: of repair, the alms, or restitution, (shall I call it ?) | eat; "m or if they will spend it in drunkenness,” or are to be paid to it. wantonness such persons, when they are reduced to very great want, must be relieved in such proportions, as may not relieve their dying lust, but may refresh their faint or dying bodies. 3. There is some sort of gain, that hath in it no injustice, properly so called; but it is unlawful and filthy lucre such as is money, taken for work done unlawfully upon the Lord's day; hire taken for disfiguring oneself, and for being professed jesters: the wages of such as make unjust bargains; and of harlots of this money there is some preparation to be made, before it be given in alms. The money is infected with the plague, and must pass through the fire or the water, before it be fit for alms: the person must repent and leave the crime, and then minister to the poor. 4. He that gives alms, must do it in mercy; that is, out of a true sense of the calamity of his brother, first feeling it in himself in some proportion, and then endeavouring to ease himself and the other of their common calamity.h Against this rule they offend, who give alms out of custom; or to upbraid the poverty of the other; or to make him mercenary and obliged; or with any unhandsome circumstances. 5. He that gives alms, must do it with a single eye and heart; that is, without designs to get the praise of men: and, if he secures that, he may either give them publicly or privately: for Christ intended only to provide against pride and hypocrisy, when he bade alms to be given in secret; it being otherwise one of his commandments," that our light should shine before men :" this is more excellent; that is more safe. 6. To this also appertains, that he, who hath done a good turn, should so forget it, as not to speak of it but he that boasts it, or upbraids it, hath paid himself, and lost the nobleness of the charity. nance; 7. Give alms with a cheerful heart and counte"not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver;"k and therefore give quickly, when the power is in thy hand, and the need is in thy neighbour, and thy neighbour at the door. He gives twice that relieves speedily. 8. According to thy ability give to all men that need: and, in equal needs, give first to good men, rather than to bad men; and if the needs be unequal, do so too; provided that the need of the poorest be not violent or extreme but, if an evil man be in extreme necessity, he is to be relieved, rather than a good man, who can tarry longer, and may subsist without it. And, if he be a good man, he will desire it should be so: because himself is bound to save the life of his brother, with doing some inconvenience to himself: and no difference of virtue or vice can make the ease of one beggar equal with the life of another. 9. Give no alms to vicious persons, if such alms will support their sin: as if they will continue in idleness; "if they will not work, neither let them h Donum nudum est, nisi consensu vestiatur, l. iii. C. de Pactis. Qui dedit beneficium, taceat; narret, qui accepit.-SENEC. k 2 Cor. ix. 7. 1 Luke vi. 30. Ĝal. vi. 10. m 2 Thess. iii. 10. A cavallo, chi non porta sella, biada non si crivella. n De mendico malè meretur, qui ei dat quod edat aut quod bibat: 10. The best objects of charity are, poor housekeepers, that labour hard, and are burdened with many children; or gentlemen fallen into sad poverty, especially if by innocent misfortune; (and if their crimes brought them into it, yet they are to be relieved according to the former rule ;) persecuted persons; widows and fatherless children, putting them to honest trades or schools of learning. And search into the needs of numerous and meaner families: for there are many persons, that have nothing left them but misery and modesty: and towards such we must add two circumstances of charity, 1. To inquire them out; 2. To convey our relief unto them so, as we do not make them ashamed. 11. Give, looking for nothing again; that is, without consideration of future advantages: give to children, to old men, to the unthankful, and the dying, and to those you shall never see again; for else your alms or courtesy is not charity, but traffic and merchandise; and be sure, that you omit not to relieve the needs of your enemy and the injurious; for so, possibly, you may win him to yourself; but do you intend the winning him to God. 12. Trust not your alms to intermedial, uncertain, and under-dispensers: by which rule is not only intended the securing your alms in the right channel: but the humility of your person, and that, which the apostle calls "the labour of love." And if you converse in hospitals and alms-houses, and minister with your own hand what your heart hath first decreed, you will find your heart endeared and made familiar with the needs and with the persons of the poor, those excellent images of Christ. 