Religio jurisprudentis, or, The lawyer's advice to his son in counsels, essays, and other miscellanies, calculated chiefly to prevent the miscarriages of youth, and for the Orthodox establishment of their morals in years of maturity / per Philanthropum.

XVI. De Avaritiâ & Liberalitate. Of Covetousness and Liberality.

THE most sordid, or the most splen∣did Characters a Jurisprudent can bear, for the one is down right Idolatry, said St. Paul, the other is Delicium Humani generis, or the Darling of Nature; every Man loves and honours a Liberal and ge∣nerous Man, though, he be never so Covetous himself. Whereby 'tis demon∣strable, that Generosity or Liberality (which is the same thing) is one of the most commendable Accomplishments that belongs to any Man in the World; for a Liberal Man is necessarily Charitable and Hospitable, which Sacrifices are such as we are (jure Divino) assured God is well pleased with, wherefore did St. Paul, who affirms the same, give us a great Caution to be sure not to forget this Faculty of Communicating.

Prodigality and Nigardliness or Cove∣tousness, are the two Extreams of Liberali∣ty.

If any one ask me a Character of that Man that I would chuse to make a Friend off, it would be one that is Just and Generous; tow short Words, but very com∣prehensive; for the former Appellation implies one that is only exact in commuta∣tive Justice, not to defraud or cheat you (as in common parlance, & ex vi termini, it imports) but one that is universally So∣ber, Righteous and Godly; and thus far a Publican, a Scribe, or a Pharise might proceed in Jurisprudential Learning; and yet miscarry at last; but to be Generous and Liberal, as well as Just and righteous, implies Hospitality and Charity intensly; which Properties, he that wants, can ne∣ver on good grounds expect to be happy, because, whate're besides he is wanting in, if he be defective here, he's a Nugatory Thing, a tinkling Cimbal, and a thing of no ualue; nor in a sperate Condition. A generous Jurisprudent is a Person of Ho∣nour and Conscience, Generosity and Charity, which is but one Branch of the Tree of Liberality (but a great one) we cannot (scarce) in any quality, more imi∣tate our Soveraign Law-giver than herein, that shines and rains on Good and Bad; but a Man that's Covetous, is both pro∣foundly injurious to himself, and to all the World about him, for he hords up, and inhibits that Talent which is none

of his own, to that purpose. Every Man in the World has a surplus: the generous Wi∣dow in the Gospel, that cast her Mite (her All) into the Bank of Charity, was record∣ed justly for a Generous, as well as very Charitable Soul, for our Example, nothing is more odious in Law, nor more heteroge∣neal in Nature, than ingrossing of what is communicable (pro re natâ) in the nature of the Thing, and that is Wealth, which is no farther useful to any Man, than dif∣fused by the Regrators and Ingrossors thereof. The speculative Letchery of a Covetous Person, is an unintelligent thing to a Jurisprudent, or a Man of considerate Sense and Reason; not but that it's abso∣lutely adviseable to provide against the misadventurs and contingences of humane Affairs, but yet with Jurisprudence, and due Consideration, and Mathematical Measures, our Saviour said it was next un∣to an Impossibility, for a Rich, that is (in his Sense there) a Covetous Man, to go to Heaven, as it was for a Camel or (rather to follow the Original) a Cable to be threaded in a Needles Eye. For in good earnest, the liberal Man is only rich, that is, hath enough for his present Ac∣commodation, and future Expectancies, and to spare for the universal Interest of Mankind, with whom he corresponds; which, is doubting of God's Providence,

diffident of all Success, and jealous of eve∣ry body about him. A Jurisprudent of for its well known, who assured us, that Riches consisted not in abundance, with∣out a Heart to make a proper use of it, which most overgrown Wealthists want.

The true Rich Man, is he that hath e∣nough to bound his Appetites and to spare, that's a great Soul, and a right Jurisprudent. It's Diffidence and Distrust, and it's a pu∣sillanimous Soul that's Hidebound, Penuri∣ous and Covetous, for its Con-tranatural and Ignoble, Sordid, and unworthy of so Magnanimous a Creature as Man (ab Ori∣gine) was made, and its observable, that the Remains of a Covetous Man seldom or never prosper in their Successions; vix gaudet tertius heres, scarce the third Gene∣ration enjoy them; but (vice versâ) the contrary is as remarkable of a Liberal Man's, because the former is grose Impie∣ty, and the latter true Piety; whereunto are annexed the Promises and Benefactions as well of this World as the next.

