here despair to please my mind Her sweetest Honey is so mix'd with Gall. Come then I ll try how 't is to be alone Live to my self a while and be my own II. I 've try'd and bless the happy change So happy I could almost vow Never from this Retreat to range For sure I nor can be so blest as now From all th' allays of bliss I here am free I pitty others and none envy me III. Here in this shady lonely Grove I sweetly think my hours away Neither with Business vex'd nor Love Which in the World bear such Tyrannic sway No Tumults can my close Apartment find Calm as those Seats above which know no Storm nor Wind. IV. Let Plots and News embroil the State Pray what 's that to my Books and Me Whatever be the Kingdom 's Fate Here I am sure t' enjoy a Monarchy Lord of my self accountable to none Like the first Man in Paradice alone V. While the Ambitious vainly sue And of the partial Stars complain I stand upon the Shore and view The mighty Labours of the distant Maâ—n I 'm flush'd with silent joy and smile to see The Shafts of Fortune still drop short of me VI. Th' uneasie Pageantry of State And all the plagues to Thought and Sense Are far remov'd I 'm plac'd by Fate Out of the Road of all Impertinence Thus tho my fleeting Life runs swiftly on 'T will not be short because 't is all my own The Infidel I. FArewel Fruition thou grand Cruel Cheat Which first our hopes dost raise and then defeat Farewel thou Midwife to Abortive Bliss Thou Mystery of fallacies Distance presents the Object fair With Charming features and a graceful air But when we come to seize th' inviting prey Like a Shy Ghost it vanishes away II. So to th' unthinking Boy the distant Sky Seems on some Mountain's Surface to relie He with ambitious haste climbs the ascent Curious to touch the Firmament But when with an unweari'd pace Arriv'd he is at the long-wish'd-for place With Sighs the sad defeat he does deplore His Heaven is still as distant as before III. And yet 't was long e're I could throughly see This grand Impostor's frequent Treachery Tho often Fool'd yet I should still dream on Of Pleasure in Reversion Tho still he did my hopes deceive His fair Pretensions I would still believe Such was my Charity that tho I knew And found him false yet I would think him true IV. But now he shall no more with shews deceive I will no more enjoy no more believe Th' unwary Jugler has so often shewn His Fallacies that now they 'r known Shall I trust on the Cheat is plain I will not be impos'd upon again I 'll view the Bright appearance from afar But never try to catch the falling Star. On a Musician supposed to be mad with Musick I. POOR dull mistake of low Mortality To call that Madness which is Ecstacy 'T is no disorder of the Brain His Soul is only set t' an higher strain Out-soar he does the Sphere of Common sense Rais'd to Diviner Excellence But when at highest pitch his Soul out-flies Not Reason's Bounds but those of vulgar Eyes II. So when the Mystic Sibyl's Sacred Breast Was with Divine Infusions possest 'T was Rage and Madness thought to be Which was all Oracle and Mystery And so the Soul that 's shortly to Commence A Spirit free from dregs of Sense Is thought to rave when She discourses high And breathes the lofty strains of Immortality III. Music thou Generous Ferment of the Soul Thou universal Cement of the whole Thou Spring of Passion that dost inspire Religious Ardours and Poetic Fire who 'd think that Madness should b' ascrib'd to thee That mighty Discord to thy Harmony But 't was such ignorance that call'd the Gift Divine Of various Tongues Rage and th' effects of Wine IV. But thou Seraphic Soul do thou advance In thy sweet Ecstacy thy pleasing Trance Let thy brisk passions mount still higher Till they joyn to the Element of Fire Soar higher yet till thou shalt calmly hear The Music of a well-tun'd Sphere Then on the lumpish mass look down and thou shalt know The Madness of the World for groveling still below The Consolation I. I Grant 't is bad but there is some relief In the Society of Grief 'T is sweet to him that mourns to see A whole house clad in Sorrow's Livery Grief in Communion does remiss appear Like harsher sounds in Consort which less grate the Ear. II. Men would not Curse the Stars did they dispence In common their ill Influence Let none be rich and Poverty Would not be thought so great a Misery Our discontent is from comparison Were better states unseen each man would like his own III. Should partial Seas wreck my poor Ship alone I might with cause my Fate bemoan But since before I sink I see A Numerous Fleet of Ships descend with me Why don't I with content my breath resign I will and in the greater ruine bury mine The Choice Stet quicunque volet potens Aulae culmine lubrico c. I. NO I shan't envy him whoe're he be That stands upon the Battlements of State Stand there who will for me I 'd rather be secure than great Of being so high the pleasure is but small But long the Ruine if I chance to fall II. Let me in some sweet shade serenely lye Happy in leisure and obscurity Whilst others place their joys In popularity and noise Let my soft minutes glide obscurely on Like subterraneous streams unheard unknown III. Thus when my days are all in silence past A good plain Country-man I 'll dye at last Death cannot chuse but be To him a mighty misery Who to the World was popularly known And dies a Stranger to himself alone The Meditation I. IT must be done my Soul but 't is a strange A dismal and Mysterious Change When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay And to an unknown somewhere Wing away When Time shall be Eternity and thou Shalt be thou know'st not what and live thou know'st not how II. Amazing State no wonder that we dread To think of Death or view the Dead Thou' rt all wrapt up in Clouds as if to thee Our very Knowledge had Antipathy Death could not a more Sad Retinue find Sickness and Pain before and Darkness all behind III. Some Courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be You warn us of approaching Death and why May we not know from you what 't is to Dye But you having shot the Gulph delight to see Succeeding Souls plunge in with like uncertainty IV. When Life 's close Knot by Writ from Destiny Disease shall cut or Age unty When after some Delays some dying Strife The Soul stands shivering on the Ridge of Life With what a dreadful Curiosity Does she launch out into the Sea of vast Eternity V. So when the Spatious Globe was delug'd o're And
voices join Their Praise to the Applause divine The Morning stars in Hymns combine And as they sung play'd the jocant Orbs danc't round XIV With this thy Quire divine great God I bring My Eucharistic Offering I cannot here sing more exalted layes But what 's defective now I will supply When I enjoy thy Deity Then may'st thou sleep my Lyre I shall not then thy help require Diviner thoughts will then me fire Than thou tho playd on by an Angels hand canst raise Plato's two Cupids I. THe heart of man's a living Butt At which two different Archers shoot Their Shafts are pointed both with fire Both wound our hearts with hot desire II. In this they differ he that lyes A sacrifice t' his Mistress eyes In pain does live in pain expire And melts and drops before the fire III. But he that flame 's with love divine Does not in th' heat consume but shine H' enjoys the fire that round him lyes Serenely lives serenely dyes IV. So Devils and damned Souls in hell Fry in the fire with which they dwell But Angels suffer not the same Altho their Vehicles be flame V. The heart whose fire 's divine and chast Is like the Bush that did not wast Moses beheld the flame with fear That wasted not for God was there A Wish I. WHatever Blessing you my Life deny Grant me kind Heaven this one thing when I dye I charge thee guardian Spirit hear And as thou lov'st me further this my Prayer II. When I 'm to leave this grosser Sphere and try Death that amazing Curiosity When just about to breathe my last Then when no Mortal joy can strike my tast III. Let me soft melting strains of Music hear Whose Dying sounds may speak Death to my ear Gently the Bands of life unty Till in sweet raptures I dissolve and dye IV. How soft and easy my new Birth will be Help'd on by Music s gentle Midwifery And I who ' midst these charms expire Shall bring a Soul well tuned to Heaven's Quire. To Dr. More Ode I. GO Muse go hasten to the Cell of Fame Thou kow'st her reverend aweful seat It stands hard by your blest retreat Go with a brisk alarm assault her ear Bid her her loudest Trump prepare To sound a more than Human name A name more excellent and great Than she could ever publish yet Tell her she need not stay till Fate shall give A License to his Works and bid them live His Worth now shines through Envys base Alloy 'T will fill her widest Trump and all her Breath employ II. Learning which long like an inchanted Land Did Human force and Art defy And stood the Vertuoso's best Artillery Which nothing mortal could subdue Has yielded to this Hero's Fatal hand By him is conquer'd held and peopled too Like Seas that border on the shore The Muses Suburbs some possession knew But like the deep Abyss their iuner store Lay unpossess'd till seiz'd and own'd by you Truth 's outer Courts were trod before Sacred was her recess that Fate reserv'd for More III. Others in Learning's Chorus bear their part And the great Work distinctly share Thou our great Catholic Professour art All Science is annex'd to thy unerring Chair Some lesser Synods of the Wise The Muses kept in Universitys But never yet till in thy Soul Had they a Councel Oecumenical An Abstract they 'd a mind to see Of all their scatter'd gifts and summ'd them up in thee Thou hast the Arts whole Zodiac run And fathom'st all that here