Vain and Fanatike Though some of them were meer Impostors yet others verily believed that they were divinely inspired The Miracles of Saints and Martyrs since the Apostolicall times seem rather Legends and Fables then credible Stories The confident perswasions of a strong Faith may seem somewhat like a Prophecy though far different from it and of another kind and so the Judgements of some wise men have been taken for Predictions whereas Prophecy is not so much the confirmation of a mans own Spirit in the ordinary way of believing or judging as an extraordinary revelation of Future things immediately and expresly by God perhaps in a rapture or extasy when he who uttereth it least understandeth it Also there may be a power of casting out Divels by Praier and Fasting which is not now to be performed as formerly by any speciall Gift with a word of command certainly effecting it but in the ordinary way of Praier which God is pleased to honor with an equall effect There are also Miracles of Providence as we may so call them whereby God is pleased to deliver his Church out of her greatest streights in an extraordinary manner and by unexpected means as he did formerly by Signs and Wonders and Miracles of Nature Such was the recovery of Germany by the same hand which first betraied the Protestant Cause Maurice Duke of Saxony after all his Successes and Preferment strangely revolting from Charles the fifth to the contrary party the defeating of the Spanish Aramado as Drake termed it with Squibs the discovery of the Gunpowder Treason by a Letter or whatsoever other Indicium there was of it yea the preservation of Christian Religion in all Ages maugre all Persecutions and Heresies and the restoring of it in these latter dayes without a Miracle is none of the least Miracles Certainly the clear revelation of the Mysteries of Faith and the manifestation of the Graces of Gods Spirit in the Harts and Lives of men are evident testimonies that God hath not forsaken his Church the least dram of true Grace being more valuable then all Miraculous Gifts whatsoever and the principall end thereof As for Enthusiasms and Revelations they were of use in former times and very necessary before Scripture was finished being either Scripture or instead of Scripture but since St. Iohns time who wrote the last Book of Scripture in the Isle of Pathmos under Domitian they seem also to have ceased for if this were true they ought to be believed equally with Scripture being the immediate and infallible Word of God as well as it which is now the only rule and measure of Faith sufficient to make the man of God perfect But all those Fansies are not so dangerous as other Spirituall Errors in the Foundation and Essentials of Faith to which such Spirits are very prone striving to ascend above Truth asmuch as others fall short of it Thus by exalting the free Grace and Spirit of God they destroy the Morall Law and with the Penalty take away the Precept or Commanding power though the Law be as obligatory in it self and prevalent over the Conscience of a Good man without it as with it and most perfectly consistent with Grace which enableth us to perform what the Law commandeth Others trample on the very Ordinances and Duties of the Gospel presuming to finde a neerer way to Heaven then God hath appointed There are new fashions and dresses of Religion very pleasing and popular as all Novelties are especially such as seem more sublime and Spirituall But the old Orthodox Truth is the best and still prevaileth at last There is no Doctrine in the world which hath been so curiously scanned and throughly sifted in every Point and Puntilio thereof as Christianity the greatest Scepticisms and most subtile Criticisms and niceties of Wit have been exercised about it and the whole Body thereof like the Body of our Savior hanging upon the Cross vexed and tortured in every joint and yet it continues whole and entire though there may be some prints of the Nails and Spears of Heretikes remaining upon it yet not a bone thereof may be broken which plainly proves it to be Spirituall Divine preserved only by the Author of it Paracelsus threatned that he would deal with the Pope Luther as he had done with Galen and Aristotle and probably if he had undertaken it we should have had some such Mercuriall Theology from him as is now vented in our times The difference seems not much unlike Sound Divines like Galenists administer solid and substantiall Truth whereas our Paracelsian Preachers deal in Quintessences and Spirits and the like Chymistry of Divinity and cloth them with strange words and Mysticall expressions Divinity hath found the same usage in these times with all other Arts and Sciences and the same Humor of this fantastike Age runs through all Men think to advance Learning by fine Conceits and strong Lines as they call them which have enervated the solid part thereof so do these emasculate Religion by their vain Opinions and quaint Expressions There is no greater Bane of true Piety then Error on the right hand and sublime Heresy especially when it grows Popular and is generally received Yet Truth is no less Truth though all the World should be in an Error One Athanasius may stand to his Creed in the midst of an Arrian Empire As a man who sees the Sun shine though all others