things as are not within the reach of thy own power 'T is a misery to have that wanting to the Will which is hoped for 2. The Mind is frequently to be admonished to look upon all things which are without thee and about thee as perishable and hanging by a slender Thread Why forgettest thou thy own Condition Thou art born Mortal Nothing is promised thee of this Day nothing of this Hour Death stands at thy back whatsoever thou hast is but borrowed the use of it is thine so long as it pleases the supreme Arbiter of all things When he calls all is to be rendred up without complaint 'T is the part of a perverse Debtor to injure his Creditor There 's nothing therefore under the Sun which thou oughtest to hope for That only is a true Hope which is rightly conceiv'd of the true and chief Good 3. Despair is caused by Sloathfulness Dejection of mind an over-great apprehension of Difficulties a faulty Diffidence of ones self and of the defect of his own Forces and Industry 'T is conquered by exciting the Mind to imitate their Example who being in far greater anguishes generously overcame all Obstacles Begin and drive on thy self for God helps them who do what they can and thou wilt find that most easie which seem'd most hard if the false Opinion concerning it is deposed Whatsoever happens to thee that all was designed from Eternity Now that either falls out as thou by Nature art disposed to endure it or otherwise if the first despair not but bear it if otherwise yet do not despair for whatsoever it is it will soon have an end and make an end of thee That 's light which thou canst bear short which thou canst not But remember that it is in thy own Power to render many things tollerable if thou wilt apprehend them as profitable and convenient Calamity is the occasion of Virtue CHAP. XVII Of Fear How Vain it is and how to be Vanquished Boldness to be avoided Something again of Anger 1. MAny there are who when there is no present Evil nor any assuredly to come do nevertheless rage and run about and either feign a Misfortune to themselves or increase it Humane cruelty hath not invented so many torments as a Mind endures which is ever anxious of the future which is over-solicitous to preserve his present Goods and over-apprehensive of future dangers Many things which would not be Evils are so because we fear them What profits it thee to be troubled before the time and by a vain providence to meet thy own Miseries Must thou needs be now miserable because thou mayst be so hereafter 'T is the part of a Fool to give up his reason to other mens relations and when no apparent signs foretell the Mischief to be terrified with false imaginations Oftentimes thou being deceiv'd with a sinister conjecture wrestest a Word of doubtful signification to the worst sence Sometimes thou conceivest the offence of a Nobleman to be greater than indeed it is and thinkest not how far forth he is angry but what he may do being angry But these Fears are vain and therefore trouble more because vain For true things have their measure but what comes from uncertainty is left to the conjecture and liberty of the timerous Mind It little differs whether thou endurest adverse fortune or expectest it but only there is a measure of grieving none of fearing Thou grievest for as much as thou knowst has hapned thou fearest for as much as may happen 2. If thou wilt put off all Fears propose that whatsoever thou dreadest lest it should come will certainly come then measure that Evil with thy self and tax thy Fear thou wilt soon perceive that the thing thou fearest is not in it self great but in thy Opinion Can any harsher misfortune befall thee than to be thrust into Banishment cast into Prison Can thy Body dread any thing more than to be burnt to death Discuss these particulars and reduce them to thy true Fear thou wilt find many even Infidels who contemned all these things Stephen amongst the Stones prayed to God with 〈…〉 Mind Lawrence triumphs in the Flames and insults over the Tyrant The Virgin Apollonia casts her self into the prepared Fire Anaxarchus smiles in the Mortar being beaten to pieces with Iron Malls Socrates chearfully drinks a health to Critias out of his poysoned Cup. Why dreadest thou Flames and Fires and the frowning looks of the Executioners who encompass thee Under all that pomp which affrights Fools Death lies hid which so many Boys and Girls have with joyful minds embraced Take away tumults from things put off their vizards restore to every thing it s own Countenance thou wilt see nothing terrible in them besides the terror it self That happens to us greater Children which does to little ones They if they see them whom they love with whom they live with whom they play personated and disguised are affrighted But thou more silly than Children art arriv'd at that height of Folly as not only to be vext at grief but with the Panick Fear of it 3. Lead thy Mind from the private to the Common Cause Think thou hast a frail and mortal Body subject to many Diseases and at last to Death And say to thy self I knew long since that many adverse verse Accidents hung over my Head What therefore do I now dread I shall be Sick The Sickness of my Body will conduce to the Health of my Soul I shall be reduc'd to Poverty My Life will be safer and more quiet I shall lose my Riches And with them many Cares and