without vexing our selves at the prosperity of others No man shall ever be Happy so long as the sight of a Happier man than himself can make him miserable If by envying the Wealth the Abilities the Dignity of our Neighbours we could transfer all to our selves it were something But this is never to be done by Envy by Love in some measure it may For by loving what 's good in another we make it our own III. We may couple Envy and Sloth together for they both agree in an abject Heaviness of Mind The Envious mans Trouble is to see any body else happy and the Slothful mans to despair of being so himself And none but pitiful Wretches are subject to either of these Passions Sloth is the Vice of a languishing Spirit that 's weary of every thing that 's good and for fear of blocks and difficulties in the way shrinks at the very thought of any Generous Enterprize It will and it will not The Sluggard is various and unconstant a burthen to himself a trouble to others He 's perpetually wishing himself out of the World weary of his Life and the Contriver of his own Misfortunes He 's like a Top in continual Agitation the Whip drives him about but 't is only round not forward He stops still at half-way and goes through with nothing All his Works are insipid and like warm Water a Vomit both to God and man This stupid Drowsiness must be shak'd off and a generous Resolution taken up in the place of it or we are undone for ever As the Bird is made to fly so is Man born to labour And since Labour and Travel are our Portion why should we not rather take pains to be happy than to be miserable Let us be never so lazy to Godward the World will yet find us work enough to do One man labours for an Estate another for a Title or an Office when half that trouble and diligence would secure us a blessed Eternity and no body looks after it But Vices and Vanities come to a better Market The greater is our shame to be so dull and careless in a matter of that Importance as not to endure the Labour of one Moment for an Eternal Reward There is nothing so hard but Courage with Gods Blessing may overcome We fancy Difficulties where there are none Whatever the Mind imposes upon it self it obtains He that does what he can does as much as he needs to do God helps the willing CHAP. XI Of Pride Ambition and Vain-Glory The Description of a Proud Man The Vanity of Dignities and the Dangers The Evils of High-Mindedness and the Cure I. PRide Ambition and Vain Glory are Vices that are very near akin And they are to other sins as the Sea is to the Rivers the Source and Fountain of them all When a man comes once to be blown up with this Tumour of Adoring Himself farewel all Reverence and Respect both to God and Man And if there be no way to Glory but by Villany and Fraud by the Ruine or Death of his Brother That 's the way he 'l take without any difficulty or scruple The Proud man is abominable to God and intolerable to Mankind All his faculties and studies are bent upon Popular Applause He takes wonderful Delight in the Contemplation of his own Abilities and to think what pity 't is such Men as he are not employed at the Helm He 's as bold as blind Bayard and puts his Oar into every mans Boat ever magnifying himself and despising all others And yet all this is done under a Mask of Humility for fear he should be suspected of Ambition If he miss his end or fall into disgrace the whole World is too little to hear his Story and he makes it his business to stir up brawls and disputes No man so insolent and domineering to his Inferiours nor so arrant a Slave to those that are above him He 'll fawn upon ye like a Spaniel and you shall find him as tame a Mutton If there be any thing in him that 's good he has the Arrogance to challenge it to himself as if God Almighty had no hand in 't He loves to be in at every thing and to talk loud and Magisterially of matters that he understands no more than a Goose. He is a great meddler in other peoples affairs rash in his Judgment and severe in his Censure He 's much better at spying out his Neighbours Faults than his Vertues He has a kind of disdainful Singularity in his Port Words Looks Actions and Ways He is not to be wrought upon either by Correction Caution or good Advice He wants abundance of good things which he fancies he has and those which really he is possest of are nothing so great as he imagines them And this it is that makes him gall and fret himself as who should say Good Lord What an Age are we fallen into when Men of Parts are ready to beg their bread and such as I am come to be neglected He is afflicted with a perpetual Palpitation of the heart and it can hardly be otherwise with one that is continually upon the Tip-toe and streining at Honour a thing which is out of his reach Pride is the Foundation of all Evil. II. If we will know the Difference between the smallest Particle of Eternal Bliss and the whole sum of what appears to be desirable in this World Kingdoms Empire nay the intire Universe it self let us but lay them in the Scale one against the other and the Earth with all the Pomps and Pleasures of it are not so much as a Leaf or a Feather in the Ballance Let us look upward then and address our selves to the end for