OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND.  
By PETER DV MOULIN THE SON. D. D.  
LONDON, Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his shop at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1657.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE RICHARD EARL OF CORK, Viscount of Kinalmeaky and Dungarvan, Baron of Yoghall and Bandon, Peer of Ireland.  
My Lord,  
THese Contemplations belong to your Lordship by double right, as fruits grown and ripened at the rays of your favour, and as characters of those virtues whereby you have wrestled out the difficulties of an age of Iron and Fire; The roughness of those storms makes your present tranquillity look smother, & your Lordship takes the right course to have tranquillity at home in any weather, consecrating your heart to be a Sanctuary of the God of peace, where you entertain him by faith, love, and good works; not serving the world, but making the world to serve you; keeping a constant march through the various occurrences of both fortunes, with a meek & resolute equanimity, and a prudent sincerity. To keep your mind in that golden frame, if these endeavours of mine may be instrumental, they shall but refund what they have received, for to that tranquillity which I enjoy under your noble shelter, I own these meditations of tranquillity. May they prove of the nature of those seeds which improve the soil where they grow. And may your good soul reap some fruit of these productions of your favour and my thankfulness. I rest  
At your Manor of Lismore July 30. 1655. MY LORD Your Honour's most humble and dutiful servant, PETER Du MOULIN.   

PREFACE.  
BEing cast by the public storm upon a remote shore, whence I behold the agitations of the world with a calmer judgement, because former troubles have left me little occasion to be much concerned in the latter; I find myself invited by this uncertain interval of unexpected rest to meditate how I may find the rest of the soul and contentment of mind in all conditions. And seeking it for myself, I may be so happy as to procure it to others.  
For that contemplation I made use of four books, this halfe-wilde country affording but few more, The chief is the holy Scripture, the meditation whereof brings that peace which passeth all understanding. The next is the book of Nature; Then the book of God's providence in the conduct of the world, both teaching me to say with David, 
Psalm. 92.5.  Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy works. The fourth book is that which every one carrieth along with himself, the spirit of man. A book where there is much to be put out, and much put out which must be renewed, before we can read in it any subject of peace and content, for without the corrections of grace this natural book is, like that of Ezekiel, 
Ezeck. 2.10.  written within and without with lamentations and mourning and woe.  
It is the work of wisdom and my endeavour in this treatise, so to correct this fourth book upon the three others, that we may study it with delight, and find peace and contentment within us, which may spare us the labour to seek it abroad. That wisdom which must work in us that excellent effect, is divine wisdom; She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her, 
Prov. 3.18.  & happy is every one that retains her. And humane wisdom instructed by the divine seconds her, and does her good service in that great work.  
This philosophy swims against the stream of a great torrent. So I call the numerous abettors of that eminent moral Philosopher, Doctor Charron my countryman, who with great care separates divine wisdom from the humane, and attributes to the humane alone that which only belongs to the divine, 
Preface to the three books of wisdom.  to make a man walk always upright, steadfast, and content in himself.  
I have more serene intentions in this book, which bears on the front the Peace and contentment of mind then to carp at the learned and the dead. And it grieveth me much to descent from that brave man whom I truly admire, acknowledging his book of Wisdom to be of rare excellency, and of singular use to such as know how to use it aright. But it grieves me more that he hath persvaded so many seeming wisemen, pretenders to the magistracy of wit, 
Ibid.  that integrity is not a dependence of Religion, and that the virtue and integrity of Divines is altogether frowning, chagreene, austere, servile, sad, timorous, and vulgar. One would think that he is drawing the picture of some old barefooted she votary. But Philosophical wisdom, that is (as he expounds it) the human and civil, he makes it free, cheerful, lofty, noble, generous, and rare.  
It is likely that Charron describing Theological wisdom weeping, austere, base, and poor spirited, had before his eyes those rules of monastical discipline which he made once a show to affect, though very ill agreeing with his free masculine, and lofty spirit, as setting forth piety and wisedone in a servile and melancholy dress. Had he lived till now, his solid rational wit had liked no better of the delicate and poetical piety that came since upon the stage of France, some of it published in English to little purpose. Where in stead of reason and authority to satisfy the judgement and comfort the conscience, you shall find posies of light courtly conceits, as if they presented the devotion of the people with beads of rosebuds, shedding in their hands that turn them. These two different ways of piety are unsavoury to philosophical minds that would be paid with reason and good sense, which if they find not in religion, they will forsake it, and seek for wisdom in Philosophy.  
I own that duty to Theological wisdom to make it appear, to my power, that she is the true Philosophy, and that to her that magnificent character is proper and special, 
Ibid.  to make a man's spirit firm, upright, free, cheerful, universal, content every where, which privileges Charron reserveth to civil wisdom. It is a high injury offered to piety to take virtue and moral Philosophy from her jurisdiction, and transport to humane wisdom that which is proper to the divine, 
Ibid.  even the skill of living and dying well, which is all. Let us endeavour to show by our example that Divinity doth not handle wisdom austerely and drily as he doth reprove her, but sweetly and pleasantly, 
Ibid.  which he saith to be proper to humane wisdom. And that we may restore that to Religion which Charron takes from her, let us think it no shame to take place among those whom he condemneth. They take (saith he) Religion to be a generality of all good, 
Lib. 2. cap. 5.  that all virtues are comprehended in it, and are subordinate to it. Wherefore they acknowledge no virtue or righteousness, but such as moveth by motives of Religion.  
I profess myself one of them that think so, preferring to Charrons authority, that of Saint Paul, who makes Religion a generality of all good, in this pregnant text. 
Phil. 4.8.  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. I hope with Gods help to justify that unto true piety it properly belongs, to set a man at peace with God, with himself, and with his neighbours; to set a right order in his soul by rectifying his opinions, and governing his passions; to make him moderate in prosperity, and patiented in adversity, wise, tranquil, generous and cheerful as long as he liveth, and glorious after his death. In these few words I have set down the argument and order of this Book. If all these are within the precincts of piety, very little will remain for humane wisdom separate from religious to make a man virtuous and happy.  
Charron very wittily allegeth that many Philosophers have been good and virtuous, and yet irreligious: To which the answer is, that it is an indulgence when they are called good and virtuous without the knowledge and love of the divine and saving truth: and that such of them as have been nearest to that title, had reverend opinions of the Godhead, and despised the silly superstitions of that age. Also that their want of religion hath made their pretended virtue maimed and monstrous, as in the case of killing one's self, which Charron (after Montagne) esteem two much, and dares not condemn it without a preface of reverence and admiration. This he hath got by separating Virtue from Religion; proving by his example, that Nature without grace cannot but stumble in the dark, and that to guide one's self it is not enough to have good eyes, but there is need of the light from above.  
Whereas we should make a faithful restitution to Religion of all that is virtuous in Pagan Philosophy, as descended from the Father of lights, and belonging to the patrimony of the Church; this man does the clean contrary, robbing Religion of those things which are most essential to her, to bestow them upon humane wisdom; soliciting virtue to shake off her subjection to Religion her mother and Sovereign, and to make herself absolute and independent. Himself forgets to whom he oweth that wisdom of which he writes; In the School of Religion he had got his best learning; to Religion, also he should have done his homage for it.  
Can all the Books of humane wisdom afford such a sublime Philosophy a● that of the Lord Jesus, when he teacheth us to be prudent as serpents, and harmless as doves. Not to fear them that kill the body, and cannot kill the Soul. Not to care for the morrow, because God cares for it, and because to every day is sufficient the affliction thereof. Not to lay up treasures in earth where the moth and the rust spoil all, but in Heaven where they spoil nothing. And when he brings us to the school of Nature, sometimes to wean us from covetous cares by the examples of Lilies of the field which God clotheth; and of the birds of the air which he feedeth; sometimes to persuade us to do good to our enemies, because God makes his Sun to rise upon good and evil, and his rain to fall upon the just and unjust.  
How many lessons and examples do we find in Scripture of heroical magnanimity? Such is the Philosophy of St. Paul, who professed that when he was weak, than he was strong, and that he fainted not, because that while the outward man decayed, the inward was renewed day by day. Such is the Philosophy of the Hebrews, who bore with joy the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had a better and an enduring substance. Such also is the Philosophy of David, who was confident never to be removed, because God was at his right hand; and taking him for the portion of his inheritance, he looked through death and the grave to the glorious presence of God's face, and the pleasures as his right hand for evermore.  
This is Theological wisdom. Is it all frowning chagreene, austere, servile, sad, timorous, and vulgar? Is it not all free, cheerful, lofty, noble, generous, and rare? Let us acknowledge that it is the only wisdom that makes man free and content. If the Son of God set us free, we shall be free indeed: Out of him there is nothing but slavery and anguish.  
Satan the great enemy of God and men could not have devised a more effectual course to disgrace godliness, and cast men headlong into perdition, then to separate wisdom from religion, and portray religious wisdom weeping, trembling, with a frighted look, and hooded with superflition. They that take so much pains to prove, that religion and wisdom are things altogether different, have a great mind to say, if they durst, that they are altogether contrary. And if any be persuaded by Charron, that to be wise and virtuous one needs not be religious, he will come of himself to believe that he that would be religious cannot be wise and virtuous. Certainly who so conceiveth once religious wisdom in that sad, servile, and timorous Idea, which Charron assigns to her, must needs think that wisdom and virtue lose their name, and go from their nature when they will be religious.  
There is then nothing more necessary in this age, in which Atheism is dogmatizing and speaking big, then to demonstrate that the beginning and accomplishment of wisdom is the fear of God. And in stead of that prodigious method, to withdraw men from religion (that is from God) to make them wise and content; that truth must be pressed unto the heart, that a man cannot be wise and content but by joining himself with God by a religious belief, love, and obedience.  
That we fall not into a contrary extreme, we must take heed of robbing humane wisdom of her office and praise. And we must acknowledge that she needs to be employed about many things in which piety is not an actor, but an overseer: But piety must never be severed from her, for where she gives no rules, yet she sets limits. Piety must be mistress every where, humane wisdom the servant. Now it is the servants duty to do many things which the mistress will not put her hand to, standing more upon her dignity then to descend to inferior offices. In which although piety hath no hand, yet she hath an eye to them, and lets nothing scape her knowledge.  
On the other side, humane wisdom confines not herself to inferior offices, but assisteth Piety in the highest. She doth her good service when she keeps in her own rank. But she goeth out of it when she presumes to govern her Mistress, subjecting faith to reason, and conscience to worldly interesses.  
In this Treatise, I consider piety and wisdom as the means to obtain the peace of the soul and contentment of mind. Not to vote for the Epicureans against the Stoicians by subordinating virtue to content; for I am of opinion that these two things must be subordinated the one to the other by turns, as the use requireth. Now my present use is to employ virtue for contentment of mind. Wherein I hope not to be censured as subjecting virtue to contentment, in stead of subjecting contentment to virtue, these two being all one if they be well considered; for the only way to content our mind is to be virtuous, and to be virtuous we must get a tranquil and contented spirit. It is well done to prefer virtue before contentment; but it is well done also to invite men to virtue by the contentment that virtue yieldeth. Since all men are great lovers of themselves, and much led by their pleasure, let us husband that voluptuous humour, and the love that every one bears to himself, to make them inducements to render unto God his due, making ingenuous minds sensible that the only way for them to be pleased, & upon good ground, with all that is within and about them, is to study to please God; and that duty and content consist in one and the same thing.  
For these Meditations, the want of books, even of my private collections, which at the first was to me some discouragement, in the progress of the work proved rather a help. The less opportunity I had to read, the more liberty had I to contemplate. Truly, if after so many writers, the public stock of holy Philosophy is yet capable of new improvement, it must be expected from those who being but little assisted with the conceptions of others, are put to make more use of their own sense and experience. Many times God sends more grace where there is less helps otherways.   

OF THE PEACE OF THE SOUL AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND.  
THE FIRST BOOK. Of Peace with God.  

CHAP. I. Of the Peace of the Soul.  
THe Gospel is called a Testament, because it is the declaration of the last Will of our Lord Jesus Christ. By that Will, he leaves his peace to his Disciples, and being near his death tells them, john 14.17. My peace I leave unto you, my peace I give unto you. For since Jesus is called the Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9.5. his proper legacy to his heirs, is peace.  
How comes it to pass then that such as bear themselves as Christ's heirs by Will, yet will not take his legacy? & that Peace is not where a greater stranger then in the Christian Church, to whom it was left by an especial title?  
It is true indeed, that the peace which our Saviour left to his Disciples is not the temporal but the spiritual, which is the peace of man with God, & with his own conscience; wherefore he tells them, that he gives it not as the World gives it. But it is true also, that the want of that spiritual and inward peace brings outward war, as Saint James teacheth us, James 4.1. Whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? He that is well with God and himself, and keeps his affections in order, quietly brought under the rule of the fear and love of God, will neither lightly provok quarrels, nor be easily moved with provocations. He will be little concerned in public contentions, and gently get off from particular.  
This is the root of the evil, that we seek not to be invested in the possession of that peace of God, which the Lord Jesus left us by his Will, & now so graciously presents unto us by his word and spirit, and that we disturb the work of that good spirit the spirit of peace, siding with our turbulent and vicious passions against him.  
When we lose that peace, we lose all other goods, for in peace all good is comprehended. It is the extent of the word peace in Hebrew, that philosophical tongue. That soul, where the peace of God dwelleth, doth sincerely relish his blessings, and turneth evil into good. But a vicious unquiet spirit doth not taste how the Lord is gracious 1 Pet 2.3. And turneth good into evil, as a liver inflamed with a burning Fever, is worse inflamed by nourishing meats.  
The objects that moves desire and fear in this world, are for the most part indifferent in their nature; good to him that useth them well, evil to him that knoweth not how to use them; So that good and evil lie within a man's self, not in things without Pro. 14.14. A good man shall be satisfied from himself, saith Solomon. This is a beaten subject though never sufficiently considered. If it were, it would frame the soul to piety & tranquillity, and make a man's spirit free, clearesighted, master of all things, and (which is more than all) master at home.  
The way to attain to that command of our inward State, is to yield it to God, who being our great principle and our original being, imparts his freedom, & a beam of the sovereignty of his sublime nature, to the soul that draweth near unto him from whom it is descended. God being the sovereign of the soul as of all creatures, the soul cannot have any rule at home but from him, nor enjoy it under him without a free subjection to his will.  
That peace and liberty of the soul whereby a man having all his interest in heaven, is disinteressed to all things in the world, walketh confident among dangers, and entertaineth with an equal and serene face good and evil success, is easier described then obtained. Yet we must not be discouraged, but study to describe it, that we may obtain it in some measure, for it is gained by meditation. And the best kinds of meditation upon that peace, is, to lift up our soul unto God the inexhaustible fountain of peace, which he makes to flow upon those that draw near unto him.  
We shall never fully enjoy that peace, till we be fully united with the God of peace; A perfection unsuitable with this life, where the best are often drawn aside from God, by the wand'ring of their thoughts, and the disorder of their affections, which made St Paul to say 2 Cor. 5, 6. that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Yet so much as a faithful man enjoys of the peace of God, while he lives in the flesh, is as much above the most flourishing peace of the greatest Kings of the world, as Heaven is above earth. And where it is wanting, the highest earthly glory, which draws the envy of men, ought rather to move their pity. Without it, the garish show of honours and treasures is like a richly embroidered nightcap upon a head tormented with a violent meagrime. And all that worldly pomp is not only useless but hurtful, souring the mind with cares, and firing the appetite with temptations, which afterwards tear the conscience with remorse, or benumb it into a deadly lethargy. Whereas the peace of God is a Paradise, the moderator of passions, the School of virtue, the kingdom of God within the soul. Blessed and holy is he that hath it. and to him is next in happiness and holiness, he that sincerely endeavoreth to get it, and to that end yields to God the reins of his affections, brings his will under God's will, and humbly invites him to fix his dwelling, & bear rule within his breast.  
It is the end that I aim at, in this work. And I beseech the God of peace, so to bless and honour it, as to make it an instrument to work His peace in the souls of his servants, beginning at my soul.  
To that work every Christian ought to put his hand as he loveth God and himself. To which we are the more induced and in a manner compelled by the contrariety of the Time. While the storm of war or intestine dissensions is raging in all parts of the world, not leaving one safe corner for peace, the wise Christian must take sanctuary in that inward peace, that peace of God, which though it pass all understanding, yet will dwell in the understanding and the affections of those that faithfully seek it, and keep both hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God through Jesus Christ. Get once God within you, you have a shelter at home against all injuries abroad; as he that in a tempestuous rain flies into a Church, and in God's house finds peace and safety, whilst the whole air abroad is inflamed with lightnings, and roaring with thunder; and the land floods are hurling down houses, drowning sheep and shepherds, and destroying the long hopes of the Husbandman's labour. For the faithful soul is God's Temple, which he graceth by his presence, and blesseth with his peace, not suffering it to be removed though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea.  
This peace at home, in which our duty and our happiness are concentred, is an inviting subject for a diligent contemplation. Let us examine wherein consisteth the true peace of the soul and contentment of mind, and how we must keep peace with God, with ourselves, with our neighbours, in adversity, in prosperity, and in all the occurrences of life.   

CHAP. II. Of the Peace of Man in his integrity, and the loss of that peace by sin.  
THe fundamental rule of great reformations is to bring things to their beginning. By that rule, that we may know the true peace of God and how we may get it, we must cast back our sight upon the beginning, how God gave it to man, and how he lost it soon after. And here we must use that which the Spirit said unto the Churches, Rev. 2.5. Remember whence thou art fallen, and repent.  
Man newly created after God's likeness was in perfect peace with him: for God, making an image of himself, would not have made it dissenting from him; and peace is a prime lineament of God's Image. That first human soul, recently breathed out of God's mouth, followed with delight the fresh and pure traces of his divine production; and man, finding in himself the likeness of his Creator, took a great joy and glory to compare that copy with the original. That moving image of God did imitate his actions, as doth the image of our body in a glass. And whereas in the work of regeneration, St Paul saith, that the new man, is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, and that he is created after God in righteousness and true holiness, it follows, that the first man was created such, since we learn that such must be the renewing of man, to be created again after the image of God.  
These lively expresses of the image of God, knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, could not be in that first man, without an entire peace and consonance with his Creator. And having peace with God, he had it also with himself; His desires were not at variance with his fears, nor his knowledge with his actions; His thoughts belied not his words; His cupidity did not draw against his conscience, & his conscience laid no accusation against him. From that good intelligence with God and with himself, he could not but reap a great content in his mind; that content also being a lineament of the image of God, to whom, as holiness, so happiness is natural and essential.  
For that contentment of mind he got no small contribution from the beauty and plenty of Nature smiling upon him, and the willing submission of all animals flocking about him, as loving subjects, meeting to welcome their new Sovereign. For his peace with God kept all creatures in peace and obedience under him: Abroad, the clemency of the air, and the pleasantness of a garden of Gods planting delighted him. And at home, his familiarity and free access to his Maker filled him with joy and confidence. And his original righteousness (if he could have kept it) would have perpetuated that blessed peace unto him; for peace is the most proper effect of righteousness, as it is expressed by Isatah, The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness & assurance for ever. Isa. 32.17. Truly, God forbidding him to eat of that excepted fruit upon pain of death, did intimate that as long as he kept in obedience, death could take no hold of him, nor any of the appurtenances of death: for such are all the infirmities of the body, all the griefs of the mind, and all the crosses of this life. Ezekiel in the eighteenth Chapter is copious upon this demonstration that life is inseparable from righteousness, and mortality from sin.  
This last was justified by woeful experience; for man going from his righteousness forfeited his life and his peace: And presently, a dark cloud of confusion and misery troubled his golden serenity: The voice of God which was the joy of man, suddenly became his terror; God's presence which was his life, became so formidable to him, that it went for a currant truth, Judg. 13.22. We shall surely die, because we have seen God. Man being fallen off from God, most part of the creatures fell off from him, and that rebellion continued ever since. Those that have sense and motion openly deny to yield subjection unto him, flee away from him when he will come near them, or fly upon him with open hostility: And to get service from them, he must tame them young, before they be able to resist him. Other Creatures destitute of sense, yet seem sensible enough to let him know, that they yield to him a forced service. Neither can the earth be won to do any good for him, but by great labour and long expectation: Diseases enter into his body with the meat that he eateth, and the air that he breatheth. Storms beat upon him, Summers scorch him, Winters chill him. Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, their garments are natural, warm in winter, light in summer: To man only, Nature gives not where to lay his head; nor so much as a skin capable to abide his native air. He is ashamed to see his person, and robs his subjects of their vesture to hid himself under the spoil.  
And yet that discord between man and nature is less than the discord between man and man. For generally, men advance themselves by their mutual ruin, and seldom get any of the goods of this world, but by the evil of another; Wars, lawsuits, envies among Neighbours, and domestic quarrels, make the face of the world like unto a wild rugged field, full of thorns & briers; if not liker unto a stormy Sea, where the waves break one another continually. It is the reign of discord and confusion.  
And yet the discord of man with his own kind, is not so grievous as his disagreement with his own self; I mean the natural and unregenerate man. For reason, which bore a peaceable and uncontrolled rule within man's soul, before he was estranged from God, finds no more that ready obedience of the faculties and affections. His general inborn notions of goodness and wisdom, are now and then darkened with the particular violent suggestions of the appetite, casting a thick cloud before the eye of the understanding: Reason herself studieth her own delusion, putting a disguise of good upon evil; Many times also a man knowing and condemning evil, followeth it at the same time; being alike unable to blind his judgement, and rule his passion. Then, as passions are pulling against Reason, they will also pull one against another; as when subjects nave shaken off the yoke of their King, the State breaketh into factions, and every one is pulling for himself. Wrath and lust, will fiercely bustle the one against the other, as two land flood torrents falling from two opposite mountains. The like between fear & desire, covetousness & ambition, love and jealousy; or if one passion reigns alone, it doth tyrannize over the heart. To tear a man's soul, and bring him to slavery and misery, there needs no more but lust or envy, or impatience of revenge.  
In a heart lying under that tyranny, and helping his own slavery, when God by his spirit gins the work of regeneration, then gins another kind of discord; of which St Paul speaks, Gal. 5.17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the Flesh, and these two are contrary the one to the other, so that you do not the things that ye would. This is a more irreconcilable quarrel then the other between the vicious passions, which many times will agree to do evil, and yield one to another by turns, as the occasion serveth; But between the flesh and the spirit, that is, between the fear of God and the corruption of our nature there can be neither peace nor truce; Vice must fall and break his neck before the fear of God, as Dagon before the Ark, unless that God irritated by a pertinacious resistance, withdraw his fear and knowledge from a stubborn heart; and than it is not God but man that is overcome, for while he shakes off the free yoke of piety, he puts on the slavish yoke of his unruly appetite, and becomes a drudge to feed the greediness of an imperious and insatiable master. Isa. 48.22. There is no peace saith the Lord for the wicked. The case is deplorable of a conscience destitute of the fear of God and faith in his promises, where the heady untamed passions have snatched the rains from the hands of reason. It is the fable of Phaeton turned into a story; for reason, too weak for the headstrong appetite is overturned from his seat, the celestial light is quenched in the soul, the fire of cupidity is kindled in the heart, the unruly passions run wild their several ways, and the man is cast headlong into perdition.  
That perdition is the final separation from God and the endless discord with him, which gins in this very life. Yet as long as a man liveth upon earth, he hath a share in that general love of God to his creatures, and the goodness and patience of God inviteth him to repentance. But after this life is done, God is an open enemy to those that have lived in enmity against him, and abused his grace & long patience. To describe that miserable state, the Lord Jesus calls it outward darkness; worm that dyeth not, a fire that is not quenched, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Imagine if you can, what it is to be shut out from God the father of light, and driven away from him for ever; After that, a hideous darkness, a worm gnawing, a fire burning, wailing and gnashing of teeth, late remorse, despair, hatred of ones self, and all imaginable distresses are but consequences of that misery of miseries, to be hated of God and hate him for ever.  
Of that incomprehensible misery the suburbs are the torments of conscience in this life, to which the racks, the wheels, and the fires, are not comparable. How grievous those torments are, many forsaken wretches have sufficiently expressed it, who being tortured by their conscience, and uncapable to conceive any deliverance from the dismal expectation of hell, have chosen rather to leap into hell, by a desperate self-murder, then to endure any longer the angry face of God pursuing them. And the miserable souls find there, what they seek to avoid; Amos 5.19. as if a man did flee from a Lion, and a Bear met him.  
The examples are frequent of those whom the secret lashes of conscience have forced to make an open declaration of their hidden crimes, showing thereby, that they were upon God's rack. But truly the examples are yet more frequent of seared and benumbed consciences, which by pastimes, companies, businesses, and the deceitfulness of riches, divert their mind from that formidable thought of the quarrel, that is between God and them; cozening themselves, as fare as they can, with a vain opinion that the way to scape God's justice, is, not to think of it; and, that they may not think of it, they enjoin their reason not to believe it.  
But that numbness is unworthy of the name of peace: There is great difference between safety and security, between having peace and not thinking of war. Such men are like passengers sleeping in a ship that is sinking; or like that we have heard with horror and compassion, that bestial soldiers condemned to death, would drink lustick, and go drunk to the gallows; This I say is the behaviour of most part of the world, who bearing their condemnation in their conscience, make them-selves drunk while they are going down into perdition; sometimes with strong drink, but continually with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and with worldly cares and projects, being of opinion that it is needless to think of death, because it comes without thinking.  
But in that carnal lethargy, conscience will start up by intervals and pinch drowsy hearts: Especially when adversity lieth heavy upon their persons and families, and when sudden dangers overtake them. Then do they see the angry countenance of God's justice; Their own crimes take them by the throat, and they seem ready to say as Ahab to Eliah 1 Kings 21. haste thou found me mine enemy? And God saith to their heart with anger, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. There is no conscience so sunk in a deep sleep of sin and worldliness, but will now and then awake, and cry out in a sudden fright. So did Felix, though a Pagan, an extortionner, and a man every way infamous; for, as St Paul reasoned of temperance and righteousness and judgement to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time, Act. 24.  
Whosoever hath read books and men, may have observed what unquietness, crimes will bring to the criminal; That tyrants continually imagine a naked sword hanging over their head; That the wicked flee, when no man pursueth; That murderers and perfidious men have a broken sleep, and their mirth is interrupted with parentheses of frowns and grim looks; That when they excuse themselves of a foul fact, of which their conscience accuseth them, their conscience many times gives the lie to their words, and they are contradicted by the inconstancy of their looks, and the stammering of their tongue. And conscience will double these terrors, when their end draweth nigh. Many know who he was that started up often in his mortal drouzines on his death bed, commanding that his men should give over slaying.  
But suppose that the wicked, that have the world at will, had as much rest within as without, yet aldons saying to Croesus ought to be observed, Never to pronounce any man happy before his death. But the Christian ought to give to that sentence a longer term, if he hath been with David in the Sanctuary of God, and there hath understood the end of the wickd, and found that God hath set them in slippery places, to cast them into destruction.   

CHAP. III. Of the reconciliation of man with God, through Jesus Christ.  
Such being the enmity between God and sinful man, which is followed with the discord of man with nature, & with his kind, & with himself; How welcome, how precious to him must the blessed news be of God's reconciliation with him? Esa. 5.27. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him, that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth? the chief ambassador that anounceth that peace with God, is he that made it. It is the eternal son of God, who by an infinite mercy towards man guilty and miserable, was pleased to ally himself with him, by a personal union of the divine nature with the humane. He hath taken our nature and imparted his unto us. He hath made himself Man to take upon himself the debt of man. For seeing that man was indebted to God's justice, it was requisite that a man should give satisfaction. Which because man's nature was not able to find, Christ joining to the Nature and Obligation of man the Nature and Virtue of God, and both in one Person, hath fully satisfied the justice of his father, which required a perfect obedience, and death for punishment of disobedience.  
He hath then presented to God a most accomplished obedience, of which the most eminent act was to have readily undergone a shameful & bitter death at his Father's command for the sins of mankind, of which he was the pledge and the representative; An obedience of infinite merit, more powerful to obtain pardon, yea and reward, at God's hands, than all the disobedience of the world to incense his just wrath to punishment. 1. Pet. 2.24. His own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Isa. 53.5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. For it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through the blood of his cross; by him to reconcile all things unto himself. Col. 1.19.  
All that have recourse to that infinite love of God and that ransom of inestimable value, the merit of his son, embracing it with a true faith, (which cannot act, nor subsist, without a true repentance) find their peace made with God; their iniquity is pardoned, they have received of the Lords hands double for all their sins. Isa. 40.2. It is a double satisfaction, both because it is twice greater than all the sins of the world; and because it worketh a double effect, the one to get pardon for sins, the other to obtain a reward for imputed righteousness. And that satisfaction represented to God in our faithful prayers makes them acceptable and of sweet favour, as the incense put upon the sacrifices,  
It is much to be lamented that these tidings of grace and glory are but coldly entertained by carnal ears, as now grown stolen and vulgar. And that there is more joy for prevailing in a Lawsuit, and for a Peace that opens the markets and the freedom of commerce after a civil broil, then for our peace with God through Christ, in whom we have free access unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Heb. 4.16. But he that in the fright of his conscience hath seen hell open, gaping for him, and hath once lost his thoughts in that bottomless gulf of misery and horror to have his creator his enemy; if upon that he embrace by faith that great and heavenly message, not only that his sins are forgiven him by the merit of Christ, but that by the same merit, of an enemy and a child of wrath he is become the son of God and heir of his Kingdom, his heart will melt with joy love and admiration, and the sadder his sense was of his deplorable condition, the greater will his thankfulness be for his gracious restoration O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the goodness of God, who hath found a way to set forth together his justice and his mercy, and to pardon sin by punishing it! O the infinite love of the Father, who so loved the world that he gave his only Son for them! O the infinite love of that only Son, that so loved his enemies that he delivered himself to a most bitter death to give them life and immortality, yea and his own kingdom! O the infinite love of the holy Ghost, who so loved the world as to announce unto them this excellent piece of news by his word, and seal the promises of God in their hearts by faith in Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have life eternal.  
Behold then the only foundation of the peace of the soul and contentment of mind! It is that peace made for us with God by his only son, who hath taken our sins upon himself and in consequence the punishment; giving us in exchange his righteousness, and consequently the reward of it, since by it we appear righteous before God. This is the summary of the Gospel, This is the only comfort of the faithful, That being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 5.1. Without that persuasion all the moral precepts and all the reasons of Philosophy cannot set the mind at rest, much less the riches, honours, pleasures and pastimes of this world, for who can have peace with himself while he is in dissension with God? And who can have peace with God, but by the mediation of his beloved son Jesus, there being no other name under heaven by which we must be saved?  
The chief impediment of the tranquillity of mind being the remorse for sin against God, and the apprehension of this just and terrible threatening, Cursed is he that continueth not in all the words of God's law to do them. Whosoever embraceth the merit of Jesus Christ by faith is fenced against all the threaten of the law, and all the accusations of his conscience: For to them he will answer, As God's threaten are just so are his promises; now, he hath promised that if we judge ourselves we shall not be judged of the Lord. 1. Cor. 11.31. That he that heareth the word of the son of God and believeth on him that sent him hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. Joh. 5.24. That the blood of Jesus Christ the son of God cleanseth us from all sin. 1. Joh. 1.7. That he hath blotted out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross. Col. 2.14. Wherefore these threaten, that God will bring every work to judgement, and that even for one idle word account must be given, reach not to those evil works of which beleivers have repent and embraced the remission by faith in Jesus Christ.  
Those threaten of judgement do not reach me, since I have already past judgemont upon myself by a serious contrition, and have received my Absolution by the merit of him that was judged and condemned for me. If account must be given for my sins, Christ must give it, who charged himself with them But that account is discharged, My sins are put out of God's score; The curse of the law to a soul that believeth in Christ, as I do, is a handwriting taken out of the way, a Bond torn and nailed to the cross of Christ; God is too just to make use of a bond vacated to proceed against me: the merit of his Son which he received in payment for me, is of too great value to leave me in danger to be sued, for the debts which he hath paid; for himself was arrested by Death, the Sergeant of God's justice, and put in that jail whence there is no coming out till one hath paid the utmost farthing; and being come out of that jail by his resurrection, he hath made it manifest that he hath paid the whole debt which he was bound for in our behalf unto God's justice.  
What though my sins be great? yet are they less than the merit of Jesus Christ. No sin is so great that it ought to take away the confidence in God's promises. No sin is so great that it may dam a soul beaten down with contrition, but together raised by faith and washed in the blood of the son of God, Indeed the remembrance of my sins must be bitter unto me, yet that bitterness must be drowned in the joy of my salvation, & my repentance must be a step not a hindrance to my confidence. So I will say to God every day with a contrite heart Forgive us our trespasses: And at the same time I will remember that I make that prayer unto our Father which is in heaven, who commands me to call him Father, to assure me that he will spare me as a man spareth his own son that serveth him, Mal. 3.17. & to style him heavenly father to whom the kingdom and the power and the glory belongeth, to lift up my hope to that celestial glory which he fully possesseth, and which he will impart to his children in their measure. I will walk before God with humility and fear, thinking on my sins past and my present weakness and sinfulness; but together I will go in the strength of the Lord and make mention of his righteousness. The righteousness of God that frighteth sinners, comforteth me, and his justice is all mercy to me: For the infinite merit of his Son being mine, he is now gracious unto me in his justice. Hereby the peace and assurance which I enjoy through faith, is advanced to a joy of heaven upon earth, and to this song of triumph. Isa. 61.10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. This is the peace and contentment of the faithful soul that feeleth and relisheth her blessed reconciliation made with God through Jesus Christ. For he that hath peace with God hath peace also with himself. And the love of God powerfully growing in his heart by the consideration of the bounty of God (whose sweetness we may taste though not conceive his greatness) breeds there together the peace of God which passeth all understanding, banisheth tumultuous and unlawful affections, and brings the lawful under its obedience; so that all the affections of the regenerate soul meet in one, and make but one, which is the love of God, as many brooks that lose their names in a great River.  
When the love of God brings not that great peace to the soul, and the absolute empire over the passions, it is because love is as yet imperfect; and the cause of that imperfection is the deficiency of faith, which doth not yet embrace aright the reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ; and faith is deficient when it is not maintained by good works, her food, without which it pines away, and falls into a shaking palsy; and when that foundation is shaking, all that is built upon it cannot but be tottering: This than must be our first and earnest task, to make ourselves sure of our peace with God by a lively faith, whereby our hearts may be purified from evil works, and made fertile to all fruits of holiness. For hereby we shall have peace with ourselves and shall be masters at home.  
Hereby also we shall have peace with God's creatures, receiving temporal blessings as testimonies of God's reconciliation with us, and in every bit of bread we shall taste his love; Prosperity and adversity will prove equally good unto us, being dispensed by his fatherly care. If God multiply our afflictions it will be only to multiply our deliverances. He will never put us to the trial but to refine our faith, wean our hearts from the world, and make his heavenly comforts more welcome to us; Truly the faithful soul, that knoweth how to make the right use of good and evil, shall find experimentally the truth of St. Paul's sentence that all things are for our sakes. 2 Cor. 4.25.  
Also this peace with God brings us peace with our neighbours. For he that hath a comfortable ceiling in his conscience that God is reconciled with him, will easily be reconciled with his brethren, holding it a point of equity, generosity, and gratefulness, after that his Master hath forgiven him ten thousand talents, to forgive his fellow servant an hundred pence. If all men had the peace of God in their hearts, there would be no discord in the world. But because most men want that good peace, and they that have it, have it but imperfectly, therefore peace between men can hardly be well cemented. When you see men professing piety and sound doctrine, tearing and devouring one another with wars or lawfuites, you may be sure that the peace of God rules not in their hearts, surely not in the hearts of the authors and fomentors of discord, though they should pretend the zeal of God's glory, who hath no need of men's turbulent passions to advance his kingdom, which is all peace. In heaven where the peace of God abideth in its fullness, and filleth the hearts of every one of his Saints, there is also of necessity a perfect peace between them, for they must needs have all one love, since they have all but one interest, which is the glory of him that loveth them, and for ever glorifieth them with himself.   

CHAP. iv General means to preserve that peace with God: and first to serve God purely and diligently.  
HAving spoken of the true and only foundation of the peace of the soul and contentment of mind, which is the confidence that God is appeased to us through Jesus Christ; Let us now use the means to preserve that peace and stand firm upon that solid ground, beginning by the more general.  
The first is to serve God with purity and diligence, for which this consideration is essential, that our reconciliation with God was made by way of purchase, and that when we were lost and estranged from God, he was pleased to redeem us by his Son: Wherefore as they that bought servants expected service from them, God also hath bought us to be served by us. That end of our redemption is thus set down by St. Paul, Tit. 2.14. Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. It was the custom over all the world in S. Paul's time to buy & sell servants: As then servants could not expect the favour of them that had bought them, unless they did them good service; we that are purchased by God with such a great price must not expect to enjoy his peace and gracious countenance, if we do not serve him according to his will; Wherein our utility meets with our duty, for of the service which we yield unto God the whole benefit results unto us.  
Before all things we must look well that our service to God be pure and such as he requireth; for without that purity all our diligence to his service would be not only unless but hurtful. One cannot go to God turning his back to him; The more we labour to serve him otherwise then he hath commanded, the more we offend him. The pure way of God's service is set down in his written word, wherein although many places are too high for the understanding of the most wise and learned, yet the things necessary for the duty and salvation of man, are so clearly expressed, that this commendation is justified by experience which David giveth unto God's word, The entrance of thy Words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It is one of the chief duties of God's service to read and carefully meditate that good Word, & lend a devout attention to them that announce it. For by it God speaks to us as a father to his children, and none but unnatural children refuse to hearken to the voice of their Father. This duty brings its recompense, for the holy word of God is the glad tidings of the peace of God with men, and the only doctrine that frames that peace within us. For which reason the Prophet would hear it, Ps. 85.5. I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints. To that holy word, as to a sanctuary, troubled consciences must have recourse to get the peace of God. Yet the faithful soul ought to be more studious to learn in it, how to please God, then how to get comfort. Those Christians are yet upon the lower degrees of their regeneration, that practise the duties of God's service only to work their salvation. We must read and hear God's word for a higher end, even to conform our wills to the rule of his declared will, and we must think more of his glory then our felicity. If faith in his promises make us say joyfully with David, Ps. 32 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, the zeal of his glory must make us say with more joy and affection, as the same David, Ps. 119.1. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and seek him with the whole heart. v. 5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy sttatutes? v. 7. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgements. And all along that great Psalm he uttereth the unspeakable joy that he took in meditating and doing Gods commandments; one may see that he cannot say enough to express how hearty he was affected to it. If we love the holy word of God for its own sake, and converse often with it with reverence and affection, because it is the word of our heavenly father, and the declaration of his nature and will, we shall find our peace in it, though we seek it not, and get a satisfaction not to be parallelled by any joy for the things of this world.  
To this duty of hearing God speaking to us in his word, the next is to speak to him by prayer, whether it be to implore his grace, or to thank him for his benefits, or to praise him for his infinite perfection. By these two duties of hearing God and speaking to him, we begin in this world that good intelligence and holy communication with God, in which the heavenly peace and sovereign felicity of man consisteth.  
By prayer we seek and meet that peace of God which is announced to us in his word and whoso seeks it well, will be sure to meet it, for to this seeking is the promise made Math. 7.8 Every man that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.  
When this direful remembrance sinks into a conscience, how man was put out of Paradise, and Cherubims were placed at the gate with aflaming sword to keep him out that he may not find the way to the tree of life, it is enough to sink one down with fear and anguish, and make him cry out standing upon the brink of despair, Must I be driven away from God for ever, and what way is left for me to return to the tree of life without which I cannot shun eternal perdition?  
Upon that perplexity Prayer comes and offers her help, saying, I will bring thee thither, and will go with thee, without any let of the flaming sword; for I know a way to the tree of life, where the terror of the law doth not keep the passage; the son of God who is the way the truth and the life, hath made me way unto the throne of grace, to which I go with full assurance to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  
This freedom of prayer to approach unto God was in some sort represented by the sacrifices. That they were figures of prayers we learn it out of the Psalm 141 where David beseecheth God that his prayer may be set forth as incense, and the lifting up of his hands as the evening sacrifice, Ps. 141.2 As then the smoke of the sacrifices did mount up toward heaven, which is a way which cannot be stopped, likewise faithful prayers have at all times a free passage to heaven: and although Satan be called the Prince of the air, he cannot disturb them in the way; But, that they may reach to heaven, the incense of the merit of Christ must be laid over the sacrifice of prayer.  
To that holy duty we are encouraged by God's commandment and promise. Both are in this text, Ps. 50.12. Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify me. And so in this, Come unto me (saith God's eternal Son) all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will ease you. Math. 11.28. None that prayeth to the father through the merit of the Son returns empty; For either he giveth us what we do ask, or what we ought to ask, and that which is fit for us. He that keepeth that holy correspondence with God is never dejected with sorrow, or perplexed with fear, for he finds in that divine communication a plaster to all his sores, and an inexhaustible well of life and joy. David had found it so when he said, Ps. 16 I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved, Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope. By prayer we ground our souls in faith, raise them with hope, inflame them with charity, possess them with patience during our life, and yield them to God with joy in our last breath.  
To reap these benefits by prayer, we must understand well the right use of prayer which is double; It serveth to ask of God our necessities both of body and soul; for since in him we live and move and have our being, we must continually seek to him by prayer of whom we continually depend. But the noblest and most proper use of prayer is to glorify God, and converse with him because we love him, and because he is most perfect and most worthy to be beloved; coming to that holy duty, not as a task, but an honour, the greatest honour and delight that a creature can be capable of in this world, stealing away from affairs and companies to enjoy that pleasant and honourable conversation; as lovers will steal away from all employments to entertain their best beloved. For what is sweet in the world in comparison of this sweetness? what is honourable compared to this honour to have familiarity with God and be admitted to his presence at any time, to be received of him as his children, and when we lift up our affections to heaven the habitation of his glory, to find that himself is come to meet us in our heart, and hath made it another heaven by his gracious presence?  
In that meditation a faithful man will call God's benefits to mind; and to conceive their excellency to his power, he will from the consideration of God's grace reflect upon that of his own natural condition, sometimes criminal, miserable, and God's enemy; but now through Gods preventing love and unspeakable mercy changed into the quality of child of God and heir of his kingdom. He hath been provoked to pity us by the depth of our misery, wherefore in all reason we must be provoked to thankfulness by the height of his mercy; And this is the chief employment of prayer, an employment which paying our duty brings our felicity, and though we have paid but what we own, and scarce that, giveth us a present payment for the duty which we have paid.  
O what a heavenly delight it is to lose one's self in the thought of God's mercies, which are beyond all reckoning and above all imagining? and to say to him after David, Ps. 40.5. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works, and thy thoughts which are to us ward, they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; v. 8. If I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbered. I delight to do thy will O my God, yea thy law is with in my heart, Ps. 86.11. Teach me thy way, O Lord, I will walk in thy truth, unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee O Lord my God, withal my heart, and will glorify thy name for evermore, for great is thy mercy towards me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. Such a conversation with God to rejoice in his love, praise him for his graces, and crave the leading of his spirit to walk before him unto all pleasing, is an imitation of the perpetual employment of Angels and glorified Saints. It is a beginning of the Kingdom of heaven in this life. In it consisteth the true peace of the soul and the solid contentment of mind.   

CHAP. V Of the love of God.  
BEing entered into the meditation of the love of God, let us stay upon it. It is good for us to be here, let us make here three tabernacles. And more reason have we so to speak in this occasion, than St. Peter when he saw Christ transfigured in the Mount. For by planting his abode there, he could not have made Christ to do the like, nor given a settled continuance to that short bright lightning of glory: But by our meditation upon the love of God, we make him to stay with us, and our soul is transfigured with him, being filled with his grace and his peace, and already enlivened with a beam of his glory.  
Now because the ground the spring and the cause of the love that we bear to God, is the love that he bears to us, we must before all things study to conceive as well as we may, of the great love of God to us-ward. Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. 1 John. 3.1. This is the principal point of his love, where all other testimonies of his love do begin and where they end. Without this none can say, that he is beloved of God; For to be the work of God's hands and maintained by his providence, is common to all creatures, and to be made after God's image, and by his liberality to enjoy the plenty and service of nature, is common to all men good and evil: But because creatures without reason, and men without goodness bear no love to God, it cannot properly be said that God loveth them, though he be their maker and preserver. Love being the bond of perfectness Col. 3. God's love would not be the bond of perfectness, if he loved those things that never return him love; For, that love may be a bond, the two ends must meet & knit together: now these two ends knit, when a creature beloved of God bears a reciprocal love to him. For thereby not only the man that feareth God joineth with him, but the whole nature also and all the creatures are rejoined with their principle and Origine. And whereas some creatures cannot, others will not love God, the true child of God, because he gets some utility out of them all, yea of those that are Gods enemies, loveth him and gives him thanks for and in the name of all; and so by this means love proveth a true bond of perfectness, which proceeding from God and knitting with God again, embraceth and holds fast together the whole creation, and brings it back to its Creator: A consideration, which cannot but bring a singular content, and a great peace to the soul. Being persuaded of the love of God to us whereby we are called the sons of God, we look upon all creatures as the goods of our father's house, prepared for us. And though others which are none of God's children enjoy them also, yet they are for us; since the wicked are for the good, either to exercise their virtue by trials, or even to serve and sustain them; For as the angry waves roaring and foaming about the ship where Christ was with his disciples, yet were bearing the ship; likewise, the enemies of God and his Church while they are beating and storming against it, bear it up in spite of their hearts. The agitations of the great sea of the world, make Gods children more sensible of the great love which the Father hath bestowed upon them, to have given them his beloved son to be in the ship with them to keep them safe in the storm; and the dangers that overwhelm others, are helps for good unto them that love God. All the deliverances that God sends them, all the blessings that God poureth upon them, they take them as productions of the fatherly love of God who hath adopted them in his Son. They taste that love in the enjoyment of present goods, they breathe that love in the enjoyment of future & eternal goods, they rest upon that love when they sleep, they lean upon that love when they walk, they find that love in all the occurrences of their life; with what face soever the various accidents of the world look upon them, they see through them the evident love of God, being certain that nothing happens to them but is directed by the good hand of their loving Father.  
These pleasant rivers of the love of God conduct our meditation up the stream to the great Source, that love which passeth knowledge, that mysterious deep love which the Angels desire to look into; whereby of his enemies that we were, he hath made us his children, giving for us, even to death, his own precious Son; entitling us, by him, to his eternal glory; and giving us the earnest of it by his good Spirit crying in our hearts Abba Father. O incomprehensible love! which hath undergone & overcome death to give us life, and that he might have from us an immortal love!  
That immortal love ought to be the effect of this meditation. So that having conceived to our power how much God loves us, we may also to our power apply our heart to love him; acknowledging that all our heart, all our soul, and all our understanding, is yet too little to return him love for his love.  
It it true, that this is a debt from which we can never be acquitted, and we own it even after we have paid it: But as this debt must be paid continually, the continual payment yields a continual satisfaction to him that payeth it & oweth it still. For whereas pecuniary debts make the heart sad, this debt of love makes it glad, when our duty meets with our inclination, and when we most desire to dok that which we are most obliged to do. Besides, this debt is of that nature that when we pay it we make together an acquisition; for although the love began by God he takes it upon him to repay us the love that we pay him, Ps. 91.14. Because he hath set his love upon me (saith the Lord) therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high because he hath known my name. Pro. 8.17. I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me.  
But love is due to God, not only for the love that he hath done us, and for the good that we hope from him, but for the good that is in him, and because he that is the sovereign beauty and goodness must be beloved in the chiefest & highest manner. All that is beautiful and good in Nature, the glory of the celestial bodies, the fertility of the earth, the shady green of trees, the fragrancy of flowers, the variety and utility of animals, the rational inventive vivacity of intellectual natures, the admirable order of the Universe both in disposition and conduct; All these are so many productions of the great bottomless depth of beauty, bounty, power and excellency; and who so wisely considereth them, presently conceiveth that the Author is possessed of an infinite perfection only worthy to be beloved for his own sake, and that all the good and beautiful things that he hath done must be beloved only in relation to him and for his sake. To which if you add two other points, of which Nature cannot sufficiently inform us, and wherein the Word of God supplies the deficiency of Nature's teaching, which are the justice and the mercy of God towards sinners. O who would not love that infinite love and excellency, though he had no interest of his own in it?  
But how can we barely consider God's excellency in itself with an abstraction of our interest? Certainly the consideration of our concernment will go along, though unsent for, with the contemplation of God's supreme virtue and goodness. And it is impossible to consider God as the only worthy object of love, without conceiving, even with the same thought, that our sovereign good consisteth in loving him; reputing what a height of honour and content it is when that great Creator, who is all bounty, all beauty, and all perfection, is pleased to contract amity with the creature.  
For in this consisteth the great and only excellency of man, that God hath given him a nature capable to entertain friendship with his Maker: A capacity which being obscured by sin is restored to him by grace: And God, who as the only absolute Sovereign is above all Laws, condescended so fare to us as to bind himself to the Laws of friendship with man, which Laws on his part are most inviolably kept; the whole defect in that mutual love is from man.  
As than friends disjoined in place are joined by love, so are God in heaven and man upon earth. God indeed is every where, yet God and man are more remote in degree of nature than any two can be in place: But they are joined in a way fare more excellent & real, for the thoughts of two mortal persons make no mutual impression, when they are without the line and reach of communication; whereas God is never remote from the faithful soul, and they may commune together at any time. God makes his love sensible to the faithful soul, and saith to it by the presence of his spirit, Soul I am thy salvation; and the soul saith to him, Lord thou art my God, I am thine, save me & teach me to do thy will. God communeth with the soul by his word and spirit, and the soul communeth also with God by her word and spirit; that is, by prayer and holy aspirations.  
It is also a law of friendship that friends bear the one with the other, and that the strong support the weak. Wherefore God all perfect, having knit a friendship with the creature, subject as yet to much imperfection, supporteth her defects with his love, and covereth her sins by his righteousness: Man also for his part must patiently bear, what chastenings God layeth upon him, taking all kindly at his hands; for as he must be assured of his love, he must also be certainly persuaded of his wisdom, and believe that Gods dealing with him, is all love and wisdom.  
It is a law of perfect friendship that friends declare their secrets one to another: So God deals with his friends; and Jesus Christ useth this for a reason, why he calls his Disciples his friends: John 15.15, Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what the Lord doth, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have learned of my Father, I have made known unto you. And Daniel saith that the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, [not the secret of his Council, but that of his Good will towards them, in that which concerns their duty and their salvation, which is the sense of the following words, and he will show them his Covenant.] We then to show ourselves true friends to him that honoureth us with that title must also disclose unto him the secrets of our hearts: It is true they are open to his allseeing eyes, and if we would hid our secrets from him we could not. But God takes a delight that we give him an account of ourselves, not that He may be better informed, but that we may be better and happier: for they that disguise themselves before him are incapable of his grace, and dissembling is a violation of the laws of friendship. It is the comfort of the godly, that while they confess their sins to God as unto their clearsighted Judge, they discharge together a duty of friendship, declaring to their supreme friend their private infirmities and secret diseases, to call upon his help. What benefit we may expect by that free dealing with God, we learn out of David's experience, who speaks thus to God. Psalm 32.5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid; I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin: For this shall every one that is godly prey unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Into the bosom of that friend we must pour our secret sighs; to him we must lay open our most intimate desires and fears, that we may say to him with David, Psalm 38.9. Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee. Which as it is true in regard of God's allseeing knowledge let it be true also in regard of our sincere unbosoming of the secrets of our souls before God.  
Now that the secrets of our souls and the meditations of our hearts may ever be acceptable in his sight, and because the heart of man is so close and full of wind of hypocrisy, that man himself cannot find the bottom of his own inside, let us call upon God to assist us in that search by his good spirit, saying. Psalm 139.23. Search me, O Lord, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Before we have sincerely laid open before God all that is within us, we have no reason to expect the blessing of serene and innocent peace in our soul: For God, who is jealous of his glory, takes it as a high contempt when his creature will offer to avoid the allseeing eyes of the Creator; & besides, he is jealous of our love, taking it as a derogation to the love due to him, when we go about to conceal our thoughts our affections and our projects from him. Wherefore the sense that the conscience hath of this jealousy of God, holds her in continual anxiety.  
Whereas he that is true to a resolution to call God to witness of his most secret actions and intentions (as he is whether we will or no) gets two benefits that way: The one, that finding himself obliged to impart all that he hath in his heart to God his eternal friend, he will take heed of doing, yea and thinking, any thing that is displeasing unto him, and by his uprightness will prevent the shame of opening many impurities before that holiest of Holies. The other that by this free and open dealing with God he shall get a great tranquillity in his conscience. For, if in humane friendships we presume that by disclosing the secrets of our hearts to a generous friend, we oblige him to love and fidelity, and after that action of freedom we find our heart much eased; how great must our ease and contentment be when we have poured all our heart into God's bosom, that perfect friend, who is truth and sincerity itself? It is a wise part to conceal nothing from God. The only way to possess our soul with peace and confidence, is to make God our Confident.  
It is also a great point of mutual friendship to yield to the interesses and desires one of another: Herein God hath showed the way to men, having so fare condescended to the condition and necessity of men, as to have put on their nature and taken their debt upon himself, yea and to have discharged it: He is dead like men, and for men. And being the sovereign incomprehensible wisdom, he descends to our capacity to declare himself to us, and draw us to him He calls us indeed to deny ourselves that we may give ourselves unto him, but yet how much doth he yield to our desires and fears? And with what wisdom and sweetness doth he sort his trials with our strength? And where is the godly man, that hath not found in his forest afflictions that kind usage that St Paul speaks of, 1. Cor. 10.13. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.  
Since than God who is so great doth accommodate himself with us who are so little, the law of reciprocal love requires that we accommodate ourselves with him who is so great; that we diligently inform ourselves of his will to make it our will; that we observe the things which he loveth that we may love them, and the things which he hateth that we may hate and avoid them; that all our interesses bow under his, that the end of all our ends be his glory, seeking not our own things but the things of the kingdom of God. We shall never be our own, till we have wholly resigned ourselves unto God. We shall never have a true peace and content within, till our affections be altogether subjected to his love, and conformed to his will. But then shall we be peaceable, contented, and masters at home, when God shall reign within us, and when we shall know no more difference between his interest and ours.  
Finally, the highest point of love being an entire union, and to have all things common, it is also the purpose and in the end the efficiency of God's love to us, yea so fare that by his great and precious promises we are made partakers of the divine nature, 2. Pet. 14. and that Christ is in us and we in him joh. 17. What hath God reserved to himself that we may not call ours? Heaven and Earth are for us, His providence is our purveyour, His Angels are our keepers, His kingdom our inheritance: He gives us his good plenty, his word, his Son, his Spirit, his own self. Can any be persuaded of this beneficence of God, and refuse to give him his body, his soul, his intentions and his affections? Shall we use reservations with God who keeps no good from us? Would any poor man refuse to have community of goods with a rich man? Now God who is the plenty and felicity itself will have community of goods with us. Let us embrace the condition readily: Let us give ourselves, to God, and God shall be ours; Or rather say we, God is ours, let us render ourselves to him: for he prevents us in that Covenant; since God is ours, good reason we should be his. Blessed we! that we may say with the Spouse I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine, for by that union of persons and community of goods with God, the soul finds herself arrived to the sovereign degree of riches, peace, glory and delectation.   

CHAP. VI Of Faith.  
Faith is a Christian virtue, whose most proper and natural office is, to embrace that peace made for us with God by jesus Christ. And by it we sign and seal for our part the Agreement made between God and man, This expression is borrowed of John the Baptist speaking of the Lord jesus, He that hath received his testimony hath set to his Seal that God is true. Joh. 3.33. All that we said before of our reconciliation with God by Christ, & how that reconciliation is applied to our consciences, is an explication of the duty and benefit of faith; Yet we must speak of it again as a consequence of Love. For the principal & most natural fruit of the love of God is to put our whole trust in Thus St john having said much of the love of God to us, and of the love that we own him for it, addeth, 1. joh. 4.18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love lasteth out fear, because sear hath torment; he that feareth is not made perfect in love. Faith as the mother of all virtues brings forth the love of God, but Love is soon eeven with faith, and brings forth her own mother; For as we love God because we trust in him (as certainly persuaded of his wisdom, power and fidelity in his promises) so we trust in him because we love him, for in all our friendships our trust in the beloved person follows the measure of the love that we bear to him. He than that loveth God sincerely, trusts in him; And when calamity tempts him to unbelieving fears, he will observe Saint Peter's exhortation, 1. Pet. 4.14 Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in welldoing as unto a faithful creator.  
It is impossible to love well without a good opinion of the person we love, especially of his fidelity and righteousness: Seeing then, that God hath promised to pardon sins to those that confess them with a serious repentance, if we love him we shall trust in his promise, that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 1 Joh. 1.9. grounding our trust in his mercy upon his fidelity and righteousness: for since he promised it, certainly he will do it, he is too faithful to break his word, and too just to punish us for those sins of which Christ hath borne the punishment in our name. This gracious declaration he hath made, Luk. 12.32. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Shall we have such an ill opinion of him, as to think that he hath promised more than he was willing or able to perform; or that, since the promise made, his will is altered, or his power diminished? Let us be sure that he that loved us from all eternity will love us to all eternity, Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect? It is God that justifyeth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen agnine, who is even sitting at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. And if upon this safe ground we trust in God for the things of the life to come, we must upon the same ground trust his love for the things of this life. He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? He that saved our souls from death shall he not deliver our bodies from the dangers of this world? Certainly, he that hath prepared for us eternal delights at his right hand will not deny us our temporal daily bread.  
This assurance in his love will sweeten our afflictions and lay down our fears, for being persuaded that God as he is infinitely good is also infinitely wise, we must in consequence believe that all the evils which he sends us are so many remedies to other evils; that our most smarting dolours are corrosives applied by that wise Physician to eat the proud flesh of our corrupt nature; that he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, Lam. 3.33. especially when he chastiseth his children, but is in a manner forced to that course by their necessity, as when a man is pinched by his best friends, to awake him out of a deep lethargy.  
And since that eternal friend is every where present by his all-seeing knowledge and almighty power, and hath promised besides, his gracious presence to his friends, saying I will not leave thee nor forsake thee; what reason have we of joy & confidence at all times, in all places, and in all the occurrences of this life, having God with us always, observing us with his eye, upholding us with his hand, protecting us with his providence, guiding us with his wisdom, and comforting us with his love?  
The last good office that Faith doth unto us, is in the approaches of death; for then especially it doth represent the promises of God unto the faithful soul, and sealeth them afresh, knitting that bond of perfectness the mutual love between God and the conscience faster than ever: By it God speaks peace unto the soul aspiring to heaven, and makes it spread the wings of holy desires, to pass with a swift flight from the combat below to the triumph above.  
Faith, bearing up the soul in that last flight, changeth name and nature in the way, and becomes love; to embrace him for ever in glory, in whom we have believed in infirmity.   

CHAP. VII. Of Christian Hope.  
THe proper action of Faith is to embrace Christ and ground the soul upon him; But it hath another action common to it with hope, which is to embrace the benefits obtained to us by Christ. Of these benefits, the present grace is proper to faith, which is justification, otherwise the Reconciliation of God with the conscience; the future glory by the contemplation of God's face, is more proper to Hope.  
Both faith and hope bring a sweet peace and solid content to the soul that loveth God. But it is peculiar to hope to add to that peace a beam of glory; much like those spies of Israel that entered into the Land of Promise before the rest of the people, to whom they brought some of the fruit of the Land; For it entereth into heaven beforehand, and from thence brings us a taste of the promised inheritance.  
Hope is the only thing that puts some value upon the life of this world, for all the good of this life consisteth in this, that it is a way to a better, and that the earth is the tyring-room of the godly soul where she makes herself ready for the wedding of the Lamb. But for that, what were this life good for? It would consist but in two things; to do evil and to suffer evil. The very goods of this life without that hope would be evil; for none among the Pagans, and all others that were not sustained by Christian hope, was ever made happy. The wisest of them have sought the sovereign good out of the objects of the senses, not finding any solid content in sensual things or actions. Solomon wiser than them all, had found that all under the Sun was vanity and vexation of spirit, and under all he comprehended intellectual as well as sensual things. Neither could any give a more judicious verdict of all than he, for he had tried all things. Where then shall we find any thing worth the pains of living, but in Hope? For if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 1 Cor. 15.19. Hope not keeping within the limits of the poor goods of this life liveth already with the life to come, for it looks for the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world as himself teacheth us: where although he reign as a sovereign, he reigneth not as a redeemer; and so here is not the reign of his redeemed. We find it by experience.  
Who so then will enjoy the peace of the soul and contentment of mind must have his hope and his spirit in a better place; for why should we expect of the world more than it hath? Can one gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? May one expect peace of a perpetual agitation, or a durable content from things of short continuance? For the soul of man being created for permanency, is contented with nothing less than a permanent good; which is the essential reason why no man could ever find satisfaction in the world, there being such a disproportion between man's soul, and the objects that the world presents to her: for all worldly things are finite, but the soul though finite in her substance is infinite in her desire, which nothing less than infinity can satisfy. Now it is by hope that the soul enjoyeth in this finite world an infinite good. It is by hope, that we rise from the dead before we die, being advanced to a degree of grace that hath already a streak of glory. Of which St Paul giveth this high expression. Col. 3.1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory.  
Worldly hopes flatter us and then disappoint us. But though they did perform all they promise, the present possession of the best things of the world is nothing comparable to the hope only of heavenly things, even that lively hope unto which God hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; To an inheritane incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. 1 Pet. 1.3.  
O holy and glorious hope, which already makes us partakers of Christ's resurrection, and followers of his ascension, even to the right hand of God already living with the life of Christ & animated by his spirit: Blessed hope, by which we are preserved from the general corruption as with a sovereign antidote, and by which we subsist yea and triumph in afflictions, Heb. 10.34. taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods, knowing in ourselves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. It is by hope that we look joyfully upon our bodies decaying with sickness and age, 2 Cor. 5.1. Knowing that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. It is by hope, that the Martyrs & all that suffer for righteousness see the crown laid on the top of their cross, and rejoice in this promise of their Saviour, Matth. 5.11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake: rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. By hope we behave ourselves wisely in prosperity, 1 Cor. 7.31. using this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passeth away. Hope beats down pride, refrains lust, and weans our hearts from the world. Worldly hope disordereth the soul and makes a man go out of himself, depending of the future, and losing the present, and is always wavering and feverish: But heavenly hope, although it transport the soul above herself, and make her depend upon future goods, sets her nevertheless in a quiet steady frame; because the soul rising to God receiveth God, who makes her his home; so that a man by hope, enjoys beforehand part of the goods which he aspires unto. Hope groweth like rivers more and more as it draweth nearer the end of its course: And when it hath brought the godly soul into the Ocean of felicity, there it loseth the name of Hope, and becomes Enjoyment.   

