offereth to signe and seale and the other refuseth it there is no agreement Whosoever then will covenant with God and enjoy his peace must to his power keepe his conscience cleare from all willful violations of the conditions of the agreement For since this covenant is often termed in Scripture a mariage our soule which is the spouse of Christ must give herselfe to him as Christ gives himselfe to her else the mariage is voyd for it is the mutual consent that makes the mariage Whereupon one may say that God is more good then wee are wicked and that while wee breake the contract God remaineth faithfull and leaves us not every time that wee leave him Truly there is great need of that otherwise this spiritual mariage would soon end in divorce But you know that when the faith of matrimony is violated betweene husband and wife although they be not divorced love decreaseth on both sides what remaines of it is sowred with jealous grudges and peace dwells no more in that house It fareth so with us when wee violate the faith and love which wee owe unto God by doing that which is displeasing unto him God doeth not presently give us the Letter of divorce and his constancy stands firme against our ficklenes but he discontinueth the inward testimonies of his love and his peace recedeth from us then wee dare no more seeke our delight in him and cannot finde it any where else pastimes make us sad and when wee take the aire and shift place to find ease we are not eased because we carry our burden along with us a sad weight upon our heart a bosome-accuser within we come to the duty of prayer against stomack and returne from it without comfort It is certain that the eternal covenant of God cannot be disanulled by the sins of men as St Paul saith that the unbeleefe of the Jewes could not make the faith of God without effect Rom. 3.3 But I speak not here of the eternal decree of God but of the offer made of his Covenant unto the conscience by the word of God and his spirit which covenant many lightly embrace and then break it having not maturely considered before upon what conditions it was offered Who so then will keep the peace of his conseience and his confidence with God must carefully keep himselfe from all things that displease his holy eyes and turne away his gratious countenance lest when our need or our duty calls us to draw neere him by prayer we feele our selves pulled back by a guilty feare Let us walk in his presence with such simplicity and integrity that at all times we may say with David Psalm 26.5 I will wash my hands in innocency and compasse thine altar O Lord That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works O Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house See what serenity what liberty of Spirit he had got by his innocency He goeth streight to the Altar of God he rejoyceth in his praise he delighted in his house he will choose it for his habitation Evill consciences are not capable of such a freedom with God David in this Text alluded to the forme of the Sanctuary which had a Laver in the entry where the Priests before they came neere the Altar were to wash themselves We also that we may keep our free accesse unto Christ our Altar must wash our hearts in innocency If we go not through the laver we misse our way to the Altar St. Paul regarded this Figure when he said 1. Tim. 2.8 I will that men pray every where lifting up pure hands It is true that to lift up our hands pure unto God we have need to wash them in a better innocency then our own and the purest have need to be washt in the blood of Jesus Christ David himselfe having said that he would wash his hands in innocency Psalm 26. and soon after but as for me I will walke in mine integrity immediately upon that prayeth to God to redeeme and have mercy upon him Yet God requires our innocency which he examines as a gratious Father not as a severe Judge he lookes more to the sincerity of our hearts then the perfection of our actions giveing his peace to the penitent soules void of hypocrisy Psalm 32.2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile That walketh before God with feare knowing his infirmities and together in confidence knowing Gods mercy and the certainty of his promises That hath no evil end and corrupteth not his good ends by evill wayes That chooseth rather to miss the advancements of the world then to shrink back from his duty to God ready to suffer the losse of all things that he way keep him That lookes upon his temporal goods without remorse because among them he seeth nothing ill gotten and upon his neighbours goods without envy because he hath taken the Lord for his portion who is rich to all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 His words agree with his heart and his actions with his duty He brings his affections captive under the the feare of God boweth his will under Gods will and makes all his ends to stoope under the interest of Gods glory Hee that doth these things shall never be moved Whatsoever becomes of his temporal condition which is better settled by integrity then by all the tricks of the craftiest pates he shall possesse a firme serene equal and tranquil spirit He shall have peace in warre and calme in the storme knowing that no evil can befall him so long as he is well with God CHAP. X. Of the exercise of Good works TO have a holy and tranquill conscience it is not enough for us not to do evil we must do good These two dutyes may be distinguished but not severed He that doth no good of necessity doth evill for it is ill done to do no good God made us not onely that we should not sinne For that it would have bin sufficient to have given us the nature of plants or stones but he hath given us an intelligent active nature that we might use it to know and love and serve our Maker And since he made us after his image for which reason Adam is called the Son of God Luk. 3. if we wil be like our Father which is in heaven we must study to do good for he doth good continually even when he sends evill which he makes an instrument of good whether it be for justice or mercy Psalm 26.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth and such all our pathes should be To this we are more especially called by our redemption whereby we are restored into the right of Gods children which we had lost and are purchased to be his servants God did not adopt us that we should be idle children Christ did not purchase us that we should be unprofitable
before Moses having made that high request to God Exod. 33.18.23 I beseech thee shew mee thy glory God answered him Thou shalt see my backparts but my face shall not be seene A mysterious Text which being well understood assigneth the just extent and sets the certaine limits to humane reasoning in divine matters It is allowed to seeke God à posteriori by his effects they are Gods back parts It is the just extent of our contemplation But to seek God ab anteriâ—ri by his counsels which are the first causes it is attempting to see Gods face an undertaking no lesse unlawfull then impossible My face shall not be seene That limitâ—ne sets to our contemplation Were this well studyed and comprehended aright more labour should be bestowed upon the meditation of Gods workes of nature and grace of his revealed will for by these onely it is possible to man living in the flesh to see God in some measure And the darke questions of Gods eternall counsell should be layd by The doctrine of predestination settleth the soul in a stedfast assurance when it is apprehended by faith but the same brings trouble and perplexity to a mans heart when one will fathom Gods counsell with the plummet of reason In that poynt Reason is prone to frame objections against the justice and wisedom of God Wherefore ere it go too farre the bridle of piety must give it this short stop Rom. 9.20 O man who art thou that replyest against God If about the actious and decrees of God you cannot satisfye your reason remember that reason was made for man not for God and be ye quiet Likewise these in incomprehensible points of the concurrence of Gods grace with mans will how his invariable decree may consistwith the free actions of men reason must altogether silense her inquiry acknowledging that in that meeting of the finite with the infinite reason being finite can comprehend nothing but things of her kind Since then there is something of infinity in that meeting the comprehension of it must be left to the infinite God to whom alone it belongs to know his infinite workes In that meeting all that belongs to us is to have no other will but Gods embrace his grace with a free and ready heart trust in his promises and commit ourselves to his providence A wise counsell easier to observe then to comprehend is this That in the worke of our conversion and sanctification we must give to God the whole glory and to ourselves the whole taske And so of the resistence of so many mens wills against Gods will which neverthelesse they promote even by resisting it that holy will having no part in the evil which they doe And of the wisedome of that high moderatour who for his glory tolerateth the kingdome of the devill in the midst of his kingdome we must acknowledge that they are matters for admiration not inquisition It is a goodly study to be a disciple of Gods wisedome and providence but where we find our contemplation brought to non plus we must be contented to beleeve that God is all wise and all good Let him doe his pleasure and let us doe our duty The holy Scriptures are the cleare spring of life Our Lord Jesus commands us diligently to search them because in them we hope to have eternal life Ioh. 5.39 The texts lesse perspicuous as they require more study they require also more modesty And better it is to say of a hard text I understand it not then to wrest it with a forced interpretation The writers of Comments upon whole bookes of Scripture are often put to that choyce Yet how few are extant that will say ingenuously This text is above our understanding and we must expect till he that hath lockt up the sense of it give us a key to open it Scripture must be put to the uses attributed to it by St Paul doctrine reproofe correction instruction in righteousnes That the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good worke 2 Tim. 3.16 For these uses there be so many cleare texts that we need not beate our braines against the hard ones It is a commendable study to seeke to understand Canonical prophecies God himselfe gave them to the Church to be studied And seeking the intelligence of them is obeying Christs command to search the Scriptures drligently But in that command he meanes the prophecies fullfilled which speake of his first comming not the prophecies yet to be fulfilled Which yet we may search but with that reservation that we content ourselves with so much as is clearely revealed and presume not to seeke into that which is hidden Wherein the style of prophecies is a sure guide for we must beleeve that the Holy Ghost hath hidden them in obscure termes that they should not be understood and if God will not have us to understand them it is folly and arrogancy for us to goe about it Why should we fecke to see that which God hath hidden he hath hid it because we should not see it I am inclined to beleeve yet submitting to better judgements that the end of most prophecies is not so much that we might foreknow things to come as that we might admire the wisedome and preordination of God when they are come and to comfort us in the assurance that the whole course of the conduct and trials of the Church and her deliverance and glory in the end is fore-ordained in Gods counsell Let us stay a little Events will expound predictions As we must not curiously examine the word of God we must not scrupulously search the worke of his Spirit Many devout soules yeeld a wrong obedience to this precept of St Paul Examine your owne selves whether you be in the faith 2. Cor. 13.5 for instead of examining their owne selves they examine God seeking with a trembling and overbuzy care what degree of comfort and assurance of their salvation they feele in their hearts which is the worke of God not of men And as in the searches of jealousy when a man seekes for that which he feares to finde they draw upon them that which they feare by seeking it with too much curiosity and frame doubts to themselves by examining of their confidence To heale themselves of that timorous curiosity they should not take for Gospel whatsoever godly men have written of the manner how the holy Ghost is working in the conscience for it is certaine that he worketh diversly according to the diversity of natures and doth vary the dispensation of his graces according to his good pleasure Wherefore when we examine whether we be in the faith it is not the worke of God that we must examine but our owne And we must call ourselves to account whether we love God and our neighbours and what care we take to serve him whether we keepe his commandements and receive his promises with obedience of faith In these things where the worke of Gods
our hearts from the world and make his heavenly comforts more welcome to us Truly the faithfull soule that knoweth how to make the right use of good and evil shall find experimentally the truth of St. Pauls sentence that all things are for our sakes 2 Cor. 4.25 Also this peace with God brings us peace with our neighbours For he that hath a comfortable seeling in his conscience that God is reconciled with him will easily be reconciled with his brethren holding it a point of equity generosity and gratefulnes after that his Master hath forgiven him ten thousand talents to forgive his fellow servant an hundred pence If all men had the peace of God in their hearts there would be no discord in the world But because most men want that good peace and they that have it have it but imperfectly therefore peace between men can hardly be well cemented When you see men professing piety and sound doctrine tearing and devouring one another with warres or lawfuites you may be sure that the peace of God rules not in their hearts surely not in the hearts of the authors and fomentors of discord though they should pretend the zeale of Gods glory who hath no need of mens turbulent passions to advance his kingdome which is all peace In heaven where the peace of God abideth in its fulness and filleth the hearts of every one of his Saints there is also of necessity a perfect peace between them for they must needs have all one love since they have all but one interest which is the glory of him that loveth them and for ever glorifieth them with himselfe CHAP. IV. Generall meanes to preserve that peace with God and first to serve God purely and diligently HAving spoken of the true and onely foundation of the peace of the soule and contentment of mind which is the confidence that God is appeased to us through Jesus Christ Let us now use the meanes to preserve that peace and stand firme upon that solid ground beginning by the more general The first is to serve God with purity and diligence for which this consideration is essential that our reconciliation with God was made by way of purchase and that when wee were lost and estranged from God he was pleased to redeeme us by his Sonne Wherefore as they that bought servants expected service from them God also hath bought us to be served by us That end of our redemptiō is thus set down by St. Paul Tit. 2.14 Christ gave himself for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes It was the custome over all the world in S. Pauls time to buy sell servants As then servants could not expect the favour of them that had bought them unlesse they did them good service we that are purchased by God with such a great price must not expect to enjoy his peace and gracious countenance if wee doe not serve him according to his will Wherein our utility meetes with our duty for of the service which wee yeeld unto God the whole benefit results unto us Before all things wee must looke well that our service to God be pure and such as he requireth for without that purity all our diligence to his service would be not onely unless but hurtfull One cannot goe to God turning his back to him The more we labour to serve him otherwise then he hath commanded the more wee offend him The pure way of Gods service is set down in his written word wherein although many places are too high for the understanding of the most wise and learned yet the things necessary for the duty and salvation of man are so clearely exprest that this commendation is justified by experience which David giveth unto Gods word The entrance of thy Words giveth light it giveth understanding unto the simple Thy word is a lamp unto my feete and a light unto my path It is one of the chief duties of Gods service to reade and carefully meditate that good Word lend a devout attention to them that announce it For by it God speaks to us as a father to his children and none but unnatural children refuse to hearken to the voyce of their Father This duty brings its recompence for the holy word of God is the glad tydings of the peace of God with men and the onely doctrine that frames that peace within us For which reason the Prophet would heare it Ps 85.5 I will heare what God the Lord will speake for he will speake peace unto his people and to his Saints To that holy word as to a sanctuary troubled consciences must have recourse to get the peace of God Yet the faithfull soule ought to be more studious to learne in it how to please God then how to get comfort Those Christians are yet upon the lower degrees of their regeneration that practise the duties of Gods service only to work their salvation Wee must read and hear Gods word for a higher end even to conforme our wills to the rule of his declared will and wee must think more of his glory then our felicity If faith in his promises make us say joyfully with David Ps 32 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered the zeale of his glory must make us say with more joy and affection as the same David Ps 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walke in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keepe his testimonies and seek him with the whole heart v. 5. O that my waies were directed to keepe thy sttatutes v. 7. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments And all along that great Psalme he uttereth the unspeakable joy that he took in meditating and doing Gods commandements one may see that he cannot say enough to expresse how heartily he was affected to it If wee love the holy word of God for its own sake and converse often with it with reverence and affection because it is the word of our heavenly father and the declaration of his nature and will wee shall finde our peace in it though wee seeke it not and get a satisfaction not to be parallelled by any joy for the things of this world To this duty of hearing God speaking to us in his word the next is to speak to him by prayer whether it be to implore his grace or to thank him for his benefits or to praise him for his infinite perfection By these two duties of hearing God and speaking to him we begin in this world that good intelligence and holy communication with God in which the heavenly peace and soveraine felicity of man consisteth By prayer wee seeke and meete that peace of God which is announced to us in his word and whoso seekes it well will be sure to meete it for to this seeking is the promise made Math. 7.8 Every man
