Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A86479
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A letter from Sr Matthew Hale, Kt. sometime Lord Chief Justice of England: to one of his sons, after his recovery from the small-pox
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Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing H247A; ESTC R228016
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15,415
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40
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their true Wisdom lies When a young man especially is in the full career of his vanity and pleasures he thinks that Religion and the fear of God and walking according to his word and the serious practice of duties of Religion towards God prayer unto him making our peace with him are pitiful low foolish and inconsiderable matters and that those that practise them are a sort of brain-sick melancholy unintelligent persons that want wit or breeding and understand not Themselves or the World that they are mere empty fancies and imaginations whimsies puritanism and I know not what else But on the other side they think they are the brave men that live splendidly deny themselves no Pleasure can Drink and Roar and Whore and Debauch and wear the newest Fashions it may be this Gallant or Wise man comes to be taken with a fit of sickness that tells him he must dye Death is at the door his Glass is almost out and but a few sands left in it And then the man becomes quite of another judgment he cries out of his former foolishness he finds his pleasures and intemperance and excess are not only perfect follies but madness vexation torment and Religion and Prayer to God and Devotion and Peace with God they are now in request and now nothing but declamations against those Courses which in his health he valued as the only Wisdom and nothing but promises of amendment and reformation of Life and Devotion to God so sickness hath undeceived the man and given him a true and rectified judgment concerning Wisdom and Folly quite contrary to what he had before Therefore I would have you recollect your self and if the violence of your Disease left you at any time the use of your reason bethink your self what opinion you then had of intemperance wasting of time unlawful lust or any of those sins that formerly pleased you in your health whether they did not appear to you in your sickness very vain foolish vexing things such as you wished never to have been committed and on the other side what opinion you had in your sickness touching Piety towards God hearing of his word calling upon his name redeeming of time modesty temperance Whether those actions of your life past that favoured of these were not Comfortable and Contenting to you in your sickness whether your purposes and promises and resolutions of your sick-bed were not full of such thoughts as these If it please God to recover me I will never be such a fool as I have been I will never drink to excess mispend my time I will never keep such evil Company as I have done I will be more devout towards God more obedient to his word more observant of good Counsel and the like And if you find it to be so I must desire you to remember that affliction is the School of Wisdom it rectifies mens judgments and I must again desire you to keep your judgment right still and set not the recovery of your health become the loss of your wits but in your health retain that Wisdom your sickness taught you and practice what you then promised Remember he is the wisest man that provides for his latter end Deut. 32.29 Seventhly Remember by your former sickness how pitiful an inconsiderable thing the Body of man is how soon is the strength or it turned to faintness and weakness the beauty of it to ugliness and deformity the consistency of it to putrefaction and rottenness and then remember how foolish a thing it is to be proud of such a Carcass to spend all or the greatest part of our time in triming and adorning it in studying new Fashions and new Postures and new Devices to set it out In spending our time and provisions in pampering it in pleasing the Appetite and yet this is the chief business of most young men of this Age Learn therefore Humility and Lowliness learn to furnish thy Noble and Immortal part thy Soul with Religion Grace Knowledge Virtue Goodness for that will retain it to eternity How miserable is that mans Condition that whiles sickness hath made his Body a deformed weak loathsom thing sin hath made his Soul as ugly and deformed The Grave will heal or cover the deformity of the former but the Soul will carry its Ulcers and Deformity without Repentance into the next World Learn and remember therefore to have thy greatest Care for thy Noblest part furnish it with Piety Grace Knowledge the Fear and Love of God Faith in Christ And as for thy Body use it Decently Soberly and Comely that it may be a fit Instrument for thy Soul to use in this Life but be not proud of it nor make it thy chiefest care and business to adorn much less defile it Eighthly Remember to avoid intemperance and sinful Lusts It is true sickness and diseases and finally death are by the Laws and Constitutions of our nature incident to all Mankind But intemperance excess of Eating and Drinking Drunkenness Whoreing Uncleanness and disorder bring more diseases especially upon young men and destroy more young strong healthy men than the Plague or other natural or accidental distempers They weaken the Brain Corrupt the Blood decay and distemper the Spirit disorder and putrefie the humours and make the body a very bag full of putrefaction Some diseases are as it were specifical and appropriate to these vices other diseases are commonly occasioned by them by their inflammation and putrifaction of the Blood and humours And all Diseases even those that are Epidemical Natural or Casual yet are rendred by those vices far more sharp lasting malignant and incurable by that stock of Corrupted matter they lodge in the body to feed those Diseases and that impotency that these vices bring upon Nature to resist them Therefore if you ever expect to have as well a sound body as a sound mind carefully avoid intemperance and debauchery The most temperate and sober persons are subject to sickness weakness and Diseases but the intemperate can never be long without them And thus I have done with the prospect of your Disease and at least many of these profitable uses you may gather from the remembrance of it II. I shall now in the second place put you in Remembrance of your Deliverance touching which you must remember 1. That it was a great eminent and extraordinary Deliverance you need no other evidence of it than by looking back upon the greatness and severity of your Disease before-mentioned 2. It was a deliverance by the immediate power and mercy of that God that sent you the Visitation Vna eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit If you had been delivered by the immediate efficacy of means yet you are blind if you see not that the efficacy of means depends upon the providence of God it is he that provides it and that makes means effectual But in this deliverance God hath pleased to hedge up as it were your way from attributing it to
