CHAP. I. The Introduction and opening of the Text.

THere be two kindes of good works, or two duties of charity, the per­formance whereof credits and com­mends much our Christian Reli­gion, as the Apostle insinuates, [...]. 1. Tim. 5. The education of children, and the enter­tainment of strangers. The former duty, being practised as it ought, consists not onely in preser­ving their bodies with food and raiment; but also, and most chiefly, in adorning their souls with god­linesse and good manners, asIn a Latine Treatise inti­tuled Votum Davidis, seu officium boni magistratûs & patris-familiâs. elswhere I have [Page 2] shewed. The latter hath divers parts and parcels, all which I purpose to prosecute in this place. For though I had rather any man should do it then my self,Cicer. Epist. Fam. 5.12. Quid, non per qu [...]m, accipias attende. Aug. Tract. 5. in Evan. Joan. yet my self rather then none at all, as the Oratour resolved in an other case. Howsoever, it matters not so much who speaks, as what is spoken: and I am sure that none of those three things which are wont to prejudice an Argument, can be found in this Theme I have in hand, Slightnesse, commonnesse, and unseasonablenesse. For this mat­ter is not so mean, that one may say of it as Saul said of his tribe and familie,1. Sam. 9.21. It is the least and smal­lest of all: Ad finem hom. 47 in Matth. Hist. Eccles. lib. 7. cap. 27. Lib. 6. cap. 12. Comment. in Gen. 18. Problem. Theolog. Loc. 170. or as Chrysostome writes of fasting, In the troop of morall vertues it hath the lowest rank. For hospitalitie is called by Sozomen, A sure token of a most vertuous minde; by Lactantius, A principall vertue; by Calvin, The chiefest office of humanity among us; and by Aretius, The most elegant ornament of a Christian life. Neither is it so common and ordinary, that it may be loathed of any as Manna was of the Israelites, Numb. 11.6. There is no­thing at all besides this Manna before our eyes. For so little in our dayes hath been written of this subject, that I may truely say as much of it, as a late worthy Divine affirms of an other:M. Ward of Ipswich in the first part of his Coal from the Altar, or sermon on Revel. 3.19. I have oft wondered why poore zeal, a vertue so high in Gods books, could never be so much beholding to mens wri­tings as to obtain a just Treatise, which hath been the lot of many particular vertues of inferiour worth; a plain signe of too much undervalue and neglect. Nor is it true of this Theme what Hushai did object against the counsel of Achitophel, 2. Sam. 17.7. It is not [Page 3] good at this time. For the time of publick and na­tionall calamities, as warre, famine, and pestilence, but especially the time of troubles and persecuti­ons for the truth, makes the treating of this Ar­gument seasonable and needfull. And therefore the Apostles in their writings do beat oft upon it, because the Christians were then persecuted by the Jews and Pagans. And in the next succeeding age, Heathenish Rome continuing still to be San­ctorum debellatrix, as Tertullian stiles her,Adversus Ju­daeos cap. 9. & advers. Marcionem lib. 3. cap. 13. and rai­sing against them a fourth persecution under the Emperour M. Aurelius Antoninus about the yeare 172; Melito, a learned Bishop of Sardis in Asia, wrote a book [...], whereof nothing now remains but the title, and mention in the Church-historie of Eusebius,Euseb. lib. 4. cap. 25. and in Hieromes catalogue of Ecclesiasticall Writers. Some 200 yeares after, the Catholicks being driven out of their houses by the furious Arrians under the Emperour Va­lens; Saint Austin in Africa, S. Ambrose in Italy, and S. Chrysostome in Greece made sermons and homilies of hospitality, preserved to this day among their other Works. Finally, in the yeare 1573, that is, soon after the Pope had procured that hor­rible massacre in Paris, and in many other great ci­ties of France, thereby to extinguish the Reformed Religion, Aretius in Helvetia or Switzerland published A common-place of hospitalitie: and his countriman Lavater preaching and pressing this vertue much about the same time, said,Est haec virtus valde necessaria nostro tempore, quando bella ge­runtur ab Anti­christo contra fi­deles, & multi à suis deserti in exilium pellun­tur. Lavat. in Judic. 1 [...]. hom. 95. That it was then very necessary, when warres were made by Anti­christ against the faithfull, and many forsaken of their own were cast out into banishment.

In imitation therefore of so many and so wor­thy patterns and presidents, I have thought it sea­sonable and fruitfull to take this matter in hand; considering that within these ten or twelve yeares last past, it hath been given again unto Papal Rome to exercise the power of the Pagan,Revel. 13.7. to make warre with the saints, and to overcome them: and that there­upon from severall parts of Christendome many strangers are come over into this Island, as to a re­fuge from the storm, and a shadow from the heat of persecution.

And to treat of this subject I have made choice of this short and pithy exhortation, Be given to hospitalitie: wherein the Apostle speaks as Mene­laus in Homer, [...]. Iliad. 3. Heb. 13.2. Few words, but very fit, expresse, emphaticall, and significant. For he saith not here as elswhere, Be not forgetfull to entertain strangers: nor as S. Peter,1. Pet. 4.9. Ʋse hospitality without grudging: but, [...]. Be given to hospitalitie. He said not exercising, but pursuing hospitality, as Chrysostome noteth upon this place. For the word [...], used here in the original, signifies eagerly to pursue and follow: which being attributed to persons, is evil for the most part, and is as much as to persecute, as in the next words after my Text, Blesse them which perse­cute you, and Matth. 5.11. Joh. 15.20. Act. 7.52. and 9.4. Gal. 1.13. But if it be applied to things, then it is good or evil, as the things are good or evil which we pursue, and it implies a singular love to a thing, and a great labour and earnest endeavour about it, as Philip. 3.12. and 14.

Now [...] is very well transla­ted [Page 5] given to hospitalitie: Doctour Curll, the now Reve­rend Bishop of Bath and Wels. Serm. on Hebr. 12.14 page 5. Parr. on Rom. 12.13. for this kinde of phrase notes an eager affection or following of a thing: So a common drunkard is said to be given to drink, and a covetous man to be given to money.

As for the word [...], it is compounded of [...] and [...]. Now [...] signifieth three things; To love, to use and entertain friendly, and to kisse. In the two former acceptions it is here to be un­derstood. And [...] signifies also three things; An hoste, a guest, and a stranger. And a stranger put without any addition is taken five wayes in Scri­pture, First, for any other man besides our selves, Proverbs 6.1. and 14.10. and 27.2. Secondly, for one that is no kinne to us, either by bloud, or by alliance and affinity; that is, neither of ours, nor of our childrens houshold and familie, Proverbs 5.10. Matth. 17.25. Thirdly, for a whore and har­lot, Proverbs 5.20, and 7.5. Fourthly, for a fo­rein enemy, Psal. 18.45. Hos. 7.9. Fifthly, for an outlandish man, and one that cometh from ano­ther countrey or nation, Matth. 27.7. and 3 John 5. In this last sense it is taken in this Text, and in all places where hospitalitie and entertainment of strangers is mentioned: and in the books of Moses a stranger is often called a sojourner or dweller with the Israelites, Levit. 24.16. and Numb. 15.30. Levit. 24.22. Levit. 18.26. and opposed to him that is born in the land, that is of their own countrey, that is of their own nation.

This exhortation then hath two parts; An act or action, and the object thereof: both affording this doctrine or proposition,

Christians must be given to hospitalitie. For as [Page 6] our Apostle exhorts the Thessalonians to follow that which is good, 1. Thes. 5.15. Hebr. 12.14. 1. Tim. 6.11. 1. Cor. 14.1. and the Hebrews to follow peace with all men, and Timothie to follow after righteous­nesse, and the Corinthians to follow after charity: So doth he exhort here the Romanes to follow af­ter hospitalitie. Which vertue is also by S. Peter commanded to the beleeving Jews, and by Saint John commended in Gaius and Demetrius, and the contrarie vice blamed and reproved in Dio­trephes.

But for the better handling of this excellent vertue, so oft pressed and patterned in the holy Scriptures and in the Fathers, seven things are to be considered; The Nature of it, the Kindes of it, the Parts of it, the Persons to whom it must be shewed, the Persons of whom it is required, the Means to practise it, and the Motives or In­ducements to it. All which are comprized with­in these two verses:

CHAP. II. The Nature and Kindes of hospitalitie.

FIrst, The Nature of it: What it is. Hospitali­tie is either falsly so called, or truly so called. Hospitalitie falsly so called is the keeping of a good table; at which seldome or never any [Page 7] other are entertained then kinsfolks, friends, and able neighbours, merry companions, parasites,Donare res sua [...] hist [...]onibus, vi­tium est imma­ [...]e, non virtus. Aug. Tract. 100 in Joan. Grat. dist. 86. can. Donare. Crates apud Stob. Serm. 13 jesters, and tellers of news. This is no hospita­litie, though it be commonly graced with that title, but it is good fellowship or some such like thing, as learned Expositors averre. An ancient Philosopher said, that the riches of many great house-keepers are like figs growing on the brim of a deep downfall: for as crows, and not men, fare the better for these; so base fellows, and not worthy men, have the benefit of those.M^r Charles Fi [...]z G [...]fferie The curse of corn-horders on Prov. 11.26. Serm. [...]. page 49. And a late Divine writes, that entertaining of Nimrods, Esaus, Ismaëls, and those devouring Dromedaries, their followers, is a mock-chimney, or rather poison of hospitality.

Hospitalitie truly so called is taken either in a large, or in a strict sense. In a large sense it con­tains all the works of charity and mercy and cour­teous kindenesse, specially the feasting of mean neighbours, the relieving of the poore, and the entertaining of honest guests and travellers of the same countrey. Thus it is taken by King James in that punctuall and pertinent passage of his Works, which I keep till the end of this Trea­tise, as a dainty morsel for the closure of an home­ly feast. And so it is hospitalitie to build houses for the blinde and maimed, the aged and decre­pit, for poore widows and young orphanes, which are either past their labour, or not come to it, as many Princes and Prelates and other devout persons have done in former times, and in latter ages. For such houses and mansions endowed [Page 8] with revenues are commonly called Hospitals, though they be not Xenodochia, receptacles of nee­dy strangers and foreiners, but Ptochodochia or Pto­chotrophia, nurseries for the poore of the countrey. It was hospitalitie when Abigail relieved David and his followers with two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed,1. Sam. 25.18. and other commodities: when Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai brought beds,2. Sam. 17.27, 28, 29. and basins, and earthen ves­sels, and divers kindes of victuals for him and for the people that were with him hungry, and wea­ry, and thirsty in the wildernesse: when Job did not eat his morsel alone,Job 31.17, 19, 20. but made the fatherlesse eat thereof, and warmed the poore with the fleece of his sheep:Esther 9.22. when the Israelites in their feasts and good dayes sent gifts to the poore,Neh. 8.10, 12. and porti­ons unto them for whom nothing was prepared: when Martha and others received our Saviour into their houses,Luke 10.38. and gave him kinde entertain­ment. Finally, it was hospitality which God re­quired of them that would keep a true religious fast, Esay 58.7. To deal their bread to the hungry, to cover him whom they saw naked, and not to hide themselves from their own flesh: and unto which Christ exhorted his hoste, Luke 14.12. saying, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, Non damnat Christus convi­via fratrum, sed nè id misericor­diam & libera­litatem arbitre­mur. Pharisaei isti putabant satìs se esse misericordes, si compharisaeos invitabant: Suadet ergò Christus ut liberales & misericordes simus in pauperes, hospitalitatémque commendat, & polli­cetur nobis aeternam mercedem. Stella in loc. call not thy friends nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a [Page 9] feast, call the poore, the maimed, the lame, the blinde: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: Scriptura nega­tionem saepe usurpat pro com­paratione. Hos. 6.6. Joel. 2.13. Luc. 10.20. Joan. 6.27. 1. Cor. 1.17. & 9.9. Et vice versá compara­tionem pro ne­gatione. Eccles. 5.1. Matth. 10.28. Luc. 18.14. Ephes. 4.28. 1. Tim. 1.4. for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrecti­on of the just. In which words the negation is to be taken for a comparison, Call not thy rich neigh­bours, but the poore, for call the poore rather then thy rich neighbours, as Proverbs 8.10. Receive my instruction and not silver, where the particles and not are put for rather then, as appeareth by that which followeth in the same verse, by way of exposition, and knowledge rather then choice gold. Because the feasting and entertaining of such as may entertain us again, and of such as are linked unto us by kindred or any other bond, though it be lawfull in it self, and sometimes commendable and expedient, yet it is no true triall, nor due proof or sufficient testimony of our charity. God gives us leave and liberty accord­ing to the places and times wherein we live, and according to our estate and calling to make such feasts of civility and gratitude, of peace and re­conciliation, of friendship and acquaintance, as Abraham made the same day that Isaac was weaned, Gen. 21.8. Gen. 26.26, 30. Gen. 29.22. as Isaac made to Abimelech and his followers, as Laban made at the marriage of his daughter, as Samson made at his wedding,Judges 14.10. as the sonnes of Job made one to another and their sisters,Job 1.4. Espenc. in 1. Timoth. lib. 2. cap. 1. ex Sulpitio. and as Saint Ambrose made now and then to the Go­vernours and Consuls of Millan: but alwayes with this proviso, that we be not disabled by them from being bountifull to the poore and needy: whom if we remember effectually, and [Page 10] to some purpose at such times, then all these feasts shall be clean unto us, Luke 11.41. as Saint Austin dis­courseth in his second Sermon de Tempore.

Hospitality taken in a more proper, more strict, and accurate sense,Hospitalitas est erga extraneos. Calv. in 1. Tim. 3.2. Illyricus in Hebr. 13 2. [...]. Opus est affectio­nis anim [...] decla­ratio. Naz. Orat. 36. Strom. lib. 2. ante medium. [...]. is nothing else but The love that is born unto strangers or outlandish men; and comprehends two things, (saith Illyricus) affe­ctum & effectum, affection and action, wel-willing and wel-doing: the former being the fountain and foundation of the latter, and the latter the stream and demonstration of the former. Both these are comprized in the definition which Cle­mens of Alexandria gives of this vertue: Hospi­tality (saith he) is an art of wel-using strangers.

And touching the Kindes: This exactly so cal­led hospitalitie is either mercenarie, or gratui­tous: mercenarie, when a stranger is kindely and courteously used for his money; when one makes him pay no more, but rather lesse, because he is a stranger: gratuitous, when a stranger is enter­tained freely and for grand merci. And this again is either of magnificence, or of friendship, or of humanitie, or of mercy: of magnificence, when a stranger of note and abilitie is entertain­ed with pomp and state: of friendship, when a stranger of acquaintance is familiarly entertain­ed: of humanitie, when a foreiner that comes to see places, and being a stranger is in courtesie in­vited: of mercy, when a poore stranger is har­boured and relieved in his wants.

Of this last the Text is to be understood: for, as Gualther hath well observed upon it, the Apo­stle [Page 11] having exhorted the Romanes to distribute to the necessities of the Saints, lest thereupon any man should think to have sufficiently dischar­ged his dutie, if he did good to his countrymen and fellow-citizens, he therefore addes a peculi­ar precept concerning strangers and foreiners, of whom there was then a great number in all Churches, by reason of persecutions every where raised against the faithfull.

Which mercifull hospitalitie (defined here by Calvin,Hospitalitas est non exigua spe­cies charitatis, id est, benevo­lentia & libera­litas quae pere­grinis exhibe­tur, Calvin. in Rom. 12.13. Est beneficentia erga peregrinos. Ursin. Catech. in 8. Decal. Praecept. A benevolence and liberality shewed unto strangers) is again twofold; Publick and Private. Publick hospitalitie belongs to free Princes and Magistrates: Private, to subjects and private per­sons.

CHAP. III. The Parts of publick hospitalitie.

THe Parts of publick hospitalitie are chiefly foure. 1. To suffer stangers to come into the land and countrey. 2. To defend them by good laws from injuries and wrongs. 3. To give them leave to exercise their lawfull calling, and to advance the ablest of them to some place of preferment. 4. To procure the relief of those that are in want and necessity.

First, to suffer strangers to come into the land [Page 12] and countrey.Qui peregrinos urbe prohibent nequaquam pro­bandi. Ferae non expellunt fe­ras, & homo ex­cludit hominem? Ambros. Offic. lib. 3. cap. 7. Peregrinos usu urbis prohibere sanè inhumanum est. Cic. offic. 3. In illa lege, quâ peregrini Româ ejiciuntur, Glaucippus exci­pitur: non enim unus afficitur beneficio, sed unus privatur injuriâ. Idem Orat. 15. sive de Log. Agra­ria in Senatu. For, saith S. Ambrose, one wilde beast doth not expell another, and should one man ex­clude another? It is an inhumane part for any Prince or Magistrate, to forbid strangers the co­ming or abiding in his Dominions; and so inhu­mane, that Christs disciples thought the Samari­tanes unworthy to live, for not receiving him into a village of theirs, Luk. 9.52, 53. And the Lacedemonians have been branded with the nickname ofAlex. ab Alex. Genial. dier. lib. 4. cap. 10. Dirinoxeni, Tiraquel. in loc. [...], inquit, à vocabulo Spar­tano [...], id est, injuriam facere, ut scribit Favo­rinus in voca­bulo. Injurious to strangers, for not permitting strangers to dwell among them, nor to passe at all times through their countrey, but onely to come at some great feasts and pub­lick solemnities. ThePurchas Pil­grim. Tom. 3. pag. 268. later Kings of China de­serve the like censure: for they have made a law, that no stranger, except Ambassadours and slaves, should enter the Kingdome: and if a stranger steal into the countrey,Pag. 390. 399 they permit him not to return. But much more blamable is that cu­stome among thePag. 443. Tartarians, to suffer no stran­ger to come within the Realm; if any do, the same to be made bond-slave to him that first takes him, except such merchants and others as have the Tartar Bull or Pasport about them.

When the Israelites possessed Canaan, stran­gers might come among them by Gods appoint­ment; whether they desired but to passe through the land, or to sojourn there for a while, till the businesse for which they came was ended; or whether they purposed to dwell there altoge­ther. And therefore David and Solomon co­ming to the Crown, and finding many thousand [Page 13] strangers in their Kingdome, permitted them to abide there still at their pleasure. Neither did the Governours of Bethlehem hinder Ruth the Moabitesse from coming to, or dwelling in their citie.

And this first part of publick hospitalitie hath been shewed to strangers,Gen. 20. Chap. 26. Chap. 47. even by aliens from the covenant of grace. For Abimelech King of the Philistines received Abraham and Isaac into his territories, Pharaoh King of Egypt harboured Jacob and his whole family, and the King of Mo­ab gave leave to Elimelech and his wife and children to sojourn in his countrey,Ruth 1.1. 1. Sam. 22.3. and to Da­vid to place his parents there.

But this toleration of strangers is ever to be understood with a double caution;Gen. 34.21. Ubi Pareus ait duas r [...]moveri objectiones. 1. Non conveni­et nobis ipsis. 2. Regio non capiet omnes si mul. That they be peaceable men, and that the land be large enough for them. For there is no reason that the naturall subjects should be pestered with their unquiet manners, or too great number. Neither do we say that a ship should be so laden as to be in dan­ger of sinking.

Secondly,Plin. l. 8. c. ult. Angues in Syria erga indigenas venenum non habent, nec eos petunt, exteros cum cruciatu exanimant: ità quidam populi in suos satís hu­mani, in alieni­genas immanis­simi sunt. Eras. in Simil. to defend them by good laws from injuries and wrongs. For almost in every coun­trey, many of the vulgar and common sort of people do rather imitate the snakes of Syria, which never sting the native inhabitants, but do exceedingly vex all strangers, then the scorpions of Caria, and of Cassan in Persia, which strike the native inhabitants, and spare none but stran­gers and passengers. And therefore a good vice­gerent of God ought herein to be a follower of [Page 14] God, who being the sole Monarch and Lawgi­ver of the Commonwealth of Israel, provided for the safetie of foreiners by these expresse Sta­tutes:

Abimelech was to carefull in this point, that having given leave to Isaac and Rebekah to so­journ in his kingdome, he forbad all his subjects, under pain of death,Gen. 26.11. so much as to touch them, by way of offering thereby the least injurie or wrong, as that kinde of speaking is also taken Ruth 2.9. Psal. 105.15. Zech. 2.8. And King Pippin, father to Charles the Great, and stiled in the French History, An excellent pattern for ex­cellent Princes, made a law, that whosoever could be proved to have slandered any stranger,Peregrino ulli calumniam sa­ciens, 60 solidos solvat, &c. In Synod. Meten. can. 4. anno 753. should be fined a certain summe of money; one half whereof should be carried to the Kings Exche­quer, the other given to the slandered stranger. And among those excellent laws, for the ma­king [Page 15] whereof Charles K. of Gothland and Swed­land is so much commended, this is one;Olaus Magnus l. 5. c. 1. Whoso­ever is convicted to have thrice denied harbour unto a stranger, his house shall be burnt with fire: that so he may justly be deprived of that, the use whereof his in­humanitie would not impart to others. And the first Duke of Wirtemberg, commonly called The good Duke Eberhard, gave expresse charge and command in all the parts of his Dominions,Camerar. in vita Me­lanchr. l. 3. that strangers and passengers should be kindely recei­ved, and used without any fraud or violence. And K. James gave this precept in Scotland to his eld­est sonne Pr. Henry,Basil. Doron. l. 2. paulò ante medium. Anno 1517, Honr. 8. nono. Vide Stoum, & rerum An­glicarum Ar­nales. Pietate plenum est, peregrinam gentem publ [...]cis beneficiis obliga­re, & non tan­tum consangui­neos ad substan­tiae lucra mitte­re, quantum ipsos quoque ad­venas invitare. Cassiod. Epist. 9. lib. 12. Gen. 47.6. 1. Sam. 28. Take as strict order for repres­sing the mutining of ours at strangers craftsmen, as was done in England at their first inbringing there.

Thirdly, to give them leave to exercise their own lawfull callings, and to advance the ablest of them to some place of preferment. Thus cour­teous Pharaoh not onely suffered Josephs bre­thren to professe and exercise their pastorall oc­cupation and shepherds calling in his Kingdome, but also spake to Joseph concerning them on this gracious manner: If thou knowest any man of acti­vity among them, then make them rulers over my cattell. Who in all likelihood did accordingly. And Achish King of the Philistines knowing Da­vid to be a wise and a valiant Captain, he prefer­red him to an eminent place in his warres, and gave him opportunity to exercise his skill and courage in Martiall affairs.1. Chron. 22.2. and 2. Chron. 2.17, 18. Lavat. in loc. David also and Solo­mon set the strangers that were in the land of Is­rael to be bearers of burdens and hewers of [Page 16] wrought stones for the building of the Temple; not out of scorn and contempt, thereby to de­presse them as slaves and drudges, but out of care and charity, thereby to provide for their maintenance, and to make them earn their living, being workmen and labourers by trade and oc­cupation.

Whether it be fitting and expedient to admit strangers into the publick government of a Common-wealth, and advance them unto great offices & places of importance, I leave to States­men and Historians to discusse and discourse, un­willing to meddle with these matters that are too high for me. Onely I will here produce this short decision of a godly and well deser­ving Divine:Doctour Wil­let on Dan. 6. quaest. 6. Though it ordinarily be more safe for such Governours to be appointed which are of the same nation, because both the hearts of the people will be more inclined unto such, and the care and love of such Officers will be greater toward their countrey: yet it is better to appoint a stranger, when as there are any singular and extraordinarie parts of wisdome & integrity in such an one, as there was in Joseph, Da­niel, Mordecai, more then is to be found in any other. But to preferre able strangers unto any Scholar-like employment, and other places of an inferi­our nature, especially in time of warre and per­secution, is a thing no lesse common then com­mendable in a Magistrate: ‘Hancce [...], petimúsque damúsque vicissim,’ say justly and truly almost all Christian nations at this day. And to say nothing of other pro­fessions, [Page 17] it is certain that if we look into the lives of late Divines both Papists and Protestants, we shall finde that many of them have been Pa­stours and Professours in forein countries, though there were oft-times as sufficient men as they among the natives, and though they had not the tone, the pronunciation or the accent like the homebred inhabitants. Hospitality stands not upon such niceties, nor doth it suffer Gods gifts in any man to perish unprofitably under these pretences.

