Temperance is the just proportion of the appetite and Fortitude is the constancy and magnanimity of the will requisite to keep one just Neither is fortitude a Vertue different from temperance for whereas of those two duties sustine abstine to sustaine and to abstaine the first which is resisting oppositions is ascribed to fortitude the other which is abstaining from the inticements of sinne is reserved unto temperance yet both belong equally to fortitude seeing there is as much if not more strength of mind requisite to stand out against alluring temptations as to encounter violent oppositions There are then two vertues in all the one intellectuall which is Prudence the other morall which is Justice I have spoken of the first and this whole treatise is but an exercise of it And of the second also of which the most essentiall part is the feare of God and a good conscience that is truly the prime Justice All human lawes if they be good are dependances of it if they be evill they are deviations from it Naturall equity sanctifyed by grace ruleth both publique and particular duties and both the outward and the inward man which is farre more then common and civill law can compass In all policies of the world Justice hath diverse faces The body of the Law especially in great and antient States hath statutes and cases without number which instead of clearing justice confound it All that legislative labour regards outward action and the publique peace But piety and true Philosophy rule the inward action and settle the peace of the soul with the right and primitive Justice Besides human lawes are most busy in forbidding evill and for that end make use of feare and the terrour of punishment whereas the inward law of Vertue is most busy in prescribing good and for that end makes use of the motive of love and reward But whether we need the motives of feare or love we have a Soveraine Court within our breast where the great Judge of the Universe is sitting continually There his Law is written and layd in view entering into the eyes of the understanding which seeth it even when he winkes that he may not see it And there a mans owne thoughts stand divided at the barre some accusing some excusing him out of that law compared with the records of the memory Of that Court St. Paul was speaking that the very Gentiles and heathen shew the worke of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witnesse and their thoughts the meane while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2.15 Before that Court that is before God himselfe and before us we must labour to be declared just and more to be so indeed There justice must be setled There it must be practised It will be well done to know and obey the formes of justice which publique order hath set over us but our maine taske must be to labour for an niward and habituall justice Let us obey cheerefully all good or indifferent human lawes but before all and after all let us seek and pray for that law of the spirit of life which may set a rule to all the unrulinesse within us and make righteousnesse and peace to kiss each other in our soules The ordinary definition of justice that it is a constant will to give to every one his owne as it is commonly understood regards onely the least part of justice which is the rule of duties betweene man and man But let us give it a fuller extent for to give every one his owne we must pay all that is due first to God next to ourselves and then to our neighbours Certainly the two former parts of justice are far more considerable then the third which is the onely cryed up though ill observed in the world for a man may and doth often retire from the society of men but he can at no time retire from God and himselfe and though a man were alone in the world yet should he have with him the chiefe subjects to exercise the vertue of justice We shall give God his owne by loving him with all our soul and with all our strength obeying his will carefully and cheerefully praising him for his love to us and for his owne greatness and goodness with a thankfull and a joyfull heart setting him continually before the eyes of our mind as alwayes present that we may walke unto all pleasing before his pure and all seeing eyes stick fast unto him by meditation affection and entire confidence And whereas man is the bond and the naturall mediator betweene the materiall world and the spirituall who alone must render for the whole Nature the due homage unto the great Creator Justice calls upon us to do that right to God Nature to knit Nature with God by our love faith obedience and praises Thus also we shall give to ourselves our due for to draw neere unto God is our good Psal 73.28 to separate from him is our destruction They that observe lying vanities forsake their owne mercy saith Jonas Jo. 2.8 meaning that they forsake him of whose goodness their being and wel-being depends This thought will renew the antient characters of the naturall notions of justice engraven upon the marble of our hearts upon which the corruption of the world and our owne hath bred as it were a thick moss which hides these characters But with the feare of God that moss is rubbed off and the law of God the originall justice written there with Gods finger appeares plaine and legible Who so then will do right to himself and recover his primitive dignity must study to know feare and love God perfect his union with him and associate himselfe with his Angels by obeying his will and tending his praise His saving eternall light is for us Wisedome righteousness sanctification and redemption are for us for he gives them to us liberally in his Sonne We do but right to ourselves when we study that those blessings which are for us may be ours And to lose such inestimable graces by our neglect is besides ungratefullness towards God a crying injustice against ourselves A maine point of that justice which we owe to ourselves is to labour to make ourselves possessors of ourselves and masters at home so untyed from all outward tyes that our content depend of none but God and ourselves and that rule over ourselves is attained by yeelding unto God the rule ver us To that end our first labour must be to traine well the Passion of love which is the great wheele mooving all the other passions for according to the subjects that we love and as we love them well or ill we are good or evill happy or unhappy To love what we ought and as we ought is the whole duty and happinesse of man Next our desires and hopes must be cut short which is not cutting downe Nature as greedy minds may think It is cutting off our bonds and
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
