parents correction it will be no good inference to conclude that therefore it is not now any longer iust and reasonable because law had once determined it to be so it will be no good inference to conclude that the law and edict of all nations which decrees an absolute obedience to parents is now clearely vanished and out of vse Lawes be lawes still though they be not penall though there be no losse of life nor forfeiture of goods ensuing as for example adultery though there be smal adoe made about it now adaies yet in its owne nature it is alwaies foule and dishonest If either by negligence or coniuencie it be not sharply punished the law notwithstanding is stil chast and honorable which forbids it And so the law for childrens obedience is euer right conuenient though many times no penaltie ensue This is euident specially out of Moses it is true he would not that a father should put his child to death with his owne hands but rather seeke for it by petition from the magistrate and so haue it executed and that also without any other enquest or euidence than at the fathers suit from whence it is more then probably collected that in the common wealth of the Iewes the father had a soueraigne authority in cases of life and death for although by this order of Moses it were somewhat staid from speedy execution yet the matter is plaine that it is easier for me to bee a petitioner that another man should be executed and die than that I should be his executioner with mine owne hands But howsoeuer I would faine know and learn why and for what offence a father might endite his sonne by this Hebrew Law-makers decree that vpon such conuiction he might be presently stoned to death Was it because he was a murtherer a Church-robber a traitor a theef a fornicator or an vsual offendor against the peace of the King his crown and dignity Let vs heare his owne words deliuered to this purpose If any man haue a sonne that is stubborne and disobedient which will not harken to the voice of his father nor the voice of his mother and they haue chastised him and he would not obey them Then shall his father and his mother take him and bring him out vnto the Elders of his Citie and vnto the gate of the place where hee dwelleth And shall say vnto the Elders of his City this our sonne is stubborne and disobedient and he will not obey our admonition he is a robber and a drunkard Then all the men of the Citie shall stone him with stones vnto death I pray what manner of offences be there herein mentioned be they not trespasses against parents priuate misdemeanours and domesticall hatcht within doores not acted in publique view certainly as by order of military discipline contempt in a souldier is a crime very capitall because there is nothing so far endangers the state of an army as one mutinously disposed so by the same correspondencie of reason it is fit and requisite that all persons belonging to my charge as my seruants my children my wife my cattell all should be at my becke all should be vnder my conduct as the chiefe generall all should be actuated by my motion as hauing surrendred the interest of their liberty into my plenary disposition and authority Aelianus tells vs a story of one Rhaco Mardus who hauing brought his sonne Cartomes like a prisoner with his armes fast pinacled into the presence of King Artaxerxes to receiue iudgement of death vpon suggestion that he was a gracelesse desperate castaway and grew to be very earnest to that point why saith the King of Persia canst thou endure to behold thy sonnes life taken from him his answer was I haue in my garden a lettice rudely ouergrowne with leaues and though they be lims of the bodie yet doe I now and then crop off and prune some of the bitter stalkes and such as may be spared What doth my lettice thinke you die for griefe vpon the matter or doth it mourne because there is a limbe or two lopt off nay it flourisheth the better and such a maim makes him eat a great deale the sweeter In like manner may it please you O King to deeme of me for albeit I shall see and behold the death of this wretched varlot that hurts and anoies my household corrupts by his stubborne and lewde example his poore yong brethren I will neuerthelesse be still of the opinion to speed the better by it yea and rather thriue by such a maim than any waies be endamaged by it and this is sutable to that of Mâ—sâ—s and Halicarnasseus But that I may the better proue this point how is it that this question namelie whether a sonne in some case may lawfullie disobey his father first stepping aside out of priuate mens houses entred into the publique schooles of the vniuersitie to bee disputed and questioned there and after to be decided finallie at the seat of iudgement but that it was neuer in mans memorie heard of before nay the contrarie was euer held for certaine and true that such a question would neuer haue been propounded when Danaus much against his will had matcht his fiftie daughters to Egisthus his grandchildren and had charged the yong virgins that on the mariage day euerie one should murther hir husband with such a sword as to that end he had giuen them the iust like tale may you read in ChalcoÌ„dilas of a Physition of Florence that commanded his daughter to poison Lantislaus King of Naples the first night they should lie together euerie