and warre in the world and of the subsistence and revolution of Empires Who would beleeve that at the same time he tels the number of our hairs and that not so much as one sparrow falls to the ground without his speciall appointment but that we are told it by his own mouth and that our experience assureth us of his care of the least of our actions and accidents of our life Here wee must rest amazed but not silent for our very ignorance must help us to admire and extoll that depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God whose eye and hand is in all places whose strength sustaineth whose providence guideth all things and taketh as much care of each of his creatures as if he had nothing else to looke to If our minds be swallowed up in the depths of Gods wisdome this one depth calls in another deep which brings no lesse amazement but gives more comfort that is the fatherly love of God to us his children Eph. 3.18 O the bredth the length the depth the heighth of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge the bredth that embraceth Jewes and Gentiles having broken the partition wall to make a large room to his wide love that his way might be known upon earth his saving health among all Nations Psalm 67.2 The length which hath elected us before the foundation of the world and will make us live and reigne with himselfe for ever The depth which hath drawne us out of the lowest pit of sorrow death to effect that hath drawn him down to that low condition The height which hath raised us up to heaven with him and makes us sit together with him in heavenly places With what miracles of mercy hath he preserved his Church from the beginning of the world How many graces doth he poure upon the several members thereof nourishing our bodies comforting our souls reclaiming us from iniquity by the gift of repentance and faith keeping off the malice of men and evill Angels from us by the assistance of his good Angels delivering our life from death our eyes from teares and our feet from falling But before and after all other benefits we must remember that principal benefit never sufficiently remembred Col. 1.12 Giving thankes unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Sonne in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgivenesse of sins This is the highest top of our felicity the main ground of the peace of the soul and the incomparable subject of the contentment of our minds Yea if we have such a deep sence of that heavenly grace as to praise God continually for it with heart and mouth For as we praise God because he blesseth us he blesseth us because we praise him and by his praise which is the eternal excercise of his blessed Saints we become already partners of their imployment their peace and their joy CHAP. IX Of good Conscience ALl that we have said hitherto regardeth the Principal causes both the efficient and the instrumental of the peace with God There are other causes which of themselves have not that vertue to produce that great peace yet without which it cannot be preserved nor produced neither these are a good conscience and the excercise of good workes Not that the reconciliation made for us with God by the merit of his Son needs the help of our works but becaus the principal point of our reconciliation and redemption is that we are redeemed from iniquity which is done by the same vertue that redeemes us from Hell and by the same operation For it is a damnable self-flattery and self-deceipt for one to beleeve that he is reconciled with God if he feele in himselfe no conversion from that naturall enmity of the flesh against God neither can he enjoy a true peace in his soul In that reconciliation God makes use of our wil for in all agreements both parties must concur and act freely And to make us capable of that freedome God by his spirit looseth the bonds of our unregenerate will naturally enthralled to evill But it will be better to medle but little with the worke of God within us and looke to our owne learning the duties which wee are called unto as necessary if wee will enjoy that great reconciliation The first duty is to walke before God with a good conscience for in vaine should one hope to keepe it tranquil and not good Conscience is the natural sence of the duties of piety and righteousnes warning every man unlesse he be degenerated into a beast to depart from evil and doe good And a good conscience is that which obeyeth that sense and warning But the ordinary use which I will follow by a good conscience understands onely the first part which is to beware of evil This good conscience is so necessary for the enjoying of that peace of God applyed to us by faith that the A postle to the Hebrewes requires it that wee may stand before God with a full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Let us draw neere saith he with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washt with pure water And St Paul chargeth Timothy 1. Tim. 1.19 to hold faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack shewing that faith and a good conscience must goe hand in hand and that the losse of a good conscience ushereth the losse of faith which is consequently followed with the losse of inward peace Whereas a good conscience brings forth confidence as St John teacheth us 1. Joh. 