is known Strange restless Curiosity Adam himself came short of thee He tasted of the Fruit thou bear'st away the Tree IV. Whilest to be great the most aspire Or with low Souls to raise their fortunes higher Knowledg the chiefest Treasure of the Blest Knowledg the Wise man's best Request Was made thy choice for this thou hast declin'd A life of noise impertinence and State And what e're else the Muses hate And mad'st it thy one business to inrich thy mind How calm thy life how easy how secure Thou Intellectual Epicure Thou as another Solomon hast try'd All Nature through and nothing to thy Soul deny'd Who can two such examples shew He all things try'd t' enjoy and you all things to know V. By Babel's Curse and our Contracted span Heaven thought to check the swift career of man. And so it prov'd till now our age Is much too short to run so long a Stage And to learn words is such a vast delay That we 're benighted e're we come half way Thou with unusual hast driv'st on And dost even Time it self out-run No hindrance can retard thy Course Thou rid'st the Muses winged horse Thy Stage of Learning ends e're that of Life be done There 's now no work left for thy accomplish'd mind But to Survey thy Conquests and inform mankind The Passion of the Virgin Mother Beholding the Crucifixion of her divine Son. 1. NIgh to the Fatal and yet Soveraign wood Which crouds of wondring Angels did surround Devoutly sad the Holy Mother stood And view'd her Son sympathized with every wound II. Angelic piety in her mournful face Like rays of light through a watry cloud did shine Two mighty Passions in her breast took place And like her Son sh ' appear'd half human half divine III. She saw a blacker and more tragic Scene Than e're the Sun before or then would see In vain did nature draw her dusky Skreen She saw and wept and felt the dreadful Agony IV. Grief in the abstract sure can rise no higher Than that which this deep Tragedy did move She saw in tortures and in shame expire Her Son her God her worship and her Love. V. That sacred head which all divine and bright Struck with deep awe the Votarys of the East To which a Star paid Tributary light Which the then joyful mother kiss'd adored and blest VI. That head which Angels with pure light had crown'd Where Wisdom's Seat and Oracle was plac'd Whose air divine threw his Traitours to the ground She saw with pointed circles of rude thorns embrac'd VII Those hands whose soveraign touch were wont to heal All wounds and hurts that others did endure Did now the peircings of rough iron feel Nor could the wounded heart of his sad mother cure VIII No No it bled to see his body torn With nails and deck'd with gems of purple gore On four great wounds to see him rudely born Whom oft her arms a happy burthen found before IX It bled to hear that voice of grief and dread Which the Earths pillars and foundations shook Which rent the Rocks and ' woke the sleeping dead My God my God O why why hast thou me forsook X. And can the tide of Sorrow rise more high Her melting face stood thick with tears to view Like those of heaven his setting glorys dye As flowers left by the Sun are charged with evening dew XI But see grief spreads her empire still more wide
Proposition in the understanding before there is any misapplication in the will and 't is through the swimming of the head that the feet slip and lose their station And yet the sinner is no way excusable for this his deception because 't is the ignorance of that which he habitually knows and he might have attended better and 't was his fault that he did not 9. And 't is the recovering and awaking up into this Conviction that is the Principle of Repentance and reformation of life When a man by the aid of grace and the use of due attention resumes his interrupted Judgment of Sins being the greatest evil he then comes again to himself forms new resolutions never to commit it and returns to the wisdom of the just So great reason had the Psalmist to pray O grant me understanding and I shall live THE PRAYER O My God who art pure light and in whom there is no darkness at all who art pure Love and hatest nothing but sin and hatest that infinitely give me an heart after thine own heart that I may also abhor it without measure and without end Open thou mine eyes that I may see those two wondrous things of thy Law the Beauty of Holiness and the deformity of sin Inspire me with that Charity which seeketh not her own that I may ever propose and follow that great and excellent end which thou proposest that I may ever adhere to that which is simply and absolutely best and never for any self-advantage disturb the order of thy Creation O let me never so far abuse those facultys thou hast given me as to thwart the designs of thy goodness and wisdom and to interrupt that Harmony wherein thou so delightest But let all my designs be generous unselvish and sincere so as chiefly to rejoyce at the good of thy Creation at whose very material Beauty the Morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Holy Father 't is thy will that this thy great Family should be prosperous and happy and the better part of it thy Angels strictly conform to it O let this thy will be done here on Earth as it is in Heaven and grant that every member of this great Body may so study the good of the whole that thou may'st once more review the works of thy hands and with a Fatherly complacency pronounce them good Grant this for the sake of him who gave his life for the Happiness of the world thy Son Jesus Amen II. GIve me wisdom that sitteth by thy throne and reject me not from among thy children That wisdom which was with thee from the Beginning which knoweth all thy works and was present when thou madest the world and knew what was acceptable in thy sight and right in thy Commandments O send her out of thy holy Heavens and from the throne of thy glory that being present she may labour with me that I may know and thoroughly consider what an evil it is to affront thy Authority to break through the bounds which thou hast set to rebel against the most excellent and divine part of my nature and to oppose that which thou lov'st and which is of all things the most lovely O let thy wisdom dwell with me let my loins be always girt and this my Light always burning that I may never be deceiv'd through the deceitfulness of sin nor seek death in the errour of my life Thy words have I hid within my heart that I might not sin against thee O grant me understanding and I shall live Keep I beseech thee this conviction still fresh and fully awake in me that Sin is the greatest of all evils that so the fear of none may ever drive me to do the thing which thy Soul hates Consider and hear me O Lord my God lighten mine eyes that I sleep not in death Amen Amen AN IDEA OF HAPPINESS IN A LETTER to a FRIEND ENQUIRING Wherein the greatest Happiness attainable by Man in this Life does consist Sollicitis vitam consumimus annis Torquemurque metu caecaque cupidine rerum Aeternisque Senes curis dum quaerimus aevum Perdimus nullo votorum fine beati Victuros agimus semper nec vivimus unquam Manilius lib. 4. OXFORD Printed at the THEATER 1687. An Idea of Happiness c. SIR 1. THO you have been pleas'd to assign me the Task of an Angel and in that Respect have warranted me to disobey you yet since a considerable part of that experimental Knowledg which I have of Happiness is owing to the Delight which I take in your vertuous and endearing Friendship I think 't is but reasonable I should endeavour to give you an Idea of that whereof you have given me the Possession 2. You desire to know of me wherein the greatest Happiness attainable by man in this Life does consist And here tho I see my self engaged in a work already too difficult for me yet I find it necessary to enlarge it For since the greatest Happiness or Summum Bonum of this Life is a Species of Happiness in general and since it is call'd Greatest not because absolutely perfect and compleat but inasmuch as it comes nearest to that which indeed is so it will be necessary first to state the Notion of Happiness in General and then to define wherein that Happiness does consist which is perfect and compleat before I can proceed to a Resolution of your Question 3. By Happiness in the most general Sense of the word I understand nothing else but an Enjoyment of any Good. The least Degree of Good has the same Proportion to the least Degree of Happiness as the greatest has to the greatest and consequently as many ways as a man enjoys any Good so many ways he may be said to be happy neither will the Mixture of Evil make him forfeit his Right to this Title unless it either equals the Good he enjoys or exceeds it And then indeed it does but the Reason is because in strictness of Speaking upon the whole Account the man enjoys no Good at all For if the Good and the Evil be equal-balanc'd it must needs be indifferent to that man either to be or not to be there being not the least Grain of good to determine his Choice So that he can no more be said to be happy in that Condition than he could before he was born And much less if the Evil exceeds the Good For then he is not only not happy but absolutely and purely miserable For after an exact Commensuration supposed between the Good and the Evil all that remains over of the Evil is pure and simple Misery which is the Case of the Damn'd And when 't is once come to this whatever some Mens Metaphysics may perswade them I am very well satisfied that 't is better not to be than to be But now on the other side if the Good does never so little out-weigh the Evil that Overplus of Good is as
