by it wee appeare righteous before God This is the summary of the Gospell This is the onely comfort of the faithfull That being justifyed by faith wee have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 5.1 Without that persuasion all the moral precepts and all the reasons of Philosophy cannot set the mind at rest much lesse the riches honours pleasures and pastimes of this world for who can have peace with himselfe while he is in dissention with God And who can have peace with God but by the mediation of his beloved sonne Jesus there being no other name under heaven by which wee must be saved The chiefe impediment of the tranquillity of minde being the remorse for sinne against God and the apprehension of this just and terrible threatning Cursed is he that continueth not in all the words of Gods law to doe them Whosoever embraceth the merit of Jesus Christ by faith is fenced against all the threatnings of the law and all the accusations of his conscience For to them he will answere As Gods threatnings are just so are his promises now he hath promist that if wee judge our selves wee shall not be judged of the Lord. 1. Cor. 11.31 That he that heareth the word of the sonne of God and beleeveth on him that sent him hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is past from death to life Joh. 5.24 That the blood of Jesus Christ the sonne of God clenseth us from all sin 1. Joh. 1.7 That he hath blotted out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his crosse Col. 2.14 Wherefore these threatnings that God will bring every work to judgement and that even for one idle word account must be given reach not to those evill workes of which beleivers have repented and embraced the remission by faith in Jesus Christ Those threatenings of judgement doe not reach me since I have already past judgemont upon myselfe by a serious contrition and have received my Absolution by the merit of him that was judged and condemed for me If account must be given for my sinnes Christ must give it who charged himselfe with them But that account is discharged My sins are put out of Gods score The curse of the law to a soule that beleeveth in Christ as I doe is a handwriting taken out of the way a Bond torne and nailed to the crosse of Christ God is too just to make use of a bond vacated to proceed against me the merit of his Sonne which he received in payment for me is of too great value to leave me in danger to be sued for the debts which he hath payd for himself was arrested by Death the Sergeant of Gods justice and put in that jayle whence there is no comming out till one hath payd the utmost farthing and being come out of that jayle by his resurrection he hath made it manifest that he hath payd the whole debt which he was bound for in our behalfe unto Gods justice What though my sins be great yet are they lesse then the merit of Jesus Christ No sinne is so great that it ought to take away the confidence in Gods promises No sinne is so great that it may damme a soule beaten downe with contrition but together raised by faith and washt in the blood of the sonne of God Indeed the remembrance of my sins must be bitter unto me yet that bitternes must be drowned in the joy of my salvation my repentance must be a step not a hinderance to my confidence So I will say to God every day with a contrite heart Forgive us our trespasses And at the same time I will remember that I make that prayer unto our Father which is in heaven who commands me to call him Father to assure me that he will spare me as a man spareth his owne sonne that serveth him Mal. 3.17 to stile him heavenly father to whom the kingdome and the power and the glory belongeth to lift up my hope to that celestial glory which he fully possesseth and which he will impart to his children in their measure I will walke before God with humility and feare thinking on my sins past and my present weakenes and sinfulnes but together I will goe in the strength of the Lord and make mention of his righteousnes The righteousnes of God that frighteth sinners comforteth me and his justice is all mercy to me For the infinite merit of his Sonne being mine he is now gracious unto me in his justice Hereby the peace and assurance which I enjoy through faith is advanced to a joy of heaven upon earth and to this song of triumph Isa 61.10 I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soule shall be joyfull in my God for he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousnes as a bridegroome decks himselfe with ornaments and as a bride adornes herselfe with her jewells This is the peace and contentment of the faithful soule that feeleth and relisheth her blessed reconcilation made with God through Jesus Christ For he that hath peace with God hath peace also with himselfe And the love of God powerfully growing in his heart by the consideration of the bounty of God whose sweetnes wee may taste though not conceive his greatnes breeds there together the peace of God which passeth all understanding banisheth tumultuous and unlawfull affections and brings the lawfull under its obedience so that all the affections of the regenerate soule meete in one and make but one which is the love of God as many brookes that lose their names in a great River When the love of God brings not that great peace to the soule and the absolute empire over the passions it is because love is as yet imperfect and the cause of that imperfection is the deficiency of faith which doth not yet embrace aright the reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ and faith is deficient when it is not maintained by good workes her food without which it pines away and falls into a shaking palsie and when that foundation is shaking all that is built upon it cannot but be tottering This then must be our first and earnest taske to make our selves sure of our peace with God by a lively faith whereby our hearts may be purified from evill workes and made fertile to all fruits of holinesse For hereby we shall have peace with our selves and shall be masters at home Hereby also wee shall have peace with Gods creatures receiving temporall blessings as testimonies of Gods reconciliation with us and in every bit of bread wee shall taste his love Prosperity and adversity will prove equally good unto us being dispensed by his fatherly care If God multiply our afflictions it will be onely to multiply our deliverances He will never put us to the tryal but to refine our faith weane
are either the goods of fortune as they are called which are riches honour friends and family Or goods of the body as beauty strength health pleasure and life it selfe As these things depend not of us no more do their contraryes poverty dishoner enemyes losse of friends deformity paine sicknesse and death When one hath those former at will that state is called prosperity the latter passe under the name of adversity The things that depend of us or rather of the grace of God in us which becomes the best part of ourselves are piety honesty wisedome diligence and their contraries depend of us also yet with some dependance from outward agents the world and the Devill There be other things of a mildle rank which partly depend of us partly not and therefore are ours onely in part as learning and capacity where industry and diligence may do much but nothing against or without nature and they are lost by age and sicknesse and other outward causes Let us review this order with more leasure and weigh the price and inconvenience of each thing for without that it is impossible to behave our selves about them with a judicious tranquillity We beginne with things belonging to prosperity CHAP. III. Of Riches OF things that depend not of us the most remote from us are the goods of fortune The goods of the body are neerer for our body is the house of our minde which is our trueselfe and whose goods are properly ours Yet such is the imprudence of men that they are most busy about that which is most remote and neglect that which is neerest and most essential to them for the goods of the body neglecting those of the minde and for the goods of fortune neglecting those of the body They will forfeit their conscience to please and serve their body and hazard their body to get or preserve the goods of fortune Whereas they should follow a clean contrary order hazarding and neglecting their body if need be for the good of the mind and the goods of fortune for both Here I say once for all that by fortune I understand not blind chance since Gods providence rules all but the exteriour of a mans condition as it is distinct from those things which properly belong to the body and the mind So farre I will comply with the humour of the world as to speak of riches in the first place for it is that they seek before all things shewing by their actions which alwayes must be beleeved rather then words that they hold it the first and chiefe good Pecunia ingens generis humani bonum An errour that hath provoked some to oppose it with another errour saying that money is the root of all evill St. Paul decides the difference saying that the love of money is the roote of all evill 1 Tim. 6. the love of money not money it selfe It is not wealth that doth the mischiefe but the weaknesse of men that cannot wield it coveting it with greedinesse purchasing it with wicked wayes imploying it in unjust actions keeping it with trouble and losing it with despaire Riches are good but in the lowest rank of all goods for they have no place among laudable goods there being no praise to be rich Nor among goods desirable for their own sake for they are desired because of other things It is not nature but custome and fancy that giveth price unto gold silver instead of which shells are used for commerce in some part of the East Indyes But for fancy a barre of Iron would be more precious then a wedge of Gold In one point as indeed in all other respects money is inferiour to other goods as health honour and wisedome that whereas one may enjoy them by keeping and increase them by using one must lose his money to enjoy it and part with it to use it But in two things especially the imperfection of riches is seen that they satisfye not the desire and that in the greatest need which is the redemption of the soul they are of no use rather a hindrance True goods are those that make the possessors good which riches do not They are indeed instruments of good in the hands of those that can uve them well But they are instruments of evill in the hands of those that know not how to use them And the number of these last being the greater by farre riches do much more evill then good in the world They stirre up folly lust and pride and open a wide gate to wickednesse yet themselves not wicked of their nature To a well composed and disposed minde they are excellent helps to vertue for they afford meanes for good education and matter for good actions Wisedome and riches together is a faire match The rich and wise Solomon speakes thus of it by his experience Eccl. 7.11 Wisdome is good with an inheritance and by them there is profit to them that see the Sunne for wisedome is a defence and money is a defence the excellency of knowledge is that wisdome gives life to them that have it The French version of that Text saith that Riches cover the owners So they do but it is as the shell covers a snaile for they are a heavy toilesome luggage wherewith a man can advance but slowly and without which he cannot goe And if they shelter him from some injuries they expose him to other they provoke envy and are a faire butt for fraude and insolency So to go one step further in the comparison that shelter may be broken upon a mans back and he crusht under it To know the just price of riches reckon what they cost both to get and to keepe what paines there is to get them what danger and care in the keeping what unsatisfaction in the enjoying what uncertainty in the possession Prov. 23.6 for they make themselves wings saith Solomon which no humane art can clip A thousand accidents which no prudent forecast can prevent make them suddenly flee away The worst is that they distract the minde from the true goods for they that have got them and possesse them most innocently if they will preserve them and keepe them from sinking which they will naturally do must apply their mind to them and much more if they will increase them Which interposition of the earth cannot but eclipse the cleare light of the minde and hide heaven from the sight of the soul This made the Lord Jesus to speak this sentence confirmed with an oath and a repetition Matth. 19.23 Verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdome of heaven And againe I say unto you It is easier for a Camell to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of God And truly although riches of themselves be not evill but be as the minde of him that possesseth them is good to him that useth them well evill to him that useth them ill yet
