the power of created Agents are so equally inconsiderable in reference to one that is Infinite that Omnipotence may make even the World without Toyl Secondly To make this Shadow I neither use nor need Colours nor Pencil I digg no Quarries nor fell no Trees to perfect this work and employ no Materials about it As little had God any Pre-existent matter to contrive into this vast Fabrick Our Creed proclaims him the Creator of Heaven and Earth the Angel that holds the Book in the Revelations describes him resemblingly and the Apostle tells us That through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things that do appear And indeed it became an Omnipotent Architect not to be beholden but to himself for his Materials He that calleth things that are not as though they were makes them by calling them He brought forth Light out of Darkness by calling for Light and there was Light he spake it and it was done says the Psalmist and the VVorld was if I may so express it but the real Eccho of that productive FIAT The next thing I was considering was that to destroy this Shadow I needed neither Sword nor Pistol the withdrawing of my self under the Neighbouring Trees being sufficient to make the Shadow disappear and leave behind as little shape of it as if there never had been any And thus as the VVorld could not have had a beginning without having been provided by God so for the continuance of the Being it enjoys it depends altogether and every moment upon the will and pleasure of its first Author of whom Saint Paul tells us That in Him we not only live and move but have our being and to the same purpose I think one may allege that place where the Scripture says of God not only That he has made Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their Hoast the Earth and all things that are thereon the Seas and all that is therein but adds That he preserveth them all as our Translatours English it for in the Hebrew I remember it is Vivifies them all that is sustains them in that improper Kind of Life or that Existence which whilst their Nature lasts belongs unto it so that if God should at any time withdraw his preserving Influence the World would presently Relapse or Vanish into its first Nothing as there are many Notions of the Mind such as that of Genus and Species which are so the Creatures of Reason that they have no longer an Existence in the nature of things than they are actually upheld therein by being actually thought upon by some Intellectual Being And God is so the preserver of all his Creatures that one may say of the rest as the Psalmist speaks of many of them where addressing himself to God he says Thou hidest thy Face they are troubled Thou takest away their Breath they Dye and return to their Dust Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are Created c. I was also taking notice pursues Eusebius that to produce what changes I pleas'd in all or any part of this Shadow I needed not employ either Emissaries or Instruments nor so much as rowse up my self to any difficult Exertion of my own strength since by only moving this or that part of my own Body I could change at pleasure in the twinkling of an Eye the figure and posture of what part of the Shadow I thought fit And thus when God had a mind to work those Miracles we most admire as when at Josuah's prayer he stop'd the course of the Sun and at Hezekiah's made him go back we Men are apt to imagine that these prodigious Effects must needs cost their Author much and that he must strain his Power and be necessitated to a troublesome Exertion of his Omnipotence to be able to produce them whereas to that Divine Agent those things that would be to all others impossible are so far from being difficult and the Creatures have so absolute and continual a dependance on him that 't is as easie for him to effect the greatest Alterations in them as to resolve to do so And even those Miraculous changes of the course of Nature that do the most astonish us do so naturally and necessarily flow from the Motions of his own Will that to decree and to execute whether or no they require powers otherwise than Notionally differing are alike easie to him And that irresistible Agent finds as little more difficulty to produce the greatest changes among the Creatures than to produce the least as I find it harder to move the whole Arm of my Shadow than to move its little Finger And this consideration subjoyns Eusebius might be methought consolatory enough to his Church who by reposing an entire trust in her God entitles her self to the protection of him that can as easily produce changes in the VVorld as resolve on them and can with the same facility destroy her and his greatest Enemies as decree their Destruction I was also further considering says Eusebius That though the little wat'ry Bodies that make up this River and consequently those that glided along by me were in a restless Motion the hindmost always urging on and chasing those that were before them yet my Shadow was as compleat and stable upon the fugitive Stream as if it had been projected on the water of a Pond or rather as if all the parts of VVater whereon 't was Visible had been fixt and moveless of which I made this Application that though we may say with Solomon in a larger sence than his That one Generation goes and another comes the VVorld being maintained by perpetual Vicissitudes of Generation and Corruption yet the Wisdome and Providence of God does so far confine the Creatures to the establish'd Laws of Nature that though vast