delightfull when they are possest without care and without that which makes prosperity bitter the feare to lose them Whether I have little or much let me allwayes say Praised bee God for his temporal gifts Here is more then I need to live and dye well But these are not the goods that he promist me and to which he calls me by by his Gospel O when shall that day come when I shall be satisfied with the goodnesse of his house even of his holy Temple Psal 65.4 My desire is to depart and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 The imprisonment of our immortal Soul of heavenly nature in a body cosingerman to the beast where it lyeth heavy drowzy and mired in the flesh ought to make us think that a happy day when we shall be awake quickned and set at liberty Children in the womb sleep continually Men if you take their whole age together sleep well nigh halfe their time But after death the spirit which is the true man hath shaken off all his sleepinesse The faithfull soul is no more in darknesse She receives light no more at two little loope-holes She is all eye in the presence of God who is all Light She is free holy joyfull all vertue and all love and all glory for seeing God and being seene by him she is changed into the same image And to that blessed state death is the way Who so knoweth so much of the nature of death yet feares it as a terrible evill sheweth that he is very farre within another death which is the death of sinne and that he hath more flesh then spirit that is more of the beast then man CHAP. XVII Of the Interiour of Man FRom that which is altogether without us and out of our power and may be taken from us by others or by death Let us turne our eyes within us upon that which is more ours our soule and her endowments naturall and acquisite either by study or infusion Not to examine very exactly their nature but enough to judge of their price and what satisfaction may be expected of them Because I have restrained solid content to those things that are within us and which cannot be taken from us I acknowledge my selfe very much perplexed about some things within us and doubtful whether they be ours or no seeing that many things within us may be taken from us without our consent and therefore are not ours absolutly Is there any thing that seemes more ours then the illumination and dexterity of our wit and our learning and prudence got by study and experience for those were the goods which that Philosopher owned with so much oftentation who carrying nothing but himself out of a Town taken by storme and pillaged answered the victor that gave him leave to carry our all his goods I carry out all my goods along with mee But how could he make good that possession there being no Wit so clear no Philosophy so sublime but a blow upon the head or a hot feaver may overturne it Epictetus accounteth nothing ours but our opinions our desires and our actions because these alone are in our power But in an understanding maimed by Phrensy that power is lost It is true it is not the soule but the Organe that is vitiated But howsoever you cannot dispose of your soul when that organ is out of tune Here to say that death will set the soul at liberty and then the spirit shall enjoy himselfe and all his ornaments is to bring a higher question to resolve a lesser For there is no doubt but that the spirit loosed from the matter will recover that liberty of his faculties which was obstructed by materiall causes but it is a point of singular difficulty to judge whether he shall retaine all the skill hee had got in this life As for mechanicall Arts altogether tyed to the matter it is not likely that the spirit will retaine that low skill when he liveth separat from the matter But as for higher intellectuall sciences it seemes very unreasonable that a Spirit polisht sublimated by long study and stored with a great treasure of knowledge should lose all in an instant by the death of the body and that the soul of a great Naturalist as my Lord of St. Albans be left as bare of learning and acquisite capacity as the soul of a skavenger And when the soul not only is made learned but good also by learning were it not lamentable that death should have the power to make it worse Neither would holy writ presse this command upon us with so much earnestnes Get wisdome get understanding forget it not if wisedom were an acquisition that the soul must lose with the body The difficulty lyeth in picking among the sciences those that will be sure to stick unto the separat soul It is much to be feared that those sciences which cost most labour will bee sooner lost and will goe out together with the lampe of life For since the dead have no share in al that is done under the sun it is like that great students who have fraught their memory with histories both antient moderne shall lose when they dye the remembrance of so many things that are done under the Sunne By the same reason Lawyers Linguists Professors of Sciences and arts depending upon humane commerce should leave all that learning behind them But I doubt whether the contemplators of Gods works as the Naturalists shall lose their learning when they dye seeing that it is the duty the perfectioning of the rationall creature to know the wisedome and the power of the Creator in his wonderfull workes And I am inclined to beleeve that those things that are done under the Sunne in which the dead have no share are the actions businesses of men not the workes of God but that Naturalists shall learne the science of Gods workes in a higher and transcendent way Also that Astrologers shall need other principles to know heaven to which their forbidden curiosity to foretell humane events out of the Starres wil rather be a barre then a furtherance Nec quicquam tibi prodest aerias tentâsse domos morituro Among all the spirituall ornaments there is one which we may be confident to keep for ever when we have it once really therefore it is properly our owne That rich and permanent Ornament is heavenly wisedome of which Solomon saith Prov. 3.16 Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Her wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse and all her pathes are peace She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaines her That wisedome consisteth in knowing loving and obeying God and trusting upon him It is good studying that wisedome that giveth eternal felicity and glory We finde but two things in the interiour of man which we may be sure not to lose by death The one is the
that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened When this direfull remembrance sinkes into a conscience how man was put out of Paradice and Cherubims were placed at the gate with aflaming sword to keepe him out that he may not finde the way to the tree of life it is enough to sinke one downe with feare and anguish and make him cry out standing upon the brink of despaire Must I be driven away from God for ever and what way is left for me to returne to the tree of life without which I cannot shunne eternal perdition Upon that perplexity Prayer comes and offers her helpe saying I will bring thee thither and will goe with thee without any let of the flaming sword for I know a way to the tree of life where the terrour of the law doth not keep the passage the sonne of God who is the way the truth and the life hath made me way unto the throne of grace to which I goe with full assurance to obtaine mercy and finde grace to helpe in time of need This freedome of prayer to approach unto God was in some sort represented by the sacrifices That they were figures of prayers wee learne it out of the Psalme 141 where David beseecheth God that his prayer may be set forth as incense and the lifting up of his hands as the evening sacrifice Ps 141.2 As then the smoake of the sacrifices did mount up toward heaven which is a way which cannot be stopt likewise faithfull prayers have at all times a free passage to heaven and although Satan be called the Prince of the aire he cannot disturbe them in the way But that they may reach to heaven the incense of the merit of Christ must be layd over the sacrifice of prayer To that holy duty wee are encouraged by Gods commandement and promise Both are in this text Ps 50.12 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shall glorifie me And so in this Come unto me saith Gods eternal Sonne all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will ease you Math. 11.28 None that prayeth to the father through the merit of the Sonne returnes empty For either he giveth us what we do aske or what wee ought to aske and that which is fit for us He that keepeth that holy correspondence with God is never dejected with sorrow or perplexed with feare for he finds in that divine communication a plaister to all his sores and an inexhaustible well of life and joy David had found it so when he sayd Ps 16 I have set the Lord allwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shal rest in hope By prayer wee ground our soules in faith raise them with hope inflame them with charity possesse them with patience during our life and yeeld them to God with joy in our last breath To reape these benefits by prayer wee must understand well the right use of prayer which is double It serveth to aske of God our necessities both of body and soule for since in him wee live and moove and have our being wee must continually seeke to him by prayer of whom wee continually depend But the noblest and most proper use of prayer is to glorifie God and converse with him because wee love him and because he is most perfect and most worthy to be beloved coming to that holy duty not as a taske but an honour the greatest honour and delight that a creature can be capable of in this world stealing away from affaires and companies to enjoy that pleasant and honorable conversation as lovers will steale away from all employments to entertaine their best beloved For what is sweet in the world in comparison of this sweetnes what is honorable compared to this honour to have familiarity with God and be admitted to his presence at any time to be received of him as his children and when wee lift up our affections to heaven the habitation of his glory to finde that himselfe is come to meete us in our heart and hath made it another heaven by his gracious presence In that meditation a faithfull man will call Gods benefits to minde and to conceive their excellency to his power he will from the consideration of Gods grace reflect upon that of his owne naturall condition sometimes criminal miserable and Gods enemy but now through Gods preventing love and unspeakable mercy changed into the quality of child of God and heire of his kingdome He hath bin provoked to pity us by the depth of our misery wherefore in all reason wee must be provoked to thankfulness by the height of his mercy And this is the chiefe employment of prayer an employment which paying our duty brings our felicity and though wee have payd but what wee owe and scarce that giveth us a present payment for the duty which wee have payd O what a heavenly delight it is to lose ones selfe in the thought of Gods mercyes which are beyond all reckoning and above all imagining and to say to him after David Ps 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wonderfull workes and thy thoughts which are to us ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee v. 8 If I would declare and speak of them they are more then can be numbred I delight to doe thy will O my God yea thy law is with in my heart Ps 86.11 Teach me thy way O Lord I will walke in thy truth unite my heart to feare thy name I will praise thee O Lord my God withall my heart and will glorifie thy name for evermore for great is thy mercy towards me and thou hast delivered my soule from the lowest hell Such a conversation with God to rejoyce in his love praise him for his graces and crave the leading of his spirit to walke before him unto all pleasing is an imitation of the perpetual imployment of Angels and glorified Saints It is a beginning of the Kingdome of heaven in this life In it consisteth the true peace of the soule and the solid contentment of minde CHAP. V. Of the love of God BEing entred into the meditation of the love of God let us stay upon it It is good for us to be here let us make here three tabernacles And more reason have wee so to speak in this occasion then St. Peter when he saw Christ transfigured in the Mount For by planting his abode there he could not have made Christ to doe the like nor given a settled continuance to that short bright lightning of glory But by our meditation upon the love of God wee make him to stay with us and our soul is transfigured with him being filled with his grace and his peace and already enlivened with a beame of his glory Now because the ground the spring and the cause of the love that
