Honesty Fortitude hath a double Office one and the chief to endure Labours and Dangers the other to set upon them when 't is fitting A Valiant man thrusts not himself rashly into Evils but when they come he constantly suffers them he desires not dreadfull things but he despises them he 's there lifted high where others are depressed there he stands up where others lye down no disgrace no repulse no exile no injury daunts him not a Prison not Torments not Death it self terrifies him he dashes against his greatness all sorrow all sickness all trouble he permits not himself to be wrested from what is right by any Threats or Entreaties he loses not his Courage although many obstacles impede his well begun enterprizes he faints not under the burthen nor struggles with the Office he hath once undertaken but persists till he hath perfected it he stands upright under any weight no Force no Power no Terror makes him less he neither throws down his Virtue nor hides it when Dangers on all sides surround him He evermore considers whither he goes not what he endures 2. As one sailing with a prosperous Gale furnishes himself with several helps wherewith to entertain the Tempest so it will behove thee whilst Fortune is favourable to seek safeguards to shelter thee against its future frowardness Feign to thy self that whatsoever finister chance can happen is already faln upon thee Shipwreck Banishment Wounds Torments Diseases Disgraces Contempt and behave thy self in such sort as if thou wert now in the very midst of these miseries that exercised by this Preludium thou mayst say in any future event I have had these things already in my mind I have foreseen them and have despised them 'T is decreed from Eternity what thou shalt rejoyce at for what thou shalt weep and although each mans Life seems to be distinguished with great variety all comes to one sum We receiv'd perishable things our selves being to perish Why art thou Angry At what complainest thou Although all things perish nothing of thine perishes 'T is better to give what God demands back than to be forc'd to pay it Epicurus himself professes that a Wise man may be happy even in his Torments Were he in the Belly of Phalaris's Bull sayes he he will say How pleasant is this How little doth it concern me Surely a great word but not incredible to us who have extant amongst us so many examples of Martyrs whose Constancy in their torments whose Alacrity in their fiery tryals was so great that they seem'd to have no feeling of their sufferings To him who loves God all Punishments are Pleasures 3. The excellency of Fortitude appears no where more illustriously than in the danger of Death 'T is a difficult thing to perswade the Mind to a contempt of Life with which most men are so enamoured that they esteem nothing more happy nothing more precious But if thou art Wise as thou oughtst to be thou wilt cease to account Death amongst Evils which surely is the end of Evils and the beginning of Life Thou art therefore to go forth with a willing mind being to return again Death hath no invincible Necessity so that to fear it is the part of a Mad-man for things which are doubtfull are dreaded but things which are assured are expected Consider that Children and people faln from their Wits fear not Death 'T is a pittifull thing that Reason should not afford thee so much security as Foolishness gives them Life was given thee with the exception of Death He would not have Liv'd who will not Dye 4. Nature hath gratified us in that it hath granted us for a certain time the use of its Objects to be look'd upon that time being now expired we must depart What Wise man at his last gasp if his Life were again given him would be willing to re-enter the Prison of his Mothers womb to resume the follies of Infancy the fears of Childhood the dangers of Youth the cares of Virility the labours of Old-age No one hath liv'd so happily as that it would please him to be born again Observe therefore whither thou goest and from what thou departest The cause of thy fear is the emptiness of good works which thou beginnest to desire at the end of thy life otherwise thou would'st not tremble standing upon the threshold of Eternal Felicity It were a punishment for a just man to be born unless Death followed 5. No one receiv'd Death cheerfully but he who for a long time before dispos'd himself for it Render it familiar to thee by freequent reflections that when it comes thou may'st with alacrity entertain it Not the Days not the Years make thee to have liv'd long enough but a Mind glad to go forth and to fly back to its beginning He hath liv'd long who dyes well He dyes well who hath liv'd well Wilt thou prepare for thy self a peaceable Death Accustom thy self to despise all things He cannot fear Death who hath already depriv'd himself of more then Death can bereave him Wilt thou make thy life pleasant Cast off all solicitude concerning it Stand prepared for any kind of Death let it be to thee indifferent whether a Sword