Com.5.0fthehonour due to thofe that excel ingifts c.Chap.g, 3B3 CHAP. Ix. OfFathers by-excellencyofGifts': ` The honour due to them, it no! debitum juftiti e, ai the former, but debitum honeflatis. r. Of theft that excel in'gifts or the mind. The honour due to them: T. To acknowledg their gifts. Not to envy or deny them. Nor to extenuate them. Nor undervalue them : Nor tax them with want of other gifts. The duty of the pertngifted. 2. To prefer fuck before others, to chao f them for their gifts. Reafons againft choice of ungifted perform s The duty oftheperfori chafen, 6'c. 2. Of excellencyof the Body by old Age, and the honour due to the aged.. 3. Ofexcellency by outward gifts, as Riches, Nobility, &c. Reafons for honouring fuch. How they muff be honoured. Fourthly; excellency by Benefits conferred. Benefatiors are Fathers. Rules for conferring of Benefits. The Duties of the Receiver. V ] jE beginning, t ecationofthi Ppt, Tat hledu / / ties faid w at hich the belong to anyin , propheeer "rat xplication peculisarem rece exceilenrieh t o by rea fon ofany fpecial excellency, may be referred hither ; and we did diflingui(h the imseaxit, the excellency of the Perron, from quota, power, and 4%4, Principality and Government; for the former may be without the other two : there maybe ex. cellency of gifts in fome, who yet have no Authority nor power conferred upon them, nor are put into any place ofGovernment,ánd in tome theydo all concur,as in goodPrinces andGovernours. Now where there is the firft,viz. excellencyof though they have not power or principality,there is anHonour due to fuch,byvir- tueof this Commandment ; for honour is nothing elfe but tef{imonium excellentix, á teftimonie of that excellencie which is in another, and therefore fuch ought to be honoured, though they want theother two. Digniras fometimeslignifies a flare ofdignity and honour, and fometimes onely themerit or worth of the perfon, whereby he deferves honour anddignity, though he have itnot. Of the former we have hitherto fpoken, and the Honour due to perfons fo dignified ; of the Honour due to fuch, as have only the latter, weare now to fpeak. And according to this twofold confideration ofDignity, there are twodegrees ofdebitum, Duty to to be performed, which theCafuifls and Schools call r. debitum legis, and 2. dehïtum honeftatis. a. A legal Duty, or that which is required byLaw, which cannot bedenied to' the party without injufiice, and to which a manmay be forced ; fuch is the Duty owing to Parents, Matters, Tutors, Minifters, Princes and Magiflrates, of which hitherto. z. Theother is due inhonefty, and though there be noeoinpulfion to performit; yet if he would be fuch as we ought before God, this Duty mull not be negleEted: fuch is the dutyofHonour whichwe owe to all men for their gifts, of themind, bo- dy, or fortune,&c. This being premifed, we cometo thofe that have excellencyfeparated fromDig- nity, whoyet in regardoftheir Excellency are to behonoured. Andhere according to the threefold Good, there is a threefold Excellency. r. OfMind, as Knowledge, &c., which they call excellentiam" don!, excellencyof Gifts. 2. Of the Body, as ofold age: 3. OfFortune, oroutward Eflate, as Nobility, Riches, &c. 4. To which we may add, the applying ofany of there to others for their be- nefit, whereby men are raid benefacere, to do good , or become BenefaEtors. As when by the gifts of themind, from thofethat are gifted, or from rich men, by their Ettate, or aged mcn by rules of Experience, we receive good , they become then Benefadlorsto us', and fo anhonour is due to them from us, eonomine, for that caufe. a. For the gifts of the Mind. They are called Fathers, who excelled others Gen, 4. 21. inany fuch kind of Excellency. Thus are they called Fathers in Scripture, that have 4,5a- the gift ofinvention of Arts : as 7ubal who invented Mufick. So Rewire 7of7ph was
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