Cure of our Sinfull Habits the Sores and Ulcers of the Soule are not onely to be Read over but to be Fixt in our Hearts by Serious Meditation otherwise they will become Uselesse unto us and of none effect As we are wont not onely to Lay Plaisters to our Bodily Sores but also to Bind them on otherwise they would soone slip off from the Places Affected If thou beest one of those Envious Malitious Uncharitable men whereof the World is so full who hate any one that is not of the same Humour with themselves and are ready alwaies to brand those with the name of Hypocrites and Vain-Glorious Persons that venture to be thus Publick I assure thee whosoever thou art I am confidēt through the Grace of God that I shall not be any otherwise Troubled with the apprehension of thy ill opinion of me if it come to my knowledg then only for this that thy heart being by Prejudice Hardned against me will be the lesse capable for thy good to receive any Impression from what I have written What kind of man soever thou art thou canst not be Injur'd by My Writings or I by Thy Censures Farewell and if thou beest a Scholar and conceitest thy selfe as justly thou mayest to Know more then I can Teach thee Remember that saying of SENECA Stude non ut plùs aliquid scias sed ut meliùs SERMON I. Take my yoke upon you and learne of mee for I am meeke and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your soules Mat. 11.29 I Shall first Explaine the Expressions in my Text and then I shall raise the Doctrine which I shall Insist upon as the Principall subject of my Discourse Take my yoke upon you that is Doe the Commands I have imposed upon you do the will of your Heavenly Father which I came to discover unto you And learne of mee i. e. And that you may know how to doe it take mee for your Example For I am meek and lowly in heart i. e. For I am as you ought to be loving and kind to MEN and truly Humble and submissive to GOD And you shall find rest unto your soules i. e. And in doing the Will of your God which is Holy Just and Good you shall find true Comfort and satisfaction and Complacencie of Mind you shall cease from all that Labour and Travell which hitherto you have continually endur'd in seeking and by wicked meanes endeavouring after True Contentment in the things of this World which are all vanity and Vexation of Spirit * From the Words thus open'd unto you I shall draw forth this Doctrine that True Faith in Christ through which Christians are inabled by God to take Christ's Yoke upon them c. I say true Faith in Christ cures a Man of all Spirituall Distempers and gives him Ease frees him from all Anguish and Sorrow and Tribulation of Mind and furnishes him with a never failing stock of Pleasure and Contentment To be more strict and Logicall I shall lay down the sense of my Doctrine in these words True Faith enables a man to draw true solid Comfort strong consolation from all the Objects of his Thoughts whatsoever a Wise man a Faithfull syncere Christian thinkes of he finds in it cause to Rejoice Whithersoever His Soule hath occasion to Goe if I may so expresse my selfe she finds the Way beset as it were with Beds of Roses very Pleasant and Delightsome unto Her according to that of Solomon * The waies of wisdome are waies of pleasantnesse and all her pathes are peace Before I come to a punctuall demonstration of the Truth of my Doctrine to shew you that Rest and quiet of Mind which a Good man a True Believer continually enjoyes I shall premise some discourse of that Trouble and anguish wherewith the Minds of Wicked Unregenerate men are so grievously afflicted You will have a more exact apprehension of the Rest of the GODLY when you heare of the Labours of the WICKED There is no peace saith my God to the wicked A wicked man can never have any peace any rest in his Soule How can he have Peace who is His own Enemie HIEROCLES saies truly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A Good man is only a Friend to Himself The Mind of a wicked man is his Torment His Thoughts Gnaw him as wormes the Bowels Which way soever He looks upon himselfe he Sees nothing but Griefe and Horror When He looks back upon his Life Past and considers what He hath been his Conscience presently Vexes and Upbraids him shewing him the Vanity of the Pleasures he hath enjoy'd and the wickednesse of the Actions he hath committed When he considers the state and condition he is in at present there suddenly arises in him a great deale of anguish and vexation of spirit from an apprehension of the emptinesse and dissatisfaction of all his Enjoyments When he considers what he would be and sends out his thoughts in the search of the best Means to accomplish his Desires he is miserably distracted and Divided against Himselfe his Conscience striving against his Affections or his Affections one against another one while his Lusts his vile Affections furiously impell him to such and such a Course because t is Pleasant whilst his Conscience deters him from it because 't is Wicked Another while having broke the Bonds of Conscience he is againe Restrain'd by some Passion or inordinate Affection contrary to that by which his Soule was first Mov'd Thus how oft does it happen that a man is vehemently Inclin'd by his sensuall Desires to do