purpose as the most do to cover preceeding evils which they are more ashamed to confesse then to practise helps therein the Divell in his own businesse But whosoever loves and makes a ly hath no right to the tree of life nor shall enter the gates into the holy City but shall remayn without with dogs and sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murderers and Idolaters we see with whom the Lord ranks lyers what reckning soever the world makes of them or they of themselvs He that tels one ly is not onely the more prone to tell another and so a third which is common to all evill doers but for the most part necessitated so to do for the covering of the former as beggars cover one patch with another and that a lesser with a greater and often a simple ly with a false oath as was Peters case Besides he that is once taken in a manifest ly will hardly escape suspition when he speaks the truth that I may not say with one that he deservs not to be trusted no not in that wherein he desires you would not trust him Neyther doth he wrong himself alone for after time but others also who speak the truth By somes lying others when they speake truely are not credited specially such as have any conformity with them in other things that is oft seen in effect which is said of the Host that being once deceaved by one that held his hat before his eyes when he gave thanks at meat would never trust any afterwards that used that fashion CAP. XIIII Of knowledg and Ignorance THe first lyne of the repayred Image of God in man and that by which he is first united to God is sound knowledg the second is the sincere love of the heart which draw with them in the third place the other affections and senses of soul and body As the waggon is guided by the waggonner and he by his ey so is the body by the soul and it by the ey of understanding and knowledg If the ey be single the whole body wil be full of light To beleev a thing futher then we know it is indeed impossible to love it lightnes to hate it injustice seeing it may deserv the contrary for ought we know He that knows not in his measure what he ought to know specially in the matters of God is but a beast amongst men He that knows what is simply needfull and no more is a man amongst men But he who knows according to the helps vouchsafed him of God what may well be known and so far as to direct himself and others aright is as a God amongst men And to this purpose the Lord tels Moses that he should be to his brother Aaron in stead of God Such bear the lively Image of Gods wisdom The knowledg even of things evill is good and the greater the better so as it be neither experimentall nor with approbation nor have other infectious accessorie joyned with it The Apostle knew Satans devises better then the Corinthians did And God onely wise and good onely knows all the both good and evill of men and Angels And so pleasing a thing is knowledg to reasonable Creatures not unmeasureably degenerated as the light is pleasant to him that hath eyes to behold it that not onely they who strive to attain unto it by likely means but even many who hold a course tending to all ignorance and errour do desire it as a naturall good and if not much the thing it self yet the opinion of it hating the imputation of ignorance as a matter vile and reproachfull By how much the more monstrous are many and grown out of kind who make reckning that it concerns not them to get or have any more knowledg then is simply necessarie for the maintaining of a poore barren and half-bruitish life How many specially of the meaner sort to let passe mens secure yea affected ignorance in Divine things would think it half curiositie in themselvs or others of their rank to know the East from the West or what the reason is of the Suns setting and rising again everie day though they see the thing continually before their eyes The punishment of Nabuchednezzar is upon such people who had an Oxes heart in a mans body Of them that seriously desire and carefully use means to obtain knowledg the ends are verie different Some desire to know that they might know which is curtositie Some that they might be known and that is vanitie Some onely to make profit of their knowledg and that is covetousnesse Some on the other side to edifie better themselvs and this is true wisdom And some withall to do good to others which is godly charitie The means to get knowledg specially Divine are First to love it If thou cryest after knowledg and liftest up thy voyce for understanding If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and finde the knowledg of God The second is the knowledg of our ignorance It being an effect of Christs comming that they which see not to wit in the conscience of their own blindnesse might see and that they which see might be made blind To which joyn that of the Phylosopher that many more would attain to knowledg and wisdom if so many did not think that they had alreadie attained to it A third is the fear of God to which he hath made the promise of revelation of his secrets and to teach such the way which they shall chuse who will also set themselvs the most carefully to learn it A fourth is prayer by which this wisdom and knowledg as with a strong hand is fetcht from Heaven A fifth is the reading and meditating upon specially the Divine Scriptures and withall other approved Authours For as the affections are most moved by hearing so the judgment is best informed by reading The last means is the companie and societie of wise and understanding men whereupon it was that the Queen of Sheba pronounced the Servants of Salomon happie which continually stood before him to hear his wisdom They who profit not in knowledg and wisdom by conversing with wise men are unworthy of their companie and worthy to keep or keep with Oxen and Asses Besides the forementioned meanes of getting knowledg there is a mediocritie and mean-nesse of outward estate not a little advantageable to this purpose which if it be too low and depressed keeps down the disposition ingenuous and apt to great things as his Emblem imports who holds a wing in the one hand but hath the other clogged with a great stone On the other side a state great and prosperous usually lifts up men above the love of knowledg and learning making them arrogant in themselvs and fastidious of the labour and industry requisite for the getting of understanding and
use of all earthly things that we may watch and to watch that we may escape the danger of spiritual enimies which watch for our destruction When thou sittest to eat with a ruler sayth the wise man consider diligently what is before thee and put thy knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to thine appetite They that eat with rulers or where there is varietie of delicates are apt enough to consider diligently what is before them but it is for the most part not to restreyn their appetite as it should be but rayther to provoke it But a wise man will consider of his temptations to escape the danger of them a foole to provoke himself to swallow them the more greedily as the fish doth the bayt with the hook under it He onely is not overtaken with unlawfull things who inureth himself at times to absteyn from many things lawfull He that will go as near the ditch as he can will at some time or other fall in So he who will take all the libertie that possibly he may lawfully cannot but fall into many unlawfull things Thereupon Austins mother would not allow the young mayds committed to her government to drink as much water as they would least afterwards becomming wives and having plentie they should use excesse in wyne CHAP. XXXI Of Liberality and its contraries LIberalitie teacheth us to bestow our worldly goods when upon whom and as we ought in obedience unto God and for mens good This is to be done without hope of requitall from them as not being a mercinary vertue but that wherein a man looks to his dutie to others and not to profit from them Els it is not liberality rightly performed but a bargayn well made Neyther is that to be accounted liberalitie which is done for vayn glory seeing the work is named from the affection Least of all that when men give to some that they may take from others This is rayther theeverie upon condition Many account themselvs and are by others accounted not onely liberall but even bounteous because they give great gifts whereas if we consider the persons on whom and the ends for which they so pour out themselvs and their mony and other mens also oft tymes we shall see that in truth they deserv no more the name of liberall then those prodigals do who bestow their goods upon harlots for the satisfying of their lusts For as that is not a benefit which wants the best part of it namely to be given in iudgment so neyther is that liberalitie which wants that part but the casting away of a mans goods This vertue exercised in great states and gifts is called bountie and a hingly vertue But may preserv the due respect of liberalitie in the smallest matters and by the poorest persons if it be constant which rayther teacheth to give a litle to many then much to few This was verifyed in the churches of Macedonia towards the poore Saints in Ierusaelem whose deep povertie abounded unto their rich liberalitie The same is confirmed by our Saviours testimonie of the poore widows contribution of two mites that she gave therein more then all the rich men None can give more and therein be more liberall then he that leavs himself litle or nothing On the contrary None can spare more and therein be more covetous then he that will not do the litle which he can do and his neighbour stands in need of It is the dangerous errour of poore men that onely the rich are covetous or liberall They may be and oft are