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemne us not then have wee confidence before God By a conscience that condemnes us not wee must not understand a conscience without sinne for there is none such to be found Much lesse a conscience that condemneth not the sinner after he hath sinned for the best consciences are those that forgive nothing to themselves and passe a voluntary condemnation upon themselves before God by a free and penitent confession But the good conscience that condemnes us not according to St Johns sense is that which beares witnes to a man to have walked in sincerity and cannot accuse him to have shut up his eyes since his conversion against the evident lights of truth and righteousnes or to have hardned his heart against repentance after he hath offended God The godly man will remember that the peace betweene God and us was made by way of contract whereby God gives himselfe to us in his Sonne and we give our selves to him If then any refuse to give himselfe to God there is no contract God will not give himselfe to him and so no peace for every contract must be mutual When the one party
number that love the present world and cannot fixe their thoughts upon that which is to come imagin that when they dye they lose all A great folly They cannot lose that which is none of theirs They have the use of the world only til their Lease be out Death is the great proofe of that fundamentall Maxime which I so often urge and no oftner then I need That the things that are out of the disposition of our will are none of ours and such are riches honours our body and life it selfe To them that are so farre mistaken as to thinke themselves owners of these things death is an undoing not to them that acknowledge themselves tenants at will and look continually to be called out of their tenement The goods of the world are held by turnes When you have enjoyed them a while you must give place to others Make your successours case your owne How should yee like it if a certaine number of men should be priviledged to monopolize to themselves the goods of all the world for ever to the perpetuall exclusion of all others This reasoning belongs to few persons for it presupposeth plenty and prosperity But how few have plenty and of those few againe how few have prosperity with it One would thinke that distressed persons have no need of comfort against death Yet they that have the greatest sorrowes in the world many times are the most unwilling to leave it But certainly if life be evill it is good to go out of it All men being born under the necessity of suffering and misery being universall in all conditions Death which ends all misery of life is the greatest benefit of Nature Blessed be God that there is no temporal misery so great but hath an end Take me a man that hath nothing but debts that liveth meerely by his shifts and tricks that hath the stone in the bladder and ten suits in Law that flyeth from the Sergeants to his house and then flyeth out of his house relanced by the scolding of his perverse wife If in that flight he be suddainly killed in the street by the fall of a tyle or the overturning of a Cart that happy misfortune delivereth him from all other misfortunes The Sergeants overtake him and let him are All attachments and Subpoenas against him are vacated Hee is no more troubled where to get his dinner His debts breake not his perpetuall sleep He is thoroughly healed of the stone and his wife now desperaetly crying because she seeeth him insensible for ever and unmoved at her noise Certainly Death is a shelter against all inâ—uries Death puts an end to endlesse evills It is the rest after a continual toyle It is the cure of the sick and the liberty of the slave So Job describeth that quiet state Job 3.7 There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest There the prisoners rest together they heare not the voyce of the oppressor The small and great are there and the servant is free from his Master It is a great folly to feare that which cannot be avoyded but it is a greater to feare that which is to be desired When we have considered the evills of life those that we do and those that we suffer after that to feare Death what is it else but to be affraid of our rest and deliverance And what greater harme can one wish to him that will not dye but that he may live alwayes and be guilty and miserable for ever If it be for the paine that we feare Death for that reason wee ought rather to feare life for the paines of life are farre more sensible then the paines of Death if in Death there is any paine of which I see no great likelyhood For why should we imagine the revulsion of the soul from the body to be very painful it being knowne that the vital parts as the heart and the liver have little or no sense No more sense hath the substance of the braines though the source of the senses for the head-ach is in the tuniques When the braines is benummed and weakened the sense of paine is weaker over all the body And generally when strength decreaseth paine decreaseth together Hence it is that most of them that are sick to Death when they draw neere their end feele themselves very much amended That state is called by the Italians il meglioramento della morte The decay of senses in that extremity is a fence against the troublesome diligence talke cries more troublesome then Death wherewith dying persons are commonly persecuted But as a man upon the point of death is too weake to defend himselfe against all that persecution he is too weak also to feele it much Then all suffocation is without paine that is the most ordinary end of life In the most violent death paine is tolerable because it is short and because it is the last It is a storme that wracks us but casts us upon the haven To that haven we must looke continually and there cast anchor betimes by a holy hope