MEDITATIONS OF THE MIRTH OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE And The VAINE MIRTH of a WICKED LIFE with the SORROVVES of it By ZACH BOGAN of C.C.C. OXON Psalm 32.11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all yee that are upright in heart OXFORD Printed by H. HALL for R. DAVIS 1653. To my honoured Mother Mris IOANE BOGAN I Have at length upon your earnest desire adventured to publish those unworthy lines long since scribled concerning the Joy of a Christian life If any aske you wondering how I that have spent whole yeares altogether in Sadnesse came to talke of Mirth you may answer them that I speake not of what I have my selfe the Lord knowes I have little cause to have any considering my many sinnes but what I think other Christians better then I am may have Before you or any one els do read me I desired much to be cleared in two things 1. That I have not the least meaning to favour any carnall merriment The mirth which I speak of is the mirth only of a Christian life 2. That I never thought my selfe better able to doe this work then other men My heart knowes I am too little a Christian to doe it as it might be done Onely I supposed that there had not been much done this way allready If my doing it ill may anger any one to doe it better I shall be exceeding well pleased I had been larger in the last part of the book had I not been hindred by a troublesome and dangerous sicknesse which began upon me when I began to print and continued in it's extremity almost till I ended Whatsoever is not much enough or well enough I hope the Lord will make amends for it in the blessing to whose protection I commit you and rest C.C.C. June 3. 1653. Your Obedient Sonne ZACHARY BOGAN The First Book Phil. 4 4. Rejoyce in the Lord alway and againe I say Rejoyce Psal 32.11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart IT were as easy for me to doe as any thing that I know to shew my reader what a deale of mischiefe is done by Mistakes and Prejudices how many godly actions and profitable designes are hindred by them But because I thinke it needles to goe so largly I will take a narrower compas and confine my selfe to the naming only of some of those mistakes and prejudices which attend a godly life the chiefe whereof my endevour shall be in my ensuing discourse to remove They are such as these That there is a necessity of Monkery and beggery because it is said It is easier for a Camel to goe thorow the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the kingdome of heaven Math 19.24 That there is a necessity of exposing ones selfe to all manner of injuries because it is said that If a man smite me upon one cheek I must give him the other Math 39. That there is a necessity of starving with hunger cold and perishing for want because I must take no thought what I shall eate or what I shall drink or wherewithall I shall be cloathed Math 6.31 That there is a necessity of denying my selfe necessary rest and recreation because I must be continually watching and praying Mark 13.33 1 Pet 4.7 c That there is a necessity of being mine own enemy because I must deny my selfe Math 16.24 That there is a necessity of casting off naturall affection because I must hate father and mother If I will be Christ's disciple Luke 14.26 That there is necessity of allowing Rebellion and disobedience to magistrates and parents because I must obey God rather then men Acts 5.29 That there is a necessity of being strange and peevish and phrantique and many other such things as unsuitable and inconsistent reproachfull as they are thought to be requisite and gracefull to the profession of Christianity because the hypocriticall sort of professors use to be so and the honester are and have been many times counted so as that prophet was by Jehu 2 Kings 9.11 and the rest of the prophets Jer 29.26 I could name you up a great many more mistaks of the like nature which like so many bugbeares or lyons in the way either do Indeed affright the Ignorant who know not what it is to be godly or are used for pretences of feare by the slothfull and malicious who are unwilling to travell in the wildernes where people doe not use to travell although they might have manna from heaven for meat and water out of the rock for drink which are helpes sufficient to make the journey easy and although it lead to the land of Canaan where there is milk and honey enough to make sufficient recompence were the journey never so painfull And indeed I know not any thing that suffers so much from mistake prejudice as a Godly life and it were easy to make more complaints of this nature But I will name only one more that which I think does as much mischeife as any that which I shall endevour in this discourse to remove viz A necessity of being sad and unsociable and cynically malancholick because it is said Woe unto you that laugh Luk 6.25 And Blessed are they that mourne Math 5.4 Now of this necessity Godlines hath ever had the luck not only to be falsly accused but unjustly condemned by too too many So that pity it is to see it thinking they shall meet with nothing but stormes and tempests to disquiet their heads with nothing but rocks of offence to break their hearts upon nothing but gulfes of despaire to swallow up their soules in they resolve a thousand times rather to lye at anchor in the haven and sleep in a whole skin and never put forth at all then upon such termes And no wonder For doubtlesse the thought of Sadnesse which is a thing most avoided of all must needs have a very great power to affright and deterre as the thought of Joy which is the thing most desired of all being the fruit end of all desires hath the greatest power to entice and perswade Sorrow and sadnesse being against our natures even as their causes are we cannot chuse but feare and shunne them or whatsoever we think either may be a cause of them or uses to be attended with them No wonder I say that men are so loath to venture upon a godly life when their Judgments are forestald with feares of a sad life I can never be willing to doe that which will make me sad no more then that which will make me sad can agree with my will which if it did not disagree with I should never be sad I can not possibly will now to have that thing which I know when I have it will make me will that I had it not If there can be no Joy in the having there may not be a will or
if he have but a little stomach and he that hath a little cloth if he have but a little body doubtlesse are as well provided for as he that hath much meat and a great stomach to fill and he that hath much cloth and a great body to cloath If a godly man's estate should be counted little because another hath more or because it is so in comparison of a greater then I know not who hath much For there is none that hath so much but either he himselfe may have more then he hath or another have more then he Againe a man is not to be counted rich for abundance of that which is hurtfull to him but only of that which is profitable Now the blessings of God such as all God's gifts are if they are not abused are blessings indeed only to the Godly to whom curses themselves are blessings But the wicked as their curses are curses indeed so their very blessings prove curses and so many coales of fire upon their heads Punishments which are made profitable to the godly and outward blessings which are made harmlesse to him come both to the wicked man with a curse in their mouths so that they have no cause to rejoyce and a sting in their tailes so that they are never the better There is a sore evill which I have seen under the Sunne namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt Eccl 5.13 It goes with men in regard of temporall enjoyments altogether as God goes with them If a man have not God for his portion he had as good have no portion at all For he will have his portion or something else for his God and then his condition is bad be it never so good But if God be given into the bargaine be it little be it much it will fare with us as it did with the Israelites when they gathered Manna He that gathered much had nothing over he that gathered little had no lack Againe he that hath a little estate and is not in debt or hath his debts paid will live merrier every day of the weeke and we usuall count him more rich then another that is richer then he Dayly experience shewes in how deep melancholy men usually are that are deep in debt How doe they wish above any thing in the world that they themselves were out how doe they blesse above any condition in the world the condition of others that are not in their condition So many sinns committed so many debts And as the godly man is merry because his creditour is satisfied and is so farre from being sad for having been in debt that he rejoyceth so much the more that he was indeed the servant of sin so the wicked man being still dead in trespasses and sinnes as long as sinne and the law lyes at his doore and his debts are laid to his charge is as farre from joy as he is from a truly quiet conscience and can never be truly merry A godly man will owe nothing to any man but what debet debere he ought to owe what he ought to be still paying and never have paid all to love him I here is none in earth therefore that can justly molest him Neither hath heaven any thing at all against him For he that paid his ransome for him to redeeme him from hell hath also paid his debts for him to free him from heaven having blotted out all his sinnes against God and blotted out all God's hand-writings and bills against him The thought hereof must needs make him exceeding merry in regard that his condition before was so exceeding sad it being as great a cause of joy to have been miserable as it is of sorrow to have been happy Now if this be the godly man's condition though the wicked man should dip his feet in oyle and wash his steps in butter though he have heaped up silver as the dust and gold as the mire of the streets or though he had never so much yet I would say of the other even with his little estate if it happen so to be as Gideon said to the Ephraimites Judg 8.2 Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better then the vintage of Abiezer But then if this be a godly man's visible estate what is his invisible estate think you for indeed as Paul saith 2 Cor 4.18 We looke not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporall but the things which are not seen are eternall Certainly you cannot immagine but his invisible estate must needs be great in regard that though his visible estate be little or though he have little here that any man can see yet you may see him beare up his sailes as stifly and live as cheerefully as the best If we see a man live plentifully and merrily know of no estate he hath to maintaine it we conclude either that he hath some private friend to beare his charges or that he hath some private estate or else certainly is assured to have an estate ere long therefore is resolved to live accordingly Now the godly man besides the estate which he hath in possession temporall meanes which every man sees spirituall meanes the meanes of grace which few doe none can sufficiently prize and besides the helpe of a most bountifull father to supply him the comfort whereof none can sufficiently admire hath another greater estate in reversion which is no lesse then a kingdome Behold an invisible estate not to be valued or surveyed An estate of invisible glory such as eye hath not seen an estate of unheard of value such as eare hath not heard an estate of unconceivable greatnesse for hight and length and bredth and depth such as it hath not entred into the heart of man to concieve Behold an estate not subject to taskes nor taxes not troubles nor misfortunes not the power of the moth or the theife An estate that lies in a better countrey then Canaan in a better city then Jerusalem whose builder and maker is God and none but he Where for his earthly house of this tabernacle he shall have a building of God a house not made with hands but eternall in the Heavens 2 Cor 5.1 As long as he hath such an estate in expectation let him have never so little in possession I will say to him as it was said to the Angel of Smyrna Rev 2.9 I know thy workes and tribulation and poverty but thou art rich Neither is the time so long till this great estate comes into his hands that the goodnesse of the thing should be any whit abated by the length of the delay which usually they have more then others as I shall hereafter shew and many times more then they would have themselves For who will not serve twice seven yeares or suppose a few more yeares in hopes if he have an assurance to obtaine at last
