to righteousness unto holiness as it is written Be ye holy for I am holy saith the Lord. Lev. 11.45 3. Now as Christianity checks and restrains self-love so doth self-love keep men from understanding and approving the Christian doctrines for how can he that seeks and loves himself rightly apprehend that whatever the world dotes upon is meer vanity that Estates and Honours bring great vexations and great slavery that to forgive Enemies and do good to them that hate us is the part of a noble and generous mind that 't is better to despise than to possess riches that 't is more honourable to be subject where God commands than to bear rule and to domineer that for a man to restrain his appetite and conquer himself is more glorious than to win battels and take fenced Cities These are Paradoxes hard and incredible sayings to the self-lover whose fondness of himself ties him fast to this earth to whatever can be useful and any ways pleasant to the flesh whereas the Children of God live to God being not led and govern'd by the flesh but by the spirit they live in the flesh but not after the flesh some of their actions are natural whilest they are in the body yet they proceed from a supernatural principle and are designed to a nobler end for they continually deny themselves and mortifie all sensual unruly desires Self-lovers hold a great regard should be had to the flesh 't is true but it must be such as Christ hath taught us to keep it under otherwise Saint Paul hath declar'd that to be carnally minded is death CHAP. XXXI That Self-love is that Babylon out of which God hath called us 1. GOD at first placed man in Paradise but Adam in whom we all sinned transported us into this world out of Paradise out of Jerusalem into Babylon out of our freedom into slavery out of integrity into corruption out of our countrey into banishment and out of life into death Thus from truth and perfection we fell into vanity we are now like unto vanity nay every man is but vanity as the Psalmist saith Psal 39.6 Man is vain in his body which ends in death and corruption vain in his soul which being inslav'd to sin is obnoxious to death eternal and vain in all his outward enjoyments which all perish or must be forsaken when he dies Yet man strangely dotes on this vanity he passionately runs after these transitory things which are all cheats and lies whereby he is drawn into thousands of pernicious errors and out of the Heavenly Jerusalem into a Hellish Babylon 2. Now these two Cities are built by two sorts of love to love God so as to despise our selves makes the City of God and to love our selves so as to despise God makes the Devils Babylon the City of this World The way to this is broad and short to that is streight difficult and long because dull and earthly as now we are we more easily fall on the earth and descend down to Hell than we can raise up our selves and ascend to Heaven Let every man therefore examine himself and find out what he chiefly loves for if he loves God so as to deny himself he is doubtless a Citizen of the Jerusalem which is from above but if he loves himself so as to prefer his own desires to God 't is plain he belongs to that Babylon out of which God hath called his Children For thus the Scripture cries aloud Go ye forth of Babylon and remove out of the midst of her Isa 48.20 Jer. 50.8 and again the Psalmist Psal 137.8 O Daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones We come out of Babylon when we leave the confusion of sin forsaking our disorderly course of life and we dash the children of Babylon against the stone when our love to Christ overcomes our ill desires and ill inclinations Self-love is the death of the Soul and the love of God is its life therefore he doth not truly love himself who by self-love destroys himself CHAP. XXXII How men naturally seek themselves even in their best works 1. IT may seem strange to observe that whereas mens opinions and inclinations are so various and different yet all men are agreed in this that none appears vile to himself none is willing to yield and submit to others none though never so mean but thinks himself somebody and is desirous to be taken notice of every one seeks to be higher than others every one is indulgent to himself and severe to others all men will have their will and their saying all applaud to their own inventions and conceits and censure others they count their own follies wisdome and notwithstanding their great ignorance there is nothing but what they think to know They carefully hide their own faults and pretend to those virtues they know they have not And what is most of all to be wonder'd at even good men who endeavour to please God and seem to aim at nothing but his honour and glory Even they sometimes in their best actions by a secret and natural instinct almost unknown to themselves seek their own comfort and complacency most of all and the more excellent are their works the more subtil and undiscernable is this snare which self-love sets to the most spiritual 2. What better than to obey God to read his Sacred Word and preach it to receive and administer his Holy Sacraments Yet these duties are commonly stain'd with some secret desire of praise and except the Christian be very watchful over his own heart he may easily lose his better reward Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.1 and have not Charity I am become