and Pleasure to these Eternal Consorts of the Heavenly Hallelujahs Assure to me my Gracious God! The Pleasures of that Life and let the eager Courters of them take all the Joys of this let me be one of those that sit on thy Right Hand there and dispose as thou pleasest the Blessings of thy Left Hand here I shall not grudg to part with all whilst I gain thee O Blessed State of Immortality Write my Name in thy Book O my Glorious Creator Sanctifie me with thy Grace O thou ever Blessed Spirit and then Come Lord Jesus make no long tarrying A DIALOGUE ON THE Contempt of the WORLD Between the TEMPTER and SOUL TEMPTER COme Noble Soul enjoy the day And drive distracting Cares away For Pleasures Heav'n did Thee design Then Crown with Roses and with Wine SOUL To Heav'nly Bliss the Heav'nly King Designs Immortal Souls to bring Such Frothy Joys thou dost prepare Thou Foolish Monarch of the Air. TEMPTER See how the Generous Juice inspires Noble Thoughts and soft Desires See Wit like it sparkling and Bright That steals away the Nimble Night SOUL No rather Tempter let me find The Comforts of a Peaceful mind Such Joys as Ravisht Saints do feel As they Devout at Altar Kneel TEMPTER Oh! Tast the Joys of tender Love The softness of the Paphian Dove See! How Transported Lovers lie And in Elysium seem to die SOUL No feel the Joys from him above Who 's God of Peace as well as Love Unmingled Bliss and constant Charms Flow only Jesu from thy Arms. TEMPTER The Misers Pleasure next Adore The Beauties of the shining Ore How Pleasant is it to behold Large Farms and ponderous Bags of Gold SOUL I joy with th' Eye of Faith to see The Riches of Eternity These always shall remain the same Whilst those shall perish in the Flame TEMPTER Go thou in Honours Chariot Ride And Triumph in the Glorious Pride Fames Trumpet speak thy Praise aloud Thou Walking thro' the bowing Crow'd SOUL Thou know'st false Friend the greatest Fame Vertue and Religion claim And what the Noblest-Honour brings Is for to serve the King of Kings TEMPTER Then toucht with some Celestial Flame Seek out at least some future Fame Mens Tongues shall thee a Being give And make thee in the Grave to live SOUL I hope in Heav'n Eternally To live when thou shalt Wish to die When an immortal Starry Crown My joyful Temples shall surround When a New Body all Divine Shall the Phoebean Lamp outshine When I shall see i th' Triune Glass Whate're shall be or is or was When I shall feel my exulting Soul In Oceans of fresh Pleasure Role When Death and Time shall be no more But New Joys still augment the store And an Eternal Next shall always be before FINIS BOOKS Printed and are to be sold by F. Saunders THE Baronage of England 2 Vol. by Sir William Dugdale Beaumont and Fletchers Works Shakespears Works Ben Johnson's Works Mr. Cowley's Works Sir William Davenants Works The History of the Council of Trent The Civil Wars of France by Davilo The History of Venice by Paulo Paratu Earl of Orrerys Plays Sir Robert Howards Plays The History of Siam by Monsieur Lou Bere in English with Cuts Mr. Killigrews Plays Mr. Drydens Plays and Poems Mr. Shadwells Plays Sir Charles Sedley's Plays Sir George Elheredges Plays Mr Wycherly's Plays Sherlock's Practical Christian Mr. Wallers Poems Sir John Denhams Poems Dr. Dom's Poems Hudibras Quevedo's Visions Scarroon's Novels The Life of Alexander the Great The Life of Theodosius the Great Memoirs of the Court of Spain Mr. Boyles Seraphick Love Style of the Scriptures A Present for the Ladies being an Historical Account of the Female Sex Zingis a Tartarian History Sultan of Barbary a Novel Philantry and Bellamont a Novel ERRATA PAge 6. for things it self read things themselves p. 21. f. the wise r. Tho' wise p. 23. f. from Disposition of Body r. from an Indisposition of Body p. 30. f. five particulars r. six particulars Ibid. add 6ly To place our Affections on Heavenly things p. 36. f. Judicial r. Judaical p. 52. f. which Rich Men c. r. which Rich Men envy the Poor Man for and would sometimes â—art with all they have to enjoy p. 61. f. contribute r. contributes p. 100. f. inbred r. ill-bred p. 110. f. Almighty goodness r. the Almighty goodness p. 116. f. Laws r. Law p. 119. f. Arius and Dioscorus r. Arius and Novatianus p. 122. blot out or p. 124. f. Letnuli r. Lentuli p. 125. f. so due courteousness r. a due ibid. f. and be far r. and to be far p. 134. f. his Sunshine r. this Sunshine p. 137. f. one ill success r. our ill success
the Day-time that so they may be able to hold out their Trade the longer Add to this the Trouble and Disturbance which is given to Servants and Attendants to whom a certain Regard is due and oftentimes to whole Families and this will be a Motive to a good natured Man to find out some sitter Opportunities to drink in Fifthly That he should not spend too much Money in Drinking Many a Man has been ruined in the World not only by keeping a drunken Company but one that has been too expensive for him For one Man can afford to spend more upon his Diversion than will keep another Man's Family so that if an ordinary Mechanick will keep Company with none but Gentlemen and Merchants 't is ten to one but he starves his Family by only paying his Club with them who yet may never drink to excess all the while For every poor Man cannot pretend to those more generous Drinks which may be well enough afforded by Persons of better Quality the drinking of them may be no Detriment to their Families whilst the other Man's Children may pine for Bread as he is drinking Wine Now such a