MEDITATIONS OF THE MIRTH OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE And The VAINE MIRTH of a WICKED LIFE with the SORROVVES of it By ZACH BOGAN of C.C.C. OXON Psalm 32.11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all yee that are upright in heart OXFORD Printed by H. HALL for R. DAVIS 1653. To my honoured Mother Mris IOANE BOGAN I Have at length upon your earnest desire adventured to publish those unworthy lines long since scribled concerning the Joy of a Christian life If any aske you wondering how I that have spent whole yeares altogether in Sadnesse came to talke of Mirth you may answer them that I speake not of what I have my selfe the Lord knowes I have little cause to have any considering my many sinnes but what I think other Christians better then I am may have Before you or any one els do read me I desired much to be cleared in two things 1. That I have not the least meaning to favour any carnall merriment The mirth which I speak of is the mirth only of a Christian life 2. That I never thought my selfe better able to doe this work then other men My heart knowes I am too little a Christian to doe it as it might be done Onely I supposed that there had not been much done this way allready If my doing it ill may anger any one to doe it better I shall be exceeding well pleased I had been larger in the last part of the book had I not been hindred by a troublesome and dangerous sicknesse which began upon me when I began to print and continued in it's extremity almost till I ended Whatsoever is not much enough or well enough I hope the Lord will make amends for it in the blessing to whose protection I commit you and rest C.C.C. June 3. 1653. Your Obedient Sonne ZACHARY BOGAN The First Book Phil. 4 4. Rejoyce in the Lord alway and againe I say Rejoyce Psal 32.11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart IT were as easy for me to doe as any thing that I know to shew my reader what a deale of mischiefe is done by Mistakes and Prejudices how many godly actions and profitable designes are hindred by them But because I thinke it needles to goe so largly I will take a narrower compas and confine my selfe to the naming only of some of those mistakes and prejudices which attend a godly life the chiefe whereof my endevour shall be in my ensuing discourse to remove They are such as these That there is a necessity of Monkery and beggery because it is said It is easier for a Camel to goe thorow the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the kingdome of heaven Math 19.24 That there is a necessity of exposing ones selfe to all manner of injuries because it is said that If a man smite me upon one cheek I must give him the other Math 39. That there is a necessity of starving with hunger cold and perishing for want because I must take no thought what I shall eate or what I shall drink or wherewithall I shall be cloathed Math 6.31 That there is a necessity of denying my selfe necessary rest and recreation because I must be continually watching and praying Mark 13.33 1 Pet 4.7 c That there is a necessity of being mine own enemy because I must deny my selfe Math 16.24 That there is a necessity of casting off naturall affection because I must hate father and mother If I will be Christ's disciple Luke 14.26 That there is necessity of allowing Rebellion and disobedience to magistrates and parents because I must obey God rather then men Acts 5.29 That there is a necessity of being strange and peevish and phrantique and many other such things as unsuitable and inconsistent reproachfull as they are thought to be requisite and gracefull to the profession of Christianity because the hypocriticall sort of professors use to be so and the honester are and have been many times counted so as that prophet was by Jehu 2 Kings 9.11 and the rest of the prophets Jer 29.26 I could name you up a great many more mistaks of the like nature which like so many bugbeares or lyons in the way either do Indeed affright the Ignorant who know not what it is to be godly or are used for pretences of feare by the slothfull and malicious who are unwilling to travell in the wildernes where people doe not use to travell although they might have manna from heaven for meat and water out of the rock for drink which are helpes sufficient to make the journey easy and although it lead to the land of Canaan where there is milk and honey enough to make sufficient recompence were the journey never so painfull And indeed I know not any thing that suffers so much from mistake prejudice as a Godly life and it were easy to make more complaints of this nature But I will name only one more that which I think does as much mischeife as any that which I shall endevour in this discourse to remove viz A necessity of being sad and unsociable and cynically malancholick because it is said Woe unto you that laugh Luk 6.25 And Blessed are they that mourne Math 5.4 Now of this necessity Godlines hath ever had the luck not only to be falsly accused but unjustly condemned by too too many So that pity it is to see it thinking they shall meet with nothing but stormes and tempests to disquiet their heads with nothing but rocks of offence to break their hearts upon nothing but gulfes of despaire to swallow up their soules in they resolve a thousand times rather to lye at anchor in the haven and sleep in a whole skin and never put forth at all then upon such termes And no wonder For doubtlesse the thought of Sadnesse which is a thing most avoided of all must needs have a very great power to affright and deterre as the thought of Joy which is the thing most desired of all being the fruit end of all desires hath the greatest power to entice and perswade Sorrow and sadnesse being against our natures even as their causes are we cannot chuse but feare and shunne them or whatsoever we think either may be a cause of them or uses to be attended with them No wonder I say that men are so loath to venture upon a godly life when their Judgments are forestald with feares of a sad life I can never be willing to doe that which will make me sad no more then that which will make me sad can agree with my will which if it did not disagree with I should never be sad I can not possibly will now to have that thing which I know when I have it will make me will that I had it not If there can be no Joy in the having there may not be a will or
