too restless and busie from prodigality many fall to covetousness and from superstition to profaneness and irreverence The last cheat of Opinion I shall now reckon is that it generally makes us judge and esteem our selves not according to our own sense and consciousness but according to the vain thoughts and talk of other men We defer so much not only to our own but also to others opinions that except they will count us happy we cannot be so We are not contented to live to our selves but we must also entertain a troublesome imaginary life to please we know not whom people that perhaps know us not and to be sure care not for us whose judgment we our selves slight in other things Thus neglecting that true and real life which we our selves enjoy we make it our care and indeavour to preserve and adorn that life which depends on others and hath no subsistence but in ours and other mens fancy and so far doth this delusion prevail that what we our selves feel and know is nothing to us except others be acquainted with it From all these mischievous errors and deceptions of opinion we cannot be freed by the power of natural reason without the supernatural light of the Divine Grace enlighten our minds For our opinions become true or false according as is the light that guides us CHAP. XI That the Doctrine of Salvation is much slighted even by some that pretend to it 1. ALL knowledge is good that agrees with truth but he that would work out his salvation with fear and trembling had need learn first what concerns it because our time is short and great learning in other things is great trouble and great vanity It is the saying of S. James that to him that knows to do good and doth it not to him it is sin 4.17 As if he should say that it is ill to eat and not digest For as indigested meat nourisheth not but rather hurts so much knowledge not concocted and converted to use by the fire of holy charity fills men with pride and such peccant humors and at last ends in death These two things men are to care for whilst they are in this World first to keep the life of the Soul which consists in the grace and the favour of God and secondly to preserve their temporal life but for the first many are unconcern'd let what will become of the Soul their study and all their labour is that it may be well with the body And so they run blindfold after their lusts and sensual enjoyments being wise indeed as children of this world but having none of that wisdom which makes men wise unto Salvation 2. They that speak doubtfully and deceitfully are odious to men saith the Son of Sirach much more are they odious to God that live so whose very life is a lie as well as their words They pretend to know God and his holy ways and vainly boast to follow them when yet they go quite contrary they reprove and tutor others not themselves they cunningly dissemble their vices and make a shew of those virtues they are strangers to But they cannot deceive God who searcheth the heart and their hypocrisie cannot be hid from him who seeth the things that are in secret and at the last day will bring all to light And O that men would view their stains and imperfections in the great and eternal light of that terrible day for then they could easily discern and as easily cleanse and amend them We have but these two ways to take notice of our defects and deformities either in the light of our own reason comparing them to our selves or in the light of Divine Revelation bringing them forth before the bright and glorious presence of the most holy God The first is like a winter days light dim and cold but the second is the sun-shine of a summer-day so clear as to make the least mote visible and hot enough to burn and consume all our dross But to see this saving divine light a man must come out of himself and go to God in whom alone is truth and wisdome and out of whom all things are meer impostures and follies CHAP. XII That Self-will is a great Evil and must be renounc'd 1. ALL our actions contrary to God's will and in compliance to our own are the fewel for that fire which is unquenchable For self-will may be said to be the maker of Hell and the leader to it the Author of all the evils which eternally afflict all the wicked that rebell'd against God As likewise even in time the less a man follows his own will the farther he is from being miserable the nearer he comes to true happiness And he that hath wholly renounc'd to his own desires and inclinations hath the greatest assurance that can be had here of being eternally happy hereafter How this is to be done our Blessed Saviour taught us when he said follow me for he himself as he testified came not into the world to do his own will but the will of the Father that sent him so that to follow him we must follow his obedience forsake our own will to comply with his to follow him we must take up and bear his yoke and his Cross which to the flesh is indeed hard and afflictive but to the Spirit is comfortable and delicious 2. This our Christian profession doth require from us that in all our works and undertakings we may heartily say Not my will but Gods will be done This also is the design of the supreme eternal will of God in creating and preserving mens wills that they may freely serve him and in all things fulfil his good pleasure And truly it is the greatest and most blessed freedom to be in subjection to God to be able from our hearts