God in his breast that he should invite and then entertaine him there by a pure service a sincere love an entire cōfidence Many by much good Kindred many Friends and relations become lesse vertuous and industrious getting the ill habit of the Italian Signora's who walking in the streets beare more upon the armes of their supporters on both sides then upon their owne legs They have need to be sent from home to learne to stand alone without a Nurse to hold them None can be owner of any measure of stedfastnesse and content that makes all his support and satisfaction to depend of his neighbours That man hath more content in the world who having confined his desire to few things troubleth also but few persons and is desirous of Friends to do them not to receive of them good offices regarding their vertue more then their support When we have got good Friends we must be prepared to lose them Death separateth Friends and disolveth Mariages When that happens wee must remember without trouble or amazement that those persons so deare to us were mortal but indeed that should have bin remembred before A Philosopher visiting his neighbour who was weeping bitterly for the death of his Wife left him presently saying aloud with great contempt O great fool did he not know before that he had married a woman not a goddesse After we have condemned that cruel incivility yet must we acknowledge that it is a folly to lament for that which we knew before to be unavoydable Yet after all reasons when love hath bin very deare the separation cannot but be very sad Teares may be permitted not commanded to fall And after the duty payd of a mournful Adieu to the beloved person we must remember upon what terms and condition we hold of God that which wee love best even to leave it at any time when God redemands it And if besides we have good ground to hope that the person departed is received into peace and glory we must praise God for it which we can hardly do as long as our obstinate mourning repines against his will Lamenting for those that are well is ignorance or envy or selfe love If we would not rejoyce when they were in affliction why should we afflict our selves when they are in joy It is some recompence for the death of our deare Friends that our enemyes are mortal as well as they A wise man will consider his enemyes as rods in Gods hand and minde the hand rather then the rod. To destroy our enemies when they are in our power is a childish folly for so will Children burne their Mothers rod as though there were no more rods in the world Our enemies oftentimes do us more good then our friends for the support of our friends makes us carelesse but the opposition of our enemies makes us wary and industrious They make us strong and safe for they make us flye to God In nothing wisedome is more seene then in judging of an adversary A great serenity is requisite that feare make us not think him more dangerous then he is and that pride make us not despise him blinding our eyes not to see the good and evil that is in him and what harme he may do us It is a common and useful maxime for the conduct and tranquillity of mans life that there are few great freinds and no little enemyes When enemies are reconcileable all things past must bee taken to the best by charitable interpretation When there is no possibility of reconciliation al things to come must be taken to the worst both to strengthen us with resolution within and to encounter the evill without by prudence and vigorous wayes In the reconcilement we must pardon freely receive ill excuses and if there be an offence which cannot be excused never mention it The remedy of injuries is oblivion If an enemy can neither be mitigated by charity nor overcome by strength nor avoyded by prudence there remaineth still unto the wise Christian an intrenchment out of which he cannot be forced which is a good conscience and the peace of God in it These he must cherish and keep fast not onely as his last intrenchment but his onely possession and the strong hold only worth keeping It is impregnable as long as faith and love are the Garrison CHAP. XVI Of Death IT is the subject of which Seneca speakes most and of which there was least for him to speak for being doubtfull whether Death destroyed the soul or released it Mors nos aut consumit aut emittit and being more inclined to the first Opinion it was better for him neither to speake nor to think of it But what others of his rank that had reasoned before him about the immortality of the soul had quitted themselves so meanely of that task that out of their labours in that field he could not reape any satisfaction of his doubt This is the grand priviledge of the Christian that he seeth life through Death and that the last limit of Nature is the date of his franchising and the gate of his felicity and glory Death that moweth downe all the hopes of this world perfecteth Christian hope Death is the separation of body and soul It is the returne of these two parts of man so different to their several principles Eccles 12.4 Then the dust returneth to the earth as it was and the spirit returneth unto God that gave it Who disposeth of it either in mercy or justice Death is the last Act of the Comedy of this world To every one Death is the end of the world in his own respect In one sense it is against nature because it destroyes the particular being In another it is according to nature for it is no lesse natural to dye then to live Yea Death is a consequence of life we must dye because we live and we dye not because we are fick and wounded but because we are animals borne under that Law Wherefore considering Death in the natural way as Charron doth I approove what he saith that we must expect Death in a steady posture for it is the terme of nature which continually drawes neerer and neerer But I cannot approove that which he adds that wee must fight against Death Why should we fight against it seeing we cannot ward its blowes It is more unreasonable then if he had said that we must fight against the raine the winde for wee may get a shelter from these none from that Wherefore as when it raines wee must let it raine so when Death is coming and it comes alwayes wee need but let it come not thinking it more strange to live then to dye In stead of fighting against Death wee must acquaint our selves with it Indeed they that feare Death must fight against that feare Of them that feare Death there are two sorts Some feare it for its owne sake Some for that which comes after The former which are more in
resolution not a tender body that needs carefull tending These are the general precepts to preserv health To mend it when it is impaired Physicians must be consulted and remedies used About which two rules must be observed Let it be betimes before sicknes have taken roote Let it be seldome for too many remedies are worse then the disease I presuppose that Physique and Physicians shall be used as it is prescribed by the Sonne of Sirac Ecclus. 38.1 for necessity not for wantonnes The chiefe use of that art is to prevent diseases Every one ought to have enough of it to know his owne body and keepe off the indispositions to which he feeles himselfe obnoxious not to weare out his body with drugs without great necessity But there are certaine simple and eazy helpes that prevent great inconveniencies when they are used betimes And what wiseman would not keepe himselfe from grievous sicknesses if the use of a little sauge or juniper berries will doe it What remedy soever be used for prevention of sicknesses take it for certaine that they are better prevented by abstinence from unwholesome things then by the use of wholesome Let the body be well clad for commodity not shew neither curiously affecting the mode nor opposing it with a fantastical singularity Let all that we weare be comely and handsome not to please other mens eyes but our owne He that is slovenly in his attire thereby groweth sad and dejected ere he be aware Why should one make himselfe contemptible to the world and displeasing to himselfe by a wilfull lazy neglect of his person Let there be order and suitablenes in our stuffe and furniture though never so coorse Let not any thing want its proper place though never so little Confusion is offensive to the minde but order gives a secret delight Let our dwelling be lightsome if possible in a free aire and neere a garden Gardening is an innocent delight it was the trade of man in the state of Innocence With these if one may have a sufficient revenue an honest employment little buzines sortable company and especially the conversation of good bookes with whom a man may converse as little and as much as he pleaseth he needs little more as for the exteriour to enjoy all the content that this world can afford Of the pastimes of the Nobility and Gentry those should be preferred that bring a publique utility as hunting the wilde boare and the wolfe where the countrey is annoyed with them and in England the fox and the badger It is double content to a generous and well given nature when he doeth good for his pleasure The military pastimes of young Gentlemen in France and Italy are usefull and pleasant and by them they are fashioned and fitted to serve their countrey Games of hazard discompose the minde extraordinarily They accustume it to be hanging upon the future and depending on fortune to which every wiseman will give as little power over him as he can They do also provoke passion and cause great agitations in the soule for things of nothing All that point blank contrary to the worke of piety and Philosophy Games that consist in dexterity of body or minde are preferable to those that are committed to blind chance Chesse will sharpen the wit but buzy it overmuch and toyle the spirits instead of recreating them which is the proper use of play Of all gaming the lesse the better And when it disordereth the passion the least is too much He that ventureth much money at play ventureth not with it the tranquillity of his mind a thousand times more precious but makes a certaine losse of it whatsoever become of the money That bold venturing comes not out of contempt of the goods of this world as gamesters would have us to beleeve but out of an unsatiable greedinesse to gaine much in short time Wherefore to them that have little money and to great lovers of it great losses at play are very smarting and yet the gaine is more hurtfull then the losse for it enflameth covetousnes and sets the heart upon a wicked labour to grow rich by the ruine of others which afterwards is practised in the more serious commerces of Society Thereby also the fountaine of charity is drained and so the streames of charitable deeds Bestowing money in play is not the way to make friends with that unrighteous Mammon that receive a man into eternal habitations but enemies to turne him out of his temporal habitation It is the way to lose both earth and heaven When you have an undoubted right to a considerable summe of money and the present possession what a mad part is it to call it in question whether it must be yours or anothers and decide the question with three dice And what ungratefulnes to the great giver of all goods gifts to play those goods away which are afforded to us by his liberality and acquired for us by the sweate and hard labour of many poore families Though then the parties at play be consenting to that strange way of acquisition that consent doth not make it lawfull neither of them being the owner those goods which he calls his but the keeper and steward who must give account of his stewardship to his Master Whether we winne or lose considerable summes at play we commit robbery for if we rob not our adversary we rob our family and ourselves and God Herein worse then that ill Servant that hid his talent in the ground for the gamester if he be a loser hath made away the talent intrusted unto him by God And though he be a gainer yet he hath made himselfe incapable to give a good account of his talent to his Lord since he hath put it to an unrighteous banke Eloquence is a pleasant and profitable pastime both to read and compose For while it delights the mind it doth polish sweeten and heighten it It is then most delightfull when it serveth to cloath good matter and when the chiefe ornament is good sense And it fals out happily that the eloquentest books of antiquity are also the best and they that have the wisest reason express it with most elegancy The same is true of the late Authors Poetry delighteth much So one take little of it at once for it is lushious meat too much of it brings wearinesse and loathing It is more delightfull to read then to compose herein like musique which delights the hearers more then the Musicians As then it is better to heare a Set of violins then to make one in it it is better to heare Poets then to augment their number I had rather that others should make me sport then I them I need not be curious in the search of the severall devices of men to passe their time the task of the wise being not to seeke them but to use them well when they meet in his way and more yet to learne to live contented without them What we want of