and the end of the journey and what I shall have when I come thither cannot I take a little paines for a little time for a great reward to follow my Saviour when he calls me But perhaps after all this thou wilt yet againe object I question the goodnesse of the ware if it be so cheap as you make it This newes is too good to be true You told us before difficilia quae pulchra Godlinesse cannot be so good as others say it is and so easy too as you make it The best things every one knowes are hardest to be got farre fetch 't and dearely bought To this I answer that what I said first and what you said last is both true and in that sense which you speak of I will yeeld that godlinesse is difficult viz because of difficulty in attaining to it which difficulty according to you cannot be in the thing neither this not any other excellent thing because it is only before we have attained to it Now I confesse we cannot so easily be willing to undergoe difficulty to attaine that which we must enjoy and use with difficulty too for we could never love it so well But that godlines is thus difficult that it is painfull and toylesome and uncomfortable in it's exercises so as a man cannot live one merry day as long as he hath it but that teares must be his meat day and night and his eyes must still be consumed with griefe and the apple thereof never be suffered to cease I doe utterly deny Nay the more difficulty there is in getting up the hill I meane of Conviction of sinne humiliation and repentance the greater pleasure doe we take to look down againe when we are up You may observe it in the hardest mechanick trades that are hardest to be learned which usually are the best the workmanship is easy to be done and without labour or toyle when as in those that are easily learned and are of an inferiour rank you can scarce doe any thing to the purpose without a great deale of sweat and toyle tyring I will conclude this poynt with what Solomon said of wisedome Prov 3.17 Her wayes are waies of pleasantnesse and all her pathes are peace Another cause that a godly man hath to be merry may be this that tweflth ground satisfactorines of the objects of Love The objects of his love are satisfactory which is the most necessary qualification of any to make a man rejoyce in what he loves what a man loves the mirth of his life is most concerned in and he spends most of his time about it Where there is no satisfaction but the stomack as I may say is still hungry and empty just as it is in the hunger of the body there must needs be discontent and consequently sadnesse in the desire of that which is wanting and griefe for the want But when that which a man loves is satisfactory and answers a man's desires and gives him enough then and not till then he takes delight and then he begins to rejoyce as we say When the belly is full the bones are at rest Now for the objects of a godly man's love the first and the last and the chiefest the fountaine from which all other objects have their satisfactory vertue and the loadstone at which they are all touched whereby they have power to draw our hearts after them is no other and can be no lesse then God himselfe who is to every godly man as he was to David to whom he seemed so perfectly a satisfactory object of his desire that he desired nothing in heaven or earth besides him Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee And wise enough he to make choyce of such an object For now neither ought he nor need he desire any thing or if he doe he is in the fairest way to enjoy it having him who is all in all He satisfieth the longing soule and filleth the hungry soule with goodnesse Psal 107.9 He that is He alone for else it is no prayse of him They that seek after another God another thing to give them satisfaction and happinesse shall be sure to multiply sorrow Psal 16.4 The other objects of their love are The word and ordinances of God and the practise of good dutyes which as they give satisfaction by communion with and participation of the chiefest good so are they in their own nature good preservatives against sorrow and sadnesse being contrary to and used as meanes against Sinne the cause of all repentance and sorrow I would faine know among all the things that ever a wicked man loved to have and among all the actions that ever he loved to doe which it was that gave him satisfaction Many other causes of joy for a godly man might be fetched from the goodnesse of his Condition But I must leave a little roome for your own meditations and I doubt not but many of you that read me have more knowledge and better experience If notwithstanding all this that hath been said and though the Lord hath shewne thee these good things yet thy heart be heavy and thou art still dejected whatever thou doest confesse thy fault to be thine own Say not godlinesse is this or that But rather say with David when he was ready to think that God had forgotten him after he had thus complained Is his mercy clean gone for ever doth his promise faile for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gratious Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Psal 77.8.9 Surely this is mine own infirmity and nothing else vers 10. And come to thy selfe againe as he does in the following verses saying thus I will remember the workes of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old I will meditate also of all thy work and talke of thy doings vers 11.12 I am resolved I will no longer entertaine these melancholy phancies but I will comfort my heart with meditating upon the goodnesse of my God and the wonderfull things that he hath done for me whereby my Condition is so good The second Book Of the Mirth of a Christian Life FRom the godly man's Condition in which he is let us proceed to the Conditions affections and qualities which are in him and the actions which proceed from him see what causes he hath to have mirth of his own making by the grace of God The first thing he hath to make him a cheerfull countenance give me leave to to goe so largely now I shall speak more particularly hereafter is his Godlinesse Godlinesse I say both of his heart and Life both past and present in the performance of good actions Of these I might speak more distinctly but I shall take my liberty and speak sometimes of one and sometimes of another For godlinesse in heart when a man is able to assure his heart before God and his heart does not condemne him when
a desire for the having will and desire looking forwards and Joy and content looking backward each of them upon the same object Can I but make a man believe he shall be merry when he hath done a thing I shall not be long in making him willing to doe it To be joyfull 't is life and more for it is the very life of life If a life be never so long high in honours and preferments * Called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex 6 9 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be straitned is usd for to be grieved Jud 10 190 16 16. Job 21.4 if it be not large too i e if there be any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straitnesse either of body or spirit but especially of spirit no free breathing and no enlargment of heart to enjoy what a man enjoyes 't is but to be in a prison in green fields that are a man 's own where it is so much the worse because he is so much the more vex'd to see so much the more of that which he hath and cannot enjoy If therefore I will leave the men that use these pretences altogether without excuse I must make it appeare that their pretences are false and that there is no such thing as they feare or believe or would willingly have to be true Now that it is false and that it is no way necessary for a christian to be more sad then other men if there were no other argumēt it were sufficiently proved by this that it is in the Scripture above writen enjoyned as a duty or at least exhorted unto as a possibility to rejoyce Now if God command a thing to be done it may be done and it is not necessary to doe the contrary But yet because you are apt to think his cōmands greivous and to look upon him as an austere man that taketh up where he laid not down c to make it appeare to the contray that there is good reason for it we will consider a little how the case stands with a godly man what he is or what he hath that it should be expected he should be alwaies rejoycing or what cause he hath why he should be merrier then other men My method therefore shall be this First I shall shew you the grounds and causes of his mirth Secondly I shall answer the maine objection concerning Affliction After that I shall shew you the Nature of his mirth when I shall tell you that he hath not only better causes of mirth then a wicked man whom you think to be the only man that lives a merry life but better mirth when he hath it And lastly I shall speak somwhat to shew what cause there is of sorrowe and what sorrowes there are in a wicked life and how imperfect and vaine the joy is that wicked men have Now the causes that a godly man hath to be joyfull and the helps meanes he hath to make him merry are either from the goodnesse of the Condition in which he is or the goodnesse of the Conditions and habits and graces which are in him For the state and Condition in which he is First * First ground Good Company it is such as let him be where he will be he can never be without good company and that every one will say is a very good helpe for a merry life Now the company which I meane is First God the father who * By adoption out of love See View of Threats the last words et p 914. is his father therefore willing God all sufficient therefore able to comfort him He is the God of Consolation from whom all comfort comes In his company and presence even upon earth while we are at his left hand or while we sit on his footstoole is joy as long as the time lasts but at his right hand are ravishing delights and pleasures and that for evermore Psal 16.11 What an extraordinary comfort must it needs be to have the enjoyment of such good company of which a man can never be depriv'd nor be weary nor so much as feare that he shall be Such company God is But you will say perhaps this is but a phancy of yours that a man can have joy in the company of God For if he goe down to Hell he will find him there also Psal 139.8 And upon what ground can I take delight in his countenance who seeth all things I answer It is true indeed It is possible God may be with thee yet notwithstanding all the while he may not be with thee but against thee He might be present with thee not as a companion or a friend to watch over thee that no other thing may doe thee hurt but as an observer an enemy to watch for spy thy faults to doe thee hurt himselfe But if he be present with thee indeèd so as thou art also present with him which can hardly be said of a wicked man and if thou art not only under the sight of his Countenance so as to be seen by him but also in the light of his Countenance too so as to see him againe and enjoy communion and fellowship with him through his spirit certainely if any condition in the world will make thee merry this will Job when he speakes of the comfortable condition of a man that God hath delivered from going down into the pit from his bed of sicknesse after the mention of other blesings given him to recompence his misery addes it as a complement of his happinesse that He shall see the face of God with joy ch 33.26 Happy sicknesse that is attended with such a consequent David speaks more then once more then twice of God's countenance as of that wherein he took more comfort then in all the world besides There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy COUNTENANCE upon us Ps 4 6. For thou hast made him most blessed for ever thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy COUNTENANCE Ps 21.5 See how he magnifies it Ps 42.5 Ps 44.3 Ps 89.15 For though it be metaphorically used for favour yet is the speech not all metaphor that well experienced Christians will tell you when a man would think his sighes would have been many his heart would have fainted for sorrow by reason of trouble what course takes he to make himselfe merry He sets the Lord alwaies before his face Saith he I have set the Lord alwaies before me Because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope Psal 16.8.9 The words are cited by Peter Act 2 25 other words joyned with them vers 27 28 where also in the end of the 28 verse it is said Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy COUNTENANCE Job speakes of seeing God's sace and David speakes of setting the
furnished with good qualities and all things necessary within doubtlesse he is provided to entertain any guest that shall come from without and to welcome and comply with any accident Which if it be so that he cannot be sad will follow because being so prepared he knowes how and he hath ability wherewithall to doe it He will use every condition so as it shall in no way force him to sadnesse If it be bad he will not be so much troubled as to be sad now and if it be good he will not be so much gladded as to occasion himselfe to be sad for it hereafter as other men are wont to doe through want of moderation Having so many props and helps as he hath the grounds and causes of joy which I have mentioned and being so well taught as he is by the spirit from within and by experience from without and endued with so much strength and courage from above like a thing that is square which way soever he falls he will stand upright and throw him how you will he will be sure to pitch upon his legs and courageously say with Paul Philip 4.12 〈◊〉 know how to be abased and I know how to abound◠every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need It were easy to shew what quiet the Continent man hath in comparison of the Incontinent man whose restlesse burnings with desire and his difficulties and feares and diseases in or after the accomplishing of it there is none but will easily believe So likwise to shew how quietly and void of vexatious thoughts the Mercifull man lives in comparison of the Cruell man Neither were it difficult to enlarge upon severall other commendations of a godly man in regard of his vertues and the usefulnes of them ro the producing of joy but this much may suffice or the present There are also severall other wayes for a godly man to make himselfe merry I could shew him some out of Basil in his sermon of Thanks-giving wherein he explaines those words of the Apostle Rejoyce alwayes c For putting the question whether the Apostle did not exhort Christians to an impossibility in regard that at all times either they are in afflictions which it is impossible they should be glad of or have committed sinnes which