Job 34.29 When he giveth quietnes who can make trouble or condemne Heb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept by assurance of his love who then shall cause me trouble by accusing or condemning me a Job 34.29 When he giveth quietnes who can make trouble or condemne Heb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept Thirdly Peace with the creatures which doe not a jot more groan under their bondage then the godly doe under that thing which was the cause Sin abiding still in them but reigning only in the hearts of the wicked whom therefore they cannot be at peace with Of this peace speaks Eliphaz in the book of Job chap 5.22.23 At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh neither shalt thou be affraid of the beasts of the earth For thou shalt be at peace with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee 'T is no small small peace this what ever you think of it and 't is of God's own making a peculiar blessing of his and out of a peculiar love to his peculiar people And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the foules of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground and I will break the bow and the sword and the battell out of the earth and I will make them to lye downe safely Hos 2.18 Our sins being the cause of that curse one would imagine so did they know so much as we doe had so enraged them and put such an enmity in them towards us that none but God himselfe that made us both and made them for us was able to make them friends with us againe Fourthly Peace with men with unreasonable men * 2 Th 3.2 which is harder to be believed then that they should have it with unreasonable creatures by his peaceable and amiable carriage Wicked men many sorts of them are odious to one another especially the proud man who is an abomination to all men good and bad Prov 24.9 * The Scorner is an abomination unto men They are not beloved of one another neither does any of them love another truly and therefore they can have no peace For where there is no love of another there can be no peace in a man's selfe and on the otherside where there is such love goes out though there be none come in in returne that party may have peace himselfe and his peace will not be a jot the lesse but very much the more enriched with comfort at home to recompence the losse of successe abroad And therefore the godly man who loves every body can have peace with every body even the wicked that are enemies to peace in spite of their teeth Though they be not at peace with him he is neverthelesse in peace with them He will be sure to keep his own peace though he cannot keep the Kings as they use to call it He himselfe will follow peace with all men * Heb 12.14 whether peace follow him or not 't is all one to him for that Let men be or doe what they will or can he can be what he will and will doe what he ought and all that while he is well enough Suppose they take away his cloak he can afford to give them his coat too if that will content them or any thing for a quiet life Let them smite him on the right cheek he had rather sit still and turne to them the left then trouble himselfe much to save either He had rather they should break his head in an hundred places then he should break the peace in the least manner And therefore the the Psalmist Psal 119.165 after these words Great peace have they that love thy law presently addes And nothing shall offend them Nothing shall offend them Nothing that befalls a godly man in this world and nothing that the men of the world can doe to him will offend him Not false reports not reproachfull speeches not injurious actions For though they offend him never so much yet will he never be offended so as to sinne and offend againe and returne evill for evill I may say of him that which the Stoicks say of a wise man that another may wrong him but he can never be wronged himselfe i e be any way moved or be the worse for the wrong He makes no reckoning of the wrong because he does not reckon it a wrong And indeed in some mens account of wrong it is no wrong to him if he be willing * Volenti non fit injuria to take it especially if he be so willing as when the party hath done one injury to give him leave to doe another But what doe I goe about to make it such a matter that he is not offended with any thing when as he is able to be glad at any thing and even to triumph over his conquering enemy and rejoye the more for suffering so much Or if you will nothing shall offend them i e they shall take no offence * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at any thing or nothing shall offend them so as to make them offend or miscarry There shall be no scandall or stumbling block great enough to make thē fall or faile or turn out of the way which they walk in Nor love nor hatred neither injuries nor courtesies nor hopes nor feares neither mercies nor judgments neither adversity nor prosperity neither life nor death is able to separate them from their love of God as well as God's love of them for there is a promise of both and I think they are inseparable as long as God can doe what he will or make them leave that course of life which they have taken or disturbe the peace which they enjoy thereby He that hath this Abundance of peace how sweetly does he goe out when the oyle of his life is spent What faire weather of serenity of Spirit is there in himselfe and so what a calme of quiet in all the world without for any thing that they had to say to him if he had lived or for any hurt they have to say of him now he is dead When his soule lancheth forth for another countrey what vollies of blessings as there are of curses when the wicked man dyes What gales of prayers and benedictions to blow him safe to the haven what sweet smell from the oyntment * Eccl 7.1 Cant. 1.3 powred forth I meane the good name which he leavs behind him is every where to be found Surely it is not for nothing that the Psalmist was so earnest to have men take notice of the peaceable end of the godly man Ps 37.37 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace When a wicked man dyes besides the unspeakable horrour and disquiet of mind wherewith he is possessed in his departure or if not a comfortlesse senslesse groundlesse presumption of mercy
this let poverty come never so well armed he is ready to meet her let there come never so many losses and crosses and calamities as they are thought to be to him and as they are â—ndeed to a wordly man I say let them come hand in hand to say nothing of the joy extraordinary which he may have in such a time the least that he is sure enough of is a quiet spirit and a contented mind and that is amends sufficient Si celeres fortuna quatit pennas Resigno quae dedit meâ virtute me involvo If fortune gave him any thing and will take it away againe he is resolved to let her have it quietly and trouble himselfe no further He will pluck in his hornes into his shell and wrap himselfe up close in his course but warme garment of content and be more merry in that then ever he was before in his finest clothes As Elisha if I may give you a comparison used by another man shrinking his own body to the length of his child 's put life into the child so can he either shrinking himselfe or as the proverbe is cutting his cloak to the length of his cloth put life as I may say into any estate and make his condition good if he find it never so bad When his estate is most in decay and his condition too low to agree and consort with the height of his former life and carriage 't is but letting the pegs lower down or playing lower notes and he is presently fit to consort with the musick that he meets with If you reply that we talke of promises of