and improved as in the admirable structure of the eye cannot perform that one act of simple perception what shall become of all those nobler actions of the Soul and into what shall they be resolved Such as self-motion the strange celerity of thought memory of that which is past prudence and forecast for that which is to come and a thousand other strange operations Is it imaginable that meer matter should understand argue dispute consider and confer the relation of one thing to another and thence infer consequences and make conclusions Is it likely that meer body and quantity should be sensible of shame and honour nay be conscientious too and accuse condemn and torture it self or which is most wonderful of all check controul deny limit and mortifie it self He that will undertake to shew how all these things may be performed by Atoms and motion only is a subtil Mechanist indeed and I do not doubt but at the same rate such a man may be able to make a new World when he pleases with the same Atoms as Materials For it is evident there is more intricacy in this little world of Man than in the whole fabrick of Heaven and Earth besides Wherefore if matter or body cannot perform the aforesaid operations then the Soul of man which doth perform them must be acknowledged to be a spiritual substance Bioph. In troth you talk very shrewdly but for my life I cannot understand what you mean by this thing which you call Spirit and therefore I reject the notion as gibberish and non-sense Sebast Softly good Biophilus what reason is there for that hasty conclusion Must we needs deny every such thing to be as is hard to understand Must we like dull Boys tear out the Lesson that is difficult to learn Is nothing true but what is easie nor possible but what is facile But besides let me tell you upon second thoughts there is not more difficulty in understanding the Nature of Spirits than there is in conceiving how all the aforesaid operations should be performed witout them no nor half so much neither so that nothing is gotten by the objection for it is a very vain thing to object difficulty when at the same time you are forced to acknowledge the thing to be necessary But why I pray you what is the cause that spiritual substance is not as intelligible as corporeal Bioph. O Sir there is a vast difference in the case I can see and feel the latter but so I cannot the former Sebast Nay believe me there you are out you see and feel only the accidents of a bodily substance but not the substance it self no more than you can see or feel a Spirit Bioph. Pardon me at least I see and feel the bodily substance by the accidents that is I am assured of its presence and existence and I can affirm such things of it upon that testimony of my senses Sebast And you may affirm as much of a Soul if you please though you can neither see nor feel it forasmuch as you plainly perceive the properties and operations of it Bioph. That is close and to the purpose I confess but still I cannot tell what to make of this thing called Spirit for I can frame no image of it in my imagination as I can do of other things Sebast Why there is it now I perceive now Biophilus you have a desire to see with your mouth and hear with your eyes For as reasonably every jot may you expect to do either of those as to frame a sensible imagination of a Spirit That which we call Imagination you know is nothing else but the impress of the colour bigness or some other accidents of a thing that hath been presented to our senses retained in and it may be a little diversified by our phancy But now if a Spirit have no colour nor bulk nor such other accidents to be represented to our phancy through our outward senses how is it possible you should have an image of it there No no spiritual Beings are only capable of affording us an intellectual Idea namely our higher faculty of Reason from observation of their effects and operations concludes their Essence and takes an estimate of their Nature and indeed it is a flat contradiction to require any other evidence of that kind of Beings Bioph. This kind of discourse is very subtil and I cannot tell what to object farther to it go on therefore to your second Branch perhaps there I may better cope with you Sebast The second step which I take towards the proof of a Judgment to come is that as on the one side Mankind appears to be fit and capable of being judged hereafter so on the other hand it is agreeable to the Nature and Attributes of God and to those notions we have of a Deity that he should call the World to such an account and this appears briefly thus The most common and most natural notion which men have of the Divine Majesty is that he is a Being absolutely perfect that is amongst other accomplishments that he is a most powerful wise just and good Being there is hardly any body that thinks of a God but considers him under these Attributes and Perfections and he that divests him of any of these Perfections renders him neither an object of fear nor of love and consequently not a God insomuch that were it not for politick ends namely to avoid infamy or other punishment amongst men doubtless those that deny to him any of these Attributes had as good flatly deny him to have any Being at all Now if these things be included in the natural notion of God they not only capacitate him to be a Judge of the World if he pleases but give great assurance that he will do it for if he be a wise Being he cannot but see how things go and particularly how his Creatures carry themselves here below if he be powerful he hath it in his hand to rectifie those disorders he observes amongst them and both to punish the evil and to reward the good And if he be good and just it cannot but be expected from him that he will set things to rights one time or other when his Wisdom shall think fit but it is evident this is not done exactly and answerably to those Attributes of his in this World therefore there is no reason to doubt but he will assuredly do it in another World and therefore the Scripture tells us He hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness c. Bioph. Not too fast good Sebastian I know not certainly what apprehensions other men may have but for my part though I do acknowledge a God and that not only politically as you suspect but upon the Principles of Reason yet I must profess to you I do not think the natural notion of God includes those Attributes you speak of Why may there not be a God and he only a necessary
A Winter-Evening CONFERENCE BETWEEN Neighbours In Two Parts PART I. Prov. 27. 17. As iron sharpeneth iron so doth the countenance of a man his friend LONDON Printed by J. M. for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty 1684. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Must on the behalf of the Persons concerned in these Papers now in thy hands bespeak thy Candour in two or three Particulars following First That thou wilt not suffer thy Curiosity to carry thee so far as to be very inquisitive who they were or where they dwelt who held these Conferences for besides that the knowledge thereof would be of no use there are several other reasons why I cannot gratifie thee therein further than by giving their true Characters which thou wilt find subjoyned Secondly That whereas at the entrance of these Conferences and perhaps also here and there in other parts of them thou mayst observe some short touches of mirth thou wilt not be offended at them as ill comporting either with the gravity of the Speakers or the seriousness of the Design For if thou consider the humor of the Age thou wilt not find thy self obliged to impute it to the levity of Sebastians temper but to his discretion and wisdom that he doth accommodate himself to those he would gain upon as he that will catch Fish must suit his Baits to their Gust and Phancy Thirdly Because it is not unlikely but thou wilt take notice that the Interlocutors do now and then upon occasion use complemental Attributions towards each other and applaud one anothers Wit or Eloquence which being now put in print may to a severe Censor seem to savour of ostentation and look like clawing and flattering one another Therefore thou art desired to remember that this was done only amongst themselves and in private Conversation where such kinds of Civility are usually practised without offence or imputation As for the general Design of these Conferences I make bold to tell thee that it is apparently