fortune hath her inconstancy as well as the good and the calme will come after the storme The proper exercise of vertue in Adversity is to imitate God who fetcheth good out of it and makes it a discipline of godlines wisedome and tranquillity to his children It is not enough to hope that after the storme the calme will come wee must study to find tranquillity in the very tempest and make profit of our damage Having spoken of the particular Adversities in the second booke I will endeavour here to set downe general remedies for all sorts of Adversities saving one the Adversity which a delicat man createth to himselfe out of a conceited tendernes for to such wilfully afflicted persons the counsells of reason are uselesse till they be afflicted in earnest They have need of real afflictions to be healed of imaginary To them that are sick with too much ease a smarting Adversity is a wholesome plaister As to the hypocondriaque who had a false opinion of a wound in his left thigh the surgeon made an incision in the right to make him feele the difference betweene real wounds and imaginary Indeed the most part of persons afflicted are more so out of opinion then any true ground but the wanton melancholy of some that were all their time dandled in fortunes lap addeth to that epidemical disease Wee will let them alone till they have reason to complaine and desire them that groane under some apparent Adversities to examine seriously whether they be such as they appeare For there are some Adversities or called so which rather are prosperities if they that complaine of them can obtaine of themselves rather to beleeve their owne sense then the opinion of others and to have no artificial and studied sense but meerely the natural Thus he that is fallen into disfavour whereby he hath lost wealth and honours and hath kept liberty and bread enough to subsist retired remote and neglected is very much obliged first to the envy and after to the contempt of the contrary prevailing faction if God give him the understanding to enjoy the prosperity created by his adversity It is a happy misfortune for a little barke to be cast by the storme upon a smooth shore where the Sea ebbing leaveth it dry but safe while the rest of the fleet is torne by the tempest The wave is more favorable if it thrust the ship upon the haven Now the godly wiseman finds a haven any where because God is every where Sitting under the shelter of his love and providence he lookes with compassion upon the blinde rage of parties flesht in the blood of one another praising God that he was hurled downe from a stage where they are acting a bloody tragedy that he may be an actour no more but a beholder onely disinteressed from the publique contradiction His ruine cannot equal his gaine if by the losse of his estate he hath bought his peace and the uninterrupted contemplation of God himselfe and the world It would be a long taske to enumerate all the commodious adversities for which neverthelesse comfort is given and received with great ceremony Many accidents bitter to us for a time turne afterwards to our great conveniency Some should have missed a great fortune had they not bin repulsed in the pursuite of a lesser Many teares are shed upon the dead but more would be shed if some of them should rise againe God hath so enterlaced good and evill that either brings the other If wee had the patience to let God doe and the wisedome to make use of all wee might finde good in most part of our Adversities Many persons ingenious to their owne torment are like the boulter that lets out the flowre and keepes the bran they keepe disgraces and misfortunes in their thoughts and let Gods benefits goe out of their minde It had bin better for them to resemble the rying seeve that lets out ill seedes and keepes the good corne taking off their thoughts from that which is troublesome in every accident of their life unlesse it be to remedy it setting their mind upon that hath which may yeeld profit or comfort Thus he that received some offence in company by his indiscretion in stead of making that offense an occasion of quarrel must make it a corrective of his rashnes He that is confined within the limits of a house and garden instead of grieving that he hath not the liberty of the street must rejoyce that he hath the liberty of a walke And how many crosses come upon us which being wisely managed would bring great commodities if anger troubling our judgement did not make us forgoe the care of our conveniency to attend our appetite of revenge Could wee keepe every where equality and serenity of spirit wee might scape many Adversities or make them more tolerable or turne them to our advantage All afflictions are profitable to the wise and godly Even when all is lost for the temporal there wants never matter for the principall Advantage which is the spiritual There wee learne to know the perversity and inconstancy of the world and the vanity of life that wee may not repose our trust and bend our affection upon it Since a curse is pronounced to the man that trusteth in man and to him that trusteth in his riches the way to the kingdome of heaven is as impassable as the going of a cable through a niedles eye and we notwithstanding these divine warnings are so prone to trust and love the world God therefore in his wisedome and mercy suffers that unsound reed which wee leane upon to breake in our hand and our love of the world to be payd with its hatred that wee may learne to settle our confidence and love in a better place Hereby also a man comes to know his sin and Gods Justice Though we be prone to attribute the good and evill that comes to us unto second causes there is such an affinity betweene sin and punishment that even in the most obdurate hearts affliction brings sin to mind and gives remorse to the conscience But in godly soules that remorse is salutary David having sayd to God Psal 32.5 Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer addeth I acknowledged my sin unto thee mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confesse my transgressions and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And whereas the appetite will run wilde when prosperity opens the broad gate of licentiousnesse Adversity comming upon that holds a short hand upon the appetite and awakes piety and wisedome David speakes of this experimentally Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word ver 71. It is good for me that I have bin afflicted that I might learne thy statutes Prosperity is an evill counsellour and all her adresses are to the appetite but Adversity crossing the appetite calls upon the judgement