you have it you shall reape from it a more sincere content because you shall require of it as much as its nature affords and no more Strength also and Health are things desired not laudable as things that come by nature not by will Great strength of body is commonly accompanied with a weake minde and that disproportion is augmented with much feeding and obligeth nature to bestow the maine Magazine of spirits upon disgestion distribution of meat and hardning of the brawnes of the limbs to enable them for strong labour leaving but few spirits to attend reasoning contemplating Speak to perpetuall hunters of the delight of speculation you shall finde them little more capable of it then their hounds which are the highest point of their meditation To their minde is very convenient the definition which Aristotle gives to the Soul that it is the first act that is the principle of the motion of an organical body for their soul seemes to be made for no other end but to move their body It is certain that too great excercise of the body dulls the mind The preheminency of man above beasts consisteth in reason and the capacity of knowing and loving God Men that are proud of their strength robore corporis stolidè feroces placing their advantage and content in a thing wherein they are inferiour to many beasts descend from their dignity and take place under their natural subjects He that with his forehead would knocke a great naile into a post to the very head deserved this praise that next to a Bull he had the hardest head of all beasts Health of all goods of the body is most to be desired yea more then life A truth not contradicted by the knowne Maxime that the end is better then the meanes for I hold not health to be subordinate unto life but life unto health Being is the meanes and well being is the end Non est vivere sed valere vita So Mecenas must be left to his owne Opinion desire who though he were maimed hands and feet and had all his teeth loose in his head and a bunch on his crooked back would think himselfe well if he had but life Yea if by enduring the sharpest tortures of the cross he might keepe life he would willingly endure them His enemies could wish him no greater harme then to buy life at that rate The body being made for the soul the true natural benefit of Health is not long life but the liberty of the actions of the mind For the minde stickes so to the body that it cannot act very freely in a body tormented with acute paine or pined with a lingring disease Wherefore that we may go through that necessary captivity as easily as may be an especial care must be had of the health of our body taking all occasion from it of accusing the excesses ill government of the minde for the corruption and inflammation of the humours behaving ourselves with our body not as living for it but as unable to live in the world without it Our minde was made for a better end then to serve the flesh Yet let us give it faithfully its due as to the horse that carryes us in our journey It must be fed and tended else it will faile us in the way Curious persons commit two faults about the care of their bodies They bestow much cost and labour to adorne them but they neglect their health exposing themselves halfe naked to cold aire to shew a fine halfe shirt as if they furnisht their roomes with rich hangings and suffered the raine to fall on them for want of repairing the roofe In matter of cloathes health and commodity are the best counsellors not the eyes and Opinions of strangers Health must be acknowledged the richest jewell of all temporal things yea preferable to many ornaments of the minde He that hath got much learning in the Tongues and hath diseased his body with watching hath lost more then he hath got But the healthfullest body of the world is a tottering house which must every day be underpropt with food and for all our care will fall in the end We must looke upon it as a tenement at will which we hold under God our Landlord not fearing but rejoycing that we must leave it knowing that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were disolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 LIFE I set neither among goods nor among evils for it is neither good nor evill in itselfe but the subject of good and evill like the painters cloath where all sorts of colours are couched Such as it is it must be put in the rank of those things that depend not of our will and therefore must not be accounted ours but used as a borrowed commodity We must say more of it when we speake of Death CHAP. VII Of bodily Pleasure and Ease OF all arguments of meditation there is none where writers shew lesse sincerity then in this Every one blames pleasure and ease and yet every one seekes it They tell us that it is the cause of all evill that it poisoneth the passion that it blindeth reason that it is an enemy to good counsell aad that it is impossible for Vertue to stand with Volupty Yet the same Authors love their ease and their very discourses of ease are effects of ease and productions of wits sweetned by prosperity Then they charge pleasure with the vices of men whereas it is not pleasure but men that must be blamed For pleasure doth not corrupt men but men corrupt pleasure It must be acknowledged good in it selfe It is the seasoning that God all-wise and all-good hath given to things profitable and actions necessary that wee should seek them Look upon a brave horse with a judicious eye After you have considered his great use and praised the bounty of God for making an animal of so much service and commodity to man praise God againe for making him so handsome and of such a gallant mettle And acknowledge that the gracious Creator regarded as well mans delectation as utility The delicious taste of fruits the fragrant smell and gay colours of flowers the fair prospect of groves meadowes calme and cleare waters and all the delicate variety of Nature speake very expresly that God as an indulgent Father hath taken great care to please and recreat us and condemneth that sad and sowre wisedome which deemeth to merit much by avoiding at least in shew all that is pleasing in Nature Of that kinde is this prayer which may be read in many Bookes of devote contemplation Lord give me grace to be delighted in no earthly thing Which is as much as saying to God that he was much overseen when he made his workes good and pleasant since it is ill done to delight in them That devotion wants common sence if it be serious and more if it be hypocritical We
eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Therefore labour and heavy load make us seek to him that saith come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaden and I will give you rest Matth. 11.28 Thus evil doth good to them that are good and helps evil men to turne good In sicknesse and dolours Gods children find the peace of the soule and contentment of mind CHAP. XIII Of Exile TO speake of exile after dolour is an abrupt passage from sensible evils to imaginary The world is the natural and general countrey of al men To be exiled is but to be sent from one Province of our Countrey to another That other Province where one is exiled is the Countrey of them that are borne there and of them also that live there exiled if there they get accomodation That particular Province which a nation calls their Countrey is a place of exile to them that are borne in it if they doe not know it as to Oedipus exiled from the place where he was bred to the place where he was borne Children brought from nurse to the mothers house wil cry taking it for a place of exile It is a childish weaknesse in a man to thinke him-selfe lost when he is in a place where he never was before Every where wee have the same nature the same heaven men of the same kind Reasonable creatures should be ashamed to be surmounted by unreasonable in that easinesse to shift Countreies Swallowes hatch about our houses are banisht from our Climat by the approach of winter and they make no difficulty to goe seeke another beyond al the lands and Seas of Europe but men wil cry when they are driven from their chimney corner having the choice of al places of the world which is so large Yet that advantage we have over birds and beasts that al Countries are not alike to them but al Countries are alike unto vertue and to us if we have it for that treasure no enemy can hinder us to carry along with us We may indeed be exiled into an ill Countrey but that Countrey is never the worse for not being our Countrey All lands are in equal distance from heaven the Countrey of gods children God is as soon found in the land of our exile as in that of our birth and sooner too for God is neer those that are destitute and preserveth the stranger Psal 146.9 Are you banisht by a Tyrant Thinke how many persons are exiled from their countrey and dearest relations by their covetousnesse which is the worst tyranny ranging the unknown seas of a new world for many years some to fetch cucineel and pearles from burning climats others to get sables and hermines from the snows under the Pole Some are banisht by others some bythem-selves Nothing is strange to a man when his wil goeth along with it we need but to encline our wil where necessity calls us Impatience in exile is want of a right apprehension of the condition of gods children in the world Heaven is their countrey Life is their Pilgrimage They are strangers even in the place of their birth yea in their very bodys Whilest we are at home in the body we are strangers from the Lord saith Paul 2 Cor. 5.6 Being then strangers in al places of the world one place must not seeme to us more strange then another Wee are never out of our way as long as we are going to God CHAP. XIV Of Prison PRison is the grave of the living There men are buried before their death Liberty is the priviledge of nature without which life is a continual death And it were better to have noe life then not to enjoy it All beasts enjoy liberty some few excepted that have lost it by being too much acquainted with us But as there is need of iron cages to keepe lyons there is need in the world of prisons and captivity to keepe in men that wil not be ruled by reason equity And though many be imprisoned wrongfully if they have the grace to look up to God the disposer of their condition they will acknowledge that God is wise to use them so and that licentious humour hath need of restraint Or if they need it not they have lesse need to afflict themselves A well composed spirit is free in the closest Prison bonds and fetters cannot restraine his liberty The worst fetters are covetousnesse ambition lust appetite of revenge wherewith many that seeme free are kept in bondage Who so can shake them off is at liberty though he were in a dungeon Such was St. Pauls freedom in a chaine 2 Tim. 2.9 I suffer trouble said he as an evill doer even unto bonds but the word of God is not bound The grace of God