subjected and united to His that in the midst of afflictions he finds Gods will good pleasant and perfect and saith Gods will bed one He is all good and all wise And since he is as absolute and irresistible in his power as he is good and wise in his will it would be as foolish a part for me to hope to overcome it as impious to offer to contradict it This is the principal counsel against all Adversity yea the onely for we should need no other if we were come so far as to have no will but Gods will But to that high counsel many inferiour counsels are subservient Such is this When God sends us adversity that we may not thinke it strange to be so used let us compare ourselves with so many others that are in a worse case If we be prisoners in ourowne Country let us remember so many Christians that are captives of the Turkes and Moores Have we suffered some losse in our estates we need not goe farre from home to see whole nations driven out of their antient possessions shut out of their Country and reduced to mendicity Are you lame of a legge Looke upon your neighbour that hath lost both his legges by a cannonshot Thus the evils of others will be lenitives to yours It is a wholesome counsell to be more carefull to keepe a reckoning of the goods that remaine with us then of those we have lost He that hath lost his land must thank God that he hath kept his health He that hath lost health and temporall goods must thank God that none can take from him the eternall goods And whosoever hath lesse then he desireth must acknowledge that he hath more then he deserveth It is the way to keepe ourselves in humility before God and men and in tranquillity at home and turne murmuring into thanksgiving And whereas the remembrance of dead friends and lost goods fill us with sorrow it ought to fill us with joy If the possession of them was pleasant why should the remembrance be sad Why should wee entertaine more sadness because we lost them then joy because we had them it is the ordinary unthankfulnes of the world to reckon all the goods of the time past for nothing At the least affliction a long course of precedent prosperity is lost and forgotten like a cleare streame falling into a sink and losing its pureness in ordure Let us thank God for all the good dayes of our life so may me make present ill dayes good by the remembrance of good dayes past and obtaine of God new matter of thanksgiving We must use the world as a feast using soberly and cheerefully the fare that is before us and when it is taken away We must rise and give thankes We may justly be taxed as greedy ghests unthankfull to the master of the feast that hath so liberally feasted us if we Grudge when he calls to take away instead of Thanking him for his good cheere As he is our magnificent Inviter he is our wise Physitian Sometimes he sets his good plenty before us sometimes he keepes us to short dyet Let us receive both with an equall and thankfull mind All his dealing with us is wisedome and bounty Here let us remember this Maxime which I layd before as a maine ground of our tranquillity that the things which we lose are none of ours else we could not have lost them We were borne naked all that was put about us since is none of ours Yea all that was borne with us is not ours Our health our limbs our body our life may be taken away from us by others We must not then reckon them as ours But our soul which cannot be taken away and the best riches of our mind are truly ours All losses and paines fall onely upon the least part of ourselves which is our body and the senses and passions that are most conjoyned unto it if we may call that a part of man without which a man is whole But the true man which is the soul is out of the worlds reach and with it all the Christian vertues For which reason our Saviour bids us not to feare them that can kill the body and cannot kill the soul To be much cast downe with temporall losses shewes emptiness of spirituall riches to be very impatient of the incommodities of the body shewes that one hath more commerce with the body then with themind else a man might find matter enough of joy in the soul to conterpoyse worldly losses and bodily paines As a body that hath the noble parts sound will easily inure it selfe to beare cold and heat and all the injuries of the aire Likewise he that hath a sound soul and is strong within in faith integrity divine love and right reason wherein the true health of the soul consisteth will easily beare with all Adversities and retiring within himselfe when he is assaulted without he will take care before all things that it may be well with his inside and that nothing there be put out of order by the disorders without That serene state of the soul is the fittest for the vertue of prudence and the exercise of it in Adversity For to get out of the difficulties of life wee must maintaine our judgement free and our conscience sound And if the Adversity be of such a nature that it be past the helpe of prudence such as are sharpe incurable paines yet there is none but may be eased by reason faith and the comforts of Gods love For what Life is short no evil is very great when it hath an end No bodily paine can last longer then our bodies and no Adversity of Gods children either of body or spirit can continue longer then life But the inward assurances of our peace with God and the sweet entertainment of his love to us and ours to him are earnests and beginnings of a felicity without end By them the soule shut up in this prison of flesh looks out with her head forth ready to flye away She riseth againe with Christ in this very world by a lively hope Col. 3.1 She seekes those things that are above where Christ is sitting in the glory of his father She is in heaven already and hath onely the body upon earth To this the afflictions of our body contribute much 2. Cor. 4.17 For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While wee looke not at the things which are seene but at the things which are not seene for the things which are seene are temporal but the things which are not seene are eternal for wee know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved wee have a building of God an house not made with hands ternal in the heavens This is a high point of resolution and joy in afflictions which pagan Philosophie could never reach to beare the afflictions of this life
who makes Religion a generality of all good in this pregnant text Phil. 4.8 Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest vvhatsoever things are just vvhatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things I hope with Gods helpe to justifie that unto true piety it properly belongs to set a man at peace with God with himselfe and with his neighbours to set a right order in his soul by rectifying his opinions and governing his passions to make him moderate in prosperity and patient in adversity wise tranquill generous and cheerefull as long as he liveth and glorious after his death In these few words I have set downe the argument and order of this Booke If all these are within the precincts of piety very little will remaine for humane wisedome separate from religious to make a man vertuous and happy Charron very wittily alledgeth that many Philosophers have been good and vertuous and yet irreligious To which the answer is that it is an indulgence when they are called good and vertuous without the knowledge and love of the divine and saving truth and that such of them as have been neerest to that title had reverend opinions of the God-head and despised the silly superstitions of that age Also that their want of religion hath made their pretended vertue maimed and monstrous as in the case of killing ones selfe which Charron after Montagne esteeme two much and dares not condemne it without a preface of reverence and admiration This he hath got by separating Vertue from Religion proving by his example that Nature without grace cannot but stumble in the darke and that to guide ones selfe it is not enough to have good eyes but there is neede of the light from above Whereas we should make a faithfull restitution to Religion of all that is vertuous in Pagan Phylosophy as descended