Wood-cock has perish'd in this Snare and we have known but too many great Scholars so intirely taken up with writing and reading of Books with learning this Science and with teaching that that by setting themselves such Tasks as requir'd and imploi'd the whole Man Death has undiscernedly stoll'n upon them and unawares intruded into their Studies where their restless Ambition to inrich the Mind never left them the leisure to prepare it to leave the Body but either made them surpris'd Instances of that sad but true Observation of Seneca Plerosque in ipso Vitae apparatu Vita destituit or else made their Condition like that of Archimedes who was so busie in tracing his Circles that he took no notice of that victorious Enemy that came to dispatch him Euseb I allow that 't is the Innocence as well as Pleasure of Knowledge that deceives those Learned Men but they as well as others must remember that ev'n the wholsomest Meats may be surfeited on and there is nothing more unhealthy than to feed very well and do but very little Exercise And I take it to be as true of the Intellectual as the Material World that it profits not a Man if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Whatsoever therefore Philosophers do tell us of a wise Man that he is no where banish'd because he is a Citizen of the World I must think a Christian every where in Exile because he is a Citizen of the Heavenly Jerusalem and but a Stranger and a Sojourner here It was not absolutely in the capacity of the Father of Lies that the Devil boasted that the Earth was his Dominion for as our Saviour himself stil'd him The Prince of this World I find that he has all things here so much at his Devotion that there is no place that he cannot lay an Ambush in since he can pervert ev'n Light it self to hide his Snares Let us therefore hereafter indeavour still to stand upon our Guard as remembring our selves to be in an Enemy's Country where Distrust is the onely Mother of safety and since Providence has so graciously presented us a Lesson our Books would not have taught us against such a fondness of them as is injurious to Piety and dangerous to the Soul Let us justifie better than this silly Lark has done that saying of Solomon Surely in vain the Net is spread in the sight of any Bird. Let not Philosophy any more take up our Life so as not to leave us leisure to prepare for Death and study a Science which shall most benefit us in another World and which alone will do so there No we may visit Athens but we should dwell at Jerusalem we may take some turns on Parnassus but should more frequent Mount Calvary and must never so busie our selves about those many things as to forget that Unum Necessarium that good part which shall not be taken away from us OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS The Last SECTION REFLECTION I. Seeing a Child picking the Plums out of a piece of Cake his Mother had given him for his Breakfast Eusebius Lindamor Euseb THis Child is so much one in his humour that despising meer Bread though never so nourishing and wholesome his Mother is fain to disguise the Materials of it into Cake out of a belief that the toothsome would make the nutritive part go smoothly down But this lickerish Chit I see defeats her plot and knows already how to nibble off the bait from the hook and casting by the Meat make his whole Meal of what was meant onely for Sauce to give a Rellish to what he rejects for it This puts me in mind of the unwelcome fate those Papers of mine that treat of Devotion have met with For when I first was so unacquainted with the world as to expect that Piety and Vertue were able by their native charms so much to endear my dress as to win themselves adorers in a plain or even a severe one I ventur'd some of them abroad though not in Print yet among my Acquaintance in a careless Matron-like habit in which I soon found they almost frighted most of those I had design'd them to work the quite contrary effects on But when my Acquaintedness with the Genius of the Age had sadly taught me that I was to alter my Method that the Eloquence of Vertues Sermons was that which must attract an Auditory and engage Attention to them and that those orders of hers in which she employ'd not Rhetorick for her Secretary could not be so much as listen'd to much less obey'd I endeavour'd to cloath Vertue though not in a gawdy in a Fashionable Habit and devesting her not onely of her Sack-cloth but her Blacks where I saw she appear'd in them with Disadvantage I endeavour'd to give her as much of the modern Ornaments of a fine Lady as I could without danger of being accus'd to have dress'd her like a Curtizan This Attempt having not prov'd so unsuccessful but that many were pleas'd to assure me I had not been unlucky in it I spent some time in the self-denying Exercise of minding Words and improving a Style I hop'd to be able to improve to Virtue 's service and