THE REMEDY OF DISCONTENT: OR, A TREATISE OF Contentation. in whatsoever Condition. Fitted for sad and troubled Times. By Jos. Hall D. D. and B. N. The Fourth Edition. Phil. 4. 11. I have learned in whatsoever estate I am, therewith to be content. 12. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; Every where, and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to want. LONDON: Printed by G. Larkin for Obadiah Blagrave at the Bear in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1684. Vera Effigies Reverendi Do ni: Josephi Hall Norwici nuper Episco: TO THE CHRISTIAN READER. Grace and Peace. WHat can be more seasonable, then at this time, when all the world is sick of Discontent, to give counsels & Receipts of Contentation: Perhaps the Patient will think it a time ill chosen for Physic, in the midst of a Fit: But in this case we must do as we may. I confess, I had rather have stayed till the Paroxysm were happily over; that so the humours being somewhat settled, I might hope for the more kindly operation of this wholesome Medicine. But, partly my age & weakness, despairing to outlive the public distemper; and partly my judgement (crossing the vulgar opinion for the season of some kind of Receipts) have now put me upon this safe and useful Prescription: God is my witness, that I wrote this in the depth of mine own afflictions, (the particulars whereof, it were unseasonable to trouble the world withal) as one that meant to make myself my own Patient, by enjoining myself that course of remedies, that I prescribe to others, and, as one, who by the powerful working of God's Spirit within me, labour to find my heart framed to those holy dispositions which I wish and recommend to every Christian soul, If there be no remedy but the worst of outward troubles must afflict us; it shall be happy yet, if we may find inward peace in our bosoms: which shall be, if we can reconcile ourselves to our offended God; and calm our spirits to a meek undergoing of those sufferings, which the divine Providence hath thought fit to measure forth unto us: This is the main drift of this ensuing labour. Now the same God, who hath, in these blustering times, put into my heart these quiet thoughts of holy Contentation, bless them in every hand that shall receive them and make them effectual to the good of every soul, that shall now, and hereafter entertain them: that so their gracious proficiency may, in the day of the appearance of our Lord Jesus, add to the joy of my account; Who am the unworthiest of the servants of God, and his Church, J. N. THE CONTENTS OF the several Sections following. Sect. I. THe excellency of Contentation; and how it is to be had. p. 1. § II. The contrariety of estates wherein it is to be exercised. 3 § III. Who they are that know not how to want, and be abased. 7 § IV. Who they are that know how to want. 14 § V. Considerations leading to Contentation; and first the consideration of the fickleness of life, and of all earthly commodities; Honour, Beauty, Strength, etc. p. 17 § VI Considerations of the unsatisfying condition of these worldly things. 28 § VII. The danger of the too much estimation of these earthly comforts. 33 § VIII. The consideration of the divine Providence, ordering, and overruling all events. 36 § IX. The consideration of the worse condition of others. 41 § X. The consideration of the inconveniencies of great estates; and therein first their cares. 46 § XI. The danger of the distempers, both bodily, and spiritual, that follow great means; and the torment in parting with them. p. 53 § XII. Consideration of the benefits of Poverty. 59 § XIII. Consideration of how little will suffice Nature. 65 § XIV. Consideration of the inconveniencies and miseries of discontentment. 70 § XV. The gracious vicissitudes of God's favours and afflictions. 77 § XVI. Consid. of the great examples of Contentation, both without and within the Church of God. 85 § XVII. Contentment in death itself. 96 § XVIII. The miseries and inconveniencies of the continued conjunction of the soul and body. 104 § XIX. Holy dispositions for contentment; the first whereof, Humility. 111 § XX. 2. Self-resignation. 119 § XXI. 3. The true inward riches. 126 § XXII. Holy resolutions: and 1. That the present estate is best for us. 131 § XXIII. 2. Resolution, to abate our desires. 139 § XXIV. 3. Resolution, to inure ourselves to digest smaller discontentments. 147 § XXV. 4. Resolution, to be frequent and fervent in Prayer. 155 § XXVI. The difficulty of knowing how to abound; & the ill consequences of the not knowing it. 158 THE REMEDY OF Discontent. SECT. I The excellency of Contentation; and how it is to be had. IF there be any happiness to be found upon earth, it is in that which we call Contentation: This is a flower that grows not in every Garden: The great Doctor of the Gentiles tells us that he had it; I have learned (saith he) in what estate soever I am, Phil. 4. 11. therewith to be content; I know how to be abased, & I know how to abound: Lo, he could not have taken out this lesson if he had not learned it; and he could not have learned it of any other than his Master in heaven: What face soever Philosophy may set upon it, all Morality can not reach it; neither could his learned Gamaliel, at whose feet he sat, have put this skill into him; no, he learned it since he was a Christian; & now professeth it; So as it appears, there is a divine art of Contentation to be attained in the School of Christ; which whosoever hath learned, hath taken a degree in heaven, and now knows how to be happy both in want, & abundance. SECT. II. The contrariety of Estates wherein Contentation is to be exercised. THe nature of man is extremely querulous; we know not what we would have, and when we have it, we know not how to like it: we would be happy, yet we would not die; we would live long, yet we would not be old; we would be kept in order, yet we would not be chastised with affliction; we are loath to work, yet are weary of doing nothing; we have no list to stir, yet find long sitting painful; Si sedeas requies est magna laboris; Si multum sedeas, labour est. Tert. Carm. we have no mind to leave our bed, yet find it a kind of sickness to lie long; we would marry, but would not be troubled with household cares; when once we are married, we wish we had kept single; If therefore grace have so mastered nature in us, as to render us content with what ever condition, we have attained to no small measure of perfection. Which way soever the wind blows, the skilful Mariner knows how to turn his sails to meet it; the contrariety of estates to which we lie open here, gives us different occasions for the exercise of Contentation: I cannot blame their choice, who desire a middle estate betwixt want and abundance, and to be free from those inconveniencies which attend both extremes: Wise Solomon was of this diet; Pro. 30 8. Give me neither poverty nor riches: feed me with the food of my meet allowance; Lo, he that had all, desired rather to have but enough: and if any estate can afford contentment in this life, Senec. de Tranquil. surely this is it, in the judgement and experience of the wisest Heathen▪ But forasmuch as this equal poise is hardly attainable by any man, and is more proper for our wishes, and speculation, then for our hopes; true wisdom must teach us so to compose ourselves that we may be fit to entertain the discontentments and dangers of those excesses, and defects, which we cannot but meet with in the course of our mortal life: And surely we shall find that both extremes are enemies to this good temper of the soul: prosperity may discompose us, as well as an adverse condition. The Sunshine may be as troublesome to the traveller as the wind or rain; neither know I whether is more hard to manage of the two, a dejected estate, or a prosperous; whether we may be more incomodated with a resty horse, or with a tired one: Let us begin with that which nature is wont to think most difficult; that contrary to the practice of learners, we may try to take out the hardest lesson first. Let us therefore learn in the first place how to want. SECT. III. How many do not know how to want. COuld we teach men how not to want, we should have Disciples enough; every man seeks to have, and hates to lack: could we give an Antidote against poverty, it would be too precious: And why can we not teach men even this lesson too? Psal. 23. 1. The Lord is my shepherd, saith David therefore can I lack nothing & most sweetly elsewhere, O fear the Lord ye that be his Saints; Psalm. 34 9, 10. for they that fear him, lack nothing; The Lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good; Let God be true, and every man a liar, Certainly, if we were not wanting to God in our fear of him, in our faithful reliance upon him, in our conscionable seeking of him, he whose the earth is, and the fullness of it would not suffer our careful endeavours to go weeping away: But if it so fall out that his most wise providence finds it better for us to be held short in our worldly estate, (as it may be the great Physician sees it most for our health to be kept fasting) it is no less worth our learning to know how to want; For there is many a one that wants, but knows not how to want, and therefore his need makes him both offensive and miserable. There are those that are poor and proud; Eccles. 25. 2. one of the wise man's 3 abominations; foolish Laodiceans that bear themselves for rich, Rev. 3. 17. increased with goods, and lacking nothing, when they are no other than wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; These men know not how to want, their heart is too big for their purse; & surely pride, though every where odious, yet doth no where so ill as in rags. There are those that are poor & envious; looking with an evil eye on the better fare of others; as surely this vice dwells more commonly in Cottages than Palaces. How displeasedly doth the beggar look upon the larger alms of his neighbour; grudging to another what ever falls besides himself, and misliking his own dole, because the next hath more; Mat. 20. 15. whose eye with the discontented labourers, is evil, because his master is good; Neither do these men know how to want. There are those that want distrustfully; measuring the merciful provision of the Almighty by the line of their own sense; as the Samaritan Peer, when in the extremity of a present famine he heard the Prophet foretell a sudden plenty; Behold, 2 Kings 7. 2. if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? There are those that want impatiently; repining at Gods dealing with them, & making their own impotent anger guilty of a further addition to their misery; as the distressed King of Israel, in a desperate sense of that grievous dearth; 2 King. 6. 33. Behold, this evil is of the Lord, what should I wait on the Lord any longer? And those wretched ones, who when the fourth Angel had poured out his vial upon the Sun, being scorched with the extremity of the heat, blasphemed the God of heaven: Rev, 36. 9 11. In this kind was that sinful techiness of Jonah: when I see a poor worm that hath put itself out of the cool cell of the earth wherein it was lodged, and now being beaten upon by the Sunbeams, lies wriggling upon the bare path, turning itself every way in vain; and not finding so much as the shade of a leaf to cover it; I cannot but think of that fretting Prophet; when wanting the protection of his gourd he found himself scalded with that strong reflection; and looking up wrathfully towards that Sun from whom he smarted, could say to the God that made it, Jonah 4 9 I do well to be angry, even to the death. Lastly, there are those that are poor & dishonest even out of the very suggestion of their want; It was the danger hereof that made Agur the Son of Jakeh pray against penury; Lest I be poor, Pro. 30. 5. and steal: and (by for swearing it) take the name of God in vain. SECT. IV. Who they are that know how to want. THese & perhaps others do and must want, but in the mean time they do that which they know not how to do; there is a skill in wanting which they have not; Those only know how to want, that have learned to frame their mind to their estate; like to a skilful Musician, that can let down his strings a peg lower when the tune requires it; or like to some cunning Spagirick, that can intend or remit the heat of his furnace according to occasion. Those, who when they must be abased, can stoop submissly; like to a gentle reed, which when the wind blows stiff, yields every way; those that in an humble obeisance can lay themselves low at the foot of the Almighty, & put their mouth in the dust; that can patiently put their necks under the yoke of the Highest; & can say with the Prophet, Jer. 10. 