which we were created and laying aside all vain Opinions of our own Excellencies let us examine our selves and take a true estimate of our Worth and Value He that is proud in a mean Condition certainly if he had been born to a Crown there would have been no enduring him Now I would have every Christian to prize himself not as the Son of Caesar but which is more as the Son of God redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ. This is an Extraction that is truly Honourable Why do we not glorifie our selves upon this account but tather lie groveling upon the Earth to the scandal of our Divine Original God is our Father who hath elected us to the Dominion of the Heavens and the Stars and given us an Assurance of an everlasting Possession Here lies our Glory our Nobility our Comfort Here we may lawfully boast Let us therefore raise our Eyes and our Hearts and frame our Lives and manners to the Likeness of our Father which is in Heaven This is the way that leads to True and to Immortal Honour III. As for Crowns and Scepters what are they but Golden Fetters and glaring Miseries which if men did but truly understand there would be more Kingdoms than Kings to govern them A great
our Appetites for a moment that we may be happy for ever V. If a man upon his Death-bed were asked his opinion of his past Life and what he thought of Riches Dignities and Worldly Delights you should hear him tell you quite another tale than he did in his health for at that hour men consider what they say and speak what they think Now although this Wisdom comes with the latest for him that is upon his exit It may yet be of great benefit to us if we will but learn from other peoples miscarriages to correct or to prevent our own Who but a mad man when he may put to Sea in fair weather will linger for a storm or defer all care of himself till the last extremity when he may save all at present without any hazzard Caution comes too late when a man is under water and so does Prudence too in the Grave Those great and holy men that have utterly renounced this World and all that 's in it for the love of a better have made it the study of their whole lives to understand how to live and how to die And so hard a Lesson have they found it unto flesh and blood that many of them at their last breath have not stuck to confess their ignorance But we forsooth account it time enough in all conscience to betake our selves to that which is good when in truth we are fit for nothing at all and to begin our lives at an age to which few people have prolonged theirs A prodigious folly certainly for a man to begin at the wrong end VI. Monstrous heedlesness to believe all this and yet to live on as we do What is Time but the passing of a shadow Life but a point or less if possible How small a distance is there betwixt the Cradle and the Tomb Try if you can make the Sun stand still but one day one hour one moment No no it will not be Time is inexorable and will hold on its course till it has brought all created Nature to destruction And yet so besotted a Blindness possesses us that we prefer this wretched instant before a glorious Eternity In the case of our frail and perishable bodies we lay out for necessaries and provisions and spare for no pains to procure them But in that of our immortal Souls we behave our selves as if they were none of our concern Let the Body be out of order and there is nothing so troublesome but we can readily undergo to remove it but in the distempers of the Soul we are not only neglectful but insensible When was it ever said to us Save your selves by Sea or you are lost and we protracted it Take off this Potion 't is bitter but 't is wholsome and we refused it It is less than this that God prescribes to us for our eternal good and we give no heed to it If we happen to have a Law Suit what a bustle we make with our Solicitors and Breviates feeing of Council and tampering with Judges to carry on the Cause But in the great tryal of our Souls at the day of Judgment which is at hand and where Heaven or Hell is the question There is no care taken but we live on laughing and fooling till we lose our selves beyond all Redemption for want of Preparation Let us therefore betake our selves to our wits and put our affairs in order as if we were every moment to be called to a reckoning This is true Philosophy to separate Soul and Body by wisdom before they come to be parted by necessity VII The thing we are principally to intend whether busie or idle in labour or at rest is this to deliver our selves out of the power of Time and Casualties by the anticipation of Eternity which places us in a state of Tranquillity that is steady and invariable The Glutton in the Gospel is still begging the relief but of one drop of water to cool his Tongue and condemned so to beg it to perpetuity without obtaining it Eternity is an everlasting instant not to be thought upon or mentioned without horror It is a restless Wheel it is a continued and endless and a still commencing beginning The serious thought of it is as Wormwood in our cups of pleasure It strikes us with astonishment and sadness it tames our rebellious spirits and raises up the slothful Voluptuary to the love of