all their Train or Retinue of Passions in the Heart or Soul Now because all Morality consists in the right use of those Blessings which our great and bountiful Author confers upon us therefore in a moral sense the true Life of Man is nothing else but the right use of our whole Nature an active imploying it in its due Functions and Offices a vigorous Exercise of all our Powers and Faculties in a manner suitable to the Dignity and Design to the Frame and Constitution of our Beings To live then in a moral sense is to know and contemplate to love and pursue that which is the true Good of Man this is the Life of the Understanding Will Affections and of the whole Man and whatever acts of ours are not some way or other conversant about Truth and Goodness are not properly Acts of Humane Life but Deviations from it And here I cannot chuse but pause a little to admire and magnifie the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of the Almighty Architect who has contrived an inseparable Connection and necessary Dependance between Life Perfection and Fruition every rational Act every right Use or Exertion of our Natural Powers and Faculties as it is of the Essence of Moral Life so does it contribute to the Improvement and Perfection of our Beings and to the Pleasure and Felicity of our state for Perfection is the Result of such repeated Acts and Pleasure of our entertaining our selves with proper and agreeable Objects Happy man to whom to live improve and enjoy is the same thing who cannot defeat God's Goodness and his own Happiness but by perverting his Nature and depraving his Faculties but by making an ill use or none at all of the Favours and Bounties of God If we examine this Notion of Life more closely and distinctly and resolve this general Account of it into several Particulars we shall easily arrive at a fuller and clearer Comprehension of it First 'T is evident from this Account of Life that it does not consist in Sloth in the meer marriage or cohabitation of Soul and Body in meer Duration or Continuance in this World Solomon indeed out of a natural Abhorrence of Death tells us Truly Light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun Eccl. 2.7 Something it is if we must call it pleasure 't is but a faint and low one such as all the Irrational Creatures but Bats and Owls and Moles are capable of but according to my Philosophy it can never deserve the Name of Life He that possesses Vital Powers and Faculties is in a Capacity of Life but he only that exerts them Lives To live is not to spend or wast our time but to imploy it 'T is a lamentable History of Life when it can all be summed up in the few Syllables of a Funeral Ring he lived to or rather as it is wont to be expressed he died such a day of the Month such a year of his Age for indeed he lived not at all Life is a meer Dream not only on the account of its shortness but also of its Night and Lethargy when stupid Ignorance confines and dims the Prospect and Sluggishness enfeebles all the powers of the Mind Vigour and Activity Fruition and Enjoyment make up Life without these Life is but an imperfect Embryo a mingled twilight that never will be Day the Images the slothful form of things are faint and obscure like Pictures drawn in watery Colours and weak and imperfect stroaks and vanish as easie as those half Sounds and imperfect Forms which we take in between sleep and waking all their Passions move drowsily and heavily and all their Entertainments have no more relish than abortive Fruit which can never be ripened into Sweetness or Beauty When I have observed any one thus wasting away a whole Life without ever being once well awake in it passing through the World like a heedless Traveller without making any Reflections or Observations without any Design or Purpose beseeming a Man ah thought I is this that Creature for which this great Theater the World was made for which it was so adorned and so enriched Is this the Creature that is the Epitome of the World the top and glory of the visible Creation a little inferiour to Angels and allied to God Is this Machine acted by a moving Flame and by a wise and immortal Spirit Ah! how much is this poor useless stupid thing sunk beneath the Dignity and Design of its Nature How far short is it faln of the Glory to which God had destined it Shall this contemplative thing ever be admitted to Eternal Life who has so wretchedly fooled away this Temporal one Or can Crowns and Kingdoms be reserved for one who has been so ill a Steward of all these Talents God has committed to him No surely I could upon the first thought imagine his sluggish Soul would vanish like those of Brutes or as the Stoicks fancy those of Fools I could easily imagine that it could sleep not as some fancy all Souls do to the Resurrection but to all Eternity But upon better consideration I find this ignorant and incogitant Life is not so innocent as to deserve no worse a Fate For is it a small Crime to live barren and unfruitful endowed with so many Talents to frustrate the design of our Creation to choak and stifle all the Seeds of a Divine Life and Perfection to quench the Grace and Spirit of God In a word is it a small Crime to be false and perfidious to God unjust and injurious to Man No it cannot be and therefore in the parable of our Saviour wherein the last Audit or Day of Accompts is represented the slothful and wicked Servant signifie one and the same thing and must undergo one and the same Sentence Secondly Life cannot consist in Sensuality that is in the meer caressing our Senses or the gratification of our Carnal Appetites The Reasons of this Assertion are evident from the general Notion of Life For first This is not the Exercise of the whole Nature but a part of it and that the inferiour and ignobler too Secondly It is not an Imployment suitable to the Dignity of our Nature First Sensuality imploys only the meaner part of us St. Paul makes mention of the outward and the inward man and seems to make up the whole man of Spirit Soul and Body and some both Divines and Philosophers of no small note both Modern and Ancient have taught that there are two distinct Souls in man a Sensitive and a Rational one if this be so the Sensualist thô he seem fond of Life does foolishly contemn the better half of it and as much a Slave to Pleasure as he is he chuses to drink only the Dregs and lets the pure Streams of sprightly and delicious Life pass by untasted for if there be a Sensitive and Rational Soul there must be a Sensitive and a Rational Life too distinct and different from one another
