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A36896 The art of living incognito being a thousand letters on as many uncommon subjects / written by John Dunton during his retreat from the world, and sent to that honourable lady to whom he address'd his conversation in Ireland ; with her answer to each letter. Dunton, John, 1659-1733. 1700 (1700) Wing D2620; ESTC R16692 162,473 158

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Perspective Glass through which they behold their Misery warrant my giving them Black Characters No Sabina I find too much in my own Breast to damp my censuring others and have as little Reason to be pust up with Conceit With Conceit of what shou'd I be proud of for my Head is as full of Whimseys as if it kept open House for all the Maggots in Nature yet excuse me too for I don't see but others only they have more Wit to conceal 'em have as many Maggots as Iohn Dunton And therefore Maggots in every Brain 't is Mr. Herbert tells us Man builds a House which quickly down must go As if a Whirl-wind blew And crush'd the Buildings And it s partly true His Mind is so O what a sight were Man if his Attires Did alter with his Mind And like a Dolphin's Skin his Cloaths combin'd With his Desires Surely if each one saw anothers Heart There wou'd be no Commerce No Sale or Bargain pass All wou'd disperse Andliv apart But suppose I cou'd see nothing greater or more Maggotty then my self to arrogate my Service yet were I far from being Absolute nor dare I think my self mine own Man My Hands and Shoulders tell ●e I was born to labour for my Hands and Shoulders and other parts are a Lecture to me for the labour of my Body And my station here minds me that I must be busied in Contemplation for I look on the Earth as a Green Bank recover'd from the Waters for me to stand on unmovedly while I behold the tossing Seas and turning Spheres and all things else in agitation Now to be tasked in this manner denotes my condition to be that of a Servant I further know my subjection My great Ignorance by my Ignorance I cannot so much as give an Account of my own Being how I was brought hither I have it not in my own knowledge if those about me had combined it had been more easie to have made me believe an Eternity of my self a parte ante than the Atheist a parte post That I had a Beginning is but deliver'd me I was lighted I know not how no● when by Tradition confirm'd by the Motions of accretion and diminution in my self and Example in others for I was LIGHTED I know not how nor when Again In the Administration of Things their Order is not from any Law of mine and I might well be call'd Esop's foolish Fly should I think my self able to make the very Bsop's foolish Fly Dust that made me now while I ponder on these Things and a thousand more that I see in the World I look for something greater than it It seems to me unreasonable That a Work so Absolute and Uniform should want an Efficient I dare not with Empedocles sit shuffling in a dusty The wise Administration of Things lead us to the Consideration of an Immense Being CELL 'till I have made a World of Atoms But I will resolvedly say such wise Position and Administration of Things here was never Casual so I search and wonder and tremble for I find my-self not far from that Immense Being that I thus grope after and sure I am if a Light was brought into the Room I shou'd see my self in the everlasting Arms of a Father or an Enemy These things I read by the Hierogliphicks of the Creatures in the A. B. C. of Nature for so I 'll call the Book of Morks compar'd to that of the Word of later Edition and of more Perfection This is the unmasking of the others Frontispiece this leads me and refers them to an ALMIGHTY GOD here manifested in his several Subsistences and Attributes I have it here in plain Words What was but pointed at in the other Behold this little Uolume here enrold 'T is the Almighty's Present to the World Hearken Earth Earth Each senseless thing can hear His Maker's Thunder tho' it want an Ear. Gods Word is senior to his Work ●y rather If rightly weighd the World may call it Father God spake 't was done This great Foundation Was but the Makers Exhalation Breath'd out in speaking The least work of Man Is better then his Word but if we scan God's Word aright his Works far short do fall The Word is God the Works are Creature 's all The sundry pieces of this general Frame Are dimmer Letters all which spell the same Eternal Word But these cannot express His Greatness with such easie Readiness And therefore yield For Heaven shall pass away The Sun the Moon the Starrs shall all obey To light one general Boon-Fire but his WORD His Builder up his all destroying Sword Yet still survives no jot of that can die Each Tittle measures Immortality Once more this mighty Word his People greets Thus lapp'd and thus swath'd up in Paper-sheets Read here Gods Image with a Zealous Eye The Legihle and Written Deity But I 'll not undertake to unfold its Excellency for to speak of every Thing in this Book requires a better Why the Holy Bible is the chief Book we shou'd study Pen than mine however this I shall say of it He that Questions its Worth instead of an Answer shall be deservedly blam'd as neglectful of reading the Holy Scripture When I have weighed the Premises I am troubled My Resolutions to read it often that I have so truanted formerly and cannot but now resolve to put my self with more diligence upon this Spiritual Literature Thus having mentioned the Characters of SUN MOON HEAVEN and EARTH and the other Creatures I shall be able to put them together and make them spell Infinite Wisdom and Power as much as boundless Mercy From the Earth I learn to contemplate from the Heavens I learn to add Motion and Practice to my Speculation When I see how the dead Earth and Water serve the Vegetive and they the Sensitive and they the Rational Creatures What spiritual use we should make of every Thing we see in the World And when I see how this subordination keeps every thing entire let me hence also learn Duty let me remember tho' I am exalted above all these yet there is a higher than the highest to whom I am in all humbleness to stoop as they to me And if my Ox knows his Owner and my Ass his Masters Crib let them teach me to know him from whom I have receiv'd All and to whom I owe all And Lastly When I see the largeness and capacity of my own Soul I will learn to decline the small and narrow Creature and search after an Object able to better it able to fill it And as I shou'd make this spiritual use of every thing I see in the World which I call the Book of Works so likewise that I may be more skill'd in God's other Book I shall desire to meditate in it Day and Night to use it on all occasions as a Medicine for every Disease If I am in doubt I will make it my