CHAP. VIII. Of the duty of Praising God.  
SInce we already embrace eternal goods by hope, as we desire to begin now the joys of heaven, we must resolve to begin the duties of that blessed Estate. To seek the first without the second, would be an ungenerous disposition, and an impossible undertaking. If we apprehend aright that the felicity of man consisteth in his duty, and that the glory of the blessed Saints in heaven consisteth in glorifying God, we will seek in that great duty our felicity, and delight to sing our part, even, in this life, in the hymns of those glorious spirits. Nothing gives to the soul so great a peace, Nothing elevateth the soul to such a Paradise, like Joy. The love of God is preferred before faith and hope, because these seek their own good, but that seeketh God's glory; Which to a godly soul being much more considerable than her own happiness, yet is found to be the sovereign happiness of him that seeks it before his own good; Neither is there any more certain and compendious way to get glory to ourselves then to seek Gods only glory.  
In this then the godly man must delight, and can never want matter for it, all things giving him occasion to praise God, either for his mercy to his children, or his justice to his enemies, or his power and wisdom eminently shining in all his works, or the infinite perfection that abideth in himself. God hath made all creatures for his praise; and none of his material creatures can praise him but man only; And of all men, none but the godly praise him: Or if others do it for company, it becomes them not, neither are their praises accepted. Then upon the godly lieth the whole task to praise God for other creatures that cannot or will not praise him. But that task is all pleasure; as nothing is more just, so nothing is more delightful than that duty.  
Look about upon the fields richly clad with the plenty and variety of nature: Look up to heaven and admire that great light of the world, the Sun so wonderful in his splendour virtue and swiftnesse: When he is set, look upon the glories of the night, the Moon and the stars like so many bright jewels set off by the black ground of the sky, and setting forth the magnificence of their maker. See how some of them keep ea certain distance among themselves, marching together without the least breaking of their ranks, some follow their particular courses, but all are true to their motions, equal and infallible in their regulated periods.  
Then being amazed and dazelled with that broad light of God's greatness and wisdom, let every one make this question to himself, Why doth God make me a beholder of his works? Why among so many different creatures hath he made me one of that only kind, to whom he hath given reason to know and admire the workman, a will to love him, & a tongue to praise him? Is it not that I might render him these duties in the name of all his other works? And to this duty I am obliged by the laws of thankfulness, since all these other works are for me; good reason then that I should be for God, lending my tongue and my heart to the whole universe to love praise and bless the great and good author of this rich and beautiful Nature. O the greatness, the goodness, the wisdom of the incomprehensible Creator? And among all his attributes manifested in this admirable workmanship, O how his tender mercies are over all his works? How every part of this great work is complete? How all the parts are well sorted together, helping and sustaining one another with a wise Oeconomy? O if the work be so perfect what must the workman be? If the streams be so clear what must the source be? Upon these if we fix our meditation with a holy attention we shall hear that speech which St John heard being rapt up in spirit. Rev. 5.3. I heard (saith he) every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, saying, Blessing, honour, glory, and power, unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.  
From Nature looking to Providence, let us observe how notwithstanding the opposition of spiritual malices and the preversnesse and blindness of men, yea and by these very things, God advanceth his glory, maintaineth his truth, and formeth a secret order in confusion. For the execution of his decrees a Million of engines are set on work subordinate or  among themselves, whereby things most remote yet meet in the order of causes to produce the effects appointed in God's counsel. Where the chief matter of wonder is, that many of these causes are free agents, which doing what they will, bring forth most part of the time that which they will not, and by the uncertainty of their giddy agitations arrive to the certain End determined by God. Who can comprehend the innumerable multitude of the accidents of the world, all written in God's Book, and dispensed by his providence, that infinitely capacious and ever watchful wisdom, ever in action, though ever at rest; which by the order he gives to the greatest things is not distracted from the care of the least? He makes the heavens to move, and the earth to bear, and disposeth of peace and war in the world, and of the subsistence and revolution of Empires. Who would believe, that at the same time he tells the number of our hairs, and that not so much as one sparrow falls to the ground without his special appointment, but that we are told it by his own mouth, and that our experience assureth us of his care of the least of our actions and accidents of our life? Here we must rest amazed, but not silent; for our very ignorance must help us to admire, and extol that depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, whose eye and hand is in all places, whose strength sustaineth, whose providence guideth all things, and taketh as much care of each of his creatures as if he had nothing else to look to.  
If our minds be swallowed up in the depths of God's wisdom, this one depth calls in another deep, which brings no less amazement but gives more comfort, & that is the fatherly love of God to us his children. Eph. 3.18. O the breadth, the length, the depth, the height, of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge! the breadth that embraceth Jew's and Gentiles, having broken the partition wall, to make a large room to his wide love, that his way might be known upon earth, his saving health among all Nations. Psalm 67.2. The length, which hath elected us before the foundation of the world, and will make us live and reign with himself for ever. The depth which hath drawn us out of the lowest pit of sorrow & death; & to effect that, hath drawn him down to that low condition. The height, which hath raised us up to heaven with him, and makes us sit together with him in heavenly places.  
With what miracles of mercy hath he preserved his Church from the beginning of the world? How many graces doth he pour upon the several members thereof, nourishing our bodies, comforting our souls, reclaiming us from iniquity by the gift of repentance and faith, keeping off the malice of men and evil Angels from us by the assistance of his good Angels, delivering our life from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling.  
But before and after all other benefits, we must remember that principal benefit never sufficiently remembered. Col. 1.12. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son; in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins. This is the highest top of our felicity, the main ground of the peace of the soul, and the incomparable subject of the contentment of our minds; Yea, if we have such a deep sense of that heavenly grace as to praise God continually for it with heart and mouth. For as we praise God, because he blesseth us, he blesseth us because we praise him; and by his praise, which is the eternal excercise of his blessed Saints we become already partners of their employment, their peace, and their joy.   

CHAP. IX. Of good Conscience.  
ALl that we have said hitherto regardeth the Principal causes (both the efficient and the instrumental) of the peace with God. There are other causes which of themselves have not that virtue to produce that great peace, yet without which, it cannot be preserved nor produced neither; these are, a good conscience, and the excercise of good works. Not that the reconciliation made for us with God by the merit of his Son needs the help of our works, but because the principal point of our reconciliation and redemption is, that we are redeemed from iniquity, which is done by the same virtue that redeems us from Hell, and by the same operation: For it is a damnable self-flattery and self-deceipt for one to believe that he is reconciled with God, if he feel in himself no conversion from that natural enmity of the flesh against God, neither can he enjoy a true peace in his soul.  
In that reconciliation God makes use of our will; for in all agreements both parties must concur and act freely. And to make us capable of that freedom, God by his spirit looseth the bonds of our unregenerate will, naturally enthralled to evil. But it will be better to meddle but little with the work of God within us, and look to our own; learning the duties which we are called unto as necessary, if we will enjoy that great reconciliation.  
The first duty is to walk before God with a good conscience, for in vain should one hope to keep it tranquil and not good: Conscience is the natural sense of the duties of piety and righteousness, warning every man (unless he be degenerated into a beast) to departed from evil and do good; And a good conscience is that which obeyeth that sense and warning. But the ordinary use, which I will follow, by a good conscience understands only the first part, which is, to beware of evil.  
This good conscience is so necessary for the enjoying of that peace of God applied to us by faith, that the Apostle to the Hebrews requires it that we may stand before God with a full assurance of faith. Heb. 10.22. Let us draw near (saith he) with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And St Paul chargeth Timothy 1. Tim. 1.19. to hold faith and a good conscience, which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck, showing that faith and a good conscience must go hand in hand, and that the loss of a good conscience ushereth the loss of faith, which is consequently followed with the loss of inward peace: Whereas a good conscience brings forth confidence, as St John teacheth us, 1. Joh. 3.21. Beloved if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence before God.  
By a conscience that condemns us not, we must not understand a conscience without sin, for there is none such to be found; Much less a conscience that condemneth not the sinner after he hath sinned, for the best consciences are those that forgive nothing to themselves, and pass a voluntary condemnation upon themselves before God, by a free and penitent confession: But the good conscience that condemns us not, according to St John's sense, is, that which bears witness to a man to have walked in sincerity, and cannot accuse him to have shut up his eyes (since his conversion) against the evident lights of truth and righteousness, or to have hardened his heart against repentance after he hath offended God.  
The godly man will remember that the peace between God and us was made by way of contract, whereby God gives himself to us in his Son, and we give ourselves to him. If then any refuse to give himself to God, there is no contract, God will not give himself to him, and so no peace, for every contract must be mutual. When the one party offereth to sign and seal, and the other refuseth it, there is no agreement. Whosoever then will covenant with God and enjoy his peace, must to his power keep his conscience clear from all wilful violations of the conditions of the agreement; For, since this covenant is often termed in Scripture a marriage, our soul which is the spouse of Christ must give herself to him as Christ gives himself to her, else the marriage is void, for it is the mutual consent that makes the marriage.  
Whereupon one may say that God is more good than we are wicked, and that while we break the contract, God remaineth faithful, and leaves us not every time that we leave him. Truly, there is great need of that, otherwise this spiritual marriage would soon end in divorce: But you know that when the faith of matrimony is violated between husband and wife, although they be not divorced, love decreaseth on both sides; what remains of it, is soured with jealous grudges, and peace dwells no more in that house.  
It fareth so with us when we violate the faith and love which we own unto God, by doing that which is displeasing unto him; God doth not presently give us the Letter of divorce, and his constancy stands firm against our fickleness; but he discontinueth the inward testimonies of his love, and his peace recedeth from us; then we dare no more seek our delight in him, and cannot find it any where else; pastimes make us sad, and when we take the air, and shift place to find ease, we are not eased, because we carry our burden along with us, a sad weight upon our heart, a bosome-accuser within; we come to the duty of prayer against stomach, and return from it without comfort.  
It is certain, that the eternal covenant of God cannot be disannulled by the sins of men, as St Paul saith, that the unbelief of the Jews could not make the faith of God without effect. Rom. 3.3. But I speak not here of the eternal decree of God, but of the offer made of his Covenant unto the conscience, by the word of God, and his spirit, which covenant many lightly embrace and then break it having not maturely considered before, upon what conditions it was offered.  
Who so then will keep the peace of his conscience and his confidence with God, must carefully keep himself from all things that displease his holy eyes, and turn away his gracious countenance; lest when our need or our duty calls us to draw near him by prayer, we feel ourselves pulled back by a guilty fear. Let us walk in his presence with such simplicity and integrity that at all times we may say with David, Psalm 26.5. I will wash my hands in innocency, and compass thine altar, O Lord; That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works: O Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house. See what serenity, what liberty of Spirit he had got by his innocency: He goeth straight to the Altar of God, he rejoiceth in his praise, he delighted in his house, he will choose it for his habitation. Evil consciences are not capable of such a freedom with God.  
David in this Text alluded to the form of the Sanctuary, which had a Laver in the entry, where the Priests before they came near the Altar were to wash themselves: We also, that we may keep our free access unto Christ our Altar, must wash our hearts in innocency; If we go not through the laver, we miss our way to the Altar: St. Paul regarded this Figure when he said, 1. Tim. 2.8. I will, that men pray every where lifting up pure hands.  
It is true, that to lift up our hands pure unto God we have need to wash them in a better innocency than our own, and the purest have need to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. David himself having said that he would wash his hands in innocency, Psalm 26. and soon after, but as for me I will walk in mine integrity; immediately upon that prayeth to God to redeem, and have mercy upon him. Yet God requires our innocency, which he examines as a gracious Father not as a severe Judge; he looks more to the sincerity of our hearts then the perfection of our actions, giving his peace to the penitent souls void of hypocrisy. Psalm 32.2. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile; That walketh before God with fear, knowing his infirmities, and together in confidence knowing God's mercy and the certainty of his promises; That hath no evil end, and corrupteth not his good ends by evil ways; That chooseth rather to miss the advancements of the world then to shrink back from his duty to God, ready to suffer the loss of all things that he way keep him. That looks upon his temporal goods without remorse, because among them he seethe nothing ill gotten; and upon his neighbour's goods without envy, because he hath taken the Lord for his portion who is rich to all that call upon him. Rom. 10.12. His words agree with his heart, and his actions with his duty. He brings his affections captive under the the fear of God, boweth his will under God's will, and makes all his ends to stoop under the interest of God's glory. He that doth these things shall never be moved: Whatsoever becomes of his temporal condition (which is better settled by integrity then by all the tricks of the craftiest pates) he shall possess a firm, serene, equal and tranquil spirit; He shall have peace in war, and calm in the storm, knowing that no evil can befall him so long as he is well with God.   

CHAP. X. Of the exercise of Good works.  
TO have a holy and tranquil conscience, it is not enough for us not to do evil; we must do good. These two duties may be distinguished, but not severed. He that doth no good, of necessity doth evil; for it is ill done, to do no good. God made us not only that we should not sinne (For that, it would have been sufficient to have given us the nature of plants or stones) but he hath given us an intelligent active nature, that we might use it to know, and love, and serve our Maker. And since he made us after his image (for which reason Adam is called the Son of God Luk. 3.) if we will be like our Father which is in heaven we must study to do good, for he doth good continually, even when he sends evil, which he makes an instrument of good, whether it be for justice or mercy. Psalm 26.10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth; and such all our paths should be.  
To this we are more especially called by our redemption whereby we are restored into the right of God's children which we had lost, and are purchased to be his servants. God did not adopt us that we should be idle children: Christ did not purchase us that we should be unprofitable servants.  
Now because the life of man is laborious and always in action, we learn out of God's example to examine all our works severally and jointly, to see whether they be good, and rejoice when we find them so. Thus God said, Let the light be, and the light was, And God saw that the light was good. The like after the works of every day of the first week. And in the end of the creation God made a review of all that he had done; And behold all was very good; to signify that God seeing all his works good and complete took great delight in them, and did remunerate his own actions with the satisfaction which he he took in his own wisdom and goodness. That we may then imitate God, let us do nothing but good; and again when we have done it, let us see how good it is: Though it cannot be but very defective, yet if we find in it sincerity and an ingenuous desire to do good, we may in our measure rejoice as God did for doing good, and shall enjoy a sweet peace within representing both in the good that we do and in the delight that we take in well doing, the image of him that hath created and adopted us to express his likeness.  
Our confidence in God by the merit of his beloved Son is the ground of true peace and content. But that confidence is fed by works. By faith we bear testimony to our hearts that we are reconciled with God, and by works we bear testimony to our faith. As, by the respiration we know that a man is alive, and by the same respiration the man is kept alive: So, the exercise of good works is together the mark of faith, and the way to maintain that spiritual life.  
As God hath wisely ordered that the actions necessary for the preservation of natural life should be done with delight; likewise, the exercise of good works whereby the life of faith is maintained gives a singular pleasure unto the faithful soul. Psalm 40.8. I delight to do thy will, O my God, said David. And the Lord Jesus could say that his meat was to do the will of him that sent him: John 4, 32. Wherefore as healthful bodies eat their meat with appetite, so godly souls apply themselves with a holy appetite to good works. In both, it is an inward sense of necessity that provokes the appetite, it being as impossible to live with the life of faith without good works, as to keep the body alive without meat or drink. And, as these satisfy the stomach, good actions give a sweet satisfaction to the soul. But as one cannot live always in the strength of one meal, but must take new food every day, else the body will pine away, and die in a short time; likewise, the use of good works must be daily: too much intermission will abate the pulse of faith; trouble will get into the conscience, or a heavy numbness, which will end in the extinction of spiritual life, unless the appetite of doing good work 〈◊〉 awakened by repentance, and faith get new strength by good exercises.  
For this exercise, the Lord Jesus gave us an example that we should follow his steps; Who did good in the whole course of his life, and more in his death; Who spent the night in prayer, and the day in healing the sick and converting sinners: Who for ill words returned saving instruct 〈◊〉; Who overcame contempt with humility, and adversities with patience: Who did good to them that persecuted him to death, healing the ear of Malchus that was come to take him, and praying for them that crucified him! Who to obey God his ather despised his own life, denied the love of himself, and made this free and miraculous submission to God in the terrors of death, Father, not my will but thy will be done.  
The joy and glory which he got by that submission must encourage his Disciples to prefer the obedience to God and the duty of a good conscience before all interesses; being sure that to forsake them for God is the way to preserve them, and that by suffering for his glory, we get glory.  
The content that accreweth to the soul by tending carefully Gods service and loving nothing like it, cannot be expressed but by those that feel it. How great was St Paul's satisfaction when he said 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world. And how sweet was his rapture of joy, when he said being near the end of his race, 2 Tim. 4.7. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me. O what pleasure is comparable to the testimony of a good conscience! The joy of a great conqueror who hath newly got an imperial crown, is not comparable to St Paul's happiness when he rejoiced to have fought the good fight of faith, and stretched himself towards the crown of righteousness laid up for him. Increase of worldly goods increaseth sorrow. When they are above sufficiency, instead of easing the mind they oppress it. Worldly pleasures are shortlived, leaving behind them an unpleasant farewell, and often a sting of crime. Worldly honour is wind, which either will blow a man down, or puff him up with an unsound tumour. But godliness and good actions give a sincere joy, a solid content a lasting peace, a satisfaction penetrating to the inmost of the soul. This is richly expressed by Isaiah in prophetical terms, Isa. 58.10 If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.  
Although Devotion, and good conscience, and the practice of good works, were sad things, as the world imagineth them; yet ought we to undergo that sadness in this life of few days, to make provision for the other life which is eternal, since this life is a moment on which eternity depends; And we should sow in tears to reap in joy: But seeing that a good conscience active in piety and good works gets thereby, even in the present, a serene peace and a heavenly comfort not credible to any but those that feel it; is it not a great encouragement to do well, That the way to make us happy, is to make us saints?  
It is none of the least arts of Satan for turning men away from the practice of godliness and virtuous actions, to represent Devotion and virtue with an austere habit and a sour face, enough to make children afraid, and grown men also, many of them having with a grey beard a childish understanding, authoritatem senum, vitia puerorum. But certainly this is a false ugly vizard set upon a handsome and gracious face; there being nothing more serene and pleasant than godliness and a good conscience. A good conscience is that merry heart which is a continual feast. To do Gods will with a good will keeps a man's heart cheerful to God, and pleasant to himself. Will you then make your hope sure of an eternal rest, and of those pleasures for evermore at the right hand of God? Do but take the first course to make yourselves content and joyful in this life which is to walk before God unto all pleasing to your power and to be rich in good works. Was there ever a more winning invitation then this? Make yourself joyful and contented in this life, that you may be eternally joyful and contented in the next.   

CHAP. XI. To redress ourselves often, by Repentance.  
We have meditated upon the peace of God and the way how to get it in our souls, and keep it. That peace brings a golden serenity and a solid content to our hearts. But because the godliest persons in this world are subject to sin, and by sinning to trouble that peace and serenity, it is necessary to redress ourselves often by repentance. Of that duty I have spoken in the third chapter of this first book, as the necessary way to embrace by faith our reconciliation with God, and a main part of the great work of our conversion. But after we are reconciled and converted, we are men still. Neither is any conversion so great in this life as to root out sin altogether out of man's nature. Whosoever then will preserve his integrity and peace (for these two commonly go together) must have this warning continually in his mind, Lét him that thinks he standeth take heed lest he fall 1. Cor. 10.12. And if he fall, let him take up himself presently by a godly repentance. The more he esteemeth himself advanced and confirmed in piety, the more let him mistrust himself and beware of the temptations of Satan. For after holy, resolutions and elevations of zeal and devotion, great sins very often are committed; because then the conscience is most subject to relent, as over-confident of her good estare; Much like besieged soldiers who after a brave sally will remit of their watchfulness, despising the enemy whom they have beaten, and in their security are taken by surprise. Conscience will fall asicepe, but Satan never sleepeth, and never misseth to take advantage of our negligence. Heb. 12.1. Sin that doth so easily beset us saith the Apostle to the Hebrews. By saying us, he comprehends himself acknowledging that the most perfect are easily beset by sin.  
Some sins are presently felt, and leave a sting as the Scorpion doth; To that sting the remedy must presently be applied by repentance, and a faithful recourse to God's mercy through Christ; also the assistance of his Spirit must be implored, else the venom will spread, and the wound become mortal. Other sins are less felt, or creep in undiscerned, yet leave a heaviness upon the heart, and make it slower to godliness and good works. Then the businesses of the life intervening, the remembrance of many sins will slip out of our memory, which nevertheless work their effect upon the conscience, blunting the sense of piety, and setting the soul further from God.  
Wherefore it is the part of a wise Christian often to revisit the state of his conscience, call himself to account, and by a pious solicitude of repentance pick and sift out even the least dust that sticks to us of the world's uncleanness and our own, scouring out that rust which conscience, like iron, will contract, if it be not often handled.  
If the unclean spirit will not dwell in a man's heart unless he find the house empty, swept, and garnished, Matth. 12. that is, void of all goodness and furnished for his turn; We must not expect that the holy Spirit will dwell in our heart unless we bestow our best care to sweep it for him, emptied of the immundicities of sin, & to garnish it with holiness. He will not keep house under the same roof with the unclean spirit. And unless we speedily put that enemy out of doors, God may in his displeasure leave him the whole house. Whereas if you keep it swept for God with daily repentance, he will make it his Temple, and say, Psal. 132.14. This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I delight in it. But that our hearts may be clean habitations for him, we have need to call for the assistance of his grace. Psalm 51. Create in us a clean heart O Lord and renew a right Spirit within us.  
Since the Son of God honours us so much as to call us his friends, let us religiously observe the laws of friendship with him. Even in humane friendships, if we have sometimes the missorutne to give offence to one whom we especially love and respect, we cannot be at rest till we have given him satisfaction. And should we be so imprudent as to neglect God our great friend, after we have offended him? Shall we let the Sun go down upon his wrath and our offence? Let us return to him without delay, and humbly seek his peace. The speediest reconciliations are the best.  
In this return to God, which must be every day, let us call to our remembrance all the sins of late date, and others of elder date not sufficiently repent of, confessing them to God with contrition, and craving pardon for them with humility and faith through the merit of his Son, which to all repenting sinners is an exhaustible spring of mercy, open at all times. Zechariah meant this by that Fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. And becaure many trespasses of ours are out of remembrance, and some we have run into without our knowledge, we must beseech God with David to cleanse us from secret faults, Psalms 19.12. and that he be pleased to forget those sins which we have forgotten.  
To that daily return to God, some extraordinary returns must be added, where fasting and alms be joined to prayer. Thereby these clouds shall be cleared off, which trouble the serenity of the conscience, and the soul shall get a great help to rejoice in the love of God and glory in his bounty.  
When one is come to that blessed state of the soul, he must wipe off the tears of repentance and drown that sadness in a thankful joy. For the sorrow of repentance is good by accident only, because there is some evil to be healed. It is like a medicine which gives gripe and disquieteth nature, therefore not to be used but to recover health: Although we cannot repent too much to have offended God, there may be excess in the sorrow of repentance. To seek merit or ostentation in penitent sorrow, which is the face that vulgar souls give to devotion, is making a glory of the matter of our shame, as if a felon had the ambition to wear the halter about his neck with a good grace. The sorrow of repentance is an ill passage which we must of necessity go through, if we will be saved; but we must not make that passage a dwelling place. After we have used it to make our peace with God, we must be comforted and rejoice in that peace. For God hath not called us to sorrow, but to peace and content; And the Gospel is the Doctrine of peace and assurance.    

OF THE PEACE OF THE SOLDIER AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND.  
SECOND BOOK. Of Man's Peace with himself, by Rectifying his Opinions.  

CHAPTER I. The Design of this Book, and the next.  
THe sense of our peace with God may be distinguished from the peace with ourselves, but not separated; for the peace with God being well apprehended settleth peace in the heart between a man and his own conscience, which otherwise is his inseparable accuser and implacable adversary.  
We have spoken in the first Book of the ground and principal cause of our inward peace which is also the end and perfection of the same, and that is our Union with God. We have treated also of the means altogether divine and effective of that end, which are the love of God and our neighbour, faith, hope, and a good conscience active in good works. We intent now, with God's help, to speak of those subordinate causes and means, where Prudence is a servant of Piety, to keep peace and good order within. In this great work the handmaid shall often need her Mistress' help; for reason not sanctified by piety is as dangerous to use, as Antimony and Mercury not prepared.  
The two great works of sanctified reason to keep inward peace and content, are these; Not to be beaten down with adversity or corrupted with prosperity, going through both fortunes with virtuous clear and equal temper, making profit of all things, and fetching good out of evil.  
To frame that golden temper in our mind, we must lay down before all things for a fundamental Maxim, That all the good and evil of man's life, though it may have its occasions without, hath truly and really its causes within us; excepting only some few casualties where prudence hath no place; and yet there is no evil but may be either prevented, or lessened, or turned into good by a virtuous disposition.  
Hence it follows that not without but within us our principal labour must be bestowed, to take an order for our peace and content. To keep us from falls in a long journey, if we would send before to remove all the stones out of the way, we should never have done; but the right course is to get an able and surefooted horse and to sit fast on him. It would be a more impossible undertakeing in the wayfairing condition of this life to remove all temptations and oppositions out of our way; but against these two sorts of obstacles, we must provide a firm spirit, able to go through all, and stumbling at nothing; but keeping every where a sure and eeven pace.  
To that end let us acknowledge within us two general causes of all our content and discontent, and all our order and disorder: The first cause is the Opinion that we conceive of things; The second is, the Passion moved or occasioned by that opinion. Take a good order with these two causes, you shall be every where content, tranquil, wise, and moderate. But from the disorder of these two causes, proceeds all the trouble of the inward polity of our minds, and all the misrule and misery that is in the world.  
It must be then our labour to order aright these two Principles of our good and evil within us, and in the order here set down, which is essential to the matter; Employing this second Book to get right Opinions of the things of this world, from which men usually expect good or evil. And this will prepare us matter for the third Book, whose task will be to set a rule to passions. For that which sets them upon disorderly motions is the wrong opinion wherewith the mind is possessed about the objects. And whosoever can instruct his mind with right opinions, may after that, rule his passion with little labour.   

CHAP. II. Of the right Opinion.  
I Said that things exterior are the occasions of the good and evil of man, but the causes of the same are the interior, Opinion and Passion. Now to treat of the causes we must also treat of the occasions, as subjects of the opinion, and objects of the passion; Not to examine them all, for they are as many as things in the world and accidents in man's life; there is none of them altogether indifferent to us, but are considered either as good or evil. We will stay only upon the chief heads, and endeavour to find the true price of things that men commonly desire, and the true harm of those things which they fear.  
In this search, I desire not to be accounted partial, if I labour to give a pleasant face to the saddest things. It is my professed intention. For my work being to seek in all things occasion of peace and content, why shall I not, if I can, borrow it even from adversity? And is it any whit material whether I find it indeed or devise it, so I can make it serve my turn! Is it not prudence for one to be ingenious to content himself, yea though he cozen himself to his own content? My readers may bear with me if I use them as I use myself, who, next to the care of pleasing God, make it my chief study to content my mind, and in all the several byasses that God puts upon the rolling course of my life, strive to behold all accidents by the fair side; or to give them one in my mind, if they have none. Wherein I hope to justifye the ingenuity of my dealing, to ingenious mind, and show that I give no false colours to evil things to make them look good. For since the good and evil of most things consisteth in opinion, and that things prove good or evil as they are taken and used, if I find good in those things which others call evil, they become good in my respect. It is the great work of wise men to turn all things to their advantage, subjecting exterior things to their mind, not their mind to them, et sibi res non se rebus submittere.  
This truth than ought to be deeply printed in minds, studious of wisdom and their own content, That they bear their happiness or unhappiness within their breast; and, That all outward things have a right and a wrong handle; He that takes them by the right handle, finds them good; He that takes them by the wrong indiscreetly, finds them evil. Take a knife by the haft it will serve you, take it by the edge it will cut you.  
Observe that all sublunary things are of a compounded nature; Nothing is simple, nothing but may do good, nothing but may do harm. And so in moral goodness or badness. There is no good thing but is mingled with evil: There is no evil, but some good enters into the composition. The same truth holds in all persons, actions, and events. Out of the worst, a well composed mind endowed with the grace of God, may extract good with no other chemistry than piety wisdom and serenity.  
It lieth in us, as we incline our minds, to be pleased or displeased with most things of the world. This may be exemplifyed in things material and of less importance, which may be precedents for things spiritual and of greater moment. One that hath fed his eyes with the rich prospect of delicate Countries as Lombardy and Anjou, where all the beauties and dainties of Nature are assembled, will another time take no less delight in a wild and rugged prospect of high bare mountains, and fifty stories of steep rocks, as about the grand Chartreuse, and the bottom Ardennes, where the very horror contributes to the delectation. If I have been delighted to see the trees of my Orchard, in spring blossomed, in summer shady, in autumn hung with fruit; I will delight again, after the fall of the leaf, to see through my trees new prospects which the bushy boughs hid before; and will be pleased with the sight of the snow candied about the branches, as the flowers of the season. This is better than to consider in deserts nothing but their hideousness and barrenness, and in winter nothing but the rheumatic weather.  
If a facile and well composed mind take delight in these varieties of nature, why not in the varieties of his condition? When he is rich, he will delight in the service of his men; When he falls to poverty, he will delight to help himself, finding that he is the sooner obeyed and more to his mind. If he hath children, he will delight to provide for them; If God take them from him, he will rejoice that they are provided for. If he obtain a beloved woman, he finds his content increased; If he miss her, he finds his care diminished. If he be near his friends, he enjoys gladly their love and presence; If he be fare from them, he seethe no more their distresses. One time he loves health, because it makes life sweeter; Another time he will love sickness, because it will bring a happy death. That man's patience was ingenuous, who having put out his eye falling upon his own staff, gave God thanks that his staff was not forked, so he might have put out both his eyes with that fall.  
There is nothing where a well instructed mind may not find matter of some content and comfort. A truth presupposed by St. Paul when he teacheth to rejoice evermore, 1 Thess. 5.16. yea and glory in tribulations. Rom. 5.3. For when God multiplieth his trials to his children he makes his comforts to abound much more. Of which they deprive themselves who in their fortunes look only upon the sad side, and are ingenious to vex themselves. The occurrences of this life having many faces, a wise man will always entertain the best. And in my opinion it should not be a hard matter to obtain of ourselves, to give always sentence in our own favour.  
Yet this must be used with some distinction. For in those evils which consist in our own fault, we must always consider the evil as great as it is, and give sentence against ourselves; for the way to be absolved of God is, to condemn ourselves before him. In that case he that is against himself doth much for himself. But as for the evils that come to us by accident or by the fault of another, we must always lessen the evil and be partial for ourselves through humility, meekness, patience, yea and forgetfulness; for so shall we give judgement in our favour, the mild part being that which must work our content. Whereas he that aggravates evils with his imagination, and makes his spite, and appetite of revenge to be as hammers to knock in deeper the arrows that are shot against him, giveth sentence against himself, and takes part with his enemies to work his own discontent.  
These considerations must be further insisted upon in their proper place. I use them here only as instances of the benefit of opinion when it is well taught, and the harm of the same when it follows a wrong information.  
To get a right Opinion, the contemplation by which Epictetus begins and grounds his Book, of most rare excellency, must be maturely and diligently studied. For if we bestow but a little Christian dress upon it, it will be a perpetual & infallible rule for the right valuing of all things, and so will prove a singular help for the clearness and tranquillity of mind. Here it is.  
In the universality of things some are in our power, some are not: Such as are in our power are Opinion, appetite, desire, aversion, and all our inward and outward actions [By our power I mean not our mere natural power, which is weak and prone to evil, but the regenerate power strengthened with God's grace, which assisting our natural freedom gives it both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Phil. 2.13. Wherefore the Christian hath more power over his opinions, passions, and motions than Epictetus, who had but the natural power.] The things that are not in our power, are money, glory, empires, and generally all things that are none of our works.  
Those things that are in our power are free by their nature, and cannot be hindered by any but ourselves, or at least without our consent: For although the world and the Devil seduce our opinions and tempt our affections, they cannot get any victory over us, unless we lend our hand to it. But as for the things that are out of our power, they are weak, subject to servitude, exposed to opposition and hindrances, and depend of the power of another.  
We must then hold this for certain, that if we take things subject to servitude, to be free; and things that depend of another, to be ours; we cannot but meet often with oppositions and obstructions in our designs. We shall lament and torment ourselves, we shall accuse men, and murmur against God. But if we account that only to be ours which is ours indeed as depending of us, and look upon all that depends not of us as being nothing to us, we can lose nothing, we shall not afflict ourselves for any thing in the world, the spoiling of worldly goods that are about us shall not wrong or deject us, for that cannot be taken from us which is none of ours.  
That consideration will do us great and good service in this Treatise. And to begin, let us make use of Epictetus his distinction for the distribution of the principal things about which we have need to rectify our opinion, that we may be wise and tranquil every where.  
The things that depend not of us are either the goods of fortune (as they are called) which are riches, honour, friends, and family; Or goods of the body, as beauty, strength, health, pleasure and life itself; As these things depend not of us, no more do their contraries, poverty, dishonour, enemies, loss of friends, deformity, pain, sickness and death. When one hath those former at will, that state is called prosperity the latter, pass under the name of adversity.  
The things that depend of us, or rather of the grace of God in us, which becomes the best part of ourselves are piety, honesty, wisdom, diligence, and their contraries depend of us, also, yet with some dependence from outward agents, the world and the Devil.  
There be other things of a mild rank, which partly depend of us, partly not, and therefore are ours only in part, as learning and capacity where industry and diligence may do much, but nothing against or without nature, and they are lost by age and sickness, and other outward causes.  
Let us review this order with more leisure, and weigh the price and inconvenience of each thing; for without that, it is impossible to behave ourselves about them with a judicious tranquillity. We begin with things belonging to prosperity.   

CHAP. III. Of Riches.  
OF things that depend not of us, the most remote from us are the goods of fortune; The goods of the body are nearer, for our body is the house of our mind, which is our trueselfe, and whose goods are properly ours. Yet such is the imprudence of men, that they are most busy about that which is most remote, and neglect that which is nearest and most essential to them; for the goods of the body, neglecting those of the mind; and for the goods of fortune, neglecting those of the body; They will forfeit their conscience to please and serve their body, and hazard their body to get or preserve the goods of fortune. Whereas they should follow a clean contrary order, hazarding and neglecting their body, if need be, for the good of the mind, and the goods of fortune for both. [Here I say once for all, that by fortune I understand not blind chance, since God's providence rules all, but the exterior of a man's condition as it is distinct from those things which properly belong to the body and the mind.]  
So fare I will comply with the humour of the world as to speak of riches in the first place, for it is that they seek before all things, showing by their actions, which always must be believed rather than words, that they hold it the first and chief good. Pecunia ingens generis humani bonum. An error, that hath provoked some to oppose it with another error, saying that money is the root of all evil. St. Paul decides the difference, saying that the love of money is the root of all evil; 1 Tim. 6. the love of money, not money itself. It is not wealth that doth the mischief but the weakness of men that cannot wield it, coveting it with greediness, purchasing it with wicked ways, employing it in unjust actions, keeping it with trouble, and losing it with despair.  
Riches are good, but in the lowest rank of all goods; for they have no place among laudable goods, there being no praise to be rich; Nor among goods desirable for their own sake, for they are desired because of other things. It is not nature but custom and fancy that giveth price unto gold & silver, instead of which shells are used for commerce in some part of the East Indieses. But for fancy, a bar of Iron would be more precious than a wedge of Gold.  
In one point, as indeed in all other respects, money is inferior to other goods, as health, honour, and wisdom; that whereas one may enjoy them by keeping, and increase them by using, one must lose his money to enjoy it, and part with it to use it.  
But in two things especially the imperfection of riches is seen; that they satisfy not the desire, and that in the greatest need which is the redemption of the soul, they are of no use, rather a hindrance.  
True goods are those that make the possessors good, which riches do not. They are indeed instruments of good in the hands of those that can uve them well; But they are instruments of evil, in the hands of those that know not how to use them. And the number of these last being the greater by fare, riches do much more evil than good in the world. They stir up folly, lust, and pride, and open a wide gate to wickedness, yet themselves not wicked of their nature. To a well composed and disposed mind they are excellent helps to virtue, for they afford means for good education and matter for good actions. Wisdom and riches together is a fair match. The rich and wise Solomon speaks thus of it by his experience, Eccl. 7.11. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and by them there is profit to them that see the Sun, for wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence, the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to them that have it.  
The French version of that Text saith that Riches cover the owners, So they do, but it is as the shell covers a snail, for they are a heavy toilsome luggage, wherewith a man can advance but slowly, and without which he cannot go; And if they shelter him from some injuries, they expose him to other; they provoke envy, and are a fair butt for fraud and insolency: So to go one step further in the comparison; that shelter may be broken upon a man's back, and he crushed under it.  
To know the just price of riches, reckon what they cost both to get and to keep, what pains there is to get them, what danger and care in the keeping, what unsatisfaction in the enjoying, what uncertainty in the possession; Prov. 23.6. for they make themselves wings (saith Solomon) which no humane art can clip; A thousand accidents, which no prudent forecast can prevent, make them suddenly flee away. The worst is, that they distract the mind from the true goods; for they that have got them and possess them most innocently, if they will preserve them and keep them from sinking (which they will naturally do) must apply their mind to them, and much more, if they will increase them. Which interposition of the earth cannot but eclipse the clear light of the mind, and hid heaven from the sight of the soul. This made the Lord Jesus to speak this sentence confirmed with an oath and a repetition. Matth. 19.23. Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle, then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. And truly although riches of themselves be not evil, but be as the mind of him that possesseth them is, good to him that useth them well, evil to him that useth them ill, yet the Devils haunting of gold mines, and places where money and plate is hid, gives a probable suspicion that the Devil sticks by riches, and breatheth upon them the air of his malignancy.  
Let every wiseman consider whether he will bestow for them as much as they cost, that is, whether he will weary his body, vex his mind, offer violence to his conscience, bring his heavenly soul captive under the things of the earth, & be diverted from seeking the goods which are only permanent and true to them that have them once, to run after deceitful goods which are none of ours even when we have them; of which the keeping is uncertain, and the loss certain, though we might avoid the ordinary daingers, whereby foolish rich men destroy their wealth, and their wealth destroys them.  
The just measure of riches, is, as much as one needs for his use, for that which is above use, is of no use. How they must be used we shall consider, when we treat of Passions. Here we seek only to know their price.   

CHAP. IU. Of Honour, Nobility, Greatness.  
THe proper rank of worldly honour is next after riches, for it is to them chief that honour is deferred. Without them the honour done to Virtue is but words. Indeed the honour that follows is but smoke, but yet smoke hath some substance, words have none.  
Of honour gotten by virtue, and of its right worth, something must be said when we speak of Renown. Here we have to do with that outward garish lustre which dazleth the eyes of the vulgar, gets salutations, and opens a lane through the crowd for a noble person. Riches are to honour that which the bones are to the body, for they keep it up: When honour loseth riches it falls to the ground, like hops without poles. Nobility with poverty doth but aggravate it, and make it past remedy; A misery described in two words by Solomon, Prov. 12.9. Honouring one's self, and lacking bread.  
In time of peace it is wealth that brings nobility and greatness; In time of war it is violence: for, by invasions, high titles and royalties of Lordships had their beginning. We may then value Nobility by its causes, for wealth hath nothing praise worthy, and it is the origine of new Nobility: Invasion is mere Injustice, & it is the Origin of ancient Nobility so much cried up.  
There is a natural Nobility consisting in generosity, and a nobility by grace which is our adoption to the right of God's children; These two together make a man truly noble. Civil nobility is nothing in nature, and consisteth merely in the opinion of men and custom of nations. We deduce it from masculine succession, but in some Kingdoms of the East they derive it from the feminine, because every one is more certain of his Mother then his Father. In China, learning, not extraction, gives nobility. In some places nobility consisteth in merchandise. In some the military profession, in some in leading an idle life. Which different customs show that worldly nobility lieth altogether in fancy, and in effect is nothing.  
Yet such as it is, it proveth a goodly ornament to Virtue; it is like enamel which being of small value sets off the lustre of Gold. It addeth grace facility and power to virtuous actions. Many virtues are obscured or altogether hid by poverty and mean condition. Sobriety in a poor man is imputed to indigence, continence to want of power, patience to baseness. But these virtues become illustrious and exemplary, when humility meets with greatness, and temperance with power; Virtue then shines when it is set in a high Orb, where a man takes for the measure of his desires, not what he can, but what he ought to do,. A right good man, being high and rich, hath great helps to do good, and power prompts him both with the occasion and the desire.  
On the other side, when greatness and means meet with a weak and perverse spirit, it doth harm in the world. And such are most men, whose vicious affections appear not when they are kept under by poverty & obscurity, but when they rise, their vices will rise with them. As Organs ill set, and ill tuned, show not their defect while the bellows lie down unstirred; but when the wind is blown into the pipes, they gall the ears of the hearers by their discord and harshness. Likewise many vices lie mute and quiet, till the wind of honour and plenty get into them, and blow up an ill composed mind with audaciousness, rashness, and discordance with himself, which riseth too high with pride, and together falls too low by miserableness, and where all is out of tune by lust, insolence, and intemperance.  
But even those that were evil before, unless they have constant minds, and throughly died with piety, will be corrupted by honour and plenty. For all men whom we call good are prone to evil, and no greater invitation to evil than facility.  
And if great honour (which is never without great business) doth not corrupt a man, it doth interrupt him; and as it gives him means to do good, it takes off his mind from thinking of it, and many times binds his hands from doing that good which he intends, by reason of the diversity of business and several inclinations of men which he must accommodate himself unto; it being certain the greater a man is, the more he is a slave. And it is in the highest condition that a man hath most reason to say after St. Paul Rom. 7.19. The good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do. One is constrained to court those whom he despiseth, favour those whom he feareth, shut his eyes many times to see neither vice nor virtue, till one use himself in good earnest to prefer conveniency before righteousness; There a man's life is a continual Pageant of dissimulation, which he knows in others, and returns it to them, who also know it in him, yet both parties put on the face of respect and kindness over an arrogant and mischievous mind, and embrace those whom they would have choked.  
There also when a man would do good to others, very often he doth harm to himself. To advance one man's suit he must put back and discontent many, and get ten enemies for one friend, who will less remember the good office, than the others the injury which they think to have received by the repulse. Truly high places are not fit for true friendship, for they take away the freedom from it, and by consequent the sweetness and the right use. In the throng of business and company, the mind loseth its tranquillity; And many times after one hath lost his rest he loseth his labour also. It is a great misery for a man to be never his own, and to have no time to think of God, of which when one discontinueth the use, he loseth in time the desire of it, and too many acquaintances make one a stranger with God: Paucos beavit aula, plures perdidit; Sed et hos quoque ipsos quos beavit perdidit. The Court advanceth but few persons, and destroyeth many but even those which it advanceth it destroyeth and spoileth; for most men as they grow in height decrease in goodness, and many times in estate; like squibs which consume themselves as they ascend.  
It is in few men's choice, whether they may be great or no, some being borne to it and obliged by their birth to maintain their condition. Others being borne fare under it, and there kept by invincible necessity. Yet among great and small, some still are in possibility to raise their degree and come to greater place. And whereas it is in the choice of few persons whether they shall be great, it is in the choice of all, whether they will be ambitious, and aspire to high and negotious places. Let a wise man consider whether honour be worth as much as it costs to get and to keep; whether he would lose his rest for it, leave conversing with God to converse with men, run the danger to become wicked to become great, and among the justlings of envy be always ready to fall and break his neck. Let him weigh in the scales of a right judgement the respect and Opinion of others, against so much personal care, peril, and loss.  
A middle degree of quality, enough to stand a little out of the dirt, is commodious and desirable. The degrees above and beneath are slavery. But a wise and pious man finds liberty and nobility in any degree.   

CHAP. V Of Glory, Renown, Praise.  
FRom the honour that attends greatness and riches we pass to that which is deferred to Virtue, or that which bears the name of it. For this second sort of honour many generous spirits have contemned the first, and greatness, and riches, and life too; dying willingly that they night have glory, when they shall be passed having any thing in this world.  
Wise Solomon saith, that a good name is rather to chosen then great riches, Prov. 22.1. And better then be precious ointment, Eccl. 7.1. The goodness of it lieth in some facility that it gives to do good, for when men's minds are possessed with a good opinion of a person they are susceptible of his counsels. Thereby also a man may better his condition.  
The content that a good action gives to the doer is a real and solid good, but the content that the reputation of it giveth, is vain and deceitful: If the Renown be for vain things, such as most things are in the world, it can yield but a contentment like itself, and though it be raised by real virtue, yet reputation is but discourse and the Opinion of others; It is hollow meat, and who so will feed upon it will soon be like that hungry Dreamer of whom Isaiah speaketh, who dreams that he is eating, but he awakes and his soul is empty. Isa. 29.8. A wise and good man looks for a better reward of his virtue then the talk of the world. No action is good if it be done for praise, or if approbation be sought of any but God and ourselves. John 5.44. How can ye believe (saith Christ) which receive honour one of another; and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Our actions ought to be such as to be of good savour, before the world, else they can do no good in the world: But that good savour must be sought as an accessary, not a principal, and must be rejected, when instead of an accessary it becomes a hindrance and a bar from the the principal, which is the glory of God and a good conscience: Let that witness bear testimony to ourselves, and let men say of us what they will. My Opinions and Affections if they be good, make me good and happy, not the Opinion of my neigh bours.  
A wise man must subject reputation to himself, not himself to her. If he can make her run before him as his Harbinger, to prepare for him an accommodation wheresoever he goeth and get him a room in the judgements and affections of men, it will be a prudent course. And it will be a point of prudence not to hunt reputation too eagerly: for Reputation is well compared to our shadow, she fleeth from us when we run after her, and runs after us when we run from her. She will go more willingly where you would have her, if she go not of your errand but of herself, and doth better service when one thinks not of her. If she be desired it is for something else; but to court her for her own sake, it is more than she deserveth. A virtuous man will disdain to do so much, when he observeth that she is more apt to speak of frivolous then serious matters, and will many times put a gloss of praises upon evil things. What a coil doth Roman antiquity keep, about that harebrained girl Clelia for stealing a horse out of Porsena's Camp, where she was an hostage, and foording a River none of the greatest to return to her Mother's chimney-corner? For that action against the public faith, rash, ungenerous, injust, and especially immodest in a maid, her statue on horseback was publicly set in the Market place, and fame is trumpetting her praise to the world's end. It were easy to name many both of old & late date, that have got reputation at a very easy rate. How many famous men are like boy's crackers, that give a great report without effect? How many toys are talked of and extolled, while grave works are buried in silence? Since Fame hath trumpets, it is no wonder that she fills them with wind; that goeth fare and fast by its lightness, and is fit to make a noise. But a solid virtue makes little noise, and the tongues of the vulgar do so much for her, as to let her alone.  
The Renown of great and good things advanceth but slowly, but recompenseth her slowness by her long lasting. But even in that long lasting there is vanity, for what benefit is it for virtuous men deceased, that the world speaks of them two thousand years after their death? Are their souls more glorious for it in heaven? Are their bodies the less cold in the grave? Yet for that hope of an outliving useless renown gallant men will climb up a breach through a thick hail of musket shot and granadoes, that the world may say of them, These gentlemen are dead in the bed of honour: O brave men! It is pity that these praises make not these brave men to rise from the dead for joy, preserve not their flesh from worms and putrefaction, and make no roses nor violets grow upon their graves. Well let us pay them that praise which they have so dear bought. O brave men! But let us say also, O the folly of men, who having fed themselves with vanity in their life time, will not end their vanity with their lives, but seek to perpetuate it by their death.  
It were strange that praise should do good to the dead, since it doth more harm then good to the living. For one that is encouraged with praise to do well, a thousand are thereby puffed up with pride. It is hurtful to weak spirits and troublesome to the strong. If praise were a real good, every one ought to praise himself, as one feeds himself. And none ought to be ashamed to hear or speak his own praise, for none ought to be ashamed of good things. That shame, is a proof either that praise is not good or that it belongs not to us.  
This deserveth a deeper consideration. Glory and praise among men are of those shades and images of divine attributes scattered in this inferior world; of which shades the substance and reality is in God. Glory in him is a substance, yea his own essence, and to him alone all Glory belongeth. The sparks of glory that are in creatures are rays of that sovereign splendour. Now these rays go not straight like those of the Sun, they go round and fetch a compass to return to the principle of their being. Ps. 145.10. All thy works shall praise thee O Lord, and thy Saints shall bless thee. Since his works praise him by nature, his Saints must praise him by will. Those streaks of glory that are in his creatures, as coming from him, must return to him by nature or by will. For although man be not able to give any glory to God by praising God, yet God knoweth how to receive from us that glory which we cannot give him, and to make himself glorious in his own works.  
Here is then the reason why men are desirous of praise and glory, and yet are ashamed of it: Their desire of it is a natural sense that it is good; And that they are ashamed of it, is another natural sense that it was not made for them. Wherefore a wise Christian will desire and seek the glory of God: And when some image of that glory is given him by the praises of men, he will presently bring that praise and glory to God as God's proper goods, saying, Glory is a Crown that was not made for my head, and on my knees I put it on the head of him to whom it properly belongs.  
Such is praise in its Original and End, both which do meet; but being considered in its inferior causes and conveyances, as it comes from and through men, it is a tide of popular applause, as subject to go down as to come up, consisting in fancy, expressed in talk, rising upon small causes, and upon small causes falling again. We must make more of our content then to pin it upon such an uncertain possession; never reckoning among our goods a thing lying in the Opinion of another, and remaining in the possession of the person that gives it, for humane praise belongs not to him that is praised but to him that praiseth, since every one is or aught to be master of his Opinions and words. They that give us praise retain it in their power and may take it from us when they please.   

CHAP. VI Of the goods of the Body, Beauty, Strength, Health.  
FRom the goods of Fortune which are altogether out of us and many times consist in imagination, we come to the personal: beginning by those of the body.  
The first is Beauty, which among bodily goods may be called the first gift of God, and the first advantage of nature. I say not, that it is the principal, for health is fare above it in excellency. But it cannot be denied that it is the first, since God hath placed it in the entry, and on the front of this building of the flesh.  
Beauty at the very first meeting wins the good Opinion of beholders, and gives an advantageous preconceit of a fair mind. Beauty is a sign of goodness of nature. The sweet vigour of the eyes, the smooth skin, the lively white and red, the handsome lineaments of the face, and the comely proportion of the body are marks of a quick and well composed mind. Which yet is not peculiar to Beauty: For many persons in whom melancholy is predominant, which tanneth their skin, sets their eyes deep in their head, & puts a sourness on their brow, have a penetrating and judicious understanding. Open faces, which are the most beautiful, have commonly candid and serene souls, but none of the craftiest.  
The observation that Pride is a companion to Beauty is not naturally true, but by accident; for beautiful persons being praised and admired of all, who can wonder that they grow proud, since so much pain is taken to make them so?  
A good presence is well sorted with valour and wisdom, and doth excellent service to brave men, if they spoil it not by affectation.  
Beauty is the loadstone of Love; which courts her and calls it's her fair Sun. And so she is, for it gets heat by Beauty. And as the heat caused by the Sun is allayed when the Sun is set, so doth the heat kindled by Beauty lose its flame when Beauty its gone. When love outlives Beauty, some other causes must keep it alive, as virtue and utility.  
Beauty is among desirable goods, not among the laudable; for nothing is laudable in us but the productions of our will and industry. For which reason handsome women ought to reject praises of their Beauty; for either these praises are injurious to God, who as the Author ought to have the whole praise of his work; or they are injurious to them, and seem to presuppose that they have made their beauty, and sophisticated nature by art; for none ought to be praised for that he hath not done.  
Great and rare Beauty in its nature is desirable, but by accident; and as the world goes, it is more to be feared then desired, and does more harm then good. It is hurtful to the person that is endowed with it, for it exposeth her to temptations and insolence, which commonly make her wicked and miserable. It is hurtful to the person that wooeth it or enjoyeth it, for it sets him as a mark for injuries. Many might have led a tranquil life, and escaped discredit, quarrel, ruin, and stabbing in the end, had not their wives been too handsome.  
But though beauty were not cumbered with all this danger, the nature and price of it must be well considered, that we may not expect of it a contentment beyond its kind. Beauty is the exterior and superficial ornament of a sickly and mortal body, the inside whereof is unpleasing to the eye, and would make the hearts rise of the admirers of the outside if they could see it. It is a fair blossom only for the spring of life, which will fade with age, or whither with sickness and cares, in the very spring. It is a cheater, which promiseth much, & keepeth not promise, for the most amorous never found in it a delight answerable to the desire that it kindleth. Take the right measure of the goodness of that so much desired possession of beauty, so shall you not desire it above measure; and when you have it, you shall reap from it a more sincere content, because you shall require of it as much as its nature affords, and no more.  
Strength also and Health are things desired, not laudable, as things that come by nature, not by will.  
Great strength of body is commonly accompanied with a weak mind; and that disproportion is augmented with much feeding, and obligeth nature to bestow the main Magazine of spirits upon digestion distribution of meat, and hardening of the brawns of the limbs, to enable them for strong labour, leaving but few spirits to attend reasoning & contemplating. Speak to perpetual hunters, of the delight of speculation; you shall find them little more capable of it then their hounds, which are the highest point of their meditation. To their mind is very convenient the definition which Aristotle gives to the Soul, that it is the first act (that is the principle of the motion) of an organical body; for their soul seems to be made for no other end but to move their body. It is certain that too great excercise of the body dulls the mind. The preeminency of man above beasts consisteth in reason, and the capacity of knowing and loving God. Men that are proud of their strength, robore corporis stolidè feroces, placing their advantage and content in a thing wherein they are inferior to many beasts, descend from their dignity and take place under their natural subjects. He that with his forehead would knock a great nail into a post, to the very head, deserved this praise, that next to a Bull he had the hardest head of all beasts.  
Health of all goods of the body is most to be desired, yea more than life; A truth not contradicted by the known Maxim, that the end is better than the means, for I hold not health to be subordinate unto life, but life unto health. Being is the means, and well being is the end. Non est vivere sed valere vita. So Maecenas must be left to his own Opinion & desire, who though he were maimed hands and feet, and had all his teeth lose in his head, and a bunch on his crooked back, would think himself well, if he had but life; Yea if by enduring the sharpest tortures of the cross he might keep life he would willingly endure them. His enemies could wish him no greater harm, then to buy life at that rate.  
The body being made for the soul, the true natural benefit of Health is not long life, but the liberty of the actions of the mind. For the mind sticks so to the body that it cannot act very freely in a body tormented with acute pain, or pined with a lingering disease. Wherefore that we may go through that necessary captivity as easily as may be, an especial care must be had of the health of our body; taking all occasion from it, of accusing the excesses & ill government of the mind, for the corruption and inflammation of the humours; behaving ourselves with our body, not as living for it, but as unable to live in the world without it. Our mind was made for a better end then to serve the flesh. Yet let us give it faithfully its due, as to the horse that carries us in our journey: It must be fed and tended, else it will fail us in the way.  
Curious persons commit two faults about the care of their bodies. They bestow much cost and labour to adorn them, but they neglect their health, exposing themselves half naked to cold air to show a fine half shirt, as if they furnished their rooms with rich hang, and suffered the rain to fall on them for want of repairing the roof. In matter of , health and commodity are the best counsellors, not the eyes and Opinions of strangers.  
Health must be acknowledged the richest jewel of all temporal things, yea preferable to many ornaments of the mind. He that hath got much learning in the Tongues, and hath diseased his body with watching, hath lost more than he hath got.  
But the healthfullest body of the world is a tottering house which must every day be underpropt with food, and (for all our care) will fall in the end. We must look upon it as a tenement at will, which we hold under God our Landlord; not fearing but rejoicing that we must leave it, knowing that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. 2 Cor. 5.1.  
LIFE, I set neither among goods nor among evils, for it is neither good nor evil in itself, but the subject of good and evil, like the painter's cloth where all sorts of colours are couched. Such as it is, it must be put in the rank of those things that depend not of our will, and therefore must not be accounted ours, but used as a borrowed commodity. We must say more of it, when we speak of Death.   

