follyes of his infancy to undergoe again all the fears of his child-hood all the dangers of his youth all the cares of his man-hood all the labours of his old age No man hath lived soe happily as to wish to be born again Consider therefore whither thou art going and whence thou art parting But perhaps thou wouldest not be afraid to dye if thou didst certainly hope to goe to Heaven This is the cause of thy fear because thou are void of all vertue and good workes and only now beginnest to be good when thou art forced to leave the world Were it not for this thou wouldest not be afraid to dye considering that it is the Gate to eternall felicity It would be a torment to a just man to be born unles death were to follow 5. No man dyeth with joy unles he hath long prepared for it before hand Render it familiar to thy thoughts by a continuall meditation of it that soe thou maist receive it when it comes with a joyfull hart A man is not said to have lived enough for having lived many dayes or many years but for having a mind that desires to leave the world to fly to its Origine He hath lived long enough who dyes well and he dyes well who hath lived well Dost thou desire to procure thyself a quiet death Accustome thyself first to contemn all temporall things He cannot fear death who hath already deprived himself of more then death can take away from him Dost thou desire to lead a pleasant life Clear thy mind of all un-necessary care concerning it be ready for all sort of death and doe not concern thyself whither thou art to dye by the sword or by the violence of a feavor Live foe that thou maist dayly say I have lived He liveth in security and dyes with joy who dayly fancies himself carried to his grave and who is permitted to live after he was content to dye It is impossible thou shouldest live well unles thou dyest every day CHAP. XXIX Of Magnanimity The Character of a magnanimous man 1. THe very name of magnanimity denotates some great matter it is a high vertue of great force and alwaies tending to great things Without this all other vertues would droop and languish For whereas there occur many difficulties in the practice of vertue magnanimity resists all and ouercomes all and never shrinketh untill having past all difficulties it hath generously arrived unto what it had proposed to bring to effect This is the property of magnanimity to wit to incline us at all times to great and heroicall actions and with the help of Gods grace to make us undertake the most difficile labours with a secure and ready mind Thou must resolve to be bold and couragious if thou intendest to come to any thing We cannot expect to perform great matters without great pains Man is able to doe much when he resolves to doe like a man 2. A man of a great spirit alwaies aspires to great things and contemneth all those things as little which the vulgar esteemeth great He does things which are worthy of much honour but is not sorry when this honour is not paid and contemneth it when offered unles Obedience or Gods honour requires the contrary He does nothing for ostentation but all for conscience sake and seeketh a reward for doing well not in the mouth of the world but from the work itself He stands alwaies firm is invincible above all bad fortune and still equall to himself upon all occasions and doth not strive to ascend to higher dignities but is content with his own greatnes He is above all things and therefore is a Slave to no body begs and entreats nothing of others because he wanteth nothing of all that is without him Nothing can frighten or make him yield Sometimes he makes shew of his generous nature but then t is not out of any vain glory for he still considers the degree he is in the gifts which God hath given him But he alwaies joyns unto this a firm and profound humility in the sight of God because he refers all his glory and all the gifts of nature and fortune which he possesseth unto him alone holding for certain that of himself he hath nothing can doe nothing and is really nothing This is to know the true limits of vertue alwaies to have an humble opinion of our selves and all our actions and yet not to refuse those honours which are due unto such actions when we may accept them without breaking the rules of modesty We must not pursue honours but permit them to follow us 3. He that hath this vertue of magnanimity receaveth all the blows of adverse fortune with an undaunted hart that he may attain to the height of perfection When he meets with inferiour persons he can still carry himself towards them with a certain moderation and when he meets with Princes or some other powerfull and wealthy persons he doth not cast himself at their feet in a flattering manner nor will he permit his liberty to be oppressed with their tyrannous power Those things which are worthy of hatred he hateth openly and those things which are worthy of Love he loveth them after the same manner And those things which ought to be done and spoken openly he does and speaks them openly because he fears nothing and hopes for nothing He does the same things which other men doe but not after the same manner and therefore he hides his actions from the eyes of the common