and warre in the world and of the subsistence and revolution of Empires Who would beleeve that at the same time he tels the number of our hairs and that not so much as one sparrow falls to the ground without his speciall appointment but that we are told it by his own mouth and that our experience assureth us of his care of the least of our actions and accidents of our life Here wee must rest amazed but not silent for our very ignorance must help us to admire and extoll that depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God whose eye and hand is in all places whose strength sustaineth whose providence guideth all things and taketh as much care of each of his creatures as if he had nothing else to looke to If our minds be swallowed up in the depths of Gods wisdome this one depth calls in another deep which brings no lesse amazement but gives more comfort that is the fatherly love of God to us his children Eph. 3.18 O the bredth the length the depth the heighth of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge the bredth that embraceth Jewes and Gentiles having broken the partition wall to make a large room to his wide love that his way might be known upon earth his saving health among all Nations Psalm 67.2 The length which hath elected us before the foundation of the world and will make us live and reigne with himselfe for ever The depth which hath drawne us out of the lowest pit of sorrow death to effect that hath drawn him down to that low condition The height which hath raised us up to heaven with him and makes us sit together with him in heavenly places With what miracles of mercy hath he preserved his Church from the beginning of the world How many graces doth he poure upon the several members thereof nourishing our bodies comforting our souls reclaiming us from iniquity by the gift of repentance and faith keeping off the malice of men and evill Angels from us by the assistance of his good Angels delivering our life from death our eyes from teares and our feet from falling But before and after all other benefits we must remember that principal benefit never sufficiently remembred Col. 1.12 Giving thankes unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Sonne in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgivenesse of sins This is the highest top of our felicity the main ground of the peace of the soul and the incomparable subject of the contentment of our minds Yea if we have such a deep sence of that heavenly grace as to praise God continually for it with heart and mouth For as we praise God because he blesseth us he blesseth us because we praise him and by his praise which is the eternal excercise of his blessed Saints we become already partners of their imployment their peace and their joy CHAP. IX Of good Conscience ALl that we have said hitherto regardeth the Principal causes both the efficient and the instrumental of the peace with God There are other causes which of themselves have not that vertue to produce that great peace yet without which it cannot be preserved nor produced neither these are a good conscience and the excercise of good workes Not that the reconciliation made for us with God by the merit of his Son needs the help of our works but becaus the principal point of our reconciliation and redemption is that we are redeemed from iniquity which is done by the same vertue that redeemes us from Hell and by the same operation For it is a damnable self-flattery and self-deceipt for one to beleeve that he is reconciled with God if he feele in himselfe no conversion from that naturall enmity of the flesh against God neither can he enjoy a true peace in his soul In that reconciliation God makes use of our wil for in all agreements both parties must concur and act freely And to make us capable of that freedome God by his spirit looseth the bonds of our unregenerate will naturally enthralled to evill But it will be better to medle but little with the worke of God within us and looke to our owne learning the duties which wee are called unto as necessary if wee will enjoy that great reconciliation The first duty is to walke before God with a good conscience for in vaine should one hope to keepe it tranquil and not good Conscience is the natural sence of the duties of piety and righteousnes warning every man unlesse he be degenerated into a beast to depart from evil and doe good And a good conscience is that which obeyeth that sense and warning But the ordinary use which I will follow by a good conscience understands onely the first part which is to beware of evil This good conscience is so necessary for the enjoying of that peace of God applyed to us by faith that the A postle to the Hebrewes requires it that wee may stand before God with a full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Let us draw neere saith he with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washt with pure water And St Paul chargeth Timothy 1. Tim. 1.19 to hold faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack shewing that faith and a good conscience must goe hand in hand and that the losse of a good conscience ushereth the losse of faith which is consequently followed with the losse of inward peace Whereas a good conscience brings forth confidence as St John teacheth us 1. Joh. 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemne us not then have wee confidence before God By a conscience that condemnes us not wee must not understand a conscience without sinne for there is none such to be found Much lesse a conscience that condemneth not the sinner after he hath sinned for the best consciences are those that forgive nothing to themselves and passe a voluntary condemnation upon themselves before God by a free and penitent confession But the good conscience that condemnes us not according to St Johns sense is that which beares witnes to a man to have walked in sincerity and cannot accuse him to have shut up his eyes since his conversion against the evident lights of truth and righteousnes or to have hardned his heart against repentance after he hath offended God The godly man will remember that the peace betweene God and us was made by way of contract whereby God gives himselfe to us in his Sonne and we give our selves to him If then any refuse to give himselfe to God there is no contract God will not give himselfe to him and so no peace for every contract must be mutual When the one party
who makes Religion a generality of all good in this pregnant text Phil. 4.8 Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest vvhatsoever things are just vvhatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things I hope with Gods helpe to justifie that unto true piety it properly belongs to set a man at peace with God with himselfe and with his neighbours to set a right order in his soul by rectifying his opinions and governing his passions to make him moderate in prosperity and patient in adversity wise tranquill generous and cheerefull as long as he liveth and glorious after his death In these few words I have set downe the argument and order of this Booke If all these are within the precincts of piety very little will remaine for humane wisedome separate from religious to make a man vertuous and happy Charron very wittily alledgeth that many Philosophers have been good and vertuous and yet irreligious To which the answer is that it is an indulgence when they are called good and vertuous without the knowledge and love of the divine and saving truth and that such of them as have been neerest to that title had reverend opinions of the God-head and despised the silly superstitions of that age Also that their want of religion hath made their pretended vertue maimed and monstrous as in the case of killing ones selfe which Charron after Montagne esteeme two much and dares not condemne it without a preface of reverence and admiration This he hath got by separating Vertue from Religion proving by his example that Nature without grace cannot but stumble in the darke and that to guide ones selfe it is not enough to have good eyes but there is neede of the light from above Whereas we should make a faithfull restitution to Religion of all that is vertuous in Pagan Phylosophy as descended from the Father of lights and belonging to the patrimony of the Church this man does the clean contrary robbing Religion of those things which are most essentiall to her to bestow them upon humane wisedome solliciting vertue to shake off her subjection to Religion her mother and Soveraine and to make her selfe absolute and independent Himselfe forgets to whom he oweth that wisedome of which he writes In the Schoole of Religion he had got his best learning to Religion also hee should have done his homage for it Can all the Bookes of humane wisedome afford such a sublime Philosophy aâ— that of the Lord Jesus when hee teacheth us to be prudent as serpents and harmelesse as doves Not to feare them that kill the body and cannot kill the Soul Not to care for the morrow because God cares for it and because to every day is sufficient the affliction thereof Not to lay up treasures in earth where the moth and the rust spoyle all but in Heaven where they spoyle nothing And when he brings us to the schoole of Nature sometimes to weane us from covetous cares by the examples of Lillies of the field which God cloatheth and of the birds of the aire which he feedeth sometimes to perswade us to doe good to our enemies because God makes his Sun to rise upon good and evill and his raine to fall upon the just and unjust How many lessons and examples doe wee finde in Scripture of heroicall magnanimity Such is the Philosophy of St. Paul who professed that when hee was weake then he was strong and that he fainted not because that