but his own profit and interest Thou must endeavor to live for others as well as for thyself Why art thou so sparing of thy wealth as if it were wholly thine Thou art only a Trustee in it All that money Treasure which thou lockest up in iron chests and which thou hast injustly extorted from others is not thine It was only entrusted in thy hands and now it belongs to another master Either thy Enemies will come to possesse it or at least some Heir that is little better then an enemy Wilt â—…u know how to make it thy own By â—…ing it away In what is it that thou esteemest thyself rich in that thou hast houseâ—… money and lands If thou givest part of these things to thy neighbour thou wilt hereby oblige him and practise a vertue which will remain with thee for ever Mony is never pretious but when we liberally bestow it in good uses and loose the possession of it 3. Because we cannot doe great matters with small expenses therefore as in moderate charges we are said to be governed by liberality soe when we make any splendid expences it is called magnificence These two vertues though alike in other things differ in this that the one appears also in little things the other only in great things A man that has but a smal fortune may notwithstanding be liberall but to have the name of being magnificent a man hath need of great riches Magnificence appearetâ— cheifly in some remarkable excellency of a gift For if a man should give a Jewell of great of worth to adorn some holy thing we should rather call him very liberall then magnificent but if he should employ the value of this Jewell to build a church Altar or some other magnificent piece of work we might then call him magnificent And when we speak of magnificent works we mean such as belong to the honour of God the publick good recreation or the like But in all these things there is a decorum or measure to be observed as well in order to the giver as the gift He is not properly magnificent who spends more then he is worth who engageth himself and his family in great debts out of ambition to be esteemed magnificent He is truly liberall and magnificent who gives what is his own and spends nothing at the expences of others CHAP. XXVIII Of Fortitude and the duties of it That a generous man should contemn Death 1. THe nature of men is commonly weak and their minds effeminate wherefore they should still endeavor to arm themselves with fortitude least that being terrifyed with dangers they consent to any thing against Gods law Fortitude hath a double office first and cheifly to bear all labour and danger with patience Secondly to meet and defy them when occasion is offered A generous man doth not rashly cast himself into dangers but bears them with constancy when they come he doth not desire occasions of fear but contemns them when they happen he taketh courage where others loose it where others fall he standeth firm he is not daunted with disgraces repulses banishment or injuries he is not frightned with prisons torments no not with Death itself he overcometh all sorrow sicknes and trouble with the greatnes of his courage niether threatning nor entreating can withdraw him from vertue he is not discouraged although he finds many obstacles in his affairs he doth not fall under his burden nor seek to shake of what he hath once undertaken but he continues firm untill he hath brought it to a good end no burden can make him shrink no force no power no fear can make him lesse all the dangers in the world cannot make him forbear or hide his vertue He doth not regard what he suffers but still considers what he hath designed what he ayms at 2. As those who sayl with a good wind doe not forbear to provide against a Tempest Soe thou oughtest in time of prosperity to prepare thyself to endure Adversity Fancy to thyself that some great misfortune had befallen thee as losse of children shipwrack banishment wounds torments sicknes calumny reproaches and carry thyself with that moderation in this fancy as if those things were really befallen thee that soe by this kind of exercise thou maist be able to say on all occasions I had long since prepared myself against this misfortune I foresaw it and contemned it long since It is decreed from all Eternity what thou art to suffer and when thou art to rejoice and althô every mans life is subject to severall chances yet we all agree in this As we are mortall ourselves soe all that we possesse is subject to perish Why art thou out of patience What dost thou complain of Although all that thou hast should perish yet thou loosest nothing which is properly thine It is better to give it willingly when God calls for it then to stay till we are forced to render it Epicurus hath taught us that a wise man may be happy in the midst of torments Althô sayes he he should be inclosed in Phalaris his brasen Bull yet he will say How little doe I value to be thus tormented It was generous saying and not incredible unto us Christians amongst whom are extant the examples of so many Martyrs whose Constancy in the midst of Tortures and alacricy in the midst of flames hath bine soe great that they seemed to have no feeling at all of their Torments To those who love God willingly suffer for his cause all pains are