of riches To such men God is just and merciful together when he healeth that wanton-need with a pinching need of things necessary Need is the thing that is generally most feared of all men Certainly it is most incommodious even to the wisest Wherefore the Wiseman in the 30. of Proverbs besought God that he would not send it him It is an ordinary theme for eloquence and flourishes of wit to maintaine that Need is not evill and they that descant more upon it are they that lesse feele it as Seneca a man of prodigious wealth who many times commends extream poverty or the condition that is not farre from it They say indeed that it is to the wise onely that need is not evill but because that must be proved by the experience of a true and perfect wiseman we would have the testimony of such a man but such a man we finde not neither do all the sects of Philosophers that profest poverty afford such an example For we will not stand to the arbitrement of that sawcy begger Diogenes a vaine sordid and affected man in all his words and actions who tooke a nasty pride in an impudent mendicity If poverty did not make him evill he made poverty evill turning it into a profession and instead of making it an exercise of vertue using it as a pretence of idlenesse and licentiousnesse To the ordinary sort of minds Need is a gulfe of misery Prov. 14.20 The poore is hated even of his own neighbour Every one hides himselfe from him Need makes men ashamed and shame increaseth their need Some also by Need are made shamelesse and in the end bold theeves Qui paupertatem timet timendus est Need is an ill counsellor It makes men murmure against God and finde fault with the distribution of his goods It beates down the courage stupefyeth or sowreth the wit and clips the wings of contemplation It is hard for one to have high conceits when he wants bread Yet to speake properly Want doth not all that evill but the evill disposition of men that have not weaned their heart from the world nor sought their only treasure in heaven have not chosen God for their portion No wonder that their spirit is beaten down as well as their fortune when the worldly ground which they had built upon sinkes under their feet But he that despiseth the world and the life of the world despiseth also Want so much feared by others For take things at the worst a perpetual rule of wisedome about casual future things the worst that can come to him that is without bread is to be without life which a thousand other accidents may take from us Life is a depositum which God hath committed to our keeping No lawful diligence and industry must be omitted that we may preserve it and give a good account of it to God And himselfe having trusted us with it assists us to keepe it Very seldome it is heard that any persons dye for lack of bread But precious in the sight of God is any death of his Saints Psal 116.15 Neither is there any more curse in dying of hunger then of a surfet Of all kinds of death but the suddaine I hold death for want of food to be the easiest It is no more but letting the lamp quietly to go out Atticus after a long fast to overcome an acute sicknesse having lost the appetite of meat lost also the appetite of life and refusing to take any more meat dyed without paine And so Tullius Marcellinus after an abstinence of three dayes Mollissime excessit et vitae elapsus est he departed most quietly and escaped from life saith Seneca He spake better then he meant saying that he escaped for such a volutary death was an escape from the station where God hath placed him He went from life without commission for God had given him wherewith to keep it But he to whom God giveth no more wherewith to keep himselfe alive must acknowledge that his commission is out depart cheerefully For to prevent death by sordid and unlawfull wayes is more then God calls him unto and more then life is worth To say necessity compels me to these wayes and otherwise I cannot live is an ignorant or wilfull mistake of Necessity The wayes cannot be necessary when the end is not so And before a man conclude that such wayes are necessary because without them he cannot live he should consider whether it be necessary for him to live It is necessary for us to be righteous and generous not to live Who so conceiveth no necessity in life and no evill in death which to Gods children is the end of all evills and the beginning of all happinesse will soon rid his heart of that cowardly fear of dying for want and reject the temptations to lead an ill life that he may keep life The feare of Want is for want of obeying Christs command Matth. 6.34 not to take thought for the morrow and for want of observing the course of his providence which provideth for his creatures that cannot provide for themselves Beasts sleep quietly not knowing and not thinking where they shall get meat the next day You will say it is because they have no reason and no foresight and were it not better to have no reason then to make no use of it but for our vexation Were it not better to be incapable of thinking on God as beasts are then to think on him onely to mistrust and murmure against his providence A poore man to whom God giveth health industry to get his living is possest of a great treasure and a stock yeelding him a daily rent His condition is incomparably more happy then that of the noble and wealthy The labour that gets him bread gets him also an appetite to eate it and sleep to refresh him when he is weary and health to continne his labour Eccl. 5.12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet whether he eate little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep His many children give him lesse care then fewer children to the rich and lesse paine also to provide for them For whereas in noble houses the câ—arge groweth alwayes as the children grow in poore families that live by labour the charges grow lesse as the children grow the Sonnes serve the Father in his worke the Daughters spin by their Mother Children are the riches of poore people and the impoverishing of the rich Then to give them portions the Father that hath no land is not troubled to engage the Lordships of the eldest Sonne for the marriages of his Daughters nor to charge the land with annuityes for the younger Brothers Each of them hath the whole succession which is their Fathers labour No doubt but that is the most tranquil condition of all The examples are many of those that lived merrily and sung at their worke as long as they were poore but an inheritance
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