noble and generous namely to lead the way to more manly Conversation especially amongst the better ranks of men to demonstrate that the strictest Virtue is consistent with the greatest Prudence and Civility and in short to raise the dejected and depressed Spirit of Piety in the World The consideration hereof incouraged the Publication and I hope will sufficiently recommend it to thy Acceptance Farewel The Characters of the Persons in the two following Conferences Sebastian a Learned and pious Gentleman who takes all occasions of ingaging those he converses with in sobriety and a sense of Religion Philander a Gentile and ingenuous Person but too much addicted to the lightnesses of the Age till reclaimed by the Conversation of Sebastian Biophilus a Sceptical Person who had no setled Belief of any thing but especially was averse to the great Doctrines of Christianity concerning the Immortality of the Soul and the life to come and therefore consequently was much concerned for the present life Till at length awakened by the discreet Reasonings of Sebastian and the affectionate Discourses of Philander he begins to deliberate of what before he despised Eulabes a truly prudent and holy Man who made his life a study of and preparation for Death propounded as an Example for Imitation in the second Conference The Argument of the first Conference Sebastian visiting his Neighbour Philander after a little time spent in Civil Salutations is quickly prest by him to the too usual Entertainment of liberal Drinking which Sebastian at first modestly and facetiously declines but afterwards more directly shews the folly and unmanliness of it He is then invited to Gaming which he also excusing himself from and giving his reasons against Philander complains of the difficulty of spending time without such diversions Whereupon Sebastian represents to him sundry Entertainments of Time both more delightful and more profitable than the forementioned amongst which that of friendly and ingenuous Discourse and from thence they are led on to debate about Religious Conference the Vsefulness Easiness Prudence and Gentility of which are largely demonstrated of which Philander being convinced inquires the way of entring into it of continuing and managing of it In which being instructed by Sebastian he resolves to put it in practice The Argument of the second Conference In the former Conference Sebastian having convinced Philander of the great importance of Religion and the wisdom of making it as well the Subject of Social Communication as of retired Meditation Accordingly they two meet on purpose this second time to confer about it But Biophilus a Sceptical Person being in their Company he at first diverts them from their design by other Discourse till after a while under the disguise of News he is wheedled into this Subject before he was aware And then he puts them upon the proof of those Principles which they would have supposed Vpon this occasion the foundations of Religion are searched into and particularly that great Point concerning A Judgment to come is substantially proved Which being done and Biophilus thereby rendred somewhat more inclinable to be serious they then pursue their first intentions and discourse warmly and sensibly of another World and of the necessary preparations for it so long till they not only inflame their own hearts with devotion but strike some sparks of it into Biophilus also A Winter-Evening CONFERENCE BETWEEN Two Neighbours AT PHILANDER's House Sebastian A Good Evening to you Good Philander I am glad to find you in Health and I hope all your Family is so too Philander I humbly thank you Sir we are all well God be praised and the better to see you here for I hope you come with intentions to give us the diversion of your good Company this long Evening Sebast If that will do you any pleasure I am at your Service For to deal plainly I came with the resolution to spend an hour or two with you provided it be not unseasonable for your occasions nor intrench upon any business of your Family Phil. Business Sir at this time of the Year we are even weary with rest and tired with having nothing to do Sebast It is a time of leisure I confess the Earth rests and so do we yet I thank God my time never lies upon my hands for I can alway find something or other to imploy my self in When the Fields lye dead and admit of no husbandry I then can cultivate the little Garden of my own Soul and when there is no recreation abroad I have a Company of honest old Fellows in Leathern Coats which find me divertisement at home Phil. I know the Company you mean though I confess I have not much acquaintance with them but do you find it a melancholy thing to converse with the dead Sebast Why should you say they are dead no they are immortal they cannot dye they are all soul reason without passion and eloquence without noise or clamour Indeed they do not eat
see generally Art supplies and perfects Nature Now you know we live in a cold climate and consequently must needs have dull flegmatick Bodies the influence of which upon our minds is easily discernable amongst other instances by that extreme modesty and bashfulness which is almost equally common to us all and peculiar to all that are of this Country and which ordinarily tongue-ties us in all good Company until Wine have warmed us and dissolved that ligament so that it should seem that drinking is not altogether blame-worthy as being more necessary to us than to most other People if it were but to make us sprightly and conversable for as on the one side you cannot expect that all men should be able to converse together like a company of dry Philosophers so on the other I know you would not have Englishmen when they are in Company hold a silent Quakerly Meeting Sebast Now Philander you have mended the matter finely to avoid my censure of the good Fellows as you call them you have censured the whole Nation as a generation of dull Sotts and represented your Countrymen as a sort of People newly fashioned out of clay and just able to stand upright but into whom God Almighty hath put no Soul at all but left that to be extracted out of the Spirit of Wine by which means when we have attained it and not till then it seems we may become like other folks But in the mean time I wonder what became of all our sober Ancestors and particularly of the dry race of Queen Elizabeth men as they are called I cannot find but they had as much Soul and Spirit as the present generation however they came by it though they never made Alembicks of themselves But in earnest Philander I will confess ingenuously to you that as for such a dull sort of earthly men as you speak of I should not be much offended with them if they now and then got a little froth into their heads to supply their defect of Brains and if upon that occasion they grew somewhat conceited and impertinent the matter was not much though the Metamorphosis might seem strange for a dull Ass to become an Ape or a Monkey But then for the same reason the finer Wits and surely some such there be should let it alone for that rational and ingenious men should by this Cup of Circe the Magical power of Wine be transformed into such kind of Animals methinks it is a thousand pities But why do you smile Philander Phil. Even at my self good Sebastian or at least at that picture you have drawn for me it would look a little ambitiously if I should compare my self to the land of Egypt which they say was fruitful in proportion to its being overflown but in plain truth I am such a spot of Earth as will bear nothing unless it be well watered and to countenance my self in this condition though I cannot pretend to learning yet I remember I have heard that the gravest Philosophers did use to water their Plants as we say and sometimes Philosophized over a Glass of Wine Sebast And why not over a Glass of Wine as well as by a Fire side provided a man take care that as by the one he does not burn his Shins so by the other he do not over-heat his Head or to follow your Metaphor provided a man only water the soil and do not drown it You know it is only extreams that I find fault with when men will be always sipping and dabling as if their Bodies were nothing but Pipes made on purpose to transmit Liquors through or as if they had their Life and Soul transfused into them from the Hogshead Phil. Well Sir I perceive I am likely to get nothing by my fine figure I will therefore say no