by this true explication which wee haue made it remaineth very cleare that the serious and seuere reprehensions wherwith Christ our Lord his Saints haue corrected the great crimes of sinners are not cōtrary to that Benignity which he taught vs but are full of the dearnes sweetnes of true Charity THE XVII CHAPTER Of the Benignity wherewith a Christian is to be glad of the good of his neighbour and to approue and praise the same and of the example which Christ our Lord gaue vs thereof ONe of the principall things besides those whereof wee haue spoken which belong to the vertue of Benignity and the sweet manner of conuersing with our neighbours is to be glad of their good and to praise them yet with that moderatiō which prudence requireth and to that end which Charity seeketh For this maketh a seruant of God to be amiable and sweet and thus he augmenteth Charity towards his neighbours he groweth more able to be of vse to soules For by this meanes his instruction and admonition will be the better receiued and the example of his good life better allowed and he will haue more efficacy to moue others So saith the worthy Doctor and Bishop Guiltelmus Parisiensis Benignity is the loue of anothers good and wee call those men Benigne who as soon as they discouer a good thing in their neighbours doe instantly loue it and loue him for it and from hence it growes that they praise and set him forth in wordes For the exercise of this vertue there is need of great consideration and much discretion and light from heauen For as by the vse therof with moderatiō being directed to the right end it is of great profit and edification towards the encrease of vertue so vsing it without moderation and without rectitude of intention it is both very hurtfull to his soule who praiseth and to his also who is praised For this reason Saint Bonauenture approueth this saying of Seneca praise that with moderation which is praise worthy dispraise that which is blamable with more moderation For superfluity of praise is liable to reproof as well as tēperate dispraise Well then let vs goe on declaring the errour which is committed and the hurt which groweth by inordinate praise and the manner intention which praise must haue to the ēd that it may be truly giuen according to vertue For a man to praise his neighbour for that which is naught is a great sinne and not onely doe they fal into it who praise a man for some reuenge which he may haue taken of an enemy or for hauing affrōted that person who did him iniury by some word or for hauing vttered some carnall speech performing some actiō of that kind but they also who praise sūptuous buildings superfluous humours gifts curious rich cloathes delicious costly dyet and all that which hath any tincture of vanity and pride and the regalo of this flesh blood and the loue of the world For all these thinges are ill and hurtfull to the soule of a Christian who to the end that he may get to heauen must deny himselfe and imbrace the Crosse of Christ our Lord. To all these flatterers who praise that which they should reprehēd Esay chap. 5. saith Woe be to them who praise wicked thinges as if they were good and who hould the darknes of errour for the light of truth and true light for darkenes and who esteem the bitter life of sinners to be sweet and the sweet life of vertue to be bitter In like manner it is vitious for a man to praise temporall naturall thinges as if they were the greatest principall gifts of God as riches nobility strength and beauty of the body For these are blessings of little value and they make not a man to be better in himselfe or more estimable in the sight of God such praise breeds much hurt to the soule for it makes a man greatly loue and praise those thinges which he should despise from which he should estrange his heart The holy scripture condemneth this vice saying doe not praise men for the corporall beauty which they haue nor despise them for their poore meane apparance Consider that the Bee being but a very little creature giueth so excellent a fruite as that it is the most sweet of all sweet thinges for there is nothing more sweet then hony The meaning is that as the little Bee hath efficacy to produce such a fruite so may a little body a meane presence haue much vertue And that which the Holy Ghost saith of the beauty of the body he will haue vs vnderstand of all other naturall and temporall gifts which are of so little value that a man is noe further worthy of estimation or praise for them thē if he had them not but onely so farre forth as there may result some profit to the soule thereby This was taught vs both by the example and diuine wordes of Christ our Lord For a certaine deuoute womā hauing seen his miracles and hauing heard his doctrine was not able to conteine herselfe but that she must needes praise that Mother aloud who had brought forth such a Sonne saying Blessed is the wombe which have thee and the brests which gaue thee sucke But Christ our Lord gaue her this answere Nay rather blessed are they who heare the word of God and keepe it By which wordes he discouered to vs how that free gratuite blessing whereby the most sacred Virgin was made Mother of the naturall Sonne of God did not alone and of it selfe make her happy or blessed nor worthy of the reward of heauen nor more great in the sight of God but the vnspeakeable vertue and suauity and grace wherby Almighty God did exalt and dignify her for such an office that which afterward he gaue her in regard of so high a dignity was the thing which made her so truly happy If then so admirable a gift as that was did not deserue great praise for it selfe alone but for that vertue and sanctity which went in company thereof how much more must all temporall blessings and gifts of nature which in themselues are so poore and perishing be vnworthy of praise but onely so farre forth as they may be found to assist and concurre towards the good of the soule So saith Saint Chrysostome declaring these wordes of Christ our Lord. By this sentence Christ our Lord did make vs know that it would not haue profited the Virgin to haue brought forth the Sonne of God if shee had not withall been endowed with that faith and incomparable sanctity which shee had And therefore as I said if so great a dignity would not haue profited the blessed Virgin without the vertue and sanctity of her soule how much more clear is it that it will serue vs to little purpose before Almighty God to haue Saints to our Fathers or sonnes or kinred or such other
towards such as came to him full of imperfection weaknes and ignorance and wee must receiue after a sweet manner our neighbours when they come to vs full of necessity ignorance enduring with a serene countenance their importunity rudnes and giuing eare and satisfaction to their questions and benignely instructing them in those thinges which are fit for them to be knowne by them according to the capacity of euery one and remouing the ignorance wherin they are comforting theÌ„ with the knowledge of truth and the hope of saluation and appeasing their conscience deliuering theÌ„ from vaine scruples and feares To this doth the Apostle Saint Paule Gal. 6. aduise in these words My brethren if any of you be surprised by any sinne as it happens to them who sinne out of Passion or weaknes orignoraÌ„ce and not out of meer malice and who are as it were preuented and surprised by that sinne into which they fal because they haue not well considered the ill they doe in respect whereof they are the more worthy of mercy and more easy to be reformed If any such I say haue fallen you who are spiritual men and liue according to spirit that is according to the true and spirituall vnderstanding of the Lawe of God instruct and informe well such a kinde of sinner as this and doe it not with sharpenes rigour but with sweetnes and gentlenes both of words and deedes wherin true Benignity consists And for this purpose let euery one consider himselfe and reflect well vpon his owne weaknes and danger and how subiect he is to fall as the other did and peraduenture worse And from hence he will grow to instruct and correct others with the sweetnes of mercy and Benignity and not with too much rigour and seuerity least himselfe also growe both to be tempted and conquered This in substance is deliuered by the Apostle and with great reason he wisheth him who treateth such as haue fallen into sinne without mercy and Benignity that he looke well to himselfe least he be teÌ„pted and ouercome For in very truth it is the punishment which he deserues and which ordinarily almighty God inflicts vpon such as rashly iudge and condemne their neighbour for committing any fault and as despise him for it to let them fall into the same sinne As on the other side our most piteous Lord is wont to vse supreme Benignâ—ty and mercy towards such others as vse Benignity mercy towards their weak and imperfect brethren This did that great and admirable woman Christina with great ponderation and feeling affirme when shee said There is no thing in the whole world which doth more moue Christ our Lord to vse Benignity and mercy towards men then to see that themselues are benigne and mercifull towards others and such Benignity and mercy cannot but leade them on to a happy death which will deliuer them vp to eternall life THE III. CHAPTER Of the Benignity which Christ our Lord vsed towards the Apostles enduring and curing their defects THis very manner of Benignity did Christ our Lord vse towardes his blessed Apostles whilst he conuersed with them in mortall flesh For during all that time which was the space of three yeares they were very imperfect and liued in great ignorance and by reason of their much rudnes made litle profit of the great light of doctrine which was propounded to them and of that so admirable example of the life of Christ our Lord which they had before their eyes Let vs produce some examples to proue this truth Our Lord had already wrought that illustrious miracle in the sight of his disciples Matt 15 of feeding fiue thousand men with fiue loaues of bread and shortly after another necessity offering it self wherin our Lord was pleased to feed foure thousand men with seauen loaues and hauing already tould his disciples that he would not permit those troupes of men woemen to returne home to their houses till he had fed them they conceiued it to be a matter of so much difficulty that as if it had indeed been impossible for our Lord to doe they said where can wee be able to procure in this desert such a quantity of bread as would be necessary for the feeding of such a multitude What a great imperfectioÌ„ was this in them and what a strange rudenes and blindenes of heart that hauing seen with their owne eyes that our Lord had wrought so many like and greater miracles then that they did not yet beleeue and confide so much in him as that with so few loaues he was able to feed so much people and especially considering that he had declared himselfe to haue a will to doe it and that he had wrought the like in the selfe same case some few dayes before And yet these disciples making him answere with so little faith and indeed with so little good manners our most blessed Lord did yet treate them with so great tendernes and sweetnes that he blamed or reproued them not nor shewed himselfe a whit disgusted or offended for the little account and estimation which they shewed themselues to haue of his power But passing by all this he asked them how many loaues they had and they saying that they had seauen he coÌ„manded the troupes to sit downe and he gaue them all to eate of those seauen loaues and he made the Apostles gather vp seaueÌ„ baskets full of the ouerplus and in this sorte he did by that action of his let them see their rudenes and he remoued their ignorance setled them faster in their faith And this was so great a fault in the Apostles that the confessing and publishing of it themselues after the coming of the Holy Ghost was an act of great humility in them and the suffering and curing it by our Lord with so great pitty and mercy was admirable Benignity in him So saith Saint Chrysostome It is worthy of great admiration to see the Apostles so great friends to the truth as that themselues who wrote the Euangelicall history would not couer those so great faults of their owne For it was no little one that they could so soon forget that miracle which our Lord had wrought so lately before in the multiplication of the fiue loaues of bread And Theophylact addeth thus It was not reason that they should so soon haue forgotten that miracle whereby our Lord had giuen food in the wildernes to more persons with fewer loaues of bread But the disciples were men very grosse and of meane vnderstanding which our Lord permitted to be so to the end that when afterward wee should finde them so full of discretion and wisedome we might know that it was the gift of diuine grace which caused it But their ignorance and vntowardnes being so great as wee see it was our Lord did not yet rebuke or reproach them for this fault but cured it with great Benignity and instructed vs thereby not to put our selues in choler with
ignorant people nor to be sharpe or wayward towards them but that we must haue compassion of their ignorance and instruct them and correct them with charity Our Lord did also discouer his Benignity to the Apostles in that hauing already wrought that miracle of the seauen loaues telling them that they were to take heed of the leuen of the Pharisees and Saduces Matt. 16. Marc. 8. which signified their euill doctrine and example they would needes vnderstand as if he had said it because they were not prouided of bread inough for the desert and so they were affraid they might want food And our Lord reprehēding this fault in them which they had added to the former said in this manner do you not vnderstand and remember the fiue loues of bread and the fiue thousand men which I susteined with thē nor yet the seauē loues wherewith I fed foure thousand men And thus reprouing them as much as was necessary he did it yet in words as gentle as you haue heard and with so great sweetnes as that together with reprehending them he excused them imputing their fault to ignorance and forgetfulnes O admirable Benignity worthy of such a Lord as he who together with the chastisemēt giueth comfort and whilest he speaketh of the fault he giueth hope of pardon and remedy So doth Saint Chrysostome obserue Consider the reprehension which he giueth thē all tempered with meekenes for whilest he reproues them he excuseth them yea he answereth for the very men whom he reproueth But let vs looke vpon some other examples of this Benignity which Christ our Lord did vse towards his disciples When thus he had answered that rich young man Matt. 19. who said He had kept the comaundments If thou wilt be perfect goe and sell all that thou hast and giue it to the poore and come and follow mee and thou shalt haue treasure in heauen and when the young man was going sad away because he was very rich and had not the heart to embrace the counsaile of our Lord and to make himself poore for the kingdome of heauen Saint Peter said to our Lord Behould ô Lord how as for vs wee haue left all thinges and wee haue followed thee what therfore shall be done to vs What reward wilt thou bestow on vs Our Lord made them this answere Verily I say to you that you who haue followed mee shall sit vpon twelue seates and thrones to iudge the twelue Tribes of Israell with the Sonne of man when he shall sit in the seate of his Maiesty at the generall resurrection to a life of glory At that day you shal haue great authority and glory by raigning with the sōne of man and iudging the world together with him It was very little which Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles had left for Christ our Lord for they were but a poore company of fishermen and that which they had left as Saint Chrysostom saith was some fishing rod some net and some little barke And although together with these thinges they also left whatsoeuer they might growe to haue yet that also must needes be very little for in the trade they had they were neuer able to get much And all this being so little and that Saint Peter with so much liberty and audacity should say to him Behould ô Lord wee haue left all wee had for thee as if they had left most abundant riches and great hopes our Lord might with much truth and reason haue said to Saint Peter What greate possessions hast thou left for mee and what great acts of prowes hast thou performed in my seruice And yet he said no such thing nor did he answere them with any shew of any disdaine or euē disgust or with little estimation of that which had been left for his sake but he spake to him in great earnest and with wordes of much weight and with shew of great estimation of that which they had lest and of that which they had performed in following him and he declared that most high reward of glory that most eminent dignity which he would giue them in the kingdome of heauen By this answere Christ our Lord did shew extreme Benignity partly by making so great account of such a trifle as his disciples had left for his sake and promising such a soueraigne reward for such a sleight seruice as they had performed in following him and partly by shewing how greatly he loued them who then had laboured so little for him and by esteeming them so much who were so meane and poore as to promise to exalt them to so great dignity and to giue them a seate of so great Maiesty and by answering them in words so serious so sweet so full of comfort and which gaue them such a height of hope So saith Origen Saint Peter asked what reward he would giue him for what he had left as if he had performed things of mighty difficulty But although the thinges which he his brother left were little in the account of the world yet in the sight of God who regarded the loue and great good will wherewith they were left they were much esteemed This is the most benigne sweet condition of Christ our Lord and our God who be houldeth the seruices which are done him and the good will men haue to serue him their holy desire to please him and that grace which he liberally bestoweth for the doing of them and therfore doth he recompence little works with most high and euerlasting rewardes Our Lord 10.11 whilest he was in the desert hauing heard the message of Lazarus his sicknes and two daies passing on after he had heard it and now vnderstanding that Lazarus was dead he said resolutely Let vs goe yet once againe into Iudea for Bethania was seated in that Prouince But his disciples answered him after this manner Master it is but the other day since the Iewes were ready to stone thee in Iudea and doest thou thinke of going backe where there is so much danger And our Lord saying still let vs goe yet againe into Iudea and they seeing his resolution and being full of apprehension and feare of death Thomas said to the rest of the Apostles Well then let vs goe and dy with him Now the Apostles hauing known by so many experiments that our Lord knew the secrets of mēs hearts and that his enemies hauing a minde to take and stone him were not able to touch him because he had all power in his hands and hauing heard him say many times that in all thinges he performed the will and good pleasure of his eternall Father they ought to haue beleeued that if our Lord went into Iudea it was most conuenient thnt he should doe so and that he knew very well whatsoeuer was to happen to him there that if he should haue a minde to free himselfe from his enemies they could fasten no hurte vpon him and that themselues
