Book II, Part 2, Chapter 6. First Advice upon the Esteem we are to have of the different Virtues, for the better understanding the Rule of a good Life. ■• * ' ' •

1. As, at the beginning of this treatise, I set down some necessary precognita, by way of advance ; so it is convenient here, now we are drawing to a conclusion, to give some advice for the clearer understanding of all that is contained in if. First, therefore, it is necessary, after having treated of several kinds of virtues, to show how much one virtue is more excellent than another, that so we may know what value to put upon every one, and to esteem it according to its true worth. For as it is requisite, that a man who trades in jewels should know what rate they bear, that he may not be deceived in the value of them, and as it is convenient for the steward of a great man's house to know the merits of all in the family, that each person may be treated according to his deserts, (for otherwise there will be nothing but perpetual confusion and disorder), so he that trades in the jewels of virtue, and he that, like a faithful steward, is for giving every one what is his due, should be well acquainted with the value of them, that whensoever they are set together, he may know which to give the preference to, lest he should gather chaff and scatter the grain.

2. You are, therefore, to understand, that all those virtues we have hitherto treated of may be ranked into two classes ; for some of them are more spiritual and inward, and others more visible and outward. In the first class are contained the theological virtues, with all the others, which have God for their object ; but charity, as queen of the rest, has the first place. To these we may add several other very excellent virtues, and which are much like the former, as humility, chastity, mercy, patience, discretion, devotion, poverty of spirit, contempt of the world, a denying of our own will, a love of the cross, and of Christ's mortifications, with many other such virtues, which we call virtue in this place, taking the word in the largest signification. We call them spiritual and inward virtues, because it is the spirit they chiefly reside in, though they extend themselves even to outward works, as appears particularly in charity and in the worship of God, which, notwithstanding their being inward virtues, work outwardly for the honor and glory of the same God.

3. There are other more visible and outward virtues, as fasting, discipline, silence, retirement, pious reading, prayer, singing

'of psalms, pilgrimages, hearing of mass, assisting at sermons and at the divine office, with all the outward observances and ceremonies of Christian and religious life. For though these virtues are all of them in the soul, yet their effects appear more outward than those of other virtues do, which are often occult and invisible ; as to believe, to love, to hope, to contemplate, to be inwardly humbled, to have sorrow for a man's sins, to judge discreetly, and the like.

4. There is no doubt, but that the first of these two kinds of virtues are much more excellent and necessary than the second. For as our Saviour said to the Samaritan woman, " Woman, believe me, the hour is come that those who are the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father looks for such to adore him. God is a spirit ; and, therefore, they that adore him must adore him in spirit and truth." John iv. 23. This is, in plain terms, no more than what little children repeat sk) often at school, in these two noted verses : —

Si Deus est animus, nobis ut carmina dicunt, Hie tibi prcecipue sit pura mente colendus. — Cato.

If God, as poets say, a spirit be, He must in spirit be adored by thee.

For this reason David, describing the beauty of the church, says, " that all her glory is within, her garments are of cloth of gold, and of several colors ;" Ps. xliv. 13. The apostle expresses the same thing to us, when he says, " Accustom yourself to piety, for bodily exercise is good but for a little, but piety is profitable for all things, and has a promise of the goods both of this life and of the next ;" 1 Tim. iv. 7, 8. By piety here we are to understand the worship of God, and charity towards our neighbor ; and by the exercise of the body, abstinence and other corporal austerities, according to St. Thomas upon this place.

5. This is a truth which the heathen philosophers were not ignorant of; and Aristotle, though he has not written much concerning the gods, says, that if the gods take any notice of our concerns, as it is to be believed they do, it is very probable they are most pleased with that which is the best and comes the nearest to them ; which is man's spirit or understanding. For this reason they who take care to beautify and adorn their souls with the knowledge of this truth, and with the reformation of their desires and passions, must, without doubt, be most acceptable to God. Galen, the great physician, was of the same opinion; for, in his book of the Composition and Structure of Man's Body, and the Use of its Parts, coming to a passage, which particularly demonstrated the singular wisdom and providence of God, the sovereign Artist, he was struck with admiration at so many wonders, and forgetting, as it were, his physic, turned to divinity, and broke out into these expressions : " Let others ofFer up their hecatombs" (they wTere sacrifices used by the ancients of a hundred oxen) " to the gods : I will honor them by a profound acknowledgment of the greatness of their wisdom, by which they have so wonderfully disposed of all things ; I will reverence them by confessing the greatness of their power, by which they have been able to execute their own pleasure ; I will wTorship them, by admiring the greatness of their love, which has refused the creatures nothing, since they have bestowed upon every one of them in particular, whatsoever was necessary, and left them nothing to desire further ;" L. 3. de Usu Partium. These are the words of a heathen philosopher ; and what, I pray, could a Christian have said beyond this ? especially after having read this

2H expression of the prophet : " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice , and the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings ;" Osee vi. Change but the word hetacoinbs into holocausts, and you will find the philosopher and the prophet agree upon this matter.

