God because he findes them harmless peaceable and beneficiall or because himself is of a good sanguine benigne complexion But this Love in a man that makes not conscience of the Commandements of God is merely animal and natural not proceeding from that community of the Divine Spirit which all the Regenerate participate of but out of complexion and self-love which will adhere to any thing that it feels a naturall comfort from But if this Childe of God prove something spinose and harsh in opposing rebuking or it may be not complying with some dearly-beloved humours of this good-natured sanguine his corrupt bloud will then begin to boyl against the Son of God and return him hatred for his good will 3. And as this blessed Apostle and peculiarly-beloved of our Saviour has made so carefull a caution that the Love he recommends to the world should not slack so low as to draggle in the dirt so has he wisely provided against the Hypocrisie of high-flown Religionists who pretend to be so transported with love to God and his service that they quite forget their neighbour and therefore at the end of the foregoing Chapter he does plainly pronounce that If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this commandement have we from him that he that loveth God love his brother also Which duty of the Second Table being most hard and the most lâ—able to be cast off through the Hypocrisie of mens hearts the inculcation thereof is most frequent with the Apostles Paul to the Ephesians chap. 4. ver 31. Let all bitternesse and anger and wrath and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And be ye kinde one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake has forgiven you Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour And Colos. 3.12 Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindenesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse long-suffering Forbearing one another and forgiving one another even as Christ forgave you And above all things put on Charity which is the bond of perfectnesse and let the peace of God rule in your hearts c. Peter also in his first generall Epistle Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently And in his second Epistle ch 1. And besides this giving all diligence adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly kindnesse and to brotherly kindnesse charity 4. The coherence of this golden chain of Divine Graces is so admirable that I cannot passe it by though it be beside my present purpose to speak any thing of the places I cite But we shall not so well understand the fit connexion of these Vertues with themselves nor of the whole link of them with the precedent Text without rectifying the Translation in a word or two The Apostle in the foregoing verses intimates to them how God has provided for them according to his divine power all things appertaining to life and Godlinesse through the knowledge of his Son Iesus Christ who hath called us in glory and virtue and given us exceeding great and precious promises that having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust we should be partakers of the divine nature and then comes in what has been recited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they have rendred And besides this Which Translation makes no connexion of sense with the former words but is very abrupt nor will the phrase I think bear that meaning It is better sense and more laudable Criticisme to render it thus And therefore forthwith or without any more adoe adde to your faith vertue c. Which latter words are not well rendred neither The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grotius would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be redundant there so that his suffrage is for the English Translation But for my own part I think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so far from being redundant that it is essentiall to the sentence and interposed that we might understand a greater Mystery then the mere adding of so many Vertues one to another which would be all that could be expresly signified if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were left out But the preposition here signifying causality there is more then a mere enumeration of those Divine Graces For there is also implied how naturally they rise one out of another and that they have a causall dependence one of another Therefore the sense is That God having on his part fitted all things for their Salvation and they having obtained like precious Faith with the Apostle himself that through the efficacy of their Faith they should also acquire Virtue that is Strength and Fortitude For high and noble Promises excite courage and resolution to set upon the difficulties through which they must passe that would obtain the Promises And this encountring with the difficulties that are in a Christian mans way while he is not a talker of Christianity but a reall actour and cordiall endeavourer to follow the Precepts and Example of Christ will beget not verbal but true Knowledge in him that is holy Experience in the wayes of God And in this Experience he is taught how those fleshly and worldly lusts and desires have often deceived him and led him out of the way blinding his judgement by their importunate suggestions and extinguishing or at least dulling those more religious and divine senses of the Soul when their importunities are listened to and their cravings satisfied And therefore this Knowledge and Experience begets Temperance that is a more rigid resolution of curbing and keeping under of all worldly and carnal desires and a peremptory refraining from giving any answer to their impudent beggings and cravings Which things if a man seriously attempt in its due extent and latitude questionless he will put himself upon a very intolerable task and there will be no remedy but Patience which he will find so mightily out of his power that he will be forced upon his knees to the God of heaven to comfort assist and strengthen him in his agony and conflict against his domestick enemies and to support his spirit in so great anguish and pain Whence it is plain that we cannot keep close to the laws of Temperance but that Patience will necessarily emerge therefrom nor be kept in this Spirit of Patience without the invocation and acknowledgment of Divine assistance which is an unquestionable