the Bed ill made when the cause of my uneasiness is in the Body And lastly when I have reduced the Evil to its own natural size generally 't is of such a Pigmy Dwarfish growth that I can securely slight it I can master it with very little trouble and industry or at worst with a very little patience and that I may not be wanting here I look upon it as a Task I am born to as an Inconvenience that I can no more shun than any natural Defects in my Body or my Mind or than I can the Cares and Fatigues of my Calling Thirdly I labour above all things to fill my Soul with great and ravishing Pleasures to inflame it with a generous Ambition and in one word to possess it with that habitual Poverty of Spirit Meekness Purity Charity commended to his Disciples by our Lord and Master that I am generally above the buz and fluttering of these rather Impertinences than Evils of Humane Life and do often suffer them without being sensible of them but I can never often enough put the World in mind of the vast difference there is between the fits and habits of these Vertues What we could do in a pious humour that we should always do were but the weak Impression once converted into Nature the short-liv'd Passion changed into steady habit but 't is high time to pursue my Design I am almost afraid I dwell so long upon a Head that the most pertinent Parts of my Discourse may now and then look like Digression The next thing to be considered after the Cheerfulness of the Mind is Secondly The Health of the Body Life does so apparently depend on this that in the vulgar Notion it signifies much the same thing 'T is notorious Life decays and expires with the health and strength of the Body and when it is protracted after these are gone it scarce deserves the Name of Life any more than the Noise of an ill-strung and ill-tuned Instrument does that of Musick But I need not teach any Body the value of Health or press them to the preservation of the Body I should be sufficiently obliging to the World if I could teach it any Art by which they might be restored to that Blessing which it enjoyed before the Flood a long Life of many hundreds of years But I know no Art that can raise Nature above its own Laws or retrieve its Youth if it be now in its Decrepitude One thing I know that we too commonly debauch and corrupt Nature first and then load her with our Reproaches and Accusations we should undoubtedly live much longer and this Life would be more healthy and verdant that is more vital than it is did we but observe the dictates of Religion the Laws of Vertue and not prefer before them those of Lust and Fancy How much soever Men complain of the shortness of Life 't is little to be doubted but that most Men do notwithstanding shorten it themselves by some Crime or Error or other If we could consult the sickly crasie part of Mankind I mean such as are so in the middle or almost beginning of their years and demand of them what blasted their Beauty and impaired their Strength what thus violated and contaminated their Nature we should soon be resolved to what Original their Diseases were owing if at least their shame and blushes would give them leave to inform us And if we should endeavour to trace the Deaths of most of those who are gone hence before their time back to their first Cause I do not think but that our search would soon end in some Vice or Folly or other this Man drank too much the other too much indulged his Appetite one was devoted to his Lust and another putrified in his Sloth all of them in our common phrase did live too fast but in truth and propriety of Speech died too fast for since Life is nothing else but acting by Reason every Deviation from it is an Approach towards Death But to proceed 'T is not unusual to see Pride kill one Passion another Avarice and Ambition a third while to gratifie these Affections the Body is either exposed to dangers or worn out by labour Now if we can generally find the Causes of most early Deaths in Mens Vices when so little of other Mens Lives comes to our knowledge what think you should we not be able to discover if we could enter into the Retirements and penetrate all the Secrets of Mankind how many hidden Passions do gnaw the Heart how many secret Sins do waste and consume the Strength where not only Concealment excludes the Eye but a show of probity nay a real and eminent practice of some particular Vertue excludes even Suspition and Jealousie If then Immorality do often contract the term of Life 't is evident what is to be prescribed for the prolonging it Religion or Vertue is the best Physick It has often mended an ill Constitution but never spoiled a good one When did ever Chastity impoverish the Body or deflour the Face when did ever Temperance inflame the Blood or oppress the Spirits when did ever Industry or Vigilance four the Humours and enfeeble the Nerves No Crudities no Plethories no Obstructions no Assidities no Stagnations Extravasations and I know not what hard Names and harder Things derive themselves from Vertue or Religion 'T is true a Man may be Righteous over-much he may entitle his Folly his Melancholy his particular Fancy or his particular Completion or Constitution Religion and this may prove mischievous to him to his health to his strength but then this is not the fault of Religion but the Man and to speak properly this is not Righteousness nor Religion thô it be called so but it is Fancy and Folly or an ill Constitution disguised under the garb and the meen of Religion Vertue then is the most probable way to a long Life or if not so at least to a more comfortable and honourable Death for where an early Death is the Result of a Providence not a Crime we must needs meet it with less Amazement our selves and our Friends behold it with less Regret and Affliction Thirdly The third way of prolonging Life is to engage the Providence of God in its Preservation If all the Promises God has made the Vertues of a long Life did really signifie nothing I cannot see how we could put up any Request to God relating to Temporal Protection with Faith or Fervor or as much as Sincerity but if they signifie any thing then surely they must signifie that his Providence is actively imployed for the preservation of vertuous Men And how great a Security is this What can be impossible to him who is the Governour and Creator of the World in whose disposal all created Means are and in whose Power it is if these be unsufficient to create new ones To him whose unerring Laws can never miss of those ends he aims at or if they could
and one as much elevated above the other as are the Principles they flow from But whether this be so or no does not import much for it is plain that Life whatever it be is like Seed which according to the different Soyl it is sown in produces Fruit more or less rich and succulent more or less luscious and beautiful here it sprouts forth like the seven poor and lean there like the seven plump and rich Ears of Corn in Pharaoh's Dream and should it by way of fiction be supposed that one and the same Soul did communicate Life to Men Beasts and Vegetables however Life in each would be equal in the dignity of its Original it would vastly differ in its Effects and Operations so whether Life in Man flow from one or two distinct Principles it is evident that its Price and Dignity varies according to the different Powers and Faculties which it moves and animates and by consequence that Life which displays it self in the acts of our Rational Part will be as different from that which consists in Sensation and the Motions of Bodily Appetites as is the Light that glitters in a Diamond from that which faintly imitates it in a Pebble the more numerous and the more exquisite our Faculties the vaster is the Empire of Life and the more delicate and charming all its Functions and Operations How evident is this in all the Organs and Senses of the Body Let Darkness invade the Eye and Deafness the Ear and then within what narrow and scanty Bounds is the bodily Life reduced How few and ignoble are the Vital Acts and Operations of the Body How vile and contemptible are all the Fruits or Instances of a sensitive Life If then there be no Sense or Organ of the Body superfluous can we think the rational Soul it self can be so If there be no Power no