also cannot be bound and many times God makes use of the bonds of the body to set the soule free A man is very hard tyed to the world if he cannot be untied from it by a long imprisonment Prison will bee lesse tedious to him that remembreth that it is his natural condition That he was nine moneths Prisoner in his Mothers wombe That after his death he shall be made close Prisoner under ground And that as long as he liveth he is loaden like a snaile with his owne Prison which he carrieth about slowly and with great incommodity a clog put by our wise Master to the swiftnesse and quick turnes of our spirit which is alwayes in action Think how fast our thoughts go which in a moment travell from one end of the world to the other and how high our designes will rise whose wings we are constrained to clip and abruptly to pull down our soaring minde to look to the necessities of our craving body and then acknowledge that our body is a very Prison confining the spirit which is the Man The imprisonment of that body is no great addition to its captivity It is but putting one boxe within another And if we looke about us how much captivity do me meet with in society Is not ceremony a slavery which is multiplyed and diversifyed at every meeting Are not honours golden fetters and businesses Iron fetters Do not publique factions enslave particular interesses and spread nets for the conscience Many times that captivity is avoided by that of the Counter and the Fleet. To many their prison hath been a Sanctuary and a strong hold against the dangers of a turbulent and destructive time No dungeon is so close as to keep the faithfull soul from rising to God They that are forbidden the sight of their friends may converse with God at any time which is a great liberty And the Lord Jesus who recommends that worke of mercy to visit the prisoners himselfe doth carefully practise it comforting by his Spirit his disciples to whom the assistance of men is denyed and shewing them heaven open when they are lockt and bolted In effect it is the body not man that is imprisoned The Jalour may keepe out a
universal practise of the World Whole Nations live of nothing else Indeed the Europeans follow it with some outward reservednesse There is no lesse wickedness among us then with the Arabians and Moores but there is more hypocrisy We do not robbe caravans of Merchants and take no men upon the Christian coasts to make them slaves but we suck out their blood and marrow by quillets of law we overthrow our Country to build our houses with the publique ruines Phil. 2.21 All seek their owne not the things of the Lord Jesus We give indeed that respect to piety and vertue that we will be reputed good but we are afraid to be so Little scruple is made of unlawfull profit and pleasure onely care is taken to do ill feats with little noise The life of the World is a play where every one studieth not to do his duty really but to act his part handsomly I leave out more notorious crimes because they are eminent and set themselves out by their infamie To the wickednesse of the World is joyned vanity weakenesse and folly For one cunning man there is ten thousand Idiots whose blindnesse and rash credulity is a servant to the covetousness and ambition of a few crafty dealers And yet the most crafty are not free of the captivity of custom and superstition whereby a mans spirit is hooded with errour and starts at truth and good counsell The World is a croud of giddy people justling one another A company of blind people following one another and holding by the cloak them that go next before If the former fall so will the others and it would be thought want of civility to stand when the guides are falling or to offer to see when all the company is winking and to refuse to sinne a la mode Youth is foolish old age is doting Orators tell us idle tales with much gravity To please the people one must deceive them The vulgar is set in an uproare upon light occasions and for light reasons pacifyed againe They leave the substance to runne after the shaddow Passion not reason makes them turne now to evill now to good in both the more impetuously the more weakely They have some good Opinion of vertue and esteeme it by hearsay till it come neere and then they cannot abide it labouring to destroy vertuous men and after they are destroyed esteeming them againe and calling for them when they are no more Gallants are slaves to other mens Opinions neglecting the duty for the ceremony leaving health and conveniency for a conceited decency living at a venture and dying at randome The life of the World is a false game where there is perpetual justling out one of another whether it be at great sets when one nation drives another away by invasion and one faction in the State puts down the contrary or by playing every one for himselfe each one catching what and where he can whosoever be a loser by it Out of that hideous confusion a wofull misery must needs follow in the world where for one winner there are a hundred losers Man by nature is miserable composed of a sickly body a spirit that is his own tormenter But as if all that were not enough he is destroyed by his owne kind There is but two sorts of men in the World oppressours oppressed Psal 74.20 The darke places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty which is also Solomons contemplation Eccles 4.1 I considered all the oppressions that are done under the Sun and beheld the teares of such as were opprest and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressors there was power but they had no comforter Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Yea better is he then them both which hath not yet bin who hath not seene the evill work that is done under the Sunne This argument of the wickednesse vanity and misery of the world is so ample so knowne and so well treated by others that I may excuse my selfe of further insisting upon it All this is but the exteriour face of the world But the inward motions and the secret order of Gods wise conduct among all that disorder hath never bin sufficiently considered though there be enough to be seene on the dyal of that great clock to judge at least of the wisedome of the great workman and acknowledge that there is a deepe and divine art in that hidden machine of the counselâ—â—â—y of his providence A considering eye may mark how both by the concourse and the opposition of so many free stirring and disorderly agents certain orderly and unavoydable events are produced determined in Gods eternall decree How many different ends and intentions which all serve for Gods end Yea though they be evill God fetcheth good from them turnes them to his glory Wherefore after we have thoroughly knowne the world as wicked as it is weak blind confused turbulent yet let us acknowledge that all that disorder is usefull that among so much evill there is nothing but doeth good The insolency of some serves to exercise the patience of others and forme them to vertue Gods indulgence powring plenty into the mouthes that blaspheme him teacheth his children to do good to their enemies and not to be more hasty then God to see justice executed on the wicked It is a goodly study to be a disciple of Gods providence Consider how the States of the World are maintained by their own diseases France is swarming with poore and vagrants and idlenesse is thought there to be essential to gentile blood but hence it comes that the King gets armies as soon as the drum beats and is the terrour of his enemies and support of his friends Whilst other States whose policy is so provident as to leave neither poore nor idle person among them are put to hire souldiers of all nations with great labour and cost and commit their safety to outlandish and uninterressed souldiers States as well as wine have need of some lees for their perservation Among the Turks Muscovites and Tartars the tyrannicall unlimited power of the Soveraine and the blind obedience of the people keep the State in peace which otherwise would be torne with civil warres Grosse stupid ignorance keeps some nations in concord at home Whilst other nations by their wit and learning are disquieted with endlesse factions The savage and uncivill humour of some people makes them considerable and they are respected of all because they respect no body Many times a State by a forraine invasion and by divisions at home hath learned to know his strength and is become warlike and formidable to his neighbours The naturall want of necessary things in a Country too little for the many inhabitants have caused the people to traffique over all the world and made the abundance of all regions tributary to their vertue Covetousness penetrates both the Indies
nothing is frailer then mans life nothing more certaine then his death nothing more uncertaine then the hour What need we lay up much treasure since we must lose all What need to get up very high to fall to the ground and there to rot And whereas the tranquillity and contentment of man consisteth in the things that are within him not in them that are about him When he turnes his principall desire and the whole bent of his mind to things that are without he goeth out of himselfe and subjecteth himselfe to another He begs of another that which none but God and himselfe can give him He makes his content to depend on that which is out of his power A wise man will take heed of that and will call-in his desire to his owne breast where he shall finde God if he seek him well and in God his onely felicity Let us be covetous to be rich in God and ambitious to draw neare him Indeed since our body and life are maintained with things that are without us we cannot but desire them as things which our necessity calls for Besides which our condition and the course of the world makes many outward things to become necessary which in themselves are not so All these wee may desire so it bee with an infericur desire quietly subjected and subordinate to that Master-desire which must make a whole burnt-offering of the soul to God alone that we may say to God with an entire and free heart as Isaiah did Isa 26.8 The desire of our soul is to thy name O Lord and to the remembrance of thee With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seeke thee Blessed we that our spirit needs but to seeke within himselfe to finde the full satisfaction of his desire if he have the grace to desire what he ought CHAP. VI. Of Desire of Pleasure IT is easy to rule the Desire of Volupty when we have once well apprehended the nature of it The body hath the greatest share in the Pleasures which the world runnes after we must not then for their sakes subject our minde unto our body The pleasures of the body are short we must not then for a short enjoyment entertaine a long desire They are light and of a faint taste we must not then have a great Desire for a little Pleasure They promise much to the Desire and performe little Our desire then being forewarned of this will not lightly trust their faire promises and will looke more to their capacity then their invitation Some pleasures are altogether unlawfull Of which therefore the desire must be cut off altogether And before we give any admission to their flattery into our soules we must take time to consider the designe of him that sets them on work the Devill By them he seekes to blindfold us that he may lead us into perdition which he will be sure to do if we entertaine his false caresses for after blindfolding comes blindness in earnest errour in the understanding misrule in the affections beggery infamy hardnesse of heart a late remorse and eternall damnation Prov. 6.16 By meanes of a whoorish woman a man is brovght to a peece of bread and the adulteresse will hunt for the precious life Prov. 7.26 She hath cast downe many wounded yea many strong men have bin slaine by her Her house is the way to Hell going downe to the chambers of death He that hath the grace to consider so much before will step back when these inticements are offered unto him and say I will not buy a desperate repentance so deare Pleasures in themselves lawfull become unlawfull by accident when they are desired or enjoyed with excesse Moderation is the ballance of justice and the nurse of pleasure Without it Desire turnes into sorrow and Enjoyment into a severish