even against thy own genius and aversion Remember the pleasure of wholsome and handsome Children remember the improbability of having any where there is a secret and a real dislike Remember what disgusts will arise in thy breast when thou shalt see others happy in a suitable match in a numerous and amiable off-spring Take all these things together and before thou settest forth upon this expedition read over again and again the Memorandums I have here given thee as the fruit of my experience and observation and which I have delivered unto thee in hopes to make thee in this particular truly happy The happiness of a Married life requires that both be good But it will not be an expedient sufficient for the procurement of thy happiness to have chosen a good and vertuous wife with the best qualifications above intimated unless thou also prove as fit and suitable a Husband For though thou canst not be happy with a bad one yet thou mayest so demean thy self as to be very unhappy though thou hast a good one Thy own vices and vanities will in the continuance and consequence of them bring many evils upon thee both as thou art a Husband a Father a Master of a Family As thou art a Husband if thou debauchest thy self becomest a Drunkard a common Gamester negligent of thy fame and thy calling besides the evils more immediately will attend thee thou wilt by degrees sowre the good disposition of thy Mate and turn thy sweet nourishing and delicious Wine into Vinegar Thou wilt bring upon her Melancholy and Sickness cool and lessen if not totally extinguish her affection for there being in all naturally implanted self love and desire of good to our selves what reason is there you should expect a permanency of her affections when through your default she is made most miserable For what ever humor and obstinacy may perswade you to yet love is naturally the off spring only of love and you will but vainly exact it from her as her duty when notwithstanding the mutual obligation you have broken all the ties and by a vitious and imperious carriage which usually follows it you incite her to a reliction of those respects she would otherwise inviolably have maintained You must remember that you marry not a Saint but a Woman that you have past your promises as well as your Wife that the Tie is equally obliging and withal ask your self whether if she were become so vitious so neglectful of all the parts of her duty you would not think it unreasonable that she should expect any degree of affection from you having done all that lay in her to sink you into irreparable Calamities Consider further that if through your default the temper of her mind and constitution of her body be perverted which should indeed by your sweetness be improved you are justly to be charged with all the ill effects that may thereupon ensue which will be no small burthen to your Conscience and a certain diminution or destruction of all the contentments which would otherwise flow from that relation A Vitious Father seldom makes good Children 2. Your Vitious habits will not only have an influence upon your Wife but your Children also for how can you then be capable of the due oversight of their education and giving them those good instructions which are necessary for forming and fashioning their minds and seasoning them with fit principles of Religion and Vertue What power also can your instructions have when as they grow up they shall discover in your own life vitious practices contrary to the instructions you give them 'T is by all allowed that practice and example perswade much more powerfully than precept and therefore it will be certain that they will every day warp and decline that original innocence and good nature they are born with by observation of your daily deviations How can you implant and cherish in them that Reverence they owe to God that love to honesty and vertue they cannot but perceive you contemn by practising contrary thereunto So that since the happiness of man in his posterity is not in having Children but in having good ones you must never expect a participation in that blessing when you take a course that can in no reason produce other than the contrary You will find it as the World is constituted a difficult matter to steer them right with the utmost care a good and prudent Father can use what little hopes then will remain when there is not only a neglect of the paternal duty but your own perswasive example to hurry them into vitious extravagancies It is not force and a rude hand that fashions the mind you shall find looking with an unperverted eye into the World and examining things aright that when Parents are playing the Beadles with their Children that for every lash the Parents it may be passionately or humerously give them they deserve ten themselves were the cause fairly pleaded as either foolishly beating them for trivial lapses by other means more easily amended or for such faults as they themselves either for want of good instruction or by giving bad example or some occasion thereunto have thereby produced This is indeed one of the greatest causes of the Worlds perversion And therefore my Son for the sake of your self and Wife whose felicity is here much concerned for the respects you owe to your Children who will owe more to you for good education than their lives for 't is better never to have been born than to be vitious and lastly for the common respect you owe to your Countrey and to mankind whose integrity is preserved by the good of particulars be circumspect in this and careful to discharge your Paternal duty by preserving your self in a fit capacity both for seasoning the minds of your Children by prudent instructions and affording them the more powerful incitement from your own well led life and laudable