice if wee insist we shall approach neer unto the pattern of the holy Ghost and to that which above all other creatures doth best expresse his nature the Doves and so we shall be simple as Doves CHAP. V. SEcondly to maintain the simplicity of our words they must take upon them a mild a gentle and charitable form we must apparell our thoughts in the soft rayment of meek and well-filed speech and dresse our words in the supple accents of love of modesty of courtesie of truth The Apostle Paul saith to Titus Tit. 3.2 Put them in remembrance that they be modest shewing all meekâ—esse unto all men It was the saying of Vespasian the Emperour that no man ought to depart from the presence of a Prince displeased such should be the gratiousnesse of his words and answers and such should be the practice of every Christian as S. Paul saith again Colos 4.6 Let your speech be alwayes gratious seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to give an answer to every one And in the sudden over-sights of our brethren committed either in word or deed without unseasonable scoffing or derision mildly to overpasse them not being cruell in anothers faults for as Solomon saith It is the glory of a man to passe by unjust things And to give the most gentle and favourable interpretation of all mens actions without the severity of a rash and bitter censure 1 Cor. 4.5 as the Apostle saith Iudge not before the time And if the certain notice of any evill action of our neighbour come to our knowledge like Noahs two Sons Sem and Japheâ— we must cover the nakednesse thereof with the mantle of silence going backward as they did that if it were possible we mâ—ght hide it even from our own eies for what S. Pâ—ter said of love 1 Pet. 4.8 is true also of Simplicity which is the effect of love that it covereth a multitude of sinnes And let us say that surely the violence of some strong temptation drove him into it into which we our selves may fall if that the especiall grace of God doe not support us Nor is this practice to be stinted only to those who wear the name of friends but it must be extended even to our enemies as the Apostle saith of the duty of servants to their masters Not only to the good and courteous but also to the froward If therefore we should be invaded by scoffing Ishmaels or rayling Shemeyes or receive any other unjust usage we must not like the dog that bites the stone but regards not the hand that threw it turn again to tender rebuke for rebuke but contrariwise blesse as the Apostle commandeth us and quiet our selves with the consideration of the Prophet David who said concerning Shemeâ— 2 Kings 56.10 Let him alone that he may curse for our Lord hath commanded him that he should curse David I speak not here concerning Superiours either Ecclesiasticall or Civill who have power no doubt to reprove those that are subject unto them nor of notorious and heynous malefactors such as Herod whom our Saviour called Fox such as Simon Magus whom S. Peter in many words sharply reproved and suth as the heretique Marcion whom St. Polycarp called the eldest son of the Devill for these no doubt deserved it in a most eminent manner God reproved the high Priest Eli for not reproving his sons more sharply yet because we are almost all prone to bow too much on this side it is good like a young tree that growes somewhat awry bow to our selves as much the other way that so in time we may keep the middle And let us remember two examples of our Saviour in this kind one in the parable of the Supper where there was found one that had not on a wedding garment to whom though he were a wicked man the Master of the feast afforded a courteous compellation saying Friend Math. 22.12 how camest thou in hither The other concerning the woman taken in adultery whom when he dismist it was with no worse words than these Woman John 8 1â— goe thy wayes and sin no more And surely if there be any means to prevent the enraged hearts of men from boyling our at their mouths in bitter words or breaking out at their hands in hurtfull deeds it is this as Salomon saith Prov. 15.10 a soft answer breaketh wrath a hard word raiseth fury Thus Abraham prevented a breach between his own and the family of Lot saying Gen. 13.8 Let there be no wrangling I pray thee betwixt thee and me nor betwixt thy shâ—â—pheards and my sheâ—pheards for we are brethren Thus also spake Gedeon in the book of Judges to the incensed men of Ephraim Judges 8.2 3. saying Is not a cluster of grapes of Ephraim better than a vintage of Abtâ—zar And the Scripture saith that when he had thus spoken their spirits wâ—re quiâ—ted whereby they swelled against him Even as the force of a bullet spit out of the fiery entrayles of a gun is smothered in a soft pack of wooll or quenched in the yeelding water when as encountring with a resisting wall it batters it to peeces This government and restraint of the tongue is a most difficult lesson in Christianity especially when men are highly provoked either by injurious words or deeds which made S. James say Every nature of beasts James 3.7 8. and birds and creeping things and other things are tamed and have been tamed by man but the tongue no man can tame