Of Peace and Contentment of Mind, Book 2 · Chapter 9
CHAP. IX. Of Poverty.
THere be many degrees of civill poverty according to the diverſity of conditions and buſineſſes. To a Soveraigne prince, it is Poverty to have leſſe then a hundred thouſand pounds a yeare; but to a husbandman it is riches to have twenty pounds a yeare rent free. In all conditions thoſe are truly poore that have not wherewith to maintaine that courſe of life which they have ſet up, and all men that cannot ſatiate their cupidity. Thus very few rich men will be found in the world, ſince there are but few that aſpire not to greater things then they can compaſſe, and deſire no more then they have. All that finde want are poore, whether their want be of things neceſſary or ſuperfluous, and among many degrees of poore men, there is but one Poverty.
Yet thoſe are the pooreſt that finde want of ſuperfluous things, becauſe that kinde of poverty is made worſe by the increaſe of riches. To ſuch men, God is juſt and merciful together, when he healeth that wanton-need, with a pinching need of things neceſſary.
Need is the thing that is generally moſt feared of all men: Certainly it is moſt incommodious, even to the wiſeſt. Wherefore the Wiſeman in the 30. of Proverbs beſought God that he would not ſend it him. It is an ordinary theme for eloquence and flouriſhes of wit to maintaine that Need is not evill; and they that deſcant more upon it are they that leſſe feele it; as Seneca, a man of prodigious wealth, who many times commends extream poverty, or the condition that is not farre from it. They ſay indeed that it is to the wiſe onelyonly, that need is not evill; but becauſe that muſt be proved by the experience of a true and perfect wiſeman, we would have the teſtimony of ſuch a man: but ſuch a man we finde not, neither do all the ſects of Philoſophers that profeſt poverty, afford ſuch an example. For we will not ſtand to the arbitrement of that ſawcy begger Diogenes, a vaine ſordid and affected man in all his words and actions, who tooke a naſty pride in an impudent mendicity. If poverty did not make him evill he made poverty evill, turning it into a profeſſion; and inſtead of making it an exerciſe of vertue, uſing it as a pretence of idleneſſe and licentiouſneſſe.
To the ordinary ſort of minds, Need is a gulfe of miſery. Prov. 14.20. The poore is hated even of his own neighbour. Every one hides himſelfe from him. Need makes men aſhamed, and ſhame increaſeth their need. Some alſo by Need are made ſhameleſſe, and in the end bold theeves. Qui paupertatem timet, timendus eſt. Need is an ill counſellor: It makes men murmure againſt God and finde fault with the diſtribution of his goods. It beates down the courage, ſtupefyeth or ſowreth the wit, and clips the wings of contemplation. It is hard for one to have high conceits, when he wants bread.
Yet, to ſpeake properly, Want doth not all that evill, but the evill diſpoſition of men, that have not weaned their heart from the world, nor ſought their only treaſure in heaven, & have not choſen God for their portion: No wonder that their ſpirit is beaten down as well as their fortune, when the worldly ground, which they had built upon, ſinkes under their feet.
But he that deſpiſeth the world and the life of the world, deſpiſeth alſo Want ſo much feared by others. For, take things at the worſt, (a perpetual rule of wiſedome about caſual future things) the worſt that can come to him that is without bread, is to be without life, which a thouſand other accidents may take from us. Life is a depoſitum which God hath committed to our keeping: No lawful diligence and induſtry muſt be omitted that we may preſerve it and give a good account of it to God; And himſelfe having truſted us with it, aſſiſts us to keepe it. Very ſeldome it is heard, that any perſons dye for lack of bread. But precious in the ſight of God is any death of his Saints, Pſal. 116.15. Neither is there any more curſe in dying of hunger, then of a ſurfet.
Of all kinds of death, but the ſuddaine, I hold death for want of food to be the eaſieſt. It is no more but letting the lamp quietly to go out. Atticus after a long faſt to overcome an acute ſickneſſe, having loſt the appetite of meat, loſt alſo the appetite of life, and refuſing to take any more meat, dyed without paine. And ſo Tullius Marcellinus, after an abſtinence of three dayes Molliſſime exceſſit et vitae elapſus eſt, he departed moſt quietly and eſcaped from life, ſaith Seneca. He ſpake better then he meant, ſaying that he eſcaped; for ſuch a volutary death was an eſcape from the ſtation, where God hath placed him. He went from life without commiſſion, for God had given him wherewith to keep it: But he to whom God giveth no more wherewith to keep himſelfe alive muſt acknowledge that his commiſſion is out, & depart cheerefully. For to prevent death by ſordid and unlawfull wayes is more then God calls him unto, and more then life is worth. To ſay, neceſſity compels me to theſe wayes, and otherwiſe I cannot live, is an ignorant or wilfull miſtake of Neceſſity; The wayes cannot be neceſſary, when the end is not ſo: And before a man conclude that ſuch wayes are neceſſary becauſe without them he cannot live, he ſhould conſider whether it be neceſſary for him to live. It is neceſſary for us to be righteous and generous; not, to live. Who ſo conceiveth no neceſſity in life, and no evill in death (which to Gods children is the end of all evills, and the beginning of all happineſſe) will ſoon rid his heart of that cowardly fear of dying for want, and reject the temptations to lead an ill life that he may keep life.
The feare of Want is for want of obeying Chriſts command, Matth. 6.34. not to take thought for the morrow; and for want of obſerving the courſe of his providence which provideth for his creatures that cannot provide for themſelves: Beaſts ſleep quietly not knowing and not thinking where they ſhall get meat the next day. You will ſay, it is becauſe they have no reaſon and no foreſight; and were it not better to have no reaſon, then to make no uſe of it but for our vexation! Were it not better to be incapable of thinking on God as beaſts are, then to think on him onelyonly to miſtruſt and murmure againſt his providence?