is what I design'd and endeavour'd in the whole Whether I have attain'd it or no I submit to Judgment All-Souls Coll. June 1st 1687. J. Norris THE CONTENTS OF THE PROSE-PART Of the advantages of Thinking Page 145. Of the Care and Improvement of Time. 153. Of Solitude 158. Of Courage 165. Of Seriousness 170. Of the slightness of all Secular and the importance of minding our Eternal Interest 175. A Metaphysical Essay toward the Demonstration of a God from the steddy and immutable Nature of Truth 193. The Christian Law Asserted and Vindicated Or a general Apology for the Christian Religion both as to the Obligativeness and Reasonableness of the Institution 211. A Discourse concerning Perseverance in Holiness 249. A Discourse coucerning Heroic Piety wherein its Notion is stated and its Practise recommended 275. Contemplation and Love Or the Methodical Ascent of the Soul to God by steps of Meditation 295. A Discourse upon Romans 12. 3. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think But to think soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of Faith. 333. Considerations upon the Nature of Sin accommodated to the Ends both of Speculation and Practise 361. An Idea of Happiness in a Letter to a Friend Enquiring wherein the greatest Happiness attainable by man in this Life does consist 393. A Letter of Resolution concerning some Passages in the foregoing Treatise 431. Another Letter concerning the true Notion of Plato's Ideas and of Platonic Love. 435. A Letter concerning Love and Music 446. A Letter concerning Friendship 450. A Letter of Self-Consolation occasion'd by the Death of a Friend 455. ERRATA Page 164. for ingeniously read ingenuously Page 170. for gaiety read gait Page 281. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Passion of our B. Saviour represented in a Pindarique Ode Quis talia fando Temperet à Lachrymis I. SAY bold Licentious Muse What Noble Subject wilt thou chuse Of what great Hero of what mighty thing Wilt thou in boundless numbers sing Sing the unfathom'd Depths of Love For who the Wonders done by Love can tell By Love which is it self all Miracle Here in vast endless Circles mayst thou rove And like the travelling Planet of the day In an Orb unbounded stray Sing the great Miracle of Love Divine Great be thy Genius sparkling every Line Love's greatest Mystery reherse Greater then that Which on the teeâ—ing Chaos brooding sate And hatch'd with kindly heat the Universe How God in Mercy chose to bleed and dye To rescue Man from Misery Man not his Creature only but his Enemy II. Lo in Gethsemane I see him prostrate lye Press'd with the weight of his great Agony The common Sluces of the Eyes To vent his mighty Passion won't suffice His tortured Body weeps all-o're And out of every Pore Buds forth a pretious Gem of Purple Gore How strange the Power of afflictions rod When in the Hand of an incensed God! Like the commanding Wand In Moses Hand It works a Miracle and turns the Flood Of Tears into a Sea of Blood See with what Pomp Sorrow does now appear How proud She is of being seated here She never wore So rich a Dye before Long was he willing to decline Th' Encounter of the Wrath Divine Thrice he sent for his Release Pathetic Embassies of Peace At length his Courage overcame his Doubt Resolved he was and so the bloody Flagg hung out III. And now the Tragic Scene 's displai'd Where drawn in full Battalia are laid Before his Eyes That numerous Host of Miseries He must withstand that Map of Woe Which he must undergo That heavy Wine-press which must by him be trod The whole Artillery of God. He saw that Face whose very Sight Chears Angels with its Beatific Light Contracted now into a dreadful frown All cloath'd with Thunder big with death And Showers of hot burning Wrath Which shortly must be poured down He saw a black and dismal Scroll Of Sins past present and to come With their intolerable Doom Which would the more oppress his spotless Soul As th' Elements are weighty proved When from their Native Station they 'r removed He saw the foul Ingratitude of those Who would the Labours of his Love oppose And reap no benefit by all his Agonys He saw all this And as he saw to Waver he began And almost to repent of his great Love for Man. IV. When lo a heavenly Form all bright and fair Swifter then Thought shot through th' enlight'ned Air. He who sat next th' imperial Throne And read the Councels of the Great Three-One Who in Eternity's Misterious Glass Saw both what was what is and what must come to pass He came with Reverence profound And rais'd his prostrate Maker from the Ground Wiped off the bloody Sweat With which his Face and Garments too were wet And comforted his dark benighted Mind With sovereign Cordials of Light refin'd This done in soft addresses he began To fortifie his kind Designs for Man Vnseal'd to him the Book of Gods Decree And shew'd him what must be Alledg'd the Truth of Prophecies Types Figures and Mysteries How needful it was to supply With humane Race the ruins of the Skie How this would new accession bring To the Coelestial Quire And how withall it would inspire New Matter for the Praise of the great King. How he should see the travail of his Soul and bless Those Sufferings which had so good Success How great the Triumphs of his Victory How glorious his Ascent would be What weighty Bliss in Heaven he should obtain By a few Hours of Pain Where to Eternal Ages he should Reign He spake confirm'd in mind the Champion stood A Spirit divine Through the thick Veil of Flesh did shine All over Powerful he was all over Good. Pleas'd with his successful Flight The Officious Angel posts away To the bright Regions of Eternal Day Departing in a track of Light. In haste for News the heavenly People ran And joy'd to hear the hopeful State of Man. V. And now that strange prodigious hour When God must subject be to humane Power That Hour is come The unerring Clock of Fate has struck 'T was heard below down to Hells lowest Room And strait th Infernal Powers th appointed signal took Open the Scene my Muse and see Wonders of Impudence and Villany How wicked Mercenary hands Dare to invade him whom they should adore With Swords and Staves incompass'd round he stands Who knew no other Guards but those of Heaven before Once with his powerful breath he did repell The rude assaults of Hell. A ray of his Divinity Shot forth with that bold Answer I am He They reel and stagger and fall to the Ground For God was in the Sound The Voice of God was once again Walking in the Garden heard And once again was by the guilty Hearers fear'd Trembling seiz'd every joynt and chilness every Vein This little Victory he won Shew'd what he could
underwent not only at his Passion but throughout his whole Life must needs be in a Singular manner afflictive to him And hence appears the vanity of their opinion who are little or nothing affected with the consideration of our Lords Passion because they think it was made light to him by reason of his union with the God-head 'T was easie for him some inconsiderate Persons are ready to say to suffer this or this for he was God and not meer man as we are True he was so but his being God did no way lessen the punishment he underwent as man but only supported him in his existence under it in the same manner as God is supposed by an act of his Almighty Power to preserve the bodies of the Damn'd incorruptible among the everlasting burnings But this I think is no kindness to them Neither did the Society of the Divine Nature any more diminish the Sufferings of our dearest Lord nay in one respect it proved an accidental aggravation to them because upon the account of this Noble Union he had given him a Body of a most admirable Complexion and Harmonious Temperature and consequently of a Flesh exceeding tender and most exquisitely perceptive of the least impressions So long the Sympathizing Sun his light withdrew And wonder'd how the Stars their dying Lord could view The Eclipse which accompany'd the Passion of our Saviour was so remarkable and miraculous that 't was taken notice of by many of the Gentile Historians There are three things which made this Eclipse so very remarkable the time of its Appearance the time of its Duration and the Degree of it 1. For the time of its Appearance it was at full Moon when the Moon was not in Conjunction with but in opposition to the Sun. And this appears not only from the testimony of Dionysius who affirms that he saw it at that time but also from the time of our Lord's Passion which according to the relation of the Evangelist was at the Celebration of the Passeover Now the Iews were bound to celebrate the Paschal Solemnity always at full Moon as is to be seen in the twelfth of Exodus This was no time therefore for a Natural Eclipse because 't was impossible that the Moon should then interpose betwixt us and the Sun. 2. For the time of its Duration it was full three hours which is another evidence that this was no Natural Eclipse For the Natural Eclipse of the Sun can never last so long both because of the great disproportion between the Suns Magnitude and that of the Moon and because of the swift motion of the latter 3. For the degree of it it was a total Eclipse The Sun was so darkned that as Historians report who write of that Eclipse the Stars appear'd And this is another Argument that it was no Natural Phoenomenon it being impossible that the Body of the Moon which is so infinitely less than that of the Sun should totally eclipse it Now all these three Remarkables are comprized in the compass of these two Verses For in that it is said that the Sun withdrew his light it is intimated that the light of the Sun was not intercepted by the ordinary conjunction of the Moon but that by an Extraordinary Commission from the God of Nature the Sun rein'd in his light and suspended the emission of his Beams And this denotes