throughly so is if not Evill a neighbourhood to Evill True praise consists not in a bare abstinence from Evill but in the pursuance the performance of good It sufficeth not therefore that we doe nothing which may afflict us but we must withall doe something that may exhilarate us This we must remember that to do good is one thing and to become good is another Although we cannot become good unlesse wee doe good But we become good not because we have done good works but because we did them well Discretion which considers the manner of doing good orders the Action so excellently that oftentimes there is more goodnesse in the manner then in the Action What will it availe us to do good if it be not well done It is to write faire and then to poure the Inke upon it Actions cease to be good unlesse well acted they are like excellent colours ill-layed on The more glorious thy intention is the more carefully thou must manage it Indiscretion is most evident in matters of importance One drop of Oyle upon Purple is sooner seen then a whole quart that is spilt upon Sack-cloath The Ermyn keepes his whitenesse unstained with the hazard of his life Hee values himselfe at a most sordid rate that esteems lesse of Virtue then this beast doth of his skin that prefers a foule life to a fair death that loves his blood more then his honour and his body more then his Soule Ennius saith that the way to live is not to love life Life is given us for another cause then meerly to live he is unworthy of it that would live onely for the love of life the greatest cause of life is Virtue what more absolute madnesse can there be then to make life the cause of sin yea the cause of death And for lifes sake to lose the crowâ— of life What greater unhappinesse then to dye eternally by refusing death The Virtuous youth Pelagius rather then he woulâ—d lose his Innocence suffered the most exquisite and studyed torments of that impure Tyrant Habdarrhagmanus He suffered many deaths before he was permitted to dye Hee saw his limbs his hands and his sinewes cut in sunder and lying dead by him while he yet lived This preservation of their honour some chast beauties have paid dearly for It cost Nicetas his tongue Amianus his Eye Saint Briget her face Apollonia her teeth and Agatha her breasts The lovely Cyprian Virgin paid her life for it Nature even for herself doth lay a snare And handsome faces their own traitours are The beauty of Chastity is best preserved by deformity and the purity of life by a contemptible shape The Shoomaker is carefull of the neatnesse of a shooe which is made to be worn in durt and mire And shall man be negligent to adorn his Soul which is made for Heaven and the service of the deity Every artificer strives to do his worke so as none may find fault with it And shall we do the works of life perfunctorily and deceitfully All that makes man to be respected is his worke as the fruite doth make the Tree and a good work can never be too much respected Keepe thy selfe alwaies in respect by doing good Thy own dignity is in thy own power If thy works be good thou shalt be accounted good too If better then any thou shalt be acknowledged for the best Man is the effect of his own Act he is made by those things which he himself makes Hee is the work of his own hands A rare priviledge that permits men and impowers them to make themselves Thou hast leave to be whatsoever thou wouldst be God would not limit thy happinesse He left thee power to encrease it to polish and beautifie thy selfe according to thy own mind Thy friend or thy neighbour cannot do it Thy owne good must be thy owne industry Virtue because she would be crosse to Fortune is not adventitious It is our great happinesse that this great good must not be borrowed Blessed be that Divine mercy which hath given us means to be saved without the assistance of our neighbours who have endeavoured to damn us That almighty hand which first Created man in the Image of his Creatour finished him not but left some things for him to doe that he might in all things resemble his maker It is one thing to be an Idol or Counterfeit and another to be a lively Figure and likenesse There are many Coppies which are not assimilant to their Originals like Pictures that have not so much as an ayre of those faces they were drawn by To the Politure and sweetning of the Divine Image there are some lines expected from thine owne hand If some expert Statuary suppose Phidias himselfe should leave unfinished some excellent peece like that Statue of Minerva at Athens and out of an incurious wearinesse give himself to some obscure and Artlesse imployment or to meere Idlenesse wouldst not thou much blame and rebuke him for it And canst thou deserve any lesse if by a loose and vitious life thou wilt either totally deface the Image of God in thy selfe or else leave it unfinished Doest thou think that God is maimed seeing thou doest leave his Image without hands I mean without good works Dost thou think that he is blind seeing thou dost extinguish or put quite out that discerning light and informing wisdome which hee hath given thee Hee that doth not integrally compose himself and will not carefully strive for perfection would represent God to be imperfect and a Monster Virtuous manners saith holy Maximus are types of the Divine goodnesse by which God descends to be represented by man assuming for a body those holy habits and for a soule the Innocent dictates of wisdome in the spirit by which he makes those that are worthy to become Gods and seals them with the true character of Virtue bestowing upon them the solid riches of his infallible and immortal Knowledge Work then while it is day while it is life-time work and cease not Finish this expectation this great spectacle not of men onely but of God and Angels Remember that the rewards and applause of this World are but a Paint of eternity The solid and permanent glory is given in Heaven When every man shall have praise of God The Limbner is carefull to beautifie and shew his utmost skill in that peece which hee knowes to be intended for judicious eyes Thou art not to paint but really to make a living Image of the Divine mind which also must be examined and judged by that searching eye from which nothing can be hidden have a care that no ill mixture nothing disproportionable nothing uneven or adulterate may be found in it The presents we offer to the true God must be true and solid works not the fictitious oblations of Jupiter Milichus Why wilt thou delight in a maimed Soule or which is worse in a Soul whose best part is dead Thou hadst rather have a
