through God's munificent Goodness obtain a much more valuable Treasure that he shall never lose So that thus to sacrifise Wealth to Charity is not an early loss of it but the right way of securing it for by this gainfull way when we shall in another VVorld be past the possibility of possessing our Riches in Kind such an Employment of them may help us to enjoy them though not in the capacity of Riches yet in that noble capacity of Goods under which Notion alone they are desirable and thus laid up they may there procure us what they could never here afford us Happiness REFLECTION III. Upon his being in great Danger wandring on Mendip Hills among cover'd Lead Mines that he knew not of HOw have I travell'd all this while upon the Brink of the Grave I thought only to be out of my Way but little dream'd to be so near the end of all my Journeys in that of my Life by Traversing to and fro amongst those deep and cover'd Pits upon any one of which if my Horse had but chanc'd to stumble and the very Mine-men I at length met with think it a kind of Miracle he did not I had been Kill'd and Bury'd at once and my Fate had been for ever as much conceal'd from my Friends as my Body And all this escape a VVork so totally of God's Goodness that I did not so much as know my Danger till I was past it so that it seem'd sent but to give me occasion of rejoycing in my Deliverance How vast a Debt of Gratitude then do I owe to God and how extremely do I fall short of acquitting my self of it since besides that I make him but very unsuitable Returns for the Blessings I know I have receiv'd I receive from him signal Blessings that I do not so much as know of and which consequently I am very unlike particularly to acknowledge But this gracious Rescue from so great and unexpected a Hazard shall I hope teach me henceforth to beware both of security since I often fall into Dangers that I know not and of Distrusts of God's Providence since I have found it so watchfull to deliver me from those that I fear'd not REFLECTION IV. His Horse stumbling in a very fair way HEre is a patch of way to which any less smooth than a Bowling-green were rugged and in which it seems not only so unlikely but so difficult for a Horse to trip that nothing could have made me believe a Horse could have stumbled here but that mine has dangerously done so This Jade has this very Evening carry'd me safely through ways where stumbles were so much to be expected that they were to have been forgiven and now in a place so smooth that sure he could not faulter in it only out of Curiosity and Trial he falls under me so Lubberly that I as much admir'd my Escape as Danger But 't is too usual with us unfaultringly to traverse Adversities rough ways and stumble in Prosperities smoothest paths The Observation is almost as Old as Prosperity That Fortune ruins more Persons whilst she Embraces them than whilst she would Crush them But though the Observation be very common it is not more so than 't is to see ev'n those that make it add to the instances that justifie it I have seldome yet been so fortunate as to be obnoxious to that less frequently pittied than disarming Danger Fortune has seldome yet vouchsaf'd to turn Syren to pervert me and she has hitherto given me much more Exercise for my Constancy than for my Moderation I think too that without slandering my self I may confess that I have sometimes wisht my self in the Lists with that bewitching Enemy Prosperity and increas'd the Number of those many who never think so fair an Adversary formidable till they find themselves Vanquish'd by her But upon second Thoughts I judge it better to leave the choice of my Antagonist to him who not only best knows my Strength but gives it me especially when I consider that as we are all of us naturally such Stumblers that as Solomon speaks in somewhat another sence even the just Man falls seven times a Day Pro. 24. 16. so it is observ'd in Stumblers that they are most so in fair way into which if Providence lead my steps I shall think it seasonable to pray and lead us not into Temptation and shall not think it unseasonable to remember That Ice is at once the smoothest and the slipperest of ways and that the Jadishness of our Natures well consider'd there is no way wherein we ought to Travel with more heed than that whose treacherous Evenness would divert us from taking heed to our way REFLECTION V. Upon two very miserable Beggars begging together by the High-way BEhold this fore-most Wretch whose strange Deformity and ghastly Sores equally exact our Pity and our Horrour he seems so fit an Object for Compassion that not to exercise it towards him can scarce proceed from any other Cause than the not having any at all The sadness of his Condition is augmented by his want of Eyes to see it and his Misery is such that it calls for an increase of Pitty by his being so Distracted as to desire a longer Life or rather longer Death He sues