Vertue it facilitates all difficulties sweetens all our afflictions and makes our misfortunes seem not only short but easie It is not in the power of man to express or conceive this boundless Eternity Were the whole Universe fill'd with numeral Figures and as many Years nay Ages taken from Eternity as there would be found Unites in the whole sum Eternity would be still the same without any diminution He that considers the pains of Hell as they are to be ever beginning and yet never at an end must have a heart of Flint not to trouble and repent at the thought of it CHAP. IV. Of Gluttony the Evils of it and the Remedies And to know when we have subdued it I. THE first Vice we are properly to encounter is Gluttony This is the Sin that brought Death into the World and ministers matter in a great measure to the rest It was the Eating of the Forbidden Fruit that ruin'd the whole Race of Mankind even before they had a Being And it is still the weak side where the Devil lays his most dangerous temptations From hence proceeds dulness of spirit sloth weariness of every thing scurrility babling debauchery heaviness of mind and the dissolution of all Vertues prodigality beggery a long train of Diseases and Death it self in the conclusion This is it that swells our Bills of Mortality for vicious humours contracted from excess in meats and drinks are the food of almost all Diseases Other accidents may attempt and threaten us but this cuts us off Gluttony kills more than the Sword II. Oh the infamy of being a slave to a mans Belly a wretched carkass with an insatiable appetite Our bodies are none of the largest and yet in greediness the vastest and the most voracious of living Creatures come not near us One Wood we see maintains a great many Elephants and a Pasture of a few Acres a great many Bulls But for us one World is hardly sufficient The Air the Seas and the Forrests must be all rifled to please our Palates He that looks into the Offices of a luxurious Palace and sees the Troops of Servants sweating and hurrying up and down the massacre of Beasts Flesh and Fowl and every thing a float in the richest Wine some to order the Plate and cover the Table others to serve up the Meat so many to marshal the Dishes others again to carve and every man ready at his part He that sees I say the magnificence and variety of these Entertainments cannot but wonder at so horrible a profusion for the Guts of one Family Not that
either of Heaven or of it self till the fire of our Lusts shall be swallowed up in that of Hell itself The sad and miserable end of a beastly and momentary pleasure As if we were all drunk with the juice of that Herb which is said to make people die laughing V. Fools that we are what would we be at that have neither Wit enough to advise our selves or to take counsel of others Is it Pleasure we seek God hath provided Pleasures eternal for us in Heaven Those of the World are deceitful transitory and uncertain shall we lay hold of these then and quit our title to those of the next Where 's our Reason What is become of our Understanding If we look upward toward those that are gone to Heaven before us we shall find them such as here upon earth mingled their bread with ashes and their drink with their tears beset on every side with persecution and contempt holding no intelligence at all with worldly comforts and making prayers and tears their daily exercise Their way to Heaven lay through Torments and Crosses But on the other hand if we look downward into Hell among the Troops of the damned we shall there see which they feel too late the end and the reward of trusting to the false joys of this World the delights of the Flesh and carnal Pleasures We should do well to meditate upon this if we believe it VI. But if Pleasure in this World be the thing we covet why do we not then give it our selves in the blessing of a well-composed and vertuous Mind And that 's a Pleasure substantial sincere unchangeable and untainted whereas the enjoyments of the Flesh are weak short-lived only varnish'd over bedawbed wiâ—h Wine and Perfumes both afraid and ashamed of the Light lying most in Bawdy-houses and Taverns and such other places as commonly find work for the Constable If they are glorious without they are yet most wretchedly sordid within They begin and end almost in the same moment they perish even in the very enjoyment But the Pleasure of the Mind is gentle noble invincible steady and secure and attended neither with Satiety nor Repentance It is neither accompanied with shame nor followed with remorse or sadness nor does it ever desert him that professes it The way to this Pleasure is to renounce all other for to contemn Pleasure is the greatest Pleasure CHAP. VI. Of Avarice the Wickedness of it The Poor and the Rich compared The Deceit and the Vanity of Riches I. IT is the great cheat of Avarice that it disclaims it self For there is not any man will confess himself to be covetous I have a Family to provide for says one I would fain do some good among my poor Neighbours cries anâ—ther A third is for building of Alms-houses and Hospitals And these are our pretences for hoarding up Riches and when we have gotten them we go on to get more and spend