may observe how some one Bee by his humming as by the sound of a Trumpet awakes the rest to their work how fitly the whole Company distribute the several tasks of Mellification amongst themselves how severe punishers they are of Drones ejecting them out of their Hives how loyal they are to their King or Captain moving as he moves and sustaining him with their own bodies when he is weary with flying how wise they are to keep themselves from being dispersed in a storm of winde by taking little pieces of Stones in their feet to ballast their light Bodies which is also reported of the Cranes though they be not agreed to what end some affirming that the Stones they carry in their claws are to discover when they fly whether they fly over water or dry ground for by letting them fall by the distinction of the sound they will discern which it is But I believe they may as easily discover it by their sight and therefore I should rather think that the use of these Stones is the same with those of the Bees 6. But that which seems more Political in the Cranes is this that they have one Captain amongst them who when they rest upon the Earth watches over the whole company holding a Stone in one foot that if he should by chance be overcome by drowsiness the falling thereof might waken him the rest in the mean time sleep with their heads under their wings but if any danger approach the Captain gives notice by crying out and so away they fly This office of Precedency they have by turns and that as well in the Air as on the Earth and he that is placed in the van and cuts the Air first in due time retires As is also eminently observable in the Sicilian Staggs in their passing through the streight betwixt Sicilia and Calabria which they were wont to doe in Summer-time to seek new pastures He that follows lays his head on the hinder part of him that goes before he therefore that goes first comes back into the rear when he is weary and easeth his head upon the hindmost Which they do by turns and so the weight of their horns proves no great impediment to their swimming 7. That also is very exquisite Policy which Apollonius in his Travels into India observed in the Elephants while they passed the River the least went first and so proportionably the rest followed the greatest passing over the last of all Which order Damis his disciple and fellow-traveller disallowing as rude and inept his master Apollonius informs him of the right reason thereof shewing him how they were now in chace and hunted after and being in retreat according to military discipline the strongest were to march last Besides if the greatest had marched foremost the weight of their bodies would have made the passage more deep and more difficult and inconvenient to the lesser that should follow 8. Wherefore it is evident that Political Wisdom is a Branch of the Animal life and such Vertues as are comprehended under it such as Political Iustice Temperance Fortitude or Courage a sense of Friendship Fame or Glory with several other Affections that are contain'd in the Political Spirit and which are discoverable in several other brute Animals as well as in the Elephant but I must not expatiate CHAP. X. 1. That there is according to Pliny a kind of Religion also in Brutes as in the Cercopithecus 2. In the Elephant 3. A confutation of Pliny's conceit 4. That there may be a certain Passion in Apes and Elephants upon their sight of the Sun and Moon something a-kin to that of Veneration in man and how Idolatry may be the proper fruit of the Animal life 5. A discovery thereof from the practise of the Indians 6. whose Idolatry to the Sun and Moon sprung from that Animal passion 7. That there is no hurt in the Passion it self if it sink us not into an insensibleness of the First invisible cause 1. THE last Affection we named was Religion or rather the shadow of it The Aegyptians figure out the rising of the Moon by a Cynocephalus who sympathizeth so with that Planet that while she is in Conjunction that Creature loseth its sight being blind till the Moon hath recovered her light The menstruous flux of the Female is also exactly in the Interlunium Whence the Aegyptian Priests kept these Animals in their Temples for the more exact observation of the course of the Moon and made them Hieroglyphicks to represent the rising thereof drawing a Cercopithecus in this posture viz. standing upon his hinder feet and lifting up his fore-feet toward Heaven with his face directed up to the Moon And Pliny does plainly affirm that they do Novam Lunam exultatione adorare Which yet I must confess I look upon to be no more an act of Adoration then the fawning and leaping of a Dog at the return of his Master or the manifold incurvations or