the enjoyment of these temporall blessings as a part of the godly man's happinesse and therefore to want them in this manner as we have spoken of must needs be misery my answer is that if for every temporall blessing denied them they have a spirituall blessing allowed them the happinesse is never the less enjoyed nor the promise performed At least he is not worse then his word who promised me brasse and paies me gold Againe I must tell you First that the promises made to the godly and mentioned in the Scriptures of their deliverance from temporall evills and so of bestowing upon them temporall blessings are meant of their eternall deliverance simply and of their temporall deliverance only conditionally viz as it shall consist with God's glory and their own good Secondly that most of them are meant to the whole Church collectively and not to every particular member And thirdly that most of them are meant of deliverance from Spirituall evills figured out in temporall expressions I have done with the first objection viz that the godly man's condition is most miserable or that they have cause to live the saddest life The next objection is that they doe live the saddest life and this say they must every body confess for they are known by their sad and dejected lookes 'T is even a marke to know them by and God hath long agoe set a marke upon them for it Ezek 9 4 And the Lord said unto him Go thorow the mid'st of the city thorow the mid'st of Hierusalem and set a marke upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the mid'st thereof Nay and Christ blessed them for it Math 5 4 Blessed are they that mourne And we wonder say they you should expect any other from men that are not of this world but Pilgrims and Strangers and such as seek another countrey as you say godly men are and doe To this I answer that this conclusion concerning godly men is too hastily made Their heart may be light enough though their countenance be heavy The Sun shines still notwithstanding a cloud and godly men usually put the worst side outmost 'T is true they are travellers here and in a strange countrey and while they are at home in the body they are absent from the Lord as the Apostle sayes 2 Cor 5.6 But I deny a necessity that therefore they must be sad First because though they are travelling they are travelling homeward And such as are travelling towards their home you know though their way be never so difficult dangerous are the joyful'st men in the world Secondly because though they are for the present absent from the Lord yet they are going all as fast to him They are present with him in their hearts by faith already sitting with him in heavenly places Eph 1 3 and they are sure ere long to be present with him in their persons And you will little wonder if you consider that they are men that walke by faith as the Apostle sayes 2 Cor 5.7 8 not by sight and so if the things which they see be not to their mind they are the less troubled being not only willing but delighted with the thought and expectation of it to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord. They live and dye in faith like the Patriarchs Heb 11 13. not having received the promises but only having seen them afarre off are perswaded of them embrace them confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth and are not troubled with the thought of it for who will be troubled with the thought of being a stranger or a traveller thorow a strange countrey This very desire and expectation of theirs will make them merry enough The saying Nil aequè gratum adeptis ac concupiscentibus Nothing is so pleasant when it is obtained as when it is desired will serve here if not to undervalue the enjoyment yet to commend the desire 'T is joy enough to be desirous of the presence of Christ more to be in the way to obtaine it and more yet to be sure to obtaine it All which agree to the godly man in this life Yet must I tell you that however I doe not grant the first part of the antecedent neither altogether as if all godly men had such dejected looks Some there be that looke and behave themselves worthy of their hopes And for those that doe not I account it their fault for which they should be blamed and not their misery for which they should be pitied Sithence they have no cause why they should be sorry I see no cause why they should seem to be so unless it be a feare of displeasing their enemies if they should be merry But if they are sad they will doe worse for then they are sure to scandalize them and sinne against God besides But the truth of it is for the most part the world is out in their physiognomy They doe not judge well of countenances or if they doe judge well to returne to my first answer they doe not conclude well viz that men must needs be sad because they look so For they may be as Paul said 3 Cor 6.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sad and yet alwaies rejoycing They are not sorrowfull
partakers of his holinesse must needes come exceeding short of that exceeding weight of glory which they may be said to bring forth in the world to come What Shall he that expects such a harvest of profit having now sown his wheat be out of heart because of the winter Let the seed alone If it doe not yet come upward 't is because it takes root downward and that it may not be forward out of season for so it might be backward when the season comes Nothing better then frost and snow to chasten corne and nothing better for corne then a little chastening Why am I in such hast And why doe I vex and grieve If I can but tarry for all my loss of a temporall health and wealth and happinesse of the body I shall have an unvaluable satisfaction of an eternall health and wealth and happinesse of body and soule to make me amends This could make the primitive Christians at Jerusalem endure the loss of their goods with joy and why should it not me Why should I repine against God for Afflions when I know that they are tokens and pledges and as it were new security of his love This kept David from repining even because he said he knew that God out of very faithfulnesse did afflict him viz because he meant to be faithfull in keeping his promise in his everlasting covenant of grace and not to leave him to himselfe without afflicting him lest being thus left he should sin and so give God occasion to forsake him Why should I be a jot troubled or break my sleep for any persecution when I have God standing by my bed-side So Peter had no doubt and thence it was it that he slept so quietly even between the two souldiers in the prison Why should my soule be disquieted within me when I have God himselfe about my path and about my bed And so had David And therefore though he were persecuted so much never took it a jot to heart but even layd him down and tooke his rest Psal 3.5 I laid me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained me And this he said was his resolution still to doe upon that account Psal 4 8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety Last of all why should I be