heavy heart True Ioy is a serious matter and there must be a good Conscience honest Purposes and Actions a Contempt of Pleasure and the peaceful Tenour of an unspotted Life to maintain it There can be no perfect Joy without Justice Courage and Temperance This is the Method of Vertue first to mourn and then to rejoyce II. Sadness is a Perturbation of the Mind by reason of some present Evil either real or apprehended But we do often-times find more trouble in the Opinion of things than in the things themselves Wherefore be not too inquisitive into the Qualities of things as concerning Servants for the purpose Lands Moneys Business but rather take into consideration the Opinion and Estimate we have of them It is not in a mans power to prevent Disgrace Robbery Violence but to make a right Judgment of these things and to satisfie himself that they are not simply evil but often profitable this is in his power He that suffers under a present trouble let him but turn his thought to a good Conscience which is a continual Comfort and there 's his Cure Nothing can fall amiss to a good Man Not that he does not feel it but he masters it and considers all Adversity only as matter for his Patience to work upon as the Instrument of Divine Grace and that which opens him a way to eternal Glory A good man may be reputed unhappy but he can never be so III. It does very much abate the edge of a Misfortune to fore-see it and to say to our selves Whatsoever may be shall be for he that is prepar'd can never be surpriz'd Disappointments fall heavy upon people that are agog upon Prosperity What if a man should lose half his Estate What if all What if his House should fall his Corn be all blasted his Friends forsake him What if his Credit should be endanger'd his Office taken away his Gown turn'd over his ears And to all this let us add Sickness Bondage Ruine Fire It comes to no more than what every wise man is prepar'd for There is no Calamity which he has not thought upon before-hand and made as easie to him by long Meditation as others make it by long Sufferance That which happens to any man may be every mans case Where 's the Rich man that can secure himself from Hunger and Beggery Where 's the Great man that may not fall into Disgrace and Contempt Where 's the Kingdom or Nation that may not be overturned and utterly unpeopled Have not we our selves liv'd to see the Head of a great and glorious Prince under the Hand of the common Hang-man and struck off by the command of his own Subjects A most execrable Villany and beyond all Precedent And these prodigious Changes are not the work of much time neither There 's but a moment betwixt Plenty and Beggery the Court and the Cottage a Throne and a Scaffold This is the mutable Condition of Humane Affairs What was another mans Lot to day may be mine to morrow No man bears ill Fortune better than he that always expects it IV. In Prosperity Vertue has little or no occasion of shewing her self but in the time of Adversity her power is manifested in our Patience We are become a Spectacle saith the Apostle to God Angels and Men. And it is a Spectacle in which God takes delight to see a brave Man grappling with ill Fortune and leading all his Enemies Foreign and Domestick Passions and Casualties in Triumph 'T is nothing to govern a ship in a smooth Sea and a gentle Gale He that is not try'd lives in Ignorance Most unfortunate men we cry that ever it should come to this But on the other side Most fortunate men say I that have had the benefit of this Experiment that we have supported our selves with Honour and Constancy where others perchance would have shrunk under the Burthen We are not therefore to yield and render up our selves in Crosses and Disasters but to make good our Ground and stand firm upon any Accident that can befal us For 't is but breaking of the first Shock and we shall find the rest to be only Fancy and Opinion The Works of Nature are found in us alike but for Poverty Discredit Contumely and what else the common People call Evils some there are that bear them with Patience and others without so much as taking the least notice of them So that it is not the force of any Natural Impression that we labour under but the Influence of a perverse Opinion Why should a man belie himself then and call any Calamity Insupportable which he may make easie when he pleases only by changing his Opinion of it Every man is just as unhappy as he thinks himself and let him complain of what he will His Impatience is the greater Mischief of the two V. Is there any Sickness or any Pain so obstinate and stubborn but Time will either abate it or take it away Now the Question is Whether we shall put an end to it our selves or stay till it comes to an end without us For Time will most certainly do that at last which ordinary Prudence might better do at present Nay if we had never so great a mind to entertain and cherish Melancholy it would leave us at length in spight of our hearts Grief 't is true when 't is fresh may find Tenderness and Compassion but as it grows old it grows ridiculous and nothing more odious If a miserable Wretch were ever the better for sobbing and lamenting he should have my consent to spend day and night in Sighs and Groans beating of his Breast and in all the Outrages that were ever exercis'd by a disconsolate Creature But if Howling and Crying be to no purpose let us betake our selves to an invincible Resolution and struggle with our Calamities The Pilot deserves to be thrown over-board that quits the Helm in a Storm and sets the Ship adrift at the Mercy of the Billows But he that stands to his Tackle and bears up against foul Weather though he sinks with the Vessel perishes yet with Honour and the Comfort of having done his Duty CHAP. XVI Of Hope and Despair And how we are to moderate both I. THat Hope which is not plac'd upon Almighty God is vain and deceitful and in effect but a waking dream Why should any man torment himself with the Expectation of things to come He that desires nothing hopes for nothing and he that contemns all earthly things desires nothing for no man can desire what he despises Nor is it enough for any one to tell me that the thing he hopes for is easily compass'd or that his Hopes never deceived him as yet for let them be what they will they carry great Trouble Uncertainty and Anxiety along with them A man should no more hanker after or grasp at things out of his Reach than leave the plain Way to wander among Thorns and Precipices No less uneasie is the
are to do it He that commits himself to general experiences and does not venture out of his depth is safe To do wisely a man should first take a measure of himself and next of the matter he takes in hand for fear of over-valuing his own strength One man is undone by presuming too much upon his Eloquence Another runs himself out of his Fortune for want of proportioning his Expence to his Estate A third kills himself with laying more upon an infirm Body than it is able to bear Wherefore we are to compare our Force with our Undertaking and to have a care of Burthens that are too heavy for our shoulders We should not meddle with any thing neither but what we may hope to go thorow withal The next thing is the choice of our Companions for we had need have a very good opinion of those people with whom we propound to divide our Lives And to look narrowly into their Conversation that we be not ruin'd for our good will We are in Conclusion to examine our selves how we stand inclin'd to the thing in Question for 'T is lost labour to go about to force Nature III. It is a hard matter for a man in Passion to distinguish Truth and Honesty from Errour and Delusion so that it is a point of Prudence not to enter upon any considerable Action in a Distemper of mind For there is no greater Enemy to Wisdom than Precipitation which brings many a man to destruction beyond recovery Wherefore nothing is to be done Headily or without good advice Men are naturally unstable and irresolute Providences uncertain Events dubious and Experience it self proves many times deceitful In the multitude of Counsellors there is safety There are many easie people that judge of things by the Gloss and Out-side only and so fall into great mistakes But the wise man passes a strict enquiry into the things themselves abstracted from all Artifice and Imposture into the Qualities and not only into the Names of things For what is Money Reputation Title but a superficial Vernish to dazle Children and Fools We are to place our selves as upon a Watch-Tower where we may discover all Accidents afar off without danger of being surpriz'd and and crying out with the senseless Multitude Who would have thought it We are likewise to proceed with deliberation maturity of judgment and diligent examination of things for fear of ill Circumstances For there is so near a resemblance betwixt Vice and Vertue that we may very well mistake the one for the other and entertain that for Wisdom which is nothing in the world but Craft and Cunning. When we have once made our Election we are without delay to put our purpose in execution For good Counsel without Execution is of no effect CHAP. XXIII Of Iustice and Religion The Acts of both Repentance and wherein it