to say in all events Even so Father for so it hath seemed good before thee My only will is Gods will may be done He is infinitely good and wise I freely resign my self to him and desire evermore to have an entire dependence on him and to be contented with all the disposals of his Providence and that in all things his blessed name may be glorified All mens troubles and vexations proceed from their unwillingness to submit to God for there is not a greater pain or grief than to be what we would not be CHAP. XIII Of the advantages of Solitariness and Retirement 1. TO be much alone in quiet silence and there to examine and instruct ones self is the way to have our senses and our thoughts well compos'd Therefore a wise man hates much talk and much company keeps his eyes close to curiosities and his ears to flying reports and cumbers not himself with too much of the world remembring the saying of wise Ben-Sirach that he shall become wise that hath little business Ecclus. 38.24 God is but one and he can best commune with God that dwells by himself And if a wise man be called
to righteousness unto holiness as it is written Be ye holy for I am holy saith the Lord. Lev. 11.45 3. Now as Christianity checks and restrains self-love so doth self-love keep men from understanding and approving the Christian doctrines for how can he that seeks and loves himself rightly apprehend that whatever the world dotes upon is meer vanity that Estates and Honours bring great vexations and great slavery that to forgive Enemies and do good to them that hate us is the part of a noble and generous mind that 't is better to despise than to possess riches that 't is more honourable to be subject where God commands than to bear rule and to domineer that for a man to restrain his appetite and conquer himself is more glorious than to win battels and take fenced Cities These are Paradoxes hard and incredible sayings to the self-lover whose fondness of himself ties him fast to this earth to whatever can be useful and any ways pleasant to the flesh whereas the Children of God live to God being not led and govern'd by the flesh but by the spirit they live in the flesh but not after the flesh some of their actions are natural whilest they are in the body yet they proceed from a supernatural principle and are designed to a nobler end for they continually deny themselves and mortifie all sensual unruly desires Self-lovers hold a great regard should be had to the flesh 't is true but it must be such as Christ hath taught us to keep it under otherwise Saint Paul hath declar'd that to be carnally minded is death CHAP. XXXI That Self-love is that Babylon out of which God hath called us 1. GOD at first placed man in Paradise but Adam in whom we all sinned transported us into this world out of Paradise out of Jerusalem into Babylon out of our freedom into slavery out of integrity into corruption out of our countrey into banishment and out of life into death Thus from truth and perfection we fell into vanity we are now like unto vanity nay every man is but vanity as the Psalmist saith Psal 39.6 Man is vain in his body which ends in death and corruption vain in his soul which being inslav'd to sin is obnoxious to death eternal and vain in all his outward enjoyments which all perish or must be forsaken when he dies Yet man strangely dotes on this vanity he passionately runs after these transitory things which are all cheats and lies whereby he is drawn into thousands of pernicious errors and out of the Heavenly Jerusalem into a Hellish Babylon 2. Now these two Cities are built by two sorts of love to love God so as to despise our selves makes the City of God and to love our selves so as to despise God makes the Devils Babylon the City of this World The way to this is broad and short to that is streight difficult and long because dull and earthly as now we are we more easily fall on the earth and descend down to Hell than we can raise up our selves and ascend to Heaven Let every man therefore examine himself and find out what he chiefly loves for if he loves God so as to deny himself he is doubtless a Citizen of the Jerusalem which is from above but if he loves himself so as to prefer his own desires to God 't is plain he belongs to that Babylon out of which God hath called his Children For thus the Scripture cries aloud Go ye forth of Babylon and remove out of the midst of her Isa 48.20 Jer. 50.8 and again the Psalmist Psal 137.8 O Daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones We come out of Babylon when we leave the confusion of sin forsaking our disorderly course of life and we dash the children of Babylon against the stone when our love to Christ overcomes our ill desires and ill inclinations Self-love is the death of the Soul and the love of God is its life therefore he doth not truly love himself who by self-love destroys himself CHAP. XXXII How men naturally seek themselves even in their best works 1. IT may seem strange to observe that whereas mens opinions and inclinations are so various and different yet all men are agreed in this that none appears vile to himself none is willing to yield and submit to others none though never so mean but thinks himself somebody and is desirous to be taken notice of every one seeks to be higher than others every one is indulgent to himself and severe to others all men will have their will and their saying all applaud