CHAP. VII. Of bodily Pleasure and Ease.  
OF all arguments of meditation there is none where writers show less sincerity then in this. Every one blames pleasure and ease, and yet every one seeks it. They tell us that it is the cause of all evil, that it poisoneth the passion, that it blindeth reason, that it is an enemy to good counsel, and that it is impossible for Virtue to stand with Volupty; Yet the same Authors, love their ease, and their very discourses of ease are effects of ease, and productions of wits sweetened by prosperity.  
Then they charge pleasure with the vices of men, whereas it is not pleasure but men that must be blamed: For pleasure doth not corrupt men, but men corrupt pleasure. It must be acknowledged good in itself. It is the seasoning that God alwise and all-good hath given to things profitable and actions necessary, that we should seek them. Look upon a brave horse with a judicious eye: After you have considered his great use, and praised the bounty of God for making an animal of so much service and commodity to man; praise God again for making him so handsome and of such a gallant mettle; And acknowledge that the gracious Creator regarded as well man's delectation as utility. The delicious taste of fruits, the fragrant smell and gay colours of flowers, the fair prospect of groves, meadows, calm and clear waters, and all the delicate variety of Nature, speak very expressly that God, as an indulgent Father, hath taken great care to please and recreate us, and condemneth that sad and sour wisdom which deemeth to merit much by avoiding (at least in show) all that is pleasing in Nature. Of that kind, is this prayer which may be read in many Books of devote contemplation, Lord give me grace to be delighted in no earthly thing: Which is as much as saying to God, that he was much overseen when he made his works good and pleasant, since it is ill done to delight in them, That devotion wants common sense, if it be serious, and more if it be hypocritical.  
We must then place bodily pleasure among the goods but among the least, and those in which beasts have more share than men. The more pleasures are simple and natural, (as they are among beasts) the more they are full and sincere. But we by our wit make a toil of a pleasure, and drown nature in art.  
He that can set a right value upon Beauty, Health, and Strength, of which we spoke lately, may easily do the same of the pleasure which they are capable to give or to receive. If then these qualities be but weak transitory and of short continuance, they cannot yield or feel a pleasure, solid, constant, and permanent. Health, the best of the three, is rather a privation of disease then a pleasure, and it makes the body as sensible of pain as of delight, of which many that enjoy a perfect health are deprived.  
It is a great abatement of the price of bodily pleasure, that one must seldom use it to use it well, yea and to preserve it, for the excess of it is vicious, be the way never so lawful; and the satiety of it breeds sastidiousnesse and weariness. Whereas true pleasure consisting in the knowledge and love of God, one cannot sinne, by excess, nor lose the relish of it by fullness; but the appetite is increased, and the faculty mended by enjoying.  
Pleasures of the body, though in themselves good and , are given by God for something else, and to invite us to actions of necessity or utility: But spiritual pleasure, which is to know and love God, is altogether for itself, and for nothing beyond it: for there the pleasure is so united with the duty, that the glory which we give to God, and that which we enjoy by knowing and loving him, are sweetly confounded together and become but one thing.  
This consideration, that bodily pleasures are appointed for a further end, helps much to understand their price and their use. For the pleasure of the taste is to invite the appetite to eat, eating is to live, living is to serve God; and between these two last, there are other subordinations, for many actions of life are for the domestical good, domestical good for the civil, the civil good for the religious. Bodily pleasure standing naturally on the lowest round of this ladder, is removed out of its proper place, when it is placed above the superior ends; which is done, when the actions of life which are due to the domestical & civil good, and before and after all to the religious, are employed to make a principal end of those things that are subordinate to them as inferior means. For we must desire to eat for to live, not to live for the pleasure of eating, & so of other natural pleasures, the desire whereof becomes vicious, when those things to which by nature they ought to serve, are subjected unto them.  
Pleasures are good servants but ill Masters. They will recreate you when you make them your servants: But when you serve them they will tyrannize over you. A voluptuous nice man is always discontented and in ill humour. Where others find commodity he finds incommodity. He depriveth himself of the benefit of simple and easy pleasures. He looseth pleasure by too much seeking. By soothing up his senses he diseaseth them, and pain penetrates sooner and deeper into a body softened with voluptuousness. But he that less courteth pleasure enjoyeth it more, for he is easily contented. To live at ease in the world we must harden our body, strengthen our mind, and abridge our cupidity.  
In nothing the folly and perversity of the world is so much seen as in this, that of the things which Gods indulgence hath given to man for his solace and recreation he makes the causes of his misery, the baits of his sin, and the matter of his condemnation; for, from the abuse of pleasure proceeds the greatest part of the evils that are in the world, both the evils which men suffer and those which they commit; Yea, from thence all evils proceed, if we remount to the first sin.  
Therefore a wise man will abstain from unlawful pleasures, and taste the lawful with moderation, lest that by excess he make them unlawful. Knowing that pleasure which strayeth from duty ends in sorrow; that it is no gallantry to offend God; and that no delight can countervail the loss of the serenity of conscience. Vice itself will teach us virtue: For when we see the slaves of voluptuousness, get in that service a diseased body, a sad heart, a troubled conscience, infamy, want, and brutality, we find it an ill bargain to buy pleasure at so dear a rate.  
This observation also will be of some help for the valuation of pleasure. That the pleasures that stick most to the matter are the most unworthy, as all the pleasures of the taste and feeling; and those pleasures that recede further from the matter are more worthy as the pleasures of the sight: Wherefore the pleasure of hearing is yet more worthy, as having more affinity with the mind. And as they are more worthy they are also more innocent. But in all things excess is vicious.  
As excess in pleasures is vicious, so is the defect. For God hath made many handsome and good things to please us, in which nevertheless we take no content, and many times reject them out of niceness. How many perfect works of God strike their image into our eyes, and yet enter not into our thoughts? How many conveniences are sent to us by God's good hand, sufficient to fill our minds with comfort and thankfulness, if we had the grace to consider them; and we think not of them though we make use of them. We are so enchanted with false pleasures that we lose the taste of the true. But a wise man is innocently inventive to solace himself, and finds every where matter of pleasure. All things without smile upon him, because his spirit is smiling within; and he lends to objects his own serenity, whereby he makes them pleasant.   

CHAP. VIII. Of the Evils opposite to the forenamed Goods.  
IT is to make the title short, that I call them evil, not to condemn without appeal & informatition all that is not in the list of the goods of fortune and goods of the Body. By looking upon these goods we may judge of their opposites: An easy work, for having found nogreat excellency in these goods & no solid content in the possession of them, it follows that to be without them is no great misery.  
They must be viewed impartially, for there is both good and evil every where, although to speak Philosophically and properly, the true evil and the true good lie within us. The silly vulgar cannot comprehend that a man can find his happiness and unhappiness within himself, and seek their good abroad where it is not; toiling, sweeting, and wearing out their life with labour in that quest and making themselves miserable out of fear of misery. Whereas most accidents without are neither Good nor evil in themselves, and become good or evil to us according to the disposition of our minds. And of things within us, there are but two in themselves evil, Sin, and Pain.  
Stoicians will not acknowledge pain to be evil, because it sticks to the body only, which, say they, is man's lodging not man himself. But what-man feels all the incommodities of that lodging▪ The soul is tied by personal Union with the senses and really suffers what they suffer. So to maintain, that pain is not evil when one feels it, commanding the outward countenance to unmoovednesse in the midst of the sharp torments of the stone and the gout, laughing when one hath more mind to cry, is increasing pain with the addition of constraint, and heaping folly upon misery.  
But pain becomes a blessing to the wise and godly, which learn by it to wean their hearts from the love of the world and themselves, and to seek in God that comfort which they find not in this world and this life: for all things help together for good unto them that love God.  
Herein the senses may do good service to reason & piety, to find content in many things where others find the contrary. Some will declaim 'gainst the senses as ill Judges of the goodness and badness of things. To whom we must say that the senses are never Judges but informers, and that the ill information that our understanding receiveth of the quality of the objects ought not to be imputed to the senses, for they plainly report what they perceive, but to the prepossessed Imagination, which upon their simple information frameth false Ideas, set off with colours of her own, which she presents to the Judgement, and makes him Judge amiss through misinformation.  
If we will then get good service from the senses for the right informing of our judgement, we must obtain of ourselves these two points. The one not to receive their testimony but about their proper objects, which are the outward qualities wherewith the senses are affected. The other not to preoccupate them with Imagination, Opinion, and Passion. So when they are confined to their own province and become impartial witnesses, it will be easy to persuade our reason rather to believe our own sense, than the Opinion of another.  
Thus, when we desire to know whether we be unhappy because we are deprived of riches, kept back from honours, without reputation, or ill reputed in the world, we must not refer ourselves about that to the Opinion and talk of the world, but to our own sense. Let us sincerely examine our senses, what harm we receive by it. Are we more hungry or cold by these misfortunes? Doth the Sun shine less bright upon us? Is our bed harder? Is our meat less feeding? If our senses thus examined, have nothing to complain of, and yet we complain that we are come short of some hopes, that others step before us, that the world regards us not, or speaks ill of us; Let us ingenuously acknowledge, upon the testimony of our senses, that we are well if we can believe it, and that it is not out of Sense but Opinion that we are afflicted.  
This is the difference between fools and wise men, Fools consult Opinion and Custom: Wisemen consult reason, piety, and nature. Fool's regard what others think: Wisemen consider what themselves find and feel. Fools gape after things absent: Wisemen possess the present and themselves. O how many men complain that have no hurt, but in their imagination! which is indeed a great hurt, and incurable many times. When you see a man rich and healthful, tearing his heart for some inconsiderable loss, or for the rash words of an ill tongue; desire him to ask his senses, where the pain is. And if he feel no pain by it, why doth he put himself to pain? Why is he ill, when he may be well? He is well, if he can but heal his imagination. Is it not a disgrace to a reasonable creature, that whereas reason ought to rectify the senses, the senses should need to rectify reason! and that men who love themselves so much must be exhorted to do no harm to themselves when they feel no harm? A rational godly man will examine what he feels, and will do no harm to himself when God doth him good. And when his senses have reason to complain, he will quietly hearken to them, and rather believe their report about the measure of the evil than the cries of the bystanders that commiserate him. He will not be easily persuaded that he is sicker than he is indeed, and will not increase his pain with his imagination. And whereas others make themselves sick out of imagination when they are well; he will use his imagination, to make himself well when he is ill.  
Not that I would advise a man to blind himself for fear of seeing, and dull his sense for fear of feeling evils: For the better we know the nature of things, the better we know how to deal with them, that we may avoid or bear the evil that is in them. But because imagination hath a real force to increase or diminish many evils, it is the part of a wiseman always to employ the strength of his imagination to his advantage, never to his hurt.  
The evils where the indulgence of Opinion must be used to make them lighter are the evils of the body and fortune; But as for the evils of the mind which are the vices of the understanding and the will, there the flattery of Opinion is most dangerous; for the principal sickness of the mind is, that one thinks not himself to be sick.  
I have advised reason to take counsel of the senses when the imagination aggravateth the evil, or makes it, and yet the senses are free of pain: But when the senses are offended in earnest, than they must take counsel of reason, and more yet of piety, to find some ease.  
Let us meditate upon the nature of those evils of fortune and body, so much feared in the world. He that gives a right Judgement of the evil, hath half found the remedy.   

CHAP. IX. Of Poverty.  
THere be many degrees of civil poverty according to the diversity of conditions and businesses. To a Sovereign prince, it is Poverty to have less than a hundred thousand pounds a year; but to a husbandman it is riches to have twenty pounds a year rend free. In all conditions those are truly poor that have not wherewith to maintain that course of life which they have set up, and all men that cannot satiate their cupidity. Thus very few rich men will be found in the world, since there are but few that aspire not to greater things than they can compass, and desire no more than they have. All that find want are poor, whether their want be of things necessary or superfluous, and among many degrees of poor men, there is but one Poverty.  
Yet those are the poorest that find want of superfluous things, because that kind of poverty is made worse by the increase of riches. To such men, God is just and merciful together, when he healeth that wanton-need, with a pinching need of things necessary.  
Need is the thing that is generally most feared of all men: Certainly it is most incommodious, even to the wisest. Wherefore the Wiseman in the 30. of Proverbs besought God that he would not send it him. It is an ordinary theme for eloquence and flourishes of wit to maintain that Need is not evil; and they that descant more upon it are they that less feel it; as Seneca, a man of prodigious wealth, who many times commends extreme poverty, or the condition that is not fare from it. They say indeed that it is to the wise only, that need is not evil; but because that must be proved by the experience of a true and perfect wiseman, we would have the testimony of such a man: but such a man we find not, neither do all the sects of Philosophers that professed poverty, afford such an example. For we will not stand to the arbitrement of that saucy beggar Diogenes, a vain sordid and affected man in all his words and actions, who took a nasty pride in an impudent mendicity. If poverty did not make him evil he made poverty evil, turning it into a profession; and instead of making it an exercise of virtue, using it as a pretence of idleness and licentiousness.  
To the ordinary sort of minds, Need is a gulf of misery. Prov. 14.20. The poor is hated even of his own neighbour. Every one hides himself from him. Need makes men ashamed, and shame increaseth their need. Some also by Need are made shameless, and in the end bold thiefs. Qui paupertatem timet, timendus est. Need is an ill counsellor: It makes men murmur against God and find fault with the distribution of his goods. It beats down the courage, stupefyeth or soureth the wit, and eclipse the wings of contemplation. It is hard for one to have high conceits, when he wants bread.  
Yet, to speak properly, Want doth not all that evil, but the evil disposition of men, that have not weaned their heart from the world, nor sought their only treasure in heaven, & have not chosen God for their portion: No wonder that their spirit is beaten down as well as their fortune, when the worldly ground, which they had built upon, sinks under their feet.  
But he that despiseth the world and the life of the world, despiseth also Want so much feared by others. For, take things at the worst, (a perpetual rule of wisdom about casual future things) the worst that can come to him that is without bread, is to be without life, which a thousand other accidents may take from us. Life is a depositum which God hath committed to our keeping: No lawful diligence and industry must be omitted that we may preserve it and give a good account of it to God; And himself having trusted us with it, assists us to keep it. Very seldom it is heard, that any persons die for lack of bread. But precious in the sight of God is any death of his Saints, Psal. 116.15. Neither is there any more curse in dying of hunger, then of a surfeit.  
Of all kinds of death, but the sudden, I hold death for want of food to be the easiest. It is no more but letting the lamp quietly to go out. Atticus after a long fast to overcome an acute sickness, having lost the appetite of meat, lost also the appetite of life, and refusing to take any more meat, died without pain. And so Tullius Marcellinus, after an abstinence of three day's Mollissime excessit et vitae elapsus est, he departed most quietly and escaped from life, saith Seneca. He spoke better than he meant, saying that he escaped; for such a volutary death was an escape from the station, where God hath placed him. He went from life without commission, for God had given him wherewith to keep it: But he to whom God giveth no more wherewith to keep himself alive must acknowledge that his commission is out, & departed cheerfully. For to prevent death by sordid and unlawful ways is more than God calls him unto, and more than life is worth. To say, necessity compels me to these ways, and otherwise I cannot live, is an ignorant or wilful mistake of Necessity; The ways cannot be necessary, when the end is not so: And before a man conclude that such ways are necessary because without them he cannot live, he should consider whether it be necessary for him to live. It is necessary for us to be righteous and generous; not, to live. Who so conceiveth no necessity in life, and no evil in death (which to God's children is the end of all evils, and the beginning of all happiness) will soon rid his heart of that cowardly fear of dying for want, and reject the temptations to lead an ill life that he may keep life.  
The fear of Want is for want of obeying Christ's command, Matth. 6.34. not to take thought for the morrow; and for want of observing the course of his providence which provideth for his creatures that cannot provide for themselves: Beasts sleep quietly not knowing and not thinking where they shall get meat the next day. You will say, it is because they have no reason and no foresight; and were it not better to have no reason, then to make no use of it but for our vexation! Were it not better to be incapable of thinking on God as beasts are, then to think on him only to mistrust and murmur against his providence?  
A poor man to whom God giveth health & industry to get his living is possessed of a great treasure, and a stock yielding him a daily rent. His condition is incomparably more happy than that of the noble and wealthy. The labour that gets him bread, gets him also an appetite to eat it, and sleep to refresh him when he is weary, and health to continue his labour; Eccl. 5.12. The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep: His many children give him less care, than fewer children to the rich, and less pain also to provide for them. For whereas in noble houses the charge groweth always as the children grow; in poor families that live by labour the charges grow less as the children grow; the Sons serve the Father in his work, the Daughters spin by their Mother. Children are the riches of poor people, and the impoverishing of the rich. Then to give them portions; the Father that hath no land is not troubled to engage the Lordships of the eldest Son for the marriages of his Daughters, nor to charge the land with annuityes for the younger Brothers. Each of them hath the whole succession, which is their Father's labour. No doubt, but that is the most tranquil condition of all.  
The examples are many, of those that lived merrily and sung at their work as long as they were poor; but an inheritance unlooked for, being fallen into their lap, they have given over singing, and turned sad and full of thoughts. Anacreon came once to that trouble, but he rid himself of it. He was a Poet, and consequently poor. Polycrates the rich Tyrant of Samos bestowed two or three thousand Crowns upon him. But Anacreon after he had kept them three days restored them to his benefactor, because, said he, that-money would not let him sleep. Which action was not the production of a Philosophical mind, for by his Poems now extant it appeareth that wine and women were the highest spheres of his contemplation; but the true cause was, that he found riches heavier to bear then poverty.  
I was saying that Poverty beats down the courage and stupefyeth the wit; but it is only with them that had no great courage and no great wit before, and they would have been more beaten down and stupefyed by riches, but in another way: for riches swell indeed the courage with pride, but they beat it down at the same time with fear, and make it soft with voluptuousness; they slacken diligence, & blunt the edge of industry, but poverty whets it, & awakens and sharpens the wit, if there be any. Riches in a competent measure are more accommodate to the operations of the speculative understanding; for high and curious contemplations require a mind free of cares, and rested with plenty. A man that wanteth bread hath no thoughts of finding longitudes and the pole of the loadstone, or the exquisiteness of eloquence: Magnae mentis opus, nec de lodîce parandâ Attonitae. Poverty is fit for the operations of the practical understanding, for necessity is the mother of arts. Magister artis ingenîque largitor venture: We own most part of mechanic inventions to men put to their shifts.  
The best thing that is in Poverty is, that meeting with a sound and godly mind, it helps to wean it from the world, and raise it up to God, which is the great work of a Christian, to which riches are a great hindrance. He that hath but little in the world, finds in his poverty a great motive to lay up treasure it heaven, to which he is invited by the example of the Lord Jesus, who made himself poor to make us rich in God. To the poor was the Gospel first preached, and when it was preach to the rich and poor together, the poor were the first that embraced it, because they were less tied unto the world, and at more liberty to go to God.  
It is most observable that all persons admitted by God to salvation are received in the quality of poor, and the rich must make themselves poor before God through humility and meekness, that they may be capable of that high blessing whereby Christ began his sermon, Mat. 5 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God. To that Poverty in spirit the poverty in worldly goods is a great help. A wise and godly man, that knoweth how to get advantage by all things will prudently manage all the helps to heaven which poverty affords, when he shall be brought to that condition. He will become more serene in his devotions, more resolute in his dangers, more undaunted to maintain the truth, lighter to flee from one City to another in time of persecution, and better disposed at all times to welcome death, casting no back-look upon the world where he hath nothing to lose. If he had once riches, and hath lost them, he will acknowledge that they were none of his, since they could not stay with him; for the true goods of a man are inseparable from him, as being within him. These goods are, a right reason, integrity of conscience, the love of God, faith in his promises, and an appetite led by reason and piety. With that patrimony he may say with more reason than Bias, in what condition soever he be, I carry all my goods along with me. The goods of fortune deserve not the name of goods.  
To him that desireth nothing but what is sufficient to Nature, poverty doth no harm; and to him that desireth more, poverty doth good; for it brings him to sobriety. To have little and to be contented with it, is a great wealth.  
Poverty and riches having their commodities and incommodities, the most  temporal estate is the middlemost, which is neither, and holds of both. That state the wise man requested at God's hands, Prov. 30.8. Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me; Lest I be full and deny thee, and say who is the Lord? and lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. But our condition is not in our choice. Virtue and tranquillity of mind may be had in any fortune, because they depend not of fortune.   

CHAP. X. Of low Condition.  
IT is, in the Judgement of many, worse yet then poverty; and it is for its sake that they fear poverty. It is of several degrees and is more or less grievous according to the diversity of persons and designs. To them that aspire to honours, but are kept back, and think they lose all they cannot get, it is unsufferable; and more yet to them that had honours and were justled out of them; for men will get up to honour with a good will, but none descends from it unless he be hurled down; which hath given occasion to the institution of yearly Magistrates. Others are bred in a low condition and aspire not much higher, yet they groan under the yoke which their condition engageth them unto. Thus all are discontented, and none are so high but think themselves too low.  
The low condition indeed is slavish, especially in France and Poland; and he that can handsomely get out of the bottom where the land-flood of the public storms stayeth, and take himself out of the number of the beasts of carriage, shall do prudently to seek his liberty. St. Paul's advice is judicious Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. 1 Cor. 7.21. If it be impossible for a wiseman to get that liberty, let him consider that as the low condition is more onerous, so it is less dangerous; In France especially, where although the armies consist of high and low, yet the main shock of battles falls upon the Gentry, and the best of the Nobility. The hazardous attempts fall to their share. All may follow war, but the Gentry hold it their proper trade. The French Gentleman is borne in a manner with his sword by his side. Who so will observe how in noble houses two thirds of their branches are lopped off by war, shall find that the Nobility and Gentry pay dear for their immunities.  
To bear with the low condition, one should observe well the inconveniences of the high. The higher a man stands, the fairer mark doth he give to envy, secret undermining, and open hostility. Great places are like stilts upon which a man hath but a tottering standing, especially in a crowd, where all justle against him to make him fall. A Crown loads a King's head and covers it not, but let's in on all sides the arrows that are shot against it. There is no need of deep Philosophy to be free from the desire of it, and of all places of great respect and great business. One needs but know them, and love himself. All great dignities are great miseries. It must needs be that there is some fatality for the subsistence of the general, that sets-on men to thrust blindly forward for high dignities; Otherwise men being all voluptuous & lovers of themselves, would not take so much labour as to climb up with hands and feet unto their misfortune. A wise man will love his own rest better than to crowd for dignities; choosing rather to sit upon lower steps, and to owe his tranquillity to his obscurity. He will esteem no honour or great employment worth losing the liberty of meditation, and the holy and heavenly conversation with God: for who would come from heaven to be toiling in the earth? As valleys have less wind and more heat of the Sun than mountains, so the low condition hath less agitation than the high, and the rays of the Snune of righteousness will commonly shine upon it more graciously and powerfully,  
Nobility of extraction being nothing in nature, the same is true also of mean blood; both consist in Opinion, and yet not in opinion of the persons concerned, but of others, which to any wiseman must be of very small consideration. In any condition one may have natural nobility, consisting in a meek and magnanimous disposition, apt to the knowledge of great things, and so well seasoned with virtue. By that description how many ignoble persons will be found among the Noble by extraction, and how many noble among persons of mean descent? God deliver us from Gentlemen of the savage kind that make nobility to consist in barbarousness, idleness, and contempt of divine and humane laws; and from ignobleupstarts, who to approve themselves Gentlemen strive to outdo them that are so, in pride and licentiousness.  
But there is a nobility infinitely above the best natural nobility. (I bring not the Cvil within this comparison, it is nothing but fortune and Opinion) That high transcendent nobility is but to be the child of God by Jesus Christ, and heir of his Kingdom. The titles of that nobility are from all eternity, and will be to all eternity; and by it a man riseth so high as to become partaker of the divine nature, 2 Pet. 1.4. saith St. Peter. Who so hath the patents of that nobility, and makes himself sure of them by a lively faith working by love, is neither puffed up nor beaten down with his temporal condition. He will look with contempt upon the vulgar contentions about the first place, much like the emulation of horses striving who should go the formest of a company. And truly it is a quality of good horses not of good men. A man honoured with spiritual nobility if he have temporal nobility besides, must keep his degree, but esteem it too low to glory in it. And if he have not that worldly advantage, he will be content with the heavenly, knowing that being one of God's children he cannot be further ennobled.  
As we that live upon Earth find it very great, and see the Sun very little although it be a hundred and threescore times greater than the Earth; Likewise to men altogether earthy, the honours of the earth seem very great, and the heavenly nobility but a small thing: But if from the Orb of the Sun the Earth may be seen (as it is very likely) no doubt but it appears a very small thing, as lesser than most of the visible Stars. Worldly honours appear lesser yet, to him that hath the true sense of his heavenly nobility, and looks upon Earth as it were from Heaven. The time draweth nigh that will make Kings and Beggars alike in the dust.   

CHAP. XI. Of Dishonour.  
REal dishonour is within, and consisteth in viciousness and indignity of the person; for by it a man is separate from God the scource of honour, out of whom there is nothing but dishonour and misery. But the dishonour which we are here to consider is out of the person, and consisteth in the Opinion of others. These two sorts of dishonour do not meet always, for many that are vicious and infamous before God are honoured of men, even because they are vicious; and others that are good & honoured with God's love, are blamed and dishonoured of men, even because they are good; So erroneous and fantastical is the judgement of the multitude.  
We have already found that therenowne and praise that men give is but wind; that is enough to judge that the blame and infamy which they give, is of the same substance. It is such an imaginary evil, that it is almost impossible to find out in what subject it subsisteth. It is not in him that is blamed, for what is that to him that is in the grave, or to him that is alive and knows it not, or careth not for it? It is not also in him that blameth; for it proceeds indeed from him but subsisteth not in him: else he that blameth another for a murder should be a murderer himself. If then the blame subsist neither in the blamed, nor in the blamer, where shall we find its subsistence between both? It may be conceived that it subsisteth in the blamed person because it sticks so fast many times to him, and penetrates so deep, that it kills him with sorrow. Yea but to speak properly and truly, it is not the blame that doth the harm, but the imagination of the blamed, prevented with an erroneous Opinion, which makes a man fancy an evil where there is none, and do to himself that harm which none could have done him but himself: And is not that voluntary pain, which is not felt unless a man have a mind to feel it? God give me never greater evils then those that cannot hurt me unless I will be hurt, and have need to beg my consent and my hand to give me the blow.  
A wise man will despise, not only that imaginary evil, but even the remedy. For what need of a plaster where there is no sore? When his friends come to him to comfort him because that some have spoken ill of him, he will desire then to apply the remedy where the disease is, even to the rashness of the judgement of those weak persons, and to the intemperance of their tongue. And will think that their applying a balsam of consolations to his heart, for a sickness in his neighbour's brains, no less strange and extravagant, then if they would warm his bed because his horse hath a cold.  
This is indeed the right reasoning when the thing is considered in its proper and bare nature, but because the world being prepossessed with a wrong opinion of a worthy man may be persuaded to do him harm, or hindered to do him good, or deprived of the good he might do to the public; that worthy man must not altogether neglect to rectifye the misconceits taken against him, which he may with less difficulty achieve by a serene and constant course of integrity then by finding and proving, confuting, and keeping a great bustle to bring contrary witnesses face to face. Innocency and the confidence that attends it must needs stand so high above the babbling of the vulgar, as to be no more moved with it then the Stars with the wind ●●owing in the lower Region.  
The dishonour that hath some ground in the truth must be wiped off, not by excuses, but by amendment. Is one blamed for being vicious? He must be so no more. And that out of hatred of vice, not of dishonour, which being but a shadow of it will vanish at the rays of Virtue.   

CHAP. XII. Of the evils of the body, Unhandsomeness, Weakness, Sickness, and Pain.  
OUr judgement being satisfied that the good of the body, beauty, strength health and pleasure are none of the great goods, we ought also to be persuaded that their contraries are none of the great evils. And if our very bodies must not be accounted ours because we cannot dispose of them at our pleasure, and because by the undermining of age they sink, and slip away continually from themselves; the commodities and incommodities of these frail tenements at will, where our souls are harboured for a few days as ought not to disquiet us matters of any importance.  
To begin at Unhandsomeness; if a woman be unhandsome (for that sex is especially sensible of that disgrace) let her stay but a while; age will bring all the beauties to her row, within few years, and death after; That last day draweth near, which will make fair and foul alike, strong and weak, sick and sound; them that are tormented with dolour, and them that torment themselves with voluptuousness and curiosity. Whosoever is much grieved with those incommodities never apprehended aright the frailty of the opposite commodities. We must not be vexed for the want of things, which by their nature decay and perish very hour.  
There are few incommodities but have a mixture of commodities, which a wise lover of his own tranquillity will pick and convert to his advantage. The unhandsome woman shall not be admired, but in recompense she shall not be tempted nor importuned as a prey by lust and insolence. She hath with her a perpetual exhorter to humility, piety, and all virtue, and to recompense the want of beauty with goodness. Seldom is unhandsomeness reproached to women, but to them that aggravate with malice & envy their disgraces of nature. Beauty cannot be acquired, but goodness may. Yet among them that want beauty, some are so wise and so good that they become handsome. They are commonly more happy in marriage then great beauties; for they give less jealousy to their husbands, and study more to content them.  
Persons of weak constitution are less obnoxious to acute sicknesses, which many times will kill strong bodies in three or four days. They are less tainted with that stupid pride, which commonly attends great strength of body. Finding themselves inferior to others in exercises of strength, they apply themselves to exercises of wit, to which commonly they are more apt. As weasels have more mettle and nimbleness than Oxen; there is often more industry and quickness of wit in little weak men, then in men of of large and brawny limbs; for the predominancy of blood and phlegm which makes the body large, is the duller temper for wit; whereas choler and melancholy which by their contractive quality limit the stretching of growth to a lesser extent, serve also, the one to sharpen the wit, the other to give solidity to the judgement. Weakness reads to a man a continual Lecture of prudence and compliance; for being not able to carry on his designs with a high hand, dexterity only will serve his turn.  
Also that want of strength teacheth him to make God his strength, sticking fast to him by faith and a good conscience. That way the weakest become too strong for all the world. When I am weak than I a● strong saith St. Paul. 2 Cor. 12.10.  
Of this, God's children have a blessed experience in sickness, whereby God makes their body weak to make their faith strong, and their souls, by the dolours and lingering decay of their bodies, susceptible of many salutary lessons, for which health and ease have no ears.  
Sickness and pain are evil in their nature, but they are good by accident, when God is pleased to turn evils into remedies, to bring a man to repentance and make him look up to the hand that striketh. They are punishments to sin and ways to death, but to the faithful soul they become instruments of grace and conveyances to glory. Many of them that believed in the Lord Jesus while he conversed among men were brought to it by bodily sicknesses, And he when he healed a sick person, often would say, Thy sins are forgiven thee.  
To give an impartial judgement of their quality and measure, one must rather believe what he feels then the cries and compassion of them that love him, and have interest in his preservation. They say, that a man is very sick when he feels not his sickness. Yet he hath so much good time, till he feel it, If the pain be sharp, it is short; If it be little it is tolerable; If the evil be curable, be patiented, good Cure will heal it, If the evil be incurable, be patiented death will heal it. No evil is superlative when one is certain to come out of it; By life or by death there must be an end of thy sickness.  
All the remedies that Pagan Philosophy giveth in extremities, come to this, that patience is a remedy to evils that have none. But here Christian Philosophy openeth the treasure of divine comforts, which to make the faithful man patiented in tribulation, make him joyful in hope, & show him the crown ready for him at the end of the combat. In the combat he is strengthened by faith; and the comforter whom Christ promised to his disciples, powerfully assisteth him in his last agony; Or if his trial be prolonged, he tells him, as Paul buffeted by a messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.9. my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  
By that grace, sickness beats down pride, quencheth lust, weaneth the heart from the love of the world, makes the soul hungry and thirsty after righteousness. Theodoricus Archbishop of Collen with great wisdom exhorted the Emperor Sigismond, to have the will in health to live holily, as he said when he was tormented with the gravel and gout. Sicknesses give to a godly man a sense of his frailty: when we feel these hoves of mud, our bodies, drooping towards the ground their original, then do we sigh for that building of God, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 Cor. 5.1, Therefore labour and heavy load make us seek to him that saith, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaden, and I will give you rest. Matth. 11.28. Thus evil doth good to them that are good, and helps evil men to turn good. In sickness and dolours Gods children find the peace of the soul and contentment of mind.   

CHAP. XIII. Of Exile.  
TO speak of exile after dolour, is an abrupt passage from sensible evils to imaginary. The world is the natural and general country of all men: To be exiled is but to be sent from one Province of our Country to another. That other Province, where one is exiled is the Country of them that are borne there, and of them also that live there exiled, if there they get accommodation. That particular Province which a nation calls their Country, is a place of exile to them that are borne in it, if they do not know it; as to Oedipus, exiled from the place where he was bred, to the place where he was borne. Children brought from nurse to the mother's house will cry, taking it for a place of exile. It is a childish weakness in a man to think himself lost when he is in a place where he never was before. Every where we have the same nature, the same heaven, men of the same kind. Reasonable creatures should be ashamed to be surmounted by unreasonable, in that easiness to shift Countries'. Swallows hatch about our houses, are banished from our Climate by the approach of winter, and they make no difficulty to go seek another beyond all the lands and Seas of Europe: but men will cry when they are driven from their chimney corner, having the choice of all places of the world which is so large. Yet that advantage we have over birds and beasts, that all Countries are not alike to them, but all Countries are alike unto virtue, and to us if we have it; for that treasure no enemy can hinder us to carry along with us.  
We may indeed be exiled into an ill Country, but that Country is never the worse for not being our Country. All lands are in equal distance from heaven, the Country of gods children. God is as soon found in the land of our exile, as in that of our birth and sooner too; for God is near those that are destitute, and preserveth the stranger, Psal. 146.9. Are you banished by a Tyrant? Think how many persons are exiled from their country and dearest relations by their covetousness, which is the worst tyranny, ranging the unknown seas of a new world for many years; some to fetch cucineel and pearls from burning climates, others to get sables and hermines from the snows under the Pole. Some are banished by others, some bythem-selves. Nothing is strange to a man when his will goeth along with it; we need but to incline our will where necessity calls us. Impatience in exile is want of a right apprehension of the condition of gods children in the world. Heaven is their country. Life is their Pilgrimage. They are strangers even in the place of their birth, yea in their very bodies: Whilst we are at home in the body, we are strangers from the Lord, saith Paul. 2 Cor. 5.6. Being then strangers in all places of the world, one place must not seem to us more strange than another. We are never out of our way, as long as we are going to God.   

CHAP. XIV. Of Prison  
PRison is the grave of the living. There men are buried before their death: Liberty is the privilege of nature, without which life is a continual death. And it were better to have no life than not to enjoy it. All beasts enjoy liberty, some few excepted that have lost it by being too much acquainted with us.  
But as there is need of iron cages to keep lions, there is need in the world of prisons and captivity to keep in men that will not be ruled by reason & equity. And though many be imprisoned wrongfully, if they have the grace to look up to God, the disposer of their condition, they will acknowledge, that God is wise to use them so, and that licentious humour hath need of restraint.  
Or if they need it not they have less need to afflict themselves: A well composed spirit is free in the closest Prison; bonds and fetters cannot restrain his liberty. The worst fetters are covetousness, ambition, lust, appetite of revenge, wherewith many that seem free are kept in bondage. Who so can shake them off is at liberty, though he were in a dungeon. Such was St. Paul's freedom in a chain. 2 Tim. 2.9. I suffer trouble (said he) as an evil doer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. The grace of God also cannot be bound, and many times God makes use of the bonds of the body to set the soul free. A man is very hard tied to the world, if he cannot be untied from it by a long imprisonment.  
Prison will be less tedious to him that remembreth that it is his natural condition. That he was nine month's Prisoner in his Mother's womb. That after his death he shall be made close Prisoner under ground; And that as long as he liveth he is loaden like a snail with his own Prison, which he carrieth about slowly, and with great incommodity; a clog put by our wise Master to the swiftness and quick turns of our spirit which is always in action. Think how fast our thoughts go, which in a moment travel from one end of the world to the other, and how high our designs will rise, whose wings we are constrained to clip and abruptly to pull down our soaring mind, to look to the necessities of our craving body, and then acknowledge that our body is a very Prison, confining the spirit, which is the Man. The imprisonment of that body is no great addition to its captivity. It is but putting one box within another.  
And if we look about us, how much captivity do me meet with in society! Is not ceremony a slavery which is multiplied and diversified at every meeting? Are not honours golden fetters, and businesses Iron fetters? Do not public factions enslave particular interesses, and spread nets for the conscience? Many times that captivity is avoided by that of the Counter and the Fleet. To many their prison hath been a Sanctuary, and a strong hold against the dangers of a turbulent and destructive time.  
No dungeon is so close as to keep the faithful soul from rising to God. They that are forbidden the sight of their friends, may converse with God at any time, which is a great liberty: And the Lord Jesus who recommends that work of mercy to visit the prisoners, himself doth carefully practise it, comforting by his Spirit his disciples to whom the assistance of men is denied, and showing them heaven open when they are locked and bolted. In effect it is the body, not man, that is imprisoned. The Jailer may keep out a prisoners friends from him, but he cannot shut out comfort and tranquillity from his soul.   

CHAP. XV. Husband, Wife, Children, Kindred, Friends: Their price, their Loss.  
IT may seem that these should have been put among the goods of fortune. To which I might answer somewhat Stoically, that it is not altogether certain whether they must be put among the goods or among the evils, for they may be either, as it falls out. But I rank them with neither, but among exterior things, of which we must labour to get the right Opinion.  
To that end we must always consider them two ways, as they are good or bad, and as they are near to us in blood, or bonds of duty. Neither must the second relation hinder the first, so forestall the mind with the relations of Husband or Wife, Son or Brother, that one be incapable to make a right Judgement of their disposition and capacity, and set a just price on them.  
The only relation of Parents must spread a veil of reverence between our eyes and their imperfections, that we may see nothing but good in them. There it is wisdom to be somewhat deceived: Though it be not my theme to speak of the duties to be rendered to our several relations, yet because I seek the contentment of mind, I cannot choose but say that of all civil and natural duties none is so contenting to him that payeth it, as the duty paid to Parents. Herein Epamimondas Judged his victories most fortunate unto him that he had obtained them in his Father's life time who did much rejoice at them.  
To other relations we must also pay their proper duty. Of which we must remember this general rule; That it is impossible to get content by them unless we do our duty towards them. For that content must not be expected from them but from ourselves. The content that one takes with a dear Wife, a good Brother, and a well chosen Friend, is more that which he giveth then that which he receiveth. It lieth in the testimony of his conscience that he hath rendered to them the true offices of love.  
Without prejudice to those duties, we may and ought impartially to consider their inclinations and abilities, and what may be expected of them. In those relations which come by choice, as of a Husband Wife and friend, the judgement must precede the affection, to find what is fit for us before we fix upon it: But in relations of Kindred made by nature without us, the affection must go before and the judgement must follow; that we may know them so well, that though we love them, we trust them proportionably to their honesty and capacity, and no more.  
In this point the vulgar sort making many gross mistaks. For it is an ordinary but an evil expression, I would trust him as mine own Brother. Yet most knaves have Brothers, who should do very unwisely to trust them. The style of Merchants selling their ware is more ingemous, when they promise to a Chapman to use him as if he were their Brother, for they would not scruple to cousin their Brother. And truly hence the word of cozening had its Origine, because it is usual to make use of the bond of Kindred to be trusted enough to deceive enough.  
For counsel and conversation we much choose the wisest and worthiest rather than the nearest in blood: But when there is occasion to give, or need to seek help; we must run to the nearest in blood rather than to the worthiest, if they be but honest. So much we must defer to the choice of Nature, that if there be any virtue in them, though but small, we be nearer to them in affection then blood. Solomon saith that a Brother is borne for adversity, Prov. 17.17. because other friendships by differences, intervening of parties, interesses, and Opinions, are subject to cool and untie, but among Brethren those differences are overcome by the strength of nature; and in adversity either good nature or fear of blame makes Brothers give real help to Brothers.  
Wife and Children are the strongest trials of a magnanimous spirit, for they make a man's heart tender, and in the pinches of adversity make him descend to ungenerous shifts. He that hath none shall have less delight & less sorrow.  
Yet must we acknowledge that a marriage well sorted between two persons of merit is of all worldly felicities the greatest.  
Of children expect no good but the satisfaction to have done them good, and to see them do well for them-selves. For in this relation the nature of beneficence is to descend, seldom to remount.  
Nothing is more precious among humane things, than a virtuous loving friend, kin or no kin. And if he be one story above us in nobility and virtue, he is better then lower. Equality indeed is requisite in friendship, but friend ship itself worketh that equality where it is not; And there is need of it, for it is impossible to find two friends in the world altogether equal in all respects.  
The price of friendship is according to the price of the person, whom therefore we must study to know well, that we may love no person above or under his right value. A reasonable benevolence of a man of great merit is more obliging then the ardent affection of an Idiot; From the former you may receive instruction honour and content; From the second importunity, and the disgrace to be paired with a man of no worth: Such a friendship will end in a breach, and so in repentance.  
Whether friendships be knit by nature or by choice, that we may not expect of them a content beyond their nature, we must remember that our friends are men, whose love may, and whose life must fail. The use of them we may have, not the possession. The best and most powerful friends are weak reeds, which we must not lean upon with all our weight, lest they break in our hand, and we take a sore fall. Thus saith the Lord, Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm Jer. 17.5. As this is a sentence given by God against them that put their confidence in man, it is also a natural consequence of the nature of the fault: For putting our confidence in man is going out of ourselves: It is going out of God: It is making men Gods, for unto God only is that homage due of an absolute and total confidence. No wonder that God thereby is moved to jealousy.  
To that evil, Pagan Philosophers give a remedy little better than the disease, which is, To put confidence in ourselves. This being a most erroneous Doctrine is nevertheless half the way to the truth: for they had very well observed, that a wise wan must not depend from another but retire within himself, where all the good and evil of a man lieth. But while they enjoin a man to retire within himself they leave out the main precept proper to a higher School than theirs, that a man should seek God within himself; and to find God in his breast, that he should invite and then entertain him there, by a pure service, a sincere love, & an entire confidence.  
Many, by much good Kindred, & many Friends and relations, become less virtuous and industrious; getting the ill habit of the Italian Signora's who walking in the streets bear more upon the arms of their supporters on both sides, then upon their own legs. They have need to be sent from home to learn to stand alone without a Nurse to hold them. None can be owner of any measure of steadfastness and content that makes all his support and satisfaction to depend of his neighbours. That man hath more content in the world, who having confined his desire to few things, troubleth also but few persons; and is desirous of Friends to do them, not to receive of them good offices, regarding their virtue more than their support.  
When we have got good Friends, we must be prepared to lose them. Death separateth Friends, and disolveth Marriages. When that happens, we must remember without trouble or amazement that those persons so dear to us were mortal, but indeed that should have been remembered before. A Philosopher visiting his neighbour who was weeping bitterly for the death of his Wife, left him presently, saying aloud with great contempt, O great fool! did he not know before, that he had married a woman not a goddess? After we have condemned that cruel incivility, yet must we acknowledge that it is a folly to lament for that which we knew before to be unavoidable. Yet after all reasons, when love hath been very dear, the separation cannot but be very sad. Tears may be permitted, not commanded to fall. And after the duty paid of a mournful Adieu to the beloved person, we must remember upon what terms and condition we hold of God that which we love best, even to leave it at any time when God redemands it. And if besides we have good ground to hope, that the person departed is received into peace and glory, we must praise God for it; which we can hardly do, as long as our obstinate mourning repines against his will. Lamenting for those that are well is ignorance, or envy, or self love. If we would not rejoice when they were in affliction, why should we afflict ourselves when they are in joy?  
It is some recompense for the death of our dear Friends, that our enemies are mortal as well as they. A wise man will consider his enemies as rods in God's hand, and mind the hand rather than the rod. To destroy our enemies when they are in our power is a childish folly, for so will Children burn their Mother's rod, as though there were no more rods in the world. Our enemies oftentimes do us more good than our friends, for the support of our friends makes us careless, but the opposition of our enemies makes us wary and industrious. They make us strong and safe, for they make us fly to God.  
In nothing wisdom is more seen then in judging of an adversary. A great serenity is requisite, that fear make us not think him more dangerous than he is, and that pride make us not despise him, blinding our eyes not to see the good and evil that is in him, and what harm he may do us. It is a common and useful maxim for the conduct and tranquillity of man's life, that there are few great friends, and no little enemies.  
When enemies are reconcileable, all things past must be taken to the best by charitable interpretation. When there is no possibility of reconciliation, all things to come must be taken to the worst; both to strengthen us with resolution within, and to encounter the evil without by prudence and vigorous ways. In the reconcilement we must pardon freely, receive ill excuses, and if there be an offence which cannot be excused, never mention it. The remedy of injuries is oblivion.  
If an enemy can neither be mitigated by charity, nor overcome by strength, nor avoided by prudence, there remaineth still unto the wise Christian an entrenchment, out of which he cannot be forced, which is a good conscience, and the peace of God in it. These he must cherish and keep fast, not only as his last entrenchment, but his only possession, and the strong hold only worth keeping: It is impregnable as long as faith and love are the Garrison.   

CHAP. XVI Of Death.  
IT is the subject of which Seneca speaks most, and of which there was least for him to speak; for being doubtful whether Death destroyed the soul or released it, Mors nos aut consumit aut emittit; and being more inclined to the first Opinion, it was better for him neither to speak nor to think of it. But what! others of his rank that had reasoned before him about the immortality of the soul had quitted themselves so meanly of that task, that out of their labours in that field, he could not reap any satisfaction of his doubt. This is the grand privilege of the Christian that he seethe life through Death, and that the last limit of Nature is the date of his franchising, and the gate of his felicity and glory. Death that moweth down all the hopes of this world perfecteth Christian hope.  
Death is the separation of body and soul: It is the return of these two parts of man so different to their several principles. Eccles. 12.4. Then the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God that gave it: Who disposeth of it either in mercy or justice. Death is the last Act of the Comedy of this world. To every one Death is the end of the world in his own respect. In one sense it is against nature, because it destroys the particular being: In another it is according to nature, for it is no less natural to die then to live. Yea Death is a consequence of life, we must die because we live; and we die, not because we are sick and wounded, but because we are animals borne under that Law.  
Wherefore considering Death in the natural way, as Charron doth; I approve what he saith that we must expect Death in a steady posture, for it is the term of nature which continually draws nearer and nearer. But I cannot approve that which he adds, that we must fight against Death. Why should we fight against it seeing we cannot ward its blows? It is more unreasonable than if he had said that we must fight against the rain & the wind, for we may get a shelter from these, none from that: Wherefore as when it raines we must let it rain, so when Death is coming (and it comes always) we need but let it come, not thinking it more strange to live then to die. In stead of fight against Death, we must acquaint ourselves with it. Indeed they that fear Death, must fight against that fear.  
Of them that fear Death there are two sorts. Some fear it for its own sake: Some for that which comes after. The former which are more in number, that love the present world, and cannot fix their thoughts upon that which is to come, imagine, that when they die they lose all. A great folly! They cannot lose that which is none of theirs. They have the use of the world only till their Lease be out. Death is the great proof of that fundamental Maxim, which I so often urge, and no oftener than I need; That the things that are out of the disposition of our will are none of ours; and such are riches, honours, our body, and life itself. To them that are so fare mistaken as to think themselves owners of these things, death is an undoing; not to them that acknowledge themselves tenants at will, and look continually to be called out of their tenement. The goods of the world are held by turns: When you have enjoyed them a while you must give place to others. Make your successor's case your own. How should ye like it, if a certain number of men should be privileged to monopolise to themselves the goods of all the world for ever, to the perpetual exclusion of all others?  
This reasoning belongs to few persons, for it presupposeth plenty and prosperity. But how few have plenty? and of those few again, how few have prosperity with it? One would think that distressed persons have no need of comfort against death. Yet they that have the greatest sorrows in the world, many times are the most unwilling to leave it. But certainly, if life be evil, it is good to go out of it. All men being born under the necessity of suffering, and misery being universal in all conditions; Death which ends all misery of life, is the greatest benefit of Nature. Blessed be God, that there is no temporal misery so great but hath an end.  
Take me a man that hath nothing but debts, that liveth merely by his shifts and tricks, that hath the stone in the bladder and ten suits in Law, that flieth from the Sergeants to his house, and then flieth out of his house relanced by the scolding of his perverse wife. If in that flight he be suddenly killed in the street by the fall of a tile or the overturning of a Cart, that happy misfortune delivereth him from all other misfortunes. The Sergeants overtake him and let him are All attachments and Subpoenas against him are vacated. He is no more troubled where to get his dinner. His debts break not his perpetual sleep. He is thoroughly healed of the stone; and his wife, now desperaetly crying because she seeth him insensible for ever and unmoved at her noise. Certainly Death is a shelter against all injuries. Death puts an end to endless evils. It is the rest after a continual toil. It is the cure of the sick, and the liberty of the slave. So Job describeth that quiet state. Job. 3.7. There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together, they hear not the voice of the oppressor: The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his Master. It is a great folly to fear that which cannot be avoided, but it is a greater to fear that which is to be desired. When we have considered the evils of life, those that we do and those that we suffer, after that to fear Death what is it else but to be afraid of our rest and deliverance? And what greater harm can one wish to him that will not die, but that he may live always, and be guilty and miserable for ever.  
If it be for the pain that we fear Death, for that reason we ought rather to fear life, for the pains of life are fare more sensible than the pains of Death; if in Death there is any pain; of which I see no great likelihood. For why should we imagine the revulsion of the soul from the body to be very painful, it being known that the vital parts, as the heart and the liver, have little or no sense: No more sense hath the substance of the brains though the source of the senses; for the headache is in the tuniques. When the brains is benumbed and weakened, the sense of pain is weaker over all the body. And generally when strength decreaseth, pain decreaseth together. Hence it is that most of them that are sick to Death, when they draw near their end, feel themselves very much amended. That state is called by the Italians il meglioramento della morte.  
The decay of senses in that extremity is a fence against the troublesome diligence, talk, & cries, more troublesome than Death, wherewith dying persons are commonly persecuted. But as a man upon the point of death is too weak to defend himself against all that persecution, he is too weak also to feel it much.  
Then, all suffocation is without pain, & that is the most ordinary end of life. In the most violent death, pain is tolerable because it is short, and because it is the last. It is a storm that wracks us, but casts us upon the haven.  
To that haven we must look continually, and there cast anchor betimes by a holy hope, conceiving Death not so much a parting as an arrival; for unto well disposed souls it is the haven of Salvation.  
The fear of that which comes after death, makes some men's lives bitter, and through fear of dying after Death they have already eternal death in their Conscience. They have eyes to see Hell open gaping for them, but they have none to see the way to avoid it. In others, that fear is more moderate, and is an ill cause working a good effect, inducing or rather driving them to seek, and then to embrace the grace and peace that God offers unto them in Jesus Christ, and together to do good works which are the way to the Kingdom of heaven. A man cannot afeare God too much, but he may be too deeply afraid of his Justice; And the fear of that death after death must be swallowed up by the faith in Jesus Christ who by his death hath delivered them who through fear of death were all their life subject unto bondage. Heb. 2.15. He hath made death the gate of life and glory, to all that trust in him and do good. Godly men will not fear death; for the sting of it is plucked off by Christ. It is the terror of evil consciences, but the joy of the good. It is this pleasant meditation that sweeteneth their adversities and makes them joy, Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a fare more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 2 Cor. 4.17. The troubles of life are soon ended by death; and after death comes a life without trouble, and a glory without end. Men may deprive us of life, but they cannot deprive us of death; which is our deliverance.  
The same meditation will make us relish prosperity when God sends it; for none can enjoy the goods of this life with delight but he that is prepared before to leave them. Then are they delightful when they are possessed without care, and without, that which makes prosperity bitter, the fear to lose them. Whether I have little or much let me always say, Praised be God for his temporal gifts. Here is more than I need to live and die well. But these are not the goods that he promised me, and to which he calls me by by his Gospel.  
O when shall that day come, when I shall be satisfied with the goodness of his house even of his holy Temple. Psal. 65.4. My desire is to departed and to be with Christ. Phil. 1.23.  
The imprisonment of our immortal Soul of heavenly nature, in a body cosingerman to the beast, where it lieth heavy, drowsy and mired in the flesh, aught to make us think that a happy day, when we shall be awake, quickened, and set at liberty. Children in the womb sleep continually: Men (if you take their whole age together) sleep well nigh half their time. But after death, the spirit which is the true man, hath shaken off all his sleepiness: The faithful soul is no more in darkness. She receives light no more at two little loopholes. She is all eye in the presence of God, who is all Light. She is free, holy, joyful, all virtue, and all love, and all glory; for seeing God, and being seen by him, she is changed into the same image; And to that blessed state death is the way. Who so knoweth so much of the nature of death, & yet fears it as a terrible evil, showeth that he is very fare within another death, which is the death of sin, and that he hath more flesh than spirit, that is, more of the beast then man.   

CHAP. XVII. Of the Interior of Man.  
FRom that which is altogether without us and out of our power, and may be taken from us by others or by death; Let us turn our eyes within us, upon that which is more ours, our soul and her endowments, natural and acquisite, either by study or infusion. Not to examine very exactly their nature, but enough to judge of their price, and what satisfaction may be expected of them.  
Because I have restrained solid content to those things that are within us, and which cannot be taken from us, I acknowledge myself very much perplexed about some things within us, and doubtful whether they be ours or no? seeing that many things within us may be taken from us without our consent, and therefore are not ours absolutely. Is there any thing that seems more ours then the illumination and dexterity of our wit, and our learning, and prudence got by study and experience? for those were the goods which that Philosopher owned with so much ostentation, who carrying nothing but himself out of a Town, taken by storm and pillaged, answered the victor that gave him leave to carry our all his goods, I carry out all my goods along with me. But how could he make good that possession, there being no Wit so clear, no Philosophy so sublime, but a blow upon the head, or a hot fever may overturn it? Epictetus accounteth nothing ours but our opinions, our desires, and our actions, because these alone are in our power. But in an understanding maimed by Frenzy, that power is lost. It is true, it is not the soul but the Organ that is vitiated: But howsoever you cannot dispose of your soul when that organ is out of tune.  
Here to say that death will set the soul at liberty and then the spirit shall enjoy himself, and all his ornaments, is to bring a higher question to resolve a lesser. For there is no doubt but that the spirit loosed from the matter will recover that liberty of his faculties which was obstructed by material causes; but it is a point of singular difficulty to judge, whether he shall retain all the skill he had got in this life.  
As for mechanical Arts, altogether tied to the matter, it is not likely that the spirit will retain that low skill, when he liveth separat from the matter. But as for higher intellectual sciences, it seems very unreasonable that a Spirit polished & sublimated by long study, and stored with a great treasure of knowledge, should lose all in an instant by the death of the body, and that the soul of a great Naturalist, as my Lord of St. Alban, be left as bare of learning and acquisite capacity as the soul of a skavenger. And when the soul not only is made learned but good also by learning, were it not lamentable that death should have the power to make it worse? Neither would holy writ press this command upon us with so much earnestness, Get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not, if wisdom were an acquisition that the soul must lose with the body.  
The difficulty lieth, in picking among the sciences those that will be sure to stick unto the separate soul; It is much to be feared that those sciences which cost most labour will be sooner lost, and will go out together with the lamp of life. For since the dead have no share in all that is done under the sun, it is like that great students who have fraught their memory with histories, both ancient & modern, shall lose, when they die, the remembrance of so many things that are done under the Sun: By the same reason Lawyers Linguists & Professors of Sciences and arts depending upon humane commerce, should leave all that learning behind them. But I doubt whether the contemplators of God's works, as the Naturalists, shall lose their learning when they die seeing that it is the duty, & the perfectioning of the rational creature to know the wisdom and the power of the Creator, in his wonderful works. And I am inclined to believe that those things that are done under the Sun in which the dead have no share, are the actions & businesses of men, not the works of God; but that Naturalists shall learn the science of God's works in a higher and transcendent way. Also that Astrologers shall need other principles to know heaven; to which their forbidden curiosity to foretell humane events out of the Stars, will rather be a bar then a furtherance Nec quicquam tibi prodest aerias tentâsse domos morituro.  
Among all the spiritual ornaments there is one which we may be confident to keep for ever when we have it once really, & therefore it is properly our own. That rich and permanent Ornament is heavenly wisdom, of which Solomon saith Prov. 3.16. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour: Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that retains her. That wisdom consisteth in knowing, loving, and obeying God and trusting upon him. It is good studying that wisdom, that giveth eternal felicity and glory.  
We find but two things in the interior of man, which we may be sure not to lose by death: The one is the substance and intellectual faculties of our soul of immortal nature, which cannot be so offuscated with the mists of the flesh but she is cleared of them, when she is freed of the body; The other is that supernatural wisdom, when it pleaseth God to endow our mind with it, even his knowledge, his love, conformity of our will unto his will, and faith in his promises. Of other ornaments of the soul we cannot certainly say, what we shall keep and what we shall lose. It will be therefore wifely and thriftily done to labour for that which we may be sure to keep when we have got it; and of which, death, that takes away all other possessions, shall deliver us a full possession. It is a great discouragement to them that stretch their brains upon Algebra and Logarithmes and arguments in Frisesmo, as it were upon tenterhooks, to think that all that learning so hard to get, will be lost in a moment. Who would take the pains to load himself with it, seeing that it gives nothing but vexation in this life, and leaves in the soul neither benefit nor trace after death; unless it be the guilt sticking to the soul to have misspent the strength of wit upon negotious vanities, and neglected good studies.  
Yet am I not so austere and peremptory as to despise all the spiritual endowments which we are not sure to keep after death. For many of them are such, that as we are not certain to keep them after death, so we are not certain to lose them by death. Many of those perishable ornaments are nevertheless good gifts of God. But our mind must be so disposed that in these several ornaments of the soul we seek a contentment proportionate to the assurance that we have of their abiding with us. We are most certain that the knowledge and love of God are permanent possessions, and impart to their possessor their permanency; there then let us apply our study and place our permanent content. We are not certain whether the other spiritual ornaments will continue with us after this life. Then let us not bestow our principal study about those things which we are not sure to keep; nor place our chief content in them. Let the Soul lose none of her advantages, let her glory in her eternal goods and there fix herself: Let her rejoice also in those goods which she hath for a time, according to their just value, which must be measured by their use.  
Before we consider the several ornaments of the soul more particularly, we must consider her substance and faculties. The Soul is immaterial and Spiritual bearing in her substance the image of her creator, and more yet in her faculties, and natural endowments, which before her fall were in an eminent degree of perfection: for to be made after the likeness of God includeth all perfection, in so much that this high expression, to be adequate unto man, hath need to be contracted to the proportion of a created nature.  
Of that primitive perfection the traces are evident still, in that reasoning quickness, and universal capacity, that goeth through all things and compasseth all things, that remembreth things past, that provideth for things to come, that inventeth, judgeth, ordereth, and brings forth ingenious and admirable works. The principal is that the soul is capable to know God, love him, & commune with him: A privilege special to Angels & Souls of men above all creatures; as likewise they are the only creatures capable of permanency, which is a participation with God's eternity, such as finite natures may admit.  
Humility would not give us leave to conceive high enough of the price of our soul, but that the only Son of God, God himself blessed for evermore, hath showed the high account that he made of her; So high that he thought it worth his taking the like nature in the form of a servant, and suffering death with the extremity of pain and ignominy, that he might recover and save her when she had lost herself.  
The soul being of such an excellent nature, and after her decays by sin restored to her primitive excellency by grace, is a rich possession to herself, when God gives us the wisdom to obey that evangelical and truly Philosophical precept of Christ, Luk. 21.19. In your patience possess your souls; not giving leave to the impatience of cupidity and fear to steal that possession from us. But the soul never hath the right possession of herself, till she have the possession of God. To possess God and to possess our soul is all one, for the spirit cannot be free, nor happy, nor his own, but by his union with his original Being, whereby God and the soul have a mutual possession one of another; A blessed union begun in earth by grace, and perfected in heaven by glory. The contrary state which is to be separated from God is the perdition of a man, and the extremity of bondage, want, and misery.  
Here to undertake an exact anatomy of the soul would be besides my theme, and more yet beyond the possibility of right performance. For as the eye cannot see itself, the spirit of man cannot look into his own composure; and in all the Philosophical discourses upon that subject, I find nothing but conjectural. It is more profitable and easy to learn the right government then the natural structure of the soul. It is part of the knowledge of the soul, to know that she cannot be known; and that her incomprehensibleness is a lineament of her Creators' image.  
The spirit of man is more quick and stirring then clearsighted, and many times is like a Falcon that flieth up with his hood on. He hath a good wing, but he is hood winked. How many wits take a high flight and know not where they be? And where shall you find one that understands thoroughly the matter that he speaks of? The Authors that writ of all animals and plants, understand not the nature of a caterpillar or a lettuce, how then shall they understand the nature of intellectual substances? Certainly all our Philosophy of the nature of things is but seeking and guessing. Job 8.9. We are but of yesterday and know nothing, because our days upon earth are as a shadow, saith Bildad. Our life is a shadow because it is transitory, but more because it is dark. The Earth where we live is enwrapped in clouds, and our soul in ignorance as long as we live upon earth; and yet we are as resolute and affirmative in our Opinions as if we had pitched our Tabernacle in the Sun: We could not speak with more authority if we were possessed, as God is, with the original Ideas and the very being of things. A wise and moderate man will not be carried away by that presumption, neither of others nor his own, but with humility will acknowledge the blind and rash nature of the spirit of man, that knoweth nothing and determines of all things, that undertakes all and brings nothing to an end. Pure truth and full wisdom lieth in the bosom of the Father of lights: Our souls are little, unclean, narrowmouthed vessels, uncapable to receive it but by small drops, & that little we receive we taint by our uncleanness.  
In our soul we conceive two intellectual faculties, the understanding and the will; In the understanding three, imagination, memory, and judgement. Imagination is that which makes all the noise, entereth every where, inventeth, reasoneth, and is always in action. To it we own all the ingenious productions of eloquence and subtlety. It's the inventor of arts and sciences, the learner and polisher of inventions. It is of great service, and gives great content, being well managed, and employed in good things. The office of imagination being to transform itself into the things that it takes for objects: it is transformed into God when it applies itself unto God, and is transformed into the Father of all evil, when it applieth itself unto evil.  
Memory is the Exchequer of the soul, keeping that which the imagination and judgement commit to her trust. In the primitive ages when the world stood in need of inventions, a quick & fertile imagination made able men. But in these last ages, a well furnished memory makes a rich and a full mind; so she be not destitute of the two other faculties. In vain doth the imagination invent and collect industriously, and the judgement prudently determine, if the memory be not a faithful keeper of the inventions of the one, and the determinations of the other, and together a ready prompter at need of that she hath in keeping. It is memory that keeps this good treasure of which the Lord Jesus speaks, Matth. 12.35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. But she keeps evil as well as good, and often more firmly then good. An evil man out of the evil treasure, of his heart brings forth evil things. Of her nature she is indifferent to good and evil, as a paper to write what one will upon and a chest that will keep, any thing. According to the things that are put into that chest, it is either a cabinet that keeps jewels, or a sink that receives ordure. If we will have the right use & content of our memory, we must furnish her with good and holy things, that she may always prompt matter to our mind, to commune with God, & to direct and comfort ourselves. For when she is fraught with evil and vain matter, she will thrust evil and vain things upon us, when the occasion and our own mind calls for things good and serious, as an idle servant that brings his Master a  of cards when he calls for a Book of devotion. Many times we hearty desire that we could forget certain things, which our memory importunately sets before us on all occasions.  
Judgement is the noblest part of the soul, the Chief Justice determining what the imagination discusseth, and the memory registereth. Imagination makes witty men, memory learned men, but the Judgement makes wise men. The wise man is he that judgeth aright, not he that discourseth finely, nor he that learneth well by heart.  
For the strength of the several faculties the natural temper of the brains doth much, but study perfecteth them, the judgement especially; for some have made themselves a judgement by use and experience, who had none in a manner by nature.  
Of these three faculties, the Imagination, which is the seat of wit and invention, hath a nearer kindred with judgement, than memory with either; for wit will ripen into judgement, & in distracted brains both are embezzled together, while memory remains entire. It is ordinary to see dull fools have a great memory. And it is credible that the largeness of the memory (especially when it is stretched with overmuch learning) lesseneth the two other faculties; as in three rooms of a floor, if the one be made very wide the two others must of necessity be little.  
The Judgement calls all things before his tribunal, and examines them upon two points, whether they be true or false, good or evil. There he stays, when the subject requires contemplation only; but when it requires action, than the determination of the judgement makes the will to move towards that which the judgement hath pronounced to be true and good; for to move towards that which we judge to be false or evil, we cannot. For although our will follow many times false and evil objects, the judgement always considers them to be true and good, in some respect; Neither would our will so much as bend towards any object, unless our judgement did before warrant it to us, true and good. Truth and falsehood have their springs without us: But moral good and evil, as fare as they concern our innocency and guiltiness, have their springs within us; and both spring from our judgement, to which we must attribute what is ascribed to the heart by Solomon (in whose tongue one word signifies both.) Prov. 4.23. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.  
Herein then lieth wisdom, the worker and keeper of contentment of mind, to give a sound judgement of objects, and thereupon to give good counsel to the will for embracing that which is good, and resisting all oppositions to it by the arms of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, so that the soul, as a well ballasted and a well guided ship, cuts her way through the waves, and makes use of all winds to steer her course to the haven of salvation and God's glory, possessing calm within, among the storms abroad. But for that wise and blessed temper, there is need of a higher wisdom than the strength of Nature and the precepts of Philosophy can afford to the judgement.  
By the Judgement, men are wise; but by the Will, they are good. Wisdom and goodness always go together; when they go asunder, they are not worthy of their name. For that man is not wise that instructeth not himself to be good; and that man is not good that doth good actions, not out of wisdom and knowledge, but out of superstition or custom.  
The chief virtue of the understanding is the knowledge of God, and the chief virtue of the Will is his Love. These two virtues comprehend all others, and help one another. They jointly give tranquillity and content to the soul, when we exercise ourselves in the knowledge of God, because we love him; and when we love and obey him, because we know him to be most good, most wise, most perfect, and most worthy to be loved and obeyed.  
The right bent and true perfection of the will man is an entire concurrence with the will of God in all things, both to execute the will of his command and undergo the will of his decree; in both walking so unanimously with God, that man have no other will but God's. He that hath thus transformed his will into God's will, possesseth a quiet and contented mind. For when we will always what God wills, our will is always done.  
The will is the reasonable appetite of the soul; besides which there is in the soul joined with the body an appetite half reasonable and half seusitive which comprehends all the Passions, some of which have more of the reasonable, some more of the sensitive part, according as they stick more or less to the matter. They must be the subject of the next Book.   