13. Whatsoever is superfluous in thy estate, is to be dispensed in alms.P "He that hath two coats, must give to him that hath none;" that is, he that hath beyond his need, must give that which is beyond it. Only among needs, we are to reckon not only, what will support our life, but also what will maintain the decency of our estate and person; not only in present needs, but in all future necessities, and very probable contingencies, but no further: we are not obliged beyond this, unless we see very great, public, and calamitous necessities. But yet, if we do extend beyond our measures, and give more than we are able, we have the Philippians and many holy persons for our precedent; we have St. Paul for our encouragement; we have Christ for our counsellor; we have God for our rewarder, and a great treasure in heaven for our recompence and restitution. But I propound it to the considera : 3. Learn of the frugal man, and only avoid sordid actions, and turn good husband, and change your arts of getting into providence for the poor, and we shall soon become rich in good works: and why should we not do as much for charity, as for covetousness; for heaven, as for the fading world; for God and the holy Jesus, as for the needless superfluities of back and belly. tion of all christian people, that they be not nice | captivity his mother wept sadly and it is said, and curious, fond and indulgent to themselves in that St. Katharine sucked the envenomed wounds of taking accounts of their personal conveniences: and a villain, who had injured her most impudently. that they make their proportions moderate and And I shall tell you of a greater charity than all easy, according to the order and manner of christi- these put together: Christ gave himself to shame anity; and the consequent will be this, that the and death to redeem his enemies from bondage, and poor will more plentifully be relieved, themselves death, and hell. will be more able to do it, and the duty will be less chargeable, and the owners of estates charged with fewer accounts in the spending them. It cannot be denied, but, in the expenses of all liberal and great personages, many things might be spared: some superfluous servants, some idle meetings, some unnecessary and imprudent feasts, some garments too costly, some unnecessary lawsuits, some vain journeys: and, when we are tempted to such needless expenses, if we shall descend to moderation, and lay aside the surplusage, we shall find it with more profit to be laid out upon the poor members of Christ, than upon our own with vanity. But this is only intended to be an advice in the manner of doing alms for I am not ignorant, that great variety of clothes always have been permitted to princes and nobility and others, in their proportion; and they usually give those clothes as rewards to servants, and other persons needful enough, and then they may serve their own fancy and their duty too: but it is but reason and religion to be careful, that they be given to such only, where duty, or prudent liberality, or alms, determine them; but, in no sense, let them do it so, as to minister to vanity, to luxury, to prodigality. The like also is to be observed in other instances; and if we once give our minds to the study and arts of alms, we shall find ways enough to make this duty easy, profitable, and useful. 1. He that plays at any game, must resolve beforehand to be indifferent to win or lose but if he gives to the poor all that he wins, it is better than to keep it to himself: but it were better yet, that he lay by so much, as he is willing to lose, and let the game alone, and, by giving so much alms, traffic for eternity. That is one way. 2. Another is keeping the fasting-days of the church; which if our condition be such as to be able to cast our accounts, and make abatements for our wanting so many meals in the whole year, (which by the old appointment did amount to one hundred and fifty-three, and since most of them are fallen into desuetude, we may make up as many of them as we please by voluntary fasts,) we may, from hence, find a considerable relief for the poor. But if we be not willing sometimes to fast, that our brother may eat, we should ill die for him. St. Martin had given all that he had in the world, to the poor, save one coat; and that also he divided between two beggars. A father in the mount of Nitria was reduced at last to the inventory of one Testament; and that book also was tempted from him by the needs of one, whom he thought poorer than himself. Greater yet: St Paulinus sold himself to slavery to redeem a young man, for whose Luke xii. 2. Acts iii. 6. Chi ti da un ossa, non ti verrebbe morto. 14. In giving alms to beggars and persons of that low rank, it is better to give little to each, that we may give to the more; so extending our alms to many persons; but in charities of religion, as building hospitals, colleges, and houses for devotion, and supplying the accidental wants of decayed persons, fallen from great plenty to great necessity, it is better to unite our alms, than to disperse them; to make a noble relief or maintenance to one, and to restore him to comfort, than to support only his natural needs, and keep him alive only, unrescued from sad discomforts. 