him in this mixt multitude some weeping and sighing some without eyes to weep some without hands others without legs some sick and languishing others eaten up with horrid impure ulcers some beging others quarrelling some plotting treason and washing their hands in innocent blood some old and decrepiâ— quivering trembling and leaning upon staves some distracted and bound up in chains others plundered tortured murthered and martyred their murtherers in the mean time pretending Religion Piety and the Glory of God And after all this outward Scene should so enlighten his eyes that he might discover another inward one I meane their secret thoughts and close devices their tyranny covetousnesse sacriledge varnished outwardly with godly pretences dissembled purity and the stale shift of liberty of Conscience Is there any doubt to be made think you but after such impious and astonishing spectacles he would quickly repent of his existence or being and earnestly desire to be dissolved again that he might rest in peace and not be cast into this hospital and valley of villanies which we call the World It is for this cause that wise Nature is so slow and niggardly in her dispensations of reason and maturity unto man lest a sudden perfection should make us loath her and lest the necessary evils of life understood in grosse and upon our first entrance into life should discourage us from undergoing those miseries which by degrees and successive conflicts we more willingly struggle with Abner the Eastern King so soon as his son was born gave order for his confinement to a stately and spatious Castle where he should be delicately brought up carefully kept from having any knowledg of humane calamities he gave speciall command that no distressed person should be admitted into his presence nothing sad nothing lamentable nothing unfortunate no poor man no old man none weeping nor disconsolate was to come near his Palace Youthfulnesse pleasures and joy were alwaies in his presence nothing else was to be seen nothing else was discoursed of in his company A most ridiculous attempt to keep out sorrow with bars and walls and to shut the gates against sadnesse when life is an open door by which it enters His very delights conveigh'd displeasure to him and grief by a distast of long pleasure found way to invade him So constant is pleasure in inconstancy that continual mirth turns it into sadnesse Certainly though Abner by this device might keep all sorrows from the presence of his son hee could not keep them from his sense Hee could keep out and restrain external evils but could not restraine his inherent affections His son longed this made him sad in the very midst of his joyes And what thinkst thou did he long for Truly not to be so cumberd with delights The grief of pleasures made him request his father to loose the bonds of his miserable felicity This suit of the Son crost the intentions of the Father who was forced to give over his device to keep him from sadnesse lest by continuing it he should make him sad He gave him his liberty but charged his attendants to remove out of his way all objects of sorrow The blind the maimed the deformed and the old must not come near him But what diligence is sufficient to conceal the miseries of Mortality they are so numerous that they may as soon be taken out of the world as hidden from those that are in the world Royal power â—â—â—vailed lesse here then humane infirmity for this last took place in spight of the first The Prince in his Recreations meets with an old man blind and leprous the sight astonisheth him he startles trembles and faints like those that swound at the apparition of a Spirit enquires of his followers what that thing might be And being inwardly perswaded that it was some fruit of humane life he became presently wise disliked pleasures condenmed mirth and despised life And that his life might have the least share here where Fortune hath the greatest he rejected the hopes and blandishments of life yea that which is to many the price of two lives his Kingdom and royal Dignity He laboured with all diligence to live so in the world as if he had been dead that by avoyding sin the cause of sorrow he might be though not safe at least secure If this single accident made him so much offended with life what think you would he have done had his liberty been universal and unbounded What if he had seen the inside of those stately Tombes wee build for the worms to eat us in where they feed upon such fat oppressors as have been fed here with the tears and pillage of the oppressed What if he had narrowly searched every corner of the world and seen those necessary uncleannesses in which the birth of man is celebrated in which this miserie is inaugurated by the paines of the Mother and the cries of the Infant What if he had entred into their bed-chambers and bosomes where some sit weeping others wishing some surfeited and sick with fruition where some mourn for their wives others for their children some pine and starve with want others are full and vomit some are troubled with lack of necessaries and others are as much vexed with abundance and superfluity What if after all this search and wide disquisition he could not have found one house without some misfortune and none without tears What if he had been admitted into the breasts of all those whom either domestick hidden griefs lingring diseases worldly cares or an insatiable covetousness is ever tormenting Perhaps thei sight of so many evils had driven him to a refusall of life in which we doe so dye with miseries and by which miseries doe so live in us at least he had earnestly wished and groaned for some means of redemption from so miserable a bondage If any had brought him the joyful news of liberty and affirmed that some were already made free he had certainly envyed them very much and would have been impatient to know the means But when it had been told him that the device and release was death I do not onely think but I verily beleeve that he had both approved of it and would have sought for it more then for hidden treasure He had judged it not onely desirable and convenient but necessary and the greatest felicity and favour that the living could expect If some solitary travellour shut up in a wilderness and surrounded with wild beasts should on the one side see a Tiger making towards him on the other a Lyon and from some third place a scalie winding Serpent or a Basilisk which kils with â—is very looks Whose hissings fright all Natures monstrous Ills His eye darts death more swift then poison kils All Monsters by instinct to him give place They fly for life for death lives in his face And hee alone by Natures hid commands Reigns Paramont and Prince of all the sands If these with a thousand
he that violates his own body and makes way for the Soul to flye out with his own hands is damned by the very Act but if another doth it to him it is both his Salvation and his Crown The heathens esteemed it no honour for Captives to have their bonds loosed It was their freedome but not their glory When the jugde himself did break off their Chaines that they accounted honorable By this Ceremony did Vespasian and Titus acknowledge the worth of Joseph the Jew This vindicated his integrity By cutting his bonds with their Imperial hand they freed him both from captivity and disgrace Titus said that if they would break off his fetters and not stay to take them off his honour would be so perfectly repaired by it as if he had been never bound nor overcome The same difference in point of honour is betwixt the naturall death and the violent betwixt dying when wee are full of daies and the death which Tyrants impose upon us when we are mangled and grinded by their fury This honour is then greatest when the body is not dissolved but distorted and broken into peeces Certainly the best men have ever perished by the violence of Tyrants nature to preserve her innocence being very backward and unwilling as it were to take away such great and needfull examples of goodnesse Treachery and violence were ordained for the just in the dâ—ath of Abel who dyed by the wicked This better sort of death was in him consecrated to the best men those persons whom Nature respects and is loath to medle with envy laies hands upon Whom the one labours to preferre the other plotteth