the time of its appearance viz. when the Moon was not in Conjunction The time of its duration is implied by the words So long And lastly the Degree of it is implied in the last Verse And wonder'd how the Stars their dying Lord could view Where the appearance of the Stars is not directly express'd but only insinuated and couch'd for the more elegancy of the thought And calm the Relicts of his grief with Hymns divine It is here supposed that the Passion of our Saviour was now over and his Father's wrath wholly appeas'd For I can by no means approve the opinion of those who fancy that our Saviour in the interim betwixt his Death and Resurrection descended locally into Hell there to suffer the torments of the damn'd His own words upon the Cross It is finish'd His promise to the penitent Thief that he should be with him that day in Paradice and his last resignation of his Spirit into the hands of his Father do all of them apparently contradict it But yet though the bitter Cup was wholly drank off upon the Cross 't is natural to imagine some little relish of it to remain behind for a time Though all his sufferings and penal inflictions were ended before his death yet I suppose and I think very naturally some little discomposures of mind remaining like the after-droppings of a shower which his Soul could not immediately shake off upon her release from the Body In allusion to that of Virgil Inter quas Phoenissa recens a vulnere Dido Errabat Sylva in Magna Where the Poet fancies the Ghost of Dido being newly releas'd from the pains of Love could not presently forget her shady walks and melancholy retirements Now these Remains of Sorrow and after-disturbances of mind which cleav'd to the Soul of the Holy Iesus I suppose here to be allay''d by the Musick of Angels in his passage to Paradice An Hymn upon the Transfiguration I. HAil King of Glory clad in Robes of Light Out-shining all we here call bright Hail Light 's divinest Galaxy Hail Express Image of the Deity Could now thy Amorous Spouse thy Beauties view How would her wounds all bleed anew Lovely thou art all o're and bright Thou Israel's Glory and thou Gentile's Light. II. But whence this brightness whence this suddain day Who did thee thus with light array Did thy Divinity dispence T'its Consort a more liberal influence Or did some Curious Angel's Chymick Art The Spirits of purest light impart Drawn from the Native Spring of day And wrought into an Organized ray III. Howe're t was done 't is Glorious and Divine Thou dost with radiant wonders shine The Sun with his bright Company Are all gross Meteors if compar'd to thee Thou art the fountain whence their Light does flow But to thy will thine own dost owe. For as at first thou didst but say Let there be light and strait sprang forth this wondrous day IV. Let now the Eastern Princes come and bring Their Tributary Offering There needs no Star to guide their flight They 'll find thee now great King by thine own light And thou my Soul adore love and admire And follow this bright Guide of Fire Do thou thy Hymns and Praises bring Whil'st Angels with Veil'd Faces Anthems sing The Parting I. DEpart The Sentence of the Damn'd I hear Compendious grief and black despair I now believe the Schools with ease Tho once an happy Infidel That should the sense no torment seize Yet Pain of Loss alone would make a Hell. II. Take all since me of this you Gods deprive 'T is hardly now worth while
can make Menalcas does his kids and tender lambs forsake So I when slave to Galatea's eyes Did neither City nor the Country prize But all their sports and my flock too despise Hang thou my Pipe sayd I on yonder tree For then alas I had no tast for melody Obscurely in thick woods I sate alone And sigh'd in consort to the Turtle 's moan Men. 'T is not fond love that causes my distress No Thyrsis you 'r mistaken in your guess The glorious Prize I have in Triumph born I am no longer now Alexis scorn Or if I were I now could be unmoved At every scornful glance nor care where e're he loved A nearer grief preys on my spirits now And I beneath a heavier burthen bow The gentle god of the Arcadian plains Pan that regards the sheep Pan that regards the Swains Great Pan is dead Throughout the fields the doleful tidings ran A swoon seiz'd all the Shepherds at the death of Pan. Of Pan But see the rest that Tree will shew Which wears the sad inscription of my woe Where with the bark my sorrows too will grow Thyr. How Shepherd is it by Fames trumpet said That Pan the best of all the gods is dead Whom oft w'adored and whom because we knew As good as they we thought him as immortal too 'T is strange but Omens now I find are true In yonder Copse a shady Oak there stood Stately well rooted and it self a wood Her branches o're the inferiour trees were spread Who all adored her as their soveraign head Hither when heated by the guide of Day While their young wanton goats did skip amd play Hither the Swains would constantly repair Here sing and in the ample shade drink fresher air This Tree when I my goats to pasture drove While all was clear above and still throughout the grove Struck by some secret force fall down I saw The wood-Nymphs all were seiz'd with wonder grief awe Nor had I left this ruin far behind When lo strange sight a Nightingal I find Which from brisk airs enlivening all the grove Coo'd on a suddain like the mournful dove Amazed I stand and on my pipe estay With some brisk song her sorrows to allay But all in vain She from the lofty tree Kept on her sad complaint and mourn'd and droop'd like thee Men. And why these slighter things dost thou relate Nature her self perceiv'd Pan's mighty fate She fainted when he drew his latest breath And almost sympathized with him to death Each Field put on a languid dying face The sheep not minding food with tears bedew'd the grass The Lions too in tears their grief confest And savage Bears ê‘an's enemys profest The Nymphs all wept and all the noble train Of Deitys that frequent the Court of Pan. Eccho that long by nought but voice was known In sounds repeated others woes but wept her own Th' Arcadians mourn'd and press'd beneath the weighty care With cruelty they charg'd the gods and every star Thyr. And well they might Heaven could not shew a Deity More mild more good t' his Votarys than he He was all Love all Peace all Clemency H' allur'd the Love and melted down the hate Of all he had no enemy but Fate Pan kept the Fields from wolves secured the Stall He guarded both the humble Shrubs and Cedars tall The Summers heat obey'd Pan's gentle hand And Winter winds blew soft at his command He blest the Swains with sneep and fruitful made their land Weep Shepherds and in pomp your grief express The ground with flowers your selves with Cypress dress Let the Arcadians in a solemn train March slowly on let mournful accents fill the plain Do this at least in Memory of Pan. Daph. But why this vain expence of tears breath D' ye think Pan lost and swallow'd up in death He lives and with a pleas'd and wondring eye Contemplates the new beautys of the sky Whence on these Fields he casts propitious rays Now greater than our Sorrow greater than our Praise I saw for why mayn't I rehearse the sight Just as the Stars were kindled by the Queen of night Another new-made milky way appear I saw and wonder'd what event it might prepare When lo great Pan amazed my trembling sight As through th' Aethereal plains he took his flight Deck'd round with rays and darting streams of light Triumphant was his March a sacred throng Of gods inclosed him Pan was all their song The sky still brighten'd as they went along Men. Thy vision be all truth But who shall now the royal sheep-crook hold Who patronize the fields who now secure the fold Daoh Discharge that care the royal stock does yield Another Pan to patronize the field An Heir of equal conduct does the Scepter sway One who long nurtured in the Pastoral way In peace will govern the Arcadian plains Defend the tender flocks and chear the drooping Swains Thyr. Come then let 's tune the pipe t' a brisker Key Let 's with a dance our sorrows chase away And to new Pan in sports devote the day Satiety I. HAst on dull Time thy winged minutes hast I care not now how soon thou bring'st my last By what I 've liv'd I plainly know The total Sum of all below The days to come altho they promise more I know will be as false as those that went before II. The best of life tho once enjoy'd is vain And why ye Powers the self same o're again The Comedy's so dull I fear 'T will not a second acting bear No I 've enough I cannot like the Sun Each day the self same stage and still unwearied run III. What cruel laws are these that me confine Thus still to dig in a deceitful Mine Be just ye Powers my Soul set free Give her her native liberty 'T is ' gainst the Stage's law to force my stay I 've seen an Act or two and do not like the Play. The Reply I. SInce you desire of me to know Who 's the Wise man I 'll tell you who Not he whose rich and fertile mind Is by the Culture of the Arts refin'd Who has the Chaos of disorder'd thought By Reason's Light to Form and method brought Who with a clear and piercing sight Can see through nicetys as dark as night You err if you think this is He Tho seated on the top of the Porphyrian tree II. Nor is it He to whom kind Heaven A secret Cabala has given T' unriddle the mysterious Text Of Nature with dark Comments more perplext Or to decypher her clean-writ and fair But most confounding puzling character That can through all her windings trace This slippery wanderer and unveil her face Her inmost Mechanism view Anatomize each part and see her through and through III. Nor he that does the Science know Our only Certainty below That can from Problems dark and nice Deduce Truths worthy of a Sacrifice Nor he that can confess the stars and see What 's writ in the black leaves of Destiny