going in his company might hould themselues secure inough and that without his will they could receiue no harme and that they ought to make themselues wholly subiect to that will of his But they forgetting all this and distrusting his power and protection would haue hindred his going into Iudea and would needes haue dissuaded him from the resolutioÌ„ which he had taken in that behalfe as if he had been either ignorant of the danger which there he might incurre or impuissant in defending himselfe from the same and they were full of apprehension and feare as if our Lord had not been able to protect them And these defects of theirs being so great our most merciful Lord was not yet offended with them nor did he shew any disgust nor did he reproue them with sharpe wordes for the meane conceit which they had of him but he informed them in sweet termes that there was no danger in his iourney and that they might hould themselues safe in his company by saying thus to them Are there not perhaps twelue houres in the day He who goes by day stumbles not because the day light lets him see the way but he who walkes by night may stumble and fall because he seeth not the light Whereby he would let theÌ„ know that iust as whilest the naturall day lasteth which hath twelue houres of light it is not in the skill or power of any creature to take away or diminish any one of these houres or any part thereof and that during this time a man may walke securely without stumbling or falling iust so as long as that time of his life was to last in this world which had been determined by the will of his eternall Father in which time he was to illuminate the world with his doctrine and by his miracles there was no cause for them to feare for that all the power of the world was not able to take one moment of that time from him and that so both himselfe and al they of his company were very safe With this Benignity did he tolerate their boldnes and cure their rudenes and their want of that faith and confidence which they ought to haue had in our Lord. THE IV. CHAPTER Of other examples of that Benignity which our Lord vsed towards his disciples enduring their imperfections and sweetly curing their ignorances and other defects THE two brothers Saint Iames and Saint Iohn came to Christ our Lord Matt. 10. Luc. 22. to demaund at his hands the two prime dignities of his kingdome and herein they serued them selues of the intercession of their mother Now the rest of the Apostles seeing the pretension of these two grow into indignation against them and were offended and troubled much to see that they would offer to outstrip all the rest and it moued a strife amongst them to know which of all the company was to be the greatest in the schoole and kingdome of Christ our Lord. These faults of the Apostles being so worthy of repreheÌ„sion for faults they were as wee haue declared elswhere in some of them of ambition in the rest of enuy and such faultes in men who had been so long aduised and instructed by the doctrine and example of Christ our Lord which was euer preaching and perswading humility and charity did well deserue to make our Lord offended with them that he should reproue them after a serious and sharpe manner that he should punish theÌ„ seuerely yet our most meeke Lord hauing compassion of their ignorance and rudenes which was the roote from whence those faultes did spring vsed so great Benignity towards them and cured their defects with so great sweernes that as for the two with onely looking vpon them and giuing them answere to that petition which their mother had presented he made them see that fault into which they had fallen by making their mother their intercessour for that suit and by desiring to couer vnder the piety of a mother the inordinate appetite which they had to be preferred before the rest and with onely saying You know not what you aske he corrected and cured all the ambition which they had and so reprehending their fault he did withall excuse them by imputing it not to malice but to the ignorance of men who knew not what was best for themselues And as for the other ten he reformed them also by calling them to him aduertising them that to desire commaund and aduantage ouer others was the vice of Gentiles who lodged not their heart vpoÌ„ heaueÌ„ly but on earthly thinges and that they were not to doe so but to imitate their Lord and Master who came into this world not to be serued by men but to serue them yea and to giue his life for them With this Benignity Christ our Lord did tolerate and cure those so great defects of his disciples So saith S. Chrysostome As those two Apostles did obey the inordinate appetite of flesh blood and did beg of our Lord the two chief seates in his kingdome so also the other ten obeying the like euill inclination of flesh and blood were offended and afflicted by the demaund and pretension of the former two For it was ill done by the two to desire to be preferred before the rest and the rest conceiued it to be an affront to them that the two should be preferred before them And Saint Hierome addeth That our Lord who was al meeke and and humble did not sharpely reprehend that inordinate appetite of honour wherewith those two came to him nor yet the indignation and enuy which the ten conceiued against the two but he treated them and instructed theÌ„ and â—ured them all with supreme Benignity and meeknes The Apostles being in the garden with our Lord the night of his PassioÌ„ he admonished them to remaine watchfull in prayer least otherwise they might fall into that temptation tribulation which was coÌ„ming towards them But they the while laid themselues to sleepe and our Lord hauing been at Prayer and going to visit them and finding that they were fallen a sleepe did wish them a second time to watch and pray and he said Why sleepe you rise vp to watch and pray least els you be ouercome by temptation And hauing giuen them this lesson he returned againe to Prayer and after went to see them a second time and finding them asleepe yet againe he said nothing to them A third time he went to Prayer and a third time he went to see them and finding them still sleeping as being oppressed by the great sorrow they had he said to them sleepe on and take your rest And so he left them for a while till the time was come wheÌ„ his enemies who were to apprehend him were approaching Then he turned towards them said It is enough rise vp let vs goe for the hower is already come wherein the Sonne of maÌ„ is to be deliuered ouer into the hands of sinners This was a
vncleanes the horrour of their diseases and without any feare also of contagion would go to the sicke and would be seruing them vpon his knees and regaling them with extreame Benignity And this he performed with so great cheerfullnes and estimation of this office as if visibly he had beheld the person of Christ our Lord in euery one of those poor people And finding on day a leaper whose nose whose very eyes were eaten out with the leprousy who was become euen abhominable to all that saw him to this man he vsed extraordinary tendernes and gaue particular regaloes and serued him vpon his knees putting the meat into his mouth with his owne hands and giuing him the wine water which he was to drinke The Count Elzearus of Ariano had euery day in his house twelue Leapers he washed their feet and gaue them meate and not content with what he did in his owne house he went to the hospitalls where they liued and there putting himselfe vpon his knees before them he would wash their feet and kisse and clense and tie vp their soares One day in the hospital he found six leapers and some of them had their lips and mouthes so eateÌ„ that they could not be looked vpon without horrour and the holy Count went to them and comforted them by word of mouth and afterward kissed the soares of euery one of them and this charity was so acceptable to God that instantly they were all cured and the house was filled with a most fragrant odour Not onely did Christ our Lord approue this worke by curing those leapers who had been touched by his â—eruaÌ„t but himself also was pleased to appeare to him in forme of a leper that so he might receiue the same seruice and regalo which was affoarded to the rest Surius relateth in the life of Saint Ethbinus the Abbot whose feast is celebrated vpon the 19. of October that another holy Priest going with him by the fieldes to his Monastery they encountred in the way a poore leper all full of soares and deepely groaning vpon the ground where he was laid They came to him comforted him and hauing much coÌ„passion of his misery they asked him what he would haue and offered him all the seruice they could performe although it were to giue him of their very flesh The leper said the thinge which I desire of you is that because my nose is so ful of corruption and filth you would asswage my grief by making it cleane They doe soe and Ethbinus takes him in his armes and raiseth him vp from the ground and the Priest comes clenseth the corruption of his sore with his to uÌ„g In that very instant wherin they beganne this worke of so great Charity and Benignity there appeered Angels from heauen close by the leaper and there appeared also a Crosse which was placed ouer his head and the leaper rose vp whole all full of splendor and beauty and they saw cleerly that it was Christ our Lord. And when he was a little mounted vp he said Yea were not ashamed of mee in my afflictions neither will I be ashamed to confesse you and to admit you as my seruants in my kingdome and when this was spoken he vanished and ascended vp to heauen The two Saints were amased and full of mighty ioy and could not satisfie themselues with praising God for the great fauor he had shewed them by appearing in the forme of an poore sicke man and for vouchsafing to receaue that poor seruice at their hand and to reward that with so great bounty as to giue them an assured hope that they should enioy him in his kingdome There haue also been many Queenes and great Ladies in the Church of Christ our Lord who haue imitated his Benignity towards sicke persons Fortunatus the Bishop relates of Radegundis the holy Queene of FraÌ„ce whose feast is celebrated in August that shee made an Infirmarie into which she gathered and wherein shee cured a great multitude of sicke persons and shee her selfe would serue them and licke the corruption of their soares euen the wormes which grew therein and she would clense their heads cut their haire And especially she did this to leprous woemen whom she would embrace and kisse and anoint and cure and serue at table with great sweetnes of loue The Queen Donna Isabel daughter to Don Petro King of Arragon and neece of S. Isabell daughter of the King of Hungary who was married to Don Dionysio King of Portugall and who for her sanctity is publikely reputed and serued in Portugall as a Saint by leaue of Pope Leo did not content herselfe to giue all the goods she had to poore people who were sicke but shee herselfe would be seruing and curing them in her owne person And for this purpose she would cause both men and woemen who were sicke of loathsome infirmities as soares and leprosies and cankers to be sought forth secretly brought into her Palace and there shee cleansed and cured and serued and regaled them with all the expressions of pietie that she could make she would kisse the feet the soares of the leprous woemen One day washing the feet of a woman who was leprous the woman hid one of them because it had been much eaten with the canker and there distilled forth corrupt matter which gaue a most loathsom sauour The QueeÌ„ made one of her woemen draw forth the leprous foote put it in a basen that she might wash it When this was done there came such a pestiferous sauour from that foote that the Queenes woemen not being able to endure it went all out of the roome The Queene remaining alone with the leaper did gently touch the foote with her hand for feare of hurting it and she cleaÌ„sed it and stooping kist it with that horrible sore which it had And Christ our Lord being pleased to discouer how much gust be taketh in such workes of piety did entirely cure the leaper at the instant when the Queene kist her foote Now wee also are to imitate Christ our Lord and his Saints in this sweet and benigne kind of charity towards poore sicke persons and wee must visit them in their houses and hospitalls and infirmaries and wee must serue and cleanse and cure and coÌ„fort them and prouide them the best wee may of all things necessary And howsoeuer wee may be placed in great height of nobility and dignity yet must we not disdaine to affoard such seruices regaloes to poore sicke people since this was done by Christ our Lord who is the King of glory and many Christian Kings and Queenes haue done the same for loue of him And it is a great honour and glory for vs to be able to do a worke so acceptable and pleasing to Christ our Lord and so profitable to our owne soules and of so great edification and good example to our neighbours and which hath the assurance of so
corrupt intention OVr Lord shewed great Benignity in yeelding so liberally and sweetly to all that which the persōs who came to him desired of him with good intention and true desire of finding remedy by his meanes but he discouered it much more in yeelding liberally to that which was desired of him with a corrupt minde and with a meaning to calumniate him and to drawe some word out of his mouth or to note some action wherby they might defame him and condemne him to death There came to him a man of the Lawe Luc. 10. after a counterfeit manner to tempt him and he asked him what he was to doe for the obtaining of eternall life but our Lord did not discouer his treachery nor reprehended his wickednes but graunted that which he desired instructing him with wordes full of sweetnes concerning the truth of what he was to know and doe for the obtaining of eternall life There came a Pharisee to him Matth. 22. who was learned in the Lawe to aske him which was the greatest commaundment of the Lawe and he came with a malitious minde and not with a desire to vnderstand the truth but to finde matter whereof to accuse him And yet he without shewing any feeling or disgust either in his countenance or wordes did answere to the questiō with much facility suauity and he taught him the truth The Pharisees did often inuite him to eate with them Luc. 7. 11. Matth. 22. not with charity but with a peruerse and malitious intention which was to see if he did or said any thing which might be taxed and finding nothing whereof they could take hould wherewith to hurt him they procured to serue themselues of his piety and religiousnes towardes the making good their ill purpose and therefore they inuited him vpon their Sabboth daies and would place sicke persons before him to the end that curing them vpon the Sabboth they might accuse him for not obseruing it And our Lord knowing the malice and wicked intention wherewith they inuited him did not yet excuse himselfe from going but with great facility graunted the suite they made accepted their inuitation and he went to their houses and did eate with them and comfort them by his presence illuminate them by his doctrine and edify them by his example And though he vsed most exact temperance in eating and drinking yet to accommodate himselfe to them to shew himselfe affable and benigne towards them he fed vpon those ordinary meats which they vsed And euen this was a proofe of his very vnspeakeable Benignity that coming into the world to suffer for man and carrying such an intense loue towards the Crosse and such a most ardent desire to abstaine from all earthly comfort and regalo and to take all that to himselfe which was most painfull and grieuous that so he might suffer the more for man and satisfy the diuine Iustice more perfectly and discouer and exercise that loue so much the more which he carryed both to the eternall Father and to the whole race of mankinde yet neuertheles he did in many things remit much of this rigour at some times and did both in his feeding and cloathing serue himselfe of ordinary and vsuall things so to shew himselfe more appliable and sweet towards them with whō he conuersed and fed to make himselfe more inuitable by all men and to giue them all the greater hope of their saluation So saith the venerable Abbot Euthymius It was fit that our Lord who came to take away finne should be benigne and sweet and that he should accommodate himselfe to the weakenes of men to gaine them for heauen as he did and for this cause he went to the table of sinners and fed vpon their meates though he did it in a most temperate and religious manner as it becometh holy men to doe And although at times he condescended thus to the vsuall custome of men for the winning of them he did not for all this giue ouer his manner of austere and painfull life which he also exercised at certaine times as namely during those forty daies which he fasted in the desert This was said by Euthymius wherby it is cōfirmed that so to admit of the inuitatiō of sinfull people and especially such as did inuite him with a malitious minde as if it had been but to eate with them was a worke of supreme Benignity whereby he shewed his most sweet loue in the strength whereof he had a meaning to cōfort and saue all the world Especially he shewed this vnspeakeable Benignity in the time of his Passion For being in the house of Caiphas Matth. 23. Luc. 22. before that Councell of vniust Iudges they asking him whether he wore Christ and the Sonne of God or no our Lord seeing that they asked it not with a desire of knowing the truth or for the doing of Iustice but onely from his answere to take occasion of blaspheming him and condemning him to death and accusing him to Pilate to the end that he might execute that vniust sentence which they had giuen against him And obseruing that by reason they were so wicked so vaine and proud they were most vnworthy of any answere yet neuertheles that soueraigne Maiesty of Christ the Kinge of glory refused not to giue them answere and disdained not to speake to them but in very modest wordes was content to declare to them who he was by saying thus Herafter when my Passion is at an end the Sonne of man shall be sitting at the right hand of the power of God which was as much as to say that he was to raigne discouer his power and authority as he was God coequall to the eternall Father And they enducing another question hereupon saying Therefore belike thou art the sonne of God he answered also to that saying your selues say that I am so which was to answere truth but with very modest and humble words whereby though he gaue to vnderstand that in very truth he was the Sonne of God yet he affirmed it not expressely as it was fit not to doe to such as would not profit by it though the answere had been more expresse cleer And by answering them after this manner he also shewed his inclination to answere them more plainely and directly to what they asked if they would haue knowen the truth to haue beleeued it And this he signified by saying If I tell you what you aske you will not beleeue mee and if I aske you any thing to the end that I may teach you truth you will not answere mee Our Lord by answering these questions which were asked by Iudges so wicked so cruell and so vndeseruing of any respect at this hands did shew how free his heart was from all passion and choler since he answered with so great serenity peace of minde and therby he preuented that aspersion which they would haue cast vpon him if he had been wholly
the tempest he began with teares to recommend himself to Christ our Lord and to beg remedy at his hands He passed in this anguish six whole daies without eating any thing and still continuing in this affliction Christ our Lord appeared to him in great brightnes and beauty and comforted him and fed him and commaunded him to cut the mast which was the ordinary remedy wherof the ship seemed capable in that extremity For though our Lord was resolued to deliuer the poore man yet he was pleased withall that he should also do his part He put himselfe therfore to cut the mast and because he alone was not able to doe it the Angells of heauen helped him in it When this visit was at an end and the man had disposed himselfe to sleepe our Lord came againe and appeared to him and gently touching his eare with his hand and gently pulling it he waked him and required him to goe about the doing of those things which were necessary for his nauigatiō and in that which himselfe could not doe he had the assistance of the Angells Another time he appeared to him sitting in the pupp of the ship where the sterne is wont to be letting him see that it was he who gouerned her The good man came to the feet of our Lord and perceiuing that he vouchsaffed to be so familiar and Benigne towards him that he did so cherish and inuite him to himselfe he tooke great courage and confidence and bent his head downe sometime towards his sacred feet and sometimes reposed it in his bosome Our Lord departed then hauing both by word and deed affoarded those great fauours and regaloes of so great Benignity to this old Catechumenus And the ship being directed and conducted by the fauour of heauen sailed three and twenty daies by sea and and passing by Africke and Sicily and by the Faro of that Iland he came at last to the coast of Lucana which is the lower part of Calabria There the inhabitants did receiue him and were all eye witnesses of the miracle seeing him come safe in a ship which was all defeated without sterne or men to gouerne her From thence they conducted the old man to Saint Paulinus who receiued him with great loue and baptised him and whereas first his name was Valgius he called him now by the name of Victor And the Saint affirmes that this was a very well conditioned and a sincere innocent kinde of man and that he would recount this benefit and apparition of Christ our Lord with so great tēdernes and deuotion that whosoeuer heard him could not choose but weepe from the heart By this example and many others ouer which I passe for breuities sake Christ our Lord hath discouered that the Benignity and and sweetnes of his condition which he vsed towards miserable mē whilest he liued in this world in mortall flesh is still conserued by him and still he vseth it towards such as will profit by it THE XIII CHAPTER Of the Benignity and curtesy of speech which the holy Apostles vsed in imitation of Christ our Lord. THis Benignity of speaking in sweet ciuill words which was vsed by Christ our Lord towards men he commaunded his disciples in the Ghospell that they should also vse towards their neighbours And so when he sent them to preach to the people of Israell he commaunded that as soon as they were entring into any house they should instantly salute them who were in it saying peace be to this house desiring and begging of God the most holy gift of peace for them all And this was to teach them that they were to be curteous and affable and benigne to all them with whom they conuersed The Apostles obserued this order very exactly S. Peter the Prince of the Church called the wicked Iewes his Brethren who had crucified our Lord saying Act. 23. Brethren I confesse that you did it by ignorance doe penance and you shall be forgiuen And such as were conuerted he called his fellowes and equalls 2. Pet. 1. in the faith and grace of Christ our Lord. And the great Euāgelist Saint Iohn called the faithfull his much beloued children And writing to a Christian woman called Electa he saith in the letter to the Lady Electa and her children whom I truly loue And writing to another Christian called Caius he saith to my much beloued Caius whome I doe very truly loue But what then shall wee say of Saint Paule With what Benignity with what curtesy and good māners and with what regalo did he speake to all men For speaking to the Iewes who still continued in their infidelity he saith Act. 13. Men and Brethren and the sonnes of Abraham to you was that word sent from heauen which giueth saluation And speaking to the Christians who had been conuerted from gentility he saith Philip. 