to destroy Nor deals she thus with the good only but with the eminent and mighty too thus she served Hector Alexander and Caesar the goodliest object is alwaies her aim When Thrasybulus the Astrologer told Alexander the Roman that he should end his daies by a violent death he answered that he was very glad of it for then said he I shall dye like an Emperour like the best and the greatest of men and not sneak out of the World like a worthlesse obscure fellow But the death of these Glorioli was not truly glorious I have onely mentioned them because that a passive death though wanting religion hath made their honour permanent That death is the truly glorious which is seald with the joy of the sufferers spirit whose Conscience is ravished with the kisses of the Dove Who can look upon his tormentour with delight and grow up to Heaven without diminution though made shorter on Earth by the head This is the death which growes pretious by contempt and glorious by disgrace Whose sufferer runs the race set before him with patience and finisheth it with joy We are carefull that those things which are our own may be improved to the utmost and why care wee not for death what is more ours then mortality Death should not be feared because it is simply or of it self a great good and is evill to none but to those that by living ill make their death bad What ever evil is in death it is attracted from life If thou preservest a good Conscience while thou livest thou wilt have no feare when thou dyest thou wilt rejoyce and walke homeward singing It is life therefore that makes thee fear death If thou didst not fear life if life had not blasted the joyes of death thou wouldst never be afraid of the end of sorrowes Death therefore is of it self innocent sincere healthfull and desirable It frees us from the malignancie and malice of life from the sad necessities and dangerous errours we are subject to in the body That death whose leaders are Integrity and virtue whose cause is Religion is the Elixir which gives this life its true tincture and makes it immortal To dye is a common and trivial thing for the good and the bad dye and the bad most of all but to dye willingly to dye gloriously is the peculiar priviledge of good men It is better to leave life voluntarily then to be driven out of it forcibly let us willingly give place unto posterity Esteem not life for its own sake but for the use of it Love it not because thou wouldst live but because thou mayst do good works while thou livest Now the greatest work of life is a good death If life then ought to be lesse esteemed then good works who would not purchase a good death with the losse of life why should we be afeared of politick irreligious Tyrants and an arm of flesh though guarded with steele Nature it selfe threatens us with death and frailty attends us every hour Why will we refuse to dye in a good cause when 't is offered us who may dye ill the very next day after let us not promise our selves a short life when our death assures us of eternal glory But if it were granted that death were neither good nor honourable but evill and fearfull why will not we take care for that which we fear Why do we neglect that which we suspect Why if it be evill do not wee arme and defend our selves against it we provide against dangerous contingencies we labour against casuall losses and we neglect this great and enevitable perill To neglect death and to contemn death are two things none are more carefull of it then those that contemne it none feare it more then those that neglect it and which is strange they fear it not because they have neglected it but they neglect it when they fear it they dare not prepare for it for fear of thinking of it O the madnesse and Idlenesse of mankind to that which they adjudge to be most Evill they come not onely unprepared but unadvisedly and without so much as forethought What mean we what do we look for Death is still working and wee are still idle it is still travelling towards us and we are still slumbering and folding our hands Let us awake out of this darke and sleepy state of mind let us shake off these dreams and vain propositions of diverse lusts let us approve of truth and realities let us follow after those things which are good let us have true joy made sure unto us and a firm security in life in death Sickness and death you are but sluggish things And cannot reach a heart that hath got wings FINIS THE WORLD CONTEMNED IN A Parenetical Epistle written by the Reverend Father EVCHERIVS Bishop of Lyons to his Kinsman VALERIANVS Love not the VVorld neither the things that arâ— in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Ioh. 2.15 They are of the world therefore speake they of the world and the world heareth them Chap. 4. vers 5. If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you Ioh. 15. verse 18. If ye were of the world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world out I
who neither can enjoy ought that is pleasant at the present nor lay up for themselves any hope of true joyes hereafter They misse the fruition of this short life and can have no hope of the everlasting They abuse these temporal blessings and shall never be admitted to use the eternall Their substance here is very little but their hope there is none at all A most wretched and deplorable condition unless they make a virtue of this desperate necessity and lay hold on the onely soveraign remedy of bettering their estate by submitting in time to the wholsome rules of heavenly and saving reason Especially because the goodliest things of this present time are such rags and fragments that he that loseth the whole fraught and true treasure of that one precious life which is to come may be justly said to lose both It remaines then that we direct and fixe all the powers of our minds upon the hope of the life to come Which hope that you may morefully and clearly apprehend it I shall manifest unto you under a type or example taken from temporal things If some man should offer unto another five peeces of silver this day but promise him five hundred peeces of gold if he would stay till the next morning and put him to his choice whither he would have the silver at present or the gold upon the day following is there any doubt to be made but he would chuse the greater sum though with a little delay Goe you and doe the like Compare the Crummes and perishing pittance in this short life with the glorious and enduring rewards of the eternall And when you have done chuse not the least and the worst when you may have the greatest and the best The short fruition of a little is not so beneficial as the expectation of plenty But seeing that all the fraile goods of this world are not onely seen of us but also possessed by us It is most manifest that hope cannot belong unto this world in which we both see and enjoy those things we delight in For Hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for Rom. 8. ver 24. Therefore however hope may be abused and misapplyed to temporal things it is most certaine that it was given to man and ordained for the things that are eternal otherwise it cannot be called hope unlesse something bee hoped for which as yet or for the present life is not had Therefore the substance of our hope in the world to come is more evident and manifest then our hope of substance in the present Consider those objects which are the clearest and most visible when we would best discern them we put