more of my self but I have heard some others say they have always found their reason to be strongest when their spirits were most exalted Sebast But sure they did not mean that their reason was strongest when the Wine was too strong for them if they did then either their reason was very small at the best and nothing so strong as their drink or else we are quite mistaken in the names of things and so in plain English drunkenness is sobriety and sobriety drunkenness for who can imagine that that which clouds the head should inlighten the mind and that which wildly agitates the spirits should strenthen the understanding or that a coherent thred of discourse should be spun by a shattered vertiginous brain It is possible some odd crotchets and whimseys may at such times be raised together with the fumes or it is not unlikely but that a man may then seem wondrous wise in his own eyes when he shall appear very silly and ridiculous to all others that are not in the same condition with himself but to go about to make any thing better of it is a kind of liquid Enthusiasm And that this is no wild conjecture or uncharitable opinion of mine I appeal to this experiment tell me good Philander what is the reason that men in those jollities we speak of cannot indure the company of those that will not take their share with them but are most pleased with such as will rather exceed their measure and take off their Cups roundly is it think you out of desire that such men should be wiser than themselves or the quite contrary or what is the reason that men of this practice are very shy of those persons that will remember and repeat afterwards the passages in those merry assignations I make no doubt but when you have considered the case you will find this to lye at the bottom namely that even such persons are sensible that several things pass amongst them at such times for wit and good humour which when they hear of again and reflect upon in their sober intervals they are heartily ashamed of as apish and ridiculous fooleries But now if after all I should grant you which I do not unwillingly that men well whetted with Wine as they love to speak are very sharp and piquant very jocose and ready at a repartée or such like yet besides that this edge is so thin and Razor-like that it will serve to no manly purposes it is also very dangerous since at that time a wise man hath it not in keeping Phil. Well I perceive hitherto the edge of my Arguments turns at the force of your Replies therefore I had best contend no longer with you on that point whether Wine raises mens parts or no But one thing I have yet to say which I am sure you must and will grant me viz. that it suppresses cares and melancholy and makes a man forget his sorrows that great disease of humane life and this I suppose sufficiently commends the liberal use of it Sebast That which you now say is undeniably true and no question for this very end was the juice of the Grape principally ordained by
very much commend these kind of Sports for indeed I scarce think them Sports they are rather a counterfeit kind of business and weary ones head as much as real study and business of importance So that in the use of them a man only puts a cheat upon himself and tickles himself to death for by applying himself for delight to these busie and thoughtful Games he becomes like a Candle lighted at both ends and must needs be quickly wasted away between Jest and Earnest whenas both his Cares and his Delights prey upon him Besides I observe that Diversions of this nature having so much of Chance and surprize in them do generally too much raise the passions of men which it were fitter by all Arts and endeavours to charm down and suppress For to say nothing of the usual accidents of common Gaming-Houses which as I have heard from those that knew too well are the most lively Pictures of Hell upon Earth and where it is ordinary for men to rave swear curse and blaspheme as if the Devil was indeed amongst them or the men were transformed into Infernal Spirits I have seen sad Examples of Extravagance in the more modest and private but over eager pursuits of these recreations Insomuch that sometimes a well-tempered person hath quite lost all command of himself at them So that you might see his Eyes fiery his Colour inflamed his Hands to tremble his Breath to be short his Accents of Speech fierce and violent by all which and abundance more ill-favoured symptoms you might conclude his heart to be hot and his thoughts sollicitous and indeed the whole man Body and Soul to be in an Agony Now will you call this a recreation or a rack and torture rather A rack certainly which makes a man betray those follies which every Wise-man seeks to conceal and heightens those passions which every good man endeavours to subdue And which is yet worse as I was saying this course looks like the accustoming of the Beast to be rampant and to run without the Rein. For by indulging our passions in jest we get an habit of them in earnest and accordingly shall find our selves to be enclined to be wrathful peevish and clamorous when we apply our selves to business or more grave conversation To all which add That Gaming and especially at such Games as we are speaking of doth insensibly steal away too much of our time from better business and tempts us to be Prodigals and Bankrupts of that which no Good Fortune can ever redeem or repair And this is so notoriously true that there is hardly any man who sets himself down to these Pastimes as they are called that can break off and recal himself when he designed so to do Forasmuch as either by the too great intention of his mind he forgets himself or the anger stirred up by his misfortunes and the indignation to go off baffled suffers him not to think of any thing but revenge and reparation of his losses or the hopes he is fed withal trolls him on or some witchery or other transports him so besides his first resolutions that business health family friends and even the worship of God it self are all superseded and neglected for the sake of this paltry Game All which considered I am really afraid there is more of the Devil in it than we are ordinarily aware of and that it is a temptation of his to engage us in that where he that wins most is sure to lose that which is infinitely of more value Therefore upon the whole matter I think it much safer to keep out of the lists than to engage where besides the greatness of the stake a man cannot bring himself off again without so great difficulty Pardon me Dear Philander if my zeal or indignation or what you will call it hath transported me in this Particular sure I am I have no intention to reproach your practice nor to affront you for your motioning this sport to me but speak out of hearty good will and to give you caution Phil. O. Sebastian I love you dearly and thank you heartily for the freedom you have used with me We good natur'd men as the World flatters us and we love to be stiled considering little or nothing our selves and having seldom the happiness of discreet and faithful Friends that will have so much concern for us as to admonish us of our imprudences and our dangers as if we were mere Machines move just as other men move and prompt us and so drink play and do a thousand follies for Company sake and under the countenance of one anothers example God forgive me I have too often been an instance of that which you now intimated I therefore again and again thank you for your advice and hope I shall remember as long as I live what you have said on this occasion But that you may work a perfect Cure upon me I will be so true to my self as to acquaint you faithfully with what I apprehend to be the Cause of this Epidemical Distemper I find the common and most irresistible temptation both to Drinking and Gaming is the unskilfulness of such men as my self to employ our time without such kind of diversions especially at this Season of the Year when the dark and long Evenings foul Ways and sharp Weather drive us into Clubs and Combinations If therefore you will deal freely and friendly with me herein and by your prudence help me over this difficulty you will exceedingly oblige me and do an act worthy of your self and of that kindness which brought you hither Sebast There is nothing Dear Phil within my power which you may not command me in Nor is there any thing wherein I had rather serve you if I could than in a business of this nature But all I can do and as I think all that is needful in this Case is to desire you to consider on it again and then I hope you will find the difficulty not so insuperable as you imagine It is very true Idleness is more painful than hard labour and nothing is more wearisome than having nothing to do besides as a rich Soil will be sure to bring forth Weeds if it be not sowed with more profitable Seed so the active Spirits in Man will be sure to prompt him to evil if they be not employed in doing good For the Mind can no more bear a perfect cessation and intermission than the World a Vacuum But this difficulty which you represent generally presses young men only These indeed having more Sail than Balast I mean having a mighty vigour and abundance of Spirits but not their minds furnished with a sufficient stock of knowledge and experience to govern and employ those active Spirits upon no wonder if such persons rather than do just nothing and in defect of real business do greedily catch at those shadows and resemblances of it as I remember you ingeniously called Drinking and Gaming Besides