should say the contrary is no whit less assured of it because he sees it Indeed we can hardly guess at things which are before us how much less can we find out Spirituall and Divine Truth or practice what we know Let us therefore pray to God for his Spirit who first reveled it to the world and who only can lead us into all Truth and into all Grace which is our true Happiness VII Of a Christian Life THe great work of the Spirit of God in our Harts is the new Creature and the effect thereof new Life Christian Life is the Enjoiment of all things for enjoying Christ who is Heir of all things and hath purchased all with his bloud we enjoy all things by a new and better Title and in a more excellent and Spirituall manner as the Fruits of his Redemption and Gifts of his Love It is generally affimed by Divines that true Grace chiefly respects Gods Glory and our own Happiness in a subsequent and inferior manner so that we should be willing to suffer even the pains of Hell it self for the Glory of God which is a fine Notion and an high Expression but if rightly considered we shall find no such distinction in the Thing it self Indeed if we take Happiness for a releaf from Pains or a Paradise of Pleasure or any other thing then the very enjoiment of God and Christ it is a true Sentence but the highest Happiness of the Soul being that very enjoiment the one cannot be separated nor really distinguished from the other He who
right Judgment and pure Reason abstracted from all Fancies and Opinions Some are wholly led by Traditions and the Authority of others or by their own Education and Custom which is a slavery of the Mind worse then that of the Body Some on the other side do so much affect liberty of Spirit that they conceive a generall prejudice against all common Truths because they are backed by such common advantages though they are not grounded upon them But a cleer and free Spirit seeketh Truth it self and entertaineth it wheresoever he findeth it which is the right temper of a true Philosopher The truest Philosophy and that which distinguishes it from Sophistry is to deduce it from Speculation to Action and instead of Disputing to prove it by Exercise and Example There is commonly a great distance and in some a kind of contrariety between Theory and Practice for that Good which engages the Will and the whole Man to Practice is not simple Right but rather Profit not Duty but Benefit Thus though the Mind judge a thing to be Just and Honest and so fit to be done in general but withall judgeth it Unprofitable and so not Convenient for him to do his Practical Judgment opposeth and overcometh his Speculative He seeth better and followeth worse that is worse in point of Right but not worse as he deemeth in point of Profit Cicero like a true Philosopher in his excellent Book of Offices harps upon the right string proving Honesty to be the greatest Utility yea one and the same thing and so indeed they are in themselvs but the Mind of Man apprehends them under several Notions The fallacy consists in this that we look only upon the particular present Good though far less and do not consider the more universall and greater Good to which it ought to be subordinate and being opposed becomes Evill for so it is the loss of a greater Good then it self A Temperate man looking upon the Wine as it is red in the Glass is by his Appetite incited to drink thereof as well as a Drunkard and knows there is a natural Good and Pleasantness in it but when he wisely considers the whole state of his Body and Mind and thereupon finds it will do him more Hurt then Good he most willingly abstains from it as Evil. So a man who hath a Member gangraenated as he looks upon it particularly is loth to loose it with so much pain but considering that it is better for him to part with it then that the whole Body should perish he as willingly abdicates it as he would pull out an arrow sticking in his side Thus if in all our actions we would seriously reflect upon the whole Nature of Man and of the universe and upon God the Creator of all we should clearly understand that this great King and Governor of all hath prescribed such Common Laws for the safety of the whole Empire and the true Good of every Subject that though Justice may seem contrary to some particular and lesser Good yet it is most consonant to our Chief Good and true Happiness to which the others must be reduced And thus we may gain the Practical Judgment of a right Philosopher but yet in the Executive part we shall meet with many difficulties through humane frailty and naturall impediments which must be overcome by constant Exercise Acts of Virtue confirm Habits and Habits facilitate Acts. Virtus docetur arte vita discitur There are so many Errors and Lusts within the Soul and such Temptations without that this Summus Philosophus is but an Idea and if there were any such yet without true Piety he were but a painted Image XVII Of the Sceptikes and Cynikes THere is scarcely any Humor of Men or Manner of Living that hath any shadow of Happiness which the Philosophers have not refined and drest up in its best Attire and so presented it to the World for the Chief Good only Money that common Idoll of other men was never professedly set up by any Philosopher as Luther said of himself that he had been