Mortification, the excellency thereof. [ 1385]
THere is mention made of one of the Cato's,* 1.1 That in his old age he drew himself from Rome to his Country-house, that he might spend his elder years free from care and trouble; And the Romans as they did ride by his house, used to say, Iste solus scit Vivere, This Man alone knowes how to live: What art Cato had to disburthen himself (by his retirement) of the Worlds cares, is altogether unknown: But most sure it is, that a Man may go into the Country, and yet not leave the City behind him; his mind may be in a crowd, while his body is in the solitude of a wildernesse. Alas poor Man, he was a stranger to the Gospel; had he been but acquainted therewith, it could have shewed him a way out of the crowd of all Worldly employments, even in the midst of Rome it self,* 1.2 and that is by mortifying his heart to the World, both in the pleasures and troubles thereof; And then that high commendations, That he alone knew how to live, might have been given him without any hyperbole at all;