a sure apprehension of both the unavoidable necessity and certain benefit of death A necessity grounded upon the just and eternal Decree of Heaven It is appointed to all men once to die and what a madness were it for a Man to think of an exemption from the common condition of mankind Mortality is as it were essential to our Nature neither could we have had our Souls but upon the terms of a re-delivery when they shall be called for If the Holiest Saints or the greatest Monarchs sped otherwise we might have some colour of repining Now grieve if thou wilt that thou art a Man grieve not that being Man thou must die Neither is the benefit inferiour to the necessity Lo here the remedy of all our cares the Physick for all our maladies the rescue from all our fears and dangers earnestly sued for by the painful dearly welcome to the distressed Yea lo here the Cherub that keeps the Gate of Paradise there is no entrance but under his hand In vain do we hope to pass to the Glory of Heaven any other way then through the Gates of Death The second is the Conscience of a well-led Life Guiltinefs will make any Man cowardly unable to look danger in the face much more Death whereas the innocent is bold as a Lion What a difference therefore there is betwixt a Martyr and a Malefactor this latter knows he hath done ill and therefore if he can take his Death but patiently it is well the former knows he hath done well and therfore takes his Death not patiently onely but chearfully But because no mortal Man can have so innocently led his Life but that he shall have passed many offences against his most Holy and Righteous God here must be Thirdly a final Peace firmly made betwixt God and the Soul Two Powerful Agents must mediate in it a Lively Faith and a serious Repentance for those Sins can never appear against us that are washed off with our tears and being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Now if we have made the Judge our Friend what can the Sergeant do The fourth is the Power and efficacy of Christs Death applyed to the Soul Wherefore dyed he but that we might Live Wherefore would he who is the Lord of Life die but to sanctifie season and sweeten death to us Who would go any other way then his Saviour went before him Who can fear that enemy whom his Redeemer hath Conquered for him Who can run away from that Serpent whose sting is pulled out Oh Death my Saviour hath been thy Death and therefore thou canst not be mine The fifth is the comfortable expectation and assurance of a certain resurrection and an immediate Glory I do but lay me down to my rest I shall sleep quietly and rise gloriously My Soul in the mean time no sooner leaves my body then it enjoys God It did lately through my bodily Eyes see my sad Friends that bad me farewel with their Tears now it hath the blisse-making Vision of God I am no sooner lanched forth then I am at the Haven where I would be Here is that which were able to make amends for a thousand Deaths a Glory Infinite Eternal Incomprehensible This Spiritual Ammunition shall sufficiently furnish the Soul for her encounter with her last Enemy so as she shall not only endure but long for this Combat and say with the chosen Vessel I desire to depart to be with Christ SECT XVIII The miseries and inconveniences of the continued conjunction of the Soul Body NOw for that long conversation causeth entireness and the parting of Old Friends and Partners such the Soul and Body are cannot but be grievous although there were no actual pain in the dissolution It will be requisite for us seriously to consider the state of this conjunction to enquire what good offices the one of them doth to the other in their continued union for which they should be so loth to part And here we shall find that those two however united to make up one Person yet as it fals out in Cross matches they are in continual domestique jars one with the other and entertain a secret familiar kind of Hostility betwixt themselves For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other One says well that if the Body should implead the Soul it might bring many foul impeachments against it and sue it for many great injuries done to that Earthly part And the Soul again hath no fewer quarrels against the Body Betwixt them both there are many brawles no Agreement Our Schools have reckoned up therefore eight main incommodities which the Soul hath cause to complain of in her conjunction with the Body whereof the first is the defilement of Original Sin wherewith the Soul is not tainted as it proceeds alone from the pure hands of its Creator but as it makes up a part of a Son of Adam who brought this guilt upon Humane nature so as now this composition which we call Man is corrupt Who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean Saith Job The second is a proneness to Sin which but by the meeting of these partners had never been the Soul if single would have been innocent thus matched what Evil is it not apt to entertain An ill consort is enough to poyson the best disposition The difficulty of doing well is the third for how averse are we by this conjunction from any thing that is good This clog hinders us from walking roundly in the ways