unlooked for being fallen into their lap they have given over singing and turned sad and full of thoughts Anacreon came once to that trouble but he rid himselfe of it He was a Poet and consequently poore Polycrates the rich Tyrant of Samos bestowed two or three thousand Crownes upon him But Anacreon after he had kept them three dayes restored them to his benefactor because said he that-money would not let him sleep Which action was not the production of a Philosophical minde for by his Poemes now extant it appeareth that wine and women were the highest spheres of his contemplation but the true cause was that he found riches heavier to beare then poverty I was saying that Poverty beates down the courage and stupefyeth the wit but it is onely with them that had no great courage and no great wit before and they would have bin more beaten down and stupefyed by riches but in another way for riches swell indeed the courage with pride but they beat it down at the same time with feare and make it soft with voluptuousnesse they slacken diligence blunt the edge of industry but poverty whets it awakens and sharpens the wit if there be any Riches in a competent measure are more accommodate to the operations of the speculative understanding for high and curious contemplations require a minde free of cares and rested with plenty A man that wanteth bread hath no thoughts of finding longitudes and the pole of the load-stone or the exquisiteness of eloquence Magnae mentis opus nec de lodîce parandâ Attonitae Poverty is fitter for the operations of the practical understanding for necessity is the mother of arts Magister artis ingenîque largitor venter We owe most part of mechanique inventions to men put to their shifts The best thing that is in Poverty is that meeting with a sound and godly mind it helps to weane it from the world and raise it up to God which is the great worke of a Christian to which riches are a great hindrance He that hath but little in the world finds in his poverty a great motive to lay up treasure it heaven to which he is invited by the example of the Lord Jesus who made himselfe poore to make us rich in God To the poore was the Gospel first preacht and when it was preach to the rich and poore together the poore were the first that embraced it because they were lesse tyed unto the world and at more liberty to go to God It is most observable that all persons admitted by God to salvation are received in the quality of poore and the rich must make themselves poore before God through humility and meeknesse that they may be capable of that high blessing whereby Christ began his sermon Mat. 5 Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of God To that Poverty in spirit the poverty in worldly goods is a great help A wise and godly man that knoweth how to get advantage by all things will prudently manage all the helps to heaven which poverty affords when he shall be brought to that condition He will become more serene in his devotions more resolute in his dangers more undaunted to maintaine the truth lighter to flee from one Citty to another in time of persecution and better disposed at all times to welcom death casting no back-look upon the world where he hath nothing to lose If he had once riches and hath lost them he will acknowledge that they were none of his since they could not stay with him for the true goods of a man are inseperable from him as being within him These goods are a right reason integrity of conscience the love of God faith in his promises and an appetite led by reason and piety With that patrimony he may say with more reason then Bias in what condition soever he be I carry all my goods along with me The goods of fortune deserve not the name of goods To him that desireth nothing but what is sufficient to Nature poverty doth no harme and to him that desireth more poverty doth good for it brings him to sobriety To have little and to be contented with it is a great wealth Poverty and riches having their commodities and incommodities the most desireable temporal estate is the midlemost which is neither and holds of both That state the wise man requested at Gods hands Prov. 30.8 Give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord and lest I be poore and steale and take the name of my God in vaine But our condition is not in our choice Vertue and tranquillity of minde may be had in any fortune because they depend not of fortune CHAP. X. Of low Condition IT is in the Judgement of many worse yet then poverty and it is for its sake that they feare poverty It is of several degrees and is more or lesse grievous according to the diversity of persons and designes To them that aspire to honours but are kept back and think they lose all they cannot get it is unsufferable and more yet to them that had honours and were justled out of them for men will get up to honour with a good will but none descends from it unlesse he be hurled downe which hath given occasion to the institution of yearely Magistrates Others are bred in a low condition and aspire not much higher yet they groane under the yoake which their condition ingageth them unto Thus all are discontented and none are so high but think themselves too low The low condition indeed is slavish especially in France and Poland and he that can handsomely get out of the bottom where the land-flood of the publique stormes stayeth and take himselfe out of the number of the beasts of carriage shall do prudently to seek his liberty St. Pauls advice is judicious Art thou called being a servant care not for it but if thou mayest