delights 3. The excellency of Fortitude never appears with more glory then when we are brought to suffer Death It is very hard to contemn life in regard we see most men esteem it at so great a rate that they think nothing more pretious But if thou art wise as it behoves thee to be thou wilt not esteem Death an evill since it is the end of all Evils and the beginning of life Thou shouldest leave thy body with a willing mind considering thou art to receive it again in the last day The necessity of Death is invincible and t is meer madnes to fear it for that which we fear is alwaies dubious but that which we expect is certain Consider how that children and those who have lost their wits doe not fear death Is it not a shamefull case then if reason cannot give thee the same security which want of reason gives unto fools God hath given us life but not without a condition of being subject to dye he that is not willing to dye shews that he never desired to live 4. We are obliged to nature for having granted us a certain time to see and make use of all her riches and glory and now the time being out we must part What wise man when he is brought to the last gasp would be willing if it were possible to begin his life anew to be first shut up in his mothers womb then to passe over again all the
know all thy evill inclinations all thy vicious qualities let him know all the good thou dost and all the evill thou committest Discover unto him all the particular favours thou receivest from God Desire him that when he perceiveth in thee any irregular and disordinate affection he will not forbear to tell thee of it that too very often least that by being ashamed to reprehend thee he should dissemble at thy faults But if it should chance that he telleth thee he finds nothing to be reprehended in thy life doe not presently conclude that thou art innocent because perhaps the reason of his silence is for that he sees he shall get thy hatred by speaking or else that he despairs of thy amendment Wherefore entreat him more and more that soe he may see thou hast a reall and earnest desire of advancing in perfection Begin to lay before him the number of thy imperfections resolve to reform thy manners according to his Counsell Rejoyce as often as he reprehendeth thee for thy faults and still endeavor to come better from him or at least in a disposition to grow better It is a great matter considering the common frailty of our nature when a man is willing desirous to amend 4. These are the mutuall offices of a spirituall Directour one that desires to learn vertue of him that soe the one may grow better and the other not loose his labour in instructing him The greatest obstacle in Beginners is a rebellious refractory Spirit impatient to learn incapable of being cured For some that confide too much in their own wisedome refuse to be governed by another All these things say they which you tell me I know already What profit is there in shewing me things which are clear enough of themselves and repeating the same things over and over Very much because thou knowest many things which thou dost not perhaps attend unto Admonitions are not so much for teaching us as for exciting the memory and hindring us from forgetting things We often dissemble things that are clear and therefore t is not amisse to inculcate the knowledge of what we already know Vertue gathers strength when it is touched and encouraged Some are hindred and disheartned by a foolish apprehension or fear which is a childish fault and unworthy of any man Others like frantick men keep all close to themselves will not discover their infirmities to their spiritual Physitian The Devill persuades them to this silence hoping thereby to make his advantage of it as long as they discover nothing When thou art troubled with any corporall disease however soe shamefull thou hast no difficulty to shew it to him that is to cure it and yet thou hidest with great care the Vlcers of thy Soul as if hiding would cure them whereas they will at some time or other discover themselves in spight of all thy care He that hideth his wounds will never be cured 5. Does the Phisitian doe thee any wrong if he discovers thy disease if when thou art in danger he tells thee that thou art ill that thou art in a feavor that thou art to abstain one day from meat ordains thee to drink water in another Sure thou wouldst commend him and thank him for it But if any one should tell thee that thy passions or desires are violent that thy opinions are vain and idle thy affections immoderate or the like thou wouldest presently cry out that thou art affronted injured abused and therefore wilt be revenged of him Unhappy man what hurt does it doe thee to be admonished of thy Salvation What injury canst thou call it unles such a one as a looking glasse may be said to doe to an ugly face He shews thee what thou art Mend therefore thy faults which he reprehends in thee correct thy manners wash of the spots of thy Conscience T is in thy power if thou wilt to live soe that no man can justly reprehend thee CHAP. III. Of the purgative way and how to extirpate all sins and vicious Affections The best motive to this is a continuall Remembrance of Death and Eternity 1. WHensoever any man