this good order for if it be true which before I toucht certes Christian Religion as it is vsed doth more suppresse and pul down than either establish or set vp this authority of parents and there is nothing so much withdrawes our children from duetie and obedience as those two precepts of the first and second Table which now a daies men make meere contradictories Honour God and honour thy parents It s a maruellous matter that whereas euer heretofore these two commandements held good correspondency with each other and might both be fulfilled together they should now bee tearmed opposite and so repugnant one to the other that hee which fulfilles the one must of necessity breake the other But whence come these strange newfound problemes Marry Sir I will tell you euen from the disputes of our ancient Philosophers that wrāgled about this question whether at all times and in all matters we ought to obey our Fathers commandements for as there haue been some that handled this question iust as Bias did the question of sacriledge there is no body saith Bias that is sacrilegious for if some God or other be resiant in euery place of the world then doth a thiefe conuey nothing out of one hallowed place which hee carrieth not into some other hallowed place so haue some of our Philosophers vsed the like subtlety in treating the matter of this power of parents There is no necessity say they why you shold obey your parents for either they command that which is iust and we must doe it not because they commaund it but because it is iust or els they commaund that which is vnlawfull and vve may not doe it not because they commaund it but because it is vnlavvfull Whereupon the conclusion follovves ergo there is no obedience due to them at all yea but Gellius replies the Dilemme is not perfect for that some things are of a nevvter and indifferent nature vvherein vve must obey them absolutelie and some things are in their ovvn nature good and honest which vve are the more bound to do because they commaund them Some distinguish otherwise in some cases wee must obey in others wee may not For what if my father should commaund mee to plot treason against my Country to murther my mother to kill my Prince or facts of the like detestable and impious nature Right so whilest the Schoole Diuines began to argue whether one might serue God and man or whether God were to bee serued before father as though there were any question to be made of it but God must without all exception bee obeide when the matter commaunded tends to impietie they fell fowle vppon the same tenents with the Philosophers which were verie vncertaine idle and blasphemous In good south I hate not the person of any man that makes difference betwixt honest and vnhonest lawfull and vnlawfull nor yet them neither which make some things neuter and indifferent The opinion in some sort is to bee excused but without doubt the safer way had been neuer to haue stirred in the matter that is if they had not reuolted from those mens iudgements which helde the question affirmatiuelie and without distinction that parents in all things were to be obeide For say it be true which by a cauilling distinction they haue put vpon vs yet to my thinking they haue no sound footing to stand vpon for it and to speake my opinion the determination of such questions is exceeding dangerous How much more cautelous and circumspect then was Philo writing vpon the decalogue when treating of the two first commandements of the two Tables he saith as his manner is to doe all things most diuinelie they that leauing all other affaires of the world bestow themselues wholly vpon contemplation or they that abandoning all deuotion apply themselues to action wholie to obserue their parents disposition conforming themselues respectiuelie to liue in the world as though they would bee taken apart either for Gods seruants in the one or mens friends and followers in the other I tell you these mens vertues are but perfect by the halfes nay he that offends against either partie offends against both Doubtlesse some such matters there be which will neuer bee drawne to anie manner of mediocritie or indifferencie but presentlie they doe some harme or other for doe but shake them a little they stagger presentlie bring them to the touch you will finde they cannot endure the triall These diminitiue questions be like fine cates for as the more dainetie and delicate they be do sooner putrifie and corrupt in the stomacke so these if they be too much minsed and refined they mar the generall tenant which is defended of all men Whether the Bishop of Rome be aboue or vnder a generall Councell whether the Emperor be aboue the people whether democracie be better then monarchie whether in religion contrarietie of sects may be tollerated at first sight they be set forth with a maruellous faire show but if you marke them well there is poison serued in when you come to the reckoning For vpon these and such other like disputes euerie day ensue schismes seditions ciuill wars this questiō now in handling is much after the same sort For he that once made but a doubt whether the dutie and respect which we owe to our parents were to binde vs for terme of life and not rather of Turuus his opinion maintained against Tarquinius that there was no such summary proceeding as when father and son were parties where the issue was soone tried if he be vndutifull fare him wel and al ill luck go with him Make but the least breach into the fort of naturall dutie ye shall presentlie see how he falls to railing and reuiling to stabbing nay to murthering of it And so hauing begun with his father he is like enough to finish it with insurrection against his Prince This then was euer a maine determination amongst the ancient philosophers that obedience in all things was precisely to be yeelded vnto when our parēts required it Or put case any inconuenience should happen thereupon better were it to admit the proposition in termes of largest extent than out of any priuate or particular case to argue against a common and receiued opinion and to determine it accordinglie either in schooles consistories or pulpits And this doth Cicero wifely obserue in his booke of offices yee shall not find anre such question in all his booke he was euer resolute and confident vpon the point that children must not be their parēts master nor subiects their Princes nor schollers their teachers nor seruants their Lords not but that sometimes they far surpasse them for wit and pregnant discourse but that it cannot be auoided but that iniuries and contempts will be offered when such comparison and opposition of persons is once endured Let authoritie be once disgraced and farewell authority When in a great session of the Centumuiri holden at Rome Accia Variola went about
so highly commendeth maintaine the home discipline if Christians bee the men which especially ouerthrow it But before we passe any further in the discourse let vs satisfie this great Diuine and then consider whether it be true that now a daies there is any authority left vs ouer our children or no and if it bee any and yet but of verie small esteeme whether notwithstanding it bee such or so much as should be exposed to all contempt and wrong Certaine it is that the outragious cruelty which the ancient Lawmakers deuised to improue the power of parents withall was but a cast of policy that so in regard therof either out of pure constraint or of a ready mind children might conforme themselues to better behauiour and at no hand bee withdrawne from that reuerent obeysance which naturall affection and no law nor ordinance of man taught them as they were sucking of their mothers breasts They in their wisedom knew right well that youth was so prone to riot and lust so arrogant and lasciuious in behauiour so hard to bee tamed and menaged that they concluded it to bee a case of meere necessity by way of enacting such terrible punishments to renue and repaire that which was so far corrupted and depraued from natures primitiue institution that as in old time they kept debters to their word by tearing their lims in sunder drawing bloud from them the like so the very shew and representation of such horrible tortures and martyrdomes which parents might inflict vpon their children might lesson them obedience and beare them downe if they should euer attempt or vndertake any thing that past not first by their allowance and leaue by whom they liued had their education but yet thereby no checke was giuen to naturall affection for it was to be intended that although parents might be so tender of their childrens good as to enter into such seuere termes of consultation for them yet the law-makers neuer dreamed it would once so happen which they permitted that is that a son might be sold by the father for a bond-slaue disinherited and then kild Or if perchance it might so fall out that it should be vpon such as had worthily deserued it and with such circumstantiall considerations that iustice her selfe should sne haue giuen iudgement could neither haue said better or done more vprightly But God almighty handles matters otherwise that which he commands is plainly set down not with fetches and deuices For hee needs no compassing or prefacing to perswade that to be iust and good which he once requires he is so essentially good of himselfe and hath such a prerogatiue of iustice and equity cōsubstantiall to him as his bare command necessarily enforceth our precise obedience Religion keeps men more in aw than feare for were the son loose or dishonest of conuersation and for that cause oftentimes turnd out of doores nay lastly refused of the parents for their child because no gentle meanes preuailed ought with him Why if once he were conuerted to christianity presently saith Septimius he became to liue in good order and good counsell regaind him to duty and obedience Doubtlesse though God vnto these lawes of men and nature inserted also his heauenly behest yet did he nothing thereby preiudice those former lawes he commanded obedience but neuer abrogated any part of their authority Nay long time after Christs passion the commission of life and death which parents might exercise vpon their children was still currant amongst Christians and though the more ancient of them reproued some things amongst the Pagans as the murdering of yong infants the bloudy fencing of sword players yet against that terrible authority of parents they spake not a word And howsoeuer God in bare termes pronounced this Commandement honour thy father and thy mother yet notwithstanding for two reasons especiallie it farre exceeds the lawes of men The one is because what he commands is constant and perpetuall but our lawes bee mutable and repealeable if anything please vs to day to morrow we are out of loue with it a patterne whereof wee may see in that verie lawe which Romulus ordained For at