Capacity of a sensitive Soul by which Life is not enlarged or enriched must we not needs conclude That to extinguish the Immortal Spirit within us and as it were to discard all its Powers and Faculties must needs be to impoverish mutilate and stifle it since I have a Soul as well as Body since the one is as capable of conversing with God and Heaven with Truth and Moral Goodness and Perfection as the other is of conversing with this World of visible Objects I cannot but conclude That to be destitute of Knowledge and Faith of Hope and Love is more injurious to the true Life of Man than to be Deaf or Blind that Stupidity or Lethargy in the Soul such as renders it altogether incapable of rational Pleasure is as inconsistent with the true Life of Man as Lethargy or a dead Palsie in the Body can be and to be excluded from Commerce with the invisible World is as fatal to it as to be debarred the visible one From all this 't is evident that whether we consider Life with respect to its Excellence and Dignity or to its Enlargement and Extension Sensuality is extreamly injurious to it in both respects so far doth it debase and contract it that I may boldly conclude to place Life in Sensuality is to renounce the much more valuable and delightful part of it to banish our selves the much better World and to rob our selves of a thousand Joys and Pleasures which we might reap from the rational Powers and Faculties that is the noblest Capacities and Endowments of our Nature Thô this be abundantly enough to evince that Life consists not in Sensuality yet this being of the highest Importance to Humane Happiness I will proceed to the second Argument against it that is Secondly It is not consonant to the Dignity of Humane Nature or which is all one to the Design of our Beings conspicuous in our Frame and Constitution who that ever considered what Sensuality was how narrow the extent of Sense how mean and brutish the Pleasure that terminates in it what a Corruption and Degeneracy it ends in Who I say that has ever considered these and a thousand things more can believe that Sensuality is an Employment worthy of Man Is this the Business of a vast and comprehensive mind Is this consistent with ambitious Desires of Immortality with unquenchable Thirst of Truth with a Capacity of discovering Spiritual Excellencies and Moral Beauties and Perfections Was it for this we were endowed with Propensions to worship and adore a Deity What can be as much as fancied the use of Wisdom Magnanimity Conscience Sagacity Caution Fear Foresight and anxious Enquiries into future Things and Times if Sensuality had been the only Employment designed Man how much more fit had we been formed for this end if there had been in us no Reason to check and controul us no Conscience that could fill us with regret for the past or fear for the Future no Wisdom that could teach us that there were any thing above us nor greatness of mind that could reproach us for stooping to any thing below us Thirdly 'T is almost superfluous here to add That Life consists not in Worldliness or Devilishness as to the former of these by which I mean the Cares and Pursuits of the World 't is plain that to employ our Time or Faculties in this alone is not to Live but at best to provide for Life Necessity may sometimes subject us to the drudgery and slavery of the World but a voluntary Choice never should I know no other difference between a mean Fortune and a great one than this that the great one sets a Man above those Cares and Toils which the mean one forces him to submit to that the one puts the fortunate Man into the immediate possession of all the Means and Instruments of Life Improvement and Fruition and of Leasure and Opportunity to make use of them but the latter obliges the less fortunate Man to purchase these Advantages with Toil and Sweat Sollicitude and Care 't is therefore an unpardonable wilfulness or blindness whenever that Vassalage which is the Infelicity of the mean Man is the choice of the rich and fortunate one Nor is it a more pardonable Error in any who continue the drudgey and care when the necessity is over and voluntarily suffer all the disadvantages of a narrow Fortune even when they have attained to a plentiful one who never think it time to begin to Live or to enjoy the Success of their Cares and Diligence this is an Absurdity as gross as his who after he has plowed and sowed should refuse to reap or his who having with much cost and labour furnished out a plentiful Table should not at length find in his heart to fall too and eat Life then consists not in the abundance of the things which a man possesses much less in the vexation or toil of acquiring securing or increasing them which is that I intend by Worldliness but least of all can Life consist in Devilishness that is Wrath Strife Revenge Pride and such like this cannot be
for 't is a miserable thing to see how through the simplicity and weakness of some and the subtlety and cunning of others Laws which should be the Fences and Bulwarks of the People are often made only their Chains and Fetters and those publick and solemn Ties which were designed to strengthen and fortifie the Constitution become the most fatal Engines of undermining and subverting it I have observed many who would be excellent Persons in a regular and calm state of Affairs that are miserably perplexed and at a loss or wretchedly abused or imposed upon in a disordered and unsettled one like a Person of my Acquaintance who rides well in inclosed and narrow Roads but her Brains begin to swim and her heart to fail her on Downs and Plains After all that I may not seem to be treating rather of Speculation than Action and to have proposed such an Extension of Knowledge as if I were recommending rather a Life of Study than of Business I must put you in mind that the design of this sort of Learning ought to be to make men Wise not Subtle Judicious not Disputative That Curiosity or Diligence in Matters minute or subtle has more in it of amusement than use and that to lay the Foundation too deep and broad does seldom quit the cost and in one word it seems to me to be in Policy as in Religion he is the most prudent who best understands the particular Laws or Precepts of his particular Station as he is the most religious who is best learned not in the universal Scheme of Theology but the regulation of his own Affections and the conduct of his own Life But in vain does he study Things who knows not Men for Man is the Instrument of Power and Policy and whoever knows how to manage and gain an Ascendant over him is the most considerable in his Country and able to do the greatest mischief or the greatest good But when I talk of knowing Men I mean not only such a knowledge of particular Persons as may instruct you what to hope or what to fear from them what imployments or trusts they are fit or unfit for and in a word who are proper or improper Instruments in different Affairs Times and Circumstances who are fit to be the Partners of your Pleasures and Diversions who of your Confidences and Secrets and such like but also the knowledge of Humane Nature to be thoroughly read in all the Springs and Resorts of Human Actions in all the various Passions and Diseases of the mind of Man with all their Causes and Cures and to be able to distinguish the genuine and natural from the acquired and artificial Person and because not simple Persons only but Times and