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charity must refuse no man, and forgiveness must always stand at your door ready to let in all that knock,-yet the accidents of the world, caution and prudence, and innocent fears, will dispose of our affairs in other channels of security, and cut off the occasions of such disputes: so certain is that observation of St. Jerome which I mentioned before, that we are tied to forgive oftener than our brother can sin;' but then also so safe are we, whose charity must be bigger than the greatest temptation: and yet no temptation is like to happen, but what is less than an ordinary charity.

QUESTION V.

Whether the injured Person be bound to offer Peace? Or may he let it alone, and worthily communicate, if the offending Party does not seek it?

To the question, Whether of the parties must begin the peace?' I answer, that both are bound:-for although he that did the injury, is bound, in conscience and justice, to go to him whom he hath injured, and he is not a true penitent if he does not; and he must not for his part be accepted to the communion, of which I am to give account in the chapter of repentance ;-yet because we are now upon the title of charity, I am to add, that, if the criminal does not come, the offended person must offer peace: he must go, or send to him." If others begin the quarrel, do thou begin the peace,' said Seneca *. For sometimes the offender desires pardon, but dares not ask it; he begs it by interpretation and tacit desire: consult, therefore, with his modesty, his infirmity, and his shame. He is more bound to do it than thou art; yet thou canst better do it than he can. It is not always safe for him; it is never unsafe for thee. It may be an extreme shame to him; it is ever honourable to thee. It may be sometimes to his loss; it is always thy gain. For this was the resolution of Hesiod's riddle, Half is more than the whole.' "A dinner of herbs with peace, is better than a stalled ox with contention;" and therefore, upon all accounts, it is for thy advantage to make the offer.

* Dissentio, ab aliis; à te reconciliatio_incipiat.

* Νήπιοι, οὐδὲ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντός.-Op. et D. i. 40. Gaisford. Poets Gr. Min. vol. i. pag. 6.

I add also, it is thy duty. I do not say, that in justice thou art bound; but in charity thou art, and in obedience to thy Lord. "If thy brother offend thee, go and tell him:" "Go thou," says Christ. For, by so doing, we imitate God, whom, though we have so often, so infinitely offended, yet he thought thoughts of peace, and sent to us ambassadors of peace, and ministers of reconciliation. When Pompey and Marcus Crassus were to quit their consulships, Cneius Aurelius, I know not upon what account, ran into the forum, and cried out, that Jupiter, appearing to him in his dream, commanded that they should be reconciled before they were discharged by the people; which when the people also required, Pompey stirred not, but Crassus did; he reached out his hand to his colleague, saying, I do nothing unworthy of myself, O Romans, if I first offer peace to Pompey, whom you honoured with the title of great,' before he was a man, and with a triumph, before he was a senator.' We cannot want better arguments of peacefulness: it is no shame to thee to offer peace to thy offending brother, when thy God did so to thee, who was greatly provoked by thee, and could as greatly have been revenged; and it is no disparagement that thou shouldst desire the reconcilement with him for whom Christ became a sacrifice, and to whom he offers, as he does to thee, the communion of his body and blood. Thou art, I say, bound in charity to thy brother's soul, whose repentance thou canst easily invite by thy kind offer; and thou makest his return easy; thou takest away his objection and temptation: thou securest thy own right better, and art invested in the greatest glory of mankind; thou dost the work of God, and the work of thy own soul; thou carriest pardon, and ease and mercy with thee: and who would not run and strive to be first in carrying a pardon, and bringing messages of peace and joyfulness?

Consider, therefore, that death divides with you every minute; you quarrel in the morning, and it may be, you shall die at night: run quickly, and be reconciled, for fear your anger last longer than your life. It was a pretty victory, which Euclid got of his angry brother, who being highly

z Matt. xviii. 15.

8

Cogitans cogitationes pacis Deus prior nos accessit, et legatos ministrosque reconciliationis ad nos destinavit.-S. Gregor.

displeased, cried out, Let me perish if I be not revenged;' but he answered, Dispeream, si non persuasero;' And let me perish, if I do not make you kind, and quickly to forget your anger b? That gentle answer did it, and they were friends presently, and for ever after.—It is a shame if we be outdone by heathens; and especially in that grace, which is the ornament and jewel of our religion, that is, in forgiving our enemies, in appeasing anger, in doing good for evil, in returning prayers for cursings, and gentle usages for rude treatments; this is the glory of Christianity, as Christianity is the glory of the world. I end this with the advice of St. Bernard, "Let every man, who desires to come worthily to the sacrament of peace, the communion of Christ's body,for the wrong that he does, be ready to ask pardon; and for the wrong that he receives, be ready to give pardon and so Christ's members will be in peace."

QUESTION VI.

Whether the Precept of Forgiveness, and the charity of the Communion, must, of Necessity, put a Period to all Lawsuits.