first without all exception or bar it was free for a father to put his child to death Afterwards it might not bee done but vpon the assistance and aduice of others then the cause must bee heard iudiciallie lastlie the magistrate might decide it but no priuate iurisdiction nay in conclusion that rigorous lawe vtterlie vanished and became voide the other is because if the iniunction of a Consull bee greater than the Pretors and the Pretors greater than an order of the Edilis it will necessarilie follow in good proportion that the lawe of God is to bee preferred before any ordinance of man whatsoeuer And why so because men in their wisedomes may erre and therupon be of meane reputation by reason of such escapes ouer sights as saith the same Tertullian In God there is no such matter so then S. Gregory who vnderstood this well enough and was of opinion that this precept of our Lord God should be left at large and neuer concluded by any limitation when he had forsaken the world against the will and expresse commandement of his father and had betaken himselfe to a monastery and had refused a Bishopricke which before was his fathers yet at length he began to be toucht with a sence of inward regreeting and can I saith he be vndutifull and disobedient vnto so good a father and be blameles can I endure to be accused for a stubborne and contemptuous sonne to be guilty of violating and distaining my natural obedience vnto my father and thereupon leauing the solitary life he gets him home accepts the sea and Bishopricke which had been before his fathers and all this doe I saith he more for God almighties commandement sake than for any feare of mortall men therefore now good father I pray giue me your blessing And in this sence you see may S. Gregory be well vnderstood For euen S. Chrysostome in his eleuenth booke against such as discommend the monasticall life writes in this manner Thy son loues and obserues and honors thee not because the law of nature enioynes him so to doe but much more for that in so doing hee may testifie his duetie to the commandements of almighty God for whose loue he hath perfitly despised and relinquisht all the world But if notwithstanding all this it be true that now a dayes there be no trace left of this fatherly power which we so much hunt after and if this home bred authority be scarce remaining in shadow or shew among vs how may S. Gregory be then defended the power of life and death long since hath bin discontinued by an immemoriall custome to the contrary as before we mentioned you cannot pawne or sell your sonne much adoe you will haue to disinherit him If he get any thing it is for himselfe his father hath no part
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
obedience afterwards in a second place he commands the same for God as who should say they be both Gods alike and the definitions are but one in sence and signification he that honors his father and mother honours God and he that honours God by an infallible consequence honoreth his parents also Most certaine it is that when Zenocrates the Philosopher wrote that the Athenians kept most religiously in their Temple of Eleusis three fundamentall precepts whereunto their vse was to reduce all such lawes as euer Treptolemus had made for them the first begins with parents as S. Ierome testifieth writing against Iouinian saying honour thy parents worship thy God abstain from flesh meat And that most diuine Plato who may truly be stiled another Moses after that he had written many things concerning God why saith he these be no lawes but the preambles and prefaces to such lawes as we intend to make for the honor of parents Marke how he that sayes the father must be worshipped deduceth his premisses from God himselfe What an holy speech was this in comparison of that of Telencer who though he knew the nature of this dutie well enough being on a time demanded why the yong men of Lacedemon rose vp and gaue place to their ancients made this answer that being trained vp so in ciuilitie towards strangers they might be more apt to honour their parents also Tertullian in his booke of praier is verily of the opinion that the name of a father is a name of reuerence and authority and he which should attempt to take away dutie from children or gouernment from parents or vpon partialitie leane more to the one than the other he in so doing should take away both and rob parents of that preheminence which the Lawes of God nature and men haue euer inuested them with So then if we must still continue this dutie towards our parents euer be heedful to obserue and keep it why may wee not conclude the same for parents auhoritie ouer vs in this manner Children must alwaies honor their parents ergo parents must euer cōmand their children These sweete louing affections were both iointlie worshipt in one oratorie by the old Romans and in my fancie should not now bee sequestred from being mutuallie dependant one to the other For my better proofe herein I would pray leaue a little to examine an argument of Tertullians and to consider the necessity of his illation wherby he will demonstrate Christ to be God yet not God the father but God the sonne I am not come saith Christ to do mine owne will but the fathers that sent me this did he euer fulfill euen to his death Hereupon he infers the conclusion ergo he was not the father but the sonne Now sir how could this argument follow if the sonnes will should be distinct or any other thā the fathers wil what maiestie or honor were there added vnto God in calling him a father wee haue no name else whereby to know or expresse him if there were no proper or naturall signification for the name to this purpose if there were no more difference betwixt parents children but a nominall distinction and the diuersitie to rest onlie in name but no title of authoritie or iurisdiction but now a daies where can you find anie other difference for fathers at this time to emancipate or enfranchize their children is held not necessarie If my sonne could speake as soone as he were borne I thinke this would be his language Sir I acknowledge you thus far foorth for my father as to giue me maintenance and bring me vp I came a free man into the world and if I liue but one welue or fourteene yeers to an end I hope to sue out my liuerie for my wardship If I can but keepe my hands from doing violence to your person I am sure though in other matters I proue respectiue or vndutifull no man will much complaine of me The power and authoritie of you parents is cleane reuersed and abrogated Now should you threaten him with some curse or reuenge that would follow vpon this contempt this answer would be t is a long while ere that comes Sir and I shall loose nothing by the forbearance But if so be this thorow perswasion did sinke into mens hearts that he that offended his father offended God that to be excluded from the fathers presence were aboue all other punishments the chiefest in briefe if the sonne could be made to to vnderstand how dreadfull the bitter curse of a father were whereof we may chance to speake somewhat more at large hereafter why these might be sufficient props to defend and keepe vp this excellent fabrique of rule and authoritie which in these daies is so much ruinated and decaied But now such is our corruption all this will not serue the turne that ancient seueritie of the Romanes would better preuaile with them that is they should neuer be brought to anieiudiciall trial for the matter but be condemned and neuer heard speake which is a course of proceeding that Halicarnesseus and Quintilian oftentimes mention And why because a common-wealth is nothing else but a bodie incorporate of so many priuate families and so founded begun by parents that as me thinks the resemblance were not much vnfit to terme a family the nurse the wombe and the roote of a common wealth contrariwise a common wealth a swarme or colonie deduced from a priuate familie He therefore that will gouerne a common wealth in good fashion and banish al loose dissolute behauiour thence and all crimes and exorbitant offences let him looke first to good order at home If he can make them lowlie sober and dutifull within doores they will come into the world so nurtered so taught so affected well may they change their homes they will be sure neuer to leaue their old manners Contrariwise let him looke careleslie to it let him but once suffer the reines to be at libertie presentlie shall you see treasons murders rapes adulteries gush out in large swelling streames and surround the countrrie And this is the cause if I be not mistaken why in ancient time they appropriated to priuate families peculiar gods taking it for good policie to countenance the infirmitie of domesticall iurisdiction with the authoritie of diuine religion that both these two like mighty cable ankors might hold them in all tempest fast to their obedience That euen as the tender infant ledde and guided by the little finger is able afterwards of himselfe to walke without a guide so comming to mans estate the meanes of this priuate education might awe and order him in the Common wealth to carrie a due respect to the Magistrate but not to dread his person as hauing the sword borne before him to grace his office withall not to terrifie well-doers But verily in mine opinion there can bee nothing more absurd or incongruous than once to thinke that Religion is any way assistant to