Multitudes of Individualls are always giving place to others yet the particular Creatures which do at any time make up the VVorld do always exhibit the like Picture of its divine Original But yet lastly says Eusebius I was considering too that though this Shadow have some kind of resemblance to that whose Shadow it is yet the Picture is but very superficial and obscure And if we should suppose the Fishes that inhabit this Stream to be endued with reason they could even from Lindamors shadow but collect that the Original is a Man and not a Brute but they could not hence make any discovery of what manner of Man he is nor know any thing of his Virtues or his Thoughts or his Intention nor consequently have that Notion of him that I pursues Eusebius turning to him and a little Smiling on him do harbour and cherish who having the happiness to converse with him have the opportunity and the justice to admire him Thus where I formerly ventured to call the VVorld Gods Shadow I did not forget how imperfect a Picture a Shadow is wont to be And
me was a Reflection on the great mistake of those that think a Death-Bed the fittest and opportunest place to begin Repentance in But sure these Men are very little acquainted either with the disadvantages of a dangerous Sickness or the nature of Repentance 'T is true that Sin and Death do more easily frighten one when they are look'd on as both together But I much doubt whether the being frighted by Hell be sufficient to give a Man a well-grounded hope of Heaven For when we see Sin and Torment at one view and so near one to another 't is not so easie to be sure which of the two it is that as we presume scares the Sinner towards Heaven And surely Repentance which ought to be the change of the whole Man and in some sense the work of the whole Life is very improperly begun when Men have finished that course which it should have guided them in Nor have Men cause to presume that when God is severely punishing them for their Sins he will vouchsafe them so great a Grace as that of Repentance which they would none of till it could not make them serviceable to him And as for the oppornity 't is hop'd an expiring State may give Men for Repentance they must needs be great Strangers to great Sicknesses that can promise themselves so unlikely a matter VVho can secure them that the Acuteness of the Disease will not invade the Brain and as Deliriums and Phrensies are not unfrequent in Feavers and other acute Diseases so in case they happen to persevere the VVretch'd patient is cast into a desperate condition ev'n on this side the Grave and as near as the Body is to its Dissolution the Man may be Dead a pretty while before it But supposing he escape these Accidents which make Repentance impossible a dangerous Sickness has other Circumstances enough to make it very uneasie For the Organical faculties of the Mind cannot but be dull'd and prejudic'd by the Discomposure of the Spirits by which their Functions are to be exercis'd and the sense of Pain the troublesome prescriptions of Physitians the loathsome and bitter Potions the weakning Operation of Physick the Languishments produced by want of Spirits the Restlessness proceeding from Heat and want of Sleep the distracting Importunity of those interested Persons especially if any of them be suspected to hover about the Dying Man's Bed as Birds of Prey that wait for a Carcass the Sighs and Tears of Friends and Relations that come to take their last Farewell and to Imbitter it The Lawyer that must be directed to draw up the VVill the Divine that must be allowed to say something concerning the Soul and the affrighted Conscience that alone brings more disquiet than all the rest put together do make a Dying Man's condition so Amazing so Dismal and so Distracting that to think this an Opportune time to begin such a work which may well enough imploy the whole Man in his calmest state of mind is a Madness as great as any that ev'n a Death-Bed can by the translation of the Humours into the Brain occasion For my part I think it so wild and so unadvisable a thing to put off the beginning to provide all Graces to a Death-Bed that I think it uneasie enough so much as to exercise then those that were acquir'd before Men being in that state commonly unable so much as to Reap the consolation they have been Sowing all along a pious Life And this Sophronia brings into my mind a consideration which being taken from the very nature of a Death-Bed Repentance should me-thinks very much deterr Men from resolving before hand to rely on it And it is this That granting those Socians and others to be mistaken that think so late a Repentance to come too late to be available yet the Dying Sinner though he may be kept from dispair of passing to Heaven can scarce in an ordinary way have a comfortable assurance of getting thither For though it be said That a true Repentance cannot come too late yet it is a hard thing to be certain that so late a Repentance is true Since Repentance confessedly importeth an abandoning and renouncing of Sin at least in Hearty purpose and resolution 't is very difficult for an habitual Sinner that remembers what vows and purposes of change of Life Sicknesses or Dangers have formerly induc'd him to make which were forgotten or violated when the apprehensions that occasion'd them were over 't is hard I say for such a One to be sure that his present Repentance is not of the same ignoble and uncurrent kind since he has no Experience to satisfie him that it would be ordinarily though not constantly