Fourthly, to procure the relief of those that are in want and necessitie. For in that ancient and most wisely governed Common-wealth of the Jews, besides that generall law, Levit. 25.35. If thy brother be waxen poore and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him; yea though he be a stranger, or a sojourner, that he may live with thee: Five particular things were appointed for the sustenance of the poore and the stranger; to wit, three things out of every corn-field in Isra­el. First, a corner of the field, Secondly, the gleanings, Levit. 19.9. Thirdly, the forgotten sheaf, Deut. 24.19. Fourthly, all the single grapes, that is, the grapes which grow single and not in clusters, Levit. 19.10. Lastly, a part of all the tithes of every third yeare, Deut. 14.29. and 26.12. And that such laws as these do still binde and oblige Christians,Quatenus hu­manitatem ali­quam suadent in egentes, via­tores, & pere­grinos. so farre forth as they require some humanity to the poore, to travellers, and to stran­gers, is the glosse of the learned Jesuite Lorinus, upon Levit. 19.10. and the judgement of Saint [Page 18] Austin:Aug. contra Faust, Manich l. 6. c. 2. & l. 10. c. 2. & l. 19. cap. 18. Vide Zanch. De cultu Dei ex­terno, pag. 441. Tom. 4. Probl. Theol. Loc. 133. & 137. Ararium pau­perum peregri­norum. M. Fox Acts & Monuments about the year 899. ex Poly­chron. l. 5. c. 1. & Guliel. De Regib. Ang. and also the common opinion of Prote­stant Divines. For which cause not onely the potent Commonwealth of Berna is very bounti­full and charitable to poore strangers and passen­gers, as Aretius reports in his Common-places of liberalitie, and collection for the poore; but also the poore citie of Geneva hath a treasurie for the re­lief of needie strangers, as Beza tells us in the life of Calvin. And K. Edward the sixth, Qu. Elisa­beth, and her Royall Successours have divers times procured and furthered the refreshing of distressed foreiners. King Alfred (the first King of the Anglo-Saxons) bestowed the sixth part of his riches and rents upon the poore strangers of the countrey, and sent every yeare little lesse to forein Churches without the Realm.

CHAP. IIII. The Parts of Private hospitalitie.

PRivate hospitalitie consists in foure things: In an earnest invitation, In a cheerfull enter­tainment,Abraham did look about eve­ry way to spie a stranger to give entertainment unto, as a hunt­er looks into every bush & brake for a ba [...]e. Chrysost. hom 20. in Rom. In a faithfull protection, And in a courteous dismission or deduction.

First, In an earnest invitation. For a man given to hospitalitie will not stay till strangers ob­trude themselves upon him, and crave entertain­ment, but he will seek and invite them, as Abra­ham did: nay, he will in a manner compell them to enter into his house, if out of modesty and [Page 19] bashfulnesse they do refuse it:Gen. 19.3. 2. King. 4.8. as Lot pressed upon them greatly, and the Shunamite constrained Eli­sha to eat bread in her house. Thus the faithfull have done, not onely when there were no innes to receive and lodge strangers, but also after innes and taverns were erected, as appeares by the example of Lydia,Act. 16.15. Luk. 24.29. Coëgerunt, id est, multùm instanter, & quodammodo importunè invi­taverunt. Car­thus. in loc. Ex quo exemplo colligitur, pere­grinos non solùm invitandos esse, sed etiam tra­hendos, Greg. Hom. 23. in Evang. Ad Atricum lib. 13. Ep. 33. Non solùm in rebus meis ma­gno mihi adju­mento fuisti, ve­rùm etiam di­versorium relin­quere, & do­mum tuam com­migrare prope­modum me coe­gisti. Epist. De­dic. Grammat. Syriac. 1. Pet. 4.9. who besought and constrain­ed Paul and his companions to take lodging at her house: and of the two disciples going to Em­maus, who taking Christ for a stranger, constrain­ed him to tarry with them that night. Whence S. Gregory gathers, that strangers must not one­ly be invited, but also haled and pulled in, as it were: according to that phrase or proverb in Tully, penulam scindere, to teare ones cloke, that is, to invite and intreat with great earnestnesse and impatience of deniall, as a man that will take no nay. Thus Archbishop Parker dealt with Tre­mellius: for meeting him in London, he did al­most force him to leave the inne, and to take lodging at his Palace. For innes and taverns are places of great charges and expenses, which every stranger and passenger is not able to beare.

Secondly, In a cheerfull entertainment. For Saint Peter bids the faithfull to whom he writes, to use hospitality without grudging: that is, without repining at the number, or long stay, or charge­ablenesse of their guests, which those times of persecution did cause. And S. Paul in the eighth verse of this chapter, requires of him that shew­eth mercy, to shew it with cheerfulnesse: for God lo­veth a cheerfull giver, 2. Cor. 9.7. Now cheer­fulnesse [Page 20] implies three things. First, Alacrity and willingnesse of minde: 2. Cor. 8.12. [...]. Phurnu­tus in opere De natura deo­rum. 2. Cor. 8.10. for of gifts the minde is the best part. The grace of a benefit is voluntarinesse, the freenesse of the minde and the opennesse of the heart. Therefore Paul commends the Co­rinthians, for that they had begun before, not onely to do, but also to be willing and forward a yeare ago. Gods people is a willing people, Psal. 110.3. and whatsoever they do, they perform it willingly, not by con­straint & of necessity. They think it not enough to be rich in good works, 1. Tim. 6.18. unlesse they be also readie to distribute, willing to communicate. Secondly, Amiablenesse of face and countenance: which floweth from the former as the stream from the fountain.Prov. 15.13. For as a merry heart, so a willing minde makes a cheerfull countenance: without which the best entertainment finds no acceptance from the guests:Vultu saepe lae­ditur pietas. Cic. Orat. 2. and as pietie is often wounded, so hospitality may be spoiled with looks. Vultus indicat virum hospitalem: One may read in the face of a man, whether he be given to hospitalitie or no: for as a mans wisedome, Eccles 8.1. so an entertainers alacritie and heartie affection makes his face to shine, & banishes all heavie looks.2. Cor. 9.5, 6. & Sirac. 7.32. [...] ponitur pro [...], vel [...], ex Hebraeorum idiotismo. Vid. Gen. 33.11. Judic. 1.15. 1. Sam. 30.26. 2. Reg. 5.15. Ecclus. 18.15, 17. Thirdly, Affablenes and cour­teous language. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, Matt. 12.34. No man is a true Boniface that is not also a Benedict: and therefore in Scripture beneficence is sometimes called a blessing or benediction, to shew that good works must be graced and adorned with good words, and that both are with a gracious man. Blemish not thy good deeds, neither use uncomfortable words when [Page 21] thou givest any thing, saith the wise son of Sirach. For as to shew ill looks, so to give ill words to guests or strangers, it is to feed them, as the Pro­verb saith, with a bit and a knock.

All these good properties and conditions were eminent in Lot and Boaz, but especially in Abraham: whom therefore Chrysostome saith that we admire not so much for that he killed a good & tender calf, and made cakes of fine meal, Homil. 20 in Rom. as for that he received those strangers with much pleasure and delight. He did every way testifie to his guests that they were heartily welcome, and behaved himself towards them, rather as receiving then as doing a kindenesse. He did,Philemon & Baucis, de qui­bus sic Ovidi­us, Metam. 8. —Super omnia vultus Accessêre boni, nec iners pau­perque voluntas. as that old couple of loving yoke-fellows, afford unto strangers such commodities as he had, and

Thirdly, In a faithfull protection. For a true hoste must not onely abstain from doing wrong to his guests, according to that of Solomon, Proverbs 3.29.Hoc adversus malefidos [...] facit, quibus confidunt qui ab illis excipiuntur. Cart wright. in locum. Germani pro­verbio dicunt, Caupo pater esse debet sui hospi­tis quem excepit. Lavat. in Ju­dic. Hom. 96. Gen. 19.8. Devise not evil against thy neigh­bour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee: but also must suffer none to hurt them during their abode with him. We see this in righteous Lot. When the Sodomites would have offered outrage to strangers received into his house, he was willing to undergo any losse or indignity before stran­gers should sustain any harm at all: He did pray and profer what he could devise to free them from injurie: He did crave and plead the laws of hospitalitie, and alledge this reason for the [Page 22] last and most pregnant, that therefore those stran­gers were come under the shadow of his roof, that so they might be protected by him. We see this in the old man of mount Ephraim that dwelt in Gibeah: For he disswaded certain sonnes of Belial from doing wrong to a Levite,Judges 19.23. by this reason, that he had taken him into his protection as his guest, and therefore he must see him to be safe under his roof.Ruth 2.9, 15, 16. We see this in good Boaz, who did not think it enough to entertain kinde­ly poore Ruth in his harvest: but did moreover take order she should not be injured by word or deed. For he charged and commanded his young men, that they should neither touch, nor rebuke her for gleaning.

Objection. But Jael was so farre from prote­cting her guest Sisera,Judges 4.21. and 5.24, 26. that she killed him in her tent: and yet she is much blessed and extolled by Deborah for that act.

Answer. Although a faithfull protection and defence from wrong be one of the laws of ho­spitality:Omnes necessitu­dines, omnia ju­ra tantisper va­lere debent, quamdiu divinae voluntati pro­bantur, &c. P. Martyr in Judic. 4.22. The intervention of a command from the Almighty alters the state of any act, and makes that worthy of praise, which else were no better then damnable. It is now justice, which were otherwise murder. The will of God is the rule of good. What need we enquire into other reasons of any act or determinati­on, when we heare it comes from heaven? B. Hall Contempl. lib. 14. In David and Achish. yet no law is in force, no right is to be kept any longer then God allows. Jael knew that Sisera was a cruell oppressour of Gods peo­ple, and a cursed Cananite; that God had ap­pointed him to destruction, and foretold by the Prophetesse Deborah that he would sell him in­to the hands of a woman. And therefore having [Page 23] warrant and instinct from God, she did commen­dably break this band asunder, as Abraham brake before the band of bloud and naturall affection, in being ready to kill his sonne: and as the Le­vites brake it, in slaying every man his brother, his companion, his neighbour, Exod. 32.27. And are both commended and rewarded for that act, Deut. 33.9, 10. When God saith slay, it is not mercy, but hypocrisie to spare.

Fourthly, In a courteous dismission and de­duction: according to this old and approved rule, [...], Diligitor prae­sens: cùm vult, dimittitor ho­spes. Verba Men [...]lai ad Te­lemachum U­lyssis filium, Odyss. 15. v. 74. Vitam habeo velut hospitem: si manet, non ejicio, si abit, non teneo, nec penulam scindo. Lips. Cen. 1. mi­s [...]el. Epist. 81.

For it is incivilitie, and sometimes injurie too, to retain a guest against his will, and longer then his occasions will well permit. WhenGen. 24.59. Abrahams servant would needs be gone, Laban and Bethuel sent him away: and when AbrahamsGen 18.16. strangers rose up from the place where they had been en­tertained, he dismissed them courteously, and brought them on the way. Hyrcanus also, that ho­spitable High-priest of the Jews, was wont to provide for the safe [...]. Joseph. Antiq. l. 14. c. 16 deduction and return of those strangers whom he had lovingly received. And Saint John having commended Gaius for his kinde harbouring of strangers, addes that he shall do well if he brings them forward on their jour­ney, 3. John 6. Where a late learnedEstius in 3. Joan. Expositor noteth, that in the Epistles of John, and of Paul, and in the Acts of the Apostles, this deduction si­gnifies not so much a personall accompanying and [Page 24] conducting forth a piece of the way by way of ho­nour and civil courtesie,Act. 20.38. and 21.5. 1. Cor. 16.11. as a liberall and chari­table bestowing of necessary things for the jour­ney. After which manner the inhabitants of the Isle Melita (now called Malta) dismissed Saint Paul and his companions:Acts 28.10. and Paul desired Titus to bring Zenas the Lawyer and Apollos on their jour­ney diligently, Tit. 3.13. Deducere hîc viatico prosequi significat, quem­admodum ex contextu liquet. Calv. in loc. that nothing be wanting unto them: and Francis Frescobald, an Italian Merchant, brought Thomas Cromwell on his way hither­ward. For when he saw at Florence this ragged strip­ling asking almes for Gods sake, Fox Acts and Monuments, Anno 1540. he had pitie and compassion on him, and received him into his house, and with such courtesie entertained his guest, as at his departure when he was minded to return to his coun­trey, he provided such necessaries as he any way need­ed. He gave him both horse and new apparel, and six­teen duckats of gold in his purse, to bring him into his countrey. Hospites beni­gnissimè excepti, variis muneri­bus ornati di­mittebantur. Val. Max. lib. 4. cap. ult. Finally, it was usuall with Gillias, that famous and liberall hospitaler of Agrigen­tum in Sicilie, to dismisse strangers with sundry gifts and presents.

CHAP. V. The Object of hospitalitie.

THe Object of hospitalitie contains foure sorts of persons to whom it must be shewed: Generally all strangers, Specially strangers pro­fessing the true Religion, More specially strang­ers [Page 25] persecuted and banished for professing the true Religion; Most chiefly and above all, Mi­nisters and Divinitie-readers persecuted and ba­nished for teaching and defending the same true Religion.

First, Generally all strangers, that is, strangers of any Region and Religon. For as the object of love is every thing lovely, so the object of hospi­talitie is every hospes or stranger. If aliens and in­fidels were to be harboured by the Jews under the Law; how much more ought they to be re­ceived and entertained by the Christians under the Gospel? The precept of loving and enter­taining strangers is generally and indefinitely couched in both Testaments: and besides that, Saint Peter would have the beleeving Jews to honour all men: 1. Pet. 2.17. that is, to care and provide for them, as 1. Pet. 3.6. and 1. Tim. 5.3 Gal. 6.10. 2. Cor. 9.13. 1. Thess. 3.12. and S. Paul commands the Gala­tians to do good unto all men, and commends the Corinthians for their liberall distribution not onely to the Saints, but also to all men, and pray­eth for the Thessalonians, that the Lord would make them to increase and abound in love one to­wards another, and towards all men. Love and kindnesse we ow to all strangers which are come amongst us; and though we know not the purpose of their hearts, yet we must do good unto them for the proportion of their bodies, because they are men, and the children of Adam like our selves. Wheresoever a man is, Ʋbicunque ho­mo es [...], ibi bene­ficio locus est. Sen. De vita beata cap. 24. there is room for a be­nefit, saith the heathen Moralist. A Jew, a Turk, a Pagan, or any other infidel, deserves to be re­spected and relieved in his necessities, though not [Page 26] for his manners, [...]. Chrysost. Hom. 2. de Lazar. Nehem. 5.17. Aug. Confes. 5.13. Stuck. Antiq. conviv. lib. 1. cap. 27. Favet, fovet, ornat, actuetur omnes, non suos tantùm, sed ex­teros etiam, & quovis sub coelo natos. Erasm. Annor. in 1. Thess. 2. yet for his manhood, for his com­munion and fellowship in the same nature with us. Nehemiah did entertain at his table those that came unto the Jews from among the Heathen that were about them. Saint Ambrose shewed hospitalitie to Austin, though then a Maniche: and Stuckius commends the Common-wealth of Zurich in Switzerland for receiving and using courteously all sorts of strangers, be they never so much dif­fering in Religion: and Erasmus extols Archbi­shop Warram for his kinde and courteous, bountifull and liberall carriage towards strangers of any countrey or climate.

Onely two sorts of strangers are here to be excepted. First, Abominable sinners and enor­mious offenders, whom neither publick nor private persons ought to harbour and entertain: according to that dehortation of the wise sonne of Sirach:Ecclus 11.29, 33. Bring not a mischievous man into thine house, lest he bring upon thee a perpetuall blot. Though Geneva be a citie open to all comers, Civitas alioqui omnibus advenis patens. Beza Epist. 1. Sontium rece­ptatricem. Chronol. lib. 4 anno 1534. yet it is so farre from harbouring such unworthy guests (howsoever it pleased Genebrard, whose pen is no slander, to call it A common receptacle of guil­ty persons) that on the contrarie they have there a law, which is also put inSee some examples in M^r. Heylins Cosmogra­phie, pag. 135. edit. 3. and 4. execution, that if any malefactor flee to them for refuge, they pu­nish him after the custome of the place in which the crime was committed: otherwise their Town being on the borders of divers provinces would never be free from vagabonds, but rather become like that city of refuge in Israel, A ci­ty [Page 27] of them that work iniquity; Hos. 6.8. or like that seven-hilled citie of Italy,Petrarch. Epist. 18. Epistola­rum sine ti­tulo. Plin. l. 4. c. 11. Plur. lib. de Curiositate. bonorum hostis & malorum hospes, an enemy of good and an hostesse of evil men; or like that infamous town in Thracia, cal­led Poneropolis, a citie of lewd people, a den of theeves, a cage of unclean birds. Secondly, Se­ducing hereticks and false teachers, who like the Scribes and Pharisees do compasse sea and land to make one proselyte, Matt. 23.15. to plant superstition and sup­plant true Religion. Concerning whom we have this negative precept of Saint John:2. John 10. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine of the Gospel concerning Christs person and of­fice, but rather a quite contrary, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. For he that bids him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds. Which are three, as we are taught by Saint Paul. For first, such deceivers subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucres sake, Tit. 1.11. Secondly, their infection proceeds further, eating as doth a gangrene, 2. Tim. 2.17. Lastly, they cause divisions and offences in the Church and Common-wealth, Rom. 16.17.Seductoribus hospitium ma­gno vestro malo adhuc praebetis. Beza Epist. 1. ad Duditium Polonum. Now if they which trouble the Church deserve to be even cut off and expelled (Gal. 5.12.) how much more to be kept off and repelled?

It is not inhospitality nor churlishnesse, but dis­cretion and godlinesse, not to receive a stran­ger that will disturbe his hoste, Ecclus 11.31, 34. and turn good into evil.

Secondly, Specially strangers professing the [Page 28] true Religion. For among the Israelites more priviledges were granted to strangers within the covenant, that is, to such strangers and sojourn­ers as being born Gentiles and aliens from the faith, became afterwards proselytes and circum­cised, & professours of the Jewish Religion, then to strangers within the gates onely, that is, to such strangers as continued still in their Genti­lisme and uncircumcision, though dwelling with­in the cities of Israel.Hac distincti­one locum Levit. 17.15. cum Deut. 14.21. rectè con­ciliat Calvi­nus, Harmon. in 4 posterio­res libros Mo­sis pag. 214. omninóque concilianda sunt ejusmodi [...]. For strangers by birth onely, and not by Religion, had money lent them without usury, Levit. 25.35, 36. And were re­leased of their creditors every seven yeares without any exaction, Deut. 15.1, 2, 3. besides their equality with born Israelites in eating the Passeover, Exod. 12.48, 49. in appearing before the Lord with the congregation to heare Gods law read, Deut. 31.11, 12. and in all other things belonging to divine Service and Religion, Num. 15.15, 16. And Saint Paul exhorts the Galati­ans to do good especially to them who are of the houshold of faith, Gal. 6.10. meaning them who by consan­guinitie of doctrine are of the same family with us, namely of the same Catholick Church up­on earth: and he commends to the Romanes Phebe his sister in Christ, and by profession of the same faith,Rom. 16.1, 2. that they receive her in the Lord as becometh Saints to receive and to be received: not in any common fashion, but after a singular and extraordinarie manner, as most deare and worthy friends.Gen. 43.34. and 45.22. As therefore Joseph gave bet­ter entertainment to Benjamin then to the rest [Page 29] of his guests, because he was his brother, not by the fathers side onely, as they were, but also by the mothers: So we should make more of those strangers which are children with us, not onely of the same God by creation, but also of the same Church by beleef and profession. And as there is another manner of use of things holy and of things common, of the Lords day and of the other dayes of the week: So a difference is to be made between true Protestants and other common Christians: Of those there must be a speciall regard above these that are not so linked unto us by the band of Religion. For we ought herein to imitate God, who though he be good to all (Psal. 145.9.) yet in a speciall sort he is good to Israel (Psal. 73.1.) Who is the Savi­our of all men, specially of those that beleeve, 1. Tim. 4.10.

Thirdly, More especially strangers persecuted and banished for professing the true Religion. For we love the truth as we love the entertain­ment of those that professe it and suffer for it. Such strangers that have Gods pasport to shew, ought to be entertained before and more then others that come without it.Matt. 10.23. For they have his warrant,Jos. 22.19. if they be persecuted in one citie to flee in­to another: and if the land of their own possession be unclean, to passe over unto the land of the posses­sion of the Lord, wherein the Lords Tabernacle dwelleth. It is their praise and glory that they will not be defiled with idols,Revel. 14.4. but follow the Lambe whithersoever he goes in his ordinances. [Page 30] Therefore Asa and Hezechiah Kings of Juda re­ceived willingly those strangers that came to them out of Israel,2. Chron. 15.9. and 30.25. when their Kings would have constrained them to commit idolatry. And the Christians of Greece and Syria shewed hospita­litie to their brethren of Africa,Vide Baron. Tom. 6. anno 440. which were dri­ven out of their countrey by Gensericus King of the Vandals, about the yeare of the Lord 440. And those 800 Englishmen that fled beyond the seas in the bloudy persecution under Queen Ma­ry, were kindely harboured and entertained by the Magistrates, Ministers, and people of those countries and cities to which they fled, as M^r. Fox proves by divers letters which some of them sent hither to their friends, and as Doctor Humphrey testifies in these words:In the life of Bishop Jewel, num. 22. The English exiles in this their extremitie were bountifully relie­ved by Christopher Prince of Wittemberg, who invi­ted many of them unto him, and the Tigurine Sena­tours, who at the proposall of Bulinger opened the treasures of their liberality unto the rest. Neither these onely, but also Calvin, Zuinglius, Melanchthon, Pelican, Lavater, Gesner, and all the greatest orna­ments of Religion and learning in all the Reformed Churches, were very kinde and courteous to the En­glish exiles, sending them daily most comfortable let­ters, and omitting no duty of love or humanity to­wards them all the time of their banishment. Nei­ther was Geneva an Egypt to them that fled thi­ther from sundry parts of Christendome for the Gospels sake, but a most kinde and courteous har­bourer of persecuted strangers, as Beza testi­fies [Page 31] inEt Epist. 33. Ecclesiae Tigu­rinae Pastoribus, anno 1568. Idem Epist. 30. Ecclesiarum Hel­veticarum Pa­storibus, anno 1567 sic scri­bit: Nullus dies praeterit, quo non ad nos veni­ant misertimo­rum omnis aeta­tis hominum caterva. Nos quod possumus adhuc, per Dei gratiam praesta­mus: praebentur hospitia, suppedi­tatur & vestis & victus, sed (ut in tanta turba fieri ne­cesse est) satìs tenuiter. his 21 Sermon upon Christs Passion. And there is good reason why strangers through con­straint and for conscience sake, should be prefer­red before those that are so of choice and curio­sitie. For God hath recommended them as his own strangers, and given a speciall charge to re­ceive and use them favourably for his sake, Esa. 16.4.Vide Mol­ler. in loc. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab, be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler. Where we see that the Lord is so gracious and mercifull to his people, that albeit he most justlyLevit. 26.33. Deut. 28.64. drives them out of their native countrey for their wickednesse and ingratitude, yet he will have them to be kindely used and entertained by those nations amongst whom he scatters them. Because the adversaries which God stirres up to his Church, do not vex her to that end that Gods glory may be thus revenged, and mens sinfulnesse deservedly punished; but onely to feed their own covetous and cruel disposition. For they be like horsleaches which suck bloud greedily, not to ease or cleanse the patient, but to satisfie their bloudy thirst. As then at other times persecuted and weather-beaten Christi­ans have been harboured by their brethren that were free from the storm: So it is fitting they should be still received and refreshed by chari­table usage and kinde entertainment. For though it cannot be denied that the Protestants in all places are shamefullySee D. Pri­deaux Ephesus back-sliding, or Serm. on Rev. 2.4. sect. 15.17. and D. Mou­lins Christian Combate, 1.3. degenerated from the zeal and holinesse of their ancestours, and have kin­dled the fire of Gods wrath against themselves [Page 32] by their conversation so ill becoming the Go­spel of Christ: yet are they not persecuted and spoiled by the Pope, for their profane life, but onely for their most holy faith and true Religi­on;See 2. Macc. 7.18, 19, 31, 32, 33, 34. Psal. 44.22. as the Maccabees were by Antiochus, the type of Antichrist. It is for Gods sake that they are killed all the day long, and counted as sheep for the slaughter. And howsoever their corruption be great and manifold, yet it is nothing to that of their enemies, whoSee Bish. Hall Serious diswa­sive from Pope­rie, initio: and Censure of Travel sect. 20.21. Audacter dico; Quantumcun (que) sit apud nos [...], tamen nihil esse praeut apud illos est. Chamier. De Jejuniis cap. 1. Tom. 3. pag. 706. Edit. Genev. [...]. 1 Tim. 1.15. justifie them by their farre greater abominations in every kinde: it be­ing also most true of all other sinnes, what a late eminent Writer is bold to say of their intempe­rance: How great soever it be amongst us, yet it is nothing to that which is among them.