fit Those pleasures in which a beast hath no share are more worthy of a man as those that are enâ—â—â—â—â— by contemplation For them we may allow 〈◊〉 â—â—ger tedder to desire For those that are 〈◊〉 â—ost betweene the body and the spirit as 〈◊〉 â—â—ghts of picture and musique the tedder must be tyed somewhat shorter not giving too great a scope to curiosity For the pleasures meerely corporall the tedder must be the shortest of all Yet in all humane delights whether of the body or the mind excesse is vicious and marreth the Pleasure Solomon found it in the noblest of humane delights Eccles 1.18 In much wisedome saith he is much griefe and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow It is one of the greatest proofes of the vanity of mans condition that in all humane things where the pleasure kindleth the desire the pleasure is afterwards choaked by the very desire for either we seeke in them the pleasure which they cannot afford or we seek it otherwise then we ought and even by seeking we lose it Which inconveniences are prevented or mitigated by moderation in the desire and pursuite For it will bring one of these two conveniences Either we shall more certainly get what we would have or if we misse it we shall not have the griefe to have lost much labour about it It were easy to draw a platforme upon paper of the most delightfull and compleat estate that humane desire can aspire unto in this world And that estate should be compounded with the three sorts of life contemplative active and fruitive A condition abounding with leasure to imploy it in the contemplation of things good noble and pleasant having businesses enowâ—â— be usefull in society and not so many as to weary a mans body and mind about things inferiour to the dignity of his soul enjoying sufficiency of worldly goods with peace and wisedome and a mediocrity of degree exempted from contempt oppression relishing the innocent contentments of life with sobriety and simplicity not fixing the heart upon them and therefore possessing the true use and and delight of them All that seasoned with health of body and serenity of minde and with a good conscience aspiring continually to a higher felicity enjoying it already by hope by a present sense of the blessed peace of God But we have not the liberty to cut our coat out of the whole cloath The skill of a good engineer does not consist in making a regular Fort upon a parchment or a ground chosen at will that hath all the natural advantages but in bowing his art to the nature of the place unto which necessity engageth him and overcomming by industry the incommodiousnesse of the seat Likewise a wisemans work is not to frame to himselfe poeticall felicities but to take things as he finds them and use them well for in mans condition on earth there is no seat so strong but is commanded or if it be not now it will be another time as being seated upon an unstable sand to day even to morrow uneven which no humane strength or forecast can keep unmooved
to be gotten but within us from God and ourselves and take those things for ours which are none of ours but depend of others and thereupon runne towards those objects thus mistaken with a blind impetuositie These are the true roots of Sadnesse which roots if we could pluck out of our breasts we should never be sad for any thing of the world But it is very hard to pluck out that weed for Sadnesse is like a nettle a malignant stinging weed spreading in the soyle where it hath once taken root and sucking all the vigour and substance thereof It makes a man murmure against God and envy his neighbours alwayes discontented alwayes needy suffering neither himselfe nor others to be at rest odious to God and men and to his own selfe The life of man being subject to occasions of Sadnesse a wise man will not adde voluntary sorrow to the necessary And since by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken Prov. 15.13 and a broken spirit dryeth up the bones Prov. 17.22 so that Sadnesse is the ruine both of body and mind he will take so much care of the preservation of both of which he is accountable to God as to banish from his breast with his utmost industrie that fretting consumption The best course for that is to exercise ourselves in the love and contemplation of God and faith in his promises By these Sadnesse is cast out of the heart and the soule is set in a pleasant and serene frame Next this wisedome must be learned of Solomon Eccles 5.17 It is good and comely for a man to eate and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he takes under the Sunne all the dayes of his life which God giveth him for that is his portion Obstinate Sadnesse is unthankfull to God for it drownes the benefits of God in an ungratefull oblivion and takes away the taste of them even while we enjoy them And what a double misery is that for a man to make himselfe guilty by making himselfe miserable For two things voluntary Sadnesse is lawfull and usefull for the evill that we commit and the evill that others commit Sadnesse for our owne sinnes is contrition Sadnesse for the sinnes of others is the zeale of Gods glory both commendable necessary He that hath not a sad resenting of his owne sins must not hope for pardon and is so farre from finding it that he cannot so much as seek it for he that feeles not his sicknesse shall never look for the remedy Mat. 11.28 Come to me saith Christ all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest None are invited by the Gospell but such as labour and are heavy loaden none but they can finde rest unto their sonles This comes to that I was saying lately that we must be sad for no evill but such as can be mended by our Sadnesse Such is contrition for sinne for it helps to heal it making us cast ourselves upon the great Physitian the Lord Jesus whose merit is the Soveraine remedy to that great sicknesse So that Sadnesse ends in Joy We must grieve also for the sins of others for since we must love God above all things we must be very sensible of the dishonour offered unto his holy name This made Daniel and Nehemiah to fast and pray and God shewed that their Sadnesse was acceptable unto him Sadnesse then is of good use for these ends so that we never seeke merit nor praise in it remembring alwayes that Sadnesse is evill in itself good onely by accident Sadnesse of contrition and zeale is good as Purges and letting of blood which are good onely because there is some evill in the body If all were well there would be no need of them As then we must take heed of too much purging and blood-letting so we must of too much Sadnesse either for contrition or zeale The use of Sadnesse in contrition is to make repentance serious and to humble the spirit that it may be capable and thirsty of the grace of God The use of sadnesse in zeale is to sympathize with Gods interesses and thereby beare witnesse to God and our owne conscience that we aknowledge our selves Gods children For these ends it is not required at our hands to grieve without tearme and measure For since the greatnesse of Gods mercy is as high above our sinnes as Heaven is above Earth it is Davids comparison our faith and joy in Gods mercy must also be very much above our sadnesse for our sins And as God saith that our sins are cast into the sea Mich. 7.19 meaning the deep Ocean of his infinite mercy likewise our sorrow for our sins must be drowned in the joy of his salvation Whereas also the blasphemies and oppositions of Gods enemies by his great wisedome and power turne to his glory our sadnesse for these oppositions must end in joy for that almighty power and soveraine glory of our heavenly father to which the greatest enmity of Satan and the world is subject and tributary for by pulling against it they advance it The consideration of the subjects of Sadnesse sheweth more then any other that man knoweth not himselfe there being nothing in which one is sooner deceived For many times we think ourselves to be sad for one thing when we are sad for another mistaking the pretence of our Sadnesse for the cause Many will impute their sadnesse to the sense of their sinnes but the true cause is in their hypoconders swelled and tainted with black choller oppressing the heart and sending up fuliginous vapours to the braines No wonder that so often all the reasons of Divinity and the sweetest comforts of godlinesse cannot erect a spirit beaten downe with sadnesse the plaister is not layd to the sore for spiritnall remedies purge neither the spleene nor the gall nor the braines whose peccant humours breed all those doubts and feares whereby melancholy persons so pertinaciously vexe themselves and others Indeed the resolution of a serene and religious spirit will preserve body and soul in a sound and quiet state But that resolution which is excellent for prevention of the evill will not overcome it when the humours of the body are generally dyed and infected with melancholy Wherefore let us beware betimes that Sadnesse settle not in our heart for the indulgence shewed to willfull Sadnesse will in short time sowre all the humours of the body and vitiate the whole masse of the blood and the magazine of vital and animal spirits with melancholy Then when the mind hath made the body melancholy the body doth the like to the mind and both together contribute to make a man miserable timorous mischievous savage lycanthrope and a heavy burden to himselfe When that habit of melancholy begins by the spirit it is more grievous when it begins by the body it is more incurable To draw a man out of that deep gulfe all spirituall and materiall helps are of
things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth As nothing makes the mind more magnanimous so nothing makes it more holy then that doctrine which teacheth Gods children that all the world is too little for them and that God alone who adopteth them and calls them to the inheritance of his Kingdome is worthy to possesse their whole heart For would any that is so highly dignifyed stoope so low as to subject his affection to the things of the earth or would he be so ungrateful as to returne him disobedience for so much love Rather his high condition will fill him with high thoughts and according to the Apostles exhortation he will endeavour to walke worthy of God who hath called him to his Kingdome and glory 1 Thes 2.12 O could we apprehend the excellency of this high calling by a serious faith with what contempt would we looke upon those things that captivate the passions of men How should we laugh at that which others desire or feare We should looke upon the actions of men as beholding the earth from heaven seeing the clouds of cares and sorrowes gathering farre under our feet and tumultuous desires busling and raising stormes where we should have no other share but compassion of those that are tossed by them Neither temptation nor persecution should be capable to trouble our heavenly serenity The false profit and pleasure of sin should not tempt our desire but provoke our scorne and indignation as unworthy of men and muchmore of Gods children coheires of Christ in his eternall Kingdome called to be Kings and Priests unto God and their Father The same magnanimity will breed in us agodly ambition to imitate God our Father keeping righteousness in all things because the righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal 11.7 using charity and liberality giving and forgiving because the Lordis good and his tender mercies are over all his workes Psal 145.9 Doing good to our enemies because God fills with his goods the mouthes that blaspheme him And because God gives alwayes and receiveth nothing we must thinke it more happy and divine to give then to receive From magnanimity reflect againe to meekeness Let all that is done magnanimously be done meekely together with simplicity and reality without noyse and ostentation These vertues going hand in hand meekenesse and magnanimity are the two supporters of Justice and the teachers of all goodnesse A meeke and magnanimous spirit is the fruitfull soyle of all vertues To express them in other termes more familiar to the Church They are humility and faith which with the love of God the true essence of Justice make up the greatest perfection that a man is capable of upon earth whereby the minde is sanctifyed