4. My brethren much beloued and much desired who are my ioy and my crowne And in another place he saith 1. Tim. 2. You are my hope my ioy and my glory And speaking to Kinge Agrippa who was a wicked Prince by nation a Gentile and by sect a Iew he made him an exordium full of estimation curtesy and good fashion saying I bold my self happy ô Kinge Agrippa in that I am to defend my selfe before thee concerning those thinges whereof I am accused by the Iewes especially since thou knowest the customes and questions which are amongst them and therefore I beg thy patience in hearing mee By these few wordes so full of diuine sweetnes and eloquence he made him so propitious and gained so farre vpon his good will as to make him gladly and with great attention giue eare to a discourse and sermon full of diuine mysteries And speaking to Festus the Iudge a Gentile and an Idolater hauing heard this word of iniury from his mouth Paule thou speakest like a madd man too much learning hath put thee out of thy wits for him selfe being blind vnderstood nothing but earthly thinges and so the mysteries of heauen which S. Paule expressed seemed madnes to him he answered thus Most excellent Festus I am not madd the wordes which I haue spoken to thee are full of sobriety and truth What admirable Benignity was this not to be offended or disgusted nor a whit altered by such a great affront as it was to be called mad man and to answer with so great serenity of minde and so great sweetnes of wordes so full of curtesy and good manners as to call him good or Excellēt who was an impious Idolater and he might say so too with truth for although he were not Good or excellent in his Religion nor in that kinde of vertue which maketh a man iust in the sight of almighty God yet he was very vertuous in conuersation and morally vertuous and so vsing a word of a double signification in a true sence he honoured him as much as he could yet still speaking truth The Apostle did much declare his Benignity
was then to come very suddenly whereby they were put into much disorder and trouble before he reprehended this lightnes of theirs he praised them saying 2. Thess 1. Wee must giue many thanks to God for the great encrease of yours faith which is growing euery day and for the encrease also of your fraternall charity which aboundeth its euery one of you and encreaseth daily both by your louing and doing good to one another But when he had praised them in these other words he benignely reprehendeth them saying chap. 2. Wee beseech you brethren by the coming of Christ our Lord to iudgment and by the glorious and blessed vnion which wee are all to haue together at that day that you depart not so easily from giuing credit to vs and from hauing the true sence of those thinges which you haue learned of vs and that you be not troubled or frighted by what others tell you and in a word that none may haue power to deceiue you By this diuine artifice the sacred Doctour of the nations did reprehend them when first he had comforted and encouraged thē by recording that vertue which he knew to be in them and the good opinion which he had of them to the end that hauing cōpunction to see that they had failed of the good which they had begunne they might the better accept of the reproofe he gaue them and so might reforme themselues thereby THE XIX CHAPTER How wee must praise vertue for the making it be more esteemed and of the examples which Christ our Lord gaue vs to this purpose WEe must also praise the vertue of good men to declare how great a good that is and how that which seemeth little and of meane value in the sight of mē is indeed very great and hath a most high reward in the sight of God to the end that other men may esteem greatly of it and carry much affection to it labour hard to acquire it Let vs deliuer some examples hereof Saint Peter Matt. 16. confessed to Christ our Lord that he was the true Sonne of God saying Thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God It seemed a small matter and of no merit that Saint Peter hauing conuersed so long with Christ our Lord seen with his owne eyes so great and so euident miracles and heard such doctrine contemplated such an exāple of life that he should piously incline his heart to belieue that he was the true Messias the naturall Sonne of God For this did not cost him the shedding of his blood nor the tormenting of his body with affliction and penance but only to produce a pious affect of the will and to performe an act of obedience in the vnderstanding But Christ our Lord praised him and gaue testimony that this inward act of his was of supreme value and estimation in the sight of Almighty God and that on earth he should receiue admirable fauouurs from God for the same that in heauen he should enioy an immēse reward of glory And that frō that instāt he might begin to be happy by that certen hope and pawne which was giuen him of that infinite good which he was afterward to possesse and enioy during all eternity All this he declared by saying Blessed art thou Simon the sonne of Ionas for men who are made of flesh and blood were not able with al the humane wisdome they haue to teach thee this truth My celestiall Father it is who hath reueiled it to thee vpon thee will I build my Church and to thee will I giue the keyes of the kingdome of heauen By these words Christ our Lord praised by faith and deuotion of Saint Peter and declared to the world of how soueraigne value before Almighty God and how richly to be rewarded with celestiall and eternall blessings one single act of vertue may be which is performed by a iust mā though it be easily produced and in a short time and how little soeuer it may cost and especially an interiour act of liuely faith which a iust man hath no difficulty at all to performe Christ our Lord being in the Atrium of the Temple Marc. 12. Luc. 21. behoulding thē who were easting almes into the chest which was to serue for the reparation of the Temple for the maintenance of the Priests and for the relief of the poore amōgst the rest of them who cast in their almes which without doubt was then done both by many and in plentifull manner for it was neer Easter at which time there came much people to Ierusalem from all parts there cometh a very poore widow and casteth into the chest two of the least little peeces of money or mites Our Lord seeing her and being pleased to praise her much for the act which shee had done and the almes which shee had giuen called his disciples and pointing out the woman said thus to them This widow hath cast a greater almes into the chest and made a greater present to the Temple then all the rest who haue giuen almes this day And our Lord shewed diuers reasons why shee had giuen more then any of them First because in proportion of her poore condition it was more for her to giue a mite then for others to giue store of crownes And because the rest gaue the almes out of that which did aduance beyond their necessary maintenance and that they gaue not all but a part therof but this widow gaue that which was necessary to her selfe and shee gaue it all But the principall reason which he was pleased to signify vnder this was for that shee gaue her almes with a greater affection and desire to giue and with more ardour of charity then al they which he declared by her hauing giuen all that she had being in precise necessity thereof for her owne reliefe In this sorte did Christ our Lord praise the almes of this poore widow and by praising her he manifested to all the children of his Church how highly the good worke of a iust person is valued in the sight of Almighty God the great account he makes therof and how he will reward it in heauen and how he meanes not to giue the reward according to the quantity of the worke but according to the good will and loue of God and our neighbour wherewith it is performed He will also haue vs learne frō hence first to esteem greatly of the good works which our neighbours do how litle soeuer they may be and and approue them and praise thē before men for their edification and much to value those good men who doe them though they be poore of meane condition and estate since God who sees their hearts doth prize them much And secondly he will haue vs learne by this to be animated towards the doing of good works and to exercise the acts of Religion and charity with much affection and desire to please God and to doe more then wee doe although
all that which may giue him any disgust or paine And so Benignity falls out to be the act and exercise of Charity with that perfection which wee haue declared and interiourly it embraceth the act of beneuolence and loue and exteriourly the exercise of beneficence liberality affability and of all sweetnes in conuersation It is also one of the fruites of the Holy Ghost For an act of vertue in regard that it proceedeth froÌ„ thence and giueth gust to him who performeth it is called a fruite and therefore Benignity being an act of Charity and causing delight in him by whom it is possessed is accounted amongst the fruits of the Holy Ghost All this is confessed by the Saints when they speake of Benignity Saint Isidorus saith That man is said to be Benigne who doth good with a good will and vseth sweetnes in his wordes And Saint Anselmus declaring what Benignity is saith thus Benignity is a good affection of the will a serenity of heart in vertue whereof a man doth for Gods sake giue all he can after a gratious and cheerfull manner and discourseth and conuerseth gently and sweetly with his neighbours And Saint Thomas explicating the nature of Benignity saith that it is the very sweetnes tendernes of Charity which spreads communicates it self exteriourly that as natural fier doth melt mettel make it flow so the fier of loue which is Benignity maketh a maÌ„ scatter what he hath towards the succour of the necessities of his neighbours This is that which the Saints say of Benignity and the summe of it all is this that it is the tendernes of Charity which doth not only communicate a mans exteriour goods to his neighbour but together with them it communicates his owne very bowells which is to discouer both by wordes and workes the dearnes sweetnes of Charity The Apostle declareth this by saying Charity is Benigne Which signifieth that it makes the man who possesseth it not to be straight handed but apt to communicate his goods and not to be harsh or bitter but that he communicate euen his very hart by conuersing with all men after an affable and sweet manner And to giue vs to vnderstand this truth the holy Scripture doth by one the selfe same Hebrew and Greeke word which signifieth Benignity in doing good signify also a softnes and sweetnes in the manner of shewing mercy And so whereas Dauid saith Our Lord is sweet towards all another letter saith Our Lord is benigne towards all And whereas he saith That maÌ„ is gentle sweet who sheweth mercy another translation saith The man who sheweth mercy is Benigne And therfore S. Basil when he would explicat what it was for a man to be Benigne saith that it is he who doth liberally enlarge himselfe to doe good to all such as are in necessity And he confirmeth it by that Psalme which saith Our Lord is benigne towards all and by that other which also saith That a man is Benigne who sheweth mercy and imparteth his goods to such as are in necessity In this Benignity did Christ our Lord instruct vs and perswade vs to it by many examples Mysteries of his holy life which wee wil eÌ„deauour to declare The first and principall Mystery wherein he discouered his Benignity was that of his Incarnation In that the most high sonne of God was pleased to become a naturall man to appeare visibly in the world in mortall flesh obnoxious to the miseries and penalties of other men and in that he did all this to doe good to man and to draw him to his loue and so to saue him not onely did he discouer an immense loue towards vs but a loue which was also most sweet and dear And not onely did he communicate his blessings to vs but he also did it with supreme liberality and gust and ioy of his owne sacred heart And together with his blessings he communicated to vs his very selfe namly his body his blood his blessed soule and his diuinity and all that which he hath yea and euen all that which he is he communicated to vs by many admirable mysterious waies This did the Apostle signify by saying WheÌ„ in the time of grace the Benignity immeÌ„se loue of our God and Sauiour to man did manifest it selfe to the world he saued and freed vs from our sinnes not by the title of Iustice and the merit of our workes which were not of any valew without Christ our Lord for the arriuing to that end but through his owne great mercy and most gratious bouÌ„ty and by meanes of that sacred Lauatory which is holy Baptisme whereby wee are engendred a second time to be the sonnes of God and renewed by a spirituall generation renouation which is wrought by the holy Ghost which Holy Ghost the eternall Father hath by meanes of his gifts and graces infused and coÌ„municated to vs in great abundaÌ„ce through the merits of Christ our Lord to the end that being iustified through the grace of the same Lord wee might from this instant become heires of eternall life which now wee hould by certaine hope and which hereafter wee shall haue in actuall possession This is deliuered by Saint Paule And Saint Bernard vpon these words declaring that Benignity of God which was discouered in this Mystery discourseth thus Before the humanity of Christ our Lord appeared in the word the Benignity of God was hidden from vs. There was already in God this Benignity mercy which in him is eternall but so great Benignity as this was not knowen before nor was there any meanes how to to know it And although it were promised by the Prophets yet men vnderstood it not and felt it not and many did not so much as beleeue it But when that time arriued which had been ordained by the diuine wisedome Almighty God came in mortall flesh and being vested with his sacred Humanity and appearing to the eyes of our flesh blood his Benignity came to be made knowne for by no meanes could he more haue manifested his Benignity then by taking our flesh and by no meanes could he more haue declared his mercy then by vndertaking our misery Let maÌ„ consider and vnderstand from hence how great care God hath of him and how much he esteemeth him and for how mighty an end he made him since he did and suffered so great thinges for him And thus by this Humanity wee may know his Benignity for how much the lesse he became by his Humanity so much the greater doth he shew himselfe to be in bounty and by how much the more he abased himselfe for vs so much the more amiable doth he shew himself to vs. This is said by Saint Bernard and so it is a most clear truth that nothing hath made so great discouery â—o vs of the bounty and Benignity of God nor hath moued obliged vs so to loue and praise him as for that he hath
taken our Humanity And therfore as Dauid saith giue praise to God because he is benigne and good and sing praises to his name because he is sweet Christ our Lord did also discouer to vs his Benignity after a most soueraigne māner in the Mistery of his most holy Natiuity For what loue can be imagined more dear what communication of ones felfe more a morous what dew of heauen more abundant and more sweet then to see that hidden God that God of vengeance that God of those Celestiall Hostes that Iudge of the quicke and dead that Omnipotent in his workes and that Terrible in his iudgments to see him I say become a tender and delicate little Infant hanging close vpon the brests of a Virgin all burning in loue all expiring the sweetnes and dearnes of the same loue towards vs And that he comes to vs not as anciently he came to the children of Israell in Mount Horeb with thunder and lightning and with the terrible sound of the trumpet and with huge flames of materiall fier and with prohibition that no man should approach to the foot of the moūtaine vpon paine of death but that he should come to be borne an Infant and appeare on earth with a most clear and sweet light from heauen to discouer him and with most delightful songes and exultation of Angells who being full of ioy sing Glory to God and peace to men And that instātly then he should recreate and honour those poore shepheards with an Embassage performed by Angells and should inuite them to come visit him and to receiue the comfort of his presence and to be enriched with the gifts of grace through his goodnes And that by his loue and humility and meeknes and sweetnes he should encourage all men to approach towards him and to come to him by faith and obedience and so to take their part of all the riches and benedictions of heauē for being the sonne of the eternall Father be came full of grace and truth He also discouered his Benignity to vs in the vocation of the Magi that first flower of the Gētiles whom he meant to call in after times He calls them instantly as soon as he was borne and he sent no Prophet for them nor any Angell for they had no knowledge of Prophets they were not wont to see Angells and so they might haue rather been estranged by such vnusuall inuitations but condescending to their condition and custome he sent them a starre which by the nouelty thereof might moue thē to a kinde of admiration and to a search of what it might meane and by the secret vertue thereof might be teaching them withall that if signified the birth of the new Kinge and he admonished and inuited them to seeke him by following that starre he gaue them courage not to feare the tyrant Herod and he gaue thē faith and deuotion to know that the Infāt whom they saw new borne was the eternall God that so they might dedicate themselues to do him eternall seruice as to the Kinge and Lord of heauen and earth whom they saw in so great pouerty and contempt for as much as concerned the world All this is the supreme Benignity and most sweet dear loue of God towards man and it inuites vs to seeke him and if wee haue offended him to confide that lamenting our sinnes we shall obtaine pardon of him and that he will receiue vs to his grace and loue For now when he hath already discouered his great Benignity to vs by his sacred Humanity with more reason doth he say that to vs which anciētly he said by the Prophet Ioel be you conuerted to your Lord God for he is Benigne and mercifull and as he is Benigne he taketh gust in dealing gratiously and most liberally with you and in pardoning your offences past and as he is merciful he wil deliuer you from your miseries and from the greatest of them of all which are your sinnes THE II. CHAPTER Of the Benignity which Christ our Lord vsed towards sinners and other very weake and imperfect men supporting and instructing them AFter our Lord had begun to manifest himselfe in Israell and to conuerse with men he discouered and exercised his Benignity many seuerall waies One of them was that such persons as were ignorant tude and very imperfect who came to demaund succour of him he receiued with much sweetnes and condescended to their great weakenes and tolerated their rudenes and after a mild and gentle manner dispossessed them of their ignorance Nicodemus the Pharisee Io. 3. came to Christ to be taught by him and though our Lord saw his great weaknes in that he had not the heart to publish himselfe for the disciple of Christ our Lord nor to confesse his faith for the feare he had to be persecuted by other Pharisees and was ashamed that they should know of him that being an Ancient and Master in the lawe he should goe to Christ to learne the Mysteries of the same Lawe for which reason he went by night that in very secret manner And though our Lord did well discerne his great ignorance and rudenes and that he had no vnderstanding or apprehension of spirituall thinges or diuine Mysteries but that whatsoeuer he said and taught the other did measure and iudge of it by the rule of corporall and sensibles thinges without raising his heart from earth to the consideration of things inuisible diuine notwithstāding all this our benigue Lord did not reproue these so notorious defects with seuerity nor did he exaggerate his ignorance nor reproach him for his rudenes nor condemne him for his inordinate feare nor did he driue him away for his weakenes nor shewed he any wearisomnes or disgust in respect of his crosse answeres but he entertained himselfe at large with him alone and held long discourse with him whereby he did after a sweet manner giue him to vnderstand his ignorance rudenes and he discouered to him the Mysteries which were necessary for his saluation namely the spirituall regeneratiō which is made by Baptisme and the Mystery of the Incarnation which he declared to him by saying that he was in heauen whereby he signified that he was God and in all places at once And by saying also that he was descēded frō heauē he signified that he was true mā He declared also the Mystery of his Passiō by saying that he was to be raised vp to the Crosse as the Brasen Serpēt was lifted vp vpon a pole to the end that as al they who beheld the serpent were cured of their torporall diseases so might all they be healed of their sinnes who would behould and beleeue in him with a liuely faith It was a great Benignity to dissemble or passe by so many defects of a timorous imperfect man and to discourse with him after so louing and sweet a manner to discouer so great Mysteries to a person so rude and weake
