CHAP. I. Of the Peace of the Soul.

THe Gospell is called a Testament, be­cause it is the declaration of the last Will of our Lord Jesus Christ. By that Will, he leaves his peace to his Disciples, and being neere his death tells them, Iohn 14.17. My peace I leave unto you, my peace I give unto you. For since Jesus is called the Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9.5. his proper legacy to his heires, is peace.

How comes it to passe then that such as beare themselves as Christs heires by Will, yet will not [Page 2]take his legacy? & that Peace is no where a grea­ter stranger then in the Christian Church, to whom it was left by an especiall title?

It is true indeed, that the peace which our Sa­viour left to his Disciples is not the temporal but the spirituall, which is the peace of man with God, & with his owne conscience; wherefore he tells them, that he gives it not as the World gives it. But it is true also, that the want of that spirituall and inward peace brings outward war, as Saint James teacheth us, James 4.1. VVhence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that warre in your members? He that is well with God and himselfe, and keeps his affec­tions in order, quietly brought under the rule of the feare and love of God, will neither lightly provok quarrells, nor be easily moved with provo­cations. He will be little concerned in publique contentions, and gently get off from particular.

This is the roote of the evill, that we seek not to be invested in the possession of that peace of God, which the Lord Jesus left us by his Will, & now so graciously presents unto us by his word and spirit, and that wee disturb the work of that good spirit the spirit of peace, siding with our tur­bulent and vicious passions against him.

When we lose that peace, we lose all other goods, for in peace all good is comprehended. It is the extent of the word peace in Hebrew, that philosophical tongue. That soul, where the peace [Page 3]of God dwelleth, doth sincerely relish his ble­ssings, and turneth evill into good. But a vicious unquiet spirit doth not taste how the Lord is gracious 1 Pet 2.3. And turneth good into evill, as a liver inflamed with a burning Fever, is worse inflamed by nourishing meats.

The objects that moves desire and feare in this world, are for the most part indifferent in their na­ture; good to him that useth them well, evill to him that knoweth not how to use them; So that good and evill lye within a mans self, not in things without Pro. 14.14. A good man shall be sa­tisfied from himself, saith Salomon. This is a beaten subject though never sufficiently considered. If it were, it would frame the soule to piety & tran­quillity, and make a mans spirit free, clearesight­ed, master of all things, and (which is more then all) master at home.

The way to attaine to that command of our in­ward State, is to yield it to God, who being our great principle and our original being, imparts his freedome, & a beame of the soverainty of his sub­lime nature, to the soule that draweth neer unto him from whom it is descended. God being the so­veraigne of the soule as of all creatures, the soule cannot have any rule at home but from him, nor enjoy it under him without a free subjection to his will.

That peace and liberty of the soule whereby a man having all his interest in heaven, is disinte­ressed [Page 4]to all things in the world, walketh confi­dent among dangers, and entertaineth with an e­qual and serene face good and evill successe, is ea­sier described then obtained. Yet we must not be discouraged, but study to describe it, that we may obtain it in some measure, for it is gained by me­ditation. And the best kinds of meditation upon that peace, is, to lift up our soule unto God the in­exhaustible fountain of peace, which he makes to flow upon those that draw neer unto him.

We shall never fully injoy that peace, till wee be fully united with the God of peace; A perfec­tion unsuitable with this life, where the best are often drawn aside from God, by the wandring of their thoughts, and the disorder of their affec­tions, which made St Paul to say 2 Cor. 5, 6. that while we are at home in the body wee are absent from the Lord. Yet so much as a faithfull man enjoyes of the peace of God, vvhile he lives in the flesh, is as much above the most florishing peace of the grea­test Kings of the vvorld, as Heaven is above earth. And vvhere it is vvanting, the highest earthly glory, vvhich dravves the envy of men, ought ra­ther to move their pitty. Without it, the garish shew of honours and treasures is like a richly im­broidered night-cap upon a head tormented with a violent meagrime. And all that worldly pompe is not only uselesse but hurtfull, sowring the mind with cares, and firing the appetite with temptati­ons, which afterwards teare the conscience with [Page 5]remorse, or benumme it into a deadly lethargy. Whereas the peace of God is a Paradice, the mo­derator of passions, the Schoole of vertue, the king­dome of God within the soule. Blessed and holy is he that hath it. and to him is next in happinesse and holinesse, he that sincerely endeavoreth to get it, and to that end yeelds to God the raines of his affections, brings his will under Gods will, and humbly invites him to fixe his dwelling, & beare rule within his breast.

It is the end that I aim at, in this worke. And I beseech the God of peace, so to blesse and honour it, as to make it an instrument to work His peace in the souls of his servants, beginning at my soule.

To that work every Christian ought to put his hand as he loveth God and himselfe. To which wee are the more induced and in a manner com­pelled by the contrariety of the Time. While the storme of warre or intestine dissensions is raging in all parts of the world, not leaving one safe cor­ner for peace, the wise Christian must take sanc­tuary in that inward peace, that peace of God, which though it passe all understanding, yet will dwell in the understanding and the affections of those that faithfully seek it, and keep both hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God through Jesus Christ. Get once God within you, you have a shelter at home against all injuryes a­broad; as he that in a tempestuous raine flyes in­to [Page 6]a Church, and in Gods house finds peace and safety, whilst the whole aire abroad is enflamed with lightnings, and roaring with thunder; and the land floods are hurling down houses, drown­ing sheep and shepheards, and destroying the long hopes of the Husbandmans labour. For the faithfull soul is Gods Temple, which he graceth by his presence, and blesseth with his peace, not suffering it to be removed though the earth be re­moved, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea.

This peace at home, in which our duty and our happinesse are concentred, is an inviting subject for a diligent contemplation. Let us examine wherein consisteth the true peace of the soul and contentment of mind, and how wee must keepe peace with God, with our selves, with our neigh­bours, in adversity, in prosperity, and in all the occurrences of life.

CHAP. II. Of the Peace of Man in his integrity, and the losse of that peace by sinne.

THe fundamentall rule of great reformations is to bring things to their beginning. By that rule, that wee may know the true peace of God and how wee may get it, wee must cast back our sight upon the beginning, how God gave it to man, and how he lost it soone after. And here [Page 7]wee must use that which the Spirit sayd unto the Churches, Rev. 2.5. Remember whence thou art fal­len, and repent.

Man newly created after Gods likenes was in perfect peace with him: for God, making an image of himselfe, would not have made it dis­senting from him; and peace is a prime lineament of Gods Image. That first human soule, recently breathed out of Gods mouth, followed with delight the fresh and pure traces of his divine production; and man, finding in himselfe the likness of his Creator, tooke a great joy and glo­ry to compare that copy with the original. That moving image of God did imitate his actions, as doth the image of our body in a glasse. And whereas in the worke of regeneration, St Paul saith, that the new man, is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, and that he is created after God in righteousnes and true holines, it followes, that the first man was created such, since wee learne that such must be the renewing of man, to be created againe after the image of God.

These lively expresses of the image of God, knowledge, righteousnes, and holines, could not be in that first man, without an entire peace and conso­nance with his Creator. And having peace with God, he had it also with himselfe; His desires were not at variance with his fears, nor his knowledge with his actions; His thoughts belyed not his words; His cupidity did not draw against his [Page 8]conscience, & his conscience layd no accusation a­gainst him. From that good intelligence with God and with himselfe, he could not but reape a great content in his mind; that content also being a lineament of the image of God, to whom, as holines, so happines is natural and essential.

For that contentment of mind he got no smal contribution from the beauty and plenty of Na­ture smiling upon him, and the willing submission of all animals flocking about him, as loving sub­jects, meeting to wellcome their new Soveraign. For his peace with God kept all creatures in peace and obedience under him: Abroad, the clemency of the aire, and the pleasantnes of a garden of Gods planting delighted him. And at home, his familiarity and free accesse to his Maker filled him with joy and confidence. And his original righteousnes (if he could have kept it) would have perpetuated that blessed peace unto him; for peace is the most proper effect of righteousnesse, as it is exprest by Isatah, The work of righteousnesse shal be peace, and the effect of righteousnesse quietness & assurance for ever. Isa. 32.17. Truly, God forbid­ding him to eat of that excepted fruit upon paine of death, did intimate that as long as he kept in o­bedience, death could take no hold of him, nor a­ny of the appurtenances of death: for such are all the infirmities of the body, all the griefes of the mind, and all the crosses of this life. Ezekiel in the eighteenth Chapter is copious upon this demon­stration [Page 9]that life is inseperable from righ­teousness, and mortality from sinne.

This last was justified by wofull experience; for man going from his righteousnesse forfeited his life and his peace: And presently, a dark cloud of confusion and misery troubled his golden sereni­ty: The voyce of God which was the joy of man, suddenly became his terrour; Gods presence which was his life, became so formidable to him, that it went for a currant truth, Judg. 13.22. Wee shall surely dye, because wee have seene God. Man be­ing fallen off from God, most part of the creatures fell off from him, and that rebellion continued e­ver since. Those that have sense and motion open­ly deny to yeeld subjection unto him, flee away from him when he will come neere them, or flye upon him with open hostility: And to get service from them, he must tame them young, before they be able to resist him. Other Creatures destitute of sense, yet seeme sensible enough to let him know, that they yeeld to him a forced service. Neither can the earth be wonne to doe any good for him, but by great labour and long expectation: Diseases enter into his body with the meate that he eateth, and the aire that he breatheth. Stormes beat upon him, Summers scorch him, Winters chill him. Foxes have holes, and birds of the aire have nests, their garments are natural, warme in winter, light in summer: To man onely, Nature gives not where to lay his head; nor so much as a skinne ca­pable [Page 8] [...] [Page 9] [...] [Page 10]to abide his native ayre. He is ashamed to see his person, and robbes his subjects of their ve­sture to hide himselfe under the spoyle.

And yet that discord between man and nature is lesse then the discord between man and man. For generally, men advance themselves by their mutual ruine, and seldome get any of the goods of this world, but by the evill of another; Warres, lawsuits, envies among Neighbours, and domesti­que quarrells, make the face of the world like un­to a wild rugged field, full of thorns & bryers; if not liker unto a stormy Sea, where the waves break one another continually. It is the raigne of discord and confusion.

And yet the discord of man with his own kind, is not so grievous as his disagreement with his owne selfe; I mean the naturall and unregene­rate man. For reason, which bore a peaceable and uncontrouled rule within mans soule, before he was estranged from God, finds no more that rea­dy obedience of the facultyes and affections. His general inborne notions of goodnesse and wise­dom, are now and then darkned with the parti­cular violent suggestions of the appetite, casting a thick cloud before the eye of the understanding: Reason her self studieth her own delusion, putting a disguise of good upon evill; Many times also a man knowing and condemning evill, followeth it at the same time; being alike unable to blind his judgment, and rule his passion. Then, as passions [Page 11]are pulling against Reason, they will also pull one against another; as when subjects nave shaken off the yoke of their King, the State breaketh into factions, and every one is pulling for himselfe. Wrath and lust, wil fiercely bustle the one against the other, as two land flood torrents falling from two opposite mountains. The like between feare & desire, covetuousnesse & ambition, love and je­lousie; or if one passion raignes alone, it doth ty­rannize over the heart. To teare a mans soul, and bring him to slavery and misery, there needs no more but lust or envy, or impatience of revenge.

In a heart lying under that tyranny, and hel­ping his own slavery, when God by his spirit be­gins the worke of regeneration, then begins ano­ther kind of discord; of which St Paul speakes, Gal. 5.17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the Flesh, and these two are contrary the one to the other, so that you doe not the things that ye would. This is a more irreconcilable quarrell then the other betweene the vicious passions, which many times will agree to do evill, and yeeld one to another by turnes, as the occasion serveth; But between the flesh and the spirit, that is, be­tweene the feare of God and the corruption of our nature there can be neither peace nor truce; Vice must fall and break his neck before the fear of God, as Dagon before the Arke, unlesse that God irritated by a pertinacious resistance, with­draw his feare and knowledge from a stubborne [Page 12]heart; and then it is not God but man that is over­come, for while he shakes off the free yoake of pi­ety, he puts on the slavish yoak of his unruly ap­petite, and becomes a drudge to feed the greedi­ness of an imperious and insatiable master. Isa. 48.22. There is no peace saith the Lord for the wicked. The case is deplorable of a conscience destitute of the feare of God and faith in his promises, where the heady untamed passions have snatcht the rains from the hands of reason. It is the fable of Phaeton turned into a story; for reason, too weak for the head-strong appetite is overturned from his seate, the celestial light is quencht in the soule, the fire of cupidity is kindled in the heart, the unruly pa­ssions runne wild their severall wayes, and the man is cast headlong into perdition.

That perdition is the final seperation from God and the endless discord with him, which begins in this very life. Yet as long as a man liveth upon earth, he hath a share in that generall love of God to his creatures, and the goodness and patience of God inviteth him to repentance. But after this life is done, God is an open enemy to those that have lived in emnity against him, and abused his grace & long patience. To describe that mise­rable state, the Lord Jesus calls it outward darkness; worme that dyeth not, a fire that is not quenched, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Imagine if you can, what it is to be shut out from God the father of light, and driven away from him for ever; Af­ter [Page 13]that, a hideous darkness, a worme gnawing, a fire burning, wailing and gnashing of teeth, late remorse, despair, hatred of ones selfe, and all ima­ginable distresses are but consequences of that misery of miseryes, to be hated of God and hate him for ever.

Of that incomprehensible misery the suburbs are the torments of conscience in this life, to which the racks, the wheeles, and the fires, are not comparable. How grievous those torments are, many forsaken wretches have sufficiently exprest it, who being tortured by their conscience, and un­capable to conceive any deliverance from the dis­mal expectation of hell, have chosen rather to leape into hell, by a desperate selfe-murther, then to endure any longer the angry face of God pur­suing them. And the miserable soules find there, what they seek to avoid; Amos 5.19. as if a man did flee from a Lion, and a Beare met him.

The examples are frequent of those whom the secret lashes of conscience have forced to make an open declaration of their hidden crimes, shew­ing thereby, that they were upon Gods rack. But truly the examples are yet more frequent of seared and benummed consciences, which by pastimes, companyes, businesses, and the deceitfulnes of ri­ches, divert their mind from that formidable thought of the quarrell, that is betweene God and them; cosening themselves, as farre as they can, with a vaine opinion that the way to scape Gods [Page 14]justice, is, not to think of it; and, that they may not think of it, they enjoine their reason not to beleeve it.

But that numnesse is unworthy of the name of peace: There is great difference betweene safety and security, betweene having peace and not thinking of warre. Such men are like passengers sleeping in a ship that is sinking; or like that wee have heard with horrour and compassion, that bestial souldiers condemned to death, would drink lustick, and goe drunk to the gallowes; This I say is the behaviour of most part of the world, who bearing their condemnation in their conscience, make them-selves drunk while they are going downe into perdition; sometimes with strong drink, but continually with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and with worldly cares and projects, being of opinion that it is needlesse to think of death, because it comes without thinking.

But in that carnal lethargy, conscience will start up by intervalls and pinch drousy hearts: Especially when adversity lyeth heavy upon their persons and familyes, and when sud­den dangers overtake them. Then doe they see the angry countenance of Gods justice; Their owne crimes take them by the throate, and they seeme ready to say as Ahab to Eliah 1 Kings 21. hast thou found me mine enemy? And God saith to their heart with anger, I have found thee, because thou hast [Page 15]sold thy selfe to worke evill in the sight of the Lord. There is no conscience so sunk in a deepe sleepe of sinne and worldlines, but will now and then awake, and cry out in a sudden fright. So did Fe­lix, though a Pagan, an extortionner, and a man every way infamous; for, as St Paul reasoned of tem­perance and righteousnes and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Goe thy way for this time, Act. 24.

Whosoever hath read bookes and men, may have observed what unquietnes, crimes will bring to the criminal; That tyrants continually ima­gine a naked sword hanging over their head; That the wicked flee, when no man pursueth; That murtherers and perfidious men have a bro­ken sleepe, and their mirth is interrupted with parentheses of frownes and grimme lookes; That when they excuse themselves of a foule fact, of which their conscience accuseth them, their con­science many times gives the lye to their words, and they are contradicted by the inconstancy of their lookes, and the stammering of their tongue. And conscience will double these terrours, when their end draweth nigh. Many know who he was that started up often in his mortal drouzines on his death bed, commanding that his men should give over slaying.

But suppose that the wicked, that have the world at will, had as much rest within as with­out, yet [...]dons saying to Craesus ought to be ob­served, [Page 16]Never to pronounce any man happy be­fore his death. But the Christian ought to give to that sentence a longer terme, if he hath bin with David in the Sanctuary of God, and there hath under­stood the end of the wickd, and found that God hath set them in slippery places, to cast them into de­struction.

CHAP. III. Of the reconciliation of man with God, through Jesus Christ.

Such being the enmity betweene God and sin­full man, which is followed with the discord of man with nature, & with his kind, & with him­self; How welcome, how precious to him must the blessed newes be of Gods reconciliation with him? Esa. 5.27. How beautifull upon the mountaines are the feet of him, that bringeth good tydings, that publi­sheth peace, that bringeth good tydings of good, that pub­lisheth salvation, that saith unto Sion, Thy God reigneth? the chief ambassadour that anounceth that peace with God, is he that made it. It is the eternal sonne of God, who by an infinite mercy towards man guilty and miserable, was pleased to allye himself with him, by a personal union of the divine nature with the humane. He hath taken our nature and imparted his unto us. He hath made himselfe Man to take upon himself the debt of man. For seeing that man was indebted to Gods iustice, it [Page 17]was requisite that a man should give satisfaction. Which because mans nature was not able to find, Christ joyning to the Nature and Obligation of man the Nature and Vertue of God, and both in one Person, hath fully satisfied the justice of his father, which required a perfect obedience, and death for punishment of disobedience.

He hath then presented to God a most accom­plisht obedience, of which the most eminent act was to have readily undergone a shameful & bit­ter death at his Fathers command for the sins of mankinde, of which he was the pledge and the re­presentative; An obedience of infinite merit, more powerfull to obtaine pardon, yea and reward, at Gods hands, then all the disobedience of the world to incense his just wrath to punishment. 1. Pet. 2.24. His owne selfe bare our sins in his owne body on the tree. Isa. 53.5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes wee are healed. For it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through the bloud of his cross; by him to reconcile all things unto himselfe. Col. 1.19.

All that have recourse to that infinite love of God and that ransome of inestimable value, the merit of his sonne, embracing it with a true faith, (which cannot act, nor subsist, without a true re­pentance) find their peace made with God; their iniquity is pardoned, they have received of the Lords hands double for all their sinnes. Isa. 40.2. It is a double satisfaction, both because it is twice grea­ter [Page 18]then all the sins of the world; and because it worketh a double effect, the one to get pardon for sins, the other to obtain a reward for imputed righteousness. And that satisfaction represented to God in our faithful prayers makes them accep­table and of sweet favour, as the incense put upon the sacrifices,

It is much to be lamented that these tydings of grace and glory are but coldly entertained by car­nal eares, as now growne stale and vulgar. And that there is more joy for prevailing in a Law­suite, and for a Peace that opens the markets and the freedome of commerce after a civil broyle, then for our peace with God through Christ, in whom wee have free accesse unto the throne of grace, that wee may obtaine mercy and finde grace to help in time of need. Heb. 4.16. But he that in the fright of his conscience hath seen hell open, gaping for him, and hath once lost his thoughts in that bot­tomelesse gulfe of misery and horrour to have his creatour his enemy; if upon that he embrace by faith that great and heavenly message, not onely that his sinnes are forgiven him by the merit of Christ, but that by the same merit, of an enemy and a child of wrath he is become the sonne of God and heire of his Kingdome, his heart will melt with joy love and admiration, and the sad­der his sense was of his deplorable condition, the greater will his thankfulnesse be for his gracious restoration O the depth of the riches both of the [Page 19]wisedome and the goodnesse of God, who hath found a way to set forth together his justice and his mercy, and to pardon sinne by punishing it! O the infinite love of the Father, who so loved the world that he gave his onely Sonne for them! O the infinite love of that onely Sonne, that so loved his enemyes that he delivered himselfe to a most bitter death to give them life and immortality, yea and his own kingdome! O the infinite love of the holy Ghost, who so loved the world as to an­nounce unto them this excellent piece of newes by his word, and seale the promises of God in their hearts by faith in Jesus Christ, that whosoe­ver beleeveth on him should not perish but have life eternal.

Behold then the onely foundation of the peace of the soule and contentment of mind! It is that peace made for us with God by his onely sonne, who hath taken our sinnes upon himselfe and in consequence the punishment; giving us in ex­change his righteousnesse, and consequently the reward of it, since by it wee appeare righteous be­fore God. This is the summary of the Gospell, This is the onely comfort of the faithfull, That being justifyed by faith wee have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 5.1. Without that persuasion all the moral precepts and all the reasons of Philosophy cannot set the mind at rest, much lesse the riches, honours, pleasures and pa­stimes of this world, for who can have peace with [Page 20]himselfe while he is in dissention with God? And who can have peace with God, but by the medi­ation of his beloved sonne Jesus, there being no o­ther name under heaven by which wee must be saved?

The chiefe impediment of the tranquillity of minde being the remorse for sinne against God, and the apprehension of this just and terrible threatning, Cursed is he that continueth not in all the words of Gods law to doe them. Whosoever embra­ceth the merit of Jesus Christ by faith is fenced against all the threatnings of the law, and all the accusations of his conscience: For to them he will answere, As Gods threatnings are just so are his promises; now, he hath promist that if wee judge our selves wee shall not be judged of the Lord. 1. Cor. 11.31. That he that heareth the word of the sonne of God and beleeveth on him that sent him hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is past from death to life. Joh. 5.24. That the blood of Jesus Christ the sonne of God clenseth us from all sin. 1. Joh. 1.7. That he hath blotted out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way nailing it to his crosse. Col. 2.14. Wherefore these threatnings, that God will bring every work to judgement, and that even for one idle word account must be given, reach not to those evill workes of which belei­vers have repented and embraced the remission by faith in Jesus Christ.

Those threatenings of judgement doe not reach me, since I have already past judgemont upon myselfe by a serious contrition, and have received my Absolution by the merit of him that was judged and condemed for me. If account must be given for my sinnes, Christ must give it, who charged himselfe with them But that account is discharged, My sins are put out of Gods score; The curse of the law to a soule that beleeveth in Christ, as I doe, is a handwriting taken out of the way, a Bond torne and nailed to the crosse of Christ; God is too just to make use of a bond vacated to proceed against me: the merit of his Sonne which he re­ceived in payment for me, is of too great value to leave me in danger to be sued, for the debts which he hath payd; for himself was arrested by Death, the Sergeant of Gods justice, and put in that jayle whence there is no comming out till one hath payd the utmost farthing; and being come out of that jayle by his resurrection, he hath made it ma­nifest that he hath payd the whole debt which he was bound for in our behalfe unto Gods justice.

What though my sins be great? yet are they lesse then the merit of Jesus Christ. No sinne is so great that it ought to take away the confidence in Gods promises. No sinne is so great that it may damme a soule beaten downe with contrition, but toge­ther raised by faith and washt in the blood of the sonne of God, Indeed the remembrance of my sins must be bitter unto me, yet that bitternes must be [Page 22]drowned in the joy of my salvation, & my repen­tance must be a step not a hinderance to my confi­dence. So I will say to God every day with a con­trite heart Forgive us our trespasses: And at the same time I will remember that I make that prayer unto our Father which is in heaven, who commands me to call him Father, to assure me that he will spare me as a man spareth his owne sonne that serveth him, Mal. 3.17. & to stile him heavenly father to whom the kingdome and the power and the glory belongeth, to lift up my hope to that celestial glory which he fully possesseth, and which he will impart to his children in their measure. I will walke before God with humility and feare, thinking on my sins past and my present weakenes and sinfulnes; but together I will goe in the strength of the Lord and make mention of his righteousnes. The righte­ousnes of God that frighteth sinners, comforteth me, and his justice is all mercy to me: For the in­finite merit of his Sonne being mine, he is now gra­cious unto me in his justice. Hereby the peace and assurance which I enjoy through faith, is advanced to a joy of heaven upon earth, and to this song of triumph. Isa. 61.10. I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord, my soule shall be joyfull in my God; for he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousnes, as a bridegroome decks himselfe with ornaments and as a bride adornes herselfe with her jewells. This is the peace and contentment of the faithful soule that feeleth and relisheth her [Page 23]blessed reconcilation made with God through Jesus Christ. For he that hath peace with God hath peace also with himselfe. And the love of God powerfully growing in his heart by the con­sideration of the bounty of God (whose sweetnes wee may taste though not conceive his greatnes) breeds there together the peace of God which passeth all understanding, banisheth tumultuous and unlawfull affections, and brings the lawfull under its obedience; so that all the affections of the regenerate soule meete in one, and make but one, which is the love of God, as many brookes that lose their names in a great River.

When the love of God brings not that great peace to the soule, and the absolute empire over the passions, it is because love is as yet imperfect; and the cause of that imperfection is the deficiency of faith, which doth not yet embrace aright the reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ; and faith is deficient when it is not maintained by good workes, her food, without which it pines a­way, and falls into a shaking palsie; and when that foundation is shaking, all that is built upon it cannot but be tottering: This then must be our first and earnest taske, to make our selves sure of our peace with God by a lively faith, whereby our hearts may be purified from evill workes, and made fertile to all fruits of holinesse. For hereby we shall have peace with our selves and shall be masters at home.

Hereby also wee shall have peace with Gods creatures, receiving temporall blessings as testi­monies of Gods reconciliation with us, and in e­very bit of bread wee shall taste his love; Prospe­rity and adversity will prove equally good unto us, being dispensed by his fatherly care. If God multiply our afflictions it will be onely to multi­ply our deliverances. He will never put us to the tryal but to refine our faith, weane our hearts from the world, and make his heavenly comforts more welcome to us; Truly the faithfull soule, that knoweth how to make the right use of good and evil, shall find experimentally the truth of St. Pauls sentence that all things are for our sakes. 2 Cor. 4.25.

Also this peace with God brings us peace with our neighbours. For he that hath a comfortable seeling in his conscience that God is reconciled with him, will easily be reconciled with his bre­thren, holding it a point of equity, generosity, and gratefulnes, after that his Master hath forgiven him ten thousand talents, to forgive his fellow ser­vant an hundred pence. If all men had the peace of God in their hearts, there would be no discord in the world. But because most men want that good peace, and they that have it, have it but im­perfectly, therefore peace between men can hard­ly be well cemented. When you see men profe­ssing piety and sound doctrine, tearing and devou­ring one another with warres or lawfuites, you [Page 25]may be sure that the peace of God rules not in their hearts, surely not in the hearts of the au­thors and fomentors of discord, though they should pretend the zeale of Gods glory, who hath no need of mens turbulent passions to advance his kingdome, which is all peace. In heaven where the peace of God abideth in its fulness, and filleth the hearts of every one of his Saints, there is also of necessity a perfect peace between them, for they must needs have all one love, since they have all but one interest, which is the glory of him that loveth them, and for ever glorifieth them with himselfe.

CHAP. IV. Generall meanes to preserve that peace with God: and first to serve God purely and diligently.

HAving spoken of the true and onely founda­tion of the peace of the soule and content­ment of mind, which is the confidence that God is appeased to us through Jesus Christ; Let us now use the meanes to preserve that peace and stand firme upon that solid ground, beginning by the more general.

The first is to serve God with purity and dili­gence, for which this consideration is essential, that our reconciliation with God was made by way of purchase, and that when wee were lost and estranged from God, he was pleased to re­deeme us by his Sonne: Wherefore as they that [Page 26]bought servants expected service from them, God also hath bought us to be served by us. That end of our redemptiō is thus set down by St. Paul, Tit. 2.14. Christ gave himself for us that he might re­deeme us from all iniquity, and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes. It was the custome over all the world in S. Pauls time to buy & sell servants: As then servants could not expect the favour of them that had bought them, unlesse they did them good service; we that are purchased by God with such a great price must not expect to enjoy his peace and gracious countenance, if wee doe not serve him according to his will; Where­in our utility meetes with our duty, for of the service which wee yeeld unto God the whole be­nefit results unto us.

Before all things wee must looke well that our service to God be pure and such as he requireth; for without that purity all our diligence to his service would be not onely unless but hurtfull. One cannot goe to God turning his back to him; The more we labour to serve him otherwise then he hath commanded, the more wee offend him. The pure way of Gods service is set down in his written word, wherein although many places are too high for the understanding of the most wise and learned, yet the things necessary for the duty and salvation of man, are so clearely exprest, that this commendation is justified by experience which David giveth unto Gods word, The en­trance [Page 27]of thy Words giveth light, it giveth understan­ding unto the simple. Thy word is a lamp unto my feete and a light unto my path. It is one of the chief du­ties of Gods service to reade and carefully medi­tate that good Word, & lend a devout attention to them that announce it. For by it God speaks to us as a father to his children, and none but un­natural children refuse to hearken to the voyce of their Father. This duty brings its recompence, for the holy word of God is the glad tydings of the peace of God with men, and the onely doctrine that frames that peace within us. For which reason the Prophet would heare it, Ps. 85.5. I will heare what God the Lord will speake; for he will speake peace unto his people and to his Saints. To that holy word, as to a sanctuary, troubled consciences must have recourse to get the peace of God. Yet the faithfull soule ought to be more studious to learne in it, how to please God, then how to get comfort. Those Christians are yet up­on the lower degrees of their regeneration, that practise the duties of Gods service only to work their salvation. Wee must read and hear Gods word for a higher end, even to conforme our wills to the rule of his declared will, and wee must think more of his glory then our felicity. If faith in his promises make us say joyfully with David, Ps. 32 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, the zeale of his glory must make us say with more joy and affection, as [Page 28]the same David, Ps. 119.1. Blessed are the unde­filed in the way who walke in the law of the Lord. Bles­sed are they that keepe his testimonies and seek him with the whole heart. v. 5. O that my waies were directed to keepe thy sttatutes? v. 7. I will praise thee with upright­ness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. And all along that great Psalme he ut­tereth the unspeakable joy that he took in medi­tating and doing Gods commandements; one may see that he cannot say enough to expresse how heartily he was affected to it. If wee love the holy word of God for its own sake, and con­verse often with it with reverence and affection, because it is the word of our heavenly father, and the declaration of his nature and will, wee shall finde our peace in it, though wee seeke it not, and get a satisfaction not to be parallelled by any joy for the things of this world.

To this duty of hearing God speaking to us in his word, the next is to speak to him by prayer, whether it be to implore his grace, or to thank him for his benefits, or to praise him for his infi­nite perfection. By these two duties of hearing God and speaking to him, we begin in this world that good intelligence and holy communication with God, in which the heavenly peace and so­veraine felicity of man consisteth.

By prayer wee seeke and meete that peace of God which is announced to us in his word and whoso seekes it well, will be sure to meete it, for [Page 29]to this seeking is the promise made Math. 7.8 Every man that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

When this direfull remembrance sinkes into a conscience, how man was put out of Paradice, and Cherubims were placed at the gate with aflaming sword to keepe him out that he may not finde the way to the tree of life, it is enough to sinke one downe with feare and anguish, and make him cry out standing upon the brink of despaire, Must I be driven away from God for ever, and what way is left for me to returne to the tree of life without which I cannot shunne eternal perdition?

Upon that perplexity Prayer comes and offers her helpe, saying, I will bring thee thither, and will goe with thee, without any let of the flaming sword; for I know a way to the tree of life, where the terrour of the law doth not keep the passage; the sonne of God who is the way the truth and the life, hath made me way unto the throne of grace, to which I goe with full assurance to obtaine mer­cy and finde grace to helpe in time of need.

This freedome of prayer to approach unto God was in some sort represented by the sacrifices. That they were figures of prayers wee learne it out of the Psalme 141 where David beseecheth God that his prayer may be set forth as incense, and the lifting up of his hands as the evening sacrifice, Ps. 141.2 As then the smoake of the sacrifices did mount up toward heaven, which is a way which [Page 30]cannot be stopt, likewise faithfull prayers have at all times a free passage to heaven: and although Satan be called the Prince of the aire, he cannot disturbe them in the way; But, that they may reach to heaven, the incense of the merit of Christ must be layd over the sacrifice of prayer.

To that holy duty wee are encouraged by Gods commandement and promise. Both are in this text, Ps. 50.12. Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorifie me. And so in this, Come unto me (saith Gods eternal Sonne) all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will ease you. Math. 11.28. None that prayeth to the father through the merit of the Sonne returnes empty; For either he giveth us what we do aske, or what wee ought to aske, and that which is fit for us. He that keepeth that holy correspondence with God is never dejected with sorrow, or perplexed with feare, for he finds in that divine communica­tion a plaister to all his sores, and an inexhaustible well of life and joy. David had found it so when he sayd, Ps. 16 I have set the Lord allwayes before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved, Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth, my flesh also shal rest in hope. By prayer wee ground our soules in faith, raise them with hope, inflame them with charity, possesse them with patience during our life, and yeeld them to God with joy in our last breath.

To reape these benefits by prayer, wee must un­derstand [Page 31]well the right use of prayer which is double; It serveth to aske of God our necessities both of body and soule; for since in him wee live and moove and have our being, wee must conti­nually seeke to him by prayer of whom wee con­tinually depend. But the noblest and most proper use of prayer is to glorifie God, and converse with him because wee love him, and because he is most perfect and most worthy to be beloved; coming to that holy duty, not as a taske, but an honour, the greatest honour and delight that a creature can be capable of in this world, stealing away from af­faires and companies to enjoy that pleasant and honorable conversation; as lovers will steale away from all employments to entertaine their best be­loved. For what is sweet in the world in compa­rison of this sweetnes? what is honorable com­pared to this honour to have familiarity with God and be admitted to his presence at any time, to be received of him as his children, and when wee lift up our affections to heaven the habitation of his glory, to finde that himselfe is come to meete us in our heart, and hath made it another heaven by his gracious presence?

In that meditation a faithfull man will call Gods benefits to minde; and to conceive their excellency to his power, he will from the consi­deration of Gods grace reflect upon that of his owne naturall condition, sometimes criminal, miserable, and Gods enemy; but now through [Page 32]Gods preventing love and unspeakable mercy changed into the quality of child of God and heire of his kingdome. He hath bin provoked to pity us by the depth of our misery, wherefore in all rea­son wee must be provoked to thankfulness by the height of his mercy; And this is the chiefe employ­ment of prayer, an employment which paying our duty brings our felicity, and though wee have payd but what wee owe, and scarce that, giveth us a present payment for the duty which wee have payd.

O what a heavenly delight it is to lose ones selfe in the thought of Gods mercyes, which are beyond all reckoning and above all imagining? and to say to him after David, Ps. 40.5. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderfull workes, and thy thoughts which are to us ward, they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; v.8. If I would declare and speak of them they are more then can be numbred. I de­light to doe thy will O my God, yea thy law is with in my heart, Ps. 86.11. Teach me thy way, O Lord, I will walke in thy truth, unite my heart to feare thy name. I will praise thee O Lord my God, withall my heart, and will glorifie thy name for evermore, for great is thy mercy towards me, and thou hast delivered my soule from the lowest hell. Such a conversation with God to rejoyce in his love, praise him for his graces, and crave the leading of his spirit to walke be­fore him unto all pleasing, is an imitation of the perpetual imployment of Angels and glorified [Page 33]Saints. It is a beginning of the Kingdome of hea­ven in this life. In it consisteth the true peace of the soule and the solid contentment of minde.

CHAP. V. Of the love of God.

BEing entred into the meditation of the love of God, let us stay upon it. It is good for us to be here, let us make here three tabernacles. And more reason have wee so to speak in this occasion, then St. Peter when he saw Christ transfigured in the Mount. For by planting his abode there, he could not have made Christ to doe the like, nor given a settled continuance to that short bright lightning of glory: But by our meditation upon the love of God, wee make him to stay with us, and our soul is transfigured with him, being filled with his grace and his peace, and already enlivened with a beame of his glory.

Now because the ground the spring and the cause of the love that wee beare to God, is the love that he beares to us, wee must before all things study to conceive as well as wee may, of the great love of God to us-ward. Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that wee should be called the sonnes of God. 1 John. 3.1. This is the principall point of his love, where all other testimonies of his love doe beginne and where they end. Without this none can say, that [Page 34]he is beloved of God; For to be the work of Gods hands and maintained by his providence, is com­mon to all creatures, and to be made after Gods image, and by his liberality to enjoy the plenty and service of nature, is common to all men good and evill: But because creatures without reason, and men without goodnesse beare no love to God, it cannot properly be said that God loveth them, though he be their maker and preserver. Love be­ing the bond of perfectnesse Col. 3. Gods love would not be the bond of perfectnesse, if he loved those things that never return him love; For, that love may be a bond, the two ends must meet & knit to­gether: now these two ends knit, when a creature beloved of God beares a reciprocal love to him. For thereby not onely the man that feareth God joyneth with him, but the whole nature also and all the creatures are re-joyned with their princi­ple and Origine. And whereas some creatures cannot, others will not love God, the true child of God, because he gets some utility out of them all, yea of those that are Gods enemies, loveth him and gives him thanks for and in the name of all; and so by this meanes love proveth a true bond of perfectnesse, which proceeding from God and knitting with God againe, embraceth and holds fast together the whole creation, and brings it back to its Creator: A consideration, which cannot but bring a singular content, and a great peace to the soule. Being perswaded of the love of [Page 35]God to us whereby we are called the sonnes of God, we looke upon all creatures as the goods of our fathers house, prepared for us. And though others which are none of Gods children enjoy them also, yet they are for us; since the wicked are for the good, either to exercise their vertue by tryals, or even to serve and sustaine them; For as the angry waves roaring and foaming about the ship where Christ was with his disciples, yet were bearing the ship; likewise, the enemyes of God and his Church while they are beating and storming against it, beare it up in spite of their hearts. The agitations of the great sea of the world, make Gods children more sensible of the great love which the Father hath bestowed upon them, to have given them his beloved sonne to be in the ship with them to keep them safe in the storm; and the dangers that overwhelme others, are helps for good unto them that love God. All the deliverances that God sends them, all the blessings that God powreth upon them, they take them as productions of the fatherly love of God who hath adopted them in his Sonne. They taste that love in the enjoyment of present goods, they breath that love in the enjoyment of future & e­ternall goods, they rest upon that love when they sleepe, they leane upon that love when they walk, they find that love in all the occurrences of their life; with what face soever the various accidents of the world looke upon them, they see through [Page 36]them the evident love of God, being certaine that nothing happens to them but is directed by the good hand of their loving Father.

These pleasant rivers of the love of God con­duct our meditation up the streame to the great Source, that love which passeth knowledge, that mysterious deepe love which the Angels desire to looke into; whereby of his enemyes that wee were, he hath made us his children, giving for us, even to death, his owne precious Sonne; entitling us, by him, to his eternal glory; and giving us the ear­nest of it by his good Spirit crying in our hearts Abba Father. O incomprehensible love! which hath undergone & overcome death to give us life, and that he might have from us an immortal love!

That immortal love ought to be the effect of this meditation. So that having conceived to our power how much God loves us, wee may also to our power apply our heart to love him; acknow­ledging that all our heart, all our soule, and all our understanding, is yet too little to returne him love for his love.

It it true, that this is a debt from which we can never be acquitted, and wee owe it even after wee have payd it: But as this debt must be payd con­tinually, the continual payment yeelds a con­tinual satisfaction to him that payeth it & oweth it still. For whereas pecuniary debts make the heart sad, this debt of love makes it glad, when our duty meetes with our inclination, and when [Page 37]wee most desire to dok that which wee are most obliged to doe. Besides, this debt is of that nature that when wee pay it wee make together an ac­quisition; for although the love began by God he takes it upon him to repay us the love that we pay him, Ps. 91.14. Because he hath set his love upon me (saith the Lord) therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high because he hath knowne my name. Pro. 8.17. I love them that love me, and they that seeke me early shall finde me.

But love is due to God, not onely for the love that he hath done us, and for the good that wee hope from him, but for the good that is in him, and because he that is the soveraigne beauty and goodnes must be beloved in the chiefest & high­est manner. All that is beautifull and good in Nature, the glory of the celestial bodies, the fer­tility of the earth, the shady greene of trees, the fragrancy of flowers, the variety and utility of animals, the rational inventive vivacity of intel­lectual natures, the admirable order of the Uni­verse both in disposition and conduct; All these are so many productions of the great bottomlesse depth of beauty, bounty, power and excellency; and who so wisely considereth them, presently conceiveth that the Authour is possest of an infi­nite perfection onely worthy to be beloved for his owne sake, and that all the good and beautifull things that he hath done must be beloved onely in relation to him and for his sake. To which if you [Page 38]adde two other points, of which Nature cannot sufficiently informe us, and wherein the Word of God supplies the deficiency of Natures teaching, which are the justice and the mercy of God to­wards sinners. O who would not love that infi­nite love and excellency, though he had no inte­rest of his owne in it?

But how can we barely consider Gods excel­lency in it selfe with an abstraction of our in­terest? Certainly the consideration of our concernment will go along, though unsent for, with the contemplation of Gods supreme vertue and goodnesse. And it is impossible to consider God as the onely worthy object of love, with­out conceiving, even with the same thought, that our soveraigne good consisteth in loving him; reputing what a height of honour and content it is when that great Creator, who is all bounty, all beauty, and all perfection, is pleased to con­tract amity with the creature.

For in this consisteth the great and only excel­lency of man, that God hath given him a nature capable to entertain freindship with his Maker: A capacity which being obscured by sin is resto­red to him by grace: And God, who as the only absolute Soveraigne is above all Laws, conde­scended so farre to us as to binde himselfe to the Laws of friendship with man, which Laws on his part are most inviolably kept; the whole de­fect in that mutual love is from man.

As then friends disjoyned in place are joyned by love, so are God in heaven and man upon earth. God indeed is every where, yet God and man are more remote in degree of nature then any two can be in place: But they are joy­ned in a way farre more excellent & real, for the thoughts of two mortal persons make no mutual impression, when they are without the line and reach of communication; whereas God is never remote from the faithful soul, and they may com­mune together at any time. God makes his love sensible to the faithfull soul, and saith to it by the presence of his spirit, Soul I am thy salvation; and the soul saith to him, Lord thou art my God, I am thine, save me & teach me to do thy will. God commu­neth with the soul by his word and spirit, and the soul communeth also with God by her word and spirit; that is, by prayer and holy aspirations.

It is also a law of friendship that friends bear the one with the other, and that the strong sup­port the weake. Wherefore God all perfect, ha­ving knit a friendship with the creature, subject as yet to much imperfection, supporteth her de­fects with his love, and covereth her sins by his righteousnesse: Man also for his part must pati­ently bear, what chastenings God layeth upon him, taking all kindly at his hands; for as he must be assured of his love, he must also be cer­tainly perswaded of his wisdom, and beleeve that Gods dealing with him, is all love and wis­dome.

It is a law of perfect freindship that friends declare their secrets one to another: So God deals with his freinds; and Jesus Christ useth this for a reason, why he calls his Disciples his friends: John 15.15, Henceforth I call you not ser­vants, for the servant knows not what the Lord doeth, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have learned of my Father, I have made known unto you. And Daniel saith that the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, [not the secret of his Councel, but that of his Good will towards them, in that which concernes their duty and their salvation, which is the sence of the following words, and he will shew them his Covenant.] We then to shew our selves true friends to him that honoureth us with that title must also disclose unto him the secrets of our hearts: It is true they are open to his all-seeing eyes, and if we would hide our se­crets from him we could not. But God takes a de­light that we give him an account of our selves, not that He may be better informed, but that we may be better and happier: for they that disguise themselves before him are incapable of his grace, and dissembling is a violation of the lawes of friendship. It is the comfort of the god­ly, that while they confesse their sinnes to God as unto their clear-sighted Judge, they discharge together a duty of friendship, declaring to their supreme friend their private infirmities and se­cret diseases, to call upon his help. What benefit [Page 41]we may expect by that free dealing with God, we learn out of Davids experience, who speakes thus to God. Psalm 32.5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid; I said, I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin: For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Into the bosome of that friend we must powre our secret sighes; to him we must lay open our most intimate de­sires and feares, that we may say to him with David, Psalm 38.9. Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee. Which as it is true in regard of Gods all-seeing knowledge let it be true also in regard of our sincere un­bosoming of the secrets of our souls before God.

Now that the secrets of our soules and the me­ditations of our hearts may ever be acceptable in his sight, and because the heart of man is so close and full of windings of hypocrisy, that man himself cannot finde the bottom of his own inside, let us call upon God to assist us in that search by his good spirit, saying. Psalm 139.23. Search me, O Lord, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Be­fore we have sincerely laid open before God all that is within us, we have no reason to expect the blessing of serene and innocent peace in our soul: [Page 42]For God, who is jealous of his glory, takes it as a high contempt when his creature will offer to avoid the all-seeing eyes of the Creator; & be­sides, he is jealous of our love, taking it as a de­rogation to the love due to him, when we go a­bout to conceale our thoughts our affections and our projects from him. Wherefore the sence that the conscience hath of this jealousy of God, holds her in continual anxiety.

Whereas he that is true to a resolution to call God to witnesse of his most secret actions and in­tentions (as he is whether we will or no) gets two benefits that way: The one, that finding himself obliged to impart all that he hath in his heart to God his eternal friend, he will take heed of doing, yea and thinking, any thing that is displeasing unto him, and by his uprightnesse will prevent the shame of opening many impu­rities before that holiest of Holies. The other that by this free and open dealing with God he shall get a great tranquillity in his conscience. For, if in humane friendships we presume that by dis­closing the secrets of our hearts to a generous friend, we oblige him to love and fidelity, and after that action of freedom we find our heart much eased; how great must our ease and con­tentment be when we have poured all our heart into Gods bosom, that perfect friend, who is truth and sincerity it self? It is a wise part to conceale nothing from God. The only way to possesse our [Page 43]soul with peace and confidence, is to make God our Confident.

It is also a great point of mutual friendship to yeeld to the interesses and desires one of another: Herein God hath shewed the way to men, having so farre condescended to the condition and neces­sity of men, as to have put on their nature and ta­ken their debt upon himselfe, yea and to have dis­charged it: He is dead like men, and for men. And being the soveraigne incomprehensible wisdome, he descends to our capacity to declare himself to us, and draw us to him He calls us indeed to denye ourselves that wee may give ourselves unto him, but yet how much doeth he yeeld to our desires and feares? And with what wisedome and sweet­nes doeth he sort his tryals with our strength? And where is the godly man, that hath not found in his forest afflictions that kinde usage that St Paul speaks of, 1. Cor. 10.13. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; But God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to e­scape, that ye may be able to beare it.

Since then God who is so great doeth accom­modate himselfe with us who are so little, the law of reciprocall love requires that wee accom­modate our selves with him who is so great; that wee diligently informe our selves of his will to make it our will; that wee observe the things which he loveth that wee may love them, and the [Page 44]things which he hateth that wee may hate and avoyd them; that all our interesses bow under his, that the end of all our ends be his glory, seeking not our owne things but the things of the king­dome of God. Wee shall never be our owne, till wee have wholly resigned our selves unto God. Wee shall never have a true peace and content within, till our affections be altogether subjected to his love, and conformed to his will. But then shall wee be peaceable, contented, and masters at home, when God shall reigne within us, and when wee shall know no more difference be­tweene his interest and ours.

Finally, the highest point of love being an entire union, and to have all things common, it is also the purpose and in the end the efficiency of Gods love to us, yea so farre that by his great and precious promises wee are made partakers of the divine nature, 2. Pet. 14. and that Christ is in us and we in him Ioh. 17. What hath God reserved to himselfe that wee may not call ours? Heaven and Earth are for us, His providence is our purveyour, His Angels are our keepers, His kingdome our inheritance: He gives us his good plenty, his word, his Sonne, his Spirit, his owne selfe. Can any be persuaded of this beneficence of God, and refuse to give him his body, his soul, his intentions and his affections? Shall wee use reservations with God who keeps no good from us? Would any poore man refuse to have community of goods with a rich man? [Page 45]Now God who is the plenty and felicity it selfe will have community of goods with us. Let us embrace the condition readily: Let us give our selves, to God, and God shall be ours; Or rather say wee, God is ours, let us render our selves to him: for he prevents us in that Covenant; since God is ours, good reason wee should be his. Blessed we! that wee may say with the Spouse I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine, for by that union of persons and community of goods with God, the soul finds her selfe arrived to the soveraigne degree of riches, peace, glory and delectation.

CHAP. VI. Of Faith.

Faith is a Christian vertue, whose most proper and natural office is, to embrace that peace made for us with God by Iesus Christ. And by it wee signe and seale for our part the Agreement made betweene God and man, This expression is borrowed of John the Baptist speaking of the Lord Iesus, He that hath received his testimony hath set to his Seale that God is true. Joh. 3.33. All that we said be­fore of our reconciliation with God by Christ, & how that reconciliation is applyed to our consci­ences, is an explication of the duty and benefit of faith; Yet we must speake of it againe as a conse­quence of Love. For the principal & most natural fruit of the love of God is to put our whole trust in [Page 46]Thus St Iohn having sayd much of the love of God to us, and of the love that wee owe him for it, addeth, 1. Ioh. 4.18. There is no feare in love, but perfect love asteth out feare, because seare hath tor­ment; he that feareth is not made perfect in love. Faith as the mother of all vertues brings forth the love of God, but Love is soone eeven with faith, and brings forth her owne mother; For as wee love God because wee trust in him (as certainly per­suaded of his wisedome, power and fidelity in his promises) so wee trust in him because wee love him, for in all our friendships our trust in the belo­ved person followes the measure of the love that wee beare to him. He then that loveth God sin­cerely, trusts in him; And when calamity tempts him to unbeleeving fears, he will observe Saint Peters exhortation, 1. Pet. 4.14 Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in welldoing as unto a faithfull creatour.

It is impossible to love well without a good opinion of the person wee love, especially of his fidelity and righteousnes: Seeing then, that God hath promised to pardon sins to those that confesse them with a serious repentance, if wee love him wee shall trust in his promise, that if wee confesse our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnes, 1 Joh. 1.9. grounding our trust in his mercy upon his fidelity and righteousnes: for since he promist it, certainly he will doe it, he is too faithful to breake his [Page 47]word, and too just to punish us for those sins of which Christ hath borne the punishment in our name. This gracious declaration he hath made, Luk. 12.32. Feare not, little flock, for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdome. Shal wee have such an ill opinion of him, as to think that he hath promist more then he was willing or able to per­forme; or that, since the promise made, his will is altered, or his power diminisht? Let us be sure that he that loved us from all eternity will love us to all eternity, Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect? It is God that justifyeth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that dyed, yea rather that is risen agnine, who is even sitting at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. And if upon this safe ground we trust in God for the things of the life to come, wee must upon the same ground trust his love for the things of this life. He that spared not his own sonne but delivered him up for us all, how shal he not with him freely give us all things? He that saved our soules from death shall he not deliver our bodies from the dangers of this world? Certainly, he that hath prepared for us eternal delights at his right hand will not denie us our temporal daily bread.

This assurance in his love will sweeten our afflictions and lay downe our feares, for being persuaded that God as he is infinitely good is also infinitely wise, wee must in consequence beleeve that all the evills which he sends us are so many [Page 48]remedies to other evils; that our most smarting dolours are corrosives applyed by that wise Phy­sician to eate the proud flesh of our corrupt nature; that he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, Lam. 3.33. especially when he chastiseth his children, but is in a manner forced to that course by their necessity, as when a man is pincht by his best friends, to awake him out of a deep lethargy.

And since that eternal friend is every where present by his al-seeing knowledge and almighty power, and hath promised besides, his gracious presence to his friends, saying I will not leave thee nor forsake thee; what reason have we of joy & con­fidence at all times, in all places, and in all the occurrences of this life, having God with us all­wayes, observing us with his eye, upholding us with his hand, protecting us with his providence, guiding us with his wisedome, and comforting us with his love?

The last good office that Faith doeth unto us, is in the approaches of death; for then especially it doth represent the promises of God unto the faith­full soule, and sealeth them afresh, knitting that bond of perfectnes the mutual love between God and the conscience faster then ever: By it God speakes peace unto the soule aspiring to heaven, and makes it spread the wings of holy desires, to passe with a swift flight from the combat below to the triumph above.

Faith, bearing up the soule in that last flight, [Page 49]changeth name and nature in the way, and be­comes love; to embrace him for ever in glory, in whom we have believed in infirmity.

CHAP. VII. Of Christian Hope.

THe proper action of Faith is to embrace Christ and ground the soul upon him; But it hath another action common to it with hope, which is to embrace the benefits obtained to us by Christ. Of these benefits, the present grace is proper to faith, which is justification, otherwise the Reconciliation of God with the conscience; the future glory by the contemplation of Gods face, is more proper to Hope.

Both faith and hope bring a sweet peace and solid content to the soul that loveth God. But it is peculiar to hope to adde to that peace a beam of glory; much like those spies of Israel that entred into the Land of Promise before the rest of the people, to whom they brought some of the fruit of the Land; For it entreth into hea­ven beforehand, and from thence brings us a taste of the promised inheritance.

Hope is the onely thing that puts some value upon the life of this world, for all the good of this life consisteth in this, that it is a way to a better, and that the earth is the tyring-room of the godly soul where she makes herselfe ready [Page 50]for the wedding of the Lamb. But for that, what were this life good for? It would consist but in two things; to do evill and to suffer evill. The very goods of this life without that hope would be evill; for none among the Pagans, and all o­thers that were not sustained by Christian hope, was ever made happy. The wisest of them have sought the soveraigne good out of the objects of the senses, not finding any solid content in sen­suall things or actions. Solomon wiser then them all, had found that all under the Sun was vanity and vexation of spirit, and under all he comprehended intellectual as well as sensual things. Neither could any give a more judici­ous verdict of all than he, for he had tryed all things. Where then shall we find any thing worth the paines of living, but in Hope? For if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 1 Cor. 15.19. Hope not keeping within the limits of the poor goods of this life liveth already with the life to come, for it looks for the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world as himself teacheth us: where although he reigne as a soveraigne, he reigneth not as a redeemer; and so here is not the reigne of his redeemed. We find it by experience.

Who so then will enjoy the peace of the soul and contentment of mind must have his hope and his spirit in a better place; for why should we expect of the world more then it hath? Can [Page 51]one gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles? May one expect peace of a perpetual agitation, or a durable content from things of short conti­nuance? For the soul of man being created for permanency, is contented with nothing lesse then a permanent good; which is the essential reason why no man could ever find satisfaction in the world, there being such a disproportion between mans soul, and the objects that the world presents to her: for all worldly things are finite, but the soul though finite in her sub­stance is infinite in her desire, which nothing lesse then infinity can satisfie. Now it is by hope that the soul enjoyeth in this finite world an in­finite good. It is by hope, that we rise from the dead before we dy, being advanced to a degree of grace that hath already a streak of glory. Of which St Paul giveth this high expression. Col. 3.1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory.

Worldly hopes flatter us and then disappoint us. But though they did performe all they promise, the present possession of the best things of the world is nothing comparable to the hope onely of heavenly things, even that lively hope unto which God hath begotten us again by the resur­rection of Jesus Christ from the dead; To an inheri­tane incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth [Page 52]not away, reserved in heaven for us. 1 Pet. 1.3.

O holy and glorious hope, which already makes us partakers of Christs resurrection, and followers of his ascention, even to the right hand of God! already living with the life of Christ & animated by his spirit: Blessed hope, by which we are preserved from the general corruption as with a soveraigne antidote, and by which we subsist yea and triumph in afflictions, Heb. 10.34. taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods, knowing in our selves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. It is by hope that we look joyfully upon our bodies decaying with sicknesse and age, 2 Cor. 5.1. Knowing that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven. It is by hope, that the Martyrs & all that suffer for righteousnesse see the crown layd on the top of their crosse, and rejoyce in this pro­mise of their Saviour, Matth. 5.11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake: rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. By hope we behave ourselves wisely in prosperity, 1 Cor. 7.31. using this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passeth away. Hope beats down pride, refraines lust, and weans our hearts from the world. [Page 53]Worldly hope disordereth the soul and makes a man go out of himself, depending of the future, and losing the present, and is alwayes wave­ring and feaverish: But heavenly hope, although it transport the soul above herself, and make her depend upon future goods, sets her neverthe­lesse in a quiet steady frame; because the soul rising to God receiveth God, who makes her his home; so that a man by hope, enjoyes beforehand part of the goods which he aspires unto. Hope groweth like rivers more and more as it draweth neerer the end of its course: And when it hath brought the godly soul into the Ocean of felicity, there it loseth the name of Hope, and becomes Enjoyment.

CHAP. VIII. Of the duty of Praising God.

SInce wee already embrace eternal goods by hope, as wee desire to beginne now the joyes of heaven, we must resolve to beginne the dutyes of that blessed Estate. To seeke the first without the second, would be an ungenerous disposition, and an impossible undertaking. If wee apprehend aright that the felicity of man consisteth in his duty, and that the glory of the blessed Saints in heaven consisteth in glorifying God, we will seeke in that great duty our felicity, and delight to sing our part, even, in this life, in the hymnes of those [Page 54]glorious spirits. Nothing gives to the soule so great a peace, Nothing elevateth the soule to such a Paradice, like Joy. The love of God is preferred before faith and hope, because these seeke their owne good, but that seeketh Gods glory; Which to a godly soule being much more considerable then her owne happines, yet is found to be the soveraigne happines of him that seekes it before his owne good; Neither is there any more certaine and compendious way to get glory to ourselves then to seeke Gods onely glory.

In this then the godly man must delight, and can never want matter for it, all things giving him occasion to praise God, either for his mercy to his children, or his justice to his enemies, or his power and wisedome eminently shining in all his workes, or the infinite perfection that abideth in himselfe. God hath made all creatures for his praise; and none of his material creatures can praise him but man onely; And of all men, none but the godly praise him: Or if others doe it for company, it becomes them not, neither are their praises accepted. Then upon the godly lyeth the whole taske to praise God for other creatures that cannot or will not praise him. But that taske is all pleasure; as nothing is more just, so nothing is more delightfull then that duty.

Look about upon the fields richly clad with the plenty and variety of nature: Looke up to heaven and admire that great light of the world, the Sun [Page 55]so wonderfull in his splendour vertue and swift nesse: When he is set, looke upon the gloryes of the night, the Moone and the starres like so many bright jewels set off by the black ground of the skie, and setting forth the magnificence of their maker. See how some of them keep ea cer­taine distance among themselves, marching toge­ther without the least breaking of their ranks, some follow their particular courses, but all are true to their motions, equal and infallible in their regulated periods.

Then being amazed and dazelled with that broad light of Gods greatnes and wisedome, let every one make this question to himselfe, Why doeth God make me a beholder of his workes? Why among so many different creatures hath he made me one of that onely kinde, to whom he hath given reason to know and admire the work­man, a will to love him, & a tongue to praise him? Is it not that I might render him these duties in the name of all his other workes? And to this duty I am obliged by the lawes of thankfulnes, since all these other workes are for me; good reason then that I should be for God, lending my tongue and my heart to the whole universe to love praise and blesse the great and good authour of this rich and beautiful Nature. O the greatnes, the goodnes, the wisedome of the incomprehensible Creatour? And among all his attributes manifested in this admirable workmanship, O how his tender mer­cies [Page 56]are over all his workes? How every part of this great work is compleat? How all the parts are well sorted together, helping and sustaining one another with a wise Oeconomy? O if the worke be so perfect what must the workman be? If the streames be so cleare what must the source be? Upon these if wee fix our meditation with a holy attention wee shall heare that speech which St John heard being rapt up in spirit. Rev. 5.3. I heard (saith he) every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, saying, Blessing, honour, glory, and power, unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lambe for ever and ever.

From Nature looking to Providence, let us ob­serve how notwithstanding the opposition of spi­ritual malices and the preversnesse and blind­nesse of men, yea and by these very things, God advanceth his glory, maintaineth his truth, and formeth a secret order in confusion. For the ex­ecution of his decrees a Million of engines are set on work subordinate or co-ordinate among them­selves, wherby things most remote yet meet in the order of causes to produce the effects appointed in Gods counsel. Where the chief matter of wonder is, that many of these causes are free agents, which doing what they will, bring forth most part of the time that which they will not, and by the uncertainty of their giddy agitations ar­rive to the certain End determined by God. Who [Page 57]can comprehend the innumerable multitude of the accidents of the world, all written in Gods Book, and dispensed by his providence, that infinitely capacious and ever watchfull wisdom, ever in action, though ever at rest; which by the order he gives to the greatest things is not distracted from the care of the least? He makes the heavens to move, and the earth to bear, and disposeth of peace and warre in the world, and of the subsistence and revolution of Empires. Who would beleeve, that at the same time he tels the number of our hairs, and that not so much as one sparrow falls to the ground with­out his speciall appointment, but that we are told it by his own mouth, and that our experi­ence assureth us of his care of the least of our actions and accidents of our life? Here wee must rest amazed, but not silent; for our very ignorance must help us to admire, and extoll that depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God, whose eye and hand is in all places, whose strength sustaineth, whose providence guideth all things, and taketh as much care of each of his creatures as if he had nothing else to looke to.

If our minds be swallowed up in the depths of Gods wisdome, this one depth calls in another deep, which brings no lesse amazement but gives more comfort, & that is the fatherly love of God to us his children. Eph. 3.18. O the bredth, the [Page 58]length, the depth, the heighth, of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge! the bredth that embra­ceth Jewes and Gentiles, having broken the par­tition wall, to make a large room to his wide love, that his way might be known upon earth, his saving health among all Nations. Psalm 67.2. The length, which hath elected us before the foundation of the world, and will make us live and reigne with himselfe for ever. The depth which hath drawne us out of the lowest pit of sorrow & death; & to effect that, hath drawn him down to that low condition. The height, which hath raised us up to heaven with him, and makes us sit together with him in heavenly places.

With what miracles of mercy hath he pre­served his Church from the beginning of the world? How many graces doth he poure up­on the several members thereof, nourishing our bodies, comforting our souls, reclaim­ing us from iniquity by the gift of repentance and faith, keeping off the malice of men and evill Angels from us by the assistance of his good Angels, delivering our life from death, our eyes from teares, and our feet from falling.

But before and after all other benefits, we must remember that principal benefit never sufficient­ly remembred. Col. 1.12. Giving thankes unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be parta­kers of the inheritance of the Saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse, and [Page 59]hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Sonne; in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgivenesse of sins. This is the highest top of our felicity, the main ground of the peace of the soul, and the incomparable subject of the con­tentment of our minds; Yea, if we have such a deep sence of that heavenly grace as to praise God continually for it with heart and mouth. For as we praise God, because he blesseth us, he bles­seth us because we praise him; and by his praise, which is the eternal excercise of his blessed Saints we become already partners of their imploy­ment, their peace, and their joy.

CHAP. IX. Of good Conscience.

ALl that we have said hitherto regardeth the Principal causes (both the efficient and the instrumental) of the peace with God. There are other causes which of themselves have not that vertue to produce that great peace, yet without which, it cannot be preserved nor pro­duced neither; these are, a good conscience, and the excercise of good workes. Not that the re­conciliation made for us with God by the merit of his Son needs the help of our works, but becaus the principal point of our reconciliation and re­demption is, that we are redeemed from iniqui­ty, which is done by the same vertue that re­deemes us from Hell, and by the same operation: [Page 60]For it is a damnable self-flattery and self-deceipt for one to beleeve that he is reconciled with God, if he feele in himselfe no conversion from that naturall enmity of the flesh against God, neither can he enjoy a true peace in his soul.

