upon all chances before they happen that so the Enemy may find thee prepared 'T is too late to furnish the Mind with Remedies after the Dangers Learn to do little and speak little for if of the many things thou speakest and dost thou takest away what is not necessary thou wilt find fewer perturbations in thy Mind And say not this is a small matter For that which is the beginning of Virtue and Perfection is very great though it seems but little 5. The Old man drawing his Origine from the infected seed of the sinner Adam is to be considered as a certain Tree having for its Root Self-love for its Trunk a Propension to Evil for its Branches Perturbations for its Leaves Vitious Habits for its Fruits Works Words and Thoughts which are contrary to the Divine Law Wherefore to hinder the Branches of bad Affections from breaking forth into Leaves and Fruits apply the Axe to the Root and extirpate that worst Love of thy self If thou takest this away thou hast with one stroke cut off the whole vitious Off-spring of thy Inferiour Appetite And thou wilt take it away and root it out if thou contemnest thy self if thou truly believest thy self to be one of those thousands who are indu'd with no singular dowry and perfection and that thou art destitute of all knowledge and virtue if thou fearest not to displease men and to be by them scorned and despised if thou art willing to want all sorts of comforts and conveniences Thou wilt preserve thy self if thou well hatest thy self thou wilt lose thy self if thou ill lovest thy self CHAP. XIII Of Love Its Nature Causes Effects Its Remedies Something added of Hatred 1. LOve is a complacency in that which is Good to wit that first impression wherewith the Appetite is affected when the known Good pleaseth it By this the whole World coheres together and this being brought under which holds the prime place amongst the Affections the whole troop of the rest will easily be quelled The Love which is good tends thither from whence it had its beginning It goes to Good because it proceeds from the Soveraign Good Discuss thy Life and weigh thy Heart in the Ballance of a strict Examination Observe what Love is there predominant for that which weighs down in the Scale of Love is to thee a God that 's the Idol thou worshippest Therefore God hath commanded thee to love him with thy whole Heart to prevent thereby the Affections of thy Mind because whatsoever thou Lovest with thy whole Heart that is the thing thou adorest as God 2. Besides Goodness and Beauty a certain sympathy and agreement of minds and manners excites Love as also outward Modesty Industry Nobility Learning quickness of Wit and other such like Ornaments of Body and Mind Love it self is the Load-stone of Love to which if Benefits are added he is then constrained to return Love who would not bestow it There are moreover some things naturally provoking Love for they who have clearer Spirits a warmer Heart a more subtle Blood and are of an easie and meek Disposition are more prone to Love 3. Great is the power of Love It transforms the Lover into the thing Beloved Love is a certain going out of it self a certain Pilgrimage from it self a certain voluntary Death He who Loves is absent from himself he thinks not of himself he provides nothing he doth nothing and unless he is received by his beloved he is no where O how unhappily doth he love who loves not God! for he cannot be in the beloved who loves earthly Objects which cannot satiate the Soul as being subject to Vanity and Death But he that loves God is in God and ceasing to live in himself lives in him in whom all things live who is our Center and our unchangeable Good Humane love is violent and bitter the Divine is evermore humble and peaceable Jealousie torments that but this hath no Rivals that fears lest another should love this wishes all would love wherefore if thou lovest thy self love God for that thou lovest him is thy own profit not his Man may be alter'd and perish thou never losest God unless thou leavest him 4. That the love which thou perchance bearest thy Companion may be sincere lay aside all humane causes of Wit Jocundness Likeness and seek only them which consist in Piety and Sanctity The Love which they call Platonical is the bane of Virtue whereby they feign that from the beholding Corporal Comliness the Soul is raised to the contemplation of the Divine Beauty The stedfast eying of a sair Face excites the Concupiscence to touch it and that which goes out by the Eyes whether it is Light or a certain Flux melts the Man and destroys him 'T is better the Feet should slip than the Eyes But the Remedies of Love are of great difficulty because when 't is chastised it more eagerly presses on and unless thou resistest its beginnings it so insensibly creeps in that thou wilt first feel thy self to Love before thou hadst any design of Loving But if thou absolutely repugnest to the beginnings the cure will be easily compassed The Mind also must be busied about other matters which being accompanied with care will remove