our lives in the bare acquisition of what was at first pretended for our comfort or support but part with nothing What is a thirsty man the better for the sight of a pleasant Brook or dabbling in it perchance with his finger unless he take some of it into his stomach to relieve his drought Just this is the case of an avaricious man with his money he sees it and handles it but his mind is no vessel to receive it and so never the better for it God made the Soul only for himself and it is he alone that can fill it II. Give the covetous man the Treasure of the whole earth let him not only possess but trample upon all that is rich and precious all that is curious and costly in the Universe Alas the having of all this will but serve him for an Incentive to desire more Nature is bounded but Imagination is infinite It is not a pin matter what Money in the Coffer or what Corn in the Barn to him that is only intent upon what he has not without computing what â—lready he has The World it self is too little for him whom the whole World cannot satisfie If we did but consider the mischiefs that accompany great Fortunes and the Benefits they deprive us of we should soon find with the blessed Apostle that Covetousness is the root of all evil Thence come Frauds Wars Perjuries Treason Discord Ambition Robberies Piracies publick Tumults domestick Treacheries Corruptions in the Seat of Judgment III. Look but the poor and the rich man in the face and compare their Countenances and you shall see that the one in the sowreness of his looks betrays the anxiety and solicitude of his thoughts The others Brow is clear and open in testimony of an honest and chearful mind The rich mans happiness is but from the teeth outward a counterfeit satisfaction with a Worm in his heart when the poor man without any mixture of trouble enjoys a continual repose The one betwixt the desire of getting and the fear of losing lyes exposed to all the assaults of Fortune for the more he has the more he covets The other is rich even in his poverty His wishes are squared to his necessities He fears nothing for he hath nothing to lose that he cares for He spends the day merrily and sleeps soundly at night Whereas the other on the contrary is never at ease and the less sense he has of his condition the greater is his danger IV. A word now to the insatiable Miser with all his Hoards brave Houses and Possessions The time will come the time appointed from Eternity when he must part with all his splendid Acquisitions Life and all when all those things must perish too for which he himself is likewise to perish He will then see the errour of admiring what he should have despised and of setting a value so childishly upon Trifles Childishly I say saving only that Children play the fool upon cheaper terms Their dotage is employed upon some pretty Shells perchance or Pibbles that they find by the Sea-side ours upon Gold and Precious Stones I do not say that where Providence hath given a man a plentiful Fortune the Owner of it should not make use of it But I would have it honestly gotten not by Fraud Extortion or Injustice nor with more carking and caring than the thing is worth We may take Money into our Coffers but not into our Hearts to the end that we may chearfully resign our selves to the Will of God either to want or to abound No man so rich as he that needs not riches We are not to wait for the loss of all by Thieves perhaps or Casualties but to strip our selves by Anticipation which is done if we do but take away from our selves by an indifference whatsoever we might otherwise lose by violence No man is master of himself so long as he is a slave to any thing else V. As to matter of State and Ceremony we are to lay it utterly aside and to conform in our
Cloaths and Diet not so much to example as to Christian Moderation and Vertue Poverty it self with good Husbandry may be emproved into Plenty Let us but keep our selves from Thirst Hunger and Cold Nature asks no more A may keep a man as warm as a Palace and there is no absolute necessity of covering our Bodies with Silk Is there no quenching of our Thirst but in Chrystal no cutting of our Bread unless the Knife has an Agat Handle We may wash as clean in an Earthen Vessel as in a Silver and see as well by a Candle in a Pewter-socket as in a Plate He that values himself for his Gold is inconsiderable without it How much better were it for us to set our hearts upon those Riches which neither Fortune nor Death it self can ever take from us Why should any man fear Poverty that has the Treasure of a Kingdom within himself There is the Kingdom of Heaven in a good Conscience He that seeks his own good let him seek God alone who is the only Good the only Possession and the only Treasure The World is of no value to him that dedicates himself wholly to God VI. Oh the emptiness and Imposture of all that we account delicate and glorious in this World To see a man wrapt up in Gold and Embroidery with a long Retinue at his heels and in a splendid equipage how wonderfully are we taken with the Spectacle And yet alas All this is but a mere pomp and oftentation of vanities that leave us in the very moment that they please us And it is not from