the father done it it was thought needlesse and vnnecessary For as when a naturall father will adopt his naturall and base borne child to be his lawfull sonne the adoption wil hold vpon anie termes so it is in point of consecration let but the father tender his child to religion and there is nothing else expected For what if the daughter vpon som dislike or other would leaue Vestaes cloister and lay it to her grandfather or gardians charge that they had no such authoritie or commission to make her change her estate and manner of liuing that this power belongs only to him that hath power of her life and death that is her father as Seneca tels me For the grandfather had nothing to doe with it surelie he that makes a poore yong girle enter into an order of religion that liued before in the world at large doth in manner execute her aliue and make her a banisht woman in her owne country and therefore not without good cause the father alone was put in trust with this high authority For as for the chiefe Priests authoritie vsurped right were it not first giuen takē by the fathers leaue and permission it was iudged to all intents and purposes clearelie voide in lawe Now should it be vrged why but this which you speake of was of vse onelie in vest all Nunnes and that principallie by reason of their minoritie when they were professed Nunnes this obiection is easily answered and the contrarie opinion clearely euicted by Gellius his owne words which be these Manie be of opinion that onlie virgins should bee taken after this fashion to orders of religion nay but euen Iupiters Priests the Bishoppes the soothsaiers were to bee taken and admitted in the selfe same fashion And certaine it is that male children in their parents life time were so taken Doe we not read in Dion that when the great controuersie was about Cornelius Spinter his admission into the Chapter of the high Priests though Faustus were both his kinsman and an high Priest likewise in the Colledge that the naturall and adoptiue fathers did both ioine in this to make good their presentation for their sonne and not the sonne for himselfe questionlesse it is that children could not exempt themselues from filiall obedience had not the father first allowed them the libertie which needed neuer to haue been granted them if they might haue made vows at their owne pleasure and without their fathers consent But that I may come by little and little to times of christianitie for perchance these heathenish examples can doe little good with you I pray you as you think what lawe or custome had the Iewes for their precedent in this case first it is not said anie where in expresse tearmes to the sonne Leaue father and mother but with this prouisoe that he should cleaue to his wife If any thing be otherwise spoken it is by way of aduice and may not passe vpon trust without stricter examination as it shall else where be declared more at large In deed in case of mariage there is an absolute commandement penned without all limitation to renounce all naturall affection and dutie but in other cases it is done with so many cautels and deliberations that in my iudgement it were better still to keepe on the high rode way than to iourney by coasting But whatsoeuer it be that Adam in that place speakes of the relinquishment of our parents doth the argument thereupon conclude that the knot of wedlocke is of more force and power then the bond of filiall dutie nay verily for this proceeds and springs from nature and which is more from our owne indiuiduall and personall subsistence that other from a desire to propagate a mutuall societie and conuersation amongst men And whereas a man and his vvife be accounted as it were for one person this is in the intent and imagination of the law and therefore we see them easily to be parted againe as Anastasius speaketh in the tenth booke of his commentaries vpon the Hexameron But the sonne is altogether bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh he is one and the selfe same person with his father a parcell of the selfe same substance and as I may so say a verie piece carued out of his body and soule whence it followes that come what can come a sonne must euer be a sonne Disinherit him turne him into the wide world to shift for himselfe sell him leaue him to his owne libertie suffer him to be adopted into another family still nature holds her owne bloud and kindred will neuer be altered Before the Emperor Constantines daies had the father vnnaturally forsaken and cast off his daughter yet might she not marry an husband without his consent But a man might be rid of his wife God he knows many wais by the sentēce of a Iudge in Court by madnesse such a law the Emperor Leo made by a separation from bed and boord by bondage and lastly by diuorce but in children the case is admirable that though the principall obligation be extinguished as say I am diuorced from my wife yet the accessorie holds that is children which be wedlockes pledges though their mother be not my wife yet are they my children they be morgaged by nature and so must they euer continue But if the case stand so then why doth a sonne forsake father and mother to cleaue vnto his wife why doth he forsake the greater commandement and betake him to the lesse because in this case the parents vnderhand be willing hereunto as in a desire to haue the world peopled by propagation of children so to maintaine a lineall succession in posterity and the inheritance euer to descend vpon the grandchild after the death of the sonne and heire And yet to keepe house with a wife in anie construction is this to leaue or abandon ones father nay herein consists their principall dutie and obedience And if they marrie and keepe house together and so deduct as it were new Colonies all is done with leaue and reference to their parents And for my part I would faine know how it can in anie sence be construed that for a man to marrie a wife is to forsake and relinquish his father and mother whereas children though they be maried neuer so often are not thereby exempted from obedience and though they be eftsoones man and wife yet be they stil in subiection to their father and mariage changes not the lawes of nature and ciuilitie But be it as it may be almightie God calling to his remembrance the law which first he established in paradise added also this heauenlie diuine commandement to Adams sentence that whether children marrie or not marrie his oracle should continue without all exception and instance to the contrarie honour thy father and thy mother yea and that in more precise and determinate manner of speech than if he should haue said obey father or mother for obedience is
rule ouer him It wil not be wel to say that there was more dutie expected from vvomen than from men For tell me vvhy did those ancient lawyers so much varie in the question vvhether the sonnes of a furious and phranticke man might contract mariage and yet did all agree that the daughter might Why did they make such doubt of the sonne vvas it not because he vvas the pillar and proppe of the familie in him was the hope of their posteritie from him vvas expected the continuance of their stocke and on him depended the line of their petigree therefore it is requisite that greater care be had that he be not disparaged in his match of vvhom more reuerence more respect and more obedience is required If hee enter into nevv alliance if he make his father a grandfather and beget an heire for him ought not all this to be done with more aduice and circumspection than ordinarie And was it not also because age in a sonne did not so importune and call for mariage but in a daughter it did euen enforce and hasten it before her time A sonne albeit he staied till his father were perfectlie recouered and well in his wits there was no inconuenience befell for thereby his iudgement was ripened and he prooued the worthier man after and I may tell you good behauiour is as necessarie at home as abroad if old Cato may be beleeued But a daughter may be the worse if she stay beyond her time And that did Phalaris once tell Claeneta that for the same reason she should not defer the mariage of her daughter that was twentie yeers old in anie case because her father Philodamus was absent in a forraine countrie For he was trauelled farther than that her daughter might conuenientlie expect his returne home But concerning a son percase he would haue altered his opnion It followeth therefore that what Moses did forbid in a daughter he would haue much more forbidden in a sonne likewise But you thinke it long perchance ere I come to the times of christianitie you do wel For that is the point of the card whereunto all our courses should be intended and directed Christian religion you will say otherwise determines of childrens dutie Let vs see then whether Christ came to destroy it or to perfect it corrupt mar all good manners by abrogating God his fathers precepts to teach children contempt and stubborne behauiour or rather whether it were not laid as an imputation vpon him to the end it might bee beleeued that hee did deface all respect of amity and alleagiance to rent in sunder all dutifull affection and make heart-burning and discord betweene the father and his children as saith Saint Ambrose writing vpon Saint Luke We will therefore beginne with Christ himselfe and afterward come vnto the Church where if your more refined Diuines haue anything for me that is in truth more learned and witty let it haue the victory for albeit we are all Christians yet all of vs are not interpreters of the faith therefore all such Disputes of greater mysterie wee leaue to deepe Diuines and will content our selues with such as are obuious and triuiall Christ was twelue yeers olde Luke 2.24 when hee went vp to Ierusalem with Mary and Ioseph but forsooke them at their departure therefore they returned backe to Ierusalem to seeke him and it came to passe that three dayes after they found him in the Temple sitting among the Doctors to whom Mary said Sonne why hast thou thus dealt with vs thy Father and I haue sought thee with heauy hearts Hee answered somewhat obscurely but yet if I am not deceiued no lesse fitlie for the mitigation of their sorrow than thou supposest that thou hast done for the appeasing of mine anger viz. That it is better to obey God than men Yet he returned and went downe with his parents and came to Nazareth and was subiect vnto them saith Luke in his Gospell did he euer afterwards forsake them no not vntill the time of his passion But I pray thee let vs heare farther what Bernard the Abbot saith Although Mary and Ioseph vnderstood Christs words for it is likely they did because he thus bespake them Knew you not that I must goe about my Fathers businesse yet notwithstanding they would not bee quiet saith hee in his 19. Sermon on Solomon but would haue him obedient vnto them therefore all the rest of his time he euer afterwardes followed them Now from whom may we draw a better patterne of obedience and duety towards parents for children than from Christ Learne saith S. Ambrose vpon these words what thou owest to thy parents when thou readest that a sonne was neuer contrary to his father either in fulfilling his will performing his duty or obseruing his opportunity Thou owest to thy mother the hazarding of her chastity the losse of her Virginity her perill in thy birth her tedious sorrowes her continual troubles who wretched as she is is then in greatest danger when she hath the fruition of her desires and brought forth the sonne of her desire for albeit she is free from the sorrow in his birth yet is shee not free from the feare of his death What need I speak of those Fathers which are so prouident for their childrens good or of the riches which they haue so multiplied and laied vp for them or of being so warie husbands for their childrens thrift might not this goodnesse of theirs at the least challenge some tribute of obedience The same Author in his first booke de Virginibus saith how sweete a pledge is that which hath its beginning in perill and its ending in perill which first is a griefe vnto parents before it can bee a pleasure vnto them The Master disdained not saith Bernard to follow his Disciples nor God to follow men nor the word and wisdome it selfe to follow a Carpenter and his wife and yet Ioseph was not properly his father Iesus fulfilled the will both of his heauenly and earthly father teaching vs thereby that nothing hinders but that they may bee both obeyed at once and that it is not necessarie that one should be neglected for the other Iustin Martyr out of this place in his 136. question handles some other questions also very wisely as he vseth to doe all If it bee forbidden by Gods holy Scripture to contemne our parents saith he and if he who dooth that which is forbidden is to bee tearmed a sinner how commeth it to passe that our Lord Iesus Christ in many places despised his parents and yet neuerthelesse is saide to bee without sinne For at the marriage of Cana hee checked his mother saying Woman what haue I to doe with thee And when his mother would faine haue seene him he called those his mother and his brethren that did the will of God Furthermore when it was said vnto him Blessed is the wombe that bare thee and the pappes that gaue thee sucke hee replyed yea blessed are