prostrations of his body at his feet Whence the Criticks endeavor to give a reason of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Adoration 2. The same Author amongst other Properties of the Elephant saies there is this in him also Religio siderum Solisque ac Lunae veneratio a religious observance of the Stars and Veneration of the Sun and Moon and that in Mauritania every New Moon when it begins to shine the Elephants repair to the river Amilus where after a solemn purification and washing of themselves having first done their salutations to the Moon they return into the woods 3. That the two great Luminaries of the world have a very strong influence upon all sublunary bodies is very plain and upon some more peculiarly then others and yet without any suspicion of Religion in them For what Religion can there be in the Heliotropium that winds about so with the Sun Or what so early Devotion is that in the Cock whom yet Proclus will needs phansie to sing his Morning-hymn to Apollo or the Sun at the first sense of his rayes at break of day Or what Evening-Devotion is that in Crows or Rooks that a man may observe roosting on the tops of trees with their bills turned toward the Sun setting The general life and motion in the world has as I said its particular effect according to this or that Animal And so the presence of the Moon that is received with so much exultation by the Cercopithecus with so solemn a shew of devotion by the Elephant is notwithstanding barked at by the Dog as the Sun is cursed by a certain people of Libya for his troublesome heat But I think no man that is not very rash will admit that that kinde of Ape and the Elephant do any more by their actions and gestures adore the Moon then the Dog by his barking does blaspheme her 4. I will not deny but in Apes and Elephants and such like brute Creatures that bid nearer towards humane perfection that the
that is saith he Vespasian in whose reign it is supposed not proved that Iohn wrote these Visions The other is not yet come namely Titus And when he comes must continue but a short time But Galba Otho and Vitellius much shorter The Beast that was and is not to wit Domitian who was Emperour while his father Vespasian was absent from Rome Which if he were really and not styled so out of complement and flattery the application is handsome For then it was sometimes true of him that he was and is not and shall be Emperour again He is the eighth Domitian is indeed the eighth and so distinct an head and so considerable as reigning longer then any of his predecessors that he quite spoils the interpretation For thus the Beast will be eight-headed not seven-headed contrary to the Vision Which those words and is of the seven do therefore correct and shew that the eighth is not so the eighth but that there are still but seven heads which this exposition can never unriddle To say nothing how if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie he is the son of some of the seven it would have been less ambiguous to have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he was not the son of all seven but of Vespasian onely The ten horns are ten kings which have received no kingdome as yet c. This Grotius himself expounds of the Ostrogothi Wisigothi Vandali Gepidae Longobardi Heruli Burgundiones Hunni Franci Saxones These are the ten horns of the Beast Domitian for Grotius will have Domitian this Beast growing up and acting some ages after the Beast ceased to be Which is an interpretation so extravagant that nothing can be more The last Synchronal of the Six Trumpets that we shall touch upon is the Two-horned Beast Which Grotius against all analogy of Prophetick interpretation expounds of Art Magick not of any Polity either Ecclesiastical or Civil The horns like those of a Lamb are Two Christian Vertues imitated by Magicians Temperance in diet and Abstinence from Venery But Abstinence from Venery is common to other Religions with Christianity and to abstain from flesh and wine no Christian precept at all His haling also of the Ghost of Achilles and Statue of Apollonius to the making up an exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understanding by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Umbra of Achilles which is unusual or the Statue of Apollonius made by his followers and then presently in the same breath to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it had so often signified either the Statue of Apollonius or Umbra of Achilles concerning Images in general is to make the Scripture an Image of wax and to mold it into what shape we please 8. But there is yet a further and more substantial eviction of Grotius his mistake upon the account of the number of the Beast For certainly that must be the Two-horned Beast to whom the number 666 can rationally be applied which Grotius would fit to Ulpius the known name of Trajan the Emperour which he reads ΟΥΛΠΙΟC making C stand for six But considering 't is called the number of the name of the Beast by this conceit Trajan would be the Beast Which is contrary to the law of Prophetick Schemes where Beast signifies not any particular man but a State Politick and also against his former exposition of the Beast which according to him must be either Idolatry or Magick Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is farre more passable in that regard then this of ΟΥΛΠΙΟC To say nothing how it is called the number of the Beast without mentioning any name as also the number of a man without intimating any thing to doe with his name