of God The good that I would do I do not saith the chosen Vessel The fourth is the dulness of our understanding and the dimness of our mental Eyes especially in the things pertaining unto God which now we are forced to behold through the vail of Flesh If therefore we mis-know the fault is in the mean through which we do imperfectly discover them The fifth is a perpetual impugnation and self-conflict either part labouring to oppose and vanquish the other This field is fought in every mans bosom without any possibility of peace or truce till the last moment of dissolution The sixth is the racking solicitude of cares which continually distract the Soul not Suffering it to rest at ease whiles it carries this Flesh about it The seventh is the multiplicity of passions which daily bluster within us and raise up continual Tempests in our Lives disquieting our Peace and threatning our Ruine The eight is the retardation of our Glory for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God we must lay down our load if we would enter into Heaven The seed cannot fructifie unless it Die. I cannot blame Nature if it could wish not to be unclothed but to be clothed upon But so hath the Eternal Wisdom Ordered that we should first lay down ere we can take up
THE REMEDY OF DISCONTENTMENT OR A TREATISE OF Contentation in whatsoever Condition Fitted for sad and troubled Times By Jos. Hall D. D. and B. N. The Fourth Edition Phil. 4. 11. I have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content 12. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound Every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to want LONDON Printed by G. Larkin for Obadiah Blagrave at the Bear in St. Pauls Church-yard 1684. Vera Effigies Reverendi Do ni Josephi Hall Norwici nuper Episco TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Grace and Peace WHat can be more seasonable then at this time when all the world is sick of Discontentment to give counsels Receits of Contentation Perhaps the Patient will think it a time ill chosen for Physick in the midst of a Fit But in this case we must do as we may I confess I had rather have stayed till the Paroxism were happily over that so the humors being somwhat setled I might hope for the more kindly operation of this wholsom Medicine But partly my age weakness despairing to out-live the publick distemper and partly my judgment crossing the vulgar opinion for the season of some kind of Receipts have now put me upon this safe and useful Prescription God is my witness that I wrote this in the depth of mine own afflictions the particulars whereof it were unseasonable to trouble the world withal as one that meant to make my self my own Patient by enjoyning my self that course of remedies that I prescribe to others and as one who by the powerful working of Gods Spirit within me labour to find my heart framed to those holy dispositions which I wish and recommend to every Christian soul If there be no remedy but the worst of outward troubles must afflict us it shall be happy yet if we may find inward peace in our bosoms which shall be if we can reconcile our selves to our offended God and calm our spirits to a meek undergoing of those sufferings which the divine Providence hath thought fit to measure forth unto us This is the main drift of this ensuing labour Now the same God who hath in these blustring times put into my heart these quiet thoughts of holy Contentation bless them in every hand that shall receive them and make them effectual to the good of every soul that shall now and hereafter entertain them that so their gracious proficiency may in the day of the appearance of our Lord Jesus add to the joy of my account Who am the unworthiest of the servants of God and his Church J. N. THE CONTENTS OF the several Sections following Sect. I. THe excellency of Contentation and how it is to be had p. 1. § II. The contrariety of estates wherein it is to be exercised 3 § III. Who they are that know not how to want and be abased 7 § IV. Who they are that know how to want 14 § V. Considerations leading to Contentation and first the consideration of the fickleness of life and of all earthly commodities Honor Beauty Strength c. p. 17 § VI. Considerations of the unsatisfying condition of these worldly things 28 § VII The danger of the too much estimation of these earthly comforts 33 § VIII The consideration of the divine Providence ordering and over-ruling all events 36 § IX The consideration of the worse condition of others 41 § X. The consideration of the inconveniencies of great estates and therein first their cares 46 § XI The danger of the distempers both bodily and spiritual that follow great means and the torment in parting with them p. 53 § XII Consideration of the benefits of Poverty 59 § XIII Consideration of how little will suffice Nature 65 § XIV Consideration of the inconveniencies and miseries of discontentment 70 § XV. The gracious vicissitudes of Gods favours and afflictions 77 § XVI Consid of the great examples of Contentation both without and within the Church of God 85 § XVII Contentment in death it self 96 § XVIII The miseries and inconveniencies of the continued conjunction of the soul and