while the outward man decayed the inward was renewed day by day Such is the Philosophy of the Hebrewes who bore with joy the spoyling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had a better and an induring substance Such also is the Phylosophy of David who was confident never to be removed because God was at his right hand and taking him for the portion of his inheritance he looked through death and the grave to the glorious presence of Gods face and the pleasures as his right hand for evermore This is Theologicall wisedome Is it all frowning chagreene austere servile sad timorous and vulgar Is it not all free chearefull lofty noble generous and rare Let us acknowledge that it is the onely wisedome that makes man free and content If the Sonne of God set us free we shall be free indeed Out of him there is nothing but slavery and anguish Satan the great enemy of God and men could not have devised a more effectuall course to disgrace godlinesse and cast men headlong into perdition then to separate wisedome from religion and portray religious wisedome weeping trembling with a frighted looke and hooded with superflition They that take so much paines to prove that religion and wisedome are things altogether different have a great mind to say if they durst that they are altogether contrary And if any be perswaded by Charron that to be wise and vertuous one needs not be religious he will come of himselfe to beleeve that he that would be religious cannot bee wise and vertuous Certainely who so conceiveth once religious wisedome in that sad servile and timorous Idea which Charron assignes to her must needs think that wisedome and vertue lose their name and goe from their nature when they will be religious There is then nothing more necessary in this age in which Atheisme is dogmatizing and speaking bigge then to demonstrate that the beginning and accomplishment of wisedome is the feare of God And in stead of that prodigious method to withdraw men from religion that is from God to make them wise and content that truth must be prest unto the heart that a man cannot be wise and content but by joyning himselfe with God by a religious beliefe love and obedience That we fall not into a contrary extreme wee must take heede of robbing humane wisedome of her office and praise And we must acknowledge that she needs to be imployed about many things in which piety is not an actour but an overseer But piety must never bee severed from her for where shee gives no rules yet shee sets limits Piety must bee mistresse every where humane wisedome the servant Now it is the servants duty to do many things which the mistresse wil not put her hand to standing more upon her dignity then to descend to inferiour offices In which although piety hath no hand yet she hath an eye to them and lets nothing scape her knowledge On the other side humane wisedome confines not herselfe to inferiour offices but assisteth Piety in the highest She doth her good service when she keepes in her owne ranck But she goeth out of it when she presumes to governe her Mistresse subjecting faith to reason and conscience to worldly interesses In this Treatise I consider piety and wisedome as the meanes to obtaine the peace of the soule and contentment of minde Not to vote for the
of this life He that spared not his own sonne but delivered him up for us all how shal he not with him freely give us all things He that saved our soules from death shall he not deliver our bodies from the dangers of this world Certainly he that hath prepared for us eternal delights at his right hand will not denie us our temporal daily bread This assurance in his love will sweeten our afflictions and lay downe our feares for being persuaded that God as he is infinitely good is also infinitely wise wee must in consequence beleeve that all the evills which he sends us are so many remedies to other evils that our most smarting dolours are corrosives applyed by that wise Physician to eate the proud flesh of our corrupt nature that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3.33 especially when he chastiseth his children but is in a manner forced to that course by their necessity as when a man is pincht by his best friends to awake him out of a deep lethargy And since that eternal friend is every where present by his al-seeing knowledge and almighty power and hath promised besides his gracious presence to his friends saying I will not leave thee nor forsake thee what reason have we of joy confidence at all times in all places and in all the occurrences of this life having God with us allwayes observing us with his eye upholding us with his hand protecting us with his providence guiding us with his wisedome and comforting us with his love The last good office that Faith doeth unto us is in the approaches of death for then especially it doth represent the promises of God unto the faithfull soule and sealeth them afresh knitting that bond of perfectnes the mutual love between God and the conscience faster then ever By it God speakes peace unto the soule aspiring to heaven and makes it spread the wings of holy desires to passe with a swift flight from the combat below to the triumph above Faith bearing up the soule in that last flight changeth name and nature in the way and becomes love to embrace him for ever in glory in whom we have believed in infirmity CHAP. VII Of Christian Hope THe proper action of Faith is to embrace Christ and ground the soul upon him But it hath another action common to it with hope which is to embrace the benefits obtained to us by Christ Of these benefits the present grace is proper to faith which is justification otherwise the Reconciliation of God with the conscience the future glory by the contemplation of Gods face is more proper to Hope Both faith and hope bring a sweet peace and solid content to the soul that loveth God But it is peculiar to hope to adde to that peace a beam of glory much like those spies of Israel that entred into the Land of Promise before the rest of the people to whom they brought some of the fruit of the Land For it entreth into heaven beforehand and from thence brings us a taste of the promised inheritance Hope is the onely thing that puts some value upon the life of this world for all the good of this life consisteth in this that it is a way to a better and that the earth is the tyring-room of the godly soul where she makes herselfe ready for the wedding of the Lamb. But for that what were this life good for It would consist but in two things to do evill and to suffer evill The very goods of this life without that hope would be evill for none among the Pagans and all others that were not sustained by Christian hope was ever made happy The wisest of them have sought the soveraigne good out of the objects of the senses not finding any solid content in sensuall things or actions Solomon wiser then them all had found that all under the Sun was vanity and vexation of spirit and under all he comprehended intellectual as well as sensual things Neither could any give a more judicious verdict of all than he for he had tryed all things Where then shall we find any thing worth the paines of living but in Hope For if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Hope not keeping within the limits of the poor goods of this life liveth already with the life to come for it looks for the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world as himself teacheth us where although he reigne as a soveraigne he reigneth not as a redeemer and so here is not the reigne of his redeemed We find it by experience Who so then will enjoy the peace of the soul and contentment of mind must have his hope and his spirit in a better place for why should we expect of the world more then it hath Can one gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles May one expect peace of a perpetual agitation or a durable content from things of short continuance For the soul of man being created for permanency is contented with nothing lesse then a permanent good which is the essential reason why no man could ever find satisfaction in the world there being such a disproportion between mans soul and the objects that the world presents to her for all worldly things are finite but the soul though finite in her substance is infinite in her desire which nothing lesse then infinity can satisfie Now it is by hope that the soul enjoyeth in this finite world an infinite good It is by hope that we rise from the dead before we dy being advanced to a degree of grace that hath already a streak of glory Of which St Paul giveth this high expression Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory Worldly hopes flatter us and then disappoint us But though they did performe all they promise the present possession of the best things of the world is nothing comparable to the hope onely of heavenly things even that lively hope unto which God hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritane incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.3 O holy and glorious hope which already makes us partakers of Christs resurrection and followers of his ascention even to the right hand of God! already living with the life of Christ animated by his spirit Blessed hope by which we are preserved from the general corruption as with a soveraigne antidote and by which we subsist yea and triumph in afflictions Heb. 10.34 taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods knowing in our selves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance It is by hope that we look joyfully upon our bodies decaying