great defect in the disciples because they were aduertised of the much danger wherein they were to see themselues that night and they had promised that they would giue their life for our Lord and they had been warned by him two seuerall times in words of great exaggeration and waight that they should watch and pray because they were to be tempted in a grieuous manner and their prayer was to be the meanes for their not being ouercome by that temptation And yet notwithstāding all this they neither watched nor prayed and they suffered themselues to be ouercome by sleepe which was the cause why afterward being ouercome by the temptation they fled all away for feare at the time when our Lord was apprehended and they denyed their Master who was the head and crowne of them all But yet our Lord did suffer and passe by seeke to reforme this so great defect with so great Benignity that finding thē asleepe the first time he corrected them with no other then these gentle wordes Why sleepe you Whereby he would giue them to vnderstand how vaine that confidence was which they had reposed in their owne strength making a promise that they would giue their life for their Lord whereas the while they had not the strength to watch and pray during that little time And when he went to visit them the second time and perceiued them to be ouercome by sleepe through the great weaknes and frailty of imperfect men he dissembled the seeing it and hauing compassion of their infirmity did not reprehend them nor so much as speake a word nor wake them but still let them sleepe And the third time returning to them seing the difficulty they had to ouercome their sleepe in regard of their much sorrow he did not onely passe it ouer but expressely gaue them leaue to repose and rest whilest he was watching and praying and sweating blood for them With this so admirable Benignity and so full of the deernes and sweetnes of loue did Christ our Lord treate his disciples and tolerate their defects and endure the trouble they gaue him and he remoued their ignorances and cured their faults THE V. CHAPTER How wee are to imitate this Benignity of Christ our Lord. THis Benignity must wee vse towards our neighbours in imitation of Christ our Lord and especially it must be done by Superiours towards their Subiects by Teachers towards their Schollers by Masters towards their Seruants and slaues and by Parents towards their children First they must exercise this Benignity by enduring their imperfections negligences and faults not suffering themselues to be ouercome by wrath to wish them any euill or to curse them or giue them iniurious words or any other word of reuenge And to this exteriour patiēce they must add the sweetnes of Benignity in such sorte as that it may be a benigne kinde of sufferance which springeth from the interiour sweetnes of Charity To this did Saint Chrysostome admonish vs who vpon those words of Saint Paul Charity is patient it is benigne discourseth thus There are some who haue patience but they doe not vse it as they ought for although in the exteriour they are silent and dissemble the cause of their disgust yet they doe it with a kinde of bitternes of heart yea and they shew some exteriour vntowardnes and vnderualue of their neighbour and so they grow to offend and prouoke to further wrath euen those very persōs whom they were resolued to tolerate This kinde of patience is not agreeable to charity which is benigne and vseth to suffer with gentlenes and sweetnes both exteriour interiour and whilest it is suffering doth not prouoke a mans neighbour to encrease of anger but rather doth mitigate and appease it For we must not be content to tolerate the faultes of our neighbours after a superficial manner but whilest wee be suffering wee must also admonish and comfort them and thus shall we cure that wound of wrath which they may haue in their hearts Saint Chrysostome declareth that this is to suffer with Benignity Superiors also who haue charge of others must exercise this Benignity prouiding all thinges necessary both for their bodies and soules for their bodies giuing them food cloathing physicke in their sicknes ease in their labours and comfort in their troubles to the end that they may beare them with contentment and for their soules also by giuing them doctrine counselle spirituall consolation and good example which may edify them This doe Prelates owe to their Subiects Lords to their Seruants and slaues and fathers to their children Benignity I say doth require that Superiours make prouision of all thinges necessary both for the body and soule of all such as are vnder their charge not sparingly miserably not with disgust and bitternes and vexation of the inferiours but sufficiently and plentifully according to the necessity of the inferiour to the ability and meanes of the Superiour and that they doe it with facility and suauity and with comfort to the inferiour For to this is the office and charge of a Superiour ordeined not for the honour ease and temporall comfort of the Superiour but for the remedy benefit of the inferiour whom he hath in charge So saith Saint Augustine Wee who are Superiours and Pastors of others haue two capacities the one in that we are Christians the other in that we are Superiours and rulers Our being Christians makes for our selues and vnder that capacity we are to looke to our owne profit fit and good but our being Superiours is for the vse of others and for the complying with this duty wee must procure their benefit whom wee haue in charge This is deliuered by Saint Augustine And although it be true that the Superiour as he is a Superiour is not to looke so carefully to his owne temporall profit as to that of his subiect yet doing that which he ought in his office and complying with them whom he hath vnder his charge he doth also negotiate his owne profit dispatcheth his owne businesse best since he purchaseth spirituall and eternall benedictions thereby All Superiours must also exercise this Benignity by imposing the burdens of their imploymēts and commaundements in such sorte as that the inferiours may be able to carry them on with comfort Let them measure out the labours the businesse and the offices wherewith they will charge their subiects by the strength and talents of euery one of them to the end that they may not carry them with deepe sighes nor be forced to faint vnder thē but that they may be able to discharge them with a cheerfull and contented heart And let them moderate their directions and cōmaundments whereby they rule and gouerne according to the capacity and talent of the inferiours that so they disposing thēselues to obey and to doe their duties may performe them with facility and profit of their soules So faith Saint Chrysostome If thou wilt proceed
like a man who indeed is holy be austere and rigorous towards thy selfe and benigne and pitteous towards others and let men see and heare it said of thee that thou commaundest others to doe thinges which are light and easy to be performed and that thy selfe vndergoest heauy and performest hard thinges As for that which concerneth the chastisement and correction of inferiours the vertue of Benignity doth not teach that they should not be corrected for this vertue is not contrary either to that of Iustice or to that of Charity both which oblige Princes that they should correct chastise their vassailes Lords and Masters their seruants slaues parents their children For the Apostle faith of that Superiour who gouerneth the cōmōwealth It is not in vaine that he hath power and authority to punish as we see by the sword he carrieth but it is giuen him vpon great cause and reason and for a great good vse for he is the Minister of God for the punishment of such as doe ill and for the execution of iustice vpō their persons That which Benignity doth teach and exact is this that since correctiō and punishment is necessary and most important for the generall good of the commonwealth and for the particular members therof which is to the end that they who are faulty may amend and the rest may feare punishment and take warning by others it must be executed with that moderation sweetnes which may carry most proportiō to this end as Christ our Lord hath taught vs by his example This moderation sweetnes consisteth in that when the inferiours commit small faultes the Superiours doe not exaggerate and enforce them too much nor correct them with too grieuous punishments but that they moderate their wordes and deedes according to the fault So faith Saint Dorotheus Be not to great nor too seuere a punisher of faultes and defects which are not great And so also when faultes are cōmitted through ignorāce or through great weakenes or vpon some vehement temptatiō and not with malice obserue that moderation in making the reprehension and inflicting the punishment as that you affront not the offender with ill wordes but that the paine he is to suffer may lessen according to the ignorāce and weaknes wherewith the fault was made And sometimes when the person who sinned through ignorance or passion is such as that of himselfe he growes to know his fault and hath much compunction for it and doth cordially put himselfe vpon amendment and that noe hurt or ill example of others groweth by it the vertue of Benignity doth require that the punishment be remitted or moderated at least very much So saith Saint Gregory Some faultes are to be punished very gently for when men sinne not by malice but by ignorance or weakenes it is necessary that the correction and punishmēt be tempered with great moderation And in another place as the fault of them who sinne by ignorance may be tolerated in some sorte so they who commit it wittingly and wilfully must be seuerely punished And that it is more conuenient to pardon a fault sometimes then to inflict punishment the Venerable Bede doth affirme saying Not allwaies are they to be punished who offend for sometimes clemency doth more good both to the Superiour for the exercise of his patience and to the inferiour for his amendment When faultes are great vnexcusable by any ignorance and that it be necessary to inflict due punishment that which Benignity requires is that the Superiour who correcteth and punisheth be not moued to it by anger and passion but that in his heart he haue pitty of the delinquent and that he commit no excesse in punishing but that he temper and moderate it in such sorte as that it may not seeme cruelty or too much rigour for els he who correcteth and punisheth will receiue more hurt by his owne passion and the excesse which he vseth then he who is punished will receiue good So doth Saint Gregory aduise speaking to a Superiour Let such as are good finde by experience that thou art sweet towards them and let such as are euill finde by experience that thou hast zeale in correcting and punishing their faults In which punishment thou art to obserue this order that thou loue the person and that thou abhorre and persecute the vice procuring that the vice may be destroyed that the person may be amended and preserued and according to this let the punishment be moderated in such sorte that it reach not soe farre as to proue cruelty so thou happen to hurt and to loose him whom thou desirest to amend keepe And to the end that the correction punishment may be imposed with that moderatiō which Benignity requires let the Superiout procure that he do it not whilest he findes himselfe angry and altered or enflamed with choler but let him stay till his heart be calme and quiet And before he punish or reproue let him lift vp his heart to God and desire fauour and grace from heauen to the end that he may do it with such moderation as is fit and to such end as he ought which is that the delinquēt may amend and so others may take warning by his example that the diuine Maiesty may be serued and glorified by all This doth S. Dorotheus declare to vs by these wordes Our Predecessors forefathers the holy men did teach vs that if any Superiour being in anger did reprehend his subiect chollerickely in such sorte as reprehending the other he satisfied his owne passion anger it did amount to be a kinde of reuenge and he discouered the vitiousnes of his owne heart wherby he disedified them whom he was to reforme And for this reason it is fit that first he bridle his owne choler and be wholly in the hands of reason before he punish other folkes All this moderation which is necessary to the end that correction and punishment be imposed with Benignity the Apostle teacheth vs speaking thus to his disciple Saint Timothy Argue that is to say conuince such as erre with reasons and authorities and entreate thē also Which is as much as to say admonish the good by way of request and in sweet manner to the end that they may profit such others as are weake and pusillanimous to the end that they may get vp into heart and reprehend and correct the wicked with feruour zeale but yet this you must doe with much patiēce In a word you must correct such as are faulty without shewing your selfe angry or in passion but let them see that you haue a calme and quiet heart THE VI. CHAPTER Of the Benignity which Christ our Lord did vse in touching sicke and leprous persons with his owne sacred hands IT belōgeth to Benignity to shew the sweetnes of loue in life and conuersation with men And a great sweetnes of loue it is that a man placed in dignity should drawe neere to
a poore sicke person full of soares should speak to him in most amiable manner and should touch his soares and clense them and cure them and comfort him with such a regalo as this would bee And so much more eminent as that Lord were who should desceÌ„d to this office so much more base as the sicke person were and so much the more horrible as his disease were and so much the more often and so many more as the sicke persons were to whom he should vse this charity so much the greater and so much the more admirable would this sweetnes of condition and Benignity fall out to be Well then all this was done by Christ our Lord who being the Kinge both of heauen and earth and the Lord of infinite Maiesty did touch with his owne blessed hands those poore base persons who were sicke of horrible diseases and who came to him with desire of remedy and he cured them and left them full of comfort and this he did many times and to innumerable persons S. Luke and Saint Marke relate how our Lord beginning to preach in Galilea after his fast in the desert came to the Citty of Caphernaum and being gone forth to preach in a Sinagogue and the euening being already come on all they who had sicke persons in their power brought them before him And those sicke people being many Marke 1. Luke 4. and their diseases of many kindes for they came from seuerall parts of that Prouince to hunt after their health by his meanes he touched euery one of them with his owne sacred hands and gaue them perfect health the whole Citty the while standing al amazed at that wonder to see how he touched them one by one and how instantly withall they were cured Hauing once preached a sermoÌ„ in the Mount he descended towards the plaine Matth. 8. Mark 1. and there came many troupes of people to him Amongst the rest there approached a maÌ„ all loaden with leaprousy and in the presence of al that multitude of people he placed himselfe vpon his knees before our Lord but a litle separated from him and besought him to cure him of that leaprousy saying O Lord if thou wilt thou canst make mee whole Now our Lord could haue cured him with the least word yet not coÌ„teÌ„ting himself with that but to the that he might shew the more Benignity he extended his hand so farre as to reach him and touch his leprous body saying I will be thou cleane and instantly he was cured After the mystery of the TraÌ„sfiguration Matth. 17 Marke 9. there came troupes of people who were expecting him and they brought a lunaticke before him who was extremely tormented by a diuell Our Lord commaunded the diuel to depart who yet at his going out did treate the young man so ill as that he fell to the ground like a dead body And whereas our Lord could easily haue coÌ„maunded him to rise vp or els appoint one of his disciples to raise him he did not so but himselfe went towards the young man and tooke him by the hand and raised him vp and then the young man being touched and assisted by our Lord who sustained him in his handes did rise Whilest he was in Bethsaida Marc. 8. they brought a blind maÌ„ to him that he might cure him which he would not doe in the Citty before that people but abroad in the field And when he might haue commauÌ„ded them who led him to conduct him forth of the Citty he was not pleased to serue himselfe of any other in that office but himselfe would needes take the poore blinde man by the hand and drew him a side into a part of the field out of the company and himselfe lead him and became his guide and to cure him laid his hand vpon his eyes and to discouer his Benignity to vs he vouchsaffed himselfe in person to be the leader of a poore blinde man which is a worke of so much humility and meannes Not onely did he vse this kinde of Benignity with men but also poore sicke woemen The mother in lawe of Saint Peter Matth. 8. Marc. 1. was sicke of a violent feauer He went into her house to visit her he drew neer her he tooke her by the hand and he raised her vp commaunding the feauer to forsake her so might he haue coÌ„maunded her to rise alone but he would not do so but would needs raise her vp himselfe to discouer his Benignity so much the more Our Lord being preaching in a Sinagogue one Saboth day Luke 13. there came before him a sicke miserable creature bowed crookedly downe euen to the ground and tormented by a diuell and our most pitteous Lord called her gently to him made her come neer him and laid his hands vpon her with great Benignity and gaue her perfect health That which our Lord did with these sicke and miserable persons whereof wee haue spoken he did at other times with other innumerable sicke people who were subiect to horrible and loath some diseases for all the world came to him And they who were so weake and wasted that they could not come of theÌ„selues were brought to him by others so they drew neer him and he touched them with his most blessed haÌ„ds to cure them Now that our Lord himselfe should raise sicke persons out of their beds or from the ground to which they were fallen did proceed in him from an vn speakeable and most tender loue who not onely was disposed to doe men good but also to coÌ„fort honour and regale such persons as he did good vnto which was a fruite of the supreme sweetnes of his Benignity and loue THE VII CHAPTER How the Saints haue imitated this Benignity of Christ our Lord towards sicke persons THis example of Christ our Lord hath generally been imitated much by holy men who thereby haue been moued animated to serue sicke persons and to cure them and to raise them in their armes and to clense them with their owne hands And this hath been done not onely by meane persons but by principall and great Lord who not being content with giuing almes to poore sicke people and to mainteine them by their bounty haue themselues been glad to serue them and striue to cure them sometimes being sicke of leprosies and other most loathsome corrupt soares and haue with extreme Benignity done all imaginable offices of charity and tendernes yea eueÌ„ so farre as to kisse their leprosies and soares And to the end that God might declare how much this tender and benigne kinde of charity was pleasing to him he did oftentimes concurre by miraculously curing those sicke persons who had been touched by his seruants Let vs relate some examples of this truth Saint Lâ—wis Kinge of France vsed to visit the hospitalls where there was a great number of persons sicke of diseases both grieuous and dangerous and extreamely loathsome withall and yet the King without loathing that