the memory of the thing beloved Then all mention of the person affected is to be avoided because nothing more easily returns than Love which if it hath once seiz'd on thee it will so pertinaciously vex thee as that it will not be removed but by the lingring Remedy of time and absence that is till it being tired expires Shame hath cur'd many when they saw themselves pointed at and become the common talk of the people and withall considered the foulness of the thing full of disgrace full of danger and subject to future Repentance It hath profited others to enquire attentively into the Evils and inconveniences of the thing beloved which might diminish its amiableness and beauty Lastly a conversion of our Love to God to Virtue to eternal Objects that is to things which are truly Lovely will much conduce to the cure that so a good Love may expell the bad and the generous mind of man may grow ashamed to debase it self to the vile love of the earth Bad loves infect good manners 5. Nature hath bound all things together with a certain Love-Chain This drives and couples the dances of the Stars in Heaven the flocks of Birds in the Air the Heards of Oxen in the Meadows the Droves of Cattel in the Mountains the companies of Wild Beasts in the Woods This Sacred Bond is broken only by Hatred for as Love tends to Union so Hatred aims at Division and Dissention They are most subject to this bad affection who are sluggish timerous and suspicious and apprehensive of loss on every side There are moreover some men so born that they hate all others like that horrid sort of Fowls which hate even their own darkness If thou meetest with any of this
the Fields flowing with Humane Blood and every where Vice and Wickedness abounding Thou wilt see such things done in secret by lewd persons which surely cannot please the very Actors themselves Thou wilt find things so unworthy so unbeseeming that no one would doubt but that the doers of them are Mad were there only a few which did otherwise but the multitude of mad people patronizes them from being so reputed Amongst the Laws themselves crimes are committed nor is Innocence there out of danger where it is defended The Guiltless perishes the Guilty is pardoned and the Crime seems a less matter than the Absolution There 's no fear of the Laws for that which may be redeemed is not dreaded The Tongues of Slanderers are bitter the Mouths of Flatterers are fraudulent there Hatred rages here Falshood deceives One lies soak'd in Wine another absorp'd with Sluggishness Insatiable Avarice detains this man and Ambition depending alwayes upon the opinion of others tires that man Look into the Market-place swarming with people thou'lt say there are so many Vices as men All offend against their Neighbour by Injuries against God by Contempt against things by Abusing them They gather all things together against themselves in judgment being guilty of all And how canst thou securely keep thy footing and have recourse to thy self amongst so many Vices urging on every side which as soon as thou desirest to arise and lift up thy Eyes depress and drown thee 'T is a hard matter for any one to be innocent where Troops of bad men reign for if they cannot alter thee they will at least hinder thee There is one way to a stable tranquility which is to withdraw thy self from so many evils and retreat into a station where free from all contagion thou mayst securely behold the worlds raging Pestilence That Mind is unconquerable which hath forsaken external things and attending to himself alone contents himself in his own Castle To such a one the World is a Prison and Solitude is a Paradise 4. 'T is a vain thing to sequester thy self from Men unless thou forcest thy Mind to be attentive to it self and to be diligent in the exercise of Virtues Man hath nothing that is Good if Virtue is wanting There 's no rest no felicity but from Virtue There are three things which mutually correspond with each other in the Universe amongst all and above all God amongst sensible things Light amongst the perfections of the Mind Virtue God is the Light and Virtue of all things Light is the Virtue of the World and the Image of God Virtue is the Light of the Soul by which we are named and are the Children of God Thou art to approach this with a purged Mind if thou desirest to arrive at the expected height of perfection For Virtue is the perfection of Man the restorer of innocency full of all joy and sweetness 'T is the supplement of Nature which of it self is unable to get the supernatural good It facilitates good works it makes us live uprightly by it we who are as it were blind are illuminated by it we resist Sim by it we are stored with merits by it we deserve eternal life In this study 't is in the first place necessary thou shouldst fore-know the Nature and Acts of each Virtue because no one loves what he knows not Then thou art never to cease from the Act and Exercise and if occasions are wanting thou art to imitate the Souldiers who in the midst of Peace prepare themselves