like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal And though a man should give all his goods to the Poor and even his Body to be burnt yet without Charity without the love of God hath purified his heart it will profit him nothing According to the saying of the Prophet Haggai 1.6 Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink and he that earns wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes for thus good works avail nothing if done out of respect to our selves and not to please God This being therefore the bent of our corrupt nature to draw us to our selves we ought carefully to examine our selves and search the hidden corners of our hearts that there lurk not in them some ill purpose of vain-glory or self-interest to mix with our best actions either first or last This is the Rule of a true Christian Life always to seek and love the things of God and never his own CHAP. XXXIII Things which every Christian is bound to know in order to obedience 1. EVery Disciple of Christ ought to know those Divine and Human Laws under which he lives and the which he is
too restless and busie from prodigality many fall to covetousness and from superstition to profaneness and irreverence The last cheat of Opinion I shall now reckon is that it generally makes us judge and esteem our selves not according to our own sense and consciousness but according to the vain thoughts and talk of other men We defer so much not only to our own but also to others opinions that except they will count us happy we cannot be so We are not contented to live to our selves but we must also entertain a troublesome imaginary life to please we know not whom people that perhaps know us not and to be sure care not for us whose judgment we our selves slight in other things Thus neglecting that true and real life which we our selves enjoy we make it our care and indeavour to preserve and adorn that life which depends on others and hath no subsistence but in ours and other mens fancy and so far doth this delusion prevail that what we our selves feel and know is nothing to us except others be acquainted with it From all these mischievous errors and deceptions of opinion we cannot be freed by the power of natural reason without the supernatural light of the Divine Grace enlighten our minds For our opinions become true or false according as is the light that guides us CHAP. XI That the Doctrine of Salvation is much slighted even by some that pretend to it 1. ALL knowledge is good that agrees with truth but he that would work out his salvation with fear and trembling had need learn first what concerns it because our time is short and great learning in other things is great trouble and great vanity It is the saying of S. James that to him that knows to do good and doth it not to him it is sin 4.17 As if he should say that it is ill to eat and not digest For as indigested meat nourisheth not but rather hurts so much knowledge not concocted and converted to use by the fire of holy charity fills men with pride and such peccant humors and at last ends in death These two things men are to care for whilst they are in this World first to keep the life of the Soul which consists in the grace and the favour of God and secondly to preserve their temporal life but for the first many are unconcern'd let what will become of the Soul their study and all their labour is that it may be well with the body And so they run blindfold after their lusts and sensual enjoyments being wise indeed as children of this world but having none of that wisdom which makes men wise unto Salvation 2. They that speak doubtfully and deceitfully are odious to men saith the Son of Sirach much more are they odious to God that live so whose very life is a lie as well as their words They pretend to know God and his holy ways and vainly boast to follow them when yet they go quite contrary they reprove and tutor others not themselves they cunningly dissemble their vices and make a shew of those virtues they are strangers to But they cannot deceive God who searcheth the heart and their hypocrisie cannot be hid from him who seeth the things that are in secret and at the last day will bring all to light And O that men would view their stains and imperfections in the great and eternal light of that terrible day for then they could easily discern and as easily cleanse and amend them We have but these two ways to take notice of our defects and deformities either in the light of our own reason comparing them to our selves or in the light of Divine Revelation bringing them forth before the bright and glorious presence of the most holy God The first is like a winter days light dim and cold but the second is the sun-shine of a summer-day so clear as to make the least mote visible and hot enough to burn and consume all our dross But to see this saving divine light a man must come out of himself and go to God in whom alone is truth and wisdome and out of whom all things are meer impostures and follies CHAP. XII That Self-will is a great Evil and must be renounc'd 1. ALL our actions contrary to God's will and in compliance to our own are the fewel for that fire which is unquenchable For self-will may be said to be the maker of Hell and the leader to it the Author of all the evils which eternally afflict all the wicked that rebell'd against God As likewise even in time the less a man follows his own will the