perpetual Danger I shall suffer Disgrace If the cause is just I will execrate it if unjust I will comfort my self with my own Conscience I shall be frustrated in my expectation of the thing I hoped for Neither do Kings obtain all they desire I shall be sent into Banishment I will go of my own accord and make it a Pilgrimage I shall become Blind The occasions of many Cupidities will be cut off Men will speak ill of me They will do what I deserve and what they are wont I shall Dye Upon this Condition I entred to go forth But I shall Dye in a Foreign Nation No Land is Foreign to him who hath here no permanent City I shall Dye before my time None but a Mad-man complains to be freed from his Fetters before the time and to be releas'd out of Prison Death Exile Grief are not punishments to be dreaded for they are but the tributes of our Mortality 'T is a Folly to fear the things thou canst not avoid 4. Beware of over-much Boldness and do not rashly set upon any thing above thy strength for none are sooner oppress'd than they who presume too much of themselves Small are our Forces without Gods help from whom proceeds all our sufficiency Boldness springs from the great value we put upon our own Virtue from a contempt of our Adversaries from a
IV. Of Gluttony Its Evils Its Remedies The signs of its being conquered 1. THe first War thou art to wage is against the vice of Gluttony which furnishes matter to the rest Gluttony gave a beginning to the death both of our Bodies and Souls For our first Parents by eating the forbidden Apple slew all men before they begot them Now the Enemies of Souls make use of the same Bait that by weakning all our vigour they may worry us and trample on us Hence spring Stupidity Tepidity Tediousness hence Scurrility Loquacity Dissolution hence Vneleanness Brawls Contentions hence dulness of mind drowsiness of spirit destruction of all vertue hence profusion poverty a long chain of diseases and death it self hastned by an over-heavy burthen of undigested victuals There are few infirm persons whom Gluttony drave not to their diseases For if the Body abounds not with bad humours ingendred by the excess of meat and drink although it may be attempted by a sickness yet it cannot be subdued by it Gluttony kills more than the Sword 2. O the base servitude of the Belly O insatiable Cupidity Nature has given thee no great body and thou exceedest the greediness of the greatest and most gluttonous Animals A Bull is fed with the herbage of a few Acres one Wood nourishes many Elephants but the World seems little to thee whatsoever flyes in the Air whatsoever swims in the Sea whatsoever runs in the Forrests do not satisfie thy ravenous appetite Cast an eye into Noblemens Kitchens and contemplate the Cooks running busily up and down amongst those many fires look upon the sweating numbers of Men and Maid-servants consider the slaughters of the Fowl and the Sawces swimming in Wine observe with what industry they order the Plates with what art they marshal the Messes place the Dishes and execute their respective imployments You would scarcely believe it were to feed one only Family that the Wine of so many Consuls and Kingdoms is drawn out that the Table is furnished with so great magnificency I do not advise thee to withdraw nouriture from thy Belly It is froward it may not be contradicted it stands in need of daily sustenance But a subtle and deceitful snare of Concupiscence lyes here concealed which frequently fetters the Soul and upon pretence of Necessity provides Fewel to foment Pleasure Wilt thou know with how little Hunger is extinguished Count thy self measure thy body consult thy stomach Thou wilt find that not to be necessary which exceeds the measure A little suffices Nature nothing satisfies Luxury 3. Hunger is not ambitious but is content to leave off not caring wherein it ceases The momentary judgment of the Pallat being past the precious relishes no better than that which is common and good cheap If thou art hungry thou must eat if thirsty thou must drink but whether the Bread is made of ordinary Corn or of the finest Flower whether the Water is fetch'd from the next Fountain or refresh'd with cooling Snow Nature is not at all concern'd This one thing she commands that Hunger be appeased that Thirst be quenched Fishes caught in the upper and lower Sea sought in the Lakes and Rivers Birds brought down from Heaven Beasts surprized in the Woods and Forrests several sorts of Tast-pleasing Wines and all the curious seasonings of Apicius are the torments of unhappy Luxury Epicurus commends a sober Diet even for pleasures sake Nothing is so dainty which satiety renders not insipid nothing so unsavoury which hunger makes not delicious Wouldst thou be freed from all superfluous care of Meat and Drink Consider thy end Thou must shortly dye and this Body pamper'd with such variety of curiosities must serve for food to filthy Worms Ponder for what Guests thou preparest a Feast and so nurture thy Flesh as not to oppress thy Mind Make use of such meat as may easily be had and every where met withall without impoverishing thy Patrimony or prejudicing thy Health A mannerly and well-tutor'd Belly is a great part of Liberty We understood not how many things are superfluous till they began to be wanting The Body stands in need of nourishment not of Junkets