In that reconciliation God makes use of our wil; for in all agreements both parties must concur and act freely. And to make us capable of that freedome, God by his spirit looseth the bonds of our unregenerate will, naturally enthralled to evill. But it will be better to medle but little with the worke of God within us, and looke to our owne; learning the duties which wee are called unto as necessary, if wee will enjoy that great reconciliation.

The first duty is to walke before God with a good conscience, for in vaine should one hope to keepe it tranquil and not good: Conscience is the natural sence of the duties of piety and righte­ousnes, warning every man (unlesse he be dege­nerated into a beast) to depart from evil and doe good; And a good conscience is that which obey­eth that sense and warning. But the ordinary use, which I will follow, by a good conscience under­stands onely the first part, which is, to beware of evil.

This good conscience is so necessary for the en­joying of that peace of God applyed to us by faith, that the A postle to the Hebrewes requires it that [Page 61]wee may stand before God with a full assurance of faith. Heb. 10.22. Let us draw neere (saith he) with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washt with pure water. And St Paul chargeth Timothy 1. Tim. 1.19. to hold faith and a good con­science, which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwrack, shewing that faith and a good conscience must goe hand in hand, and that the losse of a good conscience ushereth the losse of faith, which is consequently followed with the losse of inward peace: Whereas a good conscience brings forth confidence, as St John teacheth us, 1. Joh. 3.21. Beloved if our heart condemne us not, then have wee confidence before God.

By a conscience that condemnes us not, wee must not understand a conscience without sinne, for there is none such to be found; Much lesse a conscience that condemneth not the sinner after he hath sinned, for the best consciences are those that forgive nothing to themselves, and passe a voluntary condemnation upon themselves before God, by a free and penitent confession: But the good conscience that condemnes us not, according to St Johns sense, is, that which beares witnes to a man to have walked in sincerity, and cannot ac­cuse him to have shut up his eyes (since his con­version) against the evident lights of truth and righteousnes, or to have hardned his heart against repentance after he hath offended God.

The godly man will remember that the peace betweene God and us was made by way of con­tract, whereby God gives himselfe to us in his Sonne, and we give our selves to him. If then any refuse to give himselfe to God, there is no con­tract, God will not give himselfe to him, and so no peace, for every contract must be mutual. When the one party offereth to signe and seale, and the other refuseth it, there is no agreement. Whosoever then will covenant with God and enjoy his peace, must to his power keepe his con­science cleare from all willful violations of the conditions of the agreement; For, since this cove­nant is often termed in Scripture a mariage, our soule which is the spouse of Christ must give her­selfe to him as Christ gives himselfe to her, else the mariage is voyd, for it is the mutual consent that makes the mariage.

Whereupon one may say that God is more good then wee are wicked, and that while wee breake the contract, God remaineth faithfull, and leaves us not every time that wee leave him. Truly, there is great need of that, otherwise this spiritual mariage would soon end in divorce: But you know that when the faith of matrimony is violated betweene husband and wife, although they be not divorced, love decreaseth on both sides; what remaines of it, is sowred with jealous grudges, and peace dwells no more in that house.

It fareth so with us when wee violate the faith [Page 63]and love which wee owe unto God, by doing that which is displeasing unto him; God doeth not presently give us the Letter of divorce, and his constancy stands firme against our ficklenes; but he discontinueth the inward testimonies of his love, and his peace recedeth from us; then wee dare no more seeke our delight in him, and can­not finde it any where else; pastimes make us sad, and when wee take the aire, and shift place to find ease, we are not eased, because we carry our burden along with us, a sad weight upon our heart, a bosome-accuser within; we come to the duty of prayer against stomack, and re­turne from it without comfort.

It is certain, that the eternal covenant of God cannot be disanulled by the sins of men, as St Paul saith, that the unbeleefe of the Jewes could not make the faith of God without effect. Rom. 3.3. But I speak not here of the eternal decree of God, but of the offer made of his Covenant unto the conscience, by the word of God, and his spirit, which covenant many lightly embrace and then break it having not maturely considered before, upon what conditions it was offered.

Who so then will keep the peace of his consei­ence and his confidence with God, must carefully keep himselfe from all things that displease his holy eyes, and turne away his gratious countenance; lest when our need or our duty calls us to draw neere him by prayer, we feele [Page 64]our selves pulled back by a guilty feare. Let us walk in his presence with such simplicity and in­tegrity that at all times we may say with David, Psalm 26.5. I will wash my hands in innocency, and compasse thine altar, O Lord; That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works: O Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house. See what serenity, what liberty of Spirit he had got by his innocency: He goeth streight to the Altar of God, he rejoyceth in his praise, he delighted in his house, he will choose it for his habitation. Evill consciences are not capable of such a freedom with God.

David in this Text alluded to the forme of the Sanctuary, which had a Laver in the entry, where the Priests before they came neere the Al­tar were to wash themselves: We also, that we may keep our free accesse unto Christ our Altar, must wash our hearts in innocency; If we go not through the laver, we misse our way to the Altar: St. Paul regarded this Figure when he said, 1. Tim. 2.8. I will, that men pray every where lifting up pure hands.

It is true, that to lift up our hands pure unto God we have need to wash them in a better inno­cency then our own, and the purest have need to be washt in the blood of Jesus Christ. David himselfe having said that he would wash his hands in innocency, Psalm 26. and soon after, but as for me I will walke in mine integrity; immediately upon [Page 65]that prayeth to God to redeeme, and have mercy upon him. Yet God requires our innocency, which he examines as a gratious Father not as a severe Judge; he lookes more to the sincerity of our hearts then the perfection of our actions, give­ing his peace to the penitent soules void of hypo­crisy. Psalm 32.2. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile; That walketh before God with feare, knowing his infirmities, and together in confidence knowing Gods mercy and the cer­tainty of his promises; That hath no evil end, and corrupteth not his good ends by evill wayes; That chooseth rather to miss the advancements of the world then to shrink back from his duty to God, ready to suffer the losse of all things that he way keep him. That lookes upon his tem­poral goods without remorse, because among them he seeth nothing ill gotten; and upon his neighbours goods without envy, because he hath taken the Lord for his portion who is rich to all that call upon him. Rom. 10.12. His words agree with his heart, and his actions with his du­ty. He brings his affections captive under the the feare of God, boweth his will under Gods will, and makes all his ends to stoope un­der the interest of Gods glory. Hee that doth these things shall never be moved: Whatsoever becomes of his temporal condition (which is better settled by integrity then by all the tricks of [Page 66]the craftiest pates) he shall possesse a firme, se­rene, equal and tranquil spirit; He shall have peace in warre, and calme in the storme, know­ing that no evil can befall him so long as he is well with God.

CHAP. X. Of the exercise of Good works.

TO have a holy and tranquill conscience, it is not enough for us not to do evil; we must do good. These two dutyes may be distingui­shed, but not severed. He that doth no good, of necessity doth evill; for it is ill done, to do no good. God made us not onely that we should not sinne (For that, it would have bin sufficient to have given us the nature of plants or stones) but he hath given us an intelligent active nature, that we might use it to know, and love, and serve our Maker. And since he made us after his image (for which reason Adam is called the Son of God Luk. 3.) if we wil be like our Father which is in heaven we must study to do good, for he doth good continually, even when he sends evill, which he makes an instrument of good, whether it be for justice or mercy. Psalm 26.10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth; and such all our pathes should be.

To this we are more especially called by our redemption whereby we are restored into the [Page 67]right of Gods children which we had lost, and are purchased to be his servants. God did not adopt us that we should be idle children: Christ did not purchase us that we should be unprofi­table servants.

Now because the life of man is laborious and allwayes in action, we learne out of Gods ex­ample to examine all our works severally and joyntly, to see whether they be good, and re­joyce when we find them so. Thus God said, Let the light be, and the light was, And God saw that the light was good. The like after the workes of every day of the first week. And in the end of the creation God made a review of all that he had done; And behold all was very good; to signifie that God seeing all his works good and compleate took great delight in them, and did remunerate his own actions with the satisfaction which he he took in his owne wisdom and goodnesse. That we may then imitate God, let us do nothing but good; and againe when we have done it, let us see how good it is: Though it cannot be but very defective, yet if we find in it sincerity and an ingenuous desire to do good, we may in our measure rejoyce as God did for doing good, and shall enjoy a sweet peace within representing both in the good that we do and in the delight that we take in well doing, the image of him that hath created and adopted us to expresse his likenesse.

Our confidence in God by the merit of his be­loved Sonne is the ground of true peace and con­tent. But that confidence is fed by works. By faith we beare testimony to our hearts that we are reconciled with God, and by workes we beare testimony to our faith. As, by the respira­tion we know that a man is alive, and by the same respiration the man is kept alive: So, the exercise of good workes is together the marke of faith, and the way to maintaine that spiritual life.

As God hath wisely ordered that the actions necessary for the preservation of naturall life should be done with delight; likewise, the exer­cise of good workes whereby the life of faith is maintained gives a singular pleasure unto the faithfull soul. Psalm 40.8. I delight to do thy will, O my God, said David. And the Lord Jesus could say that his meat was to do the will of him that sent him: John 4, 32. Wherefore as healthful bodies eat their meat with appetite, so godly soules ap­ply themselves with a holy appetite to good workes. In both, it is an inward sence of necessity that provokes the appetite, it being as impossible to live with the life of faith without good works, as to keep the body alive without meat or drink. And, as these satisfy the stomack, good actions give a sweet satisfaction to the soul. But as one cannot live alwayes in the strength of one meale, but must take new food every day, else the body will pine away, and die in a short time; likewise, [Page 69]the use of good workes must be daily: too much intermission will abate the pulse of faith; trouble will get into the conscience, or a heavy numness, which will end in the extinction of spiritual life, unlesse the appetite of doing good worke [...] a­wakened by repentance, and faith get new strength by good exercises.

For this exercise, the Lord Jesus gave us an ex­ample that wee should follow his steps; Who did good in the whole course of his life, and more in his death; Who spent the night in prayer, and the day in healing the sick and converting sinners: Who for ill words returned saving instru [...] [...]; Who overcame contempt with humility, and adversities with patience: Who did good to them that persecuted him to death, healing the eare of Malchus that was come to take him, and praying for them that crucifyed him! Who to obey God his ather despised his owne life, denyed the love of himselfe, and made this free and miraculous submission to God in the terrours of death, Father, not my will but thy will be done.

The joy and glory which he got by that sub­mission must encourage his Disciples to preferre the obedience to God and the duty of a good con­science before all interesses; being sure that to forsake them for God is the way to preserve them, and that by suffering for his glory, wee get glory.

The content that accreweth to the soule by tending carefully Gods service and loving nothing [Page 70]like it, cannot be exprest but by those that feel it. How great was St Pauls satisfaction when he sayd 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisedome, but by the grace of God, wee have had our conversation in the world. And how sweet was his rapture of joy, when he sayd being neere the end of his race, 2 Tim. 4.7. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; Henceforth there is layd up for me a crowne of righ­teousnes which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me. O what pleasure is comparable to the testi­mony of a good conscience! The joy of a great con­querour who hath newly got an imperial crown, is not comparable to St Pauls happines when he rejoyced to have fought the good fight of faith, and stretched himselfe towards the crowne of righteousnes layd up for him. Increase of worldly goods increaseth sorrow. When they are above sufficiency, instead of easing the minde they op­presse it. Worldly pleasures are shortlived, leav­ing behinde them an unpleasant fare-well, and often a sting of crime. Worldly honour is winde, which either will blow a man downe, or puff him up with an unsound tumour. But godlines and good actions give a sincere joy, a solid content a lasting peace, a satisfaction penetrating to the inmost of the soule. This is richly exprest by Isaiah in prophetical termes, Isa. 58.10 If thou draw out thy soule to the hungry, and satisfye the afflicted soule, [Page 71]then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darknes be as the noone day. And the Lord shall guide thee conti­nually, and satisfye thy soule in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters faile not.

Although Devotion, and good conscience, and the practise of good workes, were sad things, as the world imagineth them; yet ought wee to un­dergoe that sadnes in this life of few dayes, to make provision for the other life which is eternal, since this life is a moment on which eternity depends; And wee should sow in teares to reape in joy: But seeing that a good conscience active in piety and good workes gets thereby, even in the present, a serene peace and a heavenly comfort not credible to any but those that feele it; is it not a great incouragement to doe well, That the way to make us happy, is to make us saints?

It is none of the least arts of Satan for turning men away from the practice of godlines and ver­tuous actions, to represent Devotion and vertue with an austere habit and a sowre face, enough to make children afrayd, and growne men also, many of them having with a gray beard a childish understanding, authoritatem senum, vitia puerorum. But certainly this is a false ugly vizard set upon a handsome and gracious face; there being nothing more serene and pleasant then godlines and a good conscience. A good conscience is that merry heart which is a continual feast. To doe Gods will [Page 72]with a good will keepes a mans heart cheerefull to God, and pleasant to himselfe. Will you then make your hope sure of an eternal rest, and of those pleasures for evermore at the right hand of God? Doe but take the first course to make your­selves content and joyfull in this life which is to walke before God unto all pleasing to your power and to be rich in good workes. Was there ever a more winning invitation then this? Make your­selfe joyful and contented in this life, that you may be eternally joyfull and contented in the next.

CHAP. XI. To redresse ourselves often, by Repentance.

Wee have meditated upon the peace of God and the way how to get it in our souls, and keepe it. That peace brings a golden serenity and a solid content to our hearts. But because the godliest persons in this world are subject to sinne, and by sinning to trouble that peace and serenity, it is necessary to redresse ourselves often by repen­tance. Of that duty I have spoken in the third chapter of this first booke, as the necessary way to embrace by faith our reconciliation with God, and a maine part of the great worke of our con­version. But after wee are reconciled and con­verted, wee are men still. Neither is any con­version so great in this life as to roote out sinne altogether out of mans nature. Whosoever then [Page 73]will preserve his integrity and peace (for these two commonly goe together) must have this warning continually in his mind, Lét him that thinks he standeth take heed lest he fall 1. Cor. 10.12. And if he fall, let him take up himselfe presently by a godly repentance. The more he esteemeth himselfe advanced and confirmed in piety, the more let him mistrust himselfe and be­ware of the temptations of Satan. For after holy, resolutions and elevations of zeale and devotion, great sins very often are committed; because then the conscience is most subject to relent, as over­confident of her good estare; Much like besieged souldiers who after a brave sallie will remitt of their watchfulnes, despising the enemy whom they have beaten, and in their security are taken by surprise. Conscience will fall asicepe, but Satan never sleepeth, and never misseth to take advan­tage of our negligence. Heb. 12.1. Sin that doth so easily beset us saith the Apostle to the Hebrewes. By saying us, he comprehends himself acknowledg­ing that the most perfect are easily beset by sin.

Some sins are presently felt, and leave a sting as the Scorpion doth; To that sting the remedy must presently be applyed by repentance, and a faithfull recourse to Gods mercy through Christ; also the assistance of his Spirit must bee im­plored, else the venome will spread, and the wound become mortal. Other sins are lesse felt, or creep in undiscerned, yet leave a heavinesse [Page 74]upon the heart, and make it slower to godlinesse and good workes. Then the businesses of the life intervening, the remembrance of many sins will slip out of our memory, which neverthelesse worke their effect upon the conscience, blunting the sense of piety, and setting the soul further from God.

Wherefore it is the part of a wise Christian often to revisit the state of his conscience, call himselfe to account, and by a pious solicitude of repentance pick and sift out even the least dust that sticks to us of the worlds uncleannesse and our own, scowring out that rust which consci­ence, like iron, will contract, if it be not often handled.

If the uncleane spirit will not dwell in a mans heart unlesse he find the house empty, swept, and gar­nisht, Matth. 12. that is, void of all goodnesse and furnisht for his turne; We must not expect that the holy Spirit will dwell in our heart un­lesse we bestow our best care to sweepe it for him, emptyed of the immundicities of sinne, & to garnish it with holinesse. He will not keep house under the same roofe with the unclean spirit. And unlesse we speedily put that enemy out of doores, God may in his displeasure leave him the whole house. Whereas if you keep it swept for God with daily repentance, he will make it his Temple, and say, Psal. 132.14. This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I delight in it. But [Page 75]that our hearts may be cleane habitations for him, we have need to call for the assistance of his grace. Psalm 51. Create in us a cleane heart O Lord and renew a right Spirit within us.

Since the Son of God honours us so much as to call us his friends, let us religiously observe the lawes of friendship with him. Even in humane friendships, if we have sometimes the missorutne to give offence to one whom we especially love and respect, we cannot be at rest till we have given him satisfaction. And should we be so im­prudent as to neglect God our great friend, after we have offended him? Shall we let the Sunne go down upon his wrath and our offence? Let us returne to him without delay, and humbly seeke his peace. The speediest reconciliations are the best.

In this returne to God, which must be every day, let us call to our remembrance all the sins of late date, and others of elder date not sufficiently repented of, confessing them to God with contri­tion, and craving pardon for them with humi­lity and faith through the merit of his Sonne, which to all repenting sinners is an exhaustible spring of mercy, open at all times. Zechariah meant this by that Fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleannesse. And becaure many trespasses of ours are out of remembrance, and some we have run into without our knowledge, we must be­seech [Page 76]God with David to clense us from secret faults, Psalm 19.12. and that he be pleased to for­get those sins which we have forgotten.

To that daily returne to God, some extraordi­nary returnes must be added, where fasting and alms be joyned to prayer. Thereby these clouds shall be cleared off, which trouble the serenity of the conscience, and the soul shall get a great help to rejoyce in the love of God and glory in his bounty.

When one is come to that blessed state of the soul, he must wipe off the teares of repentance and drowne that sadnesse in a thankfull joy. For the sorrow of repentance is good by accident on­ly, because there is some evill to be healed. It is like a medicine which gives gripings and disqui­eteth nature, therefore not to be used but to re­cover health: Although we cannot repent too much to have offended God, there may be excess in the sorrow of repentance. To seek merit or ostentation in penitent sorrow, which is the face that vulgar soules give to devotion, is making a glory of the matter of our shame, as if a fellon had the ambition to weare the halter about his neck with a good grace. The sorrow of repen­tance is an ill passage which we must of necessity go through, if we will be saved; but we must not make that passage a dwelling place. After we have used it to make our peace with God, we must be comforted and rejoyce in that peace. For [Page 77]God hath not called us to sorrow, but to peace and content; And the Gospell is the Doctrine of peace and assurance.

CHAPTER I. The Designe of this Book, and the next.

THe sence of our peace with God may be distinguished from the peace with our selves, but not separated; for the peace with God being well appre­hended setleth peace in the heart betweene a man and his own conscience, which otherwise is his inseparable accuser and implacable adver­sary.

We have spoken in the first Book of the ground and principal cause of our inward peace which is also the end and perfection of the same, and that is our Union with God. We have treated also of the meanes altogether divine and effective of [Page 78]that end, which are the love of God and our neighbour, faith, hope, and a good conscience active in good workes. We intend now, with Gods helpe, to speake of those subordinate cau­ses and meanes, where Prudence is a servant of Piety, to keep peace and good order within. In this great work the handmaide shall often need her Mistrisses help; for reason not sanctified by piety is as dangerous to use, as Antimony and Mercury not prepared.

The two great workes of sanctified reason to keep inward peace and content, are these; Not to be beaten down with adversity or corrupted with prosperity, going through both fortuns with vertuous cleare and equal temper, making pro­fit of all things, and fetching good out of evill.

To frame that golden temper in our minde, we must lay downe before all things for a funda­mental Maxime, That all the good and evill of mans life, though it may have its occasions with­out, hath truly and really its causes within us; excepting onely some few casualties where pru­dence hath no place; and yet there is no evill but may be either prevented, or lessened, or turned into good by a vertuous disposition.

Hence it followes that not without but with­in us our principal labour must be bestowed, to take an order for our peace and content. To keep us from falls in a long journey, if wee would send before to remove all the stones out [Page 79]of the way, we should never have done; but the right course is to get an able and surefooted horse and to sit fast on him. It would be a more impossi­ble undertakeing in the wayfairing condition of this life to remove all temptations and oppositi­ons out of our way; but against these two sorts of obstacles, we must provide a firme spirit, able to go through all, and stumbling at nothing; but keeping every where a sure and eeven pace.

To that end let us acknowledge within us two generall causes of all our content and discon­tent, and all our order and disorder: The first cause is the Opinion that we conceive of things; The second is, the Passion moved or occasioned by that opinion. Take a good order with these two causes, you shall be every where content, tranquil, wise, and moderate. But from the disorder of these two causes, proceeds all the trouble of the inward polity of our minds, and all the misrule and misery that is in the world.

It must bee then our labour to order a­right these two Principles of our good and evill within us, and in the order here set down, which is essential to the matter; Imploying this second Book to get right Opinions of the things of this world, from which men usually expect good or evill. And this will prepare us matter for the third Book, whose task will be to set a rule to passions. For that which sets them upon disor­derly motions is the wrong opinion wherewith [Page 80]the mind is possest about the objects. And who­soever can instruct his mind with right opinions, may after that, rule his passion with little labour.

CHAP. II. Of the right Opinion.

I Said that things exteriour are the occasions of the good and evill of man, but the causes of the same are the interiour, Opinion and Passion. Now to treat of the causes we must also treat of the occasions, as subjects of the opinion, and ob­jects of the passion; Not to examine them all, for they are as many as things in the world and accidents in mans life; there is none of them alto­gether indifferent to us, but are considered either as good or evill. We will stay onely upon the chiefe heads, and endeavour to finde the true price of things that men commonly desire, and the true harme of those things which they feare.

In this search, I desire not to be accounted par­tial, if I labour to give a pleasant face to the sad­dest things. It is my profest intention. For my work being to seek in all things occasion of peace and content, why shall I not, if I can, borrow it even from adversity? And is it any whit ma­terial whether I find it indeed or devise it, so I can make it serve my turne! Is it not prudence for one to be ingenious to content himselfe, yea though he cosen himselfe to his owne content? [Page 81]My readers may beare with me if I use them as I use my selfe, who, next to the care of pleasing God, make it my chiefe study to content my mind, and in all the several byasses that God puts upon the rouling course of my life, strive to behold all accidents by the faire side; or to give them one in my mind, if they have none. Where­in I hope to justifye the ingenuity of my dealing, to ingenious mind, and shew that I give no false colours to evill things to make them looke good. For since the good and evill of most things con­sisteth in opinion, and that things prove good or evill as they are taken and used, if I find good in those things which others call evill, they become good in my respect. It is the great worke of wise men to turne all things to their advantage, subject­ing exteriour things to their mind, not their mind to them, et sibi res non se rebus submittere.

This truth then ought to be deeply printed in minds, studious of wisdome and their own con­tent, That they beare their happinesse or unhap­pinesse within their breast; and, That all outward things have a right and a wrong handle; He that takes them by the right handle, finds them good; He that takes them by the wrong indiscreetly, finds them evill. Take a knife by the haft it will serve you, take it by the edge it will cut you.

Observe that all sublunary things are of a com­pounded nature; Nothing is simple, nothing but may do good, nothing but may do harme. And [Page 82]so in moral goodnesse or badnesse. There is no good thing but is mingled with evill: There is no evill, but some good enters into the composi­tion. The same truth holds in all persons, acti­ons, and events. Out of the worst, a well com­posed mind endowed with the grace of God, may extract good with no other chymistry then piety wisdom and serenity.

It lyeth in us, as we incline our minds, to be pleased or displeased with most things of the world. This may be exemplifyed in things ma­terial and of lesse importance, which may be presidents for things spiritual and of greater mo­ment. One that hath fed his eyes with the rich prospect of delicate Countryes as Lombardy and Anjou, where all the beauties and dainties of Nature are assembled, will another time take no lesse delight in a wild and rugged prospect of high bare mountaines, and fifty stories of steep rockes, as about the grand Chartreuse, and the bottome Ardennes, where the very horror con­tributes to the delectation. If I have bin deligh­ted to see the trees of my Orchard, in spring blos­somed, in summer shady, in autumne hung with fruite; I will delight againe, after the fall of the leafe, to see through my trees new prospects which the bushy boughes hid before; and will be pleased with the sight of the snow candied about the branches, as the flowers of the season. This is better then to consider in deserts nothing [Page 83]but their hideousnesse and barrennesse, and in winter nothing but the rheumatique weather.

If a facile and well composed mind take de­light in these varieties of nature, why not in the varietyes of his condition? When he is rich, he will delight in the service of his men; When he falls to poverty, he will delight to help himselfe, finding that he is the sooner obeyed and more to his minde. If he hath children, he will delight to provide for them; If God take them from him, he will rejoyce that they are provided for. If he obtaine a beloved woman, he finds his content increased; If he miss her, he finds his care di­minisht. If he be neere his friends, he injoyes gladly their love and presence; If he be farre from them, he seeth no more their distresses. One time he loves health, because it makes life sweeter; Another time he will love sicknesse, be­cause it will bring a happy death. That mans patience was ingenuous, who having put out his eye falling upon his own staffe, gave God thanks that his staffe was not forked, so he might have put out both his eyes with that fall.

There is nothing where a well instructed minde may not find matter of some content and comfort. A truth presupposed by St. Paul when he teacheth to rejoyce evermore, 1 Thess. 5.16. yea and glory in tribulations. Rom. 5.3. For when God multiplyeth his tryalls to his children he makes his comforts to abound much more. Of [Page 84]which they deprive themselves who in their for­tunes look onely upon the sad side, and are in­genious to vexe themselves. The occurrences of this life having many faces, a wise man will alwayes entertaine the best. And in my opinion it should not be a hard matter to obtaine of our­selves, to give alwayes sentence in our own fa­vour.

Yet this must be used with some distinction. For in those evils which consist in our own fault, we must alwayes consider the evill as great as it is, and give sentence against our selves; for the way to be absolved of God is, to condemne our­selves before him. In that case he that is against himselfe doth much for himselfe. But as for the evills that come to us by accident or by the fault of another, wee must alwayes lessen the evill and be partial for our selves through humility, meekenesse, patience, yea and forgetfullnesse; for so shall we give judgement in our favour, the milde part being that which must worke our con­tent. Whereas he that aggravates evils with his imagination, and makes his spite, and appe­tite of revenge to be as hammers to knock in deeper the arrowes that are shot against him, gives sentence against himselfe, and takes part with his enemies to work his own discontent.

These considerations must be further insisted upon in their proper place. I use them here on­ly as instances of the benefit of opinion when it is [Page 85]well taught, and the harme of the same when it followes a wrong information.

To get a right Opinion, the contemplation by which Epictetus beginnes and grounds his Book, of most rare excellency, must be maturely and diligently studied. For if we bestow but a little Christian dresse upon it, it will be a perpetual & infallible rule for the right valuing of all things, and so will prove a singular help for the cleare­nesse and tranquillity of minde. Here it is.

In the universality of things some are in our power, some are not: Such as are in our power are Opinion, appetite, desire, aversion, and all our inward and outward actions [By our power I meane not our meere naturall power, which is weak and prone to evill, but the regenerate pow­er strengthened with Gods grace, which assisting our natural freedom gives it both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Phil. 2.13. Where­fore the Christian hath more power over his opi­nions, passions, and motions then Epictetus, who had but the natural power.] The things that are not in our power, are money, glory, empires, and generally all things that are none of our workes.

Those things that are in our power are free by their nature, and cannot be hindred by any but our selves, or at least without our consent: For although the world and the Devill seduce our opinions and tempt our affections, they cannot [Page 86]get any victory over us, unlesse we lend our hand to it. But as for the things that are out of our power, they are weake, subject to servitude, exposed to opposition and hinderances, and de­pend of the power of another.

We must then hold this for certain, that if we take things subject to servitude, to be free; and things that depend of another, to be ours; we cannot but meet often with oppositions and ob­structions in our designes. We shall lament and torment our selves, we shall accuse men, and murmure against God. But if we account that onely to be ours which is ours indeed as depend­ing of us, and look upon all that depends not of us as being nothing to us, we can lose nothing, we shall not afflict our selves for any thing in the world, the spoyling of worldly goods that are about us shall not wrong or deject us, for that cannot be taken from us which is none of ours.

That consideration will do us great and good service in this Treatise. And to beginne, let us make use of Epictetus his distinction for the distri­bution of the principal things about which we have need to rectifie our opinion, that we may be wise and tranquill every where.

The things that depend not of us are either the goods of fortune (as they are called) which are riches, honour, friends, and family; Or goods of the body, as beauty, strength, health, pleasure and life it selfe; As these things depend not of [Page 87]us, no more do their contraryes, poverty, disho­ner, enemyes, losse of friends, deformity, paine, sicknesse and death. When one hath those for­mer at will, that state is called prosperity the latter, passe under the name of adversity.

The things that depend of us, or rather of the grace of God in us, which becomes the best part of ourselves are piety, honesty, wisedome, di­ligence, and their contraries depend of us, also, yet with some dependance from outward agents, the world and the Devill.

There be other things of a mildle rank, which partly depend of us, partly not, and therefore are ours onely in part, as learning and capacity where industry and diligence may do much, but nothing against or without nature, and they are lost by age and sicknesse, and other outward causes.

Let us review this order with more leasure, and weigh the price and inconvenience of each thing; for without that, it is impossible to be­have our selves about them with a judicious tran­quillity. We beginne with things belonging to prosperity.

CHAP. III. Of Riches.

OF things that depend not of us, the most re­mote from us are the goods of fortune; The [Page 88]goods of the body are neerer, for our body is the house of our minde, which is our trueselfe, and whose goods are properly ours. Yet such is the imprudence of men, that they are most bu­sy about that which is most remote, and neglect that which is neerest and most essential to them; for the goods of the body, neglecting those of the minde; and for the goods of fortune, neglecting those of the body; They will forfeit their con­science to please and serve their body, and haz­ard their body to get or preserve the goods of fortune. Whereas they should follow a clean contrary order, hazarding and neglecting their body, if need be, for the good of the mind, and the goods of fortune for both. [Here I say once for all, that by fortune I understand not blind chance, since Gods providence rules all, but the exteriour of a mans condition as it is distinct from those things which properly belong to the body and the mind.]

So farre I will comply with the humour of the world as to speak of riches in the first place, for it is that they seek before all things, shewing by their actions, which alwayes must be beleeved rather then words, that they hold it the first and chiefe good. Pecunia ingens generis humani bonum. An errour, that hath provoked some to oppose it with another errour, saying that money is the root of all evill. St. Paul decides the difference, saying that the love of money is the roote of all [Page 89]evill; 1 Tim. 6. the love of money, not money it selfe. It is not wealth that doth the mischiefe but the weaknesse of men that cannot wield it, coveting it with greedinesse, purchasing it with wicked wayes, imploying it in unjust actions, keeping it with trouble, and losing it with des­paire.

Riches are good, but in the lowest rank of all goods; for they have no place among laudable goods, there being no praise to be rich; Nor a­mong goods desirable for their own sake, for they are desired because of other things. It is not na­ture but custome and fancy that giveth price un­to gold & silver, instead of which shells are used for commerce in some part of the East Indyes. But for fancy, a barre of Iron would be more pre­cious then a wedge of Gold.

In one point, as indeed in all other respects, money is inferiour to other goods, as health, honour, and wisedome; that whereas one may enjoy them by keeping, and increase them by using, one must lose his money to enjoy it, and part with it to use it.

But in two things especially the imperfection of riches is seen; that they satisfye not the de­sire, and that in the greatest need which is the redemption of the soul, they are of no use, ra­ther a hindrance.

True goods are those that make the possessors good, which riches do not. They are indeed [Page 90]instruments of good in the hands of those that can uve them well; But they are instruments of evill, in the hands of those that know not how to use them. And the number of these last be­ing the greater by farre, riches do much more evill then good in the world. They stirre up folly, lust, and pride, and open a wide gate to wickednesse, yet themselves not wicked of their nature. To a well composed and disposed minde they are excellent helps to vertue, for they afford meanes for good education and matter for good actions. Wisedome and riches together is a faire match. The rich and wise Solomon speakes thus of it by his experience, Eccl. 7.11. Wisdome is good with an inheritance, and by them there is profit to them that see the Sunne, for wisedome is a defence, and money is a defence, the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdome gives life to them that have it.

The French version of that Text saith that Riches cover the owners, So they do, but it is as the shell covers a snaile, for they are a heavy toile­some luggage, wherewith a man can advance but slowly, and without which he cannot goe; And if they shelter him from some injuries, they expose him to other; they provoke envy, and are a faire butt for fraude and insolency: So to go one step further in the comparison; that shelter may be broken upon a mans back, and he crusht under it.

To know the just price of riches, reckon what [Page 91]they cost both to get and to keepe, what paines there is to get them, what danger and care in the keeping, what unsatisfaction in the enjoying, what uncertainty in the possession; Prov. 23.6. for they make themselves wings (saith Solo­mon) which no humane art can clip; A thousand accidents, which no prudent forecast can prevent, make them suddenly flee away. The worst is, that they distract the minde from the true goods; for they that have got them and possesse them most innocently, if they will preserve them and keepe them from sinking (which they will natu­rally do) must apply their mind to them, and much more, if they will increase them. Which interposition of the earth cannot but eclipse the cleare light of the minde, and hide heaven from the sight of the soul. This made the Lord Jesus to speak this sentence confirmed with an oath and a repetition. Matth. 19.23. Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdome of heaven. And againe I say unto you, It is easier for a Camell to go through the eye of a needle, then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of God. And truly although riches of themselves be not evill, but be as the minde of him that possesseth them is, good to him that useth them well, evill to him that useth them ill, yet the Devills haunt­ing of gold mines, and places where money and plate is hid, gives a probable suspition that the Devill sticks by riches, and breatheth upon [Page 92]them the aire of his malignancy.

Let every wiseman consider whether he will bestow for them as much as they cost, that is, whether he will weary his body, vexe his minde, offer violence to his conscience, bring his heaven­ly soul captive under the things of the earth, & be diverted from seeking the goods which are onely permanent and true to them that have them once, to runne after deceitfull goods which are none of ours even when we have them; of which the keeping is uncertaine, and the losse certaine, though we might avoide the ordinary daingers, whereby foolish rich men destroy their wealth, and their wealth destroyes them.

The just measure of riches, is, as much as one needs for his use, for that which is above use, is of no use. How they must be used we shall consi­der, when we treat of Passions. Here we seeke onely to know their price.

CHAP. IV. Of Honour, Nobility, Greatnesse.

THe proper rank of worldly honour is next after riches, for it is to them chief­ly that honour is deferred. Without them the honour done to Vertue is but words. Indeed the honour that followes is but smoake, but yet smoake hath some substance, words have none.

Of honour gotten by vertue, and of its right worth, something must be said when we speake [Page 93]of Renowne. Here we have to do with that out­ward garish luster which dazleth the eyes of the vulgar, gets salutations, and opens a lane through the croud for a noble person. Riches are to ho­nour that which the bones are to the body, for they keep it up: When honour loseth riches it falls to the ground, like hops without poles. Nobility with poverty doth but aggravate it, and make it past remedy; A misery described in two words by Solomon, Prov. 12.9. Honouring ones selfe, and lacking bread.

In time of peace it is wealth that brings nobi­lity and greatnesse; In time of warre it is vio­lence: for, by invasions, high titles and royalties of Lordships had their beginning. We may then value Nobility by its causes, for wealth hath no­thing praise worthy, and it is the origine of new Nobility: Invasion is meere Injustice, & it is the Origin of ancient Nobility so much cryed up.

There is a natural Nobility consisting in gene­rosity, and a nobility by grace which is our a­doption to the right of Gods children; These two together make a man truly noble. Civil nobility is nothing in nature, and consisteth meer­ly in the opinion of men and custome of nations. We deduce it from masculine succession, but in some Kingdomes of the East they derive it from the feminine, because every one is more certaine of his Mother then his Father. In China, learn­ing, not extraction, gives nobility. In some places [Page 94]nobility consisteth in merchandize. In some the military profession, in some in leading an idle life. Which different customes shew that world­ly nobility lyeth altogether in fancy, and in effect is nothing.

Yet such as it is, it proveth a goodly ornament to Vertue; it is like enamell which being of small value sets off the luster of Gold. It addeth grace facility and power to vertuous actions. Many vertues are obscured or altogether hid by pover­ty and meane condition. Sobriety in a poore man is imputed to indigence, continence to want of power, patience to basenesse. But these vertues become illustrious and exemplary, when humi­lity meets with greatnesse, and temperance with power; Vertue then shines when it is set in a high Orbe, where a man takes for the measure of his desires, not what he can, but what he ought to do,. A right good man, being high and rich, hath great helpes to do good, and power prompts him both with the occasion and the desire.

On the other side, when greatness and meanes meet with a weake and perverse spirit, it doth harme in the world. And such are most men, whose vicious affections appeare not when they are kept under by poverty & obscurity, but when they rise, their vices will rise with them. As Or­gans ill set, and ill tuned, shew not their defect while the bellowes lie down unstirred; but when [Page 95]the winde is blowne into the pipes, they gall the eares of the hearers by their discord and harsh­nesse. Likewise many vices lie mute and quiet, till the winde of honour and plenty get into them, and blow up an ill composed minde with audaciousnesse, rashnesse, and discordance with himselfe, which riseth too high with pride, and together falls too low by miserablenesse, and where all is out of tune by lust, insolence, and in­temperance.

But even those that were evill before, unless they have constant minds, and throughly dyed with piety, will bee corrupted by honour and plenty. For all men whom wee call good are prone to evill, and no greater invitation to evill then facility.

And if great honour (which is never without great businesse) doth not corrupt a man, it doth interrupt him; and as it gives him meanes to do good, it takes off his mind from thinking of it, and many times binds his hands from doing that good which he intends, by reason of the diver­sity of businesse and several inclinations of men which he must accommodate himselfe unto; it being certain the greater a man is, the more he is a slave. And it is in the highest condition that a man hath most reason to say after St. Paul Rom. 7.19. The good that I would I do not, but the evill which I would not that I doe. One is constrained to court those whom he despiseth, favour those [Page 96]whom he feareth, shut his eyes many times to see neither vice nor vertue, till one use himselfe in good earnest to preferre conveniency before righteousnesse; There a mans life is a continuall Pageant of dissimulation, which he knowes in others, and returnes it to them, who also know it in him, yet both parties put on the face of re­spect and kindnesse over an arrogant and mis­chievous minde, and embrace those whom they would have choaked.

There also when a man would do good to o­thers, very often he doth harme to himselfe. To advance one mans suite he must put back and discontent many, and get ten enemyes for one friend, who will lesse remember the good office, then the others the injury which they think to have received by the repulse. Truly high places are not fit for true friendship, for they take away the freedome from it, and by consequent the sweetnesse and the right use. In the throng of businesse and companie, the mind loseth its tran­quillity; And many times after one hath lost his rest he loseth his labour also. It is a great mise­ry for a man to be never his own, and to have no time to think of God, of which when one discon­tinueth the use, he loseth in time the desire of it, and too many acquaintances make one a stranger with God: Paucos beavit aula, plures perdidit; Sed et hos quoque ipsos quos beavit perdidit. The Court advanceth but few persons, and destroyeth [Page 97]many but even those which it advanceth it de­stroyeth and spoyleth; for most men as they grow in height decrease in goodnesse, and many times in estate; like squibs which consume them­selves as they ascend.

It is in few mens choice, whether they may be great or no, some being borne to it and obliged by their birth to maintaine their condition. Others being borne farre under it, and there kept by invincible necessity. Yet among great and small, some still are in possibility to raise their de­gree and come to greater place. And whereas it is in the choyce of few persons whether they shall be great, it is in the choice of all, whether they will be ambitious, and aspire to high and nego­tious places. Let a wise man consider whether honour be worth as much as it costs to get and to keep; whether hee would lose his rest for it, leave conversing with God to converse with men, runne the danger to become wicked to become great, and among the justlings of envy be alwayes ready to fall and break his neck. Let him weigh in the scales of a right judgement the respect and Opinion of others, against so much personal care, perill, and losse.

A middle degree of quality, enough to stand a little out of the dirt, is commodious and desi­rable. The degrees above and beneath are sla­very. But a wise and pious man finds liberty and nobility in any degree.

CHAP. V. Of Glory, Renowne, Praise.

FRom the honour that attends greatnesse and riches we passe to that which is deferred to Vertue, or that which beares the name of it. For this second sort of honour many generous spirits have contemned the first, and greatnesse, and riches, and life too; dying willingly that they night have glory, when they shall be past having any thing in this world.

Wise Solomon saith, that a good name is rather to chosen then great riches, Prov. 22.1. And better then be precious oyntment, Eccl. 7.1. The goodnesse of it lyeth in some facility that it gives to do good, for when mens minds are possest with a good opinion of a person they are susceptible of his counsels. Thereby also a man may better his condition.

The content that a good action gives to the doer is a real and solid good, but the content that the reputation of it giveth, is vaine and de­ceitfull: If the Renowne be for vaine things, such as most things are in the world, it can yeeld but a contentment like itselfe, and though it be raised by real vertue, yet reputation is but dis­course and the Opinion of others; It is hollow meat, and who so will feed upon it will soone be like that hungry Dreamer of whom Isaiah speak­eth, who dreames that he is eating, but he awakes [Page 99]and his soul is empty. Isa. 29.8. A wise and good man lookes for a better reward of his vertue then the talk of the world. No action is good if it be don for praise, or if approbation be sought of any but God and ourselves. John 5.44. How can ye be­leeve (saith Christ) which receive honour one of a­nother; and seek not the honour that cometh from God onely? Our actions ought to be such as to be of good savour, before the world, else they can do no good in the world: But that good savour must be sought as an accessory, not a principal, and must bee rejected, when instead of an acces­sory it becomes a hindrance and a barre from the the principal, which is the glory of God and a good conscience: Let that witness beare testimo­ny to our selves, and let men say of us what they will. My Opinions and Affections if they be good, make me good and happy, not the Opinion of my neigh bours.

A wise man must subject reputation to him­selfe, not himselfe to her. If he can make her runne before him as his Harbinger, to prepare for him an accommodation wheresoever he go­eth and get him a roome in the judgements and affections of men, it will be a prudent course. And it will be a point of prudence not to hunt reputation too eagerly: for Reputation is well compared to our shaddow, she fleeth from us when we run after her, and runnes after us when we run from her. She will go more willingly [Page 100]where you would have her, if she go not of your errand but of her selfe, and doth better service when one thinkes not of her. If she be desired it is for something else; but to court her for her owne sake, it is more then she deserveth. A vertuous man will disdaine to do so much, when he ob­serveth that she is more apt to speak of frivolous then serious matters, and will many times put a glosse of praises upon evill things. What a coyle doth Roman antiquity keep, about that harebrain'd girle Clelia for stealing a horse out of Porsena's Campe, where she was an hostage, and foording a River none of the greatest to returne to her Mothers chimney-corner? For that action a­gainst the publique faith, rash, ungenerous, in­just, and especially immodest in a mayd, her statue on horseback was publiquely set in the Market place, and fame is trumpetting her praise to the worlds end. It were easy to name many both of old & late date, that have got reputation at a very easy rate. How many famous men are like boyes crackers, that give a great report with­out effect? How many toyes are talked of and extolled, while grave workes are buried in si­lence? Since Fame hath trumpets, it is no won­der that she fills them with winde; that goeth farre and fast by its leightnesse, and is fit to make a noise. But a solid vertue makes little noise, and the tongues of the vulgar do so much for her, as to let her alone.

The Renown of great and good things advan­ceth but slowly, but recompenceth her slownes by her long lasting. But even in that long lasting there is vanity, for what benefit is it for vertuous men deceased, that the world speakes of them two thousand yeares after their death? Are their soules more glorious for it in heaven? Are their bodies the lesse cold in the grave? Yet for that hope of an outliving uselesse renowne gallant men will climb up a breach through a thick haile of musket shot and granadoes, that the world may say of them, These gentlemen are dead in the bed of honour: O brave men! It is pitty that these praises make not these brave men to rise from the dead for joy, preserve not their flesh from wormes and putrefaction, and make no roses nor violets grow upon their graves. Well let us pay them that praise which they have so deare bought. O brave men! But let us say also, O the folly of men, who having fed themselves with vanity in their life time, will not end their vanity with their lives, but seek to perpetuate it by their death.

It were strange that praise should do good to the dead, since it doth more harme then good to the living. For one that is encouraged with praise to do well, a thousand are thereby puft up with pride. It is hurtfull to weak spirits and troublesome to the strong. If praise were a real good, every one ought to praise himselfe, as [Page 102]one feeds himselfe. And none ought to be a­shamed to heare or speake his owne praise, for none ought to be ashamed of good things. That shame, is a proofe either that praise is not good or that it belongs not to us.

This deserveth a deeper consideration. Glory and praise among men are of those shades and images of divine attributes scattered in this infe­riour world; of which shades the substance and reality is in God. Glory in him is a substance, yea his owne essence, and to him alone all Glory belongeth. The sparkes of glory that are in crea­tures are rayes of that soveraigne splendour. Now these rayes go not streight like those of the Sunne, they go round and fetch a compasse to re­turne to the principle of their being. Ps. 145.10. All thy workes shall praise thee O Lord, and thy Saints shall blesse thee. Since his works praise him by nature, his Saints must praise him by will. Those streakes of glory that are in his creatures, as comming from him, must returne to him by nature or by will. For although man be not able to give any glory to God by praising God, yet God knoweth how to receive from us that glory which we cannot give him, and to make himselfe glorious in his owne workes.

Here is then the reason why men are desirous of praise and glory, and yet are ashamed of it: Their desire of it is a natural sence that it is good; And that they are ashamed of it, is another [Page 103]natural sense that it was not made for them. Wherefore a wise Christian will desire and seeke the glory of God: And when some image of that glory is given him by the prayses of men, hee will presently bring that praise and glory to God as Gods proper goods, saying, Glory is a Crown that was not made for my head, and on my knees I put it on the head of him to whom it properly belongs.

Such is praise in its Original and End, both which do meet; but being considered in its in­feriour causes and conveighances, as it comes from and through men, it is a tide of popular applause, as subject to go downe as to come up, consisting in fancy, exprest in talke, rising up­on small causes, and upon small causes falling againe. We must make more of our content then to pinne it upon such an uncertain possessi­on; never reckoning among our goods a thing lying in the Opinion of another, and remain­ing in the possession of the person that gives it, for humane praise belongs not to him that is praised but to him that praiseth, since every one is or ought to be master of his Opinions and words. They that give us praise retaine it in their pow­er and may take it from us when they please.

CHAP. VI. Of the goods of the Body, Beauty, Strength, Health.

FRom the goods of Fortune which are altoge­ther out of us and many times consist in ima­gination, we come to the personal: beginning by those of the body.

The first is Beauty, which among bodily goods may be called the first gift of God, and the first advantage of nature. I say not, that it is the principal, for health is farre above it in excellen­cy. But it cannot be denyed that it is the first, since God hath placed it in the entry, and on the front of this building of the flesh.

Beauty at the very first meeting winnes the good Opinion of beholders, and gives an advan­tagious preconceit of a faire mind. Beauty is a signe of goodnesse of nature. The sweet vigour of the eyes, the smoth skinne, the lively white and red, the handsome lineaments of the face, and the comely proportion of the body are markes of a quick and well composed mind. Which yet is not peculiar to Beauty: For many persons in whom melancholy is predominant, which tanneth their skin, sets their eyes deepe in their head, & puts a sowreness on their brow, have a penetrating and judicious understanding. Open faces, which are the most beautiful, have commonly candid and serene soules, but none of the craftiest.

The observation that Pride is a companion to Beauty is not naturally true, but by accident; for beautifull persons being praised and admired of all, who can wonder that they grow proud, since so much paine is taken to make them so?

A good presence is well sorted with valour and wisedome, and doth excellent service to brave men, if they spoyle it not by affectation.

Beauty is the loadstone of Love; which courts her and calls its her faire Sun. And so she is, for it gets heat by Beauty. And as the heat caused by the Sun is allayed when the Sunne is set, so doth the heat kindled by Beauty lose its flame when Beauty its gone. When love outlives Beauty, some other causes must keep it alive, as vertue and utility.

Beauty is among desirable goods, not among the laudable; for nothing is laudable in us but the productions of our will and industrie. For which reason handsome women ought to reject prayses of their Beauty; for either these praises are inju­rious to God, who as the Author ought to have the whole praise of his work; or they are injuri­ous to them, and seeme to presuppose that they have made their beauty, and sophisticated na­ture by art; for none ought to be praised for that he hath not done.

Great and rare Beauty in its nature is desira­ble, but by accident; and as the world goes, it is more to be feared then desired, and does more [Page 106]harme then good. It is hurtfull to the person that is endowed with it, for it exposeth her to temptations and insolence, which commonly make her wicked and miserable. It is hurtful to the person that woeth it or enjoyeth it, for it sets him as a marke for injuries. Many might have led a tranquil life, and escaped discredit, quar­rel, ruine, and stabbing in the end, had not their wives bin too handsome.

But though beauty were not cumbered with all this danger, the nature and price of it must be well considered, that we may not expect of it a contentment beyond its kinde. Beauty is the ex­teriour and superficiall ornament of a sickly and mortall body, the inside whereof is unpleasing to the eye, and would make the hearts rise of the admirers of the outside if they could see it. It is a faire blossom onely for the spring of life, which will fade with age, or wither with sicknesse and cares, in the very spring. It is a cheater, which promiseth much, & keepeth not promise, for the most amorous never found in it a delight an­swerable to the desire that it kindleth. Take the right measure of the goodnes of that so much desired possession of beauty, so shal you not desire it above measure; and when you have it, you shall reape from it a more sincere content, be­cause you shall require of it as much as its na­ture affords, and no more.

Strength also and Health are things desired, [Page 107]not laudable, as things that come by nature, not by will.

Great strength of body is commonly accom­panied with a weake minde; and that dispro­portion is augmented with much feeding, and obligeth nature to bestow the maine Magazine of spirits upon disgestion distribution of meat, and hardning of the brawnes of the limbs, to enable them for strong labour, leaving but few spirits to attend reasoning & contemplating. Speak to per­petuall hunters, of the delight of speculation; you shall finde them little more capable of it then their hounds, which are the highest point of their meditation. To their minde is very conve­nient the definition which Aristotle gives to the Soul, that it is the first act (that is the principle of the motion) of an organical body; for their soul seemes to be made for no other end but to move their body. It is certain that too great excercise of the body dulls the mind. The preheminency of man above beasts consisteth in reason, and the capacity of knowing and loving God. Men that are proud of their strength, robore corporis stolidè feroces, placing their advantage and content in a thing wherein they are inferiour to many beasts, descend from their dignity and take place under their natural subjects. He that with his forehead would knocke a great naile into a post, to the ve­ry head, deserved this praise, that next to a Bull he had the hardest head of all beasts.

Health of all goods of the body is most to be desired, yea more then life; A truth not con­tradicted by the knowne Maxime, that the end is better then the meanes, for I hold not health to be subordinate unto life, but life unto health. Being is the meanes, and well being is the end. Non est vivere sed valere vita. So Mecenas must be left to his owne Opinion & desire, who though he were maimed hands and feet, and had all his teeth loose in his head, and a bunch on his crooked back, would think himselfe well, if he had but life; Yea if by enduring the sharpest tortures of the cross he might keepe life he would willingly endure them. His enemies could wish him no greater harme, then to buy life at that rate.

The body being made for the soul, the true natural benefit of Health is not long life, but the liberty of the actions of the mind. For the minde stickes so to the body that it cannot act very freely in a body tormented with acute paine, or pined with a lingring disease. Wherefore that we may go through that necessary captivity as easily as may be, an especial care must be had of the health of our body; taking all occasion from it, of accu­sing the excesses & ill government of the minde, for the corruption and inflammation of the hu­mours; behaving ourselves with our body, not as living for it, but as unable to live in the world without it. Our minde was made for a better end then to serve the flesh. Yet let us give it [Page 109]faithfully its due, as to the horse that carryes us in our journey: It must be fed and tended, else it will faile us in the way.

Curious persons commit two faults about the care of their bodies. They bestow much cost and labour to adorne them, but they neglect their health, exposing themselves halfe naked to cold aire to shew a fine halfe shirt, as if they furnisht their roomes with rich hangings, and suffered the raine to fall on them for want of repairing the roofe. In matter of cloathes, health and com­modity are the best counsellors, not the eyes and Opinions of strangers.

Health must be acknowledged the richest jew­ell of all temporal things, yea preferable to many ornaments of the minde. He that hath got much learning in the Tongues, and hath dis­eased his body with watching, hath lost more then he hath got.

But the healthfullest body of the world is a tottering house which must every day be un­derpropt with food, and (for all our care) will fall in the end. We must looke upon it as a te­nement at will, which we hold under God our Landlord; not fearing but rejoycing that we must leave it, knowing that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were disolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. 2 Cor. 5.1.

LIFE, I set neither among goods nor among [Page 110]evils, for it is neither good nor evill in itselfe, but the subject of good and evill, like the pain­ters cloath where all sorts of colours are couch­ed. Such as it is, it must be put in the rank of those things that depend not of our will, and therefore must not be accounted ours, but used as a borrowed commodity. We must say more of it, when we speake of Death.

CHAP. VII. Of bodily Pleasure and Ease.

OF all arguments of meditation there is none where writers shew lesse sincerity then in this. Every one blames pleasure and ease, and yet every one seekes it. They tell us that it is the cause of all evill, that it poisoneth the passion, that it blindeth reason, that it is an enemy to good counsell, aad that it is impossible for Ver­tue to stand with Volupty; Yet the same Au­thors, love their ease, and their very discourses of ease are effects of ease, and productions of wits sweetned by prosperity.

Then they charge pleasure with the vices of men, whereas it is not pleasure but men that must be blamed: For pleasure doth not corrupt men, but men corrupt pleasure. It must be ac­knowledged good in it selfe. It is the seasoning that God all-wise and all-good hath given to things profitable and actions necessary, that wee [Page 111]should seek them. Look upon a brave horse with a judicious eye: After you have considered his great use, and praised the bounty of God for making an animal of so much service and com­modity to man; praise God againe for making him so handsome and of such a gallant mettle; And acknowledge that the gracious Creator re­garded as well mans delectation as utility. The delicious taste of fruits, the fragrant smell and gay colours of flowers, the fair prospect of groves, meadowes, calme and cleare waters, and all the delicate variety of Nature, speake very expresly that God, as an indulgent Father, hath taken great care to please and recreat us, and condemneth that sad and sowre wisedome which deemeth to merit much by avoiding (at least in shew) all that is pleasing in Nature. Of that kinde, is this prayer which may be read in many Bookes of devote contemplation, Lord give me grace to be delighted in no earthly thing: Which is as much as saying to God, that he was much overseen when he made his workes good and pleasant, since it is ill done to delight in them, That devotion wants common sence, if it be seri­ous, and more if it be hypocritical.

We must then place bodily pleasure among the goods but among the least, and those in which beasts have more share then men. The more pleasures are simple and natural, (as they are among beasts) the more they are full and [Page 112]sincere. But we by our wit make a toyle of a pleasure, and drown nature in art.

He that can set a right value upon Beauty, Health, and Strength, of which we spake lately, may easily do the same of the pleasure which they are capable to give or to receive. If then these qualities be but weake transitory and of short continuance, they cannot yeeld or feele a pleasure, solid, constant, and permanent. Health, the best of the three, is rather a privati­on of disease then a pleasure, and it makes the body as sensible of paine as of delight, of which many that enjoy a perfect health are de­prived.

It is a great abatement of the price of bodily pleasure, that one must seldome use it to use it well, yea and to preserve it, for the excesse of it is vicious, be the way never so lawfull; and the satiety of it breeds sastidiousnesse and wearinesse. Whereas true pleasure consisting in the know­ledge and love of God, one cannot sinne, by ex­cesse, nor lose the relish of it by fulnesse; but the appetite is increased, and the faculty mended by enjoying.

Pleasures of the body, though in themselves good and desireable, are given by God for some­thing else, and to invite us to actions of necessi­ty or utility: But spiritual pleasure, which is to know and love God, is altogether for it selfe, and for nothing beyond it: for there the pleasure [Page 113]is so united with the duty, that the glory which we give to God, and that which we enjoy by knowing and loving him, are sweetly confound­ed together and become but one thing.

This consideration, that bodily pleasures are appointed for a further end, helps much to un­derstand their price and their use. For the plea­sure of the taste is to invite the appetite to eate, eating is to live, living is to serve God; and betweene these two last, there are other subordi­nations, for many actions of life are for the do­mesticall good, domesticall good for the civill, the civill good for the religious. Bodily pleasure standing naturally on the lowest round of this ladder, is removed out of its proper place, when it is placed above the superiour ends; which is done, when the actions of life which are due to the domestical & civill good, and before and after all to the religious, are imployed to make a prin­cipal end of those things that are subordinate to them as inferiour meanes. For we must desire to eate for to live, not to live for the pleasure of eating, & so of other natural pleasures, the desire whereof becomes vicious, when those things to which by nature they ought to serve, are subject­ed unto them.

Pleasures are good servants but ill Masters. They will recreate you when you make them your servants: But when you serve them they will tyrannize over you. A voluptuous nice man [Page 114]is alwayes discontented and in ill humor. Where others find commodity he finds incommodity. He depriveth himselfe of the benefit of simple and easy pleasures. He looseth pleasure by too much seeking. By soothing up his senses he diseaseth them, and paine penetrates sooner and deeper into a body softned with voluptuousnesse. But he that lesse courteth pleasure enjoyeth it more, for he is easily contented. To live at ease in the world we must harden our body, strengthen our mind, and abridge our cupidity.

In nothing the folly and perversity of the world is so much seene as in this, that of the things which Gods indulgence hath given to man for his solace and recreation he makes the causes of his misery, the baits of his sinne, and the mat­ter of his condemnation; for, from the abuse of pleasure proceeds the greatest part of the evills that are in the world, both the evills which men suffer and those which they commit; Yea, from thence all evils proceed, if wee remount to the first sinne.

Therefore a wise man will abstaine from un­lawfull pleasures, and taste the lawfull with moderation, lest that by excesse he make them unlawfull. Knowing that pleasure which stray­eth from duty ends in sorrow; that it is no gal­lantry to offend God; and that no delight can countervaile the losse of the serenity of consci­ence. Vice it selfe will teach us vertue: For [Page 115]when we see the slaves of voluptuousnes, get in that service a diseased body, a sad heart, a troubled conscience, infamy, want, and bru­tality, we find it an ill bargaine to buy pleasure at so deare a rate.

This observation also will be of some helpe for the valuation of pleasure. That the plea­sures that stick most to the matter are the most unworthy, as all the pleasures of the taste and feeling; and those pleasures that recede fur­ther from the matter are more worthy as the pleasures of the sight: Wherefore the pleasure of hearing is yet more worthy, as having more affinity with the minde. And as they are more worthy they are also more innocent. But in all things excesse is vicious.

As excesse in pleasures is vicious, so is the de­fect. For God hath made many handsome and good things to please us, in which neverthelesse we take no content, and many times reject them out of nicenesse. How many perfect workes of God strike their image into our eyes, and yet enter not into our thoughts? How many conve­niences are sent to us by Gods good hand, suffi­cient to fill our minds with comfort and thank­fulnesse, if we had the grace to consider them; and we think not of them though we make use of them. We are so inchanted with false plea­sures that we lose the taste of the true. But a wise man is innocently inventive to solace him­selfe, [Page 116]and finds every where matter of pleasure. All things without smile upon him, because his spirit is smiling within; and he lends to objects his owne serenity, whereby he makes them pleasant.

CHAP. VIII. Of the Evils opposite to the forenamed Goods.

IT is to make the title short, that I call them e­vill, not to condemne without appeale & infor­matition all that is not in the list of the goods of fortune and goods of the Body. By looking upon these goods we may judge of their opposites: An easy worke, for having found nogreat excellency in these goods & no solid content in the possession of them, it followes that to be without them is no great misery.

They must be viewed impartially, for there is both good and evil every where, although to speake Philosophically and properly, the true evill and the true good lie within us. The silly vulgar cannot comprehend that a man can finde his happinesse and unhappinesse within himselfe, and seeke their good abroad where it is not; toyl­ing, sweating, and wearing out their life with labour in that quest and making themselves misetable out of feare of misery. Whereas most accidents without are neither Good nor evill in themselves, and become good or evill to us ac­cording [Page 117]to the disposition of our minds. And of things within us, there are but two in themselves evill, Sinne, and Paine.

Stoicians will not acknowledge paine to be evill, because it sticks to the body onely, which, say they, is mans lodging not man himselfe. But what-man feels all the incommodities of that lod­ging▪ The soul is tyed by personal Union with the senses and really suffers what they suffer. So to maintaine, that paine is not evil when one feels it, commanding the outward countenance to unmoovednesse in the midst of the sharpe tor­ments of the stone and the gout, laughing when one hath more minde to cry, is increasing paine with the addition of constraint, and heaping folly upon misery.

But paine becomes a blessing to the wise and godly, which learne by it to weane their hearts from the love of the world and themselves, and to seeke in God that comfort which they finde not in this world and this life: for all things helpe together for good unto them that love God.

Herein the senses may do good service to rea­son & piety, to find content in many things where others find the contrary. Some will declame gainst the senses as ill Judges of the goodnesse and badnesse of things. To whom we must say that the senses are never Judges but informers, and that the ill information that our understan­ding receiveth of the quality of the objects ought [Page 118]not to be imputed to the senses, for they plainly report what they perceive, but to the prepos­sest Imagination, which upon their simple infor­mation frameth false Ideas, set off with colours of her owne, which she presents to the Judgement, and makes him Judge amisse through misinfor­mation.

If we will then get good service from the sen­ses for the right informing of our judgment, we must obtaine of ourselves these two points. The one not to receive their testimony but about their proper objects, which are the outward qualities wherewith the senses are affected. The other not to preoccupate them with Imagination, Opi­nion, and Passion. So when they are confined to their owne province and become impartial witnesses, it will be easy to perswade our reason rather to beleev our owne sense, then the Opini­on of another.

Thus, when we desire to know whether we be unhappy because we are deprived of riches, kept back from honours, without reputation, or ill reputed in the world, we must not referre our­selves about that to the Opinion and talk of the world, but to our owne sense. Let us sincerely examine our senses, what harme wee receive by it. Are we more hungry or cold by these mis­fortunes? Doth the Sunne shine lesse bright upon us? Is our bed harder? Is our meat lesse feeding? If our senses thus examined, have no­thing [Page 119]to complaine of, and yet we complaine that wee are come short of some hopes, that o­thers step before us, that the world regards us not, or speakes ill of us; Let us ingenuously ac­knowledge, upon the testimony of our senses, that we are well if we can beleeve it, and that it is not out of Sense but Opinion that we are afflict­ed.

This is the difference betweene fooles and wise men, Fools consult Opinion and Custome: Wisemen consult reason, piety, and nature. Fooles regard what others think: Wisemen consider what themselves finde and feele. Fooles gape after things absent: Wisemen possesse the present and themselves. O how many men com­plaine that have no hurt, but in their imagina­tion! which is indeed a great hurt, and incurable many times. When you see a man rich and healthful, tearing his heart for some inconside­rable losse, or for the rash words of an ill tongue; desire him to aske his senses, where the paine is. And if he feele no paine by it, why doth he put himselfe to paine? Why is he ill, when he may be well? He is well, if he can but heale his imagination. Is it not a disgrace to a reasonable creature, that whereas reason ought to rectify the sences, the senses should need to rectify rea­son! and that men who love themselves so much must be exhorted to do no harme to themselves when they feele no harme? A rational godly [Page 120]man will examine what he feeles, and will do no harme to himselfe when God doth him good. And when his senses have reason to complaine, he will quietly hearken to them, and rather beleeve their report about the measure of the evill then the cryes of the by-standers that com­miserate him. He will not be easily perswaded that he is sicker then he is indeed, and will not increase his paine with his imagination. And whereas others make themselves sick out of ima­gination when they are well; he will use his imagination, to make himselfe well when he is ill.