Which plainly imports that there is a further reach then an allusion to any man's name or the name of any State But the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is That it is Numerus humanus such a number as men usually deal with and may be numbred by humane Art But it seems there is some skill to be used therein because he saith here is wisdome and let him that hath understanding calculate the number of the Beast Which if it were but the putting of the numeral letters of some Name together would be but a very petty piece of skill All the skill or rather luck would be to find out the Name but there would be no skill at all in calculating of the Number But the Text saith Let him that hath skill calculate the number of the Beast and it sets down the very number that is to be numbred Which number yet cannot be numbred after the manner of men which way notwithstanding is intimated but by Extraction of the Root and therefore undoubtedly Mr. Potter has found out the true and solid solution of this Mysterie Concerning which no man can fail to be satisfied unless either ignorance or prejudice make him uncapable if he consider First in general what rich mysteries the Spirit of God has been pleased to wrap up in Numbers Of which there are many pregnant examples in the Creation of the world distributed into Six daies The meaning whereof is not otherwise to be understood but by the nature and powers of Numbers as I have clearly enough shewn in the Defence of my Philosophick Cabbala And then in the next place which is closer to the purpose if he take notice of what the abovesaid Author urges most pertinently That other Numbers in Scripture are of necessity to be numbred thus by the extraction of the Root either Square or Cubick to know the particular dimensions of things numbred by them As those Stones mentioned 1 Kings 7.10 which are said to be some of eight others of ten Cubits Which must needs be the Cubick summe of each stone as he hath undeniably demonstrated That Square numbers are also taken notice of is evident from Ezekiel 48.20 Five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand But to come nearer to the business in hand the Cubical summe of the new Ierusalem namely Twelve thousand furlongs is set down in the Apocalypse of which there can be no sense in way of numbring but to find the Perimeter thereof Which is not to be done but by the extraction of the Cubick root The measure also of the Wall an hundred fourty four cubits is utterly unapplicable thereto if we look upon it as the number of one Line For it would be too little for the Perimeter by far and too great for the altitude thereof wherefore the measure of the thickness and height of the Wall is the Root of an hundred fourty four namely Twelve Thirdly therefore the applicability of the number 144 to the Holy City appearing in the Root thereof to wit 12 which is a number peculiarly consecrated to signifie the chief matters of the new Ierusalem The Chiliarchies also or Regiments as I may so call them of the
and more answerable to the very Phrase of Scripture he is accompanied with Angels as well as Saints some of his Elders being adorned with the glittering title of Seraphims as is to be seen in the Legend of his life entituled Mirabilia Dei as also in his Glass of Righteousness CHAP. XIII 1. An Examination of all possible Grounds of this fanatick Boaster's magnifying himself thus highly 2. That there are no Grounds thereof from either the Matter he delivers or from his Scriptural Eloquence Raptures and Allegories 3. The unspeakable Power and Profit of the Letter above that of the Allegorie instanced in the Crucifixion Resurrection Ascension of our Saviour and his coming again to Iudgement 4. That Allegorizing the Scripture is no special Divine gift but the fruit of either our Natural Phansie or Education 5. That he had no grounds of magnifying himself from any Miracles he did 6. Nor from being any Special Preacher of Perfection or Practiser thereof 7. Of that Imperfection that is seated in the impurity of the Astral Spirit and ungovernable tumult of Phansy in Fanatick Persons 1. BUT enough has been related to shew that transcendent esteem this Enthusiast had both of himself and also would insinuate into others of his own Person and Doctrine Let us now consider what Right or Ground he had to assume so much to himself or others may have to attribute so much unto him And to bring all the Inducements imaginable into view This high conceit of his of being so supereminent a Person must arise either from the Matter he does deliver or his Eloquence or the Raptures he was in when he penn'd down his Revelations as he would have them thought or from the Mysteriousness of his Allegories or from his Evangelizing the Perfection or lastly for that he was prophesied of in the Scriptures as he in whom all things should be fulfilled 2. Now for the main Matter he delivers plainly and above-bord it is the excellency of Love Which is so Essential a Truth to Christianity and plainly inculcated in the Gospel and so effectually recommended that there is no true Christian can miss of it So that we need no new Instructer in that divine Grace much less any inspired Prophet to teach us what is so plain to us already And therefore if there be any thing new in this doctrine of Love it must be such a kind of Love that is new to Christians I mean to true Christians but not to the Gnosticks nor the School of Simon Magus who spoke as magnificently of himself as this Impostor can do possibly And for his Scriptural Eloquence