Note do not hate them but pity them As in wrestling thou watchfully lookest to thy Play-mate without any anger so in all thy Life decline from him without hatred who is contrary to thy disposition And thou wilt hinder hatred by exciting thy mind to love upon the consideration of some good in the hatefull object There will be no place for hatred in thee if thou interpretest all things in the best sence Then Hatred is to be applied to the things which truly deserve it which are the deformity of Sin and eternal Damnation If thou turnest it to any thing else thou hurtest not the thing thou hatest but thy self For if thou art commanded to love even thy Enemies whom canst thou justly hate Thou must pass out of the priviledg'd City to find one against whom thou mayst practise thy hatred That Evil is without the nature of things against which only hatred may lawfully be exercised But if thou must needs hate a man let it be none but thy self For no one can hurt thee so much as thou dost thy self CHAP. XIV Of Desire and Flight What is to be Desired what to be Fled from 1. HAppy he who is subject to God who desires nothing earnestly who accommodates himself to things as they occurr who says God will have me to be safe he will have me to be sick he will have me to be rich or poor he will have me to pass from hence or to stay here I am prepared for either If thou once sayst When shall I go thither When shall I get that thing Thou wilt be miserable For if thou covetest that which is without thee thou wilt be tormented with perpetual anxiety and as in an orbicular Machine thou wilt alwayes pursue never possess In thy own Power are thy own Opinions Thoughts Affections Actions without thy Power are the Body Riches Glory Dignities and whatsoever thy self doth not Those can neither be prohibited by any one nor hindred These are aliens and subject to impediments Wherefore do not at all desire those or at least so desire them as considering them to depend upon the arbitriment of others and that they cannot long continue with thee because their condition so requires No external thing is to be desired For the Figure of this World passes away Look within within is a Fountain of Good alwayes distilling if thou alwayes diggest 2. In this one thing was placed the wisdom of some antient Philosophers who being exempt from the Empire of Fortune amidst the sharpest torments of their Bodies disputed with their blessed Minds about Felicity For contemplating the limits of that Power which God hath given to Man they became fully perswaded that nothing besides their own thoughts and affections belonged unto themselves And thereupon by the use of this meditation they got such an absolute dominion over them and so well govern'd the motions of their minds that not without some reason they boasted themselves to be the only Rich the only Powerful the only Happy men But an assiduous exercitation is necessary to learn this lesson of despising the things which are without thee as not at all belonging to thee If thou canst come to this thou wilt never grieve at the want of external things as thou grievest not that thou art not King of the Tartars or that thou art destitute of wings to fly withall What is without us is nothing to us 3. With this Bridle Desires are to be curbed which unless thou moderatest thy unsatiable mind will never be satisfied with whatsoever thou affordest it all will but irritate not end its Cupidity No moisture suffices him whose bowels are inflam'd with a burning heat for that 's not a Thirst but a Disease So it befalls them who recall not their desires to Reason which hath certain bounds but leave them to Vice and Loosness whose limits are immense and incomprehensible Thou wilt feel no incommodities nor wilt thou want any thing thou desirest if thou conteinest thy self within the measure of Nature if thou exceedest this measure thou wilt be poor even amidst the greatest plenty To Cupidity nothing is enough to Nature few things are sufficient 4. Remember so to behave thy self in thy Life as thou wouldst at a Feast If Dainties are carried about and come to thee put forth thy hand modestly and take a share of them If he who bears them passes by thee detain him not If he is not yet come up to thee extend not thy appetite to things afar off but stay till he is present If thou standest thus affected towards Riches towards Dignities and the rest of things which are without thou wilt be worthy to feast with the Saints and thou wilt enjoy such a serenity of mind as will raise thee above all Chances But if moreover thou wilt slight and refuse the things which are offered thou shalt not only be a Guest of the Saints but a Partner in their Felicity and wilt begin to fore-tast upon Earth that happiness which they enjoy in Heaven 'T is in thy own power to make thy self happy by desiring nothing which is without thee Who is blessed and happy He who hath what he will He hath whatsoever he will who wills nothing but what he may 5. We shun and abhor many things as hurtfull which are indeed profitable For it falls out for the most part that they are contrary to the Mind That which hurts instructs Death Exile Poverty Disgrace Labour Sickness and the rest of the same kind which are not in thy Power belong not unto thee To these therefore thou art not to oppose Flight not detestation but a Neglect of the Opinion conceiv'd of them Socrates fitly named all these things Goblins For as Goblins affright Children whereas nothing is in them horrible but their outward shew So it happens in things which thou art wont to apprehend not as they are but as they appear What is Death A Hob-Goblin Observe how sweet it was not only to the Saints and persons of high vertue and perfection but to Socrates and to other Heathen Sages What then is so terrible in Death Opinion The Fear of Death is horrible not Death it self The same thou wilt find in other things which thou art wont to abominate Correct Opinion and thou wilt perceive there 's nothing besides Sin which thou art to abhorr CHAP. XV. Of Joy and of Sadness How a good man ought to rejoyce He who fore-sees all things is not contristated Several Antidotes against Grief 1. THou art so to rejoyce as that Modesty may appear in the midst of thy Mirth and that thy Mind be not so dissolved but thou canst freely if it be needfull pass from gladness to sadness Christ our Lord the best Esteemer of things calls not Laughers blessed but Mourners For it very much mis-becomes a Christian man who professes to look after eternal things amongst so many dangers of Soul and Body amongst so many most just causes of Sadness to delight
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
