wisdom is by experience, and age, and progression. They were highly to be valued, because, in more imperfect notices, they had the more perfect piety; we are highly to be reproved, that in better discourses we have a most imperfect life, and an unactive religion; they in their cases of conscience, took the safest part, but the moderns have chosen the most probable. It was the opinion of the ancient divines and lawyers, that every man is bound to make restitution of all that which he gains by play, by cards and dice, and all such sports as are forbidden by human laws. The modern casuists, indeed, do often reprove the whole process, and condemn the gamesters in most circumstances; but do not believe them tied to restitution, but to penance only. The first is the safer, and the severer way; but the latter hath greater reasons, as will appear in its own place. All contracts of usury were generally condemned in the foregoing ages of the church; of late, not only the merchant, but the priest, and the friar, puts out money to increase, and think themselves innocent; and although commonly it happens, that our ignorance and fears represent one opinion to be safe, when the other is more reasonable,-yet, because men will be fearful, and very often are ignorant and idle in their inquiries, there will still remain this advantage to either side, that one is wiser, and the other, in his ignorance, is the more secure, because he does more than he needs. And therefore it often happens, that though we call the ancient. writers fathers, yet we use them like children, and think ourselves men rather than them; which is affirmed by some, but in effect practised by every man when he pleases. But if any one shall choose the later writers, he must first choose his interest and his side; I mean, if he chooses to follow any upon their authority or reputation, without consideration of their reasons, then he must first choose his side, for he can never choose his side by the men, because most authors are of it themselves by interest. But because all probability is wholly derived from reason, every authority hath its degree of probability, according as it can be presumed or known to rely upon reason. Now in this both the ancients and the moderns excel each other respectively. "The ancients were nearer to the fountains apostolical; their stream was less puddled; their thread was not fine, but plain and strong; they were troubled with fewer heresies; they were not so wittily mistaken as we have been since; they had better and more firm tradition; they had passed through fewer changes, and had been blended with fewer interests; they were united under one prince, and consequently were not forced to bend their doctrines to the hostile and opposite designs of fighting and crafty kings; their questions were concerning the biggest articles of religion, and therefore such in which they could have more certainty and less deception; their piety was great, their devotion high and pregnant, their discipline regular and sincere, their lives honest, their hearts simple, their zeal was for souls, and the blood of the martyrs made the church irriguous, and the church was then a garden of the fairest flowers, it did daily germinate with blessings from heaven, and saints sprung up, and one saint could know more of the secrets of Christ's kingdom, the mysteriousness of godly wisdom, than a hundred disputing sophisters; and, above all, the church of Rome was then holy and orthodox, humble and charitable, her authority dwelt in the house of its birth; that is, in the advantages of an excellent faith, and an holy life; to which the advantages of an accidental authority being added by the imperial seat, she was made able to do all the good she desired, and she desired all that she ought; and the greatness of this advantage we can best judge by feeling those sad effects which have made Christendom to groan, since the pope became a temporal prince, and hath possessed the rights of some kings, and hath invaded more, and pretends to all, and is become the great fable, and the great comet of Christendom, useless and supreme, high and good for nothing, in respect of what he was at first, and still might have been, if he had severely judged the intereșt of Jesus Christ to have been his own." But then, on the other side, the modern writers have considered all the arguments and reasons of the ancients; they can more easily add, than their fathers could find out; they can retain their perfect issues, and leave the other upon their hands; and what was begun in conjecture, can either be brought to knowledge, or remanded into the lot and portion of deceptions. Omnibus enim hic locus feliciter se dedit, et qui præcesserunt, non præripuisse mihi videntur quæ dici poterant, sed aperuisse. Conditio optima ultimi est," said Seneca; "They who went before us, have not prevented us, but opened a door, that we may enter into the recesses of truth; he that comes last, hath the best advantage in the inquiry:"-" Multum egerunt qui ante nos fuerunt, sed non peregerunt: multum adhuc restat operis, multumque restabit: nec ulli nato post mille secula præcludetur occasio aliquid adhuc adjiciendia; " They who went before us, have done wisely and well in their generations, but they have not done all; much work remains behind, and he that lives a thousand ages hence, shall not complain that there are no hidden truths fit for him to inquire after." There are more worlds to conquer: 66 