surest course to take away the uneasie Symptom by removing that which Foments the cause Thus when the Mind is distemper'd with turbulent Commotions and the disquieted Appetite does too restlessly and eagerly crave Objects which though perhaps in themselves not absolutely Bad are at least made by a Conjunction of Circumstances unfit and dangerous for the Person that longs for them VVe like unskilfull or unruly Patients fondly imagine that the only way to appease our Desires is to grant them the Objects they so Passionately tend to But the wise and soveraign Physitian of Souls who considers not so much what we do wish as what we should wish often discerns that this praeternatural Thirst indicates and calls for a Lancet rather than a Julep and knows it best to attempt the Cure rather by taking away somewhat that we have than by giving us that which only a Spiritual superfluity reduces us to want And in effect we often see that as a few Ounces of Blood taken away in a Feaver does cool the Patient more than the giving him ten times as much Drink would do so a few Afflictions by partly letting out and partly moderating our corrupt Affections do more compose and appease a Mind molested with inordinate Appetites than the Possession of a great many of the Objects we impotently desire VVhilst our Appetites are roving and unreasonable and insatiate the obtaining of this or that particular Object does but amuse the Patient not take away the Disease whereas seasonable and sanctify'd Crosses that teach us to know our selves and make us sensible how little we deserve and how little the things we are so Greedy of could make us happy if obtain'd may reduce us to a Resignation and Tranquility of Mind preferrable to those over-valu'd things which as it keeps us from enjoying so it keeps us from needing Thus Zacheus who whilst a Publican never thought he had enough when he had once entertain'd our Saviour though he offer'd to make a quadruple Restitution of what ever he had fraudulently acquir'd was upon a sudden by being freed from Avarice grown so Rich that he was forward to give no less than half he had to the Poor as if his Divine Guest had wrought upon his Goods such Miracles as he had done upon the five Loaves and two Fishes of which the Remains amounted to more than the whole Provision was at first MEDITATION V. Upon the Taking of Physick THe last bitter Potion that I took Sophronia was I remember sweetned with the hopes were given me with it that it might prove the last I should need to take and would procure me a setled and durable Health But I find by sad Experience That the benefit I deriv'd from it is nothing near so lasting as it was welcome for I am now reduc'd to take Physick agen and I fear must often do so before I shall be able to dislodge this troublesome Ague that haunts me For though the last Physick I took wrought so well that I hop'd it had brought away not only the ill Humours themselves but the very sources of them yet by the effect of what I took this Morning I not only find there is as much to be purged away now as there was then but what is sadder I can scarce hope this Physick will excuse me from the need of taking more again ere long But though 't is a troublesome thing and must be often repeated yet 't is a salutary thing too and cannot be more unpleasant than 't is usefull and as Loathsome as it is a Sickness were far worse Thus when a relenting Sinner has endeavour'd to wash away his Sins with his Tears he may possibly think himself so throughly wash'd in that abstersive Brine which yet owes its cleansing Virtue not to its own Nature but to the Blood of Christ that if he be a new Convert and be entertain'd with those Ravishing delights wherewith God is often pleas'd to engage such returning Prodigals as the Kind Father welcom'd his Riotous Son with Feasting and with Musick that he is apt to fancy Repentance to be like Baptism which being receiv'd once for a Man 's whole Life needs never be renewed But though during such transports an unexperienc'd Convert may be apt to cast the Gauntlet to the VVorld saying in his Spiritual prosperity that he shall never be mov'd yet as our Saviour speaks The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak and too commonly our Resolutions flagg with our Joys and those that a while before imagin'd they despis'd the World find themselves Worsted if not Captivated by it and find it far more difficult than they thought it to Live in the Company of Sinners without being of their Number and in so defil'd a World without being spotted by it And as the same David who said in his Prosperity he should never be mov'd said in his Distress he should one Day perish by the hand of Saul So many of those that whilst their Tears of Repentance and of Joy are not yet dry'd off their Eyes are apt to defie and contemn all the Ghostly enemies and difficulties that oppose their present zealous Resolutions will perhaps in a while after when they meet with unexpected Impediments and Foyls change their confidence into despair and think those very Enemies whom they lately look'd on as Despicable to be Insuperable But as Physick that does good for a time ought not to be rejected because it does good but for a time nor should we reject the only sure means of