wee beare to God is the love that he beares to us wee must before all things study to conceive as well as wee may of the great love of God to us-ward Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that wee should be called the sonnes of God 1 John 3.1 This is the principall point of his love where all other testimonies of his love doe beginne and where they end Without this none can say that he is beloved of God For to be the work of Gods hands and maintained by his providence is common to all creatures and to be made after Gods image and by his liberality to enjoy the plenty and service of nature is common to all men good and evill But because creatures without reason and men without goodnesse beare no love to God it cannot properly be said that God loveth them though he be their maker and preserver Love being the bond of perfectnesse Col. 3. Gods love would not be the bond of perfectnesse if he loved those things that never return him love For that love may be a bond the two ends must meet knit together now these two ends knit when a creature beloved of God beares a reciprocal love to him For thereby not onely the man that feareth God joyneth with him but the whole nature also and all the creatures are re-joyned with their principle and Origine And whereas some creatures cannot others will not love God the true child of God because he gets some utility out of them all yea of those that are Gods enemies loveth him and gives him thanks for and in the name of all and so by this meanes love proveth a true bond of perfectnesse which proceeding from God and knitting with God againe embraceth and holds fast together the whole creation and brings it back to its Creator A consideration which cannot but bring a singular content and a great peace to the soule Being perswaded of the love of God to us whereby we are called the sonnes of God we looke upon all creatures as the goods of our fathers house prepared for us And though others which are none of Gods children enjoy them also yet they are for us since the wicked are for the good either to exercise their vertue by tryals or even to serve and sustaine them For as the angry waves roaring and foaming about the ship where Christ was with his disciples yet were bearing the ship likewise the enemyes of God and his Church while they are beating and storming against it beare it up in spite of their hearts The agitations of the great sea of the world make Gods children more sensible of the great love which the Father hath bestowed upon them to have given them his beloved sonne to be in the ship with them to keep them safe in the storm and the dangers that overwhelme others are helps for good unto them that love God All the deliverances that God sends them all the blessings that God powreth upon them they take them as productions of the fatherly love of God who hath adopted them in his Sonne They taste that love in the enjoyment of present goods they breath that love in the enjoyment of future eternall goods they rest upon that love when they sleepe they leane upon that love when they walk they find that love in all the occurrences of their life with what face soever the various accidents of the world looke upon them they see through them the evident love of God being certaine that nothing happens to them but is directed by the good hand of their loving Father These pleasant rivers of the love of God conduct our meditation up the streame to the great Source that love which passeth knowledge that mysterious deepe love which the Angels desire to looke into whereby of his enemyes that wee were he hath made us his children giving for us even to death his owne precious Sonne entitling us by him to his eternal glory and giving us the earnest of it by his good Spirit crying in our hearts Abba Father O incomprehensible love which hath undergone overcome death to give us life and that he might have from us an immortal love That immortal love ought to be the effect of this meditation So that having conceived to our power how much God loves us wee may also to our power apply our heart to love him acknowledging that all our heart all our soule and all our understanding is yet too little to returne him love for his love It it true that this is a debt from which we can never be acquitted and wee owe it even after wee have payd it But as this debt must be payd continually the continual payment yeelds a continual satisfaction to him that payeth it oweth it still For whereas pecuniary debts make the heart sad this debt of love makes it glad when our duty meetes with our inclination and when wee most desire to dok that which wee are most obliged to doe Besides this debt is of that nature that when wee pay it wee make together an acquisition for although the love began by God he takes it upon him to repay us the love that we pay him Ps 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me saith the Lord therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath knowne my name Pro. 8.17 I love them that love me and they that seeke me early shall finde me But love is due to God not onely for the love that he hath done us and for the good that wee hope from him but for the good that is in him and because he that is the soveraigne beauty and goodnes must be beloved in the chiefest highest manner All that is beautifull and good in Nature the glory of the celestial bodies the fertility of the earth the shady greene of trees the fragrancy of flowers the variety and utility of animals the rational