them not into our eyes because they are better seen and judged of at a distance It is just so in the case of present things and the future For the present as if put into our eyes are not rightly and undeceivably seen of us but the future because conveniently distant are most clearly discerned Nor is this trust and Confidence wee have of our future happinesse built upon weak or uncertain Authors but upon our Lord and Master JESUS CHRIST that allmighty and faithfull witnesse who hath promised unto the just a Kingdome without end and the ample rewards of a most blessed eternity Who also by the ineffable Sacrament of his humanity being both God and Man reconciled Man unto God and by the mighty and hidden mystery of his passion absolved the World from sinne For which cause he was manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed upon in the World and received into glory Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that every tongue should confesse that the Lord JESUS is in glory both God and King before all ages Casting off then the vaine and absurd precepts of Philosophy wherein you busie your selfe to no purpose embrace at last the true and saving Knowledge of Christ You shall find even in that imployment enough for your eloquence and wit and will quickly discern how far these precepts of piety and truth surpasse the conceits and delirations of Philosophers For in those rules which they give what is there but adulterate virtue and false wisedom and what in ours but perfect righteousnesse and sincere truth Whereupon I shall Justly conclude that they indeed usurpe the name of Philosophy but the substance and life of it is with us For what manneâ— of rules to live by could they give who were ignorant of the first Cause and the Fountain of life For not knowing God and deviating in their first principles from the Author and the Wel-spring of Justice they necessarily erred in the rest Hence it happened that the end of all their studies was vanity and dissention And if any amongst them chanced to hit upon some more sober and honest Tenets these presently ministred matter of pride and Superstitiousnesse so that their very Virtue was not free from vice It is evident then that these are they whose Knowledge is Earthy the disputers of this world the blind guides who never saw true justice nor true wisedome Can any one of that School of Aristippus be a teacher of the truth who in their Doctrine and Conversation differ not from swine and unclean beasts seeing they place true happinesse in fleshly lusts whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame Can he be a Master of Sobriety and Virtue in whose School the riotous the obscene and the adulterer are Philosophers But leaving these blind leaders I shall come againe to speak of those things which were the first motives of my writing to you I advise you then and I beseech you to cast off all their Axioms orgeneral Maxims collected out of their wild and irregular disputations wherein I have knowne you much delighted to imploy those excellent abilities bestowed upon you in the study of holy Scripture the wholsom instructions of Christian Philosophers There shall you be fed with various and delightfull learning with true and infallible wisedome There to incite you to the Faith you shall hear the Church speaking to you though not in these very words yet to this purpose He that believes not the word of God understands it not There you shall hear this frequent admonition Feare God because he is your Master honour him because he is your Father There it shall be told you that the most acceptable Sacrifice to God are justice and mercy There you shall be taught that If you love your self you must necessarily love your neighbour for you can never do your selfe a greater Courtesie then by doing good to another There you shall be taught that there can be no worldly cause so great as to make
overwhelme thee Of such an Immoderate use is Temperance and I Judge Patience to be of no lesser Happily it may be easier for having learnt to abstain we may the better sustain Impatience ariseth naturally out of Cupidity and feare is the Daughter of hope Cast these away and you will find that an adverse Fortune may be entertained not onely with Patience but with much wellcome Crates or Zeno a gallant man if either of the two being at Sea in a great storm caus'd all his goods wherewith the Ship was Loaden to be thrown over board and thanked Fortune for the kindnesse doe thou the like and approving of thy misfortunes say It is well done Fortune thou hast read me a good lesson thou hast had care of my Soul I thank thee that thou art Come thy selfe to fetch these burthens which I should have brought thee home Thou hast dealt courteously to lend me their use and to prevent their Abuse I like thy Method and prefer thy advise to thy favours I know thy meaning I must make a wise use of these crosses I must have recourse to virtue to my self and to my God Thou dost not onely Incite but compell me to goodnesse I am brought safe to shore by the splitting of the Ship hereafter I will be better provided Behold thou hast left yet behind thee some moveables which thou shouldst have taken with thee they are thine by right Thou gavest me so many things that thou canst not well remember them I desire not to conceale them take all thy Reliques and appendencies with thee all that is here besides my selfe I hold thy leavings not worthy of acceptance from the mind of man I wish that we would so deal with Fortune as a certain old man did with theeves that came to rob his house Take with you said he all that you see here They did so leaving nothing behind them but an empty purse which the old man tooke up and following after called to them Take this also with you which you forgot to put up Fortune perhaps amazed at such a Noble Serene disposition would restore all It is most certaine the Theeves did But let a Christian reject this figment of Fortune and in all worldly mutations acknowledge and kisse the divine hand But if after all this thou wilt not excuse the outward and ravenous manners of Fortune there will be no Just cause for thee to accuse them having received no damage by her If thou wilt purge thy mind from wishes and hopes thou mayst safely place thy selfe before her very Arrowes and defie them And truly I believe it will be thy most secure station When Stratonicus saw an unskilfull fellow shooting at Buts he got presently close to the VVhite as the onely place free from danger and being asked his reason for that unusual Refuge he answered Least that fellow should hit me Fortune we say is blind stand then in her way She hits that the least which she most aimes at but if all her shafts should fall upon thee they can draw no blood from thee as long as thou art not drawn by covetousnesse If you break off the point of the Weapon it cannot hurt you Our own Covetousnesse is Fortunes edged toole take that away and you disarme her and secure your selfe blunt weapons wound not to blood I suppose now that Epictetus his abridgement or reduction of Philosophy into two words Abstain and Sustain will seeme prolix enough to you The first we have past through the second and last I meane Sustain or the Art of bearing well wee shall find tedious enough Hee cannot be said to wish for nothing that finds fault with that which he hath This bearing well is to desire nothing but what wee have A Serene bright Will then not clouded with thick and muddy