farther he is from being miserable the nearer he comes to true happiness And he that hath wholly renounc'd to his own desires and inclinations hath the greatest assurance that can be had here of being eternally happy hereafter How this is to be done our Blessed Saviour taught us when he said follow me for he himself as he testified came not into the world to do his own will but the will of the Father that sent him so that to follow him we must follow his obedience forsake our own will to comply with his to follow him we must take up and bear his yoke and his Cross which to the flesh is indeed hard and afflictive but to the Spirit is comfortable and delicious 2. This our Christian profession doth require from us that in all our works and undertakings we may heartily say Not my will but Gods will be done This also is the design of the supreme eternal will of God in creating and preserving mens wills that they may freely serve him and in all things fulfil his good pleasure And truly it is the greatest and most blessed freedom to be in subjection to God to be able from our hearts to say in all events Even so Father for so it hath seemed good before thee My only will is Gods will may be done He is infinitely good and wise I freely resign my self to him and desire evermore to have an entire dependence on him and to be contented with all the disposals of his Providence and that in all things his blessed name may be glorified All mens troubles and vexations proceed from their unwillingness to submit to God for there is not a greater pain or grief than to be what we would not be CHAP. XIII Of the advantages of Solitariness and Retirement 1. TO be much alone in quiet silence and there to examine and instruct ones self is the way to have our senses and our thoughts well compos'd Therefore a wise man hates much talk and much company keeps his eyes close to curiosities and his ears to flying reports and cumbers not himself with too much of the world remembring the saying of wise Ben-Sirach that he shall become wise that hath little business Ecclus. 38.24 God is but one and he can best commune with God that dwells by himself And if a wise man be called
forth to some outward imployment by necessity or by Gods glory yet his thoughts will always tend homeward to dwell in peace with the inner man in an humble and quiet heart wherein there is always a sense of Gods gracious presence Whereas he that is too intent and busie about the circumference of unsettled creatures shall not be able to come to his proper rest and center which is God 2. To the ignorant foolish World it is very grievous to be alone and converse with themselves but for a few hours they are afraid of themselves and they make it their chiefest care to be ingag'd abroad and to avoid their own company They spend much of their time upon the necessities of this present life and yet what remains of it lies upon them like a heavy burthen and they are glad to find out occasions to throw it away They dread to look within and to hear the voice of their own conscience and finding nothing in themselves but fearful apprehensions vexation and tediousness of spirit they range abroad and go for comfort to other creatures Serious thoughts are a terror to them and consideration is as bad as death because their Soul lies naked and deformed loaded with sins and miseries and they have just cause to avoid the sight of such a Spectacle No wonder therefore if but a few men love to be private and to be sequestred from the World when so many desire to be in a croud and a perpetual hurry and esteem themselves unhappy when they must be alone as indeed unhappy they are and must be until they rectifie many things and learn to confer and live with themselves and by inward purity invite God to dwell in their hearts that there they may rest in him We are told that many are called and but a few chosen that we might learn to forsake the many and live with the few and with fear and diligent care make our Calling and Election sure CHAP. XIV Of the Danger of Riches and that the desire of them is to be mortified 1. HOW apt Riches are to corrupt a good Life how pernicious is the love of them our Blessed Saviour taught his Disciples when he affirm'd with an asseveration as being a thing of great moment and much to be noted Verily I say unto you that a Rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.23 And that this terrible sentence might make the deeper impression upon their hearts he exemplifies Rich mens danger by this Parable It is easier for a Camet to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God The Door of the Heavenly Kingdom is narrow and can give no entrance to such as are loaded and cumbred with fardels of Wealth We should therefore love and desire Riches as a sick man doth a bitter Potion it is necessary to recover health but it is unpleasant and if he could be well without it he would let it alone and however he takes no more than needs must so should every Christian be affected to the things of the World they are the staff of our Pilgrimage and our necessities require the use of them but yet they are vexatious and dangerous too and therefore we may wish we could live without them and we must take no more of them than is requisite to supply our wants for as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6.6 Godliness with Contentment is great gain And 't was the Counsel