usuall entercourses of the world still their desire of single life increased because the old necessity lasted and a new one did supervene Afterwards the case was altered and then the single life was not to be chosen for it self nor yet in imitation of the first precedents for it could not be taken out from their circumstances and be used alone He therefore that thinks he is a more holy person for being a virgin or a widower or that he is bound to be so because they were so or that he cannot be a religious person because he is not so hath zeal indeed but not according to knowledge But now if the single state can be taken out and put to new appendages and fitted to the end of another grace or essentiall duty of Religion it will well become a Christian zeal to choose it so long as it can serve the end with advantage and security Thus also a zealous person is to chuse his fastings while they are necessary to him and are acts of proper mortification while he is tempted or while he is under discipline while he repents or while he obeys but some persons fast in zeal but for nothing else fast when they have no need when there is need they should not but call it religion to be miserable or sick here their zeal is folly for it is neither an act of Religion nor of prudence to fast when fasting probably serves no end of the spirit and therefore in the fasting dayes of the Church although it is warrant enough to us to fast if we had no end to serve in it but the meer obedience yet it is necessary that the superiors should not think the Law obeyed unlesse the end of the first institution be observed a fasting day is a day of humiliation and prayer and fasting being nothing it self but wholly the handmaid of a further grace ought not to be devested of its holinesse and sanctification and left like the wals of a ruinous Church where there is no duty performed to God but there remains something of that which us'd to minister to Religion The want of this consideration hath caus'd so much scandall and dispute so many snares and schismes concerning Ecclesiasticall fasts For when it was undressed and stripp'd of all the ornaments and usefull appendages when from a solemn day it grew to be common from thence to be lesse devout by being lesse seldome and lesse usefull and then it passed from a day of Religion to be a day of order and from fasting till night to fasting till evening-song and evening-song to be sung about twelve a clock and from fasting it was changed to a choice of food from eating nothing to eating fish and that the letter began to be stood upon and no usefulnesse remain'd but what every of his own piety should put into it but nothing was enjoyn'd by the Law nothing of that exacted by the superiours then the Law fell into disgrace and the design became suspected and men were first insnared and then scandalized and then began to complain without remedy and at last took remedy themselves without authority the whole affair fell into a disorder and a mischief and zeal was busie on both sides and on both sides was mistaken because they fell not upon the proper remedy which was to reduce the Law to the usefulnesse and advantages of its first intention But this I intended not to have spoken 2. Our zeal must never carry us beyond that which is safe Some there are who in their first attempts and entries upon Religion while the passion that brought them in remains undertake things as great as their highest thoughts no repentance is sharp enough no charities expensive enough no fastings afflictive enough then totis Quinquatribus orant and finding some deliciousnesse at the first contest and in that activity of their passion they make vowes to binde themselves for ever to this state of delicacies The onset is fair but the event is this The age of a passion is not long and the flatulent spirit being breathed out the man begins to abate of his first heats and is ashamed but then he considers that all that was not necessary and therefore he will abate something more and from something to something at last it will come to just nothing and the proper effect of this is indignation and hatred of holy things an impudent spirit carelessenesse or despair Zeal sometimes carries a man into temptation and he that never thinks he loves God dutifully or acceptably because he is not imprison'd for him or undone or design'd to Martyrdome may desire a triall that will undoe him It is like fighting of a Duell to shew our valour Stay till the King commands you to fight and die and then let zeal do its noblest offices This irregularity and mistake was too frequent in the primitive Church when men and women would strive for death and be ambitious to feel the hangmans sword some miscarryed in the attempt and became sad examples of the unequall yoking a frail spirit with a zealous driver 3. Let Zeal never transport us to attempt any thing but what is possible M. Teresa made a vow that she would do alwaies that which was absolutely the best But neither could her understanding alwaies tell her which was so nor her will alwayes have the same fervours and it must often breed scruples and sometimes tediousnesse and wishes that the vow were unmade He that vowes never to have an ill thought never to commit an error hath taken a course that his little infirmities shall become crimes and certainly be imputed by changing his unavoidable infirmity into vow-breach Zeal is a violence to a mans spirit and unlesse the spirit be secur'd by the proper nature of the duty and the circumstances of the action and the possibilities of the man it is like a great fortune in the meanest person it bears him beyond his limit and breaks him into dangers and passions transportations and all the furies of disorder that can happen to an abused person 4. Zeal is not safe unlesse it be in re probabili too it must be in a likely matter For we that finde so many excuses to untie all our just obligations and distinguish our duty into so much finenesse that it becomes like leaf-gold apt to be gone at every breath it can not be prudent that we zealously undertake what is not probable to be effected If we do the event can be nothing but portions of the former evill scruple and snares shamefull retreats and new fantastick principles In all our undertakings we must consider what is our state of life what our naturall inclinations what is our society and what are our dependencies by what necessities we are born down by what hopes we are biassed and by these let us measure our heats and their proper businesse A zealous man runs up a sandy hill the violence of motion is his greatest hinderance and a
it hugely and doe it alwayes Non enim votis neque suppliciis muliebribus auxilia Deorum parantur sed vigilando agendo benè consulendo omnia prosperè cedunt No man can obtain the favour of God by words and imperfect resolutions by lazie actions and a remisse piety but by severe counsells and sober actions by watchfulnesse and prudence by doing excellent things with holy intentions and vigorous prosecutions Ubi socordiae ignaviae te tradideris nequidquam Deos implorabis If your vertues be lazy your vices will be bold and active and therefore Democritus said well that the painfull and the soft-handed people in Religion differ just as good men and bad nimirùm spe bonâ the labouring charity hath a good hope but a coole Religion hath none at all and the distinction will have a sad effect to eternall ages These are the great Scenes of duty in which we are to be fervent and zealous but because earnestnesse and zeal are circumstances of a great latitude and the zeale of the present age is starke cold if compar'd to the fervors of the Apostles and other holy primitives and in every age a good mans care may turne into scruple if he sees that he is not the best man because he may reckon his owne estate to stand in the confines of darknesse because his spark is not so great as his neighbors fires therefore it is fit that we consider concerning the degrees of the intention and forward heats for when we have found out the lowest degrees of zeale and a holy fervour we know that duty dwels there and whatsoever is above it is a degree of excellence but all that is lesse then it is lukewarmnesse and the state of an ungracious and an unaccepted person 1. No man is fervent and zealous as he ought but he that