be made free use it rather 1 Cor. 7.21 If it be impossible for a wiseman to get that liberty let him consider that as the low condition is more onerous so it is lesse dangerous In France especially where although the armies consist of high and low yet the maine shock of battles falles upon the Gentry and the best of the Nobility The hazardous attempts fall to their share All may follow warre but the Gentry hold it their proper trade The French Gentleman is borne in a manner with his sword by his side Who so will observe how in noble houses two thirds of their branches are lopt off by warre shall finde that the Nobility and Gentrie pay deare for their immunities To beare with the low condition one should observe well the inconveniences of the high The higher a man stands the fairer mark doth he give to envy secret undermining and open hostility Great places are like stilts upon which a man hath but a
offereth to signe and seale and the other refuseth it there is no agreement Whosoever then will covenant with God and enjoy his peace must to his power keepe his conscience cleare from all willful violations of the conditions of the agreement For since this covenant is often termed in Scripture a mariage our soule which is the spouse of Christ must give herselfe to him as Christ gives himselfe to her else the mariage is voyd for it is the mutual consent that makes the mariage Whereupon one may say that God is more good then wee are wicked and that while wee breake the contract God remaineth faithfull and leaves us not every time that wee leave him Truly there is great need of that otherwise this spiritual mariage would soon end in divorce But you know that when the faith of matrimony is violated betweene husband and wife although they be not divorced love decreaseth on both sides what remaines of it is sowred with jealous grudges and peace dwells no more in that house It fareth so with us when wee violate the faith and love which wee owe unto God by doing that which is displeasing unto him God doeth not presently give us the Letter of divorce and his constancy stands firme against our ficklenes but he discontinueth the inward testimonies of his love and his peace recedeth from us then wee dare no more seeke our delight in him and cannot finde it any where else pastimes make us sad and when wee take the aire and shift place to find ease we are not eased because we carry our burden along with us a sad weight upon our heart a bosome-accuser within we come to the duty of prayer against stomack and returne from it without comfort It is certain that the eternal covenant of God cannot be disanulled by the sins of men as St Paul saith that the unbeleefe of the Jewes could not make the faith of God without effect Rom. 3.3 But I speak not here of the eternal decree of God but of the offer made of his Covenant unto the conscience by the word of God and his spirit which covenant many lightly embrace and then break it having not maturely considered before upon what conditions it was offered Who so then will keep the peace of his conseience and his confidence with God must carefully keep himselfe from all things that displease his holy eyes and turne away his gratious countenance lest when our need or our duty calls us to draw neere him by prayer we feele our selves pulled back by a guilty feare Let us walk in his presence with such simplicity and integrity that at all times we may say with David Psalm 26.5 I will wash my hands in innocency and compasse thine altar O Lord That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works O Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house See what serenity what liberty of Spirit he had got by his innocency He goeth streight to the Altar of God he rejoyceth in his praise he delighted in his house he will choose it for his habitation Evill consciences are not capable of such a freedom with God David in this Text alluded to the forme of the Sanctuary which had a Laver in the entry where the Priests before they came neere the Altar were to wash themselves We also that we may keep our free accesse unto Christ our Altar must wash our hearts in innocency If we go not through the laver we misse our way to the Altar St. Paul regarded this Figure when he said 1. Tim. 2.8 I will that men pray every where lifting up pure hands It is true that to lift up our hands pure unto God we have need to wash them in a better innocency then our own and the purest have need to be washt in the blood of Jesus Christ David himselfe having said that he would wash his hands in innocency Psalm 26. and soon after but as for me I will walke in mine integrity immediately upon that prayeth to God to redeeme and have mercy upon him Yet God requires our innocency which he examines as a gratious Father not as a severe Judge he lookes more to the sincerity of our hearts then the perfection of our actions giveing his peace to the penitent soules void of hypocrisy Psalm 32.2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile That walketh before God with feare knowing his infirmities and together in confidence knowing Gods mercy and the certainty of his promises That hath no evil end and corrupteth not his good ends by evill wayes That chooseth rather to miss the advancements of the world then to shrink back from his duty to God ready to suffer the losse of all things that he way keep him That lookes upon his temporal goods without remorse because among them he seeth nothing ill gotten and upon his neighbours goods without envy because he hath taken the Lord for his portion who is rich to