body 104 § XIX Holy dispositions fer contentment the first whereof Humility 111 § XX. 2. Self-resignation 119 § XXI 3. The true inward riches 126 § XXII Holy resolutions and 1. That the present estate is best for us 131 § XXIII 2. Resolution to abate our desires 139 § XXIV 3. Resolution to inure our selves to digest smaller discontentments 147 § XXV 4. Resolution to be frequent and fervent in Prayer 155 § XXVI The difficulty of knowing how to abound the ill consequences of the not knowing it 158 THE REMEDY OF Discontentment SECT I The excellency of Contentation and how it is to be had IF there be any happiness to be found upon earth it is in that which we call Contentation This is a flower that grows not in every Garden The great Doctor of the Gentiles tells us that he had it I have learned saith he in what estate soever I am therewith to be content I know how to be abased I know how to abound Lo he could not have taken out this lesson if he had not learn'd it and he could not have learnt it of any other then his Master in heaven What face soever Philosophy may set upon it all Morality can not reach it neither could his learned Gamaliel at whose feet he sate have put this skill into him no he learn'd it since he was a Christian now professeth it So as it appears there is a divine art of Contentation to be attained in the School of Christ which whosoever hath learnt hath taken a degree in heaven and now knows how to be happy both in want abundance SECT II. The contrariety of Estates wherein Contentation is to be exercised THe nature of man is extreamly querulous we know not what we would have and when we have it we know not how to like it we would be happy yet we would not die we would live long yet we would not be old we would be kept in order yet we would not be chastised with affliction we are loth to work yet are weary of doing nothing we have no list to stir yet find long sitting painful we have no mind to leave our bed yet find it a kind of sickness to lie long we would mary but would not be trobled with houshold cares when once we are married we wish we had kept single If therefore grace have so mastered nature in us as to render us content with what ever condition we have attained to no small measure of perfection Which way soever the wind blows the skilful Mariner knows how to turn his sails to meet it the contrariety of estates to which we lie open here gives us different occasions for the exercise of Contentation I cannot blame their choice who desire a middle estate betwixt want and
of a better Life as knowing that the things which are not seen are Eternal SECT VI. Consideration of the unsatisfying condition of all worldly things BUt were these earthly things exempted from that fickleness which the God of Nature hath condemned them unto were they the very memory wherof perisheth with their satiety as lasting as they are brittle yet what comfort could they yield for the Soul to rest in Alas their efficacy is too short to reach unto a true Contentation yea if the best of them were perpetuated unto us upon the fairest conditions that this Earth can allovv how intollerable tedious would it prove in the fruition Say that God were pleased to protract my life to the length of the age of the first founders of Mankind and should in this state of body add hundreds of years to the dayes of my pilgrimage Woe is me how weary should I be of my self and of the World I that now complain of the load of seventy one years how should I be tired out ere I could arrive at the age of Parre but before I could climb up to the third Century of Johannes de Temporihus how often should I call for death not to take up but to take off my burthen with it my self But if any or all these earthly blessings could bee freed from those grievances wherewith they are commonly tempered yet how little satisfaction could the Soul find in them What are these outward things but very luggage which may load our backs but can not lighten our Hearts Great wise Solomon that had the full command of them all cries out Vanity of Vanities and a greater Monarch then he shuts up the Scene with I have been all things am never the better All these are of too narrow an extent to fill the capacious soul of Man the desires whereof are inlarg'd with injoying so as the more it hath the less it is satisfied neither indeed can it be otherwise The Eye and the Ear are but the Purveyors for the Heart if therefore the Eye be not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing how shall the heart say It is enough Now who would suffer himself to be too much disquieted with the losse of that which may vex him but cannot content him We do justly smile at the folly of that vain Lord of whom Petrarch speaks who when an Horse which hee dearly loved was sick laid that Steed of his on a silken bed with a wrought pillow under his head and caused himself then afflicted with the Gout to be carryed on his servants shoulders to visit that dear patient and upon his decease mourned solemnly for him as if it had been his Son We have laught at the fashion of the Girles of Holland who having made to themselves gay and large Babies and laid them in a curious cradle fain them to sicken