his Raptures and Transportations in the penning down his Writings how that such things arise frequently from Nature and Complexion is abundantly declared in my Enthusiasmus Triumphatus to say nothing of worser Assistences then mere Complexion as also the dexterity of Allegorizing which yet how distortedly he performs I shall note anon 3. In the mean time I hold it well worth our observation how giddy and injudicious those persons are that are so mightily taken with the Mystical sense of such parts of the History of Christ as are most profitable in the belief of the mere Letter such as his Passion Resurrection Ascension his Session at the right hand of God and his coming again to Iudgement when he will change these vile bodies of ours into the similitude of his Heavenly body For making this a mere Representation of something to be performed within us namely his Crucifixion of our mortifying of the old man his Resurrection of our rising to newness of life his Ascension into Heaven and sitting at the right hand of God of our entrance into and rule and reign in the Heavenly Being with Christ in the Spirit and his Returning to Iudgement the judging and governing our natural and earthly man with Righteousness and Equity which Allegories or rather not so good is the deepest Wisdome and divinest Revelation that is to be found in this admired Prophet such Allusions I say and Similitudes as these have no more force nor efficacy to urge us or help us on to those Accomplishments they represent then if the History of Christ were a mere Fable But if in stead of making them Resemblances we should use them as Arguments from a true History they have a power unspeakable for the making us good For thus any ingenuous Spirit would melt into remorse when he considers how the Son of God out of mere love and compassion to him was crucified for him and thereby will willingly submit to all the pain of Mortification in a kindly Gratitude to his Saviour And from the belief of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead will be the further animated in his pursuance of the Resurrection to an holy life being assured of Eternal enjoyment of his labours by a blessed Immortality of which also His Ascension into Heaven is a further pledge and his sitting at the right hand of God the greater motive to take off his mind from earthly desires and to think of those things that are above And lastly his certain hope of obtaining that crown of glory which Christ the righteous Judge shall give unto him at the last day I mean that glorified and Heavenly Body will be the greatest ingagement imaginable to spend the strength of his natural body in his service to expose it to all hardships yea to death it self if need so require for the honour of his Saviour and in the mean time to possess it in all Sanctity possible in a gratefull observance of his commands from whom we expect the Redemption of our Bodies 4. Wherefore the Literal meaning of the History of Christ being so powerful and effectual to the making of us good it is a sign of a great deal of folly and levity to dote upon mere Allegories and Allusions that have no force at all in them to move us to Godliness and Vertue or to surmise that there is any thing Spiritual or Divine in the mere allegorizing of the Scripture For there is nothing Divine saving our full assurance of the holy Truths themselves that are delivered in the Gospel whether they be Life or History for this is a spiritual gift indeed But that we conceive that one may represent the other that is only the natural Nimbleness of our Phansy or a Dexterity accruing to us from Use and Education such as I question not but was in Saint Paul who was brought up a Pharisee theâ—efore was well versed in their Midrash or Mystical meaning of the History of the Old Testament which made him so prone to such applications in the New But this was no such special Inspiration or peculiar spiritual Attainment in him above the rest of the Apostles but merely a Cast of his Office a Specimen of his former Education which accustomed him to Allusions and Allegories in the interpreting of the Law So that I much pity those poor souls
Ghost by his mysterious union with the Eternal Word by his miraculous Resurrection from the dead and by his visible Ascension into Heaven and Session now at the right hand of his Father This is warrant enough to do all Divine homage to our blessed Saviour as to the only-begotten Son of God And truly the Church to give them their due has not been sparing the very constitution of our Religion being so effectual for this purpose For so Divine a Person as Christ was namely The very Son of God and yet condescending to undergoe so horrid a death for the World how could engaged Mankind stint themselves from shewing of all manner of expressions of Love and Devotion toward him 3. Wherefore they erected innumerable magnificent Structures of Temples Chappels and other Religious Edifices and consecrated them to his Name They endowed the Christian Priesthood with ample Riches and Dignities set up Church-musick sung divine Anthems in honour of our Saviour adorned their Churches celebrated his Passion with unexpressible reverence instituted Festivals and filled both Time and Place with such variety of Ornaments that a man might observe that the greatest part of the Splendour and Pomp of Christendom was in reference to their Religion Which certainly would have been a very goodly and lovely spectacle if Superstition Hypocrisie and Ecclesiastick Tyranny could have been kept out 4. But this