preferres Religion before businesse charity before his own case the reliefe of his brother before money heaven before secular regards and God before his friend or interest Which rule is not to be understood absolutely and in particular instances but alwayes generally and when it descends to particulars it must be in proportion to circumstances and by their proper measures for 1. In the whole course of life it is necessary that we prefer Religion before any state that is either contrary to it or a lessening of its duties He that hath a state of life in which he cannot at all in fair proportions tend to Religion must quit great proportions of that that he may enjoy more of this this is that which our blessed Saviour calls pulling out the right eye if it offend thee 2. In particular actions when the necessity is equall he that does not preferre Religion is not at all zealous for although all naturall necessities are to be served before the circumstances and order of Religion yet our belly and our back our liberty and our life our health and a friend are to be neglected rather then a Duty when it stands in its proper place and is requir'd 3. Although the things of God are by a necessary zeale to be preferred before the things of the world yet we must take heed that we doe not reckon Religion and orders of worshipping onely to be the things of God and all other duties to be the things of the world for it was a Pharisaicall device to cry Corban and to refuse to relieve their aged Parents it is good to give to a Church but it is better to give to the Poor and though they must be both provided for yet in cases of dispute Mercy carries the cause against Religion and the Temple And although Mary was commended for choosing the better part yet Mary had done worse if she had been at the foot of her Master when she should have relieved a perishing brother Martha was troubled with much serving that was more then need and therefore she was to blame and sometimes hearing in some circumstances may be more then needs and some women are troubled with over-much hearing and then they had better have been serving the necessities of their house 4. This rule is not to be extended to the relatives of Religion for although the things of the Spirit are better then the things of the World yet a spirituall man is not in humane regards to be preferred before Princes and noble personages Because a man is called spirituall in severall regards and for various measures and manners of partaking of the Spirit of grace or co-operating toward the works of the Spirit * A King and a Bishop both have callings in order to godlinesse and honesty and spirituall effects towards the advancement of Christs Kingdome whose representatives severally they are * But whether of these two works more immediately or more effectively cannot at all times be known and therefore from hence no argument can be drawn concerning doing them civill regards * and possibly the partaking the Spirit is a neerer relation to him then doing his ministeries and serving his ends upon others * and if relations to God and Gods Spirit could bring an obligation of giving proportionable civill honour every holy man might put in some pretence for dignities above some Kings and some Bishops * But as the things of the Spirit are in order to the affairs of another world so they naturally can inferre onely such a relative dignity as can be expressed in spirituall manners But because such relations are subjected in men of this life and we now converse especially in materiall and secular significations therefore we are to expresse our regards to men of such relations by proportionable expressions but because civill excellencies are the proper ground of receiving and exacting civill honors and spirituall excellencies doe onely claim them accidentally and indirectly therefore in titles of honour and humane regards the civill praeeminence is the appendix of the greatest civill power and imployment and is to descend in proper measures and for a spirituall relation to challenge a temporall dignity is as if the best Musick should challenge the best cloathes or a Lute-string should contend with a Rose for the honour of the greatest sweetnesse * Adde to this that although temporall things are in order to spirituall and therefore are lesse perfect yet this is not so naturally for temporall things are properly in order to the felicity of man in his proper and present constitution and it is by a supernaturall grace that now they are thrust forward to a higher end of grace and glory and therefore temporall things and persons and callings have properly the chiefest temporall regard and Christ took nothing of this away from them but put them higher by sanctifying and ennobling them * But then the higher calling can no more suppose the higher man then the richest trade can suppose the richest man From callings to men the argument is fallacious and a Smith is a more usefull man then he that teaches Logick but not always to
life of man the rule is good and the greater ingredient shal prevail and he shall certainly be pardoned and accepted whose life is so reformed whose repentance is so active whose return is so early that he hath given bigger portions to God then to Gods enemy But if we account so as to divide the measures in present possession the bigger part cannot prevail a small or a seldome sin spoils not the sea of piety but when the affection is divided a little ill destroyes the whole body of good the cup in a mans right hand must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must be pure although it be mingled that is the whole affection must be for God that must be pure and unmingled if sin mingles in seldome and unapproved instances the drops of water are swallowed up with a whole vintage of piety and the bigger ingredient is the prevailing in all other cases it is not so for one sin that we choose and love and delight in will not be excused by 20 vertues and as one broken link dissolves the union of the whole chain and one jarring and untuned string spoils the whole musick so is every sin that seises upon a portion of our affections if we love one that one destroyes the acceptation of all the rest And as it is in faith so it is in charity He that is a Heretick in one article hath no saving faith in the whole and so does every vicious habit or unreformed sin destroy the excellency of the grace of charity a wilfull error in one article is Heresie and every vice in one instance is Malice and they are perfectly contrary and a direct darknesse to the two eyes of the soul faith and charity 4. There is one deceit more yet in the matter of the extension of our duty destroying the integrity of its constitution for they do the work of God deceitfully who think God sufficiently served with abstinence from evill and converse not in the acquisition and pursuit of holy charity and religion This Clemens Alexandrinus affirmes of the Pharisees they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hoped to be justified by abstinence from things forbidden but if we will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons of the kingdome we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides this and supposing a proportionable perfection in such an innocence we must love our brother and do good to him and glorifie God by a holy Religion in the communion of Saints in faith and Sacraments in almes and counsell in forgivenesses and assistances Flee from evill and do the thing that is good and dwell for evermore said the Spirit of God in the Psalmes and St. Peter Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust give all diligence to adde to your faith vertue to vertue patience to patience godlinesse and brotherly kindnesse and charity Many persons think themselves fairly assoiled because they are no adulterers no rebels no drunkards not of scandalous lives In the mean time like the Laodiceans they are naked and poor they have no catalogue of good things registred in heaven no treasures in the repositories of the poor neither have the poor often prayed concerning them Lord remember thy servants for this thing at the day of Judgement A negative Religion is in many things the effects of lawes and the appendage of sexes the product of education the issues of company and of the publick or the daughter