Not that I would advise a man to blind him­selfe for feare of seeing, and dull his sense for feare of feeling evills: For the better we know the nature of things, the better we know how to deale with them, that we may avoid or beare the evill that is in them. But because ima­gination hath a real force to increase or diminish many evils, it is the part of a wiseman alwayes to imploy the strength of his imagination to his advantage, never to his hurt.

The evills where the indulgence of Opinion must be used to make them lighter are the evills of the body and fortune; But as for the evils of the mind which are the vices of the understand­ing and the will, there the flattery of Opinion is most dangerous; for the principal sicknesse of the mind is, that one thinkes not himselfe to be sick.

I have advised reason to take counsel of the senses when the imagination aggravateth the evil, or makes it, and yet the senses are free of paine: But when the senses are offended in earnest, then they must take counsel of reason, and more yet of piety, to finde some ease.

Let us meditate upon the nature of those evils of fortune and body, so much feared in the world. He that gives a right Judgement of the evill, hath halfe found the remedy.

CHAP. IX. Of Poverty.

THere be many degrees of civill poverty ac­cording to the diversity of conditions and businesses. To a Soveraigne prince, it is Poverty to have lesse then a hundred thousand pounds a yeare; but to a husbandman it is riches to have twenty pounds a yeare rent free. In all conditi­ons those are truly poore that have not where­with to maintaine that course of life which they have set up, and all men that cannot satiate their cupidity. Thus very few rich men will be found in the world, since there are but few that aspire not to greater things then they can compasse, and desire no more then they have. All that finde want are poore, whether their want be of things necessary or superfluous, and among many degrees of poore men, there is but one Po­verty.

Yet those are the poorest that finde want of superfluous things, because that kinde of pover­ty is made worse by the increase of riches. To such men, God is just and merciful together, when he healeth that wanton-need, with a pinch­ing need of things necessary.

Need is the thing that is generally most feared of all men: Certainly it is most incommodious, even to the wisest. Wherefore the Wiseman in the 30. of Proverbs besought God that he would not send it him. It is an ordinary theme for elo­quence and flourishes of wit to maintaine that Need is not evill; and they that descant more upon it are they that lesse feele it; as Seneca, a man of prodigious wealth, who many times com­mends extream poverty, or the condition that is not farre from it. They say indeed that it is to the wise onely, that need is not evill; but because that must be proved by the experience of a true and perfect wiseman, we would have the testi­mony of such a man: but such a man we finde not, neither do all the sects of Philosophers that profest poverty, afford such an example. For we will not stand to the arbitrement of that sawcy begger Diogenes, a vaine sordid and affected man in all his words and actions, who tooke a nasty pride in an impudent mendicity. If poverty did not make him evill he made poverty evill, turning it into a profession; and instead of mak­ing it an exercise of vertue, using it as a pretence of idlenesse and licentiousnesse.

To the ordinary sort of minds, Need is a gulfe of misery. Prov. 14.20. The poore is hated even of his own neighbour. Every one hides himselfe from him. Need makes men ashamed, and shame increaseth their need. Some also by Need are made shamelesse, and in the end bold theeves. Qui paupertatem timet, timendus est. Need is an ill counsellor: It makes men murmure against God and finde fault with the distribution of his goods. It beates down the courage, stupefyeth or sowreth the wit, and clips the wings of con­templation. It is hard for one to have high con­ceits, when he wants bread.

Yet, to speake properly, Want doth not all that evill, but the evill disposition of men, that have not weaned their heart from the world, nor sought their only treasure in heaven, & have not chosen God for their portion: No wonder that their spirit is beaten down as well as their fortune, when the worldly ground, which they had built upon, sinkes under their feet.

But he that despiseth the world and the life of the world, despiseth also Want so much feared by others. For, take things at the worst, (a per­petual rule of wisedome about casual future things) the worst that can come to him that is without bread, is to be without life, which a thousand other accidents may take from us. Life is a depositum which God hath committed to our keeping: No lawful diligence and industry must [Page 124]be omitted that we may preserve it and give a good account of it to God; And himselfe having trusted us with it, assists us to keepe it. Very seldome it is heard, that any persons dye for lack of bread. But precious in the sight of God is any death of his Saints, Psal. 116.15. Neither is there any more curse in dying of hunger, then of a surfet.

Of all kinds of death, but the suddaine, I hold death for want of food to be the easiest. It is no more but letting the lamp quietly to go out. Atticus after a long fast to overcome an acute sicknesse, having lost the appetite of meat, lost al­so the appetite of life, and refusing to take any more meat, dyed without paine. And so Tullius Marcellinus, after an abstinence of three dayes Mollissime excessit et vitae elapsus est, he departed most quietly and escaped from life, saith Seneca. He spake better then he meant, saying that he escaped; for such a volutary death was an escape from the station, where God hath placed him. He went from life without commission, for God had given him wherewith to keep it: But he to whom God giveth no more wherewith to keep himselfe alive must acknowledge that his commission is out, & depart cheerefully. For to prevent death by sordid and unlawfull wayes is more then God calls him unto, and more then life is worth. To say, necessity compels me to these wayes, and otherwise I cannot live, is an ignorant or wilfull mistake of Necessity; The wayes cannot [Page 125]be necessary, when the end is not so: And before a man conclude that such wayes are necessary because without them he cannot live, he should consider whether it be necessary for him to live. It is necessary for us to be righteous and gene­rous; not, to live. Who so conceiveth no neces­sity in life, and no evill in death (which to Gods children is the end of all evills, and the beginning of all happinesse) will soon rid his heart of that cowardly fear of dying for want, and reject the temptations to lead an ill life that he may keep life.

The feare of Want is for want of obeying Christs command, Matth. 6.34. not to take thought for the morrow; and for want of observing the course of his providence which provideth for his creatures that cannot provide for themselves: Beasts sleep quietly not knowing and not think­ing where they shall get meat the next day. You will say, it is because they have no reason and no foresight; and were it not better to have no reason, then to make no use of it but for our vexation! Were it not better to be incapable of thinking on God as beasts are, then to think on him onely to mistrust and murmure against his providence?

A poore man to whom God giveth health & in­dustry to get his living is possest of a great trea­sure, and a stock yeelding him a daily rent. His condition is incomparably more happy then that [Page 126]of the noble and wealthy. The labour that gets him bread, gets him also an appetite to eate it, and sleep to refresh him when he is weary, and health to continne his labour; Eccl. 5.12. The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eate little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep: His many children give him lesse care, then fewer children to the rich, and lesse paine also to provide for them. For where­as in noble houses the c [...]arge groweth alwayes as the children grow; in poore families that live by labour the charges grow lesse as the chil­dren grow; the Sonnes serve the Father in his worke, the Daughters spin by their Mother. Children are the riches of poore people, and the impoverishing of the rich. Then to give them portions; the Father that hath no land is not troubled to engage the Lordships of the eldest Sonne for the marriages of his Daughters, nor to charge the land with annuityes for the younger Brothers. Each of them hath the whole succession, which is their Fathers labour. No doubt, but that is the most tranquil condition of all.

The examples are many, of those that lived merrily and sung at their worke as long as they were poore; but an inheritance unlooked for, being fallen into their lap, they have given over singing, and turned sad and full of thoughts. Anacreon came once to that trouble, but he rid [Page 127]himselfe of it. He was a Poet, and consequent­ly poore. Polycrates the rich Tyrant of Samos be­stowed two or three thousand Crownes upon him. But Anacreon after he had kept them three dayes restored them to his benefactor, be­cause, said he, that-money would not let him sleep. Which action was not the production of a Philosophical minde, for by his Poemes now extant it appeareth that wine and women were the highest spheres of his contemplation; but the true cause was, that he found riches heavier to beare then poverty.

I was saying that Poverty beates down the courage and stupefyeth the wit; but it is onely with them that had no great courage and no great wit before, and they would have bin more beaten down and stupefyed by riches, but in a­nother way: for riches swell indeed the cour­age with pride, but they beat it down at the same time with feare, and make it soft with voluptu­ousnesse; they slacken diligence, & blunt the edge of industry, but poverty whets it, & awakens and sharpens the wit, if there be any. Riches in a competent measure are more accommodate to the operations of the speculative understanding; for high and curious contemplations require a minde free of cares, and rested with plenty. A man that wanteth bread hath no thoughts of finding longitudes and the pole of the load-stone, or the exquisiteness of eloquence: Magnae mentis [Page 128]opus, nec de lodîce parandâ Attonitae. Poverty is fitter for the operations of the practical understanding, for necessity is the mother of arts. Magister artis ingenîque largitor venter: We owe most part of mechanique inventions to men put to their shifts.

The best thing that is in Poverty is, that meet­ing with a sound and godly mind, it helps to weane it from the world, and raise it up to God, which is the great worke of a Christian, to which riches are a great hindrance. He that hath but little in the world, finds in his poverty a great motive to lay up treasure it heaven, to which he is invited by the example of the Lord Jesus, who made himselfe poore to make us rich in God. To the poore was the Gospel first preacht, and when it was preach to the rich and poore to­gether, the poore were the first that embraced it, because they were lesse tyed unto the world, and at more liberty to go to God.

It is most observable that all persons admit­ted by God to salvation are received in the quali­ty of poore, and the rich must make themselves poore before God through humility and meek­nesse, that they may be capable of that high blessing whereby Christ began his sermon, Mat. 5 Blessed are the poore in spirit, for theirs is the King­dome of God. To that Poverty in spirit the pover­ty in worldly goods is a great help. A wise and godly man, that knoweth how to get advantage [Page 129]by all things will prudently manage all the helps to heaven which poverty affords, when he shall be brought to that condition. He will become more serene in his devotions, more resolute in his dangers, more undaunted to maintaine the truth, lighter to flee from one Citty to another in time of persecution, and better disposed at all times to welcom death, casting no back-look upon the world where he hath nothing to lose. If he had once riches, and hath lost them, he will acknowledge that they were none of his, since they could not stay with him; for the true goods of a man are inseperable from him, as being within him. These goods are, a right reason, integrity of conscience, the love of God, faith in his promises, and an appetite led by reason and piety. With that patrimony he may say with more reason then Bias, in what condition soever he be, I carry all my goods along with me. The goods of fortune deserve not the name of goods.

To him that desireth nothing but what is suffi­cient to Nature, poverty doth no harme; and to him that desireth more, poverty doth good; for it brings him to sobriety. To have little and to be contented with it, is a great wealth.

Poverty and riches having their commodities and incommodities, the most desireable tempo­ral estate is the midlemost, which is neither, and holds of both. That state the wise man requested at Gods hands, Prov. 30.8. Give me neither po­verty [Page 130]nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me; Lest I be full and deny thee, and say who is the Lord? and lest I be poore and steale and take the name of my God in vaine. But our condition is not in our choice. Vertue and tranquillity of minde may be had in any fortune, because they depend not of fortune.

CHAP. X. Of low Condition.

IT is, in the Judgement of many, worse yet then poverty; and it is for its sake that they feare poverty. It is of several degrees and is more or lesse grievous according to the diversity of persons and designes. To them that aspire to honours, but are kept back, and think they lose all they cannot get, it is unsufferable; and more yet to them that had honours and were justled out of them; for men will get up to honour with a good will, but none descends from it unlesse he be hurled downe; which hath given occasion to the institution of yearely Magistrates. Others are bred in a low condition and aspire not much higher, yet they groane under the yoake which their condition ingageth them unto. Thus all are discontented, and none are so high but think themselves too low.

The low condition indeed is slavish, especially in France and Poland; and he that can handsomely [Page 131]get out of the bottom where the land-flood of the publique stormes stayeth, and take himselfe out of the number of the beasts of carriage, shall do prudently to seek his liberty. St. Pauls advice is judicious Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it ra­ther. 1 Cor. 7.21. If it be impossible for a wise­man to get that liberty, let him consider that as the low condition is more onerous, so it is lesse dangerous; In France especially, where although the armies consist of high and low, yet the maine shock of battles falles upon the Gentry, and the best of the Nobility. The hazardous attempts fall to their share. All may follow warre, but the Gentry hold it their proper trade. The French Gentleman is borne in a manner with his sword by his side. Who so will observe how in noble houses two thirds of their branches are lopt off by warre, shall finde that the Nobility and Gen­trie pay deare for their immunities.

To beare with the low condition, one should observe well the inconveniences of the high. The higher a man stands, the fairer mark doth he give to envy, secret undermining, and open hostili­ty. Great places are like stilts upon which a man hath but a tottering standing, especially in a croud, where all justle against him to make him fall. A Crowne loads a Kings head and covers it not, but lets in on all sides the arrowes that are shot against it. There is no need of deep Phi­losophy [Page 132]to be free from the desire of it, and of all places of great respect and great busines. One needs but know them, and love himselfe. All great dignities are great miseries. It must needs be that there is some fatality for the subsistence of the general, that sets-on men to thrust blindly forward for high dignities; Otherwise men be­ing all voluptuous & lovers of themselvs, would not take so much labour as to climb up with hands and feet unto their misfortune. A wise man will love his own rest better then to crowd for dignities; choosing rather to sit upon lower steps, and to owe his tranquillity to his obscuri­ty. He will esteeme no honour or great imploy­ment worth losing the liberty of meditation, and the holy and heavenly conversation with God: for who would come from heaven to be toyling in the earth? As valleys have lesse wind and more heat of the Sunne then mountaines, so the low condition hath lesse agitation then the high, and the rayes of the Snune of righteous­nesse will commonly shine upon it more graci­ously and powerfully,

Nobility of extraction being nothing in na­ture, the same is true also of meane blood; both consist in Opinion, and yet not in opini­on of the persons concerned, but of others, which to any wiseman must be of very smal con­sideration. In any condition one may have na­tural nobility, consisting in a meeke and mag­nanimous [Page 133]disposition, apt to the knowledge of great things, and so well seasoned with vertue. By that description how many ignoble persons will be found among the Noble by extraction, and how many noble among persons of meane descent? God deliver us from Gentlemen of the savage kinde that make nobility to consist in barbarousnesse, idlenesse, and contempt of di­vine and humane lawes; and from ignobleup­starts, who to approve themselves Gentlemen strive to outdoe them that are so, in pride and licentiousnesse.

But there is a nobility infinitely above the best natural nobility. (I bring not the Cvil within this comparison, it is nothing but fortune and Opinion) That high transcendent nobility is but to be the child of God by Jesus Christ, and heire of his Kingdome. The titles of that nobility are from all eternity, and will be to all eternity; and by it a man riseth so high as to become parta­ker of the divine nature, 2 Pet. 1.4. saith St. Peter. Who so hath the patents of that nobility, and makes himselfe sure of them by a lively faith working by love, is neither puft up nor beaten downe with his temporal condition. He will look with contempt upon the vulgar contentions about the first place, much like the emulation of horses striving who should go the formest of a company. And truly it is a quality of good hor­ses not of good men. A man honoured with [Page 134]spiritual nobility if he have temporal nobility be­sides, must keep his degree, but esteeme it too low to glory in it. And if he have not that worldly advantage, he will be content with the heavenly, knowing that being one of Gods children he cannot be further ennobled.

As we that live upon Earth find it very great, and see the Sunne very little although it be a hundred and threescore times greater then the Earth; Likewise to men altogether earthy, the honours of the earth seeme very great, and the heavenly nobility but a small thing: But if from the Orbe of the Sun the Earth may be seene (as it is very likely) no doubt but it appeares a very small thing, as lesser then most of the visi­ble Starres. Worldly honours appeare lesser yet, to him that hath the true sence of his heavenly nobility, and lookes upon Earth as it were from Heaven. The time draweth nigh that will make Kings and Beggers alike in the dust.

CHAP. XI. Of Dishonour.

REal dishonour is within, and consisteth in viciousnesse and indignity of the person; for by it a man is separate from God the scource of honour, out of whom there is nothing but dishonour and misery. But the dishonour which we are here to consider is out of the person, and [Page 135]consisteth in the Opinion of others. These two sorts of dishonour do not meet alwayes, for ma­ny that are vicious and infamous before God are honoured of men, even because they are vicious; and others that are good & honoured with Gods love, are blamed and dishonored of men, even be­cause they are good; So erroneous and fantasti­call is the judgement of the multitude.

We have already found that therenowne and praise that men give is but winde; that is enough to judge that the blame and infamy which they give, is of the same substance. It is such an ima­ginary evill, that it is almost impossible to find out in what subject it subsisteth. It is not in him that is blamed, for what is that to him that is in the grave, or to him that is alive and knowes it not, or careth not for it? It is not also in him that blameth; for it proceeds indeed from him but subsisteth not in him: else he that blameth ano­ther for a murther should be a murtherer him­selfe. If then the blame subsist neither in the blamed, nor in the blamer, where shall wee finde its subsistence betweene both? It may be concei­ved that it subsisteth in the blamed person be­cause it sticks so fast many times to him, and pe­netrates so deep, that it kills him with sorrow. Yea but to speak properly and truly, it is not the blame that doth the harme, but the imaginati­on of the blamed, prevented with an erronious Opinion, which makes a man fansy an evil where [Page 136]there is none, and do to himselfe that harme which none could have done him but himselfe: And is not that voluntary paine, which is not felt unlesse a man have a minde to feele it? God give me never greater evills then those that cannot hurt me unlesse I will be hurt, and have need to begge my consent and my hand to give me the blow.

A wise man will despise, not onely that ima­ginary evil, but even the remedy. For what need of a plaister where there is no sore? When his friends come to him to comfort him because that some have spoken ill of him, he will desire then to apply the remedy where the disease is, even to the rashnes of the judgement of those weake persons, and to the intemperance of their tongue. And will think that their applying a balsome of consolations to his heart, for a sick­nesse in his neighbours braines, no lesse strange and extravagant, then if they would warme his bed because his horse hath a cold.

This is indeed the right reasoning when the thing is considered in its proper and bare nature, but because the world being prepossest with a wrong opinion of a worthy man may be perswa­ded to do him harme, or hindred to do him good, or deprived of the good he might do to the pub­lique; that worthy man must not altogether neglect to rectifye the misconceits taken against him, which he may with lesse difficulty atchieve [Page 137]by a serene and constant course of integrity then by finding and proving, confuting, and keeping a great bustle to bring contrary witnesses face to face. Innocency and the confidence that attends it must needs stand so high above the babling of the vulgar, as to be no more moved with it then the Starres with the wind [...]owing in the lower Region.

The dishonour that hath some ground in the truth must be wiped off, not by excuses, but by amendment. Is one blamed for being vicious? He must be so no more. And that out of hatred of vice, not of dishonour, which being but a sha­dow of it will vanish at the rayes of Vertue.

CHAP. XII. Of the evills of the body, Unhandsomnesse, Weaknesse, Sicknesse, and Paine.

OUr judgement being satisfyed that the good of the body, beauty, strength health and pleasure are none of the great goods, we ought also to bee perswaded that their contraries are none of the great evills. And if our very bo­dies must not be accounted ours because we can­not dispose of them at our pleasure, and because by the undermining of age they sinke, and slip away continually from themselves; the commo­dities and incommodities of these fraile tene­ments at will, where our soules are harboured [Page 138]for a few daies as ought not to disquiet us mat­ters of any importance.

To beginne at Unhandsomnesse; if a woman be unhandsome (for that sexe is especially sensible of that disgrace) let her stay but a while; age will bring all the beauties to her row, within few yeares, and death after; That last day draweth neere, which will make faire and foule alike, strong and weake, sick and sound; them that are tormented with dolour, and them that tor­ment themselves with voluptuousnesse and curi­osity. Whosoever is much grieved with those incommodities never apprehended aright the frailty of the opposite commodities. We must not be vexed for the want of things, which by their nature decay and perish very houre.

There are few incommodities but have a mix­ture of commodities, which a wise lover of his owne tranquillity will pick and convert to his advantage. The unhandsome woman shall not be admired, but in recompence she shall not be tempted nor importuned as a prey by lust and in­solence. She hath with her a perpetual exhorter to humility, piety, and all vertue, and to recom­pence the want of beauty with goodnesse. Sel­dome is unhandsomnesse reproached to women, but to them that aggravate with malice & envy their disgraces of nature. Beauty cannot be ac­quired, but goodnesse may. Yet among them that want beauty, some are so wise and so good that [Page 139]they become handsome. They are commonly more happy in marriage then great beauties; for they give lesse jealousy to their husbands, and study more to content them.

Persons of weak constitution are lesse obnoxi­ous to acute sicknesses, which many times will kil strong bodyes in three or foure dayes. They are lesse tainted with that stupid pride, which com­monly attends great strength of body. Finding themselves inferiour to others in excercises of strength, they apply themselves to exercises of wit, to which commonly they are more apt. As weezels have more mettle and nimblenesse then Oxen; there is often more industry and quick­nesse of wit in little weak men, then in men of of large and brawny limbs; for the predominan­cy of blood and phlegme which makes the body large, is the duller temper for wit; whereas cho­ler and melancholy which by their contractive quality limit the stretching of growth to a lesser extent, serve also, the one to sharpen the wit, the other to give solidity to the judgement. Weake­nesse reads to a man a continual Lecture of pru­dence and compliance; for being not able to car­ry on his designes with a high hand, dexterity onely will serve his turne.

Also that want of strength teacheth him to make God his strength, sticking fast to him by faith and a good conscience. That way the weak­est become too strong for all the world. When I [Page 140]am weake then I a [...] strong saith St. Paul. 2 Cor. 12.10.

Of this, Gods children have a blessed experi­ence in sicknesse, whereby God makes their bo­dy weake to make their faith strong, and their soules, by the dolours and lingring decay of their bodies, susceptible of many salutary les­sons, for which health and ease have no eares.

Sicknesse and paine are evill in their nature, but they are good by accident, when God is pleased to turne evills into remedies, to bring a man to repentance and make him looke up to the hand that striketh. They are punishments to sin and wayes to death, but to the faithful soul they become instruments of grace and conveighances to glory. Many of them that beleeved in the Lord Jesus while he conversed among men were brought to it by bodily sicknesses, And he when he healed a sick person, often would say, Thy sins are forgiven thee.

To give an impartial judgement of their qua­lity and measure, one must rather beleeve what he feeles then the cryes and compassion of them that love him, and have interest in his preserva­tion. They say, that a man is very sick when he feeles not his sicknesse. Yet he hath so much good time, till he feele it, If the paine be sharp, it is short; If it be little it is tolerable; If the evill be curable, be patient, good Cure will heale it, If the evill be incurable, be patient death will [Page 141]heale it. No evill is superlative when one is cer­taine to come out of it; By life or by death there must be an end of thy sicknesse.

All the remedies that Pagan Philosophy gi­veth in extremities, come to this, that patience is a remedy to evills that have none. But here Christian Philosophy openeth the treasure of divine comforts, which to make the faithfull man patient in tribulation, make him joyfull in hope, & shew him the crown ready for him at the end of the combat. In the combat he is strength­ened by faith; and the comforter whom Christ promist to his disciples, powerfully assisteth him in his last agony; Or if his triall be prolonged, he tels him, as Paul buffeted by a messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.9. my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse.

By that grace, sicknesse beates downe pride, quencheth lust, weaneth the heart from the love of the world, makes the soule hungry and thir­sty after righteousnesse. Theodoricus Archbi­shop of Collen with great wisdome exhorted the Emperour Sigismond, to have the will in health to live holily, as he said when he was tormented with the gravel and gowte. Sicknesses give to a godly man a sense of his frailty: when wee feel these houes of mud, our bodies, drooping towards the ground their originall, then doe we sigh for that building of God, that house not made with hands, eternall in the heavens. 2 Cor. 5.1, There­fore [Page 142]labour and heavy load make us seek to him that saith, come unto me all ye that labour and are hea­vy loaden, and I will give you rest. Matth. 11.28. Thus evil doth good to them that are good, and helps evil men to turne good. In sicknesse and dolours Gods children find the peace of the soule and contentment of mind.

CHAP. XIII. Of Exile.

TO speake of exile after dolour, is an abrupt passage from sensible evils to imaginary. The world is the natural and general countrey of al men: To be exiled is but to be sent from one Province of our Countrey to another. That other Province, where one is exiled is the Countrey of them that are borne there, and of them also that live there exiled, if there they get accomodation. That particular Province which a nation calls their Countrey, is a place of exile to them that are borne in it, if they doe not know it; as to Oedi­pus, exiled from the place where he was bred, to the place where he was borne. Children brought from nurse to the mothers house wil cry, taking it for a place of exile. It is a childish weaknesse in a man to thinke him-selfe lost when he is in a place where he never was before. Eve­ry where wee have the same nature, the same heaven, men of the same kind. Reasonable crea­tures [Page 143]should be ashamed to be surmounted by un­reasonable, in that easinesse to shift Countreies. Swallowes hatch about our houses, are banisht from our Climat by the approach of winter, and they make no difficulty to goe seeke another be­yond al the lands and Seas of Europe: but men wil cry when they are driven from their chimney corner, having the choice of al places of the world which is so large. Yet that advantage we have over birds and beasts, that al Countries are not alike to them, but al Countries are alike unto vertue, and to us if we have it; for that treasure no enemy can hinder us to carry along with us.

We may indeed be exiled into an ill Countrey, but that Countrey is never the worse for not be­ing our Countrey. All lands are in equal distance from heaven, the Countrey of gods children. God is as soon found in the land of our exile, as in that of our birth and sooner too; for God is neer those that are destitute, and preserveth the stranger, Psal. 146.9. Are you banisht by a Tyrant? Thinke how many persons are exiled from their countrey and dearest relations by their covetousnesse, which is the worst tyranny, ranging the un­known seas of a new world for many years; some to fetch cucineel and pearles from burning cli­mats, others to get sables and hermines from the snows under the Pole. Some are banisht by others, some bythem-selves. Nothing is strange to a man when his wil goeth along with it; we need [Page 144]but to encline our wil where necessity calls us. Impatience in exile is want of a right apprehensi­on of the condition of gods children in the world. Heaven is their countrey. Life is their Pilgrim­age. They are strangers even in the place of their birth, yea in their very bodys: Whilest we are at home in the body, we are strangers from the Lord, saith Paul. 2 Cor. 5.6. Being then stran­gers in al places of the world, one place must not seeme to us more strange then another. Wee are never out of our way, as long as we are go­ing to God.

CHAP. XIV. Of Prison

PRison is the grave of the living. There men are buried before their death: Liberty is the priviledge of nature, without which life is a con­tinual death. And it were better to have noe life then not to enjoy it. All beasts enjoy liberty, some few excepted that have lost it by being too much acquainted with us.

But as there is need of iron cages to keepe ly­ons, there is need in the world of prisons and captivity to keepe in men that wil not be ruled by reason & equity. And though many be impri­soned wrongfully, if they have the grace to look up to God, the disposer of their condition, they will acknowledge, that God is wise to use them [Page 145]so, and that licentious humour hath need of re­straint.

Or if they need it not they have lesse need to afflict themselves: A well composed spirit is free in the closest Prison; bonds and fetters can­not restraine his liberty. The worst fetters are covetousnesse, ambition, lust, appetite of re­venge, wherewith many that seeme free are kept in bondage. Who so can shake them off is at liberty, though he were in a dungeon. Such was St. Pauls freedom in a chaine. 2 Tim. 2.9. I suffer trouble (said he) as an evill doer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. The grace of God also cannot be bound, and many times God makes use of the bonds of the body to set the soule free. A man is very hard tyed to the world, if he cannot be untied from it by a long imprisonment.

Prison will bee lesse tedious to him that re­membreth that it is his natural condition. That he was nine moneths Prisoner in his Mothers wombe. That after his death he shall be made close Prisoner under ground; And that as long as he liveth he is loaden like a snaile with his owne Prison, which he carrieth about slowly, and with great incommodity; a clog put by our wise Master to the swiftnesse and quick turnes of our spirit which is alwayes in action. Think how fast our thoughts go, which in a moment travell from one end of the world to the other, and how [Page 146]high our designes will rise, whose wings we are constrained to clip and abruptly to pull down our soaring minde, to look to the necessities of our craving body, and then acknowledge that our body is a very Prison, confining the spirit, which is the Man. The imprisonment of that body is no great addition to its captivity. It is but put­ting one boxe within another.

And if we looke about us, how much captivity do me meet with in society! Is not ceremony a slavery which is multiplyed and diversifyed at every meeting? Are not honours golden fetters, and businesses Iron fetters? Do not publique factions enslave particular interesses, and spread nets for the conscience? Many times that capti­vity is avoided by that of the Counter and the Fleet. To many their prison hath been a Sanctua­ry, and a strong hold against the dangers of a turbulent and destructive time.

No dungeon is so close as to keep the faithfull soul from rising to God. They that are forbid­den the sight of their friends, may converse with God at any time, which is a great liberty: And the Lord Jesus who recommends that worke of mercy to visit the prisoners, himselfe doth care­fully practise it, comforting by his Spirit his dis­ciples to whom the assistance of men is denyed, and shewing them heaven open when they are lockt and bolted. In effect it is the body, not man, that is imprisoned. The Jalour may keepe [Page 147]out a prisoners friends from him, but he cannot shut out comfort and tranquillity from his soul.

CHAP. XV. Husband, Wife, Children, Kindred, Friends: Their price, their Losse.

IT may seeme that these should have bin put a­mong the goods of fortune. To which I might answer somewhat Stoically, that it is not alto­gether certaine whether they must be put among the goods or among the evills, for they may be either, as it falls out. But I rank them with nei­ther, but among exteriour things, of which we must labour to get the right Opinion.

To that end we must alwayes consider them two wayes, as they are good or bad, and as they are neare to us in blood, or bonds of duty. Nei­ther must the second relation hinder the first, so forestalling the mind with the relations of Hus­band or Wife, Sonne or Brother, that one be in­capable to make a right Judgement of their dis­position and capacity, and set a just price on them.

The onely relation of Parents must spread a vaile of reverence betweene our eyes and their imperfections, that we may see nothing but good in them. There it is wisedome to be somewhat deceived: Though it be not my theame to speak of the duties to be rendred to our several relati­ons, [Page 148]yet because I seeke the contentment of mind, I cannot chuse but say that of all civill and natu­ral duties none is so contenting to him that pay­eth it, as the duty payd to Parents. Herein Epa­mimondas Judged his victories most fortunate unto him that he had obtained them in his Fa­thers life time who did much rejoyce at them.

To other relations we must also pay their pro­per duty. Of which wee must remember this general rule; That it is impossible to get content by them unlesse we do our duty towards them. For that content must not be expected from them but from ourselves. The content that one takes with a deare Wife, a good Brother, and a well chosen Friend, is more that which he giveth then that which he receiveth. It lyeth in the testimo­ny of his conscience that he hath rendred to them the true offices of love.

Without prejudice to those duties, we may and ought impartially to consider their inclina­tions and abilities, and what may be expected of them. In those relations which come by choyce, as of a Husband Wife and friend, the judgement must precede the affection, to finde what is fit for us before we fixe upon it: But in relations of Kindred made by nature without us, the affection must go before and the judgement must follow; that we may know them so well, that though we love them, we trust them pro­portionably to their honesty and capacity, and no more.

In this point the vulgar sort making many grosse mistaks. For it is an ordinary but an evill expressi­on, I would trust him as mine owne Brother. Yet most knaves have Brothers, who should do very un­wisely to trust them. The style of Merchants sel­ling their ware is more ingemous, when they pro­mise to a Chapman to use him as if he were their Brother, for they would not scruple to cozen their Brother. And truly hence the word of cozening had its Origine, because it is usual to make use of the bond of Kindred to be trusted enough to deceive enough.

For counsel and conversation we much choose the wisest and worthiest rather then the nearest in blood: But when there is occasion to give, or need to seeke help; we must runne to the neer­est in blood rather then to the worthyest, if they be but honest. So much we must deferre to the choyce of Nature, that if there be any vertue in them, though but small, we be neerer to them in affection then blood. Solomon saith that a Bro­ther is borne for adversity, Prov. 17.17. because other friendships by differences, intervening of parties, interesses, and Opinions, are subject to coole and untie, but among Brethren those diffe­rences are overcome by the strength of nature; and in adversity either good nature or feare of blame makes Brothers give real help to Bro­thers.

Wife and Children are the strongest trials of a [Page 150]magnanimous spirit, for they make a mans heart tender, and in the pinches of adversity make him descend to ungenerous shifts. He that hath none shal have lesse delight & lesse sorrow.

Yet must we acknowledge that a mariage wel sorted betweene two persons of merit is of all worldly felicities the greatest.

Of children expect noe good but the satisfacti­on to have done them good, and to see them doe wel for them-selves. For in this relation the nature of beneficence is to descend, seldom to remount.

Nothing is more pretious among humane things, then a vertuous loving freind, kinne or no kinne. And if he be one story above us in nobility and vertue, he is better then lower. E­quality indeed is requisit in friendship, but friend ship it selfe worketh that equality where it is not; And there is need of it, for it is impossible to find two friends in the world altogether equal in al respects.

The price of friendship is according to the price of the person, whom therefore we must study to know wel, that we may love no person above or under his right value. A reasonable benevolence of a man of great merit is more obliging then the ardent affection of an Idiot; From the former you may receive instruction honour and content; From the second importunity, and the disgrace to be paired with a man of no worth: Such a [Page 151]friendship will end in a breach, and so in repen­tance.

Whether friendships be knit by nature or by choyce, that we may not expect of them a content beyond their nature, we must remember that our freinds are men, whose love may, and whose life must faile. The use of them we may have, not the possession. The best and most powerfull freinds are weake reeds, which we must not leane upon with all our weight, lest they breake in our hand, and we take a sore fall. Thus saith the Lord, Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and mak­eth flesh his arme Jer. 17.5. As this is a sentence given by God against them that put their confi­dence in man, it is also a natural consequence of the nature of the fault: For puting our confidence in man is going out of our selues: It is going out of God: It is making men Gods, for unto God only is that homage due of an absolute and total confidence. Noe wonder that God thereby is moved to jealousy.

To that evill, Pagan Philosophers give a re­medy little better then the disease, which is, To put confidence in ourselves. This being a most erroneous Doctrine is nevertheless halfe the way to the truth: for they had very well observed, that a wise wan must not depend from another but retire within himselfe, where all the good and evill of a man lyeth. But while they en­joyne a man to retire within himselfe they leave [Page 152]out the maine precept proper to a higher School then theirs, that a man should seek God within himselfe; and to find God in his breast, that he should invite and then entertaine him there, by a pure service, a sincere love, & an entire cōfidence.

Many, by much good Kindred, & many Friends and relations, become lesse vertuous and indu­strious; getting the ill habit of the Italian Signo­ra's who walking in the streets beare more upon the armes of their supporters on both sides, then upon their owne legs. They have need to be sent from home to learne to stand alone without a Nurse to hold them. None can be owner of any measure of stedfastnesse and content that makes all his support and satisfaction to depend of his neighbours. That man hath more content in the world, who having confined his desire to few things, troubleth also but few persons; and is desirous of Friends to do them, not to re­ceive of them good offices, regarding their vertue more then their support.

When we have got good Friends, we must be prepared to lose them. Death separateth Friends, and disolveth Mariages. When that happens, wee must remember without trouble or amazement that those persons so deare to us were mortal, but indeed that should have bin remembred before. A Philosopher visiting his neighbour who was weeping bitterly for the death of his Wife, left him presently, saying [Page 153]aloud with great contempt, O great fool! did he not know before, that he had married a wo­man not a goddesse? After we have condemned that cruel incivility, yet must we acknowledge that it is a folly to lament for that which we knew before to be unavoydable. Yet after all reasons, when love hath bin very deare, the se­paration cannot but be very sad. Teares may be permitted, not commanded to fall. And after the duty payd of a mournful Adieu to the belo­ved person, we must remember upon what terms and condition we hold of God that which wee love best, even to leave it at any time when God redemands it. And if besides we have good ground to hope, that the person departed is re­ceived into peace and glory, we must praise God for it; which we can hardly do, as long as our obstinate mourning repines against his will. La­menting for those that are well is ignorance, or envy, or selfe love. If we would not rejoyce when they were in affliction, why should we af­flict our selves when they are in joy?

It is some recompence for the death of our deare Friends, that our enemyes are mortal as well as they. A wise man will consider his ene­myes as rods in Gods hand, and minde the hand rather then the rod. To destroy our enemies when they are in our power is a childish folly, for so will Children burne their Mothers rod, as though there were no more rods in the world. [Page 154]Our enemies oftentimes do us more good then our friends, for the support of our friends makes us carelesse, but the opposition of our enemies makes us wary and industrious. They make us strong and safe, for they make us flye to God.

In nothing wisedome is more seene then in judging of an adversary. A great serenity is re­quisite, that feare make us not think him more dangerous then he is, and that pride make us not despise him, blinding our eyes not to see the good and evil that is in him, and what harme he may do us. It is a common and useful maxime for the conduct and tranquillity of mans life, that there are few great freinds, and no little ene­myes.

When enemies are reconcileable, all things past must bee taken to the best by charitable interpretation. When there is no possibility of reconciliation, al things to come must be taken to the worst; both to strengthen us with resolution within, and to encounter the evill without by prudence and vigorous wayes. In the reconcile­ment we must pardon freely, receive ill excuses, and if there be an offence which cannot be excu­sed, never mention it. The remedy of injuries is oblivion.

If an enemy can neither be mitigated by cha­rity, nor overcome by strength, nor avoyded by prudence, there remaineth still unto the wise Christian an intrenchment, out of which he can­not [Page 155]be forced, which is a good conscience, and the peace of God in it. These he must cherish and keep fast, not onely as his last intrenchment, but his onely possession, and the strong hold on­ly worth keeping: It is impregnable as long as faith and love are the Garrison.

CHAP. XVI Of Death.

IT is the subject of which Seneca speakes most, and of which there was least for him to speak; for being doubtfull whether Death destroyed the soul or released it, Mors nos aut consumit aut e­mittit; and being more inclined to the first Opi­nion, it was better for him neither to speake nor to think of it. But what! others of his rank that had reasoned before him about the immortality of the soul had quitted themselves so meanely of that task, that out of their labours in that field, he could not reape any satisfaction of his doubt. This is the grand priviledge of the Christian that he seeth life through Death, and that the last li­mit of Nature is the date of his franchising, and the gate of his felicity and glory. Death that moweth downe all the hopes of this world per­fecteth Christian hope.

Death is the separation of body and soul: It is the returne of these two parts of man so different to their several principles. Eccles. 12.4. Then the [Page 156]dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit re­turneth unto God that gave it: Who disposeth of it either in mercy or justice. Death is the last Act of the Comedy of this world. To every one Death is the end of the world in his own respect. In one sense it is against nature, because it destroyes the particular being: In another it is according to nature, for it is no lesse natural to dye then to live. Yea Death is a consequence of life, we must dye because we live; and we dye, not be­cause we are fick and wounded, but because we are animals borne under that Law.

Wherefore considering Death in the natural way, as Charron doth; I approove what he saith that we must expect Death in a steady posture, for it is the terme of nature which continually drawes neerer and neerer. But I cannot approove that which he adds, that wee must fight against Death. Why should we fight against it seeing we cannot ward its blowes? It is more unreasonable then if he had said that we must fight against the raine & the winde, for wee may get a shelter from these, none from that: Wherefore as when it raines wee must let it raine, so when Death is coming (and it comes alwayes) wee need but let it come, not thinking it more strange to live then to dye. In stead of fighting against Death, wee must ac­quaint our selves with it. Indeed they that feare Death, must fight against that feare.

Of them that feare Death there are two sorts. [Page 157]Some feare it for its owne sake: Some for that which comes after. The former which are more in number, that love the present world, and can­not fixe their thoughts upon that which is to come, imagin, that when they dye they lose all. A great folly! They cannot lose that which is none of theirs. They have the use of the world only til their Lease be out. Death is the great proofe of that fundamentall Maxime, which I so often urge, and no oftner then I need; That the things that are out of the disposition of our will are none of ours; and such are riches, honours, our body, and life it selfe. To them that are so farre mistaken as to thinke themselves owners of these things, death is an undoing; not to them that acknowledge themselves tenants at will, and look continually to be called out of their te­nement. The goods of the world are held by turnes: When you have enjoyed them a while you must give place to others. Make your suc­cessours case your owne. How should yee like it, if a certaine number of men should be privi­ledged to monopolize to themselves the goods of all the world for ever, to the perpetuall exclusion of all others?

This reasoning belongs to few persons, for it presupposeth plenty and prosperity. But how few have plenty? and of those few againe, how few have prosperity with it? One would thinke that distressed persons have no need of comfort [Page 158]against death. Yet they that have the greatest sorrowes in the world, many times are the most unwilling to leave it. But certainly, if life be evill, it is good to go out of it. All men being born un­der the necessity of suffering, and misery being universall in all conditions; Death which ends all misery of life, is the greatest benefit of Nature. Blessed be God, that there is no temporal misery so great but hath an end.

Take me a man that hath nothing but debts, that liveth meerely by his shifts and tricks, that hath the stone in the bladder and ten suits in Law, that flyeth from the Sergeants to his house, and then flyeth out of his house relanced by the scold­ing of his perverse wife. If in that flight he be suddainly killed in the street by the fall of a tyle or the overturning of a Cart, that happy misfor­tune delivereth him from all other misfortunes. The Sergeants overtake him and let him are All attachments and Subpoenas against him are vacated. Hee is no more troubled where to get his dinner. His debts breake not his perpetuall sleep. He is thoroughly healed of the stone; and his wife, now desperaetly crying because she see­eth him insensible for ever and unmoved at her noise. Certainly Death is a shelter against all in­ [...]uries. Death puts an end to endlesse evills. It is the rest after a continual toyle. It is the cure of the sick, and the liberty of the slave. So Job descri­beth that quiet state. Job. 3.7. There the wicked [Page 159]cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together, they heare not the voyce of the oppressor: The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his Master. It is a great folly to feare that which cannot be avoyded, but it is a greater to feare that which is to be desired. When we have considered the evills of life, those that we do and those that we suffer, after that to feare Death what is it else but to be affraid of our rest and deliverance? And what greater harme can one wish to him that will not dye, but that he may live alwayes, and be guilty and mi­serable for ever.

If it be for the paine that we feare Death, for that reason wee ought rather to feare life, for the paines of life are farre more sensible then the paines of Death; if in Death there is any paine; of which I see no great likelyhood. For why should we imagine the revulsion of the soul from the body to be very painful, it being knowne that the vital parts, as the heart and the liver, have little or no sense: No more sense hath the substance of the braines though the source of the senses; for the head-ach is in the tuniques. When the braines is benummed and weakened, the sense of paine is weaker over all the body. And generally when strength decreaseth, paine decreaseth together. Hence it is that most of them that are sick to Death, when they draw neere their end, feele themselves very much amen­ded. [Page 160]That state is called by the Italians il megli­oramento della morte.

The decay of senses in that extremity is a fence against the troublesome diligence, talke, & cries, more troublesome then Death, wherewith dy­ing persons are commonly persecuted. But as a man upon the point of death is too weake to de­fend himselfe against all that persecution, he is too weak also to feele it much.

Then, all suffocation is without paine, & that is the most ordinary end of life. In the most violent death, paine is tolerable because it is short, and because it is the last. It is a storme that wracks us, but casts us upon the haven.

To that haven we must looke continually, and there cast anchor betimes by a holy hope, concei­ving Death not so much a parting as an arrival; for unto well disposed soules it is the haven of Salvation.

The feare of that which comes after death, makes some mens lives bitter, and through feare of dying after Death they have already eternall death in their Conscience. They have eyes to see Hell open gaping for them, but they have none to see the way to avoid it. In others, that feare is more moderate, and is an ill cause work­ing a good effect, inducing or rather driving them to seeke, and then to embrace the grace and peace that God offers unto them in Jesus Christ, and together to do good workes which are the [Page 161]way to the Kingdome of heaven. A man cannot afeare God too much, but he may be too deeply afraid of his Justice; And the feare of that death after death must be swallowed up by the faith in Jesus Christ who by his death hath delivered them who through feare of death were all their life subject un­to bondage. Heb. 2.15. He hath made death the gate of life and glory, to all that trust in him and doe good. Godly men will not feare death; for the sting of it is pluckt off by Christ. It is the terrour of evill consciences, but the joy of the good. It is this pleasant meditation that sweetneth their ad­versities and makes them joy, Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 2 Cor. 4.17. The troubles of life are soone ended by death; and after death comes a life without trouble, and a glory without end. Men may deprive us of life, but they cannot deprive us of death; which is our deliverance.

The same meditation will make us relish pro­sperity when God sends it; for none can enjoy the goods of this life with delight but he that is prepared before to leave them. Then are they delightfull when they are possest without care, and without, that which makes prosperity bitter, the feare to lose them. Whether I have little or much let me allwayes say, Praised bee God for his temporal gifts. Here is more then I need to live and dye well. But these are not the [Page 162]goods that he promist me, and to which he calls me by by his Gospel.

O when shall that day come, when I shall be sa­tisfied with the goodnesse of his house even of his holy Temple. Psal. 65.4. My desire is to depart and to be with Christ. Phil. 1.23.

The imprisonment of our immortal Soul of heavenly nature, in a body cosingerman to the beast, where it lyeth heavy, drowzy and mired in the flesh, ought to make us think that a hap­py day, when we shall be awake, quickned, and set at liberty. Children in the womb sleep con­tinually: Men (if you take their whole age to­gether) sleep well nigh halfe their time. But after death, the spirit which is the true man, hath sha­ken off all his sleepinesse: The faithfull soul is no more in darknesse. She receives light no more at two little loope-holes. She is all eye in the pre­sence of God, who is all Light. She is free, holy, joyfull, all vertue, and all love, and all glo­ry; for seeing God, and being seene by him, she is changed into the same image; And to that blessed state death is the way. Who so knoweth so much of the nature of death, & yet feares it as a terrible evill, sheweth that he is very farre within ano­ther death, which is the death of sinne, and that he hath more flesh then spirit, that is, more of the beast then man.

CHAP. XVII. Of the Interiour of Man.

FRom that which is altogether without us and out of our power, and may be taken from us by others or by death; Let us turne our eyes within us, upon that which is more ours, our soule and her endowments, naturall and acquisite, either by study or infusion. Not to ex­amine very exactly their nature, but enough to judge of their price, and what satisfaction may be expected of them.

Because I have restrained solid content to those things that are within us, and which cannot be taken from us, I acknowledge my selfe very much perplexed about some things within us, and doubtful whether they be ours or no? seeing that many things within us may be taken from us without our consent, and therefore are not ours absolutly. Is there any thing that seemes more ours then the illumination and dexterity of our wit, and our learning, and prudence got by study and experience? for those were the goods which that Philosopher owned with so much oftentati­on, who carrying nothing but himself out of a Town, taken by storme and pillaged, answer­ed the victor that gave him leave to carry our all his goods, I carry out all my goods along with mee. But how could he make good that possessi­on, [Page 164]there being no Wit so clear, no Philosophy so sublime, but a blow upon the head, or a hot feaver may overturne it? Epictetus accounteth nothing ours but our opinions, our desires, and our actions, because these alone are in our power. But in an understanding maimed by Phrensy, that power is lost. It is true, it is not the soule but the Organe that is vitiated: But howsoever you cannot dis­pose of your soul when that organ is out of tune.

Here to say that death will set the soul at li­berty and then the spirit shall enjoy himselfe, and all his ornaments, is to bring a higher questi­on to resolve a lesser. For there is no doubt but that the spirit loosed from the matter will reco­ver that liberty of his faculties which was ob­structed by materiall causes; but it is a point of singular difficulty to judge, whether he shall re­taine all the skill hee had got in this life.

As for mechanicall Arts, altogether tyed to the matter, it is not likely that the spirit will retaine that low skill, when he liveth separat from the matter. But as for higher intellectuall sciences, it seemes very unreasonable that a Spi­rit polisht & sublimated by long study, and stored with a great treasure of knowledge, should lose all in an instant by the death of the body, and that the soul of a great Naturalist, as my Lord of St. Albans, be left as bare of learning and acqui­site capacity as the soul of a skavenger. And when the soul not only is made learned but [Page 165]good also by learning, were it not lamentable that death should have the power to make it worse? Neither would holy writ presse this command upon us with so much earnestnes, Get wisdome, get understanding, forget it not, if wisedom were an acquisition that the soul must lose with the body.

The difficulty lyeth, in picking among the sci­ences those that will be sure to stick unto the se­parat soul; It is much to be feared that those sci­ences which cost most labour will bee sooner lost, and will goe out together with the lampe of life. For since the dead have no share in al that is done under the sun, it is like that great students who have fraught their memory with histories, both antient & moderne, shall lose, when they dye, the remembrance of so many things that are done un­der the Sunne: By the same reason Lawyers Lin­guists & Professors of Sciences and arts depending upon humane commerce, should leave all that learning behind them. But I doubt whether the contemplators of Gods works, as the Naturalists, shall lose their learning when they dye seeing that it is the duty, & the perfectioning of the ra­tionall creature to know the wisedome and the power of the Creator, in his wonderfull workes. And I am inclined to beleeve that those things that are done under the Sunne in which the dead have no share, are the actions & businesses of men, not the workes of God; but that Naturalists shall [Page 166]learne the science of Gods workes in a higher and transcendent way. Also that Astrologers shall need other principles to know heaven; to which their forbidden curiosity to foretell hu­mane events out of the Starres, wil rather be a barre then a furtherance Nec quicquam tibi prodest aerias tentâsse domos morituro.

Among all the spirituall ornaments there is one which we may be confident to keep for ever when we have it once really, & therefore it is pro­perly our owne. That rich and permanent Orna­ment is heavenly wisedome, of which Solomon saith Prov. 3.16. Length of dayes is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour: Her wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse, and all her pathes are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that retaines her. That wise­dome consisteth in knowing, loving, and obey­ing God and trusting upon him. It is good study­ing that wisedome, that giveth eternal felicity and glory.

We finde but two things in the interiour of man, which we may be sure not to lose by death: The one is the substance and intellectual faculties of our soul of immortal nature, which cannot be so offuscated with the mists of the flesh but she is cleared of them, when she is freed of the body; The other is that supernatural wisedome, when it pleaseth God to endow our minde with it, even his knowledge, his love, conformity of our will [Page 167]unto his will, and faith in his promises. Of other ornaments of the soul we cannot certainly say, what we shall keep and what we shall lose. It will be therefore wifely and thriftily done to la­bour for that which wee may be sure to keep when we have got it; and of which, death, that takes away all other possessions, shall deliver us a full possession. It is a great discouragment to them that stretch their braines upon Algebra and Logarithmes and arguments in Frisesmo, as it were upon tenterhookes, to think that all that learning so hard to get, will bee lost in a moment. Who would take the paines to load himselfe with it, seeing that it gives nothing but vexation in this life, and leaves in the soul nei­ther benefit nor trace after death; unlesse it be the guilt sticking to the soul to have mispent the strength of wit upon negotious vanities, and neg­lected good studies.

Yet am I not so austere and peremptory as to despise all the spiritual endowments which we are not sure to keep after death. For many of them are such, that as we are not certaine to keep them after death, so we are not certaine to lose them by death. Many of those perish­able ornaments are neverthelesse good gifts of God. But our minde must be so disposed that in these several ornaments of the soul we seek a contentment proportionate to the assurance that we have of their abiding with us. We are most cer­taine [Page 168]that the knowledge and love of God are permanent possessions, and impart to their pos­sessor their permanency; there then let us apply our study and place our permanent content. We are not certaine whether the other spiritual or­naments will continue with us after this life. Then let us not bestow our principal study about those things which we are not sure to keepe; nor place our chiefe content in them. Let the Soul lose none of her advantages, let her glory in her eter­nall goods and there fixe herselfe: Let her re­joyce also in those goods which she hath for a time, according to their just value, which must be measured by their use.

Before we consider the several ornaments of the soul more particularly, we must consider her substance and faculties. The Soul is immate­riall and Spirituall bearing in her substance the image of her creator, and more yet in her facul­ties, and naturall endowments, which before her fall were in an eminent degree of perfection: for to be made after the likeness of God includeth all per­fection, in so much that this high expression, to be adequate unto man, hath need to be contracted to the proportion of a created nature.

Of that primitive perfection the traces are evident still, in that reasoning quicknesse, and universal capacity, that goeth through all things and compasseth all things, that remembreth things past, that provideth for things to come, [Page 169]that inventeth, judgeth, ordereth, and brings forth ingenious and admirable workes. The prin­cipal is that the soul is capable to know God, love him, & commune with him: A priviledge special to Angels & Souls of men above all creatures; as likewise they are the only creatures capable of permanency, which is a participation with Gods eternity, such as finite natures may admit.

Humility would not give us leave to conceive high enough of the price of our soul, but that the onely Sonne of God, God himselfe blessed for evermore, hath shewed the high account that he made of her; So high that he thought it worth his taking the like nature in the forme of a ser­vant, and suffering death with the extremity of paine and ignominy, that he might recover and save her when she had lost herselfe.

The soul being of such an excellent nature, and after her decayes by sinne restored to her pri­mitive excellency by grace, is a rich possession to herselfe, when God gives us the wisedome to obey that evangelical and truly Philosophical precept of Christ, Luk. 21.19. In your patience possesse your soules; not giving leave to the impati­ence of cupidity and feare to steal that possession from us. But the soul never hath the right pos­session of herselfe, till she have the possession of God. To possesse God and to possesse our soul is all one, for the spirit cannot be free, nor happy, nor his owne, but by his union with his original [Page 170]Being, whereby God and the soul have a mutual possession one of another; A blessed union begun in earth by grace, and perfected in heaven by glory. The contrary state which is to be separa­ted from God is the perdition of a man, and the extremity of bondage, want, and misery.

Here to undertake an exact anatomy of the soul would be besides my theame, and more yet beyond the possibility of right performance. For as the eye cannot see it selfe, the spirit of man cannot looke into his owne composure; and in all the Philosophical discourses upon that subject, I finde nothing but conjectural. It is more profi­table and easy to learne the right government then the natural structure of the soul. It is part of the knowledge of the soul, to know that she cannot be known; and that her incomprehen­siblenesse is a lineament of her Creatours image.

The spirit of man is more quick and stirring then clearsighted, and many times is like a Faul­con that flyeth up with his hood on. He hath a good wing, but he is hood winkt. How many wits take a high flight and know not where they be? And where shall you finde one that under­stands thoroughly the matter that he speakes of? The Authors that write of all animals and plants, understand not the nature of a caterpiller or a lettice, how then shall they understand the na­ture of intellectual substances? Certainly all our Philosophy of the nature of things is but seek­ing [Page 171]and guessing. Job 8.9. We are but of yesterday and know nothing, because our dayes upon earth are as a shadow, saith Bildad. Our life is a shadow be­cause it is transitory, but more because it is dark. The Earth where we live is inwrapt in clouds, and our soul in ignorance as long as we live upon earth; and yet we are as resolute and affirma­tive in our Opinions as if we had pitcht our Ta­bernacle in the Sunne: We could not speak with more authority if we were possest, as God is, with the original Idea's and the very being of things. A wise and moderate man will not be carryed away by that presumption, neither of others nor his owne, but with humility will ac­knowledge the blind and rash nature of the spi­rit of man, that knoweth nothing and determines of all things, that undertakes all and brings no­thing to an end. Pure truth and full wisedome lyeth in the bosome of the Father of lights: Our soules are little, unclean, narrowmouthed vessels, uncapable to receive it but by smal drops, & that little we receive we taint by our uncleanness.

In our soul we conceive two intellectual facul­ties, the understanding and the will; In the un­derstanding three, imagination, memory, and judgement. Imagination is that which makes all the noise, entreth every where, inventeth, reasoneth, and is alwayes in action. To it we owe all the ingenious productions of eloquence and subtility. Its the inventor of arts and sciences, the [Page 172]learner and polisher of inventions. It is of great service, and gives great content, being well ma­naged, and employed in good things. The office of imagination being to transforme itselfe into the things that it takes for objects: it is transfor­med into God when it applyes itselfe unto God, and is transformed into the Father of all evil, when it applyeth itselfe unto evill.

Memory is the Exchequer of the soul, keeping that which the imagination and judgement com­mit to her trust. In the primitive ages when the world stood in need of inventions, a quick & fer­tile imagination made able men. But in these last ages, a well furnisht memory makes a rich and a full mind; so she be not destitute of the two other faculties. In vaine doth the imagination invent and collect industriously, and the judge­ment prudently determine, if the memory be not a faithful keeper of the inventions of the one, and the determinations of the other, and together a ready prompter at need of that she hath in keep­ing. It is memory that keepes this good treasure of which the Lord Jesus speakes, Matth. 12.35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. But she keepes evill as well as good, and often more firmly then good. An evill man out of the evill treasure, of his heart brings forth evill things. Of her nature she is in­different to good and evill, as a paper to write what one will upon and a chest that will keep, [Page 173]any thing. According to the things that are put into that chest, it is either a cabinet that keepes jewels, or a sink that receives ordure. If we will have the right use & content of our memory, we must furnish her with good and holy things, that she may alwayes prompt matter to our minde, to commune with God, & to direct and comfort ourselves. For when she is fraught with evill and vaine matter, she will thrust evill and vaine things upon us, when the occasion and our owne minde calls for things good and serious, as an idle servant that brings his Master a pare of cards when he calls for a Book of devotion. Many times we heartily desire that we could forget certain things, which our memory importunately sets before us on all occasions.

Judgement is the noblest part of the soul, the Chiefe Justice determining what the imaginati­on discusseth, and the memory registreth. Ima­gination makes witty men, memory learned men, but the Judgement makes wise men. The wise man is he that judgeth aright, not he that discourseth finely, nor he that learneth well by heart.

For the strength of the several faculties the natural temper of the braines doth much, but study perfecteth them, the judgement especially; for some have made themselves a judgement by use and experience, who had none in a manner by nature.

Of these three faculties, the Imagination, which is the seat of wit and invention, hath a neerer kindred with judgement, then memory with either; for wit will ripen into judgement, & in distracted braines both are imbezelled toge­ther, while memory remaines entire. It is ordi­nary to see dull fooles have a great memory. And it is credible that the largenesse of the memory (especially when it is streacht with overmuch learning) lesseneth the two other faculties; as in three roomes of a floore, if the one be made very wide the two others must of necessity be little.

The Judgement calls all things before his tri­bunal, and examines them upon two points, whe­ther they be true or false, good or evill. There he stayes, when the subject requires contemplati­on onely; but when it requires action, then the determination of the judgement makes the will to move towards that which the judge­ment hath pronounced to be true and good; for to move towards that which we judge to be false or evill, we cannot. For although our will fol­low many times false and evill objects, the judg­ment alwayes considers them to be true and good, in some respect; Neither would our will so much as bend towards any object, unlesse our judgement did before warrant it to us, true and good. Truth and falshood have their springs without us: But moral good and evill, as farre as they concerne our innocency and guiltinesse, [Page 175]have their springs within us; and both spring from our judgment, to which we must atribute what is ascribed to the heart by Solomon (in whose tongue one word signifies both.) Prov. 4.23. Keepe thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

Herein then lyeth wisedome, the worker and keeper of contentment of mind, to give a sound judgement of objects, and thereupon to give good counsell to the will for embracing that which is good, and resisting all oppositions to it by the armes of righteousnesse on the right hand and on the left, so that the soul, as a well balasted and a well guided ship, cuts her way through the waves, and makes use of all winds to steere her course to the haven of salvation and Gods glory, possessing calme within, among the stormes a­broad. But for that wise and blessed temper, there is need of a higher wisedome then the strength of Nature and the precepts of Philoso­phy can afford to the judgement.

By the Judgement, men are wise; but by the Will, they are good. Wisedome and goodnesse alwayes go together; when they go asunder, they are not worthy of their name. For that man is not wise that instructeth not himselfe to be good; and that man is not good that doeth good actions, not out of wisedome and know­ledge, but out of superstition or custome.

The chiefe vertue of the understanding is the [Page 176]knowledge of God, and the chiefe vertue of the Will is his Love. These two vertues comprehend all others, and help one another. They joynt­ly give tranquillity and content to the soul, when we exercise our selves in the knowledge of God, because we love him; and when we love and o­bey him, because we know him to be most good, most wise, most perfect, and most worthy to be loved and obeyed.

The right bent and true perfection of the will man is an entire concurrence with the will of God in all things, both to execute the will of his command and undergo the will of his decree; in both walking so unanimously with God, that man have no other will but God's. He that hath thus transformed his will into Gods will, possess­eth a quiet and contented mind. For when we will alwayes what God willes, our will is al­wayes done.

The will is the reasonable appetite of the soul; besides which there is in the soul joyned with the body an appetite halfe reasonable and halfe seusitive which comprehends all the Passions, some of which have more of the reasonable, some more of the sensitive part, according as they stick more or lesse to the matter. They must be the subject of the next Book.

CHAP. XVIII. Of the Ornaments acquisite of the understanding.

WE are so blind at home that we know less our natural then our acquisite goods: Yea without acquisite goods we are little sensible of the natural goods of the soul. The natural Or­naments of the Understanding, quicknesse of wit, fidelity of memory, and solidity of judge­ment are seene onely in the acquisitions made by study & use, for they that trade not with that pa­trimony of Nature, lose most part of it and differ little from beasts. The acquisitions of the un­derstanding may be reduced to these two heads; Science, and Prudence.

Science is the husbandry of the soul, a field whose vertue is never knowne till it be husband­ed. Prudence is above Science in dignity, but Science precedeth Prudence in order, as the meanes go before the end.

This position that prudence is the end, and sciences are the meanes, gives the true light to choose those sciences that deserve a ferious study. Sciences are multiplyed to a great number, and growne to a goodly perfection in this Westerne world. They have their several uses and beau­ties. But because it is impossible to entertaine them all, the prentiship being long and life short, those especially should be followed which are [Page 178]wayes to true Prudence, teaching men to live well and dye well. It is the Learning, so much recommended by Solomon, Prov. 4.13. Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go, keepe her, for she is thy life.

Of those that court learning some do it out of necessity, to get their living; They choose scien­ces as they do their wives, those that are fittest for housekeeping. Others that have wealth and leisure, choose sciences as they choose their Mi­stresses, the fairest and most recreative. But of sciences as of women, the most recreative are not alwayes the most honest; as all sciences that are buzy about predictions for the future.

Of humane sciences the most part hath more luster then price: Learning in tongues is a fine Ornament, and of great use, yet not answerable to the labour and time that it stands in. When we have learned to name heaven and earth five or sixe several wayes, we know their natures never the better for that. A wiseman will rather seeke the use then the luster of languages. And for his owne use he ought not to deny to himselfe that innocent delight to be able to relish the elo­quence of the tongues, which with great reason have the vogue among the learned; there being nothing that doth more sweeten and polish the mind then good matter clad with a style simple and elegant, like a smooth and well coloured skin laid over strong brawny limbes.