immense a reward in the kingdome of heauen THE VIII CHAPTER Of the Benignity which Christ our Lord did vse to diuers blinde men hearkning to them expecting them and illuminating them and how wee are to imitate him in this Benignity IT doth also belong to this vertue of Benignity to giue that to ones neighbour which he desireth with facility and sweetnes yea and more then that which he desireth and not to reflect vpon the indignity of him who asketh nor vpon the authority greatnes of that Lord who may need the like but to consider what is agreable to charity which whensoeuer it is great it communicateth it selfe to all and doth good to all and taketh order that in many things the high and lowe the great and little men of the world be made equall to one another Christ our Lord left vs many examples of this truth Saint Luke chap. 18. relateth how once coming to the Citty of Iericho a blinde man neer the way was asking almes and when he heard the noise of the people in company of our Lord and vnderstood that it was Iesus of Nazareth who passed by he began to cry out and say Iesus thou sonne of Dauid haue mercy on me And although the people bad him hould his peace yet still he continued in crying out and beseeching our Lord that he would free him from the misery wherin he was Our Lord heard his cry and deteined himselfe in the high way and made all that people which was in his company stay with him and commaunded that they should bring the blind begger to him and he stayed expecting till he came being come he asked him this question What wouldest thou haue mee doe for thee What doest thou desire at my hands The blinde man answered the thing which I desire and beg of thee is that thou wilt giue mee my sight and instantly our Lord without the least delay gaue him that which he desired and said Receiue thy sight And he receiued the sight of his corporall eyes the sight also of his soule for being full of faith and deuotion he followed Christ our Lord both with body and soule and did not cease from glorifying Almighty God This passed at the entry which Christ our Lord made into Iericho for Saint Luke relates that he entred into Iericho after he had wrought this miracle Saint Matthew also chap. 20. shewes that Christ our Lord going forth of the same Citty of Iericho and being accompanied with much people there stood two blinde men close vpon the way demaunding almes when they knew that Iesus passed by they began to cry out and say Iesus the sonne of Dauid take pitty on vs. Christ our Lord did instantly make a stand in the way and caused them to be called to him and being arriued he asked thē thus what do you aske at my hands They answered Lord that thou open these eyes of ours and take this blindenes from vs and at the instant our Lord extended his hand to their eyes and they obtained sight both of body and soule and they followed our Lord being full of gratitude for so great a benefit and of faith and desire to doe him seruice Much is here to be considered in the admirable Benignity which Christ our Lord did vse towards these blind men in that he would hearken to their cries and they being so base persons and our Lord so soueraignely high that he would yet pawse in the way stay for them and make all them also stay who went with him and condescend thereby to the necessity of those blinde men and accōmodate himself to their weaknes For if our Lord had gone walking on they not seeing the way could not haue followed him or at least not fast enough to ouertake him he must haue giuen them much trouble in putting them to it That way of Iericho was also full of impediments and dangerous precipices as Saint Hierome notes and so if they had been put to goe a pace in such a way they had been in danger to receiue much hurt For these reasons did our Lord make a stand as also because he would vouchsaffe to doe them honour making so much accoūt of them as for their respect to stay in that high way and to make so much people stay with him And besides it was a great testimony of his Benignity towardes them to graunt them at the instant of their asking it and that with so much comfort to them so great a benefit as it was to receiue their sight both in body and soule and such deuotion as carryed thē on to glorify Almighty God A great wonder it was that Iosue should cause the Sunne to stand still and make a pawse in the heauen to illuminate the earth till such time as he had obtained victory ouer his enemies and that the Sunne and all the Orbes which moued with it should stand still obeying the voice of Iosue the seruant of God But a much greater wonder it is that our Lord who created both the Sunne and the whole machine of the world should make a stand in the way obeying the voice of a blinde begger that he might illuminate him both in body and soule as the true Sunne of Iustice A great Benignity it is that a Kinge of any earthly kingdome passing on his way through a street should stay and make all the Grādes of his Court stay with him vpon the cry of a begger who asketh almes and that he should expect that begger till he could arriue and should giue audience to his petion and then instātly open a purse with his owne hands and giue the begger whatsoeuer almes he had desired But a farre greater Benignity it is that the King of heauen and earth should deteine himselfe in a high way and stand expecting a poore begger till he could arriue to him and then should aske him what he would desi◅ to the end that his owne mouth might be the measure of that which our Lord would giue him and that instantly he should open the treasures both of his mercy power and bestow all that almes vpon him which he could aske or desire yea and much more then he knew how to aske Now our Lord by shewing this mercy to those blinde men hath shewed also a very great mercy to all faithfull Christians instructing vs and perswading vs by his example to vse Benignity towards our neighbours giuing eare to the cry of the poore and bestowing with liberality what they aske according to the ability wee haue and that when they are not able to come to vs to aske remedy as being hindred either by infirmity or ignorance or any other weakenes wee goe to seeke them out or make thē be sought to the end that wee may helpe them accommodating our selues to their impotēcy and necessity And teaching vs also by this example that wee must expect and stay for our neighbours when there is occasiō to do
them good and to giue them comfort and that although wee may be placed in high estate and they in lowe wee must not yet disdaine to vse this charity and sweetnes towards them And that when our neighbours make vs expect ◅ while and come not so soone as wee desire wee must not yet be angry with them nor loose the peace of our heart but wee must endure with patience and expect and speake to them with Benignity i◠imitation of this example of Christ our Lord. THE IX CHAPTER Of the Benignity which Christ our Lord shewed to little children and what he taught vs thereby THe parents of little childrē Matth. 19. Marc. 10. Luc. 18. seeing the power which Christ our Lord had to cure all diseases by touching sicke persons brought those little children to him and not onely them who were able to goe vpon their owne feet but also their sucking babes who could not speake nor goe but in the armes of others and they offered thē to him that he might touch them and giue them his benediction and they had confidence that by this meanes such of thē as were sicke would recouer their health and they who were not not sicke would continue whole Their parents vsed this very often and with much importunity for they who had children were many and did so much esteeme this good of their children that no man would want it by his will and euery one desired to preuent his neighbour and be the first to get a blessing for his sonne The Apostles seeing this and conceiuing that it was a thing vnworthy of the authority and grauity of our Lord to employ himselfe vpon such a light and meane thing as this and thereby to hinder greater matters thinking also that because the exercise was so frequent and vsed with so great importunity and ill manners by those parēts who brought their children that our Lord would be troubled and vexed thereby did vse seuerely to reprehēd such as brought the children and would shake them off as threatening them that so they might not come to our Lord. So saith Saint Chrysostome giuing a reasō therof The disciples droue away the little children and forbad them to come to our Lord in respect of his dignity and the authority of his person And S. Hierome declaring another reason saith The disciples thought that as other men are wont to be disquieted and displeased by such importunities so also would our Lord be by the frequency and importunity wherby they offred their children And Saint Ambrose addeth another cause to this and faith The disciples also did thus least otherwise our Lord might haue beē oppressed that is much straigthened and tired by the multitude of people which came to him some thrustling and iustling others by occasion of the children whō they brought Now our Lord perceiuing how the Apostles hindred litle children frō approaching to him though he knew their zeale and the intention wherewith they did it which was not ill yet he liked it not because it was not so agreable to the diuine spirit of the same Lord but to the humane spirit of the disciples And shewing both by his countenance and his wordes that he liked it not he called reprehended them saying Suffer little children to come to mee and doe not hinder them for of such is the kingdome of heauen I meane that heauen doth belong not onely to those little children for the purity innocency and grace they haue but that the same kidgdom of heauen shall be also giuen to men who in their practise of humility simplicity and purity of life will become like little children And so for that which little children are in their owne persons by diuine grace which is to be acceptable to God worthy of heauen and for that also which they represent in others namely to be men who are humble innocent and pure whom I loue and esteem much and embrace with my very bowells and blesse with my gifts therfore will I suffer them to approache to me and I will admit them to my embracements and blessings and therefore see you giue them noe impediment in comming Our Lord hauing thus reprehended his disciples he called them who brought the children and making those children come neer him he put his hands vpon their heads and embraced them and gaue them his holy blessing with his hands with his words he recommēded them to his heauenly Father and he made them partakers of his diuine grace by the efficacy of his benediction By this act Christ our Lord discouered to vs his Benignity and most sweet condition in that a Lord of so great Maiesty and who was euer ēployed in so great and high workes should descend to a thing which in all apparance was so poore and meane and belonging wholly to men who had no waighty businesse in hand and that he should doe it with so cheerfull a countenance and with so much gust and sweetnes that their parents others of kinne who brought the children should presume to bring them so often and so importunately and to interrupt the continuance of his discourses and the working of his miracles and to ēploy so large spaces of time in this so meane exercise And not onely did Christ our Lord discouer his Benignity to vs by this proceeding but he manifested it to be so great and so admirable that it doth incomparably exceed all that which men can conceiue and beleiue therof For although it were much which the Apostles knew of the Benignity and piety and meeknes of our Lord yet they could not beleiue or vnderstand how it could possibly arriue so farre as this but did rather thinke that our Lord was to disdaine such a poore imployment and that he would be troubled and offended by the disquiet and importunity which they gaue him in this kinde But indeed it was farre otherwise with him for the meannes of the action pleased him much and the time it cost was held by him to be well employed and the labour trouble which they put him to was sweetly and gladly endured by him Let vs imitate this Benignity of our Lord in descending to doe such thinges as are poore and meane in the account of men when charity requires it at our hands and to treate and conuerse with poore and meane people though wee may seeme perhaps to loose somewhat of our right and dignity thereby if yet it doe import for the assisting and comforting them in their necessities for gaining them to Christ our Lord doing that which the Apostle did in imitation of Christ when he said I haue made my selfe all thinges to all men I haue accommodated my selfe to the inclination and gusts of all men in all lawfull thinges thereby loosing somewhat of mine owne right liberty that I might saue as many as I could THE X. CHAPTER Of the Benignity which Christ our Lord shewed towards wicked persons who came to him with a
silent and he discouered the Benignity and sweetnes of his immēse charity towards his enemies since he obeyed them who had noe right of commaundmēt ouer him and satisfied their demandes who were so vnworthy of all answere Let vs follow the example of Benignity which here our most blessed Lord and Sauiour giues vs and not onely let vs loue our enemies as wee haue already shewed but let vs also be benigne towards them and let vs grant them what they desire when it may lawfully be done condescending to their disposition and inclination in lawfull thinges and speaking to them humbly and modesty and shewing them the loue of our hearts and the desire wee haue to giue them gust and contentment in such things as are agreable to the wil of God This doth our Lord himselfe expect and aduise vs to by Saint Luke saying Loue your enemies and do good to them and if they desire to borrow money of you or any other thing affoard it without hoping after any interest And when there is need giue with a free hand without expecting any other reward then of Almighty God and so the reward which God wil giue you for such workes will be very abundant and great For you shall be the sonnes of the most high God who is benigne euen to men who are vngratefull and wicked and though they be vnworthy of his benefits and breakers of his cōmaundments worthy of eternall torments yet he ceaseth not to doe them good THE XI CHAPTER Of the Benignity which wee are to vse towards our neighbours doing them honour by good wordes and of the examples which Christ our Lord gaue vs herein THe vertue of Benignity requires that a man should be courteous and well mannered in the wordes he speaketh of his neighbour and that both in presence and absence he doe him honour by his manner of speech For Benignity maketh a man sweet and ciuill in his discourse and cōuersation sticking close to the end of charity which is a spirituall and eternall good And a principall part of this sweet conuersation doth consist in that the wordes be ciuill and curteous whereby wee may honour our neighbour according to the quality of his person and state and for this reason a man who vseth curtesy is called benigne and gentle and he adorneth his neighbour with good wordes There are men who being gouerned by a spirit of this world or els by their naturall condition not corrected by reason vse to speake of their neighbours with little estimation of them when there is a latitude of giuing thē a title more honourable they giue him the least they can so it be without offence to the quality of his person And whereas they might treate them in better termes they proceed in such sorte as to shew little estimation of them and so they trouble and greiue them And especially they speake of their neighbours when they are absent in wordes which shew they make little account of them and thereby they thinke to exalt themselues to make thēselues more esteemed by others but they are deceiued For in that they do not the thing which is required by charity which is benigne and sweet they obtaine not that which they pretend which is to be esteemed and honoured but they are despised and dispraised for it For estimation springeth from loue and if you loue a man you esteeme him and so on the other side contempt springeth from hate and to abhorre a man is to despise him And so when a man is wel conditioned and curteous in his wordes towards his neighbours he is generally beloued and for the same reason all men respect esteeme and honour him for they loue a man who loueth them and they esteem honour such as esteem and honour them But when a man is discourteous in his wordes and appeareth to make small account of his neighbours he is abhorred by all men or if they doe not abhorre his person yet they abhorre his condition discourteous language and for the same reason he is little accounted of and despised by all This is taught vs by holy scripture saying A sweet and gentle word doth reconcile and winne the hearts of men and makes thē their friends and multiplieth others and doth sweeten appease enemies and a benigne and gratious tōgue doth abound in a good man The meaning is it produceth an abūdant fruite in the heart of others mouing them also to be benigne and to speake gently sweetly to such as speake gently sweetly to them The holy Ghost saith of the seruant of God that he is well mannered and curteous in his wordes and this is that diuine fruite which he produceth in his neighbours to make them meek and Benigne as himselfe is And of him on the other side who is rude discurteous in his words the Holy Ghost also saith The stroke of a whippe maketh the flesh blacke and blew but the blow of an ill tongue breakes the bones that is to say it doth many times hurt and wound the soule in such sort as to cause is to fall into sorrow and impatience hatred wherby the strength and vigour of that grace and vertue which it had is lost This hurt doth a discurteous vnmannerly word which wanteth Benignity produce in the soule of man Of this kinde of Benignity in speech Christ our Lord did leaue vs most excellent examples in his holy Ghospell They brought him one day a man in his bed who was a paralitike breaking through the roofe of the house they placed him before him Mat. 9. and our Lord behoulding the faith of them who brought him did him so particular a fauour that he efficaciously moued him to a great sorrow for his sinnes and to haue faith in our Lord confidence that he should be forgiuen And being then in so good a disposition he pardoned them and so he declared himselfe to doe by saying Sonne thy sinnes are forgiuen thee This man being so miserable in his corporal state and being so base of condition as that he might without shame carry his couch vpon his backe and being a sinfull man besides for as Saint Hierome notes he had contracted his disease by his sinnes and coming to the presence of our Lord with the vncleannes of those sinnes by the waight whereof he was oppressed for there they appeared to haue been takē from him by our Lord the same Lord being the creator of all things did yet call him Sonne which is a title of great sweetnes of loue and sheweth such equality in condition as runnes between fathers sonnes So high a Lord doth honour and exalt so base a man so farre that in some sort he maketh him equall to his Angells and Saints by giuing him the name and title of his Sonne For this is the great dignity honour which Saints and Angels haue to be the sonnes of the most high God So doth S. Hierome note