those things from which the Fear of Shame or of Temporall Punishment c keeps him back Thus how oft does it happen that a man's Ambition urges him to those Dangers from which his Cowardise deters him or his Pride and rash desire to be accounted Magnificent or the like to those Expences from which his Covetousnesse powerfully disswades him This or the like Distraction and Incomposednesse of Mind is the Lot of all the Wicked whose Miserable Condition we may in short describe thus The things which They so eagerly pursue and follow after can never afford them any of that Satisfaction and Contentment which they expect from them and they misse the greatest part even of that Outward Sensible Pleasure which the Nature of their Enjoyments might afford by reason of that Trouble and Dissatisfaction which they bring to some of their Affections whilst they Gratifie others or by reason of the Troubles they receive from their Displeased Consciences which if they cannot Restraine Them from Rushing into SIN Pursue them as it were and Overtake them in the Act and deprive them of the greatest part of the Pleasure of it I 'll appeale to the Heart of any man here that is Conscious to himselfe that he is to be numbred among the Wicked that he lives in any course of Known Sin gives way to his Lusts and sensuall Inclinations I 'll Appeale
he considers how by that GOD hath beene pleas'd to make the WORID Bitter unto him to Heighten his Appetite to Spirituall Delights to make him Long more earnestly to Taste and See the Goodnesse of GOD or to make him Meeke and Humble or some other way to Advance his Soule towards Perfection in Piety and Vertue by the Low Estate of his Outward Man If he have been in Prosperity he considers how by that God hath been pleas'd to Provoke him to Christian Magnanimity and Magnificence to make him Instrumentall for His Glory in some Great and Eminent Acts of Charity or to save him from Despondency and Faintnesse of Spirit and such like Infirmities which He knowes most Incident to men in Adversity Still Sanctifying unto him all * Outward things as Poverty or Riches Honours or Disgraces Health or Sicknesse to the Use of his Soule before Conversion to Put Him out of the way to HELL and after to Bring Him on in the way to HEAVEN And may we not here say with Holy DAVID * Who so is wise and will Observe these things even they shall Understand the Loveing-kindness of the LORD All that can be said in this place may be briefly Summ'd up thus All things worke together for Good to those that Love GOD And the Observation that a CHRISTIAN takes of that Reall Spirituall Good that GOD has Wrought for Him by His Temporall Condition whatever it has been Affords Him infinitely more Comfort and Satisfaction then any man can Declare or Conceive but He that Knowes it by Experience I am now come to the Second Proposition that I intended to Handle in This Discourse A CHRISTIAN takes Comfort in the Sense Apprehension of the Present Condition of His Outward Man whether it be Prosperity or Adversity By Prosperity I Understand that Estate wherein He has the Enjoyment of His Health of abundance of Riches and Great Possessions and is in Honour and Reputation amongst all those with whom He has to doe Adversity is the Want of These Things if we Want All of Them we are Wholly if but some Partly Miserable I speake as to the Outward man That Christians take Comfort in their Prosperous Condition I suppose to be a truth so plaine and obvious that I need not spend much time in the Demonstration of it I shall onely shew you one principall Reason of the Comfort They take in their Outward Enjoyments Health Goods Good Name They look upon them as the meanes of performing in Deed what every true Christian constantly Wills That speciall Duty which Christ enjoynes us Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good Workes and Glorifie your Father which is in Heaven This truth will be most evideÌ„t if we coÌ„sider that the body is the Instrument of the Soule That whereby we performe the Outward Operations of all our Faculties whereby we Act before men as Writing or Talking or Performing any other Action whereby we discover to the World what Temper and Disposition we are of Now Health is the Firmenesse and Soundnesse of this Instrument and without it we cannot so well Performe any Outward act of Vertue and if we do enjoy our Health without Riches and Honours There are many Vertues which we cannot so well Discover for instance How can a man shew himselfe Liberall that hath nothing to Give to those that Need How can a man discover his Humility that hath no Honour and Reputation in the World that is so Low already that he cannot shew any Condescention Here then let us Observe that 't is the duty of every Christian to use all means possible in a Right way that are truly Honest to gain such Riches and Honours as he knows himselfe able to Manage And in the pursuit of them never to be deterr'd by any Feare of being accounted Covetâ—â—â— or Proud whilst his owne Conscience tells him that he doth not endeavour after these Outward Things that he may enjoy them but God in them using them to His Glory And now I shall shew you by Gods assistance that a true Faithfull Christian takes Comfort also in his Adversity when ever it