earth that I desire besides thee so it can say with St. Paul I have learned both to want and to abound to be full and to be hungry and in whatsoever estate to be therewith content Our desires therefore are both the surest measures of our present estate and the truest prognosticks of our future Vpon those words of Solomon As the tree falls so it shall lie Bernard wittily How the tree will fall thou shalt soone know by the store and weight of the boughes Our boughes are our desires on which side soever they grow and sway most so shall the soule fall It was a word too good for him that sold his birth-right for a messe of pottage I have enough my brother Iacob himselfe could have said no more this moderation argues a greater good then it selfe for as nothing comes amisse to that man who holds nothing enough since the love of mony is the root of all evill so he that can stint his desires is canon-proofe against tentations whence it is that the best and wisest men have still held themselves shortest Even he that had more then enough could say Give me not over-much Who knowes not the bare feet and patched cloaks of the famous Philosophers amongst the heathen Plutarch wonders at Cato that being now old and having passed both a Consul-ship and Triumph he never wore any garment that exceeded the worth of an hundred pence It was the wish of learned Erasmus after the refused offers of great preferments that he might so order his expences that he might make all eaven at his death so as when he dyed he might be out of every mans debt and might have only so much mony left as might serve to bring him honestly to his grave And it was little otherwise it seemes with the painfull and eminent Master Calvin who after all his power and prevalence in his place was found at his death to be worth some forty pounds sterling a summe which many a Master gives his groome for a few yeares service Yea in the very chaire of Rome vvhere a man vvould least look to meet vvith moderation vve finde Clement 4. vvhen he would place out his two daughters gave to the one thirty pounds in a Nunnery to the other three hundred in her marriage And Alexander the 5. who was chosen Pope in the Councell of Pisa had vvont to say he was a rich Bishop a poore Cardinall and a beggarly Pope The extreame lowlinesse of Celestine the 5. who from an Anachorets cell was fetcht into the Chaire and gave the name to that Order was too much noted to hold long he that would onely ride upon an asse whiles his successors mount on shoulders soone walks on foot to his desert and thence to his prison This man was of the diet of a brother of his Pope Adrian who caused it to be written on his grave that nothing fell out to him in all his life more unhappily then that hee was advanced to rule These are I confesse meer Heteroclites of the Papacy the common rule is otherwise to let passe the report which the Archbishop of Lions made in the Councel of Basil of those many Millions which in the time of Pope Martin came to the Court of Rome out of France alone and the yearely summes registred in our Acts which out of this Iland flew thither above the Kings revenues we know in our time what millions of gold Sixtus 5. who changed a neat-heards cloak for a Franciscans cowle and therefore by vertue of his order might touch no silver raked together in five yeares space The story is famous of the discourse betwixt Pope Innocent the 4. and Thomas Aquinas When that great Clerk came to Rome and looked somewhat amazedly upon the masse of Plate and treasure which he there saw Lo said the Pope you see Thomas we cannot say as S. Peter did of old Silver and gold have I none No said Aquinas neither can you command as he did the lame man to arise and walk There was not more difference in the wealth of the time then in the vertue It was an heroicall word of S. Paul As having all things yet possessing nothing and a resolution no lesse that rather then he would be put down by the brag of the false-teachers among the Corinthians he would lay his fingers to the stitching of skins for Tent-making What speak I of these meannesses when he tells us of holy men that wandred about in sheep-skins and goats skins in deserts and mountains and caves of the earth Yea what doe I fall into the mention of any of these when I heare the Lord of life the God of glory who had the command of earth and heaven say The foxes have holes and the birds of the ayre haue nests but the son of man hath not where to lay his head It was a base and unworthy imputation that hath been cast upon him by some ignorant favourers of wilfull poverty that he lived upon pure almes If our blessed Saviour and his train had not a common stock wherefore was Iudas the purse-bearer and why in that office did he repine at the costly oyntment bestowed upon his Master as that which might have been sold for 300 pence to the use of the poore if himselfe had not wont to be a receiver of the like summes in a pretence of distribution wherein had he been a thiefe if he had not both wont and meant to lurch out of the common Treasury Certainly he that said It is better to giue then to receive would not faile of the better and take up with the worse and he who sent his Cators to Sichem to