as very mizers and odiously covetous in their penny as the other in their pound So may they be as liberall Every one sayth Solomon is a freind to a man of gifts which have in them sayth another a kinde of secret force to draw the mindes of men as the loadstone draweth iron and that not onely of them that desire to use the liberalitie of others but of such also as neither need nor would use the same Look what liberalitie looseth a man in his purse it gets him in a better place not onely in heauen but in earth also and the best place there the hearts of men and their loving affection On the contrarie covetous men are contemned and hated not onely of them whom they wrong by unjust getting or keeping but by all others that know them though all dare not so manifest Their credit with others and comfort in themselvs is onely in their purses It is a question amongst learned men whether of the two extreames of liberalitie prodigalitie in the excesse or covetousnes in the defect is worse but something the lesse needfull to be determined considering how often they meet together in the same person and beget eyther the other Many lust and desire to have and sometimes obteyn that they may consume upon their pleasures like unto kites and gleads and other ravenous birds who are ever watching and catching for prey and yet remain ever caryon-lean converting the greatest part of their nourishment into long feathers As some desire riches that they may haue them so a great part of the covetousnes reigning in the world is to maintayn prodigall expences that look what covetousnes hath gathered together ryot may lash out and consume For men as well as women being with child of ryot and excesse in diet apparrel and other worldly vanities long â—or riches and great gettings to nourish and maintain their lusts without which they are in danger to cast their calf On the other side they who scape best with prodigalitie are driven to repair their too great lavishnes in one thing by too great nigardlines in another But as it was said of Cataline that he was prodigall of his own and covetous of other mens so the greatest mispenders for the most part are constreyned to be as great misgetters to feed one vice by another Hence some borrow without means or meaning to pay again circumvent others if they haue more cunning then they oppresse them if they have more power and some are driven to plain theeverie violent or secret Yet if we will compare together these two naughts we shall finde covetousnes the worse of the twayn For first it is the root of all evill for that there is no evill fruit but will grow of it Iudas sould Christ for it And manie thousand daylie sell their bodies and souls to sin and hell for it and would sell Christ if he were in their hands whereas wise men and lawyers count the prodigall raither vayn or at the worst but half mad and not capable of governing his own goods then mischeivous Secondly Covetousnes is â—â— the Apostle called Idolatrie not in the common condition of all sinns in which men either in affection or effect esteeme of transitorie vanities aboue God and despise him in comparison of them but especially for that they
fond love of parents the family This love Salomon respecting the effect more then the affection cals hatred saying He that spareth his rod hateth his son Notwithstanding this and that God hath left power and charge also of punishments in all societies family church and common wealth which they that exercise bear the image of Gods justice and holynes the honour whereof they are to preserv and to breed and continue in them over whom they are set a reverend aw of their authoritie for their good yet considering both mans frailtie and pronenes to offend and miserie in suffering for offences all in authoritie should still encline to the more favourable part and rayther to come short then to exceed measure in punishing even where the offence is evident and where it is doubtfull to forbear at any hand He that punisheth another whether as judg or exequutioner eyther must know legally that he hath done evill and deserved it otherwise the authoritie of the whole world cannot bear him out from being a murtherer before God The law which sayth Thou shalt not murther forbids specially violence in judgment Besides punishments must be administred with sorrow and commiseration as rewards with joy and gladnes It is pittie men should deserv punishments and deserving them pittie but they should have them yet are we to pitty them in their miserie also which he that doth remembers himself to be a man Lastly it is worthy the observing which one hath that in all punishments respect is to be had to things to come rayther then past For howsoever the punishment be just onely in lieu of the offence committed yet is it profitable onely because it tends to prevent after offences eyther in the person punished or in others warned by it And hereupon another would not have a wise man punish because an offence is committed but least it should be committed afterwards of which the former renders this reason that things past cannot be recalled but things to come may be prevented Temporary torments specially those more great are greivous to conceav of how much more to undergoe yet will the sad and serious consideration of those that are eternall eat them up as it were and make them seem nothing in comparison Whereupon it was that Polycarpus tould the proconsul who threatned to burn him if he did not renounce Christ Thou threatnest me with the fire which would burn for a time but presently after should be extinguished because thou art ignorant of the fire of the judgment to come prepared for the eternall punishment of the wicked Fear not them then which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul But rayther fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell CHAP. LIIII Of the Affections of the minde OVR affections as love sorrow fear and the rest are common to us with bruit beasts which therefore the understanding must order that they be not bruiteish and with them the will for its yeilding of consent to their motions or withholding it from them But as the litle sticks set the greater wood a burning so do they most what set the understanding and will aworking in sensuall objects For example One sees a naturally pleasing good thing but belonging to another or not to him as Achans wedg of gold His affection of love and appetite is inordinately caryed unto it and is ready to sollicit the will to consent to the getting and enjoying of it But now if the understanding do its dutie it steps in represseth the affection and restreyneth the will by discerning and discovering that the good thing desyred is anothers and therefore not to be desyred or had by him But as the fumes arysing from a corrupt stomack darken and dim the bodily eyes so in sensuall persons the understanding is commonly besides its own inherent blyndnes so corrupted with partiall and brutish affections as that it neglecteth all due search and disquisiâ—ion and unadvisedly judgeth that good which is pleasing to appetite and sense and so being sweyed and led by the affections as a foolish waggoner by his horses draws with it the wils consent which obteyned the evill is done in Gods account and wants onely opportunitie for outward effect Although the seat of the affections be the soul whose motions they are and not the bodyes yet do they more or lesse vehemently and efficatiously act and exercise themselvs as the blood and spirits the souls immediate instruments are more or lesse fitted to their hand Hence is it that anger in the heart moved by some occasion is so vehement in a cholerick body sorrow or fear in a melancholick and so for the rest These our affections are eyther merely naturall in us or sanctifyed by grace or morally corrupt and inordinate Nature and so naturall affections is content with a litle corruption not with a great deal as the thirst which is naturall is quenched with a draught or two but that which is unnaturall and agueish not with a whole vessell of drink This and the reason of it he layes down wittily that sayth Naturall desires are finite but those arysing from false opinion have no limits as he that goes his right way hath some end of his journey he that wanders none And as for sanctified affections they alasse are too feeble in us and as Iehu was known by his furtous marching so may they be by their soft and lazy pace neyther if they were excessive were they sanctified that is directed by grace and good reason nor are they easily so if they be any thing vehement but have commonly too much flesh mingled with them And no marvayl for setting our affections above where Christ is and whither the spirit of grace advanceth them we clime up the hill and withall draw after us the clog of our flesh lusting the contrarie way whereas sensuall men led by their lusts goe down the hill and are caryed headlong to evill Besides sensuall objects are present to the outward senses by which the affections are moved but things spirituall are seen a far of as needing the direction and discourse of fayth for provokeing of affection unto them which makes their work in this case more weak and slow Yet being created faculties they are the greater the better if rightly ordered And so it is not unbrobably sayd by some that Christ had the greatest fear sorrow anger c. upon him that ever man had or could have But as the stronger the horses in the waggon are though the better yet the more dangerous so are those horses of the soul in us lest by misguidance they overthrow all And as for violent and inordinate affections the person in whom they are found how wise or wel meaning soever otherwise or howsoever bent upon some good course is no more to be trusted to then the charyot drawn by unbroken horses going for the present quietly on and in a good way
