trouble And it is not for us to say This or that is a small Business for I tell ye let it seem never so small It is a great advance the very first Step that leads to Vertue and Perfection V. If we may compare to a Tree the old man in us that derives his Original from the infected Seed of Adam we may resemble Self-Love to the Root a Perverse Inclination to the Trunk Perturbations to the Branches Vitious Habits to the Leaves Evil Works Words and Thoughts to the Fruit. Now the way to hinder all subsequent Corruptions and Wickedness is to lay the Ax to the Root and to begin with Self-Love Take away that and the whole Off-spring of Carnal Appetite is destroy'd at one Blow And this is done by Humility and Contempt of our selves We must be lowly in our own Eyes and not fear either the Scorn or the Displeasure of Men We must chearfully submit to what condition soever God hath appointed for us He that hates himself as he ought shall be sav'd He that loves himself as he ought not is in danger to perish CHAP. XIII Of Love the Nature of it Causes and Effects Its Remedies and somewhat added of Hatred I. LOve is a certain Delight or Satisfaction we take in that which is Good The first Impression that affects the Appetite proceeding from the Pleasure we take in a known Good It is the Cement of the World the most powerful of all our Passions subdue this once and the rest are easily overcome The Love which is divine aspires naturally toward its Original All Good comes from the Soveraign Good and thither it tends Let every man call his own Soul to a Shrift and see what it is that his Heart is most set upon For it is either the God which he should worship or the Idol which he should not It is the Command of God that we love him with the whole heart and without a Rival He that loves any thing else with his whole heart makes that his God II. Beside the ordinary Motives to Love which are Vertue and Beauty there is also a certain Agreement and Congruity of Minds and Manners together with several Graces and Advantages both of Body and Mind As Modesty of Behaviour Industry Nobility Learning Sharpness of Wit c. But the great Attractive of Love is Love it self which if accompany'd with Benefits is sufficient to turn even the strongest Aversion into a Kindness Men of clear Spirits warm and sanguine Constitutions mild and gentle Natures are much given to Love III. So great is the Power of Love that it does in a manner transform the Lover into the thing belov'd It is a kind of a willing Death a voluntary Separation of the Soul and Body He that is in Love is out of himself he thinks not of himself he provides nothing for himself and effectually he is as good as no where at all if he be not with the thing he loves His Mind is in one place and his Body in another How miserable is that man that loves and loves not God! What Proportion is there betwixt a corruptible Object and the Immortal Soul The end of such Love is Vanity and Vexation and Disappointment Whereas he that loves God lives always where he loves in him in whom all things live and in a secure possession of an unchangeable Good In Carnal Love there is a mixture of Bitterness and Violence but the Love of God is altogether humble and calm The one is full of Jealousies the other has none Here we are afraid of Rivals and there we pray for them We are to love God if we love our selves for we are only the better for it not He. Man is changeable and mortal but there 's no losing of God unless we forsake him IV. If we would have the love we bear to our Neighbour sincere it must be wholly sounded upon Piety and Religion abstracted from all the common Considerations of Wit Likeness Good Humour c. The Platonic Love which pretends from the sight of a Corporal Beauty to raise the Soul to the Contemplation of the Divine proves in the end to be the very Bane of Vertue It is very rarely that a man stops at the view of a lovely Woman without a desire to come nearer and whether it be a Ray only or some kind of Fascination with it that passes from the Eye to the Object somewhat there is that dissolves a man and ruines him There 's more danger in a slip of the Eyes than of the Feet The Cure of Love is the more difficult because the more we oppose it the stronger Resistance it makes And if it be not checkt at the very beginning it comes so insensibly upon us that we are in before we are aware but if we begin with it betimes the Remedy is not difficult One way of Cure may be by Diversion and plunging a mans self into business to put the thought of it out of his head But then we must avoid all occasions and Circumstances that may mind us of the Person we love For if we relapse there will be no Remedy but Time and Absence and we must expect to be perpetually seized with it till in the end it 's weary'd out and falls asleep Many have been cur'd out of mere shame to see themselves pointed at and made Town-talk and then perhaps they may have been brought to a better understanding of the Dishonour and Hazzard of their Proceeding Others have relieved themselves by finding out of Faults and Inconveniencies and by enquiring into the Errors and Imperfections of the thing they love But the last and surest Remedy is to drive out a Carnal Love with a Spiritual and to turn our Affections to God to Vertue to Heaven and to Eternity which are truly amiable A generous Mind cannot but be asham'd to set his heart upon a Dunghil Evil Love corrupts good Manners V. What is it but a kind of Natural Love-Chain that ties the whole World together and the several parts of it The Stars of the Firmament in their Motions the Birds of the Air and the Beasts of the Field Now this Sacred Bond is only dissolv'd by Hatred which leads to Division and Dissension as Love does to Union The most subject to this Vice are the Slothful the Fearful and the Suspicious for they fancy themselves to be threatned with Mischief which way soever they look There are some people of so unsociable a Nature that like Birds of ill Omen they both hate and fear all things together These men are a Burthen to themselves and to Mankind and to be avoided by all means but with Pity not Hatred And in truth there will be no place for Hatred if we turn every thing to the best for there is no man so ill but he has some mixture of Good in him There is nothing truly detestable but Sin and Damnation If we turn our Hatred any other way the harm is to