devotion is making a glory of the matter of our shame as if a fellon had the ambition to weare the halter about his neck with a good grace The sorrow of repentance is an ill passage which we must of necessity go through if we will be saved but we must not make that passage a dwelling place After we have used it to make our peace with God we must be comforted and rejoyce in that peace For God hath not called us to sorrow but to peace and content And the Gospell is the Doctrine of peace and assurance OF THE PEACE OF THE SOVL AND CONTENTMENT OF MINDE SECOND BOOK Of Mans Peace with himselfe by Rectifying his Opinions CHAPTER I. The Designe of this Book and the next THe sence of our peace with God may be distinguished from the peace with our selves but not separated for the peace with God being well apprehended setleth peace in the heart betweene a man and his own conscience which otherwise is his inseparable accuser and implacable adversary We have spoken in the first Book of the ground and principal cause of our inward peace which is also the end and perfection of the same and that is our Union with God We have treated also of the meanes altogether divine and effective of that end which are the love of God and our neighbour faith hope and a good conscience active in good workes We intend now with Gods helpe to speake of those subordinate causes and meanes where Prudence is a servant of Piety to keep peace and good order within In this great work the handmaide shall often need her Mistrisses help for reason not sanctified by piety is as dangerous to use as Antimony and Mercury not prepared The two great workes of sanctified reason to keep inward peace and content are these Not to be beaten down with adversity or corrupted with prosperity going through both fortuns with vertuous cleare and equal temper making profit of all things and fetching good out of evill To frame that golden temper in our minde we must lay downe before all things for a fundamental Maxime That all the good and evill of mans life though it may have its occasions without hath truly and really its causes within us excepting onely some few casualties where prudence hath no place and yet there is no evill but may be either prevented or lessened or turned into good by a vertuous disposition Hence it followes that not without but within us our principal labour must be bestowed to take an order for our peace and content To keep us from falls in a long journey if wee would send before to remove all the stones out of the way we should never have done but the right course is to get an able and surefooted horse and to sit fast on him It would be a more impossible undertakeing in the wayfairing condition of this life to remove all temptations and oppositions out of our way but against these two sorts of obstacles we must provide a firme spirit able to go through all and stumbling at nothing but keeping every where a sure and eeven pace To that end let us acknowledge within us two generall causes of all our content and discontent and all our order and disorder The first cause is the Opinion that we conceive of things The second is the Passion moved or occasioned by that opinion Take a good order with these two causes you shall be every where content tranquil wise and moderate But from the disorder of these two causes proceeds all the trouble of the inward polity of our minds and all the misrule and misery that is in the world It must bee then our labour to order aright these two Principles of our good and evill within us and in the order here set down which is essential to the matter Imploying this second Book to get right Opinions of the things of this world from which men usually expect good or evill And this will prepare us matter for the third Book whose task will be to set a rule to passions For that which sets them upon disorderly motions is the wrong opinion wherewith the mind is possest about the objects And whosoever can instruct his mind with right opinions may after that rule his passion with little labour CHAP. II. Of the right Opinion I Said that things exteriour are the occasions of the good and evill of man but the causes of the same are the interiour Opinion and Passion Now to treat of the causes we must also treat of the occasions as subjects of the opinion and objects of the passion Not to examine them all for they are as many as things in the world and accidents in mans life there is none of them altogether indifferent to us but are considered either as good or evill We will stay onely upon the chiefe heads and endeavour to finde the true price of things that men commonly desire and the true harme of those things which they feare In this search I desire not to be accounted partial if I labour to give a pleasant face to the saddest things It is my profest intention For my work being to seek in all things occasion of peace and content why shall I not if I can borrow it even from adversity And is it any whit material whether I find it indeed or devise it so I can make it serve my turne Is it not prudence for one to be ingenious to content himselfe yea though he cosen himselfe to his owne content My readers may beare with me if I use them as I use my selfe who next to the care of pleasing God make it my chiefe study to content my mind and in all the several byasses that God puts upon the rouling course of my life strive to behold all accidents by the faire side or to give them one in my mind if they have none Wherein I hope to justifye the ingenuity of my dealing to ingenious mind and shew that I give no false colours to evill things to make them looke good For since the good and evill of most things consisteth in opinion and that things prove good or evill as they are taken and used if I find good in those things which others call evill they become good in my respect It is the great worke of wise men to turne all things to their advantage subjecting exteriour things to their mind not their mind to them et sibi res non se rebus submittere This truth then ought to be deeply printed in minds studious of wisdome and their own content That they beare their happinesse or unhappinesse within their breast and That all outward things have a right and a wrong handle He that takes them by the right handle finds them good He that takes them by the wrong indiscreetly finds them evill Take a knife by the haft it will serve you take it by the edge it will cut you Observe that all sublunary things are of a compounded nature
and compasseth the world about like the Sunne to bring us pearles to hang at the eares of our Mistresses and pepper to strow over our cucumbers For that end great companies of Merchants are associated and the fortunes of Princes and Commonwealthes are ventured in in great Sea-fights But out of that hazardous folly which certainly is a great disease of the mind a great bulke of new knowledge in naturall things accreweth to the publique stock of learning and thereby a great gate is open for the propagation of the Gospell So admirable is Gods providenee who by small weights setts great wheeles on going and makes use of the vanity and unsatiable greediness of men to bring neere the remotest parts of the world by the bond of commerce and advance his Kingdome Thus among the giddiness of publique commotions the iniquity of great actions and the vanity of their motives the wisedome and goodnesse of the first cause brings under his subjection the folly and the wickednesse of inferiour agents Rom. 3.17 Destruction and misery is in their wayes and the wayes of peace they have not knowne But they are in Gods hand who will bring all to a good end The reason why we complaine of the badness of the time is that we see but one peece of it But God that beholds with one aspect the whole course of time from its spring in the creation unto the mouth where that great river disgorgeth itselfe into the Sea of eternity seeth that all which seemeth evill by parcells is good when all parts are taken together And not onely he beholds it but he conducts it most wisely and to that wise conduct we must humbly leave the rectifying of all that seemes amiss to us in the course of the times It is a great comfort to our mind and a great help to our judgement in publique disorders and private crosses that we may be certaine that God is an agent above all agents in all things even in the worst which he makes instruments to