so soon It is a long reckoning that remaines to be made for great receipts for vve are not the owners vve are the baylifes or stewards of our vvhole estates In the day of our great Audit there is not one peny but must be calculated and vvhat can the greatnesse of the summe passed through our hands then availe us other then to adde difficulty to the computation and danger to the accountant When Death shall come roughly to us in the style that Benedict did to Totilaes servant Lay downe that thou bearest for it is not thine owne and the great Master of the universall family of the world shall call us to a redde rationem for all that we have received Woe is me what pleasure shall it be to me that I had much What is the poore horse the better for the carriage of a rich sumpter all day when at night he shall lie downe with a galled back I heare him that wished to live Croesus wishing to die a beggarly Cynick that was not worth his shroud The cheare goes downe well till it come to the shot when that goes too deep vve quarrell at our excesse Oh our madnesse to doat upon our future repentance The second remedy is the due consideration of the object of our desires Alas vvhat poore stuffe is this vvherewith vve are transported what is the most preciovs metall of either colour but thick clay as the maker himself calls it What is the largest territory but an insensible spot of contemptible earth what are the greatest commands but a glorious servitude what the highest offices but golden fetters vvhat the highest titles but aire and sound And if the fond minds of worldlings can set other glosses on these bewitching contentments yet as when a man that hath eaten saffron breathes upon a painted face he presently descryes and shames the false complexion so when the truly rationall and judicious shall come to spend his thoughts upon the best and all of these garish and glittering allurements he shall speedily detect their vanity and bewray their dissembled unworthinesse §. XII The moderation of our passions and therein first of our sorrow THe moderation of our passions challengeth the next roome In the pursuit whereof since their variety is great it were easie to passe our bounds but we shall moderate our discourse and select some of the most impetuous As for love and joy they have so much affinity with pleasure and delight whereof we have already treated that we shall spare the labour of their further mention Sorrow shall take the first place a passion that hath beene guilty of much blood We have read and heard of some few that have dyed of joy as Chilon of Sparta when he imbraced his sonne returning with honour and Clidemus the Athenian when he was crowned by the Players these Tertullian instances in So Pope Leo the tenth if we beleeve Iovius is said to dye for the joy of taking Millaine so Senas the Generall of the Turkish gallies dyed for the joy of the returne of that sonne whom he had given for lost It was with these as with them whom we have seene choaked with those cordiall waters which they have received for the remedy of their qualmes But our experience tells us of a thousand for one that have beene kill'd with griefe Not perhaps in a sudden violence which kinde of death Caesar esteemed more easie but in a lingring and languishing forme of murder for a broken spirit dryeth and bones saith Solomon and by the sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken This is our childs part which was beset us in Paradise before we were By the mothers side In sorrow shalt thou bring forth By the fathers In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life Sorrow in birth sorrow in life and in death sorrow The shadow doth not more inseparably follow the body then this doth our existence so as he that meant to say Thrice miserable mistooke not much when he said Thrice man If we look upon those who have had the greatest share in Gods love we shall finde them to have drunk deepest of this cup. The great mirrour of patience can say My bowels boyled and rested not the dayes of affliction prevented me I went mourning without the Sun I am a brother to Dragons and a companion to owles And the sweet singer of Israel warbles out sad straines of complaint in this kinde The sorrowes of death compassed me about and the paines of hell gat hold on me And againe My soule melts for very heavinesse Esay cryes out of his loynes Ieremy of his bowells and good Ezekiah chatters like a Crane or Swallow and mournes like a Dove What speak I of these when I hear the Lord of life and glory say My soule is exceeding heavy even to the death Now this sorrow is ever out of the sense of some evill Evill whether of sin or of punishment Of sinne whether of others or our owne Punishment as bodily sicknesse death of friends worldly losses all these are just grounds of sorrow Rivers of waters run downe mine eyes because they keep not thy law saith holy David And doe we not think he sorrowed more for his owne sinnes There is no rest in my bones saith he because of my sinne And all the night long I make my bed to swim I water my couch with my teares Punishment doth not more necessarily follow upon sinne then sorrow followes punishment Davids eye is consumed because of his griefe Ezekiah turnes him to the wall and weeps And whiles St. Paul chargeth not to mourn immoderatly for the dead he supposeth just teares due Garments were allowed to be torne by Gods people at the death of friends and at the Parents death after thirty dayes wearing it was their guise to lay downe those rent garments never to be sowne up againe wee pitty and grieve at the childishnesse of those innocent babes that can play at wink and hide about their Fathers hearse And for afflictions whether of body or estate how are they such if we feele them not and how doe we feele them if we sorrow not The sense of paine argues life as St. Ambrose well It is ill taken by the Almighty from his people that he had striken them but they grieved not this is what lyes in us to disappoint God of his purpose and to put our selves into the posture of Solomons drunkard They have striken me doth he say and I was not sick they have beaten me and I felt it not we are wont to censure that child for stubborne and gracelesse that sheds no teares when he is whipped It cannot be well with us if vve sorrow not Blessed are they that mourne But there are certaine just conditions and cautions of our griefe vvhich vve cannot exceed or neglect vvithout offence both to God and to