it will please them to provoke us to anger Yet a wiseman may expresse indignation without anger and an effectual vigour making others tremble himselfe standing unmooved Out of the anger of others wee may fetch three good uses The first is to learne to hate that passion and take heed of it seeing how it is imperious and servile together ugly unbecomming unreasonable hurtful to others and more to a mans selfe The second use is to gather carefully the wholesome warnings which an angry adversary will give us for he will be sure to tell us all the evill he seeth in us which ourselves see not A benefit not to be expected from our discreet friends The third is the noblest use To study the science of discerning the spirits considering with a judicious eye the several effects of every mans anger for no passion discovereth so much the nature of persons It layeth a man starke naked Ifone be a contemner of God as soone as he is angry he will be sure to wreake his anger upon God with blasphemies If he have piety and ingenuity he will make them pleade for him but lamely as discomposed by anger If he be a coward he will insult over the weake and if he find resistance you shall see him threaten and tremble together like base dogs then barking most when they runne away If he be haughty his anger will expresse it selfe in a malignant smile and he will boast of his blood and valour The occasions of anger will better discover what a man is inclined unto for every one will be sooner moved for those things where he is most interessed As in anger so in reconciliation a discerning eye will reade a character of the several humours The vaine and haughty man after he hath done wrong stands upon reparation The baseminded man is threatened into submissions after the injury received The covetous wretch will have reparation in money and puts a rate upon every bastinado The conscionable meeke and generous man is facile both in giving and receiving satisfaction and easily pardons another mans anger his owne with much adoe From this let us reflect to the first use that wee must make of the anger of others He that will mind well how wrath betrayes a man and layeth open his infirmities and how the man that hath no rule over his owne spirit is like a citty that is broken downe and without walles will fence himselfe against that treacherous passion by Christian meekenes and moderation and will learne to be wise by his neighbours harme To that meekenes we shal be much helped by the remembrance of our sins whereby we daily provoke God and for which wee mought have bin cast headlong into hell long agoe but that he is slow to wrath and abundant in goodnesse Exod. 34.6 To expect that God our father be slow to wrath towards us while we are hot to wrath against our brethren is the extremity of injustice and unreasonablenesse To conclude since we seeke here our tranquility which we have found every where inseparably conjoyned with our duty let us observe our Saviours precept grounded upon his example Matth. 11.29 Learne of me that I am meeke and lowly in heart and ye shall finde rest unto your soules That way the Lord Jesus the great Master of wisedome found rest unto his soul the same way shall wee finde rest to ours CHAP. XII Of Aversion Hatred and Revenge AVersion is the first seed of Hatred and hath a larger extent for hatred regards onely persons or actions but many have Aversions for unreasonable or inanimate things wherefore those Aversions are commonly unreasonable whether it be out of naturall antipathy or out of fancy wantonnesse Persons subject to those Aversions have commonly more Passion then reason and are such as are made tender and are soft spirited by ease Ladies have many antipathyes but among country wives and milkmayds you shall find but few that will swound at the sight of a spider or a frog A wise man must impartially examine those Aversions if he have any whether they consist in fancy or nature and not flatter himselse in such capricious weakenesses He shall do much for his rest and credit if he can weane himselfe altogether from them He that can command himselfe to have no Aversion of which he may not give a reason will traine his passion that way to have no unreasonable Hatred against any person Hatred is an indignation for an injury received or imagined or for an ill opinion conceived of a person or action This description is common to it with anger Herein they differ that anger is sudden and hath a short course but hatred is meditated at leasure and is lasting Also that anger seeks more a mans vindication then the harme of others but hatred studieth the harme of adversaries Hatred as anger is a compound of pride and sadnesse I meane the vicious hatred and the most common It proceeds likewise out of ignorance of ones selfe and the price and nature of things This Philosophy we learne of St. John 1 Joh. 2.11 He that hates his Brother is in darknesse and knowes not whither he goes because that darknesse hath blinded his eyes for ignorance is the darknesse of the soul As then blind men are commonly testy the blindnesse of ignorance will make men prone to hate their neighbours and hatred afterwards increaseth that blindnesse By the same ignorance whereby we love some persons and things without knowledge and reason we hate also some persons and things without reason and many will choose rather to lose a friend then a shilling Hatred is naturally good serving to make us avoyd things hurtfull and it is morally good when we use it to oppose that which is contrary to the Soveraine good which is God When we hate that which God hateth we cannot do amiss so that we be very certaine that God hates it such are the unjust habits and actions condemned by his word and by that law of nature written in mans heart But as for the persons because we have no declaration of Gods love and hatred to this or that man we must love them all and never feare to offend God by loving that which he hateth for we cannot offend him by obeying his commandement Now he commands us to love our neighbours as ourselves No doubt but we must love many persons which God hateth neither will it be time to hate them till we have heard the sentence of Gods personall hatred pronounced against them I say Gods personal hatred because there is a hatred of iniquity in God against those that oppose his glory which obligeth us to hate them also with that hatred of iniquity and to oppose them vigorously as long as they oppose God Of that hatred spake David when he said Psal 139.21 Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with them that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred
Temperance is the just proportion of the appetite and Fortitude is the constancy and magnanimity of the will requisite to keep one just Neither is fortitude a Vertue different from temperance for whereas of those two duties sustine abstine to sustaine and to abstaine the first which is resisting oppositions is ascribed to fortitude the other which is abstaining from the inticements of sinne is reserved unto temperance yet both belong equally to fortitude seeing there is as much if not more strength of mind requisite to stand out against alluring temptations as to encounter violent oppositions There are then two vertues in all the one intellectuall which is Prudence the other morall which is Justice I have spoken of the first and this whole treatise is but an exercise of it And of the second also of which the most essentiall part is the feare of God and a good conscience that is truly the prime Justice All human lawes if they be good are dependances of it if they be evill they are deviations from it Naturall equity sanctifyed by grace ruleth both publique and particular duties and both the outward and the inward man which is farre more then common and civill law can compass In all policies of the world Justice hath diverse faces The body of the Law especially in great and antient States hath statutes and cases without number which instead of clearing justice confound it All that legislative labour regards outward action and the publique peace But piety and true Philosophy rule the inward action and settle the peace of the soul with the right and primitive Justice Besides human lawes are most busy in forbidding evill and for that end make use of feare and the terrour of punishment whereas the inward law of Vertue is most busy in prescribing good and for that end makes use of the motive of love and reward But whether we need the motives of feare or love we have a Soveraine Court within our breast where the great Judge of the Universe is sitting continually There his Law is written and layd in view entering into the eyes of the understanding which seeth it even when he winkes that he may not see it And there a mans owne thoughts stand divided at the barre some accusing some excusing him out of that law compared with the records of the memory Of that Court St. Paul was speaking that the very Gentiles and heathen shew the worke of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witnesse and their thoughts the meane while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2.15 Before that Court that is before God himselfe and before us we must labour to be declared just and more to be so indeed There justice must be setled There it must be practised It will be well done to know and obey the formes of justice which publique order hath set over us but our maine taske must be to labour for an niward and habituall justice Let us obey cheerefully all good or indifferent human lawes but before all and after all let us seek and pray for that law of the spirit of life which may set a rule to all the unrulinesse within us and make righteousnesse and peace to kiss each other in our soules The ordinary definition of justice that it is a constant will to give to every one his owne as it is commonly understood regards onely the least part of justice which is the rule of duties betweene man and man But let us give it a fuller extent for to give every one his owne we must pay all that is due first to God next to ourselves and then to our neighbours Certainly the two former parts of justice are far more considerable then the third which is the onely cryed up though ill observed in the world for a man may and doth often retire from the society of men but he can at no time retire from God and himselfe and though a man were alone in the world yet should he have with him the chiefe subjects to exercise the vertue of justice We shall give God his owne by loving him with all our soul and with all our strength obeying his will carefully and cheerefully praising him for his love to us and for his owne greatness and goodness with a thankfull and a joyfull heart setting him continually before the eyes of our mind as alwayes present that we may walke unto all pleasing before his pure and all seeing eyes stick fast unto him by meditation affection and entire confidence And whereas man is the bond and the naturall mediator betweene the materiall world and the spirituall who alone must render for the whole Nature the due homage unto the great Creator Justice calls upon us to do that right to God Nature to knit Nature with God by our love faith obedience and praises Thus also we shall give to ourselves our due for to draw neere unto God is our good Psal 73.28 to separate from him is our destruction They that observe lying vanities forsake their owne mercy saith Jonas Jo. 2.8 meaning that they forsake him of whose goodness their being and wel-being depends This thought will renew the antient characters of the naturall notions of justice engraven upon the marble of our hearts upon which the corruption of the world and our owne hath bred as it were a thick moss which hides these characters But with the feare of God that moss is rubbed off and the law of God the originall justice written there with Gods finger appeares plaine and legible Who so then will do right to himself and recover his primitive dignity must study to know feare and love God perfect his union with him and associate himselfe with his Angels by obeying his will and tending his praise His saving eternall light is for us Wisedome righteousness sanctification and redemption are for us for he gives them to us liberally in his Sonne We do but right to ourselves when we study that those blessings which are for us may be ours And to lose such inestimable graces by our neglect is besides ungratefullness towards God a crying injustice against ourselves A maine point of that justice which we owe to ourselves is to labour to make ourselves possessors of ourselves and masters at home so untyed from all outward tyes that our content depend of none but God and ourselves and that rule over ourselves is attained by yeelding unto God the rule ver us To that end our first labour must be to traine well the Passion of love which is the great wheele mooving all the other passions for according to the subjects that we love and as we love them well or ill we are good or evill happy or unhappy To love what we ought and as we ought is the whole duty and happinesse of man Next our desires and hopes must be cut short which is not cutting downe Nature as greedy minds may think It is cutting off our bonds and
getting our liberty That way plenty pleasure and joy are bought at an easy rate for very little will content a mind weaned of superfluous desires and he hath little or no matter left for sorrow feare anger hatred and envy the tormentors of the soul What is able to disquiet that man that thinkes nothing to be his but God and a good conscience and possesseth the things of the world as not possessing them But to quiet the murmure of love and desire which are querulous and unlimited passions we must do them such equall justice that while we stop them one way we open them another Being kept short for the things of the world let them have free scope towards heavenly things to love God and desire his spirituall and permanent goods without limit and measure The great injuries are those which a man doth to himselfe when to obey lust or anger or coveteousnesse one makes himselfe guilty and miserable when for the love of the world one loseth the love of God when out of miserablenesse the body is denyed his convenient allowance When for things of no worth a man prostitutes his health his life and his conscience When men will sinne for company cast themselves into ruinous courses out of compleasance and damne themselves out of gallantry Who so will seriously think what he oweth to himselfe and what account of himselfe he must give unto God will endeavour to keepe the precious health of his body and the golden serenity of his conscience he will enjoy with simplicity that portion which God giveth him of the contentments of life and above all things he will carefully keep his onely good which is God Justice being well administred within us will be practised abroad with facility and delight Rom. 13.7 Render to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custom feare to whom feare honour to whom honour Let the debtour be more hasty to pay then the creditour to receive All the Law-bookes are but comments upon this precept of Justice to render to every one his owne Yet they omit the most essentiall parts of it the duties of charity humanity and gratefulness Which being without the rules of civill lawes have the more need to be learned and observed by ingenuous and religious soules And we must beleeve contrary to the vulgar opinion that they are debts and that doing good to them that stand in need of our helpe is not giving but restoring Therefore the workes of mercy are represented in the CXII Psalm as works of Justice He hath dispersed he hath given to the poore his righteousnesse endureth for ever Let us then be perswaded that when we do all the good of which God giveth us the faculty and the occasion we do but justice Let us pay due assistance to him whose need claimes it counsell to him that is in perplexity kindness to them that have shewed us kindnesse pardon to them that have offended us good for evill to them that persecute us love to them that love us support to the weake patience to the impatient reverence to superiours affability to inferiours All these are debts Let us omit no duty to which we stand obliged by the lawes of civill society Yet that is too scant let us omit no duty to which we have the invitations of piety and generosity All the good workes that we may do are so many duties It is the large extent that St. Paul gives to our duty Phil. 4.8 