OBSERVATIONS DIVINE AND MORALL FOR THE FURTHERING of knowledg and vertue By Iohn Robbinson Prov. 9. 9. Give Instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser teach a just man and he will encrease in learning Printed in the year M. DC XXV THE PREFACE IN framing these myne OBSERVATIONS Christian Reader I have had as is meet first and most regard to the holy Scriptures in which respect I call them DIVINE next to the memorable Sayings of wise learned men which I have read or heard and carefully stored up as a pretious treasure for mine own and others benefit and lastly to the great volume of mens manners which I have diligently observed and from them gathered no small part thereof having also had in the dayes of my pilgrimage speciall opportunitie of conversing with persons of divers nations estates and dispositions in great varietie The names of the authors specially known out of whom I gathered any thing I have for the most part expressed partly to give them their due and partly that the authoritie of their persons might procure freer passage for their worthy and wise sayings with others and make the deeper impression of them in the readers heart In the method I have been neyther curious nor altogether negligent as the reader may observ Now as this kinde of study and meditation hath been unto me full sweet and delightfull and that wherein I have often refreshed my soul and spirit amids many sad sorrowfull thoughts unto which God hath called me so if it may finde answerable acceptance with the christian Reader and a blessing from the Lord it is that which I humbly crave specially at his hands who both ministreth seed to the sower fruit to the reaper Amen IOHN ROBBINSON CAP. I. Of Mans knowledg of God THe Lord giveth wisdom and out of his mouth cometh knowledg and understanding saith Salomon and therein warneth us to lay our ear close to the mouth of God and when he speaketh once we may hear twice and having our closed hearts opened by his Spirit may attend to the words of grace and wisdom which proceed from him and are able to make us wise to salvation As all our wisdom to happinesse consists summarily in the knowledg of God and of our selues so is it not easie to determine whether of the two goes before the other But as neither can be without other in any competent or profitable measure or manner and as in vain the ey of the mind is lifted up to see God which is not fit to see it self so seem the reasons of most weight which prefer the knowledg of God to the first place For first God in his Word and Works is the rule and measure of mans goodnesse and man at his best but formed and reformed after Gods Image As in Nature the rule is before that which is to be ruled by it so must it be in our knowledg Secondly such is our in-bred pride and hipocrisie as that whilst we looke only upon our selus and upon other Creatures here below we think we are some-body for goodnesse and vertue but are then brought to that confusion in our selus which is requisite for our humiliation when we come to take some knowledg of the super-excellencie of God even as our bodily ey forth-with dazeleth being cast upon the bright Sun how quick and strong-sighted soever it seem whilst it is set onely upon earthly objects Thirdly so absolutely necessarie is the knowledg of God as that we can ascribe nothing as is meet unto him of whom and for whom we and all things are till we first know him in his Word and Works but even in our best devotions with the superstitious Athenians shall build our Altars to the unknown God and with the blinde Samaritans worship we know not what To conclude He that pretends the service of God yet knows him not in his Word and Works of Creation Redemption also wherein his face is seen is like him that counterfeits himself to be the houshold Servant of some great Lord whose face he never saw nor once came within his Court gates Some ambitious and curious wits but not able no marvail to raise up advance their notions to God his infinitenesse for the comprehending of it have laboured to depresse pull him down to their dwarfish conceptions of him and have indeed rather made him some great and giant like man or Angel then as he is in truth an infinite God allowing him an essence power and wisdom hugely great but not properly infinite and immence as though God could not be that which they cannot conceive of him The essence of God is known onely to himself but is undiscernable to all men and Angels partly by reason of its infinitenes which therefore no finite understanding can comprehend and partly for that no voice signe or form can sufficiently expresse it either to sence or reason And if God have placed such light glorie in some created bodies as that we cannot intentively fix our bodily ey upon them without dazeling what marvail is it though the ey of the understanding of all men and Angels dazle in the too curious intentive contemplation of his infinite infinitely glorious Majestie it self So as if the most wise learned Christians should with the heathen Phylosopher undertake to descry Gods being they would be compelled as he was after one daies respite to crave two and after two four so still to double the time with acknowledgment that the more they searched into it the more unsearchable it appeared Albeit the understanding of man though glorified cannot possibly comprehend Gods infinite being yet shall we coming to enjoy the blessed uision of God where of the Angels and Spirits of iust men perfited are made partakers know in a far both greater measure more excellent and immediate manner then now we do We now walk by faith not by sight as we then shall do We now see through a glasse darkly but then face to face knowing him even as we are known of him And for the present we are by the means of revelation vouchsafed us his Word Works partly within and partly without us to be led in our praiers praises meditations of God to such a being for the object thereof as in which first there is nothing which hath the least affinity with the imperfection found in any creature for the expressing whereof those attributes serve which we call negative as immortall invisible a spirit that is no body the like shewing what God is not though not what he is 2 Which is that eminently infinitely essentially which we in the creature call power wisdom goodnesse whatsoever els imports any perfection and thirdly which is that first fountain originall of all goodnes in all creatures And by these three stayers doth our understanding raise up it self frō created things
person that sinneth with all his parts and powers of soul and body is Gods work so is the preservation and sustentation of both person and personall abilities so is the naturall motion it self whether within or without the person in which the sin is like the halting in the Horses going and lastly so is not onely the voluntarie permission of the sin which he could easily hinder by his omnipotent power if he would oppose it but also the ordering both of sin and sinner to his own supernaturall ends For example The act of Iudah and Thamar morally considered was sinfull and impure but naturally good and blessed of God with a Son of whom Christ came according to the flesh So the abhominable sins of Absolom were ordered of God unto most just punishments of the sins of his Father David There is a two-fold use of the world and works of God in it the one naturall the other supernaturall The former is common to men with beasts who are alike cherished with the heat and influence of the Sun alike nourished by the Fruits of the Earth The other is peculiar to men with the holy Angels by which they behold the face of the Creators power wisdom goodnesse c. as in a most clear Looking-glasse and are provoked accordingly to praise and glorifie him in his wonderfull works even as by beholding some curious piece of workmanship much more if therewith we have singular use of it of a skilfull Artificer we are led in the view of the work to the commendation of the workman And look how much the Soul excelleth the body yea the Spirituall man the naturall so much is this use of Gods creatures more excellent then the former And so the opinion of the Philosopher who thought he was born to look upon the Sun and Heavens was not wide but short nor absurd but defective For he should have pierced further even through the Heavens unto him that made and governs them whose glorious power and goodnesse shineth in them that so he might have glorified him as God in his works For though by that glimpse of light in the Creatures we cannot attain to the knowledg of God as our Father in Christ yet are we both to honour him according to it and to be provoked by it to further search and enquirie after him in such means of revelation as by which he further manifests himself which are his Word and Gospel of Salvation Even as he that lying in a dark Dungeon spies some small glimpse of light will groap toward it by the wall hoping to finde some dore or window by which it comes in For neglect of this the verie wisest of the Heathens were left inexcusable and not glorifying God whom they knew in his works of creation of the World but vanishing in their own imaginations and serving the Creature rather then the Creator who is blessed for ever were given over of God to a minde void of judgment to do the things which are inconvenient Now of how much sorer punishment shall we be guiltie if together with this lesser glimpse of Divine light by the creatures we despise also the more glorious light of the Gospel not honouring God aright either as our powerfull Creatour or mercifull Redeemer by Christ Iesus But if we so honour