substance and intellectual faculties of our soul of immortal nature which cannot be so offuscated with the mists of the flesh but she is cleared of them when she is freed of the body The other is that supernatural wisedome when it pleaseth God to endow our minde with it even his knowledge his love conformity of our will unto his will and faith in his promises Of other ornaments of the soul we cannot certainly say what we shall keep and what we shall lose It will be therefore wifely and thriftily done to labour for that which wee may be sure to keep when we have got it and of which death that takes away all other possessions shall deliver us a full possession It is a great discouragment to them that stretch their braines upon Algebra and Logarithmes and arguments in Frisesmo as it were upon tenterhookes to think that all that learning so hard to get will bee lost in a moment Who would take the paines to load himselfe with it seeing that it gives nothing but vexation in this life and leaves in the soul neither benefit nor trace after death unlesse it be the guilt sticking to the soul to have mispent the strength of wit upon negotious vanities and neglected good studies Yet am I not so austere and peremptory as to despise all the spiritual endowments which we are not sure to keep after death For many of them are such that as we are not certaine to keep them after death so we are not certaine to lose them by death Many of those perishable ornaments are neverthelesse good gifts of God But our minde must be so disposed that in these several ornaments of the soul we seek a contentment proportionate to the assurance that we have of their abiding with us We are most certaine that the knowledge and love of God are permanent possessions and impart to their possessor their permanency there then let us apply our study and place our permanent content We are not certaine whether the other spiritual ornaments will continue with us after this life Then let us not bestow our principal study about those things which we are not sure to keepe nor place our chiefe content in them Let the Soul lose none of her advantages let her glory in her eternall goods and there fixe herselfe Let her rejoyce also in those goods which she hath for a time according to their just value which must be measured by their use Before we consider the several ornaments of the soul more particularly we must consider her substance and faculties The Soul is immateriall and Spirituall bearing in her substance the image of her creator and more yet in her faculties and naturall endowments which before her fall were in an eminent degree of perfection for to be made after the likeness of God includeth all perfection in so much that this high expression to be adequate unto man hath need to be contracted to the proportion of a created nature Of that primitive perfection the traces are evident still in that reasoning quicknesse and universal capacity that goeth through all things and compasseth all things that remembreth things past that provideth for things to come that inventeth judgeth ordereth and brings forth ingenious and admirable workes The principal is that the soul is capable to know God love him commune with him A priviledge special to Angels Souls of men above all creatures as likewise they are the only creatures capable of permanency which is a participation with Gods eternity such as finite natures may admit Humility would not give us leave to conceive high enough of the price of our soul but that the onely Sonne of God God himselfe blessed for evermore hath shewed the high account that he made of her So high that he thought it worth his taking the like nature in the forme of a servant and suffering death with the extremity of paine and ignominy that he might recover and save her when she had lost herselfe The soul being of such an excellent nature and after her decayes by sinne restored to her primitive excellency by grace is a rich possession to herselfe when God gives us the wisedome to obey that evangelical and truly Philosophical precept of Christ Luk. 21.19 In your patience possesse your soules not giving leave to the impatience of cupidity and feare to steal that possession from us But the soul never hath the right possession of herselfe till she have the possession of God To possesse God and to possesse our soul is all one for the spirit cannot be free nor happy nor his owne but by his union with his original Being whereby God and the soul have a mutual possession one of another A blessed union begun in earth by grace and perfected in heaven by glory The contrary state which is to be separated from God is the perdition of a man and the extremity of bondage want and misery Here to undertake an exact anatomy of the soul would be besides my theame and more yet beyond the possibility of right performance For as the eye cannot see it selfe the spirit of man cannot looke into his owne composure and in all the Philosophical discourses upon that subject I finde nothing but conjectural It is more profitable and easy to learne the right government then the natural structure of the soul It is part of the knowledge of the soul to know that she cannot be known and that her incomprehensiblenesse is a lineament of her Creatours image The spirit of man is more quick and stirring then clearsighted and many times is like a Faulcon that flyeth up with his hood on He hath a good wing but he is hood winkt How many wits take a high flight and know not where they be And where shall you finde one that understands thoroughly the matter that he speakes of The Authors that write of all animals and plants understand not the nature of a caterpiller or a lettice how then shall they understand the nature of intellectual substances Certainly all our Philosophy of the nature of things is but seeking and guessing Job 8.9 We are but of yesterday and know nothing because our dayes upon earth are as a shadow saith Bildad Our life is a shadow because it is transitory but more because it is dark The Earth where we live is inwrapt in clouds and our soul in ignorance as long as we live upon earth and yet we are as resolute and affirmative in our Opinions as if we had pitcht our Tabernacle in the Sunne We could not speak with more authority if we were possest as God is with the original Idea's and the very being of things A wise and moderate man will not be carryed away by that presumption neither of others nor his owne but with humility will acknowledge the blind and rash nature of the spirit of man that knoweth nothing and determines of all things that undertakes all and brings nothing to an end Pure truth and full wisedome
cheerefully out of hope of eternal felicity after death It is pittiful to behold what paine these old Philosophers tooke to arme themselves against death and how the seeming lofty peace wherewith they marcht towards death is like that of a starting hors blowing and pricking up his eares at the entry of a dark place whereas the good Christian goeth gently to it with simplicity joy and considence Why the Pagans knew not whither they went and conceived of death as of a ghastly darke denne but the right Christian seeth his way and thinking of death saith I know whom I have beleeved He gives thankes to the father who hath made him meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light His desire is to depart and to be with Christ remembring that Christ went before and sayd to all his disciples both present and to come when he went up to heaven I goe to prepare a place for you So whereas pagan Philosophy seekes comforts against death Christian Philosophy presenteth death as a comfort Fellons condemned to the gallowes heare not with so much joy the grace and pardon that giveth them life as good Christians heare the glad tidings of their approaching death for death is a grace unto them since it opens them the prison doore If they be dangerously sick the way to cheere them up is not to say Be of good heart you shall recover but be of good heart you must dye for they conceive of death as of their haven of salvation after a stormy voyage That hope sweetens all their Adversities It is a corke that keepes up their spirits above the most raging waves not suffering it to sinke under any sorrow It is the charme of all cares which makes the Christian to say when he loseth his earthly goods Now I am unloaden of that luggage I am the lighter for my journey to the Kingdome of heaven and there I have my true goods which no man can take from me So were the Hebrewes disposed that received with joy the spoyling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance Heb. 10.34 This also makes the Christian disgest injuries and contemne contempt saying Earth is not the Country where am I to expect glory I shall have enough in heaven shortly I am little concerned in the Opinion of men during this life of few dayes and I am yet lesse concerned in that they shall say of me after my death Of all sufferings the sufferings for righteousness have the surest comfort Christ saying so expresly Matth. 5.10.12 Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdome of God Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Since by many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdome of heaven we perceive by the thornes which we were told we should finde in the way that we are in the right Any way is pleasant that leads us to salvation Finally this heavenly hope abates the tediousnesse of sickness and the chagreene of old age For the godly soul finding her house of flesh ready to fall prepareth herself with joy to come out at the breach and finding the race of this life neere done stretcheth herselfe towards the prize which the great Saviour holds her up from heaven Thus faith is found to be the most sublime Philosophy for it takes off the heart from things transitory and raiseth it up to the eternall It is the chiefe valour for it is victor over dolour and armeth the weake with invincible strength It makes the Christian to walke in the midst of calamities with a resolute and undanted march and to grow familiar with death finding in the principall subject of humane feares the great subject of his confidence and joy and in the cross a ladder to glory OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND FIFTH BOOK Of Peace in Society CHAPTER I. Of Concord with all men and of Meeknesse OUr first Book hath bin imployed about the Peace of man with God The three following about the peace of man with himselfe To confirme himselfe in these his next care must be to have peace with his owne kind For in vaine should we hope to keepe peace with God and our owne selves if we live in wilfull discord with our neighbours these are things altogether inconsistent If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seene how can he love God whom he hath not seene and if a man be at odds with God and his brother how can he have peace at home We are commanded to follow peace with all men Heb. 12.14 Which because it is more easy to follow then to obtaines the Apostle St. Paul prepares us to meet with opposition by these termes If it be possible as much as lyeth in you live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 Now what lyeth in us with Gods assisting grace to live peaceably with all men is exprest in two counsels in the words next before The first is to recompense no man evill for evill It is impossible to go through the croud of the world and not to be thrust Fooles returne the like and thrust againe and thrusting brings striking The wise passe quiet and unconcerned As we must beare one with another for Gods sake that commands it we must do it for our own sake to keep tranquillity of mind the losse whereof cannot be recompenced by any satisfaction of revenge if revenge ever brought any Most part of injuries consisting in opinion the remedy consisteth in the same They hurt not him that resents them not Injuriarum remedium est oblivio But if the injury bee such that we must needs resent it Pardoning is the best resenting and the honorablest revenge of all is To recompence good for evill The other counsell is Provide things honest in the sight of all men For whether we live with good or bad men which are the greater number it were impossible for us to compasse all our designes if they were layd open in the sight of all men they must be so honest that when they are ripe for the knowledge of all men we need not be ashamed of them And if in the following of honest and beneficial designes we meete with opposition we must behave ourselves with so much meekenes that we make it appeare that we seeke not our advantage by the ruine of others and together with so much vigour that none be encouraged by our pusillanimity to crosse us There is no harder taske then to keepe ourselves free from dissention in this age which may be called the reigne of discord Here then wee must bestow the greater care to keep tranquillity in our conversation and more in our minde As for publique quarrels a wise man will wedde himselfe to no party with eagernes and if it be possible he will looke upon the game and himselfe
