The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying II. OF CHRISTIAN SOBRIETY Section I Of Sobriety in the General Sense Christian religion, in all it moral parts, is nothing else but the law of nature and reason, complying with the necessities of all the world, and promoting the profit of all relations, and carrying us to that end which God has from eternal ages purposed for all who live according to it, which he has revealed in Jesus Christ; and according to the apostle, has but these three parts: (1) sobriety, (2) justice, and (3) religion. “For the grace of God bringing salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11–13). The first contains all our behavior in our private capacities, the fair treating of our bodies and spirits. The second enlarges our duty in all relations to our neighbor. The third contains the offices of direct religion and dealings with God. Christian sobriety is all the duty that concerns us in the matters of meat and drink, and pleasures and thoughts; and it has within it the duties of (1) temperance, (2) chastity, (3) humility, (4) modesty, and (5) contentedness. General Rules of Sobriety 1. Accustom yourself to cut off all superfluity in the provisions of your life; for our desires will enlarge forever. If therefore you suffer them to extend beyond the measures of necessity, they will still swell. But you reduce them to a little compass, when you make nature to be your limit. 2. Suppress your sensual desires in their first approach, for then they are least, and your faculties are stronger. But if they, in their weakness, prevail upon your strength, there will be no resisting them when they are increased, and your abilities lessened. You shall scarce obtain of them to end, if you suffer them to begin. 3. Divert them with some laudable employment. 4. Look upon pleasures not as they come toward you to be enjoyed, but when they begin to go off. The same thing we may do by reason that we do by experience, if either we will look upon pleasures as we are sure they look when they go off, after their enjoyment, or if we will credit the experience of those men who have tasted them and loathed them. 5. Often contemplate the joys of heaven, that when they have filled your desires, which are the sails of your soul, you may steer only there, and never more look back to Sodom. And when your soul dwells above, and looks down upon the pleasures of the world, they seem, like things at a distance, little and contemptible. Section II Of Temperance in Eating and Drinking Sobriety is the bridle of desire, and temperance is the bit of that bridle; a restraint put into a man’s mouth, a moderate use of meat and drink, so as may best consist with his health, and may not hinder but help the works of the soul. Temperance is exercised about eating and drinking, and permits the use of them only as they minister to lawful ends; it does not eat and drink for pleasure, but for need and for refreshment. And then God, who gave us such variety of creatures, and our choice to use which we will, may receive glory from our temperate use and thanksgiving; and we may use them indifferently without making them become snares to us, either by too licentious a use of them or too scrupulous a fear of using them at all. Measures of Temperance in Eating 1. Eat not before the time; unless necessity, or charity, or any intervening circumstance should happen. Remember it had almost cost Jonathan his life because he tasted a little honey before the sun went down, contrary to the king’s commandment; and although the great need, which he had, excused him from the sin of gluttony, yet it is inexcusable when you eat before the usual time, and thrust your hand into the dish unseasonably, out of greediness of the pleasure, and impatience of the delay. 2. Eat not delicately or nicely. It is lawful to comply with a weak stomach, but not with a nice and curious palate. When our health requires it, that ought to be provided for; but not our sensuality. Whatsoever is set before you, eat; if it is provided for you, you may eat it, be it never so delicate; and be it plain and common, so it is wholesome and fit for you, it must not be refused upon curiosity—for every degree of that is a degree of intemperance. 3. Eat not too much. Load neither your stomach nor your understanding. Drunkenness is an immoderate use of drink. I call immoderate that which is besides or beyond that order of good things for which God has given us the use of drink. The ends are digestion of our meat, cheerfulness, and refreshment of our spirits, or any end of health. Besides which if we go, or at any time beyond it, it is inordinate and criminal; it is the vice of drunkenness. Rules for Obtaining Temperance 1. Be not often at feasts, nor at all in dissolute company, when it may be avoided. For variety of pleasing objects steals away the heart of man and company is either violent or enticing, and we are weak or complying. But if you are unavoidably engaged therein, let not mistaken civility or good nature persuade you either to the temptation of staying (if you understand your weakness), or the sin of drinking inordinately. 2. Be severe in your judgment concerning your proportions, and let no occasion make you enlarge far beyond your ordinary. For a man is surprised by parts; and while he thinks one glass more will not make him drunk, that one glass has disabled him from well discerning his present condition and near danger. 3. Propound to yourself (if you are in a capacity), a constant rule of living, of eating and drinking. And, though it may not be fit to observe scrupulously, lest it become a snare to your conscience, yet let not your rule be broke often nor much, but upon great necessity and in small degrees. 4. Never urge any man to eat or drink beyond his own desires. He who does otherwise is drunk with his brother’s excess, and reels and falls with his intemperance; that is, the sin of drunkenness is upon both their scores, they both lie wallowing in the guilt. 5. Use St. Paul’s instruments of sobriety: “Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8). Faith, hope, and charity are the best weapons in the world to fight against intemperance. 6. As a pursuance of this rule, it is very good advice, that as we begin and end all our times of eating with prayer and thanksgiving, so at the meal we remove and carry up our minds to the celestial table, often thinking of it, and often desiring it; that by enkindling our desires to heavenly banquets, we may be less passionate for the earthly. 