people and does not willingly make himself familiar with them He soon forgetteth injuries and is not subject to complain when forced to suffer any thing He praiseth few nor does he desire the praise of others but still labours to doe things worthy of praise He cares not for pleasing any but his friends and superiours nor does he easily admire any thing because nothing ever seems great or new unto him He fears no disastrous event being ever secure in his own Vertue He hath a slow gate a grave voice a moderate staid speech for he that is not sollicitous about many things hath no need to make great hast amd he that is content within himself needs not any great wrangling CHAP. XXX Of Patience The occasions and effects of it Marks of true Patience An exhortation to Patience in all manner of sufferances The necessity of Perseverance 1. PAtience is a Vertue which makes us suffer all the miseries of this life with a willing mind But because these miseries are manifold this vertue hath severall names according to the diversity of Evils which we are wont to suffer It is properly called Patience when it beareth injuries with an equal mind it is called Equanimity when we suffer patiently the losse of outward goods It is called Longanimity when it fortifies the hart in the long expectation of some good It is called Constancy when it strengthens the will to bear all other sort of publick and
shut so as it is easily opened again to the same vices when occasion presents Thou tellest me that thy former life displeaseth thee I beleeve it for who is not ashamed of himself when he seriously considers the disorders of his life past Even wicked men both hate and love their own vices at the same time nay even then when they commit them they detest and abhorr them But what avayls it to abhorr sin in words and not to abhor the acting and comitting of it There is no man so wicked who doth not some time or other loath his own sins but such Converts are soon reconciled again to their old sins But he that is truly converted unto God puts the Axe to the root and cuts away all even to the least sprout he can find And then living in a continuall memory and apprehension of his own frailty he carefully avoids all occasions of sin trembles at the very sight of any evill and dangerous object 3. Why dost thou alledge vain excuses insist so much upon the frailty of thy nature when God commands thee to exterminate thy vices who can better know the measure and strength of thy forces then he who gave them why then art thou backward in obeying when the thing does not so much redound to any profit in him that commands it as it concerns thy good oh blind and wicked rashnes How darest thou be so bold as to reproch unto thy master with a servile impudence that his precepts are hard and impossible as if he had designed to seek not so much thy Salvation as thy punishment Such is the perversenes of mans nature not only to offend God but also to pretend great difficulties in what he commands But if thou wilt try thy own forces thou wilt find that thou art able to doe much more then thou thinkest T is not the difficulty of the things in themselves that makes thee not dare to practise them but because thou dost not practise them the things seem difficile Many things which we thought very hard to doe become very easy and of no burden with a little use Begin once for all and have a better opinion of thy own force and power God doth not forsake his souldiers he will give thee as much strength as thou desirest 4. Thou wilt easily overcome all vice if thou representest to thyself every day to be as the last of all thy life What is it that eyes thee to this world Beause thou never thinkest that thou art to goe soon out of it Thou seest every day dead bodyes carried to the grave which should put thee in mind that thou art also mortall And yet in the midst of all these dead thou thinkest o nothing lesse then Death thou seest nothing more often yet thou forgettest nothing soe soon The day will come notwithstanding that must carry thee also away to wit when thy Soul shall be delivered out of her dark loathsom prison of the body Thou wilt then clearly see that thou hast lived in darknes all thy life in this world Produce if thou canst amongst so many years of a bad life but one day well spent in the exercise of vertue which hath not bine defiled with some vice Thy infancy is past away in childish bables thy youth is spent in foolery and idlenes thy riper ago in debaucheries disorders Of all those years which thou hast spent from thy cradle untill thy old age nothing remains but greif and the evill fruits of iniquity Alas what a case wilt thou be in when forced to be ashamed of what is past and afraid of what is to come what will thy riches avail thee in that hour which thou hast alwaies sought with so much care and trouble what will all thy shamefull pleasures help thee at that time what canst thou then expect from all thy dignities and honours Oh! if it were possible that thou mightest begin again from the cradle how carefull thou wouldst be to lead another life but alas such wishes will be altogether useles in this hour If thou intendest to make good use of Time begin