some of his justice to others of his bounty to all of his wisedome Among so much evill yet there is some vertue in the world and where it is not obeyed yet it is respected If the torrent of the perversity of the time becomes so rapid that good men cannot row against it to any preferment it will never barre them from all havens of retreat and to force them to a retreat many times it is to compell them to their good and rest for as they are further from the favour of great men they are freer also from their factions During the tempest one may sleep at the noise of the waves There is no place so unsafe and full of trouble but the God of peace may bee found in it And they that trust in him repose themselves safe and quiet under his wing The world shall never be so wicked and so contrary to good men but that they may do good to the world against its will One thing must make us looke kindly upon this world that it is the Hall of Gods house where we waite expecting to be advanced to Gods presence and all things that happen to us in this life helpe to bring us to that Land of Promise All creatures not corrupted by sinne speak to us of God Yea every thing good and bad gives us matter to lift up our thoughts unto God Nature smiles upon them that love God Then his law directs us His promises comfort us He guides us by his Spirit He covers us by his providence He shewes us from above the prize kept for us at the end of the race By which meanes we are lesse weary of the world then they that ground their hopes upon it And after we have balanced with a calme judgement the good and evil that is in the world we finde that the world goeth better with the good then with the bad life cannot be very bad if it be a mans voyage to God OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MINDE THIRD BOOK Of the Peace of Man with himselfe by Governing his Passions CHAPTER I. That the right Government of Passions depends of right Opinion THe right employment of a Christian Philosopher that will have peace at home is to calme the tumult of Passions For the sensitive Appetite is in the soule as the common people in a State It is the dregs and the lowest part of the spirit that hath a neere affinity with the outward sense greedy rash tumultuous prone to discontent and munity Reason in a mans soul holds the place of a Soveraine which many times is ill obeyed She is like the coachman and the Passions like the horses fierce and hardmouthed pulling hard against the bridle which many times they pluck out of her hands Of this a cause is given which is natural and good That the first yeares of life before a man be capable of the use of reason are altogether under the empire of the Appetite which being used to rule doth not willingly become a subject to Reason when age and instruction awake that higher faculty and in many that rebellion holds till they be farre gone in their life or to the very end Wherefore it will be a wise part to tame the opiniatre appetite of children beginning at the first yeare of their life to teach their eager will to bee denyed He that was used to yeeld to his Nurse hath already taken a ply of obedience and will more readily bow to reason when age brings it That tender age breeds another cause of the disobedience of Passions to right reason That the childs judgement is dyed with false Opinions of the objects which his appetite imbraceth For in the age when the Appetite is sole regent in the soul the Fancy and the Memory are filled with images proportionate to the outward appearance making the child take all that is guilded for massy gold all glittering things for precious and feathers and sugar plums for the Soveraigne good Which first imaginations being somewhat cleared of their grossest fogge by age and experience yet leave these false notions in the minde that things are within such as they appeare without and that wealth gallantry and the pleasure of the taste are the best things of the world Opinions which presently prove seeds of covetuousnesse ambition and luxury which in short time as all ill woedes will grow strong and fill the soul with trouble and misery Then the first yea the onely course to free the Appetite of vicious Passions is to heale the understanding of erroneous Opinions The Appetite cannot but goe astray when the understanding is blind When the understanding is free of error the Appetite is free of Vice For although many times Passion runne into disorder contrary to the light of the understanding that never hapens but when the understanding hath consented for a while to some false opinion seduced by flattery of Passion that stroakes him and puts her hand before his eyes for
filial love confidence and obedience The other rule that wee may finde Joy in all things that are either of good or indifferent nature is to seeke it according to the kind and capacity of every thing To that end we must be carefull that the Joy that wee take in God be as little under him as it is possible to us and that the Joy that wee take in other things be not above them Since then God is all good all perfect all pleasant the onely worthy to be most highly praised and most entirely beloved wee must also most exceedingly rejoyce that he is ours and wee his and that we are called to be one with him As for other things let us judiciously examine what Joy they can give us and lose nothing of the content which their capacity can afford looking for no more For there is scarce any sorrow in the world but proceeds from this cause to have expected of humane things a Joy beyond their nature Now this is the great skill of a minde serene religious industrous for his own content to know how to fetch joy out of all things and whereas every thing hath two handles the one good the other evill to take every thing dexterously by the right handle A man that hath that skill will rejoyce in his riches with a joy sortable to their nature And when he loseth them in stead of grieving that he shall have them no longer he rejoyceth that he had them so long If he lose one of his hands he rejoyceth that God preserveth him the other If he lose the health of his body he praiseth God for preserving to him the health of his minde If slandering tongues take his good name from him he rejoyceth that none can robbe him of the testimony of a good conscience If he be in the power of them that can kill his body he rejoyceth that they cannot kill his soul If he be condemned being innocent his joy that he is innocent drownes his sorrow that he is condemned Love and Joy are the two passions that serve to glorifie God and praise him for his benefits A thankfull admirer of Gods wisedome and bounty hath a cheerefull heart All things give him joy the beauty variety and excellency of Gods workes makes him say with David Psal 92.4 Lord I will triumph in the workes of thy hands He rejoyceth in hope to see better works and the Maker himselfe in whose sight and presence is fullnes of joy If he look up to heaven he rejoyceth that he hath a building of God a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 If he look upon his body he rejoyceth that in his flesh he shall see God If he looke upon his soul he rejoyceth that there he beares the renewed image of God and the earnest of his eternall adoption If he be poore he rejoyceth in that conformity with the Lord Jesus If he see wealth in the house of his neighbours he rejoyceth that they have the plenty splendor of it that himselfe hath not the cares and the temptations that attend it As many miseries as he seeth