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
that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened When this direfull remembrance sinkes into a conscience how man was put out of Paradice and Cherubims were placed at the gate with aflaming sword to keepe him out that he may not finde the way to the tree of life it is enough to sinke one downe with feare and anguish and make him cry out standing upon the brink of despaire Must I be driven away from God for ever and what way is left for me to returne to the tree of life without which I cannot shunne eternal perdition Upon that perplexity Prayer comes and offers her helpe saying I will bring thee thither and will goe with thee without any let of the flaming sword for I know a way to the tree of life where the terrour of the law doth not keep the passage the sonne of God who is the way the truth and the life hath made me way unto the throne of grace to which I goe with full assurance to obtaine mercy and finde grace to helpe in time of need This freedome of prayer to approach unto God was in some sort represented by the sacrifices That they were figures of prayers wee learne it out of the Psalme 141 where David beseecheth God that his prayer may be set forth as incense and the lifting up of his hands as the evening sacrifice Ps 141.2 As then the smoake of the sacrifices did mount up toward heaven which is a way which cannot be stopt likewise faithfull prayers have at all times a free passage to heaven and although Satan be called the Prince of the aire he cannot disturbe them in the way But that they may reach to heaven the incense of the merit of Christ must be layd over the sacrifice of prayer To that holy duty wee are encouraged by Gods commandement and promise Both are in this text Ps 50.12 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shall glorifie me And so in this Come unto me saith Gods eternal Sonne all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will ease you Math. 11.28 None that prayeth to the father through the merit of the Sonne returnes empty For either he giveth us what we do aske or what wee ought to aske and that which is fit for us He that keepeth that holy correspondence with God is never dejected with sorrow or perplexed with feare for he finds in that divine communication a plaister to all his sores and an inexhaustible well of life and joy David had found it so when he sayd Ps 16 I have set the Lord allwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shal rest in hope By prayer wee ground our soules in faith raise them with hope inflame them with charity possesse them with patience during our life and yeeld them to God with joy in our last breath To reape these benefits by prayer wee must understand well the right use of prayer which is double It serveth to aske of God our necessities both of body and soule for since in him wee live and moove and have our being wee must continually seeke to him by prayer of whom wee continually depend But the noblest and most proper use of prayer is to glorifie God and converse with him because wee love him and because he is most perfect and most worthy to be beloved coming to that holy duty not as a taske but an honour the greatest honour and delight that a creature can be capable of in this world stealing away from affaires and companies to enjoy that pleasant and honorable conversation as lovers will steale away from all employments to entertaine their best beloved For what is sweet in the world in comparison of this sweetnes what is honorable compared to this honour to have familiarity with God and be admitted to his presence at any time to be received of him as his children and when wee lift up our affections to heaven the habitation of his glory to finde that himselfe is come to meete us in our heart and hath made it another heaven by his gracious presence In that meditation a faithfull man will call Gods benefits to minde and to conceive their excellency to his power he will from the consideration of Gods grace reflect upon that of his owne naturall condition sometimes criminal miserable and Gods enemy but now through Gods preventing love and unspeakable mercy changed into the quality of child of God and heire of his kingdome He hath bin provoked to pity us by the depth of our misery wherefore in all reason wee must be provoked to thankfulness by the height of his mercy And this is the chiefe employment of prayer an employment which paying our duty brings our felicity and though wee have payd but what wee owe and scarce that giveth us a present payment for the duty which wee have payd O what a heavenly delight it is to lose ones selfe in the thought of Gods mercyes which are beyond all reckoning and above all imagining and to say to him after David Ps 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wonderfull workes and thy thoughts which are to us ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee v. 8 If I would declare and speak of them they are more then can be numbred I delight to doe thy will O my God yea thy law is with in my heart Ps 86.11 Teach me thy way O Lord I will walke in thy truth unite my heart to feare thy name I will praise thee O Lord my God withall my heart and will glorifie thy name for evermore for great is thy mercy towards me and thou hast delivered my soule from the lowest hell Such a conversation with God to rejoyce in his love praise him for his graces and crave the leading of his spirit to walke before him unto all pleasing is an imitation of the perpetual imployment of Angels and glorified Saints It is a beginning of the Kingdome of heaven in this life In it consisteth the true peace of the soule and the solid contentment of minde CHAP. V. Of the love of God BEing entred into the meditation of the love of God let us stay upon it It is good for us to be here let us make here three tabernacles And more reason have wee so to speak in this occasion then St. Peter when he saw Christ transfigured in the Mount For by planting his abode there he could not have made Christ to doe the like nor given a settled continuance to that short bright lightning of glory But by our meditation upon the love of God wee make him to stay with us and our soul is transfigured with him being filled with his grace and his peace and already enlivened with a beame of his glory Now because the ground the spring and the cause of the love that
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
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
and warre in the world and of the subsistence and revolution of Empires Who would beleeve that at the same time he tels the number of our hairs and that not so much as one sparrow falls to the ground without his speciall appointment but that we are told it by his own mouth and that our experience assureth us of his care of the least of our actions and accidents of our life Here wee must rest amazed but not silent for our very ignorance must help us to admire and extoll that depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God whose eye and hand is in all places whose strength sustaineth whose providence guideth all things and taketh as much care of each of his creatures as if he had nothing else to looke to If our minds be swallowed up in the depths of Gods wisdome this one depth calls in another deep which brings no lesse amazement but gives more comfort that is the fatherly love of God to us his children Eph. 3.18 O the bredth the length the depth the heighth of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge the bredth that embraceth Jewes and Gentiles having broken the partition wall to make a large room to his wide love that his way might be known upon earth his saving health among all Nations Psalm 67.2 The length which hath elected us before the foundation of the world and will make us live and reigne with himselfe for ever The depth which hath drawne us out of the lowest pit of sorrow death to effect that hath drawn him down to that low condition The height which hath raised us up to heaven with him and makes us sit together with him in heavenly places With what miracles of mercy hath he preserved his Church from the beginning of the world How many graces doth he poure upon the several members thereof nourishing our bodies comforting our souls reclaiming us from iniquity by the gift of repentance and faith keeping off the malice of men and evill Angels from us by the assistance of his good Angels delivering our life from death our eyes from teares and our feet from falling But before and after all other benefits we must remember that principal benefit never sufficiently remembred Col. 1.12 Giving thankes unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Sonne in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgivenesse of sins This is the highest top of our felicity the main ground of the peace of the soul and the incomparable subject of the contentment of our minds Yea if we have such a deep sence of that heavenly grace as to praise God continually for it with heart and mouth For as we praise God because he blesseth us he blesseth us because we praise him and by his praise which is the eternal excercise of his blessed Saints we become already partners of their imployment their peace and their joy CHAP. IX Of good Conscience ALl that we have said hitherto regardeth the Principal causes both the efficient and the instrumental of the peace with God There are other causes which of themselves have not that vertue to produce that great peace yet without which it cannot be preserved nor produced neither these are a good conscience and the excercise of good workes Not that the reconciliation made for us with God by the merit of his Son needs the help of our works but becaus the principal point of our reconciliation and redemption is that we are redeemed from iniquity which is done by the same vertue that redeemes us from Hell and by the same operation For it is a damnable self-flattery and self-deceipt for one to beleeve that he is reconciled with God if he feele in himselfe no conversion from that naturall enmity of the flesh against God neither can he enjoy a true peace in his soul In that reconciliation God makes use of our wil for in all agreements both parties must concur and act freely And to make us capable of that freedome God by his spirit looseth the bonds of our unregenerate will naturally enthralled to evill But it will be better to medle but little with the worke of God within us and looke to our owne learning the duties which wee are called unto as necessary if wee will enjoy that great reconciliation The first duty is to walke before God with a good conscience for in vaine should one hope to keepe it tranquil and not good Conscience is the natural sence of the duties of piety and righteousnes warning every man unlesse he be degenerated into a beast to depart from evil and doe good And a good conscience is that which obeyeth that sense and warning But the ordinary use which I will follow by a good conscience understands onely the first part which is to beware of evil This good conscience is so necessary for the enjoying of that peace of God applyed to us by faith that the A postle to the Hebrewes requires it that wee may stand before God with a full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Let us draw neere saith he with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washt with pure water And St Paul chargeth Timothy 1. Tim. 1.19 to hold faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack shewing that faith and a good conscience must goe hand in hand and that the losse of a good conscience ushereth the losse of faith which is consequently followed with the losse of inward peace Whereas a good conscience brings forth confidence as St John teacheth us 1. Joh. 