committeth a Sin he actually strayeth from God this is the cause of all the misery in the world From this proceed all the pains and troubles of this life this is the Poyson which infecteth the whole world We doe not perceive the malice of it when we commit the sin but when t is once committed then we understand the mischeif it brings with it We read of Tyrants that were wont heretofore a strange punishment to tye living bodies unto dead carkases that soe they might be poysoned to death with the horrid infection of an abominable stench By sin we are brought to suffer the like punishment we carry about with us our own Executioner cannot easily deliver ourselves from it If thou canst not resolve to suffer something for avoiding sin thou wilt be forced to suffer much after thou hast committed it An evill action is no sooner resolved upon but it presently produceth its own punishment T is this which makes us guilty of death and eternall damnation We must therefore have a speciall care to expiate our conscience from all Sin by contrition confession and satisfaction And t is not enough to avoid falling into great sins but we must also have a care to avoid lesser faults which although they doe not cause immediate death to the Soul yet weaken our spirituall forces are a disposition to mortall sin But the ship wrack is equally the same whither the ship be swallowed up and lost under one great wave or sunk by degrees the water entring in drop by drop We may be more to blame for yeilding unto these lesser faults in regard the difficulty to ouercome them was lesse The weaker our enemy is the greater is our shame if we permit ourselves to be overcome by him 2. Thou wilt never be able to attain unto much Vertue and to restore thyself to thy former liberty unles thou canst first quit thyself of all affection even to the least sins For otherwise thy body may be in the desert and thy mind at the same time in Egipt All does not goe well with thee if after having pardoned injuries and forsaken thy dishonest loues thou dost still give ear to calomnies detractions against thy neighbors if thou art still delighted with some dangerous beauty For to purchase an interior purity t is not enough to extirpate all sin out of thy soul but thou must also root out all evill habits or affections which may often remain behind after the sin is forgiven If thou dost only cut the boughs leave the root entire thou wilt see in a short time new branches of iniquity grow up from the same stock Thou sayest that thou art resolved to root out of thy soul all thy old Vices But I fear thou dost not barr the Door against them but leavest it seemingly
meer bables They are much delighted with little pibbles and painted stones which they find upon the shore and thou art ready to run mad for a little heap of yellow earth and a few glittering stones and this thy folly may cost thee very dear in the end T is not that I forbid thee to possesse riches if God hath made thee rich but I could wish thou hadst no ill gotten wealth nothing purchased unjustly by sordid gain and too much care and sollicitude Receive thy riches into thy coffers but take heed of hoarding them up in thy mind but be alwaies ready to part with them whensoever it shall please God to take them away No man is truly rich but he that thinks he doth not want riches Doe not stay untill Theeves or chance shall rob thee of what thou possessest prevent them in time and take away from thyself by bearing a mind indifferent towards all these outward things all that others can robb thee of Thou wilt then be master of thyself when thy riches doe not master thee 5. Learn to renounce all pompe and vanity in thy manner of living and live not so much according to the example of others as according to the law and modell which hath bine left us by Jesus Christ Poverty with the help of frugality may be changed into riches Nature desires but little that is to have just provision enough against hunger thirst and cold and no more What hinders but that thou maist have a house good enough without having it built of marble and be cloathed well decently enough without having thy apparell made of the richest silks Canst thou not quench thy thirst unles thou drinkest in a crystall cup that so thou maist drink and fear at the same time Canst thou not cut thy bread without having the haft of thy knife made of Ivory and beset with pearls must thou needs have a bason of silver to wash thy hands in whereas an earthen one would serve as well will not a lantorn give sufficient light unles the work of it be all gilded He is a slave to his gold who thinks his gold can any way adorn him How mucn better would it be to love true riches to wit such as make a man better such as no fortune nor death itself can take away from us why art thou afraid of poverty since thou hast a kingdome in thy own breast The kingdome of God is within thee Let it not be said then that thou seekest any other riches Seek the true and soveraign Good which is nothing else but God himself In him is thy possession and kingdome For in him is all good and all riches Unto whom God is all things this world seems as nothing 6. All that shineth all that seemeth great in this world is but pure Vanity a meer nothing