countenance of Gods justice Their owne crimes take them by the throate and they seeme ready to say as Ahab to Eliah 1 Kings 21. hast thou found me mine enemy And God saith to their heart with anger I have found thee because thou hast sold thy selfe to worke evill in the sight of the Lord. There is no conscience so sunk in a deepe sleepe of sinne and worldlines but will now and then awake and cry out in a sudden fright So did Felix though a Pagan an extortionner and a man every way infamous for as St Paul reasoned of temperance and righteousnes and judgment to come Felix trembled and answered Goe thy way for this time Act. 24. Whosoever hath read bookes and men may have observed what unquietnes crimes will bring to the criminal That tyrants continually imagine a naked sword hanging over their head That the wicked flee when no man pursueth That murtherers and perfidious men have a broken sleepe and their mirth is interrupted with parentheses of frownes and grimme lookes That when they excuse themselves of a foule fact of which their conscience accuseth them their conscience many times gives the lye to their words and they are contradicted by the inconstancy of their lookes and the stammering of their tongue And conscience will double these terrours when their end draweth nigh Many know who he was that started up often in his mortal drouzines on his death bed commanding that his men should give over slaying But suppose that the wicked that have the world at will had as much rest within as without yet â—â—dons saying to Craesus ought to be observed Never to pronounce any man happy before his death But the Christian ought to give to that sentence a longer terme if he hath bin with David in the Sanctuary of God and there hath understood the end of the wickd and found that God hath set them in slippery places to cast them into destruction CHAP. III. Of the reconciliation of man with God through Jesus Christ Such being the enmity betweene God and sinfull man which is followed with the discord of man with nature with his kind with himself How welcome how precious to him must the blessed newes be of Gods reconciliation with him Esa 5.27 How beautifull upon the mountaines are the feet of him that bringeth good tydings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tydings of good that publisheth salvation that saith unto Sion Thy God reigneth the chief ambassadour that anounceth that peace with God is he that made it It is the eternal sonne of God who by an infinite mercy towards man guilty and miserable was pleased to allye himself with him by a personal union of the divine nature with the humane He hath taken our nature and imparted his unto us He hath made himselfe Man to take upon himself the debt of man For seeing that man was indebted to Gods iustice it was requisite that a man should give satisfaction Which because mans nature was not able to find Christ joyning to the Nature and Obligation of man the Nature and Vertue of God and both in one Person hath fully satisfied the justice of his father which required a perfect obedience and death for punishment of disobedience He hath then presented to God a most accomplisht obedience of which the most eminent act was to have readily undergone a shameful bitter death at his Fathers command for the sins of mankinde of which he was the pledge and the representative An obedience of infinite merit more powerfull to obtaine pardon yea and reward at Gods hands then all the disobedience of the world to incense his just wrath to punishment 1. Pet. 2.24 His owne selfe bare our sins in his owne body on the tree Isa 53.5 The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes wee are healed For it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell and having made peace through the bloud of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himselfe Col. 1.19 All that have recourse to that infinite love of God and that ransome of inestimable value the merit of his sonne embracing it with a true faith which cannot act nor subsist without a true repentance find their peace made with God their iniquity is pardoned they have received of the Lords hands double for all their sinnes Isa 40.2 It is a double satisfaction both because it is twice greater then all the sins of the world and because it worketh a double effect the one to get pardon for sins the other to obtain a reward for imputed righteousness And that satisfaction represented to God in our faithful prayers makes them acceptable and of sweet favour as the incense put upon the sacrifices It is much to be lamented that these tydings of grace and glory are but coldly entertained by carnal eares as now growne stale and vulgar And that there is more joy for prevailing in a Law-suite and for a Peace that opens the markets and the freedome of commerce after a civil broyle then for our peace with God through Christ in whom wee have free accesse unto the throne of grace that wee may obtaine mercy and finde grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.16 But he that in the fright of his conscience hath seen hell open gaping for him and hath once lost his thoughts in that bottomelesse gulfe of misery and horrour to have his creatour his enemy if upon that he embrace by faith that great and heavenly message not onely that his sinnes are forgiven him by the merit of Christ but that by the same merit of an enemy and a child of wrath he is become the sonne of God and heire of his Kingdome his heart will melt with joy love and admiration and the sadder his sense was of his deplorable condition the greater will his thankfulnesse be for his gracious restoration O the depth of the riches both of the wisedome and the goodnesse of God who hath found a way to set forth together his justice and his mercy and to pardon sinne by punishing it O the infinite love of the Father who so loved the world that he gave his onely Sonne for them O the infinite love of that onely Sonne that so loved his enemyes that he delivered himselfe to a most bitter death to give them life and immortality yea and his own kingdome O the infinite love of the holy Ghost who so loved the world as to announce unto them this excellent piece of newes by his word and seale the promises of God in their hearts by faith in Jesus Christ that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but have life eternal Behold then the onely foundation of the peace of the soule and contentment of mind It is that peace made for us with God by his onely sonne who hath taken our sinnes upon himselfe and in consequence the punishment giving us in exchange his righteousnesse and consequently the reward of it since
Repentance and Faith are seldome set on work by prosperity but Adversity raiseth our hearts to God and the feare of danger makes us flee to his Sanctuary A wise godly man will manage affliction for that end not contenting himselfe with the first pious motions suggested by feare and sorrow He will husband that accidentall heat of distresse to warme his zeale and having sought God out of necessity he will seeke him out of love The unkind entertainement he findes in the world will helpe him to take off his affection from it and transport his heart where his treasure is Acknowledging Adversity to be the wages of sin he will learne to walk before God in feare and from the feare of his judgements he will rise to the feare of his holiness esteeming that the greatest Adversity not to beare his heavy plagues but to transgress his holy will This filial feare of God is the way to prevent or avert many afflictions for they that humble themselves in prosperity need not to be humbled by Adversity Many times the repentance of the sinner hath wrested the destroying sword out of Gods hand Many times when good men have bin beset on all sides the feare of God hath opened them a gate to go out for he that feareth God shall come forth of all Ecces 7.18 Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all he keepeth all his bones not one of them is broken Psal 34.19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous because God formeth him to patience and perfecteth his faith by long exercise which endeth in comfort as he wrestled with Jacob a whole night and blest him in the morning He deales otherwise with the wicked for he lets them thrive a while but when he takes them in hand with his justice he destroyeth them utterly Psal 92.7 When the wicked spring as the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shal be destroyed for ever God exercised his people of Israel with diverse trials for forty yeares in the wilderness but he extermined the Cananites suddenly God forbid we should be of those to whom he gives but one blow Rather let him wrestle with us a long time with his fatherly hand which with the tryall brings strength to them that are tryed and gives them the crowne in the end of the combar Here is the patience and the faith of Saints Our very nature ought to acquaint us with adversity For suffering is the naturall condition of men Job 7.1 Is there not a warfarre appointed to man upon earth To be cast downe with sorrow for the adversities incident unto mans life sheweth ignorance of our condition The way not to be surprised with any thing is to be prepared for all and to think that the evill which happens to one man may happen to any other since all are men alike As at dice whosoever playeth is subject to all the casts of the dice he that is engaged in the game of life is subject to all the events incident to the living and must be prepared for them But because it is not fortune but providence that disposeth of the accidents of life the greater is our obligation to beare good evill accidents with a holy equanimity because all that happens to us is unavoidable as ordained by a fatal and eternal law Upon that wee must conceive as well as wee can that humane events and several personal interesses are so interwoven by that high providence that they have a mutual dependance among themselves and their meetings which in our regard are casual are twice necessary in regard of God both because they are decreed in his counsell and because they are requisite for the execution of many things To which if wee adde that God all-wise and all-good doeth nothing permitteth nothing but for a good end wee cannot reasonably complaine of any crosse befalling us though wee had not deserved it For wee must consider ourselves as pieces of the universe and engeenes which that great workman sets on going for the execution of his ends which being all good all meanes also tending to them are good in that regard Our crosses then being determined and directed to some good by the good hand of God which wee must firmely beleeve we must also beleeve them to be good because they serve for Gods end which is alwayes good So not onely wee must beare them with patience but receive them with content yea with thankes rejoycing as happy that even in suffering wee are instruments in the good hand of God to doe his work and advance his glory which many times we see not but he seeth it and that must silence and content us Being thus disposed this advantage we have above many of the wheeles and weights of that great machine of Providence that whereas some of them have no will some an ill will our will is acting with Gods will and our love to him boweth our self love to his pleasure so that for his glories sake into which all things end our afflictions appeare good unto us and so they are indeed since by them God is glorified Events being thus chained up and interlaced together it is a great injustice against God and the order by him settled in the universe to grudge at any thing that happens to us as though wee would have God to unweave in our behalfe the web of his providence create a new decree and make a new counsel-booke for us Let us goe willingly where Gods decree leads us for goe wee must howsoever Is it not better to goe streight forward where God will have us to goe then to be dragged backwards Indeed there is no need of a high reach of reason to perswade a man to bear with unavoydable accidents and to will that which it were to no purpose not to will But when wee consider besides that it is the will of God if wee be his true children we shall will cheerefully what he wills When we are in prosperity there is no praise to will what God willes for then God willes what wee will But that is pleasing to God to consent to his will when he smites us and to say after the Lord Jesus the patterne of all perfection Father not as I will but as thou wilt That resolution brings a great rest and a great perfection to the soul for by that meanes our will is changed into Gods will The way to have all our will is to will nothing but what God wils When God sends us affliction thereby He gives us a great matter to glorifie him and to draw a blessing upon ourselves For whereas unavoydable Adversities make us worse when we pull against them they worke in us a peaceable fruit of righteousnes when we not onely beare them patiently but receive them joyfully as comming from God I verily beleeve that God beholds nothing from heaven that pleaseth him more then a will so
native ayre He is ashamed to see his person and robbes his subjects of their vesture to hide himselfe under the spoyle And yet that discord between man and nature is lesse then the discord between man and man For generally men advance themselves by their mutual ruine and seldome get any of the goods of this world but by the evill of another Warres lawsuits envies among Neighbours and domestique quarrells make the face of the world like unto a wild rugged field full of thorns bryers if not liker unto a stormy Sea where the waves break one another continually It is the raigne of discord and confusion And yet the discord of man with his own kind is not so grievous as his disagreement with his owne selfe I mean the naturall and unregenerate man For reason which bore a peaceable and uncontrouled rule within mans soule before he was estranged from God finds no more that ready obedience of the facultyes and affections His general inborne notions of goodnesse and wisedom are now and then darkned with the particular violent suggestions of the appetite casting a thick cloud before the eye of the understanding Reason her self studieth her own delusion putting a disguise of good upon evill Many times also a man knowing and condemning evill followeth it at the same time being alike unable to blind his judgment and rule his passion Then as passions are pulling against Reason they will also pull one against another as when subjects nave shaken off the yoke of their King the State breaketh into factions and every one is pulling for himselfe Wrath and lust wil fiercely bustle the one against the other as two land flood torrents falling from two opposite mountains The like between feare desire covetuousnesse ambition love and jelousie or if one passion raignes alone it doth tyrannize over the heart To teare a mans soul and bring him to slavery and misery there needs no more but lust or envy or impatience of revenge In a heart lying under that tyranny and helping his own slavery when God by his spirit begins the worke of regeneration then begins another kind of discord of which St Paul speakes Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other so that you doe not the things that ye would This is a more irreconcilable quarrell then the other betweene the vicious passions which many times will agree to do evill and yeeld one to another by turnes as the occasion serveth But between the flesh and the spirit that is betweene the feare of God and the corruption of our nature there can be neither peace nor truce Vice must fall and break his neck before the fear of God as Dagon before the Arke unlesse that God irritated by a pertinacious resistance withdraw his feare and knowledge from a stubborne heart and then it is not God but man that is overcome for while he shakes off the free yoake of piety he puts on the slavish yoak of his unruly appetite and becomes a drudge to feed the greediness of an imperious and insatiable master Isa 48.22 There is no peace saith the Lord for the wicked The case is deplorable of a conscience destitute of the feare of God and faith in his promises where the heady untamed passions have snatcht the rains from the hands of reason It is the fable of Phaeton turned into a story for reason too weak for the head-strong appetite is overturned from his seate the celestial light is quencht in the soule the fire of cupidity is kindled in the heart the unruly passions runne wild their severall wayes and the man is cast headlong into perdition That perdition is the final seperation from God and the endless discord with him which begins in this very life Yet as long as a man liveth upon earth he hath a share in that generall love of God to his creatures and the goodness and patience of God inviteth him to repentance But after this life is done God is an open enemy to those that have lived in emnity against him and abused his grace long patience To describe that miserable state the Lord Jesus calls it outward darkness worme that dyeth not a fire that is not quenched where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth Imagine if you can what it is to be shut out from God the father of light and driven away from him for ever After that a hideous darkness a worme gnawing a fire burning wailing and gnashing of teeth late remorse despair hatred of ones selfe and all imaginable distresses are but consequences of that misery of miseryes to be hated of God and hate him for ever Of that incomprehensible misery the suburbs are the torments of conscience in this life to which the racks the wheeles and the fires are not comparable How grievous those torments are many forsaken wretches have sufficiently exprest it who being tortured by their conscience and uncapable to conceive any deliverance from the dismal expectation of hell have chosen rather to leape into hell by a desperate selfe-murther then to endure any longer the angry face of God pursuing them And the miserable soules find there what they seek to avoid Amos 5.19 as if a man did flee from a Lion and a Beare met him The examples are frequent of those whom the secret lashes of conscience have forced to make an open declaration of their hidden crimes shewing thereby that they were upon Gods rack But truly the examples are yet more frequent of seared and benummed consciences which by pastimes companyes businesses and the deceitfulnes of riches divert their mind from that formidable thought of the quarrell that is betweene God and them cosening themselves as farre as they can with a vaine opinion that the way to scape Gods justice is not to think of it and that they may not think of it they enjoine their reason not to beleeve it But that numnesse is unworthy of the name of peace There is great difference betweene safety and security betweene having peace and not thinking of warre Such men are like passengers sleeping in a ship that is sinking or like that wee have heard with horrour and compassion that bestial souldiers condemned to death would drink lustick and goe drunk to the gallowes This I say is the behaviour of most part of the world who bearing their condemnation in their conscience make them-selves drunk while they are going downe into perdition sometimes with strong drink but continually with the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and with worldly cares and projects being of opinion that it is needlesse to think of death because it comes without thinking But in that carnal lethargy conscience will start up by intervalls and pinch drousy hearts Especially when adversity lyeth heavy upon their persons and familyes and when sudden dangers overtake them Then doe they see the angry
of this life He that spared not his own sonne but delivered him up for us all how shal he not with him freely give us all things He that saved our soules from death shall he not deliver our bodies from the dangers of this world Certainly he that hath prepared for us eternal delights at his right hand will not denie us our temporal daily bread This assurance in his love will sweeten our afflictions and lay downe our feares for being persuaded that God as he is infinitely good is also infinitely wise wee must in consequence beleeve that all the evills which he sends us are so many remedies to other evils that our most smarting dolours are corrosives applyed by that wise Physician to eate the proud flesh of our corrupt nature that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3.33 especially when he chastiseth his children but is in a manner forced to that course by their necessity as when a man is pincht by his best friends to awake him out of a deep lethargy And since that eternal friend is every where present by his al-seeing knowledge and almighty power and hath promised besides his gracious presence to his friends saying I will not leave thee nor forsake thee what reason have we of joy confidence at all times in all places and in all the occurrences of this life having God with us allwayes observing us with his eye upholding us with his hand protecting us with his providence guiding us with his wisedome and comforting us with his love The last good office that Faith doeth unto us is in the approaches of death for then especially it doth represent the promises of God unto the faithfull soule and sealeth them afresh knitting that bond of perfectnes the mutual love between God and the conscience faster then ever By it God speakes peace unto the soule aspiring to heaven and makes it spread the wings of holy desires to passe with a swift flight from the combat below to the triumph above Faith bearing up the soule in that last flight changeth name and nature in the way and becomes love to embrace him for ever in glory in whom we have believed in infirmity CHAP. VII Of Christian Hope THe proper action of Faith is to embrace Christ and ground the soul upon him But it hath another action common to it with hope which is to embrace the benefits obtained to us by Christ Of these benefits the present grace is proper to faith which is justification otherwise the Reconciliation of God with the conscience the future glory by the contemplation of Gods face is more proper to Hope Both faith and hope bring a sweet peace and solid content to the soul that loveth God But it is peculiar to hope to adde to that peace a beam of glory much like those spies of Israel that entred into the Land of Promise before the rest of the people to whom they brought some of the fruit of the Land For it entreth into heaven beforehand and from thence brings us a taste of the promised inheritance Hope is the onely thing that puts some value upon the life of this world for all the good of this life consisteth in this that it is a way to a better and that the earth is the tyring-room of the godly soul where she makes herselfe ready for the wedding of the Lamb. But for that what were this life good for It would consist but in two things to do evill and to suffer evill The very goods of this life without that hope would be evill for none among the Pagans and all others that were not sustained by Christian hope was ever made happy The wisest of them have sought the soveraigne good out of the objects of the senses not finding any solid content in sensuall things or actions Solomon wiser then them all had found that all under the Sun was vanity and vexation of spirit and under all he comprehended intellectual as well as sensual things Neither could any give a more judicious verdict of all than he for he had tryed all things Where then shall we find any thing worth the paines of living but in Hope For if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Hope not keeping within the limits of the poor goods of this life liveth already with the life to come for it looks for the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world as himself teacheth us where although he reigne as a soveraigne he reigneth not as a redeemer and so here is not the reigne of his redeemed We find it by experience Who so then will enjoy the peace of the soul and contentment of mind must have his hope and his spirit in a better place for why should we expect of the world more then it hath Can one gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles May one expect peace of a perpetual agitation or a durable content from things of short continuance For the soul of man being created for permanency is contented with nothing lesse then a permanent good which is the essential reason why no man could ever find satisfaction in the world there being such a disproportion between mans soul and the objects that the world presents to her for all worldly things are finite but the soul though finite in her substance is infinite in her desire which nothing lesse then infinity can satisfie Now it is by hope that the soul enjoyeth in this finite world an infinite good It is by hope that we rise from the dead before we dy being advanced to a degree of grace that hath already a streak of glory Of which St Paul giveth this high expression Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory Worldly hopes flatter us and then disappoint us But though they did performe all they promise the present possession of the best things of the world is nothing comparable to the hope onely of heavenly things even that lively hope unto which God hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritane incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.3 O holy and glorious hope which already makes us partakers of Christs resurrection and followers of his ascention even to the right hand of God! already living with the life of Christ animated by his spirit Blessed hope by which we are preserved from the general corruption as with a soveraigne antidote and by which we subsist yea and triumph in afflictions Heb. 10.34 taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods knowing in our selves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance It is by hope that we look joyfully upon our bodies decaying
and warre in the world and of the subsistence and revolution of Empires Who would beleeve that at the same time he tels the number of our hairs and that not so much as one sparrow falls to the ground without his speciall appointment but that we are told it by his own mouth and that our experience assureth us of his care of the least of our actions and accidents of our life Here wee must rest amazed but not silent for our very ignorance must help us to admire and extoll that depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God whose eye and hand is in all places whose strength sustaineth whose providence guideth all things and taketh as much care of each of his creatures as if he had nothing else to looke to If our minds be swallowed up in the depths of Gods wisdome this one depth calls in another deep which brings no lesse amazement but gives more comfort that is the fatherly love of God to us his children Eph. 3.18 O the bredth the length the depth the heighth of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge the bredth that embraceth Jewes and Gentiles having broken the partition wall to make a large room to his wide love that his way might be known upon earth his saving health among all Nations Psalm 67.2 The length which hath elected us before the foundation of the world and will make us live and reigne with himselfe for ever The depth which hath drawne us out of the lowest pit of sorrow death to effect that hath drawn him down to that low condition The height which hath raised us up to heaven with him and makes us sit together with him in heavenly places With what miracles of mercy hath he preserved his Church from the beginning of the world How many graces doth he poure upon the several members thereof nourishing our bodies comforting our souls reclaiming us from iniquity by the gift of repentance and faith keeping off the malice of men and evill Angels from us by the assistance of his good Angels delivering our life from death our eyes from teares and our feet from falling But before and after all other benefits we must remember that principal benefit never sufficiently remembred Col. 1.12 Giving thankes unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Sonne in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgivenesse of sins This is the highest top of our felicity the main ground of the peace of the soul and the incomparable subject of the contentment of our minds Yea if we have such a deep sence of that heavenly grace as to praise God continually for it with heart and mouth For as we praise God because he blesseth us he blesseth us because we praise him and by his praise which is the eternal excercise of his blessed Saints we become already partners of their imployment their peace and their joy CHAP. IX Of good Conscience ALl that we have said hitherto regardeth the Principal causes both the efficient and the instrumental of the peace with God There are other causes which of themselves have not that vertue to produce that great peace yet without which it cannot be preserved nor produced neither these are a good conscience and the excercise of good workes Not that the reconciliation made for us with God by the merit of his Son needs the help of our works but becaus the principal point of our reconciliation and redemption is that we are redeemed from iniquity which is done by the same vertue that redeemes us from Hell and by the same operation For it is a damnable self-flattery and self-deceipt for one to beleeve that he is reconciled with God if he feele in himselfe no conversion from that naturall enmity of the flesh against God neither can he enjoy a true peace in his soul In that reconciliation God makes use of our wil for in all agreements both parties must concur and act freely And to make us capable of that freedome God by his spirit looseth the bonds of our unregenerate will naturally enthralled to evill But it will be better to medle but little with the worke of God within us and looke to our owne learning the duties which wee are called unto as necessary if wee will enjoy that great reconciliation The first duty is to walke before God with a good conscience for in vaine should one hope to keepe it tranquil and not good Conscience is the natural sence of the duties of piety and righteousnes warning every man unlesse he be degenerated into a beast to depart from evil and doe good And a good conscience is that which obeyeth that sense and warning But the ordinary use which I will follow by a good conscience understands onely the first part which is to beware of evil This good conscience is so necessary for the enjoying of that peace of God applyed to us by faith that the A postle to the Hebrewes requires it that wee may stand before God with a full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Let us draw neere saith he with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washt with pure water And St Paul chargeth Timothy 1. Tim. 1.19 to hold faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack shewing that faith and a good conscience must goe hand in hand and that the losse of a good conscience ushereth the losse of faith which is consequently followed with the losse of inward peace Whereas a good conscience brings forth confidence as St John teacheth us 1. Joh. 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemne us not then have wee confidence before God By a conscience that condemnes us not wee must not understand a conscience without sinne for there is none such to be found Much lesse a conscience that condemneth not the sinner after he hath sinned for the best consciences are those that forgive nothing to themselves and passe a voluntary condemnation upon themselves before God by a free and penitent confession But the good conscience that condemnes us not according to St Johns sense is that which beares witnes to a man to have walked in sincerity and cannot accuse him to have shut up his eyes since his conversion against the evident lights of truth and righteousnes or to have hardned his heart against repentance after he hath offended God The godly man will remember that the peace betweene God and us was made by way of contract whereby God gives himselfe to us in his Sonne and we give our selves to him If then any refuse to give himselfe to God there is no contract God will not give himselfe to him and so no peace for every contract must be mutual When the one party
Sed et hos quoque ipsos quos beavit perdidit The Court advanceth but few persons and destroyeth many but even those which it advanceth it destroyeth and spoyleth for most men as they grow in height decrease in goodnesse and many times in estate like squibs which consume themselves as they ascend It is in few mens choice whether they may be great or no some being borne to it and obliged by their birth to maintaine their condition Others being borne farre under it and there kept by invincible necessity Yet among great and small some still are in possibility to raise their degree and come to greater place And whereas it is in the choyce of few persons whether they shall be great it is in the choice of all whether they will be ambitious and aspire to high and negotious places Let a wise man consider whether honour be worth as much as it costs to get and to keep whether hee would lose his rest for it leave conversing with God to converse with men runne the danger to become wicked to become great and among the justlings of envy be alwayes ready to fall and break his neck Let him weigh in the scales of a right judgement the respect and Opinion of others against so much personal care perill and losse A middle degree of quality enough to stand a little out of the dirt is commodious and desirable The degrees above and beneath are slavery But a wise and pious man finds liberty and nobility in any degree CHAP. V. Of Glory Renowne Praise FRom the honour that attends greatnesse and riches we passe to that which is deferred to Vertue or that which beares the name of it For this second sort of honour many generous spirits have contemned the first and greatnesse and riches and life too dying willingly that they night have glory when they shall be past having any thing in this world Wise Solomon saith that a good name is rather to chosen then great riches Prov. 22.1 And better then be precious oyntment Eccl. 7.1 The goodnesse of it lyeth in some facility that it gives to do good for when mens minds are possest with a good opinion of a person they are susceptible of his counsels Thereby also a man may better his condition The content that a good action gives to the doer is a real and solid good but the content that the reputation of it giveth is vaine and deceitfull If the Renowne be for vaine things such as most things are in the world it can yeeld but a contentment like itselfe and though it be raised by real vertue yet reputation is but discourse and the Opinion of others It is hollow meat and who so will feed upon it will soone be like that hungry Dreamer of whom Isaiah speaketh who dreames that he is eating but he awakes and his soul is empty Isa 29.8 A wise and good man lookes for a better reward of his vertue then the talk of the world No action is good if it be don for praise or if approbation be sought of any but God and ourselves John 5.44 How can ye beleeve saith Christ which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God onely Our actions ought to be such as to be of good savour before the world else they can do no good in the world But that good savour must be sought as an accessory not a principal and must bee rejected when instead of an accessory it becomes a hindrance and a barre from the the principal which is the glory of God and a good conscience Let that witness beare testimony to our selves and let men say of us what they will My Opinions and Affections if they be good make me good and happy not the Opinion of my neigh bours A wise man must subject reputation to himselfe not himselfe to her If he can make her runne before him as his Harbinger to prepare for him an accommodation wheresoever he goeth and get him a roome in the judgements and affections of men it will be a prudent course And it will be a point of prudence not to hunt reputation too eagerly for Reputation is well compared to our shaddow she fleeth from us when we run after her and runnes after us when we run from her She will go more willingly where you would have her if she go not of your errand but of her selfe and doth better service when one thinkes not of her If she be desired it is for something else but to court her for her owne sake it is more then she deserveth A vertuous man will disdaine to do so much when he observeth that she is more apt to speak of frivolous then serious matters and will many times put a glosse of praises upon evill things What a coyle doth Roman antiquity keep about that harebrain'd girle Clelia for stealing a horse out of Porsena's Campe where she was an hostage and foording a River none of the greatest to returne to her Mothers chimney-corner For that action against the publique faith rash ungenerous injust and especially immodest in a mayd her statue on horseback was publiquely set in the Market place and fame is trumpetting her praise to the worlds end It were easy to name many both of old late date that have got reputation at a very easy rate How many famous men are like boyes crackers that give a great report without effect How many toyes are talked of and extolled while grave workes are buried in silence Since Fame hath trumpets it is no wonder that she fills them with winde that goeth farre and fast by its leightnesse and is fit to make a noise But a solid vertue makes little noise and the tongues of the vulgar do so much for her as to let her alone The Renown of great and good things advanceth but slowly but recompenceth her slownes by her long lasting But even in that long lasting there is vanity for what benefit is it for vertuous men deceased that the world speakes of them two thousand yeares after their death Are their soules more glorious for it in heaven Are their bodies the lesse cold in the grave Yet for that hope of an outliving uselesse renowne gallant men will climb up a breach through a thick haile of musket shot and granadoes that the world may say of them These gentlemen are dead in the bed of honour O brave men It is pitty that these praises make not these brave men to rise from the dead for joy preserve not their flesh from wormes and putrefaction and make no roses nor violets grow upon their graves Well let us pay them that praise which they have so deare bought O brave men But let us say also O the folly of men who having fed themselves with vanity in their life time will not end their vanity with their lives but seek to perpetuate it by their death It were strange that praise should do good to the dead since it
unlooked for being fallen into their lap they have given over singing and turned sad and full of thoughts Anacreon came once to that trouble but he rid himselfe of it He was a Poet and consequently poore Polycrates the rich Tyrant of Samos bestowed two or three thousand Crownes upon him But Anacreon after he had kept them three dayes restored them to his benefactor because said he that-money would not let him sleep Which action was not the production of a Philosophical minde for by his Poemes now extant it appeareth that wine and women were the highest spheres of his contemplation but the true cause was that he found riches heavier to beare then poverty I was saying that Poverty beates down the courage and stupefyeth the wit but it is onely with them that had no great courage and no great wit before and they would have bin more beaten down and stupefyed by riches but in another way for riches swell indeed the courage with pride but they beat it down at the same time with feare and make it soft with voluptuousnesse they slacken diligence blunt the edge of industry but poverty whets it awakens and sharpens the wit if there be any Riches in a competent measure are more accommodate to the operations of the speculative understanding for high and curious contemplations require a minde free of cares and rested with plenty A man that wanteth bread hath no thoughts of finding longitudes and the pole of the load-stone or the exquisiteness of eloquence Magnae mentis opus nec de lodîce parandâ Attonitae Poverty is fitter for the operations of the practical understanding for necessity is the mother of arts Magister artis ingenîque largitor venter We owe most part of mechanique inventions to men put to their shifts The best thing that is in Poverty is that meeting with a sound and godly mind it helps to weane it from the world and raise it up to God which is the great worke of a Christian to which riches are a great hindrance He that hath but little in the world finds in his poverty a great motive to lay up treasure it heaven to which he is invited by the example of the Lord Jesus who made himselfe poore to make us rich in God To the poore was the Gospel first preacht and when it was preach to the rich and poore together the poore were the first that embraced it because they were lesse tyed unto the world and at more liberty to go to God It is most observable that all persons admitted by God to salvation are received in the quality of poore and the rich must make themselves poore before God through humility and meeknesse that they may be capable of that high blessing whereby Christ began his sermon Mat. 5 Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of God To that Poverty in spirit the poverty in worldly goods is a great help A wise and godly man that knoweth how to get advantage by all things will prudently manage all the helps to heaven which poverty affords when he shall be brought to that condition He will become more serene in his devotions more resolute in his dangers more undaunted to maintaine the truth lighter to flee from one Citty to another in time of persecution and better disposed at all times to welcom death casting no back-look upon the world where he hath nothing to lose If he had once riches and hath lost them he will acknowledge that they were none of his since they could not stay with him for the true goods of a man are inseperable from him as being within him These goods are a right reason integrity of conscience the love of God faith in his promises and an appetite led by reason and piety With that patrimony he may say with more reason then Bias in what condition soever he be I carry all my goods along with me The goods of fortune deserve not the name of goods To him that desireth nothing but what is sufficient to Nature poverty doth no harme and to him that desireth more poverty doth good for it brings him to sobriety To have little and to be contented with it is a great wealth Poverty and riches having their commodities and incommodities the most desireable temporal estate is the midlemost which is neither and holds of both That state the wise man requested at Gods hands Prov. 30.8 Give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord and lest I be poore and steale and take the name of my God in vaine But our condition is not in our choice Vertue and tranquillity of minde may be had in any fortune because they depend not of fortune CHAP. X. Of low Condition IT is in the Judgement of many worse yet then poverty and it is for its sake that they feare poverty It is of several degrees and is more or lesse grievous according to the diversity of persons and designes To them that aspire to honours but are kept back and think they lose all they cannot get it is unsufferable and more yet to them that had honours and were justled out of them for men will get up to honour with a good will but none descends from it unlesse he be hurled downe which hath given occasion to the institution of yearely Magistrates Others are bred in a low condition and aspire not much higher yet they groane under the yoake which their condition ingageth them unto Thus all are discontented and none are so high but think themselves too low The low condition indeed is slavish especially in France and Poland and he that can handsomely get out of the bottom where the land-flood of the publique stormes stayeth and take himselfe out of the number of the beasts of carriage shall do prudently to seek his liberty St. Pauls advice is judicious Art thou called being a servant care not for it but if thou mayest be made free use it rather 1 Cor. 7.21 If it be impossible for a wiseman to get that liberty let him consider that as the low condition is more onerous so it is lesse dangerous In France especially where although the armies consist of high and low yet the maine shock of battles falles upon the Gentry and the best of the Nobility The hazardous attempts fall to their share All may follow warre but the Gentry hold it their proper trade The French Gentleman is borne in a manner with his sword by his side Who so will observe how in noble houses two thirds of their branches are lopt off by warre shall finde that the Nobility and Gentrie pay deare for their immunities To beare with the low condition one should observe well the inconveniences of the high The higher a man stands the fairer mark doth he give to envy secret undermining and open hostility Great places are like stilts upon which a man hath but a
eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Therefore labour and heavy load make us seek to him that saith come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaden and I will give you rest Matth. 11.28 Thus evil doth good to them that are good and helps evil men to turne good In sicknesse and dolours Gods children find the peace of the soule and contentment of mind CHAP. XIII Of Exile TO speake of exile after dolour is an abrupt passage from sensible evils to imaginary The world is the natural and general countrey of al men To be exiled is but to be sent from one Province of our Countrey to another That other Province where one is exiled is the Countrey of them that are borne there and of them also that live there exiled if there they get accomodation That particular Province which a nation calls their Countrey is a place of exile to them that are borne in it if they doe not know it as to Oedipus exiled from the place where he was bred to the place where he was borne Children brought from nurse to the mothers house wil cry taking it for a place of exile It is a childish weaknesse in a man to thinke him-selfe lost when he is in a place where he never was before Every where wee have the same nature the same heaven men of the same kind Reasonable creatures should be ashamed to be surmounted by unreasonable in that easinesse to shift Countreies Swallowes hatch about our houses are banisht from our Climat by the approach of winter and they make no difficulty to goe seeke another beyond al the lands and Seas of Europe but men wil cry when they are driven from their chimney corner having the choice of al places of the world which is so large Yet that advantage we have over birds and beasts that al Countries are not alike to them but al Countries are alike unto vertue and to us if we have it for that treasure no enemy can hinder us to carry along with us We may indeed be exiled into an ill Countrey but that Countrey is never the worse for not being our Countrey All lands are in equal distance from heaven the Countrey of gods children God is as soon found in the land of our exile as in that of our birth and sooner too for God is neer those that are destitute and preserveth the stranger Psal 146.9 Are you banisht by a Tyrant Thinke how many persons are exiled from their countrey and dearest relations by their covetousnesse which is the worst tyranny ranging the unknown seas of a new world for many years some to fetch cucineel and pearles from burning climats others to get sables and hermines from the snows under the Pole Some are banisht by others some bythem-selves Nothing is strange to a man when his wil goeth along with it we need but to encline our wil where necessity calls us Impatience in exile is want of a right apprehension of the condition of gods children in the world Heaven is their countrey Life is their Pilgrimage They are strangers even in the place of their birth yea in their very bodys Whilest we are at home in the body we are strangers from the Lord saith Paul 2 Cor. 5.6 Being then strangers in al places of the world one place must not seeme to us more strange then another Wee are never out of our way as long as we are going to God CHAP. XIV Of Prison PRison is the grave of the living There men are buried before their death Liberty is the priviledge of nature without which life is a continual death And it were better to have noe life then not to enjoy it All beasts enjoy liberty some few excepted that have lost it by being too much acquainted with us But as there is need of iron cages to keepe lyons there is need in the world of prisons and captivity to keepe in men that wil not be ruled by reason equity And though many be imprisoned wrongfully if they have the grace to look up to God the disposer of their condition they will acknowledge that God is wise to use them so and that licentious humour hath need of restraint Or if they need it not they have lesse need to afflict themselves A well composed spirit is free in the closest Prison bonds and fetters cannot restraine his liberty The worst fetters are covetousnesse ambition lust appetite of revenge wherewith many that seeme free are kept in bondage Who so can shake them off is at liberty though he were in a dungeon Such was St. Pauls freedom in a chaine 2 Tim. 2.9 I suffer trouble said he as an evill doer even unto bonds but the word of God is not bound The grace of God also cannot be bound and many times God makes use of the bonds of the body to set the soule free A man is very hard tyed to the world if he cannot be untied from it by a long imprisonment Prison will bee lesse tedious to him that remembreth that it is his natural condition That he was nine moneths Prisoner in his Mothers wombe That after his death he shall be made close Prisoner under ground And that as long as he liveth he is loaden like a snaile with his owne Prison which he carrieth about slowly and with great incommodity a clog put by our wise Master to the swiftnesse and quick turnes of our spirit which is alwayes in action Think how fast our thoughts go which in a moment travell from one end of the world to the other and how high our designes will rise whose wings we are constrained to clip and abruptly to pull down our soaring minde to look to the necessities of our craving body and then acknowledge that our body is a very Prison confining the spirit which is the Man The imprisonment of that body is no great addition to its captivity It is but putting one boxe within another And if we looke about us how much captivity do me meet with in society Is not ceremony a slavery which is multiplyed and diversifyed at every meeting Are not honours golden fetters and businesses Iron fetters Do not publique factions enslave particular interesses and spread nets for the conscience Many times that captivity is avoided by that of the Counter and the Fleet. To many their prison hath been a Sanctuary and a strong hold against the dangers of a turbulent and destructive time No dungeon is so close as to keep the faithfull soul from rising to God They that are forbidden the sight of their friends may converse with God at any time which is a great liberty And the Lord Jesus who recommends that worke of mercy to visit the prisoners himselfe doth carefully practise it comforting by his Spirit his disciples to whom the assistance of men is denyed and shewing them heaven open when they are lockt and bolted In effect it is the body not man that is imprisoned The Jalour may keepe out a
God in his breast that he should invite and then entertaine him there by a pure service a sincere love an entire cōfidence Many by much good Kindred many Friends and relations become lesse vertuous and industrious getting the ill habit of the Italian Signora's who walking in the streets beare more upon the armes of their supporters on both sides then upon their owne legs They have need to be sent from home to learne to stand alone without a Nurse to hold them None can be owner of any measure of stedfastnesse and content that makes all his support and satisfaction to depend of his neighbours That man hath more content in the world who having confined his desire to few things troubleth also but few persons and is desirous of Friends to do them not to receive of them good offices regarding their vertue more then their support When we have got good Friends we must be prepared to lose them Death separateth Friends and disolveth Mariages When that happens wee must remember without trouble or amazement that those persons so deare to us were mortal but indeed that should have bin remembred before A Philosopher visiting his neighbour who was weeping bitterly for the death of his Wife left him presently saying aloud with great contempt O great fool did he not know before that he had married a woman not a goddesse After we have condemned that cruel incivility yet must we acknowledge that it is a folly to lament for that which we knew before to be unavoydable Yet after all reasons when love hath bin very deare the separation cannot but be very sad Teares may be permitted not commanded to fall And after the duty payd of a mournful Adieu to the beloved person we must remember upon what terms and condition we hold of God that which wee love best even to leave it at any time when God redemands it And if besides we have good ground to hope that the person departed is received into peace and glory we must praise God for it which we can hardly do as long as our obstinate mourning repines against his will Lamenting for those that are well is ignorance or envy or selfe love If we would not rejoyce when they were in affliction why should we afflict our selves when they are in joy It is some recompence for the death of our deare Friends that our enemyes are mortal as well as they A wise man will consider his enemyes as rods in Gods hand and minde the hand rather then the rod. To destroy our enemies when they are in our power is a childish folly for so will Children burne their Mothers rod as though there were no more rods in the world Our enemies oftentimes do us more good then our friends for the support of our friends makes us carelesse but the opposition of our enemies makes us wary and industrious They make us strong and safe for they make us flye to God In nothing wisedome is more seene then in judging of an adversary A great serenity is requisite that feare make us not think him more dangerous then he is and that pride make us not despise him blinding our eyes not to see the good and evil that is in him and what harme he may do us It is a common and useful maxime for the conduct and tranquillity of mans life that there are few great freinds and no little enemyes When enemies are reconcileable all things past must bee taken to the best by charitable interpretation When there is no possibility of reconciliation al things to come must be taken to the worst both to strengthen us with resolution within and to encounter the evill without by prudence and vigorous wayes In the reconcilement we must pardon freely receive ill excuses and if there be an offence which cannot be excused never mention it The remedy of injuries is oblivion If an enemy can neither be mitigated by charity nor overcome by strength nor avoyded by prudence there remaineth still unto the wise Christian an intrenchment out of which he cannot be forced which is a good conscience and the peace of God in it These he must cherish and keep fast not onely as his last intrenchment but his onely possession and the strong hold only worth keeping It is impregnable as long as faith and love are the Garrison CHAP. XVI Of Death IT is the subject of which Seneca speakes most and of which there was least for him to speak for being doubtfull whether Death destroyed the soul or released it Mors nos aut consumit aut emittit and being more inclined to the first Opinion it was better for him neither to speake nor to think of it But what others of his rank that had reasoned before him about the immortality of the soul had quitted themselves so meanely of that task that out of their labours in that field he could not reape any satisfaction of his doubt This is the grand priviledge of the Christian that he seeth life through Death and that the last limit of Nature is the date of his franchising and the gate of his felicity