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemne us not then have wee confidence before God By a conscience that condemnes us not wee must not understand a conscience without sinne for there is none such to be found Much lesse a conscience that condemneth not the sinner after he hath sinned for the best consciences are those that forgive nothing to themselves and passe a voluntary condemnation upon themselves before God by a free and penitent confession But the good conscience that condemnes us not according to St Johns sense is that which beares witnes to a man to have walked in sincerity and cannot accuse him to have shut up his eyes since his conversion against the evident lights of truth and righteousnes or to have hardned his heart against repentance after he hath offended God The godly man will remember that the peace betweene God and us was made by way of contract whereby God gives himselfe to us in his Sonne and we give our selves to him If then any refuse to give himselfe to God there is no contract God will not give himselfe to him and so no peace for every contract must be mutual When the one party
tottering standing especially in a croud where all justle against him to make him fall A Crowne loads a Kings head and covers it not but le ts in on all sides the arrowes that are shot against it There is no need of deep Philosophy to be free from the desire of it and of all places of great respect and great busines One needs but know them and love himselfe All great dignities are great miseries It must needs be that there is some fatality for the subsistence of the general that sets-on men to thrust blindly forward for high dignities Otherwise men being all voluptuous lovers of themselvs would not take so much labour as to climb up with hands and feet unto their misfortune A wise man will love his own rest better then to crowd for dignities choosing rather to sit upon lower steps and to owe his tranquillity to his obscurity He will esteeme no honour or great imployment worth losing the liberty of meditation and the holy and heavenly conversation with God for who would come from heaven to be toyling in the earth As valleys have lesse wind and more heat of the Sunne then mountaines so the low condition hath lesse agitation then the high and the rayes of the Snune of righteousnesse will commonly shine upon it more graciously and powerfully Nobility of extraction being nothing in nature the same is true also of meane blood both consist in Opinion and yet not in opinion of the persons concerned but of others which to any wiseman must be of very smal consideration In any condition one may have natural nobility consisting in a meeke and magnanimous disposition apt to the knowledge of great things and so well seasoned with vertue By that description how many ignoble persons will be found among the Noble by extraction and how many noble among persons of meane descent God deliver us from Gentlemen of the savage kinde that make nobility to consist in barbarousnesse idlenesse and contempt of divine and humane lawes and from ignobleupstarts who to approve themselves Gentlemen strive to outdoe them that are so in pride and licentiousnesse But there is a nobility infinitely above the best natural nobility I bring not the Cvil within this comparison it is nothing but fortune and Opinion That high transcendent nobility is but to be the child of God by Jesus Christ and heire of his Kingdome The titles of that nobility are from all eternity and will be to all eternity and by it a man riseth so high as to become partaker of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 saith St. Peter Who so hath the patents of that nobility and makes himselfe sure of them by a lively faith working by love is neither puft up nor beaten downe with his temporal condition He will look with contempt upon the vulgar contentions about the first place much like the emulation of horses striving who should go the formest of a company And truly it is a quality of good horses not of good men A man honoured with spiritual nobility if he have temporal nobility besides must keep his degree but esteeme it too low to glory in it And if he have not that worldly advantage he will be content with the heavenly knowing that being one of Gods children he cannot be further ennobled As we that live upon Earth find it very great and see the Sunne very little although it be a hundred and threescore times greater then the Earth Likewise to men altogether earthy the honours of the earth seeme very great and the heavenly nobility but a small thing But if from the Orbe of the Sun the Earth may be seene as it is very likely no doubt but it appeares a very small thing as lesser then most of the visible Starres Worldly honours appeare lesser yet to him that hath the true sence of his heavenly nobility and lookes upon Earth as it were from Heaven The time draweth nigh that will make Kings and Beggers alike in the dust CHAP. XI Of Dishonour REal dishonour is within and consisteth in viciousnesse and indignity of the person for by it a man is separate from God the scource of honour out of whom there is nothing but dishonour and misery But the dishonour which we are here to consider is out of the person and consisteth in the Opinion of others These two sorts of dishonour do not meet alwayes for many that are vicious and infamous before God are honoured of men even because they are vicious and others that are good honoured with Gods love are blamed and dishonored of men even because they are good So erroneous and fantasticall is the judgement of the multitude We have already found that therenowne and praise that men give is but winde that is enough to judge that the blame and infamy which they give is of the same substance It is such an imaginary evill that it is almost impossible to find out in what subject it subsisteth It is not in him that is blamed for what is that to him that is in the grave or to him that is alive and knowes it not or careth not for it It is not also in him that blameth for it proceeds indeed from him but subsisteth not in him else he that blameth another for a murther should be a murtherer himselfe If then the blame subsist neither in the blamed nor in the blamer where shall wee finde its subsistence betweene both It may be conceived that it subsisteth in the blamed person because it sticks so fast many times to him and penetrates so deep that it kills him with sorrow Yea but to speak properly and truly it is not the blame that doth the harme but the imagination of the blamed prevented with an erronious Opinion which makes a man fansy an evil where there is none and do to himselfe that harme which none could have done him but himselfe And is not that voluntary paine which is not felt unlesse a man have a minde to feele it God give me never greater evills then those that cannot hurt me unlesse I will be hurt and have need to begge my consent and my hand to give me the blow A wise man will despise not onely that imaginary evil but even the remedy For what need of a plaister where there is no sore When his friends come to him to comfort him because that some have spoken ill of him he will desire then to apply the remedy where the disease is even to the rashnes of the judgement of those weake persons and to the intemperance of their tongue And will think that their applying a balsome of consolations to his heart for a sicknesse in his neighbours braines no lesse strange and extravagant then if they would warme his bed because his horse hath a cold This is indeed the right reasoning when the thing is considered in its proper and bare nature but because the world being prepossest with a wrong opinion of a worthy man may be perswaded to
2.17 This was a cause why Solomon hated life even because the wiseman dyeth as the foole Yet had he wisely pondred the matter before ver 13. I saw that wisedome excelleth folly as farre as light excelleth darknesse The wisemans eyes are in his head but the foole walketh in darknesse but I perceived also that one event happenth to them all It is enough to disdaine the vanity of life and of human wisedome better then life to see a great Statesman that made a Kingdom to flourish and the neighboring States to tremble to be cut off in the midst of his high enterprises and deep counsels all which dye with him Psal 46.4 His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish That plotting braines from whose resolution the fortune of an empire depended shall breed wormes and toades And truly it should be unreasonable that this kind of prudence which hath no object but worldly and perishable should remaine permanent But it is very consonant to reason that a higher prudence which applyeth itselfe to permanent things remaine permanent It is that permanent wisedome which our Saviour recommends unto us Luke 12.33 Provide yourselves baggs which waxe not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not It is that wisedome which Solomon calls a tree of life to them that lay hold on her because she lives after death and makes the soul live for ever Judge you of the price of these two sorts of wisedomes the one that perisheth and many times makes men perish the other that endureth for ever and will certainly make them that embrace her eternally blessed CHAP. XIX Of the acquisite Ornaments of the Will THe end of the instruction of the Understanding is the ruling and ordering of the Will in a constant goodnesse so much better then science and prudence as the end is better then the meanes unlesse by prudence we understand that wisedome which is employed about mans duty to God and comprehends all vertues for as in God all vertues are but one which is his Being likewise when we take vertues in a divine sense one vertue comprehends many as having some participation with the divine nature Commonly by vertue we understand uprightnesse of the will because without it the vertues of the understanding science intelligence and prudence deserve not to be called vertues and the more able they are the more pernicious Vertue of all acquisitions is the most precious without it the goods of body and fortune become evills serving only to make a man guilty and miserable for then the goods of the body give the faculty and the goods of fortune give the opportunity to do evill but without them Vertue alone is good and fetcheth good even out of evill By vertue man is made like God who is the originall vertue Vertue gives glory to God utility to the publique tranquillity and joy to the conscience reliefe to some counsell to others example to all Vertue is respected of all even of them that envy it They that love not the reality of vertue yet study to get the name of it and to put upon their false coyne the stamp of vertue All the hypocrisie in the world is an homage that Vice payeth unto Vertue A vertuous man may be stript of his estate by his enemies but of his vertue he cannot Because he keepes it he is alwayes rich Vertue strengthneth him in adversity moderates him in prosperity guides him in society entertaines him in his solitarinesse adviseth him in his doubts supports him in his weaknesse keeps him company in his journeyes by sea and land If his ship sink vertue sinkes not and he whether living or dying saveth it and himselfe By vertue he feares neither life nor death looking upon both with an equal eye yet aspiring to depart and to be with Christ but bearing patiently the delay of his departure because he is already with Christ by a lively hope Vertue steering the soule makes it take