exert it very imprudent unprofitable and at best injurious if not on both sides on one So we read as I said before that once our Lord and Saviour looked about him on the unbelieving Jews with Indignation but if ever we found him to exert this Passion it was upon their desecration of the Temple when he whipt them out and over-turn'd the Money-mongers Tables where the Honour of our heavenly Father was more directly at stake Not but that we hold it possible but not so probable for a man to be angry and not be a Delinquent or peccant in so being because the great Gentile Apostle cautioneth us that we sin not when we become angry but we conceive with submission to better Judgments that that Passion having more appearance of evil Consequences and Effects in it than perhaps any one of all the other have that we are in prudence obliged to inhibit and restrain as often as is possible the Influences of it as having so notorious an appearance of Evil in it whether we consult our own Particular or the publick Peace and Quiet Pleasant is the Notion to this purpose of that Plagiary or Schoolmaster who often in his Corrections would say to the chastised Person Castigo te non quod odiam sed quod amem te Therefore must thou punisht be Because I love and not hate thee The municipal Laws of our Realm have provided and allow'd to every Subject that happens to be imprison'd by a false Conspiracy and no Indictment against him exhibited Coke 2. Inst p. 42. a Writ call'd De Odio Aciâ supposing his Commitment is out of Anger or Malice and by a Jury of twelve men he is to be discharged Such is the Antipathy or Aversion which our English Laws do bear unto all Hatred and Anger or its Consequences which the old Philosophers call'd Furor brevis A Fit of Frenzy or Madness When any one is highly incensed and allows the sudden Influences of that indomitable Passion to prevail he is transported beyond the Compass of his Reason and serene Understanding and is in jeopardy of making shipwrack of his Posse Corporis animi too ss all the principal Essentials of his Nature inward Faculties and outward Life Limbs and Fortunes For Acts of Outrage and Indignation we may observe are generally if not always perpetrated ex improviso on a Push that is a rash and sudden Attempt which a short Deliberation of Thoughts frequently prevents and Stifles quod nota bene XIII De Amore Amicitia Of Love and Friendship TRue Friendship with God and Man is our highest Priviledge and Attainment John 15.15 Our Saviour calls his Disciples Friends that is such unto whom he 'l communicate his Secrets it's the end of all Gospel Dispensations to continue in his Love and to comply with his Will and Commands for amicorum preces sunt imperio a Friends Requests have the force of a Command Friendship is the most sacred and inviolable Bond in the World and far more considerable than any natural Tye whatever No greater evidence can be of our true Love to God and Religion than our Love to our Neighbour All true Friendship is founded in Virtue or Religion our Friend Lazarus sleeps said our Saviour and God calls Moses his Friend Prov. 17. A Friend loves at all times and is neerer than a Brother said Solomon What greater Copy can we write after than our blessed Saviour who took our Nature and not Angels on him who dyed for us while his Enemies who help't and healed both Soul and Body who interceeds for us in our Absence and who in his Absence sends a Proxy to be our Comforter as well as Conductor in our Journey toward those heavenly Mansions So shou'd we love one another he has given us 1 Jo. 5.10 an Understanding that we may know him and 1 J. 3. A Power by entertaining of him to become the Sons of God and be Friends with him and the whole Family of God below Take we a very short view of his frank and friendly Conversation in the World for our Example and Imitation 1. His Doctrine all along was to undeceive Man and convince him of the Truth to free him from Errors and Impostures and vain Traditions healing Bodies informing the Minds in the true Way to Life and Happiness Temporal and Eternal by publick Teaching by private Conference praying with and for them Sympathizing with them in Troubles grieving at their Obstinacy and Exorbitancys induring all Indignities that Malice could inflict Here 's true Love and Friendship to purpose and after all to lay down his Life to reconcile Man to God and to one another Well might St. John be amazed and cry out Behold what manner of Love and Friendship This Love and Good-will extends to all Men but Friendship must needs be restrained to fewer and such as we are very well acquainted with for it 's the Elixir or the Quintessence of Love and Kindness and a topping Branch of the Tree of Charity Amicitia semper pares accipit aut facit is an old and a true Axiom Friendship either finds or makes an Equaliiy between the Partys so ingaged no Priority nor Litigation takes place in such a sort of Union of Affections as this consisteth in it was the Saying of a late incomparable Divine deceased That the Face of his Friend was to him the Sun in the Firmament and surely but for the sake of Friendship and the Satisfaction accruing by it it were not worth the while to be here for nothing on Earth that has not an Eye of that in its Contexture