falling into some excess or other and returning worse than he went out This is the Fruit of Publick Conversation but we are not sensible of the damage we receive in Company till we come afterward to reflect upon it in Solitude Let us make what hast we can then into our selves before we are overcome with the Contagion of the Vicious Multitude The Mind that is most contracted is most chearful III. Let a man but imagine himself upon the top of an high Mountain and there taking a prospect of the miserable World he shall quickly see enough to put him out of love with it and all that 's in it Nothing but Robberies at Land Pyracies at Sea the Tumults and Horrors of War Humane blood spilt like water Sin and Iniquity broken loose and beating down all before it Look into the Cabinets of great men and you shall there see such spectacles of Brutal Lust as cannot but disgust and nauseate the very Actors themselves and every where else so boundless a License and Disorder that we would almost swear the whole world were a Bedlam but the mad-men are too many for the sober and their Number is their Justification The Laws themselves are turn'd into snares and Innocency is there invaded where it ought to be protected The Not-guilty is in more danger than the Guilty and the Judge more criminal than the Prisoner For where there is money there can be no transgression A pack of Calumniating Knaves in one place a troop of Fawning Parasites in another here Feuds there Flatteries one man wallowing in his Wine another stretching himself upon his Bed Insatiable Avarice on the one side Slavish Ambition on the other In all Publick Assemblies more Vices than Men Sins of irreverence toward God Injustice toward our Neighbour and Abuse of the Creature So that being guilty of all sins they are to expect that all sins will rise in judgment against them One would think that this view of the World might be sufficient of it self to take off any mans heart from the love of it But when a man considers the difficulty of mastering so many Temptations and bearing up against so many ill and powerful Examples certainly he cannot chuse but bethink himself of a Retreat It is a hard matter for a man to love Innocence where Wickedness is in Authority and Credit If it does not absolutely corrupt us it will yet puzzle and hinder us The only way to be safe and quiet is to retire into our selves were we may look upon the World without being endanger'd by it He that has renounced external things and withdrawn into himself is Invincible the World is to him as a Prison and Solitude a Paradise IV. But we are never the better for quitting the World if we do not vigorously apply our selves to the study and practice of Vertue without which we can have no Comfort no Repose and having that we can want nothing There are three things that seem to have a fair Analogy one with the other in all things and above all things is God himself Among Sensibles is Light and among the perfections of the Mind is Vertue God is the Light and Vertue of all things Light is the Vertue of the World and the Image of God Vertue is the Light of the Mind by which we are called and become the Children of God Without a pure mind there is no attaining of this Perfection for Vertue is the Perfection of a man that repairs all our failings and fills us with delight she raises up our fleshly Nature in things spiritual She is the Rule of Life a light to the Blind She beats down sin and brings us to Eternal Life In the study of Vertue we are to learn what it is in the first place both in general and in particular For no man seeks he knows not what We are then to keep our selves in the continual practice of it Like Souldiers that will be still exercising and skirmishing even in time of Peace and without an Enemy Very well understanding that these Encounters though but represented and in jest keep them in breath and readiness for Assaults in earnest Let a man suppose himself under all the Oppression and Indignity imaginable stript to his Shirt and thrown upon a Dunghill and let him then make tryal of his Patience as if this were his very case indeed He that exercises himself before the Battel will be more resolute in it He that has often lost Blood goes chearfully to the Combat V. The Habits of Vertues are the work of Time And we shall know when we are possest of any of them by these Tokens We have made a good Progress toward any Vertue when we have extinguish'd or at least in a large measure supprest the contrary Vice when we have brought all our Passions to a submission and obedience unto Reason when the practice of Vertue is become not only easie but delightful to us when in contempt of Temporizers we stand up with a generous Freedom in the Vindication of Vertue against all opposers when we come once naturally to abominate those things which formerly we doted upon