more movingly to the Eye than to the Ear and does Petition much less by what he says than what he is Each several Member of his tortur'd Body is a new Motive to Compassion and every Part of it so loudly pleads for Pitty that as of Scoulds it may in another sence be said of him that he is all Tongue But yet this other Beggar thinks not his Condition the less deplorable for his Companions being the more so He finds in the Diseases of his Fellow as little Consolation as Cure nor does he at all think himself supply'd with a deficient hand because the other wants one And therefore he is as importunate for Relief as if all Miseries were not only heap'd on him but confin'd to him His fellows Burthen lightens not his Load and if Fortune never had persecuted any other he could not more deplore nor resent her Persecutions so that if we should judge of their Miseries rather by the Ear than by the Eye this latter's sadder Complaints would move us to decree him the Advantage in point of Wretchedness Translate now O my Soul all this unto Spirituals and as we measure the straightness of Lines not by a Ramms Horn but a Ruler so be not thou so Rash as to infer thy Health from others more forlorn and desperate Diseases Let not the greater difficulty of another's Cure lessen the sollicitousness of thy Care for thine nor make thee the less earnest in the Imploring and Labouring for Relief In so deprav'd an Age as Ours one may and perhaps in vain too search Hell to find wickeder Men than are to be but too frequently met with upon Earth He will scarce be innocent that will think himself so
much concern'd for will keep him from Enjoying any of those very things for which By-standers Envy him So just it is that in Estimating a Man's condition we should not only consider what Possessions he has but what Desires REFLECTION VIII Upon his Paring of a rare Summer Apple HOw prettily has curious Nature painted this gawdy Fruit Here is a green that Emeralds cannot and Flora's self might boast And Pomona seems to have affected in the fresh and lively Vermilion that adorns this smooth Rind an Emulation at Rubies themselves and to have aim'd at manifesting That she can give her Vegetable productions as Lovely and Orient though not as lasting Colours as those that make Jewels pretious Stones and if upon the hearing the Praises this Scarlet deserves her Blushes ennoble her own Cheeks with so Vivid a Colour perhaps such a Livery of her Modesty might justifie her Pride In a word such pure and tempting Green and Red dye this same polish'd Skin that our Vulgar boldness must be no longer question'd for rendring that Fruit an Apple that inveagled our first Parents But though these winning Dyes delight me strangely they are Food for my Eye alone and not my Stomach I have no Palate for Colours and to rellish this Fruit well and know whether it performs to the Taste what it promises to the Sight and justifie that Platonick definition which styles Beauty the Lustre and Flower of Goodness all this Gay out-side is cut and thrown away and passes but for Parings Thus in Opinions though I look with Pleasure on that neat fashionable Dress that smoother Pens so finely Cloath them with and though I be delighted with the pretty and spruce Expressions that Wit and Eloquence are wont to trick them up with yet when I mean to examine their true Rellish that upon liking I may make them mine I still strip and devest them of all those flattering Ornaments or cheating Disguises rather which so often conceal or mis-represent their true and genuine Nature and before e'r I swallow them after they have been admitted by the more delusible faculty we call Fancy I make them pass the severer scrutiny of Reason REFLECTION IX Upon his Coaches being stopt in a narrow Lane HEre for ought I can guess my stay is like to be long enough to afford me the leisure of a Reflection on it For I have found already in this narrow Lane a very large Scene to exercise my Patience in and this Churlish Dray-man seems resolv'd to be as tedious to me as Ludgate-hill is to his Horse when his Cart is overloaden They that are going on Foot to the same place this Coach should carry me to find not their Passage hindred or their Way obstructed by that which keeps me here and were I dispos'd to leave my Coach behind and Foot it after them I might in their Company sooner reach the place my Designs and Affairs call me to than I shall probably be supply'd with hopes of getting quickly out from hence Alas How frequently falls it out thus in our Journeys towards Heaven Those whom their adverse Fortune or a Noble Scorn hath stript of or releas'd from these troublesome and intangling Externals may tread the Paths of Life nimbly and cheerfully being unstopt by many Obstacles that intercept the Progresses of others But those stately Persons whose Pride or Effeminacy will not permit them to move an Inch towards Heaven unless they may be carry'd thither in