all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 His words agree with his heart and his actions with his duty He brings his affections captive under the the feare of God boweth his will under Gods will and makes all his ends to stoope under the interest of Gods glory Hee that doth these things shall never be moved Whatsoever becomes of his temporal condition which is better settled by integrity then by all the tricks of the craftiest pates he shall possesse a firme serene equal and tranquil spirit He shall have peace in warre and calme in the storme knowing that no evil can befall him so long as he is well with God CHAP. X. Of the exercise of Good works TO have a holy and tranquill conscience it is not enough for us not to do evil we must do good These two dutyes may be distinguished but not severed He that doth no good of necessity doth evill for it is ill done to do no good God made us not onely that we should not sinne For that it would have bin sufficient to have given us the nature of plants or stones but he hath given us an intelligent active nature that we might use it to know and love and serve our Maker And since he made us after his image for which reason Adam is called the Son of God Luk. 3. if we wil be like our Father which is in heaven we must study to do good for he doth good continually even when he sends evill which he makes an instrument of good whether it be for justice or mercy Psalm 26.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth and such all our pathes should be To this we are more especially called by our redemption whereby we are restored into the right of Gods children which we had lost and are purchased to be his servants God did not adopt us that we should be idle children Christ did not purchase us that we should be unprofitable
servants Now because the life of man is laborious and allwayes in action we learne out of Gods example to examine all our works severally and joyntly to see whether they be good and rejoyce when we find them so Thus God said Let the light be and the light was And God saw that the light was good The like after the workes of every day of the first week And in the end of the creation God made a review of all that he had done And behold all was very good to signifie that God seeing all his works good and compleate took great delight in them and did remunerate his own actions with the satisfaction which he he took in his owne wisdom and goodnesse That we may then imitate God let us do nothing but good and againe when we have done it let us see how good it is Though it cannot be but very defective yet if we find in it sincerity and an ingenuous desire to do good we may in our measure rejoyce as God did for doing good and shall enjoy a sweet peace within representing both in the good that we do and in the delight that we take in well doing the image of him that hath created and adopted us to expresse his likenesse Our confidence in God by the merit of his beloved Sonne is the ground of true peace and content But that confidence is fed by works By faith we beare testimony to our hearts that we are reconciled with God and by workes we beare testimony to our faith As by the respiration we know that a man is alive and by the same respiration the man is kept alive So the exercise of good workes is together the marke of faith and the way to maintaine that spiritual life As God hath wisely ordered that the actions necessary for the preservation of naturall life should be done with delight likewise the exercise of good workes whereby the life of faith is maintained gives a singular pleasure unto the faithfull soul Psalm 40.8 I delight to do thy will O my God said David And the Lord Jesus could say that his meat was to do the will of him that sent him John 4 32. Wherefore as healthful bodies eat their meat with appetite so godly soules apply themselves with a holy appetite to good workes In both it is an inward sence of necessity that provokes the appetite it being as impossible to live with the life of faith without good works as to keep the body alive without meat or drink And as these satisfy the stomack good actions give a sweet satisfaction to the soul But as one cannot live alwayes in the strength of one meale but must take new food every day else the body will pine away and die in a short time likewise the use of good workes must be daily too much intermission will abate the pulse of faith trouble will get into the conscience or a heavy numness which will end in the extinction of spiritual life unlesse the appetite of doing good worke 〈◊〉 awakened by repentance and faith get new strength by good exercises For this exercise the Lord Jesus gave us an example that wee should follow his steps Who did good in the whole course of his life and more in his death Who spent the night in prayer and the day in healing the sick and converting sinners Who for ill words returned saving instruâ—◠〈◊〉 Who overcame contempt with humility and adversities with patience Who did good to them that persecuted him to death healing the eare of Malchus that was come to take him and praying for them that crucifyed him Who to obey God his ather despised his owne life denyed the love of himselfe and made this free and miraculous submission to God in the terrours of death Father not my will but thy will be done The joy and glory which he got by that submission must encourage his Disciples to preferre the obedience to God and the duty of a good conscience before all interesses being sure that to forsake them for God is the way to preserve them and that by