saying O admirable humility of Christ our Lord that to a contemptible and defeated man without strength or health in any part of his body whom the Priests of the lawe would haue despised and disdained euen so much as to touch our most Bâ—nigne Lord was content to giue the name of Sonne There came to Christ our Lord Marc. 5. Luc. 8. a woman who had a fluxe of blood she touched the skirt of his garment and remained whole and our Lord hauing brought her forth to light and she hauing confessed the benefit which she had receiued our Lord said publickly to her daughter thy faith hath made thee whole go in peace He honoured her by calling her daughter and by attributing her cure to her owne faith making her rich with Peace and ioy of heart which was an effect of the pardon of her sinnes and of the grace he gaue her And thus by honouring the paraliticke with the name of Sonne and this womaÌ„ by the name of daughter we see it was no particular priuiledge which he gaue to this or that person onely but that it was the coÌ„moÌ„ stile which our most benigne Lord vsed honouring with this name such meane and poore meÌ„ and woemen as came to him for any helpe His disciples being poore and meane and very full of defects at such time as he conuersed with them in mortall flesh sometimes he called Sonnes yea and at some other times he would call them by that diminitiue whereby fathers call their sonnes little children to vnfould so much the more that sweetnes of loue wherwith he called them Sonnes At other times he would call them Friends and after the ResurrectioÌ„ when the glory of his sacred Humanity and the Maiesty of his Diuinity was more discouered he called them his Brothers when he spake of them to others in their absence For once he said to S. Mary Magdalene Goe tell my brethren I ascend to my Father and to your Father And againe he said to the Maries Goe tell my brethren that they are to goe into Galilea and that they shall see mee there All these are titles of great honour and glory and that our Lord should vse them towards men who were so meane and poore and at a time when still they were so imperfect and especially that he did it after they had quite forsaken him in his Passion was an effect of extreme Benignity in him THE XII CHAPTER Of other examples which Christ out Lord gaue vs of his Benignity in the same kinde CHrist our Lord preaching in a Sinagogue Luc. 13. they placed a woman who was deformedly bent downe to the grouÌ„d by that diuell wherewith she was possessed Now he hauing cured her they calumniated him in respect that he had done it vpon the Sabboth and he defending his miracle from that slander said Which of you will not vpon a Sabboth day let your oxe or asse be vntyed and carryed to the waters If this may well be done how much more is it conuenient to vntie the bond of sickenes wherby Satan had bound vp this daughter of Abraham although it were vpon the Sabboth day That title of the whole world which was most honourable amongst the Iewes and whereby they prised themselues and wherin they gloried most was to be called the sonnes of Abraham and so vpon a certaine occasion when they were disposed to magnify this honour they said to Christ Wee are the sonnes of Abraham And whereas it had beene curtesy enough towards that woman if Christ our Lord had said It had been conuenient to free this afflicted Woman from that misery or to deliuer this miserable creature from that infirmity he could not content himselfe therwith but was resolued to honour her with the most glorious name which could be vsed amoÌ„gst the Iewes by saying This daughter of Abraham this woman who according to the extraction of flesh and blood is desceÌ„ded of Abraham yea and in the way of spirit also for she is an imitatour of his faith When Christ our Lord receiued that message Ioh. 11. concerning the sicknes of Lazarus and being resolued vpon his death which succeeded within few daies after to raise him vp againe to life he said to his disciples Our friend Lazarus sleepes and I will goe waken him It had been enough and more then enough for a Lord of so great Maiesty to haue said Lazarus sleepeth or since he would needes doe him honour to say Lazarus my seruant or Lazarus whose guest I haue been sleepeth and with this he had done him much honour Yet his enamoured heart could not content it selfe with this but he would needes passe on and say our friend Lazarus which is a word of the greatest curtesy and honour For if it goe for a point of high honour to be accounted the friend of an earthly Kinge and for a great fauour and regalo to any vassaile that a King should call him by that name what honour must it be for a mortall man to be accounted a friend by Christ our Lord the Kinge of heauen and what kinde of felicity and comfort must it be to be called so by Christ our Lord himselfe and that not in complement but from the very rootes of his heart And so Christ our Lord honouring Lazarus with this word of friend did also honour his disciples equalling them with himselfe and making them his companions in the friendship of Lazarus and declaring that they were all his friends This Benignity which Christ our Lord did vse both in word and deed whilest yet he liued in mortall flesh hath been also vsed by him since he ascended vp to heauen towards many seruants of his to whom he hath seuerally appeared And leauing many examples of Saints to whom he hath done it sometimes in the forme of a childe and sometimes of a most beautifull young man sometimes of a most glorious person and hath honoured and comforted them both with words and deedes of must sweet loue Wee will speake here of one admirable apparition and that of great authority whereof we haue made some mention elswhere to another purpose and in respect it was vouchsaffed to a person of very meane quality it doth so much the more disclose the Benignity of Christ our Lord and makes vs the more confident of his goodnes Saint Paulinus Bishop of Nola relateth how certaine ships going from Sardinia towards Italy grew into a great tempest close by the Iland and the rest of them breaking and sinking there one of them which was fraught with corne did not split but yet was extremely ill treated by the storme The marriners did all leaue her and left also in her an old poore man of Sardinia who was yet no Christian but had begun to be catechised in that faith and it was his office to clense and pumpe the ship When the maÌ„ obserued him selfe to be alone and in a ship which had neither anker nor sterne for she had lost all in
Prophet dy out of Ierusalem so especially is it decreed of this Prophet who for his eminency and excellency is called The Prophet which is the Messias that he shall dy in Ierusalem And as for the rest of the Prophets it hath ordinarily been true and so also it will bee that they haue been put to death and are to dy in Ierusalem because in that Citty the wickednes of thē who gouerne the people doth abound Now Herod who was called Antipas was a very wicked Kinge and very scandalous He was an adulterer and an in cestuous person for he tooke his owne brothers wife from him He was a murtherer a sacrilegious man for he had taken away the life of the great Saint Iohn Baptist and as it should seem he also went about to murder Christ our Lord secretly least the people being instructed by his holy doctrine might growe to abhorre Herods wicked life He was also a most vaine giddy creature for to reward the dance of a girle he promised the one halfe of his kingdome if need had been and he paid the life of Saint Iohn for it He was moreouer a false and dissembling person for he pretended that he murdered Saint Iohn for the complying with his oath whereas indeed that was not the cause but for the contenting of a wicked woman and for the setling and securing of his owne wicked life Now Christ our Lord resoluing to discouer the authority of the Kinge of heauen and earth and of the Lord of al creatures which himselfe had in his hand for the reproofe and punishment of all the powerfull men of this world and to shew how free he was from all humane feare and to giue an example to the Prelates of his Church of that holy liberty which in such case they were to vse towards the Kinges of the earth and to discouer also how vile and contemptible sinnefull men are in the sight of God how rich and noble and great Lords soeuer they might chance to be and particularly meaning to declare to them who bad him take heed of Herod that he knew well enough all the fetches and designes of that crafty man that he had no need to be tould therof by any other I say to declare and discouer all these thinges he spake this word Tell that foxe c. Which was to say vnder a metaphor Tell that crafty and dissembling man who by the wickednes of his life giues a pestilent odour of ill example that whatsoeuer ēdeauour he may vse he can take no part of my life frō mee till my selfe shall voluntarily part with it as I will do when the time ordained by my eternall Father shall arriue Being therefore most conuenient for these ends which wee haue touched that Christ our Lord should speake with this authority of a Lord he did yet obserue great modesty and Benignity therin For he might well haue said Tell that wicked man that adulterer that murderer and sacrilegious person yea or tell it to that diuell for all this had fitted him he deserued it well but Christ our Lord would not vse any of these termes but fell vpon a more moderate word as this was Tell that crafty and dissembling man that he hath no power to stop the course of my life And so shewing the authority and holy liberty which the Prelates of the Church are to vse towardes the great men of this world and discouering also his owne diuine wisedome he did joyntly teach vs that moderatiō wherewith we are to exeroise that authority and liberty Other examples which may breed the like difficulty in the mindes of ignorant men are the reprehensions which Christ out Lord gaue to the Scribes and Pharisees of the people of Israell in very seuere wordes which did greatly confound and grieuously wound them for he would say sometimes as Matt. 12. You generation of vipers you can not speake well being so wicked This wicked adulterous generatiō asketh signes At other times he would say as Matt. 23. Woe be to you Scribes and Pharisees you hipoctites Wo be to you who are blinde and guides of the blinde And Ioh. 8. You are of the diuell and him you haue for your Father and you cooperate to his wicked ends Now let vs see the mystery of these words of Christ our Lord how they were not contrary to that Charity and Benignity which he taught vs but full of conformity to the same And let vs also see who they be who may vse such wordes and to what kinde of persons for what ends they may be vsed The Scribes and Pharises who were the Doctours and should haue been the true Religious mē of Israell were at that time not onely wicked but wicked they were in all extreamity and their sinnes were very publicke very contrary to all Religion And with being so wicked they yet would needes sell themselues for good and holy and they accompanied their wicked life with ill precepts which were most pernicious to the people For by their wicked life and peruerse directions and with their pretences and deceits they corrupted the manners of ignorant people and they were blind obstinate And besides these sinnes which were ordinary in them they harboured that supreme wickednes of hindering the saluation which Christ our Lord came to worke in the soules of men calumniating his most holy life and attributing to Belzebub those most euident and expresse miracles which he wrought by diuine power and persecuting him to whom they should haue carryed all veneration and exhibited al obedience as to the true Messias and yet desiring and procuring by all the waies they could to put him to death who came to giue thē life These men being such as I haue said it was necessary that Christ our Lord who was sent by his Father to giue testimony to the truth and to take scandalls out of the world and to giue remedy to soules vsing the authority which he had of Sauiour of the world King of heauen should reprehend vice and that concerning publicke sinnes he should reprehend them publickely and that concerning grieuous very hurtfull sinnes he should reprehend them grieuously according to the quality and perniciousnes of the same that so they who were faulty might well feele the great hurt they did and all the rest of the people might be disabused and not haue cause to follow either the ill exāple or ill precepts of their wicked Teachers and gouernours And now that Christ our Lord might execute this so important office for the saluation of soules which was ordeined to the ends of true Charity such reprehensions of his were necessary as might declare the grieuousnes of the hipocrisy and other sinnes of those Teachers and the hurt they did to the people and the damnation which they prouided for themselues by committing such sinnes and he tould them who was the principall Author thereof namely the diuell whom they obeyed and the
necessity which they had of making recourse to strong remedies for they were sinnes which were inherited from their predecessors who had been wicked and they were deeply rooted in their hearts Christ our Lord did especially make such seuere and sharpe reprehensions when they did falsly sooth and flatter him For many times when they darted out iniurious words against him he reprehended thē not but answered them with all sweetnes shewing his humility and meekenes and teaching vs to suffer wrongs with patience But when they flattered him he reprehēded them indeed as when with counterfeit hearts they said Master wee desire a signe of thee from heauen for then he answered them thus Matth. 12. You wicked and adulterous generatiō And when they said Master wee know that thou art true and teachest the way of God according to truth For then he said why doe you tempt mee you hipocrites discouring therby that he vnderstood their hearts and that he would not pay himselfe with their flatteries conterfeit praises and teaching all the world that wee were not to take gust in being soothed nor to desire to be praised by men So did S. Chrysostome obserue vpon these wordes Master wee desire that thou giue vs a signe frō heauen Where he saith that first they iniured him saying he had a diuell and that then they flattered him calling him Master And therefore it is that he reprehendeth them with vehemency saying that they were a wicked generation So that when they affront him with ill words he answereth them with meekenes and when they flatter him with a false heart he giues them sharpe wordes Our most blessed Lord discouering to vs thereby that he was free from all passion and that neither he was put to impatience by affrōts nor that he was inueigled by flatteries THE XVI CHAPTER That is was conuenient that Christ our Lord should vse these seuere reprehensions to teach the Prelates of his Church how they should proceed against sinners and how the Saints haue been euer wont to proceed BEsides these reasons why Christ our Lord did so sharply reprehend the sinnes of the Scribes and Pharises there is yet another and it is for the instructing of the Prelates of the Church after what manner they are to reproue the sinnes of publickē obstinate and rebellious sinners which are of the more grieuous sorte and more preiudiciall to others and that they are to doe it publickly with great weight and force of words to the end that obstinate sinners may finde how wicked they are and that they may reforme themselues and that others may feare and take warning by their ill example and that all sinnes and sinners are not to bee reproued after the same manner but some gently and sweetly and others with seuerity and rigour according to the quality of the sinne and the obstinacy of the sinner the hurt which he doth thereby to others And that these seuere reprehensions which are made in punishment of delinquents must not be vsed by all but by Superiours who haue authority for the same and that the end which such mē haue must not be the affront nor the trouble of the sinner but the reformation both of him others And therfore Charity which teacheth vs to be sweet and benigne towards some kinde of sinners because that course is fit for the good of their soules the selfe same Charity teacheth vs to be seuere and strict towardes others because that also is conuenient to the and that others may be warned and they reformed Saint Gregory noteth this in these words Some offences are to be reprehended with vehemency to the end that the delinquent who of himselfe perhaps vnderstāds not the grieuousnes of his sinne may come to finde it by the wordes of him who reprehends and that he may growe to feare the committing of that sinne which he thought to be but light by the very seuerity wherwith it is corrected And it is the duty of the Superiour to correct with great seuerity those offences of their subiects which are not gently to be endured but he must not doe it out of anger but out of a holy zeale for feare least if he correct not faults as he ought himself grow to be faulty and that the punishment which was due to the offences of his subiects doe fall vpon himselfe through his negligence And the same Saint saith in another place that their sinnes who haue not lost shame are to be reprehended after another sorte then theirs who haue lost all shame For seuere reprehēsion is necessary for the reformation of them who are growne impudent but such as are still ashamed of their sinnes are vsually better reformed by some milde exhortation This stile of seuerely reprehending the more griouous and pernitious sorte of sinnes which haue been cōmitted by the powerfull men of this world and by the false guide of soules hath been obserued by the auncient Saints who were mooued to it by the Holy Ghost and the Saints also of the Euangelicall Lawe haue vsed the like being instructed by the example of Christ our Lord though it be true that these later haue obserued it with greater moderation and more mixture of suauity then the former for so the Lawe of grace requires The Prophet Nathan 2. Kings 12. chap. reproued Kinge Dauid and hauing first propounded him a parable he concluded saying Thou art that man who hath cōmitted so great wickednes as to take the wife of another and for this sinne the sword shall neuer faile to hang ouer thy house as a punishment both of thee and thy descendents The Prophet Elias 2. Kings 18. chap. hauing heard that imputation which King Achab layed vpō him in these wordes Art thou that man who troublest Israel did reproue him for that wickednes which he had committed against God and his Prophets and made answere to him after this manner I am not the man who trouble Israell but thou and the house of thy Father are they who trouble it because thou hast forsaken the lawe of our Lord. The Prophet Elizeus 4. Kings 3. chap. reprehending the sinnes of King Ioram who was in company with Kinge Iosaphat when he desired the Prophet to obtaine of God that he would send downe water to the army for that it was ready to dy of thirst made him this answere What hast thou to doe with me goe to the Prophet◠of thy Father and of the mother and if it were not for the respect of Kinge Iosaphat who is present for my part I would not so much as looke vpon thee The man of God who was sent by him to Samaria 4. Kings 13. chap. and found King Ieroboam who was in Bethelle offering sacrifice vpon an Altar like a Priest did addresse his speech as to the Altar and thereby reprehended him after this manner A sonne shall be borne of the house of Dauid called Iosias and he shall kill those Priests vpon thee who are now offering incense