6. But notwithstanding the excellence of these virtues, thone of the second class are very useful (though not so noble as the former) for acquiring and preserving of those that are greater ; some of them are necessary, either because of the precept, or of the vow that goes along with them. This is made out by reflecting on those virtues we have mentioned. For retirement and solitude put a man out of the way of seeing, hearing and talking of a thousand things that will endanger not only his peace and quiet of conscience, but his chastity and innocence. We are all sensible what a help silence is for preserving of devotion, and avoiding of those sins, which men fall into by talking ; and the wise man has told us, that, " where there is much talk, sin will not be wanting." As for fasting, besides its being an effect of the virtue of temperance, and a satisfactory and meritorious work, if it be done with charity, it enervates the body, it lifts up the spirit, it weakens our enemy, and disposes us for prayer, pious reading and contemplations ; it keeps us out of those excesses and debaucheries occasioned by eating and drinking, and preserves us from all those scurrilous jests and buffooneries, quarrels and riots, which generally follow merriments and revels. As to those other virtues of reading good books, hearing of sermons, praying, singing and assisting at the offices of the church, it is plain they are all acts of religion, incitements of devotion, and serve to enlighten our understandings, and to make our wills more inflamed with the desire of spiritual things.

Experience makes this point so clear that, had our adversaries considered it, they would never have run into the contrary extremes ; for we daily see, that in those monasteries where regular discipline is more exact, and where the exterior observances are better complied with, there is always more virtue, more devotion, more charity, more strength and vigor in the members of them, and the fear of God and Christianity is better encouraged and promoted. Whereas in those houses where these things are less regarded, and where the exterior discipline their rules oblige to is grown loose, conscience, good manners and a holy life follow the same course, and fall to ruin ; because where the ©ccasions of sinning are more, there sins and disorders are more frequent. So that the observance of a religious state may be properly compared to a vine, which, if it be well fenced and enclosed, is out of all danger of being spoiled, but otherwise its fruit will be exposed to every one that passes by. It is even so with a religious order that has once fallen from the rigor and austerity of its rule. Then what clearer proof than this, which is .grounded on daily experience, of the advantage and importance of these virtues ?

8. How is it possible for a man that proposes to himself the acquiring and preserving of this sovereign virtue of devotion, which capacitates and enables him for all other virtues, and is, as it were, an incentive and spur to all kind of good, ever to obtain his end, whilst he watches so carelessly over himself, especially when the virtue he aims at is so far above his strength as it is, and so pure and perfect ? For it is so nice, and, if I may be allowed the expression, so volatile, that a man can scarce look back but it is gone. An excess of laughter, a superfluous word, a greater meal than ordinary, a little passion, a small dispute, or any other distraction whatsoever ; the desire of seeing, hearing or thinking of things not to our purpose, though not bad, are enough to spoil the better part of our devotion. So that not only our sins, but unnecessary employs, and any thing that can divert us from thinking on God, draws us away from it. For as iron, to be changed into the substance of fire, must be always in it, or at least but. seldom out of it, for fear of returning to its natural coldness again ; so this noble virtue depends so much upon man's being always united to God by an actual love and reflection, that if he but thinks of any thing else, he casts himself back again into his natural corruption, that is, into the old disposition he had at first.

9. It concerns him, therefore, that has a mind to procure this virtue, and to keep it when he has it, to watch so carefully over himself, that is, over his eyes, his ears, his tongue, and his heart ; it concerns him to be so temperate in his" meals, to be so regular in all his words and notions, to be so much a friend to silence and solitude, to make it so much his business to be present at the service of the church, and to do all those things which shall excite him to devotion, that he may, by means of this care and diligence, be able to secure to himself the possession of so great a treasure as this is. If he does not do this, let him look on it as most certain he shall never succeed in this point.

10. All this may sufficiently convince us of the importance of these virtues, without lessening the value of the nobler. Whence we may gather the difference there is between them; for these are, as it were, the end, those the means of attaining it ; these are like health, those like medicines proper for procuring of it; these are in a manner the spirit of religion, and those the body, which, though it is inferior to the spirit, is a chief part of the compound, and necessary because of its operations ; these are like the treasure, and those like the key that secures it ; these are, as it were, the fruit of the tree, and those the leaves that adorn the tree and preserve the fruit. Though this comparison does not answer exactly, because the leaves of a tree are no part of the fruit, though they preserve it ; but these virtues secure justice so as, at the same time, to make up a part of it, since they are all of them virtuous actions, and worthy of grace and glory, if done with perfect charity.

11. This is the esteem you are to set upon the virtues we have here been discoursing of, which is what we proposed at the beginning of this chapter. This doctrine wTill secure us against two vicious extremes, that is, two notorious errors there have been in the world, as to this affair: the first, an ancient one, of the Pharisees ; the other is a late one, of the heretics of our times. For the Pharisees, like carnal and ambitious men, and brought up in the observance of the law, which as yet was carnal, made no account of true justice, which consists in spiritual virtues, as we may see throughout the whole course of the gospel ; so that, as the apostle says, n they had the appearance indeed of piety, but wanted the substance" (2 Tim. Hi. 5) ; you might have taken them for good men by the outside, though they wrere full of abomination and filth within. But our present heretics, on the contrary, being sensible of this error, to avoid one extreme ran into another, which was splitting upon Scylla to avoid Charybdis. But the true Catholic doctrine shuns both these extremes, and seeks virtue in the mean, taking care to give the inward virtues the first and best place, without suffering the outward to lose the rank that is due to them. It places some, as it were, in the rank of the nobility, and others among the gentry and commonalty, which compose this commonwealth, that the value of every thing may be known, and each have as much as is its due.