a streight and safe course to heaven and there abides with him eternally for vertue as well as glory is that treasure in heaven where neither the moth nor the rust corrupt and where theeves do not breake thorough and steale Math. 6. Philosophy considereth three vertues in the wil Justice Fortitude and Temperance excellent vertues the first especially which in effect containes the two others for it is the right temper of the will not drawne aside from the integrity of a good conscience either by oppositions of adversity against which fortitude stands fast or by allurements of prosperity from which temperance witholds the appetite Good conscience of which we have spoken in the first Booke is nothing else but justice For these vertues wherein mans duty and happinesse consisteth it were hard to find Elogies equal to their worth But there is great diffecence between the excellency of Vertue in it self and such vertue as is found among men The exactest justice that man is capable of is defective and infected with sinne All our righteousnesses are as the defiled cloath Wherefore the description of a just counterpoise of the will never swarving either on the right hand or the left never shaken from his square cubus either by afflictions or temptations is a fair character fit to set before our eyes to imitate as neere as we can as faire pictures in the sight of breeding women But truly such a perfect vertue subsisteth not in any subject under heaven In this world to be just is only to be somewhat lesse evill then others If a perfect Justice cannot be establisht in the private policy of a mans soul it is not to be lookt for in publique Policies Justice being pure in her original becomes impure and maimed being kneaded by the weak and uncleane hands of men Job 14.4 Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane Of this it were easy to give instances out of the formes of Justice out of the very Lawes in all States But it is a point of justice to respect her in those hands to which divine providence hath intrusted her and to adde strength to her weakenesse by our voluntary deference Man being weake in justice cannot but be so in her appurtenances fortitude and temperance The highest point unto which human precepts endeavour to raise fortitude is to make patience a remedy to evills remediless But how short the bravest men come of that remedy in their paines and griefes daily experience sheweth it The vulgar placeth the vertue of fortitude in striking and massacring which is rather a barbarous inhumanity and if it be a vertue tygers are more vertuous then men As for Temperance her very name sounds weakenesse For he that is not subject to be corrupted by evill suggestions hath no need of temperance That man is temperat that knoweth how to keepe himselfe from himselfe who therefore is naturally evill and prone to vicious excesses Wherein men are inferiour to beasts which are not tempted
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
which moved the beholders to compassion for that compassion made a breach into the heart and gave entrance into the understanding to that good confession which these holy men made in the midst of the fires for nothing is more perswasive then Pitty neither is there any fitter hold to draw and turne the soul But such compassionate soules may be as soone drawne to evill as to good by that hold Factious men brought to the gallowes for sedition have from that pulpit sowne the seed of mutiny into the minds of a compassionate multitude and those seeds like the teeth of Cadmus his Serpent have brought forth since a dismall harvest of intestine warre If then any good is formed in our minds by compassion we had need to lay a stedfaster foundation under it for the meere motions of Pitty are but fits and starts and are not actions but shakings of the soul A wise man will learne how to take hold of the spirits of men by Pitty but together will take heed that others hold him not by the like handle which therefore he will shorten and leave no hold but reason for others to take him by CHAP. XIX Of shamefacednesse SHamefacednesse is such a compounded passion that it may not be described in few words It is a sadness out of the sense or apprehension of a dishonest evill It is a selfe condemnation especially about matters of love and desires which one would satisfie in secret It is also a sudden amazement out of a diffidence of ourselves when we are surprized by some inopinate occurrence where we feare that more will be expected of us then we can performe And to give a more generall character It is a sad ressenting of ones owne infirmity with some inclination to goodnesse It is a cowardly Passion found onely in timorous natures yet in the more tender age and sexe it is pardonable and usefull too so it be not excessive for by good instruction it may be formed into a vertue but weake and sutable to the capacity of the subject Stronger spirits dyed with piety and wisedome abstaine not from evill out of Shamefacedness but out of knowledge and resolution But because strong spirits have bin weake when they were under age and the boldest have bin timorous unlesse they be altogether dull and bestiall by nature there is a time to frame them to vertue by shamefac'dnesse which may be called a necessary infirmity in the beginning And it is not expedient to remove it too soone from young minds by Stoicall precepts least they wanting that naturall bridle of the appetite and not being yet well trained and confirmed by reason let themselves loose to evill Children in whom no marke of Shamefacednesse appeares are perverse and ill natured and though they be merry sparkes they shall never be good nor able men Shamefaced children are towardly and disciplinable But in conscience is not the nature of men very weake and poore since their best naturall dispositions are infirmities and that there is need of those infirmities to bring them to some good Some natures are timorous in all the ages of their life by their native temper therefore more obnoxious to Shamefacednesse these are lesse capable of a great and heroicall vertue which is a compound of righteousnesse meekenesse and magnanimity but they are docible for a lesse eminent vertue and their inclination to shamefacedness is a pliable subject for good discipline That disposition must be well managed as the seed of modesty and in women the mother of pudicity their chiefe vertue How powerfull Shamefacednesse is with that sexe the knowne example of the Milesian Virgins shewes it There is another kind of shame recommended in Scripture That of Daniel O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but to us confusion of face Dan. 9.7 That of Ezra O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee Ezra 9.6 And of the penitent publican that stood a farre off and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven Luk. 18.13 But that shame which is a godly contrition for sinne committed and feare to commit more is proper to a spirit fixt and confirmed in the love and feare of God and hath nothing common but the name with the passion of shame which with all her utilities is but a weakenesse of minde and a childish perplexednesse A wise and godly man must be ashamed of nothing but sin The remembrance of the greatnesse presence justice and holinesse of God and the sense of our owne imperfection must keepe us in perpetuall respect and humility which is that good shame of Daniel Ezra and the repenting Publican But for our conversation with men when we are come to mans age let us weane ourselves as much as we can from boyish Shamefacednesse which dejecteth and perplexeth the spirit and makes a man lose the fairest opportunities of doing good OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND FOURTH BOOK Of Vertue and the exercise of it in Prosperity and Adversity CHAPTER I. Of the vertuous temper requisite for Peace and Contentment of Minde THis Book is but a result of the two precedent for who so hath got a right Opinion of things and learned how to governe his Passions wants nothing for vertue and tranquillity these two articles being not onely the materials and the rules of the building but the whole structure And the order is as essentiall as the matter for the understanding must be illuminated and satisfied about the right judgement of things and know how farre they are worthy that our appetite should stirre for them before we undertake to instruct our appetite how to behave ourselves with them Out of the right opinion the well governed Passion ariseth the true temper of Vertue which is a calme state of the Soul firme equall magnanimous meeke religious and beneficiall to a mans selfe and to others All the imperfection that is in our Vertue is a defect in one of these two or in both And who is not defective in them Who hath not errour in his Opinions and by consequent unrulinesse in his Passion Wherefore our descriptions of perfect human Vertue are accidents without substance But what we must not set before us any lesse patterne then perfection Matth. 5.48 Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect The Schoole gives definitions and divisions of the severall morall Vertues which is no more then is necessary Yet to speake properly there is but one even that equal temper just proportion of all the faculties and motions of the soul which is Justice producing the like just temper abroad in all the parts of conversation for to be just is to do all the parts of a mans duty towards God towards himselfe and towards his neighbour Temperance and Fortitude are handled in the Schooles as vertues by themselves which is to very good purpose for a more distinct exposition but in effect they are parts of justice for
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
and free ourselves of that popular folly to run and croud to heare unknowne persons that are at high words and be presently interessed in the quarrell as when two dogs are fighting all the dogs of the street will run to them and take parts A good and wise man will seek to make peace where possibility invites him but where he seeth that he can do no good to others he will not venture to do harme to himselfe Mediations unlesse they have a great measure of goodness and discretion make the differences wider and beare the blow on both sides To that end a wiseman will be none of the forwardest to give his judgement of every thing and none of the affirmative and great disputants that will set forth all their opinions and evince them by strength of argument but he will be swift to heare slow to speake slow to wrath as St. James commandeth Jam. 1.19 In which words hee giveth a character of a wise man in conversation that heares all makes profit of all determines of nothing and is moved at nothing And whereas there is in all men good and bad a certaine respect of truth and righteousnes which at the hearing of untruth and unrighteousnes will worke a sudden aversion in the minde if we will keepe an inoffensive course in conversing with the world we must learne to silense that aversion and not let it appeare abroad without an especiall order of our serious judgement accustoming our eyes and eares and countenance to an unmoved patience not thinking ourselves obliged to oppose all the lyes and impertinencies of every one that we meete with but onely when the good name of God is notoriously blasphemed We ought to beare in mind that things true and just in our opinions in the opinion of all others That we cannot justly claime the liberty of enjoying our opinions unlesse we leave the same liberty to others That our minds as all the rest of mankinde are short-sighted and wrapt up in errour And we are to give account of our owne not of other mens follies For one to beare himselfe as the repairer of all wrongs and reformer of all that is amisse in the world is an humour that hath much of the veine of old romanses Crafty and ambitious dealers have often got strength by that weakenes of vulgar soules yea have made even the true zeale to Gods glory tributary to their ambition Truly for so high a subject as Gods glory our reason our will our Passion our words and our actions must be set on worke But we must take a carefull heed of mistaking madnes for zeale and superstition for religion Neither must we think that for such good ends as we may conceive any way is lawfull