subduing my Inclinations to be fit to Teach as I had done to Learn her Precepts I some times for her sake tri'd my Pen in a smoother and more florid style than that which the nature of the Studies I was most addicted to made the most familiar to me flattering my self with a Belief that since my Writings had usually the good fortune not to be ill approv'd I might so happily mingle and interweave Instructions with Delight as to necessitate my Readers to swallow both together or at least bribe them by the latter to entertain the former Lind. You have better luck as well as better skill than many others if you find it not often to fare with the Fishers of Men as it did with those other Fishers that first were honoured with that glorious Title when they complained to our Saviour that we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing For I see that men are grown witty enough to elude what they cannot despise and resemble the deaf Adder that stops her spiritual ears from hearkening to the voice of Charmers be the Charmer never so cunning And the best Reception that the moving'st Eloquence that pleads for Piety can obtain of them is but such as may serve to make that applicable to the Preacher which God once said to a Prophet Lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well upon an Instrument For they hear thy words but they do them not But the best is that you serve a Master that is as inclinable to reward as able to discern Intentions and does not make his Estimates by Events but judges of our Performances not by the Effects they produce but the Affections they flow'd from and the Ends
a Horse-back but not to have perform'd a long Journey whereas he that by thriftily Husbanding his time and industriously Improving it has early dispatch'd the business for which he was sent into the VVorld needs not Gray-hairs to be reputed to have Liv'd long enough and consequently longer than those that wear Gray-hairs only because they were Born many Years before him In a word to one of these sorts of Men we may attribute a longer Time but to the other a longer Life for ev'n the Heathen could say Non est vivere sed valere Vita and within how narrow a compass soever a Man's Life be confin'd if he have Liv'd so long as before he comes to the end of Life he have reach'd the ends of Living The attainment of that Measure of Knowledge and the practice of those Graces and Virtues that fit a Man to glorifie God in this short Life and to be Glorified by him in that which shall have no End MEDITATION X. Upon a Thief in a Candle THe silence of the Night and my being unable to Sleep disposing me to have my attention very easily excited I chanc'd to take notice that the Dim light of the Candle which the Curtains were not drawn so close as to exclude every where out of the Bed was on a suddain considerably increas'd and continued so long in that condition that for fear of some mischance I put my Head out of the Bed to see whence it was that this new and unexpected increase of Light proceeded but I quickly found that 't was from a Thief as they call it in the Candle which by its irregular way of making the Flame blaze had melted down a good part of the Tallow and would have spoil'd the rest if I had not call'd to one of those that Watch'd with me to rescue the remains by the removal of the Thief But I had scarce done this when I confess to you Sophronia I found my self invited to make some Reflections upon what I had done and to read my self a new Lesson by the Beams of this new Light For though this Thief made the Candle shine more strongly and diffuse a much greater Light than it did before yet because it made a great and irregular waste of the Candle I order'd it to be taken away and on this occasion me-thought I might justly make use of that saying of Pharaoh's forgetfull Butler I do remember my Faults this Day Gen. 41. 9. For though I find no great difficulty in abstaining from other kinds of Intemperance yet to that of Studying my Friends and especially my Physitians have often accus'd me of being too Indulgent Nor can I altogether deny but that in mental Exercises there can be Exorbitancies and Excesses I may have sometimes been Guilty of them and that the things for which I think Life valuable being the satisfaction that accrues from the improvement of Knowledge and the exercise of Piety I thought it allowable if not commendable to consume or hazard it for the attainment of those Ends and esteem'd Sickness more formidable for its unfitting me to learn and to teach than for its being attended with pain and danger and look'd upon what it made me forbear as far more troublesome than what ever else it made me endure But I find my Body is a Jade and tyres under my Mind and a few hours fix'd Contemplation does sensibly so spend my Spirits as to make me feel my self more weary that the Riding post for twice as many hours has ever done Wherefore