Ages Nations Cities and lesser Bodies and Societies have their particular Temper and Genius these must not be neglected neither This is the Knowledge which together with a dexterous use and application of it is the very life and soul of worldly Prudence and makes up the beginning middle and end of true Policy but after all both with respect to the Publick and a Man 's own Good that ought to be a Rule for the Man of Business which St. Paul prescribes for a Bishop Let him first learn to rule his own House well He that will be truly wise should know himself first e're he goes about to know the World and begin the practise of his Politicks in his own Family and in the settlement and due administration of his Domestick Affairs in which if he cannot succeed I must confess I cannot see what Encouragement either Prince or People can have to confide in such a one for the disorders or dissipations of a private Fortune are very ominous Presages of a Mal-administration of publick Trust Nor can I see what can induce such a Man to undertake it but the meer hopes of repairing his private Dilapidations with the Stones and Timber of the publick But after all how necessary soever I account Knowledge in a Gentleman ingaged in an Active Station yet I cannot but observe that whether we regard the Publick or the Private Wickedness has ever been more fatal and dishonourable to both than Ignorance and all Trusts have suffered more in the hands of the false and the base than of the unfit and unsufficient Therefore Secondly The Gentleman ought to be enriched with Vertues especially those which become his Rank and Station Knowledge is but the Seed of Vertue and like that it only rots and putrifies if it grow not up into excellent Habits and bring not forth the Fruits of vertuous Actions There is scarce any Station which does not require a particular Vertue either to discharge or adorn it one Patience another Courage a third Vigilance and so on there being scarce any Office or Business which is not liable to some particular Inconveniencies and Temptations But it being impossible for me to prosecute all these I will only insist on two or three which are essential to all true Greatness and Honour and if I am not much mistaken to a happy and prosperous dispatch of all Affairs I am sure to the Security and Felicity of the Publick and Private these are Integrity Magnanimity Humanity First Integrity By Integrity I mean two things Justice and Truth The first to regulate our Actions the second our Words Nor do I take Justice in a beggerly barretting Sense as if the Gentleman had acquitted himself of a due well enough if there were any plausible pretence to excuse a Violation or Omission of it as if he were to regard more what the Law could compel than what Honour did oblige him to and by Honour I mean the Testimony of his own Conscience both concerning his diligent and impartial Enquiries after the right and sincerity in pursuing it for I would not have him appear to do right rather out of the fear of Infamy than love of Vertue The word of a Gentleman ought to be fixed and unmoveable as Fate sacred and inviolable as the Altar Contracts and Evidences and Seals and Oaths were devised to tye Fools and Knaves and Cowards Honour and Conscience are the more firm and sacred ties of Gentlemen Nor must this Honour extend only to private Dealings but much more to publick in which good God! how comely how noble is it to see Integrity triumphing over Interest and Passion To see a great Man preferring Truth and Justice to the favour or menaces of Princes and readily quitting all Interest and all Parties to support the publick Safety and Honour or fall with it But as Heroick as I would have the Gentleman I would not have him vain I would not have him led or imposed upon by empty Noise and Names I would have him love a good Name but much more a good Conscience for I would have him as Judicious as Resolved as Bright and Luminous as Brave and Inflexible for I admire not an Integrity that bids defiance to Prudence and right Reason
therefore take the liberty to crowd my Thoughts without Method together lest Order and Connection should take up more Paper than the Things themselves A good beginning is more than half the Work is a Proverb no where truer than here for Meditation will be like to end very unprofitably if we enter not upon it in a good Disposition and devout Frame and if we do it seldom succeeds ill The Soul therefore ought to be sedate calm untouched by any worldly Concern pure and unsullied by any Carnal Image filled with the desire of Spiritual Influence possessed with the awe of the Divine Majesty Yet may sudden and extraordinary Acts of Meditation be ingrafted upon the Stock of our Natural Passions however first raised Thus a troubled Mind betaking it self to reflect upon the Vanity of the World or upon the Errors of Life and Corruption of Nature may enlarge it self in a great many very fine affecting and edifying Thoughts till the Storm dissolve into a soft and fruitful Shower Thus the Mind a little gay with satisfaction or joy will easily overflow into Halelujahs if it enter into the Meditation of the Joys of Heaven the Love and Beauty of God the Triumphs of the Resurrection c. In all Meditation we ought to have more regard to Edification than Learning to Charity than Knowledge to devout Passions than Fancy or Curiosity Let none despise pious Heats and Transports because these short Passions often repeated will grow into habitual Holiness and steddy Devotion Those Arguments which we find most effectual to the repressing an inordinate Affection or to the cherishing a weak and pining Vertue are to be often ruminated not only that they may be always ready but also because they are generally more successful than others which may yet be in themselves of greater strength and force for Sins like the Slaves in Justin are often more easily defeated by Whips and Scourges than by Swords The Principles which do the great Work of Religion are few clear and irresistible but a vast Body of Sentences Notions Arguments untried undigested are like the Armour of Saul upon David unmanagable and cumbersome Disputable or intricate Points do yield little or no Nourishment Wit and Fancy are also for Ornament not Food Yet weak Stomacks must be fed with easie and digestable Diet and this may be made too as pleasant and inviting as it can God in the Works of Nature has mingled Beauty with Use Pleasure with Profit why should we think this unlawful in the Kingdom of Grace Variety also may be called in to prevent languor and drowsiness nay if the Genius of the Man be such that his Mind is apt to be exalted and as it were purified by them I know not why notional and thin or mysterious and deep Speculations should be forbidden him only in these and such like Instances two Errors are to be avoided First That we do not study more for Delight and Entertainment than for Edification in Faith and Vertue Secondly That we do not obtrude our Fancies as Oracles our Dreams as Articles of Faith upon the World If I cannot indulge or abound in both give me the luxury of Love rather than that of Fancy and let me excel in Humility and Modesty rather than Knowledge and Notion St. Peter in those few words 1 Epist 2.2 As new born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby seems to have excellently sum'd up the whole Doctrine of Contemplation comprising at once the Matter Design and End of it together with the Frame and Disposition of Mind qualifying us for it Writing may serve to marshal and preserve our Thoughts and by this means we may be stocked with Notions which may always be ready Matter and Argument for us to expatiate on but we ought to take care that first or last we be moved or affected by what we write or else this will be rather an Exercise of our Invention than Devotion and all the Products of it will be rather Essays of Wit and Fancy than of holy Meditation and we shall be rather apt to be pleased with our Parts than improved by this Practise They who are unable to start proper Matter for Contemplation or to carry it on regularly and coherently and by consequence can reap little Fruit by this kind of Exercise may supply these Defects by Reading and such Reflections and Applications of it as are most easily and obviously made For Example Matth. 