VI. NOw that these mutuall respects may bee sure not to cool with intermission the devout heart takes all occasions both to think of God and to speak to him There is nothing that he sees which doth not bring God to his thoughts Indeed there is no creature wherin there are not manifest footsteps of omnipotence Yea which hath not a tongue to tell us of its Maker The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work One day telleth another and one night certifieth another Yea O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisedome hast thou made them all The earth is full of thy riches so is the great and wide sea where are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts Every herbe flower spire of grasse every twigge and leafe every worm and flye every scale and feather every billow and meteor speaks the power and wisdome of their infinite Creator Solomon sends the sluggard to the Ant Esay sends the Jews to the Oxe and the Asse Our Saviour sends his Disciples to the Ravens and to the Lillies of the field There is no creature of whom we may not learn something we shall have spent our time ill in this great school of the world if in such store of Lessons we be non-proficients in devotion Vain Idolaters make to themselves images of God wherby they sinfully represent him to their thoughts and adoration could they have the wit and grace to see it God hath taken order to spare them this labour in that he hath stamped in every creature such impressions of his infinite power wisdome goodnes as may give us just occasion to worship and praise him with a safe and holy advantage to our souls For the invisible things of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead And indeed wherefore serve all the volumes of Naturall history but to be so many Commentaries upon the severall creatures wherein we may reade God and even those men who have not the skill or leisure to peruse them may yet out of their own thoughts and observation raise from the sight of all the works of God sufficient matter to glorifie him Who can be so stupide as not to take notice of the industry of the Bee the providence of the Ant the cunning of the Spider the reviving of the Flye the worms indeavour of revenge the subtilty of the Fox the sagacity of the hedge-hog the innocence and profitablenesse of the sheep the laboriousnesse of the Oxe the obsequiousnesse of the Dog the timerous shifts of the Hare the nimblenesse of the Dear the generosity of the Lion the courage of the Horse the fiercenesse of the Tiger the cheerfull musick of Birds the harmlesnesse of the Dove the true love of the Turtle the Cocks observation of time the Swallows architecture shortly for it were easie here to be endlesse of the severall qualities and dispositions of every of those our fellow-creatures with whom we converse on the face of the earth and who that takes notice of them cannot fetch from every act and motion of theirs some monition of duty and occasion of devout thoughts Surely I fear many of us Christians may justly accuse our selves as too neglective of our duty this way that having thus long spent our time in this great Academy of the world we have not by so many silent documents learned to ascribe more glory to our Creator I doubt those creatures if they could exchangetheir brutality with our reason being now so docible as to learn of us so far as their sense can reach would approve themselves better scholars to us then we have been unto them Withall I must adde that the devout soul stands not always in need of such outward monitors but finds within it self sufficient incitements to raise up it self to a continuall minding of God and makes use of them accordingly and if at any time being taken up with importunate occasions of the world it finds God missing but an hour it chides it self for such neglect and sets it self to recover him with so much more eager affection as the faithfull Spouse in the Canticles when she finds him whom her soul loved withdrawn from her for a season puts her self into a speedy search after him and gives not over till she have attained his presence SECT VII NOw as these many monitors both outward and inward must elevate our hearts very frequently to God so those raised hearts must not entertain him with a dumb contemplation but must speak to him in the language of spirits All occasions therefore must be taken of sending forth pious and heavenly ejaculations to God The devout soul may doe this more then an hundred times a day without any hinderance to his speciall vocation The Huswife at her Wheel the Weaver at his Loom the Husbandman at his Plough the Artificer in his Shop the Traveller in his way the Merchant in his Warehouse may thus enjoy God in his bufiest imployment For the soul of man is a nimble spirit and the language of thoughts needs not take up time and though we now for examples sake cloath them in words yet in our practice we need not Now these Ejaculations may be either at large or Occasionall At large such as those of old Jacob O Lord I have waited for thy salvation or that of David O save me for thy mercies sake And these either in matter of Humiliation or of Imploration or of Thanksgiving In all which we cannot follow a better pattern then the sweet singer of Israel whose heavenly conceptions we may either borrow or imitate In way of Humiliation such as these Heal my soul O Lord