desires will find the burdens of Fortune to be very light For Fortune of her selfe is very light and easie but she hath for pannels our own Lusts which are heavier than her packs and without these shee puts not one loade upon us Nothing tires and weighs us down but our own wishes which evills being ignorant that our burthen proceedes from them we multiply with an Intent to ease our selves but in the meane time the weight increaseth A certain plain Countryman wearied with ploughing and returning home from the field after his daies task tyed the Plough to his Asse and afterwards mounted himself upon his back but the tyred Asse and overloaden could not stirre from the place whereupon the Country-man lights and with the Plough upon his backe remounting the Asse tells him Now I hope thou canst goe well for it is not thou but I that carry the Plough Wee are every day as ridiculous though not so harmlesse as this Country-man Wee study with new cares and new desires to ease and diminish our old lusts which not onely keepes under but choaks and presseth to death all the seeds of Joy and Content This is nothing else but to retain the former load undiminish'd and to put another on the top of it As long as we tolerate these burthens we become intollerable to our selves without any exaggeration of Fortune Let us shake them off let us cast off hope that troublesome Tympany so shall we find Fotune light and be able to bear both her and our selves All things may be born of him that bears not future Evills Those are grievous burthens which miraculously oppresse us and so strangly accommodate themselves to our hurt that they exist in the heart and vexe it before they can exist in time Not onely Evil but Good when it is hovering and uncertain doth afflict us Of Evills themselves there cannot come so many together upon us as we can feare fortune can throw at us but few darts at one time and were she not still furnished by our lusts we should quickly see her quiver empty Abstinence then or the restraining of our desires is the Nurserie of patience by a like title as the toleration of evill and good But when I name Patience I speake not of a Simple thing for there is not onely patience in Evill but in Good also and this later is sometimes the most difficult There is one when we suffer and another when we act There be also other divisions of Patience Holy Ephrem makes it threefold the first towards god the second towards the tempter or wicked Angel and the third towards man I shall add a fourth and the most difficult of all towards our selves or I will make it onely twofold first towards those that are without us the second and last towards our selves or those commotions which fight against us from within This last is the greatest because it teacheth us to beare those pressures which lean upon us and bow us down It is harder to resist those weights which come forcibly upon us from above then those which come oppositly or over against us The beasts can draw more after them then they
right of Inheritance to none more to none better then to the Innocent But now even by this those suffer most that should suffer least the good and the Just But those sufferings are most sacred that are most unjust Adam found out afflictions and Abel Patience the medicine presently followed the disease Evills were the Inventions of Sinne Patience was the Device of Innocence So that Patience as their peculiar Treasure abounds more and is more beloved by the Just then by any else But that Posthume Cry of Abel proceeded not from Impatience For God would not have taken to himself the cause of one dying discontentedly and with Indignation but as devout Alexandrinus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Abel the Just dying unjustly was the first of men that shewd the foundations of death to be ruinous wherefore he being dead yet speaketh Death whose right came by unrighteousnesse laid ruinous foundations indeed because ill-layd upon the Just dying unjustly It hath cause to grieve that it erred so fouly in its first stroke seeing it might have made a better beginning in wicked Cain But there was Divinitie in it that death taking possession of mankind by the Murther of the Just might be justly exterminated and swallowed up in Victory by the undefiled Virgin-Prince of the Just who for that end was born of a Virgin Ephrem saith that death howled or lamented in her very beginning which shewed what would be her end The Hern by instinct of Nature Chatters and mourns before he becomes the prey of the Falcon. Death dyed by him over whom she had no power Only there is the night of death where sin where corruption lives Another tie of Constancy laid upon the World after a convenient space was Job who retained his Patience after prosperity and after Innocence Patience is no where merrier nor better contented with it self then in the Innocent Integrity and Fortune seldome lodge together Adversity is the Whetstone which keepes it from rust and makes it shine No Virtues can subsist without troubles which are their foode They live not commodiously where their Provision is farre from them Wherefore holy and Just men have adversity alwaies like a Well at their dores I shall take up then with that saying of Eliphaz Affliction comes not forth of the dust nor doth trouble spring out of the ground but rather from Heaven and comes oftner to holy and heavenly livers then to Worldly and unrighteous persons After Job and at a convenient distance from his time was Tobiah appointed who instead of Celandine made use of Patience to heal his Eyes being blindâ—d by the Swallows he found a more pretious medicine then their Heâ—be and his glory is more by bearing with the living than burying the dead This holy man also after Innocence though not after prosperity retained his Patience untill at last the Son of God himselfe after Impassibility and Allmightinesse became wofully passible and humbled himself to the death of the Crosse of so great an example was Patience worthy and so necessary was this voluntary passion of God himselfe to our fatall necessity of suffâ—ring By this mighty example of himself he hath sanctified Patience to be the All-heal or Universal Antidote of Evills and the Soveraign Lenitive of sorrowes Divinely did one sing to the blessed JESUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou the Nepenthe easing griefe Art and the minds healing reliefe At this secret Counsel of the Almighty did the rude Instincts or hallucinations rather of the old Heathens proceeding noe doubt from their sense of Humane misery blindly aime They dreamt of some Son of God to be the great exemplar of Patience and pattern of Virtue but finding none they made and proposed to themselves Hercules the Son of Jupiter for a president of continuall Patience Obedience and Virtue about whose labours and atchievements Antiquity hath mightily pleas'd it self with lies and Fables This indeed they rightly apprehended that labour or troubles are rather repugnant to then unworthy of Divinity they held them becomming Virâ—ue and withall necessary that they might adorne Patience with these two Jewells the reward of suffering and the dignity of the Sufferer But the Truth of God hath now outdone the Fictions of men It hath exceede all they did licentiously wish but could not hope for Our Patience is now sufficiently instructed by the SONNE of God who is the pleasant remedy and Panacea of Evills The blessed JESUS breathed nothing but