so many arguments hath he to glorifie God and rejoyce in his goodnesse saying Blessed be God that I am not maimed like that begging souldier nor lunatick like that bedlam nor going in shackles like that fellon nor a slave like that Counsellour of State He will keepe account of Gods benefits and considering sometimes his owne infirmities and naturall inclinations sometimes Gods wise providence in the conduct of his life he will acknowledge with a thankfull joy that God hath provided better for him then himselfe could have wisht that his crosses were necessary for him and that if he had had a fairer way he might have run headlong to ruine by his rashnesse It were infinite to enumerate all the subjects of joy that God gives to his children for his benefits are numberless his care continuall his compassions new every morning and the glory which he keepes for us eternall Which way can we turne our eyes and not finde the bounty of God visible and sensible Here then more evidently then any where else our happiness and our duty meet in one It is a pleasant task to worke our owne joy Now it is the task of Gods children in obedience to his express command by his Apostle 1 Thes 5.16 Rejoyce evermore See how urgent he is to recommend that duty Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alway and againe I say Rejoyce CHAP. IX Of Pride I Contend not whether Pride must be called a Vice or a Passion It is enough for me that it is an affection too naturall unto man the cause of many passions and a great disturber of inward tranquillity Pride is a swelling of the soul whose proper causes are too good an opinion and in consequence too great a love of ones selfe and whose most proper effects are ambition of dignity and greedinesse of praise Wherefore these two effects cannot be overcome unless we first overcome the cause which is presumption and a blinde immoderate love of a mans selfe It is impossible for a man to be tranquill and safe as long as he sits upon a crazy and tottering bottome Pride then making a man to ground himselfe upon himselfe cannot but keepe him in a perpetuall unquietness and vacillation How can ye beleeve saith the Lord Jesus to the Jewes which receive honour one of another and seeke not the honour that comes from God onely John 5.44 A text which taxeth Pride of two great evills That is robbes God of his glory and that it shakes the the foundation of faith For a proud man seekes not the glory of God but his owne and his owne glory hee doth not seeke of God but will get it of men by his owne merit Also it turnes his heart away from his trust in God to trust in his owne selfe Psal 10.13 The wicked boasteth of his hearts desire saith David that is he is confident that by his owne strength he shall compass all his projects And againe The wicked through the pride of his heart will not seeke after God for the one brings the other He that trusteth in himselfe and is highly conceited of his owne wisedome is easily perswaded that he hath no need of God That disposition of the mind is the high way to ruine Prov. 16.18 Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall For God to whom only glory belongeth cannot but be very jealous of those that wil ingross it to themselves declares open warre against them Psal 18.27 He will bring downe high lookes Jam. 4.6 He resisteth the proud but sheweth grace unto the humble Prov. 8.11 I hate pride and arrogancy saith Soveraine wisedome which is God As the winde hurts not the stalkes of herbs as long as they are supple and bowing but breakes them when they are become dry and stiffe The meeke and humble spirits that
is dreadfull when it is assisted with power It is an impetuous storme overthrowing all that lyeth in its way How many times hath it razed Citties turned Empires upside downe and extermined whole nations One fit of anger of Theodosius one of the best Emperours of the whole list slew many thousands of men assembled in the amphi-Theater of Thessalonica How many then have bin massacred by the wrath of wicked Princes And what slaughter should there be in the world if meane fellowes had as much power as wrath What disorders anger would worke abroad if it were backt with power one may judge by the disorder which it workes within a mans soul for with the overflowing of the gall into the mass of the blood wrath at the same time overflowes all the faculties of the mind suffocates the reason maddes the will and sets the appetite on fire Which is to be seene in the inflammation of the face the sparkling eyes the quick disorderly motion of the limbs the injurious words the violent actions Wrath turnes a man into a furious beast If man be a little world wrath is the tempest of it which makes of the soul a stormy Sea casting up mire and foame and breaking it selfe against rocks by a blind rage In the heat of such fits many get their death or do such things which they repent of at leasure afterwards for wrath brings forth an effect fortable to its cause it comes out of weakeness and it weakens a man there being nothing that disarmes body and mind more and exposes a man more to injuries Indeed when anger is kept within mediocrity it sharpens valour and awakes subtility and readinesse of wit But when it is excessive it makes the sinewes to tremble the tongue to stutter and reason to lose the free exercise of her faculties so that a man out of too much will cannot compasse what he wills Latin Authors calling that weake violence ira impotens impotent anger have given it the right epithete for it strips a man of his power over his owne selfe and of strength to defend himselfe In that tumultuous overthrow of the inward polity what place remaines for piety charity meeknesse justice equity and all other vertues for the serenity of the soul is the temperate climat where they grow but the heat of choller parcheth them they are not plants for that torrid Zone I know that many times vertue is a pretence for choller Angry men justifie their Passion by the right which they maintaine thinking that they cannot mantaine it with vigour enough Thus whereas other passions are corrupted by evill things this it corrupted by good things and then to be even with them it corrupteth those good things for there is no cause so good but it is marred by impetuous choller The great plea of anger is the injustice of others But we must not repell one injustice by another For although an angry man could keep himselfe from offending his neighbour he cannot excuse his offence against God and himselfe by troubling the serenity of his soul which is expelling the image of God for it is not reflected but in a calme soul and bringing in storme and confusision which is the devills image As when a hogshead of wine is shaken the dregs rise to the top and when the sea is raging the mire doth the like a fit of raging choller doth thrust up all the hidden ordure which was settled before by the feare of God or men The wrong done by others to piety and justice is no just reason for our immoderate choler For they have no need of such an ill champion which is rather a hinderance then a defense of their cause and to maintaine them transgresseth against them To defend such reasonable things as piety and justice there is need of a free reason and a sober sense And whether wee be incensed with the injury done to them or that which is done to us wee must be so just to ourselves as not to lay the punishment upon us for the faults of another or make ourselves miserable because our neighbours are wicked To that end