I shall say It is good for me that I was afflicted My friend my wife my child is dead say rather they are departed I can scarce allow it to be a death where they decease well prosectio est quam tu putas mortem as Tertullian of old It is a meere departure of those partners which must once meet and from those friends which must soone follow and overtake us Sorrow is so proper for a funerall that the Jews were wont to hire mourners rather then they would want them Even our blessed Saviour bestowed teares upon the Exequies of him whom he meant presently to raise it is not for us to be too niggardly of this warme dew but those teares which are shed at the decease of good soules should be like those drops of raine which fall in a Sun-shine mixed with rayes of comfort Let them put no stint to their sorrow who think there is no rest no happinesse after death but for us who know death to be only the end of our life not of our being yea rather the change of a better life for worse we have reason to dry up our teares and in some sort to imitate the patterne of those nations which were wont to mourne at the birth of their children and rejoyce and feast at their death a practise which in part was taken up by the Jewes themselves who with their mourners mixed also musitians in their Funerall banquets and countenanced by great and wise Solomon The day of death is better then ones birth day Shortly then I have parted with a good child but to a better Father to a more glorious patrimony whether now is the childs gaine or the Fathers losse greater and what can it be but selfe-love that makes me more sensible of my owne losse then my childes glory It is my weaknesse therefore if I doe not either swallow or stifle my sorrow I have lost my health and am seized with sicknesse and paine This this next to death is the King of sorrowes all earthly crosses vaile to it and confesse themselves trifles in comparison what ease can I now find in good vvords more then Callicon found to his head in that chaffe vvherewith he stuffed his earthen pitcher vvhich he made his pillow vvhiles the thorne is ranckling in my foot vvhat ease can I finde in a poultesse Know O weak man there is that in a Christian heart vvhich is a more then sufficient cordiall against sicknesse paines death and that can triumph over the vvorst extremities This is the victory vvhich overcomes a vvorld of miseries even our faith Not so only saith the chosen vessell but we glory or rejoyce in tribulations For lo our faith is it vvhich puts true constructions upon our paines Health it self vvould not be vvelcome to us if we did not know it good and if vve could be perswaded that sicknesse were good or better for us vvhy should not that be equally vvelcome It vvas a good speech of that Hermite vvho vvhen he heard a man praying vehemently for the removall of his disease said Fili rem tibi necessariam abjicere audes Alas sonne you goe about to be rid of a necessary commodity The Christian heart knowes it is in the hands of him who could as easily avert evill as send it and whose love is no lesse then his power and therefore resolves he could not suffer if not for the better The parent is indulgent to his child were his love well improved if he would not suffer his son to be let blood in a plurifie whiles the Physitian knowes he dyes if he bleed not An ignorant pesant hath digg'd up a lump of pretious Ore doe we not smile at him if he be unwilling the finer should put it into the fire The presse is prepared for the grapes and Olives and as Austin well neither of them will yeeld their comfortable and wholsome juyce without an hard strayning would not that fond Manichee make himselfe ridiculous that should sorbid to gather much more to wring them Shortly then am I visited with sicknesse it is not for me like a man that is overloaded with too heavy a burden to make ill faces but to stir up my Christian resolution and to possesse my soule in patience as well knowing that the vessell that would be fit for Gods cup-board must be hammered with many stroakes the corne for Gods table must passe under the sickle the flayle the mill the spices for Gods perfume must be bruised and beaten In â—umme worldly crosses cannot affect us with too deepe sorrow if we have the grace and leasure to turne them round and view them on all sides for if we finde their face sowre and grisly their back is comely and beautifull No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous neverthelesse afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse unto them which are exercised thereby wherefore lift up the hands which hang downe and the feeble knees §. XIII Of spirituall sorrow and the moderation thereof NOt so rise but more painfull is the spirituall sorrow vvhether for the sense of sinnes or the vvant of grace This is that which the Apostle styles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a godly sorrow vvorking repentance to salvation not to be repented of the tears vvhereof the Almighty puts up in his bottle and keeps them for most pretious it is seldome vvhen this griefe exceeds too many are so afraid of enough that they are vvilling to learne of their confessors that a meere velleity of sorrow is sufficient to true repentance But give me not an attrition but a contrition of heart give me a drouping head red eyes blubbered cheeks a macerated body met vvith a pensive soule give me sackcloth and ashes fastings watchings prostrations ejulations vvhen I have offended my God and let me bee let loose to my free sorrow Let me be in bitternesse as Zechariah expresses it as one that is in bitternesse for his only sonne Not but that it is possible to drink too deep of this bitter cup We have known those who have pined themselves away in a continuall heavinesse refusing all possible meanes of comfort out of a sense of their sinnes vvhose vvhole life hath beene like a gloomy winters day all over-cast vvith clouds vvithout the least glimpse of a Sun shine vve have seene them that have thus lived and dyed disconsolate raving despairing Experience makes this so true that we may well conclude that even the best spirituall sorrow must be moderated the worst shunned every sorrow for sinne is not good there is a sorrow that lookes at the punishment through the sinne not regarding the offence but the smart of evill this would not care for the frowne of God if he vvould not strike as that vvhich indeed feares not God but hell as that vvhich apprehends only lashes and tormâ—nts this is incident even to divells and damned soules all