him and make him great in our own hearts and before men what we can as he hath manifested and made known himself in his Word and Works he will honour us with himself for ever in glorie CAP. V. Of created goodnesse EVerie thing that is and hath being is in that regard good and of God The naturall parts and powers of body and Soul of most wicked men remain in themselvs notwithstanding all infection of evill in them Gods good Creatures so do the naturall acts and motions of those parts and powers in themselvs considered notwithstanding any morall accessorie of evill in them ariseing either from the evill affection wherewith or unlawfull object upon which they are performed There can be no evill in the Work which is not first in the Worker as the cause And so a wicked person being worse then a wicked action if the sin prevail not so far as to make the part or facultie of the person in which it is to cease to be a part or power created of God neither doth it so far prevail in the action or work as to make it cease to be in it self a created motion and therein a naturall good thing God is and so by all is to be acknowledged for the giver of everie good gift that is of everie thing save sin which sin is nothing that hath being in nature but an absence of and crosnesse to that which should be as darknesse is of and unto light And so the good Father would not say that his Mother gave him Milk but God by her And though the good which we enjoy come unto us by never so ready and ample means yet must we alwaies religiously minde that both the means are of Gods raysing and ordering and the blessing upon them for our good And if Iob saw by Faith that all the evils and harms that came unto him and his though by the Divels and wicked mens means were from the Lord as supream orderer of all things how much more should we look upon God as the Authour and worker of all the good that befalleth us Notwithstanding if God so far honour any persons as to make them hands and instruments specially voluntarie for the reaching of any blessing unto us from himself we also and that even therefore are to love and honour them as David not onely blessed the Lord as the Authour but Abigail also as the Minister of the good counsell which she gave him for the not avenging of himself upon Nabal Actions besides their naturall entitie or being are by one distinguished and that aptly according to a four-fold goodnesse First An action is sometimes good in it self and to them to whom it is done but not to the doer as works of mercie done but not for God Secondly Good in it self and in the doer but not to him to whom it is done as the Preaching of the Word to them that despise it Thirdly Good in it self and the doers and to them to whom it is done as the same Preaching to him that receivs it Fourthly Though neither good in it self nor in the doer nor for him to whom it is done as an evill or injurie yet good as it is ordered by God to an end supernaturally good Who as saith another would not suffer evill but as knowing how to work good out of it In actions of the third kinde onely goodnesse is entire in all it parts and relations A man should never glorie in that good how great soever which is common to a beast with him nor a wise man in that which is common to a fool with him no
of riches and think them so much esteemed of by others as that if they seem not to the world to have them their life is a death unto them and therefore they will be sure to make a fayr outside and appear rich though they be nothing lesse The other esteeming themselvs happy in having and keeping them conceal and spare that theyr treasure what they can least by haveing it known they should be occasioned one way or other to diminish it Both are injurious to God to other men and to themselvs To God in belying him the former as if he had given them that which he hath not the latter as not haveing given them that which he hath To others the former in getting into their hands the riches which they cannot satisfy for or credit which they deserv not the latter by with-holding both from God and men their due To themselvs the former in frustrateing the occasion of humiliation unto which the Lord by poverty cals them the latter by preventing or quenching the provocations unto thankfulnes to God for his plenty bestowed upon them besides other comfortable effects thereof The Apostle poynts at some Christians so called that will be rich even whether God will or no and say he what he will and almost do he what he can to hinder it They will be rich if it may be keeping fayth and good conscience in outward profession If that will not be they will be rich without them and rayther loose their own souls then not gayn the world But wo be unto them for they run greedily after the errour of Balaam and will haue God also run with them otherwise he is not for their company CHAP. XXX Of Sobriety THE grace of God in Christ his gospell which hath appeared teacheth us as well to live soberly as iustly and godlily in the world And he that is not sober in himself useing and desireing moderately the good things of this naturall life as meat drink apparrell sleep pastime credit and the rest will neyther converse righteously with men nor piously with God He that takes more to himself then is due to him cannot give eyther God or men theyr due Nature is content with few and small things for though the belly will be craveing yet it is no exacting creditour but will be satisfied with a small proportion which to presse with superfluityes makes things eyther unpleasant or hurtfull It is reasonable to deal with if we give it but what we owe and not what we can In reproof of glutâ—ony and excesse one sayth that the throat hath killed more then the sword And I think it may be truly sayd that how hard soever it have gone with many in the world at times that more haue receaved hurt by eating too much then too litle And though many be of mynde that by devouring a great deal they shall make their bodyes the stronger and lives the longer yet is there reason to think that were not men provoked by company and sensuall objects or misled by inordinate appetite or miswonted by custom even half the meat and drink which the most use would affoard as long and strong a state of body and bodily health as they do enjoy Moderate dyet sayth one is good both for the soul and body and so is it for the estate also and the contrary pernitious God both saying and ordering that he that loveth wyne and oyl shall not be rich He especially if he be a poore man and of small means that will this worlds goods win must at his belly begin It is a base and beastly thing for a man to give himself to eating and drinking or to eyther of them neyther are such to be reckoned sayth one among men but beasts But for a man to be so inordinate as to hurt eyther his body or minde by excesse as a riotous youth delivers over to old age a feeble body and more feeble mynde and destitute for the most part both of wisdom and grace is to follow the basest of beasts and to become swynish Few other beasts save Swyne will over-eat themselvs Neyther is it any sufficient excuse for him that hath plenty to be excessive more then for the cook that had made the meat oversalt to say that he had store of salt by him Neyther yet excuseth it that by custom some are able as they say to bear their drink and not be overcome by it For albeit drunckennes in this be very odious that whereas other sins deprive persons of Gods image it deprives them of mans leaving them the use neyther of reason nor speech in which two things man differs specially from beasts no nor of sense and motion accordingly wherein beasts excell stocks and stones but so blockifyes them for the present that neyther hand nor foot can do their office yet the Lord by the prophet denounceth a wo not onely against them that are overcome by drink which may befal some by a very litle through naturall weaknes of brayn but against them who can overcome it being mightie to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink Considering that meat and so for other bodily good things makes us not the more acceptable before God and that God will destroy both the belly in that use and meat it should teach us in the mean while moderately to use all things for the belly and naturall life But if besides these considerations we weigh with our selvs how unworthy our sins make us of the least comfort by any of Gods creatures specially if with these things concerning our selvs we weigh how many in the world and those of the Lords faythfull servants stand in need of meat drink c. for their naturall necessitie If there be in us eyther fear of God or love of men it will work in us a great conscience not to mispend any thing vaynly or riotously wherewith we might comfort the hearts of them that need it And they who in this case will not be warned by Moses and the Prophets nor by Christ and the Apostles neyther shall with the glutton feel the torment of the flame of hel for their excesse in themselvs and unmercifulnes towards others The speciall use of wine and strong drink is that the heavy of heart and readie to perish might drink and forget his povertie and miserie But the abuse is more common then the use by which the strong and stout take the greatest part therein drinking many times till they forget both God and them selvs whilst the other languish in want and sorrow Christ and his Apostles oftens joyn in their exhortations sobrietie and watchfulnes together For drunckennes and gluttonie make men fitter for sleeping then watching And so doth all excesse in bodily things draw with it carnall securitie and securitie destruction We are therefore to be sober in the desire and
