minded," Phil. 2. 2. "Of one judgement; be humble, meek, long-suffering," Colos. 3. "Forbear, forget and forgive," 12, 13. 23. and what he doth, shall be heartily done to God, and not to men: "Be pittiful and courteous," Pet. 3"Seek peace and follow it." He will love his brother, not in word and tongue, but in deed and truth, Joh. 3. 18. "and he that loves God, Christ will love him that is begotten of him," Joh. 5. 1, &c. Thus should we willingly do, if we had a true touch of this charity, of this divine love, if we could perform this which we are enjoyned, forget and forgive, and compose our selves to those Christian Laws of Love. Angelical souls, how blessed, how happy should we be, so loving, how might we triumph over the divel, and have an other heaven upon earth! r But this we cannot do; and which is the cause of all our woes, miseries, discontent, melancholy, want of this charity, We do invicem angariare, contemn, consult, vex, torture, molest and hold one another's noses to the grindstone hard, provoke, rail, scoffe, calumniate, challenge, hate, abuse (hardhearted, implacable, malicious, peevish, inexorable as we are) to satisfie our lust or private spleen, for toyes, trifles, and impertinent occasions, spend our selves, goods, friends, fortunes, to be revenged on our adversary, to ruin him and his. 'Tis all our study, practice and business, how to plot mischief, mine, countermine, defend and offend, ward our selves, injure others, burt all; as if we were born to do mischief, and that with such eagerness and bitterness, with such rancor, malice, rage and fury, we prosecute our intended designs, that neither affinity or consanguinity, love or fear of God or men can contain us: no satisfaction, no composition will be accepted, no offices will serve, no submission; though he shall upon his knees, as Sarpedon did to Glaucus in Homer, acknowledging his error, yield himself with tears in his eys, beg his pardon, we will not relent, forgive, or forget, till we have confounded him and his, made dice of his bones," as they say, see him rot in prison, banish his friends, followers, & omne invisum genus, rooted him out and all his posterity. Monsters of men as we are, Dogs, Wolves, Tygers, Fiends, incarnate Divels, we do not Boethius lib. 2. met. 8. succedit. Basil. 1. ser. de instit. mon eanæq; admorunt ubera tygres. Deliquium patitur charitas, odium ejus loco • Hirs only only contend, oppress, and tyrannize ourselves, but as so many fire-brands, we set on, and animate others: our whole life is a perpetual combate, a conflict, a set battle, a snarling fit: Eris dea is setled in our tents, Omnia de lite, opposing wit to wit, wealth to wealth, strength to strength, fortunes to fortunes, friends to friends, as at a sea-fight, we turn our broad sides, or two milstones with continual attrition, we fire our selves, or break another's backs, and both are ruined and consumed in the end. Miserable wretches, to fat and inrich our selves, we care not how we get it, Quocunque modo rem. how many thousands we undo, whom we oppress, by whose ruin and downfall we arise, whom we injure, fatherless children, widdows, common societies, to satisfie our own private lust. Though we have myriads, abundance of wealth and treasure, (pittiless, merciless, remorseless, and uncharitable in the highest degree) and our poor brother in need, sickness, in great extremity, and now ready to be starved for want of food, we had rather, as the Fox told the Ape, his tail should sweep the ground still, then cover his buttocks; rather spend it idly, consume it with dogs, hawks, hounds, unnecessary buildings, in riotous apparel, ingurgitate, or let it be lost, then he should have part of it; rather take from him that little which he hath, then relieve him. Like the dog in the manger, we neither use it ourselves, let others make use of, or enjoy it; part with nothing while we live: for want of disposing our houshold, and setting things in order, set all the world together by the ears after our death. Poor Lazarus lies howling at his gates for a few crums, he only seeks chippings, offals; let him roar and howl, famish, and eat his own flesh, he respects him not. A poor decayed kinsman of his sets upon him by the way in all his jollity, and runs begging bareheaded by him, conjuring by those former bonds of