tempred to all sins except Covetousness The strangest kind of Philosophy or rather the contradiction of all Philosophy is Scepticism which sprang up after all the rest out of their Differences and Disputes In all Ages when Scepticism abounds it is a most certain Symptome of the declination of true Philosophy and a prognostike of a general decay thereof ensuing which we may justly suspect in these times wherein plain and solid Truth is every where arrained and men affecting the name of a Great Wit and Liberty of Spirit leave the beaten path of true Learning and Wisdom and wander at large in the Wilderness of their own Imaginations which at first much please and delight them but afterward prove vain and unsatisfactory and then they grow malecontent and quarrel with all Learning Knowledge Reason and Religion like distracted men who by too strong an intention of their Imagination have hurt their Cranium so these by too much nicety and subtilty of Wit strain their Criterion But the most dangerous is Practical Scepticism which depends upon the other and yet the other many times proceedeth from it Men of loose and vitious lives indulgent to their own Genius cannot endure to be controlled neither by others nor by their own Judgments and therefore affect a Licenciousness in Thinking as well as in Acting Others who are Dogmaticall enough in Opinion prove Scepticall in Practice having a Form of Knowledge but denying the Power thereof yea many who have proceeded very far in the Practice thereof being at last confuted by adverse Fortune renounce Truth and Virtue and Religion and yield up all to her as Brutus said when he came to dy O Virtus colui te ut rem at tu nomen inane es Socrates indeed professed that he knew only this that he knew nothing which was a modest complaint arising from a thirsting desire of knowing more not an abandoning of that he had already for he was a constant Teacher and Instructer of others and most clear and positive in all his Instructions which is farthest from Scepticism yea he was so contrary to it that he affirmed it to be Madness and Wickedness to enquire of the Gods themselvs concerning those things which men by their own reason and understanding might comprehend as it is not to enquire of them concerning future Contingencies which no Humane Reason can certainly foreknow That Speech of Socrates was rather in opposition to the Sophisters who know least and yet were most peremptory in their opinions and imposed them on others Confidence without Reason or taking Truth upon trust is a great impediment to sound Knowledge but to despair of knowing any thing and so to sit down in perpetuall distrust is an absolute bar to all Knowledge Sceptikes place the Happiness of the Mind in a Tranquillity or Indifferency to all Opinions There is undoubtedly one Truth but they say there is no
AN ESSAY OF THE True Happines OF MAN In Two Books BY SAMUEL GOTT of GRA. I. ES. LONDON Printed by Rob. White for Thomas Vnderhill at the Blew-Anchor in Pauls Church-yard near the little North-Door 1650. The First Book I. OF True Happiness 1 II. Of the Degrees of Happines 8 III. Of Perfect Happiness 13 IV. Of the Vanity of all Worldly things 20 V. Of the Goods of the Body 25 VI. Of Health 30 VII Of Strength 35 VIII Of Beauty 40 IX Of the Goods of Fortune 46 X. Of Riches 52 XI Of Pleasures 61 XII Of Honor. 66 XIII Of the Goods of the Mind 71 XIV Of Learning 77 XV. Of Wisedome 83 XVI Of Philosophy 90 XVII Of the Sceptikes and Cynikes 98 XVIII Of the Cyreniakes and Epicureans 108 XIX Of the Stoikes and Peripatetikes 115 XX. Of the Platonikes and of Socrates 125 The Second Book I. OF Religion 135 II. Of Faith 142 III. Of the Scriptures 148 IV. Of God 154 V. Of Christ. 163 VI. Of the Spirit 174 VII Of a Christian Life 183 VIII Of Nature 191 IX Of Providence 198 X. Of Prosperity 206 XI Of Adversity 213 XII Of Death 220 XIII Of Sin 229 XIV Of the Restuaration of the Soul 237 XV. Of Graces 248 XVI Of Duties 254 XVII Of Conscience 261 XVIII Of the last Iudgement 270 XIX Of Hell 278 XX. Of Heaven 288 The Preface I Beg no Patronage I need no Apology Truth is the best indeed only true Patroness if in any thing I have offended her let it be as a Null among Ciphers and signify nothing As Popish Writers use to say concerning the Church and Fathers If any thing be writ or said against them let it be unwrit and unsaid Though I should seem to Apologise it shall not be for any thing I have writ but only for writing in an Age wherein Letters are either neglected or distasted We have lately surfetted of Knowledge and now disgorge and nauseate it or if any Books be read they are only such as we disdain to read twice Pamphlets and Stories of Fact or angry Disputes concerning the Times In times of Action whosoever would appear considerable and make any moment in Business must pursue one of the Extremes and desperately run up to the hight of it so in Writing Preaching or the like to speak plausibly of the Times or vehemently to oppose them most advanceth Fame and Followers Yea in all other Times either to Flatter Princes and humor the Vices and Vanities of the Age or Satyrically to lash them hath been the common Art of Writing which I wittingly waive and leave to others Sober and Solid Truth passes on in a streight Line through the Crowd of Errors