Fourthly, Most chiefly and above all, Mini­sters and Divinitie-readers persecuted and ba­nished for teaching and defending the same true Religion. Every one of them is, as that faith­full saying or summe of the Gospel in Saint Paul, worthy of all acceptation and kinde entertain­ment, and the truest object of hospitality. For in the persecution of any Church, the Pastor thereof hath alwayes the first and greatest share: He is hunted as a partridge in the mountains, and smitten, to the end that his flock may be scattered.Gen. 46.34. Every shepherd in Israel is an abomination to the Idolatrous Egyptians, and the Syrians of this World labour to catch the Pro­phet that discovers their ambushes and strata­gems.2. Kings 6.13. Who is offended, and I burn not? saith the zealous Apostle:2. Cor. 11.29. So, which of the people beares [Page 33] a dram of persecution; and I suffer not a pound? may every true Pastor truly say. All the bearers of Gods Ark passe first through this Jordan, and the preachers of Christs crosse drink deepest of his cup. How was Elias and other true Pro­phets of his time chased by Ahab and Jezebel? Peter, Paul, and James, with other Apostles and their associates, hunted by Herod and the Jews? How was S. Cyprian sought by the Novatians, Athanasius and Hilary by the Arrians, Nazianzen by the Apollinarians, Epiphanius by the Gno­sticks and Valentinians, and S. Austin ferretted by the Donatists and Circumcellions? The tyranni­call rage ofHe began at the Ministers, Euseb de vita Const. l. 1. c. 44. & end­ed in them, Hist. lib. 10. cap. 8. [...]. Theod. Hist. lib. 4. cap. 17. Vide querelas Athanasii Apologia prima pro fuga sua in persecutione, & lamenta Basilii Epist. 70 ad Episcopos Galliae & Italiae. Quid à renato Evangelio fa­ctum sit, quàm variis & imma­nibus pii, & im­primi [...] mini­stri Ecclesia­rum, excruciati sint suppliciis, piget meminisse. Lavat. in 1. Chron. 20. Defensi tenebris, & dono noctis opacae. Aeneid. 8. Licinius against the Pastors of the Church is seen in Eusebius, of Julian the Apo­state in Cyrill and Nazianzen, and of Valens in Basil and Theodoret: who speaking of this Em­perour, saith that being from a Catholick turned Arrian, he did in a manner deprive the whole Church of Christ of Orthodox Pastours. And to come to the Pastours & Professours of Churches and Univer­sities, since the restauration of the Gospel; How hardly did Peter Martyr escape the snares of English and Dutch Papists, Musculus the Spani­ards laying wait, and Sadeel the French traps in their travels and journeys? In the yeare of our Lord 1562 the citie of Rouen being taken from the Protestants, poore Marlorat did pay for all: for his flock being spared, he was sent to the gal­lows at the command of the Duke of Guise. And when the Savoyards by the thick clouds of the longest and darkest night of the yeare 1602 [Page 34] came stealing in upon the walls of Geneva, to sur­prize it; if they should have gone on to the height of their hopes, all the men of the citie had been put to the sword: onely Reverend Beza, being then 83 yeares old, was to have been sent alive for a great spoil and present to the Phalaris of Rome, like a second Samson to make sport to the Philistines. And as the destroyers of Gods people began at his Sanctuarie (Ezekiel 9.6.) So the late persecuters of the Protestants in France began at their Ministers: The first clap of this thunder hath lighted on my head, and my afflicti­on hath been a forerunner of yours, saith a famous Pastour of the Reformed Church of Paris in a letter to his flock.D. Moulin E­pist. Dedicat. of his Christian combate. Anno 1626. Apologie for the Reformed Chur­ches of France, pag. 14. And in another Province, when the Cardinal of Sourdis came furiously rushing upon a troop of harmlesse souls, which were going many miles to heare a Sermon, his first care was violently to pursue their Pastour; who having escaped his bloudy hands, he began to vex and worrie the flock. It is the bloud of those Saints which the scarlet Whore specially pants after: it is the life of those Witnesses which the Beast that ascends out of the bottomlesse pit chiefly seeks to take away. By how much there­fore the Ministers of Christ are hated and hunted in persecution above all other professours of the truth; by so much also they are to be received and respected above all other persecuted profes­sours; that as the sufferings of Christ abound in them, so their consolation may abound for Christ, 2. Cor. 1.5. Who deserved more to be fed by Obadiah, [Page 35] then those hundred persecuted Prophets of the Lord?1. King. 18.13. How could the widow of Sarepta have better bestowed her slender provision,1. King. 17. then in sustaining poore, hungry, and half-starved Elias? And whom could the brethren at Damascus and Jerusalem have so worthily preserved,Acts 9.25, 30. as a zea­lous Apostle readie to be killed for speaking boldly, and disputing for Christ? How worthy of that golden mouth is this note of Chryso­stome? When Paul saith of Phebe, Rom. 16.2. [...], &c. Hom. 30. in Rom. She hath been a succourer of many, and of my self also, What is this SELF ALSO? but of my self a preacher, and a preacher that have suffered so great things. This is the height and crown of her good deeds, and therefore mentioned in the last place. Could either King Edward the sixth have better shewed his Christi­an hospitalitie, then by making more of Bucer and Fagius then of other Dutchmen fled into his Kingdome? Or George Anhalt, Prince of Asca­nia, then by lodging and preserving many learn­ed Divines, especially that great Philip Melan­chthon, during the tempestuous civil warres of Germanie? Or the Church of Scotland,Ad Gallica us­que gentis Mi­nistr [...]s, Geneva Religionis causâ non ità pridem exulantes, Scoticarum Ecclesiarum beneficentia redundavit. Beza Epist. ad Regem Jaco­bum praefixa Iconibus Virorum Illustrium. then by sending a liberall collection to the French Mi­nisters exiled at Geneva?

CHAP. VI. The Subject of hospitalitie.

AS the Object, so the Subject of hospitality is fourefold, comprehending foure sorts of Persons of whom it is required: Bishops and Prelates of the Church, Other inferiour Mini­sters, Rich Lay-men and Women, Poore Lay-men and Women.

First, Bishops and Prelates of the Church. For Saint Paul 1. Tim. 3.2. expressely requireth of a Bishop that he be given to hospitalitie. And Tit. 1.8. shewing what vices a Bishop ought chiefly to eschue and what vertues to pursue, the first vertue that he commends unto him is hospi­tality. Which made Saint Hierome write thus upon that place:Ante omnia ho­spitalitas futuro Episcopo denum­ciatur: Si enim omnes illud de Evangelio audi­re desiderant, Hospes fui, & suscepistis me; quantò magìs Episcopus, cu­jus domus com­mune omnium debet esse ho­spitium. Hie­ron. in Tit. 1.8 Before all things hospitality is enjoyned to him that will be a Bishop: for if all desire to heare that of the Gospel, I was a stranger, and ye took me in; how much more a Bishop, whose house ought to be a common lodging of all? And Saint Austin in one of his Sermons;Perveni ad Episcopatum: vi­di necesse habere Episcopum exhibere humanitatem affiduam quibusque venientibus sive tran­seuntibu [...]. Quod nisi fecissem, Episcopus inhumanus dicerer. Aug. Serm. 1. De vita com­muni clericorum suorum Tom. 10. I attained unto the Bishoprick, and saw that a Bishop must needs shew hu­manitie to all comers and passengers. Therefore Theodoret did stirre up by commendatorie let­ters sundry Bishops of the East to refresh the bowels of the Saints whom the winde of perse­cution had blowen thither from the West: and [Page 37] Saint Gregory likewise did exhort all the Bi­shops of Illyricum to receive kindely the per­secuted Prelates that were fled thither for re­fuge,Greg. Epist. lib. 1. Indict. 9. cap. 43. and cheerfully to entertain them with their own revenues, according to the Emperours in­junction.Lib. 12. Epist. 6 And having heard that one Florenti­nus, Archdeacon of Ancona, was chosen to the Bishoprick of the same Church, he earnestly de­sired the Visitor of that See, and his brother too, to hinder his Consecration, if the disgracefull re­ports of his niggardlinesse and inhospitality were true. Whereupon the great Canonist saith,Hospitalitas us­que adeò Epi­scopis est neces­saria, ut si ab ea inveniantur ali­eni, jure prohi­beantur ordi­nari. Grat. Dist. 85. Conc. Paris. lib. 1. cap. 14. that Hospitality is so farre necessary to Bishops, that they which are not given to it, are justly kept from that pro­motion. Of which vertue so essentiall to their Of­fice Bishops have been put in minde from time to time byConcil. Car­thagin. 4. can. 14. Ʋt Episcopus non longè ab Eccle­sia hospitiolum habeat. Concil. Matisconense 2 can. 11, & 13. Volumus ut Episcopalis domus, quae ad hoc (Deo favente) instituta est, sine personarum acceptione omnes in hospitalitate re­cipiat. Concil. Turonense 3. can. 6. Ʋt peregrini & pauperes convivae sint Episco­porum. Concil. Meldense can. 28. Ʋt Episcopi in suis civitatibus canonicè cum suis filiis de­gant, & hospitalitate ornati (quae jam penè propter diversas rapacitates adnullata est) non solùm in oculis Domini propter obedientiam mandati divini reddantur conspicui, verùm etiam bonum testimonium secundum sanctum acquirant Apostolum. Vide. praeterea Concil. A­quisgran. 1 can. 141. & 2 can. 3. many Councels, especially by that of Paris in the yeare 829, and that of Oxford 1222. The former hath these words among ma­ny others to this purpose: Sith hospitalitie shall be rewarded in the dreadfull day of judgement by that eternall Judge, who shall say, I was a stranger, and ye took me in; it behoves all Christians to follow after it [Page 38] most eagerly: But they especially which ought to guide others by their sayings and doings unto eter­nall life, should be altogether given to it, laying aside that pestilent covetousnesse, and every other occasi­on whatsoever. And therefore the Bishops must do their utmost endeavour, that when they preach hospi­talitie to their flock, they practise it themselves first of all: that so they may shew by their works what they teach by their words. The latter made a De­cree after this manner:Statuimus au­thoritate prae­sentis Concilii ut Pralati sin­guli sint, juxta Apostolum, hospi­tales. Concil. Oxon. ferè initio, sub Re­ge Henr. 3. By the authority of the pre­sent Councel we ordain that every Prelate, accord­ing to the Apostles injunction, be given to hospi­talitie.

For in ancient times all the Church-goods or spirituall revenues were divided into 4 parts: The first whereof was for the Bishop, the second for his Clergie, the third for the poore, the fourth for the mending and repairing of Churches and Chappels. And that first fourth part allotted to the Bishop, was not onely to maintain himself and his familie withall, but also to redeem the captives and to entertain strangers and foreiners, as appeares by sundrie places of the Canon Law;Gratian. Caus. 12. quaest. 2. can. Mos est. & can. Sanci­mus. & Caus. 16. quaest. 3. can. Praesulum nostrorum. Ibid Caus. 12. quaest. 2. can. Apostolicos & Paternos. which also cites a Decree of the sixth generall Councel held at Constantinople, about the yeare 681; whereby the Fathers of that Synod do con­firm and ratifie that foresaid distribution of Ec­clesiasticall revenues, as being alreadie made by their ancestours.

And as all Bishops should alwayes be, so many of them have been in many ages given to ho­spitality. For Saint Cyprian writing to the Cler­gie [Page 39] of his Dioces,Viduarum & infirmorum & omnium paupe­rum curam peto diligenter habe­atis: sed & pere­grinis, si qui in­digentes fuerint, sumptus sugge­ratis de quanti­tate mea propria, quam apud Ro­gatianum com­presbyterum no­strum dimisi. Cyp. Ep. 36. vel lib. 3. Epist. 24. Aug. Confoss. lib. 5. cap. 13. Hospitalitatem semper exhibuit. Posid. in vita Aug. cap. 22. Pal. in vita Chrysost. Sozom. lib. 7. cap. 27. & lib. 1. cap. 11. Epiph. Haeres. 77. quae est Aërii. [...]. Acti­one 11. desires them to have a diligent care of the widows and weak persons, and of all the poore: yea and to afford unto strangers some means out of his own share and rent, if there were needie ones among them. And Saint Austin reports in his Con­fessions, that when he travelled into Italie and came to Millan, being then but a young Scholar, Saint Ambrose received him Episcopaliter & be­nignè, like a Bishop and liberally, or courteously, according to the manner and place of a Bishop. And Posidonius saith of Saint Austin, that he kept continuall hospitalitie. The like commendation Palladius gives to Saint Chrysostome, Sozomen to Acacius Bishop of Berea in Syria, and to Spi­ridion Bishop of Tremythus in the Isle of Cy­prus (although he had wife and children) and Epiphanius to the Bishops of Pontus. And in the fourth general Councel held at Chalcedon in the yeare 454 Bassianus Bishop of Ephesus accused to be an unworthy Bishop, and unlawfully pro­moted to so eminent a dignitie, thus answered his adversaries; How am I unworthy of this place, seeing I have been hospital from my very youth? And since the Reformation, the most Reverend Archbishops of Canterbury are generally com­mended for this vertue: and by name Archbishop Whitegift, sometimes a worthy Master of this Colledge the space of ten yeares, is famous for all kindes of hospitalitie. For besides his costly Hospitall at Croydon, and continuall entertain­ing of supervenient strangers of this countrey, he was so bountifull and courteous an harbourer of [Page 40] outlandish Scholars, that glorious things are spoken of him for that in the 91 paragraph of his life.

Secondly, Other Inferiour Ministers. For as Saint Paul exhorts Bishops,Tit. 2.7. to shew themselves in all things the patterns of good works: So S. Peter would have all inferiour Pastours to be ensamples to the flock. 1. Pet. 5.3. And the Fathers of the Councel of Antioch (approved by the sixt Generall at Con­stantinople) in their Synodall letters recited by Eusebius,Euseb. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 24. speak to both after this manner: We know, beloved, that a Bishop and the whole order of Priesthood ought to be a pattern of all good works to the common people. For every Minister should be a mirrour of all vertues, and exemplifie in him­self what he prescribes to others. Otherwise he is like to have Mercuries statue for his fittest Em­bleme, and no better successe then the Scribes and Pharisees,Matth. 7.29. who did teach without authority, and that (in all likelihood) for this reason, because they said, Matth. 23.3, 4. and did not, they laid heavy burdens on mens shoulders, but they themselves would not move them with one of their fingers. And if Ministers ought to preach and practise all good works, then consequently so good a work as hospitalitie. Therefore Parsons or Parish-priests have been calledLavat. in E­zech. 3. Hom. 10. Ministri Parochi dicun­tur [...], à prae­bendo, quia, ut apud veteres Parochi, ligna & salem, id est, res necessarias praebere debent ho­spitibus & peregrinis. Horatius Parochos posuit pro convivatoribus, id est, convivii exhibito­ribus. Serm. lib. 1. Sat. 5. sic scribens: Proxima Campano Pontiquae villula, tectum, Praebuit: & Parochi quae debent ligna, salémque. Parochi, from a word which signifies to give, or to shew, because they should give enter­tainment, [Page 41] and shew hospitalitie to strangers and passengers, as they are commanded by theDist. 42. can. 1. Hospitalem Sacerdotem. Qui Apostolum secutus fuerit, alios ad hospita­litatem debet invitare. Quo­modo autem ho­spitalitatis ex­hortator poterit esse, qui domum propriam hospi­tibus claudit? — Ab hac quis­quis alienus fu­erit, in Sacerdo­tem ordinari non poterit. Si enim vidu [...] ab Eccle­sia recipi prohi­betur, quae pau­peres non recepit hospitio: multò magìs sunt pro­hibendi à Sacer­dotio, qui ab opere pietatis probantur alieni Ca­non Law, and by ancientConcil. Turonen. can. 18. Ʋt hospitalitatem Presbyteri ante omnia diligant: ut peregri­norum cur [...]m & solicitudinem habeant. Concil. Namnetens. can. 10. Instruendi sunt Presbyteri, paritérque admonendi, quatenus noverint decimas & oblationes, quas à fidelibus accipiunt, pauperum, & hospitum, & peregrinorum esse stipendia. Councels, and theirConcil. Meldens. can. 28. Episcopi Presbyteros sibi commissos hospitalitate, secundum eo­rum ministerium, ornari compellant. Hincmarus Archiepisc. Rhemens. in capit. ad Pres­byteros Parochiae suae datis ann. 852, cap. 10. Ʋt curam pauperum & peregrinorum (Presbyter) habeat, hósque ad prandium suum quotidie juxta possibilitatem con [...]cet, eísque hospitium competenter tribuat. Herardus Archiepiscop. Turonensis hanc virtutem omnibus suae Parochiae (vel Provinciae) Sacerdotibus & Clericis imperat, capitulo 18 anno 858. Diocesans charged to compell them. There­fore S. Hierome exhorted NepotianMensulam tuam pauperes & peregrini, & cum illis Christus convivanoverit. Ep. ad Nepot to entertain at his table the poore and strangers, and with them Christ himself. And Musculus was wont to shew great kindnesse and beneficence to the poore, spe­cially to foreiners: and Martin Bucer was so rea­dy to entertain strangers, chiefly strangers by constraint, and for the Gospels sake, that his house seemed to be an Inne while he lived at Strasbourg, asPet. Martyr. Epist. ad fideles Ecclesiae Lucensis. Peter Martyr, an eye-witnesse, doth bear him record. Memorable also to this purpose is the example of Calvin,Ipsa à quo potuit virtutem discere virtus. Beza in Icon. viror. illustrium. of whom vertue her self might have learned vertue, specially this vertue of love to poore strangers. For having been very minde­full of them all his life time, he would not be forgetfull at his death, as appeares by these words of his last Will and Testament;In Gymnasii aedificationem lego decem aureos coronatos: peregrinorum quoque pauperum aerario [...]otidem. Beza in vita Calvini. J bequeath ten [Page 42] French crowns to the building of the School, and to the treasurie of poore strangers, as many. Which is a great legacy, if we consider,Non quantum, sed ex quanto: nec de patrimo­nio, sed animo. Cypr. lib. De opere & eleemos. not how much, but out of how much, to leave them three pounds sterling of threescore and seven, which all his worldly goods were valued and rated unto by himself, as neare as he could: considering also that he had a most deare brother, and three ne­phews, and foure neeces, for heirs of his so small estate.Fayus in vita Bezae. Beza having better means, bequeathed more to the said treasurie, namely, 100 French crowns: and Erasmus farre exceeding them both in outward substance, is reported to have left at Basil, where he died, 6000 florens, that is, 900 pounds sterling for the yearely board and lodg­ing of seven poore strangers students in Divinity. Which exhibition is there called to this day, Erasmicum stipendium.

Now that every Minister may discharge this dutie as he ought, in due sort and exemplarie manner, it is the peoples part to let him have wherewith to perform it. For how can he be an Oecolampadius, a shining lamp in Gods house, if the oyl of maintenance fails him? How can he move his hearers to this vertue, with Pauls words to the Philippians,Philip. 4.9. What ye have heard and seen in me, do; unlesse they first practise Pauls precept to the Galatians,Gal. 6.6. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth, in all good things? How shall he be ho­spital and harborous of strangers, whose living is scarce able to harbour himself? Ignorance of [Page 43] Priests must needs follow meannesse of benefices, Ad tenuitatem beneficiorum ne­cessariò sequitur ignorantia Sa­cerdotum. Panormit. Prov. 3.9. saith a great Canonist: who might have added to the lack of learning, want of substantiall hospi­tality and good house-keeping.

Honour therefore the Lord with thy substance, ô Lay-man, and with the first fruits of thine increase.

Bring thou all the tithes into the store-house, Mal. 3.10. that there may be meat in Gods house.

Give the portion of the Priests and Levites, 2. Chron. 31.4. that they may be encouraged in the Law of the Lord.

Count them ever worthy of double honour (of obedience and honourable maintenance) who la­bour in the word and doctrine. 1. Tim. 5.17.

Think not much to give them of the fatnesse of the earth, Gen. 27.28. Deut. 32.2. who distill upon thee the dew of heaven.

For if they sowe unto thee spirituall things, 1. Cor. 9.11. is it a great thing if they reap thy carnall things?

Thirdly, Rich Lay-men and Women. For when the Apostle requires of Clergy-men to be hospital, he doth not thereby exclude or ex­empt Lay-men from this duty, but onely shew­eth that Ministers should be eminent and for­ward, as in all other good works, so in this branch of charity to strangers and foreiners. Otherwise, it is no more proper to the Mini­sters then other duties there enjoyned by the Apostle; as modesty, sobriety, justice, holinesse, and temperance: which without all question lie upon the people as well as upon the Pastours. Besides, this twelfth chapter, whereof my Text is a part, is all spent in generall precepts and di­rections [Page 44] for a Christian life and conversation: the whole Epistle speaks to the Laytie as well as to the Clergie, being written to all that be in Rome, Rom. 1.7. beloved of God, called to be Saints. Now, of all Lay-men and Women none are so bound to be rich in this good work, as those that are rich in the goods of this world. For God hath given them all-sufficiency in all things, 2. Cor. 9.8. Luke 12.48. Gen. 13.6. Ruth. 2.1. Job 31.32. Dignus fuit proverbio, [...], Haud unquam arcet ostium. Quod inter­prers Aristo­phanis admo­net dici de il­lis qui impen­diò sunt hospi­tales, quorum fores semper patent, nemi­nem exclu­dunt. 2. Kings 4.8. Gualther in locum. Rom 16.23. Audio te Xeno­dochium in por­tu fecissè Roma­no, & virgam de arbore Abra­hami in Ausonio plantâsse littore. Hierom. ad Pammach. Epist. 26. that they may abound to every good work. The thicker and greater the clouds be, the more rain descends from them: and unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. Who were fitter to entertain strangers, then Abraham and Lot, whose substance was so great that they could not dwell together? And which of the Bethleemites should have been kinde and bountifull to poore Ruth, if not Boaz, a mightie man of wealth? Job in his great estate had been unexcusable, had he suffered the stranger to lodge in the street, and not opened his doores to the traveller: and it had been no small shame for the great woman of Shunem and for her husband, if they had not shewed themselves hospital to Elisha as oft as he passed by. And if Gaius was such a one as they say, a most wealthy citizen of Corinth, he had good reason to be the hoste of Paul and of the whole Church: that is, to entertain usually in his house all Christians resorting to that citie. In emulati­on of which so commended persons, Hierome reports that Pammachius (a young noble man of his acquaintance) built an Hospital for stran­gers in the Roman haven of Mitylene: that Pau­la [Page 45] (a noble Romane Matron) built another in Bethlehem,Idem Epist. ad Eustochium. where Mary and Joseph could finde no harbour: and that Fabiola (another woman of great means) was so loving and bountifull to all strangers,Non solùm ino­pum necessita­tem sustentat, sed pronâ in omnes munifi­centiâ aliquid & habentibus providet. In Epitaph. Fa­biolae. Vide Magde­burg. Cent. 12. cap. 6. that she did not onely sustain the necessi­ty of the poore ones, but did also provide for those that had something to live on. And about the yeare of the Lord 1100 some rich Italian Merchants got leave of the Saracens to build an Hospital in the holy land, neare Jerusalem, for the refreshing of such Western Christians as should have occa­sion to travel into those parts. Which project of theirs was soon after favoured and furthered by sundry Nobles and great ones: who endow­ed that House with good revenues, and gave to the inhabitants thereof the name of Hospitallers: Bibliothecam meam 40 am­pliùs annorum spatio magnâ diligentiâ ac sumptu conge­stam, dividi, ven­di, ac dissipari veto, eámque communem inter filios, qui literis operam nava­bunt, facio, ità ut etiam exterit ad usum publi­cum pateat. Thuanus in Testamento suo ad calcem Continuatio­nis Historia­rum sui tem­poris. Act. 3.6. Whence Ordo Hospitalariorum, mentioned by di­vers Historians, had its beginning. And lastly, Thuanus, that famous President in Paris, strove to exceed in this praise his renowned ancestours, and left to posteritie a lasting monument of his love and respect to strangers: For he gave strait charge and expresse command by his last Will and Testament, that his great and costly Libra­rie should not be sold nor divided any way, but entirely preserved for an ornament to the City, and for the publick use and benefit of travellers and outlandish Scholars: because they are not wont, nor able, for the most part, to carry many books with them.

