want for nothing that 's fit for us of which he is the most competent Judge for Piety has the Promises both of this World and of the next and on this Consideration dwells the best Method of our present Peace and Contentment as well as of our future Happiness Time and Chance or Providence rather happening to all and all our carking Cares and inordinate Contrivances being utterly unavailable to superadd what we are absurdly apt to fancy we are short of It 's our wisdom as to this World to look but a very little way before us if ever we 'd be easie here and happy hereafter we shall want neither Grace Glory nor any thing else good for us He that regards the Main must be unconcern'd for Matters that are but by the By that is whosoe'r would be quiet and at peace within and expects a better Place and Posture and that quickly ought in common prudence to be contented with what he hath because he has more than reasonably he deserves Our religious Jurisprudent is of such a Constitution as a Constable ought to be that is to keep the Peace as far as he can both in his own Breast and between Man and Man to propagate good will in the World as far as possible and to follow peace with all As the end and design of all Motion is to obtain Rest and Quiet at last so is the design and drift of all wholsom Laws and sound Sages of the Law to prosecute with all care and expedition Peace and Rest as the ultimate end of all Litigations and Commotions moral and as well and soon as can be to comprimize Feuds and Differences between Party and Party or prevent all fiery Contests and froward Animosities A peculiar Benediction being annext unto men of that Profession that do practise accordingly viz. Beati pacifici Blessed be all Advocates or Lawyers that is Peace-makers in the World Patiens qui Jurisprudens was Sir Edw. Coke his Motto XII De Ira Odio Aciâ Of Anger and Hatred IRa Furor brevis est That all Wrath is a degree of Madness is an observation of very ancient Date and Veracity but must be understood with a distinction of Excess or Immoderation for I question not but it's a duty to be angry but not upon trivial Occasions but not with a continuando or long duration nor with an exertion of furious Words or Actions Once we read of our Saviour's looking about him on the Mobile or Multitude with Indignation when he wonder'd at their prodigious Infidelity because the Honour of Omnipotence lay at stake by the mighty Miracles that he wrought to convince them In this case chiefly if not only is there room for Indignation for it 's an eternal Truth That man's wrath works not God's Righteousness A very worthy and learned Divine of this Age not long since deceased hath often asserted That upon any other Accounts it 's generally unaccountable to give or to receive a Provocation and by Anger to rectifie what he holds amiss commonly proves a Remedy worse than the Disease we 'd cure It 's better to endure the greatest Affrontâ— and Indignities from abroad than by Displeasure and Anger to put our selves into their power to dispossess us of our Tranquility whereby we so much injure our selves This Passion more exposes and betrays a man than any other and therefore a wise and generous Soul much easier pardons an Aggressor than himself for his Resentment and Discomposure If you 'd imitate our grand Exemplar you must be slow to wrath full oâ— compassion Envy and Jealousie are 〈◊〉 the same Extract with Anger and Hatred and one Greek word serves for them both To hate the Sin and love and pity the Sinner for God's sake is God-like he enjoyns it It 's a general and a true Observation That he that can't be angry can't be pleas'd but the most passionate are not the worst Tempers provided they dwell not in wrath or give way to the Devil by which means many men hurry themselves headlong into inextricable Dangers and Disasters To conceal counterfeit and restrain a Passion is a high piece of Prudence and â—n Conversation gives any man a vast advantage over others It 's mighty remarkable that Words do more usually prove greater provocatives than Actions because the surprizal by them and time taken of deliberation on them is more sudden Wherefore a Jurisprudent binds his Tongue as much as his Hands to its good Behaviour tho' we say Actions speak louder â—han Words and we say true as to many purposes they notoriously intimate the Disâ—licence of the Aggressor But yet if you â—bserve it Words make a greater noise and hurliburly and are the Prodromi or Harbingers of a succeeding Boutefeau or Quarrel and are more provocative in sensu â—iviso that is where nor accompany'd with a Battery than Blows without Words â—specially of Indignation for that is Anger with a vengeance which is utterly Juâ—isimprudential and unwarrantable out of the course of Justice either Military or Civil Hatred is the utmost degree of Anger and Malice and belongs to none but inâ—ernal Fiends and Devils as to a personal Object A Jurisprudent hates nothing but