sufficient indication of Divine administration And of this kind there are so many which offer themselves to an observant mind that to seek flaws and go about to make specious objections against some few of them will be rather an Argument of resolved unwillingness to believe than of any just grounds of Infidelity For like as in a great Cable made up of several smaller cords if perchance some of the threds should flaw or break yet the remainder will be able to bear the stress of whatsoever use it shall be put to Now under this Head I reckon in the first place as very observable that there is scarcely any great thing ever brought about in the World which God may not be seen to have an hand in and that may be collected generally from the inadequateness of the visible means to most notable productions As when great preparations are defeated or laid aside and mean and inconsiderable ones do the business This is that which Solomon observed long ago That the battle is not to the strong nor the race to the swift nor bread to men of understanding And we cannot want an Example of it nearer hand when we remember the Restauration of his now Majesty For it pleased God to deal in that particular as he did by Gideons Army when he dismissed the greatest part of the Forces and did his business with a few and those very unlikely for such an Atchievement But more admirable than this is the preservation of the holy Scripture in all Ages both from total abolition by the flames of Persecution and from corruption by the capricious phancies of such men as would neither sincerely believe it nor absolutely reject it Such also is the preservation of the Christian Religion when all the wit and all the power of the World combined together against it and such was the success of the Apostles in propagating that Religion and planting the Christian Church when a few Fisher-men leavened the World with a Doctrine quite against the grain of it and naked Truth prevailed against Authority Art and Interest in conjunction Hitherto also I reduce the maintenance of Magistracy and Civil Government and I look upon it as a standing evidence of a Providence that the strong bands of wicked and refractory men should stand in awe of a single man like themselves only because he is invested with Authority This if it be duly considered is very strange and can be resolved into nothing but a Providence Nor is it less strange that considering the great numbers of evil men their secrecy and closeness their cunning and falshood their envy and necessity their activity and selfishness they should be able to do no more hurt in the World than they do Why do they not assasinate whom they please Or what is the reason that they do not forswear men out of their lives and fortunes and act whatsoever their revenge or covetousness or lust shall prompt them to And no account can be given of this but the powerful restraint of Providence Moreover there are remarkable Examples in all Ages of evil men dogged by their own guilt and tortured by their own Consciences whenas no body else either accused or hurt them and on the other side as frequent instances of vertuous men who have been very comfortable under great difficulties and whose spirits have been born up with an admirable bravery under such pressures as would ordinarily crush and sink other men and this although the persons thus carrying themselves were otherwise of no remarkable strength or courage Neither of which passages can be resolved into any other Causes than the mighty influence of a Providence Nay further it is very observable how strangely sometimes secret sins are brought to light especially such as Murder and Treachery and where all Arts and advantages were made use of for concealment such persons becoming their own accusers when no body else could do it for them and not unusually their own Executioners too Above all these there are some instances of vengeance befalling very flagitious men so signally and with such pat and significant circumstances that without any uncharitableness we may be led by the suffering to the sin as in the famous case of Adonibezek Judg. 1. 7. whose barbarous usage of threescore and ten Kings cutting off their Thumbs and great Toes and making them like Dogs gather their meat under his Table was repaid upon himself in the same severity Of kind to which are those pannick fears and shiverings that oftentimes attend blood-guilty men as long as they live and though they may have escaped revenge from the hand of men yet this as a Cain's mark set upon them by the hand of God indelebly sticks by them and follows them to their Graves It is needless to say any thing more on this subject forasmuch as every man that doth not wilfully shut his eyes may collect instances to this purpose both from the Government of the World in general and from his own Fortunes in particular For besides the quiet serenity and comfortableness in token of the Divine favour which usually attends a vertuous course of life and the anxiety torment and uneasiness which as frequently in testimony of the Divine dislike attends a wicked and flagitious one it is not a very unusual nor to be sure an unpleasant sight to behold the former crowned with signal success and worldly prosperity and the latter punished with shame and beggery and this sometimes shall happen in such circumstances when there is nothing to which this different success can be imputed but meerly Divine Providence forasmuch as the latter shall otherwise be more cunning for the World and every whit as industrious and frugal as the former but Divine Providence only makes the discrimination whilst the one is under the blessing of Heaven and the other is apparently blasted and cursed And now what think you Biophilus upon the whole matter have I not acquitted my self in all the three things I propounded And now laying all these things together is not here sufficient evidence to determine a prudent man in the case and to satisfie him that there is a Providence in this World and consequently that there will be a Judgment hereafter Bioph. I cannot tell Sebast I confess you have said many very considerable things and some of them beyond what I could have expected in the case But I have one main Objection which especially touches the last Branch of your Argument and which if it stick by you all you have said will signifie nothing but if you come clearly off from it I shall not know what to think of the business It is this in short I do not see any such setled and constant method in the management of the affairs of this World as must necessarily argue a Providence for in particular notwithstanding all you have said it cannot be denied that very often the best of men are opprest and born down by ill Fortune