with a depraved Inclination when the love of Vertue is grown so habitual to us that we allow our selves in nothing that is ill no not so much as in a dream when we come to imitate what we approve in others and to abstain from what we reprehend when nothing that is amiss seems little to us but worthy of our greatest care and diligence to avoid when we can see our Equals preferred without Envy when we have the honesty to confess our faults and submit them to correction and reproof when we can content our selves in the Testimony of a good Conscience without making publication of our good Works Which in the very doing are their own reward when the whole business of our life is Vertue which is always in Act and never tir'd CHAP. XXI Of Theological Vertues Faith is to be manifested in our Works In God alone we are to put our trust Motives to the Love of God The Love of our Neighbours shews it self in good Offices An Exhortation to Charity I. FAith is the Basis of all other Vertues and the Foundation of Christian Life without which no man can please God This is the Wisdom that has subdued the World to which we are firmly to adhere without any unnecessary Curiosity or Disquisition But we are to do as well as to believe for Faith without Works is dead Now while we are Christians in Profession and Discourse let us have a care not to be Infidels in our Lives and Manners If we believe the Gospel why do we not obey it If we do believe an Eternity why do we prefer a momentary Life and Pleasure before it What are we the better for believing that which is True and Good if in our Actions we be false and wicked A good Faith and an ill Life will hardly stand together For he that
of it In commendation of Singleness of Heart The Acts of Fidelity 139 Chap. 26. Of Friendship the Qualities and Duties of it Certain Precepts for Conversation 142 Chap. 27. Of Liberality what it is and how to be exercised Wherein it differs from Magnificence 149 Chap. 28. Of Fortitude The Duties of it A man of Resolution does contemn death 152 Chap. 29. Of Magnanimity The Description of a Magnanimous man 158 Chap. 30. Of Patience The Occasions and Effects of it An Exhortation to it with Instruction how to behave our selves in Adversity The necessity of Perseverance 162 Chap. 31. Of Temperance How much Modesty contributes to it Of Abstinence and Chastity 171 Chap. 32. Of Meekness and Clemency The Excellency and the Duties of both 174 Chap. 33. Of Modesty Studies and Divertisements 177 Chap. 34. Of Humility Wherein it consists The Knowledg of our selves The true Character of an humble man 182 Chap. 35. Of the state of the Perfect The image of a perfect Man The end of a perfect Life is union with God 186 A GUIDE TO ETERNITY CHAP. I. Of Mans last End The Danger of neglecting or mistaking it The Means and Method of attaining it I. THe thing I have propounded in this Discourse is to bring the Reader to Heaven that is to say unto that perfect state of Bliss to which we are all directed by a Natural Impulse as the principal End of our Being and wherein there remains nothing further to be desired As to the matter of Happiness it is the common wish and business of Mankind But such is the blindness of our depraved Condition that instead of the True and Sovereign Good we apply our selves to vain Appearances and Counterfeits Some will have it to be in Wanting of Nothing and consequently in Riches Others place it in Dominion and Power Some again in Voluptuousness and Pleasure a mean and most ignoble Mistake Thus we labour and toil to no purpose and like men in a wrong way the more haste we make the further from our Journeys end hardly in any thing more unhappy than in not being sensible of our unhappiness II. And this in truth is our great Misfortune that we purpose we know not what Every man would fain live and die happy But what true Happiness is or how to compass it there is not one of a thousand that understands So that in all our Actions Wishes and Endeavours we cross our selves without any regard to that Immense Good which ought to be the only and ultimate Object of our Consideration The life we lead is like that of the Pismire a perpetual and fruitless Ramble and Agitation one while up another while down and still empty The great Creator of all things made Man out of nothing and he that gave us all expects all and to be beloved and served without a Rival as the Author of our Being And it is all but time lost that we employ any other way And yet Alas How small a part of our Thoughts and Actions do we bestow upon that God unto whom the whole ought to be directed A Christian should do in his life as a Traveller does upon the way He propounds to go to such a place to take up his rest when he comes there and so makes every step he sets an advance towards it The only Resting Place we can promise to our selves is Heaven and we are to bend all our motions and studies that way Whatsoever withdraws us from it misleads us to our eternal Destruction III. We ought to behave our selves in this life as in a Sea-voyage when the Ship stops for fresh Water a man goes ashore and entertains himself with shells and trifles by the by but his mind is still at Sea and so soon as ever the Master calls away he goes leaves all and returns to the Vessel So in the use and enjoyment of external things which are but as shells and trifles we are still to hearken after the call of our Master and never to be so intent upon this world as to forget the business of the next Outward things serve us to the end that we may serve God without which we fâ—ll from the Divine Unity and by giving up our selves to many unnecessary