the Schools of the Philosophers nor from the Cross of Christ nor from the eternal Wisdom alone that I draw this Observation but from the World it self and those that have most courted and adored it What satisfaction had Haman in all his Wealth Power and Dignity No no says he in a full Audience I reckon all this as nothing so long as I see Mordechai sitting at the Kings Gate What a Mockery what a Blindness is this I have often read and heard indeed that the Pleasures of the Flesh and of this World are as nothing compared with those of Vertue and Eternity but to pronounce them to be as nothing in respect even of nothing it self this goes a great deal further So that in effect in the contempt of nothing we do nothing But that we may not want matter to work upon let us contemn and repress our Lusts that we may be better acquainted with Poverty and learn to measure the true value of things by the use of them Now the way to bring our selves with ease to a contempt of the World is to think daily of leaving it CHAP. VII Of Anger The Character of an angry Man The Effects Causes and Remedies of it I. TO be angry at Anger is almost the only justifiable exercise of that Passion For it is against a most execrable and outragious Monster an Affection so unquiet and turbulent that if it once seises us it unmans us It is in one word a short Madness that carries a man headlong to Blood and Revenge without any regard to Friends good Manners or indeed to his own Security for to take away another mans life he 'l run any hazard of his own and as in the fall of a House dash himself to pieces upon the ruines of what he carries down before him Neither is it a brutal only but a most ungraceful Passion The Eyes burn and sparkle the Veins swell the Hair stands on end the Teeth grating the Mouth all in a some the Voice shrill and piercing the Countenance fierce and terrible the Brow frowning the Head joggling and nodding and the whole Body in a continual and most uncomely Agitation To say nothing of the menacing Actions and Gestures clutching and striking of the hands beating the Breast stamping and tearing the Hair rending the Cloaths and all the Blood in the Body boiling in the Face How abominable must this be in the Mind that shews it self so detestable in the Countenance The Poets draw the Furies with Fire-brands and Snakes howling and yelling with hideous out-cries which might serve for no ill Picture of a Man in choler if I may call him a Man who by his beastual-cruelty and salvage-fierceness seems to have cast off all the Advantages and Affections of Humanity One may keep other Vices private but this breaks out at the Eyes and discovers it self in the Air of the Face Like fire it devours all before it and the more we strive to suppress it the more furiously it burns An angry man is utterly uncapable either of Moderation or Reproof II. As for other Vices they are confin'd we see to certain Bounds and Limits but Anger flies at all and there is not any thing that scapes it be it never so sacred Do we not invade Heaven it self both with open Blasphemies and secret Murmurings against the Power Goodness and Providence of the Almighty And our Anger extends it self not only to those that we think have done us an Injury but to those too that possibly may hereafter do us one So ingeniously do we improve our vain Imaginations that we fall upon any man that has the power to disoblige us as if he had done it already Nay we are many times in a Rage we know not at whom or for what but yet we bluster and fret and for want of other matter to work upon we fall upon our selves Nor is it the Injury only that moves us for we do frequently wreak our spight upon things inanimate that cannot properly either disoblige or affront us As for a Man to cut his Cloak to pieces throw Dishes and Candlesticks about the House split Pens in a Rage and tear Paper because things will not go as he would have them What can be more ridiculous The breaking of a Glass is enough to put many a man out of his Senses The mislaying of a Napkin the Screek of a Table drawn upon the Floor and a thousand other things which do neither deserve our Anger nor feel it A Resty Jade a Barking Cur the Buzzing of a Flie in our Ears the Stinging of a Gnat These forsooth are Provocations to transport us beyond all Patience and Death without Mercy to the poor Animal that offends us How great a Madness is it to punish Brutes and things insensible for the Transgressions of Reasonable Creatures III. If we proceed now to take a view of Anger in the Effects we shall find it the greatest Plague that ever infested Humane Nature How many Murthers Towns laid waste whole Nations utterly depopulated Heaps of slaughter'd Bodies as if the Sword vy'd with the Pestilence and the Rivers running Blood Look upon the Ruines of the Noblest Cities of the World unpeopled Deserts Conflagrations poyson'd Fountains extinguish'd Families Consider all this and you have here before your eyes the Fruits and Works of Anger I should think that we are no longer a Society of
