for this, I hope, no man will be offended at me: if he be, it is because I was not willing to offend him; but I was desirous to instruct, to comfort, to determine and to establish, him that needs. but I have studiously avoided all questions that are curious and unprofitable; such, I mean, which are only trials of wit, but neither ministers of justice nor religion. Such was that which was brought before the lawyers and all the learned men of Athens, with great noises to little purpose.-A gentleman of Ægina, dying, left three daughters; the one was beauteous and wanton; the second a lover of wine and gay pleasure; and the third a good spinster, and a great follower of country housewifery. He made the mother of these daughters to be his heir upon this condition, that she should divide all his estate between his daughters equally; but in such a manner, that what they received they should neither possess nor enjoy; as soon as ever they had quitted their portions, they should pay, each of them, to their mother ten thousand philippics. The mother runs to Athens, consults the lawyers and philosophers how this will should be fulfilled; they know not, as supposing one part to cross another, and altogether to be impossible; for if the whole estate should be divided amongst them, how is it that they shall not enjoy it? and if they do not, how shall they pay their mother her assignment? The mother therefore, finding no help there, contrives it thus herself; to the pretty wanton she gives rich clothes, smooth eunuchs, soft beds, sweet perfumes, silver lavatories, and all things which, she supposed, might please her lust, and consume her portion. To the drinking girl she provides vessels of rich wines, a house well furnished, and all things fitted for expensive entertainments. But to the country housewife a good farm, ploughmen, and a great stock, many horses and some cows, some menservants and a great many maidens, a kennel of hounds and a few swine; supposing this was no very probable way her to thrive, but the likeliest way to do her husband's will; because the lust of the first, and thirst and debauchery of the second, and the ill-contrived stock of the third, would consume all their portions. But all this while she considered not, how, when they grew poor, she should receive her share. But at last a wiser man than was in the schools of Athens c Phædrus, iv. 5. for advised her thus: Give to the drunken maiden the rich garments, the jewels, and the eunuchs; and because she loves them not, she will sell them all for old wines of Chios :-to the wanton give fields and cattle, oxen and ploughs, hinds and swine: and she will quickly sell them that she may entertain her lovers-but if you give vessels of wine to the countrygirl, she knows not what to do with them, and therefore will sell them to the merchant for ready money. Thus shall neither of them enjoy their portion; but by selling it, they shall be enabled to pay the money to their mother. This was a riddle, rather than a case of law or conscience; and so are many others, which I therefore resolved to lay aside, and trouble no man's conscience or head with them; as supposing that the answer of the dull Diodorus, mentioned in the Greek epigram, is sufficient for such curiosities. Η σοι, ἢ τῷ ἑλόντι, &c. It is so, or it is not so; it must be done this way, or some other; the thing in question is yours, or somebody's else: but make the judge your friend, and I will warrant your cause, provided it be just; but look you to that. A slight answer to an intricate and useless question is a fit cover to such a dish; a cabbage-leaf is good enough to cover a pot of mushrooms: but I have taken a shorter way, and laid them all aside; remembering the saying of Friar John Annias to Nicolaus de Lyra; Testimonium Dei lucidum est, nec egent literæ divinæ plicis,'' The things of God are plain and easy:' and therefore I have rejected every thing that is not useful and intelligible; choosing only to make such inquiries by which we may become better, and promoted in something of our duty; viz., that we quires of us, good work.' Quid sumus, et quidnam victuri gignimur, ordo may be taught how to know what God re- But now I shall desire that he who reads my book, will d Jacobs, Anthol. vol. 4. p. 26.-Brunck, iii. p. 57. not expect this book to be a collective body of particular cases of conscience; for I find that they are infinite, and my life is not so; and I shall never live to write them all, or to understand them all: and if I should write some and not all, I should profit I know not whom, and do good but to a very few, and that by chance too; and, it may be, that their cases, being changed by circumstances, would not be fitted by my indefinite answers. I therefore resolved upon another way; which although no man before me hath trod in writing cases of conscience, yet I cannot say it is new; for I took my pattern from Tribonianus the lawyer, who out of the laws of the old Romans collected some choice rules, which give answer to very many cases that happen. And after I had considered and tried many others, I found this most reasonable, most useful, and most comprehensive, of all matters relating to my present undertaking. For I intend here to offer to the world a general instrument of moral theology, by the rules and measures of which, the guides of souls may determine the particulars that shall be brought before them; and those who love to inquire, may also find their duty so described, that unless their duties be complicated with laws, and civil customs, and secular interests, men that are wise may guide themselves in all their proportions of conscience: but if their case be