or Dainties 4. But there 's no cause to praise thy self if thou only despisest superfluities Then thou art praise-worthy when thou contemnest necessaries when thou canst perswade thy self that brown Bread and Wine weakned with Water suffice for thy sustenance when thou hast learn'd that Herbs were not provided only for Beasts but for men also Then I admire thee when in taking thy Refection thou intendest the bare necessity of Nature the only reparation of thy Forces the sole glory of God when thou comest unwillingly to the Table and takest thy meat as sick persons take a Medicine when thou strivest to curb and moderate since thou canst not totally hinder the pleasure of thy Tast when 't is irksome to thee to admit any thing which is extraordinary by reason of thy infirmity when finally thou hast obtain'd perfect purity both of Mind and Body For the proof of Abstinence consists not in the attenuation of the Body but in the perfection of Chastity CHAP. V. Of Luxury How foul a vice it is How easie is the Relapse into it and how it may be avoided The Pleasure of the Mind which is solid is to be sought after 1. NO Vice is filthier then this nor of which we may be more ashamed The very Name of it is not without ignominy as the Apostle intimated when he commanded that such matters should not so much as be named amongst us Hence proceeds that shamefac'dness which seizes upon ingenuous and modest persons if they suspect that having committed any such crime of Vncleanness it is come to the knowledge of others Hence it is that some conceal the slippery Errors of their Youth from the Minister of Christ in the Tribunal of Penance chusing rather to undergo eternal torments with eternal disgrace after their Death than the imaginary infamy of this Vice in their Life-time He that is mir'd in this Puddle scarcely gets loose from it His Salvation is desperate who is infected with this disease For what can hurmane forces here do No one can be Continent unless God gives it 2. The first Remedy therefore of this Malady is fervent Prayer to the Divine Majesty that he who only hath the power will please to purisie and preserve thee Then thou art to repress all impure imaginations in their very first access with such speed as thou wouldst shake off a burning Coal from thy Garment The Castle is ready to be deliver'd up when the Governour gives way to discourse with the Enemy All occasion of Evil is also to be cut off proceeding from Idleness from Gluttony from all impure Objects from the Society and Conversation of bad people nor is there any thing to be neglected in this wrestling conflict There are certain Reliques of this Vice remaining even in Just men which must be entirely rooted out There lyes
upon all chances before they happen that so the Enemy may find thee prepared 'T is too late to furnish the Mind with Remedies after the Dangers Learn to do little and speak little for if of the many things thou speakest and dost thou takest away what is not necessary thou wilt find fewer perturbations in thy Mind And say not this is a small matter For that which is the beginning of Virtue and Perfection is very great though it seems but little 5. The Old man drawing his Origine from the infected seed of the sinner Adam is to be considered as a certain Tree having for its Root Self-love for its Trunk a Propension to Evil for its Branches Perturbations for its Leaves Vitious Habits for its Fruits Works Words and Thoughts which are contrary to the Divine Law Wherefore to hinder the Branches of bad Affections from breaking forth into Leaves and Fruits apply the Axe to the Root and extirpate that worst Love of thy self If thou takest this away thou hast with one stroke cut off the whole vitious Off-spring of thy Inferiour Appetite And thou wilt take it away and root it out if thou contemnest thy self if thou truly believest thy self to be one of those thousands who are indu'd with no singular dowry and perfection and that thou art destitute of all knowledge and virtue if thou fearest not to displease men and to be by them scorned and despised if thou art willing to want all sorts of comforts and conveniences Thou wilt preserve thy self if thou well hatest thy self thou wilt lose thy self if thou ill lovest thy self CHAP. XIII Of Love Its Nature Causes Effects Its Remedies Something added of Hatred 1. LOve is a complacency in that which is Good to wit that first impression wherewith the Appetite is affected when the known Good pleaseth it By this the whole World coheres together and this being brought under which holds the prime place amongst the Affections the whole troop of the rest will easily be quelled The Love which is good tends thither from whence it had its beginning It goes to Good because it proceeds from the Soveraign Good Discuss thy Life and weigh thy Heart in the Ballance of a strict Examination Observe what Love is there predominant for that which weighs down in the Scale of Love is to thee a God that 's the Idol thou worshippest Therefore God hath commanded thee to love him with thy whole Heart to prevent thereby the Affections of thy Mind because whatsoever thou Lovest with thy whole Heart that is the thing thou adorest as God 2. Besides Goodness and Beauty a certain sympathy and agreement of minds and manners excites Love as also outward Modesty Industry Nobility Learning