our selves and not to the thing we hate For if we are commanded to love our Enemies we are likewise implicitely commanded not to hate any body The Wickedness I confess but not the Man we may and ought to hate and it is there only that we can justifie our Hatred But if a man we must needs hate let us begin at home for there it is even in himself that every man may find his greatest Enemy CHAP. XIV Of Desire and Aversion What is to be desired and what to be declined I. HE that submits himself to God that desires nothing but with Resignation that accommodates himself to his Condition that says Whether I be sick or well rich or poor here or elsewhere Be it as it pleases God his will be done This is a happy man But when we come once to expostulate and say When shall I go thither When shall I have this or that We are in the ready way to be miserable For he that covets what 's out of his reach is condemned to a Wheel ever pursuing what he shall never catch Opinions Thoughts Affections and some Actions too are in our own power but our Bodies Riches Honour Preferments are not so No man will pretend to forbid or hinder the former but the latter are liable to Impediments and hinder the Jurisdiction of another So that we are either not to desire them at all or otherwise to take them only during Pleasure and as transitory Benefits which cannot long continue with us There is nothing in this World desirable for the Figure of it passes away Nay if we had our very Wish Death will come and then we must leave all behind us But within us is an inexhaustible Fountain of Comfort if we will but take the pains to dress it and keep it open II. It was the great business and wisdom of some of the Ancient Philosophers the Government of the Passions and upon the Consideration of the Powers granted by God unto Man they came to this Conclusion that there was nothing properly to be accounted our own but our Thoughts and Affections And by frequent Meditation upon this matter they got so absolute a Dominion over the Motions of the Mind that by virtue of that Command they did not stick to pronounce themselves and with some Reason too the only Rich Powerful and Happy men alive Insomuch that having exempted themselves from the Empire of Fortune while their Bodies were even agonising in the Extremity of Torment their blessed Souls were yet calmly exercised upon the Contemplation of Beatitude But it was by daily Labour and Practice that they brought themselves to this state of Indifference for external things And he that has gain'd this point does no more trouble himself for the want of any thing which he has not than because he is not Emperor of Tartary or has not Wings to flie Those things that are without us do not concern us III. This may serve to put a check to our Appetites which if they be not kept within Bounds will run out into endless Extravagancies and the more we grant them the more they will crave What does it signifie to pour Water down the Throat of a man in a Fever when his Grief is not a Thirst but a Disease He that squares his Desires to his Reason is upon some certainty but when they lash out into Vice and Luxury there is no end of their Importunity He that contents himself within the limits of Nature shall not need to want any thing he would have but he that exceeds those limits shall be a Beggar even in the greatest Abundance A very little suffices Nature but Appetite is insatiable IV. We should do in our Lives as we do at a Banquet when any thing is brought about and presented us we are modestly to take part If it pass by us to let it go if it be not yet come to us to wait with Civility and Patience till it does come The like Affections ought we to have for Riches Honours and other External things at least if we will pretend to the enjoyment of such a Serenity of Mind as no Accidents shall be able to discompose We are arrived at a blessed state of Tranquillity if we can but advance thus far But if we bring our selves once to a Neglect and Refusal of whatsoever the World can pretend to offer us our work is done and we are effectually even upon Earth in Heaven already Every mans Happiness is in his own power if he will but keep his Desires within Compass He is the happy man that can have what he will and that may every man by confining his Desires to what he can have V. There are many things we dread and abominate as the greatest Miseries and Misfortunes that can befal us which in the end prove the very contrary They are Troublesom it may be and go against the Hair but they are instructive Death Banishment Want Disgrace Labour Sickness and the like they are neither Evils in themselves nor in our Power nor are they properly our Concern They are terrible only in Opinion and not worthy of our Aversion Socrates aptly enough calls them Bug-bears only Vizours to fright Children and the whole Business is but a Masquerade Death it self is it any more than a Bugbear How has it been courted even in the most hideous forms by Multitudes of the blessed Saints and Martyrs Nay by Pagans as well as Christians by Socrates and divers others of the Heathen Philosophers There is not any thing in it so formidable but only conceit and Opinion It is the Fear of Death and not the Death it self that is so dreadful and so it fares too in many other cases Let us turn all our Fear and all our Hatred to the Fear and Hatred of Sin