prevalent over the opposite Temptations and since also which is mainly to be consider'd 't is so easie for a Man to mistake for the true hatred of Sin and the love of God a horrour of Sin springing from the present painfull sense of the Mischief procur'd by it together with the great fear of the approaching Torments that it threatens and a strong desire of going to Heaven when seeing himself unable to stay any longer on Earth he must get thither to escape Hell And as it is thus difficult when a Man already feels much Punishment for Sin and sees himself in danger of more to discern clearly upon what account it is that he is sorry for what he has committed so it must be certainly a state unspeakably anxious and uncomfortable to find ones self dragg'd to the Grave without knowing whether the last Trumpet shall call him thence to Heaven or to Hell And if he should be deceiv'd in judging of the Validity of his Repentance the fatal errour would be remediless and the mistake far sadder and more horrid than that of the Syrians who when they thought they were arriv'd Victorious at Dothan found themselves at the mercy of their Enemies in Samaria 2 Kings 6. 18. To conclude Sophronia he that resolves not to renounce his Sins till he thinks Christ ready to renounce him for them may very probably lose his Soul and has most certainly lost his Ingenuity and that will appear a very sad loss for a Man that being by Death denied the opportunities of actually leading a new and pious Life must derive his comfort from the assurance that he sincerely intends it MEDITATION XIV Upon the Apprehensions of a Relapse I Have now at length Eusebia by the goodness of God regain'd that measure of Health which makes the Doctor allow me to return to my former Studies and Recreations and Dyet and in a word to my wonted course of Life so that the Physitian having dismiss'd himself nothing seems more seasonable and pertinent to my present Condition than that of our Saviour to the Paralitick Man to whom he gave both Recovery and an Admonition which if he obey'd he found the more advantagious of the two Behold thou art made whole Sin no more least a worse thing come unto
though this dark Representation that God has vouchsaf'd Men of himself in the Universe be sufficient to convince us that it was not made by chance but produced by a Powerfull and Intelligent Being the eternal Power and God-head of the Great Author of Nature as the Scripture seems to teach us being manifested to attentive and rational Considerers in the visible productions of his Power and VVisdome yet how short and dim a Knowledge must they have of him that have no other than these Corporal Instructors How many of his glorious Attributes are there for whose Knowledge we must be beholden rather to his VVritten than his Created Word and how little will humane Intellects without Revelation discover of that manifold VVisdome of God which the Scripture teaches us That even to the Angels it must be made known by the Church And if those Illuminated persons such as Moses and Saint Paul himself who had both extraordinary Revelations from God and intimate Communion with him confessed that in this Life they saw him but Darkly and as it were in a Glass sure the Dim light of meer Nature will give us but extremely imperfect and detracting Idea's of him whom the like Limitedness of our Nature will allow us to know but very imperfectly in Heaven it self though as we shall there see him Face to Face our apprehensive Faculties will as well be inlarged as the dazling and ravishing Object be disclosed But says Eusebius though I forget that I am not in the Pulpit I hope you remember that I told you at first how little I pretended these kind of Reflections would endure a rigorous Philosophical Examen and that I am not so Indiscreet as to expect that they should work Conviction in an Infidel though I hope they may excite good Thoughts in a Believer These last words of our Friend being not followed by any other Lindamor having waited a while to ascertain himself that Eusebius had ended his Discourse began another by saying I perceive Eusebius with much more satisfaction than surprise that the same Subject and at the same time did as 't was fit suggest very differing considerations to you and me for whilst your Shadow afforded you the rise of sublime Speculations I was making but a moral Reflection upon mine For taking notice continues he that the Shade my Body projected near Noon was almost as much shorter than it as in the Morning it was longer prompted me to think how foolish it were for me who know by sure ways of measuring my own Statute that it is moderate enough not to be either proud of or complain'd of should imagine that I am either as Tall as a Gyant or as Low as a Dwarf because I see my Shadow either exceeding long or extreamly short and I was further considering pursues Lindamor that if Philosophers as well as the Vulgar have rightly called Fame or Glory the Shadow of Virtue it would be as irrational to estimate ones self not by the testimonies of ones Conscience which is the Authentick standard of Intrinsick worth but by the sickle Opinions of others which oftentimes flatter and oftner detract but very seldome give a just and impartial estimate of merit The Fame may have its encrease and decrements whilst the Person continues the same and loses nothing of substance with the Shadow And for a Man that should examine himself and judge of himself by his own designs and actions not other Mens words to suffer himself to be puff'd