19 Truly this is my sorrow, and I must bear it; Those that can smile upon their afflictions, rejoicing in tribulation, singing in the Jail with Paul and Silas at midnight; Lastly, those that can improve misery to an advantage, being the richer for their want, bettered with evils, strengthened with infirmities: and can truly say to the Almighty I know that of very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me; Never could they have come out so pure metal, if they had not passed under the hand of the Refiner; never had they proved so toward children, if they had not been beholden to the rod: These are they that know how to want, and to be abased; and have effectually learned to be content with the meanest condition: to which happy temper that we may attain, there will be use of 1. Certain Considerations; 2. Certain Dispositions: 3. Certain Resolutions: These three shall be as the grounds, and rules of this our Divine Art of Contentation. SECT. V. The Consideration of the fickleness of life, and all earthly Commodities. THE first Consideration shall be of the just valuation of all these Earthly things; which doubtless is such, as that the wise Christian cannot but set a Low price upon them, in respect first, of their transitoriness; secondly, of their insufficiency of satisfaction: thirdly, the danger of their fruition. At the best, they are but glassy stuff, which the finer it is, is so much more brittle; yea, what other than those gay bubbles, which Children are wont to raise from the mixed soap and spittle of their Walnutshell, which seems to represent pleasing colours, but in their flying up instantly vanish? There is no remedy; either they must leave us, or we must leave them. Well may we say that of the Psalmist, which Campian was reported to have often in his mouth; My soul is continually in my hands; and who knows whether it will not expire in our next breathing? How many have shut their eyes in an healthful sleep, who have waked in another World? We give too large scope to our account, whilst we reckon seven years for a Life; a shorter time will serve; whilst we find the revolution of less than half those years to have dispatched * Galba Otho Vitellius Ael, Pertinax Didius. Anno D. 1275. 1276. Gregor. 10 Innocent 5 Hadrian 5 Johan. 20 vel 21 Nicolaus 3▪ five Caesars, and five Popes; nay, who can assure himself of the next moment? It is our great weakness, if we do not look upon every day, as our last; why should we think ourselves in a better condition, than the chosen vessel, * 1 Cor. 15. 31. who deeply protested to die daily? What a poor complaint was that of the great Conqueror of the Jews, Titus Vespasian, who putting his head out of his sick litter, querulously accused Heaven, that he must die, and had not deserved it; when he might have found it guilt enough that he was a man; and therefore by the very sentence of nature condemned I know not whether to live or die. Indeed, what can we cast our eyes upon, that doth not put us in mind of our frailty? All our fellow-creatures die for us, and by us: The day dies into night; the trees and all other plants of the earth suffer a kind of Autumnal mortality; the face of that common Mother of us all, doth at the least in Winter, resemble Death; But if the Angel of Death (as the Jews term him) shall respite, and reprieve us for the time; alas! how easily may we have over-lived our comforts? If Death do not snatch us away from them, how many thousand means of casualties, of enemies, may snatch them away from us? He that was the greatest man of all the Sons of the East, within a few days became a spectacle and proverb of penury, which still sticks by him, and so shall do to the world's end, As poor as Job, Gen 15. 10 The rich plain of Jordan, which overnight was as the Garden of the Lord, is in the morning covered over with brimstone, Deut. 29. 23. & salt, and burning; Wilt thou cause thine eyes to fly upon that which is not? saith wise Solomou: Prov. 23. 5. For Riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven: if we have wings of desire to fly after them, they are nimbler of flight to outstrip us and leave us no less miserable in their loss, than we were eager in their pursuit. As for Honour, what a mere shadow it is? upon the least cloud interposed, it is gone, and leaves no mention where it was: The same Sun sees Haman adored in the Persian Court, like some earthly Deity; and like some base vermin waving upon his Gibbet: Do we see the great, and glorious Cleopatra, shining in the pompous Majesty of Egypt? stay but a while, and ye shall see her in the dust, & her two Children, whom she proudly styled the Sun, and the Moon, driven like miserable Captives, before the Chariot of their Conqueror: Psal. 29. 4. Man being in honour abideth not, saith the Psalmist, he perisheth, but his greatness (as more frail than he) is oftentimes dead and buried before him, and leavs him the surviving executor of his own shame. It was easy for the captive Prince, to observe in the Chariot-wheel of his Victor, that when one spoke risen up, another went down & both these in so quick a motion, that it was scarce distinguished by the Eye. Well therefore may we say of Honour, as Ludovicus Vives said of Scholastical Divinity: Ludo. Vives in 3. De Civit censura notatus Vellosillo. Cui fumas est pro fundamento: It is built upon smoke, how can it be kept from vanishing? As for Beauty, what is it but a dash of Nature's tincture laid upon the skin, which is soon washed off with a little sickness? what but a fair blossom, that drops off, so soon as the fruit offers to succeed it? what but a flower, which with one hot Sun gleam weltreth & falls? He that had the choice of a thousand Faces, Prov. ult. Penult. could say, Favour is deceitful, and Beauty is Vanity Lastly, for Strength, and vigour of Body, if it could be maintained till our old age, alas, how soon is that upon us, ere we be aware! how doth it then shrivel our flesh and loosen our sinews, and cripple our joints! Milo, when he looked upon his late brawny arms, and saw them now grown lank and writhled, le's fall tears, and bewrays more weakness of mind, than he had before bodily strength: but how often doth sickness prevent the debilitations of age; pulling his strongest Man upon the knees, and making him fess, that youth, as well as childhood, is Vanity. As for Pleasure, it dies in the birth, Ecc. 11. 10. and is not therefore worthy to come into this bill of Mortality. Do we then upon sad consideration see and feel the manifest transitoriness of Life, Riches, Honour, Beauty, Strength, Pleasure, and whatever else can be dear and precious to us in this world, and can we dote upon them so, as to be too much dejected with our parting from them? Mat. 6. 28. Our Saviour bids us consider the Lilies of the field? And he that made both tells us, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Surely, full well are they worth our considering. But if those Beauties could be as permanent, as they are glorious, how would they carry away our hearts with them? Now, their fading condition justly abates of their value; would we not smile at the weakness of that man, that should weep and howl, for the falling of this Tulip, or that Rose, abandoning all comfort for the loss of that, which he knows must flourish but his month? It is for Children to cry for the falling of their house of Cards, or the miscarriage of that painted gewgaw, which the next shower would have defaced. Wise Christians know how to apprise good things according to their continuance, and can therefore set their hearts only upon the invisible Comforts of a better Life, as knowing that the things which are not seen, are Eternal. SECT VI Consideration of the unsatisfying condition of all worldly things. BUt were these earthly things exempted from that fickleness, which the God of Nature hath condemned them unto, were they (the very memory whereof perisheth with their satiety) as lasting, as they are brittle, yet what comfort could they yield for the Soul to rest in? Alas! their efficacy is too short to reach unto a true Contentation; yea, if the best of them were perpetuated unto us, upon the fairest conditions, that this Earth can allow how intolerable tedious would it prove in the fruition? Say that God were pleased to protract my life to the length of the age of the first founders of Mankind, and should (in this state of body) add hundreds of years to the days of my pilgrimage: Woe is me, how weary should I be of myself, and of the World? I that now complain of the load of seventy one years, how should I be tired out, ere I could arrive at the age of Parr? but before I could climb up to the third Century of Johannes de Temporihus, how often should I call for death, not to take up, but to take off my burden, & with it, myself? But if any, or all these earthly blessings could be freed from those grievances, wherewith they are commonly tempered, yet how little satisfaction could the Soul find in them; What are these outward things, but very luggage, which may load our backs, but can not lighten our Hearts? Great, & wise Solomon, that had the full command of them all, cries out, Vanity of Vanities, and a greater Monarch than he shuts up the Scene with, I have been all things, & am never the better: All these are of too narrow an extent, to fill the capacious soul of Man; the desires whereof are enlarged with enjoying, so as the more it hath, the less it is satisfied, neither indeed can it be otherwise; The Eye, and the Ear are but the Purveyors for the Heart, if therefore the Eye be not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing, how shall the heart say, It is enough? Now, who would suffer himself to be too much disquieted with the loss of that, which may vex him, but cannot content him? We do justly smile at the folly of that vain Lord, of whom Petrarch speaks, who when an Horse which he dearly loved, was sick, laid that Steed of his, on a silken bed, with a wrought pillow under his head, and caused himself (then afflicted with the Gout) to be carried on his servants shoulders to visit that dear patient; and upon his decease, mourned solemnly for him, as if it had been his Son. We have laughed at the fashion of the Girls of Holland, who having made to themselves gay and large Babies, and laid them in a curious cradle, fain them to sicken and die, and celebrate their funeral with much passion: So fond are we, if having med to ourselves imaginary Contentments here, in the World, we give way to immoderate grief in their miscarriage. SECT. VII. The danger of the love of these earthly comforts. NEither are these earthly comforts more defective in yielding full satisfaction to the soul, then dangerous in their over-dear fruition: For too much delight in them, robs us of more solid Contentments; The World is a cheating gamester, suffering us to win at the first, that at last he may go away with all, Our very Table may be made our snare; Psa. 69. 