15. The precept of alms or charity binds not indefinitely to all the instances and kinds of charity; for he that delights to feed the poor, and spends all his portion that way, is not bound to enter into prisons and redeem captives; but we are obliged, by the presence of circumstances, and the special disposition of Providence, and the pitiableness of an object, to this or that particular act of charity. The eye is the sense of mercy; and the bowels are its organ; and that enkindles pity, and pity produces alms; when the eye sees what it never saw, the heart will think what it never thought; but when we have an object present to our eye, then we must pity; for there the providence of God hath fitted our charity with circumstances. He that is in thy sight or in thy neighbourhood, is fallen into the lot of thy charity. 16. If thou hast no money, yet thou must have mercy; and art bound to pity the poor, and pray for them, and throw thy holy desires and devotions into the treasure of the church: and if thou dost what thou art able, be it little or great, corporal or spiritual, the charity of alms or the charity of prayers, a cup of wine or a cup of water, if it be but love to the brethren, or a desire to help all or any of Christ's poor, it shall be accepted according to that a man hath, not according to that he hath not. For love is all this, and all the other commandments: and it will express itself where it can; and where it cannot, yet it is love still; and it is also sorrow, that it cannot. r ation and proposition of its excellencies and consequent reward. 1. There is no one duty, which our blessed Saviour did recommend to his disciples with so repeated an injunction, as this of charity and alms. To which add the words spoken by our Lord, "It is better to give than to receive." And when we consider, how great a blessing it is, that we beg not from door to door, it is a ready instance of our thankfulness to God, for his sake to relieve them that do. 2. This duty is that alone, whereby the future day of judgment shall be transacted. For nothing but charity and alms is that, whereby Christ shall declare the justice and mercy of the eternal sentence. Martyrdom itself is not there expressed, and no otherwise involved, but as it is the greatest charity. 3. Christ made himself the greatest and daily example of alms or charity. He went up and down doing good, preaching the gospel, and healing all diseases and God the Father is imitable by use in nothing, but in purity and mercy. 4. Alms, given to the poor, redound to the emolument of the giver, both temporal and eternal." 5. They are instrumental to the remission of sins. Our forgiveness and mercy to others being made the very rule and proportion of our confidence, and hope, and our prayer, to be forgiven ourselves. 6. It is a treasure in heaven; it procures friends when we die. It is reckoned as done to Christ, whatsoever we do to our poor brother: and, therefore, when a poor man begs for Christ's sake, if he have reason to ask for Christ's sake, give it him, if thou canst. Now every man hath title to ask for Christ's sake, whose need is great, and himself unable to cure it, and if the man be a christian. Whatsoever charity Christ will reward, all that is given for Christ's sake, and therefore it may be asked in his name: but every man, that uses that sacred name for an endearment, hath not a title to it, neither he, nor his need. 7. It is one of the wings of prayer, by which it flies to the throne of grace. 8. It crowns all the works of piety." 9. It causes thanksgiving to God on our behalf: 10. And the bowels of the poor bless us, and they pray for us. 11. And that portion of our estate, out of which a tenth, or a fifth, or a twentieth, or some offering to God for religion and the poor goes forth, certainly returns with a great blessing upon all the rest. It is like the effusion of oil by the Sidonian woman; as long as she pours into empty vessels, it could never cease running or like the widow's barrel of meal; it consumed not, as long as she fed the prophet. 12. The sum of all is contained in the words of our blessed Saviour: "Give alms of such things as you have, and behold all things are clean unto you." 13. To which may be added, that charity, or mercy, is the peculiar character of God's elect, and a sign of predestination; which advantage we are taught by St. Paul: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, W Matt. vi. 4. xiii. 12, 33. xxv. 15. Luke xi. 41. : Dan. iv. 27. u Phil. iv. 17. ▾ Acts x. 4. Heb. xiii. 16. Nunquam memini me legisse malâ morte mortuum, qui libenter opera charitatis exercuit.-S. HIERON. ep. ad Nepot. * Coloss. iii. 12. bowels of mercy, kindness, &c. Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any." The result of all which we may read in the words of St. Chrysostom: “To know the art of alms is greater than to be crowned with the diadem of kings. And yet to convert one soul is greater than to pour out ten thousand talents into the baskets of the poor." But, because giving alms is an act of the virtue of mercifulness, our endeavour must be, by proper arts, to mortify the parents of unmercifulness, which are, 1. Envy; 2. Anger; 3. Covetousness: in which we may be helped by the following rules or instruments. Remedies against Unmercifulness and Un- 1. Against Envy, by way of consideration. Against envy I shall use the same argument I would use to persuade a man from the fever or the dropsy. 1. Because it is a disease; it is so far from having pleasure in it, or a temptation to it, that it is full of pain, a great instrument of vexation: it eats the flesh, and dries up the marrow, and makes hollow eyes, and lean cheeks, and a pale face. 2. It is nothing but a direct resolution never to enter into heaven by the way of noble pleasure, taken in the good of others. 3. It is most contrary to God. 4. And a just contrary state to the felicities and actions of heaven, where every star increases the light of the other, and the multitude of guests, at the supper of the Lamb, makes the eternal meal more festival. 5. It is, perfectly, the state of hell, and the passion of devils: for they do nothing but despair in themselves, and envy others' quiet or safety, and yet cannot rejoice either in their good or in their evil, although they endeavour to hinder that, and procure this, with all the devices and arts of malice and of a great understanding. 6. Envy can serve no end in the world; it cannot please any thing, nor do any thing, nor hinder any thing, but the content and felicity of him that hath. 7. Envy can never pretend to justice, as hatred and uncharitableness sometimes may for there may be causes of hatred; and I may have wrong done me; and then hatred hath some pretence, though no just argument. But no man is unjust or injurious for being prosperous or wise. 8. And therefore many men profess to hate another, but no man owns envy, as being an enmity and displeasure for no cause, but goodness or felicity: envious men, being like cantharides and caterpillars, that delight most to devour, ripe and most excellent fruits." It is of all crimes the basest: for malice and anger are appeased with benefits, but envy is exasperated, as envying to fortunate persons both their power and their will to do good; and never leaves murmuring, till the envied person be levelled, and then only the y Nemo alienæ virtuti invidet, qui satis confidit suæ.— Cic. contra M. Anton. Homerus, Thersitis malos mores describens, malitiæ summam apposuit, Pelidæ imprimis erat atque inimicus Ulyssi. vulture leaves to eat the liver. For if his neigh- | government and discipline to our inferiors, (in which bour be made miserable, the envious man is apt to be troubled like him, that is so long unbuilding the turrets, till all the roof is low or flat, or that the stones fall upon the lower buildings, and do a mischief that the man repents of. 2. Remedies against Anger, by way of Exercise. The next enemy to mercifulness and the grace of alms, is anger; against which there are proper instruments both in prudence and religion. 1. Prayer is the great remedy against anger: for it must suppose it, in some degree, removed before we pray; and then it is the more likely it will be finished when the prayer is done. We must lay aside the act of anger, as a preparatory to prayer; and the curing the habit will be the effect and blessing of prayer: so that, if a man, to cure his anger, resolves to address himself to God by prayer, it is first necessary that, by his own observation and diligence, he lay the anger aside, before his prayer can be fit to be presented: and when we so pray, and so endeavour, we have all the blessings of prayer, which God hath promised to it, to be our security for success. 2. If anger arises in thy breast, instantly seal up thy lips, and let it not go forth; a for, like fire, when it wants vent, it will suppress itself. It is good, in a fever, to have a tender and a smooth tongue; but it is better, that it be so in anger; for, if it be rough and distempered, there it is an ill sign, but here it is an ill cause. Angry passion is a fire, and angry words are like breath to fan them together; they are like steel and flint, sending out fire by mutual collision. Some men will discourse themselves into passion; and, if their neighbour be enkindled too, together they flame with rage and violence. 