7. In all cases, be careful that you are not brought under the power of such things as otherwise are lawful. “All things are lawful for me . . . but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Cor. 6:12), said St. Paul. And to be impatiently desirous of any thing, so that a man cannot abstain from it, is to lose a man’s liberty, and to become a servant of meat and drink, or smoke. And I wish this last instance were more considered by persons who little suspect themselves guilty of intemperance. Section III Of Chastity Reader, stay, and do not read the advices of the following section, unless you have a chaste spirit, or desire to be chaste. For there are some spirits so wholly possessed with a spirit of uncleanness, that they turn the most prudent discourses into dirt and filthy apprehensions, like choleric stomachs, changing their very cordials into bitterness, and in a literal sense, “turning the grace of God into wantonness.” I have used all the care I could, in the following periods, that I might neither be lacking to assist those that need it, nor yet minister any occasion of fancy to those that need them not. If any man will snatch the pure taper from my hand, and hold it to the devil, he will only burn his own fingers, but shall not rob me of the reward of my good intention. Chastity is that duty which was mystically intended by God in the law of circumcision. It is the circumcision of the heart, the cutting off all superfluity of naughtiness, and a suppression of all irregular desires in the matter of sensual pleasure. I call all desires irregular and sinful that are not sanctified, 1) by being within the protection of marriage, 2) by being within the order of nature, and 3) by being within the moderation of Christian modesty. Against the first are fornication, adultery, and all voluntary pollutions of either sex. Against the second are all unnatural lusts and incestuous mixtures. Against the third is all immoderate use of permitted beds, concerning which judgment is to be made as concerning meats and drinks; there being no certain degree prescribed to all persons, but it is to be ruled as the other actions of a man, by proportion to the end, by the dignity of the person in the honor and severity of being a Christian, and by other circumstances, of which I am to give account. Chastity is that grace which forbids and restrains all these, keeping the body and soul pure in that state in which it is placed by God, whether of the single or of the married life. Concerning which our duty is thus described by St. Paul, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor: not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God” (1 Thess. 4:3–5). Chastity is either abstinence or continence. Abstinence is the duty of virgins or widows; continence of married persons. Chaste marriages are honorable and pleasing to God. Widowhood is pitiable in its solitariness, but amiable and comely when it is adorned with gravity and purity. But virginity is a life of angels, the enamel of the soul, the huge advantage of religion, the great opportunity for the retirements of devotion. And being empty of cares it is full of prayers; being unmingled with the world, it is apt to converse with God; and by not feeling the warmth of nature, flames out with holy fires, till it be burning like the cherubim and the most euphoric order of holy and unpolluted spirits. Virginity of itself is not a state more acceptable to God; but that which is chosen in order to the conveniences of religion, and is therefore better than the married life, not that it is more holy, but that it is a freedom from cares, an opportunity to spend more time in spiritual employments; it is not allayed with businesses and attendances upon lower affairs. And if it be a chosen condition to these ends, it contains in it a victory over lusts, and greater desires of religion and self-denial, and therefore is more excellent than the married life, in that degree in which it has greater religion, and a greater mortification, a lesser satisfaction of natural desires, and a greater fullness of the spiritual. And just so it may expect that special reward which God has prepared (besides the crown of all faithful souls) for those “who have not defiled themselves with women, but follow the Virgin Lamb for ever.” But some married persons even in their marriage do better please God than some virgins in their state of virginity. They, by giving great example of conjugal affection, by preserving their faith unbroken, by educating children in the fear of God, by patience and contentedness and holy thoughts and the exercises of virtues proper to that state, do not only please God, but do it in a higher degree than those virgins whose piety is not answerable to their great opportunities and advantages. Married persons, widows, and virgins are all servants of God and coheirs in the inheritance of Jesus if they live within the restraints and laws of their particular estate: chastely, temperately, justly, and religiously. Acts of Chastity in General The acts of chastity in general are these: 1. To resist all unchaste thoughts; at no hand entertaining pleasure in the unfruitful fancies and remembrances of uncleanness, although no desire or resolution is entertained. 2. At no hand to entertain any desire, or any fantastic, imaginative loves; though by shame, or disability, or other circumstances, they be restrained from action. 3. To have a chaste eye and a hand; for it is all one with what part of the body we commit adultery. And if a man let his eye loose, and enjoys the lust of it, he is an adulterer. 4. To have a heart and mind chaste and pure; that is, detesting all uncleanness, disliking all its motions, past actions, circumstances, likenesses, discourses; and this ought to be the chastity of virgins and widows, especially, and generally of all men, according to their several necessities. 5. To discourse chastely; with great care declining all indecencies of language, chastening the tongue, and restraining it with grace. 6. To disapprove, for any after act, all involuntary and natural pollutions. For if a man delights in having suffered any natural pollution, and with pleasure remembers it, he chooses that which was in itself involuntary; and that which, being natural was innocent, becoming voluntary, is made sinful. But besides these general acts of chastity that are common to all states of men and women, there are some few things proper to several states. Acts of Virginal Chastity 1. Virgins must remember that the virginity of the body is not only excellent in order to the purity of the soul. But they must also consider that since they are in some measure in a condition like that of angels, it is their duty to spend much time in angelical employment; for in the same degree that virgins live more spiritually than other persons, in the same degree is their virginity a more excellent state. 