thou thereupon fancy thy self inculpable For he is silent either as apprehending thy hatred or as despairing of thy amendment Then do thou urge him with greater instance and vehemency and shew by thy actions how much thou desirest to profit by his reprehensions Begin to depose with thy imperfections and compose thy Life according to his Prescript Rejoyce that he reviles thy impiety and depart alwayes from him either sound or in the way to it Amongst so many maladies 't is something to have a Will to be cured 4. These are the mutual offices of the Teacher and of the Learner that the one should have a will to profit the other a desire to practise That the Instructer should not profit scarcely any thing can hinder but the refractoriness of the Disciple who may want patience to learn or a capacity to be cured For some there are who relying upon their own prudence refuse to follow any other mans dictamen All these things say they which you inculcate I know already What avails it then to tell me what is before manifest Yes very much For thou sometimes knowest but dost not attend reflect consider This new Admonition intends not to inform thy Vnderstanding but to excite thy Memory The Mind oft-times dissembles things which are apparent and therefore the knowledge of things most known must be often suggested unto it For Virtue is crected when 't is touch'd and pressed A filly shamefac'dness with-holds some which is surely a Childish Vice and unworthy a man Others as if they were frantick suppress their inward maladies by a pertinacious silence and grow angry at the Physician who goes about to cure them This noxious taciturnity proceeds undoubtedly from the perswasion of the Internal Enemy hoping to hurt so long as he lurks undiscovered And surely thou blushest not to expose thy bodily wounds to the open view of such beholders as may cure them but thou industriously coverest thy Souls Ulcers as if to conceal them were to cancel them and yet it can hardly be avoided but that notwithstanding thy endeavours to the contrary they will betray themselves Who so covers his wound can never be cured 5. Doth the Physician injure thee if he shews thee thy infirmity If he tells thee Thou art dangerously sick Thou hast a Feaver Thou must this day abstain from such and such food this day thou must drink water This plain dealing is esteem'd a favour and thanks are given him for his freedom But if any one tells thee Thy Appetites are exorbitant Thy Opinions are vain Thy Affections are immoderate thou presently exclaimest O affront not to be endured Unhappy man what dammage or detriment doth this zealous Admonisher and Instructer bring unto thee That surely which a Looking-glass doth to a deformed Face It shews thee what thou art Correct then what he reproves amend thy manners scour off thy filthiness Thou mayst easily if thou wilt render thy self to all beholders eyes irreprehensible CHAP. III. Of Purgation from sin All affection to sin is to be laid aside and Vice is to be rooted out No remedy is more efficacious against Vice than the consideration of Death and Eternity 1. MAn deviates from his last end when he commits Sin which is the cause of all Evils From this seed springs all that torments us with this Poyson the whole world is infected It lies closely hidden whilst it is doing but when 't is done thou wilt understand how bad it is Some there were who joyn'd the bodies of dead men to the living to torment them with the stench A like punishment befalls sinners their torment is fast ty'd to them they know not wither to fly from it Unless thou wilt endure something that thou mayst not do evil thou wilt endure much because thou hast done it A bad action is scarcely conceiv'd and presently it becomes the Parent of its own punishment From thence Death derives its birth from thence Hell-fire is enkindled The Conscience is therefore to be cleansed from all crimes by Contrition Confession and Satisfaction Nor are the more grievous faults only to be avoided but the very least and lightest which though they bring not Death yet by degrees they dissolve the strength and insensibly dispose to mortal impiety And what 's the difference in a Shipwrack whether the Vessel is overwhelm'd with one wave or whether the water soaking in drop after drop and carelesly let alone fills it at last and sinks it to the bottom And these give by so much a greater blemish to our manners by how much they might more easily have been avoided The weaker the Enemy is the greater is the shame to be overcome by him 2. Thou wilt never be able to plant Virtues in thy mind and to re-establish thy self in thy former state of Liberty unless thou puttest off all affection towards Sin although the very least lest thy body being in the wilderness thy mind should be in Egypt It fares ill with thee if after thou hast dismissed all injuries after thou hast abandoned all beastly loves thou yet givest ear to bad discourses and art yet delighted with earthly beauties For the evil habits of Vices which still remain though the fault is remitted must be entirely rooted out as being the bad progeny of thy former prevarication If thou only loppest off the Branches the Root will again put forth new Scions of Iniquity Thou sayst thou wilt cut off Vices 'T is false for thou shuttest not the door against them but only puttest it too Thou sayst thou art offended at the foulness of thy former life I believe it for who is not offended at it Bad men both love and hate their Vices yea they detest them even when they do them But what avails it to reject them in words and in deeds to embrace them No man hath a Conscience so seared but that he sometimes loathes his Vices and yet he soon after shakes hands with them But he who is truly converted to God applies the Hatchet to the Root and pares away the smallest hairs of his Vices And then reflecting upon his frailty he industriously shuns all occasion of sinning and at every object of evil he tremblingly leaps back and abhorrs it 3. Why dost thou vainly trifle and opposest the infirmity of Nature to God commanding the extermination of Vices None better knows the measure of thy forces than he who freely bestowed them Why then dost thou not presently obey since not the Commanders profit but thy own is intended O blind and impious temerity Thou darest cast dirt in Gods face by affirming that to be hard which he enjoyns as if he should impose Precepts upon thee which thou canst not perform and seem by commanding thee not to have intended thy Salvation but thy punishment Such is mans perversity to deserve ill of God and to feign to himself labour in his Precepts But if thou wilt make tryal of thy strength thou shalt find thy self able to do more then
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