Patience nothing but mildnesse in his life in his Doctrine These are the great examples which true Christians should follow not those of spurious Patience and a narrow heathen fortitude which after it had born some Evills indeed dyed at the root and could not bear it self Seneca otherwise in many things a very true and sometimes a Christian Philosopher proposeth to his readers the example of Cato but I utterly reject it for he destroyed himselfe because he could not save his Common-wealth What Constancy was here though in a state that concern'd not his private happinesse or what manner of Constancy was that which durst not endure and hold out but was overcome not by irrecoverable fallen affaires but falling Not collasped and ruin'd but tottering and doubtfull I confesse it was a spectacle which the Eye of God Intentive to his great and various works might behold with glory and I confesse him a brave Heathen Ill-disposed But I see nothing glorious and excellent in him nothing of true worth but what I can find as wel in the most degenerate and womanish Sardanapalus If wee look upon Cato amidst the publick ruines wee shall finde him overthrowne and laid along where an old wall stands up no Enemy having touch'd him A most unworthy man if he was a man to fall thus basely like a Woman who at the noyse of any thing suddenly thrown down casts her self to the ground and squeaks though untouch'd and far enough from danger But thou wilt say Though all things became subject to one man though his legions possest the Earth and his Navies the Seas yea though Caesars own regiment was in the gates yet Cato made his way out An honest voice if it were not flattery I tell thee he did not make his way but sneakt and fled out most shamefully His legs could not carry him off and therefore hee ran away upon his hands But it is all one flye with which he will it is a plain flight his busie and searching fear which in him by reason of a sudden unmanly astonishment was most Sagacious shew'd him this postern or backdoor which he most basely fled out at But what could that man be afraid of that had born so often the Assaults of Fortune He feared that very same Fortune How can that be say'st thou seeing he had coped with her so long before For that valour let him thank his errour He believed Fortune according to her old vogue to be still inconstant he expected that the Tyde should turne
legal and politick punishment that in Phalaris it was a Tyrannical devise in Cain the Divine vengeance and in Adam and Eve the Justice of Nature God Nature Reason and fury it selfe which in this case must not be defined madnesse do all beare witnesse that selfe-condemnation or the guilt of conscience is of all others the most bitter and avenging torment Adde to this that the certainty of it is as infallible and inevitable as the extremity and fiercenesse of it are implacable there was never any Tyrant so cruel but would pardon some offender There was none so severely inquisitive but some might either escape from him or deceive him But the rigour of conscience permits neither favour flight nor fraud It is utterly inexorable and neither our feete will serve us to ran away nor our hands to free us whither shall a man ran from himselfe from the secrets of his own spirit from his life No man can be an Impostour or dissembler with his own heart no man can undo what he hath already done to have sinned is the remediless plague of the Soul It was a slow expression of Victor that Vengeance is near to sinne It is swifter then so It is not consectaneous or in chase of it but coetaneous with it and its foster-sister The punishment hath the same birth with the offence and proceedes from it It is both the Sister and the Daughter of it Wickednesse cannot be brought forth without its penalty The brest that conceives the one is big with the other and when the one is borne he is delivered of both It is a fruitfullnesse like that of Mice whose young ones are included the one in the other and generate in the very wombe Conscience while man thinkes of Evill even before he acts doth rebuke that thought so that the punishment is praeexistent to the crime though in the reigne of Virtue it is noiselesse and uselesse as penal Lawes are dead letters untill they are quickned by offenders It is then in its minority and without a sting or else it is asleep untill the Cry of Sinne awakes it In the state of Evill Conscience is the first and the last revenger when smal offences are wiped out enormous crimes like capital letters will still remain No man can find a Sanctuary to save him from himself No evill doer can so fly for refuge as to be secure though he may be safe Hee will be afraid in that place where he thought not to fear Though he fears not the friends of the murthered yet he finds that within him which makes him sore afraid He may escape the Executioner and the sword but he will be overtaken by himselfe and being safe hee will be afraid even of his safety Though he may find fidelity in his fellow-Tyrants yet shall he find none in his own bosome which is ever clamorous and spues out blood and guilt Nature deviseth such a punishment for evill doers as that which tyed living Malefactors unto the putrid Carkasses of dead men that the horrour and stench of them might afflict their spirits and the quick flesh be infected and devoured by the dead and rotten The punishment sticks fast unto us after the offence whose carkasse is terrour of Conscience Shame and a gnawing remorse that feeds still upon the faulty but is not satisfied The guilty person can have noe peace But night and day doth his owne life molest And bears his Judge and witnesse in his brest Adde to this that Reason which in all other pressures and misfortunes is the great Auxiliary and Guardian of man is in an offended Conscience his greatest Enemy and imploys all her forces to his vexation and ruine Fortune therefore is not the onely cause of our contristation we our selves do arm adversities and put a sword into the hand of griefe to wound us with we are sticklers against our selves Evill Actions afflict more then Evill Fortune We are not onely troubled that it was Chaunce but that it was our Choice It is the worst kind of misery to be made miserable by our owne approbation That evill which we procure to our selves must needs grieve us more then that which we casually suffer Noe damage is so doleful as a condemning conscience Truly I do believe that the onely misfortune of Man is Sinne. And so very bad and mischievous a Cheat it is that when it is most punished wee think it most prospers neither can Fortune be justly termed Evil but when she is the Assistant of Evill men and the surety for Evill doing This permitted successe makes the affaires of the most unrighteous to be esteemed Just This is a felicity like that of beasts which we put into pleasant and well watered pastures that they may be fed for slaughter Against this true misfortune as well as the false and seeming Patience must be our Antidote not by bearing but by abstaining from it Patience in this Case must elevate it selfe and passe into a virtuous anger and contempt of sinfull prosperity We must be piously impatient of all their proffers and poisonous allurements Impatient I say that we may patiently overcome them Therefore as I have formerly exhibited the Art of bearing well to be the onely remedy against Fortune So now I shall demonstrate to you that the Art of abstaining well is the sole