they are bound to be forty for he answers himselfe and says First that misery and sinne * Licet uti peccatis Estius in L. 1. Dist S. 2. which breed so much sorrow to others to a man that is in Christ prove an augmentation of joy Secondly that such a man in the greatest affliction hath those things to meditate upon which will afford him abundant occasion to rejoyce as among other things his creation out of nothing his being made after the image of God his having reason and understanding his power to discerne between good and evill his restauration after his fall and his hoped for resurrection after his death In the next place because the carnall man whom Idesire to lure over to christianity understands not these things is better acquaintend with worse I think it may doe well now I have spoken so much of the chiefe causes of joy which a godly man hath to say somewhat of the chiefe causes of sorrow which he hath not especially considering that men of fearfull and prejudiced minds though you tell them of never so much good which they never thought of you had as good say nothing unlesse you tell them likewise how they may avoyd never so little evill which they are affraid of although that evill be so cleane contrary to the good that it cannot consist with it You shall never make them merry by telling them of living in plenty or an assurance of having this or that unlesse you can perswade them that they cannot come to poverty by such or such a mischance or that nothing can hinder them of it or take it from them There are within a man 's own selfe two grand enemies to his own mirth Care and Feare He that hath the first is sad because he thinks he cannot obtaine and he that hath the last because he thinks he cannot avoyd what he would For the first The godly man may not and being a godly man will not because he may not suffer it to be within him He may not by any meanes take care upon him and if he happen to have it thrown upon him he hath a warrant to cast it off againe upon God who careth for him See an expresse command for it Phil 4 6 Be carefull for nothing c Be not sollicitous as if thou thoughtest thy caring were sufficient without God's providence or as if God's providence were not sufficient without thy overmuch caring He that is so must needs be sad for the present with the trouble of care for good and will be afterwards with the trouble of sorrow for ill succes But the godly man is never so nor so As for Feare it is too cowardly an adversary to conquer the heart of a Souldier of Christ The righteous is as bold as a Lyon His heart is too well fixed to shake for Feare Prov 28. Psal 112.7.8 It is tyed fast to God by hope and faith and it is held fast by God by his everlasting love A godly man is a choyce vessel without crannie or breach or leak not to be sunk with the waves and troubles of conscience for they shall never be so strong as to break him nor yet to be overwhelmed with the waves and troubles of afflictions for they shall never rise so high as to get above him And therefore is it that an upright man can walke to and fro so boldly and not be touched at heart though all his haire be burnt in the greatest combustions Isa 33.14 15. If he have at any time a little touch of feare as he may have being a man neither doth reason require that a man or faith that a Christian should be senselesse yet it is so that he may be merry nevetheless and rejoyce with trembling as the Psalmist speaks Ps 2.11 But yet I pray tell me what should he feare It cannot be any kind of misery for he knowes well enough that all things work for his good and therefore misery too among the rest Neither can it be any kind of adversary and who will slye when none pursues him unlesse the terrour of God be upon him which is only upon the wicked for he is well eased of all his adversaries therfore feares them not First he feares not what the divell can doe because he cannot kill the soule but with it 's own sword I meane thoughts words actions which by the grace of God he shall never have power of Secondly he feares not what Men can doe because they can but kill the body and for that he could afford to come againe and give them thanks because of
mountaines be carried into the mid'st of the sea Psal 46.2 Let the stormes of adversity rise never so high and the winds of persecution blow never so furiously the house can never be shaken that is founded upon the rock of salvation Jesus Christ The ship cannot be cast away that hath the Cross of Christ for the maine mast to fasten her sailes the word of God a rule that will never deceive for the card to direct her D. Feat ley the most sure promises of God for the anchor to hold her the Spirit of God for the winde to carry her and Christ himselfe for the Pilot to steere the course Jactatur nunquam mergitur ista ratis Such a house may be blown upon but it cannot be shaken Such a Ship may be tossed but it cannot be lost A godly man is even as such an house or such a ship And he knowes it very well And therefore though he expects yet he feares not the worst Let his enemies be never so mortall he knowes they are mortall and he shall soon be eased of them Let them never leave thirsting for his blood till they draw it out his soule is able to live upon the blood which such as they are drew from him his Saviour and so long he cares not Let the men of this world plow upon his back and make the furrowes never so long so he may bear good corne Let the Prince of this world shake him and winnow him like wheat For now he will say with Ignatius when he heard the roaring of the Lyons that were appointed to devoure him Christi frumentum sum I am glad of it Now I see I am cleane corne for I am going to the mill Doe not think these expressions poeticall Neither imagine either our Martyrs to have lyed when they spake of their joys in the flames or all those stories of their joyfull expressions to be lyes Let men talke what they will of the magnanimity fortitude of the old Romanes and the heathen Phylosophers as if it were not to be pararell'd I am confident that many a true Christian hath a great deale more and better then any of them had Pet Martyr in his common places class 3. c 12. puts the question An sancti homines inferiores fuerint Ethnicis in ferendis rebus rebus adversis whether the Saints were inferiour to the heathen in patience And having brought some of the best examples among'st them as of Horatius Pulvillus who having news brought him of his Son's death as he was consecrating the Temple went on his work and was not a jot moved at it And of Anaxogoras who having the same newes brought him only made answer sciebam me mortalem genuisse That he had not begotten an immortall Sonne And some others yet determines First that the Christians were no whit inferiour to them And that if Christians did at any time grieve at the newes or upon the thought of death or the like it was because they were better men then those heathen were and eiter might or would glorify God more and doe more good if they lived or for such like causes Then he applyes to this purpose the story of Aristippus Who being asked by a Mariner why he was fearfull being a Philosopher whereas he who never knew any Philosophy at all was not replyed Non debuisti sollicitus esse tu pro animâ nebulonis ego videbam Aristippum Philosophum periclitari For your part you should not be sollicitous for the life of such a poore knave as you are but I saw that Aristippus the Philosopher was in danger to be lost 2. Those Romanes and Philosophers feared not death or grieved not for it quod post hanc vitā nulla reliqua essent because they thought after a man was dead there was an end with him whereas the Christian grieved not or was not afraid of death because there was not an end with him but there was a life to live in which men should be rewarded or punished for what they had done in this which is farre more to be commended and a signe of greater courage 3. The fortitude and courage of the heathen was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of stupour a want not a moderation of passions griefe which Austin saith is omnibus vitiis pejor worse then all vices They had no patience but in want of sence which could be none at all whereas these had none but when the sence was quickest which must needs be best of all And then fourthly he answers that their courage if it were never so much was not at all pleasing to God which is Saint Austin's opinion also contra Julianum lib 4. cap 4. because it proceeded not from Faith as the courage of a Christian does for otherwise it is no more pleasing to God then theirs was I know yet you will say that 't is impossible that flesh and blood meeting with so many sad accidents as Christians usually doe should forbeare to look sad and be so too But for my part I know no such necessity Indeed I confesse a godly man and so he may at any other time as well as then may have sadness upon the top of his countenance But alas so many sad as we use the word and serious and sober dry thoughts as he hath are enough to produce that without any sorrow This is such a sadness as I canot pitty or dispraise but rather commend it as the Preacher does It is better to goe to the house of mourning then to goe the house of feasting for that is the end of all men the living wil lay it to his heart Sorrow is better then laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fooles is in the house of mirth Eccles 7.2 3 4. But as for sorrow and griefe and vexation of heart a godly man hath not such vipers nourished within him He hath sorrow for sinne indeed but then he hath joy never the less and his joy is never the less for his sorrow I will undertake it there is more true mirth in a godly man's heart one houre even in the mid ' st of his sighings then any wicked man hath with all his tighings sneerings all the day For such a sorrow is so fare from destroying joy that it is the cause of joy and the cause of the best joy and the best cause of the best joy Reader 't is strange to consider how a godly man excell's a wicked man in matter of joy A godly man can joy that he hath joyed and joy that he hath sorrowed and joy for any thing And so with all my heart let him sorrow as Austin said doleat homo Christianus de dolore gaudeat Let a Christian man grieve and rejoyce in his griefe On the contrary the wicked man's joy
up that he may give to him that is good before God Eccles 2.6 The Fourth Book The Mirth Of a Christian Life HItherto it has been my endeavour to set forth the joyes that are or may be had in a godly life And now lest the wicked should say Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera Aequum licet statuerit haud aequus fuerit Who judgeth ere both parties he hath heard Although he judge aright he has but err'd I must crave your reading to judge and your patience to reade what I shall say concerning a wicked life Seeing David bids us not be envious against the workers of iniquity Psal 37.1 I will see a little what it is they have worth the envying and whether they are so happy and live so merry as men commonly thinke they doe Certainly all is not gold that glisters I believe you will find your joy so much cry'd up if you put it to the touchstone of spirituall judgment or if you hold it to the light of Gods word and look neerer to it to be but a bastard joy a meere counterfeit and no true jewell I beseech you let me have a little time to search into the nature and propertyes and examine the causes of it If I can proove their joy to be lesse in quantity and worse in quality their sorrow to be more and worse and their condition to be absolutely worse and to have much more cause of sorrow then the godly mans condition and no cause at all of joy I hope I shall not loose my labour but obtaine my desire of perswading you not to trouble your selves as you doe at the sight of their but seeming but to rejoyce as you should in the enjoyment of your own truly happy condition First then whereas the joy of the godly or the godly joy is continuall i.e. uninterrupted and continuall i.e. lasting nay everlasting The joy which the wicked have or the wicked joy for so most of it is is but momentany either so that it is interrupted with one thing or other coming and going upon fits and flashes or so that if it should be without interruptions it would not be long ere it would be no more For indeed it is so weak and like an abortive child that it doth not onely not live out all this life which is but a moment compard with eternity but very seldome holds out longer then a moment of this * Gregory uppon Job c. 20. compares it thus Gaudium sayes he hypocritarum instar puncti in puncto enim stylus-ut ponitur levatur appparet ad momentum sed despuret in perpetuum moment A wicked man has as bad a tenure of any thing that he has as any Villaine ' can have in an estate uncertaine and unstable in to day and out to morrow Every thing sudden and vanishnig and gone in an instant And to this purpose Job hath excellently spoken cap. 8 14 to the 19. Whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a spiders web He shall leane upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure He is green before the sun and his branch shooteth forth in his garden His roots are wrapped about the heap and seeth the place of stones If he destroy him from his place then it shall deny him saying I have not seen thee Behold this is the joy of his way and out of the earth shall others grow And as all other his good things as he esteems them to be so his joy especially If it be sweet its sure to be short scarce enduring time enough to be taken Most of his Comforts make him but as happy as Tantalus bobbing him in the mouth and touching him no longer then only to