for I have sinned against thee Oh remēber not my old sins but have mercy upon me If thou wilt be extream to mark what is done amisse O Lord who may abide it Lord thou knowest the thoughts of man that they are but vain O God why abhorrest thou my soul and hidest thy face from me In way of Imploration Vp Lord and help me O God Oh let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed Lord where are thy old loving mercies Oh deliver me for I am helplesse and my heart is wounded within me Comfort the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord due I lift up my soul Goe not far from me O God O knit my heart unto thee that I may fear thy Name Thou art my helper and redeemer O Lord make no long tarrying Oh be thou my help in trouble for vain is the help of man Oh guide me with thy counsell and after that receive me to thy glory My time is in thy hand deliver me from the hands of mine enemies Oh withdraw not thy mercy from me O Lord. Lead me O Lord in thy righteousnesse because of mine enemies
O let my soul live and it shall praise thee In way of Thankesgiving Oh God wonderfull art thou in thine holy places Oh Lord how glorious are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep Oh God who is like unto thee The Lord liveth and blessed be my strong helper Lord thy loving kindnesse is better then life it self All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints give thanks unto thee Oh how manifold are thy works in wisedome hast thou made them all Who is God but the Lord and who hath any strength except our God We will rejoyce in thy salvation and triumph in thy Name O Lord. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse Oh how plentifull is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Thou Lord hast never failed them that seek thee In thy presence is the fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise SECT VIII OCcasionall Ejaculations are such as are moved upon the presence of some such object as carries a kinde of relation or analogy to that holy thought which we have entertained Of this nature I finde that which was practised in S. Basils time that upon the lighting of candles the manner was to blesse God in these words Praise be to God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost which that Father says was anciently used but who was the Authour of it he professeth to be unknown to the same purpose was the Lucernarium which was a part of the evening office of old For which there may seem to be more colour of reason then for the ordinary fashion of apprecation upon occasion of our sneesing which is expected and practised by many out of civility Old and reverend Beza was wont to move his hat with the rest of the company but to say withall Gramercy Madame la Superstition Now howsoever in this or any other practice which may seem to carry with it a smack of superstition our devotion may be groundless and unseasonable yet nothing hinders but that we may take just and holy hints of raising up our hearts to our God As when vve doe first look forth and see the heavens over our heads to think the Heavens declare thy glory O God When we see the day breaking or the Sun rising The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light and the Sun When the light shines in our faces Thou deckest thy self with light as with a garment or Light is sprung up for the righteous When we see our Garden imbellisht with flowers The earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord. When we see a rough sea The waves of the sea rage horribly and are mighty but the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier then they When we see the darknesse of the night The darknesse is no darknesse with thee When we rise up from our bed or our seat Lord thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising thou understandest my thoughts afar off When we wash our hands Wash thou me O Lord and I shall be whiter then snow When we are walking forth Oh hold thou up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not When we hear a passing bell Oh teach me to number my days that I may apply my heart to wisdome or Lord let me know my end and the number of my days Thus may we dart out our holy desires to God upon all occasions Wherein heed must be taken that our Ejaculations be not on the one side so rare that our hearts grow to be hard and strange to God but that they may be held on in continuall acknowledgement of him and acquaintance with him and on the other side that they be not so over-frequent in their perpetuall reiteration as that they grow to be like that of the Romish votaries fashionable which if great care be not taken will fall out to the utter frustrating of our Devotion Shortly let the measure of these devout glances be the preserving our hearts in a constant tendernesse and godly disposition which shall be further actuated upon all opportunities by the exercises of our more enlarged and fixed Devotion Whereof there is the same variety that there is in Gods services about which it is conversant There are three main businesses wherein God accounts his service here below to consist The first is our addresse to the throne of Grace and the pouring out of our souls before him in our prayers The second is the reading and hearing his most holy Word The third is the receit of his blessed Sacraments In all which there is place and use for