pleases God to put him into such a Condition That you may have a more cleare and distinct Notion of this Truth I shall shew you particularly what Comfort and Satisfaction he takes in Poverty Sicknesse Disgrace or the losse of his Reputation All Temporall evils or Afflictions being comprehended under one of these three Heads As for the first the main ground and principle of that Comfort which a Christians Heart is possessed of when he reflects upon his Poverty is the thought of that safety which he enjoyes from those Spirituall Dangers and Perplexities which Rich men are entangled in by reason of those manifold Opportunities to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin and allurements thereunto which the abundance of their Worldly Possessions continually presents unto them You know who said 'T is * easier for a Camell to goe through the eye of a needle theÌ„ for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdome of GOD Here we may observe how the Great Ones of the World deceive themselves in thinking they deserve to be admired and had in such high Esteeme for their | Brave Cloathes Stately Houses Rattling Coaches c. a true Christian that goes in Rags though he gives them that outward respect which is due unto them by the Lawes and Constitution of the Commonwealth wherein he lives in his Heart pitties them and dispises their Worldly Height and Glory as That which in his Baptisme he Vow'd to Forsake to slight and contemne the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World He sees himselfe by the Eye of Faith to be in a Condition infinitely more High and Noble then theirs though those Earthly Creatures Carnall minded Men whose discourse is only of Lands and Livings Dogs and Horses Coaches and Howses Fine Cloathes and Banquets c. are no more able to Discerne it then a Mole to Behold the Sun To conclude this point A Poore man that is truly Gracious whose Heart is Rich towards GOD lookes upon himselfe as one of Those that have an interest in that Blessing which Our Saviour gave his Disciples * Blessed be ye Poor for yours is the Kingdome of GOD And in all those other large Promises which the GOD of Truth hath made to Believers which most commonly the Hearts of Christians Cleave unto so much the more closely by how much the lesse they have of the Good Things of this Life to Allure and Draw off their Thoughts Now my Brethren how such Sweet and Comfortable Words from Our Almighty Father as the Holy Scriptures abound with all being Apply'd by Faith will relieve the heart of any true Christian whil'st he labours under the heaviest sense of Outward Poverty What Comfort I say what Spirituall delight Sweetness a Poore CHRISTIAN Driven into Himselfe by the Stormes without if I may so expresse
THE QVIET SOULE OR The Peace and Tranquillity OF A CHRISTIANS ESTATE Set Forth in TWO SERMONS BY EDMUND ELYS Master of Arts and Fellow of Baliol-Colledg in OXFORD Qui non appetit hominibus placere nec timet displicere Multa perfruetur pace TH à KEMPIS OXFORD Printed by H. H. for Tho Robinson 1659. To the truly Vertuous and Excellent LADY Mris HESTER NOYE Madam THose deep Discourses which I have so often heard from you upon the Subject of this Small Book gave me the Occasion of Composing it and therefore I thought it my Duty to Dedicate it unto You. In perusing it you may Conceit that these few Good Thoughts of mine returne to You as small brooks and rivulets to the OCEAN from whence they came for seriously Madam I shall ever Acknowledg that one of the best waies I have found out to improve my Vnderstanding in Spirituall Things has been the Contemplation of that truly Noble and Christian Disposition which the Giver of every Good and Perfect Gift has Bestowed on You. Certainly those Vertuous Persons who have the happynesse to be Acquainted with You if they peruse this Discourse will imagine it to be no other then Your CHARACTER Considering what a rare thing that Temper of Mind is which here I Describe I Fancy they would have thought me to have had lōe Acquaintance with You though I had not Prefixt Your Name You Madam are one of those very few in the world who by the strength of true Sanctified Reason are able to Apprehend firmely and constantly these most important Truthes which scape the Notice of the generality of men That the things of the World are in themselves altogether Vanity That GOD is All in All c. The Sun of Righteousnesse thus Shining into Your Soule giving you a Cleare and full demonstration of these Truthes Scatters those Mists and Clouds of False Hopes and Feares Anxious Desires and Foolish Imaginations c. which continually hang over the Soules of those Persons which are by farre the greatest part of the World that are Earthly and Sensuall Shewing you that the only way to Set your heart at rest is to Acquiesce in the Enjoyment of GOD which you have in part here and in the Hopes of the fulnesse and Consummation of it which you shall have in Heaven hereafter If I have put you to a Blush for I know your Nature is such that you still endeavour to Fly the Praises your Actions all for I shall entreat you to consider that by what I have here spoken I did not Principally intend to Praise You but to Glorifie your MAKER for what have you that you have not receiv'd You know