consists I. JUstice is a Glorious and a Communicative Vertue ordained for the Common good of Man-kind without any regard to it self This is it that keeps men from worrying one another and preserves the World in peace It is the Bond of Humane Society a kind of Tacit Agreement and Impression of Nature without which there is not any thing we do that can deserve commendation The just man wrongs no body but contents himself with his own Does good to all Thinks and speaks well of all Gives every man his due and is not any mans hindrance Where he is in Authority he commands righteous things lies open to all prefers a publick good before a private punishes the Wicked rewards the Good and keeps every man in his duty Where he is in subjection he preserves Concord lives in Obedience to Laws and Magistrates contents himself in his station without hankering after Offices and Preferment and is no medler in other peoples matters He is just for Justice-sake and asks no other reward than what he receives in the comfort of being just II. Religion is the most excellent of Moral Vertues and is exercised immediately upon the Honour and Worship of God Of which this is the first point to know and believe him and then to adore him for his Majesty and Goodness Barely to know God is not sufficient for the Devils themselves do as much that hate him There must be Love and Adoration as well as Knowledg I wish we did but discharge our duty as well as we understand it There 's none of us but acknowledges Gods Providence in the ordering and governing of the world his Omnipotency Glory and Goodness and from his Mercy it is that we hope for Eternal Happiness Why do we not pay him that Veneration then which belongs to him but prefer a little pitiful dirt before him Religion lies not so much in the Understanding as in the Practice He that is truly Religious walks as in the presence of God and studies perfection The most acceptable Worship of God is the imitation of him which does in a manner unite us to God and God to us but it must be free then from wandrings negligence and sin It is to no purpose to talk like Christians and live like Infidels This was it that made a famous Heathen Philosopher to say that There was nothing more Glorious than a Christian in his Discourse nothing more miserable in his Actions III. Repentance is that which brings us â—o a Detestation of sin with a full resolution of Amendment which reconciles us to God To a Detestation I say of our past sins wherefore the pleasure likewise is past but the Guilt the Torment and the Condemnation sticks by us To conceal our Iniquities is to no purpose for A Guilty Conscience passes Sentence upon it self Conscience is a kind of Tribunal which God Almighty hath set up in all reasonable Souls where every man is his own Accuser and both Witness and Judge against himself Let us therefore enter into a strict and daily Examination of our selves and without hiding mincing or slipping of any thing call all our thoughts words and deeds to a strict account He that says Lord be merciful to me a Sinner finds mercy What am I the better for concealing my faults from other people so long as I am conscious of them to my self Unless I had rather be damned in private than absolv'd in publick Whatever we do with our Bodies there 's no avoiding of our Consciences when we come once to cast off that regard we are most miserable IV. Our Life is divided into what 's past present and to come The present is but a moment and in the same instant beginning and ending The future has no Being but only in prospect but whatsoever is past we can summon and call before us at pleasure Many people are afraid of their own memories because if they look back their sins flie in their faces But this should not be Frequent Reflexion is the readiest way to Reformation The more we consider our Transgressions the more shall we abhor them and the less
A GUIDE TO Eternity Extracted out of the WRITINGS OF THE Holy Fathers AND Ancient Philosophers Written Originally in Latine By IOHN BONA And now done into English By Roger L'Estrange Esq The Second Edition London Printed for Hen. Brome at the Gun in St Pauls Church-yard the West End 1680 Mauductio ad Coelum or a Guide to ETERNITY Written in Latin By Iohn Bona And Englished by Roger L'Estrange London Printed For Henrij Brome 1680 F. H. Van. Houâ— THE Author to the Reader IT is the end of this Preface to encounter two Objections which I expect shall be charged upon me First Why does he not practise what he recommends and quit the World himself before he take upon him to teach others the way to Heaven Secondly What news does he tell us Truly no more than what we have a thousand times over and better in other Authors And this with a strange kind of Temerity and Confidence he is willing to impose upon us for his own My Answer is in the words of a wise man Horace Fungor vice Cotis acutum Reddere quae Ferrum valet exors ipsa secandâ— My Bus'ness is to whet not cut Or if I may take up the words of another great man I look upon the whole World but as one large Hospital and upon my self not as a Doctor but one of the Patients If I can contribute any thing to a Publick Good it 's well But however while I write this I am but talking to my self and I make my Reader my Confident I do not pretend to be a Teaching Master but a Teaching Scholar I am desirous to learn of others even when I instruct my self for he that teaches learns As to the second Objection I shall prevent it by a most ingenuous Confession of the naked Truth There is very little of this Discourse that I can honestly call my own The greatest part of it is what I have gathered out of the Holy Fathers and Antient Philosophers And somewhat I have added out of my own Experience which I have wrought together into one Confection a good deal of it in the very words of the Author and the rest in my own stile plain and accommodate to all capacities for my business is not Rhetorick but Good Life And in order to that blessed End I have here drawn up a Compendium of Moral Institutions and Counsels the best I could out of the Writings of the Fathers Seneca Epictetus Antoninus and others of the Ancients both Christian and Pagan What I have found effectual in my own case I have here communicated for the benefit of others without so much as saying where I had it without clogging my Paper with Citations or playing the or the Orator My Design is to work upon the Passions not the Phansie and if the Physick be proper no matter for the plainness of it or who mingled the Potion I might have enlarged and I might have expressed my self much better But a few Precepts that are ready and at hand are much more profitable to us than whole Volumes that overcharge the Memory and leave us at a loss where to find them when we have occasion to use them He that knows what belongs to his Salvation has learn'd what is sufficient I wish with all my Soul that this poor Essay such as it is may conduce to a Publick Good but however that it may not rise in Judgment against the Author for not conforming in his Life to his Precepts THE CONTENTS of the Chapters Chap. 1. OF Mans last end The danger of neglecting or mistaking it The means and Method of attaining it page 1 Chap. 2. He that would live well let him chuse a good Tutor The Qualities of such a Tutor and the duties of the Pupil 6 Chap. 3. Of Purgation from sin The very disposition to sin as well as the sin it self is to be rooted out No Remedy more effectual against it than the consideration of Death and Eternity 12 Chap. 4. Of Gluttony the Evils of it and the Remedies And to know when we have subdued it 21 Chap. 5. Of Luxury The Foulness of it How apt we are to relapse into it How to avoid it 25. Chap. 6. Of Avarice The wickedness of it The Poor and the Rich compared The Deceit and the Vanity of Riches 30 Chap. 7. Of Anger The Character of an angry man The effects Causes and Remedies of it 36 Chap. 8. Of Envy and Sloth with their Description and Cure 48 Chap. 9. Of Pride Ambition and Vain-glory The Description of a Proud Man The Vanity of Dignities and the Dangers The Evils of High-mindedness and the Cure 52 Chap. 10. Of the Government of the Body and the Senses How far the Body may be indulged The Lust of the Eye and Excess in Apparel are condemned 61 Chap. 11. Of the Guard of the Tongue How much it concerns us to govern it and the Difficulty of so doing Certain Directions what we are to observe in speaking what to avoid How to behave our selves in case of Calumny or Slander 67 Chap. 12. Of the internal Senses The use of Opinions The Mind is to be tinctured with good Thoughts Of bridling the Sensitive Appetite and depraved Affections Divers Precepts to that end 73 Chap. 13. Of Love the Nature of it Causes and Effects Its Remedies and somewhat added of Hatred 78 Chap. 14. Of Desire and Aversion what is to be desired and what to be declined 83 Chap. 15. Of Ioy and Sadness How a good man ought to rejoyce He that looks before him is not cast down Several Antidotes against Sorrow 87 Chap. 16. Of Hope and Despair And how we are to moderate both 93 Chap. 17. Of Fear The Vanity of it and how to master it Rashness to be avoided and something more of Anger 96 Chap. 18. Of the Faculties of the reasonable Soul The understanding is not to be employ'd upon Curiosities What Study is best The Evil of medling with other Peoples Manners Not to concern our selves for other mens Opinions Of Self-Denial 102 Chap. 19. Of the state of Proficients Divers Helps to Improvement The value and the use of Time God is always present 109 Chap. 20. Of the Good of Solitude Ill Company to be avoided The Vices of the World and what they are Vertue the study of a Proficient How to know when we have attained it 114 Chap. 21. Of Theological Vertues Faith is to be manifested in our Works In God alone we are to put our Trust. Motives to the Love of God The Love of our Neighbour shews it self in good Offices An Exhortation to Charity 121 Chap. 22. Of Prudence The Necessity and the Difficulty of it The duty of a wise man 127 Chap. 23. Of Iustice and Religion The Acts of both Of Repentance and wherein it consists 130 Chap. 24. Of Piety and Obedience The Commendation of Obedience and Gratitude How to receive and how to requite a benefit 135 Chap. 25. Of Truth and the use