a setled Devotion SECT IX TO begin with the first work of our actuall and enlarged Devotion Some things are pre-required of us to make us capable of the comfortable performance of so holy and heavenly a duty namely that the heart be clean first and then that it be clear clean from the defilement of any known sin clear from all intanglements and distractions What doe we in our prayers but converse vvith the Almighty and either carry our souls up to him or bring him down to us now it is no hoping that we can entertain God in an impure heart Even we men loath a nasty and sluttish lodging how much more will the floly God abhorre an habitation spiritually filthy I finde that even the unclean spirit made that a motive of his repossession that he found the house swept and garnished Satans cleanlinesse is pollution and his garnishment disorder and wickednesse without this he findes no welcome Each spirit looks for an entertainment answerable to his nature How much more will that God of spirits who is purity it self look to be harboured in a cleanly room Into a malicious soul wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin What friend would be pleased that we should lodge him in a Lazar-house or who would abide to have a toad lie in his bosome Surely it is not in the verge of created nature to yeeld any thing that can be so noisome and odious to the sense of man as sin is to that absolute and essentiall Goodnesse His pure eyes cannot endure the sight of sin neither can he endure that the sinner should come within the sight of him Away from me ye wicked is his charge both here and hereafter It is the priviledge and happinesse of the pure in heart that they shall see God see him both in the end and in the way injoying the vision of him both in grace and in glory this is no object for impure eyes Descend into thy self therefore and ransack thy heart who ever wouldst be a true Client of
be of the just valuation of all these earthly things which doubtlesse is such as that the wise Christian cannot but set a low price upon them in respect first of their transitorinesse secondly of their insufficiency of satisfaction thirdly the danger of their fruition At the best they are but glassie stuffe which the finer it is is so much more brittle yea what other then those gay bubbles which children are wont to raise from the mixed sope and spittle of their Walnut-shell vvhich seem to represent pleasing colors but in their flying up instantly vanish There is no remedy either they must leave us or we must leave them Well may we say that of the Psalmist which Campian vvas reported to have often in his mouth My soul is continually in my hands and who knows vvhether it will not expire in our next breathing How many have shut their eyes in an healthfull sleep who have waked in another vvorld We give too large scope to our account vvhiles we reckon seven years for a Life a shorter time will serve vvhiles vve finde the revolution of lesse then halfe those years to have dispatched five Caesars and five Popes nay who can assure himself of the next moment It is our great weakness if we doe not look upon every day as our last why should we think our selves in a better condition then the chosen vessel who deeply protested to dye daily What a poor complaint was that of the great Conquerour of the Jews Titus Vespasian who putting his head out of his sick litter querulously accused Heaven that he must dye and had not deserved it when he might have found it guilt enough that he was a man and therefore by the very sentence of nature condemned I know not whether to live or dye Indeed what can we cast our eyes upon that doth not put us in minde of our frailty All our fellow-creatures dye for us and by us The day dyes into night the trees and all other plants of the earth suffer a kinde of Autumnall mortality the face of that common Mother of us all doth at the least in Winter resemble Death But if the Angel of Death as the Jews term him shall respite and reprieve us for the time alas how easily may we have over-lived our comforts If Death doe not snatch us away from them how many thousand means of casualties of enemies may snatch them away from us He that was the greatest man of all the Sonnes of the East within a few dayes became a spectacle and proverb of penury which still sticks by him and so shall doe to the worlds end As poor as Job The rich Plaine of Jordan which over-night was as the Garden of the Lord is in the morning covered over with brimstone and salt and burning Wilt thou cause thine eyes to flye upon that which is not saith wise Solomon For riches certainly make thēselves wings they fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven if wee have wings of desire to fly after them they are nimbler of flight to outstrip us and leave us no less miserable in their losse then wee were eager in their pursuit As for Honour what a meer shadow it is upon the least cloud interposed it is gone and leaves no mention where it was The same Sun sees Haman adored in the Persian Court like some earthly Deity and like some base vermine waving upon his Gibbet Doe we see the great and glorious Cleopatra shining in the pompous Majesty of Egypt stay but a while and ye shall see her in the dust and her two children whom shee proudly styled the Sun and the Moon driven like miserable Captives before the Chariot of their Conquerour