by feigned Skirmishes to future Battels Imagine that most enormous Crimes are laid to thy Charge think thy self reviled with all sorts of Reproaches fancy that thou art violently bereaft of all thou possessest and exercise thy Patience as if it were truly so Thou wilt not tremble when the thing it self happens if thou thus exercisest thy self before it happens The Souldier brings a great courage to the Battel who hath often dipt his Sword in blood 5. The Habits of Virtues are not acquired without long exercise And whether thou hast gotten any one of them thou mayst guess by these signs to wit If thou feelest the Vices opposite to Virtue to be extinguished or for the most part suppressed If thou findest that the motions of bad affections will endure to be curb'd by the bridle of Reason and that thou canst easily compell them to obey thy Mind If thou exercisest acts of Virtue without difficulty yea and with delight If thou valuest not the sayings of Tepid persons and with a full liberty of spirit rousest up thy self to perform those things which displease the Imperfect If thou abhorrest with a certain connatural loathsomness those bad acts to which thou wert before habitually inclined If thou seemest not to be delighted no not so much as in thy Dream with any filthy thing or that thou approvest not any unjust thing If thou strivest to imitate those things which thou praisest and admirest in others and abstainest from those which thou reprehendest If thou thinkest no fault to be little and studiously avoidest and observest every imperfection be it never so small If when thou seest or hearest that thy equals flourish with Riches and Dignities thou neither enviest them nor art troubled at it If thou ingenuously acknowledgest thy errors desiring to be by all corrected and reprehended If being content with the testimony of thy own Conscience thou reservest and hidest thy good works within thy self for the Reward of a thing that is well done is to have done it If finally thou applyest thy self to the study of Virtue without intermission for true Virtue never flags but is evermore in Action CHAP. XXI Of the Theological Virtues Faith is to be approved by Works Confidence is to be placed in God alone Motives to love God The love of our Neighbours is manifested by Benefits An Exhortation to Alms-deeds 1. THe Ground-work of all other Virtues and the foundation of the whole Christian Life is Faith without which no one can please God This is the wisdom which hath tam'd the World to which we must firmly adhere rejecting all inquisition and curiosity Believe then and act accordingly for Faith without Works is dead Thy Sayings and thy Profession brag of Faith take heed that thy Life and Manners preach not Infidelity Thou believest the Gospel why obeyest thou not the Gospel Thou believest an eternal Life why preferrest thou this short time before unending Eternity What profits it to believe true and good things if thon art false and actest bad things It can hardly be perswaded that he believes well who lives ill For he truly believes who practises what he professes 2. Whereas it is most certain that all things are disposed and governed by Gods Providence in so much as not a Sparrow alights from the Air nor a Leaf falls from a Tree without his permission and will do thou therefore deliver up to him thy whole self with a generous Mind and a great Confidence
put thy hand to such things which thou either mayst or hopest to make an end of Afterwards a choice of the men is also to be made whether they are worthy upon whom thou shouldst bestow a part of thy Life their Manners are to be examined lest thou shouldst hurt thy self whilst thou studiest to profit others Lastly it is to be considered whether thy nature is proper to bring about these things and thou art to incline that way to which the strength of thy Wit carries thee Where there is a reluctancy in Nature the Labour comes to nothing 3. A Prudent man enterprizes nothing so long as his Mind is agitated with any perturbation for a Spirit which is shaken and deluded with the enchantments of a depraved affection cannot discern what is true and honest Also Precipitation is a great enemy to Prudence and hath drawn many into grievous and inextricable Mischances Therefore a Wise man doth nothing Rashly and submits his own Judgment to the Counsel of others Mens thoughts are timerous their Providences unconstant the issue of their affairs dubious and their experiences fallacious There is safety where are many Councels It belongs also to a Prudent man to lay the thing nakedly open and to look acutely into it as it is without colour and covering which are wont to deceive the unwary Set aside Money Fame Dignity search into the thing it self inquire what it is not what it is called 'T is the part of a Fool to be cheated with images and shadows Then thou art to spy as from a Watch-Tower whatsoever may fall out lest thou mayst be afterwards forced to pronounce that fond word I did not think it A long Consultation is to be adhibited a