it is an uâ—quiâ—t evill full of deadly poyson It is reported by Eusebius that an unlearned man called Pamlus requested a friend of his to teach him a Psalm who when he had read unto him the first verse of the 38. Psalm I said I will keep my wayes that I affâ—â—â—d not with my tongue would not suffer the next verse to be read saying I will first learn to practise this and when his teacher blamed him because he had not seen him in six weeks after he answered that he had not learned that verse and one asking him many years after whether he had then learned it or no I am forty years old saith he and yet I have not learned to fulfill it Which difficulty as is usually in noble minds should so much the more whet our endeavours and awaken our industry that so in the government of our tongues wee may arrive to the pitch of the example propounded to us
mans harbour where striking sayl and casting anchor he returns his lading with advantage to the owner that is his soul fraught with good works unto God leaving his bulk still mored in the haven which is but unrig'd to be new built again and fitted for an eternall voyage And as that earth in which the men of China doe bury their clay after a hundred years doth render it purified and refined and fit out of it to form their choysest dishes so our graves after many years shall restore us again glorified and immortalized and fitted vessels for the house of God Of the simplicitie of the Dove CHAP. I. AS the Serpent is the wisest amongst the Beasts of the field and is therefore propounded as the pattern of our imitation in the vertue of wisdome so the Dove doth farre leave behind her the examples of all the brute creatures in the practise of simplicity And therefore the Holy Ghost who is the love of the Father which love is the Fountain of Simplicity deigned above others in the exhibition of his testimony of Christ to invest his Deitie with the form of a Dove Whose harmlesse simplicity on which our imitation must attend discovers it self as Pliny saith in these particulars First she hurts nothing with her clawes Secondly she hurts nothing with her bill Thirdly she wants a gall Fourthly she nourisheth and bringeth up both her own and others young ones Now these severall pieces of the Doves simplicity do teach us that as she hurts nothing with her clawes no more should we throw any evill upon others by our hands or actions Secondly as she hurts nothing with her bill no more ought we to prejudice any by our words Thirdly in that shee wants a gall it forbids us to give birth unto a thought which shall direct it self against the good of our neighbour The first noteth unto us the simplicity of our works the second of our words the third of our thoughts Fourthly in that she nourisheth others young-ones we are directed not only to doe no evill but also to doe good and that not to our own alone but also to our neighbours yea though they be our Enemies These are the particulars which shall bound this brief discourse All works are intimated by the hands as the principall instruments of working and therefore Pilat when he would assoyle himself of that impious act of Christs condemnation washed his hands And the Prophet David saith â—sal 25.6 I will wash my hands among the innocent Therefore did the Pharisees wear the Commandements written about their hands to intimate their performance Now they who are altogether barren in good works are like unto Jeroboam whose right hand was dryed up And they who interline their good works with bad are not unlike Nehemiahs builders who held a trowell in one hand to build and a sword in the other to destroy One evill action amongst many good ones corrupts the vertues of all the rest like Pharaohs lean kine that did eat up the fat or the Colloquintida in the young Prophets broth which made them cry out O thou man of God death is in thy pot 4 King 4.40 And not only to doe no wrong but even to doe no hurt though lawfull is very sutable to the Doves Simplicity Our Saviour who gave us this precept gave himself also for an example who amongst all his miracles enrowled in Sacred writ never did any that tended to destruction but only in cursing the barren figg-tree S. Aug. saith all justice is comprehended in this word innocence all injustice reprehended To the injustice of the hands or deeds is referred generally all actions that strike at the body or goods of our neighbour God saith by Moyses Exod. 22.21 22. Thou shalt doe no injurie to a stranger neither oppresse him ye shall not hurt the widdow nor fatherlesse child More particularly to the injustice of Magistrates of Lawyers and publick officers who corrupted through hope fear hatred or love hope of preferment fear of mens power hatred of their persons or love sometimes to their persons but most times to their mony have renewed the antient copies of injustice yea and augmented them Pleaders tongues being like the tongue of a ballance their hands the scales into one of which if you put one pound into the other two the tongue will alwaies incline to that which is the heaviest Who is there that in the generall execution of the place of Magistracy or the particular designation to the decision of a