Man ought to consider that his Diversion is the last thing he ought to consult that he ought to provide his Family of Necessaries before he allows himself those Superfluities and that his pleading that he never drinks to excess will not in the least attone for his Inhumanity and Barbarity to his poor Family And perhaps more Families of late in the Nation have been ruined by this affectatious Vanity than by down right Debauchery since Men of all Qualities almost have endeavoured to live alike since every little Man is ambitious of keep the best Company out of hopes of getting some considerable Character and Reputation by it although by all sensible Men of their own Cabal he is lookt upon but as a bold and ostentatious Fellow and is adjudged by God Almighty for not providing for those of his own House to be worse than an Infidel Of Chastity The third Branch of Temperance is Chastity which is a Vertue which consists in avoiding all unclean Actions and all immodest Behaviour Now therefore that we may be perfect in this we ought First To avoid all unclean Actions whatsoever in an unmarried State I will not say that a State of Virginity is a State of Perfection but it is certainly a State of very great Beauty and Purity 't is that which comes near to the State of Angels and the nighest of any thing in this World to the Nature of God himself But then this State is to be a State of Virginity indeed not only of Celibacy as the Papists generally make it where if the Parties keep from Marrying they may commit all the Whoredoms and Villanies in the World and yet keep their Oath of Continency most strenuously Nay to see how they abuse the State of Virginity with such abominable Permissions and Dispensations it would put a modest Heathen to the Blush To find how a great number of the Casuists of that Church make simple Fornication but a Venial Sin and when for Health Sake and to expel an extimulant Humor no Sin at all that the Pope can give a License to commit it nay that he has actually granted such a License as is beyond what any Man though never so wicked would expect for Pope Pius III. gave Leave to the Cardinal of St. Lucia and all his Family to commit Sodomy all the three hot Months in the Year And indeed the Libertines of the Church of England are so far reconciled to the Romish Church as to plead for the Lawfulness of Fornication as strenuously as they with this only difference that these say their Church has made it no Sin and the other are pleased to say that their Priests only have made it One Therefore this deserves to be considered a little more particularly First Fornication and all other Acts of Uncleanness are sinful because they are an Undervaluing our Nature the putting us upon the most shameful Practices such as no sober Reason will allow contrary to the Design and Purport of Nature and to the unspeakable Abuse and Dishonor both of Soul and Body For our Bodies were given us by God Almighty to be serviceable to the Soul in all Spiritual and Rational Employments and for the Conveyance of sensual Pleasures as far as may make for the Preservation and comfortable Subsistence of the Animal Life but not to employ them to the vilest purposes not to make them a Drudge to our wicked Lusts and Desires and to serve to all the filthy ends of Beastliness and Sensuality Nay the Apostle carries on this Argument farther 1 Cor. 6. where he bids us flee Fornication because our Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost and therefore it is an horrible Impiety to profane with our wicked Lusts that Place which is taken up for the Residence of the ever blessed Spirit But then what a greater Dishonor is it to our immortal Souls those pure Aethereal Substances those Angelick Natures to consent to such vile Actions contrary to all natural Law and Reason to make them so undervalue themselves and to neglect their own Interest and Happiness And upon this account the Wise Man informs us Prâ—v 6.32 Whoso commiteth Adultery with a Woman lacketh Understanding that is he never acts more unbecoming an intelligent Being he never degrades Reason more than in that and such like Actions Secondly This is contrary to the End and Institution of Matrimony that State which God himself has appointed for the Propagation of Mankind and for mutual Comfort and Assistance in this Life For when once Men betake themselves to these unlawful Pleasures they grow very cold and indifferent to the Comforts of a married Life and take all Opportunities to despise it as an Enemy to their Pleasures and natural Freedom But this at best is but audaciously to break out from those Fences which God Almighty has made about us and to pretend to a Freedom which is inconsistent with our Nature and contrary to our Obedience 'T is to cassate and make void God's Holy Ordinance to contemn and trample under foot that Primitive Institution as old as our very State of Innocency 't is to invert the Order and Prescript of Nature to wrest God's Dispensations out of his Hands and to prosecute their Enjoyments upon their own Terms and Measures Thirdly 'T is contrary to the express Word of God For setting aside the Seventh Commandment where under Adultery all Sins of Uncleanness are forbidden and the woful Denunciation against them in many Places of the Old Testament our Saviour's Command Mat. 5.27 has improved the old Precept Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit Adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart Then certainly all outward acts of