whether you have not been guilty of intemperance excess of drinking wantonness uncleanness idleness mispending your time and those supplies which have been allowed you for your maintenance whether you have not too much delighted in vain and sinful and disorderly Company vanity and expence in Apparel And if any such or the like faults have been repent of them be sorry for them resolve against them and let the future course of your Life be amended in relation thereunto I have before told you that your heavenly Father hath forgiven you and I have forgiven you neither do I mention these things to upbraid you for them but that you upon the consideration of what hath been amiss may be thereby the better enabled to rectify and set in order your future Life If this be done and practised I will reckon your late sickness and distemper one of the greatest blessings that ever befel you 2. I would have you always keep a habit of the fear of God upon your heart Consider his presence order your Life as in his presence Consider that he always sees you beholds and takes notice of you and especially whether you carry your self answerable to this great deliverance it is one of those Talents for which he will expect an Account from you 3. I would have you frequently and thankfully consider of the great Love of God in Jesus Christ whom he hath given to be the Instructor and Governour and Sacrifice for the sins of you and all Mankind through whom upon Repentance you have assurance of the remission of your sins and eternal Life and frequently consider how great an ingagement this is upon you and all Mankind to live according to such a hope and such a mercy 4. I would have you every morning read a portion of the Holy Scriptures 'till you have read the Bible from the beginning to the end Observe it well read it reverently and attentively set your heart upon it and lay it up in your memory and make it the direction of your life it will make you a wise and a good man I have been acquainted somewhat with Men and Books and have had long experience in Learning and in the World There is no Book like the Bible for excellent Learning Wisdom and Use and it is want of understanding in them that think or speak otherwise 5. Every morning and every evening upon your knees with all reverence and attention of mind return hearty thanks to God for his mercy to you and particularly for this deliverance desire his Grace to enable you to walk in some measure answerable to it beg his Providence to protect you his Grace to direct you to keep you from evil Actions and evil Persons and evil occurrences beg his pardon for your sin and the continuance of his favour always concluding with the Lords Prayer 6. Observe conscionably the Lords day to keep it Holy avoid idle Company idle Discourse Recreations and secular imployments upon that day resort twice that day to the publick Prayers and Sermon come early to it be attentive at it keep your Eyes and Mind from roveing after vain thoughts or objects and spend the rest of that day that is free from necessary occasions in Reading the Scriptures or some good Books of Divinity 7. Once ever Term at least come preparedly and reverently to the Holy Communion receive it with great reverence and thankfulness and due Consideration of the end of its institution Renew your Covenant with Almighty God that you made in Baptism and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly before him and beg his Grace and Strength to perform it And as those directions before do more specially relate to Almighty God and your deportment immediately towards him so these that follow more especially relate to your self and others and your moral Conversation Therefore 8. Be very moderate in Eating and Drinking Drunkenness is the great vice of the time and by Drunkenness I do mean not only gross Drunkenness but also Tipling Drinking excessively and immoderately or more than is convenient or necessary avoid those Companies that are given to it come not into those places that are devoted to that beastly Vice namely Taverns and Alehouses avoid and refuse those devices that are used to occasion it as Drinking and Pledging of Healths Be resolute against it and when your resolution is once known you will never be sollicited to it The Rechabites were Commanded by their Father not to drink Wine and they obeyed it and had a blessing for it my Command to you is not so strict I allow you the moderate use of Wine and strong Drink at your meals I only forbid you the excess or unnecessary use of it and those Places and Companies and Artifices that are Temptations to it 9. Avoid Wanton and Lascivious Speeches and Company Read Proverbs 2 5 6 7.9 A Whore hunts for the precious Life of a man and that vice brings a ruine with it to the Body Soul and Estate If you cannot Conveniently contain your self in a single Life and be of Competent health Marry but with the Advise and Counsel of your Father while he lives 10. Be frugal of your time it is one of the best Jewels we have and to that end avoid Idleness it consumes your time and lays you open to worse inconveniences let your Recreations be healthy and Creditable and Moderate without too much expence of time or money Go not to Stage-plays they are a most profuse wasting of time value time by that estimate we would have of it when we want it what would not a sick-man give for those portions of time of health that he had formerly improvidently wasted 11. Bee diligent in your Study and Calling it is an Act of duty to Almighty God that requires it and it will be your wisdom and benefit it will be a good expence of time a prevention from a Thousand inconveniences and temptations that otherwise will befall a man it will furnish you with knowledge and understanding give you the advantage and means of a comfortable and plentiful subsistence and make you a support comfort and benefit to your Friends and Country 12. Be frugal in your expences live within the Compass of that Exhibition that Gods Providence and your Father's abilities shall supply you withall it is enough to maintain an honest provident man and ten times more will not be enough for a profuse mind A frugal man will live Comfortably and Plentifully upon a little and a profuse man will live beggerly necessitously and in continual want whatever his supplies be 13. In all your expences consider before hand Can I not be well enough without this that I am about to buy Is there an absolute necessity of it Can I not forbear 'till I am in a better Condition to compass it If I buy or borrow can I pay And when And am I sure will this expence hold out How shall I bring about the next Quarter or the next