Fourthly, Poore Lay-men and Women. For though they have neither silver nor gold, yet [Page 46] such as they have they may give. And therefore upon them also lieth this dutie of hospitality, as appeares by the Prophet Elias,1. King. 17.10. who required it of the poore widow of Sarepta: and by the Apo­stle S. Paul,1. Tim. 5.10. who among the good works and qua­lities necessary to a widow that would be main­tained out of the Church-treasurie, requires this in expresse terms, if she have lodged strangers. And albeit he did know and acknowledge that the Hebrews had been spoiled of their goods, Heb. 10.34. yet nevertheles he sent them this exhortation, Be not forgetfull to entertain strangers: Heb. 13.2. thereby shewing, that povertie did not dispense with them, or free them from the performance of this dutie; but that they were still, as before, obliged to practise the same according to their present ability. The deep poverty of the Macedonians kept them not from sending to their power, 2. Cor. 8.2. yea and beyond their power, a liberall and rich contribution to the poore Saints at Jerusalem: and the small substance of the poore widow was no let to her from casting more into the treasury, Mark. 12.43. then all the rich ones that cast in much. Matth. 25.23. As a servant may be good and faithfull over a few things: so a man or woman may be hospital and bountifull in a little estate: for if there be first a willing minde, 2. Cor. 8.12. hospitalitie is accepted (of God and godly wise men) according to that a man or a woman hath, and not according to that they have not. Gen. 24.18, 19 Homil. Qua­lis uxor sit du­cenda, Tom. 5. What was Rebekahs hospitalitie so much extolled by Chrysostome, but water cheerfully afforded to Abrahams servant for him and for his camels? And what doth Christ require of them [Page 47] that can give no more to his poore strangers, but a cup of cold water onely? protesting withall,Matth. 10.42. that if they give but so much, they shall in no wise lose their reward. If but water, but a cup of water,Hanc excusatio­nem levissimo praecepto Serva­tor diluit, ut ca­licem aquae frigi­dae toto animo porrigamus: fri­gidae, inquit, aquae, non cali­dae, nè & in ca­lidâ paupertatis occasio ex ligno­rum penuria quaereretur. Hier. in loc. Aug. in Psal. 125. Aug. in Psal. 103. If we be not of ability to do strangers any good, yet com­fortable words shall please both them, and God that made this Law for them. B. Babing [...]. on Exod. 22.21. Ay [...]au moins du miel en bouche, qui n'as point de monoye en bourse. Sabell. Exemp. lib. 6. cap. 1. but a cup of cold water be not slighted as a cold entertain­ment of a stranger, but be thought enough to make a poore man hospital, even by the best pri­ser of all things and actions; who can exempt himself from this duty under the pretence of dis­ability? Is not water a cheap provision, a cup of water a small quantitie, and a cup of cold wa­ter soon made ready? Let no man therefore (saith S. Hierome here, and S. Austin elsewhere) plead povertie in this case, saying, I have not so much as a few sticks to warm a cup of drink for a stran­ger, and how then should I be given to hospitali­tie? For our Saviour hath foreseen, and prevented this excuse by a most easie command. And S. Austin goes yet a step further, affirming, that courteous affabilitie, and loving language proceeding from the heart, is able to make a poore man hospital in the fight of God, and to procure for it a bles­sed reward at his hand. There are among stran­gers many able ones that need not any mans be­neficence, and they that stand in need thereof are well satisfied with the good words of those that can shew them no good deeds. Let such there­fore above all others practise here the French proverb, At the least have honey in thy mouth, thou that hast not money in thy purse. Ever abhorre that monstrous doggednesse of those Jews in Sabelli­cus, who were so inhospital, that they would not [Page 48] so much as shew the way to a stranger going astray, nor the fountain or spring to him that was thirsty. Which (we know) are no great matters, but onely meere offices of common humanity.

CHAP. VII. The Means to practise hospitality.

NOw because we have been redeemed and purified that we should be zealous of good works, Tit. 2.14. by earnest prosecuting the means of doing them in the best manner;Tit. 3.8. and carefull to maintain them, by being provident and forecasting to do them constantly: therefore we must endeavour to be eminent in this good work we speak of, and to keep reall hospitalitie all the dayes of our life, by using these two speciall means; Labour or in­dustry in lawfull getting, and Frugalitie or thrifti­nesse in spending our goods lawfully gotten; ac­cording to the French Apophthegme,Amasser en saison, de­spenser par raison, font la bonne maison. Pro. 14.23. Pro. 13.4. A seasona­ble gathering, and a reasonable spending, make a good house-keeping.

First, Labour or industrie in lawfull getting. For it is the beating of the brain, or the sweating of the brow; not the bare talk of the lips, nor the desire of the heart, that inables a man to perform this duty and others of the like nature: accor­ding to the common proverb, Wishers and Would­ers are no good housholders. He becomes poore that deales with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent [Page 49] makes rich, saith Solomon, Prov. 10.4. And again, The slothfull man rostes not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is pre­cious, Prov. 12.27. And the Greeks say, [...]. Stob. Serm. 27. that plen­tifulnesse follows painfulnesse, and that all things are made servants to care and industry. Caius Furius by his painfull dexterity and unwearied labour got more revenues out of one small field, then his neighbours out of many great ones.Plin. l. 18. c. 6. Where­upon being accused to the Magistrate, as if by witchcraft he had conveyed the corn of other mens ground into his own, he came with all his goodly rusticall instruments, with his strong and lusty daughter, and his wel-fed oxen,Acts 20.24, 35. Eph. 4.28. Argumentum continet à ma­jori ad minus, q. d. Ei nulla est recusanda condi­tio, quantumvis dura & molesta, quo nemini sit injurius: neque id modò, sèd ut succurrat fratrum necessi­tati. Calv. in loc. Opus manuum nominat, ut ex specie genus in­telligatur: &, id quod bonum est, ut artes victum quaerendi inho­nestas excludat. Estius ibid. Prov. 31.13, 19, 20. and spake thus to the Judges; See, my Lords, these be my witchcrafts and sorceries, but I cannot shew you my watchings and sweatings. This being done and spoken, he was presently absolved by the sen­tence of all. It is labour and industry in a law­full calling which the Apostle prescribes to the Ephesians, as a means of bounty and beneficence: Let him that stole, steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his own hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs. Where he nameth the work of the hands for every work profitable to get a mans living, by one kinde understanding all sorts of labour: and the thing that is good, to exclude thereby all dishonest trades and unlawfull means of getting mainte­nance. And Solomon describing the vertuous woman, saith in the first place that she seeks wool and flax, and works willingly with her hands: that [Page 50] she layes her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaffe: and then, that she stretches out her hands to the poore, yea she reaches forth her hands to the nee­die. And Saint Luke having testified of Dorcas, that she was full of good woorks, Acts 9.36, 39. and alms deeds which she did, he soon after sheweth the means & fountain of her beneficence, to wit, her labour and industrie in making coats and garments. So Peter Martyrs wife is commended for having been a prudent and painfull huswife, In re domesticâ prudens & in­dustria, & erga egenos munifica. Simler. in vita P. Martyris. and bountifull to the poore and needie: the former good qualitie enabling her to the latter.

Secondly, Frugality or thriftinesse in spend­ing our goods lawfully gotten.Prov. 18.9. For as he that is slothfull in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster (the one falling as certainly, though not so speedily, into want as the other:) So frugali­ty and saving should be neare of kinnne to pain­full and industrious getting, and must needs con­curre in him that will continue to be hospital in­deed. Such an one must here observe that rule of frugalitie taught us by the gracious lips of ourIf he would be so saving that could do wonders, and miraculously multiply meat and drink; how thrifty should we be that can earn so little? Though the Eagle be so able to get her prey, yet she is so frugall that she layeth up the meat that her young ones leave, for another time; [...], Arist. Hist. Animal. lib. 9. cap. 32. Fit hoc bifariàm: Si vel perire sinamus fruges, ne cui sint usui, quod avari & foenerato res frequenter faciunt: vel etiam turpiter dissipemus quae multis aliis poterant sufficere. Gualt. Hom. 46. in Joan. Saviour, so to dispose of that plenty which Gods goodnesse hath bestowed on us, that no­thing be lost, John 6.12. Now a thing may be lost and spoiled two wayes by our own fault, saith a godly Writer upon the place; either when we [Page 51] suffer our meat and drink to wax corrupt and dead, and our garments moth-eaten, or our gold and silver to be cankred and rustie, rather then be­stow them upon our selves and upon the poore; as those rich men did whom Saint James had good reason to threaten so: for they should have followed this wholesome counsel of the Wise­man; Lose thy money for thy brother and thy friend, James 5.3. Ecclus 29.10. and let it not rust under a stone to be lost: or when by excesse and intemperance we do waste and lavish that, which might have sufficed many others besides us; as when Nabal did poure so much wine or strong drink into his stomack that he was very drunken. 1. Sam. 25.36. Bonus condus fa­cit bonum pro­mum, & bonus Servatius bo­num Bonifacium Selneccer. Ruth. 2.18. A good layer up makes a good layer out, and a good sparer makes a good spender, saith the Dutch Proverb truly. This is plainly verified in that vertuous Ruth, which was no lesse pious and charitable in spending, then so­berly frugall in sparing and saving: for she brought forth and gave to her poore Mother in law that she had reserved at dinner, after she was sufficed. Genitrix virtu­tum frugalitas. Just. lib. 20. Fru­galitie, saith Justin, is the mother of vertues. I am sure it is the basis and foundation, the pillar and supporter of liberality and beneficence. For as by lopping of the superfluous branches,Stipendio modi­co, vel potiùs exiguo conten­tus vita erat ità frugali, ut quod haberet non modò sibi sufficeret, sed ali­quid etiam su­peresset ad ami­cos juvandos. Simlerus in vita ejus a good tree is made more fruitfull: so by cutting off all needlesse charges and expences, a liberal man a­bounds more in good works. Though Peter Martyr had forsaken all for the Gospels sake, and left his great riches and preferments he did in­joy in Italy, having nothing to live on but a small stipend for his Professorship at Strasbourg, yet [Page 52] being very frugal and sparing he had enough to maintain himself, and to help his friends too. Whereas on the contrarie,Homini ut agro, quamvis quae­stuosus sit, si ta­men & sumptu­osus, non mul­tum superest. Cato De Re ru­stica ferè initio Magius innu­merabilem pecu­niam sibi datam non conservavit, sed tanquam nu­dus nuces lege­ret in ventrem abstulit. Cic. 2. de Oratore, paragr. 265. an expensive man is like a costly piece of ground, the charges where­of equall the revenues, be they never so great. By his wasting and overlavishing of his estate he disables himself from doing good to others: Ei­ther for the present, as that Romane Captain in Tully, who was not one peny the richer for that huge summe of money which had been gi­ven him, because he had done with it as a naked man would do with the nuts that he gathers, car­rie them all away in his belly for lack of pockets: and the Poets insinuate no lesse by their lustie giant Briareus, who had nothing to shew of all his comings in, because his fifty bellies did con­sume the gettings of his hundred hands: all the labour of that man or monster was for his mouth, Eccles 6.7. and did slide through his throat; ‘Devorat os oris quicquid lucratur os ossis:’ Or at least for the time to come: for to want and to waste differ but in time;Pauper non ha­bet divitias, pro­digus non ha­bebit. a poore man hath no riches, a prodigal shall have none. And there­fore the Cynicall Philosopher was provident and wittie, when begging but half a peny from other men, he did beg ten groats at once from a prodigal unthrift: who marvelling at that, and asking him the reason, received this wise and wholesome answer;Laërtius in vita. I beg so little from other men, because I hope to get oft something from them; and I ask so much of thee, because I look not to have any more almes at thy hands. It is like the seven yeares [Page 53] of plenty were not confined to Egypt; B. Hall Con­temp. book 3. In Joseph. other Coun­tries adjoyning were no lesse fruitfull: yet in the se­ven yeares of famine, Egypt had corn when they wanted. See the difference betwixt a wise prudent frugalitie, and a vain ignorant expence of the bene­fits of God: The sparing hand is both full and bene­ficiall; whereas the lavish is not onely empty, but in­jurious.

Seeing then frugality and saving be so great a help to good house-keeping, and a preserver of reall hospitality, let it remove all lets and hin­derances of the same: let it be used as a razor of all wicked and superfluous, and as a rule of all good and necessary expences: let it quite shave and cut off all expences about surfetting and drunkennesse, harlotrie and wantonnesse, and other debaucht courses, which the best among the Heathens have been ashamed of, and there­fore should not be once named among Christians, Ephes. 5.3. as becomes Saints: ‘Nomina sunt ipso penè timenda sono.’ And let it also moderate and diminish those ex­cessive charges which too commonly men are at, about things lawfull, necessary, and commen­dable. Such are

First, The building and trimming of their hou­ses: as if they were to live for ever in this World.Aelian. Variae Hist. lib. 12. cap. 29. Est stultum ge­nus hominum qui insatiabili aedificandi studio slagrant, nunc rotundu quadratis, nunc quadrata rotundis per­mutantes. Neque verò finis ullus, neque modus, donec ad extremam redactis inopiam, nec ubi habitent, nec quid edant, supersit. Erasm. Encom. Mor [...]ae. This was a fault found by Plato in the old Agri­gentines, [Page 54] and is by the Turks in the Christians of our times:Fayus in Ec­cles. 2.4. whose works are unlike the works of Abraham. For he was not curious in his dwel­ling, but courteous in entertaining of strangers: He contented himself to dwell in a tent, yet his doores were open to strangers and travellers: but these are curious and costly in decking and adorn­ing their houses, and negligent and niggardly in harbouring strangers and passengers. Their sum­ptuous buildings may be called Mock-strangers as well as Mock-beggers: for like the barren figtree in the Gospel,Mark. 11.13. they are seen a farre off, and pro­mise good relief to the hungry passenger; but let him come to them, he shall finde (at the best) ma­ny goodly leaves of complemental,In verbis quid­vis, in factis nil sed habebis, ut de Aulicis dici solet. Par. in Gen. 18.3 Foliorum latitu­do peltae effigi­em Amazonicae habet: fructus rarus est, nec fabae magnitudi­nem excedens. P [...]in. lib. 12. cap. 5. Amos 5.11. Jer. 22.14. Ezech. 27 6. Amos 6.4. Amos 3.15. Cant. 7.4. Psal. 49.11. but no fruit of reall hospitalitie: or if haply he findes any, it is like that of the Indian figtree, no bigger then a bean, though the leaves be as broad as a target: no­thing in comparison of that which was expected and justly lookt for by the outward shew. In the Old Testament the great ones are oft reproved for their vain and ambitious wastfulnesse in this kinde. For they built houses of hewn stones, they made wide lodgings and large chambers, all sieled with Cedar, and painted with Vermilion. They would needs have benches and beds, yea, houses and towers of yvorie: and then their inward thought was that their houses should continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations. But in this their foolish imagination they did reckon with­out their hoste: for I will smite the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of yvorie shall perish, [Page 55] and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord, Amos 3.15. So displeasing to God is mans pro­digality and profusenesse in building.

Secondly, The buying and keeping of horses, and hawks, and dogs: wherein some are so into­lerably lavish and exorbitant (to say no more) that Hospitals which were used to entertain strangers, Doct. Willi­ams of the True Church, book 5 chap. 14. pag. 802. are now abused to maintain hawks and dogs, as a late Divine complains. And well may he: For if Mahomet be justly exclaimed against, for having turned into stables the Temples which Constan­tine the great had built for the service of Christ, and spirituall manuring of Christians:In cultum Chri­sti, & culturam Christiani. are they not worthy of a sharp check and censure, that professe themselves to be Christians, and yet dare change their ancestours liberality upon Christs members, into prodigality upon beasts? that so loath the company of strangers, and so love to be among their hawks and dogs, as to make that their chief delight,Dan. 4. which was Nebuchadnezzars punishment, never to be from beasts? Among the Heathen Romanes they were infamous for prodi­galitie,Prodigi dicun­tur qui venatio­num apparatu pecunias profun­dunt. Cic. Of­fic. 2. that spent too much money about the in­struments of hunting.

Thirdly, Bodily exercises and recreations, as shooting, bowling, playing at tenis, and such like honest and healthfull sports: wherein many a man doth sometimes farre exceed the rules of frugality prescribed by godly-learnedB. Babing. on the 8 Com. Dan. de ludo Aleae cap. 4. Perk. Cases of Conscience, book. 3. chap. 4 M. Gataker of Lots chap. 9 Divines; as, First, that the summe of money which they play for, be not great in it self. Secondly, that it be not greater then the estate of those that play will [Page 56] well permit. Thirdly, that it be not taken and kept by the winners, but that it be bestowed up­on a common meal, both for the recompense and amends of the losers, and also for the maintain­ing and cherishing of mutuall love and friend­ship.

Fourthly, Apparel and raiment. For many spend so much in the number, matter, and ma­king of their garments, that they have but little left to be liberall withall. In ourMatth. 11.8. Christus molles & preciosas ve­stes minimè su­stulit à mundo, sed ostendit qui­bus convenirent. P. Mart. Loc. Com. class. 2. c. 11. num. 79. Ʋno filo villa­rum insunt pre­tia. Hieron. in vit. Paul Erem Saltus & insu­las tenera cer­vix fert: graci­les aurium cutes Kalendarium expendunt, & sinistra per sin­gulos digitos de saccis singulis ludit. Tertul. de Habitu mulieb. cap. 9. Saviours time they that wore soft clothing were in Kings houses, and confined to places of eminencie and publick authoritie. But now a-dayes we need not go out for to see such: for they are to be seen every where. Very carters will be clothed as courtiers, and ruffle it in silk that scarce are able to pay for wool. What hospitalitie, trow ye, can be ex­pected from those, that have turned great rents into great ruffs, and lands into laces? that carry some whole Mannors upon their backs? Excesse in bravery and costly apparell is lesse intolerable in the weaker sex: and yet S. Paul will have wo­men professing godlinesse to adorn themselves with good works, butA negation for a compari­son, as pag. 9. Quaerentes or­namenta moni­lium perdide­runt morum. Cypr. lib. de Habitu Virg. La soye esteint le feu de la cuisine. not with gold or pearls, or costly aray, that is, rather with those then with these, because they can hardly stand both toge­ther: as Saint Cyprian wrote to the Virgins of his time, that the seekers of chains and bracelets have lost their charity and beneficence: and the French proverb saith, that silk doth quench the fire of the kitchin: meaning, that sumptuousnesse of apparel destroyes hospitality and good house­keeping.

Fifthly, The furnishing of their studies with books. For as too much reading wearies the flesh, and weakeneth the bodie and brain: so the immoderate buying of books wastes a mans estate, and disables him from good works. Therefore Seneca and Lucian among the Hea­thens,Luc. Serm. Adversus indo­ctum & multos libros ementem. Isidor. Pelus. lib. 1. Epist. 127 & 399. Studiosam lu­xuriam. Sen. de Tranquil. Animi c. 9. & Epist. 2. and Isidore and Petrarch among the Chri­stians, have written purposely against this unthrif­tinesse of some Scholars of their times, calling it a studious excesse, and bookish profusenesse. In some, saith Seneca, this costlinesse and curiosity about so many and so fair volumes proceeds not from any desire of growing expert in their own profession, but out of vain glory and ostentation. In others, saith Petrarch,Sunt qui obten­tu librorum avaritiae inser­viunt. Petr. de Remediis utri­usque fortu­nae. l. 1. dial. 43. See a pretty Epigram in Martial (lib. 9. ep. 47.) here appliable, or at least to the first of these seven particu­lars. B. Hal Serm. on Acts 2.37. pag. 42 in 8. it springeth from a covetous and niggardly disposition, thereby to free themselves from the duties of bounty and beneficence. They have so many books to buy every yeare for the better discharge of their cal­ling (forsooth) that no man should hold them to be bound to keep hospitality, because the streams of their expences run fast an other way.

Sixtly, The taking of Tobacco. The abuse whereof is so great and generall, that a zealous Prelate of this Church complains thus of it in his Sermon to the last Parliament: Is there not now as much spent in wanton smoak, as our honest forefathers spent in substantiall hospitality? And be­fore him a Royall Authour,K. James in his Treatise of The True Peace-maker. and a Head of Par­liaments hath past his publick censure upon it in these terms: That witch Tobacco hath quite blown away the smoak of hospitality among our young [Page 58] gallants, and turned the chimney of their forefathers into the nostrils of the children. Counterblast to Tobacco, to­wards the end. And again, in a Treatise professedly written of this Argument, he speaks thus to his subjects: How ye are by this custome disabled in your goods, let the Gentry of this land beare witnesse; some of them bestowing three, some foure hundred pounds a yeare upon this preci­ous stink, which I am sure might be bestowed upon many farre better uses. M^r. Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy pag. 350 edit. 3. An other late learned, and much esteemed Writer lashes the same abuse on this wise: How excellent soever Tobacco be in it self; as it is commonly abused by most men, which take it as tinkers do ale, it is a plague, a mischief, a vio­lent purger of goods, lands, health, &c. In wine and Tobacco the common saying is commonly made too true; Give to some men an inch of liber­ty, Sub finem Apologiae ad Gulielmum Abbatem. Whose words D. Playfer thus contracts and refines; Vinum Aposto­lus admittit, Monachus im­mittit: modicum Apostolus prae­mittit, Mona­chus praeter­mittit. 1. Tim. 5.23. and they will take an ell. For as Saint Bernard noted of the Monks of his time, that because Saint Paul hath warranted the lawfull use of wine, by exhorting his dearly beloved Sonne Timothie to use a little wine for his weak stomacks sake and his often infirmities arising from painful­nesse: therefore strong and lustie drones would needs abuse much of it to the great hurt of their heads, by pouring into their stomacks a modium for a modicum, a barrell of wine for a beaker: So because some discreet and experienced Physici­ans, and also some strict Divines, have told their patients and friends that are of a cold and moist temper, of a rheumatick and phlegmatick con­stitution, that it was good for them to take now and then a little Tobacco: therefore in stead of [Page 59] a pipe many will needs take a pound: and, which is the worst of all, even they to whom it is not expedient, by reason of their contrary comple­xion, are wilfully brought under the power of that creature, and cast away whole shillings and crowns in Tobacco, that cannot finde one half peny for any charitable deed.

Lastly, Banqueting and feasting: Wherein one at the least of these three spots of unthriftinesse is commonly seen; Excesse of frequency, ex­cesse of plenty, excesse of delicacie. First,Ignavis semper feriae, saith the Proverb: So, convivatori­bus semper feriae. Ex­cesse of frequencie: for as with all loyterers, so with some feasters it is alwayes holy-day. This they willingly are ignorant of, that the rich man in the Gospel is not branded for faring sumptu­ously, but for faring sumptuously every day. Luke 16.19. They are neither of the Prophets nor of the Poets minde, that to every thing there is a season; Eccles 3.1, 6. a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to fare sparingly with those of our own family, and a time to feast liberally with our friends and neigh­bours:—Voluptates commendat ra­rior usus. Juvenal. Sat. 11 [...]: Semper aliquis in Cy­donis domo. Erasm. chil. 2. cent. 2. Adag. 15. that pleasures are more pleasant if they be seldome used. But they will be famous for their oft feasting, and follow the steps of Cydon the Corinthian, who by daily entertaining in his house one guest or other, gave occasion of the Greek Proverb, There is alwayes some body in Cy­dons house. Secondly, Excesse of plentie: for there be some churlish Nabals, who seldome in­deed feast their friends and neighbours; but when they feast them, they go farre beyond their degree and calling: for they hold a feast, [Page 60] not like rich tenants and countrifarmers, but like Kings and Soveraignes,1. Sam. 25.36. like Isaacius Ange­lus, one of the Greek Emperours; whose com­mon feasts did so exceed in abundance and quan­tity of provision, that they were said to be no­thing else but a mountain of loaves, Nicetas in ejus vitâ lib. 3. a forrest of wilde beasts, a Sea of fishes, and an Ocean of wine. Thirdly, Excesse of delicacie: for there be some banquetters and feasters, for whom no dainties are good enough but deare bought and farre fetcht: like that belly-god Philoxenus, who said that that was the sweetest, Aelian. l. 10. c. 9 which was the dearest; and like those degenerated Romanes,

This good house-keeping, as the world counts it now-a-dayes, is censured byArist. Ethic. lib. 4. cap. 2. ait fumosam & indecoram vani­tatem esse in re­bus parvis sum­ptus magnos facere, & ma­gnificentiam ostentare: ut si qui [...] nuptiali convivio sodales suos excipiat, [...]. Aristotle as a vain-glorious and unseemly thing, and termed bySen. De Benef. lib. 1. cap. 10. Conviviorum furor, & foedissimum patrimoniorum exitium culina. Seneca no better then a madnesse of feasting, and most filthy wasting of patrimonies, which hath brought many rich men to poverty, and poore men to beggery: and is a great evidence of our degenerating from our pious ancestours: whose Christian frugality three grave Divines compa­ring [Page 61] with our Sybariticall luxurie, cannot refrain themselves from writing, thatBish. Hall, Holy Panegyrick or Serm. on 1. Sam. 12.24, 25. in the new-found feasts of this Age profusenesse and profanesse strive for the tables end: Censure of Travel. Sect 21. in which the nose is no lesse pleased then the palate, and the eye no lesse then ei­ther: wherein the piles of dishes make barricadoes against the appetite, and with a pleasing encombrance trouble an hungry guest: D^r. Taylor on Tit. 1.12. page 257. That the rule of feasts and banquets seems to be dead with our forefathers, whose dishes for sort, number, price, and serving out, were inferiour to our sauce: ThatM^r. Taffin Amendment of life 2. book 14 chap. such are now the feasts of Christians (for the most part) that lesse then the reversion might suffice the whole company: which notwithstanding, we suffer the poore to starve, who might be well fed with the superfluitie thereof.