valiant yet if they had been but locked up in a chamber would either break the doores or offer to leap out of the windows yet not knowing of any danger imminent And if in an imaginary or possible evill feare have these effects what shall we expect from it in those which are reall and certaine It is marvellous and scarce credible which both histories and eyes can witnesse in this kinde Iames Osorius a young Gentleman of Spaine born of a noble Family one of the Courtiers of Charles the fift being upon occasion of a wicked designe of lust to an honourable Lady emprisoned with an intent of his execution the next day was suddenly so changed with the feare of the arrest of death that in the morning when he was brought forth none of the beholders knew him his haire was turned so white as if he had been fourescore years old upon sight whereof the Emperour pardoned him as having been enough punished with the fear of that which he should have suffered Levinus Lemnius a late Philosopher in whom my younger age took much delight recounts the story and discourses probably upon the naturall reasons of this alteration The like report is made by Iulius Scaliger of a Kinsman of Franciscus Gonzaga in his time imprisoned upon suspition of treason who with the feare of torture and death was in one nights space thus changed And Coelius Rodiginus tells us of a Falconer who climbing up to a rocky hill for an hawks nest was with the breaking of a rope wherewith he was raised so affrighted that instantly his haire turned What need we more instances My selfe have seene one to whom the same accident was said to have befalne though now the colour were upon the fall of that weak fleece altered What speak we of this Death it self hath followed sometimes upon this very fear of death so as some have dyed lest they should dye Montague gives us an instance of a Gentleman at the siege of S. Paul who fell downe stark dead in the breach without any touch of stroke save what his owne heart gave him Yea how have we knowne some that have dyed out of the feare of that whereof they might have dyed and yet have escaped A passenger rideth by night over the narrow plank of an high and broken bridge and in the morning dyes to see the horror of that fall hee might have had There is no evill whether true or fancyed but may be the subject of feare There may be a Pisander so timorous that he is afraid to see his own breath and our Florilegus tels us of a Lewes King of France so afraid of the sea that he said it was more then an humane matter to crosse the water and durst not passe betwixt Dover and VVhitsands till he had implored the aid of St. Thomas of Canterbury but all these feares have a relation to that utmost of all terribles and if other evils as displeasure shame paine danger sicknesse be the usuall subjects of feare also yet Death is the King of feare I am of the mind of Lucretius therefore although to a better purpose that if a man would see better dayes he must free his heart from that slavish fear of death wherewith it is commonly molested In what a miserable servitude are those men whereof Erasmus speaketh to his Grunnius who so abhorre the thought of death that they cannot abide the smell of Frankincense because it is wont to bee used at funeralls They who are ready to swound at the sight of a coffin and if they could otherwise choose could be content not to lie in a sheet because it recalls the thought of that wherein they shall be once wrapped It concerns a wise man to obdure himself against these weak feares and to resolve to meet Death boldly in the teeth Nothing is more remarkable in all the passages of our blessed Saviour then that which S. Luke records of him that when he was to go up his last to Jerusalem where he must die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he stedfastly set his face to that fatall journey The word implyes a resolution of courage against some evill to be conflicted with Maldonate would have the Metaphor fetcht from the custome of Bulls who when they must fight are wont to fetch up a kind of sprightly terrour into their countenance at least it imports a firme purpose of an undaunted spirit to grapple with some fore-expected evill thus must wee learne to doe against our last enemie Tell me then thou weak man thou fearest death will it not come if thou feare it not will it come the later for thy feare Is not thy life thus made miserable before it come Is not this the condition upon which thou receivedst life to part with it when it should be called for art thou discontent at thy being dost thou murmur that thou art a man because therein thou art mortall Doth any thing befall thee different from the best and all of thy kind Look back upon all that have been before thee where are those innumerable numbers of men which peopled the earth but in the last century of yeares see whether the great Monarches of the world speed any otherwise couldst thou expect lesse upon the many and sensible warnings of thy mortality what language have thy sicknesses and decayes of nature spoken to thee but this of a true harbingers Death is comming And how well shouldst thou be pleased with his approach Say that thou were sentenced to live some hundreds of yeares with thine infirmities to boot what a burden wouldst thou be to thy selfe how more discontented wouldst thou be that thou mightst not die why art thou not as well displeased that thou must be old And when wouldst thou part that thou mightst avoid it Thou fearest death How many heathens have undergone it with courage Shall I see a bold Roman spurring his horse to leap down into a dreadfull Gulfe for the benefit of those from whom he cannot receive thanks Shall I see a Cleombrotus casting himselfe resolutely from the rock to enjoy that separate life of the soule which Plato discoursed of Shall I heare a Canius of whom Seneca speaks jeering his tyran and his death together and more regarding the victory of his game then the losse of his life shall I hear of some Indian wives that affect and glory to cast themselves into the fire with the carcasses of their dead husbands shall I see Turks filling up ditches with their wilfully-slaughtered bodies for the fruition of their brutish paradise And shall I bee cowardly where Pagans are valiant Yea how many have I known that have eagely sought for death and cannot finde it how many who upon frivolous occasions by self-dispatches have cast away that life which they could not otherwise be rid of what conceit soever I have of the price of life their undervaluation of it hath beene such that they have parted