one did as their father had enioined them excepting only Hypermnestra which saued her husband Lynceus his life But what followed hereupon these murderous paricides were so far from being brought to answer the law and plead not guiltie for the matter or that their obedience herein was deemed culpable that contrariwise Hypermnestra for that she had not performed hir fathers behest was thereupon publiquelie arraigned and much adoe to be freed at the common Assisâ—s so that in point of obedience vnto parents no exception wold be taken to haue denied them or to haue doubled with them had vtterlie been vnlawfull The truth is freed she was but the verdict was brought in vpon euen voices with such demurring and so much hazard of life the record is famously knowne by her owne letter in Ouid that as though she had escaped some dangerous shipwracke she built a Temple vnto Venus and Diana and hung vp a table in memoriall of her deliuerie How then should that domestique dutie be blemisht or broken when children though they had offended in obeying their obedience notwithstanding was vnto them their chiefest commendation their refusall a crime vtterlie vnpardonable That great Oracle of the Law Vlpian holds this opinion that he may not properlie be said to haue any will of his owne that liues vnder commaund of a father or master and well worthie
concealed reuerence God is thy spirituall father and heauenly Ierusalem is thy mother First God thy father that created thy soule and therehence it is said I haue begotten sonnes and exalted them secondly thy bodilie father is thy father by whose meanes thou wast borne and begotten in the flesh and camest into this world that bare thee in his loines Now then because the name of a father is so sacred and venerable therefore whosoeuer shall curse his father shall die the death In like sort must wee imagine of our mothers also by whose labour care we were borne and bred vp wherefore as the Apostle saith thou oughtest to be reciprocally thankefull to thy parents for if thou dishonour thy carnall father his contempt reflecteth vpon thy spirituall father and if thou iniurie thy mother that iniury redoundeth to the heauenly Ierusalem therfore at no hand must wee be at variance or contestation with our parents no not so much as in word He is thy father she is thy mother let them in Gods name doe and saie as they please they know well enough what is fitting to be done As for vs be we neuer so obsequious and dutifull to them yet shall we come short of that full measure of thankfulnesse which we owe them for our birth for our bearing for the fruition of this glorious sweet light which we behold for our food and lastly for the course of institution perhaps as it may so fall out in some of those learned and liberall sciences nay oftentimes they be the cause that wee come to the knowledge of God that we frequent his Church and heare the word of his heauenly law Now if this instinct which proceeds from God and nature and this kind retaliation of benefits be found euen in sencelesse and bruit beasts then should man whom the graces haue fostered to whom curtelie and good manners is hereditarie be worse than a lion a Storke a parde for of the piety of Storkes and Swallowes S. Ambrose speakes excellentlie in his fift booke of the Examâ—ron the sixteenth and seuenteenth Chapters and if so be as Epictetus will haue it that nature is not ouer curious of what qualitie or condition thy father be be he good or bad base or honorable he is still thy father the obligation which thou enterest into by being his sonne can neuer become voide Can then any doubt be made whether his will and commandement be in all cases to be fulfilled the verie person of parents and patrons should be alwaies religiously honored and obserued of the sonne and the freed man as Vlpian the father of the Law hath adiudged it But put case that the sonne should obiect that which Diogenes sometimes did obiect to Zeno. That children were nothing beholding to their parents for their begetting because that proceeded rather from a passion of pleasure and sence than from any sound loue or good affection He that imploies himselfe about the begetting of children lest of all intends that which he goes about he heeds not procreation but the satisfying of his owne appetite and voluptuous desire Indeed this were well spoken for a Cynicke and well said to turne away the imputation from bruite beasts and put it vpon men yet euen verie beasts when by course of nature and season of the yeere they couple together for breed do it more to reare their yong than for any rage of sensuall appetite as Athenagoras thinks t were Well if there were no ods between their copulation and our mariages if matrimonie proceeded whollie from the law of nature taught in generall to all liuing creatures not from the law of nations peculiar onlie to men of reason or that now it were no longer held for a matter of high misterie amongst vs christians but of shame and dishonor not a league of loue to liue together in the estate of holy wedlocke but some partnership or conspiracie rather to the satisfying of brutish lust and carnalitie But such mens iudgements concerning mariage comes either from ignorance as not knowing what it meanes or from some tedious discontent which they find in liuing single But Socrates