of a good man Fear not my Son though we are made Poor for thou hast much wealth if thou fear God and depart from all Sin Tob. 4.21 2. He is truly Rich that is Rich to Eternity and hath a Treasure of Good Works in store But they can hardly be Innocent that will be Rich in the World for the love of Riches is the Root of all Evil. Men care not what sins they commit so they may get Wealth and when they have it its great use is to purchase therewith the satisfaction of their Lusts the Lust of the Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life which are the Idols of the World But as some that play with pibbles and pins are very intent to their game when yet they value not the instruments of it so should we care for our necessities and yet not set our hearts upon those things that supply them we may use money to that end but we may not inslave our affections to it except we will become most base and miserable We see when Nuts are thrown among Children they will greedily scrape and fight for them and Men will stand unconcern'd and despise such trash so should we as many as fear God and are true Christians when Riches and Honours are to be got and men that know and expect no better will croud and strive and sweat for them let us laugh and pitty their folly those things are but Nuts not worth our stooping if any fall into our bosome we may break it and eat it but 't is below us to scramble for them all Worldly things are meer deceit and vanity When the Son of God became Man he would have no Riches to teach us how much we should despise them The Children of this World like not of this they rather despise Christ and his Divine Doctrine because they love and esteem Mammon but the Children of light gather their Treasure in Heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupteth and where thieves cannot break through nor steal He is Rich enough in this World that wants not Daily Bread CHAP. XV. Of the Vse of Riches and how to know we Love them not 1. FEW understand or consider how to use their Estates aright that they are the provision for this present short Life which a good man obtains without any wrong to others and own without Pride or Covetousness and preserves without anxious fears and distributes without regret or nigardliness where Charity and Necessity call Now the measures of Necessity are to be taken from the Man's state and condition For some by birth or by place are Noble and dignified Persons who in respect of their ranks which should be Honourably maintain'd have greater wants than their inferiors who may have sufficient with a lesser Portion Yet however we are all but Stewards of what we possess and we should all study Alms and Moderation that God our great Land-lord may find us faithful For he is the true owner of all that we have we are but Servants under him who should use all for his glory and in the midst of our plenty be voluntarily Poor as to our selves And when Riches increase should not be proud nor set our heart upon them 2. Nature hath hid Gold and Silver in the bowels of the Earth and the Covetous that seeks for those beloved mettals is bowed down and stoops to the ground and can hardly raise up himself to look to Heaven but the wiser Christian looks
our Blessed Saviour commanding to all without distinction Luke 11.41 Give Alms of such things as you have And the great Preacher of Repentance injoyn'd the multitudes that asked him what they should do Luke 3.11 He that hath two Coats let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do likewise I hear the Psalmist declaring that Blessed is he that considereth the Poor for the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble Psal 41.1 And the Prophet instructing all Penitents on this wise Deal thy Bread to the Hungry and bring the Poor that are cast out to thy House when thou seest the naked cover him and hide not thy self from thine own flesh Isa 58.7 I hear Religious Tobit giving this Lesson to his Son Give Alms of thy substance and when thou givest Alms let not thy hand be Envious neither turn thy face from any Poor and the Face of God shall not be turned away from thee If thou hast abundance give Alms accordingly If thou have but little be not afraid to give according to that little for thou layest up a good Treasure for thy self against the day of Necessity because that Alms do deliver from Death and suffer not to come into darkness Tob. 4.7 c. 3. What can be said more than all this to prove Alms-giving to be much a Duty and most advantagious But yet let us hear also what the Beloved Apostle saith in this matter 1 John 3.17 Whoso hath this Worlds good and seeth his Brother hath need and shutteth up his Bowels of Compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in Him If not the love of God then self-love that is lust and sin dwell and reign in him and his Portion in the next world shall be with the rich man in the Gospel Luke 16. who was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day and yet would not give Lazarus so much as the crums that fell from his Table The Conscience of the Covetous cryeth or ere long will cry against him why dost thou put by that poor hungry man thou art his murtherer in that thou art able and dost not feed him that Bread which thou canst spare is his those garments which fill up thy Trunks belong to the Naked and the money hoarded in thy Coffers is the just right of the Necessitous