are we wilfull beggers Wherefore hath he given the warme fleece to the sheep the rich hides to the Bever and Ermin the curious case to the silk-worm the soft and faire feathers to the fowles of the aire but after their owne use for ours Wherefore hath he clothed the trees with cotton or the fields with flaxe wherfore hath hee enriched the earth with variety of sweet and delicate flowers with precious metals and with more precious stones the sea with beautifull and costly pearles why hath he treasured up such orient and pleasing colours in graines and fishes if not for the use and behoofe of man what other creature knows wherefore they serve or how can our blessed Creator be any other then a greater loser by our either ignorance or willing neglect As for the comfort of conjugall society what other did our good God intend in the making of that meet helper He that made those creatures could have made many more having set this stint to his creation he that made the woman of the man could as well have made man of man and could in the infinitenesse of his wisedome have appointed thousands of waies for the multiplication of mankinde but now having thought meet to pitch upoÌ„ the traducing of man by this living rib of his owne he hath holily ordained that they two shall be one flesh not onely as two bodies animated with one soule but rather as one body animated with two united spirits so as it is equally lawfull for them to enjoy each other in a mutuall and holy communion and to enjoy themselves in their single and personall contentments How safely then may we take wise Solomons vvord for this innocent and sweet conversation Let thy fountaine be blessed and rejoyce with the wife of thy youth let her be as the loving hinde and pleasant Roe let her brests satisfie thee at all times and be thou ravisht alwayes with her love And when towards the latter end of his daies he had found more bitter then death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands Yet even then he renues this charge in the height of his mortification Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the dayes of the life of thy vanity which he hath given thee under the Sun all the dayes of thy vanity for that is thy portion in this life and in thy labour which thou takest under the Sun §. VI. Together with our liberty the just bounds of our moderation in the liberall use of Gods creatures and therein our limitation in respects to God SO then that God who hath given us meat drink apparell wife children recreations and what ever other conveniences of this life intended no other but that we should make our use and have the fruition of these comforts and if he meant not that we should take some pleasure in the fruition of them wherefore are they given us as blessings or what place is there for our thankfulnesse If I may take no pleasure in one food above another what use is there of my taste what difference doe I make betwixt a course crust and the finest of the wheat why am I more bound to God for giving me wine then water many dishes then one better then worse or how can I be more sensible of my obligation If I may not take contentment in the wife of my youth wherefore is she mine what is left to me to counterpoyse those houshold distractions which doe unavoidably attend the state of matrimony If I may not joy in my children what difference is there to me betwixt my owne and other mens save that my care is more without hope of requitall And if I may not take pleasure in my recreation how is it such what difference is there betwixt it and work Yea if I may not take pleasure in the works of my calling what difference is there betwixt a slave and me But the same God who hath allowed us to take pleasure in all these hath also thought good to set bounds and stints to our pleasure which we may not exceed he hath indulged to us a lawfull freedome not a wilde licentiousnesse If wee passe our limits we sin Now because in our naturall pronenesse to excesse there is nothing more difficult then to keepe within due compasse and to be at once delighted and holy it highly concernes us to take notice of those just boundaries within which our freest pleasure must be ranged First then we cannot offend in our delectations if we be sure to take God with us more plainly we shall safely partake of our pleasures if we receive them as from God if we enjoy them in God if we referre them to God From God as the author and giver of them in God as the allower and sanctifier of them to God as to the end and scope of them the least deviation from any of these makes our delights vicious Wee receive them as from God when we know them to be allowed of him and granted to us by him Herein therefore lawfull pleasures differ from sinfull we have his vvarrant for the one for the other his inhibition The act may be alike in both but differs both in the subject and ground of it Gods institution justifies that act in a lawfull conjugall society which he abhorres and condemnes in a stranger Marriage is made in heaven adultery is brewed in hell The teeth kept the same pace under the law in eating the cleane flesh and the uncleane and still doe in the morsells of sufficiency and surfet The first draught of the wine vvhich is for refreshing goes downe the same vvay vvith the lavish and supernâ—â—erary carowses of drunkennesse That holy God whose will is the rule of goodnesse cannot give any approbation of evill If then I can boldly present my pleasure in the face of God and say Lord this is the delight thou hast allowed me the liberty thou givest I take here is thy word and my deed my heart cannot but sit downe in a comfortable assurance We enjoy them in God whiles we can enjoy God in them not suffering our selves so to be possessed of them as that we should let goe the sweet hold of the divine presence and complacency the very thought whereof must necessarily exclude all disorder and excesse It is the brand which St. Iude sets upon the sensuall false-teachers of his time feeding without feare and the Prophet Esay to the same purpose The Harp and the Viole the Tabret and the Pipe and wine are in their feasts but they regard not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hands If then we be so taken up with any earthly pleasures that they doe either banish God from our hearts or steale our hearts from God our tables are made snares to us and our wives in stead of ribs become thornes in our sides For me let me rather want delights then be