That knows their laws and how the Sun His dayly and his annual stage does run As if he did to them dispense Their Motions and there sate supream Intelligence IV. Nor is it he altho he boast Of wisdom and seem wise to most Yet 't is not he whose busy pate Can dive into the deep intrigues of State. That can the great Leviathan controul Menage and rule 't as if he were its soul The wisest King thus gifted was And yet did not in these true Wisdom place Who then is by the Wise man meant He that can want all this and yet can be content My Estate I. HOw do I pity that proud wealthy Clown That does with scorn on my low state look down Thy vain contempt dull Earth-worm cease I won't for refuge-fly to this That none of fortune's Blessings can Add any value to the man This all the wise acknowledge to be true But know I am as rich more rich than you II. While you a spot of earth possess with care Below the notice of the Geographer I by the freedom of my Soul Possess nay more enjoy the whole To th' universe a claim I lay Your writings shew perhaps you 'l say That 's your dull way my title runs more high 'T is by the Charter of Philosophy III. From that a firmer title I derive Than all your Courts of Law could ever give A title that more firm does stand Than does even your very Land. And yet so generous and free That none will e're bethink it me Since my possessions tend to no man's loss I all enjoy yet nothing I ingross IV. Throughout the works divine I cast my eye Admire their Beauty and their Harmony I view the glorious Host above And him that made them Praise and Love. The flowry meads and fields beneath Delight me with their odorous breath Thus is my joy by you not understood Like that of God when he said all was good V. Nay what you 'd think less likely to be true I can enjoy what 's yours much more than you Your meadow's beauty I survey Which you prize only for its hay There can I sit beneath a tree And write an Ode or Elegy What to you care does to me pleasure bring You own the Cage I in it sit and sing The Conquest I. IN Power or Wisdom to contend with thee Great God who but a Lucifer would dare Our strength is but infirmity And when we this perceive our sight 's most clear But yet I will not be excell'd thought I In Love in Love I 'll with my Maker vy II. I view'd the glorys of thy Seat above And thought of every Grace and Charm divine And further to encrease my love I measured all the Heights and Depths of thine Thus there broke forth a Strong and Vigorous flame And almost melted down my mortal frame III. But when thy Bloudy Sweat and Death I view I own Dear Lord the conquest of thy love Thou dost my highest flights outdo I in a lower orb and slower move Thus in this strife's a double weakness shewn Thy Love I cannot equal nor yet bear my own The Impatient I. WHat envious laws are those of Fate Which fix a gulph Blest Souls 'twixt us and you How 't wou'd refresh and chear our Mortal state When our dejected looks confess The emptiness of earthly bliss Could we in this black night your brighter glorys view II. Vain comfort when I thus complain To hear the Wise and Solemn gravely say Your grief and curiosity restrain Death will e're long this Bar remove And bring you to the Blest above Till then with this great Prospect all your longings stay III. But ah the joy peculiar here Does from the greater excellence arise 'T will be worth nothing in an equal Sphere Let me your noble converse have Blest Spirits on this side the grave I shall hereafter be as great as you as wise IV. Besides when plung'd in bliss divine I shall not tast or need this lesser joy What comfort then does from this Prospect shine 'T is just as if in depth of night You robb a Traveller of his light And promise to restore't when 't is clear day Content I. I Bless my stars I envy none Not great nor wealthy no nor yet the Wise I 've learnt the Art to like my own And what I can't attain to not to prize Vast Tracts of Learning I descry Beyond the Sphere perhaps of my Activity And yet I 'm ne're the more concern'd at this Than for the Gems that lye in the profound Abyss II. Should I my proper lot disdain As long as further good eclipses mine I may t' eternity complain And in the Mansions of the Blest repine There shall I numbers vast espy Of Forms more excellent more wise more Blest than I. I shall not then lament my unequal fate And why should larger Prospects now molest my state III. Where all in equal stations move What place for Harmony can there be found The lower Spheres with those above Agree and dance as free and briskly round Degrees of Essences conspire As well as various notes t' accomplish heaven's Quire. Thus would I have 't below nor will I care So the Result be Harmony what part I bear Against Knowledge I. WEll let it be the Censure of the Wise That Wisdom none but Fools despise I like not what they gravely preach And must another Doctrin teach Since all 's so false and vain below There 's nought so indiscreet as this to know II. The thoughtless dull and less discerning mind No flaws in earthly joys can find He Closes with what Courts his sight All Coin will pass by his dim light Though often baulkt he hopes for rest Sleeps on and dreams and is in Errour Blest III. But he that has refin'd and high-rais'd sense Can nothing tast but excellence Nor can he nature's faults supply By Fancy's happy Imag'ry He sees that all Fruition's vain Can't tast the present nor yet trust again IV. Our Joys like Tricks do all on cheats depend And when once known are at an end Happy and Wise two Blessings are Which meet not in this mortal Sphere Let me be ignorant below And when I 've Solid good then let me Know. Seeing a great Person lying in State. I. WEll now I needs must own That I hate greatness more and more 'T is now a just abhorrence grown What was Antipathy before With other ills I could dispence And acquiesce in Providence But let not Heaven my patience try With this one Plague left I repine and dye II. I knew indeed before That 't was the great man's wretched fate While with the living to endure The vain impertinence of State. But sure thought I in death he 'll be From that and other troubles free What e're his life he then will lye As free as undisturb'd as calm as I. III. But 't was a gross mistake Honour that too officious ill Won't even his breathless corps forsake But
art blind All is so false and treacherous here That I must love with Caution and enjoy with fear II. Contract thy Sails lest a too gusty blast Make thee from shore launch out too far Weigh well this Ocean e're thou make such hast It has a nature very singular Men of the treacherous shore complain In other Seas but here most danger 's in the Main III. Should'st thou my Soul indulge thy forward love And not controul its headlong course The Object in th' enjoyment vain will prove And thou on Nothing fall with all thy force So th' eager Hawk makes sure of 's prize Strikes with full might but overshoots himself and dyes IV. Or should'st thou with long search on something light That might content and stay thy mind All good 's here wing'd and stands prepared for flight 'T will leave thee reaching out in vain behind Then when unconstant fate thou 'st proved Thou 'lt sigh and say with tears I wish I ne re had loved V. Well then ye softer Powers that love Command And wound our breasts with pleasing smart Gage well your Launce and bear a steddy hand Lest it run in too deep into my heart Or if you 're fix'd in your design Deeply to wound my heart wound it with love divine To the Memory of my dear Neece M. C. I. BY tears to ease my grief I 've try'd And Philosophic med'cins have applied From Books and Company I 've sought relief I 've used all spells and charms of Art To Lay this Troubler of my heart I have yet I 'm still haunted by my grief These give some ease but yet I find 'T is Poetry at last must cure my mind II. Come then t' asswage my pain I 'l try By the sweet magic of thy Harmony Begin my Muse but 't will be hard I know For thee my Genius to screw To heights that to my Theme are due The weight of grief has set my Soul so low To grace her death my strains should be As far above Mortality as she III. Is she then dead and can it be That I can live to write her Elegy I hoped since 't was not to my Soul deny'd To sympathize in all the pain Which she tho long did well sustain T' have carry'd on the sympathy and dy'd But Death was so o'rpleas'd I see At this rich spoil that she neglected me IV. Yet has sh ' of all things made me bare But Life nor was it kindness here to spare So when th' Almighty would t' inform mankind His Eastern Hero's patience try With the Extreams of misery He gave this Charge to the malicious Fiend Of all Life's Blessings him deprive Vex him with all thy Plagues but let him live V. Yet I will live sweet Soul to save Thy name since thee I cannot from the grave I will not of this burthen Life complain Tho tears than verses faster flow Tho I am plung'd in grief and woe And like th' inspired Sibylls write in pain To dye for Friends is thought to be Heroic but I 'll Life endure for thee VI. 