quickness of Wit and other such like Ornaments of Body and Mind Love it self is the Load-stone of Love to which if Benefits are added he is then constrained to return Love who would not bestow it There are moreover some things naturally provoking Love for they who have clearer Spirits a warmer Heart a more subtle Blood and are of an easie and meek Disposition are more prone to Love 3. Great is the power of Love It transforms the Lover into the thing Beloved Love is a certain going out of it self a certain Pilgrimage from it self a certain voluntary Death He who Loves is absent from himself he thinks not of himself he provides nothing he doth nothing and unless he is received by his beloved he is no where O how unhappily doth he love who loves not God! for he cannot be in the beloved who loves earthly Objects which cannot satiate the Soul as being subject to Vanity and Death But he that loves God is in God and ceasing to live in himself lives in him in whom all things live who is our Center and our unchangeable Good Humane love is violent and bitter the Divine is evermore humble and peaceable Jealousie torments that but this hath no Rivals that fears lest another should love this wishes all would love wherefore if thou lovest thy self love God for that thou lovest him is thy own profit not his Man may be alter'd and perish thou never losest God unless thou leavest him 4. That the love which thou perchance bearest thy Companion may be sincere lay aside all humane causes of Wit Jocundness Likeness and seek only them which consist in Piety and Sanctity The Love which they call Platonical is the bane of Virtue whereby they feign that from the beholding Corporal Comliness the Soul is raised to the contemplation of the Divine Beauty The stedfast eying of a sair Face excites the Concupiscence to touch it and that which goes out by the Eyes whether it is Light or a certain Flux melts the Man and destroys him 'T is better the Feet should slip than the Eyes But the Remedies of Love are of great difficulty because when 't is chastised it more eagerly presses on and unless thou resistest its beginnings it so insensibly creeps in that thou wilt first feel thy self to Love before thou hadst any design of Loving But if thou absolutely repugnest to the beginnings the cure will be easily compassed The Mind also must be busied about other matters which being accompanied with care will remove the memory of the thing beloved Then all mention of the person affected is to be avoided because nothing more easily returns than Love which if it hath once seiz'd on thee it will so pertinaciously vex thee as that it will not be removed but by the lingring Remedy of time and absence that is till it being tired expires Shame hath cur'd many when they saw themselves pointed at and become the common talk of the people and withall considered the foulness of the thing full of disgrace full of danger and subject to future Repentance It hath profited others to enquire attentively into the Evils and inconveniences of the thing beloved which might diminish its amiableness and beauty Lastly a conversion of our Love to God to Virtue to eternal Objects that is to things which are truly Lovely will much conduce to the cure that so a good Love may expell the bad and the generous mind of man may grow ashamed to debase it self to the vile love of the earth Bad loves infect good manners 5. Nature hath bound all things together with a certain Love-Chain This drives and couples the dances of the Stars in Heaven the flocks of Birds in the Air the Heards of Oxen in the Meadows the Droves of Cattel in the Mountains the companies of Wild Beasts in the Woods This Sacred Bond is broken only by Hatred for as Love tends to Union so Hatred aims at Division and Dissention They are most subject to this bad affection who are sluggish timerous and suspicious and apprehensive of loss on every side There are moreover some men so born that they hate all others like that horrid sort of Fowls which hate even their own darkness If thou meetest with any of this
Note do not hate them but pity them As in wrestling thou watchfully lookest to thy Play-mate without any anger so in all thy Life decline from him without hatred who is contrary to thy disposition And thou wilt hinder hatred by exciting thy mind to love upon the consideration of some good in the hatefull object There will be no place for hatred in thee if thou interpretest all things in the best sence Then Hatred is to be applied to the things which truly deserve it which are the deformity of Sin and eternal Damnation If thou turnest it to any thing else thou hurtest not the thing thou hatest but thy self For if thou art commanded to love even thy Enemies whom canst thou justly hate Thou must pass out of the priviledg'd City to find one against whom thou mayst practise thy hatred That Evil is without the nature of things against which only hatred may lawfully be exercised But if thou must needs hate a man let it be none but thy self For no one can hurt thee so much as thou dost thy self CHAP. XIV Of Desire and Flight What is to be Desired what to be Fled from 1. HAppy he who is subject to God who desires nothing earnestly who accommodates himself to things as they occurr who says God will have me to be safe he will have me to be sick he will have me to be rich or