There are studies that have little luster and lesse price, and yet by their severe garbe go for wise and serious. Such is Schoole-philosophy which for three or foure hundred yeares hath reigned in our Universities, and roughcast Di­vinity with barbarous termes and crabbed di­stinctions. For as if Schoolemen would outdoe Pilates souldiers that crowned the head of our Saviour with thornes, they have habited his do­ctrine with thornes all about from top to toe, so thick that themselves can hardly see the day thorough. The writings of Schoolemen are like Labyrinths, which in a little peece of ground have a very long and intricate way. For the learning of those ages being confined within a short com­passe, those resolute and irrefragable Doctors (for so they style one another) not being able to travel farre, and yet eager of going, did but turne and wind within their narrow limits, and crost a thousand times the same way. It is scarce cre­dible how little there is to learne in all that huge masse of harsh subtility. It is true indeed that in all studies of men there is vanity, and the lear­ning that succeeded that rusty learning hath a merryer vanity. But since it is so, that there is vainity in both, give me rather a faire and smooth vanity then a grimme and rugged. Si nugae, saltem sint canorae. Serious fooles are the most trouble­some.

Arts that regard the civil good are of so much [Page 180]price as they bring utility to the publique, and benefit to the professors. Every one must get skill enough in his art to be usefull for society, and to live in the world. But there are some sci­ences, which, though especially profest by some, belong alike to all, and regard the profession of man as he is man. For God hath created and pla­ced us in the world to learne three things; How the world is made, What the world doeth, And what we must do in the world. How the world is made, we learne by natural Philosophy, the Sphere and Cosmography. What the world doth, we learne by Histories. What must be done in the world we learne out of Ethicks and Poli­tiques and especially out of Divinity. These Sci­ences are beneficial and delightful; and to be al­together ignorant of these, is to live in the world not knowing for what. A prudent man will pick out of these what is most fit for his principal end, which is to glorifie God, informe his judgement, order his life, and content himselfe.

All the Learning that we lay up must end in Prudence. Wherefore those studies that forme the judgement, must be more carefully tended then those that exercise the imagination. Mathe­matical sciences are admirable, but this they have, that they take off the mind from matters of judgement and prudence, and fixe it altogether upon quantity and material proportion.

Prudence is the guide of all vertues, and mar­cheth [Page 181]before to give them light. Yea she com­prehends them all, for nothing is ill done but for want of prudence, and the great prudence is to be religious, just, constant, and temperate. Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia. Solomon gi­ving such an expresse charge and so often re­peated, to get prudence, thereby recom­mendeth all vertues, and above all, the feare of God which is the beginning of wisdome. Prudence is that eye which the Lord Jesus calls the light of the body, Matth. 6.22. that is the con­duct of life. And whereas virtues consist in keep­ing a just temper betweene extreames, they owe that skill unto prudence, for unto it belongs the ordering and disposition of things. Prudence sheweth what is requisite for every vertue. Pru­dence governs all the free actions of life.

My end here is to know the price, not to give the rules of prudence: But those Authors cannot be excused, that have set out treatises of pru­dence, without giving any counsel for the directi­on of a mans behaviour in publique or private occurrences, but onely definitions expounded at large, divisions, and disputations whether it be a vertue moral or intellectual, contemplative or practical, Whether the actus elicitus of prudence be to know or to will, and what difference there is betweene acting and doing. Goodly instructi­ons to forme a Councellor of State, and to un­derprop a tottering Commonwealth. Could [Page 182]these Doctors have done worse for themselves, if they had undertaken to justifye the ordinary re­proach against learning, that prudence lyeth out of the circuit of Schollership, and that it is incompatible with learning? This they justifye more yet, when they passe from contemplation to practise. For, in Councel, though but a meane corporation, tradesmen many times will speake more pertinently thet great Scholars.

Of this the fault lyeth not in Learning, which is the right way to Prudence, but in not choos­ing the right learning for prudence, and apply­ing ones mind to other things: For neither Tran­scendents nor Modals, not Hesychius nor Suidas, nor Apogees nor Excentriques teach a man wisedome. It were a wonder if they that never learned wisedom, understood it: There are two wayes to get it, Science and Experience. These men have neither, that have spent all their study about Syl­logisms or Horoscopes. But take me a Scholler that hath made prudence his study, and bent all his learning to that marke, seeking it first in Gods Book, the spring of all wisedome, then in the wri­tings of wisemen both antient and late, and in history which is the Mistriss of life; Let him stu­dy men and business, as well as Bookes. Let him converse with the wisest and best versed in the world, and consummate himselfe in experience. When such a man shall speake in a Councell of State among unlearned men, it will appeare how [Page 183]rash and injurious that sentence is, that learn­ing and prudence are incompatible; and how farre the learned go beyond the ignorant for deepe insight into businesses, and healing or pre­venting publique evills.

Because we seek here the just price of things, we must not attribute too much unto Science and Prudence. These two together make a goodly match: By knowledge and and wisedome a man differeth from a beast. But both are subject unto vanity. For knowledge, take the verdict of two the most learned of all the Canonical writers, Solomon and St. Paul. The first will tell you He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. Eccl. 1.18. The other, Knowledge puffeth up. 1 Cor 8.1. Sorrow & pride are the ordinary effects of Lear­ning, but when it meets with a strong and meek spirit upheld with Gods grace. Pride will easi­ly get into those that have some, but little learn­ing; for it is a point of ignorance for one to think he is learned when he is not. But when we are advanced in learning, we learne that we know nothing, and discover the uncertainty of sciences; that they performe not what they promise, that new writers give the lye to the old, Eccl. 12.12. that of making many Bookes there is no end, and much study is a wearinesse of the flesh. A wise man that will reape from learning utility and content, must ex­pect no more of it then it can afford. He will deale with learning as with money, he will not [Page 184]be a servant to it, but make it his Servant. When he is past the drudgery of the Schoole, he will (if he can) make his study his pastime, not his taske.

Prudence is no lesse subject to vanity then Learning, but rather hath more uncertainty. For sciences have certain objects, since they consider universals, which are alwayes the same, what change soever happen in the particulars. But prudence, having no object but particular things casual and uncertaine, cannot have but an un­certaine seat upon such an unstayed bottome, for though there be generall rules of prudence, they must continually be bowed and made longer or shorter according to the accidents and circum­stances; which being every where different re­quire also every where a different manner of con­duct. After a wise deliberation & an industrions managing of a businesse, an unfortunate end ma­ny times will follow. How oft hath the most mature prudence bin overcome by folly and pre­cipitate rashnesse? Of which the principal cause is the provocation of Gods jealousy by humane wisedome, when it grows to presumption. Isa. 24.15. Woe unto them that seeke deep to hide their counsell from the Lord, and their workes are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knowes us? For God who is called onely wise by St. Paul, Rom. 16.27. for which he will have him to be glori­fyed for ever, is highly offended when any pre­tends [Page 185]to share in that title which is his onely, and takes a delight to blow upon projects made up with great art, to shew to the wise of the world that they are but fooles.

To judge wisely of the businesses of the world, we should see the wheels & inward motions of them, but they are hidden from us. We can hard­ly pry into the counsels of men, how can we pe­netrate into the Decrees of God, those great and secret motions lockt up in the closet of his wise providence? In the greatest revolution of our age, we are eyewitnesses how the wisest counsels of a party have alwayes turned to their ruine, and the faults of State on the contrary party have alwayes bin fortunate. To one side prudence and imprudence have bin alike pernicious. To the other prudence and imprudence have bin alike advantageous. Let us looke up to God whose wayes are not our wayes, and his thoughts are not our thoughts, and against whose will no strength and no counsel will hold. The future being to us a dark empty space where we see no­thing, no wonder that humane prudence seldome hits right in her forecast for the future. The pru­dent man hath as much advantage over the im­prudent as one that hath good eyes over a blind­man, but when both are in the darke one seeth no more then the other. Many future events are as dark to the wise, as to the unwise. And when wisedome is most cleare sighted, it can but [Page 186]regulate the counsels, but cannot dispose of the events.

The wiseman hath this benefit of his wise­dome, that if his counsels succeed well he can make good use of prosperity: And if his good counsels have an unhappy successe, either he de­clines the blow, or gets a lenitive to it by pru­dence and patience; or he makes advantage of it for some good; and which way soever the staffe fall, he never repents of a good counsell.

Of all the acquisite endowments of the under­standing Prudence is the best, therefore beyond all comparison more precious then all the goods of body and fortune: But together let us acknow­ledge that it hath a short sight, and a tottering bottome. Wherefore the great precept of wise­dome, is, to mistrust our wisedome and repose ourselves upon Gods wisedome and love. Let our prudence depend altogether upon his provi­dence.

It is a great abatement of the price of humane prudence that death cuts it off with the thred of life. Eccl. 2.17. This was a cause why Solomon hated life, even because the wiseman dyeth as the foole. Yet had he wisely pondred the matter before ver. 13. I saw that wisedome excelleth folly as farre as light excelleth darknesse: The wisemans eyes are in his head, but the foole walketh in darknesse: but I perceived also that one event happenth to them all. It is enough to disdaine the vanity of life, and of [Page 187]human wisedome better then life, to see a great Statesman that made a Kingdom to flourish and the neighboring States to tremble, to be cut off in the midst of his high enterprises and deep coun­sels, all which dye with him. Psal. 46.4. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish. That plotting braines from whose resolution the fortune of an empire depended shall breed wormes and toades. And truly it should be unreasonable that this kind of prudence which hath no object but worldly and perishable, should remaine permanent. But it is very consonant to reason that a higher prudence which applyeth itselfe to permanent things, re­maine permanent. It is that permanent wise­dome which our Saviour recommends unto us, Luke 12.33. Provide yourselves baggs which waxe not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. It is that wisedome which Solomon calls a tree of life to them that lay hold on her, because she lives after death, and makes the soul live for ever. Judge you of the price of these two sorts of wisedomes; the one that perisheth, and many times makes men perish; the other that endureth for ever, and will certainly make them that embrace her, eternally blessed.

CHAP. XIX. Of the acquisite Ornaments of the Will.

THe end of the instruction of the Understan­ding is the ruling and ordering of the Will in a constant goodnesse, so much better then sci­ence and prudence, as the end is better then the meanes; unlesse by prudence we understand that wisedome which is employed about mans duty to God, and comprehends all vertues; for as in God all vertues are but one, which is his Being; likewise when we take vertues in a divine sense one vertue comprehends many, as having some participation with the divine nature.

Commonly by vertue we understand upright­nesse of the will, because without it the vertues of the understanding, science, intelligence, and prudence, deserve not to be called vertues, and the more able they are, the more pernicious.

Vertue of all acquisitions is the most precious; without it the goods of body and fortune become evills, serving only to make a man guilty and miserable; for then the goods of the body give the faculty, and the goods of fortune give the opportunity to do evill; but without them Ver­tue alone is good, and fetcheth good even out of evill.

By vertue man is made like God who is the originall vertue. Vertue gives glory to God, uti­lity [Page 189]to the publique, tranquillity and joy to the conscience, reliefe to some, counsell to others, example to all. Vertue is respected of all, even of them that envy it. They that love not the re­ality of vertue, yet study to get the name of it, and to put upon their false coyne the stamp of vertue. All the hypocrisie in the world is an homage that Vice payeth unto Vertue.

A vertuous man may be stript of his estate by his enemies, but of his vertue he cannot. Because he keepes it, he is alwayes rich. Vertue strength­neth him in adversity, moderates him in prospe­rity, guides him in society, entertaines him in his solitarinesse, adviseth him in his doubts, sup­ports him in his weaknesse, keeps him company in his journeyes by sea and land. If his ship sink, vertue sinkes not; and he whether living or dy­ing saveth it and himselfe. By vertue he feares neither life nor death, looking upon both with an equal eye, yet aspiring to depart and to be with Christ; but bearing patiently the delay of his departure, because he is already with Christ by a lively hope. Vertue steering the soule makes it take a streight and safe course to heaven, and there abides with him eternally, for vertue as well as glory is that treasure in heaven, where nei­ther the moth nor the rust corrupt, and where theeves do not breake thorough and steale. Math. 6.

Philosophy considereth three vertues in the wil, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance, excellent [Page 190]vertues, the first especially, which in effect con­taines the two others; for it is the right temper of the will, not drawne aside from the integrity of a good conscience, either by oppositions of ad­versity against which fortitude stands fast, or by allurements of prosperity from which tempe­rance witholds the appetite. Good conscience (of which we have spoken in the first Booke) is nothing else but justice.

For these vertues wherein mans duty and hap­pinesse consisteth it were hard to find Elogies equal to their worth. But there is great diffe­cence between the excellency of Vertue in it self, and such vertue as is found among men. The ex­actest justice that man is capable of, is defective and infected with sinne. All our righteousnesses are as the defiled cloath. Wherefore the de­scription of a just counterpoise of the will, never swarving either on the right hand or the left, ne­ver shaken from his square cubus either by afflicti­ons or temptations, is a fair character fit to set be­fore our eyes, to imitate as neere as we can; as faire pictures, in the sight of breeding women: But truly such a perfect vertue subsisteth not in any subject under heaven. In this world to be just, is only to be somewhat lesse evill then others.

If a perfect Justice cannot be establisht in the private policy of a mans soul, it is not to be lookt for in publique Policies. Justice being pure in her original, becomes impure and maimed being [Page 191]kneaded by the weak and uncleane hands of men Job 14.4. Who can bring a cleane thing out of an un­cleane? Of this it were easy to give instances out of the formes of Justice, & out of the very Lawes in all States. But it is a point of justice to respect her in those hands to which divine providence hath intrusted her, and to adde strength to her weakenesse by our voluntary deference.

Man being weake in justice, cannot but be so in her appurtenances, fortitude and temperance. The highest point unto which human precepts endeavour to raise fortitude is to make patience a remedy to evills remediless. But how short the bravest men come of that remedy in their paines and griefes, daily experience sheweth it. The vulgar placeth the vertue of fortitude in striking and massacring, which is rather a barbarous in­humanity; and if it be a vertue, tygers are more vertuous then men.

As for Temperance, her very name sounds weakenesse. For he that is not subject to be cor­rupted by evill suggestions, hath no need of tem­perance. That man is temperat that knoweth how to keepe himselfe from himselfe; who therefore is naturally evill, and prone to vicious excesses: Wherein men are inferiour to beasts, which are not tempted with covetuousnesse & desire of su­perfluities, but keepe within the bounds of nature and necessity.

Where there is a compleat vertue, there is nei­ther [Page 192]fortitude nor temperance; Therefore these are not in God, who is the original vertue. He hath no need of fortitude, for he hath no danger to overcome; and no use of temperance, for he hath no affection that need to be restrained; whence it followes that man also when he is once brought to his perfection of vertue which is his full union with God, shall have neither fortitude nor temperance, as having no evill to oppose, and no [...]upidity to represse. Justice is the onely vertue that outliveth the body, and lives eter­nally with God; not that justice establisht in the Polities of the world, for in heaven there is nei­ther selling nor contracting, which are the sub­jects of communicative justice: And as for the distributive, which hath two offices, to recom­pence vertue & to punish vice, humane justice ex­erciseth but the last; recompence is accounted an act of grace, and is rare: Whereas Gods justice regardeth so much more reward then pu­nishment, as a thousand is more then three or foure, as it is exprest in the precept against Idola­try. Exod 20.5. and 6.

That justice of good Christians which outliv­eth temporall life is the uprightnesse of their will, which in the passage of the soul to the high seat of perfection will be wonderfully mended and sublimated. While the spirit liveth in the flesh, though the will were never disturbed from its uprightnesse by the tumult of passions, [Page 193]yet it could not be raised to a degree of upright­nesse above the proportion of the illumination of of the understanding. Now the understanding is obscured in this world with a mist of errour, receiving but some few rayes of the Sun of righ­teousnesse through a cloud.

I like very well the setting forth of a faire and compleat notion of Vertue, filling the soul with joy; which is not a chimera and a fiction, for every good soul must once be really brought to that perfection in his finall union with God, who is the soveraigne good of man, the originall per­fection, and vertue in substance. But I wish to­gether, that while we set before the eyes of men, a high character of a wise & vertuous man, com­pleat & happy in himselfe, we put them in mind of the fickly condition of mans soul, as long as she dwels in the flesh, that none be deceived with those Idea's of imaginary perfection which Pa­gan Philosophers ascribe to the wise man living according to nature.

To the Christian onely it becomes well to de­scribe vertue in a perfect character, 2 Pet. 1.4. partaker of the divine nature, and though it be a­bove his pitch, yet to aspire to it; for he knowes whom he hath beleeved, and where he may get a perfection exceeding abundantly above all that he askes or thinkes according to the power that worketh in him, Ephes. 3.20. yea so farre as to be filled with all the fullnesse of God. But in the mouth of [Page 194]Philosophers that expect no perfection but from their own nature, nor a longer duration of their vertue then of their natural life (and of such men there are more in the world then one would think) those high expressions of the greatnesse and happinesse of a vertuous man are illegiti­mate, unsuitable, and unbecoming; for either these characters are true, and then they were not made for them; or they are productions of a wild and phantasticall pride. Seneca describing his wise man saith, that he cannot be shaken with any thing and that he marcheth equal with God. Alas poore little man! Do but discharge a pistol at his eares, though charged with powder only, you shall see that stout champion, which march­eth equal with God, mightily shaken and dis­composed in his march. There needs but the sting of a tarantola to make him skip and dance, put his vertue out of tune, and turne all his Phi­losophy upside downe. Another was saying virtute mea me involvo, I wrap my selfe about with my vertue, as if it had bin an armour cannon­proofe and thunderbolt proofe. Though it had bin so, and impenetrable to temptation besides, yet it is not impenetrable to death, for these di­sciples of nature onely, pretend not to extend the life of their vertue beyond the life of nature. To what purpose all those bravado's for a mortal vertue; that the wiseman is alwayes free, al­wayes rich, alwayes happy, that he wants no­thing [Page 195]because he hath himselfe, that he is King of the universe and Master of fortune, that in all conditions he is safe, stedfast, and content, and finally that he is alwayes in health; but when he hath got a cold, as Horace jestingly addeth. This is stretching man beyond man. That wise­man after al that flourish is a calamitous creature weak, needy, unstable, subject to erre, to sinne, to suffer, and in the end to dye. Certainly if among all the Philosophical vertues humility and faith be wanting, they serve but to puffe up a man and make him burst and perish. Let us before all things humble ourselves before God, who is the onely wise and righteous, mistrusting ourselves and putting our trust in him. Then let us seeke wisedome in his wisedome; and to frame our spirit upon it let us implore the assistance of his Spirit. After that, moral vertues will become easy to learne, and pleasant to practise. They shall obtaine a good reward in heaven; and in earth work their own recompence.

CHAP. XX. Of the World and Life.

HAving lookt within and about us and be­held the course of the World in its parts, let us now behold it in the great. Which may be done two wayes, Either in the outward scene of mens actions, or in the inward motions of Gods [Page 196]providence that are visible to us in some part. In both these respects the World is incomprehen­sible; in the former for its great variety and con­fusion, in the latter for its infinite deepenesse.

The outward face of the world is a stage of wickednesse, vanity and misery. Wickednesse is universall; for although in Policies there be some face of order and justice, without which no society can subsist; Yet if one looke to the re­ality of the actions and intentions of men, the two great trades of the World are fraud and op­pression. There is a general maxime which eve­ry man denyeth, and every man (in a manner) practiseth, That wisedome consisteth in thri­ving by other mens harmes: Publique and pri­vate contracts, bonds, sureties, and hostages, are fences against that generall inclination, and yet many times are imployed to execute it. All se­curities both by strength and law are grounded upon that Opinion that none abstaines to do harme but he that wants power. In the best composed States governed with most integrity, particular interesse beares the sway, howsoever publique good be pretended. Wherefore that is the best forme of State where the more good the Soveraine Magistrate doth to the publique, the more he advanceth his owne private interess.

Rapine is the universal practise of the World. Whole Nations live of nothing else. Indeed the Europeans follow it with some outward reserved­nesse. [Page 197]There is no lesse wickedness among us then with the Arabians and Moores, but there is more hypocrisy. We do not robbe caravans of Merchants, and take no men upon the Chri­stian coasts to make them slaves, but we suck out their blood and marrow by quillets of law, we overthrow our Country to build our houses with the publique ruines. Phil. 2.21. All seek their owne not the things of the Lord Jesus. We give indeed that respect to piety and vertue that we will be reputed good, but we are afraid to be so. Little scruple is made of unlawfull profit and pleasure, onely care is taken to do ill feats with little noise. The life of the World is a play where every one studieth, not to do his duty re­ally, but to act his part handsomly. I leave out more notorious crimes, because they are emi­nent, and set themselves out by their infamie.

To the wickednesse of the World is joyned vanity weakenesse and folly. For one cunning man there is ten thousand Idiots, whose blind­nesse and rash credulity is a servant to the cove­tousness and ambition of a few crafty dealers. And yet the most crafty are not free of the cap­tivity of custom and superstition, whereby a mans spirit is hooded with errour, and starts at truth and good counsell. The World is a croud of giddy people justling one another, A company of blind people following one another and hold­ing by the cloak them that go next before. If the [Page 198]former fall, so will the others; and it would be thought want of civility to stand when the guides are falling, or to offer to see when all the com­pany is winking, and to refuse to sinne a la mode. Youth is foolish, old age is doting. Orators tell us idle tales with much gravity. To please the people one must deceive them. The vulgar is set in an uproare upon light occasions, and for light reasons pacifyed againe. They leave the substance to runne after the shaddow. Passion not reason makes them turne now to evill now to good; in both the more impetuously, the more weakely. They have some good Opinion of vertue, and esteeme it by hearsay, till it come neere, and then they cannot abide it, labouring to destroy vertu­ous men, and after they are destroyed esteeming them againe, and calling for them when they are no more. Gallants are slaves to other mens Opinions, neglecting the duty for the ceremony, leaving health and conveniency for a conceited decency, living at a venture, and dying at ran­dome.

The life of the World is a false game, where there is perpetual justling out one of another whether it be at great sets, when one nation drives another away by invasion, and one facti­on in the State puts down the contrary; or by playing every one for himselfe, each one catch­ing what and where he can, whosoever be a lo­ser by it.

Out of that hideous confusion a wofull misery must needs follow in the world, where for one winner there are a hundred losers. Man by nature is miserable, composed of a sickly body, & a spirit that is his own tormenter. But as if all that were not enough, he is destroyed by his owne kind. There is but two sorts of men in the World, op­pressours & oppressed; Psal. 74.20. The darke places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty, which is also Solomons contemplation. Eccles. 4.1. I conside­red all the oppressions that are done under the Sun, and beheld the teares of such as were opprest and they had no comforter, and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter. Where­fore I praised the dead, which are already dead, more then the living which are yet alive. Yea better is he then them both which hath not yet bin, who hath not seene the evill work that is done under the Sunne.

This argument of the wickednesse vanity and misery of the world is so ample, so knowne, and so well treated by others that I may excuse my selfe of further insisting upon it. All this is but the exteriour face of the world: But the inward motions, and the secret order of Gods wise con­duct among all that disorder, hath never bin sufficiently considered; though there be enough to be seene on the dyal of that great clock to judge at least of the wisedome of the great work­man, and acknowledge that there is a deepe and divine art in that hidden machine of the counsel­ [...]y, [Page 200]of his providence. A considering eye may mark how both by the concourse and the opposition of so many free, stirring and disorderly agents cer­tain orderly and unavoydable events are produ­ced, determined in Gods eternall decree. How many different ends and intentions which all serve for Gods end. Yea though they be evill, God fetcheth good from them, & turnes them to his glory. Wherefore after we have thoroughly knowne the world as wicked as it is, weak, blind, confused, & turbulent: yet let us acknowledge that all that disorder is usefull, & that among so much evill there is nothing but doeth good. The insolency of some serves to exercise the pati­ence of others and forme them to vertue. Gods indulgence powring plenty into the mouthes that blaspheme him teacheth his children to do good to their enemies, and not to be more hasty then God to see justice executed on the wicked. It is a goodly study to be a disciple of Gods pro­vidence.

Consider how the States of the World are maintained by their own diseases. France is swar­ming with poore and vagrants, and idlenesse is thought there to be essential to gentile blood; but hence it comes that the King gets armies as soon as the drum beats, and is the terrour of his ene­mies and support of his friends, Whilst other States whose policy is so provident as to leave neither poore nor idle person among them, are [Page 201]put to hire souldiers of all nations with great labour and cost, and commit their safety to outlandish and uninterressed souldiers. States as well as wine have need of some lees for their perservation. Among the Turks, Muscovites, and Tartars, the tyrannicall unlimited power of the Soveraine and the blind obedience of the people, keep the State in peace which otherwise would be torne with civil warres. Grosse stupid igno­rance keeps some nations in concord at home; Whilst other nations by their wit and learning are disquieted with endlesse factions. The sa­vage and uncivill humour of some people makes them considerable, and they are respected of all because they respect no body. Many times a State by a forraine invasion, and by divisions at home hath learned to know his strength, and is become warlike and formidable to his neighbours. The naturall want of necessary things in a Country, too little for the many inhabitants, have caused the people to traffique over all the world, and made the abundance of all regions tributary to their vertue. Covetousness penetrates both the Indies, and compasseth the world about like the Sunne, to bring us pearles to hang at the eares of our Mistresses, and pepper to strow over our cucumbers. For that end great companies of Merchants are associated, and the fortunes of Princes and Commonwealthes are ventured in in great Sea-fights. But out of that hazardous [Page 202]folly which certainly is a great disease of the mind, a great bulke of new knowledge in natu­rall things accreweth to the publique stock of learning, and thereby a great gate is open for the propagation of the Gospell. So admirable is Gods providenee, who by small weights setts great wheeles on going, and makes use of the vanity and unsatiable greediness of men to bring neere the remotest parts of the world by the bond of commerce, and advance his Kingdome. Thus among the giddiness of publique commotions, the iniquity of great actions, and the vanity of their motives, the wisedome and goodnesse of the first cause brings under his subjection, the fol­ly and the wickednesse of inferiour agents. Rom. 3.17. Destruction and misery is in their wayes and the wayes of peace they have not knowne: But they are in Gods hand, who will bring all to a good end.

The reason why we complaine of the badness of the time is that we see but one peece of it. But God that beholds with one aspect the whole course of time from its spring in the creation un­to the mouth where that great river disgorgeth itselfe into the Sea of eternity, seeth that all which seemeth evill by parcells is good when all parts are taken together. And not onely he beholds it, but he conducts it most wisely, and to that wise conduct we must humbly leave the rectifying of all that seemes amiss to us in the [Page 203]course of the times. It is a great comfort to our mind, and a great help to our judgement in pub­lique disorders and private crosses, that we may be certaine that God is an agent above all agents in all things, even in the worst, which he makes instruments; to some of his justice, to others of his bounty, to all of his wisedome.

Among so much evill yet there is some vertue in the world, and where it is not obeyed yet it is respected. If the torrent of the perversity of the time becomes so rapid that good men cannot row against it to any preferment, it will never barre them from all havens of retreat; and to force them to a retreat many times it is to compell them to their good and rest; for as they are fur­ther from the favour of great men, they are freer also from their factions. During the tempest one may sleep at the noise of the waves. There is no place so unsafe and full of trouble, but the God of peace may bee found in it; And they that trust in him, repose themselves safe and quiet under his wing. The world shall ne­ver be so wicked and so contrary to good men but that they may do good to the world against its will.

One thing must make us looke kindly upon this world, that it is the Hall of Gods house, where we waite expecting to be advanced to Gods presence; and all things that happen to us in this life helpe to bring us to that Land of Pro­mise. [Page 204]All creatures not corrupted by sinne speak to us of God. Yea every thing, good and bad, gives us matter to lift up our thoughts unto God. Nature smiles upon them that love God. Then his law directs us, His promises comfort us, He guides us by his Spirit. He covers us by his providence. He shewes us from above the prize kept for us at the end of the race. By which meanes we are lesse weary of the world then they that ground their hopes upon it. And after we have balanced with a calme judgement the good and evil that is in the world, we finde that the world goeth better with the good then with the bad; life cannot be very bad, if it be a mans voyage to God.

CHAPTER I. That the right Government of Passions depends of right Opinion.

THe right employment of a Christian Philosopher that will have peace at home is to calme the tumult of Passi­ons. For the sensitive Appetite is in the soule as the common people in a State. It is the dregs and the lowest part of the spirit, that hath a neere affinity with the outward sense, greedy, rash, tumultuous, prone to discontent and munity. Reason in a mans soul holds the place of a Soveraine, which many times is ill o­beyed. She is like the coachman, and the Passi­ons like the horses, fierce and hardmouthed, pul­ling hard against the bridle, which many times they pluck out of her hands.

Of this a cause is given, which is natural and good. That the first yeares of life before a man be capable of the use of reason are altogether under the empire of the Appetite, which being used to [Page 206]rule doth not willingly become a subject to Rea­son, when age and instruction awake that higher faculty; and in many that rebellion holds till they be farre gone in their life, or to the very end. Wherefore it will be a wise part to tame the opiniatre appetite of children, beginning at the first yeare of their life, to teach their eager will to bee denyed. He that was used to yeeld to his Nurse, hath already taken a ply of obe­dience, and will more readily bow to reason when age brings it.

That tender age breeds another cause of the disobedience of Passions to right reason: That the childs judgement is dyed with false Opinions of the objects which his appetite imbraceth. For in the age when the Appetite is sole regent in the soul, the Fancy and the Memory are filled with images proportionate to the outward appearance, making the child take all that is guilded for mas­sy gold, all glittering things for precious, and feathers and sugar plums for the Soveraigne good. Which first imaginations, being some­what cleared of their grossest fogge by age and experience, yet leave these false notions in the minde, that things are within such as they ap­peare without: and that wealth gallantry and the pleasure of the taste, are the best things of the world; Opinions which presently prove seeds of covetuousnesse ambition and luxury, which in short time (as all ill woedes) will grow [Page 207]strong and fill the soul with trouble and misery.

Then the first, yea the onely course to free the Appetite of vicious Passions, is to heale the un­derstanding of erroneous Opinions. The Appe­tite cannot but goe astray when the understand­ing is blind. When the understanding is free of error, the Appetite is free of Vice. For al­though many times Passion runne into disorder contrary to the light of the understanding, that never hapens but when the understanding hath consented for a while to some false opinion se­duced by flattery of Passion, that stroakes him and puts her hand before his eyes; for it is im­possible for the Appetite to embrace that which Reason seeth and pronounceth to be altogether evill.

The great error of the understanding, which makes the passion to apply it selfe to an evill ob­ject, or to a good object otherwise then it should, is a mistake in the true price & true inconveni­ence of things; Which being once well knowne, we shall bate much of our desire & feare of most things which we seek or avoid with great ear­nestnesse, and shall become earnest to get other things which we neglect, and to avoid other things which we desire.

I have endeavored in my second Book to repre­sent the just price of the chief things that we com­monly esteem & desire, & the true inconvenience of things that we disesteeme or feare. But because [Page 208]it would be an endlesse labour to treat of all the severall objects of our Passions, I will but recom­mend to every person that loves the cleerenesse and tranquillity of his mind, never to set his love and desire upon any thing, before a mature con­sideration of what it is and what it is worth, and never to be angry or sorry for any thing before we hath calmly & leasurely examined whether it be evill, and if so, then in what measure; weighing as carefully and impartially the qua­lities and circumstances that contradict our in­clination as those that contribute towards it. Thus he that delights in a glasse must remember well that it is a glasse; & after he hath sufficiently considered the purenesse of the matter and the handsomenesse of the fashion, he must consider also that it is brittle stuffe, and that it will last but till the next knock; So shall he learne to love it according to its true price, and no more; his love will last no longer then the glasse, and when it is broken he will say, I knew before that it was a glasse.

Thus also to love and desire a deare person as much as it is fit, and no more, we must well con­sider her nature and just value; And when Passi­ons will overvalue her with Idea's of perfection above her just size, Reason will bate of it, saying, With al this perfection she is a humane creature, and therefore faulty, mutable and mortal, and as such I must desire her before I have her, cherish [Page 209]her when I have her, and mourne for her when she is taken from me. Let us proportion our af­fection to the quality of the subject, and we shall love it as we ought.

Thus for other Passions, right Opinion is the moderator. It keeps feare from increasing dan­gers, pride and rashnesse from lessening them, ha­tred and choller from making our enemies ap­peare more deformed and guilty then they are, sadnesse from aggravating evils, joy from disap­pointment of false hopes. In a word, right opi­nion is the faithfull guide of the appetite, the rule of equity, the preserver of tranquillity.

But because when the objects shew themselves the violent commotion of the passion, without warrant from the judgement many times will shake reason from right Opinion; it must be studied upon, when the mind is at rest, and rea­son confirmed in it by long and carefull institu­tion, and strengthened by holy resolution.

The first thing of which we must have a right opinion, is God: Not to presume to comprehend the Incomprehensible, but to have a reverend beleefe of his goodness, justice, power, and wise­dome, of his constancy in his promises and love; and of his eyes ever open and bent towards [...] both to keep us & to take notice of our thoughts, words, actions, and affections.

The next thing of which we must be carefull to get a right opinion is our selves, to know our [Page 210]owne strength, that we repose not a groundless trust upon it, and to marke the weakest places of our soules, and those avenues by which tempta­tions set upon our passion, that there we may double our guard.

Then we must endeavour to get a right opini­on of the course of the world, the genius of the times, and the nature of men and businesses, par­ticularly of those men that we must converse with, and of the businesses that concerne us. Of those things also that use to flatter or fright our Passion, lest we bee more moved to get or a­voyd them then they are worth, and lest we neglect them if they be worth seeking or shun­ning.

Thus in matter of seeking Preferment we must think soberly before, whether it be worth the ne­cessary paines to get it, and whether it will re­compense the cares, the envy, and the opposi­tion that attend it. The like when we are temp­ted by unlawfull profit and pleasure, the advan­tage that is hoped by it must be calmely weighed with the disadvantage of displeasing God and troubling our conscience. And so when anger sets us upon revenge, we must endeavour to get the right Opinion of the use of revenge, what comfort, what benefit it may bring, and whether meeknesse & pardon of the offence for Gods sake be not more capable and likely to bring us con­tent and real utility.

It is an old and a wise counsel to make a pause every time that we feele some strong commotion in our appetite, to give time to reason to consi­der of it. That pause must be employed to scat­ter all the clouds that Passion spreads before the eyes of the understanding, and help reason to recover the sight of right Opinion, that we may obey that wise and rational command of the Lord Jesus John 7.24. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement.

CHAP. II. Entry into the discourse of Passions.

MY end is to bring Passions under the obe­dience of right reason, not to describe ex­actly their nature. A task where Naturalists come short of performance; And no wonder, since they take a subject in hand where reason seeth nothing, as if one would make an Anatomie in the darke; for in nothing is our soul so blind as in the composure of herselfe: Yea the truest na­tural contemplation of Passions is of no great use to governe them: What doth it concern him that studyeth the moderation and the right use of Passions to know that Joy comes by dilatation of the spirits, Sadnesse by contraction of the same, Love by diffusion, Hope by elevation? For my part because I seeke utility, I will be more care­full to finde the morall counsels by which Passi­ons [Page 212]are moderated, then the natural wayes by which they are moved. And if in the fol­lowing discourse of Passions I keepe not exactly the order and number received in the Schooles, or treate of some mixt Passion among the simple, it will not be out of singularity, but because I understand not perfectly those distinctions.

The first thing to be considered about Passion is whether we must have any, or utterly destroy it, as the Stoicians and Epicureans would do. This question, whether we may have Passion with vertue, is as if one asked whether there may be wooll with cloth, for Passion is the stuffe of Vertue, and Vertue is but a passion wisely mo­derated: If there were no Passion there would be no vertue. If then the Passion be sick, it must be healed, not slaine, and much lesse must it be slaine when it is in health lest it fall sick.

It may be sayd for the Philosophers that would cut off or rather root out Passion, that it is an er­rour that doth little harme: for man being na­turally too passionate we must pull to the con­trary extreme to bring him to a vertuous mode­ration; for after we have rooted it out as much as may be, there will remaine still too much of it.

Beasts have also their Passions, and by them men are allyed with beasts. But the Appetite of the beast is meerly sensual, the appetite of man is partly sensual partly intellectual. Passions may be marshalled into three orders, according [Page 213]to the three principall faculties of the soul; The inferiour order is of them that are onely in the sensitive Appetite, and have their motions for the body onely, as hunger and thirst; Over these reason hath lesse power, for she cannot perswade him that is hungry not to be so, but she may re­tard the satisfaction of the appetite.

Other Passions are lodged in a higher storie, and seeme to be seated in the Imagination, as the Passion that one hath for curiosities and images of perfection increased by the desire. These are more capable to be ruled by reason.

The third and highest order is of intellectual passions, as the love of learning and contempla­tion. These are more immediately in the power of reason. It is the part of reason to forme and moderate those passions which are meerely under her jurisdiction, and keepe a short bridle to those passions that are moved without her leave, by nature, chance, or fancy.

As in a well governed kingdome all is done by the King, the faculties of the soul must be kept in such order that within us all be done by Reason: When that Soveraine is wise and well obeyed, peace is in the inward State of man. But when the Soveraine is made subject to his natural Subjects, the sensual Passions; then the soule is like a body with the heeles upward, and the whole policy of the mind is turned upside downe.

Being to speake of the Passions as the winds [Page 214]that stirre and tosse that inward sea of the soule, I must also speake of the Vertues that serve to represse them. Not to treate of each severally and prolixely, but to bring them to action, and to minister to every Passion its proper remedy.

CHAP. III. Of Love.

LOve is the first of all Passions, and the cause of most part of them. It is the motion of the soule towards objects that promise rest and con­tenument. By Love men are good or evill happy or unhappy, as that Passion is applyed to good or evill objects.

In every soule there is a Master-love which beares rule over all the other Passions and sub­jecteth them to its principal object. According to the quality of that object, love is perfect or unper­fect, for as the objects of the sight change in some sort the apple of the eye into their colour and shape, so by receiving the image of the beloved object into our soule, our soule is transformed into it, and wedded to its qualities. He that loves a sordid thing becomes sordid. Doth any love his hounds with that principal love? his soule be­comes of the same quality as his hounds. He that loveth a high object becomes high by that love. He that loveth God the soveraine good receiveth the soveraine good into his soule.

Many causes contribute to the contentment of minde but the chiefe cause of it is a worthy love. And it may be truly sayd that neither in heaven nor in earth any thing is pleasant and contenting but Love. God himselfe is love, saith St Iohn, 1. Ioh. 4.16. And I conceive (as much as a finite mind dares conceive of the infinite God) that in the substantial love embracing the three persons of the Godhead consisteth both their personal union and their felicity.

I have spoken before of the vertue of love which unites us with God, and shewed that it is mans great duty and soverain felicity. And here­after I must speake of the Christian love due to our neighbours which is called charity; and of the love of society which is friendship. In all these relations love is a vertue, either acquisite or infused. But here wee consider it as a natural Passion, which yet wee must endeavour to raise to a vertue, and for that wee cannot but returne againe to the love of God.

The most natural love is the love of the sexe. A Passion meerely sensual, and common to men with beasts. And yet it is that Passion which keepes the greatest stirre in mans heart and in the world. That love softeneth magnanimous spirits, and drawes downe the soule from the heaven of holy meditation to the dregs of the matter. But for that Passion, a man might come to a degree of Angelical purity in this world. Wherefore there [Page 214] [...] [Page 215] [...] [Page 216]is great need to learne how to represse it. To roote it out (if one could find in his heart to doe it) would be destroying nature, and resisting the ordinance of God, who gave that inclination to all animals for the propagation of their kind. But because God gave also reason to men above other animals, and his knowledge to Christians above other men; the love of the Sexe hath need to be led by a better guide then Nature, else it is bru­tish, and that which is innocent in beasts is vici­ous in men. By it men instead of the pleasure which they hunt after so hotly, find sadnes, re­morse, infamy, destruction of body soule and estate. It is a feareful sentence that no whoremon­ger nor uncleane person hath any inheritance in the kingdome of Christ and of God. Ephes. 5.5.

It is a criminal & deplorable folly to turne into a snare of damnation that volupty which the in­dulgence of the wise creatour hath given to all animals to invite them to the continuation of themselves in their posterity; and to climb up at the window with perill to steale pleasure with crime, whilest marriage opens the doore to it, unto which God, men, honesty, duty, utility, and facility, invite us.

Love altogether carnal doth not affect the per­son but the pleasure, unless by the person a mans­selfe be understood. Love of beauty is love of onesselfe, not of the desired person, since beauty is desired for pleasure. When that love of the [Page 217]sexe is joyned with a true affection to the person, and that affection grounded in vertue, and en­couraged with mutual love, then love and friend­ship meete and increase one another; And if mar­riage followeth, it may prove the greatest of tem­poral contentments.

But as in unlawfull love there is need of conti­nence to refraine it, so in the lawful there is need of temperance to moderate it. Temperance is the preserver of love, & of pleasure also; Both are lost by excesse. As the flame of a taper turned upside downe is quencht by the substance that feeds it, so love goeth out by too much plenty of aliment. But though love and pleasure could maintaine themselves in the excesse, neither body nor mind losing any thing of their vigour, yet there would be more losse then gaine in it; for fervent passion troubleth the serenitie of the soul, and any thing that subjecteth the understanding to the appetite degradeth the soule of her excellency, especially when the appetite is meerely sensual.

Because in conjugal life two loves meete, the love of the sexe, and the love of society, It will be a wise course, to tye the last with all the bonds of benevolence. These bonds are piety, sweet con­versation, tender care of the beloved person, pa­tience to beare with her infirmities, and a little winking not to see all that might diminish love, omitting nothing to make the best of a bargaine which cannot be undone. That indissoluble knot [Page 218]which unto fooles makes marriage a heavy yoake, is unto the wise a helpe to contentment, for by that necessity they are taught to love what they must love, & to seeke their delight in their duty.

The greatest fervour of love is not in matrimony, for there one hath alwayes at hand wherewith to coole his thirst; nor in unlawfull lust, where also one knowes how to allay his heat, though with the detriment of his conscience; but in woing, & in longing desires tending to mariage. That heat is increased by the lawfulnes of the end, and the suggestion of a bewitched reason unto the consci­ence, that one that loveth honestly cannot love too much: And if that heat meet with opposition, it increaseth againe by difficulty, and often there is more love where there is lesse hope. Quó que minùs sperat, hôc magis ille cupit. Passion will frame in a mans fancy an advantageous image of the beloved object which stands continually before him; ap­pears to him in dreames, breakes his sleepe, inter­rupts his best thoughts, and his most important businesses, makes his spirit a sea in perpetual agi­tation; and his most quiet intervalls are sadnes and a browne study. The worst is, that God is for­gotten, and the love of heaven is put out by the love of the world.

Many not onely of the vulgar sort but of the bravest mindes having split their ship upon this rock, there is need of extraordinary care to avoyd it. So much greater, because our Christian Philo­sophers [Page 219]have taken lesse care to appropriate their remedies to this sicknesse; for when they inveigh against carnal and vicious love, those lovers who are persuaded that their love is all vertuous, be­cause they would not though they could, unlaw­fully possesse the beloved person, esteeme that these censures belong not to them: And yet, God knoweth that their love is too carnal, though they were virgins in their very thoughts, for even the immoderate love of a mother to her child is car­nal and vicious.

They need then to be put in mind that their love cannot be pure in the quality, as long as it exceeds in the quantity, excesse of love for a worldly object being a most impure quality; for that Master-love which rules in the soul and brings all other Passions under, is due unto God alone, who will be loved with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our understanding. This the Lord Jesus calls the first and the great commandement. The great, because it is the chiefe duty of man, which comprehends all other duties. And the first, be­cause it is a comment upon the first precept of the law, Thou shalt have none other Gods but me. As then we must adore none but God alone, we must love none but God alone with that Master­love which gives to another the soverainty over ourselves; for that love is a true adoration, whereby all the faculties of the soul bow and [Page 220]prostrate themselves before the beloved object. When carnall love is the Master-love in a soul, then the soul hath another God then the true God; and that Passion makes a burnt-offering of the heart to a false God, some weake sinfull creature. Certainly those impetuous burning fits of carnal love are violent rapines of the proper rights of God, for to him belongeth the heart, and upon him those raptures and strong agitations of love should have beene bestowed; him onely we ought to love with all our soul and with all our strength. O how farre are these vi­olences from those which must take the King­dome of God by force! And how many teares and plaints of smarting remorse must fond lovers powre, to doe penance for so many teares and plaints of carnal love, that opinatre imbecillity, whereby a man pines and torments himselfe for the love of another!

Sometimes these two sorts of teares proceed­ing out of such different causes have met together in generous and religious soules, who being transported with those violences of humane love were at the same time strongly moved with god­ly jealousy, the conscience grieving and expo­stulating with the Appetite for yeelding unto any but God the seignory of the heart: Then the love of God opprest in the heart under the weight of the world and the flesh, powerfully bestirred himselfe, and getting strength by op­position [Page 221]overcame that rivall love, and became in the end Master of the place.

But alas, one victory doth not end the com­bat; For carnal love, when we think that it is shut out, will re-enter, having the porters of the soul, the senses, on his side, which open the gate to its objects without the leave of reason, and help it to make strong impressions upon the fan­cy; Whereas the immaterial beauty of God hath no help from the senses, & makes no impres­sion upon the imagination; but in recompense it doth immediately illuminate the understand­ing and work upon the affections, and so sancti­fyeth and strengtheneth them, that after many combats, carnall love is subdued; And if it pleade nature for staying with us, yet it is brought to such a subjection that it moveth no more but orderly, and within the limits of piety and rea­son, possessing but such a parcel of the affection as it pleaseth the love of God to allow nature to hold under him.

The limits and rules of reason about the choice of the subject of that love are possibility, law­fullnesse, and conveniency. The measure of love must be according to the price of the subject. But when it comes to wedlock another measure is requisite, that of oblgiation and duty; before wedlock, love is prone to overvalue his subject: Let lovers remember that the most perfect per­sons are humane creatures, therefore a humane [Page 223]love is fit for them, not a divine service; for then we serve them as God alone must be served, when we make them Mistrisses of our heart, Take the best of them, their beauty will fade, their sweetnesse will sowre, and their persons must dye; this bates much of their price. Faire Diamonds would not be so deare, if they could grow pale and weare out. Know once the most lovely persons, you shall not admit them to com­petition with God for the possession of your heart.

Love aspireth to perfection. He then must be beloved above all things who makes them per­fect that love him. It is more then Ladies can do, though never so perfect. But by loving God who is the soveraine perfection, we become like him in our measure and are changed into the same image.

And since delight is the baite of love, we must love him above all things that satisfyeth us with true delight. Psal. 16.12. God in whose presence is fulnesse of joy, at whose right hand there are plea­sures for evermore. Carnall love makes the heart sick. It is sullen, fantasticall and tumultuous. It conceives great hopes of content and comes short of them; It gives for one pleasure a thousand sor­rowes. But the love of God is a continuall en­joyment, a constant peace, a solid joy; and if sometimes one suffer for him, he repayes for one sorrow a thousand pleasures.

Many lovers of beauties are not beloved of them. But who so loveth God must be sure that God loves him. Yea that God loved him before he loved God; the love which he beares to God is an effect of the love which God beares to him. And is it not a great encouragement to love, when one is sure to be accepted and beloved a­gaine? That subject which onely deserves to be loved with all our heart is easy to be wonne to a mutual love: Other objects of our love, be­ing infinitely under that prime subject, are farre more difficult to winne.

Our love of God is not crost with absence as the carnall. For him we fetch no unheard sighes, and shead no unseen teares. God is alwayes neare them that sigh for him, and puts up their teares in his bottle. Psal. 56. The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him. He travelleth with them a­broad, He keepes house with them, yea in them; He sweetens their griefes, he answereth not only then words but their very thoughts.

Many times we love them that can do us no good, though they love us; many times also we are impoverished by the love wee beare them. But our love to God makes us rich, for it gets al­ready possession of God, who is the Author of all good gifts. Psal. 36.10. With him is the fountaine of life, and in his light we see light. To love him is to raise ourselves to soveraine honour and fe­licity.

Briefly if one will have favours, gratious countenance, sweet individuall company, pos­session, enjoyment, fullnesse of joy for ever, let him turne the point of his love heavenwards. Divine love will make him good and happy in the highest degree. These benefits are not to be expected of carnal love. A sicknesse which is the same in the appetite as a fever is in the blood, sometimes in a cold, somtimes in a hot fit. It is a perpetuall ebbe & flow of feare and hope, and it cannot but be continually shaking and wavering, since it pinnes the felicity of a man upon another, who hath not felicity, enflaming his heart to a subject weaker many times, and more necessi­tous then himselfe.

And if these inconveniences be found in the honestest love of the sexe, how much more in the unlawfull and unchast love?

Of this sicknesse the most usuall but not the best remedy is to drive out one Mistresse with a­nother; but the way to get liberty is not to change service. In stead of getting out of the storme in­to a harbour, they are tossed from one rock to a­nother. He then that will expell one love by a­nother love, must betake himselfe to a love that may change his servitude into liberty, which the love of God will afford, and none else. So the grand remedy of carnall love is to exercise our­selves in the love of God, and gladly to consider what a sacrilegious part it is to erect a little idol [Page 225]of our sensuall appetite in our heart which is Gods Sanctuary, and what a hainous rebellion it is to chuse another Master then God.

Thence (without an extraordinary mercy of God) one of these two evills will follow. Either God, jealous that we love another more then him to whom all our love is due, crosseth our de­signes, and makes us misse that which we sought after with so much eagernesse: Or, in a greater indignation he gives us that which we preferre before him, and whence we expect our highest happinesse, which afterwards turnes into bitter­nesse and ruine. You shal see many impetuous corrivals, suitors of an evill woman, as fishes justling one another, striving for a mortall bayte; The strongest and most unfortunate driveth he other away, and by taking is taken and destroy­ed. Solomon who had but too much experience in this matter gives this account of it. Eccles. 5.26. I find more bitter then death the Woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands. Who so pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sin­ner shall be taken by her. Women might say little less of men. There is no cheat, no witchcraft, com­parable to that of carnall love, neither is there any thing that workes sadder effects. Of which the most ordinary is, the loss of the tranquillity of the soul. A losse not to be recompensed by all the love-pleasures that lust can suggest to the imagi­nation.

No Passion sinnes more against that rule truly Christian and Philosophical, to dwell at home, and not to seek our content out of ourselves, which is the same thing as to seeke it in God, for in God is our true being, and God is found with­in us, if we have the grace to seeke him there, as we ought. But carnall love makes a man to seeke all contentment out of God and out of himselfe, so that he is never at home, alwayes abroad, and alwayes under the power of o­thers.

Neither doeth any other Passion so enormously transgresse in the two extreames, both to over­value and undervalue the price of things. For a lover will raise the price of the beloved object above Nature and possibility; and together cast away his estate, his honour, his conscience, and hazard his life, as things of no account, to get that idolized object.

It were a wonder if young people, being all naturally enclined to that burning fever did not get it after so much paines taken to bring them to it. For how many bookes are written for that very end? How many amorous fables, which to write and to reade is the busines of them that have none? There young men are taught, that ver­tue consisteth in being passionate beyond all ex­tremity, and that great feats of armes and high fortunes and atchievments are onely for lovers. There maides learne to be desperately in love, [Page 227]disembling, proud, and bloody, and to beleeve that all is due to their supremacy, seing in those bookes the world torne with warres by the jea­lousy of some Princes lovers and rivals, and many thousands of mens lives sacrificed to the faire eyes of a Lady. There also they learne to be crafty Mistresses and ill wives; they have need to learne obedience, but in these bookes they learne soverainty. Women being more given to these bookes then men, shew that though they have lesse fougve of love then men, they have neverthelesse a more constant inclination to it.

Who so will keepe himselfe holy in body and affection and preserve his soule serene and free from the tempest of that turbulent Passion, must avoid the reading of such bookes whose proper office is to raise those stormes in a mans blood and appetite. And I know not whether it be more dangerous to reade dissolute bookes which make of carnal love a jigg and a matter of sport, openly shewing the ordure and the folly of it; or dolefull amorous fables which make of it a grave and serious study, and under the colour of honesty and constancy of love, managed with an artifi­cial and valourous carriage, hoodwinke and be­witch the readers minde with a pertinacious Pa­ssion, making their braines runne wilde after chimera's and hollow imaginations, whereby some have runne mad. Indeed one cannot follow the fancies of romances without straying from [Page 228]right sense; Neither is there any thing that makes the heart more worldly and carnal, and brings it further from God. I will be judged by all good soules that would betake themselves to exercises of piety, when they were newly come from this kind of reading, Let them say in conscience how farre estranged from God they found themselves, and ill disposed to every good worke.

Sure it is not without reason that these writers set up false Gods, as being conscious to themselves that their writings are deviations from the true God, and ashamed to name the God of truth a­mong their fables. Also because with some of them, it is a prime piece of love-complement to make discontented lovers to wreake their anger upon the Deity, they will have this excuse ready, that they are not blasphemies against the true God, but against the gods of Homer and Hesiod's making. But from these blasphemous expostula­tions with false gods the readers learne to doe the like with the true, and to avenge themselves upon him of all things that cross their impetuous Passion. The same bookes set up the murtherous discipline of duells, as a gallantry of love, wherby lovers seale their affection to their mistresses by the blood of their rivals or their owne.

There are other matches of the wilde fire of carnal love which must be carefully avoyded, wanton discourses, vicious companies, occasions to doe evil, conversation with vaine malicious [Page 229]women whose chiefe aime and taske is to catch all the men that come in their way, not that they may keep them, but triumph over them, and cast them away, and feed their owne vanity with the disappointment of their suitors.

Take heed of idlenes, it is Satans pillow, the counsellour of vice, and especially the procurer of lust. He that doeth nothing, thinkes on evill. Take heed of intemperance. Carnal love is so in­bred with the matter, that whatsoever heateth the blood sets the appetite on fire. Wherefore Jeremiah sets intemperance and incontinence to­gether, Jer. 5.8. They were as fed horses in the morn­ing, every one neighed after his neighbours wife.

There be two great remedies to take downe that heate, The one corporal which is mariage, instituted by God for that end, a holy and honou­rable state: When both the parties are good, and love one another, it is the greatest sweetenes of life. But whether a man be married or desire to be, he must think on the vanity and short con­tinuance of the most pleasant things of this world, the frailty of life, the certainty of death, the un­certainty of the hour; thence to inferre the con­clusion of St Paul, 1. Cor. 7.29. But this I say, bre­thren, that the time is short, It remaines that they that have wives be as they that have none, And so they that are woing must be as though they were not woing; that is they must impose moderation upon [Page 230]their affections out of a wise apprehension of the vanity of the world and life, ver. 31. using this world as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world pa­sseth away. Wherefore should wee love with so much fervency that which wee cannot keepe when wee have got it, which we must leave, or which must leave us?

The other duty is Spiritual, and it is that great and perpetual duty to Love God. Let that holy Passion alwayes rule in our hearts. Let us give to God his proper right, which he demandeth in his word, Pro. 25.26. My sonne give me thy heart, and let us keep such a watchfull guard about it that none steale it from him and us.

Our love to a worthy Consort being so mode­rated will become both lawfull & pleasant. Hu­mane condition hath nothing so delightfull as a reciprocal love: Yea of all things to which mans will doth contribute, it is the onely pleasant thing. But, as navigable rivers enrich a country with commerce and plenty, when they keepe within their shores, but ruine it when they overflow with a violent landflood: Likewise, love while it keepes within limits, brings pleasure and utility; when it exceeds them, it brings displeasure and destruction.

Love that is not reciprocal will weare away in time. But a wise man will shorten the worke of time with reason, and will not obstinately court a person that will not love him. For of what price [Page 231]soever she be, in our regard she is of no price if she be not for us. Wee must love our enemies, but wee must let them alone.

CHAP. IV. Of Desire.

DEsire hath a neere kinred with love, for it is the motion of the appetite towards the belo­ved object; This is the difference, that Love regar­deth the present, Desire aspireth to the future.

Some desires are natural, some besides nature. Natural desires are good and easily satisfied, as long as they keepe within their mounds, the first whereof is nature, then reason to rule nature, and piety to rule reason. But wee must take heed of mistaking corrupted nature for pure. Pure nature is contented with little, but corrupted nature runs to excesse and embaseth natural desites with the allay of desires besides nature. It is natural for a man to desire a woman, but it is besides nature that he will have her so noble and so rich; that he increaseth the desired object with imagination, and kindleth his passion by difficulty. It is natural to desire meate, drink, clothing, but it is besides nature to desire great feasts, gay garments, and costly buildings.

Reason, indeed, was given us to embellish and inrich nature, but Reason (if it be well taught) wil in all occasions make use of nature to rule the [Page 232]desire, and teach it, that besides Nature there can be no necessity. Thus if your coach breake farre from the towne, instead of grieving and fretting, remember that Nature did not give you legs to sit in a coach, and that it is not necessary for you to be carryed, as long as you can goe. If you be repulsed in the pursuite of an Office, remember that God made you not a Treasurer or a Coun­sellor of state, but a man; and that to discharge the Office of man worthily, there is no need to be a Treasurer or a Counsellour of State. Apply this to all the crosses whereby your desire is opposed, you shall finde in nature lessons of reason and piety to rule it, and keep every where tranquilli­ty of mind.

But when a man makes no account of the li­mits of nature, and the Appetite takes licence to desire as much as it can, the whole world be­comes too little for him. Nature hath bounds, but ambitious desire hath none. If a lustfull greedy tyrannicall man had as much power as desire, he would violate the honesty of all handsome women, and crush all the Empires of the uni­verse, no mans life could scape his anger, God himselfe should not be safe in heaven. There are many such men in the world; But the world may praise God that those that have the vastest desire have the shortest power, and are kept by necessity within their limits of nature, even when their ambition most licentiously [Page 233]transgresseth those limits. An idle wisher will lye raving in his bed, raising his greedy thoughts by many steps of imaginary conquests as high as the crown of China; and then seriously delibe­rate whether he must make warre upon the Tartar or Japan; till he be suddenly called downe by his need from the height of his imperiall pro­jects to the low care of raising the wooll of his old thredbare cloak, and spinning the coorse re­liques of his Sunday-dinner to save him from the shambles till the middle of the week. Prov. 13.4. The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing.

Need doth not so much breed greedinesse, as greedinesse need; For need many times limiteth greedinesse, and keepes the Appetite busy about things necessary and neere hand; but whereso­ever there is greedinesse, there is need, even in the midst of plenty. A great King invading his neighbours Province thereby confesseth himself needy, since he hath not enough of his owne. So long as a man doth not reckon what he hath, but what he would have, he never hath his recko­ning; for when he hath what he would he would have more, and all that he hath not is wanting to him; yea he wants even that which he hath, since he hath no satisfaction in it.

This evill being wisely managed may prove a remedy to itselfe. For the insatiablenesse of mans desire, helps us to these two thoughts. The one that all that the world affords is too [Page 234]little for man, since it cannot satisfie his desire. The other, that, among that corruption, an image of Gods infinity is shining; for mans desire is in­finite, and nothing lesse then infinity, which is God himselfe, can satisfie him. These thoughts ought to breed a resolution in us, not to labour any more in vaine to fill our infinite desire with things finite and inferiour unto us, but to raise it to the infinite good, as onely adequate to it, and the onely object where we may finde infinite sa­tisfaction. They, and they onely must expect sa­tisfaction of their desire, that may say after Isaiah, Isaia. 26.8. In the way of thy judgements O Lord have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

Let us looke lower. For as long as we live in this house of flesh, we have inferiour desires for the use of the flesh. Natural desires are formed upon the information of the senses; let us take good heed that upon their naturall information we forme not desires beyond nature, but let us proportionate our desires to the true and simple information of our senses, not to the false tale of our imagination, swelled and besotted by our greedinesse. For the appetite and the imaginati­on, helpe to cozen one onother. The turbulent ap­petite stretcheth the imagination, and the imagi­nation thus stretched presents to the appetite greater images then the naturall.

As in the clay upon the potters wheele if you [Page 235]trace a small circle it will stretch and grow wider as the wheele turnes and the clay spreads; likewise, a little image of the desired object tra­ced by the common sense in the imagination will grow as the imagination is dilated by the agitation of the desire. Hence it is that the first impression that the fancy receiveth of an ordina­ry beauty becomes in short time the Idea of a more then humane perfection; and the splen­dor of a gawdy equipage and attendance, ha­ving caused an agitation in the desire, is soone imagined much greater then it is.

But as in popular rumors which are growing as they runne, the first relator must be examined; likewise, to know the true state of things, of which the imagination & the appetite increasing one another make so much noise and shew, we must examine the first relator, the outward sense, to undeceive the overheated desire by an infor­mation in cold blood. It is true, that the senses perceiving nothing but the outward shew will make sometimes a disadvantageous report of the objects, but when they stirre not the desire, but misinforme the imagination which doth the like to the judgement, whereby the object ap­peares evill, contemptible, or lesse desirable then it is indeed. Wherefore I would not trust altogether the report of the senses, but so examine them by reason that the soul be not seduced by the report imputed unto them. And indeed this [Page 236]wil be no small prevailing over the appetite, if we can bring it to desire the things that truly belong to the senses, by no other Idea then that of their simple report, so shall we limit the meerely sen­suall desires, according to Nature.

But because this might be thought an austere rule to keepe-in the desire within the limits pure­ly naturall, something must be yeelded to cu­stome and conveniency; Let the desire be allowed to walk a little beyond these limits of Nature, but so led by the bridle of piety and reason, that it make no wild escape. Let us desire things just, facile, neerehand, and inviting our hope, not trou­bling ourselves about things remote and difficult.

To stay our desires, we must stay our thoughts before, and weane our minds of that false popular opinion, that thoughts are free; for it is the licentiousnesse of thoughts, that makes the desire licentious. He that permitteth to himselfe to think what he should do with a hundred thousand pounds a yeare, if he had them, will not be long ere he desire to have so much. He that consulteth what women he should choose if it were lawfull and possible for him to keep as many as the Turke hath in his Seraglio, will pre­sently wish it possible though it were not law­full; and this fancy will set his appetite on fire; Evill thoughts are next neighbours to evill desires; there is but one step betweene. He that will keep himselfe from an infamous house must not take the lodging at the next dore.

The best way to satisfie the desire of temporal things is to abridge it; A counsel comprehending these two, Not to depend of the future, and to be content with little for the present: Both are effects of an entire confidence in Gods goodnes and pro­vidence. Of not depending upon the future I shall have several occasions to speake hereafter. To be contented with little is an unspeakable treasure. That way one may with much ease get plenty, which a covetous man cannot get by heapes of money scraped up with a greedy labour. He that desires onely what he can have, obtaines easily what he will have; And he that desires nothing but what pleaseth God, hath obtained it already, All things smile on him because he receives all things at the hand of God, whom he knowes to be good and wise. Little and much are all one to him, for both serve alike for contentment, as it pleaseth God to extend a blessing upon it. Let us apply this to the three principal desires that cause so much tumult and disorder in the world, Cove­tousnes, Ambition, and Voluptuousnes.

CHAP. V Of Desire of Wealth and Honour.

What I have sayd of wealth and honours will persuade any man of good sense that they are not satisfying objects of a mans desire, & therefore not to be eagerly followed. It is our [Page 238]Saviours consequence, Luk. 12.15. Take heed and beware of covetousnes, for mans life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth: It is also St Johns consequence, who forbids us to love the world and the things that are in it, because the world passeth away; 1 Joh. 2. These are two powerfull reasons to moderate the desire of the things of this world, drawne from their nature: The one that they are not necessary, the other that they are transitory: And yet the covetous and ambitious seeke after them as if life consisted in them, or they were to endure for ever. Which they cannot thus desire without turning their affection from the onely necessary and permanent thing which is God; Matth. 6.24. You cannot serve God and Mammon, saith the Lord Iesus. For as when a channel is cut for a river in a ground lower then her bed, all the water will fall where it finds a slope, and leaves her former channel dry. Likewise the desire of man, whose true channel is the love of God, will turne the whole affection of the soule towards low earthly things when that slope descent of co­vetousnes and ambition is made in the heart, and nothing is left for God.