ashamed as afraid to do an unworthy action To all which add that by the advantage of our Prayers we are inabled to become a publick Blessing and every private man a Benefactor to the whole World than which thing what can be either greater in it self or more acceptable to a great and generous mind Consequently what can a brave and publick-spirited man employ his time in with more delight than in that which whatsoever his Fortunes and external condition be will make him a Blessing not only to his Friends and Neighbourhood but to the Country and Times he lives in that even Kings and Princes are really beholden to him Nor is it necessary that much time be taken up herein to serve all these great ends nor much less is it my intention to commend affectedly long Prayers a little time and a great deal of heartiness best doth the business of Religion and that little so employed will make all the rest pass away the more sweetly and comfortably And then for reading and medltating upon the Holy Scripture the Psalmist hath told us that the good and blessed mans delight is in the Law of God and that therein he meditates day and night And surely any man may be able to entertain a few moments in it If curiosity sway with us there are as admirable things in the Holy Scriptures as the mind of man can desire if we affect History we have there the antientest and most faithful Monuments in the World those without which all mankind had continued in their Nonage and Childhood to this day as being so far from able to give an account of the beginning of the World and original of things that they could not have looked backward many Ages but they would have been utterly bewildered in Mists and Fables as absurd as the wildest Fictions of Poets Besides without this Record all the wonderful Methods of Divine Providence which are the assurance and comfort of the present Age and the obligation to Vertue and Foundation of Piety and Religion had been buried in oblivion If we seek after Knowledge either natural moral or prudential where is there such another Treasury of it to be found where we have not only the Relations and Observations of the wisest men in all Ages past but the discoveries of the Divine Majesty the depths of infinite Wisdom that knows the true reason of things laid open If we are pleased with the foreknowledge of things to come as what man of Soul can chuse but desire to see beyond the Curtain then all the Presages Prognosticks and Divinations all the most rational inductions of the wisest men are but silly surmises and idle dreams to the Predictions of the Holy Prophets which give us light to the Worlds end and a view of another World and have both assured their own credit and warranted our belief of what is yet to come by the well-known accomplishment of their former Predictions If we would improve our selves in Vertue what suren Rule can we have than the express Declarations of God himself Who can prescribe to him what shall please him or prescribe to us better than he that made us and knows what is fit for us to do And what more full plain compendious and higher Institution of Religion can there be than the Holy Scripture This brings God near to us and us near to him here you know his mind you see his nature and hear him speak here you may stand as it were upon an Isthmus or Promontory and take a view of both Worlds this is the light of our Eyes the Rule of our Faith the Law of our Conscience and the Foundation of all our Hopes All this together sure cannot chuse but make the reading of the Scripture become a very serious and yet a very delightful employment And now upon the whole matter what think you Dear Phil. may not a Gentleman entertain himself and his time without the relief of Drinking and Gaming Phil. What think I say you Why I think worse of my self than ever I did I do not wonder now at what you said when we first came together viz. That you could always find employment for your Time but I wonder at my own folly for I plainly see now that no man can have time to be a burden upon him that hath come honestly by it I mean that hath not stollen it from nobler Entertainments to bestow it upon a Debauch Sebast But yet this is not all neither I perceive I have satisfied you both of the pleasantness of some lighter but innocent Exercises which I named in the first place and also of the great importance of Prayer and reading the Scripture which I last spoke of yet as on the one hand I would not have a man employ all his vacant hours on the former so neither on the other hand do I think he is bound to exhaust them wholly upon the latter No Phil our Bodies are compounded of various humors our Souls consist of several faculties God is a good and benign Being and consults the good and comfort of all the Powers he hath created Besides all the forementioned therefore and those which I have supposed without naming them particularly there is a way of entertaining our selves called Study and Meditation Study I say in general not confined to any Subject but only directed to the general end of improving our selves and the time God hath given us in the World For why should we abject our selves that have rational souls an active vigorous Intellectual Spirit in us Is not this able to employ it self our time and our bodily Spirits too Is not our mind large enough to embrace the whole World Can we not bring upon the Theater of our imagination all the occurrences of time past as well as present Must we needs only pore upon the things just before our eyes Must our understandings lye fallow and barren unless they be continually stirred up by our senses Are our souls only given us for Salt to keep the Body sweet or servilely to cater for our inferiour powers and not rather to subdue and govern them Why should not we remember we are men and improve our best Talent sharpen the sense of our minds and enlarge and greaten our Spirits What hinders but that a man may converse with himself and never have better Company than when he is most solitary How can a man want Company that hath an Angelical Nature within him or need diversion that hath the whole World before him to contemplate What should discourage or hinder men from this course is it the pains and difficulty Nothing in the World is pleasanter when a man is once used to it Is it for fear we should exhaust our selves and like the Spider spin out our own Bowels in our Web There can be no danger of that an Immortal Soul never wears out and if the Body goes by the worst so long as the Spirit is bettered there is no loss