wee must remember that in the violation of justice God is more interessed then wee are and knoweth how to punish it when he sees it expedient And if God will not punish it as yet our will must not be more hasty then his and it becomes us not to be impatient for our interess when himself is patient in the wrong done to his owne Let the cause of our anger be never so holy and just the sentence of St James is of perpetual truth Jam. 1.20 The wrath of man worketh not the righteousnes of God If it be the cause of God that we defend we must not use that good cause to bring forth evill effects the evill that incenseth us can hardly be so grievous as the losse of humanity and right reason of which a man is deprived by excessive wrath for Wrath is cruell and anger is outragious Prov. 27.4 It resteth in the bosome of fooles saith Solomon Eccles 79. Our good opinion and love of ourselves which when all is sayd are the chiefe causes of anger ought to be also the motives to abate or prevent it for would any man that thinks well of himselfe and loveth his owne good make himselfe vile brutish Now this is done by letting the raines lose to choler whereas the way to deserve the good opinion of ourselves and others is to maintaine ourselves calme and generous never removed from the imperial power over ourselves by any violence of passion Pro. 16.32 He that is slow to anger is better then the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit then he that takes a citty I account not Alexander the Great a great Conquerour since he was a slave to his anger A man that never drew sword and is master of himselfe is a greater Conquerour then he That calme disposition shall not want many provocations from those with whom wee must of necessity live servants especially and servile soules like unto cart horses that will neither goe nor drive unlesse they feel the whip or be terrified with a harsh angry tone Seneca gives leave to the wiseman to use such varlets with the words and actions of anger but not to be angry A difficult taske It is to be feared that by counterfeiting anger wee may become angry in good earnest and a man hath need of a sound premunition of reason and constancy before he come to use those wayes so easy it is to slip into anger when one hath cause for it and is persvaded that the faults of an idle servant cannot be mended without anger But anger is a remedy worse then most diseases and no houshold disorder is worth the disordering of our soules with passion Better were it to be ill served or not served at all then to make our servants our Masters giving them power to dispossesse us of the command of ourselves whensoever
gnashing of teeth that burning fire and that gnawing and never-dying worme is Envy biting the damned to the quick while they are thinking of the glory and felicity of God and how the Saints whom they have despised opprest in the world are filled with joy and crowned with glory while themselves are infamous and miserable That comparison is a maine article of their misery The envious man cannot suffer as much as he deserveth since he sets himselfe against God and all that God loveth controuling His distribution of his goods He that is grieved at the good he seeth deserveth never to have any good it were pitty he should have any if he can get no good but by his neighbours harme Besides the causes of envy which I observed before there are two more that are great contributours to that wicked vice The one is want of faith for a man becomes envious because he beleeveth not that God hath enough in his store to doe good to him and others or that God doth wisely to give him superiours or equals Which unbelecfe makes him to murmure and fall out with God Matth. 20.15 His eye is evill because God is good The other cause is Idleness It makes men envious but it makes them poore before for when they are growne poore through idlenes they look upon the wealth of their neighbours with envy The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing and the thing he desireth is his neighbours estate which he lookes upon with an evill eye Hence warres robberies and piracies For while diligent men grow rich by their industry idle and envious men study onely to have strength on their side to rob the industrious or at least to put a stop to their increase This search of the causes of envy opens us the way to the remedies Since all disorder in the appetite begins by errour in the understanding wee must before all things heale our understanding of that errour and ignorance which occasions envy even that false opinion that the wealth and honour of the world make a man happy whereas they are instruments of wickednes and misery unto weake souls and to the strong hinderances and seeds of care They are the ropes wherewith Satan drawes men into perdition For one that useth them well a thousand are corrupted and undone by them And who would envy slaves and miserable persons Then wee must beate downe pride and the excessive love of ourselves with the study of humility charity and meekenes Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory but in lowlines of mind let each esteeme other better then themselves Looke not every man on his owne things but every man also to the things of others Phil. 2.3 If once wee can get an humble opinion of ourselves and a charitable opinion of our neighbours wee shall not be vexed with envy seeing their prosperity for we shall think that they deserve it better then we In stead of an envious comparing of our neighbours estates with ours let us compare what we have received of God with what wee deserve of him and that will quell our pride and envy An especiall care must be taken to cut our desire short which is the next cause of envy He that desireth little shall envy no body For so little as he needs he would not strip another to cloath himselfe If sometimes the luster of worldly advancements dazle our eyes and breed in us some motions of envy let us consider what those advancements cost them that have attained them how much time money and labour they have spent how many doors of great persons they besieged how many frownes from their superiours how many justlings from their emulatours Then how many temptations how many shifts were they put to even to disguising of truth and wresting of justice Let us think well whether we would have bought preferment at that rate and that if we have it not we did not spend for it what others did We have not broken our sleep with cares we have not bin many yeares tottering betweene feare and hope We have given no thankes for affronts We have not courted a porter and a groome We have not purchased with gifts a Clarkes favour We have not turned the whole bent of our mind from the service of God to the service of the world In a word if we have not the wares we have not payd our money for it And if we would not have spent so much about that advancement we have no reason to envy them that have bought it so deare The chiefe remedy against that fretting disease is faith in the power goodnesse and wisedome of God with an entire submission to his holy will Why should we afflict ourselves for Gods gifts to others Rom. 10.12 The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him He hath enough to enrich us all Let us not looke what he gives to others but let us humbly aske him that which he knowes to bee fit for us and thankfully receive what he giveth us being sure that all that he gives is good because it comes from his good hand If we can truly say with