Of all which immoderate expences, which are so many destroyers of hospitalitie, if we come now to examine the common defence and justifi­cation, we shall finde that a bad cause is made worse, Causa patroci­nio non bona, pe­jor erit. Ovid. 1. Trist. 1. Matth. 20.15. Zeno apud Stob. Serm. 13. In nullo glori­andum, quia ni­hil est nostrum, nisi mendacium & peccatum. Cypr. Testim. ad Quirinum lib. 3. c. 4. & laudatur ab August. lib. de Praedest. SS. cap. 3. while men go about to make it good. Let a prodigal be reproved for his excesse in any of these things which I but now touched, he hath this answer ready; I am able to be at that cost, and so long as I spend nothing but mine own, what hath any man to do with it? Is it not lawfull for me to do what I will with mine own? But we reply with an old Philoso­pher, that he is a very bad cook which having salt enough will put on more then needs, to make good meat both unpleasing and unwholsome: and with an anci­cient Father, that no man ought to boast of any thing, because nothing is his but lie and sinne. Whatsoe­ver [Page 62] else we have, is so our own before men, as yet before God we are not Lords and Masters, but only Stewards and Dispensers thereof. For God bestows his blessings as the Sun doth his beams, that is, in such a manner as that they depend still from him after he hath bestowed them. He ne­ver alienates from himself the propriety of any thing that he gives. Though he hath given to the children of Israel the land of Canaan to inherit,Levit. 25.23. compared with 2. Chron. 20.11. Psal. 115.16. Psal. 24.1. Job 41.11. yet still that land is his land and his possession: and though he hath given the earth to the children of men, yet still the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof: and whatsoever is under the whole heaven is his; not onely of standing and unmoveable goods (as they be called) but also of moveable and transportable; which in sundry places he doth expressely challenge as his own;Hag. 2.8. Psal. 50.10, 11. saying, The silver is mine, and the gold is mine. Every beast of the for­rest is mine, and the cattell upon a thousand hils: the wilde beasts of the field are mine. And when he threatens to take away from the Jews,Hos. 2.8, 9. [...]. Non enim tuum est quod datum est, sed ejus qui dedit. Chrys. in 1. Cor. 4. Hom. 12. the corn, and wine, and oyl, the wool and the flax that he hath given them, he calls these goods his goods, because they were still his own, notwithstanding his former grant and bestowing of them.

Seeing then Gods right and dominion over all his gifts is so boundlesse and universall, so perma­nent and inalienable, it was a most false and vain boasting for those in the twelfth Psalme to say, Our lips are ours, who is Lord over us? who hath power and authority to prescribe us any rule of speaking? for they shall one day give account [Page 63] of every word idlely spoken. And no lesse un­true and absurd is this bragging of others, Our goods are ours, who can controll or confine our expen­ces? for they shall be brought to a reckoning for every peny mispent. And as when Pharaoh said, My river is mine own, Ezek. 29.3, 4. God immediately threatned him to put hooks in his chaws, and bridle his arrogancie: So hath he oft-times curbed and repressed those proud vaunters and wasters of their means, by severall inhibitions of his Vice­gerents upon earth.Const. lib. 6. c. De Adificiis privatis. For Constantine the Great made an expresse Statute against the building of stately houses in the countrey, commanding that whosoever durst afterwards spend much of his means that way, should be deprived of that possession. And the Emperour Justinian did restrain and con­fine the games and sports of rich men to a little summe of money,Cod. lib. 3. tit. 43. leg. 2. and of other men to a great deal lesse: charging moreover the Presidents and other Officers to see this law strictly kept, or else to be fined ten pounds a piece for their negli­gence. The laws of this Kingdome likewise in­hibit lavishnesse in the same kinde: for in the 33 yeare of King Henry the eighth, and in the se­cond and third of Philip and Mary, injunctions were made to represse the wretched practise of those that were continually crumbling away their wealth by sports and recreations. And in the yeare 1601 Henry the fourth of France made a law against excessive costlinesse of apparell, and namely against the wearing of gold and silver lace. And the Magistrates of Geneva are care­full [Page 64] to keep all their subjects within the com­passe of frugalitie and thriftinesse in every thing, as the best rent and revenue of their Common­weal.

Neither have Heathenish States and Law-gi­vers been forgetfull or negligent in this point. For the Lacedemonians had a Statute enacted by Lycurgus against all manner of excesse and pro­fusenesse:Plut. in Lycur. and the Romanes had one made by Lae­torius, to appoint overseers for prodigals, as well as forFuriosi & prodigi, licèt majores 25 an­nis sint: tamen in curatione sunt agnatorum, ex lege 12. Ta­bularum. Justin Instit. lib. 1. tit. 23. As it ap­peares by the common Adage, Ad a­gnatos & genti­les deducendus est, they did ac­count all pro­digals madde men: they meaning no more by that, then we do by our English proverb, when we say of a spend-thrift, Let him be beg­ged for a fool. The reason of their Adage was, because if any were distracted, by the Romane law his wardship fell ad agnatos & gentiles, to the next of the kindred. M. Godwyn Anthol. Rom. Hist. lib. 3. sect. 4. cap. 14. mad and frantick fellows. And be­sides that they had sevenAlexand. ab Alex. lib. 3. cap. 11. Sumptuary laws made by several Magistrates, to restrain all superfluity in apparell and feasting, and in houshold-stuffe or furniture. The execution of which wholesome laws, when Cato the elder saw to die and decay, he laboured might and main to revive it, and used goats skinnes in publick feasts in stead of costly hangings and curious carpets: whereupon heNon mediocrem laudem tulit, quòd frugales mores exemplo juvaret. Alex. ibid. got great commendation for helping frugality by his example. And they that are in good esteem a­mongst us for their place and gravitie, shall be no lesse praised by the better sort, if they will first begin to break the custome of excesse and super­fluitie in all or any of these forenamed things. They shall be reputed moderate and reform­ers, and men willing to give example to change vice into vertue. Let all such therefore revive [Page 65] that good rule of a Father, [...]. Clemens Ale­xand. Paedag. l. 3. c. 3. Profectò Sancti piíque viri, dum fuerunt in car­ne, modestè ac frugaliter vixe­runt, atque id genus vitae cùm doctrinâ tum exemplo com­mendârunt. P. Martyr in 1. Reg. 7. fol. 54 Pessimus qui­dem pudor est, vel parsimoniae vel paupertatis, sed utrumque Lex vobis de­mit, cùm id quod habere non licet, non habe­tis. Liv. lib. 34. initio. The measure of these things should be the use, not the cost or statelinesse. Let them renew the doctrine and practice of all ancient holy men, who during their abode in the flesh lived alwayes modestly and frugally, and com­mended that kinde of life by their words and actions. Let them cast out that worldly fear of being no­ted for poor and pinching, if they do not as other men. For as Portius Cato answered the proud dames of Rome, which under that pretence stood so hotly for the abrogation of the Law Oppia, purposely made to restrain the bravery of their sex: These aspersions cannot be justly laid upon them that forbear those things which the Law forbids. If a heathen man could say, that where there is a law for frugalitie & modestie which a man observes, it is not to be imputed to penury or niggardlines, but to obedience and observation of the law: how much rather ought we Christians, whom God by so many precepts and decrees hath com­manded to keep modestie and moderation, con­stantly to reject such reproaches of the World and the Flesh, and to be content with the testimo­nie of our own conscience, that our frugality pro­ceeds from the fear of God, and a feeling of our own dutie, which bindes us to yeeld obedience to his holy will?

Finally, though profusenesse and immoderate expence in true hospitalitie be not a common fault in this age, yet it will not be amisse to say that therein also it must be avoided, as an enemie to constancie and continuance in the practice of [Page 66] the same: whereas moderation is the mother of duration, and maintainer of good works. And therefore S. Hierom wrote to his friend Pauli­nus,Nimiâ liberali­tate liberalitas perit. Providendum est nè quod li­benter facias, semper facere non possis. Quid est stulti­us quàm quod libenter facias, curare ut id di­utiùs facere non possis? Cic. Of­fic. 2. Etiam bonorum operum sumpti­bus immodera­tum esse non de­cet, ut abundes pluribus: nec largiri oportet peregrinis super­flua, sed compe­tentia; nec orna­tum convivium, sed cibum obvi­um. Ambros. Offic. l. 2. cap. 21. Laërt. lib. 2. that too great liberalitie destroyes it self: and hearing that Paula was somewhat over-bounti­full in this kinde, he warned her to take heed, lest she did thereby disable her self from doing that conti­nually which she did willingly: then which (saith the wise Oratour) what can be more foolish? Seeing it is farre better to give a little unto many, then much unto few; we must not afford unto strangers a su­perfluous, but onely a sufficient entertainment; not a curious diet, but an obvious fare: and be of Socrates his minde, who said thus to one that was finding fault with him for providing no better cheer for the guests that he had invited to sup­per: If they be honest and temperate men, there is enough for them, and I know they will take it in good part: if dishonest and intemperate, there is but too much for them, and it matters not what they think of their entertainment. Having received strangers in­to our houses, we need not be distracted about many things, as Martha was; but onely be carefull for them that they lack nothing that is fitting, as the good Shunamite was for Elisha and his ser­vant.Basil. in Re­gulis fasiùs explicatis, cap. 20. For this is the scope and end of receiving strangers, to consider their necessities: Ʋsing this World (saith the Apostle) and not abusing it; Now needlesse expence is an abuse. When thou preparest a table full of daintie dishes for a stranger, thou doest ac­cuse him of gluttonie and lickorishnesse, and disgrace him by arguing that he takes delight in such pleasure [Page 67] and excesse. We have a pattern of frugalitie in Abrahams hospitalitie: for he prepared for his guests no curious diet or daintie dishes, but onely plain and wholsome countrey-fare, as cakes, but­ter, milk, and veal, and such like: and in his invi­tation he promised them but a morsel of bread,Gen. 18.5. for two reasons, as Calvin well observes; First,Calvin. in loc. to shun vain glory and brags, by extenuating mo­destly the benefit he meant to bestow upon them: Secondly, and principally, to move them the sooner to yeeld to his invitations and intrea­ties, because modest men are unwilling to put others unto any charge or trouble: and therefore he that will make them accept his kinde offer, must first perswade them that they shall be nei­ther chargeable nor troublesome to him. It is storied of Lucullus,Plutar. in Lu­cul. Hospitium qui­dem vobis apud me erit: familia­re scilicet & so­brium, nec pro­pter vos majo­rem fumum vi­cinia videbit. Cent. 1. Epist. 27. Mensâ usus est frugali & parcâ Posid. in vita Aug. cap. 22. Mensa ipsius neque luxum, neque sordes praese fert, sed piam frugalitatem. Epist. ad fide­les Lucens. Ecclesiae. that having once magnifi­cently entertained all the Grecians that lived in Rome, he could not make them come the second time to him, till he had perswaded them with much ado, that but very little for their sakes had been added to his own ordinary: and Lipsius knew no beter means to move some strangers to take lodging at his house, then by giving his word that he would put no more in the pot for them. Posidonius describing Saint Austins hospitalitie, saith, among other proofs of his thriftinesse, that he kept a frugall and sparing table: and Peter Mar­tyr bears record to Martin Bucer, by whom he was once entertained at Strasbourg seventeen dayes together, that neither sumptuous excesse, nor pinching basenes was seen on his board, but a pious frugality.

CHAP. VIII. The common Motives to hospitalitie.

AS it is not enough to hang a clock and set it aright, except we put a weight to it to make it go: so it is not sufficient to shew the Nature and Means of a vertue, unlesse we adde some reasons and Motives to stirre men up to the practice of the same. Having therefore insisted upon the Nature, the Kindes, the Parts, the Object, the Subject, and the Means of hospitalitie; it now re­mains to adjoyn the chief Motives or Induce­ments to it: Which are of two sorts; either gene­rall and common to other Moral vertues, or par­ticular and proper to this in hand. The generall and common Motives are five: The Precept and President of God, the Examples of the godly, the Practice of Infidels, the manifold Profit wherewith it is rewarded, the divers Detriments whereby the contrary vice is punished.

First, The Precept and President of God. For shall the Rechabites observe constantly what their father charges them,Jerem. 35.14. and the Centurions servants dispatch quickly what their master bids them,Matth. 8.9. and shall we not do so what God com­mands us?2. Sam. 24.4. Shall Davids word prevail against Joab and the Captains of the host, and shall not Gods word prevail with us? If the Lord had bid us do some great thing, as Jonadab bad his children, and David his Captains, would we not have done it? how much rather then, when [Page 69] he saith to us, Be given to hospitalitie? Again, Shall the actions of the leaders be a great spurre to the followers to do as the others do before them, and shall not Gods example be a provo­cation to us to the performance of this good du­tie? Naturally the younger do tread the steps of the elders, servants do as their masters do, children walk like their fathers, and subjects think it a kinde of obedience to imitate the man­ners of their Kings and Governours. Look on me, and do likewise, saith Gedeon to his souldiers:Judges 7.17. If ye were Abrahams children, John 8.39. ye would do the works of Abraham, saith our Saviour to the Jews:Ephes. 5.1. Be ye followers of God as deare children, saith the Apo­stle to the Ephesians:Si praecipientem sequi non potes, sequere antece­dentem. Lact. lib. 4. cap. 24. Levit. 11.44. 1. John 2.29. Luke 6.36. Marth. 5.48. If thou canst not obey him that commands, follow him that goes before, saith Lactantius to every Christian.

As then we must be holy, because God is ho­ly; righteous, because he is righteous; mercifull, because he is mercifull; and perfect, because he is perfect: So we must also be hospital, because God is hospital, if learned Moses had any Lo­gick in him: for thus he reasons with the Isra­elites, Deuter. 10.18, 19. The Lord your God loveth the stranger. Love ye therefore the stranger. Which love comprehends the whole office of hospitality.Hic amor invol­vit universum officium hospita­litatis. Lorinus in locum. For above all other sorts and con­ditions of people, the stranger, the fatherlesse, and the widow are great in Gods books, and joyned together nineteen times in the Old Te­stament: but of these three, the stranger is the greatest; for of the fatherlesse and the widow [Page 70] Moses saith onely, in the forenamed place, that God doth execute their judgement; but of the stran­ger, that God loveth him and gives him food and raiment. Wheresoever strangers are, be they few or many, God is pleased to care for them in special manner.Psal. 105.12, 14 1. Chron. 16.19, 20, 21. When the Israelites were but a few men in number, and strangers in Canaan, he suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved Kings for their sakes: and when grown to a great multitude,Acts 13.17. they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, he exalted them above all other people. When they were going to possesse Canaan, he gave them this strait charge concerning stran­gers:Levit. 19.33, 34. If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him, but he shall be as one born a­mong you, and thou shalt love him as thy self. And a little before they returned to it from the Ca­ptivity of Babylon;Ezek. 47.22. Ye shall divide this land by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you, and they shall be unto you as born in the countrey among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And after they had been a great while in possession and repossession thereof,Mal. 3.5. he did sharply reprove and threaten them for oppressing the stranger. He appointed the Sabbath-day,Exod. 23.12. Josh. 20.9. Numb. 35.15. that the stranger might be refreshed; and the cities of refuge, that he might be preserved alive as well as the chil­dren of Israel, among whom he sojourned.

And touching Christs affection to the stran­ger, I may say the words that were spoken of [Page 71] Lazarus, Behold how he loved him. For first,John 11.36. Matth. 2.14. He did in his infancie sanctifie and honour the con­dition of a stranger, in becoming himself a stran­ger in the land of Egypt. Secondly,Matth. 8.10, 13 Luke 17.18, 19 He did in his riper yeares grant the requests, relieve the wants, and extoll the faith and thankfulnesse of strangers. Thirdly,Luke 10.33, 37 He did expound and illu­strate the precept of love to our neighbour (that other great commandment in the Law) by a mercy and compassion shewed on a stranger. Fourthly,Matth. 25.35.40, 43, 45. He did account that kindenesse to be done or denied to himself, which was done or denied to his stranger. Fiftly, He did appeare in the form and habite of a stranger and pilgrim; both before his Incarnation, to Abraham; and after his Resurrection,Gen. 18.3. Luke 24.18. Matth. 27.7. Curae fuit Chri­sto jam jam cru­cifigendo, ut ex precio quo ven­ditus erat, eme­retur ager in se­pulturam pere­grinorum. Lorin. in Psal. 146.9. 1. Pet. 1.1. James 1.1. [...]. Syn. Epist. 57. to the two Disciples go­ing to Emmaus. Sixtly, He took care at his Passion, that with those thirty pieces of silver for which he had been sold, a field should be bought to bury strangers in. Seventhly, After his Ascension into heaven he did inspire two of his chiefest Apostles, Saint Peter and S. James, to write three excellent consolatory Epistles to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

So that it is not for nothing that Synesius stiles our onely true God, [...], as the Hea­then termed their greatest God, [...], Jupi­ter the hospital, or, Jupiter the defender of stran­gers, as we have it translated 2. Macc. 6.2.

Now the reason that God bears such a love to the stranger, and testifies the same by coupling [Page 72] him with the Levite,Deut. 26.11. a person consecrated to God, by conferring upon him so many peculiar favours, and by making so many injunctions, inhi­bitions, promises, and threats in his behalf, is, because he needs more then an other man. For being out of his own countrey, and farre from his kindred, friends, and acquaintance, he is de­stitute of those means and comforts, which they that dwell in their native soil enjoy: as the Shuna­mite intimated by her short answer to the Pro­phets offer,2. Kings 4.13. In medio populi mei habito: id est, nullius indi­geo patrocinio, cùm non pere­griner in aliena terra, sed inter meos habitem. Sanct. Jesuit. in loc. I dwell among mine own people: that is, I need not any mans defence or patronage, since I do not sojourn in a strange land, but inhabite my countrey, and live with my kinsfolks, as a learn­ed Expositour paraphraseth well that place. Hence the name of a stranger is put for a name of affliction, and of base esteem and contempt among men, Gen. 15.13.Nôstis cor pe­regrini. i. scitis quales sint ejus affectus, quód (que) satès ei poena­rum fit, peregri­num esse, ità ut non debeant ad­di aliae molestiae. Lorin. in Deut 14.29. Psal. 69.8. Job 19.15. Exod. 23.9. Obad. 12. Therefore David complains that he is become a stranger unto his brethren: and Job, that his maids count him for a stranger, that is, an alien in their sight: yea God himself complains thus of Ephra­im, I have written unto him the great things of my Law, but they were counted as a strange thing, Hos. 8.12.Zanchius & Rivetus in loc B. Babington on Gen. 19.9. meaning that his precious word was no lesse slighted and neglected among them, then stran­gers and foreiners are wont to be by the most part of men. Finally, a grave Author and reve­rend Prelate notes, that it is as ancient a thing as the historie of Lot, for a man therefore to be contemn­ed, because he is a stranger. This saying then of our Saviour,Luk. 16.15. That which is highly esteemed among [Page 73] men, is abomination in the sight of God, may be here inverted thus: That which is slighted and shunned among men, is in high esteem and favour with God. To shew that his thoughts are not our thoughts,Esa. 55.8. neither our wayes his wayes, he makes so much of those that are so little made of.Ista nomina in quantum despe­ctui humano, in tantum divinae misericordiae sunt exposita. Ad Uxot. lib. 1. cap. 8. For it is true likewise of the stranger and pilgrim, what Ter­tullian saith of the fatherlesse and widow; These names lie open to Gods acceptation, as much as to mens disdain.

Secondly, The Examples of the godly. For as the word of God is a lamp unto our feet, Psal. 119.105. and a light unto our path: So the life of the godly is the bea­rer of that light. In which respect they are said to shine as lights in the world. Philip. 2.15. It is safe following him that carries the light. Therefore Solomon bids us to go our way forth by the footsteps of the flock, to walk in the way of good men, Cant. 1.8. Proverbs 2.20 and to keep the paths of the righteous. And Paul exhorts us to be followers and imitators of them,1. Cor. 11.1. as they have been of God and of Christ. Otherwise, as our Saviour saith,Matth. 18.7. Wo unto the world because of offences: so I may say here, Wo unto the world because of good examples (slighted or not follow­ed.) For they shall make our condemnation more just and heavy, if we use them not as look­ing-glasses to dresse our selves by, and as guides to lead us into every good dutie. Examples of goodnesse allure men of gracious inclination to resemble, to equall, and to out go them: as our Apostle testifies,2. Cor. 9.2. that very many Macedonians were stirred up and provoked to a liberall con­tribution [Page 74] for the poore Saints at Jerusalem, by the forwardnesse and zeal of the Corinthians: and Saint Austin confesseth, that the examples of Gods servants did burn and consume his own luke-warmnesse,Exempla famu­lorum tuorum urebant & absu­mebant torporem meum. Con­fess. lib. 9. cap. 2. and their fervent zeal set an edge on his devotion.

Now the foot-prints of godly men of all ranks have left us impressions of the matter, man­ner, and means of performing this duty pre­scribed; as I have shewed before by varietie of examples, which may be reduced to these five famous Ages or Estates of the Church; Before the Law, under the Law, and under the Gospel; first published by Christ and his Apostles, then established and confirmed by the ancient Fa­thers, and lastly brought again into light out of Popish darknesse by the late Reformers. All which generall Ages and Periods of the Church have been so plentifull in Examples of hospi­tality,Humanitatis, quae hospitibus debetur, obser­vantissimi fue­runt, quotquot in Scripturie verae pietatis testimonium ha­bent. Gualt. in Joan. Hom. 104. [...]. Just. sub finem Apologiae 2. pro Christia­nis ad Sena­tum Rom. that a worthy Authour writes thus of the three first; As many in the Scriptures as have ob­tained witnesse that they were true godly men, have been exact observers of that humanity which is due to strangers. And touching the fourth Age, it ap­peares out of foure sufficient witnesses, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Nazianzen, and Sozomen, that it was then as commonly practised as any other vertue whatsoever. For Justin saith that it was the custome of his time to divide all the almes and charitable exhibitions of Christians, as well among needy strangers, as among the poore of the countrey. And Tertullian also [Page 75] writes that the three marks of the Chri­stians of his time were,Tert. De Prae­script. adversus Haereticos cap. 20. Communicatio pa­cis, appellatio fraternitatis, & contesseratio hospi­talitatis. Which contesseration of hospitality signifies in his dialect an acknowledgement of some privie token, ticket,Qualis esset Christianorum tessera, non con­stat. Lorin. in Deut. 10.18. or watchword (what it was is now unknown, saith Lorinus) then used among Christians, and with this religion, that whosoever brought the same was presently re­ceived, relieved, and furthered in his journey: and not to have done this and acknowledged such token, was to have renounced Christian communion. And Nazianzen reports of Julian,1. Invectivâ in Julianum. that Apostate Emperour, that he observing how the common hospitality of Christians did cre­dit their profession, and daily increase their num­ber, spent a great part of his treasury in build­ing Hospitals strictly taken, [...]. or houses to entertain strangers and foreiners, that so he might keep men still in their Paganisme. But none of the ancient Writers that I know, is so plentifull and punctuall for the proof of this point as Sozo­men in his Ecclesiasticall Historie,Sozom. lib. 5. cap. 15. where he sheweth how Julian did apishly imitate the good works of Christians to set up Ethnicisme, and recites his letter to Arsacius the High-priest of Galatia written after this manner: [...]. Let us consi­der by what means the Christian Religion is increa­sed, and we shall finde them to be these three, Their kindenesse to strangers, their care of burying the dead, and their comelinesse of manners. And there­fore let us practise these three things, and let us not [Page 76] be overcome by Christians in them; but cause you presently many Hospitals to be built in every city, that strangers not onely of our own Religion, but al­so all others that are in want may enjoy the fruit of our humanity and compassion.

Cass. Instit. Relig. lib. 4. cap. 7. Hieron. Pro­oem. lib. 7. in Ezech. & Apol. advers. Ruffin. Nobis in Mo­nasterio hospita­litas cordi est, omnésque ad nos venientes laetâ humanitatis fronte suscipimus Con. Aquisgr. 1. Regul. 27. in­ter 80. à com­plurib. Abbati­bus editas, an­no 817. Conc. Aquisgran. 2. can. 3. anno 836. Isidor. Hispal. Regulae Mo­nach. cap. 22. D. Abbot Archbish. of Canterb. Lect. 5. on Jonas num. 5. Epist. ad Alber. Archiepisc. & Cardin. Mo­gunt. Epist. lib. 12.As for Monks and Collegiate Men, they were likewise given to this vertue, as Cassian testifies of them all in generall, and S. Hierome of his own Society in particular. And when in processe of time they began to be therein negligent and niggardly, divers Councels took notice of it, and by expresse Canons charged them to repra­ctise it.