consideration of the good tidings of the Gospel What hinders but our Dishes of Meat may be seasoned with a gracious word or two about the Food of our Souls When men are talking of Old Age it would be no great strain if thence our thoughts rise up to Eternal Life Nor any great slight of phancy is requisite to improve all the accidents of our lives to the contemplation of Divine Providence which orders and governs them In a word every thing is capable of improvement if we be not wanting we shall never want opportunity if we embrace it any thing will serve an intent mind and a devout heart to these purposes My second remark is upon the Custom of those several persons in the Gospel that upon divers occasions entred into Conference with our Saviour which I note they always began by way of Question or Doubt as men desirous to be informed rather than affecting to teach or dictate This was not only the way of Nicodemus Joh. 3. of the Woman of Samaria Joh. 4. and of the young rich man Matth. 19. who came in earnest to be instructed but of the Scribes and Pharisees and Sadduces who came to dispute And indeed I have heard this modest way of propounding a Question and expecting and replying to the Answer was the old way of Disputation And certainly this is of great use in our Case for the more easie and acceptable introduction of the serious matters of Religion into ordinary Conversation When we do not violently break in upon the Company but civilly make our way not abruptly obtrude our Sentiments but insinuate them not malapertly reprove other mens errours or superciliously dictate our own Opinions not fall upon Preaching or throw down our Gantlet and challenge the Company to a Combate but modestly appear in the Garb of Learners and propound a Case as to men wiser than our selves for our own satisfaction This course instead of offending exceedingly obliges those we apply our selves to forasmuch as every man is glad to be accounted wise and fit to be consulted with As suppose you should ask the persons you are with what they think of such or such an Argument for the Immortality of the Soul or for the proof of a particular Providence or ask their advice how to answer such an Objection that comes in your way against either of those or any other fundamental Point of Religion And though such Questions may at first seem merely speculative yet if they be pursued wisely and with that intention they will infallibly lead to practice Or suppose you put a Case about Temperance as namely What are the Rules and measures of sobriety so as also to avoid scrupulosity How far is worldly care evil and vicious and how far innocent and allowable What is the predicament of careless and common Swearing and what kind of sins it is reducible to Or more generally How a man may discern his own prosiciency in Vertue and what preparation of a man's self is flatly necessary against the uncertainty of Life and to secure the great stake of an interest in another World Or to name no more What the Company thinks of such or such a passage in a Sermon you lately heard or in such a Book These and a thousand more such easie inlets there are into good Discourse without imputation of pragmaticalness and which a little presence of mind will improve to what purposes we desire Another thing that I have observed in order to this affair is what I have learned from the Custom of prudent men to insinuate that by a Story which would not be so well received if it were directly and bluntly delivered Telling of Stories you know is a common Theme of Conversation and if a man have any graceful way of telling them and especially use any prudence in the choice of them he hath the Company in his power and may lead them to what Discourse he will And besides men will admit of that to be said in the third person which they will not bear in the second Now to this purpose suppose a man should have in readiness a Story of some remarkable judgment of God upon some notorious sin that he would by all means deter those he converses with from no body could take offence at the Story and yet every mans Conscience would make application of it Or suppose a man should in lively Colours describe some excellent person he would not only put all the Hearers into the thoughts of those Vertues that were so described but stir up jointly a modest shame in them for their own shortness and an emulation of so brave an example But to be sure he shall hereby give himself an introduction without affectation of discoursing of which soever of those eminent Vertues he pleases These and many such other ways there are which your own prudence and Observation will represent to you better than I can by which a discreet person may engage any Company in which it is sit for an honest man to be found in good Discourse But I will not omit upon this occasion to tell you a Story which I have from very good hands of two very eminent men both for Learning and Piety in the last Age or rather the beginning of the present the one of them a great Prelate indeed a Primate and the other a Church-man of great note and preferment These two Great Men as they often met together to consult the interest of Learning and the affairs of the Church so when they had dispatched that they seldom parted from one another without such an encounter as this Come Good Doctor saith the Bishop let us now talk a little of Jesus Christ Or on the other side said the Doctor Come my Lord let me hear your Grace speak of the goodness of God with your wonted Piety and Eloquence let us warm one anothers hearts with Heaven that we may the better bear this cold World I cannot tell you the words that passed between them nor can you expect it from me but I am sufficiently assured of the matter of fact And this they performed with that holy reverence and ardent zeal with that delightful sense and feeling that afforded matter of admiration to those of their Friends or Servants that happened to be present or to overhear them Here is now an Example of holy Conference without a Preface and yet without exception a Precedent not only justifying all I have said but easie to imitate where-ever there is a like spirit of piety a few such men would put prophaneness out of countenance and turn the tide of Conversation Phil. Shall I crave of you to tell me the names of those two persons Sebast Their names are so well known that I think you might spare the Question but they were V and P Phil. I guess who you mean and I would to God there were more of them I doubt I shall never be able to imitate but I am resolved to write
means of which he surveys the Universe embraces the whole World and takes within his verge as well things past and things to come as those that are present which no other Creature is capable of but himself The Beast hath no kind of notice of or concern for what was in former time nor no sollicitude about what may come after but only applies it self to the present exigencies or conveniences of the body But man is very curious and inquisitive into History and how things past of old long before he was born and is also very thoughtful and anxious what may befal hereafter when he shall be dead and gone Now this one consideration alone makes him look as if he were a Being that were concerned in the whole frame of Nature and in all the revolutions of Providence and at least of more consequence than to be a meer Pageant for the short time of this life or a Mushroom to shoot out of the earth and return to it again and so be as if he had never been Besides we may observe that the mind of man doth not only consider the absolute nature of things as they lye singly and severally before it but compares them together and estimates their relative natures the mutual respects that they have to each other and the various aspects and influences they have upon each other and so comparing and conferring things together raises observations makes inferences deduces conclusions frames general maximes thereby brings things into order and method and raises Arts and Sciences All or any of which things no Creature below himself makes any pretence to or gives any token of From whence we may conclude not only the preeminence of his Nature but that he is ordained to higher purposes Moreover mankind is endowed with liberty of choice and freedom of will by virtue of which he doth not only move himself by his own internal Principles and vital Energy but also can determine himself to this object or that and either pursue or desist the prosecution at his own pleasure insomuch that he is neither carried by the swinge of any superiour causes nor fatally allured by the powerful charms of any objects from without no nor by the efficacy of any arguments arising therefrom nor any impression whatsoever saving that of God Almighty can overbear or supersede his own resolution but that he can act or desist suspend prosecution or pursue his own choice and apply himself to this object or that and follow this argument and motive or the other he hath such an Helm within himself that he can sail against Wind and Tide he can move himself in a calm and stay himself in a storm in a word he can move which way when and how far he will and stop his own carriere when he pleases The truth of this we find by daily experience