To this I answer, that suits at law, in matters criminal, relating to injuries done or suffered, are so often mingled with interests of anger and revenge, they are so often conducted violently and passionately, that he who forbids anger and revenge, does also in effect forbid suits of law upon the account of injuries received. But this is to be understood only of such repetitions of right, or vindications of wrong, as cannot, or will not, be separated from revenge. Thus if the law which God gave to Moses in the matter of injuries, were the measure of our judicatories, “ an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," it were not lawful to go to law to get his eye put out, that had extinguished mine: for this does not repair me, but only afflicts him. A wolf is, in nature, less

5 Ο μὲν οὖν Σωκρατικὸς Εὐκλείδης ἐν ταῖς σχολαῖς περιβόητός ἐστιν, ὅτι φωνὴν ἀκούσας ἀγνώμονα καὶ θηριώδη τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ πρὸς αὐτὸν εἰπόντος, ̓Απολοίμην, εἰ μή σε τιμωρησαίμην, Εγὼ δὲ (εἶπεν) εἰ μή σε πείσαιμι παίσασθαι τῆς ὀργῆς, καὶ φιλεῖν ἡμᾶς, ὡς πρότερον plus.-Plut. de frat. am. Xylandr. tom. ii. pag. 489. D. (J. R. P.)

c Christi sanguis de cruce clamans pacem loquitur, et reconciliationem ; quin idem sanguis, quoniam à nobis bibitur, si modo digne bibitur, clamat in corporibus nostris verba pacifica.— S. Cyprian.

hateful than a viper; he wounds, that he may drink the blood, and kills, that he may eat: but the viper smites that he may kill, and gets nothing by itd. So is every lawsuit that vexes one, and repairs no man. But the rules and measures of conscience in this particular are briefly these :

1. If the injury be transient, and passes away in the act, it is not lawful for a Christian to go to law; because he cannot rescind the act, and he cannot repair himself: and that which remains, is nothing but revenge, which can never consist with charity.

2. The case is the same, if the injury be permanent, but irremediable for if nothing can be rescinded, if no amends can be made, it is but a fantastic pleasure to delight in the affliction of him that injured me. If cutting off his arm would make mine grow; if striking him upon the face would bring me a new tooth, instead of that which he struck out of mine; then there might be a just cause of going to law; but when the evil remains after all that the law can do, it is enough that I lost a limb,-I will not lose my charity, which is left me to make amends to me, and to procure a blessing to make me reparation. If by my arm I got my living, it is fit that he that cut my arm off, should give me maintenance; because he can repair my loss of livelihood, though he can never restore my arm and to cause him to be barely afflicted for my affliction, when I am not relieved by his affliction, is barbarism, and a rude uncharitableness. To revenge, is but the more excusable way of doing injury. Nay, Maximus Tyrius says, it is worse; "the revenging man is worse than the injurious:" and, therefore, to prosecute him in law who did me wrong, and cannot now amend me, is but uncharitableness acted under the visor of authority. So Mithridates affirmed, that usually men carry arms against a thief, for revenge as much as for their security:'-it is, in many cases, nothing else but revenge.

4 "Ωσπερ οἱ κεντήσαντες, οὐκ ἵνα πίωσιν ἐκέντησαν, ἀλλ ̓ ἵνα ἐκχέωσιν, οὕτω καὶ ỏ ȧvagíws μetiùr, nai μndèv évteûdεV нαρπоÚμεvos.-S. Chrysost. homil. 27. in I Cor. e Inhumanum verbum est et quidem pro injusto receptum ultio, et à contumelia non differt nisi ordine. Qui dolorem regerit, tantum excusationes peccat. Seneca.

† Ὁ τιμωρῶν τοῦ προυπάρξαντος ἀδικώτερος.

Adversus latronem si nequeunt pro salute, pro ultione tamen suâ, ferrum omnes stringere.

3. He that hath received an injury, must not revenge himself by going to law, though with a purpose to prevent another injury, that is tolerable and inconsiderable. The reason is, because if he fears an evil that is but little,-the smallness of the evil, and the uncertainty of its event, are not considerable, if compared to the evil of revenge that is included, to the trouble of the suit, to the evil of our brother's punishment, to his shame and to his smart, to his expense and his disorder: and the charity of forgiveness shall never have a proper season for his exercise, or an opportunity to get a reward, if every excuse and every degree of temptation, or seeming warranty, can legitimate that action which is more like a revenge, than it can be to prudence, and a reasonable caution.

All quarrellings and contentions at law for little matters, are arguments of impatience, of a peevish spirit, and an uncharitable mind. He is a very miserable man that is unquiet when a mouse h runs over his shoe, or a fly does kiss his cheek. "Whatsoever is little and tolerable, must be let alone," said Aristides i; and Apollonius answered, "That wars must not be undertaken for great causes,―nor suits at law for little ones." There is in such persons who run to courts, and complain for every small offence, such a stock of anger and peevishness, and such a spirit of fire within them, -that every breath and every motion from without can put it into a flame; and the devil will never be wanting to minister occasions to such prepared materials. It is told in the annals of France, that when the kings of England and France, in a deadly war, had their armies ready to join battle, the French officers, having felt the force of the English valour, were not willing to venture the hazard of a battle, and persuaded their king to offer conditions of peace. The treaty was accepted, and the two kings withdrew into an old chapel in the field; where, when they had discoursed themselves into kindness, they resolved to part friends, and to appoint commissioners to finish the treaty. But as they were going out, a great serpent issued out of the ruinous wall, and made towards the kings; who, being affrighted with the danger, drew their swords, and in that manner ran

* Καὶ μᾶς δάκοι ἄνδρα πονηρόν.

· Συγχωρεῖν καὶ παριέναι ὅ, τι ἂν ἢ μέτριον.