buy meat would not goe upon trust with Samaritans Now he that shall aske how this stock should arise may easily think that he vvho commanded the fish to bring him tribute-mony had a thousand vvayes to make his owne provision Amongst vvhich this is cleare and eminent His chosen vessel could say Even so the Lord hath ordained that they which preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell Lo this was Christs owne ordination was it not therefore his practice and if any man would rather cast it upon our Saviours care for the provision of succeeding times he may soone learne that when the blessed Son of God sent his Disciples as Legates from his own side to preach the Gospell without scrip or mony the word was dignus est The labourer is worthy of his wages he saith not The begger is vvorthy of his almes This maintenance vvas not of beneficence but duty So as Salmeron observes well neither Christ nor his Apostles were in any vvant they earned what they had and they had what was sufficient And if that gracious Messiah beg'd water of the Samaritan woman at Iacobs vvell it vvas because he thirsted after the salvation of her and her neighbours and vvould take this occasion to bestow
vvhich cannot but naturally abhorre paine and torture What malefactor vvas ever in the vvorld that vvas not troubled to thinke of his execution There is a sorrow that lookes not at the punishment but the sinne regarding not so much the deserved smart as the offence that is more troubled with a Fathers frowne then with the whip in a strangers hand with the desertions of God then with the feare of an hell Under this sorrow and sometimes perhaps under the mixture of both doth God suffer his dearest ones to dwell for a time numbring all their teares and sighes recording all their knocks on their breasts and stroakes on their thighes and shakings of their heads and taking pleasure to view their profitable and at last happy self-conflicts It is said of Anthony the holy Hermite that having beene once in his desart beaten and buffeted by Divells he cryed out to his Saviour O bone Iesu ubi eras O good Iesus where wert thou whilâ—s I was thus handled and received answer Iuxta te sed expectavi certamen tuum I was by thee but stayed to see how thou wouldest behave thy selfe in the combat Surely so doth our good God to all his he passeth a videndo vidi upon all their sorrowes and will at last give an happy issue with the temptation In the meane time it cannot but concerne us to temper this mixed sorrow of ours with a meet moderation Heare this then thou drouping soul thou are dismayed with the haynousnesse of thy sinnes and the sense of Gods anger for them dost thou know with whom thou hast to doe hast thou heard him proclaim his own style The Lord the Lord mercifull and gratious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquities and transgressions and sinnes and canst thou distrust that infinite goodnesse Lo if there were no mercy in heaven thou couldst not be otherwise affected Looke up and see that glorious light that shines about thee With the Lord there is mercy and with him is plentious redemption And is there plentious redemption for all and none for thee Because thou hast wronged God in his justice wilt thou more wrong him in his mercy and because thou hast wronged him in both wilt thou wrong thy selfe in him Know O thou weak man in what hands thou art He that said Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the clouds said also Thy mercy is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds It is a sure comfort to thee that he cannot faile in his faithfulnesse and truth thou art upon earth and these reach above thee to the clouds but if thy sinnes could be so great and high as to over-look the clouds yet his mercy is beyond them for it reacheth unto heaven and if they could in an hellish presumption reach so high as heaven yet his mercy is great above the heavens higher then this they cannot If now thy hainous sinnes could sink thee to the bottome of hell yet that mercy which is above the heavens can fetch thee up againe Thou art a grievous sinner we know one that said he was the chiefe of sinners who is now one of the prime Saints in heaven Looke upon those whom thou must confesse worse then thy selfe Cast back thine eyes but upon Manasseh the lewd son of an holy Parent See him rearing up Altars to Baal worshipping all the host of heaven building Altars for his new Gods in the very courts of the house of the Lord causing his sonnes to passe through the fire trading with witches and wicked spirits seducing Gods people to more then Amoritish wickednesse filling the streets of Jerusalem with innocent bloud say if thy sinne can be thus crimson yet behold this man a no lesse famous example of mercy then wickednesse And what is the hand of God shortned that he cannot now save Or hath the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy cleane gone for ever hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies O man say justly on This is mine infirmity thine infirmity sure enough and take heed if thou persist to distrust that it be not worse These misprisons of God are dangerous The honour of his mercy is justly deare to him no marvell