beard a childish understanding authoritatem senum vitia puerorum But certainly this is a false ugly vizard set upon a handsome and gracious face there being nothing more serene and pleasant then godlines and a good conscience A good conscience is that merry heart which is a continual feast To doe Gods will with a good will keepes a mans heart cheerefull to God and pleasant to himselfe Will you then make your hope sure of an eternal rest and of those pleasures for evermore at the right hand of God Doe but take the first course to make yourselves content and joyfull in this life which is to walke before God unto all pleasing to your power and to be rich in good workes Was there ever a more winning invitation then this Make yourselfe joyful and contented in this life that you may be eternally joyfull and contented in the next CHAP. XI To redresse ourselves often by Repentance Wee have meditated upon the peace of God and the way how to get it in our souls and keepe it That peace brings a golden serenity and a solid content to our hearts But because the godliest persons in this world are subject to sinne and by sinning to trouble that peace and serenity it is necessary to redresse ourselves often by repentance Of that duty I have spoken in the third chapter of this first booke as the necessary way to embrace by faith our reconciliation with God and a maine part of the great worke of our conversion But after wee are reconciled and converted wee are men still Neither is any conversion so great in this life as to roote out sinne altogether out of mans nature Whosoever then will preserve his integrity and peace for these two commonly goe together must have this warning continually in his mind Lét him that thinks he standeth take heed lest he fall 1. Cor. 10.12 And if he fall let him take up himselfe presently by a godly repentance The more he esteemeth himselfe advanced and confirmed in piety the more let him mistrust himselfe and beware of the temptations of Satan For after holy resolutions and elevations of zeale and devotion great sins very often are committed because then the conscience is most subject to relent as over-confident of her good estare Much like besieged souldiers who after a brave sallie will remitt of their watchfulnes despising the enemy whom they have beaten and in their security are taken by surprise Conscience will fall asicepe but Satan never sleepeth and never misseth to take advantage of our negligence Heb. 12.1 Sin that doth so easily beset us saith the Apostle to the Hebrewes By saying us he comprehends himself acknowledging that the most perfect are easily beset by sin Some sins are presently felt and leave a sting as the Scorpion doth To that sting the remedy must presently be applyed by repentance and a faithfull recourse to Gods mercy through Christ also the assistance of his Spirit must bee implored else the venome will spread and the wound become mortal Other sins are lesse felt or creep in undiscerned yet leave a heavinesse upon the heart and make it slower to godlinesse and good workes Then the businesses of the life intervening the remembrance of many sins will slip out of our memory which neverthelesse worke their effect upon the conscience blunting the sense of piety and setting the soul further from God Wherefore it is the part of a wise Christian often to revisit the state of his conscience call himselfe to account and by a pious solicitude of repentance pick and sift out even the least dust that sticks to us of the worlds uncleannesse and our own scowring out that rust which conscience like iron will contract if it be not often handled If the uncleane spirit will not dwell in a mans heart unlesse he find the house empty swept and garnisht Matth. 12. that is void of all goodnesse and furnisht for his turne We must not expect that the holy Spirit will dwell in our heart unlesse we bestow our best care to sweepe it for him emptyed of the immundicities of sinne to garnish it with holinesse He will not keep house under the same roofe with the unclean spirit And unlesse we speedily put that enemy out of doores God may in his displeasure leave him the whole house Whereas if you keep it swept for God with daily repentance he will make it his Temple and say Psal 132.14 This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I delight in it But that our hearts may be cleane habitations for him we have need to call for the assistance of his grace Psalm 51. Create in us a cleane heart O Lord and renew a right Spirit within us Since the Son of God honours us so much as to call us his friends let us religiously observe the lawes of friendship with him Even in humane friendships if we have sometimes the missorutne to give offence to one whom we especially love and respect we cannot be at rest till we have given him satisfaction And should we be so imprudent as to neglect God our great friend after we have offended him Shall we let the Sunne go down upon his wrath and our offence Let us returne to him without delay and humbly seeke his peace The speediest reconciliations are the best In this returne to God which must be every day let us call to our remembrance all the sins of late date and others of elder date not sufficiently repented of confessing them to God with contrition and craving pardon for them with humility and faith through the merit of his Sonne which to all repenting sinners is an exhaustible spring of mercy open at all times Zechariah meant this by that Fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleannesse And becaure many trespasses of ours are out of remembrance and some we have run into without our knowledge we must beseech God with David to clense us from secret faults Psalm 19.12 and that he be pleased to forget those sins which we have forgotten To that daily returne to God some extraordinary returnes must be added where fasting and alms be joyned to prayer Thereby these clouds shall be cleared off which trouble the serenity of the conscience and the soul shall get a great help to rejoyce in the love of God and glory in his bounty When one is come to that blessed state of the soul he must wipe off the teares of repentance and drowne that sadnesse in a thankfull joy For the sorrow of repentance is good by accident only because there is some evill to be healed It is like a medicine which gives gripings and disquieteth nature therefore not to be used but to recover health Although we cannot repent too much to have offended God there may be excess in the sorrow of repentance To seek merit or ostentation in penitent sorrow which is the face that vulgar soules give to
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
and ill wives they have need to learne obedience but in these bookes they learne soverainty Women being more given to these bookes then men shew that though they have lesse fougve of love then men they have neverthelesse a more constant inclination to it Who so will keepe himselfe holy in body and affection and preserve his soule serene and free from the tempest of that turbulent Passion must avoid the reading of such bookes whose proper office is to raise those stormes in a mans blood and appetite And I know not whether it be more dangerous to reade dissolute bookes which make of carnal love a jigg and a matter of sport openly shewing the ordure and the folly of it or dolefull amorous fables which make of it a grave and serious study and under the colour of honesty and constancy of love managed with an artificial and valourous carriage hoodwinke and bewitch the readers minde with a pertinacious Passion making their braines runne wilde after chimera's and hollow imaginations whereby some have runne mad Indeed one cannot follow the fancies of romances without straying from right sense Neither is there any thing that makes the heart more worldly and carnal and brings it further from God I will be judged by all good soules that would betake themselves to exercises of piety when they were newly come from this kind of reading Let them say in conscience how farre estranged from God they found themselves and ill disposed to every good worke Sure it is not without reason that these writers set up false Gods as being conscious to themselves that their writings are deviations from the true God and ashamed to name the God of truth among their fables Also because with some of them it is a prime piece of love-complement to make discontented lovers to wreake their anger upon the Deity they will have this excuse ready that they are not blasphemies against the true God but against the gods of Homer and Hesiod's making But from these blasphemous expostulations with false gods the readers learne to doe the like with the true and to avenge themselves upon him of all things that cross their impetuous Passion The same bookes set up the murtherous discipline of duells as a gallantry of love wherby lovers seale their affection to their mistresses by the blood of their rivals or their owne There are other matches of the wilde fire of carnal love which must be carefully avoyded wanton discourses vicious companies occasions to doe evil conversation with vaine malicious women whose chiefe aime and taske is to catch all the men that come in their way not that they may keep them but triumph over them and cast them away and feed their owne vanity with the disappointment of their suitors Take heed of idlenes it is Satans pillow the counsellour of vice and especially the procurer of lust He that doeth nothing thinkes on evill Take heed of intemperance Carnal love is so inbred with the matter that whatsoever heateth the blood sets the appetite on fire Wherefore Jeremiah sets intemperance and incontinence together Jer. 5.8 They were as fed horses in the morning every one neighed after his neighbours wife There be two great remedies to take downe that heate The one corporal which is mariage instituted by God for that end a holy and honourable state When both the parties are good and love one another it is the greatest sweetenes of life But whether a man be married or desire to be he must think on the vanity and short continuance of the most pleasant things of this world the frailty of life the certainty of death the uncertainty of the hour thence to inferre the conclusion of St Paul 1. Cor. 7.29 But this I say brethren that the time is short It remaines that they that have wives be as they that have none And so they that are woing must be as though they were not woing that is they must impose moderation upon their affections out of a wise apprehension of the vanity of the world and life ver 31. using this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away Wherefore should wee love with so much fervency that which wee cannot keepe when wee have got it which we must leave or which must leave us The other duty is Spiritual and it is that great and perpetual duty to Love God Let that holy Passion alwayes rule in our hearts Let us give to God his proper right which he demandeth in his word Pro. 25.26 My sonne give me thy heart and let us keep such a watchfull guard about it that none steale it from him and us Our love to a worthy Consort being so moderated will become both lawfull pleasant Humane condition hath nothing so delightfull as a reciprocal love Yea of all things to which mans will doth contribute it is the onely pleasant thing But as navigable rivers enrich a country with commerce and plenty when they keepe within their shores but ruine it when they overflow with a violent landflood Likewise love while it keepes within limits brings pleasure and utility when it exceeds them it brings displeasure and destruction Love that is not reciprocal will weare away in time But a wise man will shorten the worke of time with reason and will not obstinately court a person that will not love him For of what price soever she be in our regard she is of no price if she be not for us Wee must love our enemies but wee must let them alone CHAP. IV. Of Desire DEsire hath a neere kinred with love for it is the motion of the appetite towards the beloved object This is the difference that Love regardeth the present Desire aspireth to the future Some desires are natural some besides nature Natural desires are good and easily satisfied as long as they keepe within their mounds the first whereof is nature then reason to rule nature and piety to rule reason But wee must take heed of mistaking corrupted nature for pure Pure nature is contented with little but corrupted nature runs to excesse and embaseth natural desites with the allay of desires besides nature It is natural for a man to desire a woman but it is besides nature that he will have her so noble and so rich that he increaseth the desired object with imagination and kindleth his passion by difficulty It is natural to desire meate drink clothing but it is besides nature to desire great feasts gay garments and costly buildings Reason indeed was given us to embellish and inrich nature but Reason if it be well taught wil in all occasions make use of nature to rule the desire and teach it that besides Nature there can be no necessity Thus if your coach breake farre from the towne instead of grieving and fretting remember that Nature did not give you legs to sit in a coach and that it is not necessary for you to be carryed as long as you can goe If you be
nothing is frailer then mans life nothing more certaine then his death nothing more uncertaine then the hour What need we lay up much treasure since we must lose all What need to get up very high to fall to the ground and there to rot And whereas the tranquillity and contentment of man consisteth in the things that are within him not in them that are about him When he turnes his principall desire and the whole bent of his mind to things that are without he goeth out of himselfe and subjecteth himselfe to another He begs of another that which none but God and himselfe can give him He makes his content to depend on that which is out of his power A wise man will take heed of that and will call-in his desire to his owne breast where he shall finde God if he seek him well and in God his onely felicity Let us be covetous to be rich in God and ambitious to draw neare him Indeed since our body and life are maintained with things that are without us we cannot but desire them as things which our necessity calls for Besides which our condition and the course of the world makes many outward things to become necessary which in themselves are not so All these wee may desire so it bee with an infericur desire quietly subjected and subordinate to that Master-desire which must make a whole burnt-offering of the soul to God alone that we may say to God with an entire and free heart as Isaiah did Isa 26.8 The desire of our soul is to thy name O Lord and to the remembrance of thee With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seeke thee Blessed we that our spirit needs but to seeke within himselfe to finde the full satisfaction of his desire if he have the grace to desire what he ought CHAP. VI. Of Desire of Pleasure IT is easy to rule the Desire of Volupty when we have once well apprehended the nature of it The body hath the greatest share in the Pleasures which the world runnes after we must not then for their sakes subject our minde unto our body The pleasures of the body are short we must not then for a short enjoyment entertaine a long desire They are light and of a faint taste we must not then have a great Desire for a little Pleasure They promise much to the Desire and performe little Our desire then being forewarned of this will not lightly trust their faire promises and will looke more to their capacity then their invitation Some pleasures are altogether unlawfull Of which therefore the desire must be cut off altogether And before we give any admission to their flattery into our soules we must take time to consider the designe of him that sets them on work the Devill By them he seekes to blindfold us that he may lead us into perdition which he will be sure to do if we entertaine his false caresses for after blindfolding comes blindness in earnest errour in the understanding misrule in the affections beggery infamy hardnesse of heart a late remorse and eternall damnation Prov. 6.16 By meanes of a whoorish woman a man is brovght to a peece of bread and the adulteresse will hunt for the precious life Prov. 7.26 She hath cast downe many wounded yea many strong men have bin slaine by her Her house is the way to Hell going downe to the chambers of death He that