to be gotten but within us from God and ourselves and take those things for ours which are none of ours but depend of others and thereupon runne towards those objects thus mistaken with a blind impetuositie These are the true roots of Sadnesse which roots if we could pluck out of our breasts we should never be sad for any thing of the world But it is very hard to pluck out that weed for Sadnesse is like a nettle a malignant stinging weed spreading in the soyle where it hath once taken root and sucking all the vigour and substance thereof It makes a man murmure against God and envy his neighbours alwayes discontented alwayes needy suffering neither himselfe nor others to be at rest odious to God and men and to his own selfe The life of man being subject to occasions of Sadnesse a wise man will not adde voluntary sorrow to the necessary And since by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken Prov. 15.13 and a broken spirit dryeth up the bones Prov. 17.22 so that Sadnesse is the ruine both of body and mind he will take so much care of the preservation of both of which he is accountable to God as to banish from his breast with his utmost industrie that fretting consumption The best course for that is to exercise ourselves in the love and contemplation of God and faith in his promises By these Sadnesse is cast out of the heart and the soule is set in a pleasant and serene frame Next this wisedome must be learned of Solomon Eccles 5.17 It is good and comely for a man to eate and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he takes under the Sunne all the dayes of his life which God giveth him for that is his portion Obstinate Sadnesse is unthankfull to God for it drownes the benefits of God in an ungratefull oblivion and takes away the taste of them even while we enjoy them And what a double misery is that for a man to make himselfe guilty by making himselfe miserable For two things voluntary Sadnesse is lawfull and usefull for the evill that we commit and the evill that others commit Sadnesse for our owne sinnes is contrition Sadnesse for the sinnes of others is the zeale of Gods glory both commendable necessary He that hath not a sad resenting of his owne sins must not hope for pardon and is so farre from finding it that he cannot so much as seek it for he that feeles not his sicknesse shall never look for the remedy Mat. 11.28 Come to me saith Christ all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest None are invited by the Gospell but such as labour and are heavy loaden none but they can finde rest unto their sonles This comes to that I was saying lately that we must be sad for no evill but such as can be mended by our Sadnesse Such is contrition for sinne for it helps to heal it making us cast ourselves upon the great Physitian the Lord Jesus whose merit is the Soveraine remedy to that great sicknesse So that Sadnesse ends in Joy We must grieve also for the sins of others for since we must love God above all things we must be very sensible of the dishonour offered unto his holy name This made Daniel and Nehemiah to fast and pray and God shewed that their Sadnesse was acceptable unto him Sadnesse then is of good use for these ends so that we never seeke merit nor praise in it remembring alwayes that Sadnesse is evill in itself good onely by accident Sadnesse of contrition and zeale is good as Purges and letting of blood which are good onely because there is some evill in the body If all were well there would be no need of them As then we must take heed of too much purging and blood-letting so we must of too much Sadnesse either for contrition or zeale The use of Sadnesse in contrition is to make repentance serious and to humble the spirit that it may be capable and thirsty of the grace of God The use of sadnesse in zeale is to sympathize with Gods interesses and thereby beare witnesse to God and our owne conscience that we aknowledge our selves Gods children For these ends it is not required at our hands to grieve without tearme and measure For since the greatnesse of Gods mercy is as high above our sinnes as Heaven is above Earth it is Davids comparison our faith and joy in Gods mercy must also be very much above our sadnesse for our sins And as God saith that our sins are cast into the sea Mich. 7.19 meaning the deep Ocean of his infinite mercy likewise our sorrow for our sins must be drowned in the joy of his salvation Whereas also the blasphemies and oppositions of Gods enemies by his great wisedome and power turne to his glory our sadnesse for these oppositions must end in joy for that almighty power and soveraine glory of our heavenly father to which the greatest enmity of Satan and the world is subject and tributary for by pulling against it they advance it The consideration of the subjects of Sadnesse sheweth more then any other that man knoweth not himselfe there being nothing in which one is sooner deceived For many times we think ourselves to be sad for one thing when we are sad for another mistaking the pretence of our Sadnesse for the cause Many will impute their sadnesse to the sense of their sinnes but the true cause is in their hypoconders swelled and tainted with black choller oppressing the heart and sending up fuliginous vapours to the braines No wonder that so often all the reasons of Divinity and the sweetest comforts of godlinesse cannot erect a spirit beaten downe with sadnesse the plaister is not layd to the sore for spiritnall remedies purge neither the spleene nor the gall nor the braines whose peccant humours breed all those doubts and feares whereby melancholy persons so pertinaciously vexe themselves and others Indeed the resolution of a serene and religious spirit will preserve body and soul in a sound and quiet state But that resolution which is excellent for prevention of the evill will not overcome it when the humours of the body are generally dyed and infected with melancholy Wherefore let us beware betimes that Sadnesse settle not in our heart for the indulgence shewed to willfull Sadnesse will in short time sowre all the humours of the body and vitiate the whole masse of the blood and the magazine of vital and animal spirits with melancholy Then when the mind hath made the body melancholy the body doth the like to the mind and both together contribute to make a man miserable timorous mischievous savage lycanthrope and a heavy burden to himselfe When that habit of melancholy begins by the spirit it is more grievous when it begins by the body it is more incurable To draw a man out of that deep gulfe all spirituall and materiall helps are of
alone what one loveth and shame of what the world may say of it this last especially tears amans soul with extream violence so slavish is the voluntary subjection of weake spirits under the opinion of others A wise man will keepe himselfe from that sharp yet imaginary evill by a sincere love to his party for perfect love casteth out feare 1 Joh. 4.18 He that loveth his wife well will trust her and that trust will make her faithfull or nothing will Fidelem si putaveris facies To that counsell of trusting his wife the husband must joyne a resolution not to mistrust himselfe For here one may lawfully put on a good opinion of himselfe the question being onely to compare himselfe with others about pleasing a woman which is obliged to study to please him and cannot without grievous crime and conceiving an enormous disproportion of merit betweene him and others bestow upon them that love which is due to him A husband betrayeth himselfe and tempteth his wives weakenesse when he discovereth a distrust of himselfe and a feare that she preferre other men before him This sheweth her the way to value them above her husband and she thinkes herselfe justified so to do by her husbands judgement He must learne also to be credulous for his owne content and of hard beleefe in the causes of discontent For here it is better to be deceived in evill then in good and it is better alwayes not to search an evill without remedy then to finde it especially when by seeking it we make it come The dishonour of cuckoldry consisting onely in opinion it is healed also with opinion and he that feeles it not hath it not This inconvenience