if he cannot indure it to be questioned when the temptation is blowne over heare what the same tongue sayes The Lord is mercifull and gratious slow to anger and plentious in mercy He will not alway chide neither will he keep his anger for ever He hath not dealt with us after our sinnes nor rewarded us after our iniquities For as the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy towards them that feare him Oh then lay hold on the large and illimited mercy of thy God and thou art safe What cares the debtor for the length of a bill that is crossed what cares the condemned person for the sentence of death whiles hee hath his pardon sealed in his bosome Thou art an hainous sinner Wherefore came thy Saviour wherefore suffered he If thy sinne remaine wherefore serves his bloud If thy debt bee still called for wherefore was thine obligation cancelled If thou be still captive to sin and death wherefore was that deare ransome paid why did he stretch forth his blessed hands upon the crosse but to receive thee why did he bow downe his head but to invite thee why vvas his precious side opened but that he might take thee into his heart Thou despisest him if thou trustest him not Iudas and thou shall sin more in despairing then in betraying him Oh then gather heart to thy selfe from the merits from the mercies of thine All-sufficient Redeemer against all thy sinfulnesse For who is it that shall be once thy Judge before what Tribunall shalt thou appeare to receive thy sentence Is it not thy Saviour that sits there He that dyed for thee that he might rescue thee from death shall he can he doome thee to that death from which he came to save thee Comfort thy self then with these words and if thou wouldst keep thy soule in an equall temper as thou hast two eyes fixe the one of them upon Gods justice to keep thee low and humble and to quit thee from presumption fixe the other upon his transcendent mercy to keepe thee from the depth of sorrow and desperation §. XIV Of the moderation of the Passion of Feare SOrrow is for present and felt evils Feare is onely of evils future A passion so afflictive that even the expectation of a doubtful mischief that may come is more grievous to us sometimes then the sense of that mischiefe when it is come That which Torquemade reports of a Spanish Lord in his knowledge I could second with examples at home of some who have been thought otherwise
concision saith the Apostle of the Gentiles Iustly must wee spit at these blasphemers who say they are Iewes and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan If they be coloured friends but true hereticks such as doe destroy directly and pertinaciously the foundation of Christian religion the Apostles charge is expresse Haereticum hominem devita A man that is an hereticke after the first and second admonition avoyd and reject and such an one as he may be that addes blasphemy to heresie it might be no reall mistaking though a verball of that wise and learned Pontifician who misreading the vulgar made two words of one and turned the Verbe into a Noune De vita Supple Tolle put an hereticke to death A practise so rise in the Roman Church against those Saints who in the way which they call heresie worship the Lord God of their Fathers beleeving all things which are written in the Law in the Prophets in the Apostles that all the world takes notice of it seeming with the rap't Evangelist to heare the soules from under the Altar crying aloud How long Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth Surely were wee such as their uncharitable 〈◊〉 mis-construction would make us their cruelty were not excusable before God or men but now as our innocence shall aggravate their condemnation before the just Tribunal in heaven so our example shall condemne them in the judgement of all impartiall Arbiters here on earth For what Client of Rome was ever sentenced to death by the reformed Church meerely for matter of religion what are wee other to them then they are to us the cause is mutually the same only our charity is more our cruelty lesse Neither is this any small testimony of our sincere innocence It is a good rule of Saint Chrysostome if wee would know a Wolfe from a Sheep since their clothing as they use the matter will not difference them looke to their fangs if those be bloody their kinde is enough bewrayd for who ever saw the lips of a Sheep besmear'd with blood It is possible to see a Campian at Tiburne or a Garnets head upon a pole Treasonable practises not meere Religion are guilty of these executions But however our Church is thus favourable in the case of those heresies which are either simple or secondary and consequentiall yet in the cases of hereticall blasphemy her holy zeale hath not fear'd to shed blood witnesse the flames of Ket and Legat and some other Arrians in our memory And the zealous prosecution of that Spanish Cistertian whom wee heard and saw not long since belching out his blasphemous contumelies against the Sonne of God who after hee was given over to the secular power for execution was by the Spanish Embassadour Master Gondemor carryed backe into Spaine by leave from King Iames of blessed memory in which kind also Master Calvin did well approve