22 and those things which should have been for our wealth, may be unto us an occasion of falling: Leo the fourth Emperor of Constantinople, delighted extremely in precious stones, with these he imbellishes his Crown, which being worn close to his Temples, strikes such a cold into his head, that causeth his bane yea, how many with the too much love of these outward things have lost, not their lives only, but their Souls? No man can be at once the Favourite of God and the World; as that Father said truly: or as our Saviour in fuller terms, No man can serve two Masters, GOD and Mammon: Shortly, the World may be a dangerous enemy, a sure friend it cannot be. If therefore we shall like wise men, value things at their due prizes, since we are convinced in ourselves, that all these earthly comforts are so transitory in their Nature, so unsatisfying in their use, and so dangerous in their enjoying, how little reason have we to be too much affected with foregoing them? Our blood is dear to us, as that wherein our life is, yet if we find that it is either infected, or distempered, we do willingly part with it in hope of better health; How much more, with those things which are farther from us, and less concerning us? SECT. VIII. Consideration of the Divine Providence ordering all events. THe second Consideration is of that Alwise Providence which ordereth all events both in Heaven and Earth, allotting to every Creature his due proportion▪ so overruling all things to the best, that we could not want, if he knew it better for us to abound: This Station he hath set us in, this measure he hath shared out to us whose will is the rule of good; what we have therefore, cannot but be best for us. The World is a large Chessboard, every man hath his place assigned him: one is a King, another a Knight, another a Pawn, and each hath his several motion, without this variety, there could be no game played; A skilful Player will not stir one of these Chips, but with intention of an advantage; neither should any of his men either stand, or move, if in any other part of that Chequer, it might be in more hope to win. There is no estate in this World which can be universally good for all, one man's meat may be another man's medicine, and a third man's poison; A Turk finds health and temper in that Opium, which would put one of us into our last sleep. Should the Ploughman be set to the Gentleman's fare, this Chicken, that Partridge or Pheasant, would (as over-slight food) be too soon turned over, and leave his empty stomach to quarrel for stronger provision: Beef is for his diet; and if any sauce needs besides his hunger, Garlic: Every man hath, as a body so a mind of his own; what one loves is abhorred of another; the great Housekeeper of the world knows how to sit every palate with that which either is or should be agreeable to it, for salubrity, if not for pleasure: Lay before a Child a Knife, and a Rod, & bid him take his choice, his hand will be strait upon that edge tool, especially, if it be a little guilded and glittering; but the Parent knows the Rod to be more safe sore him, & more beneficial; We are ill carvers for ourselves, he that made us, knows what is fit for us, either for time, or measure, without his Providence not an hair can fall from our heads; We would have bodily health, I cannot blame us; what is the world to us without it? He whose we are, knows sickness to be for the health of the Soul; whether should we in true judgement desire? we wish to live, who can blame us? life is sweet, but if our Maker have ordained, that nothing but Death can render us glorious, what madness is it to stick at the condition? Oh our gross infidelity, if we do not believe that great Arbiter of the World, infinitely wise to know what is best for us, infinitely merciful to will what he knows best, infinitely powerful to do what he will! And if we be thus persuaded, how can we, but in matter of good, say with blessed Mary: Behold thy Servant, best unto me according to thy Word: And in matter of evil, with good Eli: It is the Lord, let him do what he will? SECT. IX. Consideration of the worse Condition of others. IN the third place, it will be requisite for us to cast our eyes upon the worse condition of others, perhaps better deserving then ourselves for if we shall whine & complain of that weight, which others do run away cheerfully withal, the fault will appear to be not in the heaviness of the load, but in the weakness of the bearer: If I be discontented with a mean dwelling, another man lives merrily in a thatched Cottage; If I dislike my plain fare, Dan. 1, 12. 13. the four captive children feed fair and fat with pulse and water. If I be plundered of my rich suits, I see a more cheerful heart under a russet Coat, then great Princes have under purple Robes, If I do gently languish upon my sick bed, I see others patient under the torments of the Colic, or Stone, or Strangury: If I be clapped up within four walls, I hear Petronous profess, he had rather be in Prison with Cato, then at liberty with Caesar: I hear Paul and Silas sing like Nightingales in their cages: Am I sad, because I am childless? I hear many a parent wish himself so: Am I banished from my home? I meet with many of whom the world was not worthy, Heb. 11. 38. wand'ring about in Sheepskins, in Goatskins, in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and caves of earth: What am I that I should speed better than the miserablest of thee patients? What had they done, that they should far worse than I? If I have little, others have less; If I feel pain, some others, torture: If their sufferings be just, my forbearances are merciful; my provisions to theirs, liberal: It is no ill counsel therefore, and not a little conducing to a contented want, that great persons should sometimes step aside into the homely Cottages of the poor, and see their mean stuff, course fare, hard lodgings, worthless utensils, miserable shifts; and to compare it with their own delicate and nauseating superfluities: Our great and learned King Alfred was the better all his life after, for his hidden retiredness in a poor Neatheards cabin, where he was sheltered, and sometimes also chidden by that homely Dame: Neither was it an ill wish of that wise Man, that all great Princes might first have had some little taste, what it is to want, that so their own experience might render them more sensible of the complaints of others. Man, though he be absolute in himself, and stand upon his own bottom, yet is he not a little wrought upon by examples, and comparisons with others; for in them he sees what he is, or may be, since no events are so confined to some special subjects, as that they may not be incident to other men. Merit is a poor plea for any man's exemption, whilst our sinful infirmities lay us all open to the rod of divine Justice: and if these dispensations be merely out of favour, why do I rather grudge at a lesser misery, then bless God for my freedom from a greater judgement? Those therefore that suffer more than I, have cause of more humbling, and I that suffer less than they, have cause of more thankfulness; even mitigations of punishment are new mercies, so as others torments do no other than heighten my obligations, let me not therefore repine to be favourably miserable. SECT. X. Consideration of the inconveniences of great estates: and first of their cares, that they expose us to envy, and then macerate us with cares. THe fourth Consideration shall be of the inconniences which do oftentimes attend a fullness of estate; such, and so many as may well make us sit down content with a little; whereof, let the first be envy: a mischief not to be avoided of the great; This shadow follows that body inseparably; All the curs in the street are ready to fall upon that dog that goes away with the bone; and every man hath a Cudgel to fling at a wel-loaded Tree; whereas a mean condition is no eyesore to any beholder: Low shrubs are not wont to be stricken with Lightning, but tall Oaks & Cedars feel their flames; Whiles David kept his father's sheep at home, he might sing sweetly to his Harp in the fields, without any disturbance: But when he once comes to the Court, and finds applause and greatness creep upon him, now emulation, despite and malice, dog him close at the heels wheresoever he goes: Let him leave the Court, and flee into the Wilderness, there these bloodhounds follow him in hot suit; Let him run into the Land of the Philistines, there they find him out, and chase him to Ziklag; and if at the last, he hath climbed up to his just Throne, and there hopes to breathe him after his tedious pursuit, even there he meets with more unquietness then in his desert, and notwithstanding all his Royalty, Ps. 132. 1. at last cries out, Lord remember David, and all his troubles: How many have we known, whom their wealth hath betrayed, and made innocent malefactors? who might have slept securely upon a hard bolster, and in a poor estate outlived both their Judges, and Accusers. Besides, on even ground a fall may be harmless; but he that falls from on high, cannot escape bruising: He therefore that can think the benefits of Eminence can countervail the dangers which haunt greatness, let him affect to overtop others; for me, let me rather be safely low, then high with peril: After others envy, the next attendant upon greatness is our own cares; how do these disquiet the Beds, and sauce the Tables of the wealthy? breaking their sleeps, galling their sides, embittering their pleasure, shortening their days: How bitterly do we find the holiest men complaining of those distractions, which have attended their earthly promotions? Nazianzen cries out of them as no other than the bane of the Soul; G. Naz. Carm. de calam. suis. and that other Gregory, whom we are wont to call the last of the best Bishops of Rome, and the first of the bad, passionately bewails this clog of his high preferment: I confess saith he, Greg, l. 7. that whiles I am outwardly advanced, Epi. 12. 7. I am inwardly fallen lower: this burdensome honour depresses me, and innumerable cares disquiet me on all sides; my mind (grown almost stupid with those temporal cares which are ever barking in mine ears) is forced upon earthly things; thus he: There are indeed cares which as they may be used, may help us on towards Heaven; In vita Melanct. such as Malancthon owns to his Camerarius; My cares, saith he, send me to my prayers, and my prayers dispel my cares; but those anxieties which commonly wait upon greatness, distract the mind, and impair the body. It is an observation of the Jewish Doctors, that Joseph the Patriarch was of a shorter life than the rest of his brethren; and they render this reason of it, for that his cares were as much greater, as his place was higher: It was not an unfit comparison of him, Shicardus. who resembled a Coronet upon the Temples, to a Pail upon the Head; We have seen those who have carried full and heavy vessels on the top of their heads, but then they have walked evenly, and erect under that load; we never saw any that could dance under such a weight; if either they bend, or move vehemently, all their carriage is spilt: Earthly greatness is a nice thing, and requires so much chariness in the managing, as the contentment of it cannot requite; He is worthy of honey, that desires to lick it off from thorns; for my part, I am of the mind of him who professed, not to care for those favours, that compelled him to lie waking. SECT. XI. Danger of distemper, both bodily and spiritual, that commonly follows great means: and torment in parting with them. IN the next place, I see greatness not more pale, and worn with cares, then swollen up, and sickly with excess; Too much oil poured in, puts out the Lamp; Superfluity is guilty of a world of diseases, which the spare diet of poverty is free from; How have we seen great men's eyes surfeited at that full Table, whereof their palate could not taste, and they have risen discontentedly glutted with the sight of that, which their stomach was uncapable to receive; and when, not giving so much law to nature, as to put over their gluttonous meal, (their wanton appetite charging them with a new variety of curious morsels, and lavish cups) they find themselves overtaken with feaverous distempers, the Physician must succeed the Cook; and a second sickness must cure the first: But alas, these bodily indispositions are nothing to those spiritual evils, which are incident unto secular greatness. It is a true word of S. Ambrose, Ambros. 〈…〉. seconded by common experience, Epist. 