servants Now because the life of man is laborious and allwayes in action we learne out of Gods example to examine all our works severally and joyntly to see whether they be good and rejoyce when we find them so Thus God said Let the light be and the light was And God saw that the light was good The like after the workes of every day of the first week And in the end of the creation God made a review of all that he had done And behold all was very good to signifie that God seeing all his works good and compleate took great delight in them and did remunerate his own actions with the satisfaction which he he took in his owne wisdom and goodnesse That we may then imitate God let us do nothing but good and againe when we have done it let us see how good it is Though it cannot be but very defective yet if we find in it sincerity and an ingenuous desire to do good we may in our measure rejoyce as God did for doing good and shall enjoy a sweet peace within representing both in the good that we do and in the delight that we take in well doing the image of him that hath created and adopted us to expresse his likenesse Our confidence in God by the merit of his beloved Sonne is the ground of true peace and content But that confidence is fed by works By faith we beare testimony to our hearts that we are reconciled with God and by workes we beare testimony to our faith As by the respiration we know that a man is alive and by the same respiration the man is kept alive So the exercise of good workes is together the marke of faith and the way to maintaine that spiritual life As God hath wisely ordered that the actions necessary for the preservation of naturall life should be done with delight likewise the exercise of good workes whereby the life of faith is maintained gives a singular pleasure unto the faithfull soul Psalm 40.8 I delight to do thy will O my God said David And the Lord Jesus could say that his meat was to do the will of him that sent him John 4 32. Wherefore as healthful bodies eat their meat with appetite so godly soules apply themselves with a holy appetite to good workes In both it is an inward sence of necessity that provokes the appetite it being as impossible to live with the life of faith without good works as to keep the body alive without meat or drink And as these satisfy the stomack good actions give a sweet satisfaction to the soul But as one cannot live alwayes in the strength of one meale but must take new food every day else the body will pine away and die in a short time likewise the use of good workes must be daily too much intermission will abate the pulse of faith trouble will get into the conscience or a heavy numness which will end in the extinction of spiritual life unlesse the appetite of doing good worke 〈◊〉 awakened by repentance and faith get new strength by good exercises For this exercise the Lord Jesus gave us an example that wee should follow his steps Who did good in the whole course of his life and more in his death Who spent the night in prayer and the day in healing the sick and converting sinners Who for ill words returned saving instruâ—◠〈◊〉 Who overcame contempt with humility and adversities with patience Who did good to them that persecuted him to death healing the eare of Malchus that was come to take him and praying for them that crucifyed him Who to obey God his ather despised his owne life denyed the love of himselfe and made this free and miraculous submission to God in the terrours of death Father not my will but thy will be done The joy and glory which he got by that submission must encourage his Disciples to preferre the obedience to God and the duty of a good conscience before all interesses being sure that to forsake them for God is the way to preserve them and that by suffering for his glory wee get glory The content that accreweth to the soule by tending carefully Gods service and loving nothing like it cannot be exprest but by those that feel it How great was St Pauls satisfaction when he sayd 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not in fleshly wisedome but by the grace of God wee have had our conversation in the world And how sweet was his rapture of joy when he sayd being neere the end of his race 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is layd up for me a crowne of righteousnes which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me O what pleasure is comparable to the testimony of a good conscience The joy of a great conquerour who hath newly got an imperial crown is not comparable to St Pauls happines when he rejoyced to have fought the good fight of faith and stretched himselfe towards the crowne of righteousnes layd up for him Increase of worldly goods increaseth sorrow When they are above sufficiency instead of easing the minde they oppresse it Worldly pleasures are shortlived leaving behinde them an unpleasant fare-well and often a sting of crime Worldly honour is winde which either will blow a man downe or puff him up with an unsound tumour But godlines and good actions give a sincere joy a solid content a lasting peace a satisfaction penetrating to the inmost of the soule This is richly exprest by Isaiah in prophetical termes Isa 58.10 If thou draw out thy soule to the hungry and satisfye the afflicted soule then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darknes be as the noone day And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfye thy soule in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters faile not Although Devotion and good conscience and the practise of good workes were sad things as the world imagineth them yet ought wee to undergoe that sadnes in this life of few dayes to make provision for the other life which is eternal since this life is a moment on which eternity depends And wee should sow in teares to reape in joy But seeing that a good conscience active in piety and good workes gets thereby even in the present a serene peace and a heavenly comfort not credible to any but those that feele it is it not a great incouragement to doe well That the way to make us happy is to make us saints It is none of the least arts of Satan for turning men away from the practice of godlines and vertuous actions to represent Devotion and vertue with an austere habit and a sowre face enough to make children afrayd and growne men also many of them having with a gray
devotion is making a glory of the matter of our shame as if a fellon had the ambition to weare the halter about his neck with a good grace The sorrow of repentance is an ill passage which we must of necessity go through if we will be saved but we must not make that passage a dwelling place After we have used it to make our peace with God we must be comforted and rejoyce in that peace For God hath not called us to sorrow but to peace and content And the Gospell is the Doctrine of peace and assurance OF THE PEACE OF THE SOVL AND CONTENTMENT OF MINDE SECOND BOOK Of Mans Peace with himselfe by Rectifying his Opinions CHAPTER I. The Designe of this Book and the next THe sence of our peace with God may be distinguished from the peace with our selves but not separated for the peace with God being well apprehended setleth peace in the heart betweene a man and his own conscience which otherwise is his inseparable accuser and implacable adversary We have spoken in the first Book of the ground and principal cause of our inward peace which is also the end and perfection of the same and that is our Union with God We have treated also of the meanes altogether divine and effective of that end which are the love of God and our neighbour faith hope and a good conscience active in good workes We intend now with Gods helpe to speake of those subordinate causes and meanes where Prudence is a servant of Piety to keep peace and good order within In this great work the handmaide shall often need her Mistrisses help for reason not sanctified by piety is as dangerous to use as Antimony and Mercury not prepared The two great workes of sanctified reason to keep inward peace and content are these Not to be beaten down with adversity or corrupted with prosperity going through both fortuns with vertuous cleare and equal temper making profit of all things and fetching good out of evill To frame that golden temper in our minde we must lay downe before all things for a fundamental Maxime That all the good and evill of mans life though it may have its occasions without hath truly and really its causes within us excepting onely some few casualties where prudence hath no place and yet there is no evill but may be either prevented or lessened or turned into good by a vertuous disposition Hence it followes that not without but within us our principal labour must be bestowed to take an order for our peace and content To keep us from falls in a long journey if wee would send before to remove all the stones out of the way we should never have done but the right course is to get an able and surefooted horse and to sit fast on him It would be a more impossible undertakeing in the wayfairing condition of this life to remove all temptations and oppositions out of our way but against these two sorts of obstacles we must provide a firme spirit able to go through all and stumbling at nothing but keeping every where a sure and eeven pace To that end let us acknowledge within us two generall causes of all our content and discontent and all our order and disorder The first cause is the Opinion that we conceive of things The second is the Passion moved or occasioned by that opinion Take a good order with these two causes you shall be every where content tranquil wise and moderate But from the disorder of these two causes proceeds all the trouble of the inward polity of our minds and all the misrule and misery that is in the world It must bee then our labour to order aright these two Principles of our good and evill within us and in the order here set down which