poor he will have me to pass from hence or to stay here I am prepared for either If thou once sayst When shall I go thither When shall I get that thing Thou wilt be miserable For if thou covetest that which is without thee thou wilt be tormented with perpetual anxiety and as in an orbicular Machine thou wilt alwayes pursue never possess In thy own Power are thy own Opinions Thoughts Affections Actions without thy Power are the Body Riches Glory Dignities and whatsoever thy self doth not Those can neither be prohibited by any one nor hindred These are aliens and subject to impediments Wherefore do not at all desire those or at least so desire them as considering them to depend upon the arbitriment of others and that they cannot long continue with thee because their condition so requires No external thing is to be desired For the Figure of this World passes away Look within within is a Fountain of Good alwayes distilling if thou alwayes diggest 2. In this one thing was placed the wisdom of some antient Philosophers who being exempt from the Empire of Fortune amidst the sharpest torments of their Bodies disputed with their blessed Minds about Felicity For contemplating the limits of that Power which God hath given to Man they became fully perswaded that nothing besides their own thoughts and affections belonged unto themselves And thereupon by the use of this meditation they got such an absolute dominion over them and so well govern'd the motions of their minds that not without some reason they boasted themselves to be the only Rich the only Powerful the only Happy men But an assiduous exercitation is necessary to learn this lesson of despising the things which are without thee as not at all belonging to thee If thou canst come to this thou wilt never grieve at the want of external things as thou grievest not that thou art not King of the Tartars or that thou art destitute of wings to fly withall What is without us is nothing to us 3. With this Bridle Desires are to be curbed which unless thou moderatest thy unsatiable mind will never be satisfied with whatsoever thou affordest it all will but irritate not end its Cupidity No moisture suffices him whose bowels are inflam'd with a burning heat for that 's not a Thirst but a Disease So it befalls them who recall not their desires to Reason which hath certain bounds but leave them to Vice and Loosness whose limits are immense and incomprehensible Thou wilt feel no incommodities nor wilt thou want any thing thou desirest if thou conteinest thy self within the measure of Nature if thou exceedest this measure thou wilt be poor even amidst the greatest plenty To Cupidity nothing is enough to Nature few things are sufficient 4. Remember so to behave thy self in thy Life as thou wouldst at a Feast If Dainties are carried about and come to thee put forth thy hand modestly and take a share of them If he who bears them passes by thee detain him not If he is not yet come up to thee extend not thy appetite to things afar off but stay till he is present If thou standest thus affected towards Riches towards Dignities and the rest of things which are without thou wilt be worthy to feast with the Saints and thou wilt enjoy such a serenity of mind as will raise thee above all Chances But if moreover thou wilt slight and refuse the things which are offered thou shalt not only be a Guest of the Saints but a Partner in their Felicity and wilt begin to fore-tast upon Earth that happiness which they enjoy in Heaven 'T is in thy own power to make thy self happy by desiring nothing which is without thee Who is blessed and happy He who hath what he will He hath whatsoever he will who wills nothing but what he may 5. We shun and abhor many things as hurtfull which are indeed profitable For it falls out for the most part that they are contrary to the Mind That which hurts instructs Death Exile Poverty Disgrace Labour Sickness and the rest of the same kind which are not in thy Power belong not unto thee To these therefore thou art not to oppose Flight not detestation but a Neglect of the Opinion conceiv'd of them Socrates fitly named all these things Goblins For as Goblins affright Children whereas nothing is in them horrible but their outward shew So it happens in things which thou art wont to apprehend not as they are but as they appear What is Death A Hob-Goblin Observe how sweet it was not only to the Saints and persons of high vertue and perfection but to Socrates and to other Heathen Sages What then is so terrible in Death Opinion The Fear of Death is horrible not Death it self The same thou wilt find in other things which thou art wont to abominate Correct Opinion and thou wilt perceive there 's nothing besides Sin which thou art to abhorr CHAP. XV. Of Joy and of Sadness How a good man ought to rejoyce He who fore-sees all things is not contristated Several Antidotes against Grief 1. THou art so to rejoyce as that Modesty may appear in the midst of thy Mirth and that thy Mind be not so dissolved but thou canst freely if it be needfull pass from gladness to sadness Christ our Lord the best Esteemer of things calls not Laughers blessed but Mourners For it very much mis-becomes a Christian man who professes to look after eternal things amongst so many dangers of Soul and Body amongst so many most just causes of Sadness to delight