A Liberal Man (Solomon tells us) will be Fat, the other contrariwise, Lean as a Rake; or (as the Cheshire Proverb is) as if he suckt his Dam through an Hurdle. He dotes on, and pants after the Dust of the Earth upon the Head of the Poor, and is Solomons great Fool, and the most egregi∣ous Slave in the World; the Ground of

what Degree or Fortune soever he be, hath a Surplus for Liberality, both as Hospita∣ble and Charitable (like the generous Wi∣dow in the Gospel) if he hath but (one Mite) any thing at all, he'l have some∣thing to spare. Yet is our Jurisprudent a thrifty Man, and by generously casting his Bread upon the Waters, finds it turn to a better Account than the miserable Cove∣tous Mans Opus & Usus; who though re∣dicul'd by every body, but such as are as sordid as himself; yet hugs himself in his Hoards like a Hog in a Ditch, as Horace lively portrays and describs him.

—Populus me sibilat; at mihi plaudo, Ipse Domi simul ac nummos contemplor in arcâ.

Though the poor Mobile do make a Jest, And ridicule me, yet I'le hug my Chest.

Observe but the tenth Law of Moses, how very particularly he gives the Charge a∣gainst all sort of Covetousness imaginable, House, Wife, Man nor Maid-Servant, Ox nor Ass, nor any thing else about him you can think on. The Rich Poor Man's em∣phatically poor, as eximious Cowley tells us of the Miser; one thing only is avarice allowable in, ss. of Time. Solius Temporis honesta avaritia, said the old Jurisprudent Philosophers. Covetousness is not warran∣table

of any thing, but only Time. The unjust Steward's Servant in the Gospel was applauded for making himself Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness, by a generous Act (though Knavish) in bubling and cheating his Masters Creditor, and liberally handling his Debtors.

A Covetous Man can be good for no∣thing, I'm positively of that Opinion, be∣cause the Love of those his little Idols, is resolv'd by that great Gamaliel (and com∣petent Judge) St. Paul, to be the Root of all sorts of Evil. He is rude and uncivil to himself, in not affording necessary Sup∣plies, for supporting his natural Content∣ment, and cruel and tyrannical to his bet∣ter Part (if he have e're a one) his Soul by distorting and perplexing and debasing it Night and Day in sordid Anxieties, and unaccountable Drudgeries, and to all his Neighbours and Conversants in the World Uneasie, Fraudulent, and Unsociable, and Unintelligible, and worse. And remarka∣ble (I take it to be) that splendid Instance and President of Mary Magdalen, in be∣stowing a considerable sum of most preci∣ous Oyntment to wash our Saviours Feet withal; which no body but covetous Judas (the Bag-bearer) grudged, and would have pretended himself to have been so Chari∣table or Liberal, as to have wisht it had been (ad Valorem) to the Value rather gi∣ven

to the Poor. ss. The Cash-keeper that was so bloodily Covetous, as for thirty (Shillings) or Pieces of Silver, to betray his Lord and Master. A stingy narrow Soul can't be a Jurisprudent to all Effects and Purposes (if to any at all) for a Libe∣ral Man considers of the Universe, and and dispences accordingly, quoad hunc & nunc, as to time and Person properly; but the other minds no body but himself, and in good earnest, therefore is most his own Enemy, though a common Enemy too to the World about him. That a Man, who is Deputy Lieutenant of the whole World, should not act like a Prince within his Ter∣ritories, is a thing to be counted more a Matter of Prodigy than Proof. That Soul that confines it self to it self, and loves not to dilate, is the greatest Hetero∣clite (in rerum Naturâ) (in the visible World) and such is he that is profoundly Covetous; for a Man that's never so Co∣vetous, is on some occasions liberally af∣fected; to wit, towards himself, but re∣gards not the rest of the Family of God, and is therefore a spurious and degenerate Monster amongst Mankind, and not wor∣thy to be owned by them as a rational or intellectual Agent, but an Excresence of Humanity, or a Creature, not a Kin to Generous Mankind.