5. And seeing the Multitudes he went up into a Mountain And when he was set his Disciples came unto him And he opened his Mouth and taught them saying O blessed Jesus Thou the true Doctor and Teacher whose Words are Life and Light Spirit and Truth I will leave the Multitude I quit the World and in the quality of a Disciple I approach near thee O do thou open thy Mouth and speak to me I desire not to hear the Voice of the World or of the Flesh or of the Devil speak Thou only to me speak Thou to my Heart and to my Conscience and let me hear and feel that Voice that spoke Purity to the Leprous and Life to the Dead Blessed is the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven this is a blessedness indeed The Kingdoms of the Earth dazle and astonish me my Fancy cannot comprehend my Ambition cannot aspire after their Grandure and Glory Ah! what then must the Kingdom of Heaven be But O my Lord am I of the number of these Poor If I be not make me so let me be never so contemptible to the World so I be approved and acceptable to thee let me have no ambitious Thoughts but for thy Favour and for the Crown of Righteousness let me covet no Riches no Honour no Power here if thy Kingdom be but mine in Reversion it is abundantly enough Thus without straining or pumping Persons of the lowest Talents if they have any Tincture of Religion in them may be easily supplied with variety of Argument and with most passionate and piercing Thoughts O blessed O voluptuous Life wherein sequestred from the World I enjoy all that it has in it of pure of true or natural Ah! that I could once break loose from those Troubles and Obligations that hang upon me and enter into thy Peace and Tranquility I would plunge my self into all thy rational Delights I would lose my self to this contemptible World and forgetting those Shadows and Appearances and at best but faint and weak Reflections of Good which flutter here about me I would abandon my self intirely to the Joys of the Spirit and the Elevations of Contemplation Let others enjoy Honour and Wealth and Power let me enjoy my self Truth and God let others enjoy the Flatteries of Sense and the Cheats of Fancy give me the health of a spritely Mind the calm and serenity of a silent Retreat with the pleasure and security which the Divine Presence breeds in it
are for the sake of others not my self they ripen into Actions that serve the turn of others not my own I only bear the Fruit which others must gather And whatever pleasure I may now feel in a promising Porspect of the Honour and Vertue of my Posterity 't is such a one as that of Moses beholding Canaan at a distance but such a distance that he must never enter into it To conclude whatever Men promise themselves I think them tolerably fortunate if instead of reaping any benefit when dead from their Children their Lives be not stained and disturbed by them extreamly fortunate if they can make them fit to be their Friends and Favourites worthy to share their Pleasures and able to give them some ease in their Troubles thô after all I cannot but think 't is infinitely more eligible to be the Father of many Good Works than many Children to have a Philosophical Friend or two than a numerous Off-spring and to spend my time nobly in cultivating my Mind than in intangling my Life with Cares for those who often will take none for themselves Some have entertained vain Projects of an imaginary Immortality an Immortality which they must owe neither to God nor Nature but to Historians and Poets Painters and Statuaries and to the dying Eccho's of a surviving Memory I mean that which Men seek in Posthumus Fame in Pictures and Statues and Tombs and embalming Carkases all these seem to carry in them some fading shadows of Being and Existence But ah how imaginary a Life is this something that does infinitely less resemble Life and Being than a Dream does Enjoyment Ah vain support of Humane Frailty Ah vain relief of Death If there be any thing in Honour if it be Body or Substance enough to be seen or felt or tasted if it be Reality enough to be any way enjoyed let me possess it while I live it comes too late if it serves only to increase the Pomps of my Funeral or to dress and set off my Sepulchre or to silence the Groans or to wipe off the Tears of my Orphans or my Friends thô this be something I cannot feel any pleasure in the foresight of that Glory which while I strain to gaze upon at distance the Fogs and Mists of Death thicken the Sky the Voice that will speak me great will speak me too Gone and vanished the Statues and Marbles which adorn my Memory will adorn my Grave too and while they express my Image or my Actions will proclaim that all that is now left of me is Rottenness and Ashes All this I talk abstracting from the Considerations of a future Life for how far the Reputation I leave behind may concern my Soul in its state of Separation from the Body whether the Ecchoes of those Praises and Honours bestowed upon my Memory here will reach and please mine Ears in another World I know not nor do I much desire to know for supposing such a Life my Soul must needs have nobler Employment and nobler Pleasure than this can ever give it I must confess if the Reflections of my Light when I am set and gone would be of any use to direct or inflame Posterity I should now take some pleasure in that which 't is hard to perswade me I shall take any in hereafter nor would it be a trifling Satisfaction to me while I lived if I could believe that my Relations or my Friends could receive any Honour or Patronage from me when dead and since some sort of Character I must leave behind since I must in this manner amongst some at least and for a little time survive I had much rather leave behind me perfume than stench I had rather live in Panegyrick and Commendations than in Satyrs and Invectives But after all how lean and miserable a Comfort is this that when I am dead it will be said I once lived and a promiscuous Croud will talk of me and of my Actions what they please some things good some things bad some things true some things false and what is worse yet I must suffer all the Revolutions of Humors and Parties in following Ages these must give my Abilities and Performances their Character and the prevailing Faction must stamp what Estimate they please upon my Memory But by all this I do not mean utterly to condemn the love of Honour nay 't is really to be cherished when it operates rightly and spurs Men on to generous and handsom Actions I love a Charity that is universal and boundless