it be strait it will more easily be able to receaue a Mother and a Brother then a stranger whith whome she cannot certainly remaine chast in one house vnlesse she haue another chamber Let there be in one habitation two woemen two men But if that third party that dry nurse of your old age will not be gone but will needs make a stirre and disquiet the house let the Cart be drawne by two or els let it be drawne by three your brother and your sonne and at least you shall thus allow your sonne both a sister and a Mother Others will call these new commers a sonne in law a Father in law but your sonne may call them a foster-foster-father a Brother I haue dictated this with speed at a short sitting vp being desirous to satisfy the entreaty of him who sought it by way of exercising my selfe after a scholastical maÌ„ner For he knocked at my doore the same day in the morning when he was to take his iourney and I did it also to let my detracters see that I also can vtter whatsoeuer comes into my mouth For which reason I haue taken little out of Scripture nor haue I wouén my discourse with the flowers thereof as I vse to do in my other workes I dictated it ex tempore it flowed from me by the light of my little lampe with so great facility that my tongue outstript the hand of the writers and so as that the volubility of my speech did euen ouer whelme the letters which stole the words out of my mouth This I haue sayd to the end that he who will not pardon my little wit may excuse me in respect of my little tyme. Saint Hierome to Rusticus the Monke to whome he prescribes a forme of liuing NOTHING is more happy then a Christian to whom the kingdome of heauen is promised Nothing is more laborious then he who is daily in hazard of his life Nothing is more strong then he who ouercomes the diuell nothing is more weake then he who is ouercome by the flesh We haue very many examples on both sides The theefe belieues vpon the Crosse and instantly deserues to heare Verely I say to thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Iudas from the high dignity of Apostolate slips downe into the deep darke pit of destruction and could not be drawen backe from betraying him as a man whom he knew to be the sonne of God either by the familiarity of eating at the same table or by the dipping of that morsell of bread or by the dearnes of the kisse which was giuen him What is meaner then that Samaritan woman and yet not onely did she belieue and after the hauing six husbands found one Lord and knew that Messias at the fountayne whoÌ„ the people of the lewes knew not in the Temple but did also become the authour of saluatioÌ„ to many whilst the Apostles were buying meat did refresh him who was hungry and sustayne him who was weary Who was wiser then Salomon yet he was besotted by the loue of woemen Salt is good and no Sacrifice is receiued without the aspersion thereof WhereupoÌ„ the Apostle prescribes thus Let your speech be euer seasoned in grace with salt If that be infatuated it is cast forth so farre doth it loose the dignity of the name it had that it is not of any vse so much as to a dunghill whereby yet when it is good the feildes of belieuers are seasoned and the barren soile of soules is made fruitfull These thinges I say O my sonne Rusticus to the end that at the first entrance I may teach you that you haue begun to do great things that your endeauours are high and now that you haue troden vpon the incentiues or temptations of the sprouting and budding of youth you must clyme vp to the steps of perfect age But the way whereby you go is slippery you will not reapeso much glory by obtayning a victory as ignominy if you be ouercome My busines must not be now to deriue the streame of my discourse through the fieldes of the vertues nor must I labour to shew you the beauty of seuerall flowers and what purity the Lillyes haue what a bashfullnes the Rose possesses what the purple of Violets doth promise in that kingdome and what we may expect from the representation of those glittering gemmes For already by the fauour of God you are holding the plough Already you haue mounted vp the house with the Apostle Peter who thirsting after the Iewes was satisfyed by the fayth of Cornelius killed the hunger which was bred in him through their incredulity by the conuersion of the Gentils and by that foure cornered vessell of the Ghospels which came downe from heauen to earth he was taught and he learned that all kindes of men might be saued And againe that which he saw in the forme of a most pure white sheet is carryed vp on high and carryes vp also with it the troupe of belieuers from earth to heauen that the promise of our Lord may be fullfilled Blessed are the pure of hart for they shall see God All the matter which I desire to infinuate to you is that I like an old sea man being taught by hauing suffered many ship wrackes