is prevented by making choice of a vertuous wife and using her well for restraint and hard usage doth but draw the evill Also by keeping us free from defiling our neighbours bed This will give us a great confidence that God will not suffer any to defile ours Most jealous men are adulterers fearing what they have deserved But when one hath made an ill choyce neither kindness nor justice nor prudence can keepe a light and ungratefull woman to her duty When the wrong is so manifest that it is impossible for the husband not to know it and dissembling would be imputed to insensibility or even to consent the right counsell for the exteriour is to be divorced from a wicked wife But if one can neither marry againe nor live without a woman and feareth that he shall hardly be able to keep himselfe from harlots of all harlots let him make use of his owne It is better yet to keepe a lawfull whore then an unlawfull As for counsels for the interiour one must practise the grand remedy to remedilesse evils patience God in this as in other sorrowes of life will finde wayes of comfort reliefe for those that trust in him even where there is no way The good company of so many brave men that are in the same row is a help to beare it A wiseman will make no more strange of it then of wearing a hat a la mode He must keepe fast to that true Maxime that he cannot be dishonoured but by his owne faults not by the faults of another A vertuous mans honour hangs not upon a light womans behaviour If it did it should lye very unsafe No more doth it depend upon his neighbours opinion Persons of honour and judgement will never disesteeme an honest man for it And as for the talk of the vulgar honour and good fame depend no more of it then of the gabbling of geese CHAP. XV. Of Hope I Have spoken in the first Book of the Christian Vertue of Hope Here I speake of a naturall Passion Yet it is certaine that they differ onely in the degree of perfection and in the object Naturall hope is wavering Divine hope is fixt Divine hope regardeth eternall goods Naturall hope lookes for naturall and civill goods Yet the object of Divine hope is not denyed to the naturall but when that passion is determined by grace unto supernatural goods it becomes a vertue Hope is a compound of courage Desire and Joy but hath more of the first and second ingredient then of the third Also a graine of feare enters into the composition for if there were none it would not be hope but expectation as on the other side there is a graine of Hope in feare for if there were no Hope it would not be feare but despaire Hope hath this common with love and desire that it regards a good object at least in the intention But Hope considers foure particular qualities in her object That it is absent that it is future that it is possible and likely and that it is yet uncertaine at least in some regard if not in the substance at least in the circumstance for even the certainest Hope of all that of eternall goods grounded upon Gods immutable promises is neverthelesse uncertaine of the degree the manner and the time of the enjoyment hoped for Laying aside that prime object of hope it is hard to say whether Hope doth more good or harme in the world For on the one side it raiseth the courage and animates good enterprises with vigour On the other side it blinds the reason which instead of good chooseth a disguised evill or turnes good into evill by rashnesse unquietnesse Hope sets the mind on gadding and aspiring higher then it can reach all wayes discontented with the present and hanging upon the future And how deceitfull are the promises of Hope Of ten one comes not to effect With hoping good and suffering evill mans life passeth away Yet must we acknowledge the obligation that men have to hope for it makes them subsist even while it deceives them What makes Negro's confined to the mines there to eate and drinke It is Hope What makes gally slaves to sing while they are rowing It is Hope And would so many persons whose dayes are a continuall torment consent to maintaine their wretched life but that in a bottomlesse gulfe of evills they will obstinate themselves to hope well and after all goods are flowne away Hope stayeth behind Hence it comes that many unfortunate persons will stirre up their industrie awake their vertue strengthen themselves in faith and live to see better dayes So to answere the question whether Hope must be reckoned among the goods or among the evills it may be said that it is the evill of them that are at ease and the good of the miserable For such as have meanes and dignity have also many designes and chained hopes which keepe them hanging in chaines while cares and feares like ravens are tearing their hearts Besides they that are inchanted with many worldly hopes conceive christian Hope but remissely Whereas they that are in adversity being not tickled with those delicate hopes which a man dares not recommend unto God will fixe upon just hopes suggested by necessity And if
declination of our body will miss us and hit our neighbours head A little winde will turne a great storme A sudden commotion in the State will create every where new interesses He that held us by the throat will be suddenly set upon by another will let us go to defend himself If we see no way for us to scape God seeth it After we have reckoned all the evill that our adversary can do we know not what God will do In the creation he made the light to shine out of darknesse and ever since he takes delight to fetch the comfort and advancement of those whom he loveth out of the things they feare That which we feare may happen but it will be for our good Unto many the bed or the prison hath bin a Sanctuary in an ill time Unto many the publique calamity hath bin a shelter against the particular Many times that which lookes grim a farre off smiles upon us neere hand And what is more common then to be promoted by those things which we feared most Exile and confiscation condemne us often to a happy tranquillity taking us from the crowd and the tumult to set us at large and at rest These considerations serve to decline not to overcome the evill Wherefore there is need of stronger remedies For that we may be healed of Feare it is not enough to say Perhaps the evill will not come or will not prove so terrible as it lookes Say we rather Suppose the evill must unavoydably come I do imagine the worst Say it be poverty close prison torture the scaffold the axe All that can take nothing from me that I may call mine God and a good conscience are mine onely true goods which no power and no violence can take from me All the rest is not worth the feare of losing Isa 12.2 Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song he also is become my salvation Then the remedy to the shaking ague of feare consisteth in knowing these two things The evill and the liberatour The evill cannot be very great since it hath an end No evill of this world but ends by death Death it selfe is good since it ends evills how much more when it begins eternall goods to the right Christian death is not a matter of feare but of hope Let us take away from the things we feare that hideous vizard which imagination puts upon them calmely looking into their nature and getting familiarity with them by meditation Let nothing that is incident to humane condition seeme strange or new to us What happens to one may happen to any other