friendship, alliance, consanguinity, &c. unkle, co sen, brother, father, "Per ego has lachrymas, dextramque tuam te, Si quidquam de te merui, fuit aut tibi quidquam Dulce meum, miserere mei." Shew some pitty for Christ's sake, pitty a sick man, an old man, &c. he cares not, ride on: pretend sickness, inevitable loss of limbs, goods, plead suretiship, or shipwrack, fires, common calamities, shew thy wants and imperfections, 'Heraclitus. Si in gehennam abit, pauperem qui non alat: quid de ca fet qui pauperem denudat Austin. Et "Et si per sanctum juratus dicat Osyrim, Swear, protest, take God and all his Angels to witness, quære peregrinum, thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater, he is not touched with it, pauper ubique jacet, ride on, he takes no notice of it. Put up a supplication to him in the name of a thousand Orphans, an Hospital, a Spittle, a Prison, as he goes by, they cry out to him for ayd, ride on, surdo narras, he cares not, let them eat stones, devour themselves with vermine, rot in their own dung, he cares not. Shew him a decayed haven, a bridge, a school, a fortification, &c. or some publick work, ride on; good your worship, your honour, for God's sake, your Countrie's sake, ride on. But shew him a role wherein his name shall be registered in golden letters, and commended to all posterity, his arms set up, with his devises to be seen, then peradventure he will stay and contribute; or if thou canst thunder upon him, as Papists do, with satisfactory and meritorious works, or perswade him by this means he shall save his soul out of hell, and free it from Purgatory (if he be of any religion), then in all likelihood he will listen and stay; or that he have no children, no neer kinsman, heir, he cares for at least, or cannot well tell otherwise how or where to bestow his possessions (for carry them with him he cannot) it may be then he will build some School or Hospitall in his life, or be induced to give liberally to pious uses after his death. For I dare boldly say, vain glory, that opinion of merit, and this enforced necessity, when they know not otherwise how to leave, or what better to do with them, is the main cause of most of our good works. I will not urge this to derogate from any man's charitable devotion, or bounty in this kinde, to censure any good work; no doubt there be many sanctified, heroical, and worthy-minded men, that in trué zeal, and for vertue's sake (divine spirits) that out of commiseration and pitty, extend their liberality, and as much as in them lies do good to all men, cloath the naked, feed the hungry, comfort the sick and needy, relieve all, forget and forgive injuries, as true charity requires; yet most part there is simulatum quid, a deal of hypocrisie in this kinde, much default and defect. * Cosmus Medices, that rich citizen of Florence, ingenuously confessed to a neer friend of his, that would know of him why he built so many publike and magnificent palaces, and bestowed so liberally on Scholars, not that he loved learning more then others, "but to eternize his own name, to be immortall by * Jovius, vita ejus. y Immortalitatem beneficio literarum, immortali gloriosa quadam cupiditate concupivit. Quod cives quibus benefecisset perituri, monfa ruitura, etsi regio sumptu ædificata, non libri, the the benefit of Scholars; for when his friends were dead, walls decayed, and all Inscriptions gone, books would remain to the world's end." The lanthorn in Athens was built by Zenocles, the Theater by Pericles, the famous port Pyræum by Musicles, Pallas Palladium by Phidias, the Pantheon by Cal licratidas; but these brave monuments are decayed all, and ruined long since, their builders names alone flourish by meditation of writers. And as the said of that Marian Oke, now cut down and dead, nullius Agricolæ manu culta stirps tam diuturna, quam quæ poetæ versu seminari potest, no plant can grow so long as that which is ingenio sata, set and manured by those ever-living wits. Allon Backuth that weeping Oke, under which Deborah, Rebeccha's nurse died, and was buried, may not survive the memory of such everlasting monuments. Vainglory and emulation (as to most men) was the cause efficient, and to be a trumpeter of his own fame, Cosmus sole intent so to do good, that all the world might take notice of it, Such for the most part is the charity