our present Recovery for fear of future Relapses so though we sadly find that Repentance must be repeated and that after we have practis'd it often we must have need of it agen yet since 't is the only proper means to recover a Soul out of a state of Sin which is worse than any Disease and leads to the worst of Deaths we must never suffer our selves to be so far Discouraged as to forgo so necessary and so profitable a Duty and must not more frequently Relapse into faults than renew our Sorrow for them and our Resolves against them For Innocence indeed is far more desirable than Repentance as Health is than Physick But as Physick is more Eligible than the continuance of Sickness so is Repentance more Eligible than continuing in the state of Sin And as the Drinking ev'n of a bitter Potion is a less Evil than the heat and thirst and restlesness of an Ague so to lament for Sin here is a far less uneasie thing than to do it in a place where there is nothing but remediless VVailing and Gnashing of Teeth 'T is true that our Souls are in this too like our Bodies that our whole Lives are spent betwixt Purging away of naughty Humours and accumulating them And me-thinks I hear the Flesh still saying unto the Spirit as Ruth did to Naomi The Lord do so to me and more also if ought but Death part thee and me Ruth 1. 14. But
you have been saying subjoyns Lindamor when he perceived that Eusebius had done speaking suggests to me a Reflection that till now I did not dream of And though it differ from that wherewith you have been pleased to entertain us yet because 't is applicable to the same purpose and occasioned by the same River I shall without scruple though after your Discourse not without Blushes tell you that it is this I among many others that Live near it have often resorted in hot Weather to this River to bathe my self in it and after what I have been hearing I now begin to consider that though incomparably the greater part of the River run by me without doing me any good and though when I went out of it I carried away little or none of it with me yet whilst I stayed in it that very Stream whose Waters run so fast away from me washed and carried off whatever Foulness it might find sticking to my Skin And besides not only cooled me and refreshed me by allaying the intemperate heat that discomposed me and made me faint but also help'd me to a good Stomach for some while after Thus resumes Lindamor I have sometimes found that a moving Sermon though it did not find me qualified to derive from it the Advantages it questionless afforded better Auditors and when I went from it I found I had retained so little of it that it seemed to have almost totally slipt out of my Memory yet the more Instructive and Pathetick passages of it had that Operation upon me as to cleanse the Mind from some of the Impurities it had contracted by Conversing to and fro in a defiling World without suffering Pollutions to stay long and settle where they began to be Harboured And besides I found that a course of such Sermons as I have been mentioning did oftentimes and if it had not been my own fault would have always done so both allay those Inordinate heats that tempting Objects are but too apt to Excite refresh my drooping Spirits that continually needed to be revived and raise in me an Appetite to the means of Grace which are Piety's and consequently the Soul's true and improving Aliments So that concludes Lindamor though I seldome let Sermons do me all the good they may and should yet I dare not forsake them because I forget them since 't is to do a Man some good to make him less bad than he was and to give a Value and Inclination for the means of growing better than he is DISCOURSE X. Upon a Fishes running away with the Bait. THis Reflection of Lindamor's was soon follow'd by another of the same Gentleman's who seeing many Fishes rise one after another and bite at Eugenius's Bait which he let them sometimes run away with that he might be the surer to be able to draw them up as he afterwards did several of them See says Lindamor as one of the Fishes had just swallowed the Hook how yonder silly Fish having at length seized the beloved Bait he has been Courting posts away with it as his obtained wish little dreaming of being himself taken Thus continues the same Speaker when greedy Mortals have an opportunity to obtain forbidden things they joyfully run away with them as the Goods they aimed at and when they fondly think they have caught they are so and whilst they imagine themselves to carry away a Booty they become a Prey for that he is in his Judgment that never errs who whatever he gets into the Bargain loses himself The Scripture subjoyns Eusebius mentions among other properties of Vice that which it calls the Deceitfulness of Sin And the wise Man tells us that Wine is a Mocker and it may be one of the reasons of these Expressions that when we think our selves possessed of a sinfull Pleasure we are indeed possessed by it as Doemeniacks are possessed by the Divel who serves many other Sinners though less perceivedly as he serves Witches whom he gets the Power to command by seeming to obey them and to comply with their criminal desires And if we compare this with what I was just now observing to you on the occasion