taking you now by the hand may guide you who are but a new passenger That is to say that you may know vpon what shoare the Pirate of chastity lyes where the Charybdâ—… of auarice is that root of al euill where those barking Dogs of Scylla are whereof the Apostle speakes thus Least biting one another you be consumed by one another and how when we thinke our selues safe in the midest of a calme we are somtymes ouer whelmed by the vnstable quickesandes of vice finally that I may declare to you what venemous beasts are nourished in the desert of this world They who saile in the red Sea wherein it is to be wished by vs that the true Pharaâ—… with his army may be drowned must arriue through many difficulties and dangers at the great Citty Both sides of the shoare are inhabited by wild yea and they most cruell beastes Men are there euer full of care and being well armed do also carry the prouision with them of a whole yeare All places are full of hidden Rockes and hard shallowes in such sort that the skillfull Master must keep himselfe still vpon the top of the Maâ—…t and from thence conuey his directions how the ship is to be conducted and steered And it is a prosperous voyage if after the labour of six moneths they come to the port of that Citty for the place where the Ocean begins to open it selfe and whereby a man doth scarce arriue at the Indies in a whole yeare to the riuer Ganges which the Holy Ghost doth meÌ„tion by the name of Phison and which enuirons by the name of â—…elath and is sayd to produce many
CERTAINE SELECTED EPISTLES OF S. HIEROME AS ALSO THE LIVES OF SAINT PAVL THE FIRST HERMITE Of Saint HILARION the first Monke of Syria and of S. MALCHVS VVritten by the same Saint Translated into English Permissu Superiorum M. DC XXX THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Haue beene requested by a Friend whome I know not how either to deny or delay that I would translate some choyce Epistles and the three liues of S. Paul the Hermite S. Hilarion the Monke and S. Malchus who was also a most holy man They were written by that great famous Doctour S. Hierome and now here you haue them in our English tongue I thinke I need not say for they who will haue the wit to vnderstand me do already know that if it were not for the seruice of God and for that duty which a man owes his friends he would take no great pleasure in translating the workes of such persons as are extraordinary and eminent both in knowledge and in the expression thereof For when the conceptions are choice the power of speech is great in any authour his translatour is likely enough to find his hands full of worke S. Hierome is so well knowne and so generally acknowledged to haue beene rare in both these kindes whereof I spake that I make account my pardon of course is already vnder Seale though I may haue robbed the Saint of life in many of his passages for I haue done it against my will and as we vse to say but in myne owne defence As for any aduise which you may expect you shall haue but this from me If when you read these Epistles and Liues you obserue any particulars which may eyther be beyond your beliefe in regard of the miracls which are recounted or else besids your beliefe in respect that you haue been taught some doctrines otherwise do but cast your mind vpon considering that it is no lesse then S. Hierome who is speaking to you Who liuing in the Primitiue Church within foure hundred years after Christ our Lord and hauing flourished with vncontrolled fame throughout the whole world for incomparable sanctity and wisedome and for learning also in all sciences as well diuine as humane it is fit that you should deferre much to him both in the beliefe of these miraculous thinges and in the admittāce also of these doctrins which are so expresly insinuated by him to haue beene practised by the Catholicke Church of his tyme. I hope you will thinke so too in this hope I leaue you THE EPISTLE OF S. HIEROME TO RVFFINVS THOVGH I knew before by the testimony of holy Writ that God bestowes more then is desired at his handes yea that he graunts such thinges as neyther the eye hath seene nor the eare hath heard nor haue ascended into the hart of Man yet now most deare Russinus I haue found by experience in myne owne person that this is true For I who thought that my greatest ambition was sufficiently to be satisfyed if we might counterfeit a kind of presence to one an other by meanes of letters do now vnderstād that you are entring deep into the most secret parts of Egypt and that you are visiting the Quires of Monkes and making a kind of progresse to see that heauenly family which liues on earth O that our Lord Iesus would now suddenly grant me such a kind of transport of my selfe as Philippe made to the Eunuch or of Abacuke to Daniel How would I euen clasp in your necke with straight imbracements How would I