fair occasions to speak worthily of God and to make advantage of friendly conversation towards the improvement of one another in morals as well as in secular or any other Concerns and can any one be so absurdly malicious as to call this Phanaticism Doth that deserve the odious Name of a Party which is the great and universal Concern of all Mankind Is that to be accounted the peculiar Shibboleth of a Sect which speaks a Good Man and a Christian Is that to be made a mark of infamy which the best men in the World wear as a Badge of Honour Are we minded that this word Phanaticism should have the power of an Ostracism and put a disgrace upon men for being too good If men in their Intercourses and Communications deliberated about setting forth of some new God or at least of some new Religion there were just Cause of such an odious imputation but to take opportunity to speak of the true God and the old Religion gravely and piously it cannot be that this should be Pruitanism unless it be so to be in earnest in Religion which God forbid Sure it is not the Character of any mere Sect amongst us to love God and if it be not then neither can it be so to talk of him affectionately since the latter is the easie and natural issue and expression of the former David I remember called his tongue his glory and is that alone of all the powers of Soul and Body exempted from any part in doing honour to the Creator Are all men Puritans when they are sick or upon their Death-Beds And yet then there are very few are so modish as to wave the talk of Religion or to talk lightly and drollingly of it Either therefore all dying men are Sectaries or else they teach us then what we ought to practise at other times if we be not unreasonably careless and desperate As for those that are really Phanatick and are continually canting in a loathsom manner of Religion those Parrots that talk without any sense or apprehension of what they say or those Ricketty Pharisees that are all head and ears and tongue but feeble in their hands and feet that talk but do nothing let these be called Puritans or Phanaticks or what men please But let no dishonour be reflected upon those that understand and believe what they say and live up to what they believe and profess For though it may please those who have a mind to put a slur upon this instance of real piety which I am vindicating to confound it with that other hypocritical guise of it which I have now condemned that so they may expose it to contempt and dishonour yet as it is certain these two are as different things as Sense and Non-sense or as Life and Varnish so impartial men being Judges that very Paint and Pageantry bears evidence of the excellency of that Sincerity which I am recommending For you know men do not use to counterfeit that which is of no value painted beauty is a great Argument of the desireableness of that which is true and native so there is certainly a very deserved admiration of holy Discourse and a great power and charm in it otherwise it would never be so artificially pretended to by such men nor especially be sufficient to give countenance as we find it doth to their sinister purposes and designs the World I say would not be so sottish as to be imposed upon by religious Cant nor designing Hypocrites be so silly as to go about to abuse the World this way if it were not an acknowledged Case that there is a real worth in that which they endeavour apishly to imitate So that the Objections against us are unanswerable Arguments for us and we have great assurance we shall carry our Cause when our very reproaches turn to our honour But what if after all this Phil I should take the boldness to assert that such holy intercourse as I am speaking of and especially under those Conditions and Qualifications I have put upon it is so far from Phanaticism or Puritanism or any Sectarian Odium that on the contrary if the practice of it became general amongst good men it would be the most effectual way in the World to dash those formal disguises out of Countenance and to put all Phanatical tricks out of all request and reputation This I believe will seem a Paradox to you at first but I am very confident you will be of my mind when you have considered That the only or at least the principal thing which that sort of men support themselves by is the Gift of tongue a peculiar knack of talking religiously For if you look into their lives and temper they have no advantage of other men and if you examine either their Principles or their abilities these will not mend the matter and yet they have strange authority and influence in the World they charm men into security of their honesty by their talk they cast a mist before mens eyes that they are taken for godly men let their pride and passion their covetousness and ambition be otherwise as palpable and notorious as they can This Talent of talking is so valuable it redeems them from suspicion with this Pass-Port they go undetected they are Saints from the teeth outwards and Fools admire them and so they compass their ends Now were all sincerely good men so sensible of this as they ought to be and would they in earnest apply themselves to grave and serious and pious Discourse in the habit of their Conversations these Jack-Daws would be deprived of their borrowed Feathers and those crafty men would not have a Mask or Vizard left them to cheat the World withal You will say perhaps they would out-shoot those good men in their own Bow and talk at an higher rate in hypocrisie than the other could do in sincerity But for answer Do but consider whether there be not a greater power in Life than in mere shew and pageantry whether that which proceeds from the thoughts and heart and Principles within be not likely to have more vigour and spirit than that which hath no root no foundation but is begotten and lives and dyes between the tongue and teeth Do not you observe that nothing so much disparages a Picture as the presence of him for whom it was drawn Life hath a thousand vigours and beauties which no hand of the Painter can reach and display So hath spiritual Life when it puts forth it self a spirit a warmth an air or whatsoever you will call it which cannot be so imitated but it will shame and detect the Rival The great mischief of the World therefore and the only security of hypocrisie is that the Truth and Life disappears and gives its Counterfeit the Stage intirely to act upon but let that appear and confront its Adversary and Hypocrisie will be sensible of an unequal match and blush or withdraw it self When I say