conceiving Death not so much a parting as an arrival for unto well disposed soules it is the haven of Salvation The feare of that which comes after death makes some mens lives bitter and through feare of dying after Death they have already eternall death in their Conscience They have eyes to see Hell open gaping for them but they have none to see the way to avoid it In others that feare is more moderate and is an ill cause working a good effect inducing or rather driving them to seeke and then to embrace the grace and peace that God offers unto them in Jesus Christ and together to do good workes which are the way to the Kingdome of heaven A man cannot afeare God too much but he may be too deeply afraid of his Justice And the feare of that death after death must be swallowed up by the faith in Jesus Christ who by his death hath delivered them who through feare of death were all their life subject unto bondage Heb. 2.15 He hath made death the gate of life and glory to all that trust in him and doe good Godly men will not feare death for the sting of it is pluckt off by Christ It is the terrour of evill consciences but the joy of the good It is this pleasant meditation that sweetneth their adversities and makes them joy Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 The troubles of life are soone ended by death and after death comes a life without trouble and a glory without end Men may deprive us of life but they cannot deprive us of death which is our deliverance The same meditation will make us relish prosperity when God sends it for none can enjoy the goods of this life with delight but he that is prepared before to leave them Then are they
delightfull when they are possest without care and without that which makes prosperity bitter the feare to lose them Whether I have little or much let me allwayes say Praised bee God for his temporal gifts Here is more then I need to live and dye well But these are not the goods that he promist me and to which he calls me by by his Gospel O when shall that day come when I shall be satisfied with the goodnesse of his house even of his holy Temple Psal 65.4 My desire is to depart and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 The imprisonment of our immortal Soul of heavenly nature in a body cosingerman to the beast where it lyeth heavy drowzy and mired in the flesh ought to make us think that a happy day when we shall be awake quickned and set at liberty Children in the womb sleep continually Men if you take their whole age together sleep well nigh halfe their time But after death the spirit which is the true man hath shaken off all his sleepinesse The faithfull soul is no more in darknesse She receives light no more at two little loope-holes She is all eye in the presence of God who is all Light She is free holy joyfull all vertue and all love and all glory for seeing God and being seene by him she is changed into the same image And to that blessed state death is the way Who so knoweth so much of the nature of death yet feares it as a terrible evill sheweth that he is very farre within another death which is the death of sinne and that he hath more flesh then spirit that is more of the beast then man CHAP. XVII Of the Interiour of Man FRom that which is altogether without us and out of our power and may be taken from us by others or by death Let us turne our eyes within us upon that which is more ours our soule and her endowments naturall and acquisite either by study or infusion Not to examine very exactly their nature but enough to judge of their price and what satisfaction may be expected of them Because I have restrained solid content to those things that are within us and which cannot be taken from us I acknowledge my selfe very much perplexed about some things within us and doubtful whether they be ours or no seeing that many things within us may be taken from us without our consent and therefore are not ours absolutly Is there any thing that seemes more ours then the illumination and dexterity of our wit and our learning and prudence got by study and experience for those were the goods which that Philosopher owned with so much oftentation who carrying nothing but himself out of a Town taken by storme and pillaged answered the victor that gave him leave to carry our all his goods I carry out all my goods along with mee But how could he make good that possession there being no Wit so clear no Philosophy so sublime but a blow upon the head or a hot feaver may overturne it Epictetus accounteth nothing ours but our opinions our desires and our actions because these alone are in our power But in an understanding maimed by Phrensy that power is lost It is true it is not the soule but the Organe that is vitiated But howsoever you cannot dispose of your soul when that organ is out of tune Here to say that death will set the soul at liberty and then the spirit shall enjoy himselfe and all his ornaments is to bring a higher question to resolve a lesser For there is no doubt but that the spirit loosed from the matter will recover that liberty of his faculties which was obstructed by materiall causes but it is a point of singular difficulty to judge whether he shall retaine all the skill hee had got in this life As for mechanicall Arts altogether tyed to the matter it is not likely that the spirit will retaine that low skill when he liveth separat from the matter But as for higher intellectuall sciences it seemes very unreasonable that a Spirit polisht sublimated by long study and stored with a great treasure of knowledge should lose all in an instant