from the Father of lights and belonging to the patrimony of the Church this man does the clean contrary robbing Religion of those things which are most essentiall to her to bestow them upon humane wisedome solliciting vertue to shake off her subjection to Religion her mother and Soveraine and to make her selfe absolute and independent Himselfe forgets to whom he oweth that wisedome of which he writes In the Schoole of Religion he had got his best learning to Religion also hee should have done his homage for it Can all the Bookes of humane wisedome afford such a sublime Philosophy aâ— that of the Lord Jesus when hee teacheth us to be prudent as serpents and harmelesse as doves Not to feare them that kill the body and cannot kill the Soul Not to care for the morrow because God cares for it and because to every day is sufficient the affliction thereof Not to lay up treasures in earth where the moth and the rust spoyle all but in Heaven where they spoyle nothing And when he brings us to the schoole of Nature sometimes to weane us from covetous cares by the examples of Lillies of the field which God cloatheth and of the birds of the aire which he feedeth sometimes to perswade us to doe good to our enemies because God makes his Sun to rise upon good and evill and his raine to fall upon the just and unjust How many lessons and examples doe wee finde in Scripture of heroicall magnanimity Such is the Philosophy of St. Paul who professed that when hee was weake then he was strong and that he fainted not because that while the outward man decayed the inward was renewed day by day Such is the Philosophy of the Hebrewes who bore with joy the spoyling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had a better and an induring substance Such also is the Phylosophy of David who was confident never to be removed because God was at his right hand and taking him for the portion of his inheritance he looked through death and the grave to the glorious presence of Gods face and the pleasures as his right hand for evermore This is Theologicall wisedome Is it all frowning chagreene austere servile sad timorous and vulgar Is it not all free chearefull lofty noble generous and rare Let us acknowledge that it is the onely wisedome that makes man free and content If the Sonne of God set us free we shall be free indeed Out of him there is nothing but slavery and anguish Satan the great enemy of God and men could not have devised a more effectuall course to disgrace godlinesse and cast men headlong into perdition then to separate wisedome from religion and portray religious wisedome weeping trembling with a frighted looke and hooded with superflition They that take so much paines to prove that religion and wisedome are things altogether different have a great mind to say if they durst that they are altogether contrary And if any be perswaded by Charron that to be wise and vertuous one needs not be religious he will come of himselfe to beleeve that he that would be religious cannot bee wise and vertuous Certainely who so conceiveth once religious wisedome in that sad servile and timorous Idea which Charron assignes to her must needs think that wisedome and vertue lose their name and goe from their nature when they will be religious There is then nothing more necessary in this age in which Atheisme is dogmatizing and speaking bigge then to demonstrate that the beginning and accomplishment of wisedome is the feare of God And in stead of that prodigious method to withdraw men from religion that is from God to make them wise and content that truth must be prest unto the heart that a man cannot be wise and content but by joyning himselfe with God by a religious beliefe love and obedience That we fall not into a contrary extreme wee must take heede of robbing humane wisedome of her office and praise And we must acknowledge that she needs to be imployed about many things in which piety is not an actour but an overseer But piety must never bee severed from her for where shee gives no rules yet shee sets limits Piety must bee mistresse every where humane wisedome the servant Now it is the servants duty to do many things which the mistresse wil not put her hand to standing more upon her dignity then to descend to inferiour offices In which although piety hath no hand yet she hath an eye to them and lets nothing scape her knowledge On the other side humane wisedome confines not herselfe to inferiour offices but assisteth Piety in the highest She doth her good service when she keepes in her owne ranck But she goeth out of it when she presumes to governe her Mistresse subjecting faith to reason and conscience to worldly interesses In this Treatise I consider piety and wisedome as the meanes to obtaine the peace of the soule and contentment of minde Not to vote for the
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
with sicknesse and age 2 Cor. 5.1 Knowing that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven It is by hope that the Martyrs all that suffer for righteousnesse see the crown layd on the top of their crosse and rejoyce in this promise of their Saviour Matth. 5.11 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven By hope we behave ourselves wisely in prosperity 1 Cor. 7.31 using this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away Hope beats down pride refraines lust and weans our hearts from the world Worldly hope disordereth the soul and makes a man go out of himself depending of the future and losing the present and is alwayes wavering and feaverish But heavenly hope although it transport the soul above herself and make her depend upon future goods sets her neverthelesse in a quiet steady frame because the soul rising to God receiveth God who makes her his home so that a man by hope enjoyes beforehand part of the goods which he aspires unto Hope groweth like rivers more and more as it draweth neerer the end of its course And when it hath brought the godly soul into the Ocean of felicity there it loseth the name of Hope and becomes Enjoyment CHAP. VIII Of the duty of Praising God SInce wee already embrace eternal goods by hope as wee desire to beginne now the joyes of heaven we must resolve to beginne the dutyes of that blessed Estate To seeke the first without the second would be an ungenerous disposition and an impossible undertaking If wee apprehend aright that the felicity of man consisteth in his duty and that the glory of the blessed Saints in heaven consisteth in glorifying God we will seeke in that great duty our felicity and delight to sing our part even in this life in the hymnes of those glorious spirits Nothing gives to the soule so great a peace Nothing elevateth the soule to such a Paradice like Joy The love of God is preferred before faith and hope because these seeke their owne good but that seeketh Gods glory Which to a godly soule being much more considerable then her owne happines yet is found to be the soveraigne happines of him that seekes it before his owne good Neither is there any more certaine and compendious way to get glory to ourselves then to seeke Gods onely glory In this then the godly man must delight and can never want matter for it all things giving him occasion to praise God either for his mercy to his children or his justice to his enemies or his power and wisedome eminently shining in all his workes or the infinite perfection that abideth in himselfe God hath made all creatures for his praise and none of his material creatures can praise him but man onely And of all men none but the godly praise him Or if others doe it for company it becomes them not neither are their praises accepted Then upon the godly lyeth the whole taske to praise God for other creatures that cannot or will not praise him But that taske is all pleasure as nothing is more just so nothing is more delightfull then that duty Look about upon the fields richly clad with the plenty and variety of nature Looke up to heaven and admire that great light of the world the Sun so wonderfull in his splendour vertue and swift nesse When he is set looke upon the gloryes of the night the Moone and the starres like so many bright jewels set off by the black ground of