CHAP. XVIII. Of the Ornaments acquisite of the understanding.  
WE are so blind at home that we know less our natural then our acquisite goods: Yea without acquisite goods we are little sensible of the natural goods of the soul. The natural Ornaments of the Understanding, quickness of wit, fidelity of memory, and solidity of judgement are seen only in the acquisitions made by study & use, for they that trade not with that patrimony of Nature, lose most part of it and differ little from beasts. The acquisitions of the understanding may be reduced to these two heads; Science, and Prudence.  
Science is the husbandry of the soul, a field whose virtue is never known till it be husbanded. Prudence is above Science in dignity, but Science precedeth Prudence in order, as the means go before the end.  
This position that prudence is the end, and sciences are the means, gives the true light to choose those sciences that deserve a ferious study. Sciences are multiplied to a great number, and grown to a goodly perfection in this Western world. They have their several uses and beauties. But because it is impossible to entertain them all, the prenticeship being long and life short, those especially should be followed which are ways to true Prudence, teaching men to live well and die well. It is the Learning, so much recommended by Solomon, Prov. 4.13. Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go, keep her, for she is thy life.  
Of those that court learning some do it out of necessity, to get their living; They choose sciences as they do their wives, those that are fittest for housekeeping. Others that have wealth and leisure, choose sciences as they choose their Mistresses, the fairest and most recreative. But of sciences as of women, the most recreative are not always the most honest; as all sciences that are buzy about predictions for the future.  
Of humane sciences the most part hath more lustre than price: Learning in tongues is a fine Ornament, and of great use, yet not answerable to the labour and time that it stands in. When we have learned to name heaven and earth five or six several ways, we know their natures never the better for that. A wiseman will rather seek the use then the lustre of languages. And for his own use he ought not to deny to himself that innocent delight to be able to relish the eloquence of the tongues, which with great reason have the vogue among the learned; there being nothing that doth more sweeten and polish the mind then good matter clad with a style simple and elegant, like a smooth and well coloured skin laid over strong brawny limbs.  
There are studies that have little lustre and less price, and yet by their severe garb go for wise and serious. Such is Schoole-philosophy which for three or four hundred years hath reigned in our Universities, and rough-cast Divinity with barbarous terms and crabbed distinctions. For as if Schoolmen would outdo pilate's soldiers that crowned the head of our Saviour with thorns, they have habited his doctrine with thorns all about from top to toe, so thick that themselves can hardly see the day thorough. The writings of Schoolmen are like Labyrinths, which in a little piece of ground have a very long and intricate way. For the learning of those ages being confined within a short compass, those resolute and irrefragable Doctors (for so they style one another) not being able to travel fare, and yet eager of going, did but turn and wind within their narrow limits, and crossed a thousand times the same way. It is scarce credible how little there is to learn in all that huge mass of harsh subtlety. It is true indeed that in all studies of men there is vanity, and the learning that succeeded that rusty learning hath a merrier vanity. But since it is so, that there is vainity in both, give me rather a fair and smooth vanity then a grim and rugged. Si nugae, saltem sint canorae. Serious fools are the most troublesome.  
Arts that regard the civil good are of so much price as they bring utility to the public, and benefit to the professors. Every one must get skill enough in his art to be useful for society, and to live in the world. But there are some sciences, which, though especially professed by some, belong alike to all, and regard the profession of man as he is man. For God hath created and placed us in the world to learn three things; How the world is made, What the world doth, And what we must do in the world. How the world is made, we learn by natural Philosophy, the Sphere and Cosmography. What the world doth, we learn by Histories. What must be done in the world we learn out of Ethics and Politics and especially out of Divinity. These Sciences are beneficial and delightful; and to be altogether ignorant of these, is to live in the world not knowing for what. A prudent man will pick out of these what is most fit for his principal end, which is to glorify God, inform his judgement, order his life, and content himself.  
All the Learning that we lay up must end in Prudence. Wherefore those studies that form the judgement, must be more carefully tended then those that exercise the imagination. Mathematical sciences are admirable, but this they have, that they take off the mind from matters of judgement and prudence, and fix it altogether upon quantity and material proportion.  
Prudence is the guide of all virtues, and marcheth before to give them light. Yea she comprehends them all, for nothing is ill done but for want of prudence, and the great prudence is to be religious, just, constant, and temperate. Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia. Solomon giving such an express charge and so often repeated, to get prudence, thereby recommendeth all virtues, and above all, the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom. Prudence is that eye which the Lord Jesus calls the light of the body, Matth. 6.22. that is the conduct of life. And whereas virtues consist in keeping a just temper between extremes, they own that skill unto prudence, for unto it belongs the ordering and disposition of things. Prudence showeth what is requisite for every virtue. Prudence governs all the free actions of life.  
My end here is to know the price, not to give the rules of prudence: But those Authors cannot be excused, that have set out treatises of prudence, without giving any counsel for the direction of a man's behaviour in public or private occurrences, but only definitions expounded at large, divisions, and disputations whether it be a virtue moral or intellectual, contemplative or practical, Whether the actus elicitus of prudence be to know or to will, and what difference there is between acting and doing. Goodly instructions to form a Councillor of State, and to underprop a tottering Commonwealth. Can these Doctors have done worse for themselves, if they had undertaken to justifye the ordinary reproach against learning, that prudence lieth out of the circuit of Scholarship, and that it is incompatible with learning? This they justifye more yet, when they pass from contemplation to practise. For, in Council, though but a mean corporation, tradesmen many times will speak more pertinently thet great Scholars.  
Of this the fault lieth not in Learning, which is the right way to Prudence, but in not choosing the right learning for prudence, and applying one's mind to other things: For neither Transcendents nor Modals, not Hesychius nor Suidas, nor Apogees nor Excentriques' teach a man wisdom. It were a wonder if they that never learned wisdom, understood it: There are two ways to get it, Science and Experience. These men have neither, that have spent all their study about Syllogisms or Horoscopes. But take me a Scholar that hath made prudence his study, and bend all his learning to that mark, seeking it first in God's Book, the spring of all wisdom, then in the writings of wisemen both ancient and late, and in history which is the Mistress of life; Let him study men and business, as well as Books. Let him converse with the wisest and best versed in the world, and consummate himself in experience. When such a man shall speak in a Council of State among unlearned men, it will appear how rash and injurious that sentence is, that learning and prudence are incompatible; and how fare the learned go beyond the ignorant for deep insight into businesses, and healing or preventing public evils.  
Because we seek here the just price of things, we must not attribute too much unto Science and Prudence. These two together make a goodly match: By knowledge and and wisdom a man differeth from a beast. But both are subject unto vanity. For knowledge, take the verdict of two the most learned of all the Canonical writers, Solomon and St. Paul. The first will tell you He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. Eccl. 1.18. The other, Knowledge puffeth up. 1 Cor 8.1. Sorrow & pride are the ordinary effects of Learning, but when it meets with a strong and meek spirit upheld with God's grace. Pride will easily get into those that have some, but little learning; for it is a point of ignorance for one to think he is learned when he is not. But when we are advanced in learning, we learn that we know nothing, and discover the uncertainty of sciences; that they perform not what they promise, that new writers give the lie to the old, Eccl. 12.12. that of making many Books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. A wise man that will reap from learning utility and content, must expect no more of it than it can afford. He will deal with learning as with money, he will not be a servant to it, but make it his Servant. When he is past the drudgery of the School, he will (if he can) make his study his pastime, not his task.  
Prudence is no less subject to vanity then Learning, but rather hath more uncertainty. For sciences have certain objects, since they consider universals, which are always the same, what change soever happen in the particulars. But prudence, having no object but particular things casual and uncertain, cannot have but an uncertain seat upon such an unstayed bottom, for though there be general rules of prudence, they must continually be bowed and made longer or shorter according to the accidents and circumstances; which being every where different require also every where a different manner of conduct. After a wise deliberation & an industrions managing of a business, an unfortunate end many times will follow. How oft hath the most mature prudence been overcome by folly and precipitate rashness? Of which the principal cause is the provocation of God's jealousy by humane wisdom, when it grows to presumption. Isa. 24.15. Woe unto them that seek deep to hid their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seethe us? and who knows us? For God who is called only wise by St. Paul, Rom. 16.27. for which he will have him to be glorified for ever, is highly offended when any pretends to share in that title which is his only, and takes a delight to blow upon projects made up with great art, to show to the wise of the world that they are but fools.  
To judge wisely of the businesses of the world, we should see the wheels & inward motions of them, but they are hidden from us. We can hardly pry into the counsels of men, how can we penetrate into the Decrees of God, those great and secret motions locked up in the closet of his wise providence? In the greatest revolution of our age, we are eyewitnesses how the wisest counsels of a party have always turned to their ruin, and the faults of State on the contrary party have always been fortunate. To one side prudence and imprudence have been alike pernicious. To the other prudence and imprudence have been alike advantageous. Let us look up to God whose ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts, and against whose will no strength and no counsel will hold. The future being to us a dark empty space where we see nothing, no wonder that humane prudence seldom hits right in her forecast for the future. The prudent man hath as much advantage over the imprudent as one that hath good eyes over a blindman, but when both are in the dark one seethe no more than the other. Many future events are as dark to the wise, as to the unwise. And when wisdom is most clear sighted, it can but regulate the counsels, but cannot dispose of the events.  
The wiseman hath this benefit of his wisdom, that if his counsels succeed well he can make good use of prosperity: And if his good counsels have an unhappy success, either he declines the blow, or gets a lenitive to it by prudence and patience; or he makes advantage of it for some good; and which way soever the staff fall, he never reputes of a good counsel.  
Of all the acquisite endowments of the understanding Prudence is the best, therefore beyond all comparison more precious than all the goods of body and fortune: But together let us acknowledge that it hath a short sight, and a tottering bottom. Wherefore the great precept of wisdom, is, to mistrust our wisdom and repose ourselves upon God's wisdom and love. Let our prudence depend altogether upon his providence.  
It is a great abatement of the price of humane prudence that death cuts it off with the thread of life. Eccl. 2.17. This was a cause why Solomon hated life, even because the wiseman dyeth as the fool. Yet had he wisely pondered the matter before ver. 13. I saw that wisdom excelleth folly as fare as light excelleth darkness: The wiseman's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness: but I perceived also that one event happenth to them all. It is enough to disdain the vanity of life, and of human wisdom better than life, to see a great Statesman that made a Kingdom to flourish and the neighbouring States to tremble, to be cut off in the midst of his high enterprises and deep counsels, all which die with him. Psal. 46.4. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish. That plotting brains from whose resolution the fortune of an empire depended shall breed worms and toads. And truly it should be unreasonable that this kind of prudence which hath no object but worldly and perishable, should remain permanent. But it is very consonant to reason that a higher prudence which applieth itself to permanent things, remain permanent. It is that permanent wisdom which our Saviour recommends unto us, Luke 12.33. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. It is that wisdom which Solomon calls a tree of life to them that lay hold on her, because she lives after death, and makes the soul live for ever. Judge you of the price of these two sorts of wisdoms; the one that perisheth, and many times makes men perish; the other that endureth for ever, and will certainly make them that embrace her, eternally blessed.   

CHAP. XIX. Of the acquisite Ornaments of the Will.  
THe end of the instruction of the Understanding is the ruling and ordering of the Will in a constant goodness, so much better than science and prudence, as the end is better than the means; unless by prudence we understand that wisdom which is employed about man's duty to God, and comprehends all virtues; for as in God all virtues are but one, which is his Being; likewise when we take virtues in a divine sense one virtue comprehends many, as having some participation with the divine nature.  
Commonly by virtue we understand uprightness of the will, because without it the virtues of the understanding, science, intelligence, and prudence, deserve not to be called virtues, and the more able they are, the more pernicious.  
Virtue of all acquisitions is the most precious; without it the goods of body and fortune become evils, serving only to make a man guilty and miserable; for then the goods of the body give the faculty, and the goods of fortune give the opportunity to do evil; but without them Virtue alone is good, and fetcheth good even out of evil.  
By virtue man is made like God who is the original virtue. Virtue gives glory to God, utility to the public, tranquillity and joy to the conscience, relief to some, counsel to others, example to all. Virtue is respected of all, even of them that envy it. They that love not the reality of virtue, yet study to get the name of it, and to put upon their false coin the stamp of virtue. All the hypocrisy in the world is an homage that Vice payeth unto Virtue.  
A virtuous man may be stripped of his estate by his enemies, but of his virtue he cannot. Because he keeps it, he is always rich. Virtue strengtheneth him in adversity, moderates him in prosperity, guides him in society, entertains him in his solitariness, adviseth him in his doubts, supports him in his weakness, keeps him company in his journeys by sea and land. If his ship sink, virtue sinks not; and he whether living or dying saveth it and himself. By virtue he fears neither life nor death, looking upon both with an equal eye, yet aspiring to departed and to be with Christ; but bearing patiently the delay of his departure, because he is already with Christ by a lively hope. Virtue steering the soul makes it take a straight and safe course to heaven, and there abides with him eternally, for virtue as well as glory is that treasure in heaven, where neither the moth nor the rust corrupt, and where thiefs do not break through and steal. Math. 6.  
Philosophy considereth three virtues in the will, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance, excellent virtues, the first especially, which in effect contains the two others; for it is the right temper of the will, not drawn aside from the integrity of a good conscience, either by oppositions of adversity against which fortitude stands fast, or by allurements of prosperity from which temperance witholds the appetite. Good conscience (of which we have spoken in the first Book) is nothing else but justice.  
For these virtues wherein man's duty and happiness consisteth it were hard to find Eulogies equal to their worth. But there is great diffecence between the excellency of Virtue in itself, and such virtue as is found among men. The exactest justice that man is capable of, is defective and infected with sin. All our righteousnesses are as the defiled cloth. Wherefore the description of a just counterpoise of the will, never swarving either on the right hand or the left, never shaken from his square cubus either by afflictions or temptations, is a fair character fit to set before our eyes, to imitate as near as we can; as fair pictures, in the sight of breeding women: But truly such a perfect virtue subsisteth not in any subject under heaven. In this world to be just, is only to be somewhat less evil than others.  
If a perfect Justice cannot be established in the private policy of a man's soul, it is not to be looked for in public Policies. Justice being pure in her original, becomes impure and maimed being kneaded by the weak and unclean hands of men Job 14.4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Of this it were easy to give instances out of the forms of Justice, & out of the very Laws in all States. But it is a point of justice to respect her in those hands to which divine providence hath entrusted her, and to add strength to her weakness by our voluntary deference.  
Man being weak in justice, cannot but be so in her appurtenances, fortitude and temperance. The highest point unto which human precepts endeavour to raise fortitude is to make patience a remedy to evils remediless. But how short the bravest men come of that remedy in their pains and griefs, daily experience showeth it. The vulgar placeth the virtue of fortitude in striking and massacring, which is rather a barbarous inhumanity; and if it be a virtue, tigers are more virtuous than men.  
As for Temperance, her very name sounds weakness. For he that is not subject to be corrupted by evil suggestions, hath no need of temperance. That man is temperate that knoweth how to keep himself from himself; who therefore is naturally evil, and prone to vicious excesses: Wherein men are inferior to beasts, which are not tempted with covetousness & desire of superfluities, but keep within the bounds of nature and necessity.  
Where there is a complete virtue, there is neither fortitude nor temperance; Therefore these are not in God, who is the original virtue. He hath no need of fortitude, for he hath no danger to overcome; and no use of temperance, for he hath no affection that need to be restrained; whence it follows that man also when he is once brought to his perfection of virtue which is his full union with God, shall have neither fortitude nor temperance, as having no evil to oppose, and no cupidity to repress. Justice is the only virtue that outliveth the body, and lives eternally with God; not that justice established in the Polities of the world, for in heaven there is neither selling nor contracting, which are the subjects of communicative justice: And as for the distributive, which hath two offices, to recompense virtue & to punish vice, humane justice exerciseth but the last; recompense is accounted an act of grace, and is rare: Whereas God's justice regardeth so much more reward than punishment, as a thousand is more than three or four, as it is expressed in the precept against Idolatry. Exod 20.5. and 6.  
That justice of good Christians which outliveth temporal life is the uprightness of their will, which in the passage of the soul to the high seat of perfection will be wonderfully mended and sublimated. While the spirit liveth in the flesh, though the will were never disturbed from its uprightness by the tumult of passions, yet it could not be raised to a degree of uprightness above the proportion of the illumination of of the understanding. Now the understanding is obscured in this world with a mist of error, receiving but some few rays of the Sun of righteousness through a cloud.  
I like very well the setting forth of a fair and complete notion of Virtue, filling the soul with joy; which is not a chimaera and a fiction, for every good soul must once be really brought to that perfection in his final union with God, who is the sovereign good of man, the original perfection, and virtue in substance. But I wish together, that while we set before the eyes of men, a high character of a wise & virtuous man, complete & happy in himself, we put them in mind of the fickly condition of man's soul, as long as she dwells in the flesh, that none be deceived with those Ideas of imaginary perfection which Pagan Philosophers ascribe to the wise man living according to nature.  
To the Christian only it becomes well to describe virtue in a perfect character, 2 Pet. 1.4. partaker of the divine nature, and though it be above his pitch, yet to aspire to it; for he knows whom he hath believed, and where he may get a perfection exceeding abundantly above all that he asks or thinks according to the power that worketh in him, Ephes. 3.20. yea so fare as to be filled with all the fullness of God. But in the mouth of Philosophers that expect no perfection but from their own nature, nor a longer duration of their virtue then of their natural life (and of such men there are more in the world than one would think) those high expressions of the greatness and happiness of a virtuous man are illegitimate, unsuitable, and unbecoming; for either these characters are true, and then they were not made for them; or they are productions of a wild and fantastical pride. Seneca describing his wise man saith, that he cannot be shaken with any thing and that he marcheth equal with God. Alas poor little man! Do but discharge a pistol at his ears, though charged with powder only, you shall see that stout champion, which marcheth equal with God, mightily shaken and discomposed in his march. There needs but the sting of a tarantola to make him skip and dance, put his virtue out of tune, and turn all his Philosophy upside down. Another was saying virtute mea me involvo, I wrap myself about with my virtue, as if it had been an armour cannon-proof and thunderbolt proof. Though it had been so, and impenetrable to temptation besides, yet it is not impenetrable to death, for these disciples of nature only, pretend not to extend the life of their virtue beyond the life of nature. To what purpose all those bravadoes for a mortal virtue; that the wiseman is always free, always rich, always happy, that he wants nothing because he hath himself, that he is King of the universe and Master of fortune, that in all conditions he is safe, steadfast, and content, and finally that he is always in health; but when he hath got a cold, as Horace jestingly addeth. This is stretching man beyond man. That wiseman after all that flourish is a calamitous creature weak, needy, unstable, subject to err, to sin, to suffer, and in the end to die. Certainly if among all the Philosophical virtue's humility and faith be wanting, they serve but to puff up a man and make him burst and perish. Let us before all things humble ourselves before God, who is the only wise and righteous, mistrusting ourselves and putting our trust in him. Then let us seek wisdom in his wisdom; and to frame our spirit upon it let us implore the assistance of his Spirit. After that, moral virtues will become easy to learn, and pleasant to practise. They shall obtain a good reward in heaven; and in earth work their own recompense.   

CHAP. XX. Of the World and Life.  
HAving looked within and about us and beheld the course of the World in its parts, let us now behold it in the great. Which may be done two ways, Either in the outward scene of men's actions, or in the inward motions of God's providence that are visible to us in some part. In both these respects the World is incomprehensible; in the former for its great variety and confusion, in the latter for its infinite deepness.  
The outward face of the world is a stage of wickedness, vanity and misery. Wickedness is universal; for although in Policies there be some face of order and justice, without which no society can subsist; Yet if one look to the reality of the actions and intentions of men, the two great trades of the World are fraud and oppression. There is a general maxim which every man denyeth, and every man (in a manner) practiseth, That wisdom consisteth in thriving by other men's harms: Public and private contracts, bonds, sureties, and hostages, are fences against that general inclination, and yet many times are employed to execute it. All securities both by strength and law are grounded upon that Opinion that none abstaines to do harm but he that wants power. In the best composed States governed with most integrity, particular interest bears the sway, howsoever public good be pretended. Wherefore that is the best form of State where the more good the Sovereign Magistrate doth to the public, the more he advanceth his own private interess.  
Rapine is the universal practice of the World. Whole Nations live of nothing else. Indeed the Europeans follow it with some outward reservedness. There is no less wickedness among us then with the Arabians and Moors, but there is more hypocrisy. We do not rob caravans of Merchants, and take no men upon the Christian coasts to make them slaves, but we suck out their blood and marrow by quillets of law, we overthrew our Country to build our houses with the public ruins. Phil. 2.21. All seek their own not the things of the Lord Jesus. We give indeed that respect to piety and virtue that we will be reputed good, but we are afraid to be so. Little scruple is made of unlawful profit and pleasure, only care is taken to do ill feats with little noise. The life of the World is a play where every one studieth, not to do his duty really, but to act his part handsomely. I leave out more notorious crimes, because they are eminent, and set themselves out by their infamy.  
To the wickedness of the World is joined vanity weakness and folly. For one cunning man there is ten thousand Idiots, whose blindness and rash credulity is a servant to the covetousness and ambition of a few crafty dealers. And yet the most crafty are not free of the captivity of custom and superstition, whereby a man's spirit is hooded with error, and starts at truth and good counsel. The World is a crowd of giddy people justling one another, A company of blind people following one another and holding by the cloak them that go next before. If the former fall, so will the others; and it would be thought want of civility to stand when the guides are falling, or to offer to see when all the company is winking, and to refuse to sinne a la mode. Youth is foolish, old age is doting. Orators tell us idle tales with much gravity. To please the people one must deceive them. The vulgar is set in an uproar upon light occasions, and for light reasons pacified again. They leave the substance to run after the shadow. Passion not reason makes them turn now to evil now to good; in both the more impetuously, the more weakly. They have some good Opinion of virtue, and esteem it by hearsay, till it come near, and then they cannot abide it, labouring to destroy virtuous men, and after they are destroyed esteeming them again, and calling for them when they are no more. Gallants are slaves to other men's Opinions, neglecting the duty for the ceremony, leaving health and conveniency for a conceited decency, living at a venture, and dying at random.  
The life of the World is a false game, where there is perpetual justling out one of another whether it be at great sets, when one nation drives another away by invasion, and one faction in the State puts down the contrary; or by playing every one for himself, each one catching what and where he can, whosoever be a loser by it.  
Out of that hideous confusion a woeful misery must needs follow in the world, where for one winner there are a hundred losers. Man by nature is miserable, composed of a sickly body, & a spirit that is his own tormenter. But as if all that were not enough, he is destroyed by his own kind. There is but two sorts of men in the World, oppressors & oppressed; Psal. 74.20. The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty, which is also Solomon's contemplation. Eccles. 4.1. I considered all the oppressions that are done under the Sun, and beheld the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter, and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead, which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive. Yea better is he then them both which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the Sun.  
This argument of the wickedness vanity and misery of the world is so ample, so known, and so well treated by others that I may excuse myself of further insisting upon it. All this is but the exterior face of the world: But the inward motions, and the secret order of God's wise conduct among all that disorder, hath never been sufficiently considered; though there be enough to be seen on the dyal of that great clock to judge at least of the wisdom of the great workman, and acknowledge that there is a deep and divine art in that hidden machine of the counsel●●●y, of his providence. A considering eye may mark how both by the concourse and the opposition of so many free, stirring and disorderly agents certain orderly and unavoidable events are produced, determined in God's eternal decree. How many different ends and intentions which all serve for God's end. Yea though they be evil, God fetcheth good from them, & turns them to his glory. Wherefore after we have thoroughly known the world as wicked as it is, weak, blind, confsed, & turbulent: yet let us acknowledge that all that disorder is useful, & that among so much evil there is nothing but doth good. The insolency of some serves to exercise the patience of others and form them to virtue. God's indulgence pouring plenty into the mouths that blaspheme him teacheth his children to do good to their enemies, and not to be more hasty than God to see justice executed on the wicked. It is a goodly study to be a disciple of God's providence.  
Consider how the States of the World are maintained by their own diseases. France is swarming with poor and vagrants, and idleness is thought there to be essential to gentile blood; but hence it comes that the King gets armies as soon as the drum beats, and is the terror of his enemies and support of his friends, Whilst other States whose policy is so provident as to leave neither poor nor idle person among them, are put to hire soldiers of all nations with great labour and cost, and commit their safety to outlandish and uninterressed soldiers. States as well as wine have need of some lees for their preservation. Among the Turks, Muscovites, and Tartars, the tyrannical unlimited power of the Sovereign and the blind obedience of the people, keep the State in peace which otherwise would be torn with civil wars. Gross stupid ignorance keeps some nations in concord at home; Whilst other nations by their wit and learning are disquieted with endless factions. The savage and uncivil humour of some people makes them considerable, and they are respected of all because they respect no body. Many times a State by a foreign invasion, and by divisions at home hath learned to know his strength, and is become warlike and formidable to his neighbours. The natural want of necessary things in a Country, too little for the many inhabitants, have caused the people to traffic over all the world, and made the abundance of all regions tributary to their virtue. Covetousness penetrates both the Indies, and compasseth the world about like the Sun, to bring us pearls to hang at the ears of our Mistresses, and pepper to strew over our cucumbers. For that end great companies of Merchants are associated, and the fortunes of Princes and Commonwealthes are ventured in in great Sea-fights. But out of that hazardous folly which certainly is a great disease of the mind, a great bulk of new knowledge in natural things accreweth to the public stock of learning, and thereby a great gate is open for the propagation of the Gospel. So admirable is God's providenee, who by small weights sets great wheels on going, and makes use of the vanity and unsatiable greediness of men to bring near the remotest parts of the world by the bond of commerce, and advance his Kingdom. Thus among the giddiness of public commotions, the iniquity of great actions, and the vanity of their motives, the wisdom and goodness of the first cause brings under his subjection, the folly and the wickedness of inferior agents. Rom. 3.17. Destruction and misery is in their ways and the ways of peace they have not known: But they are in God's hand, who will bring all to a good end.  
The reason why we complain of the badness of the time is that we see but one piece of it. But God that beholds with one aspect the whole course of time from its spring in the creation unto the mouth where that great river disgorgeth itself into the Sea of eternity, seethe that all which seemeth evil by parcels is good when all parts are taken together. And not only he beholds it, but he conducts it most wisely, and to that wise conduct we must humbly leave the rectifying of all that seems amiss to us in the course of the times. It is a great comfort to our mind, and a great help to our judgement in public disorders and private crosses, that we may be certain that God is an agent above all agents in all things, even in the worst, which he makes instruments; to some of his justice, to others of his bounty, to all of his wisdom.  
Among so much evil yet there is some virtue in the world, and where it is not obeyed yet it is respected. If the torrent of the perversity of the time becomes so rapid that good men cannot row against it to any preferment, it will never bar them from all havens of retreat; and to force them to a retreat many times it is to compel them to their good and rest; for as they are further from the favour of great men, they are freer also from their factions. During the tempest one may sleep at the noise of the waves. There is no place so unsafe and full of trouble, but the God of peace may be found in it; And they that trust in him, repose themselves safe and quiet under his wing. The world shall never be so wicked and so contrary to good men but that they may do good to the world against its will.  
One thing must make us look kindly upon this world, that it is the Hall of God's house, where we wait expecting to be advanced to God's presence; and all things that happen to us in this life help to bring us to that Land of Promise. All creatures not corrupted by sin speak to us of God. Yea every thing, good and bad, gives us matter to lift up our thoughts unto God. Nature smiles upon them that love God. Then his law directs us, His promises comfort us, He guides us by his Spirit. He covers us by his providence. He shows us from above the prize kept for us at the end of the race. By which means we are less weary of the world than they that ground their hopes upon it. And after we have balanced with a calm judgement the good and evil that is in the world, we find that the world goeth better with the good then with the bad; life cannot be very bad, if it be a man's voyage to God.    

OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND.  
THIRD BOOK. Of the Peace of Man with himself, by Governing his Passions.  

CHAPTER I. That the right Government of Passions depends of right Opinion.  
THe right employment of a Christian Philosopher that will have peace at home is to calm the tumult of Passions. For the sensitive Appetite is in the soul as the common people in a State. It is the dregs and the lowest part of the spirit, that hath a near affinity with the outward sense, greedy, rash, tumultuous, prone to discontent and munity. Reason in a man's soul holds the place of a Sovereign, which many times is ill obeyed. She is like the coachman, and the Passions like the horses, fierce and hardmouthed, pulling hard against the bridle, which many times they pluck out of her hands.  
Of this a cause is given, which is natural and good. That the first years of life before a man be capable of the use of reason are altogether under the empire of the Appetite, which being used to rule doth not willingly become a subject to Reason, when age and instruction awake that higher faculty; and in many that rebellion holds till they be fare gone in their life, or to the very end. Wherefore it will be a wise part to tame the opiniatre appetite of children, beginning at the first year of their life, to teach their eager will to be denied. He that was used to yield to his Nurse, hath already taken a ply of obedience, and will more readily bow to reason when age brings it.  
That tender age breeds another cause of the disobedience of Passions to right reason: That the child's judgement is died with false Opinions of the objects which his appetite embraceth. For in the age when the Appetite is sole regent in the soul, the Fancy and the Memory are filled with images proportionate to the outward appearance, making the child take all that is guilded for massy gold, all glittering things for precious, and feathers and sugar plums for the Sovereign good. Which first imaginations, being somewhat cleared of their grossest fog by age and experience, yet leave these false notions in the mind, that things are within such as they appear without: and that wealth gallantry and the pleasure of the taste, are the best things of the world; Opinions which presently prove seeds of covetousness ambition and luxury, which in short time (as all ill woedes) will grow strong and fill the soul with trouble and misery.  
Then the first, yea the only course to free the Appetite of vicious Passions, is to heal the understanding of erroneous Opinions. The Appetite cannot but go astray when the understanding is blind. When the understanding is free of error, the Appetite is free of Vice. For although many time's Passion run into disorder contrary to the light of the understanding, that never hapens but when the understanding hath consented for a while to some false opinion seduced by flattery of Passion, that strokes him and puts her hand before his eyes; for it is impossible for the Appetite to embrace that which Reason seethe and pronounceth to be altogether evil.  
The great error of the understanding, which makes the passion to apply itself to an evil object, or to a good object otherwise then it should, is a mistake in the true price & true inconvenience of things; Which being once well known, we shall bate much of our desire & fear of most things which we seek or avoid with great earnestness, and shall become earnest to get other things which we neglect, and to avoid other things which we desire.  
I have endeavoured in my second Book to represent the just price of the chief things that we commonly esteem & desire, & the true inconvenience of things that we disesteem or fear. But because it would be an endless labour to treat of all the several objects of our Passions, I will but recommend to every person that loves the clearness and tranquillity of his mind, never to set his love and desire upon any thing, before a mature consideration of what it is and what it is worth, and never to be angry or sorry for any thing before we hath calmly & leisurely examined whether it be evil, and if so, then in what measure; weighing as carefully and impartially the qualities and circumstances that contradict our inclination as those that contribute towards it. Thus he that delights in a glass must remember well that it is a glass; & after he hath sufficiently considered the pureness of the matter and the handsomeness of the fashion, he must consider also that it is brittle stuff, and that it will last but till the next knock; So shall he learn to love it according to its true price, and no more; his love will last no longer than the glass, and when it is broken he will say, I knew before that it was a glass.  
Thus also to love and desire a dear person as much as it is fit, and no more, we must well consider her nature and just value; And when Passions will overvalue her with Ideas of perfection above her just size, Reason will bate of it, saying, With all this perfection she is a humane creature, and therefore faulty, mutable and mortal, and as such I must desire her before I have her, cherish her when I have her, and mourn for her when she is taken from me. Let us proportion our affection to the quality of the subject, and we shall love it as we ought.  
Thus for other Passions, right Opinion is the moderator. It keeps fear from increasing dangers, pride and rashness from lessening them, hatred and choler from making our enemies appear more deformed and guilty than they are, sadness from aggravating evils, joy from disappointment of false hopes. In a word, right opinion is the faithful guide of the appetite, the rule of equity, the preserver of tranquillity.  
But because when the objects show themselves the violent commotion of the passion, without warrant from the judgement many times will shake reason from right Opinion; it must be studied upon, when the mind is at rest, and reason confirmed in it by long and careful institution, and strengthened by holy resolution.  
The first thing of which we must have a right opinion, is God: Not to presume to comprehend the Incomprehensible, but to have a reverend belief of his goodness, justice, power, and wisdom, of his constancy in his promises and love; and of his eyes ever open and bend towards 〈◊〉 both to keep us & to take notice of our thoughts, words, actions, and affections.  
The next thing of which we must be careful to get a right opinion is ourselves, to know our own strength, that we repose not a groundless trust upon it, and to mark the weakest places of our souls, and those avenues by which temptations set upon our passion, that there we may double our guard.  
Then we must endeavour to get a right opinion of the course of the world, the genius of the times, and the nature of men and businesses, particularly of those men that we must converse with, and of the businesses that concern us. Of those things also that use to flatter or fright our Passion, lest we be more moved to get or avoid them then they are worth, and lest we neglect them if they be worth seeking or shunning.  
Thus in matter of seeking Preferment we must think soberly before, whether it be worth the necessary pains to get it, and whether it will recompense the cares, the envy, and the opposition that attend it. The like when we are tempted by unlawful profit and pleasure, the advantage that is hoped by it must be calmly weighed with the disadvantage of displeasing God and troubling our conscience. And so when anger sets us upon revenge, we must endeavour to get the right Opinion of the use of revenge, what comfort, what benefit it may bring, and whether meekness & pardon of the offence for God's sake be not more capable and likely to bring us content and real utility.  
It is an old and a wise counsel to make a pause every time that we feel some strong commotion in our appetite, to give time to reason to consider of it. That pause must be employed to scatter all the clouds that Passion spreads before the eyes of the understanding, and help reason to recover the sight of right Opinion, that we may obey that wise and rational command of the Lord Jesus John 7.24. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement.   

CHAP. II. Entry into the discourse of Passions.  
MY end is to bring Passions under the obedience of right reason, not to describe exactly their nature. A task where Naturalists come short of performance; And no wonder, since they take a subject in hand where reason seethe nothing, as if one would make an Anatomy in the dark; for in nothing is our soul so blind as in the composure of herself: Yea the truest natural contemplation of Passions is of no great use to govern them: What doth it concern him that studyeth the moderation and the right use of Passions to know that Joy comes by dilatation of the spirits, Sadness by contraction of the same, Love by diffusion, Hope by elevation? For my part because I seek utility, I will be more careful to find the moral counsels by which Passions are moderated, than the natural ways by which they are moved. And if in the following discourse of Passions I keep not exactly the order and number received in the Schools, or treat of some mixed Passion among the simple, it will not be out of singularity, but because I understand not perfectly those distinctions.  
The first thing to be considered about Passion is whether we must have any, or utterly destroy it, as the Stoicians and Epicureans would do. This question, whether we may have Passion with virtue, is as if one asked whether there may be wool with cloth, for Passion is the stuff of Virtue, and Virtue is but a passion wisely moderated: If there were no Passion there would be no virtue. If then the Passion be sick, it must be healed, not slain, and much less must it be slain when it is in health lest it fall sick.  
It may be said for the Philosophers that would cut off or rather root out Passion, that it is an error that doth little harm: for man being naturally too passionate we must pull to the contrary extreme to bring him to a virtuous moderation; for after we have rooted it out as much as may be, there will remain still too much of it.  
Beasts have also their Passions, and by them men are allied with beasts. But the Appetite of the beast is merely sensual, the appetite of man is partly sensual partly intellectual. Passions may be marshaled into three orders, according to the three principal faculties of the soul; The inferior order is of them that are only in the sensitive Appetite, and have their motions for the body only, as hunger and thirst; Over these reason hath less power, for she cannot persuade him that is hungry not to be so, but she may retard the satisfaction of the appetite.  
Other Passions are lodged in a higher story, and seem to be seated in the Imagination, as the Passion that one hath for curiosities and images of perfection increased by the desire. These are more capable to be ruled by reason.  
The third and highest order is of intellectual passions, as the love of learning and contemplation. These are more immediately in the power of reason. It is the part of reason to form and moderate those passions which are merely under her jurisdiction, and keep a short bridle to those passions that are moved without her leave, by nature, chance, or fancy.  
As in a well governed kingdom all is done by the King, the faculties of the soul must be kept in such order that within us all be done by Reason: When that Sovereign is wise and well obeyed, peace is in the inward State of man. But when the Sovereign is made subject to his natural Subjects, the sensual Passions; then the soul is like a body with the heels upward, and the whole policy of the mind is turned upside down.  
Being to speak of the Passions as the winds that stir and toss that inward sea of the soul, I must also speak of the Virtues that serve to repress them. Not to treat of each severally and prolixely, but to bring them to action, and to minister to every Passion its proper remedy.   

CHAP. III. Of Love.  
LOve is the first of all Passions, and the cause of most part of them. It is the motion of the soul towards objects that promise rest and contenument. By Love men are good or evil happy or unhappy, as that Passion is applied to good or evil objects.  
In every soul there is a Master-love which bears rule over all the other Passions and subjecteth them to its principal object. According to the quality of that object, love is perfect or unperfect, for as the objects of the sight change in some sort the apple of the eye into their colour and shape, so by receiving the image of the beloved object into our soul, our soul is transformed into it, and wedded to its qualities. He that loves a sordid thing becomes sordid. Doth any love his hounds with that principal love? his soul becomes of the same quality as his hounds. He that loveth a high object becomes high by that love. He that loveth God the sovereign good receiveth the sovereign good into his soul.  
Many causes contribute to the contentment of mind but the chief cause of it is a worthy love. And it may be truly said that neither in heaven nor in earth any thing is pleasant and contenting but Love. God himself is love, saith St john, 1. joh. 4.16. And I conceive (as much as a finite mind dares conceive of the infinite God) that in the substantial love embracing the three persons of the Godhead consisteth both their personal union and their felicity.  
I have spoken before of the virtue of love which unites us with God, and shown that it is man's great duty and sovereign felicity. And hereafter I must speak of the Christian love due to our neighbours which is called charity; and of the love of society which is friendship. In all these relations love is a virtue, either acquisite or infused. But here we consider it as a natural Passion, which yet we must endeavour to raise to a virtue, and for that we cannot but return again to the love of God.  
The most natural love is the love of the sex. A Passion merely sensual, and common to men with beasts. And yet it is that Passion which keeps the greatest stir in man's heart and in the world. That love softeneth magnanimous spirits, and draws down the soul from the heaven of holy meditation to the dregs of the matter. But for that Passion, a man might come to a degree of Angelical purity in this world. Wherefore there is great need to learn how to repress it. To root it out (if one could find in his heart to do it) would be destroying nature, and resisting the ordinance of God, who gave that inclination to all animals for the propagation of their kind. But because God gave also reason to men above other animals, and his knowledge to Christians above other men; the love of the Sex hath need to be led by a better guide than Nature, else it is brutish, and that which is innocent in beasts is vicious in men. By it men instead of the pleasure which they hunt after so hotly, find sadness, remorse, infamy, destruction of body soul and estate. It is a fearful sentence that no whoremonger nor unclean person hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Ephes. 5.5.  
It is a criminal & deplorable folly to turn into a snare of damnation that volupty which the indulgence of the wise creator hath given to all animals to invite them to the continuation of themselves in their posterity; and to climb up at the window with peril to steal pleasure with crime, whilst marriage opens the door to it, unto which God, men, honesty, duty, utility, and facility, invite us.  
Love altogether carnal doth not affect the person but the pleasure, unless by the person a mansselfe be understood. Love of beauty is love of onesselfe, not of the desired person, since beauty is desired for pleasure. When that love of the sex is joined with a true affection to the person, and that affection grounded in virtue, and encouraged with mutual love, than love and friendship meet and increase one another; And if marriage followeth, it may prove the greatest of temporal contentments.  
But as in unlawful love there is need of continence to refrain it, so in the lawful there is need of temperance to moderate it. Temperance is the preserver of love, & of pleasure also; Both are lost by excess. As the flame of a taper turned upside down is quenched by the substance that feeds it, so love goeth out by too much plenty of aliment. But though love and pleasure could maintain themselves in the excess, neither body nor mind losing any thing of their vigour, yet there would be more loss than gain in it; for fervent passion troubleth the serenity of the soul, and any thing that subjecteth the understanding to the appetite degradeth the soul of her excellency, especially when the appetite is merely sensual.  
Because in conjugal life two loves meet, the love of the sex, and the love of society, It will be a wise course, to tie the last with all the bonds of benevolence. These bonds are piety, sweet conversation, tender care of the beloved person, patience to bear with her infirmities, and a little winking not to see all that might diminish love, omitting nothing to make the best of a bargain which cannot be undone. That indissoluble knot which unto fools makes marriage a heavy yoke, is unto the wise a help to contentment, for by that necessity they are taught to love what they must love, & to seek their delight in their duty.  
The greatest fervour of love is not in matrimony, for there one hath always at hand wherewith to cool his thirst; nor in unlawful lust, where also one knows how to allay his heat, though with the detriment of his conscience; but in wooing, & in longing desires tending to marriage. That heat is increased by the lawfulness of the end, and the suggestion of a bewitched reason unto the conscience, that one that loveth honestly cannot love too much: And if that heat meet with opposition, it increaseth again by difficulty, and often there is more love where there is less hope. Quó que minùs sperat, hôc magis ille cupit. Passion will frame in a man's fancy an advantageous image of the beloved object which stands continually before him; appears to him in dreams, breaks his sleep, interrupts his best thoughts, and his most important businesses, makes his spirit a sea in perpetual agitation; and his most quiet intervals are sadness and a brown study. The worst is, that God is forgotten, and the love of heaven is put out by the love of the world.  
Many not only of the vulgar sort but of the bravest minds having split their ship upon this rock, there is need of extraordinary care to avoid it. So much greater, because our Christian Philosophers have taken less care to appropriate their remedies to this sickness; for when they inveigh against carnal and vicious love, those lovers who are persuaded that their love is all virtuous, because they would not though they could, unlawfully possess the beloved person, esteem that these censures belong not to them: And yet, God knoweth that their love is too carnal, though they were virgins in their very thoughts, for even the immoderate love of a mother to her child is carnal and vicious.  
They need then to be put in mind that their love cannot be pure in the quality, as long as it exceeds in the quantity, excess of love for a worldly object being a most impure quality; for that Master-love which rules in the soul and brings all other Passions under, is due unto God alone, who will be loved with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our understanding. This the Lord Jesus calls the first and the great commandment. The great, because it is the chief duty of man, which comprehends all other duties. And the first, because it is a comment upon the first precept of the law, Thou shalt have none other Gods but me. As than we must adore none but God alone, we must love none but God alone with that Master-love which gives to another the sovereignty over ourselves; for that love is a true adoration, whereby all the faculties of the soul bow and prostrate themselves before the beloved object. When carnal love is the Master-love in a soul, than the soul hath another God than the true God; and that Passion makes a burnt-offering of the heart to a false God, some weak sinful creature. Certainly those impetuous burning fits of carnal love are violent rapines of the proper rights of God, for to him belongeth the heart, and upon him those raptures and strong agitations of love should have been bestowed; him only we ought to love with all our soul and with all our strength. O how fare are these violences from those which must take the Kingdom of God by force! And how many tears and plaints of smarting remorse must fond lovers pour, to do penance for so many tears and plaints of carnal love, that opinatre imbecility, whereby a man pines and torments himself for the love of another!  
Sometimes these two sorts of tears proceeding out of such different causes have met together in generous and religious souls, who being transported with those violences of humane love were at the same time strongly moved with godly jealousy, the conscience grieving and expostulating with the Appetite for yielding unto any but God the signory of the heart: Then the love of God oppressed in the heart under the weight of the world and the flesh, powerfully bestirred himself, and getting strength by opposition overcame that rival love, and became in the end Master of the place.  
But alas, one victory doth not end the combat; For carnal love, when we think that it is shut out, will re-enter, having the porters of the soul, the senses, on his side, which open the gate to its objects without the leave of reason, and help it to make strong impressions upon the fancy; Whereas the immaterial beauty of God hath no help from the senses, & makes no impression upon the imagination; but in recompense it doth immediately illuminate the understanding and work upon the affections, and so sanctifyeth and strengtheneth them, that after many combats, carnal love is subdued; And if it plead nature for staying with us, yet it is brought to such a subjection that it moveth no more but orderly, and within the limits of piety and reason, possessing but such a parcel of the affection as it pleaseth the love of God to allow nature to hold under him.  
The limits and rules of reason about the choice of the subject of that love are possibility, lawfulness, and conveniency. The measure of love must be according to the price of the subject. But when it comes to wedlock another measure is requisite, that of oblgiation and duty; before wedlock, love is prone to overvalue his subject: Let lovers remember that the most perfect persons are humane creatures, therefore a humane love is fit for them, not a divine service; for than we serve them as God alone must be served, when we make them Mistresses of our heart, Take the best of them, their beauty will fade, their sweetness will sour, and their persons must die; this bats much of their price. Fair Diamonds would not be so dear, if they could grow pale and wear out. Know once the most lovely persons, you shall not admit them to competition with God for the possession of your heart.  
Love aspireth to perfection. He then must be beloved above all things who makes them perfect that love him. It is more than Ladies can do, though never so perfect. But by loving God who is the sovereign perfection, we become like him in our measure and are changed into the same image.  
And since delight is the bait of love, we must love him above all things that satisfyeth us with true delight. Psal. 16.12. God in whose presence is fullness of joy, at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Carnal love makes the heart sick. It is sullen, fantastical and tumultuous. It conceives great hopes of content and comes short of them; It gives for one pleasure a thousand sorrows. But the love of God is a continual enjoyment, a constant peace, a solid joy; and if sometimes one suffer for him, he repays for one sorrow a thousand pleasures.  
Many lovers of beauties are not beloved of them. But who so loveth God must be sure that God loves him. Yea that God loved him before he loved God; the love which he bears to God is an effect of the love which God bears to him. And is it not a great encouragement to love, when one is sure to be accepted and beloved again? That subject which only deserves to be loved with all our heart is easy to be won to a mutual love: Other objects of our love, being infinitely under that prime subject, are fare more difficult to win.  
Our love of God is not crossed with absence as the carnal. For him we fetch no unheard sighs, and shed no unseen tears. God is always near them that sigh for him, and puts up their tears in his bottle. Psal. 56. The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him. He traveleth with them abroad, He keeps house with them, yea in them; He sweetens their griefs, he answereth not only than words but their very thoughts.  
Many times we love them that can do us no good, though they love us; many times also we are impoverished by the love we bear them. But our love to God makes us rich, for it gets already possession of God, who is the Author of all good gifts. Psal. 36.10. With him is the fountain of life, and in his light we see light. To love him is to raise ourselves to sovereign honour and felicity.  
Briefly if one will have favours, gracious countenance, sweet individual company, possession, enjoyment, fullness of joy for ever, let him turn the point of his love heavenwards. Divine love will make him good and happy in the highest degree. These benefits are not to be expected of carnal love. A sickness which is the same in the appetite as a fever is in the blood, sometimes in a cold, sometimes in a hot fit. It is a perpetual ebb & flow of fear and hope, and it cannot but be continually shaking and wavering, since it pins the felicity of a man upon another, who hath not felicity, enflaming his heart to a subject weaker many times, and more necessitous than himself.  
And if these inconveniences be found in the honestest love of the sex, how much more in the unlawful and unchaste love?  
Of this sickness the most usual but not the best remedy is to drive out one Mistress with another; but the way to get liberty is not to change service. In stead of getting out of the storm into a harbour, they are tossed from one rock to another. He than that will expel one love by another love, must betake himself to a love that may change his servitude into liberty, which the love of God will afford, and none else. So the grand remedy of carnal love is to exercise ourselves in the love of God, and gladly to consider what a sacrilegious part it is to erect a little idol of our sensual appetite in our heart which is God's Sanctuary, and what a heinous rebellion it is to choose another Master then God.  
Thence (without an extraordinary mercy of God) one of these two evils will follow. Either God, jealous that we love another more than him to whom all our love is due, crosseth our designs, and makes us miss that which we sought after with so much eagerness: Or, in a greater indignation he gives us that which we prefer before him, and whence we expect our highest happiness, which afterwards turns into bitterness and ruin. You shall see many impetuous corrivals, suitors of an evil woman, as fishes justling one another, striving for a mortal bait; The strongest and most unfortunate driveth he other away, and by taking is taken and destroyed. Solomon who had but too much experience in this matter gives this account of it. Eccles. 5.26. I find more bitter than death the Woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands. Who so pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her. Women might say little less of men. There is no cheat, no witchcraft, comparable to that of carnal love, neither is there any thing that works sadder effects. Of which the most ordinary is, the loss of the tranquillity of the soul. A loss not to be recompensed by all the love-pleasures that lust can suggest to the imagination.  
No Passion sins more against that rule truly Christian and Philosophical, to dwell at home, and not to seek our content out of ourselves, which is the same thing as to seek it in God, for in God is our true being, and God is found within us, if we have the grace to seek him there, as we ought. But carnal love makes a man to seek all contentment out of God and out of himself, so that he is never at home, always abroad, and always under the power of others.  
Neither doth any other Passion so enormously transgress in the two extremes, both to over-value and undervalue the price of things. For a lover will raise the price of the beloved object above Nature and possibility; and together cast away his estate, his honour, his conscience, and hazard his life, as things of no account, to get that idolised object.  
It were a wonder if young people, being all naturally inclined to that burning fever did not get it after so much pains taken to bring them to it. For how many books are written for that very end? How many amorous fables, which to write and to read is the business of them that have none? There young men are taught, that virtue consisteth in being passionate beyond all extremity, and that great feats of arms and high fortunes and achievements are only for lovers. There maids learn to be desperately in love, disembling, proud, and bloody, and to believe that all is due to their supremacy, seeing in those books the world torn with wars by the jealousy of some Prince's lovers and rivals, and many thousands of men's lives sacrificed to the fair eyes of a Lady. There also they learn to be crafty Mistresses and ill wives; they have need to learn obedience, but in these books they learn sovereignty. Women being more given to these books than men, show that though they have less fougve of love than men, they have nevertheless a more constant inclination to it.  
Who so will keep himself holy in body and affection and preserve his soul serene and free from the tempest of that turbulent Passion, must avoid the reading of such books whose proper office is to raise those storms in a man's blood and appetite. And I know not whether it be more dangerous to read dissolute books which make of carnal love a jig and a matter of sport, openly showing the ordure and the folly of it; or doleful amorous fables which make of it a grave and serious study, and under the colour of honesty and constancy of love, managed with an artificial and valorous carriage, hoodwink and bewitch the reader's mind with a pertinacious Passion, making their brains run wild after chimaeras and hollow imaginations, whereby some have run mad. Indeed one cannot follow the fancies of romances without straying from right sense; Neither is there any thing that makes the heart more worldly and carnal, and brings it further from God. I will be judged by all good souls that would betake themselves to exercises of piety, when they were newly come from this kind of reading, Let them say in conscience how fare estranged from God they found themselves, and ill disposed to every good work.  
Sure it is not without reason that these writers set up false Gods, as being conscious to themselves that their writings are deviations from the true God, and ashamed to name the God of truth among their fables. Also because with some of them, it is a prime piece of love-complement to make discontented lovers to wreak their anger upon the Deity, they will have this excuse ready, that they are not blasphemies against the true God, but against the gods of Homer and Hesiod's making. But from these blasphemous expostulations with false gods the readers learn to do the like with the true, and to avenge themselves upon him of all things that cross their impetuous Passion. The same books set up the murderous discipline of duels, as a gallantry of love, whereby lovers seal their affection to their mistresses by the blood of their rivals or their own.  
There are other matches of the wild fire of carnal love which must be carefully avoided, wanton discourses, vicious companies, occasions to do evil, conversation with vain malicious women whose chief aim and task is to catch all the men that come in their way, not that they may keep them, but triumph over them, and cast them away, and feed their own vanity with the disappointment of their suitors.  
Take heed of idleness, it is Satan's pillow, the counsellor of vice, and especially the procurer of lust. He that doth nothing, thinks on evil. Take heed of intemperance. Carnal love is so inbred with the matter, that whatsoever heateth the blood sets the appetite on fire. Wherefore Jeremiah sets intemperance and incontinence together, Jer. 5.8. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.  
There be two great remedies to take down that heat, The one corporal which is marriage, instituted by God for that end, a holy and honourable state: When both the parties are good, and love one another, it is the greatest sweetness of life. But whether a man be married or desire to be, he must think on the vanity and short continuance of the most pleasant things of this world, the frailty of life, the certainty of death, the uncertainty of the hour; thence to infer the conclusion of St Paul, 1. Cor. 7.29. But this I say, brethren, that the time is short, It remains that they that have wives be as they that have none, And so they that are wooing must be as though they were not wooing; that is they must impose moderation upon their affections out of a wise apprehension of the vanity of the world and life, ver. 31. using this world as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. Wherefore should we love with so much fervency that which we cannot keep when we have got it, which we must leave, or which must leave us?  
The other duty is Spiritual, and it is that great and perpetual duty to Love God. Let that holy Passion always rule in our hearts. Let us give to God his proper right, which he demandeth in his word, Pro. 25.26. My son give me thy heart, and let us keep such a watchful guard about it that none steal it from him and us.  
Our love to a worthy Consort being so moderated will become both lawful & pleasant. Humane condition hath nothing so delightful as a reciprocal love: Yea of all things to which man's will doth contribute, it is the only pleasant thing. But, as navigable rivers enrich a country with commerce and plenty, when they keep within their shores, but ruin it when they overflow with a violent landflood: Likewise, love while it keeps within limits, brings pleasure and utility; when it exceeds them, it brings displeasure and destruction.  
Love that is not reciprocal will wear away in time. But a wise man will shorten the work of time with reason, and will not obstinately court a person that will not love him. For of what price soever she be, in our regard she is of no price if she be not for us. We must love our enemies, but we must let them alone.   

CHAP. IU. Of Desire.  
DEsire hath a near kindred with love, for it is the motion of the appetite towards the beloved object; This is the difference, that Love regardeth the present, Desire aspireth to the future.  
Some desires are natural, some besides nature. Natural desires are good and easily satisfied, as long as they keep within their mounds, the first whereof is nature, than reason to rule nature, and piety to rule reason. But we must take heed of mistaking corrupted nature for pure. Pure nature is contented with little, but corrupted nature runs to excess and embaseth natural desites with the allay of desires besides nature. It is natural for a man to desire a woman, but it is besides nature that he will have her so noble and so rich; that he increaseth the desired object with imagination, and kindleth his passion by difficulty. It is natural to desire meat, drink, clothing, but it is besides nature to desire great feasts, gay garments, and costly buildings.  
Reason, indeed, was given us to embellish and enrich nature, but Reason (if it be well taught) will in all occasions make use of nature to rule the desire, and teach it, that besides Nature there can be no necessity. Thus if your coach break fare from the town, instead of grieving and fretting, remember that Nature did not give you legs to sit in a coach, and that it is not necessary for you to be carried, as long as you can go. If you be repulsed in the pursuit of an Office, remember that God made you not a Treasurer or a Counsellor of state, but a man; and that to discharge the Office of man worthily, there is no need to be a Treasurer or a Counsellor of State. Apply this to all the crosses whereby your desire is opposed, you shall find in nature lessons of reason and piety to rule it, and keep every where tranquillity of mind.  
But when a man makes no account of the limits of nature, and the Appetite takes licence to desire as much as it can, the whole world becomes too little for him. Nature hath bounds, but ambitious desire hath none. If a lustful greedy tyrannical man had as much power as desire, he would violate the honesty of all handsome women, and crush all the Empires of the universe, no man's life could scape his anger, God himself should not be safe in heaven. There are many such men in the world; But the world may praise God that those that have the vastest desire have the shortest power, and are kept by necessity within their limits of nature, even when their ambition most licentiously transgresseth those limits. An idle wisher will lie raving in his bed, raising his greedy thoughts by many steps of imaginary conquests as high as the crown of China; and then seriously deliberate whether he must make war upon the Tartar or Japan; till he be suddenly called down by his need from the height of his imperial projects to the low care of raising the wool of his old threadbare cloak, and spinning the course relics of his Sunday-dinner to save him from the shambles till the middle of the week. Prov. 13.4. The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing.  
Need doth not so much breed greediness, as greediness need; For need many times limiteth greediness, and keeps the Appetite busy about things necessary and near hand; but wheresoever there is greediness, there is need, even in the midst of plenty. A great King invading his neighbour's Province thereby confesseth himself needy, since he hath not enough of his own. So long as a man doth not reckon what he hath, but what he would have, he never hath his reckoning; for when he hath what he would he would have more, and all that he hath not is wanting to him; yea he wants even that which he hath, since he hath no satisfaction in it.  
This evil being wisely managed may prove a remedy to itself. For the insatiableness of man's desire, helps us to these two thoughts. The one that all that the world affords is too little for man, since it cannot satisfy his desire. The other, that, among that corruption, an image of God's infinity is shining; for man's desire is infinite, and nothing less than infinity, which is God himself, can satisfy him. These thoughts ought to breed a resolution in us, not to labour any more in vain to fill our infinite desire with things finite and inferior unto us, but to raise it to the infinite good, as only adequate to it, and the only object where we may find infinite satisfaction. They, and they only must expect satisfaction of their desire, that may say after Isaiah, Isaia. 26.8. In the way of thy judgements O Lord have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.  
Let us look lower. For as long as we live in this house of flesh, we have inferior desires for the use of the flesh. Natural desires are form upon the information of the senses; let us take good heed that upon their natural information we form not desires beyond nature, but let us proportionate our desires to the true and simple information of our senses, not to the false tale of our imagination, swelled and besotted by our greediness. For the appetite and the imagination, help to cousin one another. The turbulent appetite stretcheth the imagination, and the imagination thus stretched presents to the appetite greater images than the natural.  
As in the clay upon the potter's wheel if you trace a small circle it will stretch and grow wider as the wheel turns and the clay spreads; likewise, a little image of the desired object traced by the common sense in the imagination will grow as the imagination is dilated by the agitation of the desire. Hence it is that the first impression that the fancy receiveth of an ordinary beauty becomes in short time the Idea of a more than humane perfection; and the splendour of a gaudy equipage and attendance, having caused an agitation in the desire, is soon imagined much greater than it is.  
But as in popular rumours which are growing as they run, the first relator must be examined; likewise, to know the true state of things, of which the imagination & the appetite increasing one another make so much noise and show, we must examine the first relator, the outward sense, to undeceive the overheated desire by an information in cold blood. It is true, that the senses perceiving nothing but the outward show will make sometimes a disadvantageous report of the objects, but when they stir not the desire, but misinform the imagination which doth the like to the judgement, whereby the object appears evil, contemptible, or less desirable than it is indeed. Wherefore I would not trust altogether the report of the senses, but so examine them by reason that the soul be not seduced by the report imputed unto them. And indeed this will be no small prevailing over the appetite, if we can bring it to desire the things that truly belong to the senses, by no other Idea then that of their simple report, so shall we limit the merely sensual desires, according to Nature.  
But because this might be thought an austere rule to keepe-in the desire within the limits purely natural, something must be yielded to custom and conveniency; Let the desire be allowed to walk a little beyond these limits of Nature, but so led by the bridle of piety and reason, that it make no wild escape. Let us desire things just, facile, near-hand, and inviting our hope, not troubling ourselves about things remote and difficult.  
To stay our desires, we must stay our thoughts before, and wean our minds of that false popular opinion, that thoughts are free; for it is the licentiousness of thoughts, that makes the desire licentious. He that permitteth to himself to think what he should do with a hundred thousand pounds a year, if he had them, will not be long ere he desire to have so much. He that consulteth what women he should choose if it were lawful and possible for him to keep as many as the Turk hath in his Seraglio, will presently wish it possible though it were not lawful; and this fancy will set his appetite on fire; Evil thoughts are next neighbours to evil desires; there is but one step between. He that will keep himself from an infamous house must not take the lodging at the next door.  
The best way to satisfy the desire of temporal things is to abridge it; A counsel comprehending these two, Not to depend of the future, and to be content with little for the present: Both are effects of an entire confidence in God's goodness and providence. Of not depending upon the future I shall have several occasions to speak hereafter. To be contented with little is an unspeakable treasure. That way one may with much ease get plenty, which a covetous man cannot get by heaps of money scraped up with a greedy labour. He that desires only what he can have, obtains easily what he will have; And he that desires nothing but what pleaseth God, hath obtained it already, All things smile on him because he receives all things at the hand of God, whom he knows to be good and wise. Little and much are all one to him, for both serve alike for contentment, as it pleaseth God to extend a blessing upon it. Let us apply this to the three principal desires that cause so much tumult and disorder in the world, Covetousness, Ambition, and Voluptuousness.   