and dye and celebrate their funeral with much passion So fond are we if having med to our selves imaginary Contentments here in the World we give way to immoderate grief in their miscarriage SECT VII The danger of the love of these earthly comforts NEither are these earthly comforts more defective in yeilding full satisfaction to the soul then dangerous in their over-dear fruition For too much delight in them robs us of more solid Contentments The World is a cheating gamester suffering us to win at the first that at last he may go away with all Our very Table may be made our snare and those things which should have been for our wealth may be unto us an occasion of falling Leo the fourth Emperour of Constantinople delighted extreamly in pretious stones with these he imbellishes his Crown which being worn close to his Temples strikes such a cold into his head that causeth his bane yea how many with the too much love of these outward things have lost not their lives only but their Souls No man can be at once the Favourite of God and the World as that Father said truly or as our Saviour in fuller tearms No man can serve two Masters GOD and Mammon Shortly the World may be a dangerous enemy a sure friend it cannot be If therefore we shall like wise men value things at their due prizes since we are convinced in our selves that all these earthly comforts are so transitory in their Nature so unsatisfying in their use and so dangerous in their enjoying how little reason have we to be too much affected with foregoing them Our blood is dear to us as that wherein our life is yet if we find that it is either infected or distempered we do willingly part with it in hope of better health How much more with those things which are farther from us and less concerning us SECT VIII Consideration of the Divine Providence ordering all events THe second Consideration is of that All-wise Providence which ordereth all events both in Heaven and Earth allotting to every Creature his due proportion so over-ruling all things to the best that we could not want if he knew it better for us to abound This Station he hath set us in this measure hee hath shared out to us whose will is the rule of good what we have therfore cannot but be best for us The World is a large Chess-board every man hath his place assigned him one is a King another a Knight another a Pawn and each hath his several motion without this variety there could be no game played A skilful Player will not stir one of these Chips but with intention of an advantage neither should any of his men either stand or move if in any other part of that Checker it might be in more hope to win There is no estate in this World which can be universally good for all one mans meat may be another mans medicine and a third mans poyson A Turk finds health and temper in that Opium which wonld put one of us into our last sleep Should the Plow-man bee set to the Gentlemans fare this Chicken that Partridge or Phesant would as over-slight food bee too soon turned over and leave his empty stomach to quarrel for stronger provision Beef is for his dyet and if any sauce needs besides his hunger Garlick Every man hath as a body so a mind of his own what one loves is abhorred of another the great House-keeper of the world knows how to sit every palat with that which either is or should be agreeable to it for salubrity if not for pleasure Lay before a Child a Knife and a Rod bid him take his choyce his hand will be straight upon that edge tool especially if it be a little guilded and glittering but the Parent knows the Rod to bee more safe sor him more beneficial We are ill carvers for our selves he that made us knows what is fit for us either for time or measure without his Providence not an hair can fall from our heads We would have bodily health I cannot blame
wealth and state and making still even with his Victuals and the day who when he was invited to supper to one of Alexanders great Lords could say I had rather lick salt at Athens then feast with Craterus Here I meet with him whom their Oracle styled the wisest of men walking barefoot in a patcht thred-bare cloak contemning honours and all earthly things and when that garment would hang no longer on his back I can hear him say I would have bought a Cloak if I had had money after which word saith Seneca whosoever offered to give came too late Apollodorus amongst the rest sends him a rich mantle towards his end and is refused With what Patience doth this man bear the loud scoldings of his Xantippe making no other of them then the creaking of a Cart-wheel with what brave resolution doth he repel the proffers of Archelaus telling him how cheap the Market afforded meal at Athens and the Fountains Water Here I meet with a Zeno formerly rich in his traffique for purple now impoverisht by an ill Sea-voyage and can hear him say I sailed best when I Ship-wrackt Here I see an Aristippus drowning his gold in the Sea that it might not drown him Here I can hear a Democritus or Cleanthes when he was asked how a man should be rich Answer If he be poor in desires What should I speak of those Indian Sophists that took their name from their nakedness whom we hear to say The Sky is