and Confusions without any great noise or show of it self Besides good Books as they are profitable so they are very chargeable We may not call them our own when we have bought them nor when we have read them To understand them rightly didicisse fideliter will cost almost as much as to indit̄e them and to practice them far more Men think it sufficient to turn over the Leavs but never care to gather the Fruit without which a Book is wholly lost writ and read to no purpose For my own part though I know writing of Books to be a very mean employment and of no great efficacy when such writing as the famous Talbot set on his Sword Pro vincere inimicos meos is by many counted the best Logike and Rhetorike and most authentike yet I am content to make use of it because I have no better antidote against Idleness and the inconveniencies thereof Having often consulted with my self how a man might live most happily both here and hereafter I used to commit my Thoughts to Writing finding by experience that as Meditation is the Glass of the Soul so Writing steels it and strengthens the Reflection representing our scattered Notions in a more entire and exact manner and imprinting them first on our own spirits I have lately collected my loose Papers and digested them into Method and now present them to the publike view that so others if they please may share with me and if I may communicate some considerable benefit to any one Reader I shall account my endeavours very well bestowed However they shall return into my own Brest and be alwaies welcome at Home The first BOOK Of the True HAPPINES Of MAN I. Of True Happiness HAppiness is the Life of Life and the Enjoyment of all our Good things Enjoyment begins in Knowledg Happy men if they Knew it is a common exprobration and in part true of all There is none who hath not something more then Hope left in the bottom of Pandroa's box at least so much as to maintain him in that state of Hoping which every man should improve to his best advantage and make the most of a little On the contrary Sentiat se mori was a torture as like Hell as the wit of man could invent Knowledge is the view of things and Contemplation the review and gazing on them bathing and soaking the Mind throughout with more piercing and fixed apprehensions Thus a Covetous man enjoys his treasures by counting and studying them as he in Horace Nummos contemplor in arca Admiration is more then Contemplation extending the Mind to the very utmost capacity yea in some sort transporting it beyond it self by wondering at that which it cannot comprehend These beget Love which is an Appetite of union Knowledge presents the Object to the Soul but Love resigns the Soul to the Object embracing and mingling with it and so sucks out all the sweetness that is in it This heat of Love begets Joy and Delight as a flame of Light flowing from it and this Rejoycing in the Object is the most perfect Enjoyment thereof True Happiness consists both in the true Taste of the Soul and also in the truth of the Thing it self An ingenious Poem or pleasant Fable made only to take the ear raise quicker affections in the mind of the Reader then the bare nakedness of more profitable Truth There is indeed a truth of Art in witty fictions which is reall matter of delight yet it argues great vanity to be more affected with the Embroidery of an artificial Ly then with the Plain work of better Instructions There are other meer deceptions The outward Senses deceiv the Fansie and which is more strange the Fansie can deceiv the very Senses and operate on them as much as the Thing it self not only as in a Dream but when they are waking and most intent He who sate in the empty Theater and seemed to see most wonderfull Tragedies was in a farther degree of vanity then common Spectators who contemplated an Hercules or Achilles or a great Prince in the person of some mean fellow whom they knew to be most unlike to them but his Fansie was both Spectator and Actor which is a double delusion I do not think as Avicenna
by their Priests and Poets who made Gods of Men and Men of Gods attributing Divine Virtues to their Hero's and Humane Vices to their Deities Yea the Philosophers who justly condemn them for this double Impiety yet fall short of the Glory of God gazing on him at a great distance and retaining this Knowledge as a Secret or Mystery in Nature being indeed afraid of the People who were prepossessed with their own Idolatry which was the Religion of the Statâ— and therefore might not be contradicted or disputed And it is observable of all such Nationall Religions that they may be more safely abused then denied The Poets were allowed to corrupt their Divinity with their Fables rather then the Philosophers to reduce it to Truth Socrates himself so far complied with this Policy of State that he prescribed to worship God according to the manner of the Country subjecting the rule of Gods worship to the Laws and Customes of Men which shows the weakness of the highest Philosophy in the practicall part of Religion which is the life and strength thereof Whereas the Apostle directly encounters the Athenian Idolatry and plainly preaches unto the People the Doctrine of the true Deity of Creation Providence Sin Redemption Repentance Resurrection and the last Judgement All false