CHAP. XV. Of Ioy and Sadness How a good man ought to rejoyce He that looks before him is not cast down Several Antidotes against Sorrow I. JOY when it passes the bounds of Modesty draws on a kind of Dissolution of the Mind We must have a care of that and so to moderate our Chearfulness that if need be without any Difficulty we may dispose our selves from Mirth to Sadness Our Saviour who was the best Judge of things says not Blessed are they that laugh but they that mourn It were a strange Indecency for a Christian that professes himself a Follower of Eternity among so many perils both of Soul and Body so many just grounds of Sadness to spend his life in Gigling and making Fools Faces and transporting himself for Trifles That fugitive earthly Pleasure and the Joys we talk of are very many times the near Forerunners of Sadness There is no true Ioy but that of a good Conscience He that cherishes and takes care of the one shall never want the other for it grows in his own breast All other rejoycing is but Merriment and Frolick without any Substance at all and many a man laughs with a
one Contrary to the other for want of setting to our selves certain Rules and Bounds which we are not to transgress Excess or the over-doing of any thing is enough to turn even good into evil CHAP. XXXIV Of Humility wherein it consists The knowledge of our selves The true Character of an Humble Man I. HUmility is a Vertue that comes from Christ himself who published it by his Doctrine and taught it by his Example Next to Vertues Theological and Intellectual it holds the first place for it overthrows Pride which is the fountain of all evil It makes us acceptable to God whose communication is with the humble Without this foundation our whole spiritual building falls to the ground The name of it 't is true does not seem to import any great matter but it is the Vertue nevertheless without which no man can be either great or perfect It is that which puts us upon Illustrious Exploits without danger of being pust up upon difficulties and hazards without fear nay and without so much as a change of countenance or temper Humility does not lie as the people imagine in the mere contempt and abjection of our selves but also in the just and moderate pursuit of Honour and Glory Of Glory not for Ostentation but for the Vertue it self of which that Glory is the reward all other Glory is false and spurious and not worthy so much as of his thought that knows the value of things and perfectly understands himself The Humble man knows too well to affect Honour in it how little it is that he can contribute out of his own to the works of Vertue Beside that he is afraid of seeking even the Honour that he deserves for fear of being insensibly drawn in to covet more than his due There can be no less in despising of Honour since it is great Honour to refuse it and greater yet to contemn it II. The reason why we are not humble is because We do not know our selves And we will sooner believe a mistake in our own breasts than if it came to us from the furthest quarters of the Earth What is man a weak and sickly body a pitiful helpless Creature exposed to all the Injuries of Times and Fortune a mass of Clay and Corruption prone to all wickedness and of so perverse and deprav'd a judgment as to prize Earth above Heaven Temporal Pleasures before Eternal Felicities Every man living is altogether Vanity He is one of the most frail one of the most furious lustful and timerous Creatures of the Creation What have we then to be proud of considering our misery and shame which we should most certainly consider if we had but the least spark of Reason in us We can never be perfectly humble till we come to a perfect understanding of our selves III. It is not enough for us to be humble but we must be vile in our own eyes distrustful of our selves and ascribe all Glory and Honour to God He that is humble takes pleasure in the contempt of himself and is only proud of not being affected with applause He judges of himself by what 's his own and he values others by what they have received from God so that he always lessens himself in the comparison This is his practice to set his own faults against his Neighbours Vertues by which Rule the perfectest man alive shall think worse of himself than of another He is obedient to his Superiours not wedded to his own will He confesses his infirmities he bears all indignities with patience he does any good office be it never so mean he is neither singular nor talkative He loves privacy without any desire to be taken notice of he draws himself into a narrow compass and he places himself both above the World and below it He is modest and circumspect and speaks little but when he needs must and that too with a countenance rather disposed to sadness than mirth One may read the humility of his heart in his outside his face is grave and modest his eyes cast down like those of a guilty person before the great Tribunal And betwixt the conscience of his sins and the uncertainty of his pardon not daring to lift them up to Heaven He stands afar off with the Publican in the Gospel crying Lord be merciful to me a sinner To conclude he trembles at the thought of himself he despises