if he had said Behould here a man truly good not dissembling or counterfeit but that vertue which he sheweth in his exteriour fashion and publicke conuersation which is subiect to the sight of men is possest by him in the secret most interiour part of his heart which is seen by Almighty God This was a true and moderate praise and much good grew to Nathaniell by it for therby he vnstood that Christ our Lord knew the secrets of his heart and he was certified of it so much the more by the further answere of Christ our Lord. For saying to him where knew you mee he answered I sawe thee when thou wert vnder the sigtree It should seem that Nathaniell had retired himselfe vnder that tree to pray or to doe some other good worke and so he inferring thereby as a wise man might well doe that Christ our Lord knew all thinges he beleeued perfectly in him and tooke him for his Master Let vs deliuer another example of the same truth Christ our Lord Luke 19. came into the house of Zaccheus the Publican and he mooued him by his wordes and by his presence to so great pennance and change of life that not onely he resolued to giue ouer all those sinnes into which he had fallen to restore all that to the restitution wherof he was obliged but to render it foure fould thereby giuing satisfaction for the fault he had mitted by voluntarily vndergoing the paine which the lawe imposed vpon such persons as tooke away the goods of others and besides all this he gaue halfe his substance to the poore Christ our Lord perceiuing so good beginnings of a holy life in Zaccheus did praise him by saying of him to the standers by This day is true saluation wrought in this house For the Master and owner of it is already a true sonne of Abraham not only now by the extraction of flesh and blood but by the imitation of his faith and vertue In this sorte therefore did Christ our Lord praise Nathaniell who was a new beginner in his schoole of vertue and good life and so also did he praise Zaccheus And the praise was true and moderate it did no more then declare in plaine wordes that the one of them was a man truly good and the other truly penitent by meanes of these words he strengthned and encouraged them both to perseuer and grow in the good course which they had begunne But not only did Christ our Lord praise them who had good intentions who were truly good and vpright and well meaninge soules as Nathaniell already was before and Zacchaus was growne to be but he approued and praised also that good which was said or done by such as came to him euen with an ill minde There came a man Luc. 10. who was learned in the Lawe to tempt him asking what he was to doe for the obtaining of eternall life Christ our Lord demaunded of him how it was written in the Lawe He answered It is written that thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbour as thy selfe Our Lord thē said to him by way of allowing praising what he had formerly said Thou hast answered well doe as thou hast said and as the Lawe commaundeth and thou shalt obtaine euerlasting life There came another time a Pharisy to our Lord Mat. 22. Marc. 12. in name of all the rest to see if he could draw some such answere from him as whereby he might calumniate him and he asked him which was the greatest commaundment of the law And Christ our Lord hauing answered him that it was to loue God with all the heart the Pharisy approued the answere of our Lord and added thereunto these words that to loue God with all the heart and the neighbour as ones selfe was a better worke and more acceptable to God then all the Holocausts and other Sacrifices of the Lawe Then our Lord liking the speech of this man did praise him saying Thou art not farre from the kingdome of God Which is as much as to say Thou art not farre from beleeuing and obeying the Ghospell and obteining true saluation For the knowing of a diuine truth so important and the approouing it by the supernaturall gift of God was a disposition for the being conuerted to him and to acknowledge Christ himselfe who was sent into the world to saue it Christ our Lord if he would haue encreased his Iustice vpon these two learned mē in the Law might haue seuerely reprooued the ill mind wherewith they were come to him and he might haue discouered the craft and malice which they carryed in their hearts for so also they would haue vnderstood that he knew all things and thereby he might haue put them to confusion and shame Yet this he would not do but he heard them with admirable meekenes and answered their questions with supreme Charity And he approoued that which they had said well though it were very little and very imperfect and he praised it with strange Benignity that so he might remooue that peruersenes of minde from thē which they brought to him and encourage them to encrease in the knowledge and loue of truth till at length they might grow subiect to it And so by this true Benignity he changed their hearts and sent them bettered from him and he taught vs withall that not only we are to praise good men for the true vertue which they haue but that we may also praise with moderation euen in imperfect and wicked men the good they doe or say to the end that they may growe to take affection to vertue and may so detest and driue out of their hearts the wickednes which they haue and goe encreasing in the good way begunne as also to gaine their good will to make them beneuolous and kinde which is a very good disposition towards the inducing them to receiue in good part the doctrine which we shall deliuer and the reprehensions which we may haue cause to vse And therefore Saint Gregory aduiseth that when they who are endowed with authority and wisdome for this purpose reproue sinners who are pusillanimous weak they shal do wel to mingle some sweetnes of praise the sharpenes of correction that so they may the better admit of the doctrine and reproofe which is giuen them The Saint expresseth it in these words Wee shall better drawe such sinners as are not peruerse proud but weake and poore of heart to the way of heauen if whilst we reprehend the euil thinges which they haue done wee ioyntly praise those good thinges which wee know to be in them to the end that by this meanes such praise may confirme and strengthen thē in their weakenes who were humbled by that reproofe Thus did S. Paule proceed with those Christians of Thessalonica For they hauing fallen into the fault of giuing credit to certaine false Prophets who taught thē that the day of iudgment
by reason of our weaknes and our little talent either of vertue or goods or power any other way our workes be very small since God hath regard to the good will wherewith they are done to the pious heart from whence they proceed The Apostle Saint Paule followed this example of Christ our Lord. Who to animate the Corinthians to giue almes to the Christians who were in want at Ierusalem and that none of theÌ„ should omit to giue according to his power how little soeuer that might be did praise the vertue and charity which they of Macedonia had shewed to the same Christians assisting them liberally with almes according to the power of euery one And he praiseth them in these wordes 2. Cor. 8. Wee giue you brethren to vnderstand the gratious and liberall gift which God communicated by his goodnes to the Churches of Macedonia who receauing many grieouous persecurions from the Gentiles who afflicted and affronted and robbed them of the goods they had did yet abound with ioy in their very tribulations and they did not onely accept of them with patience but with interiour ioy yea and that a very great ioy for the loue of Christ our Lord for whom they suffered and through the hope of celestiall blessings which God promiseth to them who suffer for the loue of him And being poore they were all according to their weake power and strength so liberall in giuing that they did very abundaÌ„tly discouer the pure intention which they had therin and their great promptitude and euen hunger and thirst to giue to please God by doing all the good that possibly they could to their neighbours And I giue testimony to this truth that not only they gaue willingly all they could but more then they could for not onely gaue they of the superfluity and that which they could conuenieÌ„tly spare but they gaue part of those very thinges which were euen necessary for the very support of their liues The Apostle hauing praised in these wordes the Charity and mercy of the Macedonians inuiteth the Corinthians by the inducement of this example to doe the like and he saith that considering what the Christians of Macedonia haue done I haue perswaded my self to seÌ„d Titus to you that this grace which he begun in you may be finished and perfected by his exhorting moâ—uing you to giue almes to the Christians who suffer in Ierusalem and by procuring that all men may giue what they can that it may be put all together and sent to Ierusalem as was done by theÌ„ of Macedonia And he wisheth them moreouer that euen they who haue but little to giue should yet giue some what euen of that little with a ready minde and a desirous good will to giue more if they could And he affirmeth and testifieth on the part of God that the litle which they should giue with such affection good will would greatly please God and be much esteemed by him and be also rewarded according to the good will where with they gaue For he saith if the will be ready and efficaciously prepared to doe good it is very acceptable and pleasing to God if they worke giue according to what they haue or can performe and God doth not require for the making men acceptable to him that they should giue or do what they cannot giue or do THE XX. CHAPTER How it is fit to praise the vertue of some thereby to correct the vice of others ANother way which makes our praising others to be very profitable for vs and pleasing to almighty God is to praise the vertue and good workes of them from whom no such thing had been expected and thereby to conuince and confound those others who were not so vertuous and did not worke so well notwithstanding that they had greater helpes and were in greater obligations then the former Let vs declare this by an example There was a Centurion that is to say a Captaine of a hundred souldiers in Capharnaum Matt. 8. Luc. 7. placed there by the Romans and a Gentile he was who descended not from Patriarches Prophets but from Gentiles Idolaters and from people who had noe knowledge of the true God This man by meanes of conuersation which he had with the Iewes came to know this truth that there was one God and he had taken an affection to his holy Lawe and to his people of Israell and he loued cherished them and built a Sinagogue for them vpon the vnderstanding which he had that of all the men in the world these were the professors of true Religion This Centurion had a seruant whom he greatly loued who fell sicke of a pleurisy was growne to the very point of death And the seruant being in those termes and the Master hauing heard of the miracles which had been wrought by Christ our Lord he conceiued a great confidence and faith that if he desired remedy for that seruant he should obtaine it and he belieued with great assurednes that Christ was a Lord so powerfull that euen in absence he could giue him the life and health of his seruant by the onely commauÌ„dment of his word Not presuming therfore to appeare in the presence of Christ our Lord as holding himselfe vnworthy therof he interposed the auncient and prime men of the Iewes for intercessours These men therfore in the name of the Centurion desired that he would goe to his house and cure his seruant instantly our Lord put himselfe vpon the way to doe as much as they desired As soon as the Centurion knew that Christ our Lord was comminge to his house he tould him by meanes of the same intercessours that in no case he was to doe it for that himselfe was vnworthy of so great honour but he onely prayed that from thence he would commauÌ„d by some one word of his that his seruant might be cured and that that would serue for his recouery And this he confirmed by the example of his owne person for if he being a weake man and subiect to the commauÌ„d of another who was the Generall of the Army could yet commaund his soldiers to dispose themselues here or there and that accordingly and instantly the thing was done how much more could Christ our Lord being so absolute and of so great power commaund from wheresoeuer he were that sicknes and death should be gone and that health and life should come and that they would not faile to obey him This man discouered great humility in not presuming once to to appeare in the presence of Christ our Lord but to negotiate by meanes of the Iewes whom he held for better then himselfe and by those wordes he also shewed a great faith And so Christ our Lord hauing heard this message shewed to be in admiration to see so great faith in a Pagan souldier And turning his countenaÌ„ce to the troupe of Iewes who followed him he said Verily I say to you I haue not found so great
faith as this in Israell And many shall come from the East and from the West and from all the parts of the world out of the nations of the Gentiles and by meanes of faith and obedience to my Ghospell shall sit in company of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and the rest of the Patriarches and shall raigne with God and on the other side they who be the children of the kingdom which are the Iewes who descēd from the Patriarchs and to whom the promise of the Messias and of his celestiall kingdome was made shall the most part of them be excluded from that Kingdome and shut vp into eternall torment Christ our Lord praised the faith of the Centurion for the reproofe of the infidelity of those Iewes who belieued not in him at all of the weak faith of some others who belieued in him and to confound them by this example and to mooue them to penance for their fault and to perswade with them who belieued not and to encrease their faith who beleeued And so he was pleased to expresse himselfe to this effect This Centurion being a Gentile and not hauing read the Prophets nor hauing been brought vp in the Lawe of God nor in any discipline but of the warre and not hauing seene my workes and miracles but onely heard relation of mee hath beleeued my truth and my power with so great and so firme a faith and on the other side the children of Israell who are descended from the Patriarches who haue read the Scriptures and know the Prophecies which speake of mee and who were looking for mee and haue seen my miracles and heard my doctrine some of these haue not belieued in mee nor will receiue my truth but persecute the same others haue beleeued it so imperfectly that none of them hath arriued to so great a Faith as this man hath and as he confesseth in honour of mee They I say notwithstanding the many causes motiues which they haue had to beleeue my truth with a perfect faith haue not beleeued it as they ought and this man hauing had so few motiues as he had to beleeue in me hath beleeued with so great perfection that he hath farre outstripped all the rest And therefore this man though but a Gentile and all the other Gentiles also who throughout all the parts of the world shall be conuerted to mee and shall be like this man in his faith and obedience to my word shall be admitted into the Kingdom of heauen in company of the holy Patriarches whom they haue imitated and on the other side the children of Israell who according to the extractiō of flesh blood descend from Patriarches if they doe not penance and reforme their infidelity and disobedience by true and constant faith and reall subiection to my commaundments shall be excluded from the Kingdome of heauen and condemned to eternall torments In this sort did Christ our Lord praise the faith of the Centurion and thereby did he correct the infidelity or at least the weake faith of the Iewes And he did it with much reason for the faith of this man was so great that some of the Saints conceiue that he did truly know and beleeue the diuinity of Christ our Lord and that it was couered with the veile of his sacred humanity For thus saith Saint Hierome The wisdome of the Centurion is discouered in that with the eyes of faith he saw the diuinity which lay hid vnder that veile of humanity And the same doth Saint Augustin confesse saying in the person of the same Centurion If I being a man subiect to others haue yet power to commaund how much more hast thou it ô Lord whom all the powers of the earth obey and serue Wee are to profit by this example of Christ our Lord in praising such seruants of God as liue in a more eminent degree of vertue then the state and condition of their life seemeth to exact at their hands for the admonishing and correcting of others who by reason of their vocation and of the parts and gifts which God hath bestowed vpon them were obliged to greater vertue As when for the correcting of some Prelate who may be straight handed in giuing almes and negligent withall in the gouernment of his subiects we may praise some Lord who being a secular man is yet most liberall in giuing almes and most vigilant in procuring that his seruants and vassailes may be vertuous And as if for the reproofe and amendment of a Religious man who were remisse in making Prayer and doing Penance and were full of tepidity in the exercise of vertue and imperfect in the performance of his Obedience we should praise a secular Cauallier for being much giuen to prayer and diligent in the mortification of himselfe and full of feruour in the exercise of vertue and very obedient to his Ghostly Father For we frame the reason after this manner If a Lord or a Cauallier being a secular man be of so great recollection so great vertue such purity of life such diligence in the doing of good workes his vocation not seeming to bind him altogether to it how much more reason is it that a Prelate make himselfe a possessor of these vertues whom his state obligeth to be a perfect man and a Religious person whom his Religion obligeth to procure to be perfectly vertuous And so to reforme some very wise and learned man who wanteth spirit and deuotion we may praise a man who is wholly ignorant but yet full of the spirit of God and of true deuotion saying If this rude creature hauing so little knowledge of God and of his workes and mysteries and being able to vse so little discourse of reason haue yet so great loue of God and so great feeling of his goodnes and of his mysteries and workes so great gust of diuine things and maketh so great estimation of vertue and spirituall blessings how much more is it reason that a wise and learned man to whom God hath giuen so great wit knowledge for the comprehending of truth both diuine and humane and so great light of reasō to discourse and passe by meanes of visible thinges to the knowledge of such as are inuisible and by the creatures to come to the knowledge and loue of the Creatour haue such deuotion as was said before or at least procure to haue it In this sort did the Apostle S. Paule following this example of Christ our Lord cōmend the Gentiles who were conuerted for the most excellēt vertues which they had and the admirable workes they did and for those most high gifts which God had communicated to them by meanes of their faith to the end that so the Iewes who were in their infidelity might know their errour and be in confusion for their wickednes and might be awaked by the vertue of the Gentiles and encouraged to the incitation thereof This did he signify by saying Rom. 11. For as much as I
am an Apostle of the Gentiles and during the whole time that I shall be so I will honour this ministery taking paines and suffering for them to bring them to the faith who are not yet come to it and to confirme and perfect them with vertues and the gifts of God who haue already receiued it And by this meanes I will procure the conuersion of the Iewes who are of my kinred according to the flesh to the end that they behoulding the most abūdant fruite which is produced in the Gentiles and the most pretious gifts which God cōmunicated to them by meanes of their faith may be moued to a holy emulation and imitation of them and so some of them may be saued THE XXI CHAPTER How wee are to praise the vertue of our neighbours to defend them so from some vniust slaunder ANother very iust reason for which wee must praise our neighbours and commend their vertues and good workes is to defend them from some slaunder or false testimony or some detraction or affront wherewith their reputation is vniustly spotted their good name and the opinion of their vertue obscured Let vs deliuer an example which Christ our Lord left vs of this truth Christ our Lord being in Bethania at supper in the house of Simon the leaper Ioh. 12. Matth. 26. Mary Magdalen came with an Alablaster box full of very odoriferous and pretious ointment she anointed the feet of our Lord with it filled the whole house with the sweet odour Now Iudas began to murmur at this worke and to speake ill of the holy woman in that she had wasted the ointmēt which was of so great value that it might haue beē sould for three hundred peeces of money and been giuen to the poore And the rest of the disciples seeing the indignation and murmuringe of Iudas and not vnderstanding the root of malice from whence it grew like good simple men conceiued that he had reason for what he said and were induced by his example to murmur too and to reproue that good worke which Mary with so great deuotion had done Now our Lord saw well how the disciples murmured against this holy woman without all reason esteeming that to be vitious which was an act of vertue and speaking ill of that which was well done For being a custome of the coūtry as it was to anoint the feet of their guests with pretious ointmēts if they were eminent men it was no euill but a good worke to doe that which was in vse for some good and honest end For an indifferent actiō such an one as this was is made good by addressing it to a vertuous end But then to this is to be added the pure intention and great deuotion wherewith Mary did this worke for she did it as being moued by piety and religion to exhibite honour and veneration to our Lord whom she knew to be worthy of all possible reuerence and respect Our Lord therefore on the one side seeing the goodnes of the worke considering moreouer the mystery which himself mēt to signify thereby who had moued her to it and on the other obseruing the rash iudgment murmuring of the disciples and especially of Iudas who was the spring of all that ill he began to defend the woman and to praise the good worke which she had wrought and to discharge the slaunder whereby they thought to doe her wrong saying after this manner Why are you troublesome to this woman Why are you enraged against her Why thinke and speake you ill of her worke leaue her free frō your reproach and giue her leaue to keep this ointment for my buriall His meaning was to say the bodies of dead men are according to our custome to be anointed before they be interred and this woman would be glad to anoint my body when I shall be dead then will not be able because that office will be first performed by others before I be buried and after that buriall she shal be preuented by my resurrection But suffer her to doe that now which she would doe them and that she may signify by this vnction that I am to dy and that my body will be soon laid in the graue and she in the meane time doth but performe that office of piety which is performed to other dead bodies Our Lord said further she hath wrought a good worke towards mee and it was conuenient that shee should doe it although by doing it the price of this ointment were thereby not giuen to the poore For the poore you shall haue allwaies with you and so shall you euer haue oportunity and occasion to doe good to them but as for mee you shall not allwaies haue me with you in this visible forme for I am quickly to leaue this world and to goe to my Father And I tell you for certaine that in whatsoeuer part of the world the good newes of this Ghospell shall be preached the worke of this woman shall be recounted and celebrated in her memory and for her glory in all the parts of the world And by these words did Christ our Lord defend the Magdalena and praise her good worke From this example we are first to fetch this fruite to make great estimation of good workes how little how light and how easy so euer they may be How easy a thing is it for a rich woman to buy a pound of pretious ointmēt for three hūdred peeces of siluer and to anoint the feet of a holy man therwith especially of such a Saint as Christ our Lord was For in that he who was anointed was so great a Lord the worke became more sweet and easy to be performed Well then so light and easy a worke as this for hauing been performed by a person who was in the state of grace and with a pure intention to serue and please Almighty God was esteemed so highly as wee see by Christ our Lord and praised with such Maiesty of wordes and rewarded with such a high reward both in heauen and earth Such value and dignity and excellency haue those good workes which are done for the loue of God If the Magdalena had spent not three hundred peeces of siluer but three hundred thousand in the seruice of the world as in braueries and vaine dressings in curious and delitious bankets and in making some feast triumph to giue delight and gust as louers of the world are wont to doe all that expence had been lost and she had not pleased Almighty God therby nor had merited any thing is his sight and there had been no honorable memory therof continued amongst men And not reaping any profit by them shee would haue incurred many faultes as ordinarily there are in these thinges which would haue condemned her either to the tēporary paines of Purgatory or els to the eternall torments of hell But now for hauing spent a little money vpon the seruice of Christ our Lord and for vndergoing