Sin and Obliquity Vice and Enormity and not the Persons either of the Plaintiffs or Defendants A Tort or Wrong is only odious in it self and not the Malefactor Our eternal Soveraign hates none of his Creatures nor is displeased with any thing in the World but a violation of his own indisputable Sanctions When man doth voluntarily consent to Obliquity or Vice which he knows he has full power to choose or refuse all the Reason imaginable there is for his Protector and Coadjutor as well as Creator and Conservator to take it very ill and be highly disgusted and to holâ— him to be an Hetroclite till he has sincerely revoked and renounced it Whereforâ— much less Reason hath any mortal man tâ— be wrath with or hate any of his fellow infallible Creatures especially if they dâ— not affront the Original of their Being and that directly and not by Implication because himself by Surprizal or Inadverâ—tency often and perhaps sometimes oâ— of Malice prepense does disoblige provoke and affront others and is sensible â— parte post afterwards of his Fallibility anâ— Miscarriage Solomon declares Anger reâ— in Fools bosoms there 's no room for so unclean Fowl to roost in the Breast of a geâ—nuine Jurisprudent that understands himâ—self Besides it 's common Policy and a man 's own Interest to inhibit Anger and to pass by a provocation to Wrath for he commonly if not constantly suffers the greatest Injury by it in the discomposure of his Mind and confusion of his Faculties and pain and perplexity of his Intellectuals and there 's nothing in Nature big enough or worthy to put a wise man out of order for an hour To dissemble a violent Passion of this sort may be expedient and often adviseable on some Occasions but actually to
Verity may not be suspected till violently discussed for all Mankind are under the Laws of Reason think what you will and whosoever he be that swerves from that Rule is a clear Apostate not that herein we deny but profoundly assert the Concurrence of the Divine Superintendency all along for subintelligitur quod non deest saith the Jurisprudent that is it is to be presupposed without whom we can neither come into nor continue in nor go out of being but that Thought or Conceit that is founded in or upon the Reason of the Party let it be what it will is pardonable if amiss and if not amiss 't is right so that Quacunque viâ datâ id est take it which way you will a man of such a Temper as is resolv'd to be ruled by Reason that is the best thoughts he can acquire is a man of Sense and may appear upon the Theater like a moral Entity boldly An Opiniator steers by no Compass at all and therefore is but Ridiculus Mus a ridiculous Mouse and not fit to keep a Man of Sense or Reason company But who ere gives himself and others a good account of his Management is a Companion for an Angel himself God himself so deals with us do but observe how he parlys with Cain upon his Fratricide What ail'st thou to look so bloodily have you not reason to think you shou'd be acceptable as well as your Brother if you do Reason or do well and otherwise do's not sin lye at your door And so appeals to the House of Israel whether their Courses they took were not unequal or irrational and whether his ways and proceedings with them were not fair and equal Jer. Wherefore for the easier rectification of false Opinions and better improvement of righter and rational Conceptions please to entertain a few Suggestions to prevent your Dejection or Degeneration by adverse as also Transportation or Corruption or Prevarication by prosperous Occurrences that happen 1. That the true and real Cause of every good or bad Case or Circumstance arises ab intra from within us except some few Casualties where Prudence takes no place to help or hinder And therefore be provided with a firm temper of Spirit and stumble at no Stone for it 's truly said that a wise man never wonders but makes the best of every thing Et mihi Res non me rebus submittere conor said the sage Poet Horace of old That is To serve himself of each Affair And suffer none to be his Snare All Occurrences have two Handles and some good is extractable out of the worst which is presupposed by St. Paul's Injunction To Rejoyce evermore and to count it all joy when we fall into many tribulations to wit when we wittingly bring them not upon our own Heads but they are the results of other folks Contrivances Things that depend not upon us have no reason to make violent Impressions in us as Riches Friends Honour Beauty Life c. But as Epictetus very well observes All our Actions are in our own power as Opinion Desire Aversion c. So that if we look on all that depends not on us to be nothing to us we can loose nothing nor need be much afflicted by any thing in this World without or about us but as to the World above and within us the Case is otherwise Desires or Wishes are the Fontanels of our Weal or Woe and therefore we may be well assured that besides Nature there can