with application to the present state of things is not to hold decorum but hath an appearance more oratour then preacher-like We are never simply to desire crosses because they are naturall evils nor to abhor from them because we know they work together with our election calling justification and sanctification for our good Not as causes thereof as the forenamed are for the effects of sin cannot be the causes of righteousnes or happines nor yet as means properly as are the word sacraments prayer and examples of good men but onely as occasions capable of sanctification to our use which sins properly are not as having no good in them as such whereas afflictions have a morall good in them as they are of God and by him inflicted Though to speak of crosses most properly God sanctifies us to them in giving us grace to make a right use of them And considering how it is both good for us to be afflicted and that God hath promised that no good thing shall be lacking to them that fear him we are thus to make account that God afflicts us as he doth not onely in justice for sin but in faythfulnes also that is both in mercy and in truth of promise and must accordingly confesse with the man of God I know O Lord that thy judgments are righteous and that thou in faithfulnes hast afflicted me and so must learn to take our severall crosses at Gods hands not onely patiently but thankfully We have cause to thank our selvs and our sins that wholesom things both for body and soul are for the most part bitter and greivous to our nature and to thank God that makes afflictions bitter-sweets by turning deserved curses into fatherly corrections to us It is commonly receaved for truth that in all adversitie the greatest miserie is sometimes to have been happy But we must here use a distinction If we onely respect the time in which we are in miserie apart from the former time we are both more sensible of our present miserie by remembring our former happines and also more tender and delicate and so lesse able to bear it But if we consider our whole life together then the lesse time we are afflicted the lesse our afflictions are in that respect and so must be mynded of us It is not nothing that God hath given us to passe over some part of our dayes in peace and with comfort neyther must we be so unthankfull as to account it no benefit because it is past but we must contrarywise something quiet ourselvs in our present affliction with the remembrance of Gods goodnes in our former peace as did our example of patience who in the extreamitie of his present distresse sayd shall we receav good at the hand of God and shall we not receav evill Reason teacheth this except in a case when God lifts up a man on high that he may the more violently through him down how much more fayth which perswades the godly mans heart that the Lord loves him as well as much in his after afflicted estate as he did before in his prosperous as the gold-smith esteems his gold as much though melting in the furnace as glittering in the shop and that the same God will both give patience and strength of fayth according to the tryall and encrease of strength if he encrease the affliction as also full deliverance in due time He will redeem Israel from all his trouble As even good men perform their whole duetie to God with some corruption mingled among so God promiseth and performeth accordingly the good things of this life with exception of the crosse and tribulation If we could amend the one God would leav out the other The Lord who tryed Abraham in his son Isaak whom he loved and the rich young man in his riches which he loved knows well in what veyn to strike a man that the blood may follow The more we love any earthly thing we are the more in danger to be crossed in or about it Not that God envyes our delights as one man often envyes anothers but eyther because we do or lest we should surfet in affections towards it Most men are moved too much with their own miseryes in this world melting in them as wax in the sun so as they are unapt to hold any impression eyther of fayth or reason but are too litle moved with other mens calamities not affoarding them so much as a compassionate affection Yet may and doth the contrary extream of over pittying others also prevayl with some Against both which it is good to consider that eyther we and they reap spirituall benefit by our afflictions or no. If the former that may and ought to moderate the greif If not there is cause of greater greif for after greater afflictions to come upon us and them A man may much encrease or lessen a crosse by the course which he suffers his mynde to run in it seeing all crosses have some conveniencies joyned with them as all commodities have some discommodities If a man set his thoughts a work upon the inconveniencies and discommodityes alone which are in it he shall heap sorrow upon sorrow But if on the contrary he draw into consideration such conveniencyes as usually fall in with their contraryes he shall alwaies finde some matter of ease and sometimes that meat comes out of the eater and that which at first seemed a crosse is rayther a benefit It is a most dangerous thing for any to deem his afflictions extraordinarie least by so doing he prejudice himself against ordinary comforts which we should with readynes and thankfulnes embrace and not look for angels from heaven to comfort us or for manna from heaven to feed us CHAP. XXXIIII Of Injuries AN Injurie say the Lawyers is whatsoever is not done justly In one and the same act may be found both sin against God and injurie against man And therefore in cases of wrong done either by violence or deceit the offender under the law was bound both to make restitution to the wronged and also to bring his trespas offering to the priest to make an atonement for him before the Lord. Sometimes the sin is taken away and the iniurie remayns as when the person which hath wronged another truly repents but is not able to make satisfaction Sometimes on the other side the injurie is taken away and the sin remayns viz. when the offender makes satisfaction by compulsion or for shame but repents not before God Sometimes both are taken away and sometimes neyther as both or neyther satisfaction to men and repentance towards God is performed Between the injurying and offending of a man there is this difference that we may injurie him that is altogether ignorant of it but can offend onely him that takes knowledg of some evil in truth or appearance done by us whether with injury or not The more power any hath to
not so much as our affections do encline but that on the contrarie we wholly abhor from it in the very first rising we may gather it to be rayther by suggestion from Sathan then of our own concupiscence And as it is not in our power to avoyd the outward presentations of evill by wicked men to our eye or ear but we are compelled oftens to see and hear their unlawfull works and words as did Lot the Sodomites so neyther seemeth it to be in our power to avoyd the bare thoughts of evill which are not alwayes evill thoughts by Sathans Suggestions but that he being a spirit and spirituall wickednes can present them to our spirits more effectually then can any man object and offer outward and corporeall provocations to our outward and bodily senses As Christ our Lord after the glorious testimonie given of him by his Father from heaven and by the Holy Ghost sitting upon him in the form of a dove and by Ihon the baptist both in word and deed was immediately led into the wildernes by the spirit to be tempted of the divell so must christians make account after the speciall testimonies of Gods love receaved of some singular combat of temptation for their tryall wherein if they overcome the love of God is thereby as it were sealed up unto their hearts Holy men therefore prospering in vertue must exult and count it all joy when they fall into divers temptations and are exercised in them by the divine providence for the tryall of their fayth and therewith of Gods gratious power which is perfited in their weaknes this way There are none of Gods servants but in the case of temptation have reaped the fruit of his singular providence towards them sometimes in preventing such temptations as if they had come upon them in their full strength would have been most like if not clean to have overthrown them yet to have caused their greivous fall by which they have through Gods providence sitting at the stern glyded as a ship by the side of a rock sometimes in guyding them even in the verie midst of temptations compassing them about like so many sands and sometimes by helping and haleing them off even when they have stuck fast and been ready to sinck in them Many have been the bodily dangers known and not known which by Gods good providence we have escaped but how many more those that are spirituall in which we had been utterly swallowed up a thousand times if his gratious hand from heaven had not releived us Now besides those common to all everie person hath his speciall temptations arising eyther from his temper of body or sex or age or education or custome or state or calling or company or other occasion against which he must watch most carefully as men use to watch in the gates of a câ—ity beseiged and in such other places as in which the enemy is likest to make his assault in which if we quit our selvs as men and stand fast we shall have our part in his comforts who sayd I was upright with him and I kept my self from mine iniquitie Some have thought it a wise Christian course in the confession of our secret sius resydeing in the heart unto God not to use the outward voyce for fear of acquainting Sathan with them thereby and so of advantageing him to tempt us by applying himself to that wherein he seeth us likest to sin As it is certain