The eleventh dividing Practice, To commend and countenance W wicked Hen fuch as profeffe godlineffe fhall make much of 1 The The laft dividing Practice, The Practice of Revenge. WH Hen any provoke you, you fay you will be even with him, there is a way whereby you may be, not even with him, but above him; that is, forgive him. Practifing revenge is the way to continue divifions to the end of the world; fuch offend me, therefore I will offend them; and therefore they offend me againe, mee againe, and I them, and fo it may run in infinitum; they deny mee a kindnesse, therefore I will deny them, and therefore they will deny mee; fo these unkindneffes run on endlefly; divifions will have a line of fucceffion, where will it, where can it ftop, if this be the way. of men? Paulus Fagins in his Notes upon Leviticus, cap. 19. v. 18. fayes, If Reuben fhould fay to Simeon, Lend me thy Axe,and he Hat eft ultio, fhould answer, I will not; the next day Simeon hath need of an cum Reuben diAxe, and he comes to Reuben, and fayes, I pray lend me your cit ad Simesnem, Da mibi Axe, and Reuben anfwers, No, you would not lend me yours accomodatam yesterday; the Jewes accounted this to be Revenge: There is fecarim tuam, much more malignity in our revengefull practices one upon a-refpondet, Non nother then this. accommodabo, in pofterum Sime en dicit, Da accommodatam fecurim tuam, & respondet Reuben, Nequaquam, fiquidem tu mibi non accomodafti. Bafil inveighing againft requiting evill for evill, in his tenth MaidandSermon, fpeakes thus to a revengefull heart; Doe not make a xenon your Adverfary your Mafter, doe not imitate him whom you und hate; be not you his looking-glaffe, to prefent his forme ands, T fashion in your felfe. το ζητήσης, Revenge God challengeth to himfelfe as his, prefume not to undo yo vn encroach upon Gods proprietie, to get up into Gods feate, and arts xaTOdoe his worke, thou haft enough to doe of thine owne. And it lv öíis very obfervable, how God ftands upon his challenge of re- Anive venge as his owne; as that which he by no meanes will fuffer opplev Eothers to meddle with: in thofe Scriptures where this is menti v Ser oned, the challenge is doubled, yea, fometimes trebled, as Pfal. xvus. Bafil. 94.1.0 Lord God to whom vengeance belongeth, O God to whom Hom.10. vengeance belongeth: So Nahum. 1. 2. The Lord revengeth, De ira. Bb 2 the Plutarch. vita the Lord revengeth, the Lord will take vengeance on his Adverfaries, Heb. 10.30. Vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompence faith the Lord; and againe, the Lord will judge his people: You muft not think revenge to be fo light a matter. pro How unbefeeming are revengefull practices to Chriftian feffion! Many of the Heathens were above fuch things. Plu tarch reports of Phocion, That when he had done notable fervice for the Athenians, yet was put to death by them; but being asked a little before his death whether he had any thing to fay to his fonne; Yes, fayes he, that I have, I require of thee my fonne, that thou never wifheft ill to the Athenians for this they doe to me. How farre are most of us from this? we can hardly paffe by an ill looke without revenge; but if we conceive our felves to be wronged in words or actions, then revenge rifes high, fuch things must not be born." A Gentleman of very good credit, who lived at Court many yeeres, told me that himfelfe once heard a great man in this Kingdome fay, He never forgave man in his life and I am moved the rather to beleeve it to be fo, becaufe I have been told by fome other Gentlemen, that the fame man would when he was walking alone, fpeake to himselfe, and clap his hand upon his breaft, and fweare by the Name of God, that he would be revenged, hee would be revenged; and that the who lay in his bofome, was wont to fit alone, and fing to her felfe, Revenge, Revenge, O how Sweet is Revenge, ! If they get power into their owne hands, and are fo uxorious, as they must needs give way to have things managed according to the will of their revengefull wives: what peace, what fecurity is there like to Rawleigh Hift. be? Sir Walter Rawleigh in his Hiftory of the World, tells of 4.5.6.4(ct. 1o. the fad cafe of the Lacedemonians, when Nabis having power in his hands, having a wife, Apega, a woman full of cruelty and revenge, her husband delighting in her, caused her Image to be made, lively reprefenting her, and apparelled with coftly garments; but indeed, it was an Engin to torment men withall; he made ufe of it thus, when he could not have his will upon men by his owne perfwafions, he tooke them by the hand, telling them, that perhaps his wife Apega, who fate by in a chaire sould perfwade more effectually, fo he led them to the Image, that that rofe up and opened the armes, as it were for embracement, thofe armes were full of fharpe iron nayles, the like whereof were also sticking in the brefts, though hidden with her clothes, and herewith the griped thefe men to death: At which Nabis ftanding by, laughed to fee the cruell death of these miserable inen. The Lord deliver us from revengefull fpirits. CHA P. XXVII. 