trouble And it is not for us to say This or that is a small Business for I tell ye let it seem never so small It is a great advance the very first Step that leads to Vertue and Perfection V. If we may compare to a Tree the old man in us that derives his Original from the infected Seed of Adam we may resemble Self-Love to the Root a Perverse Inclination to the Trunk Perturbations to the Branches Vitious Habits to the Leaves Evil Works Words and Thoughts to the Fruit. Now the way to hinder all subsequent Corruptions and Wickedness is to lay the Ax to the Root and to begin with Self-Love Take away that and the whole Off-spring of Carnal Appetite is destroy'd at one Blow And this is done by Humility and Contempt of our selves We must be lowly in our own Eyes and not fear either the Scorn or the Displeasure of Men We must chearfully submit to what condition soever God hath appointed for us He that hates himself as he ought shall be sav'd He that loves himself as he ought not is in danger to perish CHAP. XIII Of Love the Nature of it Causes and Effects Its Remedies and somewhat added of Hatred I. LOve is a certain Delight or Satisfaction we take in that which is Good The first Impression that affects the Appetite proceeding from the Pleasure we take in a known Good It is the Cement of the World the most powerful of all our Passions subdue this once and the rest are easily overcome The Love which is divine aspires naturally toward its Original All Good comes from the Soveraign Good and thither it tends Let every man call his own Soul to a Shrift and see what it is that his Heart is most set upon For it is either the God which he should worship or the Idol which he should not It is the Command of God that we love him with the whole heart and without a Rival He that loves any thing else with his whole heart makes that his God II. Beside the ordinary Motives to Love which are Vertue and Beauty there is also a certain Agreement and Congruity of Minds and Manners together with several Graces and Advantages both of Body and Mind As Modesty of Behaviour Industry Nobility Learning Sharpness of Wit c. But the great Attractive of Love is Love it self which if accompany'd with Benefits is sufficient to turn even the strongest Aversion into a Kindness Men of clear Spirits warm and sanguine Constitutions mild and gentle Natures are much given to Love III. So great is the Power of Love that it does in a manner transform the Lover into the thing belov'd It is a kind of a willing Death a voluntary Separation of the Soul and Body He that is in Love is out of himself he thinks not of himself he provides nothing for himself and effectually he is as good as no where at all if he be not with the thing he loves His Mind is in one place and his Body in another How miserable is that man that loves and loves not God! What Proportion is there betwixt a corruptible Object and the Immortal Soul The end of such Love is Vanity and Vexation and Disappointment Whereas he that loves God lives always where he loves in him in whom all things live and in a secure possession of an unchangeable Good In Carnal Love there is a mixture of Bitterness and Violence but the Love of God is altogether humble and calm The one is full of Jealousies the other has none Here we are afraid of Rivals and there we pray for them We are to love God if we love our selves for we are only the better for it not He. Man is changeable and mortal but there 's no losing of God unless we forsake him IV. If we would have the love we bear to our Neighbour sincere it must be wholly sounded upon Piety and Religion abstracted from all the common Considerations of Wit Likeness Good Humour c. The Platonic Love which pretends from the sight of a Corporal Beauty to raise the Soul to the Contemplation of the Divine proves in the end to be the very Bane of Vertue It is very rarely that a man stops at the view of a lovely Woman without a desire to come nearer and whether it be a Ray only or some kind of Fascination with it that passes from the Eye to the Object somewhat there is that dissolves a man and ruines him There 's more danger in a slip of the Eyes than of the Feet The Cure of Love is the more difficult because the more we oppose it the stronger Resistance it makes And if it be not checkt at the very beginning it comes so insensibly upon us that we are in before we are aware but if we begin with it betimes the Remedy is not difficult One way of Cure may be by Diversion and plunging a mans self into business to put the thought of it out of his head But then we must avoid all occasions and Circumstances that may mind us of the Person we love For if we relapse there will be no Remedy but Time and Absence and we must expect to be perpetually seized with it till in the end it 's weary'd out and falls asleep Many have been cur'd out of mere shame to see themselves pointed at and made Town-talk and then perhaps they may have been brought to a better understanding of the Dishonour and Hazzard of their Proceeding Others have relieved themselves by finding out of Faults and Inconveniencies and by enquiring into the Errors and Imperfections of the thing they love But the last and surest Remedy is to drive out a Carnal Love with a Spiritual and to turn our Affections to God to Vertue to Heaven and to Eternity which are truly amiable A generous Mind cannot but be asham'd to set his heart upon a Dunghil Evil Love corrupts good Manners V. What is it but a kind of Natural Love-Chain that ties the whole World together and the several parts of it The Stars of the Firmament in their Motions the Birds of the Air and the Beasts of the Field Now this Sacred Bond is only dissolv'd by Hatred which leads to Division and Dissension as Love does to Union The most subject to this Vice are the Slothful the Fearful and the Suspicious for they fancy themselves to be threatned with Mischief which way soever they look There are some people of so unsociable a Nature that like Birds of ill Omen they both hate and fear all things together These men are a Burthen to themselves and to Mankind and to be avoided by all means but with Pity not Hatred And in truth there will be no place for Hatred if we turn every thing to the best for there is no man so ill but he has some mixture of Good in him There is nothing truly detestable but Sin and Damnation If we turn our Hatred any other way the harm is to
that knows every thing but himself knows in effect as much as comes to nothing V. It is a sordid and infamous humour to be prying into and medling with other Peoples matters to be observing and descanting upon Lives and Manners and to make the worst of every thing What have I to do with the Servant of another who is to stand and fall to his own Master The great Iudge of the world has reserv'd Iudgment to himself and he that presumes to judge his Neighbour invades the Throne of the Almighty Let every man enter into the Privacies of his own Conscience and see what Good is wanting in him what Ill abounds and he 'll find work enough at home to imploy his Pragmatical Spleen upon without hunting after the faults of others And there 's no Protection neither against the Sting of a Malevolent Wit and a Licentious Tongue Was not our Saviour himself taunted and traduced by the Jews And is not the Holy Gospel daily perverted by Hereticks It is with distemper'd minds as with Melancholick Bodies whatsoever they take turns to Corruption The Action is most commonly qualified by the Intention and Good or Bad accordingly But this is only known to him that searcheth the heart and the reins But let the Action we Censure be never so Foul and the Person never so Guilty what is it yet to us How Unchristian an Indecency is it to expose the Nakedness of our Brother for a publick Spectacle Why do we not rather observe our selves Judge and condemn our selves and turn the point of our Malice upon our own Hearts He that 's a severe Iudge to himself shall escape the Iudgment of the most High God VI. They that are so quick-sighted to discover other Peoples failings out of a desire to be thought shrewd men are commonly as jealous of being paid in their own Coyn and of being Hated Contemned ill thought of and ill spoken of by others Toward the subduing of this Vice we are first to Moderate the Pleasure we take in the Acclamations and Applauses of the Multitude and then utterly to cast away all curiosity of knowing what the World thinks or says of us for we are many times possest with a suspicion that such or such a man talks slightly and has a mean opinion of us who is so far from speaking amiss that he says nothing at all of us nor has us so much as in his thought Let a man say with the Apostle If I pleased men I were not the Servant of Christ. 