External Worship and the Ceremonies thereof things equally performable by the evil and the good by the regenerate and mere natural man these took growth enormously and like ranck Weeds choaked the Corn or what happens in full and over-fed bodies in which natural heat and activity is very much lost the huge load and bulk of visible Formalities extinguished the Life and Spirit of Religion 5. But however this outward Homage to our Saviour continued and does continue in a great measure over the face of Christendom to this very day though their expressions are not alike courtly every where Which continuation of Divine Honour done unto him cannot but gratifie his faithfully-devoted Servants they having a deep resentment of the shameful Sufferings their Lord and Master underwent out of his dear love to them and therefore do naturally rejoyce at this Tribute of Divine Adoration the World gives to so holy and sacred a Person it being so sutable a part of compensation of his Humiliation and Reproach Besides that they receive some satisfaction that Divine Providence has so brought it about touching the true Members of Christ whose Principles are so opposite to the Guise of the world and their Persons so contemptible that yet the World are fain with the lowest prostrations to adore that in Christ which they kick about and trample upon so in his despised Members But I will insist no longer on this Theme having spoke enough of it elsewhere We have now shewn the Usefulness of the Mystery of Godlinesse in all holy and religious respects I shall adde only a word or two in reference to things of this Life and so conclude the fourth part of my Discourse CHAP. XX. 1. The Usefulnesse of Christianity for the good of this life witnessed by our Saviour and S. Paul 2. The proof thereof from the Nature of the thing it self 3. Objections against Christianity as if it were an unfit Religion for States Politick 4. A Concession that the primary intention of the Gospel was not Government Political with the advantage of that Concession 5. That there is nothing in Christianity but what is highly advantageous to a State-Politick 6. That those very things they object against it are such as do most effectually reach the chief end of Political Government as doth Charity for example 7. Humility Patience and Mortification of inordinate desires 8. The invincible Valour that the love of Christ and their fellow-members inspires the Christian Souldiery withall 1. THat Christianity contributes also to the Happinesse of this present World is evident both from the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles and also from the nature of the thing it self Matth. 6. Where our Saviour having exhorted us not to be over-sollicitous for the things of this Life food and raiment setting before our eyes the care of Divine Providence in Creatures of far lesse price then our selves how the Fowls of the Air are provided for that neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns how gloriously the Lilies of the Field are arraied that neither weave nor spin he concludes That we should not so eagerly and carefully seek after those things as worldly-minded men do But seek ye first the kingdom of God saith he and his righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you For your Heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things And Paul to Timothy Godlinesse is profitable for all things having the promise of this life and that which is to come 2. And if we consider the nature of the thing it self there is an accruement of present Happinesse from true Christianity not only by virtue of Promise but even by natural dependence of Causes and Events especially when that Christian frame of Spirit has arrived to any considerable degree of perfection and maturity For there is no such obliging person in the world as a mature and ripe Christian nor any truer Policy then to be obliging Which Temper the more sincere it is the more taking it is and the more sure Fortress against adverse Fortune Wherefore what advantage Humanity has he has it in the greatest measure Besides that his calm and castigate spirit makes him sensible discreet above all expression and of a sagacity beyond all conceit of the unregenerate man His Faithfulnesse also and honest and chearful Industry have their proper blessing attending them And his moderate desires of Riches and Honours and his laudable use of them unblemished with any blot of either sordid Covetousnesse or vain Ostentation prevents or beats back the ill-aimed darts of secret Malice and Envy And if but a meaner share of the things of this world be allotted to him yet his contentments are not the lesse he finding that true which both David and Solomon have pronounced That better is a little that the righteous has then great possessions of the ungodly And when more unsupportable pressures and afflictions fall upon him such as great Fits of Sicknesse Imprisonment and the Approaches of Death his Advantages in this Condition are unspeakably above what any other mortal is capable of For the more these urge his outward man the more his inward is inflamed and excited to the exercise of those powers that are most holy and precious and needing no admonition though so fit and apposite as that of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Circumstances of things themselves will assuredly awaken this Christian Champion to the exertion of all the strength of his Soul and to the successful use of his spiritual weapons wherewith he is armed against the day of battel For