part of it an inconsiderable punctilio of Worldly Honour which every Wise Man ought to despise but yet it made such an impression upon this great Man that it swallowed up all the other delights he might have enjoyed and made him rather choose to be miserable to himself than not to be valued by another The second Instance is that of King Ahab who though he possessed all the Riches and Honours of a Crown yet because he was disappointed of the purchase of a poor Mans Vineyard the soft delights of his Palace give no relish to him upon this disappointment but amidst all the Luxurious Entertainment of an Eastern Court he laid him down upon his Bed and turned away his Face and would eat no Bread 2 King 21.4 Now this foolish Prince was so far from contemning the World that he doted upon it his Vanity or Covetousness or both had got that ascendant over him that he would rather suffer his Life to be miserable than to want some additional Happiness he fancied he should acquire by possessing that poors Mans Inheritance Therefore the best way to try when we lie under discontent whether our contempt of the World be true and genuine and such as the Gospel doth recommend is to consider whether or no we should despise the World at the same rate if the causes of our Discontent were removed if we should after the same manner undervalue Riches and Pleasures and Honours in a mighty affluence of all these as when we are in the greatest want of them if we do Despise the World out of Love to God and Obedience to his Commands and not out of Love to our selves and to gratifie our own Spleen and Passions if our neglect of all Worldly things is bottomed upon the Excellency of our Immortal Natures upon the greatness of our everlasting Reward in Heaven to which not only the Sufferings but all the Enjoyments of this present World are not worthy to be compared But to despise and undervalue the World upon any other Account bespeaks us only to be of a peevish angry temper not to have a mind to improve our Religion by it but only to vent our Spleen And indeed no one will like the World the less for such Railing against it any more than they will believe Discarded Favourites Despairing Amoretto's and Disbanded Soldiers when they Rail against their Princes their Mistresses or their Commanders I have now done with the mistakes concerning the Contempt of the World I thought fit to mention and I proceed to shew in what a Contempt of the World does consist CHAP. III. In what a true Contempt of the World doth consist NOW I think a Man may be said to have arrived to a true Christian Contempt of the World if he take care to observe these five particulars 1. To keep always the true Christian greatness of Mind 2. To be Content 3. To practice all manner of Temperance 4. To be Humble 5. To be Patient SECT I. That a Contempt of the World doth consist in a Christian Magnanimity or Greatness of Mind First Therefore a Contempt of the World doth consist in the Christian Magnanimity Magnanimity or in keeping up to that Greatness of Mind which is required under the Gospel That Magnanimity or Greatness of Mind which was so talkt of and extolled by the Heathens I am inclined to believe was rather Pride than any thing else We find the Stoicks Books full of this kind of Declamation They are all for Magnifying this sort of Temper which they thought they had framed for themselves by appearing above the rest of the World by making themselves in a manner Gods and the rest of the World Slaves and Fools They did not so much endeavour to raise in the World a great Opinion of Virtue as one of themselves and all those great Elogiums they invented upon the Contempt of Pleasure and the Philosophical Happiness in the midst of Misery seem'd rather design'd upon the Philosophers themselves than their Subject For if we look into the History of the Antients we shall find that few of all the Antient Philosophers excepting only Socrates whom we may call an inspired Heathen and a Forerunner of Christianity but lived contrary to the Opinions they profest And indeed the Principles they went upon were too weak to support that Greatness of Mind which they pretended to For there is no reason Absolutely to despise the good Things of this World and to raise our Minds so far above them as not to think them worth our regarding in themselves For the Fabrick of the Universe is a most glorious and admirable Composure the Pleasures of the Earth are Entertaining and Delightful and are the subject of no Man's Contempt simply considered But when we consider them in Comparison with the Joys of another World then they seem such little empty Nothings that any Wise Man must contemn and undervalue them when he has his Eye fixed upon that Blessed State of Immortality Now because the Philosophers and others among the Heathens had no Revelation of this other State they could not upon these just grounds undervalue the good Things of this World and therefore when they pretended to it their Aversion seemed bottomed chiefly upon Pride or Moroseness or at least an Affectation of Singularity But we Christians have all the Reason in the World to put on a Spirit of Magnanimity and to have our Souls raised above the rest of Mankind because we cannot turn our Eyes upon any part almost of our Religion but we find enough satisfaction to elevate the most Drooping Spirit 1. As first when we consider barely our Profession how we stand distinguished from the rest of the World that God has called us with an holy calling 2 Tim. 1. that we