and extends it self to follwing Ages and certainly there is not a nobler Charity than to furnish the World with an Example that may adorn its own Times and enkindle the Emulation of Posterity Nay further I am willing to believe that a gracious God will sum up amongst the Accompts of my Life the influence it has upon the World when I am dead and to raise the Estimate of my Vertue will consider it not simply in it self but with all the happy Effects which it may any way be the occasion of in successive Ages let me then do good and if I can great Actions upon any motive provided it be just and allowable since this will be the blessed Fruit of it But yet it shall be my Business to make sure of my own Immortality if that of my Name will follow let it It shall be my Business to gain the Approbation of God and Angels and if the Praises of this lower World joyn their Harmony and Consent with that above this cannot disoblige me I will with all my power make sure of my Salvation and not despise Fame Great and good men have ever felt some natural Desires of this sort of Immortality Since then this seems to be an Inclination of God's own planting 't is not to be extirpated but rather carefully cherished and cultivated and duly pruned and regulated Having exploded those mistaken Fancies by which Men support themselves against the shortness of Life I will now proceed to treat of the only two ways by which this Evil may be in some measure remedied that is by prolonging the Date and by improving and perfecting the Nature and Essence of Life so that a Man may live much in a little time CHAP. II. Of Lengthning Life Sect. 1. The Fatality of the Period of Life refuted And Objections from Scripture from Astrological Predictions from Divine Prescience answered A sort of Fate admitted Sect. 2. Of the ways of prolonging Life First Cheerfulness of Mind Secondly Health of Body Thirdly The protection of God and Man Sect. 3. Objections against this last Assertion from such Texts as assert the promiscuous Events of Things and from the early Death sometimes of the Righteous Answered UNder this Article I design to prosecute these three Things First To refute the Opinion of a fatal Period of Humane Life A Fancy which has possessed the Multitude and with which the Minds even of such as would seem above it are not seldom
I here begin with Life and dividing this Book into three Sections I will in the first discourse of the true Notion of Humane Life In the second of the right Conduct or Regulation of the two different kinds of Life Active and Contemplative In the third of the right husbanding Humane Life by prolonging and improving it SECT I. Of the True Notion of Life CHAP. I. Life a great Blessing in it self Proves a great Evil to some And why Happiness perfect only in Heaven THô Life render us capable of Pain as well as Pleasure yet has it ever been valued as the richest Blessing the Love of it is the earliest and the strongest Principle in us it moves the Infant before he knows how to rate the Pleasures of Life or can apprehend any Evil in Death it grows up to strength and maturity in Man and is the Soveraign Passion in him to which all the rest pay homage Skin for skin and all that a man has will he give for his Life Age does very little diminish it and Misery it self cannot extinguish it Nor does this Passion want the suffrage of the wisest and the greatest men or the approbation of God for one chief design of Society and Government of Laws and Arms is the protection of Life and God who best understood the bent of Humane Nature has proposed as the biggest Blessing and powerfullest Motive to Obedience a long Life I examine not now what it farther prefigured under the Old Testament and an eternal one under the New And for all this there is plain reason for Life if it be not when rightly understood Happiness it self yet is it surely the Foundation of it and the Foundation in a Building if it be not as beautiful as upper Stories yet is it ever as necessary I wonder not therefore that the Sentence of Death shook the Piety of Hezekiah and the Courage of Saul so that the one wept sore and the other fell to the ground But to all this will it not be objected Alas How many are there who all their days are no more sensible of the good of Life than of the Pleasures and Repasts of a Dream who being come to Threescore years and ten that is to dye do not yet understand what it is to live ah how many which is yet worse to whom Life is a burden and yet Death a terror who when they are to give back the Breath of Life have just reason to wish they had never received it and to curse the day that they were born And do not Elijah Job Solomon Jeremy Esdras and many others great and good men talk of Life at a different rate from what I here do and represent it to us under another Notion and quite contrary Character Better is the day of death than the day of ones birth Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night wherein it was said there is a man-child conceived The Reflection of Esdras on the common misery of Mankind has as much weight and sense as Job's on his own has passion For what profit is it for men now in this present time to live in heaviness and after death to look for punishment These and such like Passages we meet with every where which seem to give us no very taking Idea of Life To all this I answer 'T is with Life as with all other Blessings the right use of it is our happiness the abuse of it our misery There is nothing in the nature of the thing that implies evil or trouble nor has it any necessary and inevitable tendency to it We must not therefore estimate a Blessing by the mischief it occasions such as pervert and abuse it nor by the Complaints which Humane Frailty sometimes forces from wise and good men in a melancholy fit or finally by the Reflections they sometimes make not on the intrinsick worth or natural tendency of Life but on the Evils which flow from the Corruption or Deprivation of it 'T is true when all is said Heaven is the proper Region of Happiness there it dwells in its glory and majesty in all its fulness and excellence but what then because Perfection does properly belong to Heaven is there no Vertue upon Earth because all things are in their maturity and consummation there shall we deny that there is any sweetness or beauty here Just so must we think of the happiness of this in comparison of that of another world it is here in its Infancy we do slumber and are scarcely ever fully awake we see little penetrate and comprehend less and we move very feebly and unsteadily but all this while we grow up to strength we advance towards perfection our Joynts grow firmer our Stature increases our Understanding dawns towards day and our Affections are gradually animated with a more generous and lasting heat so that all this while this infant state of Happiness is pleasant and promising and every step in the whole progress towards Perfection presents us with fresh Beauties and Delights but I know no body so fantastick as to despise the present Life because it is not equal to that above and he that thinks there is none above sets the more value on this because he has nothing more or further to expect I will not therefore spend any more time in endeavouring to prove Life a valuable Blessing but rather proceed to show how every man may really make it such to himself which I think I cannot more compendiously do than by