or a Feaver cuts off thy Life and so dispose it that thou mayst daily say I have Lived He Lives securely and Dyes chearfully who every day carries himself out to his burial to whom it is granted when his Life is ended Thou canst not Live well unless thou Diest daily CHAP. XXIX Of Magnanimity The Description of a Magnanimous Man 1. MAgnanimity sounds some great thing in its very name 't is a high Virtue whose strongest force tends evermore to great matters Without this all the endeavours of the other Virtues fall down to nothing For since in practising them many difficulties occur the mind is to be erected and emboldned to proceed against them nor ought it to desist till having broken through all interposed obstacles it generously gets the possession of the proposed Good This Magnanimity performs which evermore inclines man to high and heroick actions and supported by Gods Assistance securely and promptly sets upon all sorts of difficulties Somthing is to be attempted if thou wilt be any thing A great matter cannot be atchieved with little labour Man is a great thing when he is truly a Man 2. A great mind aspires always to great things and contemns all those things as little which the Vulgar look on as greatest He performs works which deserve high honor but as for the honor it self he neither seeks it when 't is deny'd nor scorns it when 't is offred unless Gods honour and Obedience otherwise require He doth nothing for Ostentation all for Conscience and expects the reward of his well done action not from the Peoples applause but from the deed it self He stands always aloft eminent invincible like to himself in all accidents and occasions nor doth he thrust himself into higher places content with his
upon all chances before they happen that so the Enemy may find thee prepared 'T is too late to furnish the Mind with Remedies after the Dangers Learn to do little and speak little for if of the many things thou speakest and dost thou takest away what is not necessary thou wilt find fewer perturbations in thy Mind And say not this is a small matter For that which is the beginning of Virtue and Perfection is very great though it seems but little 5. The Old man drawing his Origine from the infected seed of the sinner Adam is to be considered as a certain Tree having for its Root Self-love for its Trunk a Propension to Evil for its Branches Perturbations for its Leaves Vitious Habits for its Fruits Works Words and Thoughts which are contrary to the Divine Law Wherefore to hinder the Branches of bad Affections from breaking forth into Leaves and Fruits apply the Axe to the Root and extirpate that worst Love of thy self If thou takest this away thou hast with one stroke cut off the whole vitious Off-spring of thy Inferiour Appetite And thou wilt take it away and root it out if thou contemnest thy self if thou truly believest thy self to be one of those thousands who are indu'd with no singular dowry and perfection and that thou art destitute of all knowledge and virtue if thou fearest not to displease men and to be by them scorned and despised if thou art willing to want all sorts of comforts and conveniences Thou wilt preserve thy self if thou well hatest thy self thou wilt lose thy self if thou ill lovest thy self CHAP. XIII Of Love Its Nature Causes Effects Its Remedies Something added of Hatred 1. LOve is a complacency in that which is Good to wit that first impression wherewith the Appetite is affected when the known Good pleaseth it By this the whole World coheres together and this being brought under which holds the prime place amongst the Affections the whole troop of the rest will easily be quelled The Love which is good tends thither from whence it had its beginning It goes to Good because it proceeds from the Soveraign Good Discuss thy Life and weigh thy Heart in the Ballance of a strict Examination Observe what Love is there predominant for that which weighs down in the Scale of Love is to thee a God that 's the Idol thou worshippest Therefore God hath commanded thee to love him with thy whole Heart to prevent thereby the Affections of thy Mind because whatsoever thou Lovest with thy whole Heart that is the thing thou adorest as God 2. Besides Goodness and Beauty a certain sympathy and agreement of minds and manners excites Love as also outward Modesty Industry Nobility Learning quickness of Wit and other such like Ornaments of Body and Mind Love it self is the Load-stone of Love to which if Benefits are added he is then constrained to return Love who would not bestow it There are moreover some things naturally provoking Love for they who have clearer Spirits a warmer Heart a more subtle Blood and are of an easie and meek Disposition are more prone to Love 3. Great is the power of Love It transforms the Lover into the thing Beloved Love is a certain going out of it self a certain Pilgrimage from it self a certain voluntary Death He who Loves is absent from himself he thinks not of himself he provides nothing he doth