Finally bretheren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise thinke on these things And the fruit of that study in the following words is that which we seeke in this Book the Peace of the Soul our union with God Do these things and the God of peace shall be with you Truly peace quietness and assurance are the proper effects of righteousness are as naturall to it as the light to the Sunne Isa 33.17 The worke of righteousness shall be peace saith Isaiah and the effect of righteousnesse quietnesse and assurance for ever Considering Justice as the solid stemme in which lyeth the substance of all vertues as her branches I will not follow every bough of that that tree Two Vertues onely I will stand upon as the preserving qualities of that universall Justice These are meekeness and magnanimity They are the necessary dispositions to frame a right vertue in the soul and peace with it Under meekeness I comprehend humility and docility which are but diverse aspects of the same face that meeke and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price 1 Pet. 3.4 As for great edifices there is need of deepe foundations likewise to edifie the soul and build vertue and peace in it there is need of a profound humility which being joyned with faith is the foundation of the structure and the perfecting also for we must be humble that we may be vertuous and the more we are vertuous the more we are humble With that meekeness the word of God must be receaved which is the doctrine of Vertue and salvation Jam. 1.20 Receive with meekenesse the engrafted word which is able to save your soules saith St. James Isa 61.9 God hath anointed his Sonne to preach good tidings unto the meeke Psal 25.9 The meeke will he guide in judgement and the meeke will he teach his way A mind well-disposed to Vertue and the peace of the Soul will distrust himselfe as a shaking unsound foundation to repose his trust wholly upon God He will labour to heale himselfe of all arrogant opinions and obstinate prejudices being alwayes ready to receive better information and submit himselfe unto reason It belongs to that meekeness to be free from the impetuosity of the appetite for that which St. James saith of the wrath of man that it worketh not the righteousnesse of God Jam. 1.21 may be said of all other Passions they are evill if they be vehement for in a spirit agitated with vehement passions justice cannot settle that very vehemency being an injustice and a violation of that sweete and equall oeconomy of the soul fit for justice and peace Passion goeth by skips and jolts but Reason keeps a smooth even pace and that pace is fit to go on Justice's errand To meekenesse magnanimity must be joyned Meekeness makes reason docile and pliant in goodnesse Magnanimity makes her constant in it Both are the framers and preservers of righteousnesse meekenesse because it humbleth us before God and subjecteth us under his good pleasure magnanimity because it raiseth our minds above unrighteous ends and wayes and makes us aspire to that great honour to have our will conformable unto Gods will and become partakers of his Nature which is Righteousness itselfe St. Paul makes use of magnanimity to sollicite us to holiness Col. 3.10 If ye be risen with Christ seeke those
OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MINDE By PETER DV MOVLIN THE SONNE D. D. LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his shop at the Prince's Armes in St. Paul's Church-yard 1657. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE RICHARD EARLE OF CORKE Vicount of Kinalmeaky and Dungarvan Baron of Yoghall and Bandon Peere of Ireland My Lord THese Contemplations belong to your Lordship by double right as fruits growne and ripened at the rayes of your favour and as characters of those vertues whereby you have wrestled out the difficulties of an age of Iron and Fire The roughnesse of those stormes makes your present tranquillity look smoother your Lordship takes the right course to have tranquillity at home in any weather consecrating your heart to be a Sanctuary of the God of peace where you entertaine him by faith love and good works not serving the world but making the world to serve you keeping a constant march through the various occurrences of both fortunes with a meeke resolute equanimity and a prudent sincerity To keep your minde in that golden frame if these endeavours of mine may be instrumental they shall but refund what they have received for to that tranquillity which I enjoy under your noble shelter I owe these meditations of tranquillity May they prove of the nature of those seeds which improve the soyle where they grow And may your good soul reape some fruit of these productions of your favour and my thankfulnesse I rest At your Mannour of Lismore July 30. 1655. MY LORD Your Honours most humble and dutifull servant PETER Du MOULIN PREFACE BEing cast by the publique storme upon a remote shore whence I behold the agitations of the world with a calmer judgement because former troubles have left me little occasion to be much concerned in the latter I find my selfe invited by this uncertaine interval of unexpected rest to meditate how I may find the rest of the soule and contentment of mind in all conditions And seeking it for my selfe I may be so happy as to procure it to others For that contemplation I made use of foure bookes this halfe-wilde countrey affording but few more The chiefe is the holy Scripture the meditation whereof brings that peace which passeth all understanding The next is the booke of Nature Then the booke of Gods providence in the conduct of the world both teaching me to say with David Psalm 92.5 Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy workes The fourth book is that which every one carrieth along with himselfe the spirit of man A booke where there is much to be put out and much put out which must be renewed before wee can reade in it any subject of peace and content for without the corrections of grace this natural booke is like that of Ezekiel Ezeck 2.10 written within and without with lamentations and mourning and woe It is the worke of wisedome and my endeavour in this treatise so to correct this fourth booke upon the three others that wee may study it with delight and find peace and contentment within us which may spare us the labour to seeke it abroad That wisedome which must worke in us that excellent effect is divine wisedome She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her Prov. 3.18 happy is every one that retaines her And humane wisedome instructed by the divine seconds her and does her good service in that greate worke This philosophie swims against the streame of a great torrent So I call the numerous abettours of that eminent moral Philosopher Doctor Charron my countreyman who with great care separates divine wisedome from the humane and attributes to the humane alone that which onely belongs to the divine Preface to the three bookes of wisedome to make a man walke alwayes upright stedfast and content in himselfe I have more serene intentions in this booke which beares on the front the Peace and contentment of mind then to carpe at the learned and the dead And it grieveth me much to dissent from that brave man whom I truly admire acknowledging his booke of Wisedome to be of rare excellency and of singular use to such as know how to use it aright But it grieves me more that he hath persvaded so many seeming wisemen pretenders to the magistracy of wit Ibid. that integrity is not a dependance of Religion and that the vertue and integrity of Divines is altogether frowning chagreene austere servile sad timorous and vulgar One would think that he is drawing the picture of some old barefooted shee votary But Philosophical wisedome that is as he expounds it the human and civil he makes it free cheerefull lofty noble generous and rare It is likely that Charron describing Theological wisedome weeping austere base and poore spirited had before his eyes those rules of monastical discipline which he made once a shew to affect though very ill agreeing with his free masculine and lofty spirit as setting forth piety and wisedone in a servile and melancholy dresse Had he lived till now his solid rational wit had liked no better of the delicate and poetical piety that came since upon the stage of France some of it publisht in English to little purpose Where in stead of reason and authority to satisfie the judgement and comfort the conscience you shall find posies of light courtly conceits as if they presented the devotion of the people with beades of rosebuds shedding in their hands that turne them These two different wayes of piety are unsavoury to philosophical minds that would be payed with reason and good sense which if they find not in religion they will forsake it and seeke for wisedome in Philosophy I owe that duty to Theological wisedome to make it appeare to my power that she is the true Philosophy and that to her that magnificent character is proper and special Ibid. to make a mans spirit firme upright free cheerefull universal content every where which priviledges Charron reserveth to civil wisedome It is a high injury offered to piety to take vertve and moral Philosophy from her jurisdiction and transport to humane wisedome that which is proper to the divine Ibid. even the skill of living and dying well which is all Let us endeavour to shew by our example that Divinity doth not handle wisedome austerely and drily as he doth reprove her but sweetly and pleasantly Ibid. which hee saith to be proper to humane wisedome And that wee may restore that to Religion which Charron takes from her let us thinke it no shame to take place among those whom hee condemneth They take saith he Religion to bee a generality of all good Lib. 2. cap. 5. that all vertues are comprehended in it and are subordinate to it Wherefore they acknowledge no vertue or righteousnesse but such as moveth by motives of Religion I professe my selfe one of them that thinke so preferring to Charrons authority that of Saint Paul
Epicureans against the Stoicians by subordinating vertue to content for I am of opinion that these two things must be subordinated the one to the other by turnes as the use requireth Now my present use is to employ vertue for contentment of mind Wherein I hope not to be censured as subjecting vertue to contentment in stead of subjecting contentment to vertue these two being all one if they be well considered for the onely way to content our mind is to be vertuous and to be vertuous we must get a tranquill and contented spirit It is well done to prefer vertue before contentment but it is well done also to invite men to vertue by the contentment that vertue yieldeth Since all men are great lovers of themselves and much led by their pleasure let us husband that voluptuous humour and the love that every one beares to himselfe to make them inducements to render unto God his due making ingenuous mindes sensible that the onely way for them to be pleased upon good ground with all that is within and about them is to study to please God and that duty and content consist in one and the same thing For these Meditations the want of bookes even of my private collections which at the first was to mee some discouragement in the progresse of the work proved rather a helpe The lesse opportunity I had to read the more liberty had I to contemplate Truly if after so many writers the publique stock of holy Philosophy is yet capeable of new improvement it must be expected from those who being but little assisted with the conceptions of others are put to make more use of their owne sense and experience Many times God sends more grace where there is lesse helps otherwayes OF THE PEACE OF THE SOULE AND CONTENTMENT OF MINDE THE FIRST BOOK Of Peace with God CHAP. I. Of the Peace of the Soul THe Gospell is called a Testament because it is the declaration of the last Will of our Lord Jesus Christ By that Will he leaves his peace to his Disciples and being neere his death tells them Iohn 14.17 My peace I leave unto you my peace I give unto you For since Jesus is called the Prince of Peace Isaiah 9.5 his proper legacy to his heires is peace How comes it to passe then that such as beare themselves as Christs heires by Will yet will not take his legacy that Peace is no where a greater stranger then in the Christian Church to whom it was left by an especiall title It is true indeed that the peace which our Saviour left to his Disciples is not the temporal but the spirituall which is the peace of man with God with his owne conscience wherefore he tells them that he gives it not as the World gives it But it is true also that the want of that spirituall and inward peace brings outward war as Saint James teacheth us James 4.1 VVhence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that warre in your members He that is well with God and himselfe and keeps his affections in order quietly brought under the rule of the feare and love of God will neither lightly provok quarrells nor be easily moved with provocations He will be little concerned in publique contentions and gently get off from particular This is the roote of the evill that we seek not to be invested in the possession of that peace of God which the Lord Jesus left us by his Will now so graciously presents unto us by his word and spirit and that wee disturb the work of that good spirit the spirit of peace siding with our turbulent and vicious passions against him When we lose that peace we lose all other goods for in peace all good is comprehended It is the extent of the word peace in Hebrew that philosophical tongue That soul where the peace of God dwelleth doth sincerely relish his blessings and turneth evill into good But a vicious unquiet spirit doth not taste how the Lord is gracious 1 Pet 2.3 And turneth good into evill as a liver inflamed with a burning Fever is worse inflamed by nourishing meats The objects that moves desire and feare in this world are for the most part indifferent in their nature good to him that useth them well evill to him that knoweth not how to use them So that good and evill lye within a mans self not in things without Pro. 14.14 A good man shall be satisfied from himself saith Salomon This is a beaten subject though never sufficiently considered If it were it would frame the soule to piety tranquillity and make a mans spirit free clearesighted master of all things and which is more then all master at home The way to attaine to that command of our inward State is to yield it to God who being our great principle and our original being imparts his freedome a beame of the soverainty of his sublime nature to the soule that draweth neer unto him from whom it is descended God being the soveraigne of the soule as of all creatures the soule cannot have any rule at home but from him nor enjoy it under him without a free subjection to his will That peace and liberty of the soule whereby a man having all his interest in heaven is disinteressed to all things in the world walketh confident among dangers and entertaineth with an equal and serene face good and evill successe is easier described then obtained Yet we must not be discouraged but study to describe it that we may obtain it in some measure for it is gained by meditation And the best kinds of meditation upon that peace is to lift up our soule unto God the inexhaustible fountain of peace which he makes to flow upon those that draw neer unto him We shall never fully injoy that peace till wee be fully united with the God of peace A perfection unsuitable with this life where the best are often drawn aside from God by the wandring of their thoughts and the disorder of their affections which made St Paul to say 2 Cor. 5 6. that while we are at home in the body wee are absent from the Lord. Yet so much as a faithfull man enjoyes of the peace of God vvhile he lives in the flesh is as much above the most florishing peace of the greatest Kings of the vvorld as Heaven is above earth And vvhere it is vvanting the highest earthly glory vvhich dravves the envy of men ought rather to move their pitty Without it the garish shew of honours and treasures is like a richly imbroidered night-cap upon a head tormented with a violent meagrime And all that worldly pompe is not only uselesse but hurtfull sowring the mind with cares and firing the appetite with temptations which afterwards teare the conscience with remorse or benumme it into a deadly lethargy Whereas the peace of God is a Paradice the moderator of passions the Schoole of vertue the
