A Fathers Testament, Chapter 6
CAP. VI.
Blessedness is not in any thing corporal, or meerly moral.
OUR Bodies are but the houses of our spirits, and houses of clay, Job 4.19. As the house of a Snail, it is moved, and …arried by the Inhabitant. And as those …nail-shells are some black, and dusty, some …littering in divers colours, so is it with these …ells of our spirits: Some the hand of our …otter seems to frame of finer earth, or at …ast tinfoyls them with more lovely paint…gs, some formed of more course and dirty …etal, or (being not leaded) have not that …oss, and glittering. As our houses some …e dawbed with plain lome, others plaistered …ith lime, and washed over.
Now as in our houses we look first to the materials, secondly to the form, (the one giving strength, the other beauty to our buildings) so in the Body strength, and beauty are the special endowments of it. Beauty is but the flower of grass, (1 Pet. 1.24.) not all out so fair, full out as fading, blasted with the wind, seared with the Sun, smitten with every worm: and (if it had no outward enemy) rotting in the ripening, and ever slubbered in the using. Sickness turn… it into dust, death into dung, the one make… it untoothsome, the other loathsome. Favour (therefore) is deceitful, and beauty vai… (Prov. 31.30.) nay often dangerous: A… it hath cords to draw a lusting affection, s… hath it snares to intangle us in these cords. It is a fire that may scorch others, and consume our selves. How then should Beaut… make happy, when many thousands (a… Absolom and his Sister Tamar) might hav… been much more happy, if they had bee… much less beautiful.
2. Secondly, What is there in bodil… strength? (were it equal to Sampsons in th… latitude, and in the longitude to Calebs, Jos… 14.10, 11.) what can the fullest dimensio… of strength bring with them to make … happy? By strength shall no man prevai… 1 Sam. 2.9. The battel is not to the stron… Eccles. 9.11. It is not worth a smile, Ier. 9.23. An Ague unbends, and Age bends the strongest back. It fills us with vain confidence, drives us to rash attempts, fails us in the execution, and betrayes us to destruction.
Nay if we travel further into this lesser world of man, and search into the bowels of it, we shall find nothing in the Head, or Heart City, which will help to build up our happiness. True indeed it is, Wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light darkness, yet though the wise mans eyes be in his head, he cannot keep off the event of fools; what happens to the fool happens to the wise, Eccles. 2.13, 14, 15. If it dwell with poverty, it is followed with scorn, Eccles. 9.16. It is ever married to pain; and sorrow the issue of the match, and grows up with it, Eccles. 1.18. Some foolishness is wiser than it, and utterly out-wits it, 1 Cor. 1.25. And as our natural wisdom most o…ten perverts us, (Isa. 47.10.) bladders, and swells us (oft to bursting) Isa. 10.13. 1 Cor. 8.1. so when it grows up in a carnal mind it turns foolishness (1 Cor. 3.19.) enmity to God (Rom. 8.7.) and devilish, Iam. 3.15. We see it ordinarily that those subtile heads which are …utored in that Florentines universi…y, soon commence Batcheler Machiavils, and Master Devils. And truly I think no wise man can discern how that can merit the name of wisdome, which must necessarily first proceed fool, before it can have the grace to go out wise, 1 Cor. 3.18.
But to help it a little, joyn with this natural wisdome moral honesty, and stretch them both to the uttermost extent, yet will they still fall short, and never reach to happiness. They are like that Scribe who answered discreetly; he was not far from the Kingdom of God, Mark. 12.34. but stopping there was never in it. Morality in those ethick Sages is like the rings and jewels of running cheaters; brass but fairly gilded, fair stones, but counterfeit. They oft deceive, never enrich the Owner: precious to the view, but bring them to the Touch, of no value. And as some Phidian statue exquisitely formed may seem to live, breath, &c. yet is but a stone; so lifeless is all their morality: for he that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son, hath not life, 1 Joh. 5.12. If some old Image gnawn with Rats, be trickt up again, with a new dress, and garnished with choice colours, yet are colours indeed dead as the rotten stock. Such were those old heathen Philosophers, Images of Virtue, or rather (as the Apostle speaks of Sacrifices) shadows of good things, Heb. 10.1. They were as all other, in nature dead in sins, and trespasses, Eph. 2.5. And how shall the hand be living, when the heart is dead? the fruit good, when the Tree is evil? The best of them professing themselves wise, became fools, Rom. 1.22. Neither the wisdom of Socrates, the justice of Aristides, could in this life secure them from earthly calamities, death, banishment, &c. How should it help them in that other, with that Judge, where the Saints and their righteousness (not washed in the blood of the Lamb, Rev. 7.14.) are all as an unclean thing, and as filt…y raggs, Isa. 64.6. As one speaks, all their fair shews were (splendida peccata) glistering …ins: And truly sin glistering is no less filthy, but more dangerous: brass, (as all other) but better polished. All the former discourse let me shut up with another Poem of that Platonick Philosop…er.
Bo…tius, Libr. 3. Metr. 8.
When Ignorance leads fools (both blind) they stray.
How should they hitt, or miss their …nd, or way?
We seek not grapes on thorns… on thistles figgs:
Who gathers pearls …rom Vines, or gold from twiggs…
He that would feast his guests with Lenten dishes,
Draggs not dry Mountains, nor thin Aye… fishes.
He that with Ven'son would his palate please,
Swims not his Hounds in Brooks, or hunts the Sea….
Tethis black Closets (hid with dark deep floods)
Men search, know, rifle, ransack all her goods.
Where brightest Pearls she hoords in Oyster cells,
Where Coral grafts, where stores her purple shells:
They know her Markets, Fairs, where, when to buy
Each kind of Fish; where Crabs, where Lobsters lye;
But where that good, which makes man blessed, lyes,
They have no ears to hear, to see, no eyes.
On earth …ools hunt, which far transcends the poles:
They tear, dig, delve, (oh are they men, or moles?)
What curse deserve such Bedlams? blind…old wretches
Tir'd let them still pursue their honours, riches,
And prest with f…lse goods, give them eyes to view
The dross of false, the glory o… the true.
If then in none of these,