suffering for his glory wee get glory The content that accreweth to the soule by tending carefully Gods service and loving nothing like it cannot be exprest but by those that feel it How great was St Pauls satisfaction when he sayd 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not in fleshly wisedome but by the grace of God wee have had our conversation in the world And how sweet was his rapture of joy when he sayd being neere the end of his race 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is layd up for me a crowne of righteousnes which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me O what pleasure is comparable to the testimony of a good conscience The joy of a great conquerour who hath newly got an imperial crown is not comparable to St Pauls happines when he rejoyced to have fought the good fight of faith and stretched himselfe towards the crowne of righteousnes layd up for him Increase of worldly goods increaseth sorrow When they are above sufficiency instead of easing the minde they oppresse it Worldly pleasures are shortlived leaving behinde them an unpleasant fare-well and often a sting of crime Worldly honour is winde which either will blow a man downe or puff him up with an unsound tumour But godlines and good actions give a sincere joy a solid content a lasting peace a satisfaction penetrating to the inmost of the soule This is richly exprest by Isaiah in prophetical termes Isa 58.10 If thou draw out thy soule to the hungry and satisfye the afflicted soule then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darknes be as the noone day And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfye thy soule in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters faile not Although Devotion and good conscience and the practise of good workes were sad things as the world imagineth them yet ought wee to undergoe that sadnes in this life of few dayes to make provision for the other life which is eternal since this life is a moment on which eternity depends And wee should sow in teares to reape in joy But seeing that a good conscience active in piety and good workes gets thereby even in the present a serene peace and a heavenly comfort not credible to any but those that feele it is it not a great incouragement to doe well That the way to make us happy is to make us saints It is none of the least arts of Satan for turning men away from the practice of godlines and vertuous actions to represent Devotion and vertue with an austere habit and a sowre face enough to make children afrayd and growne men also many of them having with a gray
doth more harme then good to the living For one that is encouraged with praise to do well a thousand are thereby puft up with pride It is hurtfull to weak spirits and troublesome to the strong If praise were a real good every one ought to praise himselfe as one feeds himselfe And none ought to be ashamed to heare or speake his owne praise for none ought to be ashamed of good things That shame is a proofe either that praise is not good or that it belongs not to us This deserveth a deeper consideration Glory and praise among men are of those shades and images of divine attributes scattered in this inferiour world of which shades the substance and reality is in God Glory in him is a substance yea his owne essence and to him alone all Glory belongeth The sparkes of glory that are in creatures are rayes of that soveraigne splendour Now these rayes go not streight like those of the Sunne they go round and fetch a compasse to returne to the principle of their being Ps 145.10 All thy workes shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall blesse thee Since his works praise him by nature his Saints must praise him by will Those streakes of glory that are in his creatures as comming from him must returne to him by nature or by will For although man be not able to give any glory to God by praising God yet God knoweth how to receive from us that glory which we cannot give him and to make himselfe glorious in his owne workes Here is then the reason why men are desirous of praise and glory and yet are ashamed of it Their desire of it is a natural sence that it is good And that they are ashamed of it is another natural sense that it was not made for them Wherefore a wise Christian will desire and seeke the glory of God And when some image of that glory is given him by the prayses of men hee will presently bring that praise and glory to God as Gods proper goods saying Glory is a Crown that was not made for my head and on my knees I put it on the head of him to whom it properly belongs Such is praise in its Original and End both which do meet but being considered in its inferiour causes and conveighances as it comes from and through men it is a tide of popular applause as subject to go downe as to come up consisting in fancy exprest in talke rising upon small causes and upon small causes falling againe We must make more of our content then to pinne it upon such an uncertain possession never reckoning among our goods a thing lying in the Opinion of another and remaining in the possession of the person that gives it for humane praise belongs not to him that is praised but to him that praiseth since every one is or ought to be master of his Opinions and words They that give us praise retaine it in their power and may take it from us when they please CHAP. VI. Of the goods of the Body Beauty Strength Health FRom the goods of Fortune which are altogether out of us and many times consist in imagination we come to the personal beginning by those