Man being in honour abideth not saith the Psalmist he perisheth but his greatnesse as more fraile then he is oftentimes dead and buried before him and leaves him the surviving executor of his own shame It was easie for the captive Prince to observe in the Charet-wheel of his Victor that when one spoak rose up another went down and both these in so quick a motion that it was scarce distinguished by the eye Well therefore may we say of Honour as Ludovicus Vives said of Scholasticall Divinity Cui fumus est pro fundamento It is built upon smoak how can it be kept from vanishing As for Beauty what is it but a dash of Natures tincture laid upon the skinne which is soon washt off with a little sickness what but a fair blossome that drops off so soon as the fruit offers to succeed it what but a flower vvhich vvith one hot Sun gleam weltreth and fals Hee that had the choice of a thousand Faces could say Favour is deceitfull and Beauty is Vanity Lastly for Strength and vigour of Body if it could bee maintained till our old age alas how soon is that upon us ere we be aware how doth it then shrivell our flesh and loosen our sinews and cripple our joynts Milo when he lookt upon his late brawny arms and saw them now grow lanck and writhled le ts fall teares and bewraies more weaknesse of mind then he had before bodily strength but how often doth sicknesse prevent the debilitations of age pulling the strongest man upon his knees and making him confesse that youth as well as childe-hood is Vanitie As for Pleasure it dies in the birth and is not therefore worthy to come into this bill of Mortality Doe we then upon sad consideration see and feel the manifest transitorinesse of Life Riches Honour Beautie Strength Pleasure and whatever else can bee deare and precious to us in this vvorld and can vvee dote upon them so as to be too much dejected vvith our parting from them Our Saviour bids us consider the Lillies of the field And he that made both tels us that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Surely full well are they worth our considering But if those Beauties could bee as permanent as they are glorious how vvould they carry away our hearts with them Now their fading condition justly abates of their value Would wee not smile at the weaknesse of that man that should weep and howle for the falling of this Tulip or that Rose abandoning all comfort for the losse of that vvhich he knows must flourish but his moneth It is for children to cry for the falling of their house of Cards or the miscarriage of that painted gew-gaw vvhich the next showre vvould have defaced Wise Christians know hovv to apprize good things according to their continuance and can therefore set their hearts onely upon the invisible Comforts of a better Life as knowing that the things which are not seen are Eternall SECT VI. Consideration of the unsatisfying condition of all worldly things BUt vvere these earthly things exempted from that ficklenesse vvhich the God of Nature hath condemned them unto vvere they the very memory vvhereof perisheth with their satiety as lasting
in a patcht thred-bare cloak contemning honors and all earthly things and when that garment would hang no longer on his back I can hear him say I would have bought a Cloak if I had had mony after which vvord saith Soneca whosoever offered to give came too late Apollododonus amongst the rest sends him a rich mantle towards his end and is resused With what patience doth this man bear the loud scoldings of his Xantippe making no other of them then the creaking of a Cart-wheel with what brave resolution doth he repell the proffers of Archelaus telling him how cheap the Market afforded meal at Athens and the fountains water Here I meet with a Zeno formerly rich in his traffique for purple now impoverisht by an ill Sea-voyage and can hear him say I sailed best when I Ship-wrackt Here I see an Aristippus drowning his gold in the sea that it might not drown him Here I can hear a Democritus or Cleanthes when hee was asked how a man should be rich answer If he be poor in desires What should I speak of those Indian Sophists that took their name from their nakednesse whom we hear to say The sky is our house and the Earth our bed we care not for gold we contemn death One of them can tell Onesicritus As the Mother is to the Childe so is the Earth to mee The Mother gives Milk to her Infant so doth the Earth yeeld all necessaries to mee And when gold was offered to him by that great Conquerour Perswade said he if thou canst these birds to take thy silver and gold that they may sing the sweeter and if thou canst not doe that wouldst thou have me worse then them Adding moreover in a strong discourse Naturall hunger when we have taken food ceaseth and if the minde of man did also naturally desire gold so soon as he hath received that which he wished the desire and appetite of it would presently cease but so far is it from this society that the more it hath the more it doth without any intermission long for more because this desire proceeds not from any motion of nature but onely out of the wantonnesse of mans own will to which no bounds can bee set Blush O Christian Soul whosoever thou art that readest these lines to hear such words falling from Heathen lips when thou seest those that professe godlinesse dote upon these worthlesse metals and transported with the affectation and