transported by them from better joyes they shall not passe with me for pleasures but for torments that shall rob me of the fruition of my God We referre them to God when we partake of them with an intuition of the glory of him from whom we receive them and in whom we enjoy them not making any pleasure its owne end wherein we shall rest but the way to a better Whether ye eate or drink or whatsoever ye doe saith the Apostle doe all to the glory of God We doe well to look up to heaven and to say grace at our meales but I have read of an holy man that was wont to give thankes for every morsell that he put into his mouth and I could envy his holy and free thoughts but sooner could I take up the resolution of that votary who professed that he did in every creature of God finde both edification and matter of devotion and when one shewed him a lewd and debaucht ruffian and askt him what good he could pick out of such a prospect Yes said he I can so farre enjoy his wickednesse as to be thankfull to God for giving me that grace which he wants Shortly let me never have any pleasure upon which I cannot pray to God for a blessing and for which I cannot returne my thanks-giving §. VII The limitation of our liberty in respect of the pleasures themselves first for the kinde then for the quantity and quality of them OUr pleasures cannot be amisse whiles they have these respects to God There are also considerable limitations which they have within themselves The first whereof must bee that they be in their very kinde lawfull for as there is no dish whereof we may warrantably surfet so there are some whereof we may not taste for our first parents to but set their teeth in the forbidden fruit yea to touch it was not free from evill Any morsell of an uncleane meat under the law was no lesse sinfull then the whole dish The wholsomest of all foods if taken in excesse may destroy nature in so much as we finde one that dyed of strawberries the most harmlesse fruit that the earth beareth but the least measure of poyson is too much Whereto we may also adde that the same thing may be poison to one vvhich to another is either meat or medicine even as it is in bodily diets A Turk eates in one day so much opium vvith pleasure as vvould be the bane of many westerne Christians and Erasmus professes that fish vvas death to him vvhich to others is both nourishing and delicate For a Socrates to ride upon a stick or to learne to fiddle or dance in his old age was a sight as uncouth as it vvas in his boyes becomming and commendable It is said of Thales Milesius one of the great sages of Greece that he was pressed to death in a throng at their Gymnick sports any vvise man would presently ask vvhat that vvise man did there To personate an history on an Academicall theatre may be a mutuall delight to the actor and beholders but for a professed divine to doe it can be no other then unmeet and that which is justly forbidden in some Synodes The vvilde Carnevalls abroad however they may be tolerated in the young laity by their indulgent Confessors yet for persons that professe to be Clerks or religious votaries what pretences soever may be set upon it by favourable Casuists cannot but be extreamly faulty The kinde yeelded to be lawfull and meet both in it selfe and to the person using it there must be due consideration had of the quality quantity manner circumstances that are able to make even good things evill For the first Both religion and right reason require that we should not be wanton and over-delicate in our contentments that our pleasures should be like our selves masculine and temperate It was a check that fell seasonably from Vespasian and recorded to his great honor by Suetonius that when a yong man came to him curiously perfumed I had rather said he thou hadst smelt of garlick and that praise is no meane one which Gerson the Chancelor of Paris gives to King Lewis the Saint that he regarded not of how dainty composition his excrement were made neither meant to be a cooke for the wormes Surely that curiosity of mixture whereby not the eye and the palate but the sent also must be feasted is more fit for Sybarites then for Christians Dissolved pearles are for the draught of Aesop the Tragedians son or Anthonies great Mistris Let a Vitellius or Heliogobalus hunt over Seas and Lands for the dainty bit of this birds tongue that fishes roe or that beasts sweet bread the Oysters of this coast the scollops of that other this root that fruit What doe Christians with this vaine Apician like gluttony It was a fit rule for that monster of the gut whom even the Romane luxury censured that those dishes please best which cost most I have both heard and read that when some of our English Merchants in Germany entertained Martin Luther with some other of his Dutch friends at their table when amongst other liberall dishes he saw a Pastie at the first cutting up reeking upwards and filling the roome with an hot and spicy steame in stead of thanks he frowned and angerly said Now woe be to them that bring these delicacies into our Germany It is not easie to set stints to the quality or price of diets for that which to one nation or person may passe for meane and course may to another be costly and delicious If we may beleeve relations in Angola dogges flesh is held for the daintiest meat in so much as one mastive hath beene exchanged there for twenty slaves the price of 120 ducats our Frogges Snailes Mushroms would somewhere be accepted for a good service and we know what the Tartars are wont to esteeme of their Cosmo whiles we make a face at the mention of it Laercius tells us that when Plato in a thrifty discourse with rich Aristippus was saying that an half-peny was enough to furnish a temperate mans dinner well then said he and fifty drachma's are no more then so to me Custome of the place care of health regard to our ability are fit moderators of every mans palate but the true Christian is governed by an higher law giving only such way to his appetite as may well consist with due mortification It was the rule which Columbanus of whom there are many monumēts in these Westerne parts gave to his followers Let the diet of Monkes bee course and late so as it may sustaine and not hurt We are no Rechabites no votaries free from all yokes of this kind save the Almighties which is no other then an holy temperance He hath allowed us the finest of the wheat and wine that makes glad the heart we are not tyed to Prodicus his sawce which is the fire nor to Bernards which is