of the body The first is Beauty which among bodily goods may be called the first gift of God and the first advantage of nature I say not that it is the principal for health is farre above it in excellency But it cannot be denyed that it is the first since God hath placed it in the entry and on the front of this building of the flesh Beauty at the very first meeting winnes the good Opinion of beholders and gives an advantagious preconceit of a faire mind Beauty is a signe of goodnesse of nature The sweet vigour of the eyes the smoth skinne the lively white and red the handsome lineaments of the face and the comely proportion of the body are markes of a quick and well composed mind Which yet is not peculiar to Beauty For many persons in whom melancholy is predominant which tanneth their skin sets their eyes deepe in their head puts a sowreness on their brow have a penetrating and judicious understanding Open faces which are the most beautiful have commonly candid and serene soules but none of the craftiest The observation that Pride is a companion to Beauty is not naturally true but by accident for beautifull persons being praised and admired of all who can wonder that they grow proud since so much paine is taken to make them so A good presence is well sorted with valour and wisedome and doth excellent service to brave men if they spoyle it not by affectation Beauty is the loadstone of Love which courts her and calls it s her faire Sun And so she is for it gets heat by Beauty And as the heat caused by the Sun is allayed when the Sunne is set so doth the heat kindled by Beauty lose its flame when Beauty its gone When love outlives Beauty some other causes must keep it alive as vertue and utility Beauty is among desirable goods not among the laudable for nothing is laudable in us but the productions of our will and industrie For which reason handsome women ought to reject prayses of their Beauty for either these praises are injurious to God who as the Author ought to have the whole praise of his work or they are injurious to them and seeme to presuppose that they have made their beauty and sophisticated nature by art for none ought to be praised for that he hath not done Great and rare Beauty in its nature is desirable but by accident and as the world goes it is more to be feared then desired and does more harme then good It is hurtfull to the person that is endowed with it for it exposeth her to temptations and insolence which commonly make her wicked and miserable It is hurtful to the person that woeth it or enjoyeth it for it sets him as a marke for injuries Many might have led a tranquil life and escaped discredit quarrel ruine and stabbing in the end had not their wives bin too handsome But though beauty were not cumbered with all this danger the nature and price of it must be well considered that we may not expect of it a contentment beyond its kinde Beauty is the exteriour and superficiall ornament of a sickly and mortall body the inside whereof is unpleasing to the eye and would make the hearts rise of the admirers of the outside if they could see it It is a faire blossom onely for the spring of life which will fade with age or wither with sicknesse and cares in the very spring It is a cheater which promiseth much keepeth not promise for the most amorous never found in it a delight answerable to the desire that it kindleth Take the right measure of the goodnes of that so much desired possession of beauty so shal you not desire it above measure and when
filial love confidence and obedience The other rule that wee may finde Joy in all things that are either of good or indifferent nature is to seeke it according to the kind and capacity of every thing To that end we must be carefull that the Joy that wee take in God be as little under him as it is possible to us and that the Joy that wee take in other things be not above them Since then God is all good all perfect all pleasant the onely worthy to be most highly praised and most entirely beloved wee must also most exceedingly rejoyce that he is ours and wee his and that we are called to be one with him As for other things let us judiciously examine what Joy they can give us and lose nothing of the content which their capacity can afford looking for no more For there is scarce any sorrow in the world but proceeds from this cause to have expected of humane things a Joy beyond their nature Now this is the great skill of a minde serene religious industrous for his own content to know how to fetch joy out of all things and whereas every thing hath two handles the one good the other evill to take every thing dexterously by the right handle A man that hath that skill will rejoyce in his riches with a joy sortable to their nature And when he loseth them in stead of grieving that he shall have them no longer he rejoyceth that he had them so long If he lose one of his hands he rejoyceth that God preserveth him the other If he lose the health of his body he praiseth God for preserving to him the health of his minde If slandering tongues take his good name from him he rejoyceth that none can robbe him of the testimony of a good conscience If he be in the power of them that can kill his body he rejoyceth that they cannot kill his soul If he be condemned being innocent his joy that he is innocent drownes his sorrow that he is condemned Love and Joy are the two passions that serve to glorifie God and praise him for his benefits A thankfull admirer of Gods wisedome and bounty hath a cheerefull heart All things give him joy the beauty variety and excellency