can be grateful and agreeable to Man's Mind God is Love in the Abstract and every thing that tastes not of it is most unsavory and insignificant Magnes amoris Amor we commonly find to be true that is Love is the Loadstone of reciprocal Love we can hardly chuse but love him that first loves us but that degree of Love that makes true Friendship has so many Ingredients requisite to make it right that its very rare to fiind a real Friend among a million of good Christians now a days self Interest and Jealousie is so prevalent and Epidemical though in good earnest it 's the truest and most warrantable self-Self-Love in the World to love our Brother as our selves which is a mighty Indication of our Love to God and to our selves in the best Sense 4 Eccles 9. Solomon assures us that two are better than one plus vident Oculi quà m Oculus Two Eyes discern better than one and a By-stander sees often more than a Gamster and a Man being commonly the worst Judge in his own Case hence it follows that a Friend is most Necessary in point of Councel and Direction and in point of Regulation of Passions for with the Frenzy of Anger and Vexation or the Ague of Hopes or Fears or the Fevor of Love or the Consumption of Envy a Mind when he 's alone is seldom undistemper'd the
sociable friendly Life is also beneficial for our Assistance in our Labours which are promoted thereby with greater Safety Chearfulness and Success 27 Prov. As Perfumes chear the Heart so doth the Sweetness of a Friend for as a learned Bishop well observes the Communion of Saints is next to the Favour of God and the Comforts of a good Conscience the greatest Priviledge and Happiness we can injoy on this side Heaven And that conjugal Relation of Man and Wife for which all other Relations are to be quitted is only valuable upon this account as they are Friends and without this they are but empty Names as Bishop Wilkins well observes who reckons four principal Qualifications of true Friendship 1. True Love which is the Bond of Perfection 2. A wise Freedom of imparting Thoughts 3. Patience for angry Men are neither good Councellors nor Comfortors and Solomon disswades the contracting of Friendship with such an one 4. Constancy to adhere in Adversity as close or closer than in Prosperity the Witch of Endors Example to Saul 1 Sam. 28. is a just Reproach to a perfidious unconstant Friend Love by the Schoolmen is distinguisht three ways Amor Benevolentiae that is good liking of Amor Complacentiae that is better pleased with Amor Amicitiae that is firm Friendship which is the Superlative Degree of Love and Kindness Benevolence is due to all Mankind Complacence and Delight to Relations and Neighbours Friendship only to such as are intimate with us as our own Souls and tempered exactly to us in Disposition and Principles Ullus ad amissas ibit Amicus opes though a real Friend will appear to chuse in greatest Exigencies and Indigencies It 's so rare and different to find such Friends in this Age that it 's commonly supposed by the Vulgar that it 's but a Chimera and no such thing in rerum Natura It 's the Advice and Opinion of a learned Bishop of the Church of Ireland lately deceased that there 's two Faults only that are not Venial and Pardonable in true pretended Friendship for to real it belongs not 1. The revealing of a Secret 2. A Treacherous Blow which ruines the Vitals and dissolves the Union and is a Divorce a Vinculo for true Friendship is the greatest practical Honesty and Ingenuity in the World It 's the Nerves and Sinues of Humane Conversation insomuch that you find no Body without a pretended Friend but one that is a Frigat of the first Rate in Friendship is rarely to be met withal However herein I appeal to all Mankind the very Bruits have among themselves a considerable Semblance of true Friendship Saevus inter se Convenit Ursus the very Bares and Bores have a League of Amity between themselves and therefore it would be miraculous to purpose if moral and intellectual Agents should not inter se convenire in aliquo tertio as the Schoolmen say that is have a Confederacy of Friendship with a third Party at least True Friendship is the very Vitals and Radicality of Commerce and Correspondence so that there can be no Dealings amonst Men without a violent Presumption which our Law calls a half-proof of it every where but for a Man to dare to sacrifice both Life and Limb for another is not now a days to be found perhaps out of Utopia However that such a Degree of Concord and Amity is both proper and expedient though not common is a Veracity beyond all dispute It 's an old Trite but not despicable Axiom that Amicus certus in re incertâ cernitur A true substantial Friend is experimentally found and tryed when a Man 's at a Non-plus or at a Loss what to do next Councel and Conduct are the two chief Particularities of Friendship and that is chiefly requisite when a Man is in Distress and Adversity although in Prosperity there be singular Use and Advantages of this kind of Love But remember withal that he that is not his own Friend can't have another for there are a sort of degenerate Souls in the World that will neither be their own Friends nor any bodies else Such as are sunk into Sense and hate to or delight not in the exercise of their