make him long and away At the best and the longest his joy endures but for a night the only time for theeves and drunkards and such like though I know how sad and fearfull their night-mirth also is but his sorrow cometh in the morning no lesse sure and no more in his power to hinder then the rising of the Sun and takes the whole day before it And So most of his pleasures in which his joy is hold but the lasting of a tast and a touch viz. so long as his meat and his drink is passing thorow How few of his delights out-live one thought And how few of his thoughts upon his delights live till one thought upon another be past He is scarce ever able to have two merry thoughts together and never a sad one betweene Perhaps this moment he thinks himselfe in heaven for so meanly does he think of it and so badly is he acquainted with it as to compare any thing to it for enjoying such or such a boon But let him think againe and t is a thousand to one but he repents His joy runs no longer then it raines while the weather and times are good It has no constant fountain as the godly mans has Perhaps it may be strong violent at first so usually those motions are that are of short continuance It may make a great cry and so many other things doe when there is little or no wooll T is like the valour of the Insubrian Gaules of which L. Florus speakes Sicut primus impetus iis major quam virorum est ita sequens minor quam faeminarum The first onset was more then manlike but all the rest lesse then woman-like It may make a great flame but it will be but like the flame of straw or thornes or a squib of powder It will mount up high so that every one shall see it and make a great crackling so that all the towne shall heare it but it will be quickly out as most other things are quickly ended that are quickly begun and besides the little benefit it does by his heat or Light Leaves a stinch behind it And It must needs be so unlesse the man had either more fewell or such as would last longer For his prosperity and that he knowes himselfe which makes his joy sad and fearfull is exceeding fickle Perhaps long comming and usually soone going like the morning dew a little heat will make it fall and any thing will shake it to the ground He cannot have a longer estate in it then for his life at best For the most part he has but a few yeares many times a few daies sometimes a few howres and constantly at the will of an unconstant fortune If it does last all his life long yet it does not last long for his life is but short when it is longest and it is more like to be shorter then longer and then how short is it His prosperity he and such as he is doe but call it so and so it may passe here amongst men as a piece of leather may passe for a piece of money if men will have it so and a piece of brasse may passe for and please a
others or both either by word or deed Whereas a godly mans mirth is allways innocent and harmeles as well in it's owne issue as the intention of the person And no wonder his joy is so bad which he has when he has no cause of having any joy at all And therefore the best I can say of the best of his mirth being without cause or reason is that it is brutish Like the horse in the battell not so much for want of feare as for want of wit or knowledge of the danger or as we say without feare or wit he runs boldly and merrily on in the most slippery and dangerous places For all the ways of the wicked are slippery and therefore dangerous Nay and dark besides as the Psalmist says Psa 35.6 Let their way be dark and slippery and let the Angell of the Lord persecute them and so the more dangerous viz because they cannot be seen that they are so As usually those things cannot that have most hurt in them The wicked man is merry as the bird is that sings in a cage or the man that sleeps upon the top of a mast For all that time that he is so merry as he seems he is captivated and taken alive by the devill and knows not of it He knows not that there is no condition worse then his Nay he knows not that there is a better and that he might be set at liberty Therefore if he sorrow not t is not out of courage but stupidity His jollity while he is going in the ways of sin which lead to the Chambers of death is like that of the oxe when he is going to the slaughter or the bird when he hasteth to the snare as the expression is Prov 7.22 23. His laughter has but the name likenesse of laughter For it is both irrationall and without cause being like the laughter of a mad man that is melancholy Ela as they call it or a sick man that is desperately sick not out of joy but disease such as will make a godly man weep to see it because he will judg him to be farre gone and past cure that he has gone so farre that he knows not how farre he has gone having lost his way and himselfe too Certainly a man in prison and slavery as every wicked man is cannot be so galliard as one that is at liberty unlesse he be so sencelesse as one that is dead or at least dead-drunk No more can a wicked man unlesse he be over wicked drunk with pleasures and quite dead in trespasses and sins past feeling and not having his senses exercised But in the next place as a wicked mans joy is little and false and he hath no cause to be joyfull so his sorrow is much and true and he hath infinite cause to be sorrowfull That his sorrow is much i.e. frequent first there are Scriptures enough every where to witnesse it See one place especially Psalm * Their sorrows shall be multi pliod that hasten after another God their drink offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their names into my lips 16.4 2. There is Experience enough to attest it For most of his actions are ill done i. e. in passion and most of his daies are ill spent i.e. in sinne Either way he must needs be vex'd And his anger and vexation is so much the more because it is with none but himselfe That his sorrow is much i.e. great and truly so appeares 1. Because it it all sorrow Even a perfect heape of ashes and never a sparke of joy to make him beare up For whence should be have it It cannot be from without For if he have never so little losse or crosse from thence to make him sad he is presently like a mad man it is not all the reasons nor all the comfortable speeches nor all the freinds in the world can perswade him to patience much lesse to mirth And from within he cannot have it unlesse the Spirit were his Comforter Which he is not but only to the godly 2. His sorrow is great and truly such not only because it hath no joy in it or with it but because it hath none to attend it It does not beget joy as a godly man's sorrow doth nor is recompenced with it as his is It neither produceth joy as the fruit nor is paid with joy as the amends Nay he doth or may sorrow for his sorrow as I have formerly told you he does or may for his joy And if the fruit of his joy be sorrow can you expect that the fruit of his sorrow should be joy If his best tree bring forth bad fruit what can he gather from the worst He may sorrow for his joyes because they were not such as they should be because they did himselfe hurt or because they were vaine and could not doe him good and he may sorrow for his sorrowes because they were such as they should not be ie sinnes offensive to God and destructive to himselfe 3. His sorrow appeares to be great and truly such Because it is remedilesse as most of his evills use to bee Either he hath no remedy at all or else which is worse then if he had none because it deludes and vexes a man with vaine hopes the remedies are too weake to prevaile And hence follow those imperecations and wishes usuall with wicked men Would I were dead or would some one would knock me in the head and the like His remedies are so weak that instead of lifting up his head with comfort they bow him lower and plung him deeper under water so that he is as a man that catcheth at a reed when he is almost drownded and holds by that which is not strong enough to hold him As in other things so especially in this the difference between a Godly man's joy and a wicked man's appeares to be very great viz that a Godly man his disease is sinne and sorrow is his remedy And therefore his sorrow cannot be remediles because it cannot want that which it cannot be without Now there is no need of a remedy for the remedy till the evill be remedied then a godly man will remove it himselfe by applying the sovereigne balme of the merits of Christ He must let the drawing plaister first have it's worke before he apply another to heale it When the purging Physick hath sufficiently wrought to remove the humours then and not till then is a man ready for a cordiall to restore the Spirits Now his disease which he is to cure with sorrow is so mortall that there needs no other thing to produce joy then curing the disease Which being done by sorrow his sorrow proves a cause of joy and so he may be glad to be sorry To a wicked man sorrow is a disease and sinne as drunkennesse self murder and the like the Physick that is usually taken to cure it One disease to cure another which must needs
make his condition desperate And yet so it is The best help he hath is to lessen the paine for a while and encrease the disease for ever For he that seekes to cure sorrow by committing sinne shall then cease to have sorrow when sin shall cease to be sin which it can as well doe as not be the cause of sorrow Never blame nor pitty a godly man for being sorry if he be sorry as I would have him For his sorrow is both his duty and his desire He should be sorry and so he ought not and he would be sorry and so he desires not to remove it A wicked man when he is sorry would not be sorry and so seekes for a remedy And he should not be sorry it being not for sinne for which a man ought only to be sorry indeed and so his sorrow is sin and his sinne is punished with want of a remedy But now lest you should wonder at me for saying the wicked have so many sorrowes Causes of Sorrow because most men think the contrary that they are not in trouble like other men t is but naming some few causes * Psal 73.5 from whence those sorrowes proceed and I doubt not to perswade you The causes of a wicked man's sorrow are for the most part 1 which aggravates the matter and makes the sorrow the greater within and from at home the causes from without I have lesse mind to speak to being punishments either such as he thinks not of or is not to suffer till hereafter and which I cannot so plainly convince him of The causes that I meane are unruly passions and unruled actions vices and sinnes for such things he hath most of and he can shew you but little else To begin with unruly passions It were endlesse to tell you how much either noyse and trouble or fretting vexation is continually in that house where they are How the master of the house if I may so call him who was never master of this masterles crue is pull'd hall'd and it cannot but vex a man to be so pulled halled by his servants somtimes by this passion sometimes by that How he is drawn severall waies by the same passion at severall times by severall passions at the same time Believe it t is a worse misery for a man to be servant to many passions then for a servant to be slave to many masters For it being impossible to please them Seeing he is led by them it will be impossible to please himselfe and so consequently impossible to be merry Nay on the contrary by unpleasing objects not well used and by pleasing objects ill us'd to excesse he will never be without anger and repentance And so will be continually assaulted with sorrowes which he will not be able to repulse any more then a citty that is broken downe and without walls is able to keepe out an enemy So speakes Solomon of one that is not able to rule his passions Prov 25.28 He that hath no rule over his own Spirit is like a city that is broken downe and without walls They may well be called passions for he shall be sure to suffer that hath them They are like so many tormentors or executioners And he that is given to his passions is given over to so many tormentors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle Rom 1.26 God gave them over to vile affections or-passions an exceeding great punishment and an argument that God was very angry with them There can be as well peace and mirth in a countrey that is full of commotions or in a Kingdome where the Subjects are up in Rebellion as in a heart that is disturb'd with passions And therefore Aristotle in the definition of most of the passions puts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying they were sorrowes and troubles or tumults As if it were all as unlikely for a passion to be without sorrow and trouble as for sorrow to be without a passion To instance in two or three of the passions as Anger Envy and Revenge-fullnesse One will not thinke what a deale of sadnesse and vexation any one of these will beget A viperous brood they are accustomed and able to hurt none but the heart that conceiv'd them Like the mothes and the Canker eating and fretting the body that bred them A man in anger doe but thinke what fitts of paine and what flames of agony he is in while the storme lasts and what sorrow and vexation he endures when it is over for when his anger with others ceaseth his anger with himselfe begins What indignation against himselfe for oaths which out of a passion perhaps he was not wont to be guilty of What fretting to no purpose for rash-vows indiscreet speeches unseemely behaviour revealing of secrets and giving advantages to his enemy and a thousand such like And consider what manner of life the man that is subject to such a passion lives and what a merry life the meeke-spirited moderate godly man lives in comparison of him 2. For Envy it is a fire within a mans owne bowells the sāe disease that anger is lengthen'd and become chronicall even a very tabes or consumption as you have it excellently discribed by a heathen poet * Ovid. Met lib 2. fab 12. of the very person himselfe in whom it is hindering not only his mind from Contentment but his body also from nourishment See what Job saies of anger and envy c. 5 2 Wrath killeth the foolish man and envy slayeth the silly one I would be large in this if it were not so easy But 3 For revenge I leave it to any one to judge whether a revenge-full mans life can be a merry life if he will but consider with what sleeplesse-cares he is possessed to compasse his hellish designes which he himselfe is strucke with terrour to thinke of What feares he has of miscarrying what doubts either that his businesse will never be done or that it will not be done as it should be and what vexation for every the least delay and because it is not done already I might had I leasure with abundance of ease inlarge my discourse in severall passions to which a wicked man having no principall of grace to restraine him whensoever opportunity shall perswade him will easily be led although perhaps because of constitution or some other carnall cause he have them not in a habit Now if passions be so trouble-some when they are but passions what are they when it comes to a habit how trouble-some are vices If my enemy can doe me so much hurt at his first comming what will he doe when he has gotten firme footing Doubtlesse my misery is doubled For I am easily mov'd by habits and my habits are hardly removed My servants were troublesome to me at first because I did not keep a hand over them But now they are growne too stout and will not endure thereins nor the rider Now they will
