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
must then place bodily pleasure among the goods but among the least and those in which beasts have more share then men The more pleasures are simple and natural as they are among beasts the more they are full and sincere But we by our wit make a toyle of a pleasure and drown nature in art He that can set a right value upon Beauty Health and Strength of which we spake lately may easily do the same of the pleasure which they are capable to give or to receive If then these qualities be but weake transitory and of short continuance they cannot yeeld or feele a pleasure solid constant and permanent Health the best of the three is rather a privation of disease then a pleasure and it makes the body as sensible of paine as of delight of which many that enjoy a perfect health are deprived It is a great abatement of the price of bodily pleasure that one must seldome use it to use it well yea and to preserve it for the excesse of it is vicious be the way never so lawfull and the satiety of it breeds sastidiousnesse and wearinesse Whereas true pleasure consisting in the knowledge and love of God one cannot sinne by excesse nor lose the relish of it by fulnesse but the appetite is increased and the faculty mended by enjoying Pleasures of the body though in themselves good and desireable are given by God for something else and to invite us to actions of necessity or utility But spiritual pleasure which is to know and love God is altogether for it selfe and for nothing beyond it for there the pleasure is so united with the duty that the glory which we give to God and that which we enjoy by knowing and loving him are sweetly confounded together and become but one thing This consideration that bodily pleasures are appointed for a further end helps much to understand their price and their use For the pleasure of the taste is to invite the appetite to eate eating is to live living is to serve God and betweene these two last there are other subordinations for many actions of life are for the domesticall good domesticall good for the civill the civill good for the religious Bodily pleasure standing naturally on the lowest round of this ladder is removed out of its proper place when it is placed above the superiour ends which is done when the actions of life which are due to the domestical civill good and before and after all to the religious are imployed to make a principal end of those things that are subordinate to them as inferiour meanes For we must desire to eate for to live not to live for the pleasure of eating so of other natural pleasures the desire whereof becomes vicious when those things to which by nature they ought to serve are subjected unto them Pleasures are good servants but ill Masters They will recreate you when you make them your servants But when you serve them they will tyrannize over you A voluptuous nice man is alwayes discontented and in ill humor Where others find commodity he finds incommodity He depriveth himselfe of the benefit of simple and easy pleasures He looseth pleasure by too much seeking By soothing up his senses he diseaseth them and paine penetrates sooner and deeper into a body softned with voluptuousnesse But he that lesse courteth pleasure enjoyeth it more for he is easily contented To live at ease in the world we must harden our body strengthen our mind and abridge our cupidity In nothing the folly and perversity of the world is so much seene as in this that of the things which Gods indulgence hath given to man for his solace and recreation he makes the causes of his misery the baits of his sinne and the matter of his condemnation for from the abuse of pleasure proceeds the greatest part of the evills that are in the world both the evills which men suffer and those which they commit Yea from thence all evils proceed if wee remount to the first sinne Therefore a wise man will abstaine from unlawfull pleasures and taste the lawfull with moderation lest that by excesse he make them unlawfull Knowing that pleasure which strayeth from duty ends in sorrow that it is no gallantry to offend God and that no delight can countervaile the losse of the serenity of conscience Vice it selfe will teach us vertue For when we see the slaves of voluptuousnes get in that service a diseased body a sad heart a troubled conscience infamy want and brutality we find it an ill bargaine to buy pleasure at so deare a rate This observation also will be of some helpe for the valuation of pleasure That the pleasures that stick most to the matter are the most unworthy as all the pleasures of the taste and feeling and those pleasures that recede further from the matter are more worthy as the pleasures of the sight Wherefore the pleasure of hearing is yet more worthy as having more affinity with the minde And as they are more worthy they are also more innocent But in all things excesse is vicious As excesse in pleasures is vicious so is the defect For God hath made many handsome and good things to please us in which neverthelesse we take no content and many times reject them out of nicenesse How many perfect workes of God strike their image into our eyes and yet enter not into our thoughts How many conveniences are sent to us by Gods good hand sufficient to fill our minds with comfort and thankfulnesse if we had the grace to consider them and we think not of them though we make use of them We are so inchanted with false pleasures that we lose the taste of the true But a wise man is innocently inventive to solace himselfe and finds every where matter of pleasure All things without smile upon him because his spirit is smiling within and he lends to objects his owne serenity whereby he makes them pleasant CHAP. VIII Of the Evils opposite to the forenamed Goods IT is to make the title short that I call them evill not to condemne without appeale informatition all that is not in the list of the goods of fortune and goods of the Body By looking upon these goods we may judge of their opposites An easy worke for having found nogreat excellency in these goods no solid content in the possession of them it followes that to be without them is no great misery They must be viewed impartially for there is both good and evil every where although to speake Philosophically and properly the true evill and the true good lie within us The silly vulgar cannot comprehend that a man can finde his happinesse and unhappinesse within himselfe and seeke their good abroad where it is not toyling sweating and wearing out their life with labour in that quest and making themselves misetable out of feare of misery Whereas most accidents without are neither Good nor evill in themselves and