The ordinariest cause of feare is surprise That we be not surprised we must think betimes upon all that may come and stand prepared for all So nothing shall seeme strange when it comes But the chiefe remedy against feare is to lift up our hearts to the great Liberatour that hath goods and evills in his hand that sends afflictions and deliverances that brings downe and brings up againe that gives us strength according to the burden which he layeth upon us and multiplyeth his comforts with our afflictions Being perswaded that God is most wise and most good and that all things work together for good unto them that love him we will represse our feare of the accidents of life and second causes saying The will of the Lord be done we are sure that nothing but good can come to us since nothing can come but from God Wheresore instead of fearing to suffer evill we must feare to do it which is the safest course to prevent suffering He that commits sin is more unfortunate then he that suffers paine for suffering moveth Gods mercy but sin moveth his indignation That man cannot but feare sinne that beareth in mind that God hates it and markes it There then we must feare and the chiefe deliverance that we must aske of God is that he deliver us from every evill worke 2 Tim. 4.18 As we feare sufferings because of themselves so must we feare evill workes because of the evill that is in them besides the sufferings that attend them soone or late This Feare of love and revecence towards God puts out all other Feares He that feares God needs not Feare any thing else CHAP. XVII Of Confidence and Despaire OF these we need not say much having spoken before of Hope and Feare for confidence is the extremity of Hope and Despaire is the extremity of Feare Confidence which otherwise may be called a firme expectation is a certainty that we conceive of a future desired good or of the love and fidelity of a person whereby the heart is filled with joy and love Despaire is the certainty that the mind conceiveth of a future evill very odious or of the enmity or infidelity of a person whereby the heart is seized and in a manner squeazed with sorrow and hatred These Passions being so opposite yet ordinarily will passe the one into the other I meane Confidence into Despaire from Despaire to pass to Confidence it is rare The surest course to avoyd falling into Despaire for things of the world is to put no great confidence in them Moderate hopes being frustrated turne into moderate feares and sorrowes But a great and joyfull Confidence being disappointed will fall headlong into extream and desperate sorrow as they that tumble from a high precipice get a heavy fall One subject onely is proper for mans entire Confidence which is God all good all mighty and all wise Without him all things that men use to repose their confidence upon are waves and quicksands Men are mutable and though they could give a good security for the constancy of their will they can give none for the continuance of their life The goods of the earth faile our expectation or come short of our satisfaction or slip from our possession They will leave us or we them No wonder if they that repose their full and whole confidence in them are seene so often to fall into despaire Here then the true counsell for tranquillity is to trust wholly upon none but God on other things according to their nature and capacity They shall never deceive us if we require nothing of them above their nature There is a kind of Despaire improperly so called which is no more but to give over hoping a thing which upon our second and better thoughts we have found either inconvenient or impossible That Despaire will rather bring rest then trouble to the mind Wisemen are pliable and easy to be satisfyed with reason It is wisedome to despaire and desist betimes from unlikely and unfeasable designes It is a true Despaire when one seeth himselfe absolutely disappointed and excluded from the object of his chiefe love desire hope at which the soul is smitten with such a sorrow that she hates all things yea the very thing that she desired so much and herselfe more
fortune hath her inconstancy as well as the good and the calme will come after the storme The proper exercise of vertue in Adversity is to imitate God who fetcheth good out of it and makes it a discipline of godlines wisedome and tranquillity to his children It is not enough to hope that after the storme the calme will come wee must study to find tranquillity in the very tempest and make profit of our damage Having spoken of the particular Adversities in the second booke I will endeavour here to set downe general remedies for all sorts of Adversities saving one the Adversity which a delicat man createth to himselfe out of a conceited tendernes for to such wilfully afflicted persons the counsells of reason are uselesse till they be afflicted in earnest They have need of real afflictions to be healed of imaginary To them that are sick with too much ease a smarting Adversity is a wholesome plaister As to the hypocondriaque who had a false opinion of a wound in his left thigh the surgeon made an incision in the right to make him feele the difference betweene real wounds and imaginary Indeed the most part of persons afflicted are more so out of opinion then any true ground but the wanton melancholy of some that were all their time dandled in fortunes lap addeth to that epidemical disease Wee will let them alone till they have reason to complaine and desire them that groane under some apparent Adversities to examine seriously whether they be such as they appeare For there are some Adversities or called so which rather are prosperities if they that complaine of them can obtaine of themselves rather to beleeve their owne sense then the opinion of others and to have no artificial and studied sense but meerely the natural Thus he that is fallen into disfavour whereby he hath lost wealth and honours and hath kept liberty and bread enough to subsist retired remote and neglected is very much obliged first to the envy and after to the contempt of the contrary prevailing faction if God give him the understanding to enjoy the prosperity created by his adversity It is a happy misfortune for a little barke to be cast by the storme upon a smooth shore where the Sea ebbing leaveth it dry but safe while the rest of the fleet is torne by the tempest The wave is more favorable if it thrust the ship upon the haven Now the godly wiseman finds a haven any where because God is every where Sitting under the shelter of his love and providence he lookes with compassion upon the blinde rage of parties flesht in the blood of one another praising God that he was hurled downe from a stage where they are acting a bloody tragedy that he may be an actour no more but a beholder onely disinteressed from the publique contradiction His ruine cannot equal his gaine if by the losse of his estate he hath bought his peace and the uninterrupted contemplation of God himselfe and the world It would be a long taske to enumerate all the commodious adversities for which neverthelesse comfort is given and received with great ceremony Many accidents bitter to us for a time turne afterwards to our great conveniency Some should have missed a great fortune had they not bin repulsed in the pursuite of a lesser Many teares are shed upon the dead but more would be shed if some of them should