be no necessity at all of any thing So that upon the whole Matter tho' some and that very considerably literate in some Sciences can't tell how to allow Reason a considerable place of Conduct in Religion for want of their due Philosophical Consideration of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Calvin and others perhaps are tardy in without reflexion upon them yet without all peradventure in the Judgment of our Jurisprudent he that goes on further in any sort of Knowledge or Practice be it Law Gospel or Medicks than the reason of the thing will amount to is not at all a man of Science or Sense or Sanity in our apprehension Let the World or himself in due time reprimand him and set him to rights for quoad nos he is not Rectus in Curio He 's by no means orthodox till he resolves to be controuled in all Causes and among all Persons Civil Military or Ecclesiastical by the Suggestions of not Opinion but Reason Prov. 24. Reason is that Spirit of a Man that Solomon calls God's Candle in him by the Light whereof every man is obliged by all Laws Divine and Humane to conduct and steer himself in all Cases But Opinion which abstracted from Reason is but Humour or Fancy which like an Ignis fatuus will run a man into a thousand Bogs and intoxicate him unawares In a wise man Voluntas semper sequitur ultimum dictamen Intellectùs as the Schoolmen say but rash and inconsiderate mens Wills run foremost like to Canis festinans as the Proverb expresses it which coecos parit Catulos that is The Whelps of the heedless or over-hasty Dogs are therefore born blind Such are the abortive or blind Issues of an hair-brain'd moral Entity that looks not with the Eyes of his intellectual Faculties before he leaps into any Enterprize and is therefore generally blunder'd and baffl'd in his expectation of Success or a good End X. De Superbia Humilitate Patientia Of Pride and Humility and Patience THE Logicians say well That Contraria juxta se posita magis elucescunt Contraries placed in opposition do best illustrate themselves whence it is that I make the Antithesis between Humility and Pride viz. the best and worst Adjuncts that belong to humane Nature Of the first we have the greatest Pattern that ever was in the World our Lord and Saviour Of the latter the Devil is the best Instance that I can think of who lost eternal Happiness upon that account irrecoverably An humble man is too hard for the Devil A proud man is the Devil's Darling and fit for any thing of monstrous Immorality and as easily tempted to prevaricate as the other difficult He that is not a very humble Person can neither be a wise man nor a true Christian Even to a proud man himself is an humble man acceptable but a proud man to none but the Devil for it 's our Saviour's Motto ss meek and lowly but it 's Lucifer's Emblem ss proud and lofty And tho' this be Communis eruditio that is vulgar Learning yet is it as hard to find a man of that Character as it was in Solomon's days to find a virtuous Woman to wit not one of a thousand An humble man is tractable and docible conversable and useful but a proud is Telluris inutile pondus insignificant and troublesom one that can't tell what he would be at a nothing to purpose A proud man is a moral Prodigy and the most unaccountable
of Mind doth not consist in Quantity but Quality for we can't but observe that generally they that enjoy the least in quantity have most Peace and Satisfaction Without Peace and Content all that any Man is or hath is irksom and trouble some and if this be in conjunction with our Injoyments we can't but be happy enough to pity Caesar witness Alexander the Great his Distemper Aestuat infoelix augusto in limite mundi his unsatiable Humour could not be at ease and contented with the whole Universe We need not tell you that he who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince of Peace gave this Bequest unto his dearest Friends in the World whom he left at his Departure behind him as the choisest Legacy he could think fit to leave with and give to them And the blessed Tidings thereof unto Mankind is called the Gospel of Peace which Word in the Hebrew Tongue imports all manner of good To acquire which Thing bad and good Men do frequently we know run the Risque of both their Lives and Fortunes for pax quaeritur Bello 't is the end of War Rest or Peace is the Center of all kind of Fluctuations and Litigations Military and Civil Whoe're would obtain this invaluable Gem must have the Command both over his own Passions and Appetites also and learn to divert or cautelously extricate himself from all Provocations unto Feuds or Animosities of all sorts Prov. 14.44 A Man that once has arrived to this Temper will be satisfied from himself if you 'l believe the wisest Man in the World This is a Principle will steer any Man that has it comfortably and confidently thorow any danger and inable him with a decent Equanimity to entertain good and ill Successes and Events