from this present moment resolve from this instant to forsake those things which thou wouldst then wish to have forsaken T is no great matter to forsake momentary things that thou maist purchase eternall felicity 5. Ask any dying man what he thinks of his life past and thou will scarce find one perhaps who hath not at that hour a quite different opinion of the riches honours vanities of the world then he had when he lived in perfect health Then all things are weighed in a more even balance we judge of them as they are He that is wise only in the end of his life beginneth to be wise very late but thou maist be wise in good time if thou learnest to be so from the follies and examples of others Since then it is in thy power to sayl in present safety why dost thou expect a Tempest Thou maist if thou wilt avoid prevent thy own misery Why then dost thou expose thyself to future dangers T is a late prevention to think to avoid shipwrack when thou art just sinking t is too late to use prudence when thou art wholly ruined and undone We read of many great and holy men who after having renounced unto their own will and all they had in this world spent all the remainder of their life to learn how to live and dye well yet many at their death have confessed they had not yet learned that lesson so hard it is to learn this Art Notwithstanding thou art so backward as to defer thy Conversion untill thou art old but t is a great folly to hope to begin then to liue well when thou canst live no more 6. Unhappy man to what danger dost thou expose thyself is this thy belief is this thy manner of living Thy life passeth away like a shadow lasteth but a moment Thou art no sooner born but thou beginnest to dye Stop if thou canst but one day of thy life hinder or prolong one hour one moment of it from flying away But such a labour would be in vain Time wil stil hurl thee away wil never cease running untill it hath brought thee and all mortall things unto their last generall end to wit Death And yet thou darest prefer this moment unto Eternity which will haue no end Oh blindnes oh folly Thou are alwaies labouring to provide all that is necessary for thy Body which is mortall but as for thy Soul which is immortall thou hast as little care to purchase eternall rest and felicity for it as if it did not at all belong unto thee When thy body is sick thou art willing to undergoe any thing to have 〈◊〉 cured but thy Soul is sick and thou wholly neglectest it and dost not feel it Did thy Phisitian ever tell thee it was necessary for thy health to goe to see and
the midst of his pains when he is stoned to death S. Laurence rejoyceth and triumpheth over the Tyrant in the midst of the flames S. Apollonia a yong Virgin throws herself into the fire which was prepared for her Anaxarchus the Philosopher being pounded in an iron morter laughs at his Tormentor Socrates takes the poyson which was brought him with a chearfull countenance and drinks a health to Critias Why art thou afraid of fire and a troop of hangmen that stand about thee ready to butcher thee Death lyes hid under all these preparations which are terrible only unto fools death lyes hid which so many children and yong Virgins have embraced with joy Consider the things in themselves without all disguise and thou wilt see there is nothing terrible in them but thy fear We are like children who are afraid even of those whom they love most and are most familiar with if they fee them maâ—ked But thou art worse then any child in thy folly whilst thou art afraid not only of greif itself but of the very shadow of it 3. Turn thy mind from thy own private cause to consider the common misery of the world Say to thyself I know that my body is frayl and mortall subject unto many miseries and must at last yeild to death I knew long agoe that many afflictions would befall me What then am I now afraid of If I am sick the infirmity of my body will conduce to my spirituall health Shall I be reduced to poverty I shall lead a more safe and quiet life Shall I loose my riches I shall also be quit of many cares and freed from continuall danger Shall I suffer any shame if it be just I will hate the cause of it if unjust I shall comfort myself with the innocency of my own conscience Shall I come short of my hopes I will consider that even Kings are not able to obtain all which they desire Shall I be banished I will goe with a willing mind and I will esteem it as a pilgrimage Shall I be blind by this means I shall not see such objects as move concupiscence Will men speak ill of me They will only say what I deserve and doe as they are wont Shall I dye I know I came into the world on this condition to goe out again But shal I dye abroad no contrey is a banishment to him that considers we have no permanent City in this world Shall I dye yong and before my time no reasonable man should complain that he is released out of prison too soon and before his time Death banishment and sorrow are not pains to be feared but the Tributes of our mortall condition It is a folly to fear that which thou canst not avoid 4. Be not too confident or bold and undertake nothing above thy forces for no man is sooner oppressed then he that