Religions are most Cabalisticall and reserved thereby seeking to gain the reputation of Sacred and are satisfied with a vain Admiration and blind Devotion but true Religion freely and clearly reveals it self to the world not concealing the most difficult points and Mysterious parts thereof though sublime Truths be most offensive to weak Minds Immanis verit as proxima est mendacio that is in their apprehensions who cannot well undestand it yet being sure of it self and like a great Light impossible to be hid it shines forth in its own beams and fears not to appear as it is however men may entertain it The Jews and Christians had commonly a more familiar knowledge of the highest points in Divinity then the greatest Philosophers and though all do not express the power efficacy thereof yet some Holy men have exceedingly transcended the best of Heathenish Devotion But nothing more discovers their weak Knowledge of true Piety then their ignorance of the true nature of Sin which is the contrary or privation thereof They speak of it generally under the notion of Vice as it is a depravation of Nature and common Enemy to Mankind but rise not to the Infinite aggravation thereof which is the transgression of the Roiall Law of an Infinite God and a direct opposition of the Creature to the Creator wherein the very Sinfulness thereof doth consist as David clearly saw and confessed Against thee thee only have I sinned So likewise all their Doctrine of Moral Virtue whereof they so much boast tendeth to their own Praise and Merit the Good of others and the perfection of the Universe rather then the Glory of God which is the only Religious and Supreme End infusing Holiness into all inferior actions by subordinating them to it self True Religion consists in a true Belief and true Love of God There is in all men some kind of Belief of God but being conscious to themselvs they fly from him as their greatest Contrary as it is said of the Divels They believ and tremble This terror and trembling puts Atheists upon a strife and endeavor within themselvs to cast off their Belief which yet they can never do but that at some time or other it will recoil upon them with greater trouble and horror of Mind It makes the Superstitious to fear and worship God as a severe Master in a base and servile manner with the drudgery of Duties especially such as are most rigorous and cruell It makes Hypocrites to bribe their Own Consciences and flatter God with a show of Holiness which is rather a worshipping of Men then God Thus Poets frame a Religion according to their own Fansy and Philosophers according to their imperfect Reason and Statesmen shape it according to Policy and Reason of State and the Religious dress it up in severall forms and fashions according to Tradition and their own Humors and naturally every man propounds to himself such a Religion as will serve his own turn and whereby he may be sure to be saved yea some are so uncharitable to exclude all others which are not exactly of their size But the summ and substance of true Religion is contained in that great Commandement Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Hart with all thy Soul and with all thy Might This Love unites the Soul to God with infinite Joy and Delight in him which is the highest enjoyment of the Chief Good and the perfect Happiness of Man II. Of Faith REason is most properly exercised in things of Nature and Faith in matters of Religion it being the Echo of Divine Authority yet not meerly as an Echo which reporteth the sound without any sense of Hearing nor the Echo of a Parasiticall assentation Ais aio negas nego which is a Flattery furthest from Belief nor the vulgar Implicite Faith depending upon the Authority of men but an Intellectuall assent and a Voluntary consent to that which is reveled by God Our Great Wits set up Reason instead of Faith and the light of Nature against Divine Light which is at once to deprive man of his highest Faculty and God of his greatest Grace As if because a Dog usually hunts by Sent we should deny that he can see by Sight Faith in generall is as naturall to a Man as Reason and he may aswell know by Believing as by Discoursing yea it is a more clear and certain knowledge of the very Objects of Reason then Reason it self by relying on a Divine Authority Through saith faith the Apostle we understand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear which yet may be comprehended by the strength of naturall Reason for he saith elsewhere That the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead but the same VVord which created the VVorld creates a Belief in a spirituall Understanding Belief is in this life in stead of Intuition shall at last be resolved into it Naturalists admire Socrates and cry him up for an high Instance of the sufficiency of naturall Light to instruct a man in the way of true Virtue and Piety and they willingly admit of those Inspirations of a God or Daemon whereof he speaketh and yet will not allow the like to Christians in the ordinary way of a spiritual Belief Faith and Reason like Antipodes seem contrary but both meet in their Center Truth Right Reason leads us to Faith but leavs us there and resigns us up to it If God were not omnipotent he could not justly not reasonably command us to believ