Pleasure's easie Coaches and who will not bate a Superfluity or lay by the least Circumstance or Punctilio of Grandezza to lessen themselves into a capacity of entring in at the strait Gate may soon find these treacherous and over-lov'd Conveniences turn'd into cumbersome Cloggs and real Impediments that will if not Block up at least Obstruct the passage to the Seat of so much Joy that ev'n to be cast Ashore there by Shipwrack were a Blessing and that he is thought unworthy to be admitted there that cannot think it his Happiness to reach that place himself though he leave all behind him to get thither REFLECTION X. Looking through a Perspective Glass upon a Vessel we suspected to give us Chase and to be a Pyrat THis Glass does indeed approach the distrusted Vessel but it approaches her only to our Eyes not to our Ship if she be not making up to us this harmless Instrument will prove no Loadstone to draw her towards us and if she be it will put us into a better readiness to receive her Such another Instrument in relation to Death is the Meditation of it by Mortals so much and so causelesly abhorr'd for though most Men as studiously shun all Thoughts of Death as if like nice Acquaintances he would forbear to Visit where he knows he is never thought of or as if we could exempt our selves from being Mortal by forgetting that we are so yet does this Meditation bring Death nearer to us without at all lessening the real distance betwixt Us and Him If that last Enemy be not yet approaching us this innocent Glass will no more quicken his pace than direct his steps and if he be without hastning his Arrival it will prepare us for his Reception For my part my Beardless Chin allows me to presume that by the course of Nature I have yet a pretty stock of Sand in the upper part of my Hour-glass Wherefore though I am too Young to say with Isaac behold now I am Old And I know not the Day of my Death Gen. 27. 2. yet since the Youngest and Lustiest of us all has cause to say with the Mirrour of Patience When a few Years are come then shall I go the way whence I shall not return Job 16. 22. and since 't is the wise Man's Counsel Not to boast our selves of to Morrow because we know not what a Day may bring forth I will endeavour to use our Saviour's tearms To take heed to my self least at any time that Day come upon me unawares Luke 21. 34. And as the only safe Expedient in order thereunto I will in imitation of holy Job All the Days of my appointed time wait till my Change come Job 14. 24. The II. SECTION Containing OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS Upon the Accidents of an Ague MEDITATION I. Upon the first Invasion of the Disease THis Visit Dear Sophronia which you intended but for an act of Kindness proves also one of Charity for though it be not many hours since we parted and though you left me free from any other discomposure than that which your leaving me is wont to give me yet this little time has made so great a change in my Condition as to be I doubt not already visible in my Looks For whilst I was sitting quietly in my Chamber and was as far from the Thoughts of Sickness as from any such disorders as are wont to be the occasions of it and whilst I was delightfully entertain'd by an Out-landish Virtuoso that came to Visit me
they aim'd at Euseb The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. And therefore Lindamor as I dare not repine at the unsuccessfulness of my Endeavours so I dare think that whilst it proceeds but from the Obstinacy of others 't is not likely to be imputed to me by Him that complain'd plain ' Himself That all the day long he had stretch'd forth his hands to an unpersuadable and gain-saying people Otherwise I confess I should not have much cause to be satisfi'd with the Return that all my Indeavours have hitherto brought me home For I see that men can read a Book of Devotion as unconcern'dly as they do a Romance or a Play in both of them culling out onely what they call Wit and making no better use of it than either to exercise or improve their own They hear the most pathetick Sermons not as Christians but Oratours and if in such Discourses they have been so just as to praise the Rhetorick they think they may well be excus'd if they over-look the Divinity In short nothing but what gratifies their Fancy can leave any Impressions on their Memory and that it self if it tend to reform them makes none on their Affections And some whose happier Pens allow them to do it far more justly than I can do complain That if a devout Book have not good store of witty passages they will not mind it at all and if it have they will mind nothing else So that Lindamor I should sometimes be discourag'd from prosecuting Endeavours which though they now and then succeed are oft-times so unprosperous if I did not think with you that they who labour to win Souls to God are set on work by him that having no need of our Performances