nothing and unless he is received by his beloved he is no where O how unhappily doth he love who loves not God! for he cannot be in the beloved who loves earthly Objects which cannot satiate the Soul as being subject to Vanity and Death But he that loves God is in God and ceasing to live in himself lives in him in whom all things live who is our Center and our unchangeable Good Humane love is violent and bitter the Divine is evermore humble and peaceable Jealousie torments that but this hath no Rivals that fears lest another should love this wishes all would love wherefore if thou lovest thy self love God for that thou lovest him is thy own profit not his Man may be alter'd and perish thou never losest God unless thou leavest him 4. That the love which thou perchance bearest thy Companion may be sincere lay aside all humane causes of Wit Jocundness Likeness and seek only them which consist in Piety and Sanctity The Love which they call Platonical is the bane of Virtue whereby they feign that from the beholding Corporal Comliness the Soul is raised to the contemplation of the Divine Beauty The stedfast eying of a sair Face excites the Concupiscence to touch it and that which goes out by the Eyes whether it is Light or a certain Flux melts the Man and destroys him 'T is better the Feet should slip than the Eyes But the Remedies of Love are of great difficulty because when 't is chastised it more eagerly presses on and unless thou resistest its beginnings it so insensibly creeps in that thou wilt first feel thy self to Love before thou hadst any design of Loving But if thou absolutely repugnest to the beginnings the cure will be easily compassed The Mind also must be busied about other matters which being accompanied with care will remove the memory of the thing beloved Then all mention of the person affected is to be avoided because nothing more easily returns than Love which if it hath once seiz'd on thee it will so pertinaciously vex thee as that it will not be removed but by the lingring Remedy of time and absence that is till it being tired expires Shame hath cur'd many when they saw themselves pointed at and become the common talk of the people and withall considered the foulness of the thing full of disgrace full of danger and subject to future Repentance It hath profited others to enquire attentively into the Evils and inconveniences of the thing beloved which might diminish its amiableness and beauty Lastly a conversion of our Love to God to Virtue to eternal Objects that is to things which are truly Lovely will much conduce to the cure that so a good Love may expell the bad and the generous mind of man may grow ashamed to debase it self to the vile love of the earth Bad loves infect good manners 5. Nature hath bound all things together with a certain Love-Chain This drives and couples the dances of the Stars in Heaven the flocks of Birds in the Air the Heards of Oxen in the Meadows the Droves of Cattel in the Mountains the companies of Wild Beasts in the Woods This Sacred Bond is broken only by Hatred for as Love tends to Union so Hatred aims at Division and Dissention They are most subject to this bad affection who are sluggish timerous and suspicious and apprehensive of loss on every side There are moreover some men so born that they hate all others like that horrid sort of Fowls which hate even their own darkness If thou meetest with any of this
things as are not within the reach of thy own power 'T is a misery to have that wanting to the Will which is hoped for 2. The Mind is frequently to be admonished to look upon all things which are without thee and about thee as perishable and hanging by a slender Thread Why forgettest thou thy own Condition Thou art born Mortal Nothing is promised thee of this Day nothing of this Hour Death stands at thy back whatsoever thou hast is but borrowed the use of it is thine so long as it pleases the supreme Arbiter of all things When he calls all is to be rendred up without complaint 'T is the part of a perverse Debtor to injure his Creditor There 's nothing therefore under the Sun which thou oughtest to hope for That only is a true Hope which is rightly conceiv'd of the true and chief Good 3. Despair is caused by Sloathfulness Dejection of mind an over-great apprehension of Difficulties a faulty Diffidence of ones self and of the defect of his own Forces and Industry 'T is conquered by exciting the Mind to imitate their Example who being in far greater anguishes generously overcame all Obstacles Begin and drive on thy self for God helps them who do what they can and thou wilt find that most easie which seem'd most hard if the false Opinion concerning it is deposed Whatsoever happens to thee that all was designed from Eternity Now that either falls out as thou by Nature art disposed to endure it or otherwise if the first despair not but bear it if otherwise yet do not despair for whatsoever it is it will soon have an end and make an end of thee That 's light which thou canst