and we commonly please our selves too much in this Prerogative of our Natures We see that which is better and follow that which we know to be worse we hear arguments and reject them because we will do so we are perswaded to the contrary and yet go on and when and whatsoever we act we find at the same time we could have done quite contrary if we had pleased Other Creatures either act meerly as they are acted by superiour Causes drawn by invisible wyers or fatally inclined by the objects and motives before them but we are put into the hand of our own counsels and wholly governed by our selves as to our inward resolutions and determinations Now this as it is a mighty discrimination of our Natures from theirs so it hath this peculiar effect that it renders a mans actions properly his own and imputable to himself and to nothing else and consequently fits him to undergo a Judgment for them But further yet to make Mankind more capable of a Judgment he hath a directive Rule or Law of Reason within him whereby to govern himself both in his elections and prosecutions that is he acts not only freely and undeterminately in respect of any cause without himself but he hath a light within to guide and direct those free powers of his that they may not run riot and move extravagantly by the means of which he is enabled both to make choice of his designs and to select fit and proper methods of accomplishing them For as he is not staked down to some one particular business as generally other Creatures are but hath great scope to expatiate in and variety to please himself withal so he hath a Card or Compass given him to sail by in that vast Ocean which lyes before him that is he hath a faculty of discerning the difference of things and consequently can judge what is worthy to be propounded as his post and design and also to measure and adjust the means thereunto which renders him more sit to give an account both of his elections and prosecutions Nay farther yet humane Nature by the advantage of this light within him hath not only a capacity of apprehending and judging of natural good and evil or such things as are only pleasant and profitable or the contrary but hath also notions of higher good and evil which we commonly call Moral that is he finds himself obliged to have regard to something else besides and better than his body namely either to the Deity or to the Community of Mankind or at least to his own better part his Soul and Mind None of which are at all considered by any creature below man and there is hardly any part of Mankind at least that deserves to be so esteemed which doth not think it self concerned in all these For we see whosoever hath any thing of a man in him doth think some actions to become or not become him respectively meerly as he is a man which would admit of no difference but be all alike in a Beast whereupon it is that a man cannot dispense with himself in the doing of several things which are in his power to do no not in the dark and the greatest privacy because every man that in any measure understands himself hath a reverence of himself and the effect of this betrays it self in that quick sense which Mankind hath peculiarly of shame and honour which argues him to be accountable to something higher than his senses Above all this it is considerable that Mankind hath not only a speculative apprehension of moral good and evil but a practical and very quick and pungent sense of it which we call Conscience by which he not only remembers and calls to mind whatsoever hath past him but reflecting also upon the ends and circumstances of his own actions and comparing what he hath done both for matter and manner either with the rule of Reason within him or some other Law he censures and judges himself accordingly If he hath done well and vertuously that is hath approved himself to himself he then applauds and comforts himself and feels an
unspeakable satisfaction in his own mind As for Example If a man have behaved himself gallantly towards his Prince and Country if he have carried himself ingenously and gratefully towards his Friends his Patrons or Benefactors if he have been beneficent to any part of Mankind if he have demonstrated love to God or goodness and good men if he have restrained his own rage and passions if he have rescued an innocent from the hand of the oppressor or done any thing of like nature the heart of every man naturally in such a case feels such an inward delight as sweetens his spirits and cheers his very countenance On the contrary if he have been false treacherous and ingrateful if he have been cruel and oppressive or have said or done any base thing he is presently upbraided accused condemned and tormented by himself Now what is all this but Praejudicium a kind of anticipation of the Judgment to come But if any man shall pretend this thing called Conscience which we now speak of to be no natural endowment of Humanity but only the effect of Custom and Education such a person may easily undeceive himself if he will but consider that all this which I have spoken of Conscience both as to the matter and form of it or Synteresis and Syneidesis as Learned men are wont to distinguish is so universal to all Mankind at least that have not done violence to themselves that it can with no colour be imputed to Education but must be resolved into the very nature and sense of the Soul And moreover a different notion and apprehension of the fore-mentioned particulars is so deeply implanted in the minds of men that it is impossible any contrary Custom or Education should absolutely and totally efface it therefore it is the sense of Nature and consequently a presage of the Divine Judgment To all which add in the last place That the mind of man seems plainly to be above the body and independent of it for as much as we see that not only our Reason and the powers of our Souls are so far from decaying with the body that contrariwise they grow more strong and vigorous by those very causes which impair the body I mean by age exercise and experience Besides it is easily observable that our Souls do as often as they please act quite contrary to the interests and inclinations of our bodies and frequently controul the passions thereof as well as correct and over-rule the Verdict of our Senses Therefore it is not at all probable that they should perish with our bodies but survive to some further purposes especially if we take in what I intimated before namely the consideration of the shortness of the time of this life which is so very inconsiderable for so excellent a Being as the Soul to display it self in that it seems unworthy of all the aforesaid perfections and more unworthy of the contrivance of that Wisdom which made us to order it so unless it be that Mankind is placed here only in a state of probation and is to be tryed hereafter in order to a more lasting subsistence and duration Which in consideration of all the premisses he cannot but be thought capable of at least if there be a Judge as fit to judge him as he is fit to undergo a Judgment Which brings me to my second Branch Bioph. Hold a little I pray good Sebastian you have spoken many things well and worthily of the preeminence of humane Nature and some of them such as are not only sufficient to errect a mans spirits and provoke him to hope well of himself but also do render it in some sort probable that we are designed for some higher uses than we commonly apply our selves to Nevertheless you have not reached your point nor will all you have said attain the end you propounded unless you go farther and prove the Soul of man to be a Spirit or immaterial substance as the men of your way are wont to speak that so there may be a plain foundation for its existence out of the body Without which let it he as excellent a Being as it can and adorned with as many other perfections as you can imagine it cannot be capable of standing at a Tribunal and undergoing such a Judgment in another World as we are speaking of Sebast I could have wished you would have given me leave to lay all the parts of my Argument together before you that so you might have taken a view of it intire and all at once and then you might have objected as you should have seen cause But however I will comply with your Method and as to that which you have thought fit now to interpose I answer these two things First I say It is not necessary to the business in hand that the Soul be proved to