CHAP. V Of Desire of Wealth and Honour.  
What I have said of wealth and honours will persuade any man of good sense that they are not satisfying objects of a man's desire, & therefore not to be eagerly followed. It is our Saviour's consequence, Luk. 12.15. Take heed and beware of covetousness, for man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth: It is also St John's consequence, who forbids us to love the world and the things that are in it, because the world passeth away; 1 Joh. 2. These are two powerful reasons to moderate the desire of the things of this world, drawn from their nature: The one that they are not necessary, the other that they are transitory: And yet the covetous and ambitious seek after them as if life consisted in them, or they were to endure for ever. Which they cannot thus desire without turning their affection from the only necessary and permanent thing which is God; Matth. 6.24. You cannot serve God and Mammon, saith the Lord jesus. For as when a channel is cut for a river in a ground lower than her bed, all the water will fall where it finds a slope, and leaves her former channel dry. Likewise the desire of man, whose true channel is the love of God, will turn the whole affection of the soul towards low earthly things when that slope descent of covetousness and ambition is made in the heart, and nothing is left for God.  
For it is improperly spoken that a man pretending to great worldly honours is aspiring too high; Rather he is stooping too low, for the most precious things of the world, yea and the whole world, are very much under the excellency of man's soul, and more yet below the dignity of God's children. Who so then enslaveth his soul of heavenly origine, and called to a divine honour unto temporal things, which in this low world cannot be but low, debaseth his dignity most unworthily. And in all earthly things, high or low condition makes but little unequality, for still it is earth; Hills and dales are alike, compared with their distance from Heaven.  
But what? as the Israelites quitted God's service to worship the golden calf, the lustre of gold and honour will so dazzle men's eyes and inflame their desires that they transport unto things of this world that devout love which they own unto God. Wherefore St Paul saith that covetousness is idolatry. Col. 3. And it is no wonder, that the sensual objects prevail more upon Nature then the spiritual.  
Yet covetous and ambitious desires are not properly natural, but enormities of nature; for little provision serveth nature, whereas if all the waters of the sea were potable gold, they would not quench the thirst of covetousness. Nature is contented with a mean degree, but crowns heaped up to heaven would yet be too low for ambition. Greediness is an unthankful Vice. It makes a man so thirsty after that he hath not, that he forgets what he hath, and thinks not himself advanced though he see a great many behind, as long as he seethe yet some before him. He cannot enjoy that he hath, because he hangs upon that he hath not. Thus he is always needy, discontented, unquiet, and spares his enemies the labour to find him a continual vexation. And whereas the proper use for which Desire was given to man, is to supply his necessities, he makes use of his desire to multiply his necessities.  
To that sickness these are the proper remedies. The first is to abridge our desire, and be contented with little. To him that contenteth himself with little, little is much: But to him that is not contented with much, much is little.  
To abridge our desire we must bear down our pride: That which makes a man think a great wealth to be too little for him, is his too great esteem of himself. Whereas the humble and meek, though they have but little, think they have more than they deserve. Who so will calmly compare what he deserveth with that which God hath given him, shall find great matter to humble himself, and praise God, and silence the murmuring of his greediness. Let us remember our beginning. Being borne naked a little milk and a few baby clouts served us. Who would think that some years after, whole kingdoms could not satisfy us? Yet our need since that time is not much increased. 1. Tim. 6.8. Having food and raiment, we may be therewith content. A little is sufficient for necessary desires, but for curious and superfluous desires the whole world is too little.  
Let us employ our greedy desire to heal itself, considering that this greediness for the wealth and honour of the world spoils the enjoyment, and takes all content from it; for no man hath joy in these things but he that useth them as not using them: That greediness makes us seek them with torment, possess them with unquietness, and lose them with anguish. Yea many times greediness hindereth the acquisition. Good fortune seldom yields to them that will ravish her, but to the wise and moderate, who though they lose no opportunity, woo her as little concerned in her, and are always prepared for the repulse.  
That we spend no more about worldy fortune than it is worth, Put in one scale the splendour of honour and the plenty of wealth. Put in the other scale the labour to get them, the care and vexation to keep them, the peril, the envy, the loss of time, the temptations offered to the conscience, the stealing of a man's thoughts from God, and the danger of losing heaven while we go about to get the earth; Then the incapacity of those goods to satisfy the desire, their weakness, their uncertainty, and how one infortunate moment destroys the labour of many years, and then judge whether they be worth enflaming our desire and enslaving our affections.  
With the uncertainty of these possessions consider the uncertainty of the possessors, that nothing is frailer than man's life, nothing more certain than his death, nothing more uncertain than the hour. What need we lay up much treasure since we must lose all? What need to get up very high to fall to the ground, and there to rot?  
And whereas the tranquillity and contentment of man consisteth in the things that are within him, not in them that are about him, When he turns his principal desire and the whole bent of his mind to things that are without, he goeth out of himself, and subjecteth himself to another; He begs of another that which none but God and himself can give him: He makes his content to depend on that which is out of his power. A wise man will take heed of that, and will call-in his desire to his own breast, where he shall find God if he seek him well, and in God his only felicity. Let us be covetous to be rich in God, and ambitious to draw near him.  
Indeed since our body and life are maintained with things that are without us we cannot but desire them, as things which our necessity calls for. Besides which, our condition and the course of the world makes many outward things to become necessary which in themselves are not so. All these we may desire, so it be with an infericur desire, quietly subjected and subordinate to that Master-desire which must make a whole burnt-offering of the soul to God alone, that we may say to God with an entire and free heart, as Isaiah did, Isa. 26.8. The desire of our soul is to thy name, O Lord, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night, yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee. Blessed we! that our spirit needs but to seek within himself, to find the full satisfaction of his desire, if he have the grace to desire what he ought.   

CHAP. VI Of Desire of Pleasure.  
IT is easy to rule the Desire of Volupty when we have once well apprehended the nature of it. The body hath the greatest share in the Pleasures which the world runs after, we must not then for their sakes subject our mind unto our body. The pleasures of the body are short, we must not then for a short enjoyment entertain a long desire.  
They are light and of a faint taste, we must not then have a great Desire for a little Pleasure. They promise much to the Desire and perform little; Our desire then being forewarned of this, will not lightly trust their fair promises, and will look more, to their capacity then their invitation.  
Some pleasures are altogether unlawful. Of which therefore the desire must be cut off altogether. And before we give any admission to their flattery into our souls, we must take time to consider the design of him that sets them on work, the Devil. By them he seeks to blindfold us that he may lead us into perdition, which he will be sure to do if we entertain his false caresses, for after blindfolding comes blindness in earnest, error in the understanding, misrule in the affections, beggary, infamy, hardness of heart, a late remorse, and eternal damnation. Prov. 6.16. By means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Prov. 7.26. She hath cast down many wounded, yea many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to Hell, going down to the chambers of death. He that hath the grace to consider so much before, will step back when these enticements are offered unto him, and say, I will not buy a desperate repentance so dear.  
Pleasures in themselves lawful, become unlawful by accident, when they are desired or enjoyed with excess. Moderation is the balance of justice and the nurse of pleasure. Without it, Desire turns into sorrow, and Enjoyment into a severish fit.  
Those pleasures in which a beast hath no share are more worthy of a man, as those that are en●●●●● by contemplation. For them we may allow 〈◊〉 ●●ger tedder to desire. For those that are 〈◊〉 ●ost between the body and the spirit, as 〈◊〉 ●●ghts of picture and music, the tedder must be tied somewhat shorter, not giving too great a scope to curiosity. For the pleasures merely corporal, the tedder must be the shortest of all; Yet in all humane delights, whether of the body or the mind, excess is vicious and marreth the Pleasure. Solomon found it in the noblest of humane delights. Eccles. 1.18. In much wisdom (saith he) is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.  
It is one of the greatest proofs of the vanity of man's condition that in all humane things where the pleasure kindleth the desire, the pleasure is afterwards choked by the very desire: for either we seek in them the pleasure which they cannot afford, or we seek it otherwise then we ought, and even by seeking we lose it. Which inconveniences are prevented or mitigated by moderation in the desire and pursuit. For it will bring one of these two conveniences: Either we shall more certainly get what we would have; or, if we miss it, we shall not have the grief to have lost much labour about it.  
It were easy to draw a platform upon paper of the most delightful and complete estate that humane desire can aspire unto in this world. And that estate should be compounded with the three sorts of life, contemplative, active, and fruitive. A condition abounding with leisure to employ it in the contemplation of things good, noble, and pleasant; having businesses enough be useful in society, and not so many as to weary a man's body and mind about things inferior to the dignity of his soul; enjoying sufficiency of worldly goods with peace and wisdom, and a mediocrity of degree exempted from contempt & oppression; relishing the innocent contentments of life with sobriety and simplicity, not fixing the heart upon them, and therefore possessing the true use and and delight of them; All that seasoned with health of body and serenity of mind and with a good conscience aspiring continually to a higher felicity, enjoying it already by hope & by a present sense of the blessed peace of God.  
But we have not the liberty to cut our coat out of the whole cloth. The skill of a good engineer does not consist in making a regular Fort upon a parchment or a ground chosen at will that hath all the natural advantages; but in bowing his art to the nature of the place unto which necessity engageth him, and overcoming by industry the incommodiousness of the seat: Likewise, a wiseman's work is not to frame to himself poetical felicities, but to take things as he finds them, and use them well; for in man's condition on earth there is no seat so strong but is commanded, or if it be not now it will be another time, as being seated upon an unstable sand, to day even, to morrow uneven, which no humane strength or forecast can keep unmooved. The life of man being compounded of so many different pieces, in which virtue and prudence have but little share, why should our desire be so eagerly bend upon those thungs which are besides the reach of our industry?  
Though you had attained once to that high point of human happiness that you might contemplate freely and with leisure, do useful and illustrious actions in society, enjoy well-gotten wealth, an honourable degree, & a cheerful heart, in a sound body; how long can ye maintain that state? how many rubs shall you meet with in the fairest way? A lawsuit will make you go up and down and lay-by your contemplation: Envy and obloquy will cross and blast your best actions. A little sickness will take from you the taste of all the pleasures of life. I leave out great calamities. The torments of the stone & the gout, The sudden floods of war, The total ruins by false accusations, things which may happen to all because they happen to some; Accidere cuivis, quod cuiquam potest.  
The most desirable things of the world being thus casual, and no delight constant, The wisest and happiest are they that seek not their constant delight in the world, but stay their desire upon the right object, which gives a sincere and durable content, not subject to the tossing of worldly fortunes.  
Let us have no fervent desire but for those things that are truly ours when we have them once, and which we cannot lose against our will, for in them consisteth true pleasure. Those things are, the true knowledge of God, his love, and union with him, as much as human nature is capable of in this life. For that union with God will breed in us a resemblance of his virtues and a participation of his serenity, tranquillity, constancy, facility and delectation in well doing. These in which true delight lieth, are also the true objects of our desire. And here we must let the reins lose to Passion. Since to possess God is the infinite good and sovereign delight, the measure to desire it, is to have no measure.   

CHAP. VII. Of Sadness.  
Sadness is the dolour of the soul, and the beating down of the spirit. This seems to be the most natural of all Passions, as hereditary to man from his first parents: For to our first mother God said, Gen. 3.16 I will greatly multiply thy sorrows and thy conception; in sorrow shall thou bring forth children. And to our first father, v. 17. In sorrow thou shall eat thy bread all the days of thy life. No wonder then that sorrow is the inheritance of all their posterity. That first couple dejected with the sense of their sin and punishment, left a calamitous progeny. Job. 14.1 Man that is borne of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.  
But although this be a natural Passion yet it is an enemy to Nature, for it makes the flower and vigour of body and mind to whither, and obscureth that goodly light of the understanding with a thick mist of melancholy.  
Some sadness is necessary in its end, as that which belongs to contrition, and the zeal of God's glory. Some is necessary in its cause, as that which proceeds out of a sharp bodily pain. There is a constrained sadness, when one is sad out of good manners, and for fashion sake; Such is the mourning of heirs, whose tears in funerals are part of the ceremony. Many times we are sad in good earnest for being obliged to be sad in show. Then there is a wanton sadness which soft spirits love to entertain, for weeping is also a point of curiosity and delicacy. No doubt but they find delight in it, for none ever doth any thing of his own accord, but for his own content.  
Of Sadness necessary in its end, I have spoken in the chapter of Repentance, and must again in this, after I have given some counsels for repressing the other sorts of Sadness. Those are less capable of counsel that are necessary in their cause; as when the senses are pinched, for then no reason can persuade them not to feel it, or hinder the mind to have a fellow feeling of the pains of the body. A Physician and a Surgeon will be fit to abate that Sadness than a Philosopher, yet not then a Divine; for Divinity makes use of the very pains of the body to raise up the soul of the patiented to God; In deed the counsels of piety do not take away the pain, but they overcome it by the sweet persuasions of God's love to us.  
As for constrained and ceremonious Sadness, we must avoid the excess of it, and the defect also; choosing rather gently to yield to custom, then to be singular, and contradict all that we approve not; keeping always serenity within, in the midst of these ceremonies, more grievous many times than the grief that occasions them.  
Wanton and delicate Sadness, cannot be justified by the allegation of heavy losses and great wrongs. For besides that most part of the evils that men grieve for, are such only in the imagination, as a disdain, a reproach, a slander, the loss of some goods that did them nothing but harm; suppose that all the evils that we grieve for, be evils indeed, it follows not that we must grieve for them according to their grievousness, unless it appear that they may be mended by grieving. But never any dead man was raised from the dead by the tears that his widow shed upon his hearse. Never was a wrong repaired by the sadness of the wronged party. Adversity will cast down poor spirited persons, but raiseth the spirits of the generous, and sets their industry on work. The deep sorrow that seizeth upon a weak woman at her husband's death makes her incapable to overcome the difficulties where he leaves her: But a virtuous and wise widow hath no leisure to weep six months close prisoner in a dark chamber; rather she comforteth herself with following her businesses.  
Also since time drieth up the most overflowing tears, and a second wedding will take down the great mourning veil; it will be providently done to moderate sorrow betimes, that the disproportion may not be too eminent between Sadness and Joy.  
To attain that moderation we must take away that false excuse of good nature, and love to the deceased person from immoderate mourning, for in effect it is no other love but the love of ourselves that afflicts us, and not their loss, but ours.  
The true causes of immoderate sorrow for the things of this world are, these two great errors, against which I am so often necessitated to give warning to my readers, as the springs of all the folly and misery that is in the world. The one is the ignorance of the price of things; for he that will value money, honour, and credit according to their just price, and no more, will not be much afflicted if he lose them or cannot get them. The other is, that we seek out of ourselves that happiness and rest which is not where to be gotten but within us, from God and ourselves; and take those things for ours which are none of ours, but depend of others, and thereupon run towards those objects thus mistaken with a blind impetuosity. These are the true roots of Sadness, which roots if we could pluck out of our breasts, we should never be sad for any thing of the world.  
But it is very hard to pluck out that weed; for Sadness is like a nettle, a malignant stinging weed spreading in the soil where it hath once taken root, and sucking all the vigour and substance thereof. It makes a man murmur against God, and envy his neighbours, always discontented, always needy, suffering neither himself nor others to be at rest, odious to God and men and to his own self.  
The life of man being subject to occasions of Sadness, a wise man will not add voluntary sorrow to the necessary. And since by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken, Prov. 15.13. and a broken spirit drieth up the bones, Prov. 17.22. so that Sadness is the ruin both of body and mind; he will take so much care of the preservation of both, of which he is accountable to God, as to banish from his breast with his utmost industry that fretting consumption.  
The best course for that is to exercise ourselves in the love and contemplation of God, and faith in his promises. By these Sadness is cast out of the heart, and the soul is set in a pleasant and serene frame. Next, this wisdom must be learned of Solomon, Eccles. 5.17. It is good and comely for a man to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he takes under the Sun all the days of his life which God giveth him, for that is his portion.  
Obstinate Sadness is unthankful to God, for it drowns the benefits of God in an ungrateful oblivion, and takes away the taste of them even while we enjoy them. And what a double misery is that for a man, to make himself guilty by making himself miserable?  
For two things voluntary Sadness is lawful and useful, for the evil that we commit and the evil that others commit. Sadness for our own sins is contrition. Sadness for the sins of others, is the zeal of God's glory, both commendable & necessary. He that hath not a sad resenting of his own sins, must not hope for pardon, and is so fare from finding it that he cannot so much as seek it, for he that feels not his sickness shall never look for the remedy. Mat. 11.28. Come to me (saith Christ) all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. None are invited by the Gospel but such as labour and are heavy loaden, none but they can find rest unto their sonles. This comes to that I was saying lately, that we must be sad for no evil but such as can be mended by our Sadness; Such is contrition for sin, for it helps to heal it, making us cast ourselves upon the great Physician the Lord Jesus, whose merit is the Sovereign remedy to that great sickness. So, that Sadness ends in Joy.  
We must grieve also for the sins of others, for since we must love God above all things, we must be very sensible of the dishonour offered unto his holy name. This made Daniel and Nehemiah to fast and pray, and God shown that their Sadness was acceptable unto him.  
Sadness then is of good use for these ends, so that we never seek merit nor praise in it, remembering always that Sadness is evil in itself, & good only by accident. Sadness of contrition and zeal is good as Purges and letting of blood, which are good only because there is some evil in the body; If all were well, there would be no need of them. As than we must take heed of too much purging and blood-letting, so we must of too much Sadness either for contrition or zeal. The use of Sadness in contrition is to make repentance serious, and to humble the spirit, that it may be capable and thirsty of the grace of God. The use of sadness in zeal is to sympathise with God's interesses, and thereby bear witness to God and our own conscience that we acknowledge ourselves God's children. For these ends it is not required at our hands to grieve without term and measure; For since the greatness of God's mercy is as high above our sins, as Heaven is above Earth, (it is David's comparison) our faith and joy in God's mercy must also be very much above our sadness for our sins. And as God saith that our sins are cast into the sea, Mich. 7.19. meaning the deep Ocean of his infinite mercy, likewise our sorrow for our sins must be drowned in the joy of his salvation. Whereas also the blasphemies and oppositions of God's enemies, by his great wisdom and power turn to his glory, our sadness for these oppositions must end in joy for that almighty power and sovereign glory of our heavenly father, to which the greatest enmity of Satan and the world is subject and tributary, for by pulling against it they advance it.  
The consideration of the subjects of Sadness showeth more than any other, that man knoweth not himself, there being nothing in which one is sooner deceived. For many times we think ourselves to be sad for one thing, when we are sad for another, mistaking the pretence of our Sadness for the cause. Many will impute their sadness to the sense of their sins, but the true cause is in their hypoconders swelled and tainted with black choler, oppressing the heart, and sending up fuliginous vapours to the brains. No wonder that so often all the reasons of Divinity and the sweetest comforts of godliness cannot erect a spirit beaten down with sadness; the plaster is not laid to the sore, for spiritnal remedies purge neither the spleen nor the gall nor the brains, whose peccant humours breed all those doubts and fears whereby melancholy persons so pertinaciously vex themselves and others.  
Indeed the resolution of a serene and religious spirit will preserve body and soul in a sound and quiet state: But that resolution, which is excellent for prevention of the evil, will not overcome it when the humours of the body are generally died and infected with melancholy. Wherefore let us beware betimes that Sadness settle not in our heart; for the indulgence shown to wilful Sadness will in short time sour all the humours of the body, and vitiate the whole mass of the blood, and the magazine of vital and animal spirits with melancholy: Then when the mind hath made the body melancholy, the body doth the like to the mind, and both together contribute to make a man miserable, timorous, mischievous, savage, lycanthrope, and a heavy burden to himself. When that habit of melancholy gins by the spirit, it is more grievous; when it gins by the body, it is more incurable.  
To draw a man out of that deep gulf, all spiritual and material helps are of small virtue, unless it please God himself to fetch him out of it by strong hand and a stretched out arm; And of him, before and after all remedies, we must beg the remedy against Sadness: Melancholy is the seat and fastness of the Devil, whence none but God alone can thrust him out. Every time that Sadness offers to deject our spirits, let us raise them again presently, chiding ourselves as David did, who three times in the XLII, and XLIII Psalms took up his drooping mind with this encouragement, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.   

CHAP. VIII. Of Joy.  
JOy is the acquiescence of the Appetite in the acquisition of a desired good, or in the expectation of it.  
Joy is more natural than sadness, for sadness, though natural, yet is an enemy to nature, but Joy is nature's friend. Then, sadness is never without some degree of precedent constraint, and even they that are obstinately sad, are sorry to be so: But the heart applieth itself freely to Joy; Sadness is ill in itself, and is good but by accident; but Joy is good in itself, and is ill but by accident. Therefore considering both naturally, joy upon a false ground is preferable to sadness upon a true ground, for joy is a true good (at least for a time) though the ground be false; but sadness is a true present evil, be the ground true or false.  
But considering these passions morally, by the effects which they produce by accident, joy doth more harm in the world than sadness. For Joy naturally dilating the spirits brings the mind to a lose carriage and takes the fence of wariness from about it; commonly joy is the mother of rashness. But Sadness contracting the spirits, keeps the mind within the limits of soberness, and brings it to serious thoughts. Eccles. 7.2. Hence it comes that it is better to go to the hoùse of mourning then to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Eccles. 3.4. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.  
For of passions we may say as of men. Our friends flatter us, but our enemies tell us our faults. Joy, which is a friend of nature, doth flatter it into error and seduction; but sadness which is an enemy to nature, undeceiveth it and layeth open before a man his fault and his danger. The sanguine temper which is most given to joy, is most subject to folly; But the temper where melancholy bears a moderate sway is the fittest for prudence. But there are melancholy as well as sanguine fools; And sadness gives evil counsel, as well as Joy: The ill counsels of joy are more frequent and hot, and make more noise. The ill counsels of sadness are less frequent but they are dark & mischievous, and recompense their rarity with their malignity. The Italians call mischievous and dangerous men huomini tristi.  
It is a fine consideration how these two passions, though contrary, yet are next neighbours; and how in Joy there is an air of complaint, and in sadness a tickling of pleasure. That contemplation is more natural, then moral: It is more useful to learn, how Joy brings to sadness than how it is mixed with it.  
It is an old expostulation that the case of men is miserable to have their joys attended with crime, and their pleasures ending in a bitter farewell of remorse, and sometimes of despair. But that is an unjust re-jecting of the fault of the persons upon the things. The reason why our Joy is attended with crime and misery is because it mistakes both the matter and the manner. We neither rejoice for what we should, nor how we should.  
The first mistake is in the object. For our desire aiming at Joy, applies itself to false objects, and very often misseth them, or when it obtains them, finds not in them what it sought. And because the appetite obstinately bends itself to find in them more joy than their capacity can afford, and goeth about to stretch them beyond their strength, it mars them, and loseth the use of them; whence necessarily joy is turned into pettishness and grief.  
There is no sincere joy, but that which ariseth out of our inward wealth, which no outward opposition can take from us; But we make it depend upon things without us, and are so unreasonable as to require a solid permanent ground of joy, of things weak and transitory. Can we expect any thing but sorrow from an ill grounded joy, since by placing our chief joy upon unsound and deceitful objects, we bereave ourselves of the true and solid ground of joy which is our union with God? For my people hath committed two evils (saith God by his Prophet Jeremy) they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jer. 2.3.  
Then as we choose poor and weak subjects for our joy, we choose weak and evil ways to obtain them; yea so fare, that many times the joy aimed at, is made more precious & commendable unto us by the crossness and unluckiness of the way. Some hold that there can be no honest joy, and all lawful pleasures are tastlesse unto them because they are lawful; These reap commonly a suitable harvest to their seed, Or if they get lawful joys by lawful means, they make then unlawful by their impetuosity: And as women with child that use wicked means to be delivered before their time, lose their fruit; likewise, hastiness brings but an abortive joy, and fervent desire loseth its fruit by precipitation.  
Here is then a very ill account of all human joys. They that seek them miss them commonly, or when they have gotten them they find no solid content in them. To come near them, they go fare from God. They corrupt them by evil ways. They lose them by rashness and excess. The worst is, that the men lose themselves also, for while they seek to glut themselves with bastard joys, they cast themselves head long into endless sorrows.  
What then? must we seek no Joy in any thing of this world? It is the opinion of some more grave then wise, not mine I profess it. Rather I think that there is nothing in the world but affords matter of rejoicing to the wise Christian. Two rules only must be observed that we may rejoice as we ought in God and his creatures, and all the accidents and occurrences of life. The one is, to hold it for certain that there is no solid Joy in any thing displeasing to God, for all such joys will bring great sorrows; Wherefore that we may have Joy in all things, we must in all things seek to please him by a filial love confidence and obedience.  
The other rule, that we may find Joy in all things that are either of good or indifferent nature, is, to seek it according to the kind and capacity of every thing. To that end we must be careful that the Joy that we take in God be as little under him, as it is possible to us; and that the Joy that we take in other things, be not above them. Since than God is all good, all perfect, all pleasant, the only worthy to be most highly praised and most entirely beloved, we must also most exceedingly rejoice that he is ours, and we his, and that we are called to be one with him. As for other things let us judiciously examine what Joy they can give us, and lose nothing of the content which their capacity can afford, looking for no more; For there is scarce any sorrow in the world, but proceeds from this cause to have expected of humane things a Joy beyond their nature.  
Now this is the great skill of a mind serene religious & industrous for his own content, to know how to fetch joy out of all things; and whereas every thing hath two handles the one good & the other evil, to take every thing dexterously by the right handle. A man that hath that skill will rejoice in his riches with a joy sortable to their nature. And when he loseth them, in stead of grieving that he shall have them no longer, he rejoiceth that he had them so long. If he lose one of his hands, he rejoiceth that God preserveth him the other. If he lose the health of his body, he praiseth God for preserving to him the health of his mind. If slandering tongues take his good name from him, he rejoiceth that none can rob him of the testimony of a good conscience. If he be in the power of them that can kill his body, he rejoiceth that they cannot kill his soul. If he be condemned being innocent, his joy that he is innocent drowns his sorrow that he is condemned.  
Love and Joy are the two passions that serve to glorify God and praise him for his benefits. A thankful admirer of God's wisdom and bounty hath a cheerful heart. All things give him joy; the beauty, variety, and excellency of God's works makes him say with David. Psal. 92.4. Lord I will triumph in the works of thy hands. He rejoiceth in hope to see better works, and the Maker himself in whose sight and presence is fullness of joy. If he look up to heaven, he rejoiceth that he hath a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. 2 Cor. 5.1. If he look upon his body, he rejoiceth that in his flesh he shall see God. If he look upon his soul, he rejoiceth that there he bears the renewed image of God, and the earnest of his eternal adoption. If he be poor, he rejoiceth in that conformity with the Lord Jesus. If he see wealth in the house of his neighbours, he rejoiceth that they have the plenty & splendour of it, & that himself hath not the cares and the temptations that attend it. As many miseries as he seethe, so many arguments hath he to glorify God, and rejoice in his goodness, saying, Blessed be God that I am not maimed like that begging soldier, nor lunatic like that bedlam, nor going in shackles like that felon, nor a slave like that Counsellor of State.  
He will keep account of God's benefits, and considering, sometimes his own infirmities and natural inclinations, sometimes God's wise providence in the conduct of his life, he will acknowledge with a thankful joy, that God hath provided better for him then himself could have wished; that his crosses were necessary for him, and that if he had had a fairer way, he might have run headlong to ruin by his rashness.  
It were infinite to enumerate all the subjects of joy that God gives to his children; for his benefits are numberless, his care continual, his compassions new every morning, and the glory which he keeps for us eternal. Which way can we turn our eyes, and not find the bounty of God visible and sensible? Here then more evidently than any where else our happiness and our duty meet in one. It is a pleasant task to work our own joy. Now it is the task of God's children, in obedience to his express command by his Apostle, 1 Thes. 5.16. Rejoice evermore. See how urgent he is to recommend that duty. Phil. 4.4. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say Rejoice.   

CHAP. IX. Of Pride.  
I Contend not whether Pride must be called a Vice or a Passion. It is enough for me, that it is an affection too natural unto man, the cause of many passions, and a great disturber of inward tranquillity.  
Pride is a swelling of the soul, whose proper causes are, too good an opinion, and in consequence, too great a love of ones self: and whose most proper effects are, ambition of dignity, and greediness of praise. Wherefore these two effects cannot be overcome, unless we first overcome the cause which is presumption, and a blind immoderate love of a man's self.  
It is impossible for a man to be tranquil and safe, as long as he sits upon a crazy and tottering bottom. Pride then making a man to ground himself upon himself, cannot but keep him in a perpetual unquietness and vacillation. How can ye believe (saith the Lord Jesus to the Jews) which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that comes from God only? John 5.44. A text which taxeth Pride of two great evils, That is robs God of his glory, and that it shakes the the foundation of faith; For a proud man seeks not the glory of God but his own; and his own glory he doth not seek of God, but will get it of men by his own merit. Also it turns his heart away from his trust in God to trust in his own self Psal. 10.13. The wicked boasteth of his hearts desire, saith David, that is, he is confident that by his own strength he shall compass all his projects; And again, The wicked through the pride of his heart will not seek after God: for the one brings the other. He that trusteth in himself, and is highly conceited of his own wisdom, is easily persuaded that he hath no need of God.  
That disposition of the mind is the high way to ruin. Prov. 16.18. Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. For God to whom only glory belongeth cannot but be very jealous of those that will engross it to themselves, & declares open war against them. Psal. 18.27. He will bring down high looks. Jam. 4.6. He resisteth the proud, but showeth grace unto the humble. Prov. 8.11. I hate pride and arrogancy, saith Sovereign wisdom, which is God. As the wind hurts not the stalks of herbs as long as they are supple and bowing, but breaks them when they are become dry and stiff. The meek and humble spirits that bow under God's hand scape the storms of his Judgements; But the hearts stiff with pride are broken by them. They that acknowledge their weakness, and seek all their strength in God, find it, and may say with St. Paul. 2 Cor. 12.10. When I am weak than I am strong. But such as are high conceited of themselves, and with their wisdom will save the labour of God's providence, provoke him to confound their counsels, and unravel the web of their crafty projects; Luk. 1.51. for he scattereth the proud in the imagination of their heart. Isa. 5.21. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. But blessed and wise are they that humble themselves before God and rely upon his wisdom. A proud man layeth himself open to blows by his presumption, and like bubbles of soap water, the bigger he grows the weaker he is and swells till he burst.  
There is a deep wisdom in this sentence of Solomon; Prov. 29.23. A man's pride shall bring him low. For besides the judgements of God which soon or late will sink a proud man, Pride itself while it goeth about to raise a man, brings him extreme low, for it makes him bisognoso d'honor, needy of respect and praise: It makes him beg from door to door to get the approbation of strangers, upon which he wholly depends, and without it thinks himself undone. It makes him a slave to the opinion of others, thereby confuting the good opinion he hath of himself, and making him tacitly confess, that he is indigent, empty, and hungry.  
Also a man's Pride brings him low, when it makes him put on the vizard of ceremonious and hypocritical humility, and give to all men more respect than belongs to them, that he may receive of all more respect than he deserves. Of the same kind are they, that despise themselves that they may be honoured, and reject praise to get praise thereby, aspiring in a carnal abusive sense to the benefit of Christ's promise, that, He that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Mat. 23.21. As in that humility there is pride, so in that pride there is a base mind.  
There are two correctives of pride, two seeming contrary virtues, humility and generosity, yet agreeing very well and helping one another.  
That prime Philosopher of our age Monsicur des Cartes saith, that Generosity as well as Pride consisteth only in a good opinion of ones self, and that these passions herein only differ, that this opinion is just in the one and unjust in the other. It is judiciously spoken: yet their passions consist not in that only, for generosity is a greatness of courage standing firm in itself, but Pride is a weakness of spirit, begging greatness from others. Generosity looks in contempt upon those things where Pride looks for glory; for although good things and good actions give matter for Pride, if you look well to it, it is not the substance of good things that Pride sticks unto, but the circumstance. It is not the goodness of an action but the pride and lustre that goeth along with it which makes a man proud. But it is certain that Pride and generosity are near neighbours. He that hath a good and a just opinion of himself, slips easily from a just to an overweening opinion; and a worm of pride will soon breed in a high and generous soul: Especially when praises, the bellows of Pride, blow on all sides upon a man, it is a wonder if the wind get not into him.  
There is need then of humility, the other corrective, to keep generosity from degenerating into Pride. Humility is the free acknowledgement of a man's own weakness and imperfection, producing a voluntary depressing of himself. This definition is proper only to the humility of sinners, not to the humility of the Lord Jesus, who being all perfect hath nevertheless humbled himself more than any. Whence we learn, that perfection giveth yet more matter of humility than imperfection, & that the more a man is virtuous and like Christ, the more he must be humble. For there are two roots of humility, the one the sense of our own indignity, the other an obligation to yield unto God all the glory of the good that is in us. Out of this last root only, grew the humility of Jesus Christ; But our humility holds by two roots, and more by the first than the last.  
The sense of the good that is in ourselves may strengthen our courage with generosity, to reject all that is vain or evil and unworthy of us. Yet at the same time the sense of our imperfection must humble us before God, who is most perfect, and his eyes most pure and allseeing; And before men also, because appearing so unworthy before God, we must account ourselves unworthy of any deference from his creatures, and because if there be any good in us above others, it is the virtue of God not ours.  
These two virtues well tempered together will set our mind in a right frame, and keep it tranquil and content. But we must begin by humility; for contrition, repentance, and faith itself, belong to humility, which teacheth us to mistrust ourselves and have our refuge to God, to find pardon of our sins in his mercy, and a supply of our weakeness in his virtue. Upon whom, when we ground ourseves by a sound faith, and by it are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise bearing witness to our spirits that we are Gods children, than a holy generosity is bred in our hearts by the sense of that high quality, which makes us look with contempt, not only upon the pollutions of the world but even upon its lustre, as things fare under us, and reject all the temptations to evil, baited with pleasure honour and profit, as unworthy of our degree; For is there any thing so much worth in the world that a thild of God should displease his heavenly Father to get it?  
Keeping that temper we shall walk always before God with fear and joy together, and among men with charity and modesty; Rom. 12.16. Minding not high things but condescending to men and things of low estate, not being wise in our own conceits; for it is a point of generosity for a man to know his weakness. One may have his spirit above in heaven and yet condescend to men and things of low estate. Yea the more our spirit is sublimated by faith and heavenly hope, the more easily do we accommodate ourselves with mediocrity in earthly things, according to St Paul's reasoning. Col. 3.1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; Set your affections on things above, not on things that are on the Earth. This is the true remedy against pride. Have we high worldly thoughts? Let us raise our thoughts higher yet; Let us set our thoughts and affections on things above, not on things on the Earth: Let us never think ourselves mounted high enough, till we be where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. When the glory of the world fills a man's thoughts, while it doth lift him up with pride, it brings him down by cupidity under those things that are under him: But when the glory of God ruleth in our hearts, it brings us low with humility, and together raiseth us up by faith and a holy generosity, far above all humane things, even as high as the right hand of God with Christ, there to rejoice in his love and sweetly repose our hearts upon his fatherly care.  
None shall attain to that blessed state of the soul, which is already a heaven upon earth, unless he beat down his pride; A vice, which makes a man incompatible with God, for it pretends to that which to God alone is due, which is glory; incompatible with his neighbours, for it persuades him that all things are due to him; and that the honour and advancement bestowed upon any but himself, is ill bestowed; and incompatible with himself, for it tortureth a man's mind with envy, makes him secretly murmur against God and men, and renders him incapable of the grace of God, which is only for the meek; and of his kingdom, which is only for the poor in spirit, Matth. 5.3.  
Here this method must diligently be observed to rectify our opinion first, that we may rule our Passion. To bring down the tumour of Pride let us get a right opinion of ourselves; How we are begotten like beasts, borne in lamentation, lying a long time in our ordure, living in a sickly flesh, wild and foolish in our thoughts, corrupted in our affections, vain and wicked in our conversation; blind, wretched, and guilty before God, and after a few evil days returning to the ground of our ignoble principle. In the midst of the gaudy lustre of the world; let us look to our end, a winding sheet, putrefaction, worms, mourning of our heirs for a little while, and then perpetual oblivion. Let us bear these things in mind, and then be proud if we can.  
Many Passions have their origine from Pride, which must be called to our bar after their Mother.   

CHAP. X. Of Obstinacy.  
OBstinacy is a compound of pride and ignorance. It is an overthrow of the right polity of the soul, where the will must consult reason; but Obstinacy makes reason to consult the will, so that a man will do or maintain a thing, not because it is reasonable, but because he did it and maintained it before. Ignorance gins, which hoodwinks the understanding with error: Then comes Pride, which pin's that hood fast about his eyes, pretending that it is a shame for a man to go from his opinion.  
By Obstinacy a man comes to that desperate case of the soul, which Philosophy calls feritas, that is, a savage brutishness incapable of all virtue and discipline. For he must be either in god or beast that takes his instinct for his perpetual rule and sets before him his present will and doing as an immutable pattern of that he must will and do for ever after.  
When Obstinacy hath thus shut the door unto discipline and stopped a man's ear against counsel, one of these two evils followeth, Either he is hardened in evil without remedy; Or if by chance he light on the right side, he spoils it as fare as in him lies; maintaining truth and equity, not because it is so, but because he will have it so.  
There is no greater enemy to Christian wisdom than that stubborn disposition. For thereby a man stands in direct opposition against God, challenging to himself that which belongs to God alone, even to make his will a reason and a law. When the light of reason, or the word of God, or the manifest course of his providence, declares to us what the will of God is, nevertheless to set our will against it, out of a pretended constancy in our former opinion and inclination, what is it else but to make war against God?  
As Obstinacy is odious to God, so it is odious in society. It makes a man troublesome, ridiculous, and the undoer of himself; And of his Country also, if he be assisted with power, and hath many persons and businesses depending upon him. Expect neither wisdom nor fair dealing, nor serenity within, nor good actions abroad, where the will takes no counsel of reason. There is no place left for amendment, when one thinks himself obliged never, to alter his mind.  
As Obstinacy hardeneth opinions it doth the like to passions, to those chiefly that have melancholy for their fuel, as sadness, hatred, envy, and love also, for of these grown once inveterate many times a man can give no reason, but that he will continue as he hath begun.  
This vice is a bastard imitation of Constancy, whose name it borrows, but very injuriously: for constancy consisteth not in steadfastness to a man's own will, but in a firm adhering to goodness. That which is good one time, perhaps will not be so another time. Righteousness indeed is always one and the same, but variety of incidences and circumstances makes it change faces. As the needle of the compass that stands so fixed upon the North, not to be moved from that point by the greatest tempests, yet will in an instant turn to the South when the ship is gone beyond the Equinoctial line, and to that contrary point will keep with the like steadfastness so long as it is in that hemisphere: Likewise, a wise and good man will be firm in his resolutions, where his duty calls him; So because his duty lies not at all times the same way, his resolutions also are not bend at all times the same way, but will turn with his duty. Jeremiah desired sincerely the preservation of the Kingdom of Juda, & the liberty of his Country; But after that Zedekiah had taken the Oath of allegiance to the King of Babylon, he adviseth Zedekiah and his people, to yield Jerusalem to him.  
In vain Obstinacy aspireth to the praise of a great and brave spirit, it is rather a womanish narrowspirited weakness. It was the proper saying of a female, Mene incoepto desistere victam! Must I be overcome and desist from my purpose! Great houses have some rooms for winter, some for Summer, and several apartements for several Offices; But in small cabins the kitchen and the bedchamber are all one, and the same still in all seasons: Even so great spirits have a space for diversity of counsels, according to the diversity of occurrences, and various constellations of times and businesses which continually alter; but they are narrowbreasted men that have but one resolution and one course to carry them through all things and times. It is for a low and timorous spirit to be afraid to change fashion, and think himself lost when he must travel by a way that he never went before, whereas great spirits are complying, facile, universal; and their knowledge of the world, makes them find nothing new or strange.  
Obstinacy should be overcome from the cradle. Even than a child should be used to be contradicted, and as soon as the light of reason begins to dawn in his young soul, he must be taught to subject his will unto reason. Grown men, hardened in that vice by ill breeding and the flattery of men and fortune, yet may be healed if they will remove the causes of the disease. Since than Obstinacy is a compound of ignorance and pride, they must strive against both; Good instruction will expel ignorance, and as knowledge grows, especially that of God and themselves, Pride will decrease, and they will become docile and susceptible of better information.  
And whereas Obstinacy puts reason out of her seat, subjecting her to passion her natural subject, they must endeavour to restore reason to her right place and authority, forbidding the will to determine before reason hath given her verdict; or to give a resolution for a reason, for if the resolution be unreasonable, one must go from it, the sooner the better. It is unworthy of a man to have no reason but his will and custom, and being asked why he persisteth in this course, not to give his reason for answer but his Passion. Indeed obstinate men will give many reasons of their fixedness in their opinion; but let them examine soberly and impartially, whether their opinion be grounded upon those reasons, or whether they allege those reasons, because they will be of that Opinion.  
While we go about weaning of our mind from obstinacy, we must take heed of falling into a contrary evil a thousand times more dangerous; which is, to betray truth and righteousness, to comply with the time. For we must never balance whether God or men must be obeyed. We must not follow the multitude to do evil, though the world should charge us with Obstinacy. If our conscience tell us, that we deserve not that charge, we may rest satisfied; for we are accountable to God of our opinion, not of the opinion that others have of us. It is Constancy not Obstinacy to maintain truth and good conscience, even to the last breath, despising public opposition and private danger. I join truth with good conscience, because if the question be of a truth which may be left undefended without wronging a good conscience, it would be a foolish Obstinacy to swim against a violent and dangerous stream to defend it. But if it be such a truth as cannot be baulked without breaking faith with God and turning from a good conscience, we must persist in it, and resist unto blood when we are put to it. And better it is to be called opiniatre, then to be perfidious.   

CHAP. XI. Of Wrath.  
I put Wrath among the retinue of Pride as descended from it. To this one might oppose, that wrath is attributed to God in many texts of Scripture; And that the Apostle saith, Eph. 4. Be angry and sin not. And therefore that anger is not evil, and must be fathered upon a better Author than Pride.  
These objections will help us to know the nature of wrath. It is certain that there is no passion in God. But it is certain also, that if anger were a vice it should not be attributed unto God. The wrath of God is an indignation declared by effects showing a resenting of the offence offered unto his glory. As then, the anger of God proceeds from his glory, so the vicious anger of man proceeds from his pride which is a bastard glory.  
As for the other objection out of St Paul's precept, Be angry and sin not, whence it follows that one may be angry and not sin, we must distinguish between good and evil anger. The vicious anger comes out of pride, which is the evil glory of man, The good anger comes out of the glory of God; for the anger of God's children when they hear his name blasphemed, or see some horrible crime committed with the ceremonies of devotion and justice, is a sense which they have of God's glory, whose violation moveth them to jealousy. It is good to be angry for such occasions; but because anger is prone to run into excess, and to mingle particular animosities with the interest of God's glory, the Apostle gives us a caveat to be angry and sin not.  
Then the vicious and the virtuous anger differ in the object chiefly; the virtuous regards the interest of God, the vicious the interest of a man's self: but both proceed from glory, and have their motions for the vindication of glory. For as religious anger hath for its motive the glory of God, the motive of vicious anger is particular glory, and the resenting of private contempt, true or imagined. The proudest men are the most choleric, for being great lovers of themselves, & valuing themselves at a very high rate, they deem the smallest offences against them, to be unpardonable crimes.  
Truly, no passion shows more how necessary it is to know the nature and price of things, and of ourselves above all things; for he that apprehends well how small a thing he is, will not think the offences against him to be very great, and will not be much moved about them. The certainest trial to know how proficient we are in humility is to examine whether we have fewer and easier fits of choler then before.  
Ignorance of the price of things, and owning things that are none of ours, are the chief causes of disorder in all Passions; but they are more evident in the Passion of anger, because it is more violent, and puts forth those errors to the outside, which other Passions labour to hid.  
Besides these causes, Anger flows out of more springs, as great and rapid rivers are fed by many sources. Weakeness contributes much to it, for although a fit of anger look like a sally of vigour and courage, yet it is the effect of a soft spirit. Great and strong spirits are patiented, but weak and imbecile natures can suffer nothing, and like doors loosely hung, are easily gotten off the hooks. The wind stirs leaves and small branches, seldom the bodies of great trees. Light natures also are easily agitated with choler, solid minds hardly.  
All things that make a man tender and wanton, makes him also impatient and choleric, as covetousness, ambition, passionate love, ease, and flattery. The same effect is produced by the large licence given to the wandering of thoughts, curiosity, credulity, idleness, love of play. And it is much to be wondered at, that anger is stirred by contrary causes, prosperity and adversity, the replying of an adversary and his silence, too much and too little business, the glory to have done well and the shame to have done evil; so fantastical is that passion. There is nothing but will give occasion of anger to a peevish and impatient spirit.  
The causes of anger being past telling, our labour will be better bestowed to consider the effects, sufficient to breed an horror against that blustering passion, even in those that are most transported by it, when they look back upon that disorder in cold blood. Fierce anger is dreadful when it is assisted with power. It is an impetuous storm overthrowing all that lieth in its way. How many times hath it razed Cities, turned Empires upside down, and extermined whole nations? One fit of anger of Theodosius one of the best Emperors of the whole list, slew many thousands of men assembled in the amphitheatre of Thessalonica: How many than have been massacred by the wrath of wicked Princes? And what slaughter should there be in the world, if mean fellows had as much power as wrath?  
What disorders anger would work abroad if it were backed with power, one may judge by the disorder which it works within a man's soul; for with the overflowing of the gall into the mass of the blood, wrath at the same time overflows all the faculties of the mind, suffocates the reason, mads the will, and sets the appetite on fire; Which is to be seen in the inflammation of the face, the sparkling eyes, the quick & disorderly motion of the limbs, the injurious words, the violent actions. Wrath turns a man into a furious beast. If man be a little world, wrath is the tempest of it, which makes of the soul a stormy Sea, casting up mire and foam, and breaking itself against rocks by a blind rage.  
In the heat of such fits many get their death, or do such things which they repent of at leisure afterwards; for wrath brings forth an effect fortable to its cause; it comes out of weakeness and it weakens a man, there being nothing that disarms body and mind more, and exposes a man more to injuries. Indeed, when anger is kept within mediocrity, it sharpens valour, and awakes subtlety and readiness of wit. But when it is excessive, it makes the sinews to tremble, the tongue to stutter, and reason to lose the free exercise of her faculties, so that a man out of too much will, cannot compass what he wills: Latin Authors calling that weak violence ira impotens, impotent anger, have given it the right epithet, for it strips a man of his power over his own self and of strength to defend himself.  
In that tumultuous overthrow of the inward polity, what place remains for piety, charity, meekness, justice, equity, and all other virtues? for the serenity of the soul is the temperate climate where they grow, but the heat of choler parcheth them; they are not plants for that torrid Zone.  
I know that many times virtue is a pretence for choler. Angry men justify their Passion by the right which they maintain, thinking that they cannot maintain it with vigour enough. Thus whereas other passions are corrupted by evil things, this it corrupted by good things; and then (to be even with them) it corrupteth those good things: for there is no cause so good, but it is marred by impetuous choler. The great plea of anger is the injustice of others; But we must not repel one injustice by another. For although an angry man could keep himself from offending his neighbour, he cannot excuse his offence against God and himself, by troubling the serenity of his soul, which is expelling the image of God (for it is not reflected but in a calm soul) and bringing in storm and confusision, which is the devil's image. As when a hogshead of wine is shaken, the dregs rise to the top, and when the sea is raging, the mire doth the like; a fit of raging choler doth thrust up all the hidden ordure, which was settled before by the fear of God or men.  
The wrong done by others to piety and justice, is no just reason for our immoderate choler. For they have no need of such an ill champion, which is rather a hindrance then a defence of their cause, and to maintain them transgresseth against them. To defend such reasonable things as piety and justice, there is need of a free reason and a sober sense. And whether we be incensed with the injury done to them, or that which is done to us, we must be so just to ourselves as not to lay the punishment upon us for the faults of another, or make ourselves miserable because our neighbours are wicked.  
To that end we must remember that in the violation of justice, God is more interessed than we are, and knoweth how to punish it when he sees it expedient. And if God will not punish it as yet, our will must not be more hasty than his; and it becomes us not to be impatient for our interess, when himself is patiented in the wrong done to his own. Let the cause of our anger be never so holy and just, the sentence of St James is of perpetual truth, Jam. 1.20. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. If it be the cause of God that we defend, we must not use that good cause to bring forth evil effects; & the evil that incenseth us can hardly be so grievous, as the loss of humanity and right reason, of which a man is deprived by excessive wrath; for Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous. Prov. 27.4. It resteth in the bosom of fools, saith Solomon, Eccles. 79.  
Our good opinion and love of ourselves which (when all is said) are the chief causes of anger, aught to be also the motives to abate or prevent it: for would any man that thinks well of himself and loveth his own good, make himself vile & brutish? Now this is done by letting the reins lose to choler: whereas the way to deserve the good opinion of ourselves and others, is to maintain ourselves calm and generous, never removed from the imperial power over ourselves by any violence of passion. Pro. 16.32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that takes a city. I account not Alexander the Great, a great Conqueror, since he was a slave to his anger. A man that never drew sword and is master of himself, is a greater Conqueror than he.  
That calm disposition shall not want many provocations from those with whom we must of necessity live, servants especially, and servile souls, like unto cart horses that will neither go nor drive unless they feel the whip, or be terrified with a harsh angry tone. Seneca gives leave to the wiseman to use such varlets with the words and actions of anger, but not to be angry; A difficult task: It is to be feared that by counterfeiting anger, we may become angry in good earnest; and a man hath need of a sound premonition of reason and constancy, before he come to use those ways; so easy it is to slip into anger when one hath cause for it, and is persvaded that the faults of an idle servant cannot be mended without anger; But anger is a remedy worse than most diseases, and no household disorder is worth the disordering of our souls with passion. Better were it to be ill served, or not served at all, then to make our servants our Masters, giving them power to dispossess us of the command of ourselves, whensoever it will please them to provoke us to anger. Yet a wiseman may express indignation without anger, and an effectual vigour; making others tremble, himself standing unmooved.  
Out of the anger of others we may fetch three good uses. The first is to learn to hate that passion and take heed of it, seeing how it is imperious and servile together, ugly, unbecoming, unreasonable, hurtful to others and more to a man's self.  
The second use is, to gather carefully the wholesome warnings which an angry adversary will give us: for he will be sure to tell us all the evil he seethe in us, which ourselves see not. A benefit not to be expected from our discreet friends.  
The third is the noblest use, To study the science of discerning the spirits, considering with a judicious eye the several effects of every man's anger, for no passion discovereth so much the nature of persons. It layeth a man stark naked. Ifone be a contemner of God, as soon as he is angry he will be sure to wreak his anger upon God with blasphemies. If he have piety and ingenuity, he will make them plead for him, but lamely, as discomposed by anger. If he be a coward, he will insult over the weak; and if he find resistance, you shall see him threaten and tremble together, like base dogs then barking most when they run away. If he be haughty, his anger will express itself in a malignant smile, and he will boast of his blood and valour.  
The occasions of anger will better discover what a man is inclined unto; for every one will be sooner moved for those things where he is most interessed.  
As in anger, so in reconciliation, a discerning eye will read a character of the several humours. The vain and haughty man after he hath done wrong, stands upon reparation. The baseminded man is threatened into submissions after the injury received. The covetous wretch will have reparation in money, and puts a rate upon every bastinado. The conscionable, meek, and generous man is facile both in giving and receiving satisfaction, and easily pardons another man's anger, his own with much ado.  
From this let us reflect to the first use that we must make of the anger of others. He that will mind well how wrath betrays a man, and layeth open his infirmities; and how the man that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down and without walls, will fence himself against that treacherous passion by Christian meekness and moderation, and will learn to be wise by his neighbour's harm.  
To that meekness we shall be much helped by the remembrance of our sins, whereby we daily provoke God, and for which we might have been cast headlong into hell long ago, but that he is slow to wrath and abundant in goodness. Exod. 34.6. To expect that God our father be slow to wrath towards us, while we are hot to wrath against our brethren is the extremity of injustice and unreasonableness.  
To conclude, since we seek here our tranquillity, which we have found every where inseparably conjoined with our duty, let us observe our Saviour's precept, grounded upon his example, Matth. 11.29. Learn of me that I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. That way the Lord Jesus the great Master of wisdom found rest unto his soul, the same way shall we find rest to ours.   

CHAP. XII. Of Aversion, Hatred, and Revenge.  
AVersion is the first seed of Hatred, and hath a larger extent; for hatred regards only persons or actions, but many have Aversions for unreasonable or inanimate things; wherefore those Aversions are commonly unreasonable, whether it be out of natural antipathy, or out of fancy & wantonness. Persons subject to those Aversions have commonly more Passion than reason, and are such as are made tender and are soft spirited by ease. Ladies have many antipathies, but among country wives and milkmayds you shall find but few that will swoon at the sight of a spider or a frog.  
A wise man must impartially examine those Aversions, if he have any, whether they consist in fancy or nature, and not flatter himselse in such capricious weaknesses. He shall do much for his rest and credit if he can wean himself altogether from them. He that can command himself to have no Aversion, of which he may not give a reason, will train his passion that way, to have no unreasonable Hatred against any person.  
Hatred is an indignation for an injury received or imagined, or for an ill opinion conceived of a person or action. This description is common to it with anger. Herein they differ, that anger is sudden and hath a short course; but hatred is meditated at leisure, and is lasting: Also that anger seeks more a man's vindication then the harm of others, but hatred studieth the harm of adversaries.  
Hatred, as anger, is a compound of pride and sadness. (I mean the vicious hatred and the most common.) It proceeds likewise out of ignorance of ones self, and the price and nature of things. This Philosophy we learn of St. John 1 Joh. 2.11. He that hates his Brother is in darkness, and knows not whither he goes, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes; for ignorance is the darkness of the soul. As than blind men are commonly testy, the blindness of ignorance will make men prone to hate their neighbours, and hatred afterwards increaseth that blindness. By the same ignorance whereby we love some persons and things without knowledge and reason, we hate also some persons and things without reason; and many will choose rather to lose a friend then a shilling.  
Hatred is naturally good, serving to make us avoid things hurtful, and it is morally good when we use it to oppose that which is contrary to the Sovereign good which is God. When we hate that which God hateth we cannot do amiss, so that we be very certain that God hates it; such are the unjust habits and actions condemned by his word and by that law of nature written in man's heart: But as for the persons, because we have no declaration of God's love and hatred to this or that man, we must love them all, and never fear to offend God by loving that which he hateth, for we cannot offend him by obeying his commandment. Now he commands us to love our neighbours as ourselves. No doubt but we must love many persons which God hateth, neither will it be time to hate them till we have heard the sentence of God's personal hatred pronounced against them.  
I say, God's personal hatred, because there is a hatred of iniquity in God against those that oppose his glory; which obligeth us to hate them also with that hatred of iniquity, and to oppose them vigorously, as long as they oppose God. Of that hatred spoke David when he said, Psal. 139.21. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee, and am not I grieved with them that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies. But we must take heed lest the hatred of iniquity, bring the hatred against the persons; and the persons must not be afflicted more than needs, for the repressing of iniquity: The more difficult it is to keep that temper, the more earnestly ought we to endeavour to render all offices of charity and personal humanity to them whose party we justly seek to defeat; for to love our enemies and to overcome the evil with good, is the most ingenuous imitation of the Godhead. It is his command, joined with his example, Matth. 5.44. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he makes his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  
There is need of a great measure of grace and wisdom to observe these two precepts together. Psal. 97.10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil, and Matth. 22.39. Thou shalt love thy neighbour like thyself, hating iniquity in the wicked, and loving their persons, and both for God's sake.  
The chief use of hatred is, to be incited to good by the hatred of evil. For that end, it is not necessary that the greatness of hatred equal the greatness of the evil, and we are not obliged to hate evil things as much as they deserve; otherwise the great currant of our affection would run into the channel of hatred, and leave the channel of love, dry. Now it is in loving the Sovereign good with all our strength and with all our soul, that our duty and happiness consisteth, not in hating the evil with all our strength, and with all our soul. The hatred of evil is not requisite of itself, but by accident, as a consequence of the love of good. If the hatred of vice persuade us to virtue, we shall be more yet persuaded to it by the love of goodness.  
Many effects of hatred are the same as the effects of anger; for there is no anger without hatred in some degree, if not to a person, at least to an action. But there is some hatred without anger, when one forethinks in cold blood the ways to destroy an adversary.  
All the destructions of the world where the will of man is an agent are wrought immediately by hatred. They have many remote causes anbition, covetousness, carnal love, emulation and all the violent passions; but they destroy not, but by accident, till some opposition hath driven them into hatred, which in the inward polity of the soul hath the same office as the hangman in a City, for it is the executioner and avenger of wrongs. Unto hatred all the cruelty of tyranny and malice must be imputed. And yet all the blood spilt, all the ruins and inventive torments outwardly wrought by hatred, are nothing so grievous as the inward disorder wrought by it in cruel and revengeful souls, and the separation which it worketh between God and man. It is the final and most grievous effect of hatred, that, by hating our neighbours we become God's enemies. 1 Joh. 4.20. If a man say I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar.  
Hatred is a bitter venom which being once diffused & soaked into the soul turns a man into a hell-fury, contrary to all good, ready and industrious to all evil. But with all the pain that such a man takes to do harm to others he doth more harm to himself then to any, consuming his spirits with a continual malignant fever, & banishing from his soul serenity, charity, and meekness; virtues which are the soil of other virtues, and the givers of rest & contentment to the soul.  
It is often seen that while a man is gnawing his heart with a fierce hatred, the person he hateth is healthful, merry, and quiet, as if imprecations made him prosper. An ill grounded hatred draws God's blessing upon the party unjustly hated and persecuted. Psal. 109.18. It was David's hope Let them curse, but bless thou.  
Hatred is conceived for one of those two ends, Either to avenge ourselves or to avenge injustice which is God's cause.  
As for the first: Before we think of revenging an injury, we must examine whether we have received or done the greater injury: for it is ordinary that the offender is harder to be reconciled, that it may not be thought that he is in the wrong.  
Then we must calmly consider, whether the revenge may not do us more harm than the injury, though we had nothing to do but to break our lances against a dead stock incapable to resent it. For besides that there is no enemy so little but it is better to let him alone then to provoke him; the harm that hatred doth within us cannot be recompensed by any sweetness of revenge, though there were no other harm in hatred then to find delight in robbing God of that he hath reserved to himself: Now he challengeth revenge as his own, exclusively to all others; Heb. 10.30. Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense saith the Lord. To become incapable of rest, incapable of doing good, incapable of pleasing God, are sufficient evils to deter us from harbouring that inhuman passion, enemy of men, of God, and of ourselves. Pro. 11.17. The merciful man doth good to his own soul, but the cruel troubleth his own flesh.  
It is a right godly and philosophical study to strive against that tenderness, quick to pick offences, slow to take satisfaction. And we must be ingenious to devise causes of patience. Are you condemned being guilty? acknowledge Justice. Are you innocent? bow under authority. Are you newly offended; It is too soon to resent it. Is the Sun gone down since? It is too late. Hath any wounded you? look to your cure, not to your revenge. Are you well again? let not your mind be harder to heal then your body. Are you offended by a friend? remember the friendship more than the offence. Are you offended by an enemy? Do your endeavour that he be so no more; returning him good for evil. Is he too strong for you? It is folly to contend with him. Is he too weak? It is a shame. Is he your superior? you must yield to him: Is he your inferior? you must spare him.  
And since Pride, of which none is altogether free, represents our enemies to us under a vile and unworthy notion; let us fetch some good out of that evil; Let contempt help patience to bear with their provocations, for if a dog did by't us, we would not by't him again, nor kick at a ass that kicks against us.  
Also when some body offends us, let us remember that we have offended some body. The fault that we find in another, is in our own bosom. It is too great a flattery of self love to look to be excused, and excuse none; We are evil and infirm, and live among persons evil and infirm. All have need to put on a resolution of mutual forbearance.  
Above all things we must remember that we are all guilty before God, and stand in need of mercy, and unless we forgive them that trespass against us, we pray against ourselves, and ask our condemnation every time that we say the Lords Prayer.  
The meditation of death will conduce much to lay down hatred. To wish one dead is among the vulgar an expression of the greatest hatred. If then we may be satisfied with the death of our enemies, we may be sure that all our enemies shall die; but we must be sure also, that they may expect of us the like satisfaction. The worst we can do the one to the other, is to bring us to the end which Nature leads us unto. As while two little fishes are fight for a fly, the Pike comes, that devours them both; while we quarrel about small things, death is coming, which will swallow him that is in the right and him that is in the wrong, the victor and the vanquished. Look upon the broils of the age of our fathers; What is become of the long and opiniatre quarrel of the Leagve in which all Christendom was involved? death hath decided it. It hath cooled the 
* Titles that the Leagvers assumed.  Ardent and the Zealous; It hath stopped the full career of hatred assisted with valournd power. It will do the like to the quarrels of our days. Let us not be so hot in our dissensions; Death will quench our heat within a few days, and send us to plead our causes before our great judge. It will go ill with us if we appear in that judgement, before we have made peace with our judge by a true repentance and faith, which without charity with our neighbours cannot subsist. Why should our hatred be long, since our life is short?  
The same consideration will serve to temper the hatred of iniquity, which for the most part is a pretence whereby we cousin ourselves and others, to palliate personal hatred. If we take God's cause sincerely in hand, we must conform ourselves to his will and wisdom, expecting till he send his messenger, which is death, to attach the wicked before his judgement. Psal. 37.8. Cease from anger and forsake wrath, Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil, for evil doers shall be cut off; 10. Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be.  
If we hate wickedness, we may be sure that God hates it more yet, and he will punish it; but in his own time, to satisfy his justice not our fashion. Certainly if we hated iniquity in good earnest, we would hate it in ourselves. Though our enemies be wicked, we must love them for God's sake: and, because we also are subject to the like infirmities, we must love them for our sakes.   