controversie in the giving of voyces in matters of Election or in their choyce unto places of dignity which rest in their particular power swerveth not from the rule of justice and simplicity measuring the merit of the person not the quantity of the gift or relation of kindred or acquaintance Like Titus Manlius who in a case of justice gave Sentence against his own Son O no Themystocles saying pleaseth them better who being requested to bear himself indifferently in his censure answered Be it far from me not to pleasure my friends in all things Princes Courts doe swarm with their flattering dependents who either bridled with the fear of their displeasure or spurred on with the hope of preferment doe bind themselves with the sale of the liberty innocency and simplicity of their consciences to run the same course with them in avowing all their enterprizes in obeying all their commands like Pilat who lest he should strike against the rock of Caesars offence condemned the innocent Lamb of God unto death and Judas who betrayed him for a piece of money The example of Martinus a Cardinall is very memorable who travelling on his way one of his horses fell lame which the Bishop of Florence supplied with the free gift of another which Bishop afterwards comming to Rome craved the Patronage of the Cardinall in a cause of his to whom he answered first let me redeem my liberty and gave him another horse and now saith he if your cause be just I am your Patron I would this were the practise of all the Clergy and that of Philoxenus of all Courtiers who as Plutarch reports being demanded of Dionysius the King of Syracusa what he thought of certain verses of his answered according to his opinion that they were naught whereat the King displeased condemned him to digge in the Quarry-pitts but by the intercession of friends being restored Dionysius demanded again what he thought of other verses of his but he knowing that they were naught and remembring his late punishment answered not a word but called to one of the Guard to carry him again to the Quarry-pitts And he that will not with Phyloxenus rather suffer evill then doe it may deservedly receive the just punishment of Syamnes a certain Judge who as Herodotus reports being corrupted by money to give wrong Sentence King Cambyses caused his skin to be pulled off and nayled to the Tribunall that they that succeeded terrified by his example might
avoyd his wickednesse Justice amongst the Antients was supposed to be a Virgin because she ought alwaies to be pure simple and uncorrupt And surely their wisdomes fail them who think that their corruption injustice and injurious handling of others can raise them to the true pitch of Greatnesse seeing that like Jonathan and his armour-bearer who clymed up to the top of a rock on their hands and feet they rear themselves hereunto by groveling base and sordid means For the truth of greatnesse rests not in the height of worldly wealth or honour but of justice and simplicity And therefore Agiselaus observing the Asians usually to crown their King of Persia with the title of Great wherein saith he is he greater than I unlesse he be wiser or juster Now as the simplicity commended unto us is likened to the Doves so many of the contrary vices have their resemblance in the nature of other birds There is the desperate Cock the contentious man whose injurious quarrellings make good the motto of Ishmael in himself Gen. 16.12 His hand against every man and every mans hand against him There is the Peacock the proud man who contrary to the children of Israel who thought themselves grashoppers in comparison of the Giants of Canaan he thinks himself a giant in worth and excellency and all others but grashoppers in comparison of himself when indeed he is but a swoln impostume casting out rotten and loathsome matter in his words and actions There is the Cuccow that layes her eggs in the nests of other birds the close adulterer whose children sit at other mens fire and eat at other mens tables There is the Swan that sings sweetly yet devours his own kind such are flatterers and hypocrites who as our Saviour saith Math. 23.14 Praying long prayers devour widdowes houses There is the Swallow that staies with us in the Summer but flyes away in the Winter such are false friends who abide with us in our prosperity and with it depart shewing that they were friends to it and not to us There is the Cormorant the covetous man who spares not to grind the faces of the poor to withhold the hire of the labourer to cosen the fatherlesse and widow yea any man yea God himself by robbing of the Church and with holding things consecrated with wicked Achan Who when they have ransacked the bowels of the earth for treasure are forced through their fears to hide them there again like the Adders young who being newly come out of their damms bellie run thither again for safety if affrighted with any danger There is also the Vulture that follows armies to prey upon dead carkasses the griping Usurer who waits upon prodigall heirs to devour their decaying fortune unto whom whosoever seeks for succour is like unto a sheep which in a storm runs under a bramble for shelter where he