by the death of the body and that the soul of a great Naturalist as my Lord of St. Albans be left as bare of learning and acquisite capacity as the soul of a skavenger And when the soul not only is made learned but good also by learning were it not lamentable that death should have the power to make it worse Neither would holy writ presse this command upon us with so much earnestnes Get wisdome get understanding forget it not if wisedom were an acquisition that the soul must lose with the body The difficulty lyeth in picking among the sciences those that will be sure to stick unto the separat soul It is much to be feared that those sciences which cost most labour will bee sooner lost and will goe out together with the lampe of life For since the dead have no share in al that is done under the sun it is like that great students who have fraught their memory with histories both antient moderne shall lose when they dye the remembrance of so many things that are done under the Sunne By the same reason Lawyers Linguists Professors of Sciences and arts depending upon humane commerce should leave all that learning behind them But I doubt whether the contemplators of Gods works as the Naturalists shall lose their learning when they dye seeing that it is the duty the perfectioning of the rationall creature to know the wisedome and the power of the Creator in his wonderfull workes And I am inclined to beleeve that those things that are done under the Sunne in which the dead have no share are the actions businesses of men not the workes of God but that Naturalists shall learne the science of Gods workes in a higher and transcendent way Also that Astrologers shall need other principles to know heaven to which their forbidden curiosity to foretell humane events out of the Starres wil rather be a barre then a furtherance Nec quicquam tibi prodest aerias tentâsse domos morituro Among all the spirituall ornaments there is one which we may be confident to keep for ever when we have it once really therefore it is properly our owne That rich and permanent Ornament is heavenly wisedome of which Solomon saith Prov. 3.16 Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Her wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse and all her pathes are peace She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaines her That wisedome consisteth in knowing loving and obeying God and trusting upon him It is good studying that wisedome that giveth eternal felicity and glory We finde but two things in the interiour of man which we may be sure not to lose by death The one is the
countenance of Gods justice Their owne crimes take them by the throate and they seeme ready to say as Ahab to Eliah 1 Kings 21. hast thou found me mine enemy And God saith to their heart with anger I have found thee because thou hast sold thy selfe to worke evill in the sight of the Lord. There is no conscience so sunk in a deepe sleepe of sinne and worldlines but will now and then awake and cry out in a sudden fright So did Felix though a Pagan an extortionner and a man every way infamous for as St Paul reasoned of temperance and righteousnes and judgment to come Felix trembled and answered Goe thy way for this time Act. 24. Whosoever hath read bookes and men may have observed what unquietnes crimes will bring to the criminal That tyrants continually imagine a naked sword hanging over their head That the wicked flee when no man pursueth That murtherers and perfidious men have a broken sleepe and their mirth is interrupted with parentheses of frownes and grimme lookes That when they excuse themselves of a foule fact of which their conscience accuseth them their conscience many times gives the lye to their words and they are contradicted by the inconstancy of their lookes and the stammering of their tongue And conscience will double these terrours when their end draweth nigh Many know who he was that started up often in his mortal drouzines on his death bed commanding that his men should give over slaying But suppose that the wicked that have the world at will had as much rest within as without yet â—â—dons saying to Craesus ought to be observed Never to pronounce any man happy before his death But the Christian ought to give to that sentence a longer terme if he hath bin with David in the Sanctuary of God and there hath understood the end of the wickd and found that God hath set them in slippery places to cast them into destruction CHAP. III. Of the reconciliation of man with God through Jesus Christ Such being the enmity betweene God and sinfull man which is followed with the discord of man with nature with his kind with himself How welcome how precious to him must the blessed newes be of Gods reconciliation with him Esa 5.27 How beautifull upon the mountaines are the feet of him that bringeth good tydings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tydings of good that publisheth salvation that saith unto Sion Thy God reigneth the chief ambassadour that anounceth that peace with God is he that made it It is the eternal sonne of God who by an infinite mercy towards man guilty and miserable was pleased to allye himself with him by a personal union of the divine nature with the humane He hath taken our nature and imparted his unto us He hath made himselfe Man to take upon himself the debt of man For seeing that man was indebted to Gods iustice it was requisite that a man should give satisfaction Which because mans nature was not able to find Christ joyning to the Nature and Obligation of man the Nature and Vertue of God and both in