CHAP. XIII. Of Envy.  
HEre is one more of the Daughters of Pride, and therefore a grandchild of Ignorance and Self love. She is much like Hatred her elder Sister. In this they differ, that Hatred is bend against the evil; and Envy, against the good. But to show herself descended from Ignorance, she mistakes the false goods for the true; For no man will envy the Christian virtues of his neighbours, nor the riches of his mind, but the goods of fortune which often deserve rather to be called evils. Let a man grow in learning & holiness, let him be a Saint upon earth, let him have Seraphical raptures no man will envy him for it, but let him once get favour at Court, let his degree and his rents be augmented, presently the arrows of envy will be shot at him on all sides. Indeed great Orators, great Warriors, and men eminent in civil prudence are much envied by idle drones; but if you look to the ground of that envy, it is not the virtue and capacity of those brave men that begets it, but the fame and credit which they get thereby. Think not that Satan envieth God because he is good & wise, if he did he would endeavour to be so: He envieth God because he is Almighty, and because he is worshipped by men and Angels, whereas himself would have all power in heaven and earth, and every knee to bow unto him. It is not virtue but the reward of virtue, that moveth envy. If it were in an envious man's power to distribute all the wealth, spiritual and temporal which is among men, he would not dispute to his enemies the possession of all the virtues, but he would keep to himself all the rewards.  
This is the cause of that disposition. When an envious man seethe others enjoy wealth, he feareth there will not be enough left for him. But as for Virtue, he is sure that the plenty of it with others, will not hinder his own possession of the like; So he doth not envy it. For nothing moveth envy but such things as have moved cupidity before: Cupidity is for light & glittering stuff, and envy keeps pace with cupidity. Virtue is a substance too dark and solid for their turn. Learn we then to store ourselves with those goods, which provoke no envy, and which we may possess, no body being the poorer by our riches.  
Envy is a great enemy to tranquillity of the suol. It is the rottenness of the bones saith Solomon, Prov. 14.30. which is a pregnant character of a passing malignant and corroding passion. It hath two unnatural effects, The one that an envious man is afflicted with the prosperity of others, the other that he punisheth himself.  
The first effect is particular to Envy, and herein it doth not enter commons with any other Passion. The envious man is sick, because his neighbour is well. He groweth lean, because another grows fat; he thinks that he loseth all that another gets, and makes of his neighbour's prosperity his adversity. He is directly opposite to Christian sympathy and the commandment of the Apostle, Rom. 12.15. Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep, for he is weeping with them that rejoice, and rejoicing with them that weep. Whereas the Apostle saith, that Charity is not envious, 1. Cor. 13.4. we may invert the terms, and say that Envy is not charitable: yea, of all vices it is most incompatible with charity. Envious men are the only kind of men, to whom without form of justice & without breach of charity we may do harm, since to do them harm we need but do good to their neighbours.  
But it is needless to do harm to an envious man, or wish him more harm than he doth to himself, vexing his mind and drying up his body by a continual and just punishment. This is wisely expressed in the CXII Psalm, where after the promise made to the just that his righteousness endureth for ever, and his horn shall be exalted with honoùr, the text addeth. The wicked shall see it and be grieved, he shall gnash with his teeth, the desire of the wicked shall perish. And it is very probable that in the outward darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, that burning fire and that gnawing and neverdying worm is Envy, biting the damned to the quick, while they are thinking of the glory and felicity of God, and how the Saints whom they have despised & oppressed in the world are filled with joy and crowned with glory, while themselves are infamous and miserable. That comparison is a main article of their misery,  
The envious man cannot suffer as much as he deserveth, since he sets himself against God and all that God loveth, controlling His distribution of his goods. He that is grieved at the good he seethe, deserveth never to have any good, & it were pity he should have any, if he can get no good but by his neighbour's harm.  
Besides the causes of envy which I observed before, there are two more that are great contributours to that wicked vice. The one is want of faith; for a man becomes envious because he believeth not that God hath enough in his store to do good to him and others, or that God doth wisely to give him superiors or equals. Which unbelecfe makes him to murmur and fall out with God. Matth. 20.15. His eye is evil, because God is good.  
The other cause is Idleness. It makes men envious, but it makes them poor before; for when they are grown poor through idleness they look upon the wealth of their neighbours with envy. The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing and the thing he desireth is his neighbour's estate, which he looks upon with an evil eye. Hence wars, robberies, and piracies. For while diligent men grow rich by their industry, idle and envious men study only to have strength on their side to rob the industrious, or at least to put a stop to their increase.  
This search of the causes of envy opens us the way to the remedies. Since all disorder in the appetite gins by error in the understanding, we must before all things heal our understanding of that error and ignorance which occasions envy, even that false opinion that the wealth and honour of the world make a man happy; whereas they are instruments of wickedness and misery unto weak souls; and to the strong, hindrances and seeds of care. They are the ropes wherewith Satan draws men into perdition; For one that useth them well, a thousand are corrupted and undone by them. And who would envy slaves and miserable persons?  
Then we must beat down pride and the excessive love of ourselves, with the study of humility charity, and meekness. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also to the things of others, Phil. 2.3. If once we can get an humble opinion of ourselves, and a charitable opinion of our neighbours, we shall not be vexed with envy seeing their prosperity, for we shall think that they deserve it better than we. In stead of an envious comparing of our neighbour's estates with ours, let us compare what we have received of God, with what we deserve of him, and that will quell our pride and envy.  
An especial care must be taken to cut our desire short, which is the next cause of envy. He that desireth little shall envy no body; For so little as he needs, he would not strip another to  himself.  
If sometimes the lustre of worldly advancements dazzle our eyes and breed in us some motions of envy, let us consider what those advancements cost them that have attained them, how much time, money, and labour they have spent, how many doors of great persons they besieged, how many frowns from their superiors, how many justlings from their emulatours: Then, how many temptations, how many shifts were they put to, even to disguising of truth and wresting of justice. Let us think well whether we would have bought preferment at that rate, and that if we have it not, we did not spend for it what others did. We have not broken our sleep with cares, we have not been many years tottering between fear and hope: We have given no thanks for affronts. We have not courted a porter and a groom. We have not purchased with gifts a Clerks favour. We have not turned the whole bent of our mind from the service of God to the service of the world. In a word if we have not the wares, we have not paid our money for it. And if we would not have spent so much about that advancement, we have no reason to envy them that have bought it so dear  
The chief remedy against that fretting disease is, faith in the power goodness and wisdom of God, with an entire submission to his holy will. Why should we afflict ourselves for God's gifts to others? Rom. 10.12. The same Lord over all, is rich unto all that call upon him. He hath enough to enrich us all. Let us not look what he gives to others, but let us humbly ask him that which he knows to be fit for us, and thankfully receive what he giveth us, being sure that all that he gives is good because it comes from his good hand. If we can truly say, with David's faith, The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, Psal. 16.5. how can we after that look upon our neighbour's portion with envy.  
It is also an antidote against envy to be always; well employed for idleness makes a man to leave his business to look upon his neighbour's work, and doing nothing control them that do well.  
As for the envy which others bear to us, we have reason to rejoice that our condition is such as deserves envy, at least in the opinion of others: It is true we must not refer ourselves to the opinion of others, but to our own self about the happiness or unhappiness of our condition; but because we are not sensible as we ought of God's benefits towards us, and many times complain when we should praise God, our neighbour's envy serveth to awake our sense of God's mercies, and to move us to thankfulness.   

CHAP. XIV. Of Jealousy.  
JEalousy is much like Envy. In Greeke one word serveth for both. Yet are they of different nature. For a man is envious of that he hath not, but he is Jealous of that he hath.  
Besides they are of different extractions. Envy is the daughter of Pride, for to pride the envious man oweth the opinion he hath to be more worthy of the advantages conferred upon others; but Jealousy is the offspring of a base mind that judgeth himself unworthy of that which he possesseth, and feareth that another be more worthy of it.  
Jealousy is a various and fantastical medley of love, distrust, revenge, sadness, fear, and shame. But that compound is not lasting, for love soon turns into hatred, fear and shame into fury, and distrust into despair. Solomon saith that jealousy is the rage of a man. Prov. 6.34.  
The predominant passions in Jealousy (for Jealousy is many passions together) are, fear not to possess alone what one loveth, and shame of what the world may say of it; this last especially tears amans soul with extreme violence; so slavish is the voluntary subjection of weak spirits under the opinion of others.  
A wise man will keep himself from that sharp yet imaginary evil, by a sincere love to his party, for perfect love casteth out fear. 1 Joh. 4.18. He that loveth his wife well will trust her, and that trust will make her faithful, or nothing will. Fidelem si putaveris facies.  
To that counsel of trusting his wife, the husband must join a resolution not to mistrust himself. For here one may lawfully put on a good opinion of himself, the question being only to compare himself with others about pleasing a woman, which is obliged to study to please him; and cannot, without grievous crime and conceiving an enormous disproportion of merit between him and others, bestow upon them that love which is due to him. A husband betrayeth himself and tempteth his wife's weakness, when he discovereth a distrust of himself, and a fear that she prefer other men before him. This showeth her the way to value them above her husband, and she thinks herself justified so to do by her husband's judgement.  
He must learn also to be credulous for his own content, and of hard belief in the causes of discontent. For here it is better to be deceived in evil then in good, and it is better always not to search an evil without remedy, then to find it; especially when by seeking it, we make it come. The dishonour of cuckoldry consisting only in opinion, it is healed also with opinion, and he that feels it not, hath it not.  
This inconvenience is prevented by making choice of a virtuous wife, and using her well, for restraint and hard usage doth but draw the evil; Also by keeping us free from defiling our neighbour's bed; This will give us a great confidence that God will not suffer any to defile ours; Most jealous men are adulterers, fearing what they have deserved.  
But when one hath made an ill choice, neither kindness, nor justice, nor prudence, can keep a light and ungrateful woman to her duty; When the wrong is so manifest, that it is impossible for the husband not to know it, and dissembling would be imputed to insensibility or even to consent; the right counsel for the exterior is, to be divorced from a wicked wife. But if one can neither marry again, nor live without a woman, and feareth that he shall hardly be able to keep himself from harlots; of all harlots let him make use of his own. It is better yet to keep a lawful whore, than an unlawful.  
As for counsels for the interior, one must practise the grand remedy to remediless evils, patience. God, in this as in other sorrows of life, will find ways of comfort & relief for those that trust in him, even where there is no way: The good company of so many brave men that are in the same row, is a help to bear it. A wiseman will make no more strange of it, then of wearing a hat a la mode.  
He must keep fast to that true Maxim, that he cannot be dishonoured but by his own faults, not by the faults of another. A virtuous man's honour hangs not upon a light woman's behaviour. If it did, it should lie very unsafe. No more doth it depend upon his neighbour's opinion. Persons of honour and judgement will never disesteem an honest man for it. And as for the talk of the vulgar, honour and good fame depend no more of it, then of the gabbling of geese.   

CHAP. XV. Of Hope.  
I Have spoken in the first Book of the Christian Virtue of Hope. Here I speak of a natural Passion. Yet it is certain, that they differ only in the degree of perfection and in the object. Natural hope is wavering, Divine hope is fixed; Divine hope regardeth eternal goods, Natural hope looks for natural and civil goods; Yet the object of Divine hope is not denied to the natural, but when that passion is determined by grace unto supernatural goods, it becomes a virtue.  
Hope is a compound of courage, Desire, and Joy; but hath more of the first and second ingredient then of the third. Also a grain of fear enters into the composition; for if there were none, it would not be hope but expectation; as on the other side there is a grain of Hope in fear, for if there were no Hope, it would not be fear but despair.  
Hope hath this common with love and desire, that it regards a good object, at least in the intention. But Hope considers four particular qualities in her object, That it is absent, that it is future, that it is possible and likely, and that it is yet uncertain, at least in some regard; if not in the substance, at least in the circumstance; for even the certainest Hope of all, that of eternal goods grounded upon God's immutable promises, is nevertheless uncertain of the degree, the manner, and the time of the enjoyment hoped for.  
Laying aside that prime object of hope, it is hard to say, whether Hope doth more good or harm in the world; For on the one side it raiseth the courage and animates good enterprises with vigour; On the other side it blinds the reason, which instead of good chooseth a disguised evil, or turns good into evil, by rashness & unquietness. Hope sets the mind on gadding and aspiring higher than it can reach, all ways discontented with the present and hanging upon the future. And how deceitful are the promises of Hope! Of ten, one comes not to effect. With hoping good and suffering evil, man's life passeth away.  
Yet must we acknowledge the obligation that men have to hope, for it makes them subsist, even while it deceives them. What makes Negroes confined to the mines, there to eat and drink? It is Hope. What makes galley slaves to sing while they are rowing? It is Hope. And would so many persons whose days are a continual torment consent to maintain their wretched life, but that in a bottomless gulf of evils they will obstinate themselves to hope well; and after all goods are flown away, Hope stayeth behind. Hence it comes, that many unfortunate persons will stir up their industry, awake their virtue, strengthen themselves in faith, and live to see better days.  
So to answer the question whether Hope must be reckoned among the goods or among the evils, it may be said that it is the evil of them that are at ease, and the good of the miserable: For such as have means and dignity have also many designs and chained hopes, which keep them hanging in chains, while cares and fears, like ravens, are tearing their hearts. Besides, they that are enchanted with many worldly hopes, conceive christian Hope but remissely.  
Whereas they that are in adversity being not tickled with those delicate hopes which a man dares not recommend unto God, will fix upon just hopes, suggested by necessity. And if they have any godliness in them, they will show it in grounding those just hopes upon God's mercy and promises. The less invitation they have to flatter themselves with worldly hopes, the more will they strengthen themselves with the hope of heavenly goods.  
In both the fortunes, a wise lover of his tranquillity will not feed or swell his hope, but for one object, which is, The fullness of his union with God; For any thing else he will clip the soaring wings of that aspiring passion, and will not let her fly too high nor too fare.  
In the appetite, as there is a predominant love and a predominant desire, so there is a predominant Hope. When it is anchored upon the only good perfect and immutable object, it keeps the soul firm and tranquil. If it be moored upon quicksand (and such are all the things of the world, in which there is no safe anchorage) it will be carried away by every wind and tide, and never keep in a quiet station.  
The vulgar thinks it a wise and courageous part to be obstinate to hope well. But a firm and unmooved hope, ought not to be conceived or resolved upon, but for firm and unmoved goods, even those only that are the subject of the promises of the Gospel. But for things about which we have no divine and especial promise, the more one is obstinate to hope well, the more likely is he to speed ill, because the obstinacy of Hope puts the judgement out of his office and leave t● no room for Prudence. And the ill success is made more bitter by the preceding obstinate hope; Whereas to him that stands prepared for the worst, nothing comes against Hope; And if good come, he tastes it better, for his success hath exceeded his Hope.  
The way to be little disappointed, is to hope little; and the way not to be disappointed at all is to confine our Hopes within us, as much as we can, and to the things above, which the true Christian finds already within; depending upon no future things, but his perfect reunion with God. Whosoever will proportion his hope to the nature of the objects, shall never entertain great hopes for worldly matters. For there is a great imprudence in that disproportion to have great hopes for small things.   

CHAP. XVI. Of Fear.  
Fear is a feeling beforehand of an evil to come, yet uncertain, as least in the circumstance; And when the evil is come, Fear endeth, and turneth to sorrow or despair.  
Fear is one of the most simple and natural Passions. It is found even in the most unperfect animals, for God hath put it in all for their preservation. The very Oysters will shrink for Fear, when the knife doth but touch their shell.  
As there are two evils to which men are obnoxious, pain and sin; there are two fears answering these two evils, the fear of suffering and the fear of sinning.  
Of the first none is altogether exempt, although the Spanish Scholar examined at Paris about his proficiency in Moral Philosophy, and demanded what Fear was, covered his ignorance with this bravado, In nostra patria nescimus quid sit timor. In our Country (said he) we know not what Fear is. But without fear, a man can have neither prudence nor valour, for he that fears not the blow guards it not, and is slain without resistance.  
The principal use of Fear is to prevent or avoid evil. But when the evil is unavoidable, and now at hand, than resolution must repress Fear: Although even at that time fear doth good service, for the fear of losing honour or life erecteth a man's courage. Valour in combat is as often out of fear, as out of magnanimity; and it is often hard to discern which of these contrary causes puts valour into a man. The certainest mark of valour by fear is cruelty, when he that hath disarmed his adversary in a duel kills him without mercy, and after a field won puts all to the sword; for he showeth that he feareth his enemy, even when he is out of combat. But he that gives him his life showeth, that he sears him no more alive than dead.  
The most valorous are not they that have no fear, for it is natural to all men; but they, that know how to moderate it.  
A man cannot Fear too little, for no evil can be avoided by fear, but may much better be avoided by judgement.  
To fear things which neither strength nor forecast can prevent is an anticipation of the evil. It is a great folly to lose our present rest out of fear of future trouble, as though it were not time enough to be afflicted when affliction comes.  
But Fear doth more than to bring near remote evils, it creates evil where there is none. And many evils which shall never come and are altogether impossible, acquire by fear a possibility and a real being. We laugh at an hypocondriaque that thinks himself to be made of snow, and is afraid to melt at the Sun, because he fears that which cannot happen to him. But a rich man tormented with fear of falling into Poverty, is much more ridiculous: For which of the two is the greater fool, he that fears that which cannot happen, or he that makes it happen by fearing it? The hypocondriac cannot melt at the Sun by the fear he hath of it, but a covetous man by his fear of being poor, is poor in good earnest; so poor, that he wanteth even that which he hath, for he loseth the enjoyment of his wealth by his fear of losing it.  
It may be truly said that there is no vain Fear, since all fears whether true or false are real evils, and Fear itself is one of the worst evils. It makes a man more miserable than a beast, which feels no evil but the present, and fears it not but when the senses give her warning of the near approach of it. But man by his fear preventeth and sends for the evil, stretching it by imagination very fare beyond his extent; many times also forging evil to himself where there is none, and turning good into evil, for it is ordinary with us to be afraid of that we should desire.  
For remedy to that disease we must learn our Saviour's Philosophy. Matth. 6.34. To every day is sufficient the affliction thereof. If the evil must come, we must expect it, not go fetch it. Let us not make ourselves miserable before the time. Let us take all the good time that God gives us. Perhaps the evil will come, but not yet. Perhaps it will not come at all. There is no Fear so certain, but it is more certain yet, that we are as often deceived in our fears, as in our hopes. And this good we reap out of the inconstancy of humane things, against which we so much murmur, that it turns as soon towards good as towards evil. Habet etiam mala fortuna inconstantiam, or if it turn not to good, it turns to another evil. The arrow shot against us with a small declination of our body will miss us, and hit our neighbour's head. A little wind will turn a great storm; A sudden commotion in the State will create every where new interesses. He that held us by the throat will be suddenly set upon by another, & will let us go to defend himself. If we see no way for us to scape, God seethe it. After we have reckoned all the evil that our adversary can do, we know not what God will do. In the creation he made the light to shine out of darkness, and ever since he takes delight to fetch the comfort and advancement of those whom he loveth, out of the things they fear. That which we fear may happen, but it will be for our good. Unto many the bed or the prison hath been a Sanctuary in an ill time. Unto many the public calamity hath been a shelter against the particular. Many times that which looks grim a fare off, smiles upon us near hand. And what is more common then to be promoted by those things which we feared most? Exile and confiscation condemn us often to a happy tranquillity, taking us from the crowd and the tumult to set us at large and at rest.  
These considerations serve to decline, not to overcome the evil. Wherefore there is need of stronger remedies. For that we may be healed of Fear it is not enough to say, Perhaps the evil will not come, or will not prove so terrible as it looks. Say we rather, Suppose the evil must avoidable come, I do imagine the worst; Say it be poverty, close prison, torture, the scaffold, the axe; All that, can take nothing from me that I may call mine; God and a good conscience are mine only true goods, which no power and no violence can take from me; All the rest is not worth the fear of losing: Isa. 12.2. Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength, and my song, he also is become my salvation.  
Then the remedy to the shaking ague of fear consisteth in knowing these two things. The evil and the liberatour; The evil cannot be very great since it hath an end, No evil of this world but ends by death, Death itself is good since it ends evils; how much more when it gins eternal goods? to the right Christian, death is not a matter of fear but of hope. Let us take away from the things we fear that hideous vizard which imagination puts upon them, calmly looking into their nature, and getting familiarity with them by meditation. Let nothing that is incident to humane condition seem strange or new to us. What happens to one may happen to any other. The ordinariest cause of fear is surprise. That we be not surprised we must think betimes upon all that may come, and stand prepared for all. So nothing shall seem strange when it comes.  
But the chief remedy against fear is to lift up our hearts to the great Liberatour that hath goods and evils in his hand, that sends afflictions and deliverances, that brings down and brings up again, that gives us strength according to the burden which he layeth upon us, and multiplieth his comforts with our afflictions. Being persuaded that God is most wise and most good, and that all things work together for good unto them that love him, we will repress our fear of the accidents of life and second causes, saying, The will of the Lord be done; we are sure that nothing but good can come to us, since nothing can come but from God.  
Wheresore instead of fearing to suffer evil we must fear to do it, which is the safest course to prevent suffering. He that commits sin is more unfortunate than he that suffers pain, for suffering moveth God's mercy but sin moveth his indignation. That man cannot but fear sin that beareth in mind that God hates it and marks it; There than we must fear, and the chief deliverance that we must ask of God is, that he deliver us from every evil work. 2 Tim. 4.18. As we fear sufferings because of themselves, so must we fear evil works, because of the evil that is in them, besides the sufferings that attend them soon or late. This Fear of love and revecence towards God, puts out all other Fears: He that fears God, needs not Fear any thing else.   

CHAP. XVII. Of Confidence and Despair.  
OF these we need not say much, having spoken before of Hope and Fear, for confidence is the extremity of Hope, and Despair is the extremity of Fear.  
Confidence, which otherwise may be called a firm expectation, is a certainty that we conceive of a future desired good, or of the love and fidelity of a person, whereby the heart is filled with joy and love.  
Despair is the certainty that the mind conceiveth of a future evil very odious, or of the enmity or infidelity of a person, whereby the heart is seized and in a manner squeazed with sorrow and hatred.  
These Passions being so opposite yet ordinarily will pass the one into the other, I mean Confidence into Despair; from Despair to pass to Confidence, it is rare. The surest course to avoid falling into Despair for things of the world, is to put no great confidence in them: Moderate hopes being frustrated turn into moderate fears and sorrows. But a great and joyful Confidence being disappointed will fall headlong into extreme and desperate sorrow, as they that tumble from a high precipice get a heavy fall.  
One subject only is proper for man's entire Confidence which is God, all good, all mighty and all wise: Without him all things that men use to repose their confidence upon, are waves and quicksands. Men are mutable, and though they could give a good security for the constancy of their will, they can give none for the continuance of their life. The goods of the earth fail our expectation, or come short of our satisfaction, or slip from our possession. They will leave us, or we them. No wonder if they that repose their full and whole confidence in them are seen so often to fall into despair. Here then the true counsel for tranquillity is to trust wholly upon none but God; on other things according to their nature and capacity. They shall never deceive us if we require nothing of them above their nature.  
There is a kind of Despair improperly so called which is no more but to give over hoping a thing which upon our second and better thoughts we have found either inconvenient or impossible. That Despair will rather bring rest then trouble to the mind. Wisemen are pliable and easy to be satisfied with reason. It is wisdom to despair and desist betimes from unlikely and unfeasable designs.  
It is a true Despair when one seethe himself absolutely disappointed and excluded from the object of his chief love, desire, & hope, at which the soul is smitten with such a sorrow that she hates all things, yea the very thing that she desired so much, and herself more; the smaller and unworthyer the object is, the more shameful is the despair about it, but in recompense it is more curable; For than one is easily brought to consider in cold blood that the thing was not worthy either of his affliction or affection. But when the object is great and worthy, the despair is more guilty and less curable, Wherefore the worst Despair of all is when one despaireth of the grace of God so fare as to hate him, for nothing can be worse than to hate the Sovereign good, only worthy to be beloved with all the soul.  
Many distrust the grace of God who are not therefore desperate, though they think themselves so to be. Let them ask of themselves whether they hate God, and let them know that as long as a grain of God's love remains in them, there is together a grain of faith, though oppressed and offuscated by melancholy. For it is impossible that God should be their enemy and their Sovereign evil, while they love him. To them this comfort is addressed, Prov. 8.17. I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. And this likewise, 1 Joh. 4.19. We love him, because he first loved us. If then we love him we must be sure that he loveth us, and we must fight against the temptations of despair, saying with Job, Though God stay me yet will I trust in him. Job. 13.15. and with Isaiah. Isa. 25.9. Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us; This is the Lord, we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.  
Confidence is good according to the goodness of the subject that it reposeth upon. Wherefore Confidence in God the only Sovereign good, perfect, solid, and immutable, is the best of all, and the only that can give assurance and content to the soul. He that is blest with that confidence is half in Paradise already: He is firm, safe, meek, serene, and too strong for all his enemies: Psal. 84.12. God is to him a Sun to give him light, heat, life, and plenty of all goods; and a shield to guard him and shelter him from all evils: ver. 13. He gives him grace in this life, and glory in the next. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.   

CHAP. XVIII. Of Pity.  
Pity is a Passion composed of love and sorrow, moved by the distress of another, either true or seeming. And that sympathy is sometimes grounded upon false love, because we acknowledge ourselves obnoxious to the same calamities, and fear the like fortune.  
Pity is opposite to Envy, for Envy is a displeasure conceived at another man's good, but Pity is a displeasure conceived at another man's harm.  
The Passion of Pity must be distinguished from the virtue that bears the same name, for they are easily confounded. The Pity of the vulgar, which is imputed to good Nature and Christian charity, comes chiefly out of two causes. The one is an error in judgement, whereby they reckon many things among the great goods, which are good but in a very low degree, and likewise many things among evils which are not evil. Hence it is that those are most pitied that die, and the best men more than any, as though death were evil to such men; and they that lose their monies, which are called goods as though they were the only good things; and they that lose their lands which are called an estate, as though a man's being and well being were estated in them.  
The other cause of the Passion of Pity is a sickly tenderness of mind easy to be moved; wherefore women and children are more inclinable to it; but the same tenderness and softness makes them equally inclinable to choler, yea to cruelty. The people that seethe the bleeding carcase of a man newly murdered is stricken with great pity towards him, who is past all worldly sorrows, and with great hatred against the murderer, wishing that they might get him into their hands to tear him to pieces. But when the felon is put into the hands of Justice, condemned and brought to execution, than the heat of the people's Passion is altogether for pity to him, and that pity begets wrath against the executioner when he doth his office. So easily doth the passion of vulgar souls pass from one contrary to another, from pity to cruelty, from cruelty to pity again, and from compassion for one to hatred for another. But all these sudden contrary motions proceed from one cause which is the tenderness and instability of weak souls whose reason is drowned in passion, and their passion is in perpetual agitation.  
But the Virtue of Pity, which is a limb of charity, is a firm resolution to relieve our neighbour that stands in need of our help, and it hath more efficiency than tenderness. This is the Pity of generous and religious spirits aspiring to the imitation of God, who without feeling any perturbation for the calamities of men, relieveth them out of his mercy.  
And whereas the Passion of pity is for the most part caused by the ignorance of the goodness and badness of things, he that is less mistaken in them is also less inclined to that passion, for he calls not that misery which others call so. Nec doluit miserans inopem, aut invidit habenti. Or if a wiseman pity one dejected by poverty, it will not be his poverty, but his dejected spirit that he will pity. And so of him that is weeping for a slander; a wiseman will pity him, not because he is slandered, but because he weeps for it, for that weeping is a real evil, though the cause which is slander be but an imaginary evil. He will labour to get such a firm soul that neither the good nor the evil that he seethe in or about his neighbours, be able to work any perturbation within him.  
The world being a great hospital of misery, where we see wellnigh as many miserable persons as we see men: if we were obliged to have a yearning compassion for all the miserable we should soon become more miserable than any of them, and must bid for ever Adieu to the peace of the soul and contentment of mind. It is enough to give power to our neighbours to command our counsel, our labour, and our purse in their need; but to give them power over the firmeness of our soul to shake and enervate it at their pleasure, it is too much. Let us depend of none, if it may be, but God and ourselves. Let none other have the power, be it for good or evil, to turn the stern of our mind at his pleasure.  
It must be acknowledged that Pity, as weak as it is, hath more affinity with Virtue than any other Passion, and turns into virtue sooner than any. That way weak souls handled with dexterity are brought to meekeness and charity; and that way many Pagans have been brought to the Christian verity. We own the great conversions to the sufferings of Martyrs which moved the beholders to compassion, for that compassion made a breach into the heart, and gave entrance into the understanding to that good confession which these holy men made in the midst of the fires; for nothing is more persuasive than Pity, neither is there any fit hold to draw and turn the soul.  
But such compassionate souls may be as soon drawn to evil as to good by that hold. Factious men brought to the gallows for sedition, have from that pulpit sown the seed of mutiny into the minds of a compassionate multitude, and those seeds like the teeth of Cadmus his Serpent have brought forth since a dismal harvest of intestine war. If then any good is form in our minds by compassion, we had need to lay a stedfaster foundation under it; for the mere motions of Pity are but fits and starts, and are not actions but shake of the soul.  
A wise man will learn how to take hold of the spirits of men by Pity, but together will take heed that others hold him not by the like handle, which therefore he will shorten, and leave no hold but reason for others to take him by.   

CHAP. XIX. Of shamefacedness.  
shamefacedness is such a compounded passion that it may not be described in few words. It is a sadness out of the sense or apprehension of a dishonest evil. It is a self condemnation, especially about matters of love and desires which one would satisfy in secret. It is also a sudden amazement out of a diffidence of ourselves when we are surprised by some inopinate occurrence, where we fear that more will be expected of us than we can perform: And to give a more general character: It is a sad ressenting of one's own infirmity with some inclination to goodness.  
It is a cowardly Passion, found only in timorous natures, yet in the more tender age and sex it is pardonable, and useful too, so it be not excessive, for by good instruction it may be form into a virtue, but weak, and suitable to the capacity of the subject. Stronger spirits died with piety and wisdom abstain not from evil out of Shamefacedness, but out of knowledge and resolution. But because strong spirits have been weak when they were under age, and the boldest have been timorous, unless they be altogether dull and bestial by nature, there is a time to frame them to virtue by shamefacedness, which may be called a necessary infirmity in the beginning. And it is not expedient to remove it too soon from young minds by Stoical precepts, lest they wanting that natural bridle of the appetite, and not being yet well trained and confirmed by reason, let themselves lose to evil.  
Children in whom no mark of shamefacedness appears are perverse and ill natured, and though they be merry sparks they shall never be good nor able men. Shamefaced children are towardly and disciplinable. But in conscience is not the nature of men very weak and poor, since their best natural dispositions are infirmities, and that there is need of those infirmities to bring them to some good?  
Some natures are timorous in all the ages of their life by their native temper, therefore more obnoxious to shamefacedness; these are less capable of a great and heroical virtue, which is a compound of righteousness meekness and magnanimity, but they are docible for a less eminent virtue: and their inclination to shamefacedness is a pliable subject for good discipline. That disposition must be well managed, as the seed of modesty, and in women, the mother of pudicity, their chief virtue. How powerful shamefacedness is with that sex the known example of the Milesian Virgins shows it.  
There is another kind of shame recommended in Scripture. That of Daniel, O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but to us confusion of face. Dan. 9.7. That of Ezra, O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee. Ezra 9.6. And of the penitent publican, that stood a fare off, and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. Luk. 18.13. But that shame which is a godly contrition for sin committed, and fear to commit more, is proper to a spirit fixed and confirmed in the love and fear of God, and hath nothing common but the name with the passion of shame, which with all her utilities is but a weakness of mind and a childish perplexedness.  
A wise and godly man must be ashamed of nothing but sin. The remembrance of the greatness, presence, justice, and holiness of God, and the sense of our own imperfection must keep us in perpetual respect and humility, which is that good shame of Daniel, Ezra, and the repenting Publican. But for our conversation with men, when we are come to man's age, let us wean ourselves as much as we can from boyish shamefacedness, which dejecteth and perplexeth the spirit, and makes a man lose the fairest opportunities of doing good.    

OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND.  
FOURTH BOOK. Of Virtue, and the exercise of it in Prosperity and Adversity.  

CHAPTER I. Of the virtuous temper requisite for Peace and Contentment of Mind.  
THis Book is but a result of the two precedent, for who so hath got a right Opinion of things, and learned how to govern his Passions, wants nothing for virtue and tranquillity; these two articles being not only the materials and the rules of the building, but the whole structure. And the order is as essential, as the matter, for the understanding must be illuminated and satisfied about the right judgement of things, and know how fare they are worthy that our appetite should stir for them, before we undertake to instruct our appetite how to behave ourselves with them.  
Out of the right opinion & the well governed Passion ariseth the true temper of Virtue; which is a calm state of the Soul, firm, equal, magnanimous, meek, religious and beneficial to a man's self and to others. All the imperfection that is in our Virtue is a defect in one of these two, or in both. And who is not defective in them? Who hath not error in his Opinions, and by consequent unruliness in his Passion? Wherefore our descriptions of perfect human Virtue are accidents without substance. But what? we must not set before us any less pattern than perfection. Matth. 5.48. Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.  
The School gives definitions and divisions of the several moral Virtues, which is no more than is necessary. Yet to speak properly there is but one, even that equal temper & just proportion of all the faculties and motions of the soul which is Justice, producing the like just temper abroad in all the parts of conversation; for to be just is to do all the parts of a man's duty, towards God, towards himself, and towards his neighbour.  
Temperance and Fortitude are handled in the Schools as virtues by themselves, which is to very good purpose, for a more distinct exposition; but in effect they are parts of justice, for Temperance is the just proportion of the appetite; and Fortitude is the constancy and magnanimity of the will requisite to keep one just. Neither is fortitude a Virtue different from temperance; for whereas of those two duties sustine & abstine, to sustain and to abstain, the first which is resisting oppositions is ascribed to fortitude, the other which is abstaining from the enticements of sin is reserved unto temperance, yet both belong equally to fortitude, seeing there is as much, if not more, strength of mind requisite to stand out against alluring temptations as to encounter violent oppositions.  
There are then two virtues in all, the one intellectual which is Prudence, the other moral which is Justice. I have spoken of the first, and this whole treatise is but an exercise of it: And of the second also, of which the most essential part is the fear of God and a good conscience: that is truly the prime Justice. All human laws, if they be good are dependences of it; if they be evil, they are deviations from it. Natural equity sanctified by grace ruleth both public and particular duties, and both the outward and the inward man, which is fare more than common and civil law can compass. In all policies of the world Justice hath divers faces. The body of the Law (especially in great and ancient States) hath statutes and cases without number, which instead of clearing justice confound it. All that legislative labour regards outward action and the public peace: But piety and true Philosophy rule the inward action, and settle the peace of the soul with the right and primitive Justice. Besides, human laws are most busy in forbidding evil, and for that end make use of fear, and the terror of punishment; whereas the inward law of Virtue is most busy in prescribing good, and for that end makes use of the motive of love and reward. But whether we need the motives of fear or love, we have a Sovereign Court within our breast where the great Judge of the Universe is sitting continually. There his Law is written and laid in view, entering into the eyes of the understanding, which seethe it even when he winks that he may not see it. And there a man's own thoughts stand divided at the bar, some accusing, some excusing him, out of that law compared with the records of the memory. Of that Court St. Paul was speaking that the very Gentiles and heathen show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another. Rom. 2.15.  
Before that Court (that is before God himself and before us) we must labour to be declared just, and more to be so indeed. There justice must be settled. There it must be practised. It will be well done to know and obey the forms of justice which public order hath set over us, but our main task must be to labour for an niward and habitual justice. Let us obey cheerfully all good or indifferent human laws, but before all and after all let us seek and pray for that law of the spirit of life, which may set a rule to all the unruliness within us, and make righteousness and peace to kiss each other in our souls.  
The ordinary definition of justice, that it is a constant will to give to every one his own, as it is commonly understood, regards only the least part of justice, which is the rule of duties between man and man. But let us give it a fuller extent: for to give every one his own we must pay all that is due, first to God, next to ourselves, and then to our neighbours. Certainly the two former parts of justice are far more considerable than the third which is the only cried up, though ill observed, in the world; for a man may and doth often retire from the society of men, but he can at no time retire from God and himself; and though a man were alone in the world, yet should he have with him the chief subjects to exercise the virtue of justice.  
We shall give God his own by loving him with all our soul, and with all our strength, obeying his will carefully, and cheerfully praising him for his love to us, and for his own greatness and goodness with a thankful and a joyful heart, setting him continually before the eyes of our mind, as always present, that we may walk unto all pleasing before his pure and all seeing eyes, & stick fast unto him by meditation, affection, and entire confidence. And whereas man is the bond and the natural mediator between the material world and the spiritual; who alone must render for the whole Nature the due homage unto the great Creator; Justice calls upon us to do that right to God & Nature, to knit Nature with God by our love, faith, obedience, and praises.  
Thus also we shall give to ourselves our due, for to draw near unto God is our good, Psal. 73.28. to separate from him is our destruction. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, saith Ionas, Jo. 2.8. meaning that they forsake him of whose goodness their being and well-being depends. This thought will renew the ancient characters of the natural notions of justice engraven upon the marble of our hearts, upon which the corruption of the world and our own hath bred as it were a thick moss, which hides these characters. But with the fear of God that moss is rubbed off, and the law of God the original justice written there with God's finger appears plain and legible. Who so then will do right to himself and recover his primitive dignity must study to know, fear, and love God, perfect his union with him, and associate himself with his Angels, by obeying his will and tending his praise. His saving eternal light is for us, Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are for us, for he gives them to us liberally in his Son; We do but right to ourselves, when we study that those blessings which are for us may be ours. And to lose such inestimable graces by our neglect, is, besides ungratefullness towards God, a crying injustice against ourselves.  
A main point of that justice which we own to ourselves is, to labour to make ourselves possessors of ourselves, and masters at home; so untied from all outward ties, that our content depend of none but God and ourselves: and that rule over ourselves is attained by yielding unto God the rule, for us.  
To that end our first labour must be to train well the Passion of love, which is the great wheel moving all the other passions; for according to the subjects that we love, and as we love them well or ill, we are good or evil, happy or unhappy. To love what we ought and as we ought, is the whole duty and happiness of man.  
Next, our desires and hopes must be cut short, which is not cutting down Nature, as greedy minds may think: It is cutting off our bonds, and getting our liberty. That way plenty, pleasure, and joy, are bought at an easy rate, for very little will content a mind weaned of superfluous desires; and he hath little or no matter left for sorrow, fear, anger, hatred, and envy, the tormentors of the soul. What is able to disquiet that man that thinks nothing to be his but God and a good conscience, and possesseth the things of the world as not possessing them? But to quiet the murmur of love and desire, which are querulous and unlimited passions, we must do them such equal justice, that while we stop them one way we open them another; Being kept short for the things of the world, let them have free scope towards heavenly things, to love God, and desire his spiritual and permanent goods, without limit and measure.  
The great injuries are those which a man doth to himself, when to obey lust, or anger, or covetousness, one makes himself guilty and miserable; when for the love of the world, one loseth the love of God; when out of miserableness the body is denied his convenient allowance: When for things of no worth a man prostitutes his health, his life, and his conscience. When men will sinne for company, cast themselves into ruinous courses out of compleasance, and damn themselves out of gallantry. Who so will seriously think what he oweth to himself and what account of himself he must give unto God, will endeavour to keep the precious health of his body, and the golden serenity of his conscience; he will enjoy with simplicity that portion which God giveth him of the contentments of life, and above all things he will carefully keep his only good, which is God.  
Justice being well administered within us will be practised abroad with facility and delight. Rom. 13.7. Render to all their deuce, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour. Let the debtor be more hasty to pay then the creditor to receive.  
All the Law-bookes are but comments upon this precept of Justice to render to every one his own. Yet they omit the most essential parts of it, the duties of charity, humanity, and gratefulness: Which being without the rules of civil laws, have the more need to be learned and observed by ingenuous and religious souls. And we must believe, contrary to the vulgar opinion, that they are debts, and that doing good to them that stand in need of our help is not giving but restoring. Therefore the works of mercy are represented in the CXII Psalms as works of Justice, He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness endureth for ever. Let us then be persuaded, that when we do all the good of which God giveth us the faculty and the occasion, we do but justice. Let us pay due assistance to him whose need claims it, counsel to him that is in perplexity, kindness to them that have showed us kindness, pardon to them that have offended us, good for evil to them that persecute us, love to them that love us, support to the weak, patience to the impatient, reverence to superiors, affability to inferiors. All these are debts. Let us omit no duty to which we stand obliged by the laws of civil society; Yet that is too scant, let us omit no duty to which we have the invitations of piety and generosity. All the good works that we may do, are so many duties. It is the large extent that St. Paul gives to our duty. Phil. 4.8. Finally brothers, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. And the fruit of that study in the following words is that which we seek in this Book, the Peace of the Soul & our union with God. Do these things and the God of peace shall be with you. Truly peace quietness and assurance are the proper effects of righteousness, & are as natural to it as the light to the Sun. Isa. 33.17. The work of righteousness shall be peace (saith Isaiah) and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever.  
Considering Justice as the solid stem in which lieth the substance of all virtues as her branches, I will not follow every bough of that that tree; Two Virtues only I will stand upon as the preserving qualities of that universal Justice. These are, meekeness and magnanimity. They are the necessary dispositions to frame a right virtue in the soul, and peace with it.  
Under meekeness I comprehend humility and docility, which are but divers aspects of the same face, that meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Pet. 3.4. As, for great edifices there is need of deep foundations, likewise to edify the soul and build virtue and peace in it, there is need of a profound humility; which being joined with faith is the foundation of the structure, and the perfecting also: for we must be humble that we may be virtuous, and the more we are virtuous the more we are humble.  
With that meekeness the word of God must be received, which is the doctrine of Virtue and salvation. Jam. 1.20. Receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls, saith St. James. Isa. 61.9. God hath anointed his Son to preach good tidings unto the meek: Psal. 25.9. The meek will he guide in judgement, and the meek will he teach his way. A mind well-disposed to Virtue and the peace of the Soul, will distrust himself as a shaking unsound foundation, to repose his trust wholly upon God. He will labour to heal himself of all arrogant opinions and obstinate prejudices, being always ready to receive better information and submit himself unto reason.  
It belongs to that meekeness to be free from the impetuosity of the appetite, for that which St. James saith of the wrath of man, that it worketh not the righteousness of God. Jam. 1.21. may be said of all other Passions; they are evil if they be vehement; for in a spirit agitated with vehement passions justice cannot settle, that very vehemency being an injustice, and a violation of that sweet and equal oeconomy of the soul fit for justice and peace. Passion goeth by skips and jolts, but Reason keeps a smooth even pace; and that pace is fit to go on Justice's errand.  
To meekness magnanimity must be joined. Meekeness makes reason docile and pliant in goodness. Magnanimity makes her constant in it. Both are the framers and preservers of righteousness; meekness because it humbleth us before God and subjecteth us under his good pleasure; magnanimity, because it raiseth our minds above unrighteous ends and ways, and makes us aspire to that great honour to have our will conformable unto God's will, and become partakers of his Nature, which is Righteousness itself. St. Paul makes use of magnanimity to solicit us to holiness. Col. 3.10. If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. As nothing makes the mind more magnanimous, so nothing makes it more holy, than that doctrine which teacheth Gods children that all the world is too little for them; and that God alone, who adopteth them and calls them to the inheritance of his Kingdom, is worthy to possess their whole heart. For would any that is so highly dignifyed stoop so low as to subject his affection to the things of the earth? or would he be so ungrateful as to return him disobedience for so much love? Rather his high condition will fill him with high thoughts, and according to the Apostles exhortation, he will endeavour to walk worthy of God who hath called him to his Kingdom and glory: 1 Thes. 2.12. O, could we apprehend the excellency of this high calling by a serious faith, with what contempt would we look upon those things that captivate the passions of men! How should we laugh at that which others desire or fear! We should look upon the actions of men as beholding the earth, from heaven, seeing the clouds of cares and sorrows gathering fare under our feet, and tumultuous desires bustling and raising storms; where we should have no other share but compassion of those that are tossed by them: Neither temptation nor persecution should be capable to trouble our heavenly serenity. The false profit and pleasure of sin should not tempt our desire, but provoke our scorn and indignation, as unworthy of men, and muchmore of God's children, coheires of Christ in his eternal Kingdom, called to be Kings and Priests unto God and their Father.  
The same magnanimity will breed in us agodly ambition to imitate God our Father, keeping righteousness in all things because the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; Psal. 11.7. using charity and liberality, giving and forgiving, because the Lordis good, and his tender mercies are over all his works. Psal. 145.9. Doing good to our enemies, because God fills with his goods the mouths that blaspheme him; And, because God gives always and receiveth nothing, we must think it more happy and divine to give then to receive.  
From magnanimity reflect again to meekeness. Let all that is done magnanimously be done meekly together, with simplicity and reality, without noise and ostentation. These virtues going hand in hand, meekness and magnanimity, are the two supporters of Justice, and the teachers of all goodness. A meek and magnanimous spirit is the fruitful soil of all virtues. To express them in other terms more familiar to the Church, They are humility and faith, which with the love of God, the true essence of Justice, make up the greatest perfection that a man is capable of upon earth, whereby the mind is sanctified, sweetened, and raised; and filled with goodness, peace, contentment, and assurance.   

CHAP. II. Of the exercise of Virtue in Prosperity.  
IF I treat not methodically and severally of all Virtues, the title of this work may excuse me; I seek not here the definitions and divisions of Virtues, but the use; And of all the uses that which conduceth to the peace and contentment of mind. Besides, all that we have said before and all that we have to say, is an exercise of virtue, which careth not much by what name she is called, justice, fortitude, temperance, or what you will, if she may have leave to do her effect, which is to maintain the spirit every where in a virtuous tranquillity.  
Her principal work is, so to inform, or rather form the mind, both for Prosperity and Adversity, that it be neither corrupted by the one, nor dejected with the other. That work is the result of our second and third Book. Who so hath learned to have a right Opinion of the things that the world desireth or feareth, and to rule his passion accordingly, is fenced against all inconveniencies of both fortunes. But because it is a work of the highest difficulty and importance to make the right use of these two different conditions, and go through both with a serene and equal spirit, Let us consider them with more care, and learn to behave ourselves virtuously in both.  
Let us begin at Prosperity, as that which requires more virtue. Infant's will greedily grasp the bright blade of a new knife, and cut their fingers; The like is done by grown men, dazzled by the gay show of honour, wealth, & pleasure; they lay hold on them eagerly, and hurt themselves, for they take them the wrong way.  
We need not say that Prosperity is good in itself; He that would say the contrary should not be believed. Yea none would believe that such a man believeth what he saith. But by the evil disposition of those into whose bosom prosperity falls, it becomes evil, yea fare worse than adversity. For one that is ruined and brought to despair by adversity, ten are spoilt and undone by prosperity; because adversity makes a man to retire within himself, and warns him to arm his mind with prudence, piety, and resolution. But prosperity relaxeth the mind, and by it weak brains are made weaker, imprudent, arrogant, and profane; acknowledging no virtue, and no God, but Fortune; Which they think to be so enamoured with their person and merit, as not to have the power to disgrace them. Such is the character that David gives of a man corrupted with prosperity. Psal. 10.5. His ways are always grievous, thy judgements are fare above out of his sight, As for his enemies he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. It is an unhappy prosperity that makes men dissolute, outrageous, puffed up with pride, blinded with self love, sometimes heavy with a drowsy sloth, sometimes transported with an insolent joy. The most dangerous and most ordinary abuse of prosperity is the diverting of a man's thoughts and love from God and a better life, to fix them upon the world. Wherefore David speaking of men enclosed in their own fat, calls them men of the world whose portion is in this life, Psal. 17.14. intimating that they have no portion in the other life. Truly prosperity is a slippery place; With most men it is a fair walk ending in a precipice. And the least harm it doth is to enervate the mind; and dull the edge of industry.  
The abuses of prosperity are divers, according to the different humours of men. Some of a jovial and inconsiderate humour glut themselves with prosperity; and become fierce and violent. Others of a dark and timorous constitution are oppressed with wealth and honour as with heavy weights, dare not enjoy what they have, and live in an anxious care to lose all. Eccles. 5.12. The abundance of the rich will not suffer them to sleep. They ought to thank him that should ease them of that heavy burden, their riches.  
Of the sicknesses that attend prosperity I have said much, and of their remedy. It comes to this. To consider maturely the worth of things, that we may not love them above their worth, or expect of them a satisfaction above their nature; not to anchor our confidence upon their uncertainty: not to love any or trust in any with all our heart but God, the only perfect and permanent good; To use the world as not using it, and enjoy the things we love best in it as having the use of them not the possession, aspiring continually to a better inheritance. This is the way to get a sincere taste of all the good that worldly prosperity is capable to afford.  
Now there is need of a singular prudence to pick that good among all the evil & all the trash that worldly prosperity is made of, & not to mistake superfluity for necessity, and that which is good in effect from that which is good in opinion only. For that man whose curiosity hath turned superfluous things in to necessary, and whom the tyranny of vice and custom suffers not to delight in any thing but unlawful, is made guilty and unfortunate by his prosperity.  
Also, to use prosperity wisely, and get the true benefit of it, a man hath need to wean himself from presumption and self love. Whence comes it that so many spoil their prosperity by lavishness and insolency, others lose the taste of it by insatiable greediness of adding and increasing? It is, because they have such a high esteem and love of themselves that they think all the goods of the world to be too little for them, either to spend or to lay up: Whereas he that hath an humble opinion of himself tasteth his prosperity with simplicity and thankfulness, for he thinks that he hath much more than he deserveth. He that cannot bring himself to that low conceit of his worth, shall never be contented, though God should pour all the treasures of the world into his lap, and though he were mounted to the top of the wheel, and had nailed it to the axletree to keep it from turning.  
Who so will enjoy true prosperity must keep fast to this Maxim, that no true good can be got by doing ill. So whereas vice and unrighteousness insinuate themselves under the baits of pleasure, honour, and profit, there is great need to make provision of faith and good conscience as antidotes against the general corruption. As carefully as we walk armed, and look about us when we travel through forest's infested with robbers, we should walk armed with the fear and love of God among the enticements of worldly profit, honour and pleasure, for Satan lieth in ambush every where. But whereas robbers will lurk in hideous and savage places to do their feats, Satan doth his in the most delicious places. It was not among briers and thorns that he set upon man yet innocent, he made use of a tree good for food, pleasant to the eye, and to be desired to make one wise. Gen. 3.6. And he made use ever since of beauty, daintyes, and curiosity to destroy mankind: Conversing among these is walking upon snares; Job. 18.8. There is great need of wisdom and godliness to avoid them, and of a merciful assistance of God to get out when our foot is ensnared in any of them.  
To the pleasures honours and plenty of the world, faith must oppose other sweeter pleasures, more sublime honours, and riches infinitely greater, even the pleasures for evermore at God's right hand, the honour to be of his children, and the plenty of his house. These he hath promised and prepared to them that love him, not to those that choose rather to fill themselves with unlawful delight and unrighteous gain than to walk before God unto all pleasing, waiting for the fullfilling of his promises. David expected to see God's face in righteousness, Psal. 17.15. thereby supposing that without righteousness he could not see God's face. St. Paul expected the Crown of righteousness; he must then be righteous before he have the Crown, and he must fight the good fight and keep the faith before he be crowned. Can the height of that felicity enter into our low understandings, what it is to be filled with the contemplation of God's face, and receive at his hand the Crown of righteousness, hardly would we venture the missing of that glory for all the deceitful delights and profits of iniquity.  
Without looking so fare as the recompenses and pains of the life to come, even in this life a godly, temperate, and conscionable life, is a thousand times more desirable and pleasant than a riotous dishonest life, and advancement gotten by oppression. Even those Pagans that looked for no good after this life, and laughed at infernal torments as old wives tales, yet could say, Nemo malus felix, No wicked man is happy; for unlawful delight and gain leave behind them a sting of remorse, yea many times sin smothereth pleasure at its birth; besides the disfavour of God and men which commonly follows. We cast our reckon amiss if we make account to possess a happy and a wicked prosperity; It cannot be happy if it be wicked, for it is virtue, it is innocence, it is the love of God and faith in his promises, it is justice and charity, that give the pleasant relish and the very being of prosperity.  
But suppose that the acquisition of the delights and advantages of the world, be neither accompanied with sin, nor followed with remorse, yet they are weak and transitory; riches are burdens, honours are fetters, pleasures are feverish, fame is a wind, friendships are seeds of cares and sorrows, and yet in all these we seek a solid and permanent content, who can wonder that we find it not? For I do not insist yet upon the principal thing, that we should fix our desires upon God alone; But I say now, that to enjoy humane prosperity we must proportion our desire and expectation to the capacity and durableness of humane things, and to the power we have to dispose of them and keep them: If we expect more, we are disappointed, and lose the true taste of our prosperity.  
But there may be defect as well as excess in the desire and enjoyment of worldly prosperity. For there are some whose wild devotion kneaded with a timorous and savage humour, is afraid of all temporal comforts, be they never so simple, natural, and innocent; seeking virtue and merit by misusing of themselves, and souring all the prosperity that God giveth them, with an unthankful melancholy. It is more than God requires at their hands; but he will require an account at their hands how they have enjoyed their health and the fruits of his fatherly indulgence, which he had given them to use with moderation, comfort, and thanksgiving. Either there is pride and hypocrisy in that fantastical marring of their prosperity; or if they are in earnest, their brains is crazed, oppressed by the black vapours of their spleen. Abstinence is laudable and necessary to be joined sometimes with prayer, to subject the body to the spirit. But the spirit must not deal with the body his subject, as the worst of Tyrants do with their people, whom they utterly ruin to keep them in subjection. That voluntary self depriving of the innocent conveniences of life, is reproaching God as being too blame for making nature plentiful and delightful, and then placing man in the midst of his goods, and giving him senses to relish them, and reason to use them.  
But the contrary fault is more dangerous and more ordinary, to hunt after temporal goods with a rash eagerness, and when one hath them to lose the benefit of them by lavish intemperance, or even to turn those goods into evils by getting them by ill means, and using them to ill ends. If Prosperity mar us, it is but even with us, for we had marred it before.  
The true way to be content every where, and purchase prosperity at an easy rate, is to desire little and be contented with little. Not he that hath most but he that desireth least, is the richest. The less a man desireth the less he wanteth, and the more resemblance he hath with God, who dedesireth nothing, and wants nothing. It is unjust for us to solicit the world to give us riches, while we have means at hand to enrich ourselves without troubling the world, which is, To desire nothing. Why should I ask of another that which I can give to myself?  
But when all is said, desire is natural and will stretch itself upon something. Now God alone is able to fill it. He that hath fixed his love and desire upon God, and is already possessed with him by faith, may after that easily put that Philosophy to practise, To desire nothing out of himself, and to ask nothing of the world. He may tell Fortune that he needs none of her gifts, for having God he hath all. But he that wants that possession which only gives true satisfaction to the soul, deceiveth the world and himself when he braveth Fortune, and bids her to keep her gifts to herself, saying that he asketh contentment of none, being able to give it to himself; that he carrieth all his goods along with him, that he is rich and free because he is master at home. Truly if he that speaks so, hath nothing but himself, he is very weak and needy. Yea unless he possess God, he cannot possess himself; and in that resolution to cut off his worldly desires, wanting the satisfying object, he is like him that makes a resolution not to come near the fire though it frieze hard, and himself be thin clad. Whereas he that will cut his desires short, being enriched with God's grace, is like him that will not come near the fire, because he is clad with warm furs.  
To such a man rich in God it becomes well to say, I will not beg wealth and comfort abroad since I may have it at home. Finding tranquillity and sufficiency within my breast, why should I make myself unquiet and needy by a greedy and worldly desire? I will sweetly enjoy the temporal goods because they are Gods gifts, and receive them at his good hand with thankfulness: I will also endeavour to increase them by industry, if I may without fraud to others, and vexation of myself. But I will importune no man to give me, as long as I may obtain of myself not to ask. I will spare to others the pain to deny me, and to myself the shame to be denied, having such a short way at hand to satisfy me, which is, To ask and desire nothing. The less I court the world, the less power shall I give it over me. This Philosophy is easy to him that can say with David, Psal. 16.6. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup, thou maintainest my lot; The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea I have a goodly heritage.  
Moderation of desires makes prosperity sweet: And that moderation is harder in prosperity; for misfortunes rather breed fear then desire, but good successes are bellows that swell cupidity, and cupidity making us depend of the future takes from us the enjoyment of the present. For we enjoy not what we have, when we complain that we have not enough, and reckon not what we have got but what we would get.  
And because in Prosperity men will grow proud and forget what they are; The higher that God raiseth our degree, the more let us humble ourselves, and keep our minds within the limits of modesty. If advancements smile upon us let us think rather to tread surely then to make haste, and to sit safe then to rise high. As they say of Xanthus that being in drink he laid a wager that he would drink the whole Sea; they that are drunk with prosperity are prone to undertake more than they are able to perform. The Apostles precept hath need to be pressed upon them, Rom. 12.3. that no man think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but think soberly; When we stand on a high tower our stature is never the higher than when we walk on the ground, but our brains is many times the weaker, as being dizzy with the height. So, dignity and high prosperity doth not increase a man's capacity by raising his place, but rather makes him wild and giddy. Whereas then prosperity makes men over-confident, it ought to make them more cautious, fearing lest some of the windiness of the place where they stand get into their head: Let them study to know themselves and the world, that they may trust neither, as things beyond the verge of their power, and whose subsistence dependeth not of their will. Let us look upon the prosperities of this world as upon fair crystal glasses, the clearer the frailer; to day they shine, to morrow they break: If you never trust them, they will never deceive you.  
Honours, riches, and temporal pleasures are but the outside and the bark of prosperity. And it is a sapless bark, where a good conscience and reciprocal love between God and the soul is wanting. But where that is, either it brings outward prosperity or supplieth the want of it. Psal. 65.4. O God, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.   