to be gotten but within us from God and ourselves and take those things for ours which are none of ours but depend of others and thereupon runne towards those objects thus mistaken with a blind impetuositie These are the true roots of Sadnesse which roots if we could pluck out of our breasts we should never be sad for any thing of the world But it is very hard to pluck out that weed for Sadnesse is like a nettle a malignant stinging weed spreading in the soyle where it hath once taken root and sucking all the vigour and substance thereof It makes a man murmure against God and envy his neighbours alwayes discontented alwayes needy suffering neither himselfe nor others to be at rest odious to God and men and to his own selfe The life of man being subject to occasions of Sadnesse a wise man will not adde voluntary sorrow to the necessary And since by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken Prov. 15.13 and a broken spirit dryeth up the bones Prov. 17.22 so that Sadnesse is the ruine both of body and mind he will take so much care of the preservation of both of which he is accountable to God as to banish from his breast with his utmost industrie that fretting consumption The best course for that is to exercise ourselves in the love and contemplation of God and faith in his promises By these Sadnesse is cast out of the heart and the soule is set in a pleasant and serene frame Next this wisedome must be learned of Solomon Eccles 5.17 It is good and comely for a man to eate and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he takes under the Sunne all the dayes of his life which God giveth him for that is his portion Obstinate Sadnesse is unthankfull to God for it drownes the benefits of God in an ungratefull oblivion and takes away the taste of them even while we enjoy them And what a double misery is that for a man to make himselfe guilty by making himselfe miserable For two things voluntary Sadnesse is lawfull and usefull for the evill that we commit and the evill that others commit Sadnesse for our owne sinnes is contrition Sadnesse for the sinnes of others is the zeale of Gods glory both commendable necessary He that hath not a sad resenting of his owne sins must not hope for pardon and is so farre from finding it that he cannot so much as seek it for he that feeles not his sicknesse shall never look for the remedy Mat. 11.28 Come to me saith Christ all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest None are invited by the Gospell but such as labour and are heavy loaden none but they can finde rest unto their sonles This comes to that I was saying lately that we must be sad for no evill but such as can be mended by our Sadnesse Such is contrition for sinne for it helps to heal it making us cast ourselves upon the great Physitian the Lord Jesus whose merit is the Soveraine remedy to that great sicknesse So that Sadnesse ends in Joy We must grieve also for the sins of others for since we must love God above all things we must be very sensible of the dishonour offered unto his holy name This made Daniel and Nehemiah to fast and pray and God shewed that their Sadnesse was acceptable unto him Sadnesse then is of good use for these ends so that we never seeke merit nor praise in it remembring alwayes that Sadnesse is evill in itself good onely by accident Sadnesse of contrition and zeale is good as Purges and letting of blood which are good onely because there is some evill in the body If all were well there would be no need of them As then we must take heed of too much purging and blood-letting so we must of too much Sadnesse either for contrition or zeale The use of Sadnesse in contrition is to make repentance serious and to humble the spirit that it may be capable and thirsty of the grace of God The use of sadnesse in zeale is to sympathize with Gods interesses and thereby beare witnesse to God and our owne conscience that we aknowledge our selves Gods children For these ends it is not required at our hands to grieve without tearme and measure For since the greatnesse of Gods mercy is as high above our sinnes as Heaven is above Earth it is Davids comparison our faith and joy in Gods mercy must also be very much above our sadnesse for our sins And as God saith that our sins are cast into the sea Mich. 7.19 meaning the deep Ocean of his infinite mercy likewise our sorrow for our sins must be drowned in the joy of his salvation Whereas also the blasphemies and oppositions of Gods enemies by his great wisedome and power turne to his glory our sadnesse for these oppositions must end in joy for that almighty power and soveraine glory of our heavenly father to which the greatest enmity of Satan and the world is subject and tributary for by pulling against it they advance it The consideration of the subjects of Sadnesse sheweth more then any other that man knoweth not himselfe there being nothing in which one is sooner deceived For many times we think ourselves to be sad for one thing when we are sad for another mistaking the pretence of our Sadnesse for the cause Many will impute their sadnesse to the sense of their sinnes but the true cause is in their hypoconders swelled and tainted with black choller oppressing the heart and sending up fuliginous vapours to the braines No wonder that so often all the reasons of Divinity and the sweetest comforts of godlinesse cannot erect a spirit beaten downe with sadnesse the plaister is not layd to the sore for spiritnall remedies purge neither the spleene nor the gall nor the braines whose peccant humours breed all those doubts and feares whereby melancholy persons so pertinaciously vexe themselves and others Indeed the resolution of a serene and religious spirit will preserve body and soul in a sound and quiet state But that resolution which is excellent for prevention of the evill will not overcome it when the humours of the body are generally dyed and infected with melancholy Wherefore let us beware betimes that Sadnesse settle not in our heart for the indulgence shewed to willfull Sadnesse will in short time sowre all the humours of the body and vitiate the whole masse of the blood and the magazine of vital and animal spirits with melancholy Then when the mind hath made the body melancholy the body doth the like to the mind and both together contribute to make a man miserable timorous mischievous savage lycanthrope and a heavy burden to himselfe When that habit of melancholy begins by the spirit it is more grievous when it begins by the body it is more incurable To draw a man out of that deep gulfe all spirituall and materiall helps are of