since though the proper use of a Candle be to consume it self that it may give others Light I yet thought fit to have the Thief taken away because though it made the Candle give more Light it would have wasted it too fast and consequently made it expire too soon I see not how I can resist their perswasions that would have me husband better the little stock of strength Nature has given me and the rather by a moderate expence of it endeavour to make it shine longe though but Dimly then consume it to fast though for a while to keep up a Blaze I will therefore endeavour to learn of this Sickness and of this Accident what the Doctors hitherto could never teach me and injoyn my self an Abstinence which to me is more uneasie than if Wine or VVomen or other sensual Pleasures were to be the Objects of it but if in so difficult an Exercise of Self-denial I do not always perform what I am now perswaded to 't is like I shall easily forgive my self for but a little hastning the end of my Life to attain the ends of it MEDITATION XI Upon the being in danger of Death I Know that Physitians are wont after their Master Hypocrates to tell us That Feavers which intermit are devoid of Danger But though an Ague whilst it continues such could not be a mortal Disease yet why may it not degenerate into such a one And for my part who take the Prognosticks of Physitians to be but Guesses not Prophesies and know how backward they are to bid us fear till our Condition leave them little hopes of us I cannot but think that Patient very ill advis'd who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of Death as long as his Doctor allows him any hopes of Life for in case they should both be deceiv'd 't would be much easier for the mistaken Physitian to save his Credit than for the unprepar'd Sinner to save his Soul Wherefore Sophronia finding my Disease attended with unusual threatning Symptoms not knowing where they would end I last Night thought it fit to suppose they might end in Death And two things especially made me the more ready for such an entertainment of my Thoughts One That we can scarce be too carefull and diligent in fitting our selves for the Acting of a part well that we can never Act but once For where the Scripture tells us It is appointed for all Men once to Dye it is immediately subjoyn'd That after that comes Judgment and if we Dye ill once we shall never be allow'd to Dye again to see if we would Dye better the second time than we did the first But as the Wise man Allegorically speaks Where the Tree falls there shall it lye So that the faults committed in this last and importantest of humane Actions being irreparable I think the only safe way is to imitate him who having said If a Man Dye shall he Live again presently annex'd by way of Inference and Resolution All the Days of my appointed Time will I wait till my Change come The other consideration that recommended to me the Thoughts of the Grave was this That we may be often sollicitous to provide against many Evils and Dangers that possibly may never reach us and many endure from the Anxious fears of contingent Mischiefs that never will befall them more Torment than the apprehended Mischiefs themselves though really suffer'd would inflict But Death will sooner
or later infallibly come and never finally deceive our Expectations and therefore the fore-thoughts of it are an imployment which may prove we know not how soon of use and will however prove of excellent Advantage The frequent Meditation of the end of our Lives conducing so much to make us lead them well that the expectation of Death brings not less Advantages to those that scape the Grave than to those that descend into it Such like considerations Sophronia having put me upon the thoughts of Death I presume you may have some Curiosity to know what these Thoughts were and therefore though I have neither Fitness nor Inclination to mention to you those that almost every Sober person would have upon a Death-Bed as a Man and as a Christian I will only take notice to you of those few that were suggested to me by the less general Circumstances of my condition And I am the more willing to satisfie you Curiosity now because I have my self been very inquisitive on the like occasion For the approach of Death will if any thing can make Men serious and considerate being for good and all to go off the Stage they make a truer and sincerer Judgment of the World they are ready to leave and then have not the wonted Partiality for the pleasures and profits of a Life they are now abandoning And as the Mind looks with other Eyes upon the World when Death is ready to shut those of the Body so Men are then wont as well to speak their Thoughts more franckly as to have them better grounded Death stripping most Men of their Dissimulation as well as of other things it makes them part with and indeed it is then high time for the Soul to put off her Disguises