what Vse you are to make of being well spoken of To Thanke GOD for the Grace he hath given you and to Pray unto him for more It may be you will wonder to see me in Print again c. contrary to the Advice of so many of my honor'd Friends but seriously Madam to speak freely I have weigh'd all the Reasons that have been or I think can be produc'd to dissvvade me and I find them too light to Over-ballance my Resolution in this Designe vvherein I am sure I can do no man any harme but in all probability shall doe some good in the Service of HIM whose Favour is the only thing I would Absolutely Desire whose Displeasure is the onely thing I would Absolutely Avoid neither shall I ever charge my selfe as Guilty of Indiscretion which is the great Bugbear which some men would Fright me withall from such Vndertakings but when I find that through the Blindnesse of my Understanding or the Violence and Praecipitancy of my Affections I have Fallen into the one or have Missed the other I shall not hold you with any longer discourse Farewell And may the GOD of all Comfort Love and Embrace you and wipe off all Teares from your Eyes may You and I and all those whom we are Bound to Pray for Rest from our Labours from all doubts and feares all trouble and anguish and disturbance of Spirit in the Bosome of the Father through our LORD JESUS CHRIST To the READER Reader MEthinks I heare thee say as I have often heard others upon the like occasion What need more Books on this Subject have not such and such Learned men written on it allready and does this man think himselfe wiser then any of them To this I Answer that I conceive the Use of such Bookes may not onely be to make us Know what wee ought to Doe but to Excite us to Doe according to our Knowledg to beget in the mind of the Reader New Acts of Understanding such truths as he has already Received that if his former Notions being Weake and remisse suddenly broken off by Vaine thoughts and Passions have never had any Powerfull and Effectuall Influence upon his Will to ingage him to a stedfast Resolution and Constancy of Acting according to those Truthes his latter may To speake more closely I suppose thou mayest have read severall Treatises on this Subject which I Treat of in these following Leaves Penn'd it may be by men of more Learning then I shall ever attaine unto though I should Live more Lustres then yet I have seen Years and yet 't is very possible that thou mayest gain more good to thy Soule by these Lines of mine then ever thou did'st by theirs Suspend thy Judgment a little and doe not presently passe thy Censure upon me as Proud and selfe-conceited Two Reasons for this my Opinion others I have which I shall not divulge are these First 'T is very possible that when thou readest this Discourse thy Mind may be more Dispos'd Fitted to receive the matter therein deliver'd then it was when thou didst read the discourses of other men upon the same Subject Secondly Through the whole Course of the Observations I have made according to the time I have had to Exercise my Reason of My selfe and others I have found that Practicall Truthes are more or lesse taking according to the Expressions wherein they are set forth As Persons are esteem'd more or lesse Handsome according to the Dresses they go in I do not here imply that my Expressions are Better then others but that being not the same possibly they may be Better to Thee that is they may be more Suitable to thy Genius temper of Mind so the apter to insinuate into Thee the matter they carry in thē I have nomore to say to thee thē only to advise thee that if thou intendest to peruse this short Discours thou wouldst allow thy self more time for it then the small Bulk thereof may seem to require They that read such Discourses as this loosely cursorily usually misse of the greatest part of the Practicall Sense meaning of the Words which does as it were run beside whilst they endevour toe fast to Poure it into their minds Such kind of writings which are intended for the
my selfe Necessitated as it were to set his Faith on Worke to procure Comfort for him whilst Without he finds nothing but Poverty and Distresse what Spirituall Delight and Sweetnesse such a man may Suck out of these Brests of Consolations as the Scripture expression is thinke you who are true Believers Joy in the Holy Ghost in which as in effect I said but now commonly those Christians most abound who possesse least of the Things of the World No man can ever fully expresse and none but such as you can in any measure rightly conceive I come now to shew you that Sicknesse also affords matter of Comfort to any true Believer This truth I might easily make appeare unto you many wayes but because I shall hasten to the Application wherein I shall spend more time then ordinary I shall onely mention one Reason of it Sicknesse you know naturally puts a man in mind of Death and what can be more Comfortable to a Syncere Christian then the thoughts of that What can be more Comfortable to a Child of GOD then the thoughts of that happy time when he shall Goe Home to his Father when he shall fully enjoy his Maker and his Redeemer To speake more at large A Syncere Christian whose thoughts his Heart being as it were Set on Fire with Love to God continually