sweetened and raised and filled with goodnesse peace contentment and assurance CHAP. II. Of the exercise of Vertue in Prosperity IF I treat not methodically and severally of all Vertues the title of this worke may excuse me I seeke not here the definitions and divisions of Vertues but the use And of all the uses that which conduceth to the peace and contentment of mind Besides all that we have said before and all that we have to say is an exercise of vertue which careth not much by what name she is called justice fortitude temperance or what you will if she may have leave to do her effect which is to maintaine the spirit every where in a vertuous tranquillity Her principall worke is so to informe or rather forme the minde both for Prosperity and Adversity that it be neither corrupted by the one nor dejected with the other That worke is the result of our second and third Book Who so hath learned to have a right Opinion of the things that the world desireth or feareth and to rule his passion accordingly is fenced against all inconveniencies of both fortunes But because it is a worke of the highest difficulty and importance to make the right use of these two different conditions and go through both with a serene and equall spirit Let us consider them with more care and learne to behave ourselves vertuously in both Let us begin at Prosperity as that which requires more vertue Infants will greedily graspe the bright blade of a new knife and cut their fingers The like is done by growne men dazled by the gay shew of honour wealth pleasure they lay hold on them eagerly and hurt themselves for they take them the wrong way We need not say that Prosperity is good in itselfe He that would say the contrary should not be beleeved Yea none would beleeve that such a man beleeveth what he saith But by the evill disposition of those into whose bosome prosperity falls it becomes evill yea farre worse then adversity For one that is ruined and brought to despaire by adversity ten are spoyled and undone by prosperity because adversity makes a man to retire within himselfe and warnes him to arme his minde with prudence piety and resolution But prosperity relaxeth the mind and by it weak braines are made weaker imprudent arrogant and profane acknowledging no vertue and no God but Fortune Which they think to be so enamoured with their person and merit as not to have the power to disgrace them Such is the character that David gives of a man corrupted with prosperity Psal 10.5 His wayes are alwaies grievous thy judgements are farre above out of his sight As for his enemies he puffeth at them He hath said in his heart I shall not be moved for I shall never be in adversity It is an unhappy prosperity that makes men dissolute outragious puft up with pride blinded with selfe love sometimes heavy with a drowzy sloath sometimes transported with an insolent joy The most dangerous and most ordinary abuse of prosperity is the diverting of a mans thoughts and love from God and a better life to fixe them upon the world Wherefore David speaking of men inclosed in their owne fat calls them men of the world whose portion is in this life Psal 17.14 intimating that they have no portion in the other life Truly prosperity is a slippery place With most men it is a faire walk ending in a precipice And the least harme it doth is to enervate the mind and dull the edge of industry The abuses of prosperity are divers according to the different humours of men Some of a joviall and inconsiderate humour glut themselves with prosperity and become fierce and violent Others of a darke and timorous constitution are opprest with wealth and honour as with heavy weights dare not enjoy what they have and live in an anxious care to lose all Eccles 5.12 The abundance of the rich will not suffer them to sleep They ought to thank him that should ease them of that heavy burden their riches Of the sicknesses that attend prosperity I have sayd much and of their remedy It comes to this To consider
maturely the worth of things that we may not love them above their worth or expect of them a satisfaction above their nature not to anchor our confidence upon their uncertainty not to love any or trust in any with all our heart but God the only perfect and permanent good To use the world as not using it and enjoy the things we love best in it as having the use of them not the possession aspiring continually to a better inheritance This is the way to get a sincere taste of all the good that worldly prosperity is capable to afford Now there is need of a singular prudence to pick that good among all the evill all the trash that worldly prosperity is made of not to mistake superfluity for necessity and that which is good in effect from that which is good in opinion only For that man whose curiosity hath turned superfluous things in to necessary and whom the tyranny of vice and custom suffers not to delight in any thing but unlawfull is made guilty and unfortunate by his prosperity Also to use prosperity wisely and get the true benefit of it a man hath need to weane himselfe from presumption and selfe love Whence comes it that so many spoyle their prosperity by lavishness and insolency others lose the taste of it by insatiable greedinesse of adding and increasing It is because they have such a high esteeme and love of themselves that they think all the goods of the world to be too little for them either to spend or to lay up Whereas he that hath an humble opinion of himselfe tasteth his prosperity with simplicity and thankfullnesse for he thinks that he hath much more then he deserveth He that cannot bring himself to that low conceit of his worth shall never be contented though God should poure all the treasures of the world into his lap and though he were mounted to the top of the wheel and had nailed it to the axeltree to keepe it from turning Who so will enjoy true prosperity must keepe fast to this Maxime that no true good can be got by doing ill So whereas vice and unrighteousness insinuate themselves under the baites of pleasure honour and profit there is great need to make provision of faith and good conscience as antidotes against the generall corruption As carefully as we walke armed and looke about us when we travell through forrests infested with robbers we should walke armed with the feare and love of God among the enticements of worldly profit honour and pleasure for Satan lyeth in ambush every where But whereas robbers will lurke in hideous and savage places to do their feates Satan doeth his in the most delicious places It was not among briers and thornes that he set upon man yet innocent he made use of a tree good for food pleasant to the eye and to be desired to make one wise Gen. 3.6 And he made use ever since of beauty daintyes and curiosity to destroy mankind Conversing among these is walking upon snares Job 18.8 There is great neede of wisedome and godliness to avoyd them and of a mercifull assistance of God to get out when our foot is ensnared in any of them To the pleasures honours and plenty of the world faith must oppose other sweeter pleasures more sublime honours and riches infinitely greater even the pleasures for evermore at Gods right hand the honour to be of his children and the plenty of his house These he hath promised and prepared to them that love him not to those that choose rather to fill themselves with unlawfull delight and unrighteous gaine than to walke before God unto all pleasing waiting for the fullfilling of his promises David expected to see Gods face in righteousnesse Psal 17.15 thereby supposing that without righteousnesse hee could not see Gods face St. Paul expected the Crowne of righteousness he must then be righteous before he have the Crowne and he must fight the good fight and keepe the faith before he be crowned Could the height of that felicity enter into our low understandings what it is to be filled with the contemplation of Gods face and receive at his hand the Crowne of righteousnesse hardly would we venture the missing of that glory for all the deceitfull delights and profits of iniquity Without looking so farre as the recompences and paines of the life to come even in this life a godly temperate and conscionable life is a thousand times more desirable and pleasant then a riotous dishonest life and advancement gotten by oppression Even those Pagans that lookt for no good after this life and laughed at infernall torments as old wives tales yet could say Nemo malus felix No wicked man is happy for unlawfull delight and gaine leave behind them a sting of remorse yea many times sin smothereth pleasure at its birth besides the disfavour of God and men which commonly followes We cast our reckonings amisse if we make account to possesse a happy and a wicked prosperity It cannot be happy if it be wicked for it is vertue it is innocence it is the love of God and faith in his promises it is justice and charity that give the pleasant relish and the very being of prosperity But suppose that the acquisition of the delights and advantages of the world be neither accompanyed with sin nor followed with remorse yet they are weake and transitory riches are burdens honours are fetters pleasures are feverish fame is a wind friendships are seeds of cares and sorrowes and yet in all these we seeke a solid and permanent content who can wonder that we find it not For I do not insist yet upon the principall thing that we should fix our desires upon God alone But I say now that to enjoy humane prosperity we must proportion our desire and expectation to the capacity and durablenesse of humane things and to the power we have to dispose of them and keepe them If we expect more we are disappointed and lose the true tast of our prosperity But there may be defect as well as excesse in the desire and enjoyment of worldly prosperity For there are some whose wild devotion kneaded with a timorous and savage humour is afraid of all temporall comforts be they never so simple naturall and innocent seeking vertue and merit by misusing of themselves and sowring all the prosperity that God giveth them with an unthankfull melancholy It is more then God requires at their hands but he will require an account at their hands how they have enjoyed their health and the fruits of his fatherly indulgence which he had given them to use with moderation comfort and thanksgiving Either there is pride and hypocrisy in that fantasticall marring of their prosperity or if they are in earnest their braines is crazed opprest by the black vapours of their splene Abstinence is laudable and necessary to be joyned sometimes with prayer to subject the body to the spirit But the spirit must