A poore man to whom God giveth health & induſtry to get his living is poſſeſt of a great treaſure, and a ſtock yeelding him a daily rent. His condition is incomparably more happy then that of the noble and wealthy. The labour that gets him bread, gets him alſo an appetite to eate it, and ſleep to refreſh him when he is weary, and health to continne his labour; Eccl. 5.12. The ſleep of a labouring man is ſweet, whether he eate little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not ſuffer him to ſleep: His many children give him leſſe care, then fewer children to the rich, and leſſe paine alſo to provide for them. For whereas in noble houſes the c…arge groweth alwayes as the children grow; in poore families that live by labour the charges grow leſſe as the children grow; the Sonnes ſerve the Father in his worke, the Daughters ſpin by their Mother. Children are the riches of poore people, and the impoveriſhing of the rich. Then to give them portions; the Father that hath no land is not troubled to engage the Lordſhips of the eldeſt Sonne for the marriages of his Daughters, nor to charge the land with annuityes for the younger Brothers. Each of them hath the whole ſucceſſion, which is their Fathers labour. No doubt, but that is the moſt tranquil condition of all.
The examples are many, of thoſe that lived merrily and ſung at their worke as long as they were poore; but an inheritance unlooked for, being fallen into their lap, they have given over ſinging, and turned ſad and full of thoughts. Anacreon came once to that trouble, but he rid himſelfe of it. He was a Poet, and conſequently poore. Polycrates the rich Tyrant of Samos beſtowed two or three thouſand Crownes upon him. But Anacreon after he had kept them three dayes reſtored them to his benefactor, becauſe, ſaid he, that-money would not let him ſleep. Which action was not the production of a Philoſophical minde, for by his Poemes now extant it appeareth that wine and women were the higheſt ſpheres of his contemplation; but the true cauſe was, that he found riches heavier to beare then poverty.
I was ſaying that Poverty beates down the courage and ſtupefyeth the wit; but it is onelyonly with them that had no great courage and no great wit before, and they would have bin more beaten down and ſtupefyed by riches, but in another way: for riches ſwell indeed the courage with pride, but they beat it down at the ſame time with feare, and make it ſoft with voluptuouſneſſe; they ſlacken diligence, & blunt the edge of induſtry, but poverty whets it, & awakens and ſharpens the wit, if there be any. Riches in a competent meaſure are more accommodate to the operations of the ſpeculative underſtanding; for high and curious contemplations require a minde free of cares, and reſted with plenty. A man that wanteth bread hath no thoughts of finding longitudes and the pole of the load-ſtone, or the exquiſiteneſs of eloquence: Magnae mentis opus, nec de lodîce parandâ Attonitae. Poverty is fitter for the operations of the practical underſtanding, for neceſſity is the mother of arts. Magiſter artis ingenîque largitor venter: We owe moſt part of mechanique inventions to men put to their ſhifts.
The beſt thing that is in Poverty is, that meeting with a ſound and godly mind, it helps to weane it from the world, and raiſe it up to God, which is the great worke of a Chriſtian, to which riches are a great hindrance. He that hath but little in the world, finds in his poverty a great motive to lay up treaſure it heaven, to which he is invited by the example of the Lord Jeſus, who made himſelfe poore to make us rich in God. To the poore was the Goſpel firſt preacht, and when it was preach to the rich and poore together, the poore were the firſt that embraced it, becauſe they were leſſe tyed unto the world, and at more liberty to go to God.
It is moſt obſervable that all perſons admitted by God to ſalvation are received in the quality of poore, and the rich muſt make themſelves poore before God through humility and meekneſſe, that they may be capable of that high bleſſing whereby Chriſt began his ſermon, Mat. 5 Bleſſed are the poore in ſpirit, for theirs is the Kingdome of God. To that Poverty in ſpirit the poverty in worldly goods is a great help. A wiſe and godly man, that knoweth how to get advantage by all things will prudently manage all the helps to heaven which poverty affords, when he ſhall be brought to that condition. He will become more ſerene in his devotions, more reſolute in his dangers, more undaunted to maintaine the truth, lighter to flee from one Citty to another in time of perſecution, and better diſpoſed at all times to welcom death, caſting no back-look upon the world where he hath nothing to loſe. If he had once riches, and hath loſt them, he will acknowledge that they were none of his, ſince they could not ſtay with him; for the true goods of a man are inſeperable from him, as being within him. Theſe goods are, a right reaſon, integrity of conſcience, the love of God, faith in his promiſes, and an appetite led by reaſon and piety. With that patrimony he may ſay with more reaſon then Bias, in what condition ſoever he be, I carry all my goods along with me. The goods of fortune deſerve not the name of goods.
To him that deſireth nothing but what is ſufficient to Nature, poverty doth no harme; and to him that deſireth more, poverty doth good; for it brings him to ſobriety. To have little and to be contented with it, is a great wealth.
Poverty and riches having their commodities and incommodities, the moſt deſireable temporal eſtate is the midlemoſt, which is neither, and holds of both. That ſtate the wiſe man requeſted at Gods hands, Prov. 30.8. Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me; Leſt I be full and deny thee, and ſay who is the Lord? and leſt I be poore and ſteale and take the name of my God in vaine. But our condition is not in our choice. Vertue and tranquillity of minde may be had in any fortune, becauſe they depend not of fortune.