that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened When this direfull remembrance sinkes into a conscience how man was put out of Paradice and Cherubims were placed at the gate with aflaming sword to keepe him out that he may not finde the way to the tree of life it is enough to sinke one downe with feare and anguish and make him cry out standing upon the brink of despaire Must I be driven away from God for ever and what way is left for me to returne to the tree of life without which I cannot shunne eternal perdition Upon that perplexity Prayer comes and offers her helpe saying I will bring thee thither and will goe with thee without any let of the flaming sword for I know a way to the tree of life where the terrour of the law doth not keep the passage the sonne of God who is the way the truth and the life hath made me way unto the throne of grace to which I goe with full assurance to obtaine mercy and finde grace to helpe in time of need This freedome of prayer to approach unto God was in some sort represented by the sacrifices That they were figures of prayers wee learne it out of the Psalme 141 where David beseecheth God that his prayer may be set forth as incense and the lifting up of his hands as the evening sacrifice Ps 141.2 As then the smoake of the sacrifices did mount up toward heaven which is a way which cannot be stopt likewise faithfull prayers have at all times a free passage to heaven and although Satan be called the Prince of the aire he cannot disturbe them in the way But that they may reach to heaven the incense of the merit of Christ must be layd over the sacrifice of prayer To that holy duty wee are encouraged by Gods commandement and promise Both are in this text Ps 50.12 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shall glorifie me And so in this Come unto me saith Gods eternal Sonne all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will ease you Math. 11.28 None that prayeth to the father through the merit of the Sonne returnes empty For either he giveth us what we do aske or what wee ought to aske and that which is fit for us He that keepeth that holy correspondence with God is never dejected with sorrow or perplexed with feare for he finds in that divine communication a plaister to all his sores and an inexhaustible well of life and joy David had found it so when he sayd Ps 16 I have set the Lord allwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shal rest in hope By prayer wee ground our soules in faith raise them with hope inflame them with charity possesse them with patience during our life and yeeld them to God with joy in our last breath To reape these benefits by prayer wee must understand well the right use of prayer which is double It serveth to aske of God our necessities both of body and soule for since in him wee live and moove and have our being wee must continually seeke to him by prayer of whom wee continually depend But the noblest and most proper use of prayer is to glorifie God and converse with him because wee love him and because he is most perfect and most worthy to be beloved coming to that holy duty not as a taske but an honour the greatest honour and delight that a creature can be capable of in this world stealing away from affaires and companies to enjoy that pleasant and honorable conversation as lovers will steale away from all employments to entertaine their best beloved For what is sweet in the world in comparison of this sweetnes what is honorable compared to this honour to have familiarity with God and be admitted to his presence at any time to be received of him as his children and when wee lift up our affections to heaven the habitation of his glory to finde that himselfe is come to meete us in our heart and hath made it another heaven by his gracious presence In that meditation a faithfull man will call Gods benefits to minde and to conceive their excellency to his power he will from the consideration of Gods grace reflect upon that of his owne naturall condition sometimes criminal miserable and Gods enemy but now through Gods preventing love and unspeakable mercy changed into the quality of child of God and heire of his kingdome He hath bin provoked to pity us by the depth of our misery wherefore in all reason wee must be provoked to thankfulness by the height of his mercy And this is the chiefe employment of prayer an employment which paying our duty brings our felicity and though wee have payd but what wee owe and scarce that giveth us a present payment for the duty which wee have payd O what a heavenly delight it is to lose ones selfe in the thought of Gods mercyes which are beyond all reckoning and above all imagining and to say to him after David Ps 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wonderfull workes and thy thoughts which are to us ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee v. 8 If I would declare and speak of them they are more then can be numbred I delight to doe thy will O my God yea thy law is with in my heart Ps 86.11 Teach me thy way O Lord I will walke in thy truth unite my heart to feare thy name I will praise thee O Lord my God withall my heart and will glorifie thy name for evermore for great is thy mercy towards me and thou hast delivered my soule from the lowest hell Such a conversation with God to rejoyce in his love praise him for his graces and crave the leading of his spirit to walke before him unto all pleasing is an imitation of the perpetual imployment of Angels and glorified Saints It is a beginning of the Kingdome of heaven in this life In it consisteth the true peace of the soule and the solid contentment of minde CHAP. V. Of the love of God BEing entred into the meditation of the love of God let us stay upon it It is good for us to be here let us make here three tabernacles And more reason have wee so to speak in this occasion then St. Peter when he saw Christ transfigured in the Mount For by planting his abode there he could not have made Christ to doe the like nor given a settled continuance to that short bright lightning of glory But by our meditation upon the love of God wee make him to stay with us and our soul is transfigured with him being filled with his grace and his peace and already enlivened with a beame of his glory Now because the ground the spring and the cause of the love that
vertue and goodnesse And it is impossible to consider God as the onely worthy object of love without conceiving even with the same thought that our soveraigne good consisteth in loving him reputing what a height of honour and content it is when that great Creator who is all bounty all beauty and all perfection is pleased to contract amity with the creature For in this consisteth the great and only excellency of man that God hath given him a nature capable to entertain freindship with his Maker A capacity which being obscured by sin is restored to him by grace And God who as the only absolute Soveraigne is above all Laws condescended so farre to us as to binde himselfe to the Laws of friendship with man which Laws on his part are most inviolably kept the whole defect in that mutual love is from man As then friends disjoyned in place are joyned by love so are God in heaven and man upon earth God indeed is every where yet God and man are more remote in degree of nature then any two can be in place But they are joyned in a way farre more excellent real for the thoughts of two mortal persons make no mutual impression when they are without the line and reach of communication whereas God is never remote from the faithful soul and they may commune together at any time God makes his love sensible to the faithfull soul and saith to it by the presence of his spirit Soul I am thy salvation and the soul saith to him Lord thou art my God I am thine save me teach me to do thy will God communeth with the soul by his word and spirit and the soul communeth also with God by her word and spirit that is by prayer and holy aspirations It is also a law of friendship that friends bear the one with the other and that the strong support the weake Wherefore God all perfect having knit a friendship with the creature subject as yet to much imperfection supporteth her defects with his love and covereth her sins by his righteousnesse Man also for his part must patiently bear what chastenings God layeth upon him taking all kindly at his hands for as he must be assured of his love he must also be certainly perswaded of his wisdom and beleeve that Gods dealing with him is all love and wisdome It is a law of perfect freindship that friends declare their secrets one to another So God deals with his freinds and Jesus Christ useth this for a reason why he calls his Disciples his friends John 15.15 Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knows not what the Lord doeth but I have called you friends for all things that I have learned of my Father I have made known unto you And Daniel saith that the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him not the secret of his Councel but that of his Good will towards them in that which concernes their duty and their salvation which is the sence of the following words and he will shew them his Covenant We then to shew our selves true friends to him that honoureth us with that title must also disclose unto him the secrets of our hearts It is true they are open to his all-seeing eyes and if we would hide our secrets from him we could not But God takes a delight that we give him an account of our selves not that He may be better informed but that we may be better and happier for they that disguise themselves before him are incapable of his grace and dissembling is a violation of the lawes of friendship It is the comfort of the godly that while they confesse their sinnes to God as unto their clear-sighted Judge they discharge together a duty of friendship declaring to their supreme friend their private infirmities and secret diseases to call upon his help What benefit we may expect by that free dealing with God we learn out of Davids experience who speakes thus to God Psalm 32.5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him Into the bosome of that friend we must powre our secret sighes to him we must lay open our most intimate desires and feares that we may say to him with David Psalm 38.9 Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Which as it is true in regard of Gods all-seeing knowledge let it be true also in regard of our sincere unbosoming of the secrets of our souls before God Now that the secrets of our soules and the meditations of our hearts may ever be acceptable in his sight and because the heart of man is so close and full of windings of hypocrisy that man himself cannot finde the bottom of his own inside let us call upon God to assist us in that search by his good spirit saying Psalm 139.23 Search me O Lord and know my heart try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Before we have sincerely laid open before God all that is within us we have no reason to expect the blessing of serene and innocent peace in our soul For God who is jealous of his glory takes it as a high contempt when his creature will offer to avoid the all-seeing eyes of the Creator besides he is jealous of our love taking it as a derogation to the love due to him when we go about to conceale our thoughts our affections and our projects from him Wherefore the sence that the conscience hath of this jealousy of God holds her in continual anxiety Whereas he that is true to a resolution to call God to witnesse of his most secret actions and intentions as he is whether we will or no gets two benefits that way The one that finding himself obliged to impart all that he hath in his heart to God his eternal friend he will take heed of doing yea and thinking any thing that is displeasing unto him and by his uprightnesse will prevent the shame of opening many impurities before that holiest of Holies The other that by this free and open dealing with God he shall get a great tranquillity in his conscience For if in humane friendships we presume that by disclosing the secrets of our hearts to a generous friend we oblige him to love and fidelity and after that action of freedom we find our heart much eased how great must our ease and contentment be when we have poured all our heart into Gods bosom that perfect friend who is truth and sincerity it self It is a wise part to conceale nothing from God The only way to possesse our soul with
and warre in the world and of the subsistence and revolution of Empires Who would beleeve that at the same time he tels the number of our hairs and that not so much as one sparrow falls to the ground without his speciall appointment but that we are told it by his own mouth and that our experience assureth us of his care of the least of our actions and accidents of our life Here wee must rest amazed but not silent for our very ignorance must help us to admire and extoll that depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God whose eye and hand is in all places whose strength sustaineth whose providence guideth all things and taketh as much care of each of his creatures as if he had nothing else to looke to If our minds be swallowed up in the depths of Gods wisdome this one depth calls in another deep which brings no lesse amazement but gives more comfort that is the fatherly love of God to us his children Eph. 3.18 O the bredth the length the depth the heighth of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge the bredth that embraceth Jewes and Gentiles having broken the partition wall to make a large room to his wide love that his way might be known upon earth his saving health among all Nations Psalm 67.2 The length which hath elected us before the foundation of the world and will make us live and reigne with himselfe for ever The depth which hath drawne us out of the lowest pit of sorrow death to effect that hath drawn him down to that low condition The height which hath raised us up to heaven with him and makes us sit together with him in heavenly places With what miracles of mercy hath he preserved his Church from the beginning of the world How many graces doth he poure upon the several members thereof nourishing our bodies comforting our souls reclaiming us from iniquity by the gift of repentance and faith keeping off the malice of men and evill Angels from us by the assistance of his good Angels delivering our life from death our eyes from teares and our feet from falling But before and after all other benefits we must remember that principal benefit never sufficiently remembred Col. 1.12 Giving thankes unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Sonne in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgivenesse of sins This is the highest top of our felicity the main ground of the peace of the soul and the incomparable subject of the contentment of our minds Yea if we have such a deep sence of that heavenly grace as to praise God continually for it with heart and mouth For as we praise God because he blesseth us he blesseth us because we praise him and by his praise which is the eternal excercise of his blessed Saints we become already partners of their imployment their peace and their joy CHAP. IX Of good Conscience ALl that we have said hitherto regardeth the Principal causes both the efficient and the instrumental of the peace with God There are other causes which of themselves have not that vertue to produce that great peace yet without which it cannot be preserved nor produced neither these are a good conscience and the excercise of good workes Not that the reconciliation made for us with God by the merit of his Son needs the help of our works but becaus the principal point of our reconciliation and redemption is that we are redeemed from iniquity which is done by the same vertue that redeemes us from Hell and by the same operation For it is a damnable self-flattery and self-deceipt for one to beleeve that he is reconciled with God if he feele in himselfe no conversion from that naturall enmity of the flesh against God neither can he enjoy a true peace in his soul In that reconciliation God makes use of our wil for in all agreements both parties must concur and act freely And to make us capable of that freedome God by his spirit looseth the bonds of our unregenerate will naturally enthralled to evill But it will be better to medle but little with the worke of God within us and looke to our owne learning the duties which wee are called unto as necessary if wee will enjoy that great reconciliation The first duty is to walke before God with a good conscience for in vaine should one hope to keepe it tranquil and not good Conscience is the natural sence of the duties of piety and righteousnes warning every man unlesse he be degenerated into a beast to depart from evil and doe good And a good conscience is that which obeyeth that sense and warning But the ordinary use which I will follow by a good conscience understands onely the first part which is to beware of evil This good conscience is so necessary for the enjoying of that peace of God applyed to us by faith that the A postle to the Hebrewes requires it that wee may stand before God with a full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Let us draw neere saith he with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washt with pure water And St Paul chargeth Timothy 1. Tim. 1.19 to hold faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack shewing that faith and a good conscience must goe hand in hand and that the losse of a good conscience ushereth the losse of faith which is consequently followed with the losse of inward peace Whereas a good conscience brings forth confidence as St John teacheth us 1. Joh. 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemne us not then have wee confidence before God By a conscience that condemnes us not wee must not understand a conscience without sinne for there is none such to be found Much lesse a conscience that condemneth not the sinner after he hath sinned for the best consciences are those that forgive nothing to themselves and passe a voluntary condemnation upon themselves before God by a free and penitent confession But the good conscience that condemnes us not according to St Johns sense is that which beares witnes to a man to have walked in sincerity and cannot accuse him to have shut up his eyes since his conversion against the evident lights of truth and righteousnes or to have hardned his heart against repentance after he hath offended God The godly man will remember that the peace betweene God and us was made by way of contract whereby God gives himselfe to us in his Sonne and we give our selves to him If then any refuse to give himselfe to God there is no contract God will not give himselfe to him and so no peace for every contract must be mutual When the one party
