impatient at the death of a person coÌ„cerning whom it was certain and known that he must die is to mourn because thy friend or childe was not born an Angel and when thou hast a while made thy self miserable by an importunate and uselesse grief it may be thou shalt die thy self and leave others to their choice whether they will mourn for thee or no but by that time it will appear how impertinent that greif was which served no end of life and ended in thy own funeral But what great matter is it if sparkes fly upward or a stone falls into a pit if that which was combustible be burned or that which was liquid be melted or that which is mortal doe die It is no more then a man does every day for every night death hath gotten possession of that day and we shall never live that day over again and when the last day is come there are no more daies left for us to die And what is sleeping and waking but living and dying what is Spring and Autumn youth and old age morning and evening but real images of life and death and really the same to many considerable effects and changes Untimely death But it is not meer dying that is pretended by some as the cause of their impatient mourning but that the childe died young before he knew good and evill his right hand from his leâ—t and so lost all his portion of this world and they know not of what excellency his portion in the next shall be * If he died young he left but little for he understood but little and had not capacities of great pleasures or great cares but yet be died innocent and before the sweetness of his soul was defloured and ravishd from him by the flames and follies of a froward age he went out from the dining-rooms before he had fallen into errour by the intemperance of his meat or the deluge of drink and he hath obtained this favour of God that his soul hath suffered a lesse imprisonment and her load was sooner taken off that he might with lesser delaies go and converse with immortal spirits and the babe is taken into Paradise before he knows good and evil For that knowledge threw our great Father out and this ignorance returnes the childe thither * But as concerning thy own particular remove thy thoughts back to those daies in which thy childe was not born and you are now but as then you was and there is no difference but that you had a son born and if you reckon that for evil you are unthankful for the blessing if it be good it is better that you had the blessing for a whilâ— then not at all and yet if he had never been born ItideÌ„ si puâ—r parvulus ocâ—â—dat aequâ—ae nimo ferendum puâ—ant si verò in cunis ne querendum quidem atqui hâ—c aoerbius exegis natura quòd dede it At id quidem in câ—etâ—tâ—s rebus inclius putatur aliquâ—m partem quà m nullum aâ—â—ingere Senec. this sorrow had not been at all but be no more displeased at God for giving you a blessing for a while then you would have been if he had not given it at all and reckon that intervening blessing for a gain but account it not an evil and if it be a good turn not into sorrow and sadness * But if we have great reason to complain of the calamities and evils of our life then we have the lesse reason to grieve that those whom we loved have so small a portion of evil assigned to them And it is no small advantage that our children dying young receive For their condition of a blessed immortality is rendred to them secure by being snatcht from the dangers of an evil choice and carired to their little cells of felicity where they can weep no more And this the wisest of the Gentiles understood well when they forbade any offerings or libations to be made for dead Infants as was usual for their other dead as believing they were entred into a secure possession to wich they went with no other condition but that they passed into it through the way of mortality and for a few months wore an uneasie garment And let weeping parents say if they doe not think that the evils their little babes have suffered are sufficient If they be why are they troubled that they were taken from those many and greater which in succeeding years are great enough to trie all the reason and religion which art and nature and the grace of God hath produced in us to enable us for such sad contentions And possibly we may doubt concerning men and women but we cannot suspect that to Infants death can be such an evil but that it brings to them much more good then it takes from them in this life Death unseasonable But others can well bear the death of Infants but when they have spent some years of childehood or youth and are entred into arts and society when they are hopeful and provided for when the parents are to reap the comfort of all their fears and cares then it breakes the spirit to lose them This is true in many but this is not love to the dead but to themselves for they misse what they had flattered themselves into by hope and opinion and if it were kindness to the dead they may consider that since we hope he is gone to God and to rest it is an ill expression of our love to them that we weep for their good fortune For that life is not best which is longest and when they are descended into the grave it