one Person hath fully satisfied the justice of his father which required a perfect obedience and death for punishment of disobedience He hath then presented to God a most accomplisht obedience of which the most eminent act was to have readily undergone a shameful bitter death at his Fathers command for the sins of mankinde of which he was the pledge and the representative An obedience of infinite merit more powerfull to obtaine pardon yea and reward at Gods hands then all the disobedience of the world to incense his just wrath to punishment 1. Pet. 2.24 His owne selfe bare our sins in his owne body on the tree Isa 53.5 The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes wee are healed For it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell and having made peace through the bloud of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himselfe Col. 1.19 All that have recourse to that infinite love of God and that ransome of inestimable value the merit of his sonne embracing it with a true faith which cannot act nor subsist without a true repentance find their peace made with God their iniquity is pardoned they have received of the Lords hands double for all their sinnes Isa 40.2 It is a double satisfaction both because it is twice greater then all the sins of the world and because it worketh a double effect the one to get pardon for sins the other to obtain a reward for imputed righteousness And that satisfaction represented to God in our faithful prayers makes them acceptable and of sweet favour as the incense put upon the sacrifices It is much to be lamented that these tydings of grace and glory are but coldly entertained by carnal eares as now growne stale and vulgar And that there is more joy for prevailing in a Law-suite and for a Peace that opens the markets and the freedome of commerce after a civil broyle then for our peace with God through Christ in whom wee have free accesse unto the throne of grace that wee may obtaine mercy and finde grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.16 But he that in the fright of his conscience hath seen hell open gaping for him and hath once lost his thoughts in that bottomelesse gulfe of misery and horrour to have his creatour his enemy if upon that he embrace by faith that great and heavenly message not onely that his sinnes are forgiven him by the merit of Christ but that by the same merit of an enemy and a child of wrath he is become the sonne of God and heire of his Kingdome his heart will melt with joy love and admiration and the sadder his sense was of his deplorable condition the greater will his thankfulnesse be for his gracious restoration O the depth of the riches both of the wisedome and the goodnesse of God who hath found a way to set forth together his justice and his mercy and to pardon sinne by punishing it O the infinite love of the Father who so loved the world that he gave his onely Sonne for them O the infinite love of that onely Sonne that so loved his enemyes that he delivered himselfe to a most bitter death to give them life and immortality yea and his own kingdome O the infinite love of the holy Ghost who so loved the world as to announce unto them this excellent piece of newes by his word and seale the promises of God in their hearts by faith in Jesus Christ that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but have life eternal Behold then the onely foundation of the peace of the soule and contentment of mind It is that peace made for us with God by his onely sonne who hath taken our sinnes upon himselfe and in consequence the punishment giving us in exchange his righteousnesse and consequently the reward of it since
of this life He that spared not his own sonne but delivered him up for us all how shal he not with him freely give us all things He that saved our soules from death shall he not deliver our bodies from the dangers of this world Certainly he that hath prepared for us eternal delights at his right hand will not denie us our temporal daily bread This assurance in his love will sweeten our afflictions and lay downe our feares for being persuaded that God as he is infinitely good is also infinitely wise wee must in consequence beleeve that all the evills which he sends us are so many remedies to other evils that our most smarting dolours are corrosives applyed by that wise Physician to eate the proud flesh of our corrupt nature that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3.33 especially when he chastiseth his children but is in a manner forced to that course by their necessity as when a man is pincht by his best friends to awake him out of a deep lethargy And since that eternal friend is every where present by his al-seeing knowledge and almighty power and hath promised besides his gracious presence to his friends saying I will not leave thee nor forsake thee what reason have we of joy confidence at all times in all places and in all the occurrences of this life having God with us allwayes observing us with his eye upholding us with his hand protecting us with his providence guiding us with his wisedome and comforting us with his love The last good office that Faith doeth unto us is in the approaches of death for then especially it doth represent the promises of God unto the faithfull soule and sealeth them afresh knitting that bond of perfectnes the mutual love between God and the conscience faster then ever By it God speakes peace unto the soule aspiring to heaven and makes it spread the wings of holy desires to passe with a swift flight from the combat below to the triumph above