in Zenophon hath giuen Diogenes his answer in this point to the full For saith he why should men marrie if children were begotten to satisfie sensuality cannot the fire of lust be quenched except ye first must needs marrie but now in that we are content to vndertake the yoke of mariage which I must needs say lies heauy vpon some of vs we do it to multiplie the world by propagation of children For were it otherwise we would neuer be so curious about the matter I warrant you to enquire of what age she was whom we meant to marrie of what house she came what good conditions she had we would neuer bee so carefull for the education of our children borne vnder that mariage giue them such meanes for their institution take so much deliberation for their matching afterwards if lust and pleasure had been our onelie ends and respects Far more diuine was that conceit of Philo in a dialogue of his concerning mariage who expresseth himselfe thus Parents when they beget children be deputie officers and vicegerents vnder God both serue and be subordinate for procreation the one frames the body the other workes the soule and therefore Ignatius writing to the Philadelphians tearmeth parents fellow labourers with God in which sense man is the liuelie image and counterfeit of God as Clemens Alexandrinus reporteth in his eleuenth booke of Institutions Therefore neglect one neglect both condemne the vnderworkman and set at nought the master workman himselfe Nay saith Philo they be not workmen they be euen Gods amongst vs and when they beget their children they represent one God that is from all eternitie not begotten The difference is God is the creator vniuersall man the indiuiduall God of all creatures man of his children only whereupon it followeth in his opinion necessarilie that he must needs be implous against the inuisible and incomprehensible God that is carelesse in performing all good offices and duties to these inferior Gods our parents that liue amongst vs be euer in our eie and in our familiar acquaintance The very same witnesseth S. Iohn in his first epistle and fourth Chapter If any man say I loue God and hate his brother hee is a lier for how can hee that loueth not his brother whom he hath seene loue God whom hee hath not seene for loue God and the sparkes of loue will be kindled towards your neighbour loue your neighbour and then your loue to God ward will be in a burning fire as Gregory the great speaketh in the seuenth of his Moralls the tenth Chapter Nay besides all this Moses that gaue lawes to the Iewes in deliuering his holy ordinances marshalleth the honour due vnto God in the first table but repeating afterwards in Leuiticus the verie same precepts he begins with the honor due vnto parents requiring vs to yeeld them honor and
contained in honour and he that is not bound to obey must neuerthelesse be bound to honor For examples sake if by extremitie and rigour of law you may marry or professe your selfe a monke against my will and that such a vow and mariage is in a sort iustifiable and good yet should you notwithstanding euen by force of that commandement come and aske me first leaue and craue mine aduise in the matter which though it be no obedience in your part yet it is mine honor Lastlie you should haue shewed me what mooued you to this or that course of life whether your owne naturall propension and deliberate inclination or some strange circumuention forraine perswasion But let that dutie and custome be omitted and let the act neuerthelesse be accounted as lawfull as is anie yet where is the honor which God hath prescribed where is that reuerence and dutie which humanitie bindeth you vnto if it be done onelie but for solemnitie why then you must know that solemnity giues the essence to the act Let vs proceed It is storied by Marius Victor that famous orator of Marseiles in his third title of his Commentarie vpon Genesis that God commaunded not Abraham albeit from his youth vp he worshipped the true God with all his soule and abhorred gentilisme to leaue his country and that wicked land and polluted house before that he saw that after his fathers death hee might without offence keepe that commandement which he had giuen him What shall we say thē that the Iesuits haue greater command ouer thee then God had ouer Abraham he was 75. yeere old and his parents were dead before God commanded him that he should leaue his country and goe vp vnto the land of Canaan dost thou which art yet but 16. yeers old my selfe and thy mother yet liuing forsake me thy countrie because the Iesuits bid thee if thou dost it for the keeping of anothers vow yet that dutie which both by the law of God and nature thou owest me is greater But Marius of Marseiles for your learning liued in the time of Theodosius and Valence the Emperors and the Iesuits were not heard of there were no such creatures till the raign of Francis the first our King Moreouer why did God command the same Abraham to sacrifice vnto him his owne sonne and to be the Priest himself but because he thought the counsell of the fathers was expedient to be vsed in euerie cause that concerned their children if it had been all one vnto God who had offered vp Isacke vnto him and if the sacrifice should haue been as gratefull and acceptable vnto him being offered by another man as by the hands of