Finally, That this fifth and last Age of the Church wants no examples of godly men given to hospitalitie, is avouched by a great Prelate yet living, and thus writing: Albeit the common sort of people be unkinde to persecuted strangers, yet those which are wise and godly make use of these ali­ens as of brethren, considering their distresses with a lively fellow-feeling, holding it an unspeakable bles­sednesse that their countrey should not onely be a Tem­ple to serve God for themselves, but also an harbour for the weather-beaten, a Sanctuary to the stranger, wherein he may honour the true God; and remembring the precise charge which God gave to the Israelites, to deal well with all strangers. And as Erasmus said of Luther, that howsoever all bold and blinde Bayards, all shamelesse and ignorant Friers were furiously bent against him, yet the best men and gravest Divines did use him respectfully: so I may say here, that although hardhearted and un­experienced [Page 77] men make slight account of this ex­cellent vertue, [...]. Homer. Odyss ζ v. 121. and ν v. 202. —Quibus arte benigna E meliore luto Dominus prae­cordia finxit. Juven. Sat. 14. Ʋt non praestet fides, quod prae­stitit infidelita▪ Hieron. holding it no more needfull in the pulpit, presse, and practice, then a parenthesis in a period, which may well be spared; yet it is, and will ever be better esteemed of all those that are loving men, and like unto God.

Thirdly, The Practice of Infidels: Whom if we suffer to go beyond us in any moral ver­tue, they shall rise up in judgement against us, and shall condemne us for our backwardnes. For the first in knowledge should not be last in practice, the children of grace should not be out­gone by the sonnes of nature, and the ground that is well manured should yeeld more fruit then that which is neglected. As in the dayes of Christs abode upon earth,Luk. 7.9. it was no small dis­grace for the Israelites to have a Centurion ex­ceed them in beleeving,Luk. 17.16. & a Samaritan in thanks­giving: so now in matter of hospitality it is a great shame for Christians to come short of the Jews, of the Turks, of the Pagans.

For the Jews, wheresoever they be dispersed,Stuck. Antiq. Conviv. lib. 1. cap. 27. Lavat. in Jud. 19. Hom. 94. use hospitality one to another without grudging, and entertain cheerfully strangers of their own Religion in what countrey soever they be born. The Turks likewise at this day affect the praise of being hospital:Leunclav. Hist Musulman. lib. 18. for they have divers wel-rent­ed houses built by their Emperours for the relief of strangers and travellers, and a sect of Monks that live in cities using hospitalitie. And the African Heathen in the kingdome of Marocco are so given to this vertue, that no stranger, Purch. Pilgr. Tom. 2. p. 769. be he [Page 78] never so mean, shall want friendly entertainment among them, but is alwayes honourably accepted of: —Yea, Page 825. so great and surpassing is their liberalitie, that they will heap many gifts upon strangers, albeit they are sure never to see them again.

Sanctum impri­mis olim habi­tum fuit jus hospitii apud omnes populos: nec probrum ul­lum magìs de­testabile quàm [...], vel inho­spitalem vocari.Neither is it of late onely that Infidels and Idolaters are herein commendable: for hospita­litie is a catholick vertue, having been practised in all places, at all times, and by all sorts of peo­ple, as Calvin truly affirms upon the 18 of Ge­nesis; adding, that no infamie was more detestable with them, then to be called inhospital. When they intended to shew that a man was of a wicked and slavish nature, and worse then a brute beast, they were wont to say to him,Attersoll on Philemon 22 page 443. Servum hercle te esse oportet, & nequam, & malum, Hominem pere­grinum atque advenam qui irrideaes. Plaut. in Poenulo Act. 5. Scen. 2. Get thee hence, thou art an enemy to strangers: and this check and taunt was more with them, then if they had called him a drunkard, a whoremaster, a thief, a mur­derer, a perjured person, and the like. The Scri­ptures afford us some examples of Infidels com­mendable for this vertue: as of Laban, Gen. 24.31. of Reuel, Exod. 2.20. of Shobi, 2. Sam. 17.27. of the inhabitants of the land of Tema, Esay 21.14. of Publius, and the Barbarous peo­ple of the Island Melita, Acts 28.2, 7. and of some others before alledged. But the writings of Heathen Authors are full of them.

D^r. Willot on Rom. 12. q. 21. Gualth. Hom. 72. in Rom.To begin with the Greek: It was accounted a capitall crime among the Athenians, not to shew the right way to a stranger: The Cretians were wont to invite strangers to their publick feasts termed Syssitia, Athen. lib. 4. and the Lacedemonians [Page 79] likewise entertained them in their three solemne feastings called Phiditia, Copides, and Aecli. Plu­tarch saith that Cimon the Athenian permitted strangers, which travelled by his grounds,Plut. in vita Cimonis. to ga­ther such fruits there as the time and season of the yeare did yeeld, and that Lichas the Spartan hath been famous among the Greeks for no other cause that he knows,Ibidem. saving that he used to feast strangers that came to Lacedemon on their fe­stivall day. In Homers Odyssea we have the examples of Telemachus and Penelope, of Ne­stor and Pifistratus, of Alcinous and Echeneus, of Menelaus and Eumaeus, and many more; be­sides some others in his Iliad. And shortly, that this vertue was much practised by the Greeks, it appeares sufficiently by this Proverb which by Plutarchs report was common among them, Leave something also to supervenient strangers: [...]. Sympos. lib. 7. quaest. 4. and by these words so frequent in their Works, [...]. The feasts of hospitality, the table of hospitality, the gifts of hospitality: and also by these titles so much affected and esteemed of them, [...]. Proxenos was he that entertained strangers in the name and at the cost of the whole citie: Idioxenos and Etheloproxe­nos, that feasted them in his own private name and at his own charges: Xenagos and Xenagogos, that led them to all places worth seeing, and shewed every rare thing.

And because Homer and Plato were among the ancient Grecians in the greatest account, and [Page 80] deemed to be much alike in their kinde; Homer, the Plato of Poëts; and Plato, the Homer of Philoso­phers: I will here produce the chief precepts of the one, as I have reckoned the main examples of the other. Plato then writes thus in his books De Legibus: Lib. 5. paulò post initium. As for strangers, we must think that there are most holy covenants and commerces be­tween us and them, and that all offences committed against strangers are greater and more liable to Gods vengeance then those that are done against our own citizens and countrimen. For a stranger be­ing destitute of friends and kinsfolks is more worthy of divine and humane compassion: and therefore he that is most able to avenge him, is also most rea­dy and willing to succour him. And much af­ter,Lib. 12 paulò ante medium. having reckoned many kindes of strangers and travellers; some that come for traffick and gain, as Merchants; some for learning and reli­gion, as Scholars; some for publick treaties and contracts, as Deputies and Ambassadours; and others, for other lawfull ends and purposes: he concludes of them all on this manner; We must receive them all in honour and reverence to Jupiter the Defender of strangers, and not deterre or drive them away by eating and sacrificing them, as the cat­tell of Nilus (he means the Egyptians) do now-a­dayes, nor by savage and barbarous Edicts and Pro­clamations.

Neither doth Aristotle forsake here the steps of his great Master Plato: for he saith in expresse terms, that among the five sorts of private ex­pences which a magnificent man ought to make [Page 81] for decencie and comelinesse, [...]. Ethic. lib. 4. cap. 2. one is about the re­ceiving of strangers.

And as all Arts, and Sciences, and good Man­ners,Rectè à Theo­ [...]h [...]asto est lau­data Hospitali­tas: est enim Reipub. orna­mento, homines externos hoc li­beralitatis gene­re in Ʋrbe no­stra non egere. Cic. Offic. 2. [...]. Athen l. 1. c. 1. nec absimilia Gel. l. 5. c. 13. so this vertue of hospitalitie hath been also derived from the Grecians to the Romanes. For Tully commends Theophrastus for having prai­sed it, and saith, It is an ornament to the Common­wealth, that outlandish men want not in our City this kinde of liberality. Drusus and Lucullus were fa­mous among them for the same: and it was there so generally practised, that Athenaeus cals Rome, A countrey or native soil to all men.

Besides which two learned and civil Nations among the Heathen, others also have been given to hospitalitie. For among the Lucans (a people of the kingdome of Naples in Italy) he had a fine set upon him that did suffer a stranger to be harbourlesse after the Sunsetting:Aelian. Var. Hist. lib. 4. c. 1. and among the Celts or Gauls and ancient French he was more severely punished that had killed a stran­ger, then he that had slain a native inhabitant:Stob. Serm. 42 for the former was put to death, but the latter onely banished.Tacit. lib. de morib. Germ. And the old Germanes harbour­ed and received all comers and strangers without distinction or difference,Caesar lib. 6. de bello Gallic they feasted them every man according to his ability, they respected them as Saints, defended them from wrong,Pomp. Mela lib. 3. cap. 3. and in their common robberies spared none but them.

Now the reason why all ancient Heathen Na­tions (except some altogether brutish and bar­barous, and hated of all the rest for their savage [Page 82] inhumanitie to strangers) were so given to ho­spitalitie, was, because they beleeved that every stranger was sent them from their great and com­mon God Jupiter, who was not onely an over­seer of mens good and bad usage of strangers, but also did oft-times hide himself with some other god, under the form and shape of a stran­ger, to trie mens kindenesse and humanity to strangers, and requite them accordingly. For Eumaeus in Homer presses the same duty by this argument:— [...]— Odyss. ξ. Stob. serm. 42. and Stobaeus saith, they feared to ex­clude any stranger, remembring Jupiter the hospital, as a God common to all, and overseer both of the kinde­nesse and unkindenesse which is shewed to strangers: and Plato makes Socrates speak thus to one The­odorus,Plato initio Dialogi qui inscribitur So­phista. You say you have brought us a stranger, but perhaps he is a God disguised under that habit; as Ho­mer tels us that the Gods, especially that hospital one, use to converse with men in such form & appearance. And Ovid brings in Jupiter coming down some­times alone and sometimes with Mercurie,Metam. lib. 1. Contigerat no­stras infamia temporis aures: Quam cupiens falsam summo delabor Olympo, Et deus humanâ lustro sub ima­gine terras. Et lib. 8. Jupiter huc spe­cie mortalis, cúmque parente Venit Atlantiades positis caduciser alis. and knocking at mens doores, to see what enter­tainment they gave unto strangers.

Fourthly, The manifold Profit wherewith it is rewarded. For if any motive can draw our iron hearts to the performance of any vertuous act, it is the loadstone of utilitie.Omnes expetimus utilitatem, ad [...]ámque rapimur, nec facere aliter ullo modo possumus. Cicer. Offic. 3. Ʋtilitie is the thing which we all desire, and are violently carried to, una­ble [Page 83] to do otherwise. If Othniel be told what pre­ferment he shall get for taking Kirjath-sepher,Josh. 15.16, 17. he will undertake that difficult task; and if David doth but heare what shall be done to the man that kils Goliath,1. Sam. 17.26. he dares accept the challenge of that terrible champion;Heb. 11.25, 26 if Moses hath once re­spect unto the recompense of the reward, he must needs be content to suffer affliction with the people of God;Matth. 19.27. and if the Apostles expect to receive some great thing of Christ, they will soon forsake all and follow him. We should therefore be forward to keep this command­ment in my Text, since in the keeping of it there is great reward, since the practice thereof brings profit all those wayes which learned men have written of.

Aristotle saith that Profit consists in foure things;Rhetor. ad Alexand. c. 2. In the preservation of good things pre­sent, in the acquisition of good things absent, in the propulsation of instant evils, and in the pre­vention of future evils: and that when it concerns men in particular, it ought to be divided into the goods of the minde, the goods of the body, and externall goods, which they call the goods of Fortune. But I will rather follow here the com­mon partition of Divines, into externall, inter­nall, and eternall profit; wherein the Philoso­phers distribution is also comprized, as the lesse within the greater. Externall profit contains the obtaining of children, increase of goods, honour, and good reputation: Internall comprehends the illumination of the minde, the conversion of the [Page 84] heart, the recovery of the health, and the preser­vation of the life of the body: Eternall signifies an endlesse glorification both of soul and body. All which blessings and benefits have been be­stowed by God upon hospitall persons, for a re­ward of their hospitalitie. For

1 Abraham in his old age was blessed with an Isaac,Recepit fructum posteritatis pro mercede hospi­talitatis. Ambr. Offic. 2.21. Hieron. Epist. ad Pammach. [...]. Epist. 57. a godly sonne and heir, a glorious type of the Worlds Redeemer; and entertained Angels, yea the Sonne of God, the Lord of Angels, by his hospitalitie: After so frequent practice of this vertue, whiles he refuses not men like a churl, he chances to receive God. Whereupon Synesius cals him, Gods feaster and hoste,

2 Lot also was honoured with the entertain­ing of Angels, and preserved alive with his whole family from the destruction of Sodome, by his hospitalitie. To these two examples spe­cially the Apostle alludes, Heb. 13.2. saying, Be not forgetfull to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares. And Chryso­stome applies this similitude,Hom. 2. de Lazar. T. 5. that as fishermen casting their nets into the sea to draw out fishes, gather sometimes precious stones and pearls: so they that are given to hospitalitie, sometimes re­ceive Angels into their houses, while they seek and think to harbour men.

3 Rebekah got so good and great an husband by her hospitalitie.Gen. 24.14. For Abrahams servant had his petition granted, that the signe by which he should know her whom God had appointed for Isaac, might be hospitality. He considered (saith [Page 85] Chrysostome) how his Master had gotten all that he had, by this vertue:Hom. Quales Uxores sint ducendae. Tom. 5. and therefore doubt­ed not but it is ever accompanied with many others; and if the damsell that he sought were given to it, she would certainly prove a successe­full wife.

4 Reuel or Jethro (for it is the same man un­der two divers names, as Calvin proves upon Exod. 2.) hath been rewarded with such a sonne in law as Moses, and by him better instructed in the true worship of God.

5 Rahab by her hospitalitie hath gotten an immortall praise in that truely so called golden le­gend of the Saints, the 11 chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and preservation from death and ruine at the sacking of Jericho.

6 Boaz well strucken in yeares was blessed with an Obed, that is, a servant of God, a grand­father to David, and consequently with a Royall posteritie, honoured with a place in the genealo­gie of our Saviour, Ruth 4.

7 The widow of Sarepta was blessed with a miraculous increase of her meal and oyl, with the preservation of her family in the time of fa­mine, and with the resurrection of her sonne, 1. Kings 17.

8 The Shunamite also, which entertained the Prophet Elisha, received above a Prophets re­ward: namely, the promise and gift of a sonne when she was old, and the raising of him to life when he was dead, and the restoring of her house and land lost in her long absence for the famine, 2. King. 4. and 8.

[Page 86]9 The two disciples that went to Emmaus were rewarded with illumination, for entertain­ing our Saviour as a stranger, Luk. 24.45. Where­upon S. Austin observes,Quaestionum Evangelic. lib. 2. cap. ult. Ecce Dominus non est cognitus dum loqueretur, & dignatus est cognosci dum pascitur. Horn. 23. in Evang. that by the office of hospi­talitie we come to the knowledge of Christ. Lo, saith Saint Gregory, The Lord was not known while he spake, and he vouchsafes to be known while he is fed.

10 Publius the chief man of the Island Me­lita, by entertaining Saint Paul and his compani­ons, got his father healed of a fever and of a bloudy flix, Acts 28.8.

11 Gaius by this vertue hath obtained a good report in the Church, and gotten such a com­mendation as shall never be forgotten so long as Saint Pauls and Saint Johns Epistles shall endure. Rom. 16.23. 3. John 5, 6.

Lastly, Hospitality hath promise of the life to come, and shall be rewarded with that unvalua­ble gain and matchlesse profit of everlasting sal­vation. For thus speaks the giver thereof, Matt. 25.35, 40. Then (at the great day of Judgement) shall the king say to them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherite the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World: for I was a stranger, and ye took me in: for verily I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And Matth. 5.7. Blessed are the mercifull, for they shall obtain mercy. Gualth. Hom. 53. in Matth. Aret. Probl. Theol. Loco 137. And who be the mercifull (saith Gualther, and Aretius) but the hospitall? but they that shew pitty and compassion to the poore, not onely native and domesticall, but also forein and outlan­dish?

And to these Examples recorded in holy Writ, others may be added out of ancient and modern humane writings, to shew how gainfull and profitable this office of hospitality hath been in all ages. For

1 Saint Alban, the first Martyr that ever in England suffered death for the name of Christ, was converted from Paganisme to Christianity by a certain Clark whom he had received into his house fleeing from the persecutors hands. For his holy life and godly exhortations were a means, through the Lords mercy, that Albanus turned to God from Idols, 1. Thess. 1.9. to serve the living and true God; as Master Fox reports the story out of Beda, and writes in the margin,Tom. 1. page 123. Fruit of hospita­lity to be noted.

2 By hospitality Saint Ambrose had the ho­nour and happinesse to be the spirituall father of the chiefest of all the Fathers, and to convert that young Maniche, who proved the most illu­minate and profitable Doctour that ever the Church of Christ had after the Apostles. For Au­stins heart being melted with the kindenesse and courteous entertainment of Ambrose, and allu­red to the liking of that Religion which he saw bring forth so good fruits,Non tanquam Doctoren veri, sed tanquam ho­minem beni­gnum in me. Aug. Confess. 5. 13. Martin. Cro­merus de Re­bus Polonicis lib. 2. he went to heare him preach, and by hearing him was caught by him, and perswaded to forsake his errors and embrace the truth.

3 The Chroniclers of Poland report of their Piastus, that being but a heathen and mean ob­scure man, he entertained two Angels in the ha­bit [Page 88] of unknown strangers, whom he had met in the street and brought to his house: that while they were sitting at table, his slender provision, whereof he was ashamed, was suddenly increa­sed to a great quantity, and that the case being rumoured abroad he was chosen king by the people: for they hence gathered that he must needs be in high favour with God above other men, that had been honoured with such guests and miracle, and therefore most worthy of the Crown and Scepter. This Relation is more probable and likely then that of the Papists touching their Pope Gregory 1. and Leo 9. that having once invited 12 poore strangers to dinner,Rhem. Annot. on Hebr. 13.2. Busaeus Jesuita Tract. de Hospital. cap. 4. Christ came in among them in the ha­bit of a stranger, and made the thirteenth guest, and the next day spake thus to each hoste in a vi­sion; Thou didst often before feast me in my mem­bers, We must be­leeve, and it is certain, that An­gels have been received to house and table, in the habit of strangers; and it is not im­possible but they may be again: but that Pope Gregory re­ceived our Sa­viour Christ is beside your Text, which makes promise of Angels onely, and would (no doubt) have men­tioned Christ himself, as being a singular incouragement to be barberous, if with truth he might have done it. Cart wright against the Rhem. Annotat. but yesterday in mine own person. For though Christs own person had been before entertain­ed in the shape of a stranger, as well as some created Angels: yet the Apostle to the Hebrews exhorting them to hospitalitie mentions onely the entertainment of Angels, as a reward of ho­nour so conferred already upon some hospitall men, that it may serve still for a spurre to all those that shall practise this vertue: because such honourable guests may be entertained unawares [Page 89] till the end of the World. But as touching Christs entertainment under the habit of a stran­ger, the Apostle is silent therein; because (in all likelihood) such honour is never to be expected since his Ascension: otherwise, he would have mentioned it as well as the other; for it had been a greater motive and inducement to this ver­tue, both for all those beleeving Hebrews, and also for all Christians throughout all gene­rations.

4 King Edward the sixt, that zealous Josiah of England,See above all Bezas excel­lent Epistle before the Translation of the Psalmes into French meeter. got by harbouring persecuted stran­gers such praises and prayers abroad, as are to be seen in the lasting Monuments of famous forein Divines.

5 That goodly and strong Citie of Strasbourg is still much commended in many places, for having charitably nourished those strangers, which were driven thither by the hard famine of the yeares 1517 and 1529,Hom. 52 in Ezech. as Lavater re­ports.

6 The Common-wealth of Zurich in Hel­vetia hath gotten great favour, and her princi­pall praise with many Nations, by courteous and charitable usage of all sorts of strangers,Gualth. Hom. 72. in Rom. Stuck. Antiq. Conviv. lib. 1. cap. 27. as Gual­ther and Stuckius testifie.

7 The Hollanders acknowledge that their two prime Cities, Amsterdam and Leyden, are beholding for their flourishing estate to this ver­tue we treat of: for since they did receive their poore distressed neighbours persecuted by the [Page 90] Duke of Alba, they have ever thrived and in­creased in riches and honour: whereas all other Cities which did denie harbour to those wea­therbeaten souls, for fear of waxing poorer by receiving so many poore, have alwayes remained in their former meannesse and obscu­rity.

D^r. Abbot on Jonas Lect. 5. num. 5.8 As other Nations have gotten an immortall praise by being a refuge to the English in their last bloudy persecution in Queen Maries dayes: So, What good our selves have gotten by strangers amongst us, D^r. Taylor on Titus 1.8. page 165. we should be unthankfull not to acknowledge; The blessing of the poore hath light upon us, and we have a long time fared better for affording harbour to the poore Saints of God, which have come afarre unto us. And I am perswaded that England fares the better for kindenesse shewed in dangerous times to French and Dutch strangers. M^r. Elnathan Parr. on Rom. 16.2. Long may England be a San­ctuary, refuge, and harbour for the persecuted Saints. For he that receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, Matth. 10.41. shall have a righteous mans reward. Finally, These be the words of King James writ­ten in Scotland to his eldest sonne;Basil. Doron. lib. 2. Take example by England, how it hath flourished both in wealth and policie since the strangers craftsmen came in among them: Therefore not onely permit, but allure stran­gers to come here also.

Thus we see how gainfull this Vertue is, not onely to particular persons and private families, but also to whole Cities, Commonwealths, and Kingdomes.In Judic. 19. Homil. 95. Hospitality (saith Lavater) is profita­ble: for it winnes and procures favour and good will [Page 91] to Cities & Regions. We know not who they are which come to us: oft-times under a mean habit great Prin­ces are hidden, which may do great good or hurt to a Citie when occasion serves. The Patriarchs have lodg­ed Angels, when they thought to harbour men.

Fifthly, The divers Detriments whereby the contrary vice is punished. For if profit and gain be a great motive to hospitality; losse and damage should be a greater pul-back from inhospitality. For we are all naturally more afraid of punish­ment, then desirous of reward; more shunning painfull sicknesse and pinching povertie,Nemo est qui non magìs dolo­rem fugiat, quàm appetat voluptatem. Tom. 4. lib. 83. qq. q. 36. then seeking perfect health and extraordinary wealth. There is no man (saith Saint Austin) that doth not more flee pain, then follow pleasure. He is of a bad nature to whom good report and commendation is no spurre to vertue: but he is of a worse dispo­sition to whom evil report and blame is no bridle and retentive from vice.Si te laus alli­cere ad re [...]tè faciendum non potest, nè metus quidem à foedis­simis factis potest-avocare? Philip. 2. ad finem. And therefore no mar­vell if Tully did so wonder at the strange per­versnesse of Antonie, whom neither praise could allure to do well, nor yet fear of infamie and reproach deterre from committing evil.

Now to draw men to hospitality, and to drive them from positive and privative unkindnesse to strangers, God hath at sundry times and in divers manners punished it grievously in all sorts of per­sons, as appeares by these examples.

1 He hath rained Hell out of Heaven, Super impium populum gehen­nam misit è Coelo. Salv. lib. 1. de Gubernat. Dei. saith Sal­vian, that is, fire and brimstone upon the Sodo­mites; not onely for that unnaturall filthinesse, which hath taken denomination from them, as [Page 92] being there first practised,Ecce hospitalem domum Angeli ingrediuntur, clausae hospiti­bus domus flammis sulphu­reis concreman­tur. Aug. De Tem­pore Serm. 70 Joseph. Anti­quit. Jud. lib. 1. cap. 12. P. Martyr in Gen. 18.16. Quia Lotum scurriliter reffi­cere audebant eò quòd peregrinus esset. Gualt. in Luc. Hom. 94. but also for their inho­spitalitie, because they did not receive those whom they knew not when they came: because they used stran­gers not friendly, Wisd. 19.14, 15. because they were [...], haters of strangers, saith Josephus, peregrinorum hostes, enemies of strangers, saith Peter Martyr; because they were so bold as scoffing­ly to reject Lot for being a stranger, saith Gualther. How fitly were such inhospitall men punisht by that element which alone is inhospital!

2 He hath sent ten severall and severe plagues upon the Egyptians for oppressing the Israelites, for using a more hard and hatefull behaviour towards strangers, Wisd. 19.13.

3 He hath punished the inhabitants of Jeru­salem with warre and famine, with bondage and captivitie, because they were guilty of the same sin. For the Prophet Ezekiel reckons it among those speciall abominations which did pull down Gods vengeance upon that citie, and hasten her destruction: In the midst of thee have they dealt by deceit, or oppression with the stranger, Ezek. 22.7.