hath the grace to consider so much before will step back when these inticements are offered unto him and say I will not buy a desperate repentance so deare Pleasures in themselves lawfull become unlawfull by accident when they are desired or enjoyed with excesse Moderation is the ballance of justice and the nurse of pleasure Without it Desire turnes into sorrow and Enjoyment into a severish fit Those pleasures in which a beast hath no share are more worthy of a man as those that are enâ—â—â—â—â— by contemplation For them we may allow 〈◊〉 â—â—ger tedder to desire For those that are 〈◊〉 â—ost betweene the body and the spirit as 〈◊〉 â—â—ghts of picture and musique the tedder must be tyed somewhat shorter not giving too great a scope to curiosity For the pleasures meerely corporall the tedder must be the shortest of all Yet in all humane delights whether of the body or the mind excesse is vicious and marreth the Pleasure Solomon found it in the noblest of humane delights Eccles 1.18 In much wisedome saith he is much griefe and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow It is one of the greatest proofes of the vanity of mans condition that in all humane things where the pleasure kindleth the desire the pleasure is afterwards choaked by the very desire for either we seeke in them the pleasure which they cannot afford or we seek it otherwise then we ought and even by seeking we lose it Which inconveniences are prevented or mitigated by moderation in the desire and pursuite For it will bring one of these two conveniences Either we shall more certainly get what we would have or if we misse it we shall not have the griefe to have lost much labour about it It were easy to draw a platforme upon paper of the most delightfull and compleat estate that humane desire can aspire unto in this world And that estate should be compounded with the three sorts of life contemplative active and fruitive A condition abounding with leasure to imploy it in the contemplation of things good noble and pleasant having businesses enowâ—â— be usefull in society and not so many as to weary a mans body and mind about things inferiour to the dignity of his soul enjoying sufficiency of worldly goods with peace and wisedome and a mediocrity of degree exempted from contempt oppression relishing the innocent contentments of life with sobriety and simplicity not fixing the heart upon them and therefore possessing the true use and and delight of them All that seasoned with health of body and serenity of minde and with a good conscience aspiring continually to a higher felicity enjoying it already by hope by a present sense of the blessed peace of God But we have not the liberty to cut our coat out of the whole cloath The skill of a good engineer does not consist in making a regular Fort upon a parchment or a ground chosen at will that hath all the natural advantages but in bowing his art to the nature of the place unto which necessity engageth him and overcomming by industry the incommodiousnesse of the seat Likewise a wisemans work is not to frame to himselfe poeticall felicities but to take things as he finds them and use them well for in mans condition on earth there is no seat so strong but is commanded or if it be not now it will be another time as being seated upon an unstable sand to day even to morrow uneven which no humane strength or forecast can keep unmooved
fortune hath her inconstancy as well as the good and the calme will come after the storme The proper exercise of vertue in Adversity is to imitate God who fetcheth good out of it and makes it a discipline of godlines wisedome and tranquillity to his children It is not enough to hope that after the storme the calme will come wee must study to find tranquillity in the very tempest and make profit of our damage Having spoken of the particular Adversities in the second booke I will endeavour here to set downe general remedies for all sorts of Adversities saving one the Adversity which a delicat man createth to himselfe out of a conceited tendernes for to such wilfully afflicted persons the counsells of reason are uselesse till they be afflicted in earnest They have need of real afflictions to be healed of imaginary To them that are sick with too much ease a smarting Adversity is a wholesome plaister As to the hypocondriaque who had a false opinion of a wound in his left thigh the surgeon made an incision in the right to make him feele the difference betweene real wounds and imaginary Indeed the most part of persons afflicted are more so out of opinion then any true ground but the wanton melancholy of some that were all their time dandled in fortunes lap addeth to that epidemical disease Wee will let them alone till they have reason to complaine and desire them that groane under some apparent Adversities to examine seriously whether they be such as they appeare For there are some Adversities or called so which rather are prosperities if they that complaine of them can obtaine of themselves rather to beleeve their owne sense then the opinion of others and to have no artificial and studied sense but meerely the natural Thus he that is fallen into disfavour whereby he hath lost wealth and honours and hath kept liberty and bread enough to subsist retired remote and neglected is very much obliged first to the envy and after to the contempt of the contrary prevailing faction if God give him the understanding to enjoy the prosperity created by his adversity It is a happy misfortune for a little barke to be cast by the storme upon a smooth shore where the Sea ebbing leaveth it dry but safe while the rest of the fleet is torne by the tempest The wave is more favorable if it thrust the ship upon the haven Now the godly wiseman finds a haven any where because God is every where Sitting under the shelter of his love and providence he lookes with compassion upon the blinde rage of parties flesht in the blood of one another praising God that he was hurled downe from a stage where they are acting a bloody tragedy that he may be an actour no more but a beholder onely disinteressed from the publique contradiction His ruine cannot equal his gaine if by the losse of his estate he hath bought his peace and the uninterrupted contemplation of God himselfe and the world It would be a long taske to enumerate all the commodious adversities for which neverthelesse comfort is given and received with great ceremony Many accidents bitter to us for a time turne afterwards to our great conveniency Some should have missed a great fortune had they not bin repulsed in the pursuite of a lesser Many teares are shed upon the dead but more would be shed if some of them should rise againe God hath so enterlaced good and evill that either brings the other If wee had the patience to let God doe and the wisedome to make use of all wee might finde good in most part of our Adversities Many persons ingenious to their owne torment are like the boulter that lets out the flowre and keepes the bran they keepe disgraces and misfortunes in their thoughts and let Gods benefits goe out of their minde It had bin better for them to resemble the rying seeve that lets out ill seedes and keepes the good corne taking off their thoughts from that which is troublesome in every accident of their life unlesse it be to remedy it setting their mind upon that hath which may yeeld profit or comfort Thus he that received some offence in company by his indiscretion in stead of making that offense an occasion of quarrel must make it a corrective of his rashnes He that is confined within the limits of a house and garden instead of grieving that he hath not the liberty of the street must rejoyce that he hath the liberty of a walke And how many crosses come upon us which being wisely managed would bring great commodities if anger troubling our judgement did not make us forgoe the care of our conveniency to attend our appetite of revenge Could wee keepe every where equality and serenity of spirit wee might scape many Adversities or make them more tolerable or turne them to our advantage All afflictions are profitable to the wise and godly Even when all is lost for the temporal there wants never matter for the principall Advantage which is the spiritual There wee learne to know the perversity and inconstancy of the world and the vanity of life that wee may not repose our trust and bend our affection upon it Since a curse is pronounced to the man that trusteth in man and to him that trusteth in his riches the way to the kingdome of heaven is as impassable as the going of a cable through a niedles eye and we notwithstanding these divine warnings are so prone to trust and love the world God therefore in his wisedome and mercy suffers that unsound reed which wee leane upon to breake in our hand and our love of the world to be payd with its hatred that wee may learne to settle our confidence and love in a better place Hereby also a man comes to know his sin and Gods Justice Though we be prone to attribute the good and evill that comes to us unto second causes there is such an affinity betweene sin and punishment that even in the most obdurate hearts affliction brings sin to mind and gives remorse to the conscience But in godly soules that remorse is salutary David having sayd to God Psal 32.5 Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer addeth I acknowledged my sin unto thee mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confesse my transgressions and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And whereas the appetite will run wilde when prosperity opens the broad gate of licentiousnesse Adversity comming upon that holds a short hand upon the appetite and awakes piety and wisedome David speakes of this experimentally Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word ver 71. It is good for me that I have bin afflicted that I might learne thy statutes Prosperity is an evill counsellour and all her adresses are to the appetite but Adversity crossing the appetite calls upon the judgement
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
our hearts from the world and make his heavenly comforts more welcome to us Truly the faithfull soule that knoweth how to make the right use of good and evil shall find experimentally the truth of St. Pauls sentence that all things are for our sakes 2 Cor. 4.25 Also this peace with God brings us peace with our neighbours For he that hath a comfortable seeling in his conscience that God is reconciled with him will easily be reconciled with his brethren holding it a point of equity generosity and gratefulnes after that his Master hath forgiven him ten thousand talents to forgive his fellow servant an hundred pence If all men had the peace of God in their hearts there would be no discord in the world But because most men want that good peace and they that have it have it but imperfectly therefore peace between men can hardly be well cemented When you see men professing piety and sound doctrine tearing and devouring one another with warres or lawfuites you may be sure that the peace of God rules not in their hearts surely not in the hearts of the authors and fomentors of discord though they should pretend the zeale of Gods glory who hath no need of mens turbulent passions to advance his kingdome which is all peace In heaven where the peace of God abideth in its fulness and filleth the hearts of every one of his Saints there is also of necessity a perfect peace between them for they must needs have all one love since they have all but one interest which is the glory of him that loveth them and for ever glorifieth them with himselfe CHAP. IV. Generall meanes to preserve that peace with God and first to serve God purely and diligently HAving spoken of the true and onely foundation of the peace of the soule and contentment of mind which is the confidence that God is appeased to us through Jesus Christ Let us now use the meanes to preserve that peace and stand firme upon that solid ground beginning by the more general The first is to serve God with purity and diligence for which this consideration is essential that our reconciliation with God was made by way of purchase and that when wee were lost and estranged from God he was pleased to redeeme us by his Sonne Wherefore as they that bought servants expected service from them God also hath bought us to be served by us That end of our redemptiō is thus set down by St. Paul Tit. 2.14 Christ gave himself for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes It was the custome over all the world in S. Pauls time to buy sell servants As then servants could not expect the favour of them that had bought them unlesse they did them good service we that are purchased by God with such a great price must not expect to enjoy his peace and gracious countenance if wee doe not serve him according to his will Wherein our utility meetes with our duty for of the service which wee yeeld unto God the whole benefit results unto us Before all things wee must looke well that our service to God be pure and such as he requireth for without that purity all our diligence to his service would be not onely unless but hurtfull One cannot goe to God turning his back to him The more we labour to serve him otherwise then he hath commanded the more wee offend him The pure way of Gods service is set down in his written word wherein although many places are too high for the understanding of the most wise and learned yet the things necessary for the duty and salvation of man are so clearely exprest that this commendation is justified by experience which David giveth unto Gods word The entrance of thy Words giveth light it giveth understanding unto the simple Thy word is a lamp unto my feete and a light unto my path It is one of the chief duties of Gods service to reade and carefully meditate that good Word lend a devout attention to them that announce it For by it God speaks to us as a father to his children and none but unnatural children refuse to hearken to the voyce of their Father This duty brings its recompence for the holy word of God is the glad tydings of the peace of God with men and the onely doctrine that frames that peace within us For which reason the Prophet would heare it Ps 85.5 I will heare what God the Lord will speake for he will speake peace unto his people and to his Saints To that holy word as to a sanctuary troubled consciences must have recourse to get the peace of God Yet the faithfull soule ought to be more studious to learne in it how to please God then how to get comfort Those Christians are yet upon the lower degrees of their regeneration that practise the duties of Gods service only to work their salvation Wee must read and hear Gods word for a higher end even to conforme our wills to the rule of his declared will and wee must think more of his glory then our felicity If faith in his promises make us say joyfully with David Ps 32 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered the zeale of his glory must make us say with more joy and affection as the same David Ps 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walke in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keepe his testimonies and seek him with the whole heart v. 5. O that my waies were directed to keepe thy sttatutes v. 7. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments And all along that great Psalme he uttereth the unspeakable joy that he took in meditating and doing Gods commandements one may see that he cannot say enough to expresse how heartily he was affected to it If wee love the holy word of God for its own sake and converse often with it with reverence and affection because it is the word of our heavenly father and the declaration of his nature and will wee shall finde our peace in it though wee seeke it not and get a satisfaction not to be parallelled by any joy for the things of this world To this duty of hearing God speaking to us in his word the next is to speak to him by prayer whether it be to implore his grace or to thank him for his benefits or to praise him for his infinite perfection By these two duties of hearing God and speaking to him we begin in this world that good intelligence and holy communication with God in which the heavenly peace and soveraine felicity of man consisteth By prayer wee seeke and meete that peace of God which is announced to us in his word and whoso seekes it well will be sure to meete it for to this seeking is the promise made Math. 7.8 Every man
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