there being nothing more cruel and pernicious then a bastard and fanatical zeale It is the plague of religion the ruine of the State and undoing of human society Better were it to live a slave in the chaines of Tunis and Tripoli where the bodies are misused without violence to the conscience then to be yoaked to the tiresome conversation of a fierce scrupulous clamorous bigot that will be at peace with no man unlesse every one beleeve at his mode though himselfe knoweth not what he beleeveth and alloweth rest neither to himself or to others Who so loveth his peace will keepe himselfe from the torture of such an odious companion and will be yet more careful to keepe his minde free of that impetuous weakenes disguized with the name of holy zeale and wisedome Iam. 3.15 That wisedome descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devillish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evill worke But the wisedome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easy to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy And the fruit of righteousnes is sowne in peace of them that love peace The chiefe way to keepe peace in Society is meekenes It takes up quarrels and tyeth againe the knot of love when it happens to be untyed It is the balsame that healeth the wounds made in friendship It is the lenitive of injuries It is the preserver of peace with God with men and with ourselves Psal 37.11 The meeke shall inherite the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace There is a bastard meekenes which is nothing else but a base timorous nature whereby a man yields all and to all because he is afraid of all If that disposition serveth sometimes to prevent discord it serveth more often to provoke it for it invites contempt and gives faire play to insolence It is farre from maintaining peace within as true meekenes doeth for it keepes the mind in perpetual feare and fills it with diffidence and superstition But true meekenes is a compound of humility charity and generosity whereby we keepe concord with our neighbours because we love them And to avoyd quarrel call prudence and sometimes disdaine to the helpe of patience letting ill words goe by as haile clattering over our roofe and after a noise without effect falling to the ground and melting of itselfe A meeke generous man will be ingenious to devise excuses for them that offend him alleadging for them sometimes the age sometimes the sexe sometimes the sicknes of the body sometimes that of the minde He will say This man is otherwise discontented affliction makes men froward he deserves rather pitty then anger That other man hath offended me unwittingly or he was ill informed If he layeth a false imputation upon me he sheweth that he knoweth me not I must not be angry with a man for mistaking me for another If he deale unrighteously with me I must consider that all unrighteousnes proceeds of errour He hath more need to be taught then punisht I must not hate a man because he is out of his way In the offence done to me God is offended first God then must first ressent it Vengeance is Gods not mine If he that offendeth me is one of Gods children he is beloved of him and I must not hate him whom God loveth If he be wicked and will never repent of his wickednes I need not procure him evill God is his enemy and will be sure to make him eternally miserable But because for any thing I know he may repent and be reconciled with God which I must wish and hope for I must not be enemy to him that may be Gods friend eternally He and I were best to be friends on earth least we never meete in heaven As in wrestling so in injuries that man is the strongest who is lesse moved The best victory over an enemy is to make him our friend It is double victory for so a man overcometh both his adversary and himselfe CHAP. II. Of brotherly Charity and of Friendship TO live in concord with our neighbours we must love them otherwise all our compliance and dexterity to keepe concord
will be but dissimulation and though it get us peace abroad it will not give us peace within My little children saith St. John let us not love in word neither in tongue but indeed and in truth 1. Ioh. 3.18 Then he addeth that hereby wee know that wee are of the truth and assure our hearts before God A text shewing that charity to our neighbours fills the minde with saith peace and assurance a doctrine justified by the experience of meek and charitable soules The same charity that unites us with Christ as our head unites us also with our neighbours as his members or at least as his creatures that beare his image In the one or the other of these relations we must love all men for Gods sake and render to them all possible duties of humanity To the practice of these duties we are more especially called by the necessity of our neighbours and by their vertue Necessity affords us a perpetual occasion of charity Matth. 26.11 For ye have the poore alwayes with you saith the Lord Jesus Others that are not poore in estate are poore in counsel or health or friends or comfort Let every body give of that he hath to him that hath not and he sheweth charity to the rich if he doe him good expecting no reward Workes of charity doe good both to him that is relieved and to him that relieveth But he that doeth good gets more reliefe by it then he to whom it is done for it is a thing more happy to give then to receive Act. 20.35 saith St Paul after Christ first because of the good treasure which is layd up thereby for the future Pro. 11.25 The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himselfe Giving charitably is casting a seed bringing an everlasting harvest It is sending up sweete vapours to heaven which are thickened there into a raine of blessings to showre downe upon the head of the charitable person To which we may joine the great and present content accrewing to the soule in the very act of giving for good workes give a ready pay to the doers This made Solomon to say The merciful man doeth good to his owne soul Prov. 11.17 for the workes of mercy give a great joy to the doer And he that gives his bread to the poore is more satisfied with it then he that eates it It is a divine felicity to doe good to many for it is the greatest imitation of God who gives to all and is never weary of doing good Herein onely dignities and riches are good that they enable a willing mind to doe much good As the necessity of our neighbours invites us to charity so doth their Vertue which is the better invitation The first sort of Charity which regards more the need then the worth of the person is humanity and mercy that which regardeth Vertue is friendship or at least a beginning of it Friendship to deserve fully that name must be reciprocall the parties loving one another dearely because they deserve it and because they see the graces of God each in the other Friendship that regards profit and pleasure deserveth not that name since it is neither for the love of God nor for the love of the person that such a Friendship is contracted but out of selfe-love Friendship cemented by Vertue and riveted by likeness in inclinations manners and opininions is the sweetest of all human things For besides counsell and mutuall help and the delight of enterchanging thoughts and discharging cares in the bosome one of another the union of affections and the assurance to be beloved of the beloved person is a content not to be exprest there is something heavenly in that harmony It is a little imitation of the union between the persons of the Trinity which make themselves happy by their mutuall love There is nothing neither in heaven nor in earth that giveth content but friendship Nothing is pleasant without it And if I were asked what is the greatest of all joyes I would say that it is to love and to be loved againe and know it But it must be acknowledged that this perfection and felicity is more in Idea then in reality among men and we must go higher then human Society to find it For whereas it is hard to find a vertuous man in the world it is harder to find two And it is harder yet to make these two meet in opinions in inclinations in interesses in place of habitation and in the like course of life for the want of one of these particulars hinders the knitting of the bond of friendship or makes it shortlived or abates the comfort of it The description which Pagan Philosophy forgeeth of perfect friendship is a fair imagination of an impossible thing They require two friends or three at the most but such as were never found endowed with perfect vertue That for that vertue these persons love one another without any other obligation or collaterall respect That these perfect soules be so plunged and blended one within another that they can not owne themselves singled and asunder That they be but one soul dwelling in severall bodyes That a friend give himselfe so absolutely to his friend that he live no more but for him yea in him and that his goods as himselfe be his friends whose interesses he wholly seekes not his owne I wonder that among Christian Philosophers none hath hitherto observed for any thing I know what it was that bred that Idea of friendship so high and remote from the nature of things in the fancy of Pagan Philosophers which yet placed vertue and felicity in living according to Nature why they have so universally adored that chimera which is found no where among men like the Athenians that had set up an Altar to the unknowne God This is then the origine and ground of that high imagination of those Pagans They had found by searching the nature of man that nothing can make him happy but love And that for a beatificall love a man hath need of an object all good all wise and all perfect so perfectly united with him yea so totally that both passe the one into the other and make a mutuall free and absolute gift of themselves But the poore men did not know that object of transcendent goodness onely worthy to be loved with all the heart and soul and if some of them acknowledged God to be the Soveraine good they beleeved not that he could have such a communication with man that both might enterchange a mutuall gift of their owne selves so that man should dwell in God and God in man Thinking not then that there might be a contract of friendship betweene God and man and seeing that it is friendship that must make man happy they forged that Idea of friendship betweene man man of which the condition of man is not capable requiring for that friendship that which indeed is requisite