cares of those earthly provisions If from these patterns of men that should be below our selves we look up to the more noble precedents of Prophets and Apostles Lo there we finde Elijah fed by Ravens Elisha boarding with his poor Sareptan Hostesse An hundred Prophets fed by fifty in a Cave with bread and water The sons of the Prophets for the enlarging of their over-strait lodgings hard at work they are their owne Carpenters but their tools are borrowed There we shall find a few barley loaves and little fishes the houshold provision of our Saviours train Yea there we finde the most glorious Apostle the great Doctor of the Gentiles employing his hands to feed his belly busily stiching of skins for his Tent-work Yea what doe we look at any or all of these when we see the Son of God the God of all the world in the form of a servant Not a Cratch to cradle him in not a Grave to bury him in was his own and he that could command Heaven and Earth can say The Foxes have holes the Birds have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Who now can complain of want when he hears his Lord and Saviour but thus provided for He could have brought down with him a celestiall house and have pitcht it here below too glorious for earthen eies to have lookt upon Hee could have commanded all the precious things that lie shrowded in the bowels of the Earth to have made up a Majesticall Palace for him to the dazling of the eies of all beholders He could have taken up the stateliest Court that any earthly Monarch possessed for his peculiar habitation But his greatnesse was Spirituall and Heavenly and he that owned all would have nothing that he might sanctifie want unto us and that he might teach us by his blessed example to sit down contented with any thing with nothing By that time therefore wee have laid all these things together and have seriously considered of the mean valuation of all these earthly things for their transitorinesse unsatisfaction danger of the over-ruling Providence of the Almighty who most wisely justly mercifully disposeth of us and all events that befall us of the worse condition of many thousand others of the great inconveniences that attend great and full estates of the secret benefits of poverty of the smalnesse of that pittance that may suffice Nature of the miseries that wait upon discontentment of the mercifull vicissitudes of favours wherewith God pleaseth to interchange our sufferings and lastly the great examples of those as well without as vvithin the bosome of the Church that have gone before us and led us the way to Contentation our judgement cannot chuse but be sufficiently convinced that there is abundant reason to vvin our hearts to a quiet and contented entertainment of want and all other outward afflictions SECT XVII Of Contentment in death it selfe BUt all these intervenient miseries are sleight in comparison of the last and utmost of evils Death Many a one graples chearfully with these triviall afflictions who yet looks pale and trembles at the King of fear His very Name hath terrour in it but his lookes more The courageous Champion of Christ the blessed Apostle and with him every faithfull soul makes his challenge universall to whatsoever estate he is in to the estate of Death therefore no lesse then the afflictive incidence of life When therefore this gastly Giant shall stalk forth and bid defiance to the whole Host of Israel and when the timorous unbeleevers shall run away at the sight of him and endeavour to hide their heads from his presence the good soul armed not with the unmeet and cumbersome harmnesse of flesh and bloud but with the sure though invisible armour of God dares come forth to meet him and in the name of the Lord of Hosts both bids him battle and foils him in the Combat and now having laid him on the ground can triumphingly say O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory Five smooth pebles there are which if we carry in our scrip we shall be able to quell not onely the power of death but the terror too Whereof the first is a sure apprehension of both the unavoidable necessary and certain benefit of death A necessity grounded upon the just and eternall Decree of Heaven It is appointed to all men once to die and what a madnesse were it for a man to think of an exemption from the common condition of
their parting Yea how should we rather rejoyce that the houre is come wherein we shall be quit both of the guilt and temptations of sinne wherein the clogge shall bee taken away from our heels and the vail from our eies wherein no intestine wars shall threaten us no cares shall disquiet us no passions shall torment us and lastly wherein we may take the free possession of that glory which we have hitherto lookt at only afar off from the top of our Pisgah SECT XIX Holy dispositions for Contentment and first Humility HItherto we have dwelt in those powerfull considerations which may work us to a quiet contentment with whatsoever adverse estate whether of life or death after which we addresse our selves to those meet dispositions which shall render us fully capable of this blessed Contentation and shall make all these considerations effectuall to that happy purpose Whereof the first is true Humility under-valuing our selves setting an high rate upon every mercy that we receive For if a man have attained unto this that he thinks every thing too good