be still commanding me and I shall not command them any more I had once a mind and it were very easy to shew you the vexations and sorrows of severall vices but If I should goe about it I am afraid of being too large and I have done somewhat this * In my View of the Threats way already besides a great deale to be had in Common places I will only name two because the Scripture speaks of them to this purpose in such a manner And those are 1. Covetuousnesse 1 Tim 6 10. For the love of money is the root of all evill which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves thorow with many sorrows 2. Drunkennesse Prov 23 29.30 Who hath wo who hath sorrow who hath contention who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath rednesse of eyes They that tarry long at the wine they that goe to seeke mixt wine And can there be better fruit expected while there is a root continually in the hearts of wicked men yeelding matter for nothing else That which I mean is sensuality being addicted to pleasure Pleasure is either upon the remembrance or the presence or the expectation of some good Every one of these waies hath the wicked man a multitude of sorrows If he love it and never had it it is impossible but he should be vex'd But whether so much or so long as if he have had it and have it and may have it I question I thinke there is more vexation and sadnesse where pleasure is least a stranger then where there is a constant seeming griefe and a cause of sadnesse What shakings of head and lamentings that they are past have wicked men upon the thought of pleasures which they have had and cannot have againe Those which they have how are they troubl'd for want of this and that to make them compleat And how are they troubl'd to thinke that they cannot enjoy them long that their power will not suit with their desire the creatures will not be sufficient for their use and the time will not tarry their leasure If they have pleasures a comming what paines to stand a tip-toe what wearisome shouldering along of the time what painfull wishings for the day when it is night and the night when it is day according to the time when they expect them But there is one thing yet which is more then all the rest which I have hitherto mention'd to hinder a wicked man from living a merry life as being indeed one cord made of many or one result and effect as the former was the root of a great many causes although I confesse it to be referr'd better to his condition then his conditions and that is a continuall fearefullnesse arising from the conscience of those vices of which he is continually guilty What an aguish discemper is such a guilty man in continually tacitâ sudant praecordia culpâ How often doe fitts of cold-sweat come upon the thoughts of Sinne Death Hell Judgment any thing Let him thinke upon what he will and he is afraid If he thinke upon God he is afraid because he hath offended him If he thinke upon man he is afraid because he hath wronged him If he thinke upon the creatures he is afraid because he hath abused them And if he thinke upon himselfe he is afraid because he himselfe hath done all this The shaking of a leafe and the sight of a shadow is enough to make him shake and tremble like a leafe A dreadfull sound is in his eares in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him Job 15.21 He that feares not God must needs feare every thing else and he that is afraid of every thing how can he be merry with any thing But is this all the cause of sadnesse that a wicked man hath viz. to be troubled with vices and passions No no. For besides his bad conditions which are inward and domestick causes abundantly enough to make him continually sad he hath a bad condition too and outward occasions infinite many more which those causes have brought him to increase his sorrow such a condition as he cannot be merry if he doe but think upon it And yet such as he cannot be happy if he do not think upon it for he must think upon it if ever he think to get out of it Now that you may see the badnesse of a wicked mans condition I shall but hint a little for I meant not to speak of it at all for reasons above mention'd First read what Job saith of him cap. 18.5 to the end and cap. 20.5 to the end When you have read that I will leave it to your owne judgment whether his condition be not bad and whether it be not impossible for him to be truly merry Next to give you a word or two my selfe 1. He is so farre from Safety which as I have formerly said is of great consequence for a merry life that he is in continuall danger Job 5.4 His children are farre from safety and they are crushed in the gate neither is there any to deliver them For what ever such as he think to the contrary where ever he goes he is in danger of snares that are laid to catch him so that having too much feare he must needs have too little confidence a thing very necessary for this purpose to be merry And in this the godly man is exceedingly beyond him as Solomon saith Prov 29 6. In the transgression of an evill man there is a snare but the rightous both sing and rejoyce Where ever he is he is in danger of falling God himselfe who knows all places best setting him in slippery and dangerous places So the Psalmist telleth us Psal 73.18 So that he neede not have pray'd as he does elsewhere Let their way be dark and slippery Psalm 52 6. Now the ways of wicked men being slippery are consequently smooth and easy to the feete so that they run along a great way before they stop with pleasure and sport like boyes at a sliding But then to counterpoise all this sport besides the mixture of feare in the midst of their sport if they fall it is with a vengeance as they say And they are apt to fall or as bad with the least touch being like chaffe that cannot stand against the least puff of wind Psalm 1.5 Their ways will seem faire and safe and the best wayes to him that never saw any other or never well viewed any But not else For if you doe but looke into the sanctuary you shall presently see what they are You shall see what the end of wicked men is and the end of all their ways Vntill I went into the sanctuary of God untill I lok'd into the word of God and considered his law Then understood I their end Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction Psalm 73 17 18. Now the end you know
that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall perish whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a spiders web He shall leane upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure Job 8.13.14.15 Albeit methinks I could live very chearefully upon such a hope as a godly man's is if it were a thousand yeares The Psalmist did not stick to pronounce for blessed not only him that hath the God of Jacob for his helpe already but him whose hope is in the Lord his God Ps 96.5 But the comfort is he that hath this hope hath a portion also in the Land of the living I cried unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living Psal 142.5 The godly man also hath a portion in this life though not his portion for it is not all he is to have as well as the wicked And farre better then his not only for the goodnesse of the thing being God himselfe who is the chiefest good but for the length of time that he is to have it not till he dies nor till the end of the world further then which to them their heires for ever reacheth not but for ever ever Ps 73.26 God is the strength of my heart and portion for ever Whereas the wicked man hath indeed a portion but it it might be said also he hath his portion he is to have no more From men which are thy hand O Lord from men of the world which have their portion in this life ps 17.14 And thus much for the godly man's wealth that he is rich I might say as much for Honour though not for honours viz that he is honourable even in the account of the wicked in their more serious thoughts His face seemes to shine so that many times they stand gazing and admiring at him But in the next place let us speak of his Health A tenth ground Health then which there is no temporall blessing of greater concernement for a merry life Now I may say of this also as I did of wealth that whether a godly man have it or not for I doe not make it necessary for every godly man to have every thing that is a cause of mirth he is fairest for it He hath those helps himselfe and practiseth those things that are good to preserve health of his own accord which others are forced to use for the recovery of it when it is too late There is scarcely a virtue or a virtuous action but hath some virtue more or lesse for the preservation of a man's health If you consider of it you will find it to be so as I say and if I had leasure enough to instance I could easily make it appeare to be so But leaving the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what may be or what is like to be in regard of the causes let us speak a word to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is or hath been I will give any one leave to look abroad in the world and then tell me whether he doe not see it so by continuall experience that not only godly men their health is better but their life is longer seldome living out but halfe * Psal 55 23◠their dayes as the wicked doe unlesse they be taken from the evill to a Isa 57.1 come as some times they are 2. There are many places in Scripture that assure him of it Heare O my Sonne and recieve my sayings and the yeares of thy life shall be many Prov 14.20 For they are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh vers 22. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many dayes that he may see good keep thy tongue from evill and thy lips from speaking guile Depart from evill and doe good seek peace and pursue it Psal 34.12 to the 15. Thou shalt come to thy grave in full age like as a shock of corne cometh in in his season Job 5.26 In full age Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which word the Rabbines observe that according to the signification of the letters as they are used by the Jewes in numbring there is contained the number of 60. And they say it was a custome of the Jewes when they came to that age to celebrate a feast in token of joy and that they counted it a heavy judgment of God upon a man to take him away before There was a promise made to the children of Israel And the Lord will take away from thee all sicknesse and will put none of the evill diseases of Egypt which thou knowest upon thee but will lay them upon all them that hate thee Deut 7.15 See also c 25.15 Exod 9.14 And I am much taken with the testimony of the sonne of Syrach chap 1.12 The feare of the Lord maketh a merry heart and giveth joy and gladnesse and long life 3. It hath been observed by some that in the time of the second temple when men were worse in 420 yeares there had been a succession of no lesse then 300 Priests they were so short liv'd whereas in the time of the first Temple when men were better in ten yeares lesse space there had been no more then 18 because they liv'd so long It is reported among the Jewes by the Rabbines that the house of Eli according to the curse denounced against them by the * And thou shalt see an enemie in my habitation in all the wealth Which God shall give Israel there shall not be an old man in thyhous for ever man of God 1 Sam 2.32 lived very short lives so long as they continued in their old course of idlenesse and neglect of God's law but that at length upon advice given them by one of their Doctours telling them how that was the cause they died so soone they fell presently to reading and studying the Law and after that most of them lived to be old men 4. God hath much use of godly men and they are but scarce Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Psal 116.15 5. Perhaps for the former reason wicked men have been heretofore made ransoms for God's People to spare them So were the Egyptians for the Israelites Isa 43.3 and so may others be for others They are the Wiseman's words The wicked shall be a ransome for the righteous and the transgressour for the upright Prov 21.18 But yet some will say peradventure that Health and wealth and such like things are indifferent and that it goes for the most part in matters of this life as with the wicked so with the godly and if there be any odds the wicked man commonly hath the best For else to pay me againe in my own coyne how came it about that from Adam to the flood of the Patriarches who were good men there were eleven generations and of Cain's line who were bad men but