of a dejected spirit as long as I have a comforter within my very spirit The Spirit of the God of all consolation in whose presence there can as well be want of joy as there can be want of light in the presence of the Sun or want of heat where there is a great fire What doe you talke of sadnesse They that have such to keep them company and such company to keep them safe God in all the persons of the Trinity the blessed Angels cannot be sad if they would To have company that is so comfortable protection that is so near that so is strong protection company both that is so faithfull that never parts that is most willing to helpe when I have most need To think that I have God himselfe not for my helper only one that can will helpe me when I need but even for my very help David says he is a present help in time of trouble so that if I have him I have presently help with the same what all this 't is enough to make me merry if I lay a dying and to say with David Ps 23.4 yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill for thou art with me thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me But to this purpose I have spoken before viz when I spoke to the severall grounds and causes of the godly man's joy I will next shew you some Scriptures for a godly mans mirth in Affliction 1. There is Christ's exhortation Mat 5.11 and 12 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Luk 6.22 23 Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach and cast out your name as evill for the son of man's sake sake Rejoyce ye in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven 2. We are cal'd to patience 1 Pet 2 21 For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps We are none of Christ's souldiers if we cannot endure hardness as Paul said to Timothy 2 Epist 2 3 Thou therefore endure hardness as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ Now we cannot endure hardness if we cannot endure it with cheerfulness For to endure it with repining grieving is not to endure it So any one can doe because he cannot doe otherwise Adde hereunto next Saint James his exhortation chap 1.2 My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations Paul you have not only his exhortation to rejoyce at all times to the Philippians chap 3 1 Finally my brethren rejoyce in the Lord And to the Corinthians in the last words of his Epistle to them 2 Epist chap. 13.11 Finally brethren farewell Be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you But also his desire and constant prayer to God in behalfe of the Colossions ch 1.9 10 11. that they might be strengthned unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulnesse as if their patience and long-suffering had been nothing unless it were joyned with joyfulness 3. You have before you the practise not only of the primitive Christians as of Paul himselfe Colos 1.24 Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the church Of himselfe and others Rom 5.3 And not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience And of the Hebrewes 10.34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that you in heaven a better and an enduring substance But of the Saints also in former ages as of David Psal 119 92. Vnless thy law had been my delight I should then have perished in my affliction And of many others Some of whom you have recounted Hebr 11. So that you have not only a cloud of witnesses to shew that it may be so but a large catalogue of good examples to prove that it should be so in you I meane that you should rejoyce in afflictions as they did through the comfort of hope and the strength of faith resolving as David did that you will not feare though the earth be removed and the
merry for having a great deal of wealth then any creature that is put a part to be kild has cause to be glad though glad enough too no doubt he is for having a great deale of meat For even in the same manner are they fed and therefore they have the same cause to feare they are left if not designed to the same end They are fed with the fat of the Land but leane meat and poverty is more wholesome and fatted up with plentifull feeding So Eliphas speakes Job 15 27 He covereth his face with his fatnesse and maketh collops of sat in his flankes But then see what he sayes afterward vers 29 30. He shall not be rich neither shall his substance continue neither shall he prolong the perfection there of upon the earth He shall not depart out of darknesse the flame shall dry up his branches and by the breath of his mouth shall he goe away Little doe they think why they are thus sufferd to prosper and sufferd to prosper thus viz that like beasts they may be fitter for slaughter When the wicked spring as the grasse and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish it is that they shall be destroy'd for ever Psalm 92.7 The fatter they are the fitter they are for slaughter the sooner slain * Psal 78.31 He slew the fattest of them Did I say a wicked man is fed with prosperity Nay but he need not be fed for he will feed himselfe if he be let alone and have meat enough unlesse being in honour he had as he has not understanding enough though it were never so little more then the beasts that perish to be temperate in the use of it He is like bad ground Whether he have any thing sown on him or whether he have nothing he is all one unlesse the difference be in this that he brings forth most weeds when he is sown with the best seed Prosperity is to him as a horse which he can neither breake nor ride and so he must needs be thrown A wicked man having a bad heart or as I may say a bad stomack prosperity and the best meat that can be given him will beget in him nothing but ill humours fears and cares and vexations and sins continuall distempers both of body and mind Perhaps sometimes his prosperity has not these troubles with it Yet is it not enough to make him merry No it is too negative so and that which makes a man truly merry must be more positive He must take delight in it he must enjoy himselfe in the prosperity as well as enjoy the prosperity or else it will be nothing worth This a wicked man can never doe though he should have never so much and enjoy never so much outward peace * Prosperity so the word is used in our Bible because he has no peace within Having no peace within him what ever peace he has without him he can no more be merry then a Prince who is plundring of another mans house abroad and in the mean time has an enemie seizing upon his kingdome at home But then againe here is more misery for a wicked man For as he is not able to use prosperity so that which will necessarily adde to his sorrow he must necessarily have it As he knows not what to doe with it so he knows not what to doe without it For he has no strength to encounter with adversity and is no more able to live merry in sad times then a man that is not before hand is able to live plentifully in a dearth or a man that has no stock of money to lay out is able to get his living by a trade Being poore without a stock of grace he