'T is just since I in thee did live That thou should'st Life and Fame from me receive But how shall I this Debt of Justice pay The Colours of my Poetry Are all too dead to Copy thee 'T will be Abuse the best that I can say Nature that wrought thy curious frame Will find it hard to draw again the same VII In Council the Almighty sate When he did man his Master-piece create His Agent Nature did the same for thee In making thee she wrought for Fame And with slow progress drew thy frame As he that painted for Eternity In her best Mould she did thee cast But thou wast over-wrought and made too fine to last VIII Thy Soul the Saint of this fair Shrine Was pure without Alloy and all divine Active and nimble as Aethereal light Kind as the Angels are above Who live on Harmony and Love The Rays thou shott'st were warm as well as bright So mild so pleasing was thy fire That none could envy and all must admire IX Sickness to whose strong siege resign The best of natures did but set forth thine Wisely thou did'st thy passions all Controul And like a Martyr in the fire Devout and patient did'st expire Pains could expel but not untune thy Soul. Thou bore'st them all so Moderately As if thou mean'st to teach how I should mourn for thee X. No wonder such a noble mind Her way again to Heaven so soon could find Angels as 't is but seldom they appear So neither do they make long stay They do but visit and away T is pain for them t' endure our too gross Sphere We could not hope for a Reprieve She must dye soon that made such hast to live XI Heaven did thy lovely presence want And therefore did so early thee transplant Not'cause he dar'd not trust thee longer here No such sweet Innocence as thine To take a Stain was too divine But sure he Coveted to have thee there For meaner Souls he could delay Impatient for thine he would not stay XII The Angels too did covet thee T' advance their Love their Bliss their Harmony They 'd lately made an Anthem to their King An Anthem which contain'd a part All sweet and full of Heavenly Art Which none but thy Harmonious Soul could sing 'T was all Heaven's Vote thou should'st be gone To fill th' Almighty's Quire and to adorn his Throne XIII Others when gone t' eternal rest Are said t' augment the number of the Blest Thou dost their very Happiness improve Out of the Croud they single thee Fond of thy sweet society Thou wast our Darling and art so above Why should we of thy loss Complain Which is not only thine but Heaven's gain XIV There dost thou sit in Bliss and light Whilest I thy praise in mournful numbers write There dost thou drink at pleasures virgin Spring And find'st no leisure in thy Bliss Ought to admire below but this How I can mourn when thou dost Anthems sing Thy pardon my sweet Saint I implore My Soul ne'r disconform'd from thine before XV. Nor will I now My tears shall flow No more I will be blest ' cause thou art so I 'll borrow Comfort from thy happy state In Bliss I 'll sympathize with thee As once I did in misery And by Reflection will be Fortunate I 'll practise now what 's done above And by thy happy state my own improve The Resignation I. LOng have I view'd long have I thought And held with trembling hand this bitter Draught 'T was now just to my lips applied Nature shrank in and all my Courage dy'd But now Resolv'd and firm I 'll be Since Lord 't is mingled and reach'd out by thee II. I 'll trust my great Physitian 's skill I know what he prescribes can ne'r be ill To each disease he knows what 's fit I own him wise and good and do submit I 'll now no longer grieve
was so pronounc'd and consequently they both own the Truth of the foremention'd Principle that that choice which is best is not to be rescinded 18. This being firm all the business in question now will be whether he that is Holy has made the best choice or no. And if it shall appear that he has then by the Principle just now laid down he ought not nay he cannot be so much a Contradiction to himself as to rescind it Now to convince him that he has made the best choice I desire him to consider 1st that he has chosen that which God had chosen for him before so that his choice stands recommended to him by the Authority of infinite and unerring wisdom And this is foundation enough to warrant a certain tho implicit perswasion that it must needs be best for him I say best for him for God being already possess'd of all possible perfection cannot act any thing for any self-advantage and therefore whatsoever he does is for the good of his Creatures For there is this difference as Divine Plato excellently well observes between the Divine love and created love that the one springs from Indigency and the other from fullness and redundancy And therefore as God did not at first speak this world into being to raise himself a monument of Power and divine Architecture so neither does he govern the Rational part of it by the Precepts of Religion out of any self-design as if he feasted his nostrils with the perfumes of the Altar or his ears with the accents of an Hallelujah For can a man be profitable to God as he that is wise may be profitable to himself Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous or is it gain to him that thou makest thy way perfect No certainly and therefore when he chalk'd out the ways of Righteousness and Holiness for man to walk in it could not be for any self end but purely for the good of man and consequently if infinite wisdom be to be trusted it must be his best choice to be Holy. 19. Secondly let him consider that the Practice of Religion consults a man's whole interest and partly of its own nature and partly by divine constitution tends to make him happy in all his capacitys and consequently must needs be his best choice As for impious and unjust Practises if they do at any time promote a man's private and secular interest yet 't is always both at the expence of the public and of his own eternal welfare and then what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own Soul But now this is the peculiar gain of godliness that it has the promise both of this life and of that which is to come that it conduces to our advantage both here and hereafter Interest and Duty are immediatly link'd together in this life and every Vertue has a natural Sanction of Reward and Punishment respectively attending it as I could easily demonstrate but that it has been already done by many excellent hands and particularly with Mathematic evidence by a late writer of our own And altho it happen somtimes through the unreasonableness and injustice of men that Duty and Interest interfere and that Vertue be defeated of the Portion she is naturally endow'd with yet she shall recover her own again at the great Assize at the day of the revelation of the righteous Judgments of God. And altho instead of being rewarded it be our fortune to suffer for righteousness sake yet we Christians know that it entitles us to one of our Saviours Beatitudes and we are also well assured from one whose case it was to be so dealt with that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealâ—d and that our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory So that whatever difficultys and hardships Religion may somtimes engage a man in yet when the whole account is cast up he will find the Practise of Religion as gainful as the belief of it is rational that to be Holy is his best choice and that he has infinite reason to pray in the words of Balaam Let me die the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his 20. And now one would think that one who has so great and so apparent reason for his choice as the Religious man has should not easily be brought to retract it and say with those in Malachi it is vain to serve God and what profit is it that I have kept his ordinances But because 't is observ'd to be the Nature of Man to be more strongly affected with Punishments than Rewards I shall for his better establishment in the purposes of Holiness present him with the 2d general Consideration which is that if notwithstanding the excellency of his choice he does retract it he will not only lose the advantages of it but also incur an opposite portion of misery and that in greater measures than other sinners 21. That he will lose the advantages of his first and best choice is plain from the whole tenour of the Gospel Perseverance to the end being the express condition of Salvation And that he will incur an opposite portion of misery is plain from the double Sanction of Rewards and Punishments wherewith God has bound us to the observance of his otherwise sufficiently profitable Laws And altho this be sufficient in the severest trials to preserve us from Apostasy and when flames of fire surround us to secure our footing in the Holy ground yet thus far is but to dye the common death of sinners and to be visited after the visitation of the Impenitent But now if the Lord make a new thing and the Desertor of Piety be punish'd in a greater measure than other sinners then shall ye understand that this man has provoked the Lord. 22. And that he shall be so punish'd is the peculiar consideration which I shall now insist upon and which I prove from the heinousness of his crime Apostasy having in it many degrees of evil beyond the common state of sin For if after they have escaped the Pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have kuown the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment deliver'd unto them 23. But to represent the heinousness of Apostasy a little more particularly and that this sin above all others may appear to be exceeding sinful let me desire the unthinking man to consider 1st that he that falls back from a course of holy living does in a special manner grieve the holy Spirit of God. He sacrilegiously takes that