euen print a kisse vpon that mouth of yours which either erred or was in the right togeather with me But because I lesse deserue to go so to you then you do to come to me and that this poore body of myne which when it was at the best is but weake hath beene lately euen broken in pieces with continuall sicknesse I haue sent this messenger of my mind to meet you which tying you vp fast in a knot of loue may bring you hither to my selfe The felicity of this vnexpected ioy was brought me first by our brother Heliodorus I belieued not that to be certaine which I desired it might be so both because he had it but by the relation of another and especially because the strangenes of the thing depriued me of power to giue it credit But then whilest my mind was in suspence through the vncertainty whether I should haue my wish or no a certaine Monke of Alexandria who had beene sent long before through the pious deuotion of that people to those Confessours of Egypt who already in their desire were Martyrs inclined me greatly to belieue it Yet I confesse I was still in a kind of wauering though he being ignorant both of your coūtry and of your name did euen thereby make the matter more probable for that in other circumstances he affirmed the selfe same thinges which already had beene sayd by an other At length the truth broke out with a downe waight For the frequent multitude of trauailers related to vs both that Ruffinus had been at Nitria and was passed on to the Blessed Macharius and then I gaue full way to my beliefe and then indeed I hartily grieued to see my selfe a sicke man And vnles my weaknes had beene such that after a sort it tyed me vp in chaines neither had the heat of the hotest part of Summer nor the Sea which is neuer certaine to such as saile beene able to hinder me from going towards you with a holy kind of hast Belieue me Brother that the Sea-faring man who is tossed with tempest doth not so earnestly looke towardes his Port nor do the thirsty fieldes so desire showers of rayne nor doth the passionate Mother sitting on the shoare so expect the arriuall of her sonne as I doe to imbrace you When that sudden tempest snatched me away from your side when that wicked separation distracted me who was cleauing to you with the fast knot of Charity then did the gloomy storme hang ouer me then did the sky and sea rage bitterly At length whilest I was wandring in that vncertaine pe◅egrination when Tracia Pontus and Bithynia and the whole ◅ourney ouer Galatia and Cappadocia and that Country of the Caelicians had euen consumed me with that scorching heat the land of Syria occured to me as a most safe and faythfull hauen after shipwrack Where yet hauing felt as many diseases in my person as can be conceiued of my two eyes I lost one For the sudden fury of a burning feauer snatched away Innocentius whom I accounted a part of my very hart And now I only enioy Euagrius who is the one and only eye which I haue left to whose labours otherwise my continuall infirmity may be accounted to ad a new heap of care There was also with vs Hylas the seruant of holy Melanius who by the purity of his conuersation hath washed away the spot of slauery to which he had been subiect
And I wish he had rather fayned it had spoken more out of feare then knowledge But belieue me a man lyes not when he weepes He grieues that a yong man is preferred by you before himselfe yea and he no delicate creature nor one who treates himselfe nâ—…tly but a brawny fellow who is but a slouen with all his delicacy and who shuts the purse and holdes the worke with his owne handes and distributs the taskes and gouernes the family buyes all thinges necessary in the market He is the steward and the Lord and yet he preuents the inferiour seruants in their Offices at whome the whole house rayles exclaming against him as detayning all that which the Lady doth not allow giue These seruants are a complaining kind of people and how much soeuer you affoard it is still too little with them For they consider not out of what meanes but how much is giuen them and they comfort themselues the best they they can in all their griefe by deeraction only One cals him a Parasite another an Impostour a third an Vnderminer of the estate and a fourth will find some new name for him They say he sits at her beds side that he fetches midwiues when she is sicke that he reaches her the bason warmes her cloathes and foulds her swathing bandes Men are apt to belieue the worst and whatsoeuer is deuised at home turnes a broad into common fame Nor must you wonder if your maids and men giue out these thinges of you when euen your mother and your Brother make the same complaint Do therefore this which I aduise and euen begge of you be first reconciled to your Mother and if that be not possible to your Brother at least or if yet you will needes implacably detest these names