of fear and naturall modesty or their temper and constitution and civill relations common fame or necessary interest Few women swear and do the debaucheries of drunkards and they are guarded from adulterous complications by spies and shame by fear and jealousie by the concernment of families and the reputation of their kindred and therefore they are to account with God beyond this civill and necessary innocence for humility and patience for religious fancies and tender consciences for tending the sick and dressing the poor for governing their house and nursing their children and so it is in every state of life When a Prince or a Prelate a noble and a rich person hath reckon'd all his immunities and degrees of innocence from those evils that are incident to inferiour persons or the worser sort of their own order they do the work of the Lord and their own too very deceitfully unlesse they account correspondencies of piety to all their powers and possibilities they are to reckon and consider concerning what oppressions they have relieved what causes and what fatherlesse they have defended how the work of God and of Religion of justice and charity hath thriv'd in their hands If they have made peace and encouraged Religion by their example and by their lawes by rewards and collaterall incouragements if they have been zealous for God and for Religion if they have imployed ten talents to the improvement of Gods bank then they have done Gods work faithfully if they account otherwise and account only by ciphers and negatives they can expect only the rewards of innocent slaves they shall escape the furca and the wheel the torments of lustfull persons and the crown of flames that is reserved for the ambitious or they shall not be gnawn with the vipers of the envious or the shame of the ingratefull but they can never upon this account hope for the crowns of Martyrs or the honorary rewards of Saints the Coronets of virgins and Chaplets of Doctors and Confessors And though murderers and lustfull persons the proud and the covetous the Heretick and Schismatick are to expect flames and scorpions pains and smart poenam sensus the Schooles call it yet the lazic and the imperfect the harmlesse sleeper and the idle worker shall have poenam damni the losse of all his hopes and the dishonours of the losse and in the summe of affairs it will be no great difference whether we have losse or pain because there can be no greater pain imaginable then to lose the sight of God to eternall ages 5. Hither are to be reduced as deceitfull workers those that promise to God but mean not to pay what they once intended * people that are confident in the day of ease and fail in the danger * they that pray passionately for a grace and if it be not obtained at that price go no further and never contend in action for what they seem to contend in prayer * such as delight in forms and outsides and regard not the substance and design of every institution * that think it a great sin to tast bread before the receiving the holy Sacrament and yet come to communicate with an ambitious and revengefull soul * that make a conscience of eating flesh but not of drunkennesse * that keep old customes and old sins together * that pretend one duty to excuse another religion against charity or piety to parents against duty to God private promises against publick duty the keeping of an oath against breaking of a Commandement honour against modesty
much in this so unreasonable temptation Opposuisti nubem ne transiret oratio the mourning Prophet complained there was a cloud passed between heaven and the prayer of Judah a little thing God knowes it was a wall which might have been blown down with a few hearty sighs and a few penitentiall tears or if the prayers had ascended in a full and numerous body themselves would have broken through that little partition but so the Devill prevails often opponit nubem he claps a cloud between some little objection a stranger is come or my head akes or the Church is too cold or I have letters to write or I am not disposed or it is not yet time or the time is past these and such as these are the clouds the Devill claps between heaven and us but these are such impotent objections that they were as soon confuted as pretended by all men that are not fools or professed enemies of Religion but that they are clouds which sometimes look like Lions and Bears Castles and wals of fire armies and horses and indeed are any thing that a man will fancy and the smallest article of objection managed and conducted by the Devils arts and meeting with a wretchlesse carelesse indevout spirit is a Lion in the way and a deep river it is impassable and it is impregnable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Sophister said in the Greek Comedy Clouds become any thing as they are represented Wolves to Simon Harts to Cleonymus For the Devill fits us with clouds according as we can be abused and if we love affairs of the world he can contrive its circumstances so that they shall crosse our prayers and so it is in every instance and the best way to cure this evill is prayer pray often and pray zealously and the sun of righteousnesse will scatter these clouds and warm our hearts with his holy fires But it is in this as in all acquired habits the habit makes the actions easie and pleasant but this habit cannot be gotten without frequent actions habits are the daughters of action but then they nurse their mother and produce daughters after her image but far more beautifull and prosperous For in frequent prayer there is so much rest and pleasure that as soon as ever it is perceived the contrary temptation appears unreasonable none are so unwilling to pray as they that pray seldome for they that do pray often and with zeal and passion and desire feel no trouble so great as when they are forced to omit their holy offices and hours of prayer It concerns the Devils interest to keep us from all the experience of the rewards of a frequent and holy prayer and so long as you will not try and taste how good and gracious the Lord is to the praying man so long you cannot see the evill of your coldnesse and lukewarm state but if you would but try though it be but for curiosity sake and informe your selves in the vanity of things and the truth of pretences and the certainty of Theologicall propositions you should finde your selves taken in a golden snare which will tye you to nothing but felicity and safety and holinesse and pleasures But then the caution which I intended to insert is this that frequency in prayers and that part of zeal which relates to it is to be upon no account but of an holy spirit a wise heart and reasonable perswasion for if it begins upon passion or fear in imitation of others or desires of reputation honour or phantastick principles it will be unblessed and weary unprosperous and without return or satisfaction therefore if it happen to begin upon a weak principle be very curious to change the motive and with all speed let it be turned into religion and the love of holy things then let it be as frequent as it can prudently it cannot be amisse 2. When you are entred into a state of zealous prayer and a regular devotion what ever interruption you can meet with observe their causes and be sure to make them irregular seldome and contingent that your omissions may be seldome and casuall as a bare accident for which no provisions can be made for if ever it come that you take any thing habitually and constantly from your prayers or that you distract from them very frequently it cannot be but you will become troublesome to your self your prayers will be uneasie they will seem hinderances to your more necessary affairs of passion and interest and the things of the world and it will not stand still till it comes to Apostasie and a direct despite and contempt of holy things For it was an old rule and of a sad experience Tepiditas si callum obduxerit fiet apostasia if your lukewarmnesse be habituall and a state of life if it once be hardned by the usages of many daies it changes the whole state of the man it makes him an apostate to devotion Therefore be infinitely carefull in this particular alwayes remembring the saying of St. Chrysostome Docendi praedicandi officia alia cessant suo tempore precandi autem nunquam there are seasons for teaching and