to their own inventions and conceits and censure others they count their own follies wisdome and notwithstanding their great ignorance there is nothing but what they think to know They carefully hide their own faults and pretend to those virtues they know they have not And what is most of all to be wonder'd at even good men who endeavour to please God and seem to aim at nothing but his honour and glory Even they sometimes in their best actions by a secret and natural instinct almost unknown to themselves seek their own comfort and complacency most of all and the more excellent are their works the more subtil and undiscernable is this snare which self-love sets to the most spiritual 2. What better than to obey God to read his Sacred Word and preach it to receive and administer his Holy Sacraments Yet these duties are commonly stain'd with some secret desire of praise and except the Christian be very watchful over his own heart he may easily lose his better reward Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.1 and have not Charity I am become like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal And though a man should give all his goods to the Poor and even his Body to be burnt yet without Charity without the love of God hath purified his heart it will profit him nothing According to the saying of the Prophet Haggai 1.6 Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink and he that earns wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes for thus good works avail nothing if done out of respect to our selves and not to please God This being therefore the bent of our corrupt nature to draw us to our selves we ought carefully to examine our selves and search the hidden corners of our hearts that there lurk not in them some ill purpose of vain-glory or self-interest to mix with our best actions either first or last This is the Rule of a true Christian Life always to seek and love the things of God and never his own CHAP. XXXIII Things which every Christian is bound to know in order to obedience 1. EVery Disciple of Christ ought to know those Divine and Human Laws under which he lives and the which he is
they walk and covers their misery and danger so that they neither see nor fear the dreadful tribunal of that just Judge who will condemn all Apostates that turn from the right way They walk saith the Apostle in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling they have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Ephes 4.17 They count their life a market for gain and say we must be getting every way though it be by evil means Wisd 15.12 And then it often happens by a just judgment that their faith comes to be as debaucht as their life that having long said it by their wicked deeds they at last say it in their heart that there is no God 3. I have already and cannot too often note the cause of this evil that is Adam who by his sin not only lost the uprightness of his will but also the true light of his understanding so that in him who was the stock and root whence all men grow we were depriv'd of both And now this corruption of the will inclines man to self-love vain glory and an imperious pride to covetousness sloth sensuality and looseness And in the darkness of the understanding exposeth him to ignorance and false apprehension of things to doubts errors and lies and makes him have an aversion to good and serious thoughts Thus man is become earthly weak and distemperd unable to resist the sinful motions of his own heart and unable to know or to attain true felicity but rather as it is written His ways are always grievous and God's judgments are far above out of his sight Psal 10.5 And he now being alienated from God to whom all things should be refer'd is also a stranger to virtue which consists in the intention in being design'd to please God rather than in the act But that Soul which by the Grace of our Blessed Jesus is redeem'd from this power of Satan and slavery to sin is also enabled to cleave stedfastly to God in whom it enjoys Peace and joy and full satisfaction all that can make him intirely happy for he is unreasonable and too unsatiable to whom God is not sufficient CHAP. XVI Another reason why so many miss of their end their living too much by sense 1. WHereas reason it self teaches and all men freely confess that things to come should be prefer'd to things present heavenly things to things earthly and things eternal to things that last but for a short time 't is hard to conceive why so many who believe and acknowledge this yet by their actions strongly deny it In worldly matters and such as concern this present life they are very active very wise and very laborious in others they seem to have neither sense nor reason If you speak to them of God of Holy-Living and Life Eternal they understand you not or they presently forget what you said Things material and perishing are sensible and therefore more regarded and set by though oftentimes experience will force them to know that all human concerns are flitting uncertain and very deceitful yet men follow sense and they soon return to embrace those things which custom and a familiar converse hath made dear to them 2. The fall as I said of our first Parents is the head-spring whence all this mischief flows from it proceed all temptations as also the darkness and inconstancy of our minds but the more immediate cause of it which I