subjected and united to His that in the midst of afflictions he finds Gods will good pleasant and perfect and saith Gods will bed one He is all good and all wise And since he is as absolute and irresistible in his power as he is good and wise in his will it would be as foolish a part for me to hope to overcome it as impious to offer to contradict it This is the principal counsel against all Adversity yea the onely for we should need no other if we were come so far as to have no will but Gods will But to that high counsel many inferiour counsels are subservient Such is this When God sends us adversity that we may not thinke it strange to be so used let us compare ourselves with so many others that are in a worse case If we be prisoners in ourowne Country let us remember so many Christians that are captives of the Turkes and Moores Have we suffered some losse in our estates we need not goe farre from home to see whole nations driven out of their antient possessions shut out of their Country and reduced to mendicity Are you lame of a legge Looke upon your neighbour that hath lost both his legges by a cannonshot Thus the evils of others will be lenitives to yours It is a wholesome counsell to be more carefull to keepe a reckoning of the goods that remaine with us then of those we have lost He that hath lost his land must thank God that he hath kept his health He that hath lost health and temporall goods must thank God that none can take from him the eternall goods And whosoever hath lesse then he desireth must acknowledge that he hath more then he deserveth It is the way to keepe ourselves in humility before God and men and in tranquillity at home and turne murmuring into thanksgiving And whereas the remembrance of dead friends and lost goods fill us with sorrow it ought to fill us with joy If the possession of them was pleasant why should the remembrance be sad Why should wee entertaine more sadness because we lost them then joy because we had them it is the ordinary unthankfulnes of the world to reckon all the goods of the time past for nothing At the least affliction a long course of precedent prosperity is lost and forgotten like a cleare streame falling into a sink and losing its pureness in ordure Let us thank God for all the good dayes of our life so may me make present ill dayes good by the remembrance of good dayes past and obtaine of God new matter of thanksgiving We must use the world as a feast using soberly and cheerefully the fare that is before us and when it is taken away We must rise and give thankes We may justly be taxed as greedy ghests unthankfull to the master of the feast that hath so liberally feasted us if we Grudge when he calls to take away instead of Thanking him for his good cheere As he is our magnificent Inviter he is our wise Physitian Sometimes he sets his good plenty before us sometimes he keepes us to short dyet Let us receive both with an equall and thankfull mind All his dealing with us is wisedome and bounty Here let us remember this Maxime which I layd before as a maine ground of our tranquillity that the things which we lose are none of ours else we could not have lost them We were borne naked all that was put about us since is none of ours Yea all that was borne with us is not ours Our health our limbs our body our life may be taken away from us by others We must not then reckon them as ours But our soul which cannot be taken away and the best riches of our mind are truly ours All losses and paines fall onely upon the least part of ourselves which is our body and the senses and passions that are most conjoyned unto it if we may call that a part of man without which a man is whole But the true man which is the soul is out of the worlds reach and with it all the Christian vertues For which reason our Saviour bids us not to feare them that can kill the body and cannot kill the soul To be much cast downe with temporall losses shewes emptiness of spirituall riches to be very impatient of the incommodities of the body shewes that one hath more commerce with the body then with themind else a man might find matter enough of joy in the soul to conterpoyse worldly losses and bodily paines As a body that hath the noble parts sound will easily inure it selfe to beare cold and heat and all the injuries of the aire Likewise he that hath a sound soul and is strong within in faith integrity divine love and right reason wherein the true health of the soul consisteth will easily beare with all Adversities and retiring within himselfe when he is assaulted without he will take care before all things that it may be well with his inside and that nothing there be put out of order by the disorders without That serene state of the soul is the fittest for the vertue of prudence and the exercise of it in Adversity For to get out of the difficulties of life wee must maintaine our judgement free and our conscience sound And if the Adversity be of such a nature that it be past the helpe of prudence such as are sharpe incurable paines yet there is none but may be eased by reason faith and the comforts of Gods love For what Life is short no evil is very great when it hath an end No bodily paine can last longer then our bodies and no Adversity of Gods children either of body or spirit can continue longer then life But the inward assurances of our peace with God and the sweet entertainment of his love to us and ours to him are earnests and beginnings of a felicity without end By them the soule shut up in this prison of flesh looks out with her head forth ready to flye away She riseth againe with Christ in this very world by a lively hope Col. 3.1 She seekes those things that are above where Christ is sitting in the glory of his father She is in heaven already and hath onely the body upon earth To this the afflictions of our body contribute much 2. Cor. 4.17 For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While wee looke not at the things which are seene but at the things which are not seene for the things which are seene are temporal but the things which are not seene are eternal for wee know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved wee have a building of God an house not made with hands ternal in the heavens This is a high point of resolution and joy in afflictions which pagan Philosophie could never reach to beare the afflictions of this life
hath ruined his business through his imprudence hath a double affliction for his misfortune and for his folly I may excuse my-selfe from speaking more of prudence in this Chapter for all I have said hitherto and have to say hereafter is nothing else CHAP. VI. To have little Company and few Businesses I Spake lately of Prudence in Business But the greatest prudence in business is to have but few it being impossible to have many without disturbing the peace of the foul And what imprudence is it to lose the end for the accessories especially when one is deceived in those accessories and mistakes for the helps of his content the instruments of his misfortune The more wee converse with men the lesse wee converse with God Yea the content which we might expect by our conversation with men is lost by too much conversation For whereas among men there are more wicked then good and among good men there are more unwise then wise it followeth that in great companies taking them one with another there is more evill then good and more folly then wisedome and the greater the worse It is in few friends well chosen that the sweetness and utility of conversation consisteth The lesseyou appeare in the crowd the less shall you be crowded the lesse secret envy and open quarrell shall you incurre the less evill shall you learne and doe It is no wonder that young men are inveigled with temptations embroyled in quarrells and made the prey of cheaters The poore youths are newly come into the world to see it they seeke great meetings they gaze upon all they see sin for company or to get experience But when a man hath seen enough of the world to know it and hath learned wisedome out of the folly of others and the miscariages of his owne imprudence he will content himselfe to see the ctowd afar off and will not thrust into it and medle too farre with this wicked foolish and dangerous generation We must not speak thus out of a presumptuous singularity so despising the world that we esteem none but ourselves We must acknowledge that we have the world in our heart and that we also are wicked foolish and of dangerous conversation If the world corrupt us we also help to corrupt the world Wherefore as bodies that have the itch so spirits infected with vice must lye asunder else they shall increase one anothers infection and the infection must needs be greater where there is a greater number of infected persons Where the crowd of men is there also is the crowd of ill customes and popular errours And if it be hard to resist the temptations of vicious persons when they set upon us single how can we stand against them when they fall upon us together in a full body How can we think on any thing but evill when we see and heare nothing else How can we lift up our hearts to God and converse with him in a confused noise and tumultuous hurrey which is the Kingdome of the Devill These considerations have moved some holy Fathers to retire into deserts to have no other company but God and tend the worke of their salvation without disturbance But because God will be glorified by us in the duties of humane Society and hath not sent us into the world only to tend our salvation that Retreat from the world is excusable in those only that can do as much or more good to the world living farre from it as living in Society Such were those who in their hermitages enricht the treasure of the Church with their divine workes confuting heresies and increasing the stock of holy learning But to leave the world to do good to none but ourselves is frustrating the end which God made us for since he hath made us for Society as it appeareth by the ten commandements most of which regard our duty to our neighbours A man of good parts that leaveth all Society to meditate and gives no fruit of his meditation to the world is like the Jordan whose faire and quick water is lost in the lake of Sodom called the dead Sea It is to dye living and lose the quickness of the mind in a gulfe of unprofitable idleness It is leaving the world in the worst sense for it is forsaking mankind and denying to Society that Service which we owe. A consideration able alone to trouble that tranquillity which Hermites and cloystred men seek in solitariness Neither can they make amends to the world by their prayers for as they pray for us that live in in the world we pray for them that live out of the world and so we are even with them The Lord Jesus hath taught us how to use solitarines for he retired by night into the mountaine to pray and in the day time he taught the people and when he was weary of the multitude he withdrew himselfe to the company of his disciples who were a choice of persons whom he honoured with the title of his friends so sharing his time betweene his particular communication with God his service of the publique and his communication with his singular friends One may leave the world and yet keepe it in his heart and one may converse with the world and yet leave it A godly wiseman may find retirednes in the greatest citties Hee may passe through the crowd and not stay in it or mingle with it as the river of Rhosne goeth through the Lemane lake He will doe service to all if he can but converse with few He may enjoy himselfe in a multitude of unknowne persons as if they were the personages of an Arras-hanging for a man is alone where he knoweth no body and acquaints himselfe with none For his acquaintance he will pick those whose life is vertuous the spirit meeke and the conversation plaine and easy He will endeavour to deserve their good will with his owne being ready and assiduous with them when he may serve them but out of that making his visits short to oblige them to the like alwayes leaving his friends company before they be weary of his In his choyce he will take men such as they be not depriving himselfe of the benefit of conversation out of a preconceit of perfect Idea's of worthy subjects of friendship but since all men are evill and weake he will be content with those that have lesse evill in them and that have wisedome enough to know their owne weakenes Knowing himselfe full of imperfections he will beare with the imperfections of his friends expecting of them the like forbearance He must labour to have a soule with many stories which may stoope and rise according to the several conditions and capacities of men not fearing to speake to Kings not disdaining to converse with peasants every where equal modest generous and reasonable respecting good sense wheresoever he finds it and he will find it as often under the russet jerkin as under scarlet and gold lace Because