seeks in our services but the opportunities of exercising his own Goodness REFLECTION II. Upon the sight of Sweet-meats very artificially counterfeited in Wax THE shape and colours of the best Sweet-meats of these kinds are here so luckily represented by a skilful Hand that Art seems to have design'd rather to rival Nature than barely to imitate Her and a Lover of Junkets that approches not too near to these must have much quickness of sight or but little of appetite if such inviting Objects do not tempt him both to mistake and to desire them But though at this distance these alluring Sweet-meats appear very pleasing yet if one should be so unadvis'd as to endeavour to eat them instead of enjoying them more fully by the taste than he did by the sight he would both spoil and disfigure them and perhaps be so near choaking himself that he would more earnestly wish them out of his mouth than ever he wish'd them in it There are some pleasures and conditions too in the world which make so fine a shew at a distance that in those that gaze at them aloof off they frequently beget envy at them and wishes for them and yet he that calmly beholds them takes the best way of enjoying them since that which whilst 't is but aim'd at is expected to be very satisfactory upon a nearer and fuller fruition would be so far from proving so and would so little be as sweet to the palate as specious to the eye that it would not onely cease to afford them any delight but would make them wish they had let those deluding Sweets alone and would make attainments more uneasie and troublesome than even desire was REFLECTION III. Upon the eating of Oysters Eugenius Lindamor Eug. WHilst every body else is commending these Oysters either with his Tongue or with his Teeth so that one of the Company sticks not to say that they are as much worth as if they contain'd each of them a Pearl you onely seem as unconcern'd a Spectator as if you thought their proper use like that of Flowers were rather to be looked on than to be eaten Lind. I confess Eugenius that I found my self more inclinable to reflect on what you are doing than to keep you company in it and whilst I saw such persons so gustfully swallow these extoll'd Fishes the sight lead me to take more notice than perhaps you have done of the strange power of Education and Custom Eug. And what I pray you has Custom to do with Oysters Lind. You will soon know that if I tell you that I was considering on this occasion how forward we are to think other Nations absurd or barbarous for such practices that either the same or little better may be found unscrupled at among our selves and I acknowledge it to be one of the chief advantages I account my self to have obtain'd by my Travels that as I do not easily admire so I am not forward to deride the Practice of any People for being New and am not apt to think their Customs must be therefore worse than ours because they widely differ from them I could give you store of Instances to justifie this impartiality but because the circumstances of eating and drinking are those which make men with the greatest confidence term other Nations Brutish and Barbarous I will confine may self to some Examples of that nature We impute it for a barbarous custom to many Nations of the Indians that like Beasts they eat raw Flesh And pray' how much is that worse than our eating raw Fish as we do in eating these Oysters Nor is this a practice of the rude Vulgar onely but of the politest and nicest persons among us such as Physicians Divines and even Ladies And our way of eating seems much more barbarous than theirs since they are wont to kill before they eat but we scruple not to devour Oysters alive and kill them not with our Hands or Teeth but with our Stomachs where for ought we know they begin to be digested before they make an end of dying Nay sometimes when we dip them in Vinegar we may for sauce to one bit devour alive a schole of little Animals which whether they be Fishes or Worms I am not so sure as I am that I have by the help of convenient Glasses seen great numbers of them swimming up and down in less than a Sawcer full of Vinegar We detest and despise some other Nations for feeding upon Caterpillars Grass-hoppers and other Insects and others for feeding upon Carrion and stinking food And do not many of us do as bad when we not onely eat but extoll rotten Cheefe whose Livid Colour sufficiently betrays its Putrefaction and whose odious smell offends most mens Noses and turns some mens Stomachs Nay when this Cheese is grown to that high degree of rottenness that our critical palats like it best in we then devour whole hundreds of Mites which are really crawling Insects bred out of Putrefaction and these too are so numerous and little that our greediness makes us swallow many of them alive Among the Savagest Barbarians we count the Cannabals and as for those among them that kill men to eat them their inhumane