now consider is the imbecillity depravation and weakness of the faculties of our souls which have no right apprehension of the things of God and but an imperfect confused notion of the amazing concerns of Eternity The loveliness of virtue and the great deformity of sin the terrors of death and the dread of God's righteous judgments the joys of Saints above and the grievous torments of the wicked in hell these are but words which we hear we have dark and narrow conceptions of them we understand not of how great an importance they are and therefore we are not so affected with them as to be made wise unto salvation Of things offer'd to our consideration we only mind that least outward part which falls under the reach of sense but we attend not to that which is less sensible though more considerable and apt effectually to work upon the mind Thus in sin we look most of all to what 's temporal we are more concern'd for the impairing of our same and the diminution of our worth or self-complacency than for having offended God and made our selves obnoxious to an infinite pain Likewise in a dying man we most observe what is in view outward symptomes and accidents little regarding the more essential adjuncts which concern the soul and are of far greater moment And we conceive of the last judgment and the unquenchable flames of Hell which are imperceptible to sense as of things which are nothing to us and which we have no interest to mind 3. The same deception also extends it self to things present which gratifie our appetite we take notice only of that outside which pleaseth us and so deplorable is our sottish mistake that we count our selves very happy to enjoy that for a moment which must make us eternally miserable Every man knows his Soul is immortal and many Philosophers have writ great things upon that subject but where are they that are solicitous for its well-being after death Do not most men neglect their soul and live as if it were to die with the body The mischief is that generally men live neither by faith nor by reason they follow blindfold and brutishly just as sense leads them avoiding carefully what is now troublesom to the flesh as if nothing else were to be done here and nothing else fear'd hereafter CHAP. XVII That we being the Children of God ought to be guided by his Spirit and by the example of Christ 1. IF a man should rightly understand and seriously consider that God by a gracious adoption owns him for his son that he is redeem'd by the Bloud of Christ and born again by Holy Baptism into the hope of Eternal Life he would doubtless esteem it his noblest title and his greatest honour he would despise all earthly advantages and mind and value nothing but what is Divine and Eternal and passionately desiring to come to his Father he would do nothing unworthy of him As he that acts the King on the stage though it be but a vain shew to delight vainer people yet is careful to do and to speak nothing but what befits a King so and much more careful should a Christian be to do nothing unworthy of that honourable name which makes him a brother and disciple of Jesus and an heir of his Heavenly Kingdom And as a picture-drawer when he is upon a great design fixes his
that passion which carryed away the Heart coming to abate it returns to its former and more pleasing affections and soon repents of its Repentance Some seek themselves more than God in their Prayers because therein they find some refreshments and Spiritual delights and some seek after abstractions and extatick raptures to be therein raised up to Heaven and know great mysteries but all these will signifie nothing without Contrition and Humility The great benefit of Prayer is to find the World lose its power and its repute in our Hearts and to find our wills more resign'd to God to patience and to obedience He Prays best that desires to know nothing and to obtain nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 3. It is a common error to think that meditation is a thing exceeding difficult when indeed every man is daily occupied about it for to meditate is to revolve and view things in our minds and that we always do vain and worldly and often sinful things Why cannot we then as well consider the mysteries of Faith and the concerns of our Salvation Sure we could easily if we would seriously endeavour to expel the world out of our hearts then there would be room for the things of God and we could fix our thoughts upon them Want of this makes us unfit for Prayer and unwilling to be crucified to the World and to bear the Cross and Reproach of Christ We pretend indeed that our occupations are necessary and perhaps good and profitable so that we have a good warrant to dispense with prayer and meditation but there is a time for all things and however the business of the Soul is our chiefest concern and 't is a great folly to neglect it upon any account 4. The body without nourishment soon decays into weakness and death so doth the Soul without its proper food which is prayer and it wants it the more frequently in that it hath many more and greater necessities than the body hath For heat and cold hunger thirst and sickness and whatever afflicts the body doth also vex and prey upon the Soul which is compatible with it and besides that the Devil the World and the Flesh it self are all Enemies to the Soul and daily conspire its ruin and it hath no strength nor defence