the skie and setting forth the magnificence of their maker See how some of them keep ea certaine distance among themselves marching together without the least breaking of their ranks some follow their particular courses but all are true to their motions equal and infallible in their regulated periods Then being amazed and dazelled with that broad light of Gods greatnes and wisedome let every one make this question to himselfe Why doeth God make me a beholder of his workes Why among so many different creatures hath he made me one of that onely kinde to whom he hath given reason to know and admire the workman a will to love him a tongue to praise him Is it not that I might render him these duties in the name of all his other workes And to this duty I am obliged by the lawes of thankfulnes since all these other workes are for me good reason then that I should be for God lending my tongue and my heart to the whole universe to love praise and blesse the great and good authour of this rich and beautiful Nature O the greatnes the goodnes the wisedome of the incomprehensible Creatour And among all his attributes manifested in this admirable workmanship O how his tender mercies are over all his workes How every part of this great work is compleat How all the parts are well sorted together helping and sustaining one another with a wise Oeconomy O if the worke be so perfect what must the workman be If the streames be so cleare what must the source be Upon these if wee fix our meditation with a holy attention wee shall heare that speech which St John heard being rapt up in spirit Rev. 5.3 I heard saith he every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them saying Blessing honour glory and power unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lambe for ever and ever From Nature looking to Providence let us observe how notwithstanding the opposition of spiritual malices and the preversnesse and blindnesse of men yea and by these very things God advanceth his glory maintaineth his truth and formeth a secret order in confusion For the execution of his decrees a Million of engines are set on work subordinate or co-ordinate among themselves wherby things most remote yet meet in the order of causes to produce the effects appointed in Gods counsel Where the chief matter of wonder is that many of these causes are free agents which doing what they will bring forth most part of the time that which they will not and by the uncertainty of their giddy agitations arrive to the certain End determined by God Who can comprehend the innumerable multitude of the accidents of the world all written in Gods Book and dispensed by his providence that infinitely capacious and ever watchfull wisdom ever in action though ever at rest which by the order he gives to the greatest things is not distracted from the care of the least He makes the heavens to move and the earth to bear and disposeth of peace
with covetuousnesse desire of superfluities but keepe within the bounds of nature and necessity Where there is a compleat vertue there is neither fortitude nor temperance Therefore these are not in God who is the original vertue He hath no need of fortitude for he hath no danger to overcome and no use of temperance for he hath no affection that need to be restrained whence it followes that man also when he is once brought to his perfection of vertue which is his full union with God shall have neither fortitude nor temperance as having no evill to oppose and no â—upidity to represse Justice is the onely vertue that outliveth the body and lives eternally with God not that justice establisht in the Polities of the world for in heaven there is neither selling nor contracting which are the subjects of communicative justice And as for the distributive which hath two offices to recompence vertue to punish vice humane justice exerciseth but the last recompence is accounted an act of grace and is rare Whereas Gods justice regardeth so much more reward then punishment as a thousand is more then three or foure as it is exprest in the precept against Idolatry Exod 20.5 and 6. That justice of good Christians which outliveth temporall life is the uprightnesse of their will which in the passage of the soul to the high seat of perfection will be wonderfully mended and sublimated While the spirit liveth in the flesh though the will were never disturbed from its uprightnesse by the tumult of passions yet it could not be raised to a degree of uprightnesse above the proportion of the illumination of of the understanding Now the understanding is obscured in this world with a mist of errour receiving but some few rayes of the Sun of righteousnesse through a cloud I like very well the setting forth of a faire and compleat notion of Vertue filling the soul with joy which is not a chimera and a fiction for every good soul must once be really brought to that perfection in his finall union with God who is the soveraigne good of man the originall perfection and vertue in substance But I wish together that while we set before the eyes of men a high character of a wise vertuous man compleat happy in himselfe we put them in mind of the fickly condition of mans soul as long as she dwels in the flesh that none be deceived with those Idea's of imaginary perfection which Pagan Philosophers ascribe to the wise man living according to nature To the Christian onely it becomes well to describe vertue in a perfect character 2 Pet. 1.4 partaker of the divine nature and though it be above his pitch yet to aspire to it for he knowes whom he hath beleeved and where he may get a perfection exceeding abundantly above all that he askes or thinkes according to the power that worketh in him Ephes 3.20 yea so farre as to be filled with all the fullnesse of God But in the mouth of Philosophers that expect no perfection but from their own nature nor a longer duration of their vertue then of their natural life and of such men there are more in the world then one would think those high expressions of the greatnesse and happinesse of a vertuous man are illegitimate unsuitable and unbecoming for either these characters are true and then they were not made for them or they are productions of a wild and phantasticall pride Seneca describing his wise man saith that he cannot be shaken with any thing and that he marcheth equal with God Alas poore little man Do but discharge a pistol at his eares though charged with powder only you shall see that stout champion which marcheth equal with God mightily shaken and discomposed in his march There needs but the sting of a tarantola to make him skip and dance put his vertue out of tune and turne all his Philosophy upside downe Another was saying virtute mea me involvo I wrap my selfe about with my vertue as if it had bin an armour cannon-proofe and thunderbolt proofe Though it had bin so and impenetrable to temptation besides yet it is not impenetrable to death for these disciples of nature onely pretend not to extend the life of their vertue beyond the life of nature To what purpose all those bravado's for a mortal vertue that the wiseman is alwayes free alwayes rich alwayes happy that he wants nothing because he hath himselfe that he is King of the universe and Master of fortune that in all conditions he is safe stedfast and content and finally that he is alwayes in health but when he hath got a cold as Horace jestingly addeth This is stretching man beyond man That wiseman after al that flourish is a calamitous creature weak needy unstable subject to erre to sinne to suffer and in the end to dye Certainly if among all the Philosophical vertues humility and faith be wanting they serve but to puffe up a man and make him burst and perish Let us before all things humble ourselves before God who is the onely wise and righteous mistrusting ourselves and putting our trust in him Then let us seeke wisedome in his wisedome and to frame our spirit upon it let us implore the assistance of his Spirit After that moral vertues will become easy to learne and pleasant to practise They shall obtaine a good reward in heaven and in earth work their own recompence CHAP. XX. Of the World and Life HAving lookt within and