What dost thou wonder at to see a man richly clad in purple loaden with gold and followed by a great train of servants All this is but pompe They are things which are shewn but not possessed and they passe away at the same time that they please This is a truth which is learnt not soe much in the schools of Philosophers not so much from the crosse of Jesus Christ or from the eternall wisedome of God as from the world it self and those who are enslaved in the vanities of it Doe but hear how Aman the most rich the most powerfull the most favoured of his Prince amongst all the men of his time doe but hear how he speakes unto his friends having assembled them together I esteem says he all that I possesse as nothing as long as I am forced to see Mardocheus sitting before the Kings door Oh folly oh blindnes I have often read and heard that all the things of this world are nothing if compared unto those riches which are purchased by Vertue and last for all Eternity but when I consider they were esteemed as nothing by such a wicked man methinks we should esteem them les then nothing Wherefore unles thou canst contemn the things of this world thou dost nothing Begin then to contemn something in thyself and contemn it because it is something It concerns thee to bridle thy covetousnes that so thou maist accustome thyself to the love of poverty and learn to esteem things in as much as thou hast need of them Thou wilt easily contemn all things if thou dost accustome thyself to think alwaies of Death CHAP. VII Of Anger The character of an angry man The causes effects and remedies of Anger 1. NO Anger is just and lawfull unles it be when we are angry against Anger itself It is a cruell monster an outragious and turbulent passion which if once it gets the upper hand in a mans hart it scarce leaves any sign or figure of man in him Anger is a short madnes and makes a man out of himself thirsting after arms blood and slaughter forgetting all honour civility and friendship snatching at any weapon or occasion to doe others mischeif like unto some great Ruine which breaks itself into many pieces upon that which it overwhelmeth Nothing is more hideous to behold then an angry man his eyes seem to burn and sparkle with rage his veins swell his hair stands upright his lips tremble his teeth chatter his mouth foams his voice breaks forth with a harsh and raging Tone No passion puts a man into such disorder It renders the face dreadfull contracteth the forehead makes the head shake the feet stumble the hands tremble and the whole body is put into strange motions Adde his threatning gestures the clapping of his hands his striking the ground with his feet knocking his brest pulling his hair tearing his garments his blood rising in every part Now guesse in what condition his mind is within since his outward motions are so extravagant As the Poets describe the infernall monsters all in flames environed with serpents and howling with a most hideous noise such is the picture of an angry man when he is in his bloody fury and rageth with a brutish cruelty Other vices may be hidden or disguised Anger alwaies discovers it self appears in the face and like fire catcheth and layes hold of all things and the more thou strivest to hide it the more it rageth He that is transported with anger seems uncapable of all moderation 2. Other vices have their certain limits but Anger is boundles and reacheth all things we are angry sometimes against heaven itself Hence proceed soe many blasphemies soe many murmurings against God hence it is that the wicked and libertin raise so many questions and disputes concerning his divine providence And we are not only angry with those whom we think to have already wronged us but we are also troubled with the thought of future injuries so that if we apprehend though perhaps it is but our fancy that such a party will doe us wrong we are moved to be angry with him as much as if he had
is he that hath prepared life everlasting for thee without any preceding merit of thine The skies the earth the ayr the water all things contained in them cry dayly unto thee that thou art bound to love him above all things because he is the Author of all these things and hath created them for thy use Why then dost thou wander here and there to seek thy happines where it is not to be found Love that one soveraign good to wit God in whom alone is all that is good Seek that soveraign Good then which nothing is greater nothing more desirable T is Love alone that can make us capable to shew our gratitude to God although it is altogether impossible we should requite his benefits with an equall proportion of Love Love is not idle doth not seek its own interests it worketh great things when it is great itself Nothing seems hard unto Love A true lover may suffer death but can never be overcome 4 Nature hath made us sociable and given us all a mutuall Love for we are all members of one great Body being all called to the same Faith and same glory He doth not love God who loveth not his brother The effect of charity to our neighbors is to doe good unto all to be kind to be civill and prevent them with love and good turns Doe good unto those who have need of thy help with a cheerfull and willing