cannot find himselfe maintenance and being lazy without a principle of grace he will never labour to get it His soule is naked and without the garment of faith to keep it warme and so cannot endure the cold It is loose and without the anchor of hope to hold it fast and so cannot endure the stormes of affliction Certainly it must needs be starv'd to death it must needs be miserable toss'd in this world and irrecoverably cast away in the world to come Wherewith should a wicked man encounter with adversity The best weapon for such an use must be a strong soule for a strong body opposed to miseryes is but a great heap of wood to a flame of fire but alas his soule is so sick with sin that insteed of easing him of his burden it will adde more weight and presse him lower to the ground But I will not speake much of adversity lest wicked men tell me I may spare my labour they are not so much troubled with it I will returne therefore and have a word more of their prosperity which they so much brag of and of which they have so little cause to brag considering to what passe it brings them they being so much the more miserable in the end for that their beginning was so happy Nay not only their end hereafter but every interuption of their condition while they are here is so much the worse For the more they have and the fatter they are the more is their griefe when they lose and the greater their paine when they are any way sick or afflicted as it is usually seene in fatt and corpulent men in regard of bodily sicknesse and yet they are subject also to as much as another and more too as full bodies are to diseases What a sad comfortlesse sight is a wicked man in his sicknesse or in any other affliction whereas on the contrary what comfort is there in a godly man not onely to himselfe but to any other that shall visit him even then when the hand of God is heaviest upon him All sorts of evills partly by their Suddennesse partly by violence and partly by his owne unpreparednesse and security presuming of nothing but peace like naturall things meeting with things of a contrary quality have their full blow upon a wicked man That which was threatned to the Babylonians is usually his case Therefore shall evill come upon thee thou shalt not know from whence it rises and mischiefe shall fall upon thee thou shalt not be able to put it off and desolation shall fall upon thee suddenly which thou shalt not know Isa 47.11 His Candle seldome goeth out but is put * Job 21.17 out suddenly though I speak not so much of outward admonitions as of Gods inward preparation of this heart But to returne to the wicked mans Joy Give me leave to mention a few reasons why a wicked man's mirth that which he has is so short liv'd My reasons shall be drawne 1. From the Abundance of helps which it needs and from the weaknesse and fullibility of those helps 2. From its imperfection both in regard of its subject and object and also in its owne nature For the first viz the Abundance of helps which it
others or both either by word or deed Whereas a godly mans mirth is allways innocent and harmeles as well in it's owne issue as the intention of the person And no wonder his joy is so bad which he has when he has no cause of having any joy at all And therefore the best I can say of the best of his mirth being without cause or reason is that it is brutish Like the horse in the battell not so much for want of feare as for want of wit or knowledge of the danger or as we say without feare or wit he runs boldly and merrily on in the most slippery and dangerous places For all the ways of the wicked are slippery and therefore dangerous Nay and dark besides as the Psalmist says Psa 35.6 Let their way be dark and slippery and let the Angell of the Lord persecute them and so the more dangerous viz because they cannot be seen that they are so As usually those things cannot that have most hurt in them The wicked man is merry as the bird is that sings in a cage or the man that sleeps upon the top of a mast For all that time that he is so merry as he seems he is captivated and taken alive by the devill and knows not of it He knows not that there is no condition worse then his Nay he knows not that there is a better and that he might be set at liberty Therefore if he sorrow not t is not out of courage but stupidity His jollity while he is going in the ways of sin which lead to the Chambers of death is like that of the oxe when he is going to the slaughter or the bird when he hasteth to the snare as the expression is Prov 7.22 23. His laughter has but the name likenesse of laughter For it is both irrationall and without cause being like the laughter of a mad man that is melancholy Ela as they call it or a sick man that is desperately sick not out of joy but disease such as will make a godly man weep to see it because he will judg him to be farre gone and past cure that he has gone so farre that he knows not how farre he has gone having lost his way and himselfe too Certainly a man in prison and slavery as every wicked man is cannot be so galliard as one that is at liberty unlesse he be so sencelesse as one that is dead or at least dead-drunk No more can a wicked man unlesse he be over wicked drunk with pleasures and quite dead in trespasses and sins past feeling and not having his senses exercised But in the next place as a wicked mans joy is little and false and he hath no cause to be joyfull so his sorrow is much and true and he hath infinite cause to be sorrowfull That his sorrow is much i.e. frequent first there are Scriptures enough every where to witnesse it See one place especially Psalm * Their sorrows shall be multi pliod that hasten after another God their drink offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their names into my lips 16.4 2. There is Experience enough to attest it For most of his actions are ill done i. e. in passion and most of his daies are ill spent i.e. in sinne Either way he must needs be vex'd And his anger and vexation is so much the more because it is with none but himselfe That his sorrow is much i.e. great and truly so appeares 1. Because it it all sorrow Even a perfect heape of ashes and never a sparke of joy to make him beare up For whence should be have it It cannot be from without For if he have never so little losse or crosse from thence to make him sad he is presently like a mad man it is not all the reasons nor all the comfortable speeches nor all the freinds in the world can perswade him to patience much lesse to mirth And from within he cannot have it unlesse the Spirit were his Comforter Which he is not but only to the godly 2. His sorrow is great and truly such not only because it hath no joy in it or with it but because it hath none to attend it It does not beget joy as a godly man's sorrow doth nor is recompenced with it as his is It neither produceth joy as the fruit nor is paid with joy as the amends Nay he doth or may sorrow for his sorrow as I have formerly told you he does or may for his joy And if the fruit of his joy be sorrow can you expect