2. Virgins must be retired and private. For all freedom and looseness of society is a violence done to virginity, not in its natural, but in its moral capacity. That is, it loses part of its severity, strictness, and opportunity of advantages, by rendering that person public, whose work is religion, whose company is angels, whose thoughts must dwell in heaven, and separate from all mixtures of the world. 3. Virgins have a peculiar obligation to charity, for this is the virginity of the soul; as purity, integrity, and separation are of the body, which doctrine we are taught by St. Peter, “Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently” (1 Peter 1:22). For a virgin who consecrates her body to God, and pollutes her spirit with impatience, or inordinate anger, gives him what he most hates—a foul and defiled soul. 4. These rules are necessary for virgins, who offer that state to God, and do not mean to enter into the state of marriage. They who only wait the opportunity of a convenient change are to steer themselves by the general rules of chastity. Rules for Widows Widows must remember: 1. That God has now restrained the former license, bound up their eyes, and shut up their hearts in a very narrow compass. 2. It is against public honesty to marry another man so long as a woman is with child by her former husband. And of the same fame it is in a lesser proportion to marry within the year of mourning. 3. A widow must restrain her memory and her fancy, not recalling her former permissions with delight. For then she opens that floodgate which her husband’s death and her own sorrow have shut up. 4. A widow who desires her widowhood should be a state pleasing to God, must spend her time as devoted virgins should, in fasting, and prayers, and charity. Rules for Married Persons Concerning married persons, besides the keeping of their mutual faith with each other, these particulars are useful to be observed: 1. Although their mutual endearments are safe within the protection of marriage, yet they who have wives or husbands must be as though they had them not; that is, they must have an affection greater to each other than they have to any person in the world, but not greater than they have to God. 2. In their permissions they must be sure to observe the order of nature, and the ends of God. “He is an ill husband who uses his wife as a man treats a harlot,” having no other end but pleasure. Concerning which our best rule is, that although in this, as in eating and drinking, there is an appetite to be satisfied, yet since that satisfaction was intended by nature for other ends, it should always be joined with all or one of these ends: “with a desire of children, or to avoid fornication, or to endear each other”; but never with a purpose, either in act or desire, to separate the sensuality from these ends which hallow it. 3. Married persons must keep such modesty and decency of treating each other, that they never force themselves into lust, with arts and unbecoming devices; always remembering that those mixtures are most innocent which are most simple and most natural. 4. It is a duty of matrimonial chastity to be restrained and temperate in the use of their lawful pleasures; concerning which, although no universal rule can be given to all persons, any more than to all bodies one proportion of meat and drink; yet married persons are to estimate the degree of their license according to the following proportions: a) that it be moderate, so as to consist with health; b) that it be so ordered as not to be too expensive of time, that precious opportunity of working out our salvation; and c) that it be with a temperate affection, without violent transporting desires, or too sensual applications. Concerning which a man is to make judgment by proportion to other actions, and the severities of his religion, and the sentences of sober and wise persons; always remembering that marriage is a provision for supply, of the natural necessities of the body, not for the artificial appetites of the mind. And it is a sad truth, that many married persons, thinking that the floodgates of liberty are set wide open without measure or restraints, have felt the final rewards of intemperance and lust, by their unlawful using of lawful permissions. Only let each of them be temperate, and both of them be modest. 5. Married persons, by consent, are to abstain from their mutual entertainments, at solemn times of devotion; not as a duty necessary unto itself, but as being the most proper act of purity, which in their condition they can present to God, and being a good advantage for attending their preparation for the solemn duty. It is St. Paul’s counsel, that “by consent for a time they should abstain, that they might give themselves to fasting and prayer” (1 Cor. 7:5). 6. It were well if married persons would, in their penitential prayers, and in their general confessions, suspect themselves; and accordingly, ask a general pardon for all their indecencies, and more passionate applications of themselves, in the offices of marriage; that what is lawful and honorable in its kind, may not be sullied with imperfect circumstances; or if it be, it may be made clean by repentance. But, because of all the dangers of a Christian, none are more pressing and troublesome than the temptations to lust; therefore it concerns all who would be safe from this death, to arm themselves by the following rules. Remedies against Uncleanness 1. When a temptation of lust assaults you, do not resist it by heaping arguments against it and disputing with it, but flee from it. If you hear it speak, though but to dispute with it, it ruins you; and the very arguments you go about to answer, leave a relish upon the tongue. 2. Avoid idleness and fill up all the spaces of your time with severe and useful employment; for lust usually creeps in at those empty places where the soul is unemployed and the body at ease. But of all employments, bodily labor is most useful and of greatest benefit for the driving away the devil. 3. Give no entertainment to the beginnings, the first motions, and secret whispers of the spirit of impurity. For, if you totally suppress it, it dies; if you permit the furnace to breathe its smoke, and flame out at any vent, it will rage to the consumption of the whole. 