but phansie how they were astonished at the change what a wonder they were to themselves and I am apt to believe that for some time after they could not but suspect they were under a pleasant illusion of phancy and that all their felicity was no better than a Dream So assuredly when we shall first come to Heaven our spiritual Canaan to the enjoyment of an happiness of God's preparing who hath all the Ingredients of felicity in his power and infinite wisdom to contrive and compound them and unspeakable goodness to bestow them and who as the Scripture expresses it hath from the beginning of the World been designing and preparing such a systeme of joy and felicity as may at once both most delight his Creatures and display all his aforesaid Attributes when I say we shall first observe the strange change between a narrow stingy necessitous unquiet sickly peevish and contentious World which we have left behind us and the settlement and peace plenty and glory of that we enter upon it will not be easie for us without larger minds than we have now to know how to behave our selves we shall be apt to be opprest with wonder and if it were possible to dye with excess of joy Sebast You speak bravely and sensibly Dear Phil. You seem to have gone up to Mount Nebo and to have fed your eyes with the prospect of the Holy Land but have you considered the difficulties of the way as well as the happiness of the Journies end Will you not like the Israelites you spake of even now repent and bethink your self of turning back when you encounter difficulty or danger Will not Death affright you when it appears in all its dismal pomp Will you not shrink when you shall come to be stript naked of all your worldly habiliments Will you not have a lingring after your old accommodations your fine House rich Furniture pleasant Gardens sprightly Wines or any other pleasures and entertainments of the Body Phil. No no Sebastian I will go to Heaven whatever come of it what can discourage a man when Heaven is at Stake If the Journey put me to a little trouble there is rest at the end of it What is it to exercise a little patience when a man shall be crowned at last Who would not run strive do or suffer any thing and venture all upon such a wager Shall I be frighted with Death that will come however and I am sure the neglecting eternal life is not the way to escape it Shall I be sollicitous for my estate and worldly accommodations when I know whether I go to Heaven or no I must shortly leave them all behind me And surely if they cannot save me from death they ought not to hinder me of eternal life Or shall I hanker after Onions and Garlick and the Flesh-pots of Egypt as you called the pleasures of the body which will certainly forsake me if I do not forsake them first No I have counted the cost there is nothing shall discourage me by the grace of God I will go to Heaven but I pray let us not part company let us go to Heaven together Sebast With all my heart dear Friend for though I doubt we must not expect much company with us yet perfect solitude is somewhat uncomfortable and there are great advantages of society For if any body should be so absurd as to laugh at us on our journey we can the better despise them If either of us should happen to be heavy and weary in our way we may animate and quicken one another If any difficulty befal that may be too hard for any one of us by our united strength we may be able to encounter and remove it If either of us should swerve a little out of the narrow way towards the right hand or towards the left the other may recal and rectifie him Besides the great additional comfort it will be when we come at our journies end not only that we see one another happy and enjoy one anothers society but especially when we reflect upon the good service we have done to one another in bringing each other thither we shall have our joys redoubled by the reflection and feel not only our own individual shares but that also of each other Phil. Happily thought of Fellow-Traveller but will not Biophilus go with us too what say you Sir Bioph. You are honest Gentlemen and my good Friends but Lord what Romances do you make what Castles do you build in the Air and what shadows do you feed your selves withal You talk of Heaven as confidently as if you had travelled an hundred times through all the regions of it or rather indeed as if you had visited the World in the Moon But when all is done did ever you or any body else see such a place as Heaven For Gods sake therefore leave these Enthusiastical whimseys and talk like men speak of something that is certain and visible or probable at least and do not forego substance for shadows certainties for uncertainties Phil. God help you good Neighbour in requital of the caution you give us assure your self we have the same senses and the same self-love that you have and only wish you had the same faith that we have We are not willing to part with certainties for uncertainties for if Heaven be not certain we are sure nothing else is And as for the things of this world they are so far from it that nothing is more certain than that we must part with them shortly whether we will or no But as for the other world we know whom we have believed Bioph. I tell you all is but dream and phancy there is no proof in the world for it All you have to say is that men must believe as if you should say shut your eyes and see you perswade a man to find the way to Heaven blindfold No give me good proof or I 'le not stir a foot with me seeing is believing Phil. Remember your self good Neighbour are not you a Christian Do not you believe that Jesus Christ came from Heaven on purpose to make discovery to us of those celestial Regions and to shew us the way thither And did not he confirm his report to us by undeniable Miracles Did he not come into the world miraculously and return thither again visibly Did he not from thence send down admirable tokens of his Presence and Authority there especially on the famous day of Pentecost Besides do you not see all wise men provide for another world and that generally good and virtuous men when they come to die are ravished with joy in contemplation of it as if they really saw Heaven open to receive them Bioph. Whether or no I believe as much as you do yet I believe this one thing instead of all the rest that we are born to be cheated For what with the illusions of our own melancholy phancies what by the prejudices