that he knows not our hearts at all as God doth by immediate insight but gathers them by the motions and manifestations of the body so considering that he himself is the originall of all evill mediately or immediately it is like he is for the most part acquainted with his own work in men And so it is good wisdom in us to prefer the best manner of acknowledging our sins to God for the advantaging of our repentance before the fear of discovering our corruption to the divell Christ our Lord teaching us to pray that God would not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evill one would warn us not to lead our selvs into temptations nor to deliver our souls into Sathans hands which yet we do by affecting familiaritie with wicked men which are as it were his brokers by omitting duties of religion publiquely or privately or doing them unfruitfully by neglecting our speciall callings and doing nothing and thereby giveing him opportunitie to tempt us to do evill and lastly by opening too wide the windows of our outward senses towards allureing objects By these means we not onely tempt God to leav us but the divell after a sort to tempt us We have a promise that if we resist him he will fly from us but that is when he assalts us and not when we challenge him as it were with his own weapons wherewith he hath foyled so many He that thus puts himself within the reach of his paws shall hardly scape being torn in peices by him Let us commit our selvs unto Gods safe keep-in all our wayes but not come in Sathans way lest we advantage his mallice and put our selvs out of Gods protection As the saylers skill is seen in carrying his ship through a storm so is the strength of fayth in vanquishing dangerous temptations Yet must we not measure the state of a man too much by that which befals him in some or other such dangerous tryall There are few so evill but have at times their temptations that I may so speak to some particular good by which they are caryed lesse or more that way and few or none so good but on the contrarie have temptations to evill in which at times something humayn befals them Now to judg of mens persons according to some such few particulars contrary to their generall course were partiallitie The wicked fall not into evill but lye groveling in evill The godly fall sometimes by occasion but God is faythfull who with the temptation maketh a way for his to escape by their renuall of repentance and victorie of fayth And though in those their wrestlings they get a wrench and limp afterwards as Iacob did yet they have power and prevayl and go on as he did in their way CAP. XLVII Of Conscience EVerie mans conscience is as it were a second God within him both to judg of his actions within and without him and also of his person and personall state and whether in it he be accepted of God or not And surely a great good work of God it is that he hath created and set such an overseer as this conscience is in the soul of man by which if he doe any thing amisse he is checked in secret that so by repentance he may finde mercy at Gods hands And how good is it sayth one that this worm should be felt whilst it may be killed and gnaw for a time that it may be
but which will quickly take a toy and indanger the overthrow of all As in a tempestuous sea the waves in the same place are sometimes lifted up and the depths at other times disclosed so in an unmortifyed and passionate heart one unlawfull inordinate passion often breaks into the contrarie as evill and inordinate as it as did Ammons inordinate love to his sister Thamar into as excessive hatred So some of extreamly prodigall become extreamly covetous of credulous suspitious of mad-merry sad without measure The cause is for that such persons are not led by the lore of reason or conscience but caryed headlong by pangs of passion and withall driven by the divell and so must needs go and run too though up and down the same way and forward and backward after his will As in a fish-pond some one great pike devours both the lesser fish of other kindes and of its own also so in divers some one affection is so predominate as it eats up not onely reason and conscience but with them almost all other affections Many are so sowred with discontentment and sorrow that they appear to have place left for nothing els in their heart some are set upon so merry a pin as if they had the image of laughter which Licurgus set up for the Lacedemonians ever before them Others again are so overgrown with anger as they seem to have no blood but choller running in their veyns If any danger be comeing towards them which all reason would teach them to fear specially they will pick a quarrell at something in or about it to set anger and indignation awork If God send greivous crosses upon them and thereby call them to mourning it shall go hard but they will finde what to be angry at in some person or other to turn the stream that way It is some disparagement ordinarily to the government of a wise man specially in their eyes who haue no share in the motive to make great manifestation of affection one or other therefore Ioseph when he would make himself known affectionately to his brethren commanded all the Egiptians out of the place So Zachariah foretelling the extream mourning which shall be by the familyes in Ierusalem when God shall pour upon them the spirit of grace shews that every family shall mourn apart and their wives apart Yet are there cases in which it stands as well with wisdom to manifest great affections as with grace or nature to have them And this David prudently considered and practised at Abners Funerall We should order our affections before we have any speciall provocations and set down with our selvs what may be before hand that if such or such a thing come to passe we will allow it such and such a measure of its compatible affection and no more that as feirce dogs though provoked by other mens voyces yet are quieted by their masters voyce to which they are used so the feirce motions of the minde may be by reasons voice with which they are formerly acquainted for that purpose made still and quiet These motions and affections are well ordered when they rise and fall according to the varietie and weight of objects To be greatly affected with small occurrences is womanlike weaknes litle with great matters stoicall blockâ—shnes And me-thinks he that hath a life to loose and considers it well should not easily come to fear excessively the losse of his goods nor he the losse of his bodily life who hath a soul to loose or save for ever And therefore Christ our Lord bids Fear not him that can kill the body and then hath shot his sting and can hurt no more but fear him who can cast both body and soul into hell As physitions fearing a mans over-bleeding at the nose open a veyn in the arm thereby to turn the course of the blood another way so we finding one affection or other inordinate in us and like to overflow if we cannot so rule and represse it as is meet by good reason shall do well to set some other affection a working by some moveing and lawfull object that so the stream being turned another way we may disappoint the passion which we cannot so well order For example If a man finde himself in danger of exoâ—bitancy in anger it is good for him to set afoote sorrow or fear by some such lawfull object as God offers him and so for other passions of the minde Or if the stream of the affection happ to run so strong as that we can not well turn it another way it is wisdom to get it upon some such object in the same way as wherein it may freely take its scope as the horse that can not be stayed yet may be guided into such a way as in which there is no great danger how fast soever he runs which may also be so heavie as will keep him from running fast in it Thus if sorrow fear or anger be like to work inordinately in us let us set them upon our sins and so the danger of all excesse will soon be over for the most part And indeed it is no small point of christian wisdom for a man to provide fit matter for his affections especially predominant in him to be exercised in Is any among you afflicted sayth the Apostle let him pray Is any merry let him sing Psalmes And by this means he shall neyther loose his own advantage for good nor further Sathans for evill by any passion or affection in him CAP. LV. Of Fear FEar hath onely evill for the object eyther evill in it self as is sin or to him that feareth as are the effects thereof temporall or eternall punishment and the anger of God inflicting them It is a base affection and the cognisance of the creatures infirmitie shewing him to be subject to evill from the fear whereof onely the creatour is absolutely free And so whereas courage and stoutnes of heart though none of the best procures unto men a kinde of respect in the eyes of others fear though better used makes them more contemptible A lyon is more regarded then many oxen though one oxe be of more use both for labour and meat and otherwise then many lyons But God loves rayther a good then a great heart And in the law Gods sacrifices were to be offered of lambs and kids and doves and pigeons fearfull creatures and innocent withall and not of Lyons and Eagles though they be the kings of beasts and birds There is in man a threefold fear of God arising from a threefold apprehension of his Majestie the first is of God as our glorious creatour and governour this is naturall The second as of a just and angry Lord which is servile The third as of our gratious Father in Christ called and being filiall All these are found in the true fearers of God in this life though the midle least which perâ—it love driveth out