the World and all the glories of it for the whole Earth is as nothing to him that does not first over-value himself CHAP. XXXV Of the state of the Perfect The image of a perfect man The end of a perfect life is union with God I. HE that wants nothing may be properly said to be perfect And what can that man want who is cleansed and purged from his sins beautified with all divine Vertues whose heart is set upon God and his soul united to him to Eternity This is the top of Christian Perfection and the last end of Christianity it self to be united to him who is the End and Author of our Being But it is not for man to attain this End without the special aid and assistance of God and therefore there are but few that arrive at this perfection for there are not many that entertain the Grace when 't is offered them But however some there have been in all Ages II. We may pronounce that man perfect whom we see unshaken in dangers untainted with Lusts chearful in Adversity happy under Reproach quiet in a Storm Free Equal Constant Resolute Generous Empty of himself and Full of God And so much above the things of this World that the Hopes and Fears which are the Anxiety of other people do but serve him for Divertisement and Sport His Comforts are out of the reach of Violence and his very Misfortunes are for his good He fears neither Disappointments nor Accidents He values things by the Nature of them and not by Opinion He sees the World at his feet he studies contemplates and despises it with an invincible tranquillity of spirit and yet his Soul keeps still her station where she had her Original It is with the Conversation of a Good man as with the Beams of the Sun which though they strike the Earth are nevertheless at the same time in the great Luminary that sends them and so is the Soul of a perfect Christian in Heaven at the same time that we enjoy his Company here below His mind is like the stare of the World above the Moon ever serene and quiet He knows neither Defects nor Variations all Ages serve him The Sun it self does not look upon the World more impartially than he does and without cumbering his thoughts about many things he takes up his rest in the simplicity and unity of God himself He neither seeks nor wishes for any thing without himself for he carries his happiness in his own breast It is to God alone that he dedicates both his actions and life He that walks by this Rule knows what it is to be perfect III. It not for flesh and blood to arrive at this pitch without his helping-hand who says Without me you are able to do nothing But there is likewise a necessity of precious Dispositions An intimate union with God is the Accomplishment of a perfect Life and we must first cast off the darkness of the Creature ere we presume to appear before him that dwells in an unaccessible Light How shall any man think to partake of the joys of Heaven so long as he carries the corruptions of Earth and Flesh about him Every Pleasure every Vanity every Vicious Affection is a Remora to him It stops him in his full course endangers the whole Lading and keeps him from his Port. God is unity and takes no joy in a Soul that is divided FINIS Some Books printed for Henry Brome DR Comber's Paraphrase on the Common Prayer 4 vol. Octavo his Friendly and Seasonable Advice to the Roman Catholicks of England Seneca's Morals in 3 vol. Octavo Dr. Heylin on the Creed The Fathers Legacy to his Friends containing the whole Duty of Man Dr. Du Moulin's Week of Prayers Christianity no Enthusiasme Dr. Woodford on the Psalms his Divine Poems Precepts and Practical Rules for a Truly Christian Life Mr. Camfields Discourse of Angels The Reformed Catholick or the Love of Iesus Mr. Claget against Dr. Owen The lives of the Grand Viziers The History of the Sevarites Bp. Wilkins Real Character in fol. his Natural Religion The History of the Irish Rebellion fol. The Life of the Great Duke Espernon Montluck's Commentaries fol. Bp. Cousens against Transubstantiation Mr. Simpsons Compendium of Musick his Division of Violins Several Sermons at Court c. Mr. Banisters Ayres Dr. Whitby against Host-Worship The Fair one of Tunis Parbett's Practice of Physick Pools Parnassus The Scholars Guide from the Accidence to the University Mr. Sarazins Works Gentum fabulae Anatomy of the Elder Skinner's Lexicon Education of Children Sr. Kenelm Digby's Receipts Virgil Travesty Lucian Burlesque The Exact Constable The Planters Manual The Compleat Gamester Dr. Glisson's Anatomy Glisson's Common Law Epitomis'd Dr. Fords Sermon against Forswearing Five Love Letters Conversation or Witty Discourses Horace in English by Mr. Brome and other Persons The Wars of Sweden and Denmark Several Pieces in Defence of the Church of England Mr. Dean LLoyd's Sermon at the Funeral of Sir Edmundbery Godfrey Tully's Offices in English Erasmus Colloquies in English The History of the Plot all three by Mr. L'Estrange Dr. Sprat's Plague of Athens Mr. Cowly's Lecture to the People Toleration Discussed Presbytery Displayed Vossius of the Winds and Seas Crums of Comfort The Guide to Heaven Brief Rule of Life Bp. Saunderson's Nine Cases Minelius on Horace Grotius De Veritare Religionis Christ. Guillims Heraldry Enlarged