that the fruit of his sorrow should be joy If his best tree bring forth bad fruit what can he gather from the worst He may sorrow for his joyes because they were not such as they should be because they did himselfe hurt or because they were vaine and could not doe him good and he may sorrow for his sorrowes because they were such as they should not be ie sinnes offensive to God and destructive to himselfe 3. His sorrow appeares to be great and truly such Because it is remedilesse as most of his evills use to bee Either he hath no remedy at all or else which is worse then if he had none because it deludes and vexes a man with vaine hopes the remedies are too weake to prevaile And hence follow those imperecations and wishes usuall with wicked men Would I were dead or would some one would knock me in the head and the like His remedies are so weak that instead of lifting up his head with comfort they bow him lower and plung him deeper under water so that he is as a man that catcheth at a reed when he is almost drownded and holds by that which is not strong enough to hold him As in other things so especially in this the difference between a Godly man's joy and a wicked man's appeares to be very great viz that a Godly man his disease is sinne and sorrow is his remedy And therefore his sorrow cannot be remediles because it cannot want that which it cannot be without Now there is no need of a remedy for the remedy till the evill be remedied then a godly man will remove it himselfe by applying the sovereigne balme of the merits of Christ He must let the drawing plaister first have it's worke before he apply another to heale it When the purging Physick hath sufficiently wrought to remove the humours then and not till then is a man ready for a cordiall to restore the Spirits Now his disease which he is to cure with sorrow is so mortall that there needs no other thing to produce joy then curing the disease Which being done by sorrow his sorrow proves a cause of joy and so he may be glad to be sorry To a wicked man sorrow is a disease and sinne as drunkennesse self murder and the like the Physick that is usually taken to cure it One disease to cure another which must needs
make his condition desperate And yet so it is The best help he hath is to lessen the paine for a while and encrease the disease for ever For he that seekes to cure sorrow by committing sinne shall then cease to have sorrow when sin shall cease to be sin which it can as well doe as not be the cause of sorrow Never blame nor pitty a godly man for being sorry if he be sorry as I would have him For his sorrow is both his duty and his desire He should be sorry and so he ought not and he would be sorry and so he desires not to remove it A wicked man when he is sorry would not be sorry and so seekes for a remedy And he should not be sorry it being not for sinne for which a man ought only to be sorry indeed and so his sorrow is sin and his sinne is punished with want of a remedy But now lest you should wonder at me for saying the wicked have so many sorrowes Causes of Sorrow because most men think the contrary that they are not in trouble like other men t is but naming some few causes * Psal 73.5 from whence those sorrowes proceed and I doubt not to perswade you The causes of a wicked man's sorrow are for the most part 1 which aggravates the matter and makes the sorrow the greater within and from at home the causes from without I have lesse mind to speak to being punishments either such as he thinks not of or is not to suffer till hereafter and which I cannot so plainly convince him of The causes that I meane are unruly passions and unruled actions vices and sinnes for such things he hath most of and he can shew you but little else To begin with unruly passions It were endlesse to tell you how much either noyse and trouble or fretting vexation is continually in that house where they are How the master of the house if I may so call him who was never master of this masterles crue is pull'd hall'd and it cannot but vex a man to be so pulled halled by his servants somtimes by this passion sometimes by that How he is drawn severall waies by the same passion at severall times by severall passions at the same time Believe it t is a worse misery for a man to be servant to many passions then for a servant to be slave to many masters For it being impossible to please them Seeing he is led by them it will be impossible to please himselfe and so consequently impossible to be merry Nay on the contrary by unpleasing objects not well used and by pleasing objects ill us'd to excesse he will never be without anger and repentance And so will be continually assaulted with sorrowes which he will not be able to repulse any more then a citty that is broken downe and without walls is able to keepe out an enemy So speakes Solomon of one that is not able to rule his passions Prov 25.28 He that hath no rule over his own Spirit is like a city that is broken downe and without walls They may well be called passions for he shall be sure to suffer that hath them They are like so many tormentors or executioners And he that is given to his passions is given over to so many tormentors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle Rom 1.26 God gave them over to vile affections or-passions an exceeding great punishment and an argument that God was very angry with them There can be as well peace and mirth in a countrey that is full of commotions or in a Kingdome where the Subjects are up in Rebellion as in a heart that is disturb'd with passions And therefore Aristotle in the definition of most of the passions puts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying they were sorrowes and troubles or tumults As if it were all as unlikely for a passion to be without sorrow and trouble as for sorrow to be without a passion To instance in two or three of the passions as Anger Envy and Revenge-fullnesse One will not thinke what a deale of sadnesse and vexation any one of these will beget A viperous brood they are accustomed and able to hurt none but the heart that conceiv'd them Like the mothes and the Canker eating and fretting the body that bred them A man in anger doe but thinke what fitts of paine and what flames of agony he is in while the storme lasts and what sorrow and vexation he endures when it is over for when his anger with others ceaseth his anger with himselfe begins What indignation against himselfe for oaths which out of a passion perhaps he was not wont to be guilty of What fretting to no purpose for rash-vows indiscreet speeches unseemely behaviour revealing of secrets and giving advantages to his enemy and a thousand such like And consider what manner of life the man that is subject to such a passion lives and what a merry life the meeke-spirited moderate godly man lives in comparison of him 2. For Envy it is a fire within a mans owne bowells the sāe disease that anger is lengthen'd and become chronicall even a very tabes or consumption as you have it excellently discribed by a heathen poet * Ovid. Met lib 2. fab 12. of the very person himselfe in whom it is hindering not only his mind from Contentment but his body also from nourishment See what Job saies of anger and envy c. 5 2 Wrath killeth the foolish man and envy slayeth the silly one I would be large in this if it were not so easy But 3 For revenge I leave it to any one to judge whether a revenge-full mans life can be a merry life if he will but consider with what sleeplesse-cares he is possessed to compasse his hellish designes which he himselfe is strucke with terrour to thinke of What feares he has of miscarrying what doubts either that his businesse will never be done or that it will not be done as it should be and what vexation for every the least delay and because it is not done already I might had I leasure with abundance of ease inlarge my discourse in severall passions to which a wicked man having no principall of grace to restraine him whensoever opportunity shall perswade him will easily be led although perhaps because of constitution or some other carnall cause he have them not in a habit Now if passions be so trouble-some when they are but passions what are they when it comes to a habit how trouble-some are vices If my enemy can doe me so much hurt at his first comming what will he doe when he has gotten firme footing Doubtlesse my misery is doubled For I am easily mov'd by habits and my habits are hardly removed My servants were troublesome to me at first because I did not keep a hand over them But now they are growne too stout and will not endure thereins nor the rider Now they will
be still commanding me and I shall not command them any more I had once a mind and it were very easy to shew you the vexations and sorrows of severall vices but If I should goe about it I am afraid of being too large and I have done somewhat this * In my View of the Threats way already besides a great deale to be had in Common places I will only name two because the Scripture speaks of them to this purpose in such a manner And those are 1. Covetuousnesse 1 Tim 6 10. For the love of money is the root of all evill which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves thorow with many sorrows 2. Drunkennesse Prov 23 29.30 Who hath wo who hath sorrow who hath contention who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath rednesse of eyes They that tarry long at the wine they that goe to seeke mixt wine And can there be better fruit expected while there is a root continually in the hearts of wicked men yeelding matter for nothing else That which I mean is sensuality being addicted to pleasure Pleasure is either upon the remembrance or the presence or the expectation of some good Every one of these waies hath the wicked man a multitude of sorrows If he love it and never had it it is impossible but he should be vex'd But whether so much or so long as if he have had it and have it and may have it I question I thinke there is more vexation and sadnesse where pleasure is least a stranger then where there is a constant seeming griefe and a cause of sadnesse What shakings of head and lamentings that they are past have wicked men upon the thought of pleasures which they have had and cannot have againe Those which they have how are they troubl'd for want of this and that to make them compleat And how are they troubl'd to thinke that they cannot enjoy them long that their power will not suit with their desire the creatures will not be sufficient for their use and the time will not tarry their leasure If they have pleasures a comming what paines to stand a tip-toe what wearisome shouldering along of the time what painfull wishings for the day when it is night and the night when it is day according to the time when they expect them But there is one thing yet which is more then all the rest which I have hitherto mention'd to hinder a wicked man from living a merry life as being indeed one cord made of many or one result and effect as the former was the root of a great many causes although I confesse it to be referr'd better to his condition then his conditions and that is a continuall fearefullnesse arising from the conscience of those vices of which he is continually guilty What an aguish discemper is such a guilty man in continually tacitâ sudant praecordia culpâ How often doe fitts of cold-sweat come upon the thoughts of Sinne Death Hell Judgment any thing Let him thinke upon what he will and he is afraid If he thinke upon God he is afraid because he hath offended him If he thinke upon man he is afraid because he hath wronged him If he thinke upon the creatures he is afraid because he hath abused them And if he thinke upon himselfe he is afraid because he himselfe hath done all this The shaking of a leafe and the sight of a shadow is enough to make him shake and tremble like a leafe A dreadfull sound is in his eares in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him Job 15.21 He that feares not God must needs feare every thing else and he that is afraid of every thing how can he be merry with any thing But is this all the cause of sadnesse that a wicked man hath viz. to be troubled with vices and passions No no. For besides his bad conditions which are inward and domestick causes abundantly enough to make him continually sad he hath a bad condition too and outward occasions infinite many more which those causes have brought him to increase his sorrow such a condition as he cannot be merry if he doe but think upon it And yet such as he cannot be happy if he do not think upon it for he must think upon it if ever he think to get out of it Now that you may see the badnesse of a wicked mans condition I shall but hint a little for I meant not to speak of it at all for reasons above mention'd First read what Job saith of him cap. 18.5 to the end and cap. 20.5 to the end When you have read that I will leave it to your owne judgment whether his condition be not bad and whether it be not impossible for him to be truly merry Next to give you a word or two my selfe 1. He is so farre from Safety which as I have formerly said is of great consequence for a merry life that he is in continuall danger Job 5.4 His children are farre from safety and they are crushed in the gate neither is there any to deliver them For what ever such as he think to the contrary where ever he goes he is in danger of snares that are laid to catch him so that having too much feare he must needs have too little confidence a thing very necessary for this purpose to be merry And in this the godly man is exceedingly beyond him as Solomon saith Prov 29 6. In the transgression of an evill man there is a snare but the rightous both sing and rejoyce Where ever he is he is in danger of falling God himselfe who knows all places best setting him in slippery and dangerous places So the Psalmist telleth us Psal 73.18 So that he neede not have pray'd as he does elsewhere Let their way be dark and slippery Psalm 52 6. Now the ways of wicked men being slippery are consequently smooth and easy to the feete so that they run along a great way before they stop with pleasure and sport like boyes at a sliding But then to counterpoise all this sport besides the mixture of feare in the midst of their sport if they fall it is with a vengeance as they say And they are apt to fall or as bad with the least touch being like chaffe that cannot stand against the least puff of wind Psalm 1.5 Their ways will seem faire and safe and the best wayes to him that never saw any other or never well viewed any But not else For if you doe but looke into the sanctuary you shall presently see what they are You shall see what the end of wicked men is and the end of all their ways Vntill I went into the sanctuary of God untill I lok'd into the word of God and considered his law Then understood I their end Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction Psalm 73 17 18. Now the end you know