about us and beheld the course of the World in its parts let us now behold it in the great Which may be done two wayes Either in the outward scene of mens actions or in the inward motions of Gods providence that are visible to us in some part In both these respects the World is incomprehensible in the former for its great variety and confusion in the latter for its infinite deepenesse The outward face of the world is a stage of wickednesse vanity and misery Wickednesse is universall for although in Policies there be some face of order and justice without which no society can subsist Yet if one looke to the reality of the actions and intentions of men the two great trades of the World are fraud and oppression There is a general maxime which every man denyeth and every man in a manner practiseth That wisedome consisteth in thriving by other mens harmes Publique and private contracts bonds sureties and hostages are fences against that generall inclination and yet many times are imployed to execute it All securities both by strength and law are grounded upon that Opinion that none abstaines to do harme but he that wants power In the best composed States governed with most integrity particular interesse beares the sway howsoever publique good be pretended Wherefore that is the best forme of State where the more good the Soveraine Magistrate doth to the publique the more he advanceth his owne private interess Rapine is the
to satisfie the desire of temporal things is to abridge it A counsel comprehending these two Not to depend of the future and to be content with little for the present Both are effects of an entire confidence in Gods goodnes and providence Of not depending upon the future I shall have several occasions to speake hereafter To be contented with little is an unspeakable treasure That way one may with much ease get plenty which a covetous man cannot get by heapes of money scraped up with a greedy labour He that desires onely what he can have obtaines easily what he will have And he that desires nothing but what pleaseth God hath obtained it already All things smile on him because he receives all things at the hand of God whom he knowes to be good and wise Little and much are all one to him for both serve alike for contentment as it pleaseth God to extend a blessing upon it Let us apply this to the three principal desires that cause so much tumult and disorder in the world Covetousnes Ambition and Voluptuousnes CHAP. V Of Desire of Wealth and Honour What I have sayd of wealth and honours will persuade any man of good sense that they are not satisfying objects of a mans desire therefore not to be eagerly followed It is our Saviours consequence Luk. 12.15 Take heed and beware of covetousnes for mans life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth It is also St Johns consequence who forbids us to love the world and the things that are in it because the world passeth away 1 Joh. 2. These are two powerfull reasons to moderate the desire of the things of this world drawne from their nature The one that they are not necessary the other that they are transitory And yet the covetous and ambitious seeke after them as if life consisted in them or they were to endure for ever Which they cannot thus desire without turning their affection from the onely necessary and permanent thing which is God Matth. 6.24 You cannot serve God and Mammon saith the Lord Iesus For as when a channel is cut for a river in a ground lower then her bed all the water will fall where it finds a slope and leaves her former channel dry Likewise the desire of man whose true channel is the love of God will turne the whole affection of the soule towards low earthly things when that slope descent of covetousnes and ambition is made in the heart and nothing is left for God For it is improperly spoken that a man pretending to great worldly honours is aspiring too high Rather he is stooping too low for the most precious things of the world yea and the whole world are very much under the excellency of mans soule and more yet below the dignity of Gods children Who so then enslaveth his soule of heavenly origine and called to a divine honour unto temporal things which in this low world cannot be but low debaseth his dignity most unworthily And in all earthly things high or low condition makes but little unequality for still it is earth Hills and dales are alike compared with their distance from Heaven But what as the Israelites quitted Gods service to worship the golden calfe the luster of gold and honour will so dazell mens eyes and inflame their desires that they transport unto things of this world that devout love which they owe unto God Wherefore St Paul saith that covetousnes is idolatrie Col. 3. And it is no wonder that the sensual objects prevaile more upon Nature then the spirituall Yet covetous and ambitious desires are not properly natural but enormities of nature for little provision serveth nature whereas if all the waters of the sea were potable gold they would not quench the thirst of covetousnes Nature is contented with a meane degree but crownes heaped up to heaven would yet be too low for ambition Greedines is an unthankfull Vice It makes a man so thirsty after that he hath not that he forgets what he hath and thinks not himselfe advanced though he see a great many behind as long as he seeth yet some before him He cannot enjoy that he hath because he hangs upon that he hath not Thus he is allwayes needy discontented unquiet and spares his enemies the labour to find him a continual vexation And whereas the proper use for which Desire was given to man is to supply his necessities he makes use of his desire to multiply his necessities To that sicknes these are the proper remedies The first is to abridge our desire and be contented with little To him that contenteth himselfe with little little is much But to him that is not contented with much much is little To abridge our desire wee must beare downe our pride That which makes a man think a great wealth to be too little for him is his too great esteeme of himselfe Whereas the humble and meeke though they have but little think they have more then they deserve Who so will calmly compare what he deserveth with that which God hath given him shall find great matter to humble himself and praise God and silence the murmuring of his greedines Let us remember our beginning Being borne naked a little milke and a few baby clouts served us Who would think that some yeares after whole kingdomes could not satisfie us Yet our need since that time is not much increased 1. Tim. 6.8 Having food and raiment wee may be therewith content A little is sufficient for necessary desires but for curious and superfluous desires the whole world is too little Let us employ our greedy desire to heale it self considering that this greedines for the wealth and honour of the world spoiles the enjoyment and takes all content from it for no man hath joy in these things but he that useth them as not using them That greedines makes us seeke them with torment possesse them with unquietnes and lose them with anguish Yea many times greedines hindereth the acquisition Good fortune seldome yeelds to them that will ravish her but to the wise and moderate who though they lose no opportunity woe her as little concerned in her and are alwayes prepared for the repulse That wee spend no more about worldy fortune then it is worth Put in one scale the splendour of honour and the plenty of wealth Put in the other scale the labour to get them the care and vexation to keepe them the peril the envy the losse of time the temptations offered to the conscience the stealing of a mans thoughts from God and the danger of losing heaven while wee goe about to get the earth Then the incapacity of those goods to satisfie the desire their weakenes their uncertainty and how one infortunate moment destroyes the labour of many yeares and then judge whether they be worth enflaming our desire and enslaving our affections With the uncertainty of these possessions consider the uncertainty of the possessours that
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