Fly upward as Sparkes towards Heaven Usually when he Feeles any Paine presently considers the Naturall Frailty and Mortality of his Body thereupon his Soule Rejoyces in this Hope that shortly when a Few * Dayes are past She shall cast it off from her as that which so Clogs and Hinders her and deprives her of that Vigour and Quicknesse which she desires in her Spirituall Operations in the Service of her Maker which she is mainly yea wholly intent upon Now Beloved if Death be so Desirable to a true Christian Judge yee what Comfort his Sicknesse affords him which continually supplies him with fresh thoughts and strong Apprehensions of Mortality And thus I have briefly demonstrated unto you that a Christians Faith is able to extract Comfort out of those two things which are so terrible to the generality of Men Poverty and Sicknesse I am now to shew you how this Victorious Grace by which we Overcome the World softens unto us also that other Hard Thing DISGRACE or the Losse of our Good-Name and Esteem amongst men making the Sowernesse of the Worlds carriage towards us serve us as it were for Sauce at the Feast of our Good Conscience The heavyest Disgrace or Infamy which in this life a Child of GOD lyes under is occasioned by these or the like meanes A Report that he hath beene guilty of some notorious Basenesse and Impiety or a Misconceit of his good Actions which proceeding from such Principles as Carnall men who are by farre the greatest part of the World are in no wise able to Apprehend cannot but be Misconstrued Hence it is that they Nick-Name all his Vertues endeavour to render him most Odious and Contemptible for those Actions by which he knows himselfe chiefly to deserve Love and Respect from all those that are truly Noble and Heavenly-minded Thus when a Christian shewes himselfe Humble how do the men of the World mistake him for a Sneaking mean-spirited fellow when Magnanimous for Proud and selfe-conceited If the Infamy a Christian suffers be occasioned by such a Report as I mentioned but now if it be true he Comforts himselfe in it upon this account that it is unto him a continuall Memento to Repent and Bemoane himselfe for the Commission of that Sin and to Rejoyce in GOD by whose Spirit he is perswaded that his Sins are forgiven him If the Report be false the Abused Christian greatly Rejoyces in the Thoughts of that Grace which Restrained him from that Action of which hee is supposed to be Guilty into which if he had been left to himselfe he might have Rushed * As the Horse Rusheth into the Battell being Naturally prone to every thing that is Evill Another Ground of the Comfort a Godly man takes in such a Case is that he finds himselfe often Stirr'd up to Pray unto GOD saying with Holy DAVID Hold up my goings in thy paths * that my Footsteps slip not upon this consideration that there are so many that would Rejoyce over him if he should but Fall These and a thousand other occasions of Comfort do the Godly apprehend to Lighten their hearts to delight their Soules whensoever they reflect upon those heavy Censures Calumnies and Revilings with which they are continually Loaden The more the World hates them the stronger apprehensions they have of the Favour of GOD He is their * Covert from storme and from raine In him they Rest secure from the Stormy Wind of all those Ill Reports Calumnies and Reproaches they heare continually raised against them with such a kind of Delight as a man hath when he lyes Warme in his Bed and hearkens to a Tempest But now as for that Misconceit which all the World hath of the Good Actions of Pious men as for that Shame which they must expect as they are Christians constantly to suffer for discovering their Zeale for GOD and their Fiery indignation against any Allowed wickednesse amongst those with whom they converse being usually accounted Phreneticke Hot-headed fellowes for contemning the things of the World Childish and Imprudent for Disdaining to be guided by mere Example in any Course they take Proud and Haughty for separating themselves from Vaine Conversation Singular and Self-conceited As for this I say it is so farre from troubling those that are Christians indeed that they exceedingly Rejoyce in it Remembring those words of their Saviour * Blessed are yee when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you I shall now conclude this point that a true Christian takes Comfort in the Apprehension of his Present Estate shewing you to confirme you in the Apprehension of this most Usefull Truth the Generall Cause and Well-head of all those streames of Consolation which continually flow into his Soule whensoever he reflects upon the condition he is in here it is he is assur'd through Faith that The Great GOD the Author and Disposer of all things Loves him and will love him for ever and hereupon he assumes this confidence that the condition he is in is that which at This Time is Best for Him As for the last Proposition that I promised to demonstrate unto you that a true Christian through Faith takes Comfort in the Expectation of any condition he may be in for the Future I shall not need to spend many words on it it appeares so plaine in what hath been already delivered Expectation being a kind of Apprehension as I said in the beginning of