of our times, such our Benefactors, Mecænates and Patrons. Shew me amongst so many myriads, a truly devout, a right, honest, upright, meek, humble, a patient, innocuous, innocent, a mercifull, a loving, a charitable man! Probus quis nobiscum vivit? shew me a Caleb or a Joshua ! "Dic mihi Musa virum" shew a vertuous woman, a constant wife, a good neighbour, a trusty servant, an obedient child, a true friend, &c. Crows in Africk are not so scant. He that shall examine this iron age wherein we live, where love is cold, & jam terras Astrea reliquit, Justice fled with her assistants, virtue expelled, a "Justitiæ soror, Incorrupta fides, nudaq; veritas," all goodness gone, where vice abounds, the Divel is loose, & see one man vilify and insult over his brother, as if he were an innocent, or a block, oppress, tyrannise, prey upon, torture him, vex, gaule, torment and crucify him, starve him, where is charity? He that shall see menswear and forswear, lye and bear false witness, to advantage themselves, prejudice others, hazard goods, lives, fortunes, credit, all, to be revenged on their enemies, men so unspeakable in their lusts, unnaturall in malice, such bloody *Plutarch. Pericle. * Hor. + Tullius lib. 1. de legibus. Gen. 35. 8. a Durum genus sumus. Tull. pro Rosc. Mentiri vis causa mea? ego vero cupide & libenter mentiar tua causa; & si quando me vis pejurare, ut paululum tu compendii facias, paratum fore scito. designements, designements, Italian blaspheming, Spanish renouncing, &c. may well aske where is charity? He that shall observe so many lawsuits, such endless contentions, such plotting, undermining, so much mony spent with such eagerness and fury, every man for himself, his own ends, the Divel for all: so many distressed souls, such lamentable complaints, so many factions, conspiracies, seditions, oppressions, abuses, injuries, such grudging, repining, discontent, so much emulation, envy, so many brawles, quarrels, monomachies, &c. may well require what is become of charity? when we see and read of such cruell wars, tumults, uproares, bloudy battles, so many men slain, so many cities ruinated, &c. (for what else is the subject of all our stories almost, but Bills, Bowes, and Gunns!) so many murders and massacres, &c. where is Charity? Or see men wholly devote to God, Churchmen, professed Divines, holy men, «d to make the trumpet of the Gospel the trumpet of war," a company of Hell-born Jesuits, and fiery-spirited Friers, facem præferre to all seditions: as so many firebrands set all the world by the ears (I say nothing of their contentious and rayling books, whole ages spent in writing one against another, and that with such virulency and bitterness, Bionais fermonibus & sale nigro), and by their bloody inquisitions, that in thirty years, Bale saith, consumed 39 Princes, 148 Earls, 235 Barons, 14755 Commons; worse then those teh persecutions, may justly doubt where is Charity? Obfecro vos quales hi demum Christiani! Are these Christians? I beseech you tell me: He that shall observe and see these things, may say to them as Cato to Cæsar, credo quæ de inferis dicuntur falsa existimas, sure I think thou art of opinion there is neither Heaven, nor Hell. Let them pretend religion, zeal, make what shewes they will, give almes, peace-makers, frequent sermons, if we may guess at the tree by the fruit, they are no better then Hypocrites, Epicures, Atheists, with the "fool in their hearts they say there is no God." Tis no marvel then if being so uncharitable, hard-hearted as we are, we have so frequent and so many discontents, such melancholy fits, so many bitter pangs, mutuall discords, all in a combustion, often complaints, so common grievances, generall mischiefes, sitantæ in terris tragadia, quibus labefactatur & misere laceratur humanum genus, so many pestilences, wars, uproares, losses, deluges, fires, inundations, God's vengeance and all the plagues of Egypt, come upon us, since we are so currish one towards another, so respectless of God, and our neighbours, and by our crying sinnes pull Gallienus in Trch. Pollio lacera, occide, mea mente irascere. Rabie jecar incendente feruntur Præcipites, Vopiseus of Aurelian. Tantum fudit sanguinis quantum quis vini potavit. 4Evangelii tubam belli tubam faciunt; in • Psal. 13. 1. these pulpitis pacem, in colloquiis bellum suadent. |