CHAP. III. Of the exercise of Virtue in Adversity.  
PRosperity and Adversity are near neighbours; for prosperity makes preparatives for Adversity by blinding men's minds with cupidity, swelling them with pride and thrusting them forwards with rashness, whereby they cast themselves headlong into precipices; and generally by making sin to multiply, which draws punishment from God's justice. Besides the inconstancy of humane things which in a moment turns from fair to foul weather.  
On the other side, Adversity many times mends the harm done by prosperity, for it represseth temerity, opens the eyes blinded by Passion, and brings the sinner to repentance; Thereby making preparatives for prosperity, which is never relished till one hath been schooled by affliction. Then evil fortune hath her inconstancy as well as the good, and the calm will come after the storm.  
The proper exercise of virtue in Adversity is to imitate God, who fetcheth good out of it, and makes it a discipline of godliness, wisdom, and tranquillity to his children. It is not enough to hope that after the storm the calm will come, we must study to find tranquillity in the very tempest, and make profit of our damage.  
Having spoken of the particular Adversities in the second book, I will endeavour here to set down general remedies for all sorts of Adversities, saving one, the Adversity which a  man createth to himself out of a conceited tenderness; for to such wilfully afflicted persons the counsels of reason are useless, till they be afflicted in earnest. They have need of real afflictions to be healed of imaginary. To them that are sick with too much ease, a smarting Adversity is a wholesome plaster. As to the hypocondriaque who had a false opinion of a wound in his left thigh, the surgeon made an incision in the right, to make him feel the difference between real wounds and imaginary.  
Indeed the most part of persons afflicted, are more so out of opinion than any true ground; but the wanton melancholy of some, that were; all their time dandled in fortune's lap, addeth to that epidemical disease. We will let them alone till they have reason to complain, and desire them that groan under some apparent Adversities to examine seriously whether they be such as they appear; For there are some Adversities, or called so, which rather are prosperities, if they that complain of them can obtain of themselves rather to believe their own sense then the opinion of others, and to have no artificial and studied sense but merely the natural.  
Thus he that is fallen into disfavour whereby he hath lost wealth and honours, and hath kept liberty, and bread enough to subsist retired remote and neglected, is very much obliged, first to the envy, and after to the contempt of the contrary prevailing faction, if God give him the understanding to enjoy the prosperity created by his adversity. It is a happy misfortune for a little bark, to be cast by the storm upon a smooth shore, where the Sea ebbing leaveth it dry but safe, while the rest of the fleet is torn by the tempest. The wave is more  if it thrust the ship upon the haven. Now the godly wiseman finds a haven any where, because God is every where. Sitting under the shelter of his love and providence, he looks with compassion upon the blind rage of parties fleshed in the blood of one another, praising God that he was hurled down from a stage where they are acting a bloody tragedy, that he may be an actor no more, but a beholder only, disinteressed from the public contradiction. His ruin cannot equal his gain, if by the loss of his estate he hath bought his peace, and the uninterrupted contemplation of God, himself, and the world.  
It would be a long task to enumerate all the commodious adversities, for which nevertheless comfort is given and received with great ceremony. Many accidents bitter to us for a time turn afterwards to our great conveniency. Some should have miss a great fortune had they not been repulsed in the pursuit of a lesser. Many tears are shed upon the dead, but more would be shed if some of them should rise again. God hath so interlaced good and evil, that either brings the other. If we had the patience to let God do, and the wisdom to make use of all, we might find good in most part of our Adversities.  
Many persons ingenious to their own torment are like the boulter that lets out the flower and keeps the bran; they keep disgraces and misfortunes in their thoughts and let Gods benefits go out of their mind. It had been better for them to resemble the rying seeve that lets out ill seeds and keeps the good corn, taking off their thoughts from that which is troublesome in every accident of their life (unless it be to remedy it) & setting their mind upon that hath which may yield profit or comfort. Thus he that received some offence in company by his indiscretion, in stead of making that offence an occasion of quarrel must make it a corrective of his rashness. He that is confined within the limits of a house and garden, instead of grieving that he hath not the liberty of the street, must rejoice that he hath the liberty of a walk. And how many crosses come upon us, which being wisely managed would bring great commodities, if anger troubling our judgement did not make us forgo the care of our conveniency to attend our appetite of revenge? Can we keep every where equality and serenity of spirit, we might scape many Adversities, or make them more tolerable, or turn them to our advantage.  
All afflictions are profitable to the wise and godly. Even when all is lost for the temporal, there wants never matter for the principal Advantage which is the spiritual. There we learn to know the perversity and inconstancy of the world and the vanity of life, that we may not repose our trust and bend our affection upon it. Since a curse is pronounced to the man that trusteth in man, and to him that trusteth in his riches the way to the kingdom of heaven is as impassable as the going of a cable through a niedles' eye, and, we notwithstanding these divine warnings are so prone to trust and love the world, God therefore in his wisdom and mercy suffers that unsound reed, which we lean upon, to break in our hand, and our love of the world to be paid with its hatred, that we may learn to settle our confidence and love in a better place.  
Hereby also a man comes to know his sin and God's Justice. Though we be prone to attribute the good and evil that comes to us unto second causes, there is such an affinity between sin and punishment, that even in the most obdurate hearts affliction brings sin to mind, and gives remorse to the conscience; But in godly souls, that remorse is salutary. David having said to God, Psal. 32.5. Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer, addeth, I acknowledged my sin unto thee & mine iniquity have I not hid; I said I will confess my transgressions, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.  
And whereas the appetite will run wild, when prosperity opens the broad gate of licentiousness, Adversity coming upon that, holds a short hand upon the appetite, and awakes piety and wisdom. David speaks of this experimentally. Psal. 119.67. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. ver. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. Prosperity is an evil counsellor, and all her addresses are to the appetite; but Adversity crossing the appetite, calls upon the judgement. Repentance and Faith are seldom set on work by prosperity; but Adversity raiseth our hearts to God, and the fear of danger makes us flee to his Sanctuary. A wise godly man will manage affliction for that end, not contenting himself with the first pious motions suggested by fear and sorrow; He will husband that accidental heat of distress to warm his zeal, and having sought God out of necessity, he will seek him out of love. The unkind entertainment he finds in the world will help him to take off his affection from it, and transport his heart where his treasure is. Acknowledging Adversity to be the wages of sin, he will learn to walk before God in fear, and from the fear of his judgements he will rise to the fear of his holiness, esteeming that the greatest Adversity, not to bear his heavy plagues, but to transgress his holy will.  
This filial fear of God is the way to prevent or avert many afflictions; for they that humble themselves in prosperity need not to be humbled by Adversity. Many times the repentance of the sinner hath wrested the destroying sword out of God's hand: Many times when good men have been beset on all sides, the fear of God hath opened them a gate to go out; for he that feareth God shall come forth of all. Ecces. 7.18. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all: he keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken. Psal. 34.19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, because God formeth him to patience and perfecteth his faith by long exercise, which endeth in comfort; as he wrestled with Jacob a whole night, and blest him in the morning. He deals otherwise with the wicked, for he lets them thrive a while, but when he takes them in hand with his justice he destroyeth them utterly. Psal. 92.7. When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever. God exercised his people of Israel with divers trials for forty years in the wilderness, but he extermined the Canaanites suddenly. God forbidden we should be of those to whom he gives but one blow. Rather let him wrestle with us a long time with his fatherly hand, which with the trial brings strength to them that are tried, and gives them the crown in the end of the combar. Here is the patience and the faith of Saints.  
Our very nature ought to acquaint us with adversity: For suffering is the natural condition of men. Job. 7.1. Is there not a warfarre appointed to man upon earth? To be cast down with sorrow for the adversities incident unto man's life showeth ignorance of our condition. The way not to be surprised with any thing is to be prepared for all; and to think that the evil which happens to one man may happen to any other, since all are men alike. As at dice whosoever playeth is subject to all the casts of the dice; he that is engaged in the game of life is subject to all the events incident to the living, and must be prepared for them.  
But because it is not fortune but providence that disposeth of the accidents of life, the greater is our obligation to bear good & evil accidents with a holy equanimity, because all that happens to us is unavoidable, as ordained by a fatal and eternal law.  
Upon that we must conceive as well as we can that humane events and several personal interesses are so interwoven by that high providence, that they have a mutual dependence among themselves; and their meetings, which in our regard are casual, are twice necessary in regard of God, both because they are decreed in his counsel, and because they are requisite for the execution of many things. To which if we add, that God alwise and all-good doth nothing & permitteth nothing but for a good end, we cannot reasonably complain of any cross befalling us, though we had not deserved it: For we must consider ourselves, as pieces of the universe, and engeenes which that great workman sets on going for the execution of his ends, which being all good, all means also tending to them are good in that regard. Our crosses then being determined and directed to some good by the good hand of God (which we must firmly believe) we must also believe them to be good, because they serve for God's end which is always good. So not only we must bear them with patience, but receive them with content, yea with thanks; rejoicing, as happy, that even in suffering we are instruments in the good hand of God, to do his work and advance his glory; which many times we see not, but he seethe it, and that must silence and content us.  
Being thus disposed, this advantage we have above many of the wheels and weights of that great machine of Providence, that whereas some of them have no will, some an ill will, our will is acting with Gods will, and our love to him boweth our self-love to his pleasure, so that for his glories sake (into which all things end) our afflictions appear good unto us; and so they are indeed, since by them God is glorified.  
Events being thus chained up and interlaced together, it is a great injustice against God and the order by him settled in the universe, to grudge at any thing that happens to us, as though we would have God to unweave in our behalf the web of his providence, create a new decree, and make a new counsel-booke for us. Let us go willingly where Gods decree leads us, for go we must howsoever; Is it not better to go straight forward where God will have us to go, then to be dragged backwards?  
Indeed there is no need of a high reach of reason to persuade a man to bear with, unavoidable accidents, and to will that which it were to no purpose not to will. But when we consider besides that it is the will of God, if we be his true children we shall will cheerfully what he wills.  
When we are in prosperity there is no praise to will what God wills, for then God wills what we will. But that is pleasing to God to consent to his will when he smites us, and to say after the Lord Jesus, the pattern of all perfection. Father not as I will but as thou wilt. That resolution brings a great rest and a great perfection to the soul; for by that means our will is changed into Gods will. The way to have all our will is to will nothing but what God wils.  
When God sends us affliction, thereby He gives us a great matter to glorify him and to draw a blessing upon ourselves; For whereas unavoidable Adversities make us worse when we pull against them, they work in us a peaceable fruit of righteousness, when we not only bear them patiently, but receive them joyfully as coming from God. I verily believe that God beholds nothing from heaven that pleaseth him more than a will so subjected and united to His, that in the midst of afflictions he finds God's will good, pleasant, and perfect; and saith, Gods will bed one, He is all good and all wise. And since he is as absolute and irresistible in his power as he is good and wise in his will, it would be as foolish a part for me to hope to overcome it, as impious to offer to contradict it. This is the principal counsel against all Adversity, yea the only, for we should need no other, if we were come so far as to have no will but Gods will.  
But to that high counsel many inferior counsels are subservient. Such is this: When God sends us adversity, that we may not think it strange to be so used, let us compare ourselves with so many others that are in a worse case. If we be prisoners in ourowne Country, let us remember so many Christians that are captives of the Turks and Moors. Have we suffered some loss in our estates? we need not go fare from home to see whole nations driven out of their ancient possessions, shut out of their Country, and reduced to mendicity. Are you lame of a leg? Look upon your neighbour that hath lost both his legs by a cannonshot. Thus the evils of others will be lenitives to yours.  
It is a wholesome counsel to be more careful to keep a reckoning of the goods that remain with us then of those we have lost. He that hath lost his land, must thank God that he hath kept his health. He that hath lost health and temporal goods, must thank God that none can take from him the eternal goods. And whosoever hath less than he desireth must acknowledge that he hath more than he deserveth. It is the way to keep ourselves in humility before God and men, and in tranquillity at home, and turn murmuring into thanksgiving.  
And whereas the remembrance of dead friends and lost goods fill us with sorrow, it ought to fill us with joy. If the possession of them was pleasant why should the remembrance be sad? Why should we entertain more sadness because we lost them, than joy because we had them? it is the ordinary unthankfulness of the world to reckon all the goods of the time passed for nothing. At the least affliction a long course of precedent prosperity is lost and forgotten; like a clear stream falling into a sink, and losing its pureness in ordure. Let us thank God for all the good days of our life, so may me make present ill days good by the remembrance of good days passed, and obtain of God new matter of thanksgiving. We must use the world as a feast, using soberly and cheerfully the fare that is before us, and when it is taken away, We must rise and give thanks. We may justly be taxed as greedy guests unthankful to the master of the feast, that hath so liberally feasted us, if we Grudge when he calls to take away, instead of Thanking him for his good cheer. As he is our magnificent Inviter he is our wise Physician. Sometimes he sets his good plenty before us, sometimes he keeps us to short diet: Let us receive both with an equal and thankful mind. All his dealing with us is wisdom and bounty.  
Here let us remember this Maxim which I laid before as a main ground of our tranquillity, that the things which we lose are none of ours, else we could not have lost them. We were borne naked, all that was put about us since, is none of ours. Yea all that was borne with us is not ours, Our health, our limbs, our body, our life, may be taken away from us by others. We must not then reckon them as ours. But our soul which cannot be taken away, and the best riches of our mind, are truly ours. All losses and pains fall only upon the least part of ourselves which is our body, and the senses and passions that are most conjoined unto it, if we may call that a part of man, without which a man is whole. But the true man which is the soul is out of the world's reach, and with it all the Christian virtues. For which reason our Saviour bids us not to fear them that can kill the body and cannot kill the soul. To be much cast down with temporal losses shows emptiness of spiritual riches; & to be very impatient of the incommodities of the body shows that one hath more commerce with the body then with themind, else a man might find matter enough of joy in the soul to conterpoyse worldly losses and bodily pains.  
As a body that hath the noble parts sound will easily inure itself to bear cold and heat, and all the injuries of the air; Likewise, he that hath a sound soul, and is strong within in faith, integrity, divine love, and right reason, wherein the true health of the soul consisteth, will easily bear with all Adversities; and retiring within himself when he is assaulted without, he will take care before all things that it may be well with his inside, and that nothing there, be put out of order by the disorders without.  
That serene state of the soul is the fittest for the virtue of prudence and the exercise of it in Adversity. For to get out of the difficulties of life we must maintain our judgement free and our conscience sound: And if the Adversity be of such a nature that it be passed the help of prudence (such as are sharp & incurable pains;) yet there is none but may be eased by reason, faith, and the comforts of God's love. For what? Life is short, no evil is very great when it hath an end, No bodily pain can last longer than our bodies, and no Adversity of God's children either of body or spirit can continue longer than life. But the inward assurances of our peace with God, and the sweet entertainment of his love to us, and ours to him, are earnests and beginnings of a felicity without end. By them the soul shut up in this prison of flesh looks out with her head forth, ready to fly away. She riseth again with Christ in this very world by a lively hope. Col. 3.1. She seeks those things that are above, where Christ is sitting in the glory of his father. She is in heaven already, and hath only the body upon earth.  
To this the afflictions of our body contribute much. 2. Cor. 4.17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a fare more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal; for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, ternal in the heavens.  
This is a high point of resolution and joy in afflictions, which pagan Philosophy could never reach, to bear the afflictions of this life cheerfully, out of hope of eternal felicity after death. It is pitiful to behold what pain these old Philosophers took to arm themselves against death, and how the seeming lofty peace wherewith they marched towards death is like that of a starting horse blowing and pricking up his ears at the entry of a dark place, whereas the good Christian goeth gently to it, with simplicity, joy, and confidence. Why? the Pagans knew not whither they went, and conceived of death as of a ghastly dark den; but the right Christian seethe his way, and thinking of death, saith, I know whom I have believed. He gives thanks to the father who hath made him meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light: His desire is to departed and to be with Christ, remembering that Christ went before, and said to all his disciples, both present and to come, when he went up to heaven, I go to prepare a place for you. So whereas pagan Philosophy seeks comforts against death, Christian Philosophy presenteth death, as a comfort. Felons condemned to the gallows hear not with so much joy the grace and pardon that giveth them life, as good Christians hear the glad tidings of their approaching death; for death is a grace unto them, since it opens them the prison door. If they be dangerously sick, the way to cheer them up is not to say, Be of good heart, you shall recover, but, be of good heart, you must die; for they conceive of death as of their haven of salvation after a stormy voyage. That hope sweetens all their Adversities. It is a cork that keeps up their spirits above the most raging waves, not suffering it to sink under any sorrow: It is the charm of all cares which makes the Christian to say when he loseth his earthly goods, Now I am unloaden of that luggage, I am the lighter for my journey to the Kingdom of heaven, and there I have my true goods which no man can take from me. So were the Hebrews disposed, that received with joy the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Heb. 10.34.  
This also makes the Christian digest injuries, and contemn contempt, saying, Earth is not the Country where am I to expect glory, I shall have enough in heaven shortly. I am little concerned in the Opinion of men during this life of few days, and I am yet less concerned in that they shall say of me after my death.  
Of all sufferings, the sufferings for righteousness have the surest comfort, Christ saying so expressly, Matth. 5.10.12. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of God. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Since by many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven, we perceive by the thorns which we were told we should find in the way, that we are in the right; Any way is pleasant that leads us to salvation.  
Finally this heavenly hope abates the tediousness of sickness, and the chagreene of old age. For the godly soul finding her house of flesh ready to fall, prepareth herself with joy to come out at the breach; and finding the race of this life near done, stretcheth herself towards the prize, which the great Saviour holds her up, from heaven. Thus faith is found to be the most sublime Philosophy, for it takes off the heart from things transitory, and raiseth it up to the eternal. It is the chief valour, for it is victor over dolour, and armeth the weak with invincible strength. It makes the Christian to walk in the midst of calamities with a resolute and undaunted march, and to grow familiar with death, finding in the principal subject of humane fears the great subject of his confidence and joy, and in the cross a ladder to glory.    

OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND.  
FIFTH BOOK. Of Peace in Society.  

CHAPTER. I. Of Concord with all men, and of Meekness  
OUr first Book hath been employed about the Peace of man with God, The three following about the peace of man with himself. To confirm himself in these, his next care must be to have peace with his own kind. For in vain should we hope to keep peace with God and our own selves, if we live in wilful discord with our neighbours; these are things altogether inconsistent. If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? and if a man be at odds with God and his brother, how can he have peace at home?  
We are commanded to follow peace with all men. Heb. 12.14. Which because it is more easy to follow then to obtains the Apostle St. Paul prepares us to meet with opposition by these terms, If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Rom. 12.18. Now what lieth in us (with Gods assisting grace) to live peaceably with all men, is expressed in two counsels in the words next before, The first is to recompense no man evil for evil. It is impossible to go through the crowd of the world and not to be thrust. Fools return the like and thrust again, and thrusting brings striking; The wise pass quiet and unconcerned. As we must bear one with another for God's sake that commands it, we must do it for our own sake to keep tranquillity of mind; the loss whereof cannot be recompensed by any satisfaction of revenge, if revenge ever brought any. Most part of injuries consisting in opinion the remedy consisteth in the same. They hurt not him that resents them not. Injuriarum remedium est oblivio. But if the injury be such that we must needs resent it, Pardoning is the best resenting, and the honourablest revenge of all is, To recompense good for evil.  
The other counsel is, Provide things honest in the sight of all men. For whether we live with good or bad men, which are the greater number, it were impossible for us to compass all our designs if they were laid open in the sight of all men, they must be so honest that when they are ripe for the knowledge of all men we need not be ashamed of them. And if in the following of honest and beneficial designs we meet with opposition, we must behave ourselves with so much meekness that we make it appear that we seek not our advantage by the ruin of others, and together with so much vigour that none be encouraged by our pusillanimity to cross us.  
There is no harder task then to keep ourselves free from dissension in this age; which may be called the reign of discord. Here than we must bestow the greater care to keep tranquillity in our conversation, and more in our mind.  
As for public quarrels, a wise man will wed himself to no party with eagernes; and if it be possible, he will look upon the game, and himself neither play nor bet. He will leave the zeal of State to them that hold themselves unworthy to be exempted from common distresses. He will remember that he is a citizen of a better country then that where he was borne. Who so takes a great interest in public affairs, showeth thereby that he hath a great love to the world, and esteems it more than it is worth; for we may be sure that, which party soever prevail, fools will prevail, for such are all men, and in the commotion of a State, as of a muddy river, the mire and foam will always be the uppermost. If it be past our power to part them, let them fight it out, and let our part be to look with judgement and compassion how the vials of God's wrath are poured first upon the minds of men to confound them with a fierce and blind impetuosity, whereby they run and pray one upon another, & next upon Empires & states to turn them upside down. Of which an image is represented in the sixteenth Chapter of the Revelation where a vial is poured upon the Sun whereby he is made hot and scorching beyond measure, and presently another vial is poured upon the seat of the Beast, wherewith his kingdom is filled with darkness, and infested with sore and smarting plagues. For a man's spirit is within him that which the Sun is in the world. When the spirits of a people are kindled with a malignant heat, a dark confusion of the State and the miseries of the particular members of it will follow. That man is blessed who in such an epidemical turbulent heat, keeps the meekness and serenity of his mind. And although it be hardly possible for him not to be carried away by the stream of that party where his private interesses happen to be engaged, yet he keeps his soul free, heavenly, peaceable charitable to his greatest enemies, and praying for them that persecute him.  
In all times and places a wise Christian will abhor war. It is the very empire of the Devil; and in nothing so much doth he show himself the Prince of this world. It is the discipline of robbery and murder. It is the deep gulf of all misery. It is the sink of all wickedness and villainy. Yet the best men are often engaged in it even out of conscience & duty, for every one oweth his life to the defence of his Country. But for one to love the trade of Manbutcher, and delight in the hunting of man his own kind, as others do in the hunting of the wolf or wild boar, is an unnatural barbarousness, not valour. Who so will keep the integrity and serenity of his conscience, and hopeth for the salvation of his soul, must keep himself free from that inhuman inclination, the true image of Satan, who was a murderer from the beginning. God's children are children of peace, which they entertain in their mind and advance by their prayers and counsels.  
There is another war in the midst of peace, little better than that where the quarrel is decided by the sword, the war of lawsuites, the discipline of cutting men's throats with a pen. There robbery is committed by the due forms of law, there men are flayed alive for others to  themselves with their skin. There the profession of giving to every man his own, is turned by the professors into an invention to make every man's goods their own. The contentions infinite in number and length, and the devouring trade of law tricks, is the great plague of these Western Provinces of Europe, and the great shame of Christendom while the Mahometan Moors, our neighbours, dispatch suits in an hour, without appeal or writ of error. He that knows how to value that precious peace with God and himself, and desires to keep it, will endure great extremities before he try that remedy worse than most sicknesses; following St. Paul's lesson, 1 Cor. 6. There is utterly a fault among you because ye go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? And if he be yet to choose his civil profession, he shall do wisely not to betake himself to those professions that live by the contentiousness of others. But if he find himself necessarily engaged in the practice of Law, he must behave himself in it as a child of peace, sewing up again, as much as in him lieth, what others have rend; like good Princes which never draw their swords but to have peace. Look upon that tumultuous clamorous, & mischievous bustle, & then account it no small happiness to live far from an air so contrary to the tranquillity of mind, and the integrity and serenity of conscience.  
There are other dissensions without law, and many times without conscience, which begin in envy, suspicions, credulity to reports, & in words ill intended or ill taken, proceeding from words to blows and many times ending in destruction. The worst effect is within, the breach of the inward peace with God in a man's self, and the inbittering of the spirit, both of the offendor and the offended, unless he be of a very mild, and godly, and Philosophical temper.  
To avoid those troublesome encounters, Solomon's precept must be observed. Prov. 22.24. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go. But because those that must of necessity converse with many cannot pick their company, and much less change the manners of those with whom they converse, they must so govern and temper their own, by piety and judgement, as never to give a just provocation to any.  
Truly there is no fence against unreasonableness; and proud anger will be offensive though unprovoked. Our part must be to break such men's choler with patience, as woolsacks and gabions full of earth are set before the battery of cannons. St Paul's precept to give place unto wrath, Rom. 12.19, is as wise as it is holy; for wrath groweth by opposition, but spends itself when one gives it place. If you be fiercely pursued by a serpent, do but step aside, the serpent will rush strait on and miss you. And if you be set upon by impetuous choler, give it place by a gentle declination, it will passe-by harmless. Or if you receive real injury from an angry man, expect no satisfaction from him while he is so, but appeal from him in hot blood to himself in cold blood.  
Contentious insolent men being generally persons of small worth, it is a sordid and unworthy employment to contend with them: For as friendship makes friends equal, quarrels works the like effect. If we contend with a drunkard or a loggerhead, we make him our fellow. Prov. 26.4. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. If you debate with a fool, you must imitate him, for the debate obligeth you to follow him in all his extravagancies.  
That contention may not reach us, we must stand far from the contentions of others, and free ourselves of that popular folly to run and crowd to hear unknown persons that are at high words, and be presently interessed in the quarrel, as when two dogs are fight, all the dogs of the street will run to them, and take parts. A good and wise man will seek to make peace where possibility invites him, but where he seethe that he can do no good to others he will not venture to do harm to himself. Mediations unless they have a great measure of goodness and discretion, make the differences wider and bear the blow on both sides.  
To that end a wiseman will be none of the forwardest to give his judgement of every thing, and none of the affirmative and great disputants, that will set forth all their opinions, and evince them by strength of argument: but he will be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, as St. James commandeth Jam. 1.19. In which words he giveth a character of a wise man in conversation, that hears all, makes profit of all, determines of nothing, and is moved at nothing.  
And whereas there is in all men good and bad a certain respect of truth and righteousness, which at the hearing of untruth and unrighteousness will work a sudden aversion in the mind, if we will keep an inoffensive course in conversing with the world, we must learn to silense that aversion, and not let it appear abroad without an especial order of our serious judgement, accustoming our eyes and ears and countenance to an unmoved patience, not thinking ourselves obliged to oppose all the lies and impertinencies of every one that we meet with, but only when the good name of God is notoriously blasphemed. We ought to bear in mind that things true and just in our opinions in the opinion of all others. That we cannot justly claim the liberty of enjoying our opinions unless we leave the same liberty to others. That our minds, as all the rest of mankind, are  and wrapped up in error. And we are to give account of our own, not of other men's follies. For one to bear himself as the repairer of all wrongs and reformer of all that is amiss in the world, is an humour that hath much of the vein of old romanses. Crafty and ambitious dealers have often got strength by that weakness of vulgar souls, yea have made even the true zeal to Gods glory tributary to their ambition.  
Truly for so high a subject as Gods glory our reason, our will, our Passion, our words, and our actions must be set on work. But we must take a careful heed of mistaking madness for zeal, and superstition for religion. Neither must we think that for such good ends as we may conceive any way is lawful; there being nothing more cruel and pernicious than a bastard and fanatical zeal. It is the plague of religion, the ruin of the State, and undoing of human society. Better were it to live a slave in the chains of Tunis and Tripoli, where the bodies are misused without violence to the conscience, then to be yoked to the tiresome conversation of a fierce, scrupulous, & clamorous bigot, that will be at peace with no man unless every one believe at his mode, though himself knoweth not what he believeth; and alloweth rest neither to himself or to others. Who so loveth his peace will keep himself from the torture of such an odious companion, and will be yet more careful to keep his mind free of that impetuous weakness disguized with the name of holy zeal and wisdom. jam. 3.15. That wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish; For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that love peace.  
The chief way to keep peace in Society, is meekness. It takes up quarrels, and tieth again the knot of love when it happens to be untied. It is the balsam that healeth the wounds made in friendship. It is the lenitive of injuries. It is the preserver of peace with God, with men, and with ourselves. Psal. 37.11. The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.  
There is a bastard meekness which is nothing else but a base & timorous nature, whereby a man yields all and to all, because he is afraid of all. If that disposition serveth sometimes to prevent discord, it serveth more often to provoke it; for it invites contempt, and gives fair play to insolence. It is fare from maintaining peace within, as true meekness doth; for it keeps the mind in perpetual fear, and fills it with diffidence and superstition. But true meekness is a compound of humility, charity, and generosity, whereby we keep concord with our neighbours because we love them; And to avoid quarrel, call prudence and sometimes disdain, to the help of patience; letting ill words go by, as hail clattering over our roof, and after a noise without effect, falling to the ground, and melting of itself.  
A meek generous man will be ingenious to devise excuses for them that offend him: alleging for them, sometimes the age, sometimes the sex, sometimes the sickness of the body, sometimes that of the mind: He will say, This man is otherwise discontented; affliction makes men froward, he deserves rather pity then anger: That other man hath offended me unwittingly, or he was ill informed; If he layeth a false imputation upon me, he showeth that he knoweth me not, I must not be angry with a man for mistaking me for another. If he deal unrighteously with me, I must consider that all unrighteousness proceeds of error; He hath more need to be taught then punished; I must not hate a man because he is out of his way: In the offence done to me God is offended first, God then must first ressent it; Vengeance is Gods not mine. If he that offendeth me is one of God's children he is beloved of him, and I must not hate him whom God loveth. If he be wicked and will never repent of his wickedness, I need not procure him evil, God is his enemy, and will be sure to make him eternally miserable: But because, for any thing I know, he may repent and be reconciled with God, which I must wish and hope for, I must not be enemy to him that may be God's friend eternally; He and I were best to be friends on earth lest we never meet in heaven.  
As in wrestling, so in injuries, that man is the strongest who is less moved. The best victory over an enemy is to make him our friend. It is double victory; for so a man overcometh both his adversary and himself.   

CHAP. II. Of brotherly Charity, and of Friendship.  
TO live in concord with our neighbours we must love them, otherwise all our compliance and dexterity to keep concord will be but dissimulation, and though it get us peace abroad it will not give us peace within. My little children; saith St. John let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but indeed and in truth. 1. joh. 3.18. Then he addeth that hereby we know that we are of the truth, and assure our hearts before God. A text, showing that charity to our neighbours fills the mind with saith, peace, and assurance: a doctrine, justified by the experience of meek and charitable souls. The same charity that unites us with Christ as our head, unites us also with our neighbours as his members, or at least as his creatures that bear his image: In the one or the other of these relations we must love all men for God's sake, and render to them all possible duties of humanity.  
To the practice of these duties we are more especially called by the necessity of our neighbours, and by their virtue. Necessity affords us a perpetual occasion of charity. Matth. 26.11 For ye have the poor always with you, saith the Lord Jesus. Others that are not poor in estate are poor in counsel, or health, or friends, or comfort: Let every body give of that he hath, to him that hath not, and he showeth charity to the rich if he do him good expecting no reward.  
Works of charity do good both to him that is relieved and to him that relieveth. But he that doth good, gets more relief by it then he to whom it is done: for it is a thing more happy to give then to receive, Act. 20.35. saith St Paul after Christ; first because of the good treasure which is laid up thereby for the future, Pro. 11.25. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Giving charitably is casting a seed bringing an everlasting harvest. It is sending up sweet vapours to heaven which are thickened there into a rain of blessings to shower down upon the head of the charitable person. To which we may join the great and present content accrueing to the soul in the very act of giving, for good works give a ready pay to the doers. This made Solomon to say The merciful man doth good to his own soul, Prov. 11.17 for the works of mercy give a great joy to the doer. And he that gives his bread to the poor is more satisfied with it then he that eats it. It is a divine felicity to do good to many, for it is the greatest imitation of God, who gives to all and is never weary of doing good. Herein only dignities and riches are good, that they enable a willing mind to do much good.  
As the necessity of our neighbours invites us to charity so doth their Virtue, which is the better invitation. The first sort of Charity, which regards more the need then the worth of the person, is humanity and mercy; that which regardeth Virtue is friendship, or at least a beginning of it.  
Friendship, to deserve fully that name, must be reciprocal, the parties loving one another dear because they deserve it, and because they see the graces of God each in the other. Friendship that regards profit and pleasure deserveth not that name since it is neither for the love of God, nor for the love of the person that such a Friendship is contracted, but out of self-love.  
Friendship cemented by Virtue, and riveted by likeness in inclinations, manners, and opininions, is the sweetest of all human things. For besides counsel and mutual help, and the delight of interchanging thoughts and discharging cares in the bosom one of another, the union of affections, and the assurance to be beloved of the beloved person, is a content not to be expressed; & there is something heavenly in that harmony. It is a little imitation of the union between the persons of the Trinity which make themselves happy by their mutual love. There is nothing neither in heaven nor in earth that giveth content but friendship. Nothing is pleasant without it. And if I were asked what is the greatest of all joys, I would say that it is to love, and to be loved again, and know it.  
But it must be acknowledged that this perfection and felicity is more in Idea then in reality among men, and we must go higher than human Society, to find it. For whereas it is hard to find a virtuous man in the world, it is harder to find two. And it is harder yet to make these two meet in opinions, in inclinations, in interesses, in place of habitation, and in the like course of life; for the want of one of these particulars hinders the knitting of the bond of friendship, or makes it shortlived, or abates the comfort of it.  
The description which Pagan Philosophy forgeeths of perfect friendship is a fair imagination of an impossible thing; They require two friends or three at the most, but such as were never found, endowed with perfect virtue; That for that virtue these persons love one another, without any other obligation or collateral respect. That these perfect souls be so plunged and blended one within another that they can not own themselves singled and asunder. That they be but one soul dwelling in several bodies. That a friend give himself so absolutely to his friend that he live no more but for him, yea in him; and that his goods, as himself, be his friends, whose interesses he wholly seeks, not his own.  
I wonder that among Christian Philosophers none hath hitherto observed (for any thing I know) what it was that bred that Idea of friendship so high and remote from the nature of things, in the fancy of Pagan Philosophers, which yet placed virtue and felicity in living according to Nature; & why they have so universally adored that chimaera which is found no where among men, like the Athenians that had set up an Altar to the unknown God.  
This is then the origine and ground of that high imagination of those Pagans. They had found by searching the nature of man, that nothing can make him happy, but love; And that for a beatifical love a man hath need of an object all good, all wise, and all perfect; so perfectly united with him, yea so totally, that both pass the one into the other and make a mutual free and absolute gift of themselves. But the poor men did not know that object of transcendent goodness, only worthy to be loved with all the heart and soul: and if some of them acknowledged God to be the Sovereign good, they believed not that he could have such a communication with man that both might interchange a mutual gift of their own selves; so, that man should dwell in God, and God in man. Thinking not then that there might be a contract of friendship between God and man, and seeing that it is friendship that must make man happy, they forged that Idea of friendship between man & man, of which the condition of man is not capable, requiring for that friendship that which indeed is requisite for felicity, but together is impossible to nature. For so fare they say true, that for a perfect love the soul of a friend must pass into his friend's soul. But that being improperly and hyperbolically ascribed to love between men, is true and real in the friendship between God and man sanctified, especially when he is glorified; For God graceth man so much as to make him his friend, and to call him so, I have called you my friends saith Christ to his Disciples. Joh. 15.15. And in that friendship there is such a strict union between God and the soul, that thereby the soul is refunded into her original being. The spirit of God gets into man's spirit, and the spirit of man pours itself into God's spirit, as the river falls into the Sea and the Sea floweth into the river; Their wills become one, their interesses one, the glory of God and the salvation of man become the same thing; Man seeking above all things to glorify God glorifyeth himself, and is advanced by debasing himself out of his love to God, till finally seeing God, and being seen of him, 2. Cor. 3.18. he is changed into the same image, and made partaker of the divine nature. 2. Pet. 1.4.  
When the Pagans from their contemplations upon friendship pass to examples, they show how remote their imaginations are from the nature of things, and that their characters of friendship are fit to be looked on than copied out. For none of these pairs of friends, which Antiquity extols, is come near those complete Ideas which they fancy. Most of them that would strive to express them in their practice have made themselves miserable, and their friendship a bondage. Also among the virtuous examples of friendship, they set forth vicious precedents; as that of Blosius who being convented before the Senate about the sedition of Tiberius Gracchus, whose intimate friend he was, and asked what he would have done for him, answered that he would have done any thing at his request. And what (said the Judges) if he would have requested thee to set the Temples on fire, wouldst thou have done it? I know, replied he, that Gracchus would never have had such a will, but if he had desired it of me, I would have done it. I am scandalised to see that answer commended by Christian writers, Montagne and Carron. Let them comment upon it as much as they please, it is certain that such a deference to a friend's will, is the highest homage that the creature can make unto the Creator, whose will is the only rule of righteousness. If any prefer his friends will before the observation of that Sovereign will, his amity is enmity against God, and becomes a plot and a conspiracy to offend him.  
These old characters of perfect friendship persuade some to imitate them, but commonly they are young men, that know neither how to choose what they ought to love, nor how to love what they have chosen; and they that choose a friend with most judgement, and preserve him with most care soon find that human nature, though enriched with grace, affords neither the perfect objects, nor the firm bond, nor the solid content of Friendship.  
Yet since we live in the world, we must make friends in it, and leaving heroic characters to romances, content ourselves with such as the earth bears, and neighbourhood presents; choosing them such as have, at least, piety, honesty, and ingenuity; matching ourselves with our equals, or rather a little above us then under, preserving their love by respect and good offices, and conversing with them with a cheerful and innocent facility  
But seeing that a great affection is a great servitude, filling the mind with care and fear, he that loveth his own tranquillity will take heed how he engageth himself in a friendship whose value doth not recompense the interest he takes in it, and will not suffer his affection for any person to grow to the loss of his liberty and peace of mind.  
It is a great folly for one to make himself miserable out of too much good nature, and to lose the sweetness of friendship by a perpetual carefulness and alarm. Good things become evil to us when we love them beyond measure. There is but one friendship where we may love without any measure, & where the greatness of the affection brings rest & serenity to the soul. It is the friendship with God, the only Good perfect and worthy of all our love, who being so great yet is able to contract friendship with us that are so little. If we have the grace to entertain that friendship, which fills the soul with joy and goodness, we shall easily be comforted about the rarity, and weakeness, yea and the loss of humane friendships.   

CHAP. III. Of Gratefulness.  
I Have observed two duties of charity, which contribute much to the Rest and content of the soul; The one is to relieve them that need it; the other, to love them whose virtue deserves it. These two duties require the company of another, which is, To be grateful to them of whom we have received some benefit. For speaking now to generous souls, I may observe that nothing lieth more heavy upon their heart, than this reproach of their own mind, that they have not sufficiently showed their gratefulness unto their benefactor.  
Our first benefactor is God, for to him we own all, even what we own to men. We own him all that we have, and all that we are, our being and our wellbeing. To him than we must do homage for all; and our life being well sustained by a continual influence of his love, must also be a continual course of thankfulness. That duty we must tend with our words, with our thoughts, with our actions, and more with our affections.  
But because the creature cannot properly give any thing to the Creator, because all is his, who gives all, and receiveth of none but himself; our gratefullness to God must be showed to them whom he hath employed to do us good.  
We must begin by paying debts. If a friend hath opened his purse to us in our need, or hath helped us with his commodities of which he makes profit, expecting our conveniency to pay for them; It is not only a theft to be slack to satisfy, it is ungratefulnes, which is fare worse; for the plain thief abuseth not the goodness of his friend; but the ungrateful man renders evil for good, and defraudeth his friend because he had pity on him. One may do greater and more profitable kindnesses then lending of money; Yet there is none where ungratefulnes is more sensible, because of the love that every one bears to his money, and the trust that is reposed upon it as the staff of life: Wherefore conscience and generosity must solicit the debtor to pay, and be stronger than bonds and compulsions of law to bring him to his duty.  
St Paul enjoines us to owe nothing to no man but to love one another; A text full of Philosophy: For there are some debts which we must not owe long, as debts for things borrowed and taken upon trust. There are other debts, which we must always pay, and always own; and though we must repay them presently, yet we must owe them still after we have paid them: Such are the duties of mutual love, and thankful acknowledgement of kindnesses. Pecuniary debts must be paid that we may be no more in debt; but as for the debt of love, that debtor is an ill paymaster that looks for an acquittance when he hath paid it. He that is truly grateful desires always to pay, and always to owe.  
Civil life is a perpetual commerce of kindnesses, a continual giving and returning. It is like a source that springs at the root of a great oak, and is kept cool by that green shade which it keeps fresh and verdant. Neither nature nor human society can subsist without mutual giving and receiving. But fruitful soils, and generous spirits, will yield much more than they receive: Now because it is impossible for us to live in the world without receiving benefits which cannot be returned, it is some gratefulness to show to him that obligeth us that we delight to be obliged to him. Est animi ingenui, cui multum debeas, eiaem plurimum velle debere It is a proud and savage humour for one to refuse a kindness because he knows not how to repay it in the same kind or value. It is turning friendship into a bargain: They that will stick to that Maxim are soon forced to go from it, though they be never so powerful; for they that have most, are most needy of help, which cannot at all times be repaid. Saepe etiam dives à paupere plura petebat. Man's condition is so needy that every one depends of his neighbour's kindness. And though we must aspire to that evangelical happiness, rather to give then to receive, and study to overcome our benefactors by a noble emulation of beneficence, we must not pretend to that advantage proper to God alone, to oblige all men, and be obliged to none. The satisfaction that we may give to ourselves when we are obliged to one with whom we are like never to meet, or who is so high above us that our benefits cannot reach him, is to do good to others that are unable to do us the like. Then prayers to God are a commerce, whereby the lowest persons may benefit the greatest. And we must endeavour to make God a surety for us, beseeching him to be the remunerator of those benefits which we cannot requite.   

CHAP. IU. Of Satisfaction of Injuries.  
AS thankfulness for benefits, so satisfaction for injuries, is necessary to set a generous and religious mind at rest; I mean of injuries that we have done, not of those we have received. Yet we must learn how to behave ourselves in both.  
As for jniuries received, as a wise Christian must willingly forget the good that he hath done, being content that God remembreth it; so he must forget the injuries that are done to him, and be content that God, to whom vengeance belongeth, keepeth them in remembrance. He must also remember in what need he stands of pardon before God, and that without forgiving he must not expect to be forgiven.  
If he be so offended that he be obliged to ressent it, he will implore God's assistance to find honourable and peaceable ways of satisfaction, and keep himself clean from blood and revenge. And if he think his honour to lie at the stake, he must think also that charity and discretion are more honourable than impatience, yea then valour. To keep integrity and peace of conscience let him sadly consider the horrible consequences of a duel, in which a man either deliberately takes away the life of his neighbour, or himself, loseth his own in the act of murder. Let him fear a perpetual biting remorse, the cry of blood pursuing the murderer, and the late repenting when one is fallen out with God and his own conscience for an unprofitable revenge.  
Be the laws of honour among swordmen never so severe, a wise and godly man shall never want ways, which Gods mercy and wisdom will suggest to his prudence, to come out of quarrels with credit & integrity. Eccle. 7.18. He that feareth God shall come forth of all. Truly he can come forth of a challenge by refusing it, and keep both honour and conscience, after the example of many brave men, who are with good reason honoured for their free opposing of that popular madness.  
That ordinary term of taking or giving satisfaction with the sword, is as much against common sense as it is against justice; for how can one give satisfaction for an injury by a greater? Is that satisfying a man whom you have offended to go about to kill him? Or is it satisfying yourself when you have been offended to run the hazard of being killed by the offendor, and put him in possibility of getting double victory and double triumph over you?  
That new point of honour for which men massacre one another, not so much out of hatred as to obey the tyranny of custom, was not known in old time among the bravest men. The Romans did not practise it in the flower of their valour, which conquered the world. But as much as men are decreased in valour, so much are they increased in peevish impatience, which in effect is but weakness. The strongest trees are less stirred by the wind, and the strongest spirits are less moved with injuries. As the tops of Atlas and Tenerifa are not beaten with hail, for they stand above it; high and magnanimous spirits stand above the insolence of rash men, and in that litigious storm keep their serenity. It is a good rule, to be moved with no fault but such as we commit. If my neighbour offend me, the offence is his, not mine; To him, not to me, it belongs to ressent it.  
Wherefore the injuries, of which we must see the satisfaction made, are those that we have done. If unwittingly or otherwise we happen to do injury to any man with words or actions, it layeth a sad weight upon our conscience, which we must hasten to unloade, by satisfying the offended & ourselves more, for the offence is more in the offendor then in the offended; and when we make satisfaction to him to whom the injury was intended, we do more for ourselves then for him.  
Reparation must be made to God in the first place, for in all offences he is the first offended party, and this is done by repentance, of which we have spoken before. That reparation which we make to our brethren, may be acceptable to God it must have these three qualities of godly repentance; It must be speedy, free, and total. As the Sun must not go down upon Our wrath, let it not go down upon that of our neighbour provoked by us, if we may prevent it. It is in us (with God's assistance) to disprove the Maxim which the practice of the Italians hath made true among them, Chi offend non perdona mai. The offender (say they) never forgiveth. It is a great shame indeed to have given offence, but the offence is greater to refuse to mend it. The Lord Jesus our great Master having taken care to heal the wound that his Disciple had made, shall we refuse to heal the wounds which we have made ourselves? God saith, Vengeance belongs unto me, I will recompense; there he speaks of the injuries done to us: But as for the injuries done by us, vengeance belongs unto ourselves, so fare as to make recompense to them whom we have wronged. Which recompense unless we make, God will make it. Our wisest course than is to make that recompense sincerely; so may we ease God of that care.   

CHAP. V Of simplicity, and dexterity in Society  
PEace with men consisteth in doing and receiving no injury. The first (with Gods assisting grace) depends of us. Towards the second, though depending of others, we may do much. For the cause why some are wronged and abused, commonly lieth not so much in the insolence of others, as in their own imprudence.  
But the end of this Book (the same as that of our lives) being not only peace by doing and receiving no injury, but content by doing and receiving good, we must study both how to lead a safe and inoffensive course of life, and how to be useful to ourselves and others.  
That skill we learn of the great Master of wisdom, who hath comprehended it in these two short precepts. Matth. 10.16. Be ye prudent as serpents, and harmless [or simple] as doves. These two he makes into one, because they make together an excellent compound, and because they must never be disjoined. Simplicity without prudence would serve only to make us sheep for the wolves to eat. Prudence without simplicity, though it could get us some peace and utility with men would forfeit our peace with God and our conscience, and so prove mere folly in the end.  
How essential simplicity is to prudence it is seen in all the parts of conversation, which are reducible to these two heads, Words and Actions.  
As for words, it is certain that simplicity is the most requisite quality, what use soever they be put to, public or private, religious or civil. And even the discourses made only for elegancy and delectation cannot attain their end without simplicity; for that gracious expression, and powerfullness of words, which gets the fame of eloquence, is nothing else but simplicity managed with dexterity. They that go fare from it and make their style dark to make it show deep, or bombast it with extravagant conceits, and new ill coined terms, lose elegancy by hunting too eagerly after it; there being no such deadly enemy to grace in speech as affectation. Besides it is found that discourses full of affected difficulty are like olive stones, which are very hard because there is nothing in them; and styles puffed up with words are empty of matter, as some cheating women have been seen, that appeared great with child when they were big with a pillow. The knowledge of things, the solidity of reason, and the sincerity of the mind, are the three magazines affording good and gracious discourses. Where those three meet, the more the style is simple the more elegant it is. And in matter of speech, the best service that dexterity can do to right reason, is to deliver in clear terms those thoughts which the mind hath well digested. So shall one satisfy others and himself.  
Affectation is alike ungracious in Words and Actions. Affected persons have that hard fortune that while they study to disguise themselves, they discover themselves most; there being nothing that betrays a may so much as affectation doth. His forced countenance, his studied gesture, the odd quaintness of habit, give an evident character of a mind disordered by pride, and a nature drowned in foolish artifice. Such men are displeasing to God, who loveth truth and simplicity in the inward parts, Psal. 51. and therefore cannot but be displeasing to themselves, destitute of peace of conscience and contentment of mind. Melancholy is an inseparable companion of constraint, for who can take delight in that which he does against nature? Therefore stage buffoons when their jig is done are very sad and froward, because they have extraordinarily constrained themselves.  
There is a deeper and craftier simulation called hypocrisy, which knoweth how to personate plain honesty, and put upon fraud the face of simplicity; as indeed without that it is impossible to cousin. Simplicity and Integrity are of such price among men, good and evil, that without the substance, or the show of them, it is not possible to entertain any commerce in the world: And men that have but the show of these, desire to deal with them that have the substance, because they are true and sure dealers. As wicked as the world is, uprightness is the safest course to advance a man: for every one will say, He is an honest man, It is safe dealing with him. The principal is, that thereby we keep good intelligence with God and with our conscience.  
The chief prudence then, is to be honest: They that seek to appear such, and are not, are imprudent; for to enjoy the benefit of honesty before men, the sure way is to have it indeed. Counterfeit honesty is false coin, not safe to trade withal; and in the end, it turneth to the undoing of the false coiner. But honesty and prudence have need to be more in reality within, then in show without. For to make a great show of honesty gives a great suspicion of hypocrisy; and to make a great show of prudence is asigne of shallowess. It is better to show honesty then prudence, because honesty is of greater price, and because every one ought to have it & profess it: Whereas it is a great point of prudence to conceal it, for that man is not very crafty that showeth his craft. He that sets out much policy in discourse, commonly keeps but little in reserve.  
Next to integrity, which is the first counsel of wisdom in conversation, the best counsel is to know ourselves, the business that we take in hand, and the persons that we have to do with; measuring our strength and what we are fit for, that we never meddle with any thing above our capacity, or that we may desist before we be too far engaged. It is a great point of wisdom for one to be able to adequate his employment to his capacity and inclination. But because the choice of our employment for all our life is commonly made in our nonage by our parents who are many times mistaken in our genius and ability, or employ us where they can, not where they would; we must by a virtuous resolution, bow our genius to our employment, and supply the wants of nature with dexteterity.  
For this there is need of that virtue which the Italians and French cry up so much, called accortezza or accortize. A word, which I recommend to my readers, to be made by their countenance free denizon of England, if they like it; Let me not be the only writer of these times that dares not coin new English. Accortize is a pliableness and dexterity to fit oneselfe to all businesses and persons and times. And first for businesses, a wise and accort man must make unto himself an universal and complying spirit, versatile ingenium, to whom nothing seems strange or new, & not so much affected to some certain things, as to be unfit for all other things. Thales the Milesian Philosopher, being mocked by some Merchants of Miletus, upbraiding him that he declaimed against riches, because he felt himself uncapable to get them, began a traffic whereby in one Summer he engroced the whole trading of the Town to himself; Then having showed what he could do, he left trading, and returned to his Philosophy. It is a shame for a man of reasonable parts to be fit but for one thing; but certainly if one can sort his employment to his proper genius, he shall do much for the liberty of his actions, the success of his enterprises, and the contentment of his mind.  
As we must comply with buzinesses, so we must with persons, whose several natures we should therefore study. To this, natural Philosophy will help us much, for the inclinations and manners of men will commonly follow the temper of their body. But experience and observation are the best schools for that skill. We must carefully observe the humours of those persons that are within the sphere of our activity that we may take every man in his humour, marking what things they are most bend upon, and wherein they are most impatient to be crossed. Of all the miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost which are ceased, I find none so much wanting as the gift of discerning the spirits, for want of which we miss so often the compassing of our ends with our neighbours, either for their good or our own. Jer. 17.9. The heart of man is deceitful, who can know it? And some natures are harder to know then others, and need a longer observation. Some having planted orchards with great care and cost, at thirty year's end begin to perceive that the soil was not fit for trees. And many fathers have miss that comfort which they might have had from their children, because they have known their nature too late, and set them upon a course of life unsuitable to their minds and abilities. If fathers are thus short in the knowledge of their own children, and ourselves with much ado attain the knowledge of our own nature; how shall we be able to know the nature of so many persons with whom we must converse, having to do every day with new men, which show nothing but a plausible and artificial outside?  
In that great art of Discerning, the proper handles to lay hold of the several spirits, which is the great work of acccotize, honest and worthy men must have an emulation not to be overcome by impostors and jugglers that make it their whole trade. Truly the children of light have need in this point to turn disciples of the children of darkness. They know how to persuade the generous with honour, the timorous with fear, the covetous with profit, the voluptuous with pleasure, the proud with praise, the devout with conscience. Of that manner of commerce, of which something is to be taken, something left, the sincere and prudent must learn enough to avoid circumvention, and to know the several avenues of the spirits with whom he is to converse.  
Accortize having taught a man to fit himself for the several buzinesses and persons, her third work is to make him discern the nature of the times, and comply with them as fare as he may with a safe conscience. Every age of the world hath its proper genius, which a wiseman must observe; daily studying the reigning humours, the ebbs and flows of customs, and the signs of approaching revolutions, either to make benefit of the tide, or to decline it with as little harm as may be, if it suit not with his conscience and inclination.  
He that will maintain or advance himself in a time full of revolutions and quick turns, hath need to be of the nature of ivy, which takes hold of all that stands near, gets root every where, even upon stones, and followeth all the turns of the tree or wall that it sticks unto. Many might have advanced themselves in the world, had their conscience been as nimble as their industry. But it is not advancement but the peace and contentment of mind that a wise and godly man must look for. Conscience and simplicity are not able to follow all the giddy turns of the world, especially when one hath a public employment, where it is as impossible to be hid as it would be treacherous to be indifferent. But when conscience lieth not at the stake, a wiseman finally must yield if he cannot overcome. He must not blow against the wind, nor justle against a windmill turning with impetuosity. The difficulties of life being great and many, and every one being more clear sighted in his neighbour's case then his own, we must in our difficulties ask counsel of those whom we know to be wise and honest, and to have no interest but our own in the buzinesses upon which we consult them. It is better to consult those that are less wise than ourselves, then to take counsel of none but ourselves in things important. For two eyes see more than one; Though another have not better eyes, he may look upon the buzines by another by as; and if he be not capable to give us counsel, he is able to form objections, which will be so many overtures of counsel. We must hear all 1. Thes. 5.21. Prove all things, hold fast that which is good: be free and benevolent to all, trust but few; but show no mistrust to any without necessity.  
Two contrary faults are the ordinary ruin of businesses, The one is too much fervency and haste to bow the occasion to our desire, whereas we should gently bow our desire to the occasion, and stay till it be ripe. The other is negligence and security, presuming of one's own merit and fortune, despising oppositions and letting occasions slip. But many times rash men from one of these contraries pass to the other, for fiery and hasty men will soon relent, and utterly ruin by their negligence what they had spoiled before by their hastiness.  
It would be endless and beyond my subject to specify all the precepts of prudence. Others have eased me of that labour. I do but recommend the study and practise of them to such as will enjoy peace and contentment of mind. We are not Masts of events, but we ought to be Masters of counsels. If a good counsel be followed with a sinister event, we bear it more easily when we can bear witness to ourselves that it is not for want of a wise, diligent, and honest care. But he that hath ruined his business through his imprudence hath a double affliction, for his misfortune, and for his folly. I may excuse myself from speaking more of prudence in this Chapter, for all I have said hitherto and have to say hereafter, is nothing else.   