inventive vivacity of intellectual natures the admirable order of the Universe both in disposition and conduct All these are so many productions of the great bottomlesse depth of beauty bounty power and excellency and who so wisely considereth them presently conceiveth that the Authour is possest of an infinite perfection onely worthy to be beloved for his owne sake and that all the good and beautifull things that he hath done must be beloved onely in relation to him and for his sake To which if you adde two other points of which Nature cannot sufficiently informe us and wherein the Word of God supplies the deficiency of Natures teaching which are the justice and the mercy of God towards sinners O who would not love that infinite love and excellency though he had no interest of his owne in it But how can we barely consider Gods excellency in it selfe with an abstraction of our interest Certainly the consideration of our concernment will go along though unsent for with the contemplation of Gods supreme
alone what one loveth and shame of what the world may say of it this last especially tears amans soul with extream violence so slavish is the voluntary subjection of weake spirits under the opinion of others A wise man will keepe himselfe from that sharp yet imaginary evill by a sincere love to his party for perfect love casteth out feare 1 Joh. 4.18 He that loveth his wife well will trust her and that trust will make her faithfull or nothing will Fidelem si putaveris facies To that counsell of trusting his wife the husband must joyne a resolution not to mistrust himselfe For here one may lawfully put on a good opinion of himselfe the question being onely to compare himselfe with others about pleasing a woman which is obliged to study to please him and cannot without grievous crime and conceiving an enormous disproportion of merit betweene him and others bestow upon them that love which is due to him A husband betrayeth himselfe and tempteth his wives weakenesse when he discovereth a distrust of himselfe and a feare that she preferre other men before him This sheweth her the way to value them above her husband and she thinkes herselfe justified so to do by her husbands judgement He must learne also to be credulous for his owne content and of hard beleefe in the causes of discontent For here it is better to be deceived in evill then in good and it is better alwayes not to search an evill without remedy then to finde it especially when by seeking it we make it come The dishonour of cuckoldry consisting onely in opinion it is healed also with opinion and he that feeles it not hath it not This inconvenience is prevented by making choice of a vertuous wife and using her well for restraint and hard usage doth but draw the evill Also by keeping us free from defiling our neighbours bed This will give us a great confidence that God will not suffer any to defile ours Most jealous men are adulterers fearing what they have deserved But when one hath made an ill choyce neither kindness nor justice nor prudence can keepe a light and ungratefull woman to her duty When the wrong is so manifest that it is impossible for the husband not to know it and dissembling would be imputed to insensibility or even to consent the right counsell for the exteriour is to be divorced from a wicked wife But if one can neither marry againe nor live without a woman and feareth that he shall hardly be able to keep himselfe from harlots of all harlots let him make use of his owne It is better yet to keepe a lawfull whore then an unlawfull As for counsels for the interiour one must practise the grand remedy to remedilesse evils patience God in this as in other sorrowes of life will finde wayes of comfort reliefe for those that trust in him even where there is no way The good company of so many brave men that are in the same row is a help to beare it A wiseman will make no more strange of it then of wearing a hat a la mode He must keepe fast to that true Maxime that he cannot be dishonoured but by his owne faults not by the faults of another A vertuous mans honour hangs not upon a light womans behaviour If it did it should lye very unsafe No more doth it depend upon his neighbours opinion Persons of honour and judgement will never disesteeme an honest man for it And as for the talk of the vulgar honour and good fame depend no more of it then of the gabbling of geese CHAP. XV. Of Hope I Have spoken in the first Book of the Christian Vertue of Hope Here I speake of a naturall Passion Yet it is certaine that they differ onely in the degree of perfection and in the object Naturall hope is wavering Divine hope is fixt Divine hope regardeth eternall goods Naturall hope lookes for naturall and civill goods Yet the object of Divine hope is not denyed to the naturall but when that passion is determined by grace unto supernatural goods it becomes a vertue Hope is a compound of courage Desire and Joy but hath more of the first and second ingredient then of the third Also a graine of feare enters into the composition for if there were none it would not be hope but expectation as on the other side there is a graine of Hope in feare for if there were no Hope it would not be feare but despaire Hope hath this common with love and desire that it regards a good object at least in the intention But Hope considers foure particular qualities in her object That it is absent that it is future that it is possible and likely and that it is yet uncertaine at least in some regard if not in