Charity commended, or, A catholick Christian soberly instructed by J.C.

Sect. 58. (Book 54)

The poverty of Franciscans, abstinence

of Carthusians, zeal of some Recollects, chastity of Nuns, devotion of Pilgrims, Anchorets▪ &c. Support the papall digni∣ty beyond Jesuiticall Sc••omachies, Homo∣nyma's, Logomachies, and circulations, and while these ignès fatuì seduce, and are seduc'd into precipices by the Phanatick fires of ther own imaginations, these seal'd Doves may take occasion by their blind∣nesse to mount toward Heaven: for I cannot be so uncharitable as not to think these empty instruments may make a pleasing sound in the ears of the Almighty. I cannot look on them so, with blear-ey'd prejudice, as I can not discern an Hilar••on, Antoni∣us, Paulus, Eustochium, Marcella, Paula, exercis'd with watchings, cloth'd with Sackcloth▪ and fed by fastings with the bread of life: a Sain Hieron, Saint Basil, Saint Chrysostom, Saint Austin sounding an Alarm to the battail, and encouraging to take up these arms of Christian warfare, Emperors Kings, Princes, and Potentates casting down Crowns and honors at the feet of the Lamb, following Christ in the high way of the Cross, Myriads concomita∣ting, who preferring Christian humility before mundan complacencies, in Gales of sighes, and Seas of tears have been trans∣ported to an Haven of eternall security: the

partial phancy of the prejudice byass'd cen∣turiators that Monachisms antichristian, or the petticoat zeal of some rash reformers, who intitle the Locusts of the infernall pit, shall not teach my pen a sally out into scurrility, or dash in strains of polluti∣ons; marriage fills the Earth, and if virgi∣nity fills not Heaven, I may boldly affirme it prejudices not the way thither. I am neither of Vigilantius, or Jovinians mind, that either riches are to be preferr'd before poverty, or marriage before Vir∣ginity: and though I think marriage both honorable, and lawfull in the Clergy, yet I am of the L. Bacons opinion, Charity can hardly water the ground where it must first fill a Pond; a••d that many men believe not themselves w••at they would perswade others; lesse do the things they would im∣pose; least know what they most confident∣ly boast; they onely set the sign of the Cross over their outer doors, and sacrifice to the gut and grain in their inner closets, and I must suspect the Sun of righteousness decli∣ning among these once not impious orders, wher the shadows so far exceed the substāce.