Multa dies variique labor mutabilis ævi Every day brings a new light, and by hearty and wise labour we improve what our fathers espied, when they peeped through the crevices. Every art, every manufacture was improved, Venimus ad summum fortunæ: pingimus, atque The Romans outdid the Greeks, even in things which they were taught in Athens, or on their hills of sport. But to proceed in the comparing the ages: these latter ages have more heresies, but the former had more dangerous; and, although the primitive piety was high and exemplary, yet the effect of that was, that in matters of practice they were more to be followed, but not in questions of speculation ; these later ages are indeed diseased, like children that have the rickets, but their upper parts do swell, and their heads are bigger; "sagaciores in dogmate, nequiores in fide;" and if they could be abstracted from the mixtures of interest, and the engagement of their party, they are in many things better able to teach the people, than the ancients; that is, they are best able to guide, but not always safest to be followed. If all circumstances were equal, that is, if the later ages were united, and governed, and disinterested, there' is no question but they are the best instructors; there is Seneca, ep. 64. Ruhkopf, vol. ii. page 284. Virg. Æn. xi. 425. Heyne. c Horat. Ep. ii. 1, 32. certainly more certain notice of things, and better expositions of Scriptures now than formerly; but because he that is to rely upon the authority of his guide, cannot choose by reasons, he can hardly tell now where to find them upon that account. There is more gold now than before, but it is more allayed in the running, or so hidden in heaps of tinsel, that when men are best pleased now-a-days, they are most commonly cozened. 66 If a man will take the middle ages, he may if he will, and that is all that can be said in it; for there can be no reason for it, but much against it. "Ego vero veteres veneror, et tantis nominibus semper assurgo. Verum inter externa ætatem esse scio, omniaque non esse apud majores meliora ;" I, for my part, do more reverence the ancients, and use to rise up" and bow my head to such reverend names, as St. Irenæus, St. Cyprian, Origen, St. Jerome, St. Austin; but I reckon age amongst things that are without, it enters not into the constitution of truth; and this I know, that amongst these ancients, not all their sayings are the best. And on the other side, although antiquity is a gentle prejudice, and hath some authority, though no certainty or infallibility; so I know that novelty is a harder prejudice, and brings along with it no authority, but yet it is not a certain condemnation. Quod si tam Graiis novitas invisa fuisset Quam nobis, quid nunc esset vetus? aut quid haberet If our fathers in religion had refused every exposition of Scripture that was new, we should by this time have had nothing old; but in this case what Martial said of friendships, we may say of truths: Nec me, quod tibi sum novus, recuses : Tu tantum inspice, qui novus paratur, Refuse nothing, only because it is news. For that which only see if this d Sen. ep. 64. last words. e Horat. lib. ii. ep. 1. 90. f Martial. i. 55. 4. 8 Videat lector epist. 19. Sancti Augustini; quæ est ad Hieronymum. et epist. ad Fortunatum. new thing be fit to be entertained, and kept till it be old; that is, as the thing is in itself, not as it is in age, so it is to be valued, and so also are the men; for in this, as in all the other, the subject matter will help forward to the choice of a guide. 1. The analogy of faith. 2. The piety of a proposition. 3. The safety of it, and its immunity from sin; these are right measures to guess at an article, but these are more intrinsical, and sometimes so difficult, that they cannot be made use of but by those who can judge of reason, and less need to be conducted by authority. But for these other who are wholly to be led by the power and sentence of their guide, besides what hath been already advised ; 4. The faculty and profession of men is much to be regarded; as that we trust divines in matters proper to their cognizance, and lawyers in their faculty; which advice is to be conducted by these measures :— When the Authority of Divines is to be preferred, when that of Lawyers. 1. The whole duty of a Christian consists in the laws of faith or religion, of sobriety, and of justice; and it is so great a work, that it is no more than needs, that all the orders of wise and learned men should conduct and minister to it. But some portions of our duty are personal, and some are relative, some are private, and some are public; some are limited by the laws of God only, and some also by the laws of men; some are directed by nature, some by use and experience; and to some of these portions contemplative men can give best assistances, and the men of the world and business can give best help in the other necessities. Now, because divines are therefore, in many degrees, separate from an active life, that they may with leisure attend to the conduct of things spiritual, and are chosen as the ministers of mercy, and the great reconcilers of the world, and therefore are forbidden to intermeddle in questions of blood: and because the affairs of the world, in many instances, are so entangled, so unconducing to the affairs of the spirit, so stubborn, that they are hardly to be managed by a meek person, carried on by so much violence, that they are not to be rescued from being |