fidem salvificam in Christum accedendam, et ad pietatem veram juxta verbum Dei exercendam, veramque consolationem in vita et morte præstandam faciebant:" "When he had found in his visiting the sick, and in his own preparations for well dying, that the controversies in divinity, which beget a swelling knowledge, but do not quiet troubled consciences, and which are at this day agitated with such contention of spirits, and raise such tumults in commonwealths, are indeed utterly useless; yea, and moreover do entangle the consciences of the simple, just as the human inventions in popery formerly did; he begun with full bent of mind to shun or abhor them, and in his public preaching to propound only those things which tended to the kindling a true faith in Jesus Christ, and to the exercise of true godliness, according to the word of God, and to the procuring of true consolation both in life and death." I can scarcely express my own mind more plainly than this historian's expressions of the mind of Graserus. q While I had some competent measure of health, and looked at death as at a greater distance, there was no man more delighted in the study of controversy; but when I saw dying men have no mind on it, and how unsavoury and uncomfortable such conference was to them, and when I had oft been near to death myself, and found no delight in them further than they confirmed or illustrated the doctrine of eternal glory, I have minded them ever since the less, though every truth of God is precious, and it is the sin and shame of professors that they are no more able to defend the truth; yet should all our study of controversy be still in relation to this perpetual rest, and consequently be kept within its bounds, and with most Christians, not have the twentieth part of our time or thoughts. Who that hath tried both studies, doth not cry out, as Summerhard was wont to do of the popish school-divinity, “Quis me

4 Sacrilegæ sine dubio blasphemiæ alligatis, cum quis vestras controversias nominare ausit stultas; ineruditas quæstiones, profanas inanias, verborum pugnas; h. e. uno verbo, nugas. Ego verò quid de me sentiatis parum curo : hoc palam dico: stolidas, vanas, inutiles, indoctas disputationes; vid. nænias et gerras esse omnes eas, quæ vel nihil faciunt ad pietatem et ædificationem ecclesiæ, vel in verbo Dei non sunt, plene revelatæ, explicatæ, decisæ, et sic à Spiritu Sancto ad salutem minus necessariæ judicatæ. At tales non sunt hodiernæ quædam controversiæ. Vera me scribere, judicabit olim ecclesia; judicabit ipse Christus. Soletis supra modum exaggerare minutissimas liticulas quasi à quibus cardo sempiternæ salutis unicè dependeat. At longe aliter sentiunt quicunque nondum sunt vestris præconceptis opinionibus fascinati; et contagio vestro infecti.-Rupert, Meldenius Paranesi Votiv. pro Pace Eccles. fol. d. 3.

miserum tandem liberabit ab ista rixosa theologia?" "Who will once deliver me, wretch, from this wrangling kind of dignity?" And as it is said of Bucholcer: "Cum eximiis à Deo dotibus esset decoratus, in certamen tamen cum rabiosis illius seculi theologis descendere noluit. Desii (inquit) disputare, cœpi supputare: quoniam illud dissipationem, hoc collectionem significat. Vidit enim ab iis controversias moveri, quas nulla unquam amoris Dei scintilla calefecerat: vidit ex diuturnis theologorum rixis, utilitatis nihil, detrimenti plurimum in ecclesias redundassi :" i. e. "Though he was adorned by God with excellent gifts, yet would he never enter into contention with the furious divines of that age. I have ceased," saith he, "my disputations, and now begin my supputation; for that signifieth dissipation, but this collection." For he saw, that those men were the movers of controversies who had never been warmed with one spark of the love of God; he saw, that from the continual brawls of divines, no benefit, but much hurt, did accrue to the churches." And it is worth the observing, which the historian adds: "Quapropter omnis ejus cura in hoc erat, ut auditores fidei suæ commissos, doceret bene vivere et beate mori; et annotatum in universariis amici ejus repererunt, permultos in extremo agone constitutos gratias ipsi hoc nomine egisse, quod ipsius ductu servatorem suum Jesum agnovissent, cujus in cognitione pulchrum vivere, mori vero longe pulcherrimum ducerent. Atque haud scio annon hoc ipsum longe Bucholcero coram Deo sit gloriosius futurum, quam si aliquot contentiosorum libellorum myriadas posteritatis memoriæ consecrassat :" i. e. "Therefore this was all his care, that he might teach his hearers committed to his charge, to live well, and die happily; and his friends found noted down in his papers a great many of persons, who in their last agony did give him thanks for this very reason, that by his direction they had come to the knowledge of Jesus their Saviour; in the knowledge of whom, they esteem it sweet to live, but to die far more sweet. And I cannot tell whether this very thing will not prove more glorious to Bucholcer before God, than if he had consecrated to the memory of posterity many myriads of contentious writings." And as the study of controversies is not the most pleasant nor the most profitable, so much less the public handling of them; for to do it with the greatest meekness and ingenuity, yet shall we meet with such unreasonable men, as the said Bucholcer did, "qui arrepta ex aliquibus voculis calumniandi materia, hæreseos insi

mulare et traducere optimum virum non erubescerent; frustra obtestante ipso, dextrè data, dextrè acciperent :" i. e., “who, taking occasion of reproach from some small words, were not ashamed to traduce the good man, and accuse him of heresy, while he in vain obtested with them, that they should take in good part what was delivered with a good intention." Siracides saith, in Ecclesiasticus, chap. xxvi., that a scolding woman shall be sought out for to drive away the enemies, but experience of all ages tells us, to our sorrow, that the wrangling divine is their chiefest inlet, and no such scarecrow to them at all.

So then it is clear to me that there is nothing worth our minding but heaven, and the way to heaven.

