Paulus Jovius in the fourth book of the life and deeds of Pope Leo Decimus, his noble Patron, concludes in these words, “Because I cannot honour him as other rich men do, with like endeavour, affection, and piety, I have undertaken to write his life; since my fortunes will not give me leave, to make a more sumptuous monument, I will perform those rites to his sacred ashes, which a small perhaps, but a liberal wit can afford." But I rove. Where this true love is wanting, there can be no firm peace, friendship from teeth outward, counterfeit, or for some by-respects, so long dissembled, till they have satisfied their own ends, which upon every small occasion, breaks out into enmity, open war, defiance, heartburnings, whispering, calumnies, contentions, and all manner of bitter melancholy discontents. And those men which have no other object of their love, then greatness, wealth, authority, &c. are rather feared than beloved; nec amant quemquam, nec amantur ab ullo: and howsoever born with for a time, yet for their tyranny and oppression, griping, covetousness, currish hardness, folly, intemperance, imprudence, and such like vices, they are generally odious, abhorred of all, both God and men. "Non uxor salvum te vult, non filius, omnes wife and children, friends, neighbours, all the world forsakes them, would fain be rid of them, and are compelled many times to lay violent hands on them, or else God's judgments overtake them: instead of Graces, come Furies. So when fair Abigail, a woman of singular wisdome, was acceptable to David, Nabal was churlish and evil-conditioned; and therefore Mardochy was received, when Haman was executed, Haman the favorite, "that had his seat above the other Princes, to whom all the King's servants that stood in the gates, bowed their knees and reverenced." Though they flourish many times, such Hypocrites, such temporizing Foxes, and blear the world's eyes by flattery, bribery, dissembling their natures, or other men's weakness, that cannot so soon apprehend their tricks, yet in the end they will be discerned, and precipitated in a moment: "surely," saith David, "thou hast set them in slippery places," Ps. 37. 5. as so many Sejani, they will come down to the Gemonian scales; and as Eusebius in "Ammianus, that was in such authority, ad jubendum Imperatorem, be * Pari tamen studio & pictate conscribendæ vitæ ejus munus suscepi, & post quam sumptuosa condere pro fortuna non licuit, exiguo sed eo forte liberalis ingenii monumento justa sanctissimo cineri solventur 1. Sam. 25. 3. * Esther. 3. 2. 3 Amm. Marcellinus 1. 14. cast cast down headlong on a sudden. Or put case they escape, and rest unmasked to their lives end, yet after their death their memory stinks as a snuffe of a candle put out, and those that durst not so much as mutter against them in their lives, will prosecute their name with Satyrs, Libels, and bitter imprecations, they shall malè audire in all succeeding ages, and be odious to the world's end. MEMB. III. Charity composed of all three kinds, Pleasant, Profitable, Honest. ESIDES this love that comes from Profit, Pleasant, Honest, (for one good turn asks another in equity) that which proceeds from the law of nature, or from discipline and Philosophy, there is yet another love compounded of all these three, which is Charity, and includes piety, dilection, benevolence, friendship, even all those virtuous habits; for love is the circle equant of all other affections, of which Aristotle dilates at large in his Ethicks, and is commanded by God, which no man can well perform, but he that is a Christian, and a true regenerate man; this is "To love God above all, and our neigh bour as our self;" for this love is lychnus accendens & accensus, a Communicating light, apt to illuminate it self as well as others. All other objects are fair, and very beautifull, I confess; kindred, alliance, friendship, the love that we owe to our country, nature, wealth, pleasure, honour, and such moral respects, &c. of which read * copious Aristotle in his morals; a man is beloved of a man, in that he is a man; but all these are far more eminent and great, when they shall proceed from a sanctified spirit, that hath a true touch of Religion, and a reference to God. Nature binds all creatures to love their young ones; an hen to preserve her brood will run upon a Lion, an Hinde will fight with a Bull, a Sow with a Bear, a silly Sheep with a Fox. So the same nature urgeth a man to love his Parents. (+dii me pater omnes oderint, mi te magis quam oculos amem meos !) and this love cannot be dissolved, as Tully holds, "y without detestable offence:" but much more God's commandment, which injoyns a filial love, * Ut mundus duobus polis sustentatur: ita lex Dei, amore Dei & proximi; duobus his fundamentis vincitur; machina mundi corruit, si una de polis tur batur; lex perit divina si una ex his. * 8. & 9. libro. Y De amicit. 4.5. + Ter. Adelph. and and an obedience in this kind. "The love of brethren is great, and like an arch of stones, where if one be displaced, all comes down," no love so forcible and strong, honest, to the combination of which, nature, fortune, vertue, happily concur; yet this love comes short of it. "Dulce & decorum pro patriâ mori," ⚫ it cannot be expressed, what a deal of Charity that one name of Country contains. "Amor laudis & patriæ pro stipendio est ;" The Decii did se devovere, Horatii, Curii, Scævola, Regulus, One day the Fabii stoutly warred, Fifty thousand Englishmen lost their lives willingly neer Battle Abby, in defence of their country. P. Emilius 7. 