stating the true Notion of Humane Life for as our Misery flows from the abuse and our Happiness from the right use of Life so does the abuse from false and the right use from true Notions of it CHAP. II. Life what in a natural sense What in a moral Life Perfection and Enjoyment inseparably united More particularly Life consists not in Sloth Sensuality Worldliness Devilishness but in the Regulation of all our Actions according to right Reason LIFE may be considered either in a Natural or Moral Sense in the former acceptation what it is is an Enquiry very abstruse and intricate like the Egyptian Nile thô its Streams be visible to every Eye its Source or Fountain is concealed or like Grace thô we feel its Energy and taste its Fruits yet we cannot discover and define its Essence but to carry our discovery thus far is accuracy enough in Moral Discourses whose end is not Speculation but Happiness Life then whatever it be in the Fountain and Essence as far as we can discern it is nothing else but that force and vigour which moves and acts the Man and to live speaking in a natural sense is to exert the Powers and Faculties of Nature according to which account of Life 't is capable of as many Notions as are the different Offices it performs 't is Sense and Motion in the Body 't is Perception and Fancy in the Imagination 't is Knowledge in the Understanding and Love and Hate with
I love a steaddy Faith and unmoveable Justice but not Romance and Fancy I would have a great Man not insensible of a difference between Loyalty and Slavery between Tyranny and Anarchy and in the same manner he must be able to distinguish between a Serpentine Subtlety and a stupid Insufficiency and want of necessary Address and Dexterity without such a competency of Knowledge all will be but Folly not Integrity Vanity not Constancy As there is an Integrity in Action so is there in Speech to it seems to me not to consist in bare Truth only but also in an ingenious openness and freedom cloudiness and ambiguity seems to me rather fit to disguise Ignorance or Design than to pourtray or express the Sentiments of a wise or an upright Mind yet in Words as well as Deeds there is an Extream thô frankness and openness in Conversation like a free and generous Air become a Gentleman I would not have Freedom violate Discretion nor Simplicity and Openness lessen Greatness too many and wide Apertures if they add Beauty do certainly diminish the strength of a Building Secondly The next vertue beseeming a Gentleman is Magnanimity By which I do not mean an empty Tumor but solid Greatness of Mind which ought to discover it self in every Instance of his Life I say in every Instance for I count it not enough to bear Disappointments with moderation unless he bear his Success so too I count it not enough to encounter Dangers with Courage unless he encounter his Pleasures with as great and in a word there ought to be something even in his Diversions and Entertainments as well as in his Business and Employment that may speak the strength and wealth and self sufficiency of his Mind You 'l easily conclude this with me if you allow these two or three things to be essential to true Greatness of Mind an Invincible Courage and Resolution a rational and generous Activity and an enlarged and publick Spirit which you cannot but allow unless you think that the Coward and Slave the Sluggard or Sott the Sordid and Selfish may be reckon'd amongst the Magnanimous But what Principle what Foundation is able to support so mighty a weight Natural Courage may make a Man brave Danger or if that will not Ambition may while it presents him with a more formidable Evil if he turn his back upon the other but what shall make the Man modest and humble in his Triumphs who was gallant and daring in Fight Passion and Revenge may make Men firm and fierce in their Contests and Oppositions but what can make a Man forgive when he is in a Condition to revenge an Injury The lust of Power and Honour and Wealth that is Self-love may render a Man active and industrious but what is it that can prevail with him to Sacrifice his own Interest and his Families to publick Good Honour has been generally thought the most likely Principle to do all this I must confess a Breast inflamed with love of Honour seems to me incapable of any mean or base Impression but then the Notion of Honour ought to be justly stated for if by this we understand the Smiles and Courtships of the Great or the Praises and Acclamations of the People it had need be in settled Times a wise Court and a modest People I doubt there is not Judgment enough in the People nor Plainness and Simplicity enough in Courts to give Men and Actions a true value and therefore if a Man would propose Honour as the reward of his Actions it ought to be that which consists in the Approbation of such who are able and disinteressed Judges a mistake in this point is often of very ill consequence and perverts the whole Course of Humane Life betraying either into factious Opposition or sordid and unworthy Compliance Nor is this the only Inconvenience that the Love of Honour is obnoxious to that Men may be misled and abused by false and mistaken Notions of it but it also often happens that Envy and Emulation in particular Men or the Violence of a prevailing Faction or the Iniquity of Times may stifle and oppress the Merit or traduce and blast the Integrity of the most excellent Actions in which Cases I doubt the secret Opinion of two or three vertuous Men or an Expectation of greater Justice from future Times will be too weak a Cordial to support an injured Vertue if its only Nourishment and sustenance be Honour I think therefore Religion is the only Basis on which Magnanimity can stand by which I mean a love of rational and vertuous Actions upon wise and solid Grounds a secret Delight and Complacency in the performance of them accompanied with the Peace and Serenity of Mind that springs from Reflection upon them and the Joy which a firm Persuasion that God will be our Rewarder breeds in us this as it will secure us against the Errors so will it against the Inconstancy and Injustice of the World this will minister sufficient Motives to generous Actions when we meet nothing but Discouragements from all things else this if it will not make a publick Employment honourable will always make it safe this if it cannot render great Places profitable will ever render Retirement pleasant and in all the Changes of Times and Humours will preserve a Man steddy and calm in himself But whilst I recommend Magnanimity I must not forget that there are Follies and Vices which often are wont to usurp its Name I never thought that the love of our Country did imply a neglect much less a contempt of our private Fortune That a vain Confidence or Presumption in provoaking and irritating Dangers ought to pass for Courage for this were to make Fortitude and Prudence incompatible Nor do I think that a violent Intrusion into Business or an indiscreet intangling a Man's self in much or ingaging in any that is foreign or impertinent deserves the Name of Industry or Activity or Pride Stiffness and Savageness the Name of Firmness and Constancy for in a word I would have Magnanimity rather lovely than haughty rather revered than dreaded Therefore Thirdly Humanity is the next Vertue to be aimed at Nothing can be more fitly joyned with Magnanimity than Compassion with Courage than Tenderness nor with the felicity of a great Fortune than Charity or Bounty I cannot think that there is a truer Character of Greatness than to be a Sanctuary to the Injured a Patron to Vertue and Merit a Counsellor to those that Err and a support to the Afflicted the Needy and Defenceless In these things consist the Life and Substance of Humanity the Ornamental part of it is Affability or Courteousness the Art of Behaviour lies in a narrow Compass the whole skill of it consisting in obliging which he shall never miss who has once possessed his Soul with Tenderness and Goodness for then every Word every Action together with the whole Air of Deportment will be animated with a resistless