4. Hard usage of the body has by all ages been accounted of some profit against the spirit of fornication. A spare diet, and a thin coarse table, seldom refreshment, frequent fasts; by such cutting off the provisions of victuals, we shall weaken the strength of our enemy. To which if we add lying upon the ground, painful postures in prayer; and (if the lust be upon us, and sharply tempting), inflicting any smart to overthrow the strongest passion by the most violent pain, we shall find case for the present; and this was St. Paul’s remedy, “I bring my body under” (1 Cor. 9:27). But it was a great nobleness of chastity, which St. Jerom reports of a son of the king of Nicomedia, who being tempted upon flowers and a perfumed bed, with a soft violence, but yet tied down to the temptation, lest the easiness of his posture should abuse him, spit out his tongue into her face; to represent that no virtue has cost the saints so much as this of chastity. 5. Flee from all occasions, temptations, looseness of company, balls and reveling, dances, idle talk, private society with women, staring upon a beauteous face, the company of women who are singers, feasts and liberty, wine and strong drinks, which are made to persecute chastity; ever remembering that it is easier to die for chastity, than to live with it. 6. He who will secure his chastity must first cure his pride and his rage. For oftentimes lust is the punishment of a proud man, to tame the vanity of his pride by the shame of unchastity; and the same intemperate heat that makes anger, enkindles lust. 7. If you are assaulted with an unclean spirit, do not trust yourself alone; but run forth into company, whose reverence and modesty may suppress, or whose society may divert your thoughts; and a perpetual witness of your conversation is of special use against this vice, which evaporates in the open air, being impatient of light and witnesses. 8. Use frequent and earnest prayers to the King of purities, the first of Virgins, the eternal God, who is of essential purity; that he will be pleased to reprove and cast out the unclean spirit. 9. These remedies are of universal efficacy in all cases extraordinary and violent; but in ordinary and common, the remedy which God has provided, that is, honorable marriage, has a natural efficacy, besides a virtue, by the divine blessing, to cure the inconveniencies which otherwise might afflict persons temperate and sober. Section IV Of Humility Humility is the great ornament and jewel of the Christian religion, that whereby it is distinguished from all the wisdom of the world; it not having been taught by the wise men of the Gentiles, but first made part of religion by our Lord Jesus Christ, who propounded himself irritable by his disciples so notably in nothing as in the twin sisters of meekness and humility. “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble, and you shall find rest unto your souls” (Matt. 11:29). And all the world, all that we are, and all that we have; our bodies and our souls, our actions and our sufferings, our conditions at home, our circumstances abroad; our many sins, and our seldom virtues, are so many arguments to make our souls dwell low in the deep valley of humility. Acts and Offices of Humility Humility is exercised by the following rules: 1. Whatsoever evil you say of yourself, be content that others should think to be true. And if you call yourself fool, be not angry if another says so of you. For if you think so truly, all men in the world desire other men to be of their opinion; and he is a hypocrite who accuses himself before others, with an intent not to be believed. But he who calls himself intemperate, foolish, and lustful, and is angry when his neighbors call him so, is both a false and a proud person. 2. Love to be concealed and little esteemed. Be content to lack praise, never being troubled when you are slighted or undervalued; for you cannot undervalue yourself, and if you think so meanly as there is reason, no contempt will seem unreasonable. 3. Never be ashamed of your birth, or your parents, or your trade, or your present employment, for the meanness or poverty of any of them; and when there is an occasion to speak of them, such an occasion as would invite you to speak of anything that pleases you, omit it not; but speak as readily and indifferently of your lowliness as of your greatness. Primislaus, the first king of Bohemia, kept his country shoes always by him, to remember from whence he was raised. And Agathocles, by the furniture of his table, confessed that from a potter he was raised to be the king of Sicily. 4. Never speak anything directly tending to your praise, that is, with a purpose to be commended, and for no other end. If other ends be mingled with your honor, as if the glory of God, or charity or necessity, or anything of prudence is your end, you are not tied to omit your discourse, or your design, that you may avoid praise; but pursue your end, though praise come along in the company. Only let not praise be the design. 5. Take no content in praise when it is offered you; but, let your rejoicing in God’s gift be allayed with fear, lest this good bring you to evil. 6. Make no suppletories to yourself, when you are disgraced or slighted, by pleasing yourself with supposing you did deserve praise, though they understood you not, or enviously detracted from you. Neither get to yourself a private theater and flatterers, in whose praises you may keep up your own good opinion of yourself. 7. Be content that he should be applauded, and you laid by as unprofitable; his sentence approved, yours rejected; that he should be preferred, and you fixed in a low employment. 8. Never compare yourself with others, unless it is to advance them, and to depress yourself. To which purpose we must be sure in some sense or other to think ourselves the worst in every company in which we come: one is more learned than I am, another is more prudent, a third more honorable, a fourth more chaste, or he is more charitable, or less proud. For the humble man observes their good, and reflects only upon his own vileness; or considers the many evils of himself, certainly known to himself; and the ill of others, but by uncertain report. Or he considers that the evils done by another are out of much infirmity or ignorance, but his own sins are against a clearer light; and if the other had had such great helps, he would have done more good and less evil. Or he remembers that his old sins, before his conversion, were greater in the nature of the thing, or in certain circumstances, than the sins of other men. 9. Be not always ready to excuse every oversight, or indiscretion, or ill action. But if you are guilty of it, confess it plainly; for virtue scorns a lie for its cover; but to hide a sin with it, is like a crust of leprosy drawn upon an ulcer. If you are not guilty (unless it be scandalous), be not over earnest to remove it; but rather use it as an argument to chastise all greatness of opinion in yourself; and accustom yourself to bear reproof patiently and contentedly, and the harsh words of your enemies, as knowing that the anger of an enemy is a better monitor, and represents our faults, or admonishes us of our duty with more heartiness, than the kindness of a friend. 