Davids faith The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance Psal 16.5 how can we after that looke upon our neighbours portion with envy It is also an antidote against envy to be alwayes well imployed for idlenesse makes a man to leave his busines to looke upon his neighbours worke and doing nothing controule them that do well As for the envy which others beare to us we have reason to rejoyce that our condition is such as deserves envy at least in the opinion of others It is true we must not referre ourselves to the opinion of others but to our own selfe about the happinesse or unhappinesse of our condition but because we are not sensible as we ought of Gods benefits towards us and many times complaine when we should praise God our neighbours envy serveth to awake our sense of Gods mercies and to move us to thankfullnesse CHAP. XIV Of Jealousy JEalousy is much like Envy In Greeke one word serveth for both Yet are they of different nature For a man is envious of that he hath not but he is Jealous of that he hath Besides they are of different extractions Envy is the daughter of Pride for to pride the envious man oweth the opinion he hath to be more worthy of the advantages conferred upon others but Jealousy is the offspring of a base mind that judgeth himselfe unworthy of that which he possesseth and feareth that another be more worthy of it Jealousy is a various and phantastical medley of love distrust revenge sadnesse feare and shame But that compound is not lasting for love soone turnes into hatred feare and shame into fury and distrust into despaire Solomon saith that jealousy is the rage of a man Prov. 6.34 The predominant passions in Jealousy for Jealousy is many passions together are feare not to possesse
the smaller and unworthyer the object is the more shamefull is the despaire about it but in recompense it is more curable For then one is easily brought to consider in cold blood that the thing was not worthy either of his affliction or affection But when the object is great and worthy the despaire is more guilty and lesse curable Wherefore the worst Despaire of all is when one despaireth of the grace of God so farre as to hate him for nothing can be worse then to hate the Soveraine good onely worthy to be beloved with all the soul Many distrust the grace of God who are not therefore desperate though they think themselves so to be Let them aske of themselves whether they hate God and let them know that as long as a graine of Gods love remaines in them there is together a graine of faith though opprest and offuscated by melancholy For it is impossible that God should be their enemy and their Soveraine evill while they love him To them this comfort is addrest Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me and those that seeke me early shall find me And this likewise 1 Joh. 4.19 We love him because he first loved us If then we love him we must be sure that he loveth us and we must fight against the temptations of despaire saying with Job Though God stay me yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 and with Isaiah Isa 25.9 Loe this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord wee have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation Confidence is good according to the goodnesse of the subject that it reposeth upon Wherefore Confidence in God the only Soveraine good perfect solid and immutable is the best of all and the onely that can give assurance and content to the soul He that is blest with that confidence is halfe in Paradice already He is firme safe meek serene and too strong for all his enemies Psal 84.12 God is to him a Sunne to give him light heate life and plenty of all goods and a shield to gard him and shelter him from all evills ver 13. He gives him grace in this life and glory in the next O Lord of hosts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee CHAP. XVIII Of Pitty PItty is a Passion composed of love and sorrow moved by the distress of another either true or seeming And that sympathie is somtimes grounded upon false love because we acknowledge our selves obnoxious to the same calamities and feare the like fortune Pitty is opposite to Envy for Envy is a displeasure conceived at another mans good but Pitty is a displeasure conceived at another mans harme The Passion of Pitty must be distinguished from the vertue that beares the same name for they are easily confounded The Pitty of the vulgar which is imputed to good Nature and Christian charity comes chiefely out of two causes The one is an errour in judgement whereby they reckon many things among the great goods which are good but in a very low degree and likewise many things among evills which are not evill Hence it is that those are most pittied that dye and the best men more then any as though death were evill to such men and they that lose their moneyes which are called goods as though they were the onely good things and they that lose their lands which are called an estate as though a mans being and well being were estated in them The other cause of the Passion of Pitty is a sickly tendernesse of mind easy to be moved wherefore women and children are more inclinable to it but the same tendernesse and softness makes them equally inclinable to choller yea to cruelty The people that seeth the bleeding carkasse of a man newly murthered is stricken with great pitty towards him who is past all worldly sorrowes and with great hatred against the murderer wishing that they might get him into their hands to teare him to peeces But when the fellon is put into the hands of Justice condemned and brought to execution then the heat of the peoples Passion is altogether for pitty to him and that pitty begets wrath against the executioner when he doth his office So easily doth the passion of vulgar soules pass from one contrary to another from pitty to cruelty from cruelty to pitty againe and from compassion for one to hatred for another But all these suddaine contrary motions proceed from one cause which is the tendernesse and instability of weake soules whose reason is drowned in passion and their passion is in perpetuall agitation But the Vertue of Pitty which is a limb of charity is a firme resolution to relieve our neighbour that stands in need of our help and it hath more efficiency then tenderness This is the Pitty of generous and religious spirits aspiring to the imitation of God who without feeling any perturbation for the calamities of men relieveth them out of his mercy And whereas the Passion of pitty is for the most part caused by the ignorance of the goodness and badness of things he that is lesse mistaken in them is also lesse inclined to that passion for he calls not that misery which others call so Nec doluit miserans inopem aut invidit habenti Or if a wiseman pitty one dejected by poverty it will not be his poverty but his dejected spirit that he will pitty And so of him that is weeping for a slander a wiseman will pitty him not because he is slandered but because he weepes for it for that weeping is a reall evill though the cause which is slander be but an imaginary evill He will labour to get such a firme soul that neither the good nor the evill that he seeth in or about his neighbours be able to worke any perturbation within him The world being a great hospitall of misery where we see wellnigh as many miserable persons as we see men if we were obliged to have a yearning compassion for all the miserable we should soone become more miserable then any of them and must bid for ever Adieu to the peace of the soul and contentment of mind It is enough to give power to our neighbours to command our counsell our labour and our purse in their need but to give them power over the firmeness of our soul to shake and enervate it at their pleasure it is too much Let us depend of none if it may be but God and ourselves Let none other have the power be it for good or evill to turne the sterne of our minde at his pleasure It must be acknowledged that Pitty as weake as it is hath more affinity with Vertue then any other Passion and turnes into vertue sooner then any That way weake soules handled with dexterity are brought to meekeness and charity and that way many Pagans have bin brought to the Christian verity We owe the great conversions to the sufferings of Martyrs