he must looke for errour impertinency in al sorts of acquaintance let him put every one upon the discourse of those things that he understands best so shall he doe a kindnes to the company for every one loveth to speak of that wherein he is expert he shall benefit himselfe fetching from every one the best that is in him Let him also fit his minde for all kinds of buzinesses thinking none too great when they are not above his capacity for those affaires that have more dignity have not alwayes more difficulty And on the other side thinking no buzines too low when it is necessary or when it gives him occasion to doe good But in general let him charge himselfe with as few buzinesses as he can I meane those buzinesses that engage a mans minde in the tumult of the world without which he may find buzines enough to keepe him selfe well imployed Want of preferment is better than want of peace Let him avoyd those imployments that give vexation and yet draw envy where a man must continually stand upon his guard imbark himselfe in factions and live in perpetuall emulation and contention The man to whom God keepes the blessing of a quiet life shall bee kept by him from that glittering rack and golden fetters but the man whom he will aflict shall be given over to be tossed betweene the competition of others and his owne ambition David shewes us how great is Gods goodnesse which he hath layd up for them that fear him namely that he wil hide them in the secret of his presence from the pride of man he will keepe them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues Psal 31.19.20 But what there are some spirits that love noise and live by Contradiction and when old factions are worne out hatch new ones sowing quarrels that they may be sticklers and in such sort arbitrating differences as to make them immortall that so they may never want business To such men no worse imprecation can be made then that they may alwayes have the business which they love for as they serve the father of discord they are like to share in his reward But those are worthy of his compassion whose serene religious soules capable and desirous of high contemplation are aspiring towards the God of peace but are distracted with contentious businesses and prest down with worldly imployment though perhaps too high for their condition yet too low for mind which measuring the height of things by their distance from heaven finds the great Offices of the State very low because they are deeper in the earth and further from heaven then other Offices of an obscurer note Who would not pitty a great person that hath scarce time to eate and sleepe that must have a light brought to his bed to make dispatches before day and when he goeth to the Court hath much adoe to get out of his yard through the crowd of suitors and in that clogge of businesses what time hath he to examine the state of his conscience and labour to advance his union with God Where is any gaine able to countervaile that loss But there are more persons undone for want of businesses when they have not the capacity to find themselves worke of some utility especially when the love and feare of God have not taken root in their hearts For there being in the soul three Offices or audits the first for contemplation the second for passion and the third for action when a mans mind is unfit for contemplation wants action he giveth himself wholly unto passion Then a man tickleth himselfe with evill desires and vaine hopes gnawes his heart with envy and spite and torments himselfe with impatience these vices being bred and fed by idlenesse Such men having nothing to do devise evill or uselesse businesses going up and downe all day long like swallowes that flye round not knowing for what walking from one end of the Town to the other to visit one that will not be at home when they aske for him or is put to his shift to be rid of their company Of that kind are most of those that thrust one another in the street as buzy as if they had three Chancery suites to solicit then returne home late weary and sweating having found the invention to tire themselves and do nothing In effect an idle life is more painfull and wearisome then an active and negotious life It makes one sad troublesome and vicious He that doth nothing cannot but do evill as grounds left untilled will bring thistles But he that hath an ordinary employment of some utility to the publique hath no leasure to attend vaine and evill actions nor to be sad By doing good he contenteth his conscience and maintaines the serenity of his mind so that he embrace no more then he can hold They that will doe too much good do it ill and do harme to themselves It is a preposterous diligence when it brings vexation to a mansselfe Rich old men should do wisely to give over busy imployments of the world vvhich require a whole man to give themselves wholly to the office of man as he is a man and a Christian If they be speculative judicious and experienced men they may do more good to the world in their retirement then in the crowd of businesses They that lead an active life ought not to give but lend onely their mind to the businesses of the world A wise man will follow his worldly occasions with diligence and industry but he will not transubstantiate himselfe into them In our busiest imployments let us retire often within to enjoy God and ourselves labouring chiefly to preserve his favour and our peace Without these all labour is superfluous or evill and gaine becomes damage CHAP. VII Of Moderation in Conversation IT is a most necessary provision for any man that will lead a peaceable life in this age and these regions torne with diversity of parties Mens minds being so generally exulcerated that in casuall meetings either they cast a suspicious eye upon their Contreymen because they know them not or abhorre them because they know them Here then there is need of a meek compliant industrious and universall mind retired within himselfe and healed of that epidemicall itch of light-brained men to declare all their opinions and inclinations and quarrell with all that are otherwise disposed It is an old and usefull observation that God hath given us two eares and one mouth to teach us that we ought to heare more then speake To which it may be added that we have no eare-lids to keep our eares from hearing and often must heare against our will but our mouth shuts naturally and we may keep our tongue from speaking unlesse by our intemperance we lose that priviledge of nature God indeed hath not given us a tongue to hold our peace But that we may use it so that our neighbours may receive good by it and
resolution not a tender body that needs carefull tending These are the general precepts to preserv health To mend it when it is impaired Physicians must be consulted and remedies used About which two rules must be observed Let it be betimes before sicknes have taken roote Let it be seldome for too many remedies are worse then the disease I presuppose that Physique and Physicians shall be used as it is prescribed by the Sonne of Sirac Ecclus. 38.1 for necessity not for wantonnes The chiefe use of that art is to prevent diseases Every one ought to have enough of it to know his owne body and keepe off the indispositions to which he feeles himselfe obnoxious not to weare out his body with drugs without great necessity But there are certaine simple and eazy helpes that prevent great inconveniencies when they are used betimes And what wiseman would not keepe himselfe from grievous sicknesses if the use of a little sauge or juniper berries will doe it What remedy soever be used for prevention of sicknesses take it for certaine that they are better prevented by abstinence from unwholesome things then by the use of wholesome Let the body be well clad for commodity not shew neither curiously affecting the mode nor opposing it with a fantastical singularity Let all that we weare be comely and handsome not to please other mens eyes but our owne He that is slovenly in his attire thereby groweth sad and dejected ere he be aware Why should one make himselfe contemptible to the world and displeasing to himselfe by a wilfull lazy neglect of his person Let there be order and suitablenes in our stuffe and furniture though never so coorse Let not any thing want its proper place though never so little Confusion is offensive to the minde but order gives a secret delight Let our dwelling be lightsome if possible in a free aire and neere a garden Gardening is an innocent delight it was the trade of man in the state of Innocence With these if one may have a sufficient revenue an honest employment little buzines sortable company and especially the conversation of good bookes with whom a man may converse as little and as much as he pleaseth he needs little more as for the exteriour to enjoy all the content that this world can afford Of the pastimes of the Nobility and Gentry those should be preferred that bring a publique utility as hunting the wilde boare and the wolfe where the countrey is annoyed with them and in England the fox and the badger It is double content to a generous and well given nature when he doeth good for his pleasure The military pastimes of young Gentlemen in France and Italy are usefull and pleasant and by them they are fashioned and fitted to serve their countrey Games of hazard discompose the minde extraordinarily They accustume it to be hanging upon the future and depending on fortune to which every wiseman will give as little power over him as he can They do also provoke passion and cause great agitations in the soule for things of nothing All that point blank contrary to the worke of piety and Philosophy Games that consist in dexterity of body or minde are preferable to those that are committed to blind chance Chesse will sharpen the wit but buzy it overmuch and toyle the spirits instead of recreating them which is the proper use of play Of all gaming the lesse the better And when it disordereth the passion the least is too much He that ventureth much money at play ventureth not with it the tranquillity of his mind a thousand times more precious but makes a certaine losse of it whatsoever become of the money That bold venturing comes not out of contempt of the goods of this world as gamesters would have us to beleeve but out of an unsatiable greedinesse to gaine much in short time Wherefore to them that have little money and to great lovers of it great losses at play are very smarting and yet the gaine is more hurtfull then the losse for it enflameth covetousnes and sets the heart upon a wicked labour to grow rich by the ruine of others which afterwards is practised in the more serious commerces of Society Thereby also the fountaine of charity is drained and so the streames of charitable deeds Bestowing money in play is not the way to make friends with that unrighteous Mammon that receive a man into eternal habitations but enemies to turne him out of his temporal habitation It is the way to lose both earth and heaven When you have an undoubted right to a considerable summe of money and the present possession what a mad part is it to call it in question whether it must be yours or anothers and decide the question with three dice And what ungratefulnes to the great giver of all goods gifts to play those goods away which are afforded to us by his liberality and acquired for us by the sweate and hard labour of many poore families Though then the parties at play be consenting to that strange way of acquisition that consent doth not make it lawfull neither of them being the owner those goods which he calls his but the keeper and steward who must give account of his stewardship to his Master Whether we winne or lose considerable summes at play we commit robbery for if we rob not our adversary we rob our family and ourselves and God Herein worse then that ill Servant that hid his talent in the ground for the gamester if he be a loser hath made away the talent intrusted unto him by God And though he be a gainer yet he hath made himselfe incapable to give a good account of his talent to his Lord since he hath put it to an unrighteous banke Eloquence is a pleasant and profitable pastime both to read and compose For while it delights the mind it doth polish sweeten and heighten it It is then most delightfull when it serveth to cloath good matter and when the chiefe ornament is good sense And it fals out happily that the eloquentest books of antiquity are also the best and they that have the wisest reason express it with most elegancy The same is true of the late Authors Poetry delighteth much So one take little of it at once for it is lushious meat too much of it brings wearinesse and loathing It is more delightfull to read then to compose herein like musique which delights the hearers more then the Musicians As then it is better to heare a Set of violins then to make one in it it is better to heare Poets then to augment their number I had rather that others should make me sport then I them I need not be curious in the search of the severall devices of men to passe their time the task of the wise being not to seeke them but to use them well when they meet in his way and more yet to learne to live contented without them What we want of