things we set up as many Idols as there are Creatures which we love with an inordinate Affection unto which by a foul Sacriledge we offer up not an Ox or a Goat but our selves and our Salvation God will have no sharers and it is against the Law of Love to love any thing with him but in him and for him It is no less than Damnation to leave the Creator and adhere to the Creature IV. We may say of Minds as the Prince of Physicians says of impure Bodies The more meat you give them the more hurt you do them For in passing from an ill habit to a better the Poison of a wicked life must be first vomited up to prepare the Mind for receiving the more effectual Aliments of Vertue which Purgation is to be wrought after this manner There must be a kind of Expiation of sins committed all Affections toward them withdrawn all evil Customs rooted out all vicious Inclinations and unruly Appetites are to be subjected to the Government of Reason The Flesh is to be kept under the Necessities of Nature are to be provided for with Moderation the Tongue and the Senses are to be bridled and whatsoever may give a check or Interruption to the speedy gaining of Vertue is to be utterly exterminated And why should not all this be done Where 's the difficulty we fancy what are we afraid of A thing that we have in our own power He assisting us indeed who is all in all and our beginning and end But we must first go out from our selves before we can come at him and the further we remove from the one the nearer will our approach be to the other V. In the first place we are to resolve within our selves whither we are to go and what it is we would have The next Point will be to learn out the way and then to take notice from time to time how we proceed and what progress we make in our passage In order to this we are impartially to examine our Consciences and observe the difference betwixt what we are and what we ought to be It will be too late to consider when we are in the Snare We are to study how to Tame our raging Lusts how to curb our tormenting Fears We are to enure our selves to the contempt of earthly things by leaving them before they leave us and to part willingly with what we cannot long possess to the end that when our last hour comes there may be the less matter even for Death it self to work upon But whatever else we do let us be sure to look to the man and see that the Soul which is first in Excellence be not last in our Care and esteem What will it profit a man
effected by Revenge but rather by Patience and Obligations It may perchance work a thorow Reformation upon him but very probably it will quiet and sweeten him at the least Or however we our selves shall most certainly be the better for it if he be not Well! There 's such a one is my mortal Enemy he has spoken the basest and the most dishonourable things of me How am I now to behave my self in this case Why truly according to the Rules of Charity and of good Discretion I have this but at second hand I can hardly believe it Or if he did say it some body has abus'd him I am confident he had no ill meaning in it Nay it may be he said it on purpose that I should hear on 't again and be the better for 't The truth on 't is he hath right on his side for I cannot much deny the thing and I 'm e'en well enough serv'd for beginning with him But after all this what if it shall be found to be mere Malice and a Design upon an Innocent Person Was not my Saviour more innocent and incomparably a greater Sufferer I am to say with the Prophet I was dumb and opened not my mouth because it was thy doing Let us all look to our own ways and have a care that what other People say or do amiss prove not unto us an occasion of falling IX But what is it that troubles us Opinion If so It is but removing that Opinion and we are secure and this methinks might be done by a very ordinary way of Reason Nothing can hurt us unless we joyn with it to hurt our selves The mind is safe and inaccessible out of the reach of Injuries and Accidents It moves it self and in judging of Externals it makes every thing only to be as it is taken My Adversary says one is certainly the vilest Creature upon the Face of the Earth Let him alone then say I and leave him to be punish'd by some other hand Or however he has his Torment already in his Transgression He 's a man of Reason and I wonder he can allow himself in these Liberties I prethee wonder at thy self too and begin the Reformation at home upon thy own Impatience and learn to overcome Evil with Good But we have other mens faults in sight and our own behind us Oh the Pleasure of Revenge says the Vindictive man Let him take it then say I upon condition that he fall upon his greatest Enemy first Let him begin with his extravagant fury and rage Is not he a mad man that runs into the Streets to beat Boys for breaking his Windows when he has Thieves in his House that are ready to rifle hâ—m and cut his Throat When Plato's hand was up in Choler to strike an untoward Servant he consider'd better of it and checked himself Sirrah says he I would box ye if I were not angry with you Judging it more for his credit to chastise his Passion before he meddled with his Man and giving to understand that a Cholerick Master deserves the Lash better than a Negligent Servant You shall very rarely find any man Brave that is Furious X. Judges and Publick Magistrates may be allowed to put on a Countenance of Severity and Displeasure but if at any time it comes up to Anger let it be so ordered as only to wait upon Reason but not to preclude it Offenders are to be reprehended and corrected too but without Passion