are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a peculiar People 1 Pet. 2.9 These Considerations are sufficient to raise our Minds above all Worldly Satisfactions and make us look on them as mean and pitiful Things if we have that true sense of them which we ought to have For what greater Honour can we possibly attain to than this of our Christian Profession We are wont strangely to overvalue to talk and think mighty things of our selves when we are raised to a higher step of Honour than we were before only because our Prince has vouchsafed to lend to us a Beam or two of his Dignity and has given us a special Badge or Character to be distinguished from the multitude of the Nation We are apt to rate our selves something higher in our own Estimation when we consider how much we stand in the Favour of so great a Person But when we consider that we Christians are the Favorites of the Great God of Heaven and Earth that we receive our Title from the King of Kings who is ten thousand times more above the most puissant Monarch than he is above the meanest of his Subjects when we consider that he has given
us this distinguishing Character of our Profession that he himself has directed us to a Calling thereby to be distinguished from the confused Multitude of Mankind this should in spirit our Souls with such noble Thoughts and Resolutions as should make us seem above every thing we see about us here For what Honour can Riches or Titles reflect upon us when we are already invested with the Ensigns of Honour from God himself Or however we shall shamefully disgrace the Dignity of our Profession if we let others value themselves more upon a few empty Titles which are only guilded Names a few Words or Syllables which the People are commanded to speak with Respect than we do this Dignity of our Christian Profession which we have delivered to us by the Hand and Authority of our great Great Creator 2. We see most Men that have taken up any kind of Calling or Profession whether Liberal or otherways do retain an extraordinary Respect and Veneration for the Founder of that Profession and do Pride themselves in being Followers of so eminent a Person in his Generation Thus we find that not only Monks and Friers do think they have an Honour derived upon them from the Founders of their respective Orders but even Mechanicks are wont to set a Value upon themselves from the Reputation of the Author of their Mystery But none came up in this Point to the ancient Philosophers who were very good Judges of the Reason of Things for they seem often times in a manner transported when they reflect upon the Honour they received from being Scholars and Followers of the Great Masters and Authors of their Sect. We may perceive very often Lucretius to leave his Subject to run Panegyricks upon his admired Master Epicurus Nay Tully and Seneca frequently break a Period to commend Plato or Zeno. But what are all these to the Author of our Profession our Lord Jesus Christ God Blessed for ever These 't is true were great Men and famous in their Generations who have blessed the World with curious Inventions and admirable Sciences but the Author and Finisher of our Faith the Founder of our Christian Religion is no less than the eternal Son of God that came down from Heaven left his Father's Bosom emptied himself and eclipsed his eternal Glory to plant this Holy Religion here below to purifie himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Tit. 2.14 Now if the good Fortune of a Lucky Inventor if the great Wit and Study of a learned Philosopher if the strict Rules and Methods of a rigid Ascetick can reflect so much Honour upon their Followers as to look upon themselves on that account the Nobler and Happier To what Hights and Elevations of Mind should our Souls be raised whose Profession is of so Divine Original the Author of whose Religion is as far above Aristotle and Plato Zeno and Democritus as the eternal Wisdom of God is above the slight Sophisms and Conjectures in Philosophy 3. If we look but upon the admirable Rules of our Holy Religion by which it stands distinguished both from the Law Natural and Judicial we must needs have our Minds raised to a peculiar Degree of Greatness as being thought worthy to be the Professors of so pure a Doctrine How do the Philosophers in their Books applaud their great Happiness by having attained to the wise Rules and Precepts of Morality that they by these were enabled to live like Men whilst the greatest part of Mankind lived more pecudum like Beasts in Stupidity and Sensuality And yet the greatest Hights that their Philosophers could attain to fell vastly short of those admirable Precepts which are enjoyned by our Blessed Saviour To see in our Religion a devout Saint denying his Affections Crucifying his Flesh and abridging himself not only of Unlawful and Superfluous but almost of necessary Enjoyments to live with that Exactness as expecting always to die and to die with that Chearfulness as being to live for ever to suffer Persecution and Torments not only with tranquility and composedness of Mind but even with Joy and Triumph to resign up his innocent Breath Praying for his Enemies and Persecutors and blessing the very Hand which is the Author of his Ruine This must needs make us applaud our Felicity in belonging to such a Religion which can produce such blessed and admirable Effects to despise all the little Arts of vain Philosophy and to think the Rules thereof very imperfect and insufficient which the great Proficients in it could little