mind without delay unles it be requisite to deferr it for a while thereby to favour the bashfulnes of those who are to receive thy benefits Doe not stay untill thou art asked when thou once knowest the necessity of a person It is a hard word to be obliged to say I desire your assistance If thou preventest thy friend by doing him a curtesy before he asketh it t is a double good turn He that hath obtained by asking cannot say he had it for nothing If thou canst not prevent his asking at least let him not ask long but grant him what he asketh with such a readines that he may think thou wert ready to assist him without being asked Then together with the good turn thou dost him give him also good words and let no sadnes slownes upbraiding or boasting be mixed with thy Curtesy The matter will speak for it self although thou sayest nothing in giving it God who seeth thy most hidden thoughts will reward thee for it 5. Amongst all the acts of Christian Charity we may give the first place to Alms-giving by which our faith is shewn our sins are redeemed heaven is bought Take heed then thou dost not contemn the poor who although he is in want himself yet is able to make thee rich in the sight of God Thou art sold to the devill by thy sins redeem thyself with thy mony and change the instrument of Avarice into a subject of mercy Thou givest a Comedian mony to fill his purse only for making thee laugh and wilt thou give nothing unto Christ who promiseth thee the kingdome of heaven Thou payest taxe and contribution to a Prince and that unwillingly although thou hast received no advantagious crop from thy harvest and canst thou deny to give a small alms unto God out of the abundance of thy stock Take heed least by sparing thy mony thou becomest guilty of thy brothers death Thou hast killed him perhaps by not feeding him in his want Thou takest great care how thy Heirs may live at their ease after thee but thou takest no care to make a happy end thyself It is better thy heirs should want something of that full Estate which thou intendest to leave them rather then thou shouldest hazard thy Salvation to enrich them Cast up thy accounts and see what portion or chare thou hast in heaven and what thou possessest in this world Of all that thou possessest in this life nothing will remain thine when death comes but only that which thou hast sent before hand into heaven by the hands of the poor Consider and blame thy own infidelity Theeves may deprive thee of what thou lockest up in thy chests but that which thou hast sent into heaven is secure for ever CHAP. XXII Of Prudence The Necessity and difficulty of it The duty of a prudent man 1. AS it is impossible for an Architect to make his work just and even without the help of his Rule and Plummer so we can never doe our actions aright without Prudence This is the Guide of all other vertues by this things are done in due order t is the eye of our Soul and the art of well doing No man can lead a contented life without prudence And yet t is the most difficile and most obscure of all arts to learn The difficulty proceedeth from its comprehending and considering all manner of things as well general as particular Besides whereas the things of this world are subject to continuall change and depend on severall circumstances it is not in every mans capacity to reduce them to a certain rule or to joyn temper and reconcile things which are many times quite opposite and contrary As for the obscurity unto which it is incident the cause seems to be in a certain darknes wherein the severall causes of things are involved We see as it were the top of our affairs but we know not where their foundation is hidden Moreover the prosperous or unhappy event of things depends on the eternall decree of God which is another cause that true prudence is rarely found Very few and perhaps not one man in the whole world can alwaies foresee what is most expedient in every matter 2. Prudence is got by use memory and experience Particular things which are governed by prudence are known unto man by use and experience Thou wilt ever be safe if thou wilt believe thy own and others experience and never undertake any thing which may give thee reason to fear or put thee in danger to fall But that thou maist dispose all things with prudence first look unto thyself then consider the busines thou art going about and lastly the persons for whose sake or with whom thou art to deal Examine well thy own ability least that thou maist seem to thyself able to doe more then really thou canst One falls by trusting to and relying too much on his own eloquence another offends against prudence by undertaking more then his Estate is able to bear a third indiscreetly oppresseth his infirm body by some laborious office Consider what thou undertakest and compare thy forces to thy designs He that will goe about to carry more then he is well able to bear will fall under the burden Undertake nothing then unles thou knowest or hopest at least thou shalt bring it to a good end Choose such persons to deal withall which thou thinkest are worthy of thy friendship and deserve that thou shouldest employ part of thy life in their service study their nature and manners that thou maist not endammage