them must be supplyed with serenity of mind and an easinesse inventive to frame to ourselves divertisements and make a pastime even of our misfortune If we may be merry it matters not upon what ground so it be not evill A serene mind that trusteth in God and doth good needs not look abroad for mirth He fetcheth mirth out of his owne stock To get the true taste of the outward contentments of life we wust but taste them not stretch our stomack upon them expecting our onely true contentment from God and within ourselves We must make use of all things and stay upon God alone The sense of Gods love and our reciprocall love to him give to the soul that onely true content but they take not from us the taste of the outward lawfull contentments of life Rather they give us that tast for to him that loves God and rejoyceth in his love all things looke pleasantly The certainty of his principall good keeps him so cheerefull that he takes contentment in in the smallest things as he that hath newly received tidings of great joy is well pleased with a coorse entertainment and delights even in those things that displeased him before CHAP. VII Conclusion Returne to the great principle of the Peace and Contentment of Mind which is to stick to God FRom these smal contentments let us remount to the great and principall and their stay It consisteth in the peace of God and union with him by faith and love There we began there we must end We have considered the world sufficiently to conclude that it consisteth in three poynts Vanity Wickednesse and Misery What is best in it is perishable When we have it in our hands it slips between our fingers and when it stayes with us yet it is none of ours since it is out of ourselves Among all the objects of our senses none is capable to give us a perfect and durable content Being thus unsatisfyed of all things without us if we enter within ourselves what satisfaction do we find in our nature we find errour in our opinions tumult in our passions hardness or terrour in our conscience when God dwells not in it by his grace Pagan Philosophers teach us indeed that within us or no where comfort is to be found But alas poore men they sought nothing within themselves but themselves And what is more weake more inconstant and more calamitous then man Then to this Philosophy one point is wanting which is all and that is to seeke God within us inviting him by humility repentance to choose his abode in our soules and there entertaining him with love and faith This is the only safe harbour for peace and contentment of mind Out of it there is nothing but storme The best worldly state is vanity and perplexity Of this Solomon is an excellent witness who having seene all the evill and tryed all the good of this world pronounceth this verdict Eccles 1.14 I have seene all the workes that are done under the Sunne and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit That great King having long enjoyed an unparallelled prosperity saith in the end that he hated life and hated all his labour Eccles 7.17 18. although his labour was to content himselfe being exalted to the highest Orb of power overflowing with plenty and swimming in delights What reason then have distressed men to hate their life and labour when they weare out their life in want in lawsuites in sicknesse and receiving no other salary of their vertue but envy and ungratefulness Wherefore that wise Prince having throughly considered all that is good and evill in this world and this life ends in this conclusion which he recommends to his Sonne Eccles 12.12 And further by these my Sonne be admonished Of making many bookes there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh Let us heare the conclusion of the whole matter Feare God and keep his commandements for this is the whole duty of man For God shall bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill So doth Solomon express that God is the center both of our duty and of our rest and happinesse and that the only safety and solid content consisteth in sticking fast to him There we finde refuge in our dangers confidence in our feares comfort in our sorrowes counsell in our perplexities light in darkenesse and life in death There we learne to make the right use of prosperity enjoying the gifts of God with cherefulnesse and simplicity not vexing ourselves with cares to keepe them or with covetousness to increase them There we get a gracious illumination to our understanding a rule to our will a bridle to our appetite a sincere joy in our conscience How great how unspeakable is that happinesse when our heart is turned into a Sanctuary where God himselfe is pleased to dwell and speak peace to our soul assuring us that he is reconciled towards us in his Beloved There he leads us into all truth helps up our weakeness instructs our ignorance raiseth us up when we fall and sets us againe in the right way when we are gone astray We are assaulted by many enemies but they that are for us are more then they that are against us since we haue alwayes the Lord at our right hand We are unwise but we have free accesse to the Soveraine wisedome to consult it at all times And many times that high wisedome preventing our consulting mends what we have marred by our folly Which present blessings are small being compared to our glorious hope That incomparable honour and wealth to be received into all the rights of Gods children that incorruptible crowne of life that fulnesse of joy in the enjoyment of Gods presence they are depthes not to be fathomed with mans thought But whereas for materiall things the extent of our sight is long the reach of our armes but short In things spirituall and eternal it is quite otherwise with us for the two armes of the soul which are love and faith reach much higher then the eye sight of reason can penetrate With these armes the godly soul layeth hold upon the celestiall goods which shee cannot see and with a lawfull hastinesse antedates in the present the possession of the glory to come That expectation makes the Christian to disgest any bitternesse and calmely passe by all the incommodities of life For he will say in his adversities This but a step of ill way to an eternall glory All these evils have an end and then begins a felicity without end Without looking so farre the present sense of the love of God to us breeding our reciprocall love to him and that mutuall embrace of God and the soule living yet in the flesh though as short of the perfect union with God as the highest mountaines come short of heaven yet brings to the soul a dignity and contentment beyond all expression It
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
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
prisoners friends from him but he cannot shut out comfort and tranquillity from his soul CHAP. XV. Husband Wife Children Kindred Friends Their price their Losse IT may seeme that these should have bin put among the goods of fortune To which I might answer somewhat Stoically that it is not altogether certaine whether they must be put among the goods or among the evills for they may be either as it falls out But I rank them with neither but among exteriour things of which we must labour to get the right Opinion To that end we must alwayes consider them two wayes as they are good or bad and as they are neare to us in blood or bonds of duty Neither must the second relation hinder the first so forestalling the mind with the relations of Husband or Wife Sonne or Brother that one be incapable to make a right Judgement of their disposition and capacity and set a just price on them The onely relation of Parents must spread a vaile of reverence betweene our eyes and their imperfections that we may see nothing but good in them There it is wisedome to be somewhat deceived Though it be not my theame to speak of the duties to be rendred to our several relations yet because I seeke the contentment of mind I cannot chuse but say that of all civill and natural duties none is so contenting to him that payeth it as the duty payd to Parents Herein Epamimondas Judged his victories most fortunate unto him that he had obtained them in his Fathers life time who did much rejoyce at them To other relations we must also pay their proper duty Of which wee must remember this general rule That it is impossible to get content by them unlesse we do our duty towards them For that content must not be expected from them but from ourselves The content that one takes with a deare Wife a good Brother and a well chosen Friend is more that which he giveth then that which he receiveth It lyeth in the testimony of his conscience that he hath rendred to them the true offices of love Without prejudice to those duties we may and ought impartially to consider their inclinations and abilities and what may be expected of them In those relations which come by choyce as of a Husband Wife and friend the judgement must precede the affection to finde what is fit for us before we fixe upon it But in relations of Kindred made by nature without us the affection must go before and the judgement must follow that we may know them so well that though we love them we trust them proportionably to their honesty and capacity and no more In this point the vulgar sort making many grosse mistaks For it is an ordinary but an evill expression I would trust him as mine owne Brother Yet most knaves have Brothers who should do very unwisely to trust them The style of Merchants selling their ware is more ingemous when they promise to a Chapman to use him as if he were their Brother for they would not scruple to cozen their Brother And truly hence the word of cozening had its Origine because it is usual to make use of the bond of Kindred to be trusted enough to deceive enough For counsel and conversation we much choose the wisest and worthiest rather then the nearest in blood But when there is occasion to give or need to seeke help we must runne to the neerest in blood rather then to the worthyest if they be but honest So much we must deferre to the choyce of Nature that if there be any vertue in them though but small we be neerer to them in affection then blood Solomon saith that a Brother is borne for adversity Prov. 17.17 because other friendships by differences intervening of parties interesses and Opinions are subject to coole and untie but among Brethren those differences are overcome by the strength of nature and in adversity either good nature or feare of blame makes Brothers give real help to Brothers Wife and Children are the strongest trials of a magnanimous spirit for they make a mans heart tender and in the pinches of adversity make him descend to ungenerous shifts He that hath none shal have lesse delight lesse sorrow Yet must we acknowledge that a mariage wel sorted betweene two persons of merit is of all worldly felicities the greatest Of children expect noe good but the satisfaction to have done them good and to see them doe wel for them-selves For in this relation the nature of beneficence is to descend seldom to remount Nothing is more pretious among humane things then a vertuous loving freind kinne or no kinne And if he be one story above us in nobility and vertue he is better then lower Equality indeed is requisit in friendship but friend ship it selfe worketh that equality where it is not And there is need of it for it is impossible to find two friends in the world altogether equal in al respects The price of friendship is according to the price of the person whom therefore we must study to know wel that we may love no person above or under his right value A reasonable benevolence of a man of great merit is more obliging then the ardent affection of an Idiot From the former you may receive instruction honour and content From the second importunity and the disgrace to be paired with a man of no worth Such a friendship will end in a breach and so in repentance Whether friendships be knit by nature or by choyce that we may not expect of them a content beyond their nature we must remember that our freinds are men whose love may and whose life must faile The use of them we may have not the possession The best and most powerfull freinds are weake reeds which we must not leane upon with all our weight lest they breake in our hand and we take a sore fall Thus saith the Lord Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme Jer. 17.5 As this is a sentence given by God against them that put their confidence in man it is also a natural consequence of the nature of the fault For puting our confidence in man is going out of our selues It is going out of God It is making men Gods for unto God only is that homage due of an absolute and total confidence Noe wonder that God thereby is moved to jealousy To that evill Pagan Philosophers give a remedy little better then the disease which is To put confidence in ourselves This being a most erroneous Doctrine is nevertheless halfe the way to the truth for they had very well observed that a wise wan must not depend from another but retire within himselfe where all the good and evill of a man lyeth But while they enjoyne a man to retire within himselfe they leave out the maine precept proper to a higher School then theirs that a man should seek God within himselfe and to find