10. Give God thanks for every weakness, deformity, and imperfection, and accept it as a favor and grace of God, and an instrument to resist pride, and nurse humility; ever remembering that when God, by giving you a crooked back, has also made your spirit stoop, you are more ready to enter the narrow gate of heaven than by being straight, and standing upright, and thinking highly. Thus the apostles “rejoiced in their infirmities,” not moral, but natural and accidental, in their being beaten and whipped like slaves, in their nakedness and poverty. 11. Be sure never to praise yourself, or to dispraise anyone else, unless God’s glory or some holy end does hallow it. And it was noted to the praise of Cyrus, that among his equals in age, he would never play at any sport, or use any exercise, in which he knew himself more excellent than they. But in such in which he was unskillful, he would make his challenges; lest he should shame them by his victory, and that he himself might learn something of their skill, and do them civilities. Means of Increasing the Grace of Humility 1. Make confession of your sins often to God, and consider what all that evil amounts to, which you then charge upon yourself. 2. Every day call to mind some one of your foulest sins, or the most shameful of your disgraces, or the most indiscreet of your actions, or anything that did then most trouble you, and apply it to the present swelling of your spirit, and it may help to allay it. 3. Pray often for this grace, with all passion of desire, and in your devotion interpose many acts of humility by way of confession and address to God, and reflection upon yourself. 4. Remember that the blessed Savior of the world has done more to prescribe, and transmit, and secure this grace than any other; his whole life being a continued example of humility, a vast descent from the glorious bosom of his Father to the womb of a poor maiden, to the form of a servant, to the miseries of a sinner, to a life of labor, to a state of poverty, to a death of malefactors, to the grave of death, and the intolerable calamities which we deserved. And it would be a good design, and yet but reasonable, that we should be as humble in the midst of our greatest imperfections and basest sins, as Christ was in the midst of his fullness of the Spirit, and most admirable virtues. 5. Drive away all flatterers from your company, and at no hand endure them. Section V Of Modesty Modesty is the appendage of sobriety, and is to chastity, to temperance, and to humility, as the fringes are to a garment. It is a grace of God that moderates the over-activeness and curiosity of the mind, orders the passions and external actions, and is directly opposed to curiosity, boldness, and indecency. The practice of modesty consists in these following rules. Acts of Modesty, as It Is Opposed to Curiosity 1. Do not inquire into the secrets of God, but be content to learn your duty, according to the quality of your person or employment, that is plainly, if you are not concerned in the conduct of others; but if you are a teacher, learn it so as may best enable you to discharge your office. 2. Do not inquire into the things that are too hard for you, but learn modestly to know your infirmities and abilities. 3. Let us not inquire into the affairs of others that concern us not; but be busied within ourselves and our own spheres. 4. Never listen at their doors or windows; for besides that it contains in it danger and a snare, it is also invading your neighbor’s privacy, and laying that open, which he therefore enclosed, that it might not be open. Never ask what he carries covered so curiously; for it is enough that it is covered curiously. Here also is reducible, that we never open letters without public authority, or reasonably presumed leave, or great necessity. Every man has in his own life sins enough, in his own mind trouble enough, in his own fortune evils enough, and in performance of his offices failings more than enough to entertain his own inquiry. So that curiosity after the affairs of others cannot be without envy and an evil mind. Curiosity is the direct incontinency of the spirit; and adultery itself in its principle is many times nothing but a curious inquisition after, and envying of, another man’s enclosed pleasures. Acts of Modesty, as It Is Opposed to Boldness 1. Let us always bear about us such impressions of reverence and fear of God, as to tremble at his voice, to express our apprehensions of his greatness in all great circumstances, in popular judgments, loud thunders, tempests, earthquakes; not only for fear of being smitten ourselves, but also that we may humble ourselves before his almightiness, and express that infinite distance between his infiniteness and our weakness, at such times especially when he gives such visible arguments of it. He who is merry and airy at shore, when he sees a tempest on the sea, or dances briskly when God thunders from heaven, regards not when God speaks to all the world, but is possessed with a firm immodesty. 2. Be reverent, modest, and reserved in the presence of your betters, giving to all according to their quality and their titles of honor; keeping distance, speaking little, answering pertinently, not interposing without leave or reason, not answering to a question propounded to another; and ever present to your superiors the fairest side of your discourse, of your temper, of your ceremony, as being ashamed to serve excellent persons with unhandsome interactions. 3. Never offer to justify what is indeed a fault, but modestly be ashamed of it, ask pardon, and make amends. 4. Do not be confident in an uncertain matter, but report things modestly, according to the degree of persuasion that ought to be brought about in you by the efficacy of the authority, or the reason inducing you. 5. Do not pretend to more knowledge than you have, but be content to seem ignorant where you are, lest you be either brought to shame, or retire into shamelessness. Acts of Modesty, as It Is Opposed to Indecency 1. In your prayers, in places of religion, use reverent postures, great attention, and the lowest gestures of humility, remembering that we speak to God, in our reverence to whom we cannot possibly exceed; but that the expression of this reverence be according to law or custom, and the example of the most prudent and pious persons. 