Creation tho collected together into Extract and Spirit by the Chymistry of its great Author would be insufficient to afford me perfect Satisfaction but that 't is not in the Power of him that is Omnipotent to Create any good that can satisfy my Desires any more than to create a Body that shall fill Immense space And consequently that 't is impossible that any created good should be the end of man. The Prayer MY God My Creator who hast made all things for the present Entertainment but nothing for the End of Man grant I may ever justly discern between the goodness and the vanity of thy Creatures that I may not either by not heeding to the former become unthankful or by not heeding to the latter become Idolatrous O keep this Conviction still awake in me how insufficient all created good is towards true Felicity that I may not any longer with the mistaken Votaries of thy Son's Sepulcher seek the Living among the Dead Light in the Regions of Darkness and that I may no longer labour for that which is not bread Let me not add care labour and toil to the misery of unquench'd Thirst and unsatisfy'd Desires but since I am certain never to find Rest in the bosom of thy Creation grant I may be so wise at least as not to weary my self more in the fruitless persuit of it Withdraw I beseech thee my expectations of Happiness from all the works of thy hands and fix them there only where there is no disappointment or delusion even in the true Center of all Desire for the sake of thy tender compassions Amen Contemplation the Fourth That God who is the Author of man is likewise his true End and Center 1. WHen I Contemplate the Nature of man and consider how the Desire of Happiness is interwoven with it that Love is strong as Death and importunate as the Grave that there is a vehement and constant Verticity in the Soul towards perfect good which begins assoon and is as immortal as her self and withall how disproportionately this Amorous disposition of the Soul is gratify'd by any entertainment whether domestic or forreign she can meet with in the Circle of created good I find it necessary to conclude that the great Being who commanded me to exist is so every way perfect and all-sufficient as to answer that vast stock of desires our Natures come fraught withall into the world since otherwise which is absurd to suppose of all the Creatures in it Man would be the most miserable 2. For what man of thoughts is there who after a thorough Conviction that he can neither get rid of his desires nor among the Provisions of Nature have them fully gratify'd would not immediatly throw up his Title to Immortality if he thought himself arriv'd to the Meridian of his Happiness and that he must never expect to be in a better Condition than he is For to have enlarg'd desires and nothing to satisfy them is such a contrivance for misery that 't is thought by some to be the Portion of Hell and to make up the very Formality of Damnation 3. But to our great Consolation 't is wholly in our own power whether it shall be always so with us or no. There is a Being whose perfections are answerable to our Desires He that made us can satisfy every Appetite he has planted in us and he that is Happy in reflecting upon himself can make us so too by the direct view of his Glory He can entertain all our facultys our understandings as he is Truth and our wills as he is goodness and that in the Highest degree because he is infinite in both He can more than employ all our Powers in their utmost Elevation for he is every way Perfect and all-sufficient yea he is altogether Lovely 4. But to evince more particularly and distinctly that God is the true End of man I shall consider whether the conditions requisite to his being so are found in him Now these can be no other than these two in general 1st that he be absolutely good and perfect in himself so as to be able to fill and satisfy the whole capacity of our Desires and 2ly that he be willing that man shall partake of this his Transcendent Fullness so as actually one time or other to fix the weight of his Appetite and become his Center If therefore these two conditions are found in God he has all that is requisite to make him our End. And that they are is now to be made appear 5. First then that God is absolutely good and perfect in himself so as to be able to fill and satisfy the whole capacity of our desires There are several Topics in the Metaphysics from whence I might infer this but I shall confine my present speculation to this one that God is the First Being This is a very reasonable Postulatum it being too obvious to need any proof that there is a First Being or that by the First Being is meant God. It remains therefore that we try what advantage may be made of it 6. When therefore I consider God as the First Being I am from thence in the first place led to conclude that he has eminently and in a most excellent manner in himself all kinds and degrees of perfection that exist loosely and seperately in all second Beings And that not only because the Effect cannot possibly exceed the vertue of the cause any more than it can proceed from no cause which is the ground Cartesius builds upon when he proves the existence of God from the objective reality of his Idea but because I further observe that in the Scale of Being all ascension is by addition and that what is dispers'd in the Inferiour is collected and that after a more excellent manner in the Superiour Thus in Vegetables there is bare life in Sensitives Vegetative life and sense in Rationals Vegetative life sense and reason and all this either formally or eminently with Intelligence in Angels And since there is such an Harmonical Subordination among second Beings so that the Superiour contains all the perfection of the Inferiour with a peculiar excellence of its own superadded I think I have fair grounds to conclude that the absolutely First Being has in his rich Essence all the scatter'd excellencies of the subordinate ones in a more perfect manner than they themselves have with some peculiar excellence of his own besides Now tho a Being thus accumulatively perfect and excellent would be beyond all Conception great and glorious and would employ an Eternity in Contemplation and Love we have yet seen but an Arme of this Sea of Beauty and been enlightned only with the Back-parts of his Glory For if God be the First Being as is here supposed I may further conclude that he is also the First Good Good and Being being convertible and every thing having so much Good in it as it has of Entity and no more and if he be the First
Life so the most Happy but that it may become Happier unless somthing more be comprehended in the Word Vertue then the Stoics Peripatetics and the generality of other Moralists understand by it For with them it signifies no more but only such a firm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or habitude of the Will to good whereby we are constantly disposed notwithstanding the contrary tendency of our Passions to perform the necessary Offices of Life This they call Moral or Civil Vertue and although this brings always Happiness enough with it to make ample amends for all the difficulties which attend the practise of it Yet I am not of Opinion that the greatest Happiness attainable by Man in this Life consists in it But there is another and a higher Sense of the Word which frequently occurs in the Pythagorean and Platonic Writings viz. Contemplation and the Vnitive way of Religion And this they call Divine Vertue I allow of the distinction but I would not be thought to derive it from the Principle as if Moral Vertue were acquired and this infused for to speak ingeniously infused Vertue seem'd ever to me as great a Paradox in Divinity as Occult qualities in Philosophy but from the nobleness of the Object the Object of the former being Moral good and the Object of the latter God himself The former is a State of Proficiency the latter of Perfection The former is a State of difficulty and contention the latter of ease and ferenity The former is employ'd in mastering the Passions and regulating the actions of common Life the latter in Divine Meditation and the extasies of Seraphic Love. He that has only the former is like Moses with much difficulty climbing up to the Holy Mount but he that has the latter is like the same Person conversing with God on the serene top of it and shining with the Rays of anticipated Glory So that this latter supposes the acquisition of the former and consequently has all the Happiness retaining to the other besides what it adds of its own This is the last Stage of Human Perfection the utmost round of the Ladder whereby we ascend to Heaven one Step higher is Glory Here then will I build my Tabernacle for it is good to be here Here will I set up my Pillar of Rest here will I fix for why should I travel on farther in pursuit of any greater Happiness since Man in this Station is but a little lower than the Angels one remove from Heaven Here certainly is the greatest happiness as well as Perfection attainable by Man in this State of imperfection For since that Happiness which is absolutely perfect and compleat consists in the clear and intimate Vision and most ardent Love of God hence we ought to take our Measures and conclude that to be the greatest Happiness attainable in this State which is the greatest participation of the other And that can be nothing else but the Vnitive way of Religion which consists of the Contemplation and Love of God. I shall say somthing of each of these severally and somthing of the Vnitive way of Religion which is the result of both and so shut up this Discourse 27. By Contemplation in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we understand an application of the Understanding to some truth But here in this place we take the word in a more peculiar sense as it signifies an habitual attentive steddy application or conversion of the Spirit to God and his Divine Perfections Of this the Masters of Mystic Theology commonly make fifteen Degrees The first is Intuition of Truth the second is a Retirement of all the Vigour and Strength of the Faculties into the innermost parts of the Soul