example The concernment to the Family that the Master be a good Man 3. A Vitious man can never make a good Master of a Family The good will either be corrupted by him or with detestation leave him You are not Master of Slaves that you can force to serve your will God be praised the Law of England knows no such tenure But of Servants by contract who when they are admitted you are tacitly charg'd with a care of them not only to afford conveniences for their livelyhood and external support but 't is a duty incumbent upon you to form and fashion their minds with a love to all that is good and Honest This you are obliged to in several regards as 1. Out of respect to the good of your Country of which Servants are a numerous and considerable part And therefore it is a deserved blemish upon Masters if their Servants fly out into unworthy actions unless they can manifest that they have not been wanting on their part to teach them better and afford them the benefit
voices or single propositions The other of united propositions or syllogisms In both which there are abundant particulars and upon them infinite controversies writ by learned Clerks and grave Fathers who have dealt with our understandings as he would do with our eyes that could fill the air with dust flocks and feathers and that in order to the clearing and making more diaphanous the medium of sight Whilst men are learning this kind of Logick and acquiring competent skill in its objections and controversies they might in the same time well and advisedly imployed have gained one or two Languages and it may be a very great insight in some profitable art besides the chiefest acquisition of the knowledg of men and the realities of things whereas a meer and sound Logician is usually the veriest animal in nature and taken out of the road of his unnecessary studies not able clearly to discourse or to use manly reasoning upon any useful subject whatsoever 2. What Controversies have these acute Logicians brought to a period and convincing determination Yea what contests have they not raised both in this their peculiar voluminous art and in all other matters wherein it has been the worlds unhappiness that they have been ingaged and those to the Worlds end by them undeterminable From hence is it that Lawyers are so able to maintain a bad cause and others false opinions From hence colours and false glosses are set upon base and injurious practices as taking too amongst the credulous and hereby deluded people as if they were sound reasonings and those not the vulgar only as they are called but even the Learned who by receiving themselves some tinctures of such deceptions in their education do more easily afterward yield to well couched Sophisms and Fallacies 3. It it almost confessedly a useless Art because although 6 or 7. years is in great measure spent thereupon in the Universities yet afterwards to what ever profession man ingages himself it is in effect wholly laid aside as to the form and method of it Whereas all useful arts that are preliminary to the rest are continued through the whole process of those that depend upon them The alteration it leaves upon men is an aptness to contention and a forwardness upon a vain supposition of a formal ability from the readiness of Topicks and knowledg of Sophisms to ingage in the maintenance of things unjust and which they would otherwise themselves have condemned 4. It s use is wholly declined where business of the greatest moments are transacted In Parliaments and all other Councels in conventions and Companies of Merchants and other Tradesmen in all other meetings also for the dispatch of civil affairs in the Courts of Lawyers in the Colledges of Physicians yea and in the consistory of Divines And to say truth the utmost use that is made of it is in the supplement of some fallacies in pleadings easily discern'd without the necessity of learning the Art by prudent men In the inabling a contentious parson to contrast and go to Law with his Parishioners How unhappy a matter is it therefore that this so useless science should be some years a learning in the Universities and that they should manage their Disputations in the publick Schools and Colledges in this restrictive way of arguing where he is like often to carry the question not who is best skilled in the nature and extent of the thing debated but who has attained the best ability to form Syllogisms and most subtilly to mannage them Of Rhetorick Near a kin to Logick is Rhetorick and as far as it is Artificial that is so far as it proceeds from acquired abilities from Rules and devised Methods it is as despicable amongst honest men of as ill consequence and as destructive to mankind This is also learned in the Universities where there are publick Schools and Lectures read upon the same This also my Son I would have you make little or no esteem of forasmuch as every man ought to speak from the knowledg of things and from the truth and real conviction of his own mind and not besides them for the friendship of any or for the advantage of any Worldly good Were it thus amongst men how happy would our lives be whereas from Rhetorick which is termed an Art of gaining belief and credit to what is spoken be it honest or dishonest true or false right or wrong which refer to the three species of Rhetorick from this delusory art I say arises flattery dissimulation fallacy perversion of judgment justification of what is bad condemnation of what is good all which are spring heads of most of the evils that have been brought upon mankind From respect to this Art forsooth Scholars are allowed in the Schools and Universities to maintain opinions they know to be false and it is allowed even in Courts of Judicature with subtelty of words and eloquence to maintain bad causes