For it is improperly spoken that a man pretend­ing to great worldly honours is aspiring too high; Rather he is stooping too low, for the most pre­cious things of the world, yea and the whole world, are very much under the excellency of mans soule, and more yet below the dignity of [Page 239]Gods children. Who so then enslaveth his soule of heavenly origine, and called to a divine honour unto temporal things, which in this low world cannot be but low, debaseth his dignity most un­worthily. And in all earthly things, high or low condition makes but little unequality, for still it is earth; Hills and dales are alike, compared with their distance from Heaven.

But what? as the Israelites quitted Gods service to worship the golden calfe, the luster of gold and honour will so dazell mens eyes and inflame their desires that they transport unto things of this world that devout love which they owe unto God. Wherefore St Paul saith that covetousnes is idolatrie. Col. 3. And it is no wonder, that the sen­sual objects prevaile more upon Nature then the spirituall.

Yet covetous and ambitious desires are not properly natural, but enormities of nature; for little provision serveth nature, whereas if all the waters of the sea were potable gold, they would not quench the thirst of covetousnes. Nature is contented with a meane degree, but crownes heaped up to heaven would yet be too low for ambition. Greedines is an unthankfull Vice. It makes a man so thirsty after that he hath not, that he forgets what he hath, and thinks not him­selfe advanced though he see a great many be­hind, as long as he seeth yet some before him. He cannot enjoy that he hath, because he hangs upon [Page 240]that he hath not. Thus he is allwayes needy, dis­contented, unquiet, and spares his enemies the labour to find him a continual vexation. And whereas the proper use for which Desire was given to man, is to supply his necessities, he makes use of his desire to multiply his necessities.

To that sicknes these are the proper remedies. The first is to abridge our desire, and be contented with little. To him that contenteth himselfe with little, little is much: But to him that is not con­tented with much, much is little.

To abridge our desire wee must beare downe our pride: That which makes a man think a great wealth to be too little for him, is his too great esteeme of himselfe. Whereas the humble and meeke, though they have but little, think they have more then they deserve. Who so will calm­ly compare what he deserveth with that which God hath given him, shall find great mat­ter to humble himself, and praise God, and silence the murmuring of his greedines. Let us remember our beginning. Being borne naked a little milke and a few baby clouts served us. Who would think that some yeares after, whole kingdomes could not satisfie us? Yet our need since that time is not much increased. 1. Tim. 6.8. Having food and raiment, wee may be therewith content. A little is sufficient for necessary desires, but for curious and superfluous desires the whole world is too little.

Let us employ our greedy desire to heale it self, considering that this greedines for the wealth and honour of the world spoiles the enjoyment, and takes all content from it; for no man hath joy in these things but he that useth them as not using them: That greedines makes us seeke them with torment, possesse them with unquietnes, and lose them with anguish. Yea many times greedines hindereth the acquisition. Good fortune seldome yeelds to them that will ravish her, but to the wise and moderate, who though they lose no opportunity, woe her as little concerned in her, and are alwayes prepared for the repulse.

That wee spend no more about worldy fortune then it is worth, Put in one scale the splendour of honour and the plenty of wealth. Put in the other scale the labour to get them, the care and vexation to keepe them, the peril, the envy, the losse of time, the temptations offered to the conscience, the stealing of a mans thoughts from God, and the danger of losing heaven while wee goe about to get the earth; Then the incapacity of those goods to satisfie the desire, their weakenes, their un­certainty, and how one infortunate moment de­stroyes the labour of many yeares, and then judge whether they be worth enflaming our desire and enslaving our affections.

With the uncertainty of these possessions con­sider the uncertainty of the possessours, that no­thing is frailer then mans life, nothing more cer­taine [Page 242]then his death, nothing more uncertaine then the hour. What need we lay up much trea­sure since we must lose all? What need to get up very high to fall to the ground, and there to rot?

And whereas the tranquillity and content­ment of man consisteth in the things that are within him, not in them that are about him, When he turnes his principall desire and the whole bent of his mind to things that are with­out, he goeth out of himselfe, and subjecteth himselfe to another; He begs of another that which none but God and himselfe can give him: He makes his content to depend on that which is out of his power. A wise man will take heed of that, and will call-in his desire to his owne breast, where he shall finde God if he seek him well, and in God his onely felicity. Let us be covetous to be rich in God, and ambitious to draw neare him.

Indeed since our body and life are maintained with things that are without us we cannot but desire them, as things which our necessity calls for. Besides which, our condition and the course of the world makes many outward things to be­come necessary which in themselves are not so. All these wee may desire, so it bee with an in­fericur desire, quietly subjected and subor­dinate to that Master-desire which must make a whole burnt-offering of the soul to God alone, [Page 243]that we may say to God with an entire and free heart, as Isaiah did, Isa. 26.8. The desire of our soul is to thy name, O Lord, and to the remem­brance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night, yea with my spirit within me will I seeke thee. Blessed we! that our spirit needs but to seeke within himselfe, to finde the full satisfaction of his desire, if he have the grace to desire what he ought.

CHAP. VI. Of Desire of Pleasure.

IT is easy to rule the Desire of Volupty when we have once well apprehended the nature of it. The body hath the greatest share in the Plea­sures which the world runnes after, we must not then for their sakes subject our minde unto our body. The pleasures of the body are short, we must not then for a short enjoyment enter­taine a long desire.

They are light and of a faint taste, we must not then have a great Desire for a little Pleasure. They promise much to the Desire and performe little; Our desire then being forewarned of this, will not lightly trust their faire promises, and will looke more, to their capacity then their in­vitation.

Some pleasures are altogether unlawfull. Of which therefore the desire must be cut off alto­gether. And before we give any admission to [Page 244]their flattery into our soules, we must take time to consider the designe of him that sets them on work, the Devill. By them he seekes to blindfold us that he may lead us into perdition, which he will be sure to do if we entertaine his false cares­ses, for after blindfolding comes blindness in ear­nest, errour in the understanding, misrule in the affections, beggery, infamy, hardnesse of heart, a late remorse, and eternall damnation. Prov. 6.16. By meanes of a whoorish woman a man is brovght to a peece of bread, and the adulteresse will hunt for the precious life. Prov. 7.26. She hath cast downe many wounded, yea many strong men have bin slaine by her. Her house is the way to Hell, going downe to the chambers of death. He that hath the grace to con­sider so much before, will step back when these inticements are offered unto him, and say, I will not buy a desperate repentance so deare.

Pleasures in themselves lawfull, become un­lawfull by accident, when they are desired or en­joyed with excesse. Moderation is the ballance of justice and the nurse of pleasure. Without it, Desire turnes into sorrow, and Enjoyment into a severish fit.

Those pleasures in which a beast hath no share are more worthy of a man, as those that are en­ [...] by contemplation. For them we may allow [...] [...]ger tedder to desire. For those that are [...] [...]ost betweene the body and the spirit, as [...] [...]ghts of picture and musique, the tedder [Page 245]must be tyed somewhat shorter, not giving too great a scope to curiosity. For the pleasures meerely corporall, the tedder must be the shortest of all; Yet in all humane delights, whether of the body or the mind, excesse is vicious and marreth the Pleasure. Solomon found it in the noblest of humane delights. Eccles. 1.18. In much wisedome (saith he) is much griefe, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

It is one of the greatest proofes of the vanity of mans condition that in all humane things where the pleasure kindleth the desire, the pleasure is afterwards choaked by the very desire: for either we seeke in them the pleasure which they can­not afford, or we seek it otherwise then we ought, and even by seeking we lose it. Which inconve­niences are prevented or mitigated by moderati­on in the desire and pursuite. For it will bring one of these two conveniences: Either we shall more certainly get what we would have; or, if we misse it, we shall not have the griefe to have lost much labour about it.

It were easy to draw a platforme upon paper of the most delightfull and compleat estate that humane desire can aspire unto in this world. And that estate should be compounded with the three sorts of life, contemplative, active, and fruitive. A condition abounding with leasure to imploy it in the contemplation of things good, noble, and pleasant; having businesses enow [...] [Page 246]be usefull in society, and not so many as to wea­ry a mans body and mind about things inferiour to the dignity of his soul; enjoying sufficiency of worldly goods with peace and wisedome, and a mediocrity of degree exempted from contempt & oppression; relishing the innocent contentments of life with sobriety and simplicity, not fixing the heart upon them, and therefore possessing the true use and and delight of them; All that seaso­ned with health of body and serenity of minde and with a good conscience aspiring continually to a higher felicity, enjoying it already by hope & by a present sense of the blessed peace of God.

But we have not the liberty to cut our coat out of the whole cloath. The skill of a good en­gineer does not consist in making a regular Fort upon a parchment or a ground chosen at will that hath all the natural advantages; but in bow­ing his art to the nature of the place unto which necessity engageth him, and overcomming by industry the incommodiousnesse of the seat: Likewise, a wisemans work is not to frame to himselfe poeticall felicities, but to take things as he finds them, and use them well; for in mans condition on earth there is no seat so strong but is commanded, or if it be not now it will be ano­ther time, as being seated upon an unstable sand, to day even, to morrow uneven, which no hu­mane strength or forecast can keep unmooved. The life of man being compounded of so many [Page 247]different pieces, in which vertue and prudence have but little share, why should our desire be so eagerly bent upon those thungs which are be­sides the reach of our industry?

Though you had attained once to that high point of human happines that you might contem­plate freely and with leasure, doe usefull and illustrious actions in society, enjoy well-gotten wealth, an honorable degree, & a cheereful heart, in a sound body; how long can ye maintaine that state? how many rubs shall you meete with in the fairest way? A law-suit will make you goe up and downe and lay-by your contemplation: Envy and obloquy will crosse and blast your best acti­ons. A little sicknes will take from you the taste of all the pleasures of life. I leave out great ca­lamities. The torments of the stone & the gowte, The sudden floods of warre, The total ruines by false accusations, things which may happen to all because they happen to some; Accidere cuivis, quod cuiquam potest.

The most desirable things of the world being thus casuall, and no delight constant, The wisest and happiest are they that seeke not their constant de­light in the world, but stay their desire upon the right object, which gives a sincere and durable content, not subject to the tossing of worldly for­tunes.

Let us have no fervent desire but for those things that are truly ours when wee have them [Page 248]once, and which wee cannot lose against our will, for in them consisteth true pleasure. Those things are, the true knowledge of God, his love, and union with him, as much as human nature is capable of in this life. For that union with God will breed in us a resemblance of his vertues and a participation of his serenity, tranquillity, con­stancy, facility and delectation in well doing. These in which true delight lyeth, are also the true objects of our desire. And here we must let the raines loose to Passion. Since to possesse God is the infinite good and soveraine delight, the mea­sure to desire it, is to have no measure.

CHAP. VII. Of Sadnesse.

Sadnes is the dolour of the soule, and the beat­ing downe of the spirit. This seemes to be the most natural of all Passions, as hereditary to man from his first parents: For to our first mother God sayd, Gen. 3.16 I will greatly multiplie thy sor­ows and thy conception; in sorrow shall thou bring forth children. And to our first father, v. 17. In sorrow thou shal eate thy bread all the dayes of thy life. No wonder then that sorrow is the inheritance of all their posterity. That first couple dejected with the sense of their sinne and punishment, left a calamitous progenie. Job. 14.1 Man that is borne of a woman is of few dayes and full of trouble.

But although this be a natural Passion yet it is an enemie to Nature, for it makes the flowre and vigour of body and mind to wither, and obscu­reth that goodly light of the understanding with a thicke mist of melancholy.

Some sadnes is necessary in its end, as that which belongs to contrition, and the zeale of Gods glory. Some is necessary in its cause, as that which proceeds out of a sharp bodily paine. There is a constrained sadnes, when one is sad out of good manners, and for fashion sake; Such is the mourning of heires, whose teares in funerals are part of the ceremony. Many times wee are sad in good earnest for being obliged to be sad in shew. Then there is a wanton sadnes which soft spirits love to entertaine, for weeping is also a point of curiosity and delicacy. No doubt but they find delight in it, for none ever doeth any thing of his owne accord, but for his owne content.

Of Sadnes necessary in its end, I have spoken in the chapter of Repentance, and must againe in this, after I have given some counsels for repres­sing the other sorts of Sadnes. Those are lesse ca­pable of counsel that are necessary in their cause; as when the senses are pincht, for then no reason can perswade them not to feele it, or hinder the mind to have a fellow feeling of the paines of the body. A Physician and a Surgeon will be fitter to abate that Sadnes then a Philosopher, yet not then a Divine; for Divinity makes use of the very [Page 250]paines of the body to raise up the soule of the patient to God; In deed the counsels of piety do not take away the paine, but they overcome it by the sweet persuasions of Gods love to us.

As for constrained and ceremonious Sadnes, wee must avoyd the excesse of it, and the defect also; chusing rather gently to yeeld to custome, then to be singular, and contradict all that wee approve not; keeping alwayes serenity within, in the midst of these ceremonies, more grievous many times then the griefe that occasions them.

Wanton and delicate Sadnes, cannot be justi­fied by the allegation of heavy losses and great wrongs. For besides that most part of the evils that men grieve for, are such onely in the imagi­nation, as a disdaine, a reproach, a slaunder, the losse of some goods that did them nothing but harme; suppose that all the evills that wee grieve for, be evills indeed, it followes not that wee must grieve for them according to their grievousnesse, unlesse it appeare that they may be mended by grieving. But never any dead man was raised from the dead by the teares that his widow shed upon his herse. Never was a wrong repaired by the sadnes of the wronged party. Adversity will cast downe poore spirited persons, but raiseth the spirits of the generous, and sets their industrie on worke. The deepe sorrow that seizeth upon a weake woman at her husbands death makes her incapable to overcome the difficulties where he [Page 251]leaves her: But a vertuous and wise widow hath no leasure to weepe sixe months close prisoner in a darke chamber; rather she comforteth her­selfe with following her businesses.

Also since time drieth up the most overflowing teares, and a second wedding will take down the great mourning vaile; it will be providently done to moderate sorrow betimes, that the dis­proportion may not be too eminent betweene Sadnesse and Joy.

To attaine that moderation we must take a­way that false excuse of good nature, and love to the deceased person from immoderate mourn­ing, for in effect it is no other love but the love of ourselves that afflicts us, and not their losse, but ours.

The true causes of immoderate sorrow for the things of this world are, these two great errours, against which I am so often necessitated to give warning to my readers, as the springs of all the folly and misery that is in the world. The one is the ignorance of the price of things; for he that will value money, honour, and credit according to their just price, and no more, will not be much afflicted if he lose them or cannot get them. The other is, that we seeke out of ourselves that hap­pinesse and rest which is no where to be gotten but within us, from God and ourselves; and take those things for ours which are none of ours, but depend of others, and thereupon runne [Page 252]towards those objects thus mistaken with a blind impetuositie. These are the true roots of Sad­nesse, which roots if we could pluck out of our breasts, we should never be sad for any thing of the world.

But it is very hard to pluck out that weed; for Sadnesse is like a nettle, a malignant stinging weed spreading in the soyle where it hath once taken root, and sucking all the vigour and sub­stance thereof. It makes a man murmure a­gainst God, and envy his neighbours, alwayes discontented, alwayes needy, suffering neither himselfe nor others to be at rest, odious to God and men and to his own selfe.

The life of man being subject to occasions of Sadnesse, a wise man will not adde voluntary sorrow to the necessary. And since by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken, Prov. 15.13. and a bro­ken spirit dryeth up the bones, Prov. 17.22. so that Sadnesse is the ruine both of body and mind; he will take so much care of the preservation of both, of which he is accountable to God, as to banish from his breast with his utmost industrie that fretting consumption.

The best course for that is to exercise our­selves in the love and contemplation of God, and faith in his promises. By these Sadnesse is cast out of the heart, and the soule is set in a pleasant and serene frame. Next, this wisedome must be learned of Solomon, Eccles. 5.17. It is good and [Page 253]comely for a man to eate and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he takes under the Sunne all the dayes of his life which God giveth him, for that is his portion.

Obstinate Sadnesse is unthankfull to God, for it drownes the benefits of God in an ungratefull oblivion, and takes away the taste of them even while we enjoy them. And what a double mise­ry is that for a man, to make himselfe guilty by making himselfe miserable?

For two things voluntary Sadnesse is lawfull and usefull, for the evill that we commit and the evill that others commit. Sadnesse for our owne sinnes is contrition. Sadnesse for the sinnes of others, is the zeale of Gods glory, both com­mendable & necessary. He that hath not a sad re­senting of his owne sins, must not hope for par­don, and is so farre from finding it that he can­not so much as seek it, for he that feeles not his sicknesse shall never look for the remedy. Mat. 11.28. Come to me (saith Christ) all ye that la­bour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. None are invited by the Gospell but such as la­bour and are heavy loaden, none but they can finde rest unto their sonles. This comes to that I was saying lately, that we must be sad for no evill but such as can be mended by our Sadnesse; Such is contrition for sinne, for it helps to heal it, making us cast ourselves upon the great Phy­sitian the Lord Jesus, whose merit is the Sove­raine [Page 254]remedy to that great sicknesse. So, that Sadnesse ends in Joy.

We must grieve also for the sins of others, for since we must love God above all things, we must be very sensible of the dishonour offered unto his holy name. This made Daniel and Nehe­miah to fast and pray, and God shewed that their Sadnesse was acceptable unto him.

Sadnesse then is of good use for these ends, so that we never seeke merit nor praise in it, re­membring alwayes that Sadnesse is evill in itself, & good onely by accident. Sadnesse of contrition and zeale is good as Purges and letting of blood, which are good onely because there is some evill in the body; If all were well, there would be no need of them. As then we must take heed of too much purging and blood-letting, so we must of too much Sadnesse either for contrition or zeale. The use of Sadnesse in contrition is to make re­pentance serious, and to humble the spirit, that it may be capable and thirsty of the grace of God. The use of sadnesse in zeale is to sympa­thize with Gods interesses, and thereby beare witnesse to God and our owne conscience that we aknowledge our selves Gods children. For these ends it is not required at our hands to grieve without tearme and measure; For since the greatnesse of Gods mercy is as high above our sinnes, as Heaven is above Earth, (it is Da­vids comparison) our faith and joy in Gods mercy [Page 255]must also be very much above our sadnesse for our sins. And as God saith that our sins are cast into the sea, Mich. 7.19. meaning the deep Oce­an of his infinite mercy, likewise our sorrow for our sins must be drowned in the joy of his salva­tion. Whereas also the blasphemies and opposi­tions of Gods enemies, by his great wisedome and power turne to his glory, our sadnesse for these oppositions must end in joy for that al­mighty power and soveraine glory of our hea­venly father, to which the greatest enmity of Satan and the world is subject and tributary, for by pulling against it they advance it.

The consideration of the subjects of Sadnesse sheweth more then any other, that man knoweth not himselfe, there being nothing in which one is sooner deceived. For many times we think ourselves to be sad for one thing, when we are sad for another, mistaking the pretence of our Sadnesse for the cause. Many will impute their sadnesse to the sense of their sinnes, but the true cause is in their hypoconders swelled and tainted with black choller, oppressing the heart, and sending up fuliginous vapours to the braines. No wonder that so often all the reasons of Divi­nity and the sweetest comforts of godlinesse can­not erect a spirit beaten downe with sadnesse; the plaister is not layd to the sore, for spiritnall re­medies purge neither the spleene nor the gall nor the braines, whose peccant humours breed all [Page 256]those doubts and feares whereby melancholy persons so pertinaciously vexe themselves and others.

Indeed the resolution of a serene and religious spirit will preserve body and soul in a sound and quiet state: But that resolution, which is excellent for prevention of the evill, will not o­vercome it when the humours of the body are generally dyed and infected with melancholy. Wherefore let us beware betimes that Sadnesse settle not in our heart; for the indulgence shew­ed to willfull Sadnesse will in short time sowre all the humours of the body, and vitiate the whole masse of the blood, and the magazine of vital and animal spirits with melancholy: Then when the mind hath made the body melancholy, the body doth the like to the mind, and both to­gether contribute to make a man miserable, ti­morous, mischievous, savage, lycanthrope, and a heavy burden to himselfe. When that habit of melancholy begins by the spirit, it is more grie­vous; when it begins by the body, it is more in­curable.

To draw a man out of that deep gulfe, all spirituall and materiall helps are of smal ver­tue, unlesse it please God himselfe to fetch him out of it by strong hand and a stretched out arme; And of him, before and after all remedies, we must begge the remedie against Sadnesse: Me­lancholy is the seat and fastnesse of the Devill, [Page 257]whence none but God alone can thrust him out. Every time that Sadnesse offers to deject our spi­rits, let us raise them againe presently, chiding ourselves as David did, who three times in the XLII, and XLIII Psalmes tooke up his droop­ing minde with this encouragement, Why art thou cast downe, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.

CHAP. VIII. Of Joy.

JOy is the acquiescence of the Appetite in the acquisition of a desired good, or in the expecta­tion of it.

Joy is more naturall then sadness, for sadness, though naturall, yet is an enemie to nature, but Joy is natures friend. Then, sadnesse is never without some degree of precedent constraint, and even they that are obstinatly sad, are sorry to be so: But the heart applyeth it selfe freely to Joy; Sadnesse is ill in itselfe, and is good but by acci­dent; but Joy is good in itselfe, and is ill but by accident. Therefore considering both naturally, joy upon a false ground is preferable to sadnesse upon a true ground, for joy is a true good (at least for a time) though the ground be false; but sadnesse is a true present evill, be the ground true or false.

But considering these passions morally, by the effects which they produce by accident, joy doth more harme in the world then sadnesse. For Joy naturally dilating the spirits brings the mind to a loose carriage and takes the fence of warinesse from about it; commonly joy is the mother of rashnesse. But Sadnesse contracting the spirits, keeps the mind within the limits of sobernesse, and brings it to serious thoughts. Eccles. 7.2. Hence it comes that it is better to go to the hoùse of mourning then to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Eccles. 3.4. Sorrow is better then laughter, for by the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fooles is in the house of mirth.

For of passions we may say as of men. Our friends flatter us, but our enemies tell us our faults. Joy, which is a friend of nature, doth flat­ter it into errour and seduction; but sadnesse which is an enemy to nature, undeceiveth it and layeth open before a man his fault and his danger. The sanguine temper which is most given to joy, is most subject to folly; But the tem­per where melancholy beares a moderate sway is the fittest for prudence. But there are melan­choly as well as sanguine fooles; And sadnesse gives evill counsel, as well as Joy: The ill coun­sels of joy are more frequent and hot, and make [Page 259]more noise. The ill counsels of sadnesse are lesse frequent but they are darke & mischievous, and recompense their rarity with their malignity. The Italians call mischievous and dangerous men huomini tristi.

It is a fine consideration how these two passi­ons, though contrary, yet are next neighbours; and how in Joy there is an ayre of complaint, and in sadnesse a tickling of pleasure. That con­templation is more naturall, then morall: It is more usefull to learne, how Joy brings to sadness than how it is mixt with it.

It is an old expostulation that the case of men is miserable to have their joyes attended with crime, and their pleasures ending in a bitter farewell of remorse, and sometimes of despaire. But that is an unjust re-jecting of the fault of the persons upon the things. The reason why our Joy is attended with crime and misery is because it mistakes both the matter and the manner. We neither rejoyce for what we should, nor how we should.

The first mistake is in the object. For our de­sire aiming at Joy, applyes it selfe to false objects, and very often misseth them, or when it obtaines them, finds not in them what it sought. And be­cause the appetite obstinately bends itselfe to finde in them more joy then their capacity can afford, and goeth about to stretch them beyond their strength, it marres them, and loseth the use [Page 260]of them; whence necessarily joy is turned into pettishnes and griefe.

There is no sincere joy, but that which ariseth out of our inward wealth, which no outward opposition can take from us; But we make it de­pend upon things without us, and are so unreaso­nable as to require a solid permanent ground of joy, of things weake and transitory. Can we ex­pect any thing but sorrow from an ill grounded joy, since by placing our chiefe joy upon un­sound and deceitfull objects, we bereave our­selves of the true and solid ground of joy which is our union with God? For my people hath commit­ted two evills (saith God by his Prophet Jeremy) they have forsaken me the fountaine of living wa­ters, and hewed them out cisternes, broken cisternes that can hold no water. Jer. 2.3.

Then as we choose poore and weake subjects for our joy, we choose weak and evill waies to obtaine them; yea so farre, that many times the joy aimed at, is made more precious & commend­able unto us by the crosseness and unluckinesse of the way. Some hold that there can be no ho­nest joy, and all lawfull pleasures are tastlesse unto them because they are lawfull; These reape commonly a sutable harvest to their seed, Or if they get lawfull joyes by lawfull meanes, they make then unlawfull by their impetuosity: And as women with child that use wicked meanes to be delivered before their time, lose [Page 261]their fruit; likewise, hastinesse brings but an abor­tive joy, and fervent desire loseth its fruit by pre­cipitation.

Here is then a very ill account of all human joyes. They that seeke them misse them com­monly, or when they have gotten them they find no solid content in them. To come neere them, they goe farre from God. They corrupt them by evill wayes. They lose them by rashnes and ex­cesse. The worst is, that the men lose themselves also, for while they seeke to glut themselves with bastard joyes, they cast themselves head long into endlesse sorrowes.

What then? must wee seeke no Joy in any thing of this world? It is the opinion of some more grave then wise, not mine I professe it. Ra­ther I think that there is nothing in the world but affords matter of rejoycing to the wise Christian. Two rules onely must be observed that wee may rejoyce as wee ought in God and his creatures, and all the accidents and occurrences of life. The one is, to hold it for certaine that there is no solid Joy in any thing displeasing to God, for all such joyes will bring great sorrowes; Wherefore that wee may have Joy in all things, we must in all things seeke to please him by a filial love confi­dence and obedience.

The other rule, that wee may finde Joy in all things that are either of good or indifferent na­ture, is, to seeke it according to the kind and ca­pacity [Page 262]of every thing. To that end we must be carefull that the Joy that wee take in God be as little under him, as it is possible to us; and that the Joy that wee take in other things, be not above them. Since then God is all good, all perfect, all pleasant, the onely worthy to be most highly praised and most entirely beloved, wee must also most exceedingly rejoyce that he is ours, and wee his, and that we are called to be one with him. As for other things let us judiciously examine what Joy they can give us, and lose nothing of the content which their capacity can afford, looking for no more; For there is scarce any sor­row in the world, but proceeds from this cause to have expected of humane things a Joy beyond their nature.

Now this is the great skill of a minde serene re­ligious & industrous for his own content, to know how to fetch joy out of all things; and whereas every thing hath two handles the one good & the other evill, to take every thing dexterously by the right handle. A man that hath that skill will re­joyce in his riches with a joy sortable to their nature. And when he loseth them, in stead of grieving that he shall have them no longer, he rejoyceth that he had them so long. If he lose one of his hands, he rejoyceth that God preser­veth him the other. If he lose the health of his body, he praiseth God for preserving to him the health of his minde. If slandering tongues take [Page 263]his good name from him, he rejoyceth that none can robbe him of the testimony of a good consci­ence. If he be in the power of them that can kill his body, he rejoyceth that they cannot kill his soul. If he be condemned being innocent, his joy that he is innocent drownes his sorrow that he is condemned.

Love and Joy are the two passions that serve to glorifie God and praise him for his benefits. A thankfull admirer of Gods wisedome and boun­ty hath a cheerefull heart. All things give him joy; the beauty, variety, and excellency of Gods workes makes him say with David. Psal. 92.4. Lord I will triumph in the workes of thy hands. He rejoyceth in hope to see better works, and the Maker himselfe in whose sight and presence is fullnes of joy. If he look up to heaven, he re­joyceth that he hath a building of God, a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens. 2 Cor. 5.1. If he look upon his body, he rejoyceth that in his flesh he shall see God. If he looke upon his soul, he rejoyceth that there he beares the renewed image of God, and the earnest of his eternall adoption. If he be poore, he rejoyceth in that conformity with the Lord Jesus. If he see wealth in the house of his neighbours, he rejoyceth that they have the plenty & splendor of it, & that himselfe hath not the cares and the temptations that at­tend it. As many miseries as he seeth, so many arguments hath he to glorifie God, and rejoyce in [Page 264]his goodnesse, saying, Blessed be God that I am not maimed like that begging souldier, nor luna­tick like that bedlam, nor going in shackles like that fellon, nor a slave like that Counsellour of State.

He will keepe account of Gods benefits, and considering, sometimes his owne infirmities and naturall inclinations, sometimes Gods wise pro­vidence in the conduct of his life, he will ac­knowledge with a thankfull joy, that God hath provided better for him then himselfe could have wisht; that his crosses were necessary for him, and that if he had had a fairer way, he might have run headlong to ruine by his rashnesse.

It were infinite to enumerate all the subjects of joy that God gives to his children; for his be­nefits are numberless, his care continuall, his compassions new every morning, and the glory which he keepes for us eternall. Which way can we turne our eyes, and not finde the bounty of God visible and sensible? Here then more e­vidently then any where else our happiness and our duty meet in one. It is a pleasant task to worke our owne joy. Now it is the task of Gods children, in obedience to his express command by his Apostle, 1 Thes. 5.16. Rejoyce evermore. See how urgent he is to recommend that duty. Phil. 4.4. Rejoyce in the Lord alway, and againe I say Re­joyce.

CHAP. IX. Of Pride.

I Contend not whether Pride must be called a Vice or a Passion. It is enough for me, that it is an affection too naturall unto man, the cause of many passions, and a great disturber of inward tranquillity.

Pride is a swelling of the soul, whose proper causes are, too good an opinion, and in conse­quence, too great a love of ones selfe: and whose most proper effects are, ambition of dignity, and greedinesse of praise. Wherefore these two ef­fects cannot be overcome, unless we first over­come the cause which is presumption, and a blinde immoderate love of a mans selfe.

It is impossible for a man to be tranquill and safe, as long as he sits upon a crazy and tottering bottome. Pride then making a man to ground himselfe upon himselfe, cannot but keepe him in a perpetuall unquietness and vacillation. How can ye beleeve (saith the Lord Jesus to the Jewes) which receive honour one of another and seeke not the honour that comes from God onely? John 5.44. A text which taxeth Pride of two great evills, That is robbes God of his glory, and that it shakes the the foundation of faith; For a proud man seekes not the glory of God but his owne; and his owne glory hee doth not seeke of God, but will get [Page 266]it of men by his owne merit. Also it turnes his heart away from his trust in God to trust in his owne selfe Psal. 10.13. The wicked boasteth of his hearts desire, saith David, that is, he is confident that by his owne strength he shall compass all his projects; And againe, The wicked through the pride of his heart will not seeke after God: for the one brings the other. He that trusteth in him­selfe, and is highly conceited of his owne wise­dome, is easily perswaded that he hath no need of God.

That disposition of the mind is the high way to ruine. Prov. 16.18. Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. For God to whom only glory belongeth cannot but be very jealous of those that wil ingross it to themselves, & de­clares open warre against them. Psal. 18.27. He will bring downe high lookes. Jam. 4.6. He resisteth the proud, but sheweth grace unto the humble. Prov. 8.11. I hate pride and arrogancy, saith Soveraine wisedome, which is God. As the winde hurts not the stalkes of herbs as long as they are supple and bowing, but breakes them when they are become dry and stiffe. The meeke and humble spirits that bow under Gods hand scape the stormes of his Judgements; But the hearts stiffe with pride are broken by them. They that ac­knowledge their weaknesse, and seeke all their strength in God, finde it, and may say with St. Paul. 2 Cor. 12.10. When I am weake then I am [Page 267]strong. But such as are high conceited of them­selves, and with their wisedome will save the la­bour of Gods providence, provoke him to con­found their counsels, and unravell the webbe of their crafty projects; Luk. 1.51. for he scattereth the proud in the imagination of their heart. Isa. 5.21. Woe unto them that are wise in their owne eyes and prudent in their owne sight. But blessed and wise are they that humble themselves before God and relye upon his wisedome. A proud man layeth himselfe open to blowes by his presumption, and like bubbles of soape water, the bigger he growes the weaker he is and swelles till he burst.

There is a deep wisedome in this sentence of Solomon; Prov. 29.23. A mans pride shall bring him low. For besides the judgements of God which soone or late will sinke a proud man, Pride it self while it goeth about to raise a man, brings him extream low, for it makes him bisognoso d'honor, needy of respect and praise: It makes him begge frō dore to dore to get the approbation of strang­ers, upon which he wholly depends, and without it thinks himselfe undone. It makes him a slave to the opinion of others, thereby confuting the good opinion he hath of himselfe, and making him tacitely confess, that he is indigent, empty, and hungry.

Also a mans Pride brings him low, when it makes him put on the vizard of ceremonious and hypocriticall humility, and give to all men more [Page 268]respect then belongs to them, that he may re­ceive of all more respect then he deserves. Of the same kinde are they, that despise themselves that they may be honoured, and reject praise to get praise thereby, aspiring in a carnall abusive sense to the benefit of Christs promise, that, He that shall humble himselfe shall be exalted. Mat. 23.21. As in that humility there is pride, so in that pride there is a base minde.

There are two correctives of pride, two seem­ing contrary vertues, humility and generosi­ty, yet agreeing very well and helping one ano­ther.

That prime Philosopher of our age Monsicur des Cartes saith, that Generosity as well as Pride consisteth onely in a good opinion of ones selfe, and that these passions herein onely differ, that this opinion is just in the one and unjust in the o­ther. It is judiciously spoken: yet their passions consist not in that onely, for generosity is a great­nesse of courage standing firme in itself, but Pride is a weaknesse of spirit, begging greatnesse from others. Generosity lookes in contempt upon those things where Pride lookes for glory; for al­though good things and good actions give matter for Pride, if you looke well to it, it is not the sub­stance of good things that Pride stickes unto, but the circumstance. It is not the goodnesse of an action but the pride and luster that goeth along with it which makes a man proud. But it is cer­taine [Page 269]that Pride and generosity are neere neigh­bours. He that hath a good and a just opinion of himselfe, slips easily from a just to an overween­ing opinion; and a worme of pride will soone breed in a high and generous soul: Especially when praises, the bellowes of Pride, blow on all sides upon a man, it is a wonder if the wind get not into him.

There is need then of humility, the other cor­rective, to keep generosity from degenerating into Pride. Humility is the free acknowledg­ment of a mans owne weaknesse and imperfecti­on, producing a voluntary depressing of himselfe. This definition is proper onely to the humility of sinners, not to the humility of the Lord Jesus, who being all perfect hath neverthelesse hum­bled himselfe more then any. Whence we learne, that perfection giveth yet more matter of hu­mility then imperfection, & that the more a man is vertuous and like Christ, the more he must be humble. For there are two rootes of humility, the one the sense of our owne indignity, the other an obligation to yeeld unto God al the glo­ry of the good that is in us. Out of this last root onely, grew the humility of Jesus Christ; But our humility holds by two roots, and more by the first then the last.

The sense of the good that is in ourselves may strengthen our courage with generosity, to reject all that is vaine or evill and unworthy of us. [Page 270]Yet at the same time the sense of our imperfecti­on must humble us before God, who is most per­fect, and his eyes most pure and all-seeing; And before men also, because appearing so unworthy before God, we must account ourselves unworthy of any deference from his creatures, and because if there be any good in us above others, it is the vertue of God not ours.

These two vertues well tempered together will set our minde in a right frame, and keepe it tranquill and content. But we must beginne by humility; for contrition, repentance, and faith itselfe, belong to humility, which teacheth us to mistrust ourselves and have our refuge to God, to finde pardon of our sins in his mercy, and a supply of our weakeness in his vertue. Upon whom, when we ground ourseves by a sound faith, and by it are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise bearing witnesse to our spirits that we are Gods children, then a holy generosity is bred in our hearts by the sense of that high quality, which makes us looke with contempt, not onely upon the pollutions of the world but even upon its luster, as things farre under us, and reject all the temptations to evill, bayted with pleasure honour and profit, as unworthy of our degree; For is there any thing so much worth in the world that a thild of God should displease his heavenly Father to get it?

Keeping that temper we shall walk alwayes [Page 271]before God with feare and joy together, and a­mong men with charity and modesty; Rom. 12.16. Minding not high things but condescending to men and things of low estate, not being wise in our owne conceits; for it is a point of generosity for a man to know his weakenesse. One may have his spirit above in heaven and yet condescend to men and things of low estate. Yea the more our spirit is sublimated by faith and heavenly hope, the more easily do we accommodate ourselves with mediocrity in earthly things, according to St Pauls reasoning. Col. 3.1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seeke those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; Set your affecti­ons on things above, not on things that are on the Earth. This is the true remedy against pride. Have we high worldly thoughts? Let us raise our thoughts higher yet; Let us set our thoughts and affections on things above, not on things on the Earth: Let us never think our selves mount­ed high enough, till we be where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. When the glory of the world fills a mans thoughts, while it doth lift him up with pride, it brings him down by cupidity under those things that are under him: But when the glory of God ruleth in our hearts, it brings us low with humility, and together raiseth us up by faith and a holy generosity, far above all humane things, even as high as the right hand of God with Christ, there to rejoyce [Page 272]in his love and sweetly repose our hearts upon his fatherly care.

None shall attaine to that blessed state of the soul, which is already a heaven upon earth, un­lesse he beate downe his pride; A vice, which makes a man incompatible with God, for it pre­tends to that which to God alone is due, which is glory; incompatible with his neighbours, for it perswades him that all things are due to him; and that the honour and advancement bestowed upon any but himselfe, is ill bestowed; and in­compatible with himselfe, for it tortureth a mans minde with envy, makes him secretly mur­mure against God and men, and renders him in­capable of the grace of God, which is onely for the meeke; and of his kingdome, which is onely for the poore in spirit, Matth. 5.3.

Here this method must diligently be observed to rectifie our opinion first, that we may rule our Passion. To bring downe the tumour of Pride let us get a right opinion of ourselves; How we are begotten like beasts, borne in lamentation, lying a long time in our ordure, living in a sickly flesh, wilde and foolish in our thoughts, corrup­ted in our affections, vaine and wicked in our conversation; blind, wretched, and guilty before God, and after a few evill dayes returning to the ground of our ignoble principle. In the midst of the gawdy luster of the world; let us looke to our end, a winding sheet, putrefaction, wormes, [Page 273]mourning of our heires for a little while, and then perpetuall oblivion. Let us beare these things in mind, and then be proud if we can.

Many Passions have their origine from Pride, which must be called to our barre after their Mother.

CHAP. X. Of Obstinacy.

OBstinacy is a compound of pride and igno­rance. It is an overthrow of the right polity of the soule, where the will must consult reason; but Obstinacy makes reason to consult the will, so that a man will do or maintaine a thing, not because it is reasonable, but because he did it and maintained it before. Ignorance begins, which hoodwinks the understanding with errour: Then comes Pride, which pins that hood fast about his eyes, pretending that it is a shame for a man to go from his opinion.

By Obstinacy a man comes to that desperate case of the soul, which Philosophy calls feritas, that is, a savage brutishnesse incapable of all ver­tue and discipline. For he must be either in god or beast that takes his instinct for his perpetual rule and sets before him his present will and doing as an immutable patterne of that he must will and do for ever after.

When Obstinacy hath thus shut the dore [Page 274]unto discipline and stopt a mans ear against coun­sell, one of these two evills followeth, Either he is hardned in evill without remedy; Or if by chance he light on the right side, he spoiles it as farre as in him lyes; maintaining truth and equi­ty, not because it is so, but because he will have it so.

There is no greater enemy to Christian wise­dome then that stubborne disposition. For there­by a man stands in direct opposition against God, challenging to himselfe that which belongs to God alone, even to make his will a reason and a law. When the light of reason, or the word of God, or the manifest course of his providence, declares to us what the will of God is, neverthe­lesse to set our will against it, out of a pretended constancy in our former opinion and inclination, what is it else but to make warre against God?

As Obstinacy is odious to God, so it is odious in society. It makes a man troublesome, ridicu­lous, and the undoer of himselfe; And of his Country also, if he be assisted with power, and hath many persons and businesses depending up­on him. Expect neither wisedome nor faire dealing, nor serenity within, nor good actions abroad, where the will takes no counsell of rea­son. There is no place left for amendment, when one thinkes himselfe obliged never, to alter his minde.

As Obstinacy hardeneth opinions it doth the [Page 275]like to passions, to those chiefely that have me­lancholy for their fewell, as sadnesse, hatred, en­vy, and love also, for of these growne once inve­terate many times a man can give no reason, but that he will continue as he hath begun.

This vice is a bastard imitation of Constancy, whose name it borrowes, but very injuriously: for constancy consisteth not in stedfastnesse to a mans own will, but in a firme adhering to good­nesse. That which is good one time, perhaps will not be so another time. Righteousnesse indeed is alwayes one and the same, but variety of inci­dences and circumstances makes it change faces. As the needle of the compasse that stands so fixt upon the North, not to be mooved from that point by the greatest tempests, yet will in an in­stant turne to the South when the ship is gone be­yond the Equinoctiall line, and to that contrary point will keep with the like stedfastnesse so long as it is in that hemisphere: Likewise, a wise and good man will be firme in his resolutions, where his duty calls him; So because his duty lyes not at all times the same way, his resolutions also are not bent at all times the same way, but will turne with his duty. Jeremiah desired sincerely the preservation of the Kingdome of Juda, & the liberty of his Country; But after that Zede­kiah had taken the Oath of allegiance to the King of Babylon, he adviseth Zedekiah and his people, to yeeld Jerusalem to him.

In vaine Obstinacy aspireth to the praise of a great and brave spirit, it is rather a womanish narrowspirited weakenesse. It was the proper saying of a femall, Mene incoepto desistere victam! Must I be overcome and desist from my purpose! Great houses have some roomes for winter, some for Summer, and severall apartements for seve­rall Offices; But in small cabines the kitchin and the bedchamber are all one, and the same still in all seasons: Even so great spirits have a space for diversity of counsels, according to the diver­sity of occurrences, and various constellations of times and businesses which continually alter; but they are narrowbreasted men that have but one resolution and one course to carry them through all things and times. It is for a low and timorous spirit to be afraid to change fashion, and think himselfe lost when he must travell by a way that he never went before, whereas great spirits are complying, facile, universall; and their knowledge of the world, makes them finde nothing new or strange.

Obstinacy should be overcome from the cradle. Even then a child should be used to be contradicted, and as soone as the light of reason beginns to dawne in his young soul, he must be taught to subject his will unto reason. Growne men, hardned in that vice by ill breeding and the flattery of men and fortune, yet may be healed if they will remove the causes of the disease. [Page 277]Since then Obstinacy is a compound of ignorance and pride, they must strive against both; Good instruction will expell ignorance, and as know­ledge growes, especially that of God and them­selves, Pride will decrease, and they will be­come docile and susceptible of better infor­mation.

And whereas Obstinacy puts reason out of her seat, subjecting her to passion her naturall subject, they must endeavour to restore reason to her right place and authority, forbidding the will to determine before reason hath given her verdict; or to give a resolution for a reason, for if the resolution bee unreasonable, one must go from it, the sooner the better. It is unworthy of a man to have no reason but his will and cu­stome, and being asked why he persisteth in this course, not to give his reason for answer but his Passion. Indeed obstinate men will give ma­ny reasons of their fixednesse in their opinion; but let them examine soberly and impartially, whe­ther their opinion be grounded upon those rea­sons, or whether they alledge those reasons, be­cause they will be of that Opinion.

While wee goe about weaning of our mind from obstinacy, wee must take heed of falling into a contrary evill a thousand times more danger­ous; which is, to betray truth and righteousnes, to complie with the time. For wee must never bal­lance whether God or men must be obeyed. We [Page 278]must not follow the multitude to do evill, though the world should charge us with Obstinacy. If our conscience tell us, that wee deserve not that charge, wee may rest satisfied; for wee are ac­countable to God of our opinion, not of the opi­nion that others have of us. It is Constancy not Obstinacy to maintaine truth and good consci­ence, even to the last breath, despising publique opposition and private danger. I joine truth with good conscience, because if the question be of a truth which may be left undefended without wronging a good conscience, it would be a foolish Obstinacy to swimme against a violent and dan­gerous streame to defend it. But if it be such a truth as cannot be baulked without breaking faith with God and turning from a good consci­ence, wee must persist in it, and resist unto blood when wee are put to it. And better it is to be cal­led opiniatre, then to be perfidious.

CHAP. XI. Of Wrath.

I put Wrath among the retinue of Pride as de­scended from it. To this one might oppose, that wrath is attributed to God in many texts of Scrip­ture; And that the Apostle saith, Eph. 4. Be angry and sinne not. And therefore that anger is not evil, and must be fathered upon a better Authour then Pride.

These objections will helpe us to know the na­ture [Page 279]of wrath. It is certaine that there is no pa­ssion in God. But it is certaine also, that if anger were a vice it should not be attributed unto God. The wrath of God is an indignation declared by effects shewing a resenting of the offense offered unto his glory. As then, the anger of God proceeds from his glory, so the vicious anger of man pro­ceeds from his pride which is a bastard glory.

As for the other objection out of St Pauls pre­cept, Be angry and sinne not, whence it followes that one may be angry and not sinne, wee must distinguish betweene good and evill anger. The vicious anger comes out of pride, which is the evill glory of man, The good anger comes out of the glory of God; for the anger of Gods children when they heare his name blasphemed, or see some horrible crime committed with the cere­monies of devotion and justice, is a sense which they have of Gods glory, whose violation moveth them to jealousy. It is good to be angry for such occasions; but because anger is prone to runne into excesse, and to mingle particular animosities with the interesse of Gods glory, the Apostle gives us a caveat to be angry and sinne not.

Then the vicious and the vertuous anger differ in the object chiefely; the vertuous regards the interesse of God, the vicious the interesse of a mans selfe: but both proceed from glory, and have their motions for the vindication of glo­ry. For as religious anger hath for its motive the [Page 280]glory of God, the motive of vicious anger is par­ticular glory, and the resenting of private con­tempt, true or imagined. The proudest men are the most cholerick, for being great lovers of them­selves, & valuing themselves at a very high rate, they deeme the smallest offences against them, to be unpardonable crimes.

Truly, no passion shewes more how necessary it is to know the nature and price of things, and of our selves above all things; for he that ap­prehends well how small a thing he is, will not think the offenses against him to be very great, and will not be much moved about them. The certainest triall to know how proficient we are in humility is to examine whether we have fewer and easier fits of choller then before.

Ignorance of the price of things, and owning things that are none of ours, are the chiefe causes of disorder in all Passions; but they are more evident in the Passion of anger, because it is more violent, and puts forth those errours to the outside, which other Passions labour to hide.

Besides these causes, Anger flowes out of more springs, as great and rapid rivers are fed by many sources. Weakeness contributes much to it, for although a fit of anger looke like a sally of vigour and courage, yet it is the effect of a soft spirit. Great and strong spirits are patient, but weake and imbecill natures can suffer nothing, and like doors loosely hung, are easily gotten off [Page 281]the hookes. The wind stirres leaves and small branches, seldome the bodies of great trees. Light natures also are easily agitated with chol­ler, solid minds hardly.

All things that make a man tender and wan­ton, makes him also impatient and chollerick, as covetousness, ambition, passionate love, ease, and flattery. The same effect is produced by the large licence given to the wandering of thoughts, curiosity, credulity, idlenesse, love of play. And it is much to be wondered at, that anger is stirred by contrary causes, prosperity and adversity, the replying of an adversary and his silence, too much and too little businesse, the glory to have done well and the shame to have done evill; so phantasticall is that passion. There is nothing but will give occasion of anger to a peevish and impatient spirit.

The causes of anger being past telling, our la­bour will be better bestowed to consider the ef­fects, sufficient to breed an horrour against that blustering passion, even in those that are most transported by it, when they looke back upon that disorder in cold blood. Fierce anger is dreadfull when it is assisted with power. It is an impetuous storme overthrowing all that lyeth in its way. How many times hath it razed Citties, turned Empires upside downe, and extermined whole nations? One fit of anger of Theodosius one of the best Emperours of the whole list, slew [Page 282]many thousands of men assembled in the amphi-Theater of Thessalonica: How many then have bin massacred by the wrath of wicked Princes? And what slaughter should there be in the world, if meane fellowes had as much power as wrath?

What disorders anger would worke abroad if it were backt with power, one may judge by the disorder which it workes within a mans soul; for with the overflowing of the gall into the mass of the blood, wrath at the same time over­flowes all the faculties of the mind, suffocates the reason, maddes the will, and sets the appetite on fire; Which is to be seene in the inflammation of the face, the sparkling eyes, the quick & disor­derly motion of the limbs, the injurious words, the violent actions. Wrath turnes a man into a furious beast. If man be a little world, wrath is the tempest of it, which makes of the soul a stormy Sea, casting up mire and foame, and breaking it selfe against rocks by a blind rage.

In the heat of such fits many get their death, or do such things which they repent of at leasure afterwards; for wrath brings forth an effect fortable to its cause; it comes out of weakeness and it weakens a man, there being nothing that disarmes body and mind more, and exposes a man more to injuries. Indeed, when anger is kept within mediocrity, it sharpens valour, and awakes subtility and readinesse of wit. But when [Page 283]it is excessive, it makes the sinewes to tremble, the tongue to stutter, and reason to lose the free exercise of her faculties, so that a man out of too much will, cannot compasse what he wills: Latin Authors calling that weake violence ira impotens, impotent anger, have given it the right epithete, for it strips a man of his power over his owne selfe and of strength to defend him­selfe.

In that tumultuous overthrow of the inward polity, what place remaines for piety, charity, meeknesse, justice, equity, and all other vertues? for the serenity of the soul is the temperate cli­mat where they grow, but the heat of choller parcheth them; they are not plants for that torrid Zone.

I know that many times vertue is a pretence for choller. Angry men justifie their Passion by the right which they maintaine, thinking that they cannot mantaine it with vigour enough. Thus whereas other passions are corrupted by evill things, this it corrupted by good things; and then (to be even with them) it corrupteth those good things: for there is no cause so good, but it is marred by impetuous choller. The great plea of anger is the injustice of others; But we must not repell one injustice by another. For although an angry man could keep himselfe from offending his neighbour, he cannot excuse his offence against God and himselfe, by troubling [Page 284]the serenity of his soul, which is expelling the image of God (for it is not reflected but in a calme soul) and bringing in storme and confusi­sion, which is the devills image. As when a hogshead of wine is shaken, the dregs rise to the top, and when the sea is raging, the mire doth the like; a fit of raging choller doth thrust up all the hidden ordure, which was settled before by the feare of God or men.

The wrong done by others to piety and justice, is no just reason for our immoderate choler. For they have no need of such an ill champion, which is rather a hinderance then a defense of their cause, and to maintaine them transgresseth against them. To defend such reasonable things as piety and justice, there is need of a free reason and a sober sense. And whether wee be incensed with the injury done to them, or that which is done to us, wee must be so just to ourselves as not to lay the punishment upon us for the faults of another, or make ourselves miserable because our neigh­bours are wicked.

To that end wee must remember that in the violation of justice, God is more interessed then wee are, and knoweth how to punish it when he sees it expedient. And if God will not punish it as yet, our will must not be more hasty then his; and it becomes us not to be impatient for our in­teress, when himself is patient in the wrong done to his owne. Let the cause of our anger be never [Page 285]so holy and just, the sentence of St James is of per­petual truth, Jam. 1.20. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousnes of God. If it be the cause of God that we defend, we must not use that good cause to bring forth evill effects; & the evill that incen­seth us can hardly be so grievous, as the losse of humanity and right reason, of which a man is deprived by excessive wrath; for Wrath is cruell, and anger is outragious. Prov. 27.4. It resteth in the bosome of fooles, saith Solomon, Eccles. 79.

Our good opinion and love of ourselves which (when all is sayd) are the chiefe causes of anger, ought to be also the motives to abate or prevent it: for would any man that thinks well of himselfe and loveth his owne good, make himselfe vile & brutish? Now this is done by letting the raines lose to choler: whereas the way to deserve the good opinion of ourselves and others, is to main­taine ourselves calme and generous, never re­moved from the imperial power over ourselves by any violence of passion. Pro. 16.32 He that is slow to anger is better then the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit then he that takes a citty. I account not Alexander the Great, a great Conquerour, since he was a slave to his anger. A man that ne­ver drew sword and is master of himselfe, is a greater Conquerour then he.

That calme disposition shall not want many provocations from those with whom wee must of necessity live, servants especially, and servile [Page 286]soules, like unto cart horses that will neither goe nor drive unlesse they feel the whip, or be terri­fied with a harsh angry tone. Seneca gives leave to the wiseman to use such varlets with the words and actions of anger, but not to be angry; A diffi­cult taske: It is to be feared that by counterfeiting anger, wee may become angry in good earnest; and a man hath need of a sound premunition of reason and constancy, before he come to use those wayes; so easy it is to slip into anger when one hath cause for it, and is persvaded that the faults of an idle servant cannot be mended without an­ger; But anger is a remedy worse then most dis­eases, and no houshold disorder is worth the dis­ordering of our soules with passion. Better were it to be ill served, or not served at all, then to make our servants our Masters, giving them power to dispossesse us of the command of our­selves, whensoever it will please them to pro­voke us to anger. Yet a wiseman may expresse indignation without anger, and an effectual vi­gour; making others tremble, himselfe standing unmooved.

Out of the anger of others wee may fetch three good uses. The first is to learne to hate that pa­ssion and take heed of it, seeing how it is imperi­ous and servile together, ugly, unbecomming, un­reasonable, hurtful to others and more to a mans selfe.

The second use is, to gather carefully the [Page 287]wholesome warnings which an angry adversary will give us: for he will be sure to tell us all the evill he seeth in us, which ourselves see not. A benefit not to be expected from our discreet friends.

The third is the noblest use, To study the science of discerning the spirits, considering with a judicious eye the several effects of every mans anger, for no passion discovereth so much the nature of persons. It layeth a man starke naked. Ifone be a contemner of God, as soone as he is angry he will be sure to wreake his anger upon God with blasphemies. If he have piety and in­genuity, he will make them pleade for him, but lamely, as discomposed by anger. If he be a cow­ard, he will insult over the weake; and if he find resistance, you shall see him threaten and tremble together, like base dogs then barking most when they runne away. If he be haughty, his anger will expresse it selfe in a malignant smile, and he will boast of his blood and valour.

The occasions of anger will better discover what a man is inclined unto; for every one will be sooner moved for those things where he is most interessed.

As in anger, so in reconciliation, a discerning eye will reade a character of the several humours. The vaine and haughty man after he hath done wrong, stands upon reparation. The baseminded man is threatened into submissions after the in­jury [Page 288]received. The covetous wretch will have reparation in money, and puts a rate upon every bastinado. The conscionable, meeke, and generous man is facile both in giving and receiving satis­faction, and easily pardons another mans anger, his owne with much adoe.

From this let us reflect to the first use that wee must make of the anger of others. He that will mind well how wrath betrayes a man, and layeth open his infirmities; and how the man that hath no rule over his owne spirit, is like a citty that is broken downe and without walles, will fence himselfe against that treacherous passion by Christian meekenes and moderation, and will learne to be wise by his neighbours harme.

To that meekenes we shal be much helped by the remembrance of our sins, whereby we daily provoke God, and for which wee mought have bin cast headlong into hell long agoe, but that he is slow to wrath and abundant in goodnesse. Exod. 34.6. To expect that God our father be slow to wrath towards us, while we are hot to wrath against our brethren is the extremity of injustice and unreasonablenesse.

To conclude, since we seeke here our tranqui­lity, which we have found every where insepa­rably conjoyned with our duty, let us observe our Saviours precept, grounded upon his exam­ple, Matth. 11.29. Learne of me that I am meeke and lowly in heart, and ye shall finde rest unto your [Page 289] soules. That way the Lord Jesus the great Mast­er of wisedome found rest unto his soul, the same way shall wee finde rest to ours.

CHAP. XII. Of Aversion, Hatred, and Revenge.

AVersion is the first seed of Hatred, and hath a larger extent; for hatred regards onely persons or actions, but many have Aversions for unreasonable or inanimate things; wherefore those Aversions are commonly unreasonable, whether it be out of naturall antipathy, or out of fancy & wantonnesse. Persons subject to those Aversions have commonly more Passion then reason, and are such as are made tender and are soft spirited by ease. Ladies have many antipa­thyes, but among country wives and milkmayds you shall find but few that will swound at the sight of a spider or a frog.

A wise man must impartially examine those Aversions, if he have any, whether they consist in fancy or nature, and not flatter himselse in such capricious weakenesses. He shall do much for his rest and credit if he can weane himselfe altogether from them. He that can command himselfe to have no Aversion, of which he may not give a reason, will traine his passion that way, to have no unreasonable Hatred against any person.

Hatred is an indignation for an injury recei­ved [Page 290]or imagined, or for an ill opinion conceived of a person or action. This description is common to it with anger. Herein they differ, that anger is sudden and hath a short course; but hatred is me­ditated at leasure, and is lasting: Also that ang­er seeks more a mans vindication then the harme of others, but hatred studieth the harme of ad­versaries.

Hatred, as anger, is a compound of pride and sadnesse. (I meane the vicious hatred and the most common.) It proceeds likewise out of igno­rance of ones selfe, and the price and nature of things. This Philosophy we learne of St. John 1 Joh. 2.11. He that hates his Brother is in darknesse, and knowes not whither he goes, because that dark­nesse hath blinded his eyes; for ignorance is the darknesse of the soul. As then blind men are commonly testy, the blindnesse of ignorance will make men prone to hate their neighbours, and hatred afterwards increaseth that blindnesse. By the same ignorance whereby we love some per­sons and things without knowledge and reason, we hate also some persons and things without reason; and many will choose rather to lose a friend then a shilling.

Hatred is naturally good, serving to make us avoyd things hurtfull, and it is morally good when we use it to oppose that which is contrary to the Soveraine good which is God. When we hate that which God hateth we cannot do amiss, [Page 291]so that we be very certaine that God hates it; such are the unjust habits and actions condem­ned by his word and by that law of nature writ­ten in mans heart: But as for the persons, be­cause we have no declaration of Gods love and hatred to this or that man, we must love them all, and never feare to offend God by loving that which he hateth, for we cannot offend him by obeying his commandement. Now he com­mands us to love our neighbours as ourselves. No doubt but we must love many persons which God hateth, neither will it be time to hate them till we have heard the sentence of Gods personall hatred pronounced against them.

I say, Gods personal hatred, because there is a hatred of iniquity in God against those that op­pose his glory; which obligeth us to hate them also with that hatred of iniquity, and to oppose them vigorously, as long as they oppose God. Of that hatred spake David when he said, Psal. 139.21. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee, and am not I grieved with them that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies. But wee must take heed lest the hatred of iniquity, bring the hatred a­gainst the persons; and the persons must not be afflicted more then needs, for the repressing of in­iquity: The more difficult it is to keep that tem­per, the more earnestly ought we to endeavour to render all offices of charity and personall huma­nity [Page 292]to them whose party we justly seek to de­feate; for to love our enemies and to overcome the evill with good, is the most ingenuous imita­tion of the Godhead. It is his command, joyned with his example, Matth. 5.44. Love your ene­mies, blesse them that curse you, do good to them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he makes his Sun to rise on the evill and on the good, and sends raine on the just and on the unjust.

There is need of a great measure of grace and wisedome to observe these two precepts to­gether. Psal. 97.10. Ye that love the Lord hate evill, and Matth. 22.39. Thou shalt love thy neighbour like thy selfe, hating iniquity in the wicked, and loving their persons, and both for Gods sake.

The chiefe use of hatred is, to be incited to good by the hatred of evill. For that end, it is not necessary that the greatnesse of hatred equall the greatnesse of the evill, and we are not obliged to hate evill things as much as they deserve; other­wise the great currant of our affection would runne into the channell of hatred, and leave the channell of love, dry. Now it is in loving the Soveraine good with all our strength and with all our soul, that our duty and happinesse consi­steth, not in hating the evill with all our strength, and with all our soul. The hatred of evill is not requisite of it selfe, but by accident, as a conse­quence [Page 293]of the love of good. If the hatred of vice perswade us to vertue, we shall be more yet per­swaded to it by the love of goodnesse.

Many effects of hatred are the same as the ef­fects of anger; for there is no anger without ha­tred in some degree, if not to a person, at least to an action. But there is some hatred without an­ger, when one forethinks in cold blood the wayes to destroy an adversary.

All the destructions of the world where the will of man is an agent are wrought immedi­ately by hatred. They have many remote causes anbition, covetousnesse, carnall love, emulation and all the violent passions; but they destroy not, but by accident, till some opposition hath driven them into hatred, which in the inward polity of the soul hath the same office as the hangman in a Citty, for it is the executioner and avenger of wrongs. Unto hatred all the cruelty of tyranny and malice must be imputed. And yet all the blood spilt, all the ruines and inven­tive torments outwardly wrought by hatred, are nothing so grievous as the inward disorder wrought by it in cruell and revengefull souls, and the separation which it worketh between God and man. It is the finall and most grievous effect of hatred, that, by hating our neighbours we become Gods enemies. 1 Joh. 4.20. If a man say I love God, and hates his brother, he is a lyer.

Hatred is a bitter venome which being once [Page 294]diffused & soaked into the soul turnes a man into a hell-fury, contrary to all good, ready and in­dustrious to all evil. But with all the paine that such a man takes to doe harme to others he doth more harme to himselfe then to any, consuming his spirits with a continual malignant fever, & ba­nishing from his soul serenity, charity, and meek­ness; vertues which are the soyle of other vertues, and the givers of rest & contentment to the soul.

It is often seene that while a man is gnawing his heart with a fierce hatred, the person he ha­teth is healthfull, merry, and quiet, as if impre­cations made him prosper. An ill grounded ha­tred drawes Gods blessing upon the party unjustly hated and persecuted. Psal. 109.18. It was Da­vids hope Let them curse, but blesse thou.

Hatred is conceived for one of those two ends, Either to avenge ourselves or to avenge injustice which is Gods cause.

As for the first: Before wee think of revenging an injury, wee must examine whether wee have received or done the greater injury: for it is ordi­nary that the offender is harder to be reconciled, that it may not be thought that he is in the wrong.

Then we must calmely consider, whether the revenge may not doe us more harme then the in­jury, though wee had nothing to doe but to breake our launces against a dead stock incapable to re­sent it. For besides that there is no enemy so little but it is better to let him alone then to provoke [Page 295]him; the harme that hatred doth within us can­not be recompensed by any sweetness of revenge, though there were no other harme in hatred then to find delight in robbing God of that he hath re­served to himselfe: Now he challengeth revenge as his owne, exclusively to all others; Heb. 10.30. Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense saith the Lord. To become incapable of rest, incapable of doing good, incapable of pleasing God, are suffi­cient evils to deterre us from harbouring that inhumane passion, enemy of men, of God, and of ourselves. Pro. 11.17. The mercifull man doth good to his owne soul, but the cruel troubleth his owne flesh.

It is a right godly and philosophicall study to strive against that tendernes, quick to pick offen­ces, slow to take satisfaction. And wee must be in­genious to devise causes of patience. Are you con­demned being guilty? acknowledge Justice. Are you innocent? bow under authority. Are you newly offended; It is too soone to resent it. Is the Sunne gone downe since? It is too late. Hath any wounded you? look to your cure, not to your re­venge. Are you well againe? let not your mind be harder to heal then your body. Are you offen­ded by a friend? remember the friendship more then the offense. Are you offended by an enemy? Doe your endeavour that he be so no more; retur­ning him good for evil. Is he too strong for you? It is folly to contend with him. Is he too weake? It is a shame. Is he your superiour? you must [Page 296]yeeld to him: Is he your inferiour? you must spare him.