our House and the Earth our Bed we care not for Gold we contemn Death One of them can tell Onesicritus As the Mother is to the Child so is the Earth to me The Mother gives Milk to her Infant so doth the Earth yield all necessaries to me And when gold was offered to him by that great Conquerour Perswade said he if thou canst these birds to take thy silver and gold that they may sing the sweeter and if thou canst not do that wouldst thou have me worse then them Adding moreover in a strong discourse Natural hunger when we have taken food ceaseth and if the mind of man did also naturally desire gold so soon as he hath received that which he wished the desire and appetite of it would presently cease but so far is it from this satiety that the more it hath the more it doth without any intermission long for more because this desire proceeds not from any motion of Nature but only out of the wantonness of mans own will to which no bounds can be set Blush O Christian Soul whosoever thou art that readest these lines to hear such words falling from Heathen lips when thou seest those that profess godliness doat upon these worthless metals and transported with the affectation and cares of these earthly provisions If from these patterns of men that should be below our selves we look up to the more noble precedents of Prophets and Apostles Lo there we find Elijah fed by Ravens Elisha boarding with his poor Sareptan Hostess And an hundred Prophets fed by fifty in a Cave with bread and water The Sons of the Prophets for the enlarging of their over-strait lodgings hard at work they are their own Carpenters but their tools are borrowed There we shall find a few barly loaves and little fishes the houshold provision of our Saviours train Yea there we find the most glorious Apostle the great Doctor of the Gentiles employing his hands to feed his belly Busily stitching of skins for his Tent-work Yea what do we look at any or all of these when we see the Son of God the God of all the World in the form of a Servant Not a Cratch to cradle him in not a Grave to bury him in was his own and he that could command Heaven and Earth can say The Foxes have holes the Birds have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Who now can complain of want when he hears his Lord and Saviour but thus Provided for He could have brought down with him a Celestial House and have pitcht it here below too glorious for earthen eyes to have lookt upon He could have commanded all the precious things that lie shrouded in the bowels of the Earth to have made up a Majestical Palace for him to the dazling of the eyes of all beholders He could have taken up the stateliest Court that any Earthly Monarch possessed for his peculiar habitation But his greatness was Spiritual and Heavenly And he that owned all would have nothing that he might Sanctifie want unto us and that he might teach us by his blessed example to sit down contented with any thing with nothing By that time therefore we have laid all these things together and have seriously considered of the mean valuation of all these earthly things for their transitoriness Unsatisfaction Danger of the over-ruling Providence of the Almighty who most wisely justly Mercifully disposeth of us and all events that befall us of the worse condition of many thousand others of the great inconveniences that attend great and full estates of the secret benefits of Poverty of the smalness of that pittance that may suffice Nature of the miseries that wait upon discontentment of the Merciful vicissitudes of Favours wherewith God pleaseth to interchange our sufferings and lastly the great examples of those as well without as within the bosom of the Church that have gone before us and led us the way to Contentation our judgment cannot chuse but be sufficiently convinced that there is abundant reason to win our hearts to a quiet and contented entertainment of want and all other outward afflictions SECT XVII Of Contentment in Death it self BUt all these intervenient miseries are slight in comparison of the last and utmost of Evils Death Many a one grapples chearfully with these trivial afflictions who yet looks Pale and trembles at the King of Fear His very Name hath Terrour in it but his looks more The courageous Champion of Christ the blessed Apostle And with him every Faithful Soul makes his challenge universal to whatsoever Estate he is in to the Estate of Death therefore no less then the afflictive incidence of Life When therefore this gastly Giant shall stalk forth and bid defiance to the whole Host of Israel and when the timorous unbeleevers shall run away at the fight of him endevour to hide their Heads from his presence the good Soul armed not with the unmeet and cumbersome Harness of Flesh and Blood but with the sure though invisible armour of God dares comes forth to meet him and in the name of the Lord of Hosts both bids him battle and foils him in the Combat and now having laid him on the ground can Triumphingly say O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory Five smooth pebles there are which if we cary in our scrip wee shall be able to quel not only the power of Death but the terrour too Whereof the first is