nor is it any blemish but rather an Argument of great ability to be well able so to do As if men had quitted Conscience and placed their reputation in having acquired skill to deceive and pervert the tract of justice There is nothing in the world but what may be expressed in plain speech and easily intelligible words that concerns the manners and common affairs of men and here indeed should we rest for in this is truth and in this should be perswasion and acquiescence But when men come to use long and subtle discourses eloquent orations adorned with their flowers of Rhetorick various tropes and figures arguments to the men and not the matter what is then aimed at but deluding the understandings of those that hear swaying them from truth to falshood to condemn the innocent and acquit the guilty For the performance of all which the elements and rules of this art do abundantly enable its disciples Nor are these Rhetoricians ever the less esteemed among the gross of men partly from the captivation of their understanding by these their subtleties and partly for that the people themselves are in great measure tinged with some ability in this delusive art and therefore the more apt to be deceived and to deceive others If corrupt states undertake bad designs destructive to the Laws and the just rights of mankind they have advocates to plead in its justification who by fine woven speeches and declarations shall at least so far prevail as to delude a great part even of them over whom the net is at the same time casting and who must partake in the slavery And then these very people who are so deluded shall indeavour to corrupt and even despise those who are not deluded as judging them shallow and short-sighted By vertue of this art are false opinions introduced into the World taking place in the understandings of men and justling out Nature Truth and Honesty as matters of mean regard These have also their Advocates distinguished into various sects the heads and leaders of all which by the
knows not how to grow rich Let it be so thought my Son prefer it however and thou shalt find something sweeter within thee than the delight of riches more certain here and a blessed earnest of that which is better hereafter Though I judge that it would be no difficult thing to prove that a prudent man manifesting sincerity in all his dealings is at the long run in a fairer road of acquiring riches than he that uses craft or subtle falshood for the obtaining thereof For 1. Nothing invites more than just dealing and not only the just whose custome will be certain but even they who practise subtilty themselves love plain dealing in others For a time happily they may suffer because for a while their fidelity will not be believed men having vainly assumed the shews of it to gain a name that they may the more freely deceive But when time and experience manifests that they hate all circumventing policies may be credited and relyed upon in what they say and promise Both the implanted love of Truth which though weakened is yet in the Conscience of every man with the profit content and satisfaction every man cannot chuse but take in such dealing must of necessity invite numerous Chapmen the only means of acquiring riches Whereas a man who in making his bargain speaks falsly and by little arts designs to over-reach and to lay foundations of future advantage must in time as their circumventions appear be warily avoided or dealt with only out of necessity which last no longer than that necessity compels However be the matter in this particular as it will let the love to Truth be thy chief motive and in that thou wilt stand right to God thy Neighbour and thy own Soul and then thou shalt find that there are other recompences and rewards as far beyond riches as vertue is beyond vice or the joyes â—f Heaven above those which are worldly and sensual Of Wisdom In the Government of our selves here there is nothing so necessary as the guidance of Wisdom I mean not the crafts of the World or the policies of artificial men those I would have thee my Son understand not to use them but to know how prudently and securely to avoid them Remember that true Wisdom which only deserves that name is alwayes joyned with goodness and vertue Take it therefore for a rule that whatsoever is not so associated though it may be called craft policy art wit all which have their esteem in this artificial state of the World yet Wisdom it is not which is ever agreeable to the rules of right reason consonant to the life and principles of our blessed Saviour and is properly defined to be the knowledg how to demean our selves in the best manner in all the occasions and occurrences of humane life Now Wisdom thus defined is acquireable by these helps 1. By the instructions and examples of prudent Parents 2. By reading the Books of wise men and principally the Scriptures which as they are intended to make us wise to Salvation so are they very effectual to secure us against all the assaults of temptation and to steer us right upon all occasions 3. By conversing with those who by long experience and true Conclusions drawn thereupon have attained a high measure of prudence and are able to advise the best and securest wayes in all accidents and variations of life 4. By meditating frequently and seriously with our selves As to the First of these the instruction and good example of prudent Parents I know it is the duty of all for their childrens sakes as well as their own to be such the defects in this particular are a radical cause of the Worlds depravation I know it is a much more difficult matter for Children who have not such Parents to gain any proportionable measure of prudence the attaining thereof being uncertain where there are such I think also that the defects