Christ in the great Judgment will condemn to Hell such merciless wretches as thou art Go ye saith he into Everlasting Fire for I was hungry and you fed me not I was thirsty and you gave me no drink naked and ye clothed me not Mat. 25.42 He doth not mention such pressing extream necessities as must be now supplied and could be relieved by none else such occur but seldome not once perhaps in a mans life Therefore we must not stay for such Extremities to be Charitable but we must spare as much as we can and what we can we must give in Good Works for Charity is the band of perfectness and shall cover a multitude of sins Neither yet must we as some do delay our Charity till we can keep no longer what we have That which Death makes us give if we could have given it before will be nothing so acceptable as what we our selves freely distribute when we have power to keep it CHAP. XVIII Of Patience in Bearing and Forbearing 1. OF all the Virtues wherein Christians must exercise themselves that they may come to Life Eternal none is more excellent and none more useful than Patience By it we imitate the forbearance and long-suffering of God who provoked by so much wickedness and disobedience yet doth good to all men and makes his Sun to rise upon the Just and the Unjust Patience governs the mind and preserves it in Peace and an even Temper it breaks Anger and bridles the Tongue and mortifies Pride and a high Spirit it ends Quarrels and entertains Friendship and it conquers the World it tames the Flesh overcomes Temptations bears nobly and meekly reproaches and persecutions and it perfects and crowns the life of a Christian If all men were Patient the evils of mankind would be nothing so great nor so numerous as they are and we should be happy with abundance of love and quietness By Patience a wise and good man may be distinguish'd from a vicious fool It is so diffusive a vertue that it is necessary to all other vertues and contrary to all vices and God instructs and proves the best of his Children by exercising their Patience Nothing can hinder but that injurious Words and Actions shall affect and stir up our minds and nothing but Patience can make us masters of our selves can pacifie our tumultuous Spirits and restrain us from mischief and revenge 2. Philosophers themselves have extold very high the Praises of this excellent vertue and they made it the chiefest mark and ostentation of their own wisdome But as they know not the true God from whom proceeds and to whom tends all true vertue so their Patience was false as well as their wisdom But we that live in the School of Christ are taught by him that through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God and this is the only true wisdom to know Jesus Christ and him crucified and to love and chearfully bear his Cross For a Christian must be made conformable to his Crucified Saviour our life must be the Image of his Death So that he is no Christian that hates and refuseth the Cross and will not suffer Let none of us sinful men that own God for Father expect to be without Chastisement in this World for his own natural Beloved Son was not though he was without sin even the Christ was to suffer that he might enter into his Glory Every one in this life is visited with pains and sorrows either for his conversion or for his greater perfection but the most afflicted endures nothing that can be compar'd to the shame and the Cross of Christ CHAP. XIX Adversities are occasions of Vertue and must be Patiently indur'd 1. THis our present Life is the way through which we must go to Heaven and in it we find all the properties that belong to a way sometimes it is even sometimes rough sometimes it is pleasant sometimes full of briers rocks and precipices in some places it is crowded with company in some it is desart and solitary and here and there you meet with wild beasts and robbers rain and fair weather daily succeed each to other obstacles and difficulties frequently occur and even in Grace and Religion the Philosophers saying doth take place Omnia fieri secundum litem that there is contention and opposition in all things We see it in Vertue which is acquired by fighting by resisting Temptations and mans strength and fortitude would be unknown and of no use should he not meet with afflictions and uneasie tryals I know this is not the sense of the world the fools party
here pour'd upon us for a wise and good man will not only regard what he suffers but what he deserves to suffer for his offences against God Also let no man judge and condemn another remembring the saying of St. Paul Ro. 2.1 Thou art inexcusable O man for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things For 't is very unfitting he that owes ten thousand talents should be a severe exacter of his Brother's mite and he is a fool that thinks to cure others by his distemper that is by his pride and his impatience Who art thou saith the Apostle Rom. 14.4 that judgest another mans servant To his own master he standeth or falleth And how canst thou say to thy Brother let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye when thou thy self beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye Luke 6.42 God alone that can amend and forgive or else punish the sins of men hath right to judge of them our part is to prevent them if we can or else bring men to repentance however to hide and bear with them