1 The evill of Divifions, They hinder much good. tin. Ufebius reports of Conftantine, That he was more troubled Eufeb.1 3. de vita Conftanwith the diffentions of the Church, then with all the warres in his dominions, that he took them fo to heart, that he could not fleep quietly for them; yea, although he had a spirit full of heroick valour, yet the diffentions of the Church were fuch evils to him, as to caufe him to cry and fob: Thus he writes in an Epistle to Alexander and Arius, Let me enjoy the dayes in Eufeb.l.z.de peace, and the nights without moleftation, that the pleasure which vit. Conft. rifeth out of the pure light of concord and quiet life, may henceforth inviolably be conferved; if it otherwife happen, it behoveth us to fob and figh, and to shed many a falt teare. What heart that hath any tenderneffe in it, bleeds not in the fense of those fore & dreadful heart-divifions there are amongst us! The evill there is in them,is beyond what tongue or pen can expreffe: Take a view of it under these three Heads. 1. The good they hinder. 2. The finne they cause. 3. The mifery they bring. First, the quiet, comfort, fweetneffe of our fpirits is hindered by divifions: They put the fpirit out of tune; men who heretofore have had fweet fpirits full of ingenuity, fince they have intereffed themselves in these Divifions, have loft their sweetneffe, their ingenuity is gone. When the Bee ftings, the leaves her fting behinde her, and never gathers Honey more; men by ftinging one another, doe not lofe their ftings, but they lose their honey, they are never like to have that sweetnesse in their hearts, that heretofore they had. my Shall I lofe my fweetneffe,fayes the Fig-tree, and goe to be promoted over the trees? Why doeft thou not reason thus with thy fpirit? Shall I lofe my fweetneffe in contending, to get my will to be above others? God forbid. There was a time that both my felfe and others found much sweetneffe in the temper of fpirit; there was nothing but peaceableneffe, quiet, calmneffe, contentedneffe in it,and how comfortable was fuch a temper of fpirit! me thought when my spirit was in that fweet frame, all things were sweet to me; but fince I have been interested in quarrels and contentions, it hath beene farre otherwife with me. Prov. 15.4. Perverfneffe in the tongue caufes a breach in the fpirit. Contentions caufe much perverfneffe in mens tongues, and this causes a breach in their fpirits. Your contending cofts you deare: though it were in nothing elfe, yet the loffe of this fweetneffe of fpirit makes it very coftly to you. All the wrong that you should have put up if you had not contended, had not been fo great an evil to you,as this one thing is. There is nothing more contrary to ingenuity then quarrelfomneffe. It is reported of Melancthon, that when he was to dye he had this fpeech, and Strigelius at his death had the fame: I de fire to depart this life for two caufes: First, that I may enjoy the defired fight of the Sonne of God, and the Church in heaven. Secondly, that I may be delivered from the fierce and implacable hatred of Divines. There to confpectu Fi- was much difputing, contending, quarrelling in those times, lii Dei,&e which was fo tedious to the fpirits of thefe good men,as it made leftis Ealefe. them the willinger to dye, that they might be where their fouls Deinde, ut li- fhould be at reft. That Saint of God old M. Dod, never loved to nibus impla meddle with controverfies; he gave that reafon, He found his cabilibus odis heart the worse when he did. Men feldome come away from Tbeologorum. hot difputes,or any other contentions, but their spirits are altered for the worse. They finde it fo, and others finde it in them. If a man has beene abroad, and met with company with whom he hath been contending, his wife, children, fervants, finde that he comes not home with the fame fpirit that he went out with. Cupio ex hac vita migrare propter duas caufas: ut fr defidera berer ab imma Melchior A dam in vita Strigelii. Secondly, they hinder the freedome of a mans fpirit, which a wife man fets a high price upon: the ftrength of many mens fpirits is spent in contentions, they have no command of them to any thing else. When a man is once engaged in a contest, he knows not how to get off; Contention is a great fnare to a man, -he |