of so great dearnes at least deuide your selfe from him whome you are sayd to haue preferred before them If you cannot doe euen thus much yet respect the honour of your friends and if you cannot forsake your companion yet make more honest vse of him Keep seuerall houses and doe not eat at the same table least men of ill tongues prooue to slauÌ„der you with saying that you lye both in one bed when they see that you liue both in a house You may for your necessary occasions take what kind of solace you will and yet want some part of this publicke infamy Though yet you had need take heed of that other spot which according to the Prophet Ieremy is not to be remoued by any Niter nor by any Diers herbe When you haue a mind that he should sâ—…e and visit you let it be in the presence of witnesses friends free seruantes 〈◊〉 A good conscience feares the eyes of none Be without feare when he comes in and secure when he goes out Euen still eyes silent speech and the habit of the whole body doth sometymes discouer either security or feare I beseech you open your eares hearken to the clamour of the whole Citty You haue lost your owne names and now you are called by the names of one another for you are said to be his and he yours These thinges do your Mother and your Brother heare of you and they are ready to receaue you and beseech you to deuid your selues betweene them two that so this particular infamy of your coniunction may redound to the prayse of all Be you with your Mother and let him be with your Brother More safely may you loue the companion of your Brother more honestly may your Mother loue the friend of her sonne then of her daughter But if you will come to no reason if you will needes contemne my counsell with a frowning brow this letter shal proclaime these thinges to you with a loud voice Why doe you thus besiege the seruantes of another Why make you him who is the seruant of Christ to be a houshould-seruant of yours Looke vpon the people and behould the faces of euery one He reads in the Church and all men cast their eyes on you fauing that you do euen glory in your infamy as if you had the priuiledge of marryed people Nor are you any longer now content with secret infamy You call saucy bouldnes by the name of liberty you are growne to haue the face of an Harlot and you know not how to blush Againe you will be calling me maligne againe suspitious and a listner and publisher of tales Am I suspitious am I malitiously disposed who as I tould you in the beginning of this Epistle did therefore write because I did not suspect But it is you who are negligent dissolute and who despise counselle and who being fiue and twenty yeares ould haue taken a young fellow with little haire vpon his face and you haue wrapt him vp in your armes as if it were in netts A rare instructer indeed who may admonish and fright you euen with the seuerity of his countenance And though in no age one be safe from lust yet when the head is gray a body is defended from publicke infamy The day will come it will come for tyme slides away whilest you thinke not of it when this dapper deare man of yours because woemen grow quickly old and especially such as liue in company with men will find either a richer or a younger then you Then will you repent your selfe of this course and you will be weary of your obstinacy when you shall haue lost both your goods and fame and when that which was ill ioyned shall be well deuided Vnles perhaps you be secure that your loue getting the growth of so long tyme you shall need to feare no separation And you also O Mother who by reason of your age wil be afrayd of no malediction yet be not you so hould as to sin Let your daughter rather be separated from you then you be seuered from her You haue a sonne and a daughter and a sonne in law yea and also a companion in house for your daughter Why do you go in quest after sorraine comforts and stirre vp that fire which now lyes vnder ashes At least it is more handsome for you to beare with the fault of your daughter then to seeke any occasion through committing faults your selfe Let your sonne who is a Monke be with you as the stay of your widowhood and the entertainement of your tender loue Why doe you seeke out a stranger especially to be in that house which is not able to hold your sonne and daughter in it You are now of such age as that you may haue grand-children by your daughter Inuite them both to you and let her returne to you in company of her man who went out alone I sayd her man not her husband Let no man slaunder me I meant but to expresse the sexe not the state of mariage Or if she blush and shrinke and conceaue that the house wherein she was borne is growne too little for her house go you to her house though