up by vulgar applause or dejected by unmerited censures were to mistake a Shadow for a Standard DISCOURSE VII Upon a Fall occasion'd by coming too near the Rivers Brink IT was not long after this that Eugenius chancing to spy a little Nook which seem'd to promise him a more convenient Station for his Angling he invited Lindamor to share the advantage with him and began to walk thitherward along the Rivers Brink which the abundant moisture of the Waters that glided by it had adorn'd with a pleasant Verdure But he had not marcht very far when chancing to tread on a place where the course of the Water had worn off the Bank and made it hollow underneath he found the Earth falter under him and could not hinder his Feet from slipping down with the Turf that betray'd him nor could he have escaped so had not his indeavours to cast the weight of his Body towards the Bank been assisted by Lindamor who though not so near the Brink as to be in danger was not so far off but that he was able to catch hold of him and draw him to the firm Land The noise that Lindamor made when he saw his Friend falling quickly drew Eusebius and me thither where after I had a while made my self merry with the Disaster I found to have been so harmless Eusebius who arriv'd there a little later as'd him how he came to fall and Eugenius answering that he thought he had trod upon firm Ground because he saw the Bank look to the very edge as if it differ'd not from the rest of the Field which it terminated Eusebius took occasion from thence to tell him You may from this take notice that 't is not safe Travelling upon the confines of what is Lawfull and what is Sinfull no more than upon the Borders of two Hostile Nations VVhen we suppose that thus far we may go towards that which is Sinfull without committing it we are wont with more boldness than considerateness to conclude that we need not scruple to venture or rather that we shall run no venture having firm footing all the way But 't is much to be feared that when we allow our selves to come as far as the utmost Verge of what is Lawfull and to do that which in the Casuists Language is tantum non to Sin the natural Proclivity of our minds to Evil which carries them downwards as weight does our Bodies will sometime or other make us find hollow Ground where we presume to find it firm He that to Day will go towards Sin as far as he thinks he may is in danger of going to Morrow further than he should And it is far more easie for him to be secure than to be safe that walks upon the Brink of a Precipice He was a wise Man that as soon as he had forbidden his Son to enter into the path of the Wicked and to go in the way of Evil men subjoyns as the best course to conform to the Prescription avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away God's indulgence leaves us a Latitude to comply with our Infirmities and Necessities and to give us opportunities of exercising a pious Jealousie over our selves and of shewing how much we fear to offend him But a wary Christian will say in this case as Saint Paul did in almost a like All things are Lawfull for me but all things are not Expedient And he must often go further than he can with Prudence that will
Nature unlawful may be made so by circumstances and if so then I fear That that can be no other than ill which makes a Man needlessy disable himself to do good The Apostle that discountenanc'd Woman's wearing of Gold or precious things upon their Bodies would sure have opposed their having more sumptuous Ornaments upon their Walls These cannot pray for us but the poor and distressed they keep us from relieving may either successfully pray to God for us or cry to him against us The Scripture that represents Dives in Hell without saying that he oppressed or defrauded any gives no other account of his Doom than that living at a high rate and going richly dress'd he neglected to relieve the starving poor A few such Closets as this Ladies might be easily enlarged and contrived into an Hospital A small part of these Superfluities would relieve the necessities of many Families and a liberal Heart might purchase Heaven at an easier rate than the furniture of this Closet cost the Owner of it Nor is this practice so unallied to a fault as to escape a punishment even in this World these Courtiers of Applause being oftentimes reduced to live in want even in the midst of a plentiful Fortune these costly trifles so engrossing all that they can spare that they must sometimes deny themselves things convenient and perhaps almost necessary to flaunt it out with those that are neither the one nor the other and being frequently enough fain to immolate their own inclinations and desires though perchance strong and innocent to their Vanity And those that have once found the happiness there is in making others happy will think their Treasure better bestowed in feeding hungry Mouths than idle Eyes The costly Practice I am yet censuring does not onely offend Charity but starve it by substracting from it that which should feed it and enable it to act like it self And for my part I think he that devises and by his Example brings Credit to a new Expensive way of Vanity does really destroy more Poor than if he usurped an Alms-house or ruined an Hospital And by the ill President he leaves he takes the way to be uncharitable even after Death and so do harm when Misers and Usurers themselves are wont by their Legacies to do some good To conclude 't is no very Christian practice to disobey the Dictates of Piety without