child as well as gold but it will not goe for such in another world and he has no hopes to have any other in exchange He hath his portion in this life And he is both able and likely to spend it and lose it and be taken from it in the twinkling of an eye And then what will he doe He hath all that he was to have all ready and there is nothing to come No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or after payment which commonly is the greater to recompence the slownesse of the payment Prov. 24.20 such as the godly man hath * For there shall be no reward to the evill man the cardle of the wicked shall be put out Prov 23.18 and such as in every thing is the most comfort to expect and the greatest joy to receive Indeed the wicked many of them in regard of their flourishing condition in this kinde of prosperity are as the growing grasse But it is but the grasse that growes upon the house tops of which the * Let them be as the grasse upon the housetops which withereth before it groweth up wherewith the mower filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosome Psalmist speaks Psal 129 6 7. viz. that withereth before it be plucked up and wherewith the Angels which are the reapers shall never fill their hand to put them into God's barne for they are sure to be burnt I may say as St James does of the rich man chap. 1. v 10 11. As the flower of the grasse he shall passe away For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grasse and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away his waies Wicked men may be as ranck and large weedes that grow a pace Yea some of them may be green hearbs and fine glorious flowers But they are no better then such For they wither as those hearbs and flowers do and when the time of the yeare is gone a short time allotted them to flourish here they are gone too In the winter if you seeke them their place * Psal 37.35 36. I have seene the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a greene bay trce But he passed away and lo he was not I sought him but he could not be found especially shall know them no more Even in the Summer when they prosper most they are cut downe and they are suffered to grow that they may be cut Their prosperity and their joy and they themselves dye and are gone like the untimely birth of a woman If therefore a wicked mans prosperity be never so much his joy is never the more because it may be suddenly and it is sure to be shortly nothing at all How can he be merry who does not onely not hope to continue so but still thinks that he cannot Againe there is somewhat else in a wicked man's prosperity besides the shortnesse of duration which notwithstanding is enough and enough to hinder him from taking joy in it long if there were nothing else and that is this that it proves but little better then a curse to him I say not that it was intended no otherwise by the giver only I say that whereas it is given to a godly man in love insomuch that God is said to take delight in the prosperity of his servant Psal 35.27 It is given to him as it were with an ill will And such things we use to say when one man gives a thing to another will never doe him good And it cannot be joy to enjoy them Adversity sent by God to the Godly is like the wounds of a lover but prosperity given to the wicked seemes to be like kisses of an enemy and what doth Solomon say of those two Prov 27.6 Faithfull are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitfull If God doe give and doe not give in love thou mayest be in feare of thou canst not be in love with his gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou canst never be merry with them if thou hast the lest thought that he is not thy friend as a wicked man cannot well have any that he is For thou wilt be ever anon suspecting that he intends thee some hurt that he meanes to take advantage against thee and to heap coales of fire upon thee as meaning rather to burne thee then to warme thee and to make thee lose the more for having had so much To say nothing how he will make thee punish thy selfe with care and travell to keep and increase and Feare to lose Eccles 2.26 To the sinner he giveth travell to gather and to heap up that he may give to him that is good before God all the wealth he has given thee being but such as moths can corrupt and theeves break thorow to steale If God leave the world still in a mans heart although he should have all the world to his Command he must necessarily be Subject to a world of misery Woe to that man to whom much is given with a little grace 'T is as bad as a full table and a great appetit and no strength to digest It will make him unable but willing to live and it will make him both unable and unwilling to dye And judge you in what a fine case such a man is to be merry The more wealth the wicked have and the longer it being like wrongfully sequestred means and scarce their owne the greater and heavyer will the account be when they are cald to it and the dammages so much the more Unlesse there be somewhat else given with it an ingredient of grace I will not give a doit for all the wealth or honour in the world to be cur'd of the least sorrowfull thought Non enim gazae neque consularis Summovet lictor miseros tumultus Mentis curas laqueata circum tecta * Horat-Car lib 2. odc 16. volantes And therefore let wicked men brag of the goodnes of their condition and foolish men envy them for it For my part I think they that say they can be or they that seeme to be merry in such a condition are no more nor no better merry then those as they say have eaten of the heath Sardonia * Silinus cap. 12. who dye laughing or those that being desperately sick laugh when they are a dying They sing like the swan and with as much ignorance when they are nearest their end 't is a signe that they are neere their end when they doe sing As Solomon said Prov 18 12. Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty So may I say Before destruction the heart of a man is merry The wicked man is usually merriest when his destruction is neerest and when he has least cause When the evill day is neerest then he puts it furthest off Vngodly men have little more reason to be