rise againe God hath so enterlaced good and evill that either brings the other If wee had the patience to let God doe and the wisedome to make use of all wee might finde good in most part of our Adversities Many persons ingenious to their owne torment are like the boulter that lets out the flowre and keepes the bran they keepe disgraces and misfortunes in their thoughts and let Gods benefits goe out of their minde It had bin better for them to resemble the rying seeve that lets out ill seedes and keepes the good corne taking off their thoughts from that which is troublesome in every accident of their life unlesse it be to remedy it setting their mind upon that hath which may yeeld profit or comfort Thus he that received some offence in company by his indiscretion in stead of making that offense an occasion of quarrel must make it a corrective of his rashnes He that is confined within the limits of a house and garden instead of grieving that he hath not the liberty of the street must rejoyce that he hath the liberty of a walke And how many crosses come upon us which being wisely managed would bring great commodities if anger troubling our judgement did not make us forgoe the care of our conveniency to attend our appetite of revenge Could wee keepe every where equality and serenity of spirit wee might scape many Adversities or make them more tolerable or turne them to our advantage All afflictions are profitable to the wise and godly Even when all is lost for the temporal there wants never matter for the principall Advantage which is the spiritual There wee learne to know the perversity and inconstancy of the world and the vanity of life that wee may not repose our trust and bend our affection upon it Since a curse is pronounced to the man that trusteth in man and to him that trusteth in his riches the way to the kingdome of heaven is as impassable as the going of a cable through a niedles eye and we notwithstanding these divine warnings are so prone to trust and love the world God therefore in his wisedome and mercy suffers that unsound reed which wee leane upon to breake in our hand and our love of the world to be payd with its hatred that wee may learne to settle our confidence and love in a better place Hereby also a man comes to know his sin and Gods Justice Though we be prone to attribute the good and evill that comes to us unto second causes there is such an affinity betweene sin and punishment that even in the most obdurate hearts affliction brings sin to mind and gives remorse to the conscience But in godly soules that remorse is salutary David having sayd to God Psal 32.5 Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer addeth I acknowledged my sin unto thee mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confesse my transgressions and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And whereas the appetite will run wilde when prosperity opens the broad gate of licentiousnesse Adversity comming upon that holds a short hand upon the appetite and awakes piety and wisedome David speakes of this experimentally Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word ver 71. It is good for me that I have bin afflicted that I might learne thy statutes Prosperity is an evill counsellour and all her adresses are to the appetite but Adversity crossing the appetite calls upon the judgement
Repentance and Faith are seldome set on work by prosperity but Adversity raiseth our hearts to God and the feare of danger makes us flee to his Sanctuary A wise godly man will manage affliction for that end not contenting himselfe with the first pious motions suggested by feare and sorrow He will husband that accidentall heat of distresse to warme his zeale and having sought God out of necessity he will seeke him out of love The unkind entertainement he findes in the world will helpe him to take off his affection from it and transport his heart where his treasure is Acknowledging Adversity to be the wages of sin he will learne to walk before God in feare and from the feare of his judgements he will rise to the feare of his holiness esteeming that the greatest Adversity not to beare his heavy plagues but to transgress his holy will This filial feare of God is the way to prevent or avert many afflictions for they that humble themselves in prosperity need not to be humbled by Adversity Many times the repentance of the sinner hath wrested the destroying sword out of Gods hand Many times when good men have bin beset on all sides the feare of God hath opened them a gate to go out for he that feareth God shall come forth of all Ecces 7.18 Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all he keepeth all his bones not one of them is broken Psal 34.19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous because God formeth him to patience and perfecteth his faith by long exercise which endeth in comfort as he wrestled with Jacob a whole night and blest him in the morning He deales otherwise with the wicked for he lets them thrive a while but when he takes them in hand with his justice he destroyeth them utterly Psal 92.7 When the wicked spring as the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shal be destroyed for ever God exercised his people of Israel with diverse trials for forty yeares in the wilderness but he extermined the Cananites suddenly God forbid we should be of those to whom he gives but one blow Rather let him wrestle with us a long time with his fatherly hand which with the tryall brings strength to them that are tryed and gives them the crowne in the end of the combar Here is the patience and the faith of Saints Our very nature ought to acquaint us with adversity For suffering is the naturall condition of men Job 7.1 Is there not a warfarre appointed to man upon earth To be cast downe with sorrow for the adversities incident unto mans life sheweth ignorance of our condition The way not to be surprised with any thing is to be prepared for all and to think that the evill which happens to one man may happen to any other since all are men alike As at dice whosoever playeth is subject to all the casts of the dice he that is engaged in the game of life is subject to all the events incident to the living and must be prepared for them But because it is not fortune but providence that disposeth of the accidents of life the greater is our obligation to beare good evill accidents with a holy equanimity because all that happens to us is unavoidable as ordained by a fatal and eternal law Upon that wee must conceive as well as wee can that humane events and several personal interesses are so interwoven by that high providence that they have a mutual dependance among themselves and their meetings which in our regard are casual are twice necessary in regard of God both because they are decreed in his counsell and because they are requisite for the execution of many things To which if wee adde that God all-wise and all-good doeth nothing permitteth nothing but for a good end wee cannot reasonably complaine of any crosse befalling us though wee had not deserved it For wee must consider ourselves as pieces of the universe and engeenes which that great workman sets on going for the execution of his ends which being all good all meanes also tending to them are good in that regard Our crosses then being determined and directed to some good by the good hand of God which wee must