hearing of it his heart dyed in him and he became like a stone These lyons paws and roarings amongst the poore beasts are odious in civill administrations more in domesticall most of all in church-governments where they are found which ought to be specially doctrinall and exemplarie Let us fear as we ought the doing of wrong to others over whom we have advantage and God will so provide that we shall not excessively fear hurt from them who have power to hurt us CHAP. LVI Of Anger ANger as fear and sorrow and other affections of aversnes hath onely evill in truth or appearance for the object on which it worketh But whereas fear and sorrow out of a kinde of impotency withdraw the person fearing or sorrowing from the evill feared or sorrowed for Aâ—geâ— in strength and stoutnes as being the strongest of aâ—â—â—ffections intends the driveing away and dâ—peâ—iâ—g of the evill at and against which it riseth Which being also as Chrisippâ—s cals it and experience confirms a blinde thing there is nothing so sacred and precious which it will spare but without difference it flyeth where the wings are not clipt upon friends as well as foes and upon unreasonable creatures as well as upon men And so Zerxes in anger bet the sea and threatned the mountayns if they hindred his passage Yea it will not spare the truth it self if it be against its purpose No nor God neyther as we may see not onely in furious blasphemers or peircers of God as the word imports but even in the prophet himself who was angry even to the death at God for sparing Niniveâ— It is therefore rightly called a short fury as differing from playn madnes in nothing but time And in truth it is pittie that they in whom it reigns specially pleasing themselvs in its fits are not chayned up like mad men or that they have eyther riches or strength or authoritie or wit or any thing els to hurt with It were good he had no other thing in his power who is not in his own power as no angry man is If a wrathfull man saw himself in a glasse when his fit is upon him his eyes burning his lips â—umbling his face pale his teeth gnashing his mouth foaming and other parts of his body trembling and shaking or but some of these deformities he would and worthily loath himself and it may be amend things for after as some have done But if the same person saw the face of his soul in the glasse of Gods word and the deformities thereof in Gods sight he would much more abhor himself and start aside as terrified at the sight of so hideous a monster This rash anger whether causlesse or unmeasurable where some cause is hath alwayes evill in it though it be never so speedily repressed upon which if the sun be let go down that it lodg all night in the heart it becomes mallice by the morning Men nourish it in pride and because they will not give place to other men not considering that in so doing they give place to the divell and become like him in mallice wherein he exceeds himself This anger God so brands as he scarse doth any created affection in forbidding the making of friendship with an angry man and walking with the furious for fear of learning his wayes and getting a snare to the soul. For though all affections becoming inordinate are vicious and that God would have his servants watch diligently against the excesses of sorrow fear joy and the like yet doth he never give warning of the fellowship of such as in whom they reign for fear of learning them Neyther is there that danger of smitling by other passions which is by this If Salomon were a wise man and took not his marks amisse who so oft and plainly sets out a fool by rash anger and wrath there are many more fools in the world then go in the moâ—ly coats and the same no small fools neyther considering how many specially of them who take a priveledg from their greatnes to give scope to their passions eyther affect or give way to inordinatenes in this kinde as if otherwise they could not sufficiently manifest their wisdom and discerning and goodnes in dislikeing and greatnes in controuling things amisse in others But as vainglorious men desire to shew their authoritie in needles commands so do fools affect the shewing of their wisdom goodnes and greatnes in needles anger The links whereof a chayn may be made to tye up this feirce dog that he do not more hurt then good in byteing and commit not a greater offence by unadvisednes and excesse then the person hath done which he is set upon are specially these First lowlines of minde by which he that thinks not himself great thinks no great hurt done if he be a litle wronged Whereas on the otherside the high mynded conceavs great indignation that his understanding should be opposed his authoritie neglected his will crossed his credit impeached or any thing sayd or done importing any undervaluation of his presumed worth of himself Christ the Lord teacheth both by example and doctrine that humilitie and meeknes are inseparable companions A second consideration what is just with God in regard of our sins to bring upon us though by mans unjust provocations and injuries And this was Davids remedy when Shemei reviled him A third True love to others which is not easily noâ— excessively provoked to anger at such as wrong us but rayther moves to pittie them as the Father wished Scapula a great persequuter of the Christians that if he would not spare them he should spare himself who should have the worst of it A fourth is a litle delay and forbearance eyther for the inward working or outward uttering of anger whilst we gather our wits about us which he that can bring himself to will oftens by finding just cause of anger at himself forbear being angry at others And to this tended the counsayl given unto Câ—sâ—â— that he should neyther do nâ—r speak any thing in anger till he had saâ—d over the Greek Aâ—phabet A fifth is not to take libertie to be a litle angry at trâ—â—â—eâ— for he that useth himself to that will not keep from extreamitie â—â— great matters The last is to avoyd occasions of provocationâ— whether persons or things which whilst angry folk for the most part affâ—ct they gather such for the fire wherewith to burn themselvs hasten to discover their own shâ—me make wâ—y for the divels temptations unto which they give way afterwards CHAP. LVII Of Humilitie and Meeknes HVmilitie is that vertue by which we are taught to vâ—lue according to not abâ—ve the worth ourselvs and all the good things which God â—ath given us I say according to the worth for men may as one sayth not subjâ—ct but aâ—jâ—ct themselvs and sometimes we see men specially
In wiveing and thriveing take counsayl of all the world and so men had need But in this busines affection so far over-rules reason in the most as they could willingly make their choyse without the counsayl of their nearest and wisest freinds Herein therefore freinds should be officious and forth putting and that both in love of their freinds and for their own sakes also who so oft as their freind marryes make an adventure and the same full of danger whether they shall not wholly or in a great measure loose their freind which is oftens seen Herein parents specially must both preserv the right which God and nature hath given them and do the dutie which the one and other hath layd upon them as accounting their children theirs most of all other things Whom if they this way bestow conveniently and in due time they provide well both for them and themselvs For them in preventing two dangerous evils uncleannes and unfit matching For themselvs according to the saying of Democritus that he who gets a good husband to his daughter findes another son as he looseth his daughter that gets an ill one The vertue of the wife is the housbands ornament so is the housbands the wives much more And therefore Philons wife being demanded why she alone went so plainly apparreled made answer that her housbands vertues were ornament sufficient for her If her practise were a rule and that housbands vertues were to be measured by their wives homelynes in atâ—yre eyther fewer housbands would be thought vertuous then are or more wives â—ound soberly apparreled then are After goodnes fitnes in maryage is most to be regarded that so much that as for a pare of gloves or yoak of oxen two alike though meaner both of them are fitter and better for use then if the one were more excellent So in this maryage pare and yoak the woman best qualifyed is not alwayes the best wife for every man nor every man the best qualifyed the fittest housband for every woman but two more alike though both meaner sort better usually And according to this Pittacus being demanded by a freind what kinde of wife he should marry answered one fit for him Fitnes of years is requisite that an old head be not set upon young shoulders nor the contrarie which is worse Fitnes in estate lest the excelling person despise the other or draw him to a course above his reach Fitnes for course of life and disposition unto it the dislike whereof in either by other breeds many discontentments Lastly agreement of affection and inclination what may be to all good persons and things Onely it is good if the one be too fierie-hoat and suddeynly moved that the other can cast on the more cold water of forbearance But now seeing there is seldom or never found such conformitie betweene man and wife but that differences will arise and be seen and so the one must give way and apply unto the other this God and nature layeth upon the woman rayther then upon the man although the man should not to much look for it nor use all his authoritie ordinarily at least which none but fools will doe As the glasse sayth one though never so rich of gold and pearl if it represent not the face of him that looks into it is not to be regarded so neyther is the wife how well endowed soever otherwise except she frame and compose her self what