be strictly immaterial and capable of existing and acting out of the body for as much as at the day of Judgment I suppose the body shall be raised again and then if it should be so that all the powers of the Soul were laid asleep by death until that time yet now upon a re-union with their proper Organs they would revive again So that I did not in my proof fall short of the mark I aimed at but you out-shoot the point in your demand For whether the Soul be a spiritual substance or no so long as those perfections which we have enumerated belong to it there is nothing wanting to make it capable of undergoing a Judgment But Secondly To speak my own mind plainly and to come home to your satisfaction I must tell you that as for my part I do not doubt but that the Soul of man is properly and strictly of a spiritual Nature so I am confident that those things which we have ascribed to it do sufficiently prove it to be so seeing it is impossible to salve those Phaenomena or to give any tolerable account of those great accomplishments and performances of the Soul before specified from meer matter let it be modified or circumstantiated how it can Simple perception of objects is of the lowest rank of humane perfections and indeed is not proper to humane Nature but common to Brutes yet this seems impossible to be performed by meer matter For the eye though it be a very admirable and exquisite Organ can by no means be said to perceive the objects of sight but only to transmit or present them to some perceptive power It doth I say only as a glass represent the Species or image of the thing which even a dead eye or an hole will in some measure perform but it makes no judgment of the object at all as appears by this that all objects are transmitted reversed or with the heels upward through the eye and so left till some higher power sets them right and on their legs and judges of their distance and other circumstances Now if it be so that matter thus advantageously disposed
cannot answer to God and your own Conscience and do every thing within your power that may approve and recommend you to both and thence-forward fear not a day of Judgment Bioph. Now you speak to the purpose indeed that I must needs say is good counsel and such as I think all the World is agreed in therefore I thank you for it and I will try to follow it Phil. God prosper your resolution Biophilus And now Sebastian that we are happily come to this point I pray give me leave to put Biophilus's question a little more home to you I thank God I am sensible of the great day approaching and make some conscience of being provided for it but because I would not for all the world be mistaken in my measures in a business of that moment I crave the assistance of your judgment how far that care extends and particularly what it comprises The reason of my sollicitude herein besides the consequence of the thing it self is because I have heard it delivered as a standing Rule by some men That the only sure preparation is that a man live every day as if it were the last he had to live Which Doctrine hath often raised scruples in my mind and I suspect it may have had the like effect upon others and to tell you my thoughts plainly I look upon it as unpracticable and inconsistent with the common affairs of life for most certainly on that day which I thought would be the last I should live I would not fail to dismiss all other business whatsoever I would scarce eat or drink or sleep but wholly apply my self to acts of devotion Now if that rule be true Religion is a more anxious thing than I was aware and if it be not true I pray make me understand what is the truth in this matter Sebast I do not know why you should lay much stress upon my judgment in such a case but if you will have my opinion it is plainly this that the rule you speak of is far more devout than judicious for as you well observe since God Almighty hath cloathed our Souls with bodies and placed us in a world of business it cannot be that he should expect we should in the whole course of our lives so singly and solely apply our selves to the affairs of another World as we should think fit to do just when we are going off the stage and solemnly preparing our selves for an immediate appearance at Gods Judgment-seat If therefore those men you speak of had prescribed that we should every day think of the day of Judgment as not knowing how soon it may be upon us or that we should take care every day to advance in our provision for it they had delivered a great and a necessary Truth but when they speak as if they meant that we must do nothing any day but what we would do if we were sure it were our last day they thwart the very order of Divine Providence in the condition of men and the constitution of the world they condemn the practice and call in question the state of the best of men they lay a snare for the Conscience of the weak and timorous and in a word they obtrude an impracticable notion for the most concerning and necessary Truth But you are not to wonder or be troubled at it For though there is generally more defect of devotion than of knowledge in the World yet there are some particular men wherein the former exceeds the latter and such men please themselves in a pretty saying without being able to judge of the prudence of it and whilst they go about to awaken some secure and careless persons to a serious sense of their eternal concern are not aware that they afford matter of everlasting scruple and offence to those that are truly tender and conscientious It were easie to give you sundry instances of this superfine high strained Divinity but there is one I will mention for its affinity with that before us viz. you shall find it dogmatically delivered by some seeming great Casuists That in certain and indisputable things it is a mans duty to do that which is best of the kind and in uncertain and controverted cases to take the surer side Now if these things were laid down as prudential advices only to direct a man which way to incline himself they were very useful but to make them express measures of duty is to make more Laws than God hath made and condemn more things for sin than he condemns and consequently cannot chuse but imbroil the Consciences of men For suppose Prayer be better than secular business then upon this Principle I must turn Euchite and spend all my time in devotion Suppose there be fewer temptations in a Monastick life than in common Conversation then every one that is careful of his Soul must retire into a Cloister If there be difficulties attending Magistracy and publick Employment then I must fold up my hands and do nothing but go into my Cell and pray God to mend the World though I be called to the other If bodily exercises and Games have some snares in them I must allow my self no recreations nay I shall be put endlesly and anxiously to dispute whether it be better to give a poor man two pence or a shilling or five shillings c. whether I shall pray three times a day or seven times a day whether an hour or two hours And indeed every thing I go about will afford inextricable difficulties upon these Principles But that by the way only As for the business in hand trouble your self no farther than to live every day well and to be sure to do nothing you cannot answer be always getting ground and growing better and better as near as you can do every day something that may turn to account another day and then comfortably await Gods time Phil. I thank you heartily both for your direct answer and your digression and I pray pardon me if I come a little closer to you yet I know you live under a comfortable prospect of the day of Judgment and I am confident you neither would or could enjoy that even tranquillity if you were not upon sure grounds Now my request is that you will be so free with me as to make me acquainted with your whole management of your self For though I have a rule to walk by yet for fear I should misapply it and either through Superstition and Scrupulosity overgo it or by the carelesness of my own heart fall short of it I should be very glad to have an example to interpret it to me Sebast I clearly perceive you either love me too much or know me not so well as I thought you did in that you think of making me your example Alas Phil. little do you think how many follies and infirmities I labour under and as little what qualms and dejections of spirit I sometimes feel within my self Phil.