firmely beleeve we must also beleeve them to be good because they serve for Gods end which is alwayes good So not onely wee must beare them with patience but receive them with content yea with thankes rejoycing as happy that even in suffering wee are instruments in the good hand of God to doe his work and advance his glory which many times we see not but he seeth it and that must silence and content us Being thus disposed this advantage we have above many of the wheeles and weights of that great machine of Providence that whereas some of them have no will some an ill will our will is acting with Gods will and our love to him boweth our self love to his pleasure so that for his glories sake into which all things end our afflictions appeare good unto us and so they are indeed since by them God is glorified Events being thus chained up and interlaced together it is a great injustice against God and the order by him settled in the universe to grudge at any thing that happens to us as though wee would have God to unweave in our behalfe the web of his providence create a new decree and make a new counsel-booke for us Let us goe willingly where Gods decree leads us for goe wee must howsoever Is it not better to goe streight forward where God will have us to goe then to be dragged backwards Indeed there is no need of a high reach of reason to perswade a man to bear with unavoydable accidents and to will that which it were to no purpose not to will But when wee consider besides that it is the will of God if wee be his true children we shall will cheerefully what he wills When we are in prosperity there is no praise to will what God willes for then God willes what wee will But that is pleasing to God to consent to his will when he smites us and to say after the Lord Jesus the patterne of all perfection Father not as I will but as thou wilt That resolution brings a great rest and a great perfection to the soul for by that meanes our will is changed into Gods will The way to have all our will is to will nothing but what God wils When God sends us affliction thereby He gives us a great matter to glorifie him and to draw a blessing upon ourselves For whereas unavoydable Adversities make us worse when we pull against them they worke in us a peaceable fruit of righteousnes when we not onely beare them patiently but receive them joyfully as comming from God I verily beleeve that God beholds nothing from heaven that pleaseth him more then a will so
hath ruined his business through his imprudence hath a double affliction for his misfortune and for his folly I may excuse my-selfe from speaking more of prudence in this Chapter for all I have said hitherto and have to say hereafter is nothing else CHAP. VI. To have little Company and few Businesses I Spake lately of Prudence in Business But the greatest prudence in business is to have but few it being impossible to have many without disturbing the peace of the foul And what imprudence is it to lose the end for the accessories especially when one is deceived in those accessories and mistakes for the helps of his content the instruments of his misfortune The more wee converse with men the lesse wee converse with God Yea the content which we might expect by our conversation with men is lost by too much conversation For whereas among men there are more wicked then good and among good men there are more unwise then wise it followeth that in great companies taking them one with another there is more evill then good and more folly then wisedome and the greater the worse It is in few friends well chosen that the sweetness and utility of conversation consisteth The lesseyou appeare in the crowd the less shall you be crowded the lesse secret envy and open quarrell shall you incurre the less evill shall you learne and doe It is no wonder that young men are inveigled with temptations embroyled in quarrells and made the prey of cheaters The poore youths are newly come into the world to see it they seeke great meetings they gaze upon all they see sin for company or to get experience But when a man hath seen enough of the world to know it and hath learned wisedome out of the folly of others and the miscariages of his owne imprudence he will content himselfe to see the ctowd afar off and will not thrust into it and medle too farre with this wicked foolish and dangerous generation We must not speak thus out of a presumptuous singularity so despising the world that we esteem none but ourselves We must acknowledge that we have the world in our heart and that we also are wicked foolish and of dangerous conversation If the world corrupt us we also help to corrupt the world Wherefore as bodies that have the itch so spirits infected with vice must lye asunder else they shall increase one anothers infection and the infection must needs be greater where there is a greater number of infected persons Where the crowd of men is there also is the crowd of ill customes and popular errours And if it be hard to resist the temptations of vicious persons when they set upon us single how can we stand against them when they fall upon us together in a full body How can we think on any thing but evill when we see and heare nothing else How can we lift up our hearts to God and converse with him in a confused noise and tumultuous hurrey which is the Kingdome of the Devill These considerations have moved some holy Fathers to retire into deserts to have no other company but God and tend the worke of their salvation without disturbance But because God will be glorified by us in the duties of humane Society and hath not sent us into the world only to tend our salvation that Retreat from the world is excusable in those only that can do as much or more good to the world living farre from it as living in Society Such were those who in their hermitages enricht the treasure of the Church with their divine workes confuting heresies and increasing the stock of holy learning But to leave the world to do good to none but ourselves is frustrating the end which God made us for since he hath made us for Society as it appeareth by the ten commandements most of which regard our duty to our neighbours A man of good parts that leaveth all Society to meditate and gives no fruit of his meditation to the world is like the Jordan whose faire and quick water is lost in the lake of Sodom called the dead Sea It is to dye living and lose the quickness of the mind in a gulfe of unprofitable idleness It is leaving the world in the worst sense for it is forsaking mankind and denying to Society that Service which we owe. A consideration able alone to trouble that tranquillity which Hermites and cloystred men seek in solitariness Neither can they make amends to the world by their prayers for as they pray for us that live in in the world we pray for them that live out of the world and so we are even with them The Lord Jesus hath taught us how to use solitarines for he retired by night into the mountaine to pray and in the day time he taught the people and when he was weary of the multitude he withdrew himselfe to the company of his disciples who were a choice of persons whom he honoured with the title of his friends so sharing his time betweene his particular communication with God his service of the publique and his communication with his singular friends One may leave the world and yet keepe it in his heart and one may converse