4 At the dreadfull day of judgement Christ shall say to them on his left hand,Matth. 25.41, 43, 45. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels: For I was a stranger and ye took me not in. For verily I say unto you, in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me. [...]. Anno Mundi 3627.

5 The sea raised by an earthquake overflow­ed the citie of Helice distant 12 furlongs from it, and drowned all the inhabitants thereof for their [Page 93] inhospitalitie towards the Ionians, as Strabo re­ports in his 8 book.

6 Plutarch testifies in his golden book Of the late vengeance of God, that the citizens of Delphe were long time afflicted with famine, pestilence, and other deadly diseases, for their cruel usage of Esop, a stranger to them: and that Thespesius being in a traunce saw his own father suffering most grievous torments in Hell, for having poi­soned some strangers lodged in his house, to en­joy their money.

7 God hath clothed with shame as with a garment Hierome Cardan,Hilarius Pyrckmairus De Arte Apo­demica pag. 28. Doctor of Physick in Rome, for his inhospitality and monstrous dog­gednes to strangers, as a Dutch Writer and Tra­veller relates the storie. For when outlandish Scholars went to salute him,Quid mihi ne­gotii cum trans­alpinis? Cardanus sum, neminem curo nisi qui mihi pecunias adfert. and brought him commendations from some famous Professor in their countrey, he used to welcome them with this strange complement, What have I to do with foreiners? I am Cardan, I care for no man except he brings me money. May not one crie out in this case, as the Oratour did in another? O strange thing, and worthy to be blusht at, not onely by learned men, Orem dignam in quae non mo­dò docti, verùm etiam agrestes crubescant! Cic. 1. De Legibus post medium. 1. Sam. 25.11. but even by rude peasants and countrie-idiots! Is this the voice of a great Scholar, or rather of an ar­rant clown? yea worse then that of churlish Na­bal, Shall I give my meat and drink unto men whom I know not? But all the gain that this his rustici­tie brought him, was to be called [...] in stead of [...], in many libels and epigrams made against him upon that occasion, and to be so ge­nerally [Page 94] hated and evil spoken of all men, that as Herodotus saith he saw in the Temple of Vulcan in Egypt Sennacheribs statue with this inscripti­on, [...]. He­rod. lib. 2. Let him that seeth me, be godly: So Cardan de­served to have this written upon his tombe, Thou that lookest on me, be hospital: ‘Disce [...] monitus, nec temnere Christum.’

Lastly, As Eutropius, Chamberlain to Ar­cadius the Emperour,Chrys. Hom. in Eutrop. Eu­nuch. Tom. 4. fled for safetie to the Altar from which before he went about to take the priviledge of Sanctuary: So by the most just judgement of God, many a man is driven to flee to those foreiners whom he hath despised in his own countrey. For it is usuall with God to come home to men in their own kinde,Matth. 7.2. [...]. Chrys. Hom. 19. ad pop. Antioch. and with what measure they mete, to measure to them again. Hence that zealous Salvian, the second Jeremy, lament­ing the sinnes and punishments of the men of his time, saith that their inhospitality was paid in its own coyn, that God had made themExod. 23.9. Vide marg. pag. 72. Sentimus illa quae fecimus, &, juxta sermonem sacrum, labores manuum nostra­rum manduca­mus, ac justo ju­dice Deo solvi­mus quae debe­mus. Miserti quippe exulum non sumus, ecce ipsi sumus exu­les: peregrinos fraude cepimus, ecce ipsi peregri­namur. Salv. de Guber. Dei l. 5. know by wofull experience the heart of a stranger, and scat­tered them among forein Nations, for having been mercilesse to distressed foreiners.

Now all these things which happened unto those inhospital persons, are written for our ad­monition, and recorded to the intent we should be warned by them as by sea-marks, to avoid the ruine which others have fallen into. For Gods judgements upon others should be a Catechisme to us, and teach us to shunne their sinnes, lest we likewise follow them in their plagues.

CHAP. IX. The proper Motives to hospitalitie.

HItherto the generall and common Motives: The particular and proper follow, which are three: The Certaintie of being alreadie stran­gers, the Possibility of becoming yet more stran­gers, the Prelation of this Vertue before her neare kinne.

First, The Certaintie of being already stran­gers. For if every beast loveth his like, Ecclus 13.15. much more should every man love a stranger; likenes being the cause of love, and love the cause of courtesie and kindnes. There is so small difference be­twixt the harbourer and the harboured, [...]. Hospes. Ʋn hoste. [...]in gast. that two learned and two vulgar languages (the Greek, the Latin, the French, and the Dutch tongue) expresse them both by one & the same word. As the converted thief upon the Crosse said to his impenitent fellow, that it was a shame for him to rail on Christ,Luk. 23.40. seeing he was in the same condemna­tion: So it is an absurd part for any man to wrong a stranger because he is a stranger, seeing he is himself in the same condition.Ecclus. 21.27. Ob summam conjunctionem & consortium impii cum Dia­bolo. Jansen. in loc. When the ungodly curseth Satan, he curseth (consequently) his own soul, by reason of that neare resemblance and con­junction there is betwixt them: So when any man deales harshly with a stranger, he is thereby injurious to himself, and bewrayes a grosse igno­rance or forgetfulnes of his own case and condi­tion.

saith Nazianzen: He must needs be harbourous of strangers, that thinks upon this, that himself is a stran­ger. Ipse est Christia­nus, qui & in domo sua, & in patria sua pere­grinum se esse cognoscit. De verbis Domi­ni Serm. 32. Cic. Tuscul. 5. Philip. 3.20. Now it is the part of every Christian (saith Saint Austin) to know himself to be a stranger even in his own house and countrey. Socrates being ask­ed what countriman he was, answered, [...], I am a citizen of the World: but a Chri­stian will rather say with Saint Paul, [...], I am a citizen of Heaven; as having in Heaven his father and his mother, his eldest bro­ther and his inheritance. For God our Father is in Heaven, Jerusalem the Mother of us all is above, Christ our elder Brother is ascended into Heaven where he abides,Siracides ad finem Prolo­gi sui apud Ju­nium in notis. 1. Pet. 1.17. [...]. Wisd. 2.4, 5. and our incorruptible inheritance is reserved in Heaven for us. But on the contrarie, this World is a strange countrey, and our time in it a sojourning, and a passage: and therefore in this respect we may be called He­brews, that is, passengers, as living in a place that is not an habitation to rest in, but a thorow-fare to passe by. A Christian knows that the Israe­lites were strangers and sojourners in the Land of Canaan, not onely when they were but a few men in number, and in the time of their travels upon the face of the earth;Psal. 105.12, 13 when they went from one Nation to another, from one Kingdome to another peo­ple, and when it was no more but promised unto them: but also after they were grown to a huge multitude, after it was actually conferred upon them as the lot of their inheritance, and during their settled and constant dwelling in it, Levit. 25.23. [Page 97] He knows that the Feast of Tabernacles shadowed unto them the travell of a godly man through the Wildernes of this World to his Heavenly countrey.Levit. 23.34. Deut. 16.13. Scenopegiae fe­stum peregrina­tionem hominis pii per hoc Mundi deser­tum ad coelestem patriam delinea­bat. Episc. Sa­risbur. in Col. 2.17. Gen. 47.9. 1. Chro. 29.15. Heb. 11.13. Sumus gratiâ cives sursum, & gratiâ peregrini deorsum. Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 15. cap. 1. Chrys. Hom. 24. in Heb. Heb. 11.16. He knows that not onely Jacob so­journing in Egypt termes his life a pilgrimage, but David also, though reigning peaceably in his flourishing Kingdome, in the verie height of his riches and honour, stiles himself a stranger and sojourner as well as all his fathers: and that the prime Patriarchs of the Old Testament confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth: which acknowledgement was so pleasing and ac­ceptable to God (as being the ground and founda­tion of all vertues, saith Chrysostome) that there­fore he was not ashamed to be called their God in a speciall and extraordinary manner.

Secondly, The Possibility of becoming yet more strangers. For as the Apostle exhorts the Galatians to deal meekly with such as have been overtaken in a fault, considering themselves, Gal. 6.1. lest they also be tempted: and the Hebrews,Heb. 13.3. to remember them which suffer adversitie, as being themselves also in the body of flesh and frailtie, in the mutable and uncertain state of this temporall life, (for so long as we dwell here in these houses of clay, and carrie about this earthly tabernacle, we are all subject to the like changes and chances) and as the Schoolman saith,Propter possibili­tatem similia pa­tiendi. Thom. 2.2. quaest. 30. art. 2. we should have compas­sion of other mens passion, for the possibility of suf­fering the like: there being no man upon the face of the earth how-ever afflicted, of whom we can­not truly say that verse attributed unto Saint Austin,

So we should be kinde and courteous to stran­gers, because we may become strangers as well as they, and adde a particular peregrination to our common and generall pilgrimage.B. Babington on Exod. 22.21. Quis sibi vel suis sedes perpe­tuas polliceri potest? cùm sub­inde Regna po­tentissima ever­ti, populos ex­cindi, & dissi­pari videamus. Cur ergò non moveat nos ejus conditionis aspe­ctus, quam vel nobis, vel saltem posteris accidere posse novimus? Gual. in Rom. 12.13. Quod illis in memoriam re­vocat praeterita, id nobis quoque prodesse potest, si cogitemus de fu­turis. Quis enim ità est nunc domi suae, ut certò sciat, sibi non esse aliquan­do peregrinan­d [...]m? Pet. Mar. in Rom. 12.13 2. King. 4.13. For, saith a Reverend Father of this Church, Our state in this World is not tied to any place, but God at his pleasure may remove us even when we think least: therefore the Lord would have the Israelites then, and all men still favourable to strangers. Experiences of evill past, and expectances of future, if God so please to have it, must make men forbeare those discourtesies to strangers, that otherwise mans corruption will offer. And learned Peter Martyr useth also this Mo­tive, writing thus upon my Text: God charges the Israelites not to vex strangers, but to entreat them kindly, because they have been themselves strangers in Egypt. That he calles to their remembrance things past, may profit us also if we think of things to come: for who is now so settled in his house, as to be sure that he shall never travel? How many causes and casualties may inforce any man to leave his na­tive countrey? Was not this the lot of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; of Lot, Moses, Elimelech, and David? The good Shunamite was deceived to think she needed no freinds, because she dwelt among her own people: for not long after, a famine of seven yeares made her glad to finde harbour among foreiners: and the proud Treasurer Sheb­na [Page 99] reckoned without his hoste, when he made account to die in his Palace, and to be buried in his stately sepulchre:Esa. 22.18. for he was turned and tos­sed like a ball into a large countrey, there to end his dayes in grief and obscurity. The cities of Tyre and No were a long time in the very height of worldly pomp and glory,Esa. 23.7. Nah. 3.8, 9, 10. but at length their own feet carried them a farre off to sojourn. Jer. 48.11, 12. Moab also was at ease from his youth and had settled on his lees: but at last wanderers came that caused him to wander as a bird cast out of the nest. Esa. 16.2. Neither were the foure sonnes and successours of zea­lous Josiah exempted from this vicissitude of hu­mane affairs: for within a few yeares they were all carried away captives, partly to Babylon and partly to Egypt with the chief and prime of their subjects.

And to speak of things that hapned within the memorie of our fathers and our own; many English Protestants which harboured persecu­ted strangers in the happy reigne of King Ed­ward the sixt, were driven to seek harbour for themselves among forein Nations in the blou­dy dayes of Queen Mary: and the Orthodox men of the Palatinate,Trelcat. junior Orat. in obit. Kuchlini. which entertained cour­teously banished strangers under their good and gracious Elector Friderick the 3 surnamed The Pious, were banished themselves, and put to seek entertainment abroad by his Sonne and Successor Prince Lewis, that hot Ubiquitary. And again, in this our age the poore Palatinate men, the Bo­hemians, and the Grisons cast out of their coun­trey [Page 100] for the profession of the Gospel, and implo­ring the Christian hospitalitie of those people which sometimes fled to them for relief in the like case, are lamentable instances, and too true examples of this ebbing and flowing of these sublunarie things.

The serious consideration whereof, as it mo­ved of old learned Theodoret, to reach his help­ing hand to those out-cast Africans,Theodor. E­pist. 29 & 52 apud Baron. Anno 440. num. 8. & 13. Tom. 6. D^r. Abbot, the now Archbi­shop of Cant. Lect. 5. on Jo­nas nu [...]n. 5. —Rotat omne fatum. Res Deus nostras celeri citatas Turbine versat. Senec. Thyest. Act. 5. in fine. [...]. Xenoph Job 29.18. Psal. 30.6. Esa. 56.12. Prov. 27.1. Ecclus. 18.26. Nihil nè in to­tum quidem di­em certi est. Sen. consol. ad Polyb. cap. 29. Vide Senec. Epist. 91. 1. Tim. 6.17, 18. whom the Vandalick persecution had driven unto the East: (For when I saw (quoth he) their pitifull estate, I began to lay to heart the doubtfull turnings and inver­sions of humane things, and to fear lest I my self might fall into the like evils) So it makes the wise and godly persons of this Nation still courteous to exiled strangers, recounting that by a mutuall vi­cissitude of Gods chastisements, their case may be our case.

Since then there is no hold of these earthly things, since those that stand fastest upon earth have but slippery footing; let no man dream of unshaken prosperity in this World; vainly saying with Job, I shall die in my nest; or with David, I shall never be moved; or with those secure ones in Esay, To morrow shall be as this day: for no man knows what a day may bring forth. From the mor­ning untill the evening the time is changed, and all things are soon done before the Lord. Even in a point of time the greatest things are turned up­side down. As they that are rich in this World should not trust in uncertain riches, but do good with them while they have time and opportuni­tie: [Page 101] So they that live at ease in their native coun­trey, should not trust in uncertain lands and hou­ses, but make themselves freinds among stran­gers and passengers, that if ever they be deprived of their homes and dwelling places, strangers may receive them into their habitations.Eccles. 11.1, 2. Let them cast cheerfully their bread upon these waters, for they may finde it after many dayes: Let them give a portion to seven and also to eight, for they know not what evil shall be upon the earth.

Thirdly, The Prelation of this Vertue before her neare kinne.Psal. 119.6. For as we must have respect unto all Gods commandments, by reason of the com­manders authority, which is despised by the ne­glect of any: So we must have greater respect unto the weightier matters of the Law, then un­to the lighter: Those specially must be done,Matth. 23.23. though these ought not to be left undone,Eccl. 35.5. because of the commandment. Now if charity towards our neighbours and countrimen must chiefly be pra­ctised as a great Vertue, much more charity to­wards strangers and outlandish men, preferred before it in both Testaments. For as in the Old, injurie offered unto foreiners is aggravated above that which is offered to countrey-men and fel­low-citizens: So in the New, kindenesse done unto strangers is extolled above that which is shewed to neighbours and patriots. The Pro­phet Ezekiel complains thus of the Jews;Ezek. 22.29. The people of the land have vexed the poore and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger: And thus the Apostle Saint John commends Gaius; Beloved, [Page 102] thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the bre­thren, 3. John 5. Peregrinis in­ter dum plus quàm civibus & indigenis debe­mus: quando ni­mirum illos ma­jor necessitas premit, & mi­nùs quàm hisi bi ipsis consulere possunt. Gualt. in Matth. 6. Hom. 82. Inter Romanos constat hospites ipsis quoque co­gnatis & affini­bus fuisse prae­positos, inquit Lavat. in Judic. 19. Hom 96. testem citans Gell. l. 5. c. 13. and to strangers. Where the particle and signifies chiefly or principally, as Lorinus noteth upon the place: and therefore the old and vul­gar Latine translation renders it thus, & hoc in peregrinos, for ídque, and that to strangers: Which addes a great weight to the sentence, saith Be­za. Flesh and bloud is not prone to do good to this kinde of men, and therefore such benefi­cence must needs argue a better and higher principle. For as when we see the bank of the river, and the ground next to it wet alone, we gather that the river hath overflowed there: but when we see the farthest and remotest parts of ground wet also, then we know that the rain hath done that: So when we see a man doing good to his neighbours, friends, and countrimen, we think this proceeds but from good nature in him: but when we see him doing good also to strangers and unknown persons, then we may well beleeve there is more then good nature in that man: He cannot but have at least the gift of common grace.Ruth 2.10. Quare inveni gratiam? id est, Quae causa te movit ut mihi faveas? Inter­rogatio admi­rantis. Piscat. Schol. in loc. Luk. 11.31, 32. Therefore Ruth admired so much the kindnesse of Boaz, that he should take knowledge of her, seeing she was a stranger.

To shut up this first general part, I will say no more but this, that as the Queen of the South and the Ninevites shall rise up in judgement against those Jews that would not respect the wisedome and preaching of a greater then Solo­mon and Jonas: So shall Saint Austin against those Christians that will not be moved with [Page 103] these Motives. For he was drawn to the pra­ctice of every good work with that three-fold cord of obedience, Inerrablenesse of pre­cepts, innumerablenesse of examples, in­estimablenesse of rewards, and be­hold, there is here more then a sevenfold.

CHAP. I. The Duties of Strangers.

HAving thus prosecuted the Duties of homeborn inhabitants towards the stranger, I must needs now, by way of Use & application of all that hath been said, handle also the reciprocall Duties of the stranger towards the native inhabitants; lest they question me touching him, as Peter be­ing bidden to follow Christ did ask concerning John,Joh. 21.21. And what shall this man do? Is it just and equall that we beare alone the burden of hospi­tality? That we do many good turns to the stran­ger in our land, and he none at all to us? Is not beneficence a binder, and courtesie received a strong obligation to requitall in one kinde or other? Bid him therefore to help us, and to discharge on his part what belongs to his place.

These or the like objections that I may pre­vent, and observe the strait charge laid upon Ministers, of doing nothing by partiality, 1. Tim. 5.21. I will not like a Gray Frier speak onely for my self and my fellows, but commend to the carefull practice of the stranger and out-landish man some generall and particular Rules.

Generally,1. Pet. 1.1. Let him observe Saint Peters ex­hortation to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia: Dearely beloved, 1. Pet. 2.11. I beseech you as strangers and pil­grims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which warre against the soul. Eccl. 41.17, 19. Est singularis turpitudinis in eum locum pec­care, in quo quis fovetur & ali­tur. Jans. in loc [...]. Strom. 3. Let him follow the counsel of the wise Sonne of Sirach, Be ashamed of theft, and of any such crime, in regard of the place where thou sojourn­est. For, saith Clemens of Alexandria, it be­hoves them that are among strangers, to live well, and to be of an unblameable conversation, be­cause they are more exposed to the sight of all men, and a hole in their coat is sooner spied then in others.

Particularly, [...]. Menand. Peregrini offici­um est, nihil prae­ter suum nego­tium agere, nihil de alio inquire­re, minimeque in aliena Repub. esse curiosum. Cic. 1. Offic. Prov. 20.3. 1. Thess. 4.11. Let him expresse and shew forth in his whole carriage and behaviour these three singular good qualities, Discretion, Modestie, and Thankfulnes.

First, Discretion in three things.

1. In shunning the manner of those Pragma­ticall fellows, who love to have an oar in other mens boats, and to be meddling where they have little cause and lesse thanks. For every fool will be meddling: But a wise man (specially being a stranger) will studie to be quiet, and to do his own [Page 106] businesse. 1. Pet. 4.15. He will never suffer as a busie-body in other mens matters. For this fault above all others seemes intolerable to the native inhabitants, who are ready enough to say with the Sodo­mites,Gen. 19.9. This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: and with the Danes, A stranger is come into the countrey, and he will domineer.

2 In avoiding all singularity, and morosity in things indifferent, as diet, apparel, language, and matters of rites and ceremonies; according to the Greek Proverb,Erasm. Chil. 3. Cent. 6. Adag. 55. [...], The Law and Land, the custome and manner of the Region where we live must be the Rule and square of all lawfull actions. A stranger must not Antipodes-like tread contrary to the paths of all men. Ho­mer commending his Ulysses, calls him [...], not suttle and wily, Qui sapit, innu­meris moribus aptus erit. but willing to conform him­self and to condescend to the various manners and humours of men. The practice of Saint Ambrose, and the counsel which he gave to young Austin and his mother Monica, is generally well liked and followed of godly-wise men;Aug. Epist. 86. extremâ ad Casulanum. When I am in Millan I do nor fast on the Saturday, but when I am in Rome I do fast on that day: and to what Church so­ever ye come, observe the custome thereof; if ye will neither take, nor give any offence.

3 In forbearing all speeches that may give any distaste to his hoste, as the Spaniards insinuate by their Proverb,In domo suspensi, funis non est nominandus. In the house of one that was hang­ed, we ought not so much as to name a rope. Now among the sundry sorts of odious talks, which a discreet stranger will take heed of, these three [Page 107] specially are to be avoided, The vilifying of any thing that belongs to the place where he liveth, the extolling of his Countrey and Nation, and the bragging of his own descent and personall exploits, with the Rhodian leaper.Hic Rhodus, hic saltus. Erasm. Chil. 3. Cent. 3. Adag. 28. John 8.13. Longarum via­rum longa sunt mendacia. Prov. Hispan. apud Canum Loc. Theol. lib. 11 c. 6. Il a beau mentir qui vient de loing Prov. Gall. For as to such boasters one may most patly reply what the Pha­risees did impiously object to Truth it self, Thou bearest record of thy self, thy record is not credible: So against them these sayings are commonly used, A traveller may lie by authority; Long wayes have long lies; I had rather beleeve him then go trie.

Secondly, A stranger must shew his Modestie in foure things, Humility, Patience, Accepting of an offered entertainment, Moderate abiding in a place of free entertainment.

1 In Humility; Both by respectfull carriage towards the people of the Land: thus Abraham, though a great Prince, did twice bow down him­self before the people of the land of Canaan,Gen. 23.7, 12. with whom he sojourned: And also by contenting himself with mean things, without minding high matters:1. Sam. 27.5. Ubi Junius notat Davidis modestiam pere­grinos decentē, cùm in aliena regione versan­tur. thus David said to Achish after a mo­dest sort well beseeming a stranger, Give me a place in some town of the Countrey, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the Royall Citie with thee?

2 In Patience: For a stranger must not think it strange if he meets with many disrespects and disgraces,1. Pet. 4.12. as though some strange thing happened unto him: Spernere se sper­ni medicamine fortius omni. But he must put them up with a gene­rous disdain, as the best remedie; and consider that so it hath been of old, and ever will be [Page 108] amongst ungodly people. Let the good usage he findes with few civil and gracious men, have more force to cheer him up, then the harsh and hard dealing of many rude and gracelesse ones can have power to dishearten and cast him down.Zanch. Epist. ad Lantgrav. praefixâ Misc. —me hospitem Lites sequi, quàm hîc mihi sit facilè, atque utile, Aliorum exempla com­monent—Cri­to Terent. in Andria. Act. 4. Scen. 6. Gen. 34.30. and 49.6. Exod. 2.12. Act. 7.24, 25. Hoc vindictae genus nostrum est admirari: imitori eorum, qui eodem, quo illi, spiritu af­flantur. Tilen. Disp. de 6. De­cal. Praecepto. th. 39. Acts 6.1. Procop. Hist. Persicae. lib. 1. Zanchius shewed himself so patient at Strasbourg, that in those eleven yeares he lived there, he never complained to the Magistrate of any injurie that he sundry times suffered of his open enemies and secret underminers. Neither must a stranger avenge his kinsfolks or countrey­men which are wronged by the native inhabi­tants. For the act of Simeon and Levi was most dangerous and detestable, and the example of Moses admirable indeed to all, but imitable to none that want the same calling and instinct. A stranger should not so much as murmure against the native, for neglecting his countreymen in comparison of theirs, when offices or almes are distributed, as those fretting Grecians did against the Hebrews. Arsaces King of Armenia shewed once prettily this branch of Modestie: For being taken prisoner by Pacurius King of Persia, and brought into a great hall wherein some Armenian earth was scattered on the one side, and some Persian on the other: as oft as he trod on the Ar­menian, he spake as at home, boldly and threat­ningly; but he had no sooner set his foot upon the forein earth, but his speech and behaviour were full of meeknesse and patience. An eminent Wri­ter in this Church mentioning his conference at Bruxels with that hot wrangling Jesuite Co­sterus, [Page 109] saith thus, He spake as at home, B Hall Epist. 5. Decad. 1. I as a stran­ger.

3 In Accepting of an offered entertainment. For the rude and churlish refusall of a wel-proffe­red courtesie argues plainly either ignorance or immodestie.Musculus. Pareus. Piscator. B. Babington on Gen. 18.5. The strangers whom Abraham in­vited so courteously, did admit of his kinde offer, without either proud contempt, or stern frowardnesse. And the Prophet Elisha was so farre sociable as not to neglect the friendly offer of so kinde a be­nefactour as the Shunamite. Saint Paul also with his companions accepted without much ado the courtesies of Publius: and young Austin was so modest and civil, as not stiffely to refuse that kinde entertainment which Saint Ambrose did offer unto him. Nay more, the mirrour of all vertues and perfect pattern of good manners, hath here­in left us many examples,1. Pet. 2.21. that we should follow his steps. Luk. 7.36. and 14.1, 12. Joh. 2.2. and 12.2. For both in divers places and by sundry persons being bidden to dinner and supper, to a marriage-feast and other such meetings, he went thither with great facility.