Homogeneal and intellectual Faculties but center in themselves and their own Humours whereas in sano Sensu on a true account it 's the rightest self-Self-Love in the World to love God and your Neighbour and especially your Friend your next Self XIV De Solitudine Carcere Of Solitude and a Prison A Prisoner is a living Man's Grave whilst he continues in arcta Custodia under close Confinement we may truly say of him as we do of one entered into Religion that he 's Civiliter Mortuus Dead in Law Howbeit as to several Intents and Purposes such Restraints or voluntary Recesses are more eligible and expedient than a Peripatetical Liberty as for Secrecy and for Security whence the best and biggest Philosophers of old cryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui benè latuit benè vixit he that hath lived retiredly hath lived well for they accounted such an one that delighted in Solitude or Retirement to be aut Deus aut Daemon a God or a Devil having so extraordinary Advantages of becoming the best or worst of moral and intellectual Agents Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris carcere Dignum si vis esse aliquid Says an ambitious and a valiant Boanerges If you to be Great would not fail Dare to do what deserves a Gaol Others for the Advantage of Divine Speculation and Intellectual Accomplishments chuse to devote themselves unto an Anchoretick Life and frequently prove thereby eximious Unto some Latitudinarian Tempers such Restraints and Recesses often prove Antidotes and Restoratives A well composed Mind is free and easie under the closest Confinement and may say bonâ Fide with Scipio of old that Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus He never can be less alone Than then when there is with him none Hence did that sage Philosopher Pythagoras make a voluntary Recess into a Cave for a whole year round and Scipio Africanus and many others withdrew from the greatest of publick Affairs And Pinnacles of of Honour and indeed he must be profoundly fond of the Fatigue and Drudgery of publick Employs whom a Confinement for any considerable time can't wean and disingage Solitude and Durance will not appear to us in so uncouth and strange a Posture if we do but duly consider how naturally our Maker inures us to it and is agreeable with it from first to last for we can't come into Being but per Limbum uterinum by being strain'd through the Lymbeck or Grates of our Mothers Womb after forty Weeks Solitude and Imprisonment and a great while longer by the Law of Nature 't is as natural for to dye as to be born must we lye incarcerated close Prisoners in the World's Womb the Grave before we come to our selves and obtain the Liberty of the Sons of God and confined are
Person hath a Part to act among his Fellow Creatures Non nobis nati sumus said the Philosopher very judiciously that no body alive was born only to serve himself for as he goes on pergetically and to purpose Partem Patria partem amici partem parentes sibi vendicant our Country our Parents our Friends do all very justly challenge a Share of us which an idle Person little considers but stupidly and uselesly sacrifices the whole Interest the World hath in him to his own Net Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcet Pride and Idleness commonly associate and the best end commonly of them both is Discontent and Beggery XVI De Avaritiâ Liberalitate Of Covetousness and Liberality THE most sordid or the most splendid Characters a Jurisprudent can bear for the one is down right Idolatry said St. Paul the other is Delicium Humani generis or the Darling of Nature every Man loves and honours a Liberal and generous Man though he be never so Covetous himself Whereby 't is demonstrable that Generosity or Liberality which is the same thing is one of the most commendable Accomplishments that belongs to any Man in the World for a Liberal Man is necessarily Charitable and Hospitable which Sacrifices are such as we are jure Divino assured God is well pleased with wherefore did St. Paul who affirms the same give us a great Caution to be sure not to forget this Faculty of Communicating Prodigality and Nigardliness or Covetousness are the two Extreams of Liberality If any one ask me a Character of that Man that I would chuse to make a Friend off it would be one that is Just and Generous tow short Words but very comprehensive for the former Appellation implies one that is only exact in commutative Justice not to defraud or cheat you as in common parlance ex vi termini it imports but one that is universally Sober Righteous and Godly and thus far a Publican a Scribe or a Pharise might proceed in Jurisprudential Learning and yet miscarry at last but to be Generous and Liberal as well as Just and righteous implies Hospitality and Charity intensly which Properties he that wants can never on good grounds expect to be happy because whate're besides he is wanting in if he be defective here he 's a Nugatory Thing a tinkling Cimbal and a thing of no ualue nor in a sperate Condition A generous Jurisprudent is a Person of Honour and Conscience Generosity and Charity which is but one Branch of the Tree of Liberality but a great one we cannot scarce in any quality more imitate our Soveraign Law-giver than herein that shines