his owne father why surelie he would haue commanded this office to some other rather than to his father Abraham For religion is not the holier or the more sanctified because it is ioined with parricide what then God would haue Isaacke offered vp vnto him But because this oblation was to proceed from his father he commanded him to doe it who by reason of his fatherlie authoritie could not offend in slaying him A father is not guilty of parricide saith Aelius Martianus the great counsellor at the Ciuill law If thou wilt say that in Isack Samuel the cause why it was necessarie that their parents should offer them to the Lord was by reason of their minoritie in regard they were yong vnder age why the daughter of Iephthe for certaine was sacrificed by her father as was Praxithea by Erictheus and Calpurnia by her father Marius after the Cimbrian war when she was fit for mariage Moreouer what might be obiected against Eliseus he being called to the office of a Prophet which was a regular and strict kind of life as appeared both by their vnction mantell and abstinence albeit he was an elder in yeers and called thereunto by the Prophet Elias and that by a speciall command from God made this answer I pray thee let me goe kisse my father and my mother and then I will follow thee The kisse was the fathers benediction the leaue was that which he desired so much of the Prophet to take before his departure what said Elias Goe and return for what was my dutie I haue done vnto thee As if he should haue said that which remaineth to be done belongeth to thy parents For although God expreslie commanded me that I should annoint thee to be a Prophet in my roome after me yet how could this be done if these second Gods our parents should haue gaine said it therefore afterwards when the Prophet had cast his mantell on him forthwith Elizeus left his plough and followed Elias But he departed not from his father before he had first taken his leaue of him Certaine it is that in the time of the old law personall vowes were ransomed by monie and the vowes of the Nazarites endured but for a time But in the thirtieth Chapter of Numbers it is so manifestlie set downe what ought to be obserued concerning the daughter that it were shame for a mā to vouch anie thing to the contrarie If a woman saith Moses vowe a vowe and bind her selfe with an oath being in her fathers house her vowe shall stand except she hath done it against her fathers consent But least her youth might be pretended for an excuse the same is written of a wife also whether she as yet remaine in her fathers house or whether she be brought vnto her husbands her vowe should not stand if her husband consented not vnto it Moses excepted none besides a woman diuorced or a widdow whence was this because Gods power was lessened by reason the fathers or husbands consent concurred with his surelie no. But because those very powers which they haue are from God and by establishing theirs he confirmeth his owne But those exceptions of widdowhood or matrimonie vere not necessarie in a sonne For as soone as he was out of his fathers command there was no doubt if he were at mans state but he might lawfullie bind himselfe with any of those vowes which were admitted in the old law For except it were with the vowe of fasting or abstinence from meates they scarce bound themselues with anie other But a woman as at Rome was in perpetuall wardship sometimes of her father sometimes of her husband and sometimes also of her brother if her father died before she was married Wherefore if the woman voweda vowe there the lawgiuer you may see was more cautelous and difficult But of the sonne so long as he remained in his fathers house who euer douted in that case but that he was of the same condition with his sister vowed he the gift of anie peece of monie why it was anothers monie vowed he his owne person vvhy he had no right to it that was subiect vnto another How then could he vvhich vvas not at his owne disposall bind himselfe and vvrong his father vvho had all dominion and
they that obey the will of God All which words are thought to bee spoken of him in some contempt of his mother because wheras shee was properly called blessed others in opposition of her by him were tearmed blessed also But now since this most holy Virgin was chosen for the conception and birth of our Sauiour Christ how came it to passs that shee was accounted vnworthie to be called blessed Here Iustin Martyr maketh this answere These words what haue I to doe with thee were not spoken by way of obiurgation but as if he should haue saide in other tearmes I am not such a one as haue vndertaken the care of wine which is spent in marriages yet notwithstanding if your desire bee that there bee no want of wine bid the seruants doe whatsoeuer I shall say vnto you and you shall easily perceiue there shall bee no want of Wine which as he spake so it fell out Therefore it is not likely that he did checke his mother in wordes that did so much honour her in deedes As for other places Christ spake not so as if hee would depriue her of that honour which was due vnto a mother but he taught her how she was entituled to true blessednesse For if hee that heareth the word of God and keepeth it bee Christs brother sister and mother and Christs mother hath done both these then it is