29. that an high pitch of honour is seldom held up without sin; And S. Jerome tells us, Hieron. it was a common Proverb in his time, Ep. ad Hedibium. That a rich man either is wicked, or a wicked man's heir: Not, but that rich Abraham may have a bosom for poor Lazarus to rest in, and many great Kings have been great Saints in Heaven, and there is still room for many more; but that commonly great temptations follow great estates, & oftentimes overtake them; neither is it for nothing, that riches are by our blessed Saviour styled the Mammon of Iniquity, and wealth is by the holy Apostle branded with deceitfulness; 1. Tim. 6. such as cheat many millions of their Souls. Add unto these (if you please) the torment of parting with that pelf, and honour, which hath so grossly bewitched us; such as may well verify that which Lucius long since wrote to the Bishops of France, Ep. Lucii ad Episc. and Spain, Gall. & Hisp. that one hours' mischief makes us forget the pleasure of the greatest excess. I marvel not at our English Jew, of whom our story speaks, that would rather part with his teeth, than his bags: how many have we known that have poured out their life together with their gold, as men that would not outlive their earthen god; yea (woe is me) how many souls have been lost in the sin of getting, and in the quarrel of losing this thick clay, as the Prophet terms it? But lastly, that which is yet the sorest of all the inconveniences, is the sadness of the reckoning, which must come in after these plentiful entertainments; for there is none of all our cares here, but must be billed up; and great Accounts must have long Audits: how hard a thing it is in this case, to have an Omnia aequè? In the failing whereof, how is the Conscience affected? I know not whether more tormented, or tormenting the miserable soul; so as the great Owner is but (as witty Bromiard compares him) like a weary Jade, which all the day long hath been labouring under the load of a great treasure; and at night lies down with a galled back. By that time therefore we have summed up all, and find here envy, cares, sicknesses both of body & soul, torment in parting with, and more torment in reckoning for, these earthly greatnesses; we shall be convinced of sufficient reason to be well paid with their want. SECT. XII. Consideration of the benefits of Poverty. LEt the fifth Consideration be, the benefits of Poverty; such, and so great, as are enough to make us in love with having nothing. For first, what an advantage is it, to be free from those gnawing cares, which (like Tityus his Vulture) feed upon the Heart of the Great? Here is a man that sleeps (Aethiopian-like) with his doors open; no dangers threaten him, no fears break his rest; he starts not out of his bed at midnight, and cries Thiefs, he feels no rack of ambitious thoughts, he frets not at the disappointment of his false hopes, he cracks not his brain with hazardous plots, he mis-doubts no undermining of emulous rivals, no traps of hollow friendship, but lives securely in his homely Cottage, quietly enjoying such provision, as Nature and honest Industry furnish him withal; for his drink, the neighbour Spring saves him the charge of his Excise; and when his better earnings have fraught his trencher with a warm and pleasing morsel, and his cup with a stronger liquor, how cheerfully is he affected with that happy variety; and in the strength of it digests many of his thinner meals? Meals usually sauced with an healthful hunger, wherein no incocted Crudities oppress Nature, and cherish disease: Here are no Gouts, no Dropsies, no Hypochondriack passions, no Convulsive fits, no distempers of Surfeits, but a clear and wholesome vigour of body, and an easy putting over the light tasks of digestion, to the constant advantage of health. And as for outward dangers, what an happy immunity doth commonly bless the poor man? How can he fear to fall, that lies flat upon the ground? The great Pope, Boniface the seventh, when he saw many stately Buildings ruined with Earthquakes, is glad to raise him a little Cabin of boards in the midst of a Meadow, and there finds it safest to shelter his triple Crown. When great men hoist their Topsail, and launch forth into the deep, having that large clew which they spread, exposed to all winds, and weathers, the poor man sails close by the Shore; and when he foresees a storm to threaten him, puts into the next Creek; and wears out in a quiet security that Tempest, wherein he sees prouder Vessels miserably tossed, and at last, fatally wrecked. This man is free from the peril of spiteful machinations; No man whets his Axe to cut down a shrub, it is the large Timber of the world that hath cause to fear hewing: Neither is he less free inwardly from the galling strokes of a self-accusing Conscience; here is no remurmuring of the heart for guilty subornations, no checks for the secret contrivances of public villainies; no heart-breaking for the failings of bloody designs; or late remorse for their success; but quiet & harmless thoughts of seasonable frugality, of honest recreation, with an un interrupted freedom of recourse to Heaven. And if at any time, by either hostile, or casual means, he be bereft of his little, he smiles in the face of a thief; and is no whit astonished to see his thatch on a flame, as knowing how easy a supply will repair his loss. And when he shall come to his last close, his heart is not so glued to the world, that he should be loath to part; his soul is not tied up in bags, but flies out freely to her everlasting Rest. Oh the secret virtue and happiness of Poverty! which none but the right disposed mind knows how to value! It was not for nothing that so many great Saints have embraced it, rather than the rich proffers of the world; That so many great Princes have exchanged their Thrones for quiet Cells; Who so cannot be thankful for a little, upon these conditions, I wish he may be punished with abundance. SECT. XIII. Considering how little will suffice Nature. NEither will it a little avail to th' furtherance of our Contentation, to consider how little will suffice Nature, and that all the rest is but matter of Opinion: It is the Apostles charge, 1 Tim. 6. 9 Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content: Indeed what use is there of more, then what may nourish us within, and cover us without? If that be wholesome, and agreeable to our bodily disposition, whether it be fine, or course, Nature passes not; it is merely Will that is guilty of this wanton, and fastidious choice; It is fit that Civility should make difference of clothings; and that weakness of body, or eminence of Estate should make difference of diets; Else, why not Russet as well as Scarlet? Beef, as Pheasant? the Grasshopper feeds on dew, the Chameleon on air, what care they for other Viands? Paulo primo Eremitae in spelunca viventi palma & cibum & vestimentum praebebat; quod cum impossible videatur, Jesum testor & Angelos vidisse me Monachos, de quibus unus per 30. annos clausus, herdeaceo pane & lutulenta aqua vixit. Hieron. de vita Pauli. Revelatur Antonio nonagenario, de Paulo agente jam 113. annum, esse alium se sanctiorem Monachum, ibid. Our Books tell us, that those Anachorets of old, that went aside into Wildernesses, and sustained themselves with the most spare diet, such as those deserts could afford, out lived the date of other men's lives, in whom Nature is commonly stifled with a gluttonous variety: How strong, and vigorous above their neighbour Grecians, were the Lacedæmonians held of old? who by the Ordinance of their Lawgiver, held themselves to their black broth, which when Dionysius would needs taste of, his Cook truly told him, that if he would relish that fare, he must exercise strongly, as they did, and wash in Eurotus: Who knows not that our Island doth not afford more able Bodies, than they that eat, and drink Oats? And whom have we seen more healthful and active, than the Children of poor men, trained up hardly in their Cottages with fare as little, as course? Do I see a poor Indian husbanding one tree to all his household uses; finding in that one Plant; Timber, Thatch, Meat, Medicine, Wine, Honey, Oil, Sauce, Drink, Utensils, Ships, Cables, Sails? and do I rove over all the latitude of Nature for contentment? Our appetite is truly unreasonable, neither will know any bounds: We begin with necessaries, Plin. l. 26. c. 6. as Pliny justly observes, and from thence we rise to excess, punishing ourselves with our own wild desires; whereas, if we were wise, we might find mediocrity an ease. Either extreme is a like deadly; he that over afflicts his body, kills a Subject; Hugo. Instit. Mona. Reg. S. Columb. he that pampers it, nourishes an Enemy. Too much abstinence turns vice, and too much ingurgitation is one of the seven, and at once destroys both Nature and Grace. Senec. Epist. 88 The best measure of having or desiring, is not what we would, but what we ought: Neither is he rich that hath much; but he that desires not much: A discreet frugality is fittest to moderate both our wishes, and expenses; which if we want, we prove dangerously prodigal in both; if we have, we do happily improve our stock to the advantage of ourselves, and others. SECT. XIV. Considering the inconveniences, and miseries of discontentment. THe next inducement to Contentation, shall be the serious consideration of the miserable inconveniences of the contrary disposition; Discontentment is a mixture of anger, and of grief; both which are wont to raise up fearful tempests in the Soul; He teareth himself in his anger, saith Bildad, Job 18. 4. concerning that mirror of patience; And the sorrow of the World worketh death, saith the chosen vessel: so as the Malcontent, whether he be angry or sad, mischiefs himself both ways; There cannot be a truer word then that of wise Solomon, Eccles. 7. 9 Anger resteth in the bosom of fools; What can be more foolish then for a man, because he thinks God hath made him miserable by crosses, to make himself more miserable by his own distempers; If the clay had sense, what a mad thing were it for it to struggle with the Potter? and if a man will spurn against strong Iron-pikes, what can he hope to carry away but wounds? How witless a thing it is for a man to torment himself with the thoughts of those evils, that are past all remedy? What wise beholder would not have smiled with pity and scorn, to have seen great Augustus, after the defeat of some choice troops, to knock his head against the Wall, and to hear him passionately cry out; O Varus, restore me my lost Legions? Who would not have been angry with that choleric Prophet to hear him so furiously contest with his maker for a withered Gourd? What an affliction was it to good Jacob (more than the sterility of a beloved wife) to hear Rachel say; Gen. 30. 1. Give me Children, or else I die? yea, how ill did it sound in the mouth of the Father of the Faithful; Gen. 15. 2. Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go Childless? Yet thus froward and tetchy is nature in the best; if we may not have all we would have, all that we have is nothing; if we be not perfectly humoured, we are wilfully unthankful; All Israel is nothing worth to Ahab, if he may not have one poor Vineyard: How must this needs irritate a munificent God to see his bounty contemned out of a childish pettishness? How can he forbear to take away from us his slighted Mercies? How can he hold his hand from plaguing so ingrateful disrespects of his Favours? As for that other passion of grief, what woeful work doth it make in ungoverned minds? How many have we known, that out of thought for unrecoverable losses, have lost themselves? how many have run from their wits? how many from their lives? Yea, how many, that out of an impatience to stay the leisure of vengeance, have made their own hands, their hasty Executioners? And even where this extremity prevails not, look about, and ye shall see men that are not able matches to their passions, woefully macerating themselves with their own thoughts, wearing out their tedious days upon the rack of their own hearts; and making good that observation of the wise man; Pro. 15. 13. By the sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken. Now all these mischiefs might have been happily prevented by a meek yieldance of ourselves to the hands of an Alwise, and an All-Merciful God, and by an humble composure of our affections to a quiet suffering; It is the power of patience to calm the heart in the most blustering trials; Ps. 37. 7. and when the vessel is most tossed, Jam. 5. 7. yet to secure the freight: This, if it do not abate of our burden, yet it adds to our strength, and wins the Father of Mercies both to pity, and retribution. Whereas murmuring Israelites can never be free from judgements; and it is a dreadful word that God speaketh of that chosen Nation; Jer. 12. 8. Mine heritage is unto me as a Lion in the forest, it, still, yelleth against me, therefore have I hated it. A Child that struggles under the rod, justly doubles his stripes, and an unruly Malefactor draws on, besides Death, tortures. SECT. XV. Consider the vicissitudes of Favours and Afflictions. FUrthermore, it is a main help towards Contentation, to consider the gracious vicissitudes of Gods dealing with us: How he intermixes Favours with his crosses; tempering our much honey, with some little gall; the best of us are but shrewd Children, Ps. 103. 9 yet he chides us not always, saith the Psalmist: he smiles often, for one frown; and why should we not take one with another? It was the answer wherewith that admirable pattern of patience stopped the querulous mouth of his tempting Wife; Job. 2. 10. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? It was a memorable example which came lately to my knowledge of a worthy Christian, who had lived to his middle age in much health, and prosperity, and was now for his two last years miserably afflicted with the Strangury; who in the midst of his torments could say, Oh my Lord God, how gracious hast thou been unto me! thou hast given me eight and forty years of health, and now but two years of pain; thou mightest have caused me to lie in this torture all the days of my life; and now thou hast carried me comfortably through the rest, and hast Mercifully taken up with this last parcel of my torment; blessed be thy Name for thy Mercy in forbearing me, and for thy justice in afflicting me. To be thankful for present blessings is but ordinary, but to be so thankful for Mercies past, that the memory of them should be able to put over the sense of present miseries, is an high improvement of Grace. The very Heathens by the light of Nature and their own experience, could observe this interchange of God's proceedings; and made some kind of use of them accordingly: Camillus, after he had upon ten years' siege, Livius. taken the rich City Veios, prayed that some mishap might befall himself and Rome to temper so great an happiness; when one would have thought the prize would not countervail the labour, and the loss of time and blood. And Alexander the Great, when report was made to him of many notable Victories, achieved by his Armies, could say; O Jupiter, mix some misfortune with these happy news: Lo, these men could tell that it is neither fit, nor safe for great blessings to walk alone, but that they must be attended with their Pages, afflictions why should not we Christians expect them with patience, and thanks? They say, Thunder and Lightning hurts not, if it be mixed with Rain. In those hot Countries, which lie under the scalding Zone. When the first showers fall after a long drought, it is held dangerous to walk suddenly abroad; for that the earth so moistened sends up unwholesome steams; but in those parts where the Rain and Sunshine are usually interchanged, it is most pleasant to take the air of the earth newly refreshed with kindly showers; Neither is it otherwise in the course of our lives; this medley of good and evil conduces not a little to the health of our Souls: One of them must serve to temper the other; and both of them to keep the heart in order. Were our afflictions long, and our comforts rare and short, we had yet reason to be thankful; the least is more than God owes us: but now, when if heaviness endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning, and dwells with us, so, that some fits of sorrow are recompensed with many months of joy; how should our hearts overflow with thankfulness, and easily digest small grievances, out of the comfortable sense of larger blessings? But if we shall cast up our eyes to Heaven, and there behold the glorious remuneration of our sufferings, how shall we contemn the worst that earth can do unto us? There, there is glory enough to make us a thousand times more than amends for all that we are capable to endure; Yea, if this Earth were Hell, and Men Devils, they could not inflict upon us those torments, which might hold any equality with the glory which shall be revealed; and even of the worst of them we must say with the blessed Apostle; Our light affliction which is but for a moment, 2 Cor. 4. 17. worketh for us a far more exceeding, eternal weight of glory: When the blessed Proto-Martyr Stephen had steadfastly fixed his eyes on Heaven, and (that Curtain being drawn) had seen the Heavens opened, and therein the glory of God, Acts 7. and Jesus standing on the right hand of God; do we think he cared aught for the sparkling eyes, and gnashed teeth, and kill stones of the enraged multitude? Oh poor impotent Jews, how far was that divine Soul above the reach of your malice? how did he triumph over your cruelty? how did he by his happy evolation make all those stones precious? SECT. XVI. Consider the Examples of Contentation, both without, and within the Church of God. LAstly, it cannot but be a powerful motive unto Contentation, that we lay before us the notable Examples of men, whether worse, or better than ourselves, that have been eminent in the practice of this virtue; men, that out of the mere strength of morality, have run away with losses, and Poverty as a light burden; that out of their free choice have fallen upon those conditions, which we are ready to fear, and shrink from: What a shame is it for Christians to be outstripped herein by very Pagans? If we look upon the ancient Philosophers; their low valuation of these outward things, and their willing abdication of those comforts, wherewith others were too much affected, made them admired of the multitude; Here do I see a Cynic housed in his Tub, scorning all wealth and state; and making still even with his Victuals and the day; who, when he was invited to supper to one of Alexander's great Lords, could say; I had rather lick salt at Athens, than feast with Craterus: Here I meet with him, whom their Oracle styled the wisest of men, walking barefoot in a patched threadbare cloak, contemning honours, and all earthly things; and when that garment would hang no longer on his back, I can hear him say, I would have bought a Cloak, if I had had money; after which word, saith Seneca, whosoever offered to give, came too late; Apollodorus, amongst the rest, sends him a rich mantle towards his end, and is refused; With what Patience doth this man bear the loud scold of his Xantippe? making no other of them, than the creaking of a Cartwheel: with what brave resolution doth he repel the proffers of Archelaus, telling him how cheap the Market afforded meal at Athens, and the Fountain's Water? Here I meet with a Zeno, formerly rich in his traffic for purple, now impoverished by an ill Sea, and can hear him say, I sailed best when I Shipwrecked: Here I see an Aristippus drowning his gold in the Sea, that it might not drown him: Here I can hear a Democritus, or Cleanthes, when he was asked how a man should be rich? Answer, If he be poor in desires. What should I speak of those Indian Sophists, that took their name from their nakedness; whom we hear to say, Inter opera Ambrosii D●moribus Brachmannorum. The Sky is our House, and the Earth our Bed: we care not for Gold, we contemn Death: One of them can tell Onesicritus: As the Mother is to the Child, so is the Earth to me: The Mother gives Milk to her Infant, so doth the Earth yield all necessaries to me: And when gold was offered to him, by that great Conqueror; Persuade (said he) if thou canst these birds to take thy silver and gold, that they may sing the sweeter; and if thou canst not do that, wouldst thou have me worse than them? Adding moreover in a strong discourse; Natural hunger, when we have taken food, ceaseth; and if the mind of man did also naturally desire gold, so soon as he hath received that which he wished, the desire and appetite of it would presently cease; but so far is it from this satiety, that the more it hath, the more it doth, without any intermission, long for more; because this desire proceeds not from any motion of Nature, but only out of the wantonness of man's own will, to which no bounds can be set. Blush, O Christian Soul, (whosoever thou art, that readest these lines) to hear such words falling from Heathen lips, when thou seest those that profess godliness, dote upon these worthless metals, and transported with the affectation and cares of these earthly provisions. If from these patterns of men that should be below ourselves, we look up to the more noble precedents of Prophets and Apostles; Lo, there we find Elijah fed by Ravens; Elisha boarding with his poor Sareptan Hostess; 1 Kings 18. 13. And an hundred Prophets fed by fifty in a Cave, with bread and water; The Sons of the Prophets for the enlarging of their over-strait lodgings, 2 Kings 6. 2, 3, 4, 5, hard at work; they are their own Carpenters, but their tools are borrowed; There we shall find a few barley loaves, and little fishes, the household provision of our Saviour's train: Yea, there we find the most glorious Apostle, the great Doctor of the Gentiles, employing his hands to feed his belly; Busily stitching of skins for his Tent-work: Yea, what do we look at any or all of these, when we see the Son of God, the God of all the World, in the form of a Servant? Not a Cratch to cradle him in, not a Grave to bury him in, was his own; and he that could command Heaven and Earth, can say, The Foxes have holes, Mat. 8. 20. the Birds have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. Who now can complain of want, when he hears his Lord and Saviour but thus Provided for? He could have brought down with him a Celestial House, and have pitched it here below, too glorious for earthen eyes to have looked upon: He could have commanded all the precious things that lie shrouded in the bowels of the Earth, to have made up a Majestical Palace for him, to the dazzling of the eyes of all beholders: He could have taken up the stateliest Court that any Earthly Monarch possessed, for his peculiar habitation: But his greatness was Spiritual and Heavenly: And he that owned all would have nothing, that he might Sanctify want unto us; and that he might teach us by his blessed example, to sit down contented with any thing, with nothing. By that time therefore we have laid all these things together, and have seriously considered of the mean valuation of all these earthly things, for their transitoriness, Unsatisfaction, Danger; of the overruling Providence of the Almighty, who most wisely, justly, Mercifully disposeth of us and all events that befall us; of the worse condition of many thousand others; of the great inconveniences that attend great and full estates; of the secret benefits of Poverty; of the smallness of that pittance that may suffice Nature; of the miseries that wait upon discontentment; of the Merciful vicissitudes of Favours, wherewith God pleaseth to interchange our sufferings; and lastly, the great examples of those, as well without▪ as within the bosom of the Church, that have gone before us, and led us the way to Contentation: our judgement cannot choose but be sufficiently convinced, that there is abundant reason to win our hearts to a quiet and contented entertainment of want, and all other outward afflictions. SECT. XVII. Of Contentment in Death itself. BUt all these intervenient miseries are slight in comparison of the last, and utmost of Evils, Death; Many a one grapples cheerfully with these trivial afflictions, who yet looks Pale, and trembles at the King of Fear: His very Name hath Terror in it, but his looks more: The courageous Champion of Christ, the blessed Apostle: And with him, every Faithful Soul, makes his challenge universal, to whatsoever Estate he is in; to the Estate of Death, therefore no less than the afflictive incidence of Life: When therefore this ghastly Giant shall stalk forth, and bid defiance to the whole Host of Israel; and when the timorous unbelievers shall run away at the fight of him, & endeavour to hide their Heads from his presence; the good Soul armed, not with the unmeet and cumbersome Harness of Flesh and Blood, but with the sure (though invisible) armour of God, dares comes forth to meet him, and in the name of the Lord of Hosts, both bids him battle, and foils him in the Combat; and now having laid him on the ground, can Triumphingly say, O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy Victory? Five smooth pebbles there are, which if we carry in our scrip, we shall be able to quell, not only the power of Death, but the terror too. Whereof the first is a sure apprehension of both the unavoidable necessity, and certain benefit of death: A necessity, grounded upon the just and eternal Decree of Heaven: Heb. 9 27. It is appointed to all men once to die; and what a madness were it, for a Man to think of an exemption from the common condition of mankind? Mortality is, as it were, essential to our Nature; neither could we have had our Souls but upon the terms of a re-delivery, when they shall be called for; If the Holiest Saints, or the greatest Monarches sped otherwise, we might have some colour of repining: Now, grieve if thou wilt, that thou art a Man; grieve not, that being Man, thou must die. Neither is the benefit inferior to the necessity; Lo here the remedy of all our cares, the Physic for all our maladies, the rescue from all our fears and dangers, earnestly sued for by the painful, dearly welcome to the distressed: Yea, lo here the Cherub that keeps the Gate of Paradise; there is no entrance, but under his hand: In vain do we hope to pass to the Glory of Heaven, any other way then through the Gates of Death, The second is the Conscience of a well-led Life; Guiltinefs will make any Man cowardly, unable to look danger in the face, much more Death; whereas the innocent is bold as a Lion: What a difference therefore there is betwixt a Martyr, and a Malefactor; this latter knows he hath done ill, and therefore if he can take his Death but patiently, it is well; the former knows he hath done well, and therefore takes his Death not patiently only, but cheerfully. But because no mortal Man can have so innocently led his Life, but that he shall have passed many offences against his most Holy and Righteous God; here must be, Thirdly, a final Peace firmly made betwixt God and the Soul. Two Powerful Agents must mediate in it; a Lively Faith, and a serious Repentance; for those Sins can never appear against us, that are washed off with our tears; and being justified by Faith, Rom. 5. 