sweetness and will be nothing else but the Pourtraiture and Expression of those excellent Dispositions by this means too the deportment will be Natural not Artificial and thô it be generally kind it will be more particularly so where it meets with a more moving Occasion to which if it be added that the Carriage of a Gentleman ought to be Humble but not Popular Courteous but not Cheap or Prostitute you will decline all the considerable Errors to which Affability is obnoxious It was the Custom of the Ancients to deliver their Instruction in short and plain Sentences without a labour'd Exhortation or passionate Enforcement And certainly there is such a commanding Authority in the Dictates of Truth and Wisdom such a Divinity Majesty and Loveliness in solid Vertues that did the Simplicity and Probity obtain in these which is supposed to have done in those Times advice of this sort would easily make its way to the Hearts of Men without the Assistance of any Motives But I dare not be either so confident of my own Performance or of the Times as not to think it necessary to close the Advice of these Paragraphs with some Arguments and Motives to these Vertues Shall I make use here of the Topicks of Religion Shall I invite you to Integrity and Magnanimity from the Consideration of the Omniscience and Providence of God Shall I put you in mind how little Sordidness Falshood and Fear how little Pride and Insolence can become the Principles and Perswasions of a Christian concerning the Emptiness and Vanity of this World or the true Happiness and lasting Glory of another Shall I press you to Humanity to Meekness and Humility by calling to your remembrance the Life of Jesus your Frailty and Mortality and what is worse your Sins and Follies Shall I show you how mutable and inconstant your Fortune is and if it were not how accidental fantastick and inconsiderable a distinction this makes between you and persons of a lower Rank and that they stand at least upon the same level with you with respect to the substantial and solid Interests of Humane Nature that is the favour of God Vertue Grace and Glory Alas I am afraid you have generally but little Relish or Gust of this sort of Arguments But have you as little value for your Country as Religion Are you as little moved by the Ruin of this as the Corruption of that Behold your Country once formidable abroad and well compact within ah now what Reproach and Contumelies does it not suffer abroad what Convulsions at home It s Wealth has neither Service nor Defence in it Its Numbers are without Courage and its Forces have nothing of Strength or Terror in them Why all this it bleeds in your Factions and Divisions it reels and staggers under your Softness and Luxury 't is betrayed by your Falshood and Cowardize Ah! that its Reformation might begin where its Degeneracy has and that it might recover by your Vertues the Honour it has lost and forfeited by your Vices Pardon me I do not here suppose that there are none exempt from this Accusation that in the Body of the Nobility and Gentry there are not even in this degenerate Age some bright Instances of a true English Courage and Integrity I only wish that there were more that there were enough to Atone for the rest and to prop up this declining State Nor is it a petulant Humor but a Zeal for your Honour particularly as well as that of the Nations that now acts me for give me leave to put you in mind at length That your Honour your Interest and your Happiness depend upon your Integrity Magnanimity and Humanity nor is it possible that the one should survive the other First your Honour The whole World is possessed in favour of these Vertues and however it hath fared with some other these haVe ever been in vogue not amongst the best only but worst of Mankind I have indeed understood that there are some who have openly professed and defended Intemperance and Incontinence but I think none ever yet have in earnest undertook the Patronage of Cowardize Perfidiousness Inhumanity or Insolence I have never yet met with any who have not thought it scandalous and reproachful to find less Faith less Honour less Goodness or if you please more shifting Cowardise Falshood and Sordidness in his Lordship or his Worship than in a Groom or Lackey Nor did I ever find that Lands and Scutcheons wealthy Relations and honourable Ancestors were ever looked upon as Apologies or Mitigations but rather Aggravations of such Baseness and Degeneracy nor could any Man ever think it a Commendation to be the Sinks and Sewers of a Noble Family the Ruines of an ancient and once stately Pile or the Lees and Dreggs of a rich Liquor long since drawn off and evaporated Nor does your Honour only but Secondly your Interest depend on these Vertues If you want these I see not what you can possess that can either gain you the Favour of the Prince or Esteem of the People This sure is the Reason why these Vertues have ever been in such credit in the World because their influence is so necessary so universally serviceable whether to the Publick or to Friends and Dependants now that Integrity which can give others ground confidently to rely upon you that Generosity and Magnanimity which raises their Hopes and Expectations does naturally give you an Authority and Ascendant over them and you become the Masters of their Lives and Fortunes whilst they promise themselves the Protection or Improvement of them from your Vertues To these then you must owe the Patronage and Confidence of those above you the Dependence Love and Esteem of those below you without which what can you effect what can you enjoy truly great or considerable you are impotent and Contemptible as Ploughmen and Sailers when solitary and abandon'd your Retinue and Dependance your Friends and Admirers make you powerful In short a Man of Birth and Fortune that is perfidious cowardly selfish and proud has not in my Judgment or deserves not to have half the Interest an honest Yeoman or plain-dealing Trades-man has in City or Country for what Confidence can be placed in such a one will he be tender of the Honour of his Country or his Friend who has no sense of his own or will he ever be either a good Patron or Friend who is ready to sacrifice all to his private Avarice Nor is it a matter of small importance that Reputation founded in Vertue surmounts all sorts of Difficulties and Crowns all Undertakings with Success and since Men are naturally backward when they are jealous and distrustful but prompt and forward where they are secure and confident It has ever been observed that Integrity if not destitute of competent Prudence has in dispatch of Affairs ever out-stripped Craft and Subtlety But the weightiest Consideration of all is that these Vertues if they be not the surest