mature judgment and a subtle examination lest some bad circumstance may vitiate the action lest Prudence may degenerate into Craftiness and lest in so near a Neighbourhood of the true and counterfeit Good thou mayst not embrace Vice for Virtue Thy Election being at last made cut off all delay and fall presently to execute what thou hast decreed There 's no place for lingring in good Counsel which cannot be praised till 't is performed CHAP. XXIII Of Justice and of Religion The Acts of Both. What Penance is and wherein it consists 1. JVstice the highest Virtue ordained for others not for it self transfuses all it hath into its Neighbours asking nothing but the use of it self This averts men from mutual injuries and settles the whole World in peace This is a certain tacit Convention of Nature and the tye of humane Society nor can there be any thing praise-worthy without it A Just man hurts no one he Challenges not what is anothers he profits all he thinks and speaks well of all he gives to every one his due he hinders not anothers good If he presides he commands just things he suffers all to have access to him he preferrs the good of his Subjects before his own profit he restrains Vices by punishments he encourages the virtuous by rewards and thus retains all in their duties If he is an Underling he preserves Concord he obeys the Laws and the precepts of his Superiors and resting content with his own condition he desires neither Offices nor Dignities nor thrusts himself into things not belonging unto him He is Just for justice sake for he knows no greater reward of a Just action than to be Just 2. Religion the most excellent of the Moral Virtues looks immediately upon God and upon his worship and honour Now the first Worship is to believe and acknowledge him then to render to him his own Majesty his own Goodness 'T is but little to know God which the Devils do who hate him love is moreover exacted consisting in these things which would to God they were as well accomplish'd as known Thou knowst that God is he who presides over the World who preserves Mankind who rules all things thou confessest him the only Powerfull the only Good the only Immense thou expectest from him as from thy Soveraign Good and thy last End everlasting Beatitude Why then dost thou not as thou oughtest worship him Why yieldest thou not to him the highest Veneration Why dost thou preferr a vile clod of Earth before him Vain is thy Religion unless thou prov'st it by thy doings Wilt thou be truly Religious Walk before God and be perfect He sufficiently worships him who imitates him True Religion tyes thee to God God to thee Keep it untouch'd from Negligence from Errors from Sin 'T is a great Folly to preach Faith with the Tongue Infidelity with the Manners Men of this note were long since derided by the most famous Philosopher amongst the Heathens There 's nothing sayes he more glorious than the Christians when they talk nothing more wretched when they act 3. Penance is the repairer of the Divine Rights violation which inclines to a Detestation of Sin with an efficacious Will to satisfie God who is thereby offended For this is Penance to detest Sins past to expiate them to consent no more unto them That which pleased is past that which Reproaches which Racks which Damns remains What avails it to hide thy former filthiness No Criminal himself being his own Judge is absolved Nature hath appointed a certain Tribunal in the very Mind of Man where every one is the Accuser Witness and Judge of his own Wickedness Compell thy Senses to be every day here present to render an Accompt Plead thy Cause at thy own Bar and argue as much as thou canst against thy self Spend the whole day in this scrutiny and measure exactly all thy sayings all thy doings and thy very thoughts hiding nothing passing by nothing If thou acknowledgest thy impiety God pardons it if thou confessest it he cures it What matters it that no one knows thy crime since thou knowst it Dost fancy that 't is better to be damn'd in secret than openly to be absolv'd Wheresoever thou lyest conceal'd thy Conscience is with thee thou canst not fly from it Thou art most miserable if thou despisest it 4. Life is divided into three Times what is what was and what is to come The present is momentary ending before 't is come the future is not yet but the past dayes will be all present when thou commandest and will permit themselves to be look'd in to as oft as thou pleasest Fear not thy Memory nor be asham'd to retort it back upon what is past and to upbraid thy self with thy own Errors By how much more frequently thou shalt do it by so much the sooner thou wilt be amended Take Revenge upon thy self and do not again admit what it grieveth thee to have committed Many men being delivered from Shipwreck bid for evermore adieu both to Sea and Ship and honour Gods benefit by the perpetual memory of the danger I desire thou also mayst have this good Solicitude not to adventure to try again what thou hast once dreaded Thou hast escaped a very great