presumeth too much of himself Our forces are but weak without Gods help from whom cometh all our power all our strength Boldnes ever proceeds from too much esteem of our own strength from contempt of our Adversaries from a hasty wit and a mind not much accustomed to the management of affairs He that is more wise feareth more for he measureth his own forces and considers what he is able to bear and what not Bold persons when they are fallen into some great dangers contrary to what they expected resist a little but presently loose courage being forced at last to confesse that human counsells are full of vanity incertitude A careles unwary security is the beginning of future misery 5. Anger will never overmaster thy judgment if thou first takest away the opinion of a supposed injury Thou art thyself the cause of all thy own evills misery and sufferings Why dost thou cast the blame of all thy disquiet upon others if thou fallest into them by thy own fault No man is hurt but by himself As nurses use to say unto children doe not cry and thou shalt have it thou maist say the same with better reason unto thyself when thou art moved with anger Be not angry doe not make a stir and thou wilt sooner obtain what thou desirest Resolve with thyself upon certain dayes not to be angry at all whatsoever shall happen and soe try thyself after this manner for a month or two and thou wilt find in time that thou hast much profited by it and thou wilt laugh at those things which formerly were wont to make thee angry and disquiet thy mind A quiet and sweet disposition is not only gratefull to those with whom we converse but also is most advantageous unto him that is endowed with it A quiet mind hath this advantage that it alwaies rejoyceth alwaies triumpheth CHAP. XVIII Of the Faculties of a Rationall Soul How we are to keep our Vnderstanding from Curiosity What study is best How hurtfull it is to search into the life and manners of Others We are not to heed what others falsely report of us Of thee Abnegation of our will 1. GOd hath given thee Vnderstanding that thou mightest know him and by knowing love him but thy understanding hath received a double wound by sin to wit Ignorance blindnes Thou mistakest in the knowledge of Truth and thou art ignorant for the most part what to doe and what to fly How great diligence is used to preserve a Town from the plague or to defend a castle from the enemies forces least any Spy should enter within the wals Soe shouldest thou watch least thy understanding should give entrance to any evill object The Senses first represent the species of things then the undersanding admits them and proposes them to the Judgement and lastly the judgment proposeth them to the will But the senses propose equally good and bad and it belongs to the mind to admit them or exclude them 2. First we must keep our mind and understanding from Curiosity Why dost thou employ thy mind in vain things since it was created for God and solid wisedome Wisedome is thrifty As he that tasteth the hearb wolf-bane that he may know the quality of it dyes before he can judge what Tast it hath soe they who look after what doth not belong unto them doe themselves much harm before they come to know what they sought after To know unprofitable things is little better then being ignorant He that desires to be truly wise doth not study to get knowledge that he may be esteemed but that be may live well nor doth he seek so much to delight his mind by his studies as to find in them a remedy of his passions and evill inclinations Dost thou desire to know the course force and influence of the stars What art thou the better when thou knowest all this if in the mean time thou art ignorant of thy own weaknes Dost thou desire to speak in an elegant stile It will be more to thy purpose to learn to be silent Dost thou long to know news what
it Doe not therefore make thy afflictions greater by thy impatience Every man is so far miserable as he esteems himself to be soe 5. Every sicknes or distemper decreaseth after a while and Time allayeth or taketh away the greatest pain Consider therefore which is better to stay untill thy afflictions leave thee of themselves or that thou thyself shouldest put an end unto them Why dost thou not cure thyself prevent time by lessening that which length of time wil at last mitigate without any other remedy Although thou keepest and nourishest thy greif yet time makes it wear away For nothing is sooner hated then sorrow which whilst fresh hath need of a Comforter but when old it is laughed at 〈◊〉 thou canst overcome thy miseries with grieving goe and spend all thy dayes in mourning passe thy nights in sadnes and without taking any rest wring thy hands in a dolefull manner and give thyself wholly up unto sorrow supposing thou canst find a remedy in this But if thy Tears avayl thee nothing if all thy weeping cannot mitigate thy sorrows learn to govern thyself stand firm with an undaunted constancy against all adversity He is but bad a Pilot who permits the waves to carry away his stern carelesly leaveth his ship to the mercy of the Tempest But he is to be commended even in a ship-wrack who is over whelmed with the waues and yet