Faith bearing up the soule in that last flight changeth name and nature in the way and becomes love to embrace him for ever in glory in whom we have believed in infirmity CHAP. VII Of Christian Hope THe proper action of Faith is to embrace Christ and ground the soul upon him But it hath another action common to it with hope which is to embrace the benefits obtained to us by Christ Of these benefits the present grace is proper to faith which is justification otherwise the Reconciliation of God with the conscience the future glory by the contemplation of Gods face is more proper to Hope Both faith and hope bring a sweet peace and solid content to the soul that loveth God But it is peculiar to hope to adde to that peace a beam of glory much like those spies of Israel that entred into the Land of Promise before the rest of the people to whom they brought some of the fruit of the Land For it entreth into heaven beforehand and from thence brings us a taste of the promised inheritance Hope is the onely thing that puts some value upon the life of this world for all the good of this life consisteth in this that it is a way to a better and that the earth is the tyring-room of the godly soul where she makes herselfe ready for the wedding of the Lamb. But for that what were this life good for It would consist but in two things to do evill and to suffer evill The very goods of this life without that hope would be evill for none among the Pagans and all others that were not sustained by Christian hope was ever made happy The wisest of them have sought the soveraigne good out of the objects of the senses not finding any solid content in sensuall things or actions Solomon wiser then them all had found that all under the Sun was vanity and vexation of spirit and under all he comprehended intellectual as well as sensual things Neither could any give a more judicious verdict of all than he for he had tryed all things Where then shall we find any thing worth the paines of living but in Hope For if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Hope not keeping within the limits of the poor goods of this life liveth already with the life to come for it looks for the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world as himself teacheth us where although he reigne as a soveraigne he reigneth not as a redeemer and so here is not the reigne of his redeemed We find it by experience Who so then will enjoy the peace of the soul and contentment of mind must have his hope and his spirit in a better place for why should we expect of the world more then it hath Can one gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles May one expect peace of a perpetual agitation or a durable content from things of short continuance For the soul of man being created for permanency is contented with nothing lesse then a permanent good which is the essential reason why no man could ever find satisfaction in the world there being such a disproportion between mans soul and the objects that the world presents to her for all worldly things are finite but the soul though finite in her substance is infinite in her desire which nothing lesse then infinity can satisfie Now it is by hope that the soul enjoyeth in this finite world an infinite good It is by hope that we rise from the dead before we dy being advanced to a degree of grace that hath already a streak of glory Of which St Paul giveth this high expression Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory Worldly hopes flatter us and then disappoint us But though they did performe all they promise the present possession of the best things of the world is nothing comparable to the hope onely of heavenly things even that lively hope unto which God hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritane incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.3 O holy and glorious hope which already makes us partakers of Christs resurrection and followers of his ascention even to the right hand of God! already living with the life of Christ animated by his spirit Blessed hope by which we are preserved from the general corruption as with a soveraigne antidote and by which we subsist yea and triumph in afflictions Heb. 10.34 taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods knowing in our selves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance It is by hope that we look joyfully upon our bodies decaying
do him harme or hindred to do him good or deprived of the good he might do to the publique that worthy man must not altogether neglect to rectifye the misconceits taken against him which he may with lesse difficulty atchieve by a serene and constant course of integrity then by finding and proving confuting and keeping a great bustle to bring contrary witnesses face to face Innocency and the confidence that attends it must needs stand so high above the babling of the vulgar as to be no more moved with it then the Starres with the wind â—â—owing in the lower Region The dishonour that hath some ground in the truth must be wiped off not by excuses but by amendment Is one blamed for being vicious He must be so no more And that out of hatred of vice not of dishonour which being but a shadow of it will vanish at the rayes of Vertue CHAP. XII Of the evills of the body Unhandsomnesse Weaknesse Sicknesse and Paine OUr judgement being satisfyed that the good of the body beauty strength health and pleasure are none of the great goods we ought also to bee perswaded that their contraries are none of the great evills And if our very bodies must not be accounted ours