with the world and yet leave it A godly wiseman may find retirednes in the greatest citties Hee may passe through the crowd and not stay in it or mingle with it as the river of Rhosne goeth through the Lemane lake He will doe service to all if he can but converse with few He may enjoy himselfe in a multitude of unknowne persons as if they were the personages of an Arras-hanging for a man is alone where he knoweth no body and acquaints himselfe with none For his acquaintance he will pick those whose life is vertuous the spirit meeke and the conversation plaine and easy He will endeavour to deserve their good will with his owne being ready and assiduous with them when he may serve them but out of that making his visits short to oblige them to the like alwayes leaving his friends company before they be weary of his In his choyce he will take men such as they be not depriving himselfe of the benefit of conversation out of a preconceit of perfect Idea's of worthy subjects of friendship but since all men are evill and weake he will be content with those that have lesse evill in them and that have wisedome enough to know their owne weakenes Knowing himselfe full of imperfections he will beare with the imperfections of his friends expecting of them the like forbearance He must labour to have a soule with many stories which may stoope and rise according to the several conditions and capacities of men not fearing to speake to Kings not disdaining to converse with peasants every where equal modest generous and reasonable respecting good sense wheresoever he finds it and he will find it as often under the russet jerkin as under scarlet and gold lace Because
he must looke for errour impertinency in al sorts of acquaintance let him put every one upon the discourse of those things that he understands best so shall he doe a kindnes to the company for every one loveth to speak of that wherein he is expert he shall benefit himselfe fetching from every one the best that is in him Let him also fit his minde for all kinds of buzinesses thinking none too great when they are not above his capacity for those affaires that have more dignity have not alwayes more difficulty And on the other side thinking no buzines too low when it is necessary or when it gives him occasion to doe good But in general let him charge himselfe with as few buzinesses as he can I meane those buzinesses that engage a mans minde in the tumult of the world without which he may find buzines enough to keepe him selfe well imployed Want of preferment is better than want of peace Let him avoyd those imployments that give vexation and yet draw envy where a man must continually stand upon his guard imbark himselfe in factions and live in perpetuall emulation and contention The man to whom God keepes the blessing of a quiet life shall bee kept by him from that glittering rack and golden fetters but the man whom he will aflict shall be given over to be tossed betweene the competition of others and his owne ambition David shewes us how great is Gods goodnesse which he hath layd up for them that fear him namely that he wil hide them in the secret of his presence from the pride of man he will keepe them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues Psal 31.19.20 But what there are some spirits that love noise and live by Contradiction and when old factions are worne out hatch new ones sowing quarrels that they may be sticklers and in such sort arbitrating differences as to make them immortall that so they may never want business To such men no worse imprecation can be made then that they may alwayes have the business which they love for as they serve the father of discord they are like to share in his reward But those are worthy of his compassion whose serene religious soules capable and desirous of high contemplation are aspiring towards the God of peace but are distracted with contentious businesses and prest down with worldly imployment though perhaps too high for their condition yet too low for mind which measuring the height of things by their distance from heaven finds the great Offices of the State very low because they are deeper in the earth and further from heaven then other Offices of an obscurer note Who would not pitty a great person that hath scarce time to eate and sleepe that must have a light brought to his bed to make dispatches before day and when he goeth to the Court hath much adoe to get out of his yard through the crowd of suitors and in that clogge of businesses what time hath he to examine the state of his conscience and labour to advance his union with God Where is any gaine able to countervaile that loss But there are more persons undone for want of businesses when they have not the capacity to find themselves worke of some utility especially when the love and feare of God have not taken root in their hearts For there being in the soul three Offices or audits the first for contemplation the second for passion and the third for action when a mans mind is unfit for contemplation wants action he giveth himself wholly unto passion Then a man tickleth himselfe with evill desires and vaine hopes gnawes his heart with envy and spite and torments himselfe with impatience these vices being bred and fed by idlenesse Such men having nothing to do devise evill or uselesse businesses going up and downe all day long like swallowes that flye round not knowing for what walking from one end of the Town to the other to visit one that will not be at home when they aske for him or is put to his shift to be rid of their company Of that kind are most of those that thrust one another in the street as buzy as if they had three Chancery suites to solicit then returne home late weary and sweating having found the invention to tire themselves and do nothing In effect an idle life is more painfull and wearisome then an active and negotious life It makes one sad troublesome and vicious He that doth nothing cannot but do evill as grounds left untilled will bring thistles But he that hath an ordinary employment of some utility to the publique hath no leasure to attend vaine and evill actions nor to be sad By doing good he contenteth his conscience and maintaines the serenity of his mind so that he embrace no more then he can hold They that will doe too much good do it ill and do harme to themselves It is a preposterous diligence when it brings vexation to a mansselfe Rich old men should do wisely to give over busy imployments of the world vvhich require a whole man to give themselves wholly to the office of man as he is a man and a Christian If they be speculative judicious and experienced men they may do more good to the world in their retirement then in the crowd of businesses They that lead an active life ought not to give but lend onely their mind to the businesses of the world A wise man will follow his worldly occasions with diligence and industry but he will not transubstantiate himselfe into them In our busiest imployments let us retire often within to enjoy God and ourselves labouring chiefly to preserve his favour and our peace Without these all labour is superfluous or evill and gaine becomes damage CHAP. VII Of Moderation in Conversation IT is a most necessary provision for any man that will lead a peaceable life in this age and these regions torne with diversity of parties Mens minds being so generally exulcerated that in casuall meetings either they cast a suspicious eye upon their Contreymen because they know them not or abhorre them because they know them Here then there is need of a meek compliant industrious and universall mind retired within himselfe and healed of that epidemicall itch of light-brained men to declare all their opinions and inclinations and quarrell with all that are otherwise disposed It is an old and usefull observation that God hath given us two eares and one mouth to teach us that we ought to heare more then speake To which it may be added that we have no eare-lids to keep our eares from hearing and often must heare against our will but our mouth shuts naturally and we may keep our tongue from speaking unlesse by our intemperance we lose that priviledge of nature God indeed hath not given us a tongue to hold our peace But that we may use it so that our neighbours may receive good by it and