himselfe to Gods Church in bringing Servetus to the stake at Geneva As for those which are heretickes onely by consequence and interpretation heedlesly undermining that foundation which they would pretend to establish as we may not in regard of their Opinions in themselves utterly blot them out of the Catalogue of brethren so we must heartily indeavour all good meanes for their reclamation strive to convince their errours labour with God for them in our prayers trye to win them with all loving offices neither need we doubt to joyne with them in holy duties untill their obdurednesse and wilfull pertinacy shall have made them uncapable of all good counsell and have drawne them to a turbulent opposition of the truth for as it is in actuall offences that not our sinne but our unrepentance damnes us so it is in these matters of opinion not the errour but the obstinacy incurres a just condemnation So long therefore as there is hope of reformation wee may wee must comply with this kind of erring Christians but not without good cautions First that it be only in things good or indifferent Secondly That it be with a true desire to win them to the truth Thirdly that we finde our selves so throughly grounded as that there be no danger of our infection for we have knowne it fall out with some as with that noble Grecian of whom Xenophon speakes who whiles hee would be offering to stay a Barbarian from casting himselfe down from the rock was drawne down with him for company from that precipice Saint Austen professes that this was one thing that hardned him in his old Manicheisme That hee found himselfe victorious in his disputations with weake adversaries such men in stead of convincing yeeld and make themselves miserable and their opposites foolishly proud and mis-confident Fourthly that we doe not so farre condescend to complying with them as for their sakes to betray the least parcell of divine Truth I◠they be our friends it must be only usque ad aras there we must leave them That which wee must be content to purchase with our blood we may not forgoe for favour even of the dearest Fiftly that we doe not so far yield to them as to humour them in their errour as to obfirme them in evill as to scandalize others And lastly if wee finde them utterly incorrigible that wee take off our hand and leave them unto just censure As for differences of an inferiour nature if but De venis capillaribus minutioribus theologicarum quaestionum spinetis as Staphilus would have theirs or if of matters rituall and such as concerne rather the Decoration then the health of Religion it is fit they should be valued accordingly neither peace nor friendship should be crazed for these in themselves considered But if it fall out through the peevishnes and selfe-conceit of some crosse dispositions that even those things which are in their nature indifferent after the lawfull command of Authority are blazon'd for sinfull and haynous and are made an occasion of the breach of the common peace certainly it may prove that some schisme even for triviall matters may be found no lesse pernicious then some heresie If my coat be rent in peeces it is all one to me whether it be done by a Bryer or a nayle or by a knife If my vessell sinke it is all one whether it were with a shot or a leake The lesse the matter is the greater is the disobedience and the disturbance so much the more sinfull No man can be so foolish as to thinke the value of the Apple was that which cast away man-kinde but the violation of a Divine Interdiction It is fit therefore that men should learne to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake But if they shall bee wilfully refractary they must be put in minde that Korahs mutiny was more fearefully revenged then the most grievous idolatry §. XV. The eleventh rule of Moderation To refrayne from all rayling termes
why should not every one where there is a difference of meliority strive towards the best All may strive but all can not attaine He that is able to receive it let him receive it saith our Saviour But he that cannot receive the blessing of single chastity may receive the blessing of chaste marriage an institution which if it had not been pure and innocent had never been made in Paradise by the all-holy Maker of Paradise both in earth and heaven In the managing and fruition vvhereof we may not follow bruitish appetite and lawlesse sensuality but must be over-ruled vvith right reason Christian modesty and due respects to the ends of that blessed ordinance Our strictest Casuists will grant that for the conservation of mankind even a votary may yea must marry and we have in our times known those who for the continuation of a lineall succession of some great families have been fetcht from their cells to a Bride-chamber As for the remedy of incontinency our Apostle hath passed a plaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come together againe As for the pleasure of conjugall society I doe not find a more clear decision then that of the voluminous Jesuite Salmeron To a faithfull man saith he unto whom Christ hath made all things cleane that turpitude and absorption of reason which commonly attends the act of matrimoniall knowledge is not a sin for