So long as there are bad men in the World there will be Villany in it and he that is resolved to fret himself for whatsoever he sees amiss shall never have one quiet hour while he breaths We are not angry at the Heats and Colds in their proper course and season No less natural are the Indignities we suffer from wicked men and no otherwise ought we to concern our selves for them A wise and a good man should deal with Malefactors as a Physician does with mad Men do them all the good he can and let their Extravagancies go for nothing The only Revenge for a Slanderer is to let him alone as if he were not worth a Revenge The less his Calumny works upon another the more it works upon himself by disappointing him of the end and pleasure of his Contumely But 't is a shame you 'l say for a man to be contemn'd and not to vindicate his Honour How great a shame is it then to fear to be contemned for no man fears Contempt but he that deserves it A wise man reckons nothing disgraceful but sin for he governs himself not according to the judgment of men but of God If any man despise me if any man hate me let him look to it it shall be my care not to deserve either Patience is invincible and triumphs in the end over Nature it self It is a kind of Imitation of God himself who forgives all suffers all and with his Mercies transcends our Iniquities It is more glorious to take no notice at all of an Injury than to pardon it CHAP. VIII Of Envy and Sloth with their Description and Cure I. THE Envious man is not only the first but the greatest Plague to himself He preys upon his own Bowels before he meddles with his Neighbours Goods and it is not in this as in other Vices where the Punishment follows the Sin for here it goes before it and yet keeps it company too for they go hand in hand together A Diabolical Affection That another mans Happiness must be my Torment and that which makes him fat must make me lean In other sins we find only an opposition to this or that particular Vertue But Envy perverts the very nature of things and professes open Enmity to all Goodness First to God himself whose Nature it is humanely speaking to communicate all his Mercies and Blessings Next to the Saints and Angels who rejoyce in the Comforts of their Companions as if they were their own Thirdly to Christian Charity which bids us do good even to our Enemies And lastly to the Law of Nature which commands us to wish other people as happy as our selves Envy is a kind of blear-ey'd Affection it cannot endure to look against the Light II. Satan indeed is envious but it is against Men not his Fellow-Devils Whereas in our Envy worse than the Devils themselves we fall foul one upon another A sign of a mean and abject mind for we envy nothing but what we think above us He that would deliver himself from this Distemper must take his heart off from this transitory World and fix it upon a better The love of Eternity is the death of Envy He that has set his heart upon Heaven can never envy any mans Enjoyments upon Earth It were as if a Prince should envy a Cobler He reckons the World and all the Glories of it not worth a serious thought We have enough to do a man would think to struggle with our own Afflictions
Punishment is now become a piece of Vanity and Ambition There is more pains taken about the ordering of a Perruke than for the Security of the very Head it self And so far has Folly prevailed upon the World that we set the highest value upon those things that ought to be our Scorn I would have my Clothes plain and fit for my Condition such as I would be neither proud nor asham'd of not for Ostentation but Necessity It is not Gold and Pearl that will keep any man from being deformed who is not clothed with Christ's Righteousness This is the everlasting Beauty that shines in the Soul when the Flesh is Worms-meat Who but a Mad-man will be at the Charge to gild a Dunghil CHAP. XI Of the Guard of the Tongue How much it concerns us to govern it and the Difficulty of so doing Certain Directions what we are to observe in speaking what to avoid How to behave our selves in case of Calumny or Slander I. THE Tongue has in a manner the Power of Life and Death and it is of so great moment the Government of it that we are to look very narrowly to it A Tongue without a Guard upon it is like a City without a Wall There is no taming of it without the special Grace of God Lions Bulls Bears are a thousand times more easie to be reclaim'd Men are naturally given to be talkative and presently to communicate their thoughts as soon as they have conceiv'd them And then being so near the Brain the Fancy conveys it self down and distils it self into Words immediately It is not for nothing that Nature her self thought fit to enclose the Tongue with the double Fence both of the Teeth and Lips Open the Mouth of a Glass and the Spirits evaporate Open the Mouth of a Man and so does the Vigour of his Mind He looks but ill to himself that let his Tongue run at random II. We are to consider before we speak and not be blurting out without fear or Wit whatsoever comes at our Tongues end Let a man deliver himself candidly and clearly without any Mystery or Disguise God Almighty hath bestowed the Faculty of Speech upon us for the Testimony and Propagation of the Truth He that gives Licence to his Tongue when he is in a Passion will speak that in a moment that he may repent all his life after Let him therefore examine himself and forbear till the storm is over When a mans Mind is at quiet 't is an easie matter to keep his Tongue so too for there is naturally a fair Correspondence between them A sober and