with it for nothing they have run to meet that death which I flie from as formidable and ugly Thou fearest death Look upon the examples of those holy men who have tendered themselves to the painfullest martyrdome see Ignatius resolving to challenge the Lions see the tender virgins daring the worst cruelty of Tyrants and embracing death in his worst formes see silly Mothers in an ambition of a crowne of life running with their children in their armes to overtake death see those resolute Saints that might have been loosed from their wheels and racks with proffers of life and honour and scorned the exchange Doe I professe their faith doe I looke for their glory and shall I partake nothing of their courage Thou art afraid of death what a slaughter dost thou make every houre of all other creatures what meale passeth thee wherein some of them doe not bleed for thee yea not for need not for use but for sport for pleasure dost thou kill them dayly without pitty without scruple Alas we made them not they are our fellowes he that made us made them too How much are we lesse to God then they are to us Doe we see so many thousands of them then dye for us and shall we think much to returne our life to our Creator Thou art afraid of death Thou mistakest him thou thinkest him an enemy he is a friend If his visage be sowre and hard he is no other then the grim porter of Pararadise which shall let thee into glory Like unto Peters good Angell he may smite thee on the side but he shall lead thee out of thy prison through the Iron gates into the City of God Were there an absolute perition in our dissolution we could not feare it too much now that it doth but part us a while for our advantage what doe we feare but our gaine The stalk and eare arises from the graine but it must rot first Oh our foolishnesse if we be unwilling that one grain should putrifie for the increase of an hundred Thou art afraid of death Hast thou well considered from how many evills it acquites thee All the tumults of State all the bloudy cruelties of warre all the vexations of unquiet neighbours all secret discontentments of minde all the tormenting paines of body are hereby eased at once thou shalt no more complaine of racking convulsions of thy wringing collicks of the dreadfull quarry that is within thy reynes and bladder of thy belking goutes of thy scalding feavers of thy galling ulcers of the threats of thine Imposthumes the stoppings of thy strangury the giddinesse of thy vertigo or any other of those killing diseases wherewith thy life was wont to be infested here is a full Supersedea◠for them all what reason hast thou to be affraid of ease Lastly thou fearest death Is it not that thy Saviour underwent for thee did thy blessed redeemer drink of this cup and art thou no willing to pledge him His was a bitter one in respect of thine for it was besides spieed with the wrath of his Father due to our sinnes yet he drank it up to the very dregges for thee and wilt thou shrink at an ordinary drought from his hand And why did he yeeld to death but to overcome him Why was death suffered to seize upon that Lord of life but that by dying he might pull out the sting of death The sting of death is sinne So then death hath lost his sting now thou mayest carry it in thy bosome it may coole thee it cannot hurt thee Temper then thy feare with these thoughts and that thou mayest not be too much troubled with the sight of death acquaint thy selfe with him before-hand present him to thy thoughts entertaine him in thy holy and resolute discourses It was good counsell that Bernard gave to his novice that he should put himselfe for his meditations into the place where the dead body◠were wont to be wash◠and to settle himselfe upon the beare whereon they were wont to be carryed forth so feeling and frequent remembrances could not but make death familiar and who can startle at the sight of a familiar acquaintance at a stranger we doe especially if he come upon us on a sudden but if hee bee a dayly and entire guest he is at all houres welcome without our dismay or trouble §. XV. Of the moderation of the passion of anger OF all the passions that are incident to a man there is none so impetuous or that produceth so terrible effects as anger for besides that intrinsecall mischiefe which it works upon a mans owne heart in regard whereof Hugo said well Pride robs me of God envy of my neighbour anger of my selfe what bloudy Tragedies doth this passion act every day in the world making the whole earth nothing but either an Amphitheater for fights or a shambles for slaughter so much the more need is there of an effectuall moderation of so turbulent an affection Our schoole hath wont to distinguish it there is a zealous anger and there is a vicious The great Doctor of the Gentiles when hee sayes Be angry and sin not showes there may be a sin-lesse anger He that knew no sinne was not free from this passion when he whipped the money-changers twice out of the Temple Surely if we be not thus angry we shall sinne If a man can be so coole as without any inward commotion to suffer Gods honour to be trod in the dust he shall finde God justly angry with him for his want of anger I know not whether it vvere a praise that was given to Theodosius that never any man saw him angry so as it may fall an immunity from anger can bee no other then a dull stupidity Moses was a meek man as any upon earth yet vvas he not angry vvhen he smote the Egyptian vvas he not angry vvhen upon the sight of Israels Idolatry hee threw downe and brake the Tables of God vvhich he had in his hand There is so little need of quenching this holy fire that there is more need of a bellowes to blow it up that it might flame up to that perfect height of the Psalmist My zeale hath consumed me because mine enemies have forgotten thy words Oh the truly heavenly fire that burnt in that sacred bosome he doth not say my zeale hath warmed me but hath consumed me as if it were his highest perfection to be thus sacrificed and burnt to ashes neither doth he say because my friends have forgotten thy words but Because my enemies Every man can be troubled with a friends miscarriage but to be so deeply affected for an enemy must needs be transcendently gracious It is the vicious anger we must oppose in our selves In it selfe that passion is neither good nor evill it is either as it is used Like as we are wont to say of the planet Mercury that the influences are either good or evill according to his conjunction with