nor comfort but from prayer only We ought therefore always to pray and devoutly to call upon God in the inner-man in the inward recesses of our Souls which are the Temple of God wherein he is pleased to dwell We need not always words in our private Closets God sees our thoughts and hears our secret desires Yet they may use books to good purpose that are not used to mental prayer And however the publick Devotions of the Church ought to be said and sung aloud and to be constant and unalterable That all the Faithful may agree in them and edifie one another by joyning their voices as well as minds to send up their praises and petitions to God Yet still the heart is the house of prayer and the Kingdom of God is within us CHAP. XLIII How to Pray and avoid distractions and fix the intention 1. THat our Prayer may be truly good and acceptable we must endeavour to ask all things out of love to God For though a thing be good in it self yet the surest and better way it is to desire and demand it upon Gods account because it will please him that Self-love may not be the principle and purpose of our petitions The ground on which our prayer must rest is a lively Faith and a sense of the presence of God whom we must approach with an humble simplicity as much as may be like an Infant brought to his Mothers breast He is not altogether intent to his devotion that considers himself praying for whilest he reflects on his prayer his mind is diverted from God to whom he prays and sometimes he is distracted indeavouring to avoid distraction Therefore I say simplicity is best in prayer to think of nothing but God to look to none but him whom we worship 2. For his mind shall hardly be drawn to other objects that shall consider God as present the immensity of divine perfections will absorb his thoughts they shall sail in that boundless Ocean and find no limits and all other things but God will be out of sight But the perfection of this is reserv'd for a better State here we must expect distractions and if we duly strive against them they shall not make our prayers to be unprofitable For God will hear them and assist us whilest we contend with our infirmities Yet we shall sooner be freed from ill and idle thoughts by slighting them and taking off our minds from attending to them than by fencing and fighting against them for sometimes whilest we stand to confute them they make the deeper impressions on perplext and timorous hearts A Prayer dry without relish and comfort is the more acceptable to God in that it is unpleasing to Nature 3. As Travellers always bear in mind the place whither they would go so they that pray should always be mindful of the design of Prayer which is to be united to God as much as is possible in this life to have our will made conform unto his in all things to aim at any thing but this is to lose our labour Now prayer may be said to be of two sorts the one common and ordinary perform'd by our endeavour and diligent application together with the assistance of Grace For no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit the other extraordinary and infused more secret and mysterious with sighs unutterable We may beg the gift of both for God is free and very gracious yet we must apply our selves to that which is more common and wherein we have a part to act which consisteth in a blessed disposition to lift up our Soul to God and entertain holy affections and pour out our hearts before him This God is ready to grant to such as trust in him and are of a meek and humble Spirit for every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights Therefore ought we to begin our prayers with an humble acknowledgement of our being nothing but misery and impotency and wretched sinfulness and withall we should take care to fix our intention aright that God may be glorified and his will may be done and we may cheerfully fulfill it Now this is the Will of God even your Sanctification CHAP. XLIV The great advantages of Prayer 1. WHat is written concerning Wisdome may very well be said of Prayer Wisd 7. I prefer'd her before Scepters and Thrones and esteemed Riches nothing in comparison of her I loved her above health and beauty and chose to have her instead of light for the light that cometh from her never goeth out All good things together came to me with her and innumerable riches in her hand and
forth to some outward imployment by necessity or by Gods glory yet his thoughts will always tend homeward to dwell in peace with the inner man in an humble and quiet heart wherein there is always a sense of Gods gracious presence Whereas he that is too intent and busie about the circumference of unsettled creatures shall not be able to come to his proper rest and center which is God 2. To the ignorant foolish World it is very grievous to be alone and converse with themselves but for a few hours they are afraid of themselves and they make it their chiefest care to be ingag'd abroad and to avoid their own company They spend much of their time upon the necessities of this present life and yet what remains of it lies upon them like a heavy burthen and they are glad to find out occasions to throw it away They dread to look within and to hear the voice of their own conscience and finding nothing in themselves but fearful apprehensions vexation and tediousness of spirit they range abroad and go for comfort to other creatures Serious thoughts