of Gods workes makes him say with David Psal 92.4 Lord I will triumph in the workes of thy hands He rejoyceth in hope to see better works and the Maker himselfe in whose sight and presence is fullnes of joy If he look up to heaven he rejoyceth that he hath a building of God a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 If he look upon his body he rejoyceth that in his flesh he shall see God If he looke upon his soul he rejoyceth that there he beares the renewed image of God and the earnest of his eternall adoption If he be poore he rejoyceth in that conformity with the Lord Jesus If he see wealth in the house of his neighbours he rejoyceth that they have the plenty splendor of it that himselfe hath not the cares and the temptations that attend it As many miseries as he seeth so many arguments hath he to glorifie God and rejoyce in his goodnesse saying Blessed be God that I am not maimed like that begging souldier nor lunatick like that bedlam nor going in shackles like that fellon nor a slave like that Counsellour of State He will keepe account of Gods benefits and considering sometimes his owne infirmities and naturall inclinations sometimes Gods wise providence in the conduct of his life he will acknowledge with a thankfull joy that God hath provided better for him then himselfe could have wisht that his crosses were necessary for him and that if he had had a fairer way he might have run headlong to ruine by his rashnesse It were infinite to enumerate all the subjects of joy that God gives to his children for his benefits are numberless his care continuall his compassions new every morning and the glory which he keepes for us eternall Which way can we turne our eyes and not finde the bounty of God visible and sensible Here then more evidently then any where else our happiness and our duty meet in one It is a pleasant task to worke our owne joy Now it is the task of Gods children in obedience to his express command by his Apostle 1 Thes 5.16 Rejoyce evermore See how urgent he is to recommend that duty Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alway and againe I say Rejoyce CHAP. IX Of Pride I Contend not whether Pride must be called a Vice or a Passion It is enough for me that it is an affection too naturall unto man the cause of many passions and a great disturber of inward tranquillity Pride is a swelling of the soul whose proper causes are too good an opinion and in consequence too great a love of ones selfe and whose most proper effects are ambition of dignity and greedinesse of praise Wherefore these two effects cannot be overcome unless we first overcome the cause which is presumption and a blinde immoderate love of a mans selfe It is impossible for a man to be tranquill and safe as long as he sits upon a crazy and tottering bottome Pride then making a man to ground himselfe upon himselfe cannot but keepe him in a perpetuall unquietness and vacillation How can ye beleeve saith the Lord Jesus to the Jewes which receive honour one of another and seeke not the honour that comes from God onely John 5.44 A text which taxeth Pride of two great evills That is robbes God of his glory and that it shakes the the foundation of faith For a proud man seekes not the glory of God but his owne and his owne glory hee doth not seeke of God but will get it of men by his owne merit Also it turnes his heart away from his trust in God to trust in his owne selfe Psal 10.13 The wicked boasteth of his hearts desire saith David that is he is confident that by his owne strength he shall compass all his projects And againe The wicked through the pride of his heart will not seeke after God for the one brings the other He that trusteth in himselfe and is highly conceited of his owne wisedome is easily perswaded that he hath no need of God That disposition of the mind is the high way to ruine Prov. 16.18 Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall For God to whom only glory belongeth cannot but be very jealous of those that wil ingross it to themselves declares open warre against them Psal 18.27 He will bring downe high lookes Jam. 4.6 He resisteth the proud but sheweth grace unto the humble Prov. 8.11 I hate pride and arrogancy saith Soveraine wisedome which is God As the winde hurts not the stalkes of herbs as long as they are supple and bowing but breakes them when they are become dry and stiffe The meeke and humble spirits that
them Chi offende non perdona mai The offender say they never forgiveth It is a great shame indeed to have given offence but the offense is greater to refuse to mend it The Lord Jesus our great Master having taken care to heale the wound that his Disciple had made shall wee refuse to heale the wounds which we have made ourselves God saith Vengeance belongs unto me I will recompense there he speakes of the injuries done to us But as for the injuries done by us vengeance belongs unto ourselves so farre as to make recompense to them whom we have wronged Which recompense unlesse we make God will make it Our wisest course then is to make that recompense sincerely so may we ease God of that care CHAP. V. Of simplicity and dexterity in Society PEace with men consisteth in doing and receiving no injury The first with Gods asisting grace depends of us Towards the second though depending of others we may do much For the cause why some are wronged and abused commonly lyeth not so much in the insolence of others as in their owne imprudence But the end of this Book the same as that of our lives being not onely peace by doing and receiving no injury but content by doing and receiving good we must study both how to lead a safe and inoffensive course of life and how to be usefull to ourselves and others That skill we learne of the great Master of wisedome who hath comprehended it in these two short precepts Matth. 