benefit by but would leave the great Master himself oftentimes Proud and Revengeful Ambitious and Luxurious after all his mighty Declamations against Vice and his Panegyricks upon Vertue 4. But more especially when we look upon the end of our Hopes our eternal Reward which is promised to us in another World this is the most powerful Motive of all to this magnanimous Contempt of the World which we are speaking of If Philosophy only could in a great measure effect this which did propose no other Happiness but the Excellency and Reward of Vertue it self and the Satisfaction it bred in a vertuous Mind How ought our Souls to be transported and raised above themselves and to think all things else nothing when we consider the Vastness and Immenseness of those Joys Indeed some Men have contributed by their Notions to lessen this Valuation of the Joys in another World and have much slackned Mens Endeavours after this unexpressible Happiness by asserting that it is too selfish a thing to propound our being Happy hereafter as the greatest Motive of our Obedience but that it is the only Christian Rule to propose the Glory of God as the ultimate end of all our Actions Nay some have run so far as to say that Men stand obliged to glorifie God by their own endless Destruction and that when they are predestinated to everlasting Misery they ought not to repine because God's Glory is manifested thereby But this is a most unreasonable Mistake than which nothing can be more reflecting upon the Goodness of God and more prejudicial to true Piety For such Texts of Scripture as these Do all to the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 that God in all things may be glorified 1 Pet. 4.11 do not make God's Glory a distinct thing from our own Happiness but are so far from engaging us to the glorifying of God without considering whether it be by our Happiness or Misery that we are to make our own Happiness the end of all our Actions because God is most Glorified by the Happiness of his Creatures For to fancy that God Created us only to Glorifie and Praise him would be a far greater Absurdity and would rather make God Almighty a Selfish Being to Create us only for his own Ends to sing Halleluja's and reflect his own Praises to him to all Eternity This would be to impure the greatest Vanity imaginable to the Best and Wisest Being but if we would think reasonably
and as we ought to do of God we must think that he created us on purpose to do us Good that he has implanted in us a Faculty to desire above all things our own Happiness and when we do attain that God's Glory is thereby the most manifested So that 't is all one whether we desire God's Glory or our own Happiness because God's Glory is shown in our being Happy But though we have all these Motives to raise in us this Magnanimity or Greatness of Soul which a true Christian ought to have yet we must take Care whilst we are pursuing of this that we do not fall into Spiritual Pride For to Pride our selves in those Free Graces which God had given us to impute them to our own Power and Endeavours and to despise others to whom God's Holy Spirit has been more sparing in his Influences is so far from a true Christian Magnanimity that it is a certain sign of a little and a narrow Soul This is so far from being a Christian Vertue that it is the most Devilish Vice a Man can commit It is the true and proper Sin of the Devil for it was that which did principally occasion his Fall But we must let this Vertue of ours appear by retaining the Greatest and Noblest Thoughts of God we possibly can by truly considering the Excellency of our Religion and the Gloriousness of its Rewards by meditating upon the Nobleness of our Nature and the Turpitude of Sin by thinking upon God's Hatred to Vice and his great Desire to have us like him by weighing the Dignity of our Calling and the inestimable Price of our Redemption and then bravely to resolve never to do any thing unbecoming those to whom God has vouchsafed so much Favour never by a base Ingratitude to offend so great a Benefactor SECT II. That a Contempt of the World does consist in being Content A True Contempt of the World doth consist in arriving to a due Contentedness in whatsoever State of Life God shall think fit to place us I do not take Content here in its largest Extent so as to include such an universal Chearfulness of Mind and ready Compliance with the Divine Pleasure as to be content with the good things we enjoy and withal patient under the Pains and Calamities we suffer But I shall restrain the Word to its narrower and more common signification by which we understand such an Indifferency towards the State of Life we are to go through here as not to be over concerned about the Possession of Riches whether we have them or have them not For as for that part of Contentedness which is conversant about the bearing of Pain Sickness or other Calamities I shall discourse of that under another Head viz. Of Patience Now it is plain than no Man can be said to despise the World that has an inordinate Desire for the Riches of it that will not suffer himself to enjoy these Comforts which God has given him by his impatient longing for more that has such a hankering after the little Trifles of this World Lands Moneys c. that he durst not trust Providence with the Disposal of them but will himself endeavour after them by unjust Means and Artifices and distract himself with thoughts of enjoying them for the future at the Expence of his present Quiet and Satisfaction Now