must then place bodily pleasure among the goods but among the least and those in which beasts have more share then men The more pleasures are simple and natural as they are among beasts the more they are full and sincere But we by our wit make a toyle of a pleasure and drown nature in art He that can set a right value upon Beauty Health and Strength of which we spake lately may easily do the same of the pleasure which they are capable to give or to receive If then these qualities be but weake transitory and of short continuance they cannot yeeld or feele a pleasure solid constant and permanent Health the best of the three is rather a privation of disease then a pleasure and it makes the body as sensible of paine as of delight of which many that enjoy a perfect health are deprived It is a great abatement of the price of bodily pleasure that one must seldome use it to use it well yea and to preserve it for the excesse of it is vicious be the way never so lawfull and the satiety of it breeds sastidiousnesse and wearinesse Whereas true pleasure consisting in the knowledge and love of God one cannot sinne by excesse nor lose the relish of it by fulnesse but the appetite is increased and the faculty mended by enjoying Pleasures of the body though in themselves good and desireable are given by God for something else and to invite us to actions of necessity or utility But spiritual pleasure which is to know and love God is altogether for it selfe and for nothing beyond it for there the pleasure is so united with the duty that the glory which we give to God and that which we enjoy by knowing and loving him are sweetly confounded together and become but one thing This consideration that bodily pleasures are appointed for a further end helps much to understand their price and their use For the pleasure of the taste is to invite the appetite to eate eating is to live living is to serve God and betweene these two last there are other subordinations for many actions of life are for the domesticall good domesticall good for the civill the civill good for the religious Bodily pleasure standing naturally on the lowest round of this ladder is removed out of its proper place when it is placed above the superiour ends which is done when the actions of life which are due to the domestical civill good and before and after all to the religious are imployed to make a principal end of those things that are subordinate to them as inferiour meanes For we must desire to eate for to live not to live for the pleasure of eating so of other natural pleasures the desire whereof becomes vicious when those things to which by nature they ought to serve are subjected unto them Pleasures are good servants but ill Masters They will recreate you when you make them your servants But when you serve them they will tyrannize over you A voluptuous nice man is alwayes discontented and in ill humor Where others find commodity he finds incommodity He depriveth himselfe of the benefit of simple and easy pleasures He looseth pleasure by too much seeking By soothing up his senses he diseaseth them and paine penetrates sooner and deeper into a body softned with voluptuousnesse But he that lesse courteth pleasure enjoyeth it more for he is easily contented To live at ease in the world we must harden our body strengthen our mind and abridge our cupidity In nothing the folly and perversity of the world is so much seene as in this that of the things which Gods indulgence hath given to man for his solace and recreation he makes the causes of his misery the baits of his sinne and the matter of his condemnation for from the abuse of pleasure proceeds the greatest part of the evills that are in the world both the evills which men suffer and those which they commit Yea from thence all evils proceed if wee remount to the first sinne Therefore a wise man will abstaine from unlawfull pleasures and taste the lawfull with moderation lest that by excesse he make them unlawfull Knowing that pleasure which strayeth from duty ends in sorrow that it is no gallantry to offend God and that no delight can countervaile the losse of the serenity of conscience Vice it selfe will teach us vertue For when we see the slaves of voluptuousnes get in that service a diseased body a sad heart a troubled conscience infamy want and brutality we find it an ill bargaine to buy pleasure at so deare a rate This observation also will be of some helpe for the valuation of pleasure That the pleasures that stick most to the matter are the most unworthy as all the pleasures of the taste and feeling and those pleasures that recede further from the matter are more worthy as the pleasures of the sight Wherefore the pleasure of hearing is yet more worthy as having more affinity with the minde And as they are more worthy they are also more innocent But in all things excesse is vicious As excesse in pleasures is vicious so is the defect For God hath made many handsome and good things to please us in which neverthelesse we take no content and many times reject them out of nicenesse How many perfect workes of God strike their image into our eyes and yet enter not into our thoughts How many conveniences are sent to us by Gods good hand sufficient to fill our minds with comfort and thankfulnesse if we had the grace to consider them and we think not of them though we make use of them We are so inchanted with false pleasures that we lose the taste of the true But a wise man is innocently inventive to solace himselfe and finds every where matter of pleasure All things without smile upon him because his spirit is smiling within and he lends to objects his owne serenity whereby he makes them pleasant CHAP. VIII Of the Evils opposite to the forenamed Goods IT is to make the title short that I call them evill not to condemne without appeale informatition all that is not in the list of the goods of fortune and goods of the Body By looking upon these goods we may judge of their opposites An easy worke for having found nogreat excellency in these goods no solid content in the possession of them it followes that to be without them is no great misery They must be viewed impartially for there is both good and evil every where although to speake Philosophically and properly the true evill and the true good lie within us The silly vulgar cannot comprehend that a man can finde his happinesse and unhappinesse within himselfe and seeke their good abroad where it is not toyling sweating and wearing out their life with labour in that quest and making themselves misetable out of feare of misery Whereas most accidents without are neither Good nor evill in themselves and
prisoners friends from him but he cannot shut out comfort and tranquillity from his soul CHAP. XV. Husband Wife Children Kindred Friends Their price their Losse IT may seeme that these should have bin put among the goods of fortune To which I might answer somewhat Stoically that it is not altogether certaine whether they must be put among the goods or among the evills for they may be either as it falls out But I rank them with neither but among exteriour things of which we must labour to get the right Opinion To that end we must alwayes consider them two wayes as they are good or bad and as they are neare to us in blood or bonds of duty Neither must the second relation hinder the first so forestalling the mind with the relations of Husband or Wife Sonne or Brother that one be incapable to make a right Judgement of their disposition and capacity and set a just price on them The onely relation of Parents must spread a vaile of reverence betweene our eyes and their imperfections that we may see nothing but good in them There it is wisedome to be somewhat deceived Though it be not my theame to speak of the duties to be rendred to our several relations yet because I seeke the contentment of mind I cannot chuse but say that of all civill and natural duties none is so contenting to him that payeth it as the duty payd to Parents Herein Epamimondas Judged his victories most fortunate unto him that he had obtained them in his Fathers life time who did much rejoyce at them To other relations we must also pay their proper duty Of which wee must remember this general rule That it is impossible to get content by them unlesse we do our duty towards them For that content must not be expected from them but from ourselves The content that one takes with a deare Wife a good Brother and a well chosen Friend is more that which he giveth then that which he receiveth It lyeth in the testimony of his conscience that he hath rendred to them the true offices of love Without prejudice to those duties we may and ought impartially to consider their inclinations and abilities and what may be expected of them In those relations which come by choyce as of a Husband Wife and friend the judgement must precede the affection to finde what is fit for us before we fixe upon it But in relations of Kindred made by nature without us the affection must go before and the judgement must follow that we may know them so well that though we love them we trust them proportionably to their honesty and capacity and no more In this point the vulgar sort making many grosse mistaks For it is an ordinary but an evill expression I would trust him as mine owne Brother Yet most knaves have Brothers who should do very unwisely to trust them The style of Merchants selling their ware is more ingemous when they promise to a Chapman to use him as if he were their Brother for they would not scruple to cozen their Brother And truly hence the word of cozening had its Origine because it is usual to make use of the bond of Kindred to be trusted enough to deceive enough For counsel and conversation we much choose the wisest and worthiest rather then the nearest in blood But when there is occasion to give or need to seeke help we must runne to the neerest in blood rather then to the worthyest if they be but honest So much we must deferre to the choyce of Nature that if there be any vertue in them though but small we be neerer to them in affection then blood Solomon saith that a Brother is borne for adversity Prov. 17.17 because other friendships by differences intervening of parties interesses and Opinions are subject to coole and untie but among Brethren those differences are overcome by the strength of nature and in adversity either good nature or feare of blame makes Brothers give real help to Brothers Wife and Children are the strongest trials of a magnanimous spirit for they make a mans heart tender and in the pinches of adversity make him descend to ungenerous shifts He that hath none shal have lesse delight lesse sorrow Yet must we acknowledge that a mariage wel sorted betweene two persons of merit is of all worldly felicities the greatest Of children expect noe good but the satisfaction to have done them good and to see them doe wel for them-selves For in this relation the nature of beneficence is to descend seldom to remount Nothing is more pretious among humane things then a vertuous loving freind kinne or no kinne And if he be one story above us in nobility and vertue he is better then lower Equality indeed is requisit in friendship but friend ship it selfe worketh that equality where it is not And there is need of it for it is impossible to find two friends in the world altogether equal in al respects The price of friendship is according to the price of the person whom therefore we must study to know wel that we may love no person above or under his right value A reasonable benevolence of a man of great merit is more obliging then the ardent affection of an Idiot From the former you may receive instruction honour and content From the second importunity and the disgrace to be paired with a man of no worth Such a friendship will end in a breach and so in repentance Whether friendships be knit by nature or by choyce that we may not expect of them a content beyond their nature we must remember that our freinds are men whose love may and whose life must faile The use of them we may have not the possession The best and most powerfull freinds are weake reeds which we must not leane upon with all our weight lest they breake in our hand and we take a sore fall Thus saith the Lord Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme Jer. 17.5 As this is a sentence given by God against them that put their confidence in man it is also a natural consequence of the nature of the fault For puting our confidence in man is going out of our selues It is going out of God It is making men Gods for unto God only is that homage due of an absolute and total confidence Noe wonder that God thereby is moved to jealousy To that evill Pagan Philosophers give a remedy little better then the disease which is To put confidence in ourselves This being a most erroneous Doctrine is nevertheless halfe the way to the truth for they had very well observed that a wise wan must not depend from another but retire within himselfe where all the good and evill of a man lyeth But while they enjoyne a man to retire within himselfe they leave out the maine precept proper to a higher School then theirs that a man should seek God within himselfe and to find
2.17 This was a cause why Solomon hated life even because the wiseman dyeth as the foole Yet had he wisely pondred the matter before ver 13. I saw that wisedome excelleth folly as farre as light excelleth darknesse The wisemans eyes are in his head but the foole walketh in darknesse but I perceived also that one event happenth to them all It is enough to disdaine the vanity of life and of human wisedome better then life to see a great Statesman that made a Kingdom to flourish and the neighboring States to tremble to be cut off in the midst of his high enterprises and deep counsels all which dye with him Psal 46.4 His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish That plotting braines from whose resolution the fortune of an empire depended shall breed wormes and toades And truly it should be unreasonable that this kind of prudence which hath no object but worldly and perishable should remaine permanent But it is very consonant to reason that a higher prudence which applyeth itselfe to permanent things remaine permanent It is that permanent wisedome which our Saviour recommends unto us Luke 12.33 Provide yourselves baggs which waxe not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not It is that wisedome which Solomon calls a tree of life to them that lay hold on her because she lives after death and makes the soul live for ever Judge you of the price of these two sorts of wisedomes the one that perisheth and many times makes men perish the other that endureth for ever and will certainly make them that embrace her eternally blessed CHAP. XIX Of the acquisite Ornaments of the Will THe end of the instruction of the Understanding is the ruling and ordering of the Will in a constant goodnesse so much better then science and prudence as the end is better then the meanes unlesse by prudence we understand that wisedome which is employed about mans duty to God and comprehends all vertues for as in God all vertues are but one which is his Being likewise when we take vertues in a divine sense one vertue comprehends many as having some participation with the divine nature Commonly by vertue we understand uprightnesse of the will because without it the vertues of the understanding science intelligence and prudence deserve not to be called vertues and the more able they are the more pernicious Vertue of all acquisitions is the most precious without it the goods of body and fortune become evills serving only to make a man guilty and miserable for then the goods of the body give the faculty and the goods of fortune give the opportunity to do evill but without them Vertue alone is good and fetcheth good even out of evill By vertue man is made like God who is the originall vertue Vertue gives glory to God utility to the publique tranquillity and joy to the conscience reliefe to some counsell to others example to all Vertue is respected of all even of them that envy it They that love not the reality of vertue yet study to get the name of it and to put upon their false coyne the stamp of vertue All the hypocrisie in the world is an homage that Vice payeth unto Vertue A vertuous man may be stript of his estate by his enemies but of his vertue he cannot Because he keepes it he is alwayes rich Vertue strengthneth him in adversity moderates him in prosperity guides him in society entertaines him in his solitarinesse adviseth him in his doubts supports him in his weaknesse keeps him company in his journeyes by sea and land If his ship sink vertue sinkes not and he whether living or dying saveth it and himselfe By vertue he feares neither life nor death looking upon both with an equal eye yet aspiring to depart and to be with Christ but bearing patiently the delay of his departure because he is already with Christ by a lively hope Vertue steering the soule makes it take a streight and safe course to heaven and there abides with him eternally for vertue as well as glory is that treasure in heaven where neither the moth nor the rust corrupt and where theeves do not breake thorough and steale Math. 6. Philosophy considereth three vertues in the wil Justice Fortitude and Temperance excellent vertues the first especially which in effect containes the two others for it is the right temper of the will not drawne aside from the integrity of a good conscience either by oppositions of adversity against which fortitude stands fast or by allurements of prosperity from which temperance witholds the appetite Good conscience of which we have spoken in the first Booke is nothing else but justice For these vertues wherein mans duty and happinesse consisteth it were hard to find Elogies equal to their worth But there is great diffecence between the excellency of Vertue in it self and such vertue as is found among men The exactest justice that man is capable of is defective and infected with sinne All our righteousnesses are as the defiled cloath Wherefore the description of a just counterpoise of the will never swarving either on the right hand or the left never shaken from his square cubus either by afflictions or temptations is a fair character fit to set before our eyes to imitate as neere as we can as faire pictures in the sight of breeding women But truly such a perfect vertue subsisteth not in any subject under heaven In this world to be just is only to be somewhat lesse evill then others If a perfect Justice cannot be establisht in the private policy of a mans soul it is not to be lookt for in publique Policies Justice being pure in her original becomes impure and maimed being kneaded by the weak and uncleane hands of men Job 14.4 Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane Of this it were easy to give instances out of the formes of Justice out of the very Lawes in all States But it is a point of justice to respect her in those hands to which divine providence hath intrusted her and to adde strength to her weakenesse by our voluntary deference Man being weake in justice cannot but be so in her appurtenances fortitude and temperance The highest point unto which human precepts endeavour to raise fortitude is to make patience a remedy to evills remediless But how short the bravest men come of that remedy in their paines and griefes daily experience sheweth it The vulgar placeth the vertue of fortitude in striking and massacring which is rather a barbarous inhumanity and if it be a vertue tygers are more vertuous then men As for Temperance her very name sounds weakenesse For he that is not subject to be corrupted by evill suggestions hath no need of temperance That man is temperat that knoweth how to keepe himselfe from himselfe who therefore is naturally evill and prone to vicious excesses Wherein men are inferiour to beasts which are not tempted