starres of either operation our anger then proves vicious when it offends either in the cause or the quantity when the cause is unjust or the quantity excessive The cause is unjust when we are angry with a man for a thing that is good for an indifferent thing for a thing that is triviall Kain is angry because his brothers sacrifice is accepted Pharaoh was angry with Israel because they vvould be devout and goe serve God in the wildernesse vvhen the man of God reproves Ieroboam and his Altar he in a rage stretches forth his hand for a revenge Iehoiakim when he heares some lines of Ieremiaâ—s scroll cuts it vvith a pen-knife and casts it into the fire in a fury and Ahab professes to hate Michaiah because he never prophesied good to him whiles he should have hated himselfe that would not deserve any newes but evill So that Tyran Cambyses because Praxaspes reproved him for his drunkennesse shoots his son to the heart and sayes See what a steddy hand I have when I am drunk this we feele every day Let a man never so discreetly reprove a swearer or drunkard or uncleane person or any other enormious sinner hee straight flyes out into a raging anger and verifies the old word veritas odium Am I become your enemy because I told you the truth saith S. Paul to the Galathians It may be possible which wise Solomon observes that he who rebukes a man afterwards may finde more favour then he that flattereth but in the meane time whiles the blood is up that anger which a man should turne inward upon himselfe for his sin he spends outwardly upon his reprover To be angry for good is devilish to be angry for that which is neither good nor evill or that which is sleight and frivolous is idle and absurd for whereas anger is a kindling of the blood about the heart how unfit is it that it should be set on fire with every straw and wherefore serves our reason if not to discern of those objects wherewith it is or is not meet for us to be affected Thus the Jewish Doctors tell us that Pharaoh was angry with his baker and butler for no other cause but for that there was a fly in his cup and a little grain of gravell in his bread It is our Saviours word upon the Mount He that is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Iudgement the well governed heart must be like a strong oake which is not moved but with a blustering winde not like an aspen leafe that shakes with the least stirring of the ayre Now even where the cause is just yet the quantity may offend And the quantity shall offend if it be either too long or too vehement Those leaden angers can never be but sinfull which lye heavy and goe slowly away What shall be done to thee thou false tongue saith the Psalmist even sharp arrowes of the mighty with codes of Iuniper And why of Juniper S. Ierome tells us that of all wood that keeps fire the longest in so much that the coales raked up in ashes will as he saith hold fire for a whole yeare those therefore which were formerly turned carbones desolatorii are now translated justly coals of Iuniper It must be onely a lying false slanderous tongue that is a fit subject for coals of Juniper even the same that is no lesse fit for the fire of hel what should these Juniper fires doe in Christian hearts against offending brethren I find in Suidas certain fishes that are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which carry their coler in their heads such should Christians be not letting it settle in their hearts but venting it at their tongues The charge of the Apostle is that we should not let the Sun goe down upon our anger much lesse may we let it rise againe nightly anger is like the Serene in other countryes unwholsome if not deadly but to yeare and day our wrath is more then brutish and partakes too much of him that is a man-slayer from the beginning And as our anger may not be too long so not too intense vehement whiles it lasts it is not for a Christians wrath to be like the Dog-star which when it rises scorches the earth and burnes up the fruits or like a Comet that still portends war and death but rather like unto one of those gliding starres that we see in a winters night which as it is blazes not long and hurts nothing so ends in a coole and not unwholsome moisture Our anger therefore must be tempered with mercy and charity otherwise it is like to a fire under an empty kettle which burnes the vessell to no purpose Such wrath is cruell such anger outragious Now for the moderation of this dangerous passion it is not for me to prescribe Athenodorus his Alphabet that remedy is so poore that the very prescription is enough to move anger rather let me commend that of Bernards Consideration and that not so much when wee are once provoked for that is too late and the assaults of this passion are too sudden but as wise Princes are wont in the midst of peace to provide for warre so must we in the calmest state of our mindes prepare against this inward turbulency Art thou therefore subject to choler Look upon that passion with sober eyes see whether it be any other but a short fit of madnesse Look upon the person of a man thus transported see his eies red glaring sparkling his cheekes now pale as ashes then fiery and swolne up as with a poyson his head and hands shaking his lips quivering his mouth foaming his tongue doubling his feet unconstantly shifting and the whole man which Hippocrates notes as the effect of a most desperate disease become utterly unlike himselfe See in another how well this forme doth become thy selfe Look upon thy selfe be sensible of thine owne distemper thou shalt finde anger justly fetcht from angor vexation thou shalt finde it it is Austins comparison like to vinegar vvhich discolours the vessell it stands in thou shalt finde thou canst not take up a coale to throw at another but thou shalt burne thy owne fingers thou shalt finde that while thou stingest others thou shalt make a drone of thy selfe and that of Solomon shall bee verified of thee Anger resteth in the bosome of fooles Look to the effects of it thou shalt finde it utterly disables thee from good The wrath of man doâ—h not work the righteousnesse of God as St. Iames Thou shalt finde it exposes thee to all mischief for he that hath no rule over his owne spirit is like a City that is broken downe and without walls saith Solomon What enemy may not rush into such a City at pleasure Just such advantage doth thine anger give to thy spirituall enemies and therefore St. Paul when he charges us not to suffer the Sun to goe