10.16 Be ye prudent as serpents and harmlesse or simple as doves These two he makes into one because they make together an excellent compound and because they must never be disjoyned Simplicity without prudence would serve onely to make us sheep for the wolves to eat Prudence without simplicity though it could get us some peace and utility with men would forefeit our peace with God and our conscience and so prove meere folly in the end How essentiall simplicity is to prudence it is seene in all the parts of conversation which are reducible to these two heads Words and Actions As for words it is certaine that simplicity is the most requisite quality what use soever they be put to publique or private religious or civil And even the discourses made only for elegancy and delectation cannot attaine their end without simplicity for that gracious expression and powerfullness of words which gets the fame of eloquence is nothing else but simplicity managed with dexterity They that go farre from it and make their style darke to make it shew deep or bombast it with extravagant conceits and new ill coyned termes lose elegancy by hunting too eagerly after it there being no such deadly enemy to grace in speech as affectation Besides it is found that discourses full of affected difficulty are like olive stones which are very hard because there is nothing in them and styles puffed up with words are empty of matter as some cheating women have bin seene that appeared great with child when they were big with a pillow The knowledge of things the solidity of reason and the sincerity of the mind are the three magazines affording good and gracious discourses Where those three meet the more the style is simple the more elegant it is And in matter of speech the best service that dexterity can do to right reason is to deliver in cleare termes those thoughts which the mind hath well disgested So shall one satisfie others and himselfe Affectation is alike ungracious in Words and Actions Affected persons have that hard fortune that while they study to disguise themselves they discover themselves most there being nothing that betrayes a may so much as affectation doth His forced countenance his studied gesture the odd quaintnes of habit give an evident character of a mind disordered by pride and a nature drowned in foolish artifice Such men are displeasing to God who loveth truth and simplicity in the inward parts Psal 51. and therefore cannot but be displeasing to themselves destitute of peace of conscience and contentment of mind Melancholy is an inseperable companion of constraint for who can take delight in that which he does against nature Therefore stage buffoones when their jigge is done are very sad and froward because they have extraordinarily constrained themselves There is a deeper and craftier simulation called hypocrisy which knoweth how to personate plaine honesty and put upon fraud the face of simplicity as indeed without that it is impossible to cozen Simplicity and Integrity are of such price among men good and evill that without the substance or the shew of them it is not possible to entertaine any commerce in the world And men that have but the shew of these desire to deale with them that have the substance because they are true and sure dealers As wicked as the world is uprightnesse is the safest course to advance a man for every one will say He is an honest man It is safe dealing with him The principall is that thereby we keep good intelligence with God and with our conscience The chiefe prudence then is to be honest They that seeke to appeare such and are not are imprudent for to enjoy the benefit of honesty before men the sure way is to have it indeed Counterfeit honesty is false coyne not safe to trade withall and in the end it turneth to the undoing of the false coiner But honesty and prudence have need to be more in reality within then in shew without For to make a great shew of honesty gives a great suspition of hypocrisy and to make a great shew of prudence is asigne of shallowess It is better to shew honesty then prudence because honesty is of greater price and because every one ought to have it profess it Whereas it is a great point of prudence to conceale it for that man is not very crafty that sheweth his craft He that sets out much policy in discourse commonly keepes but little in reserve Next to integrity which is the first counsell of wisedome in conversation the best counsell is to know ourselves the business that we take in hand and the persons that we have to do with measuring our strength and what we are fit for that we never meddle with any thing above our capacity or that we may desist before we be too far engaged It is a great point of wisedome for one to be able to adequate his imployment to his capacity and inclination But because the choice of our imployment for all our life is commonly made in our nonage by our parents who are many times mistaken in our genius and ability or imploy us where they can not where they would we must by a vertuous resolution bow our genius to our imployment and supply the wants of nature with dexteterity For this there is need of that vertue which the Italians and French cry up so much called accortezza or accortize A word which I recommend to my
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