universal practise of the World Whole Nations live of nothing else Indeed the Europeans follow it with some outward reservednesse There is no lesse wickedness among us then with the Arabians and Moores but there is more hypocrisy We do not robbe caravans of Merchants and take no men upon the Christian coasts to make them slaves but we suck out their blood and marrow by quillets of law we overthrow our Country to build our houses with the publique ruines Phil. 2.21 All seek their owne not the things of the Lord Jesus We give indeed that respect to piety and vertue that we will be reputed good but we are afraid to be so Little scruple is made of unlawfull profit and pleasure onely care is taken to do ill feats with little noise The life of the World is a play where every one studieth not to do his duty really but to act his part handsomly I leave out more notorious crimes because they are eminent and set themselves out by their infamie To the wickednesse of the World is joyned vanity weakenesse and folly For one cunning man there is ten thousand Idiots whose blindnesse and rash credulity is a servant to the covetousness and ambition of a few crafty dealers And yet the most crafty are not free of the captivity of custom and superstition whereby a mans spirit is hooded with errour and starts at truth and good counsell The World is a croud of giddy people justling one another A company of blind people following one another and holding by the cloak them that go next before If the former fall so will the others and it would be thought want of civility to stand when the guides are falling or to offer to see when all the company is winking and to refuse to sinne a la mode Youth is foolish old age is doting Orators tell us idle tales with much gravity To please the people one must deceive them The vulgar is set in an uproare upon light occasions and for light reasons pacifyed againe They leave the substance to runne after the shaddow Passion not reason makes them turne now to evill now to good in both the more impetuously the more weakely They have some good Opinion of vertue and esteeme it by hearsay till it come neere and then they cannot abide it labouring to destroy vertuous men and after they are destroyed esteeming them againe and calling for them when they are no more Gallants are slaves to other mens Opinions neglecting the duty for the ceremony leaving health and conveniency for a conceited decency living at a venture and dying at randome The life of the World is a false game where there is perpetual justling out one of another whether it be at great sets when one nation drives another away by invasion and one faction in the State puts down the contrary or by playing every one for himselfe each one catching what and where he can whosoever be a loser by it Out of that hideous confusion a wofull misery must needs follow in the world where for one winner there are a hundred losers Man by nature is miserable composed of a sickly body a spirit that is his own tormenter But as if all that were not enough he is destroyed by his owne kind There is but two sorts of men in the World oppressours oppressed Psal 74.20 The darke places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty which is also Solomons contemplation Eccles 4.1 I considered all the oppressions that are done under the Sun and beheld the teares of such as were opprest and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressors there was power but they had no comforter Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Yea better is he then them both which hath not yet bin who hath not seene the evill work that is done under the Sunne This argument of the wickednesse vanity and misery of the world is so ample so knowne and so well treated by others that I may excuse my selfe of further insisting upon it All this is but the exteriour face of the world But the inward motions and the secret order of Gods wise conduct among all that disorder hath never bin sufficiently considered though there be enough to be seene on the dyal of that great clock to judge at least of the wisedome of the great workman and acknowledge that there is a deepe and divine art in that hidden machine of the counselâ—â—â—y of his providence A considering eye may mark how both by the concourse and the opposition of so many free stirring and disorderly agents certain orderly and unavoydable events are produced determined in Gods eternall decree How many different ends and intentions which all serve for Gods end Yea though they be evill God fetcheth good from them turnes them to his glory Wherefore after we have thoroughly knowne the world as wicked as it is weak blind confused turbulent yet let us acknowledge that all that disorder is usefull that among so much evill there is nothing but doeth good The insolency of some serves to exercise the patience of others and forme them to vertue Gods indulgence powring plenty into the mouthes that blaspheme him teacheth his children to do good to their enemies and not to be more hasty then God to see justice executed on the wicked It is a goodly study to be a disciple of Gods providence Consider how the States of the World are maintained by their own diseases France is swarming with poore and vagrants and idlenesse is thought there to be essential to gentile blood but hence it comes that the King gets armies as soon as the drum beats and is the terrour of his enemies and support of his friends Whilst other States whose policy is so provident as to leave neither poore nor idle person among them are put to hire souldiers of all nations with great labour and cost and commit their safety to outlandish and uninterressed souldiers States as well as wine have need of some lees for their perservation Among the Turks Muscovites and Tartars the tyrannicall unlimited power of the Soveraine and the blind obedience of the people keep the State in peace which otherwise would be torne with civil warres Grosse stupid ignorance keeps some nations in concord at home Whilst other nations by their wit and learning are disquieted with endlesse factions The savage and uncivill humour of some people makes them considerable and they are respected of all because they respect no body Many times a State by a forraine invasion and by divisions at home hath learned to know his strength and is become warlike and formidable to his neighbours The naturall want of necessary things in a Country too little for the many inhabitants have caused the people to traffique over all the world and made the abundance of all regions tributary to their vertue Covetousness penetrates both the Indies
filial love confidence and obedience The other rule that wee may finde Joy in all things that are either of good or indifferent nature is to seeke it according to the kind and capacity of every thing To that end we must be carefull that the Joy that wee take in God be as little under him as it is possible to us and that the Joy that wee take in other things be not above them Since then God is all good all perfect all pleasant the onely worthy to be most highly praised and most entirely beloved wee must also most exceedingly rejoyce that he is ours and wee his and that we are called to be one with him As for other things let us judiciously examine what Joy they can give us and lose nothing of the content which their capacity can afford looking for no more For there is scarce any sorrow in the world but proceeds from this cause to have expected of humane things a Joy beyond their nature Now this is the great skill of a minde serene religious industrous for his own content to know how to fetch joy out of all things and whereas every thing hath two handles the one good the other evill to take every thing dexterously by the right handle A man that hath that skill will rejoyce in his riches with a joy sortable to their nature And when he loseth them in stead of grieving that he shall have them no longer he rejoyceth that he had them so long If he lose one of his hands he rejoyceth that God preserveth him the other If he lose the health of his body he praiseth God for preserving to him the health of his minde If slandering tongues take his good name from him he rejoyceth that none can robbe him of the testimony of a good conscience If he be in the power of them that can kill his body he rejoyceth that they cannot kill his soul If he be condemned being innocent his joy that he is innocent drownes his sorrow that he is condemned Love and Joy are the two passions that serve to glorifie God and praise him for his benefits A thankfull admirer of Gods wisedome and bounty hath a cheerefull heart All things give him joy the beauty variety and excellency of Gods workes makes him say with David Psal 92.4 Lord I will triumph in the workes of thy hands He rejoyceth in hope to see better works and the Maker himselfe in whose sight and presence is fullnes of joy If he look up to heaven he rejoyceth that he hath a building of God a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 If he look upon his body he rejoyceth that in his flesh he shall see God If he looke upon his soul he rejoyceth that there he beares the renewed image of God and the earnest of his eternall adoption If he be poore he rejoyceth in that conformity with the Lord Jesus If he see wealth in the house of his neighbours he rejoyceth that they have the plenty splendor of it that himselfe hath not the cares and the temptations that attend it As many miseries as he seeth so many arguments hath he to glorifie God and rejoyce in his goodnesse saying Blessed be God that I am not maimed like that begging souldier nor lunatick like that bedlam nor going in shackles like that fellon nor a slave like that Counsellour of State He will keepe account of Gods benefits and considering sometimes his owne infirmities and naturall inclinations sometimes Gods wise providence in the conduct of his life he will acknowledge with a thankfull joy that God hath provided better for him then himselfe could have wisht that his crosses were necessary for him and that if he had had a fairer way he might have run headlong to ruine by his rashnesse It were infinite to enumerate all the subjects of joy that God gives to his children for his benefits are numberless his care continuall his compassions new every morning and the glory which he keepes for us eternall Which way can we turne our eyes and not finde the bounty of God visible and sensible Here then more evidently then any where else our happiness and our duty meet in one It is a pleasant task to worke our owne joy Now it is the task of Gods children in obedience to his express command by his Apostle 1 Thes 5.16 Rejoyce evermore See how urgent he is to recommend that duty Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alway and againe I say Rejoyce CHAP. IX Of Pride I Contend not whether Pride must be called a Vice or a Passion It is enough for me that it is an affection too naturall unto man the cause of many passions and a great disturber of inward tranquillity Pride is a swelling of the soul whose proper causes are too good an opinion and in consequence too great a love of ones selfe and whose most proper effects are ambition of dignity and greedinesse of praise Wherefore these two effects cannot be overcome unless we first overcome the cause which is presumption and a blinde immoderate love of a mans selfe It is impossible for a man to be tranquill and safe as long as he sits upon a crazy and tottering bottome Pride then making a man to ground himselfe upon himselfe cannot but keepe him in a perpetuall unquietness and vacillation How can ye beleeve saith the Lord Jesus to the Jewes which receive honour one of another and seeke not the honour that comes from God onely John 5.44 A text which taxeth Pride of two great evills That is robbes God of his glory and that it shakes the the foundation of faith For a proud man seekes not the glory of God but his owne and his owne glory hee doth not seeke of God but will get it of men by his owne merit Also it turnes his heart away from his trust in God to trust in his owne selfe Psal 10.13 The wicked boasteth of his hearts desire saith David that is he is confident that by his owne strength he shall compass all his projects And againe The wicked through the pride of his heart will not seeke after God for the one brings the other He that trusteth in himselfe and is highly conceited of his owne wisedome is easily perswaded that he hath no need of God That disposition of the mind is the high way to ruine Prov. 16.18 Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall For God to whom only glory belongeth cannot but be very jealous of those that wil ingross it to themselves declares open warre against them Psal 18.27 He will bring downe high lookes Jam. 4.6 He resisteth the proud but sheweth grace unto the humble Prov. 8.11 I hate pride and arrogancy saith Soveraine wisedome which is God As the winde hurts not the stalkes of herbs as long as they are supple and bowing but breakes them when they are become dry and stiffe The meeke and humble spirits that
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God When the glory of the world fills a mans thoughts while it doth lift him up with pride it brings him down by cupidity under those things that are under him But when the glory of God ruleth in our hearts it brings us low with humility and together raiseth us up by faith and a holy generosity far above all humane things even as high as the right hand of God with Christ there to rejoyce in his love and sweetly repose our hearts upon his fatherly care None shall attaine to that blessed state of the soul which is already a heaven upon earth unlesse he beate downe his pride A vice which makes a man incompatible with God for it pretends to that which to God alone is due which is glory incompatible with his neighbours for it perswades him that all things are due to him and that the honour and advancement bestowed upon any but himselfe is ill bestowed and incompatible with himselfe for it tortureth a mans minde with envy makes him secretly murmure against God and men and renders him incapable of the grace of God which is onely for the meeke and of his kingdome which is onely for the poore in spirit Matth. 