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
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
Sed et hos quoque ipsos quos beavit perdidit The Court advanceth but few persons and destroyeth many but even those which it advanceth it destroyeth and spoyleth for most men as they grow in height decrease in goodnesse and many times in estate like squibs which consume themselves as they ascend It is in few mens choice whether they may be great or no some being borne to it and obliged by their birth to maintaine their condition Others being borne farre under it and there kept by invincible necessity Yet among great and small some still are in possibility to raise their degree and come to greater place And whereas it is in the choyce of few persons whether they shall be great it is in the choice of all whether they will be ambitious and aspire to high and negotious places Let a wise man consider whether honour be worth as much as it costs to get and to keep whether hee would lose his rest for it leave conversing with God to converse with men runne the danger to become wicked to become great and among the justlings of envy be alwayes ready to fall and break his neck Let him weigh in the scales of a right judgement the respect and Opinion of others against so much personal care perill and losse A middle degree of quality enough to stand a little out of the dirt is commodious and desirable The degrees above and beneath are slavery But a wise and pious man finds liberty and nobility in any degree CHAP. V. Of Glory Renowne Praise FRom the honour that attends greatnesse and riches we passe to that which is deferred to Vertue or that which beares the name of it For this second sort of honour many generous spirits have contemned the first and greatnesse and riches and life too dying willingly that they night have glory when they shall be past having any thing in this world Wise Solomon saith that a good name is rather to chosen then great riches Prov. 22.1 And better then be precious oyntment Eccl. 7.1 The goodnesse of it lyeth in some facility that it gives to do good for when mens minds are possest with a good opinion of a person they are susceptible of his counsels Thereby also a man may better his condition The content that a good action gives to the doer is a real and solid good but the content that the reputation of it giveth is vaine and deceitfull If the Renowne be for vaine things such as most things are in the world it can yeeld but a contentment like itselfe and though it be raised by real vertue yet reputation is but discourse and the Opinion of others It is hollow meat and who so will feed upon it will soone be like that hungry Dreamer of whom Isaiah speaketh who dreames that he is eating but he awakes and his soul is empty Isa 29.8 A wise and good man lookes for a better reward of his vertue then the talk of the world No action is good if it be don for praise or if approbation be sought of any but God and ourselves John 5.44 How can ye beleeve saith Christ which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God onely Our actions ought to be such as to be of good savour before the world else they can do no good in the world But that good savour must be sought as an accessory not a principal and must bee rejected when instead of an accessory it becomes a hindrance and a barre from the the principal which is the glory of God and a good conscience Let that witness beare testimony to our selves and let men say of us what they will My Opinions and Affections if they be good make me good and happy not the Opinion of my neigh bours A wise man must subject reputation to himselfe not himselfe to her If he can make her runne before him as his Harbinger to prepare for him an accommodation wheresoever he goeth and get him a roome in the judgements and affections of men it will be a prudent course And it will be a point of prudence not to hunt reputation too eagerly for Reputation is well compared to our shaddow she fleeth from us when we run after her and runnes after us when we run from her She will go more willingly where you would have her if she go not of your errand but of her selfe and doth better service when one thinkes not of her If she be desired it is for something else but to court her for her owne sake it is more then she deserveth A vertuous man will disdaine to do so much when he observeth that she is more apt to speak of frivolous then serious matters and will many times put a glosse of praises upon evill things What a coyle doth Roman antiquity keep about that harebrain'd girle Clelia for stealing a horse out of Porsena's Campe where she was an hostage and foording a River none of the greatest to returne to her Mothers chimney-corner For that action against the publique faith rash ungenerous injust and especially immodest in a mayd her statue on horseback was publiquely set in the Market place and fame is trumpetting her praise to the worlds end It were easy to name many both of old late date that have got reputation at a very easy rate How many famous men are like boyes crackers that give a great report without effect How many toyes are talked of and extolled while grave workes are buried in silence Since Fame hath trumpets it is no wonder that she fills them with winde that goeth farre and fast by its leightnesse and is fit to make a noise But a solid vertue makes little noise and the tongues of the vulgar do so much for her as to let her alone The Renown of great and good things advanceth but slowly but recompenceth her slownes by her long lasting But even in that long lasting there is vanity for what benefit is it for vertuous men deceased that the world speakes of them two thousand yeares after their death Are their soules more glorious for it in heaven Are their bodies the lesse cold in the grave Yet for that hope of an outliving uselesse renowne gallant men will climb up a breach through a thick haile of musket shot and granadoes that the world may say of them These gentlemen are dead in the bed of honour O brave men It is pitty that these praises make not these brave men to rise from the dead for joy preserve not their flesh from wormes and putrefaction and make no roses nor violets grow upon their graves Well let us pay them that praise which they have so deare bought O brave men But let us say also O the folly of men who having fed themselves with vanity in their life time will not end their vanity with their lives but seek to perpetuate it by their death It were strange that praise should do good to the dead since it
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
prisoners friends from him but he cannot shut out comfort and tranquillity from his soul CHAP. XV. Husband Wife Children Kindred Friends Their price their Losse IT may seeme that these should have bin put among the goods of fortune To which I might answer somewhat Stoically that it is not altogether certaine whether they must be put among the goods or among the evills for they may be either as it falls out But I rank them with neither but among exteriour things of which we must labour to get the right Opinion To that end we must alwayes consider them two wayes as they are good or bad and as they are neare to us in blood or bonds of duty Neither must the second relation hinder the first so forestalling the mind with the relations of Husband or Wife Sonne or Brother that one be incapable to make a right Judgement of their disposition and capacity and set a just price on them The onely relation of Parents must spread a vaile of reverence betweene our eyes and their imperfections that we may see nothing but good in them There it is wisedome to be somewhat deceived Though it be not my theame to speak of the duties to be rendred to our several relations yet because I seeke the contentment of mind I cannot chuse but say that of all civill and natural duties none is so contenting to him that payeth it as the duty payd to Parents Herein Epamimondas Judged his victories most fortunate unto him that he had obtained them in his Fathers life time who did much rejoyce at them To other relations we must also pay their proper duty Of which wee must remember this general rule That it is impossible to get content by them unlesse we do our duty towards them For that content must not be expected from them but from ourselves The content that one takes with a deare Wife a good Brother and a well chosen Friend is more that which he giveth then that which he receiveth It lyeth in the testimony of his conscience that he hath rendred to them the true offices of love Without prejudice to those duties we may and ought impartially to consider their inclinations and abilities and what may be expected of them In those relations which come by choyce as of a Husband Wife and friend the judgement must precede the affection to finde what is fit for us before we fixe upon it But in relations of Kindred made by nature without us the affection must go before and the judgement must follow that we may know them so well that though we love them we trust them proportionably to their honesty and capacity and no more In this point the vulgar sort making many grosse mistaks For it is an ordinary but an evill expression I would trust him as mine owne Brother Yet most knaves have Brothers who should do very unwisely to trust them The style of Merchants selling their ware is more ingemous when they promise to a Chapman to use him as if he were their Brother for they would not scruple to cozen their Brother And truly hence the word of cozening had its Origine because it is usual to make use of the bond of Kindred to be trusted enough to deceive enough For counsel and conversation we much choose the wisest and worthiest rather then the nearest in blood But when there is occasion to give or need to seeke help we must runne to the neerest in blood rather then to the worthyest if they be but honest So much we must deferre to the choyce of Nature that if there be any vertue in them though but small we be neerer to them in affection then blood Solomon saith that a Brother is borne for adversity Prov. 17.17 because other friendships by differences intervening of parties interesses and Opinions are subject to coole and untie but among Brethren those differences are overcome by the strength of nature and in adversity either good nature or feare of blame makes Brothers give real help to Brothers Wife and Children are the strongest trials of a magnanimous spirit for they make a mans heart tender and in the pinches of adversity make him descend to ungenerous shifts He that hath none shal have lesse delight lesse sorrow Yet must we acknowledge that a mariage wel sorted betweene two persons of merit is of all worldly felicities the greatest Of children expect noe good but the satisfaction to have done them good and to see them doe wel for them-selves For in this relation the nature of beneficence is to descend seldom to remount Nothing is more pretious among humane things then a vertuous loving freind kinne or no kinne And if he be one story above us in nobility and vertue he is better then lower Equality indeed is requisit in friendship but friend ship it selfe worketh that equality where it is not And there is need of it for it is impossible to find two friends in the world altogether equal in al respects The price of friendship is according to the price of the person whom therefore we must study to know wel that we may love no person above or under his right value A reasonable benevolence of a man of great merit is more obliging then the ardent affection of an Idiot From the former you may receive instruction honour and content From the second importunity and the disgrace to be paired with a man of no worth Such a friendship will end in a breach and so in repentance Whether friendships be knit by nature or by choyce that we may not expect of them a content beyond their nature we must remember that our freinds are men whose love may and whose life must faile The use of them we may have not the possession The best and most powerfull freinds are weake reeds which we must not leane upon with all our weight lest they breake in our hand and we take a sore fall Thus saith the Lord Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme Jer. 17.5 As this is a sentence given by God against them that put their confidence in man it is also a natural consequence of the nature of the fault For puting our confidence in man is going out of our selues It is going out of God It is making men Gods for unto God only is that homage due of an absolute and total confidence Noe wonder that God thereby is moved to jealousy To that evill Pagan Philosophers give a remedy little better then the disease which is To put confidence in ourselves This being a most erroneous Doctrine is nevertheless halfe the way to the truth for they had very well observed that a wise wan must not depend from another but retire within himselfe where all the good and evill of a man lyeth But while they enjoyne a man to retire within himselfe they leave out the maine precept proper to a higher School then theirs that a man should seek God within himselfe and to find
God in his breast that he should invite and then entertaine him there by a pure service a sincere love an entire cōfidence Many by much good Kindred many Friends and relations become lesse vertuous and industrious getting the ill habit of the Italian Signora's who walking in the streets beare more upon the armes of their supporters on both sides then upon their owne legs They have need to be sent from home to learne to stand alone without a Nurse to hold them None can be owner of any measure of stedfastnesse and content that makes all his support and satisfaction to depend of his neighbours That man hath more content in the world who having confined his desire to few things troubleth also but few persons and is desirous of Friends to do them not to receive of them good offices regarding their vertue more then their support When we have got good Friends we must be prepared to lose them Death separateth Friends and disolveth Mariages When that happens wee must remember without trouble or amazement that those persons so deare to us were mortal but indeed that should have bin remembred before A Philosopher visiting his neighbour who was weeping bitterly for the death of his Wife left him presently saying aloud with great contempt O great fool did he not know before that he had married a woman not a goddesse After we have condemned that cruel incivility yet must we acknowledge that it is a folly to lament for that which we knew before to be unavoydable Yet after all reasons when love hath bin very deare the separation cannot but be very sad Teares may be permitted not commanded to fall And after the duty payd of a mournful Adieu to the beloved person we must remember upon what terms and condition we hold of God that which wee love best even to leave it at any time when God redemands it And if besides we have good ground to hope that the person departed is received into peace and glory we must praise God for it which we can hardly do as long as our obstinate mourning repines against his will Lamenting for those that are well is ignorance or envy or selfe love If we would not rejoyce when they were in affliction why should we afflict our selves when they are in joy It is some recompence for the death of our deare Friends that our enemyes are mortal as well as they A wise man will consider his enemyes as rods in Gods hand and minde the hand rather then the rod. To destroy our enemies when they are in our power is a childish folly for so will Children burne their Mothers rod as though there were no more rods in the world Our enemies oftentimes do us more good then our friends for the support of our friends makes us carelesse but the opposition of our enemies makes us wary and industrious They make us strong and safe for they make us flye to God In nothing wisedome is more seene then in judging of an adversary A great serenity is requisite that feare make us not think him more dangerous then he is and that pride make us not despise him blinding our eyes not to see the good and evil that is in him and what harme he may do us It is a common and useful maxime for the conduct and tranquillity of mans life that there are few great freinds and no little enemyes When enemies are reconcileable all things past must bee taken to the best by charitable interpretation When there is no possibility of reconciliation