reasonable Discourse is an Argument of a sound temperate and well-composed frame of Mind And on the other side the one blasts the other The Value of a man is best known by his Discourse III. Better not speak at all than to no purpose We can make choice of our Meats why not of our Words too We can examine what goes into our mouths and why not what comes out of them as well for the latter is more dangerous in a Family than the other in the Stomach He that converses much with himself and little with other people is the wisest and the happiest man for more have repented themselves of their speaking than of their silence Nay even of Animals the most apprehensive among them are the least clamorous Women and Children are the most given to Babling Many vain and unprofitable words are the certain Indication of a weak and a worthless man If we lov'd God and study'd our own Salvation as we ought our Discourse would be altogether of Him of Vertue and Perfection Love can neither dissemble nor conceal it self and where we truly love we can talk of nothing else We are not willing to treat of Heavenly things because our Affections are not yet taken off from the Corruptions of the Flesh. And then for want of Reading and Mediation we are at a loss even for matter if we had never so good a will to the Discourse Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh IV. When Company meets the better half of the Conversation is commonly spent in talking of other Peoples affairs Where every man has almost as many Judges to sit upon him as there be Heads in the Town But not a Creature that looks homeward We are all of us as blind on that side as we are sharp-sighted on the other In cases of Reproof and Scandal our ears are open to every idle Srory but let any thing be spoken to the Honour and Vindication of our Neighbour we take no notice of it at all Detraction is a common Fault and the commoner like an infectious Disease the more dangerous But what have we to do with other peoples Faults when every man has work enough at home to mend one Have a care of blabbing Secrets on any terms or of committing Secrets rashly to any body for it has been many a mans ruine And whether a man be betrayed by one or by more it is the same thing For a word passes from one to another till it comes to all at last This Facility is commonly found among people that are full of Discourse and that love to hear themselves talk They are possest with a kind of Drunkenness and when their Tongues are once going they can hold nothing be it never so private and sacred They interchange their Secrets by turns first the one and then the other requires him as a Seal of the Confidence If the one keeps Counsel the other tells all perchance to the next man he meets till every body comes to know that under the Rose which no body seems to know openly But in the conclusion it goes on so long in a Whisper till at length the Secret overflows and becomes a publick Rumour There is scarce any Evil under the Sun which the Tongue has not had a share in We should therefore weigh our Words and bridle our Mouths for fear of bolting somewhat that had been better let alone It is much more commendable to be sparing of our words than of our money He that squanders away his Estate though he does himself hurt yet others are the better for him but the Profusion of the Tongue every body is the worse for it To hear much and speak little is a divine Vertue V. There is not any thing that scapes the Lash of a Licentious Tongue No not the Princes of the Earth with all their Power Not the holy Saints and Martyrs with all their Sanctity and Innocence Nay our blessed Saviour himself when he was upon Earth suffered under Contumely and Reproach So that we are not without great Examples to encourage and excite our Patience He that behaves himself as he ought to do under the Persecution of ill Tongues may reap an advantage from them for Detraction is a kind of Provocation to Vertue and as good as a Bridle to keep a man in the right way and though it be a
that knows every thing but himself knows in effect as much as comes to nothing V. It is a sordid and infamous humour to be prying into and medling with other Peoples matters to be observing and descanting upon Lives and Manners and to make the worst of every thing What have I to do with the Servant of another who is to stand and fall to his own Master The great Iudge of the world has reserv'd Iudgment to himself and he that presumes to judge his Neighbour invades the Throne of the Almighty Let every man enter into the Privacies of his own Conscience and see what Good is wanting in him what Ill abounds and he 'll find work enough at home to imploy his Pragmatical Spleen upon without hunting after the faults of others And there 's no Protection neither against the Sting of a Malevolent Wit and a Licentious Tongue Was not our Saviour himself taunted and traduced by the Jews And is not the Holy Gospel daily perverted by Hereticks It is with distemper'd minds as with Melancholick Bodies whatsoever they take turns to Corruption The Action is most commonly qualified by the Intention and Good or Bad accordingly But this is only known to him that searcheth the heart and the reins But let the Action we Censure be never so Foul and the Person never so Guilty what is it yet to us How Unchristian an Indecency is it to expose the Nakedness of our Brother for a publick Spectacle Why do we not rather observe our selves Judge and condemn our selves and turn the point of our Malice upon our own Hearts He that 's a severe Iudge to himself shall escape the Iudgment of the most High God VI. They that are so quick-sighted to discover other Peoples failings out of a desire to be thought shrewd men are commonly as jealous of being paid in their own Coyn and of being Hated Contemned ill thought of and ill spoken of by others Toward the subduing of this Vice we are first to Moderate the Pleasure we take in the Acclamations and Applauses of the Multitude and then utterly to cast away all curiosity of knowing what the World thinks or says of us for we are many times possest with a suspicion that such or such a man talks slightly and has a mean opinion of us who is so far from speaking amiss that he says nothing at all of us nor has us so much as in his thought Let a man say with the Apostle If I pleased men I were not the Servant of Christ. 