medicine against these true and inward misfortunes Differing diseases must have different cures Patience is the poyson that kills Fortune and the Balm that heales her stripes but a sacred impatience or abstinence from Sinne is the Antidote of Conscience and the Basis or foundation of this holy impatience is transcendent and triumphant Patience To mitigate or overcome Fortune is a trivial trick Flattery will do it if we can but descend to approve of and commend all that she doth To preserve the peace of Conscience wee must be rigid and censorious We must speak home and truly We must examine before we Act and admit of no Action that wil be a just cause but for to blush The approaches of Fortune are abstruse She moves not within the light of Humane wisedome or if she doth the strength of her Prerogative lies betwixt Willingnesse and Constraint It is a kind of fatal fooling Man playes with his Stars untill they hurt him But the cause of an evill Conscience is within our view and may be prevented by Counsell For no man can Sinne against his Will or without his Knowledge One naile must drive out another He that would avoyd damnation must avoid also those things which are damnable He cannot grieve too much that grieves only to prevent Eternal griefe The helps we use against Fortune are after-games But the Salves of Conscience must precede the wound the cure of spirituall diseases is their prevention In the affaires of this World the best man is the experienced But in the distresses and affaires of Conscience he is the wisest that is most ignorant A noxious Knowledge is death and every
yet seem to be very tender and sensible of her lightest strokes It is one thing to be subject to these affections and another to rule them To be had of them and to have them He that would loose others must not be bound himselfe When Musâ—nianus observed a Troop of horse that was under his command to halt and make a stand expecting some Omen from a bird that had suddenly pitched before them he bent his bow and riding up to the front of the Troop shot at the bird and killed him Then laughing at their folly he told them that there was but litle advice or help to be expected from such irrational creatures that were not onely ignorant of the destiny of others but could not foresee their own ill luck Wee must look first to our own safety afterwards to others The hand of the helper should make the first assay upon himself He that experimentally knowes he can swim is fi to save another that is in danger to be drtowned But when I speak of tendernesse and a seeming complyance with the weaknesse of others I mean not dissimulation I allow a community of tears but not of the cause of tears Let the miserable bewail their misery and let the wise man mourne with those that mourn because they mourne amisse not because they suffer Let him not mourne for the power of Fortune but for the weaknesse of man When a friend of Solon found him weeping hee told him That tears were not the potion against Fortune and would therefore profit nothing I know it well said Solon and that is it which I Lament He bewailed the tears of others not the cause of their tears That is it which a wise man the enemy and the avenger upon Fortune may justly bewail to see men weep when weeping availes not He is troubled not because they suffer but because they will not be comforted yea because they will not be men He thinkes not that it is Evill to suffer worldly afflictions Nay hee knowes it is good but he knowes withall that worldly sorrowes slay the Soul This is the consideration that calls forth his tears Hee wisely distinguisheth that man is not made miserable by any outward accidents but by his own opinion For no man is made unhappy because he exists or is but because he thinks himselfe to be so The wise man bewailes a greater Evil then the Evil of misfortune and that is the inability of some men to beare Evil. Hee mourns not because they are Patients but for their impatience The true or reall Evil which he knowes to be in them is their ignorance of false or reputed Evills That which causeth him to weep is their causelesse weeping He that disguiseth his constancie thus dissembles not I make not a wise man to be impassible but enduring and compassionate yea the Patient of compassions Though I exempt him from the crowd and populacie I place him not above Humanity Though he is no peere of the Multitude yet he descends to pitty them But we doe not therefore disturb his peace and serenity because he is mercifull and condoling but because it is his expectation his desire He is not stormy nor treacherous nor base but courteous liberal and happy he is in all estates master of himself he is kept fresh and pleasant by the secret Joyes and vivifications of an unoffended Conscience It was well said by the School-Divine That the tears of the righteous were the smiles of their Soules Gregory Nazianzen commended his Brother Cesarius for his honest dissimulation with the dissembling Court. He was inwardly an Anachorite and outwardly a Courtier In publick and splendid affaires affaires which are more seducing and inconstant then private this policie is necessary Wee should alwaies have a snare ready for them that we may escape theirs In the downright blowes of Fortune that is in our own domestick losses We should be sincere and naked we should put on nothing but our native complexion and a serene mind In this Case wee should be so undaunted as to looke upon upon Fortune and overcome her without any weapons we should set naked upon her not onely without defensive armes but without cloaths In the dangers of others we must deal otherwise wee must use all means to secure them Wee must deal with Fortune as she deals with us by disguises and stratagems All her wares are but gilded clouds a Superficiall wash they are not that which they seem to be to be true to our selves wee must be false to these wee must not trust them Shee cannot require more from us or better then what shee gives Her Good and her Evill are both counterfeits and he that dissembles with them offends not The riches of this world are not sound within Wee may not for thâ—ir sakes corrupt our Soules and be madâ— like unto them Let the peace of Coâ—â—â—â—â—nce shine within upon a white and undefiled Throne though wee look mournfull and ragged without No Man deals better or more justly with this World then he that lends her his face but keeps his heart This is the Nature of the World to give us a fair looke and an empty hand Consider thy selfe How often hast thou been that Creature which thou didst not seem to be All the accoutrements of Fortune all her pomp and the transitory course thereof when laid out with the best advantage seemes to me but a Stage-play Her most glorious favourits passe by like Whifflers which carry Torches in their hands onely to shew the deformity of their vizards They hasten away and like To speedy posts bear hence the Lamp of life All the glory of this World hath darknesse and treachery in it It passeth gloomily by us like high-way-men that traverse the road with veiled faces hee that will be even with this Counterfeit must clap on a vizard too and by an honest dissimulation preserve himself In the funeralls of our friends our kindred and benefactors wee may moderately mourne but we must not lose our Patience nor that Christian peace which is the golden fruit of faith and hope The great mercy of God hath so provided that Evill when it sets upon us is but an apparition there comes good presently after it To live well we have in our selves more then enough we need not any extraneous help our very desiring of it makes us miserable So excellently best is our condition that the blessed life is ours gratis but misery we must hunt after The happy life needes neither riches nor wishes Misery cannot be had without desiring and it is never given without Covetousnesse which is the price paid for it Wee suffice of our selves for a happy life why not for meere life which is something lesse shall we think our selves poor because we abound with the means of happinesse As long as the batteries of Fortune cannot shake the mind nor make the wil to fly into shivers the heart is whole and our peace is secure Her musters