is sure to leave part of his fleece behind him These and the like are the practises of those who are not as they ought to be innocent and simple as Doves CHAP. II. THe second part of our Dove-like simplicity consisteth in our not prejudicing any in our words as she hurts nothing with her bill S. Paul's command is Tit. 3.2 to speak evill of no man which S. James knew to be so difficult that he saith James 3.2 If any man offend not in word that same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body Nabals churlishnesse Shemey's rayling the childrens mocking the infirmity of the Prophet Elizeus derisions and upbraydings misconstruction of our neighbours actions the divulging of the faults of our brethren false accusations against them and detracting from their just merit these are words which as Solomon saith are like the prickings of a sword yet these are the unworthy and customary exercises of our tongues amongst such as are not unacquainted with the language of Canaan Epist Judae 2. Michael the Archangel when disputing with the devill he contended about the body of Moyses durst not rayle against him but sayd our Lord represse thee but these men speak evill of things they know not saith S. Jude and by their rash and precipate judgement of other mens actions their misconstructions and interpreting to the evill part let blood the good name of their brethren even to the fainting yea death of their dear credit and many times in the effect thereof to the destruction of their lives Thus delt the devill with Job the Children of Ammon with David the Jews with our Saviour Impossible it is for a man so evenly to deport himself that his actions can escape the unjust construction of fame-wounding tongues such were the Pharisees in their censure of Christ and S. John Baptist Math. 11.18 John came neither eating nor drinking and they say he hath a Devill the Son of man came eating and drinking and they say behold a glutton and a drinker of wine a friend of Publicans and sinners These are the most direct Antipodes to the simplicity of words who when they cannot find faults doe make them and like corrupt stomacks turn all the good meat they eat into corruption Little less are they that wound the fame of their neighbours in tale-bearing by revealing of their sins and slidings like impious Cham who discovered and derided the drunkenness of his father Noah for which hee was justly cursed And by every ones adding therto in their reports making it like a Snow-ball which the further it rowls the more it gathers And in the mentioning of mens worth by detracting from it or allaying it with infamous aspersions thinking by disparaging others to give the greater lustre to their own commendations and to raise their own on the ruins of another mans good name Calumniation is the infallible note not only of an unchristian but also of an ignoble disposition and surely they are conscious to themselves of their own unworthiness who need the foyl of another mans fault to set off their own vertue Hecuba when shee was with child of Paris dream'd that she was brought to bed of a fire-brand and such indeed he afterwards proved So these men deliver themselves of that foul-mouth'd monster detraction whose dangerous effects are able to enflame the world with mutuall discords As S. Bernard saith There is a detractor who speaketh but a word and yet that word in a moment doth poyson the ears and wound the hearts of the hearers Whose sting like that of the venemous Tarantula bred in the kingdom oâ— Naples which is not to to be cured but by musick can find no remedy but the melody of a sincere and patient mind prepared to indure whatsoever it can inflict yet able to spunge out whatsoever it can object The name of Devill in the Greek from whence it is derived signifieth a Calumniator and calumny and detraction with all its kindred are devillish sins whereby men goe about like him seeking whom they may devour prying and listning after
and be simple as Doves CHAP. VI. THirdly it is not enough for us like Dives dogs only to lick mens sores with our tongues to give them good words only but no further helps but in our actions also we must follow all men so far as in us lyeth yea and prevent them with our good turns observing therein that order which S. Paul sets down Gal. 6.10 While we have time saith he let us doe good unto all but especially to the houshold of faith and that time that Salomon mentioneth Prov. 3.28 Say not unto thy neighbour goe and come again to morrow and I will give thee if thou canst give now We should be so covetous of doing good that we should seek nay make occasions rather than expect them and that with a mind so zealous of wel-doing that the world should sooner cease to afford opportunities than we want will to apprehend them as S. Paul testifieth of the Churches of Macedonia 2 Cor. 8.3 that to their power yea and beyond their power they were willing and as Job witnesseth of himself Job 29. v. 11 12 15 19. I was an eye unto the blind and a foot unto the lame J was father of the poor the ear that heard did blesse me and the eye that saw gave testimony of me because I delivered the poor man that cryed and the pupill that