4 In Moderate abiding in a place of free en­tertainment.Gualth. in Rom. 12.13. Qui ad dandum satì [...] prompti & propensi sunt, cùm tamen ab importunis ho­spitibus supra vires graventur, erga illos à qui­bus ità premun­tur, non possunt non malignè af­fici. Cartwrig. in Prov. 23.8. For this is one of the chiefest Uses which a famous and long practised Preacher makes of my Text, that as the home-bred inhabi­tants ought to be courteous harbourers of stran­gers: So harboured strangers should not be like lingring guests; which the more they are made of, the longer they will continue: They should labour to be no more nor longer chargeable to their free hostes, then they must needs. For as [Page 110] Solomons Proverb saith,Prov. 25.17. La trop longue de­meure fait changer l'amy. Buxtorf. Sy­nag. Judaic. cap. 32. Post tres saepe dies piscis vile­scit & hospes; Ni sale conditus sit, vel specialis amicus. Luk. 1.56. Trem. Gram. Syriac. Epist. Dedic. P. Mart. Epist. ad fideles Lu­cens. Eccles. that too oft coming, so the French Adage saith, that too long abiding cau­seth a friend to change. And howsoever the Rab­binicall Proverb, The first day a guest, the second a burden, the third a runnagate: or the common saying,

be meant onely of those common and ordinary guests which are called flies and smel-feasts, not of kinsfolks and freinds and honest strangers (for the modest and blessed Virgin which abode with her cousin Elisabeth about three moneths, and Tre­mellius who tarried above six with Archbishop Parker, and Peter Martyr who lodged in Bucers house seventeen dayes together, were question­lesse most heartily welcome all this while to their hostes and hostesses:) yet it is the part of a modest stranger not to take too much of a free horse, Germani dicunt equos volunta­riè incedentes non nimiùm cal­caribus urgen­dos esse. Lav. in Prov. 25.17 not to tarrie in a house till the countenance of his liberal hoste be not towards him as before. Tremellius speaking of his journey to England, when the University of Heidelberg, where he was then Professour, was dissolved by reason of the plague, saith, that he found so cheerfull an entertainment with that forenamed Prelate & all his familie, that he might and would have stayed as long again with them,Nisi me pudor & officii ratio extrusissent. Ubi suprá. had not his own shamefastnesse and regard of duty thrust him out.

The third and last Vertue requisite in a stran­ger, is Thankfulnesse to his hostes and other benefactours.

First, by his prayers to God for them. Thus Jacob blessed Pharaoh, that is,Gen. 47.7. prayed to God to blesse him for all the favours and courtesies he and his family had received of him. And if the Jews were commanded to pray for the citie whi­ther they had been carried away captives:Jerem. 29.7. much more should any stranger pray for the prosperity of the State whither he came of his own accord, and where he liveth in liberty and freedome. Eliah and Elisha prayed for their hostesses,1. King 17.20, 21. 2. King. 4.33. Luk. 10.5. and our Saviour bad his Disciples to wish peace, that is, all sorts of blessings to whatsoever house they should be received in.

Secondly, by his praises of them to men. Thus the Jews that dwelt in Scythopolis testifi­ed to Judas Maccabeus that the Scythopolitans dealt lovingly with them in the time of their ad­versitie.2. Mac. 12.30. And even Gehazi was so thankfull to his good hostesse of Shunem,2. Kings. 8.5. as to praise her to the King of Israel: and the strangers that had been kindely entertained by Gaius and Demetrius,3. John 6, 12. did beare witnes of their charity before the Church. The same part of gratitude was in John le Preux, the Genevian Printer of Daneus his Animadver­sions upon Bellarmines Controversies: Where he doth commend at large the bountifull hospi­talitie of Archbishop Whitegift, towards him and many more foreiners.Catholici Or­thodoxi Tom. 2. Epist. Ded. Neither is Doctor Ri­vet, one of the now Professours of Divinity in Leyden, niggardly in telling the World how much he is beholden to his kinde hostes and Colleagues, for freeing him from those manifold [Page 112] vexations, which strangers in other places are forced to endure.

In particular: A stranger must be thankfull to his publick hoste, that is, to the Prince or Magi­strate in whose Dominions he sojourns.

First, by observing his Laws. For strangers are bound to keep the Statutes of the State where they live, [...], Menand. Nec distinguitur unde sint, saith the Civil Law. as well as the naturall subjects; or to undergo the punishment due to the trans­gressours thereof, without any distinction or dif­ference of Nations. The Jews that dwelt in the Dominions of Ahasuerus had been much to blame, if their enemie could have convinced them of not keeping the Kings Laws. Esth. 3.8. But this obedience to humane Laws and Constitutions is ever to be understood with this proviso, that they be not contrarie and repugnant to Gods Law.Non obedium praecepto Regis, sed praecepto Legis. 2. Mac. 7.30. Act. 5.29. Exod. 1.20. Hos. 5.11. Sleidanum Bel­gam excepit Ar­gentina, ubi di­gnus est habitus, cui licèt peregri­no res longè ma­ximi momenti procurandae com­mitterentur, &c Beza Iconib. V [...]r. illust. in Sleidano. For if they be, then without all question the Rule of the Apostles, and the Practice of Daniel, of the three children, and of the Macca­bees must be followed, We ought to obey God ra­ther then men. As God dealt well with the Hebrew Midwives, for having disobeyed Pharaohs cruell injunction: So he punished Ephraim, because he willingly walked after the wicked commandment of wicked Kings.

Secondly, by discharging faithfully that office that he is preferred unto, as Joseph, Daniel, Mordecai, Sleidan: who being a Low-countriman behaved himself so vertuously at Argentine or Strasbourg, that they trusted him with the weightiest affairs of their Commonwealth, and [Page 113] made him their Leiger to England, and to the Councell of Trent: where he ever discharged his Commission to his own great praise, and to the full content and satisfaction of those that sent him. A stranger must use the credit and favour that his place or person hath procured him, to the good of those that are unjusty oppressed, as Ebedmelech the Ethiopian did in the matter of Jeremy.Jer. 38.7, 8, 9.

To his Private hoste likewise a stranger must be thankfull two wayes.

First, by taking in good part whatsoever en­tertainment he findes, so it be cheerfull. He must measure and esteem his welcome by the face and countenance,Hospitis in men­sa vultum, non fercula, pensa: Dat bene, dat multum, qui dat cum munere vultum: Aequiparat lae­tus lautissima fercula vultus. Luk. 10.7. Matth. 10.11. Chrys. Hom. 33. in Matth. not by the feast and cost of his hoste. When our Saviour sent forth his Disci­ples, he charged them that they should not be curious and choice of their diet, but to eat and drink such things as their hostes and hostesses should set before them. Being entred into any city or town, they were not to go from house to house, loathing as it were their first entertain­ment, and seeking for better cheer and more deli­cious fare: but they were to abide with the first honest man that received them, so long as they tarried in the same citie or town.

Secondly, by doing to him what good office he can. For an ingenuous disposition cannot re­ceive favours without thoughts of return. Be­hold thou hast been carefull for us with all this care, 2. Kings 4.13. what is to be done for thee? Wouldest thou be spoken for to the King, or to the Captain of the host? said E­lisha [Page 114] to the Shunamite. Christ and the Angels, the Prophets and Apostles were very beneficiall guests to their hostes and hostesses, and ever paid a blessing for their entertainment.1. Kings 17. B. Hall Con­tem. book 18. I [...] Elias with the Sareptan. Elias requited his hostesse with a supernaturall provision. He gave her life and her sonnes to her, for his board: yea, in that wofull famine he gave her and her sonne their board for his house-room.

And this Thankfulnesse which a stranger ow­eth to his publick and private hostes, is not to be limited within the time of his tarrying with them; but is to be shewed also after he is gone home, where he may be more able to requite their courtesies; or to any other place whatsoe­ver. For without all question, faithfull Abraham kept this oath which he swore to Abimelech; According to the kindenesse that thou hast done unto me, Gen. 21.23. I shall do unto thee, and to the Land where I have sojourned. B. Hall Con­templ. book 7. In Balaam. And it is like that Moses having found fourty yeares harbour among the Midianites, would have been (what he might) inclinable to fa­vourable Treaties with them, if they had looked for favour from him for Jethroes sake, Num. 22.4, 7. in stead of joyn­ing with Moab against Israel. David having foil­ed the enemies of the Lord, sent a present of their spoil,1. Sam. 30.31. not onely to his friends of Judah and Hebron, but also to all the places where he had been entertained.Fox in Henr. 8. ann. 1540. And the L. Cromwell requi­ted to the full Fr. Frescobald, his liberall hoste and benefactour in Florence, when he met him in London.Idem in Maria Reg. ann. 1558 And Francis Perusell having recei­ved some courtesie in England at the Dutchesse [Page 115] of Suffolks hands, stood her in good stead, when she and her husband M^r Berty fled for Re­ligion to Wesell, where he was Minister of the Wallons.

This Vertue of Thankfulnesse is so much the more to be followed of Christians, by how much the contrary Vice was hatefull among the verie Pagans, as appeares by their histories and fables. For we reade of Philip, King of Macedonia,Sen. de Benef. lib. 4. cap. 37. that when one of his souldiers went to him to begge the land of a man that had entertained him very kindly, Philip was so farre from granting his request, that in a deep detestation of such ingrati­tude, he branded him in the forehead with these words, Ingratus Hospes, An unthankfull Guest. Hom. Iliad. 3. Cic. in Ver. lib. 2. & 5. Liv. lib. 25. Val. Max. lib. 5. cap. 1. Aesop. fabul. de Cerva & Vite. We see the sharp invectives that are in Homer against Paris, in Tully against Verres, in Livie and o­thers against Badius, for their ingratitude to their courteous hostes. We reade in their Apologues, how the hinde being hunted by the dogs hid her self under a vine, whose broad leaves covered her; where perceiving many sweet grapes, she began to eat them: but by her breaking and cut­ting of the grapes she made such a noise and sha­king of the leaves, that she was soon perceived by the huntsmen, and so taken and devoured by the dogs. Whereby thus much is intimated, that, Ʋnthankfull and hurtfull guests never thrive well.

From Jeremies passe over the Iles of Chittim and send unto Kedar, and see if there be such a thing, Jerem. 2.10. we may passe to Jobs ask now the beasts, Job 12.7. and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the aire, and they shall tell [Page 116] thee: and to the practice of Infidels adde the ex­amples of brute creatures, [...]. Ba­sil. in Hexam. Hom. 8. Ferunt martes illorum gallinis parcere quorum hospitio utuntur, hanc nimirum gratiam occulto naturae instinctu suis hospitibus referentes. La­vat. in Jos. 2. Hom. 10. Ciconiam ferunt tecti Domino, ubi nidum posu­erat, unum ex pullis tanquam hospitii sui preci­um relinquere. D. Willet on 1. Sam. Epist. Dedic. Gesner. Hist. Animal. lib. 3. Nutrierat eum puer dilectum admodum. Plin. lib. 8. cap. 17. Aelian. l. 6. c. 63 Plin. l. 10. c. 74. to raise a blush in the face of such unthankfull strangers as live within the pale of the Church, and professe Christiani­ty. For it is said of polecats, that by a secret in­stinct of Nature they spare the hens of the house where they lodge: and of storks, that they leave one of their young ones to the Lord of the roof where they built their nests. It is storied of a stork, that having been healed of a broken leg, and fed a great while by a Tarentine woman cal­led Heracleis, she brought her the next yeare a most precious stone for a requitall of her kinde­nesse: and of another, that she brought in a thank­ful manner a great root of new ginger to a citizen of Wesalia (in Germanie) where she was suffered to nest. We reade that a dragon rescued a noble man in Arcadia from the violence of robbers, be­cause he had lovingly nourished him in his youth: and that an asp being entertained by an Egyptian, and fed at his table; one of her young ones having kil­led a childe of her hostes, she was so grieved at it, that she killed her young one, and left the house for ever, being ashamed to dwel there any longer.

CHAP. II. That all Strangers, especially Christs Stran­gers, should perform all those Duties.

AS all strangers in generall are bound to per­form all those forehandled Duties; so in speciall Christs strangers, that have forsaken their [Page 117] own countrey for his Gospels sake. For they a­bove all others should labour to be such as Saint Cyprian warned the ancient Confessours to be,Humiles, & mo­destos, & quie­tos esse debere, ut honorem sui no­minis servent: ut qui gloriosi voce fuerint, sint & moribus gloriosi. Cypr. Epist. 6. vel lib. 3. Epist 10. num. 2. Gualth. in 1. Cor. Epist. Dedic. Calv. Com­ment. in 1. Cor Epist. Dedic. Beza in Vita Galeacii Ca­raccioli. Serm. 21. in Hist. Pass. Dom. Humble, modest, and quiet; that they may preserve the honour of their name: that they which are glori­ous by Christian voice and confession, may be also glorious in manners and conversation. Such was the carriage of those English Divines that fled into Suitzerland in Queen Maries dayes, as Gual­ther beares them record; and of Galeacius Ca­racciolus (honoured with the title of The Second Moses) sonne and heir apparent to the Marquesse of Vicum in the Kingdome of Naples, during his long sojourning among the Genevians, as it is written at large by Calvin, and Beza; who gives also this praise to those persecuted Protestants of his time, which from sundry parts of Chri­stendome resorted to Geneva; that they were so thankfull to that city for their courteous har­bour, as to be readie to shed their own bloud for her defence. And it is recorded of Musculus by the Writer of his life, that such was his gratitude to the Church and Commonwealth of Berna, for having received and used him kindely in his ba­nishment for the truth, that he ever preferred their service before any preferment whatsoever. For being sundry times called into England, spe­cially after the death of Bucer, and to the Pala­tinate, and other Provinces of Germanie, with many promises of farre greater stipend and lar­ger pension then he had, he did constantly refuse all these honourable conditions. Neither must I [Page 118] omit here what I have heard of M^r Aaron Blon­del, a learned French Minister about Calais and Bologne; that he is so thankfully affected to­wards this Nation, for the kinde hospitality he found at Lambeth in his late persecution, as to say oft with great feeling and passion, that if he should meet any where but an English dog, he would make much of him: So mindefull is he to practise the old precept, ‘Sit cordis festum panem meminisse comestum.’

Let all strangers, I say, labour to square their lives according to those generall and particular Rules: and that in foure respects; Of God, of their Countrey, of themselves, of their fellows.

First, In respect of God, whose goodnes and impartiality towards them challenge no lesse at their hands. 1. His goodnes: For should they not walk worthy of him that preserveth the stran­gers, Psal. 146.9. by procuring them the favour of those peo­ple among whom they live?P. Martyr in 1. Reg. 17.9. The hearts of carnall men are naturally hardned against strangers, but God by his Spirit mollifies & softneth that hardnes, and in­clines their affections to mercie and compassion: as it is said of the Jews that were in Egypt, in Babel, and other places; that he gave them favour in the sight of the Egyptians, Exod. 12.36. Psal. 106.46. he made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives: and as it ap­peares in the example of Abraham, of whom God himself speaks thus by the Prophet; Who gave the Nations before him? Esa. 41.2. that is, (by an He­braisme, Scult. in loc. saith Scultetus) who procured him fa­vour in the sight of forein Nations, that they [Page 119] might do him no wrong, but rather shew him all offices of hospitality? When a stranger is tempted to any dishonest act, he should thus rea­son with that holy Joseph; Behold, God hath so graciously preserved me all the way, and made me finde such acceptation among strangers: how then can I do this great wickednesse, Gen. 39.9. and sinne against him? 2. His impartiality: For if without respect of persons God will have every man to be judg­ed according to his work,1. Pet. 1.17. should not strangers passe the time of their sojourning in fear? As God takes great care for the poor,Exod. 23.3. Levit. 19.15. and yet would not have judgement perverted in their behalf: So though he loveth the stranger, yet not so farre as to absolve him in judgement, if he be guiltie. He will have indeed his cause searcht and di­spatcht, but in no case his person spared in any lewd course, because he is a stranger. For he charged the Israelites to stone to death and cut off from among them any abominable sinner, any blasphemer of his Name, any presumptuous transgressour of his Laws,Lev. 18.26, 29. and 24.16. Num. 15.30. as well the stranger that sojourned among them, as him that was born in the Land, and of their own Nation.

Secondly, In respect of their Countrey. For every stranger should be,Cupidissimus gloriae suae Gen­tis. De Verbo Dei lib. 2. c. 6. as Bellarmine saith Jo­sephus was, most desirous of the glory of his Nati­on; not by telling strange tales of it, but by lead­ing a most vertuous life. Aristides being asked what did most grieve him in his banishment,Stob. serm. 37. said it was the blame that his Countrey did beare for it. A godly-wise stranger may be said in some sort [Page 120] to be the exaltation of his Countrey, and the glory of his Nation, Judith 15.9. Gen. 34.30. Sirac. 11.28. Significat ex fi­liis ut plurimùm colligi posse qua­lis fuerit ejus vita; juxta Adagium, Pa­trem sequitur sua proles. Jansen. in loc. Accipe nunc Danaum insidi­as, & crimine ab uno Disce omnes. Virg. Aen. 2. Omnes gentes habent sicut pe­culiaria mala, ità etiam quae­dam bona. Salv. lib. 7. Vide Lips. Cent. 1. Ep. 22. Phil. Lanoyo John 1.46. John 7.52. John 4.40. Luk. 10.33. which is the excellent praise that is given to Judith: but a scandalous one may be called the reproach and shame of his Mother-countrey; for he makes her to stink among the in­habitants of the Land, as Simeon and Levi did their father. As a man is known in his children; So a Nation is soon esteemed by one or two of her sonnes. Albeit one swallow makes not a summer, nor one woodcock a winter, nor one or two examples a generall Rule in other things; yet in this case it is otherwise: For by the manners of one stran­ger, men are wont to judge of his whole Nation, as Aeneas would have his hearers to think that never a barrell better herring, that all the Greeks were naught, and egregious impostours, for one treacherous Sinon. Besides, every Nation being branded abroad for some peculiar vice and cor­ruption, as the Dutch for drunkennesse, the French for vanitie and lightnesse, the Italian for lascivious­nesse, and the Spanish for pride and African haugh­tinesse: it is the dutie of every stranger to vindi­cate his own Countrey from common imputati­on, and to shew by his vertuous behaviour, that such ignominious reports of his Nation are not universally true, that notwithstanding the fore­stalled judgement and prejudicate opinion of the World, there can some good thing come out of his Nazareth; that out of Galilee may arise some Prophets, out of hated Samaria some thankfull and compassionate men, and thatEtiam Scythia parit Philoso­phos. Ana­charsis & To­xaris, Cassian and Evagrius were Scythians even Scythia (the mostScythas Bar­baris adjun­ctos amplifi­cationis, non distinctionis causâ, censer Episc. Dave­nant. & Cor. à Lapide in illud Col. 3.11. Barbarus & Scytha. barbarous & brutish of all countreys) [Page 121] doth bring forth Philosophers and Divines. Thus Plutarch and Lipsius refuted by their intellectu­als those disgracefull Proverbs of Boeoticum in­genium, and Brabanticum acumen; Erasm. Chil. 2. Cent. 3. Adag. 7 and Saint Paul and Saint Basil falsified by their morals those foul nick-names and by-words of ‘Cappadoces, Cretes, Cilices, tria pessima Cappa.— [...]. Chil. 3. Cent. 6. Adag. 82.’

Thirdly, In respect of themselves. For if strangers dare presume to live loosely and dis­orderly, they shall not want enemies that will in­form against them, as Haman against the Jews, They keep not the Kings Laws, Esther 3.8. In peregrinos sunt alioqui ci­ves parum pro­pensi; quòd si addantur illo­rum demerita & mali mores, pessimâ laborant invidiâ & odio. Pet. Mart. in Gen. 34.30. 1. Sam. 21.15. Macrob. Sa­turn. lib. 2. cap. 4. Gen. 34.21. therefore it is not for the Kings profit to suffer them; that will move the Magistrate to say of them as Achish said of Da­vid, when he behaved himself unseemly, Pack away this fellow, have I need of mad men? and as Augustus the Emperour said of the coblers crow, taught to prate like a parret, I have enough at home of such saluters. Whereas if they carry themselves as they ought, both Prince and peo­ple will say of them, as Hamor & Shechem said of Jacob and his family, These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein: yea, as Xerxes, the Persian Monarch, said of Themistocles,Plut. in The­mistocle. Let the Athenians send us more of such guests. For modestie is of a winning qualitie wheresoever it is, and even among stran­gers will make it self friends. The good disposi­tion of Ruth carried away the heart of Boaz,Ruth 2.7, 8. and of his reapers with her, when she craved leave to glean, and carved not for her self, though she knew well the law of gleaning. But say many a [Page 122] stranger for all his vertuous carriage cannot win the love of the natives,Psal. 35.19. John 15.25. Sed Domino gratias, qui & mihi miserrimo peccatori suo de­dit dicere, Ode­runt me gratis. Paulin. Epist. 1. ad Severum. Est aliquid ma­gnis crimen ab. esse malis. Ovid. yet at least he shall get by it Christs comfort against the malice of the Jews, and Paulinus his solace against the spleen of the Romane Clergy, They hated me without a cause.

Fourthly, In respect of their fellows. For what is commonly said with pitie and commise­ration of kinde drunkards and prodigals, They are no mans foes but their own, is not true of inso­lent and unruly strangers. For they hurt not one­ly themselves, but also their fellows, both of the same and of other countreys; involving them, though never so harmlesse, in their own deser­ved punishment. As it fell out about the yeare 1219,Fox Acts and Monuments Tom. 1. page 338. that the disorder and rebellion of some strangers moved King Henry the third and his Counsel, to ordain and proclaim through all this Land, that all aliens and foreiners should depart from the Realm, and not return to the same again. And all the Jews have been oft banisht out of this and other Countreys for the villanies of some among them.See some ex­amples thereof in Parre on Rom. 11.28. Gen. 47.11, 27. Esther 10.3. Num poenitet Balbos ex Hi­spania, nec mi­nùs insignes vi­ros è Gallia Narbonensi transivisse? Manent posteri eorum, nec amo­re in hanc patri­am nobis conce­dunt. Tacit. 11. Annal. Whereas vertuous strangers are a great furtherance to their present & future fellows, and do better the case of those that come after; as ap­peares by the examples of Joseph and Mordecai, and by these words of Claudius the Emperour, spoken in the Senate against some that would have hindered strangers from being made free-denizens of Rome: Have we cause to grieve that the Balbi came hither from Spain, or those no lesse excellent men from France? Their children dwell still among us, and are no whit inferiour to us in love and affection to this Countrey.

CHAP. III. The Conclusion.

TO conclude this point and winde up all: Let strangers be more carefull to shew them­selves worthy of kinde entertainment, then to take up the complaints of severall Authors about the common decay of hospitalitie: as, that it is by some changed into foure wheels and some few butterflies, B. Hall Cen­sure of Tra­vel Sect. 21. Barker on the 8 Command. pag. 279. that by others bread and beef is turned into stones; that as store of Lawyers argues mens unpeaceablenes, and multitude of Physici­ans proclaims their intemperance:Calvin. in. Gen. 18. so abundance of Innes and Ale-houses, of Taverns and Cabarets convinces the World of inhospitalitie; Serar. Jesuita in Tob. 6. quaest. 3. that now-a-dayes this Vertue is more disused, while hospitall Mansions receive beggers, and Innes all them that are furnisht with money. Calvin. & Mercer. in Gen. 18. Let them lay the sadle upon the right horse, and a great part of this blame upon themselves. Let them accuse their bad predecessors, for having made the names of stran­gers and travellers to become vile and suspected with the most:Malè istis effoe­minatis eveniat, qui rem tam bellam infama­verunt. Sen. De Benef. lib. 7. cap. 25. as Aristippus did beshrew those effeminate Philosophers, that had brought so good a thing as ointment into reproach and dis­grace. Let them prove no more Devils that are received as Angels, but let them prove Angels that are entertained as men. Let them not be like the sword, which cuts the scabbard that pre­serves it; nor like the ivie, which eats up the tree, and undermines the wall that supports it: But let [Page 124] them strive to be what Israel hath been,Esay 19.24. even a blessing in the midst of the land. Let them labour with Joseph, that the house and countrey where they dwell, fare the better for their sakes. For as the French use to say,Les bons rendeurs font les bons presteurs. that good restorers make good lenders: So it is most certain, that good guests make good hostes, that Chri­stian demeanour in strangers is a good means to revive CHRISTIAN Hospitality.