things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth As nothing makes the mind more magnanimous so nothing makes it more holy then that doctrine which teacheth Gods children that all the world is too little for them and that God alone who adopteth them and calls them to the inheritance of his Kingdome is worthy to possesse their whole heart For would any that is so highly dignifyed stoope so low as to subject his affection to the things of the earth or would he be so ungrateful as to returne him disobedience for so much love Rather his high condition will fill him with high thoughts and according to the Apostles exhortation he will endeavour to walke worthy of God who hath called him to his Kingdome and glory 1 Thes 2.12 O could we apprehend the excellency of this high calling by a serious faith with what contempt would we looke upon those things that captivate the passions of men How should we laugh at that which others desire or feare We should looke upon the actions of men as beholding the earth from heaven seeing the clouds of cares and sorrowes gathering farre under our feet and tumultuous desires busling and raising stormes where we should have no other share but compassion of those that are tossed by them Neither temptation nor persecution should be capable to trouble our heavenly serenity The false profit and pleasure of sin should not tempt our desire but provoke our scorne and indignation as unworthy of men and muchmore of Gods children coheires of Christ in his eternall Kingdome called to be Kings and Priests unto God and their Father The same magnanimity will breed in us agodly ambition to imitate God our Father keeping righteousness in all things because the righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal 11.7 using charity and liberality giving and forgiving because the Lordis good and his tender mercies are over all his workes Psal 145.9 Doing good to our enemies because God fills with his goods the mouthes that blaspheme him And because God gives alwayes and receiveth nothing we must thinke it more happy and divine to give then to receive From magnanimity reflect againe to meekeness Let all that is done magnanimously be done meekely together with simplicity and reality without noyse and ostentation These vertues going hand in hand meekenesse and magnanimity are the two supporters of Justice and the teachers of all goodnesse A meeke and magnanimous spirit is the fruitfull soyle of all vertues To express them in other termes more familiar to the Church They are humility and faith which with the love of God the true essence of Justice make up the greatest perfection that a man is capable of upon earth whereby the minde is sanctifyed sweetened and raised and filled with goodnesse peace contentment and assurance CHAP. II. Of the exercise of Vertue in Prosperity IF I treat not methodically and severally of all Vertues the title of this worke may excuse me I seeke not here the definitions and divisions of Vertues but the use And of all the uses that which conduceth to the peace and contentment of mind Besides all that we have said before and all that we have to say is an exercise of vertue which careth not much by what name she is called justice fortitude temperance or what you will if she may have leave to do her effect which is to maintaine the spirit every where in a vertuous tranquillity Her principall worke is so to informe or rather forme the minde both for Prosperity and Adversity that it be neither corrupted by the one nor dejected with the other That worke is the result of our second and third Book Who so hath learned to have a right Opinion of the things that the world desireth or feareth and to rule his passion accordingly is fenced against all inconveniencies of both fortunes But because it is a worke of the highest difficulty and importance to make the right use of these two different conditions and go through both with a serene and equall spirit Let us consider them with more care and learne to behave ourselves vertuously in both Let us begin at Prosperity as that which requires more vertue Infants will greedily graspe the bright blade of a new knife and cut their fingers The like is done by growne men dazled by the gay shew of honour wealth pleasure they lay hold on them eagerly and hurt themselves for they take them the wrong way We need not say that Prosperity is good in itselfe He that would say the contrary should not be beleeved Yea none would beleeve that such a man beleeveth what he saith But by the evill disposition of those into whose bosome prosperity falls it becomes evill yea farre worse then adversity For one that is ruined and brought to despaire by adversity ten are spoyled and undone by prosperity because adversity makes a man to retire within himselfe and warnes him to arme his minde with prudence piety and resolution But prosperity relaxeth the mind and by it weak braines are made weaker imprudent arrogant and profane acknowledging no vertue and no God but Fortune Which they think to be so enamoured with their person and merit as not to have the power to disgrace them Such is the character that David gives of a man corrupted with prosperity Psal 10.5 His wayes are alwaies grievous thy judgements are farre above out of his sight As for his enemies he puffeth at them He hath said in his heart I shall not be moved for I shall never be in adversity It is an unhappy prosperity that makes men dissolute outragious puft up with pride blinded with selfe love sometimes heavy with a drowzy sloath sometimes transported with an insolent joy The most dangerous and most ordinary abuse of prosperity is the diverting of a mans thoughts and love from God and a better life to fixe them upon the world Wherefore David speaking of men inclosed in their owne fat calls them men of the world whose portion is in this life Psal 17.14 intimating that they have no portion in the other life Truly prosperity is a slippery place With most men it is a faire walk ending in a precipice And the least harme it doth is to enervate the mind and dull the edge of industry The abuses of prosperity are divers according to the different humours of men Some of a joviall and inconsiderate humour glut themselves with prosperity and become fierce and violent Others of a darke and timorous constitution are opprest with wealth and honour as with heavy weights dare not enjoy what they have and live in an anxious care to lose all Eccles 5.12 The abundance of the rich will not suffer them to sleep They ought to thank him that should ease them of that heavy burden their riches Of the sicknesses that attend prosperity I have sayd much and of their remedy It comes to this To consider
is that peace of God which passeth all understanding and keeps our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ It is a transfiguration of the devout soul for an earnest of her glorification It is the betrothing of the Spouse with Christ and the contract before the marriage After that all the Empires of the world all the treasures of Kings and all the delights of their Court deserve not to be lookt on or to be named If that divine Embrace could continue it would change a man into the image of God from glory to glory and he should be rapt up in a fiery charet like Eliah To enjoy that holy Embrace and make it continue as long as the soul in the flesh is capable of it We must use holy meditations prayers and good workes These strengthen those two armes of the soul faith and love to embrace God and hold him fast doing us that good office which Aaron and Hur did to Moses for they hold up the hands of the soul and keep them elevated to heaven And seeing that God who dwelleth in the highest heavens dwelleth also in the humblest soules let us indeavour to put on the ornament of a meek quiet spirit which in the sight of God is of great price 1 Pet. 3.4 It is a great incouragement to study tranquillity of minde that while we labour for our chiefe utility which is to have a meek and quiet spirit we become of great price before God and therefore of great price to ourselves How can it be otherwise since by that ornament of a meeke and quiet spirit we put on the neerest likenesse of God of which the creature