kindes of odoriferous spices out of that fountaine of Paradise where the Carbuncle the Emerand is gotten and those other shining Gemmes and those Oâ—…ent pearles towardes which the ambition of great Ladyes doth so much aspire and those mountaines of gold which it is impossible for men to approach by reason of those Dragons and other furious Beasts of monstrous bignes that in fiâ—… we may see what kind of guard couetousnes hath gotten for it â—…elfe But to what purpose doe I say all this It is cleaâ—… that iâ—… men who negotiâ—… the businesseâ—… of this world do 〈◊〉 so great labour that they may obâ—…ayne riches which both are not certaine to be gotten and are certaine either to leaue vs or to be lost and they are kept with hazard to the soule and they are also sought through many dangers what is that man to doe who negotiates the affaires of Christ who selling al things goes in purchase of that most pretious pearle and who with the substance of his whole estate buyes a field wherein he may find that treasure which neither the picklocke can fingar nor the violent theef carry away I know I shall offend many who will interprete my generall discourse against vice to be a personall reproach to themselues But in being angry with me they declare what kind of conscience they haue and they passe therby a worse iudgment vpon themselues then vpon me For I will name no man nor by that liberty which the ancient Comedians were wont to take will I set forth and sting any indiuiduall person It is the part of prudent men and woâ—…men to hide their disgust or rather to amend that which they find to be amisse in themselues and indeed rather to be offended with themselues then me and not to cast reproach vpon him who giues them good counselle who although he were subiect to the same crimes which possesse them yet certenly he is the better in that he is not pleased with vice I heare you haue a deuout woman to your Mother a widow of great age who kept and brought you vp from infancy and that after you had passed your studies in France which flouâ—…ish greatly there she sent you to Rome not sparing to speÌ„d and enduring the absence of her sonne through the hope of future good that so you might season the plenty and elegancy of speech which is gotten in France by giuing it the graue maÌ„ner of Rome and how she did not vse the spuâ—…re towardes you but the oridle which we haue also read of the most eloquent men of Greece who dryed vp that swelling Asyatike humour of speech with the falt of Athens did cut off with the hooke those â—…uxuriant tops of the vines that so the presses of eloqueÌ„te might not be stuffed vp with the ranâ—…ke leaues of wordes but with solid matter and sense as iâ—… were will the expression of the â—…uyce of the grape See you reuerence her 〈◊〉 your Mother loue her 〈◊〉 your nurse and exhibite veneration to her as to a Saint And do not imitate the example of others who forsake their owne mothers and desire to be with the mothers of other folkes whose shame is publicke since they seeke suspected coÌ„uersations when they haue cloaked them vnder the names of so pious affection I know certaine woemen who are now of yeares ripe inough who take pleasure in young men who were bond-slaues freed and who seeke spirituall children then shortly after all modesty being destroyed in them those fayned names of Sonne and Mother haue broken out into the liberties of man and wife Some others forsake their sisters when they are virgins and adheâ—…e to widowes who are strangers There are some who do euen hate their friends in blood and are not taken by any naturall affection whose impatience discouers of what mind they are and so they are capable of no excuse and they breake through all inclosures of modesty as if they were but cobwebs You shall see some man well girt in a course russet coate and with a long beard and yet can neuer get himselfe out of the company of woemen but he dwells with them in the same house and eâ—…tes at the same table and is serued by young maides and enioyes all that which belonges to mariage sauing the only name But it is not the fault of Christian profession if an Hypocrite be to blâ—…me but rather it is a confusion to the Gentils when they see that Christians are displeased with those thinges which are vnpleasing to all good men But you if you meane not only to seeme to be a Monke haue care I say not of your temporall estate by the renunciation whereof you haue begun to be what now you are but of your soule Let your meane cloathes be the index of a fayre mind in you Let your course coate shew your contempt of the world but so as that your mind do not swell and that your habite and your speech differ not from one an other Let not him seeke the regalo of Bathes who desires to quench the heat of flesh and blood by the coolenes of fasting Which fasts must bâ—… also moderate least being excessiue they grow to weaken the stomacke and so requiring a moâ—…e liberall refection they breake out into cruditiâ—… which