of the counterfeit Fly we may add That even when Sin seems the Kindest and most Obsequious to us and to answer if not exceed our Desires our case may be but like the Canaanitish General 's who though he had Milk brought him by Jael instead of the Water he only requested was but thereby invited to Sleep the Sleep of Death and to have his Fears more surpass'd than his Desires had been But pursues Eusebius this may supply us with another Reflection for though this Fish seems to have devoured the Hook and Bait it swallowed yet in effect it is taken thereby so the Divel when he had played the Serpent and the Lion when he had brought the Jews and Gentiles to conspire against their common Saviour and had made Herod and Pilate friends to make them joynt Enemies to Christ and when by these means he seemed to have obtained his end by employing their hands to Kill the formidablest of all his Enemies this pursued Prey destroyed the seeming Conquerour and Death appearing to swallow the Lord of Life was if I may so speak choaked by the Attempt since he not only was quickly able to say in the Apostles Triumphant Language O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory but did by Death conquer him that had the power of Death that is the Divel nay and made all his followers so much sharers in the advantages of his Conquest as by the same way which we are informed by the same Text to deliver those whom the restless fear of Death perpetually kept from relishing the Joys of Life DISCOURSE XI Upon a Danger springing from an unseasonable Contest with the Steersman THis Discourse being ended Eugenius who was look'd upon by us all as the most Experienc'd as well as concerned Angler among us descrying at a good distance a place which he judged more convenient for our Sport than that we there were in where the Fish began to bite but slowly He invited the Company to this new Station but when we were come thither finding in a short time that either it was ill stock'd with Fish or that the Season of their Biting in the places thereabouts was over he thought it concerned him to provide us some better place and accordingly whilst we were yet by the pleasure of mutual conversation endeavouring to keep the Fishes sulleness from proving an Exercise to our patience he walk'd on along the River till he lighted upon a Youth that by his Habit seem'd to belong to some Boat or other Vessel and having enquir'd of him whether he could not be our Guide to some place where the Fish would bite quick he replied that he easily could if we would take the trouble of coming to a place on the other side of the River which his Master who was a
But for my part though I hope I both value and desire Religious Preachers as much as the rest of my Brethren yet I think it would be much to the injury of Scripture and of Reason if we should suffer the personal faults of men to keep them from doing that good their nature fits them for The Etymology of the Gospel importing its being welcome news 't is pity that any one that teaches it should not have a title to the Character David gave Ahimaaz of whom he said that he is a good man and brings good tidings But my desirousness of piety in a Preacher is more for others sake than mine For I know not why Truth which is an intellectual thing should lose its nature by any moral vitiousness in the Proposer I know there is something extraordinary in the case of Noah who awoke from his Wine and immediately prophesied and yet the Event verifi'd his Predictions Our Saviour instructing his Disciples about the Scribes and Pharisees who sate in Moses's Chair at the same time commands them to conform to their Doctrine when he forbids them to imitate their Example The Wise-men did not the less find Christ at Bethlehem though the Priests and Pharisees sent them without accompanying them thither And the Assyrian General was cured of his Leprosie by following the Prophet's prescription convey'd him by that Gehazi who by his unworthy carriage in that business transplanted if I may so speak that foul Disease into himself and his posterity I will therefore consider Sermons more than Preachers For as in a Burning-glass though the Sun-beams do but illustrate not heat it in their passage they may yet by its assistance kindle subjects that are more disposed to receive their action So those very Truths and Notions of a learned Preacher which do but enlighten him may inflame his Hearers and kindle in their hearts the love of God And as if a Perfume be set on fire by the Beams projected through a Burning-glass which they do not so much as warm in their passage the Scent is no less odoriferous and grateful than if it had been produc'd by an actually burning coal So neither is that Devotion which is kindled by the Eloquence of an indevout Preacher any whit the less acceptable to God for their not being themselves affected with the Zeal they beget in others And what the Book of Kings relates of Elisha's Bones contains a far greater Miracle in the Historical than in the Allegorical sense in which 't is no such wonder to see a man rais'd to life by a dead Prophet REFLECTION IX Upon the finding a Horse-shoe in the High-way THe common people of this Country have a Tradition that 't is a lucky thing to find a Horse-shoe