shall not be inquired how long they have lived but how well and yet this shortening of their daies is an evil wholly depending upon opinion Juvenis â—euâ—vâ—ia â—inbuiâ— quem Diâ— diligant Menâ—ud For if men did naturally live but twenty years then we should be satisfied if they died about sixteen or eighteen and yet eighteen years now are as long as eighteen years would be then and if a man were but of a daies life it is well if he lasts till Even song and then saies his Compline an hour before the time and we are pleased and call not that death immature if he lives till seventy and yet this age is as short of the old periods before and since the flood as this youtâ—s age for whom you mourn is of the present fulness Suppose therefore a decree passed upon this person as there have been many upon all mankinde and God hath set him a shorter period and then we may as well bear the immature death of the young man as the death of the oldest man for they also are immature unseasonable in respect of the old periods of many generations * And why are we troubled that he had arts and sciences before he died or are we troubled that he does not live to make use of them the first is cause of joy for
record the Article of the day such as Trinity Sunday Ascension Easter Christmas-day and to those persons who can only believe not prove or dispute there is no better instrument to cause the remembrance and plain notion and to endear the affection and hearty assent to the Article then the proclaiming and recommending it by the festivity and joy of a Holy-day SECT II. Of the Hope of a Christian. FAith differs from Hope in the extension of its object and in the intension of degree S Austin thus accounts their differences 〈…〉 8. Faith is of all things revealed good and bad rewards and punishments of things past present and to come of things that concern us and of things that concern us not But Hope hath for its Object things only that are good and fit to be hoped for future and concerning our selves and because these things are offered to us upon conditions of which we may so fail as we may change our will therefore our certainty is lesse then the adherences of faith which because Faith relies only upon one proposition that is the truth of the Word of God cannot be made uncertain in themselves though the object of ouâ— Hâ—pe may become uncertain to â—s and to our possession for it is infallibly certain 〈◊〉 there is Heaven for all the godly and 〈…〉 amongst them all it 〈…〉 my 〈◊〉 But that I shall enter into Heaven is the object of my Hope not of my Faith and is to 〈◊〉 as it is certain I shall persevere in the waies of God The Acts of Hope are 1. To relie upon God with a confident expectation of his promises ever esteeming that every promise of God is a magazine of all the grace and relief which we can need in that instance for which the promise is made Every degree of hope is a degree of confidence 2. To esteeme all the danger of an action and the possibilities of miscarriage and every crosse accident that can intervene to be no detect on gods part but either a mercy on his part or a fault on â—uâ—s for then we shall be sure to trust in God when we see him to be our confidence and our selves the cause of all mischances The hope of a Christian is prudent and religious 3. To rejoyce in the midst of a misfortune or seeming sadness knowing that this may work for good and will if we be not wanting to our souls This is a direct act of Hope to look through the cloud and look for a beam of the light from God and this is called in Scripture Rejoycing in tribulation when the God of Hope fills us with all joy in believing Every degree if hope brings a degree of â—oy 4. To desire to pray and to long for the great object oâ— our hope the mighty price of our 〈◊〉 calling and to desirâ— the other things of this life as â—â—ey are promised that is so faâ—â—e as they are made necessary and useful to us â—n 〈◊〉 to Gods glory and the 〈…〉 of souls Hope and Fasting are said to be the two wings of Prayer Fasting is but as the wing of a Bird but Hope is like the wing of an Angel soring up to Heaven and bears our prayers to the throne of Grace Without Hope it is impossible to pray but Hope makes our prayers reasonable passionate and religious for it relies upon Gods promise or experience or providence and story Prayer is alwaies in proportion to our Hope zealous and Affectionate 5. Perseverance is the perfection of the duty of Hope and its last act and so long as our hope continues so long we go on in duty and diligence but he that is to raise a Castle in an hâ—ur sits down and does nothing towards it and Herod the Sophister left off to teach his son when he saw 24 Pages appointed to wait on him and called by the several Letters of the Alphabet could never make him to understand his letters perfectly Rules to govern our Hope 1. Let your Hope be moderate proportioned to your state person and condition whether it be for gifts or graces or temporal favours It is an ambitious hope for a person whose diligence is like them that are least in the Kingdome of Heaven to believe themselves endeared to God as the greatest Saints or