divisions and disputations whether it be a vertue moral or intellectual contemplative or practical Whether the actus elicitus of prudence be to know or to will and what difference there is betweene acting and doing Goodly instructions to forme a Councellor of State and to underprop a tottering Commonwealth Could these Doctors have done worse for themselves if they had undertaken to justifye the ordinary reproach against learning that prudence lyeth out of the circuit of Schollership and that it is incompatible with learning This they justifye more yet when they passe from contemplation to practise For in Councel though but a meane corporation tradesmen many times will speake more pertinently thet great Scholars Of this the fault lyeth not in Learning which is the right way to Prudence but in not choosing the right learning for prudence and applying ones mind to other things For neither Transcendents nor Modals not Hesychius nor Suidas nor Apogees nor Excentriques teach a man wisedome It were a wonder if they that never learned wisedom understood it There are two wayes to get it Science and Experience These men have neither that have spent all their study about Syllogisms or Horoscopes But take me a Scholler that hath made prudence his study and bent all his learning to that marke seeking it first in Gods Book the spring of all wisedome then in the writings of wisemen both antient and late and in history which is the Mistriss of life Let him study men and business as well as Bookes Let him converse with the wisest and best versed in the world and consummate himselfe in experience When such a man shall speake in a Councell of State among unlearned men it will appeare how rash and injurious that sentence is that learning and prudence are incompatible and how farre the learned go beyond the ignorant for deepe insight into businesses and healing or preventing publique evills Because we seek here the just price of things we must not attribute too much unto Science and Prudence These two together make a goodly match By knowledge and and wisedome a man differeth from a beast But both are subject unto vanity For knowledge take the verdict of two the most learned of all the Canonical writers Solomon and St. Paul The first will tell you He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow Eccl. 1.18 The other Knowledge puffeth up 1 Cor 8.1 Sorrow pride are the ordinary effects of Learning but when it meets with a strong and meek spirit upheld with Gods grace Pride will easily get into those that have some but little learning for it is a point of ignorance for one to think he is learned when he is not But when we are advanced in learning we learne that we know nothing and discover the uncertainty of sciences that they performe not what they promise that new writers give the lye to the old Eccl. 12.12 that of making many Bookes there is no end and much study is a wearinesse of the flesh A wise man that will reape from learning utility and content must expect no more of it then it can afford He will deale with learning as with money he will not be a servant to it but make it his Servant When he is past the drudgery of the Schoole he will if he can make his study his pastime not his taske Prudence is no lesse subject to vanity then Learning but rather hath more uncertainty For sciences have certain objects since they consider universals which are alwayes the same what change soever happen in the particulars But prudence having no object but particular things casual and uncertaine cannot have but an uncertaine seat upon such an unstayed bottome for though there be generall rules of prudence they must continually be bowed and made longer or shorter according to the accidents and circumstances which being every where different require also every where a different manner of conduct After a wise deliberation an industrions managing of a businesse an unfortunate end many times will follow How oft hath the most mature prudence bin overcome by folly and precipitate rashnesse Of which the principal cause is the provocation of Gods jealousy by humane wisedome when it grows to presumption Isa 24.15 Woe unto them that seeke deep to hide their counsell from the Lord and their workes are in the dark and they say Who seeth us and who knowes us For God who is called onely wise by St. Paul Rom. 16.27 for which he will have him to be glorifyed for ever is highly offended when any pretends to share in that title which is his onely and takes a delight to blow upon projects made up with great art to shew to the wise of the world that they are but fooles To judge wisely of the businesses of the world we should see the wheels inward motions of them but they are hidden from us We can hardly pry into the counsels of men how can we penetrate into the Decrees of God those great and secret motions lockt up in the closet of his wise providence In the greatest revolution of our age we are eyewitnesses how the wisest counsels of a party have alwayes turned to their ruine and the faults of State on the contrary party have alwayes bin fortunate To one side prudence and imprudence have bin alike pernicious To the other prudence and imprudence have bin alike advantageous Let us looke up to God whose wayes are not our wayes and his thoughts are not our thoughts and against whose will no strength and no counsel will hold The future being to us a dark empty space where we see nothing no wonder that humane prudence seldome hits right in her forecast for the future The prudent man hath as much advantage over the imprudent as one that hath good eyes over a blind-man but when both are in the darke one seeth no more then the other Many future events are as dark to the wise as to the unwise And when wisedome is most cleare sighted it can but regulate the counsels but cannot dispose of the events The wiseman hath this benefit of his wisedome that if his counsels succeed well he can make good use of prosperity And if his good counsels have an unhappy successe either he declines the blow or gets a lenitive to it by prudence and patience or he makes advantage of it for some good and which way soever the staffe fall he never repents of a good counsell Of all the acquisite endowments of the understanding Prudence is the best therefore beyond all comparison more precious then all the goods of body and fortune But together let us acknowledge that it hath a short sight and a tottering bottome Wherefore the great precept of wisedome is to mistrust our wisedome and repose ourselves upon Gods wisedome and love Let our prudence depend altogether upon his providence It is a great abatement of the price of humane prudence that death cuts it off with the thred of life Eccl.
