Saint Augustine his enchiridion to Laurence, or, The chiefe and principall heads of all Christian religion a most profitable booke to all those which desire to haue a most compendious briefe of Augustines doctrine, out of Augustine himselfe, when he was old, being repurged, by the old manuscript, of many faults and vnusuall wordes, wherewith it formerly flowed.

CHAP. 76.

That is the best almes amongst all others, if any man haue com∣passion of his own sinnefull life, to the ende hee may amend the same, and please God.

NOw, he that will giue almes according to the rule of Gods word, must begin at him∣selfe, and bestowe the same first vpon himselfe. For, almes is a worke of mercie, that saying be∣ing

agreeable to that definition, Thou that seekest to please God, haue pity vpō thine owne soule. For this cause are we regenerate, to the end wee might please God; that sin worthily displeasing him, where with we were infected in our first birth. This is the first kind of almes, which we bestow vpō ourselues, in as much as we haue reclaimed our selues being sinners by the mercy of God, hauing pi∣ty vpon vs; acknowledging the iustice of his iudgement wherby wee were become miserable: of whom the Apostle meāt saying, The iudgement of one was on al to condēnation: yeelding him thāks for his exceeding loue, whereof he speaketh himselfe being the trumpet of his own mercy, God himself cōmending his loue to∣wards vs; because whē we were sinners, Christ died for vs; that al∣so we, truly sentecing our mise∣rable estate, & honouring Gods mercy towards vs, might leade a godly and vertuous life. Which

iudgmēt & loue of God because the Pharisies regarded not (yet had they tithes of the least kind of fruits in respect of the almes which they gaue) Therefore gaue they not almes, beginning ther∣with at thēselues, towards whom they should first of al haue beene mercifull: in regard of which or∣der of affectiō it is said, thou shalt loue thy neighbor as thy self. Whē therfore he had reproued thē be∣cause they washed themselues in the outward part, & were inward ly ful of rapine & iniquity, giuing them to vnderstād that ther was a kinde of almes first to be mini∣stred to themselues, & that they ought to purifie the inward man howbeit saith he, giue almes & be∣hold, al things shall be pure to you: afterwards, to declare vnto them what he exhorted and what they neglected to do, least they shuld thinke that their almes was vn∣knowen vnto him, hee sayeth, Woe bee vnto yee Pharisies: as though hee should haue sayde, I

did exhort yee indeede to giue almes whereby all things should bee made cleane vnto you. But woe bee vnto you which tythe mynte and anniseedes and euery kinde of herbe; for I know these almes which yee giue (whereunto I would not haue yee to thinke that mine exhorta∣tion tended): But ye vtterly neg∣lect the iudgement & mercy of God, by which kinde of almes ye might be purified of all inwarde pollution, your bodies also made clean, which yee wash outward∣ly. For, this is the meaning of all things, that is to say, both things inwarde and outwarde as it is written in other places, Make cleane those things which be with∣in, and those things which be out∣ward shall be also cleane. But least hee should seeme to refuse these almes which are yeelded out of the fruites of the earth; these things, saith hee, which I haue formerly mentioned ought yee to do, and yet not to omit the o∣thers:

that is to say, the tythes and the fruites of the earth.