can be susceptible For then the God of peace abiding in us makes his cleare image to shine in the smooth mirrout of our tranquill soul as the Sunnes face in a calme water Being thus blest with the peace of God we shall also be strong with his power and among the stormes and wrackes of this world we shall be as safe as the Apostles in the tempest having Christ with them in the ship It is not possible that we should perish as long as we have with us and within us the Saviour of the world and the Prince of life The universall commotions and hideous destructions of our time prepare us to the last and greatest of all 2 Pet. 3.10 when the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up In that great fall of the old building of Nature the godly man shall stand safe quiet and upright among the ruines All will quake all will sinke but his unmoved heart which stands firme trusting in the Lord. Psal 112.7 Mountaines and rocks will be throwne downe in his sight The foundations of the world will crack under him Heaven and Earth hasting to their dissolution will fall to pieces about his eares but the foundation of the faithfull remaines stedfast He cannot be shaken with the world for he was not grounded upon it He will say with Davids confidence Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore A Table of the Books and Chapters of this Treatise THE FIRST BOOK Of Peace with God Chap. 1. Of the Peace of the Soule pag. 1. Chap. 2. Of the Peace of Man with God in his integrity and of the losse of that peace by sinne pag. 6. Chap. 3. Of the Reconciliation of Man with God through Jesus Christ pag. 16. Chap. 4. Generall meanes to preserve that peace with God and first to serve God purely and diligently pag. 25. Chap. 5. Of the love of God pag. 35. Chap. 6. Of Faith pag. 45. Chap. 7. Of Hope pag. 49. Chap. 8. Of the duty of praising God pag. 53. Chap. 9. Of good Conscience pag. 59. Chap. 10. Of the exercise of good works pag. 66. Chap. 11. Of redressing our selves often by repentance pag. 72. SECOND BOOK Of Mans peace with himselfe by rectifying his Opinions Chap. 1. Designe of this Booke and the next pag. 77. Chap. 2. Of right Opinion pag. 80. Chap. 3. Of Riches pag. 87. Chap. 4. Honour Nobility Greatnesse pag. 92. Chap. 5. Glory Renowne Praise pag. 98. Chap. 6. Of the goods of the Body Beauty Strength Health pag. 104. Chap. 7. Of bodily pleasure and ease pag. 110. Chap. 8. Of the evils opposite to the forenamed goods pag. 116. Chap. 9. Of Poverty pag. 121. Chap. 10. Of low condition pag. 130. Chap. 11. Of dishonour pag. 134. Chap. 12. Of the evills of the body unhansomenesse weakenesse sicknesse paine pag. 136. Chap. 13. Of Exile pag. 142. Chap. 14. Of Prison pag. 144. Chap. 15. Husband Wife Childen Kinred Friends Their price their losse pag. 147. Chap. 16. Of Death pag. 155. Chap. 17. Of the Interiours of Man pag. 163. Chap. 18. Of the ornaments acquisite of the understanding pag. 177. Chap. 19. Of the acquisite ornaments of the will pag. 188. Chap. 20. Of the World and Life pag. 195. THIRD BOOK Of the Peace of Man with himselfe by governing his Passions Chap. 1. That the right Government of Passions depends of right Opinion pag. 205. Chap. 2. Entry into the discourse of Passions pag. 211 Chap. 3. Of Love pag. 214. Chap. 4. Of Desire pag. 231. Chap. 5. Of desire of Wealth and Honour pag. 237. Chap. 6. Of desire of Pleasure pag. 243. Chap. 7. Of Sadnesse pag. 248. Chap. 8. Of Joy pag. 257. Chap. 9. Of Pride pag. 265. Chap. 10. Of Obstinacy pag. 273. Chap. 11. Of Wrath pag. 278. Chap. 12. Of Aversion Hatred and Reuenge p. 289 Chap. 13. Of Envy pag. 298. Chap. 14. Of Jealousie pag. 305. Chap. 15. Of Hope pag. 309. Chap. 16. Of Feare pag. 313. Chap. 17. Of Confidence and Despaire pag. 319. Chap. 18. Of Pitty pag. 323. Chap. 19. Of Shamefacednesse pag. 327. FOURTH BOOK Of Vertue and the exercise of in Prosperity and Adversity Chap. 1. Of the Vertuous temper requisite for the peace and contentment of mind pag. 331. Chap. 2. Of Vertue in Prosperity pag. 344. Chap. 3. Of Vertue in Adversity pag. 357. FIFTH BOOK Of Peace in Society Chap. 1. Of Concord with all men and of meeknesse pag. 375. Chap. 2. Of brotherly Charity and of friendship pag. 387. Chap. 3. Of Gratefulnesse pag. 395. Chap. 4. Of Satisfaction of Injuries pag. 399. Chap. 5. Of Simplicity and Dexterity in Society pag. 402. Chap. 6. To have little company and few businesses pag. 412. Chap. 7. Of moderation in conversation pag. 421. SIXTH BOOK Some singular Counsels for the Peace and contentment of minde Chap. 1. To content our selves with our condition pag. 431. Chap. 2. Not to depend of the Future pag. 436. Chap. 3. To retire within our selfe pag. 443. Chap. 4. To avoyd Idlenesse pag. 448. Chap. 5. To avoid curiosity in divine matters pag. 451. Chap. 6. Of the care of the body and other little contentment of life pag. 458. Chap. 7. Conclusion Returne to the great principle of the peace and contentment of mind which is to stick to God pag. 468. FINIS
of this life He that spared not his own sonne but delivered him up for us all how shal he not with him freely give us all things He that saved our soules from death shall he not deliver our bodies from the dangers of this world Certainly he that hath prepared for us eternal delights at his right hand will not denie us our temporal daily bread This assurance in his love will sweeten our afflictions and lay downe our feares for being persuaded that God as he is infinitely good is also infinitely wise wee must in consequence beleeve that all the evills which he sends us are so many remedies to other evils that our most smarting dolours are corrosives applyed by that wise Physician to eate the proud flesh of our corrupt nature that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3.33 especially when he chastiseth his children but is in a manner forced to that course by their necessity as when a man is pincht by his best friends to awake him out of a deep lethargy And since that eternal friend is every where present by his al-seeing knowledge and almighty power and hath promised besides his gracious presence to his friends saying I will not leave thee nor forsake thee what reason have we of joy confidence at all times in all places and in all the occurrences of this life having God with us allwayes observing us with his eye upholding us with his hand protecting us with his providence guiding us with his wisedome and comforting us with his love The last good office that Faith doeth unto us is in the approaches of death for then especially it doth represent the promises of God unto the faithfull soule and sealeth them afresh knitting that bond of perfectnes the mutual love between God and the conscience faster then ever By it God speakes peace unto the soule aspiring to heaven and makes it spread the wings of holy desires to passe with a swift flight from the combat below to the triumph above Faith bearing up the soule in that last flight changeth name and nature in the way and becomes love to embrace him for ever in glory in whom we have believed in infirmity CHAP. VII Of Christian Hope THe proper action of Faith is to embrace Christ and ground the soul upon him But it hath another action common to it with hope which is to embrace the benefits obtained to us by Christ Of these benefits the present grace is proper to faith which is justification otherwise the Reconciliation of God with the conscience the future glory by the contemplation of Gods face is more proper to Hope Both faith and hope bring a sweet peace and solid content to the soul that loveth God But it is peculiar to hope to adde to that peace a beam of glory much like those spies of Israel that entred into the Land of Promise before the rest of the people to whom they brought some of the fruit of the Land For it entreth into heaven beforehand and from thence brings us a taste of the promised inheritance Hope is the onely thing that puts some value upon the life of this world for all the good of this life consisteth in this that it is a way to a better and that the earth is the tyring-room of the godly soul where she makes herselfe ready for the wedding of the Lamb. But for that what were this life good