is essential to the matter Imploying this second Book to get right Opinions of the things of this world from which men usually expect good or evill And this will prepare us matter for the third Book whose task will be to set a rule to passions For that which sets them upon disorderly motions is the wrong opinion wherewith the mind is possest about the objects And whosoever can instruct his mind with right opinions may after that rule his passion with little labour CHAP. II. Of the right Opinion I Said that things exteriour are the occasions of the good and evill of man but the causes of the same are the interiour Opinion and Passion Now to treat of the causes we must also treat of the occasions as subjects of the opinion and objects of the passion Not to examine them all for they are as many as things in the world and accidents in mans life there is none of them altogether indifferent to us but are considered either as good or evill We will stay onely upon the chiefe heads and endeavour to finde the true price of things that men commonly desire and the true harme of those things which they feare In this search I desire not to be accounted partial if I labour to give a pleasant face to the saddest things It is my profest intention For my work being to seek in all things occasion of peace and content why shall I not if I can borrow it even from adversity And is it any whit material whether I find it indeed or devise it so I can make it serve my turne Is it not prudence for one to be ingenious to content himselfe yea though he cosen himselfe to his owne content My readers may beare with me if I use them as I use my selfe who next to the care of pleasing God make it my chiefe study to content my mind and in all the several byasses that God puts upon the rouling course of my life strive to behold all accidents by the faire side or to give them one in my mind if they have none Wherein I hope to justifye the ingenuity of my dealing to ingenious mind and shew that I give no false colours to evill things to make them looke good For since the good and evill of most things consisteth in opinion and that things prove good or evill as they are taken and used if I find good in those things which others call evill they become good in my respect It is the great worke of wise men to turne all things to their advantage subjecting exteriour things to their mind not their mind to them et sibi res non se rebus submittere This truth then ought to be deeply printed in minds studious of wisdome and their own content That they beare their happinesse or unhappinesse within their breast and That all outward things have a right and a wrong handle He that takes them by the right handle finds them good He that takes them by the wrong indiscreetly finds them evill Take a knife by the haft it will serve you take it by the edge it will cut you Observe that all sublunary things are of a compounded nature
do him harme or hindred to do him good or deprived of the good he might do to the publique that worthy man must not altogether neglect to rectifye the misconceits taken against him which he may with lesse difficulty atchieve by a serene and constant course of integrity then by finding and proving confuting and keeping a great bustle to bring contrary witnesses face to face Innocency and the confidence that attends it must needs stand so high above the babling of the vulgar as to be no more moved with it then the Starres with the wind â—â—owing in the lower Region The dishonour that hath some ground in the truth must be wiped off not by excuses but by amendment Is one blamed for being vicious He must be so no more And that out of hatred of vice not of dishonour which being but a shadow of it will vanish at the rayes of Vertue CHAP. XII Of the evills of the body Unhandsomnesse Weaknesse Sicknesse and Paine OUr judgement being satisfyed that the good of the body beauty strength health and pleasure are none of the great goods we ought also to bee perswaded that their contraries are none of the great evills And if our very bodies must not be accounted ours because we cannot dispose of them at our pleasure and because by the undermining of age they sinke and slip away continually from themselves the commodities and incommodities of these fraile tenements at will where our soules are harboured for a few daies as ought not to disquiet us matters of any importance To beginne at Unhandsomnesse if a woman be unhandsome for that sexe is especially sensible of that disgrace let her stay but a while age will bring all the beauties to her row within few yeares and death after That last day draweth neere which will make faire and foule alike strong and weake sick and sound them that are tormented with dolour and them that torment themselves with voluptuousnesse and curiosity Whosoever is much grieved with those incommodities never apprehended aright the frailty of the opposite commodities We must not be vexed for the want of things which by their nature decay and perish very houre There are few incommodities but have a mixture of commodities which a wise lover of his owne tranquillity will pick and convert to his advantage The unhandsome woman shall not be admired but in recompence she shall not be tempted nor importuned as a prey by lust and insolence She hath with her a perpetual exhorter to humility piety and all vertue and to recompence the want of beauty with goodnesse Seldome is unhandsomnesse reproached to women but to them that aggravate with malice envy their disgraces of nature Beauty cannot be acquired but goodnesse may Yet among them that want beauty some are so wise and so good that they become handsome They are commonly more happy in marriage then great beauties for they give lesse jealousy to their husbands and study more to content them Persons of weak constitution are lesse obnoxious to acute sicknesses which many times will kil strong bodyes in three or foure dayes They are lesse tainted with that stupid pride which commonly attends great strength of body Finding themselves inferiour to others in excercises of strength they apply themselves to exercises of wit to which commonly they are more apt As weezels have more mettle and nimblenesse then Oxen there is often more industry and quicknesse of wit in little weak men then in men of of large and brawny limbs for the predominancy of blood and phlegme which makes the body large is the duller temper for wit whereas choler and melancholy which by their contractive quality limit the stretching of growth to a lesser extent serve also the one to sharpen the wit the other to give solidity to the judgement Weakenesse reads to a man a continual Lecture of prudence and compliance for being not able to carry on his designes with a high hand dexterity onely will serve his turne Also that want of strength teacheth him to make God his strength sticking fast to him by faith and a good conscience That way the weakest become too strong for all the world When I am weake then I aâ— strong saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 12.10 Of this Gods children have a blessed experience in sicknesse whereby God makes their body weake to make their faith strong and their soules by the dolours and lingring decay of their bodies susceptible of many salutary lessons for which health and ease have no eares Sicknesse and paine are evill in their nature but they are good by accident when God is pleased to turne evills into remedies to bring a man to repentance and make him looke up to the hand that striketh They are punishments to sin and wayes to death but to the faithful soul they become instruments of grace and conveighances to glory Many of them that beleeved in the Lord Jesus while he conversed among men were brought to it by bodily sicknesses And he when he healed a sick person often would say Thy sins are forgiven thee To give an impartial judgement of their quality and measure one must rather beleeve what he feeles then the cryes and compassion of them that love him and have interest in his preservation They say that a man is very sick when he feeles not his sicknesse Yet he hath so much good time till he feele it If the paine be sharp it is short If it be little it is tolerable If the evill be curable be patient good Cure will heale it If the evill be incurable be patient death will heale it No evill is superlative when one is certaine to come out of it By life or by death there must be an end of thy sicknesse All the remedies that Pagan Philosophy giveth in extremities come to this that patience is a remedy to evills that have none But here Christian Philosophy openeth the treasure of divine comforts which to make the faithfull man patient in tribulation make him joyfull in hope shew him the crown ready for him at the end of the combat In the combat he is strengthened by faith and the comforter whom Christ promist to his disciples powerfully assisteth him in his last agony Or if his triall be prolonged he tels him as Paul buffeted by a messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.9 my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse By that grace sicknesse beates downe pride quencheth lust weaneth the heart from the love of the world makes the soule hungry and thirsty after righteousnesse Theodoricus Archbishop of Collen with great wisdome exhorted the Emperour Sigismond to have the will in health to live holily as he said when he was tormented with the gravel and gowte Sicknesses give to a godly man a sense of his frailty when wee feel these houes of mud our bodies drooping towards the ground their originall then doe we sigh for that building of God that house not made with hands