2. In all public meetings, private addresses, discourses, and journeys, use those forms of salutations, reverence, and decency which custom prescribes, and is usual amongst the most sober persons; giving honor to whom honor belongs, taking place of none of your betters; and in all cases of question concerning precedency, giving it to anyone that will take it. 3. Toward your parents use all modesty of duty, and humble carriage; toward them and your kindred be severe in the modesties of chastity; ever fearing lest the freedoms of natural kindness should enlarge into any unhandsome neighborhood. 4. Be grave, decent, and modest in your clothing; never let it be above your condition, nor always equal to it; never light or amorous, discovering a nakedness through a thin veil, which you pretend to hide. Remember what becomes a Christian professing holiness, chastity, and the discipline of the holy Jesus. 5. Here also is to be reduced singular and affected walking, proud, nice, and ridiculous gestures of body, painting, and lascivious dressings. Modesty, in this instance, is expressly enjoined to all Christian women by St. Paul, “That women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becomes women professing godliness), with good works” (1 Tim. 2:9–10). Section VI Of Contentedness in All States and Circumstances Virtues and discourses are like friends, necessary in all fortunes; but those are the best which are friends in our sadness, and support us in our sorrows; and in this sense, no man who is virtuous can be friendless; nor has any man reason to complain of the divine providence, or accuse the public disorder of things, since God has appointed one remedy for all the evils in the world, and that is a contented spirit. For this alone makes a man pass through fire, and not be scorched; through seas, and not be drowned; through hunger and nakedness, and lack nothing. He who composes his spirit to the present circumstance has a 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 like the center 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 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, and they are every one of them equally in order to this great end and felicity. We may be reconciled to poverty and a low fortune, if we suffer contentedness and the grace of God to make the proportion. 1. Contentedness in all states is a duty of religion; it is the great reasonableness of complying with the divine providence, which governs the entire world, and has so ordered us in the administration of his great family. He would be a strange fool who should be angry because dogs and sheep need no shoes, and yet is himself full of care to get some. God has supplied those needs to them by natural provisions, and to you by artificial. For he has given you reason, to learn your trade, or some means to make or buy them, so that it only differs in the manner of the provision; and which would you rather lack, shoes or reason? And my patron who has given me a farm, is freer to me than if he gives a loaf ready baked. But however, all these gifts come from him, and therefore it is fit he should dispense them as he pleases; and if we murmur here, we may at the next melancholy be troubled that God did not make us to be angels or stars. For if that which we are, or have, does not content us, we may be troubled for everything in the world, which is besides our being or our possessions. God is the Master of the scenes; we must not choose which part we shall act; it concerns us only to be careful that we do it well; always saying, “If this pleases God, let it be as it is.” And we, who pray that God’s will may be done in earth as it is in heaven, must remember that the angels do whatever is commanded them, and go wherever they are sent, and refuse no circumstances; and if their employment be crossed by a higher degree, they sit down in peace, and rejoice in the event. When the angel of Judea could not prevail on behalf of the people committed to his charge, because the angel of Persia opposed it; he only told the story at the command of God, and was content, and worshipped with as great an ecstasy in his proportion, as the prevailing spirit. Do so likewise: keep the station where God has placed you, and you shall never long for things without; but sit at home feasting upon the divine providence and your own reason, by which you are taught that it is necessary and reasonable to submit to God. For, is not all the world God’s family? Are we not his creatures? Are we not as clay in the hands of the Potter? Do we not live upon his meat, and move by his strength, and do our work by his light? Are we anything but what we are from him? And shall there be a mutiny among the flocks and herds, because their Lord or their Shepherd chooses their pasture, and suffers not to wander in deserts and unknown ways? If we choose, we do it so foolishly that we cannot like what we have chosen long, and most commonly not at all. But God, who can do what he pleases, is wise to choose safely for us, affectionate to comply with our needs, and powerful to execute all his wise decrees. Here therefore is the wisdom of the contented man, to let God choose for him; for when we have given up our wills to him, and stand in that station of the battle where our great General has placed us, our spirits must need rest, while our conditions have for their security the power, the wisdom, and the love of God. 2. Contentedness in all circumstances brings great peace of spirit, and is the great instrument of temporal felicity. It makes a man depend not upon the uncertain dispositions of men for his well-being, but only on God and his own spirit. Exercises to Increase Contentedness 1. When anything happens to our displeasure, let us endeavor to take off its trouble by turning it into spiritual advantage and handle it on that side in which it may be useful to the designs of reason. For there is nothing but has a double handle. When an enemy reproaches you, look on him as an impartial relater of your faults, for he will tell you more truly than your fondest friend will. You may call them precious balms, though they break your head, and forgive his anger while you make use of the plainness of his declamation; if there be nothing else in the disgrace but that it makes you walk warily, and tread surely, that is better than to be flattered into pride and carelessness. 