al things to come must be taken to the worst both to strengthen us with resolution within and to encounter the evill without by prudence and vigorous wayes In the reconcilement we must pardon freely receive ill excuses and if there be an offence which cannot be excused never mention it The remedy of injuries is oblivion If an enemy can neither be mitigated by charity nor overcome by strength nor avoyded by prudence there remaineth still unto the wise Christian an intrenchment out of which he cannot be forced which is a good conscience and the peace of God in it These he must cherish and keep fast not onely as his last intrenchment but his onely possession and the strong hold only worth keeping It is impregnable as long as faith and love are the Garrison CHAP. XVI Of Death IT is the subject of which Seneca speakes most and of which there was least for him to speak for being doubtfull whether Death destroyed the soul or released it Mors nos aut consumit aut emittit and being more inclined to the first Opinion it was better for him neither to speake nor to think of it But what others of his rank that had reasoned before him about the immortality of the soul had quitted themselves so meanely of that task that out of their labours in that field he could not reape any satisfaction of his doubt This is the grand priviledge of the Christian that he seeth life through Death and that the last limit of Nature is the date of his franchising and the gate of his felicity and glory Death that moweth downe all the hopes of this world perfecteth Christian hope Death is the separation of body and soul It is the returne of these two parts of man so different to their several principles Eccles 12.4 Then the dust returneth to the earth as it was and the spirit returneth unto God that gave it Who disposeth of it either in mercy or justice Death is the last Act of the Comedy of this world To every one Death is the end of the world in his own respect In one sense it is against nature because it destroyes the particular being In another it is according to nature for it is no lesse natural to dye then to live Yea Death is a consequence of life we must dye because we live and we dye not because we are fick and wounded but because we are animals borne under that Law Wherefore considering Death in the natural way as Charron doth I approove what he saith that we must expect Death in a steady posture for it is the terme of nature which continually drawes neerer and neerer But I cannot approove that which he adds that wee must fight against Death Why should we fight against it seeing we cannot ward its blowes It is more unreasonable then if he had said that we must fight against the raine the winde for wee may get a shelter from these none from that Wherefore as when it raines wee must let it raine so when Death is coming and it comes alwayes wee need but let it come not thinking it more strange to live then to dye In stead of fighting against Death wee must acquaint our selves with it Indeed they that feare Death must fight against that feare Of them that feare Death there are two sorts Some feare it for its owne sake Some for that which comes after The former which are more in
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
2.17 This was a cause why Solomon hated life even because the wiseman dyeth as the foole Yet had he wisely pondred the matter before ver 13. I saw that wisedome excelleth folly as farre as light excelleth darknesse The wisemans eyes are in his head but the foole walketh in darknesse but I perceived also that one event happenth to them all It is enough to disdaine the vanity of life and of human wisedome better then life to see a great Statesman that made a Kingdom to flourish and the neighboring States to tremble to be cut off in the midst of his high enterprises and deep counsels all which dye with him Psal 46.4 His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish That plotting braines from whose resolution the fortune of an empire depended shall breed wormes and toades And truly it should be unreasonable that this kind of prudence which hath no object but worldly and perishable should remaine permanent But it is very consonant to reason that a higher prudence which applyeth itselfe to permanent things remaine permanent It is that permanent wisedome which our Saviour recommends unto us Luke 12.33 Provide yourselves baggs which waxe not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not It is that wisedome which Solomon calls a tree of life to them that lay hold on her because she lives after death and makes the soul live for ever Judge you of the price of these two sorts of wisedomes the one that perisheth and many times makes men perish the other that endureth for ever and will certainly make them that embrace her eternally blessed CHAP. XIX Of the acquisite Ornaments of the Will THe end of the instruction of the Understanding is the ruling and ordering of the Will in a constant goodnesse so much better then science and prudence as the end is better then the meanes unlesse by prudence we understand that wisedome which is employed about mans duty to God and comprehends all vertues for as in God all vertues are but one which is his Being likewise when we take vertues in a divine sense one vertue comprehends many as having some participation with the divine nature Commonly by vertue we understand uprightnesse of the will because without it the vertues of the understanding science intelligence and prudence deserve not to be called vertues and the more able they are the more pernicious Vertue of all acquisitions is the most precious without it the goods of body and fortune become evills serving only to make a man guilty and miserable for then the goods of the body give the faculty and the goods of fortune give the opportunity to do evill but without them Vertue alone is good and fetcheth good even out of evill By vertue man is made like God who is the originall vertue Vertue gives glory to God utility to the publique tranquillity and joy to the conscience reliefe to some counsell to others example to all Vertue is respected of all even of them that envy it They that love not the reality of vertue yet study to get the name of it and to put upon their false coyne the stamp of vertue All the hypocrisie in the world is an homage that Vice payeth unto Vertue A vertuous man may be stript of his estate by his enemies but of his vertue he cannot Because he keepes it he is alwayes rich Vertue strengthneth him in adversity moderates him in prosperity guides him in society entertaines him in his solitarinesse adviseth him in his doubts supports him in his weaknesse keeps him company in his journeyes by sea and land If his ship sink vertue sinkes not and he whether living or dying saveth it and himselfe By vertue he feares neither life nor death looking upon both with an equal eye yet aspiring to depart and to be with Christ but bearing patiently the delay of his departure because he is already with Christ by a lively hope Vertue steering the soule makes it take a streight and safe course to heaven and there abides with him eternally for vertue as well as glory is that treasure in heaven where neither the moth nor the rust corrupt and where theeves do not breake thorough and steale Math. 6. Philosophy considereth three vertues in the wil Justice Fortitude and Temperance excellent vertues the first especially which in effect containes the two others for it is the right temper of the will not drawne aside from the integrity of a good conscience either by oppositions of adversity against which fortitude stands fast or by allurements of prosperity from which temperance witholds the appetite Good conscience of which we have spoken in the first Booke is nothing else but justice For these vertues wherein mans duty and happinesse consisteth it were hard to find Elogies equal to their worth But there is great diffecence between the excellency of Vertue in it self and such vertue as is found among men The exactest justice that man is capable of is defective and infected with sinne All our righteousnesses are as the defiled cloath Wherefore the description of a just counterpoise of the will never swarving either on the right hand or the left never shaken from his square cubus either by afflictions or temptations is a fair character fit to set before our eyes to imitate as neere as we can as faire pictures in the sight of breeding women But truly such a perfect vertue subsisteth not in any subject under heaven In this world to be just is only to be somewhat lesse evill then others If a perfect Justice cannot be establisht in the private policy of a mans soul it is not to be lookt for in publique Policies Justice being pure in her original becomes impure and maimed being kneaded by the weak and uncleane hands of men Job 14.4 Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane Of this it were easy to give instances out of the formes of Justice out of the very Lawes in all States But it is a point of justice to respect her in those hands to which divine providence hath intrusted her and to adde strength to her weakenesse by our voluntary deference Man being weake in justice cannot but be so in her appurtenances fortitude and temperance The highest point unto which human precepts endeavour to raise fortitude is to make patience a remedy to evills remediless But how short the bravest men come of that remedy in their paines and griefes daily experience sheweth it The vulgar placeth the vertue of fortitude in striking and massacring which is rather a barbarous inhumanity and if it be a vertue tygers are more vertuous then men As for Temperance her very name sounds weakenesse For he that is not subject to be corrupted by evill suggestions hath no need of temperance That man is temperat that knoweth how to keepe himselfe from himselfe who therefore is naturally evill and prone to vicious excesses Wherein men are inferiour to beasts which are not tempted
filial love confidence and obedience The other rule that wee may finde Joy in all things that are either of good or indifferent nature is to seeke it according to the kind and capacity of every thing To that end we must be carefull that the Joy that wee take in God be as little under him as it is possible to us and that the Joy that wee take in other things be not above them Since then God is all good all perfect all pleasant the onely worthy to be most highly praised and most entirely beloved wee must also most exceedingly rejoyce that he is ours and wee his and that we are called to be one with him As for other things let us judiciously examine what Joy they can give us and lose nothing of the content which their capacity can afford looking for no more For there is scarce any sorrow in the world but proceeds from this cause to have expected of humane things a Joy beyond their nature Now this is the great skill of a minde serene religious industrous for his own content to know how to fetch joy out of all things and whereas every thing hath two handles the one good the other evill to take every thing dexterously by the right handle A man that hath that skill will rejoyce in his riches with a joy sortable to their nature And when he loseth them in stead of grieving that he shall have them no longer he rejoyceth that he had them so long If he lose one of his hands he rejoyceth that God preserveth him the other If he lose the health of his body he praiseth God for preserving to him the health of his minde If slandering tongues take his good name from him he rejoyceth that none can robbe him of the testimony of a good conscience If he be in the power of them that can kill his body he rejoyceth that they cannot kill his soul If he be condemned being innocent his joy that he is innocent drownes his sorrow that he is condemned Love and Joy are the two passions that serve to glorifie God and praise him for his benefits A thankfull admirer of Gods wisedome and bounty hath a cheerefull heart All things give him joy the beauty variety and excellency of Gods workes makes him say with David Psal 92.4 Lord I will triumph in the workes of thy hands He rejoyceth in hope to see better works and the Maker himselfe in whose sight and presence is fullnes of joy If he look up to heaven he rejoyceth that he hath a building of God a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 If he look upon his body he rejoyceth that in his flesh he shall see God If he looke upon his soul he rejoyceth that there he beares the renewed image of God and the earnest of his eternall adoption If he be poore he rejoyceth in that conformity with the Lord Jesus If he see wealth in the house of his neighbours he rejoyceth that they have the plenty splendor of it that himselfe hath not the cares and the temptations that attend it As many miseries as he seeth so many arguments hath he to glorifie God and rejoyce in his goodnesse saying Blessed be God that I am not maimed like that begging souldier nor lunatick like that bedlam nor going in shackles like that fellon nor a slave like that Counsellour of State He will keepe account of Gods benefits and considering sometimes his owne infirmities and naturall inclinations sometimes Gods wise providence in the conduct of his life he will acknowledge with a thankfull joy that God hath provided better for him then himselfe could have wisht that his crosses were necessary for him and that if he had had a fairer way he might have run headlong to ruine by his rashnesse It were infinite to enumerate all the subjects of joy that God gives to his children for his benefits are numberless his care continuall his compassions new every morning and the glory which he keepes for us eternall Which way can we turne our eyes and not finde the bounty of God visible and sensible Here then more evidently then any where else our happiness and our duty meet in one It is a pleasant task to worke our owne joy Now it is the task of Gods children in obedience to his express command by his Apostle 1 Thes 5.16 Rejoyce evermore See how urgent he is to recommend that duty Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alway and againe I say Rejoyce CHAP. IX Of Pride I Contend not whether Pride must be called a Vice or a Passion It is enough for me that it is an affection too naturall unto man the cause of many passions and a great disturber of inward tranquillity Pride is a swelling of the soul whose proper causes are too good an opinion and in consequence too great a love of ones selfe and whose most proper effects are ambition of dignity and greedinesse of praise Wherefore these two effects cannot be overcome unless we first overcome the cause which is presumption and a blinde immoderate love of a mans selfe It is impossible for a man to be tranquill and safe as long as he sits upon a crazy and tottering bottome Pride then making a man to ground himselfe upon himselfe cannot but keepe him in a perpetuall unquietness and vacillation How can ye beleeve saith the Lord Jesus to the Jewes which receive honour one of another and seeke not the honour that comes from God onely John 5.44 A text which taxeth Pride of two great evills That is robbes God of his glory and that it shakes the the foundation of faith For a proud man seekes not the glory of God but his owne and his owne glory hee doth not seeke of God but will get it of men by his owne merit Also it turnes his heart away from his trust in God to trust in his owne selfe Psal 10.13 The wicked boasteth of his hearts desire saith David that is he is confident that by his owne strength he shall compass all his projects And againe The wicked through the pride of his heart will not seeke after God for the one brings the other He that trusteth in himselfe and is highly conceited of his owne wisedome is easily perswaded that he hath no need of God That disposition of the mind is the high way to ruine Prov. 16.18 Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall For God to whom only glory belongeth cannot but be very jealous of those that wil ingross it to themselves declares open warre against them Psal 18.27 He will bring downe high lookes Jam. 4.6 He resisteth the proud but sheweth grace unto the humble Prov. 8.11 I hate pride and arrogancy saith Soveraine wisedome which is God As the winde hurts not the stalkes of herbs as long as they are supple and bowing but breakes them when they are become dry and stiffe The meeke and humble spirits that
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