number that love the present world and cannot fixe their thoughts upon that which is to come imagin that when they dye they lose all A great folly They cannot lose that which is none of theirs They have the use of the world only til their Lease be out Death is the great proofe of that fundamentall Maxime which I so often urge and no oftner then I need That the things that are out of the disposition of our will are none of ours and such are riches honours our body and life it selfe To them that are so farre mistaken as to thinke themselves owners of these things death is an undoing not to them that acknowledge themselves tenants at will and look continually to be called out of their tenement The goods of the world are held by turnes When you have enjoyed them a while you must give place to others Make your successours case your owne How should yee like it if a certaine number of men should be priviledged to monopolize to themselves the goods of all the world for ever to the perpetuall exclusion of all others This reasoning belongs to few persons for it presupposeth plenty and prosperity But how few have plenty and of those few againe how few have prosperity with it One would thinke that distressed persons have no need of comfort against death Yet they that have the greatest sorrowes in the world many times are the most unwilling to leave it But certainly if life be evill it is good to go out of it All men being born under the necessity of suffering and misery being universall in all conditions Death which ends all misery of life is the greatest benefit of Nature Blessed be God that there is no temporal misery so great but hath an end Take me a man that hath nothing but debts that liveth meerely by his shifts and tricks that hath the stone in the bladder and ten suits in Law that flyeth from the Sergeants to his house and then flyeth out of his house relanced by the scolding of his perverse wife If in that flight he be suddainly killed in the street by the fall of a tyle or the overturning of a Cart that happy misfortune delivereth him from all other misfortunes The Sergeants overtake him and let him are All attachments and Subpoenas against him are vacated Hee is no more troubled where to get his dinner His debts breake not his perpetuall sleep He is thoroughly healed of the stone and his wife now desperaetly crying because she seeeth him insensible for ever and unmoved at her noise Certainly Death is a shelter against all inâ—uries Death puts an end to endlesse evills It is the rest after a continual toyle It is the cure of the sick and the liberty of the slave So Job describeth that quiet state Job 3.7 There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest There the prisoners rest together they heare not the voyce of the oppressor The small and great are there and the servant is free from his Master It is a great folly to feare that which cannot be avoyded but it is a greater to feare that which is to be desired When we have considered the evills of life those that we do and those that we suffer after that to feare Death what is it else but to be affraid of our rest and deliverance And what greater harme can one wish to him that will not dye but that he may live alwayes and be guilty and miserable for ever If it be for the paine that we feare Death for that reason wee ought rather to feare life for the paines of life are farre more sensible then the paines of Death if in Death there is any paine of which I see no great likelyhood For why should we imagine the revulsion of the soul from the body to be very painful it being knowne that the vital parts as the heart and the liver have little or no sense No more sense hath the substance of the braines though the source of the senses for the head-ach is in the tuniques When the braines is benummed and weakened the sense of paine is weaker over all the body And generally when strength decreaseth paine decreaseth together Hence it is that most of them that are sick to Death when they draw neere their end feele themselves very much amended That state is called by the Italians il meglioramento della morte The decay of senses in that extremity is a fence against the troublesome diligence talke cries more troublesome then Death wherewith dying persons are commonly persecuted But as a man upon the point of death is too weake to defend himselfe against all that persecution he is too weak also to feele it much Then all suffocation is without paine that is the most ordinary end of life In the most violent death paine is tolerable because it is short and because it is the last It is a storme that wracks us but casts us upon the haven To that haven we must looke continually and there cast anchor betimes by a holy hope conceiving Death not so much a parting as an arrival for unto well disposed soules it is the haven of Salvation The feare of that which comes after death makes some mens lives bitter and through feare of dying after Death they have already eternall death in their Conscience They have eyes to see Hell open gaping for them but they have none to see the way to avoid it In others that feare is more moderate and is an ill cause working a good effect inducing or rather driving them to seeke and then to embrace the grace and peace that God offers unto them in Jesus Christ and together to do good workes which are the way to the Kingdome of heaven A man cannot afeare God too much but he may be too deeply afraid of his Justice And the feare of that death after death must be swallowed up by the faith in Jesus Christ who by his death hath delivered them who through feare of death were all their life subject unto bondage Heb. 2.15 He hath made death the gate of life and glory to all that trust in him and doe good Godly men will not feare death for the sting of it is pluckt off by Christ It is the terrour of evill consciences but the joy of the good It is this pleasant meditation that sweetneth their adversities and makes them joy Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 The troubles of life are soone ended by death and after death comes a life without trouble and a glory without end Men may deprive us of life but they cannot deprive us of death which is our deliverance The same meditation will make us relish prosperity when God sends it for none can enjoy the goods of this life with delight but he that is prepared before to leave them Then are they
a child should be used to be contradicted and as soone as the light of reason beginns to dawne in his young soul he must be taught to subject his will unto reason Growne men hardned in that vice by ill breeding and the flattery of men and fortune yet may be healed if they will remove the causes of the disease Since then Obstinacy is a compound of ignorance and pride they must strive against both Good instruction will expell ignorance and as knowledge growes especially that of God and themselves Pride will decrease and they will become docile and susceptible of better information And whereas Obstinacy puts reason out of her seat subjecting her to passion her naturall subject they must endeavour to restore reason to her right place and authority forbidding the will to determine before reason hath given her verdict or to give a resolution for a reason for if the resolution bee unreasonable one must go from it the sooner the better It is unworthy of a man to have no reason but his will and custome and being asked why he persisteth in this course not to give his reason for answer but his Passion Indeed obstinate men will give many reasons of their fixednesse in their opinion but let them examine soberly and impartially whether their opinion be grounded upon those reasons or whether they alledge those reasons because they will be of that Opinion While wee goe about weaning of our mind from obstinacy wee must take heed of falling into a contrary evill a thousand times more dangerous which is to betray truth and righteousnes to complie with the time For wee must never ballance whether God or men must be obeyed We must not follow the multitude to do evill though the world should charge us with Obstinacy If our conscience tell us that wee deserve not that charge wee may rest satisfied for wee are accountable to God of our opinion not of the opinion that others have of us It is Constancy not Obstinacy to maintaine truth and good conscience even to the last breath despising publique opposition and private danger I joine truth with good conscience because if the question be of a truth which may be left undefended without wronging a good conscience it would be a foolish Obstinacy to swimme against a violent and dangerous streame to defend it But if it be such a truth as cannot be baulked without breaking faith with God and turning from a good conscience wee must persist in it and resist unto blood when wee are put to it And better it is to be called opiniatre then to be perfidious CHAP. XI Of Wrath. I put Wrath among the retinue of Pride as descended from it To this one might oppose that wrath is attributed to God in many texts of Scripture And that the Apostle saith Eph. 4. Be angry and sinne not And therefore that anger is not evil and must be fathered upon a better Authour then Pride These objections will helpe us to know the nature of wrath It is certaine that there is no passion in God But it is certaine also that if anger were a vice it should not be attributed unto God The wrath of God is an indignation declared by effects shewing a resenting of the offense offered unto his glory As then the anger of God proceeds from his glory so the vicious anger of man proceeds from his pride which is a bastard glory As for the other objection out of St Pauls precept Be angry and sinne not whence it followes that one may be angry and not sinne wee must distinguish betweene good and evill anger The vicious anger comes out of pride which is the evill