he is able For it is not the Ecclesiasticall dignity that makes a Christian sayth Ierome One man in the Church is an eye another the tongue another the hand and another the foote or the eare In whatsoeuer vocation a man be if therein hee serue God as he is able hee pleaseth God exceeding well For God exacteth not the same obedience of all But in man it is farre otherwise except his sonne be obedient and dutifull at his beeke and at his seruice when hee shall thinke fitte he is by no meanes contented Neither is it much materiall of what condition both of them are for whosoeuer is a father is a father in the same proportion and whosoeuer is a sonne is a sonne in the same degree Therefore that we may honour our parents without exception and beyonde that voluntarie obedience which wee ought to shew them the Lord saith this I will this I commaund and for this duety I prolong thy yeares that thou mayest performe it alwayes What then if Christ did iustly and deseruedly reprehend those Iewish Priestes doest thou thinke especially seeing both of vs professe one Religion that thou being my sonne shouldest addict thy selfe to some certaine Colledge Rule or Societie which say it bee lawfull and holy yet is it but the inuention of men and thereupon contemne and despise mee thy father a sinne which God and Nature hath forbidden thee Excepting that worshippe which wee owe vnto our God such as is adoration and inuocation What is there in religion it selfe more religious and more diuine than to honour and reuerence our parents Sacrifice is a holy worke yet Christ as you may see lesse esteemeth it than the duety and obedience of children It is a holy and religious work for a man to deuote himselfe vnto the Church Ministery and seruice of the brethren Neuerthelesse S Paul commaunds in his first Epistle to Timothy 5. Chapter and 4. verse If widdowes haue children or nephewes let them learne first to shew godlinesse to their owne house and to recompence their parents for that is honest and acceptable before God Certainely if wee ought to choose any to that Ministery hee or shee ought to be chosen who are well reported of for their good works and they are of this kinde if shse hath nourished her children c. Would Paul haue prescribed this so earnestly except hee himselfe being the author had well perceiued that there were some priuate and domesticall duties which of necessity were to bee preferred before all other though sacred and publique the truth is that these latter proceed from those former For when the question is of morall and naturall institution Christians differ in nothing from Pagans He that liues contrary to Nature keepes not Gods commandements as Nilus saith in his institution to certaine Monks And as Athenagoras in his Apologie for Christians obserues that God mooues not man to those things which are against Nature And therefore Saint Paul spake nothing but that which Socrates had spoke before him in Zenophon which the Atheniās had long before thoght vpon and prouided for in their lawes If any one be disobedient to his parents sayth he in his 2. booke de fact dict Socrat. let him be vncapable of all Magistracy For how can he offer pure Sacrifice or sit well at rhe sterne of the common-wealth if hee be a bad liuer at home and if he be vnkind vnnatural and iniurious to the people of his own house As for the lawes of the Athenians you shall finde them in Aeschines against Timarchus in Plutarch in the life of Aeschines but what saith Saint Paul hee as if hee were in some emulation with Socrates sayth If there be any of you that prouideth not for his owne namely for them of his owne houshold hee denieth the faith and is worse than an Infidell Now see what coniecture may be gathered of thee to the contrary Certainely say they he cannot chuse but of necessitie bee most obedient to the generall Prouinciall Presbyters who so resolutely contemnes his Father and so coragiously renounceth him for a stranger and a Publican See my good sonne how far thou art diuerted from the way of the Lorde how exceedingly thou art estranged from his commandements although thou arrogantly thinkest that thou doest know and vnderstand them better than all thy fathers and thy forefathers did yea better than Christ himselfe Without doubt a father and a mother are not to be compared with God yet are they to be beloued with God saith Tertullian against the Gnostickes And in his book of Chastitie he saith you may know by the placing of euery commandement the manner by the order the state and by the end the reward therefore hee which honoureth not his father and mother is worse then an adulterer worse than a murtherer and worse than a theefe But I had rather cōpare vertues with vertues than vices vvith vices vvhat is so good a work in the Church as to giue legacies to charitable vses And yet saith S. Augustine whosoeuer will disinherit his sonne and make the Church his heire let him seeke one that will accept it truly he shall not find that Austin will be his heire and by Gods grace he shall find no man will be And in his 119. Epistle vnto Ecdicias doth he not reprehend her because she vowed continencie not acquainting her husband first with it and when he had afterward consented vnto her vowe doth he not blame her because she tooke vpon her the habite of a Nunne against his will and did he not reproue her because she gaue her goods to two poore Monkes when she had a sonne liuing on whom she might haue bestowed them which I speake not saith he as though I thought that if any of vs should be ill spoken of and scandalized for our good works therefore we should desist from doing them but because in euerie societie the respect we beare to our kindred ought to be one and the respect we shew to strangers another the condition of a christian is one and the condition of an infidel another the duty of parents to their children one and the dutie of children to their parents another Write therefore vnto him a letter of satisfaction and aske him pardon saith he to Eridicea because thou hast sinned against him and disposed of thy goods after thy pleasure without his aduise and contrary to his will not that it repenteth thee that thou didst bestow thy goods on the poor but because thou wert vnwilling that he shold haue any share or part in so charitable a worke Is not the fact memorable which is recorded of Aurelius Bishop of Carthage who restored a deed of gift he had receiued of a father that then had no children vnto him againe when afterwards hee had children For it is not likelie nor to be presumed in any case that he had rather haue another man to be his heire than his owne sonne See here a
point of violence forced to paganisme and Idolatry But sure it is that the Councells meaning neuer was that Children should forsake their parents because they were Christians for it saith in expresse words Let children reuerence their parents if for no other ende yet for this because they are Christians a reason as I conceiue that will euer holde for Christians for Vigoreus a writer of our time cites the same Synode to this very purpose But it will not bee amisse in my opinion to set downe the cause and occasion of the summoning of this Synode It was not because Pagan parents did make it their complaint of grieuance that their children did abandon and forsake them the cause was clean contrarie which was that they which were Christians left them which were of their owne profession and religion malapert and sawcie sonnes and trespasse so against their parents as thou hast lately done against mee marry the difference if any bee is this that they in former time affected a true monasticall retired life and thou according to the fashion of the time dost affect a professiō barelie consisting in an habit of apparell and formalitie of words they crucified the worlde to the flesh and the flesh to the vvorlde but men of your coate saue halfe the labour and crucifie the world onlie From whence then comes such a corruption in this discipline I will tell you About the time that some newe fangled fellowes sprung vp in the Church and termed themselues Anchorites Eremites or Monkes there steps me vp one Eustatius who led by an inconsiderate zeale began wheresoeuer hee came to thunder out those glorious magnificent words written in the Gospell that they were vnworthy of Christ that loued Father or mother more than Christ and thereupon to inferre that all things in the world are to bee contemned and set at naught as house posisessions parents children brethren yea and to make short worke all the vniuersal world the better to liue in some solitary hermitage vnder some rule and in some company seuered and shut from all men And why so thinke you because it was nothing worth to bee a Christian except you had bene also of the order of Eustatius But what was the issue of this Doctrine Sir this that the wife wold leaue her husband and be his wife the seruant his master and he his seruant the parents their children and they their parents that Christians set light by marriage and all duty else which euery man owes vnto his countrie that religion which was wont to keepe all in good order was now become ringleader to all confusion and disorder Lastly that the Gentiles might well say and Zozimus by name The Christians be barren unfruitfull in all affairs of dutie which is a speech that Tertullian in his apologeticus holds to be the most disgracefull scandalous that ouer yet was vttered against Christians But the sectaries of Eustatius reioynde why but this desertion is because wee would bee the freer for the seruice of God But the Fathers assembled in Councell condemne this faire occasion and prooued full whole that it was an act far more Christianlike and Religious to worship and loue our parents for that is the commandement of God than so to serue God as thereby to despise the parents a thing which he vtterly forbids For God and parents