'T is little to me that I am judged by you c. Such as we are with God such we truly are and neither the better nor the worse for the Opinion or Discourse of Men. 'T is much better to be good than to be so esteemed VII If we would have nothing fall out contrary to our Will we must absolutely lay it down and Will nothing at all but in submission to the Will of God This is the way that leads to a true Tranquillity of mind and to a lasting peace He that wishes for nothing but what he should may live as he would It is the only Felicity of this Life to square our Wills to the Will of God He who from all Eternity has appointed the end has likewise appointed the means and whether the way be smooth or craggy through Prosperity or Adversity it is still what God has allotted us in order to our Eternal Bliss He that obeys Divine Providence and follows it chearfully does well and wisely For let him lag and hang off never so much he 'll be forced to follow in spight of his Teeth Beside the Impiety of his Disobedience God Almighty leads the willing and draws the unwilling CHAP. XIX Of the State of Proficients Divers Helps to Improvement The value and the use of time God is always present I. IT is a good step toward Vertue for a man to be Conscious of his own Iniquities and to desire to mend Without which we go backward every day from bad to worse When we are once in the way we must go on as we began and the more haste we make the sooner shall we enjoy the Serenity of Mind which we aim at It is a good sign when a man comes to see his failings better than he did As it is in a Patient when he comes to be sensible that he is sick Every man is apt to flatter himself and therefore let us have a care of being over-credulous If upon the sifting and examining of our Hearts and Thoughts we find an Abatement of our Lusts a greater firmness of mind than ordinary and a more absolute command of our selves we are in a fair way of Proficiency and Emprovement It is an inestimable Blessing for a man to be Master of himself and to be at Unity with himself A good man is unchangeably the same A wicked man is perpetually at variance with himself II. It is but one days work to arrive at the highest pitch of Holiness if we would but turn with our whole hearts from the Creature to the Creator Now whether our Conversion be sincere or no we shall know by these marks If we be out of love with Vanities and transitory things If we delight in Solitude and Contemplation If that please us best that is perfectest If we prefer a good Conscience to God-ward before an empty Reputation among men If we do all this it goes well with us But the most powerful inducement to Vertue of all the rest is the daily Meditation of the Life and Passion of Christ. That Story is the Book of life and sufficient to bring us to Heaven if all the Libraries in the World Authors and all were utterly destroyed But it is not yet enough barely to know Christ and meditate of him unless we likewise imitate him and lead our lives in a Conformity to his word and example The way to rectifie that which is crooked is to bring it to the Rule III. It was well said of some-body That good order is as necessary to the Mind for the gaining of Vertue as it is to the Body for the recovery of Health for there are a thousand things in the way else to divert and retard us As the inordinate love either of our selves or of any thing else Impatience in Losses the over-much indulging of our selves in our Appetites and Pleasures whether in Meat or Drink Conversation or the like the plunging of our selves over head and ears in the affairs of this World and being too much wedded to our own Opinions rejecting the motions and inspirations of the good Spirit within us These obstacles must be removed and we are to encounter them with Resolution and Vigour we are to proceed with Readiness Alacrity and a good Intention and with an industry answerable to the excellency of the work in hand It is not the number of our Exercises but the thorow doing of them not so much the thing it self as the manner
of doing it that avails us IV. Our days are upon the wing Time flies away and there is no recalling of what 's past Our life depends upon the Future and is still looking forward and we consume it in mere Preparation till Old Age and Death it self over-take us unprovided for it It is in our Lives as upon the way in good Company The time passes away in Chat and Discourse and we are at the end of our Journey before we are aware For sleeping or waking we still keep on our pace and pass insensibly to our last end even before we think on 't What is it then that we trifle for why do we linger and dally Time must be laid hold on immediately or it is gone for ever The value of a day nay of an hour is inestimable and the loss of it irreparable If a man comes to enter upon our Estates or there falls out any dispute about a Land-mark we must presently to Law and Arms. But our time and our life is open for any man to take that pleases so Prodigal are we in the only case where we may be honestly covetous We are not to compute Life by the number of Years but by the well employing of them and let the oldest man alive discount for the time he has spent in Sleep Luxury Quarrels Visits Lazy sauntrings up and down in doing just nothing at all or at best nothing to the purpose without so much as minding what he did and he shall find that at the end of a hundred years he dies a Child We are apt enough to lament the loss of our Time-past and yet we lose more still in the Lamentation Why do we not rather improve the present while we have it to prevent a late Repentance why do we lose this instant which is our own and pretend to dispose of the Future which is out of our power In effect Life is but a moment and delay is absolute loss He that puts off to day comes too late to morrow V. It is to Almighty God that we are to direct all our Thoughts Words and Deeds to the exclusion of any other Object applying our selves wholly to his blessed will He that takes God for his Guide shall be sure never to miss his way Nor shall he miscarry in any of his affairs who directs all to Gods glory and lives as in his holy presence Neither is it possible for any man to avoid his All-seeing eye which reaches not only to our Words and Actions but pries into the Thoughts of our Hearts And He 's in a great mistake that when the Door is bolted and the Curtains drawn reckons himself to be alone for there is no place so dark or so retired as to exclude the Omni-presence of God in whom we Live Move and have our Being Whether we Eat or Drink Walk or Discourse our thoughts are to be always upon him we are to do our utmost to tender our selves worthy of the favour of his Countenance and not to do those things in the sight of an All-seeing God which even before a Temporal Judge we would be ashamed of Every man should live as if there were only God and himself in the World and chearfully imbrace the lot which Providence hath set out for him whether Prosperity or Adversity We are to seek God and whether we find him by this or that way it matters not provided that we find him at last CHAP. XX. Of the good of Solitude Ill Company to be avoided The Vices of the World and what they are Vertue the study of a Proficient How to know when we have attained it 1. IT is a great Argument of a clear and well composed Mind when a man is at Unity with himself for he approaches in some degree to the Felicity of God himself who in himself is blessed for evermore Neither can he be said properly ever to be alone that is never separated from Christ. If so it be that we cannot hold our Tongues we may talk to our felves but let us be sure then that we talk to honest men If you would know now what a man should say to himself why truly the same things that he is used to say to others of his Neighbours Let him speak ill of himself to himself let him call himself to an account for all his sins and punish himself for whatsoever he finds amiss and he 'll never want matter to work upon Let him retire and give himself leisure for Contemplation but let him then conceal his very Retirement He that makes Proclamation of his Solitude retires only to be more publick which is a kind of slothful Ambition Now there must be a Retirement of the Mind too as well as of the Body to make it Beneficial and Comfortable We must withdraw our selves from all vain Employments and not only from Company but from all things too which do not concern us we must not admit so much as any Creature no nor the very Image or Idea of any creature into our thoughts we must blot out of our minds all the toys and fooleries of this World and in the most secret recess of our Souls address