5.3 Here this method must diligently be observed to rectifie our opinion first that we may rule our Passion To bring downe the tumour of Pride let us get a right opinion of ourselves How we are begotten like beasts borne in lamentation lying a long time in our ordure living in a sickly flesh wilde and foolish in our thoughts corrupted in our affections vaine and wicked in our conversation blind wretched and guilty before God and after a few evill dayes returning to the ground of our ignoble principle In the midst of the gawdy luster of the world let us looke to our end a winding sheet putrefaction wormes mourning of our heires for a little while and then perpetuall oblivion Let us beare these things in mind and then be proud if we can Many Passions have their origine from Pride which must be called to our barre after their Mother CHAP. X. Of Obstinacy OBstinacy is a compound of pride and ignorance It is an overthrow of the right polity of the soule where the will must consult reason but Obstinacy makes reason to consult the will so that a man will do or maintaine a thing not because it is reasonable but because he did it and maintained it before Ignorance begins which hoodwinks the understanding with errour Then comes Pride which pins that hood fast about his eyes pretending that it is a shame for a man to go from his opinion By Obstinacy a man comes to that desperate case of the soul which Philosophy calls feritas that is a savage brutishnesse incapable of all vertue and discipline For he must be either in god or beast that takes his instinct for his perpetual rule and sets before him his present will and doing as an immutable patterne of that he must will and do for ever after When Obstinacy hath thus shut the dore unto discipline and stopt a mans ear against counsell one of these two evills followeth Either he is hardned in evill without remedy Or if by chance he light on the right side he spoiles it as farre as in him lyes maintaining truth and equity not because it is so but because he will have it so There is no greater enemy to Christian wisedome then that stubborne disposition For thereby a man stands in direct opposition against God challenging to himselfe that which belongs to God alone even to make his will a reason and a law When the light of reason or the word of God or the manifest course of his providence declares to us what the will of God is neverthelesse to set our will against it out of a pretended constancy in our former opinion and inclination what is it else but to make warre against God As Obstinacy is odious to God so it is odious in society It makes a man troublesome ridiculous and the undoer of himselfe And of his Country also if he be assisted with power and hath many persons and businesses depending upon him Expect neither wisedome nor faire dealing nor serenity within nor good actions abroad where the will takes no counsell of reason There is no place left for amendment when one thinkes himselfe obliged never to alter his minde As Obstinacy hardeneth opinions it doth the like to passions to those chiefely that have melancholy for their fewell as sadnesse hatred envy and love also for of these growne once inveterate many times a man can give no reason but that he will continue as he hath begun This vice is a bastard imitation of Constancy whose name it borrowes but very injuriously for constancy consisteth not in stedfastnesse to a mans own will but in a firme adhering to goodnesse That which is good one time perhaps will not be so another time Righteousnesse indeed is alwayes one and the same but variety of incidences and circumstances makes it change faces As the needle of the compasse that stands so fixt upon the North not to be mooved from that point by the greatest tempests yet will in an instant turne to the South when the ship is gone beyond the Equinoctiall line and to that contrary point will keep with the like stedfastnesse so long as it is in that hemisphere Likewise a wise and good man will be firme in his resolutions where his duty calls him So because his duty lyes not at all times the same way his resolutions also are not bent at all times the same way but will turne with his duty Jeremiah desired sincerely the preservation of the Kingdome of Juda the liberty of his Country But after that Zedekiah had taken the Oath of allegiance to the King of Babylon he adviseth Zedekiah and his people to yeeld Jerusalem to him In vaine Obstinacy aspireth to the praise of a great and brave spirit it is rather a womanish narrowspirited weakenesse It was the proper saying of a femall Mene incoepto desistere victam Must I be overcome and desist from my purpose Great houses have some roomes for winter some for Summer and severall apartements for severall Offices But in small cabines the kitchin and the bedchamber are all one and the same still in all seasons Even so great spirits have a space for diversity of counsels according to the diversity of occurrences and various constellations of times and businesses which continually alter but they are narrowbreasted men that have but one resolution and one course to carry them through all things and times It is for a low and timorous spirit to be afraid to change fashion and think himselfe lost when he must travell by a way that he never went before whereas great spirits are complying facile universall and their knowledge of the world makes them finde nothing new or strange Obstinacy should be overcome from the cradle Even then
I count them mine enemies But wee must take heed lest the hatred of iniquity bring the hatred against the persons and the persons must not be afflicted more then needs for the repressing of iniquity The more difficult it is to keep that temper the more earnestly ought we to endeavour to render all offices of charity and personall humanity to them whose party we justly seek to defeate for to love our enemies and to overcome the evill with good is the most ingenuous imitation of the Godhead It is his command joyned with his example Matth. 5.44 Love your enemies blesse them that curse you do good to them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for he makes his Sun to rise on the evill and on the good and sends raine on the just and on the unjust There is need of a great measure of grace and wisedome to observe these two precepts together Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evill and Matth. 22.39 Thou shalt love thy neighbour like thy selfe hating iniquity in the wicked and loving their persons and both for Gods sake The chiefe use of hatred is to be incited to good by the hatred of evill For that end it is not necessary that the greatnesse of hatred equall the greatnesse of the evill and we are not obliged to hate evill things as much as they deserve otherwise the great currant of our affection would runne into the channell of hatred and leave the channell of love dry Now it is in loving the Soveraine good with all our strength and with all our soul that our duty and happinesse consisteth not in hating the evill with all our strength and with all our soul The hatred of evill is not requisite of it selfe but by accident as a consequence of the love of good If the hatred of vice perswade us to vertue we shall be more yet perswaded to it by the love of goodnesse Many effects of hatred are the same as the effects of anger for there is no anger without hatred in some degree if not to a person at least to an action But there is some hatred without anger when one forethinks in cold blood the wayes to destroy an adversary All the destructions of the world where the will of man is an agent are wrought immediately by hatred They have many remote causes anbition covetousnesse carnall love emulation and all the violent passions but they destroy not but by accident till some opposition hath driven them into hatred which in the inward polity of the soul hath the same office as the hangman in a Citty for it is the executioner and avenger of wrongs Unto hatred all the cruelty of tyranny and malice must be imputed And yet all the blood spilt all the ruines and inventive torments outwardly wrought by hatred are nothing so grievous as the inward disorder wrought by it in cruell and revengefull souls and the separation which it worketh between God and man It is the finall and most grievous effect of hatred that by hating our neighbours we become Gods enemies 1 Joh. 4.20 If a man say I love God and hates his brother he is a lyer Hatred is a bitter venome which being once diffused soaked into the soul turnes a man into a hell-fury contrary to all good ready and industrious to all evil But with all the paine that such a man takes to doe harme to others he doth more harme to himselfe then to any consuming his spirits with a continual malignant fever banishing from his soul serenity charity and meekness vertues which are the soyle of other vertues and the givers of rest contentment to the soul It is often seene that while a man is gnawing his heart with a fierce hatred the person he hateth is healthfull merry and quiet as if imprecations made him prosper An ill grounded hatred drawes Gods blessing upon the party unjustly hated and persecuted Psal 109.18 It was Davids hope Let them curse but blesse thou Hatred is conceived for one of those two ends Either to avenge ourselves or to avenge injustice which is Gods cause As for the first Before wee think of revenging an injury wee must examine whether wee have received or done the greater injury for it is ordinary that the offender is harder to be reconciled that it may not be thought that he is in the wrong Then we must calmely consider whether the revenge may not doe us more harme then the injury though wee had nothing to doe but to breake our launces against a dead stock incapable to resent it For besides that there is no enemy so little but it is better to let him alone then to provoke him the harme that hatred doth within us cannot be recompensed by any sweetness of revenge though there were no other harme in hatred then to find delight in robbing God of that he hath reserved to himselfe Now he challengeth revenge as his owne exclusively to all others Heb. 10.30 Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompense saith the Lord. To become incapable of rest incapable of doing good incapable of pleasing God are sufficient evils to deterre us from harbouring that inhumane passion enemy of men of God and of ourselves Pro. 11.17 The mercifull man doth good to his owne soul but the cruel troubleth his owne flesh It is a right godly and philosophicall study to strive against that tendernes quick to pick offences slow to take satisfaction And wee must be ingenious to devise causes of patience Are you condemned being guilty acknowledge Justice Are you innocent bow under authority Are you newly offended It is too soone to resent it Is the Sunne gone downe since It is too late Hath any wounded you look to your cure not to your revenge Are you well againe let not your mind be harder to heal then your body Are you offended by a friend remember the friendship more then the offense Are you offended by an enemy Doe your endeavour that he be so no more returning him good for evil Is he too strong for you It is folly to contend with him Is he too weake It is a shame Is he your superiour you must yeeld to him Is he your inferiour you must spare him And since Pride of which none is altogether free represents our enemies to us under a vile and unworthy notion let us fetch some good out of that evill Let contempt help patience to beare with their provocations for if a dogge did bite us wee would not bite him againe nor kicke at a asse that kicks against us Also when some body offends us let us remember that wee have offended some body The fault that wee find in another is in our owne bosome It is too great a flattery of selfe love to looke to be excused and excuse none Wee are evill and infirme and live among persons evill and infirme All have need to put on a
will be but dissimulation and though it get us peace abroad it will not give us peace within My little children saith St. John let us not love in word neither in tongue but indeed and in truth 1. Ioh. 3.18 Then he addeth that hereby wee know that wee are of the truth and assure our hearts before God A text shewing that charity to our neighbours fills the minde with saith peace and assurance a doctrine justified by the experience of meek and charitable soules The same charity that unites us with Christ as our head unites us also with our neighbours as his members or at least as his creatures that beare his image In the one or the other of these relations we must love all men for Gods sake and render to them all possible duties of humanity To the practice of these duties we are more especially called by the necessity of our neighbours and by their vertue Necessity affords us a perpetual occasion of charity Matth. 26.11 For ye have the poore alwayes with you saith the Lord Jesus Others that are not poore in estate are poore in counsel or health or friends or comfort Let every body give of that he hath to him that hath not and he sheweth charity to the rich if he doe him good expecting no reward Workes of charity doe good both to him that is relieved and to him that relieveth But he that doeth good gets more reliefe by it then he to whom it is done for it is a thing more happy to give then to receive Act. 20.35 saith St Paul after Christ first because of the good treasure which is layd up thereby for the future Pro. 11.25 The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himselfe Giving charitably is casting a seed bringing an everlasting harvest It is sending up sweete vapours to heaven which are thickened there into a raine of blessings to showre downe upon the head of the charitable person To which we may joine the great and present content accrewing to the soule in the very act of giving for good workes give a ready pay to the doers This made Solomon to say The merciful man doeth good to his owne soul Prov. 11.17 for the workes of mercy give a great joy to the doer And he that gives his bread to the poore is more satisfied with it then he that eates it It is a divine felicity to doe good to many for it is the greatest imitation of God who gives to all and is never weary of doing good Herein onely dignities and riches are good that they enable a willing mind to doe much good As the necessity of our neighbours invites us to charity so doth their Vertue which is the better invitation The first sort of Charity which regards more the need then the worth of the person is humanity and mercy that which regardeth Vertue is friendship or at least a beginning of it Friendship to deserve fully that name must be reciprocall the parties loving one another dearely because they deserve it and because they see the graces of God each in the other Friendship that regards profit and pleasure deserveth not that name since it is neither for the love of God nor for the love of the person that such a Friendship is contracted but out of selfe-love Friendship cemented by Vertue and riveted by likeness in inclinations manners and opininions is the sweetest of all human things For besides counsell and mutuall help and the delight of enterchanging thoughts and discharging cares in the bosome one of another the union of affections and the assurance to be beloved of the beloved person is a content not to be exprest there is something heavenly in that harmony It is a little imitation of the union between the persons of the Trinity which make themselves happy by their mutuall love There is nothing neither in heaven nor in earth that giveth content but friendship Nothing is pleasant without it And if I were asked what is the greatest of all joyes I would say that it is to love and to be loved againe and know it But it must be acknowledged that this perfection and felicity is more in Idea then in reality among men and we must go higher then human Society to find it For whereas it is hard to find a vertuous man in the world it is harder to find two And it is harder yet to make these two meet in opinions in inclinations in interesses in place of habitation and in the like course of life for the want of one of these particulars hinders the knitting of the bond of friendship or makes it shortlived or abates the comfort of it The description which Pagan Philosophy forgeeth of perfect friendship is a fair imagination of an impossible thing They require two friends or three at the most but such as were never found endowed with perfect vertue That for that vertue these persons love one another without any other obligation or collaterall respect That these perfect soules be so plunged and blended one within another that they can not owne themselves singled and asunder That they be but one soul dwelling in severall bodyes That a friend give himselfe so absolutely to his friend that he live no more but for him yea in him and that his goods as himselfe be his friends whose interesses he wholly seekes not his owne I wonder that among Christian Philosophers none hath hitherto observed for any thing I know what it was that bred that Idea of friendship so high and remote from the nature of things in the fancy of Pagan Philosophers which yet placed vertue and felicity in living according to Nature why they have so universally adored that chimera which is found no where among men like the Athenians that had set up an Altar to the unknowne God This is then the origine and ground of that high imagination of those Pagans They had found by searching the nature of man that nothing can make him happy but love And that for a beatificall love a man hath need of an object all good all wise and all perfect so perfectly united with him yea so totally that both passe the one into the other and make a mutuall free and absolute gift of themselves But the poore men did not know that object of transcendent goodness onely worthy to be loved with all the heart and soul and if some of them acknowledged God to be the Soveraine good they beleeved not that he could have such a communication with man that both might enterchange a mutuall gift of their owne selves so that man should dwell in God and God in man Thinking not then that there might be a contract of friendship betweene God and man and seeing that it is friendship that must make man happy they forged that Idea of friendship betweene man man of which the condition of man is not capable requiring for that friendship that which indeed is requisite