cleare that Mary in this respect ought rather to be called blessed And because God chose not an ordinary woman to be the mother of Christ but such a one that was 〈◊〉 other the most excellent in perfection and vertues therefore Christ would that his mother should bee most commended for that vertue which gaue her preheminence aboue all women that a Virgine should become his mother Moreouer Luke the Euangelist testifieth that Christ neuer did any thing in contempt or disgrace of his parents when he saith Hee went downe with Ioseph and Mary to Ierusalem and was obedient to them euen to his death And so also saith S. Augustine interpreting these wordes in his booke De Sancta Virginit Now Christ after that hee began to preach to the people and withall perceiued that the Scribes and Pharisies did erre most grosly in this commandement whereof we treat and retorted the same against their parents vnder this colour that forsooth they might performe any thing else in stead of their bounden duety so they did that which they thought to be as iust and holy said Why doe you transgresse the law of God by your tradition for God hath said Honour thy father and mother and hee that curseth father or mother let him die the death but yee say Whosoeuer shall say vnto his father or mother by the gift that is offered by mee thou mayest haue profite though hee honour not his Father and Mother he shall bee safe O yee hypocrites yee worship God in vain preferring mans precepts before Gods Why spake Christ this so seuerely was it because the Pharisies so greatly abused those offerings and that sacred treasure which they called Corban or was it because those oblations which were destinated vnto the Temple were by them misapplyed to themselues and to their owne lusts and not vnto God surelie no for then hee would haue noted onely their luxurie and abuse But hee checked the priests because they made comparison of precepts and preferred their owne which were otherwise good before Gods And because they tooke occasion by their gift howsoeuer holy to contemne their domesticke rites and lawes of piety and that bond of naturall duty which is more ancient thā any whatsoeuer And yet there is somwhat more in it then so For the first commandement that you stand so much vpon and the fifth you so lightly regard are both Gods commandements they both issue from the same Author and the same Law-maker It is necessary therfore that either the one hinder the other or that the latter be abrogated by the former which is against all law that euer I could reade or else that both of thē be kept as well the first pertaining vnto God as the fifth pertaining vnto parents But the truth is that some precepts are immutable and they are sayeth Hildebert in his last Epistle such as the eternall decree of God hath established Of which sort saith the Archbishop of Towres are these Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soule and thy neighbour as thy selfe And honour thy Father and thy mother and such like Other precepts are mutable which the eternall Law of God hath not decreede but the wisdome and policy of some later wittes haue inuented for some conuenience and vse not so principally tending to saluation And of this sort it is to be a Iesuite Certaine I am that the law whereby thou standest bounde vnto mee is perpetuall and vnchangeable But what if here we be bolde to say that God himselfe is lesse sollicitous for his owne honour than for our parents honor And therfore of those two commandements the latter in a sort is to be preferred before the former And shall yet these Pharisies please thee more than Christ It was not without a misterie that God gaue those commandements concerning his owne honour simply without imposition of punishment if any brake them or proposall of rewarde if any kept them but when he gaue this commandement concerning our duty towards our parents he added this clause that thy dayes may be long vpon earth For albeit hereby it bee clearely euident that nature cannot suffer that he should liue long vpon the earth that respectes not these of whom he hath receiued life nor endure that it should goe well with him any where that will hide himselfe for no other end but that he may not shew himselfe gratefull vnto them that with so great care and trouble after they had giuen him life haue nourished and sustained him yet that which wee so principally intend appeares from thence For he sayth that he is full of iealousie if a man worshippe strange and false gods but if he worshippe his parents God is so farre from enuying it that by all meanes possible he wils and commāds it that with such a reward which of mankind is most desired Why presseth he all these things so earnestly because when parents these second gods are honoured whom hee so much acceptes and so well accounteth of whatsoeuer is done vnto them he taketh it done vnto himselfe but if any duety bee left vndone vnto them let vs worship him in the best manner wee can deuise yet doth it not excuse vs. And perhappes this may be the reason that God if I may so speake is not so hard to please in that honour and worship which wee owe vnto him as euery man is curious in the duetie which is to bee done vnto him God is reuerenced as sufficiently as he would be if euerie one according to his sexe age and quality do honour him as