this must be so far from despising the World that it is a perfect Idolizing of it for as the Apostle teaches Covetousness is Idolatry and it is all one to let our Knees bow to Baal or Astaroth or to say to Gold thou art my Hope or to fine Gold thou art my Confidence Job 31.24 Therefore he that would arrive at a true Contempt of the World must take care Not to trust in Riches 1. Not to put his Trust and Confidence in the Riches which God has bestowed upon him This is the Advice of the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this World that they trust not in uncertain Riches I believe there are few Men in the World who will own this Charge because 't is so easiy to be convinced of the contrary they know Ten thousand Pounds a Year will no sooner secure a Man from the Grave than Ten Pounds and that a Lord has no better Title to Heaven than a Beggar They know that Riches will of themselves cure no Disease though they may breed a Thousand and that a Bag of Gold will afford no more Ease in a Fit of the Gout than a Sack of Chaff But yet it so happens for all this that when Men are arrived to a great Degree of Wealth they act as if their Money could do every thing as if it could not only purchase them Pleasure and Honor but even Immortality For if such Men did not really trust in their Riches Why should they neglect all the true Means of their future Happiness to acquire these Why should they beggar their Souls to improve their Estates Why should they neglect God's Worship and violate his Laws Why should they defraud their Neighbour nay even their own Backs and Bellies to gain an immeasurable quantity of their beloved Riches If they did not really trust in these Why should they behave themselves with that insupportable Haughtiness to Men of lower Fortunes to look upon Men of little or no Estates only as the Cattle or Vermine of the World and to treat them as their Slaves and Vassals For such a Temper as this is as far from a Contempt of the World as Epicurism is from Abstemiousness and Mortification and as inconsistent with it as the true Worship of God is with the Service of Mammon We ought in Order to this Vertue to look upon our Riches only as our Viaticum to sustain us in our Journey to another World to be very indifferent whether our Fare be so very much or so very delicious or no we need only take care that it be but enough to bring us thither We must consider that 't is but a little time we can enjoy them and therefore 't is not worth ones while to set ones Heart upon that which we must so shortly part with but that we ought rather to leave them with the same Readiness as a Man puts off his Riding Cloaths when he comes to his Journeys End We see how sadly that poor Wretch was disappointed who had other Thoughts of these things Luke 12.19 Soul says he thou hast much Goods laid up for many years take thy Ease Eat Drink and be Merry He thought he was like to have a glorious time of it he found he had Health to enjoy his Pleasures and Pleasures to gratifie his Appetite he fancied he could not Wish faster than he could Enjoy and that his Full Barns would never leave his Desires empty But alas this jolly Scene of Imagination was quickly over-clouded by a Melancholly Message Thou Fool this Night shall Soul be required of thee Ver. 20. The
other satisfactions that we were not Born into the World together and therefore it must be expected that one must go before Have we lost a Good and Dutiful Child the comfort of our Lifes and the Hopes of our Family We are not overmuch to bewail our Misfortune because it has happened for his Good God himself has Adopted him into a better Inheritance than we could have provided for him and has adorned him with one of the Virgin Crowns of Heaven as a Reward of his early Piety Rev. 14.4 Were not our Hearts whilst he lived too much set upon him And did we not too much love and admire the Creature to the neglect of the Creator Was it not necessary to have this Bar removed to have our love return into its true Chanel Had not God before tried many ineffectual Scourges and Corrections to bring us to Repentance till at last he was forced to rouze up our sleeping Consciences like the Aegyptians by such an amazing Judgment as the smiting our first born So that all this may be the effect of Gods Love and Tenderness for the Salvation of our Souls and therefore ought to be repaid by a thankfulness and an acknowledgment of his Mercy and not by a Repining at his Providence Have we a Dear Friend snatched away from us by unexpected Death whose love like Jonathans was very pleasant unto us wonderful and passing the love of Women Yet God our best Friend will remain with us his Friendship can be ended by no Period of Time nor can be equalled by any Mortal Affection for he so loved the World that he gave his only begotton Son to Die for us Shall we bemoan and hunker after the senseless Ashes of a departed Friend and neglect to repay our Love to the ever blessed Jesus that Miracle of Love and Friendship who so loved us as to lay down his Life for us Have we lost a bountiful Benefactor who has hitherto liberally rewarded our Industry and upon whose Munificence we still depended for further Advantage It is true we can never pay acknowledgment enough to the Memory of so Noble a Friend and we must Write the sense of his Kindnesses upon our Hearts in indelible Characters but we ought not by that to distrust Gods Providence and to let our Gratitude run over the great Original Cause of our Happiness only by fixing our