indeavouring first to amend our own faults before we take upon us to correct others As God is merciful and patient to us all so must we be to our Brothers CHAP. XXIV Remedies against Impatience 1. MAny and various are the affairs a man must go through in his life and very different are the humors and companies he must converse withal so that it is next to impossible all men should be of his opinion and all things should fall out according to his mind therefore he must resolve before hand and be very careful that he lose not his Peace and his Patience whatever happen To that end let him consider in all his concerns and undertakings what things may come cross to his desires and above his power to help and having took a view of them let him prepare himself to bear them if they come For this will avoid the surprize and lessen the grief and compose the mind This must be therefore our first and chiefest task to understand the nature of things and to use them accordingly as that they may be taken from us and they are and must be subject to thousands of changes and chances which we cannot hinder and they are to serve not to command us and withal they are out of our power so that we must not be troubled if we cannot dispose of them as we would 2. These considerations well weighed will make a wise mans mind stedfast and even able to entertain all events with a generous indifferency Is he depriv'd of his good name of his estate or liberty is he threatned with persecutions or with death itself he is not mov'd nor dejected he had consider'd long before that such things might happen whether he would or no and now he can bear and overcome them 'T is not outward things that wound us but the wrong notion that we have of them our own mistaken conceits do us the most hurt No man grows pale with fear or perplext with anguish but he that passionately would avoid or obtain that which is not in his power mind your duty and let not your passions go out of your own sphere and you shall avoid all those troubles which come from abroad where mans Jurisdiction cannot reach The Christian Martyrs were constant in the midst of their wearied tormentors their patience could not be conquer'd even women and children were undaunted in the midst of the flames they could not be overcome though they might be kill'd because they valued not those things which Tyrants might give or else take away Things without were nothing to them but things within things that were their own as their vertue their divine faith and love these they kept and preserv'd and in so doing were happy For these are the true goods which depend only from our selves and which the world can neither give nor take away from us CHAP. XXV Of Humility the proper Vertue of Christians 1. LEarn of me saith our Divine master the eternal wisdom the inexhaustible fountain of Grace and Vertue Learn of me what sure some great matter for he that bids us learn hath himself created Heaven and Earth and commanded the light to shine out of darkness Will he therefore teach us to make a new world and so bring things out of nothing also No that belongs only to God He bids us learn not what he made but what he himself was made for us Who being in the form of God yet made himself of no reputation taking on him the form of a Servant and being made in the likeness of men Phil. 2. Learn of me therefore saith he not to raise the dead or cast out Devils not to cleanse lepers or give light to the blind not to walk on the Sea or to work such wonders as he enabled some to do but Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11.29 He would not teach what himself would not do but he himself becomes our lesson and this he makes the sum of his wisdome and his saving doctrine that we learn to be meek and humble after his example So great so difficult a thing was lowliness that we could not learn it but from the humiliation of the most highest 2. Indeed human pride can be cur'd by none but him who being God yet humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross And humility is the chiefest vertue of Christians proper to them alone unknown to the Philosophers and wise men of the world recommended by Christ by his Example and by his Precepts above all other duties That we following him in his abasement might at last come to his glory Now that we may think meanly of our selves we must seriously consider who it is that calls us the wretched State whence he calls us the Bliss he calls us to our perverse dulness to follow and the assistances he gives to forward us For we shall never come to the prize of our high calling except humility goes along and follows our best works which are the steps we make towards it Because our vertues shall avail nothing if we be proud of them and if we seek for praise and glory here we shall not have any hereafter 3. If at any time our thoughts be lift up and we fancy our selves to be something the Earth which is always present will tell us whereof we are made and whence we had our origin For dust we are and to dust we must needs return and upon this humble and low foundation we must build the highest vertues For if a man had the gift of miracles and could remove mountains if he could speak all languages and foretel things to come if he had converted all the infidels and given all his substance to the Poor yet he would be in great and perpetual danger of falling and losing his reward