1. we have Peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if we have made the Judge our Friend, what can the Sergeant do? The fourth is the Power, and efficacy of Christ's Death applied to the Soul: Wherefore died he, but that we might Live? Wherefore would he, who is the Lord of Life, die, but to sanctify, season, and sweeten death to us? Who would go any other way then his Saviour went before him? Who can fear that enemy, whom his Redeemer hath Conquered for him? Who can run away from that Serpent, whose sting is pulled out? Oh Death! my Saviour hath been thy Death, and therefore thou canst not be mine. The fifth, is the comfortable expectation, and assurance of a certain resurrection, and an immediate Glory: I do but lay me down to my rest, I shall sleep quietly, and rise gloriously: My Soul, in the mean time, no sooner leaves my body, than it enjoys God; It did lately through my bodily Eyes see my sad Friends, that bade me farewell with their Tears; now it hath the blisse-making Vision of God: I am no sooner launched forth, than I am at the Haven, where I would be; Here is that which were able to make amends for a thousand Deaths; a Glory, Infinite, Eternal, Incomprehensible. This Spiritual Ammunition shall sufficiently furnish the Soul for her encounter with her last Enemy; so as she shall not only endure, but long for this Combat; and say with the chosen Vessel, Phil. 1. 23. I desire to depart, & to be with Christ. SECT. XVIII. The miseries and inconveniences of the continued conjunction of the Soul & Body. NOw for that long conversation causeth entireness, and the parting of Old Friends and Partners (such the Soul and Body are) cannot but be grievous, although there were no actual pain in the dissolution: It will be requisite for us, seriously to consider the state of this conjunction; & to inquire what good offices the one of them doth to the other, in their continued union; for which they should be so loath to part: And here we shall find that those two, however united to make up one Person, yet (as it falls out in Cross matches) they are in continual domestic jars one with the other, and entertain a secret familiar kind of Hostility betwixt themselves; Gal. 5. 17. For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the Flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other. One says well, that if the Body should implead the Soul, it might bring many foul impeachments against it; and sue it for many great injuries done to that Earthly part: And the Soul again hath no fewer quarrels against the Body: Betwixt them both there are many brawls, no Agreement. Our Schools have reckoned up therefore eight main incommodities, which the Soul hath cause to complain of in her conjunction with the Body: whereof the first is the defilement of Original Sin, wherewith the Soul is not tainted as it proceeds, alone, from the pure hands of its Creator, but as it makes up a part of a Son of Adam, who brought this guilt upon Humane nature; so as now this composition, which we call Man, is corrupt: Job. 14. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean? Saith Job. The second is a proneness to Sin, which, but by the meeting of these partners had never been; the Soul, if single, would have been innocent; thus matched, what Evil is it not apt to entertain? An ill consort is enough to poison the best disposition. The difficulty of doing well is the third; for how averse are we by this conjunction from any thing that is good; This clog hinders us from walking roundly in the ways of God: The good that I would do, Rom. 7. 19 I do not, saith the chosen Vessel. The fourth is the dulness of our understanding, and the dimness of our mental Eyes, especially in the things pertaining unto God; which now we are forced to behold through the vail of Flesh: If therefore we mis-know, the fault is in the mean, through which we do imperfectly discover them. The fifth is a perpetual impugnation, and self-conflict, either part labouring to oppose and vanquish the other. This field is fought in every man's bosom, without any possibility of peace, or truce, till the last moment of dissolution. The sixth is the racking solicitude of cares, which continually distract the Soul, not Suffering it to rest at ease, whiles it carries this Flesh about it. The seventh is the multiplicity of passions which daily bluster within us, and raise up continual Tempests in our Lives, disquieting our Peace, and threatening our Ruin. The eight is the retardation of our Glory; for Flesh, and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; we must lay down our load if we would enter into Heaven: 2 Cor. 5. 4. The seed cannot fructify unless it Diego I cannot blame Nature if it could wish not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon: But so hath the Eternal Wisdom Ordered, that we should first lay down, ere we can take up; and be devested of Earth, ere we can partake of Heaven. Now then, sith so many & great discommodities do so unavoidably accompany this match of Soul & Body, and all of them cease instantly in the act of their dissolution; what reason have we to be too deeply affected with their parting? Yea, how should we rather rejoice that the Hour is come, wherein we shall be quit both of the Gild, and Temptations of Sin; wherein the clog shall be taken away from our heels, and the vail from our Eyes; wherein no intestine Wars shall threaten us, no cares shall disquiet us, no passions shall torment us; and lastly, wherein we may take the free possession of that Glory, which we have hitherto looked at only a far off from the top of our Pisgah? SECT. XIX. Holy dispositions for Contentment: And first, Humility. HItherto, we have dwelled in those Powerful considerations which may work us to a quiet Contentment with whatsoever adverse estate, whether of Life or Death; after which, we address ourselves to those meet dispositions, which shall render us fully capable of this blessed Contentation; and shall make all these considerations effectual to that happy purpose. Whereof the first is true Humility, under-valuing ourselves, and setting an high rate upon every Mercy that we receive; For, if a Man have attained unto this, that he thinks every thing too good for him, and himself less than the least Blessing, and worthy of the heaviest judgement; he can not but sit down thankful for small Favours, & meekly content with mean afflictions: As contrarily, the proud Man stands upon points with his Maker, makes God his debtor; looks disdainfully at small Blessings; as if he said, What, no more? and looks angrily at the least crosses; as if he said, Why thus much? The Father of the Faithful hath practically taught us this Lesson of humility, who comes to God with dust and ashes in his mouth: Gen. 18. 27 And the Jewish Doctors tell us truly, that in every Disciple of Abraham, there must be three things: a good eye, a meek spirit, and an humble soul; Pirke Av●oth. His Grandchild Jacob, the Father of every true Israelite, had well taken it out; whiles he can say to his God, Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant: And indeed, in whomsoeever it be, the best measure of Grace is Humility; for the more Grace still, the greater Humility; and no Humility, Pro. 3. 34. no Grace: Solomon observed of old; and Saint James took it from him. That God resisteth the proud, Jam. 4. 6. and giveth Grace to the Humble; so as he that is not humble, is not so much as capable of Grace; and he that is truly Humble, is a fit subject for all Graces, and amongst the rest, for the Grace of Contentation: Give me a man therefore, that is vile in his own Eyes, that is sensible of his own wretchedness, that knows what it is to Sin, and what belongs to that Sin whereof he is guilty; this Man shall think it a Mercy that he is any where out of Hell; shall account all the evils that he is free from, so many new Favours; shall reckon easy corrections amongst his blessings, & shall esteem any blessing infinitely obliging. Whereas contrarily, the proud beggar is ready to throw God's alms at his Head, and swells at every lash, that he receives from the Divine Hand. Not without great cause therefore doth the Royal Preacher oppose the patient in Spirit, to the proud in Spirit; for the proud Man can no more be patient, than the patient can be discontent with whatsoever hand of his God. Every toy puts the proud Man beside his Patience; If but a fly be found in Pharaohs cup, he is strait in rage, (as the Jewish tradition lays the quarrel) and sends his Butler into durance: And if the Emperor do but mistake the Stirrup of our Countryman Pope Adrian, he shall dance attendance for his Crown: If a Mardochee do but fail of a courtesy to Haman, all Jews must bleed to Death; And how unquiet are our vain Dames, if this curl be not set right, or that Pin be misplaced? But the meek Spirit is incurious; and so throughly subacted, that he takes his load from God (as the Camel from his Master) upon his knees: And for Men, if they compel him to go one mile, Mat. 5. 39 40. he goes twain; if they smite him on the right cheek, he turns the other, if they sue away his Coat, he parts with his Cloak also▪ Heraclius the Emperor, when he was about to pass through the golden gate, & to ride in Royal State through the streets of Jerusalem, being put in mind by Zacharias the Bishop there, of the humble and dejected fashion wherein his Saviour walked through those streets, towards his passion, strips off his rich robes, lays aside his Crown, and with bare head, and bare feet, submissly paces the same way that his Redeemer had carried his Cross towards his Golgotha. Every true Christian is ready to tread in the deep steps of his Saviour, as well knowing that if he should descend to the Gates of Death, of the Grave, of Hell, he cannot be so humbled, as the Son of God was for him: And indeed, this, and this alone, is the true way to Glory; He that is Truth itself, hath told us, that he who humbles himself shall be exalted; And wise Solomon, Pro. 85. 33. Before Honour is Humility. The Fuller treads upon that cloth which he means to whiten: And he that would see the Stars by day, must not climb up into some high Mountain, but must descend to the lower Cells of the earth. Shortly, whosoever would raise up a firm building of Contentation, must be sure to lay the foundation in Humility. SECT. XX. Of a Faithful Self-resignation. SEcondly, to make up a true Contentment with the most adverse estate, there is required a Faithful Self-resignation into the hands of that God, whose we are; who, as he hath more right in us, than ourselves, so he best knows what to do with us: How graciously hath his mercy invited us to our own ease? Be careful (saith he) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication, Phillip 4. 6. with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God: we are naturally apt in our necessities to have recourse to greater powers than our own; even where we have no engagement of their help; how much more should we cast ourselves upon the Almighty, when he not only allows, but solicits our reliance upon him? It was a question that might have befitted the mouth of the best Christian, which fell from Socrates, Since God himself is careful for thee, why art thou solicitous for thyself? If evils were let loose upon us, so as it were possible for us to suffer any thing that God were not aware of, we might have just cause to sink under adversities; but now, that we know every dram of our affliction is weighed out to us, by that alwise, and all-merciful Providence; Oh our infidelity, if we do make scruple of taking in the most bitter dose! Here then is the right use of that main duty of Christianity, to live by faith: Brute creatures live by sense, mere men by reason, Christians by faith. Heb. 11. 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen; In our extremities we hope for God's gracious deliverance, faith gives a subsistence to that deliverance, before it be: The mercies that God hath reserved for us, do not yet show themselves; faith is the evidence of them, though yet unseen: It was the Motto of the learned and godly Divine Mr. Perkins, Fidei vita vera vita; The true life, is the life of faith; a word which that worthy servant of God did both write and live; neither indeed is any other life truly vital, but this; for hereby we enjoy God in all whatever occurrences: Are we abridged of means? we seed upon the cordial Promises of our God: Do we sigh and groan under varieties of grievous persecutions? out of the worst of them we can pick out comforts; whiles we can hear our Saviour say, Mat. 5. 