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
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
declination of our body will miss us and hit our neighbours head A little winde will turne a great storme A sudden commotion in the State will create every where new interesses He that held us by the throat will be suddenly set upon by another will let us go to defend himself If we see no way for us to scape God seeth it After we have reckoned all the evill that our adversary can do we know not what God will do In the creation he made the light to shine out of darknesse and ever since he takes delight to fetch the comfort and advancement of those whom he loveth out of the things they feare That which we feare may happen but it will be for our good Unto many the bed or the prison hath bin a Sanctuary in an ill time Unto many the publique calamity hath bin a shelter against the particular Many times that which lookes grim a farre off smiles upon us neere hand And what is more common then to be promoted by those things which we feared most Exile and confiscation condemne us often to a happy tranquillity taking us from the crowd and the tumult to set us at large and at rest These considerations serve to decline not to overcome the evill Wherefore there is need of stronger remedies For that we may be healed of Feare it is not enough to say Perhaps the evill will not come or will not prove so terrible as it lookes Say we rather Suppose the evill must unavoydably come I do imagine the worst Say it be poverty close prison torture the scaffold the axe All that can take nothing from me that I may call mine God and a good conscience are mine onely true goods which no power and no violence can take from me All the rest is not worth the feare of losing Isa 12.2 Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song he also is become my salvation Then the remedy to the shaking ague of feare consisteth in knowing these two things The evill and the liberatour The evill cannot be very great since it hath an end No evill of this world but ends by death Death it selfe is good since it ends evills how much more when it begins eternall goods to the right Christian death is not a matter of feare but of hope Let us take away from the things we feare that hideous vizard which imagination puts upon them calmely looking into their nature and getting familiarity with them by meditation Let nothing that is incident to humane condition seeme strange or new to us What happens to one may happen to any other The ordinariest cause of feare is surprise That we be not surprised we must think betimes upon all that may come and stand prepared for all So nothing shall seeme strange when it comes But the chiefe remedy against feare is to lift up our hearts to the great Liberatour that hath goods and evills in his hand that sends afflictions and deliverances that brings downe and brings up againe that gives us strength according to the burden which he layeth upon us and multiplyeth his comforts with our afflictions Being perswaded that God is most wise and most good and that all things work together for good unto them that love him we will represse our feare of the accidents of life and second causes saying The will of the Lord be done we are sure that nothing but good can come to us since nothing can come but from God Wheresore instead of fearing to suffer evill we must feare to do it which is the safest course to prevent suffering He that commits sin is more unfortunate then he that suffers paine for suffering moveth Gods mercy but sin moveth his indignation That man cannot but feare sinne that beareth in mind that God hates it and markes it There then we must feare and the chiefe deliverance that we must aske of God is that he deliver us from every evill worke 2 Tim. 4.18 As we feare sufferings because of themselves so must we feare evill workes because of the evill that is in them besides the sufferings that attend them soone or late This Feare of love and revecence towards God puts out all other Feares He that feares God needs not Feare any thing else CHAP. XVII Of Confidence and Despaire OF these we need not say much having spoken before of Hope and Feare for confidence is the extremity of Hope and Despaire is the extremity of Feare Confidence which otherwise may be called a firme expectation is a certainty that we conceive of a future desired good or of the love and fidelity of a person whereby the heart is filled with joy and love Despaire is the certainty that the mind conceiveth of a future evill very odious or of the enmity or infidelity of a person whereby the heart is seized and in a manner squeazed with sorrow and hatred These Passions being so opposite yet ordinarily will passe the one into the other I meane Confidence into Despaire from Despaire to pass to Confidence it is rare The surest course to avoyd falling into Despaire for things of the world is to put no great confidence in them Moderate hopes being frustrated turne into moderate feares and sorrowes But a great and joyfull Confidence being disappointed will fall headlong into extream and desperate sorrow as they that tumble from a high precipice get a heavy fall One subject onely is proper for mans entire Confidence which is God all good all mighty and all wise Without him all things that men use to repose their confidence upon are waves and quicksands Men are mutable and though they could give a good security for the constancy of their will they can give none for the continuance of their life The goods of the earth faile our expectation or come short of our satisfaction or slip from our possession They will leave us or we them No wonder if they that repose their full and whole confidence in them are seene so often to fall into despaire Here then the true counsell for tranquillity is to trust wholly upon none but God on other things according to their nature and capacity They shall never deceive us if we require nothing of them above their nature There is a kind of Despaire improperly so called which is no more but to give over hoping a thing which upon our second and better thoughts we have found either inconvenient or impossible That Despaire will rather bring rest then trouble to the mind Wisemen are pliable and easy to be satisfyed with reason It is wisedome to despaire and desist betimes from unlikely and unfeasable designes It is a true Despaire when one seeth himselfe absolutely disappointed and excluded from the object of his chiefe love desire hope at which the soul is smitten with such a sorrow that she hates all things yea the very thing that she desired so much and herselfe more
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