declination of our body will miss us and hit our neighbours head A little winde will turne a great storme A sudden commotion in the State will create every where new interesses He that held us by the throat will be suddenly set upon by another will let us go to defend himself If we see no way for us to scape God seeth it After we have reckoned all the evill that our adversary can do we know not what God will do In the creation he made the light to shine out of darknesse and ever since he takes delight to fetch the comfort and advancement of those whom he loveth out of the things they feare That which we feare may happen but it will be for our good Unto many the bed or the prison hath bin a Sanctuary in an ill time Unto many the publique calamity hath bin a shelter against the particular Many times that which lookes grim a farre off smiles upon us neere hand And what is more common then to be promoted by those things which we feared most Exile and confiscation condemne us often to a happy tranquillity taking us from the crowd and the tumult to set us at large and at rest These considerations serve to decline not to overcome the evill Wherefore there is need of stronger remedies For that we may be healed of Feare it is not enough to say Perhaps the evill will not come or will not prove so terrible as it lookes Say we rather Suppose the evill must unavoydably come I do imagine the worst Say it be poverty close prison torture the scaffold the axe All that can take nothing from me that I may call mine God and a good conscience are mine onely true goods which no power and no violence can take from me All the rest is not worth the feare of losing Isa 12.2 Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song he also is become my salvation Then the remedy to the shaking ague of feare consisteth in knowing these two things The evill and the liberatour The evill cannot be very great since it hath an end No evill of this world but ends by death Death it selfe is good since it ends evills how much more when it begins eternall goods to the right Christian death is not a matter of feare but of hope Let us take away from the things we feare that hideous vizard which imagination puts upon them calmely looking into their nature and getting familiarity with them by meditation Let nothing that is incident to humane condition seeme strange or new to us What happens to one may happen to any other The ordinariest cause of feare is surprise That we be not surprised we must think betimes upon all that may come and stand prepared for all So nothing shall seeme strange when it comes But the chiefe remedy against feare is to lift up our hearts to the great Liberatour that hath goods and evills in his hand that sends afflictions and deliverances that brings downe and brings up againe that gives us strength according to the burden which he layeth upon us and multiplyeth his comforts with our afflictions Being perswaded that God is most wise and most good and that all things work together for good unto them that love him we will represse our feare of the accidents of life and second causes saying The will of the Lord be done we are sure that nothing but good can come to us since nothing can come but from God Wheresore instead of fearing to suffer evill we must feare to do it which is the safest course to prevent suffering He that commits sin is more unfortunate then he that suffers paine for suffering moveth Gods mercy but sin moveth his indignation That man cannot but feare sinne that beareth in mind that God hates it and markes it There then we must feare and the chiefe deliverance that we must aske of God is that he deliver us from every evill worke 2 Tim. 4.18 As we feare sufferings because of themselves so must we feare evill workes because of the evill that is in them besides the sufferings that attend them soone or late This Feare of love and revecence towards God puts out all other Feares He that feares God needs not Feare any thing else CHAP. XVII Of Confidence and Despaire OF these we need not say much having spoken before of Hope and Feare for confidence is the extremity of Hope and Despaire is the extremity of Feare Confidence which otherwise may be called a firme expectation is a certainty that we conceive of a future desired good or of the love and fidelity of a person whereby the heart is filled with joy and love Despaire is the certainty that the mind conceiveth of a future evill very odious or of the enmity or infidelity of a person whereby the heart is seized and in a manner squeazed with sorrow and hatred These Passions being so opposite yet ordinarily will passe the one into the other I meane Confidence into Despaire from Despaire to pass to Confidence it is rare The surest course to avoyd falling into Despaire for things of the world is to put no great confidence in them Moderate hopes being frustrated turne into moderate feares and sorrowes But a great and joyfull Confidence being disappointed will fall headlong into extream and desperate sorrow as they that tumble from a high precipice get a heavy fall One subject onely is proper for mans entire Confidence which is God all good all mighty and all wise Without him all things that men use to repose their confidence upon are waves and quicksands Men are mutable and though they could give a good security for the constancy of their will they can give none for the continuance of their life The goods of the earth faile our expectation or come short of our satisfaction or slip from our possession They will leave us or we them No wonder if they that repose their full and whole confidence in them are seene so often to fall into despaire Here then the true counsell for tranquillity is to trust wholly upon none but God on other things according to their nature and capacity They shall never deceive us if we require nothing of them above their nature There is a kind of Despaire improperly so called which is no more but to give over hoping a thing which upon our second and better thoughts we have found either inconvenient or impossible That Despaire will rather bring rest then trouble to the mind Wisemen are pliable and easy to be satisfyed with reason It is wisedome to despaire and desist betimes from unlikely and unfeasable designes It is a true Despaire when one seeth himselfe absolutely disappointed and excluded from the object of his chiefe love desire hope at which the soul is smitten with such a sorrow that she hates all things yea the very thing that she desired so much and herselfe more
which moved the beholders to compassion for that compassion made a breach into the heart and gave entrance into the understanding to that good confession which these holy men made in the midst of the fires for nothing is more perswasive then Pitty neither is there any fitter hold to draw and turne the soul But such compassionate soules may be as soone drawne to evill as to good by that hold Factious men brought to the gallowes for sedition have from that pulpit sowne the seed of mutiny into the minds of a compassionate multitude and those seeds like the teeth of Cadmus his Serpent have brought forth since a dismall harvest of intestine warre If then any good is formed in our minds by compassion we had need to lay a stedfaster foundation under it for the meere motions of Pitty are but fits and starts and are not actions but shakings of the soul A wise man will learne how to take hold of the spirits of men by Pitty but together will take heed that others hold him not by the like handle which therefore he will shorten and leave no hold but reason for others to take him by CHAP. XIX Of shamefacednesse SHamefacednesse is such a compounded passion that it may not be described in few words It is a sadness out of the sense or apprehension of a dishonest evill It is a selfe condemnation especially about matters of love and desires which one would satisfie in secret It is also a sudden amazement out of a diffidence of ourselves when we are surprized by some inopinate occurrence where we feare that more will be expected of us then we can performe And to give a more generall character It is a sad ressenting of ones owne infirmity with some inclination to goodnesse It is a cowardly Passion found onely in timorous natures yet in the more tender age and sexe it is pardonable and usefull too so it be not excessive for by good instruction it may be formed into a vertue but weake and sutable to the capacity of the subject Stronger spirits dyed with piety and wisedome abstaine not from evill out of Shamefacedness but out of knowledge and resolution But because strong spirits have bin weake when they were under age and the boldest have bin timorous unlesse they be altogether dull and bestiall by nature there is a time to frame them to vertue by shamefac'dnesse which may be called a necessary infirmity in the beginning And it is not expedient to remove it too soone from young minds by Stoicall precepts least they wanting that naturall bridle of the appetite and not being yet well trained and confirmed by reason let themselves loose to evill Children in whom no marke of Shamefacednesse appeares are perverse and ill natured and though they be merry sparkes they shall never be good nor able men Shamefaced children are towardly and disciplinable But in conscience is not the nature of men very weake and poore since their best naturall dispositions are infirmities and that there is need of those infirmities to bring them to some good Some natures are timorous in all the ages of their life by their native temper therefore more obnoxious to Shamefacednesse these are lesse capable of a great and heroicall vertue which is a compound of righteousnesse meekenesse and magnanimity but they are docible for a lesse eminent vertue and their inclination to shamefacedness is a pliable subject for good discipline That disposition must be well managed as the seed of modesty and in women the mother of pudicity their chiefe vertue How powerfull Shamefacednesse is with that sexe the knowne example of the Milesian Virgins shewes it There is another kind of shame recommended in Scripture That of Daniel O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but to us confusion of face Dan. 9.7 That of Ezra O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee Ezra 9.6 And of the penitent publican that stood a farre off and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven Luk. 18.13 But that shame which is a godly contrition for sinne committed and feare to commit more is proper to a spirit fixt and confirmed in the love and feare of God and hath nothing common but the name with the passion of shame which with all her utilities is but a weakenesse of minde and a childish perplexednesse A wise and godly man must be ashamed of nothing but sin The remembrance of the greatnesse presence justice and holinesse of God and the sense of our owne imperfection must keepe us in perpetuall respect and humility which is that good shame of Daniel Ezra and the repenting Publican But for our conversation with men when we are come to mans age let us weane ourselves as much as we can from boyish Shamefacednesse which dejecteth and perplexeth the spirit and makes a man lose the fairest opportunities of doing good OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND FOURTH BOOK Of Vertue and the exercise of it in Prosperity and Adversity CHAPTER I. Of the vertuous temper requisite for Peace and Contentment of Minde THis Book is but a result of the two precedent for who so hath got a right Opinion of things and learned how to governe his Passions wants nothing for vertue and tranquillity these two articles being not onely the materials and the rules of the building but the whole structure And the order is as essentiall as the matter for the understanding must be illuminated and satisfied about the right judgement of things and know how farre they are worthy that our appetite should stirre for them before we undertake to instruct our appetite how to behave ourselves with them Out of the right opinion the well governed Passion ariseth the true temper of Vertue which is a calme state of the Soul firme equall magnanimous meeke religious and beneficiall to a mans selfe and to others All the imperfection that is in our Vertue is a defect in one of these two or in both And who is not defective in them Who hath not errour in his Opinions and by consequent unrulinesse in his Passion Wherefore our descriptions of perfect human Vertue are accidents without substance But what we must not set before us any lesse patterne then perfection Matth. 5.48 Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect The Schoole gives definitions and divisions of the severall morall Vertues which is no more then is necessary Yet to speake properly there is but one even that equal temper just proportion of all the faculties and motions of the soul which is Justice producing the like just temper abroad in all the parts of conversation for to be just is to do all the parts of a mans duty towards God towards himselfe and towards his neighbour Temperance and Fortitude are handled in the Schooles as vertues by themselves which is to very good purpose for a more distinct exposition but in effect they are parts of justice for
Temperance is the just proportion of the appetite and Fortitude is the constancy and magnanimity of the will requisite to keep one just Neither is fortitude a Vertue different from temperance for whereas of those two duties sustine abstine to sustaine and to abstaine the first which is resisting oppositions is ascribed to fortitude the other which is abstaining from the inticements of sinne is reserved unto temperance yet both belong equally to fortitude seeing there is as much if not more strength of mind requisite to stand out against alluring temptations as to encounter violent oppositions There are then two vertues in all the one intellectuall which is Prudence the other morall which is Justice I have spoken of the first and this whole treatise is but an exercise of it And of the second also of which the most essentiall part is the feare of God and a good conscience that is truly the prime Justice All human lawes if they be good are dependances of it if they be evill they are deviations from it Naturall equity sanctifyed by grace ruleth both publique and particular duties and both the outward and the inward man which is farre more then common and civill law can compass In all policies of the world Justice hath diverse faces The body of the Law especially in great and antient States hath statutes and cases without number which instead of clearing justice confound it All that legislative labour regards outward action and the publique peace But piety and true Philosophy rule the inward action and settle the peace of the soul with the right and primitive Justice Besides human lawes are most busy in forbidding evill and for that end make use of feare and the terrour of punishment whereas the inward law of Vertue is most busy in prescribing good and for that end makes use of the motive of love and reward But whether we need the motives of feare or love we have a Soveraine Court within our breast where the great Judge of the Universe is sitting continually There his Law is written and layd in view entering into the eyes of the understanding which seeth it even when he winkes that he may not see it And there a mans owne thoughts stand divided at the barre some accusing some excusing him out of that law compared with the records of the memory Of that Court St. Paul was speaking that the very Gentiles and heathen shew the worke of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witnesse and their thoughts the meane while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2.15 Before that Court that is before God himselfe and before us we must labour to be declared just and more to be so indeed There justice must be setled There it must be practised It will be well done to know and obey the formes of justice which publique order hath set over us but our maine taske must be to labour for an niward and habituall justice Let us obey cheerefully all good or indifferent human lawes but before all and after all let us seek and pray for that law of the spirit of life which may set a rule to all the unrulinesse within us and make righteousnesse and peace to kiss each other in our soules The ordinary definition of justice that it is a constant will to give to every one his owne as it is commonly understood regards onely the least part