that they shall have a throne equal to S. Paul or the blessed Virgin Mary A Stammerer cannot with moderation hope for the gift of Tongues or a Peasant to become learned as Origen or if a Begger desires or hopes to become a King or asks for a thousand pound a year we call him impudent not passionate much lesse â—easonable Hope that God will crown your endeavours with equal measures of that reward which he indeed â—â—eely gives but yet gives according to our proportions Hope for good successe according to or not much beyond the efficacy of the causes and the instrument and let the Husbandman hope for a good Harvest not for a rich Kingdome or a victorious Army 2. Let your hope be well founded relying up must confidences that is upon God according to his revelations and promises For it is possible for a Man to have a vain hope upon God and in matters of Religion it is presumption to hope that Gods mercies will be powred forth upon lazy persons that doe nothing towards holy and strict walking nothing I say but trust and long for an event besides and against all disposition of the meanâ— Every false principle in Religion is a Read oâ— Egypt false and dangerous * Relie not in temporal things upon uncertain prophecies and Astrology not upon our own wit or industry not upon gold or friends not upon Armies and Princes expect not health from Physicians that cannot cure their own breath much lesse their mortality use all lawfull instruments but expect nothing from them above their naturall or ordinary efficacy and in the use of them from God expect a blessing A hope that is easie and credulous is an arm of flesh an ill supporter without a bone Ier. 17.5 3. Let your hope be without vanity or garishness of spirit but sober grave and silent fixed in the heart not born upon the lip apt to support our spirits within but not to provoke envy abroad 4. Let your hope be of things possible safe and useful Di cose fuoâ—i di credenza non voler far sâ—eranza He that hopes for an opportunity of acting his revenge or lust or rapine watches to doe himself a mischief All evils of our selves or brethren are objects of our fear not hope and when it is truly understood things uselesse and unsafe can no more be wished for then things impossible can be obtained 5. Let your Hope be patient without tediousness of spirit or hastiness of prefixing time Make no limits or prescriptions to God but let your prayers and endeavours go on still with a constant attendance on the periods of Gods providence The men of Bethulia resolved to wait
his forbearance according to common computation reckoning in also the hazard which he is prudently warily and charitably to estimate But although this be the measure of his justice yet because it happens either to their friends or to necessitous and poor persons they are in these cases to consider the rules of friendship and neâ—gâ—bourhood and the obligations of charity lest justice turn into unmercifulness Mercantiâ— non viâ—câ— ne amiâ—i ne parent 8. No Man is to be raised in his price or rents in regard of any accident advantage or disadvantage of his person A Prince must be used conscionably as well as a common person and a Begger be treated justly as well as a Prince with this only diffeâ—ence that to poor persons the utmost measure and extent of justice is unmercifull which to a rich person is innocent because it is just and he needs not thy mercy and remission 9. Let no Man for his own poverty become more oppressing and cruel in his bargain but quietly modestly diligently and patiently recommend his estate to God and follow its interest and leave the successe to him for such courses will more probably advance his trade they will certainly procure him a blessing and a recompense and if they cure not his poverty they will take away the evil of it and there is nothing else in it that can trouble him 10. Detain not the wages of the hireling for every degree of detention of it beyond the time is injustice and uncharitableness grindes his face till tears and blood come out but pay him exactly according to Covenant or according to his needs 11. Religiously keep all promises and Covenants though made to your disadvantage though afterwards you perceive you might have been better and let not any precedent act of yours be altered by any after-accident Let nothing make you break your promise unlesse it be unlawful or impossible that is either out of your natural or out of your civil power your self being under the power of another or that it be intolerably inconvenient to your self and of no (a) Surgam ad spons lia quia promisi quarivis non conceâ—erimised non si sebricitavero subest nâ—tacita exceptio si poteâ—o si debeo Senec. Eâ—â—â—ce ut idem status sit cum erigitur qui fuit cum promaterem Destitueâ—e revitas non erit si aliquid intervenem nevi Eadem mihi omnia praesta idem sum lib 4. cap. 39. de benefic advantage to another or that you have leave expressed or reasonably presumed 12 Let no man take wages or fees for a work that he cannot doe or cannot with probability undertake or in some sense profitably with ease or with advantage manage Physicians must not meddle with desperate