are the breedeâ—…s of â—…st â—… sparing and temperate dyet is profitable both to body soule Looke so vpon your Mother as that by occasion thereof you grow not to behould other woemen whose countenance may sticke close to your hart so it may receaue an inward wouÌ„d Make account that the maides who serue her are so many snares which are layd for you because how much more their condition is meane so much more easy is the mischiefe And Iohn the Baptist had a holy Mother he was the sonne of a Bishop yet would he not be wonne either by the loue of that Mother or by the wealth of his Father to liue in their house to the danger of his Chastity In the desert he liued hauing eyes which desired to behould Christ he vouchsafed not to looke vpon any thing els His garment was course his girdle made of haire his food locusts and wild hony all which did carry proportion to vertue and chastity The sonnes of the Prophets whome we find in the old Testament to haue beene Monkes did build themselues little houses neere the waters of Iordan and forsaking the crowdes of Cittyes did liue vpon meale and wild herbes As long as you are in your owne conÌ„try haue you a cell which may be a paradise to you Gather sundry fruites of scripture let those be your delights and let them enioy your imbracements If your eye your foot or your hand endanger you throw it away Spare none that you may be good to your owne soule He sayth our Lord who lookes vpon a woman in the way of conâ—…upiscence hath already beene vncleane with her in his hart Who will vauÌ„t
of your voice but the pious affection of your mind is sought by the Apostle saying I will sing with the spirit and I will also sing with the mind and singing to our Lord in your hartes for he had heard that it was thus commanded sing wisely Serue your brethren wash the feet of strangers be silent when you suffer wrong feare the chiefe Father of the Monastery as you would do your Lord and loue him as your Father Belieue that whatsoeuer he commandes is good for you and iudge not the direction of your Superiours you whose office it is to obey and to execute the orders which are giuen according to Moyses Hearken Israel and hould thy peace Hauing so great things to thinke of you will not be at leasure for idle thoughtes and when you passe from one thing to another and when the later action followes the former your mind will be imployed vpon that alone which you are bound to do I haue knowne some who after they renounced the world not in their deedes but in their cloathes and wordes made yet no change in their coÌ„uersation Their estate or fortune was rather augmented then diminished They vsed the ministery of the same seruantes kept the same state at their table in a plate of glasse or earth they eat gold being hemmed in with swarmes of seruants they yet will needes take the name of being solitary vpon theÌ„ They who are of the poorer sort and of weake fortune and seeme to themselues to be shrewd Schollers walke forth in publicke like as many Pageants that they may exercise their snarling kind of eloquence Others sâ—…rugging vp their shoulders and chattering I know not what within themselues fixing their eyes firmely vpon the ground meditate deeply vpon certaine swelling words and if they had but a cryer you would sweare the Prefect were passing by There are some who by a certaine humour to which they take by the immoderate fastes which they vse and by the wearynes of solitude much reading whilest day and night they make a noyse in their owne eares grow into such a kind of melancholy that they haue more need of Hypocrates his medecines then my admonition Many cannot forbeare their auncient artes and negotiations and changing the names of their broker they still exercise the same trafficke not seeking food and cloathing according to the Apostles but aspiring to improue their states more then worldly men Heretofore this rage of sellers was repressed by those Aediles whome the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor was sinne so vnpunished then as now it is For now vnder the title of Religion vniust hudling gaynes are exercised and the honour of the name of Christian is rather deceiuing then deceiued And which is a shame to be sayd but there is no remedy that so at last we may blush at our owne shame when we stretch our handes forth publikly we hide the gold within our cloaths and against the opinion of all men we dye rich with full bags who liued in the estimatioÌ„ of being poore Neither must you be lead away by the multitude of sinners or be sollicited by the troupe of such as are in the way to perdition nor thinke thus within your selfe VVhat Shall therefore all they be damned who dwell in Cittyes Behould they enioy their fortunes they serue in Churches they frequent the Bathes they refuse not odoriferous oyntments and yet they are celebrated in the mouthes