glory of man The good anger comes out of the glory of God for the anger of Gods children when they heare his name blasphemed or see some horrible crime committed with the ceremonies of devotion and justice is a sense which they have of Gods glory whose violation moveth them to jealousy It is good to be angry for such occasions but because anger is prone to runne into excesse and to mingle particular animosities with the interesse of Gods glory the Apostle gives us a caveat to be angry and sinne not Then the vicious and the vertuous anger differ in the object chiefely the vertuous regards the interesse of God the vicious the interesse of a mans selfe but both proceed from glory and have their motions for the vindication of glory For as religious anger hath for its motive the glory of God the motive of vicious anger is particular glory and the resenting of private contempt true or imagined The proudest men are the most cholerick for being great lovers of themselves valuing themselves at a very high rate they deeme the smallest offences against them to be unpardonable crimes Truly no passion shewes more how necessary it is to know the nature and price of things and of our selves above all things for he that apprehends well how small a thing he is will not think the offenses against him to be very great and will not be much moved about them The certainest triall to know how proficient we are in humility is to examine whether we have fewer and easier fits of choller then before Ignorance of the price of things and owning things that are none of ours are the chiefe causes of disorder in all Passions but they are more evident in the Passion of anger because it is more violent and puts forth those errours to the outside which other Passions labour to hide Besides these causes Anger flowes out of more springs as great and rapid rivers are fed by many sources Weakeness contributes much to it for although a fit of anger looke like a sally of vigour and courage yet it is the effect of a soft spirit Great and strong spirits are patient but weake and imbecill natures can suffer nothing and like doors loosely hung are easily gotten off the hookes The wind stirres leaves and small branches seldome the bodies of great trees Light natures also are easily agitated with choller solid minds hardly All things that make a man tender and wanton makes him also impatient and chollerick as covetousness ambition passionate love ease and flattery The same effect is produced by the large licence given to the wandering of thoughts curiosity credulity idlenesse love of play And it is much to be wondered at that anger is stirred by contrary causes prosperity and adversity the replying of an adversary and his silence too much and too little businesse the glory to have done well and the shame to have done evill so phantasticall is that passion There is nothing but will give occasion of anger to a peevish and impatient spirit The causes of anger being past telling our labour will be better bestowed to consider the effects sufficient to breed an horrour against that blustering passion even in those that are most transported by it when they looke back upon that disorder in cold blood Fierce anger
maturely the worth of things that we may not love them above their worth or expect of them a satisfaction above their nature not to anchor our confidence upon their uncertainty not to love any or trust in any with all our heart but God the only perfect and permanent good To use the world as not using it and enjoy the things we love best in it as having the use of them not the possession aspiring continually to a better inheritance This is the way to get a sincere taste of all the good that worldly prosperity is capable to afford Now there is need of a singular prudence to pick that good among all the evill all the trash that worldly prosperity is made of not to mistake superfluity for necessity and that which is good in effect from that which is good in opinion only For that man whose curiosity hath turned superfluous things in to necessary and whom the tyranny of vice and custom suffers not to delight in any thing but unlawfull is made guilty and unfortunate by his prosperity Also to use prosperity wisely and get the true benefit of it a man hath need to weane himselfe from presumption and selfe love Whence comes it that so many spoyle their prosperity by lavishness and insolency others lose the taste of it by insatiable greedinesse of adding and increasing It is because they have such a high esteeme and love of themselves that they think all the goods of the world to be too little for them either to spend or to lay up Whereas he that hath an humble opinion of himselfe tasteth his prosperity with simplicity and thankfullnesse for he thinks that he hath much more then he deserveth He that cannot bring himself to that low conceit of his worth shall never be contented though God should poure all the treasures of the world into his lap and though he were mounted to the top of the wheel and had nailed it to the axeltree to keepe it from turning Who so will enjoy true prosperity must keepe fast to this Maxime that no true good can be got by doing ill So whereas vice and unrighteousness insinuate themselves under the baites of pleasure honour and profit there is great need to make provision of faith and good conscience as antidotes against the generall corruption As carefully as we walke armed and looke about us when we travell through forrests infested with robbers we should walke armed with the feare and love of God among the enticements of worldly profit honour and pleasure for Satan lyeth in ambush every where But whereas robbers will lurke in hideous and savage places to do their feates Satan doeth his in the most delicious places It was not among briers and thornes that he set upon man yet innocent he made use of a tree good for food pleasant to the eye and to be desired to make one wise Gen. 3.6 And he made use ever since of beauty daintyes and curiosity to destroy mankind Conversing among these is walking upon snares Job 18.8 There is great neede of wisedome and godliness to avoyd them and of a mercifull assistance of God to get out when our foot is ensnared in any of them To the pleasures honours and plenty of the world faith must oppose other sweeter pleasures more sublime honours and riches infinitely greater even the pleasures for evermore at Gods right hand the honour to be of his children and the plenty of his house These he hath promised and prepared to them that love him not to those that choose rather to fill themselves with unlawfull delight and unrighteous gaine than to walke before God unto all pleasing waiting for the fullfilling of his promises David expected to see Gods face in righteousnesse Psal 17.15 thereby supposing that without righteousnesse hee could not see Gods face St. Paul expected the Crowne of righteousness he must then be righteous before he have the Crowne and he must fight the good fight and keepe the faith before he be crowned Could the height of that felicity enter into our low understandings what it is to be filled with the contemplation of Gods face and receive at his hand the Crowne of righteousnesse hardly would we venture the missing of that glory for all the deceitfull delights and profits of iniquity Without looking so farre as the recompences and paines of the life to come even in this life a godly temperate and conscionable life is a thousand times more desirable and pleasant then a riotous dishonest life and advancement gotten by oppression Even those Pagans that lookt for no good after this life and laughed at infernall torments as old wives tales yet could say Nemo malus felix No wicked man is happy for unlawfull delight and gaine leave behind them a sting of remorse yea many times sin smothereth pleasure at its birth besides the disfavour of God and men which commonly followes We cast our reckonings amisse if we make account to possesse a happy and a wicked prosperity It cannot be happy if it be wicked for it is vertue it is innocence it is the love of God and faith in his promises it is justice and charity that give the pleasant relish and the very being of prosperity But suppose that the acquisition of the delights and advantages of the world be neither accompanyed with sin nor followed with remorse yet they are weake and transitory riches are burdens honours are fetters pleasures are feverish fame is a wind friendships are seeds of cares and sorrowes and yet in all these we seeke a solid and permanent content who can wonder that we find it not For I do not insist yet upon the principall thing that we should fix our desires upon God alone But I say now that to enjoy humane prosperity we must proportion our desire and expectation to the capacity and durablenesse of humane things and to the power we have to dispose of them and keepe them If we expect more we are disappointed and lose the true tast of our prosperity But there may be defect as well as excesse in the desire and enjoyment of worldly prosperity For there are some whose wild devotion kneaded with a timorous and savage humour is afraid of all temporall comforts be they never so simple naturall and innocent seeking vertue and merit by misusing of themselves and sowring all the prosperity that God giveth them with an unthankfull melancholy It is more then God requires at their hands but he will require an account at their hands how they have enjoyed their health and the fruits of his fatherly indulgence which he had given them to use with moderation comfort and thanksgiving Either there is pride and hypocrisy in that fantasticall marring of their prosperity or if they are in earnest their braines is crazed opprest by the black vapours of their splene Abstinence is laudable and necessary to be joyned sometimes with prayer to subject the body to the spirit But the spirit must