the darknesse hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee Therefore willing or unwilling though they should absent themselves from the Lord of all the world by their Wills yet shall they never be able to get their persons out of his Jurisdiction and Supreme right They are absent from him indeed in their Love and affections But he is present with them in his prerogative and anger So then being ranagates they are shut up and which is a most impious madnesse thâ—y live without any consideration or regard of God but within his power And if these being earthly Masters when their servants run away from them with a furious and hasty search pursue after them or if they renounce their service prosecute them for it and become the assertours of their owne right over them why will not they themselves render unto their Master which is in Heaven his most just right Why will they not stay in his Family and freely offer themselves unto his service and be as impartial Judges in the cause of God as in their own Why with so much dotage do we fixe our Eyes upon the deceitfull lookes of temporal things Why do we rest our selves upon those thornes onely which wee see beneath us Is it the Eye alone that wee live by Is there nothing usefull about us but that wanderer We live also by the eare and at that Inlet wee receive the glad tydings of Salvation which fill us with earnest grones for our glorious liberty and the consummation of the promises Whatsoever is promised whatsoever is preached unto us let us wait for it with intentive wishes and most eager desires That faithfull one the blessed Author of those promises assures us frequently of his fidelity and performance let us covet earnestly his best promises Bâ—t notwithstanding this which hath been spoken if a sober and virtuous use were made of the Eye we might by that very faculty be drawn to a certaine sacred longing after Immortality and the powers of the World to come if that admiration which by contemplating the rare frame of the World wee are usually filled with were returned upon the glorious Creatour of it by our praises and benediction of him Or if we would meditate what a copious active and boundlesse light shall fill our eyes in the state of Immortality seeing so fair a luminary is allowed us in the state of corruption Or what transcendent beauty shall be given to all things in that eternall World seeing this transitory one is so full of Majesty and freshnesse There can be no excuse for us if we sollicite the faculties of these members to abuse and perversenesse Let them rather be commodiously applyed to both lifes and so minister to the use of the temporall as not to cast off their duty to the Eternal But if pleasure and love delight us and provoke our Senses there is in Christian Religion a love of infinite comfort and such delights as are not nauseous and offensive after fruition There is in it that which not onely admits of a most vehement and overflowing love but ought allso to be so beloved namely God blessed for evermore the onely beautifull delightfull immortal and Supreme good whom you may boldly and intimately love as well as piously if in the room of your former earthly affections you entertain Heavenly and holy desires If you were ever taken with the magnificence and dignity of another person there is nothing more magnificent then God If with any thing that might conduce to your honour and glory there is nothing more glorious then him If with the splendour and excellencie of pompous showes there is nothing more bright nothing more excellent If with fairnesse and pleasing objects there is nothing more beautifull If with verity and righteousnesse there is nothing more just nothing more true If with liberality there is nothing more bountifull If with incorruption and simplicity there is nothing more sincere nothing more pure then that Supreme goodnesse Are you troubled that your treasure and store is not proportionable to your mind The Earth and the fullnesse thereof are under his lock Do you love any thing that is trusty and firm There is nothing more friendly nothing more faithfull then him Do you love any thing that is beneficial There is no greater benefactor Are you delighted with the graviâ—y or gentleness of any object there is nothing more terrible then his Almightinesse nothing more mild then his goodnesse Do you love refreshments in a low estate and a merry heart in a plentifull Joy in prosperity and comforts in adversity are both the dispensations of his hand Wherefore it stands with all reason that you should love the giver more then his gifts and him from whom you have all these things more then the things themselves Riches Honours and all things else whose present lustre attracts and possesseth your heart are not onely with him but are now also had from him Recollect your dispersed and hitherto ill-placed affections imploy them wholly in the Divine service Let this dissolute love and compliance with worldly desires become chast piety and wait upon sacred affaires Call home your devious and runnagate thoughts which opinion and custome have sadly distracted and having supprest old errors direct your love to his proper object bestow it wholy upon your Maker For all that you can love now is his his alone and none else For of such infinitenesse is he that those who do not love him deale most injuriously because they cannot love any thing but what is his But I would have an impartial judgement to consider whether it be just for him to love the work and hate the Workman and having cast by and deserted the Creator of all things to run and seize upon his creatures every where and without any difference according to his perverse and insatiable lust Whereas it behoved him rather to invite God to be gratious and loving to him by this very affection to his works if piously layd out And now man gives himself over to the lusts and service of his own detestable figments and most unnaturally becomes a lover of the Art and neglects the Artificer adores the Creature and despiseth the Creator And what have we spoken all this while of those innumerable delights which are with him or of the infinite and ravishing sweetnesse of his ineffable Goodnesse the sacred and inexhaustible treasure of his Love or when will it be that any shall be able to expresse or conceive the dignity and fulnesse of any one Attribute that is in him To love him then is not onely delightfull but needfull For not to love him whom even then when we love we cannot possibly requite is impious and not to returne him such acknowledgements as we are able whom if we would we can never recompence is most unjust For what shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards