AN ESSAY OF THE True Happines OF MAN. In Two Books. BY SAMUEL GOTT of GRA. I. ES.

LONDON, Printed by Rob. White, for Thomas Vnderhill, at the Blew-Anchor in Pauls Church-yard, near the little North-Door. 1650.

The First Book.
  • I. OF True Happiness. 1
  • II. Of the Degrees of Happines. 8
  • III. Of Perfect Happiness. 13
  • IV. Of the Vanity of all Worldly things. 20
  • V. Of the Goods of the Body. 25
  • VI. Of Health. 30
  • VII. Of Strength. 35
  • VIII. Of Beauty. 40
  • IX. Of the Goods of Fortune. 46
  • X. Of Riches. 52
  • XI. Of Pleasures. 61
  • XII. Of Honor. 66
  • XIII. Of the Goods of the Mind. 71
  • XIV. Of Learning. 77
  • XV. Of Wisedome. 83
  • XVI. Of Philosophy. 90
  • XVII. Of the Sceptikes and Cy­nikes. 98
  • XVIII. Of the Cyreniakes and E­picureans. 108
  • XIX. Of the Stoikes and Peripate­tikes. 115
  • XX. Of the Platonikes, and of So­crates. 125
The Second Book.
  • [Page]I. OF Religion. 135
  • II. Of Faith. 142
  • III. Of the Scriptures. 148
  • IV. Of God. 154
  • V. Of Christ. 163
  • VI. Of the Spirit. 174
  • VII. Of a Christian Life. 183
  • VIII. Of Nature. 191
  • IX. Of Providence. 198
  • X. Of Prosperity. 206
  • XI. Of Adversity. 213
  • XII. Of Death. 220
  • XIII. Of Sin. 229
  • XIV. Of the Restuaration of the Soul. 237
  • XV. Of Graces. 248
  • XVI. Of Duties. 254
  • XVII. Of Conscience. 261
  • XVIII. Of the last Iudgement. 270
  • XIX. Of Hell. 278
  • XX. Of Heaven. 288

The Preface.

I Beg no Patronage, I need no Apology. Truth is the best, & indeed only true Patroness: if in any thing I have offended her, let it be as a Null among Ciphers, and signify nothing. As Popish Wri­ters use to say concerning the Church and Fathers. If any thing be writ or said against them, let it be unwrit, and un­said. Though I should seem to Apologise, it shall not be for any [Page] thing I have writ; but only for writing, in an Age, wherein Letters are either neglected, or distasted. We have lately sur­fetted of Knowledge, and now disgorge, and nauseate it: or if any Books be read, they are only such as we disdain to read twice; Pamphlets and Stories of Fact, or angry Disputes concerning the Times. In times of Action, whosoever would appear consi­derable, and make any moment in Business, must pursue one of the Extremes, and desperately run up to the hight of it: & so in Writing, Preaching, or the like; to speak plausibly of the Times, or vehemently to oppose them, most advanceth Fame and Followers. Yea in all other Times, either to Flatter Princes, and humor the [Page] Vices and Vanities of the Age, or Satyrically to lash them, hath been the common Art of Writing; which I wittingly waive, and leave to others. Sober and Solid Truth passes on in a streight Line through the Crowd of Er­rors and Confusions, without any great noise or show of it self. Be­sides, good Books, as they are pro­fitable, so they are very chargea­ble. We may not call them our own when we have bought them; nor when we have read them. To understand them rightly, didi­cisse fideliter, will cost almost as much as to indit̄e them; and to practice them far more. Men think it sufficient to turn over the Leavs, but never care to ga­ther the Fruit: without which a Book is wholly lost; writ and [Page] read to no purpose. For my own part, though I know writing of Books to be a very mean employ­ment, and of no great efficacy; when such writing as the famous Talbot set on his Sword, Pro vincere inimicos meos, is by many counted the best Logike and Rhetorike, and most authentike: yet I am content to make use of it, because I have no better antidote against Idleness, and the inconveniencies thereof. Having often consulted with my self▪ how a man might live most happily both here and hereafter, I used to commit my Thoughts to Writing: finding by experience, that as Meditation is the Glass of the Soul, so Writing steels it, and strengthens the Reflection: re­presenting our scattered Notions [Page] in a more entire and exact man­ner; and imprinting them first on our own spirits. I have lately collected my loose Papers, and di­gested them into Method; and now present them to the publike view: that so others, if they please, may share with me: and if I may communicate some consi­derable benefit to any one Reader, I shall account my endeavours very well bestowed. However they shall return into my own Brest, and be alwaies welcome at Home.

The first BOOK Of the True HAPPINES Of MAN.

I. Of True Happiness.

HAppiness is the Life of Life, and the Enjoy­ment of all our Good things. Enjoyment begins in Knowledg. Happy men if they Knew it, is a com­mon exprobration, and in part true of all. There is none who hath not something more then Hope left in [Page 2] the bottom of Pandroa's box, at least so much as to maintain him in that state of Hoping, which every man should improve to his best advan­tage, and make the most of a little. On the contrary, Sentiat se mori, was a torture as like Hell as the wit of man could invent. Knowledge is the view of things, and Contempla­tion the review and gazing on them, bathing and soaking the Mind throughout with more piercing and fixed apprehensions. Thus a Covetous man enjoys his treasures, by counting and studying them: as he in Horace, Nummos contemplor in arca—Admiration is more then Contemplation, ex­tending the Mind to the very ut­most capacity, yea in some sort transporting it beyond it self, by wondering at that which it cannot comprehend. These beget Love, which is an Appetite of union. Knowledge presents the Object to the Soul, but Love resigns the Soul [Page 3] to the Object, embracing and mingling with it, and so sucks out all the sweetness that is in it. This heat of Love begets Joy and De­light, as a flame of Light flowing from it: and this Rejoycing in the Object is the most perfect Enjoy­ment thereof. True Happiness con­sists both in the true Taste of the Soul, and also in the truth of the Thing it self. An ingenious Poem, or pleasant Fable, made only to take the ear, raise quicker affections in the mind of the Reader, then the bare nakedness of more profita­ble Truth. There is indeed a truth, of Art in witty fictions, which is re­all matter of delight, yet it argues great vanity, to be more affected with the Embroidery of an artificial Ly, then with the Plain work of better Instructions. There are other meer deceptions. The outward Senses deceiv the Fansie, and which is more strange, the Fansie can de­ceiv the very Senses, and operate on [Page 4] them as much as the Thing it self, not only as in a Dream, but when they are waking and most intent. He who sate in the empty Theater, and seemed to see most wonderfull Tragedies, was in a farther degree of vanity then common Spectators, who contemplated an Hercules. or Achilles, or a great Prince in the person of some mean fellow, whom they knew to be most unlike to them, but his Fansie was both Spe­ctator and Actor, which is a double delusion. I do not think, as Avi­cenna, that Fansie can work mira­cles, or as Paracelsus, that it can create any thing: but though it can­not form a Being, it can frame a Fantasm, acting it within its own Theater, and also delude the Senses by it, which is as much as it receiveth from them even of those things which we really see or hear: For the Thing it self remains without us where it was, and that which comes to the Fansie, is only a Show or Ap­parition [Page 5] thereof. Thus Fansie irri­tateth the Bodily Humors, and pro­voketh the Affections; and those Imaginary Objects of Joy, or Fear may as really affect the Mind, as if they were reall. But the worst of all are Intellectuall Errors, and false Judgments, for these seduce the Mind it self (which being rectified would correct the inferior Facul­ties) and betray us to vice and sin. As the Heathen worshipped almost all things eminently delectable or formidable, Pleasures, War, Dis­eases, Riches, Honor, Virtue, Princes, a Good and Bad Genius, Gods Su­pernall and Infernall, and any thing rather then the true Deity, so we still commit morall Idolatry with the same things, by our fals opini­ons and adoration of them. Con­templation of any vain thing, as of a Beauty, or the like, doth strangely infect the soul, tainting and dying it with the Image of the Object. But above all, vain Admiration ravisheth [Page 6] most: I call that a vain Admirati­on which is not grounded upon Knowledge, but meer Ignorance, & such as would be abated by a right Undestanding. As he who sees on­ly what is presented on the Stage, is more affected with the Show, then they in the Tiring room, whose eys are conscious to the dressing & per­sonating of the Actors. Thus to ad­mire nothing, was by the Philoso­phers (whose ambition was to know all things in their causes) made a chief part of true Happiness: where­as the Admiration of things truly admirable, is a farther degree of Happiness: when we rationally know by what may be known, that there is more excellency in the Ob­ject, then we do or can know, and therefore justly admire it. So we admire the Divine Glory, which is the highest enjoyment we can have of the Infinity thereof. All these are only Juglings and deceptions of the Mind, but vain Love bewitcheth [Page 7] and wholly possesseth it: and the Delight which it causeth is as fals and vain: for there can be no true Happiness in being deceived: nor doth the Pleasure extend further, or last longer then the Delusion. A Dream may satiate Imagination, but cannot fill the Belly: and when a man wakes he finds himself more hungry and unsatisfied. These En­chantments of the Mind dissolv in a moment at the presence of Truth, who as she is the Daughter of Time will at last arise like a bright Sun, and chase away all those vain sha­dows. In the mean time the more we are ravished with the sense of any fals Happiness, and thereby withdrawn from that which is true, we are so much the more truly Un­happy.

II. Of the Degrees of Happiness.

HAppiness is founded in Know­ledge: and therefore only Knowing Creatures are capable thereof, and according to their se­verall degrees of Knowledge, they are capable of severall degrees of Happiness. There are many Worlds in one, and severall Shows and Faces of the same things. The first and lowest is the gross Body of Heaven and Earth, which though to us it appear glorious and beautifull, is in it self dark and dull, and without apprehensi­on. The Iron seems to embrace the Loadstone with great delight, and to be rapt with an amorous Extasie, so as Thales thought it animall, and yet that motion is as void of the least sense of pleasure, as the com­mon inclination of Gravity to the Center. The next is a World of Sense, which is a Theater of Species [Page 9] and Emanations arising from the former, being purified and subli­mated to the hight of Sense, which by a conjunction with them, begets a lively and sprightfull delight. The least Bee finds more pleasure in making and tasting a little Honey, then the Sun & all the self moving Planets in their perpetuall Courses, & benign Influences, or the Plants in their most flourishing Vegetations. Another World is the Shop of Fan­sie, which is a faculty more spirituall then Sense, refining and composing the simple Species thereof into va­rious forms and figures: and as it thus works within doors, so it also apprehends the Beauty and Compo­sure of exterior objects: which is greater matter of delight then to view them at large. It hath also a power of Meditating & Admiring, which is an higher kind of enjoy­ment then Sense. Naturalists sup­pose Insects, and some such Animals to be wholly without Imagination; [Page 10] but certainly the more perfect enjoy it in a very notable degree. That Discourse whereof they seem to partake, is only the work of Fansie, and a collation of sensitive notions. Yet though Beasts excell Man in his outward Senses, he probably excels them all in Imagination: it being a faculty in the next degree to Rea­son, and much advanced by it. Hence we so far exceed them in all Mechanicall Artifices: Nature hath furnished us with Hands, as fit In­struments for such Workmen, and so with a larger portion of this In­genious faculty to direct and ma­nage them. Certainly Man hath more acquaintance with the Gra­ces, and doth not only enjoy much pleasure in the apprehension of Beauty, Harmony, & Elegancy; but also in the very prevarications ther­of: we admire strange Deformities, and behold them with Mirth and Delight and are much affected with Humors and [...]ooleries, which are [Page 11] as Satyrs or Monsters of the Mind▪ Therfore Nature hath bestowed on us Laughter, to express some extra­ordinary Affection, whereof no other Sensitive Souls are capable. This excellency of Fansie, though somewhat above the nature of Beasts, is yet below Reason and Judgment, for many men who have least thereof, excell in the other by a certain naturall aptness and feli­city. Beyond this Sphere of Fansie is the Intellectuall Orb, or World of Intelligences, which is an Acade­my of Sciences, furnished with higher and more abstracted Noti­ons, whereby the Mind discovers the very Idea and Module of Na­ture, and her wise Government by Causes and Effects, the Law of Rea­son and Policy, the being of Spirits, and Divinity it self. Out of this In­tellectuall World Beasts are wholly excluded. Language is the chief In­strument of a Rationall Life, which they want. As in Speaking or Books [Page 12] they may hear and see what is Sen­sible, namely the Sound and Letters, but understand not what is signifi­ed by them, so though they hear the same Voice of Nature, and view the same Book of the World with us, yet they understand not the Intelli­gible, or Philosophicall part there­of, which is a Scene of things as far above Sense as that is above Vege­tation. Adam had a larger share of Paradise then the Brutes, though he fed like them on Herbs and Fruits: and joyed more in contemplating their Natures, and translating them into fit Names, then we now do in feasting on their Carcases. Man chiefly excells in these spirituall de­lights, not only by apprehending all other things, but also by reflecting on Himself. It is a pleasant thing to behold our face in a Glass, much more to see our own Soul, which is both Face, Mirror, and Ey. But the least sight of Divine Glory ra­visheth the Soul with the greatest [Page 13] joy. Here the Mind having mounted the utmost Circle of Natures Globe, taketh her flight, and passeth over into Infinity, and there enjoys not only the perfection of all crea­ted Good, but finds out another and better Nature, and a new World of Worlds: As God is the chiefest Good, so Man being capa­ble of Knowing him, is also capable of the highest Happiness.

III. Of Perfect Happiness.

THE severall degrees of Know­ledg are capable of a proporti­onable Happiness and perfect Hap­piness must be perfectly adequate and proportionate to Knowledge: for whatsoever the Soul can appre­hend, it may in some kind enjoy, and there cannot be perfect Happi­ness, without perfect Enjoyment. Beasts have no other end of living, [Page 14] but to live: put them into pleasant pastures, and leav them to them­selves to eat and drink, and follow the motions of their own nature, they are Happy enough; because they know no better or greater thing to desire. When I hear the Nightingall singing in a Wood, though Poets Fansie her to com­plain of I know not what injuries, I conceiv her then perched welnigh on the top of her highest felicity, free from care and grief, and enter­taining her self with her warbling notes. Surely these inferior Crea­turus attain a neerer degree of their perfect Happiness then Man doth of his. A little satisfies a small sto­mach, whereas larger Bodies require more. The Soul of Man, though fi­nite, hath some apprehension of In­finity: and therefore nothing less will satisfie it: the very negative Knowledge therof doth forbid any finite thing to be the adequate Hap­piness of Man, whose vast and [Page 15] boundless Appetite exceedeth every thing which hath bounds and li­mits, and can swallow down the whole World at one draught: like the ut most Sphere, whose concavity comprehendeth all things, and the convexity thereof joyneth to an endless immensity: though as Man cannot directly and affirmatively apprehend Infinity, so neither is he capable of an Infinite Enjoyment: yet the least defect or want of that Infinite Good which he naturally coveteth, being Infinite, doth more unsatisfie then any finite delight can content him: for so much as is wanting of requisite Happiness, is filled up with Vanity and Vexation. All men have not a distinct appre­hension, and explicite desire of an Infinite Good, yet the same Instinct being naturally in all, the Soul is insensibly carryed out unto it, and cannot finish the progress of her de­sire, till she have gained that which is beyond all apprehension, and all [Page 16] desire. Vulgar spirits tasting some drops of finite Goodness in the se­verall Creatures, suppose that by an endless multiplication of them they shall at last attain that Infinite Good which is the utmost object of the Mind: and therefore never cease adding House to House, Land to Land, and World to World, and so think to piece up an Infinite Good with an endless variety of finite Good things: though the more they have, the more they ex­plicitely desire, as drawing neerer toward an Infinite Good, which is that endless end to which they are implicitely tending. Others through their boundless Lusts, and vast Ima­ginations fansie to themselves some kind of Infinity, or at least a Cen­ter of rest, in the finite Objects of their particular desires; thinking if they may accomplish some petty design, to which they are wholly devoted, that then they shall be perfectly Happy; and flattering [Page 17] themselves like the Yong man in the Comedy, who boasted, if he might but enjoy his Mistress, Ipsam fortunam anteibo fortunis meis. Hence the Mind of Man while it is in the pursute thereof, and hath any farther expectation whereon to feed, goes on cheerfully and with much delight, hunting after this shadow of fansied felicity: but ha­ving once arrived at the utmost Pe­riod, is soon confuted by its own Experience, and the vehemence of this vast Appetite suddenly lan­guishes, and the Soul shrinks up, and pines away in shame and dis­content. There is many a petty Mi­ser, who takes more pleasure in mul­tiplying a few pence, then if he had been born Heir of the whole Earth. There is more ravishing de­light in wooing, and courting, and the Romances of Love before En­joyment then after. Give a Pyr­rhus the Empire of the whole world at once, and you undo him. The [Page 18] Game is more pleasing to such Hu­mors, then both the Stakes without it. Hence also is that common and naturall affectation of Novelty: because the Mind being unsatisfied with any thing it hath already, still coveteth more. New things please at first, but are afterward found to be as vain as the rest. But as no fi­nite thing can fully satisfie the Mind of Man, so it is most evident that no multiplication of finites can make up an infinite: for all the Parts being finite and numerable, the whole must necessarily be finite also. Therefore it must be One In­finite Good, in the Enjoyment whereof the true Happiness of Man doth consist, and which as the Chief Good renders all those finite things Good by a subordination to it self, as the utmost End. This was the chief study of all the ancient Philo­sophers, to find out the Chief Good: and by their severall opini­ons concerning it, they were distin­guished [Page 19] into their severall Sects. It is the Elixar of Life, the true Philo­sophers stone, which infuses a Golden tincture into all inferior Metalls, and cures all the diseases of the Soul, by reducing it to a right temper. Solomon hath discovered it to the World: a Work worthy of a King, not only of Israel, but of the whole Earth, being so profitable a Good to all Mankind. Great Wits bewail the loss of his Naturall Histo­ry, but make no use of his Ecclesi­astes, wherein the discourseth of eve­ry Plant which grows in the Para­dise of Man, from the lowest Hy­sope to the tallest Cedar, and so leads us to the Tree of Life, placed in the midst of the Garden, I mean that Infinite and Universall Good, which is the Perfection of all the rest.

IV. Of the Vanity of all Worldly things.

VAnity of Vanities, saith the Preacher, Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity. We have here a Preacher, and his Text, containing a Doctrine sufficient to confute all the Here­tikes of this World, who place their Happiness in any Creature: for ha­ving strictly examined the Particu­lars, he casts up [...]he Accompt, and finds the total [...] Summ to be but a Cipher. Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity. Knowledge and Experience make a perfect Doctor, and both met together in him. If all men since the fall of Adam had consulted among themselvs whom they should employ to seek the lost Adonis of their Happiness, they could not have found a fitter then Solomon, whom God and Man had prepared [Page 21] for it. Lo, saith he, I am come to great Estate, and have got more Wisdom then all that have been be­fore me in Ierusalem: yea my heart had great experience of Wisdom and Knowledge: and I gave my heart to know Wisdom: and to know madness and folly. The felicity of Augustus was purchased, but Solomons here­ditary. He was the Son of King David, and came to a great Estate in the early Spring of his Youth, as­soon as he was capable of enjoying it. His Father left him a greater Treasure then any History can pa­ralell: and his Empire extended it self from the border of Egypt to the River Euphrates, a morsell suf­ficient for any one mans mouth, if any thing might suffice. Thus were all things ready for this great work brought to his hand, and while he like the Halcyon was bringing it forth, the silent alm of undisturbed Peace seemed purposely to favor the Design. As his Materials, so his [Page 22] Wisdom and Skill of using them was not acquired by labor and long study, but given by speciall In­spiration. He was wiser then all the Kings and Philosophers in the world. Nor was he of a severe and Stoical temper, as Cat [...], Antoninus, and such other wi [...]e men: but had a most criticall palat and curious re­lish of all humane delights, and free­ly exercised it in tasting them. Whatsoever his eyes desired he kept it not from them, nor witheld his heart from any joy, for his heart rejoyced in all his labors, yea he laid hold on Madness and Folly, that so he might squeez out all the juyce and sweet­ness that is in them. He went so far as to try what was in the mad Hu­mors and Follies of Jo [...]all men: only he was not enchanted with this Circean cup, but the Moli of his Wisdom remained with him: so that he was most fitly instructed to make both the Search and the Re­port. And least men should dream [Page 23] of any Golden Age before him, or any new Inventions, and Sophisms of Cookery, or Engines of Pleasure since his time, he prevents the Ob­jection, and tels us, That which is done, is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the Sun. The Earth affords the same provisi­ons, and Man is endued with the same Senses and Faculties to make use of them: and though some new thing may be added, it is of the same kind with the former; and there being such a Vanity in the whole frame of Nature, it must cer­tainly be as vain as the rest. As for his own part he knew how to enjoy as much in one Age as any, and none can hasten more then he. Thus having ascended the highest Olympus of earthly felicity, and viewing all things, both before, and behind, and round about him, he proclaims to all below, who might suppose him to have attained the very Heaven of Happiness, that he found nothing [Page 24] but empty air. Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity. For weighing the Pains of Mans Life with the Pay, and his Miseries with his Pleasures, he pro­fesseth there is nothing to be got by the bargain: So that he praised the Dead more then the Living, and the Unborn then them both. Lastly, that all men might for ever despair of finding any such Happiness in this World, he averreth the Vanity thereof to be so great, and so far from being filled, that it cannot be fathomed. That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbred. Wherefore not to believ him who hath made such a perfect Inquiry, is of all Vanities the greatest, and addeth Vexation to it, which he shall never want, who seeks that which cannot be found: whereas a sober acknowledgement of this Va­nity may prevent the Vexation. Content is the Deputy of outward felicity, and supplies the place [Page 25] where its absent. The first step to true Happiness is to see the vanity of all worldly things: that so knowing where it is not, we may seek it where it is.

V. Of the Goods of the Body.

IT is the Humor of Pedants to ex­toll things that are eminent above their just proportion, and to declaim inferior things into no­thing: but Solomon like a sober and wise man, weighing all things in the balance of a right judgement, and first putting that Infinite Good which only can satisfy the Mind of man into one scale, and the whole World into the other, he finds it lighter then Vanity it self, as being infinitely preponderated, and bear­ing no weight with the other: but then weighing the World and the several particulars thereof by them­selvs, [Page 26] he discovers the just weight of Finite Good which is in them, and which by a subordination to that in-Finite Good from which they are all derived may be allowed to them. As it is said of the Stars, that they have no light in themselves, but de­rive their several lights from the Sun, and shine only by participation of the Solar light: or as the meanest members of the Body are in man the instruments of a Rational life, which in a carcase are Dead, and in beasts meerly Sensual. Thus the very reliques of Nature may be rightly enjoyed, as partaking of the Chief Good and in order to it, though none of them do now retain their first Perfection. And indeed it is folly and madness in any man to neglect the least and meanest Good which God and Nature have provi­ded for him. We will begin with the Goods of the Body, as the low­est of all. The Body, though not at all allied to the Soul, yet is mar­ried [Page 27] to it, and brings some Portion along with it. It is reported of Apollonius Tyaneus that he had a familiar Spirit ingaged in a Jewell: such is the Soul of man in the Body: by which conjunction he becomes a Little World, not only as a Map or Index, but as an Epitome of the whole: whereby he is made capable of enjoying all in himself, differing from the Angels in his Body, as from Beasts in his Soul: For An­gelical Spirits enjoy no sensible pleasures, otherwise then by an in­tellectual speculation, their nature being far above them: Whereas man enjoyes them by sense and experience in his Body and sensitive part, which is connatural unto them. Not that we may flatter our selvs, and prefer our natures before the Angelical, or disparage our hope of a more glorious state when we shall be like unto the Angels, but onely to assert our present nature and conjunct state, which is made up of [Page 28] the meanest parts of the Body as well as of the highest faculties of the Soul: and as Soul and Body do con­sist together, so may the delights of the one with the pleasures of the other. But no bodily good can pos­sibly be the highest Happiness or Chief good of Man: For though the Body contain the Soul, yet it cannot fill it, no not the Body of the whole Universe. To prove Spi­ritual delights far greater and bet­ter then Corporeal, we need not the authority of a Solomon, we have the confession of a Iulian, though an Apostate from the true Happiness of the Soul; yet he professed the plea­sures of the Body, far below a great Spirit. Apostates of all other men most strictly embrace this present world, and study to extract the greatest sweetness it can afford, their desires being greatly enlarged with the tast which they had of the Chief good, and they have reason to do so, for at the best they make but a [Page 29] bad bargain: but all fall not in the same manner, some fall forward with their faces toward the earth and wallow in the mire of sensuall uncleanness, as Nicholas the Liber­tine and his beastly Sect: others of a more generous and sublime Spi­rit, by supine gazing on the Hea­vens from which they fell, and bark­ing at the Stars which they left fixed in their Orbs, such were Lucian, Iulian, and the Devils. It seems Spiritual wickedness is most sublime and delightful, much more Spiritual virtues and graces, which are the proper perfections of the Soul. Averroes and the rest of the Ara­bian Philosophers are ashamed of that sensual and beastly Paradise which their Mahomet provided for them, as most unworthy of the soul of Man, and far short of his true Happiness.

VI. Of Health.

HEalth is the temperate Zone or habitable part of Mans Life. As sleep is the image of Death, so is sickness of Hell, being rightly termed a Dying Life, whereof Death many times is the sole Physi­tian. Many Princes dwell in stately Palaces, whose souls are ill seated in Cadaverous bodies. Health is com­monly the Peasants prerogative which no riches can purchase of him: whereas if he could be bought out of it, he might sell it at the dearest rates: what would not a rich man give to another to undertake the pain of the Stone or Gout for him, could they be laid upon others as outward burdens and labors are? Health in Great men is a great advantage. Henry the fourth of France was bred hardly among the Peasants, which preserved his life, [Page 31] and prepared him for those great Actions, which he afterward per­formed. Cicero reporteth of one of the Scipio's, that he had equalled Africanus, if he had not been kept under by perpetual sickness▪ Besides, health is the very Paradise of all Sen­sual Pleasures in which they grow and flourish: yet Courtiers usually corrupt it by a licentious course of life, and so disable both Body and Mind, not only for the performing of Civill Actions, but also for the enjoying of Naturall Pleasures which they so much affect. So un­natural is the vice of voluptuousness that it destroyeth Health, which is its own foundation. As Health consists in Temperament, so the best way to preserve it is Temperance. Diseases caused by emptiness may be more dangerous, but there is more danger in exceeding. Hence are most of our vulgar sicknesses, Feavers, Pests, Catarrhs, and Coughs, the Trumpeters of Death. Violence [Page 32] and excess may be good Physike, but are bad Diet, unless we dare ven­ture on them, as Mithridates used Poison, to fortifie our selvs against casual extremities. But a sober and discreet mixture of both seems most conform to the various occasions of life. The Ecclesiastical Order was to fast the Eve before a Feast; but the Physical rule holds as well afterward till it be digested; and the best kind of fasting is to eat a little. Excess of Affections, especially Malignant, as Fear, Grief, Envy, Ma­lice, and all Anxiety of mind, de­stroyes the body more then that of Food: but delightful objects and pleasant studies are the minds Re­creations. Keep both Body and Mind clean and fresh, freeing them from all burdensom and offensive things. But Tiberius his Aphorism, That every man is his own best Phi­sician is worth all others, being most true as to the preservation of the ordinary state of Health, though not [Page 33] in extraordinary cases, or over­grown Diseases, which must be help­ed by the hand of Art; Experi­ments first founded the Art of Phy­sike, and no Experience like that within a mans self: and Tiberius his life set a Probatum est to his A­phorism, for though he was gene­rally most licentious and libidinous, yet he preserved himself in good health to a reasonable old age, li­ving seventy and eight years. He was indeed of a strong constitution, but we find the same effect in men very crazy and more sober, as Hip­pocrates, Galen, and others, who first studied their own cases, and thence became most eminent Phy­sicians: Though Health be very pretious, yet it may be overvalued; some are so curious of it that they fear the least blast and shadow of Inconvenience, as he who imagined himself made all of Glass and was afraid lest every knock should break him; whereas indeed this tender [Page 34] niceness is rather a destroier then a preserver of Health. Caesar by con­tinuall imployment and hard usage overcame two constant Diseases, the Head [...] ach, and Falling-sickness; and many in our late Wars, who be­fore were thought weak and infirm, being put upon Service and the ne­cessity of suffering, have proved able and hardy beyond expectation. However health must be adventured as well as life, Pro salute publicae. Pompey said, Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam, when the Common­wealth was concerned. He who makes health his chief good and ut­most end, lives only that he may live, and prolongs his time to no purpose.

VII. Of Strength.

STrength is the Issue Male of Health, and Beauty the Female; the conjunction of both is very rare and the perfection of Hero's. We will speak of them severally. There are two kinds of Strength, one of Acting, the other of Enduring. The former is the meniall servant of a Mans self, and he who is not his own best Man, is his slaves slave, and a voluntary Criple. There are many offices of life which cannot hand­somly be performed by others, as necessary Actions, and all Exercises. The manner of the Turks to sit on Carpets shooting their Arrows, and have their slaves fetch them, is an unmanly Exercise. Some are so vain­ly idle, that they commit the very dressing & undressing of themselvs to their servants, which is a wo­manish Fashion; there may be [Page 36] some state in it, but certainly no convenience. A small competency of Strenght sufficeth for common Actions, and Agility serveth the turn better then Robust Force. Gross and fat bodies are more strong in their Center, but have a less Circum­ference or Sphere of activity, being burdens to the earth and themselvs: Light and nimble bodies, though of less Strength, have more▪ use and en­joyment of it. The want of a con­venient proportion of ordinary Strength, renders the Body more infirm and defective then any extra­ordinary measure thereof can ad­vance in happiness: for even in those things, whereof there can be no excess, and so a mediocrity can­not be the perfection, yet it is the Center and hart of the whole. It may seem strange that Strength should be increased by sickness and distemper, which is an Infirmity, as in Feavers, Madness, Anger, yea sometimes by fear it self. But this [Page 37] Strength arising from a sudden con­flux of spirits is not solid and per­manent, consisting rather in a vio­lent quickness then in a constant endeavour; and this extraordinary expence of spirits ends afterward in a greater weakness. Besides, in Man there may be another reason more strange then the former, which is, that the mind by doubting and disputing gives a check to the full & free delivery of Bodily Strength (whereas in such cases Reason is suspended) and the same power doth many times effect that by a nimble impulse, which it could ne­ver do by a dull contention. Prudent Caution is an hindrance in Action, yet in that it prevents the occasion it is better then Strength, the confi­dence whereof betrays us to Duels and Dangers. The other which is the Strength of Bearing is as neces­sary in the life of man as the for­mer, yea in all bodily action there is some striving and suffering, espe­cially [Page 38] if there be a want of natural ability. Lameness adds pain to weakness, and a crooked back is its own burden. A hardy carcase is a strong Brest-work or Fortification to the soul: Hardiness in the one being analogous to Patience in the other, yea the former facilitates the latter, and many times saves it the labor. No Bodily Suffering in this life can be extream, for when it ex­ceedeth, nature yieldeth and giveth up the Ghost, and as long as she af­fordeth strength it is baseness not to bear. He who inures his Body to Suffering beforehand, hath so much the less to endure afterward, so that it comes not upon him all at once. But Mans Happines cannot consist in Bodily Strength, it being not seat­ed in his Spiritual, but in his Corpo­real part. Reason, as hath been shewed, may hinder Strength by Caution and declination, or other­wise back it with a good Resolution, and wisely manage it with Discre­tion, [Page 39] but adds no sensible for [...]e to it: Nor doth the mind act its own body as an Angel doth an assumed carcase. Yet hath Nature armed man with such a proportion of Strength, by which, with the advan­tage of his Wit he is able to tame or subdue any Beast, at School-play, as we say, with Instruments and En­gines, though not by downright Blows. Thus I esteem Archimedes a stronger man then Milo, for he by his Engines could perform far more then the other by his Arms: and so was Caesar a greater Souldier then either Hercules or Achilles, really effecting greater things by a wise conduct of his affairs then are fabled of the others: and perhaps the Monopoly of Gun-powder when it was first invented might have effected more then them all, and conquered the whole World. As for this strength of enduring, Man hath naturally less of it then most of Beasts, not only as he is [Page 40] more tenderly bred, and his Body mollified with warm clothing, but in his very constitution, being more infirm in his Infancy, and more de­crepit in his Old Age.

VIII. Of Beauty.

STrength is a Tyrant, but Beauty a naturall and lawfull Prince, born to reign, as the Philosopher observeth. There is a kind of na­turall Magike in it which bewitch­eth us we know not how; as inge­nious Xenophon in the person of Critobulus elegantly expresseth it. The very first sight and presence of it attracteth the eies of every be­holder, like the sudden appearance of a Candle in a dark room. It is the most excellent Object of the most excellent Sense, the darling of Fansy, which tradeth in Images and Idea's within, and meeting with such [Page 41] curious pieces abroad entertaineth them with great delight. And if it were true, that the Soul is the Ar­chitect of its own Body (as cer­tainly the Body is prepared and fit­ted for the Soul) it were a very good reason why it should so much delight in the beautiful composure of anothers Body, which it intend­ed in its own: as an Artist is much affected with any excellent Work of the same kind. This Venus of Beauty is the Mother of vulgar Love, and so also of that which they call Heroicall: though the Graces attend her, and Virtue the true Beauty of the soul bear her company, yet she usually acts the chief part in the Play, but alwaies the first: the very Picture of Phi­loclea first enamoured Pyrocles. By it, saith Siracides, Love is kindled as with a flame. It is the chief ingre­dient in Loves Philtrum, which so much enchanteth the minds of men, ravishing and transporting the soul, [Page 42] and putting it into a strange exta­sy of delight; and is indeed the chief of all sensuall pleasures, the inmost Bower in Fools Paradise, as Ausonius describeth it, ‘Myrtrus amentes ubi lucus opa­cat Amantes.’ where they live together in the se­cret shade of wanton Vanity and pleasing Madness. Surely this most generous and glorious Affection was never intended by God and Nature for so mean an Object, nor for any created excellency, but for him who is the Beauty of all Beau­ties, to whom Solomon in his Canti­cles doth rightly apply it, and the blessed Spirits in Heaven perfectly exercise and enjoy it in their Beati­ficall Vision. But vain men having set their hearts upon an Earthly Beauty, Idolize it with a Divine Love; and we may observ them in their courting and dallying, still to [Page 43] run out into Deifying Comple­ments and Divine Adoration: which plainly shews that the natu­rall Instinct and Inclination of Love ascends toward a Divinity, but be­ing thus debased by Lust, is prodi­gally spent upon an inferior Object. Yet this created Beauty is a chief excellency of Nature, and a Beam of that Infinite Brightness. As the erect Posture of Mans Body, so his Face, which is the chief part thereof, being composed of greater variety of curious Lineaments, and fairer Colors, is more excellent then any Beasts, Generally all kind of Beauty is of great esteem. In building or furnishing of an House, the Show and Sight cost as much as Conveni­ency. In Apparell, Fashion and Comeliness are as dear as Usefulnes. Handsomeness in an Horse doth as much advance his price, as Good­ness. In Civill conversation, For­mosa facies muta commendatio est, bespeaking and gaining favor and [Page 44] good will, which is no small advan­tage in humane affairs, and certainly the greatest of worldly comforts. Absolom gained much upon the People by his Beauty. It preferred Alcibiades to the love and care of his Master Socrates. It endeareth Children to their own Parents, and is many times a sufficient Portion in Marriage. It prevails much by its own proper authority, but is an ex­cellent setter off to great For­tunes, and true Virtues; as Varnish to Colors, or the refraction of Light upon Metals. But the vanity thereof doth sufficiently appear in it self, being but a meer Superficies of the Body, which is the far meaner part of Man, and not so much as skin deep, as some allow it, for turn the skin outward, and it will appear to be the Reverse of all Beauty, and a most horrid Spectacle of Bloud and Rawness: So that indeed this beautifull Idoll is not much more then the reflection of it from the [Page 45] Glass, which is but a meer Spectrum or Shadow. Either Beauty is no re­all excellency, or rather Fansy, which is the Judge thereof, is such a wanton Spirit, that it is not alwaies constant to it self; for it is not only variously apprehended by severall men, as it is said the Aethiopians paint the Devill white: but the same persons at severall times variously judge of it. The Persians highly esteemed an Hawk-Nose, because their Cyrus was so shaped. Alexan­ders Courtiers wried their Necks like him, and the Roman Ladies affe­cted the color of Poppaea's Hair. The Irish do the like: and we alter the cut of our Heads and Beards al­most every year, and I am per­swaded, if it were as much in our power, we should have as many new fashions and changes of our Bodies as we have of our Garments and At­tires. But whatsoever the true va­lue of Beauty may be, surely the owner enjoyeth it only at the se­cond [Page 46] hand, either from the Glass, as the Flower thereof, or from the fa­vor of others, which is the best Fruit it yieldeth.

IX. Of the Goods of Fortune.

THE Gifts of Fortune are the Good things of the great Body of the World: and are of three sorts, Riches, Objects of Pleasure, and Titles of Honor: which one rightly terms the Worlds Trinity.

Ambitiosus Honos, & Opes, & Foeda Voluptas,
Haec tria pro trino Numine Mun­dus habet.

These three make up the whole Inventory of Fortune, and are all summed up in a Crown, or the Roi­all State, which the Heathen called the fairest Gift that the Gods be­stowed [Page 47] on mortall men. Besides it hath a peculiar Prerogative, which is, that Grandeur or Supremacy, which we commonly call Majesty, where­of no inferior condition is capable. Princes are in this sense more then men, Political Giants, like Briareus having an hundred hands, yea thou­sands, and millions of hands, with all which they act good or ill. Re­gum ingenia sunt fata temporum. We cannot well discourse of the goods of Fortune without this, which is the greatest of all, and be­cause it is the summary of them, eminently including all in it self, we will particularly insist on it, not as a Civill Institution, though of the best kind, but as a Personal Felicity; which is so great and so much admi­red by other men, that the labour lies most on the other hand to de­monstrate the Vanity thereof. The World hath always declaimed against usurping Tyrants, and Philosophers have as much cried [Page 48] down their happiness. They are Kings of a Bastard kind, which yet commonly afterward obtain a Le­gitimation. Certainly Tyranny, even in lawfull Princes, is as great a misery to themselvs as to the people. It is the happiness of Christ's Kingdom, That his people shall be willing in the day of his power. The love of the Subjects makes Sove­raignty pleasant, without which it is like the Kingdom of Satan, a very Hell of Disorder and Discon­tent. All men admire a Crown, because they see the lustre, but feel not the weight of it; this seems lighter, because they never wore it, and that greater then it is, because they cannot wear it: we naturally admire that which we cannot attain as well as that which we cannot un­derstand, looking upon it as Pecu­liar and Sacred. Therefore it is a very hard thing to give a clear de­monstration of the Vanity of this opinion, which cannot be confuted [Page 49] by experience. The Spanish Page, who in a high distemper of Fansy imagined himself a great Emperor, and was maintained in that Humor by his Lord, had some kind of tast thereof. The Scripture expresseth the greatest Glory and Pomp of Princes in no better a Phrase then, Much Fansy: There are some more reall tasts of Royalty, which any private man may have. Every Ma­ster of a Family is a King within doors. The best pedigree of law­full Monarchy is from it, and Princes still affect to be called Fathers of the Country. Though Families are subordinate to Kingdoms, yet it is true of Kingdoms as well as of them, Omne sub regno graviore regnum est: the greatest Potentates are not Omnipotent, but as much crossed in their wills as others, who as they have lesser Abilities, so they have lower Designs. Thus may pri­vate men Degustare Imperium, even that Empire which is without them, [Page 50] and over others, but certainly every man may be Rex Stoicus, a King in his own Microcosm: which he who knows how to rule well, may de­spise a Crown. But the most satis­factory Evidence is that which may be collected from Princes them­selvs, especially such who have had the experience of a Private life, and so can best judge of both. Such commonly prove the ablest and the wisest, enjoying and improving Roi­alty to the utmost. Sylla the Happy laid aside his Dictatorship, because he esteemed a Private life more Happy. Augustus was partly of the same mind, and deliberated a­bout it, but not so confident. As Periander said of Tyranny, It was a hard thing to keep, and dangerous not to keep. Our common saying is very true, That the best Condition of life, is between a Constable and a Justice of Peace, if the Constable and the Justice would support such in that middle estate: but common­ly [Page 51] men in Office take a pride and a delight in oppressing Private men: they think Justice but an ordinary and dull thing, Injustice is more eminent and extraordinary: so that many wise men, who would fain live quietly, are necessitated to ac­cept of Authority, and part with some of their Happiness to secure the rest. Yet Dioclesian, though he judged it absolutely necessary to continue the Empire, voluntarily left it, and would never after re­assume it, though he were highly threatned to it. In Iulius Caesar himself, who professed it his Chief Good to be Chief, Insultare omni­um capitibus, and had rather be the best man in a Parish, as we say, then second in the City of Rome, yea, was not contented with the Thing, unless he might also have the Name of a King (which partly intimates the Vani [...]y thereof) we shall find Venus and the Muses among his chiefest delights: and there is no [Page 52] Prince who hath been eminently addicted to either of them, but hath placed them among his greatest pleasures: Now the one being the naturall pleasure of the Body, and the other of the Mind, a common Plebeian may enjoy both as fully as any of them. What shall we then say of Fidling, and Fooling, and the vain Humors of weaker Princes? Surely a wise man would judge a King of Beggers as happy as some of those yong Roman Emperors.

X. Of Riches.

MOney is the eldest Son and Heir of Fortune, Lord Para­mount, and universall King in every particular Kingdom. The Image and Superscription of Caesar on his Coin is more powerfull then Caesar himself. Witty men have many con­ceited disparagements of it, calling [Page 53] it, The Excrement of Earth, Metall turned up Trump, and the like: but they speak of it in its Naturall capacity, whereas they ought to consider it in its Politike, as Money, and not at Metall: & so it is rightly defined, the Measure of all commu­table things. In this sense Petronius calls it, Iovem in arca: and they who profess an absolute contempt of it, must also despise all externall things, whereof it is the price and value: and without a competency whereof the outward Man cannot be maintained: for particular men having impropriated all the Good things of the World necessary for the life of Man, they will be left in a worse condition then Brute Beasts, who are either nourished by Men, or may Forrage for them­selvs. Wherefore leaving such who have Bodies, and yet despise the means of preserving them, to feed on their airy notions, we will dis­course of the severall Estates and [Page 54] Revenues of others who too much admire them, and show what Hap­piness every Degree and Census of them may contribute to the life of Man. The first sort are such as have all their Estates in their own Hands, that is, live upon their daily labors, being slaves to every man who will hire them: which is a condition al­most as servile as to be enslaved to one proper Master, the one being of Necessity, as the other of Com­pulsion. For this reason the Iews generally refuse even Mechanicall Trades, as bordering upon the same inconvenience, and are commonly either Merchants or Physicians. Yet this mean Condition hath a blessing in it, for as such are sure never to gain much, so they are sure never to want much, so long as Health and Strength last. Rich men need their Labors as much as they need their Riches. An able Body may well earn its own Living. The second sort is of them whose Revenues are [Page 55] sufficient to maintain them in a ge­nerous and free kind of life, or at least so as they may command Busi­ness, and need not be commanded by it, taking as much or as little thereof as they please; which ren­ders it the best of Recreations, and takes off the Burden and wearisom­ness of it. This sort of men, though not the richest, may live as happily as any, if they do not wrong them­selvs by covetous Desires, or too pressing Emploiments. The last are such as have an Excessive and Super­fluous Estate, which as it is a great advantage of doing Liberall and Magnificent things, so it is a very great tentation, not only to Idle­ness, but also to Luxury and Prodi­gality. A great Estate, without great Abilities to manage it, can­not be improved to the hight in the right use of it, but that the greatest part of the Water will run beside the Mill: on the one hand Vain Company, Parasiticall Servants, [Page 56] French Cooks and Tailors, Game­sters, Usurers, and such Birds of prey will devour most of it: on the other hand Covetousness will rust it, and bury it like a hid Treasure or Talent in the ground. Of all three the middle is the safest, and Agars Dimensum the best, if a man can think so as he did. Yet the highest Degree of an inferior Rank doth not only excell in the same, but is more valuable in the true Accompt of Estates, then the lowest Degree of an higher Rank. As for example, A rich Yeoman if he turn Gentle­man, may be a poor and mean Gen­tleman, and a rich Gentleman made a Lord, may be a poor and mean Lord, not only in the Estimate of Honor, for that is another consi­deration, but even in this Accompt of Riches, with relation to the De­gree of Honor, for the Estate must alwaies hold a proportion with the State and Port which a man bears. Again, the Rates of particular things [Page 57] are wisely to be considered, as well as the quality of Estates in generall. The first consideration to be had in Expence, is of things Necessary, as of Food, Raiment, and the like. Diogenes wondered that a Statue should be sold for more then a bushell of Wheat. The second is of things Usefull and Convenient. It is very ill Husbandry to want any cheap conveniencies, and it is far better laying out money upon small Wares of daily use, then upon cost­ly Trifles. To want a good Book, be­cause it is somwhat dear according to the rate of Printing, or not to have the best advise in a Case of Physike or Law, because it may cost a little more, is foolish; for such Intellectuall things are worth no­thing if they be not worth far more then they cost. The last considerati­on is of Ornament and Delight, as Jewels, Flowers, Pictures, and such like rarities of Nature or Art, which are also valuable in their kind, [Page 58] and are commodities fit for super­fluous Estates. Rich men seem pur­posely to have inhanced the price of them, that so they might have oc­casion of laying out their great Riches for themselvs, which other­wise they could never spend in an ordinary way. The Vulgar honor Great men for those things, and va­lue them according to the price which is set upon them: but a Wise man, who considers their true and naturall worth, need not envy them the Happiness of a fair Diamond, or strange Tulip, or Michael Angelo's Masterpiece. Or if these things be so valuable, why should we not as highly value such Ornaments of Na­ture as cannot be bought for mo­ney: Beauty is a richer Ornament then gorgeous Apparell, and dis­creet Elegancy then great Cost. When others presented Socrates with their severall Gifts, poor Aes­chines presented himself, and outvied them all with a Complement. [Page 59] Credit and Reputation are the greatest Expenditors, Garbs and Fashions of Apparell, Sumptuous Entertainments, the Pomp of Festi­vals and Funerals, and the like, which are the Customes of the Peo­ple, are more chargable then the Customes and Imposts of Princes. The bravest Minds could be content with the lest, but they stand upon their Honor, and others make them pay for it. The strangest Humor is of the Covetous, who least need Money, and yet most affect it, and of Prodigalls, who most need it, and least regard it. The way be­tween both, is so to spend, as a man may continue spending through the whole course of his Life, and leav to his to spend after him. The first is a Debt which he owes to Himself, the second to Posterity. But no Money can purchase true and perfect Hap­piness, because it trades only in the Market of things commutable, and cannot buy out the proper Goods [Page 60] either of Body or Mind. Crassus counted him a Rich man who could maintain an Army with his own Revenues: and indeed he spake the most of Riches, for he who hath an Estate to keep an Army, may have an Army to keep his Estate: yet we have a sad Instance of the contrary in the same man: for both he and his great Army, with his Son and Heir fell together, and left his great Estate to others. The Exam­ples of such great Rich men in for­mer times, may teach us to despise the poor Pedlers of our times, who spend all their lives in gaining some few Thousands, and when they have scraped together all they can, dy Beggers in comparison of a Crassus, or a Seneca: and so are defeated of their chiefest ambition, which is to be said to dy Rich.

XI. Of Pleasures.

MOney is the Pandar of Plea­sure, and Purveior generall for the Flesh: as he said to his Soul, Thou hast much Goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. We speak not now of Pleasures Spirituall, which Or­pheus intendeth in that Metaphori­call Sentence, Perpetuall Drunken­ness is the reward of Virtue: and our Wise man expresseth more soberly, A Good Conscience is a continuall Feast: but of those Pleasures to which these Metaphors allude: not as they are the native Pleasures of the Body, but the outward Objects and Instruments thereof which the World affords, and the Body uses; the Divine Oracle tells us, There is nothing better for a man, then that he should eat, and drink, and make [Page 62] his Soul enjoy good in his labor. Plea­sure is the Pay of Nature, which turns Work it self into Sport: Yet there are are some strange Spirits, who seek to put off their own Na­ture, and are displeased with the very Pleasures thereof, differing from other men, as though they were Creatures of another Species. Such were some of the ancient Phi­losophers, who affecting to be sin­gular & supervulgar, and taking ad­vantage of the common inclination to Excess in Pleasures, resolved upon the contrary Extreme, that so others being conscious to themselvs of their own Infirmity, might admire them as more then Men. But it is a great and universall Error to admire things for their difficulty and rarity rather then value them according to their true worth: We are natu­rally so fond of this Humor, that if we do but hear of any strange thing, we love to enlarge it, and act it in Buskins. Difficulty seems to [Page 63] add the honor of a Miracle, which is Sacred and Religious: but such are the Miracles of Juglers and En­chanters, whereas all Gods Miracles are of great use and efficacy. There are difficult trifles and difficult vices. To starv a mans self is as sinfull as it is difficult. It hath been the practice of Superstitious persons in all Ages to torture themselvs like Baals Priests: as though to destroy or wrong Nature, were to worship the God of Nature, Who will have Mer­cy, and not Sacrifice; Mercy to our selvs, as well as to others. It is true, there is Spirituall Physike as well as Naturall: but neither Feasting nor Fasting are a Christians constant Diet. Discreet Sobriety is the best use of Nature, not only most whol­some, but also most pleasant, Hun­ger is the best Sawce: for it sawceth the Palat, as others do the Meat: and the reducing of our Stomach to our Diet, yields more sweetness and delight, then the fitting of our Diet [Page 64] to our Stomach. The first exhalati­ons of Corporeall Spirits are al­waies freshest and quickest: there­fore we should never set our Plea­sures on tilt, nor jade our Recreati­ons. Too much Honey is not good. Surfetting is ever nauseous and cra­pulous, and so a forfeiture of that Pleasure wherein it exceedeth. The best way of enjoying Pleasures, is fairly and soberly to entertain them when they offer themselvs, not Gnathonically to hunt after them, or feed on them with longing de­sires which cannot be satisfied. Thus a sober man may enjoy more even of those outward Pleasures then all the mad Roman Emperors: and cer­tainly they did over-run the purest part of Pleasure by cloying their Appetite, and dulling the Relish thereof, and therefore invented new prodigious Pleasures, as no­thing satisfied with naturall and or­dinary. As a Bear is mad after Ho­ney, so some men, by reason of their [Page 65] naturall Constitution, or unnaturall Lusts, are so madly set upon some particular Pleasures, that whensoe­ver the Objects thereof are present­ed unto them, they cannot possibly forbear, prostituting Fame, and For­tune, Reason, Religion, and all to their foolish Fansies and vain De­sires. The Vanity of all these world­ly Pleasures appears in this, that if they be strong and quick, they are very short, and if they last longer, they are very dull: and the Griefs and Miseries to which we are all subject, are far greater in proporti­on then our Pleasure. A Fit of the Stone or Gout puts us into an Ex­tasy of Pain, more acute and lasting then the greatest ravishments of any bodily Pleasures: nor was ever such an Instrument of Pleasure invented, as the Rack, the Cross, the Persian Boat, the Bull of Phalaris, were ter­rible and tormenting. Many Plea­sures are very shamefull, but all have something of Levity in them, which [Page 66] is expressed by our Laughing, Play­ing, Dallying, and the like relaxati­ons of Body or Mind. This shows that we should only use them as Re­creations, and not make them our constant Business, or Course of Life.

XII. Of Honor.

HOnor moves in an higher Sphere then Pleasure, and commonly Retrograde to it: For Honor consists in Action, but Plea­sure in Recreation. Honor is the price or value of any thing set upon it by God or Man. Every Creature is Gods Coin, and he hath stamped upon it the valuation of that worth and excellency which is in it, ac­cording to that Classis in which it is ranked, and the particular Eminen­cy of it in its own Kind. This is Honor in honor abili, true naturall Honor, though not honored by [Page 67] men, as Beauty is truly beautifull, though no Ey see it. The other is Mans Estimate or Indication there­of, which is Honor in honorante, and this is the Honor whereof we now speak, as one of the Goods of For­tune. Civill Honors are very neces­sary in a State, for thereby the State it self becomes more Honorable, & more compact within it self, by an orderly disposition of all the Mem­bers in their severall places and de­grees. The Romans made the best use of it of any State in the World. They divided themselvs into three sorts, Nobles, Knights, and Com­mons, as their highest, middle, and lowest Ranks: and all of them were capable of most honorable Emploiments and Offices of State; so that they who were not born to Honor, might acquire it, and they who were might augment it; from their Birth they were stiled Liber­tine, Plebeian, Patrician, and the like; from their Offices, Consular, [Page 68] Praetorian, Quaestorian, Senatorian, and the like: from their Actions, Triumphall, African, Asiatike, Fa­ther of the Country, and the like: and though Titles of Honor were not to be purchased for Money among them, yet in their Censing they had some consideration of mens Estates: For he who well husbandeth his private Estate doth thereby enrich the Commonwealth, and bears a greater share of the pub­like Charge. Their Images or Arms were not Ensigns of the Family, but of the Person; and no man was permitted to set up his own Image, till he had ascended the Curule Chair, which was a Personall ad­vancement. Continuation of a no­ble race for many ages is a great blessing of God upon it, and the Ho­nor of the Ancestor, an Heirlome as due to the Posterity, as any Ho­norary Estate annexed unto it, yet certainly Personall Honor is the worthier, and the best foundation [Page 69] of the other; though that prevail far more in the favor and opinion of men; so that whereas New men by their most honorable perfor­mances can hardly defend them­selvs from contempt, Hereditary Nobility is as hardly▪ lost by the greatest vices; Though the Law and Princes who first bestowed it, revoke it for Treason or other for­feiture thereof, yet I know not how something still sticks in the Minds of men, and the Character of their an­cient Nobility seems indeleble: so Fatall is it to be born, or not to be born of Great Parents in the judge­ment of the world. The Case is the same with that between Protestants and Papists concerning Antiquity: the Papists deduce it through many Successions, but the Protestants de­rive it from the first Originall. God hath made us all of one Bloud, and We are also his Off-spring, and de­scend from one common Ancestor. But it must be so as the World will [Page 70] have it, and wise men should not be too Philosophicall herein; for it is Politically good and usefull in the generall, at least far better then a confused equality. The best Rule for all things of this nature, is nei­ther greatly to affect them nor dis­dain them. The greatest Happiness of Honor is the favourable respect and inclination of others, which of all outward things, Honor and Beauty, (the Escutcheon of Nature) do most effectually procure; and the Good will of men is a very great Comfort, sweetning a mans whole Life, and entertaining him in all Companies; but the very same thing sufficiently demonstrates the Vanity thereof, that it is in the power of others, whose Humors are as inconstant as the Waves, and their Breath as vain as the Winds. The very Ensigns of Honor show what it is; the Trophies, Banners, Escutcheons Crests Pictures, Images, and the like. Vespasian was tired [Page 71] with a Triumph, the greatest solem­nity and show of Honor that ever was instituted among men: and certainly it could not but weary a grave and wise man to be carried up and down the Streets to make a show to the People.

XIII. Of the Goods of the Mind.

THE Mind is the third and highest Region of Man, which includeth the other two within it self, and communicateth Heat and Life unto them. As it informeth its own Body, so it manageth and improveth all the Gifts of Fortune. Thales to show how easy a thing it was for a Philosopher to grow rich, foreseeing the fruitfulness of some Olive yards, bought them at the beginning of the year, and got a great summ of money by them. So­lomon having a large Heart, em­ployed [Page 72] and husbanded his large Estate as providently as any mean man doth his small Fortune. He was a great Merchant, trading into Egypt and Tyre, even as far as O­phyre, and thrived exceedingly by it: and he expended his great Riches in a most Glorious and Magnificent manner. Lucullus was famous for his Feasts and Entertainments. Pe­tronius a Master of Pleasures in­venting Laws and Orders even of Licentiousness. What Honor is, without Activity and Nobility of Spirit, these times of triall suffici­ently discover. The Mind of one Man sufficeth for the Government of a whole Nation, yea of all the Nations in the World: which though it never happened to any, yet we have large Instances in the first four Monarchs of the suffici­ency of some Great Spirits. The Mind of man is capable of know­ing all things: God hath set the World in his Heart, which is an [Page 73] Intellectuall Globe, wherein all things subsist and move in Spiritual Images and Idea's, not only Indivi­dually and Physically, but also Uni­versally and Metaphysically. Thus the whole World is Mans Universi­ty: and there have been some such Monarchs of Learning, as have been singularly excellent in al­most all Arts and Sciences. Animus cujusque est quisque: The Mind is the Man. The Genius of a Wise man seems to differ almost as much from a Fools, as a Man doth from a Beast. It is true, all souls are equall in their Kind and Faculties▪ but certainly not in the degrees of their Powers and Virtues. In Hea­ven, where the Spirits of just men shall be made perfect, yet they shall all differ one from another in Glory, which is the perfection of their Grace. Homo homini quan­tum tum interest? and as the enjoiment of the Chief Good is the proper perfection of the Mind, so the Ex­cellency [Page 74] or Baseness thereof is best discovered by the higher or lower moving thereof toward this per­fection. Some mens Minds are set wholly upon drudging and moiling, which is a condition not much a­bove Beasts. Others have a Hu­mor of Gaming, others of Dally­ing and Sporting, of Eating and Drinking and making themselvs Merry, such as think themselvs no mean Fools, of making themselvs Famous in the World, of Rising higher and higher, like seeled Doves they know not whither. Some of Learning much, and Practising little; some of Ruling others, and yet neglect themselvs; others of Ru­ling and Governing themselvs, and yet neglect their Chief Good, which is infinitely above themselvs, setting up those inferior ends instead there­of. Like Barclays Heraleon, we have all some particular Madness and private Fansy. It is commonly said, that Men are twice Children, [Page 75] or rather the follies of Childhood grow up into our whole life in greater degrees & more maturity. The old Adage is very opposite, Children play with Nuts, and elder men with Oaths, then which no sport can be more foolish and dangerous. Thus do mens Ends and Aims dis­cover their Principles. The White of the Ey and the White of the Mark are tied together with a direct Line. Every Creature in its several kind hath a natural Acme or Period of perfection to which it tends, and which it endeavors to attain with all the power and vigor it hath, only Man degenerates into lower and baser Ends then that for which he was made, busying himself about some particular De­sign, and so goes on from one thing to another, neglecting that highest and chiefest Good, whereof he is capable, which is the greatest Error of Life, and brings upon him the curse of Cain, rendring him a Va­gabond [Page 76] on the face of the Earth, and makes him wander up and down like a Begger, knocking at every door, and crying out to every Creature, Who will show us any Good? Never thinking to gain this setled Estate of Universall and per­fect Happiness, which may supply all his wants, and maintain him in a State of perfect Felicity; but ra­ther chuses to live miserably upon the scraps of the Creatures, shark­ing and shifting as well as he may, to support this frail life, and satisfy the necessities thereof: and at last wishes he may dy like a Beast, ha­ving lived like a Beast, and made no provision for an Eternal Life. The Jewel of Mans true Happiness is to be found in this Treasury of the Mind, yet not among the inferior and particular Goods thereof, but in the fruition of the Chief and Universal Good, without which all the rest are vain, and of no value.

XIIII. Of Learning.

THe first and lowest of the Goods of the Mind, is Learn­ing, or Speculative Knowledge, that Pabulum Animae which never sa­tiates, but is more increased by feed­ing, and not diminished by commu­nicating. No sort of men who ever had any tast of Letters have distasted or despised them; Whether they have been Beggers or Kings; as Diogenes, and Alexander; Cour­tiers, or Scholars, as Aristippus and Plato; Souldiers, or Gownmen, as Caesar, and Cicero; Epicures or Stoikes, as Horace, and Brutus; Christians, or Heathens, as Paul and the Athenians. The fame of Learn­ing is far less then the inward plea­sure and delight thereof. Antisthenes being asked what he gained by it, answered, That he could talk with himself, so that he needed not to [Page 78] go abroad and be beholding to others for exercise or delight. It is no small Happiness to live comfort­ably within doors: and to enter­tain our selves with our own Thoughts, being never less alone then when we are alone. Intellectu­all Contemplation is more pleasant then Sight, and Generation of the Mind then that of the Body. The lowest and meanest part of Learn­ing is, that which we commonly call Pedantical, consisting in the forms and Paedagogy of Art, as Gram­mar and all other Humane Instituti­ons, though such be very usefull in their kind, and may conduce much toward that knowledge which is Natural and Real, as being the In­struments and vehicles thereof: yet the Knowledg of the Things them­selvs being the End of them is far more excellent: and the more or less they contribute thereunto, they are so much the more or less consi­derable. The common Infirmity of [Page 79] this kind of Learning is to be more curious then needfull. What a strange madness is it in our Gram­maticasters to trouble the world with their diversity of opinions concerning the right pronunciation of an Iota, or the Orthography of a word, as whether we should write Foelix or Felix, rather then study­ing to be so? Not much unlike is the Humor of Critikes, who study Cabalistical Interpretations of Clas­sike Authors. The Fiction concern­ing the Grammarian is very witty who consulted Homer in Hell why he began his Ilias with [...], and he answers him, because it came into his head to do so. Nor much better is our too great affectation of old and obsolete Languages: though something may be pick'd out of them: yet as there are some Mines which have some Grains of Gold in them, but so few that men think it not worth their labor to extract them: So in all those Studies, it is [Page 80] first to be considered whether the Profit will answer the Pains: cer­tainly it is a great vanity to cry up that for the only Learning, which conduceth least to Practice, and the true Happiness of Man, only be­cause it is rare and difficult. To know that which few know, better pleaseth and more advanceth Fame, then to know that which all should practice. This is that kind of Know­ledge which puffeth up rather then edifieth: and you shall observ generally a strange tumor in the Professors thereof; like Courtiers and men of Ceremony, who being exactly curious in their Comple­ments and Puntilio's, which others despise, and therefore neglect, think themselvs the only Brave men. Next above this kind of Learning is Hi­story, or the Knowledge of former Times and Actions of men, which is very profitable, ripening and pre­paring the Mind for Business, by ac­quainting it with the greatest Af­fairs [Page 81] of the World: yet there is much Pedantry in the Study thereof, where men are most curious in the most inconsiderable passages and circumstances, and most affected with the antiquated pieces thereof, seeking to set together some scat­tered fragments and remains which are very uncertain and conjecturall, & such as Time, the best of Critikes, hath resigned to Dust and Oblivion.

The most excellent Learning is the Study of Nature and the works of God, of Morall Virtue, and true Piety, and the like, which more immediatly concern the Happiness of Man: yet in those also there may be as much Pedantry, and more dangerous then the former: when this Knowledge of Practical things terminates only in Speculati­on and Notion. There is nothing more hurtfull to Man then such Pe­dantical Knowledge: it fills the Head with Conceits and Caprichio's, the Life with Fooleries and For­malities, [Page 82] the Schole with Sects and Opinions, the Church with Schism and Superstition. As Aristip­pus compared the Sophisters of his time to the meaner sort of Penelope's Suitors, who were en­tertained by her Maids, but never had the sight of her self: So they studied only such Arts and Sciences as are the Hand-maids of Wisdom to dress and adorn her, but were not acquainted with this Mistress of Life. It is reported of a great and wise Nobleman of this Nation, who being entertained by the University, and brought to view the publike Scholes, the Logike-Schole, the Rhetorike-Schole, the Physike-Schole, the Divinity-Schole, and the rest; after he had seen them all, asked the Scholars whether they had one Schole more, namely a Schole of Discretion. Such wise men as Solomon, Xenophon, Caesar, and others, being also learned, have by their Wisdom directed Learning [Page 83] to the right end, and improved it to the hight, gaining honor by it, and being themselvs an honor to it. Bare Learning, though of the best kind, is but a Map of Happiness, and no reall Felicity.

XV. Of Wisdom.

WIsdom or Prudence is the Art of Living. It is a cheap Caterer, a neat Cook, a wise Steward and Dispenser of all things. The first and fundamental part of Wisdom is a clear and solid Judg­ment, whereby a man, like a well-sented Hound, rightly pursues all the windings and turnings in the whole course of Business, and as it is said of Achitophel, speaks Ora­cles, foreseeing and foretelling the success of things by the strength of this sagacious faculty, which the poreblinde Vulgar cannot discern: [Page 84] and such commonly were the Di­vels Oracles: for he having a far­ther ken of things then men, saw them rising and coming on before them, and so foretold them. But be­cause the Fortune of all Humane af­fairs is so britle, that the least crack may endanger the whole fabrike, and therefore none but God can certainly foreknow; there must be another subsidiary Art to second the former, which as a present and ready Wit to obviate or advance sudden Accidents: for as there is no Busi­ness so secure but hath some flaws in it, so there is scarcely any so despe­rate, but hath some opportunity of recovery, even to the last, as it is said of eternal Salvation, Inter pontem, & fontem, if a man have the grace to lay hold on it. Caesar herein excelled all men: as Lucan saith of him,

— Semper feliciter usus.
Praecipiti cursu bellorum, & tempore rapto▪

[Page 85] He who is quick in Action, had need be quick of Apprehension: and he who is sure of the latter, may more safely venture on the former; both together work Miracles. Thus Caesar effected his great Designs: he seldom lost any opportunity, but was sure to clap up a good bargain for himself whensoever it was offe­red, which is the most thriving way in the world. Craft is of a bastard kind and supposititious to Wisdom. Though Stratagems may be usefull in VVar, where all depends upon sudden action, and they on whom they are practised are Enemies be­forehand, and so more lawfull: yet even in that, Scipio gained more by the reputation of his Justice and Fidelity, then Hannibal by all his Cunning: Certainly he was more to be honored and better beloved. But in all Civill and Domestike af­fairs, fair and square dealing, joined with good discretion, is generally as effectual, and alwaies more com­fortable. [Page 86] The next part is Action and Execution. It is an universall Law imposed upon all men, That in the sweat of our face, we must earn our Bread. He who shuns Labor runs upon Inconvenience, which is far more troublesome, and so the Burden returns upon him with grea­ter Pressure. Many men of large Abilities relying wholly upon their Wit, and neglecting the use of or­dinary means, suffer others less able, but more active and industri­ous, to go beyond them. The way to dispatch much, is to be alwayes doing, to keep beforehand with Business, and rid it off our hands as fast as it comes on, which makes it go away merrily. Order and Me­thod are good helps, but not to be too precisely observ'd, especially such as consist in Imaginary Lines and Figures; as to defer to begin a business till the beginning of a Day, a Week, or a Year; whereas per­haps the end of the time precedent [Page 87] may be as good an Opportunity, and so much the better, because it is sooner. Lastly there are certain Ce­remonies and Forms which must neither be affected nor neglected. To be of a sober and grave carriage, to use a civill respect toward the Person, but yet retain the thing, yielding in Circumstances, that we may better hold the Substance. We must live according to Fashion and Custom as far as lawfully we may. To salute, to visite, to court, and such like civill Complements are very commendable. It is the un­happiness of some Learned and Wise men, who because they see through the vanity of these things, do not only despise them, but de­claim against the World for them, so long, till the World exclaim on them. Though Wisdom be the most curious Artifice of the Mind, effecting those things which Poets imagine, and Historians relate, yet it is also vain and uncertain. The [Page 88] wisest man knows not always how to levell his Ordnance aright, by rea­son of the inconstant waving of the whole sea of Business; and all great enterprises and dealings in the World are like Cranes, or such other mighty Engines, which if they be well managed, perform Wonders; but if the foot once slip, or the En­gine fail, it may knock out his brains who uses it. But the worst and greatest opposition is from the wickedness of men. The whole World lies in sin, which a Good man cannot forbear to oppose, though it be most contrary to all rules of Policy, and may prove the certain ruine of himself. Many a man against whom the World hath nothing to say, but in the matter of his God, hath been undone only by his Piety. Machiavel hath truly observed, that the way of Christian Religion, if strictly pur­sued, is directly contrary to the way of Policy. As our Saviour said [Page 89] of himself, so may all his Servants say likewise. Their Kingdom is not of this world: The Jewes have a Proverb much to the same purpose concerning such great dealers in the world. That a greater Huckster can­not be innocent: which makes me wonder at those ancient Worthies, Ioseph, Moses, Daniel, and the rest, how they could govern great Em­pires, & yet continue so strictly Ho­nest & Religious: but I consider that they were assisted by an extraordi­self Spirit, and sometimes God him­nary was fain to help them out with a Miracle. But to fear God and keep his Commandments, is the only Wis­dom, and will at last, when the Ac­compts of the whole World shall be cast up, be found to be the best Preferment, and highest Happiness.

XVI. Of Philosophy.

SOlomon saith, He who ruleth his own Spirit, is better then he who taketh a City: Yea it is no small advantage in Civill affairs for a man to have the command of him­self upon all occasions, standing upon the shore of a firm Mind, and beholding others tossed on the Sea of their own Passions, and so suf­fering them like great Whales to beat themselvs till they become tame and tractable. The greatest Conquerors have been conquered by their Lusts, which we may truly stile, as Diogenes doth Kings Con­cubines, Regum Reginas. The end of true Philosophy is to rectifie the Soul: The strange effect thereof in Polemon may seem a kind of Theo­logical Conversion; who coming into the Schole of Xenocrates with his drunken company crowned with [Page 91] Garlands, purposely to outface him and his Philosophy; Xenocrates go­ing on with his Lecture of Temper­ance, pressed it so far, and wrought so much upon him, that he imme­diatly abandoned his former course of Life, and became his Disciple, succeeding him in the same Schole, and proved the most strict of the whole Sect. But though Conver­sion to God, from whom Man is wholy alienated, cannot be wrought without Divine Grace, yet as there are Remainders of Bodily Excel­lence, so also some seeds and Prin­ciples of Moral Virtue, which may be advantaged by a good Constitu­tion of Body, and greatly improved by Education and Instruction: In this the Philosophers went too far, that they attributed to Man a full liberty and power of governing himself and all his affairs by the absolute Soveraignty of his own Spirit; and indeed the Poets seem better Divines in their Expressions [Page 92] to this purpose then the Philoso­phers, beginning their Poems with A Iove principium, or the invoca­tion of a Deity: and ascribing the acts of their greatest Hero's to some Tutelar God. We may, yea we ought to exercise and improve any power we have in our selves, but we must always depend upon God for his blessing and assistance herein, as well as for the obtaining his super­natural Grace. The Spirit of a Man is very Malleable, if it be carefully and wisely handled. The first and most immediate Issues of the Mind are our Thoughts, being as it were the Animal Spirits thereof, whereby it acts all its Business, or like Leu­cippus his Atomes, the Seeds of the Spiritual World: which while they float in a vast Inanity are lost, and come to nothing, but being fixed and embodied, prove most beauti­full and excellent Forms. He who intendeth what he doth, is most like to do what he intendeth: Yet [Page 93] we must not be so intent upon any thing, as to loose the command of our selvs. Delightfull Studies are like strong Wines drunk in with pleasure, but after fill the head with a throng of unruly Spirits, which distemper and intoxicate it. In such cases it is good to entertain some other Studies as pleasing, and so pass from one to another, till the Mind be lull'd asleep. Some by the help of a Game at Chess, which is a most studious and sollicitous Sport, have escaped the Tyranny of their serious Anxieties. As we must thus manage our Minds, so we must govern them by a right Judgment and pure Reason, abstracted from all Fancies and Opinions. Some are wholly led by Traditions, and the Authority of others, or by their own Education and Custom, which is a slavery of the Mind worse then that of the Body. Some on the other side do so much affect liberty of Spirit, that they conceive a ge­nerall [Page 94] prejudice against all common Truths, because they are backed by such common advantages, though they are not grounded upon them. But a cleer and free Spirit seeketh Truth it self, and entertaineth it wheresoever he findeth it, which is the right temper of a true Philoso­pher. The truest Philosophy, and that which distinguishes it from So­phistry, is to deduce it from Specu­lation to Action: and instead of Disputing to prove it by Exercise and Example. There is commonly a great distance, and in some a kind of contrariety between Theory and Practice: for that Good which en­gages the Will and the whole Man to Practice, is not simple Right, but rather Profit; not Duty but Benefit. Thus though the Mind judge a thing to be Just and Honest, and so fit to be done in general, but with­all judgeth it Unprofitable, and so not Convenient for him to do, his Practical Judgment opposeth and [Page 95] overcometh his Speculative. He seeth better and followeth worse, that is, worse in point of Right, but not worse as he deemeth, in point of Profit. Cicero like a true Philoso­pher, in his excellent Book of Offi­ces, harps upon the right string, pro­ving Honesty to be the greatest U­tility, yea one and the same thing; and so indeed they are in themselvs, but the Mind of Man apprehends them under several Notions: The fallacy consists in this, that we look only upon the particular present Good, though far less, and do not consider the more universall and greater Good to which it ought to be subordinate, and being opposed, becomes Evill, for so it is the loss of a greater Good then it self. A Temperate man looking upon the Wine as it is red in the Glass, is by his Appetite incited to drink there­of as well as a Drunkard, and knows there is a natural Good and Plea­santness [Page 96] in it: but when he wisely considers the whole state of his Body and Mind, and thereupon finds it will do him more Hurt then Good, he most willingly abstains from it as Evil. So a man who hath a Member gangraenated, as he looks upon it particularly, is loth to loose it with so much pain, but consider­ing that it is better for him to part with it, then that the whole Body should perish, he as willingly abdi­cates it, as he would pull out an ar­row sticking in his side. Thus if in all our actions we would seriously reflect upon the whole Nature of Man, and of the universe, and upon God the Creator of all, we should clearly understand that this great King and Governor of all hath pre­scribed such Common Laws for the safety of the whole Empire, and the true Good of every Sub­ject, that though Justice may seem contrary to some particular and lesser Good, yet it is most conso­nant [Page 97] to our Chief Good and true Happiness, to which the others must be reduced. And thus we may gain the Practical Judgment of a right Philosopher: but yet in the Executive part we shall meet with many difficulties through hu­mane frailty and naturall impedi­ments, which must be overcome by constant Exercise. Acts of Virtue confirm Habits, and Habits facili­tate Acts. Virtus docetur arte, vita discitur. There are so many Errors and Lusts within the Soul, and such Temptations without, that this Summus Philosophus is but an I­dea: and if there were any such, yet without true Piety he were but a painted Image.

XVII. Of the Sceptikes and Cynikes.

THere is scarcely any Humor of Men or Manner of Living, that hath any shadow of Happiness, which the Philosophers have not re­fined and drest up in its best Attire, and so presented it to the World for the Chief Good: only Money, that common Idoll of other men, was never professedly set up by any Philosopher: as Luther said of himself, that he had been tempred to all sins except Covetousness. The strangest kind of Philosophy, or rather the contradiction of all Philosophy, is Scepticism, which sprang up after all the rest, out of their Differences and Disputes. In all Ages when Scepticism abounds it is a most certain Symptome of the declination of true Philosophy, and a prognostike of a general de­cay thereof ensuing, which we may [Page 99] justly suspect in these times, wherein plain and solid Truth is every where arrained, and men affecting the name of a Great Wit and Li­berty of Spirit, leave the beaten path of true Learning and Wisdom and wander at large in the Wilder­ness of their own Imaginations: which at first much please and de­light them, but afterward prove vain and unsatisfactory: and then they grow malecontent, and quarrel with all Learning, Knowledge, Rea­son, and Religion, like distracted men, who by too strong an intenti­on of their Imagination have hurt their Cranium; so these by too much nicety and subtilty of Wit strain their Criterion. But the most dan­gerous is Practical Scepticism, which depends upon the other; and yet the other many times proceedeth from it. Men of loose and vitious lives, indulgent to their own Genius, cannot endure to be controlled nei­ther by others, nor by their own [Page 100] Judgments: and therefore affect a Licenciousness in Thinking as well as in Acting. Others who are Dog­maticall enough in Opinion prove Scepticall in Practice, having a Form of Knowledge, but denying the Power thereof: yea many who have proceeded very far in the Practice thereof, being at last con­futed by adverse Fortune, renounce Truth, and Virtue, and Religion, and yield up all to her: as Brutus said when he came to dy, ‘O Virtus, colui te ut rem, at tu no­men inane es!’ Socrates indeed professed, that he knew only this, that he knew no­thing: which was a modest com­plaint arising from a thirsting desire of knowing more, not an abando­ning of that he had already: for he was a constant Teacher and In­structer of others, and most clear and positive in all his Instructions, [Page 101] which is farthest from Scepticism: yea he was so contrary to it, that he affirmed it to be Madness and Wic­kedness to enquire of the Gods themselvs concerning those things which men by their own reason and understanding might comprehend, as it is not to enquire of them con­cerning future Contingencies, which no Humane Reason can certainly foreknow. That Speech of Socrates was rather in opposition to the So­phisters, who know least, and yet were most peremptory in their opi­nions, and imposed them on others. Confidence without Reason, or ta­king Truth upon trust is a great im­pediment to sound Knowledge: but to despair of knowing any thing, and so to sit down in perpetuall di­strust, is an absolute bar to all Knowledge. Sceptikes place the Happiness of the Mind in a Tran­quillity or Indifferency to all Opi­nions. There is undoubtedly one Truth, but they say there is no Rea­son [Page 102] which hath not a contrary Rea­son, so that Man cannot certainly know it. To what end then is Reason bestowed upon Man, if he can only hunt after Truth, and ne­ver find it out? He who despaireth to finde it, looseth it, as well as he who mistakes it. A man in a Jour­ney meeting with many severall waies, and not knowing which to take, must enquire, and judge, and satisfy himself as well as he may, and so proceed: for should he stand still and spend the whole day in doubting and musing, he should certainly run into the same incon­venience which he seeks to avoid: whereas by pursuing the most like­ly way, he may more probably ac­complish his intended Journey. If the danger of Erring, to which all Humane Nature is subject, were a sufficient excuse, not only Know­ledge, but also all Action should cease. Judges should not judge, Teachers should not teach, Profes­sors [Page 103] of Physike or any other Art should not practice. Men should doubt of acting or not acting any thing, living, or not living, & so to a­void the Waves of uncertainty, sink into the Sea of confusion. Sceptikes are cōmonly in the Schole captious, in Life Satyrists, in the State Neu­trall, in Religion Scoffers and De­spisers, which are all as destructive Errors to Humane society, as can arise from any Dogmatical opini­ons. They generally incline to con­tradiction and are vehement in op­position, and yet know not but that their contrary Reason may be as weak as the other; And thus to presume that their own Negative Arguments are right and true is as much Dogmatical as any positive Affirmation, which shows the false­ness and perversity of this Humor, which if it were true to it self the professors thereof should suspend all Reason whereby they act as Men, and only sit still and look [Page 104] about them like Beasts. As the Scep­tikes were opposite to all Philoso­phy, so were the Cynikes to all Humanity: for considering the certain Miseries and uncertain Com­forts of the Life of Man, they jud­ged it best to contract themselvs and all their affairs into as narrow a compass as they could, discharging themselvs of whatsoever was more then necessary. Diogenes seeing a Boy drink out of his Hand, threw away his Dish: and Crates wished that the Stones of the River were Bread, as the Water is Drink, that so he might be furnished with a cer­tain Provision by Nature. Hence they despised both the Flattery and Fury of Fortune, harding their Minds and Bodies against her, by lying in the Snow in Winter, and in the hot Sands in Summer, beg­ging of Statues, and provoking common Whores to scold with them. Though Scepticism may seem Modesty, & Cynicism Humility, and [Page 105] Poverty of spirit as well as of all outward things, yet these Humors puff up the Mind with a conceit of Liberty & Greatness as much as any. Diogenes when he stood in the Mar­ket to be sold for a slave, and others cried out, Who will buy a good Slave? cried out as fast, Who will buy a good Master? and his beha­vior toward Alexander was such, that it made him wish himself Dio­genes if he were not Alexander. No mean condition could suffice him, nor could he like Parmenio, divide Empires, but resolved to conquer the World either by subduing, or by despising it. But this cannot be the true Happiness of Man, for though preparation and obstinacy are great advantages in suffering, whereby the very Boies of Sparta turned torments into sport and ex­ercise, yet he is truly wise, who can both endure Evill, and enjoy Good, which is a temper most sutable to the whole State of Man: and the [Page 106] one without the other but an half part of Wisdom joyned with as much Folly, for it orders but one half of the Life of Man, and de­stroies the other. This strange and uncouth Sect had another Humor, far wors then the former, to despise & deride all others: which plainly discovers the vanity and petulancy thereof. Some have so great a Feli­city of wit, that they make wit their greatest Felicity, jesting themselvs out of all that is earnest, and will not suffer any solid Truth to fix upon them; but like fools, make a sport of every thing. Others think to jeer men out of their follies, and re­form them by abusing them: Such Satyricall scoffs and quips are like Squibs and Crackers, which do harm in Festivalls, and no good in Fights: imbittering and provoking ingen [...]ous spirits, and marring the best Reproofs, turning Physike into Poison. To make a sport of other mens Infirmities, is as impious and [Page 107] inhumane, as to laugh at their mise­ries. Heraclitus was far more chari­table herein then Democritus: yet such is the naturall pravity and ma­lignancy of Men, that they delight almost as much in speaking▪ and hearing ill of others, as in their own praises; whereas the nature of the Tong is not to wound, but to supple and heal. But the worst of this sort, and indeed rather a Divell then a Man, was Timon the Athenian, who hated all Mankind. It may be said of such Misanthropi, as it was of that conceited Misogynus, whose Mistress was Nullae, that it was like to prove a happy Match; for he loved Nulla, and Nullae loved him. They who hate all, deserv to be ha­ted of all; which is a condition so far from Happiness, that no Hu­mane thing can be more contrary unto it.

XVIII. Of the Cyreniakes and Epicu­reans.

THE Cyreniakes were most contrary to the Cynikes, as may appear by the discourse which passed between the two grand Ma­sters of the Sects. Aristippus told Diogenes, That if he knew how to live at Court, he should not need to eat Herbs, and Diogenes answered him again, That if he knew how to eat Herbs, he should not need to live at Court. These Cyreniakes did not profess any state of univer­sall Happiness, but pieced and patch­ed it up with particular acts of Pleasure, chiefly Corporeall. Their main Argument which they use to defend this sensuall Philosophy, is a sufficient Confutation thereof. They say that Man, while he is yet a Child, and not deluded with false opinions, [Page 109] doth naturally delight in Bodily Pleasure, and is offended with the least Pain, which only proveth it a Childish Felicity, and not far from Brutish, an Infant little differing from a Beast, being strong in Sense, and weak in Reason: but to make any Corporeall thing the Chief Good of a Rationall Soul, is most Irrationall. This sensuall Lust or Love of Pleasure is alwaies accom­panied with a gross self-love, or ra­ther proceedeth from it: which the Cyreniakes did openly profess and avow, making the whole world their Circumference, and themselvs the Center. Aristippus went so far, as to cast off Naturall Affection to his Children, who are the next to a mans Self, yea as Limbs and Parts of the Parent: when he abdicated his Son, he approved it to be as just and naturall, as to cut off his Hair, or pair his Nails when they grow offensive. Theodorus was so infa­mous for these gross opinions, that [Page 110] he was commonly called, The Athe­ist, and again Ironically, a God: for indeed he who denieth God, is his own God, making himself his utmost end, which is to Deify him­self. Aristippus is the Patron of vo­luptuous Courtiers, and merry Companions; though he had few­est successors in the Schole, he hath most followers in the World. This Geniall kind of Happiness consist­eth in easy and delightfull Studies, pleasant Discourses, amorous Fan­sies, Feastings, Maskings, Revellings, and all kind of Courtship and Jovi­ality, All which ravish weaker Minds, who when they enter into Princes Courts, think them the only Heaven upon Earth, and their pomp and pleasure the very Life of the Gods, as the Cynike fitly stiled them, Miracula Stultorum. Mens spirits are no where better disco­vered then in a Court. Vain men having once tasted of the delights thereof, can hardly ever after en­dure [Page 111] to live privately , whereas a sober man will love a private life better then ever he did before. That which is most to be lamented, is the loss of many a Brave and Gallant man through this Humor of Genia­lity. How sad a thing is it to see the companions of an Vlysses charmed by this Circe, and transformed into Beasts, men like Aristippus, of great Wit and Learning, or as Pe­tronius, Pares negotiis, fit for Busi­ness, and of excellent Abilities, to make no other use of them, then to trifle away their time more plea­santly, and ruine themselvs more wittily, as strong Must resolving wholly into Spume and Vapor? All Ages are full of such Examples, but never did any man fool away a great Spirit, and a greater Fortune, like Mark Anthony; who was so far bewitched with his Cleopatra, that in the heat of the Battell of Actium, when the Empire of the World, his life, and all lay at stake, [Page 112] he fled from Augustus to pursue her; whereas if he had fled from her, he might very probably have pursued Augustus. The Epicure­ans far excell the Cyreniakes: for though they make Pleasure their Chief Good, yet they refine it from the dross and dregs, and exalt it from the particular acts and moti­ons thereof, to a constant state of universall Delight: gratifying the Mind with all pleasing things, and defending it from grief and pertur­bation, in the midst of externall pains: which opinion, if rightly un­derstood, holds forth as high an Happiness as this World can afford, marshalling the severall sorts of Pleasures according to their severall natures and degrees, and making the Pleasure of Virtue to be Chief: for the enjoying whereof we should cheerfully endure any inferior pains or miseries. Yet they placed not this Happiness in the goodness of Virtue, but in the Pleasure thereof, [Page 113] But the Chief Good, and the Chief Happines differ only in the Noti­on, and not in the Thing: For this Pleasure of Virtue cannot be had or enjoied without the Love of Virtue, from which it doth arise: To do a virtuous action without Love and Delight, is no Virtue; and to do it with the greatest Delight, is the greatest Virtue: and thus Epicurus well expresseth himself; That Plea­sure may be separated from all o­ther things, but not from Virtue: for all other things must be subor­dinate to Virtue, orherwise there is no true Pleasure in them. But as Ci­cero observeth, the Epicurean Opi­nion was very sublime and Philoso­phicall, had their Practice been an­swerable unto it. Horace plainly confesseth himself—Epicuri de grege porcum. Those outward Pleasures, though admitted only as subservi­ent to Virtue, so prevailed against it, that leaving the Mistress, they fell in love with the Maid, and instead [Page 114] of making Virtue the Chief Plea­sure, made Pleasure the Chief Vir­tue. Thus was this most excellent Opinion, which drest up Virtue in her fairest habit, and presented her most lovely aspect to the Minds of men vitiated by a corrupt Practice. Epicurus is the Institutor of a Pri­vate and Sedentary Life, prescribing to dwell in a Garden of Pleasure, enjoying the purest delights of Na­ture, and entertaining our selvs with most beautifull Contemplati­ons, or good Society, free from all cares and troubles. Pomponius At­ticus was a most exact man in this kind of Life, and far more happy then all the great Conquerors of his time, who troubled the World and themselvs with their vast Designs, and great Enterprises. This Epicu­rus thought to be the Happiness of God; and did not only separate him from the care of Men, but also Men from the care of God: esteem­ing all Religion as Superstition, or [Page 115] the impertinent curiosity of a fear­full Mind. Yea, he seems to sepa­rate us from the mutuall care of one another, by withdrawing us from all publike affairs, which must main­tain every private State: and there­fore we ought to share in the Bur­den as well as in the Benefit; and when it becomes our Duty, is also part of our Happiness.

XIX. Of the Stoikes and Peripatetikes.

THE Epicureans favored those Affections which entertain Pleasure, and mortified those which induce Pain, but the Stoikes consi­dering the great passion and pertur­bation which both the one and the other cause in the soul, renounced them all, and retired to the highest and purest region of Man, which is his Mind: as the Poet doth excel­lently describe it in his 6. Aeneid,

[Page 116]
Igneus est ollis vigor & coelestis origo
Seminibus: quantum non noxia corpora tardant,
Terreni (que) hebetant artus, mori­bunda (que) membra:
Hinc metuunt, gaudent (que), dolent, cupiunt (que), nec auras
Respiciunt clausae tenebris, & car­cere caeco.

Comparing the Soul and Body of Man to Heaven and Earth. The Mind, which he calls a Heavenly seed, is pure and Ethereall, enjoying perpetuall peace in all its motions, like the Heavenly Orbs. But the Body, like the Earth, of which it is made, is dull and heavy, and the Af­fections, as the Aire or middle Re­gion between both, by Vapors as­cending from the Earthly members, fill the Soul with Clouds and Tem­pests, which darken and imprison the Heavenly Light. Now the [Page 117] Stoikes would have us live above these Clouds, like Angels and Spi­rits: but we can no more live in this World without Affections, then without Bodies: nor may we affect a Separate state in this Life. The Ra­tionall and Sensitive parts of Man are not two distinct Persons, as an Horse and his Rider; but rather like the Poeticall ficton of the Cen­taur, who was both Horse and Rider in one, so that the one being wound­ed, the other feels it, and sympa­thizes with it. Thus the Mind rules the Fansy and Affections, and they excite or damp the Corporeall spi­rits, and cause fluxes and refluxes of them: and so likewise the Body by the Humors thereof irritates the Fansy and Affections, and they tempt and sollicite the Mind: but as the Inferior part cannot compell the Superior, so the Superior may not abdicate or sequester the Infe­rior. Wherefore it may be justly admired how the Stoikes, who made [Page 118] it their Chief End to live according to the Nature of the Universe, should not allow Man to live ac­cording to the Universality of his own Nature, in the full latitude and extent thereof. It is an high expro­bration of God and Nature, to think that these Affections were placed in us, only to be opposed and trampled on, as evill: whereas in­deed they are of greatest use, being the Wings of the Soul, and quickest Inciters of Action. What a dull thing were Generation and Nutri­tion, if there were no Concupi­scence? What comfort in educating Children without Naturall Affecti­on? What spur to mutuall Opitula­tion, if there were no pity? So that to deprive Man of his Affecti­ons which mediate between the Soul▪ and Body, is to murder himself; to forbid natural Affection, is to ruine whole Families: to de­ny Pity, is to wrong all Mankind: which last is the most bloudy and [Page 119] barbarous Sentence in all the Stoi­call Philosophy: for though they allow some other Faculties in the Rationall part, analagous to those Sensitive Affections which appre­hend Good (and undoubtedly the Angels have some such Powers of exercising their Love and Hate, Joy and Grief, and the like) yet they wholly exclude Pity, as well as Fear and Grief, from a wise man, because these pierce and wound the Soul; though being rightly exercised, they may be as instrumentall to Reason, and produce as happy effects as the other. But these and such like are Philosophicall Conceits and Brave­ries, like the Poeticall labors of Hercules, as much exceeding the condition of the Soul, as the other the strength of the Body: and their own Practice commonly confuted their Opinion. Dionysius, one of that Sect, being vexed with a very sore pain in his eies, was forced to confess that Pain is no indifferent [Page 120] thing. Antigonus caused a servant to step in suddenly, and tell Perseus, the Scholar of Zeno, that the Ene­mies had plundered his house, whereupon perceiving him very much troubled, he convinced him that Riches were no such indiffe­rent thing as he professed. To take away Affections is unnaturall, but not to manage them rightly, is irra­tionall, and so against the Nature of Man, whose Reason is his Guide and Governor, instead of all those Naturall Instincts in Brute Beasts, which move and limit their Affecti­ons; and therefore when Man neg­lects to rule them by Reason, they hurry him away violently beyond the fury and lust of Beasts. Wee should never be wholly acted and possessed by them, as a Sea is uni­versally troubled with a Tempest: but keep them alway in our own hand and power, as Vlysses did the Winds in a Bottle, letting them out more or less, as he pleased. [Page 121] There are three severall waies of governing them. First, by the Light of Understanding and right Rea­son, to dissolv and dissipate the Cloud of Passion. Secondly, by keeping under the Body (the Hu­mors and Vapors whereof do feed and nourish our Affections) to tame them. Thirdly by committing them among themselvs, and tempeting one with another, to break them. The Peripatetikes, who were more accurate and judicious in the study of Nature then the Stoikes, or any other Sect of Philosophers, allow Man all things whatsoever which do belong to his Nature, to make up his perfect Happiness; not only the exercise of his Affections, but all other good things where of he is ca­pable from the highest to the low­est. Both Stoiker and Peripate­tikes agree the Chief Happiness of Man to be Virtue, but the Stoikes place it in the Habit of Virtue, and the Peripatetikes in the Act▪ and [Page 122] yet the Stoikes were generally greater Practicers and Actors of Virtue then the Peripatetikes. But these two Opinions may be thus re­conciled. The Stoikes intend such an Habit of Virtue which produceth the Acts thereof, and the Peripate­tikes such Acts of Virtue as flow from the Habit thereof: and so the Habituall Felicity of the Soul con­sisteth in the Habit of Virtue, and the Actuall Felicity in virtuous A­ctions. The Foundation is the Ha­bit, but the Act or Exercise is the Perfection. A virtuous Intention or Endeavor is some kind of Exercise of the Habit, and instead of the Act, but not so noble and illustrious, be­cause it wanteth an outward exi­stence. Aristotles Happy man is an Hero or Hercules, made up of all Humane Excellencies. His Zodiake of Virtues reacheth from Head to Feet, from Magnanimity to Urba­nity. Both which, though some se­verer Christians have arrained as vi­tious, [Page 123] and exceeding the just pro­portion of Virtue in both extremes, yet certainly in a sober sense may well be allowed. True Magnanimi­ty is not opposed to Humility, but to Baseness and Meanness of Spirit, yea it consenteth with Humility a­gainst Pride. Africanus, the most perfect example of all Aristotles Virtues, is famous for both. His Magnanimity was so great, that his very stately deportment and outward presence, as Livy report­eth of him, drew many out of the Country round about to behold him, and his Greatness of Spirit was sufficiently testified by his Great Actions: and yet his Humility was as great, both in his private conver­sation, and also in his most willing submission to the Commonwealth; so that he waived all those fair ad­vantages he had of making himself as absolute as Caesar: and by a vo­luntary recess, yielded to the inju­ries and ingratitude of the People, [Page 124] rather then he would make any commotion in the State. Nor is Urbanity an enemy ot Gravity, but to Rusticity, and opposeth Levity as much as it. Socrates, Cato Major, and other sober men have been ve­ry pleasant and facetious. Xenophon was very virtuous, and no less ele­gant. I do not affect to defame Philosophy, nor by depressing it, to exalt Christianity: but rather suck out of every Flower whatsoever may make an Ingredient of this U­niversall Happiness of Man. The chief thing wanting in all those Phi­losophers is true Piety, which is the same proportionably toward God, as Virtue is toward Man, and there­fore if there be any Happiness in Virtue, it cannot be perfect, nor in­deed true, without Piety.

XX. Of the Platonikes, and of So­crates.

ARistotle is called the Philoso­pher, and Plato the Divine. Aristotle was a man of the sharpest Reason among all the Philosophers; but he relied so much on Reason, that he both neglected Sense, and sensible Experiments, and denied Faith and Divine Mysteries. His Rationall discourses and Metaphy­sicall notions are most probable, and exactly Philosophicall: but his Empiricall observations very un­certain, and unworthy so great a Philosopher: and his opinions con­cerning matters of Faith, as the Cre­ation of the World, and dissolution thereof, most false and absurd. As Physicians and Chymicall Philoso­phers have exceeded him in the for­mer, so the Platonikes and Theolo­gists [Page 126] in the latter. Plato having tra­vailed into Egypt, was there by the Priests instructed in their Mysticall Divinity, which the Egyptians most probably received from Ioseph, and the Hebrews, corrupting it with their own Idolatry and Traditions. But he as a Philosopher endeavored to refine it with the Graecian Theo­logy, which he had learned from his Master Socrates, and his own Spe­culations. We may find in him some fragments, and little Aires of the most profound Mysteries in Divini­ty, but so broken and imperfect▪ that they are rather matter of ad­miration to us Christians to read them in a Heathen, then any cleer information or evidence of the Truth. He attributes much to the authority of the Ancients, as better and wiser then Posterity, but pro­pounds no Word of Divine Truth on which to ground a Belief. Yet he happily hit upon the true End and Chief Happiness of Man, which [Page 127] is to be made like unto God by a conjunction of the Mind with him, erecting Piety above Virtues and so leads us into another World, ac­quainting us familiarly with God, and Angels, and spirituall Idea's, by abstracting the Soul from those in­ferior and Corporeall things, and advancing it to the Contemplation of the first Cause, and Creator of all things: which is a most beautifull and glorious Vision, and a great ad­vantage to true Piety and Religion. Yet notwithstanding these high spe­culations, he seems to fall short in the Practice of Divinity. I do not speak of his own exemplary Pra­ctice, but of his Practicall docu­ments, and rules concerning true Piety and the power of Godli­ness. As Aristotle in his Naturall Philosophy, so he in his Divinity are generally more Notional then Pra­cticall. Of the Philosophers who either preceded or succeeded, So­crates was certainly the ablest and [Page 128] wisest, and himself the most perfect Example of his own Doctrine, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and others before him are dark and obscure, full of Imaginary Fansies and Ca­balisticall conceits. The seaven Wise men may be all summed up in one Socrates. Plato, Aristotle, and all who followed him are more no­tional and Sophisticall: nor could any of his own Scholars exactly follow him, but presently degene­rated into vain Opinions, and a more licentious Life: nor do we read of any distinct Sect of Socra­tikes, but rather all succeeding Phi­losophy, and the severall sorts thereof, were Branches growing up out of this Root. Plato followed him in Divinity, seeking to improve it with Mysticall traditions, Xeno­phon was most like him in Civil con­versation, but more Glorious and Active. The Peripatetikes follow­ed his Study of Nature: but are more subtile and Sophisticall. The [Page 129] Stoikes chose his study of Virtue and professing to live according to the Universal Nature: but stretch­ed it to a strange severity and most unnaturall Inhumanity. The Cyre­niakes and Epicureans pretended to his pure delights and freer use of Pleasures: but defiled them with gross voluptuousness. The Cynikes emulated his contempt of all un­necessary things, and that excellent sentence, That he who needeth least, is most like God, but became Brutish and Nasty. The Sceptikes his op­posing the presumptuous confidence of the Sophisters, pursuing it so far that they overthrew all his founda­tions of Truth and Knowledge. He had a very clear and right Under­standing of all the Affairs of Life from the meanest and most Mecha­nicall, to the highest and most In­tellectuall, and made it his Business to edifie others, that every man with whom he conversed might be bettered by his company: which is [Page 130] a most Noble and Divine emploi­ment. Observ his discourses in the Streets with Strangers and Passen­gers, in the Shops with Artificers, in his House with his Family, in his Meetings and Symposiums with merry Company, in his Confe­rences with his Scholars, and in publike Assemblies with the Ci­tizens; and you shall finde in them all most apposite and solid In­structions concerning all occasions of Life, Private, Domesticall, Civill, Military, Naturall, and Divine, in a free and familiar way of arguing by mutuall Conference, and a rationall Induction through undeniable con­cessions, without any cunning So­phistry or flourishing Rhetorike, and yet more perswasive and effe­ctuall then either. He was absolutely the best Master of Life among all Heathen. Horace a good Critike, though herein he prefer Homer, and the Poets before Chrysippus, and Crantor, and such other curious [Page 131] disputers; yet instructs his Poet to borrow Matter from Socraticall Philosophy. ‘Rem tibi Socraticae possnnt ostendere chartae.’ But the most strange and wonder­full thing in him was his familiar conversing with a God, or Daemon, who, as he professeth, ever certain­ly advised in all doubtfull affairs. It hath been a known Policy in many Great men to make their Laws and Counsells seem Oraculous, by pre­tending that a Deity dictated unto them: So did Numa, Sertorius, Mahomet, and others: but none of them so credibly true as this. Pro­bably God might inspire him with an extraordinary Spirit of Naturall Wisdom, & perhaps with a Spirit of Divination in this way of Counsell and Advice concerning future and contingent things: as he did revele higher and more divine things to [Page 132] Balaam, and the Sybills: yet I dare not with Erasmus almost Canonize him for a Saint, nor with Socinians be confident of his Salvation. Xeno­phon in his Apology for him tells us how he worshipped the same Gods which the City worshipped, and taught him to sacrifice to their false Gods. As the Oracle of Apollo did him the honor to pronounce him the Wisest of men, so he requited it by acknowledging him a God, and accepting his Testimoniall. Though probably, as we may guess by Pla­to's discourses, he esteemed those inferior Gods as Daemons and Spirits of a more Divine nature then Men, yet this doth not excuse him of Ido­latry, nor can such worshiping of Angels or Spirits be allowed in any true Divinity. And though he were most free from Vulgar or Philoso­phicall pride, yet there are strong arguments of suspition, that he was guilty of that spirituall pride which most opposeth Salvation. In [Page 133] his Life, and at his Death he judged himself the best of Men, and ex­presseth litle or no confession of Sin, or any thing like Christian Humili­ty. Without which there can be no true conversion to God nor Com­munion with him, and without Divine Communion the Soul can­not attain her true and perfect Happiness.

The Second Book Of the True HAPPINES Of MAN.

I. of Religion.

WEE have now tra­vailed over the Ter­restriall Globe, and shall proceed to de­scribe the Celestiall; not as Astronomers, who delineate it by Epicycles and Eccentrikes, and such like Imaginary [Page 136] things, nor as Poets, who fill it with Giants and Beasts, and Fabulous Monsters: but as it is in it self, and may be best discovered by its own Light. Religion is the Law of the Supreme King, commanding and di­recting that Duty and Worship which we ow unto him, and re­warding us with that Happiness which we may enjoy in him, both which consist together in the con­junction of the Mind and Will of Man with the Mind and Will of God. As the highest Knowledge of God which the Heathen attained, was dark and doubtfull, so was their service weak and saint. The Athe­nians inscribed their Altar, To the unknown God, and their Worship was as vain and ignorant. Whom therefore, saith the Apostle, ye igno­rantly worship, him declare I unto you: Where he plainly sheweth the difference between Heathenish Worship of God and true Religi­on. They had some glimmering ap­prehensions [Page 137] of God, If haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: but they abused it with their Idolatry, and corrupted it with their Lives, being so taught by their Priests and Poets, who made Gods of Men, and Men of Gods, attri­buting Divine Virtues to their He­ro's, and Humane Vices to their Deities. Yea the Philosophers, who justly condemn them for this dou­ble Impiety, yet fall short of the Glory of God, gazing on him at a great distance, and retaining this Knowledge as a Secret or Mystery in Nature, being indeed afraid of the People, who were prepossessed with their own Idolatry, which was the Religion of the Stat [...], and therefore might not be contradict­ed or disputed. And it is observable of all such Nationall Religions, that they may be more safely abused then denied. The Poets were al­lowed to corrupt their Divinity [Page 138] with their Fables, rather then the Philosophers to reduce it to Truth. Socrates himself so far complied with this Policy of State, that he prescribed to worship God accord­ing to the manner of the Country, subjecting the rule of Gods worship to the Laws and Customes of Men: which shows the weakness of the highest Philosophy in the practicall part of Religion, which is the life and strength thereof; Whereas the Apostle directly encounters the A­thenian Idolatry, and plainly preaches unto the People the Do­ctrine of the true Deity, of Creati­on, Providence, Sin, Redemption, Repentance, Resurrection, and the last Judgement. All false Religions are most Cabalisticall and reserved, thereby seeking to gain the reputa­tion of Sacred, and are satisfied with a vain Admiration, and blind Devo­tion: but true Religion freely and clearly reveals it self to the world, not concealing the most difficult [Page 139] points, and Mysterious parts there­of: though sublime Truths be most offensive to weak Minds. Immanis verit as proxima est mendacio, that is, in their apprehensions who can­not well undestand it, yet being sure of it self, and like a great Light, impossible to be hid, it shines forth in its own beams, and fears not to appear as it is, however men may entertain it. The Jews and Christi­ans had commonly a more familiar knowledge of the highest points in Divinity, then the greatest Philoso­phers, and though all do not ex­press the power & efficacy thereof, yet some Holy men have exceeding­ly transcended the best of Heathe­nish Devotion. But nothing more discovers their weak Knowledge of true Piety, then their ignorance of the true nature of Sin, which is the contrary, or privation thereof. They speak of it generally under the notion of Vice, as it is a depravati­on of Nature, and common Enemy [Page 140] to Mankind, but rise not to the In­finite aggravation thereof, which is the transgression of the Roiall Law of an Infinite God, and a direct op­position of the Creature to the Cre­ator, wherein the very Sinfulness thereof doth consist: as David clearly saw and confessed, Against thee, thee only have I sinned. So likewise all their Doctrine of Moral Virtue, whereof they so much boast, tendeth to their own Praise and Merit, the Good of others, and the perfection of the Universe, rather then the Glory of God, which is the only Religious and Supreme End, infusing Holiness into all inferior actions, by subordinating them to it self. True Religion consists in a true Belief, and true Love of God. There is in all men some kind of Belief of God, but being conscious to themselvs, they fly from him as their greatest Contrary; as it is said of the Divels, They believ and tremble. This terror and trembling [Page 141] puts Atheists upon a strife, and en­deavor within themselvs to cast off their Belief, which yet they can ne­ver do, but that at some time or o­ther it will recoil upon them with greater trouble and horror of Mind. It makes the Superstitious to fear and worship God as a severe Master in a base and servile manner, with the drudgery of Duties, especially such as are most rigorous and cruell. It makes Hypocrites to bribe their Own Consciences, and flatter God with a show of Holiness, which is rather a worshipping of Men then God. Thus Poets frame a Religion according to their own Fansy; and Philosophers according to their im­perfect Reason; and Statesmen shape it according to Policy and Reason of State; and the Religious dress it up in severall forms and fa­shions according to Tradition, and their own Humors; and naturally every man propounds to himself such a Religion as will serve his own [Page 142] turn, and whereby he may be sure to be saved: yea some are so unchari­table to exclude all others which are not exactly of their size. But the summ and substance of true Religi­on is contained in that great Com­mandement, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Hart, with all thy Soul, and with all thy Might: This Love unites the Soul to God, with infinite Joy and Delight in him, which is the highest enjoyment of the Chief Good, and the perfect Happiness of Man.

II. Of Faith.

REason is most properly exer­cised in things of Nature, and Faith in matters of Religion; it being the Echo of Divine Autho­rity, yet not meerly as an Echo, which reporteth the sound without any sense of Hearing; nor the E­cho [Page 143] of a Parasiticall assentation, Ais aio, negas nego, which is a Flattery furthest from Belief; nor the vul­gar Implicite Faith depending upon the Authority of men; but an In­tellectuall assent, and a Voluntary consent to that which is reveled by God. Our Great Wits set up Reason instead of Faith, and the light of Nature against Divine Light, which is at once to deprive man of his highest Faculty, and God of his greatest Grace. As if because a Dog usually hunts by Sent, we should de­ny that he can see by Sight. Faith in generall is as naturall to a Man as Reason, and he may aswell know by Believing as by Discoursing: yea, it is a more clear and certain know­ledge of the very Objects of Reason then Reason it self, by relying on a Divine Authority. Through saith, faith the Apostle, we understand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen, were not made of things which do ap­pear: [Page 144] which yet may be compre­hended by the strength of naturall Reason, for he saith elsewhere. That the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternall power and Godhead: but the same VVord which created the VVorld, creates a Belief in a spirituall Understand­ing. Belief is in this life in stead of Intuition, & shall at last be resolved into it. Naturalists admire Socrates, and cry him up for an high Instance of the sufficiency of naturall Light to instruct a man in the way of true Virtue and Piety, and they willingly admit of those Inspirations of a God or Daemon whereof he speak­eth, and yet will not allow the like to Christians in the ordinary way of a spiritual Belief. Faith and Reason, like Antipodes, seem con­trary, but both meet in their Center, Truth. Right Reason leads us to Faith, but leavs us there, and resigns [Page 145] us up to it. If God were not omni­potent he could not justly not rea­sonably command us to believ whatsoever he saith, but being such, it is most irrationall not to believ him: for this were to confine the Infinite Creator of all things within the Finite Circle of this World and the Sphere of Nature, which is the utmost extent of the Ken of Reason. Surely this whole Universe is but a small portion of his power & work­manship, who is able to create new Worlds, and a new Nature of things: but this is the most naturall corruption of the Mind of Man, to exalt it self against the Glory of God, by setting up Naturall Light against Faith, as Works against Grace, and so confine God within our Compass, as Conjurers deal with Spirits, Certainly Adam in his primitive state was generally capa­ble of believing any Divine Reve­lations which were or might be presented unto him. That very [Page 146] Commandment concerning the for­bidden fruit was a Statute specially enacted and published by God, and no part of the Common Law writ­ten in his hart: and his first sin was Infidelity, since which we are all naturally most prone to it, and the Saving Grace or Remedy is Faith: Adams Faith was a work whereby he was to be justified, and the chief part of his obedience, and such a Faith was also in Christ the second Adam believing in God concerning those things which as Man he could not foreknow. But this Kind differs much from Evangelicall Faith, which doth not justifie as a work, but as an Instrumentall Mean, whereby we ap­ply unto our selvs the Merits of another. Yet though there be re­maining in Mans Nature Faith as­well as Reason, there is no saving Faith left in him but only such a malignant Faith as is in the Divels, for as the Naturall man cannot know the things of God by a Pra­cticall [Page 147] Knowledge, producing Love and Obedience, unless he be first taught of God, so neither can he so know Christ nor believ in him, un­less it be given to him to believ. This is Life Eternall, that they might know thee the only true God, and Iesus Christ him whom thou hast sent. God is said to confound the wisdome of the Wise by the Gospel of Faith, which declareth unto them, that without believing they cannot be saved, and yet without a superna­turall Grace they cannot believ. Thus being confounded in them­selves, and not knowing how to escape, they break through all, and will not allow others that Faith which they have not themselvs though they cannot deny that it is possible for God to do that which is believed nor is it improbable that he should make them believ it for whom he hath prepared it. As God is the chief Good and perfect Hap­piness of the soul, so by Faith, which [Page 148] is the highest Knowledge we have in this world, the Soul enjoyes him, and by him the most excellent Gifts and Graces whereof it is capable.

III. Of the Scriptures.

THe Scripture of Word of God in Paradise was the Morall Law written in Mans heart, and the revelation of extraordinary com­mands. After the fall God immedi­atly preached to Adam, & while the Church was confined within Fami­lies lie taught them by Visions and Revelations; but when he began to found the Nationall Church of the Jews, he delivered unto them written Laws and the Examples of former times, from the very first Creation, and so proceeded by Propheticall revelation to the End of the World, and then was the Scripture finished and sealed up by the last of the Apostles, as a perfect [Page 149] Institution, or Pandect of all things requisite to be known or believed for the salvation of Man. The First Evidence of the Divinity of the Scripture, is that of all other Books in the world, it most clearly and familiarly discovers unto us the God of Nature in a most glo­rious and worthy manner. The Se­cond this, that the Morall Law, and the summ of all Duties toward God and Man are in it most perfectly de­clared. Though since the fall there may still remain in the Mind of Man some scattered fragments and obscure characters thereof, yet they are so much defaced and disordered, that they cannot be plainly read, nor otherwise restored then by set­ing forth the second Edition by the same Author, according to the first Originall: without which we might have spent our whole Lives, as the Philosophers did, in doubting and disputing, while we should be practicing and obeying. The Third, [Page 150] that it fully describeth the whole History of the world from the first Creation to the Dissolution there­of; joining with those Precepts of the Law the Examples and Monu­ments of all Ages. The Last, that the Divine Sentence, Nosse teipsum, of which Iuvenal saith, Coelo descendit, is not only prescribed herein, but also performed by this clear Mirror, whereby the Face of the Soul and the Secrets of the Hart are made manifest; and therefore we ought to confess that God is in it of a truth. These Arguments which are naturall and rationall Demonstra­tions may be some perswasion to be­liev these supernaturall Truths with which they are accompanied. As a man whom we know to be grave and true in all his other Discourses, is the more credited in relating things strange and wonderfull: or as Socrates said of the writings of Heraclitus, What he understood was very good, and so he did believ [Page 151] that to be which he understood not. And in the matters of Faith which the Scriptures revele unto us there is no Unreasonableness, though they are above Reason, nor Inconsistency among themselvs, yea the wholy Symmetry and Analogy of Faith is more glorious and beautifull then the very Law of Nature and Rea­son it self. This blessed Harmony and just Proportion is the surest In­dex of all the parts, and the best Interpreter of the most doubtfull points: the neglect whereof hath introduced all Errors and Heresies in the Church, which are no other then the Monstrous Mutilations, Excrescences, or Distortions of the particular Members of the Body of Faith not corresponding to the Whole, commonly occasioned by wresting the Text, or too curious criticising upon it. Though that which is pick'd out of it sometimes may be true in it self, yet if it be be­yond the scope and meaning, it is a [Page 152] belying of the Holy Spirit, making him speak that which he never in­tended: and this emboldens to do the like another time, for the maintaining of such Opinions as are neither true in this Text, nor in the Thing. This is the dangerous Hu­mor of our Age, wherein men hunt­ing after new Notions and sublime Mysteries, gather up all these Alle­goricall and Sophisticall Expositi­ons which Calvin and other sound Textuaries have with great Judge­ment rejected, and so patch up a new kind of Divinity with these Cento's of Scripture and their own specious Conceptions and strange Fansies. As for the Stile of Scripture, it is very admirable, though by rea­son of the Idioms of the Times and Languages wherein it was wrote it may now seem to us uncouth and strange; yet, if we rightly at­tend it, we shall finde in it a won­derfull mixture of Simplicity and Majesty, Perspicuity and Mystery, [Page 153] being sometimes dark and cloudy, and sometimes again thundring and lightning, and shooting flashes of sacred fire into the hart of the Reader, piercing even to the divi­ding asunder of the Soul and Spirit, and of the Joints and Marrow. The very first verse of the Divine Evan­gelist; which by superstitious persons is used as a Charm or Exor [...]ism, proved an holy spell to Francis Iu­nius, metamorphosing him from an Atheist to a Christian. I cannot but wonder how Politian, or any judicious Critik, could so far under­value the Scripture, as to disparage and despise it. Certainly, though it express not so much elegancy as to humor vain minds, yet it hath suf­ficient to defend it self from con­tempt, and is most apt and genuine for the Divine matter which it ex­presseth: we may justly suspect they never faithfully studied it, nor well relished the matter and scope thereof; and then no wonder if [Page 154] they contemn it, as many Wise men do their Tully and Virgil, because they were never well versed in them, nor rightly understand their Art and Intention. But a true Belie­ver, who apprehends the true Sense and Savor of the Scriptures, looks upon them as Gods Great Charter to Man, and the Evidences of all his Happiness.

IV. Of God.

IN the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. God who made the World, and no Ey saw him, and who only can dissolv it, and best knows how and when he will do it, hath most evidently set it forth in his Word: whereas the Phi­losophers speak doubtfully of it, and are strangely perplexed and troubled about it. Divine Know­ledge proceeds from Causes to Ef­fects, and begins with God the first Cause of all things: but they ac­cording [Page 155] to the way of Humane Rea­son proceed from Effects to Causes, and so travailing to the utmost end of Natures Firm Land, find out those first created Principles of Matter, and Atomes which are but the Dust of Matter, and a Chaos or Heap of all things, and discovering nothing beyond these but a Vast Ocean and Gulf of Infinity, rather turn back into the bosome of Nature, and as­cribe this self-creating power, which is infinite and eternall, to those low­est and meanest things, then to an infinite and eternall Creator, though God seemeth purposely so to have ordered the Course of Nature that the most perfect things should be constituted of things less perfect, that thereby we might be led on to the acknowledgement of him: for if the Superior Natures, as Angels and Men, had produced the inferior, we might more reasonably have sup­posed them to be the first Causes of themselvs and others: but to deify [Page 156] Matter, or Atomes, and make them our Creators, is most irrationall. Though Philosophy seems to doubt it, yet all Religions and all Nations have confessed an Eternall Creator. Every Creature is a Letter of his Name, and the beautifull Fabrike of the whole World plainly spels a Deity: and as the Creatures prove a Creator, so also they prove both what he is not, that is, not like them, finite and vain; and in some sort what he is, that is, the infinite per­fection of all these excellencies which are in them, and infinitely more in himself then them all. Thus David argues. He that planted the Ear shall he not hear, and he that framed the Ey shal not he see, He that teacheth Man Knowledge shall not he know? That is God in his own Di­vine and Infinite manner doth see, and hear, and understand all things, as we do in our finite and imperfect manner: the Excellency thereof must be attributed to him, but the [Page 157] Imperfection must be removed from him. So he is said to be angry at sin, that is, he is a perfect enemy to all Sin; but Passion and Offense, which is an Infirmity in us, may not be conceived of him. Thus God himself vouchsafeth to condiscend to our capacities, interpreting and translating himself into our Lan­guage by Anthropopathies and An­thropomorphies, and the like. If we might only speak properly of him, it were impossible for us to ex­press or apprehend him: for no­thing can be univocally predicated of God, and the Creature, there be­ing an infinite disproportion be­tween them. So God is infinitely Good not by any multiplication of degrees above us which do not alter the Species of Goodness, but in ano­ther kind of Infinite Goodness, for no multiplication of degrees can a­rise to an Infinity. As our Savior said. There is none Good but God▪ that is, as he is Good; so we may also [Page 158] say, There is none but God, that is, as he is whose Name is Iam. A­gain, our Notions of Essence and Goodness being Finite, the expressi­ons thereof cannot perfectly declare him who is Infinite, and therefore are not properly predicated of him: but those and the like highest Titles of Nature, as Substance, Spirit, Act, must be understood of him infinite­ly otherwise then of us: for, To whom shall we liken God, or what like­ness shall we compare unto him? He is that Rule of Goodness, that Ge­nerall and Metaphysicall Good whereof we speak at large, and therefore Abstracts do better ex­press him, then Concretes and Ad­jectives. He is Being, Bonity, Power, Wisdom, Iustice, Mercy it self, and so it is said, God is Love, not properly, but potentially and infinitly, and as he is One, because he is Infinite, so also because he is Infinite all these must necessarily be One in him, yea One with himself: for an Infinite [Page 159] cannot consist of Parts, which can­not be all Infinite, because they are many, and if they be Finite, cannot make up one Infinite. Therefore the highest conception we can have of God is, that he is One Infinite Per­fection in himself, which is eminent­ly and virtually all Perfections of the Creatures: and the most perfect knowledge we have of him is, that we cannot perfectly know him, be­cause we do know him to be thus in­finitly perfect: yet is this know­ledge sufficient to make us perfectly happy in the enjoiment of him, whom we know to be virtually and effectually all Finite Good, and In­finitely Good in himself. Let us therefore look round about the whole frame of Nature, and view all the parts thereof, considering all their Excellencies as so many Raies of Divine Glory, whereof he is the Sun from which they proceed, and on whom they depend, compre­hending all in himself as their first [Page 160] Cause, in whom they were potenti­ally before they were created. Then let us ascend above the highest Hea­vens, and the whole Compass of Nature, which cannot contain him, and go forth out of this World into that vast and boundless Temple of Immensity and Eternity which he inhabiteth, and at once universally possesseth, and so return into the bosome of that Infinity out of which we have proceeded. Let us consider the possible effects of an unlimitted Power, and we shall find Worlds very cheap with him, who made this great Globe out of nothing. Let us contemplate that Infinite Goodness which exceedeth all Covetousness, and that Glory which surpasseth all Ambition, and ground all upon the reall foundati­on of Being it self, and so fill and overwhelm our selvs in this Ocean of endless Perfection. From this hight of Contemplation let us look back again upon the World, which [Page 161] will appear to us but as a shadow of his Being, a Molehill full of busy Ants, or a show of self-moving Pup­pets, acting their parts upon a Stage set up for that purpose, which must be taken down when the Play is done. This is true Liberty and Great­ness of Mind, full of truth and de­light, and worthy our selvs whom God hath made capable thereof. They who travail over diverse Countries, thereby greatly enlarge their Spirits, and reflect upon that corner of the Earth in which they were born with other Eies then when they set forth; The fansy of Lucian, who placeth Charon on the top of an high hill viewing all the affairs of living men, and looking on their greatest Cities as litle Birds nests, is very pleasant. Socrates by making himself a Citizen of the U­niverse, became an Universall Free­man. But all those Contemplations are still bounded within the Circle of a finite Nature. Let us escape out [Page 162] of this Prison of the World, and en­franchise our Souls by restoring them to their native and perfect Li­berty. Let us realize and eternize all things by enjoying them in him who is All in All, which is such an Ingredient in all our Good things, as doth not only Sanctify, but Deify them, and without which they are as vain and nothing in the Enjoy­ment, as they are in their own Being without him. Thus the Soul being united to God by that Union, par­takes of his Unity and Universality, resting on him as in its Center, and enjoying all the Creatures as so many Lines Streaming from him, and again reflecting unto him, having no other Inclination, Moti­on, nor End, but only God himself, in whom it dwells and abides for ever

V. Of Christ.

IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. The same Word was also made Flesh; and so the Founder of the First World be­came the foundation of the second; which is a World of Mysteries and of Faith, as the first was a World chiefly of Nature and Reason. Now these being two severall Worlds or Natures of things, it is as irrationall to measure matters of Faith by Reason, as it is to weigh the Aire, or measure a Spirit. It begins with the great Mystery of Mysteries, the Trinity, and so proceeding to the Incarnation of the Son of God, end [...] in our Mysticall Union with Christ and God. The Deity of the Creator [Page 164] may be plainly proved by the Cre­ation, which is the Work and Ef­fect thereof, but Divines say that the Works of the Trinity out of them­selvs are undivided, and so nothing in Nature can lead us to that distin­ction of Persons in the Godhead, nor demonstrate it to us. Yet there is nothing in this great Mystery contrary to Reason, though it be far above it: for they are not three Infinites, not three and one in the same consideration, but three in one, that is, three Persons in one Nature. The Nature and Unity of God are both Infinitely diverse from ours, & therefore unless Finite Reason should limit Infinity, it must acknowledge that it may be so, and Faith beleeveth that it is so: but neither Reason nor Faith can pos­sibly comprehend how it is so, be­cause it is infinitely and incompre­hensibly so. The Incarnation of the Son of God is a Mystery almost as wonderfull as the former, and evi­dently [Page 165] setteth forth the Mystery of the other: for God the Son only is incarnate, and not God the Father, nor God the Holy Ghost, though they all equally partake of the same Divine Nature which is incarnate. Besides there are two Natures infi­nitely diverse united in one Person. Therefore Arrians and Socinians who deny the Divinity of Christ, do also deny the Trinity, which is the ground thereof. This Mystery is so far above all naturall Reason, that it cannot possibly be comprehended by it, and therefore most improba­ble to be the Invention or Concep­tion thereof: for certainly Reason would rather have produced some­thing like it self, or at least that which it might in some sort com­prehend, as all false Religions have done. The sinfulness of all men doth evidently demonstrate the necessity of a Savior, and the nature of sin, being a transgression of the Divine Law of the Creator, binding the [Page 166] Creature to perfect and perpetuall obedience, shews the necessity of a Divine Savior. There is no other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we may be saved, nor hath any Religion or Philosophy offered to the World any other probable way of Mans Salvation: and yet the Mind of Man is natural­ly so far from Saving Faith, that it hardly entertains an Historicall Faith of Christs Divinity and Incar­nation. Men have stretched their Reason and Fansy to the utmost to find out any other way of Salvati­on, rather then accept of this which is most Glorious and Divine. Phi­losophers seem to weigh our Virtues with our Vices, and according to the preponderation of either, deno­minate us Good or Bad, and so de­liver, us up to Reward or Punish­ment, Whereas Man being bound to perfect obedience to the very ut­most capacity of his Nature, the least Sin attaints the Soul, as one Act [Page 167] of Treason makes a Traitor. The Poets Fansy a Purgatory in another world wherein all are to be clensed and purified, as Virgil describes it,

Ergo exercentur panis, veterum (que) malorum
Supplicia expendunt: aliae pandun­tur inanes
Suspensae ad ventos: aliis sub gur­gite vasto
Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuri­tur igne.
Quis (que) suos patimur Manes—

But though we should admit of such a washing away the Filth of sin, yet this is no abolition of the Guilt. Imprisonment is no paiment, and punishment no satisfaction, but the perpetuall Vengeance of an un­satisfied Justice; and can no more restore a past defect, then make that which is done to be undone. Iulian the Apostate in despight of Christ [Page 168] set up a Poeticall Savior, Aescula­pius the God of Physike, who com­ming down in the beams of the Sun his father should purge the World from Sin and Evill. But this is a Creed of his own making, and be­lieved by none but himself. Hea­thenish Religion taught the purg­ing away of sin by the bloud of Bulls and Goats; which shows the common opinion of the World, that there should be some bloudy Sacrifice for sin. But certainly if a mans own sufferings cannot expiate Sin, much less the Suffering of Brute Creatures Mahomet and others have pretended to be Saviors of the World, but none knows how, nor doth all their Doctrine hold forth any probable Color or Shadow of effecting it: whereas the Incarnati­on of that Son of God who took upon him the Humanity, to that very end that he might satisfy for Man, and so was no otherwise obli­ged to obedience, and by his Divi­nity [Page 169] infuseth an Infinite Virtue into all his merits, and is able to rege­nerate aswell as redeem, doth most perfectly sute with our necessities, and fully supply them. His own Doctrine, Life, and Death are the best Arguments of his Divinity, yet doth he not want other testimonies, The Sacrifices of the Patriarchs and the Jewish Types, did prefigure him. The Prophets were his Har­bingers to bespeak places and sea­sons for him. The Martyrs his He­ralds to proclaim him to the World, dying in that Belief which the na­ture of Man so much opposeth; and the whole World either hath or shall both persecute and embrace it. The third great Mystery is our U­nion with God and Christ, who hath praied, that we might be one as he and his Father are one; not Es­sentially, nor Personally, but Spi­ritually, so as no other Creature is united to God. For Man being made last of all the Creatures, as the [Page 170] summ and Epitome of the rest, Christ by taking upon him the Humane Nature, invested himself with the whole World; and though he hath purchased all the inferior Creatures for the use of Man, and the Elect Angels as ministring Spirits may par­take of a Confirmation in their good estate, yet the Conjugall Uni­on is contracted between God and Mankind in a more speciall and immediate manner. Nor is this a Naturall Union, such as was that between Adam and all his Po­sterity, whereby sin is derived to them, but Spirituall by a more parti­cular & personall application, Christ apprehending us by his Spirit, and we him by Faith. Now as the Uni­on of God and the Soul is that wherein our Happiness consists, so this being the highest & neerest U­nion, advances Man to a further de­gree therof then any other Creature whatsoever. And this is the highest Evidence of the Mediatorship of [Page 171] Jesus Christ. For God being Infi­nite, and the whole World Finite, and so Infinitely below him, though after he had perfected the first Cre­ation, he rested from his Works, yet he rested not in them as in his Son, whom he begat from all Eternity, & in whom he only rests satisfied, and declared from Heaven that he is well pleased. And though he pronounc­ed them very good, that is, in their kind, yet in respect of himself, who only is truly and Infinitely Good, they are all as Vain and Null. But Jesus Christ thus Espousing the Cre­ation, and Endowing it with his In­finity, gathers up all in himself, & so presents both together as an Object Infinite and adaequate to his Father. Let us therefore entertain this bless­ed Savior with the full embraces of our Soul, and think no other thing worthy our affections who have such a glorious Object presented unto us. When we read the Histo­ries of mighty Kings, and the great [Page 172] Captains of the World, our Minds are filled with honorable thoughts of them, and we applaud them with great delight. The very Romances of Heroike Love work strangely upon our Fansies, and we are ready with the Tyrant to wish over selvs a part in them; whereas here we have the only Son of God, the King of Glory, the mighty Conqueror of Principalities and Powers, yea of Death, and Hell, and Sin, triumph­ing over all the strength of Evill, the chiefest among ten thousand, yea fairer then the Children of men, The brightness of his Fathers Glory, and express Image of his Person, who having set his hart on the most wretched and deformed Soul of Man, left his Fathers Court, laid aside his Roiall Robes, taking up­on him, not the Disguise, but the Form of a servant, living in the mean­est, and laying down his life in the basest and most cruell manner, for her sake, whose Love was less then [Page 173] her Desert, and Enmity against him greater then her Misery, Espousing her to himself, and at once infusing both Love, and Beauty, putting his own Crown upon her Head, and so bringing her home to his Fathers House to live with himself in eter­nall Bliss. This is the high Peroga­tive of Divine Love, to love the Un­lovely, and make them Lovely; to purchase the Poor, and make them Rich; to affect the Unwilling, and make them Willing; to pity the Miserable, and make them Happy; O my Lord, and my God! thou Beauty of all Beauties, and Perfection of all Perfections! The God of Love, yea Love it self! Teach me the Law of Divine Love, and enflame me with this Celestiall flame, inspire me with thine own Spirit, and let me live in thy Life, rejoycing in the pure foun­tain of thy Ioy, and resting in the Bosom of thy eternall Rest.

VI. Of the Spirit.

WE enjoy God only in Christ, and Christ only by the Spirit. As the Spirit of God in the first Creation moved upon the face of the waters, and brought forth the perfect Beau [...] thereof out of a Chaos of confusion, and the same Spirit formed Christ himself in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, so he bringeth forth Grace out of the Chaos of sin, and formeth Christ in us, regenerating us unto eternall Life. Though the Spirit be a sure witness of its own work where it is, yet it is a most easy thing to mistake the spirit of Satan or our own spirit for it, where it is not, Socinians and men of Reason e­steem Faith only to be Fansy, and Enthusiasts set up Fansy in stead of Faith, as the Poet well expresseth it. [Page 175] Aut Deus, aut sua cui (que) Deus sit dira cupido.’ There is a Spirituall Drunkenness and Madness, which in some is so strong and prevalent, that it ends in a naturall Madness, and distemper of the brain, which is hurt and taint­ed with the vehement impression of these Imaginations as much as with the Fansies of Carnall Love, or Pride, or any other violent affections which commonly distract men, Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, saith the Apostle, shewing, that in Wine, and in all the spirits of Creatures there may be excess and inebriatiation, only the Spirit of God doth fill and satisfy the Soul with Spirituall Grace, which yet some who would seem more Spirituall then others least regard, and rather affect extra­ordinary and miraculous Gifts which have ceased long since: having been [Page 176] chiefly exercised in three extraordi­nary seasons and upon extraordina-occasions; by Moses who deliver­ed the Law to the Iews; by Elias and Elisha who restored the Law which they had made void; and lastly by Christ and his Apostles who preached the Gospel, with the last of whom they seem to have expired: for soon after when the ceasing of the Heathenish Oracles was objected by the Christians against Iulian the Apostate, he retotred upon them the ceasing of their Prophecies. Some suppose that these extraordi­nary Gifts shall be restored unto the Church when she shall be fully re­covered out of the Antichristian Eclips, but why might we not rather expect to have found them in our first Reformers. Luther was a man of an extraordinary Faith, and yet wrought no Miracles. The Ana­baptists at the same time affected them, and pretended to them, but were found Vain and Fanatike. [Page 177] Though some of them were meer Impostors, yet others verily believed that they were divinely inspired. The Miracles of Saints and Martyrs since the Apostolicall times seem ra­ther Legends and Fables then cre­dible Stories. The confident per­swasions of a strong, Faith may seem somewhat like a Prophecy, though far different from it, and of another kind: and so the Judgements of some wise men have been taken for Predictions; whereas Prophecy is not so much the confirmation of a mans own Spirit in the ordinary way of believing or judging, as an extraordinary revelation of Future things immediately and expresly by God, perhaps in a rapture or extasy, when he who uttereth it, least un­derstandeth it. Also there may be a power of casting out Divels by Praier and Fasting; which is not now to be performed as formerly by any speciall Gift, with a word of command certainly effecting it; but [Page 178] in the ordinary way of Praier, which God is pleased to honor with an equall effect. There are also Miracles of Providence as we may so call them, whereby God is plea­sed to deliver his Church out of her greatest streights in an extraordi­nary manner, and by unexpected means, as he did formerly by Signs and Wonders, and Miracles of Na­ture. Such was the recovery of Germany by the same hand which first betraied the Protestant Cause: Maurice Duke of Saxony after all his Successes and Preferment, strangely revolting from Charles the fifth to the contrary party: the defeating of the Spanish Aramado, as Drake termed it, with Squibs; the discovery of the Gunpowder Trea­son by a Letter, or whatsoever o­ther Indicium there was of it: yea the preservation of Christian Reli­gion in all Ages, maugre all Perse­cutions and Heresies, and the re­storing of it in these latter dayes [Page 179] without a Miracle, is none of the least Miracles. Certainly the clear revelation of the Mysteries of Faith, and the manifestation of the Graces of Gods Spirit in the Harts and Lives of men are evident testimo­nies that God hath not forsaken his Church; the least dram of true Grace being more valuable then all Miraculous Gifts whatsoever, and the principall end thereof. As for Enthusiasms and Revelations they were of use in former times, and very necessary before Scripture was finished, being either Scripture, or instead of Scripture; but since St. Iohns time, who wrote the last Book of Scripture in the Isle of Pathmos under Domitian, they seem also to have ceased: for if this were true they ought to be believed e­qually with Scripture, being the im­mediate and infallible Word of God as well as it, which is now the only rule and measure of Faith, suf­ficient to make the man of God [Page 180] perfect. But all those Fansies are not so dangerous as other Spirituall Errors in the Foundation and Es­sentials of Faith, to which such Spirits are very prone, striving to ascend above Truth asmuch as o­thers fall short of it. Thus by ex­alting the free Grace and Spirit of God they destroy the Morall Law, and with the Penalty take away the Precept or Commanding power; though the Law be as obligatory in it self and prevalent over the Con­science of a Good man without it as with it, and most perfectly consi­stent with Grace, which enableth us to perform what the Law com­mandeth. Others trample on the very Ordinances and Duties of the Gospel, presuming to finde a neer­er way to Heaven then God hath appointed. There are new fashions and dresses of Religion very plea­sing and popular, as all Novelties are, especially such as seem more sub­lime and Spirituall. But the old [Page 181] Orthodox Truth, is the best, and still prevaileth at last. There is no Do­ctrine in the world which hath been so curiously scanned and throughly sifted in every Point and Puntilio thereof, as Christianity: the great­est Scepticisms, and most subtile Cri­ticisms and niceties of Wit have been exercised about it, and the whole Body thereof like the Body of our Savior hanging upon the Cross, vexed and tortured in every joint, and yet it continues whole and entire; though there may be some prints of the Nails and Spears of Heretikes remaining upon it, yet not a bone thereof may be broken, which plainly proves it to be Spi­rituall & Divine, preserved only by the Author of it. Paracelsus threat­ned that he would deal with the Pope & Luther as he had done with Galen and Aristotle, and probably if he had undertaken it we should have had some such Mercuriall Theo­logy from him as is now vented in [Page 182] our times. The difference seems not much unlike. Sound Divines, like Galenists administer solid and sub­stantiall Truth, whereas our Para­celsian Preachers deal in Quintes­sences and Spirits, and the like Chy­mistry of Divinity, and cloth them with strange words and Mysticall expressions. Divinity hath found the same usage in these times with all other Arts and Sciences, and the same Humor of this fantastike Age runs through all. Men think to advance Learning by fine Conceits and strong Lines, as they call them▪ which have enervated the solid part thereof: so do these emasculate Re­ligion by their vain Opinions and quaint Expressions. There is no greater Bane of true Piety then Er­ror on the right hand, and sublime Heresy; especially when it grows Popular and is generally received. Yet Truth is no less Truth though all the World should be in an Error. One Athanasius may stand to his [Page 183] Creed in the midst of an Arrian Empire. As a man who sees the Sun shine, though all others should say the contrary, is no whit less as­sured of it, because he sees it. In­deed we can hardly guess at things which are before us, how much less can we find out Spirituall and Di­vine Truth, or practice what we know? Let us therefore pray to God for his Spirit, who first reve­led it to the world, and who only can lead us into all Truth, and into all Grace, which is our true Happi­ness.

VII. Of a Christian Life.

THe great work of the Spirit of God in our Harts is the new Creature, and the effect thereof new Life. Christian Life is the En­joiment of all things, for enjoying Christ, who is Heir of all things, and [Page 184] hath purchased all with his bloud, we enjoy all things by a new and better Title, and in a more excel­lent and Spirituall manner, as the Fruits of his Redemption, and Gifts of his Love. It is generally affimed by Divines, that true Grace chiefly respects Gods Glory, and our own Happiness in a subsequent and in­ferior manner, so that we should be willing to suffer even the pains of Hell it self for the Glory of God; which is a fine Notion and an high Expression: but if rightly consider­ed, we shall find no such distinction in the Thing it self. Indeed if we take Happiness for a releaf from Pains, or a Paradise of Pleasure, or any other thing then the very en­joiment of God and Christ, it is a true Sentence: but the highest Hap­piness of the Soul being that very enjoiment, the one cannot be se­parated nor really distinguished from the other. He who truly loves the Person of another, without any [Page 185] collaterall respects, loves to love it, and this Love being most true and pure is also must lovely and delight­full. Thus doth Divine Love pay it self, and as Virtue, so much more Grace, is its own Reward. This is that blessed Communion and Co­partnership of profit and advan­tage which God affordeth us with himself, which is no equalling of our selvs with him, but consists in the very subordination of our selvs to him. To glorify him is our highest Glory, to bless him our truest Bless­edness: his Will and our Good do most perfectly and intirely concen­ter. To divide these, is to cut in sunder the very intrinsecall bond of our Union with him: and the con­trary apprehension is the greatest deceit and highest prejudice that can be against the service of God: for it keeps the Soul at a perpetuall distance, and frights it out of the way of Piety: whereas the right understanding hereof ingages it [Page 186] most fully and freely, with the mu­tuall embraces of Duty and Bene­fit. As true Philosophy resolvs Ho­nesty into Utility, so doth true Di­vinity resolv▪ Grace into Glory. While the Soul remains corrupt and contrary to God, it cannot enjoy him nor any Happiness in him, but a new Nature begets new Principles and new Enjoiments: and it being the highest perfection of our Na­ture to be conformable to God and united to him, is also our highest Happinness: for the perfection of every Nature affordeth the greatest and truest Pleasure. Now what can we rationally desire more then to be most Happy? why then should we not rather desire a right consti­tution of Soul which produceth true Happiness, then the false Happiness of a corrupt Mind? Sin is as much against every mans generall and implicite Intention, which is to be Happy, as it is against Gods express Command, which is that we should [Page 187] be Holy. Nor doth the Command of God and his absolute Sovereign­ty over us diminish the freest Liber­ty of a rectified Soul. Perfectum imperium cum perfecta libertate con­sistit. God is Good, and doth Good, and commands nothing but Good: which is but like the Latine Com­plement, Iubeo te valere, I bid you farewell. By Conversion the Un­willing Will is made a Willing Will, and to such the Command of God sounds only thus, Do what you will. A wicked man saith, Quod libet licet, but a Godly man inverts it, Quod licet libet. Thus most con­naturally and harmoniously hath the great Creator and Governor of the World subordinated all to him­self without the least discord or of­fence. It is sin which hath wrought all confusion and malignity in our Nature, and all the mischief in the VVorld. As our Being is founded in our dependance on God, so is our VVell-being in our subordina­tion [Page 188] to him, and it is impossible it should be otherwise. The perfecti­on of his Nature is to be perfectly supreme, and the perfection of our Nature is to be perfectly subordi­nate and subject to him, whose Ser­vice is perfect Freedome. Thus we enjoy all things in him as they are eminently in himself, and as he giveth us all things richly to enjoy. As a VVoman married to a Rich man enjoieth him and all his estate, though she useth no more thereof then what is fit for her, which is the right enjoyment of all. God maketh all things work together for the best to them that love him, and so they enjoy the best of all; aswell of that which he giveth, as of that which he denieth. Adam should have enjoied the forbidden fruit by forbearing, and not by eating: as Sin is a Privation of Good, so the only enjoiment thereof is Privative, or Relative to Grace, which is the Contrary thereof: and as it is Duty [Page 189] to omit things which are to be o­mitted, so it a kind of Enjoiment not to use things which are not to be used. It is the great Error of Men, that they cannot understand this kind of Enjoiment aswell as the other, but are taken with every bait of Pleasure, and led captive by the Divell at his will: finding some sin­full Delight in sinfull Pleasures, as a corrupt Stomach longeth for cor­rupt Food, and abhorreth that which is better and more whole­some. But unless the Divell could turn the Tables of the VVorld, and put God and his party to the loos­ing side, it is most impossible that there should be any true Happiness in any other thing▪ or in any other way then as he hath appointed and prescribed. Nor can it be rea­sonably imagined that God should suffer his friends to loose by him, or his Enemies to shark any thing from him who is Lord of all. If Intempe­rance could afford more pleasure [Page 190] then Temperance, Heliogabalus should have been more happy then Adam in Paradise: yea if there were the least reall delight in Sin there could be no perfect Hell, where men shall most perfectly Sin, and most perfectly be tormented with their Sins, which are the prepared fuell thereof, & though now they neither glow or burn, shall then consume them with unquenchable fire. Wick­ed men, like Prodigals, live riotous­ly and run in debt for it; but the time will come when they must re­pay both Principall and Interest, and so shall gain nothing by all their Voluptuousness. Sardanapalus his Accompt was not rightly cast up. Haec habui quae edi—for he lost more by what he spent, then by what he left. We will now descend to the Particulars of this Universall Enjoiment of a Christian Life.

VIII. Of Nature.

THe first part of a Christian Life is the Enjoyment of Nature, and of the VVorks of God, wherein a Christian far excelleth the wisest Philosopher, and moves above him in his own Sphere. Vulgar Minds view the face of Nature, as a Brute Beast doth a Picture, regarding on­ly the Surface and Show rudely and at large. The Philosopher, as an Artist, contemplates the curious VVorkmanship thereof, observing with much pleasure and delight the proper Colors, and comely Features and Shadows, and the whole Com­posure of the beautifull Image; as the Painter answered him who wondered at his gazing on an ex­cellent Piece. O, said he, if you had mine eies you would be affect­ed with it as I am▪ But a Christian [Page 192] looks upon Nature, as a Lover doth on the Picture of his Beloved, de­lighting more in the Resemblance then in the Table. Thus David rightly enjoyed Nature in his pious Contemplations thereof. So he be­gins his excellent Hymn of the Cre­ation of the VVorld. Bless the Lord O my soul! O Lord my God thou art very great! Thou art clothed with Honor and Majesty! Thou co­verest thy self with Light as with a Garment! &c. and he concludes in the same manner, I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live, I will sing praises unto the Lord while I have a being, my meditation of him shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord. So when he reflects upon the litle VVorld, Himself. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvailous are thy works, and that my Soul knoweth right well. So comparing both together. When I consider the Heavens, the work of thy fingers, the Moon and Starrs [Page 193] which thou hast ordained, what is Man that thou art mindfull of him, and the Son of Man that thou visitest him? &c. Naturalists are much af­fected with the Sucly of Nature, and Poets express a fluent and sweet de­light in describing her, but there is more Life and Spirit and Angelicall Speculation in one of Davids Psalms then in all their writings; this Spirituall use thereof being more sublime and divine then any naturall contemplations: as the Cardinall plainly confessed, when he found a Countriman meditating on a Toad, and blessing God who made him a Man. As Adam was created in a state of Perfection, so he had a great advantage of us in other respects, being created in the per­fect maturity of Understanding, and rising up suddenly from the Earth out of which he was taken, whereby he had a quicker and fresher view of the World then we whose Minds are dulled through Custome and [Page 194] Use, and the edge of our appre­hensions much rebated thereby. Let us therefore make triall whither the Imagination of such an advant­age may not somewhat excite and sharpen our understanding. Let a man suppose himself made, as David speaks Metaphorically, in the lowest parts of the Earth, in an adult State of Body and Mind: Surely if he could well discern it, he would judge it to be the common dunghill of the VVorld, and would wonder to find any Metalls or Jewells hid in the rubbish thereof. And then coming neerer the Surface, and meeting with heaps of rotten Carcases, and a few noisome Living Creatures, he would deem it a very Grave and Hell of all things; and could never expect that it should produce any thing but filth and corruption. But then lifting up his head above the Ground, and seeing it covered with the curious Tapestry of Herbs and Flowers, spread for him as a [Page 195] Prince to tread on, painted with the variety of all pleasant Colors, and perfumed with most fragrant Odors, and enriched with many se­cret and excellent Virtues; then beholding the Armies of standing Corn, and Forrests of goodly Trees crowned with innumerable Leavs and Fruits; and perceiving the se­verall kinds of Beasts and Birds, like so many Automata or self-moving Engins, stirring up and down about him in their severall Postures and Motions, he must needs stand a­mazed at so strange a sight, and praise the fruitfulness of the womb which bare them. But looking back upon the deep and wide Sea which threatens the shore with his insulting waves, he would fear least that roaring Monster should step in among them, and swallow up all in his devouring Jaws; till he per­ceiv how when he is swoln to the hight of his pride and fury, he be­gins to retreat and fall back into [Page 196] his native den, without doing the least hurt, and fetches off the tall ships, carrying them away upon his Back, and furnishes all the Aquae­ducts of the Earth with fresh Springs and Streams, ministring drink to the whole Family. Again, considering the pure Aire which he scarcely felt or perceived, and yet is so far from Inanity that it fills up all the Chinks and Cranies of the VVorld, fanning the Earth with the VVings of VVind, and driving the great Ships to and fro with various Gales of Breath, sometimes causing a quiet Calm and universall peace among the Elements, and suddenly muffling the face of Heaven with black Clouds, and rowsing up the sleepy Ocean, tossing and tumbling it over and over, and tearing the Bowells of the Earth, making the Sturdy Mountains to tremble, and the Rocks cleav in sunder, is again as suddenly pacified he knows not how nor by whose perswasion; how [Page 197] it carrieth about the Limbikes of the Clouds which distill down fruit­full showers, and drop fatness on the Earth, and in a moment con­vey all the Gifts and Blessings of Heaven to it. Lastly, contemplating those vast Orbs or Worlds of Light in their swift Motions and perpetu­all Courses, which never fail one minute of their appointed Time, nor wander an inch out of their constant Way, blessing the Earth with their very smiles, and illumina­ting it with their Glorious Light; he must necessarily acknowledge and adore the great Creator, who hath founded this stately Globe, and doth manage the Universall Empire of Nature by Secret Laws and inward Principles. And though he cannot discern him by outward Sight, yet his Understanding will as easily discover him, as it doth an invisible Spirit in a living Body. Be­sides, as a Christian he tasts the bloud of his Savior in all things, which [Page 198] renders those reliques and frag­ments of nature more sweet to him then all the first Paradise of per­fection was to Adam.

IX. Of Providence.

A Theists, though partly con­vinced by Nature, draw their chief arguments against a Deity from Providence and the present state of things: whereas indeed this is the greater argument against them, and such as fortifies the other: for had Nature still flowed in a constant Stream of Causes and Effects, she might more probably have been supposed to be the only Fountain of all things: but when we see Nature, which alwaies in­tendeth the Best, not able to fulfill her own Laws, nor effect her In­tentions, and so fall short of that end which she prescribes to her self, [Page 199] we may plainly perceiv that there is a higher Power which over-rules her; for the Creature was made sub­ject to Vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Again, she being thus lapsed and diseased might easily de­cay and perish, if the same Power did not still preserv and continue her in all her Species, though Indi­vidualls dy daily. How litle excess of drought or heat destroies the hopes of the whole Year. A pesti­lentiall Aire may infect the whole world, and an Age of successive Famines and Pests might prove an universall destruction of all Living Creatures. But he left not himself without witness, in that he doth good, giving us rain from heaven, and fruit­full seasons, and filling our harts with food and gladness. Let a man serious­ly consider how Strangely his own Life is preserved; how many se­verall Ingredients are requisite to patch it up; how many sorts of [Page 200] Materialls are necessary to build an House; how many Utensiles to fur­nish it; how many kinds of Crea­tures are spent in feeding him, and almost as many in clothing him, be­sides all other occasionall Instru­ments of Life: and he may justly wonder at the daily provision which God hath made for him▪ Let him also consider how many possible Deaths lurk in his own bowells, and the innumerable hosts of externall Dangers which beleaguer him on every side; how many invisible Arrows fly about his ears continu­ally, and yet how few have hit him, and none hitherto mortally wound­ed him; and he shall find the medi­tation of those things, which now he so much neglects, strangely affect him. Vives reports of a Iew, that having gone over a deep river on a narrow plank in a dark night, and comming the next day to see what danger he had escaped, fell down dead with astonishment. The com­mon [Page 201] sort of men walk in the dark, and so regard not these things, but like adventurous Soldiers are hard­ned with past success, though their fellows fall daily on every side. Stoikes satisfy themselvs with their Opinion of a Fatall Necessity, so the Turks say, their Destinies are written on their foreheads, which is a desperate Humor, but no Se­curity: and upon such a conceit to neglect the means of our own pre­servation, adds Guilt to Misery, and deprives us of no small comfort in suffering, that we were not wan­ting to our selvs for the prevention of it. But as it is the Destiny of such men to perish, so it is their Destiny to perish by their own folly, which is a double Evill: And so Zeno the Stoike could answer his servant whē he would have excused his fault, by pleading that it was his Fate: he telling him, that it was his Fate also to be beaten. Politicians think to build above Providence, and to set [Page 202] their Mountain so sure that it can­not be moved: but how easily are the greatest designs and wisest counsells overturned by the least and most unexpected accidents? Iulius Caesar was a man of the larg­est abilities, and no less perform­ance. He so far prosecuted all naturall means, as if no man had more distrusted his Fortune, and yet so much relied on his Fortune, as if he had needed no other means: when he was in that extremity wherein he could make no use of his Wit or Strength, he boasts of it, and trusts to it alone: Caesarem ve­his & Fortunam ejus. He so often succeeded well in such cases, that he kept an Ephemeris thereof. God who had ordained him to be the Founder of the Roman Empire did strangely excite and support his Spirit: and though it cannot be presumed that he had any know­ledge of Divine Revelations and Prophecies concerning himself, yet [Page 203] he seems to have had some kind of Belief of the thing, I mean an extra­ordinary Confidence and Assurance of success. We shall find him as great an Instance of Divine Provi­dence both in his Rise and Fall, as ever was in the World. We will be­gin with his Civill War, and recite only his own observations. First he had the good hap to deal with an Army without a Generall, and then with a Generall without an Army: both which met together might probably have match'd him. He was so put to it by Petreius and A­franius at Ilerda in Spain, that it was reported at Rome they had end­ed the War; which might have been made good if Pompey had come to their aid through Mauri­tania, as was expected. Again, be­fore the great Battail of Pharsalia, when he was assaulted in his tren­ches, he was so far worsted, that he plainly confessed he had been con­quered, if Pompey then had known [Page 204] how to conquer. Lastly, in the Bat­tail of Munda he was put to fight for his safety, as at other times for Honor: Labienus only by wheeling about with his Horse for advantage was apprehended by the rest to fly, and so resigned the Victory to him: so small a matter doth many times turn the Dy of War over and over, and determine the greatest affairs of the World: and the most secret conspiracies many times leak and run out at the least hole. Caesar escaped a most imminent danger of being murdered at supper in the E­gyptian Court, if the Conspirators had then attempted it: and af­terward when they were fully prepared for the action, his Bar­ber, who had no other direction then the strange Instinct of a naturall fearfulness, was thereby put upon the search, and dis­covered the Treason: which was as weak a Guard to his Person, as the Geese to the Capitol, yet both [Page 205] proved effectuall. But when God had determined to ruine him, we shall see how no advantages, no warning could preserv him. He alwaies held Brutus and Cassius in suspect, and professed some fear of those pale lean fellows. The Con­spirators were many, the business long in agitation, the danger fore­told by Spurinna, his wife dream'd of it, and had almost staid him, Hee had a Paper of the whole Plot de­livered into his hands as he was go­ing to the Senate, and had begun to read it; the Conspirators them­selvs were daunted, and thought they had been betrai'd, yet all this could not preserv him from being slain in the midst of the Senate, and made a sacrifice to Pompeys Image. Now let all the great Captains and Counsellors of the World learn to acknowledge an over-ruling Provi­dence, and submit all their Power and Policy to the Beck of a Divine Will. A Christian enjoies Provi­dence [Page 206] by referring himself to Gods Protection, and so walks constant­ly in a streight way in the midst of all changes and vicissitudes with aequanimity of Spirit, being most as­sured, that though he cannot well understand the Particulars, yet the Summ of all shall be Gods Glory and his own Good, which is that Happiness to which he is tending.

X. Of Prosperity.

PRosperity and Adversity are the different Issues of the same Pa­rent, being the severall dispensations of Providence: and as they have the same Root, so they yield the same Golden Fruit of Happiness. I have learned, saith the Apostle, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content, Both may be enjoied with Content, but learning and skill to do it are requisite. Men think it an easy thing to be happy in Prospe­rity, [Page 207] accounting that the only Hap­piness; though they know not how to enjoy it. As if a Mariner sailing with wind and tide he knows not whither, should think he is making a very good Voiage. There is a silent and still stream of Fortune, wherein some men swim down quietly from the spring of their Birth to the common Ocean of Death, so that they do not much remember the daies of their Life, be­cause God answereth them in the joy of their hart. This is that kind of Prosperity so much commended by Philosophers and Poets: Beatus ille qui procul negotiis, &c. A pretty kind of idle Felicity, a Pastime, or sweet Sleep, stealing away our Time with the soft hand of ease and rest, and at last shutting it up like a fair Day in the common Darkness of Death with others. There is also a strong Gale of success carrying on the Designs of some Great Men, who adventure themselvs and all [Page 208] their fortunes on the Ocean of the World, in such a constant course of Prosperity, that they never meet with any cross winds. Many of the Graecian and Roman Captains pro­ved alwaies victorious, and were ne­ver beaten by any. Many rich men thrive perpetually, and never suffer any considerable loss: yet this is no other then a busy Dream, or a Play well acted: as Augustus the most fortunate Prince intimated, who when he was going off the Stage, took his leav of his friends like an Actor, Valete, et Plaudite. The right way of enjoying Prosperity is rightly to understand it, and the true worth and nature of it. The Covetous and Querulous, like sick men, are never satisfied, but under­value all the Good things which they possess, and because they have not what they would, neglect to enjoy what they have. On the con­trary, Prodigalls and Parasites, like Children, Idolize every trifle; which [Page 209] over-weening Opinion as much hin­ders true enjoiment as the diminish­ing Humor and Discontent of o­thers, and ends in the same Insatis­faction wherein the other begins. A Christian looking upon all his Prosperity as the effect of Gods Providence, enjoies it in another manner then any worldly man. The ancient Hebrews seem to have had a most familiar knowledge of Gods Providence. When Isaac asked the supposititious Esau concerning his Venison. How is it that thou hast found it so quickly my Son? He an­swered, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. Though he lied in the thing, yet the Phrase discovers what apprehensions they had of the most common mercies, which also Isaac elegantly expresseth, speaking of the pleasant sent of his Gar­ments, See! the smell of my Son, is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. When we thus look upon God as the Father of Lights, [Page 210] the author and giver of every good and perfect Gift, we see him as easily begetting and multiplying Mercies as the Sun doth Beams; This takes away all Anxiety and Fear of loss or want, which doth more diminish the Comfort of them then that Care and Labor which they cost in purchasing. Again, as Gods chief intention in bestow­ing his Gifts, is to allure and bring us home to himself, so a Christian accepts them upon the same tearms, as the Pledges of his love and Favor. A Penny, which is the Earnest of some great Bargain is another man­ner of thing then an ordinary Pen­ny, being given and received under another notion: and this is the right way to improve and sublimate Pro­sperity to the hight more then any Ambitious Humor or vain Sensu­ality can do; eating and drinking with a merry hart, for God accepteth our works, and so we may well ac­cept his Gifts. But though outward [Page 211] Prosperity be a Jewell in the Trea­sury of Gods Mercy, yet it is not the White Stone of his Justice. The very Heathen, who were most af­fected with sensible Divinity, knew how to distinguish between the Cause and the Success. They who insist on this argument commonly want a better, and will not stand to it themselvs when they are worsted. Decision by the Sword, even in a lawfull War is like wa­ging Batail in a VVrit of Right, which the purer light of Christianity hath antiquated, as very uncertain and unwarrantable. Success is the Blessing of God upon a Good Cause, and his Curse upon a Bad. It is at most but a concurrent wit­ness, which signifies nothing of it self, the Justice of the thing is its own best proof. God hath not pro­mised that his Church and People shall not suffer; but that though they suffer they shall not perish, like the bush which burned but was not [Page 212] consumed: and that in the day wherein he hath appointed to judge the world they shall prevail and tri­umph for ever over all Injustice and Oppression. But to improve Suc­cess to the use of all advantages, which it puts into our hands, though otherwise irregular and unlawfull, and to justify it by Gods Providence giving us such an opportunity, is as if a man should plead that he may do any evill which is in his power, and justify it by this, that God hath given him the power and opportu­nity of doing it; and so make Gods Providence patronize his Lusts, and turn his Grace into wantonness. Though Adversity be a necessary preparation for Heaven, by reason of our corruption, which is best mortified by it, yet Prosperity in it self is as fair and ready a way, and the beginning thereof to the God­ly. He is certainly a most Happy man who can so enjoy it, as to pro­fit as much by it as by Adversity. [Page 213] Judgements drive, but Mercy leads to repentance. This is an excellent temper of Spirit, most pleasing to God, and comfortable to our selvs, but very rarely to be found in any.

XI. Of Adversity.

THere is such a various mixture of Prosperity and Adversity in the Life of man, that he who knows not how to enjoy both, can never live happily in either.

Nemo confidat nimium secundis;
Nemo desperet meliora lapsis.

Many mens spirits are like tender and delicate Bodies, which have a Most quick and exact sense of Plea­sure, but a litle Pain kills them: like Flies, very brisk and busy in the Summer of Prosperity, but when [Page 214] the Winter of Adversity overtakes them, dead in the nest. Man is born to misery, and Christians have com­monly a double Portion of it, and of all Christians the best and strong­est are usually exercised with the greatest Afflictions, or made such thereby. If therefore there were no Enjoiment nor Fruit of suffering, they should then be indeed of all men most miserable: but as it is Gods usuall way of dealing with his Children, so his Promises and Be­nedictions run generally that way. Though Affliction hath no naturall Good in it self, yet it produceth much Morall Good; yea it com­mendeth the naturall Good, and correcteth the Morall evill which is in Prosperity: for Prosperity is as Diet, but Adversity as Physike, which recovereth from Surfets, and re­duceth to a right tast. Though Prosperity be more honorable in it self, yet the Virtues of Adversity are more honorable then of Pro­sperity. [Page 215] The highest Romances of Worldly Glory are alwaies found­ed in the deepest Sufferings.

— O nunquam tranquilla ex­ordia fatis
Heroum eximiis, nec deni (que) nau­fraga Virtus!

And those reall Conquerors are most famous who have encoun­ter'd the greatest Adversaries. Ad­versity overcome is the highest Glory, and well undergone the greatest Virtue. The Poets feign of Hercules, not only that he slew Tyrants and Monsters, but also that he bore the whole weight of Hea­ven on his shoulders; shewing thereby, that Virtue is as well exer­cised in Bearing as in Acting. Have you not heard, saith Iames, of the Patience of Iob, as of a most famous and memorable thing: and it is indeed very admira­ble to contemplate him assaulted [Page 216] by Satan, and overcoming only by enduring. Satan had challenged Iob before God, that he would make him curse him to his face: and God permits him to try him, and torture him to the utmost, only sparing his Life, which was no ad­vantage, but a lengthening of his fuffering: yet Iob armed with no­thing but Patience, like a Rock in the midst of the waves, repells all his assaults: standing so firm, that he cannot force him to a complaint, which is the most naturall Infirmity of men in such a condition; nor extort one foolish word from him. In all this Iob sinned not, nor charged God foolishly: yea, instead of Cursing he falls to Blessing. The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the Name of the Lord: which was a far greater torment to Satan then all his could be to Iob. Iulius Caesar when he had almost lost the field at Munda, was ready to have kill'd himself: so great a [Page 217] Conqueror knew not how to con­quer Adversity: and yet no man is totally vanquished by it, till he yield to it. ‘Quicquid erit superanda omnis Fortuna ferendo est.’ Though we loose all, we may still possess our souls in Patience. This is our last Reserv, and that strong Hold whereunto he who is beaten out of the Field may alwaies retire, and cannot be forced out of it but by surrendring it. The common sort of men in Adversity are like Children when they are whipt; ei­ther wholly surprised with Grief and Horror, never striving to keep it from the Hart, but give up all presently; betraying themselvs by an utter despondency of Spirit, and neglect of all Remedies or Cordi­alls; and so ly whining under the power of their Adversary, bemoan­ing and pittying themselvs to no [Page 218] purpose: which is a most evident Sign of an absolute conquest, and sinks the Soul wholly under water; whereas Patience keeps up the Head: yea many conspire with their miseries, and are, as Quinti­lian expresseth it, Ambitiosi in ma­lis, augmenting and aggravating them as much as they can; as though they found some Pleasure in Griev­ing, and some Musike in their mourn­full Ditties: Or else Sturdily and Sullenly bear their Afflictions with a setled obstinacy of Mind, like strong Bodies, on whom no Physike can work when they most need it, and so their Disease proves incu­rable. This is to out-brave God and Nature, and rather to fly and shun the sense of Affliction, then to con­quer it. Men of Pleasure seek to di­vert it by inordinate and unseason­able Mirth, Gaming, Drinking, and Surfetting on the remainders of the Feast of Prosperity, which is to a­buse both: Politicians strive by all [Page 219] means to make an Escape and get out of Adversity, turning and wind­ing every way, like an Eel, as long as there is any Life; but care not to profit by it, or perhaps grow wiser, but not better. Philosophers fortify against it by the strength of naturall Reason: as he said con­cerning the death of his Son, Scio me genuisse mortalem; accounting it a gallant thing to be no more affect­ed with the death of a Man then the breaking of a Pitcher. Only a Christian Fruitur malis, which is in­deed a most admirable Enjoiment. Angels excell in strength, Doing the will of God, but Christians in Suf­fering: and a patient enduring of necessary evills, is next to a volun­tary Martyrdome. A Christian heareth the Rod and who hath ap­pointed it, which teaches him to suf­fer, and sweetens his suffering more then all the Arts and shifts of world­ly men whereby they fence against it. He hath a most acute sense of the [Page 220] Pain, as feeling the anger of a God in it, and yet bears it patiently as the hand of his Father, who chasten­eth every Son whom he loveth, punishing for Sin, that so he may punish from Sin: and so enjoieth the Love of God and more comfort in all his Evills, then worldly men do in all their Good things.

XII. Of Death.

DEath in it self, as it is a ces­sation of Life, is an indiffe­rent or midle thing between Good and Evill, and paralell with not be­ing Born. In the Ages which have preceded we did not live, and in the succeeding we shall not live; the first is a negative Death, the second a privative. Therefore we may as reasonably griev that we were born no sooner, as that we shall live no longer. Our very Life is a continuall [Page 221] Death: for that which is past is dead already: Quicquid retro est mors habet, and when Death at last shall shut up all and put a full period to the Whole, it shall do no more then what every moment doth to the severall Parts. The last Sand in the Glass runs out in the same manner as the first. Therefore Death should not seem so strange and monstrous being thus familiarly conversant with us every moment. The difference between this Mortall Life and Immortality is like that between a Lease for years and an Estate in Fee Simple: both go hand in hand together, and equally spend the same minutes of Time; but the one still runs on, whereas the other stops in a certain period. Immortality looseth nothing by spending, being renewed as fast as it decaieth, and continueth still the same Term; which the other doth not, but is diminished by every mo­ment. Fools flatter themselvs, and [Page 222] suppose a kind of Immortality in the present Instant of Life; because it sufficeth for the present, aswell as Immortality it self: and they hope still to continue one year or day, or moment longer. Thus the momen­tany and uncertain condition of Life, which should most mortify, is by vain men abused to the contrary. Consider Death in relation to the Evill things of this Life, and so it is a Release from them all, and no part of them: Diseases, Pains, Griefs, and all those sad grones and ougly faces which are put upon Death be­long to Life which many times ex­erciseth more cruelty and tyranny then Death. Racking is a greater pain then Beheading, yet not so deadly. Assoon as Death enters upon the Stage the Tragedy is done. In relation to the Good things of Life it is a totall deprivation of them, and the Grave of all our worldly affairs aswel as of our selvs; yea as to our share and interest [Page 223] therein, a dissolution of all this World. The Tyrants wish, That the whole Earth might perish with him, took effect in himself: Death laugheth at all the Actions of mor­tall men, and stepping in when he pleaseth, dasheth all in peices. Death stops the mighty Conqueror in the full Career of his Victories, and bids him quit the field. Death deposeth all Kings, and reduceth them to the common equality of their originals. Death sweeps down the great Poli­tician, and the curious Cobweb of his high Designs. Death silences the learned Clerk, and makes the Poet cease in the midst of his work, like the Poeticall Swan,

— Qui fixus arundine carmen
Mille modis querulum quod cae­perat interrumpit.

Death is the best Comment upon Life: set him by the most beautifull Mistress, and he will convert our [Page 224] deifying fansies into dust and rot­tenness: as Caligula used to say of his. Tam bona cervix simulac jussero demetur. Place him on the Table among our dishes (as the Ancients used to do at their Feasts) & he will turn all into worms meat: Nothing can stand before him, but all vanish and disappear at his affright­ing presence. Honor, which of all wordly things only seems to sur­vive, passeth away with our Breath into the empty Aire; as Boethius wittily descanteth.

Vbi nunc fidelis ossa Fabricii ja­cent?
Quid Brutus, aut rigidus Cato?
Signat superstes fama tenuis par­vulis
Inane nomen literis.
Sed quid decora novimꝰ vocabula?
Num scire consumptes datur?
Iacetis ergo prorsus ignorabiles!
Nec fama notos efficit:
[Page 225] Quod si putatis longius vitam trahi
Mortalis aura nominis:
Cum sera vobis rapiet hoc etiam dies,
Iam vos secunda mors manet.
Where now is just Fabricius? Bru­tus where?
Or Cato the severe?
In a few Letters their surviving Fame
Presents an empty Name.
But can those Titles which we read or hear
Make Dead men to appear?
In dark oblivion ye all lye down!
Nor are your Persons known:
Or if you t [...]ink your Life by others Breath
May be redeem [...]d from Death:
Time which this Life shall also from you take,
A second death will make.

The arguments which the World [Page 226] commonly draws from Death are very strange. Epicures say, Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dy. Certainly Death is the worst Master of Revells. The Cove­tous will live Poor, that he may dy Rich: whereas indeed none dy Rich, but the richest depart as poor and naked out of this world as any, leaving all their welth to others. Glorious men dy daringly, that so they may be famous after Death: yet all their Fame is but as a stately Monument set over their Graves. Miserable men invoke Death and fly to it as their only Remedy: but they are the worst Physicians who cure by killing. These and the like are false enjoiments of Death, and to no good end. The reference it hath to another World, as it is a parting Line between Life and Eter­nity, doth best instruct us rightly to enjoy it. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, saith the Wiseman, do it with thy might, for there is no work, [Page 227] nor device, nor knowledge, nor wis­dom in the Grave whither thou goest. He makes Death an incitement to Work, not an invitation to Play: and the chief VVork and Business of our Life is to gain eternall Life. Blessed are the dead who dy in the Lord, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. All other Works, all Arts and Sci­ences, and the vast Projects and fa­mous Enterprises which fill the Hi­story of the World, end in the Grave, In that very day his thoughts perish: those only are our Stock and Provision for another VVorld. Thus a Christian enjoies Death by being familiarly acquainted with him, and taking him by the hand, goes along with him in all his steps and motions, dying dayly to the World, and living to God and Hea­ven: and when Death at last sum­mons him to depart, he willingly resigns up all as things which no longer concern him. He looks upon [Page 228] Heaven as a Kingdom in Reversion after his own Life, and looses no­thing in the mean time by staying for it: while he lives he encreases his future Glory, and when he dies he goes to possess it. Men of this world, whose hope is only in this Life, put Death far from them, though it be most naturall and nigh unto them, and the most cer­tain of all future things: and when Death appears and stares them in the face, they behold him as a most strange and horrid thing; either dy­ing away through fear and astonish­ment, as Nabal did; or enraged, like a wild Bull in a net, as the fa­mous Duke of Biron; or with Iudas desperately plunge themselvs into Hell; like Empedocles, who cast him­self quick into Mount Aetna. The best of them look upon Death as an indifferent thing, as Martial con­cludes his Happy Life. [Page 229] Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes.’ But to me, saith the Apostle to live is Christ, and to dy is Gain: which is the best and truest enjoiment both of Life and Death.

XIII. Of Sin.

SIn is the Death of Souls, the Fa­ther of Perdition, which like the Cici or Worm in Ionas Gourd, cor­rupted the world almost assoon as it was made. The Mystery of Ini­quity is almost as wonderfull as the Mystery of Grace and Godliness; that it should be so exceeding sin­full, and that being such it could possibly enter into the VVorld, when it was so perfectly constitu­ted, that there was no cleft or cra­ny in it, by which Sin might creep [Page 230] forth & enter into it, untill it made way for it self. Before Adam by fatall experience acquired the Know­ledge of Good and Evill, Sin might seem an incredible thing: for how could it be imagined that a reaso­nable Creature, of perfect under­standing and exact integrity, made only to serv and obey his Creator, and conscious that all his Happiness consisted therein, should rebell a­gainst him, and at once plunge him­self and all his Posterity into ever­lasting Misery? As there was no reason for Sin, so neither was there any root or ground out of which it should spring, only a bare Possi­bility of doing that which was most unreasonable and unnaturall. God made Man upright, but they have sought out many inventions, he was fain to seek out and invent the way of undoing himself, and to create Sin, which God had not made. But that which is most wonderfull in Sin, and which hath puzled the most [Page 231] profound Doctors, is the considera­tion of Gods Permission and Provi­dence; how and why he should suffer such an Enemy to himself and all his Creatures, to invade the World and ruin the whole Creati­on. It is certainly the greatest quarrell and highest blasphemy which the Divells and damned have against God, that he should make them to damn them, and it is the strongest argument in the corrupt minds of the sinners of this VVorld who have not yet felt the Hell of Sin, that it is no such great matter as Divines would perswade them: thinking, that because God doth permit it, therefore he will also to­lerate it. This is the strange and prodigious birth of Sin, and the Nature of it is answerable thereun­to: for it is no less then the doing of that wch we ought not to do, or the not doing of that which we ought to do, and what we ought not to do is in the very next degree to what [Page 232] we cannot do. Chast Ioseph puts the one for the other. How can I do this wickedness and sin against God? making morall Entity and Bonity as convertible as Naturall, and Gods Interdiction as restraining as his Interposition. This Monster assoon as it is born is so strong and adult in mischief, that it destroieth the Womb that bare it, and infect­eth the whole Sphere of its activi­ty: though acts of Sin make it grow, yet the first birth thereof makes it a complete Body, and me­rits an universall and eternall punishment. It hath blasted the whole inferior world and laid the foundations of Hell it self: hence are all the Evills in Nature, all the disorders in Humane society, and villanies of Men. The Story of the Italian, who first made his Enemy deny God, and then Stab'd him, and so at once murdered both Body and Soul, declares the perfect malignity thereof: and should the dire im­precations [Page 233] of revengefull Spirits be alwaies executed on others, we should create Divells and Hells e­nough to destroy all Mankind. But all this is the least and lowest Evill in it; the perfection thereof con­sists in the contrariety and enmity against God. It is called a Law of Sin, as being directly opposite to the Law of God: for what God saith, Thou shalt do, Sin saith, Thou shalt not do, and what he saith, Thou shalt not do, Sin saith, Thou shalt do; and so inverts the whole Decalogue, and the very Law of Nature, rob­ing God of his Creature, and setting it up against him, and in his throne. No created Majesty can endure a Consort, much less Divine, which is most absolutely and infinitely Supreme. It is true, Sin can never effect what it intends, and therefore wicked men think it is no­thing, because it cannot hurt and wrong God: but a declared intent is Treason, even among men, much [Page 234] more by the Law of God, who is chieifly served or disserved by our Spirits and Wills: yea this shows the most perfect malice of Sin, that it fights against a Majesty which can­not be wronged; and breeds a more haughty disdain and just re­venge in him whom it opposeth, to be defied by so base and Enemy. Men may say, they do not intend to hurt God; yet they do trans­gress and offend his Law, which is to offend himself, though the inten­tion may be to do God good ser­vice. If therefore there be any such difference in Nature, as Good and Evill; if there be any Monster or Mischief in the World, Sin is really the worst of Evills, being most contrary to the Chief Good: and in this relation it is infinitely evill, though as it is a finite act it cannot be really and properly infinite, for then it should be an Enemy equall to God: but it comes as neer to infinite as possibly it can: and if the [Page 235] Soul were infinite it would Sin infi­nitely, as being eternall it will sin eternally: yea it is as it were infinite to us, for we cannot measure nor comprehend the utmost extent of the sinfulness thereof, no more then we can number the particular acts. Let us therefore stand amazed at the sight of this Hydra, this killing and never dying Serpent, devouring all Good, and propagating all Evill. Now what enjoiment can there be of such a perfect Evill. Certain­ly next to the Grace of God a Christian reaps the greatest Happi­ness from it; yea Grace it self, which delivereth from Sin, cannot be en­joied without the enjoiment of Sin from which it delivereth: and the more horrid and hellish Sin is, the more doth the Love of God appear in delivering us from it, and in pre­serving the little spark of his Grace in the midst of an Ocean of corrup­tion. There is no such Antipathy in Nature, as between Holiness and [Page 236] Unholiness, the contrariety of Vice and Virtue is far short of it: Grace is the highest perfection of the Soul, and Sin the greatest imperfection. As sin is the occasion of our greatest Good and highest Preferment, so it is also of Gods greatest Glory, and therein we should rejoice. There is more Ioy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth, then over ninety and nine Iust persons who need no repen­tance. Thus the more we hate it, the more we enjoy it, and our greatest abhorrency doth most excite this affection of holy Joy: and this is the high priviledge of a Christian, to enjoy that which is most contrary unto him, not only by forbearing it, but also by Gods forgiving and recovering out of it to a state of higher Perfection and Happiness.

XIIII. of the Restauration of the Soul.

THe Restauration of the Soul is the Conversion of it from Sin to God, as the Corruption thereof was a defection from God to Sin. This is a greater and more glorious work then the first Creation, and the utmost Design of God in ma­king the VVorld. As in an inge­nious Poem, which is the Crea­ture of Fancy, the chief excellency is the Plot, and the excellency of the Plot is the strange difficulty and intricacy of the Epitasis, or troublesome state of the Business, which is afterward beyond all ex­pectation cleared up, and resolved into an happy Catastrophe: where­as if it should be carried on in a con­stant course of Prosperity, it would seem very flat and dull without art or wit. Thus God having made all [Page 238] things for himself, and the manife­station of of his own Glory, as the wisest end which he could pro­pound to himself, was not satisfied with the first work of Creation, though exceeding good and per­fect in its kind: but assoon as it was finished, suffered Sin to enter upon the Stage, bringing Death and Hell along with it, and so to confound and destroy all. This was the Dig­nus vindice nodus, such as all the Wit of Men and Angels could not unty, till God himself came down from Heaven, and resolved it into this more glorious work of Re­demption; which is an uncreating of Sin, and a creating of Grace: God cannot make Factum infectum, but by pardoning Sin he makes it Quasi infectum: Sin remitted is as though it had never been cōmitted. Thus Justice it self justifies the un­just, and being overcome it tri­umphs. Justice and Mercy could not meet together in any other [Page 239] way, and there is no other Instance in the whole History of the VVorld of any act of God which doth so perfectly exercise all his Attributes, & manifest all his Glory, and conse­quently fulfill the end of Creation. As God justifies the Ungodly, so he makes him Godly, which is the o­ther part of this great work, and no less wonderfull then the former. If the entrance of Sin into the VVorld be so stupendious, the ex­pulsion thereof is much more. The Peripatetikes suppose the Soul of Man to be like a plain Table, or as we say, a blank Paper, on which Good or Evill may be imprinted, and so equally indifferent to both. But other Heathens have confessed the contrary, Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur—and all Christianity is a­gainst it. If their Opinion were true, probably some one man among so many millions might have lived pure from Sin, perhaps through the whole course of his life, or for a [Page 240] year, or day, or hour; or at least might perform some one action per­fectly good, which none ever did. Therefore the Platonikes, say the Soul is like a Chariot drawn with two Horses, whereof one is fair and generous, the other deformed and resty. The first is the Rationall part, the second the Sensuall: some Pla­tonicall Divines call them Flesh and Spirit; but it is most evident that not only the inferior faculties, but also the superior are corrupt­ed; otherwise the inferior could not draw them away; they being able of themselvs to put forth their own acts pure and incorrupt; the Mind is free and cannot sin but from it self, though it may be tempt­ed and urged by others. On the contrary, sometimes the Mind urges the inferior faculties to sin beyond the common bounds of their nature, and the utmost desires of Beasts: besides, there are many rationall and spirituall Sins wherein the infe­rior [Page 241] Faculties have no share. The Pelagians seem to grant a mixture of both principles of Good and E­vill in every Faculty, and that by our own endeavors the Good Prin­ciple may be so exercised and exci­ted, that it may prevail against the other: but then why might it not proceed so far, as wholly to extin­guish the other? for by prevailing in part, it gains some farther degree of strength, and the other looseth as much; and a greater strength of Good may more probably prevail against a lesser strength of Evill, then a lesser strength of Good could against a greater strength of Evill; or if the Good can never overcome the evill, then every act flowing from both, will be mixt and imperfect, and can merit no­thing but the just indignation of a pure and perfect God, and so leav us in the same state of misery in which it found us. The Semipelagi­ans therefore, who have spun out [Page 242] this thread to the utmost fineness which it will bear without break­ing, say, there is indeed left in Man a free will to Good, but such as cannot act the Good it would with­out a Divine assistance; yet the Will of Man freely inclining it self to Good, inclines God to assist him with his Grace: and that God e­ternally foreseeing this Good in­clination, did therefore, and not otherwise, pre-ordain such to Grace and Salvation; So that God doth not turn the Will, which they say is contrary to the freedom thereof, but concur with it in promoting it. Thus they think they have fairly de­cided this great Controversy, by parting the stakes between Gods Grace and Mans Will: but they erre, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God, subordinating the will of God to the will of Man, ra­ther then the will of Man to the will of God, and make this greatest work of Redemption lesser then [Page 243] that the Creation, which proceeded from nothing. Though it may be a problematicall Question in Divini­ty, whether one sin doth naturally of it self destroy all Grace, yet it is most true, that the eating of the for­bidden fruit was such a Criticall and Fatall sin which did incurr the sen­tence of Death, by which this Spi­rituall Death of Grace is chiefly in­tended, and so judicially produced the same effect; for as one sin may be punished with another, so may it be punished with all Sin, by virtue of such a precedent Compact: and thus is that Originall Sin imputed and derived unto us, not only by naturall propagation: for then all other sins of Parents should de­scend upon their Children in the same manner: but as that Com­mand was a triall of Mans universall obedience, so the breach thereof was an universall sin, and the punish­ment equall unto it. Yet the will of Man remains free in its own nature, [Page 244] else it should not freely sin, and so not sin at all; nor doth necessity take away freedom; for God doth most necessarily, and yet most free­ly will his own Glory; and the will of man doth necessarily and freely will Good, reall or appa­rent: yea in the very act of willing it is necessarily determined to one particular object, and yet doth then will most freely, that is, not as Beasts, through Appetite and In­stinct, but with a Rationall Electi­on. The will of man is free accord­ing to the Law of Nature, and by that very Law it is impossible that it should be so free as not to be sub­ordinate to God, and manageable by his supernaturall and infinite power, in such a supernaturall and infinite manner as doth not destroy the will it self, not the freedom of it, which is of the nature thereof: for if God should not govern the will of Men and Angels, as well as all other things, he should not rule [Page 245] and order the highest acts of his no­blest Creatures; nor can there be any Pre-vision in God, without this Pre-ordination. Providence in the Word signifieth Foreseeing, but in the Thing Fore-ordaining, because God by foreseeing doth fore-or­dain; and so that distinction where­on they so much depend falls to the ground, which Tully ingenuously confesseth, and therefore denying Fate, denyeth also Oracles and Di­vine Prescience; and Bradwardine disputeth it affirmatively thus; He who made this World, and all things therein did certainly foresee what he made, and it being eternally true, that whatsoever hath been, is, or shall be in the World, should be before it was, God who is omnisci­ent, must certainly foreknow it; now this certain foreknowledge in God could not be grounded on the things themselvs which should be, for the World had yet no being, but was a meer Nothing; and No­thing [Page 246] could not be the Cause nor Object of Gods foreknowledge of things which should be, but God himself, or as the Platonikes and Schoolmen speak, the Idea in the Mind of God, which is in himself, and of himself; and according to which the thing was produced, in that manner as he had ordained; otherwise the foresight of God could not be infallible, nor any foresight at all; and therefore on­ly God can certainly foreknow, be­cause he only can certainly pre-or­dain; and there can be no exempti­on of the Will of Man more then of the actions of any other Crea­ture. The vast consequences there­of, and that grand objection con­cerning sin, Why doth he yet finde fault, for who hath resisted his Will? are resolved by the great Apostle so fully, that if all the Cavils of men against this Truth were now pre­sented unto him, he could not an­swer them more directly then he [Page 274] doth; nor is it possible for any mor­tall man to satisfie him whom the Spirit of God Speaking so expresly in that place doth not satisfie. As one saith, At the day of Judgement we shall fully understand his 9. Chap. to the Romans: This being the great and generall Case between God and Sinners, is reserved for that great and generall Assises; That God may be justified in his say­ings, and might overcome when he is judged. And the more proud men do now exalt themselvs against this Truth, the more should a Christian admire and enjoy the wounderfull work of his Conversion, which as it is supernaturall, so it is incompre­hensible, and say of his new Birth, as David said of his naturall Birth, Fearfully and wonderfully am I made.

XV. Of Graces.

AS Being is the foundation of Welbeing, so is Welbeing the Perfection of Being. Christ said of Iudas, It had been good for that man if he had not been born. Contrarily, Spirituall Regeneration and the new Birth is better then the Natu­rall. Being of it self is morally nei­ther Good nor Evill, out capable or either. Thus Grace, though Acciden­tall, is more valuable then the Sub­stance of the Soul. Grace is that which the Scripture calleth A Good and Honest Hart, that is, Ingenuity or Goodness toward God; As the word Piety generally signifieth a good disposition toward all Relati­ons. So the Poet calleth his Aeneas Pious, as well for his officious duti­fulness toward his Father Anchises, as for his religious devotion toward [Page 249] his goods. The contrary hereof is ei­ther a direct malignity, or Hypo­criticall and double dealing with God. This Ingenuity consists in Spi­rituall Discretion, or Ingenium, and a towardly Disposition, or Indoles of the Soul. Discretion, or a right discerning between things that dif­fer, is the genuine sense of divine Goodness, and the sinfulness of Sin; whereby the Mind clearly beholds the Beauty of the one, and the De­formity of the other, and is so sa­tisfied and filled with this Light, that there is no reserv of any contrary opinion, or secret subtilty of a cor­rupt wit, lurking in any corner, which may prevail against it, and seduce the Soul from God. Good Disposition is the bias or inclinati­on of the Soul toward God, and a­version from Sin, a rising from an in­ward Sympathy with the one, and Antipathy against the other. These two beget a Christian Nobility and Gallantry of Spirit—in coctum [Page 250] generoso pectus honesto. The Mind thus setled and fortified within it self, is able to encounter all the proud Fansies and vain Imaginati­ons of men, whereby they exalt themselvs against Heaven; to de­spise the greatest prosperity of the most glorious Sinners, to nauseate the Circean Cup of their sweetest pleasures, and scorn the witty impi­eties of a Lucian, or a Iulian, and the whole Stage of profane Scof­fers; to pass through the Labyrinth of a thousand Errors, and keep the streight path of Truth, though co­vered all over with the thorny ar­guments of the acutest Sophistry, or possessed with Lions and Dragons of persecution. Hence proceeds an inward Joy and sweet Delight in God and all Goodness, as naturally pleasing to the new Nature of a re­ctified Soul. David is a most famous example of this happy temper of Mind, and therefore stiled A Man after Gods own Hart, judging as he [Page 251] [...]udgeth, loving what he loveth, and hating that which he hateth: and when he had sinned against this In­genuity by those presumptuous sins of Murder and Adultery in the mat­ter of Vriah, which checked this ho­norable title with the Rein of a sad exception, in his Poenitentiall Psalm he praies for the restoring of this right and free spirit. Paul, the great­est Conqueror that ever was in the world, was eminently acted by this Spirit, being the most profound and powerfull Preacher of the Gospell of Grace, and the highest Example thereof in himself. And though this spirit of Grace were not perfect in them, much less in common Christi­ans, yet it is that true Genius thereof in all, striving and prevailing a­gainst the evill spirit of Corruption in them; and being the very Cha­racteristicall note of true Conversi­on, and that which Divines call Sincerity. Of all particular Graces, the first and fundamentall is Faith [Page 252] in Christ, because this unites the Soul to him who is the Fountain of this new Life, sucking from him a Divine influence, and deriving it to all other Graces, and so mingling it self with them, resigns all back again to Christ, not as works or merits, but as his Gifts and Graces, by him to be presented to God. This Evan­gelicall Faith doth more perfectly unite the Soul to Christ and God by him, then all the inherent Grace of Adam; and this union of Faith is perfected in a more high and spi­rituall Love, which also flows from it; for as we are now more behold­ing to God, so we are more obliged to love him, and God also loves most where he gives most. This Love begets Obedience, Love being the most serviceable and active Af­fection of the Soul, and not only binds us to the Command, but in­gages us of it self to become like to him whom we do love: nor can there be any mutuall delight be­tween [Page 253] God and the Soul without likeness. Can two walk together ex­cept they be agreed? Glory being Grace perfected, where there is no Grace, there can be no Glory. As Christ, though he suffered for sin, yet would not endure the least stain thereof in himself, so though a Christian by his suffering is freed from the curse of Sin, yet is he no less an enemy to all Sin. And as the Grace of God doth not restrain him from commanding, by which he worketh Grace in us, so neither should it hinder us from using the means by which it is conveied to us. This obedience of a Christian, though very weak and imperfect in it self, yet being performed in the Strength of Christ, is more ac­ceptable to God then all the per­fect obedience of Adam. There is no condition which hath not a Grace fit for it, whereby it may be sweetned and sanctified, which is the happy Enjoiment thereof, a [Page 254] Heaven within, though there be a Hell without. In the world, saith Christ, yee shall have tribulation, in me ye shall have peace. Grace is a Panoply against all troubles, and a Paradise of all Pleasures.

XVI. Of Duties.

DUties are the Exercise of Graces, or the Souls Gymna­sium, the ordinary way wherein God hath appointed to meet us and converse with us, and so instead of all those extraordinary manifestati­ons of his presence in former times. As in our Naturall and Civill life he hath ordained severall Callings and Emploiments for the well spending of our time, and advancing our tem­porall Estates, so also in the Spiri­tuall life he hath instituted certain Ordinances and Duties for the act­ing and improving of our Graces. [Page 255] They who live without a Calling and some constant Business, wander up and down in the Wilderness of Vanity and Vice, & such as despise or neglect Duties, prove as extrava­gant and licentious in Religion. There is a double Error concerning them. Some are very strict and se­dulous in Duties, but rest in the work done, and count them by their Beads, or measure them by their Hourglass, rather then weigh them in the Balance of the Sanctuary; not regarding how and with what Spi­rit they perform them: whereas the very Heathens esteemed it no Litation, if there were any notable defect in the Intralls; but sacrificed again, taking that for none, yea worse then none, as being omnious and unlucky. Others speak so much of the Spirit and inward part of the Duty, that they wholly neglect the Body thereof: but there is a great difference between a Body and a Carcase. Outward worship with­out [Page 256] Spirit and Truth is a dead Car­case, but with it is a living Body. They pretend to the Spirit, and wait for the impulses and motions there­of, but neglect the waies aud means which the Spirit hath prescribed in his Word, and if we strictly observ them, we shall find such generally to be as formally Spirituall; as others are formall in Duties; full of words and notions, and placing all religi­on in them God hath purposely or­dained solemn and set Duties to restrain our wandring Spirits, and bind them to his service, which o­therwise through the manifold di­versions of worldly occasions, or this vain pretension of waiting up­on the Spirit, we should wholly neglect. David was a most holy and spirituall man, and his Psalms as full of spirituall life and vigor as any part of the Old Testament, yet we may observ in them; how com­monly he begins heavily and with much diffidence, & so quickning by [Page 257] degrees, concludes with much as­surance of Faith and Spirituall Joy. Therefore Duties are not to be de­ferred, because we are dull and indisposed, but so much rather to be practiced; that thereby we may gather heat and life: and we have no warrant otherwise to expect the Spirit of God then in his own way. Our Spirits are like Instruments of Musike which must be often tuned, or like Watches which must be wound up daily. The morning and evening sacrifices under the Law seem to typify to us under the Gos­pell the spirituall offering up of Christ at the beginning and end of the day. Duties are the Diet of the Soul, and it is best to make constant and set meals of them; though as our naturall food, they may be ite­rated or deferred upon speciall oc­casions: but to omit them for any long time is dangerous, and wholly to neglect them, deadly. Christian Duties, whereof we now speak, [Page 258] are either such as God hath pre­scribed in the way of naturall wor­ship which we ow unto him; as to pray, preach, meditate, confer, and the like, and in these there is nothing ceremoniall or servile, more then in the Worship it self which is exer­cised by them: or such as are speci­ally and extraordinarily instituted by God; as the Sacraments: and being such, may not be rejected, un­less we should plainly resist God: or else such as are mixt of both, and so partake of the nature and reason of both, as morall Duties circumstan­tiated by Divine Institution. As for those proud and foolish Spirits, who say they are above Ordinances and Duties, they may aswell say they are above all Religion and God himself. The right enjoiment of Duties is first to attend them as our main business, without which we do not use them, much less injoy them. Mary was as much busied in hearing Christ, as Martha was about [Page 259] his entertainment. The Heathen Priests began with, Hoc age: they thought it a very irreligious thing to be remiss and vain, though in a vain Religion. When a Coal fell upon the hand of him who held the Censer, while Alexander was sacrificing, he rather suffered it to be burnt, then stir it. To Attention we must join Inten­tion of Spirit: as we must love God, so also we must serv him, withall our heart, withall our Soul, and with all our might. Good intervenient thoughts may be generally good, but are very sinful in this particular circumstance; Again we must mingle every Duty as well as Hearing with Faith, beginning, proceeding, and ending all in Christ, who is the great and universall Ordinance of God. As our Spirit doth animate the Duty on our part, so doth the Spirit of God on his part. This com­munion of our Spirits with the Spi­rit of God in the Duty, is the happy enjoiment thereof, which renders it [Page 260] as spirituall as immediate influxes of the Spirit in any extraordinary way. Hence proceeds Joy and Delight: men of action naturally delight in Business, chiefly such as they find profitable to them. As profit be­gets delight, so delight begets pro­fit. Be not slothfull in Business, fer­vent in Spirit, serving the Lord. God doth not impose Duties upon us as tasks and burdens, as a Master exer­ciseth his Servant; but as a Teacher his Scholar, for his instruction and education. They are the Paedagogy of Heaven, preparing us for it: this apprehension of them takes off all the drudgery and servility from them, and renders them our reason­able and willing service, most profi­table to our selvs, and acceptable un­to God.

XVII. Of Conscience.

COnscience is the greatest obli­gation to Duty; the supreme Dictator, and chief Magistrate in the Soul, and not only as a Magistrate externally imposing Laws and Com­mands, but rather as a Genius or Daemon within us, speaking Oracles, and exercising a Divine authority over us; which must be exactly sa­tisfied in every point with a direct and active obedience: and in this respect it hath some kind of co-ordi­nate power and authority with God himself: for as Conscience without Divine authority will not justify an action, so God will not accept it without the concurrent authority of Conscience: there must be as it were mutuall Indentures between both parties: God first indites and seals the deed, and Conscience must also [Page 262] seal the Counterpart: without the one our service is unlawfull, and without the other unreasonable. This double authority being requi­site to every action, any contrariety or diversity between them, puts the Soul into a strange confusion: for whether we do follow an erring Conscience we sin, or whether we do not we sin, and when the Conscience doubts and hangs in suspense be­tween two contrary opinions, not knowing which way to take, like Pentheus, who thought he saw ‘Et solem geminum, & geminus se ostendere Thebas.’ it sins whether it goes one way or other, or neither, if the case be such, as the thing ought to be done, or not done. This miserable condition in which the Soul is thus intangled proceeds from the naturall corrup­tion thereof, which is a difformity from the Mind of God, and that Di­vine [Page 263] authority, as a right Judgment is a conformity thereunto: yet men secretly charge it upon God as a se­vere exactor of that which is beyond their understanding, and think very hardly of him, that they should be involved in this Labyrinth of Error, and put into such a necessity of sin­ning; though this proceed not from any darkness of Truth, which is a most pure and clear Light, but the blindness which is in their Minds. To avoid this, Naturalists and Socinians suppose him a good easy and indul­gent God, content with any thing, and well liking to be served with their good meaning, subordinating the authority of God to Conscience, rather then the authority of Con­science to God: and so to deify their corrupt Reason, debase & dishonor the Deity. Others who are not so impudent as to expect a toleration for their Consciences from God, yet exact it from men. It is true, no humane authority can force the [Page 264] Conscience, which to imagine is as ridiculous as that there should be a Law made against thinking: but if it may not restrain words and acti­ons, which are things overt, and be­long to the outward man, it is an or­dinance of God to no purpose, for where there is no Law, every man may act according to his own Conscience, and if he may do so where there is a Law, the Law is vain, and of no force or authority. This is another difficulty of Consci­ence, when the publike and autho­ritative Judgment, and the private differ, but more easily resolved then the former. If the thing be unlaw­full, it is better to obey God then Man; yet God who hath com­manded us to be active in such cases, hath also commanded us to be pas­sive in suffering; which is the only lawfull escape he hath reserved for such as are under lawfull authority: and which neither destroieth the publike authority, nor our private [Page 265] Conscience. But proud and furious Spirits, impatient of suffering, and despising this low and humble way of passive obedience, whereof Christ himself, & all his Apostles have given us both the precept and the ex­ample, will rather confound all Laws and Bonds of Humane Socie­ty, then be crost in their own wills. A right Conscience will preserv it self in a right way, and by right means, both in doing and suffering, otherwise Martyrdome it self should be only Patience perforce, and the hight of Christian Grace inferior to Heathenish Virtue▪ As Religion is a chief Bond of Humane Society, and indeed the very Spirit and Soul thereof, which governeth the in­ward man; so the differences and dissentions about it have alwaies proved dangerous, and sometimes fatall to the State: and therefore may be no more to lerated then civil Seditions: What confusion and [Page 266] mischief did the Arrian Heresy work in the Roman Empire: the different expositions of the Maho­metan Law serv to foment the wars between the Turks and Persians: So doth the Popish and Protestant Doctrine among Christians; and the Lutheran and Calvinisticall, Ar­minian and Antiarminian among Protestants. The most strange and prodigious villanies which were ever acted among men have been commonly the effects of an erring Conscience. Such was Agamemnons sacrificing his Daughter, whereof Lucretius doth so much complain; Orestes his killing of his mother, be­ing perswaded to it, as Euripides re­lateth, by the oracle of Apollo. The Vespers, Massacres, Powderplots of false and furious Zelots, the most im­pious Paricides, Rebellions, and Treasons of Anabaptisticall Spirits have been the Dictates of their fana­tike Consciences. An evill Consci­ence [Page 267] is the greatest Tyrant; a mans own evill Spirit, or the Divell with­in him, possessing and ingaging the whole man, and disturbing the world. Yet because of the Errors in Conscience, and much mischief pro­ceeding from them, to abdicate Conscience it self is a most desperate and profane Humor, destroying all sense of Good or Evill, and con­founding Heaven with Hell, where­as a good and right Conscience is like the Holy Spirit, our best Di­rector and Comforter, As we can­not serv God without it, so nei­ther can we enjoy any actuall Happiness in him without the testi­mony thereof; his Spirit bearing witness with our Spirit that we are his Children. This is both the Basis and Acme of the Soul, the foundation and perfection of a Christian life, being indeed the most roiall and generous thing in Man. Horace his description there­of [Page 268] is, as Calvin observeth, too high for a Heathen; but true of a David, and a right Christian.

Iustum, & tenacem propositi vi­rum,
Non civium ardor prava juben­tium,
Non vultus instantis ty­ranni
Mente quatit solida; ne (que) Auster
Dux inquietae turbidus A­driae,
Nec fulminantis magna Iovis ma­nus,
Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae.
The Iust mans Iugdement and re­solved Will
No fury Popular injoining ill,
[Page 269] No urging Tyrants face
Shakes setled on a solid Base.
Not the Souths Stormy breath which doth command
Rough Adria; nor great Ioves thundring hand:
Though the crack'd Globe should fall,
He fearless bears the breach of all.

XVIII. Of the last Iudgement.

Conscience is the supreme Judge within a man, but very erro­nious in matter of Right, though seldom erring in matter of Fact: nor is it alwaies rectified by the Judge­ment of others, whereof their Con­sciences are also Dictators: yea the very Providence of God in this world, which men look upon as his Judgement at present, supposing him alwaies to favor the Victorious, is so various, & many times so contra­ry, that many times a Cato may justly prefer the other side. But certainly there is such a thing in nature as Justice, though she have long since left the earth; and the Iudge of all the earth must do right, and doth immediately pass sentence upon e­very evill act assoon as it is com­mitted, [Page 271] though it be not speedily executed. The greater the present confusion of all things is, the great­er is the certainty of the last Judg­ment. God never made a world to no purpose, and Rationall Crea­tures, which are his chief Subjects, only to rebell against him. The Heathen were so perplexed with the consideration hereof, having no certain knowledge of this last Judgement, that sometimes they thought there was no God, Esse deos credamne? — denying the very Creed of Nature, and surren­dring the belief of a Deity to their doubting of his Providence, it seem­ing more credible to them that there is no God, then that he should be unjust. Sometimes they thought God did not regard these inferior things, but only made a sport and pastime of them. [Page 272] Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus.’ Sometimes they thought one God favored one side, and another the other.

Mulciber in Trojam, pro Troja stabat Apollo;
Saepe premente Deo fert Deus alter opem.

The Manichees went so far in this Opinion as to set up an universall and standing Paire of contrary Gods, whereof one is the Author of Good, and the other of Evill: which is the naturall Idolatry of many barbarous Nations. The My­steries of Providence have puzled the whole world: and indeed it is so strange an Administration, that there seems to be left no more then what is meerly necessary for the preserva­tion of the world. Assoon as any [Page 273] Family or State grows up to a ma­turity, they have their period, and are thrown down again: and when any man becomes strictly honest and religious, he can hardly be suffered to breath, nor enjoy a common be­ing among men. Aristides the Just, and Socrates who lived as he taught, could not be endured in the most learned City of the world. Even a­mong Christians the power and life of that Religion which is generally professed, is most opposed; whereas they who have been most forward in any false Religion have been al­waies most honored. Certainly there is another manner of account to be taken of these things, or else we must suppose God to be a most in­discreet Phaeton & unwise Governor of the World, which is very irreli­gious and irrationall. God can no more rest in this confusion of all things, then he could in the first Chaos; but will a [...] last bring forth the perfect module of his Provi­dence [Page 274] and Justice, and the cerrain expectation thereof is that which doth easily absolv him, and answer all objections: for then shall this Face of Providence which now to­ward us seems monstrous and de­formed, as it shall look toward God, appear most beautifull, not only in the principall lineaments thereof, but in every hair of the least circumstance: then shall every thing attain that perfection for which it was ordained and design­ed by him, and be set in its right place and order, never to be remov­ed or disordered any more. The first Creation was but an Embrion of this other world of perfection, which shall be then completed: and so shall ensue that eternall Sabbath, wherein God shall rest and reign for ever. The chief materials of this new World are Angels and Men, the everlasting Monuments of his Mercy and Justice, who are now in a continuall progress toward the [Page 275] most contrary terms of extreme Happiness and Misery. Then shall Truth and Error, Good and Evill, be as cleerly distinguished and dis­cerned by all, as now the Eye doth judge of Colors, Black and White, Light and Darkness, and every one receive according to his Deeds: so that there shall not be one farthing got or lost by all this forbearance. Though Hell hath most of men, yet Heaven had the first, who died a Martyr: and God will have some of both sorts in all Ages and Parts of the World to fill both places. As for wicked men, Iuvenal tells us, ‘Quocun (que) invenias populo, quocun­que sub axe.’ Though he thought a Brutus or a Cato could hardly be found in any corner of the earth: but Christ tells us that better then they shall come from the East, and West, and sit [Page 276] down with Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob in the Kingdome of God: and they in Heaven sing unto him. Thou hast redeemed us unto God out of eve­ry Kindred, and Tong, and People, and Nation; As when any man hath filled up the measure of his Sin or Grace he is taken out of this world; so when the whole number of Sin­ners and Saints shall be accomplish­ed, then shall the World it self cease and be resolved into this perfect Kingdome. Christ shall have his mystical Body made of all his Saints, as so many members of severall pro­portions; and the Divell shall have his made up of sinners of all sorts and Sizes; and God shall be per­fectly glorified in both. God made the first world in order, measure, and weight, much more this second world, which must be most perfect and perpetuall. The perfection of this perfection, and that wherein God is most glorified, is the salvati­on of Man: therefore as the first [Page 277] man that died was saved, so the dead in Christ shall rise first: though there shall be more of the damned, which is also to set forth the singular and extraordinary Grace of God to­ward the blessed, yet there is great­er manifestation of Gods Glory in them that are saved then in the o­ther. Justice is equally ballanced by rewarding the good, and punishing the bad: but the saving of one Sin­ner, which is an act of free Grace and Bounty, far exceeds both: and damnation, which is but a due pu­nishment, holds no proportion with it. There is more merit in the blood of Christ, by which we are saved, then demerit in the Divells and all the damned. A Christian enjoies this day of Judgement by a constant and joifull expectation thereof, which is so terrible unto others: and as God will then reduce all the confusions of this world into a state of perfecti­on, so shall all the reproches and sufferings of the Saints end in eternal Glory and Blessedness.

XIX. Of Hell.

HEll is the Executioner of Gods last Judgment against Sinners, the Nadir of the new World, as Heaven is the Zenith Paul the 3d on his death bed, said, he should shortly be resolved of three things whereof he had ever much doubted; Whether there were a God, an Immortality, and a Hell, or no: and indeed we can hardly deny the last, unless we also deny the first. God who is the great Judge will not only pass sen­tence, which is but an Idea of Justice, but also execute it upon the dam­ned, which is the life and existence thereof. Therefore every Religion hath instituted some kind of Hea­ven and Hell, places of reward and punishment sutable to it self: and the more pure and spirituall the Religion is, the more exact are the [Page 279] Heaven and Hell belonging to it: for as it deals with God himself, so it doth with his Justice and Mercy. The Barbarous Nations suppose that after Death they shall be transpor­ted beyond I know not what Mountains, and there receiv some childish rewards. The Poets have their Elysium and Tartarus, and have furnished them with severall kinds of Pleasures and Pains. The Turks fansy a Paradise of all car­nall Delights, and a place of corpo­reall Torments, very gross and sensu­all, neerer Poetry then Christiani­ty. The Papists acknowledge a true Heaven and Hell; but as they deal with all other parts of Religion, so to these they add some, Suburbs, cer­tain Limbo's and Purgatories of their own invention. But the Scriptures set forth the true Heaven and the true Hell, in a most perfect manner, becommig the Mercy and Justice of an Infinite God, and befit­ting the Spiritual nature of the Crea­tures [Page 280] capable thereof. Wicked men perswade themselvs that God who made them will not damn them, or at most that they shall only suffer to the purging away of their Sin: and then afterward — Vbi mille ro­tam volvere per annos, as Origen held even of the Divells, they shall be released: because their Sins can­not hurt God, therefore they think God will not hurt them. Thou thoughtest, saith God, I was altoge­ther such a one as thy self: but I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thine Eies. He is so far from any such blind and dull negligence, that he will bring forth all their sins, and set every one of them in order, attired with all their Circumstances, and exactly proportion punish­ments to them by a most just and e­quall compensation. He who would suffer none to escape in this life whom he had cursed with a tempo­rall Curse, but most severely pu­nished the foolish pity of Saul, in [Page 281] sparing Agag; and Achan for re­serving only a wedge of Gold and a Babylonish Garment of the spoil of that execrated City; who drow­ned the old World with a Deluge, and saved only eight Persons in the Ark, will certainly in a most exact manner execute his great Anathema and finall doom against Sinners, whereof those former examples seem to be but the types, and the evidences of his severe wrath; the perfection whereof is reserved for Hell. These things are no Monkery, nor Christian Poetry, no Bruta ful­mina, but most certain truths grounded on Reason and Scripture. God is not slack, as men count slack­ness, nor rigid as they count rigor: but as he perfectly hates Sin, so he will perfectly punish it; and go to the very utmost Apex and Puntilio of Justice, that so his Justice may be manifested to the utmost. Hell is the privation of all Good things, depriving the irreligious Cardinall [Page 282] at once both of his part in Paris, and of his part in Paradise. There the voluptuous Dives hath not the least drop of water to cool the tip of his tong, but is exprobra­ted and tormented aswell with the remembrance of the good things which he formerly enjoied, as of the evill thing he suffers. But Heaven it self is that which doth infinitely provoke the envy of the Divells and the Damned; making the great Tyrants and cruell Persecuters of the world to gnash their teeth, when they behold a poor Lazarus, whom thay disdained to diet with their dogs, advanced to so high a Glory, and trampling on their captive necks. Hence they conceiv as much torment, as they see the Saints enjoy of bliss: for this is the nature of per­fect Envy, to be as much vexed in it self, as it apprehendeth Happiness in another. Coelum est altera Ge­henna damnatorum. The sensible sufferings of Hell are the other part [Page 283] thereof, the Tunica molesta, which covers the whole Man all over with pain and misery. The pains of the Body are set out by the terrible vi­olence of Fire and Sulphur, which are put for the whole power of Na­ture, armed with all its weapons and engines, and sharpned to the quickest activity it hath, yea be­yond the present condition thereof, as the Body it self shall be then for­tified, only to endure those tor­ments which now would consume it in a moment: Yea, through this Hellish discord and distemper it shall become a most perfect engine of its own Misery, more then all the externall impressions of Sicilian or Turkish tortures, the tedious Tragedy of Raviliac, or the horrible Disease of a dying Antiochus. But the Soul, which is the chief Sinner, shall be chief Mourner at its own Funerall. God who made it, and knows how to punish it, shall cause his wrath to pierce into the very In­wards [Page 284] and Vitalls of it, which no other Creature can reach. His dreadfull Ey shall shoot beams of Vengeance through and through the damned Spirits. Every wicked man carrieth about him his own Hell, and layeth up barrells of Gunpowder against that time: which when the breath of the Lord like a flame of fire shall once have kindled, will blow him up, and fill the Soul and all the faculties thereof with an universall conflagration. Sin is the fuell of this fire which shall never fail: for neither shall the Guilt thereof be purged away by Suffering, nor the Power be sup­pressed by Punishing, but they shall for ever rage and blaspheme his name through the sense of their pain and anguish, and for ever be punish­ed for it. Thus shall God to the utmost fight against the damned, and they against him to all Eternity. There shall be no discharge in that was. This Wheel of Eternity is that [Page 285] on which the Soul shall be perfectly broken; that Abyss which renders the pit of Hell bottomless, and the continuall sense thereof is the most bitter Ingredient in every moment of suffering, making the Soul endure all at once, through the constant ex­pectation of a succeeding perpetui­ty. Eternity begets that Monster, Despair, which like a Medusa's head, astonisheth with its very aspect, and strangles Hope, which is the breath of the Soul: as it is said, Dum spiro spero, so it may be invert­ed, Dum spero spiro. Other miseries may wound the Spirit, but Despair kils it dead. Now a Christian en­joies Hell in a contrary manner, as the damned are tormented with the sight of Heaven. Gehenna est alterum Coelum beatornm. The mi­series of this Life commend Hea­ven unto us, much more the tor­ments of Hell. Deliverance from great dangers affect the Soul far more then perpetuall security. [Page 286] When a man shall consider with himself, that he was in the same condemnation with others, and yet is pardoned and preferred while they are executed, it will make him hug himself, and fill his Soul with the sense of a double delight, con­ceiving as much joy in his delive­rance, as there is torment in others suffering.

Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis
E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem.

It is at present a naturall delight, but not without some tincture of cruelty to behold the Tragedy of o­thers: but when the Justice of God hath once past sentence upon the damned, as they shall for ever de­part from him, so shall they also de­part from us: and then all Humane Relations, the grounds of Pity shall cease, and be swallowed up in the Love of God; so that we shall as­well [Page 287] rejoyce in his Justice, and their Punishment, as God himself, who hath said, He will laugh at their de­struction. Let the Saints be joifull in Glory, let them sing upon their beds: Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their Hand; To execute venge­ance upon the Heathen, and punish­ments upon the People; To bind their Kings with Chains, and their Nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgement written. This honor have all his Saints.

XVII. Of Heaven.

HEaven is the contrary of Hell, but far more glorious then Hell is miserable. It is not only a paradise, or reduction of Man to his primitive state of perfection, but an higher exaltation of his nature, as far above it in Glory, as it is in si­tuation. Though Man was created perfect according to that state in which he was then made, yet he was capable of an higher perfection; and that capacity was not imperfe­ction, but the foundation of this greater perfection; not a want of any thing which he then ought to have, but only an absence of that which he might afterward have. As a Child in the womb is a perfect Child, and of a more excellent na­ture then the Foetus of any Beast, though it be not perfect in all the [Page 289] degrees and operations of Man; so is Man in the womb of this World: or as the Apostle expresseth it by a Grane or Seed, which is a perfect Grane, but not a perfect Ear of Corn, though it be the Seed there­of. As Redemption was the End of Creation, so is Glorification the End of Humane Perfection. The Body shall be changed in qualities, but not in substance, for it must still continue the same, and not be tran­substantiated. It shall be cleansed and purified, not only from all na­turall imperfections, as Pains, and Diseases, and all Distempers, or Deformities; but also be stripped of all those naturall Virtues, which are inferior perfections, serv­ing to supply the present ne­cessities thereof, as Eating, Drink­ing, Matrimony, and the like. For as in the naturall state Augmentati­on ceaseth, when a man hath at­tained his Acme, so shall Nutrition and Generation, when he shall thus [Page 290] be perfected in himself, and in his whole Species. Then also all the ob­jects of these inferior delights shall cease. As it is the sumptuous excel­lency of a great feast to want all grosser meats, being furnished with more curious dainties; so it is the super-excellency of Heaven to want them all. The Crowns and Scepters of the most glorious Princes, their rich Treasures, their Pomps, and Triumphs, and Roiall State, and all the Glory of the world, and the De­lights of the sons of men are so much inferior and heterogeneall to Heaven, that they cannot mingle with the pure nature thereof: and so far from adding the least mo­ment to that weight of Glory, that like the dust of the Balance, they would rather defile it: which shows the perfect Vanity of all those worldly things whereof we formerly discoursed, though in this Life they are the Handmaids of Happiness, to do the drudgery [Page 291] thereof, yet must they then, when there shall be no more use of them, turned out of their service. Surely Mahomets Heaven is very mean and base which is made up of the dross and refuse of the true Heaven of Christians. The Body being thus stripped of all those Husks, shall be endued with all Glorious qualities, and perfectly fitted to serv and at­tend the Soul, which now is forced to drudge for the Body, and lay in Provision for it, as the Wise man saith, All labor is for his mouth, and yet the Appetite is not satisfied: but then the main and only Business shall be Spirituall; and therefore the A­postle calls it a Spiritual Body, not a Spirit, but advanced to the neerest likeness whereof it is capable, and made as fit an Instrument for the Spirit as may be. Probably it shall be purified and sublimated to the perfection of the Celestiall matter, which is the purest part o [...] the whole Body of the world, and [Page 292] the Country or Region wherein Man shall live for ever: and there­fore as now living on the Earth his Body is sutable and connaturall to it, so when he shall be taken up to Heaven it shall be refined to the temper thereof: and shall need none of Mahomets Loadstones to lift it up, but like the Stars in their Orbs move in the highest Heaven of Heavens most freely and natural­ly. Thus the Apostle speaking of the resurrection of the Body seems to argue, Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither can Cor­ruption inherit Incorruption: and a­gain, The first Man was of the Earth Earthly, the second Man is the Lord from Heaven; as we have born the Image of the Earthly, so we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly. This is the highest perfection whereof the Body is capable, and was reser­ved for Christ the second Adam, and his glorified members: as the A­postle doth also infer. Howbeit that [Page 293] was not first which was Spirituall, but that which was Naturall, and after­ward that which was Spirituall. As God is the Light of that place, so the Soul is the Ey which shall see him, and immediately enjoy him: and as the Body, so the Soul much more shall then be discharged of all Im­perfections, as Errors, Lusts, and the like: Reason and Discourse, yea, Faith it self shall then be resolved into Vision; Desire into Joy, and Hope into Fruition. Not only all Sin shall be excluded out of Hea­ven, but also many inferior Graces, which now serv to bring us thither. The Soul shall then attain an higher perfection then it hath or can have in this world: God saith, No man can see him and live, that is, no living Man can possibly see him, though the common Iews did interp [...] [...]therwise, as appears by the Story of Manoah, yet Moses who saw as much of God as man could do, did not therefore dy. But he saw only his [Page 294] Backparts, or Attributes, which are but the demonstrations of his Na­ture: in Heaven we shall behold him face to face, and know him as we are known; according to the utmost capacity of finite Creatures: and thus the Soul shall be wholly filled with the sight of God, as the Ey is filled with Light, possessing and en­joying it in it self, and changed by it into the same Glory. Then shall we also love God as we are loved of him; yea, as he loves himself accor­ding to our finite capacity; and so accordingly partake of the same Happiness which he enjoieth in him­self: which is a most wonderfull and inconceivable Blessedness; and therefore sensuall and carnall men who are only acquainted with the Creatures, wholly neglect it, as be­in [...] [...] for fools to under­stand, and would be better pleased, and more taken with a Poeticall Elysium, or Circean Paradise. But a true Christian may satisfy himself [Page 295] with this, that though he cannot comprehend this future Blessedness fully and particularly, yet in gene­rall he believs it to be the highest and purest Happiness whereof he is capable. Every Vessell of Mercy, as a Vessell, shall be made only to hold Mercy, and be wholly filled with it; Yet shall not all the Saints be equall in Glory, but differ therein, as in Grace: for though all the Spirits of Just men shall be then made perfect, yet they shall be proportionably perfected in Glory according to their degrees of Grace, by an A­rithmeticall, not by a Geometricall proportion: as in the Parable of the Talents, He who gained two Talents, was made Ruler over two Cities in his Lords Kingdome: and he who gained five Talents was made Ruler over five Cities. There is no proportion between [...] and Cities, yet there is a proportion between Two and Two, and beween Five and Five. Thus shall we be re­compensed [Page 296] according to our works, though not for our works: and this may be as great and quick an inci­tation to working, as the proud opi­nion of merit, attaining the same ef­fect, and ending in the same reward of Blessedness. And though there cannot properly be any merit in the Creature, but only a performance of Covenants; yet the obedience of Angels, through that Grace which was first implanted in their Nature, and never forfeited, is far short of this free Grace of God in Christ▪ which as it is a manifestati­on of the greater Love of God to Man, and the ground of his greater Delight in him, so it begets in us proportionably a greater Love toward him, and a greater De­light in him, wherein the chief Happpiness of the Creature doth consist [...]nd thus the Soul of Man [...]nds the highest perfection of Glory, and the very Heaven of Heaven, through free Grace enjoy­ing [Page 297] Christ as the fountain of all Happiness, and God himself as the Ocean thereof. As Heaven in the separation from all worldly things doth most plainly manifest the Va­nity thereof, so in it self, and in its own nature it is the most perfect, universall, and eternall Blessedness; and the preparation for it, and ex­pectiation of it, the only true Hap­piness of Man in this Life.

FINIS.

Errata.

PAg. 2. lin. 1. Read Pandora's. p. 6. l. 23. r. highest Sense. p. 29. l. 5. [...] Nicolas. p. 34. l. 12. r. publica. p. 40. l. 12▪ 13. r. ingenuous. p. 42, 1. 6 r. Myrteus. p. 47. l. 9. r. kind of regali­ty. p. 53. l. 6. r. as Metall. p. 75. l. 4. r. appo­site. p. 89. l. 6. r. great. l. 14, 15. r. himself. p. 107. l. 16, 18. r. Nulla. p. 132 l. 2. r. Sibylls. p. 147. l. 8. r. Christ whom. p. 150. l. 7. r. Nosce. p. 152. l. 6. r. the Text. p. 167. l. 6. r. poenis. p. 175. l. 17. r. inebriation. p. 176. l. 13. r. re­torted p. 189. l. 2. r so it is. p. 201. l. 23, 24. r. by telling. p. 209. l. 18 r. in the story. p. 224. l. 23. r. consumptos. p. 255. l. 20. r. ominous. p. 262. l. 16. r. geminas. p. 270. l. 14. r. that a Cato. p. 278. l. 8. r. Immortality of the Soul.

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