17. The apostle Peter puts this question to our blessed Saviour, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him, till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Not as if after this number of offences, a man might then cease to forgive; but the expression is to shew us, that we are not to bound our forgiveness by any number of offences, but are to continue forgiving the most repeated offences against us. If therefore a man ceases to forgive his brother, because he has forgiven him often already: if he excuses himself from forgiving this man, because he has forgiven several others, such a one breaks this law of Christ, concerning the forgiving one’s brother.
Now the rule of forgiving is also the rule of giving. You are not to give, or do good to seven, but to seventy times seven. You are not to cease from giving, because you have given often to the same person, or to other persons; but must account yourself as much obliged to continue relieving those that continue in want, as you was obliged to relieve them once or twice. Had it not been in your power, you had been excused from relieving any person once; but if it is in your power to relieve people often, it is as much your duty to do it often as it is the duty of others to do it but seldom, because they are but seldom able.
18. And the reason of all this is plain; there is the same necessity of being charitable at one time as at another. It is as much the best use of our money, to be always doing good with it, as it is the best use of it at any particular time; so that that which is a reason for a charitable action, is as good a reason for a charitable life; for charity has nothing to recommend it to-day, but what will be the same recommendation of it to-morrow; and you cannot neglect it at one time, without being guilty of the same sin as if you neglected it at another time. As sure, therefore, as these works of charity are necessary to salvation, so sure is it that we are to do them to the utmost of our power; not to-day, or to-morrow, but through the whole course of our life. If therefore it be our duty at any time to deny ourselves any needless expences, that we may have to give to those that want, it is as much our duty to do so at all times, that we may be able to do more good: for if it is at any time a sin to prefer needless expence to works of charity, it is so at all times. If it is ever necessary to take care of these works of charity, and to see that we make ourselves in some degree capable of doing them; it is as necessary to take care to make ourselves as capable as we can be, of performing them in all the parts of our life.
19. Either therefore you must say, that you need never perform any of these good works; or you must own, that you are to perform all your life in as high a degree as you are able. There is no middle way any more than there is a middle way between temperance and intemperance. If you do not strive to fulfil all charitable works, if you neglect any of them that are in your power, let it be when it will, or where it will, you number yourself amongst those that want Christian charity; because it is as much your duty to do good with all that you have, as it is your duty to be temperate in all that you eat or drink.
20. Hence appears the necessity of renouncing all those foolish and unreasonable expences, which the folly of mankind has made so common and fashionable in the world. For if it is necessary to do good works as far as you are able, it must be as necessary to renounce those needless ways of spending money, which render you unable to do works of charity.
You must therefore no more conform to these ways of the world, than you must conform to the vices of the world. You must no more spend with those that idly waste their money as their own humour leads them, than you must drink with the drunken; because a course of such expences is no more consistent with a life of charity, than excess in drinking is consistent with a life of sobriety. When therefore any one tells you of the lawfulness of expensive apparel, or the innocency of pleasing yourself with costly satisfactions, only imagine that the same person was to tell you, that you need not do works of charity, that Christ does not require you to do good to your poor brethren, as unto him, and then you will see the wickedness of such advice; for, to tell you that you may live in such expences, as make it impossible for you to live in the exercise of good works, is the same thing as telling you, that you need not have any care about such good works themselves.
CHAP. VI.
How the imprudent use of an estate corrupts all the tempers, and fills the heart with poor and ridiculous passions; represented in the character of Flavia.
1.IT has already been observed, that a religious care is to be used in the manner [♦]of spending our money or estate; because the manner of spending our estate makes so great a part of our common life, and is so much the business of every day, that, according as we are wise or imprudent in this, the whole course of our lives will be wise, or full of folly.