'T is little to me that I am judged by you c. Such as we are with God such we truly are and neither the better nor the worse for the Opinion or Discourse of Men. 'T is much better to be good than to be so esteemed VII If we would have nothing fall out contrary to our Will we must absolutely lay it down and Will nothing at all but in submission to the Will of God This is the way that leads to a true Tranquillity of mind and to a lasting peace He that wishes for nothing but what he should may live as he would It is the only Felicity of this Life to square our Wills to the Will of God He who from all Eternity has appointed the end has likewise appointed the means and whether the way be smooth or craggy through Prosperity or Adversity it is still what God has allotted us in order to our Eternal Bliss He that obeys Divine Providence and follows it chearfully does well and wisely For let him lag and hang off never so much he 'll be forced to follow in spight of his Teeth Beside the Impiety of his Disobedience God Almighty leads the willing and draws the unwilling CHAP. XIX Of the State of Proficients Divers Helps to Improvement The value and the use of time God is always present I. IT is a good step toward Vertue for a man to be Conscious of his own Iniquities and to desire to mend Without which we go backward every day from bad to worse When we are once in the way we must go on as we began and the more haste we make the sooner shall we enjoy the Serenity of Mind which we aim at It is a good sign when a man comes to see his failings better than he did As it is in a Patient when he comes to be sensible that he is sick Every man is apt to flatter himself and therefore let us have a care of being over-credulous If upon the sifting and examining of our Hearts and Thoughts we find an Abatement of our Lusts a greater firmness of mind than ordinary and a more absolute command of our selves we are in a fair way of Proficiency and Emprovement It is an inestimable Blessing for a man to be Master of himself and to be at Unity with himself A good man is unchangeably the same A wicked man is perpetually at variance with himself II. It is but one days work to arrive at the highest pitch of Holiness if we would but turn with our whole hearts from the Creature to the Creator Now whether our Conversion be sincere or no we shall know by these marks If we be out of love with Vanities and transitory things If we delight in Solitude and Contemplation If that please us best that is perfectest If we prefer a good Conscience to God-ward before an empty Reputation among men If we do all this it goes well with us But the most powerful inducement to Vertue of all the rest is the daily Meditation of the Life and Passion of Christ. That Story is the Book of life and sufficient to bring us to Heaven if all the Libraries in the World Authors and all were utterly destroyed But it is not yet enough barely to know Christ and meditate of him unless we likewise imitate him and lead our lives in a Conformity to his word and example The way to rectifie that which is crooked is to bring it to the Rule III. It was well said of some-body That good order is as necessary to the Mind for the gaining of Vertue as it is to the Body for the recovery of Health for there are a thousand things in the way else to divert and retard us As the inordinate love either of our selves or of any thing else Impatience in Losses the over-much indulging of our selves in our Appetites and Pleasures whether in Meat or Drink Conversation or the like the plunging of our selves over head and ears in the affairs of this World and being too much wedded to our own Opinions rejecting the motions and inspirations of the good Spirit within us These obstacles must be removed and we are to encounter them with Resolution and Vigour we are to proceed with Readiness Alacrity and a good Intention and with an industry answerable to the excellency of the work in hand It is not the number of our Exercises but the thorow doing of them not so much the thing it self as the manner