diseases and known to be incurable without declaring their sense before-hand that if the patient please he may entertain him at adventure or to doe him some little ease Advocates must deal plainly with their Clients and tell them the true state and danger of their case and must not pretend confidence in an evil cause but when he hath so cleared his own innocence if the Client will have collateral and legal advantages obtained by his industry he may engage his endevour provided lie dâ—e no injury to the right cause or any Mans person â— â—â—sa vâ—â—in â—sâ—am simpl 13. Let no Man appropriate to his own use what GOD by a special mercy or the Republick hath made common for that is both against Justice and Charity too and by miraculous accidents GOD hath declared his displeasure against such inclosure When the Kings of Naples enclosed the Guardens of Oenotria where the best Manna of Calabria descends that no man might gather it without paying tribute the Manna ceased till the tribute was taken off and then it came again and so till after the third trial the Princes found they could not have that in proper which GOD made to be common they left it as free as GOD gave it The like hapned in Epire when Lysimachus laid an impost upon the Tragasaean Salt Caelius Rhod. l. 9. c. 12. Aâ—benae deipnit l. 3. it vanished till Lysimachus left it publick And when the Procurators of King Antigonus imposed a rate upon the sick people that came to Edepsum to drink the waters which were lately sprung and were very healthfull instantly the waters dried up and the hope of gain perished The summe of all is in these words of S. Paul Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter 1 Thess 4.6 because the Lord is the avenger of all such and our blessed Saviour in the enumerating the duties of justice â—ev 19.13 1 Cor. 6 8. Mar. 10.19 besides the Commandement of Doe not steal adds Defraud not forbidding as a distinct explication of the old Law the tacite and secret theft of abusing our Brother in Civil Contracts And it needs no other arguments to enforce this caution but only that the Lord hath underâ—aken to avenge all such persons And as he alwaies does it in the great day of recompenses so very often he does it here by making the unclean portion of unjustice to be as a Canker-worm eating up all the other increase it procures beggery and a declining estate or a caitiffe cursed spirit and ill name the curse of the injured and oppressed person and a Fool or a prodigal to be his heir SECT IV. Of Restitution Chinâ—n vâ—tâ—l rendere famala pâ—endeâ—e REstitution is that part of Justice to which a man is obliged by a precedent contract or a foregoing fault by his own act or another mans either with or without his will He that borrows is bound to pay and much more he that steals or cheats For if he that borrows and paies not when he is able be an unjust person and a robber because he possesses another mans goods to the right owners prejudice then he that took them at first without leave is the same thing in every instant of his possession which the Debtor is after the time in which he should and could have made payment For in all sins we are to distinguish the transient or passing act from the remaining effect or evil The act of stealing was soon over and cannot be undone and for it the sinner is only answerable to God or his Vicegerent and he is in a parâ—icular manner appointed to expiate it by suffering punishment and repenting and asking pardon and judging and condemning himselâ— doing acts of justice and charity in opposition and contradiction to that evil action But because in the case of stealing there is an injury done to our neighbour and the evil still remains after the action is past therefore for this we are accountable to our neighbour and we are to take the evil off from him which we brought upon him or else he is an injured person a sufferer all the while and that any man should be the worse
of the family should fear the Father would give meat to the chickens and the servants his sheep and his dogs but give none to them He were a very ill Father that should doe so or he were a very foolish son that should think so of a good Father * But besides the reasonableness of this faith and this hope we have infinite experience of it How innocent how careless how secure is Infancy and yet how certainly provided for we have lived at Gods charges all the daies of our life and have as the Italian Proverb saies set down to meat at the sound of a bell and hitherto he hath not failed us we have no reason to suspect him for the future we doe not use to serve men so and lesse time of tryal creates great confidences in us towards them who for twenty years together never broke their word with us and God hath so ordered iâ— that a man shall have had the experience of many years provision before he shall understand how to doubt that he may be provided for an answer against the temptation shall come and the mercies felt in his childehood may make him fear lesse when he is a man * Adde to this that God hath given us his holy Spirit he hath promised Heaven to us he hath given us his Son and we are taught from