of curiosity to inquire after the future Whereas we ought to acknowledge that our ignorance of the future is the onely infirmity which we have reason to be well pleased with God hath done much for mankind to have hid the future from them For if besides present afflictions we had distresses to come before our eyes there is no constancy but would breake under that weight Many owe their present tranquillity to their ignorance of the calamities that waite for them But it is not the hope of future wordly content that must hold up our minds The life after this life is the onely future upon which we must depend And after we have sublimated our hopes and untyed our affections from the earth if it please God to send us some worldly prosperity it will be the more welcome because it will come unexpected as a gaine over and above the bargaine CHAP. III To retire within ones selfe HE that hath learned to know the world and himselfe will soone be capable of this counsell The world being foolish and wicked it will be a wise part to retire as much as the duties of conversation will permit from that contagion which may impaire us Persons that have some goodnesse in their soul have a closset where they may retire at any time and yet keep in Society That closset is their owne inside Whereby I understand not all that is within man for the Appetite is not the closet but the outward Court where all the tumult is there the Passions are entertaining the externall objects or quarrelling with them But that inside to which the wiseman must retire is his judgement conscience thence to impose silence to passions and hush all the noyse below that with a calme and undisturbed mind he may consider the nature of the persons and things which he converseth with what interesse he hath in them and how farre they are appliable to Gods service and to the benefit of himselfe and others We judge better of things when we are little interessed in them for then we are lesse apt to forestall our judgement with our affection Then to possesse a cleare free and uningaged judgement among the things of this world we should learne well how little interesse we have in them and that we are strangers in earth whence inferre St. Peters doctrine Dearely beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrimes abstaine from fleshly lusts 1 Pet. 2.11 For why should we entertaine any eager desire for things that concerne us but little Even among Pagans the wisest lookt upon the goods of this world as things which they needed not and retired within their own breasts which they called their home there to enjoy vertue their onely good The wise Christian having that high advantage that he may enjoy within his breast both vertue and God himselfe hath more reason to keep within that home and look upon things without with an indifferent eye For when as Pagan Philosophers called themselves Cittizens of the world the Christian acknowledgeth himselfe astranger in it for he doth but travell through the earth to his heavenly Country which they knew not A traveller looking out of the window of his Inne upon a country Faire doth but lightly amuse his eyes with the variety of course pedling wares and the buzy stirre of buyers and sellers but his minde is upon his journey and he will not make one in that crowd With the like indifference the wise Christian looks upon the hurry of the world and the confused diversity of humane things not crowding for them or setting his heart upon them for his journy towards heaven calls him away and to heaven he hath already sent his heart before That disinteressed disposition towards the things of this world ought not to make us carelesse and negligent neither must we do any businesse by halfe Keeping that prudent and godly temper to apply our mind not our heart to worldly things never forgetting while we tend them with diligence and industrie that they are unworthy to possesse the whole man who is made for better things There is no possession sooner lost then that of ones selfe The smallest things rob us of it A sight worthy of contempt if not rather of compassion is a man sharp-set upon play whose spirit hurried out of his true home by the greedines of gaine is swelled with hope and quaking for feare hanging upon the chance of the dice. Had one driven us from our house we would cry aloud for justice against him But we dispossesse ourselves from the possession of our reason by our violent passions and refuse to do justice to ourselves How many for a Mistresse or a preferrement lose their meat and their sleep have no other thought all the day long and no other dreame all the night their soules are no more at home but dwell with their neighbours if we may call dwelling a perpetuall running after hopes that flye from them To such men this counsell is most proper Tecum habita Dwell at home Keep possession of your soul Suffer not any thing to steale you away from your selfe There is neither profit nor pleasure worth so much that the soule should goe from home to get it Let none sooth up his eagernes about his sports with the plea of lawfull pastimes Nothing is lawful that steales the soule from God and a mans selfe When I see a man running after his bowle and following it with blessings or curses Another melting with sweat in a tennis-court more overheated yet in his passion then in his body contending with high words about a chase then say I with compassion Alas here is a soule put out of possession of herselfe a man that hath forgotten his origine and his dignity having his reason enslaved to his passion and his passion subjected to things of no value which being in their nature uncapable to be his masters he hath found a way to make them so by his wilful slavery One is allwayes a looser at that game which robbes his soule of serenity It is an unlucky game that gives to the noblest part of man those great irregular motions which should not be pardonable for the conquest or the losse of an Empire Nothing is so great that for it we should set our mind out of frame A wiseman neither in jest nor earnest ought to subject himselfe to any external object or suffer his soule to stirre out of her place and runne into disorder Utility and Pleasure sought by disorderly motions are lost even by seeking Of this counsel to retire within onesselfe this is a branch To keepe company with a few well chosen persons lending ourselves freely to them but giving ourselves to none but God nor suffering friendship to grow to slavery With all sorts of men we must deale ingenuously yet reservedly saying what we think but thinking more then we say least we give power to others to take hold of the rudder of our mind the thing
grace is joined with ours we have but our performance to examine looking upon Gods worke with reverence and ascribing to him all the good that is in us Which reverence must be redoubled when we consider in us that worke of grace where the worke of man hath no share and such are the heavenly comforts and spiritual joyes Of these we must not curiously examine the manner and measure as though the seale of our adoption consisted in these for it is not in feeling comfort but in departing from iniquity that this seale consisteth as we learne of St Paul 2. Tim. 2.19 Confidence is a great evidence of grace but Love is a greater Let us imploy spiritual joyes when it pleaseth God to send them to improve love and gratefulnesse in us Do we find ourselves destitute of those joyes let us study to find out in our conciences the causes of that want that we may remove them labouring to clarifye our souls of all mire of the earth that they may like pure Crystals receive the gratious and comfortable rayes of the Sunne of righteousnesse But as long as God gives us the grace to love him and cast ourselves upon him Let his grace be sufficient unto us for his strength is made perfect in weakenesse 2 Cor. 12.9 Joy and comfort cannot but follow faith and love Perhaps not very close but feare not they will and must needs follow Let us expect their comming in silence and hope and take heed of putting them back with curiosity and impatience CHAP. VI. Of the care of the Body and other little Contentments of life SInce we seeke the content of the mind the body must not be forgotten for as long as they live personally united in this world they can hardly be content the one without the other That the body may do good service to the mind the mind must be a good Master to the body and maintaine it with great care I say with great care not with much tendernesse for we must use it to be contented with little and with things easie and ordinary looking lesse for pleasure then health which yet is the way to get a lasting pleasure Of all earthly treasures health is the most precious Without the health of the body the mind hath much adoe to maintaine his liberty and stability The disorder of the humours of the body makes the mind turbulent froward and sometimes reason is quite turned upside downe by a corporall indisposition It is then the part of a wiseman to take a most speciall and exact care of his health It is preserved by these three principal meanes Serenity of mind a sober diet and exercise Of these three antidotes against all diseases the chiefe is Serenity of mind This and the health of the body maintaine one another But the mind is a more powerfull agent upon the body then the body upon the mind A meek and cheerefull spirit keepeth his body healthfull whereas frequent excessive fits of choler and deep sadnesse sowre the whole masse of blood and poyson the fountaine of animall spirits Whereby the body loseth his lively colour and his good plight and droops into a lingering consumption Heavinesse in the heart of man makes it stoop By sorrow of heart the spirit is broken A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit dryeth the bones saith Solomon And to get that merry heart he enjoynes us to keep our mind in a milde temper Prov. 11.17 The mercifull man doth good to his owne soule but he that is cruell troubleth his owne flesh The body thus preserved in health by the serenity of mind payeth him readily for that good office for the mind is kept tranquill and serene by the good constitution of the body To preserve both sobriety is necessary there being nothing that weares the body and sets the mind out of frame so much as intemperance doth Neither are those that glut themselves vvith meate and drink the onely that need to be exhorted to learne sobriety Many that go for sober need that exhortation For generally all that live with some plenty eat and drink too much and confound in their stomack too many various ingredients giving to nature more then it needs and more then it can dispense Which superfluity that especially of the third concoction turnes into ill humours whence variety of diseases is bred answerable to the variety of our dishes as in the Commonwealth uselesse persons and such as have nothing to do are they that stirre seditions and trouble the State Then naturall heate which serves to the nutritive faculty weares away before the time when it is put to an overgreat labour and the spirits serving to make the pot boyle below leave the intellectual part ill served in the upper roome That overplus of aliment growing to pride of blood breeds no better effect in the soule then to swell the appetite and stirre it to rebellion against the reason If we could bring ourselves to a more simple and lesse abundant dyet both our bodies and minds would enjoy more health The fewer vapours the belly sends to the braines besides the necessary the clearer is the skie in that upper region Therefore to keepe health and serenity such as have a daily plentifull fare and feare that their stomack hath more appetite then strenght shall doe wisely to fast sometimes to give it time to rest and recover strength Most sicknesses in their beginnings may be healed by abstinence On the other side they that use a more sparing dyet should allow to themselves some intervals of good cheere It oppresseth those whose ordinary meales are so many feasts but it reneweth the vigour of those that use it seldome Wine is especially given of God to make glad the heart of man Psal 104.15 It is of singular vertue to charme cares Two draughts of it extraordinary when the minde is vexed with crosses will put upon a mans buzinesses a smoother and calmer face The third preserver of health is Exercise without which the body becomes an unwieldy bagge of corrupt humours Great eaters need more exercise But the most sober need some The naturallest and pleasantest is walking to which they that lead a sedentary life must allow some time But to most men their buzinesses give bodily exercise enough many times too much to the prejudice of the minde which thereby is neglected and made servant to the body If one be shut up or hath lost the use of his legs he must invent some other way instead of walking to exercise his body and prevent sicknes And if he cannot put his body to any exercise he must cate and drinke the lesse It is a wise course to harden the bodies of children and young men especially against cold the cause of most sicknesses in aged persons But when one hath bin tenderly brought up it is imprudence to goe about to inure his body to hardnes in his declining age The minde may be capable of that