All the question will be about the affairs of church and state, Is not this worth our minding, to see what things will come to, and how God will conclude our differences?

r

Answ. So far as they are considered as the providences of God, and as they tend to the settling of the Gospel, and government of Christ, and so to the saving of our own, and our posterity's souls, they are well worth our diligent observation: but these are only their relations to eternity. Otherwise, I should look upon all the stirs and commotions in the world, but as the busy gadding of a heap of ants, or the swarming of a nest of wasps or bees; the spurn of a man's foot destroys all their labour: or as an interlude, or a tragedy, of a few hours long. They first quarrel, and then fight, and let out one another's blood, and bring themselves more speedily and violently to their graves, which, however, they could not have long delayed, and so come down, and the play is ended. And the next generation succeeds them in their madness, and makes the like bustle in the. world for a time; and so they also come down, and lie in the dust. Like the Roman gladiators, that would kill one another by the hundreds, to make the beholders a solemn show; or as the young men of Joab and Abner, that must play before them, by stabbing one another to the heart, and fall down and die, and there is an end of the sport. And is this worth a wise man's observance?

Surely, our very bodies themselves, for which we make all this ado in the world, are very silly pieces: look upon them (not as they are set out in a borrowed bravery) but as they lie rotting in a ditch, or grave; and you will say, they are silly things

* Read Cyprian's excellent contemplation of the world's vanity and wickedness, from his prospect in the mount, Epist. i. ad Donat.

indeed. Why then, surely all our dealings in the world, our buyings and sellings, and eating and drinking, our building and marrying, our wealth and honours, our peace and our war, so far as they relate not to the life to come, but tend only to the support and pleasing of this silly flesh, must needs themselves be silly things, and not worthy the frequent thoughts of a Christian for the means (as such) is meaner than their end. ·

And now doth not thy conscience say as I say, that there is nothing but heaven, and the way to it, that is worth thy minding?

Sect. XV. Thus I have given thee these twelve arguments to consider of, and, if it may be, to persuade thee to a heavenly mind. I now desire thee to view them over; read them deliberately, and read them again, and then tell me, are they reason, or are they not? Reader, stop here, while thou answerest my question: Are these considerations weighty, or not? Are these arguments convincing, or not? Have I proved it thy duty, and a flat necessity, to keep thy heart on things above, or have I not? Say yea, or nay, man! If thou say nay, I am confident thou contradictest thine own conscience, and speakest against the light that is in thee, and thy reason tells thee, thou speakest falsely if thou say yea, and acknowledge thyself convinced of the duty, bear witness then, that I have thine own confession: that very tongue of thine shall condemn thee, and that confession be pleaded against thee if thou now go home, and cast this off, and wilfully neglect such a confessed duty; and these twelve considerations shall be as a jury to convict thee, which I propounded, hoping they might be effectual to persuade thee. I have not yet fully laid open to you the nature and particular way of that duty, which I am all this while persuading you to; that is the next thing to be done all that I have said hitherto, is but to make you willing to perform it. I know the whole work of man's salvation doth stick most at his own will; if we could once get over this block well, I see not what could stand before us. Be soundly willing, and the work is more than half done. I have now a few plain directions to give you, for to help you in doing this great work; but, alas! it is in vain to mention them, except you be willing to put them in practice. What sayest thou, reader? Art thou willing, or art thou not? Wilt thou obey, if

I show thee the way of thy duty? However, I will set them down, and tender them to thee, and the Lord persuade thy heart to the work.

CHAP. IV.

Containing some Hinderances of a Heavenly Life.

SECT. I. The first task that I must here set thee, consists in the avoiding some dangerous hinderances, which otherwise will keep thee off from this work, as they have done many a thousand before thee. If I show thee briefly where the rocks and gulf do lie, I hope thou wilt beware. If I stick up a mark at every quicksand, I hope I need to say no more, to put thee by it. Therefore, as thou valuest the comforts of a heavenly conversation, I here charge thee from God to beware most carefully of these impediments.

1. The first is, the living in a known unmortified sin. Observe this: O what havoc will this make in thy soul! O the joys that this hath destroyed! The blessed communion with God that this hath interrupted! The ruins it hath made amongst men's graces! The soul-strengthening duties that this hath hindered! And above all others, it is especially an enemy to this great duty.

Christian reader, I desire thee, in the fear of God, stay here a little, and search thy heart. Art thou one that hath used violence with thy conscience? Art thou a wilful neglecter of known duties, either public, private, or secret? Art thou a slave to thine appetite, in eating or drinking, or to any other commanding sense? Art thou a proud seeker of thine own esteem, and a man that must needs have men's good opinion, or else thy mind is all in a combustion? Art thou a wilfully peevish and passionate person, as if thou wert made of tinder, or gunpowder, ready to take fire at every word, or every wry look, or every

$ Ad illam vitam requiritur, 1. Quod homo per virtuosam assuefactionem et gratiam, sit radicatus in virtutibus. Quod nullam delectationem habeat in appetitu vanæ gloriæ, in cupiditate divitiarum; in concupiscentia oculorum et gulæ. 2. Requiritur internum silentium, ut non occupet se circa exteriora; quod audierit, vel viderit foris, nihil curando, tanquam in somno occurrissent. 3. Amoroso adhæsio cum Deo: ut omnia ejus judicia, omnia facta, omnes doctrinas cum reverentia amplectatur. 4. Quod nihil aliud quærat, sed ́ reputet sibi illum dilectum sufficientissimum, superexcellentem illum in corde suo diligat super omne quod potest videri, audiri, vel cogitari, vel imaginari, quia totus amabilis, totus desiderabilis, &c. 5. Quod sæpe reducat ad memoriam perfectiones Dei, et illis intimne congratuletur.—Gerson, 3. Part, in Alphabete Divini Amoris,