of all men To this I answered before and now I answere briefly againe that in this present worke I speake not of Priests but I instruct a Monke Prieste are holy and euery profession is laudable Doe you therefore so proceed and liue in the Monastery that you may deserue to be a Priest that you may not defile your youth with the least spot that you may passe on to the Altar of Christ as a virgin would do from her bed chamber that you haue a good repututation from abroad and that woemen may know you by name but not know you by sight When you come to a perfect mans estate if your life be answearable and either the people or the Bishop of the Citty make choice of you into the clergy doe you those thinges which belong to a Priest and let the best Priests be your patterne For in all conditions and estates the worst are mingled with the best Do not start forth to write suddenly and be not carryed away with light madnes Be long in learning that which you may teach Do not belieue them who prayse you or rather do not lend your eare to them who scoffe at you For when they shall haue stroked you with flattery and put you after a sort out of your wits if you looke suddenly backe ouer the shoulder you shall see them either stretch out their neckes at you like so many storkes or moue the eares of an Asse which they haue framed with their fingers or thrust out their tongues at you as if it were at some panting Dog Detract from no man nor conceaue your selfe to be therefore a Saint for tearing other men in pieces We accuse others oftentymâ—…s for that which we also do and we inueigh against those vices they who are dumbe giuing sentence against vs who are eloquent Grunnius stauked on toward his speech with the pace of a Tortois and by certaine pauses would be hardly able to speake a few wordes so that you would rather thinke he swallowed then spoke and yet when he had layd a heap of his bookes abroad vpon the table and had composed his face to seuerity and had contracted his nose and cast his forehead into a frowne he would snap with two of his fingers bespeaking the attention of his Auditours by that signe then would be powre out meere toyes by heapes and declayme against all the world and you would say he were Longinus of Creete and the Censor of the roman eloquence he would taxe whome he listed expell them from the Senate of Doctours But this man being wel moneyed gaue men more contentmeÌ„t át the dinners he made Nor was it any marueile that he who was wont to inueigle many would proceed in publicke with a crowd of clamorous paraâ—…ites round about him and indeed he was a Nero in substance and yet a Plato in shew He was all ambiguous as being framed of seuerall yea and euen contrary natures You would say that he were some monster or new beast deuised according to that of the Poet. The first part hath of the Lyon the last of the Dragon and the middle part is a very Chymera Neuer visit you any such men as these nor apply your selfe to them Nor let your hart decline to the wordes of malice nor doe you heare these wordes Sitting downe thou spakest against thy brother and thou laydst a scandall before the sonnes of thy Mother And againe Sonnes of men theyr teeth are weapons and arrowes And elsewhere Their speech is more
Princes Se that your breath do not so much as smel of wine least you deserue to heare that saying of the Philosopher This is not to giue me a kisse but to drinke to me in wine As for Priests who are winebibbers both the Apostle condemnes them and the old Lawe forbids them saying They who serue at the Altar must drinke no wine or Sicera by which word Sicera in the hebrew tongue al such drinkes are meant wherby any man may be inebriated whether they be made of wheat or of the ioyce of fruit or when together with fruit they take hony and make a sweet and barbarous potion thereof or els strayne the fruit of palmes till they yeeld liquore or by the boyling vp of corne giue a different colour and strength to water Whatsoeuer may inebriat and ouerthrowe the state of the mind you must auoid with as much care as you would do wine Neither yet do I say this as condemning the creature of God since our Lord himselfe was called a drinker of wine and the taking of a little wine was permitted to the weake stomacke of Timothy but we require a moderation in the vse thereof according to the quality of constitutions and to the proportion of age and health But yet if without wine I burne with youth and am inflamed by the heat of my blood and am indued with a young a strong body I will gladly spare that cuppe wherin there is suspition of poyson It sounds elegantly in Greeke but I know not whether it will carry the same grace with vs A fat full belly doth not beget a slender and well proportioned mind Impose as great a measure of fasting vpon your selfe as you are able to beare Let you Fasts be pure chast