our selves to God alone In this Privacy of mind in this Oblivion of all idle and impertinent things we shall gain peace of Heart true Tranquillity and Repose Let this be our retreat then and this our business For we shall certainly find God there where the Creature is abandon'd II. It is rarely seen that any man is good himself who keeps ill Company For there is nothing so destructive of good Manners as to Herd with the Multitude who do commonly leave a man worse than they found him It is not for a tender and unsettled mind to resist the force of ill examples that break in upon a man with a kind of Authority and Credit for men are apt to run over to the stronger side The man of the Gusto gains upon us by degrees and takes us by the Palate A rich Neighbour strikes us with Envy or Avarice and many a man has been undone by an ill example Our very Parents our Companions our Servants draw us some way or other into mischiefs The whole World is full of snares and hazzards and we are no sooner out of our Mothers belly but we are encompast with dangers as if we were dropt into the Quarters of an Enemy There is not any man living hardly that does not either recommend some Wickedness to us or imprint it upon us or at least infect us with some evil disposition before we are aware O the delicious sweetness of those blessed hours that a man spends in his Private Family or Study apart from the noise and business of the People How calm How gentle not so much as a Cloud or a Breath of Wind to disturb the Serenity of his Mind But by and by some body calls him out away he goes gets more Company makes up a Club and never fails of
falling into some excess or other and returning worse than he went out This is the Fruit of Publick Conversation but we are not sensible of the damage we receive in Company till we come afterward to reflect upon it in Solitude Let us make what hast we can then into our selves before we are overcome with the Contagion of the Vicious Multitude The Mind that is most contracted is most chearful III. Let a man but imagine himself upon the top of an high Mountain and there taking a prospect of the miserable World he shall quickly see enough to put him out of love with it and all that 's in it Nothing but Robberies at Land Pyracies at Sea the Tumults and Horrors of War Humane blood spilt like water Sin and Iniquity broken loose and beating down all before it Look into the Cabinets of great men and you shall there see such spectacles of Brutal Lust as cannot but disgust and nauseate the very Actors themselves and every where else so boundless a License and Disorder that we would almost swear the whole world were a Bedlam but the mad-men are too many for the sober and their Number is their Justification The Laws themselves are turn'd into snares and Innocency is there invaded where it ought to be protected The Not-guilty is in more danger than the Guilty and the Judge more criminal than the Prisoner For where there is money there can be no transgression A pack of Calumniating Knaves in one place a troop of Fawning Parasites in another here Feuds there Flatteries one man wallowing in his Wine another stretching himself upon his Bed Insatiable Avarice on the one side Slavish Ambition on the other In all Publick Assemblies more Vices than Men Sins of irreverence toward God Injustice toward our Neighbour and Abuse of the Creature So that being guilty of all sins they are to expect that all sins will rise in judgment against them One would think that this view of the World might be sufficient of it self to take off any mans heart from the love of it But when a man considers the difficulty of mastering so many Temptations and bearing up against so many ill and powerful Examples certainly he cannot chuse but bethink himself of a Retreat It is a hard matter for a man to love Innocence where Wickedness is in Authority and Credit If it does not absolutely corrupt us it will yet puzzle and hinder us The only way to be safe and quiet is to retire into our selves were we may look upon the World without being endanger'd by it He that has renounced external things and withdrawn into himself is Invincible the World is to him as a Prison and Solitude a Paradise IV. But we are never the better for quitting the World if we do not vigorously apply our selves to the study and practice of Vertue without which we can have no Comfort no Repose and having that we can want nothing There are three things that seem to have a fair Analogy one with the other in all things and above all things is God himself Among Sensibles is Light and among the perfections of the Mind is Vertue God is the Light and Vertue of all things Light is the Vertue of the World and the Image of God Vertue is the Light of the Mind by which we are called and become the Children of God Without a pure mind there is no attaining of this Perfection for Vertue is the Perfection of a man that repairs all our failings and fills us with delight she raises up our fleshly Nature in things spiritual She is the Rule of Life a light to the Blind She beats down sin and brings us to Eternal Life In the study of Vertue we are to learn what it is in the first place both in general and in particular For no man seeks he knows not what We are then to keep our selves in the continual practice of it Like Souldiers that will be still exercising and skirmishing even in time of Peace and without an Enemy Very well understanding that these Encounters though but represented and in jest keep them in breath and readiness for Assaults in earnest Let a man suppose himself under all the Oppression and Indignity imaginable stript to his Shirt and thrown upon a Dunghill and let him then make tryal of his Patience as if this were his very case indeed He that exercises himself before the Battel will be more resolute in it He that has often lost Blood goes chearfully to the Combat V. The Habits of Vertues are the work of Time And we shall know when we are possest of any of them by these Tokens We have made a good Progress toward any Vertue when we have extinguish'd or at least in a large measure supprest the contrary Vice when we have brought all our Passions to a submission and obedience unto Reason when the practice of Vertue is become not only easie but delightful to us when in contempt of Temporizers we stand up with a generous Freedom in the Vindication of Vertue against all opposers when we come once naturally to abominate those things which formerly we doted upon with a depraved Inclination when the love of Vertue is grown so habitual to us that we allow our selves in nothing that is ill no not so much as in a dream when we come to imitate what we approve in others and to abstain from what we reprehend when nothing that is amiss seems little to us but worthy of our greatest care and diligence to avoid when we can see our Equals preferred without Envy when we have the honesty to confess our faults and submit them to correction and reproof when we can content our selves in the Testimony of a good Conscience without making publication of our good Works Which in the very doing are their own reward when the whole business of our life is Vertue which is always in Act and never tir'd CHAP. XXI Of Theological Vertues Faith is to be manifested in our Works In God alone we are to put our trust Motives to the Love of God The Love of our Neighbours shews it self in good Offices An Exhortation to Charity I. FAith is the Basis of all other Vertues and the Foundation of Christian Life without which no man can please God This is the Wisdom that has subdued the World to which we are firmly to adhere without any unnecessary Curiosity or Disquisition But we are to do as well as to believe for Faith without Works is dead Now while we are Christians in Profession and Discourse let us have a care not to be Infidels in our Lives and Manners If we believe the Gospel why do we not obey it If we do believe an Eternity why do we prefer a momentary Life and Pleasure before it What are we the better for believing that which is True and Good if in our Actions we be false and wicked A good Faith and an ill Life will hardly stand together For he that