And though 't was to make my self merry with this fond conceit of the superstitious Vulgar I stoop'd to take this up yet now I observe in it a Circumstance that may for ought I know somewhat justifie the Tradition For I take notice that though Horse-shoes are by travelling worn out yet if they had a sense of their own condition it might afford them some consolation in it that the same Journeys that waste them make them both useful and bright Whereas though the Horse-shoe I have taken up have not been consum'd upon the account of travelling it has been eaten up by rust which wastes it as well as Attrition would have done but does not give it the lustre it would have receiv'd from that I meet with many who very unmindful that He who was justly styl'd the Wise-man whose counsel it was that what ever our hand finds to do we should do it with all our might c. make it the main business of their life merely to lengthen it that are far more sollicitous to live long than well and would not undergo the least labour or endure the least hardship to do the greatest Good but had rather lose an hundred opportunities of serving God or obliging Men than one Entertainment or an hours sleep and all this under the pretence of minding their Health and complying with the Dictates of Self-preservation But I have often observ'd too that ev'n these jolly People that seldome have a serious Thought but how to avoid serious Imployments may by making their whole Lives a Succession of Divertisements or rather a constant Diversion from the true end of them make their Lives indeed thereby useless but not at all immortal And truly Feavers Plurisies and other acute Diseases that are home-bread besides those numerous fatal ones that are caught by Contagion and a multitude of Casualties do cut off so many before they reach old Age in comparison of those that the Diligence and Industry impos'd by Religion or Curiosity destroy that I think so great a fear of using the Body for the interests of the Soul and of him to whom we owe both do's very little become his Disciples who said That 't was his Meat to do the Will of God that sent him and to accomplish his Work The trouble of Thirsting and Sweating and Undressing would to an ingenious Man be but just recompenc'd by the bare pleasures of Eating and Drinking and Sleeping to confine an honest and inquisitive Person from those which he looks upon as the almost onely Manly employments the exercise of Virtue and the pursuit of Knowledge by telling him that such a forbearance may protract his Life is to promise a thing upon a condition that destroys the end and use of it and he will look upon it as if you should offer him a Horse provided he will not ride him or a Perspective-glass upon condition he shall not draw it out for fear the Air should as it sometimes do's impair the Glasses A Heaven-born Soul would scarce think it worth while to stay here below if its work must be not to imploy the Body but to tend it Those that are so unreasonably afraid to spend their Spirits are in some regards less excusable than Misers themselves for though both hoard up things that cannot be better injoy'd than by being parted with the chief uses for which they were intrusted with them yet in this those I blame are more censurable than the Covetous themselves since these by their Niggardliness can avoid spending their Money but the others by their Laziness cannot avoid the Consumption of their time I know a Man may be Prodigal of himself as well as his Estate and that both those Profusions are faults and therefore fit to be declin'd But if I could not shun both the Extremes certainly since we all must Dye and the question is not whether or no we will Live for ever for the most that can be hop'd for is not to be priviledg'd from Death but onely to be longer repriv'd but whether we will rather indeavour to lead a Life mean and unprofitable a few more days or a glorious Life for a somewhat less number of them I should rather chuse to spend my
a Horse-back but not to have perform'd a long Journey whereas he that by thriftily Husbanding his time and industriously Improving it has early dispatch'd the business for which he was sent into the VVorld needs not Gray-hairs to be reputed to have Liv'd long enough and consequently longer than those that wear Gray-hairs only because they were Born many Years before him In a word to one of these sorts of Men we may attribute a longer Time but to the other a longer Life for ev'n the Heathen could say Non est vivere sed valere Vita and within how narrow a compass soever a Man's Life be confin'd if he have Liv'd so long as before he comes to the end of Life he have reach'd the ends of Living The attainment of that Measure of Knowledge and the practice of those Graces and Virtues that fit a Man to glorifie God in this short Life and to be Glorified by him in that which shall have no End MEDITATION X. Upon a Thief in a Candle THe silence of the Night and my being unable to Sleep disposing me to have my attention very easily excited I chanc'd to take notice that the Dim light of the Candle which the Curtains were not drawn so close as to exclude every where out of the Bed was on a suddain considerably increas'd and continued so long in that condition that for fear