Eyes upon the blessed Instrument of his Goodness We should consider that it was a Signal Token of Gods Kindness to us that our Benefactor made such early Provision for us and that he remembred us before he went to the Grave where all things are forgotten Under Slander 3. Not to be Impatient or Dejected for the loss of our good Name It is perhaps one of the Killingest Griefs which can befal a Man to lose his Reputation in the World to have all peoples Tongues sounding in his Reproach which he has not in the least merited and to be laying to his charge things which he never did But then he must consider that this is the common fate of many Innocent Men nay the greater part of them that are of the most shining Piety for their Goodness exposes them to the Envy of those malicious Tongues whose wickedness does reproach them whilst the Vertues of the other shines forth with such brightness Our Blessed Saviour himself that inimitable Example of a spotless Integrity had all the blackness of Guilt thrown upon him which the malice of Devils and Devilish men could invent After all his Sobriety and Temperance after all his Mortifications his long and unparalleled Fasting he was reproached as a Glutton and a Wine bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners Tho' he spake such things as never man spake tho' he so frequently confuted the Jewish Doctors Vindicated Moses from the wicked Glosses they had drest him up in tho' he over and over made it appear to them that he did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil yet he was reproached as a Preacher of strange Doctrines as a Seditious Person that set up for a Temporal Kingdom in opposition to Caesar that he had no Commission and Authority for his Preaching that he had a Devil and came to destroy Moses and the Prophets Altho' he produced Miracles in confirmation of his Doctrines to the astonishment of the Beholders more and greater than all the Prophets down from Moses to Malachy yet they attributed all the efficacy of his Almighty Spirit to the power of Satan and would have him to cast out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of the Devils When therefore we have so great an Example before us of reproached Innocence we ought to account it matter of great Joy to be thought fit to tread in the steps of our blessed Master We fall infinitely short in Dignity to our Glorious Redeemer and therefore any Disgrace which we can suffer must be inconsiderable to that which he underwent who yet notwithstanding this despised the shame Whatever Infamy we undergo yet if we have a good Conscience to bear up our Spirits we may defy all the Censure of the ill-natur'd World when we have his Sun-shine within our own Breasts we need not value all the gloomy Clouds which hang hovering without us 'T is to the Judgment of God that we are to stand or fall and not to that of peevish men and if we can keep a Conscience void of offence in his sight who knows our Innocency we need not much matter how we appear in the vitiated Eyes of others 'T is but the ill Opinion which some good men have of us that need to disturb us and they will shortly be undeceived either by our vindicated Integrity in this World or in the great Judgment of the other when all hidden things shall be revealed but as for the Evil ones we could never expect to have their good word unless we would agree to be as wicked as they It is but a little time in comparison of the duration of our Being before our Innocence will be compleatly cleared and why should we be more hasty than God is who defers the vindicating of his Providence to that great time of Retribution altho' he sees his Being Disputed his Providence Denied his holy Name and Word every day Blasphemed by Insolent and Daring Sinners 4. Loss of Preferments To bear patiently the loss of any Honour or Preferment we expected If we would contemn the World as we ought to do we ought not so to set our Hearts upon any thing we have a mind to here but that we bear the disappointment of it with a great deal of Temper and Indifferency for we ought to consider that this is a World of Contingencies which no one can expect a constant run of Fortune in that there are so many unexpected hits which turn the Scales in every Design we embark in that there are so many cross Rubs which lie in the way that we can never be positively
thought worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ For it shews but a pitiful zeal for our Religion to stand up for it only when we prosper and flourish under it to follow Christ only whilst he feeds us with the Loaves and to forsake him in the Garden and at Mount Calvary This indeed is the hardest Lesson which Christianity teaches but then it is encouraged with the most glorious Rewards Mat. 5.12 2 Tim. 4.8 Rev. 2.10 The Hopes of this made the Primitive Professors of our Religion with the greatest Earnestness even to desire and pray for Martyrdom and to wish for the greatest of Sufferings to the end that they might enjoy the greater Reward The Hopes of this inspired those noble Armies of Martyrs with that brave Spirit and Resolution as made them outface Death in his grimest Aspect that made tender Virgins to leave the Nuptial Garlands for the Crown of Martyrdom that enabled others to go singing to the Racks and the Lyons to smile upon the Gridirons and in the midst of the Chaldrons that did invigorate them with that invincible Patience whereby they wearied out not only the Cruelty but even the Invention of the Tormentors SECT VI. That a