of justice which is the rule of duties betweene man and man But let us give it a fuller extent for to give every one his owne we must pay all that is due first to God next to ourselves and then to our neighbours Certainly the two former parts of justice are far more considerable then the third which is the onely cryed up though ill observed in the world for a man may and doth often retire from the society of men but he can at no time retire from God and himselfe and though a man were alone in the world yet should he have with him the chiefe subjects to exercise the vertue of justice We shall give God his owne by loving him with all our soul and with all our strength obeying his will carefully and cheerefully praising him for his love to us and for his owne greatness and goodness with a thankfull and a joyfull heart setting him continually before the eyes of our mind as alwayes present that we may walke unto all pleasing before his pure and all seeing eyes stick fast unto him by meditation affection and entire confidence And whereas man is the bond and the naturall mediator betweene the materiall world and the spirituall who alone must render for the whole Nature the due homage unto the great Creator Justice calls upon us to do that right to God Nature to knit Nature with God by our love faith obedience and praises Thus also we shall give to ourselves our due for to draw neere unto God is our good Psal 73.28 to separate from him is our destruction They that observe lying vanities forsake their owne mercy saith Jonas Jo. 2.8 meaning that they forsake him of whose goodness their being and wel-being depends This thought will renew the antient characters of the naturall notions of justice engraven upon the marble of our hearts upon which the corruption of the world and our owne hath bred as it were a thick moss which hides these characters But with the feare of God that moss is rubbed off and the law of God the originall justice written there with Gods finger appeares plaine and legible Who so then will do right to himself and recover his primitive dignity must study to know feare and love God perfect his union with him and associate himselfe with his Angels by obeying his will and tending his praise His saving eternall light is for us Wisedome righteousness sanctification and redemption are for us for he gives them to us liberally in his Sonne We do but right to ourselves when we study that those blessings which are for us may be ours And to lose such inestimable graces by our neglect is besides ungratefullness towards God a crying injustice against ourselves A maine point of that justice which we owe to ourselves is to labour to make ourselves possessors of ourselves and masters at home so untyed from all outward tyes that our content depend of none but God and ourselves and that rule over ourselves is attained by yeelding unto God the rule ver us To that end our first labour must be to traine well the Passion of love which is the great wheele mooving all the other passions for according to the subjects that we love and as we love them well or ill we are good or evill happy or unhappy To love what we ought and as we ought is the whole duty and happinesse of man Next our desires and hopes must be cut short which is not cutting downe Nature as greedy minds may think It is cutting off our bonds and
getting our liberty That way plenty pleasure and joy are bought at an easy rate for very little will content a mind weaned of superfluous desires and he hath little or no matter left for sorrow feare anger hatred and envy the tormentors of the soul What is able to disquiet that man that thinkes nothing to be his but God and a good conscience and possesseth the things of the world as not possessing them But to quiet the murmure of love and desire which are querulous and unlimited passions we must do them such equall justice that while we stop them one way we open them another Being kept short for the things of the world let them have free scope towards heavenly things to love God and desire his spirituall and permanent goods without limit and measure The great injuries are those which a man doth to himselfe when to obey lust or anger or coveteousnesse one makes himselfe guilty and miserable when for the love of the world one loseth the love of God when out of miserablenesse the body is denyed his convenient allowance When for things of no worth a man prostitutes his health his life and his conscience When men will sinne for company cast themselves into ruinous courses out of compleasance and damne themselves out of gallantry Who so will seriously think what he oweth to himselfe and what account of himselfe he must give unto God will endeavour to keepe the precious health of his body and the golden serenity of his conscience he will enjoy with simplicity that portion which God giveth him of the contentments of life and above all things he will carefully keep his onely good which is God Justice being well administred within us will be practised abroad with facility and delight Rom. 13.7 Render to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custom feare to whom feare honour to whom honour Let the debtour be more hasty to pay then the creditour to receive All the Law-bookes are but comments upon this precept of Justice to render to every one his owne Yet they omit the most essentiall parts of it the duties of charity humanity and gratefulness Which being without the rules of civill lawes have the more need to be learned and observed by ingenuous and religious soules And we must beleeve contrary to the vulgar opinion that they are debts and that doing good to them that stand in need of our helpe is not giving but restoring Therefore the workes of mercy are represented in the CXII Psalm as works of Justice He hath dispersed he hath given to the poore his righteousnesse endureth for ever Let us then be perswaded that when we do all the good of which God giveth us the faculty and the occasion we do but justice Let us pay due assistance to him whose need claimes it counsell to him that is in perplexity kindness to them that have shewed us kindnesse pardon to them that have offended us good for evill to them that persecute us love to them that love us support to the weake patience to the impatient reverence to superiours affability to inferiours All these are debts Let us omit no duty to which we stand obliged by the lawes of civill society Yet that is too scant let us omit no duty to which we have the invitations of piety and generosity All the good workes that we may do are so many duties It is the large extent that St. Paul gives to our duty Phil. 4.8 Finally bretheren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise thinke on these things And the fruit of that study in the following words is that which we seeke in this Book the Peace of the Soul our union with God Do these things and the God of peace shall be with you Truly peace quietness and assurance are the proper effects of righteousness are as naturall to it as the light to the Sunne Isa 33.17 The worke of righteousness shall be peace saith Isaiah and the effect of righteousnesse quietnesse and assurance for ever Considering Justice as the solid stemme in which lyeth the substance of all vertues as her branches I will not follow every bough of that that tree Two Vertues onely I will stand upon as the preserving qualities of that universall Justice These are meekeness and magnanimity They are the necessary dispositions to frame a right vertue in the soul and peace with it Under meekeness I comprehend humility and docility which are but diverse aspects of the same face that meeke and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price 1 Pet. 3.4 As for great edifices there is need of deepe foundations likewise to edifie the soul and build vertue and peace in it there is need of a profound humility which being joyned with faith is the foundation of the structure and the perfecting also for we must be humble that we may be vertuous and the more we are vertuous the more we are humble With that meekeness the word of God must be receaved which is the doctrine of Vertue and salvation Jam. 1.20 Receive with meekenesse the engrafted word which is able to save your soules saith St. James Isa 61.9 God hath anointed his Sonne to preach good tidings unto the meeke Psal 25.9 The meeke will he guide in judgement and the meeke will he teach his way A mind well-disposed to Vertue and the peace of the Soul will distrust himselfe as a shaking unsound foundation to repose his trust wholly upon God He will labour to heale himselfe of all arrogant opinions and obstinate prejudices being alwayes ready to receive better information and submit himselfe unto reason It belongs to that meekeness to be free from the impetuosity of the appetite for that which St. James saith of the wrath of man that it worketh not the righteousnesse of God Jam. 1.21 may be said of all other Passions they are evill if they be vehement for in a spirit agitated with vehement passions justice cannot settle that very vehemency being an injustice and a violation of that sweete and equall oeconomy of the soul fit for justice and peace Passion goeth by skips and jolts but Reason keeps a smooth even pace and that pace is fit to go on Justice's errand To meekenesse magnanimity must be joyned Meekeness makes reason docile and pliant in goodnesse Magnanimity makes her constant in it Both are the framers and preservers of righteousnesse meekenesse because it humbleth us before God and subjecteth us under his good pleasure magnanimity because it raiseth our minds above unrighteous ends and wayes and makes us aspire to that great honour to have our will conformable unto Gods will and become partakers of his Nature which is Righteousness itselfe St. Paul makes use of magnanimity to sollicite us to holiness Col. 3.10 If ye be risen with Christ seeke those
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
not deale with the body his subject as the worst of Tyrants do with their people whom they utterly ruine to keepe them in subjection That voluntary selfe depriving of the innocent conveniences of life is reproaching God as being too blame for making nature plentifull and delightfull and then placing man in the midst of his goods and giving him senses to relish them and reason to use them But the contrary fault is more dangerous and more ordinary to hunt after temporall goods with a rash eagernesse and when one hath them to lose the benefit of them by lavish intemperance or even to turne those goods into evills by getting them by ill meanes and using them to ill ends If Prosperity marre us it is but even with us for we had marred it before The true way to be content every where and purchase prosperity at an easy rate is to desire little and be contented with little Not he that hath most but he that desireth least is the richest The lesse a man desireth the lesse he wanteth and the more resemblance he hath with God who dedesireth nothing and wants nothing It is unjust for us to solicit the world to give us riches while we have meanes at hand to enrich ourselves without troubling the world which is To desire nothing Why should I aske of another that which I can give to myselfe But when all is said desire is naturall and will stretch itselfe upon something Now God alone is able to fill it He that hath fixed his love and desire upon God and is allready possest with him by faith may after that easily put that Philosophy to practise To desire nothing out of himselfe and to aske nothing of the world He may tell Fortune that he needs none of her gifts for having God he hath all But he that wants that possession which onely gives true satisfaction to the soul deceiveth the world and himselfe when he braveth Fortune and bids her to keepe her gifts to herselfe saying that he asketh contentment of none being able to give it to himselfe that he carryeth all his goods along with him that he is rich and free because he is master at home Truly if he that speakes so hath nothing but himselfe he is very weake and needy Yea unlesse he possesse God he cannot possesse himselfe and in that resolution to cut off his worldly desires wanting the satisfying object he is like him that makes a resolution not to come neere the fire though it freeze hard and himselfe be thin clad Whereas he that will cut his desires short being enricht with Gods grace is like him that will not come neere the fire because he is clad with warme furres To such a man rich in God it becomes well to say I will not beg wealth and comfort abroad since I may have it at home Finding tranquillity and sufficiency within my breast why should I make my selfe unquiet and needy by a greedy and worldly desire I will sweetly enjoy the temporall goods because they are Gods gifts and receive them at his good hand with thankfulness I will also indeavour to increase them by industry if I may without fraud to others and vexation of my selfe But I will importune no man to give me as long as I may obtaine of my selfe not to aske I will spare to others the paine to deny me and to my selfe the shame to be denyed having such a short way at hand to satisfie me which is To aske and desire nothing The less I court the world the less power shall I give it over me This Philosophy is easy to him that can say with David Psal 16.6 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Moderation of desires makes prosperity sweet And that moderation is harder in prosperity for misfortunes rather breed feare then desire but good successes are bellowes that swell cupidity and cupidity making us depend of the future takes from us the enjoyment of the present For we enjoy not what we have when we complaine that we have not enough and reckon not what we have got but what we would get And because in Prosperity men will grow proud and forget what they are The higher that God raiseth our degree the more let us humble ourselves and keepe our mindes within the limits of modesty If advancements smile upon us let us thinke rather to tread surely then to make hast and to sit safe then to rise high As they say of Xanthus that being in drink he laid a wager that he would drink the whole Sea they that are drunk with prosperity are prone to undertake more then they are able to performe The Apostles precept hath need to be prest upon them Rom. 12.3 that no man think of himselfe more highly then he ought to thinke but think soberly When we stand on a high tower our stature is never the higher then when we walke on the ground but our braines is many times the weaker as being dizzy with the height So dignity and high prosperity doth not increase a mans capacity by raising his place but rather makes him wilde and giddy Whereas then prosperity makes men over-confident it ought to make them more cautious fearing least some of the windiness of the place where they stand get into their head Let them study to know themselves and the world that they may trust neither as things beyond the verge of their power and whose subsistence dependeth not of their will Let us looke upon the prosperities of this world as upon faire crystall glasses the clearer the frailer to day they shine to morrow they breake If you never trust them they will never deceive you Honours riches and temporal pleasures are but the outside and the barke of prosperity And it is a saplesse barke where a good conscience and reciprocal love betweene God and the soule is wanting But where that is either it brings outward prosperity or supplieth the want of it Psal 65.4 O God blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee We shall be satisfied with the goodnes of thy house even of thy holy temple CHAP. III. Of the exercise of Vertue in Adversity PRosperity and Adversity are neer neighbours for prosperity makes preparatives for Adversity by blinding mens minds with cupidity swelling them with pride and thrusting them forwards with rashnes whereby they cast themselves headlong into precipices and generally by making sinne to multiplie which drawes punishment from Gods justice Besides the inconstancy of humane things which in a moment turnes from faire to foule weather On the other side Adversity many times mends the harme done by prosperity for it represseth temerity opens the eyes blinded by Passion and brings the sinner to repentance Thereby making preparatives for prosperity which is never relisht till one hath bin schooled by affliction Then evill