a child should be used to be contradicted and as soone as the light of reason beginns to dawne in his young soul he must be taught to subject his will unto reason Growne men hardned in that vice by ill breeding and the flattery of men and fortune yet may be healed if they will remove the causes of the disease Since then Obstinacy is a compound of ignorance and pride they must strive against both Good instruction will expell ignorance and as knowledge growes especially that of God and themselves Pride will decrease and they will become docile and susceptible of better information And whereas Obstinacy puts reason out of her seat subjecting her to passion her naturall subject they must endeavour to restore reason to her right place and authority forbidding the will to determine before reason hath given her verdict or to give a resolution for a reason for if the resolution bee unreasonable one must go from it the sooner the better It is unworthy of a man to have no reason but his will and custome and being asked why he persisteth in this course not to give his reason for answer but his Passion Indeed obstinate men will give many reasons of their fixednesse in their opinion but let them examine soberly and impartially whether their opinion be grounded upon those reasons or whether they alledge those reasons because they will be of that Opinion While wee goe about weaning of our mind from obstinacy wee must take heed of falling into a contrary evill a thousand times more dangerous which is to betray truth and righteousnes to complie with the time For wee must never ballance whether God or men must be obeyed We must not follow the multitude to do evill though the world should charge us with Obstinacy If our conscience tell us that wee deserve not that charge wee may rest satisfied for wee are accountable to God of our opinion not of the opinion that others have of us It is Constancy not Obstinacy to maintaine truth and good conscience even to the last breath despising publique opposition and private danger I joine truth with good conscience because if the question be of a truth which may be left undefended without wronging a good conscience it would be a foolish Obstinacy to swimme against a violent and dangerous streame to defend it But if it be such a truth as cannot be baulked without breaking faith with God and turning from a good conscience wee must persist in it and resist unto blood when wee are put to it And better it is to be called opiniatre then to be perfidious CHAP. XI Of Wrath. I put Wrath among the retinue of Pride as descended from it To this one might oppose that wrath is attributed to God in many texts of Scripture And that the Apostle saith Eph. 4. Be angry and sinne not And therefore that anger is not evil and must be fathered upon a better Authour then Pride These objections will helpe us to know the nature of wrath It is certaine that there is no passion in God But it is certaine also that if anger were a vice it should not be attributed unto God The wrath of God is an indignation declared by effects shewing a resenting of the offense offered unto his glory As then the anger of God proceeds from his glory so the vicious anger of man proceeds from his pride which is a bastard glory As for the other objection out of St Pauls precept Be angry and sinne not whence it followes that one may be angry and not sinne wee must distinguish betweene good and evill anger The vicious anger comes out of pride which is the evill glory of man The good anger comes out of the glory of God for the anger of Gods children when they heare his name blasphemed or see some horrible crime committed with the ceremonies of devotion and justice is a sense which they have of Gods glory whose violation moveth them to jealousy It is good to be angry for such occasions but because anger is prone to runne into excesse and to mingle particular animosities with the interesse of Gods glory the Apostle gives us a caveat to be angry and sinne not Then the vicious and the vertuous anger differ in the object chiefely the vertuous regards the interesse of God the vicious the interesse of a mans selfe but both proceed from glory and have their motions for the vindication of glory For as religious anger hath for its motive the glory of God the motive of vicious anger is particular glory and the resenting of private contempt true or imagined The proudest men are the most cholerick for being great lovers of themselves valuing themselves at a very high rate they deeme the smallest offences against them to be unpardonable crimes Truly no passion shewes more how necessary it is to know the nature and price of things and of our selves above all things for he that apprehends well how small a thing he is will not think the offenses against him to be very great and will not be much moved about them The certainest triall to know how proficient we are in humility is to examine whether we have fewer and easier fits of choller then before Ignorance of the price of things and owning things that are none of ours are the chiefe causes of disorder in all Passions but they are more evident in the Passion of anger because it is more violent and puts forth those errours to the outside which other Passions labour to hide Besides these causes Anger flowes out of more springs as great and rapid rivers are fed by many sources Weakeness contributes much to it for although a fit of anger looke like a sally of vigour and courage yet it is the effect of a soft spirit Great and strong spirits are patient but weake and imbecill natures can suffer nothing and like doors loosely hung are easily gotten off the hookes The wind stirres leaves and small branches seldome the bodies of great trees Light natures also are easily agitated with choller solid minds hardly All things that make a man tender and wanton makes him also impatient and chollerick as covetousness ambition passionate love ease and flattery The same effect is produced by the large licence given to the wandering of thoughts curiosity credulity idlenesse love of play And it is much to be wondered at that anger is stirred by contrary causes prosperity and adversity the replying of an adversary and his silence too much and too little businesse the glory to have done well and the shame to have done evill so phantasticall is that passion There is nothing but will give occasion of anger to a peevish and impatient spirit The causes of anger being past telling our labour will be better bestowed to consider the effects sufficient to breed an horrour against that blustering passion even in those that are most transported by it when they looke back upon that disorder in cold blood Fierce anger