the substance at least in the circumstance for even the certainest Hope of all that of eternall goods grounded upon Gods immutable promises is neverthelesse uncertaine of the degree the manner and the time of the enjoyment hoped for Laying aside that prime object of hope it is hard to say whether Hope doth more good or harme in the world For on the one side it raiseth the courage and animates good enterprises with vigour On the other side it blinds the reason which instead of good chooseth a disguised evill or turnes good into evill by rashnesse unquietnesse Hope sets the mind on gadding and aspiring higher then it can reach all wayes discontented with the present and hanging upon the future And how deceitfull are the promises of Hope Of ten one comes not to effect With hoping good and suffering evill mans life passeth away Yet must we acknowledge the obligation that men have to hope for it makes them subsist even while it deceives them What makes Negro's confined to the mines there to eate and drinke It is Hope What makes gally slaves to sing while they are rowing It is Hope And would so many persons whose dayes are a continuall torment consent to maintaine their wretched life but that in a bottomlesse gulfe of evills they will obstinate themselves to hope well and after all goods are flowne away Hope stayeth behind Hence it comes that many unfortunate persons will stirre up their industrie awake their vertue strengthen themselves in faith and live to see better dayes So to answere the question whether Hope must be reckoned among the goods or among the evills it may be said that it is the evill of them that are at ease and the good of the miserable For such as have meanes and dignity have also many designes and chained hopes which keepe them hanging in chaines while cares and feares like ravens are tearing their hearts Besides they that are inchanted with many worldly hopes conceive christian Hope but remissely Whereas they that are in adversity being not tickled with those delicate hopes which a man dares not recommend unto God will fixe upon just hopes suggested by necessity And if
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
beard a childish understanding authoritatem senum vitia puerorum But certainly this is a false ugly vizard set upon a handsome and gracious face there being nothing more serene and pleasant then godlines and a good conscience A good conscience is that merry heart which is a continual feast To doe Gods will with a good will keepes a mans heart cheerefull to God and pleasant to himselfe Will you then make your hope sure of an eternal rest and of those pleasures for evermore at the right hand of God Doe but take the first course to make yourselves content and joyfull in this life which is to walke before God unto all pleasing to your power and to be rich in good workes Was there ever a more winning invitation then this Make yourselfe joyful and contented in this life that you may be eternally joyfull and contented in the next CHAP. XI To redresse ourselves often by Repentance Wee have meditated upon the peace of God and the way how to get it in our souls and keepe it That peace brings a golden serenity and a solid content to our hearts But because the godliest persons in this world are subject to sinne and by sinning to trouble that peace and serenity it is necessary to redresse ourselves often by repentance Of that duty I have spoken in the third chapter of this first booke as the necessary way to embrace by faith our reconciliation with God and a maine part of the great worke of our conversion But after wee are reconciled and converted wee are men still Neither is any conversion so great in this life as to roote out sinne altogether out of mans nature Whosoever then will preserve his integrity and peace for these two commonly goe together must have this warning continually in his mind Lét him that thinks he standeth take heed lest he fall 1. Cor. 10.12 And if he fall let him take up himselfe presently by a godly repentance The more he esteemeth himselfe advanced and confirmed in piety the more let him mistrust himselfe and beware of the temptations of Satan For after holy resolutions and elevations of zeale and devotion great sins very often are committed because then the conscience is most subject to relent as over-confident of her good estare Much like besieged souldiers who after a brave sallie will remitt of their watchfulnes despising the enemy whom they have beaten and in their security are taken by surprise Conscience will fall asicepe but Satan never sleepeth and never misseth to take advantage of our negligence Heb. 12.1 Sin that doth so easily beset us saith the Apostle to the Hebrewes By saying us he comprehends himself acknowledging that the most perfect are easily beset by sin Some sins are presently felt and leave a sting as the Scorpion doth To that sting the remedy must presently be applyed by repentance and a faithfull recourse to Gods mercy through Christ also the assistance of his Spirit must bee implored else the venome will spread and the wound become mortal Other sins are lesse felt or creep in undiscerned yet leave a heavinesse upon the heart and make it slower to godlinesse and good workes Then the businesses of the life intervening the remembrance of many sins will slip out of our memory which neverthelesse worke their effect upon the conscience blunting the sense of piety and setting the soul further from God Wherefore it is the part of a wise Christian often to revisit the state of his conscience call himselfe to account and by a pious solicitude of repentance pick and sift out even the least dust that sticks to us of the worlds uncleannesse and our own scowring out that rust which conscience like iron will contract if it be not often handled If the uncleane spirit will not dwell in a mans heart unlesse he find the house empty swept and garnisht Matth. 