3. Humility is the most excellent natural cure for anger in the world; for he, that by daily considering his own infirmities and failings, makes the error of his neighbour or servant to be his own case, and remembers, that he daily needs God's pardon and his brother's charity, will not be apt to rage at the levities, or misfortunes, or indiscretions of another; greater than which he considers, that he is very frequently and more inexcusably guilty of. 4. Consider the example of the ever-blessed Jesus, who suffered all the contradictions of sinners, and received all affronts and reproaches of malicious, rash, and foolish persons, and yet, in all of them, was as dispassionate and gentle as the morning sun in autumn; and in this also he propounded himself imitable by us. For, if innocence itself did suffer so great injuries and disgraces, it is no great matter for us quietly to receive all the calamities of fortune, and indiscretion of servants, and mistakes of friends, and unkindnesses of kindred, and rudenesses of enemies; since we have deserved these and worse, even hell itself. 5. If we be tempted to anger in the actions of a Ira cùm pectus rapida occupavit, Futiles linguæ jubeo cavere Vana latratus jaculantis.-SAPPHO. Turbatus sum, et non sum locutus.-Psal. xxxix. case, anger is permitted so far as it is prudently instrumental to government, and only is a sin when it is excessive and unreasonable, and apt to disturb our own discourse, or to express itself in imprudent words or violent actions,) let us propound to ourselves the example of God the Father; who at the same time, and with the same tranquillity, decreed heaven and hell, the joys of blessed angels and souls, and the torments of devils and accursed spirits: and, at the day of judgment, when all the world shall burn under his feet, God shall not be at all inflamed, or shaken in his essential seat and centre of tranquillity and joy. And if, at first, the cause seems reasonable, yet defer to execute thy anger till thou mayest better judge. For, as Phocion told the Athenians, who, upon the first news of the death of Alexander, were ready to revolt, "Stay a while; for if the king be not dead, your haste will ruin you; but, if he be dead, your stay cannot prejudice your affairs; for he will be dead to-morrow, as well as to day :" so if thy servant or inferior deserves punishment, staying till to-morrow will not make him innocent; but it may possibly preserve thee so, by preventing thy striking a guiltless person, or being furious for a trifle. 6. Remove from thyself all provocations and incentives to anger; especially, 1. Games of chance and great wager. b Patroclus killed his friend, the son of Amphidamas, in his rage and sudden fury, rising upon a cross game at tables. Such also are petty curiosities, and worldly business and carefulness about it: but manage thyself with indifferency, or contempt of those external things, and do not spend a passion upon them; for it is more than they are worth. But they that desire but few things, can be crossed but in a few.c In not heaping up, with an ambitious or curious prodigality, any very curious or choice utensils, seals, jewels, glasses, precious stones; because those very many accidents, which happen in the spoiling or loss of these rarities, are, in event, an irresistible cause of violent anger. 3. Do not entertain nor suffer talebearers; for they abuse our ears first, and then our credulity, and then steal our patience, and, it may be, for a lie; and, if it be true, the matter is not considerable; or if it be, yet it is pardonable. And we may always escape with patience, at one of these outlets; either, 1. By not hearing slanders; or, 2. By not believing them; or, 3. By not regarding the thing; or, 4. By forgiving the person. 4. To this purpose also it may serve well, if we choose (as much as we can) to live with peaceable persons, for that prevents the occasions of confusion; and if we live with prudent persons, they will not easily occasion our disturbance. But, because these things are not in many men's power, therefore I propound this rather as a felicity than a remedy or a duty, and an act of prevention than of cure. 7. Be not inquisitive into the affairs of other men, ο "Ηματι τῷ, ὅτε, παῖδα κατέκτανον ̓Αμφιδάμαντος, Νήπιος, οὐκ ἐπέλων, ἀμφ' ἀστραγάλοισι χολωθείς. ILIAD. '. 87. Qui pauca requirunt, non multis excidunt.-PLUT. nor the faults of thy servants, nor the mistakes of thy friends; but what is offered to you, use according to the former rules; but do not thou go out to gather sticks to kindle a fire to burn thine own house. And add this; "If my friend said, or did, well in that, for which I am angry, I am in the fault, not he; but if he did amiss, he is in the misery, not I: for either he was deceived, or he was malicious; and either of them both is all one with a miserable person; and that is an object of pity, not of anger." 8. Use all reasonable discourses to excuse the faults of others; considering that there are many circumstances of time, of person, of accident, of inadvertency, of infrequency, of aptness to amend, of sorrow for doing it; and it is well, that we take any good in exchange; for the evil is done or suffered. 