Scripture to make this inference from hence How should not he with him give us all things else The Charge of many Children We have a title to be provided for as we are Gods creatures another title as we are his Children another because God hath promised and every of our children hath the same title and therefore it is a huge folly and infidelity to be troubled and full of care because we have many children Every childe we have to feed is a new revenue a new title to Gods care and providence so that many children are a great wealth and if it be said they are chargeable it is no more then all wealth and great revenues are For what difference is it Titius keeps ten ploughs Cornelia hath ten children He hath land enough to imploy and to feed all his hindes she blessings and promises and the provisions and the truth of God to maintain all her children His hindes and horses eat up all his corn and her children are sufficiently maintained with her little They bring in and eat up and she indeed eats up but they also bring in from the store-houses of heaven and the granaries of God and my children are not so much mine as they are Gods he feeds them in the womb by waies secret and insensible and would not work a perpetual miracle to bring them forth and then to starve them Violent necessities But some men are highly tempted and are brought to a straight that without a miracle they cannot be relieved what shall they doe It may be their pride or vanity hath brought the necessity upon them and it is not a need of Gods making and if it be not they must cure it themselves by lessening their desires and moderating their appetites and yet if it be innocent though unnecessary God does usually relieve such necessities and he does not only upon our prayers grant us more then he promised of temporall things but also he gives many times more then we ask This is no object for our faith but ground enough for a temporal and prudent hope and if we fail in the particular God will turn it to a bigger mercy if we submit to his dispensation and adore him in the denial But if it be a matter of necessity let not any man by way of impatience crie out that God will not work a miracle for God by miracle did give meat and drink to his people in the wilderness of which he had made no particular promise in any Covenant and if all natural means fail it is certain that God will rather work a miracle then break his word He can doe that He cannot doe this Only we must remember that our portion of temporal things is but food and ralment God hath not promised us coaches and horses rich houses and jewels Tyrian silks and Persian carpets neither hath he promised to minister to our needs in such circumstances as we shall appoint but such as himself shall choose God will enable either thee to pay thy debt if thou beggest it of him or else he will pay it for thee that is take thy desire as a discharge of thy duty and Pay it to thy Creditor in blessings or in some secret of his providence It may be he hath laid up in the corn that shall feed thee in the granary of thy Brother or will clothe thee with his wool he enabled Saint Peter to pay his Gabel by the ministery of a fish and Elias to be waited on by a crow who has both his minister and his steward for provisions and his Holy Son rode in triumph upon an asse that grazed in another mans postures And if God gives to him the dominion reserves the use to thee thou hast the better half of the two but the charitable man serves God and serves thy need and both joyn to provide for thee and God blesses both But if he takes away the flesh-pots from thee he can also alter the appetite and he hath given thee power and commandment to restrain it and if he lessens the revenue he will also shrink the necessity or if he gives but a very little he will make it go a great way or if he sends thee but course diet he will blesse it and make it healthful and can cure all the anguish of thy poverty by giving thee patience and the grace of contentedness For the grace of God secures you of provisions and yet the grace of God feeds and supports the spirit in the want of provisions and if a thin table be apt to enfeeble the spirits of one used to feed better yet the cheerfulness of a spirit that is blessed will make a thin table become a delicacy if the man was as well taught as he was fed and learned his duty when he received the blessing Poverty therefore is in some senses eligible and to be preferred before riches but in all senses it is very tolerable Death of Children or nearest Relatives and Friends There are some persons who have been noted for excellent in their lives and passions rarely innocent and yet hugely penitent for indiscretions and harmless infirmities such as was Paulina one of the ghostly children of S. Hierom and yet when any of her children died she was arrested with a sorrow so great as brought her to the margent of her grave And the more tender our spirts are made by Religion the more easie we are to let in grief if the cause be innocent and be but in any sense twisted with piety and due affections * To cure which we may consider that all the world must die and therefore to be