indeed involved, they need the conduct of a spiritual guide, to untie the intrigue, and state the question, and apply the respective rules to the several parts of it; for though I have set them down all in their proper places relating to their several matters, yet when a question requires the reason of many rules, it is not every hand that can apply them: men will for ever need a living guide; and a wise guide of souls will, by some of these rules, be enabled to answer most cases that shall occur. For although I have not given answers to every doubt, yet I have told what we are to do when any doubt arises; I have conducted the doubting conscience by such rules, which in all doubts will declare her duty and therefore if the matter of the doubt be in the reception of the sacrament of the eucharist, or in wearing clothes, or in eating, the rule is the same and applicable to every matter. I have not disputed whether sumptuary laws be actually obligatory to us in England or Ireland; but I have told by what measures we shall know concerning all laws, whether they be obligatory or no, in any place, and to every person. I have not expounded all the laws of God, but I have told by what rules they are to be expounded and understood. But because these rules have influence upon all particulars, I have, by way of instance and illustration, determined very many special cases: and I was a little curious to choose such which are the matter of our usual inquiries; and have been very studious to draw into particular scrutiny most of the principal and noblest questions of Christendom, which could relate to the matter of my rule; provided that they were practical and did minister to good manners; having that of Lactantius in my mind; "Non tam de rebus humanis bene meretur, qui scientiam bene dicendi affert, quam qui pie et innocenter docet vivere:" "He best deserves of mankind, who teaches men to live well rather than to talk well:" and therefore the wiser Greeks preferred philosophers before orators: "Illi enim recte vivendi doctores sunt existimandi, quod est longe præstabilius:" "It is better to be a doctor of good life, than of eloquent or learned speaking:" for they are but few who are capable of eloquence, but to live well is the duty of all: and I have always been pleased with the saying of Jupiter to Pallas in the apologue, when he kissed her cheek for choosing the fruitful olive. Nisi utile est, quod facimus, stulta est gloriae. Unless it does good and makes us better, it is not worth the using and therefore it hath been no small part of my labour not only to do what was necessary, but to lay aside what was useless and unfit, at least what I thought so. In this manner by the divine assistance I have described a rule of conscience: in the performance of which I shall make no excuses for my own infirmities, or to guard myself from the censure of the curious or the scorners. I have with all humility and simplicity desired to serve God, and to minister to his church, and I hope he will accept me: and for the rest, I have laid it all at his most holy feet, and therefore will take no further care concerning myself in it. Only I am desirous that now I have attempted to describe a general rule, they who find it defective would be pleased to mak e e Phædrus, iii. 17. Schwabe, vol. 2. p. 132. this more perfect by adding their own symbol; which is much easier than to erect that building, which needs but some addition to make it useful to all its purposes and intentions. But if any man, like a bird sitting upon a tree, shall foul the fruit and dishonour it, that it may be unfit for food, I shall be sorrowful for him that does so, and troubled, that the good which I intended to every one, should be lost to any But I shall of the Prophet's comfort, if I have done my duty in righteousness and humility: "Though I labour in vain and spend my strength for nought, yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work is with my God." one. f I know not whether I shall live to add matter to this form, that is, to write a particular explication of all the precepts of Christian religion; which will be a full design of all special cases and questions of conscience measurable by this general rule. If I do not, I hope God will excite some other to do it; but whoever does it, he will do it with so much the more profit, by how much he does dispute the less; and I remember that Socrates and Sozomen tell, that Ælius the heretic was counted an atheist " propter eristicum loquendi et disputandi modum," because he taught no part of religion, but he minced it into questions and chopped it into Aristotle's logic. The simple and rational way of teaching God's commandments, as it is most easy, so it is most useful; and all the cases that will occur, will the most easily be answered by him, that considers and tells in what cases they bind, and in what they bind not: which is the duty of him that explicates, and may be delivered by way of plain rule and easy commentary. But this I shall advertise; that the preachers may retrench infinite number of cases of conscience, if they will more earnestly preach and exhort to simplicity and love; for the want of these is the great multiplier of cases. Men do not serve God with honesty and heartiness, and they do not love him greatly; but stand upon terms with him, and study how much is lawful, how far they may go, and which is their utmost step of lawful, being afraid to do more for God and for their souls than is simply and indispensably necessary; and oftentimes they tie religion and their own lusts together, and the one entangles the other, and both are made less discernible, and f Isa, xlix. 4. |