CHAP. VI To have little Company and few Businesses.  
I Spoke lately of Prudence in Business; But the greatest prudence in business, is to have but few; it being impossible to have many without disturbing the peace of the foul. And what imprudence is it, to lose the end for the accessories? especially when one is deceived in those accessories, and mistakes for the helps of his content, the instruments of his misfortune. The more we converse with men, the less we converse with God. Yea the content which we might expect by our conversation with men is lost by too much conversation. For whereas among men there are more wicked than good, and among good men there are more unwise than wise, it followeth that in great companies (taking them one with another) there is more evil than good, and more folly than wisdom, and the greater the worse. It is in few friends well chosen, that the sweetness and utility of conversation consisteth. The lesseyou appear in the crowd the less shall you be crowded, the less secret envy and open quarrel shall you incur, the less evil shall you learn and do. It is no wonder that young men are inveigled with temptations, embroiled in quarrels, and made the prey of cheaters; The poor youths are newly come into the world, & to see it they seek great meetings, they gaze upon all they see, sin for company, or to get experience. But when a man hath seen enough of the world to know it, and hath learned wisdom out of the folly of others, and the miscarriages of his own imprudence, he will content himself to see the ctowd afar off, and will not thrust into it, and meddle too fare with this wicked, foolish, and dangerous generation.  
We must not speak thus out of a presumptuous singularity, so despising the world that we esteem none but ourselves: We must acknowledge that we have the world in our heart, and that we also are wicked, foolish and of dangerous conversation. If the world corrupt us, we also help to corrupt the world. Wherefore as bodies that have the itch; so spirits infected with vice must lie asunder, else they shall increase one another's infection, and the infection must needs be greater where there is a greater number of infected persons: Where the crowd of men is, there also is the crowd of ill customs and popular errors. And if it be hard to resist the temptations of vicious persons when they set upon us single, how can we stand against them when they fall upon us together in a full body? How can we think on any thing but evil when we see and hear nothing else? How can we lift up our hearts to God and converse with him, in a confused noise and tumultuous hurry, which is the Kingdom of the Devil?  
These considerations have moved some holy Fathers to retire into deserts, to have no other company but God, and tend the work of their salvation without disturbance. But because God will be glorified by us in the duties of humane Society, and hath not sent us into the world only to tend our salvation, that Retreat from the world is excusable in those only, that can do as much, or more good to the world living fare from it as living in Society. Such were those who in their hermitages enriched the treasure of the Church with their divine works, confuting heresies and increasing the stock of holy learning. But to leave the world to do good to none but ourselves, is frustrating the end which God made us, for since he hath made us for Society, as it appeareth by the ten commandments, most of which regard our duty to our neighbours. A man of good parts that leaveth all Society to meditate, and gives no fruit of his meditation to the world, is like the Jordan whose fair and quick water is lost in the lake of Sodom, called the dead Sea; It is to die living, and lose the quickness of the mind in a gulf of unprofitable idleness. It is leaving the world in the worst sense, for it is forsaking mankind and denying to Society that Service which we owe. A consideration able alone to trouble that tranquillity which Hermit's and cloistered men seek in solitariness. Neither can they make amends to the world by their prayers; for as they pray for us that live in in the world, we pray for them that live out of the world, and so we are even with them.  
The Lord Jesus hath taught us how to use solitariness; for he retired by night into the mountain to pray, and in the day time he taught the people, and when he was weary of the multitude he withdrew himself to the company of his disciples, who were a choice of persons whom he honoured with the title of his friends, so sharing his time between his particular communication with God, his service of the public and his communication with his singular friends.  
One may leave the world, and yet keep it in his heart; and one may converse with the world, and yet leave it. A godly wiseman may find retiredness in the greatest cities. He may pass through the crowd and not stay in it or mingle with it, as the river of Rhosne goeth through the Lemane lake. He will do service to all if he can, but converse with few. He may enjoy himself in a multitude of unknown persons, as if they were the personages of an Arras-hanging; for a man is alone where he knoweth no body, and acquaints himself with none.  
For his acquaintance he will pick those whose life is virtuous, the spirit meek, and the conversation plain and easy. He will endeavour to deserve their good will with his own; being ready and assiduous with them when he may serve them, but out of that making his visits short, to oblige them to the like; always leaving his friend's company before they be weary of his. In his choice he will take men such as they be, not depriving himself of the benefit of conversation out of a preconceit of perfect Ideas of worthy subjects of friendship; but since all men are evil and weak, he will be content with those that have less evil in them, and that have wisdom enough to know their own weakness. Knowing himself full of imperfections he will bear with the imperfections of his friends, expecting of them the like forbearance.  
He must labour to have a soul with many stories, which may stoop and rise according to the several conditions and capacities of men, not fearing to speak to Kings, not disdaining to converse with peasants, every where equal, modest, generous, and reasonable, respecting good sense wheresoever he finds it, and he will find it as often under the russet jerkin, as under scarlet and gold lace.  
Because he must look for error & impertinency in all sorts of acquaintance, let him put every one upon the discourse of those things that he understands best; so shall he do a kindness to the company, for every one loveth to speak of that wherein he is expert, & he shall benefit himself, fetching from every one the best that is in him.  
Let him also fit his mind for all kinds of buzinesses, thinking none too great when they are not above his capacity; for those affairs that have more dignity have not always more difficulty: And on the other side thinking no buzines too low when it is necessary, or when it gives him occasion to do good.  
But in general let him charge himself with as few buzinesses as he can, I mean those buzinesses that engage a man's mind in the tumult of the world, without which he may find buzines enough to keep himself well employed. Want of preferment is better than want of peace. Let him avoid those employments that give, vexation and yet draw envy, where a man must continually stand upon his guard, embark himself in factions, and live in perpetual emulation and contention. The man to whom God keeps the blessing of a quiet life shall be kept by him from that glittering rack and golden fetters, but the man whom he will afflict shall be given over to be tossed between the competition of others and his own ambition. David shows us how great is God's goodness which he hath laid up for them that fear him, namely that he will hid them in the secret of his presence from the pride of man, he will keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Psal. 31.19.20. But what! there are some spirits that love noise, and live by Contradiction, and when old factions are worn out, hatch new ones, sowing quarrels that they may be sticklers, and in such sort arbitrating differences as to make them immortal that so they may never want business. To such men no worse imprecation can be made then that they may always have the business which they love; for as they serve the father of discord they are like to share in his reward.  
But those are worthy of his compassion, whose serene religious souls, capable and desirous of high contemplation, are aspiring towards the God of peace, but are distracted with contentious businesses, and pressed down with worldly employment, though perhaps too high for their condition, yet too low for mind; which measuring the height of things by their distance from heaven, finds the great Offices of the State very low, because they are deeper in the earth, and further from heaven; then other Offices of an obscurer note. Who would not pity a great person that hath scarce time to eat and sleep, that must have a light brought to his bed to make dispatches before day, and when he goeth to the Court hath much ado to get out of his yard through the crowd of suitors? and in that clog of businesses, what time hath he to examine the state of his conscience and labour to advance his union with God? Where is any gain able to countervail that loss?  
But there are more persons undone for want of businesses, when they have not the capacity to find themselves work of some utility, especially when the love and fear of God have not taken root in their hearts. For there being in the soul three Offices or audits, the first for contemplation, the second for passion, and the third for action; when a man's mind is unfit for contemplation, & wants action, he giveth himself wholly unto passion: Then a man tickleth himself with evil desires and vain hopes, gnaws his heart with envy and spite, and torments himself with impatience; these vices being bred and fed by idleness. Such men having nothing to do, devise evil or useless businesses, going up and down all day long like swallows that fly round not knowing for what, walking from one end of the Town to the other to visit one that will not be at home when they ask for him, or is put to his shift to be rid of their company. Of that kind are most of those that thrust one another in the street, as buzy as if they had three Chancery suits to solicit; then return home late, weary, and sweeting, having found the invention to tyre themselves and do nothing. In effect, an idle life is more painful and wearisome than an active and negotious life. It makes one sad, troublesome, and vicious. He that doth nothing cannot but do evil, as grounds left untilled will bring thistles  
But he that hath an ordinary employment, of some utility to the public, hath no leisure to attend vain and evil actions, nor to be sad; By doing good he contenteth his conscience and maintains the serenity of his mind, so that he embrace no more than he can hold: They that will do too much good, do it ill, and do harm to themselves. It is a preposterous diligence when it brings vexation to a mansselfe.  
Rich old men should do wisely to give over busy employments of the world which require a whole man, to give themselves wholly to the office of man, as he is a man and a Christian. If they be speculative, judicious, and experienced men, they may do more good to the world in their retirement then in the crowd of businesses.  
They that lead an active life ought not to give but lend only their mind to the businesses of the world. A wise man will follow his worldly occasions with diligence and industry, but he will not transubstantiate himself into them. In our busiest employments let us retire often within, to enjoy God and ourselves, labouring chief to preserve his favour and our peace. Without these, all labour is superfluous or evil, and gain becomes damage,   

CHAP. VII. Of Moderation in Conversation.  
IT is a most necessary provision for any man that will lead a peaceable life, in this age and these regions, torn with diversity of parties; men's minds being so generally exulcerated, that in casual meetings either they cast a suspicious eye upon their Contreymen because they know them not, or abhor them because they know them. Here then there is need of a meek, compliant industrious and universal mind, retired within himself, and healed of that epidemical itch of light-brained men, to declare all their opinions, and inclinations, and quarrel with all that are otherwise disposed.  
It is an old and useful observation, that God hath given us two ears and one mouth, to teach us that we ought to hear more than speak. To which it may be added, that we have no eare-lids to keep our ears from hearing, and often must hear against our will; but our mouth shuts naturally, and we may keep our tongue from speaking, unless by our intemperance we lose that privilege of nature.  
God indeed hath not given us a tongue to hold our peace: But, that we may use it so that our neighbours may receive good by it, and we no harm, there is need of a great measure of charity and discretion.  
To that end a wise man will not be the chief speaker in an unknown or dangerous company, but be content to second those that are more able or more willing to speak, unless the discourse be like to turn to a contention's matter, for than it will be prudently done to put the company upon some innocent discourse acceptable to all. But companies are apt to speak of that which hath the vogue; of points of State in factious times, and of points of religion almost at all times.  
As for points of State any man may be bold to interrupt the discourse, saying, Let us leave State businesses to Statesmen.  
The discourse of religion, the great occasion of falling out, must be turned, if we can, to the use of comfort and amendment of life, rather than arguing about points of belief. Indeed we we are commanded to be always ready to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us, 1 Pet. 3.15. Which when we are called upon, we must do it as the text modifieth it, with meekness and fear; not with bitterness & contention. And the Apostle requires of us to be ready to answer, not eager to question. Reason serveth to convince, but charity is the chief and well-nigh the only way to persuade. Vehemence will make an adversary stiffer, for even the force of an insoluble argument, though calmly propounded, makes no other impression upon prejudicated spirits but to make them startle; and finding no help in reason, to lean the more fiercely upon passion. Though you stop your adversaries mouth, you shall not thereby convince his reason; and though you convince his reason, you shall not turn his belief: For that, you must win his affection, and affection is not won with Syllogisms; for I speak of men not such as they should be, altogether ruled by right reason; but such as they are for the most part, blind and heady, having their reason enslaved to custom and passion. There is great difference between convincing and converting: The first may be done by the goodness of the cause, or the subtlety of the disputant; But converting is the work of God only. It is enough to persuade us that spirit and soul are too different things, when we see spirits capable of the highest Philosophical reasons to be unable to understand plain reasoning about matters that concern their salvation. In vain shall you convince the spirit with reason, unless God open the ears of the soul.  
In such meetings, in stead of seeking wherein we differ, and falling out about it, we should seek wherein we agree, and praise God for it. If news were brought to us of the discovery of a great Christian Empire in Terra Australis, where they believe the holy Scriptures, and the Creed, and receive the four first General Counsels; No doubt but it would rejoice us much, and we would love them though they differed from us in the doctrines built upon those common grounds. And why do we not bear with our neighbours and countrymen who agree with us in so many fundamental points, who worship the same God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; who embrace the promises of the Gospel in Jesus Christ, and endeavour by the love of God and the exercise of good works to glorify God and attain to his kingdom? Can we abhor one another more if one party worshipped Christ and the other Mahomet? Even where the quarrel was only about points of Discipline, the dissension was heated even to confiscations, battles, and sacking of towns; So furious is superstition, and funest in its effects, what party soever it take; for it is found in good and evil parties, being natural to all weak and passionate souls: If it maintain falsehood it dishonoureth the truth by putting a wrong bias upon it. It is a compound of ignorance, pride, rashness, and cruelty; All which moulded with a bastard zeal, and infused in black choler, make up the most malignant venom of the world.  
For one that is of the stronger party it is insolence to provoke him that is of the weaker in the most sensible point of all, which is conscience. And for him who is of the weaker party to provoke him that is of the stronger, it is both insolence and folly.  
In a mild and well composed spirit, the dangerous errors of others move pity not hatred; And if pity sets him on to reduce them to the saving truth, prudence will take him off betimes from that design when he seethe it impossible; And it is impossible when charity will not do it, which must not be violated for any pretence whatsoever. Psal. 85.10. Mercy and truth shall meet together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth cannot be established without mercy, nor righteousness without peace. Making breach in charity to preserve faith is demolishing the roof of the Church to mend the walls. Having found by the trial of a hundred years that battles and syllogisms will bring no general conversion, let us fight no more but by prayers, and let all parties strive for the palm of charity and moderation. The two rivers of Danubius and Sauns falling into one channel go thirty leagves together unmingled. If the difference of our opinions will not suffer us to mingle, yet we may join. Let us go quietly together in our common channel, the State where we live, tending to the same end, the public peace and the glory of God. This conceit I own to that blessed son of peace, that rare teacher and high pattern of moderation and tranquillity of mind the right Reverend Bishop Hall, who hath not written one only book of Christian moderation; but all his learned and gracious works, and the whole course of his wise and religious life are a perpetual comment upon that golden virtue.  
When we confer of any matter with persons of a different tenet, our end must ever be to find the truth not to get the victory. And that end must be sought with a meek and moderate way. That mild course will yield us a double benefit, for it will preserve the liberty of our judgement, which is taken away by the heat of dispute and precipitation. A hasty disputant will soon be brought to non plus. Besides when good sense is assisted with moderation, it sinks better into the adversaries reason, as a soft shower soaks the ground better than a stormy rain. A moderate rational man either shall win the assent of his adversary or his good opinion.  
Railing and insultation are offensive, more to him that useth it then to them that are misused by it, for when passion riseth high in words, it giveth a prejudice to the hearers, that reason is out of combat. Anger is an ill help to reason for it disableth reason from helping itself. Dogs that bark much seldom by't, for it is fear that makes them bark.  
Great and good works are done with little noise. So was the work of salvation done, the best of all works: Of the Author and finisher whereof Isaiah saith, He shall not strive, nor lift up, not cause his voice to be heard in the streets: Isa. 42.2. Wherefore when Devils possessing men's bodies cried out in his presence, He commanded them to hold their peace, for the Devil loves noise and tumult, but God loves peace, meekness, and serenity.  
It is a precept fit for the Gospel of peace, Let your moderation be known of all men. Phil. 4.5. The word of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, properly signifies equity. Of that equity the grand rule is to do to others as we would have others do to us. Which in the point of conversation, our present matter, aught to make us deal with others with that patience respect and moderation, which we expect of them; not setting forth our opinions imperiously, nor rejecting the opinions of others arrogantly, remembering that all men by their natural condition (never throughly mended by grace in this life) are enwrapped in a deep mist, and that all our reasoning is groping in the dark; Let us pass gently over the errors of our neighbours to oblige them to the like kindness.  
If we knew how few things we know, and how lamely, we would make use of reason and discourse rather to seek instruction then to pronounce aphorisms. If we find ourselves capable to clear a matter, let us do it without awing the company with peremptoriness, or wearying it with multitude of words. No discourse is profitable when it is tedious. In every matter there is commonly but one essential reason, or two at the most. More reasons serve for illustration, or to fill up, and many times to invalid the true reason. Three good reasons for the same thing, are worse than one.  
The greatest use, and indeed the greatest trial of moderation in conference, is to avoid confounding the interest of the thing with the interest of the person, of ones self especially. For where shall you find those serene unmoved minds, who hearing their opinion taxed of ignorance & folly will not presently start & take more pain to prove, that they are no fools then to weigh the reasons, and judge impartially where the truth lieth? Most men being thus disposed, he that will oppose their opinions must proceed with great moderation, lest that, being touched in credit and personal ressenting, they make the truth suffer for their private interest. We must charitably consider that every one loveth the productions of his own brains, as his children, and is sensible of the abuse offered unto them. And we must bring our charity to this belief that every one is in good earnest of the opinion which he professeth, and thinks himself to be in the right. Il proprio parer non ha' mai torto. You believe he is in an error, he believes the same of you, And he will never think himself to be in the wrong, till it be represented to him with solid reason, sweetened with singular meekness and respect.  
Moderate and ingenuous spirits (O how rare they be?) finding themselves pressed with reason and truth, will freely yield the bucklers; They win, when truth overcomes. But it is a flight, to use fradulent shifts, opposing right reason with sophistry, and when a man is overcome, & is ashamed to yield, throw dust in the eyes of his adversary. That peevish and ungenerous point of honour is learned in our Schools, never to yield any thing as long as one can maintain it by right or wrong. One error is defended by another, and a man comes to believe in earnest, that which he had alleged before out of despair.  
It is also a point of moderation to consider maturely what it was that gave occasion to the opinions and practices which are deservedly condemned. There is no doctrine so horrible, no disorder so foul, but there is much to learn out of it. Look to the source: Something will be found obscure or ill expounded in the terms of the received doctrine, or some excess or defect in the ordinary practice, which gives occasion of exceptions, and then of separation, and again of opposition and faction to scrupulous and turbulent spirits. There is no rebellion but was occasioned by some fault in the Sat. Let us never look upon those public transgressions but with a reflection upon the causes. Which if they be passed our mending, we must try whether we may mend ourselves by them; learning by the faults of others and the occasions, moderation in our judgement, and compassion of humane weakeness, which is uncapable of a sincere and constant keeping of any good, loseth the benefit of good things by turning them to the wrong side, laboureth to cure one evil by a greater, and killeth the patiented to heal the disease.  
Solomon who had beheld all the good & evil of the world with a judicious eye, upon that discourse giveth us this precept of moderation. Be not righteous overmuch, neither make thyself overwise. Eccles. 7.16. He that censureth too magistrally the evil that is done in the world by error of judgement and rashness of passion, considereth not enough the infirmity of mankind and his own, and showeth that he knoweth not the world. Error, vanity, superstition, the ruins of war and the vices of peace, fair pretences and ill deeds, private ends cloaked with public good, the advancement of few men consisting of the depression of many, the zeal of idiots setting up a ladder for the rising of the ambitious; All these are the course of the world. So it went before our time; So it will go after. Eccles. 7.10. Say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisemen are amazed at nothing, and make profit of all.    

OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT OF MIND.  
SIXTH BOOK. Some singular Counsels for that end.  

CHAPTER. I. To content ourselves with our Condition.  
We have sought peace with God, with ourselves, and with our neighbours. To that end we have endeavoured to fortify our souls against wrong opinions and unruly passions. And that we may walk with an even & steady march through Prosperity and Adversity, we have studied to die our minds with the right temper of virtue. Our harvest is done. This last Book will be but gleaning in the same field. Let us gather some singular counsels proper for our main end, either omitted before, or worthy to be further insisted upon.  
Let the first Counsel be that great preserver of tranquillity, to content ourselves with our condition. This counsel depends of another, much urged before when we spoke of the exercise of virtue in adversity, which is to will what God wills; a right Christian & reasonable lesson. To any that is in his right sense this reason ought to be sufficient to make him contented with his condition, that it was so disposed by God's wisdom. He will haveit so. It is rebellion and folly to have a contrary will.  
This ought not to be a bar to our industry and keep us from mending the incommodities of our condition; for God putting us in an uneasy condition, doth not oblige us thereby not to seek to be better. Those to whom God hath given no other stock but their industry, have reason to think that God will have them to make the best of that excellent patrimony. Piety and Philosophy are no counsellors of lazinesseand neglect of ourselves. A poor man is content with his condition when he is pleased with that necessity which God layeth upon him to maintain himself by his diligence, and supply by his virtue the want of an inheritance. A condition commonly more happy than that of great heirs whose intellectual parts are many times dulled or corrupted with plenty, which puffeth them up with Pride and inflames them with lust. He that is kept in humility and temperance by his short means must praise God for it, and make the best of the benefits of poverty, the chief whereof is, that it helps a man to wean his heart from the world, and raise it unto God.  
The rich and great having more cause to be contented with their condition have nevertheless more need to be exhorted unto it, because they are more subject to be discontented, for ease breeds wantonness and makes a man to be incommôded with his own commodities. This is that sore evil which Solomon saw under the Sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. Eccles. 5.17. Many rich men eat their bread in darkness all their days, and with a covetous or envious sorrow make their plenty their cross.  
That ungrateful sorrow proceeds from an excessive love of ourselves and the world. We love ourselves so much that we think nothing good enough for us; And the world so much that we can never have enough of it. Now all immoderate love is accompanied with great care, and that care soureth all the sweetness of our life.  
These two loves then must be cut very short. He that will love and esteem himself but little will be content with little. And he that withdraws his love from worldly things, shall soon have as much of them as he needs.  
To wean ourselves from the love of ourselves and the world, we must study to get a strong persuasion of the wisdom and goodness of God, and a firm confidence in his love. Suppose that God should spread with his rich and liberal hand all the treasures of the world before us, and give us our free choice to take what we would; Can we do more wisely then to put the choice to him again, and beseech him to choose for us, because he knows what is fit for us better than we do, and loves us better than we love ourselves? Well, this is our condition; God hath chosen for us; Let us stand to his choice with humility and thankfulness, and rest contented.  
It is an appurtenance of the condition which God hath allotted us, that we must continually labour to mend it; though we should have no design to raise it: for our temporal is condition like our houses, which must often be repaired, else they would sink down. All humane things are in a continual decay; But God hath given prudence to man to underprop his tottering fortune, or to build it anew, and make it more commodious: So much we may do and yet be content with our condition, gently submitting our minds to that general law of the life of our vanity (as Solomon calls it) which binds us to toil continually to maintain ourselves. In that toil if the success smile upon us and invite us to advance, though we were content with our condition before, we may better it. If notwithstanding our industry our fortune go back, our desire also must go back with our fortune, and be content with less; in both conditions looking up to the good hand of God, whose actions are all mercy to them that love him and trust to him.  
To that end we must ask of God a meek, religious, equal, & constant mind; not seeking content in things that are about us, but in things within us, labouring to have God there; for when all is said and tried it is the only way to be content in all conditions. God being always the same, he that possesseth God is partaker of that divine attribute in his measure, and in the ebbings and flow of his temporal condition remains always the same, because the possession that makes him happy is within him and in heaven together, not subject to exterior changes, not tied to things under the Sun.  
As he that hath a vigorous body, and the noble parts sound will eat brown bread & gross meat with good appetite, but to a sick man pheasants are unsavoury. So to him that hath a sound conscience, and God abiding in it, the meanest condition is pleasant; but a man of an ill conscience that hath the burning fever of covetousness and ambition, taketh delight in nothing, though he had all things. He that possesseth God hath this advantage above all other men that he he is content with much, and with little, and with nothing. Therefore, to speak exactly, we should not say that he that possesseth God is content with, but in his temporal condition; for it is not from his condition that his contentment ariseth, it is from God.   

CHAP. II. Not to depend upon the Future.  
THis Counsel is part of the precedent: for that we may be contented with our condition, it is necessary for us not to depend upon the future. He that can bring his mind to that, shall not live suspended with desires and expectations, and shall not lose the enjoyment of the present to catch at that which is to come. When the sufferings of the present makes us long for the future, it is less strange and more pardonable. But it is ordinary that covetousness, curiosity, & wantonness, produce the same impatience in some men, as extremity of pain in others. Many sick of too much ease will speak like Job, in his torments; Job. 7.4. When I lay down I say, When shall I arise and the night be gone? And I am full of toss to and fro unto the dawning of the day. Is the day dawned, they wish it were done. This perpetual agitation is a most evident sign of a sick mind, which makes his sickness worse with that only thing whence he hopes for amendment, which is change. The future which afar off seemed pleasant unto him displeaseth him when it is become present; neither doth any thing please him but what he hath not and cannot have. By this expectation of the future, a man hath his head torn between fear and hope as a stags' head between two hounds, so sore they by't and torment the mind. There is no condition more miserable, and no state of the soul more contrary to the nature of God whom his children ought to imitate: Nothing sets a man further from God, who expects no new thing from the future, because all is present to him. With whose constancy we have some participation when we stay ourselves upon him, our present and eternal good, and depend not upon the uncertain future. The godly wiseman aspires only to one certain future, the full possession of his sovereign good, which as yet he doth but unperfectly possess; As for the doubtful future he leaves it to God's providence, in whose respect that which is doubtful to us is certain and infallible. Since our care can alter nothing in it why should we vex our heart about it? If evil must come, let us not hasten its coming by our apprehension; and if good must come, let us not spoil it by our impatience.  
The consideration of the decrees of God's providence which ought to ease us of care must not bereave us of prudence, for the prudence of man is employed by the providence of God for the execution of his counsels. So when prudence calls upon us to give order for the time to come, we need but follow this rule, To do what we ought and can do, and let God do what he will. By that means we shall keep the wise medium between diffident care and imprudent negligence: Following with an ingenuous simplicity the dictates of prudence and conscience, trusting in God, and doing good, we shall not be distracted between trembling fears and ardent desires for the time to come, being confident that whatsoever may happen to us, either good or evil, all will turn to our good, as long as we stick fast to our sovereign good which is God.  
That we may not depend of the future we must study to keep our mind free of that disease of the vulgar sort, the curiosity of things to come, whether they concern them or no, only because they are to come. This is a natural inheritance of the presumption of our first parents who would know that which belonged to God only to know. For the knowledge of the future belongeth to God only, and yet men pretend to it. Both the knowledge which is proper to us and that which is forbidden, is set down in this divine lesson, Deut. 29.29. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that we should do all the words of God's law.  
Neither is that curiosity excused with the desire of avoiding evil to come; for if it must come it cannot be avoided by knowing it before. It is enough to expect inevitable evils, we need not send for them by our curiosity.  
Observe that the most curious of the future are none of the best men, but persons of an unbridled greediness, and set upon ill ends. None consulteth soothsayers to do a virtuous action. A good soul, that trusteth in God and fears him, will patiently expect his good pleasure, saying, Isa. 12.2. Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid; Come what will, it will come from God, and nothing but good can come to me from that good hand, since God is my father. But evil consciences tremble at the thought of the future, and at the same time burn with desire to know it, and because they cannot know it of God they are easily persuaded to ask it of the devil.  
As they are none of the best so they are none of the wisest that are most carried away by that curiosity, but the weakest natures, as simple maids, that easily find inventions to see in their sleep what they desire when they are awake. Persons of the meanest condition and capacity are most eagerly set upon the knowledge of the future, and finding some fright in their conscience when they go about those inquisitions, they stop their eyes not to see the iniquity of their ends and ways.  
That wilful blindness is increased by the craft of Satan, presenting ways in themselves indifferent to these silly curious minds, which consider not that the harm doth not consist in using such words or gestures, but in ascribing to them an unnatural virtue without warrant of the Master of nature, and in seeking to see that which God hath hidden. Certainly since God hath hidden the future, to go about to lay it open, is a work proper to the professed undoer of God's works.  
Curiosity of the future carrieth many so fare as to make a covenant with the devil. Who yet stands not so much upon his points as to refuse to be consulted by those that have made no covenant with him. No doubt but this pride is tickled with a mischievous delight when he seethe men seeking to him for that which is proper to God and herein yielding to him divine service.  
Which service that he may receive in a civil and occult way from the fine sort of wits, he hath devised some seeming sublime divinations, persuading them that the decree of God about humane events is written in the motions and several aspects of the stars, and therefore that this sort of divination is lawful, yea divine.  
The evils that come from that persuasion are numberless, for the silly reverence which vulgar spirits defer to these predictions makes them wild, and sets them upon the fullfilling of them, because they account them unavoidable. The worst evil is, that thereby man's mind which ought to dwell at home is transported out of himself, & instead of reposing upon the love and wisdom of God is suspended upon the Dragon's tail and the Ascendant of an Horoscope.  
The histories of the Greek Emperors Alexius and Manuel are lamentable examples how credulous persons are undone by the imposture of Astrologers when they expect from the Stars those successes which ought to have been wrought by piety, prudence, and valour. That unlucky art cuts the sinews of industry, and makes men idle, greedy, and inconsiderate.  
This reasoning I recommend to the calm judgement of the lovers of that Science. All affirmation is grounded either upon reason or authority. The assertions of judiciary Astrology are of the last kind, for no reason can be given of their Maxims. Now the authority upon which these Maxims are grounded must be either divine, or humane, or devilish. They are not grounded upon divine authority, but are expressly forbidden by it. God will not have us to be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them, Jer. 10.2. and threatens the Astrologers, the starre-gazers, & monthly prognosticatours, that they shall be as stubble, & the fire shall burn them. Isa. 47.13. Human authority in this case is of no weight, for who hath given power to men to dispose of the several Offices and preeminences of celestial bodies? It remains then that these maxims are grounded upon diabolical authority. In effect, since they are not grounded upon reason, either they are forged by men, or delivered by revelation; and if that revelation come not from God, it must needs come from the devil.  
The truth of this sentence, that man is an enemy to his own content, is seen in nothing so much as in that itch of curiosity to inquire after the future. Whereas we ought to acknowledge that our ignorance of the future is the only infirmity which we have reason to be well pleased with. God hath done much for mankind to have hid the future from them. For if besides present afflictions we had distresses to come before our eyes, there is no constancy but would break under that weight. Many own their present tranquillity to their ignorance of the calamities that wait for them.  
But it is not the hope of future worldly content that must hold up our minds. The life after this life is the only future, upon which we must depend. And after we have sublimated our hopes and untied our affections from the earth, if it please God to send us some worldly prosperity, it will be the more welcome because it will come unexpected, as a gain over and above the bargain.   

CHAP. III To retire within ones self  
HE that hath learned to know the world and himself, will soon be capable of this counsel. The world being foolish and wicked, it will be a wise part to retire (as much as the duties of conversation will permit) from that contagion which may impair us. Persons that have some goodness in their soul have a closet where they may retire at any time, and yet keep in Society.  
That closet is their own inside. Whereby I understand not all that is within man, for the Appetite is not the closet but the outward Court where all the tumult is; there the Passions are entertaining the external objects, or quarrelling with them. But that inside to which the wiseman must retire is his judgement & conscience, thence to impose silence to passions and hush all the noise below, that with a calm and undisturbed mind he may consider the nature of the persons and things which he converseth with what interest he hath in them, and how fare they are appliable to God's service and to the benefit of himself and others.  
We judge better of things when we are little interessed in them, for than we are less apt to forestall our judgement with our affection. Then to possess a clear, free, and uningaged judgement among the things of this world, we should learn well how little interest we have in them, and that we are strangers in earth; whence infer St. Peter's doctrine Dear beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts. 1 Pet. 2.11. For why should we entertain any eager desire for things that concern us but little? Even among Pagans the wisest looked upon the goods of this world as things which they needed not, and retired within their own breasts, which they called their home, there to enjoy virtue their only good. The wise Christian having that high advantage that he may enjoy within his breast both virtue and God himself, hath more reason to keep within that home, and look upon things without, with an indifferent eye. For when as Pagan Philosophers called themselves Citizens of the world, the Christian acknowledgeth himself astranger in it; for he doth but travel through the earth to his heavenly Country, which they knew not. A traveller looking out of the window of his Inn upon a country Fair, doth but lightly amuse his eyes with the variety of course peddling wares, and the buzy stir of buyers and sellers; but his mind is upon his journey, and he will not make one in that crowd. With the like indifference the wise Christian looks upon the hurry of the world, and the confused diversity of humane things, not crowding for them, or setting his heart upon them; for his journey towards heaven calls him away, and to heaven he hath already sent his heart before.  
That disinteressed disposition towards the things of this world ought not to make us careless and negligent; neither must we do any business by half: Keeping that prudent and godly temper to apply our mind, not our heart, to worldly things; never forgetting, while we tend them with diligence and industry, that they are unworthy to possess the whole man, who is made for better things.  
There is no possession sooner lost then that of ones self. The smallest things rob us of it. A sight worthy of contempt, if not rather of compassion, is a man sharpset upon play, whose spirit hurried out of his true home by the greediness of gain, is swelled with hope, and quaking for fear hanging upon the chance of the dice. Had one driven us from our house we would cry aloud for justice against him; But we dispossess ourselves from the possession of our reason by our violent passions, and refuse to do justice to ourselves. How many for a Mistress or a preferment lose their meat and their sleep, have no other thought all the day long, and no other dream all the night? their souls are no more at home, but dwell with their neighbours, if we may call dwelling a perpetual running after hopes that fly from them. To such men this counsel is most proper, Tecum habita, Dwell at home. Keep possession of your soul. Suffer not any thing to steal you away from yourself. There is neither profit nor pleasure worth so much, that the soul should go from home to get it. Let none soothe up his eagernes about his sports with the plea of lawful pastimes; Nothing is lawful that steals the soul from God and a man's self. When I see a man running after his bowl, and following it with blessings or curses: Another melting with sweat in a tennis-court, more overheated yet in his passion then in his body, contending with high words about a chase; then say I with compassion. Alas here is a soul put out of possession of herself, a man that hath forgotten his origine and his dignity, having his reason enslaved to his passion, and his passion subjected to things of no value; which being in their nature uncapable to be his masters, he hath found a way to make them so by his wilful slavery. One is always a loser at that game which robs his soul of serenity. It is an unlucky game that gives to the noblest part of man those great irregular motions which should not be pardonable for the conquest or the loss of an Empire. Nothing is so great that for it we should set our mind out of frame. A wiseman neither in jest nor earnest ought to subject himself to any external object, or suffer his soul to stir out of her place, and run into disorder. Utility and Pleasure sought by disorderly motions are lost even by seeking.  
Of this counsel to retire within onesselfe, this is a branch, To keep company with a few well chosen persons, lending ourselves freely to them but giving ourselves to none but God, nor suffering friendship to grow to slavery. With all sorts of men we must deal ingenuously, yet reservedly, saying what we think, but thinking more than we say, lest we give power to others to take hold of the rudder of our mind, the thing that all crafty negotiatours aim at. Let them not be admitted by too much familiarity to know the weak avenues of our souls. For in all souls there are some places weaker than the rest. These every one should endeavour to know at home, and view them diligently, there to double the fortifications of piety and wisdom, taking heed of lying uncovered that way.  
Also to enjoy that selfe-retirement we must keep ourselves, as much as we can, impartial among the diversity of parties and opinions. Where the question is not absolutely of our duty and salvation, we must put on the patience to see and hear, and say nothing. How many truths in the world are of that nature, that it is better not to defend, yea not to examine them, then to trouble the world or onesselfe about them? How many rights, which it is better to leave altogether undefended, then to wrong our serenity to maintain them? And how many controversies of which the pro and con is false? Some contentions in this age are such, that a man of good sense must not care where is the right or the wrong. Among so many turbulent actors, he must content himself to be a beholder, judge of the blows; and stand out of their reach.   

CHAP. iv To avoid Idleness.  
THis counsel will be a grain of salt to season the precedent. For it is the excuse of idle persous that will appear contemplative men, to say that they will judge of all, and meddle with nothing; whereas they should be employed about their own buzinesses, that they might have no leisure to meddle with the buzinesses of their neighbours.  
Indeed the practice of this counsel is necessary for the observation of the three counsels of which I spoke last. To be content with our condition we must avoid idleness, for the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, saith Solomon, Prov. 13.4 Idleness makes a man needy and covetous. But diligence makes his condition eazy. A great delight it is too see the fruit of our own industry.  
Likewise that we may not depend from the future, we must avoid idleness: for idle men are gaping after the future, because lazines makes the present time bitter unto them. Days and hours seem to go a slow pace to him that expects of fortune what he might and will not obtain of his diligence.  
And as for the third counsel of retiring within one's self, idleness is very much contrary to it, for a man that doth nothing groweth tedious to himself, and seeks out of himself how he may cousin the wearisome hours, Act. 17.21. All the Athenians and all the strangers that were at Athens spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing: For idleness is the mother of curiosity. It makes a man's mind to gad a broad and keeps it in a perpetual pilgrimage; for the mind is never at home but when it keeps near God, and is employed in some good thing.  
The mind is never content till it be fixed, and it will not be fixed but upon employment. Who so will content his mind let him do what he ought to do, for nothing brings more sadness to the mind then a wandering idleness. I call idleness not only to sit with ones arms a cross but to give oneselfe to an evil or useless labour. For many have no other labour but to diversifye their idleness and give themselves more pain to invent how they shall lose their time, than would have cost them to employ it well. And when the mind is once softened and enervated with idleness, he will give ear to any evil counsel, for he that doth nothing is soon induced to do evil, and even by doing nothing he doth evil. Time idly and viciously spent makes a man sad and peevish; all things displease him, and himself more than any thing.  
None can excuse his idleness saying that he hath nothing to do, for there is always some good to be done; and none shall ever be idle who hath as much will as occasion to do good. To do good is the proper labour of those who by their wealth and quality are commonly exempted from labour. Of that condition likely were some of the Thessalonians of whom St. Paul saith, that they did not work at all but were busy bodies. 2 Thes. 3.11. Yet without respect of any quality he gives them this charge, Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work & eat their own bread. But ye brethren be not weary in well doing. He will have them that live curiously, working not at all, to work, and eat their own bread, and to work first before they eat. Of which if they excuse themselves, saying that they are not men of labour, the Apostle showeth them what work God requires at their hands, It is that they faint not in well doing. Then his exhortation that with quietness they work eating their own bread intimates this assurance unto them that an innocent labour will give a good taste to their bread, and that they shall enjoy God's gifts with quietness and content.   

CHAP. V To avoid Curiosity in divine matters.  
Curiosity's in the things of God is one of the principal hindrances of the peace of the soul. In nothing the propagation of the first sin is more evident. It is the right slip of the folly of our first Parents, upon whom God had bestowed the whole plenty and beauty of Nature gathered in one spacious garden, planted with choice trees. In that garden nothing was denied them but so much as was hurtful, The tree of science of good and evil; A Science which God kept to himself. Yet in the midst of that overflowing wealth, they were distasted with all that was given them, out of a greedy desire to taste that which was denied them; and for tasting of the tree of science of good and evil, they were driven fare from the tree of life.  
We likewise their sinful progeny put our selves far from the tree of life, by stretching our hand unto that unlucky fruit of forbidden knowledge. And many speed so ill in their curious search, that while they are about to make themselves like God, by their knowledge, they become like Satan by their audaciousness.  
But how doth it come to pass that the study of the knowledge of God, which is the Sovereign good of man, serves to make him guilty and miserable, and that too often they that soar highest to draw near to God, are found most remote from him? It is because they go the wrong way to work. For whereas they should study his love (a gulf where a man is allowed to wade above his stature) they search his hidden and inscrutable counsel: No wonder if they that will creep into God's secret will, lose the benefit of his declared good will; as Adam presuming to lay his hand on the forbidden fruit lost the possession of so many fruits, the enjoyment whereof was free to him before.  
Moses having made that high request to God, Exod. 33.18.23. I beseech thee show me thy glory, God answered him, Thou shalt see my backparts but my face shall not be seen. A mysterious Text, which being well understood assigneth the just extent and sets the certain limits to humane reasoning in divine matters. It is allowed to seek God, à posteriori by his effects, they are Gods back parts; It is the just extent of our contemplation. But to seek God, ab anteri●ri, by his counsels which are the first causes, it is attempting to see God's face, an undertaking no less unlawful than impossible. My face shall not be seen. That limit●ne sets to our contemplation.  
Were this well studied and comprehended aright, more labour should be bestowed upon the meditation of God's works of nature and grace & of his revealed will, for by these only it is possible to man living in the flesh to see God in some measure. And the dark questions of Gods eternal counsel should be laid by.  
The doctrine of predestination settleth the soul in a steadfast assurance, when it is apprehended by faith; but the same brings trouble and perplexity to a man's heart when one will fathom God's counsel with the plummet of reason. In that point Reason is prone to frame objections against the justice and wisdom of God. Wherefore ere it go too fare, the bridle of piety must give it this short stop, Rom. 9.20. O man who art thou that repliest against God? If about the actious and decrees of God you cannot satisfy your reason, remember that reason was made for man not for God, and be ye quiet.  
Likewise these in incomprehensible points of the concurrence of God's grace with man's will, & how his invariable decree may consistwith the free actions of men, reason must altogether silense her inquiry, acknowledging that in that meeting of the finite with the infinite, reason being finite can comprehend nothing but things of her kind. Since than there is something of infinity in that meeting, the comprehension of it must be left to the infinite God, to whom alone it belongs to know his infinite works. In that meeting all that belongs to us is to have no other will but Gods, embrace his grace with a free and ready heart; trust in his promises, and commit ourselves to his providence. A wise counsel, easier to observe then to comprehend, is this, That in the work of our conversion and sanctification we must give to God the whole glory and to ourselves the whole task.  
And so of the resistance of so many men's wills against God's will, which nevertheless they promote, even by resisting it, that holy will having no part in the evil which they do; And of the wisdom of that high moderator, who for his glory tolerateth the kingdom of the devil in the midst of his kingdom, we must acknowledge that they are matters for admiration not inquisition. It is a goodly study to be a disciple of God's wisdom and providence; but where we find our contemplation brought to non plus, we must be contented to believe that God is all wise and all good. Let him do his pleasure and let us do our duty.  
The holy Scriptures are the clear spring of life. Our Lord Jesus commands us diligently to search them, because in them we hope to have eternal life. joh. 5.39. The texts less perspicuous, as they require more study, they require also more modesty. And better it is to say of a hard text, I understand it not, then to wrest it with a forced interpretation. The writers of Comments upon whole books of Scripture are often put to that choice. Yet how few are extant that will say ingenuously, This text is above our understanding, and we must expect till he that hath locked up the sense of it, give us a key to open it. Scripture must be put to the uses attributed to it by St Paul, doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good work. 2 Tim. 3.16. For these uses there be so many clear texts that we need not beat our brains against the hard ones.  
It is a commendable study to seek to understand Canonical prophecies; God himself gave them to the Church to be studied. And seeking the intelligence of them is obeying Christ's command to search the Scriptures drligently. But in that command he means the prophecies fulfiled which speak of his first coming, not the prophecies yet to be fulfilled: Which yet we may search but with that reservation, that we content ourselves with so much as is clearly revealed, and presume not to seek into that which is hidden. Wherein the style of prophecies is a sure guide, for we must believe that the Holy Ghost hath hidden them in obscure terms that they should not be understood; and if God will not have us to understand them, it is folly and arrogancy for us to go about it. Why should we feck to see that which God hath hidden? he hath hid it because we should not see it. I am inclined to believe (yet submitting to better judgements) that the end of most prophecies is not so much that we might foreknow things to come, as that we might admire the wisdom, and preordination of God, when they are come; and to comfort us in the assurance that the whole course of the conduct and trials of the Church, and her deliverance and glory in the end, is fore-ordained in God's counsel. Let us stay a little. Events will expound predictions.  
As we must not curiously examine the word of God, we must not scrupulously search the work of his Spirit. Many devout souls yield a wrong obedience to this precept of St Paul, Examine your own selves whether you be in the faith, 2. Cor. 13.5. for instead of examining their own selves they examine God, seeking with a trembling and overbuzy care what degree of comfort and assurance of their salvation they feel in their hearts, which is the work of God not of men. And as in the searches of jealousy, when a man seeks for that which he fears to find, they draw upon them that which they fear by seeking it with too much curiosity, and frame doubts to themselves by examining of their confidence.  
To heal themselves of that timorous curiosity they should not take for Gospel whatsoever godly men have written of the manner how the holy Ghost is working in the conscience; for it is certain that he worketh diversely according to the diversity of natures, and doth vary the dispensation of his graces according to his good pleasure.  
Wherefore when we examine whether we be in the faith, it is not the work of God that we must examine but our own. And we must call ourselves to account whether we love God and our neighbours, and what care we take to serve him: whether we keep his commandments, and receive his promises with obedience of faith. In these things where the work of God's grace is joined with ours we have but our performance to examine, looking upon God's work with reverence, and ascribing to him all the good that is in us. Which reverence must be redoubled when we consider in us that work of grace where the work of man hath no share, and such are the heavenly comforts and spiritual joys. Of these we must not curiously examine the manner and measure, as though the seal of our adoption consisted in these: for it is not in feeling comfort but in departing from iniquity that this seal consisteth; as we learn of St Paul, 2. Tim. 2.19. Confidence is a great evidence of grace, but Love is a greater.  
Let us employ spiritual joys when it pleaseth God to send them, to improve love and gratefulness in us. Do we find ourselves destitute of those joys? let us study to find out in our consciences the causes of that want, that we may remove them; labouring to clarify our souls of all mire of the earth, that they may like pure Crystals receive the gracious and comfortable rays of the Sun of righteousness. But as long as God gives us the grace to love him, and cast ourselves upon him, Let his grace be sufficient unto us; for his strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Cor. 12.9. Joy and comfort cannot but follow faith and love: Perhaps not very close, but fear not, they will and must needs follow. Let us expect their coming in silence and hope, and take heed of putting them back with curiosity and impatience.   

CHAP. VI Of the care of the Body, and other little Contentments of life.  
SInce we seek the content of the mind, the body must not be forgotten; for as long as they live personally united in this world they can hardly be content the one without the other. That the body may do good service to the mind, the mind must be a good Master to the body and maintain it with great care.  
I say with great care, not with much tenderness: for we must use it to be contented with little, and with things easy and ordinary, looking less for pleasure then health, which yet is the way to get a lasting pleasure.  
Of all earthly treasure's health is the most precious. Without the health of the body, the mind hath much ado to maintain his liberty and stability. The disorder of the humours of the body makes the mind turbulent & froward, and sometimes reason is quite turned upside down by a corporal indisposition. It is then the part of a wiseman to take a most special and exact care of his health.  
It is preserved by these three principal means, Serenity of mind, a sober diet, and exercise.  
Of these three antidotes against all diseases, the chief is, Serenity of mind. This and the health of the body maintain one another. But the mind is a more powerful agent upon the body then the body upon the mind. A meek and cheerful spirit keepeth his body healthful, whereas frequent excessive fits of choler, and deep sadness, sour the whole mass of blood, and poison the fountain of animal spirits. Whereby the body loseth his lively colour and his good plight, and droops into a linger consumption. Heaviness in the heart of man makes it stoop. By sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. A merry heart doth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones, saith Solomon. And to get that merry heart he enjoins us to keep our mind in a mild temper. Prov. 11.17. The merciful man doth good to his own soul, but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.  
The body thus preserved in health by the serenity of mind, payeth him readily for that good office; for the mind is kept tranquil and serene by the good constitution of the body.  
To preserve both, sobriety is necessary; there being nothing that wears the body and sets the mind out of frame so much as intemperance doth. Neither are those that glut themselves with meat and drink the only that need to be exhorted to learn sobriety. Many that go for sober, need that exhortation: For generally all that live with some plenty eat and drink too much, and confound in their stomach too many various ingredients; giving to nature more than it needs, and more than it can dispense; Which superfluity, that especially of the third concoction, turns into ill humours, whence variety of diseases is bred, answerable to the variety of our dishes, as in the Commonwealth useless persons, and such as have nothing to do, are they that stir seditions and trouble the State.  
Then natural heat which serves to the nutritive faculty wears away before the time, when it is put to an overgreat labour; and the spirits serving to make the pot boil below, leave the intellectual part ill served in the upper room. That overplus of aliment growing to pride of blood, breeds no better effect in the soul then to swell the appetite, and stir it to rebellion against the reason. If we could bring ourselves to a more simple and less abundant diet, both our bodies and minds would enjoy more health. The fewer vapours the belly sends to the brains besides the necessary, the clearer is the sky in that upper region. Therefore, to keep health and serenity, such as have a daily plentiful fare, and fear that their stomach hath more appetite than strength, shall do wisely to fast sometimes, to give it time to rest, and recover strength. Most sicknesses in their beginnings may be healed by abstinence.  
On the other side they that use a more sparing diet should allow to themselves some intervals of good cheer. It oppresseth those whose ordinary meals are so many feasts; but it reneweth the vigour of those that use it seldom. Wine is especially given of God to make glad the heart of man. Psal. 104.15 It is of singular virtue to charm cares. Two draughts of it extraordinary when the mind is vexed with crosses, will put upon a man's buzinesses a smother and calmer face.  
The third preserver of health is Exercise, without which the body becomes an unwieldy bag of corrupt humours. Great eaters need more exercise. But the most sober need some. The naturallest and pleasantest is walking, to which they that lead a sedentary life must allow some time. But to most men their buzinesses give bodily exercise enough, many times too much, to the prejudice of the mind, which thereby is neglected and made servant to the body. If one be shut up, or hath lost the use of his legs, he must invent some other way instead of walking to exercise his body and prevent sickness; And if he cannot put his body to any exercise, he must eate and drink the less.  
It is a wise course to harden the bodies of children and young men, especially against cold, the cause of most sicknesses in aged persons. But when one hath been tenderly brought up, it is imprudence to go about to inure his body to hardness in his declining age. The mind may be capable of that resolution, not a tender body that needs careful tending.  
These are the general precepts to preserv health. To mend it when it is impaired, Physicians must be consulted, and remedies used: About which two rules must be observed. Let it be betimes before sickness have taken root; Let it be seldom, for too many remedies are worse than the disease. I presuppose that Physic and Physicians shall be used as it is prescribed by the Son of Sirac, Ecclus. 38.1. for necessity not for wantonness.  
The chief use of that art is to prevent diseases. Every one ought to have enough of it to know his own body, and keep off the indispositions to which he feels himself obnoxious, not to wear out his body with drugs without great necessity. But there are certain simple and eazy helps that prevent great inconveniencies when they are used betimes: And what wiseman would not keep himself from grievous sicknesses, if the use of a little sauge or juniper berries will do it?  
What remedy soever be used for prevention of sicknesses, take it for certain that they are better prevented by abstinence from unwholesome things then by the use of wholesome.  
Let the body be well clad, for commodity not show, neither curiously affecting the mode, nor opposing it with a fantastical singularity. Let all that we wear be comely and handsome, not to please other men's eyes but our own. He that is slovenly in his attire thereby groweth sad and dejected, ere he be ware: Why should one make himself contemptible to the world and displeasing to himself by a wilful lazy neglect of his person?  
Let there be order and suitableness in our stuff and furniture, though never so course. Let not any thing want its proper place, though never so little. Confusion is offensive to the mind but order gives a secret delight.  
Let our dwelling be lightsome, if possible; in a free air, and near a garden. Gardening is an innocent delight; it was the trade of man in the state of Innocence.  
With these if one may have a sufficient revenue an honest employment, little buzines, sortable company, and especially the conversation of good books with whom a man may converse as little and as much as he pleaseth, he needs little more, as for the exterior, to enjoy all the content that this world can afford.  
Of the pastimes of the Nobility and Gentry those should be preferred that bring a public utility, as hunting the wild boar and the wolf, where the country is annoyed with them, and in England the fox, and the badger. It is double content to a generous and well given nature when he doth good for his pleasure. The military pastimes of young Gentlemen in France and Italy are useful and pleasant; and by them they are fashioned, and fitted to serve their country.  
Games of hazard discompose the mind extraordinarily: They accustume it to be hanging upon the future and depending on fortune, to which every wiseman will give as little power over him as he can. They do also provoke passion; and cause great agitations in the soul for things of nothing. All that, point blank contrary to the work of piety and Philosophy.  
Games that consist in dexterity of body or mind are preferable to those that are committed to blind chance. Chess will sharpen the wit but buzy it overmuch, and toil the spirits instead of recreating them, which is the proper use of play. Of all gaming, the less the better; And when it disordereth the passion, the least is too much.  
He that ventureth much money at play, ventureth not with it the tranquillity of his mind a thousand times more precious, but makes a certain loss of it, whatsoever become of the money. That bold venturing comes not out of contempt of the goods of this world (as gamesters would have us to believe) but out of an unsatiable greediness to gain much in short time. Wherefore to them that have little money and to great lovers of it, great losses at play are very smarting; and yet the gain is more hurtful than the loss: for it inflameth covetousness, and sets the heart upon a wicked labour to grow rich by the ruin of others, which afterwards is practised in the more serious commerces of Society. Thereby also the fountain of charity is drained, and so the streams of charitable deeds. Bestowing money in play is not the way to make friends with that unrighteous Mammon that receive a man into eternal habitations, but enemies to turn him out of his temporal habitation. It is the way to lose both earth and heaven.  
When you have an undoubted right to a considerable sum of money, and the present possession; what a mad part is it to call it in question whether it must be yours or another's, and decide the question with three dice? And what ungratefulnes to the great giver of all goods gifts, to play those goods away which are afforded to us by his liberality, and acquired for us by the sweat and hard labour of many poor families? Though then the parties at play be consenting to that strange way of acquisition, that consent doth not make it lawful; neither of them being the owner those goods which he calls his, but the keeper and steward, who must give account of his stewardship to his Master.  
Whether we win or lose considerable sums at play, we commit robbery; for if we rob not our adversary, we rob our family, and ourselves, and God. Herein worse than that ill Servant that hide his talon in the ground; for the gamester if he be a loser hath made away the talon entrusted unto him by God. And though he be a gainer, yet he hath made himself incapable to give a good account of his talon to his Lord, since he hath put it to an unrighteous bank.  
Eloquence is a pleasant and profitable pastime, both to read and compose; For while it delights the mind it doth polish, sweeten, and heighten it. It is then most delightful when it serveth to  good matter, and when the chief ornament is good sense. And it falls out happily that the eloquentest books of antiquity are also the best, and they that have the wisest reason express it with most elegancy. The same is true of the late Authors.  
Poetry delighteth much, So one take little of it at once, for it is luscious meat, too much of it brings weariness and loathing. It is more delightful to read then to compose, herein like music which delights the hearers more than the Musicians. As than it is better to hear a Set of violins then to make one in it, it is better to hear Poets then to augment their number. I had rather that others should make me sport, than I them.  
I need not be curious in the search of the several devices of men to pass their time; the task of the wise being not to seek them, but to use them well when they meet in his way, and more yet to learn to live contented without them. What we want of them must be supplied with serenity of mind, and an easiness inventive to frame to ourselves divertisements, and make a pastime even of our misfortune. If we may be merry it matters not upon what ground, so it be not evil. A serene mind that trusteth in God and doth good needs not look abroad for mirth: He fetcheth mirth out of his own stock.  
To get the true taste of the outward contentments of life, we wust but taste them, not stretch our stomach upon them; expecting our only true contentment from God and within ourselves. We must make use of all things and stay upon God alone. The sense of God's love and our reciprocal love to him give to the soul that only true content; but they take not from us the taste of the outward lawful contentments of life. Rather they give us that taste: for to him that loves God and rejoiceth in his love, all things look pleasantly. The certainty of his principal good keeps him so cheerful, that he takes contentment in in the smallest things; as he that hath newly received tidings of great joy is well pleased with a course entertainment, and delights even in those things that displeased him before.   

CHAP. VII. Conclusion. Return to the great principle of the Peace and Contentment of Mind which is to stick to God.  
FRom these small contentments let us remount to the great and principal, and their stay. It consisteth in the peace of God and union with him by faith and love. There we began, there we must end. We have considered the world sufficiently, to conclude that it consisteth in three points, Vanity, Wickedness, and Misery.  
What is best in it is perishable. When we have it in our hands it slips between our fingers, and when it stays with us yet it is none of ours, since it is out of ourselves. Among all the objects of our senses, none is capable to give us a perfect and durable content.  
Being thus unsatisfyed of all things without us, if we enter within ourselves, what satisfaction do we find in our nature? we find error in our opinions, tumult in our passions, hardness or terror in our conscience, when God dwells not in it by his grace.  
Pagan Philosophers teach us indeed that within us or no where, comfort is to be found. But alas! poor men, they sought nothing within themselves but themselves. And what is more weak, more inconstant, and more calamitous than man? Then, to this Philosophy one point is wanting, which is all; and that is, to seek God within us, inviting him by humility & repentance to choose his abode in our souls, and there entertaining him with love and faith. This is the only safe harbour for peace and contentment of mind. Out of it, there is nothing but storm. The best worldly state is vanity and perplexity. Of this Solomon is an excellent witness who having seen all the evil, and tried all the good of this world, pronounceth this verdict. Eccles. 1.14. I have seen all the works that are done under the Sun, and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That great King having long enjoyed an unparallelled prosperity, saith in the end that he hated life, and hated all his labour; Eccles. 7.17, 18. although his labour was to content himself being exalted to the highest Orb of power, overflowing with plenty, and swimming in delights. What reason then have distressed men to hate their life and labour, when they wear out their life in want, in lawsuites, in sickness, and receiving no other salary of their virtue but envy and ungratefulness? Wherefore that wise Prince having throughly considered all that is good and evil in this world and this life, ends in this conclusion which he recommends to his Son. Eccles. 12.12. And further, by these, my Son, be admonished; Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.  
So doth Solomon express that God is the centre, both of our duty, and of our rest and happiness; and that the only safety and solid content consisteth in sticking fast to him. There we find refuge in our dangers, confidence in our fears, comfort in our sorrows, counsel in our perplexities, light in darkness, and life in death. There we learn to make the right use of prosperity, enjoying the gifts of God with cheerfulness and simplicity, not vexing ourselves with cares to keep them, or with covetousness to increase them. There we get a gracious illumination to our understanding, a rule to our will, a bridle to our appetite, a sincere joy in our conscience.  
How great, how unspeakable is that happiness, when our heart is turned into a Sanctuary, where God himself is pleased to dwell and speak peace to our soul, assuring us that he is reconciled towards us in his Beloved! There he leads us into all truth, helps up our weakeness, instructs our ignorance, raiseth us up when we fall, and sets us again in the right way when we are gone astray. We are assaulted by many enemies, but they that are for us, are more than they that are against us, since we have always the Lord at our right hand. We are unwise, but we have free access to the Sovereign wisdom to consult it at all times. And many times that high wisdom, preventing our consulting, mends what we have marred by our folly.  
Which present blessings are small being compared to our glorious hope. That incomparable honour and, wealth to be received into all the rights of God's children, that incorruptible crown of life, that fullness of joy in the enjoyment of God's presence; they are depths not to be fathomed with man's thought. But whereas for material things the extent of our sight is long, the reach of our arms but short. In things spiritual and eternal it is quite otherwise with us; for the two arms of the soul, which are love and faith, reach much higher than the eye sight of reason can penetrate: With these arms the godly soul layeth hold upon the celestial goods which she cannot see, and with a lawful hastiness antedates in the present the possession of the glory to come.  
That expectation makes the Christian to digest any bitterness, and calmly pass by all the incommodities of life. For he will say in his adversities, This but a step of ill way to an eternal glory; All these evils have an end, and then gins a felicity without end.  
Without looking so fare, the present sense of the love of God to us breeding our reciprocal love to him; and that mutual embrace of God and the soul living yet in the flesh, though as short of the perfect union with God as the highest mountains come short of heaven, yet brings to the soul a dignity and contentment beyond all expression. It is that peace of God which passeth all understanding and keeps our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. It is a transfiguration of the devout soul for an earnest of her glorification. It is the betrothing of the Spouse with Christ, and the contract before the marriage. After that, all the Empires of the world, all the treasures of Kings, and all the delights of their Court deserve not to be looked on or to be named. If that divine Embrace could continue, it would change a man into the image of God from glory to glory, and he should be rapt up in a fiery chariot like Eliah.  
To enjoy that holy Embrace and make it continue as long as the soul in the flesh is capable of it; We must use holy meditations, prayers, and good works. These strengthen those two arms of the soul, faith and love, to embrace God, and hold him fast; doing us that good office which Aaron and Hur did to Moses, for they hold up the hands of the soul, and keep them elevated to heaven.  
And seeing that God who dwelleth in the highest heavens dwelleth also in the humblest souls, let us endeavour to put on the ornament of a meek & quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. 1 Pet. 3.4. It is a great encouragement to study tranquillity of mind that while we labour for our chief utility, which is to have a meek and quiet spirit, we become of great price before God; and therefore of great price to ourselves: How can it be otherwise, since by that ornament of a meek and quiet spirit we put on the nearest likeness of God of which the creature can be susceptible; For then the God of peace abiding in us makes his clear image to shine in the smooth mirrout of our tranquil soul, as the Sun's face in a calm water.  
Being thus blest with the peace of God we shall also be strong with his power, and among the storms and wracks of this world we shall be as safe as the Apostles in the tempest, having Christ with them in the ship. It is not possible that we should perish as long as we have with us and within us, the Saviour of the world and the Prince of life.  
The universal commotions and hideous destructions of our time prepare us to the last and greatest of all, 2 Pet. 3.10. when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up. In that great fall of the old building of Nature, the godly man shall stand safe, quiet, and upright, among the ruins. All will quake, all will sink, but his unmoved heart, which stands firm, trusting in the Lord. Psal. 112.7. Mountains and rocks will be thrown down in his sight, The foundations of the world will crack under him, Heaven and Earth hasting to their dissolution will fall to pieces about his ears; but the foundation of the faithful remains steadfast; He cannot be shaken with the world, for he was not grounded upon it. He will say with David's confidence, Psal. 16.8. I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.    

A Table of the Books and Chapters of this Treatise.  

THE FIRST BOOK. Of Peace with God.  

Chap. 1. Of the Peace of the Soul pag. 1.  
Chap. 2. Of the Peace of Man with God in his integrity, and of the loss of that peace by sin pag. 6.  
Chap. 3. Of the Reconciliation of Man with God through Jesus Christ pag. 16.  
Chap. 4. General means to preserve that peace with God, and first to serve God purely and diligently pag. 25.  
Chap. 5. Of the love of God pag. 35.  
Chap. 6. Of Faith pag. 45.  
Chap. 7. Of Hope pag. 49.  
Chap. 8. Of the duty of praising God pag. 53.  
Chap. 9 Of good Conscience pag. 59  
Chap. 10. Of the exercise of good works pag. 66.  
Chap. 11. Of redressing ourselves often by repentance pag. 72.    

SECOND BOOK. Of Man's peace with himself by rectifying his Opinions.  

Chap. 1. Design of this Book and the next. pag. 77.  
Chap. 2. Of right Opinion. pag. 80.  
Chap. 3. Of Riches pag. 87.  
Chap. 4. Honour, Nobility, Greatness pag. 92.  
Chap. 5. Glory, Renown, Praise pag. 98.  
Chap. 6. Of the goods of the Body, Beauty, Strength, Health pag. 104.  
Chap. 7. Of bodily pleasure and ease pag. 110.  
Chap. 8. Of the evils opposite to the forenamed goods. pag. 116.  
Chap. 9 Of Poverty pag. 121.  
Chap. 10. Of low condition pag. 130.  
Chap. 11. Of dishonour. pag. 134.  
Chap. 12. Of the evils of the body, unhansomenesse, weakness, sickness, pain pag. 136.  
Chap. 13. Of Exile pag. 142.  
Chap. 14. Of Prison pag. 144.  
Chap. 15. Husband, Wife, Childen, Kindred, Friends; Their price, their loss pag. 147.  
Chap. 16. Of Death pag. 155.  
Chap. 17. Of the Interiours of Man pag. 163.  
Chap. 18. Of the ornaments acquisite of the understanding pag. 177.  
Chap. 19 Of the acquisite ornaments of the will pag. 188.  
Chap. 20. Of the World and Life pag. 195.    

THIRD BOOK. Of the Peace of Man with himself, by governing his Passions.  

Chap. 1. That the right Government of Passions depends of right Opinion pag. 205.  
Chap. 2. Entry into the discourse of Passions. pag. 211  
Chap. 3. Of Love pag. 214.  
Chap. 4. Of Desire pag. 231.  
Chap. 5. Of desire of Wealth and Honour. pag. 237.  
Chap. 6. Of desire of Pleasure pag. 243.  
Chap. 7. Of Sadness pag. 248.  
Chap. 8. Of Joy pag. 257.  
Chap. 9 Of Pride pag. 265.  
Chap. 10. Of Obstinacy pag. 273.  
Chap. 11. Of Wrath pag. 278.  
Chap. 12. Of Aversion, Hatred, and Revenge. p. 289  
Chap. 13. Of Envy pag. 298.  
Chap. 14. Of Jealousy pag. 305.  
Chap. 15. Of Hope pag. 309.  
Chap. 16. Of Fear pag. 313.  
Chap. 17. Of Confidence and Despair pag. 319.  
Chap. 18. Of Pity pag. 323.  
Chap. 19 Of shamefacedness pag. 327.    

FOURTH BOOK. Of Virtue and the exercise of in, Prosperity and Adversity.  

Chap. 1. Of the Virtuous temper requisite for the peace and contentment of mind pag. 331.  
Chap. 2. Of Virtue in Prosperity pag. 344.  
Chap. 3. Of Virtue in Adversity pag. 357.    

FIFTH BOOK. Of Peace in Society.  

Chap. 1. Of Concord with all men, and of meekness. pag. 375.  
Chap. 2. Of brotherly Charity, and of friendship. pag. 387.  
Chap. 3. Of Gratefulness pag. 395.  
Chap. 4. Of Satisfaction of Injuries pag. 399.  
Chap. 5. Of Simplicity and Dexterity in Society. pag. 402.  
Chap. 6. To have little company and few businesses. pag. 412.  
Chap. 7. Of moderation in conversation pag. 421.    

SIXTH BOOK. Some singular Counsels for the Peace and contentment of mind.  

Chap. 1. To content ourselves with our condition. pag. 431.  
Chap. 2. Not to depend of the Future pag. 436.  
Chap. 3. To retire within ourself pag. 443.  
Chap. 4. To avoid Idleness pag. 448.  
Chap. 5. To avoid curiosity in divine matters. pag. 451.  
Chap. 6. Of the care of the body, and other little contentment of life pag. 458.  
Chap. 7. Conclusion, Return to the great principle of the peace and contentment of mind, which is to stick to God. pag. 468.    
FINIS.