is that peace of God which passeth all understanding and keeps our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ It is a transfiguration of the devout soul for an earnest of her glorification It is the betrothing of the Spouse with Christ and the contract before the marriage After that all the Empires of the world all the treasures of Kings and all the delights of their Court deserve not to be lookt on or to be named If that divine Embrace could continue it would change a man into the image of God from glory to glory and he should be rapt up in a fiery charet like Eliah To enjoy that holy Embrace and make it continue as long as the soul in the flesh is capable of it We must use holy meditations prayers and good workes These strengthen those two armes of the soul faith and love to embrace God and hold him fast doing us that good office which Aaron and Hur did to Moses for they hold up the hands of the soul and keep them elevated to heaven And seeing that God who dwelleth in the highest heavens dwelleth also in the humblest soules let us indeavour to put on the ornament of a meek quiet spirit which in the sight of God is of great price 1 Pet. 3.4 It is a great incouragement to study tranquillity of minde that while we labour for our chiefe utility which is to have a meek and quiet spirit we become of great price before God and therefore of great price to ourselves How can it be otherwise since by that ornament of a meeke and quiet spirit we put on the neerest likenesse of God of which the creature can be susceptible For then the God of peace abiding in us makes his cleare image to shine in the smooth mirrout of our tranquill soul as the Sunnes face in a calme water Being thus blest with the peace of God we shall also be strong with his power and among the stormes and wrackes of this world we shall be as safe as the Apostles in the tempest having Christ with them in the ship It is not possible that we should perish as long as we have with us and within us the Saviour of the world and the Prince of life The universall commotions and hideous destructions of our time prepare us to the last and greatest of all 2 Pet. 3.10 when the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up In that great fall of the old building of Nature the godly man shall stand safe quiet and upright among the ruines All will quake all will sinke but his unmoved heart which stands firme trusting in the Lord. Psal 112.7 Mountaines and rocks will be throwne downe in his sight The foundations of the world will crack under him Heaven and Earth hasting to their dissolution will fall to pieces about his eares but the foundation of the faithfull remaines stedfast He cannot be shaken with the world for he was not grounded upon it He will say with Davids confidence Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore A Table of the Books and Chapters of this Treatise THE FIRST BOOK Of Peace with God Chap. 1. Of the Peace of the Soule pag. 1. Chap. 2. Of the Peace of Man with God in his integrity and of the losse of that peace by sinne pag. 6. Chap. 3. Of the Reconciliation of Man with God through Jesus Christ pag. 16. Chap. 4. Generall meanes to preserve that peace with God and first to serve God purely and diligently pag. 25. Chap. 5. Of the love of God pag. 35. Chap. 6. Of Faith pag. 45. Chap. 7. Of Hope pag. 49. Chap. 8. Of the duty of praising God pag. 53. Chap. 9. Of good Conscience pag. 59. Chap. 10. Of the exercise of good works pag. 66. Chap. 11. Of redressing our selves often by repentance pag. 72. SECOND BOOK Of Mans peace with himselfe by rectifying his Opinions Chap. 1. Designe of this Booke and the next pag. 77. Chap. 2. Of right Opinion pag. 80. Chap. 3. Of Riches pag. 87. Chap. 4. Honour Nobility Greatnesse pag. 92. Chap. 5. Glory Renowne Praise pag. 98. Chap. 6. Of the goods of the Body Beauty Strength Health pag. 104. Chap. 7. Of bodily pleasure and ease pag. 110. Chap. 8. Of the evils opposite to the forenamed goods pag. 116. Chap. 9. Of Poverty pag. 121. Chap. 10. Of low condition pag. 130. Chap. 11. Of dishonour pag. 134. Chap. 12. Of the evills of the body unhansomenesse weakenesse sicknesse paine pag. 136. Chap. 13. Of Exile pag. 142. Chap. 14. Of Prison pag. 144. Chap. 15. Husband Wife Childen Kinred Friends Their price their losse pag. 147. Chap. 16. Of Death pag. 155. Chap. 17. Of the Interiours of Man pag. 163. Chap. 18. Of the ornaments acquisite of the understanding pag. 177. Chap. 19. Of the acquisite ornaments of the will pag. 188. Chap. 20. Of the World and Life pag. 195. THIRD BOOK Of the Peace of Man with himselfe by governing his Passions Chap. 1. That the right Government of Passions depends of right Opinion pag. 205. Chap. 2. Entry into the discourse of Passions pag. 211 Chap. 3. Of Love pag. 214. Chap. 4. Of Desire pag. 231. Chap. 5. Of desire of Wealth and Honour pag. 237. Chap. 6. Of desire of Pleasure pag. 243. Chap. 7. Of Sadnesse pag. 248. Chap. 8. Of Joy pag. 257. Chap. 9. Of Pride pag. 265. Chap. 10. Of Obstinacy pag. 273. Chap. 11. Of Wrath pag. 278. Chap. 12. Of Aversion Hatred and Reuenge p. 289 Chap. 13. Of Envy pag. 298. Chap. 14. Of Jealousie pag. 305. Chap. 15. Of Hope pag. 309. Chap. 16. Of Feare pag. 313. Chap. 17. Of Confidence and Despaire pag. 319. Chap. 18. Of Pitty pag. 323. Chap. 19. Of Shamefacednesse pag. 327. FOURTH BOOK Of Vertue and the exercise of in Prosperity and Adversity Chap. 1. Of the Vertuous temper requisite for the peace and contentment of mind pag. 331. Chap. 2. Of Vertue in Prosperity pag. 344. Chap. 3. Of Vertue in Adversity pag. 357. FIFTH BOOK Of Peace in Society Chap. 1. Of Concord with all men and of meeknesse pag. 375. Chap. 2. Of brotherly Charity and of friendship pag. 387. Chap. 3. Of Gratefulnesse pag. 395. Chap. 4. Of Satisfaction of Injuries pag. 399. Chap. 5. Of Simplicity and Dexterity in Society pag. 402. Chap. 6. To have little company and few businesses pag. 412. Chap. 7. Of moderation in conversation pag. 421. SIXTH BOOK Some singular Counsels for the Peace and contentment of minde Chap. 1. To content our selves with our condition pag. 431. Chap. 2. Not to depend of the Future pag. 436. Chap. 3. To retire within our selfe pag. 443. Chap. 4. To avoyd Idlenesse pag. 448. Chap. 5. To avoid curiosity in divine matters pag. 451. Chap. 6. Of the care of the body and other little contentment of life pag. 458. Chap. 7. Conclusion Returne to the great principle of the peace and contentment of mind which is to stick to God pag. 468. FINIS
by it wee appeare righteous before God This is the summary of the Gospell This is the onely comfort of the faithfull That being justifyed by faith wee have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 5.1 Without that persuasion all the moral precepts and all the reasons of Philosophy cannot set the mind at rest much lesse the riches honours pleasures and pastimes of this world for who can have peace with himselfe while he is in dissention with God And who can have peace with God but by the mediation of his beloved sonne Jesus there being no other name under heaven by which wee must be saved The chiefe impediment of the tranquillity of minde being the remorse for sinne against God and the apprehension of this just and terrible threatning Cursed is he that continueth not in all the words of Gods law to doe them Whosoever embraceth the merit of Jesus Christ by faith is fenced against all the threatnings of the law and all the accusations of his conscience For to them he will answere As Gods threatnings are just so are his promises now he hath promist that if wee judge our selves wee shall not be judged of the Lord. 1. Cor. 11.31 That he that heareth the word of the sonne of God and beleeveth on him that sent him hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is past from death to life Joh. 5.24 That the blood of Jesus Christ the sonne of God clenseth us from all sin 1. Joh. 1.7 That he hath blotted out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his crosse Col. 2.14 Wherefore these threatnings that God will bring every work to judgement and that even for one idle word account must be given reach not to those evill workes of which beleivers have repented and embraced the remission by faith in Jesus Christ Those threatenings of judgement doe not reach me since I have already past judgemont upon myselfe by a serious contrition and have received my Absolution by the merit of him that was judged and condemed for me If account must be given for my sinnes Christ must give it who charged himselfe with them But that account is discharged My sins are put out of Gods score The curse of the law to a soule that beleeveth in Christ as I doe is a handwriting taken out of the way a Bond torne and nailed to the crosse of Christ God is too just to make use of a bond vacated to proceed against me the merit of his Sonne which he received in payment for me is of too great value to leave me in danger to be sued for the debts which he hath payd for himself was arrested by Death the Sergeant of Gods justice and put in that jayle whence there is no comming out till one hath payd the utmost farthing and being come out of that jayle by his resurrection he hath made it manifest that he hath payd the whole debt which he was bound for in our behalfe unto Gods justice What though my sins be great yet are they lesse then the merit of Jesus Christ No sinne is so great that it ought to take away the confidence in Gods promises No sinne is so great that it may damme a soule beaten downe with contrition but together raised by faith and washt in the blood of the sonne of God Indeed the remembrance of my sins must be bitter unto