The divine life in three treatises

I Shall now come to the Affirmative, and tell you for all this, that [If God call us into Solitude, or men forsake us, we may rejoice in this, that we are not alone, but the Father is with us.] Fear not such Solitude, but be ready to improve it, if you be cast upon it. If God be your God, reconciled to you in Christ, and his Spirit be in you, you are provided for Solitude, and need not fear if all the world should cast you off. If you be banished, imprisoned, or left alone, it is but a Relaxation from your greatest labours; which though you may not cast off your selves, you may lawfully be sensible of your ease, if God take off your burden. It is but a cessation from your sharpest conflicts, and removal from a multitude of great temptations. And though you may not cowardly retreat or shift your selves from the sight and danger, yet if God will dispense with you, and let you live in greater peace and safety, you have no cause to murmur at his dealing. A fruit tree that groweth by the high-way side, doth seldom keep its fruit to ripeness, while so many passengers have each his stone or cudgel to cast at it: Seneca could say [Nunquam a turba mores quos extuli refero: Aliquid ex eo quod composui turbatur; aliquid ex his quae fugavi redit: inimica est multorum conversatio] I never bring home well from a crowd the manners which I took out with me: something is disordered of that which I had set in order: something of that which I had banished doth return: the conversation of many I find an enemy to me.] O how many vain and foolish words corrupt the minds of those that converse with an ungodly world, when your ears and minds who live in Solitude, are free from such temptations! You live not in so corrupt an Air as they: You hear not the filthy ribald speeches, which fight against modesty and chastity, and are the bellows of lust: You ⟨p. 348⟩hear not the discontented complaining words of the impatient; nor the passionate provoking words of the offended; nor the wrangling quarrelsome words of the contentious; nor the censorious, or slanderous, or reproachful words of the malicious, who think it their interest to have their brethren taken to be bad, and to have others hate them, because they themselves hate them;

I Shall now come to the Affirmative, and tell you for all this, that [If God call us into Solitude, or men forsake us, we may rejoyce in this, that we are not alone, but the Father is with us.] Fear not such Solitude, but be ready to improve it, if you be cast upon it. If God be your God, reconciled to you in Christ, and his Spirit be in you, you are provided for Solitude, and need not fear if all the world should cast you off. If you be banished, imprisoned, or left alone, it is but a Relaxation from your greatest labours; which though you may not cast off your selves, you may lawfully be sensible of your ease, if God take off your burden. It is but a cessation from your sharpest conflicts, and removal from a multitude of great temptations. And though you may not cowardly retreat or shift your selves from the sight and danger, yet if God will dispense with you, and let you live in greater peace and safety, you have no cause to murmure at his dealing. A fruit tree that groweth by the high-way side, doth seldome keep its fruit to ripeness, while so many passengers have each his stone or cudgel to cast at it: Seneca could say [Nunquam a turba mores quos extuli refero: Aliquid ex eo quod composui turbatur; aliquid ex his quae fugavi redit: inimica est multorum conversatio] I never bring home well from a crowd the manners which I took out with me: something is disordered of that which I had set in order: something of that which I had banished doth return: the conversation of many I find an enemy to me.] O how many vain and foolish words corrupt the minds of those that converse with an ungodly world, when your ears and minds who live in Solitude, are free from such temptations! You live not in so corrupt an Air as they: You hear not the filthy ribbald speeches, which fight against modesty and chastity, and are the bellows of lust: You