may well bee honoured together but no man liuing can truely worship God without he honor his parents also Therupon this new founder Eustatius shortly after changed his copy and came to be a Bishop in the Church and not a cloisterer And that this was the true occasion of assembling that Councell the very letter of that Councell as also Socrates Sozomen Isidor and Gratian in his 16. and 30. Distinct doe apparantly testifie How now sir Will so many and so waighty authorities do no good with you for I thank you you haue beene bold to set my authority at naught or are you eftsoones perswaded that should I affoord my consent neuer so much you could not yet bee a true and absolute Iesuite peraduenture you are yet some what grauelled in this doubt so then let vs take some view of that which they alleadge vnto you out of S. Hierome and withall consider whether there be any cloyster Diuinity or new found Gospel lately sprung vp among them to repeale these auncient Canons and decrees of the Church which you in your braue ruffe doe so lightly esteeme of It may not be denied but that S. Hierome writing to Heliodorus in commendation of a solitary life vseth these words should thy little nephewe hang fast clasping about thy neck thy mother with her tresses disheueled about her ears renting tearing her garmēts discouer those paps which gaue thee sucke should thy father that begate thee lie downe before thee in the way passe ouer thy father and trample him vnder thy feete shed not a teare but with an heroicall resolution flye towring vp in high speed to the standard of thy Sauiours crosse Sauage cruelty in such a case is your onely pitie Doubtlesse heere is a right noble sentence and well becomming the high spirit of so excellent a Father in the Church but before I cleare the point shew in what meaning this was spoken wherein S. Hierome as it should seeme by this makes such cheape reputation of parents authority and in so dooing dishonours the chastity of all naturall kindnes I would faine see that passage in him concerning parents obedience it is in his Epistle de vitando suspecto contubernio reconciled to this There you shall reade him thus Father and Mother saith he are names of dutie wordes of respect bonds of nature and vnder God the second truce and league of our loue It is none of your commendation to say you loue them not it is a notorious sinne in you if you hate them Our Lord and Sauior Iesus Christ was subiect to his parents He reuerenced that mother to whom hee was father loued that nurce whom he fostered and forgot not that wombe where hee was conceiued nor those armes that so oft bore him You will perhaps replie and say but heere lies the exception when a sonne liuing vnder the gouernment of his Father is once resolutely determined to goe into a monasterie why then hee may bee bolde to forbeare all shew of dutie and passe neither for good nature nor good manners Then crueltie in that case may be interpreted mercie incluilitie good conditions contempt obedience But thinke not good son though S. Hierome vsed such a faire colourable speech to Heliodorus that if hee should haue dealt in earnest with him he would haue aduised him to ben so behaued as his words doe implye God forbid that S. Hierome should euer be taken for principall or accessory in parricide that for the same verie cause that Aeneas was surnamed the pious as Virgil in all places stiles him Amids the scorching flames and thousand shot of darts I
that would offer their children to the Churches seruice and if it were absolutelie necessarie that young men should minister in the Church in Gods name then let religion bee priuiledged to robbe and steale our children from vs as thou wast from me it skills not much by force or policie but whereas there is such a number of Churches and Abbeyes can any man say that there is not plenty enough to supply such places but if and speake what may bee spoken for the contrarie the vow which children make bee good iustifiable without the parents leaue yet me seemes somewhat should bee left vnto their disposition wherein they should beare some stroake as peraduenture to make choice of one Abbey before an other for their children to be profest in and if there be no remedy but that parents must besosleightly put by when the question stands betwixt them and religion yet me thinkes t were well that some few reliques should still remaine of that ancient dutie reuerence which God nature prescribed for parents But the case is farre otherwise now for it comes so short to the businesse in hand that parents in any lawe should bee relinquisht and destituted of their children that euen they which haue written in an high stile for commendation of the solitarie life as most monkes haue done confesse that children may bee dismissed out of their cloyster and disclaime their vow to bee attendant on their parents And that this vow is of a greater obligation and much more ancient for continuance then any other vow whatsoeuer it may be prooued out of S. Gregory Nazianzene for he being sent for to come home from his monastery by his Father because he was now growne olde and not able to follow suites in law which came thicke vpon him by reason of a publique charge wherein hee bare office and hauing lost also his other sonne Caesarius forsooke his Couent made speed to returne to his Father Gregorie and his mother Nonna which then to their farther griefe had buried their daughter Gorgonia the same appeares in like manner out of Heliodor of whom wee spake before who left to be an Eremite and left S. Hieromes company to assist and helpe not his Father but his sister and nephew S. Austin holds the same opinion or whosoeuer be the Authour ad fratres in Eremo and will haue no man enforced to returne backe againe to his monastery except his Father bee dead first S. Hierome in an Epistle to Fabiola speakes of this kinde of desertion where hee saith how many monkes haue beene cause of destroying their owne soules in compassionating the estate of their Fathers and Mothers in which wordes hee doth not simply condemne such desertion so it be without frawde to do true seruice to their parents but his meaning is that many monks pretending such manner of excuses doe therby hazard the vtter vndoing of their owne soules Wherefore put case I had beene content and willing to haue made thee a Iesuite couldst thou yet find in thy heart now at this time especiallie to leaue mee and liue apart from me couldest thou holde it for a religious course to lurke in a Cell nay a Gayle for that is Baccharius word for a monasterie where thou mightest sleepe in a whole skinne at pleasure and vnderstand of our ciuil broils or rather lawlesse open robberies that ruine and lay wast thy flourishing natiue countrye nay couldest thou forbeare to repayre home with al speed possible to be helpfull attendant and seruiceable vnto vs to allay and mittigate the surpassing sorrow whereof euerie good mans hart is sensible in this our countries combustion But perhaps they detaine thee by violence Well bee it so for I am more prone to think so then to imagine thou art cleane past all sence of humanitie al good nature gentry chieflie at this time season when Princes ioyn issue in armes not for matter of religion but for a soueraign monarchy but laying aside all prerogatiue of antiquity in our present question if you be so pleased let vs argue the matter by reasō a while wheras it is so that you accōpt marriage for a Sacramēt and for precedence in time the first that euer was ordained in this world how happens it that you giue it no better entertainment amongst you doth it not necessarilie follow that Church and common-wealth both must partake euident losse when either it is so prophanelie polluted or not set by when it is bereft of the fruit of mariage which are children robd of those sweet loue pledges when you vntie that knot which is knit faster than any knot that fire and water bed and boord or plighting of troth did euer tie Why who will take any paines to bring vp his children if after all his care taken and costs bestowed when all is done they must be another mans children and not the fathers If by direct authoritie or indeed rather by a kind of Mahometicall immanitie they be hald and lugd away from their parents if as soone as our wiues be brought to bed and deliuered the shaueling that first can seize vpon our child must haue him for his paines he that robs a father of his child a foster father of his foster sonne or a master of his man in the opinion of Tertullian writing against Marcion commits an act of impietie against God sins against the parent wrongs the foster father and trespasses against the master To take away filiall obedience and dutie to parents is to grub vp nature by the root to windshake all that commerce and societie which is between man man euen from the very groūd plot and foundation Obedience saith S. Cyprian in his booke of the abuses of the world is the mother of all gouernment then farewell all gouernment when parents cannot be obeied And because paritie in honour and estate breeds quarrells and contention therefore hath God made many formes of gouernment many of subiection As husband and wife father and sonne old and yong bond and free Prince and subiect master and scholler as S. Chrysostome speaks in his Epistle to the Romanes take away these subordinations and there is no companie or societie of men can possiblie continue Nay the conclusion cannot be gainsaid doe but once proue disobedient to parents and presentlie you fall downe headlong into Atheisme or heresie as it is deliuered with common consent by all sorts of men as well Christians as heathen and by name by Plutarch in his booke de fraterna amicitia and by the author of a late discourse But it were better to hear the Authors in their owne words There is no man saith Plutarch who though he thinke otherwise in his conscience would not affirme and in words maintaine that the Gods ought to bee worshipped in the first place our parents next to them and that in so large an extent that nothing can be so acceptable to the Gods as when they see children repaying some vsurie