and imprudencies of Children are justly chargeable upon Parents where they have not done their parts though Children are not thereby wholly excused because God has offered many other helps for the attainment of Wisdom I conceive 't is fondness and regard to themselves in Parents when they love their Children imprudently that is when their affection is not directed chiefly to the making them Good and Wise This should be the prime end wealth but secondary That in order to this they ought to be very careful that they indulge them in nothing that may any wayes cross those ends Neither out of compliance with the World the fulfilling their own humors the powerful inclination of their own bad examples improvidence and negligence in doing their duties omission of taking times and seasonable advantages to instruct and reform them moroseness and keeping an imperious distance out of an ill use made of their Paternal authority and prerogative loosing thereby the fair occasions of preserving and reclaiming them which decent and prudent familiarity would daily afford them This as to Parents which may concern thee if ever it pleases God to bless thee with Children In the mean time let it not be grievous to thee but rather a pleasure to give an attentive ear and to lay up in thy mind the advices and instructions of thy Parents Consider That what they advise is as near as they can for your good that it flows from their affection even when they rebuke or correct that it is grievous even to them to have occasion to do it and taken up out of necessity lest they should fail in their duty towards you Consider that they have lived many years and have had experiences in the World and are therefore in fit capacity to instruct That affection perswades them to extract the best of that knowledg they have and communicate to you there being nothing more delightful to them than to see your understanding improve in the acquisition of true Wisdom That the young of all creatures do learn of the old it being the method which God has placed in the order of Generation and continuation of all species and that consequently it is unnatural not to have regard to it Lastly consider that Solomon reputed the wisest man our blessed Master excepted spent a great part of those experimental instructions he thought fit to communicate to the World in commending to us the excellency of Wisdom and perswading youth that it is chiefly to be gained by giving heedful attention to the counsels of Parents that besides the profit arises from it a blessing also attends it from God Almighty who is well pleased when we guide our selves according to the course and order which in his infinite Wisdom he has planted in the World This is what I thought necessary to mention to thee in order to the first means of acquiring Wisdom The giving heed to the instruction and example of Parents With this caution subjoyned that if upon improvement of thy own knowledge thou shalt discover some blemishes or defects in
used all prudent wayes for our enlargement such are temperance and reducing our appetites to things wholsome and easily acquirable Contemplation of the Worlds vanity and uncertainty of Heavens joyes and their perpetuity That the Prison by taking us off from other employment gives us leisure to look back into our lives to mend what is amiss to record the best of our experiences for the benefit of others or any other way to do service to the world in communicating that knowledge and those notices we apprehend may be of use to mankind We have else to add that Imprisonment as an evil comes short of an oppressors Gout or fit of the Stone yea of the perplexities which an ambitious mans projects in the course and process of them enforces him upon Lesser evils are made lighter by being compared with greater Lastly as to death it self reckoned the greatest evil thou shouldest bear the apprehension of its approach with the greatest fortitude For if thou hast spent thy daies well there is no evil in it thou art going to a better place to better company to better injoyments The terror is chiefly in the misapprehension for Children dye without fear of it 't is the recompence of innocency Nothing but guilt makes it dreadful nor ought that neither when there is sorrow for sin a reliance upon Gods mercy through the merits of Christ without this Death would be terrible to every Man and Woman in the World but where this hopeful assurance has possest the mind Death is truly apprehended to be an unavoidable passage to a better life These are my Son the grounds upon which thy courage is to be maintained against the fear of Death which being once gain'd life will be more pleasant because the greatest disquiet thereof uses to be the dreadful apprehension of Death We have invented many wayes to make it terrible to our selves as the stories of dying men the amazement which their groans and sometimes agonies before departure raise in us the laments at departure all the funeral preparations keeping the sore fresh and smarting All which need not be did we keep our minds prepared and our belief steddy that our Friends or our selves are quitting a place of troublesome agitations and disquiets for rest and a participation of the joyes of those who shall be received into the Society of the blessed Let all that can be spoken upon this subject the reality of the whole matter must resolve into this That an honest and good Life makes death acceptable and takes off all the horrors that use to attend it This is the highest perswasive to a good life this and this only makes the way pleasant and the passage easy But this however not of merit because in the best there are abundant defects but God is merciful not extream to mark what is done amiss and the death of our blessed Saviour was on purpose