is that peace of God which passeth all understanding and keeps our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ It is a transfiguration of the devout soul for an earnest of her glorification It is the betrothing of the Spouse with Christ and the contract before the marriage After that all the Empires of the world all the treasures of Kings and all the delights of their Court deserve not to be lookt on or to be named If that divine Embrace could continue it would change a man into the image of God from glory to glory and he should be rapt up in a fiery charet like Eliah To enjoy that holy Embrace and make it continue as long as the soul in the flesh is capable of it We must use holy meditations prayers and good workes These strengthen those two armes of the soul faith and love to embrace God and hold him fast doing us that good office which Aaron and Hur did to Moses for they hold up the hands of the soul and keep them elevated to heaven And seeing that God who dwelleth in the highest heavens dwelleth also in the humblest soules let us indeavour to put on the ornament of a meek quiet spirit which in the sight of God is of great price 1 Pet. 3.4 It is a great incouragement to study tranquillity of minde that while we labour for our chiefe utility which is to have a meek and quiet spirit we become of great price before God and therefore of great price to ourselves How can it be otherwise since by that ornament of a meeke and quiet spirit we put on the neerest likenesse of God of which the creature can be susceptible For then the God of peace abiding in us makes his cleare image to shine in the smooth mirrout of our tranquill soul as the Sunnes face in a calme water Being thus blest with the peace of God we shall also be strong with his power and among the stormes and wrackes of this world we shall be as safe as the Apostles in the tempest having Christ with them in the ship It is not possible that we should perish as long as we have with us and within us the Saviour of the world and the Prince of life The universall commotions and hideous destructions of our time prepare us to the last and greatest of all 2 Pet. 3.10 when the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up In that great fall of the old building of Nature the godly man shall stand safe quiet and upright among the ruines All will quake all will sinke but his unmoved heart which stands firme trusting in the Lord. Psal 112.7 Mountaines and rocks will be throwne downe in his sight The foundations of the world will crack under him Heaven and Earth hasting to their dissolution will fall to pieces about his eares but the foundation of the faithfull remaines stedfast He cannot be shaken with the world for he was not grounded upon it He will say with Davids confidence Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore A Table of the Books and Chapters of this Treatise THE FIRST BOOK Of Peace with God Chap. 1. Of the Peace of the Soule pag. 1. Chap. 2. Of the Peace of Man with God in his integrity and of the losse of that peace by sinne pag. 6. Chap. 3. Of the Reconciliation of Man with God through Jesus Christ pag. 16. Chap. 4. Generall meanes to preserve that peace with God and first to serve God purely and diligently pag. 25. Chap. 5. Of the love of God pag. 35. Chap. 6. Of Faith pag. 45. Chap. 7. Of Hope pag. 49. Chap. 8. Of the duty of praising God pag. 53. Chap. 9. Of good Conscience pag. 59. Chap. 10. Of the exercise of good works pag. 66. Chap. 11. Of redressing our selves often by repentance pag. 72. SECOND BOOK Of Mans peace with himselfe by rectifying his Opinions Chap. 1. Designe of this Booke and the next pag. 77. Chap. 2. Of right Opinion pag. 80. Chap. 3. Of Riches pag. 87. Chap. 4. Honour Nobility Greatnesse pag. 92. Chap. 5. Glory Renowne Praise pag. 98. Chap. 6. Of the goods of the Body Beauty Strength Health pag. 104. Chap. 7. Of bodily pleasure and ease pag. 110. Chap. 8. Of the evils opposite to the forenamed goods pag. 116. Chap. 9. Of Poverty pag. 121. Chap. 10. Of low condition pag. 130. Chap. 11. Of dishonour pag. 134. Chap. 12. Of the evills of the body unhansomenesse weakenesse sicknesse paine pag. 136. Chap. 13. Of Exile pag. 142. Chap. 14. Of Prison pag. 144. Chap. 15. Husband Wife Childen Kinred Friends Their price their losse pag. 147. Chap. 16. Of Death pag. 155. Chap. 17. Of the Interiours of Man pag. 163. Chap. 18. Of the ornaments acquisite of the understanding pag. 177. Chap. 19. Of the acquisite ornaments of the will pag. 188. Chap. 20. Of the World and Life pag. 195. THIRD BOOK Of the Peace of Man with himselfe by governing his Passions Chap. 1. That the right Government of Passions depends of right Opinion pag. 205. Chap. 2. Entry into the discourse of Passions pag. 211 Chap. 3. Of Love pag. 214. Chap. 4. Of Desire pag. 231. Chap. 5. Of desire of Wealth and Honour pag. 237. Chap. 6. Of desire of Pleasure pag. 243. Chap. 7. Of Sadnesse pag. 248. Chap. 8. Of Joy pag. 257. Chap. 9. Of Pride pag. 265. Chap. 10. Of Obstinacy pag. 273. Chap. 11. Of Wrath pag. 278. Chap. 12. Of Aversion Hatred and Reuenge p. 289 Chap. 13. Of Envy pag. 298. Chap. 14. Of Jealousie pag. 305. Chap. 15. Of Hope pag. 309. Chap. 16. Of Feare pag. 313. Chap. 17. Of Confidence and Despaire pag. 319. Chap. 18. Of Pitty pag. 323. Chap. 19. Of Shamefacednesse pag. 327. FOURTH BOOK Of Vertue and the exercise of in Prosperity and Adversity Chap. 1. Of the Vertuous temper requisite for the peace and contentment of mind pag. 331. Chap. 2. Of Vertue in Prosperity pag. 344. Chap. 3. Of Vertue in Adversity pag. 357. FIFTH BOOK Of Peace in Society Chap. 1. Of Concord with all men and of meeknesse pag. 375. Chap. 2. Of brotherly Charity and of friendship pag. 387. Chap. 3. Of Gratefulnesse pag. 395. Chap. 4. Of Satisfaction of Injuries pag. 399. Chap. 5. Of Simplicity and Dexterity in Society pag. 402. Chap. 6. To have little company and few businesses pag. 412. Chap. 7. Of moderation in conversation pag. 421. SIXTH BOOK Some singular Counsels for the Peace and contentment of minde Chap. 1. To content our selves with our condition pag. 431. Chap. 2. Not to depend of the Future pag. 436. Chap. 3. To retire within our selfe pag. 443. Chap. 4. To avoyd Idlenesse pag. 448. Chap. 5. To avoid curiosity in divine matters pag. 451. Chap. 6. Of the care of the body and other little contentment of life pag. 458. Chap. 7. Conclusion Returne to the great principle of the peace and contentment of mind which is to stick to God pag. 468. FINIS