are a terror to them and consideration is as bad as death because their Soul lies naked and deformed loaded with sins and miseries and they have just cause to avoid the sight of such a Spectacle No wonder therefore if but a few men love to be private and to be sequestred from the World when so many desire to be in a croud and a perpetual hurry and esteem themselves unhappy when they must be alone as indeed unhappy they are and must be until they rectifie many things and learn to confer and live with themselves and by inward purity invite God to dwell in their hearts that there they may rest in him We are told that many are called and but a few chosen that we might learn to forsake the many and live with the few and with fear and diligent care make our Calling and Election sure CHAP. XIV Of the Danger of Riches and that the desire of them is to be mortified 1. HOW apt Riches are to corrupt a good Life how pernicious is the love of them our Blessed Saviour taught his Disciples when he affirm'd with an asseveration as being a thing of great moment and much to be noted Verily I say unto you that a Rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.23 And that this terrible sentence might make the deeper impression upon their hearts he exemplifies Rich mens danger by this Parable It is easier for a Camet to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God The Door of the Heavenly Kingdom is narrow and can give no entrance to such as are loaded and cumbred with fardels of Wealth We should therefore love and desire Riches as a sick man doth a bitter Potion it is necessary to recover health but it is unpleasant and if he could be well without it he would let it alone and however he takes no more than needs must so should every Christian be affected to the things of the World they are the staff of our Pilgrimage and our necessities require the use of them but yet they are vexatious and dangerous too and therefore we may wish we could live without them and we must take no more of them than is requisite to supply our wants for as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6.6 Godliness with Contentment is great gain And 't was the Counsel of a good man Fear not my Son though we are made Poor for thou hast much wealth if thou fear God and depart from all Sin Tob. 4.21 2. He is truly Rich that is Rich to Eternity and hath a Treasure of Good Works in store But they can hardly be Innocent that will be Rich in the World for the love of Riches is the Root of all Evil. Men care not what sins they commit so they may get Wealth and when they have it its great use is to purchase therewith the satisfaction of their Lusts the Lust of the Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life which are the Idols of the World But as some that play with pibbles and pins are very intent to their game when yet they value not the instruments of it so should we care for our necessities and yet not set our hearts upon those things that supply them we may use money to that end but we may not inslave our affections to it except we will become most base and miserable We see when Nuts are thrown among Children they will greedily scrape and fight for them and Men will stand unconcern'd and despise such trash so should we as many as fear God and are true Christians when Riches and Honours are to be got and men that know and expect no better will croud and strive and sweat for them let us laugh and pitty their folly those things are but Nuts not worth our stooping if any fall into our bosome we may break it and eat it but 't is below us to scramble for them all Worldly things are meer deceit and vanity When the Son of God became Man he would have no Riches to teach us how much we should despise them The Children of this World like not of this they rather despise Christ and his Divine Doctrine because they love and esteem Mammon but the Children of light gather their Treasure in Heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupteth and where thieves cannot break through nor steal He is Rich enough in this World that wants not Daily Bread CHAP. XV. Of the Vse of Riches and how to know we Love them not 1. FEW understand or consider how to use their Estates aright that they are the provision for this present short Life which a good man obtains without any wrong to others and own without Pride or Covetousness and preserves without anxious fears and distributes without regret or nigardliness where Charity and Necessity call Now the measures of Necessity are to be taken from the Man's state and condition For some by birth or by place are Noble and dignified Persons who in respect of their ranks which should be Honourably maintain'd have greater wants than their inferiors who may have sufficient with a lesser Portion Yet however we are all but Stewards of what we possess and we should all study Alms and Moderation that God our great Land-lord may find us faithful For he is the true owner of all that we have we are but Servants under him who should use all for his glory and in the midst of our plenty be voluntarily Poor as to our selves And when Riches increase should not be proud nor set our heart upon them 2. Nature hath hid Gold and Silver in the bowels of the Earth and the Covetous that seeks for those beloved mettals is bowed down and stoops to the ground and can hardly raise up himself to look to Heaven but the wiser Christian looks