to advance the mercy of God by clearing his justice and to cover a multitude of Transgressions were it not for this no flesh could be saved and a well governed mind though conscious to it self of multitude of failings and offences may yet with great asfurance rely upon the signal promises of Gods mercy and having his firm reliance therereupon pass through this vale of misery without affright and meet Death with the minds quiet The means of begetting true fortitude is wisdom so that Fortitude is not born with us but is a warm affection of the mind raised in us by the right exercise of our reason Others may be rash audacious hare-brained or tyrannically furious but the wise and good only are truly valiant Fortitude being rightly dignified by the justness of the cause and the excellency of the end which excludes from this worthy rank the passionate imperious revengful the Souldier of fortune the duelist and who ever else causelesly injures another or occasions any private or publick disturbance for any indirect and unallowable end Neither is fortitude strength of body for so a Horse or any other stronger Creature would be more valiant than a Man and the strongest men than those who are weaker 'T is true where strength of body is men are too often prompted in confidence thereof to engage in quarrels and boysterous attempts and so to be injurious to themselves and others but this is so far from being true valour that it is rather a Bestial quality which the passion of those Creatures often exercises and would do oftener did they know their own strength and the most advantagious wayes of using it Reason teaches otherwise That he who has most strength either natural or conferred by the Law should use it only for those good ends it was given for the protection of innocence and reducing of contemptuous and injurious Persons to those just bounds Nature or the Laws have set them God who is Almighty against whom all other Powers are but as the weakness of a Babe or what is more infirm who to his might has infinite wisdom joyned never used this strength but in doing good or restraining evil being in his own nature the most exact rule of Justice to himself And what instance or what argument can be greater to man than thus to use his own little strength Not boasting of it but giving thanks for it as being a means of performing in some proportion those good offices which God Almighty takes greatest satisfaction in Fortitude being no less eminent in patient sufferance than in couragious action To this vertue of Fortitude as it is passive belong many other vertues Such are Meekness Humility Patience readiness to assist the Distressed Not to be Contentious or Revengeful not to incense differing Persons by Partaking Backbiting useing a double Tongue concerning each of which let my experience advise thee and lay up my Advices in thy heart as more valuable than whatsoeveâ— of wealth my industry can get and my affection leave to thee Of Meekness Meekness will beget thee numerous Friends but a contentious Spirit raises multitude of Enemies Moses though the greatest and chief Ruler of Gods people is stiled the meekest upon the Earth And yet a greater than he was more Meek even our blessed Master To the Meek belongs the inheritance of eternal life and what are all the Kingdoms of the Earth in comparison to it No suffering is grievous to them that are Meek they are able to bear more than the mighty Meekness is the fruit of Wisdom and sound understanding but pride is the daughter of ignorance and folly Through Meekness Christ overcame the Principalities of the World and having subdued Death it self rose again victorious The Meekness of the Apostles was the contempt of arrogant worldlings and yet upon that Basis God established the Christian Church Of Humility and Patience Near akin to Meekness are Humility and Patience Meekness consisting in a gentle and quiet demeanour notwithstanding many provocations given Humility in not vaunting our selves above others but having a low esteem of
life which he must also foreknow he cannot avoid for otherwise he could not foreknow them How would it sower and imbitter all his present injoyments to be acquainted before hand that shortly he must break his Leg at another time have his house burnt or lose his Wife and Children or Estate sufficient certainly is the sorrow of each day for it self How does it make the countenance of men and their Spirits to fall when upon losses or other accidents they find the feilure of their Estates and in a short time to their apprehensions an inevitable breaking certainly the anxiety before it happens is greater than after when the worst being known and the discredit digested which is but an imaginary reproach the mind by degrees is quieted Let us therefore give thanks to Almighty God who out of his abundant wisdom and loving kindness to man hath denied us what we so eagerly covet and what would tend to our so great vexation Let us with humble and thankful hearts enjoy the present and so lead our lives that our assurances of the future enjoyment of God in the mansions and society of the blessed may make us contentful in any condition here since it will be but a little time before we shall be possest of eternal beatitude hereafter Of Pride It is meet that I say something of Pride because it is a general vice the cause of much yea most of the evils in the World and not only very prejudicial to others but to our selves also The foundations of it are ignorance and presumption Ignorance I say for though men accounted knowing are very incident to it yet it alwayes arises from their folly in having a better opinion of themselves than they deserve This is evident from this undeniable truth That there is no man without numerous defects the knowledg of the best is poor low and imperfect the possessions of all uncertain matters depending much upon chance exposed to numerous casualties wholly extraneous to man and their estimation depending upon vain opinion Pride has alwayes something of Herods fault for which he was eaten up of Vermine for arrogating honour to himself which is due only to God It makes him apt to practical Atheism that is to rely upon and attribute what he obtains to his own parts and consequently to think he has no need of God But see the consequence of it in the 16 of the Proverbs the 18. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty Spirit before a fall For such contemning God are justly despised by him and then follows that of St. James c. 4. v. 6. He resisteth the proud but sheweth grace to the humble and that of St. Luke 1.51 He scattereth the Proud in the imaginations of their hearts This is true of private persons and of States both which are nearest to destruction when they appear most arrogant and secure It is common with proud men to use an hypocritical humbleness to invite thereby greater respect from others by which they tacitly confess their own unworthiness of which they are justly conscious and bewray the baseness of their own minds They who have most of worth abominate such practices decline it themselves and hate it in others All kind of honour as it should be the recompence of Vertue and true worth so should it flow freely from others who are benefited by good Actions but should never be sought by our selves yea should be avoided not out of a fallacious design of gaining otherwise thereby but from a true sense of our own imperfections and because it is but our duty to do all the good we can That saying of the Poet Contempt of Fame is the contempt of Vertue is grounded upon a false supposition that the motive to Vertue is applause whereas indeed it should arise from a sense of its own excellency and that God has commended it to human practice as that which carries in itself the blessed fruits of peace joy and the solace of the mind as the greatest means of happiness this world can afford us And hence is it that Christ disswaded his followers from accepting worldly Honours Dominion Praise and all other the esteemed darlings of corrupted men preferring to them peace of Conscience here and assurances of real felicities hereafter Consider well of this and let thy mind my Son possess the knowledg thereof lead thy life in conformity to it for thereby thou wilt avoid many evils which the proud are exposed to It s remedy is humility grounded upon a just esteem of our selves and of others In our selves we are chiefly to consider how much we want of what we should be and here we can hardly be mistaken in others to value what we see worthy in them and to consider how easily they may attain if they exceed not already what we judge good in our selves to weigh above all that we are all born for the good one of another and that there is no greater evil to human Society than for us so to love our selves as to be detrimental to others that the love of our selves is the rule and extent of our love to others that 't is Christs great Commandment That no man can truly love God whom he hath not seen if he love not his brother whom he hath seen That we should make our selves equal to men of low degree peradventure as being the best or as having most need of incouragement or to shew that men are not to be esteemed for their riches or disesteemed for their poverty but all are to be lov'd and the vertuous chiefly to be respected Man will soon cease to be proud if he well considers that he has nothing to be proud of not of Wealth or what is purchased by it for 't is no part of himself 't is full of uncertainty the fool or vitious may be master of it as well as the wise and vertuous Not of Honour for if it arise not from good and worthy Actions 't is a false Coin and is therefore contemptible If it be the effect of true desert the foundation of that desert which is vertue will teach him to think meanly of it since vertue praises it self with its own contentment and is rather diminished than satisfied by reward especially since it cannot but be conscious of coming abundantly short of its duty being attended with many defects which are too well known to the possessor Not of Learning and great Parts since both of them are but acquisitions to promote common good and no further valuable but as they do so which carry with them when in the best manner exercised solace and contentment of Mind The great Apostle St. Paul which next to his and our blessed Master did the most good in the world protested that he had nothing to glory in But the Cross of Christ and that he was counted worthy to suffer for the giving testimony to that blessed Name and the profession of his Discipleship renouncing all esteem that might otherwise arise
which is his industry he leaves a legacy to his Children His labour that gets him bread procures him an appetite which makes it sweet to him to digest it well also and maintain his strength sleep follows sound and undisturbed He is past fear of want and without desire of acquiring riches these particulars considered and compared with the numerous perplexities crosses temptations which a great estate is lyable to and daily distracted withal will make it very evident that poverty is not so contemptible as it is esteemed and that a small proportion of fortitude may well enable us to undergo what through mistake and inconsideration seems to be so great an evil 4. For the bearing of sickness and pain consider that patience enables thee to bear them best it keeps thy body in better temper it moderates those Spirits in thy blood which impatience would heighten to a great degree of sharpness and consequently would render