by his profit Take away the Cause of his Friendship and that goes too True Friendship is there most wanting where we imagine it does most abound III. We are to treat a Friend that stands in need of Reproof as a Physician does his Patient he spares neither Fire nor Lance to cure him We must behave our selves with Liberty Boldness Constancy without neglecting or dissembling any thing It is a damnable kind of respect to pay a Reverence to Wickedness But still let the Admonition be private and manged with all possible softness both of Language and Behaviour Before the Friendship is contracted we do well to pause upon it and deliberate but when the League is struck there must be nothing but freedom and confidence He that speaks to his Friend does but talk to himself The truth of it is a man should so live as not to trust even his own heart with what he might not safely commit to an Enemy But seeing that there are many things which Custom and Decency have made Private there is yet subject matter enough for the Trust and Confidence of Friendship Some people I have known so sick of a secret that they's still throw it up to the next man they meet and publish in the Market-place what was only fit for the ear of a particular Friend Some again are so scrupulous on the other side that they 'll smother all rather than trust the nearest Friend they have in the World no not themselves neither if they could help it They are both in the wrong as well for trusting every body as no body only the one is the honester mistake and the other the safer But the former is safe enough too if we would but turn our care from the Concealment of what we have done to the doing of nothing that we care who knows IV. There is some Affinity betwixt Friendship and Courtesie or Affability which is a great sweetner of Conversation and keeps it within the bounds of modesty and few words A good man has his ears open and his mouth shut and desires rather to inform himself than to publish himself and to be a gainer by the Company rather than to squander away of his own We should to well to acquaint our selves with the ways and humours of those we converse with how irregular soever and not to take notice of every trivial childish Impertinence we meet with It is a low and womanish weakness only to frequent those that say as we say and blow us up with Flatteries and Applause I would have a man to speak sparingly of himself and his own Affairs not to be over-stiff in defending his own opinion nor to talk too magisterially in a stile of Authority When we encounter any thing that displeases us let us but try before we condemn it in others if we be not guilty of it our selves By so doing from whatsoever we see or hear we may draw some advantage And things are at a good pass when one man is the better for a another mans faults V. There are a sort of men that if they do but see any thing out of the mode of the place where they live will presently stand gaping and laughing at it and a man of the fashion passes for little better with them than a Monster This is a most inhumane Levity of mind to adore our selves and make a scorn of others For we should set an esteem upon every thing for what it is and not for what it seems to be It is the Novelty the Artifice the Rarity the Difficulty the Pomp the Reputation and the outward appearance that enhances the price of every thing with the people Whereas the wise man rates it according to the Intrinsick value and reckons as nothing all the rest which is so much the Wonder and the Idol of the Brainsick Rabble If we do not pinch and streighten our selves it is our own fault if we make not some profit of whatever happens Why do we not imitate the Comedians They can Weep without Grieving Purchase without Possessing Command without Authority Threaten without Revenge and Chide without Indignation The business is they Act other mens lives without any concern of their own and why we should not order our selves in Society with the same Indifference I know not The whole World is but a great Theatre where there are as many Playres as Men. Let it be our care as much as in us lies to be rather Spectators than Actors for the latter take all the pains and do but make sport for the other CHAP. XXVII Of Liberality what it is and how to be exercised Wherein it differs from Magnificence I. I Do not call that man Liberal who does as it were pick a quarrel with his money and knows not how either to parâ— with it or keep it For he does not give it but throws it away He is the Liberal man that disposes of it according to Discretion and Reason He proportions his Bounty to his Ability He bestows it upon those that want it and picks his time too when it may do them most good Liberality is a Vertue that may be extended to the receiving as well as to the conferring of Bounties but the latter is here intended for it is more Honourable to Give than to receive It is not for any man to say If I had a Fortune I would do so or so for where there wants power and means the very will is sufficient So sufficient that in truth it is the main point of the Obligation Which lies not so much in the profit of the Receiver as in the Intention of the Donor Does any man thank the Sea for letting him sail upon 't or his Orchard for a basket of Apples or the Wind for a favourable gale and yet these are all Benefits but not conferr'd upon us by Voluntary Agents Moreover when we are in the Bountiful Humour the Quick-doing is the Grace We must not say to a Friend Come again to morrow and so torment him with delay and expectation He that gives heartily and kindly gives speedily A Generous nature thinks he can never make haste enough The Favour is twice as welcome that meets the Receiver at half way A Courtesie comes so hard from some people accompanied with so much sowreness and insolence that a man had better be without it II. He that lives only to himself without any regard to the Good and Utility of his Neighbour can never be happy What is there that any man shall pretend to spare as his own when all men of Estates are in effect but Trustees for the Benefit of the Needy The Bags that we keep under so many Bolts and which we have extorted from the Fatherless and Widow by Violence and Blood If we reckon upon them as ours we are exceedingly mistaken For alas They are but deposited with us for the relief of others Or however 't is but the rifling of our Coffers to night and they change
Death a good man had better never have been born V. No man entettains Death so chearfully as he that has been a long time preparing himself for it for frequent Meditation makes it familiar and easie to us I had almost said and welcome It is not the number of days and years that makes a long Life but a well composed mind A Soul that rejoyces to think of leaving the Body and returning to him that gave it He that dies well has liv'd long enough and no man can fail of dying well that has liv'd well He that would die in peace must wean himself from all the satisfactions of this World before-hand What has he to fear that has already stript himself of more than Death could have taken from him If we would make Life pleasant we must cast off all care of that too and then let Death come in any shape and welcome whether we are dispatch'd by a Sword or a Fever it is the same thing No man is so happy both in Life and Death as he that can every day say to himself I have lived for all that follows is another Life to him in surplusage He that would live comfortably must die daily CHAP. XXIX Of Magnanimity The Description of a Magnanimous man I. MAgnanimity is an Heroical Vertue of an indefatigable force and undaunted courage and never without some glorious design There is somewhat extraordinary methinks in the very sound of it If it were not for this Vertue most of the rest would fall short of their ends for want of Resolution to grapple with the difficulties they are to encounter This is it that inspires us with great and generous Inclinations that animates and supports us in all hazards and Extremities and with God's assistance breaks through all oppositions till it has placed us in the possession of what we desire He that would make himself considerable must offer at something that is so The more Danger the more Honour Man when he is truly himself can do more than we think for II. Great minds are always intent upon great matters Not what the common people call great for that they look upon as despicable Their care is to do things that are Honourable in the sight of their own Consciences but whether the World gives or refuses them the Honour they deserve it matters not unless in case where duty or the glory of God requires the contrary Their business is Vertue nor Ostentation and the reward of well-doing they find in the Action it self without depending upon the voice of the people They are Eminent above others and Invincible and unalterably steady in all Fortunes no Intruders into high places but content in their own Stations They are above Submissions and entreaties to other people for they need nothing but what they find in themselves They know neither Fear nor Flattery and when they put themselves forward to be taken notice of it is not for Vanity sake but to justifie the cause of Religion and Vertue And yet in all this height of Spirit and Resolution toward men they are to God-ward the humblest and the meekest of all Mortals To him it is that they ascribe all from whom they have received all acknowledging that of themselves they have nothing they can do nothing they are nothing Provided that a man thinks soberly and humbly of himself he may be allowed to take some delight with modesty in the good opinion of other people It is not well to hunt or court Applause but if it follows us neither are we to reject it III A great Mind presses to his end thorow the thickest of his Enemies and upon the very points of their Weapons without any stop or hesitation His behaviour toward his Equals or Inferiors is Temperate and Modest. Towards his Superiors he is neither slavish nor insolent He never passes the bounds of Decency and Respect but on the other side he is not to be trampled upon Where he Loves or Hates he owns it publickly and takes the same freedom in his Actions and Discourses for there is nothing in this World that he either hopes for or