the third is Spiritual Silence the fourth is Rest the fifth is Union the sixth is the Hearing of the still Voice of God the seventh is Spiritual Slumber the eighth is Ecstacy the ninth is Rapture the tenth is the Corporeal Appearance of Christ and the Saints the eleventh is the Imaginary Appearance of the Same the twelfth is the Intellectual Vision of God the thirteenth is the Vision of God in Obscurity the fourteenth is an admirable Manifestation of God the fifteenth is a clear and intuitive Vision of him such as St. Austin and Tho. Aquinas attribute to St. Paul when he was wrapt up into the third Heaven Others of them reckon seven degrees only viz. Taste Desire Satiety Ebriety Security Tranquility but the name of the seventh they say is known only to God. 28. I shall not stand to examine the Scale of this Division perhaps there may be a kind of a Pythagoric Superstition in the number But this I think I may affirm in general that the Soul may be wound up to a most strange degree of Abstraction by a silent and steddy Contemplation of God. Plato defines Contemplation to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Solution and a Separation of the Soul from the Body And some of the severer Platonists have been of Opinion that 't is possible for a Man by mere intention of thought not only to withdraw the Soul from all commerce with the Senses but even really to separate it from the Body to untwist the Ligaments of his Frame and by degrees to resolve himself into the State of the Dead And thus the Jews express the manner of the Death of Moses calling it Osculum Oris Dei the Kiss of God's Mouth That is that he breath'd out his Soul by the mere Strength and Energy of Contemplation and expired in the Embraces of his Maker A Happy way of Dying How ambitious should I be of such a conveyance were it practicable How passionately should I joyn with the Church in the Canticles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him Kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouth Cant. 1. 2. 29. But however this be determin'd certain it is that there are exceeding great Measures of Abstraction in Contemplation so great that somtimes whether a Man be in the Body or out of the Body he himsel can hardly tell And consequently the Soul in these Praeludiums of Death these Neighbourhoods of Separation must needs have brighter glimpses and more Beatific Ideas of God than in a state void of these Elevations and consequently must love him with greater Ardency Which is the next thing I am to consider 30. The love of God in general may be considered either as it is purely intellectual or as it is a Passion The first is when the Soul upon an apprehension of God as a good delectable and agreeable Object joyns her self to him by the Will. The latter is when the motion of the Will is accompany'd with a sensible Commotion of the Spirits and an estuation of the Blood. Some I know are of Opinion that 't is not possible for a man to be affected with this sensitive Love of God which is a Passion because there is nothing in God which falls under our imagination and consequently the imagination being the only Medium
in the Subject whether as to person state or condition which may render it capable of Friendship according to the foremention'd Idea Now I say what these are may be easily collected from the Idea it self as will appear if we consider it distinctly according to those three Modifications and by applying the genus to each of them For 1st whereas Friendship is said to be Charity in a special manner intense hence I collect 1st that it cannot be but between good men because an ill man cannot have any true Charity much less such an intense degree of it as is requisite to Friendship So that Vertue in general is one Requisite 2ly hence I collect that a Friend must not be only according to the Character Lucan gives of Cato rigidi servator honesti rigidly vertuous and honest but he must be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of a liberal sweet obliging temper one of those good men of whom 't is said in Scripture by way of contradistinction to the Righteous or rigidly honest that some would even dare to dye for them For tho I may have common Charity nay more a great Esteem for a man of plain honesty and integrity yet I can never love him with that special intenseness of Affection which belongs to Friendship unless he be also of a beneficent kind and obsequious temper So that good nature is another requisite 3ly hence I collect that there must be also at least in a competent proportion an agreeableness of humours and manners for unless the materials be of an apt and correspondent figure the building can neither be compact nor lasting so that likeness of disposition is another Requisite 4. hence I collect that true Friendship cannot be among many For since our faculties are of a finite energy 't is impossible our love can be very intense when divided among many No the rays must be contracted to make them burn So that another Requisite is that the Terms of this Relation be few in Number 4. These are all the Requisites that I can think of at present deducible from the first part of the Idea viz. Charity in a special manner intense As for fidelity in retaining secrets constancy of Adherence and the like I think they are vertually included in the first Requisite it being hardly conceivable how a man can be good and vertuous that wants them But if you think the Reduction not so obvious you may if you please add them here in the fifth place as distinct Requisites 't will be all one Thus far of the Requisites deducible from the first part 5. To proceed Whereas it is further said that Friendship is a Benevolence that 's Mutual there is but one general Requisite deducible from this which is that all the other be found in both or if more in all the persons supposed to be Friends The third of which importing Relation will of necessity be so for all Similitude is mutual Lastly whereas 't is said that Friendship is a Benevolence mutually known all that will be Requisite upon this head is that the Persons who are to be confederated in this union have such opportunities of Converse or Correspondence that they may be satisfy'd of the Degree and Reality of each others love 6. Having thus stated the Idea of Friendship and from thence deduced all the necessary qualifications in the subject for its entertainment I think I may now from the Premises venture to affirm that there may be strict Friendship between Man and Wife For which of these Requisites is it that they must necessarily want As for your Objection taken from their inequality I grant Equality is wanting both as to Sex and as to Conjugal Relation but neither is all Equality necessary 'T is not absolutely necessary that Friends should stand upon a Level either in respect of Fortune State or Condition This sort of Equality I grant is a good Preparative for a more easy Introduction of Friendship and 't is also advantagious to the lastingness of it but yet 't is dispensable 'T is like levelling the ground betwixt two rivers it makes way for a more easy union but yet 't is possible from Earthquakes Floods or other contingencies they may be united without it The only equality that is necessary is an equality of dispositions an harmony of affections but this may be in persons of unequal fortunes and conditions I confess there can be no such thing as Friendship between persons of different quality if the Superiour takes advantage of his preheminence or Authority for then 't is true what the Poet says Si vis Sexte coli non amabo 7. But then 't is not the being invested with superiority that is inconsistent with Friendship for then Kings who have no equals but those of other Kingdom 's with whom they cannot intimately converse would be the miserablest Creatures alive but the habitual use and exercise of it and the standing upon its priviledges 8. But there is no necessity that it should be so Friendship may level those whom Fortune has made unequal and the greatest Monarch in the world may find Opportunities to descend from the throne of majesty to the familiar Caresses of a dear Favorite and unking himself a while for the more glorious title of Friend 'T is but to apply this to the particular case in hand and you have a Solution to your Question And now Sir from the Theory of Friendship I shall most readily descend to the Practise of it when ever you please to employ the service of Dear Sir Your most real Friend and Servant J. Norris The Copy of a Letter written to my Friend F. B. concerning the death of my dear Neece M. C. My dear Friend 1. SInce 't is one of the happinesses of Friendship to Communicate sorrow as well as to share in joy that the one may be increas'd and the other diminish'd I cannot but betake my self to this easy refuge being at present in such a condition as will need more relief and support than I can either give to my self or receive from others 2. The truth is should I indulge my passion I might find perhaps as much cause as he that did it to curse the day of my Nativity My pretty little dear Neece and Scholar she whom I loved admired and delighted in she for whose sake I once thought life as now I think death a Blessing she how shall I bring out that dismal word is dead 3. She is and has left a strange emptiness in my Soul so large was the room she took up there which nothing of this world 's good can ever fill I must needs own that I never was so deeply affected with any trouble in my life nor did I ever think that it could be in the power of any temporal loss so much to discompose and unspirit my Soul. It is not a transient gust of passion which like a little cloud would either soon blow over or spend it self in a