12. that is void of all goodnesse and furnisht for his turne We must not expect that the holy Spirit will dwell in our heart unlesse we bestow our best care to sweepe it for him emptyed of the immundicities of sinne to garnish it with holinesse He will not keep house under the same roofe with the unclean spirit And unlesse we speedily put that enemy out of doores God may in his displeasure leave him the whole house Whereas if you keep it swept for God with daily repentance he will make it his Temple and say Psal 132.14 This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I delight in it But that our hearts may be cleane habitations for him we have need to call for the assistance of his grace Psalm 51. Create in us a cleane heart O Lord and renew a right Spirit within us Since the Son of God honours us so much as to call us his friends let us religiously observe the lawes of friendship with him Even in humane friendships if we have sometimes the missorutne to give offence to one whom we especially love and respect we cannot be at rest till we have given him satisfaction And should we be so imprudent as to neglect God our great friend after we have offended him Shall we let the Sunne go down upon his wrath and our offence Let us returne to him without delay and humbly seeke his peace The speediest reconciliations are the best In this returne to God which must be every day let us call to our remembrance all the sins of late date and others of elder date not sufficiently repented of confessing them to God with contrition and craving pardon for them with humility and faith through the merit of his Sonne which to all repenting sinners is an exhaustible spring of mercy open at all times Zechariah meant this by that Fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleannesse And becaure many trespasses of ours are out of remembrance and some we have run into without our knowledge we must beseech God with David to clense us from secret faults Psalm 19.12 and that he be pleased to forget those sins which we have forgotten To that daily returne to God some extraordinary returnes must be added where fasting and alms be joyned to prayer Thereby these clouds shall be cleared off which trouble the serenity of the conscience and the soul shall get a great help to rejoyce in the love of God and glory in his bounty When one is come to that blessed state of the soul he must wipe off the teares of repentance and drowne that sadnesse in a thankfull joy For the sorrow of repentance is good by accident only because there is some evill to be healed It is like a medicine which gives gripings and disquieteth nature therefore not to be used but to recover health Although we cannot repent too much to have offended God there may be excess in the sorrow of repentance To seek merit or ostentation in penitent sorrow which is the face that vulgar soules give to
The life of man being compounded of so many different pieces in which vertue and prudence have but little share why should our desire be so eagerly bent upon those thungs which are besides the reach of our industry Though you had attained once to that high point of human happines that you might contemplate freely and with leasure doe usefull and illustrious actions in society enjoy well-gotten wealth an honorable degree a cheereful heart in a sound body how long can ye maintaine that state how many rubs shall you meete with in the fairest way A law-suit will make you goe up and downe and lay-by your contemplation Envy and obloquy will crosse and blast your best actions A little sicknes will take from you the taste of all the pleasures of life I leave out great calamities The torments of the stone the gowte The sudden floods of warre The total ruines by false accusations things which may happen to all because they happen to some Accidere cuivis quod cuiquam potest The most desirable things of the world being thus casuall and no delight constant The wisest and happiest are they that seeke not their constant delight in the world but stay their desire upon the right object which gives a sincere and durable content not subject to the tossing of worldly fortunes Let us have no fervent desire but for those things that are truly ours when wee have them once and which wee cannot lose against our will for in them consisteth true pleasure Those things are the true knowledge of God his love and union with him as much as human nature is capable of in this life For that union with God will breed in us a resemblance of his vertues and a participation of his serenity tranquillity constancy facility and delectation in well doing These in which true delight lyeth are also the true objects of our desire And here we must let the raines loose to Passion Since to possesse God is the infinite good and soveraine delight the measure to desire it is to have no measure CHAP. VII Of Sadnesse Sadnes is the dolour of the soule and the beating downe of the spirit This seemes to be the most natural of all Passions as hereditary to man from his first parents For to our first mother God sayd Gen. 3.16 I will greatly multiplie