And since Pride, of which none is altogether free, represents our enemies to us under a vile and unworthy notion; let us fetch some good out of that evill; Let contempt help patience to beare with their provocations, for if a dogge did bite us, wee would not bite him againe, nor kicke at a asse that kicks against us.

Also when some body offends us, let us remem­ber that wee have offended some body. The fault that wee find in another, is in our owne bosome. It is too great a flattery of selfe love to looke to be excused, and excuse none; Wee are evill and in­firme, and live among persons evill and infirme. All have need to put on a resolution of mutual forbearance.

Above all things wee must remember that wee are all guilty before God, and stand in need of mercy, and unlesse wee forgive them that trespasse against us, wee pray against ourselves, and aske our condemnation every time that wee say the Lords Prayer.

The meditation of death will conduce much to lay downe hatred. To wish one dead is among the vulgar an expression of the greatest hatred. If then wee may be satisfied with the death of our ene­mies, we may be sure that all our enemies shal die; but wee must be sure also, that they may ex­pect of us the like satisfaction. The worst wee can [Page 297]doe the one to the other, is to bring us to the end which Nature leads us unto. As while two little fishes are fighting for a flye, the Pyke comes, that devoures them both; while wee quarrell about small things, death is coming, which will swallow him that is in the right and him that is in the wrong, the victor and the vanquished. Looke upon the broyles of the age of our fathers; What is become of the long and opiniatre quarrel of the Leagve in which all Christendome was involved? death hath decided it. It hath cooled the * Titles that the Leagvers assumed. Ar­dent and the Zealous; It hath stopt the full careere of hatred assisted with valournd power. It will do the like to the quarrels of our dayes. Let us not be so hot in our dissensions; Death will quench our heat within a few dayes, and send us to pleade our causes be­fore our great judge. It will goe ill with us if wee appeare in that judgement, before wee have made peace with our judge by a true repentance and faith, which without charity with our neighbours cannot subsist. Why should our hatred be long, since our life is short?

The same consideration will serve to temper the hatred of iniquity, which for the most part is a pretence whereby wee cozen ourselves and others, to palliate personall hatred. If we take Gods cause sincerely in hand, we must conforme ourselves to his will and wisedome, expecting [Page 298]till he send his messenger, which is death, to at­tache the wicked before his judgement. Psal. 37.8. Cease from anger and forsake wrath, Fret not thy selfe in any wise to do evill, for evill doers shall be cut off; 10. Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be.

If we hate wickednesse, we may be sure that God hates it more yet, and he will punish it; but in his owne time, to satisfie his justice not our fashion. Certainly if we hated iniquity in good earnest, we would hate it in ourselves. Though our enemies be wicked, we must love them for Gods sake: and, because we also are subject to the like infirmities, we must love them for our sakes.

CHAP. XIII. Of Envy.

HEre is one more of the Daughters of Pride, and therefore a grandchild of Ignorance and Selfe love. She is much like Hatred her elder Sister. In this they differ, that Hatred is bent a­gainst the evill; and Envy, against the good. But to shew herselfe descended from Ignorance, she mistakes the false goods for the true; For no man will envy the Christian vertues of his neigh­bours, nor the riches of his minde, but the goods of fortune w^ch often deserve rather to be called evils. Let a man grow in learning & holinesse, let him be a Saint upon earth, let him have Seraphi­call raptures no man will envy him for it, but let [Page 299]him once get favour at Court, let his degree and his rents be augmented, presently the arrowes of envy will be shot at him on all sides. Indeed great Oratours, great Warriours, and men emi­nent in civill prudence are much envied by idle droanes; but if you looke to the ground of that envy, it is not the vertue and capacity of those brave men that begets it, but the fame and cre­dit which they get thereby. Think not that Sa­tan envieth God because he is good & wise, if he did he would endeavour to be so: He envieth God because he is Almighty, and because he is wor­shiped by men and Angels, whereas himselfe would have all power in heaven and earth, and every knee to bow unto him. It is not vertue but the reward of vertue, that moveth envy. If it were in an envious mans power to distribute all the wealth, spirituall and temporall which is among men, he would not dispute to his enemies the possession of all the vertues, but he would keepe to himselfe all the rewards.

This is the cause of that disposition. When an envious man seeth others enjoy wealth, he fear­eth there will not be enough left for him. But as for Vertue, he is sure that the plenty of it with others, will not hinder his owne possession of the like; So he doth not envy it. For nothing moveth envy but such things as have moved cu­pidity before: Cupidity is for light & glittering stuffe, and envy keepes pace with cupidity. [Page 300]Vertue is a substance too dark and solid for their turne. Learne we then to store ourselves with those goods, which provoke no envy, and which we may possesse, no body being the poorer by our riches.

Envy is a great enemy to tranquillity of the suol. It is the rottenness of the bones saith Solomon, Prov. 14.30. which is a pregnant character of a passing malignant and corroding passion. It hath two unnaturall effects, The one that an envious man is afflicted with the prosperity of others, the other that he punisheth himselfe.

The first effect is particular to Envy, and here­in it doth not enter commons with any other Pas­sion. The envious man is sick, because his neigh­bour is well. He groweth leane, because another growes fat; he thinkes that he loseth all that another gets, and makes of his neighbours pros­perity his adversity. He is directly opposite to Christian sympathy and the commandement of the Apostle, Rom. 12.15. Rejoyce with them that re­joyce, and weepe with them that weepe, for he is weep­ing with them that rejoyce, and rejoycing with them that weepe. Whereas the Apostle saith, that Charity is not envious, 1. Cor. 13.4. wee may invert the termes, and say that Enuy is not charitable: yea, of all vices it is most incompatible with charity. Envious men are the onely kind of men, to whom without forme of justice & without breach of cha­rity wee may doe harme, since to doe them harme [Page 301]wee need but doe good to their neighbours.

But it is needlesse to doe harme to an envious man, or wish him more harme then he doth to himselfe, vexing his mind and drying up his body by a continuall and just punishment. This is wise­ly exprest in the CXII Psalme, where after the promise made to the just that his righteousnes endu­reth for ever, and his horne shall be exalted with honoùr, the text addeth. The wicked shall see it and be grie­ved, he shall gnash with his teeth, the desire of the wick­ed shall perish. And it is very probable that in the outward darknes where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, that burning fire and that gnaw­ing and never-dying worme is Envy, biting the damned to the quick, while they are thinking of the glory and felicity of God, and how the Saints whom they have despised & opprest in the world are filled with joy and crowned with glory, while themselves are infamous and miserable. That comparison is a maine article of their misery,

The envious man cannot suffer as much as he deserveth, since he sets himselfe against God and all that God loveth, controuling His distribution of his goods. He that is grieved at the good he seeth, deserveth never to have any good, & it were pitty he should have any, if he can get no good but by his neighbours harme.

Besides the causes of envy which I observed before, there are two more that are great contri­butours to that wicked vice. The one is want of [Page 302]faith; for a man becomes envious because he be­leeveth not that God hath enough in his store to doe good to him and others, or that God doth wisely to give him superiours or equals. Which unbelecfe makes him to murmure and fall out with God. Matth. 20.15. His eye is evill, because God is good.

The other cause is Idleness. It makes men envi­ous, but it makes them poore before; for when they are growne poore through idlenes they look upon the wealth of their neighbours with envy. The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing and the thing he desireth is his neighbours estate, w^ch he lookes upon with an evill eye. Hence warres, robberies, and piracies. For while diligent men grow rich by their industry, idle and envious men study onely to have strength on their side to rob the industrious, or at least to put a stop to their in­crease.

This search of the causes of envy opens us the way to the remedies. Since all disorder in the appetite begins by errour in the understanding, wee must before all things heale our understand­ing of that errour and ignorance which occasions envy, even that false opinion that the wealth and honour of the world make a man happy; whereas they are instruments of wickednes and misery unto weake souls; and to the strong, hinderances and seeds of care. They are the ropes wherewith Satan drawes men into perdition; For one that [Page 303]useth them well, a thousand are corrupted and undone by them. And who would envy slaves and miserable persons?

Then wee must beate downe pride and the excessive love of ourselves, with the study of hu­mility charity, and meekenes. Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory, but in lowlines of mind let each esteeme other better then themselves. Looke not every man on his owne things, but every man also to the things of others, Phil. 2.3. If once wee can get an humble opinion of ourselves, and a charitable opinion of our neighbours, wee shall not be vex­ed with envy seeing their prosperity, for we shall think that they deserve it better then we. In stead of an envious comparing of our neigh­bours estates with ours, let us compare what we have received of God, with what wee de­serve of him, and that will quell our pride and envy.

An especiall care must be taken to cut our de­sire short, which is the next cause of envy. He that desireth little shall envy no body; For so little as he needs, he would not strip another to cloath himselfe.

If sometimes the luster of worldly advan­cements dazle our eyes and breed in us some motions of envy, let us consider what those ad­vancements cost them that have attained them, how much time, money, and labour they have spent, how many doors of great persons they be­sieged, [Page 304]how many frownes from their superi­ours, how many justlings from their emulatours: Then, how many temptations, how many shifts were they put to, even to disguising of truth and wresting of justice. Let us think well whether we would have bought preferment at that rate, and that if we have it not, we did not spend for it what others did. We have not broken our sleep with cares, we have not bin many yeares totte­ring betweene feare and hope: We have given no thankes for affronts. We have not courted a porter and a groome. We have not purchased with gifts a Clarkes favour. We have not turn­ed the whole bent of our mind from the service of God to the service of the world. In a word if we have not the wares, we have not payd our money for it. And if we would not have spent so much about that advancement, we have no reason to envy them that have bought it so deare

The chiefe remedy against that fretting dis­ease is, faith in the power goodnesse and wise­dome of God, with an entire submission to his holy will. Why should we afflict ourselves for Gods gifts to others? Rom. 10.12. The same Lord over all, is rich unto all that call upon him. He hath enough to enrich us all. Let us not looke what he gives to others, but let us humbly aske him that which he knowes to bee fit for us, and thankfully receive what he giveth us, being [Page 305]sure that all that he gives is good because it comes from his good hand. If we can truly say, with Davids faith, The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, Psal. 16.5. how can we after that looke upon our neighbours portion with envy.

It is also an antidote against envy to be al­wayes; well imployed for idlenesse makes a man to leave his busines to looke upon his neighbours worke, and doing nothing controule them that do well.

As for the envy which others beare to us, we have reason to rejoyce that our condition is such as deserves envy, at least in the opinion of others: It is true we must not referre ourselves to the opinion of others, but to our own selfe about the happinesse or unhappinesse of our condition; but because we are not sensible as we ought of Gods benefits towards us, and many times complaine when we should praise God, our neighbours en­vy serveth to awake our sense of Gods mercies, and to move us to thankfullnesse.

CHAP. XIV. Of Jealousy.

JEalousy is much like Envy. In Greeke one word serveth for both. Yet are they of diffe­rent nature. For a man is envious of that he hath not, but he is Jealous of that he hath.

Besides they are of different extractions. Envy [Page 306]is the daughter of Pride, for to pride the envious man oweth the opinion he hath to be more wor­thy of the advantages conferred upon others; but Jealousy is the offspring of a base mind that judgeth himselfe unworthy of that which he pos­sesseth, and feareth that another be more wor­thy of it.

Jealousy is a various and phantastical medley of love, distrust, revenge, sadnesse, feare, and shame. But that compound is not lasting, for love soone turnes into hatred, feare and shame into fury, and distrust into despaire. Solomon saith that jealousy is the rage of a man. Prov. 6.34.

The predominant passions in Jealousy (for Jealousy is many passions together) are, feare not to possesse alone what one loveth, and shame of what the world may say of it; this last especi­ally tears amans soul with extream violence; so slavish is the voluntary subjection of weake spi­rits under the opinion of others.

A wise man will keepe himselfe from that sharp yet imaginary evill, by a sincere love to his party, for perfect love casteth out feare. 1 Joh. 4.18. He that loveth his wife well will trust her, and that trust will make her faithfull, or nothing will. Fidelem si putaveris facies.

To that counsell of trusting his wife, the hus­band must joyne a resolution not to mistrust him­selfe. For here one may lawfully put on a good opinion of himselfe, the question being onely to [Page 307]compare himselfe with others about pleasing a woman, which is obliged to study to please him; and cannot, without grievous crime and concei­ving an enormous disproportion of merit be­tweene him and others, bestow upon them that love which is due to him. A husband betrayeth himselfe and tempteth his wives weakenesse, when he discovereth a distrust of himselfe, and a feare that she preferre other men before him. This sheweth her the way to value them above her husband, and she thinkes herselfe justified so to do by her husbands judgement.

He must learne also to be credulous for his owne content, and of hard beleefe in the causes of discontent. For here it is better to be deceived in evill then in good, and it is better alwayes not to search an evill without remedy, then to finde it; especially when by seeking it, we make it come. The dishonour of cuckoldry consisting onely in opinion, it is healed also with opinion, and he that feeles it not, hath it not.

This inconvenience is prevented by making choice of a vertuous wife, and using her well, for restraint and hard usage doth but draw the evill; Also by keeping us free from defiling our neigh­bours bed; This will give us a great confidence that God will not suffer any to defile ours; Most jealous men are adulterers, fearing what they have deserved.

But when one hath made an ill choyce, nei­ther [Page 308]kindness, nor justice, nor prudence, can keepe a light and ungratefull woman to her du­ty; When the wrong is so manifest, that it is im­possible for the husband not to know it, and dis­sembling would be imputed to insensibility or even to consent; the right counsell for the ex­teriour is, to be divorced from a wicked wife. But if one can neither marry againe, nor live without a woman, and feareth that he shall hardly be able to keep himselfe from harlots; of all harlots let him make use of his owne. It is better yet to keepe a lawfull whore, then an unlawfull.

As for counsels for the interiour, one must practise the grand remedy to remedilesse evils, patience. God, in this as in other sorrowes of life, will finde wayes of comfort & reliefe for those that trust in him, even where there is no way: The good company of so many brave men that are in the same row, is a help to beare it. A wise­man will make no more strange of it, then of wearing a hat a la mode.

He must keepe fast to that true Maxime, that he cannot be dishonoured but by his owne faults, not by the faults of another. A vertuous mans honour hangs not upon a light womans behavi­our. If it did, it should lye very unsafe. No more doth it depend upon his neighbours opinion. Persons of honour and judgement will never disesteeme an honest man for it. And as for the talk of the vulgar, honour and good fame de­pend [Page 309]no more of it, then of the gabbling of geese.

CHAP. XV. Of Hope.

I Have spoken in the first Book of the Christian Vertue of Hope. Here I speake of a naturall Passion. Yet it is certaine, that they differ onely in the degree of perfection and in the object. Na­turall hope is wavering, Divine hope is fixt; Di­vine hope regardeth eternall goods, Naturall hope lookes for naturall and civill goods; Yet the object of Divine hope is not denyed to the naturall, but when that passion is determined by grace unto supernatural goods, it becomes a vertue.

Hope is a compound of courage, Desire, and Joy; but hath more of the first and second ingre­dient then of the third. Also a graine of feare enters into the composition; for if there were none, it would not be hope but expectation; as on the other side there is a graine of Hope in feare, for if there were no Hope, it would not be feare but despaire.

Hope hath this common with love and de­sire, that it regards a good object, at least in the intention. But Hope considers foure particular qualities in her object, That it is absent, that it is future, that it is possible and likely, and that it [Page 310]is yet uncertaine, at least in some regard; if not in the substance, at least in the circumstance; for even the certainest Hope of all, that of eternall goods grounded upon Gods immutable promi­ses, is neverthelesse uncertaine of the degree, the manner, and the time of the enjoyment ho­ped for.

Laying aside that prime object of hope, it is hard to say, whether Hope doth more good or harme in the world; For on the one side it raiseth the courage and animates good enterprises with vigour; On the other side it blinds the reason, which instead of good chooseth a disguised evill, or turnes good into evill, by rashnesse & unquiet­nesse. Hope sets the mind on gadding and aspi­ring higher then it can reach, all wayes discon­tented with the present and hanging upon the fu­ture. And how deceitfull are the promises of Hope! Of ten, one comes not to effect. With hoping good and suffering evill, mans life passeth away.

Yet must we acknowledge the obligation that men have to hope, for it makes them subsist, even while it deceives them. What makes Ne­gro's confined to the mines, there to eate and drinke? It is Hope. What makes gally slaves to sing while they are rowing? It is Hope. And would so many persons whose dayes are a conti­nuall torment consent to maintaine their wretch­ed life, but that in a bottomlesse gulfe of evills [Page 311]they will obstinate themselves to hope well; and after all goods are flowne away, Hope stayeth behind. Hence it comes, that many unfortunate persons will stirre up their industrie, awake their vertue, strengthen themselves in faith, and live to see better dayes.

So to answere the question whether Hope must be reckoned among the goods or among the evills, it may be said that it is the evill of them that are at ease, and the good of the mise­rable: For such as have meanes and dignity have also many designes and chained hopes, which keepe them hanging in chaines, while cares and feares, like ravens, are tearing their hearts. Besides, they that are inchanted with many worldly hopes, conceive christian Hope but remissely.

Whereas they that are in adversity being not tickled with those delicate hopes which a man dares not recommend unto God, will fixe upon just hopes, suggested by necessity. And if they have any godlinesse in them, they will shew it in grounding those just hopes upon Gods mercy and promises. The lesse invitation they have to flat­ter themselves with worldly hopes, the more will they strengthen themselves with the hope of heavenly goods.

In both the fortunes, a wise lover of his tran­quillity will not feed or swell his hope, but for one object, which is, The fullnesse of his union [Page 312]with God; For any thing else he will clip the soaring wings of that aspiring passion, and will not let her flye too high nor too farre.

In the appetite, as there is a predominant love and a predominant desire, so there is a pre­dominant Hope. When it is anchored upon the only good perfect and immutable object, it keeps the soul firme and tranquill. If it be moored upon quick-sand (and such are all the things of the world, in which there is no safe anchorage) it will be carried away by every winde and tide, and never keepe in a quiet station.

The vulgar thinkes it a wise and couragious part to be obstinate to hope well. But a firme and unmooved hope, ought not to be conceived or resolved upon, but for firme and unmoved goods, even those onely that are the subject of the promises of the Gospell. But for things about which wee have no divine and especiall promise, the more one is obstinate to hope well, the more likely is he to speed ill, because the obstinacy of Hope puts the judgement out of his office and leave t [...] no roome for Prudence. And the ill suc­cesse is made more bitter by the preceding obsti­nate hope; Whereas to him that stands prepa­red for the worst, nothing comes against Hope; And if good come, he tasts it better, for his suc­cesse hath exceeded his Hope.

The way to be little disappointed, is to hope little; and the way not to be disappointed at all [Page 313]is to confine our Hopes within us, as much as we can, and to the things above, which the true Christian finds already within; depending up­on no future things, but his perfect reunion with God. Whosoever will proportion his hope to the nature of the objects, shall never entertaine great hopes for worldly matters. For there is a great imprudence in that disproportion to have great hopes for small things.

CHAP. XVI. Of Feare.

FEare is a feeling beforehand of an evill to come, yet uncertaine, as least in the circum­stance; And when the evill is come, Feare end­eth, and turneth to sorrow or despaire.

Feare is one of the most simple and naturall Passions. It is found even in the most unperfect animals, for God hath put it in all for their pre­servation. The very Oysters will shrink for Feare, when the knife doth but touch their shell.

As there are two evills to which men are ob­noxious, paine and sinne; there are two feares answering these two evils, the feare of suffering and the feare of sinning.

Of the first none is altogether exempt, al­though the Spanish Scholler examined at Paris about his proficiency in Morall Philosophy, and demanded what Feare was, covered his igno­rance [Page 314]with this bravado, In nostra patria nesci­mus quid sit timor. In our Country (said he) we know not what Feare is. But without feare, a man can have neither prudence nor valour, for he that feares not the blow guards it not, and is slaine without resistance.

The principall use of Feare is to prevent or avoyd evill. But when the evill is unavoidable, and now at hand, then resolution must represse Feare: Although even at that time feare doth good service, for the feare of losing honour or life erecteth a mans courage. Valour in com­bat is as often out of feare, as out of magnani­mity; and it is often hard to discerne which of these contrary causes puts valour into a man. The certainest marke of valour by feare is cruel­ty, when he that hath disarmed his adversary in a duell kills him without mercy, and after a field wonne puts all to the sword; for he sheweth that he feareth his enemy, even when he is out of combat. But he that gives him his life shew­eth, that he seares him no more alive then dead.

The most valorous are not they that have no feare, for it is naturall to all men; but they, that know how to moderate it.

A man cannot Feare too little, for no evill can be avoyded by feare, but may much better be a­voyded by judgement.

To feare things which neither strength nor forecast can prevent is an anticipation of the [Page 315]evill. It is a great folly to lose our present rest out of feare of future trouble, as though it were not time enough to be afflicted when affliction comes.

But Feare doth more then to bring neere re­mote evills, it creates evill where there is none. And many evills which shall never come and are altogether impossible, acquire by feare a possibi­lity and a reall being. We laugh at an hypocon­driaque that thinks himselfe to be made of snow, and is afraid to melt at the Sunne, because he feares that which cannot happen to him. But a rich man tormented with feare of falling into Poverty, is much more ridiculous: For which of the two is the greater fool, he that feares that which cannot happen, or he that makes it happen by fearing it? The hypocondriack cannot melt at the Sun by the feare he hath of it, but a covetous man by his feare of being poore, is poore in good earnest; so poore, that he wanteth even that which he hath, for he loseth the enjoyment of his wealth by his feare of losing it.

It may be truly said that there is no vaine Feare, since all feares whether true or false are reall evils, and Feare itselfe is one of the worst evils. It makes a man more miserable then a beast, which feeles no evill but the present, and feares it not but when the senses give her warn­ing of the neere approach of it. But man by his feare preventeth and sends for the evill, stretch­ing [Page 316]it by imagination very farre beyond his ex­tent; many times also forging evill to himselfe where there is none, and turning good into evill, for it is ordinary with us to be afraid of that we should desire.

For remedy to that disease we must learne our Saviours Philosophy. Matth. 6.34. To every day is sufficient the affliction thereof. If the evill must come, we must expect it, not go fetch it. Let us not make ourselves miserable before the time. Let us take all the good time that God gives us. Perhaps the evill will come, but not yet. Per­haps it will not come at all. There is no Feare so certaine, but it is more certaine yet, that we are as often deceived in our fears, as in our hopes. And this good we reape out of the inconstancy of humane things, against which we so much murmure, that it turnes as soone towards good as towards evill. Habet etiam mala fortuna incon­stantiam, or if it turne not to good, it turnes to ano­ther evil. The arrow shot against us with a small declination of our body will miss us, and hit our neighbours head. A little winde will turne a great storme; A sudden commotion in the State will create every where new interesses. He that held us by the throat will be suddenly set upon by another, & will let us go to defend himself. If we see no way for us to scape, God seeth it. After we have reckoned all the evill that our adversa­ry can do, we know not what God will do. In the [Page 317]creation he made the light to shine out of dark­nesse, and ever since he takes delight to fetch the comfort and advancement of those whom he loveth, out of the things they feare. That which we feare may happen, but it will be for our good. Unto many the bed or the prison hath bin a Sanctuary in an ill time. Unto many the pub­lique calamity hath bin a shelter against the par­ticular. Many times that which lookes grim a farre off, smiles upon us neere hand. And what is more common then to be promoted by those things which we feared most? Exile and con­fiscation condemne us often to a happy tranquil­lity, taking us from the crowd and the tumult to set us at large and at rest.

These considerations serve to decline, not to overcome the evill. Wherefore there is need of stronger remedies. For that we may be healed of Feare it is not enough to say, Perhaps the evill will not come, or will not prove so terrible as it lookes. Say we rather, Suppose the evill must unavoydably come, I do imagine the worst; Say it be poverty, close prison, torture, the scaf­fold, the axe; All that, can take nothing from me that I may call mine; God and a good conscience are mine onely true goods, which no power and no violence can take from me; All the rest is not worth the feare of losing: Isa. 12.2. Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength, and my song, he also is be­come my salvation.

Then the remedy to the shaking ague of feare consisteth in knowing these two things. The evill and the liberatour; The evill cannot be ve­ry great since it hath an end, No evill of this world but ends by death, Death it selfe is good since it ends evills; how much more when it begins eternall goods? to the right Christian, death is not a matter of feare but of hope. Let us take away from the things we feare that hi­deous vizard which imagination puts upon them, calmely looking into their nature, and getting familiarity with them by meditation. Let no­thing that is incident to humane condition seeme strange or new to us. What happens to one may happen to any other. The ordinariest cause of feare is surprise. That we be not surprised we must think betimes upon all that may come, and stand prepared for all. So nothing shall seeme strange when it comes.

But the chiefe remedy against feare is to lift up our hearts to the great Liberatour that hath goods and evills in his hand, that sends afflicti­ons and deliverances, that brings downe and brings up againe, that gives us strength accord­ing to the burden which he layeth upon us, and multiplyeth his comforts with our afflictions. Being perswaded that God is most wise and most good, and that all things work together for good unto them that love him, we will represse our feare of the accidents of life and second causes, [Page 319]saying, The will of the Lord be done; we are sure that nothing but good can come to us, since nothing can come but from God.

Wheresore instead of fearing to suffer evill we must feare to do it, which is the safest course to prevent suffering. He that commits sin is more unfortunate then he that suffers paine, for suffer­ing moveth Gods mercy but sin moveth his in­dignation. That man cannot but feare sinne that beareth in mind that God hates it and markes it; There then we must feare, and the chiefe delive­rance that we must aske of God is, that he deliver us from every evill worke. 2 Tim. 4.18. As we feare sufferings because of themselves, so must we feare evill workes, because of the evill that is in them, besides the sufferings that attend them soone or late. This Feare of love and reve­cence towards God, puts out all other Feares: He that feares God, needs not Feare any thing else.

CHAP. XVII. Of Confidence and Despaire.

OF these we need not say much, having spok­en before of Hope and Feare, for confidence is the extremity of Hope, and Despaire is the ex­tremity of Feare.

Confidence, which otherwise may be called a firme expectation, is a certainty that we conceive of a future desired good, or of the love and fide­lity [Page 320]of a person, whereby the heart is filled with joy and love.

Despaire is the certainty that the mind concei­veth of a future evill very odious, or of the en­mity or infidelity of a person, whereby the heart is seized and in a manner squeazed with sorrow and hatred.

These Passions being so opposite yet ordinarily will passe the one into the other, I meane Con­fidence into Despaire; from Despaire to pass to Confidence, it is rare. The surest course to a­voyd falling into Despaire for things of the world, is to put no great confidence in them: Moderate hopes being frustrated turne into mo­derate feares and sorrowes. But a great and joy­full Confidence being disappointed will fall headlong into extream and desperate sorrow, as they that tumble from a high precipice get a heavy fall.

One subject onely is proper for mans entire Confidence which is God, all good, all mighty and all wise: Without him all things that men use to repose their confidence upon, are waves and quicksands. Men are mutable, and though they could give a good security for the constan­cy of their will, they can give none for the con­tinuance of their life. The goods of the earth faile our expectation, or come short of our satis­faction, or slip from our possession. They will leave us, or we them. No wonder if they that [Page 321]repose their full and whole confidence in them are seene so often to fall into despaire. Here then the true counsell for tranquillity is to trust wholly upon none but God; on other things ac­cording to their nature and capacity. They shall never deceive us if we require nothing of them above their nature.

There is a kind of Despaire improperly so cal­led which is no more but to give over hoping a thing which upon our second and better thoughts we have found either inconvenient or impossible. That Despaire will rather bring rest then trouble to the mind. Wisemen are pliable and easy to be satisfyed with reason. It is wisedome to despaire and desist betimes from unlikely and unfeasable designes.

It is a true Despaire when one seeth himselfe absolutely disappointed and excluded from the object of his chiefe love, desire, & hope, at which the soul is smitten with such a sorrow that she hates all things, yea the very thing that she de­sired so much, and herselfe more; the smaller and unworthyer the object is, the more shame­full is the despaire about it, but in recompense it is more curable; For then one is easily brought to consider in cold blood that the thing was not worthy either of his affliction or affection. But when the object is great and worthy, the despaire is more guilty and lesse curable, Wherefore the worst Despaire of all is when one despaireth of [Page 322]the grace of God so farre as to hate him, for no­thing can be worse then to hate the Soveraine good, onely worthy to be beloved with all the soul.

Many distrust the grace of God who are not therefore desperate, though they think them­selves so to be. Let them aske of themselves whether they hate God, and let them know that as long as a graine of Gods love remaines in them, there is together a graine of faith, though opprest and offuscated by melancholy. For it is impossible that God should be their enemy and their Soveraine evill, while they love him. To them this comfort is addrest, Prov. 8.17. I love them that love me, and those that seeke me early shall find me. And this likewise, 1 Joh. 4.19. We love him, because he first loved us. If then we love him we must be sure that he loveth us, and we must fight against the temptations of despaire, saying with Job, Though God stay me yet will I trust in him. Job. 13.15. and with Isaiah. Isa. 25.9. Loe this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us; This is the Lord, wee have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation.

Confidence is good according to the goodnesse of the subject that it reposeth upon. Wherefore Confidence in God the only Soveraine good, perfect, solid, and immutable, is the best of all, and the onely that can give assurance and content to the soul. He that is blest with that confidence is [Page 323]halfe in Paradice already: He is firme, safe, meek, serene, and too strong for all his enemies: Psal. 84.12. God is to him a Sunne to give him light, heate, life, and plenty of all goods; and a shield to gard him and shelter him from all evills: ver. 13. He gives him grace in this life, and glory in the next. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

CHAP. XVIII. Of Pitty.

PItty is a Passion composed of love and sor­row, moved by the distress of another, ei­ther true or seeming. And that sympathie is som­times grounded upon false love, because we ac­knowledge our selves obnoxious to the same ca­lamities, and feare the like fortune.

Pitty is opposite to Envy, for Envy is a dis­pleasure conceived at another mans good, but Pitty is a displeasure conceived at another mans harme.

The Passion of Pitty must be distinguished from the vertue that beares the same name, for they are easily confounded. The Pitty of the vulgar, which is imputed to good Nature and Christian charity, comes chiefely out of two causes. The one is an errour in judgement, whereby they reckon many things among the great goods, which are good but in a very low [Page 324]degree, and likewise many things among evills which are not evill. Hence it is that those are most pittied that dye, and the best men more then any, as though death were evill to such men; and they that lose their moneyes, which are called goods as though they were the onely good things; and they that lose their lands which are called an estate, as though a mans be­ing and well being were estated in them.

The other cause of the Passion of Pitty is a sickly tendernesse of mind easy to be moved; wherefore women and children are more incli­nable to it; but the same tendernesse and softness makes them equally inclinable to choller, yea to cruelty. The people that seeth the bleeding car­kasse of a man newly murthered is stricken with great pitty towards him, who is past all worldly sorrowes, and with great hatred against the murderer, wishing that they might get him into their hands to teare him to peeces. But when the fellon is put into the hands of Justice, con­demned and brought to execution, then the heat of the peoples Passion is altogether for pitty to him, and that pitty begets wrath against the exe­cutioner when he doth his office. So easily doth the passion of vulgar soules pass from one con­trary to another, from pitty to cruelty, from cruelty to pitty againe, and from compassion for one to hatred for another. But all these suddaine contrary motions proceed from one cause which [Page 325]is the tendernesse and instability of weake soules whose reason is drowned in passion, and their passion is in perpetuall agitation.

But the Vertue of Pitty, which is a limb of charity, is a firme resolution to relieve our neighbour that stands in need of our help, and it hath more efficiency then tenderness. This is the Pitty of generous and religious spirits aspiring to the imitation of God, who without feeling any perturbation for the calamities of men, re­lieveth them out of his mercy.

And whereas the Passion of pitty is for the most part caused by the ignorance of the good­ness and badness of things, he that is lesse mista­ken in them is also lesse inclined to that passion, for he calls not that misery which others call so. Nec doluit miserans inopem, aut invidit habenti. Or if a wiseman pitty one dejected by poverty, it will not be his poverty, but his dejected spirit that he will pitty. And so of him that is weep­ing for a slander; a wiseman will pitty him, not because he is slandered, but because he weepes for it, for that weeping is a reall evill, though the cause which is slander be but an imaginary evill. He will labour to get such a firme soul that neither the good nor the evill that he seeth in or about his neighbours, be able to worke any perturbation within him.

The world being a great hospitall of misery, where we see wellnigh as many miserable per­sons [Page 326]as we see men: if we were obliged to have a yearning compassion for all the miserable we should soone become more miserable then any of them, and must bid for ever Adieu to the peace of the soul and contentment of mind. It is e­nough to give power to our neighbours to com­mand our counsell, our labour, and our purse in their need; but to give them power over the firmeness of our soul to shake and enervate it at their pleasure, it is too much. Let us depend of none, if it may be, but God and ourselves. Let none other have the power, be it for good or evill, to turne the sterne of our minde at his plea­sure.

It must be acknowledged that Pitty, as weake as it is, hath more affinity with Vertue then any other Passion, and turnes into vertue sooner then any. That way weake soules handled with dexterity are brought to meekeness and charity; and that way many Pagans have bin brought to the Christian verity. We owe the great conversions to the sufferings of Martyrs which moved the beholders to compassion, for that compassion made a breach into the heart, and gave entrance into the understanding to that good confession which these holy men made in the midst of the fires; for nothing is more per­swasive then Pitty, neither is there any fitter hold to draw and turne the soul.

But such compassionate soules may be as soone [Page 327]drawne to evill as to good by that hold. Facti­ous men brought to the gallowes for sedition, have from that pulpit sowne the seed of mutiny into the minds of a compassionate multitude, and those seeds like the teeth of Cadmus his Ser­pent have brought forth since a dismall harvest of intestine warre. If then any good is formed in our minds by compassion, we had need to lay a stedfaster foundation under it; for the meere mo­tions of Pitty are but fits and starts, and are not actions but shakings of the soul.

A wise man will learne how to take hold of the spirits of men by Pitty, but together will take heed that others hold him not by the like handle, which therefore he will shorten, and leave no hold but reason for others to take him by.

CHAP. XIX. Of shamefacednesse.

SHamefacednesse is such a compounded passi­on that it may not be described in few words. It is a sadness out of the sense or apprehension of a dishonest evill. It is a selfe condemnation, espe­cially about matters of love and desires which one would satisfie in secret. It is also a sudden amazement out of a diffidence of ourselves when we are surprized by some inopinate occurrence, where we feare that more will be expected of us then we can performe: And to give a more gene­rall [Page 328]character: It is a sad ressenting of ones owne infirmity with some inclination to good­nesse.

It is a cowardly Passion, found onely in timo­rous natures, yet in the more tender age and sexe it is pardonable, and usefull too, so it be not ex­cessive, for by good instruction it may be formed into a vertue, but weake, and sutable to the capa­city of the subject. Stronger spirits dyed with piety and wisedome abstaine not from evill out of Shamefacedness, but out of knowledge and re­solution. But because strong spirits have bin weake when they were under age, and the bold­est have bin timorous, unlesse they be altogether dull and bestiall by nature, there is a time to frame them to vertue by shamefac'dnesse, which may be called a necessary infirmity in the begin­ning. And it is not expedient to remove it too soone from young minds by Stoicall precepts, least they wanting that naturall bridle of the appetite, and not being yet well trained and con­firmed by reason, let themselves loose to evill.

Children in whom no marke of Shamefaced­nesse appeares are perverse and ill natured, and though they be merry sparkes they shall never be good nor able men. Shamefaced children are towardly and disciplinable. But in con­science is not the nature of men very weake and poore, since their best naturall dispositions are in­firmities, and that there is need of those infirmi­ties to bring them to some good?

Some natures are timorous in all the ages of their life by their native temper, therefore more obnoxious to Shamefacednesse; these are lesse capable of a great and heroicall vertue, which is a compound of righteousnesse meekenesse and magnanimity, but they are docible for a lesse eminent vertue: and their inclination to shamefacedness is a pliable subject for good disci­pline. That disposition must be well managed, as the seed of modesty, and in women, the mo­ther of pudicity, their chiefe vertue. How powerfull Shamefacednesse is with that sexe the knowne example of the Milesian Virgins shewes it.

There is another kind of shame recommended in Scripture. That of Daniel, O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but to us confusion of face. Dan. 9.7. That of Ezra, O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee. Ezra 9.6. And of the pe­nitent publican, that stood a farre off, and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. Luk. 18.13. But that shame which is a godly contrition for sinne committed, and feare to commit more, is proper to a spirit fixt and confirmed in the love and feare of God, and hath nothing common but the name with the passion of shame, which with all her utilities is but a weakenesse of minde and a childish perplexednesse.

A wise and godly man must be ashamed of no­thing but sin. The remembrance of the great­nesse, [Page 330]presence, justice, and holinesse of God, and the sense of our owne imperfection must keepe us in perpetuall respect and humility, which is that good shame of Daniel, Ezra, and the repen­ting Publican. But for our conversation with men, when we are come to mans age, let us weane ourselves as much as we can from boyish Shamefacednesse, which dejecteth and perplex­eth the spirit, and makes a man lose the fairest opportunities of doing good.

CHAPTER I. Of the vertuous temper requisite for Peace and Contentment of Minde.

THis Book is but a result of the two precedent, for who so hath got a right Opinion of things, and learned how to governe his Passions, wants no­thing for vertue and tranquillity; these two ar­ticles being not onely the materials and the rules of the building, but the whole structure. And the order is as essentiall, as the matter, for the understanding must be illuminated and satisfied about the right judgement of things, and know how farre they are worthy that our appetite should stirre for them, before we undertake to instruct our appetite how to behave ourselves with them.

Out of the right opinion & the well governed Passion ariseth the true temper of Vertue; which [Page 332]is a calme state of the Soul, firme, equall, magnanimous, meeke, religious and beneficiall to a mans selfe and to others. All the imperfecti­on that is in our Vertue is a defect in one of these two, or in both. And who is not defective in them? Who hath not errour in his Opinions, and by consequent unrulinesse in his Passion? Wherefore our descriptions of perfect human Vertue are accidents without substance. But what? we must not set before us any lesse pat­terne then perfection. Matth. 5.48. Be ye per­fect even as your Father which is in heaven is per­fect.

The Schoole gives definitions and divisions of the severall morall Vertues, which is no more then is necessary. Yet to speake properly there is but one, even that equal temper & just proportion of all the faculties and motions of the soul which is Justice, producing the like just temper abroad in all the parts of conversation; for to be just is to do all the parts of a mans duty, towards God, towards himselfe, and towards his neigh­bour.

Temperance and Fortitude are handled in the Schooles as vertues by themselves, which is to ve­ry good purpose, for a more distinct exposition; but in effect they are parts of justice, for Tempe­rance is the just proportion of the appetite; and Fortitude is the constancy and magnanimity of the will requisite to keep one just. Neither is for­titude [Page 333]a Vertue different from temperance; for whereas of those two duties sustine & abstine, to sustaine and to abstaine, the first which is resisting oppositions is ascribed to fortitude, the other which is abstaining from the inticements of sinne is reserved unto temperance, yet both belong equally to fortitude, seeing there is as much, if not more, strength of mind requisite to stand out against alluring temptations as to encounter vio­lent oppositions.

There are then two vertues in all, the one intel­lectuall which is Prudence, the other morall which is Justice. I have spoken of the first, and this whole treatise is but an exercise of it: And of the second also, of which the most essentiall part is the feare of God and a good conscience: that is truly the prime Justice. All human lawes, if they be good are dependances of it; if they be evill, they are deviations from it. Naturall equi­ty sanctifyed by grace ruleth both publique and particular duties, and both the outward and the inward man, which is farre more then com­mon and civill law can compass. In all policies of the world Justice hath diverse faces. The bo­dy of the Law (especially in great and antient States) hath statutes and cases without num­ber, which instead of clearing justice confound it. All that legislative labour regards outward action and the publique peace: But piety and true Philosophy rule the inward action, and [Page 334]settle the peace of the soul with the right and primitive Justice. Besides, human lawes are most busy in forbidding evill, and for that end make use of feare, and the terrour of punishment; whereas the inward law of Vertue is most busy in prescribing good, and for that end makes use of the motive of love and reward. But whether we need the motives of feare or love, we have a Soveraine Court within our breast where the great Judge of the Universe is sitting continual­ly. There his Law is written and layd in view, entering into the eyes of the understanding, which seeth it even when he winkes that he may not see it. And there a mans owne thoughts stand divided at the barre, some accusing, some excusing him, out of that law compared with the records of the memory. Of that Court St. Paul was speaking that the very Gentiles and heathen shew the worke of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witnesse, and their thoughts the meane while accusing or else excusing one another. Rom. 2.15.

Before that Court (that is before God him­selfe and before us) we must labour to be de­clared just, and more to be so indeed. There justice must be setled. There it must be practi­sed. It will be well done to know and obey the formes of justice which publique order hath set over us, but our maine taske must be to labour for an niward and habituall justice. Let us [Page 345]obey cheerefully all good or indifferent human lawes, but before all and after all let us seek and pray for that law of the spirit of life, which may set a rule to all the unrulinesse within us, and make righteousnesse and peace to kiss each o­ther in our soules.

The ordinary definition of justice, that it is a constant will to give to every one his owne, as it is commonly understood, regards onely the least part of justice, which is the rule of duties be­tweene man and man. But let us give it a fuller extent: for to give every one his owne we must pay all that is due, first to God, next to our­selves, and then to our neighbours. Certainly the two former parts of justice are far more con­siderable then the third which is the onely cryed up, though ill observed, in the world; for a man may and doth often retire from the society of men, but he can at no time retire from God and himselfe; and though a man were alone in the world, yet should he have with him the chiefe subjects to exercise the vertue of justice.

We shall give God his owne by loving him with all our soul, and with all our strength, o­beying his will carefully, and cheerefully prais­ing him for his love to us, and for his owne great­ness and goodness with a thankfull and a joyfull heart, setting him continually before the eyes of our mind, as alwayes present, that we may walke unto all pleasing before his pure and all [Page 336]seeing eyes, & stick fast unto him by meditation, affection, and entire confidence. And whereas man is the bond and the naturall mediator be­tweene the materiall world and the spirituall; who alone must render for the whole Nature the due homage unto the great Creator; Justice calls upon us to do that right to God & Nature, to knit Nature with God by our love, faith, o­bedience, and praises.

Thus also we shall give to ourselves our due, for to draw neere unto God is our good, Psal. 73.28. to separate from him is our destruction. They that observe lying vanities forsake their owne mercy, saith Jonas, Jo. 2.8. meaning that they forsake him of whose goodness their being and wel-be­ing depends. This thought will renew the anti­ent characters of the naturall notions of justice engraven upon the marble of our hearts, upon which the corruption of the world and our owne hath bred as it were a thick moss, which hides these characters. But with the feare of God that moss is rubbed off, and the law of God the originall justice written there with Gods finger appeares plaine and legible. Who so then will do right to himself and recover his primitive dig­nity must study to know, feare, and love God, perfect his union with him, and associate him­selfe with his Angels, by obeying his will and tending his praise. His saving eternall light is for us, Wisedome, righteousness, sanctification, [Page 337]and redemption are for us, for he gives them to us liberally in his Sonne; We do but right to our­selves, when we study that those blessings which are for us may be ours. And to lose such inesti­mable graces by our neglect, is, besides ungrate­fullness towards God, a crying injustice against ourselves.

A maine point of that justice which we owe to ourselves is, to labour to make ourselves pos­sessors of ourselves, and masters at home; so un­tyed from all outward tyes, that our content de­pend of none but God and ourselves: and that rule over ourselves is attained by yeelding unto God the rule, ver us.

To that end our first labour must be to traine well the Passion of love, which is the great wheele mooving all the other passions; for ac­cording to the subjects that we love, and as we love them well or ill, we are good or evill, happy or unhappy. To love what we ought and as we ought, is the whole duty and happinesse of man.

Next, our desires and hopes must be cut short, which is not cutting downe Nature, as greedy minds may think: It is cutting off our bonds, and getting our liberty. That way plenty, pleasure, and joy, are bought at an easy rate, for very little will content a mind weaned of superfluous de­sires; and he hath little or no matter left for sorrow, feare, anger, hatred, and envy, the tor­mentors [Page 338]of the soul. What is able to disquiet that man that thinkes nothing to be his but God and a good conscience, and possesseth the things of the world as not possessing them? But to quiet the murmure of love and desire, which are que­rulous and unlimited passions, we must do them such equall justice, that while we stop them one way we open them another; Being kept short for the things of the world, let them have free scope towards heavenly things, to love God, and desire his spirituall and permanent goods, with­out limit and measure.

The great injuries are those which a man doth to himselfe, when to obey lust, or anger, or cove­teousnesse, one makes himselfe guilty and mise­rable; when for the love of the world, one lo­seth the love of God; when out of miserablenesse the body is denyed his convenient allowance: When for things of no worth a man prostitutes his health, his life, and his conscience. When men will sinne for company, cast themselves into ruinous courses out of compleasance, and damne themselves out of gallantry. Who so will seri­ously think what he oweth to himselfe and what account of himselfe he must give unto God, will endeavour to keepe the precious health of his bo­dy, and the golden serenity of his conscience; he will enjoy with simplicity that portion which God giveth him of the contentments of life, and above all things he will carefully keep his onely good, which is God.

Justice being well administred within us will be practised abroad with facility and delight. Rom. 13.7. Render to all their dues, tribute to whom tri­bute is due, custome to whom custom, feare to whom feare, honour to whom honour. Let the debtour be more hasty to pay then the creditour to receive.

All the Law-bookes are but comments upon this precept of Justice to render to every one his owne. Yet they omit the most essentiall parts of it, the duties of charity, humanity, and grateful­ness: Which being without the rules of civill lawes, have the more need to be learned and ob­served by ingenuous and religious soules. And we must beleeve, contrary to the vulgar opinion, that they are debts, and that doing good to them that stand in need of our helpe is not giving but restoring. Therefore the workes of mercy are re­presented in the CXII Psalm as works of Justice, He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poore, his righteousnesse endureth for ever. Let us then be perswaded, that when we do all the good of which God giveth us the faculty and the occasi­on, we do but justice. Let us pay due assistance to him whose need claimes it, counsell to him that is in perplexity, kindness to them that have shewed us kindnesse, pardon to them that have offended us, good for evill to them that perse­cute us, love to them that love us, support to the weake, patience to the impatient, reverence to superiours, affability to inferiours. All these [Page 340]are debts. Let us omit no duty to which we stand obliged by the lawes of civill society; Yet that is too scant, let us omit no duty to which we have the invitations of piety and generosity. All the good workes that we may do, are so ma­ny duties. It is the large extent that St. Paul gives to our duty. Phil. 4.8. Finally bre­theren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any vertue, and if there be any praise, thinke on these things. And the fruit of that study in the following words is that which we seeke in this Book, the Peace of the Soul & our union with God. Do these things and the God of peace shall be with you. Truly peace quietness and assurance are the proper effects of righteousness, & are as naturall to it as the light to the Sunne. Isa. 33.17. The worke of righteousness shall be peace (saith Isaiah) and the effect of righte­ousnesse, quietnesse and assurance for ever.

Considering Justice as the solid stemme in which lyeth the substance of all vertues as her branches, I will not follow every bough of that that tree; Two Vertues onely I will stand upon as the preserving qualities of that universall Ju­stice. These are, meekeness and magnanimity. They are the necessary dispositions to frame a right vertue in the soul, and peace with it.

Under meekeness I comprehend humility and docility, which are but diverse aspects of the [Page 341]same face, that meeke and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Pet. 3.4. As, for great edifices there is need of deepe foundati­ons, likewise to edifie the soul and build vertue and peace in it, there is need of a profound humi­lity; which being joyned with faith is the foun­dation of the structure, and the perfecting also: for we must be humble that we may be vertuous, and the more we are vertuous the more we are humble.

With that meekeness the word of God must be receaved, which is the doctrine of Vertue and salvation. Jam. 1.20. Receive with meekenesse the engrafted word which is able to save your soules, saith St. James. Isa. 61.9. God hath anointed his Sonne to preach good tidings unto the meeke: Psal. 25.9. The meeke will he guide in judgement, and the meeke will he teach his way. A mind well-disposed to Vertue and the peace of the Soul, will distrust himselfe as a shaking unsound foundation, to re­pose his trust wholly upon God. He will labour to heale himselfe of all arrogant opinions and ob­stinate prejudices, being alwayes ready to receive better information and submit himselfe unto reason.

It belongs to that meekeness to be free from the impetuosity of the appetite, for that which St. James saith of the wrath of man, that it work­eth not the righteousnesse of God. Jam. 1.21. may be said of all other Passions; they are evill if they [Page 342]be vehement; for in a spirit agitated with vehe­ment passions justice cannot settle, that very ve­hemency being an injustice, and a violation of that sweete and equall oeconomy of the soul fit for justice and peace. Passion goeth by skips and jolts, but Reason keeps a smooth even pace; and that pace is fit to go on Justice's errand.

To meekenesse magnanimity must be joyned. Meekeness makes reason docile and pliant in goodnesse. Magnanimity makes her constant in it. Both are the framers and preservers of righte­ousnesse; meekenesse because it humbleth us be­fore God and subjecteth us under his good plea­sure; magnanimity, because it raiseth our minds above unrighteous ends and wayes, and makes us aspire to that great honour to have our will con­formable unto Gods will, and become partakers of his Nature, which is Righteousness itselfe. St. Paul makes use of magnanimity to sollicite us to holiness. Col. 3.10. If ye be risen with Christ, seeke those things which are above, where Christ sit­teth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. As nothing makes the mind more magnanimous, so nothing makes it more holy, then that doctrine which teacheth Gods children that all the world is too little for them; and that God alone, who adopt­eth them and calls them to the inheritance of his Kingdome, is worthy to possesse their whole heart. For would any that is so highly dignifyed [Page 343]stoope so low as to subject his affection to the things of the earth? or would he be so ungrateful as to returne him disobedience for so much love? Rather his high condition will fill him with high thoughts, and according to the Apostles exhorta­tion, he will endeavour to walke worthy of God who hath called him to his Kingdome and glory: 1 Thes. 2.12. O, could we apprehend the excellency of this high calling by a serious faith, with what contempt would we looke upon those things that captivate the passions of men! How should we laugh at that which others desire or feare! We should looke upon the actions of men as behold­ing the earth, from heaven, seeing the clouds of cares and sorrowes gathering farre under our feet, and tumultuous desires busling and raising stormes; where we should have no other share but compassion of those that are tossed by them: Neither temptation nor persecution should be capable to trouble our heavenly serenity. The false profit and pleasure of sin should not tempt our desire, but provoke our scorne and indignati­on, as unworthy of men, and muchmore of Gods children, coheires of Christ in his eternall King­dome, called to be Kings and Priests unto God and their Father.

The same magnanimity will breed in us agod­ly ambition to imitate God our Father, keeping righteousness in all things because the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; Psal. 11.7. using chari­ty [Page 344]and liberality, giving and forgiving, because the Lordis good, and his tender mercies are over all his workes. Psal. 145.9. Doing good to our ene­mies, because God fills with his goods the mouthes that blaspheme him; And, because God gives alwayes and receiveth nothing, we must thinke it more happy and divine to give then to receive.

From magnanimity reflect againe to meeke­ness. Let all that is done magnanimously be done meekely together, with simplicity and re­ality, without noyse and ostentation. These ver­tues going hand in hand, meekenesse and magna­nimity, are the two supporters of Justice, and the teachers of all goodnesse. A meeke and mag­nanimous spirit is the fruitfull soyle of all ver­tues. To express them in other termes more fa­miliar to the Church, They are humility and faith, which with the love of God, the true es­sence of Justice, make up the greatest perfection that a man is capable of upon earth, whereby the minde is sanctifyed, sweetened, and raised; and filled with goodnesse, peace, contentment, and assurance.

CHAP. II. Of the exercise of Vertue in Prosperity.

IF I treat not methodically and severally of all Vertues, the title of this worke may excuse [Page 345]me; I seeke not here the definitions and divisi­ons of Vertues, but the use; And of all the uses that which conduceth to the peace and content­ment of mind. Besides, all that we have said be­fore and all that we have to say, is an exercise of vertue, which careth not much by what name she is called, justice, fortitude, temperance, or what you will, if she may have leave to do her effect, which is to maintaine the spirit every where in a vertuous tranquillity.

Her principall worke is, so to informe, or ra­ther forme the minde, both for Prosperity and Adversity, that it be neither corrupted by the one, nor dejected with the other. That worke is the result of our second and third Book. Who so hath learned to have a right Opinion of the things that the world desireth or feareth, and to rule his passion accordingly, is fenced against all inconveniencies of both fortunes. But because it is a worke of the highest difficulty and impor­tance to make the right use of these two diffe­rent conditions, and go through both with a se­rene and equall spirit, Let us consider them with more care, and learne to behave ourselves vertuously in both.

Let us begin at Prosperity, as that which re­quires more vertue. Infants will greedily graspe the bright blade of a new knife, and cut their fin­gers; The like is done by growne men, dazled by the gay shew of honour, wealth, & pleasure; they [Page 346]lay hold on them eagerly, and hurt themselves, for they take them the wrong way.

We need not say that Prosperity is good in it­selfe; He that would say the contrary should not be beleeved. Yea none would beleeve that such a man beleeveth what he saith. But by the evill disposition of those into whose bosome prosperi­ty falls, it becomes evill, yea farre worse then ad­versity. For one that is ruined and brought to de­spaire by adversity, ten are spoyled and undone by prosperity; because adversity makes a man to retire within himselfe, and warnes him to arme his minde with prudence, piety, and resolution. But prosperity relaxeth the mind, and by it weak braines are made weaker, imprudent, arrogant, and profane; acknowledging no vertue, and no God, but Fortune; Which they think to be so ena­moured with their person and merit, as not to have the power to disgrace them. Such is the cha­racter that David gives of a man corrupted with prosperity. Psal. 10.5. His wayes are alwaies grie­vous, thy judgements are farre above out of his sight, As for his enemies he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in ad­versity. It is an unhappy prosperity that makes men dissolute, outragious, puft up with pride, blinded with selfe love, sometimes heavy with a drowzy sloath, sometimes transported with an insolent joy. The most dangerous and most or­dinary abuse of prosperity is the diverting of a [Page 347]mans thoughts and love from God and a better life, to fixe them upon the world. Wherefore David speaking of men inclosed in their owne fat, calls them men of the world whose portion is in this life, Psal. 17.14. intimating that they have no por­tion in the other life. Truly prosperity is a slippe­ry place; With most men it is a faire walk ending in a precipice. And the least harme it doth is to enervate the mind; and dull the edge of industry.

The abuses of prosperity are divers, according to the different humours of men. Some of a jovi­all and inconsiderate humour glut themselves with prosperity; and become fierce and violent. Others of a darke and timorous constitution are opprest with wealth and honour as with heavy weights, dare not enjoy what they have, and live in an anxious care to lose all. Eccles. 5.12. The abundance of the rich will not suffer them to sleep. They ought to thank him that should ease them of that heavy burden, their riches.

Of the sicknesses that attend prosperity I have sayd much, and of their remedy. It comes to this. To consider maturely the worth of things, that we may not love them above their worth, or expect of them a satisfaction above their nature; not to anchor our confidence upon their uncertainty: not to love any or trust in any with all our heart but God, the only perfect and permanent good; To use the world as not using it, and enjoy the things we love best in it as having the use of them [Page 348]not the possession, aspiring continually to a better inheritance. This is the way to get a sincere taste of all the good that worldly prosperity is capable to afford.

Now there is need of a singular prudence to pick that good among all the evill & all the trash that worldly prosperity is made of, & not to mis­take superfluity for necessity, and that which is good in effect from that which is good in opinion only. For that man whose curiosity hath turned superfluous things in to necessary, and whom the tyranny of vice and custom suffers not to delight in any thing but unlawfull, is made guilty and unfortunate by his prosperity.

Also, to use prosperity wisely, and get the true benefit of it, a man hath need to weane himselfe from presumption and selfe love. Whence comes it that so many spoyle their prosperity by lavish­ness and insolency, others lose the taste of it by insatiable greedinesse of adding and increasing? It is, because they have such a high esteeme and love of themselves that they think all the goods of the world to be too little for them, either to spend or to lay up: Whereas he that hath an humble opinion of himselfe tasteth his prosperity with simplicity and thankfullnesse, for he thinks that he hath much more then he deserveth. He that cannot bring himself to that low conceit of his worth, shall never be contented, though God should poure all the treasures of the world into [Page 349]his lap, and though he were mounted to the top of the wheel, and had nailed it to the axeltree to keepe it from turning.

Who so will enjoy true prosperity must keepe fast to this Maxime, that no true good can be got by doing ill. So whereas vice and unrighteous­ness insinuate themselves under the baites of pleasure, honour, and profit, there is great need to make provision of faith and good conscience as antidotes against the generall corruption. As carefully as we walke armed, and looke about us when we travell through forrests infested with robbers, we should walke armed with the feare and love of God among the enticements of worldly profit, honour and pleasure, for Satan lyeth in ambush every where. But whereas rob­bers will lurke in hideous and savage places to do their feates, Satan doeth his in the most deli­cious places. It was not among briers and thornes that he set upon man yet innocent, he made use of a tree good for food, pleasant to the eye, and to be de­sired to make one wise. Gen. 3.6. And he made use ever since of beauty, daintyes, and curiosity to destroy mankind: Conversing among these is walking upon snares; Job. 18.8. There is great neede of wisedome and godliness to avoyd them, and of a mercifull assistance of God to get out when our foot is ensnared in any of them.

To the pleasures honours and plenty of the world, faith must oppose other sweeter plea­sures, [Page 350]more sublime honours, and riches infi­nitely greater, even the pleasures for evermore at Gods right hand, the honour to be of his chil­dren, and the plenty of his house. These he hath promised and prepared to them that love him, not to those that choose rather to fill them­selves with unlawfull delight and unrighteous gaine than to walke before God unto all plea­sing, waiting for the fullfilling of his promises. David expected to see Gods face in righteousnesse, Psal. 17.15. thereby supposing that with­out righteousnesse hee could not see Gods face. St. Paul expected the Crowne of righteousness; he must then be righteous before he have the Crowne, and he must fight the good fight and keepe the faith before he be crowned. Could the height of that felicity enter into our low understand­ings, what it is to be filled with the contemplati­on of Gods face, and receive at his hand the Crowne of righteousnesse, hardly would we ven­ture the missing of that glory for all the deceit­full delights and profits of iniquity.

Without looking so farre as the recompences and paines of the life to come, even in this life a godly, temperate, and conscionable life, is a thousand times more desirable and plea­sant then a riotous dishonest life, and advance­ment gotten by oppression. Even those Pagans that lookt for no good after this life, and laughed at infernall torments as old wives tales, yet [Page 351]could say, Nemo malus felix, No wicked man is happy; for unlawfull delight and gaine leave behind them a sting of remorse, yea many times sin smothereth pleasure at its birth; besides the disfavour of God and men which commonly followes. We cast our reckonings amisse if we make account to possesse a happy and a wicked prosperity; It cannot be happy if it be wicked, for it is vertue, it is innocence, it is the love of God and faith in his promises, it is justice and charity, that give the pleasant relish and the very being of prosperity.

But suppose that the acquisition of the delights and advantages of the world, be neither accom­panyed with sin, nor followed with remorse, yet they are weake and transitory; riches are bur­dens, honours are fetters, pleasures are feverish, fame is a wind, friendships are seeds of cares and sorrowes, and yet in all these we seeke a so­lid and permanent content, who can wonder that we find it not? For I do not insist yet upon the principall thing, that we should fix our de­sires upon God alone; But I say now, that to en­joy humane prosperity we must proportion our desire and expectation to the capacity and du­rablenesse of humane things, and to the power we have to dispose of them and keepe them: If we expect more, we are disappointed, and lose the true tast of our prosperity.

But there may be defect as well as excesse in [Page 352]the desire and enjoyment of worldly prosperity. For there are some whose wild devotion knead­ed with a timorous and savage humour, is afraid of all temporall comforts, be they never so sim­ple, naturall, and innocent; seeking vertue and merit by misusing of themselves, and sowr­ing all the prosperity that God giveth them, with an unthankfull melancholy. It is more then God requires at their hands; but he will require an account at their hands how they have enjoyed their health and the fruits of his fa­therly indulgence, which he had given them to use with moderation, comfort, and thanksgiving. Either there is pride and hypocrisy in that fanta­sticall marring of their prosperity; or if they are in earnest, their braines is crazed, opprest by the black vapours of their splene. Abstinence is lau­dable and necessary to be joyned sometimes with prayer, to subject the body to the spirit. But the spirit must not deale with the body his subject, as the worst of Tyrants do with their people, whom they utterly ruine to keepe them in sub­jection. That voluntary selfe depriving of the innocent conveniences of life, is reproaching God as being too blame for making nature plentifull and delightfull, and then placing man in the midst of his goods, and giving him senses to relish them, and reason to use them.

But the contrary fault is more dangerous and more ordinary, to hunt after temporall goods [Page 353]with a rash eagernesse, and when one hath them to lose the benefit of them by lavish intemper­ance, or even to turne those goods into evills by getting them by ill meanes, and using them to ill ends. If Prosperity marre us, it is but even with us, for we had marred it before.

The true way to be content every where, and purchase prosperity at an easy rate, is to desire little and be contented with little. Not he that hath most but he that desireth least, is the richest. The lesse a man desireth the lesse he wanteth, and the more resemblance he hath with God, who de­desireth nothing, and wants nothing. It is unjust for us to solicit the world to give us riches, while we have meanes at hand to enrich ourselves without troubling the world, which is, To desire nothing. Why should I aske of another that which I can give to myselfe?

But when all is said, desire is naturall and will stretch itselfe upon something. Now God alone is able to fill it. He that hath fixed his love and desire upon God, and is allready possest with him by faith, may after that easily put that Phi­losophy to practise, To desire nothing out of him­selfe, and to aske nothing of the world. He may tell Fortune that he needs none of her gifts, for having God he hath all. But he that wants that possession which onely gives true satisfaction to the soul, deceiveth the world and himselfe when he braveth Fortune, and bids her to keepe her [Page 354]gifts to herselfe, saying that he asketh content­ment of none, being able to give it to himselfe; that he carryeth all his goods along with him, that he is rich and free because he is master at home. Truly if he that speakes so, hath nothing but himselfe, he is very weake and needy. Yea unlesse he possesse God, he cannot possesse him­selfe; and in that resolution to cut off his world­ly desires, wanting the satisfying object, he is like him that makes a resolution not to come neere the fire though it freeze hard, and himselfe be thin clad. Whereas he that will cut his desires short, being enricht with Gods grace, is like him that will not come neere the fire, because he is clad with warme furres.

To such a man rich in God it becomes well to say, I will not beg wealth and comfort abroad since I may have it at home. Finding tranquilli­ty and sufficiency within my breast, why should I make my selfe unquiet and needy by a greedy and worldly desire? I will sweetly enjoy the temporall goods because they are Gods gifts, and receive them at his good hand with thankfulness: I will also indeavour to increase them by indu­stry, if I may without fraud to others, and vex­ation of my selfe. But I will importune no man to give me, as long as I may obtaine of my selfe not to aske. I will spare to others the paine to deny me, and to my selfe the shame to be deny­ed, having such a short way at hand to satisfie [Page 355]me, which is, To aske and desire nothing. The less I court the world, the less power shall I give it over me. This Philosophy is easy to him that can say with David, Psal. 16.6. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup, thou main­tainest my lot; The lines are fallen unto me in plea­sant places, yea I have a goodly heritage.