for It would consist but in two things to do evill and to suffer evill The very goods of this life without that hope would be evill for none among the Pagans and all others that were not sustained by Christian hope was ever made happy The wisest of them have sought the soveraigne good out of the objects of the senses not finding any solid content in sensuall things or actions Solomon wiser then them all had found that all under the Sun was vanity and vexation of spirit and under all he comprehended intellectual as well as sensual things Neither could any give a more judicious verdict of all than he for he had tryed all things Where then shall we find any thing worth the paines of living but in Hope For if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Hope not keeping within the limits of the poor goods of this life liveth already with the life to come for it looks for the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world as himself teacheth us where although he reigne as a soveraigne he reigneth not as a redeemer and so here is not the reigne of his redeemed We find it by experience Who so then will enjoy the peace of the soul and contentment of mind must have his hope and his spirit in a better place for why should we expect of the world more then it hath Can one gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles May one expect peace of a perpetual agitation or a durable content from things of short continuance For the soul of man being created for permanency is contented with nothing lesse then a permanent good which is the essential reason why no man could ever find satisfaction in the world there being such a disproportion between mans soul and the objects that the world presents to her for all worldly things are finite but the soul though finite in her substance is infinite in her desire which nothing lesse then infinity can satisfie Now it is by hope that the soul enjoyeth in this finite world an infinite good It is by hope that we rise from the dead before we dy being advanced to a degree of grace that hath already a streak of glory Of which St Paul giveth this high expression Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory Worldly hopes flatter us and then disappoint us But though they did performe all they promise the present possession of the best things of the world is nothing comparable to the hope onely of heavenly things even that lively hope unto which God hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritane incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.3 O holy and glorious hope which already makes us partakers of Christs resurrection and followers of his ascention even to the right hand of God! already living with the life of Christ animated by his spirit Blessed hope by which we are preserved from the general corruption as with a soveraigne antidote and by which we subsist yea and triumph in afflictions Heb. 10.34 taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods knowing in our selves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance It is by hope that we look joyfully upon our bodies decaying
do him harme or hindred to do him good or deprived of the good he might do to the publique that worthy man must not altogether neglect to rectifye the misconceits taken against him which he may with lesse difficulty atchieve by a serene and constant course of integrity then by finding and proving confuting and keeping a great bustle to bring contrary witnesses face to face Innocency and the confidence that attends it must needs stand so high above the babling of the vulgar as to be no more moved with it then the Starres with the wind â—â—owing in the lower Region The dishonour that hath some ground in the truth must be wiped off not by excuses but by amendment Is one blamed for being vicious He must be so no more And that out of hatred of vice not of dishonour which being but a shadow of it will vanish at the rayes of Vertue CHAP. XII Of the evills of the body Unhandsomnesse Weaknesse Sicknesse and Paine OUr judgement being satisfyed that the good of the body beauty strength health and pleasure are none of the great goods we ought also to bee perswaded that their contraries are none of the great evills And if our very bodies must not be accounted ours because we cannot dispose of them at our pleasure and because by the undermining of age they sinke and slip away continually from themselves the commodities and incommodities of these fraile tenements at will where our soules are harboured for a few daies as ought not to disquiet us matters of any importance To beginne at Unhandsomnesse if a woman be unhandsome for that sexe is especially sensible of that disgrace let her stay but a while age will bring all the beauties to her row within few yeares and death after That last day draweth neere which will make faire and foule alike strong and weake sick and sound them that are tormented with dolour and them that torment themselves with voluptuousnesse and curiosity Whosoever is much grieved with those incommodities never apprehended aright the frailty of the opposite commodities We must not be vexed for the want of things which by their nature decay and perish very houre There are few incommodities but have a mixture of commodities which a wise lover of his owne tranquillity will pick and convert to his advantage The unhandsome woman shall not be admired but in recompence she shall not be tempted nor importuned as a prey by lust and insolence She hath with her a perpetual exhorter to humility piety and all vertue and to recompence the want of beauty with goodnesse Seldome is unhandsomnesse reproached to women but to them that aggravate with malice envy their disgraces of nature Beauty cannot be acquired but goodnesse may Yet among them that want beauty some are so wise and so good that they become handsome They are commonly more happy in marriage then great beauties for they give lesse jealousy to their husbands and study more to content them Persons of weak constitution are lesse obnoxious to acute sicknesses which many times will kil strong bodyes in three or foure dayes They are lesse tainted with that stupid pride which commonly attends great strength of body Finding themselves inferiour to others in excercises of strength they apply themselves to exercises of wit to which commonly they are more apt As weezels have more mettle and nimblenesse then Oxen there is often more industry and quicknesse of wit in little weak men then in men of of large and brawny limbs for the predominancy of blood and phlegme which makes the body large is the duller temper for wit whereas choler and melancholy which by their contractive quality limit the stretching of growth to a lesser extent serve also the one to sharpen the wit the other to give solidity to the judgement Weakenesse reads to a man a continual Lecture of prudence and compliance for being not able to carry on his designes with a high hand dexterity onely will serve his turne Also that want of strength teacheth him to make God his strength sticking fast to him by faith and a good conscience That way the weakest become too strong for all the world When I am weake then I aâ— strong saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 12.10 Of this Gods children have a blessed experience in sicknesse whereby God makes their body weake to make their faith strong and their soules by the dolours and lingring decay of their bodies susceptible of many salutary lessons for which health and ease have no eares Sicknesse and paine are evill in their nature but they are good by accident when God is pleased to turne evills into remedies to bring a man to repentance and make him looke up to the hand that striketh They are punishments to sin and wayes to death but to the faithful soul they become instruments of grace and conveighances to glory Many of them that beleeved in the Lord Jesus while he conversed among men were brought to it by bodily sicknesses And he when he healed a sick person often would say Thy sins are forgiven thee To give an impartial judgement of their quality and measure one must rather beleeve what he feeles then the cryes and compassion of