lyeth in the bosome of the Father of lights Our soules are little unclean narrowmouthed vessels uncapable to receive it but by smal drops that little we receive we taint by our uncleanness In our soul we conceive two intellectual faculties the understanding and the will In the understanding three imagination memory and judgement Imagination is that which makes all the noise entreth every where inventeth reasoneth and is alwayes in action To it we owe all the ingenious productions of eloquence and subtility It s the inventor of arts and sciences the learner and polisher of inventions It is of great service and gives great content being well managed and employed in good things The office of imagination being to transforme itselfe into the things that it takes for objects it is transformed into God when it applyes itselfe unto God and is transformed into the Father of all evil when it applyeth itselfe unto evill Memory is the Exchequer of the soul keeping that which the imagination and judgement commit to her trust In the primitive ages when the world stood in need of inventions a quick fertile imagination made able men But in these last ages a well furnisht memory makes a rich and a full mind so she be not destitute of the two other faculties In vaine doth the imagination invent and collect industriously and the judgement prudently determine if the memory be not a faithful keeper of the inventions of the one and the determinations of the other and together a ready prompter at need of that she hath in keeping It is memory that keepes this good treasure of which the Lord Jesus speakes Matth. 12.35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things But she keepes evill as well as good and often more firmly then good An evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart brings forth evill things Of her nature she is indifferent to good and evill as a paper to write what one will upon and a chest that will keep any thing According to the things that are put into that chest it is either a cabinet that keepes jewels or a sink that receives ordure If we will have the right use content of our memory we must furnish her with good and holy things that she may alwayes prompt matter to our minde to commune with God to direct and comfort ourselves For when she is fraught with evill and vaine matter she will thrust evill and vaine things upon us when the occasion and our owne minde calls for things good and serious as an idle servant that brings his Master a pare of cards when he calls for a Book of devotion Many times we heartily desire that we could forget certain things which our memory importunately sets before us on all occasions Judgement is the noblest part of the soul the Chiefe Justice determining what the imagination discusseth and the memory registreth Imagination makes witty men memory learned men but the Judgement makes wise men The wise man is he that judgeth aright not he that discourseth finely nor he that learneth well by heart For the strength of the several faculties the natural temper of the braines doth much but study perfecteth them the judgement especially for some have made themselves a judgement by use and experience who had none in a manner by nature Of these three faculties the Imagination which is the seat of wit and invention hath a neerer kindred with judgement then memory with either for wit will ripen into judgement in distracted braines both are imbezelled together while memory remaines entire It is ordinary to see dull fooles have a great memory And it is credible that the largenesse of the memory especially when it is streacht with overmuch learning lesseneth the two other faculties as in three roomes of a floore if the one be made very wide the two others must of necessity be little The Judgement calls all things before his tribunal and examines them upon two points whether they be true or false good or evill There he stayes when the subject requires contemplation onely but when it requires action then the determination of the judgement makes the will to move towards that which the judgement hath pronounced to be true and good for to move towards that which we judge to be false or evill we cannot For although our will follow many times false and evill objects the judgment alwayes considers them to be true and good in some respect Neither would our will so much as bend towards any object unlesse our judgement did before warrant it to us true and good Truth and falshood have their springs without us But moral good and evill as farre as they concerne our innocency and guiltinesse have their springs within us and both spring from our judgment to which we must atribute what is ascribed to the heart by Solomon in whose tongue one word signifies both Prov. 4.23 Keepe thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life Herein then lyeth wisedome the worker and keeper of contentment of mind to give a sound judgement of objects and thereupon to give good counsell to the will for embracing that which is good and resisting all oppositions to it by the armes of righteousnesse on the right hand and on the left so that the soul as a well balasted and a well guided ship cuts her way through the waves and makes use of all winds to steere her course to the haven of salvation and Gods glory possessing calme within among the stormes abroad But for that wise and blessed temper there is need of a higher wisedome then the strength of Nature and the precepts of Philosophy can afford to the judgement By the Judgement men are wise but by the Will they are good Wisedome and goodnesse alwayes go together when they go asunder they are not worthy of their name For that man is not wise that instructeth not himselfe to be good and that man is not good that doeth good actions not out of wisedome and knowledge but out of superstition or custome The chiefe vertue of the understanding is the knowledge of God and the chiefe vertue of the Will is his Love These two vertues comprehend all others and help one another They joyntly give tranquillity and content to the soul when we exercise our selves in the knowledge of God because we love him and when we love and obey him because we know him to be most good most wise most perfect and most worthy to be loved and obeyed The right bent and true perfection of the will man is an entire concurrence with the will of God in all things both to execute the will of his command and undergo the will of his decree in both walking so unanimously with God that man have no other will but God's He that hath thus transformed his will into Gods will possesseth a quiet and contented mind For when we will alwayes