that light sweet labour in performing that work of piety with her owne hands she pleased Almighty God so much and merited so greatly in his sight obtained so much honour throughout the world that as long as it lasts she shall be praised had in veneration for this worke by all faithfull Christians and for all eternity shall be made happy amongst the Angells in heauen with a most high crown of glory And so will that be fulfilled which was said by the wise man The memory of iust persons wil remaine amōgst men after their death and they shall relate their heroicall deedes and exhibite praise and veneration to them whereas the memory and fame of wicked persons shall be full of reproach and it shall perish Secondly we are to draw from this example of Christ our Lord that when wee see vertuous people suffer hurt in their reputatiō or good name whereby their neighbours were to be edified whereof they are depriued by the slaunders and lies of wicked people wee must defend them by giuing testimony to the truth and by praising their good life And when men murmur against them in our presence wee must excuse their innocency declare their vertue And if it so fall out that we haue any credit with the murmurers we must procure to mend them and stop the discourse and if our aduice by way of speech will not serue we must shew both by our silence and by our countenance that such murmuring is displeasing to vs. This is that which the holy Ghost doth admonish saying that as the sharpe cold winde coming from the North hindreth raine and permits not through the coldnes thereof that the cloudes should easily dissolue thēselues into water so doth the reserued and sad countenāce of him who heareth ty vp the tongue of the murmurer This saith the Wise man in the Prouerbs who was instructed by the Holy Ghost And the reason is because when the murmurer sees that they who heare him looke cheerfully vpon the matter he thinkes he pleaseth them that they giue him a glad eare and he taketh so much the more heart and liberty to murmur but whē he findeth that they shew him an ill countenance he vnderstāds by that that the discourse pleaseth not but that they are vnwilling to heare it this he markes and so he begines to giue ouer murmuring THE XXII CHAPTER How wee ought to praise wise men when they are vertuous to the end that others may profit by their example and doctrine BEsides those reasons before expressed there is yet an other of great force why wee ought to praise the seruants of God and it is to the end that our neighbours hauing notice of their vertue and parts may profit more both by their doctrine and by the example of their life This praise belongeth chiefly to persons who are much knowne and haue authority or publicke office as Prelates Iudges Preachers Cōfessors Religious men Priests and rich and noble persons for vpon the vertue prudence and wisdome of such as these who are as the heads and hearts dependeth the vertue of the people and so the good life and incorrupt doctrine of these seruants of God being generally knowne and commended the rest of men doth profit by it so much the more and are more edified by their good speeches and vertuous examples and therfore to praise such persons with that discretion which is fit is a thing very acceptable to God and very profitable for the gaining of soules Let vs relate an example which Christ our Lord gaue vs hereof The disciples of Saint Iohn Baptist came to Christ our Lord in their Masters name Mat. 11. Luc. 7. to know if he were that Christ who was to come that is to say if he were the Messias who had been promised by Almighty God for the saluation of the world And our Lord hauing answered this question by the workes he did which was by working the miracles which were prophecied of the Messias and by preaching that doctrine which belonged to him to teach and publish he dispatched them away saying Tell Iohn what you haue and heard When the disciples of Saint Iohn were gone our Lord began to celebrate the diuine praises of the same Saint Iohn and to proclame his admirable vertues saying What went you out to see in the desert Went you perhaps to see some reed or cane which is shaken with euery winde or some man set forth in soft and delicate apparell He meāt as followeth you went not out to see a light or vnconstant person who is mooued by euery passion or interest but a most constant man and who perseuereth with admirable resolution in the truth which he preacheth and in that holy life which he began to lead And you shall euidently see that inconstant and light persons who are mooued with passions or by the interests of this world be allwaies in loue with regaloes and delicacies in their food their cloathing and their habitation and are desirous of wealth and haue recourse to the houses of great men where these things are foūd in abundance But in Iohn you shall see nothing of this but a life of great penance and austerity very abstinent estranged from all manner of regalo and wholly depriued destitute of all earthly goods For his habitation is in the dry and horrid desert his bed is the hard ground his garment is a sharpe hairecloth made of camells haire his food is dry locusts his drinke running water and his continuall exercise is to pray and contemplate in that desert and to baptise and preach penance in the riuer of Iordan He saith moreouer of him And what went you out to see in the desert Was it perhaps some Prophet Verely I say to you that he is more then a Prophet For this is he of whom the eternall Father said whilest he was speaking to his sonne as is recorded in Malachias Behould I send my Angell before thy presence to prepare the way for thee I tell you for a most certaine truth that there was not borne of woemen a greater then Iohn the Baptist but yet he who is the least in the kingdome of heauen is greater then hee Which signifieth according to the best exposition He who for his age the office of humility which he exerciseth and in opinion of the people is the poorest member of the Church which was our Lord himselfe the true Messias is both in dignity and sanctity greater then he Saint Iohn had preached penance to the people and exhorted men to the exercise of all vertue and had giuen expresse testimony mony of Christ our Lord affirming that he was the Messias And now to the end that by sending this message whereby they asked of Christ our Lord if he were the Messias the people might not suspect that he made any doubt as some inconstant might doe of that which formerly he had testified and of that which now
he questioned but only in regard both of his owne disciples and of al that people that so they might forsake the ignorance wherein they were remain more confirmed in their faith not thinke that he demaunded it in regard of the ignorance wherein himself was for this reason did Christ our Lord extoll him afterward with so illustrious praises and testified with so great asseueratiō the constancy and purity of his life and the eminency of his person and dignity And he proued this both by the experience of what they sawe and by the testimony also of a Prophet to the end that they might be settled in the great belief which they ought to haue of his truth and sanctity and that so they might profit by the doctrine which he had preached and the example of life which he had shewed In this sort are wee to praise men for their vertues after the example of Christ our Lord because their life and doctrine concerne the good of the faithfull to the end that their wordes of counsell may be more efficacious and their example more profitable to all men Thus did Saint Paule proceed who resoluing to send Timothy a most faithfull instrument of the Ghospell to preach and administer holy thinges at Philippos a Citty of Macedonia doth praise him first in a letter which he writeth to the Philippians wherin he testifieth his vertues saying I hope in the mercy of Christ our Lord that I shall very shortly be able to send Timothy to you And I haue designed to send him in particular because I haue none other who is so agreeable to mee and so of one heart with my selfe and who with so pure loue and true charity hath so particular a care of your good These and other praises did S. Paule deliuer of Timothy to the end that the Philippians might receiue him with great estimation of his sanctity and zeale and might profit by him And he did the like when he resolued to send Titus a seruant of Christ our Lord and a preacher of the Ghospell to them of Corinthus for first he praised him saying to this effect I giue great thankes to God for inspiring the heart of Titus with the same desire that I haue and for hauing kindled him with the same loue and endewed him with the same desire of your spirituall profit which he gaue to mee With these other wordes Saint Paule praised Titus to the end that his labours might prooue of greater spirituall profit to the Corinthians And after this manner are we also to praise Prelats Preachers Gouernours of Citties Pastours of soules Religious men and Priests and all such as haue publicke office and authority ouer the people when they clearly expresse true vertue in their liues For when they are knowne for-such and that they are wise and diligent in doing their duties they shall profit the people more and especially such families thereof as conuerse with them Let vs praise saith Ecclesiasticus such men as are excellently glorious aboue the rest THE XXIII CHAPTER Of the rule which wee are to hold when vpon the aforesaid reason we shall praise the seruants of God BVt in affoarding this praise wee must obserue these directions and rules of discretion That whē we praise another man not to the end of encouraging him or moouing him to the practise and proceeding in vertue or for the perswading him to the doing of some good worke but for the good and profit of others that so his vertue and wisdome being knowne and much esteemed his neighbours who heare and discourse thereof may profit by his example instruction aduice and gouernment which is the case wherof we are speaking we must not then praise the party in his own presēce nor yet before his familiar friends who already know his parts and who are likely to tell him what they haue heard but onely before such others whō it may concerne to know his vertues and parts to take profit by him So did Christ our Lord whē he praised Saint Iohn for he did it in his absence and he staied for the doing of it till the disciples of Saint Iohn were gone This rule must wee also hold that so we may take from the seruant of God whom we praise all occasion of vaine complacence and estimation of himselfe especially when the praises happen to be great in respect that the parties vertues and parts are greatly worthy to be praised For although it be true that many seruants of God who haue laid the rootes of humility very deeply in their hearts and who by long experience and much light from heauen haue wel vnderstood and penetrated the weakenes of man are free from this danger take no occasion of vanity by it but contemne themselues so much the more yet this is not euery bodies case How soeuer we see indeed that it happened in the case of Saint Ambrose when once a diuell speaking by the mouth of a possest person had a minde to cry out thus aloud Ambrose torments mee For then the Saint vnderstood the diuells craft what he pretended by praising him But he did not onely not growe proud by occasion thereof but he humiliated himselfe so much the more and said Hold thy peace thou diuell for it is not Ambrose who torments thee but the faith of the Saints in God and thine owne enuy Know that Ambrose will not growe proud vpon thy praises This passed with Saint Ambrose and the like happened to Saint Marcellus the Abbot For this man had a gift from God to cast out diuells and they brought diuers possest persons to him and the diuells desiring by their infernall craft to hoise vp the Saint into pride with praise they cried out thus aloud Marcellus doe thou commaund vs to depart out of these bodies for thou hast power ouer vs and this they repeapeated often The Saint vnderstood the malice of the diuells would not send them out vpon their commaundmēt but taking occasion from that speech to humble him selfe so much the more and lifting vp his eyes to heauen he begged of Christ our Lord that he would cast them out saying thus O Lord preserue this worke of thy hands he continued praying so long that the diuells departed out of the bodies Though this be so and that many great seruants of God are settled so firmely and solidly in the truth of humility that humane praises moue them not at all but rather they humiliate themselues the more by occasion thereof yet there are others who though indeed they be the seruāt of God and haue very excellent vertues and gifts from heauen and are worthy to be praised yet notwithstanding they haue some weaknes this way and are subiect to the danger of growing proud vpon humane praise and especially whē they are praised much And this is the vsuall case and which ordinarily happeneth that euen good men are subiect to this weaknes and are exposed to this danger And
a man may clearly see what force those praises haue to make men giddy how much occasion they minister of making them fall into vaine complacēce and pride First in that the diuells who are so great and wise Masters in doing ill did take the meanes of praising and publishing the power which Saint Ambrose and Saint Marcellus had ouer them from Almighty God as the likeliest way to make them fal into pride And this truth may bee also seene by the great diligence which the Saints haue euer vsed in flying from the praises of men for the dāger which they knew to be therein and the feare they had to fall thereby Surius doth relate in the life of the blessed and most holy man Iohn who was a Prior of Chanons Regular that fearing the danger of praise he fled from it after an extraordinary manner He went to do a certaine office of charity to certaine woemen the seruants of God who were retired from the world and one of them who was there shut vp receaued a Reuelation of his going thither and therein our Lord had declared to them the great sanctity and merit of that seruant of his Now there was here no necessity to recount that reuelation in praise of his sanctity for it was not made to her for the profit of the Saint but to the end that they might profit by his coming thither so much the more by how much more they were certified of his sanctity And therefore as soon as the Saint heard her begin to speake thereof he found that there was danger of conceiuing some vaine complacence or estition of himselfe and it troubled him much to heare such praises of his vertue and he made her a quicke answere and concluding the busines in few wordes went imediatly away For the danger that he found to heare humane praise made him resolue not to stay where there was so great estimation of the holy manner of his life Saint William who of Duke of Aquitania came to be a most holy Monke and a Father of many Monkes was much praised by men for his many vertues the great miracles which he wrought This put him to extreme paine and he would faine haue auoided the working of miracles through the feare he had of being praised And Theobaldus the Bishop saith in his life That in regard he was not able to ēdure humane praise he went into a solitary place and betooke himselfe there to a little cottage in company of a disciple of his doing penance there and leading a celestial life till he made a most holy end The Saints therfore haue well vnderstood the danger which ordinarily there is in human praise especially when they are giuen with great honour and estimation of sanctity And for this reason when we praise the seruants of God for the benefit of others wee are to doe it if wee can in their absence Wee are also to doe so for an other reason which is to secure our selues from the note and suspicion of being flatterers For when wee praise our neighbour for the profit of his soule namely to deliuer him from pusillanimity and to animate him to vertue the necessity which then ther is of praising him in his presence will free vs from being suspected to doe it out of flattery but when wee praise him for the good of others if wee doe it without necessity in his presence it draweth the suspicion of flattery with it and therefore as much as we may wee must procure to giue such praise in absence And this also did Christ our Lord teach vs in this praise of Saint Iohn For vpō this reason he staied till the disciples of the Saint were gone to auoid all suspicion of flattery So said Saint Chrysostome Therefore did Christ our Lord praise Saint Iohn whē his disciples were gone that so it might not seeme to be flattery THE XXIV CHAPTER Of other rules which wee must obserue when wee praise men that is that wee praise some without offence to others and that wee doe it in moderate words ANother rule which wee are to obserue in these praises is to praise some in such sorte as that we giue no offence to others by diminishing the vertues and parts of some to encrease those of other folkes And therefore we must procure as much as we may not to make cōparisons between some and others telling the faultes of this man and the abilities of that other abasing and vilifying some and exalting and magnifying other men and of this we must especially take heed when they of whom wee speake are aliue Christ our Lord gaue vs an example of this rule in the praise which he vttered of Saint Iohn for he said not of him that he was the greatest of all them who had been borne of woemen but that no man had been borne before that time greater then hee thereby leauing men in liberty to thinke that others might be equall to him And out of this general sētēce he brought that exception which was fit saying that the least of the kingdome of heauen was greater then he And although some vnderstand thereby the least of the Angells who are blessed in heauen yet the more certaine exposition is as we haue said before that he vnderstood him who was the least by humility which is that Saint of Saints and he who is the fountaine of all sanctity of whom Saint Iohn Baptist himselfe said that he was not worthy to vntie the latchet of his shoo Wee also must follow this rule of prudence in praising men who are praise worthy For if we praise men for the loue of God being moued by charity as wee ought the same charity will tell vs that we must doe it without offending any body and that so wee must comfort and honour some with our praise as that wee doe not offend or dispraise others by sleighting their vertues The last rule which wee are to hold is that wee praise men euen although they be Saints with moderation and temperance in modest wordes in such sorte that wee exceed not the limits either of truth or of necessity by our enforcing or exaggeration thereof For if wee praise a man either to make him friendly or to animate him to the doing of good or to perswade him to the beleefe of any truth or to the practise of any vertue or to gaine credit for him with other folkes it will be fit to speake so well of him as is necessary for the obtaining of that end which is pretended to worke that good effect which is desired and this is sufficient laying other praises and exaggerations aside which neither are necessary nor profitable to the edification of others This moderation which wee ought to vse in praising men is taught vs by the holy Scripture saying doe not praise a man till he be dead He doth not here prohibite all praise of such as liue for it is clearly lawful and necessary and