discipline being appealed vnto as to an higher iurisdiction gaue present help and assistance that is to say parents were able to doe more with their children then law or legion or Dictator himselfe Cn. Martius Coriolanus marched forth with a dangerous army against his country breathing forth nothing but ruine and vastation whomade him to disarme himself forsake his ensignes leaue the commaund of the field but Veturia only He that neither yeelded to Senators sent vnto him nor Magistrates nor priests yeelded to his mother He that neither the Maiesty of the Empire nor any touch of religion could cause once to retire did soone relent at the name of his mother Cn. Seruilius L. Sergius M. Papirius being Tribunes together and in like authority which was also Consular were vehement competitors which of them should be generall in the war against the Lucani euery one was for himselfe and thereupon despised the charge of the City as an office altogether thanklesse and base the Senators beheld the contention with astonishment Dictator was there none that by strong hand might order these factious Tribunes saith Q. Seruilius nay sith there is no respect hereby carried to your owne ranke and quality nor duty to the estate of this common wealth my fathlery authority shal soone dispatch this controuersie I tell you my sonne without drawing of any lots for the matter shal bide at home and gouerne the City And what did the Father of C. Flaminius tribune of the common people which enacted the law about the partage of some french grounds by the poll the Senate was against it his colleagues mainly opposed him which he set light by an army was mustred against him in case he should persist in that opinion but that danted him nothing his father euen as he was in the place to haue proclaimed his new made Law seizes vpon him how was it now with my yong master downe comes he from his chaire of estate and this braue gallant that before set at nought all the maiesty authority and prerogatiue of his country is now subdued at a poore priuate mans check and as M. Valerius storieth it in his fift booke was not so much as once blamed for it by the least muttering of the sessions so disappointed and broken vp How then is it possible but that in the point of parents authority there should be more force in mans law than in the bare and simple precept as it was deliuered from God by Moses especially if that be true which Halicarnassus reporteth that contempt impiety murdering of parents were therefore ordinary monsters among the Greekes but exceeding scarce and seldome to be found in Rome because the authority which those ancient Law makers Charondas Pittacus and Solon assigned to parents was a mild and feeble regiment contrariwise that which Romulus gaue was absolute full and without limitation whence it came to passe that in all the large territory of the Romane Empire hardly will you meete with one Malleolus that is such a desperate ruffian as butchered his own mother What then may we say of this diuine commandement established as we see neither by threat of abdication nor losse of life here is only commanded that which honesty and good conscience perswades vnto Nor let any man thinke that it is a good answer to the obiection to say that Moses Law aswell as any other law did not only sharply censure parricide but euen euery dishonest and idle speech vttered by a sonne for we intreat not what authority a publique magistrate hath neither of a iudiciall proceeding held in consistories and common Assises we talke of that which may be exercised at our home dwellings in our owne priuate housholds which fathers not officers by vertue of their office challenge ouer their children that is to say without appeale to any higher bēch without assistance of any other Iudges office For so it is he that punisheth by the helpe of another doth in deed not punish but complaine But yet ouer and aboue al that which we haue already obiected against S. Gregory it falls so short that parents by this heauenly oracle haue any more dominion ouer their children than either by these or other humane lawes that in truth they cannot be said to haue receiued thence any one iot of power or authority For let a sonne be negligent in performing of that one command honour thy father what may the father doe in such a case It is true it allures him with reward that is with a prosperous and a long life but it puts ouer no punishment into the fathers hands no none at all As though in so doing somewhat would be found which nature of her self could not well abide Did Moses then mistake and when he deliuered Gods lawes was he somewhat more carelesse in this point which concernes Fathers A sinne it is so to say for this authority of parents which wee seeke after was for precedency of time farre more ancient than the commandement it selfe which is demōstratiuely proued by this very instāce that God almighty would neuer haue commanded Abraham to haue sacrificed his sonne Isaacke if hee had had no commission of life and death ouer him Would God haue enioyned it would the father haue executed it would neighbours and strangers haue endured it which in no case at no time by no law a father might bee able to iustifie besides they that liued long before Moses would neuer haue busied themselus so much in matching of their children in wedlock for that was a matter resting in their choyce not in the choice of the parties contracting mariage which sinne of theirs was cause of the vniuersal deluge nor wold the children bin so eager in pursuit of their parents blessing and what shall we say more surely the bare enditement brought in by the father to the Magistrate would neuer haue serued for a sufficient euidence against an vndutiful child if euen in those dayes the power of a father and his domestique discipline had not beene very transcendent What shall wee say then Did God by his latter law repeale the former and confine this duety to an inhibition of wordes alone If the case were so what then might wee say for Nazianzene Without doubt something might bee spoken for him and very much were it not that the very selfe same Christian Religion which in a manner we receiued from him did in some sort now crosse the good Christian Bishops assertion For this authority of parents if there be any such thing extant is so far reuolted from that which was ordained and established by God by nature by the Law of nations and Law positiue and that forsooth vpon no othet occasion but that wee I cannot tell how seuer this filiall duetie from religion that among Christians now a dayes to be a Father is nothing else but so to bee tearmed the dutie is gone though the name continue Can Christian religion then and Gods heauenlie commandement wich Saint Gregory
nor property in it hee will serue his father with processe he will endite him at the common Assize without asking him any leaue And in a word such is the religion now adaies such is the Churches tradition as men say that let the sonne entet into any kind of life bee married bee a monke or so forth all this may he doe in spight of his fathers teeth and absolutely against his will How then good father Nazianzene or wherein stands that sanction so much inforced by God and nature honor thy father What didst thou see in that authority royall and preheminence of parents when thou vpon a timorous scrupulositie of conscience durst not once so much as to trespasse against it If in the cases before mentioned our children may disobey their parents and yet not be punshed by them put mee some cases out of the old law why they shold not now enioy the like libertie or what be the principall points of this domestique monarchie which the christian religion doth yet retaine and defend for lawfull can it bee possible that heathen parents haue punished euen to the pit of hell a shamelesse and vngratious sonne so far were they in loue with the childrens obedience it is a matter spoken of that father which as Pausanius relateth it in his tenth booke Polignotus drew in a picture of hell taking paines to bee his owne sonnes hangman for a speciall prancke of vndutifulnesse that he had plaid him in his life time And haue christians on the contrary inuented cases to authorise vnnaturall impietie and breach of duty against parents can it be possible as saith Theophilus in his third booke to Eutol that Platoes law for the communitie of wiues was principallie vpon that point disliked because the danger might be that the sonne might somtime honor him that was not his father and vpon ignorance at another time might also doe him no reuerence who was his father indeed a reuerence neuerthelesse so due by the rules of the lawe of nations and in such order marshalled by them that as Pomponius testifieth it is to be ranged in the second place first God after him our parents and then our country and should we vnder colour of religion in that one point principallie offend First and foremost therefore we will speake thus much in generall as men do vse to sell wares in grosse that the position and assertion is very sottish and impious because the gouernment of parents is weakned and rebated in some points and circled within an order that Ergo there is no such matter at all remaining because the preheminence of parents is abrogated to speake in the Romane dialect ergo it must follow there is no duty no naturall reuerence at all left vnto them Then descending to particular dueties wee will take a view whether euery one of them bee so important as that of pure necessitie parents ought to bee obeied in speciall or no Which will be soone found if we take some farther view and make a quire what that was which the ancients did so exactly require of their children when they past ouer such a large iurisdiction and power vnto the parents the case is cleere that they did it not therefore that parents should bee as magistrates to their children and so administer iustice at home to euery one that their children had offended againe as the Praetor did in the Court of the common pleas nor that there should be one authority publique another priuate and domestique For if the crime were publicke and committed without the verge of the fathers house the officer was to order it Nor is it a good conclusion the child hath offended therefore he must haue no other iudge but his father Indeed it is true that there were such fathers in times past at Rome and likewise amongst other nations whereof we haue written in the sixt book of our reports the seuenth Chapter that by vertue of such fatherly authoritie wold take cognisance of such crimes as their children had offended in abroad as Cassius Manlius Torquatus C. Flaminius and some others besides so then this was no occasion that gaue such a prerogatiue to the power of parents but that rather which Halicarnasseus in the life of Romulus alleadgeth that when children did perceiue how they were awed at home and that their subiection vnder their priuate parents was much more strict than vnder the publique Magistrate for they are commanded first to yeeld obedience to their parents after that to their country that the Prince himselfe might scarce doe any thing without iudiciall proceeding But the father might do euery thing at his own will pleasure for so speaks Aristotle in his politiques they might learne to be more dutifull to doe nothing without line and leuell that is without expresse commandement and iniunction from their parents might neither will nor nil ought saue that which proceeded first from their parents pleasure and by his allowance In a word that as the bit spur and switch makes the horse obedient to his rider so the feare