believes aright will practise what he believes II. Since most certain it is that all things are ordered and governed by an Over-ruling Providence insomuch that not a Bird of the Air nor the Leaf of a Tree falls to the ground without it This methinks should give us Courage and Confidence in all Extremities and a full Assurance that our Heavenly Father will never fail us at a time of need Let us therefore cast our selves wholly upon the Mercy and Good pleasure of Almighty God and not depend upon the help and counsels of man which are deceitful and uncertain What if matters go cross and beside our expectation so as to unsettle the whole course of our Thoughts and Affairs What if we should be visited with Sickness threatned with false Accusation perhaps worse Accidents Our trust is in God our dependence upon him And who knows but the Divine Wisdom has made choice of these Afflictions as the means to bring us to Eternal Glory The Afflictions of this Life are as nothing to him that has his heart fixed upon the blessings of a better Whatsoever a man hopes for he may compass and reckon himself as possest of what he believes III. Charity is the Mistress of all Vertues and is directed either to God or to our Neighbour To God in the first place whom we are to love with all our heart with all our soul and with all our strength merely for himself and for his infinite Goodness above all things that are amiable For it is to his Grace and Mercy that we are indebted for our Being Life Motion Sense and Understanding He it is that hath delivered us from the Bondage of Satan dignified our Souls with infinite Priviledges and prepared Eternal Life for us of his own free Goodness without any antecedent Merit The Heaven the Earth the Air the Water and the whole Universe call to us aloud to love and serve that God who has made all these things for our service If the good of the Soul be the thing we look for what need we go further than to God himself who is the only and the Sovereign good great and desirable beyond imagination It is only by Love though in a vast disproportion that we can acquit our selves to the Almighty in kind Love is Active not Idle It does not seek its own It surmounts all difficulties and He that loves truly may dye but cannot be overcome IV. Nature has implanted in all reasonable Creatures a love of Society Which ought to work more really in Christians who are called to the same Faith and Glory and are Members of the same Body No man can love God that does not love his Neighbour Now this Love to our Neighbour is exercised in conferring of Benefits doing all sorts of good Offices and going before others in Humility and Kindness The grace and value of a Bounty lies much in the chearful and the speedy applying of it For there must be no stop but in the modesty of the Receiver there needs no more to the relief of a necessitous person than that we know his wants For it breaks the heart of a Generous man to be put to beg it and the Favour is ten times is great when it prevents the asking of it It is rather a purchase than a gift when a man receives a Benefit upon a Request He that gives a Prayer or a Blush for a good turn pays dear for 't In cases where we could not fore-see or prevent a suit we are however to shew that we would have done it if we could by our manner of granting it which ought to be speedy and chearful There must be good words as well as good deeds It must be done frankly and without either Vanity or Reproach It is a great kindness to put a Petitioner quickly out of his pain by stopping his mouth and doing his business so soon as ever we know it And then we are not to blow a Trumpet when we give an Alms. The thing will speak it self and he that sies in secret will reward us openly V. Among the Acts of Christian Charity there is not any thing more acceptable to God nor any more effectual proof of our Faith than that compassion to the poor which we exercise in giving of Alms. Let us therefore have a care of despising the poor who though necessitous themselves have it yet in their power to make us rich It is a kind of redeeming our selves with our money and turning an instrument of Avarice into an occasion of Mercy Shall we give more for a place in a Play-house than for a place in Paradise We pay Duties and Taxes to Temporal Princes let there be never so great a Dearth And can we not afford out of our Abundance a morsel of Bread to the King of Heaven in his poor Members He that is close-handed to the needy in his Distress is guilty of his Brothers Blood He that does not feed him murthers him Our thoughts are so much taken up with providing for our Heirs that we never so much as think what shall become of our Selves But we had better abate a little of their Patrimony than to hazzard the main of our own Salvation But let us come to a Reckoning and see what are our possessions in this World What do we pretend to in the Next In Death we have nothing left us but what we have sent to Heaven before-hand by the hands of the Needy Men of little Faith There 's our Treasure A Thief may pick a Lock and break open our Coffers here below but Heaven is impregnable CHAP. XXII Of Prudence The Necessity and the Difficulty of it The duty of a Wise man I. AS a Workman is nothing without his Line and Level so neither are We without Prudence It is the eye of the Soul the art of life the guide of all our Actions and the Rule of other Vertues There is no living comfortably without it but exceedingly difficult it is and obscure It is difficult First in regard of the Comprehension of it for it takes cognizance of the whole Universe in it self and in every part of it Secondly In respect of the Uncertainty of Humane Affairs which by reason of infinite Variations and Accidents and their dependencies upon divers circumstances are hardly reducible to a Rule Nay there are many times such contrarieties and disagreements as are almost impossible to be reconciled The Obscurity lies in this that we see only the Appearances of things when the Springs and Causes that move them are in the dark We see only the top of the Building but the Foundation is out of sight Beside that the good or bad event of things is concealed in the Unsearchable Decree of the Almighty so that there are very few men wise enough to make the best of their business II. Wisdom is the Product of Experience and Memory The one teaches us what is best to be done and the other minds us when we