them that love him and have interest in his preservation They say that a man is very sick when he feeles not his sicknesse Yet he hath so much good time till he feele it If the paine be sharp it is short If it be little it is tolerable If the evill be curable be patient good Cure will heale it If the evill be incurable be patient death will heale it No evill is superlative when one is certaine to come out of it By life or by death there must be an end of thy sicknesse All the remedies that Pagan Philosophy giveth in extremities come to this that patience is a remedy to evills that have none But here Christian Philosophy openeth the treasure of divine comforts which to make the faithfull man patient in tribulation make him joyfull in hope shew him the crown ready for him at the end of the combat In the combat he is strengthened by faith and the comforter whom Christ promist to his disciples powerfully assisteth him in his last agony Or if his triall be prolonged he tels him as Paul buffeted by a messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.9 my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse By that grace sicknesse beates downe pride quencheth lust weaneth the heart from the love of the world makes the soule hungry and thirsty after righteousnesse Theodoricus Archbishop of Collen with great wisdome exhorted the Emperour Sigismond to have the will in health to live holily as he said when he was tormented with the gravel and gowte Sicknesses give to a godly man a sense of his frailty when wee feel these houes of mud our bodies drooping towards the ground their originall then doe we sigh for that building of God that house not made with hands
eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Therefore labour and heavy load make us seek to him that saith come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaden and I will give you rest Matth. 11.28 Thus evil doth good to them that are good and helps evil men to turne good In sicknesse and dolours Gods children find the peace of the soule and contentment of mind CHAP. XIII Of Exile TO speake of exile after dolour is an abrupt passage from sensible evils to imaginary The world is the natural and general countrey of al men To be exiled is but to be sent from one Province of our Countrey to another That other Province where one is exiled is the Countrey of them that are borne there and of them also that live there exiled if there they get accomodation That particular Province which a nation calls their Countrey is a place of exile to them that are borne in it if they doe not know it as to Oedipus exiled from the place where he was bred to the place where he was borne Children brought from nurse to the mothers house wil cry taking it for a place of exile It is a childish weaknesse in a man to thinke him-selfe lost when he is in a place where he never was before Every where wee have the same nature the same heaven men of the same kind Reasonable creatures should be ashamed to be surmounted by unreasonable in that easinesse to shift Countreies Swallowes hatch about our houses are banisht from our Climat by the approach of winter and they make no difficulty to goe seeke another beyond al the lands and Seas of Europe but men wil cry when they are driven from their chimney corner having the choice of al places of the world which is so large Yet that advantage we have over birds and beasts that al Countries are not alike to them but al Countries are alike unto vertue and to us if we have it for that treasure no enemy can hinder us to carry along with us We may indeed be exiled into an ill Countrey but that Countrey is never the worse for not being our Countrey All lands are in equal distance from heaven the Countrey of gods children God is as soon found in the land of our exile as in that of our birth and sooner too for God is neer those that are destitute and preserveth the stranger Psal 146.9 Are you banisht by a Tyrant Thinke how many persons are exiled from their countrey and dearest relations by their covetousnesse which is the worst tyranny ranging the unknown seas of a new world for many years some to fetch cucineel and pearles from burning climats others to get sables and hermines from the snows under the Pole Some are banisht by others some bythem-selves Nothing is strange to a man when his wil goeth along with it we need but to encline our wil where necessity calls us Impatience in exile is want of a right apprehension of the condition of gods children in the world Heaven is their countrey Life is their Pilgrimage They are strangers even in the place of their birth yea in their very bodys Whilest we are at home in the body we are strangers from the Lord saith Paul 2 Cor. 5.6 Being then strangers in al places of the world one place must not seeme to us more strange then another Wee are never out of our way as long as we are going to God CHAP. XIV Of Prison PRison is the grave of the living There men are buried before their death Liberty is the priviledge of nature without which life is a continual death And it were better to have noe life then not to enjoy it All beasts enjoy liberty some few excepted that have lost it by being too much acquainted with us But as there is need of iron cages to keepe lyons there is need in the world of prisons and captivity to keepe in men that wil not be ruled by reason equity And though many be imprisoned wrongfully if they have the grace to look up to God the disposer of their condition they will acknowledge that God is wise to use them so and that licentious humour hath need of restraint Or if they need it not they have lesse need to afflict themselves A well composed spirit is free in the closest Prison bonds and fetters cannot restraine his liberty The worst fetters are covetousnesse ambition lust appetite of revenge wherewith many that seeme free are kept in bondage Who so can shake them off is at liberty though he were in a dungeon Such was St. Pauls freedom in a chaine 2 Tim. 2.9 I suffer trouble said he as an evill doer even unto bonds but the word of God is not bound The grace of God also cannot be bound and many times God makes use of the bonds of the body to set the soule free A man is very hard tyed to the world if he cannot be untied from it by a long imprisonment Prison will bee lesse tedious to him that remembreth that it is his natural condition That he was nine moneths Prisoner in his Mothers wombe That after his death he shall be made close Prisoner under ground And that as long as he liveth he is loaden like a snaile with his owne Prison which he carrieth about slowly and with great incommodity a clog put by our wise Master to the swiftnesse and quick turnes of our spirit which is alwayes in action Think how fast our thoughts go which in a moment travell from one end of the world to the other and how high our designes will rise whose wings we are constrained to clip and abruptly to pull down our soaring minde to look to the necessities of our craving body and then acknowledge that our body is a very Prison confining the spirit which is the Man The imprisonment of that body is no great addition to its captivity It is but putting one boxe within another And if we looke about us how much captivity do me meet with in society Is not ceremony a slavery which is multiplyed and diversifyed at every meeting Are not honours golden fetters and businesses Iron fetters Do not publique factions enslave particular interesses and spread nets for the conscience Many times that captivity is avoided by that of the Counter and the Fleet. To many their prison hath been a Sanctuary and a strong hold against the dangers of a turbulent and destructive time No dungeon is so close as to keep the faithfull soul from rising to God They that are forbidden the sight of their friends may converse with God at any time which is a great liberty And the Lord Jesus who recommends that worke of mercy to visit the prisoners himselfe doth carefully practise it comforting by his Spirit his disciples to whom the assistance of men is denyed and shewing them heaven open when they are lockt and bolted In effect it is the body not man that is imprisoned The Jalour may keepe out a