holds fast the stern of his ship CHAP. XVI Of Hope and Despair How we are to moderate both 1. HOpe is vain and deceitfull a meer dream unles it be placed in God who alone can give us force to overcome all difficulties Why dost thou torment thyself with the expectation of what is to come and fillest thy thoughts with the Ideas of things which are afar of Thou wilt hope for nothing if thou desirest nothing in this world and canst contemn all things No man hopes for what he contemneth Although thou hast never bine deceived perhaps in thy hopes although what thou hopest for may be easily got yet notwithstanding as long as thou art still in hope thou shalt ever be full of sollicitude full of uncertainty full of doubt and anxiety As thou dost not willingly walk in unknown paths nor climg up rocky hills soe thou shouldest not use thyself to hope for those things which are not in thy power to come at There is no greater misery then to be frustrated of what we long hoped for 2. Thou shouldest often consider that all that is without thee and round about thee is subject to perish and ready to fall as hanging only on a very small thread Why dost thou forget thy condition Thou art born mortall thou art not sure of one day nor of one hour Death is still ready behind thee and all that thou hast is but lent thee Thou hast only the use of it and that as long only as it shall please God to permit All must be rendered back and without murmuring whensoever he shall call for it He must be a very bad Debtor that speaks ill of his Creditor There is nothing therefore under the Sun which thou maist or shouldest hope for There is no true hope but that which is directed to the true and Soveraign Good 3. Despair is caused by sloth abject thoughts too much fear or apprehension of difficulties too much diffidence of our own forces and want of resolution The way to overcome it is to call to mind the examples of those who by a generous constancy have overcome far greater difficulties Begin and force thyself it because God alwaies helps such as begin to work and doe good thou wilt find at length that what seemed most hard is easy enough when thou hast cast away the false Opinion thou hadst concerning it Whatsoever befalls thee was decreed from all Eternity And either that happens which thou art able to bear or that which is above thy forces if the first doe not despair but bear it patiently if the second doe not yet despair for all that for whatsoever it is it will soon have an end and make an end of thee That which thou canst bear is but light and that which thou canst not bear is short and of no durance But remember that t is in thy power to make many things tolerable if thou considerest them as means to work thy salvation Adversity is alwaies the the occasion of Vertue CHAP. XVII Of Fear How vain it is and how to be overcome Boldnes to be avoided Something again of Anger 1. IT is the folly of the greatest part of men to afflict and torment themselves to feign or encrease their own misfortunes by fearing things which either are not bad in themselves or by fearing that which perhaps will never come to passe Human cruelty could never yet invent soe many torments as he suffers who is alwaies in pain for what may befall him who is alwaies sollicitous for fear of loosing his present felicity and for fear of suffering future miseries Many evills which would never be are because we fear them What doth it avail thee to be afflicted before thy time and by a vain providence to meet thy adversity Is it necessary that thou shouldst be now miserable before hand because thou art to be or maist be soe hereafter T is a meer folly to yeild unto vain apprehensions and when we have no true signs of future misery to be frightned with false Idea's How often art thou deceived by a false conjecture still interpreting any dubious word to the worse sense How often dost thou beleeve the anger of those who are above thee to be greater then it is and thou dost not so much consider the greatnes of his anger as how much he is able to doe against thee when he is angry But these fears are vain and therefore they trouble us more because they are vain Things which are true have a certain measure but that which is doubtfull uncertain is nothing but the conjecture of a timorous mind There is little difference betwixt suffering adversity and expecting it only that sorrow hath a certain measure but fear is boundles and without end Thou greivest for what hath already befallen thee but thou fearest all that may happen hereafter 2. If thou desirest to be quit of all fear all that thou fearest may befall thee suppose it already present and then measure thy evill and thy fears together and thou wilt find that the evill which thou fearest is great only in thy opinion not in itself Is there any thing which would give thee greater sufferance then for example to be banished out of thy cuontrey or to be led to prison Is there any greater evill which can happen to thy body then to be burnt or to dye Examine thy fears according to Truth in relation to all these particulars and thou wilt find that many even among Infidels have contemned all these things S. Stephen prayeth with a quiet mind in