2. Never compare your condition with those above you; but look upon those thousands with whom you would not for any interest change your condition. There are but a few kings among mankind, but many thousands who are very miserable if compared to you. However, it is a huge folly rather to grieve for the good of others, than to rejoice for that good which God has given us of our own. And yet there is no wise or good man who would change persons or conditions entirely with any man in the world. It may be he would have one man’s wealth added to himself, or the power of a second, or the learning of a third; but still he would receive these into his own person, because he loves that best, and therefore esteems it best, and therefore values all that which he is, before all that which any other man in the world can be. Would any man be Dives, to have his wealth, or Judas for his office, or Saul for his kingdom, or Absalom for his beauty, or Ahithophel for his policy? It is likely he would wish all these, and yet he would be the same person still. 3. It conduces much to our content, if we pass by those things that happen to our trouble, and consider that which is pleasing and prosperous, that by the representation of the better, the worst may be blotted out. And at the worst you have enough to keep you alive, and to keep up and to improve your hopes of heaven. If I am overthrown in my suit at law, yet my house and my land is left me still; or I have a virtuous wife, or hopeful children, or kind friends. If I have lost one child, it may be I have two or three left. Or else reckon the blessings that you have received, and therefore be pleased in the change and variety of affairs to receive evil from the hand of God as well as good. When sadness lies heavy upon you, remember that you are a Christian, designed for the inheritance of Jesus. And what do you think concerning your lot and portion in eternity? Do you think that you shall be saved or damned? Indeed if you think you shall perish, I do not blame you for being sad, sad till your heartstrings crack, but then, why are you troubled at the loss of your money? What should a damned man do with money? Did ever any man upon the rack afflict himself because he had received a cross answer from his mistress? If you do really believe you shall be damned, I do not say it will cure the sadness of your poverty, but it will swallow it up. But if you believe you shall be saved, consider how great is that joy, how infinite is that change, how unspeakable is the glory, how excellent is the recompense for all the sufferings in the world. Here you are, but a stranger traveling to your country, where the glories of a kingdom are prepared for you; it is therefore a huge folly to be much afflicted because you have a less convenient inn to lodge in by the way. Indeed, there is no man but has blessings enough in present possession to outweigh the evils of a great affliction. Tell the joints of your body, and do not accuse the universal providence for a lame leg, or the lack of a finger, when all the rest is perfect, and you have a noble soul, a particle of divinity, the image of God himself; and by the lack of a finger you may the better know how to estimate the remaining parts. I have fallen into the hands of ill men, 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 they have not taken away my cheerful spirit and 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. Still I sleep and digest, I eat and drink, I read and meditate; I can walk in my neighbor’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. And he that has so many causes of joy, and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness, who loses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down upon his little handful of thorns; he deserves to starve in the midst of plenty and to lack comfort while he is encircled with blessings. 4. Enjoy the present, whatsoever it be, and be not solicitous for the future. For if you take your foot from the present standing, and thrust it forward toward tomorrow’s event, you are in a restless condition. It is like refusing to quench your present thirst by fearing you shall lack drink the next day. If it is well today, it is madness to make the present miserable by fearing it may be ill tomorrow. If tomorrow you shall lack, your sorrow will come time enough, though you do not hasten it. Let your trouble tarry till its own day comes. But if it is ill today, do not increase the affliction by the care of tomorrow. Enjoy the blessings of this day, if God sends them; and the evils of it bear patiently and sweetly. For this day is only ours, we are dead to yesterday, and we are not yet born to tomorrow. He therefore who enjoys the present, if it is good, enjoys as much as is possible. And if only that day’s trouble leans upon him, it is finite. “Sufficient to the day,” said Christ, “is the evil thereof” (Matt. 6:34). Sufficient, but not intolerable. But if we look abroad, and bring into one day’s thought the evil of many—certain and uncertain, what will be, and what will never be—our load will be as intolerable as it is unreasonable. 5. Let us prepare our minds against changes, always expecting them, that we be not surprised when they come. For nothing is so great an enemy to a contented spirit as unpreparedness and inconsideration; and when our fortunes are changed, our spirits are unchanged, if they always stood in the expectation of sorrows. “O death, how bitter are you to a man that is at rest in his possessions!” And to the rich man who had promised to himself ease and fullness for many years, it was a sad arrest, and his soul was surprised the first night; but the apostles, who every day knocked at the gate of death, and looked upon it continually, went to their martyrdom in peace and evenness. 