and glory Death that moweth downe all the hopes of this world perfecteth Christian hope Death is the separation of body and soul It is the returne of these two parts of man so different to their several principles Eccles 12.4 Then the dust returneth to the earth as it was and the spirit returneth unto God that gave it Who disposeth of it either in mercy or justice Death is the last Act of the Comedy of this world To every one Death is the end of the world in his own respect In one sense it is against nature because it destroyes the particular being In another it is according to nature for it is no lesse natural to dye then to live Yea Death is a consequence of life we must dye because we live and we dye not because we are fick and wounded but because we are animals borne under that Law Wherefore considering Death in the natural way as Charron doth I approove what he saith that we must expect Death in a steady posture for it is the terme of nature which continually drawes neerer and neerer But I cannot approove that which he adds that wee must fight against Death Why should we fight against it seeing we cannot ward its blowes It is more unreasonable then if he had said that we must fight against the raine the winde for wee may get a shelter from these none from that Wherefore as when it raines wee must let it raine so when Death is coming and it comes alwayes wee need but let it come not thinking it more strange to live then to dye In stead of fighting against Death wee must acquaint our selves with it Indeed they that feare Death must fight against that feare Of them that feare Death there are two sorts Some feare it for its owne sake Some for that which comes after The former which are more in
number that love the present world and cannot fixe their thoughts upon that which is to come imagin that when they dye they lose all A great folly They cannot lose that which is none of theirs They have the use of the world only til their Lease be out Death is the great proofe of that fundamentall Maxime which I so often urge and no oftner then I need That the things that are out of the disposition of our will are none of ours and such are riches honours our body and life it selfe To them that are so farre mistaken as to thinke themselves owners of these things death is an undoing not to them that acknowledge themselves tenants at will and look continually to be called out of their tenement The goods of the world are held by turnes When you have enjoyed them a while you must give place to others Make your successours case your owne How should yee like it if a certaine number of men should be priviledged to monopolize to themselves the goods of all the world for ever to the perpetuall exclusion of all others This reasoning belongs to few persons for it presupposeth plenty and prosperity But how few have plenty and of those few againe how few have prosperity with it One would thinke that distressed persons have no need of comfort against death Yet they that have the greatest sorrowes in the world many times are the most unwilling to leave it But certainly if life be evill it is good to go out of it All men being born under the necessity of suffering and misery being universall in all conditions Death which ends all misery of life is the greatest benefit of Nature Blessed be God that there is no temporal misery so great but hath an end Take me a man that hath nothing but debts that liveth meerely by his shifts and tricks that hath the stone in the bladder and ten suits in Law that flyeth from the Sergeants to his house and then flyeth out of his house relanced by the scolding of his perverse wife If in that flight he be suddainly killed in the street by the fall of a tyle or the overturning of a Cart that happy misfortune delivereth him from all other misfortunes The Sergeants overtake him and let him are All attachments and Subpoenas against him are vacated Hee is no more troubled where to get his dinner His debts breake not his perpetuall sleep He is thoroughly healed of the stone and his wife now desperaetly crying because she seeeth him insensible for ever and unmoved at her noise Certainly Death is a shelter against all inâ—uries Death puts an end to endlesse evills It is the rest after a continual toyle It is the cure of the sick and the liberty of the slave So Job describeth that quiet state Job 3.7 There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest There the prisoners rest together they heare not the voyce of the oppressor The small and great are there and the servant is free from his Master It is a great folly to feare that which cannot be avoyded but it is a greater to feare that which is to be desired When we have considered the evills of life those that we do and those that we suffer after that to feare Death what is it else but to be affraid of our rest and deliverance And what greater harme can one wish to him that will not dye but that he may live alwayes and be guilty and miserable for ever If it be for the paine that we feare Death for that reason wee ought rather to feare life for the paines of life are farre more sensible then the paines of Death if in Death there is any paine of which I see no great likelyhood For why should we imagine the revulsion of the soul from the body to be very painful it being knowne that the vital parts as the heart and the liver have little or no sense No more sense hath the substance of the braines though the source of the senses for the head-ach is in the tuniques When the braines is benummed and weakened the sense of paine is weaker over all the body And generally when strength decreaseth paine decreaseth together Hence it is that most of them that are sick to Death when they draw neere their end feele themselves very much amended That state is called by the Italians il meglioramento della morte The decay of senses in that extremity is a fence against the troublesome diligence talke cries more troublesome then Death wherewith dying persons are commonly persecuted But as a man upon the point of death is too weake to defend himselfe against all that persecution he is too weak also to feele it much Then all suffocation is without paine that is the most ordinary end of life In the most violent death paine is tolerable because it is short and because it is the last It is a storme that wracks us but casts us upon the haven To that haven we must looke continually and there cast anchor betimes by a holy hope conceiving Death not so much a parting as an arrival for unto well disposed soules it is the haven of Salvation The feare of that which comes after death makes some mens lives bitter and through feare of dying after Death they have already eternall death in their Conscience They have eyes to see Hell open gaping for them but they have none to see the way to avoid it In others that feare is more moderate and is an ill cause working a good effect inducing or rather driving them to seeke and then to embrace the grace and peace that God offers unto them in Jesus Christ and together to do good workes which are the way to the Kingdome of heaven A man cannot afeare God too much but he may be too deeply afraid of his Justice And the feare of that death after death must be swallowed up by the faith in Jesus Christ who by his death hath delivered them who through feare of death were all their life subject unto bondage Heb. 2.15 He hath made death the gate of life and glory to all that trust in him and doe good Godly men will not feare death for the sting of it is pluckt off by Christ It is the terrour of evill consciences but the joy of the good It is this pleasant meditation that sweetneth their adversities and makes them joy Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 The troubles of life are soone ended by death and after death comes a life without trouble and a glory without end Men may deprive us of life but they cannot deprive us of death which is our deliverance The same meditation will make us relish prosperity when God sends it for none can enjoy the goods of this life with delight but he that is prepared before to leave them Then are they