thy sorows and thy conception in sorrow shall thou bring forth children And to our first father v. 17. In sorrow thou shal eate thy bread all the dayes of thy life No wonder then that sorrow is the inheritance of all their posterity That first couple dejected with the sense of their sinne and punishment left a calamitous progenie Job 14.1 Man that is borne of a woman is of few dayes and full of trouble But although this be a natural Passion yet it is an enemie to Nature for it makes the flowre and vigour of body and mind to wither and obscureth that goodly light of the understanding with a thicke mist of melancholy Some sadnes is necessary in its end as that which belongs to contrition and the zeale of Gods glory Some is necessary in its cause as that which proceeds out of a sharp bodily paine There is a constrained sadnes when one is sad out of good manners and for fashion sake Such is the mourning of heires whose teares in funerals are part of the ceremony Many times wee are sad in good earnest for being obliged to be sad in shew Then there is a wanton sadnes which soft spirits love to entertaine for weeping is also a point of curiosity and delicacy No doubt but they find delight in it for none ever doeth any thing of his owne accord but for his owne content Of Sadnes necessary in its end I have spoken in the chapter of Repentance and must againe in this after I have given some counsels for repressing the other sorts of Sadnes Those are lesse capable of counsel that are necessary in their cause as when the senses are pincht for then no reason can perswade them not to feele it or hinder the mind to have a fellow feeling of the paines of the body A Physician and a Surgeon will be fitter to abate that Sadnes then a Philosopher yet not then a Divine for Divinity makes use of the very paines of the body to raise up the soule of the patient to God In deed the counsels of piety do not take away the paine but they overcome it by the sweet persuasions of Gods love to us As for constrained and ceremonious Sadnes wee must avoyd the excesse of it and the defect also chusing rather gently to yeeld to custome then to be singular and contradict all that wee approve not keeping alwayes serenity within in the midst of these ceremonies more grievous many times then the griefe that occasions them Wanton and delicate Sadnes cannot be justified by the allegation of heavy losses and great wrongs For besides that most part of the evils that men grieve for are such onely in the imagination as a disdaine a reproach a slaunder the losse of some goods that did them nothing but harme suppose that all the evills that wee grieve for be evills indeed it followes not that wee must grieve for them according to their grievousnesse unlesse it appeare that they may be mended by grieving But never any dead man was raised from the dead by the teares that his widow shed upon his herse Never was a wrong repaired by the sadnes of the wronged party Adversity will cast downe poore spirited persons but raiseth the spirits of the generous and sets their industrie on worke The deepe sorrow that seizeth upon a weake woman at her husbands death makes her incapable to overcome the difficulties where he leaves her But a vertuous and wise widow hath no leasure to weepe sixe months close prisoner in a darke chamber rather she comforteth herselfe with following her businesses Also since time drieth up the most overflowing teares and a second wedding will take down the great mourning vaile it will be providently done to moderate sorrow betimes that the disproportion may not be too eminent betweene Sadnesse and Joy To attaine that moderation we must take away that false excuse of good nature and love to the deceased person from immoderate mourning for in effect it is no other love but the love of ourselves that afflicts us and not their losse but ours The true causes of immoderate sorrow for the things of this world are these two great errours against which I am so often necessitated to give warning to my readers as the springs of all the folly and misery that is in the world The one is the ignorance of the price of things for he that will value money honour and credit according to their just price and no more will not be much afflicted if he lose them or cannot get them The other is that we seeke out of ourselves that happinesse and rest which is no where
he must looke for errour impertinency in al sorts of acquaintance let him put every one upon the discourse of those things that he understands best so shall he doe a kindnes to the company for every one loveth to speak of that wherein he is expert he shall benefit himselfe fetching from every one the best that is in him Let him also fit his minde for all kinds of buzinesses thinking none too great when they are not above his capacity for those affaires that have more dignity have not alwayes more difficulty And on the other side thinking no buzines too low when it is necessary or when it gives him occasion to doe good But in general let him charge himselfe with as few buzinesses as he can I meane those buzinesses that engage a mans minde in the tumult of the world without which he may find buzines enough to keepe him selfe well imployed Want of preferment is better than want of peace Let him avoyd those imployments that give vexation and yet draw envy where a man must continually stand upon his guard imbark himselfe in factions and live in perpetuall emulation and contention The man to whom God keepes the blessing of