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven; Are we deserted, and abandoned of friends? we see him by us, who hath said, Heb. 13. 5. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee: Do we droop under spiritual desertions? we hear the God of truth say, Esa. 54. 7, 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercy will I gather thee; In a little wrath I hid my face from thee, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer: Are we driven from home? If we take the wings of the morning, Psal. 139. 8, 9 and remain in the uttermost parts of the Sea; even there also shall thine hand lead us, and thy right hand shall hold us: Are we dungeoned up from the sight of the Sun? Peradventure the darkness shall cover us; but then shall our night be turned into day; yea, ver. 10, 11 the darkness is no darkness with thee: Are we cast down upon the bed of sickness? He that is our God, is the God of salvation; Ps. 68 20. and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. It cannot be spoken how injurious those men are to themselves, that will be managing their own cares, and plotting the prevention of their fears; and projecting their own, both indemnity, and advantages; for, as they lay an unnecessary load upon their own shoulders, so they draw upon themselves the miseries of an unremediable disappointment; Alas, how can their weakness make good those events which they vainly promise to themselves, or avert those judgements they would escape, or uphold them in those evils they must undergo? Whereas if we put all this upon a gracious God, he contrives it with ease; looking for nothing from us, but our trust, and thankfulness. SECT. XXI. Of True inward Riches. IN the third place, it will be most requisite to furnish the soul with true inward riches; I mean not of mere moral virtues, (which yet are truly precious when they are found in a good heart) but of a wealth as much above them, as gold is above dross; Yea, as the thing which is most precious, is above nothing: And this shall be done, if we bring Christ home to the soul; if we can possess ourselves of him, who is God all-sufficient; For such infinite contentment there is in the Son of God made ours, that whosoever hath tasted of the sweetness of this comfort is indiffererent to all earthly things; and insensible of those extreme differences of events, wherewith others are perplexed; How can he be dejected with the want of any thing, who is possessed of him that possesseth all things? How can he be over-affected with trivial profits, or pleasures, who is taken up with the God of all comfort? Is Christ mine therefore? How can I fail of all contentment? How can he complain to want light, that dwells in the midst of the Sun? How can he complain of thirst, out of whose belly flow rivers of living water? Joh. 7. 38. What can I wish, that my Christ is not to me? Would I have meat and drink? Joh. 6. 55. My flesh is meat indeed; and my blood is drink indeed: Would I have clothing? But, Rom. 13. 14. put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, saith the Apostle: Would I have medicine? Rev. 22. 2. He is the Tree of life, the leaves whereof are for the healing of the Nations: Would I have safety, and protection? He truly is my strength, and my salvation; Ps. 62. 6, 7. he is my defence, so as I shall not fall; in God is my health and my glory; the Rock of my might, and in God is my trust: Would I have direction? Phil. 1. 27. I am the way, and the truth: Would I have life? Christ is to me to live; Joh. 11. 25. I am the Resurrection and the Life: Would I have all spiritual good things? 1 Cor. 1. 30. We are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption. Oh the happy condition of the man that is in Christ, and hath Christ in him! Shall I account him rich, that hath store of Oxen, and Sheep, and Horses, and Camels; that hath heaps of metals, and some spots of ground? and shall I not account him infinitely more rich, that owns and enjoys him whose the earth is, and the fullness of it; whose Heaven is, and the glory of it? Shall I justly account that man great, whom the King will honour, and place near to himself; and shall I not esteem that man more honourable, whom the King of Heaven is pleased to admit unto such Partnership of glory, as to profess; To him that overcommeth will I grant to sit with me in my Throne, Rev. 3. 23. even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his Throne? It is a true word of Saint Augustine, that every soul is either Christ's Spouse, or the Devil's Harlot: Now if we be matched to Christ, the Lord of glory; what a blessed union is here? What can he withhold from us, that hath given us himself? I could envy the devotion of that man (though otherwise misplaced) whom S. Bernard heard to spend the night in no other words then, Deus meus & omnia; My God, and all things; Certainly, he who hath that God, hath more than all things; he that wants him (whatever else he seems to possess) hath less than nothing. SECT. XXII. Rom. 7. 19 Holy resolutions: 1. That our present estate is best for us▪ AFter these serious considerations, and meet dispositions, shall in the last follow certain firm resolutions for the full actuating our contentment: And first, we must resolve (out of the infallible grounds of divine Providence, formerly spoken of) that the present estate wherein wear, is certainly the best for us; and therefore we must herein absolutely captivate our understanding, and will, to that of the highest: How unmeet Judges are flesh and blood of the best fitness of a condition for us? As some palates (which are none of the wholsomest) like nothing but sweet meats, so our nature would be fed up with the only delicacies of pleasures; and prosperity; according to the false principle of Arristippus, that he only is Happy, which is delighted; but the Alwise God knows another diet more fit for our Health, and therefore graciously tempers our dishes with the tart sauces of affliction: The Mother of the two Sons of Zebedee, and her ambitious Children, are all for the chief Peerage in the Temporal Kingdom of Christ; but he calls them to a bitter Cup, and a bloody Baptism rather; and this was a far greater Honour than that they sued for: There is no Earthly Estate absolutely good for all Persons; like as no gale can serve for all Passengers. In afric, they say, the North wind brings Clouds, and the South wind clears up: That plant which was starved in one Soil, in another prospers; Yea, that which in some climate is poison, proves wholesome in another: Some one Man if he had another's blessings, would run wild; and if he had some other Man's Crosses, would be desperate; The infinite wisdom of the great Governor of the World allots every one his due proportion; Esa. 28. 27. The fitches' are not threshed with a threshing instrument; neither is a Cartwheel turned about upon the Cummin; but the fitches' are beaten out with a staff, and the Cummin with a rod, saith Esay. And no otherwise in matter of prosperity; joseph's Coat may be particoloured, and Benjamins' mess may be five times so much as any of his Brethren. Gen. 43. 34. It is marvel if they who did so much envy Joseph for his dream of Superiority, did not also envy Benjamin for so large a service, and so Rich gifts at his parting; this it seems gave occasion for the good Patriarches fear, when he charged them, Gen. 45. 24. See that you fall not out by the way; But there had been no reason for so impotent an envy; whiles the gift is free, and each speeds above his desert, who can have cause to repine? It is enough that Joseph knew a just reason of so unequal a distribution, though it were hidden from themselves. The Elder Brother may grudge the fat Calf, and the prime Robe to the returned Unthrift, but the Father knows reason to make that difference. God is Infinitely just, and Infinitely Merciful in dispensing both his Favours and Punishment. In both kinds every Man hath that which is fittest for him, because it is that which Gods will hath designed to him; and that will is the most absolute rule of justice: Now if we can so frame our will to his, as to think so too, how can we be other then Contented? Do we Suffer? There is more intended to us then our smart: It was a good speech of Seneca, though a Heathen, (what pity it is that he was so?) I give thanks to my infirmity, which forces me not to be able to do that, which I ought not will to do; If we lose without, 2 Cor. 4. 16. so as we gain within; if in the perishing of the outward Man, the inward Man be renewed, we have no cause to complain, much to rejoice: Do I Live in a mean Estate? If it were better, I should be worse; more proud, more careless; and what a woeful improvement were this? What a strange Creature would Man be, if he were what he would wish himself? Surely, he would be wickedly pleasant, carelessly Profane, vainly proud, proudly oppressive, dissolutely wanton, impetuously selfwilled; and shortly, his own Idol, and his own Idolater; His Maker knows how to frame him better; it is our ignorance and unthankfulness, if we submit not to his good pleasure: To conclude, we Pray every day, Thy will be done; What Hypocrites are we, if we Pray one thing, and Act another? If we murmur at what we wish? All is well between Heaven and us, if we can think ourselves Happy to be what God will have us. SECT. XXIII. Two Resolutions to abate of our desires. SEcondly, we must resolve to abate of our desires; for it is the illimitedness of our ambitious, and covetous thoughts, that is guilty of our unquietness; Every Man would be, and have more than he is; and is therefore Sick of what he is not. It was a True word of Democritus, If we desire not much, we shall think a little much: And it is suitable to one of the rules of S. Augustine; It is better to need less, then to have more: Paul, the richest Poor man, (as Ambrose well) could say, Ambros. de vitiorum & virtutum conflictu. As having all things, yet possessing nothing: It is not for a Christian to be of the Dragon's temper, which they say is so ever thirsty, that no water will quench his drought; and therefore never hath his mouth shut; nor, with the daughters of the Horseleech to cry always, Pro. 30. 15. Give, Give; He must confine his desires; and that, to no over large compass; and must say to them, Job. 38. 11. as God doth to the Sea, Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further; and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed. What a cumber it is for a Man to have too much? to be in the case of Surena the Parthian Lord▪ that could never remove his Family with less than a thousand Camels? What is this, but Tortoise-like, to be clogged with a weighty shell, which we cannot drag after us, but with pain? Or like the Ostrich, to be so held down with an heavy body, that we can have no use of our Wings? Whereas the nimble Lark rises, & mounts with ease, and Sings cheerfully in her flight. How many have we known, that have found too much flesh a burden? And when they have found their Blood too rank, have been glad to pay for the letting it out? It was the word of that old and famous Lord Keeper Bacon, the eminent Head of a noble, and witty family, Mediocria firma: There is neither safety, nor true pleasure in excess: It was a wise and just answer of Zenò the Philosopher, who reproving the superfluity of a Feast, and hearing by way of defence that the Maker of it was a great Rich Man, and might well spare it, said; If thy Cook shall over-salt thy broth, and when he is chid for it, shall say, I have store enough of Salt lying by me, wouldst thou take this for a fair answer? My Son, Pro. 24. 13. eat thou honey, saith Solomon; because it is good: But, to be sure, for the preventing all immoderation, he adds soon after; Hast thou found Honey? Pro. 25. 16. Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, Pro. 25. 