Contempt of the World doth consist in setting our Affections upon God and Heavenly Things HItherto Morality has shewed us the way to Contemn the World and the dusky Lamp of Nature has gone before us and afforded us Light enough to discover the Vanities thereof and how unreasonable and dishonourable it is for a Rational Creature to be defiled by those Pleasures or overcome by those Passions which betray him into Covetousness and Excess Pride and Impatience For many of the Heathen World have been eminent in those Vertues we have hitherto been describing or at least they have pretended to them as much as the devoutest Christian They have been so magnanimously Brave as to scorn to do a base thing for the sake of the Honourableness of Vertue and the Turpitude of Vice They have despised all the Riches of the World with the most fastidious Contempt they have been Temperate to admiration have been Modest as the Reclusest Vestal and Chast as the Flamen's Bed they have neglected all proffered Honour and affected the meanest Obscurity they have bore Pain with an invincible Patience and outfaced Death it self with a stupendious Bravery But yet there are some farther Heights which Christianity enjoyns that are necessary to a true Contempt of the World and which the Heathens were ignorant of And those are contained in that former Part of the Apostles Precept Set your Affections on things above and not on things on the Earth Col. 3.2 Now a great Number of them like Men of Sense and Spirit thought these little things upon the Earth were too vile to set their Affections on and that it would reflect upon their Rationality to be enamoured with such fleeting Pleasures But then they were unable to perform the former Part of the Command for they had but very imperfect Notions of those things above which are the true and noble Objects of our Affections These clear Manifestations which God has been pleased to make to us of his Nature and the unquestionable Promises he has given us of an eternal Reward in another Life have in them a Magnetick Attraction to raise our Affections a great deal higher to hinder their dull Weight from pulling them downwards to the Earth and do as it were draw them to another Centre Morality indeed might effect that a Man should not lie groveling upon the Ground and wallowing in sensual Pleasures it would enable him in some measure to stand erect like a reasonable Creature and not to stoop down to every puny Object that lay before him but those happy Revelations which our Religion affords us inspire us with a sort of Angelical Nature joyn the Seraph and the Man together add Wings to the Soul and make her take her Flight toward Heaven This setting our Affections on things above This Spiritual Mindedness which is so much commended in Scripture does consist in these two Particulars I. In an hearty Love of God II. An earnest Desire of Eternal Happiness I. In a hearty Love of God By the Love of God I do not understand here the whole Duty of the Christian Religion for the Love of God sometimes signifies as largely as the Fearing him does that is the doing every thing which God commands to the utmost of our Power and then the Love of God takes in all the Duties of Morality and revealed Religion As the Apostle takes it Rom 8. Every thing worketh for good to them that love God So 1 Cor. 2. Eye hath not seen nor Ear hath heard the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Neither do I mean any unusual transported Spirit of Mind by which the Soul is generally filled with Exultations and Raptures whenever it happens to think of God For these where they are found are rather the Effects of mens bodily Constitutions than the peculiar Symptoms of a true Christian Love which is best when it is constant and even throughout the whole Course of our Lives and does not take us by Fits and Spurts Where-ever such passionate Returns of Zeal are found they are good Signs and Indications of Piety but they are not Piety it self they do usually shew a Man to be good but they do not make him so such heated Transports do no more entitle a Man to the Love of God than an excessive Custom of Laughter entitles him to be a risible Creature But by a Love of God I understand that Complacency which we take in the Deity arising from the Consideration of the Excellence of his Nature and his Bounty to us For any thing may be rendered the Object of our Love either by having very great Perfections and Excellencies in it self or by the procuring us any considerable Benefit Now for both these Reasons we ought to love God or to set our Affections upon him 1. Because he is the most Perfect and Admirable Being 2. Because he is the most Kind and Bountiful to us 1. Because he is the most Perfect and Admirable Being Therefore in order to a Just Contempt of the World and a setting our Affections upon God we must 1. Study and admire the Perfections of the Divine Nature It will be an intollerable shame for us when God has made us alone of all his Creation here below capable of contemplating his Nature that we should think as little of it as the Cattle do that we should employ all our Thoughts about the Brutal part of our selves and think of nothing suitable to that Nobler part of us which alone denominates us Men and that we should drive away out of our Minds the consideration of the admirable Excellencies of the Divine Nature which are the properest and the most worthy Objects of them Not that we should with a bold inquisitiveness pry into the Mysteriousness of the Divine