of some mischance I put my Head out of the Bed to see whence it was that this new and unexpected increase of Light proceeded but I quickly found that 't was from a Thief as they call it in the Candle which by its irregular way of making the Flame blaze had melted down a good part of the Tallow and would have spoil'd the rest if I had not call'd to one of those that Watch'd with me to rescue the remains by the removal of the Thief But I had scarce done this when I confess to you Sophronia I found my self invited to make some Reflections upon what I had done and to read my self a new Lesson by the Beams of this new Light For though this Thief made the Candle shine more strongly and diffuse a much greater Light than it did before yet because it made a great and irregular waste of the Candle I order'd it to be taken away and on this occasion me-thought I might justly make use of that saying of Pharaoh's forgetfull Butler I do remember my Faults this Day Gen. 41. 9. For though I find no great difficulty in abstaining from other kinds of Intemperance yet to that of Studying my Friends and especially my Physitians have often accus'd me of being too Indulgent Nor can I altogether deny but that in mental Exercises there can be Exorbitancies and Excesses I may have sometimes been Guilty of them and that the things for which I think Life valuable being the satisfaction that accrues from the improvement of Knowledge and the exercise of Piety I thought it allowable if not commendable to consume or hazard it for the attainment of those Ends and esteem'd Sickness more formidable for its unfitting me to learn and to teach than for its being attended with pain and danger and look'd upon what it made me forbear as far more troublesome than what ever else it made me endure But I find my Body is a Jade and tyres under my Mind and a few hours fix'd Contemplation does sensibly so spend my Spirits as to make me feel my self more weary that the Riding post for twice as many hours has ever done Wherefore since though the proper use of a Candle be to consume it self that it may give others Light I yet thought fit to have the Thief taken away because though it made the Candle give more Light it would have wasted it too fast and consequently made it expire too soon I see not how I can resist their perswasions that would have me husband better the little stock of strength Nature has given me and the rather by a moderate expence of it endeavour to make it shine longe though but Dimly then consume it to fast though for a while to keep up a Blaze I will therefore endeavour to learn of this Sickness and of this Accident what the Doctors hitherto could never teach me and injoyn my self an Abstinence which to me is more uneasie than if Wine or VVomen or other sensual Pleasures were to be the Objects of it but if in so difficult an Exercise of Self-denial I do not always perform what I am now perswaded to 't is like I shall easily forgive my self for but a little hastning the end of my Life to attain the ends of it MEDITATION XI Upon the being in danger of Death I Know that Physitians are wont after their Master Hypocrates to tell us That Feavers which intermit are devoid of Danger But though an Ague whilst it continues such could not be a mortal Disease yet why may it not degenerate into such a one And for my part who take the Prognosticks of Physitians to be but Guesses not Prophesies and know how backward they are to bid us fear till our Condition leave them little hopes of us I cannot but think that Patient very ill advis'd who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of Death as long as his Doctor allows him any hopes of Life for in case they should both be deceiv'd 't would be much easier for the mistaken Physitian to save his Credit than for the unprepar'd Sinner to save his Soul Wherefore Sophronia finding my Disease attended with unusual threatning Symptoms not knowing where they would end I last Night thought it fit to suppose they might end in Death And two things especially made me the more ready for such an entertainment of my Thoughts One That we can scarce be too carefull and diligent in fitting our selves for the Acting of a part well that we can never Act but once For where the Scripture tells us It is appointed for all Men once to Dye it is immediately subjoyn'd That after that comes Judgment and if we Dye ill once we shall never be allow'd to Dye again to see if we would Dye better the second time than we did the first But as the Wise man Allegorically speaks Where the Tree falls there shall it lye So that the faults committed in this last and importantest of humane Actions being irreparable I think the only safe way is to imitate him who having said If a Man Dye shall he Live again presently annex'd by way of Inference and Resolution All the Days of my appointed Time will I wait till my Change come The other consideration that recommended to me the Thoughts of the Grave was this That we may be often sollicitous to provide against many Evils and Dangers that possibly may never reach us and many endure from the Anxious fears of contingent Mischiefs that never will befall them more Torment than the apprehended Mischiefs themselves though really suffer'd would inflict But Death will sooner