fears He does many things that other people do but not the same way and therefore he 's upon the Reserve with the Multitude for he takes no pleasure at all in their acquaintance He does not willingly remember Injuries and where they cannot be avoided bears them without any complaints or submissions There are not many that he commends nor many that he would be commended by but his care is nevertheless to do things that are worthy of Commendation No man has him at his beck but his Friend or his Superiour He wonders at nothing and the reason is he meets not with any thing which appears to him either Great or New In case of Accidents he is safe within himself and so the event of things never troubles him In his motion spirit and stile he is grave slow steady and composed He that has but little to do may do it at leisure and there is no place for much earnestness where a man is content within himself CHAP. XXX Of Patience The Occasions and Effects of it The Signs of it An Exhortation to it with Instructions how to behave our selves in Adversity The necessity of Perseverance I. PAtience is a Vertue that enables us to bear Adversity with Equality of mind but because there are several sorts of Adversities there are likewise several Names given to Patience answerable to the variety of evils which it is to be exercised upon Patience properly so called is the gift of bearing Injuries without perturbation and with courage When it relates to the loss of Goods and Fortune it is called AEquanimity And that which keeps up the heart in the delays and disappointments of some expected Good we call Longanimity But the Vertue which fortifies us to all other purposes and supports us in all Afflictions and Calamities Foreign or Domestick Publick or Private is known by the name of Constancy the Vertue of all others that we have most occasion for It is not for nothing that the Life of man is called a Warfare considering how we are beset with Adversaries and what troops of mischiefs break in daily upon us Not a moment passes without an Assault without a Combat and if we had no Enemies abroad we should yet find work enough to do with those in our own bosoms We breed and we harbour Enemies within our selves that crucifie and torment us We come weeping into the World and so we live in it and so we leave it It is the first thing we learn and we can find tears when we are capable of nothing else We have heard of divers that never laugh'd but not of any man yet that never wept It concerns us therefore to arm our selves with Patience without which we can neither be resolute nor perfect No man knows the value of it till he reads it that is to say till he falls into
has two handles a right and a wrong and take it by the right The man is unjust If we take it by that way there follows Animosity and Violence But then on the other side he 's one for whom Christ died redeemed by the same precious Blood with our selves and called out to the same glory The turning of our thoughts this way quiets all We likewise pass this reflection upon it in the matter of reproof we may sooner hear the truth from an Enemy than from a Friend for it is his business to find faults and to explore our infirmities even more than we do our selves If we do any thing that we should not do or neglect any thing that we should do we shall be sure to hear of it from him and to have the Town ring on 't Let us therefore make profit of his enmity and look to our selves we shall be the more circumspect when we know that we have a spy upon us VII Perseverance is the Crown and Perfection of all Vertues The reward is promised to beginners but is delivered to those that persevere Wherefore above all things let us be firm to our selves in the mounting of a steep Hill if we come once to stop we slip and instead of standing our ground we slide down again Let us resolve what we are to do and pursue it for 't is to no purpose at all to do any thing by fits It is a great weakness of mind to be always upon the ramble and in quest of new company new exercises new places when the fault 's in our selves not in the Climate or other Circumstances The Plant that 's often removed withers and the very change of Remedies turns into a Disease If the blessed Apostle found himself at a loss in the Contemplation of his duty what will become of us then whose Vertues are scarce comparable even to his Imperfections The love of Learning is never to be extinguished The love of Riches never to be satisfied The love of Honour never to be allayed So that there 's no end of our greediness after things that are in themselves short-liv'd and uncertain but when we come to the divine and everlasting Wisdom the least touch and relish of it cloys us This is not according to his Precept that says Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect He that looks up to that pattern shall never want place for the increase of his Vertue CHAP. XXXI Of Temperance How much Modesty contributes to it Of Abstinence and Chastity I. THE pleasures that arise from the Taste and Touch are under the Government of Temperance which only approves of those that are necessary and according to right Reason and declares against all that 's Artificial and Superfluous The Infallible Rule she proceeds by is this To take that for a measure in what concerns the Body which Nature has made necessary and never for pleasures sake to admit of any pleasure This is it that keeps a man from degenerating into a Beast To this of Temperance the Vertue of Modesty does very much conduce It is the Bridle of corrupt Motions the Index of good Nature the Guardian of purity the witness of Innocence Where Modesty has taken possession there enters not so much as an unclean thought much less an unlawful act It teaches us to stand in aw of the presence of God within us and of our own Consciences And charms us with the Contemplation of those Celestial Beauties that illustrate all the works of Temperance The man that is truly and perfectly Modest will not endure so much as the name of Intemperance his house serves him only for a Covering not a Concealment as it does to some others who lock themselves up not that they may live more securely but sin more privately But alas what does it avail us to shun the eyes and the ears of men when God sees us and our Consciences accuse us II. The Vertues of moderating the use of meat and drink we call Abstinence and Sobriety But as to what concerns the Touch we call it Chastity and Modesty In the use of Meats it is no easie thing for a man to keep himself within the bounds of bare Necessity for the Belly has no ears hears no counsel and will be still craving and calling upon us for daily relief but at how easie a rate we might discharge our selves of that importunity not one man of a thousand takes into his thought Instead of gratifying the Necessities of Nature we are on the other side putting a force upon her to make her subservient to us in our Luxury by Irritating that Hunger and Thirst with Artificial Provocatives which should rather have been laid and pacified by Remedies Plain and Natural The Vertue of Chastity is yet of greater difficulty among so many incentives to Lust without the singular Grace of God We must keep our selves out of all Temptations set a Guard upon our senses and preserve a profound Reverence for our selves for he that has no respect for himself will hardly have it for any body else Let us have a care of our eyes for many a man has been engag'd ere he was aware to love in spight of his heart If it be Beauty or Woman that we love there is nothing certainly in the World that is so false and fading Take her in all her Charms and Glories and 't is but the work of one single moment to turn all her Graces into Deformities all her Sweetness into Corruption and her very self into worse than nothing We must flie ill Company too and Idleness and mortifie our Bodies by Fasting and Discipline In a very ill condition is the Soul of that man that takes too much care of his Carkass CHAP. XXXII Of Meekness and Clemency The Excellency and the Duties of both I. IT is the Office and the Property of Meekness or Gentleness to moderate the violence of Anger and keep it within the limits of Humanity and Reason Anger is as a Sword in the hand of Nature for the terrour and punishment of Offenders Now it is as great a Cruelty to spare all as to spare none for Impunity gives an encouragement to Villany When matters are come to an Extremity and that Justice is to be done upon a Malefactor there is yet place for Meekness and Clemency and we are to shew a kind of Unwillingness and Compassion even where there is a necessity of Punishment We are grievous sinners our selves and as God hath dealt with us so are we to behave our selves toward others that is to say with Tenderness and Forbearance in hope of Amendment God Almighty does not always proceed to Severity but contents himself many times with our Repentance It is a disparagement to the Physician to despair of the Patient for according to his kindness and skill we are to judge of the facility of the Cure Gentleness of Nature to Anger is like a Rock to the Sea it breaks the fury