that happen to him in his Pilgrimage True Peace and Content is Gods Kingdom within us This was a principal Lineament in the Portracture of Gods Image imprest on Man in Paradise till he broke that Peace he maintained an excellent Intelligence with his Lord and Master It s impossible to express this true Divine Peace and Content because it surpasses all Understanding and all other counterfeiâ—… Peaces are meer Cheats That 's only true Hearts-ease Content and Peace thaâ—… we mean and talk of that is founded in a rational Sense of our Friendship with oâ—… Reconciliation to our Creator by the Passion and Intercession of our Redeemer and of the Enjoyment of his Love anâ—… Kindness and Reciprocality of Return to him by hearty Ejaculations towards anâ—… Ruminations upon him which Sentimenâ—… aforesaid must be united to real sinceritâ—… of Mind which makes us a good Conscience and gives us mighty Assurance iâ—… our Applications unto or Conversation with both God and Man Note that true Peace with God anâ—… Discord with our Neighbours are incompâ—…tible without Peace on Earth and Good-will unto all Mankind I can't imagine â—…ny Man can be truly at peace with Goâ—…nor consequently content in his Minâ—… The former is an Argument rather of hâ—… latter he that is not Friends with his Brâ—…ther must needs be at Enmity with 〈◊〉 Maker but 1 Cor. 6. St. Pauls Lesson hâ—… need of some Distinction to hold water â—… every general Rule has some Exceptions â—… that it 's more adviseable to be defraudâ—… than to go to Law A peaceable and a wise man his Character is To hear all to edifie by most to reflect upon none to determine nothing nor be moved except what we do our selves at any thing Jam. 3. The fruits of Righteousness are sown in peace by all that care for it It 's an old and authentick Apothegm Pacem te poscimus omnes Pax animi quam cura fugit Content and Peace are Correlatives so that no body can be contented that is not at quiet and every body covets or pretends to be at peace and whoever is at rest and quiet in his own mind upon good grounds is indisputably contented and satisfy'd for he can't devise what further he rationally ought to desire or have a mind to Disquiet Hurliburlies and Discord are the very Stings in humane Nature and no body were or would be able to endure them but in pursuance of Peace Rest and subsequent Harmony Peace and Content which are synonymous are truly Hieroglyphicks of eternal Happiness and in the opinion of a Jurisprudent are bonâ fide Heaven in Effigie because they include Love Joy and Satisfaction to the brim All which Ingredients do compound the Quintessence of this Creation and as far as we can yet apprehend are the greatest Ingredients of the glorified State which is approaching for we well know that Veracity it self has assured us that a wicked man can have no Peace or true Content at all let him say or do what he will This topping Attainment as all other considerable Felicities are founded in true Virtue and Religion and is as the Logicians say Proprium quarto modo that is Convenit omni pacifico soli semper only and ever and to every such a person 't is an inseparable Incident or Essential as 't is virtuous or religious and to none other in the World but always to all such and only to such doth true Felicity appertain Grace and Peace was the Apostolical Benediction that is in other terms Godliness and Content they are inseperable Adjuncts so that he that is destitute of either wants both Beati pacifici said our blessed Saviour in his first Sermon that ere he preach'd This is not only a wise man's Rav. but Coll. to allude to Jacob and Esau's Complements when Jacob would have made his Brother Esau a Present he reply'd he had enough Rav. when Esau would have presented Jacob he reply'd he had enough too that is Coll. or All so is this Grace and Peace the Summum totale the whole Matter or all in all It was also a remarkable Valedictory of the Primitive Christians Peace be with you Joy in Jerusalem and Peace unto Sion for Joy is a natural issue of Peace to all Mankind whoever is satisfied or really contented and at ease must of necessity be chearful and pleased A wise man takes no inordinate care for future supplyes of Subsistance or Accommodation but an ordinate De diein diem only day by day his Bread for all his anxiety can't make him one cubit the taller if divine Providence tells the very hairs of his Head much more doth it ease him of the carking thoughts of Events and Effects that lye buried in the Causes in an higher hand where they are securely lodged Our Concerns ought to be for present Circumstances only and that for Necessities and not Superfluities of Life but to secure our main Chance in Heaven and all the rest will be cast into the Bargain for he in whose hands are reserv'd the Issues of Life and Death takes the present care of us also and if we seek principally our proper and true Happiness in our alliance to him he will be sure to see us