a quiet life shall bee kept by him from that glittering rack and golden fetters but the man whom he will aflict shall be given over to be tossed betweene the competition of others and his owne ambition David shewes us how great is Gods goodnesse which he hath layd up for them that fear him namely that he wil hide them in the secret of his presence from the pride of man he will keepe them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues Psal 31.19.20 But what there are some spirits that love noise and live by Contradiction and when old factions are worne out hatch new ones sowing quarrels that they may be sticklers and in such sort arbitrating differences as to make them immortall that so they may never want business To such men no worse imprecation can be made then that they may alwayes have the business which they love for as they serve the father of discord they are like to share in his reward But those are worthy of his compassion whose serene religious soules capable and desirous of high contemplation are aspiring towards the God of peace but are distracted with contentious businesses and prest down with worldly imployment though perhaps too high for their condition yet too low for mind which measuring the height of things by their distance from heaven finds the great Offices of the State very low because they are deeper in the earth and further from heaven then other Offices of an obscurer note Who would not pitty a great person that hath scarce time to eate and sleepe that must have a light brought to his bed to make dispatches before day and when he goeth to the Court hath much adoe to get out of his yard through the crowd of suitors and in that clogge of businesses what time hath he to examine the state of his conscience and labour to advance his union with God Where is any gaine able to countervaile that loss But there are more persons undone for want of businesses when they have not the capacity to find themselves worke of some utility especially when the love and feare of God have not taken root in their hearts For there being in the soul three Offices or audits the first for contemplation the second for passion and the third for action when a mans mind is unfit for contemplation wants action he giveth himself wholly unto passion Then a man tickleth himselfe with evill desires and vaine hopes gnawes his heart with envy and spite and torments himselfe with impatience these vices being bred and fed by idlenesse Such men having nothing to do devise evill or uselesse businesses going up and downe all day long like swallowes that flye round not knowing for what walking from one end of the Town to the other to visit one that will not be at home when they aske for him or is put to his shift to be rid of their company Of that kind are most of those that thrust one another in the street as buzy as if they had three Chancery suites to solicit then returne home late weary and sweating having found the invention to tire themselves and do nothing In effect an idle life is more painfull and wearisome then an active and negotious life It makes one sad troublesome and vicious He that doth nothing cannot but do evill as grounds left untilled will bring thistles But he that hath an ordinary employment of some utility to the publique hath no leasure to attend vaine and evill actions nor to be sad By doing good he contenteth his conscience and maintaines the serenity of his mind so that he embrace no more then he can hold They that will doe too much good do it ill and do harme to themselves It is a preposterous diligence when it brings vexation to a mansselfe Rich old men should do wisely to give over busy imployments of the world vvhich require a whole man to give themselves wholly to the office of man as he is a man and a Christian If they be speculative judicious and experienced men they may do more good to the world in their retirement then in the crowd of businesses They that lead an active life ought not to give but lend onely their mind to the businesses of the world A wise man will follow his worldly occasions with diligence and industry but he will not transubstantiate himselfe into them In our busiest imployments let us retire often within to enjoy God and ourselves labouring chiefly to preserve his favour and our peace Without these all labour is superfluous or evill and gaine becomes damage CHAP. VII Of Moderation in Conversation IT is a most necessary provision for any man that will lead a peaceable life in this age and these regions torne with diversity of parties Mens minds being so generally exulcerated that in casuall meetings either they cast a suspicious eye upon their Contreymen because they know them not or abhorre them because they know them Here then there is need of a meek compliant industrious and universall mind retired within himselfe and healed of that epidemicall itch of light-brained men to declare all their opinions and inclinations and quarrell with all that are otherwise disposed It is an old and usefull observation that God hath given us two eares and one mouth to teach us that we ought to heare more then speake To which it may be added that we have no eare-lids to keep our eares from hearing and often must heare against our will but our mouth shuts naturally and we may keep our tongue from speaking unlesse by our intemperance we lose that priviledge of nature God indeed hath not given us a tongue to hold our peace But that we may use it so that our neighbours may receive good by it and