one Contrary to the other for want of setting to our selves certain Rules and Bounds which we are not to transgress Excess or the over-doing of any thing is enough to turn even good into evil CHAP. XXXIV Of Humility wherein it consists The knowledge of our selves The true Character of an Humble Man I. HUmility is a Vertue that comes from Christ himself who published it by his Doctrine and taught it by his Example Next to Vertues Theological and Intellectual it holds the first place for it overthrows Pride which is the fountain of all evil It makes us acceptable to God whose communication is with the humble Without this foundation our whole spiritual building falls to the ground The name of it 't is true does not seem to import any great matter but it is the Vertue nevertheless without which no man can be either great or perfect It is that which puts us upon Illustrious Exploits without danger of being pust up upon difficulties and hazards without fear nay and without so much as a change of countenance or temper Humility does not lie as the people imagine in the mere contempt and abjection of our selves but also in the just and moderate pursuit of Honour and Glory Of Glory not for Ostentation but for the Vertue it self of which that Glory is the reward all other Glory is false and spurious and not worthy so much as of his thought that knows the value of things and perfectly understands himself The Humble man knows too well to affect Honour in it how little it is that he can contribute out of his own to the works of Vertue Beside that he is afraid of seeking even the Honour that he deserves for fear of being insensibly drawn in to covet more than his due There can be no less in despising of Honour since it is great Honour to refuse it and greater yet to contemn it II. The reason why we are not humble is because We do not know our selves And we will sooner believe a mistake in our own breasts than if it came to us from the furthest quarters of the Earth What is man a weak and sickly body a pitiful helpless Creature exposed to all the Injuries of Times and Fortune a mass of Clay and Corruption prone to all wickedness and of so perverse and deprav'd a judgment as to prize Earth above Heaven Temporal Pleasures before Eternal Felicities Every man living is altogether Vanity He is one of the most frail one of the most furious lustful and timerous Creatures of the Creation What have we then to be proud of considering our misery and shame which we should most certainly consider if we had but the least spark of Reason in us We can never be perfectly humble till we come to a perfect understanding of our selves III. It is not enough for us to be humble but we must be vile in our own eyes distrustful of our selves and ascribe all Glory and Honour to God He that is humble takes pleasure in the contempt of himself and is only proud of not being affected with applause He judges of himself by what 's his own and he values others by what they have received from God so that he always lessens himself in the comparison This is his practice to set his own faults against his Neighbours Vertues by which Rule the perfectest man alive shall think worse of himself than of another He is obedient to his Superiours not wedded to his own will He confesses his infirmities he bears all indignities with patience he does any good office be it never so mean he is neither singular nor talkative He loves privacy without any desire to be taken notice of he draws himself into a narrow compass and he places himself both above the World and below it He is modest and circumspect and speaks little but when he needs must and that too with a countenance rather disposed to sadness than mirth One may read the humility of his heart in his outside his face is grave and modest his eyes cast down like those of a guilty person before the great Tribunal And betwixt the conscience of his sins and the uncertainty of his pardon not daring to lift them up to Heaven He stands afar off with the Publican in the Gospel crying Lord be merciful to me a sinner To conclude he trembles at the thought of himself he despises the World and all the glories of it for the whole Earth is as nothing to him that does not first over-value himself CHAP. XXXV Of the state of the Perfect The image of a perfect man The end of a perfect life is union with God I. HE that wants nothing may be properly said to be perfect And what can that man want who is cleansed and purged from his sins beautified with all divine Vertues whose heart is set upon God and his soul united to him to Eternity This is the top of Christian Perfection and the last end of Christianity it self to be united to him who is the End and Author of our Being But it is not for man to attain this End without the special aid and assistance of God and therefore there are but few that arrive at this perfection for there are not many that entertain the Grace when 't is offered them But however some there have been in all Ages II. We may pronounce that man perfect whom we see unshaken in dangers untainted with Lusts chearful in Adversity happy under Reproach quiet in a Storm Free Equal Constant Resolute Generous Empty of himself and Full of God And so much above the things of this World that the Hopes and Fears which are the Anxiety of other people do but serve him for Divertisement and Sport His Comforts are out of the reach of Violence and his very Misfortunes are for his good He fears neither Disappointments nor Accidents He values things by the Nature of them and not by Opinion He sees the World at his feet he studies contemplates and despises it with an invincible tranquillity of spirit and yet his Soul keeps still her station where she had her Original It is with the Conversation of a Good man as with the Beams of the Sun which though they strike the Earth are nevertheless at the same time in the great Luminary that sends them and so is the Soul of a perfect Christian in Heaven at the same time that we enjoy his Company here below His mind is like the stare of the World above the Moon ever serene and quiet He knows neither Defects nor Variations all Ages serve him The Sun it self does not look upon the World more impartially than he does and without cumbering his thoughts about many things he takes up his rest in the simplicity and unity of God himself He neither seeks nor wishes for any thing without himself for he carries his happiness in his own breast It is to God alone that he dedicates both his actions and life He that walks by this Rule knows what it is to be perfect III. It not for flesh and blood to arrive at this pitch without his helping-hand who says Without me you are able to do nothing But there is likewise a necessity of precious Dispositions An intimate union with God is the Accomplishment of a perfect Life and we must first cast off the darkness of the Creature ere we presume to appear before him that dwells in an unaccessible Light How shall any man think to partake of the joys of Heaven so long as he carries the corruptions of Earth and Flesh about him Every Pleasure every Vanity every Vicious Affection is a Remora to him It stops him in his full course endangers the whole Lading and keeps him from his Port. God is unity and takes no joy in a Soul that is divided FINIS Some Books printed for Henry Brome DR Comber's Paraphrase on the Common Prayer 4 vol. Octavo his Friendly and Seasonable Advice to the Roman Catholicks of England Seneca's Morals in 3 vol. Octavo Dr. Heylin on the Creed The Fathers Legacy to his Friends containing the whole Duty of Man Dr. Du Moulin's Week of Prayers Christianity no Enthusiasme Dr. Woodford on the Psalms his Divine Poems Precepts and Practical Rules for a Truly Christian Life Mr. Camfields Discourse of Angels The Reformed Catholick or the Love of Iesus Mr. Claget against Dr. Owen The lives of the Grand Viziers The History of the Sevarites Bp. Wilkins Real Character in fol. his Natural Religion The History of the Irish Rebellion fol. The Life of the Great Duke Espernon Montluck's Commentaries fol. Bp. Cousens against Transubstantiation Mr. Simpsons Compendium of Musick his Division of Violins Several Sermons at Court c. Mr. Banisters Ayres Dr. Whitby against Host-Worship The Fair one of Tunis Parbett's Practice of Physick Pools Parnassus The Scholars Guide from the Accidence to the University Mr. Sarazins Works Gentum fabulae Anatomy of the Elder Skinner's Lexicon Education of Children Sr. Kenelm Digby's Receipts Virgil Travesty Lucian Burlesque The Exact Constable The Planters Manual The Compleat Gamester Dr. Glisson's Anatomy Glisson's Common Law Epitomis'd Dr. Fords Sermon against Forswearing Five Love Letters Conversation or Witty Discourses Horace in English by Mr. Brome and other Persons The Wars of Sweden and Denmark Several Pieces in Defence of the Church of England Mr. Dean LLoyd's Sermon at the Funeral of Sir Edmundbery Godfrey Tully's Offices in English Erasmus Colloquies in English The History of the Plot all three by Mr. L'Estrange Dr. Sprat's Plague of Athens Mr. Cowly's Lecture to the People Toleration Discussed Presbytery Displayed Vossius of the Winds and Seas Crums of Comfort The Guide to Heaven Brief Rule of Life Bp. Saunderson's Nine Cases Minelius on Horace Grotius De Veritare Religionis Christ. Guillims Heraldry Enlarged