6. speaks of six Senators of Calice, that came with halters in their hands to the King of England, to die for the rest. This love makes so many writers take such pains, so many Historiographers, Physitians, &c, or at least as they pretend, for common safety, and their countries benefit. Sanctum nomen amicitiæ, sociorum communio sacra; Friendship is an holy name, and a sacred communion of friends. "As the Sun is in the Firmament, so is friendship in the world," a most divine and heavenly band. As nuptial love makes, this perfects mankind, and is to be preferred (if you will stand to the judgement of *Cornelius Nepos) before affinity or consanguinity; plus in amicitia valet similitudo morum, quam affinitas, &c. the cords of love bind faster than any other wreath whatsoever.Take this away, and take all pleasure, joy, comfort, happiness, and true content out of the world, 'tis the greatest tye, the surest Indenture, strongest band, and as our modern Maro decides it, is much to be preferred before the rest. Hard is the doubt, and difficult to deem, Charitas parentum dilui nisi detestabili scelere non cibus simillima, casura, nisi se invicem sustentaret. Seneca. tales, dici non potest quantum charitatis nomen illud habet. Anno 1347. Jacob Mayer. Annal. Fland. lib. 12. Toxari. Amicitia ut sol in mundo, &c. Fairy Queen. lib. 5, cant. 9. staff. 1. 2.. N 3 est, lapidum forni. a Dii immor. Tully. *Vit. Pompon. Attici. Ovid. Fast. • Lucianus f Spencer Whether Whether shall weigh the ballance down; to wit, Or raging fire of love to women kind, Or zeal of friends, combin'd by vertues meet: And quenched is with Cupid's greater flame; No less than perfect gold surmounts the meanest brass. h * A faithful friend is better then gold, a medicine of misery, an only possession; yet this love of friends, nuptial, heroical, profitable, pleasant, honest, all three loves put together, are little worth, if they proceed not from a true Chris tian illuminated soul, if it be not done in ordine ad Deum, for God's sake. "Though I had the gift of Prophesie, spake with tongues of men and Angels, though I feed the poor with all my goods, give my body to be burned, and have not this love, it profiteth me nothing," 1 Cor. 13. 1, 3. 'tis splendi dum peccatum, without charity; This is an all apprehending love, a deifying love, a refined, pure, divine love, the quintessence of all love, the true Philosopher's stone, Non potest enim, as Austin infers, veracitur amicus esse hominis, nisi fuerit ipsius primitus veritatis, He is no true friend that loves not God's truth. And therefore this is true love indeed, the cause of all good to mortal men, that reconciles all creatures, and glews them together in perpetual amity, and firin Jeague, and can no more abide bitterness, hate, malice, then fair and foul weather, light and darkness, sterility and plenty may be together; as the Sun in the Firmament, (I say) so is love in the world; and for this cause 'tis love without an ad'dition, love, love of God, and love of men, "The love of God begets the love of man; and by this love of our neighbour, the love of God is nourished and increased." By this happy union of love, "1 all well governed families and cities are combined, the heavens annexed, and divine souls compli cated, the world it self composed, and all that is in it con Plutarch, preciosum numisma. * Syracides. Xenophon, verus amicus præstantissima possessio. * Epist. 52. Greg. Per amorem Dei, proximi gignitur; & per hunc amorem proximi, Dei nutritur. 1 Piccolo. mineus grad. 7. cap. 27. hoc felici amoris nodo ligantur familiæ civitates, &c. joyned joyned in God, and reduced to one. This love causeth true and absolute vertues, the life, spirit, and root of every vertuous action, it finisheth prosperity, easeth adversity, corrects all natural incumbrances, inconveniences, sustained by Faith and Hope, which with this our love make an indissoluble twist, a Gordian knot, an Aquilateral Triangle, and yet the greatest of them is love," 1 Cor. 13, 13. " which inflames our souls with a divine heat, and being so inflamed, purged, and so purgeth, elevates to God, makes an atonement, and reconciles us unto him. That other love infects the soul of man, this cleanseth; that depresses, this erears; that causeth cares and troubles, this quietness of mind; this informs, that deforms our life; that leads to repentance, this to heaven." For if once we be truly link't and touched with this charity, we shall love God above all, our neighbour as our self, as we are enjoyned, Mark, 12. 31. Mat. 19. 19. perform those duties and exercises, even all the operations of a good Christian. "This love suffereth long, it is bountiful, envieth not, boasteth not it self, is not puffed up, it deceiveth not, it seeketh not his own things, is not provoked to anger, it thinketh not evil, it rejoyceth not in iniquity, but in truth. It suffereth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things," 1 Cor. 13. 4, 5, 6, 7. " it covereth all trespasses,' "" Prov. 10. 12. 66 a multitude of sinnes," J. Pet. 4. as our Saviour told the woman in the Gospel, that washed his feet, "many sins were forgiven her, for she loved much," Luke 7, 47. it will defend the fatherless and the widdow, Isa. 1. 17. "will seek no revenge, or be mindful of wrong," Levit. 19. 18. "will bring home his brother's oxe if he go astray, as it is commanded,' Deut. 22. 1." will resist evil, give to him that asketh, and not turn from him that borroweth, bless them that curse him, love his enemie," Matthew 5. "bear his brother's burthen, Galathians 6. 7. He that so loves, will be hospitable, and distribute to the necessities of the saints; he will, if it be possible, have peace with all men, "feed his enemy if he be hungry, if he be athirst give him drink;" he will perform those seven works of mercy, he will make himself equal to them of the lower sort, rejoyce with them that rejoyce, weep with them that weep," Rom. 12. he will speak truth to his neighbour, be courteous and tender-hearted, "forgiving others for Christ's sake, as God forgave him," Eph, 4. 32. " he will be like Veras absolutas hæc parit virtutes, radix omnium virtutum, mens & spiri tus. "Divino calore animos incendit, incensos purgat, purgatos elevat ad Deum, Deum placat, hominem Deo conciliat. Bernard. Ille inficit, hic perficit, ille deprimit, hic elevat; hic tranquillitatem, ille curas parit; hic vitam rectè informat, ille deformat, &c. N 4 minded," |