both the one and the other more intense and intolerable therefore if ease be thy end bear thy pain and sickness with composed meekness as the best way to attain that end Epicurus his argument is that if pains be of long continuance they are tolerable if very accute they are but short and often intermitting 5. For loss of Friends This touches I confess nearly and requires my Son all thy vertuous strength to enable thee to bear so cutting an evil supposing them to be true Friends fitly qualified thou needest not however despair time may make up that want with the supply of others as true firm and well tempered However thou hast thy self to enjoy not in the sensuality of pleasure but in the sweet meditations of thy mind thou hast the remembrance of thy lost Friends which should be pleasing to thee in recollection of all the sweet discourses and converses you have had together in the good Counsels he has given in the assistance and supports it may be you have mutually afforded and in all other acts of real and generous friendship above all you have the wisdom and goodness of God Mans chiefest Friend to contemplate upon and to supply the vacancy of these hours the Society of thy lost Friends use to take up which is a supplement abundantly sufficient 6. As to the minds discontent there are many arguments to strengthen the mind against it but the principal are two The First 〈◊〉 deduced from the thing it self The other from Christian hope which is a compensation against any evil the mind is lyable to As to the First it is to be considered that there is no real evil to the mind but what it makes so to it self For could the mind be fortified before hand with the Principles of sound Reason whatsoever can happen to us from without though at the first surprize it might a little startle and discompose us yet should we so prepared soon recover our just temper and repel all assaults any adverse occasion may raise against us It is misunderstanding and the weakness of false opinion which gives a sting and asperity to those things we call evil which indeed only are so because we suffer them to be so and so Epicurus fully renders it in his excellent Axiome when he sayes That discontent of mind is not grounded upon Nature but upon meer opinion of Evil. And that it is reason alone which makes life happy and pleasant by expelling all such false conceptions and opinions as may any way occasion perturbation of mind But Secondly There is a stronger argument to be raised from our Christian expectation the hopes of an infinite and permanent good may easily perswade us to content when we lose a small and transient one If a man be worth 10000 l. and loses 5 l. Why should this trouble him Such and a far greater disproportion does 10000 l. bear to the joyes of Heaven or else our belief of Gods sacred word has no strength or validity in it If then we have assurance of this Beatitude let us not be perplexed at small losses for such they are in themselves though made great by the error and weakness of our misconception 〈◊〉 of such things too we cannot truly call our own because liable to a thousand accidents that may bereave us of them It is indeed our pride makes them a real loss for had we the prudence to reduce our minds to a compliance with our condition a lesson which though the Apostle had fully learned the most of us are but novices in the abatement of our port and fall from popular estimation would seize little upon us against which I say there cannot be any more cogent argument than that assurance the Scripture was given to beget in us The great impediment to this fortitude is when either pain which is a real evil or the other grounded upon false conceit are occasioned and brought upon us not only through our own error or negligence but our vices In this case also the remedy is obvious namely to abandon those faults whose effects they are for it will be found one of the hardest matters in the World to exercise reason and express the fruits of true wisdom whilst we wallow in vice and pursue those enormities which debase and enervate the Soul darkning its brightest beams subjecting us to captivation in all the assaults which either from within or without can be made against us Loss of liberty seems at the first view to be a great and insupportable evil against nature and the priviledg of all other Creatures upon some of whom however we have put restraint it takes from us the opportunity of following business the choice of abode for livelihood and health is usually grievous to the mind debauches often the manners and moral Habits and is destructive to health Some of these inconveniences by prudence may be prevented as what are within our power and others much mitigated by such considerations as arm us with patience If Imprisonment be for faults against the Law committed the best remedy is acknowledgment of the justice by which we are committed and repentance for the faults a sight and loathing whereof being gained by the restraint in which being at freedom we might have persisted makes Imprisonment like David's affliction when he said It is good for me that I was afflicted otherwise I had gone astray If it be causless and unjust we have the Balm of Innocence to comfort our minds and the consideration that our Great Master so suffered before with most of his good Disciples that in a bad World the Portion of the Righteous is affliction easy and tolerable how severe soever in it self because of the evidences we have of a joyful estate in perpetuity after a momentany season The same supports are to us if it prove for debt which being an effect of those causes which are without our power and and controul we have reason patiently to submit to them upon the same considerations Some other alleviations there are after we have