Moderation of desires makes prosperity sweet: And that moderation is harder in prosperity; for misfortunes rather breed feare then desire, but good successes are bellowes that swell cupidity, and cupidity making us depend of the future takes from us the enjoyment of the present. For we enjoy not what we have, when we complaine that we have not enough, and reckon not what we have got but what we would get.

And because in Prosperity men will grow proud and forget what they are; The higher that God raiseth our degree, the more let us humble ourselves, and keepe our mindes within the limits of modesty. If advancements smile up­on us let us thinke rather to tread surely then to make hast, and to sit safe then to rise high. As they say of Xanthus that being in drink he laid a wager that he would drink the whole Sea; they that are drunk with prosperity are prone to un­dertake more then they are able to performe. The Apostles precept hath need to be prest upon them, Rom. 12.3. that no man think of himselfe more highly then he ought to thinke, but think soberly; [Page 356]When we stand on a high tower our stature is never the higher then when we walke on the ground, but our braines is many times the weak­er, as being dizzy with the height. So, dignity and high prosperity doth not increase a mans ca­pacity by raising his place, but rather makes him wilde and giddy. Whereas then prosperity makes men over-confident, it ought to make them more cautious, fearing least some of the windiness of the place where they stand get into their head: Let them study to know themselves and the world, that they may trust neither, as things beyond the verge of their power, and whose subsistence dependeth not of their will. Let us looke upon the prosperities of this world as upon faire crystall glasses, the clearer the frail­er; to day they shine, to morrow they breake: If you never trust them, they will never deceive you.

Honours, riches, and temporal pleasures are but the outside and the barke of prosperity. And it is a saplesse barke, where a good conscience and reciprocal love betweene God and the soule is wanting. But where that is, either it brings out­ward prosperity or supplieth the want of it. Psal. 65.4. O God, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. We shall be satisfied with the goodnes of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

CHAP. III. Of the exercise of Vertue in Adversity.

PRosperity and Adversity are neer neighbours; for prosperity makes preparatives for Adver­sity by blinding mens minds with cupidity, swelling them with pride and thrusting them for­wards with rashnes, whereby they cast them­selves headlong into precipices; and generally by making sinne to multiplie, which drawes punish­ment from Gods justice. Besides the inconstancy of humane things which in a moment turnes from faire to foule weather.

On the other side, Adversity many times mends the harme done by prosperity, for it represseth temerity, opens the eyes blinded by Passion, and brings the sinner to repentance; Thereby making preparatives for prosperity, which is never re­lisht till one hath bin schooled by affliction. Then evill fortune hath her inconstancy as well as the good, and the calme will come after the storme.

The proper exercise of vertue in Adversity is to imitate God, who fetcheth good out of it, and makes it a discipline of godlines, wisedome, and tranquillity to his children. It is not enough to hope that after the storme the calme will come, wee must study to find tranquillity in the very tempest, and make profit of our damage.

Having spoken of the particular Adversities in [Page 358]the second booke, I will endeavour here to set downe general remedies for all sorts of Adversi­ties, saving one, the Adversity which a delicat man createth to himselfe out of a conceited ten­dernes; for to such wilfully afflicted persons the counsells of reason are uselesse, till they be afflict­ed in earnest. They have need of real afflictions to be healed of imaginary. To them that are sick with too much ease, a smarting Adversity is a wholesome plaister. As to the hypocondriaque who had a false opinion of a wound in his left thigh, the surgeon made an incision in the right, to make him feele the difference betweene real wounds and imaginary.

Indeed the most part of persons afflicted, are more so out of opinion then any true ground; but the wanton melancholy of some, that were; all their time dandled in fortunes lap, addeth to that epidemical disease. Wee will let them alone till they have reason to complaine, and desire them that groane under some apparent Adversities to examine seriously whether they be such as they appeare; For there are some Adversities, or cal­led so, which rather are prosperities, if they that complaine of them can obtaine of themselves rather to beleeve their owne sense then the opi­nion of others, and to have no artificial and studi­ed sense but meerely the natural.

Thus he that is fallen into disfavour whereby he hath lost wealth and honours, and hath kept [Page 359]liberty, and bread enough to subsist retired re­mote and neglected, is very much obliged, first to the envy, and after to the contempt of the con­trary prevailing faction, if God give him the un­derstanding to enjoy the prosperity created by his adversity. It is a happy misfortune for a little barke, to be cast by the storme upon a smooth shore, where the Sea ebbing leaveth it dry but safe, while the rest of the fleet is torne by the tem­pest. The wave is more favorable if it thrust the ship upon the haven. Now the godly wiseman finds a haven any where, because God is every where. Sitting under the shelter of his love and providence, he lookes with compassion upon the blinde rage of parties flesht in the blood of one another, praising God that he was hurled downe from a stage where they are acting a bloody tra­gedy, that he may be an actour no more, but a be­holder onely, disinteressed from the publique contradiction. His ruine cannot equal his gaine, if by the losse of his estate he hath bought his peace, and the uninterrupted contemplation of God, himselfe, and the world.

It would be a long taske to enumerate all the commodious adversities, for which neverthelesse comfort is given and received with great cere­mony. Many accidents bitter to us for a time turne afterwards to our great conveniency. Some should have missed a great fortune had they not bin repulsed in the pursuite of a lesser. Many [Page 360]teares are shed upon the dead, but more would be shed if some of them should rise againe. God hath so enterlaced good and evill, that either brings the other. If wee had the patience to let God doe, and the wisedome to make use of all, wee might finde good in most part of our Adver­sities.

Many persons ingenious to their owne torment are like the boulter that lets out the flowre and keepes the bran; they keepe disgraces and misfor­tunes in their thoughts and let Gods benefits goe out of their minde. It had bin better for them to resemble the rying seeve that lets out ill seedes and keepes the good corne, taking off their thoughts from that which is troublesome in every accident of their life (unlesse it be to remedy it) & setting their mind upon that hath which may yeeld profit or comfort. Thus he that received some offence in company by his indiscretion, in stead of making that offense an occasion of quar­rel must make it a corrective of his rashnes. He that is confined within the limits of a house and garden, instead of grieving that he hath not the liberty of the street, must rejoyce that he hath the liberty of a walke. And how many crosses come upon us, which being wisely managed would bring great commodities, if anger troubling our judgement did not make us forgoe the care of our conveniency to attend our appetite of re­venge? Could wee keepe every where equality [Page 361]and serenity of spirit, wee might scape many Ad­versities, or make them more tolerable, or turne them to our advantage.

All afflictions are profitable to the wise and godly. Even when all is lost for the temporal, there wants never matter for the principall Ad­vantage which is the spiritual. There wee learne to know the perversity and inconstancy of the world and the vanity of life, that wee may not repose our trust and bend our affection upon it. Since a curse is pronounced to the man that trust­eth in man, and to him that trusteth in his riches the way to the kingdome of heaven is as impass­able as the going of a cable through a niedles eye, and, we notwithstanding these divine warnings are so prone to trust and love the world, God therefore in his wisedome and mercy suffers that unsound reed, which wee leane upon, to breake in our hand, and our love of the world to be payd with its hatred, that wee may learne to settle our confidence and love in a better place.

Hereby also a man comes to know his sin and Gods Justice. Though we be prone to attribute the good and evill that comes to us unto second causes, there is such an affinity betweene sin and punishment, that even in the most obdurate hearts affliction brings sin to mind, and gives remorse to the conscience; But in godly soules, that remorse is salutary. David having sayd to God, Psal. 32.5. Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my [Page 362]moisture is turned into the drought of summer, addeth, I acknowledged my sin unto thee & mine iniquity have I not hid; I said I will confesse my transgressions, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

And whereas the appetite will run wilde, when prosperity opens the broad gate of licenti­ousnesse, Adversity comming upon that, holds a short hand upon the appetite, and awakes piety and wisedome. David speakes of this experimen­tally. Psal. 119.67. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. ver. 71. It is good for me that I have bin afflicted that I might learne thy statutes. Prosperity is an evill counsel­lour, and all her adresses are to the appetite; but Adversity crossing the appetite, calls upon the judgement. Repentance and Faith are seldome set on work by prosperity; but Adversity raiseth our hearts to God, and the feare of danger makes us flee to his Sanctuary. A wise godly man will manage affliction for that end, not content­ing himselfe with the first pious motions suggest­ed by feare and sorrow; He will husband that accidentall heat of distresse to warme his zeale, and having sought God out of necessity, he will seeke him out of love. The unkind enter­tainement he findes in the world will helpe him to take off his affection from it, and transport his heart where his treasure is. Acknowledging Ad­versity to be the wages of sin, he will learne to walk before God in feare, and from the feare of [Page 363]his judgements he will rise to the feare of his ho­liness, esteeming that the greatest Adversity, not to beare his heavy plagues, but to transgress his holy will.

This filial feare of God is the way to prevent or avert many afflictions; for they that humble themselves in prosperity need not to be humbled by Adversity. Many times the repentance of the sinner hath wrested the destroying sword out of Gods hand: Many times when good men have bin beset on all sides, the feare of God hath open­ed them a gate to go out; for he that feareth God shall come forth of all. Ecces. 7.18. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all: he keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken. Psal. 34.19. Many are the af­flictions of the righteous, because God formeth him to patience and perfecteth his faith by long exercise, which endeth in comfort; as he wrest­led with Jacob a whole night, and blest him in the morning. He deales otherwise with the wicked, for he lets them thrive a while, but when he takes them in hand with his justice he destroyeth them utterly. Psal. 92.7. When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shal be destroyed for ever. God exercised his people of Israel with diverse trials for forty yeares in the wilderness, but he extermined the Cananites suddenly. God forbid we should be of those to whom he gives but one blow. Rather [Page 364]let him wrestle with us a long time with his fa­therly hand, which with the tryall brings strength to them that are tryed, and gives them the crowne in the end of the combar. Here is the patience and the faith of Saints.

Our very nature ought to acquaint us with adversity: For suffering is the naturall conditi­on of men. Job. 7.1. Is there not a warfarre ap­pointed to man upon earth? To be cast downe with sorrow for the adversities incident unto mans life sheweth ignorance of our condition. The way not to be surprised with any thing is to be prepared for all; and to think that the evill which happens to one man may happen to any other, since all are men alike. As at dice whosoever playeth is subject to all the casts of the dice; he that is engaged in the game of life is subject to all the events incident to the living, and must be prepared for them.

But because it is not fortune but providence that disposeth of the accidents of life, the greater is our obligation to beare good & evill accidents with a holy equanimity, because all that happens to us is unavoidable, as ordained by a fatal and eternal law.

Upon that wee must conceive as well as wee can that humane events and several personal interesses are so interwoven by that high provi­dence, that they have a mutual dependance among themselves; and their meetings, which in [Page 365]our regard are casual, are twice necessary in re­gard of God, both because they are decreed in his counsell, and because they are requisite for the execution of many things. To which if wee adde, that God all-wise and all-good doeth nothing & permitteth nothing but for a good end, wee can­not reasonably complaine of any crosse befalling us, though wee had not deserved it: For wee must consider ourselves, as pieces of the universe, and engeenes which that great workman sets on go­ing for the execution of his ends, which being all good, all meanes also tending to them are good in that regard. Our crosses then being determined and directed to some good by the good hand of God (which wee must firmely beleeve) we must also beleeve them to be good, because they serve for Gods end which is alwayes good. So not onely wee must beare them with patience, but receive them with content, yea with thankes; rejoycing, as happy, that even in suffering wee are instru­ments in the good hand of God, to doe his work and advance his glory; which many times we see not, but he seeth it, and that must silence and con­tent us.

Being thus disposed, this advantage we have above many of the wheeles and weights of that great machine of Providence, that whereas some of them have no will, some an ill will, our will is acting with Gods will, and our love to him bow­eth our selfelove to his pleasure, so that for his [Page 366]glories sake (into which all things end) our af­flictions appeare good unto us; and so they are in­deed, since by them God is glorified.

Events being thus chained up and interlaced together, it is a great injustice against God and the order by him settled in the universe, to grudge at any thing that happens to us, as though wee would have God to unweave in our behalfe the web of his providence, create a new decree, and make a new counsel-booke for us. Let us goe willingly where Gods decree leads us, for goe wee must howsoever; Is it not better to goe streight forward where God will have us to goe, then to be dragged backwards?

Indeed there is no need of a high reach of rea­son to perswade a man to bear with, unavoydable accidents, and to will that which it were to no purpose not to will. But when wee consider be­sides that it is the will of God, if wee be his true children we shall will cheerefully what he wills.

When we are in prosperity there is no praise to will what God willes, for then God willes what wee will. But that is pleasing to God to consent to his will when he smites us, and to say after the Lord Jesus, the patterne of all perfection. Father not as I will but as thou wilt. That resolution brings a great rest and a great perfection to the soul; for by that meanes our will is changed into Gods will. The way to have all our will is to will nothing but what God wils.

When God sends us affliction, thereby He gives us a great matter to glorifie him and to draw a blessing upon ourselves; For whereas un­avoydable Adversities make us worse when we pull against them, they worke in us a peaceable fruit of righteousnes, when we not onely beare them patiently, but receive them joyfully as com­ming from God. I verily beleeve that God beholds nothing from heaven that pleaseth him more then a will so subjected and united to His, that in the midst of afflictions he finds Gods will good, plea­sant, and perfect; and saith, Gods will bed one, He is all good and all wise. And since he is as absolute and irresistible in his power as he is good and wise in his will, it would be as foolish a part for me to hope to overcome it, as impious to offer to contradict it. This is the principal counsel a­gainst all Adversity, yea the onely, for we should need no other, if we were come so far as to have no will but Gods will.

But to that high counsel many inferiour coun­sels are subservient. Such is this: When God sends us adversity, that we may not thinke it strange to be so used, let us compare ourselves with so many others that are in a worse case. If we be prisoners in ourowne Country, let us remem­ber so many Christians that are captives of the Turkes and Moores. Have we suffered some losse in our estates? we need not goe farre from home [Page 368]to see whole nations driven out of their antient possessions, shut out of their Country, and redu­ced to mendicity. Are you lame of a legge? Looke upon your neighbour that hath lost both his legges by a cannonshot. Thus the evils of o­thers will be lenitives to yours.

It is a wholesome counsell to be more carefull to keepe a reckoning of the goods that remaine with us then of those we have lost. He that hath lost his land, must thank God that he hath kept his health. He that hath lost health and tem­porall goods, must thank God that none can take from him the eternall goods. And whoso­ever hath lesse then he desireth must acknow­ledge that he hath more then he deserveth. It is the way to keepe ourselves in humility before God and men, and in tranquillity at home, and turne murmuring into thanksgiving.

And whereas the remembrance of dead friends and lost goods fill us with sorrow, it ought to fill us with joy. If the possession of them was pleasant why should the remembrance be sad? Why should wee entertaine more sadness because we lost them, then joy because we had them? it is the ordinary unthankfulnes of the world to reckon all the goods of the time past for nothing. At the least affliction a long course of precedent prospe­rity is lost and forgotten; like a cleare streame falling into a sink, and losing its pure­ness in ordure. Let us thank God for all the good [Page 369]dayes of our life, so may me make present ill dayes good by the remembrance of good dayes past, and obtaine of God new matter of thanks­giving. We must use the world as a feast, using soberly and cheerefully the fare that is before us, and when it is taken away, We must rise and give thankes. We may justly be taxed as greedy ghests unthankfull to the master of the feast, that hath so liberally feasted us, if we Grudge when he calls to take away, instead of Thanking him for his good cheere. As he is our magnificent Inviter he is our wise Physitian. Sometimes he sets his good plenty before us, sometimes he keepes us to short dyet: Let us receive both with an equall and thankfull mind. All his dealing with us is wisedome and bounty.

Here let us remember this Maxime which I layd before as a maine ground of our tranquilli­ty, that the things which we lose are none of ours, else we could not have lost them. We were borne naked, all that was put about us since, is none of ours. Yea all that was borne with us is not ours, Our health, our limbs, our body, our life, may be taken away from us by others. We must not then reckon them as ours. But our soul which cannot be taken away, and the best riches of our mind, are truly ours. All losses and paines fall onely upon the least part of ourselves which is our body, and the senses and passions that are most conjoyned unto it, if we may call [Page 370]that a part of man, without which a man is whole. But the true man which is the soul is out of the worlds reach, and with it all the Christian vertues. For which reason our Saviour bids us not to feare them that can kill the body and cannot kill the soul. To be much cast downe with temporall losses shewes emptiness of spiri­tuall riches; & to be very impatient of the incom­modities of the body shewes that one hath more commerce with the body then with themind, else a man might find matter enough of joy in the soul to conterpoyse worldly losses and bodily paines.

As a body that hath the noble parts sound will easily inure it selfe to beare cold and heat, and all the injuries of the aire; Likewise, he that hath a sound soul, and is strong within in faith, integrity, divine love, and right reason, wherein the true health of the soul consisteth, will easily beare with all Adversities; and retiring within himselfe when he is assaulted without, he will take care before all things that it may be well with his inside, and that nothing there, be put out of order by the disorders without.

That serene state of the soul is the fittest for the vertue of prudence and the exercise of it in Adversity. For to get out of the difficulties of life wee must maintaine our judgement free and our conscience sound: And if the Adversity be of such a nature that it be past the helpe of prudence (such as are sharpe & incurable paines;) yet there [Page 371]is none but may be eased by reason, faith, and the comforts of Gods love. For what? Life is short, no evil is very great when it hath an end, No bo­dily paine can last longer then our bodies, and no Adversity of Gods children either of body or spirit can continue longer then life. But the in­ward assurances of our peace with God, and the sweet entertainment of his love to us, and ours to him, are earnests and beginnings of a felicity without end. By them the soule shut up in this prison of flesh looks out with her head forth, rea­dy to flye away. She riseth againe with Christ in this very world by a lively hope. Col. 3.1. She seekes those things that are above, where Christ is sitting in the glory of his father. She is in hea­ven already, and hath onely the body upon earth.

To this the afflictions of our body contribute much. 2. Cor. 4.17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While wee looke not at the things which are seene but at the things which are not seene; for the things which are seene are temporal, but the things which are not seene are eternal; for wee know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissol­ved wee have a building of God, an house not made with hands, ternal in the heavens.

This is a high point of resolution and joy in af­flictions, which pagan Philosophie could never reach, to beare the afflictions of this life cheere­fully, [Page 372]out of hope of eternal felicity after death. It is pittiful to behold what paine these old Phi­losophers tooke to arme themselves against death, and how the seeming lofty peace wherewith they marcht towards death is like that of a starting hors blowing and pricking up his eares at the entry of a dark place, whereas the good Christian goeth gently to it, with simplicity, joy, and considence. Why? the Pagans knew not whither they went, and conceived of death as of a ghastly darke denne; but the right Christian seeth his way, and thinking of death, saith, I know whom I have belee­ved. He gives thankes to the father who hath made him meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light: His desire is to depart and to be with Christ, remembring that Christ went before, and sayd to all his disciples, both present and to come, when he went up to heaven, I goe to prepare a place for you. So whereas pagan Philosophy seekes comforts against death, Christian Philosophy presenteth death, as a comfort. Fellons condemned to the gallowes heare not with so much joy the grace and pardon that giveth them life, as good Christi­ans heare the glad tidings of their approaching death; for death is a grace unto them, since it opens them the prison doore. If they be danger­ously sick, the way to cheere them up is not to say, Be of good heart, you shall recover, but, be of good heart, you must dye; for they conceive of death as of their haven of salvation after a stormy voyage. [Page 373]That hope sweetens all their Adversities. It is a corke that keepes up their spirits above the most raging waves, not suffering it to sinke under any sorrow: It is the charme of all cares which makes the Christian to say when he loseth his earthly goods, Now I am unloaden of that luggage, I am the lighter for my journey to the Kingdome of heaven, and there I have my true goods which no man can take from me. So were the Hebrewes disposed, that received with joy the spoyling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring sub­stance. Heb. 10.34.

This also makes the Christian disgest injuries, and contemne contempt, saying, Earth is not the Country where am I to expect glory, I shall have enough in heaven shortly. I am little concerned in the Opinion of men during this life of few dayes, and I am yet lesse concerned in that they shall say of me after my death.

Of all sufferings, the sufferings for righteous­ness have the surest comfort, Christ saying so ex­presly, Matth. 5.10.12. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousnesse sake, for theirs is the Kingdome of God. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Since by many afflicti­ons we must enter into the Kingdome of heaven, we perceive by the thornes which we were told we should finde in the way, that we are in the right; Any way is pleasant that leads us to salvation.

Finally this heavenly hope abates the tedious­nesse of sickness, and the chagreene of old age. For the godly soul finding her house of flesh rea­dy to fall, prepareth herself with joy to come out at the breach; and finding the race of this life neere done, stretcheth herselfe towards the prize, which the great Saviour holds her up, from hea­ven. Thus faith is found to be the most sublime Philosophy, for it takes off the heart from things transitory, and raiseth it up to the eternall. It is the chiefe valour, for it is victor over dolour, and armeth the weake with invincible strength. It makes the Christian to walke in the midst of ca­lamities with a resolute and undanted march, and to grow familiar with death, finding in the principall subject of humane feares the great subject of his confidence and joy, and in the cross a ladder to glory.

CHAPTER. I. Of Concord with all men, and of Meeknesse

OUr first Book hath bin imployed about the Peace of man with God, The three following about the peace of man with himselfe. To confirme himselfe in these, his next care must be to have peace with his owne kind. For in vaine should we hope to keepe peace with God and our owne selves, if we live in wilfull discord with our neighbours; these are things altogether inconsistent. If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a lyar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seene, how can he love God whom he hath not seene? and if a man be at odds with God and his brother, how can he have peace at home?

We are commanded to follow peace with all men. Heb. 12.14. Which because it is more easy to follow then to obtaines the Apostle St. Paul pre­pares us to meet with opposition by these [Page 376]termes, If it be possible, as much as lyeth in you, live peaceably with all men. Rom. 12.18. Now what lyeth in us (with Gods assisting grace) to live peaceably with all men, is exprest in two coun­sels in the words next before, The first is to recom­pense no man evill for evill. It is impossible to go through the croud of the world and not to be thrust. Fooles returne the like and thrust againe, and thrusting brings striking; The wise passe quiet and unconcerned. As we must beare one with another for Gods sake that commands it, we must do it for our own sake to keep tran­quillity of mind; the losse whereof cannot be re­compenced by any satisfaction of revenge, if revenge ever brought any. Most part of injuries consisting in opinion the remedy consisteth in the same. They hurt not him that resents them not. Injuriarum remedium est oblivio. But if the in­jury bee such that we must needs resent it, Pardoning is the best resenting, and the hono­rablest revenge of all is, To recompence good for evill.

The other counsell is, Provide things honest in the sight of all men. For whether we live with good or bad men, which are the greater number, it were impossible for us to compasse all our de­signes if they were layd open in the sight of all men, they must be so honest that when they are ripe for the knowledge of all men we need not be asham­ed of them. And if in the following of honest and [Page 377]beneficial designes we meete with opposition, we must behave ourselves with so much meekenes that we make it appeare that we seeke not our advantage by the ruine of others, and together with so much vigour that none be encouraged by our pusillanimity to crosse us.

There is no harder taske then to keepe ourselves free from dissention in this age; which may be cal­led the reigne of discord. Here then wee must bestow the greater care to keep tranquillity in our conversation, and more in our minde.

As for publique quarrels, a wise man will wedde himselfe to no party with eagernes; and if it be possible, he will looke upon the game, and himselfe neither play nor bet. He will leave the zeale of State to them that hold themselves un­worthy to be exempted from common distresses. He will remember that he is a citizen of a better countrey then that where he was borne. Who so takes a great interesse in publique affaires, shew­eth thereby that he hath a great love to the world, and esteemes it more then it is worth; for we may be sure that, which party soever prevaile, fooles will prevaile, for such are all men, and in the commotion of a State, as of a muddy river, the mire and foame will alwayes be the uppermost. If it be past our power to part them, let them fight it out, and let our part be to looke with judgement and compassion how the vials of Gods wrath are powred first upon the minds of men to [Page 378]confound them with a fierce and blind impetuo­sity, whereby they runne and prey one upon ano­ther, & next upon Empires & states to turne them upside downe. Of which an image is represent­ed in the sixteenth Chapter of the Revelation where a viall is powred upon the Sunne whereby he is made hot and scorching beyond measure, and presently another vial is powred upon the seat of the Beast, wherewith his kingdome is filled with darknes, and infested with sore and smarting plagues. For a mans spirit is within him that which the Sunne is in the world. When the spirits of a people are kindled with a malignant heate, a darke confusion of the State and the miseries of the particular members of it will fol­low. That man is blessed who in such an epide­mical turbulent heat, keepes the meekenes and serenity of his mind. And although it be hardly possible for him not to be carried away by the streame of that party where his private interesses happen to be engaged, yet he keeps his soul free, heavenly, peaceable charitable to his greatest enemies, and praying for them that persecute him.

In all times and places a wise Christian will abhorre warre. It is the very empire of the De­vill; and in nothing so much doth he shew him­selfe the Prince of this world. It is the discipline of robbery and murder. It is the deep gulfe of all misery. It is the sinck of all wickednesse and [Page 379]vilany. Yet the best men are often engaged in it e­ven out of conscience & duty, for every one oweth his life to the defence of his Country. But for one to love the trade of Manbutcher, and delight in the hunting of man his owne kind, as others do in the hunting of the wolfe or wild boare, is an unnaturall barbarousnesse, not valour. Who so will keep the integrity and serenity of his con­science, and hopeth for the salvation of his soul, must keep himselfe free from that inhumane in­clination, the true image of Satan, who was a murtherer from the beginning. Gods children are children of peace, which they entertaine in their mind and advance by their prayers and counsels.

There is another warre in the midst of peace, little better then that where the quarrell is de­cided by the sword, the warre of lawsuites, the discipline of cutting mens throats with a pen. There robbery is committed by the due forms of law, there men are flayed alive for others to cloath themselves with their skin. There the profession of giving to every man his owne, is turned by the professours into an invention to make every mans goods their owne. The conten­tions infinite in number and length, and the de­vouring trade of law tricks, is the great plague of these Westerne Provinces of Europe, and the greate shame of Christendome while the Mahu­metan Moores, our neighbours, dispatch suites in [Page 380]an hour, without appeale or writ of errour. He that knowes how to value that precious peace with God and himselfe, and desires to keep it, will endure great extremities before he try that remedy worse then most sicknesses; following St. Pauls lesson, 1 Cor. 6. There is utterly a fault a­mong you because ye go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded? And if he be yet to chose his civill profession, he shall do wisely not to betake himselfe to those professions that live by the contentiousnesse of others. But if he find himselfe necessarily engaged in the practise of Law, he must behave himself in it as a child of peace, sewing up againe, as much as in him ly­eth, what others have rent; like good Princes which never draw their swords but to have peace. Look upon that tumultuous clamorous, & mischievous bustle, & then account it no small happinesse to live far from an aire so contrary to the tranquillity of mind, and the integrity and serenity of conscience.

There are other dissensions without law, and many times without conscience, which begin in envy, suspicions, credulity to reports, & in words ill intended or ill taken, proceeding from words to blowes and many times ending in destruction. The worst effect is within, the breach of the in­ward peace with God in a mans selfe, and the inbittering of the spirit, both of the offendor and [Page 381]the offended, unlesse he be of a very milde, and godly, and Philosophical temper.

To avoyd those troublesome encounters, Solo­mons precept must be observed. Prov. 22.24. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go. But because those that must of necessity converse with many can­not pick their company, and much lesse change the manners of those with whom they converse, they must so govern and temper their owne, by piety and judgement, as never to give a just pro­vocation to any.

Truly there is no fence against unreasonable­nesse; and proud anger will be offensive though unprovoked. Our part must be to breake such mens choller with patience, as woolsacks and ga­bions full of earth are set before the battery of cannons. St Pauls precept to give place unto wrath, Rom. 12.19, is as wise as it is holy; for wrath groweth by opposition, but spends it selfe when one gives it place. If you be fiercely persued by a serpent, do but step aside, the serpent will rush straight on and misse you. And if you be set upon by impetuous choler, give it place by a gentle declination, it will passe-by harmless. Or if you receive reall injury from an angry man, expect no satisfaction from him while he is so, but ap­peale from him in hot blood to himselfe in cold blood.

Contentious insolent men being generally per­sons [Page 382]of small worth, it is a sordid and unworthy imployment to contend with them: For as friendship makes friends equal, quarrells workes the like effect. If we contend with a drunkard or a loggerhead, we make him our fellow. Prov. 26.4. Answere not a foole according to his folly, least thou also be like unto him. If you debate with a foole, you must imitate him, for the debate ob­ligeth you to follow him in all his extravagan­cies.

That contention may not reach us, we must stand far from the contentions of others, and free ourselves of that popular folly to run and croud to heare unknowne persons that are at high words, and be presently interessed in the quar­rell, as when two dogs are fighting, all the dogs of the street will run to them, and take parts. A good and wise man will seek to make peace where possibility invites him, but where he seeth that he can do no good to others he will not ven­ture to do harme to himselfe. Mediations un­lesse they have a great measure of goodness and discretion, make the differences wider and beare the blow on both sides.

To that end a wiseman will be none of the forwardest to give his judgement of every thing, and none of the affirmative and great disputants, that will set forth all their opinions, and evince them by strength of argument: but he will be swift to heare, slow to speake, slow to wrath, as St. James [Page 383]commandeth Jam. 1.19. In which words hee giveth a character of a wise man in conversation, that heares all, makes profit of all, determines of nothing, and is moved at nothing.

And whereas there is in all men good and bad a certaine respect of truth and righteousnes, which at the hearing of untruth and unrighte­ousnes will worke a sudden aversion in the minde, if we will keepe an inoffensive course in conversing with the world, we must learne to silense that aversion, and not let it appeare abroad without an especiall order of our serious judge­ment, accustoming our eyes and eares and coun­tenance to an unmoved patience, not thinking ourselves obliged to oppose all the lyes and im­pertinencies of every one that we meete with, but onely when the good name of God is notori­ously blasphemed. We ought to beare in mind that things true and just in our opinions in the opinion of all others. That we cannot justly claime the liberty of enjoying our opinions unlesse we leave the same liberty to others. That our minds, as all the rest of mankinde, are short­sighted and wrapt up in errour. And we are to give account of our owne, not of other mens fol­lies. For one to beare himselfe as the repairer of all wrongs and reformer of all that is amisse in the world, is an humour that hath much of the veine of old romanses. Crafty and ambitious dea­lers have often got strength by that weakenes of [Page 384]vulgar soules, yea have made even the true zeale to Gods glory tributary to their ambition.

Truly for so high a subject as Gods glory our reason, our will, our Passion, our words, and our actions must be set on worke. But we must take a carefull heed of mistaking madnes for zeale, and superstition for religion. Neither must we think that for such good ends as we may conceive any way is lawfull; there being nothing more cruel and pernicious then a bastard and fanatical zeale. It is the plague of religion, the ruine of the State, and undoing of human society. Better were it to live a slave in the chaines of Tunis and Tripoli, where the bodies are misused without violence to the conscience, then to be yoaked to the tire­some conversation of a fierce, scrupulous, & cla­morous bigot, that will be at peace with no man unlesse every one beleeve at his mode, though himselfe knoweth not what he beleeveth; and al­loweth rest neither to himself or to others. Who so loveth his peace will keepe himselfe from the torture of such an odious companion, and will be yet more careful to keepe his minde free of that impetuous weakenes disguized with the name of holy zeale and wisedome. Iam. 3.15. That wisedome descendeth not from above, but is earth­ly, sensual, devillish; For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evill worke. But the wisedome that is from above, is first pure, then peace­able, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and [Page 385]good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousnes is sowne in peace of them that love peace.

The chiefe way to keepe peace in Society, is meekenes. It takes up quarrels, and tyeth againe the knot of love when it happens to be untyed. It is the balsame that healeth the wounds made in friendship. It is the lenitive of injuries. It is the preserver of peace with God, with men, and with ourselves. Psal. 37.11. The meeke shall inherite the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

There is a bastard meekenes which is nothing else but a base & timorous nature, whereby a man yields all and to all, because he is afraid of all. If that disposition serveth sometimes to prevent discord, it serveth more often to provoke it; for it invites contempt, and gives faire play to insolence. It is farre from maintaining peace within, as true meekenes doeth; for it keepes the mind in perpe­tual feare, and fills it with diffidence and super­stition. But true meekenes is a compound of hu­mility, charity, and generosity, whereby we keepe concord with our neighbours because we love them; And to avoyd quarrel, call prudence and sometimes disdaine, to the helpe of patience; let­ting ill words goe by, as haile clattering over our roofe, and after a noise without effect, falling to the ground, and melting of itselfe.

A meeke generous man will be ingenious to [Page 386]devise excuses for them that offend him: alleadg­ing for them, sometimes the age, sometimes the sexe, sometimes the sicknes of the body, sometimes that of the minde: He will say, This man is other­wise discontented; affliction makes men froward, he deserves rather pitty then anger: That other man hath offended me unwittingly, or he was ill informed; If he layeth a false imputation upon me, he sheweth that he knoweth me not, I must not be angry with a man for mistaking me for another. If he deale unrighteously with me, I must consider that all unrighteousnes proceeds of errour; He hath more need to be taught then punisht; I must not hate a man because he is out of his way: In the offence done to me God is offended first, God then must first ressent it; Venge­ance is Gods not mine. If he that offendeth me is one of Gods children he is beloved of him, and I must not hate him whom God loveth. If he be wicked and will never repent of his wickednes, I need not procure him evill, God is his enemy, and will be sure to make him eternally miserable: But because, for any thing I know, he may repent and be reconciled with God, which I must wish and hope for, I must not be enemy to him that may be Gods friend eternally; He and I were best to be friends on earth least we never meete in heaven.

As in wrestling, so in injuries, that man is the strongest who is lesse moved. The best victory [Page 387]over an enemy is to make him our friend. It is double victory; for so a man overcometh both his adversary and himselfe.

CHAP. II. Of brotherly Charity, and of Friendship.

TO live in concord with our neighbours we must love them, otherwise all our compli­ance and dexterity to keepe concord will be but dissimulation, and though it get us peace abroad it will not give us peace within. My little children; saith St. John let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but indeed and in truth. 1. Ioh. 3.18. Then he addeth that hereby wee know that wee are of the truth, and assure our hearts before God. A text, shew­ing that charity to our neighbours fills the minde with saith, peace, and assurance: a doctrine, justi­fied by the experience of meek and charitable soules. The same charity that unites us with Christ as our head, unites us also with our neighbours as his members, or at least as his crea­tures that beare his image: In the one or the other of these relations we must love all men for Gods sake, and render to them all possible duties of humanity.

To the practice of these duties we are more especially called by the necessity of our neigh­bours, and by their vertue. Necessity affords us a perpetual occasion of charity. Matth. 26.11 For ye [Page 388]have the poore alwayes with you, saith the Lord Jesus. Others that are not poore in estate are poore in counsel, or health, or friends, or comfort: Let every body give of that he hath, to him that hath not, and he sheweth charity to the rich if he doe him good expecting no reward.

Workes of charity doe good both to him that is relieved and to him that relieveth. But he that doeth good, gets more reliefe by it then he to whom it is done: for it is a thing more happy to give then to receive, Act. 20.35. saith St Paul after Christ; first because of the good treasure which is layd up thereby for the future, Pro. 11.25. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himselfe. Giving charitably is casting a seed bringing an everlasting harvest. It is sending up sweete vapours to heaven which are thickened there into a raine of blessings to showre downe upon the head of the charitable person. To which we may joine the great and present content accrewing to the soule in the very act of giving, for good workes give a ready pay to the doers. This made Solomon to say The merciful man doeth good to his owne soul, Prov. 11.17 for the workes of mercy give a great joy to the doer. And he that gives his bread to the poore is more satisfied with it then he that eates it. It is a divine felicity to doe good to many, for it is the greatest imitation of God, who gives to all and is never weary of doing good. Herein onely [Page 389]dignities and riches are good, that they enable a willing mind to doe much good.

As the necessity of our neighbours invites us to charity so doth their Vertue, which is the bet­ter invitation. The first sort of Charity, which regards more the need then the worth of the person, is humanity and mercy; that which regard­eth Vertue is friendship, or at least a beginning of it.

Friendship, to deserve fully that name, must be reciprocall, the parties loving one another dearely because they deserve it, and because they see the graces of God each in the other. Friendship that regards profit and pleasure de­serveth not that name since it is neither for the love of God, nor for the love of the person that such a Friendship is contracted, but out of selfe­love.

Friendship cemented by Vertue, and riveted by likeness in inclinations, manners, and opini­nions, is the sweetest of all human things. For besides counsell and mutuall help, and the de­light of enterchanging thoughts and discharging cares in the bosome one of another, the union of affections, and the assurance to be beloved of the beloved person, is a content not to be exprest; & there is something heavenly in that harmony. It is a little imitation of the union between the persons of the Trinity which make themselves happy by their mutuall love. There is nothing [Page 390]neither in heaven nor in earth that giveth con­tent but friendship. Nothing is pleasant with­out it. And if I were asked what is the greatest of all joyes, I would say that it is to love, and to be loved againe, and know it.

But it must be acknowledged that this per­fection and felicity is more in Idea then in reality among men, and we must go higher then human Society, to find it. For whereas it is hard to find a vertuous man in the world, it is harder to find two. And it is harder yet to make these two meet in opinions, in inclinations, in interesses, in place of habitation, and in the like course of life; for the want of one of these particulars hinders the knitting of the bond of friendship, or makes it shortlived, or abates the comfort of it.

The description which Pagan Philosophy forge­eth of perfect friendship is a fair imagination of an impossible thing; They require two friends or three at the most, but such as were never found, endowed with perfect vertue; That for that vertue these persons love one another, with­out any other obligation or collaterall respect. That these perfect soules be so plunged and blended one within another that they can not owne themselves singled and asunder. That they be but one soul dwelling in severall bodyes. That a friend give himselfe so absolute­ly to his friend that he live no more but for him, [Page 391]yea in him; and that his goods, as himselfe, be his friends, whose interesses he wholly seekes, not his owne.

I wonder that among Christian Philosophers none hath hitherto observed (for any thing I know) what it was that bred that Idea of friend­ship so high and remote from the nature of things, in the fancy of Pagan Philosophers, which yet placed vertue and felicity in living according to Nature; & why they have so universally ado­red that chimera which is found no where a­mong men, like the Athenians that had set up an Altar to the unknowne God.

This is then the origine and ground of that high imagination of those Pagans. They had found by searching the nature of man, that no­thing can make him happy, but love; And that for a beatificall love a man hath need of an object all good, all wise, and all perfect; so perfectly united with him, yea so totally, that both passe the one into the other and make a mutuall free and absolute gift of themselves. But the poore men did not know that object of transcendent goodness, onely worthy to be loved with all the heart and soul: and if some of them acknow­ledged God to be the Soveraine good, they be­leeved not that he could have such a communi­cation with man that both might enterchange a mutuall gift of their owne selves; so, that man should dwell in God, and God in man. Think­ing [Page 392]not then that there might be a contract of friendship betweene God and man, and seeing that it is friendship that must make man happy, they forged that Idea of friendship betweene man & man, of which the condition of man is not capable, requiring for that friendship that which indeed is requisite for felicity, but together is impossible to nature. For so farre they say true, that for a perfect love the soul of a friend must passe into his friends soul. But that being impro­perly and hyperbolically ascribed to love be­twen men, is true and reall in the friendship be­tween God and man sanctified, especially when he is glorified; For God graceth man so much as to make him his friend, and to call him so, I have called you my friends saith Christ to his Di­sciples. Joh. 15.15. And in that friendship there is such a strict union between God and the soul, that thereby the soul is refunded into her original being. The spirit of God gets into mans spirit, and the spirit of man poures it selfe into Gods spirit, as the river falls into the Sea and the Sea floweth into the river; Their wills become one, their interesses one, the glory of God and the salvation of man become the same thing; Man seeking above all things to glorifie God glorifyeth himselfe, and is advanced by deba­sing himselfe out of his love to God, till finally seeing God, and being seene of him, 2. Cor. 3.18. he is changed into the same image, and made [Page 393]partaker of the divine nature. 2. Pet. 1.4.

When the Pagans from their contemplations upon friendship passe to examples, they shew how remote their imaginations are from the na­ture of things, and that their characters of friend­ship are fitter to be lookt on than copied out. For none of these paires of friends, which Anti­quity extolls, is come neere those compleat I­deas which they fancy. Most of them that would strive to expresse them in their practice have made themselves miserable, and their friendship a bondage. Also among the vertuous examples of friendship, they set forth vicious presidents; as that of Blosius who being convented before the Senate about the sedition of Tiberius Gracchus, whose intimate friend he was, and asked what he would have done for him, answered that he would have done any thing at his request. And what (sayd the Judges) if he would have re­quested thee to set the Temples on fire, wouldst thou have done it? I know, replyed he, that Grac­chus would never have had such a will, but if he had desired it of me, I would have done it. I am scandalized to see that answere commended by Christian writers, Montagne and Carron. Let them comment upon it as much as they please, it is certaine that such a deference to a friend's will, is the highest homage that the creature can make unto the Creatour, whose will is the onely rule of righteousnesse. If any preferre his [Page 394]friends will before the observation of that Sove­raine will, his amity is enmity against God, and becomes a plot and a conspiracy to offend him.

These old characters of perfect friendship per­swade some to imitate them, but commonly they are young men, that know neither how to choose what they ought to love, nor how to love what they have chosen; and they that choose a friend with most judgement, and preserve him with most care soone find that human nature, though inricht with grace, affords neither the perfect objects, nor the firme bond, nor the solid content of Friendship.

Yet since we live in the world, we must make friends in it, and leaving heroique characters to romances, content ourselves with such as the earth beares, and neighbourhood presents; chu­sing them such as have, at least, piety, honesty, and ingenuity; matching ourselves with our equalls, or rather a little above us then under, preserving their love by respect and good offices, and conversing with them with a cheerfull and innocent facility

But seeing that a great affection is a great ser­vitude, filling the minde with care and feare, he that loveth his owne tranquillity will take heed how he engageth himselfe in a friendship whose value doth not recompense the interesse he takes in it, and will not suffer his affection for any per­son to grow to the losse of his liberty and peace of mind.

It is a great folly for one to make himselfe miserable out of too much good nature, and to lose the sweetness of friendship by a perpetuall carefulnesse and allarum. Good things become evill to us when we love them beyond measure. There is but one friendship where we may love without any measure, & where the greatnesse of the affection brings rest & serenity to the soul. It is the friendship with God, the only Good perfect and worthy of all our love, who being so great yet is able to contract friendship with us that are so little. If we have the grace to entertaine that friendship, which fills the soul with joy and goodnesse, we shall easily be comforted about the rarity, and weakeness, yea and the losse of humane friendships.

CHAP. III. Of Gratefulnesse.

I Have observed two duties of charity, which contribute much to the Rest and content of the soul; The one is to relieve them that need it; the other, to love them whose vertue deserves it. These two duties require the company of another, which is, To be gratefull to them of whom we have received some benefit. For speaking now to generous soules, I may observe that nothing lyeth more heavy upon their heart, then this reproach of their own mind, that they have not sufficiently shewed their grateful­ness unto their benefactor.

Our first benefactor is God, for to him we owe all, even what we owe to men. We owe him all that we have, and all that we are, our being and our wellbeing. To him then we must do homage for all; and our life being well sustained by a continuall influence of his love, must also be a continuall course of thankfulnesse. That duty we must tend with our words, with our thoughts, with our actions, and more with our affections.

But because the creature cannot properly give any thing to the Creatour, because all is his, who gives all, and receiveth of none but himselfe; our gratefullness to God must be shewed to them whom he hath imployed to do us good.

We must beginne by paying debts. If a friend hath opened his purse to us in our need, or hath helped us with his commodities of which he makes profit, expecting our conveniency to pay for them; It is not only a theft to be slack to satis­fie, it is ungratefulnes, which is farre worse; for the plaine theefe abuseth not the goodnes of his friend; but the ungrateful man renders evil for good, and defraudeth his friend because he had pitty on him. One may doe greater and more profitable kindnesses then lending of money; Yet there is none where ungratefulnes is more sen­sible, because of the love that every one beares to his money, and the trust that is reposed upon it [Page 397]as the staffe of life: Wherefore conscience and generosity must sollicite the debtour to pay, and be stronger then bonds and compulsions of law to bring him to his duty.

St Paul enjoines us to owe nothing to no man but to love one another; A text full of Philosophie: For there are some debts which we must not owe long, as debts for things borrowed and taken upon trust. There are other debts, which we must alwayes pay, and alwayes owe; and though we must repay them presently, yet we must owe them still after we have payd them: Such are the duties of mutual love, and thankfull acknowledgement of kindnesses. Pecuniary debts must be payd that we may be no more in debt; but as for the debt of love, that debtour is an ill paymaster that lookes for an acquittance when he hath payd it. He that is truly gratefull desires alwayes to pay, and alwayes to owe.

Civil life is a perpetual commerce of kind­nesses, a continual giving and returning. It is like a source that springs at the roote of a great oake, and is kept coole by that greene shade which it keepes fresh and verdant. Neither na­ture nor human society can subsist without mu­tual giving and receiving. But fruitful soiles, and generous spirits, will yeeld much more then they receive: Now because it is impossible for us to live in the world without receiving benefits which cannot be returned, it is some gratefulnes [Page 398]to shew to him that obligeth us that we delight to be obliged to him. Est animi ingenui, cui multum debeas, eiaem plurimum velle debere It is a proud and savage humour for one to refuse a kindnes because he knowes not how to repay it in the same kinde or value. It is turning friendship into a bargaine: They that will stick to that Maxime are soone forced to goe from it, though they be never so powerfull; for they that have most, are most needy of helpe, which cannot at all times be repayd. Saepe etiam dives à paupere plura petebat. Mans condition is so needy that every one depends of his neighbours kindnesse. And though we must aspire to that evangelical happines, rather to give then to receive, and study to overcome our benefactours by a noble emulation of beneficence, we must not pretend to that advantage proper to God alone, to oblige all men, and be obliged to none. The satisfaction that we may give to ourselves when we are obliged to one with whom we are like never to meete, or who is so high above us that our bene­fits cannot reach him, is to doe good to others that are unable to doe us the like. Then prayers to God are a commerce, whereby the lowest persons may benefit the greatest. And we must endeavour to make God a surety for us, beseech­ing him to be the remunerator of those benefits which we cannot requite.

CHAP. IV. Of Satisfaction of Injuries.

AS thankfulnes for benefits, so satisfaction for injuries, is necessary to set a generous and religious mind at rest; I meane of injuries that we have done, not of those we have received. Yet we must learne how to behave our selves in both.

As for jniuries received, as a wise Christian must willingly forget the good that he hath done, being content that God remembreth it; so he must forget the injuries that are done to him, and be content that God, to whom vengeance belongeth, keepeth them in remembrance. He must also remember in what need he stands of pardon before God, and that without forgiving he must not expect to be forgiven.

If he be so offended that he be obliged to re­ssent it, he will implore Gods assistance to find honorable and peaceable wayes of satisfaction, and keepe himselfe cleane from blood and re­venge. And if he think his honour to lye at the stake, he must think also that charity and dis­cretion are more honourable then impatience, yea then valour. To keepe integrity and peace of conscience let him sadly consider the horrible consequences of a duell, in which a man either deliberately takes away the life of his neighbour, [Page 400]or himselfe, loseth his owne in the act of mur­ther. Let him feare a perpetual biting remorse, the cry of blood pursuing the murtherer, and the late repenting when one is fallen out with God and his owne conscience for an unprofitable revenge.

Be the lawes of honour among swordmen never so severe, a wise and godly man shall never want wayes, which Gods mercy and wisedome will suggest to his prudence, to come out of quarrels with credit & integrity. Eccle. 7.18. He that feareth God shall come forth of all. Truly he can come forth of a challenge by refusing it, and keepe both ho­nour and conscience, after the example of many brave men, who are with good reason honored for their free opposing of that popular madnes.

That ordinary terme of taking or giving satis­faction with the sword, is as much against com­mon sense as it is against justice; for how can one give satisfaction for an injury by a greater? Is that satisfying a man whom you have offended to goe about to kill him? Or is it satisfying your selfe when you have bin offended to run the haz­ard of being killed by the offendour, and put him in possibility of getting double victory and double triumph over you?

That new point of honour for which men massacre one another, not so much out of hatred as to obey the tyranny of custome, was not knowne in old time among the bravest men. [Page 401]The Romans did not practise it in the flowre of their valour, which conquered the world. But as much as men are decreased in valour, so much are they increased in peevish impatience, which in effect is but weakenes. The strongest trees are lesse stirred by the wind, and the strongest spirits are lesse moved with injuries. As the tops of At­las and Tenerifa are not beaten with haile, for they stand above it; high and magnanimous spi­rits stand above the insolence of rash men, and in that litigious storme keepe their serenity. It is a good rule, to be moved with no fault but such as we commit. If my neighbour offend me, the offense is his, not mine; To him, not to me, it be­longs to ressent it.

Wherefore the injuries, of which we must see the satisfaction made, are those that we have done. If unwittingly or otherwise we happen to doe injury to any man with words or actions, it layeth a sad weight upon our conscience, which we must hasten to unloade, by satisfying the of­fended & ourselves more, for the offense is more in the offendour then in the offended; and when we make satisfaction to him to whom the injury was intended, we doe more for ourselves then for him.

Reparation must be made to God in the first place, for in all offenses he is the first offended party, and this is done by repentance, of which wee have spoken before. That reparation which [Page 402]we make to our brethren, may be acceptable to God it must have these three qualities of godly repentance; It must be speedy, free, and total. As the Sunne must not goe downe upon Our wrath, let it not goe downe upon that of our neighbour provoked by us, if we may prevent it. It is in us (with Gods assistance) to disprove the Maxime which the practice of the Italians hath made true among them, Chi offende non perdona mai. The offender (say they) never forgiveth. It is a great shame indeed to have given offence, but the offense is greater to refuse to mend it. The Lord Jesus our great Master having taken care to heale the wound that his Disciple had made, shall wee refuse to heale the wounds which we have made ourselves? God saith, Vengeance belongs unto me, I will recompense; there he speakes of the injuries done to us: But as for the injuries done by us, vengeance belongs unto ourselves, so farre as to make recompense to them whom we have wronged. Which recom­pense unlesse we make, God will make it. Our wisest course then is to make that recompense sincerely; so may we ease God of that care.

CHAP. V. Of simplicity, and dexterity in Society

PEace with men consisteth in doing and recei­ving no injury. The first (with Gods asist­ing [Page 403]grace) depends of us. Towards the second, though depending of others, we may do much. For the cause why some are wronged and abu­sed, commonly lyeth not so much in the inso­lence of others, as in their owne imprudence.

But the end of this Book (the same as that of our lives) being not onely peace by doing and receiving no injury, but content by doing and re­ceiving good, we must study both how to lead a safe and inoffensive course of life, and how to be usefull to ourselves and others.

That skill we learne of the great Master of wisedome, who hath comprehended it in these two short precepts. Matth. 10.16. Be ye prudent as serpents, and harmlesse [or simple] as doves. These two he makes into one, because they make together an excellent compound, and because they must never be disjoyned. Simplicity with­out prudence would serve onely to make us sheep for the wolves to eat. Prudence without simplicity, though it could get us some peace and utility with men would forefeit our peace with God and our conscience, and so prove meere folly in the end.

How essentiall simplicity is to prudence it is seene in all the parts of conversation, which are reducible to these two heads, Words and Acti­ons.

As for words, it is certaine that simplicity is [Page 404]the most requisite quality, what use soever they be put to, publique or private, religious or civil. And even the discourses made only for elegancy and delectation cannot attaine their end without simplicity; for that gracious expres­sion, and powerfullness of words, which gets the fame of eloquence, is nothing else but sim­plicity managed with dexterity. They that go farre from it and make their style darke to make it shew deep, or bombast it with extrava­gant conceits, and new ill coyned termes, lose elegancy by hunting too eagerly after it; there being no such deadly enemy to grace in speech as affectation. Besides it is found that dis­courses full of affected difficulty are like olive stones, which are very hard because there is no­thing in them; and styles puffed up with words are empty of matter, as some cheating women have bin seene, that appeared great with child when they were big with a pillow. The know­ledge of things, the solidity of reason, and the sincerity of the mind, are the three magazines affording good and gracious discourses. Where those three meet, the more the style is simple the more elegant it is. And in matter of speech, the best service that dexterity can do to right reason, is to deliver in cleare termes those thoughts which the mind hath well disgested. So shall one satisfie others and himselfe.

Affectation is alike ungracious in Words and [Page 405]Actions. Affected persons have that hard fortune that while they study to disguise themselves, they discover themselves most; there being no­thing that betrayes a may so much as affectation doth. His forced countenance, his studied gesture, the odd quaintnes of habit, give an evident cha­racter of a mind disordered by pride, and a na­ture drowned in foolish artifice. Such men are displeasing to God, who loveth truth and simpli­city in the inward parts, Psal. 51. and therefore cannot but be displeasing to themselves, destitute of peace of conscience and contentment of mind. Melancholy is an inseperable companion of constraint, for who can take delight in that which he does against nature? Therefore stage buffoones when their jigge is done are very sad and froward, because they have extraordinarily constrained themselves.

There is a deeper and craftier simulation cal­led hypocrisy, which knoweth how to personate plaine honesty, and put upon fraud the face of simplicity; as indeed without that it is im­possible to cozen. Simplicity and Integrity are of such price among men, good and evill, that without the substance, or the shew of them, it is not possible to entertaine any commerce in the world: And men that have but the shew of these, desire to deale with them that have the substance, because they are true and sure deal­ers. As wicked as the world is, uprightnesse is [Page 406]the safest course to advance a man: for every one will say, He is an honest man, It is safe deal­ing with him. The principall is, that thereby we keep good intelligence with God and with our conscience.

The chiefe prudence then, is to be honest: They that seeke to appeare such, and are not, are im­prudent; for to enjoy the benefit of honesty be­fore men, the sure way is to have it indeed. Counterfeit honesty is false coyne, not safe to trade withall; and in the end, it turneth to the undoing of the false coiner. But honesty and prudence have need to be more in reality with­in, then in shew without. For to make a great shew of honesty gives a great suspition of hypo­crisy; and to make a great shew of prudence is asigne of shallowess. It is better to shew honesty then prudence, because honesty is of greater price, and because every one ought to have it & profess it: Whereas it is a great point of prudence to conceale it, for that man is not very crafty that sheweth his craft. He that sets out much policy in discourse, commonly keepes but little in reserve.

Next to integrity, which is the first counsell of wisedome in conversation, the best counsell is to know ourselves, the business that we take in hand, and the persons that we have to do with; measuring our strength and what we are fit for, that we never meddle with any thing above our [Page 407]capacity, or that we may desist before we be too far engaged. It is a great point of wisedome for one to be able to adequate his imployment to his capacity and inclination. But because the choice of our imployment for all our life is commonly made in our nonage by our parents who are many times mistaken in our genius and ability, or im­ploy us where they can, not where they would; we must by a vertuous resolution, bow our ge­nius to our imployment, and supply the wants of nature with dexteterity.

For this there is need of that vertue which the Italians and French cry up so much, called accor­tezza or accortize. A word, which I recom­mend to my readers, to be made by their coun­tenance free denizon of England, if they like it; Let me not be the onely writer of these times that dares not coine new English. Accortize is a pliableness and dexterity to fit oneselfe to all businesses and persons and times. And first for businesses, a wise and accort man must make unto himselfe an universall and complying spirit, versatile ingenium, to whom nothing seems strange or new, & not so much affected to some certaine things, as to be unfit for all other things. Thales the Milesian Philosopher, being mocked by some Merchants of Miletus, upbraiding him that he declaimed against riches, because he felt him­selfe uncapable to get them, began a traffick whereby in one Summer he engroced the whole [Page 408]trading of the Towne to himselfe; Then having shewed what he could do, he left trading, and returned to his Philosophy. It is a shame for a man of reasonable parts to be fit but for one thing; but certainly if one can sort his imploy­ment to his proper genius, he shall do much for the liberty of his actions, the successe of his en­terprises, and the contentment of his mind.

As we must comply with buzinesses, so we must with persons, whose several natures we should therefore study. To this, natural Philo­sophie will helpe us much, for the inclinations and manners of men will commonly follow the temper of their body. But experience and obser­vation are the best schooles for that skill. We must carefully observe the humours of those persons that are within the sphere of our activity that we may take every man in his humour, marking what things they are most bent upon, and wherein they are most impatient to be crost. Of all the miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost which are ceased, I finde none so much wanting as the gift of discerning the spirits, for want of which we misse so often the compassing of our ends with our neighbours, either for their good or our owne. Jer. 17.9. The heart of man is deceit­full, who can know it? And some natures are hard­er to know then others, and need a longer obser­vation. Some having planted orchards with great care and cost, at thirty yeares end beginne to [Page 409]perceive that the soyle was not fit for trees. And many fathers have missed that comfort which they might have had from their children, because they have knowne their nature too late, and set them upon a course of life unsuitable to their minds and abilities. If fathers are thus short in the knowledge of their owne children, and our­selves with much adoe attaine the knowledge of our owne nature; how shall we be able to know the nature of so many persons with whom we must converse, having to doe every day with new men, which shew nothing but a plausible and artificial outside?

In that great art of Discerning, the proper handles to lay hold of the several spirits, which is the great work of acccotize, honest and wor­thy men must have an emulation not to be over­come by impostors and juglers that make it their whole trade. Truly the children of light have need in this point to turne disciples of the chil­dren of darknes. They know how to perswade the generous with honour, the timorous with feare, the covetous with profit, the voluptuous with pleasure, the proud with praise, the devout with conscience. Of that manner of commerce, of which something is to be taken, something left, the sincere and prudent must learne enough to avoyd circumvention, and to know the several avenues of the spirits with whom he is to con­verse.

Accortize having taught a man to fit himselfe for the several buzinesses and persons, her third worke is to make him discerne the nature of the times, and comply with them as farre as he may with a safe conscience. Every age of the world hath its proper genius, which a wiseman must observe; daily studying the raigning hu­mours, the ebbes and flowes of customes, and the signes of approaching revolutions, either to make benefit of the tyde, or to decline it with as little harme as may be, if it suite not with his consci­ence and inclination.

He that will maintaine or advance himselfe in a time full of revolutions and quick turnes, hath need to be of the nature of ivy, which takes hold of all that stands neere, gets roote every where, even upon stones, and followeth all the turnes of the tree or wall that it sticks unto. Many might have advanced themselves in the world, had their conscience bin as nimble as their industry. But it is not advancement but the peace and con­tentment of minde that a wise and godly man must looke for. Conscience and simplicity are not able to follow all the giddy turnes of the world, especially when one hath a publique im­ployment, where it is as impossible to be hid as it would be treacherous to be indifferent. But when conscience lyeth not at the stake, a wise­man finally must yeeld if he cannot overcome. He must not blow against the wind, nor justle [Page 411]against a windmill turning with impetuosity. The difficulties of life being great and many, and every one being more cleare sighted in his neigh­bours case then his owne, we must in our difficul­ties aske counsell of those whom we know to be wise and honest, and to have no interesse but our owne in the buzinesses upon which we con­sult them. It is better to consult those that are lesse wise then ourselves, then to take counsell of none but ourselves in things important. For two eyes see more then one; Though another have not better eyes, he may looke upon the buzines by another by as; and if he be not capa­ble to give us counsell, he is able to forme ob­jections, which will be so many overtures of counsel. We must heare all 1. Thes. 5.21. Prove all things, hold fast that which is good: be free and benevolent to all, trust but few; but shew no mistrust to any without necessity.

Two contrary faults are the ordinary ruine of businesses, The one is too much fervency and haste to bow the occasion to our desire, whereas we should gently bow our desire to the occasion, and stay till it be ripe. The other is negligence and security, presuming of ones owne merit and fortune, despising oppositions and letting occasi­ons slip. But many times rash men from one of these contraries passe to the other, for fiery and hasty men will soone relent, and utterly ruine by their negligence what they had spoiled before by their hastines.

It would be endlesse and beyond my subject to specifie all the precepts of prudence. Others have eased me of that labour. I doe but recom­mend the study and practise of them to such as will enjoy peace and contentment of minde. We are not Mastes of events, but we ought to be Masters of counsels. If a good counsel be fol­lowed with a sinister event, we beare it more easily when we can beare witness to ourselves that it is not for want of a wise, diligent, and ho­nest care. But he that hath ruined his business through his imprudence hath a double affliction, for his misfortune, and for his folly. I may ex­cuse my-selfe from speaking more of prudence in this Chapter, for all I have said hitherto and have to say hereafter, is nothing else.

CHAP. VI. To have little Company and few Businesses.

I Spake lately of Prudence in Business; But the greatest prudence in business, is to have but few; it being impossible to have many without disturb­ing the peace of the foul. And what imprudence is it, to lose the end for the accessories? especially when one is deceived in those accessories, and mistakes for the helps of his content, the instru­ments of his misfortune. The more wee con­verse with men, the lesse wee converse with God. Yea the content which we might ex­pect by our conversation with men is lost by too [Page 413]much conversation. For whereas among men there are more wicked then good, and among good men there are more unwise then wise, it followeth that in great companies (taking them one with another) there is more evill then good, and more folly then wisedome, and the greater the worse. It is in few friends well chosen, that the sweetness and utility of conversation consist­eth. The lesseyou appeare in the crowd the less shall you be crowded, the lesse secret envy and open quarrell shall you incurre, the less evill shall you learne and doe. It is no wonder that young men are inveigled with temptations, em­broyled in quarrells, and made the prey of cheat­ers; The poore youths are newly come into the world, & to see it they seeke great meetings, they gaze upon all they see, sin for company, or to get experience. But when a man hath seen enough of the world to know it, and hath learned wisedome out of the folly of others, and the mis­cariages of his owne imprudence, he will content himselfe to see the ctowd afar off, and will not thrust into it, and medle too farre with this wick­ed, foolish, and dangerous generation.

We must not speak thus out of a presumptu­ous singularity, so despising the world that we esteem none but ourselves: We must acknow­ledge that we have the world in our heart, and that we also are wicked, foolish and of dange­rous conversation. If the world corrupt us, we [Page 414]also help to corrupt the world. Wherefore as bodies that have the itch; so spirits infected with vice must lye asunder, else they shall in­crease one anothers infection, and the infection must needs be greater where there is a greater number of infected persons: Where the crowd of men is, there also is the crowd of ill customes and popular errours. And if it be hard to resist the temptations of vicious persons when they set upon us single, how can we stand against them when they fall upon us together in a full body? How can we think on any thing but evill when we see and heare nothing else? How can we lift up our hearts to God and converse with him, in a confused noise and tumultuous hurrey, which is the Kingdome of the Devill?