neither play nor bet He will leave the zeale of State to them that hold themselves unworthy to be exempted from common distresses He will remember that he is a citizen of a better countrey then that where he was borne Who so takes a great interesse in publique affaires sheweth thereby that he hath a great love to the world and esteemes it more then it is worth for we may be sure that which party soever prevaile fooles will prevaile for such are all men and in the commotion of a State as of a muddy river the mire and foame will alwayes be the uppermost If it be past our power to part them let them fight it out and let our part be to looke with judgement and compassion how the vials of Gods wrath are powred first upon the minds of men to confound them with a fierce and blind impetuosity whereby they runne and prey one upon another next upon Empires states to turne them upside downe Of which an image is represented in the sixteenth Chapter of the Revelation where a viall is powred upon the Sunne whereby he is made hot and scorching beyond measure and presently another vial is powred upon the seat of the Beast wherewith his kingdome is filled with darknes and infested with sore and smarting plagues For a mans spirit is within him that which the Sunne is in the world When the spirits of a people are kindled with a malignant heate a darke confusion of the State and the miseries of the particular members of it will follow That man is blessed who in such an epidemical turbulent heat keepes the meekenes and serenity of his mind And although it be hardly possible for him not to be carried away by the streame of that party where his private interesses happen to be engaged yet he keeps his soul free heavenly peaceable charitable to his greatest enemies and praying for them that persecute him In all times and places a wise Christian will abhorre warre It is the very empire of the Devill and in nothing so much doth he shew himselfe the Prince of this world It is the discipline of robbery and murder It is the deep gulfe of all misery It is the sinck of all wickednesse and vilany Yet the best men are often engaged in it even out of conscience duty for every one oweth his life to the defence of his Country But for one to love the trade of Manbutcher and delight in the hunting of man his owne kind as others do in the hunting of the wolfe or wild boare is an unnaturall barbarousnesse not valour Who so will keep the integrity and serenity of his conscience and hopeth for the salvation of his soul must keep himselfe free from that inhumane inclination the true image of Satan who was a murtherer from the beginning Gods children are children of peace which they entertaine in their mind and advance by their prayers and counsels There is another warre in the midst of peace little better then that where the quarrell is decided by the sword the warre of lawsuites the discipline of cutting mens throats with a pen. There robbery is committed by the due forms of law there men are flayed alive for others to cloath themselves with their skin There the profession of giving to every man his owne is turned by the professours into an invention to make every mans goods their owne The contentions infinite in number and length and the devouring trade of law tricks is the great plague of these Westerne Provinces of Europe and the greate shame of Christendome while the Mahumetan Moores our neighbours dispatch suites in an hour without appeale or writ of errour He that knowes how to value that precious peace with God and himselfe and desires to keep it will endure great extremities before he try that remedy worse then most sicknesses following St. Pauls lesson 1 Cor. 6. There is utterly a fault among you because ye go to law one with another Why do you not rather take wrong Why do you not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded And if he be yet to chose his civill profession he shall do wisely not to betake himselfe to those professions that live by the contentiousnesse of others But if he find himselfe necessarily engaged in the practise of Law he must behave himself in it as a child of peace sewing up againe as much as in him lyeth what others have rent like good Princes which never draw their swords but to have peace Look upon that tumultuous clamorous mischievous bustle then account it no small happinesse to live far from an aire so contrary to the tranquillity of mind and the integrity and serenity of conscience There are other dissensions without law and many times without conscience which begin in envy suspicions credulity to reports in words ill intended or ill taken proceeding from words to blowes and many times ending in destruction The worst effect is within the breach of the inward peace with God in a mans selfe and the inbittering of the spirit both of the offendor and the offended unlesse he be of a very milde and godly and Philosophical temper To avoyd those troublesome encounters Solomons precept must be observed Prov. 22.24 Make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go But because those that must of necessity converse with many cannot pick their company and much lesse change the manners of those with whom they converse they must so govern and temper their owne by piety and judgement as never to give a just provocation to any Truly there is no fence against unreasonablenesse and proud anger will be offensive though unprovoked Our part must be to breake such mens choller with patience as woolsacks and gabions full of earth are set before the battery of cannons St Pauls precept to give place unto wrath Rom. 12.19 is as wise as it is holy for wrath groweth by opposition but spends it selfe when one gives it place If you be fiercely persued by a serpent do but step aside the serpent will rush straight on and misse you And if you be set upon by impetuous choler give it place by a gentle declination it will passe-by harmless Or if you receive reall injury from an angry man expect no satisfaction from him while he is so but appeale from him in hot blood to himselfe in cold blood Contentious insolent men being generally persons of small worth it is a sordid and unworthy imployment to contend with them For as friendship makes friends equal quarrells workes the like effect If we contend with a drunkard or a loggerhead we make him our fellow Prov. 26.4 Answere not a foole according to his folly least thou also be like unto him If you debate with a foole you must imitate him for the debate obligeth you to follow him in all his extravagancies That contention may not reach us we must stand far from the contentions of others
them Chi offende non perdona mai The offender say they never forgiveth It is a great shame indeed to have given offence but the offense is greater to refuse to mend it The Lord Jesus our great Master having taken care to heale the wound that his Disciple had made shall wee refuse to heale the wounds which we have made ourselves God saith Vengeance belongs unto me I will recompense there he speakes of the injuries done to us But as for the injuries done by us vengeance belongs unto ourselves so farre as to make recompense to them whom we have wronged Which recompense unlesse we make God will make it Our wisest course then is to make that recompense sincerely so may we ease God of that care CHAP. V. Of simplicity and dexterity in Society PEace with men consisteth in doing and receiving no injury The first with Gods asisting grace depends of us Towards the second though depending of others we may do much For the cause why some are wronged and abused commonly lyeth not so much in the insolence of others as in their owne imprudence But the end of this Book the same as that of our lives being not onely peace by doing and receiving no injury but content by doing and receiving good we must study both how to lead a safe and inoffensive course of life and how to be usefull to ourselves and others That skill we learne of the great Master of wisedome who hath comprehended it in these two short precepts Matth. 10.16 Be ye prudent as serpents and harmlesse or simple as doves These two he makes into one because they make together an excellent compound and because they must never be disjoyned Simplicity without prudence would serve onely to make us sheep for the wolves to eat Prudence without simplicity though it could get us some peace and utility with men would forefeit our peace with God and our conscience and so prove meere folly in the end How essentiall simplicity is to prudence it is seene in all the parts of conversation which are reducible to these two heads Words and Actions As for words it is certaine that simplicity is the most requisite quality what use soever they be put to publique or private religious or civil And even the discourses made only for elegancy and delectation cannot attaine their end without simplicity for that gracious expression and powerfullness of words which gets the fame of eloquence is nothing else but simplicity managed with dexterity They that go farre from it and make their style darke to make it shew deep or bombast it with extravagant conceits and new ill coyned termes lose elegancy by hunting too eagerly after it there being no such deadly enemy to grace in speech as affectation Besides it is found that discourses full of affected difficulty are like olive stones which are very hard because there is nothing in them and styles puffed up with words are empty of matter as some cheating women have bin seene that appeared great with child when they were big with a pillow The knowledge of things the solidity of reason and the sincerity of the mind are the three magazines affording good and gracious discourses Where those three meet the more the style is simple the more elegant it is And in matter of speech the best service that dexterity can do to right reason is to deliver in cleare termes those thoughts which the mind hath well disgested So shall one satisfie others and himselfe Affectation is alike ungracious in Words and Actions Affected persons have that hard fortune that while they study to disguise themselves they discover themselves most there being nothing that betrayes a may so much as affectation doth His forced countenance his studied gesture the odd quaintnes of habit give an evident character of a mind disordered by pride and a nature drowned in foolish artifice Such men are displeasing to God who loveth truth and simplicity in the inward parts Psal 51. and therefore cannot but be displeasing to themselves destitute of peace of conscience and contentment of mind Melancholy is an inseperable companion of constraint for who can take delight in that which he does against nature Therefore stage buffoones when their jigge is done are very sad and froward because they have extraordinarily constrained themselves There is a deeper and craftier simulation called hypocrisy which knoweth how to personate plaine honesty and put upon fraud the face of simplicity as indeed without that it is impossible to cozen Simplicity and Integrity are of such price among men good and evill that without the substance or the shew of them it is not possible to entertaine any commerce in the world And men that have but the shew of these desire to deale with them that have the substance because they are true and sure dealers As wicked as the world is uprightnesse is the safest course to advance a man for every one will say He is an honest man It is safe dealing with him The principall is that thereby we keep good intelligence with God and with our conscience The chiefe prudence then is to be honest They that seeke to appeare such and are not are imprudent for to enjoy the benefit of honesty before men the sure way is to have it indeed Counterfeit honesty is false coyne not safe to trade withall and in the end it turneth to the undoing of the false coiner But honesty and prudence have need to be more in reality within then in shew without For to make a great shew of honesty gives a great suspition of hypocrisy and to make a great shew of prudence is asigne of shallowess It is better to shew honesty then prudence because honesty is of greater price and because every one ought to have it profess it Whereas it is a great point of prudence to conceale it for that man is not very crafty that sheweth his craft He that sets out much policy in discourse commonly keepes but little in reserve Next to integrity which is the first counsell of wisedome in conversation the best counsell is to know ourselves the business that we take in hand and the persons that we have to do with measuring our strength and what we are fit for that we never meddle with any thing above our capacity or that we may desist before we be too far engaged It is a great point of wisedome for one to be able to adequate his imployment to his capacity and inclination But because the choice of our imployment for all our life is commonly made in our nonage by our parents who are many times mistaken in our genius and ability or imploy us where they can not where they would we must by a vertuous resolution bow our genius to our imployment and supply the wants of nature with dexteterity For this there is need of that vertue which the Italians and French cry up so much called accortezza or accortize A word which I recommend to my
he must looke for errour impertinency in al sorts of acquaintance let him put every one upon the discourse of those things that he understands best so shall he doe a kindnes to the company for every one loveth to speak of that wherein he is expert he shall benefit himselfe fetching from every one the best that is in him Let him also fit his minde for all kinds of buzinesses thinking none too great when they are not above his capacity for those affaires that have more dignity have not alwayes more difficulty And on the other side thinking no buzines too low when it is necessary or when it gives him occasion to doe good But in general let him charge himselfe with as few buzinesses as he can I meane those buzinesses that engage a mans minde in the tumult of the world without which he may find buzines enough to keepe him selfe well imployed Want of preferment is better than want of peace Let him avoyd those imployments that give vexation and yet draw envy where a man must continually stand upon his guard imbark himselfe in factions and live in perpetuall emulation and contention The man to whom God keepes the blessing of a quiet life shall bee kept by him from that glittering rack and golden fetters but the man whom he will aflict shall be given over to be tossed betweene the competition of others and his owne ambition David shewes us how great is Gods goodnesse which he hath layd up for them that fear him namely that he wil hide them in the secret of his presence from the pride of man he will keepe them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues Psal 31.19.20 But what there are some spirits that love noise and live by Contradiction and when old factions are worne out hatch new ones sowing quarrels that they may be sticklers and in such sort arbitrating differences as to make them immortall that so they may never want business To such men no worse imprecation can be made then that they may alwayes have the business which they love for as they serve the father of discord they are like to share in his reward But those are worthy of his compassion whose serene religious soules capable and desirous of high contemplation are aspiring towards the God of peace but are distracted with contentious businesses and prest down with worldly imployment though perhaps too high for their condition yet too low for mind which measuring the height of things by their distance from heaven finds the great Offices of the State very low because they are deeper in the earth and further from heaven then other Offices of an obscurer note Who would not pitty a great person that hath scarce time to eate and sleepe that must have a light brought to his bed to make dispatches before day and when he goeth to the Court hath much adoe to get out of his yard through the crowd of suitors and in that clogge of businesses what time hath he to examine the state of his conscience and labour to advance his union with God Where is any gaine able to countervaile that loss But there are more persons undone for want of businesses when they have not the capacity to find themselves worke of some utility especially when the love and feare of God have not taken root in their hearts For there being in the soul three Offices or audits the first for contemplation the second for