had no helper And with good reason for as St. Chrysostome saith it is much more excellent to feed hungry Christ that is to say his members than to raise one from the dead in the name of Christ for in this Christ deserveth at thy hands in that thou deservest at his for miracles thou art Gods debtor for mercy he is thine And they that cannot contribute one sort of good works for the assistance of their brethren let them doe another for there is scarce any so barren of power to doe good but that in something or other either spirituall or corporall either great or little he may be serviceable to his neighbour as the fable well expresseth which saith that when the Lion was taken in a snare the poor weak Mouse gave him his help to gnaw the cords in sunder We must therefore like the taper which burns it self out to give light unto others spend the talent that God hath given us next unto his glory to the benefit of our brethren yea to his glory in the benefit of our brethren as our saviour saith Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your father which is in heaven And this must be done not only when we are hereunto invited by the counter courtesies or inoffensive necessities of others but even then when we receive from them the sharp encounters of contrary mischief When we are assaulted with injuries in humane construction beyond the ability of sufferance or degree of reconcilement we must strike off the tally of all their injuries and if their need require repay them with good turns Rom. 12. â—0 as St. Paul saith Jf thy enemy shall hunger feed him if thirst give him to drink like the Patriarch Joseph who rewarded the mercilesse cruelty of his brethren by preserving that life in them which they would have destroyed in him The law of requitall is a principle deeply rooted in the nature of man whereby wee deem that if one have broken his duty unto us by offering us an injury we are absolved from our duty to him and may without the imputation of wrong requite him with an equall injury but we must know that the duty of man unto man is enjoyned in Scripture without condition or limitation Do good unto all saith St. Paul not only if they doe good unto you for that exceedeth not the righteousnesse of Scribes and Pharisees which can never enter into the kingdom of heaven but though they doe evill as S. Paul saith again Rom. 12.21 Be not overcome of evill but overcome evill with good To yield unto our repentant enemies the favour of pardon is a degree of Charity of which there is a shadow and image even in noble beasts for the Lion they say abateth his fierceness against any thing that doth prostrate it self unto it To pardon our enemies persisting without satisfaction or submission is a second degree of Charity which is found in the soft and gentle natures of some men But to pardon our persisting enemies yea more to deserve well of them by doing of them good and that not out of a bravery or greatness of the mind which delighteth in the fruit of its own vertue but out of a heart appassionated with sorrow for his misery if he be in any and entendred with the love and desire of his good this is the purest and the highest exaltation of fraternall Charity this is a simplicity imitating the divine nature and the hardest lesson in all Christianity Whose coppy we have pencild out unco us in the practice of our Saviour who being God and his enemies but men did infinitly excell them in dignity which made their injuries infinite and in power also whereby he was able either to prevent their mischiefs or escape them yea to speak them all into nothing aswell as his word at first gave them a being out of nothing did yet notwithstanding with a love as great as their injuries were grievous reward their reproaches with his prayers their buffetings with his balsome their treasons with his truth They disgracefully spit on his eyes and he with spittle healed their eyes they made the blood to issue out of him and he stopt the issues of blood in them they took away a life from him and he restored life to many of them yea that very life of his which their cruelty sacrificed to their revenge did his love sacrifice for their redemption There was never sorrow like unto his sorrow nor ever love like unto his love both being byeyond all example and propounded to all for an example which while we make haste to imitate Rom. 12.20 we shall upon our enemies heads heap coles of fire as the Aposlle speaketh which shall either enflame them with a correspondency of affection as heat begetteth heat or else for their unrelenting hearts shall serve to augment their quenchless flames in hell And for our selves receive we our comfort in the words of our Saviour Mat. 5.11.12 Blessed are ye when they shall curse you and persecute you and speak all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake rejoyce and be glad for great is your reward in heaven And thus if wee order our thoughts our words our deeds both negatively by thinking speaking doing no evill and positively by thinking speaking doing good and this not to our own alone but even to our enemies we shall reach the height of the example propounded to us and be simple as Doves FINIS