when she is ready to put off the very Body it self One thing then that I was considering Sophronia was in how wretched a condition I should now be if I had been of the same Mind with the generality of those who are of the same Age with me For these presume That Youth is as well made for Pleasures as capable of them and is not more a Temptation to Vanity than an Excuse for it They imagine themselves to do a great Matter if whilst Youth lasts they do so much as resolve to grow better when it is gone and they think That for a Man to be otherwise than Intentionally Religious before his Hair begin to change Colour were not only to lose the priviledges of Youth but to incroach upon those of old Age. But alas How few are Destroy'd by that incurable Disease in comparison to those that Dye before they attain it And how little comfort is it upon a Death Bed to think that by the course of Nature a Man might have Lived longer when that very Thought might justly prove Dismal to an unprepar'd Man by suggesting to him that this early Death may argue the Measure of his Iniquities exceeding great and that this untimely End is not so much a Debt due to Nature as a Punishment of Sin All the fruition of these deluding Pleasures of Sin cannot countervail the Horrour that a Dying Man's Review of them will create who not only sees himself upon the point of leaving them for ever but of suffering for them as long And on the contrary the Review of Youthfull pleasures declin'd for Virtue 's or Religion's sake will afford a Dying Man far higher Joys than their Fruition would ever have afforded him MEDITATION XII Upon the same Subject ANd one thing more there is Sophronia that I dare not conceal from you how much cause soever I have to blush at the disclosing it And it is That I judge quite otherwise of a competent preparation for Death now I am near it than I did when I was in health And therefore if one that since his Conscience was first thorowly awakened still resolv'd to be a Christian and though he too often broke those good Resolutions never renounc'd them but tripp'd and stumbled in the way to Heaven without quitting his purpose of continuing in it finds a formidableness in the approach of Death How uncomfortable must that approach be to those that have still run on in the ways of Sin without once so much as seriously intending to forsake them A Youth free from Scandal and sometimes productive of Practices that were somewhat more than Negative piety is not so frequent among those that want not opportunities to enjoy the Vanities and Pleasures of the World but that the Charity of other being seconded by that great inward flatterer Self-love made me imagine that I was in a Condition fitter to wish for Death than to fear it But now I come to look on Death near at hand and see beyond the Grave that is just under me that bottomless Gulf of Eternity me-thinks it is a very hard thing to be sufficiently prepar'd for a Change that will transmit us to the Barr of an Omniscient Judge to be there Doom'd to an endless state of infinite Happiness or Misery There is no Art of Memory like a Death-Bed's Review of ones Life Sickness and a nearer Prospect of Death often makes a Man remember those Actions wherein Youth and Jollity made him forget his Duty and those frivolous Arguments which when he was in Health and free from Danger were able to excuse him to his own indulgent Thoughts he himself will scarce now think Valid enough to excuse him unto God before whom if the sinless Angels cover their Faces sinfull Mortals may justly tremble to be brought to appear VVhen the approach of Death makes the Bodily eyes grow Dim those of the Conscience are enabled to discern That as to many of the Pleas we formerly acquiesc'd in it was the prevalence of our Senses that made us think them Reason And none of that Jolly company whose examples prevail'd with us to joyn with them in a course of Vanity will stand by us at the Barr to excuse the Actions they tempted us to And if they were there they would be so far from being able to justifie us that they would be condemn'd themselves 'T is true Sophronia if we consider Death only as the conclusion of Life and a Debt all Men sooner or later pay to Nature not only a Christian but a Man may entertain it without Horrour But if one consider it as a change That after having left his Body to rot in the Grave will bring his Soul to the Tribunal of God to answer the miscarriages of his whole past Life and receive there an unalterable Sentence that will Doom him to endless and unconceivable Joys or everlasting and inexpressible Torments I think 't is not inconsistent either with Piety or Courage to look upon so great a change with something of Commotion And many that would not fear to be put out of the VVorld will apprehend to be let into Eternity MEDITATION XIII A further Continuation ANother thing Sophronia which my present state suggested to