the misery of an honest and a weak heart; and it is to be cured only by reason and good company, a wise guide and a plain rule, a cheerful spirit and a contented mind, by joy in God according to the commandments, that is, a rejoicing evermore. The illusions of a weak piety or an unskilful confident soul, fancy to see mountains of difficulty, but touch them and they seem like clouds riding upon the wings of the wind, and put on shapes as we please to dream. He that denies to give alms for the fear of being poor, or to entertain a disciple for fear of being suspected of the party he that takes part of the intemperance because he dares not displease the company, or in any sense fears the fears of the world and not the fear of God; this man enters into his portion of fears betimes, but it will not be finished to eternal ages. To fear the censures of men when God is your judge; to fear their evil when God is your defence; to fear death when he is the entrance to life and felicity, is unreasonable and pernicious. But if you will turn your passion into duty, and joy and security, fear to offend God, to enter voluntarily into temptation: fear the alluring face of lust, and the smooth entertainments of intemperance fear the anger of God when you have deserved it; and when you have recovered from the snare, then infinitely fear to return into that condition, in which whosoever dwells is the heir of fear and eternal sorrow.*. * Sermon on Godly Fear; Serm. ix. part 3. IMPATIENCE. I HAVE seen the rays of the sun or moon dash upon a brazen vessel, whose lips kissed the face of those waters that lodged within its bosom; but being turned back and sent off, with its smooth pretences or rougher waftings, it wandered about the room and beat upon the roof, and still doubled its heat and motion. So is sickness and a sorrow entertained by an unquiet and discontented man. Nothing is more unreasonable than to entangle our spirits in wildness and amazement, like a partridge fluttering in a net, which she breaks not, though she breaks her wings.t ON CONTENT. SINCE all the evil in the world consists in the disagreeing between the object and the appetite, as when a man hath what he desires not, or desires what he hath not, or desires amiss, he that composes his spirit to the present accident hath variety of instances for his virtue, but none to trouble him, because his desires enlarge not beyond his present fortune and a wise man is placed in the variety of chances, like the nave or centre of a wheel in the midst of all the circumvolutions and changes of posture, without violence or change, save that it turns gently in compliance with its + Holy Dying, chap. 3. G changed parts, and is indifferent which part is up, and which is down; for there is some virtue or other to be exercised whatever happens-either patience or thanksgiving, love or fear, moderation or humility, charity or contentedness. It conduces much to our content, if we pass by those things which happen to our trouble, and consider that which is pleasing and prosperous; that by the representation of the better, the worse may be blotted out. It may be thou art entered into the cloud which will bring a gentle shower to refresh thy sorrows. I am fallen into the hands of publicans and sequestrators, and they have taken all from me: what now? let me look about me. They have left me the sun and moon, fire and water, a loving wife, and many friends to pity me, and some to relieve me, and I can still discourse; and, unless I list, they have not taken away my merry countenance, and my cheerful spirit, and a good conscience; they still have left me the providence of God, and all the promises of the gospel, and my religion, and my hopes of heaven, and my charity to them too: and still I sleep and digest, I eat and drink, I read and meditate, I can walk in my neighbour's pleasant fields, and see the varieties of natural beauties, and delight in all that in which God delights, that is, in virtue and wisdom, in the whole creation, and in God himself.* * Holy Living, ch. ii. § 6. Yet nature's charms, the hills and woods, If thy coarse robe trouble thee, remember the swaddling-clothes of Jesus: if thy bed be uneasy, yet it is not worse than his manger; and it is no sadness to have a thin table, if thou callest to mind that the king of heaven and earth was fed with a little breast-milk and yet besides this he suffered all the sorrows which we deserved. If God should send a cancer upon thy face, or a wolf into thy side-if he should spread a crust of leprosy upon thy skin, what wouldst thou give to be but as now thou art ? LUST. LUST is a captivity of the reason, and an enraging of the passions: it wakens every night and rages every day; it desires passionately, and prosecutes violently; it hinders business, and distracts counsel; it brings jealousies, and enkindles wars; it The sweeping vales, and foaming floods, I care not, Fortune, what you me deny, BURNS. Through which Aurora shews her bright'ning face. The woods and lawns by living stream at eve; THOMSON. sins against the body, and weakens the soul;* it defiles the temple, and drives the Holy Spirit forth.+ ON SINFUL PLEASURE. LOOK upon pleasures not upon that side that is next the sun, or where they look beauteously, that is, as they come towards you to be enjoyed, for then they paint and smile, and dress themselves up in tinsel and glass gems and counterfeit imagery; but when thou hast rifled and discomposed them with enjoying their false beauties, and that they begin to go off, then behold them in their nakedness and weariness. See what a sigh and sorrow, what naked unhandsome proportions and a filthy carcass they discover; and the next time they counterfeit, remember what you have already discovered, and be no more abused.‡ * I waive the quantum of the sin, But, och! it hardens all within, And petrifies the feeling. BURNS. + Sermon on the Flesh and the Spirit, Serm. xi. part 2. Holy Living, ch. ii. § 1. |