hath ruined his business through his imprudence hath a double affliction for his misfortune and for his folly I may excuse my-selfe from speaking more of prudence in this Chapter for all I have said hitherto and have to say hereafter is nothing else CHAP. VI. To have little Company and few Businesses I Spake lately of Prudence in Business But the greatest prudence in business is to have but few it being impossible to have many without disturbing the peace of the foul And what imprudence is it to lose the end for the accessories especially when one is deceived in those accessories and mistakes for the helps of his content the instruments of his misfortune The more wee converse with men the lesse wee converse with God Yea the content which we might expect by our conversation with men is lost by too much conversation For whereas among men there are more wicked then good and among good men there are more unwise then wise it followeth that in great companies taking them one with another there is more evill then good and more folly then wisedome and the greater the worse It is in few friends well chosen that the sweetness and utility of conversation consisteth The lesseyou appeare in the crowd the less shall you be crowded the lesse secret envy and open quarrell shall you incurre the less evill shall you learne and doe It is no wonder that young men are inveigled with temptations embroyled in quarrells and made the prey of cheaters The poore youths are newly come into the world to see it they seeke great meetings they gaze upon all they see sin for company or to get experience But when a man hath seen enough of the world to know it and hath learned wisedome out of the folly of others and the miscariages of his owne imprudence he will content himselfe to see the ctowd afar off and will not thrust into it and medle too farre with this wicked foolish and dangerous generation We must not speak thus out of a presumptuous singularity so despising the world that we esteem none but ourselves We must acknowledge that we have the world in our heart and that we also are wicked foolish and of dangerous conversation If the world corrupt us we also help to corrupt the world Wherefore as bodies that have the itch so spirits infected with vice must lye asunder else they shall increase one anothers infection and the infection must needs be greater where there is a greater number of infected persons Where the crowd of men is there also is the crowd of ill customes and popular errours And if it be hard to resist the temptations of vicious persons when they set upon us single how can we stand against them when they fall upon us together in a full body How can we think on any thing but evill when we see and heare nothing else How can we lift up our hearts to God and converse with him in a confused noise and tumultuous hurrey which is the Kingdome of the Devill These considerations have moved some holy Fathers to retire into deserts to have no other company but God and tend the worke of their salvation without disturbance But because God will be glorified by us in the duties of humane Society and hath not sent us into the world only to tend our salvation that Retreat from the world is excusable in those only that can do as much or more good to the world living farre from it as living in Society Such were those who in their hermitages enricht the treasure of the Church with their divine workes confuting heresies and increasing the stock of holy learning But to leave the world to do good to none but ourselves is frustrating the end which God made us for since he hath made us for Society as it appeareth by the ten commandements most of which regard our duty to our neighbours A man of good parts that leaveth all Society to meditate and gives no fruit of his meditation to the world is like the Jordan whose faire and quick water is lost in the lake of Sodom called the dead Sea It is to dye living and lose the quickness of the mind in a gulfe of unprofitable idleness It is leaving the world in the worst sense for it is forsaking mankind and denying to Society that Service which we owe. A consideration able alone to trouble that tranquillity which Hermites and cloystred men seek in solitariness Neither can they make amends to the world by their prayers for as they pray for us that live in in the world we pray for them that live out of the world and so we are even with them The Lord Jesus hath taught us how to use solitarines for he retired by night into the mountaine to pray and in the day time he taught the people and when he was weary of the multitude he withdrew himselfe to the company of his disciples who were a choice of persons whom he honoured with the title of his friends so sharing his time betweene his particular communication with God his service of the publique and his communication with his singular friends One may leave the world and yet keepe it in his heart and one may converse with the world and yet leave it A godly wiseman may find retirednes in the greatest citties Hee may passe through the crowd and not stay in it or mingle with it as the river of Rhosne goeth through the Lemane lake He will doe service to all if he can but converse with few He may enjoy himselfe in a multitude of unknowne persons as if they were the personages of an Arras-hanging for a man is alone where he knoweth no body and acquaints himselfe with none For his acquaintance he will pick those whose life is vertuous the spirit meeke and the conversation plaine and easy He will endeavour to deserve their good will with his owne being ready and assiduous with them when he may serve them but out of that making his visits short to oblige them to the like alwayes leaving his friends company before they be weary of his In his choyce he will take men such as they be not depriving himselfe of the benefit of conversation out of a preconceit of perfect Idea's of worthy subjects of friendship but since all men are evill and weake he will be content with those that have lesse evill in them and that have wisedome enough to know their owne weakenes Knowing himselfe full of imperfections he will beare with the imperfections of his friends expecting of them the like forbearance He must labour to have a soule with many stories which may stoope and rise according to the several conditions and capacities of men not fearing to speake to Kings not disdaining to converse with peasants every where equal modest generous and reasonable respecting good sense wheresoever he finds it and he will find it as often under the russet jerkin as under scarlet and gold lace Because
them must be supplyed with serenity of mind and an easinesse inventive to frame to ourselves divertisements and make a pastime even of our misfortune If we may be merry it matters not upon what ground so it be not evill A serene mind that trusteth in God and doth good needs not look abroad for mirth He fetcheth mirth out of his owne stock To get the true taste of the outward contentments of life we wust but taste them not stretch our stomack upon them expecting our onely true contentment from God and within ourselves We must make use of all things and stay upon God alone The sense of Gods love and our reciprocall love to him give to the soul that onely true content but they take not from us the taste of the outward lawfull contentments of life Rather they give us that tast for to him that loves God and rejoyceth in his love all things looke pleasantly The certainty of his principall good keeps him so cheerefull that he takes contentment in in the smallest things as he that hath newly received tidings of great joy is well pleased with a coorse entertainment and delights even in those things that displeased him before CHAP. VII Conclusion Returne to the great principle of the Peace and Contentment of Mind which is to stick to God FRom these smal contentments let us remount to the great and principall and their stay It consisteth in the peace of God and union with him by faith and love There we began there we must end We have considered the world sufficiently to conclude that it consisteth in three poynts Vanity Wickednesse and Misery What is best in it is perishable When we have it in our hands it slips between our fingers and when it stayes with us yet it is none of ours since it is out of ourselves Among all the objects of our senses none is capable to give us a perfect and durable content Being thus unsatisfyed of all things without us if we enter within ourselves what satisfaction do we find in our nature we find errour in our opinions tumult in our passions hardness or terrour in our conscience when God dwells not in it by his grace Pagan Philosophers teach us indeed that within us or no where comfort is to be found But alas poore men they sought nothing within themselves but themselves And what is more weake more inconstant and more calamitous then man Then to this Philosophy one point is wanting which is all and that is to seeke God within us inviting him by humility repentance to choose his abode in our soules and there entertaining him with love and faith This is the only safe harbour for peace and contentment of mind Out of it there is nothing but storme The best worldly state is vanity and perplexity Of this Solomon is an excellent witness who having seene all the evill and tryed all the good of this world pronounceth this verdict Eccles 1.14 I have seene all the workes that are done under the Sunne and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit That great King having long enjoyed an unparallelled prosperity saith in the end that he hated life and hated all his labour Eccles 7.17 18. although his labour was to content himselfe being exalted to the highest Orb of power overflowing with plenty and swimming in delights What reason then have distressed men to hate their life and labour when they weare out their life in want in lawsuites in sicknesse and receiving no other salary of their vertue but envy and ungratefulness Wherefore that wise Prince having throughly considered all that is good and evill in this world and this life ends in this conclusion which he recommends to his Sonne Eccles 12.12 And further by these my Sonne be admonished Of making many bookes there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh Let us heare the conclusion of the whole matter Feare God and keep his commandements for this is the whole duty of man For God shall bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill So doth Solomon express that God is the center both of our duty and of our rest and happinesse and that the only safety and solid content consisteth in sticking fast to him There we finde refuge in our dangers confidence in our feares comfort in our sorrowes counsell in our perplexities light in darkenesse and life in death There we learne to make the right use of prosperity enjoying the gifts of God with cherefulnesse and simplicity not vexing ourselves with cares to keepe them or with covetousness to increase them There we get a gracious illumination to our understanding a rule to our will a bridle to our appetite a sincere joy in our conscience How great how unspeakable is that happinesse when our heart is turned into a Sanctuary where God himselfe is pleased to dwell and speak peace to our soul assuring us that he is reconciled towards us in his Beloved There he leads us into all truth helps up our weakeness instructs our ignorance raiseth us up when we fall and sets us againe in the right way when we are gone astray We are assaulted by many enemies but they that are for us are more then they that are against us since we haue alwayes the Lord at our right hand We are unwise but we have free accesse to the Soveraine wisedome to consult it at all times And many times that high wisedome preventing our consulting mends what we have marred by our folly Which present blessings are small being compared to our glorious hope That incomparable honour and wealth to be received into all the rights of Gods children that incorruptible crowne of life that fulnesse of joy in the enjoyment of Gods presence they are depthes not to be fathomed with mans thought But whereas for materiall things the extent of our sight is long the reach of our armes but short In things spirituall and eternal it is quite otherwise with us for the two armes of the soul which are love and faith reach much higher then the eye sight of reason can penetrate With these armes the godly soul layeth hold upon the celestiall goods which shee cannot see and with a lawfull hastinesse antedates in the present the possession of the glory to come That expectation makes the Christian to disgest any bitternesse and calmely passe by all the incommodities of life For he will say in his adversities This but a step of ill way to an eternall glory All these evils have an end and then begins a felicity without end Without looking so farre the present sense of the love of God to us breeding our reciprocall love to him and that mutuall embrace of God and the soule living yet in the flesh though as short of the perfect union with God as the highest mountaines come short of heaven yet brings to the soul a dignity and contentment beyond all expression It
which moved the beholders to compassion for that compassion made a breach into the heart and gave entrance into the understanding to that good confession which these holy men made in the midst of the fires for nothing is more perswasive then Pitty neither is there any fitter hold to draw and turne the soul But such compassionate soules may be as soone drawne to evill as to good by that hold Factious men brought to the gallowes for sedition have from that pulpit sowne the seed of mutiny into the minds of a compassionate multitude and those seeds like the teeth of Cadmus his Serpent have brought forth since a dismall harvest of intestine warre If then any good is formed in our minds by compassion we had need to lay a stedfaster foundation under it for the meere motions of Pitty are but fits and starts and are not actions but shakings of the soul A wise man will learne how to take hold of the spirits of men by Pitty but together will take heed that others hold him not by the like handle which therefore he will shorten and leave no hold but reason for others to take him by CHAP. XIX Of shamefacednesse SHamefacednesse is such a compounded passion that it may not be described in few words It is a sadness out of the sense or apprehension of a dishonest evill It is a selfe condemnation especially about matters of love and desires which one would satisfie in secret It is also a sudden amazement out of a diffidence of ourselves when we are surprized by some inopinate occurrence where we feare that more will be expected of us then we can performe And to give a more generall character It is a sad ressenting of ones owne infirmity with some inclination to goodnesse It is a cowardly Passion found onely in timorous natures yet in the more tender age and sexe it is pardonable and usefull too so it be not excessive for by good instruction it may be formed into a vertue but weake and sutable to the capacity of the subject Stronger spirits dyed with piety and wisedome abstaine not from evill out of Shamefacedness but out of knowledge and resolution But because strong spirits have bin weake when they were under age and the boldest have bin timorous unlesse they be altogether dull and bestiall by nature there is a time to frame them to vertue by shamefac'dnesse which may be called a necessary infirmity in the beginning And it is not expedient to remove it too soone from young minds by Stoicall precepts least they wanting that naturall bridle of the appetite and not being yet well trained and confirmed by reason let themselves loose to evill Children in whom no marke of Shamefacednesse appeares are perverse and ill natured and though they be merry sparkes they shall never be good nor able men Shamefaced children are towardly and disciplinable But in conscience is not the nature of men very weake and poore since their best naturall dispositions are infirmities and that there is need of those infirmities to bring them to some good Some natures are timorous in all the ages of their life by their native temper therefore more obnoxious to Shamefacednesse these are lesse capable of a great and heroicall vertue which is a compound of righteousnesse meekenesse and magnanimity but they are docible for a lesse eminent vertue and their inclination to shamefacedness is a pliable subject for good discipline That disposition must be well managed as the seed of modesty and in women the mother of pudicity their chiefe vertue How powerfull Shamefacednesse is with that sexe the knowne example of the Milesian Virgins shewes it There is another kind of shame recommended in Scripture That of Daniel O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but to us confusion of face Dan. 9.7 That of Ezra O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee Ezra 9.6 And of the penitent publican that stood a farre off and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven Luk. 18.13 But that shame which is a godly contrition for sinne committed and feare to commit more is proper to a spirit fixt and confirmed in the love and feare of God and hath nothing common but the name with the passion of shame which with all her utilities is but a weakenesse of minde and a childish perplexednesse A wise and godly man must be ashamed of nothing but sin The remembrance of the greatnesse presence justice and holinesse of God and the sense of our owne imperfection must keepe us in perpetuall respect and humility which is that good shame of Daniel Ezra and the repenting Publican But for our conversation with men when we are come to mans age let us weane ourselves as much as we can from boyish Shamefacednesse which dejecteth and perplexeth the spirit and makes a man lose the fairest opportunities of doing good OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND FOURTH BOOK Of Vertue and the exercise of it in Prosperity and Adversity CHAPTER I. Of the vertuous temper requisite for Peace and Contentment of Minde THis Book is but a result of the two precedent for who so hath got a right Opinion of things and learned how to governe his Passions wants nothing for vertue and tranquillity these two articles being not onely the materials and the rules of the building but the whole structure And the order is as essentiall as the matter for the understanding must be illuminated and satisfied about the right judgement of things and know how farre they are worthy that our appetite should stirre for them before we undertake to instruct our appetite how to behave ourselves with them Out of the right opinion the well governed Passion ariseth the true temper of Vertue which is a calme state of the Soul firme equall magnanimous meeke religious and beneficiall to a mans selfe and to others All the imperfection that is in our Vertue is a defect in one of these two or in both And who is not defective in them Who hath not errour in his Opinions and by consequent unrulinesse in his Passion Wherefore our descriptions of perfect human Vertue are accidents without substance But what we must not set before us any lesse patterne then perfection Matth. 5.48 Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect The Schoole gives definitions and divisions of the severall morall Vertues which is no more then is necessary Yet to speake properly there is but one even that equal temper just proportion of all the faculties and motions of the soul which is Justice producing the like just temper abroad in all the parts of conversation for to be just is to do all the parts of a mans duty towards God towards himselfe and towards his neighbour Temperance and Fortitude are handled in the Schooles as vertues by themselves which is to very good purpose for a more distinct exposition but in effect they are parts of justice for