of so great chastisements might enforce the sonnes conformity to his father as to a demie God on earth and sole founder of his being And surely had our forefathers meant no other thing hereby then to put a snaffle into youthes mouth to restraine them from such vices as nature is prone vnto why then they would haue determined this their authoritie at some certaine time or age of the sonne vpon some certaine office or honour that might haue befallen or some condition and estate of life whereunto they might possiblie be aduanced But the sonne were he neuer so old bare he neuer so great office yea had it been the high Priesthood was euer notwithstanding vnder his fathers checke And what thinke you was the issue thereof marry sir whatsoeuer the father had once determined concerning his children to what kind of life soeuer he had bound them yea and though it had been to the cart and plough as L. Manlius did vse his sonne why by reason of so eminent a power against which there was no helpe no remedie to be had he must of necessity rest content Hence it was that all the sonnes negotiations had such dependance on the fathers will as you see counterpaines haue that must accord with their originalls or riuers haue that must be fed from their fountaines head And though put case the sonne swaruing some deale from this course of duty as being stubborne and past all shame found his penalty thereupon executed sometime with more rigour sometimes with more clemency though the father by the ordinances of some countries might sentence his sonne to death by others complaine of him to the magistrate and only giue in euidence against him â—ay though by long prescription these domestique censures haue been altogether disused For to small purpose is their instance and God knowes it is a poore one that alleadge why but yong children be still yet vnder their
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
far better iudgement of filiall duety than that which those vpstart Pharisies put vpon thee viz. That there is neither sacrifice nor vow nor any oblation that is to be preferred before the obedience which God commands vnto children But let vs proceed and try by examples borrowed from him that is both God and man whether it be true that a man which is desirous to take the ministery or to lead a monastricall life may renounce all kind of obedience and that it is to no purpose for him to aske his fathers consent and iudgement in taking those orders vpon him or no I pray thee whom did Christ call to be his Apostles called he such a one as thou art a yong boy and tell me if they left their ships their nets and all their tackling to follow Christ did they for all that leaue their parents or if they left them did they leaue them without leaue yea which is more did they that were husbands put away their wiues or did they which were fathers for that cause forsake their children Certaine it is that Iames and Iohn were aboue 25. yeers old when they departed from their father But did they further to shew their more impudencie in departing leaue Iudea and trauaile into Italie Lorraine or Spaine or else because themselues were Christians could they not endure to looke vpon their fathers or was his presence speech or conuersation irksome vnto them Had they done so they should haue done otherwise than their Lord and Master had done before who as I said neuer went from Mary and Ioseph But that I may demonstrate vnto thee that they went not out of their country or fathers houses vntill such time as after Christs passion they were to goe into the whole world and that albeit after their calling they accompanied Christ yet neuertheles they were conuersant at home dwelt with their parents It is written that Iesus came to the house of Peter and Andrew where when he saw their mother in law sicke of an ague hee cured her and forthwith she ministred to him and to his disciples Therfore to follow Christ was not to forsake ones friends his parents his wife his children or his household yea which is more Iames and Iohn albeit they were growen in yeeres would not haue followed Christ if Zebedeus their father had not consented thereunto For seeing they were together with their father whē Christ bad them follow him it cannot be but that either Zebedeus did expresse his consent in words or imply it by holding his peace But tell mee whether thou thinkest all vocations be of one kind as well they that proceede expreslie from Gods immediate will as they whereunto the Church calleth vs God knoweth directlie and changeth the hearts of men therefore he is not deceiued But men in their elections doe onlie coniecture and ghesse wherefore they oftentimes exceedinglie erre for to be a man and subiect to error be termes conuertible as to be God and not to be subiect to error what then why we had need vse all diligence and be verie warie in these vocations so that no solemnitie be passed ouer especially the consent good leaue of our parents If I should alleadge that place vnto thee where Christ said vnto his Apostles Suffer little ones to come vnto me thou wouldst say that there he speaketh of such as are yong in age And in very deed you shall find in the Gospell that these little ones were brought vnto Christ and that they came not of their owne accord vnto him therefore he said not Come vnto me but suffer them to come and againe forbid them not to teach that the calling of little ones as well as their Baptisme did depend both vpon their fathers tutors and curators suit and promise made for them But whereas it was said ouer and aboue forbid them not that was not spoken to their parents but to the disciples that found fault with such as brought them vnto Christ and this without doubt is spoken of such as are in their minoritie But that which was before alleadged makes no distinction at all of anie age It is written to all in generall tearmes Honour your parents I know when the sonne is once come to fiue and twenty that then his fathers approbation yea his dissimulation and which is more his very silence such as was that of Zebedeus goeth for his consent But yet that such as it is is verie requisite Neither canst thou depart from thy father or mother if they be vnwilling What said I from thy parents I say thou canst not goe from thy brethren or thy kindred for S. Paul speakes generallie of the whole familie but thou must perforce sinne against God and be guiltie of a cruell and faithlesse conscience But I suppose there is a text alleadged thee to the contrarie that when one of Christs disciples desired him that he would permit him to goe and burie his father before that he followed him Iesus replied vnto him Follow me and suffer the dead to burie their dead whereupon they dispute thus Buriall is a very religious and holie dutie especiallie if it be done to a mans father But Christ neuerthelesse willeth vs rather to attend him than the buriall of our parents Againe lay-men are accounted as dead men for they which are so hampered and entangled in the pleasures of this world that they cannot swim out of them may iustly be esteemed for drowned and dead men Hence saith S. Paul The widdow that liueth in pleasure is dead while she liueth 1. Timoth. 5.6 The cleargie men on the contrarie may properlie be said to liue For they are the part and portion of the liuing God therefore well may he be said to abstaine from the dead who hath left his father and his mother to follow Christ that is as they make it to be a Iesuit Verie acutelie collected Sir but we haue our answer in a readinesse for you First it followeth not that whatsoeuer was pronounced of Christ must forthwith necessarilie be applied to the Clergie and all such at haue betaken themselues to a regular course of life Indeed all his doctrine was deliuered ouer vnto them but not all power saith Tertullian in his book of Chastitie And verilie it is one thing to embrace Christ and another thing to follow so manie orders of monks as be now adaies yea though there were small ods between them and those of whom Dorotheus spake of old Secondlie when the father of that disciple was once dead that exact reuerence which perhaps he pretended to Christ ceased and was no longer to be performed For it was certaine that he was then no longer a sonne Lastlie the Lord commanded not that the burial should be whollie omitted but that it should be procured to be done by some other and whosouer that was he was said to celebrate his fathers funerall in regard that we commonly call all those which are departed out of this life before
vs our fathers or forefathers The charge and cost of funeralls is a publique businesse saith Papinian the sanctuarie of the law whence also Iustinian in his 43. and 59. Nouell manifestlie sheweth that in Constantinople the charge and expences of funeralls was wont to be defraied out of the publique treasurie Why therefore should this celebration hinder the disciple frō following Christ since that it might be done as well by another as by himselfe But yet ther is great difference whether children destitute their parents in malice or pure simplicity This exposition will serue thee against all these arguments wherewith they haue beguiled thee If thy parents be dead that is if they be Iewes if Idolaters if Pagans if Infidels if the son contrariwise be a christian if a Catholique and the father would burie this his sonne with him that is command him to commit idolatrie leaue this father and follow mee saith Christ let the dead burie this dead That these words ought so to be taken and vnderstood is cleare bothout of S. Ambrose when he saith The sonne is not disswaded from his duty towards his fathers but a beleeuer is seuered from the fellowship of an vnbeleeuer And also out of S. Austin as well in that one booke of obseruations on S. Mathew as in his first booke to Marcellian concerning the Baptisme of children Canst thou therefore perswade any man that the Iesuits onlie liue the best kind of life and that we miserable christians because we are of the laitie must be reputed for dead and buried S. Hierome writing vnto Furia thinketh far otherwise whosoeuer beleeueth in Christ saith hee liueth And Tertullian in his booke de carne Christi doth not therefore ranke Marcion among those that were dead because he was not a Monke or an Hermit but because whilst he was an heretique he was not truly and properly a good christian But we fathers poore men though we be euen we are beleeuers we are called the sonnes of God his friends his brethren and coheires with him and wee also are made partakers through him of the holy Ghost As many as haue a true faith and lead an vpright life yea although they worke not miracles nor cast out diuells yet they are holie saith S. Hierome in his 59. Homilie But if you pretend the same yea if thou boast of greater things than these why this also is our benefit this also is our aduantage For if you aske any of