9. Upon the arising of anger, instantly enter into a deep consideration of the joys of heaven, or the pains of hell for "fear and joy are naturally apt to appease this violence." d 10. In contentions be always passive, never active; upon the defensive, not the assaulting part; and then also give a gentle answer, receiving the furies and indiscretions of the other, like a stone into a bed of moss and soft compliance; and you shall find it sit down quietly: whereas anger and violence make the contention loud and long, and injurious to both the parties. 11. In the actions of religion, be careful to temper all thy instances with meekness, and the proper instruments of it: and, if thou beest apt to be angry, neither fast violently, nor entertain the too-forward heats of zeal, but secure thy duty with constant and regular actions, and a good temper of body, with convenient refreshments and recreations. 12. If anger rises suddenly and violently, first restrain it with consideration, and then let it end in a hearty prayer for him that did the real or seeming injury. The former of the two stops its growth, and the latter quite kills it, and makes amends for its monstrous and involuntary birth. Remedies against Anger, by way of consideration. e 1. Consider, that anger is a professed enemy to counsel; it is a direct storm, in which no man can be heard to speak or call from without; for if you counsel gently, you are despised: if you urge it, and be vehement, you provoke it more. Be careful therefore to lay up beforehand a great stock of reason and prudent consideration, that, like a besieged town, you may be provided for, and be defensible from within, since you are not likely to be relieved from without. Anger is not to be suppressed but by something that is inward as itself, and more habitual. To which purpose add, that, 2. Of all passions, it endeavours most to make reason useless. 3. That it is a universal poison, of an infinite object: for no man was ever so amorous, d Homer. • Καὶ μανθάνειν μὲν, οἷα ὁρᾶν μέλλω κακά † Ὁ θυμὸς φόνων αἴτιον, συμφορᾶς σύμμαχον, βλάβης σύν : as to love a toad; none so envious, as to repine at the condition of the miserable; no man so timorous, as to fear a dead bee; but anger is troubled at every thing, and every man, and every accident and therefore, unless it be suppressed, it will make a man's condition restless. 4. If it proceeds from a great cause, it turns to fury; if from a small cause, it is peevishness and so is, always, either terrible or ridiculous. 5. It makes a man's body monstrous, deformed, and contemptible; the voice horrid; the eyes cruel ; the face pale or fiery; the gait fierce; the speech clamorous and loud. 6. It is neither manly nor ingenuous. 7. It proceeds from softness of spirit, and pusillanimity; which makes, that women are more angry than men, sick persons more than the healthful, old men more than young, unprosperous and calamitous people than the blessed and fortunate. 8. It is a passion fitter for flies and insects, than for persons professing nobleness and bounty. 9. It is troublesome not only to those that suffer it, but to them that behold it; there being no greater incivility of entertainment, than for the cook's faults or the negligence of the servants, to be cruel, or outrageous, or unpleasant in the presence of the guests. 10. It makes marriage to be a necessary and unavoidable trouble; friendships, and societies, and familiarities, to be intolerable. 11. It multiplies the evils of drunkenness, and makes the levities of wine to run into madness. 12. It makes innocent jesting to be the beginning of tragedies. 13. It turns friendship into hatred; it makes a man lose himself, and his reason, and his argument, in disputation. It turns the desires of knowledge into an itch of wrangling. It adds insolency to power. It turns justice into cruelty, and judgment into oppression. It changes discipline into tediousness and hatred of liberal institution. It makes a prosperous man to be envied, and the unfortunate to be unpitied. It is a confluence of all the irregular passions: there is in it envy and sorrow, fear and scorn, pride and prejudice, rashness and inconsideration, rejoicing in evil and a desire to inflict it, self-love, impatience, and curiosity. And lastly, though it be very troublesome to others, yet it is most troublesome to him that hath it. In the use of these arguments and the former exercises, be diligent to observe, lest, in your desires to suppress anger, you be passionate and angry at yourself for being angry; like physicians, who give a bitter potion, when they intend to eject the bitterness of choler; for this will provoke the person, and increase the passion. But placidly and quietly set upon the mortification of it; and attempt it first for a day, resolving that day not at all to be angry, and to be watchful and observant; for a day is no great trouble: but then, after one day's watchfulness, it will be as easy to watch two days, as at first it was to watch one day; and so you may increase, till it becomes easy and habitual. εργον καὶ ἀτιμίας, χρημάτων ἀπώλεια, ἔτι δὲ καὶ φθορᾶς ἀρχηγόν. -ΑRISTOT. Dicere quid cœnâ possis ingratius istâ? h Amaram amaro bilem pharmaco qui eluunt. |