life you may gather if you consider how there is no trouble after nor when once a man hath been used to it in forbearing to doe evill as for example in forbearing to eate or drink too much or in any other act of temperance or indeed in any act of any other vertue that attends godlinesse Nay rather on the contrary what lightnesse and alacrity in the mind as well as ease and lightnesse in the body whereas on the contrary for example intemperate men when the short winded pleasure of tast which the longest winded draught can afford is past to say nothing of the nauseating and paine of the stomach sometimes for the present they have not done that which they will no more hear of but they are almost certaine to meet with pain and sicknesse and sorrow and if not a reckoning more then they can well pay now which is often enough yet without question a most difficult account to be made O this word they must needs be sad to heare it named Heareafter Godly actions are like the workes of nature * See next reason which are with pleasure Wickednesse a man may be weary with Nay he will be certainly so one time or other Take the confession of the wicked themselves We have wearied our selves in the way of wickednes and destruction we have gone through dangerous waies but we have not known the way of the Lord Wis 5.7 Infinite deale more might here be spoken of the troubles and difficulties and sorrowes of the works of wickednesse especially by instancing in the practises of severall vices as thieving adultery drunkenesse pride envy and the rest but I should make my volume swell too high 3. The workes of godlinesse are most easy because most agreable to nature Reasonable and spirituall service such as that is is fittest for reasonable soules and spirits On the contrary vices and the workes of wickednesse the greatest part of them are for the greatest part but sensuall carnall and materiall fitting only the body to which we should be loath to give the name of nature Rather let nature be the better part which is enough to serve for denomination the Soule We never live truly according to nature till our lives are suitable to this part And therefore besides the dishonour we doe to him that made us we doe highly undervalue our selves and our discent when we live wickedly in regard that being borne gentlemen as I may say we live like beggers being of a noble heavenly and divine extract we are notwithstanding base and earthly and like so many Sons of the earth fighters against heaven Certainly if we doe so if we live according * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 8.13 to the flesh only we are which we should be loath to be enemies to our selves and very unnaturall man for our soules are our nature and vertue and godlynesse best befit our soules Vice would seem as much against nature as it is and would goe against the graine if it were not for our default And it is an argument that as we are we are not our selves but that we have lost our selves and our natures and that all those inclinations of our soules which should be in us are not in us because we can entertaine that which is our enemy and suffer it to dwell with us and in us with approbation and welcome as if it were our friend Certainly if the stomack were cleane such unwholsome food would never be well liked and where the stomack is not cleane let no food be discommended for being disliked The fault is in none but the man if the workes of piety be painfull No imployment ought to be called painfull because it is so to a man that is not well 5. The workes of Godlinesse are easy because the vertues and graces that accompany it produce much ease and quiet and content For what a deale of ease hath patience and forbearance in comparison of impatience and rage contempt of the world in comparison of worldly-mindednesse continence and temperance and contentednesse in comparison of the troublesome importunate and unsatisfied qualities of lust and gluttony and ambition The Graces of God how much trouble doe they ease us of helping us forward in good things and restraining us from evill things either making us out of conscience not to grieve at all for losses and crosses or out of providence to grieve for a little while for sinne that we may not grieve for ever 6. It may be proved by scripture 1. By the testimony of Christ himselfe Mat 11.30 My yoke is easy and my burden is light 2. By the testimony of the disciple whome he loved 1 Joh 5. His commandements are not grievous God's wayes are not rough with hills and stones and rocks such as might make them uneasy to goe in but only so rough as not to be slippery as the other wayes are Only a little rough-casted as I may say with sand as the fighting places were wont to be so whereby they are the lesse dangerous to walke in and much the more fit for souldiers and fighting men or men continually fighting such as Christians are Whosoever thou art therefore that art taking a journey for the heavenly Canaan be not dismaied to thinke that it will be troublesome When thou goest thy steps shall not be streightned and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble Prov 4.12 But yet after all this I know many will be ready to say that I speak against mine own knowledge and the opinion of every man else viz that Christianity is no idle religion but painfull and laborious promising much ease but enjoying but little regarding little the present but differing all to the future Answ Well suppose I doe grant you that it is laborious as the waies and meanes to all excellent things are for difficilia quae pulchra the fairest apples are at the top of the tree and they will not drop into a man's mouth nor fall into his hands it is not by and by grievous and wearisome voide of all pleasure No Christians may and many men of necessity doe eate their bread in the sweat of their face But yet neverthelesse they may eate it with abundance of pleasure and content 'T is the bread of idlenesse as Solomon calls it Prov 31.27 not the bread of labour and paines unlesse it be the bread of wickednesse and wrongs that is the bread of sorrowes The worke of husbandry is laborious but it is easy to learne and pleasant to practise affording a great deale of health and delight The earth is dig'd with paine but with pleasure too for it yeelds a smell wholsome to the digger in the digging besides that a treasure may be found and abundance of fruit is to come Againe there can be no greater torment or cause of sadnesse to one that hath any life in him then to want imployment and therefore to be laborious cannot make godlinesse a cause of sadnesse
Rather then men will be thus sad we se it to be their common practise to practise vitious courses to keep themselves doing to put themselves to any trouble and to do any thing rather then to sit idle be melancholy Labour as hard thoughts as the sluggard hath of it is the best pleasure recreation to an industrious man and the delight he takes in worke is many times more then that which he hath in profit An industrious man will be sorry when his worke is nere an end and when he hath nothing to doe he knowes not what to doe He sits as if he were without life or soule and knowes not how to dispose of himselfe and if sorrow or vexation ever assault him then is the time An industrious man can be more merry in plowing and sowing with expectation then another shall be at the end of harvest with possession There is more mirth and joy even in the labour of a righteous man that tendeth to life then there can be in the revenue of the wicked that tendeth to sinne Prov 10.16 Laborious things alwaies make themselves pleasant with Hope of profit more or lesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov 14.23 Things wherein there is no labour seldome bring any profit afterward Though the godly man's labour be more and his work be harder then the wicked man's yet is it to him but so much delight and recreation if there were no other reason for this alone that though his candle goe not out in the night though he take paines to sow his seed in the morning and in the evening withold * Eccles 11.6 not his hand though he be kept never so hard to it yet he hath continually standing by him this cordiall of comfort to cheer him that he doth not plow the sea nor sow the winde nor spend his money for that which is not bread and his labour for that which satisfieth not but that having plowed in fruitfull ground and sowne pretious seed he shall returne from the field of this world into the garner of the world to come with joy and bring his sheaves * Psal 126.6 with him Nay suppose I should grant that Godlinesse is not only laborious but difficult yet it will be only to such or such It is not so of it selfe but made so by him to whom it is so It is not so for any excesse of painfulnesse in the things to be done but for defect of painfulnesse or willingnesse or something else in the person that undertakes it For either he is a sluggard one that is alwaies calling for a little more sleep a little * Prov 6.10 more slumber one that will not plow because it is cold Prov 20.4 nor goe out of doores because it raines To such a one it is difficulty paine enough to pluck his hand out * Prov 19.24 of his bosome and therefore I need not trouble my selfe to study for arguments why he may not be credited when he complaines of the difficulty of his work Or 2ly he is a young beginner in this way newly entred not yet accustom'd to go in the yoak of Christ For one that hath been long in another way wedded wholly to that will not easily be brought to change his old mumsimus as they say for a new sumpsimus being confident that the old is best because he knowes not the goodnesse of the new And such a one if he complaine I need no other argument to disswade you from believing him then his own ignorance Or 3ly such a one as hath indeed been formerly accustomed to the yoake of Christ but now by reason of desuetude is grown stiff in the neck and become a beginnner againe And such a one if he did not but only act the Christian as a Hypocrite and were not of a contrary mind to what he seemed to be I shall need no other argument to disswade you from believing him then his own knowledge For I dare referre you to his own confession and what hee can tell you himselfe he once found by experience and perhaps now desires to find againe with a great deale of sorrow and repentance Whosoever thou art therefore when thou doest any good work or duty if thou sindest it to be grievous and painfull doe not by and by as the manner of most men is look round about thee for the cause and complaine of the hardnesse of the work or the master but rather first suspect thy selfe and examine the matter well within thee and 't is a thousand to one that thou wilt need to goe further abroad If the rule the work which thou doest do not agree do not therefore make the rule bad but the worke better Never wish to have the rule change I dare warrant thee change but thy selfe and there will need no more to mend the matter Be more a new creature be more changed in thy mind rectifie thy crooked will pare off thy redundnat lusts cut away the knotty pieces of thy refractory spirit and all will be well and thou wilt say as I doe Doubtlesse if thou woudst but consider the matter well and deale ingenuously thou must needs confesse that thou did'st not find godlynesse difficult but godlynesse found thee untoward The exercises of it are like many of those that are wont to be imposed upon School-boyes hard to be performed by none but such as are hard to be brought to performe them The yoke that was easy so long agoe when Christ said it cannot be grown narrower with wearing it might have grown lesse indeed and so better to be worne Rather thou art grown fatter with idlenesse or thy neck is growne bigger and stiffer with pride The burden would not be so heavy to the first undertakers but that shrinking their shoulders before they feel it and not only not giving their mind to it but bending their minds against it they make it to be so themselves For the workes of godlinesse are like the words of wisdome all plaine to him that understandeth and right to them that finde * So neere is ae man that is willing to bea wise man to a wise man that Solomon many times calls the lover of wisdome by the same name knowledge Prov 8.9 There are to this purpose some words of the Septuagint Prov. 2.20 for which there are none extant in the Hebr If they had gone in good waies they had found the waies of righteousnesse smooth He that hath gone in such a way but for some time or gone in it against his will as if he went to hanging there is no reason that his judgment should be taken concerning it I know that not withstanding all this thou wilt say still the master thou art to serve is to austere He taketh up that which he laid not down and reapeth that which he did not sowe as it is Luk. 19.21 He bids a lame man goe and yet keeps his staffe away from him
