Works, Chapter 5
CHAP. V. How a Christian should exercise himself to Godliness in Solitariness; As also a Good Wish about that Particular.
THirdly, Thy duty is to exercise thy self to Godliness in Solitude. A gracious person is not onelyonly consciencious in company, but also when he is alone; His whole life is nothing else but a walking with his God. When I awake I am still with thee, saith David, Psa. 139. 18. He no sooner opened the eyes of his body in the morning, but he was lifting up the eyes of his mind to Heaven; When he was alone in his bed, he was in company with his God. As God was still with him, so he was still with God; Nevertheless I am continually with thee, Psa. 73. True sanctity is visible in secresie to him that is Omniscient. The Saint is many times most busie when he hath nothing to do, and may say more truly then Scipio the African, Nunquam minus solus, quam cum solus, I am never less alone, then when alone. The pulse of the body beats as well in solitariness, as in company, and so doth the pulse of the gracious soul towards his God and Saviour. Its said of Domitian, that he did one hour in a day sequester himself from all persons, to no purpose,Suetonius. for it was to catch flies, which was the original of that answer, to one that asked, Whether any body were with the Emperour, Ne mus…a quidem; No, not so much as a flie. A Believer hath business of great weight, when he withdraweth from the press of the world, it is that he might draw nearer to the Lord. Isaac goeth into the Fields to meditate of God, Christ goeth into the Mountain apart to pray to God. Daniel to the Rivers side; Peter to the house top; The Church to the secret place of the stairs, and all to enjoy communion with their God, Gen. 26. Mark 1. 35. Cant. 2. 4. Dan. 8. 2. and 10. 4. Act. 10.
A Saint therefore sequestreth himself from the noise and clamour of company, and worldly businesses, that he might have the more free and intimate converse with his Redeemer. A forced banishment from Men, to dwell among Beasts, hath been bewailed as a great misery; but a free retirement from creatures, to enjoy more of the blessed God, is a great felicity. Woodrow, an hearb of an extraordinary pleasant smell, delighteth in dark and shadowy places. So the Christian, who in company refresheth others with the fragrancy of his graces, loveth sometimes to be obscure and in secret.
Many of the Heathen were so affected with the vanity and vexation of the world, that they wil…lingly left their pleasures and preferments in Courts, to live privately in the Country. Sylla Felix, laid aside his dictatourship, to lead a retired life. Dioclesians two and twenty years raigne, could not make him out of love with a solitary life, but he voluntarily left the Empire, and could not be prevailed with to reassume it, though he was threatned to it. Demosthenes would shave his beard half off, and all his hair from his head, to necessitate his stay within doors, and his abode amongst his Books. Thales left the affairs of state, that he might have time for Contemplation. Cato in his old age, wi…hdrew from Rome, to live as he used to say, out of the crowd of the world; And the Romans were so much convinced of his prudence herein, that as they passed by his house to which he retired, they would ordinarily cry out, Iste solus scit vivere; This man alone knoweth how to live. Old Similis having lived long in the Wars, and afterwards for seven years devoting himself to solitariness, when he died left this Epitaph behind, Here lieth old Similis, yet one that lived but seven years. Hiero the Tyrant of Syracuse, gave over his Kingdom, to live a solitary life. Others out of a deep melancholly, have avoided all society, and delighted onelyonly like the Shrick Owl and Bittern, in desolate places and Monuments of the dead, Zeph. 2. 14. Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History (Lib. 4. Cap. 18.) speaks of some, so strangely averse to all correspondence with men, that they have immuted themselves in Cels and Silence, for sixty and ninety years together, even as long as they lived.
But Reader, I would not advise thee to such continued retirement, nor to any at all upon such low, mean grounds. Those voluntary sequestrations of deluded Votaries amongst the Papists from humane society, are I dare say, as unacceptable to God, as uncomfortable to themselves. Such solitary persons, bring little comfort to their own souls, little honour to God, and do no good at all to others. By how much as doing God great service, is better then doing him little; as doing good to many, is better then doing good onelyonly to my self, so much is Company before solitariness. But the most publique Christians have their times for privacy; Its no mean misery, to be either always alone, or never alone; He that is always crowded with Company, can neither enjoy himself, nor his God as he ought.