6. Let us often frame to ourselves the images of those blessings we have, just as we usually understand them when we want them. Consider how desirable health is to a sick man, or liberty to a prisoner; if but a fit of the toothache seizes us with violence, all those troubles, which in our health afflicted us, disband immediately, and seem inconsiderable. He who in his health is troubled that he is in debt, and spends sleepless nights; let him fall into a fit of the stone, or a high fever, and he despises the arrest of all his first troubles, and is a man unconcerned. Remember then that God has given you a blessing, the lack of which would be infinitely more trouble than your present debt, or poverty, or loss; and therefore is now more to be valued in the possession, and ought to outweigh your trouble. The very blessings of immunity, liberty, and integrity, which we commonly enjoy, deserve the thanksgiving of a whole life. If God should send a cancer upon your face, if he should spread a crust of leprosy upon your skin, what would you give to be but as now you are? Would you not on that condition be as poor as I am, or as the meanest of your brethren? Would you not choose your present loss or affliction as a thing extremely eligible, if you might exchange the other for this? You are free from a thousand calamities, every one of which, if it were upon you, would make you insensible of your present sorrow. And therefore let your joy (which should be as great for your freedom from them, as is your sadness when you feel any of them), effect the same cure upon your discontent. For if we are not extremely foolish or vain, thankless or senseless, a great joy is more apt to cure sorrow and discontent than a great trouble is. I have known an affectionate wife, when she had been in fear of parting with her beloved husband, heartily desire of God his life, or society, upon any conditions that were not sinful; and choose to beg with him rather than to feast without him. And the same person has, upon that consideration, borne poverty nobly, when God has heard, her prayer in the other matter. What wise man in the world is there who does not prefer a small fortune with peace, before a great one with contention, and war, and violence? Then he is no longer wise if he alters his opinion when he has his wish. 7. If you will secure a contented spirit, you must measure your desires by your fortune, not your fortune by your desires. That is, be governed by your needs, not by your fancy. Is that beast better that has two or three mountains to graze on, than a little bee that feeds on dew or manna, and lives upon what falls every morning from the storehouses of heaven, clouds, and providence? Can a man quench his thirst better from the fountain when it is finely paved with marble, than when it swells over the green turf? Pride and artificial gluttonies do but adulterate nature, making our diet unhealthy, our appetites impatient and insatiable. But that which we miscall poverty, is indeed nature, and its proportions are the just measures of a man, and the best instruments of content. 8. In all troubles let us take sanctuary in religion, and by innocence cast out anchors for our souls, to keep them from shipwreck, though they are not kept from storm. When a man suffers in a good cause, or is afflicted, and yet does not walk perversely with God, then he may say, “Anytus and Melitus may kill me, but they cannot hurt me.” Then St. Paul’s character is engraved on the forehead of our fortune: “We are troubled on every side, but not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8–9). And “who is he that will harm you, if you are followers of that which is good?” (1 Peter 3:13). For indeed everything in the world is indifferent, but sin. And all the scorching of the sun is very tolerable in respect of the burnings of a fever. The greatest evils are from within us, and from ourselves also we must look for our greatest good; for God is the fountain of it, but reaches it to us by our own hands. And when all things look sadly ruined about us, then only we shall find how excellent a fortune it is to have God for our friend; and of all friendships that only is created to support us in our needs. 9. Consider that a state of affliction is a school of virtue. It reduces our spirits to soberness, and our counsels to moderation; it corrects levity, and interrupts the confidence of sinning. “It is good for me,” said David, “that I have been afflicted, for thereby I have learned your law” (Ps. 119:71). And “I know, O Lord, that you of very faithfulness have caused me to be troubled.” For God, who in mercy and wisdom governs the world, would never have suffered so much sadness, and have sent them especially to the most virtuous and the wisest men, but that he intends they should be the nursery of virtue, the exercise of wisdom, the trial of patience, the venturing for a crown, and the gate of glory. 10. But some men are highly tempted, and are brought to a strait, that without a miracle they cannot be relieved. What shall they do? Let not any man, by way of impatience, cry out that God will not work a miracle; for God, by a miracle, did give meat and drink to his people in the wilderness, of which he had made no particular promise in any covenant. And, if all natural means fail, it is certain that God will rather work a miracle than break his word; he can do that, he cannot do this. Only we must remember that our portion of temporal things is but food and raiment. God has not promised us coaches and horses, neither has he promised to minister to our needs in such circumstances as we shall appoint, but such as he himself shall choose. God will enable you to pay your debt (if you beg it of him), or else he will pay it for you; that is, take your desires as a discharge of your duty, and pay it to your creditor in blessings, or in some secret of his providence. It may be he has laid up the corn that shall feed you in the granary of your brother; or will clothe you with his wool. He enabled St. Peter to pay his tax by the ministry of a fish; and Elijah to be waited on by a raven, which was both his minister and his steward for provisions; and his holy Son rode in triumph upon a donkey that grazed in another man’s pastures. And if God gives to him the dominion, and reserves the use to you, you have the better half of the two; but the charitable man serves God and serves your need; and both join to provide for you, and God blesses both. But if he takes away the pots of meat from you, he can also alter the appetite, and he has given you power to restrain it; and if he lessens the revenue, he will also shrink the necessity; or if he gives but a very little, he will make it go a great way; or if he sends you but a coarse diet, he will bless it and make it healthy, and cure all the anguish of your poverty by giving you patience and contentedness. For the grace of God secures provisions for you; and yet the grace of God feeds and supports the spirit in the lack of provisions. And if a thin table is apt to enfeeble the spirits of one used to eating better; yet the cheerfulness of a spirit that is blessed will make a thin table become a delicacy, if the man were as well taught as he was fed, and learned his duty when he received the blessing.