Rules How to Use the World, Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
The things of the World are no part of our Happiness.
WHat Happiness is, is a Question that all seem to make; but of all, most difficult (as Cicero sayes) to be Resolv'd: Many that pretend to know what it is, are much mistaken; few know it, and fewer, the right way to it.
Some think there is no Happiness but in Sin, and thereupon become wise to do Evil, but they are Fools that do so, (David's Wicked Men are Solomon's Fools) for they seek Life in Death, (as the Jews did Temporal Salvation Joh. 11. 48.in Crucifying Christ) Heaven in Hell, and may as soon find it there, as Happiness in a way of Sin.
To desire nothing but what is Good, and to obtain that Desire, is (in Austins Opinion) the greatest Happiness.
Some seek Happiness in themselves, but they will never find it there; for,
We are made by another, and since we are not our own Efficient, we cannot be our own End, and Happiness; for,
It is a Rule in Nature, that the first Cause must be the last End.
We are Changeable, and cannot be satisfy'd in our selves; we are Dependent, and cannot make up a life of Sense to our selves without other things; nor with all of them, a life of Happiness.
Adam aim'd at an Absolute Independance, but he could never reach it; much less then can we.
Most think Happiness is in the things of the World, but it is not to be found in the greatest Confluence of them; for
They are things beneath us;
Happiness cannot be in things beneath us, for in loving them we dethrone God, and debase our Selves.
They cannot make us good;
That cannot be our Good, which does not make us so.
They make some the worse;
That cannot be our Happiness which makes us more Sinful.
They may be Abused;
That cannot be our Happiness which may be desired too much, and perverted to a wrong End.
They are not to be delighted in Non est bonum quod laborat magnitudine suâ.for themselves;
That cannot be our Happiness that we are forbid to delight in.
The want of them is sometimes needful;
That cannot be our Happiness that we may do better without.
They are sometimes to be parted with;
That cannot be our Happiness that we are to forsake for Heaven.
They are but Goods of Necessity Ʋna nostra foelicitas nullâ egere foelicitate. Seneca.(and are Debtors to our wants for the value put upon them) our Necessities put their worth into them, for, if we did not need them, we would not prize them.
Our Happiness would be rather not to want them, then to have them, it is much better not to need Food and Physick, than to use them.
They have a mixture of Evil in them; the Rose has its Prickle; the Bee has its Sting; the purest Gold, Dross; the Moon when brightest, a dark Spot; from the Fire that revives with its Heat, some Smoke arises that offends our Eyes; and in our greatest Joy, there is some appearance of Sorrow (as when we laugh most heartily Tears stand in our Eyes) and in our greatest Good there is some Evil; something better, and something worse.
That cannot be our Happiness that has an alloy of Misery in it.
They are no way sutable to the Nature of the Soul.
Sensual Pleasures in the Opinion of the Epicureans, were the Happiness of the Soul; they that were delighted were Happy, and they Miserable that were not: But Tully sayes, it was the voice, not of Men but of Beasts, to say so, in that they were the chief Goods for Beasts, and not for Men, and in the Enjoyment of which they might be more happy than Men.
Meat and Drink are a sutable Good to the Hungry and Thirsty, for they are Objects to which those Appetites are determin'd; but Objects of Sense are no more sutable to the nature of the Soul, then sounds are to the Eye, or Colours to the Ear, the Soul is not a Cameleon that Feeds upon Air, nor can it be any more happy in the enjoyment of Sensual things, than a Sensitive Creature can be happy by an Intellectual, or an Intellectual by a Sensitive.
A full Barn, or an empty one; Goods, or no Goods; for many years, or not for a moment, are all one (viz. as much as nothing) to a Soul. The Rich Man in the Gospel indeed thought otherwise, who said, Soul, Eat, Drink and be Merry; but he was a Fool for it, and so are all others that think so. For at the best they make up but a present Good to the Body, and that but imperfectly neither, (the Eye is not satisfy'd with seeing nor the Ear filled with hearing) but none at all to the Soul, in that Eccl. 1. 8.they are Sensual and Material, this, Spiritual and Immaterial; they, Transient, this, Immortal; they, continue but a while, are unsutable while they do continue, to the nature of the Soul, and unable to satisfie the indigencies of it; and therefore, no part of the Happiness of it.
The Enjoyment of God himself in this World only, would be but an imperfect Happiness.
It will be our Happiness in Heaven to live without them, else we shall be Losers, and consequently Miserable in going thither.
That cannot be our Happiness that we can live without, and shall.
Nothing less than the Absence of all Evil, the Presence of all Good, and an Eternity to Enjoy it, makes up a compleat, and perfect Happiness. A Good, proportionable and sutable, adequate, Adaequatum, sibi constans, perpetuum.full, proper, and immutable, which is no where to be found but in God, who is an Independent and perfect Being.
First, An Independent Being.
Not like ours, which was at first derived from him, is enjoy'd by Succession, and continually needs something to preserve it (as the Earth needs the Influence of the Sun, and Rivers a filling from the Ocean): But underived, for God has being in himself, he had so from all Eternity, and all at once without Succession, and therefore can do that by himself and much more, than what he does by Creatures. He was once without them, but they were never without him, and there is much in him, that is not to be found in them, but there is no good in them, but what is derived from him, and to be found more eminently in him.
Cisterns are nothing without a Fountain to fill them, nor Rivers without the Ocean to maintain them.
Secondly, A Perfect Being.
Not like ours, which is a Perfection with Imperfection; for it is but in its own Kind, and in such a Degree only, and Mutable too; and compared with Gods, but as a point to a Circle, or the shadow to the Sun; yea less than nothing, for that is full and absolute (viz. as to all kinds, degrees, and extents of Being) Immutable, and under no Defect, nor subject to any Decay; for he is a perfect Being; Light without Darkness, and Goodness, beyond any in us, or conceivable by us.
The Heathen attributed some Excellencies to their Gods, but in this true, and only God, are all.
Could the Sun and Stars divest themselves of their Glory and give it to us, should all the Crowned Heads in the World lay their Crowns at our Feet, or could we by our own care and contrivance get the Possession of a whole World to our selves (which none ever yet did) and procure a Lease, longer then that of Methujelahs years to enjoy it, it would be as nothing without God; but as Hagars Bottle without water, or a Paradise without a Tree of Life. It is the Sun, and not the Stars that makes perfect day: God, and not the World, (no not in all its Royalties) that can make us happy; for we are every way Miserable without him, and never happy, untill we arise, and seek, so as to find it in him.
There is no Fishing to that in the Sea.