passion and the third for action when a mans mind is unfit for contemplation wants action he giveth himself wholly unto passion Then a man tickleth himselfe with evill desires and vaine hopes gnawes his heart with envy and spite and torments himselfe with impatience these vices being bred and fed by idlenesse Such men having nothing to do devise evill or uselesse businesses going up and downe all day long like swallowes that flye round not knowing for what walking from one end of the Town to the other to visit one that will not be at home when they aske for him or is put to his shift to be rid of their company Of that kind are most of those that thrust one another in the street as buzy as if they had three Chancery suites to solicit then returne home late weary and sweating having found the invention to tire themselves and do nothing In effect an idle life is more painfull and wearisome then an active and negotious life It makes one sad troublesome and vicious He that doth nothing cannot but do evill as grounds left untilled will bring thistles But he that hath an ordinary employment of some utility to the publique hath no leasure to attend vaine and evill actions nor to be sad By doing good he contenteth his conscience and maintaines the serenity of his mind so that he embrace no more then he can hold They that will doe too much good do it ill and do harme to themselves It is a preposterous diligence when it brings vexation to a mansselfe Rich old men should do wisely to give over busy imployments of the world vvhich require a whole man to give themselves wholly to the office of man as he is a man and a Christian If they be speculative judicious and experienced men they may do more good to the world in their retirement then in the crowd of businesses They that lead an active life ought not to give but lend onely their mind to the businesses of the world A wise man will follow his worldly occasions with diligence and industry but he will not transubstantiate himselfe into them In our busiest imployments let us retire often within to enjoy God and ourselves labouring chiefly to preserve his favour and our peace Without these all labour is superfluous or evill and gaine becomes damage CHAP. VII Of Moderation in Conversation IT is a most necessary provision for any man that will lead a peaceable life in this age and these regions torne with diversity of parties Mens minds being so generally exulcerated that in casuall meetings either they cast a suspicious eye upon their Contreymen because they know them not or abhorre them because they know them Here then there is need of a meek compliant industrious and universall mind retired within himselfe and healed of that epidemicall itch of light-brained men to declare all their opinions and inclinations and quarrell with all that are otherwise disposed It is an old and usefull observation that God hath given us two eares and one mouth to teach us that we ought to heare more then speake To which it may be added that we have no eare-lids to keep our eares from hearing and often must heare against our will but our mouth shuts naturally and we may keep our tongue from speaking unlesse by our intemperance we lose that priviledge of nature God indeed hath not given us a tongue to hold our peace But that we may use it so that our neighbours may receive good by it and
to our industry and keep us from mending the incommodities of our condition for God putting us in an uneasy condition doth not oblige us thereby not to seek to be better Those to whom God hath given no other stock but their industry have reason to think that God will have them to make the best of that excellent patrimony Piety and Philosophy are no counsellours of lazinesseand neglect of ourselves A poore man is content with his condition when he is pleased with that necessity which God layeth upon him to maintaine himselfe by his diligence and supply by his vertue the want of an inheritance A condition commonly more happy then that of great heires whose intellectuall parts are many times dulled or corrupted with plenty which puffeth them up with Pride and enflames them with lust He that is kept in humility and temperance by his short meanes must praise God for it and make the best of the benefits of poverty the chiefe whereof is that it helpes a man to weane his heart from the world and raise it unto God The rich and great having more cause to be contented with their condition have neverthelesse more need to be exhorted unto it because they are more subject to be discontented for ease breeds wantonness and makes a man to be incommôded with his owne commodities This is that sore evill which Solomon saw under the Sunne namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt Eccles 5.17 Many rich men eate their bread in darknesse all their dayes and with a covetous or envious sorrow make their plenty their crosse That ungratefull sorrow proceeds from an excessive love of ourselves and the world We love ourselves so much that we think nothing good enough for us And the world so much that we can never have enough of it Now al immoderate love is accompanied with great care and that care sowreth all the svveetnesse of our life These two loves then must be cut very short He that will love and esteem himselfe but little will be content with little And he that withdrawes his love from worldly things shall soon have as much of them as he needs To weane ourselves from the love of ourselves and the world we must study to get a strong perswasion of the wisedome and goodness of God and a firme confidence in his love Suppose that God should spread with his rich and liberall hand all the treasures of the world before us and give us our free choice to take what we would Could we do more wisely then to put the choise to him againe and beseech him to choose for us because he knowes what is fit for us better then we do and loves us better then we love ourselves Well this is our condition God hath chosen for us Let us stand to his choyce with humility and thankfullnesse and rest contented It is an appurtenance of the condition which God hath allotted us that we must continually labour to mend it though we should have no designe to raise it for our temporal is condition like our houses which must often be repaired else they would sinke downe All humane things are in a continuall decay But God hath given prudence to man to underprop his tottering fortune or to build it anew and make it more commodious So much we may do and yet be content with our condition gently submitting our minds to that generall law of the life of our vanity as Solomon calls it which binds us to toyle continually to maintaine ourselves In that toyle if the successe smile upon us and invite us to advance though we were content with our condition before we may better it If notwithstanding our industry our fortune go back our desire also must go back with our fortune and be content with lesse in both conditions looking up to the good hand of God whose actions are all mercy to them that love him and trust to him To that end we must aske of God a meek religious equall constant mind not seeking content in things that are about us but in things within us labouring to have God there for when all is sayd and tryed it is the onely way to be content in all conditions God being alwayes the same he that possesseth God is partaker of that divine attribute in his measure and in the ebbings and flowings of his temporall condition remaines alwayes the same because the possession that makes him happy is within him and in heaven together not subject to exteriour changes not tyed to things under the Sunne As he that hath a vigorous body and the noble parts sound wil eat browne bread grosse meat with good appetite but to a sick man pheasants are unsavoury So to him that hath a sound conscience and God abiding in it the meanest condition is pleasant but a man of an ill conscience that hath the burning fever of covetousness and ambition taketh delight in nothing though he had all things He that possesseth God hath this advantage above all other men that he he is content with much and with little and with nothing Therefore to speake exactly we should not say that he that possesseth God is content with but in his temporall condition for it is not from his condition that his contentment ariseth it is from God CHAP. II. Not to depend upon the Future THis Counsell is part of the precedent for that we may be contented with our condition it is necessary for us not to depend upon the future He that can bring his mind to that shall not live suspended with desires and expectations and shall not lose the enjoyment of the present to catch at that which is to come When the sufferings of the present makes us long for the future it is lesse strange and more pardonable But it is ordinary that covetousnesse curiosity wantonness produce the same impatience in some men as extremity of paine in others Many sick of too much ease will speak like Job in his torments Job 7.4 When I lay downe I say When shall I arise and the night be gone And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day Is the day dawned they wish it were done This perpetual agitation is a most evident signe of a sick mind which makes his sicknes worse with that only thing whence he hopes for amendment which is change The future which afarre off seemed pleasant unto him displeaseth him when it is become present neither doth any thing please him but what he hath not and cannot have By this expectation of the future a man hath his head torne betweene feare and hope as a stagges head betweene two hounds so sore they bite and torment the minde There is no condition more miserable and no state of the soule more contrary to the nature of God whom his children ought to imitate Nothing sets a man further from God who expects no new thing from the future because all is present
to him With whose constancy we have some participation when we stay ourselves upon him our present and eternal good and depend not upon the uncertaine future The godly wiseman aspires onely to one certaine future the full possession of his soveraine good which as yet he doth but unperfectly possesse As for the doubtfull future he leaves it to Gods providence in whose respect that which is doubtful to us is certaine and infallible Since our care can alter nothing in it why should we vexe our heart about it If evill must come let us not hasten its comming by our apprehension and if good must come let us not spoile it by our impatience The consideration of the decrees of Gods providence which ought to ease us of care must not bereave us of prudence for the prudence of man is employed by the providence of God for the execution of his counsels So when prudence calles upon us to give order for the time to come we need but follow this rule To doe what we ought and can doe and let God doe what he will By that meanes we shall keepe the wise medium between diffident care and imprudent negligence Following with an ingenuous simplicity the dictates of prudence and conscience trusting in God and doing good we shal not be distracted betweene trembling feares and ardent desires for the time to come being confident that whatsoever may happen to us either good or evil all will turne to our good as long as we stick fast to our soveraine good which is God That we may not depend of the future we must study to keepe our minde free of that disease of the vulgar sort the curiosity of things to come whether they concerne them or no onely because they are to come This is a natural inheritance of the presumption of our first parents who would know that which belonged to God onely to know For the knowledge of the future belongeth to God onely and yet men pretend to it Both the knowledge which is proper to us and that which is forbidden is set downe in this divine lesson Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that we should doe all the words of Gods law Neither is that curiosity excused with the desire of avoyding evill to come for if it must come it cannot be avoyded by knowing it before It is enough to expect inevitable evils we need not send for them by our curiosity Observe that the most curious of the future are none of the best men but persons of an unbridled greedines and set upon ill ends None consulteth southsayers to doe a vertuous action A good soule that trusteth in God and feares him will patiently expect his good pleasure saying Isa 12.2 Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afrayd Come what will it will come from God and nothing but good can come to me from that good hand since God is my father But evil consciences tremble at the thought of the future and at the same time burne with desire to know it and because they cannot know it of God they are easily perswaded to aske it of the devil As they are none of the best so they are none of the wisest that are most carryed away by that curiosity but the weakest natures as simple maydes that easily find inventions to see in their sleepe what they desire when they are awake Persons of the meanest condition and capacity are most eagerly set upon the knowledge of the future and finding some fright in their conscience when they goe about those inquisitions they stop their eyes not to see the iniquity of their ends and wayes That wilfull blindnes is increased by the craft of Satan presenting wayes in themselves indifferent to these silly curious minds which consider not that the harme doth not consist in using such words or gestures but in ascribing to them an unnatural vertue without warrant of the Master of nature and in seeking to see that which God hath hidden Certainly since God hath hidden the future to goe about to lay it open is a worke proper to the profest undoer of Gods workes Curiosity of the future carryeth many so farre as to make a covenant with the devill Who yet stands not so much upon his points as to refuse to be consulted by those that have made no covenant with him No doubt but this pride is tickled with a mischievous delight when he seeth men seeking to him for that which is proper to God and herein yeelding to him divine service Which service that he may receive in a civil and occult way from the fine sort of wits he hath devised some seeming sublime divinations perswading them that the decree of God about humane events is written in the motions and several aspects of the starres and therefore that this sort of divination is lawfull yea divine The evills that come from that perswasion are numberlesse for the silly reverence which vulgar spirits deferre to these predictions makes them wilde and sets them upon the fullfilling of them because they account them unavoidable The worst evill is that thereby mans minde which ought to dwell at home is transported out of himselfe instead of reposing upon the love and wisedome of God is suspended upon the Dragons tayle and the Ascendant of an Horoscope The histories of the Greeke Emperours Alexius and Manuel are lamentable examples how credulous persons are undone by the imposture of Astrologers when they expect from the Starres those successes which ought to have bin wrought by piety prudence and valour That unlucky art cuts the sinewes of industrie and makes men idle greedy and inconsiderate This reasoning I recommend to the calme judgement of the lovers of that Science All affirmation is grounded either upon reason or authority The assertions of judiciary Astrology are of the last kinde for no reason can be given of their Maximes Now the authority upon which these Maximes are grounded must be either divine or humane or devillish They are not grounded upon divine authority but are expressely forbidden by it God will not have us to be dismayed at the signes of heaven for the heathen are dismayed at them Jer. 10.2 and threatens the Astrologers the starre-gazers monethly prognosticatours that they shall be as stubble the fire shall burne them Isa 47.13 Human authority in this case is of no weight for who hath given power to men to dispose of the severall Offices and preheminences of celestial bodies It remaines then that these maximes are grounded upon diabolical authority In effect since they are not grounded upon reason either they are forged by men or delivered by revelation and if that revelation come not from God it must needs come from the devill The truth of this sentence that man is an enemy to his owne content is seene in nothing so much as in that itch
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