as the Apostle teacheth All things are cleane unto the cleane as Clemens in the third book of his Stromata worthily expounds it Moreover that pleasure or delectation which doth naturally follow the act of generation which is by God naturally inbred in every living creature and is not desired meerly for its owne sake is no sin at all even as the delight which accompanieth eating drinking and sleeping is not judged unlawfull So therefore it is not onely to be granted that marriage is no sin but he that is at liberty and free from any vow and hath not a will to contain himself shall not acquit himselfe of a grievous sin if he seek not a wife for of such like S. Paul saith If they doe not containe let them marry for it is better to marry then to burne that is as S. Ambrose interprets it to be overcome of lust Thus far Salmeron And to the same purpose the learned Chancelor of Paris determines that however those meetings which have no other intuition but meer pleasure cannot be free from some veniall offence yet that he who comes to the marriage-bed not without a certaine renitency and regret of minde that he cannot live without the use of matrimony offends not Shortly then howsoever it be difficult if not altogether impossible to prescribe fixed limits to all ages and complexions yet this we may undoubtedly resolve that we must keepe within the bounds of just sobriety of the health and continued vigour of nature of our aptitude to Gods service of our alacrity in our vocations not making appetite our measure but reason hating that Messaline-like disposition which may be wearied not satisfied affecting to quench not to solicit lust using our pleasure as the traveller doth water not as the drunkard wine whereby he is enflamed and enthirsted the more §. IX Of the limitation of our pleasures in the manner of using them THus much for the just quantity of our lawfull delights the manner of our using them remaines Whether those of the boord or of the bed or of the field one universall rule serves for them all we may not pursue them either over-eagerly or indiscreetly If wee may use them we may not set our hearts upon them and if wee give our selves leave to enjoy them yet wee may not let our selves loose to their fruition Carelesnesse is here our best posture They that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not they that have wives as if they had none they that buy as if they possessed not they that use the world as if they used it not saith the blessed Apostle Far be it from a Christian heart so to be affected with any earthly delight as if his felicity dwelt in it his utter dejection and misery in the want of it that as Phaltiel did his wife he should follow it weeping It was a good charge that the holy man gave to his votary that he should not totus comedere and the Spouse in the Divine Marriage-song can say I slept but my heart waketh thus whiles we shall take our pleasure our pleasure shall not take us Discretion must be the second guide of our pleasure as in other circumstances so especially in the choice of meet places and seasons It was a shamelesse word of that brutish Cynick that hee would plantare hominem in foro The Jews made it a matter of their 39. lashes for a man to lie with his owne wife in the open field and if it were notoriously filthy for Absalom to come neare to his Fathers Concubines in the darkest closet surely to set up a tent upon the roofe of the house and in the sight of the Sun and all â—srael to act that wickednesse was no lesse then flagitious villany The very love-feasts of the primitive Christians were therefore cryed downe by the Apostle because they were misplaced Have yee not houses to eate and drink in and so were the vigils in the succeeding ages If markets if sports be never so warrantable yet in a Church not without a foule profanation So likewise there are times which doe justly stave off even those carnall delights which else would passe with allowance The Priests under the law whiles they did eate the holy bread which was in their severall courses twice in the yeare must abstaine from the society of their wives the like charge doth the Apostle impose upon his Corinthians Defraud not one another except it be with consent for a time that ye may give your selves to fasting and prayer It was a commendable resolution of good Vriah The Ark of God and Israel and Iudah abide in tents and my Lord Ioab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields shall I then goe in to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife As thou livest and as thy soule liveth I will not doe this thing When a solemne fast is indicted for a man to entertaine his friends with a feast is no better then an high impiety and disobedience neither can it be worthy of lesse then a just mulct and censure in those who cast their liberallest invitations upon those daies which by the wholsome lawes both of Church and Common-welth are designed to abstinence and it is a strange charge that Alfonsus de Vargas layes upon the Jesuites that upon a sleight pretence made no bones of a fat capon on Good Friday There is a time for all things saith wise Solomon there is a time to embrace and a time to refraine from imbracing A