I will allow them to goe when there is good occasion and to another passion come and it comes Certainely there must needs be much content where 't is thus as there cannot well be any where 't is otherwise We are not so often sad neither doe we vex our selves so often and so much and so long for any mishaps as those that come by our own default and unrulinesse of our passions For then we bite our own lips and are grieved to think that we might have been at home as I may say or at leasure to have prevented such a mischiefe had we not been wholy taken up and carried abroad by such or such a passion In such cases the cause of sorrow being from within where it is constantly maintained can never keep out so the sorrow of the heart is reflected upon the heart till like the beames of the sun by long much beating it become burning hot and hard to be quenched In other cases judgment and reason will stench the bloud and enlarge the heart where it is straitned because it finds a reason to forbeare But here it wrings the more for want of reason and the wiser the man is and the more for reason the lesse merry he will be and the more unable to excuse the fault having only cause enough for the griefe but no reason for the cause Now the godly man hath little or none of this kind of trouble if he have had but time enough to discipline his passions Time I say for time it requires and deliberation and policy more then to conquer an army of men The enemy that is intestine is most dangerous and among'st our own men mutinies are worse then forrain warres A man may better overcome a thousand contrary crosse actions without then one froward crosse passion within which perhaps playes with him and makes him sport and laughes in his face like a fairy but will lead him against the trees and put him upon difficulties and at length like an ignis fatuus cast him into a bog of inextricable perplexities Well then we suppose that already he hath bred his servants I mean his passions to his hand and so disciplin'd his souldiers that they dare not rebell And having thus ordered them that every one knowes his own work and can discerne a right object keep a due posture and observe a fit time and place to stop or runne accordingly and to hold when it is too much or too little I do not see how he can have much sorrow from his passions A passion may be in him but he will never be in a passion I meane so as to be all in in it all in a passion as we use to say To instance a little he will never be up to the eares in love for he will love the creature so as to hate to abuse it So neither in hatred He will hate sinne so as to love the man that commits it the more that he may doe him the more good He will feare a danger so as to have courage to undergoe it He will joy in prosperous things so as to be sorry for his sinnes that make him unworthy and he will sorrow too in adverse things so as to rejoyce that he shall be never the worse now and the better hereafter He will hope for the best so as to feare and expect the worst and he will feare the worst so as to hope for the best following Seneca's rule not to hope * Nec sperave ris sine desperatione nec desperave ris sine spe without despaire nor to despaire without hope Third cause Self-deniall Another thing whereby godly men cause themselves mirth is Selfe-deniall Whosoever is sad is displeased Whosoever denies himselfe cannot be displeased I meane as we commonly use the word for he regards not to be pleased Let God afflict him He will say If God be so pleased so let it be I have denyed my selfe Let men persecute him he will say If God be pleased to have it so I am contented I desire not to have it as I will but as he will I have denied my selfe Whatsoever hurt any man does him he takes it no worse then if it were to another man Nay not so bad for he hath not denyed another man but only himselfe Let him be put to it either to be wicked or to lose all that he hath yet will he not be at all sad either with doubt of what he shall doe or with feare of what he shall suffer For in such a case Love of a man's selfe and of what is his and thoughts of selfe-Concernments I meane of what Concernes himselfe in a temporall way are the only things that make him sad it being impossible for a man to be merry either when he parts with or when he thinks he shall part with what he loves Let the selfe-denyer have never so many losses so long as he denyes himselfe he does not own himselfe and he that does not own himselfe will not care to own any thing else and he that owneth nothing cannot be sad for the losse of any thing Thought of propriety is a maine cause of sorrow Let his cowardly friends call upon him never so often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words of Peter to our Saviour * they cannot make him at all to relent 'T is looking on ones selfe and pitying ones selfe that makes him sad almost in all cases at least of sinfull sadnesse How doe many men and how many times doe weak Christians make shipwrack of courage if not of a good conscience in the use of such selfe-doting expressions as these What! It is my selfe It is my own flesh 'T is that which I have laboured for 'T is my inheritance I have had it so long and shall I now part with it This goes against my very heart The selfe-denyer scornes such language being tender hearted to none but his brother and for temporall good things more a friend to any one then to himselfe What disgrace what losses what injuries what dangers what evills can make him sad by displeasing him who can be as well displeased as pleased whose eye is not upon himselfe who compares not what he meets with what himselfe viz how it fits his nature or his humour or his condition to doe him a pleasure but compares it still with his sinfull life determining if it be bad that he is worthy of it which will abate his sorrow If it be good that he is unworthy of it which will encrease his joy How selfe-denyall will dispose to mirth you will best percieve if you serioufly consider how the contrary disposeth to sadnesse and what sadnesse wicked men continually have from it It is as hard to be merry with selfe love as it is to have every thing to a man's mind He that loves himselfe too much will love many other things to much he that loves many things too much must needs have many
is sorrowfull for he sorrowes for his joy for hurting others And his sorrow is exceeding sorrowfull for he sorrowes for his sorrow for hurting himselfe His sorrow is but worldly at the best and accordingly it worketh death one way or other Seldome have you known the godly man's sorrow which is a godly sorrow to cause him to doe any thing to hurt his body either by hanging himselfe or breaking his heart or the like That he does his soule good by it for this world he knowes it by exderience and for the world to come by the word of God Of this good nature is his sorrow for sinne And he hath little or none other sorrow to speak of but what is of this nature David Psal 38 though he complaines indeed of his sicknes and the diseases of his body yet it semes he could deale pretty well with them But when he comes to feele the burden of his sinnes and the diseases of his soule then he is ready to sink verse 4 They are as a weighty burden too heavy for me If he speaks of sorrow as he does verse 17 My sorrow is continually before me presently he makes mention of sinne verse 18 for I will declare mine iniquity I will be sorry for my sinne so Psal â—5 verse 17 18 The troubles of mine heart are enlarged O bring thou me out of my distresses Look upon mine affliction and my paine and forgive all my sins He no sooner speaks of his afflictions but he prayes for forgiveness of his sinnes He is sure to complaine of them what ever he complaine of else as being that which lay heaviest and longest upon his stomack To speake the truth the soule never truly grieves but for what is either in her that should not be in her or done by her that should not be done by her the being or doing whereof could or should have been prevented such a thing is sinne Plus dolet qui quod intus est dolet Griefe within the soule shall never be or it shall never be much for things that are without it with which it hath nothing to doe Nemo nisi suâ culpâ diù dolet The griefe is quickly over when I my selfe have no hand in the cause If I am never so much at a fault or to seek for a worldly good If I am not in fault too it shall never trouble me a whit All the bitterness that any man hath that walketh in the way of godliness he hath it not from the way but from turning out of the way Hence it is partly if godly men are seen at any time to be sorrowing for outward evills they are but as Paul saith as sorrowing and yet rejoycing For their sorrow is no more then a spark of fire is in the sea suddenly quenched with waters of comfort and rivers of joy of the Holy Ghost If there be a mixture of both joy and sorrow joy is still the predominant So that at the worst they cannot be swallowed up of sorrow because the sorrow is so soon swallowed up of joy Having shewed you why you are to goe the journey and what manner of way you have and what the fruit of the journey will be Now that I have removed the rubs also it remaines although I have not been idle as to this work in my answers to the objections that I put on my spurres and use some motives of exhortation to stirre you up prick you too by reproofe if you goe not on First then I will exhort you and beseech you to rejoyce in the Lord. You that are call'd by the name of Christ you that have the Lord for your God you that are so fast in the favour of heaven that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth or any other creature shall be able to seperate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord * Rom. 8 38 39. to be breife you that enjoy so many and so great priviledges and enjoy them so freely you I say though you doe suffer afflictions yet neverthelesse lift up your eyes and your heads unplait your browes and cleare up your countenance so that no signe or cause of suspition of sadnesse be left for your redemption drawes nigher and nigher every day and your salvation is so certainly determind that it is every day neerer * Rom. 3 11. then when you first beleev'd A way with this squalid dejected sowre Monkish pharisaicall carriage Wash your faces and anoynt them with the oyle of gladnesse for your deliverance comes on a pace I tell you melancholy and Christianity are no such companions as the world thinke they are and therefore pray do not you thinke so of them And if you find affliction Christianity to be so be no more troubled Cypri-Ep ad Mart then I have prov'd you have need to be Certaine it is if you are good grapes de vinea domini pingues racemi there is no talking of it you must to the winepress you must be squeez'd and bruis'd and oppressed But as I told you before such usage is a signe not that you are the less but the more cared for Now you shall be safely kept as men keep their wine and highly priz'd and never thrown away However you are or have your selves ill yet be sure to behave your selves well cheerfull if for nothing else yet for these few reasons 1. To avoid scandalizing and disheartning of men that so you may gaine more credit and more Proselytes to your profession 2. To avoid scandalizing as the word is also used for making a thing a scandal and dishonouring of God and making Christ a scandall that so you may gaine more glory to the truth by living up sutably to the honourable and happy condition of those that keep it Believe it it becomes no body so well as a good Christian and nothing becomes a good Christian so well as to be merry Psal 33.1 Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright In the wicked it is uncomely and absurd because they have no reason wherefore Yea 't is folly and madnesse because they have so much reason wherefore not 3. Because 〈…〉 well are wont to be by their master neither is God only delighted in you like such masters when you doe your work cheerefully but you are taught likewise and if not commanded yet exhorted as I told you before in an imperative mood so to doe The places I cited were Matt. 5.12 Luk. 6.22 Christians it is strange to me not to see you merry when you are doing well For if you are willing to doe what you doe I doe not see how you can be sad in the doing unless you can be unwilling when you are willing If you are not willing you had better let it alone then doe it The high spirited-Roman Souldiers went home-ward with