These considerations have moved some holy Fathers to retire into deserts, to have no other company but God, and tend the worke of their salvation without disturbance. But because God will be glorified by us in the duties of humane Society, and hath not sent us into the world only to tend our salvation, that Retreat from the world is excusable in those only, that can do as much, or more good to the world living farre from it as living in Society. Such were those who in their hermitages enricht the treasure of the Church with their divine workes, confuting heresies and increasing the stock of holy learning. But to leave the world to do good to none but [Page 415]ourselves, is frustrating the end which God made us, for since he hath made us for Society, as it appeareth by the ten commandements, most of which regard our duty to our neighbours. A man of good parts that leaveth all Society to me­ditate, and gives no fruit of his meditation to the world, is like the Jordan whose faire and quick water is lost in the lake of Sodom, called the dead Sea; It is to dye living, and lose the quickness of the mind in a gulfe of unprofitable idleness. It is leaving the world in the worst sense, for it is forsaking mankind and denying to Society that Service which we owe. A consideration able alone to trouble that tranquillity which Hermites and cloystred men seek in solitariness. Neither can they make amends to the world by their prayers; for as they pray for us that live in in the world, we pray for them that live out of the world, and so we are even with them.

The Lord Jesus hath taught us how to use solitarines; for he retired by night into the moun­taine to pray, and in the day time he taught the people, and when he was weary of the multi­tude he withdrew himselfe to the company of his disciples, who were a choice of persons whom he honoured with the title of his friends, so sha­ring his time betweene his particular communi­cation with God, his service of the publique and his communication with his singular friends.

One may leave the world, and yet keepe it in his heart; and one may converse with the world, and yet leave it. A godly wiseman may find retirednes in the greatest citties. Hee may passe through the crowd and not stay in it or mingle with it, as the river of Rhosne goeth through the Lemane lake. He will doe service to all if he can, but converse with few. He may enjoy himselfe in a multitude of unknowne per­sons, as if they were the personages of an Arras­hanging; for a man is alone where he knoweth no body, and acquaints himselfe with none.

For his acquaintance he will pick those whose life is vertuous, the spirit meeke, and the con­versation plaine and easy. He will endeavour to deserve their good will with his owne; being ready and assiduous with them when he may serve them, but out of that making his visits short, to oblige them to the like; alwayes leaving his friends company before they be weary of his. In his choyce he will take men such as they be, not depriving himselfe of the benefit of con­versation out of a preconceit of perfect Idea's of worthy subjects of friendship; but since all men are evill and weake, he will be content with those that have lesse evill in them, and that have wisedome enough to know their owne weake­nes. Knowing himselfe full of imperfections he will beare with the imperfections of his friends, expecting of them the like forbearance.

He must labour to have a soule with many stories, which may stoope and rise according to the several conditions and capacities of men, not fearing to speake to Kings, not disdaining to converse with peasants, every where equal, modest, generous, and reasonable, respecting good sense wheresoever he finds it, and he will find it as often under the russet jerkin, as under scarlet and gold lace.

Because he must looke for errour & imperti­nency in al sorts of acquaintance, let him put eve­ry one upon the discourse of those things that he understands best; so shall he doe a kindnes to the company, for every one loveth to speak of that wherein he is expert, & he shall benefit himselfe, fetching from every one the best that is in him.

Let him also fit his minde for all kinds of buzinesses, thinking none too great when they are not above his capacity; for those affaires that have more dignity have not alwayes more diffi­culty: And on the other side thinking no buzines too low when it is necessary, or when it gives him occasion to doe good.

But in general let him charge himselfe with as few buzinesses as he can, I meane those buzi­nesses that engage a mans minde in the tumult of the world, without which he may find buzines enough to keepe him selfe well imployed. Want of preferment is better than want of peace. Let him avoyd those imployments that give, vexati­on [Page 418]and yet draw envy, where a man must conti­nually stand upon his guard, imbark himselfe in factions, and live in perpetuall emulation and contention. The man to whom God keepes the blessing of a quiet life shall bee kept by him from that glittering rack and golden fetters, but the man whom he will aflict shall be given over to be tossed betweene the competition of others and his owne ambition. David shewes us how great is Gods goodnesse which he hath layd up for them that fear him, namely that he wil hide them in the secret of his presence from the pride of man, he will keepe them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Psal. 31.19.20. But what! there are some spirits that love noise, and live by Contradiction, and when old factions are worne out, hatch new ones, sowing quarrels that they may be sticklers, and in such sort arbitrating differences as to make them immortall that so they may never want business. To such men no worse impreca­tion can be made then that they may alwayes have the business which they love; for as they serve the father of discord they are like to share in his reward.

But those are worthy of his compassion, whose serene religious soules, capable and desirous of high contemplation, are aspiring towards the God of peace, but are distracted with contentious businesses, and prest down with worldly imploy­ment, though perhaps too high for their conditi­on, [Page 419]yet too low for mind; which measuring the height of things by their distance from heaven, finds the great Offices of the State very low, be­cause they are deeper in the earth, and further from heaven; then other Offices of an obscurer note. Who would not pitty a great person that hath scarce time to eate and sleepe, that must have a light brought to his bed to make dispatch­es before day, and when he goeth to the Court hath much adoe to get out of his yard through the crowd of suitors? and in that clogge of bu­sinesses, what time hath he to examine the state of his conscience and labour to advance his uni­on with God? Where is any gaine able to coun­tervaile that loss?

But there are more persons undone for want of businesses, when they have not the capacity to find themselves worke of some utility, especially when the love and feare of God have not taken root in their hearts. For there being in the soul three Offices or audits, the first for contemplation, the second for passion, and the third for action; when a mans mind is unfit for contemplation, & wants action, he giveth himself wholly unto pas­sion: Then a man tickleth himselfe with evill desires and vaine hopes, gnawes his heart with envy and spite, and torments himselfe with im­patience; these vices being bred and fed by idle­nesse. Such men having nothing to do, devise e­vill or uselesse businesses, going up and downe all [Page 420]day long like swallowes that flye round not knowing for what, walking from one end of the Town to the other to visit one that will not be at home when they aske for him, or is put to his shift to be rid of their company. Of that kind are most of those that thrust one another in the street, as buzy as if they had three Chancery suites to solicit; then returne home late, weary, and sweating, having found the invention to tire themselves and do nothing. In effect, an idle life is more painfull and wearisome then an active and negotious life. It makes one sad, trouble­some, and vicious. He that doth nothing cannot but do evill, as grounds left untilled will bring thistles

But he that hath an ordinary employment, of some utility to the publique, hath no leasure to attend vaine and evill actions, nor to be sad; By doing good he contenteth his conscience and maintaines the serenity of his mind, so that he embrace no more then he can hold: They that will doe too much good, do it ill, and do harme to themselves. It is a preposterous diligence when it brings vexation to a mansselfe.

Rich old men should do wisely to give over busy imployments of the world vvhich require a whole man, to give themselves wholly to the of­fice of man, as he is a man and a Christian. If they be speculative, judicious, and experienced men, they may do more good to the world in [Page 421]their retirement then in the crowd of busines­ses.

They that lead an active life ought not to give but lend onely their mind to the businesses of the world. A wise man will follow his world­ly occasions with diligence and industry, but he will not transubstantiate himselfe into them. In our busiest imployments let us retire often with­in, to enjoy God and ourselves, labouring chiefly to preserve his favour and our peace. Without these, all labour is superfluous or evill, and gaine becomes damage,

CHAP. VII. Of Moderation in Conversation.

IT is a most necessary provision for any man that will lead a peaceable life, in this age and these regions, torne with diversity of parties; Mens minds being so generally exulcerated, that in casuall meetings either they cast a suspicious eye upon their Contreymen because they know them not, or abhorre them because they know them. Here then there is need of a meek, com­pliant industrious and universall mind, retired within himselfe, and healed of that epidemicall itch of light-brained men, to declare all their o­pinions, and inclinations, and quarrell with all that are otherwise disposed.

It is an old and usefull observation, that God hath given us two eares and one mouth, to teach [Page 422]us that we ought to heare more then speake. To which it may be added, that we have no eare-lids to keep our eares from hearing, and often must heare against our will; but our mouth shuts na­turally, and we may keep our tongue from speaking, unlesse by our intemperance we lose that priviledge of nature.

God indeed hath not given us a tongue to hold our peace: But, that we may use it so that our neighbours may receive good by it, and we no harme, there is need of a great measure of charity and discretion.

To that end a wise man will not be the chiefe speaker in an unknowne or dangerous company, but be content to second those that are more able or more willing to speake, unlesse the dis­course be like to turne to a contentions matter, for then it will be prudently done to put the company upon some innocent discourse accept­able to all. But companies are apt to speake of that which hath the vogue; of points of State in factious times, and of points of religion almost at all times.

As for points of State any man may be bold to interrupt the discourse, saying, Let us leave State businesses to Statesmen.

The discourse of religion, the great occasion of falling out, must be turned, if we can, to the use of comfort and amendment of life, rather then arguing about points of beleefe. Indeed we [Page 423]we are commanded to be alwayes ready to give an answere to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us, 1 Pet. 3.15. Which when we are cal­led upon, we must doe it as the text modifieth it, with meekenes and feare; not with bitternes & con­tention. And the Apostle requires of us to be ready to answere, not eager to question. Reason serveth to convince, but charity is the chiefe and welnigh the onely way to perswade. Vehemence will make an adversary stiffer, for even the force of an insoluble argument, though calmely propounded, makes no other impression upon prejudicate spirits but to make them startle; and finding no helpe in reason, to leane the more fiercely upon passion. Though you stop your ad­versaries mouth, you shall not thereby convince his reason; and though you convince his reason, you shall not turne his beleefe: For that, you must winne his affection, and affection is not wonne with Syllogisms; for I speake of men not such as they should be, altogether ruled by right reason; but such as they are for the most part, blinde and heady, having their reason enslaved to custome and passion. There is great difference betweene convincing and converting: The first may be done by the goodnes of the cause, or the subtility of the disputant; But converting is the worke of God onely. It is enough to perswade us that spirit and soule are too different things, when we see spirits capable of the highest Philo­sophical [Page 424]reasons to be unable to understand plaine reasoning about matters that concerne their salvation. In vaine shall you convince the spirit with reason, unlesse God open the eares of the soule.

In such meetings, in stead of seeking wherein we differ, and falling out about it, we should seeke wherein we agree, and praise God for it. If newes were brought to us of the discovery of a great Christian Empire in Terra Australis, where they beleeve the holy Scriptures, and the Creed, and receive the foure first General Coun­cels; No doubt but it would rejoyce us much, and we would love them though they differed from us in the doctrines built upon those common grounds. And why doe we not beare with our neighbours and countrey-men who agree with us in so many fundamentall points, who wor­ship the same God, Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost; who embrace the promises of the Gospel in Jesus Christ, and endeavour by the love of God and the exercise of good workes to glorifie God and attaine to his kingdome? Could we abhorre one another more if one partie worship­ped Christ and the other Mahomet? Even where the quarrel was onely about points of Discipline, the dissension was heated even to confiscations, battells, and sacking of townes; So furious is superstition, and funest in its effects, what par­ty soever it take; for it is found in good and evill [Page 425]parties, being natural to all weake and passio­nate soules: If it maintaine falshood it dishon­oureth the truth by putting a wrong byasse upon it. It is a compound of ignorance, pride, rashnes, and cruelty; All which moulded with a bastard zeale, and infused in black choller, make up the most malignant venome of the world.

For one that is of the stronger party it is inso­lence to provoke him that is of the weaker in the most sensible point of all, which is conscience. And for him who is of the weaker party to pro­voke him that is of the stronger, it is both inso­lence and folly.

In a milde and well composed spirit, the dan­gerous errours of others moove pitty not hatred; And if pitty sets him on to reduce them to the saving truth, prudence will take him off betimes from that designe when he seeth it impossible; And it is impossible when charity will not doe it, which must not be violated for any pretence whatsoever. Psal. 85.10. Mercy and truth shall meet together, righteousnes and peace have kissed each other. Truth cannot be establisht without mercy, nor righteousnes without peace. Making breach in charity to preserve faith is demolishing the roofe of the Church to mend the walls. Having found by the trial of a hundred yeares that bat­tells and syllogisms will bring no general con­version, let us fight no more but by prayers, and let all parties strive for the palme of charity and [Page 426]moderation. The two rivers of Danubius and Sauns falling into one channel goe thirty leagves together unmingled. If the difference of our opinions will not suffer us to mingle, yet we may joine. Let us goe quietly together in our common channel, the State where we live, tend­ing to the same end, the publique peace and the glory of God. This conceit I owe to that blessed sonne of peace, that rare teacher and high pat­terne of moderation and tranquillity of minde the right Reverend Bishop Hall, who hath not written one onely booke of Christian moderation; but all his learned and gracious workes, and the whole course of his wise and religious life are a perpetual comment upon that golden vertue.

When we conferre of any matter with per­sons of a different tenet, our end must ever be to find the truth not to get the victory. And that end must be sought with a meeke and moderate way. That milde course will yeeld us a double benefit, for it will preserve the liberty of our judgement, which is taken away by the heate of dispute and precipitation. A hasty disputant will soone be brought to non plus. Besides when good sense is assisted with moderatiō, it sinks better in­to the adversaries reason, as a soft showre soakes the ground better then a stormy raine. A mod­erate rational man either shall win the assent of his adversary or his good opinion.

Railing and insultation are offensive, more to [Page 427]him that useth it then to them that are misused by it, for when passion riseth high in words, it giveth a prejudice to the hearers, that reason is out of combat. Anger is an ill helpe to reason for it disableth reason from helping itselfe. Dogs that bark much seldome bite, for it is feare that makes them barke.

Great and good workes are done with little noise. So was the worke of salvation done, the best of all workes: Of the Author and finisher whereof Isaiah saith, He shall not strive, nor lift up, not cause his voyce to be heard in the streets: Isa. 42.2. Wherefore when Devills possessing mens bo­dies cryed out in his presence, He commanded them to hold their peace, for the Devill loves noise and tumult, but God loves peace, meek­ness, and serenity.

It is a precept fit for the Gospell of peace, Let your moderation be known of all men. Phil. 4.5. The word of the Text [...], properly signifies equity. Of that equity the grand rule is to do to others as wee would have others doe to us. Which in the point of conversation, our present matter, ought to make us deale with others with that patience respect and moderation, which we expect of them; not setting forth our opinions imperiously, nor rejecting the opinions of others arrogantly, remembring that all men by their na­turall condition (never throughly mended by grace in this life) are inwrapt in a deep mist, and that all our reasoning is groping in the darke; [Page 428]Let us passe gently over the errours of our neigh­bours to oblige them to the like kindness.

If we knew how few things we know, and how lamely, we would make use of reason and discourse rather to seeke instruction then to pro­nounce aphorisms. If we find ourselves capable to cleare a matter, let us do it without awing the company with peremptoriness, or wearying it with multitude of words. No discourse is profi­table when it is tedious. In every matter there is commonly but one essentiall reason, or two at the most. More reasons serve for illustration, or to fill up, and many times to invalid the true rea­son. Three good reasons for the same thing, are worse then one.

The greatest use, and indeed the greatest trial of moderation in conference, is to avoyd con­founding the interesse of the thing with the in­teresse of the person, of ones selfe especially. For where shall you finde those serene unmoved minds, who hearing their opinion taxed of igno­rance & folly wil not presently start & take more paine to prove, that they are no fooles then to weigh the reasons, and judge impartially where the truth lyeth? Most men being thus disposed, he that will oppose their opinions must proceed with great moderation, lest that, being touched in credit and personal ressenting, they make the truth suffer for their private interesse. We must charitably consider that every one loveth the [Page 429]productions of his owne braines, as his children, and is sensible of the abuse offered unto them. And we must bring our charity to this beleefe that every one is in good earnest of the opinion which he professeth, and thinks himselfe to be in the right. Il proprio parer non ha mai torto. You beleeve he is in an errour, he beleeves the same of you, And he will never think himselfe to be in the wrong, till it be represented to him with solid reason, sweetened with singular meekenes and respect.

Moderate and ingenuous spirits (O how rare they be?) finding themselves prest with reason and truth, will freely yeeld the bucklers; They winne, when truth overcomes. But it is a flight, to use fradulent shifts, opposing right reason with sophistry, and when a man is overcome, & is a­shamed to yeeld, throw dust in the eyes of his ad­versary. That peevish and ungenerous point of honour is learned in our Schooles, never to yeeld any thing as long as one can maintaine it by right or wrong. One errour is defended by another, and a man comes to beleeve in earnest, that which he had alledged before out of despaire.

It is also a point of moderation to consider ma­turely what it was that gave occasion to the opi­nions and practises which are deservedly con­demned. There is no doctrine so horrible, no disorder so foule, but there is much to learne out of it. Looke to the source: Something will [Page 430]bee found obscure or ill expounded in the termes of the received doctrine, or some excesse or defect in the ordinary practise, which gives occasion of exceptions, and then of seperation, and againe of opposition and faction to scrupu­lous and turbulent spirits. There is no rebellion but was occasioned by some fault in the Sate. Let us never looke upon those publique trans­gressions but with a reflection upon the causes. Which if they be past our mending, we must try whether we may mend ourselves by them; learning by the faults of others and the occasi­ons, moderation in our judgement, and compassi­on of humane weakeness, which is uncapable of a sincere and constant keeping of any good, loseth the benefit of good things by turning them to the wrong side, laboureth to cure one evill by a greater, and killeth the patient to heale the disease.

Solomon who had beheld all the good & evil of the world with a judicious eye, upon that dis­course giveth us this precept of moderation. Be not righteous overmuch, neither make thy selfe overwise. Eccles. 7.16. He that censureth too magistrally the evill that is done in the world by errour of judgement and rashness of passion, con­sidereth not enough the infirmity of mankind and his owne, and sheweth that he knoweth not the world. Errour, vanity, superstition, the ru­ines of warre and the vices of peace, faire pre­tences [Page 431]and ill deeds, private ends cloaked with publique good, the advancement of few men consisting of the depression of many, the zeale of idiots setting up a ladder for the rising of the am­bitious; All these are the course of the world. So it went before our time; So it will go after. Eccles. 7.10. Say not thou what is the cause that the former dayes were better then these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisemen are ama­zed at nothing, and make profit of all.

CHAPTER. I. To content ourselves with our Condition.

WEe have sought peace with God, with ourselves, and with our neighbours. To that end we have endeavoured to fortifie our soules against wrong opinions and unruly passions. And that we may walke with an even & steady march [Page 432]through Prosperity and Adversity, we have stu­dyed to dye our minds with the right temper of vertue. Our harvest is done. This last Book will be but gleaning in the same field. Let us gather some singular counsells proper for our main end, either omitted before, or worthy to be further insisted upon.

Let the first Counsell be that great preserver of tranquillity, to content ourselves with our condition. This counsell depends of another, much urged before when we spake of the exer­cise of vertue in adversity, which is to will what God wills; a right Christian & reasonable lesson. To any that is in his right sense this reason ought to be sufficient to make him contented with his condition, that it was so disposed by Gods wise­dome. He will haveit so. It is rebellion and folly to have a contrary will.

This ought not to be a barre to our industry and keep us from mending the incommodities of our condition; for God putting us in an uneasy con­dition, doth not oblige us thereby not to seek to be better. Those to whom God hath given no other stock but their industry, have reason to think that God will have them to make the best of that excellent patrimony. Piety and Philoso­phy are no counsellours of lazinesseand neglect of ourselves. A poore man is content with his con­dition when he is pleased with that necessity which God layeth upon him to maintaine him­selfe [Page 433]by his diligence, and supply by his vertue the want of an inheritance. A condition com­monly more happy then that of great heires whose intellectuall parts are many times dulled or corrupted with plenty, which puffeth them up with Pride and enflames them with lust. He that is kept in humility and temperance by his short meanes must praise God for it, and make the best of the benefits of poverty, the chiefe whereof is, that it helpes a man to weane his heart from the world, and raise it unto God.

The rich and great having more cause to be contented with their condition have neverthe­lesse more need to be exhorted unto it, because they are more subject to be discontented, for ease breeds wantonness and makes a man to be in­commôded with his owne commodities. This is that sore evill which Solomon saw under the Sunne, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. Eccles. 5.17. Many rich men eate their bread in darknesse all their dayes, and with a covetous or envious sorrow make their plenty their crosse.

That ungratefull sorrow proceeds from an ex­cessive love of ourselves and the world. We love ourselves so much that we think nothing good enough for us; And the world so much that we can never have enough of it. Now al im­moderate love is accompanied with great care, and that care sowreth all the svveetnesse of our life.

These two loves then must be cut very short. He that will love and esteem himselfe but little will be content with little. And he that with­drawes his love from worldly things, shall soon have as much of them as he needs.

To weane ourselves from the love of ourselves and the world, we must study to get a strong per­swasion of the wisedome and goodness of God, and a firme confidence in his love. Suppose that God should spread with his rich and liberall hand all the treasures of the world before us, and give us our free choice to take what we would; Could we do more wisely then to put the choise to him againe, and beseech him to choose for us, because he knowes what is fit for us better then we do, and loves us better then we love our­selves? Well, this is our condition; God hath chosen for us; Let us stand to his choyce with humility and thankfullnesse, and rest con­tented.

It is an appurtenance of the condition which God hath allotted us, that we must continually labour to mend it; though we should have no de­signe to raise it: for our temporal is condition like our houses, which must often be repaired, else they would sinke downe. All humane things are in a continuall decay; But God hath given prudence to man to underprop his tottering for­tune, or to build it anew, and make it more com­modious: So much we may do and yet be con­tent [Page 435]with our condition, gently submitting our minds to that generall law of the life of our vanity (as Solomon calls it) which binds us to toyle continually to maintaine ourselves. In that toyle if the successe smile upon us and invite us to advance, though we were content with our condition before, we may better it. If notwith­standing our industry our fortune go back, our desire also must go back with our fortune, and be content with lesse; in both conditions looking up to the good hand of God, whose actions are all mercy to them that love him and trust to him.

To that end we must aske of God a meek, religi­ous, equall, & constant mind; not seeking content in things that are about us, but in things within us, labouring to have God there; for when all is sayd and tryed it is the onely way to be content in all conditions. God being alwayes the same, he that possesseth God is partaker of that divine attribute in his measure, and in the ebbings and flowings of his temporall condition remaines al­wayes the same, because the possession that makes him happy is within him and in heaven together, not subject to exteriour changes, not tyed to things under the Sunne.

As he that hath a vigorous body, and the noble parts sound wil eat browne bread & grosse meat with good appetite, but to a sick man pheasants are unsavoury. So to him that hath a sound con­science, [Page 436]and God abiding in it, the meanest con­dition is pleasant; but a man of an ill consci­ence that hath the burning fever of covetous­ness and ambition, taketh delight in nothing, though he had all things. He that possesseth God hath this advantage above all other men that he he is content with much, and with little, and with nothing. Therefore, to speake exactly, we should not say that he that possesseth God is con­tent with, but in his temporall condition; for it is not from his condition that his contentment ari­seth, it is from God.

CHAP. II. Not to depend upon the Future.

THis Counsell is part of the precedent: for that we may be contented with our condi­tion, it is necessary for us not to depend upon the future. He that can bring his mind to that, shall not live suspended with desires and expectations, and shall not lose the enjoyment of the present to catch at that which is to come. When the suf­ferings of the present makes us long for the fu­ture, it is lesse strange and more pardonable. But it is ordinary that covetousnesse, curiosity, & wantonness, produce the same impatience in some men, as extremity of paine in others. Many sick of too much ease will speak like Job, in his torments; Job. 7.4. When I lay downe I say, When [Page 437]shall I arise and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day. Is the day dawned, they wish it were done. This perpetual agitation is a most evident signe of a sick mind, which makes his sicknes worse with that only thing whence he hopes for amendment, which is change. The future which afarre off seemed pleasant unto him displeaseth him when it is become present; neither doth any thing please him but what he hath not and cannot have. By this expectation of the future, a man hath his head torne betweene feare and hope as a stagges head betweene two hounds, so sore they bite and torment the minde. There is no condition more miserable, and no state of the soule more contrary to the nature of God whom his children ought to imitate: Nothing sets a man further from God, who expects no new thing from the future, because all is present to him. With whose constancy we have some parti­cipation when we stay ourselves upon him, our present and eternal good, and depend not upon the uncertaine future. The godly wiseman aspires onely to one certaine future, the full possession of his soveraine good, which as yet he doth but un­perfectly possesse; As for the doubtfull future he leaves it to Gods providence, in whose respect that which is doubtful to us is certaine and in­fallible. Since our care can alter nothing in it why should we vexe our heart about it? If evill [Page 438]must come, let us not hasten its comming by our apprehension; and if good must come, let us not spoile it by our impatience.

The consideration of the decrees of Gods pro­vidence which ought to ease us of care must not bereave us of prudence, for the prudence of man is employed by the providence of God for the execution of his counsels. So when prudence calles upon us to give order for the time to come, we need but follow this rule, To doe what we ought and can doe, and let God doe what he will. By that meanes we shall keepe the wise medium between diffident care and imprudent negligence: Fol­lowing with an ingenuous simplicity the dictates of prudence and conscience, trusting in God, and doing good, we shal not be distracted betweene trembling feares and ardent desires for the time to come, being confident that whatsoever may happen to us, either good or evil, all will turne to our good, as long as we stick fast to our sover­aine good which is God.

That we may not depend of the future we must study to keepe our minde free of that dis­ease of the vulgar sort, the curiosity of things to come, whether they concerne them or no, onely because they are to come. This is a natural in­heritance of the presumption of our first parents who would know that which belonged to God onely to know. For the knowledge of the future belongeth to God onely, and yet men pretend to [Page 439]it. Both the knowledge which is proper to us and that which is forbidden, is set downe in this di­vine lesson, Deut. 29.29. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are re­vealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that we should doe all the words of Gods law.

Neither is that curiosity excused with the desire of avoyding evill to come; for if it must come it cannot be avoyded by knowing it before. It is enough to expect inevitable evils, we need not send for them by our curiosity.

Observe that the most curious of the future are none of the best men, but persons of an un­bridled greedines, and set upon ill ends. None consulteth southsayers to doe a vertuous action. A good soule, that trusteth in God and feares him, will patiently expect his good pleasure, saying, Isa. 12.2. Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afrayd; Come what will, it will come from God, and nothing but good can come to me from that good hand, since God is my fa­ther. But evil consciences tremble at the thought of the future, and at the same time burne with desire to know it, and because they cannot know it of God they are easily perswaded to aske it of the devil.

As they are none of the best so they are none of the wisest that are most carryed away by that curiosity, but the weakest natures, as simple maydes, that easily find inventions to see in their [Page 440]sleepe what they desire when they are awake. Persons of the meanest condition and capacity are most eagerly set upon the knowledge of the future, and finding some fright in their consci­ence when they goe about those inquisitions, they stop their eyes not to see the iniquity of their ends and wayes.

That wilfull blindnes is increased by the craft of Satan, presenting wayes in themselves indif­ferent to these silly curious minds, which consi­der not that the harme doth not consist in using such words or gestures, but in ascribing to them an unnatural vertue without warrant of the Ma­ster of nature, and in seeking to see that which God hath hidden. Certainly since God hath hid­den the future, to goe about to lay it open, is a worke proper to the profest undoer of Gods workes.

Curiosity of the future carryeth many so farre as to make a covenant with the devill. Who yet stands not so much upon his points as to refuse to be consulted by those that have made no cove­nant with him. No doubt but this pride is tickled with a mischievous delight when he seeth men seeking to him for that which is proper to God and herein yeelding to him divine service.

Which service that he may receive in a civil and occult way from the fine sort of wits, he hath devised some seeming sublime divinations, per­swading them that the decree of God about hu­mane [Page 441]events is written in the motions and se­veral aspects of the starres, and therefore that this sort of divination is lawfull, yea divine.

The evills that come from that perswasion are numberlesse, for the silly reverence which vulgar spirits deferre to these predictions makes them wilde, and sets them upon the fullfilling of them, because they account them unavoidable. The worst evill is, that thereby mans minde which ought to dwell at home is transported out of himselfe, & instead of reposing upon the love and wisedome of God is suspended upon the Dra­gons tayle and the Ascendant of an Horoscope.

The histories of the Greeke Emperours Alexi­us and Manuel are lamentable examples how credulous persons are undone by the imposture of Astrologers when they expect from the Starres those successes which ought to have bin wrought by piety, prudence, and valour. That unlucky art cuts the sinewes of industrie, and makes men idle, greedy, and inconsiderate.

This reasoning I recommend to the calme judgement of the lovers of that Science. All affirmation is grounded either upon reason or authority. The assertions of judiciary Astrology are of the last kinde, for no reason can be given of their Maximes. Now the authority upon which these Maximes are grounded must be ei­ther divine, or humane, or devillish. They are not grounded upon divine authority, but are [Page 442]expressely forbidden by it. God will not have us to be dismayed at the signes of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them, Jer. 10.2. and threatens the Astrologers, the starre-gazers, & monethly prognostica­tours, that they shall be as stubble, & the fire shall burne them. Isa. 47.13. Human authority in this case is of no weight, for who hath given power to men to dispose of the severall Offices and preheminences of celestial bodies? It remaines then that these maximes are grounded upon diabolical autho­rity. In effect, since they are not grounded upon reason, either they are forged by men, or deliver­ed by revelation; and if that revelation come not from God, it must needs come from the devill.

The truth of this sentence, that man is an enemy to his owne content, is seene in nothing so much as in that itch of curiosity to inquire af­ter the future. Whereas we ought to acknow­ledge that our ignorance of the future is the onely infirmity which we have reason to be well pleased with. God hath done much for mankind to have hid the future from them. For if besides present afflictions we had distresses to come be­fore our eyes, there is no constancy but would breake under that weight. Many owe their pre­sent tranquillity to their ignorance of the cala­mities that waite for them.

But it is not the hope of future wordly content that must hold up our minds. The life after this life is the onely future, upon which we must de­pend. [Page 443]And after we have sublimated our hopes and untyed our affections from the earth, if it please God to send us some worldly prosperity, it will be the more welcome because it will come unexpected, as a gaine over and above the bargaine.

CHAP. III To retire within ones selfe

HE that hath learned to know the world and himselfe, will soone be capable of this counsell. The world being foolish and wicked, it will be a wise part to retire (as much as the duties of conversation will permit) from that contagion which may impaire us. Persons that have some goodnesse in their soul have a closset where they may retire at any time, and yet keep in Society.

That closset is their owne inside. Whereby I understand not all that is within man, for the Appetite is not the closet but the outward Court where all the tumult is; there the Passions are entertaining the externall objects, or quar­relling with them. But that inside to which the wiseman must retire is his judgement & consci­ence, thence to impose silence to passions and hush all the noyse below, that with a calme and undisturbed mind he may consider the nature of the persons and things which he converseth [Page 444]with what interesse he hath in them, and how farre they are appliable to Gods service and to the benefit of himselfe and others.

We judge better of things when we are little interessed in them, for then we are lesse apt to forestall our judgement with our affection. Then to possesse a cleare, free, and uningaged judge­ment among the things of this world, we should learne well how little interesse we have in them, and that we are strangers in earth; whence in­ferre St. Peters doctrine Dearely beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrimes abstaine from fleshly lusts. 1 Pet. 2.11. For why should we entertaine any eager desire for things that concerne us but little? Even among Pagans the wisest lookt up­on the goods of this world as things which they needed not, and retired within their own breasts, which they called their home, there to enjoy vertue their onely good. The wise Christian having that high advantage that he may enjoy within his breast both vertue and God himselfe, hath more reason to keep within that home, and look upon things without, with an indifferent eye. For when as Pagan Philosophers called themselves Cittizens of the world, the Christian acknowledgeth himselfe astranger in it; for he doth but travell through the earth to his heaven­ly Country, which they knew not. A traveller looking out of the window of his Inne upon a country Faire, doth but lightly amuse his eyes [Page 445]with the variety of course pedling wares, and the buzy stirre of buyers and sellers; but his minde is upon his journey, and he will not make one in that crowd. With the like indifference the wise Christian looks upon the hurry of the world, and the confused diversity of humane things, not crowding for them, or setting his heart upon them; for his journy towards heaven calls him away, and to heaven he hath already sent his heart before.

That disinteressed disposition towards the things of this world ought not to make us care­lesse and negligent; neither must we do any businesse by halfe: Keeping that prudent and godly temper to apply our mind, not our heart, to worldly things; never forgetting, while we tend them with diligence and industrie, that they are unworthy to possesse the whole man, who is made for better things.

There is no possession sooner lost then that of ones selfe. The smallest things rob us of it. A sight worthy of contempt, if not rather of com­passion, is a man sharp-set upon play, whose spi­rit hurried out of his true home by the greedines of gaine, is swelled with hope, and quaking for feare hanging upon the chance of the dice. Had one driven us from our house we would cry a­loud for justice against him; But we dispossesse ourselves from the possession of our reason by our violent passions, and refuse to do justice to our­selves. [Page 446]How many for a Mistresse or a preferre­ment lose their meat and their sleep, have no o­ther thought all the day long, and no other dreame all the night? their soules are no more at home, but dwell with their neighbours, if we may call dwelling a perpetuall running after hopes that flye from them. To such men this counsell is most proper, Tecum habita, Dwell at home. Keep possession of your soul. Suffer not any thing to steale you away from your selfe. There is neither profit nor pleasure worth so much, that the soule should goe from home to get it. Let none sooth up his eagernes about his sports with the plea of lawfull pastimes; Nothing is lawful that steales the soule from God and a mans selfe. When I see a man run­ning after his bowle, and following it with bles­sings or curses: Another melting with sweat in a tennis-court, more overheated yet in his passion then in his body, contending with high words about a chase; then say I with compassion. Alas here is a soule put out of possession of herselfe, a man that hath forgotten his origine and his dignity, having his reason enslaved to his passion, and his passion subjected to things of no value; which being in their nature uncapable to be his masters, he hath found a way to make them so by his wilful slavery. One is allwayes a looser at that game which robbes his soule of serenity. It is an unlucky game that gives to the noblest part [Page 447]of man those great irregular motions which should not be pardonable for the conquest or the losse of an Empire. Nothing is so great that for it we should set our mind out of frame. A wiseman neither in jest nor earnest ought to subject him­selfe to any external object, or suffer his soule to stirre out of her place, and runne into disorder. Utility and Pleasure sought by disorderly moti­ons are lost even by seeking.

Of this counsel to retire within onesselfe, this is a branch, To keepe company with a few well chosen persons, lending ourselves freely to them but giving ourselves to none but God, nor suffer­ing friendship to grow to slavery. With all sorts of men we must deale ingenuously, yet reserved­ly, saying what we think, but thinking more then we say, least we give power to others to take hold of the rudder of our mind, the thing that all crafty negotiatours aime at. Let them not be admitted by too much familiarity to know the weake avenues of our soules. For in all soules there are some places weaker then the rest. These every one should endeavour to know at home, and view them diligently, there to double the fortifications of piety and wisedome, taking heed of lying uncovered that way.

Also to enjoy that selfe-retirement we must keepe ourselves, as much as we can, impartial among the diversity of parties and opinions. Where the question is not absolutely of our duty [Page 448]and salvation, we must put on the patience to see and heare, and say nothing. How many truths in the world are of that nature, that it is better not to defend, yea not to examine them, then to trouble the world or onesselfe about them? How many rights, which it is better to leave altoge­ther undefended, then to wrong our serenity to maintaine them? And how many controversies of which the pro and con is false? Some conten­tions in this age are such, that a man of good sense must not care where is the right or the wrong. Among so many turbulent actours, he must content himselfe to be a beholder, judge of the blowes; and stand out of their reach.

CHAP. IV. To avoyd Idlenes.

THis counsell will be a graine of salt to sea­son the precedent. For it is the excuse of idle persous that will appeare contemplative men, to say that they will judge of all, and meddle with nothing; whereas they should be imployed about their owne buzinesses, that they might have no leisure to meddle with the buzi­nesses of their neighbours.

Indeed the practise of this counsel is necessary for the observation of the three counsels of which I spake last. To be content with our condition we must avoyd idlenes, for the soule of the sluggard [Page 449]desireth and hath nothing, saith Salomon, Prov. 13.4 Idlenes makes a man needy and covetous. But diligence makes his condition eazy. A great delight it is too see the fruit of our owne in­dustry.

Likewise that we may not depend from the future, we must avoyd idlenes: for idle men are gaping after the future, because lazines makes the present time bitter unto them. Dayes and houres seeme to goe a slow pace to him that expects of fortune what he might and will not obtaine of his diligence.

And as for the third counsel of retiring within ones selfe, idlenes is very much contrary to it, for a man that doeth nothing groweth tedious to himselfe, and seekes out of himselfe how he may cozen the wearisome houres, Act. 17.21. All the Athenians and all the strangers that were at Athens spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to heare some new thing: For idlenesse is the mother of curiosity. It makes a mans mind to gad a broad and keeps it in a perpetuall pilgrimage; for the mind is never at home but when it keeps neere God, and is employed in some good thing.

The mind is never content till it be fixt, and it will not be fixt but upon imployment. Who so will content his mind let him do what he ought to do, for nothing brings more sadnesse to the mind then a wandering idlenesse. I call idleness [Page 450]not onely to sit with ones armes a crosse but to give oneselfe to an evill or uselesse labour. For many have no other labour but to diversifye their idlenesse and give themselves more paine to invent how they shall lose their time, than would have cost them to imploy it well. And when the mind is once softned and enervated with idleness, he will give eare to any evill coun­sel, for he that doth nothing is soone induced to do evill, and even by doing nothing he doth e­vill. Time idly and viciously spent makes a man sad and peevish; all things displease him, and himselfe more then any thing.

None can excuse his idlenesse saying that he hath nothing to do, for there is alwayes some good to be done; and none shall ever bee idle who hath as much will as occasion to do good. To do good is the proper labour of those who by their wealth and quality are commonly exemp­ted from labour. Of that condition likely were some of the Thessalonians of whom St. Paul saith, that they did not worke at all but were busie bodies. 2 Thes. 3.11. Yet without respect of any quali­ty he gives them this charge, Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietnesse they work & eat their own bread. But ye brethren be not weary in well doing. He will have them that live curiously, working not at all, to worke, and eat their owne bread, and to work first before they eat. Of which if they excuse [Page 451]themselves, saying that they are not men of la­bour, the Apostle sheweth them what work God requires at their hands, It is that they faint not in well doing. Then his exhortation that with quietnes they worke eating their owne bread intimates this as­surance unto them that an innocent labour will give a good taste to their bread, and that they shall enjoy Gods gifts with quietness and con­tent.

CHAP. V. To avoyd Curiosity in divine matters.

CUriosity in the things of God is one of the principall hinderances of the peace of the soul. In nothing the propagation of the first sin is more evident. It is the right slip of the folly of our first Parents, upon whom God had bestowed the whole plenty and beauty of Nature gathered in one spacious garden, planted with choise trees. In that garden nothing was denyed them but so much as was hurtfull, The tree of science of good and evill; A Science which God kept to himselfe. Yet in the midst of that over­flowing wealth, they were distasted with all that was given them, out of a greedy desire to taste that which was denyed them; and for tasting of the tree of science of good and evill, they were driven farre from the tree of life.

We likewise their sinfull progenie put our [Page 452]selves far from the tree of life, by stretching our hand unto that unlucky fruit of forbidden know­ledg. And many speed so ill in their curious search, that while they are about to make them­selves like God, by their knowledge, they be­come like Satan by their audaciousnesse.

But how doth it come to passe that the study of the knowledge of God, which is the Soveraine good of man, serves to make him guilty and miserable, and that too often they that soare highest to draw neere to God, are found most remote from him? It is because they goe the wrong way to worke. For whereas they should study his love (a gulfe where a man is allowed to wade above his stature) they search his hid­den and inscrutable counsell: No wonder if they that will creep into Gods secret will, lose the benefit of his declared good will; as Adam presuming to lay his hand on the forbidden fruit lost the possession of so many fruits, the enjoy­ment whereof was free to him before.

Moses having made that high request to God, Exod. 33.18.23. I beseech thee shew mee thy glo­ry, God answered him, Thou shalt see my backparts but my face shall not be seene. A mysterious Text, which being well understood assigneth the just extent and sets the certaine limits to humane reasoning in divine matters. It is allowed to seeke God, à posteriori by his effects, they are Gods back parts; It is the just extent of our contem­plation. [Page 453]But to seek God, ab anteri [...]ri, by his coun­sels which are the first causes, it is attempting to see Gods face, an undertaking no lesse unlawfull then impossible. My face shall not be seene. That limit [...]ne sets to our contemplation.

Were this well studyed and comprehended aright, more labour should be bestowed upon the meditation of Gods workes of nature and grace & of his revealed will, for by these onely it is possible to man living in the flesh to see God in some measure. And the darke questions of Gods eternall counsell should be layd by.

The doctrine of predestination settleth the soul in a stedfast assurance, when it is apprehen­ded by faith; but the same brings trouble and perplexity to a mans heart when one will fathom Gods counsell with the plummet of reason. In that poynt Reason is prone to frame objections against the justice and wisedom of God. Where­fore ere it go too farre, the bridle of piety must give it this short stop, Rom. 9.20. O man who art thou that replyest against God? If about the actious and decrees of God you cannot satisfye your rea­son, remember that reason was made for man not for God, and be ye quiet.

Likewise these in incomprehensible points of the concurrence of Gods grace with mans will, & how his invariable decree may consistwith the free actions of men, reason must altogether si­lense her inquiry, acknowledging that in that [Page 454]meeting of the finite with the infinite, reason be­ing finite can comprehend nothing but things of her kind. Since then there is something of infi­nity in that meeting, the comprehension of it must be left to the infinite God, to whom alone it belongs to know his infinite workes. In that meeting all that belongs to us is to have no other will but Gods, embrace his grace with a free and ready heart; trust in his promises, and com­mit ourselves to his providence. A wise counsell, easier to observe then to comprehend, is this, That in the worke of our conversion and sanctification we must give to God the whole glory and to ourselves the whole taske.

And so of the resistence of so many mens wills against Gods will, which neverthelesse they pro­mote, even by resisting it, that holy will having no part in the evil which they doe; And of the wisedome of that high moderatour, who for his glory tolerateth the kingdome of the devill in the midst of his kingdome, we must acknowledge that they are matters for admiration not inquisi­tion. It is a goodly study to be a disciple of Gods wisedome and providence; but where we find our contemplation brought to non plus, we must be contented to beleeve that God is all wise and all good. Let him doe his pleasure and let us doe our duty.

The holy Scriptures are the cleare spring of life. Our Lord Jesus commands us diligently to [Page 455]search them, because in them we hope to have eternal life. Ioh. 5.39. The texts lesse perspicuous, as they require more study, they require also more mo­desty. And better it is to say of a hard text, I un­derstand it not, then to wrest it with a forced in­terpretation. The writers of Comments upon whole bookes of Scripture are often put to that choyce. Yet how few are extant that will say ingenuously, This text is above our understand­ing, and we must expect till he that hath lockt up the sense of it, give us a key to open it. Scrip­ture must be put to the uses attributed to it by St Paul, doctrine, reproofe, correction, instruction in righteousnes. That the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good worke. 2 Tim. 3.16. For these uses there be so many cleare texts that we need not beate our braines against the hard ones.

It is a commendable study to seeke to under­stand Canonical prophecies; God himselfe gave them to the Church to be studied. And seeking the intelligence of them is obeying Christs com­mand to search the Scriptures drligently. But in that command he meanes the prophecies fullfilled which speake of his first comming, not the pro­phecies yet to be fulfilled: Which yet we may search but with that reservation, that we content ourselves with so much as is clearely revealed, and presume not to seeke into that which is hid­den. Wherein the style of prophecies is a sure [Page 456]guide, for we must beleeve that the Holy Ghost hath hidden them in obscure termes that they should not be understood; and if God will not have us to understand them, it is folly and arro­gancy for us to goe about it. Why should we fecke to see that which God hath hidden? he hath hid it because we should not see it. I am inclined to beleeve (yet submitting to better jud­gements) that the end of most prophecies is not so much that we might foreknow things to come, as that we might admire the wisedome, and preordination of God, when they are come; and to comfort us in the assurance that the whole course of the conduct and trials of the Church, and her deliverance and glory in the end, is fore­ordained in Gods counsell. Let us stay a little. Events will expound predictions.

As we must not curiously examine the word of God, we must not scrupulously search the worke of his Spirit. Many devout soules yeeld a wrong obedience to this precept of St Paul, Ex­amine your owne selves whether you be in the faith, 2. Cor. 13.5. for instead of examining their owne selves they examine God, seeking with a tremb­ling and overbuzy care what degree of comfort and assurance of their salvation they feele in their hearts, which is the worke of God not of men. And as in the searches of jealousy, when a man seekes for that which he feares to finde, they draw upon them that which they feare by seek­ing [Page 457]it with too much curiosity, and frame doubts to themselves by examining of their confi­dence.

To heale themselves of that timorous curio­sity they should not take for Gospel whatsoever godly men have written of the manner how the holy Ghost is working in the conscience; for it is certaine that he worketh diversly according to the diversity of natures, and doth vary the dis­pensation of his graces according to his good pleasure.

Wherefore when we examine whether we be in the faith, it is not the worke of God that we must examine but our owne. And we must call ourselves to account whether we love God and our neighbours, and what care we take to serve him: whether we keepe his commande­ments, and receive his promises with obedience of faith. In these things where the worke of Gods grace is joined with ours we have but our per­formance to examine, looking upon Gods worke with reverence, and ascribing to him all the good that is in us. Which reverence must be re­doubled when we consider in us that worke of grace where the worke of man hath no share, and such are the heavenly comforts and spiritu­al joyes. Of these we must not curiously exam­ine the manner and measure, as though the seale of our adoption consisted in these: for it is not in feeling comfort but in departing from iniquity [Page 458]that this seale consisteth; as we learne of St Paul, 2. Tim. 2.19. Confidence is a great evidence of grace, but Love is a greater.

Let us imploy spiritual joyes when it pleaseth God to send them, to improve love and grateful­nesse in us. Do we find ourselves destitute of those joyes? let us study to find out in our con­ciences the causes of that want, that we may re­move them; labouring to clarifye our souls of all mire of the earth, that they may like pure Cry­stals receive the gratious and comfortable rayes of the Sunne of righteousnesse. But as long as God gives us the grace to love him, and cast our­selves upon him, Let his grace be sufficient unto us; for his strength is made perfect in weakenesse. 2 Cor. 12.9. Joy and comfort cannot but follow faith and love: Perhaps not very close, but feare not, they will and must needs follow. Let us expect their comming in silence and hope, and take heed of putting them back with curiosity and impatience.

CHAP. VI. Of the care of the Body, and other little Content­ments of life.

SInce we seeke the content of the mind, the body must not be forgotten; for as long as they live personally united in this world they can hardly be content the one without the other. [Page 459]That the body may do good service to the mind, the mind must be a good Master to the body and maintaine it with great care.

I say with great care, not with much tender­nesse: for we must use it to be contented with little, and with things easie and ordinary, look­ing lesse for pleasure then health, which yet is the way to get a lasting pleasure.

Of all earthly treasures health is the most pre­cious. Without the health of the body, the mind hath much adoe to maintaine his liberty and stability. The disorder of the humours of the body makes the mind turbulent & froward, and sometimes reason is quite turned upside downe by a corporall indisposition. It is then the part of a wiseman to take a most speciall and exact care of his health.

It is preserved by these three principal meanes, Serenity of mind, a sober diet, and exercise.

Of these three antidotes against all diseases, the chiefe is, Serenity of mind. This and the health of the body maintaine one another. But the mind is a more powerfull agent upon the bo­dy then the body upon the mind. A meek and cheerefull spirit keepeth his body healthfull, whereas frequent excessive fits of choler, and deep sadnesse, sowre the whole masse of blood, and poyson the fountaine of animall spi­rits. Whereby the body loseth his lively colour and his good plight, and droops into a lingering [Page 460]consumption. Heavinesse in the heart of man makes it stoop. By sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. A merry heart doth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones, saith Solomon. And to get that merry heart he enjoynes us to keep our mind in a milde temper. Prov. 11.17. The mer­cifull man doth good to his owne soule, but he that is cruell troubleth his owne flesh.

The body thus preserved in health by the se­renity of mind, payeth him readily for that good office; for the mind is kept tranquill and serene by the good constitution of the body.

To preserve both, sobriety is necessary; there being nothing that weares the body and sets the mind out of frame so much as intemperance doth. Neither are those that glut themselves vvith meate and drink the onely that need to be exhorted to learne sobriety. Many that go for sober, need that exhortation: For generally all that live with some plenty eat and drink too much, and confound in their stomack too many various ingredients; giving to nature more then it needs, and more then it can dispense; Which superfluity, that especially of the third concoction, turnes into ill humours, whence va­riety of diseases is bred, answerable to the varie­ty of our dishes, as in the Commonwealth use­lesse persons, and such as have nothing to do, are they that stirre seditions and trouble the State.

Then naturall heate which serves to the nu­tritive [Page 461]faculty weares away before the time, when it is put to an overgreat labour; and the spirits serving to make the pot boyle below, leave the intellectual part ill served in the upper roome. That overplus of aliment growing to pride of blood, breeds no better effect in the soule then to swell the appetite, and stirre it to rebellion against the reason. If we could bring ourselves to a more simple and lesse abundant dyet, both our bodies and minds would enjoy more health. The fewer vapours the belly sends to the braines besides the necessary, the clearer is the skie in that upper region. Therefore, to keepe health and serenity, such as have a daily plentifull fare, and feare that their stomack hath more appetite then strenght, shall doe wisely to fast sometimes, to give it time to rest, and recover strength. Most sicknesses in their beginnings may be healed by abstinence.

On the other side they that use a more sparing dyet should allow to themselves some intervals of good cheere. It oppresseth those whose ordina­ry meales are so many feasts; but it reneweth the vigour of those that use it seldome. Wine is especially given of God to make glad the heart of man. Psal. 104.15 It is of singular vertue to charme cares. Two draughts of it extraordinary when the minde is vexed with crosses, will put upon a mans buzinesses a smoother and calmer face.

The third preserver of health is Exercise, with­out which the body becomes an unwieldy bagge of corrupt humours. Great eaters need more exercise. But the most sober need some. The na­turallest and pleasantest is walking, to which they that lead a sedentary life must allow some time. But to most men their buzinesses give bo­dily exercise enough, many times too much, to the prejudice of the minde, which thereby is neglected and made servant to the body. If one be shut up, or hath lost the use of his legs, he must invent some other way instead of walking to exercise his body and prevent sicknes; And if he cannot put his body to any exercise, he must cate and drinke the lesse.

It is a wise course to harden the bodies of children and young men, especially against cold, the cause of most sicknesses in aged persons. But when one hath bin tenderly brought up, it is im­prudence to goe about to inure his body to hard­nes in his declining age. The minde may be capa­ble of that resolution, not a tender body that needs carefull tending.

These are the general precepts to preserv health. To mend it when it is impaired, Physicians must be consulted, and remedies used: About which two rules must be observed. Let it be betimes be­fore sicknes have taken roote; Let it be seldome, for too many remedies are worse then the dis­ease. I presuppose that Physique and Physicians [Page 463]shall be used as it is prescribed by the Sonne of Sirac, Ecclus. 38.1. for necessity not for wantonnes.

The chiefe use of that art is to prevent diseases. Every one ought to have enough of it to know his owne body, and keepe off the indispositions to which he feeles himselfe obnoxious, not to weare out his body with drugs without great necessity. But there are certaine simple and eazy helpes that prevent great inconveniencies when they are used betimes: And what wiseman would not keepe himselfe from grievous sick­nesses, if the use of a little sauge or juniper ber­ries will doe it?

What remedy soever be used for prevention of sicknesses, take it for certaine that they are better prevented by abstinence from unwhole­some things then by the use of wholesome.

Let the body be well clad, for commodity not shew, neither curiously affecting the mode, nor opposing it with a fantastical singularity. Let all that we weare be comely and handsome, not to please other mens eyes but our owne. He that is slovenly in his attire thereby groweth sad and dejected, ere he be aware: Why should one make himselfe contemptible to the world and displeasing to himselfe by a wilfull lazy neglect of his person?

Let there be order and suitablenes in our stuffe and furniture, though never so coorse. Let not any thing want its proper place, though never [Page 464]so little. Confusion is offensive to the minde but order gives a secret delight.

Let our dwelling be lightsome, if possible; in a free aire, and neere a garden. Gardening is an innocent delight; it was the trade of man in the state of Innocence.

With these if one may have a sufficient revenue an honest employment, little buzines, sortable company, and especially the conversation of good bookes with whom a man may converse as little and as much as he pleaseth, he needs little more, as for the exteriour, to enjoy all the con­tent that this world can afford.

Of the pastimes of the Nobility and Gentry those should be preferred that bring a publique utility, as hunting the wilde boare and the wolfe, where the countrey is annoyed with them, and in England the fox, and the badger. It is double content to a generous and well given nature when he doeth good for his pleasure. The mili­tary pastimes of young Gentlemen in France and Italy are usefull and pleasant; and by them they are fashioned, and fitted to serve their coun­trey.

Games of hazard discompose the minde extra­ordinarily: They accustume it to be hanging upon the future and depending on fortune, to which every wiseman will give as little power over him as he can. They do also provoke passion; and cause great agitations in the soule for things [Page 465]of nothing. All that, point blank contrary to the worke of piety and Philosophy.

Games that consist in dexterity of body or minde are preferable to those that are committed to blind chance. Chesse will sharpen the wit but buzy it overmuch, and toyle the spirits instead of recreating them, which is the proper use of play. Of all gaming, the lesse the better; And when it disordereth the passion, the least is too much.

He that ventureth much money at play, ventu­reth not with it the tranquillity of his mind a thousand times more precious, but makes a cer­taine losse of it, whatsoever become of the mo­ney. That bold venturing comes not out of con­tempt of the goods of this world (as gamesters would have us to beleeve) but out of an unsati­able greedinesse to gaine much in short time. Wherefore to them that have little money and to great lovers of it, great losses at play are ve­ry smarting; and yet the gaine is more hurtfull then the losse: for it enflameth covetousnes, and sets the heart upon a wicked labour to grow rich by the ruine of others, which afterwards is practised in the more serious commerces of Society. Thereby also the fountaine of charity is drained, and so the streames of charitable deeds. Bestowing money in play is not the way to make friends with that unrighteous Mammon that receive a man into eternal habitations, but ene­mies to turne him out of his temporal habitation. [Page 466]It is the way to lose both earth and heaven.

When you have an undoubted right to a consi­derable summe of money, and the present posse­ssion; what a mad part is it to call it in question whether it must be yours or anothers, and decide the question with three dice? And what ungrate­fulnes to the great giver of all goods gifts, to play those goods away which are afforded to us by his liberality, and acquired for us by the sweate and hard labour of many poore families? Though then the parties at play be consenting to that strange way of acquisition, that consent doth not make it lawfull; neither of them being the owner those goods which he calls his, but the keeper and steward, who must give account of his stew­ardship to his Master.

Whether we winne or lose considerable summes at play, we commit robbery; for if we rob not our adversary, we rob our family, and ourselves, and God. Herein worse then that ill Servant that hid his talent in the ground; for the gamester if he be a loser hath made away the ta­lent intrusted unto him by God. And though he be a gainer, yet he hath made himselfe incapable to give a good account of his talent to his Lord, since he hath put it to an unrighteous banke.

Eloquence is a pleasant and profitable pastime, both to read and compose; For while it delights the mind it doth polish, sweeten, and heighten it. It is then most delightfull when it serveth to [Page 467]cloath good matter, and when the chiefe orna­ment is good sense. And it fals out happily that the eloquentest books of antiquity are also the best, and they that have the wisest reason express it with most elegancy. The same is true of the late Authors.

Poetry delighteth much, So one take little of it at once, for it is lushious meat, too much of it brings wearinesse and loathing. It is more de­lightfull to read then to compose, herein like musique which delights the hearers more then the Musicians. As then it is better to heare a Set of violins then to make one in it, it is better to heare Poets then to augment their number. I had rather that others should make me sport, then I them.

I need not be curious in the search of the seve­rall devices of men to passe their time; the task of the wise being not to seeke them, but to use them well when they meet in his way, and more yet to learne to live contented without them. What we want of them must be supplyed with serenity of mind, and an easinesse inventive to frame to ourselves divertisements, and make a pastime even of our misfortune. If we may be merry it matters not upon what ground, so it be not evill. A serene mind that trusteth in God and doth good needs not look abroad for mirth: He fetcheth mirth out of his owne stock.

To get the true taste of the outward content­ments [Page 468]of life, we wust but taste them, not stretch our stomack upon them; expecting our onely true contentment from God and within our­selves. We must make use of all things and stay upon God alone. The sense of Gods love and our reciprocall love to him give to the soul that onely true content; but they take not from us the taste of the outward lawfull contentments of life. Rather they give us that tast: for to him that loves God and rejoyceth in his love, all things looke pleasantly. The certainty of his principall good keeps him so cheerefull, that he takes contentment in in the smallest things; as he that hath newly received tidings of great joy is well pleased with a coorse entertainment, and delights even in those things that displeased him before.

CHAP. VII. Conclusion. Returne to the great principle of the Peace and Contentment of Mind which is to stick to God.

FRom these smal contentments let us remount to the great and principall, and their stay. It consisteth in the peace of God and union with him by faith and love. There we began, there we must end. We have considered the world sufficiently, to conclude that it consisteth in three poynts, Vanity, Wickednesse, and Misery.

What is best in it is perishable. When we have it in our hands it slips between our fingers, and when it stayes with us yet it is none of ours, since it is out of ourselves. Among all the ob­jects of our senses, none is capable to give us a perfect and durable content.

Being thus unsatisfyed of all things without us, if we enter within ourselves, what satisfacti­on do we find in our nature? we find errour in our opinions, tumult in our passions, hardness or terrour in our conscience, when God dwells not in it by his grace.

Pagan Philosophers teach us indeed that within us or no where, comfort is to be found. But alas! poore men, they sought nothing with­in themselves but themselves. And what is more weake, more inconstant, and more calami­tous then man? Then, to this Philosophy one point is wanting, which is all; and that is, to seeke God within us, inviting him by humility & repentance to choose his abode in our soules, and there entertaining him with love and faith. This is the only safe harbour for peace and con­tentment of mind. Out of it, there is nothing but storme. The best worldly state is vanity and per­plexity. Of this Solomon is an excellent witness who having seene all the evill, and tryed all the good of this world, pronounceth this verdict. Eccles. 1.14. I have seene all the workes that are done under the Sunne, and behold all is vanity and [Page 470]vexation of spirit. That great King having long enjoyed an unparallelled prosperity, saith in the end that he hated life, and hated all his labour; Eccles. 7.17, 18. although his labour was to content himselfe being exalted to the highest Orb of power, overflowing with plenty, and swimming in delights. What reason then have distressed men to hate their life and labour, when they weare out their life in want, in lawsuites, in sicknesse, and receiving no other salary of their vertue but envy and ungratefulness? Wherefore that wise Prince having throughly considered all that is good and evill in this world and this life, ends in this conclusion which he recom­mends to his Sonne. Eccles. 12.12. And further, by these, my Sonne, be admonished; Of making many bookes there is no end, and much study is a weari­ness of the flesh. Let us heare the conclusion of the whole matter. Feare God and keep his commande­ments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be e­vill.

So doth Solomon express that God is the cen­ter, both of our duty, and of our rest and happi­nesse; and that the only safety and solid content consisteth in sticking fast to him. There we finde refuge in our dangers, confidence in our feares, comfort in our sorrowes, counsell in our per­plexities, light in darkenesse, and life in death. [Page 471]There we learne to make the right use of pros­perity, enjoying the gifts of God with chereful­nesse and simplicity, not vexing ourselves with cares to keepe them, or with covetousness to increase them. There we get a gracious illumi­nation to our understanding, a rule to our will, a bridle to our appetite, a sincere joy in our con­science.

How great, how unspeakable is that happi­nesse, when our heart is turned into a Sanctuary, where God himselfe is pleased to dwell and speak peace to our soul, assuring us that he is re­conciled towards us in his Beloved! There he leads us into all truth, helps up our weakeness, instructs our ignorance, raiseth us up when we fall, and sets us againe in the right way when we are gone astray. We are assaulted by many ene­mies, but they that are for us, are more then they that are against us, since we haue alwayes the Lord at our right hand. We are unwise, but we have free accesse to the Soveraine wisedome to consult it at all times. And many times that high wise­dome, preventing our consulting, mends what we have marred by our folly.

Which present blessings are small being com­pared to our glorious hope. That incomparable honour and, wealth to be received into all the rights of Gods children, that incorruptible crowne of life, that fulnesse of joy in the enjoy­ment of Gods presence; they are depthes not to [Page 472]be fathomed with mans thought. But whereas for materiall things the extent of our sight is long, the reach of our armes but short. In things spirituall and eternal it is quite otherwise with us; for the two armes of the soul, which are love and faith, reach much higher then the eye sight of reason can penetrate: With these armes the godly soul layeth hold upon the celestiall goods which shee cannot see, and with a lawfull hasti­nesse antedates in the present the possession of the glory to come.

That expectation makes the Christian to dis­gest any bitternesse, and calmely passe by all the incommodities of life. For he will say in his ad­versities, This but a step of ill way to an eternall glory; All these evils have an end, and then be­gins a felicity without end.

Without looking so farre, the present sense of the love of God to us breeding our reciprocall love to him; and that mutuall embrace of God and the soule living yet in the flesh, though as short of the perfect union with God as the high­est mountaines come short of heaven, yet brings to the soul a dignity and contentment beyond all expression. It is that peace of God which passeth all understanding and keeps our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. It is a transfigura­tion of the devout soul for an earnest of her glori­fication. It is the betrothing of the Spouse with Christ, and the contract before the marriage. [Page 473]After that, all the Empires of the world, all the treasures of Kings, and all the delights of their Court deserve not to be lookt on or to be named. If that divine Embrace could continue, it would change a man into the image of God from glory to glory, and he should be rapt up in a fiery cha­ret like Eliah.

To enjoy that holy Embrace and make it con­tinue as long as the soul in the flesh is capable of it; We must use holy meditations, prayers, and good workes. These strengthen those two armes of the soul, faith and love, to embrace God, and hold him fast; doing us that good office which Aaron and Hur did to Moses, for they hold up the hands of the soul, and keep them elevated to heaven.

And seeing that God who dwelleth in the high­est heavens dwelleth also in the humblest soules, let us indeavour to put on the ornament of a meek & quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. 1 Pet. 3.4. It is a great incouragement to study tranquillity of minde that while we labour for our chiefe utility, which is to have a meek and quiet spirit, we become of great price before God; and therefore of great price to ourselves: How can it be otherwise, since by that ornament of a meeke and quiet spirit we put on the neerest likenesse of God of which the creature can be susceptible; For then the God of peace abiding in us makes his cleare image to shine in the smooth [Page 474]mirrout of our tranquill soul, as the Sunnes face in a calme water.

Being thus blest with the peace of God we shall also be strong with his power, and among the stormes and wrackes of this world we shall be as safe as the Apostles in the tempest, having Christ with them in the ship. It is not possible that we should perish as long as we have with us and within us, the Saviour of the world and the Prince of life.

The universall commotions and hideous de­structions of our time prepare us to the last and greatest of all, 2 Pet. 3.10. when the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the Earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up. In that great fall of the old building of Nature, the godly man shall stand safe, quiet, and upright, among the ruines. All will quake, all will sinke, but his unmoved heart, which stands firme, trusting in the Lord. Psal. 112.7. Mountaines and rocks will be throwne downe in his sight, The foundations of the world will crack under him, Heaven and Earth hasting to their dissolution will fall to pieces about his eares; but the foundation of the faithfull remaines stedfast; He cannot be shaken with the world, for he was not grounded upon it. He will say with Davids confidence, Psal. 16.8. I have set the Lord alwayes before me, because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved. [Page 475]Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life; in thy presence is fulnesse of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.