me yet that bitternes must be drowned in the joy of my salvation my repentance must be a step not a hinderance to my confidence So I will say to God every day with a contrite heart Forgive us our trespasses And at the same time I will remember that I make that prayer unto our Father which is in heaven who commands me to call him Father to assure me that he will spare me as a man spareth his owne sonne that serveth him Mal. 3.17 to stile him heavenly father to whom the kingdome and the power and the glory belongeth to lift up my hope to that celestial glory which he fully possesseth and which he will impart to his children in their measure I will walke before God with humility and feare thinking on my sins past and my present weakenes and sinfulnes but together I will goe in the strength of the Lord and make mention of his righteousnes The righteousnes of God that frighteth sinners comforteth me and his justice is all mercy to me For the infinite merit of his Sonne being mine he is now gracious unto me in his justice Hereby the peace and assurance which I enjoy through faith is advanced to a joy of heaven upon earth and to this song of triumph Isa 61.10 I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soule shall be joyfull in my God for he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousnes as a bridegroome decks himselfe with ornaments and as a bride adornes herselfe with her jewells This is the peace and contentment of the faithful soule that feeleth and relisheth her blessed reconcilation made with God through Jesus Christ For he that hath peace with God hath peace also with himselfe And the love of God powerfully growing in his heart by the consideration of the bounty of God whose sweetnes wee may taste though not conceive his greatnes breeds there together the peace of God which passeth all understanding banisheth tumultuous and unlawfull affections and brings the lawfull under its obedience so that all the affections of the regenerate soule meete in one and make but one which is the love of God as many brookes that lose their names in a great River When the love of God brings not that great peace to the soule and the absolute empire over the passions it is because love is as yet imperfect and the cause of that imperfection is the deficiency of faith which doth not yet embrace aright the reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ and faith is deficient when it is not maintained by good workes her food without which it pines away and falls into a shaking palsie and when that foundation is shaking all that is built upon it cannot but be tottering This then must be our first and earnest taske to make our selves sure of our peace with God by a lively faith whereby our hearts may be purified from evill workes and made fertile to all fruits of holinesse For hereby we shall have peace with our selves and shall be masters at home Hereby also wee shall have peace with Gods creatures receiving temporall blessings as testimonies of Gods reconciliation with us and in every bit of bread wee shall taste his love Prosperity and adversity will prove equally good unto us being dispensed by his fatherly care If God multiply our afflictions it will be onely to multiply our deliverances He will never put us to the tryal but to refine our faith weane
offereth to signe and seale and the other refuseth it there is no agreement Whosoever then will covenant with God and enjoy his peace must to his power keepe his conscience cleare from all willful violations of the conditions of the agreement For since this covenant is often termed in Scripture a mariage our soule which is the spouse of Christ must give herselfe to him as Christ gives himselfe to her else the mariage is voyd for it is the mutual consent that makes the mariage Whereupon one may say that God is more good then wee are wicked and that while wee breake the contract God remaineth faithfull and leaves us not every time that wee leave him Truly there is great need of that otherwise this spiritual mariage would soon end in divorce But you know that when the faith of matrimony is violated betweene husband and wife although they be not divorced love decreaseth on both sides what remaines of it is sowred with jealous grudges and peace dwells no more in that house It fareth so with us when wee violate the faith and love which wee owe unto God by doing that which is displeasing unto him God doeth not presently give us the Letter of divorce and his constancy stands firme against our ficklenes but he discontinueth the inward testimonies of his love and his peace recedeth from us then wee dare no more seeke our delight in him and cannot finde it any where else pastimes make us sad and when wee take the aire and shift place to find ease we are not eased because we carry our burden along with us a sad weight upon our heart a bosome-accuser within we come to the duty of prayer against stomack and returne from it without comfort It is certain that the eternal covenant of God cannot be disanulled by the sins of men as St Paul saith that the unbeleefe of the Jewes could not make the faith of God without effect Rom. 3.3 But I speak not here of the eternal decree of God but of the offer made of his Covenant unto the conscience by the word of God and his spirit which covenant many lightly embrace and then break it having not maturely considered before upon what conditions it was offered Who so then will keep the peace of his conseience and his confidence with God must carefully keep himselfe from all things that displease his holy eyes and turne away his gratious countenance lest when our need or our duty calls us to draw neere him by prayer we feele our selves pulled back by a guilty feare Let us walk in his presence with such simplicity and integrity that at all times we may say with David Psalm 26.5 I will wash my hands in innocency and compasse thine altar O Lord That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works O Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house See what serenity what liberty of Spirit he had got by his innocency He goeth streight to the Altar of God he rejoyceth in his praise he delighted in his house he will choose it for his habitation Evill consciences are not capable of such a freedom with God David in this Text alluded to the forme of the Sanctuary which had a Laver in the entry where the Priests before they came neere the Altar were to wash themselves We also that we may keep our free accesse unto Christ our Altar must wash our hearts in innocency If we go not through the laver we misse our way to the Altar St. Paul regarded this Figure when he said 1. Tim. 2.8 I will that men pray every where lifting up pure hands It is true that to lift up our hands pure unto God we have need to wash them in a better innocency then our own and the purest have need to be washt in the blood of Jesus Christ David himselfe having said that he would wash his hands in innocency Psalm 26. and soon after but as for me I will walke in mine integrity immediately upon that prayeth to God to redeeme and have mercy upon him Yet God requires our innocency which he examines as a gratious Father not as a severe Judge he lookes more to the sincerity of our hearts then the perfection of our actions giveing his peace to the penitent soules void of hypocrisy Psalm 32.2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile That walketh before God with feare knowing his infirmities and together in confidence knowing Gods mercy and the certainty of his promises That hath no evil end and corrupteth not his good ends by evill wayes That chooseth rather to miss the advancements of the world then to shrink back from his duty to God ready to suffer the losse of all things that he way keep him That lookes upon his temporal goods without remorse because among them he seeth nothing ill gotten and upon his neighbours goods without envy because he hath taken the Lord for his portion who is rich to all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 His words agree with his heart and his actions with his duty He brings his affections captive under the the feare of God boweth his will under Gods will and makes all his ends to stoope under the interest of Gods glory Hee that doth these things shall never be moved Whatsoever becomes of his temporal condition which is better settled by integrity then by all the tricks of the craftiest pates he shall possesse a firme serene equal and tranquil spirit He shall have peace in warre and calme in the storme knowing that no evil can befall him so long as he is well with God CHAP. X. Of the exercise of Good works TO have a holy and tranquill conscience it is not enough for us not to do evil we must do good These two dutyes may be distinguished but not severed He that doth no good of necessity doth evill for it is ill done to do no good God made us not onely that we should not sinne For that it would have bin sufficient to have given us the nature of plants or stones but he hath given us an intelligent active nature that we might use it to know and love and serve our Maker And since he made us after his image for which reason Adam is called the Son of God Luk. 3. if we wil be like our Father which is in heaven we must study to do good for he doth good continually even when he sends evill which he makes an instrument of good whether it be for justice or mercy Psalm 26.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth and such all our pathes should be To this we are more especially called by our redemption whereby we are restored into the right of Gods children which we had lost and are purchased to be his servants God did not adopt us that we should be idle children Christ did not purchase us that we should be unprofitable