preaching and other outward offices but prayer is the duty of all times and of all persons and in all contingences From other things in many cases we can be excused but from prayer never In this therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is good to be zealous 2. Concerning the second instance I named viz. To give almes above our estate it is an excellent act of zeal and needs no other caution to make it secure from illusion and danger but that our egressions of charity do not prejudice justice See that your almes do not other men wrong and let them do what they can to thy self they will never prejudice thee by their abundance but then be also carefull that the pretences of justice do not cousen thy self of thy charity and the poor of thine almes and thy soul of the reward He that is in debt is not excused from giving almes till his debts are paid but only from giving away such portions which should and would pay them and such which he intended should do it There are lacernae divitiarum and crums from the table and the gleanings of the harvest and the scatterings of the vintage which in all estates are the portions of the poor which being collected by the hand of providence and united wisely may become considerable to the poor and are the necessary duties of charity but beyond this also every considerable relief to the poor is not a considerable diminution to the estate and yet if it be it is not alwaies considerable in the accounts of Justice for nothing ought to be pretended against the zeal of almes but the certain omissions or the very probable retarding the doing that to which we are otherwise obliged He that is going to pay a debt and in the way meets an indigent person that needs it all
passion in Religion destroys as much of our evennesse of spirit as it sets forward any outward work and therefore although it be a good circumstance and degree of a spirituall duty so long as it is within and relative to God and our selves so long it is a holy flame but if it be in an outward duty or relative to our neighbours or in an instance not necessary it sometimes spoils the action and alwaies endangers it But I must remember we live in an age in which men have more need of new fires to be kindled within them and round about them then of any thing to allay their forwardnesse there is little or no zeal now but the zeal of envie and killing as many as they can and damning more then they can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smoke and lurking fires do corrode and secretly consume therefore this discourse is lesse necessary A Physitian would have but small imployment near the Riphaean Mountains if he could cure nothing but Calentures Catarrhes and dead palfies Colds and Consumptions are their evils and so is lukewarmnesse and deadnesse of spirit the proper maladies of our age for though some are hot when they are mistaken yet men are cold in a righteous cause and the nature of this evill is to be insensible and the men are farther from a cure because they neither feel their evill nor perceive their danger But of this I have already given account and to it I shall only adde what an old spirituall person told a novice in religion asking him the cause why he so frequently suffered tediousnesse in his religious offices Nondum vidisti requiem quam speramus nec tormenta quae timemus young man thou hast not seen the glories which are laid up for the zealous and devout nor yet beheld the flames which are prepared for the lukewarm and the haters of strict devotion But the Jewes tell that Adam having seen the beauties and tasted the delicacies of Paradise repented and mourned upon the Indian Mountains for three hundred years together and we who have a great share in the cause of his sorrowes can by nothing be invited to a persevering a great a passionate religion more then by remembring what he lost and what is laid up for them whose hearts are burning lamps and are all on fire with Divine love whose flames are fann'd with the wings of the holy Dove and whose spirits shine and burn with that fire which the holy Jesus came to enkindle upon the earth Sermon XV. The House of Feasting OR THE EPICVRES MEASVRES Part I. 1 Cor. 15. 32. last part Let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye THis is the Epicures Proverb begun upon a weak mistake started by chance from the discourses of drink and thought witty by the undiscerning company and prevail'd infinitely because it struck their fancy luckily and maintained the merry meeting but as it happens commonly to such discourses so this also when it comes to be examined by the consultations of the morning and the sober hours of the day it seems the most witlesse and the most unreasonable in the world When Seneca describes the spare diet of Epicurus and Metrodorus he uses this expression Liberaliora sunt alimenta carceris sepositos ad capitale supplicium non tam angustè qui occisurus est pascit The prison keeps a better table and he that is to kill the criminall to morrow morning gives him a better supper over night By this he intended to represent his meal to be very short for as dying persons have but little stomach to feast high so they that mean to cut the throat will think it a vain expence to please it with delicacies which after the first alteration must be poured upon the ground and looked upon as the worst part of the accursed thing And there is also the same proportion of unreasonablenesse that because men shall die to morrow and by the sentence and unalterable decree of God they are now descending to their graves that therefore they should first destroy their reason and then force dull time to run faster that they may dye sottish as beasts and speedily as a flie But they thought there was no life after this or if there were it was without pleasure and every soul thrust into a hole and a dorter of a spans length allowed for his rest and for his walk and in the shades below no numbring of healths by the numerall letters of Philenium's name no fat Mullets no Oysters of Luerinus no Lesbian or Chian Wines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore now enjoy the delicacies of Nature and feel the descending wines distilled through the limbecks of thy tongue and larynx and suck the delicious juice of fishes the marrow of the laborious Oxe and the tender lard of Apultan Swine and the condited bellies of the scarus but lose no time for the Sun drives hard and the shadow is long and the dayes of mourning are at hand but the number of the dayes of darknesse and the grave cannot be told Thus they thought they discoursed wisely and their wisdome was turned into folly for all their arts of providence and witty securities of pleasure were nothing but unmanly prologues to death fear and folly sensuality and beastly pleasures But they are to be excused rather then we They placed themselves in the order of beasts and birds and esteemed their bodies nothing but receptacles of flesh and wine larders and pantries and their soul the fine instrument of pleasure and brisk perception of relishes and gusts reflexions and duplications of delight and therefore they treated themselves accordingly But then why we should do the same things who are led by other principles and a more severe institution and better notices of immortality who understand what shall happen to a soul hereafter and know that this time is but a passage to eternity this body but a servant to the soul this soul a minister to the Spirit and the whole man in order to God and to felicity this I say is more unreasonable then to eat aconite to preserve our health and to enter into the floud that we may die a dry death this is a perfect contradiction to the state of good things whither we are designed and to all the principles of a wise Philophy whereby we are instructed that we may become wise unto salvation That I may therefore do some assistances towards the curing the miseries of mankinde and reprove the follies and improper motions towards felicity I shall endevour to represent to you 1. That plenty and the pleasures of the world are no proper instruments of felicity 2. That intemperance is a certain enemy to it making life unpleasant and death troublesome and intolerable 3. I shall adde the rules and measures of temperance in eating and drinking that nature and grace may joyne to the constitution of mans felicity 1. Plenty and the pleasures of the world are
zeal in faith and knowledge or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie wives be so subject to your husbands but yet so that at the same time ye be subject to the Lord. For that 's the measure of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things and it is more plain in the parallell place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is fit in the Lord Religion must be the measure of your obedience and subjection intra limites disciplinae so Tertullian expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Clemens Alex. In all things let the wise be subject to the husband so as to do nothing against his will those only things excepted in which he is impious or refractary in things pertaining to wisdome and piety But in this also there is some peculiar caution For although in those things which are of the necessary parts of faith and holy life the woman is only subject to Christ who only is and can be Lord of consciences and commands alone where the conscience is instructed and convinced yet as it is part of the mans office to be a teacher and a prophet and a guide and a Master so also it will relate very much to the demonstration of their affections to obey his counsels to imitate his vertues to be directed by his wisdome to have her perswasion measured by the lines of his excellent religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It were hugely decent saith Plutarch that the wife should acknowledge her husband for her teacher and her guide for then when she is what he please to efform her he hath no cause to complain if she be no better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his precepts and wise counsels can draw her off from vanities and as he said of Geometry that if she be skill'd in that she will not easily be a gamester or a dancer may perfectly be said of Religion If she suffers her self to be guided by his counsell and efformed by his religion either he is an ill master in his religion or he may secure in her and for his advantage an excellent vertue And although in matters of religion the husband hath no empire and command yet if there be a place left to perswade and intreat and induce by arguments there is not in a family a greater endearment of affections then the unity of religion and anciently it was not permitted to a woman to have a religion by her self Eosdem quos maritus nosse Deos colere solos uxor debet said Plutarch And the rites which a woman performes severally from her husband are not pleasing to God and therefore Pomponia Graecina because she entertain'd a stranger religion was permitted to the judgement of her husband Plantius And this whole affair is no stranger to Christianity For the Christian woman was not suffered to marry an unbelieving man and although this is not to be extended to different opinions within the limits of the common faith yet thus much advantage is won or lost by it that the complyance of the wife and submission of her understanding to the better rule of her husband in matters of Religion will help very much to warrant her though she should be misperswaded in a matter lesse necessary yet nothing can warrant her in her separate rites and manners of worshippings but an invincible necessity of conscience and a curious infallible truth and if she be deceived alone she hath no excuse if with him she hath much pity and some degrees of warranty under the protection of humility and duty and dear affections and she will finde that it is part of her priviledge and right to partake of the mysteries and blessings of her husbands religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Romulus A woman by the holy Lawes hath right to partake of her husbands goods and her husbands sacrifices and holy things Where there is a schisme in one bed there is a nursery of temptations and love is persecuted and in perpetuall danger to be destroyed there dwell jealousies and divided interests and differing opinions and continuall disputes and we cannot love them so well whom we beleeve to be lesse beloved of God and it is ill uniting with a person concerning whom my perswasion tels me that he is like to live in hell to eternall ages 2. The next line of the womans duty is compliance which S. Peter cals the hidden man of the heart the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit and to it he opposes the outward and pompous ornament of the body concerning which as there can be no particular measure set down to all persons but the propositions are to be measured by the customes of wise people the quality of the woman and the desires of the man yet it is to be limited by Christian modesty and the usages of the more excellent and severe matrons Menander in the Comedy brings in a man turning his wife from his house because she stain'd her hair yellow which was then the beauty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A wise woman should not paint A studious gallantry in cloathes cannot make a wise man love his wife the better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Comedy such gayeties are fit for tragedies but not for the uses of life decor occultus tecta venustas that 's the Christian womans finenesse the hidden man of the heart sweetnesse of manners humble comportment fair interpretation of all addresses ready compliances high opinion of him and mean of her self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To partake secretly and in her heart of all his joyes and sorrowes to beleeve him comly and fair though the Sun hath drawn a cypresse over him for as marriages are not to be contracted by the hands and eye but with reason and the hearts so are these judgements to be made by the minde not by the sight and Diamonds cannot make the woman vertuous nor him to value her who sees her put them off then when charity and modesty are her brghtest ornaments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And indeed those husbands that are pleased with undecent gayeties of their wives are like fishes taken with ointments and intoxicating baits apt and easie for sport and mockery but uselesse for food and when Circe had turned Ulysses companions into hogs and monkies by pleasures and the inchantments of her bravery and luxury they were no longer usefull to her she knew not what to do with them but on wise Ulysses she was continually enamour'd Indeed the outward ornament is fit to take fools but they are not worth the taking But she that hath a wise husband must intice him to an eternall dearnesse by the vail of modesty and the grave robes of chastity the ornament of meeknesse and the jewels of faith and charity she must have no fucus but blushings her brightnesse must be purity and she must shine round about with sweetnesses and friendship and she
pleasant because no sober person no man that can discourse does like it long Breve sit quod turpiter audes But he approves it in the height of passion and in the disguises of a temptation but at all other times he findes it ugly and unreasonable and the very remembrances must at all times abate its pleasures and sowre its delicacies In the most parts of a mans life he wonders at his own folly and prodigious madnesse that it should be ever possible for him to be deluded by such trifles and he sighes next morning and knowes it over night and is it not therefore certain that he leans upon a thorne which he knowes will smart and he dreads the event of to morrow But so have I known a bold trooper fight in the confusion of a battell and being warm with heat and rage received from the swords of his enemy wounds open like a grave but he felt them not and when by the streams of bloud he found himself mark'd for pain he refused to consider then what he was to feel to morrow but when his rage had cool'd into the temper of a man and a clammy moisture had checked the fiery emission of spirits he wonders at his own boldnesse and blames his fate and needs a mighty patience to bear his great calamity So is the bold and merry sinner when he is warm with wine and lust wounded and bleeding with the strokes of hell he twists with the fatall arm that strikes him and cares not but yet it must abate his gayety because he remembers that when his wounds are cold and considered he must roar or perish repent or do worse that is be miserable or undone The Greeks call this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the felicity of condemned slaves feasted high in sport Dion Prusaeus reports that when the Persians had got the victory they would pick out the noblest slave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They make him a King for three dayes and cloath him with royall robes and minister to him all the pleasures he can choose and all the while he knowes he is to dye a sacrifice to mirth and folly But then let it be remembred what checks and allayes of mirth the poor man starts at when he remembers the axe and the altar where he must shortly bleed and by this we may understand what that pleasure is in the midst of which the man sighs deeply when he considers what opinion he had of this sin in the dayes of counsell and sober thoughts and what reason against it he shall feel to morrow when he must weep or die Thus it happens to sinners according to the saying of the Prophet Qui sacrificant hominem osculabuntur Vitulum He that gives a man in sacrifice shall kisse the calf that is shall be admitted to the seventh chappell of Moloch to kisse the Idoll a goodly reward for so great a price for so great an iniquity After all this I doe not doubt but these considerations will meet with some persons that think them to be protestatio contra factum and fine pretences against all experience and that for all these severe sayings sin is still so pleasant as to tempt the wisest resolution Such men are in a very evill condition and in their case only I come to understand the meaning of those words of Seneca Malorum ultimum est mala sua amare ubi turpia non solùm delectant sed etiam placent It is the worst of evils when men are so in love with sin that they are not only delighted with them but pleased also not only feel the relish with too quick a sense but also feel none of the objections nothing of the pungency the sting or the lessening circumstances However to these men I say this only that if by experience they feel sin pleasant it is as certain also by experience that most sins are in their own nature sharpnesses and diseases * and that very few do pretend to pleasure * That a man cannot feel any deliciousnesse in them but when he is helped by folly and inconsideration that is a wise man cannot though a boy or a fool can be pleased with them * That they are but reliques and images of pleasure left upon Natures stock and therefore much lesse then the pleasures of naturall vertues * That a man must run through much trouble before he brings them to act and enjoyment * That he must take them in despite of himself against reason and his conscience the tenderest parts of man and the most sensible of affliction * They are at the best so little that they are limited as one sense not spread upon all the faculties like the pleasures of vertue which make the bones fat by an intellectuall rectitude and the eyes spritely by a wise proposition and pain it self to become easie by hope and a present rest within * It is certain I say by a great experience that the pleasures of sin enter by cursings and a contradictory interest and become pleasant not by their own relish but by the viciousnesse of the palat by spite and peevishnesse by being forbidden and unlawfull * And that which is its sting is at some times the cause of all its sweetnesse it can have * They are gone sooner then a dream * They are crossed by one another and their Parent is their Tormentor * and when sinnes are tyed in a chain with that chain they dash one anothers brains out or make their lodging restlesse * It is never lik'd long * and promises much and performes little * it is great at distance and little at hand against the nature of all substantiall things * And after all this how little pleasure is left themselves have reason with scorn and indignation to resent So that if experience can be pretended against experience there is nothing to be said to it but the words which Phryne desired to be writ on the gates of Thebes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phryne the harlot built it up but Alexander digg'd it down the pleasure is supported by little things by the experience of fools and them that observed nothing and the relishes tasted by artificiall appetites by art and cost by violence and preternaturall desires by the advantage of deception and evill habits by expectation and delayes by dreams and inconsiderations these are the harlots hands that build the fairy castle but the hands of reason and religion sober counsels and the voice of God experience of wise men and the sighings and intolerable accents of perishing or returning sinners dig it down and sow salt in the foundations that they may never spring up in the accounts of men that delight not in the portion of fools and forgetfulnesse Neque enim Deus ita viventibus quicquam promisit boni neque ipsa per se mens humana talium sibi conscia quicquam boni sperare audet To men that live in sinne God hath promised no good and the
blessed Saviour out of the Gospel of the Nazarens Nunquam laeti sitis nisi cum fratrem vestrum in charitate videritis Never be merry but when you see your brother in charity and when you are merry St. James hath appointed a proper expression of it and a fair entertainment to the passion If any man be merry let him sing Psalmes But St. Bernard who is also strict in this particular yet he addes the temper Though jesting be not fit for a Christian interdum tamen si incidant ferendae fortassis referendae nunquam magis interveniendum cautè prudentèr nugacitati If they seldome happen they are to be borne but never to be returned and made a businesse of but we must rather interpose warily and prudently to hinder the growth and progresse of the trifle But concerning this case of conscience we are to remember these holy persons found jesting to be a trade such were the ridicularii among the Romanes and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks and this trade besides its own unworthinesse was mingled with infinite impieties and in the institution and in all the circumstances of its practise was not onely against all prudent severity but against modesty and chastity and was a licence in disparagement of vertue and the most excellent things and persons were by it undervalued that in this throng of evill circumstances finding a humour placed which without infinite warinesse could never pretend to innocence it is no wonder they forbad all and so also did St. Paul upon the same account And in the same state of reproofe to this day are all that doe as they did such as are professed jesters people that play the foole for money whose employment and study is to unclothe themselves of the covers of reason or modesty that they may be laugh'd at And let it be considered how miserable every sinner is if he does not deeply and truely repent and when the man is wet with teares and covered with sorrow crying out mightily against his sins how ugly will it look when this is remembred the next day that he playes the foole and raises his laughter louder then his prayers and yesterdayes groans for no interest but that he may eat A Penitent and a Jester is like a Grecian piece of money on which were stamped a Helena on one side and a Hecuba on the other a Rose and a deadly Aconite a Paris and an Aesop nothing was more contrary and upon this account this folly was reproved by St. Hierom Verum haec à sanctis viris penitùs propellenda quibus magis convenit flere atque lugere Weeping and penitentiall sorrow and the sweet troubles of pity and compassion become a holy person much better then a scurrilous tongue But the whole state of this Question is briefly this 1. If jesting be unseasonable it is also intolerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. If it be immoderate it is criminall and a little thing here makes the excesse it is so in the confines of folly that as soon as it is out of dores it is in the regions of sin 3. If it be in an ordinary person it is dangerous but if in an eminent a consecrated a wise and extraordinary person it is scandalous Inter saeculares nugae sunt in ore Sacerdotis blasphemiae so St. Bernard 4. If the matter be not of an indifferent nature it becomes sinfull by giving countenance to a vice or making vertue to become ridiculous 5. If it be not watcht that it complies with all that heare it becomes offensive and injurious 6. If it be not intended to fair and lawfull purposes it is sowre in the using 7. If it be frequent it combines and clusters into a formall sinne 8. If it mingles with any sin it puts on the nature of that new unworthinesse beside the proper uglynesse of the thing it selfe and after all these when can it be lawfull or apt for Christian entertainment The Ecclesiasticall History reports that many jests passed between St. Anthony the Father of the Hermits and his Scholar St. Paul and St. Hilarion is reported to have been very pleasant and of a facete sweet and more lively conversation and indeed plaisance and joy and a lively spirit and a pleasant conversation and the innocent caresses of a charitable humanity is not forbidden plenum tamen suavitatis gratiae sermonem non esse indecorum St. Ambrose affirmed and here in my text our conversation is commanded to be such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it may minister grace that is favour complacence cheerfulnesse and be acceptable and pleasant to the hearer and so must be our conversation it must be as far from sullennesse as it ought to be from lightnesse and a cheerfull spirit is the best convoy for Religion and though sadnesse does in some cases become a Christian as being an Index of a pious minde of compassion and a wise proper resentment of things yet it serves but one end being useful in the onely instance of repentance and hath done its greatest works not when it weeps and sighs but when it hates and grows carefull against sin But cheerfulnesse and a festivall spirit fills the soule full of harmony it composes musick for Churches and hearts it makes and publishes glorifications of God it produces thankfulnesse and serves the ends of charity and when the oyle of gladnesse runs over it makes bright and tall emissions of light and holy fires reaching up to a cloud and making joy round about And therefore since it is so innocent and may be so pious and full of holy advantage whatsoever can innocently minister to this holy joy does set forward the work of Religion and Charity And indeed charity it selfe which is the verticall top of all Religion is nothing else but an union of joyes concentred in the heart and reflected from all the angles of our life and entercourse It is a rejoycing in God a gladnesse in our neighbours good a pleasure in doing good a rejoycing with him and without love we cannot have any joy at all It is this that makes children to be a pleasure and friendship to be so noble and divine a thing and upon this account it is certaine that all that which can innocently make a man cheerfull does also make him charitable for grief and age and sicknesse and wearinesse these are peevish and troublesome but mirth and cheerfulnesse is content and civil and compliant and communicative and loves to doe good and swels up to felicity onely upon the wings of charity In this account here is pleasure enough for a Christian in present and if a facete discourse and an amicable friendly mirth can refresh the spirit and take it off from the vile temptations of peevish despairing uncomplying melancholy it must needs be innocent and commendable And we may as well be refreshed by a clean and a brisk discourse as by the aire of Campanian wines
case of Conscience I have these things to say 1. That the words of our blessed Saviour being spoken to the Jews were so certainly intended as they best and most commonly understood and by vain they understood false or lying not uselesse or imprudent and yet so though our blessed Saviour hath not so severely forbidden every empty unsignificant discourse yet he hath forbidden every lie though it be in genere bonorum as St. Basil's expression is that is though it be in the intention charitable or in the matter innocent 2. Of every idle word we shal give account but yet so that sometimes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the judgment shall fall upon the words not upon the persons they be hay and stubble uselesse and impertinent light and easie the fire shall consume them and himselfe shall escape with that losse he shall then have no honor no fair return for such discourses but they shall with losse and prejudice be rejected and cast away 3. If all unprofitable discourses be reckoned for idle words and put upon the account yet even the capacities of profit are so large and numerous that no man hath cause to complain that his tongue is too much restrained by this severity For in all the wayes in which he can doe himselfe good or his neighbour he hath his liberty he is onely to secure the words from being directly criminal and himselfe from being arrested with a passion and then he may reckon it lawfull even upon the severest account to discourse freely while he can instruct or while he can please his neighbour Aut prodesse solent aut delectare while himselfe gets a fair opinion and a good name apt to serve honest and fair purposes he may discourse himselfe into a friendship or help to preserve it he may serve the works of art or nature of businesse publick or private the needs of his house or the uses of mankinde he may increase learning or confirm his notices cast in his symbol of experience and observation till the particulars may become a proverbiall sentence and a rule he may serve the ends of civility and popular addresses or may instruct his brother or himselfe by something which at that time shall not be reduc'd to a precept by way of meditation but is of it selfe apt at another time to doe it he may speak the praises of the Lord by discoursing of any of the works of creation and himselfe or his brother may afterwards remember it to that purpose he may counsell or teach reprove or admonish call to minde a precept or disgrace a vice reprove it by a parable or a story by way of Idea or witty representment and he that can finde talke beyond all this discourse that cannot become usefull in any one of these purposes may well be called a prating man and expect to give account of his folly in the dayes of recompense 4. Although in this latitude a mans discourses may be free and safe from judgement yet the man is not unlesse himself designe it to good and wise purposes not alwayes actually but by an habituall and generall purpose Concerning which he may by these measures best take his accounts 1. That he be sure to speak nothing that may minister to a vice willingly and by observation 2. If any thing be of a suspicious and dubious nature that he decline to publish it 3. That by a prudent morall care he watch over his words that he doe none of this injury and unworthinesse 4. That he offer up to God in his prayers all his words and then look to it that he speak nothing unworthy to be offered 5. That he often interweave discourses of Religion and glorifications of God instructions to his brother and ejaculations of his owne something or other not onely to sanctifie the order of his discourses but to call him back into retirement and sober thoughts lest he wander and be carried off too far into the wilde regions of impertinence and this Zeno calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dip our tongues in understanding In all other cases the rule is good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either keep silence or speak something that is better then it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Isocrates constantly enough to this Evangelicall precept a seasonable silence or a profitable discourse choose you whether for whatsoever cometh of more is sin or else is folly at hand and will be sin at distance Lastly 5. This account is not to be taken by little traverses and intercourses of speech but by greater measures and more discernible portions such as are commensurate to valuable portions of time for however we are pleased to throw away our time and are weary of many parts of it yet are impatiently troubled when all is gone yet we are as sure to account for every considerable portion of our time as for every summe of money we receive and in this it was that St. Bernard gave caution Nemo parvi aestimet tempus quod in verbis consumitur otiosis Let no man think it a light matter that he spend his pretious time in idle words let no man be so weary of what flies away too fast and cannot be recalled as to use arts and devices to passe the time away in vanity which might be rarely spent in the interests of eternity Time is given us to repent in to appease the divine anger to prepare for and hasten to the society of Angels to stir up our slackned wills and enkindle our cold devotions to weep for our daily iniquities and to sigh after and work for the restitution of our lost inheritance and the reward is very inconsiderable that exchanges all this for the pleasure of a voluble tongue and indeed this is an evill that cannot be avoyded by any excuse that can be made for words that are in any sense idle though in all senses of their owne nature and proper relations they be innocent They are a throwing away something of that which is to be expended for eternity and put on degrees of folly according as they are tedious and expensive of time to no good purposes * I shall not after all this need to reckon more of the evill consequent to the vain and great talker but if these already reckoned were not a heap big enough I could easily adde this great evill that the talking man makes himselfe artificially deafe being like a man in the steeple when the bells ring you talke to a deafe man though you speake wisely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good counsell is lost upon him and he hath serv'd all his ends when he pours out whatsoever he took in for he therefore loaded his vessell that he might pour it forth into the sea These and many more evils and the perpetuall unavoydable necessity of sinning by much talking hath given great advantages to silence and made it to be esteemed an act of
Discipline and great Religion St. Romualdus upon the Syrian mountaine severely kept a seaven years silence and Thomas Cantipratensis tels of a religious person in a Monastery in Brabant that spake not one word in 16 years But they are greater examples which Palladius tels of Ammona who liv'd with 3000 Brethren in so great silence as if he were an Anachoret but Theona was silent for 30 years together and Johannes surnamed Silentiarius was silent for 47 years But this morosity and sullennesse is so far from being imitable and laudable that if there were no direct prevarication of any commands expressed or intimated in Scripture yet it must certainly either draw with it or be it self an infinite omission of duty especially in the externall glorifications of God in the institution or advantages of others in thanksgiving and publick offices and in all the effects and emanations of spirituall mercy This was to make amends for committing many sins by omitting many duties and in stead of digging out the offending eye to pluck out both that they might neither see the scandall nor the duty for fear of seeing what they should not to shut their eyes against all light It was more prudent which was reported of St. Gregory Nazianzen who made Silence an act of Discipline and kept it a whole Lent in his religious retirements cujus facti mei si causam quaeris said he in his account he gives of it idcircò à sermone prorsus abstinui ut sermonibus meis moderari discam I then abstained wholly that all the yeer after I might be more temperate in my talke This was in him an act of caution but how apt it was to minister to his purpose of a moderated speech for the future is not certaine nor the philosophy of it and naturall efficacy easie to be apprehended It was also practised by way of penance with indignation against the follies of the Tongue and the itch of prating so to chastise that petulant member as if there were a great pleasure in prating which when it grew inordinate it was to be restrained and punished like other lusts I remember it was reported of St. Paul the Hermit Scholar of St. Anthony that having once asked whether Christ or the old Prophets were first he grew so ashamed of his foolish Question that he spake not a word for 3 years following And Sulpitius as St. Hierom reports of him being deceived by the Pelagians spoke some fond things and repenting of it held his tongue till his dying day ut peccatum quod loquendo contraxerat tacendo penitùs emendaret Though the pious minde is in such actions highly to be regarded yet I am no way perswaded of the prudence of such a deadnesse and Libitinarian Religion Murmuracum secum rabiosa silentia rodunt so such importune silence was called and understood to be a degree of stupidity and madnesse for so Physicians among the signes of that disease in dogs place their not barking and yet although the excesse and unreasonablenesse of this may be well chastised by such a severe reproofe yet it is certaine in silence there is wisdome and there may be deep religion So Aretaeus describing the life of a studious man among others he inserts this they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without colour pale and wise when they are young and by reason of their knowledge silent as Mutes and dumb as the Seriphian frogs And indeed it is certaine great knowledge if it be without vanity is the most severe bridle of the Tongue For so have I heard that all the noyses and prating of the poole the croaking of frogs and toads is hushed and appeased upon the instant of bringing upon them the light of a candle or torch Every beam of reason and ray of knowledge checks the dissolutions of the Tongue But ut quisque contemptissimus maximè ludibrio est ita solutissimae linguae est said Seneca Every man as he is a fool and contemptible so his tongue is hanged loose being like a bell in which there is nothing but tongue and noise Silence therefore is the cover of folly or the effect of wisdome but it is also religious and the greatest mystick rites of any institution are ever the most solemn and the most silent the words in use are almost made Synonymous There was silence made in heaven for a while said St. John who noted it upon occasion of a great solemnity and mysterious worshippings or revelations to be made there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the gods is within said Telemachus upon occasion of which his Father reproved his talking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be thou also silent and say little let thy soule be in thy hand and under command for this is the rite of the gods above And I remember that when Aristophanes describes the Religion in the Temple of Esculapius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priest commanded great silence when the mysteriousnesse was nigh and so among the Romanes Ite igitur pueri linguis animisque faventes Sertaque delubris farra imponite cultris But now although silence is become religious and is wise and reverend and severe and safe and quiet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hippocrates affirms of it without thirst and trouble and anguish yet it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must be seasonable and just not commenced upon chance or humour not sullen and ill-natur'd not proud and full of fancy not pertinacious and dead not mad and uncharitable nam sic etiam tacuisse nocet He that is silent in a publick joy hath no portion in the festivity or no thankfulnesse to him that gave the cause of it And though of all things in the world a prating Religion and much talke in holy things does most profane the mysteriousnesse of it and dismantles its regards and makes cheap its reverence and takes off fear and awfulnesse and makes it loose and garish like the laughters of drunkennesse yet even in Religion there are seasons to speak and it was sometimes pain and grief to David to be silent But yet although tedious and dead silence hath not a just measure of praise and wisdome yet the worst silence of a religious person is more tolerable and innocent then the usuall pratings of the looser and foolish men Pone Domine custodiam ori meo ostium circumstantiae labiis meis said David Put a guard O Lord unto my mouth and a dore unto my lips upon which St. Gregory said well Non parietem sed ostium petit quod viz. aperitur clauditur he did not ask for a wall but for a dore a dore that might open and shut and it were well it were so indeed Labia tua sicut vitta coccinea so Christ commends his Spouse in the Canticles Thy lips are like a scarlet hair-lace that is tyed up with modesty from folly and dissolution For however that few people offend in silence