having so much to plead for so doing as the pretence of following the Dictates of Custom And 't is a great deal better to be without a gay Closet than to be without Charity which loveliest of Christian virtues she must sure very much want that will needlessly begin an new Example to give a bad one REFLECTION X. Upon his seeing a Lark stoop to and caught with Day-nets Eusebius Lindamor Euseb POor Bird thou wert just now so high upon the Wing that the tir'd Gazers fear'd thou hadst lost thy self in Heaven and in thy fatal stooping seem'st to have brought us thence a Message that so rellishes of that place that I should be troubl'd to see thee so rudely entertain'd if that Circumstance were not necessary to the Instructions of thy Message some Birds you know Lindamor we usually beguile with Chaff and others are generally drawn in by appropriated Baits and by the Mouth not the Eye But the aspiring Lark seems compos'd of more sprightly and refin'd Materials she is ever a Natural though no Native Persian and the Sun makes not a cloudless Visit to our Horizon which that grateful Creature gives not a welcome to both by Notes which could he hear them he would think worthy of him and by a flight as aspiring as if she meant he should hear them and in a word so conspicuous is this Creatures fondness of Light that Fowlers have devis'd a way to catch her by it and pervert it to her Ruine For placing broken Looking-glasses upon a moveable Frame betwixt their Nets the unwary Bird while she is gazing upon that glittering Light the Glass reflects and sporting her self in those Beams which derive a new Glory from their very being broken heedlessly gives into the Reach of the surprizing Nets which suddenly cover her and which the Light it self kept her from seeing The Devil is like this Fowler Lindamor and you or I had perhaps resembl'd the unhappy Lark if sometimes Providence did not both graciously and seasonably interpose and ev'n when we were come near enough to have been cover'd by the Nets rescu'd us from them for it has ever been that old Serpent's Policy and practice to take the exactest measure of our Inclinations that he may skilfully suit his Temptations to them well knowing that that Dexterity gains him a Devil within us that conspires with him without us to make us Instances of that Truth which represents Things divided against themselves as ruinous If therefore the Tempter find by Experience that you are indispos'd to be wrought upon by common Temptations to forget the Practice of Religion that you have Unconcern'dness enough not to be much distracted with the empty and trifling Chaff Youth is wont to be caught with which perhaps seldome employ any of your Thoughts so much as those of Scorn and Pity that the very Gain and solider Goods of this World for which many thought wise Men lose those of the next cannot make you so greedy nor so fond of them as he desires If I say the Devil have sufficiently observ'd how uneasie it were to intice you with common Baits he will alter his Method strait and attempt to catch you with Light He knows as well as I do that you have a Curiosity or rather a Greediness of Knowledge that is impatient of being confin'd by any other Limits than those of Knowledge it self and accordingly seldome or perhaps never disturbing or frightning you he will let you freely sport your self about the glittering Intellectual Glass Men call Philosophy and suffer you not onely to gaze upon all its pieces and survey a pretty Number but peradventure pry into more than one and among so numerous and delighting Objects I fear that if you will frankly own what my own Guilt makes me suspect you of you must confess That he had made you so share your Time that you should scarce have left your self any for Heavenly Themes and the Meditation of Death which consequently might have then surpris'd you had it invaded you if Providence had not mercifully snatch'd you out from between the Nets you were allur'd to before you were quite involv'd in them and by Sickness or else by Means in other cases so unlikely as outward Distractions call'd your Thoughts home by driving them away from those enchanting Studies whose Light might much likelier have betrai'd you into the Net than have shewn it you Lind. Though I am not surpris'd to hear Eusebius yet I am glad to hear a Scholar talk at this rate and believe with you that many a one that was neither Crow nor
to be seen as to see And if the Embassadour be what a man of his Employment should be and what some say he is a Person acquainted with the Manners of Men he cannot but know That we as other's Nations value our own Fashions enough to look upon Men disguis'd by the Russian dress as little better than Anticks if not as some new kind of Northern Animals But for all this Gazing throng of Gawdy spectators that were able to put an ordinary Stranger out of Countenance to appear in a Habit differing from theirs the Embassadour and those that come along with him think it not fit to decline the Russian habit or Ceremonies for the English but keep to the Ceremonies us'd in Muscovy as strictly as if the Monarch of it that sent them hither saw them here and are not discourag'd from this Manly proceeding by seeing themselves star'd at for it by a number of Gawly spectators that wear Cloaths and use Ceremonies so differing from theirs And what ever those may think of the Embassadour that are wont to estimate Men by the fashionableness of their Cloaths yet the Wiser and more Intelligent do not blame him for refusing to