vs Christians of what religion we are euerie of vs being taught by you can make you this answer of the same religion whereof our fathers and ancestors were There was no oath more inuiolable than that which wee sware by our fathers faith saith Philo who borrowed this sentence of an ancient Philosopher therefore why thou shouldst so excredinglie despise vs now there is no reason or if thou wilt needs contemne vs doe it then when we can expect nothing from thy hands but our buriall You shall haue in this case if not the meaning yet the words of Christ to his Disciples when our Sauiour Christ said vnto him follow me he well knevv that his father was novv dead saith the same S. Ambrose in this verie place But I beleeue the text in S. Matthewes Gospell hath most seduced thee He that loueth father or mother more than mee is not worthy of me And againe in S. Luke if any man commeth vnto me and hateth not his father and his mother his wife and his children his brethren and his sisters yea and his owne soule he cannot be my disciple These and such like places seem to yeeld thee great and forceable arguments for thy defence but since those reasons and authorities which we haue already brought to the contrarie be as pregnant and forceable to all intents it had been your course to infer that surelie these latter places do require some farther exposition and declaration least God should seem to be contrary or to contradict himselfe For I pray you tell me what manner of doctrine is this or what kind of religion may this be called which teacheth that a man of necessity must hate his father and his mother his wife and his children his brethren and his sisters yea his owne deare soule also that will be Christs disciple if we should sticke vnto the words and not stand vnto the meaning for if he that should hate his father must therefore be a good disciple doubtlesse he that should well beate him were worthy to be a patriarch and hee that should kill him might exceedinglie well deserue to be a Pope See how many absurdities and mischiefes would arise from these words not ill conceiued but il vnderstood So S. Chrysostome in his 36. homily vpon S. Matthews Gospell he did not absolutelie command thee to make inuectiue speeches against thy familiar friends and acquaintance for that were an action sauouring of indiscretion and might procure harme But look how much any other desires to haue thee loue him more than me hate him saith he so much the more I confesse then that we ought rather to loue God than our parents and that is the lesson which Salomon teacheth vs begin your loue with me as Origen witnesseth Which is also spoken by S. Ambrose on S. Luke if men ought to performe dutie to their parents how much more then ought they to render their most bounden dutie to the creator and maker of their parents in yeelding him alwaies thanks that gaue thē parents But I am much mistaken if the consequence hold ergo it is more blessed to become a Franciscan Frier or a Iesuit than either to loue or reuerence thy father For christian religion is grounded especiallie vpon faith but doth not depend vpon this or that particular order of religion Nay I may further tell you may a generall Councell haue been summoned that neuer confirmed or approued these orders And if put case it be a degree of more perfection to be a Cleargie man than a lay man I thinke it must not be inferred ergo a sonne need not refraine anie stubborne vndutifull or vngodly behauiour to his parents if he intend to be a Priest rather than a lay man God hath no where that I cā find laid any such precise cōmandemēt on either of vs both to be Priests his especiall charge to thee wards is that thou shouldst doe me honor by all meanes Hast thou then wilfullie done me this open wrong thy sinne is of so hainous a nature that Gods curse mans is vpon thee for it For I tel thee sonne it is a matter of meer indifferency to be one of the Iesuits companie A man may be a good christian and walke in the way of Christ which is the path to euerlasting life and yet neuer turne Iesuit for the matter And therefore it ill became thee to put by an act of absolute necessitie for a proiect of thine owne priuate fancie voluntarie concept as S. Thomas verie wiselie informeth
thee I pray thee tell me if there were two waies to follow Christ in and the one were so faire and plaine that thou mightst loue me and thy sauiour Christ also the other so stonie and craggie that vnlesse thou didst perfectly hate me it were impossible for thee to loue him which of these waies wouldst thou rather chuse but O sonne S. Matthew and S. Luke are so cleer in this point that there is not so much as the least letter which may cast thee into any such labyrinth or intricate maze Read these Euangelists and read them from the beginning to the end thou shalt find it deliuered that if question be of vndergoing martyrdome for Christ which they call to carrie the crosse and follow him and these two should be in tearmes of opposition To denie God before men or to honor and loue ones father it is farre better to hate father yea to hate himselfe and his owne foule than once to distrust the promises of his sweet Sauior Christ So then if I should haue perswaded thee to abiure the Christian baptisme wherunto I first brought thee and might well enough haue beene thy Bishop in it had I aduised thee to cast away that most pretious pearle which S. Iohn the Apostle gaue him that told him where hee might find the woluish God that had yeere by yeere had 12. young children offered vp vnto him for sacrifice had I requested thee to renege Christianitie to entertaine Mahometisme Atheisme or heresie I may not haue thee tell me now with Saluianus that such a time may happen wherein some thing that is not God ought to be preferred before God then mightst thou by vertue of this scripture in these cases haue lawfully refused to do me such duty and reuerence as appertaineth to a father and Saturus or the worthy Lady Victoria would haue been good precedents for thy imitation of whom Victor the Bishop reporteth in his first booke De persecutione Vandalica that they had rather be held from their children parted from their husbands depriued of all their worldly wealth than by any seducements whatsoeuer become Arrians In such a case it would haue been good for thee to haue been without father or mother like Melchisedech who was therefore said to be without both because he was a deuout holy man though his parents were wicked and cruell Canaanites Heathen people loue their natiue country exceedingly and none can haue any part in their loue but their parents Now we saith Pontius S. Cyprians Deacon we detest and abhor our very parents when once they goe about to perswade vs for anie thing against our God But sith we are both good christians and Catholiks who should preuaile more with thee than my selfe that haue done more for thee than all the world besides if any father might be iustlie despised of his childe abused and wronged by him choaked with that text in Leuiticus I am ignorant I know you not certainlie it were such a father as shold dedicate his childrē to strange Gods or aduow them to the worship of the molten Calfe according to that of Moses let thy hand be vpon them and powr foorth their blood which would seduce thee from the truth in which place notwithstanstāding maybe obserued as also out of the 32. of Exodus that although Moses in this case allowes of parricide yet he exemplifieth it in the wife in the sonne in the brother in the sister in the kinsman and friend he makes no mention at all of the father So sacred venerable and inuiolable is that name of a father nothing may lawfullie be attempted against a father Read the Epistle of Moses Maximus Nicostratus Rufinus and other Confessors it is the 77 to Cyprian thou shalt find these words vnderstood in this sence peruse likewise Chrisostome in his 65. homilie vpon S. Matthew where he expounds them These words saith he to my vnderstanding closelie do betoken persecutions For many sonnes haue been drawn to wicked courses by their parents manie husbands by their wiues which whensoeuer they attempt let them neither be respected for wiues nor parents And the author which wrote on the same Euangelist in his 27 homilie It is not to be beleeued saith he that God which commanded thee to honor thy father and mother would bid thee forsake father and mother if therefore thou hast an vnbeleeuing father continue thy obedience to him for in so doing thou shalt receiue the reward of thy dutie and contrariwise he shall find the condemnation of his infidelitie And therefore our Sauior said not he that loueth his father is not worthy of me but he that loueth his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me For as to loue our parents after God it is dutie so to honor them more than God is plaine impietie If therefore he repeats it againe thou hast an vnbelieuing father still obey him but if hee would haue thee swallowed into the gulfe of infidelitie loue God more than thy father for he is the father not of the soule but of thy bodie onlie Howsoeuer yet he doth not require that the sonne vpon any such occasion should desert him by his bodily presence but by dissenting from him in point of religion Marke how these words of the olde law these men saith the Lord haue kept my commaundementes which haue saide vnto father and mother we know you not are expounded by Philostratus sometimes Bishop of Brixia and S. Austins ancient in his booke of heresies You are not to vnderstand hereby to condemne your father for begetting you but to condemne the grosse impietie of your father that would mislead you And this was the opinion of Salonius Bishop of Vienna writing vpon Ecclesiastes For the profession of our faith in Christ wee must contemne yea and hate father and mother and all our kindred when they be anie stops or impediments vnto vs in the way of the Lord as vve read that the holy Martyrs manie times did whence it is that S. Austin in his sermons saith these words seeme to encourage men to martyrdome Finallie Christ Iesus himselfe being readie to giue vp the ghost to speake in the words of Arnold the Abbot that he might superlatiuelie commend this noble and great article of the second table Honour thy father and thy mother and that by al the bonds and leagues of pietie doth giue bequeath it to his mother the blessed virgin woman behold thy sonne and to his best beloued disciple S. Iohn behold thy mother And that S. Iohn was likewise of his masters mind Prochirus relateth Chap. 21. for hauing baptized Chrysippa in the Iland Pathmos and she would thereupon in all speed leaue hir vnbeleeuing husband S. Iohn told her no that is by no meanes to be permitted for God hath not sent me to separate man wife I haue no such commission therfore returne in peace to your owne house For if it were lawfull that a woman might separate her selfe