for him and self lesse then the least blessing and worthy of the heaviest judgement he cannot but sit down thankfull for small favours and meekly content with mean afflictions As contrarily the proud man stands upon points with his Maker makes God his debter looks disdainfully at small blessings as if he said What no more and looks angerly at the least crosses as if he said Why thus much The father of the faithfull hath practically taught us this Lesson of humility who comes to God with dust and ashes in his mouth And the Jewish Doctors tell us truly that in every Disciple of Abraham there must be three things a good eye a meek spirit and an humble soul His Grandchilde Jacob the Father of every true Israelite had well taken it out whiles he can say to his God I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant And indeed in whomsoever it be the best measure of Grace is Humility for the more Grace still the greater Humility and no Humility no Grace Solomon observed of old and Saint James took it from him That God resisteth the proud and giveth Grace to the humble so as he that is not humble is not so much as capable of Grace and he that is truly humble is a fit subject for all Graces and amongst the rest for the Grace of Contentation Give me a man therefore that is vile in his own eies that is sensible of his own wretchednesse that knows what it is to sin and what belongs to that sin whereof he is guilty this man shall think it a mercy that he is any where out of Hell shall account all the evils that he is free from so many new favors shall reckon easie corrections amongst his blessings and shall esteem any blessing infinitely obliging Whereas contrarily the proud begger is ready to throw Gods alms at his head and swels at every lash that he receives from the divine hand Not without great cause therefore doth the royall Preacher oppose the patient in spirit to the proud in spirit for the proud man can no more bee patient then the patient can be discontent with whatsoever hand of his God Every toy puts the proud man beside his patience If but a flie be found in Pharaohs cup he is straight in rage as the Jewish tradition lays the quarrell and sends his Butler into durance And if the Emperour doe but mistake the Stirrup of our Countreyman Pope Adrian he shall dance attendance for his Crown If a Mardochee doe but fail of a courtesie to Haman all Jewes must bleed to death And how unquiet are our vain Dames if this curle be not set right or or that pinne mis-placed But the meek spirit is incurious and so throughly subacted that he takes his load from God as the Camel from his Master upon his knees And for men if they compell him to goe one mile he goes twain if they smite him on the right cheek hee turns the other if they sue away his Coat he parts with his Cloak also Heraclius the Emperour when hee was about to passe through the golden gate and to ride in royall state through the streets of Jerusalem being put in minde by Zacharias the Bishop there of the humble and dejected fashion wherein his Saviour walked through those streets towards his passion strips off his rich robes lays aside his Crown with bare head bare feet submissely paces the same way that his Redeemer had caried his Crosse towards his Golgotha Every true Christian is ready to tread in the deep steps of his Saviour as well knowing that if hee should descend to the Gates of Death of the Grave of Hell he cannot bee so humbled as the Son of God was for him And indeed this and this alone is the true way to glory He that is Truth it self hath told us that he who humbles himself shall be exalted And wise Solomon Before honour is humility The Fuller treads upon that cloth which he means to whiten And he that would see the starres by day must not climbe up into some high Mountain but must descend to the lower Cels of the earth Shortly whosoever would raise up a firm building of Contentation must bee sure to lay the foundation in Humility SECT XX. Of a faithfull selfe-resignation SEcondly to make up a true contentment with the most adverse estate there is required a faithfull selfe-resignation into the hands of that God whose wee are who as he hath more right in us then our selves so he best knows what to doe with us How graciously hath his mercy invited us to our own ease Bee carefull saith he for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests bee made known unto God we are naturally apt in our necessities to have recourse to greater powers then our own even where we have no engagement of their help how much more should we cast our selves upon the Almighty when he not onely allows but solicits our reliance upon him It was a question that might have befitted the mouth of the best Christian which fell from Socrates Since God himselfe is carefull for thee why art thou solicitous for thy selfe If evils were let loose upon us so as it were possible for us to suffer any thing that God were not aware of we might have just cause to sink under adversities but now that we know every dram of our affliction is weighed out to us by that all-wise and all-mercifull Providence Oh our infidelity if we doe make scruple of taking in the most bitter dose Here then is the right use of that main duty of Christianity to live by faith Brute creatures live by sense meer men by reason Christians by faith Now faith is the substance of things hoped for