simple moderat and not superstitious To what purpose is it that a man will needes forbeare the vse of Oyle then vndergo certaine vexations and difficulties how to get and make meat which he may eat as dryed figs pepper nuts the fruit of palmes hony and pistacho's The whole husbandry of the kitchin gardens is vexed from one end to the other that forsooth we may be able to absteyne from so much as rye bread and whilest we hunt after delicacies we are drawen backe from the kingdome of heauen I heare besides that there are certaine persons who contrary to the nature of men and other creatures will drinke no water eate no bread but they must haue certaine delicat little drinkes and shred herbes and the ioyce of beetes and that forfooth they will not drinke in a cup but needes in the shell of some fish Fy vpon this shamefull absurdity and that we blush not at these follies are not weary with scorne of these superstitions besides that we seeke for a fame of abstinence euen in the vse of delicacy The most strong fast of all others is of bread and water But because it carryes not such honour with it because we all liue with the vse of water and bread it is scarce thought to be a fast in regard that it is so vsuall and common Take heed you hunt not after certaine little estimations of men least you make purchase of the people praise with the offence of God If yet saith the Apostle I should please men I should not be the seruant of Christ. He ceased from pleasing men became the seruant of Christ. The souldier of Christ marches on both through good fame and bad both by the right hand and by the left is nether extolled by praise nor is he beaten downe by dispraise He doth not swell vp with riches nor is he extenuated by pouerty he contemnes both those thinges which might gaine him ioy and those also which may afflict The sonne burnes him not by day nor the Moone by night I will not haue you pray in the coâ—…nes of streetes least the ayre of a popular fame should diuert you prayers from the right way to their Iournyes end I will not haue you inlarge the borders nor make ostentatioÌ„ of the skirtes of you garmeÌ„ts and against your conscience to be enuironed by a Pharisaicall kind of ambition How much better were it not to carry these things in the exteriour but at the hart and to obtayne fauour in the sight of God rather then in the eyes of men Hereupon hange the Ghospell hereupon the law and the Prophets and the holy and Apostolicall doctrine for it is better to carry all these thinges in the mind then in the body You who reade this faithfully with me according to a faithfull and right intention do vnderstand euen that which I conceale which I speake so much the louder euen because I am silent You must haue an eye to as many rules as you may be tempted with kindes of glory Will you know what kind of ornaments our Lord desires to se in you Procure to haue Prudence Iustice Temperance and Fortitude Be you enclosed by these coasts of the sky Let this charriot of foure horses carry you on with speed to the end of the race 〈◊〉 the charriot driuenes by Christ. There is nothing more pretious then this Iewell nothing more beautifull then the variety of these pretious stones You shall be beautifyed on euery side you shall be compassed in and protected they will both defend you and adorne you these gemmes will become bucklers to you Take you also heed that you neither haue an itching tongue nor eats that is to say that neither your selfe detract from others nor that you endure to heare detracters Sitting saith he thou spakest against thy brother and thou laydst scandall before the sonne of thy mother these thinges didest thou I held my peace Thou didest wickedly think that I would be like thee but I will reproue thâ—… before thy face Take care that you haue not a detracting tongue and be watchfull ouer your wordes and know that you are iudged by your owne conscience in all those thinges which you speake of others and of those things which you condemned in other folkes your selfe is found guilty Nor is that a iust excuse when you say that you do no wrong when you do but heare the report of others No man reports thinges to an other who hears them vnwillingly An arrow enters not into a stone but starting backe sometimes it hurts him who shot it Let the detracter learne that he is not to detract in your hearing whome he findes to heare him so vnwillingly Doe not mingle your selfe saith Salomon with detractours because his destruction shall come suddenly and who knowes how soone they shall both be ruined that is to say he who â—…tracts and he who giues audience to detracters It is your duty to visit the sicke to be well acquainted with the houses of Matrons and their children to keep safe the secret of great persons It is your duty not onely to haue chast eyes but a chast tongue also You must neuer dispute nor argue