because we cannot dispose of them at our pleasure and because by the undermining of age they sinke and slip away continually from themselves the commodities and incommodities of these fraile tenements at will where our soules are harboured for a few daies as ought not to disquiet us matters of any importance To beginne at Unhandsomnesse if a woman be unhandsome for that sexe is especially sensible of that disgrace let her stay but a while age will bring all the beauties to her row within few yeares and death after That last day draweth neere which will make faire and foule alike strong and weake sick and sound them that are tormented with dolour and them that torment themselves with voluptuousnesse and curiosity Whosoever is much grieved with those incommodities never apprehended aright the frailty of the opposite commodities We must not be vexed for the want of things which by their nature decay and perish very houre There are few incommodities but have a mixture of commodities which a wise lover of his owne tranquillity will pick and convert to his advantage The unhandsome woman shall not be admired but in recompence she shall not be tempted nor importuned as a prey by lust and insolence She hath with her a perpetual exhorter to humility piety and all vertue and to recompence the want of beauty with goodnesse Seldome is unhandsomnesse reproached to women but to them that aggravate with malice envy their disgraces of nature Beauty cannot be acquired but goodnesse may Yet among them that want beauty some are so wise and so good that they become handsome They are commonly more happy in marriage then great beauties for they give lesse jealousy to their husbands and study more to content them Persons of weak constitution are lesse obnoxious to acute sicknesses which many times will kil strong bodyes in three or foure dayes They are lesse tainted with that stupid pride which commonly attends great strength of body Finding themselves inferiour to others in excercises of strength they apply themselves to exercises of wit to which commonly they are more apt As weezels have more mettle and nimblenesse then Oxen there is often more industry and quicknesse of wit in little weak men then in men of of large and brawny limbs for the predominancy of blood and phlegme which makes the body large is the duller temper for wit whereas choler and melancholy which by their contractive quality limit the stretching of growth to a lesser extent serve also the one to sharpen the wit the other to give solidity to the judgement Weakenesse reads to a man a continual Lecture of prudence and compliance for being not able to carry on his designes with a high hand dexterity onely will serve his turne Also that want of strength teacheth him to make God his strength sticking fast to him by faith and a good conscience That way the weakest become too strong for all the world When I am weake then I aâ— strong saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 12.10 Of this Gods children have a blessed experience in sicknesse whereby God makes their body weake to make their faith strong and their soules by the dolours and lingring decay of their bodies susceptible of many salutary lessons for which health and ease have no eares Sicknesse and paine are evill in their nature but they are good by accident when God is pleased to turne evills into remedies to bring a man to repentance and make him looke up to the hand that striketh They are punishments to sin and wayes to death but to the faithful soul they become instruments of grace and conveighances to glory Many of them that beleeved in the Lord Jesus while he conversed among men were brought to it by bodily sicknesses And he when he healed a sick person often would say Thy sins are forgiven thee To give an impartial judgement of their quality and measure one must rather beleeve what he feeles then the cryes and compassion of them that love him and have interest in his preservation They say that a man is very sick when he feeles not his sicknesse Yet he hath so much good time till he feele it If the paine be sharp it is short If it be little it is tolerable If the evill be curable be patient good Cure will heale it If the evill be incurable be patient death will heale it No evill is superlative when one is certaine to come out of it By life or by death there must be an end of thy sicknesse All the remedies that Pagan Philosophy giveth in extremities come to this that patience is a remedy to evills that have none But here Christian Philosophy openeth the treasure of divine comforts which to make the faithfull man patient in tribulation make him joyfull in hope shew him the crown ready for him at the end of the combat In the combat he is strengthened by faith and the comforter whom Christ promist to his disciples powerfully assisteth him in his last agony Or if his triall be prolonged he tels him as Paul buffeted by a messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.9 my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse By that grace sicknesse beates downe pride quencheth lust weaneth the heart from the love of the world makes the soule hungry and thirsty after righteousnesse Theodoricus Archbishop of Collen with great wisdome exhorted the Emperour Sigismond to have the will in health to live holily as he said when he was tormented with the gravel and gowte Sicknesses give to a godly man a sense of his frailty when wee feel these houes of mud our bodies drooping towards the ground their originall then doe we sigh for that building of God that house not made with hands