bear short which thou canst not But remember that it is in thy own Power to render many things tollerable if thou wilt apprehend them as profitable and convenient Calamity is the occasion of Virtue CHAP. XVII Of Fear How Vain it is and how to be Vanquished Boldness to be avoided Something again of Anger 1. MAny there are who when there is no present Evil nor any assuredly to come do nevertheless rage and run about and either feign a Misfortune to themselves or increase it Humane cruelty hath not invented so many torments as a Mind endures which is ever anxious of the future which is over-solicitous to preserve his present Goods and over-apprehensive of future dangers Many things which would not be Evils are so because we fear them What profits it thee to be troubled before the time and by a vain providence to meet thy own Miseries Must thou needs be now miserable because thou mayst be so hereafter 'T is the part of a Fool to give up his reason to other mens relations and when no apparent signs foretell the Mischief to be terrified with false imaginations Oftentimes thou being deceiv'd with a sinister conjecture wrestest a Word of doubtful signification to the worst sence Sometimes thou conceivest the offence of a Nobleman to be greater than indeed it is and thinkest not how far forth he is angry but what he may do being angry But these Fears are vain and therefore trouble more because vain For true things have their measure but what comes from uncertainty is left to the conjecture and liberty of the timerous Mind It little differs whether thou endurest adverse fortune or expectest it but only there is a measure of grieving none of fearing Thou grievest for as much as thou knowst has hapned thou fearest for as much as may happen 2. If thou wilt put off all Fears propose that whatsoever thou dreadest lest it should come will certainly come then measure that Evil with thy self and tax thy Fear thou wilt soon perceive that the thing thou fearest is not in it self great but in thy Opinion Can any harsher misfortune befall thee than to be thrust into Banishment cast into Prison Can thy Body dread any thing more than to be burnt to death Discuss these particulars and reduce them to thy true Fear thou wilt find many even Infidels who contemned all these things Stephen amongst the Stones prayed to God with 〈…〉 Mind Lawrence triumphs in the Flames and insults over the Tyrant The Virgin Apollonia casts her self into the prepared Fire Anaxarchus smiles in the Mortar being beaten to pieces with Iron Malls Socrates chearfully drinks a health to Critias out of his poysoned Cup. Why dreadest thou Flames and Fires and the frowning looks of the Executioners who encompass thee Under all that pomp which affrights Fools Death lies hid which so many Boys and Girls have with joyful minds embraced Take away tumults from things put off their vizards restore to every thing it s own Countenance thou wilt see nothing terrible in them besides the terror it self That happens to us greater Children which does to little ones They if they see them whom they love with whom they live with whom they play personated and disguised are affrighted But thou more silly than Children art arriv'd at that height of Folly as not only to be vext at grief but with the Panick Fear of it 3. Lead thy Mind from the private to the Common Cause Think thou hast a frail and mortal Body subject to many Diseases and at last to Death And say to thy self I knew long since that many adverse verse Accidents hung over my Head What therefore do I now dread I shall be Sick The Sickness of my Body will conduce to the Health of my Soul I shall be reduc'd to Poverty My Life will be safer and more quiet I shall lose my Riches And with them many Cares and perpetual Danger I shall suffer Disgrace If the cause is just I will execrate it if unjust I will comfort my self with my own Conscience I shall be frustrated in my expectation of the thing I hoped for Neither do Kings obtain all they desire I shall be sent into Banishment I will go of my own accord and make it a Pilgrimage I shall become Blind The occasions of many Cupidities will be cut off Men will speak ill of me They will do what I deserve and what they are wont I shall Dye Upon this Condition I entred to go forth But I shall Dye in a Foreign Nation No Land is Foreign to him who hath here no permanent City I shall Dye before my time None but a Mad-man complains to be freed from his Fetters before the time and to be releas'd out of Prison Death Exile Grief are not punishments to be dreaded for they are but the tributes of our Mortality 'T is a Folly to fear the things thou canst not avoid 4. Beware of over-much Boldness and do not rashly set upon any thing above thy strength for none are sooner oppress'd than they who presume too much of themselves Small are our Forces without Gods help from whom proceeds all our sufficiency Boldness springs from the great value we put upon our own Virtue from a contempt of our Adversaries from a