merry for having a great deal of wealth then any creature that is put a part to be kild has cause to be glad though glad enough too no doubt he is for having a great deale of meat For even in the same manner are they fed and therefore they have the same cause to feare they are left if not designed to the same end They are fed with the fat of the Land but leane meat and poverty is more wholesome and fatted up with plentifull feeding So Eliphas speakes Job 15 27 He covereth his face with his fatnesse and maketh collops of sat in his flankes But then see what he sayes afterward vers 29 30. He shall not be rich neither shall his substance continue neither shall he prolong the perfection there of upon the earth He shall not depart out of darknesse the flame shall dry up his branches and by the breath of his mouth shall he goe away Little doe they think why they are thus sufferd to prosper and sufferd to prosper thus viz that like beasts they may be fitter for slaughter When the wicked spring as the grasse and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish it is that they shall be destroy'd for ever Psalm 92.7 The fatter they are the fitter they are for slaughter the sooner slain * Psal 78.31 He slew the fattest of them Did I say a wicked man is fed with prosperity Nay but he need not be fed for he will feed himselfe if he be let alone and have meat enough unlesse being in honour he had as he has not understanding enough though it were never so little more then the beasts that perish to be temperate in the use of it He is like bad ground Whether he have any thing sown on him or whether he have nothing he is all one unlesse the difference be in this that he brings forth most weeds when he is sown with the best seed Prosperity is to him as a horse which he can neither breake nor ride and so he must needs be thrown A wicked man having a bad heart or as I may say a bad stomack prosperity and the best meat that can be given him will beget in him nothing but ill humours fears and cares and vexations and sins continuall distempers both of body and mind Perhaps sometimes his prosperity has not these troubles with it Yet is it not enough to make him merry No it is too negative so and that which makes a man truly merry must be more positive He must take delight in it he must enjoy himselfe in the prosperity as well as enjoy the prosperity or else it will be nothing worth This a wicked man can never doe though he should have never so much and enjoy never so much outward peace * Prosperity so the word is used in our Bible because he has no peace within Having no peace within him what ever peace he has without him he can no more be merry then a Prince who is plundring of another mans house abroad and in the mean time has an enemie seizing upon his kingdome at home But then againe here is more misery for a wicked man For as he is not able to use prosperity so that which will necessarily adde to his sorrow he must necessarily have it As he knows not what to doe with it so he knows not what to doe without it For he has no strength to encounter with adversity and is no more able to live merry in sad times then a man that is not before hand is able to live plentifully in a dearth or a man that has no stock of money to lay out is able to get his living by a trade Being poore without a stock of grace he cannot find himselfe maintenance and being lazy without a principle of grace he will never labour to get it His soule is naked and without the garment of faith to keep it warme and so cannot endure the cold It is loose and without the anchor of hope to hold it fast and so cannot endure the stormes of affliction Certainly it must needs be starv'd to death it must needs be miserable toss'd in this world and irrecoverably cast away in the world to come Wherewith should a wicked man encounter with adversity The best weapon for such an use must be a strong soule for a strong body opposed to miseryes is but a great heap of wood to a flame of fire but alas his soule is so sick with sin that insteed of easing him of his burden it will adde more weight and presse him lower to the ground But I will not speake much of adversity lest wicked men tell me I may spare my labour they are not so much troubled with it I will returne therefore and have a word more of their prosperity which they so much brag of and of which they have so little cause to brag considering to what passe it brings them they being so much the more miserable in the end for that their beginning was so happy Nay not only their end hereafter but every interuption of their condition while they are here is so much the worse For the more they have and the fatter they are the more is their griefe when they lose and the greater their paine when they are any way sick or afflicted as it is usually seene in fatt and corpulent men in regard of bodily sicknesse and yet they are subject also to as much as another and more too as full bodies are to diseases What a sad comfortlesse sight is a wicked man in his sicknesse or in any other affliction whereas on the contrary what comfort is there in a godly man not onely to himselfe but to any other that shall visit him even then when the hand of God is heaviest upon him All sorts of evills partly by their Suddennesse partly by violence and partly by his owne unpreparednesse and security presuming of nothing but peace like naturall things meeting with things of a contrary quality have their full blow upon a wicked man That which was threatned to the Babylonians is usually his case Therefore shall evill come upon thee thou shalt not know from whence it rises and mischiefe shall fall upon thee thou shalt not be able to put it off and desolation shall fall upon thee suddenly which thou shalt not know Isa 47.11 His Candle seldome goeth out but is put * Job 21.17 out suddenly though I speak not so much of outward admonitions as of Gods inward preparation of this heart But to returne to the wicked mans Joy Give me leave to mention a few reasons why a wicked man's mirth that which he has is so short liv'd My reasons shall be drawne 1. From the Abundance of helps which it needs and from the weaknesse and fullibility of those helps 2. From its imperfection both in regard of its subject and object and also in its owne nature For the first viz the Abundance of helps which it
Godly and the ungodly Read the stories in the Bible of the enemies of God destroy'd by Creatures without the helpe of a reasonable hand But what need I puzzle my head to search or weary my pen to shew you how and what occasions a wicked man has to be sorrowfull when almost any object of any of his senses or his knowledge is sufficient to make him so Not any thing that he sees or heares when he goes abroad Not any thing that he eats or drinks Not any action that he does himselfe or knowes to be done by another Not any event that befalls him but if it be not every way according to his mind will marre all his mirth if it were or if it seemd to be never so much before His mirth is such so carnall so fraile and so much depending upon the use and enjoyment of outward things that unlesse there be a continuall supply of such oyle it will quickly goe out in a stinking snuffe of sorrow Unlesse there be a constant affluence of all those things in a full current if there be never so little amisse or never so little intermission or never so little abatement of the water his wheeles are presently stopd and he can goe no longer Any change of any circumstance will change the mood for a wicked man is but in a merry mood at the best never in a merry mind Too soone or too late too fast or too slow too oft or too seldome too long or too short too much or too little any of these or such as these are will doe it His mirth is but stayd up by props and those very weak ones So that having no root to hold it any little puff of wind will overturne it T is but superficiall without depth but on the top of his face Meere paint no complexion Heat will melt it and water will wash it and any thing that agrees not with it will deface or take it away To conclude let a wicked man's condition be what it will it is all one for he is still after the same manner who is still the same man He hath enough within to counterworke any thing that you shall bring from without Use what instruments you will cords or forks enticements or enforcements a good or a bad condition it is all one His nature holds fast and his bad condition will continue still to breed him discontent enough Come prosperity or come adversity you shall see but little oddes for the better One may make him more sad then the other but neither will make him more merry Adversity may break his heart and prosperity will not make it lighter He has not the patience to endure the one nor the discretion to manage the other without vexation Adversity is like a shield which he cannot beare and so he must needs be overborne with it Prosperity is like a sword which he cannot weild and a thousand to one but he hurts himselfe with it this sword will enter into his owne heart Psalm 37.15 His afflictions are intolerable because they are cursed of God as he himselfe is they are sent in displeasure and not so seldome neither as men count if we tooke better notice but because we think so well of good men and see them punished we take notice of none but them How oft is the candle of the wicked put out And how oft cometh their destuction upon them God distributeth sorrowes in his anger Job 21.17 If their afflictions come not often recompence is made in the coming For they come with a vengeance If his fall be but one it is irrecoverable for He that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once Prov 28.18 When he is afflicted none more afflicted then he For he has no grace either to endure his affliction or to pray to be eased On the contrary the godly man being well affected to God and having God well affected to him is so farre from being so sadned and dejected either for being or for feare of being afflicted that he cannot only look upon but laugh at afflictions c. 5.22 At distruction and famine thou shalt laugh One that lookes upon a godly man and a wicked man with a carnall eye nay one that looks with a spirituall eye but does not look neere enough or long enough will wonder there should be so much difference as there is betweene them in regard of their condition But I 'le warrant you let him look as he should and he will find it to be as I have said I will but shew you in a word or two of what use that which I have said may be to the wicked man and I have done It is of use to him both for Information and for Exhortation For information To informe him that he has been misinform'd by the devill and the world who have put it into his head that there is no life like that which he is in for mirth no mirth so good as his and none so merry as he 2. That his case is cleane contrary viz that no life has more cause of sorrow then his that no mirth is worse either morally or Physically i.e. for corruption of sinfullnesse or mixture of sadnesse and that none is lesse truly merry then he For exhortation it will be of use to exhort him That seeing he hath so much cause to be sorry and his mirth is such what ever it seem to be he would forbeare a while his foolish jollity and bethink himselfe of the sadnesse of his condition to get out of it and the vanity of his mirth to leave it Come whosoever thou art doe not flatter thy selfe as other wicked men doe as the psalmist said He flattereth himselfe in his owne eyes untill his iniquity be found to be hatefull Psalm 36.2 Doe not couzen thy selfe to deceive the world I tell thee thou hast many diseases Discover thy folly Doe not conceale it at least to him who will know it though thou doest what thou canst and will forgive it if thou doest what thou shouldst Doe not heale slightly thy wound but search thy sins to the quick and never leave till they be dead Thou hast many a leake and thou hast a great deale of water in thee allready Repent and pump it out at thine eyes ere thy ship sink T is but be sad for a while till the work of humiliation conviction be done and afterward I will warrant thee mirth enough and good enough and long enough For He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtlesse come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psalm 126.6 FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for and to be sold by Richard Davis at his shop neare Oriell Colledge in Oxford A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament by Hen Hammond D.D. in folio The Practicall Catechisme with all other English Treatises of Hen Hammond D.D. in two volumes in 4o. Dissertationes quatuor quibus Episcopatus Jura ex S. Scripturis Primava Antiquitate adstruuntur contra sententiam D. Blâ—ndelli aliorum Authore Henrico Hammond in 4o. A Letter of Resolution to six Quaeres in 12o. Certaine Sermons and Letters of Defence and Resolution to some of the late Controversies of our times by Jasp Mayne D. D. in 4o. A View of the Threats and Punishments Recorded in the Scriptures Alphabetically composed with some breife Observations upon severall Texts by Zachary Bogan of C.C.C. in Oxon in 8o Fides Apostolica or A Discourse asserting the received Authors and Authority of the Apostles Creed together with the Grounds and ends of the Composing thereof by the Apostles the sufficiency thereof for the Rule of Faith c. with a double Appendix 1 Touching the ATHANASIAN 2. The NICENE Creed by George Ashwell B D in 8o. Ailmeri Musae Sucrae seu Jonas Jeremiae Threni Daniel Graeca redditi carmine in 8o. Ad Grammaticen ordinariam supplementa quaedam editio 2. multis auctior in 8o. A Guide to the Holy City or Directions and Helps to an Holy-life by John Reading B. D. in 4o. Theses Quadragessimales in Scholiis Oxonii Publâ—â—rs viz Quod Caeli sint Fluidi Terra Moveatur Terra Centrum Universi non sint Luna sit Habitabilis Radius Luminosus sit Corporeus Sol sit Flamma A CAROLO POTTER in 12o. Contemplationes Metaphisicae ex Naturâ Rerum rectae Rationis lumine deductae Auctore Georg Ritscheli Bohemo in 8o. The Amorous War a Play in 4o. Aditus ad Logicam Authore Samucle Smith in 8o Elementa Logicae Authore Edwardo Brerewood in 12o. Johan Buridani Quaestïones in octo Libros Politicorum Aristotelis in 4o. Robert Baronii Philosophia Theologiae Ancillans in 8o. The Hurt of Sedition by S. Jo Cheek in 4o. Scripture Vindicated from the misapplications of M. St Marshall in his Sermon entituled Meroz Cursed by Ed Symmons in 4o. The Christian Race A Sermon on Heb 12.1 by Tho Barton in 4o A Sermon on the 2. of Timothy cap. 3. v. 1 2 3 4 5. by Will. Chillingworth in 4o. A Funerall Sermon on Philip 1.23 by John Millet in 4o. A Funerall Sermon on 1. Cor 7.29 30 31. by Tho Hauskins in 8o. A Nomenclator of such Tracts Sermons as have been Printed or translated into English upon any place or Booke of the Holy Scripture now to be had in the Publique Library in Oxford by Jo. Vernevill in 12º The Vaulting Master or the Art of Vaulting illustrated with Sixteene brasse figures by Will Stoakes in 4o.