disparage the Fashions of his own people by appearing asham'd of them but do rather think it prudent in him to prefer the pleasing of his Master and his own Country-men before the gratifying of Strangers since 't is not here but at home that he expects the recompence of his Behaviour and Embassy Thus when a Christian who belongs to a Celestial King and whose Citizen-ship is in Heaven being but a Stranger upon Earth converses among the Men of the World though in Matters indifferent there is oft-times requir'd by Prudence as much of Compliance as is allow'd by Innocence yet when there happens an Occasion wherein he cannot comply with the deprav'd Customs of those among whom he Lives without disobeying Him for whom he Lives and whose Servant he is or doing something that would derogate from the Dignity of a Person related to such a Master he will then less consider what may be thought of him by a Multitude than what Account he is to render to him who has forbidden Men to follow a Multitude to do Evil. And as he knows That his reward would be much less than he reckons upon if it were a thing to be receiv'd on Earth not in Heaven So how strange and unfashionable soever his Conformity to the Orders of his own Soveraign may appear he chuses rather to displease Men than God and acts as both seeing and being seen by Him that is Invisible A Continuation of the Discourse ANd this ought to be more easie to him than their Singularity is to the Russians I have been mentioning for whereas these if they be knowing and impartial refuse our Modes and Rites not because they are worse but onely because they are other than those of their Country he refuses to conform to the forbidden fashions of this World not for their being different from those of the Kingdome he belongs to but for their being bad and condemn'd by Him that cannot err Whereas of the opposite practices the same infallible Judge pronounces by the mouth of a Person by him inspir'd that these are the good things and the profitable unto Men. And whereas these Strangers see nothing in this magnificent Assembly whose Fashions they decline fit to be despised but see some Persons in it to whom they pay a great respect and who deserve it upon another account than that of their wearing Crowns those that are Loyal to Virtue have cause to look upon those they refuse to be like with a noble and just Indignation as Persons that have degraded themselves and by unworthy Practices blemish'd and almost forfeited the Dignity of their Nature and the nobler Title of Christians And whereas these Muscovites are morally certain that we shall never prefer their Fashions to our own the Christian has as great an assurance that those whose Practices he dissents from will one day repent that theirs dissented from his and will wish they had imitated what they now seem to scorn And however when he shall come to the celestial City he belongs to he will be in no danger to be derided for the sake of Piety since those that deride Piety will not be admitted there And as these Russians could not take a better way than that of not sneaking to avoid the having their Rites and Persons undervalu'd so for a Christian not to blush at his unfashionablest Practices seems the hopefullest way to keep them and him from being scorn'd especially with those who having themselves no Quality better than Confidence value it most in others And sure it were a very unlikely way to keep others from despising the Customs of the Heavenly Jerusalem for him that belongs to it to appear asham'd of them himself Nor have pious Persons cause to be out of Countenance at the singularity ev'n of a strictly virtuous Deportment since being as the Scripture tells us such Men in general are fellow Citizens with the Saints and Domesticks of God they cannot justly be blam'd if they aspire to be as like as they can here to those whom they desire and hope to be perfectly like hereafter And if the Angels as the Scripture in several places seems to intimate are witnesses of our Actions the smallest number of unfashionable good Men may upon that score say to one another as the Prophet did to his Servant upon the account of the Heavenly Host that surrounded him Fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them And the approbation of these illuminated happy and glorious Spirits is sure more considerable than that of mortal and which is worse of sensual Men whether we consider their Number or their Judgments And however the Day will come when those that despise his Singularity will envy his Happiness one welcoming smile from Christ will make him amends for all the scornful smiles of Sinful men And the sentence of Absolution and Bliss solemnly pronounc'd before God Angels and Men will not onely recompence him for the World 's Disesteem but shew that he did not deserve it REFLECTION VI. Upon the sight of Roses and Tulips growing near one another 'T Is so uncommon a thing to see Tulips last till Roses come to be blown that the seeing them in this Garden grow together as it deserves my notice so methinks it should suggest to me some Reflection or other on it And perhaps it may not be an improper one to compare the difference betwixt these two kinds of Flowers to the disparity which I have often observ'd betwixt the Fates of those young Ladies that are onely very handsome and those that have a less degree of Beauty recompenc'd by the Accession of Wit Discretion and Virtue For Tulips whil'st they are fresh do indeed by the Lustre and Vividness of their Colours more delight the Eye