16. lest thou be filled therewith: If our appetite carry us too far, we may easily surfeit; this (which is the emblem of Pleasure) must be tasted (as Dionysius the Sophist said of old) on the tip of the Finger; not be supped up in the hollow of the hand; It is with our desires, as it is with weak Stomaches, the quantity offends, even where the Food is not unwholesome; and if heed be not taken, one bit draws on another, till Nature be overlaid; Both Pleasures and profits (if way be given to them) have too much power to debauch the mind, and to work it to a kind of insatiableness; there is a thirst that is caused with drunkenness; and the wanton appetite, like as they said of Messalina, may be wearied, but cannot be satisfied; It is good therefore to give austere repulses to the first overtures of inordinate desires, and to give strong denials to the first unruly motions of our Hearts; For, S. chrysostom well; Pleasure is like a Dog, which being coyed, and stroaked, follows us at the Heels, but if rated, and beaten off, is driven away from us with ease. It is for the Christian Heart to be taken up with other desires such as wherein there can be no danger of immoderateness: These are the Holy longings after grace and goodness; This only Covetousness, this ambition is pleasing to God, and Infinitely beneficial to the Soul. Mat. 5. 6. Blessed are they which Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness, for they shall be filled: Spiritual Blessings are the true Riches, whereof we can never have enough. S. Ambrose said truly, No Man is indeed wealthy, that cannot carry away what he hath with him: What is left behind, Ambros. is not ours, Epist. 27. but other men's; Contemn thou whiles thou art alive, that which thou canst not enjoy when thou art Dead. As for this Earthly trash, and the vain delights of the flesh, which we have so fond doted on; we cannot carry them indeed away with us, but the sting of the guilty mis-enjoying of them will be sure to stick by us; and, to our sorrow, attend us both in Death and Judgement: In sum therefore, if we would be truly Contented, & Happy, our Hearts can never be enough enlarged in our desires of Spiritual and Heavenly things, never too much contracted in our desires of Earthly. SECT. XXIV. 3. A Resolution to inure ourselves to digest smaller discontentments. OUr Third Resolution must be to inure ourselves to digest smaller Discontentment's; and by the exercise thereof, to enable ourselves for greater: As those that drink Medicinal Waters, begin First with smaller quantities, & by degrees arise, at last, to the highest of their prescribed measure; or as the wise Lacedæmonians, by early scourge of their Boys, enured them in their riper Years to more painful Sufferings: A strong Milo takes up his Calf at first, and by continual practice is now able to carry it when it is grown a Bull. Such is our self-love, that we affect ever to be served of the best; and that we are apt to take great exceptions at small failings: We would walk always in smooth and even Paths, and would have no hindrances in our passage; but, there is no remedy, we must meet with rubs; and perhaps cross shins, and take falls too in our way: Every one is willing and desirous to enjoy (as they say the City of Rhodes doth) a perpetual Sunshine; but we cannot (if we be Wise) but know, that we must meet with change of weather; with rainy days, & sometimes storms and tempests; it must be our wisdom to make Provision accordingly: And some while to abide a wetting; that, if need be, we may endure a drenching also. It was the policy of Jacob, Gen. 32. 26. & 33. 5, 6. etc. when he was to meet with his Brother Esau (whom he feared an Enemy, but found a Friend) to send the droves first, than his Handmaids, and their Children; then Leah, with her Children, and at last, came Joseph and Rachel; as one that would adventure the less dear in the first place, and (if it must be) to prepare himself for his dearest loss. Act. 27. 18, 19 S. Paul's companions in his perilous Sea, first lighten the Ship of less necessaries, than they cast out the tackling, than the Wheat; and in the last place, themselves. It is the use that wise Socrates made of the sharp Tongues of his cross and unquiet Wives, to prepare his patience for public Sufferings. Surely, he that cannot endure a frown, will hardly take a blow; and he that doubles under a light Cross, will sink under a heavier; and contrarily, that good Martyr prepares his whole Body for the Faggot, with burning his Hand in the Candle. I remember Seneca, in one of his Epistles, rejoices much to tell with what patient temper he took it, that coming inexpectedly to his Countryhouse, he found all things so discomposed, that no provision was ready for him; finding more contentment in his own quiet apprehension of these wants, then trouble in that unreadiness: And thus, should we be affected upon all occasions; Those that promised me help, have disappointed me: That Friend, on whom I relied, hath failed my trust: The sum that I expected, comes not in at the day: My Servant slackens the business enjoined him: The Beast that I esteemed highly, is lost: The Vessel in which I shipped some commodities, is wracked: My diet and attendance must be abated; I must be dislodged of my former habitation; how do I put over these occurrences? If I can make light work of these lesser Crosses, I am in a good posture to entertain greater. To this purpose, it will be not a little expedient, to thwart our appetite in those things wherein we placed much delight; and to torture our curiosity in the delay of those Contentments, which we too eagerly affected: It was a noble and exemplary Government of these passions, which we find in King David, who being extremely thirsty, and longing for a speedy refreshment, could say; Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the Well of Bethlehem! 2 Sam. 23. 15, 16, 17. but when he saw that Water purchased with the hazard of the lives of three of his Worthies, when it was brought to him, he would not drink it, but poured it out unto the Lord. Have I a mind to some one curious dish above the rest? I will put my knife to my Throat, and not humour my Palate so far as to taste of it: Do I receive a Letter of News from a far Country, overnight? It shall keep my pillow warm till the morning: Do my importunate recreations call me away? They shall, against the hair, be forcibly adjourned till a further leisure: Out of this ground it was, that the ancient Votaries observed such austerity, and rigour in their Diet, Clothes, Lodging; as those that knew how requisite it is that Nature should be held short of her demands; & continually exercised with denials▪ lest she grow too wanton, and impetuous in her desires: That which was of old given as a rule to Monastic Persons, is fit to be extended to all Christians; They may not have a Will of their own, but must frame themselves to such a condition, and carriage, as seems best to their Superior; If therefore it please my God to send me some little Comfort, I shall take that as an earnest of more; and if he exercise me with lesser Crosses, I shall take them as preparatives to greater; and endeavour to be thankful for the one, and patient in the other; and contented with God's hand in both. SECT. XXV. 4. A Resolution to be frequent and fervent in Prayer. OUr last Resolution must be, to be frequent and fervent in our Prayers to the Father of all Mercies, that he will be pleased to Work our Hearts by the Power of his Spirit, to this constant state of Contentation; without which we can neither consider the things that belong to our inward Peace, nor dispose ourselves towards it, nor resolve aught for the effecting it; without which, all our Considerations, all our Dispositions, all our Resolutions, are vain and fruitless. Justly therefore doth the blessed Apostle, Phil. 4. 6. after his charge of avoiding all Carefulness for these earthly things, enforce the necessity of our Prayers and Supplications, and making our requests known unto God; who both knows our need, and puts these requests into our Mouths: When we have all done, they are the requests of our Hearts, that must free them from cares, and frame them to a perfect Contentment: There may be a kind of dull and stupid neglect, which possessing the Soul may make it insensible of Evil Events, in some natural dispositions; but a true temper of a quiet and peaceable estate of the Soul upon good grounds can never be attained without the inoperation of that Holy Spirit, Jam. 1. 17. from whom every good gift, and every perfect giving proceedeth: It is here contrary to these Earthly Occasions: With Men, he that is ever craving, is never contented; but with God, he cannot want Contentment that prays always. If we be not unacquainted with ourselves, we are so conscious of our own weakness, that we know every puff of Temptation is able to blow us over; they are only our Prayers that must stay us from being carried away with the violent assaults of Discontentment; under which, a Praying Soul can no more miscarry, than an Indevout Soul can enjoy safety. SECT. XXVI. The difficulty of knowing how to abound; and the ill consequences of not knowing it. LEt this be enough for the Remedy of those distempers which arise from an adverse Condition; As for Prosperity, every man thinks himself wise and able enough to know how to govern it, and himself in it; an happy estate (we imagine) will easily manage itself without too much care; Give me but Sea-Room, faith the confident Mariner, and let me alone, what ever tempest arise: Surely, the great Doctor of the Gentiles had never made this holy boast of his divine skill, [I know how to abound] if it had been so easy a matter as the World conceives it: Mere Ignorance, and want of Self-experience, is Guilty of this Error. Many a one abounds in Wealth and Honour, who a no less in miseries and vexation: Many a one is carried away with an unruly greatness, to the destruction of Body, Soul, Estate; The World abounds every where with Men that do abound, and yet do not know how to abound: And those especially in three ranks; The Proud, the Covetous, the Prodigal; The Proud is thereby transported to forget God; the Covetous, his Neighbour; the Prodigal, Himself. Both Wealth and Honour are of a swelling Nature; raising a Man up not above others, but above himself; equalling him to the Powers Immortal; yea, exalting him above all that is called God; Oh that vile dust and ashes should be raised to that height of Insolence as to hold contestation with its Maker! Exod. 5. 2. Who is the Lord? Saith the King of Egypt: I shall be like to the Highest; Esa. 14. 14. I am, and there is none besides me, saith the King of Babylon; The Voice of God, Act. 12. 22 and not of Man, goes down with Herod: And how will that Spirit trample upon Men, that dare vie with the Almighty? Hence are all the heavy oppressions, Bloody Tyrannies, imperious domineering, scornful insultations, merciless outrages, that are so rife amongst Men, even from hence, that they know not how to abound. The Covetous Man abounds with bags, and no less with sorrows; verifying the experience of Wise Solomon; Eccl. 5. 13. There is a fore evil which I have seen under the Sun, Riches kept for the owners thereof, to their hurt; what he hath got with unjustice, he keeps with care, leaves with grief, and reckons for with torment; I cannot better compare these Money-mongers then to Bees; they are busy gatherers, but it is for themselves; their Masters can have no part of their Honey till it be taken from them; and they have a sting ready for every one that approaches their Hive; and their lot at the last is burning. What maceration is there here with fears and jealousies▪ what cruel extortion and oppression exercised upon other? And all from no other ground then this, that they know not how to abound? The Prodigal feasts and sports like an Athenian, spends like an Emperor; and is ready to say as Heliogabalus did of Old, Aelius Lamprid. Those Cates are best, that cost dearest; caring more for an empty reputation of a short gallantry, then for the comfortable subsistence of himself, his Family, his Posterity: Like Cleopes the Vain Egyptian King, which was fain to prostitute his Daughter for the finishing of his Pyramid: This Man lavisheth out not his own means alone, but his poor neighbours; running upon the score with all Trades that concern back or belly; undoing more with his debts, than he can pleasure with his entertainments; none of all which should be done, if he knew how to abound. Great skill therefore is required to the Governing of a plentiful and prosperous Estate, so as it may be safe and comfortable to the owner, and beneficial unto others; Every Corporal may know how to Order some few Files, but to marshal many Troops in a Regiment, many Regiments in a whole Body of an Army, quires the skill of an experienced General. But the rules and limits of Christian moderation, in the use of our Honours, Pleasures, Profits, I have at large laid forth in a former Discourse; thither I must crave leave to send the benevolent Reader; beseeching God to bless unto him these and all other Labours, to the Happy furtherance of his Grace and Salvation. Amen. * ⁎ * FINIS.