may be unto her housband in conformitie of manners Many common graces and good things are requisite both for housband and wife But more specially the Lord requires in the man love and wisdom and in the woman subjection The love of the housband to his wife must be like Christs to his church holy for qualitie and great for quantitie both intensively and extensively Her person and whatsoever is good in her he must love fervently mending or bearing if not intollerable what is amisse by the former of which two he makes her the better and himself by the latter And if her faylings and faults be great he by being inured to bear them patiently is the fitter to converse quietly and patiently with other perverse persons abroad as Socrates sayd he was by bearing the dayly home-brawlings of Zantippe Neyther sufficeth it that the housband walk with his wife as a man of love but before her also as a man of understanding which God hath therefore affoarded him and means of obteyning it above the woman that he might guide and goe before her as a fellow heyr of eternall life with him It is monstrous if the head stand where the feet should be and double pittie when a Naball and Abigail are matched together Yea experience teacheth how inconvenient it is if the woman have but a litle more understanding though he be not wholly without then her housband hath In the wife is specially required a reverend subjection in all lawfull things to her housband Lawfull I mean for her to obey in yea though not lawfull for him to require of her He ought to give honour to the wife as to the weaker vessell But now if he passe the bounds of wisdom and kindenes Yet must not she shake of the bond of submission but must bear patiently the burden which God hath layd upon the daughters of Eve The woman in innocency was to be subject to the man but this should have been without all wrong on his part or greif on hers But she being first in transgression hath brought her self under an other subjection and the same to her grevious in regard of her housband oftens unjust but in regard of God alwayes most just who hath ordeyned that her desire should be subject to her housband who by her seduction became subject to sin And albeit many proud women think it a matter of scorn and disgrace thus to humble themselvs to God and their housbands and even glory in the contrarie yet therein they but glory in their shame and in their housbands shame also and whilst they refuse a crosse chuse a sin of rebellion both against God and their housbands Which shall not escape unpunished from God though many fond housbands nourish them therein and by pampering and puffing them up by delicate fare costly apparrell and idlenes teach them to despise both them themselvs and all others Mariage hath divers ends that make it convenient and one that makes it necessarie for the most which is the preventing of that most foul and filthy sin of adulterie And this brand it deservs in speciall manner seeing he who coupleth himself with an harlot becomes one body with her which cannot be sayd of him that consorts with a theif or murderer or drunkard in their sins as also for that such a one sins against his own body Not that he sins not against his own soul too or that all others sinning sin not against both body and soul but in regard of
betimes that so we may be old long But who would desire to be that loâ—g which is but a long infirmitie Save as age accompanyed with wisdom and godlynes ads authoritie to the aged for the more effectuall enforceing of these and the like vertues upon others CAP. LXII Of Death NAturall death stands in the separation of the soul from the body spiritúall of the soul and whole man from God in respect of grace eternall in respect both of grace and glorie with the sense of the contrarie evils By sin death in all three degrees came into the world For albeit God onely have immortalitie and unchangeablenes from and in himself and that all creatures and so man with the rest in regard of his elementarie body be subject to change save as they do depend upon him that uncreated beeing and are susteyned and upheld by the word of his power and by a continuall influx from him yet God having engraven his image in man did both so temper his body and order all creatures under his providence for him as that nothing but sin could possibly impeach his life or welfare By his sin he actually lost spirituall life and the right both to temporarie and eternall The first death is a naturall evill the second a spirituall the third both For although in regard of the universall and of Gods supernaturall ends it be better that a man bee to be continued though in eternall miserie then that he should cease to be altogether yet in regard of the persons particular as better eye out then ever akeing better never to have been born or by death utterly to be abolished as the bruit beasts are then to live and continue alwayes accursed and miserable By naturall death divers men how like soever they have been in their temporall state become most unlike in their eternall the wicked miserable without hope and the godly happy without fear And by the same death both they and all other in other things altogether alike how unlike soever they have been in them formerly After death remayns no naturall or civill relation as of father son housband wife or the like all these are for this life onely The liveles earth unto which the body returns is altogether uncapable of them so is the soul being a spiritual substance whether in heaven or hell With them in glory after the end of the world God shall be all in all and men shall be like the angels neyther taking wives nor giving in mariage nor remayning maryed Peter and Paul neyther are nor shall be Apostles there neyther is the virgin Mary Christs mother there but they onely remayn those persons which sometimes upon earth had these states and relations upon them If there be any naturall or bodily difference after death it is that the bodyes of the richer sâ—inck the more by reason of their greater fulnes and aboundance whilst they lived And for the good and bad which are mingled together in this life but cannot agree death parts them for ever being hastened of the Lord that the godly dying may no more be vexed with or by the wicked nor the wicked any longer persequute the godly If men should live alwayes in the world or but so long in our age as did the first patriarks to what a height would many come in worldly happines or misery How extreamly rich would many be how many extreamly poore How mightie and powerfull some how dejected and depressed many more But the wise providence of God is to be honoured herein by which it comes to passe that the more men are set to drive things to extreamitie the lesse time should be allowed them for their courses one or other in the world Onely man being both mortall and reasonable can think of his death Not the angels for though they can by understanding conceav of death yet are they by their spirituall state set without the reach of it nor bruit beasts though mortall because it is not perceaved by sight or other sense but being a privation to wit of life is onely discernable by understanding If a beast see never so many of its own kinde slaughtered before its eyes it fears not death which it sees not though it may fear the instrument which it sees or other terrible and sensible object And hence it comes to passe that the more brutish men are they have the lesse thoughts or fear of death for the most part It is appointed unto men once to dye ordinarily and after this the judgment I say as the Apostle means ordinarily for some dye not but are changed onely Some dye twice as Lazarus and others This death which will certeynly once come and with it eternall and unchangeable happines or miserie we should alwayes bear in mynde as if Phillips deaths head were set before us For though the thoughts of death be not sufficient to rayse the heart to heavenly things yet are they so avaylable to draw it from earthly which is first to be done as no thing is more then the frequent and serious meditation thereof We should think seriously of that part of our life which remayns unfinished that we may provide things necessarie for it and also of our death that we may cut off superfluityes and use that moderately which we must not use long The saying Nothing more certayn then death and yet nothing more uncertayn then the hour of death is common and commonly abused The certayntie of it should teach us moderation in the use of the world and all worldly things and that we abuse them not because the fashion of this world passeth away But contrary-wise many take hereby occasion to lay the faster hold of it eyther in the profits thereof for themselvs or theyrs or pleasures saying let us eat and drink to morrow we shall dye And whereas God would have us ignorant of our last day and hour that suspecting it alwayes we might alwayes be ready we are apt on the contrarie because we know not the certayn tyme to be the lesse ready at all times and which is worse not to take warning neyther as we ought by any or all those known messengers of death which are reckned three 1. Casualâ—ie 2. Weaknes and 3. age the first shewing our death to be doubtfull the second and third to be near and at hand Hardly any so old but thinks he may yet live a year or so sick but that he may live a day longer Not onely the foolish but even the wise virgins are too prone to slumber if the bridegroome defer his coming a litle Few regard the good counsayl given to account every day the day of our death and as that wherein we are it may be to appear before the Lord. Few watch because they know not what hour the Lord wâ—â—l come as all are warned But the servant that so doth and is