and rains on Good and Bad but a Man that 's Covetous is both profoundly injurious to himself and to all the World about him for he hords up and inhibits that Talent which is none of his own to that purpose Every Man in the World has a surplus the generous Widow in the Gospel that cast her Mite her All into the Bank of Charity was recorded justly for a Generous as well as very Charitable Soul for our Example nothing is more odious in Law nor more heterogeneal in Nature than ingrossing of what is communicable pro re natâ in the nature of the Thing and that is Wealth which is no farther useful to any Man than diffused by the Regrators and Ingrossors thereof The speculative Letchery of a Covetous Person is an unintelligent thing to a Jurisprudent or a Man of considerate Sense and Reason not but that it 's absolutely adviseable to provide against the misadventurs and contingences of humane Affairs but yet with Jurisprudence and due Consideration and Mathematical Measures our Saviour said it was next unto an Impossibility for a Rich that is in his Sense there a Covetous Man to go to Heaven as it was for a Camel or rather to follow the Original a Cable to be threaded in a Needles Eye For in good earnest the liberal Man is only rich that is hath enough for his present Accommodation and future Expectancies and to spare for the universal Interest of Mankind with whom he corresponds which is doubting of God's Providence diffident of all Success and jealous of every body about him A Jurisprudent of for its well known who assured us that Riches consisted not in abundance without a Heart to make a proper use of it which most overgrown Wealthists want The true Rich Man is he that hath enough to bound his Appetites and to spare that 's a great Soul and a right Jurisprudent It 's Diffidence and Distrust and it 's a pusillanimous Soul that 's Hidebound Penurious and Covetous for its Con-tranatural and Ignoble Sordid and unworthy of so Magnanimous a Creature as Man ab Origine was made and its observable that the Remains of a Covetous Man seldom or never prosper in their Successions vix gaudet tertius heres scarce the third Generation enjoy them but vice versâ the contrary is as remarkable of a Liberal Man's because the former is grose Impiety and the latter true Piety whereunto are annexed the Promises and Benefactions as well of this World as the next A Liberal Man Solomon tells us will be Fat the other contrariwise Lean as a Rake or as the Cheshire Proverb is as if he suckt his Dam through an Hurdle He dotes on and pants after the Dust of the Earth upon the Head of the Poor and is Solomons great Fool and the most egregious Slave in the World the Ground of what Degree or Fortune soever he be hath a Surplus for Liberality both as Hospitable and Charitable like the generous Widow in the Gospel if he hath but one Mite any thing at all he 'l have something to spare Yet is our Jurisprudent a thrifty Man and by generously casting his Bread upon the Waters finds it turn to a better Account than the miserable Covetous Mans Opus Usus who though redicul'd by every body but such as are as sordid as himself yet hugs himself in his Hoards like a Hog in a Ditch as Horace lively portrays and describs him Populus me sibilat at mihi plaudo Ipse Domi simul ac nummos contemplor in arcâ Though the poor Mobile do make a Jest And ridicule me yet I 'le hug my Chest Observe but the tenth Law of Moses how very particularly he gives the Charge against all sort of Covetousness imaginable House Wife Man nor Maid-Servant Ox nor Ass nor any thing else about him you can think on The Rich Poor Man 's emphatically poor as eximious Cowley tells us of the Miser one thing only is avarice allowable in ss of Time Solius Temporis honesta avaritia said the old Jurisprudent Philosophers Covetousness is not warrantable of any thing but only Time The unjust Steward's Servant in the Gospel was applauded for making himself Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness by a generous Act though Knavish in bubling and cheating his Masters Creditor and liberally handling his
Debtors A Covetous Man can be good for nothing I 'm positively of that Opinion because the Love of those his little Idols is resolv'd by that great Gamaliel and competent Judge St. Paul to be the Root of all sorts of Evil. He is rude and uncivil to himself in not affording necessary Supplies for supporting his natural Contentment and cruel and tyrannical to his better Part if he have e're a one his Soul by distorting and perplexing and debasing it Night and Day in sordid Anxieties and unaccountable Drudgeries and to all his Neighbours and Conversants in the World Uneasie Fraudulent and Unsociable and Unintelligible and worse And remarkable I take it to be that splendid Instance and President of Mary Magdalen in bestowing a considerable sum of most precious Oyntment to wash our Saviours Feet withal which no body but covetous Judas the Bag-bearer grudged and would have pretended himself to have been so Charitable or Liberal as to have wisht it had been ad Valorem to the Value rather given to the Poor ss The Cash-keeper that was so bloodily Covetous as for thirty Shillings or Pieces of Silver to betray his Lord and Master A stingy narrow Soul can't be a Jurisprudent