I confess I do not know you so well but that I desire to know more of you and though it be a great thing I ask of you that you should absolutely unbosom your self to me yet you that have done me so much good already I hope will not deny me this advantage of your conversation Sebast Ah dear Phil. you may command me any thing but I tell you my life hath too many blots in it for you to make a Copy of in truth such a precedent will indanger to make you too remiss Phil. Now you discourage me more than ever and make me suspect that it is an harder thing to be saved than I imagined since you find such difficulty in it Sebast Good Phil. excuse me from saying any thing of my self but if it were not too tedious for this time I would give you the History of an holy Friend of mine which I had from his own mouth and that I assure my self will be of more use to you than what you seem so passionately to desire Phil. Of whom do you mean Sebast Of my dear Friend Eulabes now with God a Person of as great Sanctity of life and comfortableness of Spirit as Earth can easily admit of Phil. I have heard much of the fame of his Piety but I never had the happiness to know him For Gods sake let us have his story since you will not gratifie me in my first request Sebast I remember the time well when I made much the same request to him which you have now done to me And he after he had for a good while modestly declined giving me satisfaction therein by such excuses as it is not necessary I should now repeat and I had replied to them as well as I could at length yielding to my importunity he began thus Dear Friend quoth he though from the first date of our acquaintance our conversation hath been so intimate and my breast hath been so open to you that I scarcely know any thing by my self that you have not been privy to yet because you are pleased to entertain the curiosity to inquire further after me I will not stick to tell you as well what happened to me before the commencement of our friendship as also such things as in regard they passed only betwixt God and my own Soul may be unknown to you though they were transacted since Know then said he that about such time as I had out-grown the meer follies and infirmities of my youth and began together with the advance of my bodily strength and vigour to make also some essays of understanding and discretion I quickly found that by the Spring-tide of my blood and the great increase of bodily spirits several very impetuous passions and inclinations boiled up in me notwithstanding those small efforts which my reason as yet could make to the contrary This I then thought and do still to be a case common to other men with my self and since I have considered of it I am apt to think that our wise Creator so ordered the matter that these two Combatants Sense and Reason should grow up and enter the Lists together to the intent that as Reason should not be without its Antagonist to hold it in play so on the other side those bodily powers should not be left without a Guide to conduct controul and manage them However hereupon bodily inclinations growing daily stronger and stronger and my Reason and Conscience not being yet foiled or corrupted there arose a very strong conflict in me between them and that as yet of very doubtful issue forasmuch as both being parts of my self I could not easily resolve which side to incline to In the mean time as God would have it calling to mind the solemnity of my Baptism I remembred that then when I was dedicated to Christ and entred as a Candidate of eternal Life I had renounced the flesh with the affections and lusts Hereupon therefore I resolved to withstand them if I could and to this end begged the assistance of Gods grace and by the advice of my Parents and those good persons who having been Sureties for me had a desire to discharge their Consciences of that Trust which lay upon them I applied my self to the Bishop for Confirmation Whereby having obtained not only the Blessing of my Spiritual Father but made Christian Religion now my own act and choice and besides had put such a publick obligation upon my self as would render it very shameful for me to go back or retreat I from that time forward was under a more awful sense of God and Religion and felt frequent motions of the holy Spirit within me Here I remember I a little interrupted him applauding his singular felicity in being so early ingaged in the way of Heaven by which means that course was now grown habitual to him and his accounts much easier at the day of Judgment But he proceeded saying It is true indeed it was Gods great goodness to awaken me to a sense of my duty thus early as I have told you but then what by the allurements of pleasures which have always too poinant a relish with younger years what by ingagement in business which grew upon me afterwards and what through the contagion of example which surrounds a man with too common instances of carelesness in these weighty matters I was drawn off from any close attendance upon Religion until it pleased God in his wise Methods of Grace to lay his hand upon me in a dangerous fit of sickness and this partly as it stained all the beauty of the World which heretofore allured me partly also as it mortified and infeebled those bodily powers which before were too potent in me but principally as it gave me leisure and inclination to recollect my self I thereupon seeing nothing but death before me fell into a great concern for another life and so by degrees came to a solemn resolution of making Religion my chief business and took all the care possible that so I might be prepared for the great day of Tryal Now because this is the point which I perceive you inquire after I will acquaint you with the method I pursued and to deal faithfully with you as I hope I did with my own Soul the stress of my preparations lay in these three things First Because I was sure that an holy life must needs be the best Pass-port for the other World therefore I considered how I might keep my self closest to my duty and walk in all the Commandments of God as blameless as it was possible Secondly Because I knew that I had failed heretofore and feared I should again in several things fall short of my duty therefore I bethought my self how I might do something extraordinary if not to make up those defects yet to shew at least the sincerity of my love to God and Religion and the value I had for the World to come Thirdly and principally In consideration of the