and spightfull provocations in differences of Religion IT shall be our eleventh rule for Moderation that wee refraine from all rayling termes and spightfull provocations of each other in the differences of Religion A charge too requisite for these times wherein it is rare to finde any writer whose inke is not tempered with gall and vineger any speaker whose mouth is not a quiver of sharpe and bitter words It is here as it is in that rule of Law The breach of peace is begun by menacing increased by menacing but finished by this battery of the tongue Wherein wee are like those Egyptians of whom the Historian speakes who having begun their devotion with a fast whiles the Sacrifice was burning fell upon each others with blowes which having liberally dealt on all hands at last they sat downe to their feast thus doe we after professions of an holy zeale wee doe mercilesly wound each other with reproaches and then sit downe and enjoy the contentment of our supposed victory Every provocation sets us on and then as it useth to be with scolds every bitter word heightens the quarrell Men doe as we use to say of Vipers when they are whipt spit out all their poyson These uncharitable expressions what can they bewray but a distempered heart from which they proceed as the smoake and sparkes flying up show the house to be on fire or as a corrupt Spittle showes exulcerate lungs By this meanes it falls out that the truth of the cause is neglected whiles men are taken up with an idle yet busie prosecution of words Like as in thrashing the straw flyes about our eares but the corne is hid And it hath beene an old observation that when a man falls to personall rayling it argues him drawne utterly dry of matter and despayring of any farther defence as we see and find that the dogge which running back falls to bauling and barking hath done fighting any more I have both heard and read that this practice is not rare amongst the Iewes to brawl in their publike Synagogues and to bang each other with their holy Candlesticks and censers in so much that this scandall hath indangered the setting off some of theirs to Mahometisme And I would to God it were only proper unto them and not incident unto too many of those who professe to be of the number of them to whom the Prince of Peace said My peace I leave with you It is the caveat which the blessed Apostle gives to his Galathians and in them to us If yee bite and devoure one another take heed yee be not consumed one of another Lo here it is the tongue that bites and so bites as that after the fashion of a mad dogges teeth both rage and death followes And if any man thinke it a prayse with the Lacedaemonian in Plutarch to bite like a Lion let him take that glory to himselfe and be as he would seeme like a Lion that is greedy of his prey and as a young Lion that lurketh in secret places But withall let him expect that just doome of the God of Peace Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under feet Certainely it is in vaine for us to expect any other measure from the exasperated and unruly mindes of hostile brethren whose hatred is commonly so much greater as their interest is more They whose fires would not meet after death are apt in life to consume one another This is the stale and knowne Machination of him whose true title is The accuser of the brethren That old Dragon when he saw the woman flying to the wildernesse to avoyde his rage what doth hee Hee casts out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that hee might cause her to be carryed away of the flood what are these waters which he casts out of his mouth but sclanderous accusations lyings detractions cruell persecutions of the tongue And shall wee that professe the deare name of one common Saviour so farre second the great enemy of mankinde as to derive some cursed Channels from those Hellish floods of his for the drenching of the flourishing valleyes of Gods Church Shall wee rather imitate him then the blessed Archangell of God who contending with the Divell and disputing about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a rayling accusation but sayd The Lord rebuke thee Nay shall wee dare to doe that to Brethren which the Angell durst not doe to the Divell When we heare and see fearefull thundring and lightning and tempest we are commonly wont to say that ill spirits are abroad neither doubt I but that many times as well as in Iobs case God permits them to rayse these dreadfull blustrings in the ayre right so when wee see these flashes and heare these hideous noyses of contention in Gods Church wee have reason to thinke that there is an hand of Satan in their raysing and continuance For as for God we know his courses are otherwise When it pleased him to make his presence knowne to Elijah first there passed a great and strong wind which rent the Mountaines and brake the Rockes in peeces but the Lord was not in the Winde After that Winde came an Earthquake but the Lord was not in the Earthquake After the Earthquake a Fire but the Lord was not in the Fire but after the Fire came a still small Voyce and therein was the Almightie pleased to expresse himselfe Loe as Saint Ambrose observes well the Divell is for noyse Christ for silence Hee that is the Lyon of the Tribe of Iuda delights in the style of the Lambe of God and is so tearmed both by Iohn the Baptist his forerunner in the dayes of his flesh and by Iohn the Evangelist his Apostle in the state of his glory Neither was the holy Spirit pleased to appeare in the forme of a Falcon or Eagle or any other bird of Prey but of a Dove the meeknesse and innocence whereof our Saviour recommended for a Patterne to all his followers If there be any therefore who delight to have their Beakes or Tallons imbrued in blood let them consider of what spirit they are sure I am they are not of his whose so zealous charge it is Put on as the Elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse long-suffering Forbearing one another forgiving one another if any man have a quarrell against any even as Christ forgave you even so also doe yee And above all things put on Charitie which is the bond of perfectnesse And let the Peace of God rule in your hearts §. XVI The twelfth rule of Moderation That how-ever our judgements differ wee should compose our affections towards Vnitie and Peace WHich divine counsell of the blessed Apostle leades me to the twelfth and last rule of Moderation viz. That if wee