to all Effects and Purposes if to any at all for a Liberal Man considers of the Universe and and dispences accordingly quoad hunc nunc as to time and Person properly but the other minds no body but himself and in good earnest therefore is most his own Enemy though a common Enemy too to the World about him That a Man who is Deputy Lieutenant of the whole World should not act like a Prince within his Territories is a thing to be counted more a Matter of Prodigy than Proof That Soul that confines it self to it self and loves not to dilate is the greatest Heteroclite in rerum Naturâ in the visible World and such is he that is profoundly Covetous for a Man that 's never so Covetous is on some occasions liberally affected to wit towards himself but regards not the rest of the Family of God and is therefore a spurious and degenerate Monster amongst Mankind and not worthy to be owned by them as a rational or intellectual Agent but an Excresence of Humanity or a Creature not a Kin to Generous Mankind XVII De Vitâ Morte Of Life and Death MAnes suos quisque patimur said the great Horace Our Urns and Ends are as certain as our Beginnings Orimur morimur All of us that live must die which fatal word to the unthinking Vulgar is the most formidable in Nature and by the Heathen called so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But some of the more thinking of them have had a rarer Notion of it viz. Dii celant homines ut vivere durent Quam sit dulce mori That Men may endure to live's the Reason why The Gods conceal how sweet it is to die And the divine Philosopher Seneca seem'd to be much of that Mind when he saith that Pompa Mortis magis terret quam mors ipsa that the Circumstances of our Departure are more frightful than Death it self and Dr. Brown wonders any wise Man was afraid of it he professes himself to be rather asham'd to see so sudden and considerable a Change made in a Carcass it 's as natural to die as to be born saith Sir Fra. Bacon and therefore ought not to be so dreadful So that a Jurisprudent being well apprized of the Law of Mortality so lives that he 's neither afraid nor asham'd to die whensoever his great Soveraign that put him into Being thinks fit to recal him out of it It 's true that Life is a mighty Blessing and a living Dog is better than a dead Lion but in comparison with the Ends of Life and Consequences of Death it 's not worth the talking of Quis propter Vitam vivendi perdere Causas Velle potest could a Heathen say Who for Life's sake wou'd ever quit the Cause Of Living by his fundamental Laws Especially believing that a better Life and infinitely more to purpose will be subsequent to every one that dies a Jurisprudent Illi Mors gravis incubat Qui notus nimis omnibus Ignotus moritur sibi said the Tragedian Seneca excellently well ss Death cannot be really formidable to any but such as are too well and notoriously known to the World and understand not themselves Cogi qui potest nescit mori said he too That Man can't tell how to die that can be compell'd thereunto note that For in many Cases Death is more eligible than Life to a Jurisprudent but a Jurisimprudent or Ignoramus is afraid of his own Shadow and can't tell you why he does dread to die He that lives well need not fear to die Because he knows good reason why He leaves Time for Eternity While a Jurisprudent is present in the Body he is all that while absent from the Lord which I take to be the chief Reason why that Chief Justice of the Gentiles St. Paul desired rather to be dissolv'd than not as to himself but as to the care of the Churches and their edification by his Function for a season which was the great Province he was charged withal he was contented to endure to live a while longer The sager sort of the Heathen themselves had arriv'd to this Metaphysical Point That to be in Statu seperato from the cumbersom Body was much more eligible in it self singly consider'd from the benefit of Mankind than their longer residence in the Body Wherefore duly consider'd and jurisprudentially what we are and whither we tend we can shew no cause why we shou'd be at all dismay'd at Death Indeed if we had no further Assurances of future Felicity the Case were alter'd but who can be happy too soon or who that prudentially considers all the Weal and Woes of humane Life together does not judge him the happiest man that is well extricated out of the body There 's more perhaps than we are aware on primâ facie in that Saying ss Nemo ante obitum supremaque funera faelix No Man is truly happy till he dies This is no Riddle unto him that 's wise Life indeed is all in all when all 's said but to exchange a worse for a better Life is more than all that can be said è contra against it It 's better not to be than to be miserable all agree but if we are morally certain of an eternal Life he must needs be non Compos mentis out of his Wits that is loth to die As Death is an extinguishment of all our Faculties and a divorce of Soul and Body indeed it 's formidable but if we as Jurisprudents look on 't but as an Emancipation or Gaol-delivery and as a future State to which ab initio at first we were framed it is rather what we should long for and covet than be shy of or dread A Jurisprudent argues thus If I am here but by the