The Victory of Patience, Chapter 18
CHAP. 18. That it is more laudable to forgive, than revenge.
2 BEcause it is more generous and laudable to forgive, than revenge: certainly in taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superiour to him, for it is a Princes▪ part to pardon; yea quoth Alexander, There can be nothing more noble, than to do well to those that deserve evill. Princes use not to chide when Embassadours have offered them undecencies, but deny them audience; as if silence were the way royall to correct a wrong. And certainly he injoyes a brave composednes, that seats himselfe above the flight of the injurious claw.
Agathocles, Antigonus, and Caesar, being great Potentates, were as little moved at vulgar wrongs, as a Lion at the barking of Curres: and who so truly noble as he that can doe ill and will not? You'l confesse then 'tis Princely to disdaine a wrong; and is that all? No, forgivenesse saith Seneca, is a valiant kind of revenge: and none are so frequent in pardoning as the couragious. He that is modestly valiant, stirs not till he must needs, and then to purpose: who more valiant than Ioshua? and he held it the noblest victory to overcome evill with good: for the Gibeonites tooke not so much paines in comming to deceive him, as he in going to deliver them. And Cicero more commends Caesar for overcomming his owne courage in pardoning Marcellus, than for the great victories hee had against his other enemies. Yea, a dominion over ones selfe, is greater than the Grand Signiory of Turkie. And indeed, for a man to overcome an enemy, and be overcome by his owne passions, is to conquer a petty Village with the losse of a large City. Yea, if the price or honour of the conquest is rated by the difficulty; then to suppresse anger in thy selfe, is to conquer with Hercules one of the Furies; To tame all passions is to leade Cerberus in chaines: and to indure afflictions and persecutions strongly and patiently, is with Atlas, to beare the whole world on thy shoulders, as saith the Poet. Every Beast and Vermine can kill: it is true prowes and honour to give life, and preserve it. Yea, a Beast being …narl'd at by a Cur, will passe by as scorning to take notice thereof. I, but is it wisdome so to doe? Yes, none more wise than Salomon: and he is of opinion; That it is the glory of a man to passe by an offence, Pro. 19.11. We fooles thinke it ignominy and cowardise to put up the lye without a stab; a wrong without a challenge: but Salomon, to whose wisdome all wise men will subscribe, was of another judgement. And Pittacus the Philosopher holds, That pardon is better than revenge, inasmuch as the one is proper to the spirit, the other to a cruell Beast. How Socrates whom the Oracle of Apollo pronounced the wisest man alive, and all the rest of Philosophers approved of it, both by judgement and practice; We shall have occasion to relate in the reasons ensuing. No truer note of a wise man than this; he so loves as if he were to bee an enemy, and so hates as if he were to love againe; as with fire, the light stuffe and rubbish kindles sooner than the solid and more compact; se anger doth sooner inflame a foole than a man composed in his resolutions. This the Holy Ghost witnesseth, Eccles. 7.9. Bee not thou of a hasty spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosome of fooles. Some have no patience to beare bitter scoffes: their noses are too tender to indure this strong and bitter Wormewood of the braine. Others againe like tyled houses, can admit a falling sparke unwarmed; it may be coales of Juniper without any danger of burning. Now what makes the difference? the one hath a good head-peece and is more solid, the other are covered with such light drie straw that with the least touch they will kindle and flame about your troubled eares: and when the house is on fire, it's no disputing with how small a matter it came. I confesse I finde some wise men extremely passionate by nature, as there is no generall rule but admits of some exception̄s: and these as they are more taken with a joy, so they taste a discontent more heavily. And others againe none of the wisest, who are free from being affected: and as they never joy excessively, so they never sorrow inordinately but have together lesse mirth and lesse mourning, like patient Gamesters winning and losing are all one. But for the most part it is otherwise. Yea, impatience is the Cousin German to frenzie. How oft have we heard men that have beene displeased with others teare the name of their Maker in peeces?
And lastly, this of all others is the most divine and Christian like revenge, witnesse our Saviour Christ, who even then triumphed over his enemies, when most they seemed to triumph over him, Col. 2.15. And the Martyrs who are said by the Holy Ghost to overcome the great Dragon, that old Serpent called the Devill and Sathan, in that they loved not their lives unto the death, Revel. 12.11. And holy David, who when he had Saul at his mercy, instead of cutting off his head, as his servants perswaded him, only cut off the …p of his Garment, and after, thought that too much also. And at another time when the Lord had closed him into his hands, finding him asleep in the Fort, instead of taking away his life, as Abishai councelled him, he tooke away his Speare, and instead of taking away his blood from his heart, he takes a pot of water from his head. That this kinde of revenge for a man to finde his enemy at an advantage, and let him depart free, is generous and noble, beyond the capacity of an ordinary man; you may heare Saul himselfe confesse, 1 Sam. 24.17. to 23. Againe, when the King of Syria sent a mighty. Host to take Elisha, and the Lord had smote them all with blindnesse, and shut them into Samaria, what doth the Prophet? Slay them? no. Indeed the King of Israel would faine have had it so, his fingers itcht to be doing: but Elisha commanded bread and water to be set before them, that they might eat and drink, and go to their Master, 2 King. 6.22.
So we see the cudgell is not of use, when the Beast but only barkes: nay, tell me, how wouldst thou endure wounds for thy Saviour, that canst not indure words for him? if when a man reviles thee thou art impatient, how wouldst thou afford thy ashes to Christ, and write patience with thine owne blood.